Mid-week news round-up of Muslim maniacs and Western wimps By Carol Brown ****

I set about gathering reports on the Islamic advance across the West with the plan to write up one week’s worth of information. However, at the mid-week point it became clear that the post would be much too long if I went the entire week. So I stopped. What you find below is a sample of overt and abject barbarism; stealth advance; and Western weakness, stupidity, and dhimmitude that unfolded in just under four days.

Australia: Police officers were threatened as Muslims followed them home, made death threats, and tracked their movement using drones (here).

Austria: A major bank offers accounts to “asylum seekers” free of charge while Austrians are charged large fees. The bank also shut down the account of an anti-immigration organization with no explanation given (here).

Canada: A Muslim man accused of sexual assault (committed in the United States) fought the court decision to strip him of his refugee status, claiming his life will be in danger if he’s deported back to Somalia. The government assured its citizens that Canadian women will not be raped by “Syrian refugees” as is happening across Europe because Canada imports a better-quality invader. A textbook teaches children that Christians are persecuting Muslims in Syria. P.M. Trudeau visited a mosque where the imam repeatedly made vile misogynist remarks. A video of the P.M. surfaced from 2013 when he spoke at a mosque (where he also joined members in prayer). The minister of foreign affairs omitted the words “Islam” and “Islamic” when talking about Islamic terrorism (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).

Denmark: There has been a surge in reports of mass sexual assault against Danish women by Muslim men. Some nightclubs are barring “migrants” due to complaints they are harassing female patrons. Many diseases, including diphtheria, are showing up in “refugee” centers. Some towns have begun programs of volunteers patrolling their villages to monitor antisocial behavior and prevent violence. One town has made pork a mandatory food at all public institutions, including schools (here, here, here, here, here).

Finland: An investigation is underway into a taharrush-like attack of a mother and daughter, where Muslim men cornered them, licked the daughter, and then beat the mother when she tried to intervene. A member of Shiite terrorist group entered the country posing as a “refugee.” (here and here).

Peter O’Brien Climategate’s Enduring Stink

The standard defence of the University of East Anglia’s climate cabal is that its fiddling scientists were “cleared” by two allegedly independent panels. What warmists won’t admit is that those probes were hobbled by their terms of reference and stacked with fellow catastropharians.
Recently Quadrant Online republished an essay by Professor Bob Carter, a tribute following his untimely death. The article included a passing reference to the Climategate scandal and prompted a number of comments, this among them:

Apparently they have nary a thought for the deep scientific malaise and malfeasance that has now been exposed for the whole lay world to see – part of which is being investigated currently in a British parliamentary committee investigation. (extract from Carter’s article)

It might have been a bit more honest if the Quadrant editor had then briefed readers on the results of that parliamentary investigation, just in order to ensure that there could be no misunderstanding on the matter. The Committee reported:

On the much cited phrases in the leaked e-mails-‘trick’ and ‘hiding the decline’-the Committee considers that they were colloquial terms used in private e-mails and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead.

Insofar as the Committee was able to consider accusations of dishonesty against CRU, the Committee considers that there is no case to answer.

That Quadrant Online comment reflects a very weak understanding of what transpired post-Climategate and prompted me to set the record straight. Because of the length of my response and what I believe is the significance of Climategate in illustrating the shoddy science that so often characterises warmism and its advocates, I chose to do it here rather than respond in the original comments thread. Following an initial Parliamentary enquiry conducted by the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee, two allegedly independent investigations were commissioned: the Oxburgh enquiry and the Muir Russell enquiry. The former was charged with evaluating the robustness of the science, the second directed to examine the probity of the CRU scientists’ conduct.

Freeing (some of) our hostages: Iranian “humanitarians” Anne Bayefsky with Daniel Henninger

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest, January 19, 2016:

MR. EARNEST: “…the release of five Americans who are being unjustly detained inside of Iran…What we saw was that essentially was a humanitarian gesture that was offered up by the Iranians. We made a reciprocal humanitarian gesture by releasing seven individuals…”
“QUESTION: …the Department of State announced this payment of $1.7 billion to the government of Iran just before the plane carrying the freed Americans landed in Geneva. You’re really telling me that this is an absolute coincidence?…
MR. EARNEST: I think we’ve made pretty clear that this is not a coincidence. The fact is, these kinds of diplomatic opportunities…
QUESTION: …Paul Ryan has suggested this was a ransom payment…
MR. EARNEST: What I’m suggesting is that the successful resolution of our concerns about Iran’s nuclear program created a series of diplomatic opportunities…”

UN Secretary-General’s Remarks (January 15, 2016) at General Assembly Presentation of the Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (January 7, 2016):

“Definitions of “terrorism” and “violent extremism” are the prerogative of Member States…”

For more human rights and United Nations coverage see www.HumanRightsVoices.org.

The Kremlin’s London Hit Squad Recommended reading for Donald Trump on Vladimir Putin.

It has long been an open secret that Russian agents fatally poisoned Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic, at a London hotel in November 2006. On Thursday a formal British inquiry went further. “Taking full account of all the evidence and analysis available to me,” wrote retired High Court Judge Robert Owen, “I find that the FSB operation to kill Mr. Litvinenko was probably approved by [then FSB Director Nikolai] Patrushev and President Putin.”

Litvinenko, a veteran of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), fled Russia for Britain in 2000, after going public with evidence that Russian officials abused the state security apparatus for corrupt purposes. This infuriated Vladimir Putin, then director of the FSB and soon to be the Kremlin’s paramount leader.

In exile Litvinenko published a book accusing the Russian leader of having staged terrorist bombings in Moscow in 1999 as a pretext to reignite the war in Chechnya. (See David Satter nearby.) Litvinenko also likely cooperated with British intelligence. In July 2006 Russian legislators enacted a law authorizing the government to target state enemies abroad. An unofficial Kremlin hit list began circulating in Russian circles. Litvinenko’s name was on it.

The Missionary Killed by Islamist Terror Helping orphans in Burkina Faso, but then al Qaeda struck.By Thomas S. Kidd

The 2016 political season is churning with anti-immigrant vitriol and wariness of the outside world. But one group of American Christians—missionaries—continues reaching out instead of walling themselves off. They honor Christ’s message in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

The selfless work of missionaries was poignantly illustrated by the terrorist murder on Jan. 15 of 45-year-old Michael Riddering, an orphanage director in West Africa.

Riddering and his wife, Amy, left Hollywood, Fla., in 2011 to minister to impoverished children and widows in the landlocked nation of Burkina Faso. Unicef estimates that in the country of 17 million people, almost one million are orphans. The Ridderings, who brought their young daughter with them to the town of Yako, adopted two Burkinabe children; the orphanage cared for about 400 more.

Riddering was visiting Ouagadougou, the capital about 70 miles from Yako, late last week. He was meeting with a Burkinabe pastor in the Cappuccino Café when al Qaeda terrorists attacked the restaurant and two nearby hotels. More than two-dozen people, including Riddering and six Canadians in the country on short-term missions, were killed.

NSA Chief Says U.S. at ‘Tipping Point’ on Cyberweapons Policy makers largely agree on rules of engagement for defense, but offense still undecidedBy Damian Paletta

WASHINGTON—The U.S. military has spent five years developing advanced cyberweapon and digital capabilities and is likely to deploy them more publicly soon, the head of the Pentagon’s U.S. Cyber Command said Thursday.

Adm. Mike Rogers, who is also director of the National Security Agency, said U.S. policy makers have largely agreed on rules of engagement for when cyberweapons can be used for defense.

There is still an open discussion, however, about when cyberweapons should be used for “offense,” such as carrying out attacks against a group or foreign country.

“You can tell we are at the tipping point now,” Adm. Rogers said. “The capacity and the capability are starting to come online [and] really starting to pay off in some really tangible capabilities that you will start to see us apply in a broader and broader way.”

Still, Adm. Rogers stopped short of specifying how exactly these cyberpowers could be deployed in coming months.

Clinton’s Emails: A Criminal Charge Is Justified Hillary’s explanations look increasingly contrived as evidence of malfeasance mounts day by day.By Michael B. Mukasey

While the State Department and intelligence agencies finish picking through messages recovered from the private email server Hillary Clinton used to conduct public business as secretary of state, the contents of the periodic document dumps have become increasingly sensitive. State has been referring any email that appears to contain sensitive information for further consideration by the agency with jurisdiction over the relevant data. Thus the most problematic emails are dribbling out last.

As the number of disclosed classified messages from Mrs. Clinton’s server has climbed above 1,300, her explanations have come to look increasingly improvisational and contrived. Recall that last summer—even after abandoning the claim that she maintained a private email account for convenience and because she was too busy solving the world’s problems to navigate the intricacies of a government account—she insisted that, “I did not send classified information and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified, which is the way you know that something is.”

When asked whether she had her server “wiped,” she assumed an air of grandmotherly befuddlement: “What, like with a cloth or something?” she said. “I don’t know how it works digitally at all.”

The current news, reported in the Journal and elsewhere, is that her server contained information at the highest level of classification, known as SAP, or Special Access Program. This is a level so high that even the inspector general for the intelligence community who reported the discovery did not initially have clearance to examine it.

Amid Elbow-Rubbing in Davos, a Potential for Awkward Encounters – Netanyahu and Zarif By Felicia Schwartz and Carol E. Lee

DAVOS — Here in this luxe Swiss ski town, dozens of world leaders are taking advantage of one another’s presence at the massive, multi-day economic summit to get together and talk shop.

But the annual conference also draws some leaders who’d prefer not to. On Thursday morning, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were spotted one floor apart at the InterContinental hotel.
Mr. Zarif was eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant, just a floor above where Mr. Netanyahu and Vice President Joe Biden met. Mr. Zarif left the restaurant about 20 minutes before Messrs. Biden and Netanyahu’s meeting started. Mr. Biden’s national security adviser was also two tables away from Mr. Zarif.

Mr. Netanyahu has been a fierce and vocal opponent of the Iranian nuclear deal and U.S. engagement with Tehran. He’s warned that the accord will strengthen and embolden Iran’s leaders, who he has said will funnel money to Israel’s regional foes such as Hezbollah and Hamas as well as Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and shiite militias.

U.S. Tightens Visa-Waiver Rules Following Terror Attacks Nationals of visa-waiver program countries who are also citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria will no longer gain automatic admission to the U.S. By Miriam Jordan

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in California and Paris, the Obama administration on Thursday tightened a program that allows nationals of certain countries to travel to the U.S. without a visa by restricting entry for those who have dual citizenship in Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria.

Under the program, nationals from 38 countries, primarily in Europe, may enter the U.S. for tourism or business without a visa. Nationals of these countries who also are citizens of the four predominantly Muslim nations will no longer be eligible to gain automatic admission to the U.S., according to a joint statement by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

In addition, those who don’t hold dual nationality but have visited those four countries on or after March 2011 no longer will be eligible for visa-free entry, the statement said.

People in both categories must “apply for a visa using the regular immigration process at our embassies or consulates,” the statement said. That means they will undergo vetting and an interview with a U.S. consular official overseas.

North Korea Detains U.S. Student North Korea says Otto Frederick Warmbier was detained for committing a ‘hostile act’ By Alastair Gale

North Korea said Friday it was holding a U.S. student for committing an unspecified “hostile act,” the latest in a series of detained American tourists and missionaries that Pyongyang has at times used to try to win diplomatic leverage with Washington.

Otto Frederick Warmbier, an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, was accused of being manipulated by the U.S. government, according to a brief report from the Korean Central News Agency. The report provided no details of Mr. Warmbier’s actions other than to allege that he entered the country “for the purpose of bringing down the foundation of its single-minded unity.”

Mr. Warmbier was detained in Pyongyang on Jan. 2, according to Troy Collins of Young Pioneer Tours, the tour company that took him to North Korea. Mr. Collins declined to provide further details but said Mr. Warmbier’s family had been informed of his detention.