RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/haley-cuba-vote-just-one-more-time-un-members-feel-they-can-poke-u-s-in-the-eye/

Ambassador Nikki Haley lashed out at the United Nations’ annual condemnation of the U.S. embargo on Cuba as “one more time that countries feel they can poke the United States in the eye.”

“You are literally hurting the Cuban people by telling the regime that their treatment of their people is acceptable. For 27 years we’ve had this debate, and nothing has changed in Cuba – at least nothing for the better,” she told members. “…The sorry state of liberty and human rights in Cuba is not lost on anyone in this chamber – even as countries vote to blindly support the resolution every year.”

The resolution calling on the U.S. to lift the embargo was first introduced in 1992 and has passed overwhelmingly each year. This year the vote was 189-2, with the U.S. and Israel opposing.

In 2016, when the Obama administration was trying to forge better relations with the communist country, both the U.S. and Israel abstained during the vote.

Haley said proponents of the resolution “falsely blame America for all kinds of evil things, even genocide.”

“Those who support this resolution every year have it wrong. Our reason for the embargo is and has always been Cuba’s denial of freedom and the denial of the most basic human rights for the Cuban people. The United States will continue to stand with the Cuban people until their rights and their freedoms are restored. Period. We won’t back down,” she added. “Last year, we were joined by just one nation in voting against this resolution. And that’s fine. We were in very good company. We have no problem standing alone on behalf of the things that we believe in and will proudly do so again today if necessary.”

During a speech today at Miami Dade College’s National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower, National Security Advisor John Bolton warned that “in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, we see the perils of poisonous ideologies left unchecked, and the dangers of domination and suppression.”

“The ‘Troika of Tyranny’ in this hemisphere — Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua — has finally met its match,” he added.

Regarding the mysterious “sonic attacks” that have driven most U.S. diplomats from Havana and caused illness including traumatic brain injury, Bolton vowed that “this president will not allow our diplomats to be targeted with impunity.” Cuba has denied being behind the attacks.

Haley said at the UN that “for 27 years we’ve had this debate, and nothing has changed in Cuba – at least nothing for the better.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-who-oversaw-corruption-probe-to-be-named-brazils-justice-minister-1541083888?mod=cx_picks&cx_navSource=cx_picks&cx_tag=undefined&cx_artPos=4#cxrecs_s

Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro picked the country’s crusading anticorruption judge to be justice minister, signaling that Latin America’s largest nation will step up its battle against endemic graft but fueling criticism of the judiciary among his opponents.

Mr. Bolsonaro said Thursday that Sergio Moro had accepted his invitation to head a beefed-up version of the justice ministry from January 1, which will also give Mr. Moro control over the country’s efforts to combat spiraling violence that saw nearly 64,000 people slain last year.

“His agenda against corruption and organized crime, as well as his respect for the Constitution and the law, will be our guiding principle,” Mr. Bolsonaro said on Twitter.

In a note sent by the Bolsonaro transition team, Mr. Moro was quoted as saying that his appointment means “consolidating the advances of the past few years against crime and corruption and reducing the risks of going backwards,” and adding that he made the decision for “the greater good.”

The appointment of the widely-respected judge as minister is considered by legal experts to be a stamp of approval for the future government of Mr. Bolsonaro, who swept to victory Sunday with his promise to restore law and order.

But the move has also fueled criticism of partisanship in the country’s vast Car Wash corruption investigation that Mr. Moro helped lead, adding weight to accusations by the leftist Workers’ Party that the operation was part of a soft coup by the right to seize power. CONTINUE AT SITE

http://acdemocracy.org/mohamad-fakih

The forty-seven years old Mohamad Abdallah Fakih (محمد عبدالله فقيه) is the founder and CEO of Paramount Fine Foods, a Middle Eastern restaurants and food chain operating in Canada, USA (Florida, New York), UK (London – Paddington, Brixton and Gloucester), Lebanon (Beirut), Pakistan (Karachi), and the Ivory Coast (Abidjan).

Fakih’s relationship with Justin Trudeau seems very close. Trudeau was invited several times to Paramount Fine Foods, and he has joined the Canadian Primer’s political and charitable activities. Fakih called Trudeau “my good friend,” and said “ I have personal and direct relationship with Justin Trudeau.” Trudeau called Fakih “my friend” and “the best of Canada.”

On the occasion of Paramount Fine Food’s tenth anniversary, Trudeau sent his greetings in video:

“Mohamad my friend, congratulations to you and to the whole team at Paramount on your tenth anniversary. In just a short decade you’ve made your mark in Toronto North America and around the world. Your success speaks to your passion commitment and dedication. By now we know the quality of your food is outstanding but your commitment to making a difference and helping people is nothing short of inspiring… Congratulations again here’s to many more decades of success.”

Fakih responded: “Paramount Fine Foods is honoured to receive this special message for our 10th Anniversary from our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau Thank you Mohamad Fakih.”

Born in Tairdebba, the small Shiite village in south Lebanon – home also to Imad Mughniyeh, former Hezbollah Chief Commander – Mohamad Fakih has managed skillfully to translate his meteoric business success to political power by establishing close relationship not only with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, but also with other Liberal ministers, members of Parliament and local politicians.

Dismissing the idea of entering politics, it appears that Fakih favours rubbing shoulders with people in power to promote his community and business targets, as well as his political agenda.

For the Liberal Party Fakih is a one of the most valuable political asset that can help in mobilizing the Muslim and the Arab communities to vote for reelection of the Trudeau government in 2019 elections.

But Fakih should reconsider his partnership with Islamic Relief Worldwide and Islamic Relief Canada. Tom Quiggin, a Canadian intelligence expert, has recently sent to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police a request to launch a investigation into financing terrorism. It is based on a new report that shows that Members of Parliament and Ministers have been sending taxpayers’ money to organizations that fund extremism and terrorism. According to Quiggin, one such organization is Islamic Relief Canada, which recived funds from a variety of government programs.

http://www.atimes.com/article/china-leads-market-recovery-as-predicted-trade-deal-em
Trump signals progress in talks after US stocks plunge in October

The popular large-cap China ETF (ticker FXI) led the S&P 500 during the market uptick of the past several days, driven by signals from Beijing and Washington that a resolution of the Sino-American trade dispute was possible.

President Trump this morning tweeted that he had made progress on trade negotiations with China, and had spoken by telephone with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

“Just had a long and very good conversation with President Xi Jinping of China. We talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on Trade. Those discussions are moving along nicely with meetings being scheduled at the G-20 in Argentina. Also had good discussion on North Korea!”

The October plunge in US equity prices, as well as weakness in recent US economic data, give the Trump Administration an incentive to reach a resolution with China.

As I reported from Beijing October 23, China is looking for a framework for a trade deal that would allow Trump to claim credit for better protection for American intellectual property as well as changes in China’s industrial policy. China may tone down its rhetoric about dominating high-tech industries under the “Made in China 2025” program, source of contention with the United States, although it will not abandon its economic goals.

I predicted October 25 that the slumping stock market would motivate the Trump Administration to seek a deal with China.

The October manufacturing survey of the Institute for Supply Management released Nov. 1 showed weaker-than-expected growth in US industry. The index fell from 58.8 to 56.8 while new orders fell from 61.8 to 57.4, and prices paid rose from 69.0 to 71.4. The numbers reflect the percentage of respondents who see expansion vs. contraction and came in far below the consensus of economic forecasters.

The Institute told Bloomberg news that tariffs are a concern to more than 40% of respondents in the broad-based survey. “Import tariffs and counter-tariffs are the biggest inhibitor to the expansion in manufacturing,” ISM official Timothy Fiore said.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13206/jihad-threat

It is important to emphasize that radical Islamists use means other than terrorism to gain ground.

This week, the unelected judges of the European Court of Human Rights submitted to the demands of Sharia blasphemy laws and decided not to allow criticism of Muhammad, lest Muslim feelings be hurt. The court actually chose hurt feelings over freedom of expression and truth as a defense.

“As someone who has known what it is to live without freedom, I watch in amazement as those who call themselves liberal and progressive – people who claim to believe so fervently in individual liberty and minority rights – make common cause with the forces in the world that manifestly pose the greatest threats to that very freedom and those very minorities… We need to say to Muslims living in the West: if you want to live in our societies, to share in their material benefits, then you need to accept that our freedoms are not optional”. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 2016.

When the Barcelona terror attack took place August 17, 2017, as horrible as it was (13 deaths, 130 injured), the jihadists did not consider it a success. They had a more lethal project. They wanted to drive vans packed with explosives into the of the Sagrada Familia basilica and two other tourist areas of the city. That, however, was the last major jihadist attack in a Western country. The Manchester attack had taken place two month earlier, on May 22, 2017; the attack in Nice, France, had taken place on July 14, 2016; and the in Orlando attack, in Florida, on June 12, 2016.

The destruction of the Islamic State under President Donald J. Trump has not only deprived jihadists of what had become a rear base and training camp; it also deprived them of the idea that they could quickly defeat the West.

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/31/denmark-says-it-foiled-iranian-assassination-attempt-on-its-soil/

Denmark recalls its ambassador to Iran over a foiled Tehran plot to kill three Iranian dissidents on Danish soil • Denmark consulting with “partners and allies,” including the European Union, about possible sanctions, Foreign Minister Samuelsen says.

Denmark has recalled its ambassador to Iran after it accused Tehran of plotting to kill three Iranian dissidents living in the Scandinavian country.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen on Tuesday both called the alleged Iranian attack in Denmark “totally unacceptable.”

“I have decided to recall Denmark’s ambassador in Tehran for consultations. Denmark can in no way accept that people with ties to Iran’s intelligence service plot attacks against people in Denmark,” Samuelsen told reporters.

Iranian Ambassador to Denmark Morteza Moradian has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen and it was made “crystal clear” to him that “the gravity of the matter is difficult to describe,” Samuelsen said, adding he was consulting with “partners and allies,” including the European Union, about possible sanctions.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said in a statement that Tehran “strongly denied” the allegations, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

A police operation last month that briefly cut off Copenhagen from the rest of Denmark stemmed from an alleged Iranian plot to kill an opposition activist, the head of Denmark’s intelligence agency said Tuesday while announcing a suspect’s arrest.

A Norwegian citizen of Iranian descent was arrested Oct. 21 on suspicion of helping an unspecified Iranian intelligence service “to act in Denmark” and of alleged involvement in the assassination plot, Danish Security and Intelligence Service Director Finn Borch Andersen said.

The suspect was seen taking photos of the residences of members of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA) in Ringsted, a town some 37 miles southwest of Copenhagen, he said.

The suspect has denied wrongdoing and is being held in pretrial custody until Nov. 8, Borch Andersen said. He did not name the Norwegian.

“This is a case that entails an Iranian intelligence operation in Denmark, In our view, it was an Iranian intelligence agency’s plan to assassinate a person who lives in Denmark,” he said.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/israel-mum-about-new-computer-virus-attack-on-iran/

Reports out of Iran indicate that a massive attack on Iranian infrastructure and strategic networks took place in the last few days by a computer virus even more powerful than the Stuxnet worm that wrought tremendous damage on Iran’s nuclear program.

Israeli officials are refusing to discuss any role they had in unleashing the virus, that’s been described as “more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated” than Stuxnet.

As the Israeli Times reports, the attacks come just days after Israel assisted Denmark in foiling an assassination plot on an Iranian dissident and reports emerged that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s cellphone was hacked.

“Remember Stuxnet, the virus that penetrated the computers of the Iranian nuclear industry?” the report on Israel’s Hadashot news asked. Iran “has admitted in the past few days that it is again facing a similar attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before, that has hit infrastructure and strategic networks.”

The Iranians, the TV report went on, are “not admitting, of course, how much damage has been caused.”

On Sunday, Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s civil defense agency, said Tehran had neutralized a new version of Stuxnet, Reuters reported.“Recently we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet which consisted of several parts … and was trying to enter our systems,” Jalali said.

Stuxnet crippled Iran’s nuclear weapons program, setting it back several months, or several years, depending on the source. Hopefully, if the report is accurate and the virus is more advanced and sophisticated, the systems it affected will sustain even more damage.

The Stuxnet virus was reported to have been developed jointly by Israel and the US. This worm is just one aspect of the “shadow war” being waged by Mossad against the Iranian regime.

Without attributing responsibility to the Mossad, the report mentioned the tapping of Rouhani’s phone, noting that the Iranians “had to switch it for an encrypted model because they understand that someone has been listening to him for days and weeks.”

On Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged intensified efforts to counter enemy “infiltration,” Reuters said.

In a speech to officials in charge of cyber defense, Khamenei said: “In the face of the enemy’s complex practices, our civil defense should… confront infiltration through scientific, accurate, and up-to-date… action,” the report said, quoting Iranian state TV. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://quillette.com/2018/10/30/upholding

In his provocative essay The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine didn’t mince words on Christianity. ”What is it the Bible teaches us?” he asked, and answered: ”rapine, cruelty and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us?—to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.”

In 1819, the English deist Richard Carlile was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison for selling the Age of Reason.

Today Tom Paine is celebrated as one of the Enlightenment’s foremost champions of human rights. But even 200 years after his conviction Carlile might not have been vindicated had he been able to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. In a recent ruling, the Court upheld the conviction of an Austrian citizen for an ”abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace” for denouncing the Prophet Muhammad as a “pedophile.” The Court insisted that the comments could arouse “justified indignation” in religious believers who have a right to have their religious feelings protected. Moreover, states have wide discretion to prevent such “improper attacks on religious groups” in order to ensure social and religious peace. Paine would have been shocked and horrified by such logic. And it is deeply regrettable that the Court declined to revisit its long-held doctrine that the freedoms of religion and speech are conflicting rather than complementary rights.

Paine’s scathing attack on holy scripture was clearly offensive to many Christians—US President Theodore Roosevelt later called Paine “a filthy little Atheist.” But the harsh attacks on the authority of religion by Paine and other Enlightenment figures contributed to a broadening concept of tolerance encompassing both the right to express, critique and reject religious doctrines. So the Court’s insistence that the freedoms of religion and speech are in conflict when the latter is used to attack the former is regressive, however noble the purposes of securing “social peace” and “tolerance.” The Court’s reasoning is ultimately based on protecting the secular aim of peaceful co-existence rather than religious doctrine. But the underlying idea that expressions offensive to religious dogma constitute a threat to the social and religious peace of society has deep roots stretching back centuries.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/china-global-maritime-commerce-ambitions-us-must-respond/

Beijing’s ambitious campaign to dominate global maritime commerce is in full swing. Here’s how the U.S. must respond.

In a speech at the Hudson Institute earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence said that the American people deserve to know of the strategy behind China’s economic and political competition with the U.S. — and of what the Trump administration is doing to counter the Middle Kingdom’s challenge to U.S. security.

“Beijing is employing a whole-of-government approach, using political, economic, and military tools, as well as propaganda, to advance its influence and benefit its interests in the United States,” Pence said, and “applying this power in more proactive ways than ever before, to exert influence and interfere in the domestic policy and politics of our country.”

While the vice president was speaking of the U.S., the American people also deserve to know that China is employing the same playbook beyond our shores, with considerable success. In effect, China has landed, not only by militarizing artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, but by building or acquiring seaports, logistics terminals, and related transportation, communication, and energy assets in more than a dozen countries around the globe, including U.S. allies in the EU and Latin America.

Unlike the high-profile takeover of an American technology company by a Chinese one, the threat to U.S. security posed by China’s new maritime network is all too easy to overlook. Although 90 percent of the world’s energy, commodities, and manufactured goods are transported by ship, few consumers have any direct exposure to shipping or the logistical operations that comprise the “supply chain” of our globalized economy.

But maritime commerce is the operating system of that economy, running constantly in the background in much the same way the operating system of a smartphone powers apps. Control of the components of the system — ports, terminals, and the roads and railways that connect ships to stores — gives China significant leverage over the essential economic functions of the countries where those assets are located.