DISPATCHES FROM TOM GROSS
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001538.html
CONTENTS
1. Isis snuff movie plumbs new depths
2. Leading media close their eyes
3. ISIS crucifies two children, accusing them of breaking Ramadan fast
4. ISIS offers Yazidi sex slaves as prizes for Ramadan quiz
5. Female suicide bombers murder 30 at crowded Ramadan mosque that wasn’t Muslim enough
6. ISIS begins blowing up ancient shrines in Palmyra
7. Meanwhile at the NY Times: Erekat: Jerusalem is Israel’s capital; NYT says Tel Aviv is
8. New York Times’ Rosenthal and colleagues act out mass killings at work
9. Former President Ahmadinejad: U.S. seeks to arrest the Hidden Imam
10. Video: Pepsi uses Seinfeld character to film ad in Israel
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[Notes below by Tom Gross]
ISIS SNUFF MOVIE PLUMBS NEW DEPTHS
A vile new ISIS video shows prisoners locked in a cage and lowered into a swimming pool in Mosul and drowned, while another group are locked in a car and then blown up with a missile launcher at close range. They can be seen burned and decapitated by the blast, while others suffer horrific upper body injuries before dying. The final scene is the most repulsive of all: seven prisoners are led out chained together with explosive necklaces, which are then detonated.
The video also shows the cage hauled back out of the swimming pool, with the men foaming at the mouth as they lie dead on the cage floor.
It is disappointing that the New York Times places this story only on page 6 of today’s paper (and far down its home page online), without showing any photos, and none of the BBC news bulletins I listened to yesterday and today mentioned it. (Media such as the New York Times certainly haven’t avoided showing graphic photos whenever they can cast Israel in as bad a light as possible.)
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LEADING MEDIA CLOSE THEIR EYES
Many would consider it crucial that people see these images and that the New York Times and others don’t close their eyes to what is going on, including reporting on almost equally horrific crimes being perpetrated by the Iranian regime-orchestrated militias and by the Assad regime (which is continuing to use chemical weapons).
The New York Times has never properly acknowledged how they closed their eyes during the Holocaust and it was revealed only this month that the BBC removed the word “Jews” from their the Holocaust coverage so as to mislead audiences what was happening:
(BBC forced my father to cut all references to Jews from Belsen broadcast, reveals Richard Dimbleby’s son, Jonathan, London Sunday Times, June 7, 2015) http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1565789.ece
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I don’t recommend watching the new ISIS video unless you have a strong stomach, but I do recommend viewing these photos, which other papers did run.
Here, for example, from the (London) Daily Mail.
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This is the latest in series of grizzly videos ISIS has released.
(For new subscribers to this list, you may want to watch the interview I conducted with a French hostage who was held by ISIS chained to the British and American hostages who were beheaded last year in carefully choreographed ISIS propaganda videos. I also wrote about it here in the Daily Mail.)
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ISIS OFFER YAZIDI SEX SLAVES AS PRIZES FOR RAMADAN QUIZ
The Islamic State competition to memorize the Koran for Ramadan is offering as prizes young Yazidi girls as sex slaves, according to multiple media reports.
The competition is being held in the northern Syrian state of Hasakah. The seven-day competition is set to finish on June 27.
The ongoing genocide of the Yazidi people is being carried out with barely a peep of protest by the self-styled peace and human rights activists in the west.
Among related dispatches:
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▪ “Genocide” of Yazidis waiting to happen if America pulls out of Iraq too soon (November 16, 2007)
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▪ Threats against Yazidis were predictable and predicted
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▪ Yazidi leaders beg Obama to bomb the compound where thousands of Yazidi women and girls are being held.They say that even though some Yazidis would be killed in the bombing, it would give the others a chance to escape.
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REUTERS: ISIS CRUCIFIES TWO CHILDREN, ACCUSING THEM OF BREAKING RAMADAN FAST
Two young boys were crucified by Islamic State in the streets of the Syrian town of al-Mayadin for not observing the laws of Ramadan, Reuters and AP reported yesterday, citing the (reliable) Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The children, who were charged with the crime of “not fasting on Ramadan,” had placards around their necks announcing their crime.
The Independent newspaper (London) reported that the boys had been caught eating during daylight hours in Ramadan. The boys were hung from their wrists near the Islamic State police headquarters, and their bodies were left on display until late Monday evening.
Throughout the month of Ramadan, which began on Thursday, devout Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn until sunset.
The Islamic State has crucified several other adults and children for breaking Sharia law, not just in Syria but last month in Libya too.
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FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBERS MURDER 30 AT CROWDED RAMADAN MOSQUE THAT WASN’T MUSLIM ENOUGH
The Associated Press reports from Nigeria (June 22, 2015):
“Two girls blew themselves up on Monday near a crowded mosque in northeast Nigeria’s biggest city, killing about 30 people, witnesses said.
It is the fourth suicide bombing this month in Maiduguri, which is the birthplace of the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group.
Fishmonger Idi Idrisa said one teenager exploded as she approached the mosque crowded with people from the nearby Baga Road fish market, performing afternoon prayers during the holy month of Ramadan…
Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of girls and women and the numbers of female suicide bombers has raised fears that it is using the captives in its campaign.
A military bomb disposal expert has told the AP that most bombs carried by girls and women have remote detonation devices, meaning the carrier cannot control the explosion….
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ISIS BEGINS BLOWING UP ANCIENT SHRINES IN PALMYRA
Reuters reported yesterday that the Islamic State has blown up two ancient shrines in Palmyra, a 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site in central Syria. The group seized Palmyra in May. Before-and-after pictures showed several terrorists carrying explosives and the shrines then reduced to rubble.
Syrian antiquities Chief Abdul Maamoun Abdulkarim said, “In all the areas where they spread when they see tombs they destroy them as see them as sacrilegious and a return to paganism.”
Hundreds of statues had been moved from the city to safe locations before ISIS took over, he told Reuters.
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▪ Mahmoud al-Salfiti, the Palestinian terrorist convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza in 2011, has fled to Syria in order to join Islamic State, the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reports. He was on leave from prison to visit his family for Ramadan.
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MEANWHILE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES: EREKAT: JERUSALEM IS ISRAEL’S CAPITAL; NYT SAYS TEL AVIV IS
It would take me all day to catalogue just how misleading the New York Times’ Israel coverage is, particularly on its editorial pages. (Michael Oren calls the Times’ Israel coverage “malicious” in his new book, Ally.)
Yesterday the Times ran yet another lengthy editorial lambasting Israel, parroting UNHRC reports as though they were accurate!
Today the paper suggests on its news pages that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel. (“The move is the latest effort by Tel Aviv this week to rescind gestures that were intended to ease movement into Israeli-controlled territory for the Muslim holy month.”)
The position of the New York Times and the U.S. State Department that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel looks increasingly absurd when even Saeb Erekat and the Palestinian Authority last week again called (west) Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
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In contrast to the anti-Israel Jewish columnists and editorialists at the New York Times, more European papers are running editorials and op-ed pieces understanding of Israel’s position and predicament:
For example, here in today’s Irish Independent:
Boycott of Tel Aviv feis shows the face of real bigotry
By Ian O’Doherty
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NEW YORK TIMES’ ROSENTHAL AND COLLEAGUES ACT OUT MASS KILLINGS AT WORK
Photos leaked yesterday by other staff at the New York Times show editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal and his colleagues acting out mass killings, as if they were some sort of subject to laugh about.
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FORMER PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: U.S. SEEKS TO ARREST THE HIDDEN IMAM
Golnaz Esfandiari (who is a friend of mine and a long time subscriber to this list) reports for Radio Farda (the Iranian section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty):
Iran’s former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly said that the United States is working to arrest the Hidden Imam, who according to Shi’ite belief went into hiding in the 10th century and will reappear to bring justice to Earth. [TG: An event that coincides, in Ahmadinejad’s belief, with Israel being wiped out.]
Ahmadinejad made the comments in a speech to a group of clerics marking the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, according to a transcript posted on June 21 on the website Dolatebahar.com, which is run by his supporters.
Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying that the West has been building a case against the Hidden Imam to prevent his reappearance…
“They’ve done so much research about the Hidden Imam in the human science universities of the United States that I am not exaggerating by saying that it is a thousand times more than all the work done in the seminaries of Qom, Najaf, and Mashhad,” he reportedly said, referring to three Shi’ite holy cities.
Ahmadinejad, who is known for his controversial statements and his devotion to the Hidden Imam, added that U.S. universities have debriefed numerous individuals who have been in touch with the disappeared spiritual leader…
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VIDEO: PEPSI USES SEINFELD CHARACTER TO FILM AD IN ISRAEL
And today’s “lighter” story…
Pepsi Max has used the famous Seinfeld ‘Soup Nazi’ character, played by actor Larry Thomas, to film an ad for in the Israeli coastal town of Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv.
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