Your show was sited as "My Absolute Favorite Podcast" in the 2nd annual, "My favorite Podcast Is..." episode from the School of Podcasting by Sgt. Fred
You can find it at
http://schoolofpodcasting.com/2014favorites
The direct link to the mp3 is at http://traffic.libsyn.com/schoolofpodcasting/sop441_122914.mp3
If you are a soundcloud person (easy sharing) its also at https://soundcloud.com/podcastcoach/my-favorite-podcast-is-2014
No Agenda did something that few podcasts did. They stayed (in this case) Fred's favorite for two years in a row.
In addition to the podcast, the "My favorite Podcast" has been transcribed into a Kindle Book.
Hopefully this will send a few new producers your way.
Smith Mundt Act - A reminder that you are living in a Smith-Mudt Act repealed media landscape
NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]
Propaganda in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Propaganda in the United States is propaganda spread by government and media entities within the United States. Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence opinions. Propaganda is not only in advertising; it is also in radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else that might be sent out to the widespread public.
Domestic[edit]World War I[edit]The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government came during World War I. The government enlisted the help of citizens and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down, the U.S. government produced posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own vegetables in "victory gardens." The public skepticism that was generated by the heavy-handed tactics of the Committee on Public Information would lead the postwar government to officially abandon the use of propaganda.[1]
World War II[edit]During World War II the U.S. officially had no propaganda, but the Roosevelt government used means to circumvent this official line. One such propaganda tool was the publicly owned but government funded Writers' War Board (WWB). The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it has been called the "greatest propaganda machine in history".[1]Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films made to justify US involvement in World War II.
In 1944 (lasting until 1948) prominent US policy makers launched a domestic propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the U.S. public to agree to a harsh peace for the German people, for example by removing the common view of the German people and the Nazi party as separate entities.[2] The core in this campaign was the Writers' War Board which was closely associated with the Roosevelt administration.[2]
Another means was the United States Office of War Information that Roosevelt established in June 1942, whose mandate was to promote understanding of the war policies under the director Elmer Davies. It dealt with posters, press, movies, exhibitions, and produced often slanted material conforming to US wartime purposes. Other large and influential non-governmental organizations during the war and immediate post war period were the Society for the Prevention of World War III and the Council on Books in Wartime.
Cold War[edit]During the Cold War, the U.S. government produced vast amounts of propaganda against communism and the Soviet bloc. Much of this propaganda was directed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, who himself wrote the anti-communist tract Masters of Deceit. The FBI's COINTELPRO arm solicited journalists to produce fake news items discrediting communists and affiliated groups, such as H. Bruce Franklin and the Venceremos Organization.
War on Drugs[edit]The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, originally established by the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988,[3][4] but now conducted by the Office of National Drug Control Policy under the Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998,[5] is a domestic propaganda campaign designed to "influence the attitudes of the public and the news media with respect to drug abuse" and for "reducing and preventing drug abuse among young people in the United States".[6][7] The Media Campaign cooperates with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other government and non-government organizations.[8]
Iraq War[edit]In early 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense launched an information operation, colloquially referred to as the Pentagon military analyst program.[9] The goal of the operation is "to spread the administrations's talking points on Iraq by briefing ... retired commanders for network and cable television appearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts.[10] On 22 May 2008, after this program was revealed in the New York Times, the House passed an amendment that would make permanent a domestic propaganda ban that until now has been enacted annually in the military authorization bill.[11]
The Shared values initiative was a public relations campaign that was intended to sell a "new" America to Muslims around the world by showing that American Muslims were living happily and freely, without persecution, in post-9/11 America.[12] Funded by the United States Department of State, the campaign created a public relations front group known as Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). The campaign was divided in phases; the first of which consisted of five mini-documentaries for television, radio, and print with shared values messages for key Muslim countries.[13]
NDAA and Overturning of Smith-Mundt Act[edit]The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (NDAA) allows for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and strikes down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the country.[14][15][16]
Ad Council[edit]The Ad Council, an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various private and federal government agency sponsors, has been labeled as "little more than a domestic propaganda arm of the federal government" given the Ad Council's historically close collaboration with the President of the United States and the federal government.[17]
International[edit]Through several international broadcasting operations, the US disseminates American cultural information, official positions on international affairs, and daily summaries of international news. These operations fall under the International Broadcasting Bureau, the successor of the United States Information Agency, established in 1953. IBB's operations include Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Alhurra and other programs. They broadcast mainly to countries where the United States finds that information about international events is limited, either due to poor infrastructure or government censorship. The Smith-Mundt Act prohibits the Voice of America from disseminating information to US citizens that was produced specifically for a foreign audience.
During the Cold War the US ran covert propaganda campaigns in countries that appeared likely to become Soviet satellites, such as Italy, Afghanistan, and Chile.
Recently The Pentagon announced the creation of a new unit aimed at spreading propaganda about supposedly "inaccurate" stories being spread about the Iraq War. These "inaccuracies" have been blamed on the enemy trying to decrease support for the war. Donald Rumsfeld has been quoted as saying these stories are something that keeps him up at night.[18]
Psychological operations[edit]The US military defines psychological operations, or PSYOP, as:
planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.[19]
The Smith-Mundt Act, adopted in 1948, explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at the US public.[20][21][22] Nevertheless, the current easy access to news and information from around the globe, makes it difficult to guarantee PSYOP programs do not reach the US public. Or, in the words of Army Col. James A. Treadwell, who commanded the U.S. military psyops unit in Iraq in 2003, in the Washington Post:
There's always going to be a certain amount of bleed-over with the global information environment.[23]
Agence France Presse reported on U.S. propaganda campaigns that:
The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations.[24]
Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the document referred to, which is titled "Information Operations Roadmap." [22][24] The document acknowledges the Smith-Mundt Act, but fails to offer any way of limiting the effect PSYOP programs have on domestic audiences.[20][21][25]
Several incidents in 2003 were documented by Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force colonel, which he saw as information-warfare campaigns that were intended for "foreign populations and the American public." Truth from These Podia,[26] as the treatise was called, reported that the way the Iraq war was fought resembled a political campaign, stressing the message instead of the truth.[22]
See also[edit]References[edit]^ abThomas Howell, The Writers' War Board: U.S. Domestic Propaganda in World War II, Historian, Volume 59 Issue 4, Pages 795 - 813^ abSteven Casey, (2005), The Campaign to sell a harsh peace for Germany to the American public, 1944 - 1948, [online]. London: LSE Research Online. [Available online at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000736] Originally published in History, 90 (297). pp. 62-92 (2005) Blackwell Publishing^National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988 of the Anti''Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub.L. 100''690, 102 Stat. 4181, enacted November 18, 1988^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, footnote 6, page 3 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 (Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999), Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Gamboa, Anthony H. (January 4, 2005), B-303495, Office of National Drug Control Policy '-- Video News Release, Government Accountability Office, pp. 9''10 ^Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999, Pub.L. 105''277, 112 Stat. 268, enacted October 21, 1998^Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Pub.L. 109''469, 120 Stat. 3501, enacted December 29, 2006, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 1708^Barstow, David (2008-04-20). "Message Machine: Behind Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand". New York Times. ^Sessions, David (2008-04-20). "Onward T.V. Soldiers: The New York Times exposes a multi-armed Pentagon message machine". Slate. ^Barstow, David (2008-05-24). "2 Inquiries Set on Pentagon Publicity Effort". New York Times. ^Rampton, Sheldon (October 17, 2007). "Shared Values Revisited". Center for Media and Democracy. ^"U.S. Reaches Out to Muslim World with Shared Values Initiative". America.gov. January 16, 2003.
Mr. Curry...it was hard to find you..but as you can see I did. Spend last night trying to remember my friend words to me on you , your family and your show.." No agenda".....he had always been as long as I can remember. .a late riser...but he surprised me when he would awaken just for your show.
He never married..was sometimes a hermit....had no one. Came from a Irish catholic tribe...but had not seen or heard from anyone for 25 yrs.
My husband and I were his closest friends. .we are heartbroken...he will be missed..more then he will ever know. We spoke everyday 2 to 3 times...so I knew something was wrong..I was right. He spoke. Highly of you...so I wanted to let you know...he is no longer present...we lost him ...he lost his life....on the streets of Tucson Az. On..Jan 6 2015.... we had just celebrated his birthday...Dec 13 2014. I have lost a beautiful friend...you have lost a loyal fan.
This masterwork of interpretative history begins with a bold declaration: The Modern Age is the Jewish Age--and we are all, to varying degrees, Jews.
The assertion is, of course, metaphorical. But it underscores Yuri Slezkine's provocative thesis. Not only have Jews adapted better than many other groups to living in the modern world, they have become the premiere symbol and standard of modern life everywhere.
Slezkine argues that the Jews were, in effect, among the world's first free agents. They traditionally belonged to a social and anthropological category known as "service nomads," an outsider group specializing in the delivery of goods and services. Their role, Slezkine argues, was part of a broader division of human labor between what he calls Mercurians-entrepreneurial minorities--and Apollonians--food-producing majorities.
Since the dawning of the Modern Age, Mercurians have taken center stage. In fact, Slezkine argues, modernity is all about Apollonians becoming Mercurians--urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious, and occupationally flexible. Since no group has been more adept at Mercurianism than the Jews, he contends, these exemplary ancients are now model moderns.
The book concentrates on the drama of the Russian Jews, including (C)migr(C)s and their offspring in America, Palestine, and the Soviet Union. But Slezkine has as much to say about the many faces of modernity--nationalism, socialism, capitalism, and liberalism--as he does about Jewry. Marxism and Freudianism, for example, sprang largely from the Jewish predicament, Slezkine notes, and both Soviet Bolshevism and American liberalism were affected in fundamental ways by the Jewish exodus from the Pale of Settlement.
Rich in its insight, sweeping in its chronology, and fearless in its analysis, this sure-to-be-controversial work is an important contribution not only to Jewish and Russian history but to the history of Europe and America as well.
Review:
"One of the most innovative and intellectually stimulating books in Jewish studies in years. . . . [An] idiosyncratic, fascinating and at times marvelously infuriating study of the evolution of Jewish cultural and political sensibility in the 20th century. . . . Nearly every page of Slezkine's exegesis presents fascinating arguments or facts."--Publishers Weekly
"Jews are not unique, [Yuri Slezkine] maintains in his fascinating new study, and it is only European provincialism that makes them seem that way. . . . Slezkin''s interpretation of Jewish history . . . is wonderfully antiparochial not only vis- -vis the Jews but vis- -vis America, which, he reminds us, not everyone saw as a promised land and which large portions of the huddled masses struggled to avoid."--Daniel Lazare, The Nation
"To come across a daring, original, sweeping work of history in this age of narrow specialization is not just a welcome event; it is almost a sensation."--Walter Laqueur, Los Angeles Times
"If Osama Bin Laden ever reads this book, he will be spinning in his cave."--Gene Sosin, The New Leader
"For Slezkine, Jews, urban, mobile, literate, flexible, have been role models of adaptability in a changing modern landscape."--Joel Yanofsky, National Post
"Brilliant. . . . The Jewish Century is history on a majestic scale. . . . [It] is fresh, compelling and frequently startling. . . . The clarity of analysis is extraordinary, and the relatively simple conceptual tools Slezkine provides are unexpectedly powerful."--Noah Efron, Jerusalem Report
"This book is witty, sardonic and clever, written with zest and brilliant imagination and presents us with remarkable images of our recent past."--John Levi, Australian Jewish News
More reviews
Table of Contents:
Preface viiAcknowledgments ixIntroduction 1CHAPTER 1: Mercury's Sandals: The Jews and Other Nomads 4CHAPTER 2: Swann's Nose: The Jews and Other Moderns 40CHAPTER 3: Babel's First Love: The Jews and the Russian Revolution 105CHAPTER 4: Hodl's Choice: The Jews and Three Promised Lands 204Notes 373Index 413
This book has been translated into:
GermanHebrewFrenchLithuanianItalianAnother Princeton book authored or coauthored by Yuri Slezkine:
Subject Areas:
Mossad Theory
Make Palestinians look guilty
That's why WH won't affirm Radical Islamists
Anomalies
Unarmed cop who never offende Mohammad was shot outside
The offensive magazine covers inside the office were untouched
ID left in the abandoned car
AQAP MESSAGE
Claim to have done the Paris Job
Lots edits
Dipped Beard
Chritina's Comments
Say "leave our lands"
Boycott their products
They did it for Awlawki, who did it for Awadhari, who did it for Usama Bin Laden
Video uses the same mug shots when speaking f the heroes, the martyrs WTF
Frankrijk staat in brand, na de laffe aanslag op Charlie Hebdo en de spectaculaire ontwikkelingen daarna. De krant Lib(C)ration, waar komende week het satirische blad '' gelukkig '' gewoon gemaakt wordt, is sinds kort in handen van een telg van het roemruchte bankiersgeslacht De Rothschild.
Maar die aankoop leverde binnen de familie De Rothschild nogal wat discussie op, vertelde telg Philippe baron de Rothschild onlangs in een exclusief gesprek aan Quote, gepubliceerd in het januarinummer.
'Er is behoorlijk wat discussie geweest over de overname door mijn oom douard baron de Rothschild', aldus Philippe. 'Sommige familieleden wilden de aankoop blokkeren, omdat het medium ons een politieke kracht zou maken. Dat willen wij koste wat het kost voorkomen. Wij hebben niets met politiek, of in elk geval niet naar buiten toe. Uiteindelijk zijn de critici in de familie overstemd.'
Het interview met De Rothschild-telg vond plaats in zijn kantoor aan de Champs-lys(C)es, ruim voor de aanslagen. Het hele gesprek kunt u hier lezen: 'Mensen blijven altijd jaloers.'
Rothschild stapt in krant Lib(C)ration - NRC Handelsblad van zaterdag 22 januari 2005
Edouard de Rothschild, lid van de beroemde bankiersfamilie, krijgt voor 20 miljoen euro een belang van 37 procent in de linkse Franse krant Lib(C)ration. Het personeel van Lib(C)ration, voor een derde eigenaar van de krant, heeft daar gisteren mee ingestemd. De krant wil het geld gebruiken om te investeren in nieuwe projecten. Vorig jaar leed Lib(C)ration verlies. De krant heeft een oplage van minder dan 200.000 en is de derde krant van het land, na Le Monde en Le Figaro.
By LORI HINNANTPublished: 14 minutes agoPARIS (AP) - France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and those glorifying terrorism and announced Wednesday it was sending an aircraft carrier to the Middle East to work more closely with the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants.
Authorities said 54 people had been arrested for hate speech and defending terrorism since terror attacks killed 20 people in Paris last week, including three gunmen. The crackdown came as Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical weekly that fronted the Prophet Muhammad anew on its cover.
President Francois Hollande, speaking aboard the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to members of the military, said the situation "justifies the presence of our aircraft carrier."
One of the Paris gunmen had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, while two others said they were backed by Yemen's al-Qaida branch. France is already carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.
A top leader of Yemen's al-Qaida branch claimed responsibility Wednesday for the Charlie Hebdo massacre that left 12 dead at the paper, saying in a video the massacre came in "vengeance for the prophet." The newspaper had received repeated threats previously for posting caricatures of Muhammad.
A high-ranking French intelligence official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that authorities see the claim as "opportunistic" and that AQAP appears to have served as an inspiration instead of orchestrating the attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
US intelligence officials, however, said they have no evidence AQAP coordinated the attack or knew about it in advance. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss classified matters publicly.
Since the attacks, France has deployed 10,000 troops and 120,000 security forces in an area the size of Texas to protect sensitive sites, including Jewish schools and synagogues, mosques and travel hubs. French police say as many as six members of the terror cell may still be at large.
France has been tightening security and searching for accomplices since the terror attacks began, but none of the 54 people mentioned Wednesday have been linked to the attacks. That's raising questions about whether Hollande's Socialist government is impinging on the very freedom of speech that it so vigorously defends when it comes to Charlie Hebdo.
Among those detained for a Facebook posting was Dieudonne, a popular and controversial comic who has repeated convictions for racism and anti-Semitism. He was later released and will be put on trial next month for justifying terrorism, a judicial official said on condition of anonymity in keeping with French custom.
Like many European countries, France has strong laws against hate speech, especially anti-Semitism in the wake of the Holocaust.
The Justice Ministry sent a letter to all French prosecutors and judges urging more aggressive tactics against racist or anti-Semitic speech or acts. The order did not mention Islam.
The core of Charlie Hebdo's staff died a week ago when gunmen stormed its offices, igniting three days of bloodshed around Paris that left 17 victims dead. The attacks ended Friday when security forces killed both Charlie Hebdo gunmen -brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi - and an accomplice - Amedy Coulibaly - who killed a policewoman and later four hostages at a kosher grocery.
Working out of borrowed offices, the Charlie Hebdo employees who survived put out a new weekly issue Wednesday. Its 50,000 copies ran out nearly immediately. Due to the high demand, the print run was increased to 5 million, according to spokeswoman Anne Hommel - 100 times the usual circulation. Kiosk operators in Paris told people to return Thursday for a second run.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Google is among many companies and individuals who donated money to produce this week's edition of Charlie Hebdo. The issue was distributed in 18 countries outside France and translated into other languages.
Many Muslims believe their faith forbids depictions of the prophet, and reacted with dismay - and occasionally anger - to the latest cover image. Some who had supported Charlie Hebdo after the terror attacks felt betrayed and others feared the cartoon would trigger yet more violence.
The publication raised tensions in Turkey, and caused huge crowds and frenzied eBay bidding in some European countries.
In its message to prosecutors and judges, France's Interior Ministry said it was issuing the crackdown on hate speech order to protect freedom of expression from comments that could incite violence or hatred. It said no one should be allowed to use their religion to justify hate speech.
The government order warned authorities to be particularly attentive to any incidents that could lead to urban unrest or violence against police. That suggests the government fears new riots like the wave which swept through France's neglected housing projects and immigrant communities a decade ago.
The government is writing broader new rules on phone-tapping and other intelligence to fight terrorism, spokesman Stephane Le Foll said. It also is launching a deeper project to rethink France's education system, urban policies and integration model, in an apparent recognition that the terror attacks exposed deeper problems about inequality in France, especially at its housing projects.
Dieudonne, a comic who popularized an arm gesture that resembles a Nazi salute and who has been convicted repeatedly of racism and anti-Semitism, is no stranger to controversy. His provocative performances were banned last year but he has a core following among France's disaffected youth.
The comic wrote an open letter to France's interior minister. "You are looking for a pretext to forbid me. You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am not any different from Charlie," he wrote.
Coulibaly had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, while the Kouachi brothers told survivors they were sent by al-Qaida in Yemen.
Defending his caricature of Muhammad on Charlie Hebdo's latest cover, cartoonist Renald Luzier argued that no exceptions should be made when it comes to the freedom of expression.
He said when the weekly was threatened before, the reaction was often: "Yes, but you shouldn't do that (publish cartoons of Muhammad). Yes, but you deserved that."
"There should be no more 'Yes, but," he insisted.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls displayed a copy of the satirical paper as he left a Cabinet meeting Wednesday but his hand carefully covered Muhammad's face.
___
Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet, Nicolas Vaux-Montagny, Milos Krivokapic and Dalton Bennett in Paris; Maggie Michael in Cairo; and Ken Dilanian in Washington contributed.
Politie wil wapen naar huis meenemen tegen terroristen - Het Nieuwsblad
De politievakbonden dringen er vandaag bij Jan Jambon, de minister van Binnenlandse Zaken, op aan dat agenten hun dienstwapen tijdelijk mee naar huis mogen nemen. 'De bedreigingen van ISIS aan het adres van politieagenten en hun gezin zorgen voor veel onrust.'
Het voorstel om het dienstwapen mee naar huis te nemen, komt uit de rangen van de politievakbonden Sypol en VSOA. Maar ook ACV Politie wil er vandaag het kabinet van minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Jan Jambon (N-VA) op aanspreken. Aanleiding zijn de onderschepte bedreigingen van terreurbeweging ISIS aan Franse politieagenten en hun familie, in de nasleep van de terroristische aanslagen in Parijs, en die mogelijk ook gericht zijn tegen Belgische politieambtenaren.
'De Belgisch overheid heeft alle agenten gevraagd bijzonder alert te zijn. Dat zullen ze doen, maar men vergeet dat agenten na de diensturen met lege handen naar huis gaan. Onze persoonlijke wapens moeten we verplicht op het politiebureau achterlaten', zegt Ruddy Callewaert van de politievakbond Sypol.
Ook bij VSOA leeft bij vele aangesloten agenten de vraag om uit veiligheidsoverwegingen ook tijdens de priv(C)tijd over het dienstwapen te kunnen beschikken, weliswaar onder strenge voorwaarden. Lees er alles over in Het Nieuwsblad van dinsdag 13 januari.
Britse uitgeverij schrapt varkens uit kinderboeken om moslims niet te beledigen - Ondertussen - Knack.be
De oproep van de uitgeverij om varkensgerelateerde woorden te vermijden om moslims en Joden niet te beledigen, kwam ter sprake in het BBC- radioprogramma Radio 4 Today tijdens een debat over vrije meningsuiting na de gebeurtenissen in Parijs. Tijdens de show werd een brief van de uitgeverij aan een van haar auteurs voorgelezen met de vraag om geen woorden als 'varkens', 'varkensvlees' of 'spek' te gebruiken.
Volgens een woordvoerder van Oxford University Press, een onderdeel van de universiteit van Oxford, zijn de boeken ook bestemd voor het buitenland. 'Veel van het educatief materiaal dat we in Groot-Brittanni publiceren wordt in 150 landen verkocht en daarom moet er met een hele reeks culturele verschillen en gevoeligheden rekening gehouden worden.'
Critici spreken van een 'onzinnige politieke correctheid' en eisen dat de vrijheid van meningsuiting gehandhaafd blijft. Er wordt ook getwijfeld of moslims en Joden ook daadwerkelijk beledigd zijn door de vermelding van boerderijdieren in een kinderboek.
Van de 7 miljard inwoners in de wereld zijn zowat 1,5 miljard moslim. De meeste van de 49 landen met een moslimmeerderheid hebben een jonge en opgroeiende bevolking, waardoor ze een belangrijke markt voor lesmateriaal zijn, zo schrijft de Britse krant The Independent.
Oxford University Press, dat jaarlijks zo'n 6.000 nieuwe boeken in meer dan 150 landen publiceert, is de grootste universitaire uitgeverij in de wereld.
Knack.be-nieuws in je facebook nieuwsfeed
Reageer
France sends Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier for anti-ISIS op in Iraq '-- RT News
Published time: January 14, 2015 15:39Edited time: January 14, 2015 17:32French aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle (AFP Photo / Boris Horvat)
French President Francois Hollande has announced that the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is ready for use in military operations against Islamic State in Iraq. The warship is to work in cooperation with coalition forces combatting the militants.
In a speech onboard the aircraft carrier on Wednesday, Hollande told military personnel that that the Charlie Hebdo massacre carried out by Islamic extremists last week ''justifies the presence of our aircraft carrier.''
"Thanks to the Charles de Gaulle we will have intelligence ... we may also conduct operations in Iraq," Hollande said.
Charlie Hebdo massacre aftermath LIVE UPDATES
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is the flagship of the French fleet, and is currently cruising off France's southern coast in the Mediterranean.
The carrier is the largest Western European warship currently in commission, and is France's only nuclear-powered surface vessel. The ship can carry 20 to 25 aircraft, including Super Etendard strike fighter jets, Rafale M multirole fighter jets and Aster missiles.
The ship's deployment, during which it will provide airstrikes against Islamic State militants, is expected to last until May at the earliest.
Since last week's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris which killed 17, authorities have been tightening security as they continue the search for accomplices to the perpetrators. France has deployed 10,000 troops and 120,000 additional security personnel to sensitive areas including Jewish schools, synagogues and mosques.
In the aftermath of the attacks, 54 people, including four minors, have been arrested for defending terrorism and hate speech. None of those arrested have been linked to the attack. Several, however, have already been convicted under special measures for immediate sentencing.
READ MORE: 'Act of war': New Charlie Hebdo edition triggers Muslims' anger, threats
An order distributed to the country's judges and prosecutors by the Justice Ministry said that freedom of expression does not include hate speech or calls to violence. Those convicted of inciting terrorism could face up to five years in prison, while inciting terrorism online can result in a seven-year sentence.
Paris attacks boost support for Dutch anti-Islam populist Wilders | Reuters
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Support for the anti-Islamic Freedom Party of Dutch populist Geert Wilders has jumped to its highest level in more than a year after the Islamist militant attacks in Paris.
Wilders, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, said after the Paris bloodshed that the West was "at war" with Islam, drawing a rebuke from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday.
If elections were held now, his party would be the single largest in the Netherlands, with 31 seats in the 150-member parliament, more than twice as many as it won in the last elections, according to a Sunday poll.
The governing Liberal and Labour parties, damaged by persistent sluggish growth, would have just 28 seats between them, compared to the 79 they held after the 2012 elections.
The Freedom Party was polling 30 seats just prior to the Jan. 7-9 Paris attacks, in which 17 people including journalists and policemen were killed by three Islamist gunmen who were later shot dead by French special forces.
Wilders this week called in an interview for measures against Islam: "If we don't do anything, it will happen here," he was quoted by the newspaper Het Parool as saying.
But speaking to Dutch public television shortly before leaving to attend a peace rally in Paris, the Dutch prime minister distanced himself from Wilders's comments.
"I would never use the word 'war,'" he said. "We are in a struggle with extremists who are using a belief as an excuse for attacks."
More than 80 percent of respondents to the De Hond poll said people who left the Netherlands to wage jihad (holy war) in Syria should lose their Dutch citizenship and those returning from fighting in Syria or Iraq should face lengthy jail terms.
The attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo had particular resonance in the Netherlands. In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, known for making anti-Islam remarks that were designed to offend, was stabbed to death by an Islamic radical as he cycled down an Amsterdam street.
Wilders, who has described Islam as a "lie" and the prophet Muhammad as a "criminal", has lived in hiding and under 24-hour armed guard since van Gogh's murder.
He is currently facing prosecution over remarks he made at an election rally last year, when he appeared to call for "fewer Moroccans" in the city of The Hague, and later referred in a television interview to "Moroccan scum".
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Stephen Powell)
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France Arrests a Comedian For His Facebook Comments, Showing the Sham of the West's "Free Speech" Celebration - The Intercept
Forty-eight hours after hosting a massive march under the banner of free expression, France opened a criminal investigation of a controversial French comedian for a Facebook post he wrote about the Charlie Hebdo attack, and then this morning, arrested him for that post on charges of ''defending terrorism.'' The comedian, Dieudonn(C) (above), previously sought elective office in France on what he called an ''anti-Zionist'' platform, has had his show banned by numerous government officials in cities throughout France, and has been criminally prosecuted several times before for expressing ideas banned in that country.
The apparently criminal viewpoint he posted on Facebook declared: ''Tonight, as far as I'm concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly.'' Investigators concluded that this was intended to mock the ''Je Suis Charlie'' slogan and express support for the perpetrator of the Paris supermarket killings (whose last name was ''Coulibaly''). Expressing that opinion is evidently a crime in the Republic of Libert(C), which prides itself on a line of 20th Century intellectuals '' from Sartre and Genet to Foucault and Derrida '' whose hallmark was leaving no orthodoxy or convention unmolested, no matter how sacred.
Since that glorious ''free speech'' march, France has reportedly opened 54 criminal cases for ''condoning terrorism.'' AP reported this morning that ''France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism.''
As pernicious as this arrest and related ''crackdown'' on some speech obviously is, it provides a critical value: namely, it underscores the utter scam that was this week's celebration of free speech in the west. The day before the Charlie Hebdo attack, I coincidentally documented the multiple cases in the west '' including in the U.S. '' where Muslims have been prosecuted and even imprisoned for their political speech. Vanishingly few of this week's bold free expression mavens have ever uttered a peep of protest about any of those cases '' either before the Charlie Hebdo attack or since. That's because ''free speech,'' in the hands of many westerners, actually means: it is vital that the ideas I like be protected, and the right to offend groups I dislike be cherished; anything else is fair game.
It is certainly true that many of Dieudonn(C)'s views and statements are noxious, although he and his supporters insist that they are ''satire'' and all in good humor. In that regard, the controversy they provoke is similar to the now-much-beloved Charlie Hebdo cartoons (one French leftist insists the cartoonists were mocking rather than adopting racism and bigotry, but Olivier Cyran, a former writer at the magazine who resigned in 2001, wrote a powerful 2013 letter with ample documentation condemning Charlie Hebdo for descending in the post-9/11 era into full-scale, obsessive anti-Muslim bigotry).
Despite the obvious threat to free speech posed by this arrest, it is inconceivable that any mainstream western media figures would start tweeting ''#JeSuisDieudonn(C)'' or would upload photographs of themselves performing his ugly Nazi-evoking arm gesture in ''solidarity'' with his free speech rights. That's true even if he were murdered for his ideas rather than ''merely'' arrested and prosecuted for them. That's because last week's celebration of the Hebdo cartoonists (well beyond mourning their horrifically unjust murders) was at least as much about approval for their anti-Muslim messages as it was about the free speech rights that were invoked in their support - at least as much.
The vast bulk of the stirring ''free speech'' tributes over the last week have been little more than an attempt to protect and venerate speech that degrades disfavored groups while rendering off-limits speech that does the same to favored groups, all deceitfully masquerading as lofty principles of liberty. In response to my article containing anti-Jewish cartoons on Monday - which I posted to demonstrate the utter selectivity and inauthenticity of this newfound adoration of offensive speech - I was subjected to endlesscontortions justifying why anti-Muslim speech is perfectly great and noble while anti-Jewish speech is hideously offensive and evil (the most frequently invoked distinction '' ''Jews are a race/ethnicity while Muslims aren't'' '' would come as a huge surprise to the world's Asian, black, Latino and white Jews, as well as to those who identify as ''Muslim'' as part of their cultural identity even though they don't pray five times a day). As always: it's free speech if it involves ideas I like or attacks groups I dislike, but it's something different when I'm the one who is offended.
Think about the ''defending terrorism'' criminal offense for which Dieudonn(C) has been arrested. Should it really be a criminal offense '' causing someone to be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned '' to say something along these lines: western countries like France have been bringing violence for so long to Muslims in their countries that I now believe it's justifiable to bring violence to France as a means of making them stop? If you want ''terrorism defenses'' like that to be criminally prosecuted (as opposed to societally shunned), how about those who justify, cheer for and glorify the invasion and destruction of Iraq, with its ''Shock and Awe'' slogan signifying an intent to terrorize the civilian population into submission and its monstrous tactics in Fallujah? Or how about the psychotic calls from a Fox News host, when discussing Muslims radicals, to ''kill them ALL.'' Why is one view permissible and the other criminally barred '' other than because the force of law is being used to control political discourse and one form of terrorism (violence in the Muslim world) is done by, rather than to, the west?
For those interested, my comprehensive argument against all ''hate speech'' laws and other attempts to exploit the law to police political discourse is here. That essay, notably, was written to denounce a proposal by a French minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, to force Twitter to work with the French government to delete tweets which officials like this minister (and future unknown ministers) deem ''hateful.'' France is about as legitimate a symbol of free expression as Charlie Hebdo, which fired one of its writers in 2009 for a single supposedly anti-Semitic sentence in the midst of publishing an orgy of anti-Muslim (not just anti-Islam) content. This week's celebration of France '' and the gaggle of tyrannical leaders who joined it '' had little to do with free speech and much to do with suppressing ideas they dislike while venerating ideas they prefer.
Perhaps the most intellectually corrupted figure in this regard is, unsurprisingly, France's most celebrated (and easily the world's most overrated) public intellectual, the philosopher Bernard-Henri L(C)vy. He demands criminal suppression of anything smacking of anti-Jewish views (he called for Dieudonn(C)'s shows to be banned (''I don't understand why anyone even sees the need for debate'') and supported the 2009 firing of the Charlie Hebdo writer for a speech offense against Jews), while shamelessly parading around all last week as the Churchillian champion of free expression when it comes to anti-Muslim cartoons.
But that, inevitably, is precisely the goal, and the effect, of laws that criminalize certain ideas and those who support such laws: to codify a system where the views they like are sanctified and the groups to which they belong protected. The views and groups they most dislike '' and only them '' are fair game for oppression and degradation.
The arrest of this French comedian so soon after the epic Paris free speech march underscores this point more powerfully than anything I could have written about the selectivity and fraud of this week's ''free speech'' parade. It also shows '' yet again '' why those who want to criminalize the ideas they most dislike are at least as dangerous and tyrannical as the ideas they target: at least.
Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images
Correction: This post originally identified Dieudonn(C) as Muslim. That was in error, and the article has been edited to reflect that correction.
Governments from Around the World Admit They Do ItGovernments from around the world admit they've used the bully's trick '... attack first, and then blame the victim:
Japanese troops set off a small explosion on a train track in 1931, and falsely blamed it on China in order to justify an invasion of Manchuria. This is known as the ''Mukden Incident'' or the ''Manchurian Incident''. The Tokyo International Military Tribunal found: ''Several of the participators in the plan, including Hashimoto [a high-ranking Japanese army officer], have on various occasionsadmitted their part in the plot and have stated that the object of the 'Incident' was to afford an excuse for the occupation of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army '....'' And see thisA major with the Nazi SS admitted at the Nuremberg trials that '' under orders from the chief of the Gestapo '' he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland. Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building in 1933, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arsonSoviet leader Nikita Khrushchev admitted in writing that the Soviet Union's Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila in 1939 '' while blaming the attack on Finland '' as a basis for launching the ''Winter War'' against Finland. Russian president Boris Yeltsin agreed that Russia had been the aggressor in the Winter War, and PutinIsrael admits that an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind ''evidence'' implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers, and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this and this)The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950'²s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime ministerThe Turkish Prime Minister admitted that the Turkish government carried out the 1955 bombing on a Turkish consulate in Greece '' also damaging the nearby birthplace of the founder of modern Turkey '' and blamed it on Greece, for the purpose of inciting and justifying anti-Greek violenceThe British Prime Minister admitted to his defense secretary that he and American president Dwight Eisenhower approved a plan in 1957 to carry out attacks in Syria and blame it on the Syrian government as a way to effect regime changeThe former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people's support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: ''You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security'' (and see this)(Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred). And watch this BBC specialAs admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents show that in the 1960'²s, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.2 years before, American Senator George Smathers had suggested that the U.S. make ''a false attack made on Guantanamo Bay which would give us the excuse of actually fomenting a fight which would then give us the excuse to go in and [overthrow Castro]''.And Official State Department documents show that '' only nine months before the Joint Chiefs of Staff plan was proposed '' the head of the Joint Chiefs and other high-level officials discussed blowing up a consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to justify an invasion of that country. The 3 plans were not carried out, but they were all discussed as serious proposalsThe NSA admits that it lied about what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 '... manipulating data to make it look like North Vietnamese boats fired on a U.S. ship so as to create a false justification for the Vietnam warA U.S. Congressional committee admitted that '' as part of its ''Cointelpro'' campaign '' the FBI had used many provocateurs in the 1950s through 1970s to carry out violent acts and falsely blame them on political activistsA top Turkish general admitted that Turkish forces burned down a mosque on Cyprus in the 1970s and blamed it on their enemy. He explained: ''In Special War, certain acts of sabotage are staged and blamed on the enemy to increase public resistance. We did this on Cyprus; we even burnt down a mosque.'' In response to the surprised correspondent's incredulous look the general said, ''I am giving an example''The German government admitted (and see this) that, in 1978, the German secret service detonated a bomb in the outer wall of a prison and planted ''escape tools'' on a prisoner '' a member of the Red Army Faction '' which the secret service wished to frame the bombing onThe South African Truth and Reconciliation Council found that, in 1989, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert branch of the South African Defense Force) approached an explosives expert and asked him ''to participate in an operation aimed at discrediting the ANC [the African National Congress] by bombing the police vehicle of the investigating officer into the murder incident'', thus framing the ANC for the bombingAn Algerian diplomat and several officers in the Algerian army admit that, in the 1990s, the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings (and see this video; and Agence France-Presse, 9/27/2002, French Court Dismisses Algerian Defamation Suit Against Author)Senior Russian Senior military and intelligence officers admit that the KGB blew up Russian apartment buildings in 1999 and falsely blamed it on Chechens, in order to justify an invasion of Chechnya (and see this report and this discussion)According to the Washington Post, Indonesian police admit that the Indonesian military killed American teachers in Papua in 2002 and blamed the murders on a Papuan separatist group in order to get that group listed as a terrorist organization.The well-respected former Indonesian president also admits that the government probably had a role in the Bali bombingsAs reported by BBC, the New York Times, and Associated Press, Macedonian officials admit that the government murdered 7 innocent immigrants in cold blood and pretended that they were Al Qaeda soldiers attempting to assassinate Macedonian police, in order to join the ''war on terror''Senior police officials in Genoa, Italy admitted that '' in July 2001, at the G8 summit in Genoa '' planted two Molotov cocktails and faked the stabbing of a police officer, in order to justify a violent crackdown against protestersSimilarly, the U.S. falsely blamed Iraq for playing a role in the 9/11 attacks '' as shown by a memo from the defense secretary '' as one of the main justifications for launching the Iraq war. Even after the 9/11 Commission admitted that there was no connection, Dick Cheney said that the evidence is ''overwhelming'' that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime, that Cheney ''probably'' had information unavailable to the Commission, and that the media was not 'doing their homework' in reporting such ties. Top U.S. government officials now admit that the Iraq war was really launched for oil '... not 9/11 or weapons of mass destruction (despite previous ''lone wolf'' claims, many U.S. government officials now say that 9/11 was state-sponsored terror; but Iraq was not the state which backed the hijackers)Former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in 2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having ''our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within al-Qaeda's ranks, causing operatives to doubt others' identities and to question the validity of communications.''United Press International reported in June 2005:U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the resistance.
Undercover Israeli soldiers admitted in 2005 to throwing stones at other Israeli soldiers so they could blame it on Palestinians, as an excuse to crack down on peaceful protests by the PalestiniansQuebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers (and see this)At the G20 protests in London in 2009, a British member of parliament saw plain clothes police officers attempting to incite the crowd to violenceEgyptian politicians admitted (and see this) that government employees looted priceless museum artifacts in 2011 to try to discredit the protestersA Colombian army colonel has admitted that his unit murdered 57 civilians, then dressed them in uniforms and claimed they were rebels killed in combatU.S. soldiers have admitted that if they kill innocent Iraqis and Afghanis, they then ''drop'' automatic weapons near their body so they can pretend they were militantsThe highly-respected writer for the Telegraph Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that the head of Saudi intelligence '' Prince Bandar '' recently admitted that the Saudi government controls ''Chechen'' terroristsHigh-level American sources admitted that the Turkish government '' a fellow NATO country '' carried out the chemical weapons attacks blamed on the Syrian government; and high-ranking Turkish government admitted on tape plans to carry out attacks and blame it on the Syrian governmentThe former Ukrainian security chief admits that the sniper attacks which started the Ukrainian coup were carried out in order to frame othersBritain's spy agency has admitted (and see this) that it carries out ''digital false flag'' attacks on targets, framing people by writing offensive or unlawful material '... and blaming it on the targetSo Common '... There's a Name for ItPainting by Anthony Freda
The use of the bully's trick is so common that it was given a name hundreds of years ago.
''False flag terrorism'' is defined as a government attacking its own people, then blaming others in order to justify going to war against the people it blames. Or as Wikipedia defines it:
False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy's strategy of tension.
The term comes from the old days of wooden ships, when one ship would hang the flag of its enemy before attacking another ship. Because the enemy's flag, instead of the flag of the real country of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a ''false flag'' attack.
Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks.
Leaders Throughout History Have Acknowledged False FlagsLeaders throughout history have acknowledged the danger of false flags:
''This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.'''' Plato
''If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.'''' U.S. President James Madison
''A history of false flag attacks used to manipulate the minds of the people! ''In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.''' Friedrich Nietzsche
''Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death''.'' Adolph Hitler
''Why of course the people don't want war '... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship '... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.'''' Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.
''The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened''.'' Josef Stalin
People Are Waking Up to False FlagsPeople are slowly waking up to this whole con job by governments who want to justify war.
More people are talking about the phrase ''false flag'' than ever before.
The Paris Mystery: Were the Shooters Part of a Global Terrorist Conspiracy? - The Intercept
In the days since the siege at the Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo, the press and social media sites have been consumed with the possible answers to one question: Beyond the two shooters, Said and Cherif Kouachi, who is responsible for the attack that killed 12 people at the magazine's offices?
On Friday, shortly after the gunmen were killed by French forces in a raid on a printing plant outside of Paris, a source from within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) provided The Intercept with a series of messages and statements taking responsibility for the attacks, asserting that AQAP's leadership ''directed'' the raid on the magazine to avenge the honor of the Prophet Mohammed.
Moments after The Intercept published these statements, an AQAP official, Bakhsaruf al-Danqaluh tweeted, in Arabic, the exact paragraphs the AQAP source provided us. Within an hour of that, AQAP's senior cleric, Sheikh Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, released an audio statement through AQAP's official media wing, praising the attack. ''Some of the sons of France showed a lack of manners with Allah's messengers, so a band of Allah's believing army rose against them, and they taught them the proper manners, and the limits of freedom of speech,'' Nadhari declared. ''How can we not fight the ones that attacked the Prophet and attacked the religion and fought the believers?'' While heaping passionate praise on the attack on Charlie Hebdo, Nadhari stopped short of making any claim that AQAP directed or was in any way involved with the planning.
Historically, when AQAP has taken credit for attacks, it has used al Qaeda central's al-Fajr Media to distribute statements and video or audio recordings through the AQAP media outlet al-Malahim to a variety of jihadist forums. But over the past year, AQAP has broadened its distribution strategy and has begun using Twitter and other social media sites. While AQAP continues to use al-Malahim, ''the vast majority if not all of the releases are now released onto Twitter first via authenticated Twitter accounts that have become the first point of release,'' says Aaron Zelin, an expert on al Qaeda and other militant groups and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute. ''This has been the case ever since late July 2014, though AQAP had been making a slow transition going all the way back to early 2014.'' Zelin's analysis of this new distribution strategy tracks with how AQAP sources began to assert responsibility for the Paris attacks last week, with the one caveat being that an AQAP source provided the tweets in advance to a media outlet, The Intercept.
In the past, AQAP publicly took responsibility through its official media and communication channels. None of that has happened yet in the case of the Kouachi brothers' Paris attack.
[Update: On Wednesday, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula officially claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in a statement issued by its media arm. The statement declared that the attack was in retaliation for the magazine's depictions of the prophet Mohammed in its cartoons. It called the simultaneous assault on the Kosher grocery story by Amedy Coulibaly a coincidence because of the men's relationships with each other and said it was not the result of AQAP's coordination with rival group Islamic State.]
For example, soon after the failed 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, in which a suicide bomber on a Northwest Airlines flight tried unsuccessfully to set off plastic explosives sewn into his underwear, AQAP posted a web statement praising perpetrator Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a hero who had ''penetrated all modern and sophisticated technology and devices and security barriers in airports of the world'' and ''reached his target.'' The statement boasted that the ''mujahedeen brothers in the manufacturing department'' made the device and that it did not detonate due to a ''technical error.'' Four months after the attempted attack, AQAP released a video showing Abdulmutallab, armed with a Kalashnikov and wearing a keffiyeh, at a desert training camp in Yemen. In the video, masked men conducted live-ammunition training. One scene showed AQAP operatives firing at a drone flying overhead. At the end of the video, Abdulmutallab read a martyrdom statement in Arabic. ''You brotherhood of Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula have the right to wage jihad because the enemy is in your land,'' he said, sitting before a flag and a rifle and dressed in white. ''God said if you do not fight back, he will punish you and replace you.''
In analyzing AQAP's potential role in the Paris attack, it's worth remembering the four-month delay between the group praising the 2009 underwear plot and the group releasing evidence it actually orchestrated the act. Short of such video or photographic documentation, and even with an official statement from AQAP's leadership, it would be difficult to prove that AQAP indeed sponsored the raid on Charlie Hebdo.
Even if AQAP did not ''direct'' the attack, there is seemingly credible information emerging to prove that at least one '-- and potentially both '-- of the Kouachi brothers spent time with AQAP in Yemen. Said Kouachi reportedly made multiple trips to Yemen from 2009 to 2012 and spent time at Sana'a's Iman University, which was founded by radical preacher Abdel Majid al-Zindani. The French magazine L'Express reported that French intelligence sources claim that Said Kouachi crossed into Yemen from Oman along with another unidentified French citizen in the summer of 2011. Reuters, meanwhile, reports that both Kouachi brothers received weapons training from AQAP in Yemen's Marib province, an al Qaeda stronghold, citing two anonymous Yemeni officials.
Earlier, Mohammed Albasha, the Yemeni government's spokesperson in Washington D.C. urged caution in placing too much weight on such assertions. On Friday, he tweeted:
On the day of the attack in Paris, Cherif Kouachi reportedly told a French journalist that he and his brother were acting on behalf of AQAP and that their travel to Yemen was financed by Anwar al Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical cleric who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in northern Yemen in September 2011. ''I just want to tell you that we are defenders of the Prophet. I, Cherif Kouachi, was sent by al-Qaeda in Yemen. I was over there. I was financed by Imam Anwar al-Awlaki,'' he said.
A witness to the magazine shooting claimed one of the men shouted during the assault, ''You can tell the media that it's al Qaeda in Yemen.'' None of these allegations, in and of themselves, prove that AQAP sponsored or directed the attacks, but the allegations do raise the prospect that, at a minimum, AQAP may have played a role in preparing the brothers for action. As I noted in my previous piece, since 2010 AQAP has publicly promoted a campaign calling on Muslims in Western countries, including France, to assassinate cartoonists who draw the prophet Mohammed, particularly those who do so in what is perceived as an insulting and demeaning manner. Awlaki himself penned an article for the first issue of the al Qaeda magazine Inspire in June 2010 making that direct call and providing a list of suggested targets, including a U.S. citizen in Seattle, Washington.
The suspect in the shooting at the kosher market in Paris, Amedy Coulibaly, reportedly had a relationship to the Kouachi brothers going back to at least 2010. In a purported martyr video released after he was killed by French forces on Friday, Coulibaly claims he worked in conspiracy with the brothers to produce Friday's bloodbath. To complicate matters further, he stated in the video that he had made an oath of loyalty to the head of the Islamic State, ISIS, and the self-proclaimed Caliph. ''I am pledging my allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi,'' Coulibaly said. ''I have made a declaration of allegiance to the Caliph and the declaration of a Caliphate.'' He also claimed he had coordinated his attack with the Kouachi brothers, though no evidence of this has emerged. ''We did things a bit together and a bit apart, so that it'd have more impact,'' he said.
Last Friday, during a sermon in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, Iraq, a leading ISIS cleric declared that his group was behind the Paris attacks. ''We started with the France operation for which we take responsibility. Tomorrow will be in Britain, America and others,'' said Abu Saad al-Ansari. ''This is a message to all countries participating in the [U.S.-led] coalition that has killed Islamic State members.''
AQAP and ISIS have been engaged in a very public and bitter feud on social media and through official communications for the past year. While not impossible, it is unlikely that AQAP and ISIS at a high level agreed to cooperate on such a mission. An AQAP source told me that the group supports what Coulibaly did and that it does not matter what group '-- if any '-- assisted him, just that he was a Muslim who took the action. ISIS, clearly seeking to capitalize on the events in Paris, has now reportedly issued a call for its supporters to attack police forces. Of course, it is also plausible that all three of the men received some degree of outside help, but created their own cells to plot the Paris attacks. Whether Coulibaly was actually working with the Kouachi brothers or was inspired by their attack is also unknown.
For now, we have little more than verified statements from an AQAP source, a claim of responsibility from an ISIS figure and words of praise from both ISIS and some key AQAP figures. Taking responsibility for the attacks, whether true or not, could aid either group in fundraising and in elevating its prominence in the broader jihadist movement globally.
The Truth About Anwar AwlakiOver the weekend, Anwar Awlaki's name has once again been splashed on the front page of newspapers and his image and videos have again been referenced in international television coverage. There are two primary reasons for this: the purported Cherif Kouachi statement quoted above that Awlaki had financed a trip to Yemen, and a statement given by an anonymous Yemeni intelligence official to Reuters, asserting that Said Kouachi met with Awlaki in Shebwah province in Yemen at some point in 2011. AQAP has not confirmed either alleged link to Awlaki. This is another situation that would require more documentation, such as photos of either or both of the Kouachi brothers with Awlaki.
Whatever potential relationship Awlaki had to the Kouachi brothers, the media coverage of Awlaki's history has been riddled with inaccuracies, exaggerations of his role within AQAP and passing of anonymous US government pronouncements as facts. There is no doubt that Anwar Awlaki very publicly called on Muslims in Western countries to conduct attacks in the U.S. and Europe or to travel to Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to fight jihad. Awlaki very publicly called for the assassination of cartoonists and others who he saw as disgracing the Prophet Mohammed. But Awlaki was never the ''leader'' of AQAP, and the title bestowed on him by President Obama in announcing Awlaki's death '-- head of external operations '-- was created by the U.S., not AQAP. In fact, when the actual leader of AQAP, Nasir al Wuhayshi, wrote to Osama bin Laden in 2010, asking for his blessing to put Awlaki in charge of the group, Bin Laden shot it down.
[Editor's Note: Some of the reporting in this story is drawn from author Jeremy Scahill's book, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield."]
On August 27, 2010, Bin Laden ordered his deputy Shaykh Mahmud, also known as Atiya Abdul Rahman, to relay a message to Wuhayshi. Bin Laden seemed to view Awlaki as an ally and a potentially valuable asset to al Qaeda's goals. The problem, Bin Laden explained, was that Awlaki was an unknown quantity to al Qaeda central, a man who had yet to prove his mettle in actual jihad. ''The presence of some of the characteristics by our brother Anwar'...is a good thing, in order to serve Jihad,'' Bin Laden wrote, adding that he wanted ''a chance to be introduced to him more.'' Bin Laden explained, ''Over here, we are generally assured after people go to the battlefield and are tested there.'' He asked Wuhayshi for ''the resum(C), in detail and lengthy, of the brother Anwar al-Awlaki,'' as well as a written statement from Awlaki himself explaining his ''vision in detail.'' Wuhayshi, Bin Laden asserted, should ''remain in his position where he is qualified and capable of running the matter in Yemen.''
An Awlaki MythNone of this is to say that Awlaki was not involved with direct plotting of acts of terrorism, but that there has been no actual evidence produced to support the claim. Awlaki's assassination was ordered by President Obama despite the fact that Awlaki was not officially indicted by the U.S. on any charges of terrorism. His case was litigated by anonymous US officials in the media and his death warrant signed in secret by the U.S. president.
It is often asserted as fact that Awlaki directed or encouraged U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan to carry out the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas in November 2009. But the actual evidence to support this does not exist. Awlaki did indeed email with Hassan, but those emails read like Hassan was a fanboy and Awlaki was politely dismissing him. Awlaki did, after the fact, praise Hasan's actions, but he denied any claim of direct involvement. It would be uncharacteristic of Awlaki '-- given his public calls for such actions '-- to deny a role he would have been proud of playing.
Soon after the [Fort Hood] shooting, the media began reporting that Hasan had been in contact with Awlaki, adding that Hasan had attended Awlaki's Virginia mosque in 2001, though the fact that Awlaki had only met him once was not reported. That the two men exchanged at least eighteen e-mails beginning in December 2008 became a major focus of attention and hype from journalists and politicians. But when U.S. officials reviewed the emails, they determined them to be innocuous. According to The New York Times, ''a counterterrorism analyst who examined the messages shortly after they were sent decided that they were consistent with authorized research Major Hasan was conducting and did not alert his military superiors.'' Awlaki later told a Yemeni journalist that Hasan had reached out to him and primarily asked him religious questions. Awlaki claimed he neither ''ordered nor pressured'' Hasan to carry out any attacks, a contention supported by the emails once they were made public. But Awlaki's reaction to the shooting made such details irrelevant in the eyes of the U.S. public and government.
A few days after the Fort Hood shootings, Awlaki published a blog post with the not-so-subtle title: ''Nidal Hasan Did the Right Thing.'' Hasan, Awlaki wrote, ''is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn't exist.'' Hasan ''opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. Army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.'' Awlaki called on other Muslims within the U.S. Army to carry out similar operations. ''Nidal Hasan was not recruited by Al-Qaida,'' Awlaki later said. ''Nidal Hasan was recruited by American crimes, and this is what America refuses to admit.''
Terrorism analysts and journalists often mention that Awlaki had contact with three of the 9/11 hijackers and, at times, imply he had foreknowledge of the plot. Awlaki was the imam at two large mosques, one in San Diego and later at one in Falls Church, Virginia. Three of the men, at various points did indeed attend those mosques, but the 9/11 Commission asserted that the future hijackers ''respected Awlaki as a religious figure and developed a close relationship with him'' but added that ''the evidence is thin as to specific motivations.'' What is seldom mentioned is that soon after 9/11, on February 5, 2002, Awlaki also met with Pentagon employees inside the Department of Defense when he was officially invited to lecture at the DoD. After being vetted for security, Awlaki ''was invited to and attended a luncheon at the Pentagon in the secretary of the Army's Office of Government Counsel.'' (It is unlikely Awlaki dined on the ''East Side West Side'' sandwich offered at the event, which included beef, turkey and bacon on marbled rye).
Awlaki is also frequently mentioned as the mastermind of the 2009 underwear bomb plot. But, again, this is far from a proven fact. Awlaki's role in the ''underwear plot'' was unclear. After the failed bombing, Awlaki claimed that Abdulmutallab was one of his ''students.'' Tribal sources in Shabwah province told me that al Qaeda operatives reached out to Awlaki to give religious counseling to Abdulmutallab, but that Awlaki was not involved in the plot. While praising the attack, Awlaki said he had not been involved with its conception or planning. ''Yes, there was some contact between me and him, but I did not issue a fatwa allowing him to carry out this operation,'' Awlaki told Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye in an interview for Al Jazeera a few weeks after the attempted attack: ''I support what Umar Farouk has done after I have been seeing my brothers being killed in Palestine for more than sixty years, and others being killed in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And in my tribe too, U.S. missiles have killed'' women and ''children, so do not ask me if al-Qaeda has killed or blown up a U.S. civil[ian] jet after all this. The 300 Americans are nothing comparing to the thousands of Muslims who have been killed.''
Shaye pressed Awlaki on his defense of the attempted downing of the plane, pointing out to Awlaki that it was a civilian airliner. ''You have supported Nidal Malik Hasan and justified his act by saying that his target was a military not a civilian one. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's plane was a civilian one, which means the target was the U.S. public?'' Shaye pressed him. ''It would have been better if the plane was a military one or if it was a U.S. military target,'' Awlaki replied. But, he added:
''The American people live [in] a democratic system and that is why they are held responsible for their policies. The American people are the ones who have voted twice for Bush the criminal and elected Obama, who is not different from Bush as his first remarks stated that he would not abandon Israel, despite the fact that there were other antiwar candidates in the U.S. elections, but they won very few votes. The American people take part in all its government's crimes. If they oppose that, let them change their government. They pay the taxes which are spent on the army and they send their sons to the military, and that is why they bear responsibility.''
The U.S. government continues to maintain that Awlaki personally directed the Christmas Day bomb plot. Its source for that is an alleged confession given to investigators by Abdulmutallab immediately after he was apprehended. But that confession has serious problems. Marcy Wheeler, an independent journalist who has scrutinized this case more extensively than any other journalist, has written several analyses of this case. ''Abdulmutallab gave 3 'confessions,''' Wheeler told me. ''The first on December 25, 2009, after he was captured. In that he attributed all his direction to 'Abu Tarak,' which [the] DOJ would later claim was just a pseudonym for Awlaki, which is impossible.'' In Yemen, I asked many sources close to Awlaki if they had ever heard this nickname used or given to Awlaki. None had.
The second confession started on January 29, 2010 with the High Value detainee Intelligence Group established by President Obama in late 2009. Abdulmutallab's lawyer claimed the HIG interrogated his client after he had been held in solitary confinement. ''Within days, he implicated Awlaki in everything, including making a martyrdom video with AQ's greatest English propagandist in Arabic, and final instructions,'' Wheeler adds. ''The prosecution willingly agreed not to rely on this confession after the defense said it had been made in conjunction with plea discussions.''
The final confession, Wheeler says, was on October 12, 2011. Abdulmutallab publicly plead guilty to conspiracy and other charges. No one else, including U.S. citizen Awlaki was charged in the alleged conspiracy. ''In that plea, Abdulmutallab attributed earlier propaganda from Awlaki as an inspiration, but Abdulmutallab did not implicate Awlaki or anyone else as his co-conspirators,'' says Wheeler. ''In other words, Abdulmutallab confessed three times. In only one of those confessions did he implicate Awlaki, and that confession was the only one not presented at 'trial.''' Instead it was used in Abdulmutallab's sentencing.
Intercept reporter Ryan Devereaux contributed research to this article.
Correction: This story incorrectly described the occupational breakdown of the people killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack. Most, but not all, of the victims were media workers. 9:26pm ET Jan 12 2014
Helric Fredou, 45, the deputy director of the regional judicial police in Limoges turned his gun on himself last Wednesday night, hours after Cherif and Said Kouachi killed 12 people in an Islamist rampage, including two policemen.
"We are all stunned. He was someone who was very humane and close to people," said Pascal Cayla of the Alliance union.
Colleagues said Mr Fredou had been deeply affected by the suicide of the number three of the Limoges judicial police in 2013 after he discovered the body. His colleague had left a note citing "personal reasons".
Since the twin attacks last week that rocked France and left 17 people dead, there has been an outpouring of support for the country's police force, which polls regularly suggest has a poor image among many French.
There were banners reading "We love the police" at Sunday's huge march in Paris and cities around France.
Helric Fredou 'shot himself after meeting relatives of Charlie Hebdo victim' | Daily Mail Online
Helric Fredou shot himself on Wednesday night in Limoges, FranceHe had been the deputy director of the regional police since 2012 Commissioner Fredou was said to have been 'depressed' and overworked By Steve Hopkins for MailOnline
Published: 10:20 EST, 12 January 2015 | Updated: 14:15 EST, 12 January 2015
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Death: Helric Fredou is said to have been depressed when he shot himself with his police-issue weapon
A French police commissioner has reportedly taken his own life after meeting the relatives of a victim murdered in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Helric Fredou, 45, shot himself in his office with his police-issue gun on Wednesday night in Limoges, a city in central France, according to France 3.
Commissioner Fredou began his career as a police office in 1997 and had been the deputy director of the regional police since 2012.
Colleagues told France 3 he was 'depressed' and overworked, and said he was single and had no children.
Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi shot 12 people dead at the Charlie Hebdo offices on Wednesday before seeking refuge in a print works.
They were killed on Friday afternoon during a shoot-out with police, as was their alleged accomplice, Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris.
France's national police union has expressed its 'sincere condolences' over Commissioner Fredou's death and said they were thinking especially of his colleagues.
A statement the morning after the death read: 'It is with great sadness that we were informed this morning of the death of our colleague Helric Fredou, assigned as Deputy Director of the Regional Service Judicial Police in Limoges.
'On this particular day of national mourning, police commissioners are new both hit hard by the tragic death of one of their own.
'The Union of Commissioners of the National Police would like to present its most sincere condolences to the relatives of Helric.
Scroll down for video
Colleagues told France 3 that Commissioner Fredou was 'depressed' and overworked and said that he was single and had no children. Pictured, the terrorist brothers launching their attack on Charlie Hebdo's offices
Six of the Charlie Hebdo journalists and staff members killed in Wednesday's attack are pictured together in this photo, taken in 2000. Circled top from left is Philippe Honore, Georges Wolinski, Bernard Maris and Jean Cabut. Below them on the stairs, from left, is editor Stephane Charbonnier and Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac
'In these difficult times, we have a special thought for all his colleagues and classmates, many of which we expressed their emotion and grief.
'We will keep you informed of how his funeral will be organized and the initiatives we take to honor his memory and support his family.'
In the days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, which left police officer Ahmed Merabet dead, the union said it was in a 'war' with religious fanatics and would do everything in its power to defeat them.
A statement added: 'We are proud of the courage of our colleagues and comrades, who facing seasoned and heavily-armed fanatics have tried at all costs to protect and assist our citizens at risk.
'[Armed officers] managed, with exceptional courage and self-sacrifice, to enable the release of hostages despite abominable complexity.'
Surviving Charlie Hebdo staff have revealed this week's edition - to be published on Wednesday with a circulation of 1million, up from the usual 60,000 - will contain pictures of Mohammed
The surviving members of the magazine's staff decided to print images of the holy figure in defiance of Muslim extremists who slaughtered their colleagues. The cover will be unveiled tonight.
Mourning: Volunteers pray as they prepare for the burial of four of the Jewish victims in the city
Tribute: A stream of flowers and candles has built up outside the doors of the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris
The satirical magazine, its offices still adorned with tributes, will release a million copies on Wednesday
Lawyer Richard Malka said this week's issue will 'of course' contain images of the Prophet.
Mr Malka told France Info radio: 'We will not give in. The spirit of 'Je suis Charlie' means the right to blaspheme.
He added: 'We will not give in otherwise all this won't have meant anything. A Je Suis Charlie banner means you have the right to criticise my religion, because it's not serious.
'We have never criticised a Jew because he's a Jew, a Muslim because he's a Muslim or a Christian because he's a Christian.
'But you can say anything you like, the worst horrors '' and we do '' about Christianity, Judaism and Islam, because behind the nice slogans, that's the reality of Charlie Hebdo.'
Demonstrators showing solidarity with the Charlie Hebdo victims have also held banners declaring Je Suis Ahmed - in honour of the Muslim police officer Ahmed Merabet, who the Kouachi brothers mercilessly gunned down last Wednesday.
Slain French policeman's brother calls for unity (related)
Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi shot 12 people dead at the Charlie Hebdo offices on Wednesday before seeking refuge in a print works
Footage of the officer lying injured on a pavement and raising his arms in defence, before one of the gunmen shot him dead at close range, caused horror and outrage around the world.
During an emotional news conference on Saturday Mr Merabet's brother Malik broke down when asked about graphic images.
'He was committed,' he said. 'He looked after his mother and his close family. He was a pillar of the family. He was a very protective father, a lovely brother, a loving companion.
'I am addressing myself to all racists - the Islamophobes and the anti-Semites: You must not mix up extremism with Muslims.
'The madmen have no colour nor religion. Stop ... having wars or burning mosques or burning synagogues because you are attacking people.'
Authorities release photos of the wanted Kouachi brothers
Gunned down: French police have come under particular pressure, and Ahmed Merabet (above) was killed
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Charlie Hebdo top cop Helric Fredou kills himself hours after magazine massacre - Mirror Online
A senior French police officer investigating the Charlie Hebdo magazine massacre killed himself just hours after the horrific terror attack.
Commissioner Helric Fredou, 45, shot himself in his police office in Limoges last Wednesday night, France 3 reported.
His body was found by a colleague at 1am on Thursday, hours after the terror attack at the satirical magazine's office which left 12 people dead.
It has been reported that shortly before committing suicide Commissioner Fredou had met with the family of one of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack massacre.
Speaking to Mirror Online, the Union of Commissioners of the National Police confirmed Mr Fredou had committed suicide.
In a statement released after his death, a spokesman for the union said: "It is with great sadness that we were informed this morning of the death of our colleague Helric Fredou, assigned as Deputy Director of the Regional Service Judicial Police in Limoges.
"On this particular day of national mourning, police commissioners are hit hard by the tragic death of one of their own.
"The Union of Commissioners of the National Police would like to present its most sincere condolences to the relatives of Helric.
"In these difficult times, we have a special thought for all his colleagues."
Mr Fredou - who was single and had no children - began his career as a police officer in 1997, working in Versailles.
He eventually returned to his home town of Limoges and in 2012 became deputy director of the regional police service.
French media reports suggest he was depressed and was suffering from burnout.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi launched last Wednesday's devastating attack at the office's of the French satirical magazine.
The attack left 12 people dead. On Friday, the pair were shot dead by police after taking a man hostage at a family-run printing press in Dammartin-en-Goele .
In a separate incident on Friday, Amedy Coulibaly, 32, took about 15 people hostage in a Paris supermarket.
Four hostages were killed in the incident along with Coulibaly.
Avis de d(C)c¨s - Helric FREDOU - Avis obs¨ques - Limoges (87) - Dans nos coeurs
LIMOGESMme Chantal METHER, sa maman ;Sigrid FREDOU, sa soeur, et Roland ;Mme Simone METHER, sa grand-m¨re,Ainsi que toute la familleont la douleur de vous faire part du d(C)c¨s deMonsieur Helric FREDOUCommissaire de policeDirecteur adjoint la SRPJ de Limogessurvenu l'ge de 44 ans.Les obs¨ques seront c(C)l(C)br(C)es en l'(C)glise du Sacr(C)-Coeur, le mardi 13 janvier 2015, 11 heures.La cr(C)mation aura lieu dans l'intimit(C).Condol(C)ances sur registres.Un dernier hommage peut lui ªtre rendu la chambre fun(C)raire municipale, au 4, impasse Babeuf, Limoges (Haute-Vienne).Service fun(C)raire municipal, Limoges.
Police Commissioner Involved in Charlie Hebdo Investigation ''Commits Suicide''. Total News Blackout | Global Research
Police Commissioner Helric Fredou, Number Two Police Officer of the Regional Service of France's Judicial Police (JP), Limoges, (Haute-Vienne), ''committed suicide on the night of Wednesday to Thursday at the police station.''
Commissioner Helric Fredou was part of the police investigation into the Charlie Hebdo terror attack.
Terror suspects Cherif and Said Kouachi who were shot dead by police on January 9, spent their high-school years in the Limoges region. No doubt this was the object of Fredou's police investigation. Yet police and media reports state that on that same Wednesday he was involved in a meeting with the family of one of the Charlie Hebdo victims.
On Wednesday, as part of the Charlie Hebdo investigation, he dispatched a team of police officials under his jurisdiction. He is reported to have waited for the return of his team for a debriefing. Immediately following the police debriefing, he was involved in preparing his police report.
According to media reports, he committed suicide at around 1am on Thursday, within hours of the police debriefing. He used his own police weapon, a SIG-Sauer to ''shoot himself in the head''.
At the time of his death, police claim to have not known the reason for his alleged suicide. This was reflected in their official statements to the media: ''It is unknown at this time the reasons for his actions''.
However, a back story appears to have been inserted simultaneously, most likely from the very same police media liaisons, who then told the press that Fredou was 'depressed and overworked'. For any law enforcement officer in France, it would seem rather odd that anyone would want to miss the biggest single terror event of the century, or history in the making, as it were. (21st Century Wire,)
''An autopsy was performed at the University Hospital of Limoges, ''confirming the suicide''
There has been a total news blackout.
The French media decided or was instructed not to cover the incident. Not news worthy? So much for ''Je suis Charlie'' and ''Freedom of Expression'' in journalism.
Likewise, the Western media including all major news services (AP, AFP, Reuters, Deutsche Welle, etc) have not covered the issue.
One isolated report in Le Parisien presents the act of suicide as being totally unrelated to the Charlie Hebdo investigation.
While described as being depressive and suffering from a burnout, police reports state that Helric Fredou's suicide was totally unexpected.
Moreover, it is worth noting that, according to reports, he committed suicide in his workplace, in his office at the police station.
Did he commit suicide? Was he incited to commit suicide?
Or was he an ''honest Cop'' executed on orders of France's judicial police?
Has his report been released?
These are issues for France's journalists to address. It's called investigative reporting. Or is it outright media censorship?
WASHINGTON '-- Federal prosecutors say an Ohio man has been arrested in a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol and kill government officials inside the building.
A criminal complaint charges 20-year-old Christopher Lee Cornell, of Green Township, with attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States.
Cornell, also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, was arrested Wednesday as he took control of a firearm during an undercover FBI operation.
It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer. The FBI says the public was never in danger and he never made it to Washington.
The complaint alleges that an FBI informant began supplying agents with information about Cornell last year.
Prosecutors say he professed allegiance online to the Islamic State and spoke of plans to commit acts of jihad.
Oil companies have little incentive to turn off the taps, given that low oil prices are providing sharply lower revenues for them. It makes more sense for individual companies (and countries) to continue to produce flat out from existing production and hope for their competitors to go out of business.
With that mentality, oil prices could stay low for an extended period of time.
However, the one thing that could abruptly force oil prices up could be an unexpected geopolitical flashpoint. Violence in Libya since December has knocked a significant portion of their oil output offline. But surprisingly, oil markets have hardly noticed.
Related: Islamic State Looks To Mediterranean To Continue Oil Operations
Perhaps it would take a much larger threat to global oil supplies to pull oil prices up from their doldrums.
What if, say, Saudi Arabia were to experience a wave of violence, disrupting the notion that one of the world's largest oil producers is safe from all the turmoil seen in neighboring countries? This is an unlikely scenario, as the Saudi Kingdom is armed to the teeth and keeps an iron grip on the nation's security.
Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia is at the top of ISIS' hit list. The group's leader has called Saudi Arabia ''head of the snake and stronghold of disease.'' Much of that has to do with Saudi Arabia's cooperation in combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The feeling is mutual '' the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia labeled ISIS as the ''greatest enemy of Islam.''
While there has been little news about the presence of ISIS in Saudi Arabia, the militant group has conducted several attacks there over the past year. The group released a video on December 1 depicting the murder of a Danish national, which apparently occurred inside Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, Sputnik News reported that ISIS launched an attack on Saudi border guards on January 5. Three guards were killed after a militant detonated a suicide belt. The ISIS attackers were Saudi nationals.
Saudi Arabia's involvement with the military campaign in Iraq and Syria, which involves military cooperation with the United States, fuels anger among its own population. This presents ISIS with a recruitment opportunity within Saudi borders.
Several thousand Saudi nationals have joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the Saudi government has even resorted to implementing a ''counseling and care'' program for returning fighters to reintegrate them into society. The Saudi government has stated that 12 percent of returning fighters have ''relapsed,'' and returned to ''terror-related activities.''
What if ISIS attacked energy installations? The January 5 attack at the border was a worrying, albeit, small warning of what is possible. As the largest exporter of crude oil in the world, an attack on oil-related facilities '' even if unsuccessful '' could rattle the markets. After all, in the immediate aftermath of a failed 2006 Al Qaeda attack on Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq oil processing facility oil prices spiked 3.4 percent.
Abqaiq is the world's largest processing facility, and if the 2006 attack had succeeded, it could have sent oil prices to unfathomable heights.
The government has stepped up security over the last decade at critical energy structures, and built in redundancy in order to ensure an outage won't disrupt exports. But the 2006 attack was not an anomaly. In 2010, Saudi Arabia arrested 113 suspected Al Qaeda suspects for planning attacks on oil installations.
The Saudi government has weakened Al Qaeda but ISIS presents a new threat. In November 2014, the leader of ISIS called for attacks on the Saudi Kingdom.
For now, there is no evidence that any Saudi oil production is at risk or that ISIS is even planning substantial attacks on Saudi oil fields or infrastructure. The attacks at the borders have been narrow in scope and mostly unsuccessful. Even if the group is considering something more ambitious, it is unlikely that Saudi Arabia would allow ISIS to succeed.
Related: How Safe Are Turkey's Oil And Gas Pipelines?
Moreover, low oil prices are hurting the finances of ISIS '' the group gets much of its cash from smuggling and selling oil. Reliable data is obviously hard to come by, but it is safe to assume ISIS is likely fetching less money for its contraband than in months past, lowering its ability to stage large-scale attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Finally, it is important to note that even if an attack somewhere around the world knocked some oil production offline, it would not affect oil prices quite as dramatically as it would have a few years ago before the shale revolution. There is a considerable amount of slack production that would cushion any price rise.
Still, should the appearance of stability in Saudi Arabia begin to crack due to an ISIS attack, that would inject a whole lot of uncertainty into the market.
Maria Bartiromo for USA TODAY7:49 p.m. EST January 11, 2015
Saudi billionaire owner of Kingdom Holding Company Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, center left, speaks to the media during a press conference in Obhor on Nov. 4 2014.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Saudi billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told me we will not see $100-a-barrel oil again. The plunge in oil prices has been one of the biggest stories of the year. And while cheap gasoline is good for consumers, the negative impact of a 50% decline in oil has been wide and deep, especially for major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Even oil-producing Texas has felt a hit. The astute investor and prince of the Saudi royal family spoke to me exclusively last week as prices spiraled below $50 a barrel. He also predicted the move would dampen what has been one of the big U.S. growth stories: the shale revolution. In fact, in the last two weeks, several major rig operators said they had received early cancellation notices for rig contracts. Companies apparently would rather pay to cancel rig agreements than keep drilling at these prices. His royal highness, who has been critical of Saudi Arabia's policies that have allowed prices to fall, called the theory of a plan to hurt Russian President Putin with cheap oil "baloney" and said the sharp sell-off has put the Saudis "in bed" with the Russians. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Can you explain Saudi Arabia's strategy in terms of not cutting oil production?
A: Saudi Arabia and all of the countries were caught off guard. No one anticipated it was going to happen. Anyone who says they anticipated this 50% drop (in price) is not saying the truth.
Because the minister of oil in Saudi Arabia just in July publicly said $100 is a good price for consumers and producers. And less than six months later, the price of oil collapses 50%.
Having said that, the decision to not reduce production was prudent, smart and shrewd. Because had Saudi Arabia cut its production by 1 or 2 million barrels, that 1 or 2 million would have been produced by others. Which means Saudi Arabia would have had two negatives, less oil produced, and lower prices. So, at least you got slammed and slapped on the face from one angle, which is the reduction of the price of oil, but not the reduction of production.
Q: So this is about not losing market share?
A: Yes. Although I am in full disagreement with the Saudi government, and the minister of oil, and the minister of finance on most aspects, on this particular incident I agree with the Saudi government of keeping production where it is.
Q: What is moving prices? Is this a supply or a demand story? Some say there's too much oil in the world, and that is pressuring prices. But others say the global economy is slow, so it's weak demand.
A: It is both. We have an oversupply. Iraq right now is producing very much. Even in Libya, where they have civil war, they are still producing. The U.S. is now producing shale oil and gas. So, there's oversupply in the market. But also demand is weak. We all know Japan is hovering around 0% growth. China said that they'll grow 6% or 7%. India's growth has been cut in half. Germany acknowledged just two months ago they will cut the growth potential from 2% to 1%. There's less demand, and there's oversupply. And both are recipes for a crash in oil. And that's what happened. It's a no-brainer.
Q: Will prices continue to fall?
A: If supply stays where it is, and demand remains weak, you better believe it is gonna go down more. But if some supply is taken off the market, and there's some growth in demand, prices may go up. But I'm sure we're never going to see $100 anymore. I said a year ago, the price of oil above $100 is artificial. It's not correct.
Q: Wow. And you said you are in agreement with the Saudi government to not give up market share?
A: This is the only point I'm agreeing with the Saudi Arabian government on oil. That's the only point, yes.
Q: Should the Saudis cut production if they get an agreement with other oil producing countries to take oil off the market?
A: Frankly speaking, to get all OPEC countries to approve and accept it, including Russia and Iran, and everybody else, is almost impossible You can never have an agreement whereby everybody cuts production. We can't trust all OPEC countries. And can't trust the non-OPEC countries. So it's not on the table because the others will cheat. The past has proven that. When Saudi Arabia cut production in the '80s and '90s, everybody cheated and took market share from us. Plus, remember there is an agenda here also. Although Saudi Arabia and OPEC countries did not engineer the reduction in the price of oil, there's a positive side effect, whereby at a certain price, we will see how many shale oil production companies run out of business. So although we are caught off guard by this, we are capitalizing on this matter whereby we'll live with $50 temporarily, to see how much new supply there will be, because this will render many new projects economically unfeasible.
Q: What about the theory of the pressure on the Russians? There's a theory that the U.S. and the Saudis have agreed to keep prices low to pressure Russia because of what Putin has done in Ukraine.
A: Two words: baloney and rubbish. I'm telling you, there's no way Saudis will do this. Because Saudi Arabia is hurting as much as Russia, period. Now, we don't show it because of our big reserves. But I'll tell you Saudi Arabia and Russia are in bed together here. And both are being hurt simultaneously. And there's no political conspiracy whatsoever against Russia. Because we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we do that.
Q: You said the price of oil will dampen the shale revolution in America. How?
A: Shale oil and shale gas, these are new products in the market. And we see big ranges. no one knows for sure what price is the breaking point for shale. Wells have a higher production cost. And very clearly these will run out of business, or at least not be economical. At $50, will it still be economically feasible? Unclear. This is a very much developing story.
Q: Some people believe this crash in oil will create a lot of new mergers in the energy industry. Do you agree?
A: No doubt about that. For sure there'll be a lot of consolidation in the market. Because many small and medium-sized companies can't afford this. Because they are very much dependent on the price of oil. Big companies like Exxon and Chevron are weathering the oil market crash because they are integrated vertically. But no doubt there'll be some mergers and acquisitions coming in one to two years.
Q: Let me switch to the terrorism in Paris. Terrorists killed the cartoonist who joked about the prophet Mohammed. What is your opinion on this?
A: What took place is a horrendous crime that no one can permit and accept. And unfortunately these small minority people are ruining the name of Islam. Now the whole world '-- Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists '-- have to come together and be united, and be sure to eliminate those minority of the Muslim community. Those that hijacked our religion and try to eliminate them not only militarily. That's happening right now against ISIS (the Islamic State) by the Americans and their allies. But also mentally, educationally and culturally, also. This is a disease we are getting at now. This really will put us in the Middle Ages unfortunately. It feels like the Middle Ages right now. But I think that the world is united. I just heard, for example, (U.S. Secretary of State) John Kerry giving a speech in French, which was very nice of him to do. It was a calming process for the French people. My foundation is in communication with the presidential palace in France and the French government, to see what we can do to ... (support) these families and these victims, innocent victims that were under attack. And then we have to show that Islam really is united with Christianity, and Judaism, and other religions in the world to limit this disease from from Earth.
Q: Back to finance. Interest rates have gone down. The 10-year yield dropped below 2%. The Federal Reserve ended quantitative easing. But markets seem to be thinking the other way, that rates are going lower.
A: You are talking about the last two weeks. And remember, the last two weeks were a Saudi panic situation, price of oil collapsing. The stock market collapsing. So don't use this as the barometer indicator, the last two weeks. This was a panic situation. The Fed is navigating rates higher slowly.
Q: The stock market started the year off with heavy selling. What about some of your other investments, in media, banking and in technology? Such as Twitter or jd.com. Would you put new money to work in this market today?
A: Clearly the year began with a sell-off because there are so many events that came together. People are taking profits because 2014 was very good. And also, they had this oil crisis, whereby everyone was caught off guard by this major crash in the price of oil. But I think the U.S. economy is doing really very well. Especially relative to the rest of the world. The big question right now is what happens to Germany. Because Germany really is the anchor of all Europe. Also, Japan, and India, and China. These are the three major countries that the world depends on. So, there are opportunities. But also many risks here. If Japan, China, India and Germany improve 1% or 2%, this would be a major improvement for growth globally.
Q: Do you think the European Central Bank should come up with stimulus?
A: There's a struggle right now between ECB President Mario Draghi, who is pushing for a stimulus, and Angela Merkel of Germany, who is worried about having inflation. We're seeing a clash over there between these two ideas. But I think that Draghi is preparing the market for a stimulus. Yes.
Maria Bartiromo is anchor and global markets editor at The Fox Business Network. Her 'Opening Bell' show is live Monday to Friday 9-11 a.m. ET. She can be reached on twitter @mariabartiromo and @sundayfutures.
Terrorism Risk Insurance ActOther short titlesTerrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002Long titleAn Act to ensure the continued financial capacity of insurers to provide coverage for risks from terrorism.Acronyms(colloquial)TRIA, TRPANicknamesTerrorism Risk Protection ActEnacted bythe 107th United States CongressEffectiveNovember 26, 2002CitationsPublic Law107-297Statutes at Large116 Stat. 2322CodificationTitles amendedU.S.C. sections amendedLegislative historyIntroduced in the HouseasH.R. 3210byMichael Oxley (R-OH) on November 1, 2001Committee consideration byHouse Financial Services, House Ways and Means, House Budget, House JudiciaryPassed the House on November 29, 2001 (227-193, Roll call vote 464, via Clerk.House.gov)Passed the Senate on July 25, 2002 (Passed unanimous consent)Reported by the joint conference committee on November 13, 2002; agreed to by the House on November 14, 2002 (Agreed voice vote) and by the Senate on November 19, 2002 (86-11, Roll call vote 252, via Senate.gov)Signed into law by PresidentGeorge W. Bushon November 26, 2002The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) is a United States federal law signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 26, 2002. The Act created a federal "backstop" for insurance claims related to acts of terrorism. The Act "provides for a transparent system of shared public and private compensation for insured losses resulting from acts of terrorism."[1] The Act was originally set to expire December 31, 2005, was extended for two years in December 2005, and was extended again on December 26, 2007. The current law, under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, expired on December 31, 2014.[2] On January 7, 2015 the House of Representatives extended TRIA by a vote 416-5.[3] The Senate approved the extension the day after by a vote of 93-4.[4] On January 12, 2015 President Obama signed the extension into law.
Before the attacks of September 11, 2001, business insurers generally neither charged for nor specifically excluded terrorism coverage. The scope of the 9/11 attacks and the resulting $40 billion estimated insured loss changed perceptions dramatically. It was the worst terrorist attack on record for both property and fatalities and the worst international act of destruction on American soil since the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, as 2,550 American civilians and 55 service members lost their lives in New York City, Arlington County, and rural Pennsylvania.[5]
Much of the financial cost from the 9/11 attacks fell on reinsurers (that further spread the risk assumed by primary insurers). Unable to accurately model or price terrorism exposures, reinsurers largely withdrew from the market for terrorism coverage. Without reinsurance, primary insurers were then compelled to exclude terrorism. Most state insurance regulators approved terrorism exclusions for use by primary insurers.
Many businesses were not able to purchase insurance protection against future terrorist attacks. This situation was a serious threat to industries where lenders and investors required terrorism protection for their investments. Real estate, transportation, construction, energy, and utility sectors of the economy were vulnerable, creating broader threats to the national economy.
Congress responded by enacting TRIA in November 2002 to provide a government reinsurance backstop in case of large-scale terrorist attacks, requiring that business insurers offer terrorism coverage for the types of insurance included in the act. Congress extended and amended TRIA in December 2005 and December 2007. TRIA is currently set to expire on December 31, 2014.[6]
Following enactment of the 2007 TRIA extension, the Congressional Budget Office forecast a net federal budget cost of $0 for TRIA through 2017. "Under TRIA, the federal government would help insurers cover losses in the event of a terrorist attack under certain conditions, and would also impose assessments on the insurance industry to recover all or a portion of the federal payments." [7]
The act expired on December 31, 2014, and has not been renewed. Many experts warn that "construction projects could be stalled and commercial loans on shopping malls, utilities and skyscrapers could be in jeopardy." In addition, according to the Baltimore Sun, the National Football League denied rumors that it would cancel the Super Bowl over the issue.[8]
GovernanceEditThe Secretary of the Treasury oversees the Terrorism Insurance Program, with the assistance of the Federal Insurance Office.[9] The Secretary has authority to establish regulations and procedures to implement TRIA.[10]
Definition of terrorismEditThe term ''act of terrorism'' is defined in the act as: any act certified by the Secretary of Treasury, in concurrence with the Secretary of State and Attorney General, to be an act that is dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure and to have resulted in damage within the U.S. (or outside the U.S. in the case of a U.S.-flagged vessel, aircraft or premises of a U.S. mission). It must be committed as part of an effort to coerce U.S. civilians or to influence either policy or conduct of the U.S. Government through coercion. The definition includes both foreign and domestic terrorists. The Secretary may not delegate this certification authority and his or her decision to either certify or not certify an act of terrorism is not subject to judicial review.[11]
TRIA created a U.S. government reinsurance facility to provide reinsurance coverage to insurance companies following a declared terrorism event. TRIA is a short-term measure designed to help the insurance market recover from 9/11 and develop solutions to insuring terrorism.
TRIA established the Federal Terrorism Insurance Program to administer a system of shared public/private compensation for insured losses resulting from acts of terrorism in order to protect consumers and create transitional period for private insurance markets to stabilize
Structure of assistanceEditEligibility of Insurers: An eligible insurer is any entity or affiliate that:-Is a recipient of direct earned premiums for any type of commercial property and casualty insurance coverage;-Is licensed (or admitted) to provide insurance in any State, approved for the purpose of offering property and casualty insurance by a Federal agency in connection with maritime, energy, or aviation activity, or is a State residual market insurance entity or State workers' compensation fund-And meets any other criteria that the Secretary may reasonably prescribe.Program Trigger: Program is triggered following occurrence of event determined by Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State, and the U.S. Attorney General to be act of terrorism. Losses from the act must exceed $50 million in 2006 and $100 million in 2007.Individual Company Trigger (or Deductible): Trigger or deductible for individual company is 17.5 percent of premiums in 2006 and 20% in 2007.Industry-wide Retention: The industry as a whole must cover a certain amount of the losses before federal assistance is available. This amount rises from $15 billion in 2005 to $25 billion in 2006 and rises again in 2007 to $27.5 billion. The difference between this amount and the aggregate amount that insurers must pay (deductibles and co-payments) can be recouped from commercial policyholders through a surcharge not to exceed 3 percent of premium for insurance coverages that fall under the TRIEA program. This reinsurance takes the form of a 90 percent quota share in excess of variable deductibles based upon a percentage of earned premium income.Cap on Assistance: $100 billion per yearPost Trigger Federal Assistance: When program is triggered, Federal government is to pay 90% of insured terrorism losses in excess of individual insurer trigger/deductibles while the insurer pays 10%. In 2007, this rises to 85%/15%.Recoupment of Assistance: Recoupment to be through surcharges of up to 3% of annual premiums on all policyholders. Mandatory recoupment for all amounts provided to insurers under industry-wide retention. No mandatory recoupment of uncompensated losses in excess of industry-wide retention. Secretary of the Treasury has discretion to recoup additional amounts.Covered Lines: Commercial, plus war coverage for workers' compensation; excludes reinsurance. Secretary of the Treasury has discretion to add group life insurance and other personal lines.Mandatory Terrorism Coverage: For the first two years, insurers must offer terrorism insurance in all commercial policies. Coverage must be available on terms identical to terms, amounts, and other coverage limitations applicable to losses incurred from events other than acts of terrorism.Application to State Residual Market Entities and State Workers Compensation Funds: Residual market entities and State funds are included in the insurers covered by the Act. The Act also applies to surplus lines carriers listed on the Quarterly Listing of Alien Insurers published by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In addition, captive insurers and other self-insurance arrangements such as workers compensation self-insurance programs and State workers compensation reinsurance pools are included.Cost Disclosure of Terrorism Coverage: Insurers must disclose terrorism insurance premiums and the existence of the federal backstop.Consultation with State Insurance Regulators (NAIC): As the Secretary of Treasury determines appropriate, concerning the Terrorism Insurance Program.State Regulation Uniformity: No stated uniformity.Civil Actions and Litigation: Federal cause of action in district court(s) designated by Judicial Panel on Multi-district Litigation with the substantive law of the state in which the act occurred applied.Legal Modifications and Limitations: Punitive damages do not constitute ''insured losses'' and thus no federal participation. U.S. right of subrogation.Reports from Insurers: No reports required, except for data not available to NAIC. Secretary of Treasury responsible for compiling of data.State Pre-emption: Applicable to terrorism definition and state prior approval rating statutes. Also applies to existing terrorism exclusions, with provisions for reinstatement under certain conditions. Access to books/records by Secretary of Treasury guaranteed.Civil Monetary Penalties: $100 million against insurers for failing to pay assessments or surcharges, erroneous data, or violation of regulations.Report to Congress: Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with NAIC, the insurance industry and other experts, is to issue a report not later than June 30, 2005, covering required items.Satisfaction of Judgments from Assets of Terrorists: No.ReferencesEdit^"Terrorism Risk Insurance Program". U.S. Treasury Department Website. U.S. Treasury Department. Retrieved 20 March 2013. ^"The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA), as amended by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005 (TRIEA) and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (TRIPRA)". Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Office, U.S. Treasury Department. Retrieved 20 March 2013. ^H.R. 26^Dinan, Stephen (Thursday, January 8, 2015). "Terrorism insurance bill passes two days after Coburn's exit". The Washington Times. The Washington Times, LLC. Retrieved January 8, 2015. ^Hartwig, Robert; Wilkinson, Claire (April 2011). "Terrorism Risk: A Reemergent Threat". Insurance Information Institute. Retrieved December 14, 2014. ^Webel, Baird. "Terrorism Risk Insurance: Issue Analysis and Overview of Current Program". Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 25 March 2013. ^Willie, Susan. "Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate: H.R. 2761: Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act". Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved 25 March 2013. ^"Expiring terrorism insurance program alarms Md. industries". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 28 December 2014. ^"Mission - Federal Insurance Office". Retrieved 25 March 2013. ^"TRIA Regulations". U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 25 March 2013. ^"Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, As Amended In 2005 and 2007". U.S. Department of the Treasury Web site. Section 102 (1) Act of Terrorism: U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 25 March 2013. External linksEdit
Statement by the Press Secretary on H.R. 26 | The White House
On Monday, January 12, 2015, the President signed into law:
H.R. 26, the "Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015," which extends authorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program through December 31, 2020, and makes modifications to the Program; establishes a National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers; and exempts certain swap participants from capital requirements established under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
15 December 2014: In the event the reader is just now hearing about the hostage crisis unfolding at the popular Lindt Caf(C) in Sydney, Australia, it was about 9:45 a.m. (AEDT) Sunday when a reported Muslim terrorist walked into the popular caf(C), wielding at least one shotgun or similarly described long gun, and a package reported to be a bomb and took an estimated 30 people hostage. Reports state that five hostages managed to escape, leaving an estimated two-dozen unarmed people inside the building. Police are not confirming the exact number of hostages nor are they revealing the name of the perpetrator.
Hostages were and are being forced, at times, to hold a Muslim ''flag'' against the front window. The black cloth with white Arabic script, commonly seen in Muslim venues, reads ''There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.'' The perpetrator has demanded the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) be brought to him possibly in exchange for one of the hostages.
It is necessary to state that the hostages and their families are in our prayers as the situation in Sydney continues to play out.
DHS insider information
It was just a few hours into the hostage crisis at the Lindt Caf(C) in Sydney, Australia when I received information from my source within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that this evolving incident will be a catalyst for many events inside the U.S. and throughout the West. According to my source, the hostage crisis created by an Islamic terrorist in Sydney, Australia ''is not, nor will it be, a 'one off' event. ''Don't be fooled, this will be a 'game-changer' in many ways for not just Australia, but for all of the West. Maybe not immediately, but in short order. And this [Obama] regime will use it to their tactical advantage.''
According to this DHS source who is well-embedded at a fairly high level within this political leviathan inside the beltway, high level DHS briefings made late Sunday (Washington, DC time) confirmed that various police and intelligence agencies throughout New South Wales and Australia not only know the identity of the perpetrator at the Lindt Caf(C), but ''[they] have had numerous dealings with him over the last several months.'' This source stated that ''he is not just some random unknown perpetrator without a history, but has made his intentions known for some time. Once or if the truth comes out, you will see that he is also known by the CIA.''
It is important to consider that the event started at a time when the Western media was on weekend autopilot, allowing U.S. intelligence agencies time to manage the outflow of information more adeptly. Nonetheless, much of what the event was designed to do has already been accomplished.
According to this DHS source, ''the war has officially reached Oceania. The cancer of ISIS, created by Western intelligence and government agencies will quickly metastasize within the U.S. and throughout the West. The political movement disguised as a religion (Islam), and its armed wing known as ISIS, along with the Muslim Brotherhood as their political ambassador will take up their respective roles in a Hegelian dialectic created by the West in short order.''
More DHS insider updates to follow.
By Douglas J. Hagmann
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Security Council Unanimously Adopts Resolution Condemning Violent Extremism, Underscoring Need to Prevent Travel, Support for Foreign Terrorist Fighters | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases
At a summit presided over by United States President Barack Obama, opened by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and addressed by scores of national leaders, the Security Council this afternoon called on all States to cooperate urgently on preventing the international flow of terrorist fighters to and from conflict zones.
Through resolution 2178 (2014), adopted unanimously during a meeting that heard from over 50 speakers, the Council condemned violent extremism and decided that Member States shall, consistent with international law, prevent the ''recruiting, organizing, transporting or equipping of individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning of, or participation in terrorist acts''.
Expressing concern over the establishment of international terrorist networks, the Council underscored the ''particular and urgent need'' to prevent the travel and support for foreign terrorist fighters associated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al-Nusra Front (ANL) and other affiliates or splinter groups of Al-Qaida.
In that context, the Council, through the resolution, decided that all States shall ensure that their legal systems provide for the prosecution, as serious criminal offences, of travel for terrorism or related training, as well as the financing or facilitation of such activities.
Member States, it also decided, shall prevent entry or transit through their territories of any individual about whom that State had credible information of their terrorist-related intentions, without prejudice to transit necessary for the furtherance of judicial processes. It called on States to require airlines to provide passenger lists for that purpose.
Outlining further measures for international cooperation to counter international terrorism and prevent the growth of violent extremism, it expressed readiness to designate additional individuals for sanctions listings, and directed the United Nations counter-terrorism subsidiary bodies to devote special focus to foreign terrorist fighters, assessing the threat they posed and reporting on principal gaps in Member States' abilities to suppress their travel.
''The world is witnessing a dramatic evolution in the nature of the terrorist threat,'' Secretary-General Ban said following the adoption. He noted that in the past year thousands of civilians '-- the vast majority of them Muslims '-- had been killed, maimed, sexually abused and displaced by terrorists, from Afghanistan to Somalia to Nigeria, from Iraq to Libya to Mali.
More than 13,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 80 Member States had joined ISIL and the Al-Nusra Front as a consequence of the conflict in Syria, he said, citing the estimate of the United Nations Al-Qaeda-Taliban Monitoring Team. Such terrorism must be defeated, but in a way that avoided further radicalization and civilian deaths. That should be done through a multilateral, multifaceted strategy beyond the immediate security approach. ''Over the long term, the biggest threat to terrorists in not the power of missiles '-- it is the politics of inclusion,'' he said.
Following the Secretary-General's statement, national leaders took the floor, representing Council members and other Member States to welcome the adoption of the resolution, most pledging to cooperate in a global effort to prevent a flow of fighters to ISIL and other extremist groups.
Mr. Obama welcomed the international, high-level interest and consensus on the issue. He added that international cooperation had already increased, with foreign fighters arrested, plots disrupted and lives saved but more capacity was needed to tackle the problem and prevent fighters from reaching Syria and slipping back over its borders. Reformed former fighters should speak out against groups like ISIL that he said betrayed Islam.
The Prime Minister of Iraq expressed gratitude to all those who assisted his country but emphasized that more was needed, as Iraq was the front line against terrorism, with ISIL having slaughtered minorities and other civilians and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. He stressed that it was not an Iraqi organization, but created through foreign funding, ideologies of hate, oil smuggling networks and foreign recruitment networks, in addition to including former Ba'ath party members.
While most speakers acknowledged that a military and security approach to the international spread of terrorism was necessary in the short term, they stressed the need for a comprehensive approach that addressed marginalization, long-standing conflicts and other factors that helped attract individuals to extremism.
The Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation stressed the need for consistency in fighting all terrorist groups, and said that it was important to avoid empowering them through international interventions. Syria's representative, criticizing those who had supported armed groups in his country, stated that there were no good terrorists or bad terrorists.
Advocating a rethinking of international counter-terrorism strategy due to the fact that the problem was getting not better but worse, Argentina's President said that above all it was critical to ensure adherence to human rights standards in fighting the scourge and not fuel further cycles of violence, in order to avoid ''feeding the monster'' of terrorism.
Also speaking today were the Heads of State or Government of Nigeria, France, Chad, Lithuania, Rwanda, Jordan, Chile, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, Australia, Luxembourg, Turkey, Qatar, Bulgaria, Kenya, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Canada, Netherlands, Morocco, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago and Belgium.
Represented at the ministerial level were China, Serbia, Pakistan, Algeria, Senegal, Latvia, Denmark, Albania, Estonia, Kazakhstan and New Zealand.
Also speaking were representatives of Singapore, United Arab Emirates, India, Spain, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Egypt.
The President of the European Council also spoke, as did the Secretary of State of the Holy See.
The meeting began at 3:10 p.m. and ended at 7:20 p.m.
Resolution
The full text of resolution 2178 (2014) reads as follows:
''The Security Council,
''Reaffirming that terrorism in all forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivations, whenever and by whomsoever committed, and remaining determined to contribute further to enhancing the effectiveness of the overall effort to fight this scourge on a global level,
''Noting with concern that the terrorism threat has become more diffuse, with an increase, in various regions of the world, of terrorist acts including those motivated by intolerance or extremism, and expressing its determination to combat this threat,
''Bearing in mind the need to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, and affirming Member States' determination to continue to do all they can to resolve conflict and to deny terrorist groups the ability to put down roots and establish safe havens to address better the growing threat posed by terrorism,
''Emphasizing that terrorism cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality or civilization,
''Recognizing that international cooperation and any measures taken by Member States to prevent and combat terrorism must comply fully with the Charter of the United Nations,
''Reaffirming its respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of all States in accordance with the Charter,
''Reaffirming that Member States must ensure that any measures taken to counter terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law, underscoring that respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law are complementary and mutually reinforcing with effective counter-terrorism measures, and are an essential part of a successful counter-terrorism effort and notes the importance of respect for the rule of law so as to effectively prevent and combat terrorism, and noting that failure to comply with these and other international obligations, including under the Charter of the United Nations, is one of the factors contributing to increased radicalization and fosters a sense of impunity,
''Expressing grave concern over the acute and growing threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, namely individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training, including in connection with armed conflict, and resolving to address this threat,
''Expressing grave concern about those who attempt to travel to become foreign terrorist fighters,
''Concerned that foreign terrorist fighters increase the intensity, duration and intractability of conflicts, and also may pose a serious threat to their States of origin, the States they transit and the States to which they travel, as well as States neighbouring zones of armed conflict in which foreign terrorist fighters are active and that are affected by serious security burdens, and noting that the threat of foreign terrorist fighters may affect all regions and Member States, even those far from conflict zones, and expressing grave concern that foreign terrorist fighters are using their extremist ideology to promote terrorism,
''Expressing concern that international networks have been established by terrorists and terrorist entities among States of origin, transit and destination through which foreign terrorist fighters and the resources to support them have been channelled back and forth,
''Expressing particular concern that foreign terrorist fighters are being recruited by and are joining entities such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Al-Nusrah Front (ANF) and other cells, affiliates, splinter groups or derivatives of Al-Qaida, as designated by the Committee established pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011), recognizing that the foreign terrorist fighter threat includes, among others, individuals supporting acts or activities of Al-Qaida and its cells, affiliates, splinter groups, and derivative entities, including by recruiting for or otherwise supporting acts or activities of such entities, and stressing the urgent need to address this particular threat,
''Recognizing that addressing the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters requires comprehensively addressing underlying factors, including by preventing radicalization to terrorism, stemming recruitment, inhibiting foreign terrorist fighter travel, disrupting financial support to foreign terrorist fighters, countering violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, countering incitement to terrorist acts motivated by extremism or intolerance, promoting political and religious tolerance, economic development and social cohesion and inclusiveness, ending and resolving armed conflicts, and facilitating reintegration and rehabilitation,
''Recognizing also that terrorism will not be defeated by military force, law enforcement measures, and intelligence operations alone, and underlining the need to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, as outlined in Pillar I of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (A/RES/60/288),
''Expressing concern over the increased use by terrorists and their supporters of communications technology for the purpose of radicalizing to terrorism, recruiting and inciting others to commit terrorist acts, including through the internet, and financing and facilitating the travel and subsequent activities of foreign terrorist fighters, and underlining the need for Member States to act cooperatively to prevent terrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources to incite support for terrorist acts, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms and in compliance with other obligations under international law,
''Noting with appreciation the activities undertaken in the area of capacity building by United Nations entities, in particular entities of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), including the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Centre for Counter-Terrorism (UNCCT), and also the efforts of the Counter Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) to facilitate technical assistance, specifically by promoting engagement between providers of capacity-building assistance and recipients, in coordination with other relevant international, regional and subregional organizations, to assist Member States, upon their request, in implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy,
''Noting recent developments and initiatives at the international, regional and subregional levels to prevent and suppress international terrorism, and noting the work of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), in particular its recent adoption of a comprehensive set of good practices to address the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon, and its publication of several other framework documents and good practices, including in the areas of countering violent extremism, criminal justice, prisons, kidnapping for ransom, providing support to victims of terrorism, and community-oriented policing, to assist interested States with the practical implementation of the United Nations counter-terrorism legal and policy framework and to complement the work of the relevant United Nations counter-terrorism entities in these areas,
''Noting with appreciation the efforts of INTERPOL to address the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including through global law enforcement information sharing enabled by the use of its secure communications network, databases, and system of advisory notices, procedures to track stolen, forged identity papers and travel documents, and INTERPOL's counter-terrorism fora and foreign terrorist fighter programme,
''Having regard to and highlighting the situation of individuals of more than one nationality who travel to their states of nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training, and urging States to take action, as appropriate, in compliance with their obligations under their domestic law and international law, including international human rights law,
''Calling upon States to ensure, in conformity with international law, in particular international human rights law and international refugee law, that refugee status is not abused by the perpetrators, organizers or facilitators of terrorist acts, including by foreign terrorist fighters,
''Reaffirming its call upon all States to become party to the international counter-terrorism conventions and protocols as soon as possible, whether or not they are a party to regional conventions on the matter, and to fully implement their obligations under those to which they are a party,
''Noting the continued threat to international peace and security posed by terrorism, and affirming the need to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, including those perpetrated by foreign terrorist fighters,
''Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
''1. Condemns the violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, sectarian violence, and the commission of terrorist acts by foreign terrorist fighters, and demands that all foreign terrorist fighters disarm and cease all terrorist acts and participation in armed conflict;
''2. Reaffirms that all States shall prevent the movement of terrorists or terrorist groups by effective border controls and controls on issuance of identity papers and travel documents, and through measures for preventing counterfeiting, forgery or fraudulent use of identity papers and travel documents, underscores, in this regard, the importance of addressing, in accordance with their relevant international obligations, the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, and encourages Member States to employ evidence-based traveller risk assessment and screening procedures including collection and analysis of travel data, without resorting to profiling based on stereotypes founded on grounds of discrimination prohibited by international law;
''3. Urges Member States, in accordance with domestic and international law, to intensify and accelerate the exchange of operational information regarding actions or movements of terrorists or terrorist networks, including foreign terrorist fighters, especially with their States of residence or nationality, through bilateral or multilateral mechanisms, in particular the United Nations;
''4. Calls upon all Member States, in accordance with their obligations under international law, to cooperate in efforts to address the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including by preventing the radicalization to terrorism and recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters, including children, preventing foreign terrorist fighters from crossing their borders, disrupting and preventing financial support to foreign terrorist fighters, and developing and implementing prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies for returning foreign terrorist fighters;
''5. Decides that Member States shall, consistent with international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law, prevent and suppress the recruiting, organizing, transporting or equipping of individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training, and the financing of their travel and of their activities;
''6. Recalls its decision, in resolution 1373 (2001), that all Member States shall ensure that any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts or in supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice, and decides that all States shall ensure that their domestic laws and regulations establish serious criminal offenses sufficient to provide the ability to prosecute and to penalize in a manner duly reflecting the seriousness of the offense:
(a) their nationals who travel or attempt to travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality, and other individuals who travel or attempt to travel from their territories to a State other than their States of residence or nationality, for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts, or the providing or receiving of terrorist training;
(b) the wilful provision or collection, by any means, directly or indirectly, of funds by their nationals or in their territories with the intention that the funds should be used, or in the knowledge that they are to be used, in order to finance the travel of individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training; and,
(c) the wilful organization, or other facilitation, including acts of recruitment, by their nationals or in their territories, of the travel of individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training;
''7. Expresses its strong determination to consider listing pursuant to resolution 2161 (2014) individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida who are financing, arming, planning, or recruiting for them, or otherwise supporting their acts or activities, including through information and communications technologies, such as the internet, social media, or any other means;
''8. Decides that, without prejudice to entry or transit necessary in the furtherance of a judicial process, including in furtherance of such a process related to arrest or detention of a foreign terrorist fighter, Member States shall prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of any individual about whom that State has credible information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that he or she is seeking entry into or transit through their territory for the purpose of participating in the acts described in paragraph 6, including any acts or activities indicating that an individual, group, undertaking or entity is associated with Al-Qaida, as set out in paragraph 2 of resolution 2161 (2014), provided that nothing in this paragraph shall oblige any State to deny entry or require the departure from its territories of its own nationals or permanent residents;
''9. Calls upon Member States to require that airlines operating in their territories provide advance passenger information to the appropriate national authorities in order to detect the departure from their territories, or attempted entry into or transit through their territories, by means of civil aircraft, of individuals designated by the Committee established pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) (''the Committee''), and further calls upon Member States to report any such departure from their territories, or such attempted entry into or transit through their territories, of such individuals to the Committee, as well as sharing this information with the State of residence or nationality, as appropriate and in accordance with domestic law and international obligations;
''10. Stresses the urgent need to implement fully and immediately this resolution with respect to foreign terrorist fighters, underscores the particular and urgent need to implement this resolution with respect to those foreign terrorist fighters who are associated with ISIL, ANF and other cells, affiliates, splinter groups or derivatives of Al-Qaida, as designated by the Committee, and expresses its readiness to consider designating, under resolution 2161 (2014), individuals associated with Al-Qaida who commit the acts specified in paragraph 6 above;
''International Cooperation
''11. Calls upon Member States to improve international, regional, and sub'regional cooperation, if appropriate through bilateral agreements, to prevent the travel of foreign terrorist fighters from or through their territories, including through increased sharing of information for the purpose of identifying foreign terrorist fighters, the sharing and adoption of best practices, and improved understanding of the patterns of travel by foreign terrorist fighters, and for Member States to act cooperatively when taking national measures to prevent terrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources to incite support for terrorist acts, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms and in compliance with other obligations under international law;
''12. Recalls its decision in resolution 1373 (2001) that Member States shall afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal investigations or proceedings relating to the financing or support of terrorist acts, including assistance in obtaining evidence in their possession necessary for the proceedings, and underlines the importance of fulfilling this obligation with respect to such investigations or proceedings involving foreign terrorist fighters;
''13. Encourages Interpol to intensify its efforts with respect to the foreign terrorist fighter threat and to recommend or put in place additional resources to support and encourage national, regional and international measures to monitor and prevent the transit of foreign terrorist fighters, such as expanding the use of INTERPOL Special Notices to include foreign terrorist fighters;
''14. Calls upon States to help build the capacity of States to address the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including to prevent and interdict foreign terrorist fighter travel across land and maritime borders, in particular the States neighbouring zones of armed conflict where there are foreign terrorist fighters, and welcomes and encourages bilateral assistance by Member States to help build such national capacity;
''Countering Violent Extremism in Order to Prevent Terrorism
''15. Underscores that countering violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, including preventing radicalization, recruitment, and mobilization of individuals into terrorist groups and becoming foreign terrorist fighters is an essential element of addressing the threat to international peace and security posed by foreign terrorist fighters, and calls upon Member States to enhance efforts to counter this kind of violent extremism;
''16. Encourages Member States to engage relevant local communities and non-governmental actors in developing strategies to counter the violent extremist narrative that can incite terrorist acts, address the conditions conducive to the spread of violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, including by empowering youth, families, women, religious, cultural and education leaders, and all other concerned groups of civil society and adopt tailored approaches to countering recruitment to this kind of violent extremism and promoting social inclusion and cohesion;
''17. Recalls its decision in paragraph 14 of resolution 2161 (2014) with respect to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida, and urges Member States, in this context, to act cooperatively when taking national measures to prevent terrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources, including audio and video, to incite support for terrorist acts, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms and in compliance with other obligations under international law;
''18. Calls upon Member States to cooperate and consistently support each other's efforts to counter violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, including through capacity building, coordination of plans and efforts, and sharing lessons learned;
''19. Emphasizes in this regard the importance of Member States' efforts to develop non-violent alternative avenues for conflict prevention and resolution by affected individuals and local communities to decrease the risk of radicalization to terrorism, and of efforts to promote peaceful alternatives to violent narratives espoused by foreign terrorist fighters, and underscores the role education can play in countering terrorist narratives;
''United Nations Engagement on the Foreign Terrorist Fighter Threat
''20. Notes that foreign terrorist fighters and those who finance or otherwise facilitate their travel and subsequent activities may be eligible for inclusion on the Al-Qaida Sanctions List maintained by the Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) where they participate in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of, Al-Qaida, supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to, or recruiting for, or otherwise supporting acts or activities of Al-Qaida or any cell, affiliate, splinter group or derivative thereof, and calls upon States to propose such foreign terrorist fighters and those who facilitate or finance their travel and subsequent activities for possible designation;
''21. Directs the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) and the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, in close cooperation with all relevant United Nations counter-terrorism bodies, in particular CTED, to devote special focus to the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters recruited by or joining ISIL, ANF and all groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida;
''22. Encourages the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team to coordinate its efforts to monitor and respond to the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters with other United Nations counter-terrorism bodies, in particular the CTITF;
''23. Requests the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, in close cooperation with other United Nations counter-terrorism bodies, to report to the Committee established pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) within 180 days, and provide a preliminary oral update to the Committee within 60 days, on the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters recruited by or joining ISIL, ANF and all groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida, including:
(a) a comprehensive assessment of the threat posed by these foreign terrorist fighters, including their facilitators, the most affected regions and trends in radicalization to terrorism, facilitation, recruitment, demographics, and financing; and
(b) recommendations for actions that can be taken to enhance the response to the threat posed by these foreign terrorist fighters;
''24. Requests the Counter-Terrorism Committee, within its existing mandate and with the support of CTED, to identify principal gaps in Member States' capacities to implement Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1624 (2005) that may hinder States' abilities to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, as well as to identify good practices to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters in the implementation of resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1624 (2005), and to facilitate technical assistance, specifically by promoting engagement between providers of capacity-building assistance and recipients, especially those in the most affected regions, including through the development, upon their request, of comprehensive counter-terrorism strategies that encompass countering violent radicalization and the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, recalling the roles of other relevant actors, for example the Global Counterterrorism Forum;
''25. Underlines that the increasing threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters is part of the emerging issues, trends and developments related to resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1624 (2005), that, in paragraph 5 of resolution 2129 (2013), the Security Council directed CTED to identify, and therefore merits close attention by the Counter-Terrorism Committee, consistent with its mandate;
''26. Requests the Committee established pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) and the Counter-Terrorism Committee to update the Security Council on their respective efforts pursuant to this resolution;
''27. Decides to remain seized of the matter.''
Opening Remarks
BAN KI-MOON, Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, ''The world is witnessing a dramatic evolution in the nature of the terrorist threat.'' In the past year thousands of civilians had been killed, maimed and displaced '-- the vast majority of them Muslims '-- from Afghanistan to Somalia to Nigeria, from Iraq to Libya to Mali. The groups ruthlessly hijacked religion to control territory and resources, brutalize women and girls and slaughter minorities.
The United Nations Al-Qaeda-Taliban Monitoring Team, he said, estimated that more than 13,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 80 Member States had joined the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Al Nusra Front as a consequence of the conflict in Syria. A creative and comprehensive political strategy was needed there to stem that flow. Terrorism must be defeated in a way that avoids further radicalization and civilian deaths.
Immediate security issues must be addressed, he said, but added that eliminating terrorism required a multilateral, multifaceted approach that also tackled the underlying conditions that provided fertile soil for extremism. Inclusive, just societies that engender education, jobs and opportunity are not conducive to such extremism. ''Over the long term, the biggest threat to terrorists in not the power of missiles '-- it is the politics of inclusion.''
He welcomed the Council resolution and its call for strengthening the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Through the Counter-Terrorism Centre, the Organization was already working with Member States to develop and implement strategies to combat the flow of foreign terrorist fighters. He cautioned that all such strategies must be consistent with international law and the values and principles of the United Nations.
Statements
BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States, said it was only the sixth time in 70 years that the Security Council had met at such a level and it did so to address the most urgent threats to peace and security. The international community was brought together to address the unprecedented flow of foreign fighters to conflicts in the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya and, more recently, to Iraq and Syria. Around 15,000 people had joined terrorist groups in the region, mainly Al-Nusra Front and ISIL. Terrorists exacerbated conflicts, posed immediate threats and foreign fighters were likely to return to their home countries to carry out attacks. International cooperation had increased, with foreign fighters arrested, plots disrupted and lives saved but more capacity was needed to tackle the issue and prevent fighters from reaching Syria and slipping back over its borders.
Pointing out that the resolution was legally binding, he described many of its provisions, notably its clarity on respecting human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, which was ''not optional''. Calling on reformed former fighters to speak out against groups like ISIL that betrayed Islam by killing men, women and children '-- most of whom were Muslims '-- he added a call to redouble efforts to counter the conditions that made some individuals more susceptible to recruitment. That included continued attempts to resolve the situation in Syria peacefully. Resolutions were not enough, he said, stressing that ''words spoken today must be matched and translated into action, into deeds.''
GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, President of Nigeria, described his horror at the murders committed by the Islamic State and the murder of French tourist Herv(C) Gourdel which ''typified the new face of global terrorism''. The Islamic State was not alone in its ''despicable campaign against humanity'', with several other groups, including Boko Haram in Nigeria, also promoting instability. Foreign fighters added a dangerous dimension to the problem. Nigeria had been confronting threats to stability over the past five years. The most prominent incident was the recent kidnapping of girls from their school. He had mobilized resources to root out terrorism from his nation and was engaged in efforts to improve the situation of the population in Nigeria's north-east. That included fast-tracking infrastructure redevelopment, a victim support fund and a safe school initiative. He said that the Security Governance Initiative that stemmed from the US-Africa Summit would enhance security on the continent. The Security Council needed to capitalize on the determination it was showing to seek more innovative responses to terror, especially ''the growing menace of foreign fighters''.
FRANOIS HOLLANDE, President of France, expressed thanks for the sympathy expressed over the beheading of one of his fellow citizens earlier in the day, and said that all terrorism was deeply disturbing. No country was safe from the recruiting activities of groups like ISIL. In response, all countries must take swift national action. His country had been developing legislation that addressed the individual fighters, the networks that got them to conflict areas and the Internet communications that contacted them. A military, economic and political response was also needed '-- against the travel of fighters, as well as all trafficking and terrorist funding. The root causes of extremism must be addressed. France would play a full role in all those areas.
IDRISS DBY ITNO, President of Chad, said that the Council resolution would enable a more effective fight against foreign terrorist fighters within the principals of the Charter. Terrorism had proliferated in Africa, fed in part by such fighters. A recent summit of the African Union Peace and Security Council had requested African inter-country police cooperation to stem terrorist flows and financing, with international technical support. There were already inter-country initiatives on the continent. Chad was strengthening its own efforts and had contributed peacekeepers to Mali. In addressing root causes, it was particularly important to address the problems of African youth to give them opportunities which would keep them from being attracted to extremism.
DALIA GRYBAUSKAITÄ, President of Lithuania, welcomed the adoption of the resolution and said that stopping the troubling global trend meant addressing similar cross-border movement of fighters in Europe. She pledged her country's full support to efforts to fight terrorist movements around the world.
CRISTINA FERNNDEZ DE KIRCHNER, President of Argentina, recalled two terrorist attacks her country had been subjected to in the 1990s and noted there had not been much international cooperation in apprehending those responsible. In the current atmosphere, she hoped there would be better collaboration. ISIL was indeed an international threat, but she had many questions about the international response to terrorism, since it did not seem to be working. More and more groups seemed to have more and more power every day. Terrorists tried to provoke international reactions that fuelled further violence, and it was now discovered that many of the freedom fighters who had been armed externally in Syria were terrorists. A longer-term, consistent strategy against terrorism, with strong respect for human rights, must be developed in which the international community guaranteed that ''this monster'' of terrorism was not continually fed.
PAUL KAGAME, President of Rwanda, recalling the 2013 attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, said that today's resolution was an unfortunate necessity. Rwanda was committed to building an inclusive society through demobilization and integration programmes that aimed to reduce extremism. He pledged to work with the rest of the international community in fighting the international terrorist threat.
ABDULLAH II IBN AL HUSSEIN, King of Jordan, said that an effective strategy against terrorism must be consistent and worldwide. ''It is the fight of our times,'' requiring a united struggle backed up by resources. Marginalization, poverty and exclusion must be fought at the same time. Immediate action was needed, as ISIL and other groups were consolidating their gains and their Internet presence. There also had to be a zero tolerance policy for support, financing and arming of terrorist groups. In addition, he stressed that countries must act consistently in speaking out against extremism and intolerance, saying that he had been instrumental in differentiating ISIL from Islam. In the same context, the Israeli/Palestinian crisis needed to be resolved. Calling his country a bulwark of stability in an unstable region, he called for greater international support to its efforts in that regard, including its reception of refugees.
MICHELLE BACHELET, President of Chile, emphasized that international cooperation was decisive, as without it any national effort would be in vain. Likewise, preventing the financing of terrorism and engaging international judicial cooperation towards ending impunity were vital and she appealed to Member States to strengthen ways and means of cooperation. Any measures adopted to counter terrorism must respect ''rigorously'' the rule of law and comply with international humanitarian law. Furthermore, as terrorism could not be defeated solely by coercive measures, she urged that the most ''effective'' tools be engaged, including education, eliminating inequalities and working with disadvantaged groups of society.
PARK GEUN-HYE, President of the Republic of Korea, said that the resolution highlighted the need for greater cooperation between Member States, including information sharing, law enforcement, border control, and tackling violent extremism. Her country would be implementing the resolution immediately. It was also essential to address the root causes conducive to terrorism, including eliminating poverty and making development sustainable. Towards that end, the Republic of Korea would be increasing its official development assistance (ODA) to least developed countries and continue its humanitarian aid to countries threatened by ISIL and foreign fighters.
DAVID CAMERON, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, described barbaric murders recently committed in the Middle East, which were ''medieval'' in character. Most shocking was how citizens of other countries had been sucked into the conflict, with around 500 fanatics from the United Kingdom in Syria and Iraq. The shocking murders committed by a fighter with a British accent underlined the sinister and direct nature of the threat. People in his country were sickened that one of their citizens could have killed a fellow Briton who had gone to help. The effects of the threat of terrorism would be around for years because groups like Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Al-Qaida and others were involved elsewhere in the world. He noted new powers granted in the United Kingdom to tackle the movement of foreign fighters. The root causes of terrorism had to be addressed and ''firm decisive action'' was needed to uphold the ''values of our free and democratic societies''. Furthermore, sanctions were needed but so was aid to help the afflicted and strengthen democracy. The strategy had to be pursued alongside Arab States, supporting locals and aligning with legal obligations and military aims.
TONY ABBOTT, Prime Minister of Australia, pointed out that citizens from 80 countries were now fighting with ISIL, thus making every country a potential target. There were at least 60 Australians now involved with terrorist organizations in the Middle East and 100 Australians supporting them. Twenty had returned home, ''disposed to wreak havoc''. Recently, instructed by an operative in Syria, an Australian terrorist had savagely attacked two policemen. The Government was now enacting laws that would ensure foreign fighters returning home could be arrested, prosecuted and gaoled. More than 60 citizens had their passports suspended as well. ''We aren't just dealing with potential terrorists at home; we're tackling their inspiration abroad,'' he stated, emphasizing that the goal was not to change people but protect them and not to change Governments, but to combat terrorism.
XAVIER BETTEL, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, underlined the danger of fighters returning to their home countries and engaging in terrorist acts there, as well as participating in violence abroad. He said that, as part of the comprehensive strategy called for by the resolution, it was important to ask why and how young people decide to join terrorist groups. He described the legal measures adopted by his country to suppress terrorist financing and other support, and emphasized the need to respect all international law in the fight against terrorism lest more resentment be provoked, fomenting more extremism.
SERGEI LAVROV, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, said that his country had long advocated consistent combat against all forms of terrorism, and for that reason had opposed interventions that armed terrorists. Foreign terrorist fighters had increased since the intervention in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East. Pointing to a need to comprehensively combat all terrorists, he proposed an international forum that took a holistic view of the problem and addressed long-standing problems such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that helped create a climate conducive to extremism.
WANG YI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of China, described recent terrorist attacks in his country and said that Middle East conflicts drew fighters like magnets. Those individuals then spread violence around the world. The Internet was a particularly troubling conduit for extremist ideas and there was a battle for the minds of young people around the world. The United Nations must take the lead in a multisectoral approach to counter the scourge. Military actions must comply with the United Nations Charter. Double standards must be avoided and terrorism must not be connected with any religious or ethnic group. In addition, information sharing must be increased, terrorist use of the Internet must be obstructed, terrorist financing must be ended and the counter-terrorism activities of Middle East countries must be supported. He pledged his country's support for the global combat against terrorism.
HAIDER AL-ABADI, Prime Minister of Iraq, said that his country represented the first line against terrorism, with ISIL having slaughtered minorities and other civilians and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. It was not an Iraqi organization, but created through foreign funding, ideologies of hate, oil smuggling networks and foreign recruitment networks, in addition to including former Ba'ath party members. He expressed gratitude to all the States that had stood beside Iraq in the current fight, and requested enough support be provided to conclusively defeat the terrorists. He also called for an end to purchases of oil from ISIL, blocking their travel and recruitment, ending their use of the Internet and assistance in rebuilding cities destroyed by ISIL. His country would continue to combat the terrorists, he pledged, and he looked forward to closer cooperation with countries that had common interests.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOÄAN, President of Turkey, said the region had become a magnet for attracting foreign fighters due to a collapse of State structures. He had warned the international community repeatedly about the threat but had been greeted by ''inertia''. That prepared the ground for Al-Qaida to re-emerge and grow stronger under the name ISIL. Turkey was leading on developing an approach that would stop the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, but stressed that the fight had to begin as soon as they left source countries, preventing their entry into Turkey. Cooperation had been insufficient but recently more information was being shared. As a result, 3,600 people were included on a no-entry list, with many since deported. Turkey had suffered from terrorism for years so was well placed to understand the pain that it entailed. In 2011 the Global Counter-Terror Forum was established in Turkey and all legal measures had been taken against ISIL. There was huge pressure on Turkey's border caused by refugees, including more than 140,000 Syrian Kurds and 70,000 Yezidis from Iraq. He had not received the international support expected and had been the target of unjust criticism.
SHEIKH TAMIM BIN HAMMAD AL-THANI, Emir of Qatar, said every civilization had to deal with terrorism, and that without international solidarity there could be no effective response. He was committed to international efforts to deal with it, stressing that military action was currently the only option. The situation should not make the international community forget the origins of the crisis, which had stemmed from the political vacuum and the breakdown of the State which had removed the space for dialogue and political solutions. Regimes of terror were killing their own people and once that violence was dealt with, it would be necessary to return to the job of restoring the State. Military action was not the only solution to the problem at hand; there needed to be political solutions aimed at creating a better future. The political aspect needed to be credible and have popular support, avoiding double standards and protecting civilians. It was also vital to avoid carte blanche in responses. The rule of law had to be to the fore at all times.
ROSEN PLEVNELIEV, President of Bulgaria, said that although there was no evidence of foreign fighters being present in his country, it was possible that those persons coming from the region were in possession of forged or fake Bulgarian identity documents. Thus, international cooperation and exchange of operative information, as prescribed in the resolution, was ''more than necessary''. The terrorist attack in 2012 in Sarafovo was yet more proof of the spreading recruitment of foreign fighters. The Bulgarian religious community had taken a firm stand, with the adoption of a declaration condemning the activities of ISIL by the Bulgarian General Mufti and supported by the National Council of the Religious Communities in Bulgaria.
UHURU KENYATTA, President of Kenya, noted that last week, his country had commemorated the attack on the Westgate mall that had left 67 people from 13 nationalities dead. Half the terrorists in that attack had been foreigners who had come to fight alongside Al-Shabaab. The fragile security environment in Somalia required regional cooperation. In that regard, he underscored that sufficient support to those ongoing operations was integral to securing stability in Somalia and the region and denying such fighters any operational space, and he urged expanded support for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) towards that end.
GJORGE IVANOV, President of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, stressed the threat posed to the Balkans by the so-called Islamic Caliphate. His region was already a base for recruitment and radicalization for global terrorists. The number of Balkan fighters in Syria was growing rapidly and so large that it could not be counted. Interacting with foreign fighters of other nationalities, they built a multinational structure that increased the danger of attacks against the West and its interests. Currently, the Balkans was not an operational base for international terror networks but terror was a permanent threat, with a genuine aim to create a Balkan Caliphate. The region was not prepared. The illegal blockade against his country's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had to end. It was also necessary to integrate his country and others in the Balkans into the European Union. Delaying that created a political vacuum in a historically porous area. He also called for a regional counter-terrorism centre in the countries of the Western Balkans.
STEPHEN HARPER, Prime Minister of Canada, said foreign fighters aggravated a dangerous regional security situation but there was also a risk that they would return to their home countries to motivate and recruit others to potentially carry out terrorist acts. To counter that, the Combating Terrorism Act had been passed, targeting people leaving or attempting to leave for terrorist purposes. Measures allowed the Government to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals, as well as provided other tools for cracking down on terrorism. Security measures were not the only approach, however, and Canada's security and intelligence agencies were working on identifying threats, tracking and squeezing off terrorist financing wherever possible.
MARK RUTTE, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said that as a country of origin for foreign fighters, the Government, over a year ago, had raised its terrorist threat level to the second highest. In the framework of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum, the Netherlands and Morocco had launched a joint initiative to formulate good practices tackling the problem of foreign terrorist fighters. That plan presented a comprehensive set of guidelines focused on every aspect of that threat, covering investigation and prosecution and prevention of radicalization, to name a few. Sanctions, an important instrument for depriving terrorist organizations of financial resources, could also be tightened further. To ensure proper implementation and monitoring of sanctions, he said that, on a United Nations level, technical assistance should be examined in order to see if support to Member States should be enhanced.
ABDELILAH BENKIRANE, Prime Minister of Morocco, said the issue of foreign fighters was not new, though the phenomenon had taken on a new dimension in the context of the Syrian and Iraqi crises. Originally, the threat was contained but today had become a danger to countries of origin, transit, destination and return. A unified, decisive response to the threat was needed from the international community in the form of a strategy that accounted for the various phases of extremism. It was important to disseminate the principles of tolerance and openness and King Mohammed VI was working with others on that front. Morocco would share its own best practices in the context of its counter-terrorism strategy which had yielded clear results. Recruitment cells had been dismantled as a direct result of the efforts of Moroccan authorities. A new bill recently adopted would ratchet up efforts against foreign fighters and work was ongoing with the Netherlands on an initiative that resulted in the Hague-Marrakesh Memorandum on more effective practices, which was particularly effective on legal and security areas. He looked forward to the first meeting of the working group.
ERNA SOLBERG, Prime Minister of Norway, said that her Government had drawn up a strategy for de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration for foreign fighters returning home. Terrorism and ''related acts'' were already criminalized under Norwegian law, and a bill had been submitted in July with national measures aimed at stemming the flow of foreign fighters to areas in conflict. In Norway, she said that large crowds had marched against extremism.
KAMLA PERSAD-BISSESSAR, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said that the resolution, though imperfect, provided a useful platform to fight international terrorism in view of the capacity of each State. Violent extremism was particularly important to that fight in her country. She would encourage international support to assist the country to implement the resolution. Trinidad and Tobago already had a legal regime in place due to previous terrorist incidents.
HERMAN VAN ROMPUY, President of the European Council, said that the grave threat posed by ISIL must be countered by undertaking direct actions to destroy that group's military and economic capability, by increasing support to affected countries and by stopping foreign fighters from joining the armed force. ISIL would portray that as ''a fight against Islam'', but it was ''a common fight against cruelty and barbarism''. That's why public statements by Islamic leaders were so important. The European Council in August backed decisions by individual member States to provide military material to Iraq. European States would also block ISIL's financial and weapon flows, and cut off illegal oil revenue. A crackdown must take place in ''our own communities''. Citizens from Europe, Africa or Asia should not feed ISIL's ranks.
ELIO DI RUPO, Prime Minister of Belgium, said that the deadly attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels further energized his country's cooperation with international efforts to stop the proliferation of terrorism. It was important to protect every country's population, but also those who could be susceptible to recruitment. The root causes of terrorism must be addressed and lessons must be learned from previous interventions. Military action should always be followed up by development help.
IVICA DAÄIÄ, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia, believed the resolution would strengthen cooperation between States in the fight against terrorism and extremism. Terror threats had grown in the last decade and extremist activities found ''fertile soil in unstable political situations and the lack of socioeconomic perspective''. The root causes of terrorism were manifold and widespread, among them were religious fanaticism, social exclusion and uneven access to education. Military measures alone were not enough to fight terror and a multidimensional approach was needed. Banning recruitment and transport of potential foreign fighters through national laws, controlling money and arms flows and engaging local communities in addressing extremism were some methods. Serbia had faced foreign fighters during the conflict in Kosovo and Metohija and radical preachers were currently active there and in south-west Serbia, potentially recruiting young people to fight in alleged religious wars.
SARTAJ AZIZ, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, said his country had ''paid a heavy price in blood and resources in the war against terrorism''. To oppose the ''hydra-headed monster'', quick, commensurate responses were needed that complied with international law. Foreign terror fighters had no stake in the peace and security of regions where they were active. Instead, they were the core around which radical extremism often flourished. It was essential to resolve the conflicts that bred those fighters. While military action against terrorists was necessary, it was also important to focus on a political approach to stem the growth of terror groups. All States needed to take stringent countermeasures and help build capacities of other affected States.
RAMTANE LAMAMRA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Algeria, said the issue of foreign terrorist fighters was not new to his country. It had confronted it steadfastly in the 1990s and had initiated the call for an international comprehensive approach to tackle it. His country had recently welcomed the safe return of two of its diplomats who had been held for almost three years after having been kidnapped in Gao, Mali. Committed to fighting the scourge of terrorism, Algeria had co-sponsored the related draft resolution that sets the political, legal and operational aspects of the appropriate international response. Addressing terrorism meant bearing in mind ''all other tentacles of that behemoth phenomenon'', he said, while cautioning that the Middle East conflict would remain a persistent disruption to world peace if the international community did not address the question of illegal occupation, continuous and violent injustice and the denial of the right to self-determination and freedom.
MANKEUR NDIAYE, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, Senegal, offering condolences to France and the family of the French citizen just killed by terrorists, said that international cooperation was essential in combating terrorism and the trend of foreign fighters. Noting how political changes and new technologies and multidimensional conflicts created conditions that bred terrorism, he stressed that financing of such groups needed to be given particular concern, especially in the matter of kidnapping. He reiterated his country's determination and commitment to joining the United Nations in combating the terrorist threat.
EDGARS RINKÄ'VIÄS, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia, expressed his country's commitment to joining in the fight against terrorism, noting the increasing challenge as fighters moved from one State to another, becoming professional fighters in the process. Member States should take action as urged by the newly adopted resolution. On a national platform, Latvia was working to make sure all necessary measures, as noted in the text, were being taken.
PIETRO CARDINAL PAROLIN, Secretary of State for the Holy See, said that people of faith had a grave responsibility to condemn those who sought to detach faith from reason and instrumentalize it as a justification for violence. To counter the phenomenon of terrorism, achieving cultural understanding among peoples and countries, and social justice for all, was indispensable. He urged Governments to engage with civil society to address the problems of communities most at risk of radicalization and recruitment, and to achieve their satisfactory social integration.
MOGENS JENSEN, Minister for Trade and Development of Denmark, said that the threat of foreign fighters was not an abstract concept, but, in fact constituted a serious concern, as many of them came from his small country. The matter must be addressed through a multifaceted approach, including protecting the citizens who were suffering and stemming the flow of financial means to terrorist organizations, to name a few. Because of terrorist organizations' transnational character, a response needed to be built on international cooperation and lessons learned. Denmark had sent military support and humanitarian aid, as well as diplomatic support, to the international coalition to combat ISIL. On a national platform, the Government had launched an action plan with interlinked response mechanisms that strengthened local authorities ability to respond to radicalization and supported civil society organizations, among others.
DITMIR BUSHATI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Albania, said ISIL was actively trying to recruit citizens everywhere to join its terrorist cause, meaning the phenomenon of foreign fighters was now of particular concern. Such fighters threatened countries of transit and destination, as well of States of origin when they returned. Countries with insufficient security structures, fragile political stability, low social cohesion, and complex ethnic and religious fabric were particularly at risk. That included countries of the Balkans. Albania was proud to be part of the international response but long-term engagement was necessary and it was important to recall the social, economic and humanitarian dimensions of the crises in Syria and Iraq. He outlined his country's anti-terror measures and underlined the need to think in terms of what could be offered to marginalized groups within societies.
URMAS PAET, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Estonia, called for agreement on further means and ways to cooperate in the fight against the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters. Foreigners supported ISIL and the Al-Nusra Front and the threat they posed extended to their countries of origin, to which many returned. The repercussions of the same problem were apparent also in the Sahel region. There were many ways to fight terrorism but the response had to be global, including direct action against terrorists' safe havens, prevention of their travel, and blocking of their finances. The conditions conducive to terrorism also had to be tackled, meaning poverty needed to be addressed. He was satisfied by the manner in which the United Nations and European Union counter-terrorism strategies were taking that approach forward. Resources and mechanisms had to be provided to support the commitment made in the resolution and he underlined his commitment in that regard.
YERZHAN ASHIKBAEV, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, said that cooperation between neighbouring States and regional organizations played a key role in preventing terrorism. The growing phenomenon of young people travelling to join ''terrorist-driven conflicts'' around the world was of particular concern. Kazakhstan was a country of more than 130 ethnic groups with 17 religious denominations, he said, and the country was committed to promoting ideals and values of inter-ethnic and interfaith dialogue for peace and security.
ALBERT CHUA ( Singapore) said his country was not immune to the threat of terrorism and radical ideologies, noting that there were foreign fighters in Syria who had travelled from South-East Asia. His Government knew of a handful of Singaporeans who had gone to Syria to take part in the conflict. Also, there were other citizens from his country who had expressed interest in joining the fighting in Syria but who had been stopped before they could travel. Noting that Al-Qaida's key regional affiliate in South-East Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah, had been responsible for several large-scale terrorist attacks, he said that his Government in 2001 had foiled a plot by Jemaah Islamiyah members to attack targets in Singapore, which included a number of diplomatic missions. Fortunately, they had been stopped before they could do harm. To counter radical ideology, his Government had worked with its Muslim religious leaders, community groups and individuals to rehabilitate terrorist detainees and to delegitimize radical ideologies. The resolution on foreign terrorist fighters contained in S/2014/688, which had just been adopted by the Council and which his country had co-sponsored, was an important step in the global effort to combat terrorism.
VAN BOHEMAN, Secretary for Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, said that while national and regional circumstances varied, no country was immune to the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters. A small number of New Zealand nationals were known to have travelled to Syria to fight with extremist groups. His country was conscious of the threat that those fighters posed to many of its neighbours in the Asia Pacific. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive approach in tackling that threat, he said that his country's domestic strategy included efforts to confront the drivers of radicalization and violent extremism by engaging communities to help build their resilience; as well as preventative security and law enforcement measures, such as cancelling passports. New Zealand was also working with its partners in South-East Asia and the Pacific to build their capacity to counter terrorism and violent extremism, and to help them ensure that they became neither a target nor a source of international terrorism.
MANUEL G'MEZ-ACEBO ( Spain) said his country was suffering the problem of terrorist foreign fighters first hand as it had identified at least 50 individuals who had exited its borders to join terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. To that end, his country was preparing a change in its laws so that it might be punishable as a crime for individuals to exit Spain seeking to join a third country's terrorist group.
AHMED AL JARMAN, Assistant Minister for Political Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, said that addressing the threat of terrorism could not be done through security and military measures only, but also required the international community to pursue a unified comprehensive strategy that prevented recruitment of terrorist elements. That included tightening control over social networks, which were used in attracting a larger number of disillusioned youth to achieve the vicious goals under religious slogans, which had no connection with any divine faith. His country was currently conducting a study on the mechanisms of preventing terrorist organizations from using social networks for recruitment purposes.
BASHAR JA'AFARI ( Syria) said his country had been the first to denounce groups, such as ISIL, and communicate the dangers they posed. His country was also the first to confront ISIL on the ground. ''Those terrorists have run riot in Syria'', he said, but they couldn't have done so without the support from Member States which gave them financial, technical and diplomatic support. Furthermore, the presence of Israel in the coalition undermined efforts to fight terrorism, pointing to that country's shooting down of a Syrian plane that was only doing its national duty. The United Nations was the main forum for bolstering efforts to combat terrorism, but success meant that there had to be a distancing from politicization and finding pretext for combating terrorism. There could be no ''moderate'' terrorism as compared to ''extreme'' terrorism or ''good'' terrorist and ''bad'' terrorism. ''Terrorism is terrorism'', he stated, pointing to Member States such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia being included as part of the effort to combat those groups when they were supporting them.
VINOD KUMAR ( India) noted that while the current focus on foreign terrorist fighters was recent, the threat had existed for some time and was part of the broader challenge of international terrorism. Commending the Security Council for establishing a framework to tackle the phenomenon, he stressed that the supply chain of terror was global. The economic and operational infrastructure of terrorist networks needed to be dismantled. Endless debate was not a luxury afforded to the international community in responding to the issue and the price paid for procrastination was human lives. Calling for an international convention on the matter, he stressed the importance of cooperation, particularly on information sharing, financing, recruitment and travel. States also needed to ensure that their territories were not used to recruit and train terrorists.
HUSSEIN HANIFF ( Malaysia) said that his country had grappled with terrorism on its own soil, and that it had dealt with the threat by winning the population's ''hearts and minds''. That was achieved by reassuring them that they and their children would have a decent, secure life and a promising future. His Government believed that terrorism needed to be addressed in a comprehensive, multifaceted manner, and not exclusively through the use of force. He called for a ''Global Movement of Moderates'' to ''drown out'' the voices of the extremists.
PALITHA T.B. KOHONA ( Sri Lanka) reminded the Council that his country had suffered for three decades at the hands of a terrorist group that was described by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as the world's most ruthless. That group had a devastating impact on Sri Lanka. His Government had stressed time and time again that non-State actors had no respect for international law. ISIL was taking a transnational form which posed a threat to the region. Therefore, it was in the best interest of the international community that no space be afforded to any terrorist group or their sympathizers. Expressing solidarity to those impacted by terrorist groups, he said that Sri Lanka stood ready to help the victims on the ground.
AMR ABDELLATIF ABOULATTA ( Egypt) underlined the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters to their countries of origin. He said the revolutions in his region had taken on a religious dimension, and Egypt had often called for a general strategy to deal with the issue. Appeals were made to young people, calling for them to fight, encouraging them to take action in the name of religion. Young people were being told lies and Egypt was taking measures to combat that issue. His country's Criminal Code defined terrorism and contained provisions for its penalization. In talking about combating terrorism in the Middle East, it was important that the approach was comprehensive. The issue went beyond the Islamic State as terror had to be dealt with wherever it was found, Syria or elsewhere.
Adopted by the Security Council at its 4413th meeting, on 12 November 2001
The Security Council,
Decides to adopt the attached declaration on the global effort to combat terrorism.
2
S/RES/1377 (2001)
Annex
The Security Council,
Meeting at the Ministerial level,
Recalling its resolutions 1269 (1999) of 19 October 1999, 1368 (2001) of 12 September 2001 and 1373 (2001) of 28 September 2001,
Declares that acts of international terrorism constitute one of the most serious threats to international peace and security in the twenty-first century,
Further declares that acts of international terrorism constitute a challenge to all States and to all of humanity,
Reaffirms its unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, in all their forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed,
Stresses that acts of international terrorism are contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and that the financing, planning and preparation of as well as any other form of support for acts of international terrorism are similarly contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Underlines that acts of terrorism endanger innocent lives and the dignity and security of human beings everywhere, threaten the social and economic development of all States and undermine global stability and prosperity,
Affirms that a sustained, comprehensive approach involving the active participation and collaboration of all Member States of the United Nations, and in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law, is essential to combat the scourge of international terrorism,
Stresses that continuing international efforts to broaden the understanding among civilizations and to address regional conflicts and the full range of global issues, including development issues, will contribute to international cooperation and collaboration, which themselves are necessary to sustain the broadest possible fight against international terrorism,
Welcomes the commitment expressed by States to fight the scourge of international terrorism, including during the General Assembly plenary debate from 1 to 5 October 2001, calls on all States to become parties as soon as possible to the relevant international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, and encourages Member States to take forward work in this area,
Calls on all States to take urgent steps to implement fully resolution 1373 (2001), and to assist each other in doing so, and underlines the obligation on States to deny financial and all other forms of support and safe haven to terrorists and those supporting terrorism,
Expresses its determination to proceed with the implementation of that resolution in full cooperation with the whole membership of the United Nations, and welcomes the progress made so far by the Counter-Terrorism Committee established by paragraph 6 of resolution 1373 (2001) to monitor implementation of that resolution,
3
S/RES/1377 (2001)
Recognizes that many States will require assistance in implementing all the requirements of resolution 1373 (2001), and invites States to inform the Counter-Terrorism Committee of areas in which they require such support,
In that context, invites the Counter-Terrorism Committee to explore ways in which States can be assisted, and in particular to explore with international, regional and subregional organizations:
' the promotion of best-practice in the areas covered by resolution 1373 (2001), including the preparation of model laws as appropriate,
' the availability of existing technical, financial, regulatory, legislative or other assistance programmes which might facilitate the implementation of resolution 1373 (2001),
' the promotion of possible synergies between these assistance programmes,
Calls on all States to intensify their efforts to eliminate the scourge of
international terrorism.
EU response to free speech killings? More internet censorship '-- Tech News and Analysis
In the wake of this week's terrorist attacks in Paris, which began with the killing of 12 people at the offices of satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, the interior ministers of 12 EU countries have called for a limited increase in internet censorship.
The interior ministers of France, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the U.K. said in a statement (PDF) that, while the internet must remain ''in scrupulous observance of fundamental freedoms, a forum for free expression, in full respect of the law,'' ISPs need to help ''create the conditions of a swift reporting of material that aims to incite hatred and terror and the condition of its removing, where appropriate/possible.''
This sounds similar to recent agreements in the U.K. whereby ISPs use filters to stop citizens seeing ''extremist'' online content, though it's hard to tell without more details. There seems to be no coordinated push for more internet surveillance just yet, although there is a drive for better intelligence sharing between EU countries.
It seems, to say the least, an awkward reaction to what was in part a free-speech-related attack '-- the left-wing Charlie Hebdo has itself frequentlybeenaccused of hate speech for its portrayal of Muslims and others. On that front, a German newspaper that reprinted blasphemous Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Mohammed in the wake of the attack was firebombed in the early hours of Sunday morning, with no injuries. Others that did the same remain under police guard.
At the Paris meeting, the ministers also agreed on a more positive way to counter terrorist propaganda: more speech. They said they had resolved ''to develop positive, targeted and easily accessible messages, able to counter this propaganda, aimed at a young audience that is particularly vulnerable to indoctrination.''
The ministers also agreed on various other measures to do with keeping an eye on people travelling, including urgently moving towards a new European Passenger Name Record framework. As legal advice released this week indicates, any such agreement will need to take account of last year's striking-down of the Data Retention Directive, by embedding significant privacy safeguards.
The meeting came as ministers and heads of state from around the world marched in Paris in solidarity against the attacks and in favor of the free expression for which Charlie Hebdo was targeted. These included representatives of countries such as Egypt, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Russia, all of which are notable for cracking down on free expression at home '-- their presence drew condemnation from Reporters Without Borders, which said it was ''appalled''.
''We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends,'' Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard ''Willem'' Holtrop said of some who had expressed condolences and solidarity with the publication, such as Vladimir Putin, far-right French politician Marine Le Pen, Queen Elizabeth and Pope Francis. In the Saturday interview with a Dutch newspaper, he added: ''I never come to the editorial meetings because I don't like them. I guess that saved my life.''
Overheden: providers moeten 'haatcontent' snel offline halen - update - IT Pro - Nieuws - Tweakers
Dit heeft alles met je aangeboren rechten the maken.
Je hebt helemaal geen aangeboren rechten. Je hebt wel rechten die je ontleent aan de bijzonder stabiele sociaal-politieke situatie waarin we nu leven. Maar dat is verre van een natuurlijk evenwicht en moet dus in stand worden gehouden.Ik begrijp het gewoon niet. Dit heeft niks met slecht of goed te maken. Dit gebeurt gewoon omdat mensen het toelaten.
Dus jij vindt het goed om mensen zoveel vrijheid te geven dat een kleine groep mensen zich moeiteloos buiten het oog van de maatschapij kan organiseren om zodoende onze vrijheden te ondermijnen? Heb je wel eens nagedacht over hoe dom deze gedachtegang is?Ivo vindt het blijkbaar niet erg om weer massa's mensen voor niks te laten lijden onder een oligarchisch regime.
Je woont in een van de meest luxueuze maatschapijen op de hele wereld.Vertel eens, hoe lijd jij hier onder? Wat wordt jou (en die massa's mensen) aangedaan?Niks alu-hoedjes. Gewoon te dom voor woorden dat sommigen onder jullie gewoon niet willen beseffen dat het heel erg makkelijk is om over anderen heen te lopen zolang je de juiste omstandigheden schept.
Maar dat geldt ook voor bijvoorbeeld criminelen die zich op het internet verschuild kunnen houden. Als je hier geen grip op hebt dan genieten zij zo veel vrijheid dat de vrijheid van die massa's mensen waar je het over had in gevaar komt.Je lijkt te vergeten dat de vrijheid die wij hier genieten gefabriceert is en onderhouden moet worden. Zonder een land, zonder een wet, zonder een maatschapij zoals de onze bestaat er helemaal geen vrijheid zoals wij dat willen.Jij vindt waarschijnlijk dat vrijheid er gewoon maar moet zijn. Maar dat bestaat helemaal niet.Als je iedereen (maximaal) vrij laat dan zul je pas echt zien wat het betekent om over anderen heen te lopen. Er is dus een soort balans van vrijheid v.s. verplichtingen/regels. Maar dat balans geldt alleen voor een specifieke situatie. Nu zijn onze regels amper voorbereid op de vrijheden die het internet mogelijk heeft gemaakt en is het balans aan het verdwijnen.Je moet goed snappen dat onze maatschapij achterloopt wat betreft het integreren van het internet in onze ideeen van vrijheid. Laat je alles vrij dan is iedereen op zichzelf aangewezen. Dat betekent dat criminelen mensen kunnen bestelen en dat daar weinig tot niks tegen gedaan kan worden. Als het internet had gewerkt zoals het ontworpen was dan was de politie compleet kansloos. Niet echt mijn idee van een prettige vrijheid. En ja, vrijheid kan dus ook betekenen dat massa's mensen aan het kortste eindje trekken.Het is dus helemaal niet zo makkelijk of zwart/wit als jij het doet overkomen. Vrijheid alleen hoeft helemaal niet goed te zijn. Evenmin bestaat er zoiets als absolute vrijheid. Vrijheid kan je alleen in context zien en die context verandert.Vooralsnog hebbn we denk ik weinig te klagen. Mocht het hier uit de hand lopen met het fascisme en mochten onze vrijheden werkelijk in gevaar komen dan denk ik dat de nederlandse bevolking op zn achterste poten gaat staan. Maar voorlopig is het nog niet zo ver.
BBC News - David Cameron says new online data laws needed
12 January 2015Last updated at 08:21 ET David Cameron has said new laws will be needed in future to close the "safe spaces" used by suspected terrorists to communicate online with each other.
If he remains as prime minister after the election, Mr Cameron said he would push for new powers to allow the police to access details of conversations, including on mobiles and social media.
Mr Cameron said the recent attacks in Paris showed the need for such a move.
He was "comfortable" it was appropriate in a "modern liberal democracy".
Speaking at an event in the East Midlands, Mr Cameron said he recognised such powers were "very intrusive" but he believed that they were justified to counter the growing threat to the UK, as long as proper legal safeguards were in place.
The coalition introduced emergency legislation last year obliging internet and phone companies to store their customers' personal communications data for 12 months and to give access to the police.
'In extremis'Calls for these powers to be extended to include the content of e-mails, text messages and social media activity were dropped following opposition from their Liberal Democrat coalition partners.
Mr Cameron said governments had backed away from going down such a route in the past but he believed that this would have to change so that, "in extremis", such material could be obtained.
He said this would mirror existing powers enabling the police to get hold of conventional forms of communications, such as letters and other correspondence, in criminal investigations if legally sanctioned.
"The next government will have to legislate again in 2016," he said.
"If I am prime minister, I will make sure it is a comprehensive piece of legislation that makes sure we do not allow terrorist safe spaces to communicate with each other.
"That is the key principle. Do we allow terrorists the safe spaces to talk to each other? I say 'no we don't".
'First duty'Existing legislation will have to be renewed after May's general election because a "sunset clause" (which gives the law a limited time life span) was added to the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act last year, meaning the measures will expire in 2016
Mr Cameron, who was briefed earlier on Monday by the UK's intelligence agencies on the risk to the UK of a Paris-style attack, said the existing legal safeguards in place on data interception were among the strongest in the world.
He added: "The question is 'are we to allow a means of communication where it is simply not possible to do that'? My answer to that question is 'no we must not'.
"The first duty of any government is to keep our country and people safe. The attacks in Paris once again demonstrated the scale of the terrorist threat we face and the need to have robust powers, through our security and intelligence agencies and policing in order to keep our people safe.
"I am confident the powers we need, whether it is on communications data or the content of communications, I am very comfortable they are absolutely right for a modern liberal democracy."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said on Sunday that he would only support new powers after careful and cautious consideration, balancing the need for the security services to have the proper tools with the need for a proper system of oversight.
Koen Geens wil telefoons aftappen van zij die oproepen tot terrorisme - Nieuws - Data News.be
Minister van Justitie Koen Geens (CD&V) wil de telefoongesprekken afluisteren van wie terrorisme aanmoedigt, schrijft De Standaard.
De huidige 'taplijst' bevat de misdrijven waarvoor de politie de telefoongesprekken van een verdachte mag afluisteren. Terrorisme staat daar wel op, maar dan alleen in de klassieke omschrijving: het plannen, ondersteunen, financieren of uitvoeren van een aanslag.
Definitie terrorisme is uitgebreid, maar nog niet in de wet
In 2013 werd de definitie van terrorisme gevoelig uitgebreid. Sindsdien valt het volgen of geven van een opleiding met de bedoeling een aanslag te plegen ook onder terrorisme, net zoals oproepen tot terrorisme en rekrutering.
Maar die uitbreiding is nog niet doorgesijpeld in de 'tapwet', zegt de woordvoerster van minister van Justitie Koen Geens in De Standaard. 'De bedoeling is om de huidige misdrijven in verband met terrorisme toe te voegen aan de lijst van misdrijven waarvoor telefoontap mogelijk is.'
Belgische speurders vragen echter vooral om online gesprekken te kunnen afluisteren en te mogen (terug)hacken, aangezien terroristen nog amper met elkaar zouden bellen. De wetgeving moet dringend worden aangepast, zeggen ze.
David Cameron wil achterpoort in versleutelde berichten
Technologiebedrijven hebben de encryptie van hun berichten- en clouddiensten in dit post-Snowdentijdperk alsmaar verbeterd. Maar in het licht van de terroristische aanslagen in Frankrijk, wil Brits premier David Cameron dat berichtendiensten als WhatsApp het mogelijk maken voor inlichtingendiensten om apps, tweets en statusupdates te ontsleutelen. Doen ze dat niet, dan dreigt hij ermee die diensten te verbieden. (Belga/MI)
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Britse uitgeverij schrapt varkens uit kinderboeken om moslims niet te beledigen - Ondertussen - Knack.be
De oproep van de uitgeverij om varkensgerelateerde woorden te vermijden om moslims en Joden niet te beledigen, kwam ter sprake in het BBC- radioprogramma Radio 4 Today tijdens een debat over vrije meningsuiting na de gebeurtenissen in Parijs. Tijdens de show werd een brief van de uitgeverij aan een van haar auteurs voorgelezen met de vraag om geen woorden als 'varkens', 'varkensvlees' of 'spek' te gebruiken.
Volgens een woordvoerder van Oxford University Press, een onderdeel van de universiteit van Oxford, zijn de boeken ook bestemd voor het buitenland. 'Veel van het educatief materiaal dat we in Groot-Brittanni publiceren wordt in 150 landen verkocht en daarom moet er met een hele reeks culturele verschillen en gevoeligheden rekening gehouden worden.'
Critici spreken van een 'onzinnige politieke correctheid' en eisen dat de vrijheid van meningsuiting gehandhaafd blijft. Er wordt ook getwijfeld of moslims en Joden ook daadwerkelijk beledigd zijn door de vermelding van boerderijdieren in een kinderboek.
Van de 7 miljard inwoners in de wereld zijn zowat 1,5 miljard moslim. De meeste van de 49 landen met een moslimmeerderheid hebben een jonge en opgroeiende bevolking, waardoor ze een belangrijke markt voor lesmateriaal zijn, zo schrijft de Britse krant The Independent.
Oxford University Press, dat jaarlijks zo'n 6.000 nieuwe boeken in meer dan 150 landen publiceert, is de grootste universitaire uitgeverij in de wereld.
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Politie wil wapen naar huis meenemen tegen terroristen - Het Nieuwsblad
De politievakbonden dringen er vandaag bij Jan Jambon, de minister van Binnenlandse Zaken, op aan dat agenten hun dienstwapen tijdelijk mee naar huis mogen nemen. 'De bedreigingen van ISIS aan het adres van politieagenten en hun gezin zorgen voor veel onrust.'
Het voorstel om het dienstwapen mee naar huis te nemen, komt uit de rangen van de politievakbonden Sypol en VSOA. Maar ook ACV Politie wil er vandaag het kabinet van minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Jan Jambon (N-VA) op aanspreken. Aanleiding zijn de onderschepte bedreigingen van terreurbeweging ISIS aan Franse politieagenten en hun familie, in de nasleep van de terroristische aanslagen in Parijs, en die mogelijk ook gericht zijn tegen Belgische politieambtenaren.
'De Belgisch overheid heeft alle agenten gevraagd bijzonder alert te zijn. Dat zullen ze doen, maar men vergeet dat agenten na de diensturen met lege handen naar huis gaan. Onze persoonlijke wapens moeten we verplicht op het politiebureau achterlaten', zegt Ruddy Callewaert van de politievakbond Sypol.
Ook bij VSOA leeft bij vele aangesloten agenten de vraag om uit veiligheidsoverwegingen ook tijdens de priv(C)tijd over het dienstwapen te kunnen beschikken, weliswaar onder strenge voorwaarden. Lees er alles over in Het Nieuwsblad van dinsdag 13 januari.
No. The Islamic State Did Not Hack CENTCOM - Updated - Cui Bono?Updated below
BBC: US Centcom Twitter account 'hacked by Islamic State'
US Central Command's Twitter and YouTube accounts have been hacked by a group claiming to back Islamic State.
One message said: "American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back."
It was signed by Isis, another name for the Islamic State. Some internal military documents also appeared on the Centcom Twitter feed.
US Centcom said it was taking "appropriate measures". The Twitter account was later taken down so no tweets could be viewed.
The hack happened as President Barack Obama was preparing a major speech on cybersecurity.
Several Centcom Twitter accounts and its Youtube channels were compromised and the "hackers" posted some military papers which are unclassified and available on the internet. The accounts are now suspended.
These "hackers" called themselves Cyber Caliphate, are already known and have a Twitter account @cybercaliphate but they used the acronym ISIS in a pastebin post on the Centcom "hack" to attach themselves to the Islamic State:
Pentagon networks hacked
AMERICAN SOLDIERS,WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS. #CyberCaliphate
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the CyberCaliphate under the auspices of ISIS continues its CyberJihad. While the US and its satellites kill our brothers in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan we broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you.You'll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base. With Allah's permission we are in CENTCOM now.. ...
The Islamic State and its real followers never use the acronym ISIS for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In their mind the Islamic State is not confined to the borders of Iraq and Syria. It is universal and has no geographical limits. Any real follower of the Islamic State will know this.
The "hackers" also posted some photo depicting a view down the neckline of a voluptuous woman. Islamic State followers would not do such - at least not in any public representation. For them it is a sin to even view such a pic.
My conclusion is that these were some cyberpunks. Some media guy at Centcom was owned and revealed his password after some social fishing through an email. Or his iPhone was stolen and cracked. Or something similar. Some "hacker" had fun with that. A rather common and irrelevant incident. A fitting XKCD comic strip is here.
Or this "incident" was some military Information Operation to further Obama's attempts to introduce more extensive internet spying which he is likely to push for in next week's State of the Union speech.
It would fit to the false claim by the Obama administration that the Sony hack, likely done by former Sony employees, was somehow related to North Korea.
UPDATE (Jan 13 2:00am): See how well the "hack" works as an argument for Obama's new law which will indemnify private companies which hand over YOUR private data to the government.
A screenshot from the current Washington Post homepage:
Terror! Terror!! Terror!!! We have been hacked!!! Give us your data!
From that first piece:
President Obama plans to announce legislation Tuesday that would shield companies from lawsuits for sharing computer threat data with the government in an effort to prevent cyberattacks....The provision's goal is to ''enshrine in law liability protection for the private sector for them to share specific information '-- cyberthreat indicators '-- with the government,'' the official said.
If this law passes, which currently looks likely, all data stored or passing through a private company will be available for the government to copy, to store forever and to sift through however it likes. This even when you never intended to make such data public.
Meanwhile the British government wants to legally ban all private and public encryption it can nor readily break:
Mr. Cameron, who has started to campaign ahead of a national election in Britain in May, said his government, if elected, would ban encrypted online communication tools that could potentially be used by terrorists if the country's intelligence agencies were not given increased access. The reforms are part of new legislation that would force telecom operators and Internet services providers to store more data on people's online activities, including social network messages.
Both proposals, Obama's and Cameron's, would be catastrophic for Internet freedom.
Posted by b on January 12, 2015 at 02:11 PM | Permalink
Maybe it was fake-anonymous. Ever since the US govt. broke all of its own most (formerly) sacred laws in pursuing and persecuting the real anonymous, an "anarchist hacker" media entity with an oddly pro-imperialist agenda calling itself "anonymous" has emerged in their stead
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has amazed the world with his knowledge of history: in his interview with the German TV channel ARD, the politician said that "all of us still clearly remember the Soviet invasion into Ukraine and Germany," referring to the Second World War.
MOSCOW, January 9 (Sputnik) '' Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has demonstrated his knowledge of history to the world.
On Thursday, while on an official visit to Berlin, the bespectacled young politician was interviewed live by the German TV channel ARD, where he claimed that the USSR had kicked off the Second World War by invading Germany.
"All of us still clearly remember the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany," he said. "We need to avoid it."
"Nobody has the right to rewrite the results of the Second World War," he added. "Russia's President Putin is trying to do exactly this."
Posted by: lysias | Jan 12, 2015 5:26:30 PM | 5
Obama Proposes New Laws After Central Command Hacked
"Major companies get hacked. America's personal information, including financial information, gets stolen. And the problem is growing and it costs us billions of dollars."
1. the NSA and The Company are the number 1 and number 2 thieves of 'America's personal information, including financial information'.2. it costs us ourselves, our lives, our independence which mere dollars cannot buy3. laws are there for the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to breakIf his lips are moving he's lying. Pay attention to what he does, pay no attention to what he says.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 12, 2015 7:25:36 PM | 7
Like with Ghouta, MH17, Sony hack: if and when Obama says it's true, then it must be so. The media will worry about how to sell it so people swallow it and repeat it until it becomes a universal "fact".
Interesting observation....It is truly amazing what critical thinking and logic can do. The brainwashed morons that watch the MSM are deprived of these two principles. Like the DPRK "hack" this will probably be bludgeoned into people's brain until it is accepted as fact.
Posted by: Anonb | Jan 12, 2015 10:12:24 PM | 9
@2
There seems to be a new manufactured "war" everyday. It seems to become a tagline in the MSM. If somebody disagrees with you or vice versa it is called a "War on...." In fact, go on google and type in "War on" and the results that show up are quite amusing. It just goes to show that our media is on a never ending War binge.
Posted by: Anonb | Jan 12, 2015 10:17:53 PM | 10
The encryption thing is low down. It seems like they simply don't want to pay the electricity bill to force open some iphones.
Posted by: Crest | Jan 13, 2015 2:46:29 AM | 12
@8: All three US guests are 100% top quality in this Cross Talk.A recommend, imo.
---Media failuresTraditionally, the role of media has been to inform society and keep an eye on the powers that be. Today media follows a very different model - for the most part the mainstream merely echoes the opinions of the elite. Is it any wonder audiences are looking for alternative media sources?
Link to Cross Talk---
Posted by: x | Jan 13, 2015 3:24:12 AM | 13
There was a report on RT News last week about Obama's Acronym Agencies recruiting (and forgiving) hackers to help with the USG's ($50 Billion) cyber-security/ cyber-war programs. The report finished with an endorsement by Julian Assange, who was quick to point out that hackers can help Humanity much more effectively if they're INSIDE US spy agencies than OUTSIDE them.
Will the dumbass Yankees EVER stop believing ALL of their own neocon bullshit?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 13, 2015 8:34:00 AM | 15
Yep, once again great timing. The bad guys show up with their act and within minutes the so-called free govt. bad guys show to resect the citizens of their nation. I know I'm shocked at this;)
Posted by: jo6pac | Jan 13, 2015 12:28:34 PM | 16
This is the classic mafia shakedown ... you wouldn't want someone to hack your customer database, would you?
You'd be sued! Bankrupted!
You need a little protection ... fork over the data and we'll 'protect' from the 'bad guys' ... and hold you blameless in the event that you have something interesting enough on someone for the 'bad guys' to spill.
The USG is the mafia. The biggest crime family on the block. And the figurative godfather has a Nobel Peace Prize. From the Pope.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 13, 2015 1:12:03 PM | 18
I thank this blog for bringing to my attention another step of the US Gov to get our private data from companies we use on the internet.
The US Gov uses every incident that can be labelled terrorism to expand the US Surveillance Deep State which rules behind the facade of democratic institutions.
Another is the NSA will be hooking into the databases of pictures taken by police that carry cameras. The US elites take our concern for police abuse of its power to expand the US Deep State use facial recognition technology to further track where we are or were.
Posted by: Arius | Jan 13, 2015 1:32:41 PM | 19
U.S. military social media accounts apparently hacked by Islamic State sympathizers - The Washington Post
Hackers claiming allegiance to the Islamic State took control of the social media accounts of the U.S. military's Central Command on Monday, posting threatening messages and propaganda videos, along with some military documents.
The command's Twitter and YouTube accounts were eventually taken offline, but not before a string of tweets and the release of military documents, some of which listed contact information for senior military personnel. A Centcom spokesman confirmed their accounts were ''compromised,'' and said later that the accounts have been taken offline while the incident is investigated more.
''CENTCOM's operation military networks were not compromised and there was no operational impact to U.S. Central Command,'' a military statement said. ''CENTCOM will restore service to its Twitter and YouTube accounts as quickly as possible. We are viewing this purely as a case of cybervandalism.''
[Related on Checkpoint: Hack of U.S. military social media accounts prompts embarrassment, review]
Military officials added in the statement that their initial assessment is that no classified information was posted, and that none of what was released came from Centcom's server or social media sites. The command will notify Defense Department and law enforcement authorities about the release of personally identifiable information and make sure that those affected are notified as quickly as possible, Centcom said.
Virtually all of the documents posted appear to already have been publicly available online, but the incident is nevertheless embarrassing to the U.S. military. Centcom oversees the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and frequently posts videos of airstrikes on the same accounts attacked Monday.
The United States and the Islamic State have waged a propaganda battle online for the better part of a year, after the militants rose to prominence and seized broad swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. Twitter accounts sympathetic to the militants have distributed graphic images of beheadings and other violence along with threats, while the Defense Department and State Department have sought to expose the Islamic State as an oppressive group willing to slaughter innocent men, women and children.
The first rogue tweet Monday was posted about 12:30 p.m. and the account was not suspended for about another 40 minutes. The background and profile photo of the Twitter account were both changed to show an apparent militant and the phrases ''CyberCaliphate'' and ''i love you isis,'' using one of the acronyms for the militant group.
''AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK,'' one tweet said.
The YouTube and Twitter accounts of U.S. Central Command were suspended after apparent hacking by Islamic State sympathizers. (Reuters)
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the Obama administration is ''examining and investigating the extent of the incident.''
''This is something we are obviously looking into and something we take seriously,'' he told reporters Monday, adding he didn't have a lot of information. He said that there is a ''pretty significant difference'' between ''a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account.''
The Centcom YouTube page also appeared to have been hacked, with two Islamic State propaganda videos added to the page and the same ''CyberCaliphate'' banner posted. The YouTube account was eventually ''terminated due to repeated or severe violations'' of YouTube's guidelines, the website said.
Central Command also maintains Facebook accounts, but it appears they were not affected.
It is not clear whether the hackers are actually with the Islamic State, sympathizers with the militants, or simply pulling a prank on the Pentagon. But J.M. Berger, an analyst and non-resident fellow with the Brookings Institution, said there is reason to believe it could be someone affiliated directly with the Islamic State.
''ISIS has a team of hackers who are very deeply involved in ISIS the organization,'' said Berger, author of the forthcoming book ''ISIS: The State of Terror.''
''They have been practicing and recruiting for a while, and this has been going on for months and months,'' Berger said.
But analysts added that just because the Islamic State hacked two social media accounts, it does not mean they threatened classified computer networks. Other hacker organizations, like the Syrian Electronic Army, have seized control of websites, and a group using the same ''CyberCaliphate'' name and photo seen in the hack against Centcom on Monday hacked the Twitter accounts of the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico and the WBOC TV station in Salisbury, Md., last week.
''Let's remember this is a social media account,'' said Peter Singer, a strategist and analyst with the New American Foundation in Washington, of the attacks on Monday. ''This is not a military command and control network. This is not a network that moves classified or even non-classified internal information back and forth. Essentially what they did is for several minutes take control of the megaphone.''
But Singer said the incident does amount to a public relations victory for the Islamic State, even if they were not directly involved. Embarrassing the U.S. government ''is a feather in their cap in terms of pulling off something that other groups have not been able to do, no matter how silly it is at the end of the day.''
[Related: The Centcom 'hack' that wasn't]
It is not clear what level of security any of the organizations affected have on their social media accounts. Twitter offers a two-step verification process to sign into an account that makes it secure, but it is not required. Without it, a Twitter account typically requires only an email address and a password.
A look at some of the rogue messages sent. The first shows a U.S. soldier with what appears to be a black goat in a military office:
Katie Zezima and Craig Whitlock contributed to this report.
Also related on Checkpoint:
Meet the shadowy figure recruiting for the Islamic State in Afghanistan
What U.S.-led airstrikes have hit in Iraq and Syria, in one graphic
In shift, U.S. says it is investigating credible civilian casualty reports in Iraq and Syria
This post was originally published at 12:53 p.m. Jan. 13, and and last updated 1:25 p.m. Jan. 14.
Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is the bill in the US Congress that just refuses to die. Like a zombie, it keeps rising from the dead to harass cyber activists and civil liberties advocates. In a slight reprieve, Representative Mike Rogers, CISPA's previous co-sponsor, has announced that he will not run for re-election. Never one to waste an opportunity for a crisis, a House Democrat, Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, has decided to re-introduce CISPA after the Sony hacks, which the US government blames on North Korea.
The full text of the reintroduced CISPA bill can be found here RUPPER_001_xml-1
Even though CISPA 2015 was introduced last Thursday, for some reason, the text of the bill has not appeared on Congress.gov. Earlier today, I called Representative Ruppersberger's office to get a copy of the bill.
Under CISPA 2015 (HR 234), the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Secretary of Defense would create the cyber threat information sharing program and also provide oversight for the program's civil liberties protections. This is akin to allowing the foxes to guard the hen house. CISPA 2015 also mandates privacy and civil liberties reports, but allows government agencies to classify the annexes to the reports. In other words, CISPA 2015 does not intend to have any real oversight for civil liberties and privacy. Cyber threat information shared with the government would also be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and would be a serious blow to transparency in government. Perhaps the worst thing about the CISPA 2015 bill is that it would give immunity from criminal prosecution and lawsuits to anyone sharing cyber threat information with the government. CISPA 2015 would provide for an even cozier relationship between Silicon Valley and the US government at the detriment of civil liberties and privacy for everyone else.
CISPA 2015 has now been referred to the House Committees on the Judiciary, Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Intelligence.
Guest Author: Rachael TackettRachel comes from the Occupy Movement and and is an expert in Freedom of Information Requests
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Adapted from work by Alexandre G.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is the bill in the US Congress that just refuses to die. Like a zombie, it keeps rising from the dead to...
Last November, the President outlined his plan to keep the Internet open to new competition and innovation by safeguarding net neutrality '-- which will help ensure no one company can act as a gatekeeper to digital content. But there is more work to do so that every American has access to a free and open internet. This is particularly true in areas where broadband competition is lacking, resulting in high prices and slow service.
Building on his net neutrality plan, tomorrow in Cedar Falls, Iowa President Obama will announce steps he will discuss in the State of the Union to help more Americans, in more communities around the country, get access to fast and affordable broadband. Communities like Cedar Falls have banded together to commit to broadband that works by bringing in new competition, leveraging municipal investments, and forming new partnerships to bring world-class Internet to places like this small Iowa town.
High-speed, low-cost broadband is paving the way for economic revitalization not just in Cedar Falls, but in places like Chattanooga, TN, Kansas City, MO, and Lafayette, LA '-- all of which have Internet speeds nearly 100 times faster than the national average and deliver it at an affordable price. To help more communities achieve these results, support economic growth, and promote a level playing field for all competitors, the Obama Administration is:
Calling to End Laws that Harm Broadband Service Competition: Laws in 19 states '-- some specifically written by special interests trying to stifle new competitors '-- have held back broadband access and, with it, economic opportunity. Today, President Obama is announcing a new effort to support local choice in broadband, formally opposing measures that limit the range of options available to communities to spur expanded local broadband infrastructure, including ownership of networks. As a first step, the Administration is filing a letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging it to join this effort by addressing barriers inhibiting local communities from responding to the broadband needs of their citizens. Expanding the National Movement of Local Leaders for Better Broadband: As of today, 50 cities representing over 20 million Americans have joined the Next Century Cities coalition, a nonpartisan network pledging to bring fast, community-supported broadband to their towns and cities. They join 37 research universities around the country that formed the Gig.U partnership to bring fast broadband to communities around their campuses. To recognize these remarkable individuals and the partnerships they have built, in June 2015 the White House will host a Community Broadband Summit of mayors and county commissioners from around the nation who are joining this movement for broadband solutions and economic revitalization. These efforts will also build on the US Ignite partnership, launched by White House in 2012, and which has grown to include more than 65 research universities and 35 cities in developing new next-generation gigabit applications.Announcing a New Initiative to Support Community Broadband Projects: To advance this important work, the Department of Commerce is launching a new initiative, BroadbandUSA, to promote broadband deployment and adoption. Building on expertise gained from overseeing the $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program funded through the Recovery Act, BroadbandUSA will offer online and in-person technical assistance to communities; host a series of regional workshops around the country; and publish guides and tools that provide communities with proven solutions to address problems in broadband infrastructure planning, financing, construction, and operations across many types of business models.Unveiling New Grant and Loan Opportunities for Rural Providers: The Department of Agriculture is accepting applications to its Community Connect broadband grant program and will reopen a revamped broadband loan program, which offers financing to eligible rural carriers that invest in bringing high-speed broadband to unserved and under served rural areas.Removing Regulatory Barriers and Improving Investment Incentives: The President is calling for the Federal Government to remove all unnecessary regulatory and policy barriers to broadband build-out and competition, and is establishing a new Broadband Opportunity Council of over a dozen government agencies with the singular goal of speeding up broadband deployment and promoting adoptions for our citizens. The Council will also solicit public comment on unnecessary regulatory barriers and opportunities to promote greater coordination with the aim of addressing those within its scope.Background: A National Need, And Solutions That Are Working
Today, too few Americans have affordable and competitive broadband choices, but some communities around the country are choosing to change that dynamic. As a result '' as outlined in a new report being issued today '' cities like Lafayette, Chattanooga, and Kansas City, have broadband that is nearly one hundred times faster than the national average, yet still available at a competitive price. By welcoming new competition or building next-generation networks, these communities are pioneers in broadband that works, and tomorrow in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the President is highlighting their remarkable success stories and providing municipal leadership and entrepreneurs new tools to help replicate this success across the nation.
Americans in even our busiest cities often find only one or two providers offering broadband service, and often none providing them with fast, fiber-optic connections '-- despite the fact that many of cities are already equipped with fast fiber-optic broadband. At the same time, in too many places, residents do not have access to broadband in their home, or their speeds continue to lag while their monthly bills continue to grow.
Both of these challenges are driven by the lack of broadband choice in many American markets. In fact, three out of four Americans have no competition or no service at speeds increasingly required for many online services. Rarely is the problem a lack of demand '-- too often, it is the capital costs of building out broadband infrastructure and a combination of laws that prevent communities from providing incentives to attract providers. Competitive markets translate to lower monthly prices, better products, and better customer service. In cities across the country, new competitors entering markets have provided consumers with new and often faster alternatives, spurring investment from incumbents and providing consumers with more choice.
Many of the communities that have taken aggressive steps to improve their broadband have residential and business Internet speeds among the fastest in the world '-- faster, even, than in San Francisco, New York City, or Los Angeles:
What sets these top-performing cities apart is that they have all taken dramatic steps to bring in more competitors, and enter into new partnerships to deliver top-quality broadband. Some specific examples of how creative thinking and partnerships are delivering faster, better broadband across the country include:
Chattanooga, TN'-- After investing in a visionary 1 gigabit per second broadband network, the City of Chattanooga is transforming itself into a regional center for technology and innovation. Today, Chattanooga is attracting entrepreneurs and computer programmers from around the country and boasts new business incubators and state-of-the-art public facilities. Investors have responded in kind. Since 2009, Chattanooga has gone from hosting close to zero venture capital to at least five organized funds with investable capital of over $50 million.
Wilson, NC'-- Through inspired leadership and the community mobilization, Wilson has been transformed from ''the 'World's Greatest Tobacco Market' to 'North Carolina's First Gigabit City,' delivering speeds up to 100 times the national average, at a price North Carolinians can afford. Unanimously approved by the city council, Mayor Bruce Rose believes this infrastructure ''is absolutely essential to improve the economy and quality of life.''
Kansas City, MO'-- Kansas City was the first city to successfully compete for Google Fiber, the search giant's entry into broadband service to homes and businesses, and today is being nationally recognized for attracting new start-ups, retaining existing business, and providing better municipal services and education as a result of this new and affordable broadband.
The newreportreleased today by the National Economic Council and Council of Economic Advisers examines these remarkable stories in greater depth.
SECURING CYBERSPACE - President Obama Announces New Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal and Other Cybersecurity Efforts | The White House
''In this interconnected, digital world, there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyber assaults both in the private sector and the public sector. Now, our first order of business is making sure that we do everything to harden sites and prevent those kinds of attacks from taking place...But even as we get better, the hackers are going to get better, too. Some of them are going to be state actors; some of them are going to be non-state actors. All of them are going to be sophisticated and many of them can do some damage.
This is part of the reason why it's going to be so important for Congress to work with us and get an actual bill passed that allows for the kind of information-sharing we need. Because if we don't put in place the kind of architecture that can prevent these attacks from taking place, this is not just going to be affecting movies, this is going to be affecting our entire economy in ways that are extraordinarily significant.''
'' President Obama, December 19, 2014.
Since the start of his Administration, when he issued the Cyberspace Policy Review '-- the first top-to-bottom, Administration-wide review of cybersecurity '-- President Obama has led efforts to better prepare our government, our economy, and our nation as a whole for the growing cyber threats we face.
That's why in 2011 he issued his Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal, calling on Congress to take urgent action to give the private sector and government the tools they need to combat cyber threats at home and abroad. It's why he issued the International Strategy for Cyberspace to make clear to nations abroad the foreign policy priority cybersecurity issues have become. And when Congress failed to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, the Administration pressed forward, issuing an Executive Order to protect critical infrastructure by establishing baseline cybersecurity standards that we developed collaboratively with industry.
Today, at a time when public and private networks are facing an unprecedented threat from rogue hackers as well as organized crime and even state actors, the President is unveiling the next steps in his plan to defend the nation's systems. These include a new legislative proposal, building on important work in Congress, to solve the challenges of information sharing that can cripple response to a cyberattack. They also include revisions to those provisions of our 2011 legislative proposal on which Congress has yet to take action, and along with them, the President is extending an invitation to work in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to advance this urgent priority for the American people.
Specifically, today's announcements include:
Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal
Enabling Cybersecurity Information Sharing: The Administration's updated proposal promotes better cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and government, and it enhances collaboration and information sharing amongst the private sector. Specifically, the proposal encourages the private sector to share appropriate cyber threat information with the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), which will then share it in as close to real-time as practicable with relevant federal agencies and with private sector-developed and operated Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs) by providing targeted liability protection for companies that share information with these entities.
The legislation also encourages the formation of these private-sector led Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations. The Administration's proposal would also safeguard Americans' personal privacy by requiring private entities to comply with certain privacy restrictions such as removing unnecessary personal information and taking measures to protect any personal information that must be shared in order to qualify for liability protection. The proposal further requires the Department of Homeland Security and the Attorney General, in consultation with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and others, to develop receipt, retention, use, and disclosure guidelines for the federal government. Finally, the Administration intends this proposal to complement and not to limit existing effective relationships between government and the private sector. These existing relationships between law enforcement and other federal agencies are critical to the cybersecurity mission.
Modernizing Law Enforcement Authorities to Combat Cyber Crime: Law enforcement must have appropriate tools to investigate, disrupt and prosecute cyber crime. The Administration's proposal contains provisions that would allow for the prosecution of the sale of botnets, would criminalize the overseas sale of stolen U.S. financial information like credit card and bank account numbers, would expand federal law enforcement authority to deter the sale of spyware used to stalk or commit ID theft, and would give courts the authority to shut down botnets engaged in distributed denial of service attacks and other criminal activity. It also reaffirms important components of 2011 proposals to update the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a key piece of law used to prosecute organized crime, so that it applies to cybercrimes, clarifies the penalties for computer crimes, and makes sure these penalties are in line with other similar non-cyber crimes. Finally, the proposal modernizes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by ensuring that insignificant conduct does not fall within the scope of the statute, while making clear that it can be used to prosecute insiders who abuse their ability to access information to use it for their own purposes.
National Data Breach Reporting: As announced yesterday, the Administration has also updated its proposal on security breach reporting. State laws have helped consumers protect themselves against identity theft while also encouraging business to improve cybersecurity, helping to stem the tide of identity theft. These laws require businesses that have suffered an intrusion to notify consumers if consumers' personal information has been compromised. The Administration's updated proposal helps business and consumers by simplifying and standardizing the existing patchwork of 46 state laws (plus the District of Columbia and several territories) that contain these requirements into one federal statute, and puts in place a single clear and timely notice requirement to ensure that companies notify their employees and customers about security breaches.
White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection
On February 13, 2015, the White House will host a Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University, to help shape public and private sector efforts to protect American consumers and companies from growing threats to consumers and commercial networks.
The Summit will bring together major stakeholders on cybersecurity and consumer financial protection issues '' including senior leaders from the White House and across the federal government; CEOs from a wide range of industries including the financial services industry, technology and communications companies; computer security companies and the retail industry; as well as law enforcement officials, consumer advocates, technical experts, and students. Topics at the Summit will include increasing public-private partnerships and cybersecurity information sharing, creating and promoting improved cybersecurity practices and technologies, and improving adoption and use of more secure payment technologies.
The Summit is also the next step in the President's BuySecure Initiative, which was launched in November 2014, and will help advance national efforts the government has led over the last two years with executive orders on consumer financial protection and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. Through keynote speeches, panel discussions, and small group workshops, participants will build on efforts in the public and private sectors to further improve cybersecurity practices at a wide range of companies.
Grants to Historically Black Colleges for Cybersecurity Education
As the President stated in Executive Order 13532, ''Promoting Excellence, Innovation, and Sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities'' in February 2010, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have made historic and ongoing contributions to the general welfare and prosperity of our country. Established by visionary leaders, America's HBCUs, for over 150 years, have produced many of the Nation's leaders in business, government, academia, and the military, and have provided generations of American men and women with hope and educational opportunity. Recognizing that HBCUs serve as engines of opportunity, innovation, and economic growth, Vice President Biden will travel to Norfolk, VA on Thursday to announce that the Department of Energy will provide $25 million in grants over the next five years to support a cybersecurity education consortium consisting of 13 HBCUs and two national labs.
This program, part of the President's jobs-driven training initiative, will help to fill the growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals in the U.S. job market at the same time that it helps to grow the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula for HBCUs. The participating schools include two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and research institutions in seven states, plus the Virgin Islands.
Statement on President Obama's Privacy and Data Security Proposals
Washington, D.C. - Internet Association President and CEO Michael Beckerman issues the following statement on President Obama's data privacy and security proposals announced today at the Federal Trade Commission:
''Maintaining the privacy and security of users is a key principle that all members of the Internet Association take seriously. User trust and comfort with our products is fundamental to the success of the Internet. The details of President Obama's proposals matter, and we look forward to learning more in the coming weeks. We appreciate that President Obama acknowledged the Internet industry's leadership in innovation, in privacy and security, and the Internet's role in economic growth.''
Image: Wiros/FlickrUpdate 5/21/14: After being chastised for his comments about marijuana by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), FBI director Comey told those in attendance at a senate hearing on the bureau's oversight that he was just kidding.
''I am absolutely dead set against using marijuana,'' he said at the hearing, ''I don't want young people to use marijuana. It's against the law. We have a three-year ban on marijuana. I did not say that I'm going to change that ban. I said I have to grapple with the change in my workforce.''
It's no secret that the federal government is having a hard timehiring cybersecurity experts, largely because many hackers can find more lucrative deals that don't involve working for the feds. But there's another wrinkle: the FBI now says that its drug-testing policies are keeping experts off the payroll.
According to theWall Street Journal, FBI Director James Comey said that in order to pursue so-called cyber criminals, the government would pretty much have to let government hackers get stoned'--because who's going to quit the habit just to work for the FBI?
''I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,'' Comey said, clearly not pandering to stereotypes.
The reason for the FBI's unorthodox approach is that Congress has told the agency it needs to hire 2,000 more people this year, and many of those new recruits are going to fight computer-related crime. And as it turns out, those that know computer crime best aren't often the Men's Wearhouse set.
The agency's current regs say that the lawmen won't hire someone who has ''smoked'' marijuana in the last three years. (No word on dabs, edibles and other forms of marijuana consumption.)
In theory, relaxing hiring restrictions for marijuana does make sense. Earlier this year, the fedsadmitted that the government isn't very good at internet security'--despite the fact that the NSA is basically a Philip K. Dick character's worst nightmare'--and that various agencies need to take a long, hard look at hiring practices across the board.
"[We have] the government hiring practices of the 1940s and 50s in the 21st century," Gregory Wilshusen, director of information at the General Accountability Office, told InformationWeek.
Also, despite the federal government's mixed approach to marijuana enforcement, the majorityof Americans believe that it's about time to legalize the drug, which remains classified as a Schedule I drug in the US, which is reserved for the most ''dangerous'' and ''addictive'' intoxicants known to humanity.
Regardless of the federal government's stance, the FBI will apparently consider the issue, and is encouraging anyone who has recently got stoned to apply for a job.
There are a couple different platforms that involved the exploitation of GSM and CDMA networks and devices, Kingfish is one, Stingray is another, and then there's the standard DRT, which is quite large -- think large suitcase. Each of these devices can be used in "tactical" situation. Each of these devices can be mounted on a vehicle, UAV, helicopter... The most disturbing matter for me is that, with these systems, there's no way to differentiate between those in their house (i.e., not public places) and public places. As in, anywhere a signal can be received from a cell tower, these devices can "see" you as well...as long as they are within range.
This is full-take collection, both sides of convo, phone numbers, IMSIs, IMEIs, text messages.
Other code names given that I cannot divulge, but will know what to be looking for.
DRT Boxes email 2
ITM Adam,
I will let the other producer give you the technical information for those systems but I have some anecdotes. My last couple of years in the military there was a shift in SIGINT with the NSA pushing systems that they had previously refused to share down to the lowest level. When I deployed to Afghanistan in 2004 we had PRD-13s, my team was a dismounted team so ours was manpackable, but most were installed in a HUMVEE called the Prophet. Prophets now have DIRTs in them. PRD-13s were for radio intercept and direction finding. The NSA was running DIRTs over there. I saw one in operation while at a border base. They would also lose one every once in a while because they set them up for remote operation and thought a fake rock cover would fool the locals.
We were eventually given a DIRT in the Korengal in 2005 and it reinforced my issues with it. It is an amazing system but in Afghanistan they mainly used FM Icoms for communication and the DIRT could pick up FM but it did it poorly. The best way to listen to Icoms is to have an Icom. The first NSA guy cell and sat phone intel he got and we shared our fm intercept. His replacement was as friendly because he couldnt believe our intel since he didnt get it on his DIRT. The DIRT also picked up and recorded too much to effectively review and act on in a timely manner with one interpreter. The DIRT worked much better in Iraq, from what my former soldiers told me, but they had a strong cell network. The stingray came in after I left but from what I heared it helped reduce the time it took to track an individual down from an hour or two to just 15 minutes.
I also agree with John that the national intercept program is only good for after the fact research or extortion. Like the DIRT in Afghanistan, if you collect so much that you can't go through it then it is useless for directing immediate actions.
Don't use my name on the show if you use this information.
An Afren Competent Person's Report (CPR) of Barda Rash field, carried out as part of the company's annual reserves review, is expected to show a material reduction to previously published estimates of reserves and resources, essentially eliminating gross 2P reserves of 190 mmbbls and revising gross 2C resources from 1,243 mmbbls to around 250 mmbbls
The movement in 2P and 2C reserves and resources has been due to the 2014 reprocessing of 3D seismic shot in 2012 and processed in 2013, alongside results from the company's drilling campaign.
''We are naturally disappointed with the CPR and will now consider our strategic options for Barda Rash,'' said Toby Hayward, Afren interim chief executive officer. ''Meanwhile, we will continue to focus on our core portfolio in Africa and allocate capital to our highest cash return projects.''
Overall, the reservoirs have not performed according to previous expectations and the approved Field Development Plan (FDP).
The wells have produced higher water cuts than expected and the company has encountered operational challenges associated with the drilling of difficult complex fractured reservoirs.
Production from these reservoirs could potentially be achieved with the implementation of recovery schemes requiring significant capital expenditure, which may well be appropriate for a company with a different strategic focus.
Furthermore, while recent results at the field have indicated the presence of light oil accumulations from the deeper Triassic Kurra Chine reservoirs, these have a high level of associated Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), which would require significant capital expenditure to develop.
In light of the above, Afren is now considering its strategic options for the Barda Rash field.
As part of the current work programme on Barda Rash, the company will continue with its commitment to complete the testing of the BR-5 well.
The company will publish the completed CPR once it is finalised.
Afren holds a 60 per cent interest in the Barda Rash field.
European Union energy chief Maros Sefcovic will seek clarification from Russia this week on the South Stream natural-gas project, which Russian President Vladimir Putin declared cancelled last month.
Sefcovic, the European Commission's vice president for energy union, is scheduled to meet Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller in Moscow on Jan. 14. The scrapping of the proposed $45 billion Black Sea pipeline, declared by Putin in Ankara on Dec. 1, sparked concerns in south-eastern EU member countries because it could leave much of the region dependent on Russian gas transiting crisis-torn Ukraine.
The South Stream project was to carry natural gas to Europe, coming ashore in Bulgaria.
''One of my questions to my Russian counterparts will be how they see the current situation, what are their plans, how they want to address this complex issue of supplies of Russian gas to Europe after the Ankara announcement,'' Sefcovic told reporters at a press conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Brussels today.
Sefcovic also said he will highlight that any projects of that magnitude in Europe will have to be in line with European law. The cancellation of South Stream followed calls by the EU regulatory arm on national governments not to continue the project until it is compatible with rules on public procurement as well as ''unbundling,'' which prevents a gas provider from also controlling the pipeline.
Gas Hub
Borisov's plan is to turn Bulgaria into a gas hub for EU countries and neighboring nations in the European Energy Community.
''I really hope we'll be able to find the right solution, especially after the visit to Moscow; the right solution as far as the gas hub is concerned or the continuation of the work on the South Stream,'' Borisov told reporters.
Putin's alternative to the South Stream project is building a pipeline to Turkey and then shipping gas overland to Greece and on to the rest of Europe.
The EU, which relies on Russian gas for around 27 percent of consumption, plans to strengthen cooperation among its members and build an energy union to reduce its dependence and facilitate transition to a low-carbon economy. The commission is due to release a a plan in the first quarter to accelerate cross-border gas and power interconnections, remove market barriers and diversify sources of energy while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
One of the goals of the union is to be able to better tackle situations like the current one in Bulgaria, according to Sefcovic.
''We clearly must be strong enough, independent enough and closely interlinked so that we can prevent any outside pressure, we can lead our own idepenednt energy policy and we can gurantee secure, affordable and environment-friendly energy,'' he said.
ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain on Monday said the Pakistan-China Corridor was the only way of achieving economic stability and urged the nation not to pay heed to the propaganda against its construction.
The president expressed these views during a meeting with a delegation of businessmen from Lahore here at the Aiwan-e-Sadar. The president said the Pak-China Economic Corridor would open up massive opportunities of employment in the country.
He said the whole nation should support this project and asked the businessmen and traders to play their role in strengthening the national economy. He said the country could make progress if solid steps were taken for its development and an improvement was made in the tax system.
The president said that there was a need to simplify the tax system for the non-corporate sector. He urged the nation to support the government in the elimination of corruption and reject corrupt elements in the society.
He expressed his satisfaction over the fact that no scandal of corruption had surfaced at the government level during the last three years. The president said the business community was the backbone of the country and the government was taking steps to overcome the energy crisis and improve the law and order situation.
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Collardeperlaschino - China''Pakistan Economic Corridor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The China-PakistanEconomic corridor is an under-construction development program to connect Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan to China's northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang via highways, railways[1] and pipelines to transport oil and gas. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was among the first advocates of the project; since then Chinese President Xi Jinping, former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have become strong supporters of the project.[2] When the corridor is constructed it will serve as a primary gateway for trade between China and the Middle East and Africa. In particular oil from the Middle East could be offloaded at Gwadar, which is located just outside the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and transported to China through the Baluchistan province in Pakistan. Such a link would vastly cut the 12,000-kilometre route that Mideast oil supplies must now take to reach Chinese ports.[3]
The project received a major boost when control of Gwadar was transferred to China's state-owned China Overseas Ports Holding in February 2013. Built by Chinese workers and opened in 2007, Gwadar is undergoing a major expansion to turn it into a full-fledged deep-water commercial port. Pakistan and China have signed agreements for constructing an international airport at Gwadar, upgrading a section of the 1,300-kilometre Karakorum Highway connecting to Islamabad and laying a fibre-optic cable from the Chinese border to the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi.[4][5] With the development of the corridor Central Asia, traditionally an economically closed region owing to its geography and lack of infrastructure, will have greater access to the sea and to the global trade network.[6] The Pak-China Economic Corridor Secretariat was inaugurated in Islamabad on August 27, 2013.[7]
On November 2014, Chinese government announced that it will finance Chinese companies to build $45.6 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan as part of CPEC. Documents quoted by Reuters show that China has promised to invest around $33.8 billion in various energy projects and $11.8 billion in infrastructure projects which will be completed by 2017 at most. The deal includes $622 million for Gwadar port, According to Reuters, under the CPEC agreement, $15.5 billion worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will add 10,400 megawatts of energy to the national grid of Pakistan.[8][9]
The String of Pearls theory is a geopolitical theory regarding potential Chinese intentions in the Indian Ocean region.[1] It refers to the network of Chinese military and commercial facilities and relationships along its sea lines of communication, which extend from the Chinese mainland to Port Sudan. The sea lines run through several major maritime choke points such as the Strait of Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz and the Lombok Strait, as well as other strategic maritime centers in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Somalia. The term as a geopolitical concept was first used in an internal United States Department of Defense report titled "Energy Futures in Asia".[2] The term has never been used by official Chinese government sources, but is often used in the Indian media.[3]
The emergence of the String of Pearls is indicative of China's growing geopolitical influence through concerted efforts to increase access to ports and airfields, expand and modernize military forces, and foster stronger diplomatic relationships with trading partners.[4] The Chinese government insists that China's burgeoning naval strategy is entirely peaceful in nature and designed solely for the protection of regional trade interests.[5] An analysis by The Economist also found the Chinese moves to be commercial in nature.[6] Although it has been claimed that China's actions are creating a security dilemma between China and India in the Indian Ocean, this has been questioned by some analysts who point to China's fundamental strategic vulnerabilities.[7]
Origins[edit]China's rapid economic development over the course of the last quarter century has been heavily dependent on foreign sources of energy, and it is likely that foreign sources of energy will prove even more critical to the continued growth of the Chinese economy. The sea lines of communication that link the Chinese mainland with ports throughout the Middle East and coasts of Africa, have become a major source of conflict with respect to China's future energy security.[3]
China is the world's second largest oil consumer and the largest oil importer. Oil consumption is expected to grow in China by 5.8% annually until 2015. Oil imported from the Gulf States and Africa comprises 70% of total Chinese oil imports, and remains China's most critical source of energy apart from domestic coal production. In order to meet future demand, China has signed a number of long term contracts to develop Iranian oil fields and to build a pipeline, refinery, and port in Sudan for oil export.[3]
The oversea transport of oil from existing production areas will continue to remain the primary mode of energy importation for the foreseeable future. Efforts to secure new supply lines in Central Asia have proven difficult, with poor infrastructure, political instability, logistical challenges, and corruption hampering energy development there.[3] Energy security also sits at the core of China's anti-piracy efforts, which figure into its larger maritime objectives. The expansion of Chinese naval patrols off the Coast of Somalia, and China's decision to join multi-nation defense patrols in 2010, indicate China's greater assertiveness in the policing of shipping corridors.[8]
Facilities and Relationships[edit]South China Sea[edit]The critical sea lines of communication that connect China to Middle Eastern oil-producing states transverse the South China Sea, making it a key strategic region, and potential trouble spot, for the Chinese government. Chinese naval vessels heavily patrol South China Sea waters, and conflicting territorial claims in the region have periodically erupted in naval confrontations.[9][10] Chinese efforts to control the South China Sea have therefore figured significantly in speculations about the wider ambitions of the Chinese central government in the construction of a power projection chain across Asia.
The central government's efforts to exercise greater control in the region began in earnest after the power vacuum created by the withdrawal of US forces from the Philippines in 1991.[11] Although skirmishes with neighboring powers, most notably with Vietnam during the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, have been a fixture of post-war Chinese foreign relations, the Chinese government began aggressively asserting its territorial claims in the region only within the last two decades. Interest in the region has historically extended to the rich fishing and mineral resources known to exist there.[12] However, islets in the regions can also be used as air and sea bases for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities, as well as base points for Chinese ballistic missile submarines and potential aircraft carrier battle groups.[9]
The Chinese naval base on Hainan Island is generally considered the first of the pearls or potential pearls.[12] Recent construction of an underwater submarine base on Hainan, in addition to the sprawling facilities already located there, seems to further confirm the perceived importance of Hainan as a base of control for China's claims in the South China Sea.[9]Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands, hosts an upgraded Chinese airstrip and has also been identified as a pearl.[2]Sansha, the prefectural-level city established on Woody Island, maintains a division-level garrison that also oversees Chinese claims in the Spratly Islands, extending a small but permanent military presence across Chinese claims in the South China Sea.[8] A $20 billion Chinese proposal to fund the construction of a canal across the Kra Isthmus, which would allow ships to bypass the Strait of Malacca altogether, has also broached concerns of a Chinese-controlled corridor linking Chinese ports and facilities elsewhere in the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.[3][13]
Indian Ocean[edit]Chinese possessions in the Indian Ocean consist primarily of commercial ports owned and operated by Chinese firms, as well as resupply stations operating in agreement with the Chinese central government. The two largest projects consist of a Chinese-financed commercial shipping center in Hambantota, Sri Lanka and a Chinese-controlled deep-water port near the mouth of the Persian Gulf in Gwadar, Pakistan. Both sites have raised the concern of neighboring powers, most significantly India, which fears the possibility of a string of Chinese bases situated just off its coast.[9] Chinese investment in Hambantota, and Sri Lanka's dialogue partner status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), is seen by some Indian analysts as reflective of a wider encirclement strategy on the part of the Chinese.[14][15] The port at Gwadar, which is connected to the Karakoram Highway linking Western China and the Arabian Sea, is of even greater concern to the Indian government, which views it as powerful evidence of Chinese and Pakistani collusion against Indian security and economic interests.[16]
Pakistan[edit]For both Pakistan and China, the Gwadar port offers a number of key benefits. For the Pakistani government, the Gwadar port is seen as having the potential of hedging against a potential Indian blockade of the port of Karachi, which currently handles 90% of Pakistani seaborne trade. For the Chinese central government, which has funded the majority of the $1.2 billion construction, Gwadar represents an important strategic foothold situated only 240 miles from the Strait of Hormuz.[3] Chinese government officials have specifically identified the growing militarization of Central Asia, as a chief motivation in the construction of the Gwadar project.[4] In 2013, the state-owned China Overseas Port Holding Company was officially granted control of the port's operation, further consolidating Chinese influence over the Gwadar project.[17]
Other Countries[edit]Similar port construction projects are also underway in Burma and Bangladesh. The Chinese government has financed a container shipping facility in Chittagong, Bangladesh, which is widely identified as a pearl.[9] However, despite reports of Chittagong's potential military role for the Chinese, the Bangladeshi government has insisted that the port is of an entirely commercial nature and declared it off limits to military vessels. Furthermore, given Bangladesh's close economic ties to India, and agreements for the expansion of Indian investment in Bangladeshi infrastructure projects, Chittagong's military significance for the Chinese is exaggerated.[18]
Strategists have also identified the Marao Atoll, in the Maldives, as a potential Chinese military base of operations. Reports in the Indian press have referred to Chinese plans to construct a submarine base in Marao since at least 1999. However, to date there exists no evidence that suggests a Chinese military presence of any kind in the Maldives. Indeed, it is argued that Marao cannot possibly support the type of complex infrastructure required for submarine operations. And given the nature of diplomatic and military cooperation between India and the Maldives, Chinese encroachment in the Maldives Archipelago is highly unlikely. Many analysts have suggested that Chinese Indian Ocean bases are purely commercial because they would be nearly indefensible in wartime.[15] A large component of China's efforts to establish ports and bases in the Indian Ocean is the result of a need to formalize logistics support agreements for Chinese naval forces conducting anti-piracy efforts off of the Horn of Africa[19] In this regard, Chinese naval strategy is consistent with the interests of India and its Western allies.
Chinese state-owned companies are also responsible for the construction of a railway link between Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and Port Sudan, the country's major port on the Red Sea. Although Sudanese oil makes up only a fraction of total Chinese imports, China has invested over $10 billion in infrastructure projects in the country to take advantage of its substantial oil reserves. Chinese operations in Port Sudan are substantial, but limited completely to the oil export[20][21] China has also agreed to finance and build a $10 billion port in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, which is expected to be completed in 2017 and handle 20 million shipping containers annually.[22] The Chinese government has denied that their investment in the port of Bagamoyo is intended to create a military capability.[23]
Foreign responses[edit]China[edit]China views her own actions in an entirely different light, as their efforts to strengthen a new maritime Silk Road.[24][25][26][27][28]
China's growing economic investments have increased their concerns about the political stability of the countries they are investing in.[29]
India[edit]In 2007, the Indian Navy published the ''Indian Maritime Doctrine'', a document outlining prospective Indian naval strategies. It describes ambitions for an active Indian naval presence from the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Malacca. Furthermore, the doctrine makes explicit mention of the need to police international shipping lanes and control choke points of Indian Ocean trade in particular.[16] In 2007, India opened its second overseas military listening post in northern Madagascar, with the aim of better overseeing shipping movements through the Mozambique Channel. The Indian government has, with the same intentions, hosted negotiations with Mauritania regarding the construction of an airstrip for Indian surveillance aircraft, as well as organized the construction of radar stations in the Maldives.[16] In 2011, the Indian government further announced that the government-financed deep-water port in Sittwe, Burma is to be functional by June 2013, with an additional highway connecting the port to India to be completed by 2014. The construction of the Sittwe port is often cited as evidence of a concerted strategy on the part of India to counterbalance growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia.[30]
Like China, India is heavily dependent on foreign oil producers for its energy needs. About 89% of India's oil arrives by ship, and the burning of oil provides for approximately 33% of India's energy needs. The protection of the major sea lines of communication is therefore recognized as an economic imperative.[16] In this regard, India has historically focused heavily on anti-piracy and counter-terrorism efforts across the Indian Ocean. Most notable among these is Operation Island Watch, the 2010 effort to patrol India's western seaboard against Somali pirates.
A number of these counter-terrorism and anti-piracy efforts have been conducted in coordination with American forces, though Indian officials have traditionally restricted joint military exercises to common interest initiatives, often those under UN sanction.[31] Nevertheless, renewed US interest in countering the threat of Islamic terrorism in South Asia has pushed India and the United States towards more substantive military cooperation. For US military officials and strategists, this growing bilateral relationship is widely seen as an opportunity to counterbalance threats of Chinese regional hegemony. Efforts for bilateral cooperation against rising Chinese power are bolstered by popular fears that China's expanded presence in the Indian Ocean threatens India's economic and military security.[12] Dean Cheng, a notable China expert at the Heritage Foundation, has strongly urged that the United States continue to partner with India to counter China's influence in the Indian Ocean.[32]
United States[edit]The US Navy has unparalleled power projection capabilities and operational strength, and is the major naval force in the waters of South and Southeast Asia.[3] However, the Chinese central government's explicit ambitions for the creation of a ''new security concept'', one that can challenge US dominance in the region, has precipitated a greater willingness on the part of the Chinese to challenge US influence in Asia. China's renewed assertiveness in the South China Sea is of particular concern to US officials, who see China's rise as a threat to the United States' role as a provider of regional and global stability.[3]
The ''Pivot to Asia'' strategy of the Obama Administration is designed to engage China by consolidating and expanding diplomatic and economic relationships with existing regional partners, particularly in East Asia and Southeast Asia. This approach has emphasized multilateralism, as exemplified by increased US engagement with ASEAN and efforts for the formation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pan-Asian free trade deal.[33] However, the US has also sought an expanded and more cooperative military presence in the region, evidenced by the 2006 Cope India exercise and others like it.[3] Strong US relations with its key regional allies, including Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, have been reinforced by strengthened cooperation with countries threatened by Chinese control, such as the Philippines.[30]
Japan[edit]Japanese apprehensions regarding the development of an interconnected system of Chinese military and commercial ports centers primarily on the protection of trading interests. 90% of Japan's imported oil flows to Japan through the sea lanes of the South China Sea, and any undue Chinese influence in the region is seen as a potential threat to Japanese economic security. Moreover, Japanese officials envision that, in the case of a more pervasive Chinese power projection capability in East Asia, territorial disputes between China and Japan in the East China Sea and Philippine Sea might escalate to a point of outright military confrontation.[9] In particular, the Senkaku, which is claimed by China but controlled by Japan, and Ryukyu island chains, are identified as key friction points between the two countries. Both island groups are located off of China's eastern seaboard and must be navigated by Chinese naval and commercial vessels sailing on their way to the wider Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, the proximity of both island groups to Taiwan offers them an attractive operational role for Chinese military planners looking to mitigate US naval superiority in any potential war over Taiwan.[34]
In 2010, in part because of increased diplomatic tension with China, Japan announced revised National Defence Program guidelines, which advocate enhanced surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the Ryukyu islands, as well as the increased support for submarine activities.[9] At the US''Japan Security Consultative Committee on June 21, 2011, the Japanese and US governments issued a firm joint declaration announcing intentions for the maintenance of the strong US naval deterrent in the Taiwan Strait and the expansion of security ties with ASEAN, Australia, and India. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's has described this new China-wary foreign policy as having the potential to create an "arc of freedom" between Japan and its traditional allies the US and Australia, and India.[35] This project is bolstered by the 2008 security cooperation agreement between Japan and India, which calls for greater maritime security coordination and diplomatic cooperation on regional issues.[36]
Australia[edit]The Australian government has repeatedly expressed concern about mounting tensions in East Asia and Southeast Asia, with the security of Australia's so-called "Northern approaches" seen by lawmakers and officials as essential to the security of seaborne trade and energy supply routes.[9] As a reaction to China's growing influence, and as part of the United States' proclaimed ''Pivot to Asia'' strategy, the Australian government approved the stationing of US troops and aircraft in the northern Australian city of Darwin in late 2011.[37]
See also[edit]References[edit]^http://csis.org/publication/issues-insights-vol-14-no-7-revisiting-chinas-string-pearls-strategy^ abChina builds up strategic sea lanes, "The Washington Times", Washington, 17 January 2005. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^ abcdefghihttp://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/The%20World%20Today/2012/february/0212vines.pdf^ abPehrson, Christopher J.String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power Across the Asian Littoral., "Carlisle Papers in Security Strategy", July 2006. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Hu: China Would Never Seek Hegemony, "Xinhua News Agency", Beijing, 23 April 2009. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^"China's growing empire of ports abroad is mainly about trade, not aggression". economist.com. The Economist Newspaper Limited. 8 June 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013. ^David Brewster. "Beyond the String of Pearls: Is there really a Security Dilemma in the Indian Ocean?. Retrieved 11 August 2014". ^ abChina's anti-piracy role off Somalia expands., "BBC", 29 January 2010. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^ abcdefghShrivastava, Sanskar (1 June 2013). "Indian String of Pearls "Unstringing" Chinese String of Pearls Theory". The World Reporter. Retrieved 2013-06-04. ^Blasko, Dennis J. and M. Taylor Fravel. "'Much Ado About The Sansha Garrison.", "The Diplomat", 23 August 2012. Retrieved on 4 May 2013^Kotani, Tetsuo. "'Why China Wants South China Sea.", "The Diplomat", 18 July 2011. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^ abcPaal, Douglas H. "'Beware the South China Sea.", "The Diplomat", 15 July 2011. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Sulong, Rini Suryati. 2012. "'The Kra Canal and Southeast Asian Relations.", "Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs", Hamburg, 31 (4): 110-125.^Joseph, Josy. "Delhi entangled in the Dragon's String of Pearls.", "DNA", New Delhi, 11 May 2009. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^ abSamaranayake, Nilanthi. 2011. "Are Sri Lanka's Relations with China Deepening? An Analysis of Economic, Military, and Diplomatic Data.", "Asian Security" 7 (2): 119-146.^ abcdEshel, David. "'String of Pearls' is Securing China's Sea Lanes."Defense Update, 20 December 2010.^Raza, Syed Irfan."China given contract to operate Gwadar port.", "Dawn", 19 February 2013. Retrieved on 4 May 2013^Kostecka, Daniel. "Hambantota, Chittagong, and the Maldives '' Unlikely Pearls for the Chinese Navy.", "China Brief", 19 November 2010. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Vines, Alex. 2012. Mesmerised by Chinese string of pearls theory, "The World Today", 33-34.^Devonshire-Ellis, Chris and Sondre Ulvund Solstad. "China '' The Great Infrastructure Developer.", "China Briefing", 27 March 2013. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Perlez, Jane. "South Sudan to Get Aid From China; No Oil Deal.", "The New York Times", Beijing, 25 April 2012. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Balile, Deodatus. "Tanzania and China sign port development package.", "Sabahi", Dar es Salaam, 27 March 2013. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^"Rapid Fire April 1, 2013: China Not Investing in Ports Abroad for Mil Purposes.", "Defense Industry Daily", 1 April 2013. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Singh, Teshu (15 October 2013). "China and ASEAN: Revisiting the Maritime Silk Road". www.ipcs.org. The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. Retrieved 16 October 2013. ^Tiezzi, Shannon (13 February 2014). "The Maritime Silk Road Vs. The String of Pearls". thediplomat.com. The Diplomat. Retrieved 12 February 2014. ^Panda, Ankit (February 15, 2014). "China Invites India To The 'Maritime Silk Road'". thediplomat.com. The Diplomat. Retrieved 14 February 2014. ^Sibal, Kanwal (24 February 2014). "China's maritime 'silk road' proposals are not as peaceful as they seem". www.dailymail.co.uk. The Daily Mail. Retrieved 25 February 2014. ^"Beijing steps up Maritime Silk Road project". www.wantchinatimes.com (Xinhua). 18 April 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014. ^Johnson, Keith (1 May 2014). "Rough Ride on the New Silk Road". www.foreignpolicy.com (Foreign Policy). Retrieved 1 May 2014. ^ abPrakash, Vishnu. "India seeks to deepen economic ties with Myanmar.", "The Times of India", New Delhi, 14 October 2011. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Kronstadt, Alan K. and Sonia Pinto. "India-U.S. Security Relations: Current Engagement.", "Congressional Research Service", Washington, 13 November 2012. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^"'India, US need to partner to balance China in Indian Ocean", "The Economic Times", Washington, 2 September 2010. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Schiavenza, Matt. "What Exactly Does It Mean That the U.S. Is Pivoting to Asia?, "The Atlantic", 15 April 2013. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Sayers, Eric. "Japan's Area-Denial Strategy.", "The Diplomat", 19 May 2011. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^"Japanese PM calls for 'arc of freedom' democratic alliance.", "Taipei Times", New Delhi, 23 August 2007. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^"Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation between Japan and India.", "Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan", 22 October 2008. Web. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.^Bohan, Caren and James Grubel. "Obama boosts U.S. military in Australia, reassures China.", "Reuters", Canberra, 16 November 2011. Retrieved on 4 May 2013.
News stories recently reported that the International Criminal Court convicted a Congolese warlord of being an accessory to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Rarely were readers told that this is only the second conviction obtained in the Court'--both of Congolese warlords'--after 12 years of the Court's operation and over $1 billion in expenditures. Rarer still was the insight that even this conviction, on a 2-1 vote, was long in coming and disappointing in outcome since the criminal was acquitted of the most serious charges, and was only convicted at all because of a mid-course correction to charge him with being merely an accessory to the crimes.
The obvious question few seem to be asking is whether the I.C.C. is simply too expensive and inefficient to justify. Originally designed to make certain that war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity were not ignored, the Court is supposed to achieve a sufficiently robust presence that it contributes ''to the prevention of such crime.'' To that end, it has 34 judges, over 700 staff, and an annual budget of $166 million. They say you can't put a price on justice but $500 million per warlord conviction seems high by any standard. And what do 34 judges do all day? You don't have to be a legal expert to figure that the preventive effect of convicting 2 warlords in 12 years doesn't exactly leave international war criminals shaking in their boots.
English: The building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands Deutsch: Das Geb¤ude des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofes in Den Haag, Niederlande (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The next scheduled prosecution was at least going after a bigger fish, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, but that trial was officially postponed last month after witnesses began to withdraw. There are reports that this prosecution may be close to collapse. The Prosecutor of the Court is unable to arrest her most visible target, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who has been indicted but ignores the warrant for his arrest, as do other countries in the region. And speaking of the African region, all the Court's cases in its 12-year history have come from that continent, prompting concern from leaders there, and a decision by the African Union not to cooperate with the ICC.
Small fish, few cases, fewer convictions, arrest warrants ignored, all while the Court burns through millions of dollars a year in The Hague. It seems evident that something is wrong with this picture, but what might be done? One obvious possibility would be to use the money instead to strengthen national courts. Under the doctrine of complementarity, the ICC acknowledges that it is essentially a back-up to national courts. Indeed, much of the reason for creating it was an acknowledgment that a number of countries simply do not have sufficiently strong or independent judiciaries, and that their court systems would easily be overwhelmed by mass atrocities. What if these hundreds of millions of dollars were invested directly into the national judiciaries of these countries, allowing the trials to take place closer to home where witnesses might be more readily available and the sense of justice and healing would be more directly felt?
Another alternative might be temporary international tribunals such as those created to deal with the massive genocide in Rwanda, or in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. These tribunals have not been inexpensive either, but at least they have brought hundreds of cases and a large number of convictions. By comparison, the trial docket in The Hague is embarrassingly small. Since all the ICC cases so far have been brought in Africa, perhaps it would make sense to develop an African regional court.
English: One Billion Dollar Artwork (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When the International Criminal Court was being formed, I was among those who criticized it as one more international institution that would try to do too much, inserting itself into complex political, diplomatic and military matters that should not be reduced to criminal prosecutions. I was thinking of a U.S.-style independent prosecutor ranging around the world looking for trouble. Although there has been some of that, it turns out by now that the bigger problem is that the Court is accomplishing too little. The ICC is one more utopian tool of global governance that has disappointed. Its funding and staff would be better utilized to strengthen national and regional criminal justice.
MOSCOW, January 9 (Sputnik) '' Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has demonstrated his knowledge of history to the world.
On Thursday, while on an official visit to Berlin, the bespectacled young politician was interviewed live by the German TV channel ARD, where he claimed that the USSR had kicked off the Second World War by invading Germany.
"All of us still clearly remember the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany," he said. "We need to avoid it."
"Nobody has the right to rewrite the results of the Second World War," he added. "Russia's President Putin is trying to do exactly this."
Yatsenyuk, however, did not clarify what particular results of the Second World War President Putin is trying to rewrite. The TV host seemed uninterested in pursuing the matter.
Moscow has requested Berlin to clarify its position on the Ukrainian Prime Minister's description of a Soviet ''invasion'' of Germany and Ukraine during World War II, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said Friday.
''We have sent a note to the German Foreign Ministry requesting its official position regarding extremist remarks made by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which distort history,'' Titov told the press.
Prior to the Second World War, most of Ukraine, including Kiev, was part of the USSR although what was to become western Ukraine was split between Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.
(C) Photo: Taken from YouTube
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk interviewed live by the German TV channel ARD.
In September of 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union split Poland and entered into other countries which had been established in the wake of the First World War.
Although several independent Ukrainian states had existed briefly following the collapse of the Russian Empire, these were short-lived and had been subsumed into Poland and the Soviet Union by 1921.
And of course, it was Nazi Germany which invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 under the codename Operation Barbarossa. Soviet troops eventually did take Berlin in May of 1945, after a grueling conflict which had cost the USSR over 22 million lives.
The TV host seemed not to be aware of the Prime Minister's historical gaffe.
The video of the interview is available on Youtube in German, Ukrainian and Russian.
The prime minister's remarks have already been criticized by Russia.
In his Twitter, the head of Russia's parliamentary committee on international affairs Aleksei Pushkov made the following comment:
"Yatsenyuk has finally gone off his rocker. After his statement regarding 'the Soviet invasion into Germany and Ukraine' during the Second World War, one can't take him seriously."
Aid, Economy & Trade, Energy, Eye on the IFIs, Food & Agriculture, Global Geopolitics, Natural Resources, Projects, TerraViva United Nations, Trade & Investment | Columnist ServiceIn this column, Fr(C)d(C)ric Mousseau, Policy Directory of the Oakland Institute and co-author of the report 'Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict', argues that IMF and World Bank aid packages contingent on austerity reforms will have a devastating impact on Ukrainians' standard of living and increase poverty in the country.
Typical agricultural landscape of Ukraine, Kherson Oblast. Credit: Dobrych (Flickr)/CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
OAKLAND, United States, Aug 12 2014 (IPS) - Mostly unreported as the Ukraine conflict captures headlines, international financing has played a significant role in the current conflict in Ukraine.
In late 2013, conflict between pro-European Union (EU) and pro-Russian Ukrainians escalated to violent levels, leading to the departure of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 and prompting the greatest East-West confrontation since the Cold War.
Fr(C)d(C)ric Mousseau
A major factor in the crisis that led to deadly protests and eventually Yanukovych's removal from office was his rejection of an EU association agreement that would have further opened trade and integrated Ukraine with the European Union. The agreement was tied to a 17 billion dollars loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Instead, Yanukovych chose a Russian aid package worth 15 billion dollars plus a 33 percent discount on Russian natural gas.
The relationship with international financial institutions changed swiftly under the pro-EU government put in place at the end of February 2014 which went for the multi-million dollar IMF package in May 2014.
Announcing a 3.5 billion dollars aid programme on May 22, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim lauded the Ukrainian authorities for developing a comprehensive programme of reforms, and their commitment to carry it out with support from the World Bank Group. He failed to mention the neo-liberal conditions imposed by the Bank to lend money, including that the government limit its own power by removing restrictions that hinder competition and limiting the role of state control in economic activities.
''The stakes around Ukraine's vast agricultural sector, the world's third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat, constitute a critical factor that has been overlooked. With ample fields of fertile black soil that allow for high production volumes of grains, Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe''
The rush to provide new aid packages to the country with the new government aligned with the neo-liberal agenda was a reward from both institutions.
The East-West competition over Ukraine, however, is about the control of natural resources, including uranium and other minerals, as well as geopolitical issues such as Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The stakes around Ukraine's vast agricultural sector, the world's third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat, constitute a critical factor that has been overlooked. With ample fields of fertile black soil that allow for high production volumes of grains, Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe.
In the last decade, the agricultural sector has been characterised by a growing concentration of production within very large agricultural holdings that use large-scale intensive farming systems. Not surprisingly, the presence of foreign corporations in the agricultural sector and the size of agro-holdings are both growing quickly, with more than 1.6 million hectares signed over to foreign companies for agricultural purposes in recent years.
Now the goal is to set policies that will benefit Western corporations. Whereas Ukraine does not allow the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture, Article 404 of the EU agreement, which relates to agriculture, includes a clause that has generally gone unnoticed: both parties will cooperate to extend the use of biotechnologies.
Given the struggle for resources in Ukraine and the influx of foreign investors in the agriculture sector, an important question is whether the results of the programme will benefit Ukraine and its farmers by securing their property rights or pave the way for corporations to more easily access property and land.
By encouraging reforms such as the deregulation of seed and fertiliser markets, the country's agricultural sector is being forced open to foreign corporations such as Dupont and Monsanto.
The Bank's activities and its loan and reform programmes in Ukraine seem to be working toward the expansion of large industrial holdings in Ukrainian agriculture owned by foreign entities.
Amid the current turmoil, the World Bank and the IMF are now pushing for more reforms to improve the business climate and increase private investment. In March 2014, the former prime minister ad interim, Arsenij Yatsenyuk, welcomed strict and painful structural reforms as part of the 17 billion dollars IMF loan package, dismissing the need to negotiate any terms.
The IMF austerity reforms will affect monetary and exchange rate policies, the financial sector, fiscal policies, the energy sector, governance, and the business climate.
The loan is also a precondition for the release of further financial support from the European Union and the United States. If fully adopted, the reforms may lead to significant price increases of essential consumer goods, a 47 to 66 percent increase in personal income tax rates, and a 50 percent increase in gas bills. These measures, it is feared, will have a devastating social impact, resulting in a collapse of the standard of living and dramatic increases in poverty.
Although Ukraine started implementing pro-business reforms under president Yanukovych through the Ukraine Investment Climate Advisory Services Project and by streamlining trade and property transfer procedures, his ambition to mould the country to the World Bank and IMFs standards was not reflected in other realms of policy and his allegiance to Russia eventually led to his removal from office.
Following the installation of a pro-West government, there has been an acceleration of structural adjustment led by the international institutions along with an increase in foreign investment, aimed at further expansion of large-scale acquisitions of agricultural land by foreign companies and further corporatisation of agriculture in the country.
The experience of structural adjustment programmes around the developing world foretells that it will increase foreign control of the Ukrainian economy as well as increase poverty and inequality. As Western powers get ready to impose sanctions on Russia for its transgressions in Ukraine, it remains unclear how programmes and conditionalities imposed by the World Bank will improve the lives of Ukrainians and build a sustainable economic future.
Is Europe's Breadbasket Up for Grabs? | Inter Press Service
Active Citizens, Aid, Armed Conflicts, Civil Society, Democracy, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Editors' Choice, Europe, Eye on the IFIs, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Natural Resources, Poverty & MDGs, TerraViva United Nations, Trade & InvestmentUkraine is the world's third-largest exporter of cotton and the fifth-largest exporter of wheat. Credit: Bigstock
NEW YORK, Jul 30 2014 (IPS) - Amidst an exodus of some 100,000 people from the conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, ongoing fighting in the urban strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk between Ukrainian soldiers and separatist rebels, and talk of more sanctions against Russia, it is hard to focus on the more subtle changes taking place in this eastern European nation.
But while global attention has been channeled towards the political crisis, sweeping economic reforms are being ushered in under the leadership of the newly elected president Petro Poroshenko, who recently brokered deals with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that have rights groups on edge.
''These reforms sound good on paper, but when you look more closely you see they are actually designed to benefit large multinational corporations over workers and small-scale farmers." -- Fr(C)d(C)ric Mousseau
Even before Poroshenko assumed office on Jun. 7, international financial institutions (IFIs) were rushing emergency missions into the country, with IMF European Department Director Reza Moghadam declaring on a Mar. 7 visit, ''I am positively impressed with authorities' determination, sense of responsibility and commitment to an agenda of economic reform.''
After years of dangling a 17-billion-dollar loan '' withheld in part due to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to implement a highly contested pension reform bill that would have raised the retirement age by 10 years, and his insistence on curbing gas price hikes '' the IMF has now released its purse strings.
The World Bank followed suit, announcing a 3.5-billion-dollar aid package on May 22 that the Bank's president, Jim Yong Kim, said was conditional upon the government ''removing restrictions that hinder competition and ['...] limiting the role of state control in economic activities.''
While these reforms include calls for greater transparency to spur economic growth, experts are concerned that Ukraine's rapid pivot to Western neoliberal policies could spell disaster, particularly in the immense agricultural sector that is widely considered the 'breadbasket of Europe.'
A quiet land-grab
Ukraine is the world's third-largest exporter of cotton and the fifth-largest exporter of wheat. Agriculture accounts for about 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with vast fields of fertile soil yielding bumper harvests of grain and cereals each year.
According to a 2013 forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ukraine is poised to become the world's second biggest grain exporter in the world (after the U.S.), shipping over 30 million tonnes of grain out of the country last year.
The World Bank estimates that farmers and agricultural workers made up 17 percent of the country's labour force as of 2012. And according to the Centre for Eastern Studies, agricultural exports soared in the last decade, from 4.3 billion dollars in 2005 to 17.9 billion dollars in 2012.
Lush soil and a rich agrarian culture do not immediately add up to nationwide dividends. Potential investors have cited''red tape'' and ''corruption'' as hindrances to development, as well as a communist legacy that forbids the sale of land.
But the past decade has seen an abrupt change in Ukraine's agricultural sector, with foreign investors and agri-business hugely expanding ownership and influence in the country.
According to a report released Monday by the U.S.-based Oakland Institute, over 1.6 million hectares of land have been signed over to multinational companies since 2002, including ''over 405,000 hectares to a company listed in Luxembourg, 444,800 hectares to Cyprus-registered investors, 120,000 hectares to a French corporation, and 250,000 hectares to a Russian company.''
A deal brokered between China and Yanukovych prior to the political crisis '' now disputed under the present regime '' granted Beijing control over some three million hectares of prime farmland in the east, an area about the size of Belgium that totals five percent of Ukraine's arable land.
This changing climate has been a boon for investors and corporations, with Michael Cox, research director at the investment bank Piper Jaffray, referring to Ukraine as one of the ''most promising growth markets for farm-equipment giant Deere, as well as seed producers Monsanto and DuPont.''
Such statements have raised a red flag among researchers and trade watchdogs.
OI Executive Director Anuradha Mital told IPS, ''IFIs are imposing Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in Ukraine, which we know '' from the experience of the Third World '' will undoubtedly lead to severe austerity measures for the people and increase poverty among the Ukrainians.''
''Ukraine is also one of the 10 pilot countries in the World Bank's new Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture (BBA) project,'' Mittal told IPS, referring to a brand new initiative, still in the development stage, which is connected to the Bank's controversial Doing Business rankings.
This index has been criticised by numerous groups including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) '' comprised of over 176 million members hailing from 161 countries '' for favouring low taxes for transnational corporations and lowering labour standards in developing countries as a means of attracting foreign investment.
The Bank itself says the BBA will largely serve as a tool for improving agricultural output.
''The world needs to feed nine billion people by 2050,'' a World Bank spokesperson told IPS.
''For small-scale farmers to be more productive and far more competitive, they need access to land, finance, improved seed, fertiliser, water, electricity, transport and markets.
''By identifying and monitoring policies and regulations that limit access of smaller producers to these critical components of success, BBA is being designed as a tool to foster an enabling environment that boosts local and regional agribusinesses,'' she concluded.
David Sedik, senior policy officer at the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) regional office for Europe and Central Asia, believes such an initiative is sorely needed in Ukraine, where ''the primary beneficiaries of subsidies granted by the agricultural VAT system are'... large agri-holding companies, the overwhelming majority of which are Ukrainian.''
''The list of needed reforms is quite long, and could start with building a more transparent land market,'' he told IPS. ''A first step in this direction could be the lifting of the moratorium on land sales.''
''The BBA project seems to support the construction of a transparent and inclusive system of agricultural regulation, something Ukraine lacks,'' Sedik added.
But the OI report's co-author Fr(C)d(C)ric Mousseau says initiatives like the BBA and others exist primarily to pry open Ukraine's doors, hitherto sealed by its socialist traditions, to foreign capital.
''These reforms sound good on paper, but when you look more closely you see they are actually designed to benefit large multinational corporations over workers and small-scale farmers,'' Mousseau told IPS.
''Ranking systems like the BBA push for contract farming, which entails farmers working for corporations, instead of as subsistence producers. We are denouncing this rhetoric, and its attendant struggle between different foreign interests over Ukraine's resources.''
Research into the impacts of the Bank's 'Doing Business' rankings in eight countries '' including Mali, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and the Philippines '' has yielded similar results: sharp increases in foreign investments and land-grabbing in a bid to appear more 'business friendly'.
Further, Mousseau said, arrangements such as the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine offer glimpses into an agricultural future steered by corporate interests.
''Until now, Ukraine had banned the use of GMOs in the agriculture sector,'' Mousseau stated. ''So when we anaylsed the EU Association Agreement we were surprised by article 404, which states very clearly that both parties agree to expand the use of biotechnologies.''
Such clauses, experts say, could strengthen existing initiatives such as Monsanto's Ukraine-based 'Grain-basket of the Future' project (which offers 25,000-dollar loans to rural farmers) and Cargill's 200-million-dollar stake in UkrLandFarming, the eighth largest land cultivator in the world.
These developments give weight to the title of OI's report, 'Walking on the West Side', a reference to the role of Western interests in Ukraine's unfolding political crisis.
''It is necessary to see this in context of the U.S.'' Russia struggle over Ukraine,'' Joel Kovel, U.S. scholar and author of over 20 books on international politics, told IPS.
''Geostrategic politics and neoliberal economics fit together within the overall plan '...in which global finance capital under American control and neoconservative leadership imposes austerity, seeks dominion over the easternmost portion of Europe, and continues the policy of encircling Russia,'' he stated.
Editing by: Kitty Stapp
The writer can be contacted at kanyaldalmeida@gmail.com
Ukraine opens up for Monsanto, land grabs and GMOs - The Ecologist
Ukraine and, to a wider extent, Eastern Europe, are among the most promising growth markets for farm-equipment giant Deere, as well as seed producers Monsanto and DuPont.
Finally, a little-known aspect of the crisis in Ukraine is receiving some international attention.
The California-based Oakland Institute recently released a report revealing that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), under terms of their $17 billion loan to Ukraine, would open that country to genetically-modified (GM) crops and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture.
The report is entitled 'Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict'.
In late 2013, the then president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected a European Union association agreement tied to the $17 billion IMF loan, whose terms are only now being revealed.
Instead, Yanukovych chose a Russian aid package worth $15 billion plus a discount on Russian natural gas. His decision was a major factor in the ensuing deadly protests that led to his ouster from office in February 2014 and the ongoing crisis.
According to the Oakland Institute, "Whereas Ukraine does not allow the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture, Article 404 of the EU agreement, which relates to agriculture, includes a clause that has generally gone unnoticed: it indicates, among other things, that both parties will cooperate to extend the use of biotechnologies.
"There is no doubt that this provision meets the expectations of the agribusiness industry. As observed by Michael Cox, research director at the investment bank Piper Jaffray, 'Ukraine and, to a wider extent, Eastern Europe, are among the most promising growth markets for farm-equipment giant Deere, as well as seed producers Monsanto and DuPont'."
Ukrainian law bars farmers from growing GM crops. Long considered 'the bread basket of Europe', Ukraine's rich black soil is ideal for growing grains, and in 2012 Ukrainian farmers harvested more than 20 million tonnes of corn.
Monsanto's 'non-GMO' $140m investment
In May 2013, Monsanto announced plans to invest $140 million in a non-GMO corn seed plant in Ukraine, with Monsanto Ukraine spokesman Vitally Fechuk confirming that "We will be working with conventional seeds only" because "in Ukraine only conventional seeds are allowed for production and importation."
But by November 2013, six large Ukrainian agriculture associations had prepared draft amendments to the law, pushing for "creating, testing, transportation and use of GMOs regarding the legalization of GM seeds."
The president of the Ukrainian Grain Association, Volodymyr Klymenko, told a Nov. 5 press conference in Kiev:
"We could mull over this issue for a long time, but we, jointly with the [agricultural] associations, have signed two letters to change the law on biosecurity, in which we proposed the legalization of the use of GM seeds, which had been tested in the United States for a long time, for our producers."
(Note: actually, GM seeds and GMOs have never undergone independent, long-term testing in the US.)
Creating a 'favorable environment' - for Monsanto
The agricultural associations' draft amendments coincided with the terms of the EU association agreement and IMF/World Bank loan.
The website sustainablepulse.com - which tracks GMO news worldwide - immediately slammed the agricultural associations' proposal, with director Henry Rowlands stating:
"Ukraine agriculture will be seriously damaged if the Ukrainian government legally allows GM seeds in the country. Their farmers will find their export markets reduced due to consumers' anti-GMO sentiments both in Russia and the EU."
Rowlands said that Monsanto's investment in Ukraine"could rise to $300 million within several years. Does Ukrainian agriculture want to totally rely on the success or failure of one US-based company?"
On December 13, 2013, Monsanto's Jesus Madrazo, Vice President of Corporate Engagement, told the US-Ukraine Conference in Washington, DC that the company sees "the importance of creating a favorable environment [in Ukraine] that encourages innovation and fosters the continued development of agriculture.
"Ukraine has the opportunity to further develop the potential of conventional crops, which is where we are currently concentrating our efforts. We also hope that at some point biotechnology is a tool that will be available to Ukrainian farmers in the future."
Just a few days before Madrazo's remarks in Washington, Monsanto Ukraine had launched its "social development" program for the country, called 'Grain Basket of the Future'. It provides grants to rural villagers so they can (in Monsanto's words) "start feeling that they can improve their situation themselves as opposed to waiting for a handout."
Actually, the real "handout" is the one going to Big US Agribusiness through the terms of the IMF / World Bank loan, which besides opening the country to GM crops, will also further lift the ban on the sale of Ukraine's rich agricultural lands to the private sector.
As Morgan Williams, president and CEO of the US-Ukraine Business Council, told International Business Times in March, "Ukraine's agriculture could be a real gold mine."
But he added that there are "many aspects of the [Ukraine] business climate that need to be changed. The major item would center around getting the government out of business ... "
The WikiLeaks Cables - lobbying for GMO
In August 2011, WikiLeaks released US diplomatic cables showing that the US State Department has been lobbying worldwide for Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations like DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow.
The US non-profit Food & Water Watch, after combing through five years of these cables (2005-2009), released its report 'Biotech Ambassadors: How the US State Department Promotes the Seed Industry's Global Agenda' on May 14, 2013.
The report showed the US State Department has "lobbied foreign governments to adopt pro-agricultural biotechnology policies and laws, operated a rigorous public relations campaign to improve the image of biotechnology, and challenged commonsense biotechnology safeguards and rules - even including opposing laws requiring the labeling of genetically-engineered (GE) foods."
According to consortiumnews.com (March 16, 2014), Morgan Williams is at "the nexus of Big Ag's alliance with US foreign policy."
Besides being president and CEO of the US-Ukraine Business Council, Williams is Director of Government Affairs at private equity firm SigmaBleyzer, which touts Williams' work with "various agencies of the US government, members of Congress, congressional committees, the Embassy of Ukraine to the US, international financial institutions, think tanks and other organizations on US-Ukraine business, trade, investment and economic development issues."
The US-Ukraine Business Council's 16-member Executive Committee is packed with US agribusiness companies, including representatives from Monsanto, John Deere, DuPont Pioneer, Eli Lilly, and Cargill.
The Council's 20 'senior Advisors' include James Greene (Former Head of NATO Liason Office Ukraine); Ariel Cohen (Senior Research Fellow for The Heritage Foundation); Leonid Kozachenko (President of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation); six former US Ambassadors to Ukraine, and the former ambassador of Ukraine to the US, Oleh Shamshur.
Shamshur is now a senior advisor to PBN Hill + Knowlton Strategies - a unit of PR giant Hill + Knowlton Strategies (H+K). H + K is a subsidiary of the gargantuan London-based WPP Group, which owns some dozen big PR firms, including Burson-Marsteller (a long-time Monsanto advisor).
Hill + Knowlton Strategies
On April 15, 2014 Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper published an op-ed piece by H+K assistant consultant Olga Radchenko. The piece railed against Russian President Vladimir Putin and "Mr. Putin's PR machine" and stated that
"Last month [March 2014 - a month after the coup], a group of Kiev-based PR professionals formed the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, a voluntary operation aimed at helping to communicate Ukraine's image and manage its messaging on the global stage."
The PBN Hill + Knowlton Strategies website states that the company's CEO Myron Wasylyk is "a Board member of the US-Ukraine Business Council", and the company's Managing Director/Ukraine, Oksana Monastyrska, "leads the firm's work for Monsanto." Monastyrska also formerly worked for the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.
According to the Oakland Institute, the terms of the World Bank/IMF loan to Ukraine have already led to "an increase in foreign investment, which is likely to result in further expansion of large-scale acquisitions of agricultural land by foreign companies and further corporatization of agriculture in the country."
Meanwhile, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated in April: "We don't have a goal of developing GM products here or to import them. We can feed ourselves with normal, common, not genetically modified products. If the Americans like to eat such products, let them eat them. We don't need to do that; we have enough space and opportunities to produce organic food."
Hill + Knowlton, with its Kuwait 'incubator babies atrocities' falsehood, was instrumental in getting the American public to back the first Gulf War on Iraq in the early 1990s.
Now the company is involved in fomenting a Cold War 2 or worse, and on behalf of Monsanto - recently voted the "most evil" corporation on the planet.
That's something to recall in the midst of the extensive mainstream media demonizing of Putin.
Joyce Nelson is an award-winning Canadian freelance writer/researcher and the author of five books, including Sultans of Sleaze: PR & the Media
This article was originally published on CounterPunch.
Ukraine Agreed to a Monsanto ''Land Grab'' to Get a $17 Billion Loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) | Global Research
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) is helping biotech run the latest war in Ukraine. Make no mistake that what is happening in the Ukraine now is deeply tied to the interests of Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, and other big players in the poison food game.
Monsanto has an office in Ukraine. While this does not shout 'culpability' from every corner, it is no different than the US military's habit to place bases in places that they want to gain political control. The opening of this office coincided with land grabs with loans from the IMF and World Bank to one of the world's most hated corporations '' all in support of their biotech takeover.
Previously, there was a ban on private sector land ownership in the country '' but it was lifted 'just in time' for Monsanto to have its way with the Ukraine.
In fact, a bit of political maneuvering by the IMF gave the Ukraine a $17 billion loan '' but only if they would open up to biotech farming and the selling of Monsanto's poison crops and chemicals '' destroying a farmland that is one of the most pristine in all of Europe. Farm equipment dealer, Deere, along with seed producers Dupont and Monsanto, will have a heyday.
In the guise of 'aid,' a claim has been made on Ukraine's vast agricultural riches. It is the world's third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine has deep, rich, black soil that can grow almost anything, and its ability to produce high volumes of GM grain is what made biotech come rushing to take it over.
As reported by The Ecologist, according to the Oakland Institute:
''Whereas Ukraine does not allow the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture, Article 404 of the EU agreement, which relates to agriculture, includes a clause that has generally gone unnoticed: it indicates, among other things, that both parties will cooperate to extend the use of biotechnologies.
There is no doubt that this provision meets the expectations of the agribusiness industry. As observed by Michael Cox, research director at the investment bank Piper Jaffray, 'Ukraine and, to a wider extent, Eastern Europe, are among the most promising growth markets for farm-equipment giant Deere, as well as seed producers Monsanto and DuPont'.''
Read: Former Pro-GMO Biotech Scientist Admits GMOs are NOT Safe
The nation WAS Europe's breadbasket '' and now in an act of bio-warfare, it will become the wasteland that many US farmlands have become due to copious amounts of herbicide spraying, the depletion of soil, and the overall disruption of a perfect ecosystem.
The aim of US government entities is to support the takeover of Ukraine for biotech interests (among other strategies involving the prop-up of a failing cabalistic banking system that Russia has also refused with its new alignment with BRICS and its own payment system called SWIFT). This is similar to biotech's desired takeover of Hawaiian islands and land in Africa.
The Ukraine war has many angles that haven't been exposed to the general public '' and you can bet that biotech has their hands in the proverbial corn pie.
Additional Sources:
Oakland Institute
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Map of northern Finland indicating Rovaniemi, the Finnish border city of Salla and the Russian city of Alakurtti.(Yle/Uutisgrafiikka)
Russia is stepping up its military activity in the Arctic region.As part of this effort, Russian Armed Forces reopened an abandoned military base on the Kola Peninsula in the Russia city of Alakurtti recently, just 60 kilometres from the Finnish border.
Russia is moving military forces to previously under-occupied military basis in Arctic territory that once belonged to Finland. The troops are stationed at Alakurtti Air Base''a naval air base in Murmansk Oblast, Russia located three km northwest of the Russian municipality of Alakurtti, north of the Arctic Circle. It is 60 kilometres from the border city of Salla in Finnish Lapland.
Once operated by the Germans, the base was transferred to the armed forces of the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Prior to the Moscow Peace of March 1940, the area around Alakurtti was part of Finland. Different Russian army and navy units have been based there through the years, but since 2009 the town has hosted mainly civilians and border guards and the air base has been largely silent.
In March 2014 the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported that the Murmansk regional administration and the Western Military District were preparing housing blocks and infrastructure to house some 3,000 soldiers and officers from Russia's Northern Fleet. An unconfirmed source also reported the air base would house a newly created Northern Fleet signals intelligence unit, charged with tracking military, maritime, and air movements and activities, supporting developments in the Arctic and the Far North, and searching for threats from the West.
Motorized infantry arrived by trainITAR-TASS reported on Wednesday that the first motorised infantry brigade troops arrived at the reinstated base on Tuesday by train. The infantry is motorised, in that it also contains trucks that are available to transport the unit when necessary.
Russian papers predicted last spring that the troops would be transferred last December and said the brigade would likely be comprised of 7,000 soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's new military strategy emphasises protection of Russian interests in the Arctic, and Alakurtti is not the only abandoned base that is being revived in the north for this purpose. According to ITAR-TASS, the Russians are transporting equipment and opening several new air bases in the north, with a dozen bases planned for opening in the coming months.
The arrival of soldiers in Alakurtti will mean a dramatic change for the northern community. For the past few years, the population has only been a few thousand, so in the future troops will outnumber residents by a large margin.
Americans in Sodankyl¤On the Finnish side of the border, things are quieter''but there's still a military presence. This week five US Marines and three army soldiers from Alaska are participating in a winter combat training course arranged by the Jaeger Brigade of the Finnish Defence Forces in the Finnish Lapland village of Sodankyl¤.
The first part of the course teaches theory and winter warfare criteria, in addition to survival skills that promote optimal performance. The second stage applies the knowledge learned in the first stage in practical exercises.
The course is a continuation of bilateral cooperation between the Finnish Defence Forces and the US Marines, whereby both forces send students to the other country to participate in training courses. The Army says the objective of the exchange is to develop better national defence capacity.
The Marines also spent some time in military training at the Finnish Army's Guard Jaeger Regiment in the Helsinki island district of Santahamina during their stay. The joint Finnish-American exercises were first arranged in January 2014.
Related stories from around the North:Canada: Will Russia's actions in Ukraine affect relations in the Arctic Council?, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Yle survey: Majority of Finns support NATO referendum, Yle News
Norway: Norway suspends military cooperation with Russia until end of 2015, Barents Observer
Russia: More marines for Russia's Northern Fleet, Blog by Mia Bennett
Sweden: ''Not enough money for Sweden's defence'' says armed forces, Radio Sweden
United States: Pentagon: Climate change is national security risk, Barents Observer
Sweden's military confirmed that a citizen spotted an unknown submarine off the coast of Stockholm on October 31. The government did not confirm the submarine's nationality, but authorities believe it belonged to Russia.
''We were informed of a sighting and considered it trustworthy'--we had a unit in the area and sent it to investigate,'' said military spokesman Philip Simon. ''We received a photograph but do not plan to release it.''
The incident occurred two weeks after Swedish officials investigated the presence of another submarine near Stockholm. The military launched the HMS Malm¶ between Liding¶ and Nacka, which is two miles from Stockholm's city center.
''It look like a black submarine conning tower,'' a source told Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter. ''You can also see several over vessels which normally travel along the shipping channel, such as the Finland ferries. You don't go this far in towards Stockholm for the fun of it. This information points to a serious intrusion towards central Stockholm.''
Simon said the military did not find the submarine.
''The information in Dagens Nyheter is correct,'' he claimed. ''This event is classified as a possible submarine. That we opted to investigate further reflects both the credibility of the person who made the sighting and the fact that we had both vessels and ground forces in the vicinity, which meant we could rapidly reach the site. Despite that, we got no result.''
In November, the military released pictures of a sonar scan that showed ''sub-sea tracks left behind by a mini-submarine.'' Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told the media the submarine forced him to search for a new security plan.
''I think that there is a new security situation in the Baltic Sea'... so we have a new environment and we have to handle that,'' he said.
The Svenska Dagbladet newspaper ''reported that encrypted radio traffic was intercepted from a transmitter in Kanholmsfj¤rden, an inlet in Stockholm's archipelago. The receiver was in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.'' The information gives weight to the Swedes' belief the submarine belonged to Russia, but the military refused to confirm or deny the suspicions.
The Swedish Civil Contingencies agency released a poll that said ''Swedish concern about Russia has risen sharply following the sightings, with 73 percent of Swedes expressing worries about developments in 2014, up from 45 percent in 2013.'' The poll also showed that 48 percent of Swedes favored to join NATO, which is the first time the pro-NATO crowd outnumbered the opposition.
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Sweden confirms second 'submarine' sightingBy Tom SULLIVANStockholm (AFP) Jan 11, 2015
Sweden's military on Sunday confirmed a second sighting in October of what appeared to have been a submarine in waters near Stockholm city centre, not long after a search had been launched for a suspected Russian submarine off the coast.
In November the Swedish military released images of tracks on the sea bed and an apparent submarine periscope which it said proved that ''a mini submarine violated Swedish territory'' between October 17 and October 24 and that ''at least one vessel'' was involved.
However, despite widespread speculation that the submarine was Russian, the military never identified its nationality.
On Sunday, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter revealed that a member of the public also photographed what appeared to be a submarine tower on October 31 about two miles (3 kilometres) from the city centre, close to busy ferry traffic lanes.
''We were informed of a sighting and considered it trustworthy '-- we had a unit in the area and sent it to investigate,'' military spokesman Philip Simon told AFP.
''We received a photograph but do not plan to release it.''
A Corvette, the HMS Malmo, carried out a search and concluded that it was a ''possible submarine'' but no other details of the previously unknown hunt have been made public.
''It looks like a black submarine tower. You can also see several other ships that normally use this shipping route,'' a military source who had seen the photo told the paper.
''You don't go this far in towards Stockholm for the fun of it. This information points to a serious intrusion towards central Stockholm.''
The week-long search after the previous sighting involved battleships, minesweepers, helicopters and more than 200 troops scouring an area 30 to 60 kilometres (20 to 40 miles) from the capital.
It had stirred up memories of Cold War cat-and-mouse games with suspected Soviet submarines along Sweden's long, rugged coastline.
The submarine hunt and a series of alleged airspace violations by Russian jets over the last year have led to increasing debate about Sweden's military capability and to calls for the non-aligned country to consider closer NATO ties.
An opinion poll published Sunday by the state Civil Contingencies Agency Sunday found that 73 percent of Swedes were concerned about developments in Russia compared to 45 percent a year earlier.
For the first time the annual poll found more Swedes were in favour of NATO membership (48 percent) compared to those opposed (35 percent).
I frequently listen to the show in my car and sometimes my 7 year old boy is with me. A few weeks ago you guys were on and he says "So it is only boys on the show?" I said yes and I explain about the 2 of you. A little while later he points out that a woman was talking (some clip you are playing), and asks why there are women on the show. I just told him that some women are in the news and they play these clips. I didn't think much about it. Then on New Years Eve he says something about women having an agenda. I mention "yes, they generally have agendas, but why do you say such a thing, who do you think has an agenda." He says "mom has an agenda" I ask what her agenda is and he point to his crotch. WTF?? Then I figure it out.. He has associated the word agenda with vagina. LOL, so he thinks that you have no women on the show.
-Erik
EuroLand
ekathimerini.com | Greek central bank says deposit outflow situation under control
Greece's central bank said on Sunday that the situation with deposit outflows from the country was under control, as it tried to reassure markets ahead of a Jan. 25 snap election.
Greek media have reported that there have been significant deposit outflows in recent days due to political uncertainty two weeks ahead of early elections.
Opinion polls show that the radical leftist Syriza party maintains its lead over the ruling conservatives.
"After reports about deposit outflows from the country's banks, the Bank of Greece notes that the situation is under full control," the central bank said in a statement.
"The Bank of Greece along with the European Central Bank are monitoring closely the developments and intervene whenever this is necessary," it said.
The central bank said the ECB has been offering credit facilitation to countries that were on a fiscal adjustment programme since 2010, a policy which is not affected by political developments.
The ECB has helped out Greek banks by exempting them from requirements on the collateral it accepts for access to funding.
[Reuters]
Internet Freedom
Chattanooga's Gig: how one city's super-fast internet is driving a tech boom | US news | The Guardian
Fancy Rhino, a marketing and film production firm, has been working with The Howard School to include them in the city's renaissance Photograph: Dominic Rushe/Guardian
Loveman's department store on Market Street in Chattanooga closed its doors in 1993 after almost a century in business, another victim of a nationwide decline in downtowns that hollowed out so many US towns. Now the opulent building is buzzing again, this time with tech entrepreneurs taking advantage of the fastest internet in the western hemisphere.
Financed by the cash raised from the sale of logistics group Access America, a group of thirty-something local entrepreneurs have set up Lamp Post, an incubator for a new generation of tech companies, in the building. A dozen startups are currently working out of the glitzy downtown office.
''We're not Silicon Valley. No one will ever replicate that,'' says Allan Davis, one of Lamp Post's partners. ''But we don't need to be and not everyone wants that. The expense, the hassle. You don't need to be there to create great technology. You can do it here.''
He's not alone in thinking so. Lamp Post is one of several tech incubators in this mid-sized Tennessee city. Money is flowing in. Chattanooga has gone from close to zero venture capital in 2009 to more than five organized funds with investable capital over $50m in 2014 '' not bad for a city of 171,000 people.
The city's go-getting mayor Andy Berke, a Democrat tipped for higher office, is currently reviewing plans for a city center tech zone specifically designed to meet the needs of its new workforce.
In large part the success is being driven by The Gig. Thanks to an ambitious roll-out by the city's municipally owned electricity company, EPB, Chattanooga is one of the only places on Earth with internet at speeds as fast as 1 gigabit per second '' about 50 times faster than the US average.
The tech buildup comes after more than a decade of reconstruction in Chattanooga that has regenerated the city with a world-class aquarium, 12 miles of river walks along the Tennessee River, an arts district built around the Hunter Museum of American Arts, high-end restaurants and outdoor activities.
But it's the city's tech boom has sparked interest from other municipalities across the world. It also comes as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to address some of the biggest questions the internet has faced when it returns from the summer break. And while the FCC discusses whether Comcast, the world's biggest cable company, should take over Time Warner, the US's second largest cable operator, and whether to allow those companies to set up fast lanes (and therefore slow lanes) for internet traffic, Chattanooga is proof that another path is possible.
'We now have people coming in looking to us as a leader'
It's a story that is being watched very closely by Big Cable's critics. ''In DC there is often an attitude that the only way to solve our problems is to hand them over to big business. Chattanooga is a reminder that the best solutions are often local and work out better than handing over control to Comcast or AT&T to do whatever they want with us,'' said Chris Mitchell, director of community broadband networks at advocacy group the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
On Friday, the US telecoms industry called on the FCC to block Chattanooga's plan to expand, as well as a similar plan for Wilson, North Carolina.
'What the Gig did was change the idea of what our city could be,' said Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke.Photograph: Dominic Rushe/Guardian''The success of public broadband is a mixed record, with numerous examples of failures,'' USTelecom said in a blog post. ''With state taxpayers on the financial hook when a municipal broadband network goes under, it is entirely reasonable for state legislatures to be cautious in limiting or even prohibiting that activity.''
Mayor Berke has dealt with requests for visits from everyone from tiny rural communities to ''humungous international cities''. ''You don't see many mid-sized cities that have the kind of activity that we have right now in Chattanooga,'' he said. ''What the Gig did was change the idea of what our city could be. Mid-sized southern cities are not generally seen as being ahead of the technological curve, the Gig changed that. We now have people coming in looking to us as a leader.''
It's still early days but there have already been notable successes. In addition to Access America's sale for an undisclosed sum, last year restaurant booking site OpenTable bought a local company, QuickCue, for $11.5m. ''That's a great example of a story that just doesn't happen in other mid-sized southern cities,'' said Berke.
But it's what Chattanooga can do next that has the local tech community buzzed.
EPB's high-speed network came about after it decided to set up a smart electric grid in order to cut power outages. EPB estimated it would take 10 years to build the system and raised a $170m through a municipal bond to pay for it. In 2009 president Barack Obama launched the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus programme aimed at getting the US economy back on track amid the devastation of the recession. EPB was awarded $111m to get its smart grid up and running. Less than three years later the whole service territory was built.
The fibre-optic network uses IntelliRupter PulseClosers, made by S&C Electric, that can reroute power during outages. The University of California at Berkeley estimates that power outages cost the US economy $80bn a year through business disruption with manufacturers stopping their lines and restaurants closing. Chattanooga's share of that loss was about $100m, EPB estimates. The smart grid can detect a fault in milliseconds and route power around problems. Since the system was installed the duration of power outages has been cut in half.
But it was the other uses of that fiber that fired up enthusiasm in Chattanooga. ''When we first started talking about this and the uses of the smart grid we would say to customers and community groups 'Oh and it can also offer very high-speed internet, TV and phone.' The electric power stuff was no longer of interest. This is what what people got excited about and it's the same today,'' said EPB vice president Danna Bailey.
For consumers the change is noticeable but incremental. ''You don't need a Gig to load Google.com faster,'' says Berke. If you are downloading a lot of movies, though, there's a huge time savings: it takes just 33 seconds to download a two-hour, high-definition movie in Chattanooga, compared with 25 minutes for the average high-speed broadband household. And it does mean that a family streaming video from their various devices is unlikely to ever see those spinning wheels of delay that bug the rest of the US on a daily basis. Nor are they likely to suffer outages like the one Time Warner Cable experienced this week, which is now under investigation by the New York attorney general. For Chattanoogans the internet is always on and always blazing fast.
For business, the Gig offers a new set of challenges and opportunities. If we are moving towards an ''internet of things'' with smart, driverless cars, home automation, delivery drones, robot construction, we will need more bandwidth and more reliability. ''You can't do that with cell towers,'' says Sheldon Grizzle, co-founder of Spartan Ventures and another of the city's tech entrepreneurs. Nor can you do that with an internet system like the one in the US, the 31st fastest in the world according to a recent report by Ookla Speedtest, behind countries including Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Uruguay.
'It's like the early days of the internet'Grizzle and others have the opposite problem, they are now working out what they can do with the Gig. ''It's like the early days of the internet, it takes time to figure out what you can do with this,'' he said.
Internet speeds at the Guardian US officePhotograph: screengrabThe same test run in Chattanoga, TennesseePhotograph: screengrabAnd therein lies Chattanooga's dilemma. At present the city is like a deep sea port capable of handling enormous ships that none of its neighbours can receive. There are other Gig cities, including Lafayette, Louisiana and Bristol, Virginia. Google has plans to roll out its own fibre systems in cities including Kansas City, Kansas, and Austin, Texas. But none yet are as large or as advanced as Chattanooga.
Some companies are already coming up against the limits. Medical researchers are using Chattanooga's high-speed network to build 3D models of aneurysms to allow surgeons to pre-plan operations but transmitting that information outside the city for a real-time diagnosis would mean relying on the antiquated cable networks of the incumbents who have, so far, been reluctant to upgrade their systems.
''It's better for us if it gets more places in our community and in the country,'' says Berke. Chattanooga is too small to support all the business it is creating, he warned: ''If there's no market for what happens on the Gig here, we are doing a lot of work for nothing.'' But Berke is hopeful. ''The history of the internet and technology has been that you always need more speed and capacity. We have the fastest, cheapest most pervasive internet in the western hemisphere. We believe that gives us an advantage but soon it's going to be much more the norm and we want to be able to participate in that kind of economy.''
Digital inclusion: 'You can't ignore your neighbors'Chattanooga's success is all the more remarkable because it almost didn't happen. The cable companies sued twice to stop it getting off the ground. It's a story that has been repeated across the US where the cable companies have successfully lobbied for legislation in 19 states that ensures that municipal utilities cannot offer broadband internet.
The competitive disadvantage they face is clear. EPB now has about 60,000 residential and 4,500 business customers out of a potential 160,000 homes and businesses. Comcast hasn't upgraded its network but it has gone on the offensive, offering cutthroat introductory offers and gift cards for people who switch back. ''They have been worthy competitors,'' said Bailey. ''They've been very aggressive.''
EPB is lobbying the FCC to expand its footprint beyond its electric power territory to nearby communities. Many of those communities are still relying on dial-up to get online. For Beyer, who appoints EPB's board, the expansion is part of what he sees as his mandate to make sure everyone has access to high speed internet.
''Today I talk to people who may never have been on the internet and don't want to be. But they also understand that their kids and grandkids have to be,'' he said. Chattanooga's population is a third African American and that population is disproportionately affected by poverty and urban blight.
To address that, in part, the city's library is taking full advantage of the Gig, its has 3D printers, laser cutters and offers coding classes. Ken Hays, a local developer and the chief of staff under former mayor Jon Kinsey, now runs the city-backed Enterprise Center which is assessing the impact of the Gig.
In his recent report ''Chattanooga Forward'' he wrote the city ''will only be successful in this new economy if we focus effective efforts on increasing digital inclusion among all citizens''. The city is making sure schools have access to devices for its children to get online. Fancy Rhino, a marketing and film production firm backed by Lamp Post, has been working with The Howard School, an inner-city school, to include them in the city's renaissance.
Build me a worldThe company put out a documentary about the school in 2012, Build me A World, and continues to run The Studio, a project to teach children at the school digital skills and make music and videos. ''You can't ignore your neighbours here. We have big issues with education, we need to put something back into the community,'' said Drew Belz, who founded the company with cousin Isaiah Smallman.
Bailey said EPB could afford to be more community minded because of its structure. ''We don't have to worry about stockholders, our customers are our stockholders. We don't have to worry about big salaries, about dividends. We get to wake up everyday and think about what, within business reason, is good for this community,'' she said.
''The private sector doesn't have that same motivation. It's perfectly fair, they are motivated by profits and stockholders. they have a lot of capital already invested in existing infrastructure. It would be costly to overbuild themselves.''
There are hundreds of other municipally owned electric companies across the US, some even in states where Big Cable has yet to force a ban on them building broadband. But Mitchell said few had the skills, or the political backing, to pull off what EPB had done on this scale.
Berke said they had no choice. ''The Gig wasn't coming here anytime soon without us doing it,'' he said. ''It was going to go a lot of places before it came to Chattanooga. For us, like a lot of cities, you either decide to do it yourself or you wait in line. We chose to do it ourselves.''
ZIENTS-Obama Is About To Call For A Ton More Competition Among Broadband Service Providers
Jan. 13, 2015, 9:46 PM1,632WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will call on Wednesday for an end to laws that thwart competition among broadband service providers and his administration plans to file a letter with the Federal Communications Commission about it, a White House official said.
"What we're calling on the FCC to do is to ensure that all states have a playing field that allows for a vibrant and competitive market for communications services," White House economic adviser Jeff Zients told reporters on a conference call.
Obama will raise the topic during a trip to Iowa on Wednesday as he rolls out themes for his upcoming State of the Union address.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Peter Cooney)
This article originally appeared at Reuters. Copyright 2015. Follow Reuters on Twitter.
Pursuant to Section 6001(d)(4) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA or Recovery Act) (Public Law No. 111-5), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provides this Quarterly Report on the status of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP or Program). This Report focuses on the Program's activities from January 1 to March 31, 2014.
Sep 4, 2014
Remarks by Glenn Reynolds, NTIA Chief of Staff at Building a Community Broadband Roadmap: Lessons in Implementation, Minneapolis, MN, September 4, 2014
Jun 26, 2014
Pursuant to Section 6001(d)(4) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA or Recovery Act) (Public Law No. 111-5), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provides this Quarterly Report on the status of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP or Program). This Report focuses on the Program's activities from October 1 to December 31, 2013.
Feb 12, 2014
NTIA submitted the January 2014 quarterly status report on the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) to Congress.
Blog
Nov 28, 2014While Native American Heritage Month is celebrated just once a year in November, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has been serving America's Tribal Nations effectively for many years through its grant programs....
'Tech neck' wrinkles are a symptom of heavy smartphone and tablet use(CC)
Dermatologists are blaming smartphones and tablets for causing sagging skin and wrinkles in younger generations, including a wrinkling condition dubbed "tech neck".
The latest ailment to result from modern technology can be found mostly in people aged 18 to 39 who own an average of three devices.
Tech neck refers to a specific crease just above the collar bone that is caused by repeated bending of the neck to look at the screen of a portable device.
"The problem of wrinkles and sagging of the jowls and neck used to begin in late middle age but, in the last 10 years, because of 'tech neck', it has become a problem for a generation of younger women," said Dr Christopher Rowland Payne, a consultant dermatologist at The London Clinic.
"Neck skin is exposed to sun every day because of low neckline, especially in women, but people are less inclined to think of protecting their necks than their faces.
"This is bad news for neck skin as it starts off finer and sun thins it further. Finer skin wrinkles more readily and the fat of the neck may sag."
The research was commissioned by Yves St Laurent and has been published at the same time as the cosmetics giant releases a face and neck cream to remedy the condition. YSL claims the product improves skin firmness by 13% in a single application.
Tech-related health problemsCell phones have long been associated with various health conditions and even some serious illnesses.
Research conducted by the Swedish Hardell group found that mobile phone use has been linked to specific types of brain tumour, while a recent study published in Surgery Technology International found that heavy use causes back problems.
Smartphone use has also been blamed for bad posture(Dr Kenneth Hansraj)
"As the head tilts forward the forces seen by the neck surges to 27 pounds at 15 degrees, 40 pounds at 30 degrees, 49 pounds at 45 degrees and 60 pounds at 60 degrees," said Kenneth Hansraj, a back surgeon and author of the study.
Hansraj warned that chronic screen-staring could "deteriorate the back and neck muscles to the point of needing surgery".
The latest tech-neck malady is believed to have come about in the last 10 years directly as a result of the rise of mobile phones.
The first ever cream specifically designed to combat a smartphone-related condition does not come cheaply, setting consumers back £65.
"Many women I treat accept their wrinkles and fine lines but what they cannot accept is their new facial expressions," said dermatologist Dr Thierry Michaud, who works on the YSL Skin Science team.
"Inappropriate expressions are due to a loss of facial volumes - sagging skin, less defined contours, creased neck."
Health News & Information: CBSCleveland.com/Health
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CBS Cleveland) '' Men who regularly posted photos of themselves online scored higher on a measure for narcissism and psychopathy.
According to Medical News Today, a study out of Ohio State University has found that men who took ''selfies'' were more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits when compared to control group.
''That makes sense because psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity. They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don't want to spend time editing,'' explains Jesse Fox, lead author of the study.
The study included 800 men between the ages of 18 and 40. The men took an online survey asking questions regarding their photo posting behavior on social media.
The study also found that men who edited their pictures before posting also scored higher on the scales of narcissism and self-objectification.
''It's not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,'' says Fox.
The study is published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Selfie-posting men present 'antisocial traits,' study finds - Medical News Today
If you are a guy and follow in the selfie-fanatic footsteps of Justin Bieber, posting regular snaps of yourself on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, the picture is not pretty - you could be on the line to antisocial trait central.A new study conducted by Jesse Fox, assistant professor of Communication at The Ohio State University, with Margaret Rooney a graduate student at Ohio State, shows that men in the study who posted more photos of themselves online than the rest of the group, scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.
Additionally, men, who tended to edit their selfies before posting, scored higher up the scale in narcissism and self-objectification, which measures the extent to which they prioritize their appearance.
"It's not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study," says Jesse Fox, lead author of the study.
"The more interesting finding is that they also score higher on this other antisocial personality trait, psychopathy, and are more prone to self-objectification."
Narcissism is demonstrated by a belief that you are more intelligent, more attractive and generally better than others, although with some level of underlying insecurity. Psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and regard for others and a tendency toward impulsive behavior.
The participants included 800 men aged between 18-40, who took part and completed an online survey asking questions regarding their posting behavior on social media sites. The individuals were also asked to complete a standard questionnaire for antisocial behaviors and self-objectification.
Women were excluded from this study due to the dataset, which Fox received from a magazine, not containing comparable data for women.
In addition to asking how regularly the group members posted photos, the survey inquired as to whether the men edited their photos before posting by cropping, using filters or utilizing photo-editing software.
"Most people don't think that men even do that sort of thing, but they definitely do," Fox comments.
The results of the study are published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. Findings show that posting more photos was related to narcissism and psychopathy. However, psychopathy was not related to editing photos.
"That makes sense because psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity. They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don't want to spend time editing," Fox explains.
Fox goes on to say that editing photos was also related to higher levels of self-objectification, which, she says, has been rarely studied in heterosexual men.
Self-objectification involves valuing yourself primarily by your appearance, in preference to other positive traits.
"We know that self-objectification leads to a lot of terrible things, like depression and eating disorders in women," Fox says. "With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance. That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women."
Fox emphasizes that the results of the study do not indicate men, who post numerous selfies, are in fact narcissists or psychopaths. All men scored within the normal range of behavior - just with higher than average levels of these particular antisocial traits.
The same research is currently being conducted with women that suggest the findings in this research also apply to women. Women, who post more selfies, also show higher levels of narcissism and psychopathy. However, self-objectification plays a larger role with women, Fox notes.
There is a self-reinforcing cycle when it comes to self-objectification, Fox continues. People who score higher on self-objectification post more selfies, which leads to more feedback from friends online, which encourages them to post even more photos of themselves. "It may make people objectify themselves even more. We are running a study on that now."
"We are all concerned with our self-presentation online, but how we do that may reveal something about our personality."
Overall, this and other studies suggest our personality traits may influence how we present ourselves online, Fox concludes.
Medical News Today recently reported that scientists believe that "one question" could be all researchers need to make a quick and easy diagnosis of narcissism.
Out of more than 800 entries, the PSDR took 3rd place in the 2014 International Hack a Day Prize Competition. Of the 5 finalists it is the most 'liked' and most followed.
See what the Jack Genssle of The Ganssle Group, Limor Fried, owner of Adafruit Industries, and Ian Lesnet of Dangerous Prototypes, think of the PSDR:
The Portable Software Defined Radio, or PSDR, is an Open Source, Fully stand-alone HF/Shortwave Software Defined Transceiver. It includes a Vector Network Analyzer and Antenna Analyzer as well as GPS. It's built for rugged portable use. It is designed to be a flexible platform for development, a learning aid, and and a useful instrument for electronics enthusiasts.
I'm an avid backpacker and radio enthusiast. To me there is something exciting about making contact with others from remote locations where cell phones and the internet can't reach. I wanted an advanced radio that was ideally suited to tough environments. That meant I it needed to be very compact, integrated, and durable. As an engineer, I wanted an open platform that really takes advantage of the hardware and has the potential to grow and be used for other applications.
There are numerous, excellent radios out there, but none offered the combination I wanted. The best radios are closed source, larger, and expensive, while most open designs are very basic and lacking in flexibility.
Already the PSDR has had an enthusiastic reception in the radio and electronics communities. Many people have expressed excitement about helping improve the PSDR's hardware and software. I want to get the hardware out to everyone so that those that are willing to contribute will be able to.
The design is completely Open Source. Want to peak at the code, or examine the schematics? It's all right here. Some people have already built their own!
Coverage from 0 to 35MHzWaterfall display that lets you see radio signalsReceives AM, USB (Upper Side Band), LSB (Lower Side Band), and Morse code (CW)Modulates USB and LSB signalsVariable bandpass filterPowerful ARM processorColor LCD displayDual DDS frequency SynthesizersQuadrature Sampling Detector & ExciterDigitally controllable instrumentation amplifiersMorse Code key (the "Giblet" on the bottom right corner of the enclosure)Magnitude & Phase measurement chip (for VNA and antenna analysis functions) with Impedance BridgeDual SMA connectors, smartphone style earphone/microphone connector, and USB portGPSBuilt in Microphone and SpeakerInternal Lithium Polymer battery with charger and high efficiency switching regulatorMicroSD slotPads for grabbing raw I/Q signals, both in and out.I designed the hardware to be capable of the following, but I can't write all the software myself. Please note that I can't guarantee when or if these functions will be added, or that they will work as desired.
Work as a full Vector Network Analyzer (VNA)Work as a spectrum analyzerCover more modes, including digital modes and image modesWork as an emergency location beaconAntenna AnalyzerFrequency SynthesizerMedia playerE Reader / Picture viewerHave improved audioGPS Mapping navigation deviceHigh end ARM development boardUSB control of any features, including the possibility to operate the PSDR remotely. The USB port supports USB On-the-Go, making it possible to connect keyboards or other devices. Firmware updates will also be possible over USB.The PSDR2 being offered in this campaign is an evolution of an earlier design, but is not yet complete in some important ways. Backers should be aware that the PSDR2 is a development radio, not a finished product.
There is no preselection filteringThere is no filtering on the exciter outputThere are slots for a mixer and amplifier stage, but development for add-ons to take advantage of these slots is not complete (and will not be part of this campaign)The PSDR2 can modulate signals, but it can't filter or amplify them. In short, it can't transmit by itself.The number one reason is that people want it! I want to get hardware out there so those that are interested can help improve its design and software. This will all help in the development of future hardware as well.
The only thing you need a license for is transmitting. No license is need when using the PSDR for listening in on signals, using it as a tool, or for development.
I want the PSDR to be a reliable, high quality device that will hold up well over time. For that reason, I am planning on using Automated Assembly, in Lehi, Utah to manufacture the circuit boards. Of many assembly companies I've used, I have found their work to be of the very highest quality. They cost a little more, but are worth every penny. They are local too, which means that I can work with them closely to solve any issues that arise and can save time and money on shipping.
I am also working with a local company to CNC mill the aluminum housings.
I don't have time to hand assemble more than a few of these. I would have to charge too much for them if I did. So I need help! Having the circuit boards produced is expensive, but more importantly, there are minimum quantities that need to be met. 100 units is about as low as most places seem to go, so I need to have the money to order 100 PSDRs at once! Same goes for having the housings produced.
There are development tools I need to purchase, and testing that needs to be done as well!
The development of the PSDR has been documented over at my project blog on Hackaday.io. Please take a look for more information on it's design and history, or to join the discussion.
Last year's Hackaday Prize saw a lot of projects that were crying out to be Kickstarter Campaigns, but non has seen people throwing money at their screens quite like [Michael]'s PortableSDR. It's a small, handheld, battery-powered shortwave software defined transceiver that can do just about everything with coverage up to 30MHz. It's the ultimate apocalypse radio, a contender for to the throne now held by the 'my first radio' Baofeng, and now, finally, a campaign on Kickstarter.
The PortableSDR (now called the PSDR) started off as [Michael]'s ideal radio. It just so happened the Hackaday Prize gave him the impetus design, develop, and build the radio that would eventually land him third place in The Hackaday Prize.
The radio itself is completely self-contained and battery-powered, implementing a software defined radio on an STM32F4 processor. The design includes an LCD for the waterfall display, vector network analysis, and the ability to receive GPS.
In keeping with its ham heritage, [Michael] is offering the PSDR as a kit, with a PCB, enclosure, and all the parts you can't get on Digikey available for a $250 pledge. Get those toaster reflow ovens warm, because there's a lot of SMD parts in this build.
In December 2014, a critical vulnerability was found in Git that affected Mac OS X and Windows users. Even if the vulnerability didn't affect Linux users, it could harm users who work on Windows or Mac systems.
A patch was released immediately, but that wasn't soon enough to keep Linus from yelling out loud about how horrible Apple's HFS+ file system is. As an Apple user, and as much as I love their hardware, I am not a fan of their software.
So what's the basic problem with HFS+? Both NTFS and HFS+ are case insensitive, which means if you have a folder named 'Linux' or 'linux' they will treat them as the same folder, which understandably causes a lot of problems. Thomas Pfeiffer, a usability consultant to KDE, refers to an article by Brian Tiemann and says case-insensitive but case-preserving file systems are actually a good idea from a desktop user's point of view.
Linus says, ''Quite frankly, HFS+ is probably the worst file-system ever. Christ what shit it is. NTFS used to have similar issues with canonicalizing utf8 (ie: using non-canonical representations of slashes etc). I think they at least fixed them. The OS X problems seem to be fundamental.''
He goes on to say that HFS was not developed to be a good file system:
The true horrors of HFS+ are not in how it's not a great filesystem, but in how it's actively designed to be a bad filesystem by people who thought they had good ideas.
The case insensitivity is just a horribly bad idea, and Apple could have pushed fixing it. They didn't. Instead, they doubled down on a bad idea, and actively extended it '' very very badly '' to unicode. And it's not even UTF-8, it's UCS2 I think.
Ok, so NTFS did some of the same. But apple really took it to the next level with HFS+.
There's some excuse for case insensitivity in a legacy model (''We didn't know better''). But people who think unicode equivalency comparisons are a good idea in a filesystem shouldn't be allowed to play in that space. Give them some paste, and let them sit in a corner eating it. They'll be happy, and they won't be messing up your system.
And then picking NFD normalization '' and making it visible, and actively converting correct unicode into that absolutely horrible format, that's just inexcusable. Even the people who think normalization is a good thing admit that NFD is a bad format, and certainly not for data exchange. It's not even ''paste-eater'' quality thinking. It's actually actively corrupting user data. By design. Christ.
And Apple let these monkeys work on their filesystem? Seriously?
I can share my own experience regarding some of Apple software, including Finder, which in my opinion is the worst file manager ever.
Even John Gruber of Daring Fireball and inventor of Markdown was not a huge fan of Finder. He once wrote, ''It's my guess that the OS X Finder was designed and implemented by former NeXT engineers who neither used (nor liked) the original Finder nor understand the needs of Mac users who do.''
Going back to HFS+, Linus says Apple may have a lot of reasons to not move to other file systems, but they could have at least improved HFS+:
There are lots of good reasons to not move to ZFS (cough-Oracle-cough), but they could have pushed people to case-sensitive HFS+, which would have then made it much easier to (in the long run) migrate to anything else saner. But no. There is a case sensitive option, but Apple actively hides it and doesn't support it.
The stupidity, it burns.
So you had all these people who made really bad decisions and actively coded for them. And I find that kind of ''we actively implement shit'' much more distasteful than just the ''ok, we don't implement a lot of clever things'' that John complained about.
Should we expect Apple to get their act together and fix the issue? I very much doubt it. Apple is like the weather; it pays no attention to criticism.
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SEOUL: South Korea's President Park Geun-hye has said she is ready to meet unconditionally with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to lay the ground for a peaceful potential unification with Pyongyang.
President Park's remark on Monday (Jan 12) came after Mr Kim said in his New Year's address: "If the atmosphere and environment is there, there is no reason not to hold a high-level summit."
Speaking at her first news conference of the year, Ms Park also said she wanted to see more separated families in North and South Korea reunite around the Lunar New Year next month.
There is an urgency for such reunions.
South Korean Kang Neung-hwan, aged 94, had waited for 63 long years before he met his eldest son - who lives in North Korea - for the first time in February last year at a reunion in the communist state's Mount Kumgang.
The man had been separated from his pregnant wife in the North after the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War. But the bittersweet reunion had lasted barely half a day before he had to bid his family farewell again.
"I don't know when I'll die. I'm not in that good health right now. I just wish more good things like this can happen while I'm alive," said Mr Kang.
Nearly 69,000 people are waiting for a chance to meet their loved ones living in North Korea. About half of them are more than 80 years old while most do not know whether their family members are alive or dead.
South Korea's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said he wanted to do more for these fragmented families. "We will aim to tackle the basic humanitarian issues like finding out if the family members are alive or dead, allow messages or letters to be exchanged via video."
Between 100 and 200 people are invited to participate in reunions, and these take place once or twice a year depending on the state of relations between the Koreas. The reunion last February was the first in more than three years due to frosty inter-Korean ties.
The Korean War ended in 1953. But the two Koreas remain technically at war as the conflict had ended in a ceasefire and not a peace treaty. Since then, there have been no direct means of communication for the people living on both sides of the border.
The state-sanctioned reunions are the only legal way for families on either side of the Korean Demilitarized Zone to meet. Since North and South Korea mark the 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan's colonial rule this year, South Korean families hope ties will be good, which could allow for more reunions.
Haiti
What Does Haiti Have to Show for $13 Billion in Earthquake Aid? - NBC News.com
Americans texted tens of millions of dollars in donations and governments gave billions, but five years after an earthquake left corpses and rubble piled across Haiti, 85,000 people still live in crude displacement camps and many more in deplorable conditions.
The disconnect between the massive amount of private and public aid and the poverty, disease and homelessness that still plague the country raises a question that critics say is too difficult to answer: Where did all that money go?
Watch Dr. Nancy Snyderman's Report from Haiti Tonight on "Nightly News"
In Coralia this week, father of two Serafin Jean Rose, 33, said he has benefited from the American dollars that have poured in since Jan. 11, 2010.
After his home was destroyed, he was moved to one of the tent camps. A year ago, they were given enough money to move out and build a tin house. He works as a carpenter and has been able to feed his family of four.
"I'm one of the lucky ones," he told NBC News.
David McFadden / APJean-Louis Wilner stands on the rubble of his demolished neighborhood in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 7, 2014
Ninety-five percent of the 1.5 million people who were in camps in 2010 have been moved, but many of them are still not in permanent housing. At least 200,000 people are in new hillside slums, known as Canaan-Jerusalem, where there are wooden and tin homes but no running water, electricity or sanitation yet.
A high-profile celebrity-backed charity is being probed for its use of funds, and some U.S.-backed projects have been scaled back or scrapped.
"You have donors disburse money, but that doesn't mean all that money is spent on the ground," said Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
"If the expectation was to build back better and transform Haiti's public sector, then yes, by any measure it's been a failure," Johnston told NBC News. "But that isn't to say there have not been successes."
In the immediate aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude quake, heart-rending images beamed in from the island to U.S. homes spurred Americans to open their wallets for victims in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
They gave $1.4 billion to relief and recovery efforts over the course of the next year, according to an analysis by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Of that, $32 million alone came in the form of $10 text messages to the American Red Cross.
At a donors conference in New York three months after Port-au-Prince and much of the south was wrecked, nations from around the globe, led by the United States, pledged billions more for the short and long term '-- to be managed by a commission co-chaired by Bill Clinton and the Haitian prime minister.
The United Nations said that in total $13.34 billion has been earmarked for the crisis through 2020, though two years after the quake, less than half of that amount had actually been released, according to U.N. documents. The U.S. government has allocated $4 billion; $3 billion has already been spent, and the rest is dedicated to longer-term projects.
Some global development analysts say that the spending structure '-- with the vast majority of money being funneled through foreign contractors instead of the Haitian government or local outfits '-- has built-in inefficiencies, compounded by a lack of accountability and transparency.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees the aid program, says using experienced Beltway-based firms that could move quickly in the beginning was a necessity, but acknowledges that more should go to local entities. The new goal is to put 17 percent of funding in Haitian hands.
The American companies relied on a maze of subcontractors, increasing overhead and obscuring whether the money was being spent wisely, critics said.
"It was really hard getting our hands around this," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who authored a bill signed into law last month that requires more robust reporting of how aid is being spent going forward.
Still, there is no doubt many lives were saved and good work was done, under daunting circumstances and in the face of overwhelming destruction.
"Our successes far outstrip our failures," said Beth Hogan, an administrator for USAID. Tom Adams, the State Department's special coordinator for Haiti, conceded "it has been a challenge to implement certain parts of our assistance package," but pointed to progress in job creation, health, security and agriculture.
Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesA man walks past a camp for people displaced by the earthquake on March 4, 2012 in Port-au-Prince.
The USAID list of expenditures includes: emergency food for 4 million, temporary shelter for 1.5 million, 2.7 million cubic meters of rubble removed, 600 classrooms created, construction of a power plant for a new U.S.-brokered factory park, support for 160 health clinics, funding to arrest a cholera outbreak that killed nearly 9,000, better technology for farmers, and the creation of permanent housing.
The housing program can hardly be branded a success, though. A government audit in 2013 found that USAID underestimated how much would be needed for settlements, ballooned the budget from $59 million to $97 million while cutting its goal from 15,000 houses to 2,649. It's put up about 900 so far.
"We realized we are not going to come anywhere close to building the kind of housing stock Haiti requires," said Hogan, saying the focus has shifted to financing so Haitians can build or improve homes themselves.
In the meantime, there are still 85,000 people in displacement camps '-- half of which did not have latrines, according to a 2014 UN report. Development plans for Port-au-Prince meant some downtown renters were evicted, their buildings demolished, earlier this year.
"I'm worse off than after the earthquake," said Jean-Louis Wilner, 32, who spent two years in a tent camp before scoring a rental apartment in the capital that was recently taken down to make way for a government center.
"It's humiliating," he told The Associated Press.
USAID also scrapped plans to build a new port in northeastern Haiti after delays mounted, projected costs skyrocketed, and it became apparent shippers would not use it '-- and, as the Miami Herald reported, after it spent $4.5 million on feasibility studies.
Audits of other contracts have also highlighted problems with small projects. A North Carolina company that was paid $12.9 million to develop a Creole-based school curriculum got poor grades from US AID's inspector general, who noted that some team members didn't even speak French.
Reuters fileHaiti hip-hop star Wyclef Jean greets the crowd before officially registering as a presidential candidate at an office in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in 2010.
The private sector '-- which accounts for $3 billion to the aid bottom line '-- has seen its own share of funding successes and pitfalls.
The American Red Cross released a breakdown of spending and plans for $488 million in donations collected in the last five years '-- from solar-powered street lights and mountains of mosquito nets to 5,300 units of blood and $10 million to reconstruct St. Michel Hospital. A $22 million, 300-bed teaching hospital in Mirebalais, built and run by Partners in Health, is often cited as a bright spot.
Then there's the troubling case of Fugees rapper Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti charity, which took in $16 million in 2010 on the strength of his star-power, and spent more than $4 million on internal expenses like salaries, consultants, travel and office and warehouse expenses. Sean Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization spent just 10 percent of its revenue on those kind of overhead costs.
Yele dissolved in 2012 amid questions about its bookkeeping and payouts, and the New York attorney general's office said this week it is still investigating the group's finances. On a smaller scale, North Carolina authorities yanked the license of a charity called Share Our Shoes after finding more than $50,000 in questionable expenses.
To Jonathan Katz, author of "The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster," the aid story is one of good intentions and bad policy, short-term fixes without a ground-breaking long game, Band-Aids over self-sufficiency.
"If you gave $10 to the American Red Cross, eventually, 90 percent of that money would have gotten spent on something '-- part of a tarp to go over a family's head, part of a bag of rice to feed a couple of people, salary or transportation for American aid worker. That money would have been spent very, very quickly," Katz said.
"But there's no practical connection between putting a tarp over someone's head on Day 3 or 7 and putting a roof over someone's head five years later."
First published January 11 2015, 7:06 AM
Trains Good Planes Bad (whoo hoo!)
BREAKING: "ALLAHU AKBAR!" THE LAST WORDS HEARD ON THE AIR AISIA BLACKBOX ACCORDING TO INDONESIAN OFFICIAL
Was there an explosion on board and then decompression?
This is the latest from the investigation and we're sure there's lots more to come.
According to Indonesian official the last words on the blackbox belonging to missing AirAsia flight was ''Allahu Akbar!''
The recorder says, ''Allah is Greatest! Allah is Greatest!''Via Tribune News (translated):
Investigator Nurcahyo Utomo an expert examiner blackbox recording of National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC). He was assigned to check the recording of a conversation Captain irianto that fateful plane flew Air Asia, QZ8501. But it was not an easy task for him, because he knew very close to the former pilot of the Indonesian Air Force pilots.
As quoted from Dailymail, Wednesday (14/01/2015), Nurcahyo can not imagine what the last words of Captain irianto, before the plane crashed in the Strait dikemudikannya Karimata. ''Listening to a recording of the black box can be annoying repetitive and requires good mental strength,'' he said.
''Listening to the black box recording an aircraft involved in an accident do not like listening to music or discussion,'' he continued.
According to him, based on the experience of listening to recordings of conversations black box of some aircraft that crashed, the last words are often heard from the black box recording is Allahu Akhbar said. ''The words that make me cringe,'' he said.
Posh Kubang reported (translated):
Recordings Blackbox Air Asia found some time ago has been played. Incredible, the sound of the recording Pilot Captain irianto mention the phrase 'Allahu Akbar'.
It was submitted by the expert examiner blackbox recording of National Transportation Safety Committee Nurcahyo Utomo.
''Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar! They shouted it before he died,'' said Nurcahyo, as quoted Dailymail.co.uk, Wednesday (14/01/2015).
The turbine was one of eight at the site, which opened in 2011 at a total cost of £26 million, implying a project cost of more than £3 million per turbine.
The actual turbine equipment itself cost just over £2m, Screggagh wind farm's owners said. Each has a nominal power-generating capacity of 2.5 megawatts.
Each turbine's tower is almost 200 feet tall, with the rotor blades spanning a diameter of more than 260 feet, giving a total height from base to tip of 328 feet, Screggagh wind farm's owners said.
The remaining seven turbines have been shut down while manufacturers investigate what went wrong. Wind speeds were "medium" or 10 to 12 metres per second, they added.
Doreen Walker, director of Screggagh Windfarm Ltd, said: "There were fortunately no injuries and no personnel on site at the time."
She said: "We are currently investigating the circumstances that led to the collapse of the turbine at Screggagh wind farm.
"We are however satisfied that the site's precautionary health and safety alert processes worked well with local emergency services in attendance within minutes of the incident taking place."
She said officials were "working closely" with Nordex UK, the supplier of the wind farm turbines, to ensure the site is safe.
Buckled metal was left strewn on the mountainside (pic: Niall Carson/PA).
"A further statement will be made once the investigation has been completed and the reasons for the failure confirmed," she added.
German manufacturer Nordex is currently delivering a new, even bigger turbine design for other sites in the UK.
The collapsed wind turbine (pic: Niall Carson/PA).
The accident is not the first safety incident involving Nordex turbines.
In 2012 the company was fined £26,000 after admitting health and safety failings at a site in Stirlingshire where a 19-year-old worker fell 100ft down a turbine to his death.
The company had previously been told to upgrade to a lift system instead of ladders, but the court found there was no link between the safety breaches and the teenager's death.
Defence lawyers in the case said that Nordex UK had been "practically insolvent" in the preceding years.
And in September 2013 an eight-year-old Nordex turbine in a German wind farm reportedly caught fire.
A spokesman for Nordex was unavailable for comment on the Northern Ireland case.
Previous incidents of wind turbines collapsing in the UK include one that fell during a gale in Devon in 2013, which was later blamed on sabotage after it emerged bolts were missing from its base.
Chris Streatfeild, director of health and safety for wind industry body RenewableUK, said: ''A thorough investigation is already underway into what happened in this extremely rare incident. The wind industry takes health and safety issues very seriously, and the lessons learned from this will be implemented as swiftly as possible.
''No member of the public has ever been injured by wind turbine operating in the UK. As the trade body representing the wind industry."
Computer model forecast for Jan. 15, 2015, showing strong winds in the lower atmosphere associated with the intense storm off the UK and Irish coast.Image: Levi Cowan/Tropicaltidbits.com
By Andrew Freedman2015-01-13 16:53:50 UTC
While the United States' East Coast has yet to see a major winter storm so far this year, the UK keeps getting socked by one strong storm after the next.
This week is no exception. Another storm system is rapidly intensifying northwest of Ireland, causing cold, damaging winds of greater than 75 miles per hour at times across the northern UK and Ireland.
The storm may also lead to several inches of snow, especially at higher elevations in northern Scotland and western England, although some snowflakes are not out of the question even in London on Wednesday and Thursday. Unlike other recent weather systems, the latest storm is coming closer to the UK and Irish mainland, which heightens the likely impacts.
The UK Met Office has issued "amber warnings" for snow, and "yellow warnings" for wind that cover the entire UK, Ireland and northern Ireland. Forecasters warned of travel disruptions through Thursday as the storm drapes itself across the British Isles and affects conditions from France to Norway as well. The storm is unofficially being called Winter Storm Rachel in the UK, although the only storms that are officially named worldwide are tropical storms and hurricanes.
Computer model projection showing an approximately 940 mb area of low pressure centered just north of Ireland on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015.
Image: WeatherBell Analytics
The Irish Meteorological Office is forecasting cold conditions with widespread showers of hail, sleet and snow starting on Tuesday, with unsettled conditions lasting straight through Friday. As the storm rapidly intensifies, undergoing a process known as "bombogenesis," which is one of the nerdier terms in modern meteorology, it's possible that a "sting jet" could develop on the southwest side of the low pressure area.
Such features, which involve cold, dry air descending rapidly from high in the atmosphere, can lead to areas of damaging winds topping 100 miles per hour in some cases, and are occasionally seen in rapidly intensifying storms in and around the UK.
The storm is the latest in a string of intense weather systems that have intensified near the UK and Scandinavia during recent weeks. An unusually powerful jet stream, with winds of greater than 250 miles per hour, has led to the stormy conditions by providing a boost of energy to nascent storms '-- like a teenager drinking a can of Red Bull.
The jet stream has also made things difficult for airlines operating some transatlantic flight routes, with numerous flights from Europe to the U.S. encountering headwinds so strong that refueling stops in Canada or northern Maine have been necessary.
For example, United flight 125 '-- a Boeing 757 that flies from Berlin to Newark International Airport '-- has been diverted for fuel stops a half-dozen times since the start of the year.
The strong winds at the surface could also result in airport disruptions at busy airports such as Dublin, Manchester, London and Edinburgh. The upcoming storm also poses a threat to ship traffic, with 43-foot or greater waves anticipated across the northeast Atlantic, along with rough conditions in the North Sea, as well.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Topics: Climate, snow, UK, United Kingdom, US & World, World
Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.
The first two months of 2000 were virtually free of significant snowfall in much of lowland Britain, and December brought only moderate snowfall in the South-east. It is the continuation of a trend that has been increasingly visible in the past 15 years: in the south of England, for instance, from 1970 to 1995 snow and sleet fell for an average of 3.7 days, while from 1988 to 1995 the average was 0.7 days. London's last substantial snowfall was in February 1991.
Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community. Average temperatures in Britain were nearly 0.6°C higher in the Nineties than in 1960-90, and it is estimated that they will increase by 0.2C every decade over the coming century. Eight of the 10 hottest years on record occurred in the Nineties.
However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".
"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.
The effects of snow-free winter in Britain are already becoming apparent. This year, for the first time ever, Hamleys, Britain's biggest toyshop, had no sledges on display in its Regent Street store. "It was a bit of a first," a spokesperson said.
Fen skating, once a popular sport on the fields of East Anglia, now takes place on indoor artificial rinks. Malcolm Robinson, of the Fenland Indoor Speed Skating Club in Peterborough, says they have not skated outside since 1997. "As a boy, I can remember being on ice most winters. Now it's few and far between," he said.
Michael Jeacock, a Cambridgeshire local historian, added that a generation was growing up "without experiencing one of the greatest joys and privileges of living in this part of the world - open-air skating".
Warmer winters have significant environmental and economic implications, and a wide range of research indicates that pests and plant diseases, usually killed back by sharp frosts, are likely to flourish. But very little research has been done on the cultural implications of climate change - into the possibility, for example, that our notion of Christmas might have to shift.
Professor Jarich Oosten, an anthropologist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, says that even if we no longer see snow, it will remain culturally important.
"We don't really have wolves in Europe any more, but they are still an important part of our culture and everyone knows what they look like," he said.
David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes - or eventually "feel" virtual cold.
Heavy snow will return occasionally, says Dr Viner, but when it does we will be unprepared. "We're really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time," he said.
The chances are certainly now stacked against the sortof heavy snowfall in cities that inspired Impressionist painters, such as Sisley, and the 19th century poet laureate Robert Bridges, who wrote in "London Snow" of it, "stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying".
Riding in the Golden Carriage took on a whole new meaning this week as the media reports that young Royal Military Police (Marechaussee) regularly use it as a location to engage in intercourse. The Golden Carriage is to be used by the Dutch royal family once a year to bring the monarch from a palace to a ceremonial hall in order to deliver a throne speech.
The source of the story is the mother of one of the military police who claims photos and videos have been made as proof. The military police's lawyer says the youth have extremely static and boring work, and so they get extremely bored. He's not surprised that they act lewdly, as their moral consciousness is not fully developed.
In July 2014 some members of the military police were fired for stealing from a sweets vending machine. Older members of the corps have demonstrated bad behaviour as well when the man who stole a piece of royal carriage admitted to it 50 years later.
(Link: nieuws.nl, Photo by Zoetnet, some rights reserved)
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 at 11:19 am and is filed under General, Weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Golden Coach, marechaussee, military
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VIDEO-CLIPS-DOCS
VIDEO-Russia says it will shift gas transit from Ukraine to Turkey | EurActiv
European Commission Vice President MaroÅ Å efÄoviÄ was told in Moscow Wednesday (14 January) that Russia would shift all its gas transit from Ukraine to Turkey, and that EU customers should buy this gas at the border with Greece.
According to press reports, Å efÄoviÄ, who visits Russia for the first time since he was appointed Commission Vice-President for the Energy Union, said he was ''very surprised'' by the Russian move.
Russia recently abandoned plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline via the Black Sea to Bulgaria, and blamed Sofia for having obstructed the project.
>> Read: Russia says South Stream project is over
>> Read: Russia confirms decision to abandon South Stream
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov was in Brussels last Monday, and asked Å efÄoviÄ to advocate resuming the project, which he said his country supports.
>> Read: Borissov warns of Bulgarian energy 'catastrophe'
About 40% of Russia's gas exports transit through Ukraine, which receives billions in transit fees. Now Russia says it will build an offshore pipeline to Turkey and send all this gas to the Turkish border with Greece.
''We don't work like this,'' Å efÄoviÄ said, as quoted from Bloomberg. He reportedly added, ''I believe we can find a better solution.''
''South Stream is dead. For Europe there will be no other gas transit options to risky Ukraine other than the new 'Turkish Stream' pipeline,'' Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said, as reported by RIA Novosti.
Reportedly, Moscow believes that its gas supplies through Ukraine remain at risk, and is firmly decided to re-route them.
Russia will instead build an alternative pipeline using funds and materials intended for the original South Stream project, the Russia press writes. Reportedly, some of the pipes are stored in Bulgarian ports.
>> Read: Pipes for South Stream keep arriving in Bulgaria
However, some analysts doubt that Russia would find the money to buy an offshore pipeline in its current difficult circumstance, aggravated by the fall of the oil price and the Western sanctions.
VIDEO-Dad Accuses FBI of Setting Up 'Mommy's Boy' Son in Bomb Plot - ABC News
World News Videos | ABC World NewsCopyThe father of an Ohio man arrested Wednesday for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol says his son is not a terrorist and was set up by the FBI.
Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, was arrested on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official, authorities said. He allegedly planned to detonate pipe bombs at the national landmark and open fire on any employees and officials fleeing after the explosions, according to government documents.
But his parents paint a different picture, saying their son had a normal childhood and that they were shocked by the arrest.
''I know my son probably better than anyone,'' Cornell's father, John Cornell Sr., told ABC News. ''He's a mommy's boy. His best friend is his cat Mikey. He still calls his mother 'Mommy.' Just a typical kid.''
Cornell's mother, Angela Carmen, said her son is a good person, interested in wrestling but also a homebody.
''I just love my son. I'll do anything in the world for him, and I'll be right by his side,'' she said.
The FBI first noticed Cornell several months ago, after an informant notified the agency that Cornell was allegedly voicing support for violent ''jihad'' on accounts under the alias, ''Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah,'' according to charging documents. In addition, Cornell allegedly posted statements, videos and other content expressing support for ISIS '' the terrorist group also known as ISIL '' that is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.
He later met an informant in Cincinnati over two days in October, and then another two days in November. During the last meeting, Cornell told an FBI informant that members of Congress were enemies and he wanted to launch an attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, according to charging documents.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
PHOTO: The United States Capitol Building is pictured in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 14, 2015.
John Cornell Sr. says there's no way his son could have thought up a terror plot on his own.
''He told me he had went to a mosque and now I know, in hindsight I know, he was meeting with an FBI agent,'' he told ABC News. ''And they were taking him somewhere, and they were filling his head with a lot of this garbage.''
While also taking ''final steps'' to travel to Washington for the attack earlier Wednesday, Cornell allegedly bought two semi-automatic rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition from a store in Ohio, authorities said.
John Cornell Sr. said his son only had about $1,200 in his bank account, not enough to fund even a small-scale attack.
''These guns cost almost $2,000. Where did that money come from? Well, it came from the FBI,'' John Cornell Sr. said. ''They set him up.''
Cornell will have his first appearance in court on Friday, his parents said.
VIDEO-White House: 'We should have sent someone with a higher profile' - CNN.com
Story highlightsThe White House said it should have sent a higher-profile representative to a Paris unity marchAt least 1.5 million people attended the anti-terrorism rally in France, including several world leadersSecretary of State John Kerry had a prior commitment in India with the new prime minister there"I think it's fair to say that we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday afternoon.
He said Obama himself would have liked to attend the march "had the circumstances been a little different." But planning began Friday night, 36 hours before the event began, and there wasn't enough time for the "onerous and significant" security work that needed to take place ahead of a presidential visit, Earnest said. He said Obama's presence also would have meant extra restrictions on the people who were there.
"That said, there is no doubt that the American people and this administration stand foursquare behind our allies in France as they face down this threat," he said. "And that was evident throughout last week."
More than 40 world leaders, including the British, German and Israeli heads of state and Russia's foreign minister, joined at least 1.5 million people on the Paris streets Sunday for a unity march that became France's biggest-ever public demonstration.
But Obama and his administration's top hands were nowhere to be found -- an absence that triggered complaints that he missed a key leadership opportunity.
The United States appeared to have options to send to the march: Obama spent Sunday at the White House with no public events on his schedule. Vice President Joe Biden was at home in Delaware for the weekend, also with a blank public schedule. Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder was already in Paris for security meetings -- and even recorded interviews with several U.S. Sunday morning programs -- but he didn't attend the march.
A Secret Service official said the agency was not asked to draw up security plans for a potential presidential trip to Paris in advance of Sunday's march.
"We weren't asked or notified about a trip," the official said. But the agency had Secret Service agents on the ground in Paris, per its standard operating procedure.
"It would have been a challenging advance ... based on what we know," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said. But Leary did not say that such an advance would have been impossible.
During the White House briefing, Earnest suggested security challenges were a factor in not having the president travel to Paris. But Earnest acknowledged the Secret Service could have pulled it off. An agency official noted previous "last minute" presidential trips have happened during the Obama presidency, including a hurried visit to South Africa in December 2013 for the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
The White House noted that it was represented in Paris on Sunday -- and has offered support to France in recent days.
U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley was in the march, as was assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. At a security summit, Holder was joined in those security meetings by deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Obama personally visited the French Embassy in Washington last week to offer his support.
Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, will visit Paris on Friday.
Kerry skipped Monday's march because he was in India on Monday for a long-planned event there with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- a key relationship as the United States tries to improve long-strained trade ties with the country.
Kerry brushed the criticism off as "quibbling," saying he'll visit Paris on his way back to the United States to make "crystal clear how passionately we feel" about the attacks and response.
"The U.S. has been deeply engaged with the people of France since this incident occurred," Kerry told reporters, adding that the United States has offered intelligence and law enforcement help.
"This is sort of quibbling a little bit in the sense that our assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was there and marched, our ambassador was there and marched, many people from the embassy were there and marched."
France's ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, sought to show there are no hard feelings, tweeting on Monday: "I am extremely grateful for the overwhelming support France has received from everybody here, from the President to the ordinary American."
The White House's push-back comes as Obama takes heat -- particularly from Republicans considering 2016 presidential bids -- for his absence.
Rick Perry tweeted that Obama "should have stood with France in person to defend Western values and show support for victims."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote for Time: "Our President should have been there, because we must never hesitate to stand with our allies."
And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Monday that "it was a mistake not to send someone."
Rubio said on CBS' "This Morning" that he understands that the President's security detail can be problem in mass gatherings like the rally, but suggested Holder or Kerry should have gone in his place.
"I think in hindsight, I would hope, that they would do it differently," Rubio said.
Who did goBritish Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were among those who attended, along with religious leaders.
Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "Global Public Square," called the absence of top U.S. officials a mistake.
France is the United States' "deepest ideological ally," he said, and it would have been a meaningful image to have a senior administration member, or the President, standing shoulder to shoulder with other leaders.
Zakaria noted that security concerns didn't dissuade Netanyahu or Abbas or other leaders from showing up. But Obama's absence did show that the struggle against radical Islam is "not all about America," Zakaria said.
"Many people have tended to think that Islamic terrorism wouldn't exist without America," Zakaria said. "This is really a struggle between the civilized world and a band of extremists. Even if you take the U.S. out of it ... the civilized world is up in arms."
And Jake Tapper, host of CNN's "The Lead," said American leaders were conspicuously absent from historic Paris rally, perhaps the most important public demonstrations in Europe in the last generation.
Tapper not only called out the President and his administration, but also prospective 2016 hopefuls from both parties, for missing the opportunity to share in the global moment.
What Obama saidObama spoke about the Paris attacks on Friday, saying he wants the people of France to know the United States "stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow."
The White House also announced Sunday that it will host a February 18 summit aimed at countering violent extremism.
Earnest said that event will "highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting or inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and abroad to commit acts of violence, efforts made even more imperative in light of recent, tragic attacks in Ottawa, Sydney and Paris."
He said the summit will include presentations, panel discussions and small group meetings, focused on the local, state and federal government levels.
CNN's Jim Acosta, Ashley Killough, Holly Yan, Jim Sciutto, Erin McPike and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report
VIDEO- UKIP Nigel Farage - Je Suis Charlie is not enough - YouTube
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VIDEO-Did Mossad Do Charlie Hebdo? | Real Jew News
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Brother NathanaelJanuary 12, 2015 @ 8:24 pmText ''Text'' Text
Did Mossad Do Charlie Hebdo?By Brother Nathanael KapnerCopyright 2015
Dead men don't tell tales.
The suspects are dead but the Jewish 'War On Terror' is alive and well.
[Clip: ''Today I marched through the streets of Paris, in one line with leaders from around the world, in order to say that terror must end.'']
That's code for ''Palestinians'' or whoever looks like one.
The Charlie Hebdo attack was a lesson in Israeli pay-back due to France voting for a Palestinian State at the UN two weeks ago.
There was nothing ''jihadist'' about the attack at all.
An unarmed cop was shot who never offended Muhammad; the offensive magazine covers inside Charlie Hebdo's office were left untouched; and the 'terrorists' fled without finishing the job.
A getaway car was waiting for them at a Kosher Restaurant while one of the suspects' ID was left in the abandoned car.
Now, what jihadist brings his ID with him on a 'terror' operation?
That's Classic Mossad whose access to intelligence files on former criminals via its moles within the system is well known.
Some may say Mossad was not involved, yet Jews will still use this attack to push their agenda.
But Hezbollah, you know, recently uncovered a Mossad mole operating in its uppermost ranks.
Whose payroll were the Paris suspects on? That's the question.
Cui bono? Jews. It's 9-11 all over again. The enemies of Jewry'--whoever looks like a Palestinian'--are again everyone's enemies.
Now all the Jews have descended on Paree: Bibzy, Levy, Cuckermain'...bringing their 'clash of civilizations' with them where civil strife brings on a Jewish police state with 'expert help' from the Mossad flown in.
Ain't that a shame. The very same ones who created the crisis are sent in to solve it.
Did Mossad do Charlie Hebdo? Sure looks like it to me.
Brother NathanaelJanuary 12, 2015 @ 8:25 pmStreets Across America! HAVE CROSS WILL TRAVEL!
Here's my UPDATED Schedule of my Street Evangelism:
Summit County CO/Ski Resort Area'...On The Streets All Month!
X Games Aspen CO - January 22
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Please Help Me Financially To Continue my Street Evangelism, Videos, and Articles.
The Elder of Zyklon-BJanuary 12, 2015 @ 9:15 pmThey seem to get a kick out of using the same playbook over and over again while continuing to rope-a-dope the goyim.
I remember the magic ID of one of the ''hijackers'' which appeared on the ground in pristine form amidst the pulverized concrete on 911.
This is a great production, both visually and in content.
JustinJanuary 12, 2015 @ 9:24 pmWell it makes perfect sense, that France would receive this kind of treatment coincidentally after recognizing the Palestinians right to self-determination.
The Devil's claws are deep in this one, even Zionist Fox News footage looks suspicious.
The Mossad has spies all over Europe, their are plenty of documented cases of this, and even civilians getting shot during Mossad chases of ''criminals'' (a bunch of bologna).
The Jews and their Mossad definitely live up to their satanic lies and their motto: ''by decpetion, we make war.''
This isn't about radical Islam, it's about Zionists trying to solidify their control of the world for their master the Devil.
Just stunning to see those phonies marching in Paris.
The Main Stream Media here is manipulating the masses of mush-heads into lusting after another war that will establish the New World Order of Zionism, and make Jerusalem (Sodom and Egypt) the capitol of the world.
www.crushtheserpent.blogspot.com
Irene Bonney FaulkesJanuary 12, 2015 @ 9:41 pmBrother Nathanael, you have to be right.
Sites from round the Internet show much evidence to support your appraisal.
One of the Terrorists had blue eyes, Mossad?
Two photos of worlds' leaders arm in arm, are positively different. Now how could that be?
It was a supremely trained group following all the best military skills that did the job.
As for claims by Al Quaeda they did it - where is the proof?
Of course, most people would not believe that Mossad Agents or any Jews would sacrifice their own lives i.e. if they were those killed.
It has happened before. These people will kill their own to further their devilish aims for war and world conquest. This is instanced by the three Jewish youths shown on a video to have been done away with by Mossad.
This was the excuse for Israel to go to a war of retrition against thousands of innocent Palestinians.
In London, hundreds of Jewish Security vehicles were on the roads. Why there and why Jewish? Did the British need any help? Of course not, they are quite capable of hunting down subversives. A show of power it had to be.
The message to all European nations and all those in authority is this. Do not act contrarily to our demands. If you do - down you go.
All these false flags point to an accelleration and even alteration to their original plans.
They are indicating 'We will continue, win out despite changes in situations, and reach our goal faster'.
booksJanuary 12, 2015 @ 9:48 pmNatan Sharansky
That's one man who is trying to push all the jews to move to Israel whether they want to or not.
Gog and Magog, the nightmare is coming.
Eileen K.January 12, 2015 @ 9:52 pmThe whole operation in Paris targeting the offices of the Charlie Hebdo paper smacks of the Mossad.
The attack was done in professional commando style; and, the perps spoke fluent French, which the patsies didn't. A number of alternative media sites had mentioned these anomalies and pointed out the false flag nature of the event.
For example, the ID of one of the patsies was found in an abandoned vehicle, something a real terrorist would have never done.
Only two weeks before, France had voted for Palestine's statehood and membership in the ICC, which enraged Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu to the point of warning French officials of ''serious consequences''; whatever that means.
French President Francois Hollande also voiced opposition to sanctions on Russia, another affront to Bibi. Therefore, he had to get France back in line; and that prescribed the false flag attack two weeks later in Paris.
I'm so sorry to learn that your finances are in such dire straits that you may be evicted from your residence. Apparently, most of your readers who can well afford to donate enough to keep you going haven't been doing their fair share; otherwise, you wouldn't have to launch such an urgent appeal.
As I said before; I'm a senior citizen on a fixed income; yet, I find enough to make donations to your Foundation.
You're a light in the darkness; truth in an ocean of lies; and a voice for the voiceless. I'll be making my second donation of this month at the end of the week. I hope the Foundation is still in operation by then.
My prayers go out to you, Br. Nathanael. I know you'll keep hanging in there, as you're not the type to give up.
The Lord bless you always,
Eileen
Brother NathanaelJanuary 12, 2015 @ 10:13 pmLooks like I've been vindicated. +bn
The Financial TimesJanuary 12, 2015
Russian and Turkish conspiracy theories swirl after Paris attacks
Barely 24 hours after Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's prime minister, joined millions marching in Paris to pay tribute to the 17 people killed by Islamist extremists, the country's president struck a much more confrontational tone.
''The duplicity of the west is obvious,'' Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference on Monday evening. ''As Muslims we have never sided with terror or massacres: racism, hate speech, Islamophobia are behind these massacres.''
''The culprits are clear: French citizens undertook this massacre and Muslims were blamed for it,'' he added.
Although political leaders in Turkey have repeatedly condemned the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman, a parallel narrative has emerged in the country, with conspiracy theorists blaming the murders on foreign intelligence agencies rather than radical Islamists.
A similar phenomenon has occurred in Russia, which sent Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister, to Sunday's march.
Some such theories have been endorsed by pro-government figures '-- highlighting the growing resentment and suspicion of the west in two strategically important countries at a time of rising tensions over Ukraine and the Middle East.
''In Turkey, at least, it looks dangerously like people are playing a double game,'' said Aaron Stein of the Royal United Services Institute, a UK think-tank. ''Issue condemnations that play internationally, even as you tolerate supporters pushing crazy opinions that appeal to your political base.''
Melih Gokcek, mayor of Ankara for the ruling AK party, said on Monday that ''Mossad [the Israeli intelligence service] is definitely behind such incidents'.'.'.'it is boosting enmity towards Islam.'' Mr Gokcek linked the attacks to French moves towards recognising Palestine.
Ali Sahin, a member of Turkey's parliament and foreign affairs spokesman for the AK party, last week set out eight reasons why he suspected the killings were staged so that ''the attack will be blamed on Muslims and Islam''.
Mehmet Gormez, director of the state-run religious affairs directorate, described the attacks as a ''perception operation'' that cynically used the symbols of Islam, although he later appeared to tone down his comments.
In his own remarks on Monday, Mr Erdogan added: ''Games are being played throughout the Islamic world''. He expressed bewilderment that French intelligence services had not followed the culprits more effectively.
However, he has mainly appeared to hint at a conspiracy behind the depiction of the killings rather than the murders themselves.
In Russia, some pro-Kremlin commentators sought to link the killings to geopolitical machinations by the US.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Russia's leading tabloids, ran the headline: ''Did the Americans stage the terror attack in Paris?'' and posted a series of interviews on its website that presented various reasons why Washington might have organised the attack.
In one interview, Alexander Zhilin, head of the pro-Kremlin Moscow Centre for the Study of Applied Problems, claimed the terror attack was US retribution against President Fran§ois Hollande for a January 6 radio interview in which Mr Hollande urged the EU to lift sanctions against Russia.
Washington used the attacks as ''a quick fix for consolidating'' US and EU geopolitical interests in Ukraine, Mr Zhilin claimed.
Others repeated a popular Russian conspiracy theory blaming the US intelligence services for a swath of terrorist assaults, from the 9/11 attacks on the US to last week's Paris killings.
''For the last 10 years, so-called Islamist terrorism has been under the control of one of the world's leading intelligence agencies,'' Alexei Martynov, director of the International Institute for New States, a think-tank, told pro-Kremlin internet outlet LifeNews.
''I am sure that some American supervisors are responsible for the terror attacks in Paris, or in any case the Islamists who carried them out.''
ZionienJanuary 12, 2015 @ 10:15 pmThem who have eyes - let them SEE^!!!+
Mario HerreraJanuary 12, 2015 @ 10:55 pmNAJI AL-ALI, Palestinian Cartoonist
The MOSSAD had a long experience assassinating Cartoonist in London 1987, like in Charlie Hebdo.
Nethanyahu was in Paris now just checking MOSSAD job in the field.
http://bit.ly/1y9Uz2d
BooksJanuary 13, 2015 @ 12:05 amMUST READ - Seems Jews are going to be pushed to Israel whether they like it or not!
From Jewish Chronicle Online:
By Natan Sharansky, July 24, 2014
I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of Jewish history in Europe.
What makes the situation in Europe unique in history is the fact that Europe has become very intolerant of identities in a multicultural and post-nationalist environment.
This new antisemitism is very connected to Israel '-- demonisation, delegitimisation and double-standards '-- and is now so deep in the core of European political and intellectual leaders that practically every Jew is being asked to choose between being loyal to Israel and loyal to Europe.
That insecurity is due to Muslim immigration and the rise of the classical right, which sees the Jews as the ''other''.
The liberal, intellectual Europe where Jews historically felt so comfortable is now asking them to choose between Israel and ''us''.
These three factors are bringing us to the situation where unprecedented numbers of Jews in the free world are moving to Israel. This year, one per cent of the French Jewish community will make aliyah.
I see this as a historical moment '-- as the beginning of the process of distancing Jews from Europe.
Europe is abandoning its identities, with the multicultural idea that there will be no such things as nation-states or religion. In post-identity Europe, there is less and less space for Jews for whom it is important to have both identity and freedom. In Europe, it is becoming more difficult to have both.
What is happening in France seems like a local phenomenon but it's not.
In France, the feeling of insecurity because of Muslim immigration, the feeling of insecurity because of the rise of classical right-wing antisemitism, and the feeling of insecurity because intellectuals in France are becoming more anti-Israel '-- these factors are meeting in the most powerful way.
Aliyah from France has been rising for a number of years. Two years ago, our annual aliyah fair, which normally attracts around 500 people, was held on election day. People went to vote and then came to the fair '-- 5,000 attended.
The factors that contributed to this change haven't just arisen over the past year. There has been a growing feeling of insecurity which starts to feel permanent.
After the terrible incident in Toulouse (in 2012, when a gunman killed four at a Jewish school) for instance, we received appeals from the local community to help with security and we set up a special fund.
But this isn't about just one incident. For more than 12 years, rabbis and teachers in French schools have told Jewish children not to go out in the street wearing a kippah.
That's something that even Moscow and Kiev rabbis don't say to children. The fact that this started in 2003 and 2004, during the Second Intifada, made people think it would be temporary. But it hasn't changed and it's not going to.
This feeling that insecurity is now something permanent is pushing French Jews out of France (although there is also the economic factor, which is putting pressure on all young French people, not just on Jews).
The French government does the maximum possible to protect the security of its citizens, and specifically the Jewish community.
In the past, when I was in the Israeli government and was warned that violent antisemitism was being transmitted by Hamas using French satellites, the French president was so shocked that he went to the French courts and they prohibited the broadcasts.
This helps to prevent one terrorist attack or another, but what's happening in Europe goes much deeper than this.
I recently met French intellectual Alain Finkielkraut, and asked him whether there was a future for Jews in Europe. His pessimism ran much deeper than mine. He questioned whether there was a future even for 'Europe' in Europe '-- for those European values of freedom and identity in this multi-cultural, post-identity world.
Europe is abandoning its basic values of respecting identities while at the same time guaranteeing full freedom for its citizens.
On the one hand, Europe opens its gates to immigration, to people who are not asked to share its values of freedom and tolerance.
And on the other hand Europeans are rushing back towards the right-wing parties who are hostile to ''the other''.
Then there is the intellectual atmosphere which asks Jews to choose between their loyalty to Israel and their loyalty to Europe.
All this creates an impossible situation for Jews. This feeling of non-belonging and disengagement is much stronger than the feeling of aliyah.
It is not our problem, frankly, but a problem for Europe and those interested in European civilisation and ensuring that European values remain. They have to question why this is happening '-- that so many Jews feel uncomfortable in Europe.
That more and more people are deciding to go to Israel is no doubt related to the longstanding policy of connecting every young Jew to Israel with different programmes.
Every year, we at the Jewish Agency bring in dozens of new programmes to encourage that connection. So when people decide that now is the time to leave, they already have it in mind that Israel is part of their family.
We have had to change our approach to ensure all our work is about strengthening Jewish identity and the connection to history, tradition, community and the state of Israel.
It's all one process. If you want to have more aliyah, you must have more Jews. Where there is the choice of aliyah, people must make the free choice to be Jewish, to be connected to their community.
We cannot decide on people's behalf where the process of strengthening their identity will stop. Some will make aliyah, some will stay in their communities, some will support Israel, some will make sure their children are bought up Jewish. It's all part of one process. France is a good example of this process.
There has also been an increase in aliyah from certain parts of Ukraine. It's not happening because of antisemitism or because of the Ukrainian government.
There is no antisemitic policy and the government tries to be as co-operative with the Jewish community as possible.
But there is suddenly a vacuum of power in the east of Ukraine, where thousands of Jews still live, and a lot of violence, which is not connected to the Jews but during which personal prejudices come to the surface.
We had in these places a hardcore of people who do not want to go to Israel '-- 80 per cent of the Jews of the former Soviet Union had already left '-- one million to Israel, one million to the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and so on, and the ones who stayed are the ones who had a real attachment to their homes.
But this hardcore suddenly feels very insecure because of the violence, because of the absence of power, because of prejudice '-- there are people who think Jews are agents of Moscow and those who think Jews are agents of America.
There is potential danger and the immediate response was that maybe it's time to leave.
I was there when Birthright (the group that organises educational trips to Israel for young adults) was born and was its biggest supporter in the Israei government.
Apart from the ultra-Orthodox who will keep their identities, all other Jews who don't have that connection to Israel will assimilate. If you want your grandchildren to be Jewish, you have to have some form of connection to Israel.
That doesn't mean Israel doesn't have to make efforts when it comes to religious pluralism '-- Israel should work to be more open to all types of Jews '-- but it isn't that case that Israel is imposing anything on world Jewry.
It was world Jewry which discovered that it needed Israel to take care of its Jewish identity. At the same time, Israel discovered that it was very important for world Jewry to be supportive of Israel.
World Jewry depends on the state of Israel for its survival and Israel depends on world Jewry for mobilising support in the struggle against delegitimisation. It's mutual dependency.
Europe was built on the idea of nation-states, freedom and equality. After the Second World War, Europe decided that nation-states were the problem because they brought the continent two wars.
An exodus of Jews from Europe would be the first visible sign of the deep changes now happening.
It is a matter of concern for me as someone who appreciates European civilization '-- but it is not my business as the chairman of the Jewish Agency.
It's definitely the business of the leaders of Europe, who have to think how they came to the point where Europe was once willing to give away millions of its citizens '-- its Jews '-- and now when the remnants of these Jews are willing to give away Europe.
Maybe they feel they can have more Europe in Israel, because it is Israel which is fighting to be both Jewish and democratic.
Israel is the place that is fighting for European values. Europe will die here and survive in Israel.http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/120791/natan-sharansky-exclusive-european-idea-will-die-here-and-survive-israel%E2%80%99
Roberto ChileJanuary 13, 2015 @ 12:52 amYou forgot to mention the cop who killed himself hours after being assigned to the Charlie Hebdo case.
Wayne PacificJanuary 13, 2015 @ 2:03 amMossad did the Hebdo massacre.
It is a classic operation. Mossad was created to get Jews to come to Israel and some of their first victims were the Jews of Iraq, who were terrorized into fleeing to Iraq.
But there is much more to this than just getting Jews into Israel. For at least three decades the Zionists have been building up the American and NATO psyches for a prolonged massacre of Arabs.
This next round of slaughter will see the use of small nukes, especially on Hezbollah, whom Israel greatly fears. Nuclear war is coming soon because the Jews are fearful and desperate.
not believeableJanuary 13, 2015 @ 2:15 amHahaha Books!
You left out that it is the Jews who foisted this agregiousus destructive immigration policy on Europe and in America.
I am not buying the Jews' pity party as they are destroyers. They have opened the flood gates of hell for the rest of us and ALL they care about is their own asses!!!
Their race and religion '-- an oxymoron '-- are not special, just the epitomy of racist.
gtJanuary 13, 2015 @ 5:26 amAs I have written, two reasons Americans are not yet in Fema camps follow
1. the military assets
2. fear of Americans with guns
The jewish elites have so deceived/divided the Goyim, while creating a deadly national debt that will crush us one day'...
Sandra EganJanuary 13, 2015 @ 5:41 amBooks: In my opinion you're off your rocker!
Please wake up to the truth if you're not already aware as I don't doubt most Jews like most Americans aren't thinking for themselves like 'sheeple' listening to the Jew owned media.
Bitterness is hard to overcome I know. If the Talmud is your Bible you are twisting the truth, why not study the Torah? Why not read the New Testament before you burn it'...after reading ALL the Torah. You'll find out in the Torah GOD didn't choose the Jews because they were special in any way!!!
In fact he called you all a hard headed and stiff necked people!!! And Moses warned you that you would turn from the TRUTH.
And, NOW, it turns out MONEY IS the root of all evil! I personally had to go through Hell and High water to earn it. There's a lot of cut throat competition for money.
Thank you Jesus that things have changed for me somewhat. If I was still working for 'the man' and not myself right now I am sure I would not have time to do a crash course in history.
This freemason shit is mind boggling, as my step father a pedophile WAS one, he now claims he is a Christian but I dare say I never heard a confession and had to tell on him as I found out he was doing it again.
Nothing ever came from it, my parents don't talk to me. Gulp. SOOO many of our Presidents were Freemasons and Obama is a Skull and Bones member? Don't know about all that yet'...still learning.
I am about to be thrown out in the street unless a miracle happens.
If there is a generous person who can help me live in peace with my own roof over my head I will be very grateful.
Please email me: bronathanael [at] yahoo [dot] com
booksJanuary 13, 2015 @ 7:36 amThe article was written by Natan Sharansky 6 months ago. You would think it was written after the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Prophetic article, really, you have to wonder how it could predict things so well. I didnt write it. The errors of logic and reason are not mine either. I'm trying to show you that if we investigate Natan Sharansky there will be a better chance for predicting the future.
Russia TV has a big presence underground in America. A lot of its staff are wealthy young 911 truthers. They don't know the full truth but they're curious people. If only there were a way to investigate Natan Sharansky with the help of RT. Just a pipe dream.
Again I repeat Natan Sharansky wrote that long article, not Books.
James Woroble JrJanuary 13, 2015 @ 8:24 amCharlie Hebdo False Flag Story Goes Viral
Bibi wants to see terrorism end, then let it begin with him. Bill Whittle went on an anti-Palestinian rant with one of his vids on YT recently. Poor Bill has no recollection of the Stern Gang, the Irgun or the Lavon Affair.
In another vein, once Mossad ramps up operations in Ukraine the countdown to a massive East (Russia) versus West (NATO) confrontation is bound to be short.
Caveman2012January 13, 2015 @ 9:34 amMORE LIES: WORLD LEADERS DID NOT ATTEND PARIS RALLY!
We all saw that chain of ''world leaders'' at the front of the huge Paris rally on Sunday.
All lies!
They staged a photo op in a side street, before the rally begun.
Roberto ChileJanuary 13, 2015 @ 10:08 amAmedy Coulibaly, ''jihadist'' from the Paris kosher supermarket, throws himself at the police with tied hands and with a weapon hanging from his neck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEI4S8-Y0aA
KathJulianeJanuary 13, 2015 @ 11:43 amThanks again for a great video, dear +BN.
You always stay focused on where Israel is, and what the Jews are doing, and I for one appreciate it.
Party-crasher Nutty-yoyo is just besides himself with glee, inserting himself into the picture when he was specifically asked by Hollande not to come to Paris because Bibsy is so ''controversial'' what with Palestine and all.
He couldn't help himself, not when he found out his political rivals back in Israel showed up. Resistance was futile against Bibsy's overwhelming impulse to shed his crocodile tears as one of the largest assembly of the world's murderers, thieves for a photo op and collectively known as ''Je Suis Hypocrite.''
What a joke that Unity Walk is, and Nutty-yoyo is the pratfall. The 40 some odd dignitaries all got together for a photo op on a street well away from the millions of stinking, unwashed masses holding their rally.
Your first montage is very expressive. Bibsy's got his royal wave going, while Hollande looks rather unhappy about Bibsy. In other vids he's made concerning the Paris' shootings it's all Nutty-yoyo can do to contain himself.
Telegraph UK tells all:
Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a storm of criticism because of his ''embarrassing'' behaviour at Sunday's mass solidarity march in Paris and his calls for French Jews to emigrate to Israel following last week's deadly attack on a Jewish supermarket.
The Israeli prime minister was seen elbowing his way to the front of the parade of world leaders and also unsuccessfully tried to jump to the head of queue waiting for a bus that was to take guests to the starting point.
After he failed to get on the first bus, a nervous-looking Mr Netanyahu '' accompanied by what appeared to be an Israeli security team '' was shown on French video footage waiting for the next one.
During the march, Mr Netanyahu waved to the crowd in response to a pro-Israel shout from a woman spectator, a gesture some Israeli commentators deemed to be at odds with the sombre mood.'...
Mr Netanyahu initially agreed but changed his mind after learning that two political rivals '' Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, and Naftali Bennett, the industry minister and leader of the Jewish Home party '' were going.
His insistence on attending prompted the French authorities to invite Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, as a counterweight, reported the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11339483/Benjamin-Netanyahu-ridiculed-over-appearance-at-Paris-solidarity-march.html
I haven't seen Bibsy so smirky, looking like he'll break out in that evil smile of his at any time, and practically dancing on his toes in quite awhile.
It must take a lot to hold back on spewing out, ''This is good for Israel. I mean, this is really good for Israel.''
Let us remember Nutty-yoyo's immortal words on September 12, 2001 in the Jew York Times:
Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.'' Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.''
He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.''
In an appearance late tonight, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly placed Israel on the same ground as the United States, calling the assault an attack on ''our common values'' and declaring, ''I believe together we can defeat these forces of evil.'' He declared Wednesday a day of mourning.
CitizenfitzJanuary 13, 2015 @ 11:55 amBrother Nathanael's a glass of cool water in this desert of lies.
KoenJanuary 13, 2015 @ 12:14 pm9-11 wasn't just an inside job, the Israeli mossad was the main organiser of the New York WTC controlled demolition by means of small atomic bombs, according to the book ''The Third Truth about 9/11'" by D.A. Khalezov.
See http://www.911thology.com
The IS ''Islamic State'' seems to be something international, just like communism. 'IS' isn't a particular country, it is the philosophy of converting the entire globe into one Islam based communist state. Who could be the inventor of ''IS''?
Maybe the people who invented international communism in the first place (which is sold as ''globalism''today)?? Is 'IS' something the average Muslim aspires to?
No, it is not hard to guess. In case you disagree with ISrael's global Jewish empire, you will be punished by ''IS'': ISrael's ''Islamic'' terrorist arm.
BrabantianJanuary 13, 2015 @ 12:51 pmSummary of indicators Charlie Hebdo attack was a Mossad - French security operation and not 'Muslims', with 'patsy' Franco-Algerian brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi likely murdered beforehand in Charlie Hebdo false flag hoax
(1) Military and intel veterans, including from France, broadly agree operation seems professional state-supported and not likely Franco-Algerian jihadi brothers
(2) One masked Charlie Hebdo attacker identified by witness as having blue eyes, unlike Algerian brothers
(3) Masked Charlie Hebdo killers immediately drove getaway car to Jewish kosher restaurant 'Patistory' popular with Israelis / Mossad in Paris
(4) At Jewish deli Charlie Hebdo killers quickly change to 2nd getaway car and laughably 'by accident' leave ID of Kouachi in 1st car
(5) As predicted Kouachi brothers are allegedly quickly 'killed', though likely murdered much earlier before massacre was undertaken
(6) French police Commissioner Helric Fredou, beginning fascinating work to report on Hebdo massacre, is suddenly found with bullet in head, with laughable claim he 'committed suicide'
(7) President of France Fran§ois Hollande appears on television, looking shaken and fearful, briefly blurts out that Hebdo massacre was carried out by Illumin(C)s >> - the Illuminati - thus hinting it was 'Deep State' French security along with Israel, following on Hollande's decisions favouring Palestine
(8) French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, married to Jewish violinist Anne Gravoin, is pro-Israel fanatic, supporting and protecting Mossad operations in France, Valls claiming any anti-Zionist (such as many Jews) must be a Jew-hating anti-Semite
(9) Anglo-Israeli web trolls intensively hit popular websites, arguing fanatically it is all fault of 'Muslims', trying to suppress investigation and discussion
KathJulianeJanuary 13, 2015 @ 12:56 pmSlime Rises to the Top '-- Lucky ''Je Suis Bottomfeeder''
Support pours in to ensure Charlie Hebdo lives on
Just hours after the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo Wednesday, support '' moral, financial and logistical '' began flooding in to ensure that satirical French weekly would live on, in defiance of those that sought to silence it.
Charlie Hebdo's surviving editorial staff have already vowed to publish a new edition of the magazine next Wednesday, January 14. One million copies will be printed, instead of the usual 60,000.'...On Friday, Pelloux and other surviving staff members were seen heading into the offices of the French newspaper Lib(C)ration, which has offered the magazine's employers use of its premises for ''as long as necessary''.'...
But the offers of help did not end there. Numerous French media organisations '' including Le Monde, France T(C)l(C)visions, Radio France and FRANCE 24's parent company France M(C)dias Monde '' have also vowed to ''make available all the manpower and materials necessary to allow Charlie Hebdo to live on''.
Pledges of support have also come in from overseas, with The Guardian announcing Thursday a donation of £100,000 ('¬128,000) to help keep the magazine running.
That will be added to the approximately '¬1 million of funding French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin promised to make available for Charlie Hebdo ''to ensure its continuation''. [And another '¬450,000, not to mention a heap of subscriptions, intellectuals and artists will be contributing to this rag.]'...
Before Wednesday's attack, the magazine had been in considerable financial difficulty, its declining sales bringing it to the verge of bankruptcy.
Weekly sales had fallen to around 30,000 a week, half the number printed, while it needed to sell at least 35,000 a week just to break even, St(C)phane Charbonnier, or Charb, had told AFP before losing his life in the massacre.
He launched an appeal for donations in November to help save the magazine, but by the end of the year it had only raised a few thousand euros, much less than the '¬1 million hoped for.
That appeal is now set to continue with the full weight of the French media behind it, many of whom are relaying the call for donations through their publications.
The message will also be spread abroad through Reporters Without Borders.
''Revenue from the next edition will go to the families of the victims,'' said Val. ''The call for donations will ensure Charlie Hebdo continues.''
Thank you for the item written by Sharansky! Very interesting for it's prognostications for French Jewry.
It reminds me of the open secret concerning Zionist terror efforts against Arab (Oriental) Jews in the 50s to force them to move to Israhell.
''Naeim Giladi, an Iraqi Jew, was an Israeli agent, who is very well familiar with the Israeli terrorist attacks against Iraqi Jewish communities. He stated
''''... that Jews from Islamic lands did not immigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews.' In his book ''Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah & the Mossad Eliminated Jews''
Zionist Crimes Against The Jewshttp://www.intifada-palestine.com/2013/11/zionist-crimes-jews/http://www.inminds.com/jews-of-iraq.html
KalinJanuary 13, 2015 @ 1:14 pm@All
It's not just Mossad, but like OKC, 9/11, the Boston Bombing and the rest, there's plenty of traitors in the French government and media that are complicit in this scandal.
tonyJanuary 13, 2015 @ 1:48 pmHere is my question: even al Qaida was fighting and exploiting Palestine and used as their main justification.
Why in the hell would these two al Qaida members do that just as Palestine proposes the most important thing to Palestine and the Muslim world, and al Qaida which was fighting for Palestine, Palestine resolution?
This is the most blinding bullshit ever told. It simply makes no sense that they would attack france just as Palestine gets its resolution if they were Muslim. What bigger cause is there?
tonyJanuary 13, 2015 @ 1:53 pmMr Sharansky forgot that Jews have promoted multiculturalism and open border in France.
So now he is saying Jews are promoting European values hahaha wow! Never laughed more in my life.
tonyJanuary 13, 2015 @ 2:03 pmBesides Brother Brother Nathanael who is fighting for Christianity and a few other exceptions, the rest can burn in hell and they will for all the atrocities, lies, parasitism, injustice, and double standards in Europe and America.
Their time will soon come. People forget, but God never forgets.
tonyJanuary 13, 2015 @ 2:22 pmBut the irony is that Israel has trained ISIS members to fight against Syria.
jim westJanuary 13, 2015 @ 2:40 pmInspector Helric Fredou was assassinated possibly because he had proofs showing that the brothers did not committed the crime.
Let this be a lesson for any Goyim out there working in any parts of the Jewish Crime Syndicate. If you have information that implicates them, you're as good as dead, so you'd better disappear fast. Otherwise you'll conveniently kill yourself.
Think of it, if Jews kill other Jews to accomplish their goals, do you think they'll blink when it comes to Goyim.
eanJanuary 13, 2015 @ 3:31 pmThe Jews of the Golden Calf dominate this world.
Only the Redeemer will cleanse the world. Hold strong and hold fast await, look for the signs.
Open up your mind and your heart trust and love the universe for the Father will always be holding your hand.
tom deanJanuary 13, 2015 @ 4:24 pmThose Paris terrorists owned the streets.
Where were the cops? Why did they have full masks on if they expected to die for Mohammed?
Expect another 911 soon.
KathJulianeJanuary 13, 2015 @ 5:04 pmFacts concerning the reported suicide of Police Commissioner Helric Fredou, Number Two Police Officer (Deputy Director) of the Regional Service of France's Judicial Police (JP), Limoges, (Haute-Vienne), and the swirling speculations in the conspiracy theory echo chamber about his suicide.
First, it's necessary to understand that the term ''commissioner'' in France does not mean the same thing as it does here in the US, as in the NYC Police Commissione.
In reference to the police of France and other French-speaking countries, the word ''commissioner'' might be used to translate commissaire, which also translates as commissary.
Commissaire de police is a rank in the French National Police. It is a rank equating approximately to the British police rank of chief superintendent.
The rank above is called ''divisional commissary''.
Every commune (municipality; administrative division) with a population of more than 30,000-50,000 has a commissary in charge of its National Police force and larger communes have more than one (the Prefecture of Police of Paris has well over one hundred).
A commissary has both an administrative role and an investigative role.
Commissioner Fredou was the deputy director in charge of the administrative district of Limoges and its regional district.
The Union of Police Commissioners issued as part of their statement:
''It is with great sadness that we were informed this morning of the death of our colleague Helric Fredou, assigned as Deputy Director of the Regional Service Judicial Police in Limoges.''
Clearly there is more than one police commissioner or commissaire in France if they have a union.
Secondly, he is clearly identified as as the deputy director of Limoges district, and not part of the Paris Prefecture. Limoges is about 245 miles from Paris.
It was also reported that shortly before his alleged suicide on January 7 (not the 10th as is floating around now), that Commissioner Fredou had ''met with the family of one of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack massacre.''
It's not known which victim's family he was asked to contact on Wednesday living 245 miles away from Paris 2 days prior to the hostage/shooting incidents at the printing press in Dammartin-en-Goele, or the market in Paris.
Of the eleven January 7th victims killed at Charlie Hebdo were 2 police officers, 1 maintenance worker, and 8 employees, and 11 more people were injured '-- 4 employees of Charlie Hebdo, and the rest were wounded police officers.
Every city and town with a population above 30,000 is going to have a National Police commissioner.
There are around 125 cities with populations of 50,000 or greater, so there should be atleast 125 or so commissioners, and at least an equal number of deputy commissioners.
I'm not at all familiar with how the French National Police are organized, but it appears that there is a deputy commissioner for each department in a region.
In America, we don't have a national police system, but it would be analagous to a combined superintendent office of a municipal chief of police and a county sheriff's office.
It's something of an exaggeration to claim that Fredou was a part of the investigation, that is directly involved in the case investigating the suspects. None of the French reports express that, reporting only that he had earlier contacted members of a unknown victim's family 245 miles away from Paris.
Considering his rank, he was likely requested by Paris to contact family of either one of the first two police officers killed, or family of another other one of the officers who were wounded.
The Elder of Zyklon-BJanuary 13, 2015 @ 6:15 pmThe Heb police-via David Irving's site.
''Things to come: Jewish police out in force in uniforms and their own police cars '' in North London!''
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/index.html
LaskarinaJanuary 13, 2015 @ 6:23 pmPlease do not underestimate the significance of the this wonderful, news. Please read about this great saint of our time.
Today, Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos) is glorified to sainthood!!!
Here is a link to Brother Nathanael's video about him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHvPoReZodA
Videos with some of his prophecies:
( youtube.com/watch?v=IVGTudBwR6Q )
( youtube.com/watch?v=xONq8UzPhXY )
LaskarinaJanuary 13, 2015 @ 6:56 pmThere are so many reasons that the Paris incident is a completely false flag that one hardly knows where to begin. Some reasons are discussed above.
For those with IQ of a higher number than room temperature, it was not difficult to discern from the initial report that it was a Mossad/Gladio type of thing (revenge combined with terror to achieve political ends).
In the news recording it is easy to hear the ''attacker'' saying ''God is great!'' and ''we are taking revenge for Mohammed!''
Okay, there it is.
Never, in the times that last phrase was repeated, did the so-called attacker, after saying ''Mohammed'' add ''peace be upon him''. Any real Muslim would never, ever, ever, omit that follow up phrase! Even in YouTube videos, or in writing!
This reminds me of the Russian people discerning fake crypto Jew priests ( govt spies) under Jew communism by noticing they did not always cross themselves at the right times.
Any Muslim mentioning the name of Mohammed would automatically add ''peace be upon him'', even in casual speech, let alone for publicity.
One of the reasons the Jews are eager to simulate terror is to create fear. Fear feeds the demons; the energy empowers evil and that's what they want to do.
WWIII will happen not because of this incident, but because the Jews will find a way with the help of their father, Satan. Much of the world will be destroyed. But God will not abandon his own.
St. Paisios asked St. Euphemia (when she miraculously visited him to help him with ecclesiastical questions) ''How did you endure your martyrdom?''
She replied that if she had known how beautiful her eternity in heaven would be, she would not have cared if it were more prolonged.
LaskarinaJanuary 13, 2015 @ 7:11 pmAbe Foxman, the pit bull of the ADL got a taste of his own medicine when his 40 year old son married his Cuban American partner in a two groom Jewish wedding and the write up is in Haaretz.
Foxman traveled to Greece last year to excoriate Orthodox Church authorities and demand that the ''anti-Semitic'' Gospel of John be re-written as well the Divine Liturgy changed.
twilights last gleamingJanuary 13, 2015 @ 7:48 pmThat young student in school has alibi, cops say he is one of the gunmen.
How was his ID on the street? Haven't heard anything else about him, anyone know?
Mossad likes to use fake ID and stolen fake passports.
Seek The TruthJanuary 13, 2015 @ 7:54 pmSeems to me, it would be the easiest thing in the world for the sneaky Jews in the Mossad or CIA to infiltrate a Muslim organization pretending to be Muslims and egg on the more radical ones to carry out a violent act and then hide in the shadows like rats.
Since one of the alleged Paris attackers was a Black man, the Jews can now use the U.S. military as cannon fodder in Africa.
Who put Oswald in the top of a school book depository to take pot shots at JFK while a marksman stood near the street to make sure the job got done? Kennedy, the courageous and best President, was enemy number one according to the Jews that ran Israel.
Out comes Jack Ruby (Jacob Rubenstein), the Jew gangster and fanatical supporter of Israel to shoot Oswald in order to keep him from talking about who set him up.
Zionist Jews want all the world's white rats to be gathered in the Nile to Euphrates ''Greater Israel'' but in order to do so Jews have to be terrorized out of Europe and the U.S.
I am about to be thrown out in the street unless a miracle happens.
If there is a generous person who can help me live in peace with my own roof over my head I will be very grateful.
I am in this battle for the long haul. I simply need a more permanent living situation.
Please email me: bronathanael [at] yahoo [dot] com
apologeticos2013January 13, 2015 @ 11:06 pmJe Suis Gaza!
http://comunidadevirtual007.blogspot.com/
Roberto ChileJanuary 14, 2015 @ 12:29 amWe need to preempt this by creating a Muslim-Christian alliance to take power from Jewish Hands.
CitizenfitzJanuary 14, 2015 @ 8:23 amOne thing remains certain: in spite of this Europe will continue to be flooded with Muzzies - and anyone who publicly questions the wisdom of it will be accused of, if not charged with, ''inciting racial hatred.''
Jews are only one factor in this insane equation.
The eternal gullibility of the goyim is another.
MMJanuary 14, 2015 @ 9:19 amBelow is from the very knowlegable and esteemed pen of Michael Hoffman.
ON THE CONTRARY - Michael HoffmanTuesday, January 13, 2015
Legal judgment against distributors of Tales of the HolohoaxPrince Michael of Kent, Grandmaster of Freemasons
Here follows the judgment from the ''Royal Courts of Justice'' London, England, against Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle for distributing our Tales of the Holohoax cartoons: 3 years and ten months imprisonment for Sheppard, and one year and ten months imprisonment for Whittle, along with the seizure of their printing equipment and computers. The emphasis (in boldface) has been supplied by us, otherwise this is the judgment as it was handed down by this court.
The distinguished inquisitors and censors of satire of Her Majesty's courts of ''justice''Case No: 2008.04402 B52009.04021 B5 2009.04020 B5 2008.04486 B5 2009.00658 B5
Neutral Citation Number: [2010] EWCA Crim 65
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICECOURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)ON APPEAL FROM THE CROWN COURT AT LEEDS
HHJ GRANT2009.04020b5*1
Royal Courts of JusticeStrand, London, WC2A 2LLDate: 29/01/2010
Court at Leeds before Judge Grant and a jury Whittle was convicted of four counts of publishing racially inflammatory material (counts 4, 5, 7 and 8). Sheppard was convicted of 9 counts of publishing racially inflammatory material (counts 4, 5, 7, 8,9, 12, 13, 14 and 15).
3. They then left the jurisdiction and went to the United States of America where they laimed asylum. The trial continued in their absence. On 14 July 2005 Whittle was onvicted by a majority of 10 to 1 of one further count of the same offence '' count 6'' and Sheppard by a majority of 10 to 1 of two further counts of the same offence '' cunts 6 and 10.
4. There were 7 counts in relation to Sheppard on which the jury was unable to agree. hese were:Counts 1, 2, 17 and 18 '' possessing racially inflammatory material.Counts 3 and 11 '' publishing racially inflammatory material.Count 16 '' distributing racially inflammatory material.
ANOTHER ARTICLE RELATED TO CHARLIE HEBDO.
''Charlie Hebdo's Charb sought to ban revisionists''1/13/15By Michael Hoffman
We have received an e-mail from a colleague in France quoting the Leftist newspaper Lib(C)ration (where the post-massacre issue of Charlie Hebdo was produced). If this quote is correct, it is grievous news indeed. It signifies that even in the eyes of the banned, we revisionists are banned, which makes us less than zero.
According to Lib(C)ration, the Muslim terrorists' most hated target, the late St(C)phane Charbonnier (''Charb'') made statements denying freedom to revisionists (''negationnistes'') who question the existence of homicidal gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps:
''Charb was a libertarian with a spirit of contradiction. This was not a non-violent pacifist. This defender of freedom of expression wanted the skin of Holocaust deniers and revisionists: 'I'm for cutting off their balls. No need to waste time discussing, but ban them immediately.''
The original alleged quotation from Charb will be found online at the website of Lib(C)ration here.
We have reproduced it below:
Charb couldn't tolerate gas chamber blasphemy and the Muslims can't tolerate blasphemy against their Prophet. What's the difference?
The difference is that Charb was supposed to be a scion of the Enlightenment which, we are told, has a lot to teach Muslims about liberty and ''total'' freedom '-- well, let us call it 90% freedom. For the revisionists, the blackest devils of the Western demonology, not even Charb would condescend to grant their human rights.
In consideration of the fact that, with the exception of the editors of two tiny revisionist outlets '-- Bradley Smith of Smith's Report and Chip Smith of Nine-Banded Books, this writer has been contacted by not one single editor of any publication in the world concerning the imprisonment of two men in England for distributing my Tales of the Holohoax cartoons '-- the sub-human, non-person status of we victims of the victims is not at all surprising.
The engine of our suppression is first of all omission by the media. What befalls us and our publications is made to disappear down Orwell's memory hole, but this vanishing act is only effective if people do not know what they are missing.
If they find out from some alternative source that facts have been suppressed by the corporate press, then the prostitution and hypocrisy of the western media is demonstrated conclusively before their eyes. After that, they are with us, because they are cognizant of being robbed of a reality without which no true judgment concerning human relations can be reached.
As the attack on Charlie Hebdo takes a backstage to the media's main attraction '-- the contretemps of the Zionists of France '-- we begin to perceive how everything bad that Muslims commit will be, by some wonderful marvel of prestidigitation, fitted into a narrative of ''anti-semitic'' persecution.
The insanity knows no end. Here in Idaho the local, very conservative, ''traditional Latin Mass'' Catholic church is advertising in its bulletin a $45-a-ticket speech at multi-millionaire Duane Hagadone's Coeur d'Alene Resort by a ''former CIA official'' deeply concerned about the Iranian threat to Israeli security.
It has been the obsession with Israeli supremacy over the Middle East on the part of the U.S. government which has sparked wars against Iraq and Syria, which have in turn led to the drastic reduction and unconscionable suffering of the Christian populations of those nations, yet Coeur d'Alene's ''traditional'' Catholics are promoting a gentleman who, if his past speeches and writings are any guide, intends to pin the tail of Middle Eastern iniquity on the Iranian donkey.
One can either be exhausted and demoralized by this lunacy or one can delight in rising to the challenge of fighting against insurmountable odds, as did the heroes of our heritage '-- from Leonidas to the Marines at the Chosin Reservoir '-- who, with Rostand, were accustomed to say when the chips were down, ''The enemy has us surrounded. We shall not let them escape!''
CitizenfitzJanuary 14, 2015 @ 9:53 amWe'll know the real reason for the Charlie Hebdo shootings pretty soon: when the Jewstream media starts trumpeting the latest ''response'' to this ''provocation.''
tichanJanuary 14, 2015 @ 10:49 amNo way there are enough Muslims and fanatical Muslims to do it.
The terrorists were Arabs and stated for who and why they were doing this
A new video appears to show Amedy Coulibaly pledging to the Islamic State, or ISIS. Coulibaly killed four people Friday during a standoff at a kosher deli near Paris, and is linked to the Charlie Hebdo attackers.
http://t.co/H8IeoYqjFG
KalifJanuary 14, 2015 @ 11:07 amFree speech denied again, Dieudonne M'bala M'bala arrested today on charges of having the temerity of saying 'Je suis Charlie Boulicale'.
This on your-face hypocrisy knows no bounds.
However, if this represents the 'values' of the Western culture and civilization that everyone seem to be vehemently defending then I can only say that with such values May God help them.
KathJulianeJanuary 14, 2015 @ 11:23 amWill Paris attacks overshadow quest for Palestinian statehood?
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to elbow and jostle his way to the front row, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was accorded a prominent place at the forefront of the anti-terrorism march in Paris on Jan. 11.
According to a report on Israel's Channel 2 TV station, Abbas received a treatment reserved for ''kings and presidents'' only because of the Israeli prime minister's insistence on attending the march.
The message Paris conveyed to Jerusalem was that if the prime minister decided to attend the march despite being an unwelcome guest, the hosts would make sure to put the PA's president in the limelight, which is precisely what happened.
Abbas marched in the first row of leaders alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel and his French host, President Francois Hollande, as if he were the leader of a great country.
President Mahmoud Abbas' constant objection to violence earned him a first-row place among world leaders at the Paris march against terror, but won't guarantee that the Palestinian issue remains a top priority.
Ostensibly, the Palestinians have every reason to be pleased with the French display of support.
The historic picture published all over by the world media is another step in the effort to cement Abbas' international standing as one of the legitimate leaders among the nations of the world, which may help him secure a majority in the UN Security Council in recognizing a Palestinian state.
For months, Europe has been embracing Abbas '-- an embrace that has only been getting stronger.
Although the Palestinians experienced failure on Dec. 31 when the Security Council rejected their proposal to force Israel to end the conflict and establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, PA officials are nonetheless convinced that 2015 will be the year of their independence from Israel.
They believe that international support for a Palestinian state will only increase.
The honor that was accorded to Abbas notwithstanding, the Palestinians might also stand to lose from the recent developments in Paris. They are concerned that if the wave of Islamic terrorism continues to strike at the capitals of Europe, the continent's priorities will change.
European leaders will have to spend their time defending their countries against al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) cells while allaying tensions with their local Muslim communities.
Consequently, they will not have the time to deal with the State of Palestine and the problems generated by recognizing it.
This fear is not unfounded. The European countries in general, and France in particular, have woken up to a new reality. Even if we try to shun generalities, radical Islam has given Muslims and Islam a bad name across the globe.
The beheadings in Syria and Iraq and the terrorist attacks in the name of religion are a threat to world order, naturally mandating a change in the priorities, which were very clear and structured until Jan. 7.
Although no one will say this openly, the Muslim populations around Europe will become intelligence targets to track down the next assailant(s) who might stage a murderous terror attack.
Blindly supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state in the turbulent Middle East is getting a new meaning.
Abbas is justly regarded as someone combating Palestinian terrorism, but in the West Bank, and mainly in the Gaza Strip, there are quite a few organizations and cells for whom the preaching of global jihad and Islamic fanaticism are their raison d'etre.
There are small cells in Gaza that are directly affiliated with al-Qaeda branches, operating in accordance with their doctrines and modus operandi.Their activists praise each terror attack or the beheading of a Western citizen.
Suffice it to watch some of the videos they disseminate on the Internet to understand that the madness is not confined only to Syria and Iraq, and that the impact of IS, bin Laden and other radical Salafist organizations has also trickled down to other places, including the PA.
It is highly questionable whether Europe will continue to support the establishment of a Palestinian state with the same fervor no matter the scenario.
Will France, which has already taken a symbolic move to recognize a Palestinian state, continue its policy in full swing even after last week's terrorist attacks?
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls expressed concern over the possibility that anti-Semitism would scare the country's Jews away from France.
In an interview with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, published Jan. 10 on the Atlantic website, Valls said: ''If 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure.''
Although the interview actually took place before the attack on the Hyper Cacher in Paris, these trenchant remarks and the fear that the Jews will abandon France have rendered this option more realistic in the wake of these events.
''The Jews of France are profoundly attached to France and the government can work with the Jewish community to make it more secure,'' Valls said in the interview.
Over the last few days, one could hear the claim by which the stampede toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, with France tightly leading the way and giving its support, might not serve the sincere desire of its leaders to give the country's Jews the sense of security they need.
Abbas may well feel very pleased having walked in the front row during the march in Paris, but at the same time he needs to bear in mind that the war on terror does not only change priorities but it also changes world order.
KathJulianeJanuary 14, 2015 @ 11:54 amNetanyahu compares France to pre-Inquisition Spain
Participants in PM's closed Paris meeting with Jewish leaders say he was insulting and smug, decry his excessive reliance on French parliamentarian Meyer Habib
During a closed meeting with the heads of France's Jewish organizations Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened the complacency of French Jewry to the state of Jews in Spain prior to the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, which led to their expulsion from the Catholic kingdom, The Times of Israel has learned.
The meeting, which took place at Netanyahu's hotel in Paris's 8th arrondissement, lasted about an hour and was attended by the heads of France's three representative Jewish organizations: the Consistoire, which deals with religious affairs; the Representative Council of French Jewish Organizations (CRIF), which functions as the community's political branch; and the United Social Jewish Funds, which deals with education and culture.
While Netanyahu's public call during his two-day visit to Paris for French Jews to emigrate to Israel drew sharp criticism from domestic political opponents as well as from community leaders in Europe, his meeting with the Jewish leaders was described by participants as ''harsh'' and ''deeply insulting.''
One meeting attendee, who would not reveal his name for fear of political repercussions, described Netanyahu's unapologetic call in the meeting for French Jews to leave their country as ''extremely smug'' and ''patronizing.''
''Imagine if following a terror attack in Netanya the French president would arrive in Israel and call on Jews to leave for France,'' he said. ''As it is, Jews are perceived by some [in France] as a fifth column.''
Another participant detailed the meeting as it unfolded.
''He [Netanyahu] started by saying that the job of an Israeli prime minister is to tell Jews to come to Israel, just as the job of a French prime minister is to tell Jews to remain in France,'' this participant said.
Netanyahu then cited the academic research of his late father, Benzion Netanyahu, who specialized in the Jews of the Spanish Golden Age. The elder Netanyahu studied the writings of 15th century Spanish-Jewish sage Isaac Abravanel, who felt all was fine before being expelled along with his entire community by Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1492.
''He [Netanyahu] added: 'Of course you love life here and think things are fine, but they're not.' He said that a bit severely, but not meanly.''
Netanyahu acknowledged the financial and professional difficulties facing French immigrants to Israel '-- in what the participant understood as tacit criticism of the Israeli bureaucrats in the room '-- but insinuated that those hardships were less severe than actual existential danger, the participant said.
At the same time, French parliamentarian and Netanyahu confidant Meyer Habib was repeatedly accused by French Jews of providing the Israeli prime minister with a lopsided view of the complex reality in France, circumventing the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the French Quai d'Orsay, and the Jewish institutions in the process.
''He [Habib] has a tendency to interfere and take over communication with Netanyahu without asking community leaders what they want,'' one meeting participant said.
''Truth be told, he is the only one who has Netanyahu's ear. Netanyahu listens to no community leader other than Meyer [Habib]; we get the sense that he's heard everything already from Meyer.
''It's strange conduct,'' he added diplomatically, but noted Habib's deep commitment to the Jewish community and his intimate knowledge of it, as former vice president of CRIF.
''Nevertheless, Bibi [Netanyahu's] image [of France] is that of Meyer. That much is clear, and there's nothing we can do about it.
It's difficult to always have someone between you and the other, even if he's good'... at some point you've had enough.''
An official in the Prime Minister's office, speaking to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, said that in his speech at the Grand Synagogue of Paris, Netanyahu clearly said that ''Jews have the right to live wherever they want,'' but ''have an opportunity that did not exist in the past, to live freely in the only Jewish state, the State of Israel,'' where they will be ''greeted with open arms and an open heart.''
As for the claims regarding Netanyahu's over-reliance on Habib, the official said that Netanyahu held several meetings with Jewish leaders in France during his visit and heard all their opinions, not just Habib's.
Habib's comments were not available at the time of publication.
I am about to be thrown out in the street unless a miracle happens.
Is there is a generous person who can help me live in peace with my own roof over my head? If so, I will be very grateful.
*** I am in this battle for the long haul. I simply need a more permanent living situation. ***
Please email me: bronathanael [at] yahoo [dot] com
DEMOSTHENESJanuary 14, 2015 @ 12:37 pmWe thank +BN for his leitouryia '-- work for benefit of the people '-- present and past.
To understand cause of much of today's turmoils it is urged one read +BN's seminal work ''Harry Truman's corruption by Jews,'' June 2008. In 3 min. +BN enlightens much of the brutal last 70 years of our country's, indeed world', history.
Gen. William Odom, Ronald Reagans NSA chief, famously said the Iraq invasion was the greatest strategic military error in U.S. history.
Correct. But it was girded by an even greater political/diplomatic error '-- the 1948 decision by Truman agreeing to create a state of Israel.
General of the Army George C. Marshall was Truman's secretary of state. He was, by some accounts, apoplectic and ready to resign office because of Truman's decison.
Marshall and foreign policy people of the time realized war would break out. Wrongly, they thought hostilites could last 25-30 years. It has been almost 70 years of unleashed hell '-- up to Paris '-- with no good end in sight.
George Catlet Marshall was one of the finest men our country has ever produced. Yet his name is below the status of a trivia question thanks to the anti-mnemotic techniques of the Corrupter because Marshall refused to submit to Zionist ambition.
Truman '-- who liked calling people SOB's but is as big an SOB as ever lived '-- has been lionized by the mind benders.
The events of 1948 are a conversation our country MUST have if ever we are to course correct. Otherwise we crash. Russia understands this need for catharsis before correction.
All this brings Putin into discussion. Unlike the venal Truman or the class of Washington sociopaths we call ''elected public officials,'' Putin puts country above self and Pantocrator above all. ''The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.'' The Rus will succeed.
Housekeeping odds and ends.
@Laskarina:
Several of us were watching and discussing +BN video on Elder Paisios and the meaning of '6'² a day before Paris. Eerie.
The Elder's canonization was a lead story on Pravoslavie.RU, another indispensible Orthodox site.
@Books:
If memory serves Sharansky wrote a book about 'FreeDumb' which the Jews shoved into George Bush's stupid face and which became absolute dogma for the 'war on terror.'
The book may very well have been written specifically for Bush '-- with psychological triggers aimed and fired at a disturbed and demon-weakened mind.
Written after 9/11, I believe, this 'manifesto' kept us in 'the game.'..
@KathJuliane
Followed all your links on the Russian nativity scene. What to say. Eucharisto. I would write it in Greek but don't know how to use the keyboard. Still living in the rotary phone dial age. And lovin' it. I like Ike.
In the words of another super Greek whose name starts with K.: ''Who luvs ya baby.'' Always posited by the lieutenant as a THEOlogical question.
+BN. There will be a few drachmas left this month from the grocery money. Yours. The monthly 750ml. of Jewish Booze (JB) came as a name's day gift. Yiasou.
CitizenfitzJanuary 14, 2015 @ 1:45 pmHere's the number of the French Embassy in DC: 202-944-6000. Push 2 for English - then 3.
Let them know it'... ''Je suis Charlie Boulicale!''
CitizenfitzJanuary 14, 2015 @ 2:38 pm''George Catlet Marshall was one of the finest men our country has ever produced'....''
WTH?!?
Marshall was a wholly owned subsidiary of Jew, Inc.!
He helped plot Pearl Harbor with FDR and Admiral ''Betty'' Stark.
He did his best to ensure Stalin got lots of American aid during the war and adjusted American strategy to abet the Communists. And he was there in the shadows when American nuclear weapons technology was covertly transferred to the USSR in the late 40's.
He has the deaths of countless Japanese civilians he firebombed and nuked on his soul, and he allowed Ike to kill off hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of German POW's at the end of and after WW2.
When Stalin refused to repatriate tens of thousands of American POW's, who'd been captured by the Germans, after the war he did nothing about it '-- and even ordered Patton to stand down when he became outraged at this betrayal. He no doubt knew of, if not plotted, Patton's murder.
The so called ''Marhsall Plan,'' though he didn't have that much to do with it, only came about because Washington realized rather belatedly that Stalin had designs on American interests in Germany and Europe.
Marshall was without question a criminal sociopath and a traitor.
Before all those he betrayed and helped to murder, may God be his judge.
MICHAELJanuary 14, 2015 @ 3:11 pmI cannot help but reflect on the latest news which indicates that the International Zionist Movement is pushing Jews across the world to return back to Israel with more fear mongering through the press.
Speaking with Jews I know, they have always been pushed to return to Israel but I feel something more sinister is in the works for their agendas.
How is this for a scenario the Jews return to Israel and then they create some sort of final mission objective to nuke the rest of the so called civilized/uncivilized world?
In the push to reduce the worlds population by 90% as articulated on The Georgia Stones we find the death tolls ever increasing across the globe to be a premise to the end game.
My instinct, which for the most part serves me well, tells me that we may not have much time left, and I pray for Gods guidance every day to prepare my way.
Brother NathanaelJanuary 14, 2015 @ 3:22 pmDear Real Jew News Family,
Someone just commented on a previous posting:
''When I watch your Videos my spirit shines ever brightly and I thank God for you. I can see that where you live is filled with beauty as much as there is beauty within you.''
Please know that I am about to be tossed out into the street. Thus, the ''beauty of where I live'' as seen in my Videos will be no more.
Is there anyone who can help me (in any way) to *remain* in the ''beauty of where I live?''
Is there a generous person who can help me (in any way, shape, or form), live in peace with my own roof over my head?
If so, I will be very grateful.
*** I am in this battle for the long haul. I simply need a more permanent living situation. ***
Please email me: bronathanael [at] yahoo [dot] com
MICHAELJanuary 14, 2015 @ 3:25 pm@+BN
I wish I could help, but I am in a different country.
Otherwise I would gladly offer you shelter, Brother.
KathJulianeJanuary 14, 2015 @ 3:58 pmDear +BN
You are in my prayers. I hope you get a break soon.~~~*~~~
Irish Times (July 2014): Israeli Embassy Tweets Images of Jihadist Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David
The official Twitter account of the Israeli embassy in Dublin has taken down a series of controversial tweets depicting European artworks such as the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David reimagined as Islamist militants.
The images are captioned ''Israel is the last frontier of the free world''.
Dublin's own statue of Molly Malone was portrayed wearing a niqab, with a caption reading ''Israel Now, Dublin Is Next''.
An image of the statue of David wearing a skirt of explosives and Palestinian headscarf was addressed to Italy - ''Israel Now, Italy Is Next'' - while a portrait of Mona Lisa in a hijab brandishing a large rocket bore the caption ''Israel Now, Paris Is Next'' [with a twitter caption of ''Don't say we didn't warn'...'' - KathJ].
Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue was pictured holding a gun and a message reading ''Israel Now, Denmark is Next''.
''There was no intention to cause insult or offense to anyone,'' the Israeli ambassador Boaz Modai's office told Newsweek. The tweets have since been removed.
Modai's office said the images were taken from Israeli daily news website ynet.com and were taken down ''immediately'' after a follower of the Twitter account complained.
''I was quite shocked to learn this material came from a diplomatic source,'' Ghaffar Hussain, managing director of the Quilliam Foundation, a UK-based anti-extremism group, told Newsweek. ''It is the kind of crude propaganda that you associate with the far-right.''
At the bottom of the pictures are captioned: ''Israel Is The Last Frontier Of The Free World''
ROFLMHO! The last reads like a title from a kosher Star Trek episode.
Nevertheless, since it was posted on an official Israeli diplomatic twitter site, which of course has Israeli intelligence working out of it, makes me wonder if it might hint at the itinerary of Je Suis al-Mossada Du Yemen's next false flag magical mystery tour?
I'm sure the Irish, Danes, and Italians appreciate the heads up. The Irish people happen to be quite active on the pro-Palestinian side of things, not the Jews' favorite people in the world.
Iraqi-born Israeli ''terrorism analyst'', Rita Katz's intelligence outfit, the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) has claimed that ''an Al-Qaeda official in Yemen has now threatened France with fresh attacks following those at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and at a Kosher supermarket,'' reported Outlook India magazine on January 10, 2015.
The magazine is associated with the America's pro-Israel New York Times.
''If you refuse but to wage war, then wait for the glad tiding,'' Harith al-Nadhari was quoted saying in a SITE released video yesterday.
The SITE outfit is notorious for releasing faked videos to cover Israeli crimes.
Rita Katz's father was executed by Saddam Hussein's regime for spying for the Zionist entity.
She was smuggled to Israel by Mossad agents. She completed her education in Israel and served in Israeli military and intelligence agencies.
On arrival in United States, Katz and a fellow Zionist Jew, Jane Herman [Harman] founded SITE.
SITE is the primary source that the falsehood-spewing Jewish-controlled mainstream media, Jewish-controlled Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and even the FBI and CIA obtain their information from regarding Muslim and Arab affairs.
When Israel is accused of a crime, SITE says otherwise and the media follows SITE's lead.
When SITE says Muslims commit a crime, the media follows SITE's lead as well.
Leaders of the World Zionist movement were aware of the geographic location of Yemen for linking the future Zionist entity to the outside world via the Red Sea.
Israeli regime has been interfering in Yemen internal affairs since the 1950s through the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Yemeni Jews living in Israel provide the breeding ground for Israel Mossad.
Fluent in Arabic, they're the core of the so-called Al-Qaeda, playing major role in destabilization of the country on Shia-Sunni sectarianism.
It was Israeli Al-Qaeda members who attacked USS Cole on October 12, 2000 at Aden Harbor in Yemen, killing 17 US sailors while injuring another 39 people.
In 2010, Pro-Israeli Jewish Senator Joe Lieberman told Fox News: ''Iraq was yesterday war. Afghanistan is today's war. If we don't act preemptively, Yemen could be our next war. That's the danger we face.'' Read the rest here.
The current rising political and military power of Yemen's Houthis Shia has sent shock-waves to the anti-Iran regimes in the US, Israel and the Gulf states.
Houthis' leaders have challenged the legitimacy of US-Saudi installed country's president Abdu Mansour Hadi, claiming that he is beholden to foreign interests and local corruption.
Houthis' have become a powerful opposition to the current puppet regime. They have veto power over government's decisions which Houthis' leaders may consider against the national interests.
Lebanon-born Amal Mudallai, senior fellow at Woodrow Wilson Center, a Zionist advocacy group, wrote at the Jewish website, The National Interest, on January 9, 2015:
''One place the Houthis do have support is in Tehran, as their ascension to power has significantly expanded Iran's influence in Yemen.
''Iran's relationship with the Houthis has been growing for decades, and rebel leader Hussain Al Houthi, the father of the current Houthi leader Abd AL Makak Al Houthi, has a street named after him in Tehran.''
Mudallai is a friend of Rafik Hariri family and Israel-Firster US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman.
Allegedly, the French are going to bomb ISIS. However, ISIS is the OFFICIAL NAME OF THE MOSSAD (Israel Secret Intelligence Service), as stated by Haaretz in 2002:
Therefore, we know that the mission is not to bomb ISIS, but probably attack Syria. All they need is another false flag attack, for example a French fighter conveniently downed by the Syrians, and we will see Libya 2.0.
GOD HELP US AND ALL RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FIGHTING AGAINST SATAN!
VIDEO-The President Speaks on Protecting Consumers and Families in the Digital Age | The White House
At the Federal Trade Commission offices in Washington, D.C., President Obama delivers remarks on protecting consumers and families in the digital age, January 12, 2015.
Download mp4 (648MB) | mp3 (17MB)
VIDEO: FPI Fellow James Kirchick Discussed the Future of French Jews on Huffpost Live
The Foreign Policy Initiative seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness.Read More
Jan. 12, 2015, 12:33 PM1,708WikipediaBirmingham is a city in England.
Steve Emerson, author and executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, has apologised after calling the English city of Birmingham "totally Muslim" while appearing as a guest on a Fox News segment this weekend."In Britain, it's not just no-go zones, there are actually cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim where non-Muslims just simply don't go in," Emerson told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
Emerson is clearly wrong. Of the more than 1 million people that live in Birmingham, nearly half of them are Christan, according to data from the 2011 Census. Around 22% are Muslim.
Here's a breakdown of religions from the Census:
Birmingham 2011 Census
The comment was made after a series of terrorist attacks in Paris last week, including a massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo for republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Meanwhile, Emerson is being mocked on Twitter under the hashtag #FoxNewsFacts.
In a statement sent to The Huffington Post, Emerson apologised for his mistake: ''I have clearly made a terrible error for which I am deeply sorry. My comments about Birmingham were totally in error. And I am issuing an apology and correction on my website immediately for having made this comment about the beautiful city of Birmingham."
Here's the clip. Emerson's comment on Birmingham is made around the 1:40 mark.
VIDEO- State Dept. Stumbles For Six Minutes Trying To Explain Paris No-Show By U.S. Officials - YouTube
This is getting out of control, says former Gov. Bill Richardson, (D-N.M.), discussing Monday's security breach of the government's military social media accounts. Private companies need to be players in this, says Richardson.
VIDEO- Phantom Words - The Amazing Audio illusion - YouTube
Protesters gathered outside the Clinton Foundation in New York City to complain about "missing money" from the Haiti recovery effort from the 2010 earthquake:
"New Yorkers with roots in Haiti say the picture [of the Haiti recovery] isn't so rosy," said the NY1 anchor.
The protesters claimed that the $10 billion meant to help rebuild Haiti did little to help the country after the devastating quake. And that much of the money went to non-Haitian companies.
"[I]n Harlem, people raised their voices to call attention to the missing money," said the local New York City reporter. "This protest outside the offices of the Clinton Foundation, which helped lead the reconstruction fund."
Said one proteser, ''These people, they are still living in very difficult conditions, still living under tents, while Bill Clinton and his cronies--they waste this money."
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton devoted much of her time in 2010 to the Haiti recovery.
Daniel Halper is author of Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine.
President Barack Obama has a moral responsibility to push back on the nation's journalism community when it is planning to publish anti-jihadi articles that might cause a jihadi attack against the nation's defense forces, the White House's press secretary said Jan. 12.
''The president '... will not now be shy about expressing a view or taking the steps that are necessary to try to advocate for the safety and security of our men and women in uniform'' whenever journalists' work may provoke jihadist attacks, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House's daily briefing.
The unprecedented reversal of Americans' civil-military relations, and of the president's duty to protect the First Amendment, was pushed by Earnest as he tried to excuse the administration's opposition in 2012 to the publication of anti-jihadi cartoons by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The White House voiced its objections in 2012 after the magazine's office were burned by jihadis, followings its publication of anti-jihadi cartoons.
Earnest's defense of those 2012 objections came just five days after the magazine's office was attacked by additional jihadis. Eight journalists, two policeman and a visitor were murdered by two French-born Muslims who objected to the magazine's criticism of Islam's final prophet.
In 2012, ''there was a genuine concern that the publication of some of those materials could put Americans abroad at risk, including American soldiers at risk,'' Earnest said.
''That is something that the commander in chief takes very seriously,'' he added, before saying that ''the president and his spokesman was not then and will not now be shy about expressing a view or taking the steps that are necessary to try to advocate for the safety and security of our men and women in uniform.''
In December, Congress approved and the president signed a $585 billion defense budget to train and equip soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen to defend Americans '-- including journalists '-- from foreign threats. The nation's media industry does not have a defense budget to protect soldiers.
Earnest tried to rationalize the president's opposition to the publication of anti-jihadist materials as a moral duty.
Whenever journalists consider publishing materials disliked by jihadis, ''I think there are a couple of absolutes,'' he told the reporters.
The first is ''that the publication of any kind of material in no way justifies any act of violence, let alone an act of violence that we saw on the scale in Paris,'' he said.
The second absolute is the president's duty to lobby editors and reporters against publishing anti-jihadi information, he said. ''And there is '-- this president, as the commander in chief, believes strongly in the responsibility that he has to advocate for our men and women in uniform, particularly if it's going to make them safer,'' Earnest said.
He repeated the two-fisted formulation a moment later. ''What won't change is our view that that freedom of expression in no way justifies an act of violence against the person who expressed a view. And the president considers the safety and security of our men and women in uniform to be something worth fighting for,'' he said.
Throughout the press conference, Earnest repeatedly said the media would be able to decide on its own whether to publish pictures, articles or facts that could prompt another murderous jihad attack by Muslim against journalists.
But he did not say that his government has a constitutional and moral duty to use the nation's huge military to protect journalists from armed jihadis, but instead hinted strongly that journalists should submit to jihadi threats.
''I think that there are any number of reasons that [U.S.] media organizations have made a decision not to reprint the cartoons'' after the January attack, he said. ''In some cases, maybe they were concerned about their physical safety. In other cases, they were exercising some judgment in a different way. So we certainly would leave it to media organizations to make a decision like this.''
''What I'm saying is that individual news organizations have to assess that risk for themselves,'' he said. ''I think the point in the mind of the president and certainly everybody here at the White House is that that is a question that should be answered by journalists.''
''I'm confident in saying that for the vast majority of media organizations, that [fear is] not the only factor. But I would readily concede that it is one in the minds of many of those news executives. But again, that is a decision for all of them to make,'' he said.
Obama's willingness to pressure media outlets, to quit defending First Amendment rights and also to mollify jihadis, reflects Obama's overall policy of minimizing conflict with militant Islam.
Throughout his presidency, Obama has tried to shift the public's focus away from the jihadi threat toward his domestic priorities.
He also repeatedly praised Islam and Muslims, and criticized criticism of Islam. ''The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,'' he told a worldwide TV audience during a September 2012 speech at the United Nations.
''As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam,'' he declared in a 2009 speech in Cairo. ''It was Islam '-- at places like Al-Azhar [seminary] '-- that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment,'' he claimed.
Obama ha also tried to elevate the status of Islam in the West. ''As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam,'' he told his audience in Cairo. ''It was Islam '-- at places like Al-Azhar '-- that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. '... I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story.''
To reduce the public's focus on jihadis, Obama has even named the jihadi threat as a non-specific issue of ''violent extremism,'' and has repeatedly said jihadis have no connection with Islam. ''Those who have studied and practiced this religion would tell you '-- Islam is a peaceful religion. '... [Violent acts are] entirely inconsistent with the basic principles of that peaceful religion,'' Earnest said Jan. 12.
But that claim of a peaceful Islam was repeatedly coupled with Obama's policy of pressuring journalists not to anger aggressive Muslim believers. ''I will say that there have been occasions '... where the administration will make clear our point of view on some of those assessments based on the need to protect the American people and to protect our men and women in uniform,'' Earnest said.
''I wouldn't rule out making those kinds of expressions again,'' he added.
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VIDEO- Tension Releasing Exercises TRE an Introduction - YouTube
Story highlightsPeople who know Mohammed Hamzah Khan describe him as nice and polite"He's the last person that we'd think that would happen to," says a member of his mosqueKhan lives in Bolingbrook, a working-class suburb of Chicago, with his familyHe graduated from an Islamic school on his street and taught at a local mosque, neighbors sayThe arrest of an American teenager for allegedly attempting to join the Islamic militant group ISIS has stunned people in the working-class Chicago suburb where he lives.
Neighbors and attendees of a local mosque described Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, as a nice, polite young man.
"He's the last person that we'd think that would happen to," Bahauddin Ali Khan, a member of the mosque that Khan regularly attended in Bolingbrook, Illinois, told CNN affiliate WLS.
FBI counterterrorism agents arrested Khan on Saturday at O'Hare International Airport where he was planning to fly to Vienna and then onward to Istanbul, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Letter to family
He had reportedly explained his reasons for attempting the journey in a three-page letter he left for his family in the bedroom he shared with a sibling in Bolingbrook.
He invited his family to join him in the "Islamic State" -- the name ISIS uses to refer to itself -- but warned them not to tell anyone about his travel plans, according to a criminal complaint.
Khan wrote that there is an obligation to "migrate" to territory controlled by ISIS, which has used bloodthirsty tactics to seize control of large areas of Syria and Iraq.
"We are all witness that the Western societies are getting more immoral day by day," Khan wrote in the letter, according to the complaint. "I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this."
He said he couldn't bear the thought of his taxes in the United States, which along with other countries is carrying out airstrikes against ISIS, being used to kill his "Muslim brothers and sisters."
Planned to meet contact in Istanbul
During questioning at the airport, Khan waived his Miranda rights and told FBI agents that a person he met online had given him the phone number of a person to call once he arrived in Istanbul.
That person, Khan told agents, was to take him into ISIS territory.
The Department of Justice said the $4,000 round-trip ticket to Istanbul was bought on September 26. But details on who purchased it for Khan and who he was to meet in Turkey were not disclosed.
According to the complaint, Khan told authorities he was planning on working in some type of public service for ISIS -- like a police force -- providing humanitarian work or taking up a combat role.
Turkey, the complaint notes, is a common transit point for foreign fighters from Western countries who travel to join ISIS.
'The kid was polite'
Khan's family members, who attended his initial appearance in a federal court Monday, have declined to talk about him, asking for privacy.
But neighbors in Bolingbrook expressed shock at the news.
"Surprised, really surprised," said Steve Moore, who says he's known the family for about two years. "The kid was polite. I didn't expect anything like that in the least bit."
Neighbors told WLS that Khan graduated from the Furqaan Academy, an Islamic school across the street from his house.
The Muslim Association of Bolingbrook, which runs the mosque Khan attended, said it will cooperate fully with authorities, the broadcaster reported.
Another of the mosque's members said Khan taught there.
"He would never get angry. Really nice guy," Ali Idrees told WLS.
Why is ISIS so successful at luring Westerners?
Search finds writings and drawings
What's unclear is how the teenager was radicalized and if his family knew what he was planning.
Agents searched Khan's Bolingbrook home, where he lives with his family, finding pro-ISIS writings and drawings in common areas of the house, according to the criminal complaint.
That suggests some of his views may have been known to members of his family.
Khan has been charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
How ISIS makes its millions
VIDEO-Illinois mom tells ISIS: 'Leave our children alone' - CNN.com
Story highlightsZarine Khan, mother of teen accused of supporting ISIS, delivers a tearful public plea"We condemn the brainwashing and the recruiting of children through ... social media," she saysHer son, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, pleads not guilty in federal courtMohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, had invited his family to join him in his plans to travel to join ISIS in the Mideast, authorities said. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is using warfare and terror in an attempt to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria.
The teenager's mother, Zarine Khan, condemned ISIS and accused it of using social media propaganda to brainwash Muslim youths. She cited last week's terror attacks in Paris that killed 17 people and allegedly involved a now dead suspect with ties to ISIS.
"We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms. We condemn the brutal tactics of ISIS and groups like them. And we condemn the brainwashing and the recruiting of children through the use of social media and Internet," the mother told reporters while reading tearfully from a statement.
"We have a message for ISIS, Mr. Baghdadi and his fellow social media recruiters: Leave our children alone!" Zarine Khan said, as her husband, Shafi Ullah Khan, stood beside her.
She was referring to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the mysterious boss of the terror group ISIS.
Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, pleads not guilty.
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Her son is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The charge he faces carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He wrote that he was leaving the United States to join ISIS, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said they found a three-page letter in the bedroom he shared with a sibling in Bolingbrook, Illinois, in which he invited his family to join him. But he warned them not to tell anyone about his travel plans, the complaint said.
"First and foremost, please make sure not to to tell the authorities," he wrote, according to the complaint. "For if this were to happen it will jeopardize not only the safety of us but our family as well."
A round-trip ticket was purchased for Khan from Chicago to Istanbul, authorities said.
Authorities arrested him at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in October.
Investigators searched Khan's Bolingbrook home, where he lives with his parents, and found documents allegedly written by Khan that stated his intentions.
In a letter, Khan wrote that there is an obligation to "migrate" to ISIS-controlled territory.
CNN's Bill Kirkos and George Howell contributed to this report from Chicago. CNN's John Newsome also contributed.
VIDEO-John Kerry Paris France Press Conference on Terrorist Attack "Every American Sta - YouTube
Among the reasons driving the alleged assassination plot: Michael Hoyt heard voices that told him Boehner was evil. He thought the Ohio Republican was the devil. He blamed Boehner for the Ebola outbreak. And he thought the speaker was mean to him.
The 44-year-old Butler County, Ohio, man was indicted last week on charges that he planned to murder Boehner -- a plan that he made after being fired from the Wetherington Golf & Country Club in West Chester.
Michael Hoyt is accused of planning to murder U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.
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The story of Hoyt's arrest was first reported by WCPO in Cincinnati. According to a complaint filed in federal court in Cincinnati and obtained by CNN, police learned the details of his alleged plans after Hoyt called officers on Oct. 29.
"Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola," United States Capitol Police Special Agent Christopher Desrosiers reported. "Hoyt advised he had a loaded Beretta .380 automatic and he was going to shoot Boehner and take off."
Police said Hoyt also emailed Boehner's wife, Debbie, twice.
"If I had any intention of hurting Mr. Boehner, I could have poisoned his wine at Wetherington many, many times," police said he wrote in one of his emails.
Police said Hoyt told them he heard voices that told him Boehner is evil, and that he wanted to expose the Ohio Republican as the devil. He blamed Boehner for the Ebola outbreak and believed the speaker was among a group of country club patrons who complained about his service and cost him his job.
He said he hoped sharing his threats with law enforcement officers would prompt Boehner to apologize, and force him to discuss the issue of Ebola.
Police seized guns and ammunition from the man's home. They said he kept a notebook that contained the words "John Boehner" and "Ebola," and that Hoyt had been treated for a psychotic episode about two years ago. Police placed Hoyt on a 72-hour psychiatric ward hold.
Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, issued a brief statement acknowledging the report Tuesday evening.
"Speaker Boehner is aware of this situation, and sincerely thanks the FBI, the Capitol Police and local authorities in Ohio for their efforts," he said.
A source familiar with the situation said Boehner and some of his key staff members have known about Hoyt since November, but didn't know the timing of the indictment.
Boehner and his wife also had a "level of awareness" of Hoyt, since the country club is near their home and he had worked there for several years, the source said.
CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this report
VIDEO-MSNBC, CNN Won't Show New Charlie Hebdo Cover Depicting Mohammed - YouTube
Hey Internet service providers: I'm the president, deal with it.
Aurich vs The Whitehouse, DWI
President Obama today called for an end to state laws that restrict the rights of cities and towns to build their own broadband networks.
In a report titled, "Community-based broadband solutions: The benefits of competition and choice for community development and highspeed Internet access," the White House said it wants to "end laws that harm broadband service competition."
Further Reading"Laws in 19 states'--some specifically written by special interests trying to stifle new competitors'--have held back broadband access and, with it, economic opportunity," the report said. "Today President Obama is announcing a new effort to support local choice in broadband, formally opposing measures that limit the range of options to available to communities to spur expanded local broadband infrastructure, including ownership of networks. As a first step, the Administration is filing a letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging it to join this effort by addressing barriers inhibiting local communities from responding to the broadband needs of their citizens."
The FCC is already examining these state laws, and considering whether it can invalidate them by using its authority to promote competition in local telecommunications markets by removing barriers that impede infrastructure investment. Community broadband providers in Tennessee and North Carolina recently petitioned the FCC to preempt state laws that prevent them from expanding.
There are also limits on municipal broadband in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. A similar law in Missouri has an exception for "Internet-type" services, but a state legislator is trying to impose new restrictions on municipal broadband there too.
Affordable High-Speed Broadband for All Americans
This is the second time in recent months in which Obama has taken stances on major issues at the FCC. In November, he called on the FCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service in order to impose net neutrality rules. After initial resistance, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler now appears ready to do just that.
Beyond those 19 state laws, there may be more restrictions on broadband that should be removed, the White House said. "The President is calling for the Federal Government to remove all unnecessary regulatory and policy barriers to broadband build-out and competition, and is establishing a new Broadband Opportunity Council of over a dozen government agencies with the singular goal of speeding up broadband deployment and promoting adoptions for our citizens," the report said. "The Council will also solicit public comment on unnecessary regulatory barriers and opportunities to promote greater coordination with the aim of addressing those within its scope."
Obama is scheduled to speak about broadband at a community Internet service provider in Iowa tomorrow. The White House report said the US Internet market is seeing a "declining level of competition at higher speeds."
"At speeds of 4 Mbps or less, 75 percent of consumers have a choice between two or more fixed providers, and 15 percent can select among three or more ISPs. However, in the market for Internet service that can deliver 25 Mbps downstream'--the speed increasingly recognized as a baseline to get the full benefits of Internet access'--three out of four Americans do not have a choice between providers," the report said.
Wheeler last week proposed changing the official definition of broadband from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up.
Obama argues that community-based broadband can boost competition and help Internet users.
"In markets where private competition is anemic, whether because of regulatory barriers to entry or the high fixed costs of infrastructure investment, town and cities can build their own middle-mile networks and offer competitive access to the private sector, as Scott County, MN has done," the report said. "Or municipalities can provide service directly to consumers, like in Chattanooga, TN. In either case, municipalities are creating more choices for consumers, fostering competition and creating opportunities for economic growth. Municipal broadband is often a logical choice for towns and cities that are already served by a municipal electric utility, since infrastructure costs can be shared across those two services, just as private cable companies leveraged their networks to provide Internet service. Hundreds of towns and cities around the country have experimented with these networks and created tremendous benefits for consumers and businesses."
The White House wants to help individual communities build better broadband networks, by publishing guides and offering online and in-person technical assistance to communities looking to "address problems in address problems in broadband infrastructure planning, financing, construction, and operations across many types of business models."
Additionally, the Department of Agriculture plans a "revamped" broadband loan program for rural carriers to bring high-speed Internet to unserved and underserved areas.
VIDEO-Protesters Gather at Clinton Foundation to Complain of 'Missing Money' from Haiti Recovery | The Weekly Standard
Protesters Gather at Clinton Foundation to Complain of 'Missing Money' from Haiti Recovery
Protesters gathered outside the Clinton Foundation in New York City to complain about "missing money" from the Haiti recovery effort from the 2010 earthquake:
"New Yorkers with roots in Haiti say the picture [of the Haiti recovery] isn't so rosy," said the NY1 anchor.
The protesters claimed that the $10 billion meant to help rebuild Haiti did little to help the country after the devastating quake. And that much of the money went to non-Haitian companies.
"[I]n Harlem, people raised their voices to call attention to the missing money," said the local New York City reporter. "This protest outside the offices of the Clinton Foundation, which helped lead the reconstruction fund."
Said one proteser, ''These people, they are still living in very difficult conditions, still living under tents, while Bill Clinton and his cronies--they waste this money."
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton devoted much of her time in 2010 to the Haiti recovery.
Daniel Halper is author of Clinton, Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine.
VIDEO-Scripps Scientists Discover New Vaccine To Help Smokers Quit | KPBS
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute announced Monday that they've come up with a way to create a more effective nicotine vaccine, which could eventually help people trying to quit smoking from relapsing.
In a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the researchers said they discovered which is the best target of two types of nicotine, which are referred to as left-handed and right-handed.
According to the institute, 99 percent of the nicotine molecules in tobacco are of the left-handed variety. A once-promising nicotine vaccine that went through clinical trials a few years ago didn't distinguish between the two sides and ended up working in only 30 percent of test subjects.
Smoking is the leading cause of eight forms of cancer, including lung and fast-moving pancreatic types of the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers are hoping that a vaccine will create antibodies that will shut off the brain's reward system for nicotine.
"This is just one area where we are looking outside the box to try to treat addiction," said Kim Janda, the Ely R. Callaway Jr. professor of chemistry and member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at the institute.
He said vaccines that target left- or right-handedness of molecules could help treat cocaine and heroin addiction.
The study was funded by the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program.
VIDEO-Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 black box findings consistent with blast - CBS News
Unreleased data from a black box retrieved from the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine show findings consistent with the plane's fuselage being hit multiple times by shrapnel from a missile explosion.
"It did what it was designed to do," a European air safety official told CBS News, "bring down airplanes."
The official described the finding as "massive explosive decompression."
A pro-Russia separatist shows members of the media a black box belonging to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 before handing it over to Malaysian representatives during a press conference in Donetsk, Ukraine, July 22, 2014.
AFP/Getty Images
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CBS This MorningFrustration grows in search for remaining Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victimsThe lack of any progress in searching for the remains of the missing victims of Flight 17 has reached the point where both the Dutch and the Aust...
The escalating conflict in Ukraine adds to the difficulty of investigating the disaster.
If the full teams of aviation crash experts and security personnel ever do arrive at the crash site in Grabovo, it will be a relief to the handful who are already there.
The dedicated but small group of Dutch, Australian and Malaysian investigators has been on the crash site for the past few days and has learned that there's a lot more work to be done to find hard evidence of the cause of the crash.
They are also still making more grisly discoveries.
"Personal belongings, passports, ID cards, credit cards, things like that," Michael Borkiurkiw of the OSCE said, "and the Dutch have just documented some very small human remains over there in that field as well."
Around a hundred passengers are still unaccounted for.
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CBS Evening NewsInvestigators find more wreckage of MH17About a mile from the main crash site, inspectors have found a huge piece of fuselage that they had not seen before. As of now, only the trio of...
They are finding more evidence, though, of the sort of blast holes through the plane that an exploding missile might make. The Dutch say their full team will concentrate on this sort of specific find. Covering the vast crash site systematically would be too difficult, and security arrangements are still uncertain.
The issue is: Who's in charge? Any deal cut with the central government in Kiev has zero value in an area it doesn't control.
As for the rebels who do control the countryside, they haven't been around the crash site for days.
The war between the rebels and the central Ukrainian government has been intensifying. The window for getting to the crash site to gather evidence may be closing.
(C) 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO- Rotterdam's mayor tells Muslims to pack their bags and go if they don't like freedom - Telegraph
Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Labour politician and former government minister, issued his uncompromising message on the day that Islamist terrorists attacked the French satirical magazine because it published cartoons mocking Islam.
''It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom. But if you do not like freedom, in Heaven's name pack your bag and leave,'' he said.
''There may be a place in the world where you can be yourself,'' he continued. ''Be honest with yourself and do not go and kill innocent journalists. And if you do not like it here because humorists you do not like make a newspaper, may I then say you can ---- off.''
Mr Aboutaleb, who became the Dutch city's mayor in 2008, has repeatedly hit the headlines for his outspoken views on the integration of immigrants, including praise from Boris Johnson.
''But if we are going to win the struggle for the minds of these young people, then that is the kind of voice we need to hear '' and it needs above all to be a Muslim voice.''
A ''secular Muslim'', Mr Aboutaleb grew up the son of an imam in northern Morocco, but moved to the Netherlands aged 15 in 1976.
He has been criticised by Geert Wilders, the popular Dutch anti-immigrant leader, for holding public office while possessing dual Dutch and Moroccan passports.
VIDEO-Piepjong knaapje schiet twee gevangenen dood in nieuwe ISIS-... - Het Belang van Limburg
Isis heeft een nieuwe executievideo verspreid. Deze keer laten ze twee Russische gevangenen neerschieten door een jongen die nauwelijks ouder dan twaalf jaar lijkt. Maar door de montage is het niet zeker of de jongen de twee ook effectief heeft neergeschoten.
De twee gevangenen worden er in de video van beschuldigd Russische spionnen te zijn. Mamajev Jesenjanovitsj (37) uit Kazachstan en Asjhimov Sergej (30) uit Rusland worden eerst aan een verhoor onderworpen.
Jesenjanovitsj zegt dat hij een agent van de Russische inlichtingendienst FSB is en informatie over ISIS moest verzamelen en een ISIS-lid moest benaderen. Sergej zegt dat hij voor de FSB een van de leiders van ISIS moest doden.
Of die uitspraken de waarheid zijn, werd nog niet bevestigd. Ze kunnen ook afgedwongen zijn onder bedreigingen.
'Ik wil jullie afslachten'
Na het verhoor leest de volwassen strijder een vers uit de koran voor. Daarna leidt hij de jongen naar voor. Die zegt 'ik wil jullie afslachten, oh ongelovigen', voor hij de twee Russen doodt met een schot in het hoofd.
De oorspronkelijke video duurt 7 minuten en 37 seconden. Hij werd oorspronkelijk gepost op Al Hayat Media, het mediakanaal van Islamitische Staat.
Hieronder kan u een gemonteerde versie bekijken.
VIDEO-Calls for BBC's Tim Willcox to resign over Paris interview | Daily Mail Online
Tim Willcox was covering yesterday's Paris rally for the BBC News channelHe spoke to participants during a live broadcast from the streets of ParisOne woman he spoke to expressed fears Jews were being persecutedShe told him 'the situation is going back to the days of the 1930s'Willcox replied: 'Many critics though of Israel's policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well'Comments sparked anger and calls for him to resignWillcox has apologised for offence caused by 'poorly phrased question' By Lucy Crossley for MailOnline
Published: 07:09 EST, 12 January 2015 | Updated: 07:33 EST, 13 January 2015
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A BBC reporter has faced calls to resign after he told the daughter of Holocaust survivors in Paris: 'Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well'.
Journalist Tim Willcox sparked anger during his coverage of yesterday's rally in Paris, held in memory of the 17 victims of last week's terror attacks, including four Jewish people in a siege at a Kosher supermarket.
During a live report from the streets of Paris, Willcox was speaking to a number of participants in the march, including one woman who expressed her fears that Jews were being persecuted, and 'the situation is going back to the days of the 1930s in Europe.'
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BBC reporter Tim Willcox (pictured) has faced calls to resign after he told the daughter of Holocaust survivors: 'Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well' during a live broadcast from Paris yesterday
Willcox was speaking to this woman, named as Chava, at the Paris rally who expressed her fears that Jews were being persecuted, and 'the situation is going back to the days of the 1930s in Europe'
Tim Willcox: Palestinians suffer hugely at the hands of jews
To this, Willcox, who was broadcasting on the BBC News channel replied: 'Many critics though of Israel's policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well.'
When the woman, shaking her head, responded saying: 'We can't do an amalgam', he told her: 'You understand everything is seen from different perspectives.'
She was identified during the broadcast as 'Chava', and told Willcox when she was introduced on screen that she had lived in France for 20 years, but was originally from Israel.
She said her parents were from Poland, and came to Israel after the Second World War.
She had attended the rally with a friend, Aziz, who is French-born and comes from a Muslim background, with his parents being originally from Algeria.
Willcox has today apologised for his comments, taking to Twitter to say he had not meant to cause offence.
He wrote: 'Really sorry for any offence caused by a poorly phrased question in a live interview in Paris yesterday - it was entirely unintentional.'
Willcox has today apologised for his comments, taking to Twitter to say he had not meant to cause offence
Willcox, pictured, wrote: 'Really sorry for any offence caused by a poorly phrased question in a live interview in Paris yesterday - it was entirely unintentional.'
But many viewers also used the social network to express their anger and concerns over Willcox's rally coverage, including historian and BBC presenter Simon Schama.
He wrote on Twitter: 'Appalling of @BBCTimWillcox to imply any and all JEWS (not Israelis) responsible for treatment of Palestinians by hectoring lady in Paris.'
And added: 'Then he had gall to patronise her at the end - "you see people see it from all sides" That Palestinian plight justifies anti-semitic murder?'
Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard also joined the debate, tweeting: 'What is @BBCTimWillcox's problem with Jews? Once is problematic. Twice is a pattern.'
The Campaign Against Antisemitism, which works to combat anti-Semitism in Britain, has circulated footage of the incident, and has called on those offended by it to formally complain to the BBC.
Director of communications, Jonathan Sacerdoti, told MailOnline Willcox's Twitter apology was 'not really good enough'.
'It's an admission he has done something wrong, but it's incumbent on the BBC to make an on-air apology and to investigate his behaviour.'
Many viewers also used the social network to express their anger and concerns over Willcox's rally coverage, including historian and BBC presenter Simon Schama
There have also been calls for the reporter to resign.
Twitter user I Support Israel said: 'Retweet if you believe @BBCTimWillcox should be fired for making this anti-Semitic suggestion'.
The comment was re-tweeted 41 times, while others expressed their views on the controversy, adding the hashtag #WillcoxMustGo.
An online petition was also set up, demanding that Willcox 'personally apologise', and calling for 're-assurance that this constant anti-Semitic behaviour from the BBC will come to an end'.
The petition authors said: 'It was the wrong time and place to ask such a disgraceful question. The unity march was a time for France and the rest of the world to come together and unite against the rising threat of terrorism and anti-Semitism, as well as an opportunity to mourn and remember those killed in the horrific attacks.
Willcox was in Paris to cover yesterday's rally, held in memory of the 17 victims of last week's terror attacks, including four Jewish people in a siege at a Kosher supermarket
'Nevertheless, Mr Willcox showed no sensitivity and asked a tasteless question on live TV which has outraged those who have seen the clip, as well as leaving the interviewee speechless and defenceless.'
It is not the first time Willcox has been accused of anti-Semitism.
In November during a review of the following day's newspapers on the BBC News channel, Willcox, who was anchoring the discussion, faced criticism after discussion of a story about Labour leader Ed Miliband reportedly losing Jewish support.
The BBC said Willcox (pictured) had no intention of causing offence, and had been discussing a wide range of issues with the rally participants
A guest on the programme, political observer Jo Phillips, had referred to a 'Jewish lobby', which had abandoned support for Labour over his condemnation of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
There was anger that Willcox had not pulled up the guest on her comments, and had added: 'A lot of these prominent Jewish faces will be very much against the mansion tax'.
The BBC defended the comments, and said: 'It was clear that he was not suggesting that Jewish people in particular are against the mansion tax.'
Mr Sacerdoti said his organisation and 33 individuals had complained to the BBC about the November broadcast.
'The BBC said there was no anti-Semitism in what he said, but according to the MacPherson definition, if a minority group feels it is anti-Semitic, it should be considered as such,' he said.
'It's obviously offending people.'
He added: 'And now he's done it again in an extreme example when people are mourning the deaths of four Jews, among the other victims, and his reaction is to say this to a Jewish woman who is saying it's like the 1930s.
'To somehow bring in mitigating circumstances, is terrible.
'The EUMC's [European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, now the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights] working definition of anti-Semitism includes collective blaming of Jews for the actions of Israel.'
Alex Benjamin, Executive Director of Brussels-based group European Friends of Israel, told MailOnline he would 'echo the calls for Willcox to resign'.
'I was not the only one who was utterly disgusted at the deeply patronising, offensive and frankly partisan way he hassled this woman - a woman who as a Parisian Jew is genuinely concerned for her well-being '' seeking to justify the abhorrent murders of four jews in Paris with the Israel Palestinian conflict,' he said.
'It was tactless, arrogant and he should at resign.'
A BBC spokesman said: 'Tim Willcox has apologised for what he accepts was a poorly phrased question during an in-depth live interview with two friends, one Jewish and of Israeli birth, the other of Algerian Muslim heritage, where they discussed a wide range of issues affecting both the Muslim and Jewish communities in France. He had no intention of causing offence.'
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VIDEO-WhatsApp and iMessage could be banned under new surveillance plans - News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
The Prime Minister said today that he would stop the use of methods of communication that cannot be read by the security services even if they have a warrant. But that could include popular chat and social apps that encrypt their data, such as WhatsApp.
Apple's iMessage and FaceTime also encrypt their data, and could fall under the ban along with other encrypted chat apps like Telegram.
The comments came as part of David Cameron's pledge to revive the ''snoopers' charter'' to help security services spy on internet communications today.
He said: ''In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which ['...] we cannot read?'' He made the connection between encrypted communications tools and letters and phone conversations, both of which can be read by security services in extreme situations and with a warrant from the home secretary.
But companies such as WhatsApp have remained committed to keeping their services encrypted and unable to be read by authorities, a project which has stepped up in the wake of the Edward Snowden's revelations on NSA surveillance.
And privacy groups have repeatedly criticised attempts to limit the use of privacy tools in the name of security. When the government announced plans to crack down on the dark net, for example, but privacy groups have warned that much of the tools are used by people in oppressed countries and victims of crime to stay safe.
VIDEO->> ISIS Hack of Pentagon Twitter Accounts Traced Back to Maryland Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
According to the group which identifies itself as Anonymous, the ISIS hack of the Pentagon's Twitter accounts traces back to Maryland '' home of the National Security Agency.
Twitter and YouTube accounts belonging to the U.S. military command that oversees operations in the Middle East were reportedly hacked by ISIS sympathizers earlier today, with messages being sent out for almost an hour before the accounts were temporarily shut down.
''American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back, ISIS,'' the hackers posted on the U.S. Central Command Twitter feed.
USA Today reports, ''A Twitter account from a group identifying itself as Anonymous said Monday it had tracked the source of the hack to Maryland, but that was not confirmed by official sources.''
Maryland is of course home to the National Security Agency, an entity that has perfected the art of hacking and is able to compromise and take control of different systems and platforms ''at the speed of light''.
The hack coincided with President Barack Obama addressing the nation on the subject of cybersecurity as he prepares to announce new legislation at the upcoming State of the Union speech.
Just as last year's Sony hack, which was blamed on North Korea yet had all the hallmarks of an inside job, was used to reanimate zombie legislation which would increase White House control over the Internet, the Obama administration will undoubtedly cite the ISIS hack as another reason why more prohibitive restrictions need to be introduced.
Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71FOLLOW Paul Joseph Watson @ https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
VIDEO-WH Declines 'Absolute Support' for the Right to Satirical Mockery - Breitbart
Monday during the White House press briefing, in defending his predecessor Jay Carney for questioning in the judgment of Charlie Hebdo publishing anti-Islamic cartoons in 2012, White House press secretary Josh Earnest refused to say there is an absolute right to freedom of expression when it comes to satirical mockery.
After Earnest said the safety of individuals needs to be considered, CBS's Major Garrett asked, ''Taking steps to protect American service personnel is different than raising questions about the judgment of satirical expression, be it to mock Islam or Christianity or Judaism or any thing else. Where do you draw the line? Do you not have absolute support for the satirical mockery of any institution on this planet?''
Earnest said ''There is nothing that the individuals at that satirical magazine did that justified in any way the kind of violence we saw in Paris last week. No. That is the most important principle that is at stake here. At the same time, it would not be the first time their was a discussion in this country about the responsibilities that go along with exercising the right to freedom of speech.''
''This president as commander-in-chief believes strongly in his responsibility that he has to advocate for our men and woman in uniform particularity if its going to make them safer. And the president takes very seriously his responsibility as commander-in-chief to do that. And that is something we are continue to do in the future. Those are the absolutes,'' he added.
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VIDEO-Fox News host calls for mass murder of Islamists in unhinged rant - Vox
You know that sinking feeling you get when a Fox News analyst advocates the use of death squads as a solution to the problem of radical Islamism? No?
You're about to.
Cartoon villain and weekend Fox News host Jeanine Pirro did a segment on Saturday in which she explained her views on radical Islamists quite clearly: "We need to kill them. We need to KILL THEM":
Apparently other Muslims should be the ones responsible for accomplishing this mass murder. "Our job is to arm those Muslims to the teeth, give them everything they need to take out these Islamic fanatics, let them do the job, and when they do, we need to simply ... look the other way."
According to Pirro, we know this strategy can work '-- just look at the example of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's regime in Egypt.In her telling, Egypt is now a paradise free from the blight of radical Islam because of al-Sisi's hardline tactics, which have involved human rights abuses on a massive scale '-- including themassacre of more than 800 demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were peaceful and unarmed, in August 2013. (The news that radical Islam has been eradicated from Egypt would, I imagine, come as a surprise to Egyptians, including al-Sisi himself.) Troublingly, Pirro includes the followers of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in her definition of radical Islamists who presumably must be tracked down and killed. That would include100,000 peoplein Egypt alone, many of whom are women and children.
You might think that advocating the immediate extermination of an entire political group would be enough work for one monomaniacal monologue. But Pirro had some more gripes to raise, including:
Why haven't we cut off aid to Pakistan, an "Arab country" that does not "support this mission" of mass-murdering its resident radical Islamists? (Pakistan, in fact, has been at war with extremist groups for years.)Why doesn't anyone listen to Jeanine Pirro when she warns us about the dangers of a "reverse crusade"? (Perhaps because "reverse crusade" sounds like a Cosmo position of the month?)Did you know that Muslims had been invited to worship at "our national cathedral"? (Less peaceful worship and more mass murder of Islamists, guys, that's how you combat radicalism.)"Are we morons?" (You brought it up ... )"Make no mistake, there will be efforts to limit our free speech, our First Amendment rights, to comply with Sharia law." (As opposed to the good kind of First Amendment limitations, like those that would keep Muslims from worshipping at the National Cathedral? It's getting hard to keep track of all these rules, Jeanine.)"They have conquered us through immigration. They have conquered us through interfaith dialogue. And they have conquered us by co-opting our leaders into a position of embarrassment." (Got that? Interfaith dialogue is an extreme option that should only be considered if Jeanine's "KILL THEM" strategy doesn't pan out.)"Why can't our president even say the words 'radical Islam' or 'Islamic terrorist'?" (Very niche speech impediment. Whoa if true.)"It is time for this to be over." (This video is over seven minutes long. AGREED.)
VIDEO: FPI Fellow James Kirchick Discussed the Future of French Jews on MSNBC | Foreign Policy Initiative
The Foreign Policy Initiative seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness.Read More
