RUTHFULLY YOURS

Mr. Cain, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, is the principal of Cain Global Partners

Two Saturdays ago, just outside Maastricht, the Netherlands, I visited the 65-acre American Cemetery in Margraten. A sea of marble white crosses and Stars of David is arrayed in a gentle arc marking the final resting place of 8,301 American soldiers who fell nearby while ensuring the liberty and security of a Europe brutalized by World War II.

My wife, Helen, our daughters Cameron and Laura, and a few friends and I were there to view the magnificent array of flowers brought to the cemetery the day before. The flowers came from the funerals of Alexander and Sascha Pinczowski, Dutch siblings who lived in New York and were murdered on March 22 in the Brussels airport by Islamist terrorists Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui.

Alex was married to our daughter Cameron.

He was an exceptionally clever student of international relations, and possessed a keen curiosity about the world. Alex and I talked about the deliverance of Europe from the evils of Nazism, including his family’s hometown of Maastricht. We didn’t always see eye to eye on politics, but Alex and I agreed that the Allies’ success in 1944 had some essential requisites. Those included: the ability to coordinate an effort against a poisonous ideology; the willpower of free people from noncaptive nations to commit to fighting a common enemy; and the presence of resolute leadership—which could only come, at that point, from America.

As I stood before the dozens of bouquets at the cemetery, I pondered whether, with an enemy of a type different in this century, America today was still willing to fulfill the leadership role that once brought peace and freedom to the world. And are the countries affected by this modern war, which includes many of the same nations ravaged by World War II, willing to take this fight seriously?

Our own experience in Brussels, while frantically searching for Alex and Sascha, gives reason for doubt. CONTINUE AT SITE

Belonging to ISIS or trafficking in slavery evidently do not constitute serious crimes in Turkey. But signing petitions calling for peace and non-violence, or requesting political equality for Kurds, are unspeakable offenses.

“We are not shocked that the defendants have been acquitted. This lawsuit has become one of the hundreds of other lawsuits in our country in which the criminals have been protected even though the evidence against them is obvious.” — Association of Progressive Women, on the acquittal of six people charged with having ties with ISIS and trading in Yazidi sex slaves.

“Requesting peace has become a crime in this country. The state of Turkey has committed the gravest rights violations against those who struggle for human rights, against the Kurds and against free thought.” — Sebnem Korur Fincanci, President of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.

Turkish politics has therefore not been able to go beyond a clash between assorted Islamists whose worldviews are foreign to democratic values, and non-Islamist but still extremely oppressive political parties that operate under the shadow of a tyrannical military, whose worldview is also foreign to democratic values.

Turkey’s “fight” against the Islamic State (ISIS) continues. On March 24, Turkey released seven suspects who had been arrested in a case involving the Turkish branch of ISIS.

Halis Bayancuk, alleged to be the “Emir,” or commander-in-chief, of ISIS, is among the suspects. This was the fourth hearing of the trial known as the “Istanbul ISIS trial.” A total of 96 suspects are on trial. Only seven had been jailed; the others had not. Although those seven were released on March 24 at the end of the hearing, their trial is still ongoing; the final verdict has not been given. All of them are now outside jail, free, and living their lives as they wish.

BRUSSELS—Belgian authorities said Sunday they believe the terror network that killed 32 people in Brussels last month was initially planning a fresh attack in France but changed the target as investigators closed in.

“The Federal Prosecution Office can confirm that numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again. Eventually, surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels,” prosecutors said in a press release.

On March 18, Belgian and French police arrested key terror suspect Salah Abdeslam in Brussels. The terror attacks at the national airport and the city’s metro station took place four days later.

Federal prosecutors also said they are now charging Mohamed Abrini with terrorist murders and participation in a terror group in the Brussels attacks. On Saturday, he was charged with the same offenses over the Paris attacks of last November.

The prosecutors said on Saturday that Mr. Abrini admitted to his involvement on the attack on Brussels’ national airport on March 22. CONTINUE AT SITE

In Muslim Malmo, Sweden, a teacher was fired for being a Jew. Pretty much just that simple. Just like that. Fired.

Sweden is a a cautionary tale and the best example of the disastrous outcome of large -scale Muslim immigration. Sweden is now a de facto Islamic country, with the attendant Islamic Jew-hatred, creed apartheid, misogyny and religious violence.

Färdiga!

Swedish-Jewish Activist ‘Not Surprised’ Israeli Teacher in Malmö Told to Seek Employment Far From School Children ‘Who Hate Jews’ By Algemeiner, April 5, 2016 (thanks to Chai):

A Swedish-Jewish intellectual said she was “not the least bit surprised” to learn of a report in the Israeli press on Tuesday about a teacher in Malmö who was fired for being a Jew.

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein told The Algemeiner that the only thing “baffling” about the incident recounted in the report is how “out-in-the-open” it was.

Hernroth-Rothstein, well-known in Sweden for her pro-Israel activism and both personal and public battles against antisemitism in Europe, was responding to a story that appeared in the Hebrew news site nrg about “A,” a decades’-long Israeli ex-pat who claimed she was let go from her position on the grounds that she would be hated by both Swedish and Arab children.

According to nrg, “A” posted on Facebook a description of her experience with the principal of the school where she had only begun working in February.

“Listen, ‘A,’ you know that I’m on your side,” she recounted her employer saying to her. “And it’s really unpleasant for me to say this to you, but I think that problems are liable to arise here as a result of your origins.”

For the last few years, Sweden has been overwhelmed with Roma beggars from Romania and Bulgaria. Recently, the government estimated that there are now around 4,000 in Sweden (population 9.5 million).

“We do not fool anyone. We just benefit from the opportunity.” — Bulgarian beggar in Sweden who said he “owned” five street corners.

“If the begging is profitable, they stay miserable…. [Giving money] improves the acute situation. At the same time, it contributes to making the bigger issue permanent — the misery…. It will not help the Roma, but it gives you a chance to feel like a good person. … The basic concept of racism is precisely that we as westerners and Swedes are far superior (smarter) and that the Roma are inferior (dumber). If this… is not racist then I do not know what is. … One could add that the image is inverted among Roma. They consider themselves superior and smart, while the gadjo (non-gypsies) are stupid, naïve and gullible.” — Karl-Olov Arnstberg, Swedish ethnologist

“It is our very strong recommendation not to give money to beggars. It turns the panhandling into an occupation… To give [money] encourages a life with no future; moving from country to country does not solve their problems.” — Florin Ivanovici, director of the Life and Light Foundation, Bucharest, Romania.

Nobody knows exactly how many of them there are, but for the last few years Sweden has been overwhelmed with Roma beggars from Romania and Bulgaria. In 2014, the newspaper Sydsvenskan reported that an estimated 600 Roma beggars lived in the country; a few months ago, the government-appointed “National Coordinator for Vulnerable EU Citizens,” Martin Valfridsson, found that there are now around 4,000.

You see beggars sitting outside virtually every store, not just in the big cities, but also in small rural villages. In the far north of Sweden, at gas stations in the middle of nowhere, patrons are greeted by beggars saying “Hello, hello!” while holding out their paper cups.

A new ISIS affiliate has been formed in the Horn of Africa — vowing to differ from Al-Shabaab by not keeping operations within the “prison” of al-Qaeda.

Jahba East Africa, without specifying, promises that their fighters will be ready to sow terror on new fronts.

And as Al-Shabaab has drawn recruits from America, that could potentially affect our home front.

There had been dissension with Somalia’s Al-Shabaab for some time about whether to remain allied to al-Qaeda or to follow the lead of Boko Haram and pledge allegiance to ISIS.

Just the act of crossing over to ISIS would mean expanding the group’s reach beyond Shabaab’s fairly tight focus of establishing strict Sharia rule in Somalia. The government and allied African forces have pushed Shabaab’s control out of the cities and into rural areas.

It’s not the only place on the map where ISIS is trying to flip al-Qaeda chapters — there are pitched battles in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, whether physical brawls or wars of words, between the terror outlets. ISIS wins over recruits who like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s message of expanding the caliphate ASAP by any means possible.

The Jahba East Africa statement begins by pledging allegiance to al-Baghdadi, recognizing him as “the rightful Khalifa [caliph] of all Muslims.”

“We pledge our obedience to him in times of ease and hardship, and Allah is witness to our pledge.”

SEOUL—North Korea said it successfully tested a new engine of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the latest in a series of announcements that appear intended to suggest progress in its goal of building a nuclear-armed missile capable of hitting targets as far away as the U.S.

The run of statements about technical breakthroughs started in March as Pyongyang ratcheted up its warlike rhetoric following international penalties imposed for its nuclear-bomb test and long-range rocket launch earlier in the year. They also coincide with anger from North Korea about annual military drills taking place in South Korea.

Outside experts have expressed skepticism about the claims, including that North Korea has built a nuclear device small enough to mount on a long-range missile.

The latest announcement said a test of a new high-power missile engine was made under the guidance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the country’s main rocket launch site in its far northwest.

“The great success made in the test provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the U.S. imperialists and other hostile forces,” North Korea’s state news agency said in its account of the test. CONTINUE AT SITE

BRUSSELS—Belgian police on Friday arrested Mohamed Abrini, one of Europe’s most-wanted terrorist suspects, and prosecutors said they were working to determine whether he was the third attacker at the Brussels airport in March.

According to two officials, Belgian authorities suspect Mr. Abrini was the sole surviving attacker who escaped from the national airport during the March 22 attacks, wearing a dark hat and a light-colored jacket. Thirty-two people were killed that day by suicide bombers at the airport and the Maelbeek subway station in central Brussels.

In all, five people were arrested on Friday, including a man Belgian officials detained in connection with the subway station attack, confirming for the first time that investigators believe a second person was involved at that site.

“The investigators are verifying whether Abrini can be positively identified as being the third person present during the attacks in Brussels National Airport, the so-called man with the hat,” said Eric Van Der Sypt, the spokesman for the prosecutors.

Prosecutors spoke with caution Friday night, a likely reflection of the fact that a man previously arrested on suspicion of being the third attacker, Faycal Cheffou, was later released after it was established he wasn’t at the airport on March 22.

The Belgian government’s security council met Friday evening to discuss the arrests and progress in the case. Belgium’s terror level was kept at one notch below its highest level.

If Belgian authorities can confirm that Mr. Abrini is the “man in the hat”—the focus of an intense search since then—and confirm the capture of the second alleged Maelbeek attacker, they will have resolved key remaining questions about the attacks. CONTINUE AT SITE

The Cologne attacks were a series of mass sexual assaults on women by Muslim colonists and settlers operating in that city as well as other German and European cities on New Year’s Eve. Now we’re learning more about the initial coverup which dealt a severe blow to Merkel’s open borders refugee policy.

Police investigating the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve claim they were ordered to remove the word “rape” from their initial report.

Local officers had produced an internal “important event” memo entitled “rape, sexual harassment, thefts, committed by a large group of foreign people” – the first indication of the scale of the incident which would go on to make headlines around the world.

According to Cologne newspaper Express, officers received a phone call from the state police control centre ordering them to take down the report “or otherwise delete the phrase ‘Vergewaltigung’” – “rape”.

A senior Cologne police officer told Express he was informed of the order by a colleague who took the call, and that state police understood it to be “the wish of the state interior ministry”.

Police ultimately refused the request, leaving the word “rape” in their report, and the news would eventually reach the wider world.

Which is how the truth got out.

The Christian communities of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon are well on the way to joining their Jewish cousins. The Jewish communities of these states predated Islam by a millennium, and were vibrant until the 20th century. But the Arab world’s war on the Jewish state, and more generally on Jews, wiped out the Jewish populations several decades ago.

And now the Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication.

The ongoing genocide of Middle Eastern Christians at the hands of Sunni jihadists is a moral outrage. Does it also affect Israeli national interests? What do we learn from the indifference of Western governments – led by the Obama administration – to their annihilation? True, after years of deliberately playing down the issue and denying the problem, the Obama administration is finally admitting it exists.

Embarrassed by the US House of Representatives’ unanimous adoption of a resolution last month recognizing that Middle Eastern Christians are being targeted for genocide, the State Department finally acknowledged the obvious on March 25, when Secretary of State John Kerry stated that Islamic State is conducting a “genocide of Christians, Yazidis and Shi’ites.”

Kerry’s belated move, which State Department lawyers were quick to insist has no operational significance, raises two questions.

First, what took the Obama administration so long? Persecution of Christians in Iraq began immediately after the US-led coalition brought down Saddam Hussein in 2003. With the rise of Islamic State in 2012, the process of destroying the Christian community went into high gear. And now these ancient communities are on the brink of extinction.

In Iraq, Christians comprised 8 percent of the population in 2003. Today less than 1% of Iraqis are Christians. In Syria, the Christian community has lost between half and two-thirds of its members in the past five years.

One of the appalling aspects of ISIS’s deliberate, open targeting of Christians for destruction is how little resistance it has received from local Sunni populations. As Raymond Ibrahim from the David Horowitz Freedom Center has scrupulously documented, the local Sunnis have not stood up for their Christian neighbors, who have lived side-by-side with them for hundreds of years. Rather, in areas that have been conquered by ISIS, the local Sunnis have collaborated with their genocidal masters in raping and murdering Christian neighbors, plundering their property, destroying their churches, and driving them from their ancestral homes.

Although precise data is hard to come by, it is clear that thousands of Christians have been slaughtered. Thousands of Christian women and girls have been sold as sex slaves in ISIS slave markets, subjected to continuous, violent rape and beatings. Nuns and priests have been enslaved, crucified, mutilated, kidnapped and held for ransom, as have lay members of Christian communities. Christians have been burned alive.