RUTHFULLY YOURS

Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh saved many lives. Serving against the Islamic State (ISIS), he helped prevent the slaughter of thousands of innocent men. He helped prevent the capture and sexual slavery of thousands of women. And he helped preserve the better future of thousands of children. His time on earth was well spent, struggling against a death cult.

Yet, by the way in which it has murdered him, the Islamic State has again made clear what choice it offers to the world: slavery or death. After flirting with the prospect of a prisoner trade, the Islamic State has released their latest snuff video to signal its hatred for compromise. It’s possible this video was filmed over a week ago, when “compromise” was still supposedly under discussion.

The video is Islamic State propaganda 101: technically slick, deliberately slow, and utterly sadistic. It begins with Lieutenant al-Kasasbeh, wearing an orange jumpsuit and with a black eye, describing the coalition against ISIS. With graphical overlays, IS emphasizes the coalition’s multinational quality. IS asserts that the coalition is a “crusader” army. Next, the video shows what the Islamic State claims are civilian casualties of coalition airstrikes. Lieutenant Kasasbeh is then filmed walking along a rubble-strewn street. His eyes raised to the sky, the lieutenant is surrounded by masked men in uniform — ISIS wants to portray itself as a functioning state — who are watching him silently. The lieutenant gazes at the rubble. Another overlay of purported airstrike footage is shown. The jihadist message is clear: This man is guilty of murder, and now he will face legitimate justice.

Paris — This has long been a city of graffiti and of affiches, but of late the messages have been more poignant than is usual. Ambling between the central Place de la République and the Île de la Cité, on which Notre-Dame stands tall, I could not find a single block that lacked a tribute to those lost at Charlie Hebdo. In the windows of the boutiques, on narrow apartment doors, and even on the hundred-foot-tall drapes that hang from the château-esque Hôtel de Ville de Paris, the denizens of the third and fourth arrondissements have adopted a common identity. “Je suis Charlie,” the standard expression declares. Or, among the less narcissistic, “Nous sommes tous Charlie.” On the government buildings the identification is a touch more official: “Paris est Charlie,” proclaim the powers that be. “Charlie Hebdo: Citoyen d’honneur de la Ville de Paris.”

The Monument à la République — a vast tribute in bronze to France’s “Marianne” — has in recent days become a shrine. On its stone base, well-wishers leave their messages and their prayers, each pilgrim coming to register his solidarity in his own style. On the east side, amateur cartoonists have drawn the dead, and one contributor has appended “Killed in combat — for liberty” beneath the caricatures. “Laughter is a revolutionary act,” reads another inscription; “they didn’t have the right to kill you, Charlie.” On an iron support, a prominent offering sums up the theme: “12 dead,” it reads, “and 66 million injured.” A little girl with a pacifier in her mouth takes a broken felt-tipped pen from her anorak and jots down her own tribute. Her mother photographs her for posterity — that she might one day say, “I was there.”

In a speech at the Department of Homeland Security, Obama declared that he wants to “replace mindless austerity with smart investments that strengthen America”. Those “smart” investments scattered across a gargantuan $4 trillion budget include a $500 million Green Climate Fund for the Third World and $105 million to help the government build better websites.

Obama is fond of putting the word “smart” in front of stupid ideas to make them seem less stupid. The $4 trillion budget is actually as stupid as the new left-wing Greek government elected on a platform of not paying its debts. This new government intends to replace the old policy of getting money in exchange for cutting spending with a new policy of not cutting spending and demanding money anyway.

So far this new policy has been rejected by every country from Germany to China.

Greece’s new Syriza is not only demanding a haircut from the rest of the European Union of nearly $200 billion, or 88% of the Greek GDP. It is also pushing for a fundamental change in Europe’s foreign policy, from a pro-Atlantic orientation to a pro-Russian one.

Syriza is not a friend of Israel or NATO, either. Spain seems to be following suit. Neither Syriza nor Podemos is expected to install a Stalinist dictatorship, but two things are beyond doubt. The Marxist economic remedies that these parties stand for will not lead to more prosperity for their countries, nor will the transatlantic relations between Europe and the United States much improve.

One aspect of the Greek elections to which not much attention has been paid are the consequences for NATO. The huge victory of the extreme-left Syriza party marks the first time that the Far Left takes over a NATO country. In a sense, it is a vindication for the Communists, who lost the Greek civil war in 1949.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek Prime Minister, began his political career as an activist of the youth section of the Communist Party. Later, he became the leader of Synaspismos and its successor party Syriza. Both were a coalition of Marxist parties including the Communists and Maoists. The 40-year old Tsipras is an admirer of revolutionary leaders such as Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez. He named his son Ernesto after the Argentinean-Cuban revolutionary. Two years ago, he flew to Caracas, Venezuela, to attend the funeral of Chavez.

You would think that they would be easier to find in Boston. But Miriam Conrad apparently wants a jury pool that consists of ISIS supporters.

The exchange started with a simple follow-up question from attorney Miriam Conrad, who asked the juror — a middle-aged white man identified as Juror 251 — if he ever posted anything on Facebook about Muslims. The juror replied, “Probably.”

Conrad then produced printouts of an image of Calvin from the famous Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, draped in an American flag, urinating on an image of the black logo of the terrorist group ISIS. Conrad asked him if he posted it to his Facebook account.

“It was funny when I got it, and I sent it back out,” Juror 251 replied.

So mocking ISIS is now considered a disqualifier by Miriam Conrad, but at least she does implicitly admit that ISIS is Muslim.

That’s more than Obama ever has.

At one point, as Conrad grilled Juror 251, federal prosecutor Bill Weinreb objected, stating that it wasn’t a cross-examination.

“I’m really just trying to find out how you feel about Muslims,” Conrad said.

“I really don’t know any, so I don’t. But if they’re hurting Americans, I have an opinion!” Juror 251 said.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/frontpagemag-com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-dissident-reporter-in-obamas-america-on-the-glazov-gang/

This week’s Glazov Gang was joined by Michael Loftus, host of The Flipside With Michael Loftus, Morgan Brittany, a conservative TV and movie star, and Tommi Trudeau, host of Politics Tonight With Tommi Trudeau.

The Gang discussed A Day in the Life of a Dissident Reporter in Obama’s America, analyzing the frightening case of former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson — and her daring refusal to toe the Party Line (starts at 27:10 mark).

The discussion was preceded by a focus on Hijab Day at NP3 High School, Michelle Obama’s “No” to Hijab in Riyadh, Islam — A House of Cards? — and much more.

The latest incident in the Golan’s Quneitra border illustrates the security challenges Israel faces in the year ahead. Last week six Hezbollah operatives were killed, including an Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG), General Muhammad Ali Allah-Dadi. The presence of an Iranian IRG general and top Hezbollah operatives on the Golan points to an Iranian attempt to build a missile base on the border of Israel.

The al-Manar website (Hezbollah’s mouthpiece) acknowledged that six Hezbollah operatives were killed in Sunday’s (January 18, 2015) Israeli air strike, among whom was senior Hezbollah commander Muhammad Issa and Jihad Mughniyeh, son of former Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by a car bomb in Damascus in 2008.

Israel’s northern border is expected to heat up in the coming months and years, both in the Golan Heights facing Syria, and on the Lebanese border where Hezbollah is in control. The real existential challenge to Israel however remains Iran. The question of whether to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is bound to rise again, especially around July, 2015, when P5+1 negotiations with Iran are expected to end following two extensions. Iran can be counted on violating the interim agreement which called on the Iranians to freeze their nuclear project in exchange for western powers easing sanctions on Iran. The Obama administration is eager for further extensions despite Iranian history of cheating in its nuclear program.

The National Interest (December 1, 2014) article, by the head of the Arms Control Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University, Emily Landau, and Shimon Stein, Senior Research Fellow at the INSS, former Deputy Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and former Israeli ambassador to Germany, wrote “The interim agreement enabled Iran to dangerously move forward on R&D, into more advanced generations of centrifuges, which offset the significance of the dilution and oxidization of Iran’s stockpile of 20% enriched uranium, the centerpiece of the interim deal. Both activities relate to the speed in which Iran could breakout with weapons-grade uranium – one route was stopped by the deal, but a second route was enabled and granted legitimacy.”

ISIS has released a horrifying video showing a captured Jordanian pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, being burned alive inside a cage. Below is a multiple choice quiz about this evil act perpetrated by the Islamic State.

ISIS burned a Jordanian pilot alive because:

[a] They are a very tiny minority of extremists who misunderstand the peaceful message of the Koran.

[b] They are mentally ill.

[c] They lived in the West and were made to feel unwelcome by white racists who didn’t let them assimilate.

[d] They were forced into desperation and violence by American imperialism.

[e] The Crusades.

[f] Timothy McVeigh.

[g] Brain damage from boxing.

[h] Rap lyrics.

[i] They worked in the West and are very upset about the dental plan they had – or didn’t have.

[j] Islamophobia.

[h] The Israelis/Jews were behind it.

[i] Capitalist hegemony and exploitation.

[j] They were influenced by the Gospel of John in the New Testament, as well as by Buddhist and Amish teachings — and all religions are equal.

[k] All of the above.

[l] Because Islamic theology inspires this heinous act, just like it inspires and sanctions everything else that they do, as David Wood explains in the Glazov Gang episode, Top Ten Qur’an Verses to Understand ISIS, below:

President Obama said today that the fiery murder of a 27-year-old Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot by ISIS “just indicates the degree to which, whatever ideology they’re operating off of, it’s bankrupt.”

Obama briefly commented on the grisly, expertly produced ISIS video when prompted at the end of a previously scheduled White House event intended to highlight Obamacare success.

“I just got word of the video that had been released. I don’t know the details of the confirmations. But should, in fact, this video be authentic, it’s just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization. And it, I think, will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of a global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated,” he said.

“…We’re here to talk about how to make people healthier and make their lives better, and this organization appears only interested in death and destruction.”

The White House later released a more crafted statement, with Obama saying Americans “join the people of Jordan in grieving the loss of one of their own.”

A man deported from Turkey back to France less than a week ago under suspicion he was trying to join ISIS attacked three police officers standing guard outside a Jewish center in Nice yesterday, in what is yet another example of what I have termed “known wolf” syndrome.

I coined that term here at PJ Media back in October following two separate terror attacks in Canada within a week of each other by two separate individuals who were already known to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I noted here that this was also the case with the Sydney hostage taker, Sheikh Haron, in December. Haron had already been convicted of harassing the widows of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and was out on bail in two other separate cases. This was true yet again with the two Kouachi brothers responsible for the massacre at the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo last month, one of whom had already been in jail on terrorism charges.