In US-Cuba Prisoner Swap, Mystery Surrounds the Unnamed 53

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prisonerCuba’s most prominent dissidents say they have been kept in the dark by U.S. officials over a list of 53 political prisoners who will be released from jail as part of a deal to end decades of hostility between the United States and Cuba.

For years, dissident leaders have told the United States which opponents of Cuba’s communist government were being jailed or harassed, but they say they were not consulted when the list of prisoners to be freed was drawn up or even told who is on it.

The lack of information has stoked concern and frustration among the dissidents, who worry that the secret list is flawed and that genuine political prisoners who should be on it will be left to languish.

“We’re concerned because we don’t agree with the silence, because we have a right to know who they are. Who are they?” said Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White dissident group, which marches in Havana on Sundays to demand the release of prisoners.

“There are not just 53 political prisoners, there are more, and we are concerned that the U.S. list might have common criminals on it,” she told Reuters in Havana. (Read more on the US-Cuba prisoner swap HERE)

New Islamic Terrorist Tactic: Little Girl Suicide Bombers

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Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

By Nicholas Kurch. The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram has ramped up attacks and is now using female children to carry out their mission to create an Islamic state in the region. One 13-year-old girl says she was given to Boko Haram by her father and was told, along with two other girls, to attack a textile factory in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city.

“When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it,” the 13-year-old girl said.

Two of the girls detonated their suicide-vests, killing 4 and injuring the girl. When it was the girl’s turn, she could not go through with the attack and turned herself in to police.

“I said no. I said I would not detonate,” the girl said.

The young girl said her father, who at the time of this writing is still at large, joined Boko Haram and gave her daughter to the organization to be used as the leaders saw fit. (Read more about Islam’s girl suicide bombers HERE)

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Al-Qaida Calls For ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks On Airliners

By Katie Frates. The article says the purpose of the attacks is to “crush the enemy’s economy,” and describes a lone wolf as “hard to uncover, because none knows him but Allah. He has no relationship with any group or any individuals.”

The terrorist organization identified American Airlines, United, Delta, British Airways, easyJet and Air France as the airlines to attack, Daily Mail reports. It also targeted Bill Gates and former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, although it describes Bernanke as the current chairman, even though he stepped down in February.

The magazine, published by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, urges readers to take inspiration from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underpants bomber” who attempted in 2009 to blow up a plane on Christmas. The attack failed when the bomb did not fully detonate, and he is now serving a life sentence in the U.S. It also praises Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013 that killed three and injured over 200. (Read more from this story HERE)

LGBT Activist, Lesbian Hired as the Dean for Religious Life at Stanford

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the-very-reverend-dr.-jane-shawThe church needs to focus more on art and less on religion and converting people in an effort to become less “churchy,” according to Stanford University’s Dean for Religious Life, The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw.

“I think people are always slightly surprised that I’m not very churchy as a person,” Shaw told the Palo Alto Online in an interview. “I don’t think church is to be more churchy. I think church is about, anyone should be welcome. I’m really interested in how you welcome many different kind of constituencies, certainly not convert them, not even necessarily to do religion all the time.”

Stanford announced that Shaw, 51, was to join the school’s Department of Religious Studies in July as a dean and professor of religious studies, moving to the school from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. At Grace Cathedral, Shaw was not only the first woman to head the church, but the first openly lesbian dean.

Shaw, hailed as a “champion within the LGBT community” by the Palo Alto Online, was a founding member of the Chicago Consultation, a think tank made up of Anglican and Episcopal bishops, clergy, and lay people who support the full inclusion of LGBT people into the church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

According to the university’s press release, Shaw is to “provide spiritual, religious and ethical leadership to the university community, serve as minister of Memorial Church and also teach undergraduates and graduate students as a professor of religious studies.” (Read more about the lesbian hired as dean HERE)

Young Boy Escapes ISIS by Becoming a Suicide Bomber

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ISIS BeheadingBy Nicholas Kurch. Fourteen-year-old Usaid Barho of Syria was just like any other kid: He loved playing sports, listening to music and wanted to one day become a doctor.

Then he was thrust into the world of ISIS, who pressured him to become a member by using his Islamic faith. When he realized that ISIS was not for him, he escaped the terror group the only way he knew how.

He volunteered himself to become a suicide bomber.

Rather than killing himself and many others at a mosque in Baghdad, Barho immediately surrendered himself to authorities. The bomb-vest was disarmed and the boy was taken into custody:

“’If I were a fighter and tried to surrender to security forces they might kill me, with my gun in my hand,’ he said explaining how he used the opportunity as a suicide bomber to escape ISIS.” (Read more about how the young boy escapes ISIS HERE)

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Nearly 2,000 Executed by ISIS Since June

By Newsmax. Islamic State group jihadists have murdered nearly 2,000 people in Syria — half of them from an important Sunni tribe — since announcing their “caliphate” in June, a monitoring group said Sunday.

“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution by the Islamic State of 1,878 people in Syria between June 28 when it announced its ‘caliphate’ and December 27,” the group said in a statement. . .

It said the victims were shot dead, beheaded or stoned to death in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Hasakeh and Raqa.

Of those killed, 1,175 were civilians who included four children and eight women.

The dead included 930 members of the Shaitat tribe which rose up against IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in the summer. (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Goes to Twitter to Ask how Fighter Pilot Should be Killed

By Justen Charters. Following the capture of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasba by ISIS terrorists, the Islamic State and its followers have taken to Twitter to show the world that depravity is just a game to them.

While ISIS is infamous for beheading its captives, some of their suggestions on what to do with al-Kasaba are even more barbaric than beheading. According to Voactiv:

ISIS supporters are having the morbid debate predominantly on Twitter, using the hashtag “Suggest a Way to Kill the Jordanian Pilot Pig”. With over a thousand retweets, the hashtag is gaining popularity.

One terrorist recommends to use a bulldozer to run over al-Kasaba. (Read more from this story HERE)

Watch: Children Encouraged to Steal Parents' Guns and Deliver to Teachers in PSA

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child stealing gunA startling new anti-gun ad released by a San Francisco-based production company encourages children to commit a series of crimes by stealing their parents’ guns and turning them over to school officials, The Daily Caller reported Monday.

Sleeper 13 Productions released the controversial video on Dec. 13. It shows a pouty, young boy wandering into his parents’ bedroom, stealing a handgun out of their dresser drawer and then shoving it into his backpack

The boy then carries what is presumably a loaded weapon into his classroom. After class, he approaches the teacher, takes the gun out of his backpack and slams it onto her desk.

“Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house,” the boy says.

“Our children deserve a safe world,” the ad says. “Stop gun violence now.” (Read more from this story about children encouraged to steal parents’ guns HERE)

Hundreds of NYPD Cops Turn Backs on NYC Mayor at Ramos' Funeral

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nypd at ramos funeralBy Associated Press. NEW YORK — Hundreds of officers outside the church where a funeral [was] held for a policeman killed along with his partner in an ambush shooting turned their backs on the mayor as he spoke during Saturday’s service.

The reaction from officers watching Officer Rafael Ramos’ funeral on giant TV screens outside the church follows comments from police union officials who said Mayor Bill de Blasio contributed to a climate of mistrust toward police amid anti-police protests.

Inside Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens , however, mourners gave de Blasio polite applause before and after his speech. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Giuliani Says de Blasio “Needs to Apologize”

By Greg Richter. Giuliani appeared Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” where he was challenged by guest host Major Garrett. . .

Giuliani said it was wrong for officers to take the action against de Blasio and also wrong for the police union head Pat Lynch to blame the mayor for the officers’ deaths.

But he said de Blasio should apologize to the NYPD.

“I think he’d get this over with if he did it,” Giuliani said.

“Mayor de Blasio, please say you’re sorry to them for having created a false impression of them,” he said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Thousands of Police Officers from Across the Country Attend Ramos’ Funeral

By Fox News. Thousands of police officers from across the country assembled in winter sunshine in New York City for the funeral of Rafael Ramos, a police officer shot to death with his partner in an ambush last week.

The officers in dress blue uniforms stood outside the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens for the Saturday morning services. The sea of blue stretched more than six city blocks.

In his eulogy, Mayor Bill de Blasio offered the city’s condolences to the Ramos family.

“All of this city is grieving and grieving for so many reasons,” he said. “But the most personal is that we lost such a good man.”

Vice President Joe Biden expressed his condolences to Ramos’ two sons. (Read more about the NYPD cops at the funeral HERE)
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GIULIANI: OBAMA USES SHARPTON AS A ‘POSTER BOY FOR HATING THE POLICE’

By Pam Key. Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said President Barack Obama’s close relationship with Al Sharpton makes it clear to law enforcement across America he doesn’t understand them.

“He has had Al Sharpton to the White House 85 times,” Giuliani said. “Often when he’s talking abut police issues, he has Al Sharpton sitting next to him. If we would like to have a poster boy for hating the police, it’s Al Sharpton. To make him an adviser you turn the police in America against you. You’re going to tell the police in America we don’t understand you. I saw this man help cause riots in New York. I’ve heard his anti-police invective first hand. To have a man who hasn’t paid $4 million in taxes, to have a man who spent his career creating riots, phony stories about police, to have that man sitting next to you, speaks volumes. You know actions speak louder than words. You put Al Sharpton next to you, you just told everyone I’m against the police.” (Read more from this story HERE)

Wall Street Journal: Science is Proving God's Existence

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sun solarIn 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking: Is God Dead? Many have accepted the cultural narrative that he’s obsolete—that as science progresses, there is less need for a “God” to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God’s death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for his existence comes from a surprising place—science itself.

Here’s the story: The same year Time featured the now-famous headline, the astronomer Carl Sagan announced that there were two important criteria for a planet to support life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star. Given the roughly octillion—1 followed by 24 zeros—planets in the universe, there should have been about septillion—1 followed by 21 zeros—planets capable of supporting life.

With such spectacular odds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a large, expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the 1960s, was sure to turn up something soon. Scientists listened with a vast radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random. But as years passed, the silence from the rest of the universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search continues with private funds. As of 2014, researches have discovered precisely bubkis—0 followed by nothing.

What happened? As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far more factors necessary for life than Sagan supposed. His two parameters grew to 10 and then 20 and then 50, and so the number of potentially life-supporting planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and kept on plummeting. (Read more on how science is proving God’s existence HERE)

13,000 Stolen Passwords Released by Hackers to Popular Websites

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Given the size of the user base for major shopping and entertainment websites like Amazon.com, Walmart, Xbox Live, and Hulu, the odds that your account was compromised by the antics of hacker group Anonymous are very low. They published 13,000 user names and passwords in a huge text file on Friday; some of the web sites they hit have memberships that run into the tens of millions, making the odds of any individual user being affected at well under one percent. Still, as DailyDot advises, now might be a good time to change your password if you have accounts with any of these websites:

Amazon

Walmart

PlayStation Network

Xbox Live

Twitch.tv

Origin.com

Hulu Plus

Dell

Brazzers

Playboy

Shutterstock. . .

As is their wont, Anonymous claimed they “did it for the lulz” (i.e. for fun.) Inconveniencing thousands of people during the holidays and stealing their property is presumably amusing if you’re not one of the victims. (Read more about the stolen passwords released HERE)

Congressional Report: Obama Weaponized IRS Against Conservatives

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

By Pete Kasperowicz. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will release a report Tuesday that finds the Obama White House has turned the IRS into a political organization that has spent years attacking conservative groups.

“The Internal Revenue Service has compromised its traditional position as an independent tax administrator,” the report found. “The IRS’s inability to keep politics out of objective decisions about interpretation of the tax code damaged its primary function: an apolitical tax collector that Americans can trust to treat them fairly”. . .

The decision to target conservative groups was followed by later decisions to cover it up, and blame lower level workers for the initiative.

The report also blamed Obamacare, which gave the IRS a key role in implementing Obama’s health program, for turning the IRS into an arm of the White House, when it should have remained independent.

“Evidence shows an IRS responsive to the partisan policy objectives of the White House and an IRS leadership that coordinates with political appointees of the Obama administration,” it found. It said efforts to cover up the scandal were ultimately led by Obama himself. (Read more about how Obama has used the IRS against conservatives HERE)
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GOP report: Top IRS official considered admitting targeting before 2012 election — but didn’t

By FoxNews.com. A top IRS official considered going public with the agency’s targeting of conservative groups at a hearing just months before the 2012 presidential election but ultimately decided against revealing the bombshell news, according to a new report from a GOP-led House committee.

Then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller wrote in an email in June 2012, about a month before a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, that he was weighing whether to testify to “put a stake” in the “c4” issue — apparently a reference to allegations about politics playing a role in the agency’s denial of tax-exempt, 501(c)(4) status to conservative-leaning groups.

“I am beginning to wonder whether I should do [the hearing] and affirmatively use it to put a stake in politics and c4,” Miller told his chief of staff, Nikole Flax, in a June 2012 email obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Miller ultimately testified at the July 25 hearing but never revealed his knowledge of the misconduct.

“Because he did not, he did a great disservice to the American taxpayers,” the House oversight committee report states. (Read more from this story HERE)

Intelligence Officials Say Obama Nominee Stole CIA Documents

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StarzakThe Obama administration’s nominee for a senior legal position at the Pentagon is one of the congressional staffers accused by Republicans and intelligence officials of stealing classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency, Fox News has learned — and the controversy could imperil her shot at a major career promotion.

Sources on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community say Alissa Starzak, a majority staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) who has been nominated for the position of general counsel to the U.S. Army, is one of two SSCI employees accused by the panel’s Republicans, and by career intelligence officers, of having “stolen” the so-called Panetta Review: a classified study of the agency’s treatment of detainees prepared by former CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Starzak is a former assistant general counsel for CIA and, more recently, a deputy general counsel at the Defense Department for legislative affairs. She was nominated for the Army’s general counsel position in July of this year. With an eye on the clock, as the Senate prepares to revert to Republican control early next year, the Armed Services Committee approved Starzak’s nomination — without a recorded vote — on Dec. 9. But the nomination expired a week later, and must now be re-submitted to the committee, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as its likely chairman, in the next session of Congress.

Read more from the story alleging the Obama nominee stole CIA documents HERE.