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Fears of financial APOCALYPSE amid warning over ‘gathering storm’ in global markets (express, Mar 7, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/650525/Fears-of-financial-APOCALYPSE-amid-warning-over-gathering-storm-in-global-markets
“MARKET calm has given way to all-out turmoil since the start of the year amid a long brewing financial storm, the Bank for International Settlements has warned (BIS).
Havoc has been exacerbated over concern central banks have run out of options to fight economic malaise, said the organisation – thought of as the central bank of central banks.
Claudio Borio, head of BIS’ monetary and economic department, said: “Against the backdrop of a long-term, crisis-exacerbated decline in productivity growth, the stock of global debt has continued to rise and the room for policy manoeuvre has continued to narrow – a set of factors that might be termed the ‘ugly three’.”
Mr Borio said high debt levels link the market worries that have been responsible for turmoil this year, including the slowdown in emerging markets, weak oil prices and global productivity, as well as concerns over the health of large banks.
He added: “Put differently, we may not be seeing isolated bolts from the blue, but the signs of a gathering storm that has been building for a long time.”
At the same time, with rates already very low central institutions such as the Bank of England (BoE) have fewer options for fighting economic concerns – and markets have lost faith, stressed Mr Borio.
He said: “The latest turbulence has hammered home the message that central banks have been overburdened for far too long post-crisis, even as fiscal space has been dwindling and structural measures lacking.
“Despite exceptionally easy monetary conditions, in key jurisdictions growth has been disappointing and inflation has remained stubbornly low.
“Market participants have taken notice. And their confidence in central banks’ healing powers has – probably for the first time – been faltering.”
The BIS is concerned that central banks are now resorting to increasingly innovative policies, such as negative interest rates.
It comes amid growing expectations that the BoE could soon cut rates below the current 0.5 per cent.
But critics argued that low interest rates are having a devastating affect on consumers and consumption within the economy – and it’s time policymakers realised this.
Guy Foster, head of research at Brewin Dolphin, said: “Take the largest growing cohort in the western world: the retired.
“What have low interest rates has done for them? It has cut their income.
“For those seeking to retire they need a significantly larger pensions to achieve the same income now than they did six years ago.
“The reaction will naturally be to save more and work longer – a finding which has been supported by the Bank of England’s own work.””
Socialist economics is a route to disaster, the worlds econmic system can survive socialist economics systems in a few large industrial nations, it can’t survive that system being the foundation of the vast majority of the worlds nations. Prior to the 08 recession the US retained enough free market (Austrian economics) parts to pull the US and the world out of economic messes caused by the socialists. Thanks to Obama and company this is no longer true. I don’t know which is coming first the recession/depresion or the open war on the streets of the Western nations but both are going to be happening at the same time.
FIVE DECADES OF EU FAILURE: Dossier finds 43 UK U-turns over 43 years of Brussels rule (express, Mar 7, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/650180/Europe-Brexit-Referendum-When-is-EU-referendum-Should-I-vote-leave-Vote-Leave-Europ
“FIVE decades of EU membership has left the UK dizzy from repeated Government U-turns and blighted by successive broken promises.
A scathing audit of Prime Minister pledges found the two leading parties have steadily handed more money and cash to Brussels without the consultation of Britons.
Eurosceptic group Vote Leave compiled the list of the most serious U-turns made by British politicians in the dossier titled ’43 years, 43 broken promises’.
The document outlines the “pattern of failure” since the country joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973.
The report said: “The British public was promised that the UK wouldn’t contribute to eurozone bailouts, that we would retain our rebate and that we would have control over our borders. All these promises have been broken.
“The UK faces losing further powers to the EU unless we Vote Leave.
“First they say that ideas coming out of Brussels are ‘not really on the agenda’. When they are being implemented, the same people then say ‘the EU is coming our way so we have to go along with it to have influence, if we oppose them we’ll have no influence’.
“After we have failed to influence them, the same people then say ‘this change is inevitable and only extremists oppose it’.
“Governments have made numerous promises about the EU that have proven to be wholly inaccurate, misleading the public about the direction of travel in the EU.”
The long list of Government U-turns in the document include a Government pledge to parliament that British Sovereignty would not be eroded, but the following year the European Communities Act was passed which established EU law as supreme over UK law.
In 1975 a leaflet delivered to UK households said Britain would not have to add VAT to necessities like food, which now applies on a number of products, including fizzy drinks and sanitary items.
John Major promised the UK would retain control of its borders, but the Vote Leave campaign argues European Court of Justice rulings have repeatedly undermined this statement.
Tony Blair promised if the European Constitution was rejected it would not be forced through at a later date. But Gordon Brown signed the UK up to the treaty two years later, handing yet further powers to Brussels.
Mr Blair also allegedly pledged not to negotiate Britain’s rebate, before doing it anyway, costing the UK to date £10.4 billion.
David Cameron also gave a ‘cast iron guarantee’ a future Conservative government would give the British people a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, yet this never came to pass.
British politicians of all parties have dismissed concerns about the creation of an EU Army, however a number of EU politicians including Jean-Claude Juncker have publicly signalled their intention to introduce a pan-EU military force.
The group said it compiled the list to “make the public more receptive to transfer of control” which has happened over the decades and why people should support a Brexit.”
It doesn’t really matter how the vote turns out, it is highly unlikely that the EU will survive for another 2 years, the chaos that is going to occur thanks to the EU policy on the invaders says that it is finished.
End of ISIS? Dozens of jihadis killed as citizens FIGHT BACK against twisted terror group (express, Mar 8, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/650650/isis-islamic-state-isil-is-daesh-jihadis-terror-iraq-militants-fallujah
“EVIL Islamic State militants are being killed in their dozens by residents rising up against the oppressive regime.
The twisted jihadis that control the terror group’s strongholds in western Iraq are under attack from both residents and government forces.
A rebellion in the city of Fallujah had to be put down by the abhorrent militants recently.
An argument, which began in a bread queue, spread to three districts and ended with number of people being executed.
Meanwhile a local official is reportedly on the run from the town of Heet after assassinating six local ISIS officials.
Hikmet al-Gaoud, a tribal sheikh from Heet, said the conditions ISIS force people to live under was the reason behind the rebellion.
He said: “They are violating families and harassing women.
“Every woman they like they want to take and marry.”
Speaking about the man who assassinated the brutal officials, he added he had finally “flipped”.
He said: “He killed six local [ISIS] leaders – all foreign, non-Iraqi Arabs.
“He managed to get away and contact us. He’s still on the run.”
At a bakery in Fallujah, two savage fighters controlling the shop were stabbed by a man queueing for bread.
After they shot him dead, locals fought back against the extremists.
The uprising led to the deaths of 25 jihadis and eight executions.
Fallujah mayor Issa al-Essawi, who has since fled to Baghdad, said the uprising led to ISIS being more wary.
He said: “Now Isil men go around the city with guns.
“Before, they were comfortable enough to go without.””
It was the non fundamentalists citizens of Egypt that kicked the Brotherhood our of power there, it will be the citizens of the other Middle Eastern nations that will do the same in other nations.
REVEALED: Thousands of migrants detained in cramped cells for trying to SNEAK into Britain (express, Mar 8, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/650655/revealed-thousands-migrants-detained-cramped-cells-trying-sneak-into-Britain
“MORE than 3,500 migrants were detained after trying to sneak into Britain in just three months during 2015’s summer crisis, a new report has revealed.
The shocking figures have been labelled “an embarrassment” as the report – conducted by HM Inspectorate Prisons – claimed migrants were packed into cramped cells for 18 hours.
Migrants hid in vehicles on the ferry to Dover or in the Channel Tunnel in a desperate attempt to get to the UK, according to the report.
The statistics show a staggering 126 per cent increase in detentions at the main holding facility in Dover Seaport last year.
In the first nine months of 2014, there were 2,118 detentions, while in 2015, the figure had increased to a massive 4,785, according to the report.
In the three months to the end of September alone, there had been 2,781 detentions.
A further 822 men were held at an overflow facility in Folkestone called Frontier House.
The combined total of 3,603 is equivalent to 1,200 people being stopped every month – or 40 every day.
The report also revealed how detainees were held on average of 18 hours in sites designed to hold people for no more than a few hours.
In addition, the holding room had no compass to indicate the direction to Mecca for migrants to prey.
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “The UK’s record on detention as part of our immigration policy continues to be a source of national embarrassment.”
Chief Inspector Peter Clarke revealed British facilities were “overwhelmed” by the huge number of migrants coming to the UK.
He said: ”There is no doubt that the increases in migration initially overwhelmed the existing facilities and an emergency response was required.
“This inspection took place some months after that emergency response was initiated and it was unacceptable that arrangements were still not in place to process detainees quickly, efficiently and decently, while ensuring that the most vulnerable, such as children, were safe and that the basic physical needs of all detainees for food, rest and clothing were met.”
Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said: “Last summer we saw unprecedented numbers of migrants trying to reach the UK illegally, particularly through Kent.
“For a short time, the Longport freight shed was temporarily used to accommodate migrants on their arrival and ease exceptional pressures on our existing screening centres.
“This was not acceptable and we are clear it will not be used in this way again.”
The jail/prison system is overwhelmed with criminals, the liberal solution, let the criminals go free.
Ban the Burka NOW: Cameron told to stop dithering and outlaw ‘oppressive’ veil (express, Mar 8, 2016)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/650593/Burka-ban-veil-David-Cameron-Ukip-Paul-Nuttall-International-Womens-Day
“THE CLAMOUR for Britain to ban the Burka intensified today as a leading politician said it was “oppressive” and sexist.
UKIP’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall said a blanket ban on the full face veil is “long overdue” and would act as a huge boost to the fight for gender equality across Britain.
Writing for Express.co.uk the MEP urged the Government and Labour to use today’s International Women’s Day – which is this year using the slogan Pledge For Parity – to fight for a new law banning the Burka.
Opinion polls have consistently shown around two thirds of the public support outlawing the Burka, which is seen by many as an oppressive way for men to subjugate women.
Bans on the full face veil have been introduced in France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands on security grounds, but the UK Government has persistently refused to consider one despite a series of public outcries.
Today Mr Nuttall reignites the debate over its place in British society, saying the time has come to outlaw it for the wider good of gender equality.
He said: “There is no question that face veils should be banned anywhere you can’t wear a crash helmet or anything that obscures identity, such as shopping centres, civic buildings and petrol stations.
“Common sense also dictates that where photo ID is required, veiled women should expect to have to show their faces.”
The MEP for the North West of England added: “I am concerned that freedom of career choice and jobs will be needlessly limited by wearing a veil.
“We need to protect the genuine choice of those that feel pressure to wear a face veil, we need to protect our children from the possibility of thinking such a gender inequality is tolerable, and I hope those that want to wear a veil will understand why a ban is vital.
“It is to protect the rights of their fellow women who may not be as lucky as they are and don’t have a genuine choice. Surely that’s a sacrifice most compassionate people would be prepared to make.”
Opponents of a Burka ban often argue that depriving women of the right to wear the face veil would curb their personal freedom.
They claim that many women wear the garment voluntarily – not because they are under pressure from men – and say outlawing it would breach their human rights.
But Mr Nuttall pointed out that Governments often pass laws curtailing certain freedoms for the wider good, whilst the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that such bans are legal….”
EU welcomes bold Turkey plan to stop migrants, defers decision
European Union leaders welcomed Turkey’s offer on Monday to take back all migrants who cross into Europe from its soil and agreed in principle to Ankara’s demands for more money, faster EU membership talks and quicker visa-free travel in return.
However, key details remained to be worked out and the 28 leaders ordered more work by officials with a view to reaching an ambitious package deal with Turkey at their next scheduled summit, on March 17-18.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others hailed the surprise Turkish proposal at an emergency summit in Brussels as a potential breakthrough in Europe’s politically toxic migration crisis.
More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have flooded into the EU since early 2015, most making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, then heading north through the Balkans to Germany.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told EU leaders that Ankara was willing to take back all migrants who enter Europe from Turkey in future, including Syrian refugees, as well as those intercepted in its territorial waters.
“With this game-changing position in fact our objective is to discourage illegal migration, to prevent human smugglers, to help people who want to come to Europe through encouraging legal migration in a disciplined and regular manner,” he told a news conference after the summit.
In exchange for stopping the influx, he demanded doubling EU funding through 2018 to help Syrian refugees stay in Turkey and a commitment to take in one Syrian refugee directly from Turkey for each one returned from Greece’s Aegean islands, according to a document seen by Reuters.
He also asked to bring forward EU visa liberalization for Turks to June from end-2016 and to open five more negotiating chapters in Turkey’s long-stalled EU accession process.
The EU leaders agreed to the earlier target date for visa-free travel provided Ankara meets all the conditions including changing its visa policy towards Islamic states and introducing harder-to-fake biometric passports
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-eu-idUSKCN0W8111
UN refugee chief ‘deeply concerned’ by EU-Turkey deal
The head of the UN refugee agency on Tuesday said he was “deeply concerned” by a proposed deal between the EU and Ankara to curb the migrant crisis that would involve people being sent back to Turkey.
EU hails breakthrough in migration deal with Turkey
European Union leaders on Monday hailed a “breakthrough” in talks with Turkey on a deal to curb the migrant crisis but delayed a decision until a summit next week to flesh out the details of Ankara’s new demands.
Police in Östersund in northern Sweden have warned women about being out on their own after dark, but the city’s mayor has trashed the idea.
Officers in Östersund held a press conference on Monday, explaining that there had been at least six reports of violence against women in the area since February 20th.
“Now the police are going out and warning women against travelling alone in the city. We have seen a worrying trend,” regional police chief Stephen Jerand told Swedish media.
“This is serious, we care about the protection of women and that is why we are going out and talking about this.”
He explained that the recent reported crimes included an attempted rape in the centre of Östersund over the weekend. Police later added that they were also investigating the alleged molestation of a 10-year-old girl at a bus station.
http://www.thelocal.se/20160308/backlash-begins-after-swedish-women-told-not-to-go-out-alone
Could EU deal bring thousands MORE refugees to Europe? Fears of a ‘migrant merry-go-round’ after Ankara offers to take back one illegal for every genuine asylum seeker resettled on the Continent
Tense negotiations broke up after 12 hours in Brussels, but EU leaders are confident a deal can be struck next week
Ankara has offered to take back one illegal migrant for every genuine refugee that is resettled in Europe from Turkey
Turkey accused of holding Europe to ransom after demanding an extra €3billion in aid – double the previous figure
It also wants visa-free travel for Turks by June and accelerated talks on Turkey becoming a full member of the EU
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3481673/Hopes-breakthrough-refugees-crisis-Ankara-offers-illegal-migrants-exchange-EU-accepting-equal-number-genuine-asylum-seekers-direct-Turkey.html
Maria Jose.
If the Turkey will be included into Schengen area then the question is moot. Migrants will just buy/steal Turkey’s passports and go to EU. And considering views of some Turkish people, migrants may not even need to buy the passports.
Fifty teens in violent brawl in Austria
A fight between 50 teenagers that left seven people injured and five arrested has become the latest incident in an ongoing feud between young Afghans and Chechens living in Austria.
http://www.thelocal.at/20160308/50-teens-in-mass-brawl-as-afghan-and-chechen-rivalry-continues
Danish teen planned to bomb schools: police
A 16-year-old Danish girl who was arrested in January and charged with the possession of explosives and supporting terror had plans to bomb two schools, police said on Tuesday.
http://www.thelocal.dk/20160308/danish-teen-planned-to-bomb-schools-police
France Votes on Bill That Could Make Apple Unlock Terrorist Data
France’s lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a plan to impose penalties and jail time on technology executives who deny access to encrypted data during a terrorist investigation, helping security services and prosecutors force companies such as Apple Inc. into cooperation.
The amendment was submitted by the opposition party The Republicans and, while the government hasn’t officially supported the measure, it will be included in Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas’s bill to overhaul legal procedures and fight organized crime in the wake of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.
“The rule aims to force phone makers to give investigators data and it will be up to the manufacturer to use whatever technique is necessary,” Republican lawmaker Philippe Goujon, who proposed the amendment, said in an interview. “The target is to have them cooperate. The aim is not to break the encryption — the principle is that manufacturers should cooperate.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-08/france-votes-on-bill-that-could-make-apple-unlock-terrorist-data
Executions in Saudi Arabia reach ‘frightening’ rate as 70th prisoner in 2016 is killed
Saudi Arabia is executing people at a “frightening” rate, campaigners have warned, after it emerged the kingdom had killed its 70th prisoner of the year bringing the total number to almost half that of 2015.
Alaa al-Zahrani, who was put to death in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, was found guilty of killing fellow Saudi Abdullah al-Sumairi with a rock to the head, the interior ministry revealed in a statement published by the Saudi’s official state news agency SPA.
Several advocacy groups that monitor the death penalty worldwide placed the figure at 157 last year, with beheadings reaching their highest level in two decades.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/executions-in-saudi-arabia-reaching-alarming-rate-as-70th-prisoner-is-killed-a6917226.html
Iran conducts new missile tests defying US sanctions
Tehran (AFP) – Iran conducted multiple ballistic missile tests Tuesday in what it said was a display of “deterrent power,” defying US sanctions imposed earlier this year aimed at disrupting its missile programme.
State media announced that short-, medium- and long-range precision guided missiles were fired from several sites to show the country’s “all-out readiness to confront threats” against its territorial integrity.
Pictures of the launches were broadcast and reports said the armaments used had ranges of 300 kilometres (190 miles), 500 km, 800 km and 2,000 km.
The United States hit Iran with fresh sanctions on its missile programme in January, 24 hours after separate sanctions related to Tehran’s nuclear activities had been lifted under a landmark deal with world powers.
The latest tests, during an exercise named “The Power of Velayat”, a reference to the religious doctrine of the Islamic republic’s leadership, were undertaken by the Revolutionary Guards and its Aerospace wing.
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-conducts-fresh-ballistic-missile-tests-state-media-085935504.html
Netanyahu says declined to meet Obama due to U.S. election campaign
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cancellation of a proposed meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama put more strain on their troubled ties on Tuesday just before a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden.
The White House said on Monday it was “surprised” to learn first from Israeli media that Netanyahu had decided against coming to a conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington on March 20, and the suggestion in some reports that among his reasons was Obama’s unavailability to see him.
Zeev Elkin, an Israeli cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, countered that Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer had given the White House advance warning the trip might not happen.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-says-declined-meet-obama-due-u-election-081933226.html
Hacker ‘Guccifer,’ who uncovered Clinton’s private emails, to be extradited to US
Guccifer, the infamous Romanian hacker who accessed emails of celebrities and top US officials, will be extradited to the United States, after losing a case in his home country’s top court.
Reuters reports that Lehel will come to the US under an 18-month extradition order, following a request made by the US authorities. Details of the extradition have not been made public, however.
Marcel Lehel, a 42-year-old hacker better known by his pseudonym “Guccifer,” achieved notoriety when he released an email with images of paintings by former President George W. Bush, including a self-portrait in a bathtub. He also hacked and published emails from celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio, Steve Martin and Mariel Hemingway.
Read more
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton © Craig Lassig What Clinton’s latest emails say about Benghazi, White House, private accounts
Also released were emails between former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Corina Cretu, a Romanian member of European Parliament, prompting Powell to deny that the two had had an affair.
Perhaps most notably, Lehel was also the first source to uncover Hillary Clinton’s improper use of a private email account while she was Secretary of State, which the FBI is investigating as a potential danger to national security.
https://www.rt.com/usa/334846-romanian-hacker-guccifer-extradition/
‘Sensitivity’ fascists are turning colleges into day-care centers
How will today’s college students function once they leave campus and find the world no giant “safe space” protecting them from things they don’t want to hear?
University of Pittsburgh students last week declared themselves “in danger” and “traumatized” over a provocative campus speech by righty flame-thrower Milo Yiannapoulos.
So traumatized that, at a student government hearing, they demanded to know why the school hadn’t provided on-site therapy for those who felt “invalidated” by the speech.
A speech that no one had to attend.
The student-gov president broke down in tears as she heard the complaints, then apologized for spending student funds on the guest (but said court rulings had left her no choice).
Meanwhile, two members of Bowdoin College’s student government faced impeachment for .?.?. attending a tequila party where some guests wore (gasp) tiny sombreros.
http://nypost.com/2016/03/07/sensitivity-fascists-are-turning-colleges-into-day-care-centers/
China says little to cheer in improved ties with ‘two-faced’ Japan
March 8, 2016
BEIJING (Reuters) – China sees little reason for optimism that relations with Japan will improve, China’s Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, accusing “two-faced” Tokyo of constantly seeking to make trouble.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, and Japan, the third largest, have a difficult political history, with relations strained by the legacy of Japan’s World War Two aggression and conflicting claims over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets.
While ties have been thawing, with meetings between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing remains deeply suspicious of Japan, especially of Abe’s moves to allow the military to fight overseas for the first time since the war.
http://www.oann.com/china-says-little-to-cheer-in-improved-ties-with-two-faced-japan/
Translation: China is upset that Japan insists on owning the Japanese Islands with oil deposits, Not letting China steal mineral resources is a hostile act and you can’t trust the people who are hostile to being stolen from.
Bank of England warns of Brexit risks, angering eurosceptics
LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday a vote by Britain to leave the European Union could hit the country’s $2.9 trillion economy and prompt some banks to move away from London’s global financial powerhouse.
In his strongest intervention so far in the politically charged debate about Britain’s EU referendum, Carney said he was not making any recommendation about how to vote.
But his comments, in an often heated exchange with eurosceptic lawmakers, are likely to be welcomed by Cameron who is battling to swing voters behind the “In” campaign.
Britain is due to vote on June 23 on whether to remain in the bloc, raising the possibility of years of uncertainty for the world’s fifth-biggest economy if it decides to leave.
Last month, Cameron asked the BoE to set out “the facts” about Britain’s EU membership.
Carney said the BoE would not assess the long-term implications of the referendum for the economy. But a vote for Brexit, as leaving is widely called, would deliver a short-term hit to growth and sterling, and foreign investment would probably also diminish.
Asked about the implications of an exit for Britain’s huge banking industry, Carney said some big financial firms might move business out of Britain if the country did not secure the same kind of access it currently has to the EU. That kind of negotiation could take “a very long time”, he said.
http://www.oann.com/bank-of-englands-carney-backs-pm-camerons-eu-deal/
If any banks move it will be to countries that let them put armed guards around to stop the Islamic bank robbers trying to steal from the infidels.
Women are warned not to go out alone at night in Swedish town after multiple sex attacks by ‘foreigners’
Women in Östersund, Sweden, warned not to go out alone after dark
Follows spike in assaults in city centre by ‘men of foreign appearance’
Police added that attacks are unusual as ‘no perpetrators were drunk’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3481882/Women-warned-not-night-Swedish-town-multiple-sex-attacks-foreigners.html
China, South Korea step up sanctions on North Korea
SEOUL/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has barred a North Korean freighter from one of its ports and South Korea announced a crackdown on individuals and companies linked to Pyongyang’s weapons program, stepping up sanctions against the isolated state.
North Korean general cargo ship Grand Karo arrived at Rizhao port in northeastern China a few days ago, but the port did not allow the ship to berth, said a person at the Rizhao Maritime Authority, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The ship is among 31 vessels blacklisted by China’s Ministry of Transport after they were covered by harsher sanctions on North Korea that were approved by the U.N. Security Council last week.
At least two other ships on the list of barred freighters are now sailing away after being anchored off Chinese ports, ship tracking data on the Reuters Eikon terminal showed on Tuesday.
Another of the vessels has been banned from leaving port in the Philippines until safety deficiencies, found during a security and safety inspection of the vessel, are rectified.
The 6,593 deadweight tonne (dwt) Grand Karo is now anchored about 35 km (22 miles) from Rizhao, ship tracking data showed.
http://www.oann.com/china-south-korea-step-up-sanctions-on-north-korea/
Ex-Guantanamo prisoners suspected of rejoining militants increases: U.S.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of former Guantanamo Bay prison inmates who are suspected of having returned to fighting for militants doubled to 12 in the six months through January, the Obama administration said on Monday.
The increase could fuel Republican attacks on Democratic President Barack Obama’s plan to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba, which has come to symbolize aggressive detention practices following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and opened the United States to accusations of torture. Most detainees have been held without trial for more than a decade.
The closure plan, drawn up by the Pentagon and which requires approval by Congress, proposes 13 potential sites on U.S. soil to hold 30-60 detainees in maximum-security prisons.
According to figures released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), as of Jan. 15 the United States also had confirmed that seven out of 144 Guantanamo prisoners who were freed since Obama took office in January 2009 have returned to fighting.
That was up from six since the ODNI’s previous release last July. The ODNI report is released every six months and does not give details on where or for which groups the former detainees are confirmed or suspected to be fighting.
The ODNI figures showed that 111 of 532 prisoners released by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush are confirmed to have returned to the battlefield, with 74 others suspected of doing so. Under Bush, suspected militants were rounded up overseas as the United States became embroiled in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and imprisoned at Guantanamo.
http://www.oann.com/ex-guantanamo-prisoners-suspected-of-rejoining-militants-increases-u-s/
As crunch votes loom, Merkel says migrant plans gaining traction
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday things were moving in the right direction after the European Union agreed a draft deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, a touchstone issue for voters in state elections on Sunday.
The deal is a crucial sign of progress for Merkel, who is battling domestic resistance to get an EU plan for handling the crisis, which brought more than 1 million migrants to Germany last year.
“Overall, things are going in the right direction,” Merkel told SWR radio, while trying to assuage worries that Turkey is blackmailing Europe: “No. We are seeking a balance of interests,” she said.
EU leaders welcomed an offer by Ankara to take back migrants crossing into Europe and agreed in principle to its other demands but delayed a deal until March 17-18.
“Finally, there are concrete steps toward a joint European refugee policy,” said Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in Merkel’s ruling coalition.
The CDU and SPD had lost support before Sunday’s votes in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt, but Merkel’s own rating rebounded last week from February’s 4 1/2- year low in February.
http://www.oann.com/as-crunch-votes-loom-merkel-says-migrant-plans-gaining-traction/
NBC reporter caught on open mic giving questions in advance to Clinton aide
Last night, Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off once again, this time in Flint, Mich.
But the venue wasn’t the only difference between this debate and previous ones. In last night’s post-debate coverage on MSNBC, anchor Ari Melber turned the floor over to NBC reporter Kristen Welker, who was supposed to provide viewers with an interview with Clinton Director of Communications Jen Palmieri.
Due to a technical glitch, however, Welker was unable to hear Melber’s voice initially and was therefore unaware that she was on-camera live.
In the video that follows (via Mediaite), the reporter can be plainly heard providing Palmieri with a crib sheet. Fourteen seconds into the video, Welker says, “And I’m going to ask you about Flint.”
http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/03/07/nbc-reporter-caught-on-open-mic-giving-debate-questions-in-advance-to-clinton-communications-director/
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/nbc-journalist-caught-tipping-off-clinton-spox-to-questions-before-interview/
video at site
https://youtu.be/LgQw8EhPJWw
This video ignores the recent ISIS use of Saddams chemical weapons.
Police in Cologne arrested six men – five of them refugees – for a suspected sex attack on a 12-year-old girl at a city swimming pool.
They are reported to be from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3482214/Five-migrants-arrested-suspected-sex-attack-girl-12-using-waterslide-pools-Cologne.html
Leaked police report reveals a spike in migrant crime in Germany… and warns that sex attacks, violence and radicalisation will rise even further
Report says influx of migrants will cause more crime and burden on police
Produced by state where Cologne sex attacks occurred on New Year’s Eve
Says police responded 93,000 times to violence in refugee centres last year
Warns of an increasing risk of radicalisation among agitated refugees
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3482057/Leaked-police-report-reveals-spike-migrant-crime-Germany-warns-sex-attacks-violence-radicalisation-rise-further.html
Iran: Revolutionary Guard test-fires ballistic missiles
The final phase of a series of missile drills codenamed “Ability of the State” was conducted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and saw ballistic missiles test-fired from silos across the country on Tuesday.
Why didn’t they show the Russian stamps on some of these materials?
They think we are stupid enough to think they designed and built the missiles, although given their 1960s era tech they could have build the missiles but I am not sure about the quality they were when they left the factories.
VICE News – Greece’s Impending Humanitarian Catastrophe: Breaking Borders
An emergency EU summit takes place today aimed at getting Turkey to help Europe stem the flow of migrants into the continent. The refugee crisis is reaching breaking point in Greece with tens of thousands of people trapped there and around 2,000 more arriving each day.
Austria’s decision on February 19 to limit the number of people crossing its borders sparked the bottleneck, which escalated as other countries on the Balkan route into northern Europe followed suit. Now, the European Union has declared plans to formally close those borders to migrants.
As the European Union dissolves into heated disagreement over shared responsibility, VICE News correspondent Milène Larsson visits a tent city that’s cropped up at the Greek-Macedonian border. She speaks to some of the 13,000 people stranded there and to overwhelmed aid personnel who are warning a humanitarian disaster could be only days away.
Greece: Refugees and migrants picked up by Italian Coast Guard in the Aegean
At least 43 refugees and migrants, on board three rafts, were picked up by the Italian Coast Guard off the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, early Tuesday.
CHANNEL 4 – Greece – Lesbos refugee crisis continues
EU leaders plan to send migrants back to Turkey, but those still arriving by the boat-load on the Greek island of Lesbos say they risk death if they return.
I don’t have patience for this Vice.
Maybe they can pass the hat and send them back where they came from.
Let them clean out their own hellhole.
Turkey isn’t going to do anything to stop the invaders, Eodogen (sp?) wants to be Caliph and he wants the Caliphate to include all of Europe.
Greece: Refugees face deteriorating conditions at Greek-Macedonian border
Heavy rain worsened already tough living conditions at the refugee camp near Idomeni, Tuesday, where around 14,000 refugees and migrants remain stranded as Macedonian authorities continue to allow only a trickle of those waiting to cross the Greek-Macedonian border.
Algerian imam gets jail for demanding author’s execution
A radical Muslim preacher in Algeria was given a six-month jail term on Tuesday for demanding the death of journalist and author Kamel Daoud whom he accused of “apostasy”.
The court in Oran also fined Abdelfatah Hamadache Ziraoui 50,000 dinars (450 euros) after he was prosecuted for making death threats.
In December 2014, Ziraoui urged the North African country’s authorities to put Daoud to death, in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
Ziraoui accused Daoud of “apostasy” after the writer, during an appearance on a French television show, criticised the relationship Muslims have with Islam.
The radical Sunni Salafist preacher, who campaigns against alcohol and swimwear, charged that Daoud’s remarks were tantamount to “a war against Allah, his prophet, the Koran and the sacred values of Islam”.
He called for him to be put to death under Islamic law.
Daoud, a columnist with the Quotidien d’Oran newspaper based in the western Algerian city where he lives, was once attracted by Islamist ideology but later turned his back on it.
In 2015, he won the prestigious French Prix Goncourt for a debut novel — “The Meursault Investigation”, a retelling of Albert Camus’s classic “The Stranger”.
In court on Tuesday, where he appeared unrepresented, Ziraoui stood by his comments.
Daoud’s defence team had demanded a conviction but a symbolic sentence of a fine of one dinar.
Last month, Daoud said in a letter published by the French newspaper Le Monde that he was giving up public debate and journalism, after a group of [ French ] university professors accused him of “fanning the fantasies of Islamophobes”.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/190453/World/Region/Algerian-imam-gets-jail-for-demanding-authors-exec.aspx
Algerian imam gets jail for demanding author’s execution
A radical Muslim preacher in Algeria was given a six-month jail term on Tuesday for demanding the death of journalist and author Kamel Daoud whom he accused of “apostasy”.
The court in Oran also fined Abdelfatah Hamadache Ziraoui 50,000 dinars (450 euros) after he was prosecuted for making death threats.
Friends of Daoud, who said the writer did not wish himself to comment publicly, said he considered to verdict to be a “courageous decision”.
In December 2014, Ziraoui urged the North African country’s authorities to put Daoud to death, in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
Ziraoui accused Daoud of “apostasy” after the writer, during an appearance on a French television show, criticised the relationship Muslims have with Islam.
The radical Sunni Salafist preacher, who campaigns against alcohol and swimwear, charged that Daoud’s remarks were tantamount to “a war against Allah, his prophet, the Koran and the sacred values of Islam”.
He called for him to be put to death under Islamic law.
Daoud, a columnist with the Quotidien d’Oran newspaper based in the western Algerian city where he lives, was once attracted by Islamist ideology but later turned his back on it.
In 2015, he won the prestigious French Prix Goncourt for a debut novel — “The Meursault Investigation”, a retelling of Albert Camus’s classic “The Stranger”.
In court on Tuesday, where he appeared unrepresented, Ziraoui stood by his comments.
Daoud’s defence team had demanded a conviction but a token fine of one dinar.
Those close to Daoud said he thought the court’s decision “will encourage those who believe in freedom of expression”.
Last month, Daoud said in a letter published by the French newspaper Le Monde that he was giving up public debate and journalism, after a group of [ French ] university professors accused him of “fanning the fantasies of Islamophobes”.
Ziraoui was unavailable for comment on the verdict which the National Syndicate of Journalists (SNJ) called “excellent”, despite saying the penalty could have been “more severe”.
SNJ secretary general Kamel Amarni told AFP that a harsher sentence would have been “likely to end the impunity of preachers who call for murder”.
“At the time we urged that exemplary punishment be meted out against this terrorist — you cannot call him anything else — for calling for a journalist to be murdered,” Amarni said.
http://www.globalpost.com/article/6743312/2016/03/08/algerian-imam-gets-jail-demanding-authors-execution
Germany: Army trucks set ablaze in Leipzig in suspected arson attack
Eight trucks were allegedly set on fire in a suspected arson attack at a workshop compound in Leipzig, Tuesday, six of them reportedly belonging to the German Armed Forces.
Several drivers on the nearby highway had noticed the fire and notified the police in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The fire was successfully put out before dawn with the police yet to give an assessment as to the extent of the damages.
Islamic State Hackers Publish Names, Addresses of NJ Police
A file containing the information on 55 officers was uploaded to an Arabic-language, file-sharing site. It was downloaded 300 times in under 24 hrs.
The Islamic State’s ‘Caliphate Cyber Army’ (CCA) released the names, addresses and cell phone numbers of 55 New Jersey police officers, after hacking into a uniform laundry list.
The officers’ ranks, employee numbers and working locations were disclosed, as well as some home addresses.
A file containing the information on the officers, who all work for the transit police, was uploaded to an Arabic-language, file-sharing site, which showed that in less than 24 hours, the file had been downloaded 300 times.
Announcing the upload on the secure messaging service Telegram, the CCA described the file as “Personal information of the US police stations including Leaders and officers.”
In response, the New Jersey Transit System issued a statement which read, “The NJ Transit Information System was not compromised, however some information was breached from an outside vendor. The New Jersey Transit police are working the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on this matter.”
The Caliphate Cyber Army is comprised of hackers sympathetic to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and has mainly been successful in taking down small, unsecure websites and substituting its own propaganda.
http://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamic-state-hackers-published-names-addresses-nj-police
All Police officers reading this blog need to ensure that the databases containing their names and addresses are secure, while this looks like a group of clowns that got lucky more knowledgeable people will decide to copy the clowns at some point in the future.
Every policeman is a hero.
Police lives matter.
They matter Big Time.
As do all the vets who remember their oath. Push is coming to shove.
UK Police Chief : Islamic State Planning ‘Spectacular’ Attack
The head of Britain’s counter-terror police told a media briefing the Islamic State was likely planning carrying out more sophisticated attacks.
The Islamic State is likely planning “spectacular” attacks against the UK according to the head of counter-terrorism policing, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.
The Islamic State has long called on supporters abroad to carry out attacks on the West, but police officers now suspect the group will try to move beyond that and carry out more sophisticated attacks.
“In recent months we’ve seen a broadening of that – much more plans to attack Western lifestyle, and obviously the Paris attacks in November,” Rowley said.
“Going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader. And you see a terrorist group which has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks – not just the types that we’ve seen foiled to date.”
http://www.clarionproject.org/news/uk-police-chief-islamic-state-planning-spectacular-attack
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35744573
Islamic State group ‘may be plotting huge attacks’ in UK
Christian Movement Growing in Iran; Up to 1 Million
Christians in Iran are forced to keep their religion under wraps. They worship in house churches with a maximum of four to five others.
While Christians are routinely arrested and imprisoned for practicing their faith in Iran, estimates of the number of Christians worshipping in secret number in the hundreds of thousands and that is only growing.
Open Doors USA, a non-profit Christian group that provides support to persecuted Christians living under oppressive regimes, records about 450,000 Christians in Iran. Others place the number closer to a million.
Christians in Iran are forced to keep their religion under wraps. They worship in house churches with a maximum of four to five others. The group must change their meeting place each time they get together.
A push to train Christian leaders was launched by the London-based Pars Theological Centre, which says it is currently training 200 Iranian Christians.
“This is not a political movement at all, but it will have political implications because it is touching the core foundations of society,” a spokesperson for Pars stated. “If you want to live in a country that doesn’t fund terrorists, you have to develop the values of the grassroots.”
http://www.clarionproject.org/news/christian-movement-growing-iran-1-million
Over 450,000 Join Iranian House Church Movement, ‘Great Number of Muslims Turning to Christ’
http://www.christianpost.com/news/over-450000-join-iranian-house-church-movement-great-number-of-muslims-turning-to-christ-158883/
Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal REDUCED What U.N. Reports About Iran’s Nukes
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano revealed on Monday morning that the P5+1 nuclear deal signed by the United States but not Iran, has significantly reduced what the UN Agency is supposed to report publicly about Iran’s nuclear activities.
On February 26 the IAEA published its first report since Iran supposedly came into compliance with the nuclear deal and received sanctions relief in return. Many observers were surprised that the report excluded information that had been included in every other report for years. Amano explained away the criticism by declaring that the nuclear deal reduced the reporting requirements that existed before.
The explanation is in tension with how the administration long characterized the nuclear deal to Congress, journalists, and the public. The White House and State Department went all-in on transparency measures: after U.S. negotiators gave up trying to get Iran to destroy any of its uranium infrastructure, the administration declared there would at least be unprecedented insight into all Iranian nuclear activities. In a January 16th statement, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed “the IAEA now has visibility and accountability of the entire supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program, from start to finish – from uranium mines and mills to centrifuge manufacturing and operation.”
http://lidblog.com/obamas-iran-nuclear-deal-reduced-what-u-n-reports-about-irans-nukes/#
On eve of Obama’s nuclear security summit, Russia plans missile firing salvo from Arctic
This is likely to go over the heads of the 99% of Americans who have no idea Obama will be hosting a nuclear security summit on 31 Mar and 1 April.
But Russia knows – and, as reported previously in this space, Russia isn’t going to be there. The Russians don’t want the same things in nuclear security that Obama does, such as enforcement “teeth” for IAEA. And they’re not willing to attend merely for show, apparently. They’re just not that into Obama these days.
It’s a big deal that they won’t be there. Russia’s absence will mark a very telling departure from the U.S.-Russian unity on the matter of nuclear proliferation, and nuclear cooperation in general, since the late 1980s. This is a major pillar of the international order showing strong signs of collapse. And by not attending, Vladimir Putin clarifies that that’s OK with him.
http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/03/07/on-eve-of-obamas-nuclear-security-summit-russia-plans-missile-firing-salvo-from-arctic/
Everyone be sure and read the article, it is very thought provoking and tells us what Putin is thinking. He is saying the US is no longer in a position to call for any type of meeting or treaty. Given what is coming we won’t remain insignificant but we will have to have a President who is smart enough and tough enough to do what is necessary for freedom to survive.
Also the firing of a 16 missile salvo (if the Russians manage to carry it off, it is very dangerous for the sub) is another message that Putin isn’t afraid to go nuclear.
There’s a comment from the moderator under that post that must be read in full:
Archduke-type danger is what’s going on between Russia and Turkey. The Iranian push toward Mosul is part of that, of course, as is the unimaginative but predictable reaction of Turkey against the Kurds, Iranian advances in Iraq, and Iranian and Russian advances in Syria. The Russian build-up in Armenia is an additional screw tightening. Turkey is being surrounded and squeezed — objectively, that’s the case — and is led by Erdogan the Bad, the last guy you want in charge of a chokepoint powder keg.
That said, none of the nation-states wants an all-out, officially-declared war. They’re not ready for it. ISIS can’t force it on them.
I’m sure you saw that Al-Baghdadi is in Libya (as suspected since December), and is trying to open a new front in Tunisia. That should clarify for the alert what his real intentions are. Too many people keep thinking he wants oil, but oil is secondary. He wants the Strait of Sicily.
The Italians are by no means unable to see that. They are the usual question-mark in terms of performance, however. And the US is all but invisible. Big fun for historical ironists: 200-odd years after Jefferson and the Barbary wars, our bust-out of the Strait of Sicily could finally be reversed by an Islamic force with leadership surging out of Mesopotamia.
Europe’s leadership is all but worthless. It’s been dysfunctional in much the way Obama is dysfunctional for America — attacking the better character of a good chunk of the people and keeping them paralyzed — but for a couple of decades longer.
The Russians tend to see that pretty clearly, I think. That said, you can’t let Russia tell you what’s going on in Europe, because it always boils down to “non-Slavs are fascists, just waiting to unfurl the swastika flags they have rolled up in the storage bin out back.” Wrong.
Here’s the deal. What has to fall is the dysfunctional order imposed by the modern left. It has to fall. It can’t be tweaked or worked with; it’s built on lies and hopelessness. It looks like a big emergency that it’s careening toward the cliff, but it HAS to. It has to fall.
In its fall will lie opportunity. Don’t forget that. No one has the power today to restore the status quo ante 2009 — but we shouldn’t want it anyway, because it was unsustainable, and undesirable at its core. It had no defenses against an Obama; rather, it set him up. It though [sic] Angela Merkel was a classical liberal. It burdened the people and lied to them, with its insistence on social controls, repression of freedom, and thieving “welfare” programs. Living in interesting times ain’t so great, but take this to the bank: the people will come through it. It’s the leadership infrastructure that won’t survive.
Thank you Yucki that was a very interesting comment full of information. Yes the left has to fall and it will in the coming months and years but its fall will be bloody.
The commentator is right no one wants a full declared war but I think one is coming even though I doubt it will be declared. Stupidity tends to create massive international problems that deteriorate into open war even when no one really wants that war. WWII is a prime example, no one besides the Fascists wanted war but that is what we got. The Islamists are the only ones who really want war but the actions of the left and the peace at any cost crowd have creat4ed the situation where war is all but inevitable. I say all but even though I rate a peaceful solution to less then 1%.
Leftists have to go down. Temporizing is no longer an option.
Serbia: Slovenia to demand EU visas on borders at midnight, effectively closing migrant route
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia: Slovenia to demand EU visas on borders at midnight, effectively closing migrant route.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/02c20081c97349e2b0e5a8fa91804ba2/serbia-slovenia-demand-eu-visas-borders-midnight
Muslims Claim Lion’s Share of Christian Victims
The driving force behind 82% of the world’s persecution of Christians.
March 7, 2016
Raymond Ibrahim
28
Open Doors, an organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, recently released its latest World Watch List—a report that highlights and ranks the 50 worst nations to be Christian. It found that 2015 was the “worst year in modern history for Christian persecution.”
Who claims the lion’s share of this unprecedented persecution? Muslims—of all races, nationalities, languages, and socio-political circumstances: Muslims from among America’s closest allies (Saudi Arabia #14 worst persecutor) and its opponents (Iran #9); Muslims from economically rich nations (Qatar #21) and from poor nations (Somalia #7 and Yemen #11); Muslims from “Islamic republic” nations (Afghanistan #4) and from “moderate” nations (Malaysia #30 and Indonesia #43); Muslims from nations rescued by America (Kuwait #41) and Muslims from nations claiming “grievances” against the U.S. (fill in the blank __).
The report finds that “Islamic extremism” is the main source of persecution in 41 of the top 50 countries—that is, 82 percent of the world’s persecution of Christians is being committed by Muslims. As for the top ten worst countries persecuting Christians, nine of them are Muslim-majority—that is, 90 percent of nations where Christians experience “extreme persecution” are Muslim.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262036/muslims-responsible-worst-year-modern-history-raymond-ibrahim
Islamic state video </strong<
http://videowood.tv/embed/sagv
“For a Couple of Hundred Thousand a Speech, It Must Be a Great Speech”
Bernie Sanders mostly acts confused at the debates and repeats his stump speeches non-stop (but nobody calls him a robot). Still to give him credit, this is a good line and his delivery is solid.
https://youtu.be/YchrN910xdY
https://youtu.be/MNIAN5t7XSc
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/262070/couple-hundred-thousand-speech-it-must-be-great-daniel-greenfield
Israel: More Formidable Than Ever
An evaluation of the Jewish state’s geopolitical situation.
Last week, opposition figures Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beytenu and Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid, convened an emergency conference in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) under the banner “Fighting for Israel’s International Status.” Lieberman charged that, “Netanyahu (Israel’s Prime Minister) is trying to take the Israeli Foreign Service and destroy it by force.” He added, “The Foreign Ministry is no one’s private property, including the Netanyahu family, you can’t take it and destroy it completely.” Lieberman served as Foreign Minister in Netanyahu’s previous government as did Lapid, who served as Finance Minister. Both could have received the Foreign Ministry portfolio had they joined Netanyahu’s coalition government. The conference did not include the leader of the opposition and chairman of the Zionist Camp, Yitzhak Herzog. Both Lapid and Lieberman seek to replace Netanyahu as prime minister.
Lapid’s criticism was less personal and more issue oriented. He stated that, “The deterioration of the situation is dramatic. The BDS Movement is gaining power, the international institutions and the UN as well, are leading an anti-Israel line. There is a crisis with the American administration, there is a crisis with the European Union, the world media is leading a serious slanderous anti-Israel line, aided by anti-Israel organizations.” Lapid added, “Our international standing has never, throughout the state’s history from 1948 until today, been so bad. What makes the situation worse is the fact that the Israeli government won’t admit it.”
One point made by Yair Lapid is clearly valid. He pointed out that “The Foreign Ministry is divided between six ministers and none of them knows what the others are doing. Israel’s hasbara (public relations) is divided between five government ministries, and none of them knows what the other is doing.” The Israeli government has to speak with one voice, and preferably, allow hasbara overseas to be handled by qualified PR and advertising experts, and led by a reputable NGO.
PM Netanyahu responded to the criticism leveled by Lieberman and Lapid by saying that while he is busy strengthening Israel’s international alliences, the opposition is busy “rattling on.” He pointed out that, “there are those who choose to prattle and hold political gatherings, and there are those who rebuff the pressures on Israel and strengthen Israel’s international alliances to ensure our future here.”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262064/israel-more-formidable-ever-joseph-puder
They’re trying to oust Bibi.
Maybe it’s time. He’s tired.
He probably is but who of the same caliber is in the wings waiting to take over? You know Israeli politics much better then I do.
Warning: long, rambling, OT
Trouble is – and we’re going to see this play out when Geert wins in Holland – coalition governments are THE PITS.
They hogtie – excuse the expression – the winning party unless it gets an overwhelming popular majority. When votes are split among so many narrow-focus parties, it’s next to impossible to get enough votes to put together a workable coalition.
In Israel outright enemies take part in the process. Muslim Arabs. Socialist hardliners. Fifth column Peace Now. Certain parties of ultra-Orthodox who oppose secular government altogether. How many do you trust enough to invite into the Cabinet?
The current coalition government is only one or two over the minimum necessary to hold together. If one or two ministers decides to bolt in protest over some perceived violation of a particular mandate, the government falls and a new election ensues.
Every newly elected PM is charged with pulling together a coalition in 30 [?] days. Elections are rough and tumble, leave hard feelings for a while. For leaders of opposition parties to consent to join a new coalition under the opponent’s auspices, the PM-designate has to make guarantees that may conflict with the priorities of his own voter base.
Bibi’s made promises in the course of four elections that he hasn’t kept. Circumstances may’ve precluded specific concessions, or he may’ve made strategic compromises in order to get a government out of limbo and going. While the breach may not have been sufficient to bring the government down, the accumulated resentment has made for unwieldy coalitions.
In the Knesset, more fractious than our Congress by several multiples, the opposition has grown impossibly frisky. They want in and they want in now. I have my eye on a couple of people, but they need a few years’ seasoning in foreign affairs before they’re chief-executive material.
No, I don’t see anybody in the wings now. They’re all jackals and dupes or not [yet] competent. They’re either leftists like their Diaspora counterparts, or they read the wrong situation reports, or they’re irredentists who scare me to death.
Nor am I satisfied by Bibi’s management of this latest crisis. His temporizing on Palestinian affairs has opened the way to terrorists and posturing outsiders playing to their own public. He’s too tentative, too – forgive me – too American.
………..
Rambling tangent
Time for Israel to cut some apron-strings, to find alternatives to buying American-made munitions with American dollars. If he makes the F-35 the center of Israel’s missile defense, I’ll campaign against him.
But I’ll ask him first. Sweetly. And I’d be delighted to welcome him home. To Boston. Maybe it’s time.Lieberman is the Russian vote. Tough, ugly. Unlovable.
I agree with Lapid’s criticism of hasbara. Who’s minding the international portfolio’s store?
But Lapid would give the EU the keys to the store.
According to someone who knows what he’s talking about, maybe not so passive:
The Diplomatic View from Inside Netanyahu’s National Security Council
http://besacenter.org/uncategorized/the-diplomatic-view-from-inside-netanyahus-national-security-council/
Turkey
Sculptures newly installed in Fethiye in memory of a slain young woman removed for obcenity
pics + video on the page :
http://www.haberler.com/fethiye-ozgecan-aslan-parki-ndaki-balerin-8236938-haberi/
http://www.haberler.com/ozgecan-aslan-parki-ndaki-balerin-heykelleri-8238232-haberi/
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) at a Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing – March 8, 2016 [Part 1]
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) at a Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing – March 8, 2016 [Part 2]
Concern That Fast Migrant Background Checks Are Letting Terrorists Into Europe Undetected
The German migration agency has admitted the ‘speedy’ processing of asylum seekers will likely lead to security threats.
Frank-Jurgen Weise, head of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) took over leadership of the agency which has been in a constant state of disarray since the migrant crisis began last summer. The policy of the Merkel government has been to put pressure on the agency to get as many asylum seekers processed in the shortest amount of time.
Yet the priority of haste over thoroughness is starting to worry BAMF and Federal security agencies who consider the approach extremely dangerous in the wake of both the terrorist attacks in Paris, and the mass sexual assault in Cologne on New Years Eve.
Weise has decided that there needs to be more security checks of migrants and those coming to Germany to seek asylum. He notes the fact that perpetrators of both the Paris attacks and other arrests, such as the ISIS commander who was captured in a migrant home prove that radical Islamic terrorism is a present danger lurking in the mass flow of migrants coming into the European Union.
Internal agency documents purport to show how management plans to scale back the requirements for works to process a certain number of migrants and rather focus on quality of background and security checks rather than numbers. The documents also show that the agency needs more staff to be able to deliver rigorous checks and that currently the number of workers at the agency is far too low for the ambitious targets the government has set for them this year. Without extra employees the current staff will be forced to spend less time making thorough checks, and will only ask a limited number of pertinent questions of them.
So far the speed at which the workers are able to process migrants has been less than hoped-for by the government. In 2016 so far, most staff at the agency process around 0.6 migrant hearings per day. The internal documents say that these numbers are “far below the expected values” and that the numbers the Merkel government would like to see would be at least seven times that which they are currently achieving. The targets are set at 20 hearings per week with each staff member working around 50 hours per week to achieve it, 40 regular and 10 overtime hours.
Despite security risks none of the 430,000 registered Syrian asylum seekers have had to go through personal interviews to look into their backgrounds. This also applies to asylum applicants from Iraq who are religious minorities and migrants coming from the African country of Eritrea as long as they can provide adequate identification.
Internal security experts were shocked at the revelation as they had all assumed that all Syrian migrants would be examined in detail because of the potential to many to have links with the Islamic state, Al-Nusra or even those who commit war crimes and have fled to escape prosecution.
Christian Democratic Union politician Wolfgang Bosbach said, “I can understand that the BAMF is proceeding under enormous pressure given the high numbers, But this should not compromise the security interests of the Federal Republic. In each case, nationality and identity as well as potential security-related information about an applicant must be clarified.”
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/08/concern-that-fast-migrant-background-checks-are-letting-terrorists-into-europe/
They just woke up. A little too late, don’t you think so?
It is too late to prevent all out war, but not too late to save Europe.
08/03/2016 – KLAGENFURT, Austria – Asylum seekers throw themselves in front of cars
A number of migrants have thrown themselves in front of moving cars in order to launch spurious injury claims against drivers. One such example is of a 27 year old asylum seeker on Saturday who waited by the side of the road before launching himself onto a moving car. Taken to hospital, doctors could find absolutely no injuries.
The individual is now under investigation for fraud. A similar incident earlier the same day saw a driver launch a claim for criminal damage against a jumping migrant for denting his car, reports Kronen Zeitung.
****************************
that’s from Breitbart, the original is here http://www.krone.at/Oesterreich/Asylwerber_warfen_sich_vor_fahrende_Autos-Unfaelle_provoziert-Story-499678
NYT -Pentagon Has Plan to Cripple ISIS in Libya With Air Barrage
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has presented the White House with the most detailed set of military options yet for attacking the growing Islamic State threat in Libya, including a range of potential airstrikes against training camps, command centers, munitions depots and other militant targets.
Airstrikes against as many as 30 to 40 targets in four areas of the country would aim to deal a crippling blow to the Islamic State’s most dangerous affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria, and open the way for Western-backed Libyan militias to battle Islamic State fighters on the ground. Allied bombers would carry out additional airstrikes to support the militias on the ground. The military option was described by five American officials who have been briefed on the plans and spoke about them on the condition of anonymity because of their confidential nature.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter outlined this option to President Obama’s top national security advisers at a so-called principals meeting on Feb. 22. But the plan is not being actively considered, at least for now, while the Obama administration presses ahead with a diplomatic initiative to form a unity government from rival factions inside Libya, administration officials said.
Even so, the United States military is poised to carry out limited airstrikes if ordered against terrorists in Libya who threatened Americans or American interests, just as it did against an Islamic State training camp in western Libya last month.
“We will continue to use the full range of tools to eliminate ISIL threats wherever they are,” Mr. Obama said on Feb. 25, after convening the National Security Council to discuss combating the Islamic State, also called ISIL or ISIS.
But the broader scale of the airstrikes option prepared by the Pentagon’s Africa Command and the highly secretive Joint Special Operations Command illuminated differences in perspectives and short-term goals within the administration. The scope of the military plan surprised some senior administration officials, and it drew warnings from some State Department officials that such airstrikes, if not coordinated properly, could jeopardize the United Nations-led effort to forge a unity government from Libya’s fractious political actors.
The detailed military planning does expand the choices available to Mr. Obama in the coming months as he and his advisers, along with allies like Britain, France and Italy, try to manage a tricky balancing act: nurture a fragile political process to form a unity government in Libya but not wait so long that the Islamic State grows too big for defeat by a limited — and politically acceptable — military action.
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summed up the current thinking about this juggling of priorities and the possibility of taking more aggressive military action in the future, at a news conference last week.
“Where there is opportunity to conduct operations against ISIL, to disrupt them at this point and not undermine the political process, that is where we are,” General Dunford said. “At some point in the future, if I believe we are at risk with that strategy, I will certainly come back to the secretary and make some different recommendations.”
The newly refined Pentagon planning comes amid increasing reports that British, American, French and possibly even Italian Special Operations forces have been on the ground in Libya for months. They have been conducting reconnaissance, gathering intelligence, vetting and possibly advising Libyan militias deemed good partners to fight the Islamic State in strongholds such as Surt along a 150-mile section of territory the terrorist group controls.
As recently as last fall, senior American commanders and intelligence officials said they lacked sufficient information about the Islamic State in Libya even to identify targets to bomb.
But this effort on the ground among special operators does not appear to be well coordinated, and seems to reflect the concern of each clandestine forces should they be called on suddenly to speed up any unilateral military strikes against the Islamic State. The militant group’s fighters now number as many as 6,500, more than double their ranks last fall, according to a Defense Department assessment.
Pressure is growing on the United States and its Western allies to intervene militarily. Britain announced last week that it was sending 20 military trainers to Tunisia to help counter illegal cross-border movements from neighboring Libya. Tunisia has already built a 125-mile earthen wall that stretches about half the length of its border with Libya in an attempt to prevent militants from infiltrating.
Italy last month agreed for the first time to allow American armed drones to take off from an air base in Sicily to defend coalition forces fighting Islamic State extremists in Libya.
Last Friday, Italy’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the release of two Italians kidnapped in Libya in July. That good news came a day after ministry officials grimly announced that two other Italian hostages in the country had likely been killed in clashes between ISIS fighters and local militia fighters near Sabratha.
Last month, American warplanes bombed an ISIS training camp in Sabratha, 50 miles west of Tripoli, killing a militant commander linked to attacks on Western tourists. Those strikes targeted Noureddine Chouchane, a Tunisian militant, whom the Pentagon said helped arrange the arrival of Islamic State recruits from across Africa into Libya.
The strikes demonstrated the United States’ growing concern over Libya as a new base for the Islamic State and its willingness to use air power against militant commanders and infrastructure. So far, though, it has been a power limited by political constraints on the ground.
“We’d like nothing better than to have a government in place in Libya with whom we could work and from whom we could gain consent for engaging militarily in Libya,” James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, told Congress last month.
Mr. Clapper said that in addition to Surt, ISIS is operating in Benghazi, Tripoli and other areas of the country.
Indeed, the reason so many military officials were willing to discuss classified war planning, including the option of aggressive airstrikes, was to show that the administration was taking the ISIS threat in Libya seriously. At the same time, though, the administration hopes to show that it is exercising restraint for the time being to help the political process succeed. The Pentagon produced the options at the White House’s request, but did not offer any formal recommendations, officials said.
Libya’s political leaders are divided between two loose political alliances in the capital, Tripoli, and the eastern city of Tobruk. The United Nations effort to form a unity government, led by the German diplomat Martin Kobler, has been stymied by the factional differences.
Last month, Mr. Kobler warned the West to move carefully if a unity government is formed, and not press it immediately to support foreign military intervention. He said that “very intense” anti-foreigner feelings run deep among Libyan politicians and that pressuring a new government to support outside military action against ISIS could undermine it.
Two prominent Libya specialists offered the same warnings to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.
“A great risk is that outside intervention against the Islamic State, before a cohesive government is formed, could exacerbate political conflicts, bolster the power of local militias, and throw the country into greater turmoil,” said Frederic Wehrey, a Libya expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who recently returned from two weeks in the country.
Claudia Gazzini, a senior Libya analyst with the International Crisis Group in Rome, told lawmakers: “Rushing an international military intervention in Libya to counter ISIS would be shortsighted and would probably backfire. Any such intervention should be discreet, measured and linked to a political strategy aimed at bringing Libyan factions together into a single government.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/world/middleeast/pentagon-considers-military-options-against-isis-in-libya.html
Let’s wait until they’re so entrenched they win by default.
That is probably the plan.
DAILY MAIL – EXCLUSIVE: ‘It’s cold, but it’s OK because we’re on the way to England’: Inside Dunkirk’s £2million shed village as 200 migrants move into the new wooden cabins replacing the Calais Jungle
Daisam family is among some 200 refugees who moved into cabins set up by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières
Unit 212 in the Grande-Synthe camp may only be made of plywood, but it is their home while they try to reach the UK
However, the Iraqi-Kurds say there’s no central heating so it’s cold, and aim to reach England as soon as possible
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3482280/It-s-cold-s-ok-way-England-Inside-2million-Dunkirk-sheds-replacing-lawless-Calais-Jungle-migrants-unhappy-no-central-heating.html
Rule 34 if you can’ imagine it, it exists:
http://img.ifcdn.com/images/2cce612c577f270dfb93e657662613d6404fbcdce56925eed263573eee379139_1.jpg
h/t ElderZ
Hummel designs football kit with inbuilt hijab for Afghan women’s team (khaama, Mar 8, 2016)
http://www.khaama.com/hummel-designs-football-kit-with-inbuilt-hijab-for-afghan-womens-team-0284
“An International sportswear company has agreed to a deal to manufacture football kit with inbuilt hijab for Afghanistan female national football team, it has been reported.
The Denmark-based Hummel International released the strip on the eve of International Women’s Day, which is is the first branded national football kit ever to include a hijab as an inbuilt feature.
The new kit incorporating a hijab will allow female players in the national football team of Afghanistan to play while fully covered.
“We don’t sponsor the biggest teams in the world, but we make partnerships with teams and clubs with a story to tell, like Afghanistan,” said Christian Stadil, owner of Hummel International, told the British national daily tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mirror.
Stadil further added “We try to meet the Afghan people where they are, and right now that is by helping the women play football with or without a hijab.”
Khalida Popal, former Afghanistan national women’s team captain, added “It was a huge honour to captain my country but it was an even bigger honour to be seen as a role model and an inspiration for thousands of young girls and women in Afghanistan.”
“I think the Afghanistan women’s team shows the huge potential football has as a unifying force. I like to think that we have given a lot of women in our country fresh hope,” she added.
“I have been involved in the consultation for the design of the shirt pretty much from the outset. I wanted something that reflected the strength of the Afghan character and incorporated the very best of the country’s traditions and heritage,” she said. “I think this shirt has achieved both.”
Hummel designer Paul Fitzgerald, said “From the outset it was clear that the shirt was enormously significant. It’s a design hummel is extremely proud of.”
It’s like a more efficient noose.
Get ’em to stop dressing little boys like little girls & I’ll be impressed.
Migrant crisis: UN legal concerns over EU-Turkey plan (BBC, Mar 8, 2016)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35754738
“The UN has expressed concern over a radical EU-Turkey plan to ease the migrant crisis, saying it could contravene international law.
Under the plan, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be returned and for each Syrian sent back, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.
The UN’s refugee agency said any collective expulsion of foreigners was “not consistent with European law”.
Amnesty International called the plan a death blow to the right to seek asylum…”