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Ruth King

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Peter Smith Terror Incognito

By on November 15th, 2017

Marathon runners in Boston, Orlando revellers, strollers on the Promenade des Anglais, pop concert patrons in Manchester and, most recently, New York cyclists are victims of Islamic terror. They are also victims of politicians and media enablers who refuse to acknowledge the blindlingly obvious.

Evil has many faces. The recent mass shootings in Las Vegas and in the church in Sutherland Springs in Texas are stark reminders of that. The motives of Stephen Paddock and Devin Kelley remain unclear at this stage. Whether they will ever be brought to light in a conclusive way I don’t know.

The explanation of mental illness is often a first port of call in these kinds of cases. For the most part, that seems to me to be superficial. Anyone who callously murders men, women and children as though they are vermin is undoubtedly unbalanced. This is true whether or not they’ve ever been treated or incarcerated for mental illness. The question to be answered is what else is going on?

Sometimes, the ‘what else’ is clear. When the IRA planted bombs in public places no-one was in doubt about motive, even if those culpable were certifiable maniacs. Motive is central to closure as it is often to prevention.

Motive can come down to personal aggrievement. Disturbingly, that might have been the case for Paddock and Kelley. That remains to be unravelled. What did not require unravelling was the motive of IRA bombers. They openly stated their motive. Equally, those who massacre in the name of Allah are not shy about their motive. And here perspective is required to confound the news cycle.

Those who kill for idiosyncratic personal reasons are in a quite different and much less threatening category than those who systematically kill for a cause. Kelley’s church shooting on November 5, in which he killed 26 people and injured another 20, is horrific on any scale. However, it should not at all supplant in our minds Sayfullo Saipov mowing down cyclists in a rented truck in Lower Manhattan on October 31, killing eight and injuring eleven.

The reason is clear. Saipov’s crime is one of over 30,000 similarly motivated crimes since 9/11. All of these crimes are acts of Islamic terrorism. All form part of a global jihad committed to the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate. This is international serial killing on steroids.

It requires no unravelling of motive. Simply read the Koran. What it requires is resolute combatting. But how? Our political leaders are quislings. Most of them anyway.

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Fake News: 53 Pastors Didn’t Endorse Roy Moore After the Sexual Assault Allegations By Tyler O’Neil

By on November 15th, 2017

Contrary to numerous media reports, 53 pastors didn’t just endorse Roy Moore after the sexual assault allegations against him. Conservative Christians are very divided over whether or not to continue their support. That did not stop quite a few outlets from portraying Christian leaders as utter hypocrites, however.

“A group of 53 Alabama pastors signed onto a letter pledging their support for alleged child molester and Senate candidate Roy Moore,” Newsweek’s Carlos Ballesteros began his report. “The letter, first posted on Moore’s wife’s personal Facebook page, describes the embattled candidate as a friend to religious conservatives and a staunch opponent of the ‘Washington establishment.'”

The Newsmax report also said the letter came out Monday. “Fifty-three Alabama pastors on Monday released a letter of support for Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore despite multiple accusations of sexual misconduct on his part,” that story read.

Even conservative outlets like The Washington Examiner and RedState reported this fake news. AL.com, HuffPost, and the The Daily Caller also originally reported this lie.

What actually happened? Moore’s wife Kayla reposted an old letter … from August 15! Here’s the letter she posted:

Pastor’s Letter

Dear friends and fellow Alabamians,

For decades, Roy Moore has been an immovable rock in the culture wars – a bold defender of the “little guy,” a just judge to those who came before his court, a warrior for the unborn child, defender of the sanctity of marriage, and a champion for religious liberty. Judge Moore has stood in the gap for us, taken the brunt of the attack, and has done so with a rare, unconquerable resolve.

As a consequence of his unwavering faith in God and his immovable convictions for Biblical principles, he was ousted as Chief Justice in 2003. As a result, he continued his life pursuit by starting the Foundation for Moral Law, which litigates religious liberty cases around our Nation. After being re-elected again to Chief Justice in 2012, by an overwhelming majority, he took another round of persecution for our faith as he stood up for the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.

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The Media That Cried Wolf By Tom Trinko

By on November 15th, 2017

In a week in which CNN cried wolf when there was no wolf by falsely condemning Trump for poor fish-feeding habits, is it surprising that decades-old charges of sexual impropriety being leveled against Judge Roy Moore aren’t being unquestioningly accepted by voters?

We can all remember a number of times when the media has proclaimed a wolf was present when we later discovered they were wrong.

There is Global Warming… err, Climate Change where we were told that by now the world would be doomed but somehow that hasn’t happened.

We were told that the black man shot in Ferguson was holding his hands up to surrender.

In the last century the media informed us that overpopulation would lead to mass starvation. Of course, that was bogus.

We were told that many women had been assaulted by Trump but the fact that they all apparently disappeared after the election makes reasonable people wonder if there was a wolf.

The media can’t stop talking about Russian colluding with Trump even though after months and months of investigation absolutely nothing has been found.

Clearly a reasonable person would hesitate before assuming that salacious charges raised weeks before a contentious election by a highly biased news source is true. The media has cried wolf so often when there was no wolf that sane people reserve judgement until there’s more proof.

That attitude is exacerbated by the fact that when wolves do appear the media often fails to mention them.

We know that none of the major networks have mentioned the fact that for more than two months a Democratic senator has been on trial for accepting bribes.

We know that the media ignored a credible claim that Bill Clinton raped a woman.

We know that the media ignores the fact that thousands of blacks are shot each year in Democrat-run cities.

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A political reality moment at the NYT By David Zukerman

By on November 15th, 2017

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt, in his November 13 column, “Democrats, Don’t Be Fooled By Victory,” reflected on Democratic election wins, particularly the re-election of a Democrat as governor of Virginia.

Leonhardt noted: “The reality is, the Democratic victories occurred almost entirely in areas that had voted for Hillary Clinton last year. In Trump country, Democrats continued to struggle.” Leonhardt went on to cite Virginia, cited the study of “Patrick Ruffini, a savvy conservative pollster,” that of the 15 legislative districts that flipped from Republican to Democrat, “only a single one of those 15 districts had voted for Trump.” Leonhardt also pointed out that Ralph Northam, Virginia’s governor-elect, did worse than the current governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, “outside of the big metropolitan areas,” having “fared worse” than McAuliffe in 89 of Virginia’s 133 counties and cities.

Leonhardt advised Democrats “to get the white working class to focus on the working-class part of their identity rather than the white part.” This, however, would require first, that Democrats put an end to disparaging white voters and, second, that they shift their campaign pitch from demonizing President Trump to finding ways and means of seeking common ground with his voters.

An exchange on ABC’s “This Week,” November 12, between Martha Raddatz and Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez indicates that a Democratic shift away from the politics of Trump-hate will not be easy for the left:

RADDATZ: OK. In our latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 61 percent of Americans say Democratic leaders are mainly criticizing Trump, not presenting alternatives. Is the Democratic message too much about Trump and not enough about your vision?

PEREZ: Oh, we were leading with our values in Virginia and elsewhere. And, again, we talked about health care a lot, because health care is a right for all, not a privilege for a few. And the number one issue for voters in Virginia was health care. They understand that the Republicans are trying to take their health care away.

RADDATZ: Let’s go back to President Trump again — and again, 61 percent of Americans say Democratic leaders are mainly criticizing Trump. You say that’s not true. Billionaire Tom Steyer, he’s the single biggest donor to the Democratic Party in the last two election cycles, put millions of dollars behind an ad calling for President Trump’s impeachment.

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The Middle East’s Problems Are Really Our Problems By Shoshana Bryen

By on November 15th, 2017

It’s our problem, actually, and we’ve made it theirs.

It is the West that simultaneously wants “the Arab Spring” and “stability.” Democracy and strong government control. Honest government and stable kleptocrats.

Check out our split-brain reaction to the Palestinian Authority. By rights, the U.S. should have nothing to do with people who venerate and pay for terror against civilians; teach their children that their country is “from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea; rob donors and international agencies blind; jail people for their Facebook posts; hold office eight years after the end of a single elected term; refuse to seat an elected parliament; and refuse to acknowledge the permanence and legitimacy of America’s ally, Israel. And yet the U.S. treats Palestinian leaders as if they were diplomats, declines to close the PLO “embassy” in Washington, trains their police, maintains the functional equivalent of an embassy in eastern Jerusalem for them – while declining to do the same for the State of Israel in western Jerusalem, and gives priority to the so-called “peace process” over security for our democratic ally.

In the name of “stability.”

We’re not much better in the rest of the Arab world. Knocking off the Taliban in 2002 and Saddam Hussein in 2003, the U.S. installed governments presumed to be based on American-style democratic norms. The Taliban is thoroughly resurgent, while American casualties rise. Iraq ended up with ISIS, Iranian and Iranian-sponsored militias, and a Baghdad government beating on our Kurdish allies. The 2011 “Arab Spring” was supposed to be the harbinger of Arab governments that honored Western education, free speech, civil society, women’s rights, regular elections, and tolerance of minorities and minority opinion. That was supposed to be Libya after we ousted Gaddafi in 2012 and how it was going to be when the CIA-armed “moderate Syrians” ousted Bashar Assad. How’s that working out?

Over the weekend, in a joint statement, President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump agreed that “[t]here is no military solution to the conflict in Syria.” In the official communiqué produced on the margins of the conference in Da Nang, the two presidents “[c]onfirmed that the ultimate political solution to the conflict must be forged through the Geneva process pursuant to UNSCR 2254. They also took note of President Asad’s recent commitment to the Geneva process and constitutional reform and elections as called for under UNSCR 2254.”

Assad wins with our blessing. Never mind the 500,000-plus Syrian casualties, the 4.8 million Syrians who fled to camps in the region, the 6.6 million internally displaced, and the million who have requested asylum in Europe. Maybe it was just an effort to show increasing “stability” in the region, but it is an example of how willing countries – including Russia – are to dissemble so as not to admit that Iran and its militias have no intention of leaving Syria and are, in fact, building a permanent base less than 30 miles from Israel’s border. There will be no stability.

Now we’re dissembling on Lebanon – and on Saudi Arabia – neither of which was stable when the media suddenly discovered them.

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ISRAEL :THE WEST’S VITAL STRATEGIC ASSET

By on November 15th, 2017

One of the many things the west fails to grasp about the State of Israel is how important it is to the security of the west, as well as the role that the Jews of that land have played in helping defend western lives since before Israel was reborn.http://www.melaniephillips.com/wests-vital-strategic-asset/

Col Richard Kemp, Britain’s former commander in Afghanistan, has written a greatpiece about this that should be essential reading. Here’s a flavour:

“For many years Western nations have depended heavily on Israeli intelligence, and the civil war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State have even further increased the West’s reliance on Israeli intelligence… Of a far more sensitive and of course highly classified nature, Israel makes a major contribution to Western nuclear defences. On the homeland security front few Europeans are aware that Israeli technology safeguards such iconic symbols as Buckingham Palace, Heathrow Airport, the Eiffel Tower, and the Vatican.

But as we who have worked in the intelligence world know, action is premised on more than capability. Israel is not a vital strategic asset because of capability alone. Intent is equally important.

Why did the farmers and scouts of Hanita take such risks and make such sacrifices for the British in 1940? Neither they nor their fellow Jews who sustained and fought for the Eighth Army were under any obligation to do so. But nevertheless in the 1940s the Jews of Palestine contributed much more to the Allied war effort than all of the Arab nations combined who between them had over 50 times the resources of the Jews.

… Why do European countries exploit Israel’s capabilities with one hand and stab her in the back with the other? One word sums it up: appeasement. Every European country has a large and growing Muslim population and an increasing fear of Islamic terrorism. Political leaders believe that a harsh approach toward Israel will give electoral advantage in respect of their Muslim populations and also discourage Islamic terrorists from attacking at home.

A much longer-standing target of their appeasement is the Arab world itself and concern about the negative impact that their dealings with Israel will have on their relations with other countries in the Middle East.

But the balance has been shifting and European diplomacy has struggled to keep up.For many years Israel has had close strategic relations with two of its main Arab neighbours. And today in the face of a growing fear of Iran and the rise of radical jihadism, other Arab countries are increasingly, if cautiously and quietly, looking toward Israel for protection and assistance.

The Arab world will not suddenly fall in love with the Jewish State, but the sands are shifting and in their own security interests, Western states also now need to re-evaluate their relationships with Israel and appreciate what is the balance of cost and benefit to them.

… A modern day Balfour Declaration could be recognition of the strategic value of the Jewish state in today’s global struggle in the form of full membership of a reformed NATO, which would benefit all of our strategic interests and serve also to undermine international efforts to isolate Israel.”

Bravo.

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THE SIGNATURE CAUSE OF WESTERN PROGRESSIVES: PURGING EVERY JEW FROM ISRAEL MELANIE PHILLIPS

By on November 15th, 2017

A conference to support the Palestinian cause was held last month in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Amongst those present was Mahmoud al Habbash, the Palestinian Authority’s chief shari’a justice and religious affairs advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. http://www.melaniephillips.com/signature-cause-western-progressives-purging-every-jew-israel/

MEMRI has translated a report in the the Urdu daily Roznama Urdu Times in wihich al Habbash said: “Every Palestinian will continue the struggle till the complete freedom of Palestine. Those who started the movement for the freedom of Palestine took a pledge, while leaving this world, from the next generation that it will continue this struggle until the land of the first qibla [direction of prayer, i.e. Palestine] is purified of the impious existence of Jews.”

As is clear from the rest of his remarks, he was not talking merely about the “West Bank” and Gaza. He meant the whole of Israel would be “purified” of Jews. This man does not speak for Hamas. He is part of the Palestinian Authority, regarded by the west as “moderate”, and religious adviser to Abbas, regarded by the west as a statesman-in-waiting.

Western “progressives” support the Palestinian Authority and support the Palestinan cause. What do they imagine Mahmoud al Habbash means by the world “purified”? How do they think he intends to put that word into practice in Israel? I’ll give them a clue. It will involve, at the very least, a war of annihilation, racist ethnic cleansing and mass murder.

This is what establishing a state of Palestine means to the Palestinian Authority. This is the agenda that western “progressives” not only support but have made into their cause of causes: an agenda which involves the purge of every single Jew from Israel, their own national home.

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The U.S. Pro-Islamist Neighbor Rachel Ehrenfeld

By on November 15th, 2017

Shortly after taking office in November 2015, Canada’s Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau on CBC’s “1 on 1” argued the importance of working with “the Muslim community to demonstrate that Islam is not incompatible with free and open Western societies.” Thus, reiterating the oxymoron that was introduced by the Muslim Brotherhood and has since been used by their many affiliated Muslim organizations to dupe the West.

So when on October 18, 2017, the province of Quebec passed a new law banning the wearing of niqab or burqa “when riding public transit or receiving government services” for security reasons– Trudeau made it known he wasn’t happy with the new provincial law, law. “As a federal government, we are going to take our responsibility seriously and look carefully at what the implications are” even though the federal government, cannot challenge the new law, implying others could.

It didn’t take for the leading Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated, the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, together with Marie-Michelle Lacoste, a Montreal convert to Islam to file a lawsuit with the province’s Superior Court requesting to suspend the law because the ban “gravely infringes” the religious and equality rights of Muslim women in the province. She accused the local government of sending a message “ to the citizens is that if they already have negative thoughts about Muslim women wearing the niqab, it’s OK to think this way, (that) you are right to harass them, to threaten them, to insult them,” she announced. The Court is scheduled to hear her request later on Wednesday. Rest assured that if the court denies her request, she and the Islamic organizations that support her will not stop until the ban is lifted.

“The Awareness guide – listed terrorist entities,” posted on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police website quotes Sections 318, 319, and 320 of the Criminal Code, which forbids hate propaganda. “Hate propaganda” means “any writing, sign or visible representation that advocates or promotes genocide or the communication of which by any person would constitute an offence under section 319.”

But since Trudeau took office, his pro-Islamic policies led to lax enforcement of Canada’s anti- “hate-crime” and incitement laws against Canadians, including Muslim religious leaders, who publicly support the mujahideen in their armed struggle against infidels, and the killing of the enemies of Islam.

Last September Quebec prosecutors decided not to file hate crimes charges against Sheikh Sayyed Al-Ghitawi, an imam at the Al-Andalous Islamic Center in Montreal,

who during two Friday sermons on August 2014, prayed to Allah to “destroy the accursed Jews” and to “kill them one by one.” “Oh Allah, turn their children into orphans and their women into widows,” he said in the sermons, which were posted on the Alrahma Qanat on YouTube.

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Ruling Out the ABA on Judges The Senate needn’t listen to the lawyers’ guild on nominees.

By on November 15th, 2017

If Republicans are serious about getting President Trump’s judicial nominees confirmed, they will have to rid themselves of the fiction of a politically neutral American Bar Association. The outfit’s recent antics provide ample reason to remove it from Senate vetting.

The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary last week informed the Judiciary Committee that Brett Talley is “not qualified” to serve as a federal judge. This is the fourth “not qualified” rating the ABA has slapped on Trump nominees, including Leonard Steven Grasz for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Grasz’s “not qualified” rating rests on a misrepresentation of the former Nebraska chief deputy attorney general’s views on judicial precedent. Mr. Grasz once argued in a 1999 article that lower courts shouldn’t stretch Supreme Court rulings into broader rights, but the ABA contorts this to suggest Mr. Grasz would ignore Roe v. Wade. Mr. Grasz explicitly wrote in the same article that “lower federal courts are obliged to follow clear legal precedent regardless of whether it may seem unwise or even morally repugnant to do so.”

As for Mr. Talley, nominated for the district court in Alabama, the ABA says he lacks the “requisite trial experience,” having never tried a case. This ignores that the 36-year-old has clerked for a federal district judge and a federal appellate judge, has worked at the whiteshoe Gibson Dunn & Crutcher firm, and served as the Deputy Solicitor General of Alabama.

Many nominees have been younger than Mr. Talley, and the ABA called Barack Obama nominee Goodwin Liu “well-qualified” despite no experience as a trial judge. The ABA also called Elena Kagan “well qualified” for the Supreme Court, as indeed she was, despite her lack of trial experience. But since the ABA found nothing amiss with Mr. Talley’s “integrity” or “temperament,” it settled on a concern with “requisite” experience.

In an August letter to Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, Senator Jeff Flake and four colleagues outlined the ABA’s long history of political liberal activism, and noted their concerns with the Senate outsourcing advice and consent to “unaccountable outside groups.” They also pointed out how useless ABA ratings are, given the number of judges who have been judged “not qualified” but were confirmed and have had distinguished bench careers.

ABA Standing Committee Chair Pamela Bresnahan wants Senate Judiciary to invite the ABA to more hearings. Mr. Grassley should respond by informing the ABA that hearings on judicial nominees will no longer have to wait for completed ABA evaluations.

Mr. Trump followed George W. Bush and scrapped the practice of letting the ABA pre-screen nominees for the White House. Yet the Senate continues to give the lawyers’ guild too much sway. There are more than enough judicial watchdogs on the left and right to inform the Senate.

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Russian Cybersecurity Software Found on U.S. Government Computers Roughly one-sixth of U.S. agencies found a Russian cybersecurity firm’s software on their computers By Paul Sonne

By on November 15th, 2017

WASHINGTON—Roughly one-sixth of American agencies found a Russian cybersecurity firm’s software on their computers after the U.S. government ordered them to look for the company’s products and remove them.

Jeanette Manfra, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for cyber-security and communications, said all but six of the government’s 102 agencies and departments have submitted reports to DHS about removing Kaspersky Labs products. Those six are too small to conduct the assessment themselves and are working with DHS on the matter.

Ms. Manfra said 15% of the 96 who responded had found the Moscow-based company’s products on their systems. The deadline for federal agencies to remove Kaspersky’s software is Dec. 12. She didn’t say how many of the agencies that identified Kaspersky products on their computers already had removed them.

DHS ordered federal agencies to take action on the software in September. At the time, the department expressed concern that the broad access to files and elevated privileges Kaspersky antivirus products enjoy on government computers could be exploited by malicious cyber actors. The department also cited alleged ties between Kaspersky corporate officials and Russian intelligence agencies, as well as Russian laws that allow authorities to compel assistance from Kaspersky and intercept communications transiting Russian networks.

“Out of all the federal agencies, a small number have identified use of Kaspersky… about 15% of agencies that have reported,” Ms. Manfra said. “We’re working with each agency individually. Some of them have chosen to go ahead and remove the products ahead of schedule.”

Kaspersky has repeatedly denied allegations that Russian intelligence has targeted American networks through its cyber-security products.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that hackers suspected of working for the Russian government targeted a National Security Agency contractor through the contractor’s use of Kaspersky Lab antivirus software and stole details of how the U.S. penetrates foreign computer networks.

In a statement then, Kaspersky said it had “not been provided any information or evidence substantiating this alleged incident.”

Ms. Manfra said Tuesday that DHS was working through a process to identify any national security breaches facilitated by Kaspersky products.

“We do not currently have conclusive evidence that they have been breached,” she said, adding that she was continuing to review the matter.

On Tuesday, Kaspersky noted that inconclusiveness in a statement, adding: “The company’s priority continues to be providing clients with its proven cybersecurity services and solutions, as well as working with the IT security community to help protect everyone from cybercrime,” Kaspersky said.

Current and former U.S. officials, however, have told The Journal that the Russian government used Kaspersky’s popular antivirus software to secretly scan computers around the world for classified U.S. government documents and top-secret information, modifying the program to turn it into an espionage tool.

The government of Israel first alerted the U.S. that Kaspersky software was being used to find American intelligence information, after Israel’s own computer spies penetrated the networks of Kaspersky Lab beginning in 2014, the current and former officials said. CONTINUE AT SITE

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