Iraqi Forces Near Government Buildings in Mosul as Fight Against ISIS Continues

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US-backed Iraqi forces are set to reach the main government complex in Mosul, their next target in the battle to retake the city from Islamic State.

The site should be taken on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi told the Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Colonel John L Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the American-led coalition against ISIS, told Sky News the Iraqi forces were “imposing their will on the enemy” in the city.

“They’re not going to be pushed out of Mosul – they’re going to surrender or they’re going to be killed there,” he vowed.

A senior commander said earlier Iraqi troops had been involved in the “heaviest” clashes yet with ISIS fighters in the west of the city since the start of their offensive. (Read more from “Iraqi Forces Near Government Buildings in Mosul as Fight Against ISIS Continues” HERE)

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How Soros Money Is Corrupting Politics in This Small European Nation

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In the economy of world politics, George Soros has billions at stake, and they extend even to remote places like the Republic of Macedonia.

In fact, the tiny Balkan state is becoming emblematic of a battle royale taking place in Europe between conservative parties that support traditional values and national sovereignty, and those — often funded by the liberal billionaire — with an ambitious agenda that includes liberal drug and sexual orientation policies as well as trans-nationalism.

Making things even more complicated are the Kremlin’s routine strategic interferences. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vast propaganda network often intrudes into these disputes, whether invited in or not, by ostensibly taking up the traditionalists’ cause and going to war with his arch-nemesis, Soros.

In some places, such as Macedonia itself, there is one added variable: Obama-era embeds.

The Obama-appointed U.S. ambassador in Skopje, Jess Baily, has come under congressional scrutiny over accusations that he has shown a political bias against the Macedonian conservative party, VMRO, and that he facilitated coalition negotiations between the main leftist party and ethnic Albanian parties.

In a letter sent to Baily on Jan. 17, Republican members of the House and the Senate also asked him to explain reports that his embassy had selected Soros’ Open Society Foundations as the main implementer of U.S. Agency for International Development projects in Macedonia.

The State Department’s Feb. 6 response, which I had the chance to read, was thin on details regarding funding for Soros’ foundation and groups it controls.

Grants to them were awarded through a “competitive procurement process,” the letter said. The aid, it added, was to “strengthen the rule of law, increase economic growth, support regional security,” and pursue other nebulous goals.

But in fact, a Feb. 27 USAID announcement of a $2.54 million contract with the foundation revealed that the project included paying for training in “civic activism,” “mobilization,” and “civic engagement.”

Far from strengthening the rule of law or regional security, these are activities associated with the redefinition of civics as 1960s-style progressive political activism. They are all strategies straight out of Saul Alinsky’s subversion manual, “Rules for Radicals,” whose translation into Macedonian, incidentally, was funded by Soros’ foundation in 2014.

One of the world’s richest men, Soros has a long history of intervening politically around the globe in the pursuit of his dream of open borders, global governance, and the erosion of regional particularism — what he calls the “open society.”

Because the State Department’s letter was “vague and failed to answer the questions we posed,” the same six Republican members of the House who wrote him — plus a new one, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. — last week asked the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office to open an investigation and audit of the State Department and USAID regarding Macedonia and Soros’ foundation.

The legal watchdog Judicial Watch, for its part, has filed Freedom of Information Act requests asking that the State Department and USAID produce documents related to any grants, contracts, communications, assessments, etc. made by the department to the Foundation Open Society-Macedonia and its subsidiaries.

Whatever comes from these efforts, the political parties that the U.S. ambassador was helping negotiate — the leftist Social Democratic Union and three ethnic Albanian-based parties, the Democratic Union for Integration, Besa, and the Alliance of Albanians — did on Sunday reach an agreement to form a government.

But Macedonia’s president, Gjorge Ivanov, on Wednesday refused to give the Social Democratic Union a mandate to form a government because its leader, Zoran Zaev, acquiesced to the Albanian parties’ demand that Albanian become an official language throughout Macedonia.

The parties worked out the language deal next door in Tirana, Albania — one of the reasons Ivanov cited for withholding the mandate.

Albania is another country where the activities of Soros and his foundation are also under scrutiny for supporting the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama — a socialist who personally brokered the “Tirana Platform.” And in Albania, too, we find an Obama-era ambassador, Donald Lu, who backs the Soros-supported parties.

Rama, who is so close to Soros he attended his 2013 wedding, last week issued an impassioned plea for the U.S. not to abandon the Balkans to Russia, whose influence, he told The Telegraph, “is stronger than ever before.” “Russia,” he added, “has been interested in spreading its influence and there’s a lot of it in the region.”

Putin’s Kremlin routinely and opportunistically tries to maneuver itself into the politics of Europe. Senior Whitehall sources say it plotted to assassinate Montenegro’s prime minister last year.

In Macedonia, too, it has tried to portray itself as being on the side of the conservative VMRO, which leads the present government and won the most votes in the Dec. 11 elections. Even an article I wrote last month was quoted at length by Russia’s Sputnik International.

Reuters reported that on Thursday, March 2, Russia accused Albania, NATO, and the European Union of trying to impose a pro-Albanian government on Macedonia.

Far from backing pro-Putin policies, however, VMRO has long been a staunchly pro-U.S., pro-NATO party.

But our embassies’ notorious support for Soros and his progressive policies does irritate traditional-minded people in Macedonia and elsewhere.

“Some of my conservative friends in Macedonia are now telling me, ‘I hate America,’” Jason Miko, an American businessman who has been visiting the Balkan country for over two decades, told me. “They don’t really hate America. They hate what the Obama administration has done.”

“If Soros wants to spend his own money, then let him, but when he starts using taxpayer money it’s something else,” said Miko, Macedonia’s honorary consul in Arizona. (For more from the author of “How Soros Money Is Corrupting Politics in This Small European Nation” please click HERE)

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Anti-Israel Hate Is a Symptom of the UN Human Rights Council’s Cancerous Corruption

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The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is corrupt to its core, and its lashing out at Israel is a manifestation of the group’s immoral, corrupt structure. Tasked a decade ago with promoting and defending human rights around the world, the UNHRC has failed to carry out its founding mission.

The U.S. delegation to the council, led by Erin Barclay, threatened America’s departure from the prominent U.N. subdivision Wednesday, claiming the international organization’s unhealthy “obsession” with the state of Israel threatens the group’s credibility and “makes a mockery of this council.”

In Geneva, Barclay, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, stated: “The U.S. also remains deeply troubled by the council’s consistent, unfair and unbalanced focus on one democratic country, Israel.”

“For this council to have any credibility, let alone success, it must move away from its unbalanced and unproductive positions,” she said. “As we consider our future engagements, my government will be considering the council’s actions with an eye to reform, to more fully achieve the council’s missions to protect and promote human rights.”

The UNHRC has long been a group that has overlooked worldwide atrocities in favor of singling out Israel with rhetorical aggression and condemnation.

But the UNHRC not only has an Israel problem — the institution’s membership roster itself shows why it could never truly promote human rights. After all, how can an organization have any credibility on human rights when its members are a who’s who of the world’s foremost violators of universal ideals?

Ruthless authoritarian countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, Cuba, Venezuela, and many others are tasked with upholding the UNHRC’s core mission to promote and protect human rights.

In 2015, the council chose Saudi Arabia’s ambassador Faisal bin Hassan Trad to chair the UNHRC panel on selecting human rights experts. In the ambassador’s country, women are treated as second-class citizens. They cannot go out in public without a male companion, and need to wear clothing that covers them head-to-toe, with only their eyes and hands permitted to be uncovered. In Saudi Arabia, Islam is the only recognized religion, and the country follows an extremely harsh penal code to punish violations of Shariah law.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has long abandoned the promotion of actual human rights and has dedicated the last decade to delegitimizing Israel – the only free country in the Middle East.

From 2006 to 2016, the UNHRC adopted 135 resolutions condemning countries. An incredibe 68 (over half) of those resolutions singled out the Jewish state for criticism.

However, Israel is only a symptom of the cancer that is the UNHRC. If the United States wants the UNHRC to foster an environment that campaigns for true human rights, the U.N. body needs to purge the forces of evil from within it. (For more from the author of “Anti-Israel Hate Is a Symptom of the UN Human Rights Council’s Cancerous Corruption” please click HERE)

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Deep State War? 7 Russian Officials Murdered or Found Dead Since Election Day

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Russian diplomats seem to be an endangered species, as seven officials have been found dead under mysterious or unexplained circumstances just since Election Day, and — although any link remains as yet unprovable — the deaths certainly provoke a number of questions.

1. Sergei Krivov:

First is the perplexing case of Sergei Krivov — disputably a consular duty commander at the Russian Consulate in Manhattan — died on November 8, Election Day, under perhaps the most problematic circumstances of any of the deaths listed.

Found unconscious and unresponsive on the floor inside the consulate, Krivov suffered blunt force trauma to the head — initially reported as received in a fall from the roof of the building — and passed away before emergency services could reach the scene.

Consular officials quickly backtracked that Krivov died after plunging over the building, instead insisting he’d suffered a heart attack — but the diplomat’s lack of a paper trail, and ambiguity from officials about his career position, make the death appear to be far from ordinary.

“That position is no ordinary security guard,” reported BuzzFeed on Krivov’s ambiguous role at the consulate. “According to other public Russian-language descriptions of the duty commander position, Krivov would have been in charge of, among other things, ‘prevention of sabotage’ and suppression of ‘attempts of secret intrusion’ into the consulate.

“In other words, it was Krivov’s job to make sure US intelligence agencies didn’t have ears in the building.”

2. Andrey Karlov:

On December 19, Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, met his fate while giving a speech at an art exhibit in Ankara, when Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş — an off-duty Turkish riot police officer — fired several shots from behind, fatally wounding the diplomat and injuring several others.

Altıntaş proceeded to declare jihad and implored the terrified, small crowd of attendees and press, “Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria!”

It was later revealed Altıntaş had used his law enforcement identification to enter the gallery; but at the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin railed against the attacker, thin security allowing him to enter the exhibit, “Russia Through Turks’ Eyes,” without issue, and the possible implications for resolving the conflict in Syria, stating,

This murder is clearly a provocation aimed at undermining the improvement and normalization of Russian-Turkish relations, as well as undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other countries interested in settling the conflict in Syria.

3. Petr Polshikov:

At some point on the same day — and prior to the brazen assassination of Karlov — Petr Polshikov, a senior diplomat in the Latin America division at the Russian foreign ministry, died in his Moscow apartment of a gunshot wound to the head. An announcement of the suspicious death did not become public until a few hours after Altıntaş shocked the world in Ankara.

Detailed information on Polshikov’s untimely demise remains difficult to obtain, but reports at the time alleged authorities found two bullet shells on the scene and a firearm under a sink in the bathroom.

4. Oleg Erovinkin:

Ex-KGB chief, Oleg Erovinkin — believed to have assisted former British spy, Christopher Steele, with a lurid dossier alleging explicit acts by President Donald Trump — was found dead in his black Lexus on December 29.

Erovinkin had been close to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of State-owned oil company, Rosneft, and had acted as a key liaison between Sechin and Putin.

Although validity of the contents of that dossier have been called into serious question, Erovinkin’s alleged involvement in compiling the information makes his death dubious by nature. An investigation is ongoing.

5. Andrey Malanin:

Despite living alone on a tightly-guarded street, Andrey Malanin — head of the consular section at Russia’s embassy in Athens — was “found on the floor of his bedroom by a member of the embassy’s staff with no evidence of a break-in, the official said on condition of anonymity,” Reuters reported January 9.

Authorities also told Reuters there were no indications Malanin had been murdered, but homicide officials are investigating the death due to his status as a diplomat.

6. Aleksandr Kadakin:

On January 26, Russian ambassador to India, 67-year-old Aleksandr Kadakin — who had served in the position since 2009 and spent over two decades as a diplomat — died in New Delhi, ostensibly from heart failure.

Although it appeared the man’s death was unrelated to the others and had been natural, the timing in conjunction with Karlov, Polshikov, Erovinkin, and Malanin raised some eyebrows.

7. Vitaly Churkin:

Then, last week, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died one day before his 65th birthday in New York City — reportedly of a heart failure.

According to the New York Times on February 20, “The Russian government said he died suddenly but did not specify a cause. The New York City police said there were no indications of foul play.”

However, Pravda reported, “According to ABS-CBN, a post-mortem examination of Churkin’s body showed the presence of poison in his kidneys. Allegedly, the diplomat had had late supper, at around midnight, hours before his death. Perpetrators could have added an unknown substance in his food.”

Churkin had been a vocal critic of hypocritical Western foreign policy, particularly concerning military actions in Syria.

An obituary in the Guardian stated Churkin “hated the moralising tone of his US, British and French counterparts on the UN security council who, he felt, were not only hypocritical but were playing to the global gallery and aiming to score rhetorical points instead of looking for compromises that could lead to the resolution of differences. This applied particularly to the war in Syria, about which western governments tabled resolutions that could lead, in the Russian view, to full-scale military intervention against the Syrian government and which they knew Churkin was bound to veto. Russia preferred to produce resolutions that criticised the Syrian army for using ‘disproportionate’ force and sought agreement on ceasefires. Churkin consulted the security council’s five permanent members on these resolutions, but chose not to provoke vetoes when he realised there was no consensus.”

What, if anything, this growing Russian diplomat body count actually means might never be fully known, but many suspect the deaths evince a methodical, covert war between the Deep State and Russia — particularly as hostilities continue mostly unabated — as a shift in power away from the ailing imperialist U.S. empire gathers speed. (For more from the author of “Deep State War? 7 Russian Officials Murdered or Found Dead Since Election Day” please click HERE)

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Spain Takes Down Ex-Head of IMF; Dozens of Others Prosecuted in Enormous International Banking Corruption Scandal

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In many other countries, excluding the United States, corrupt bankers are often brought to task by their respective governments. The most recent example of a corrupt banker being held accountable comes our of Spain, in which the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rodrigo Rato was sentenced to four years and six months behind bars.

According to the AFP, Spain’s National Court, which deals with corruption and financial crime cases, said he had been found guilty of embezzlement when he headed up Caja Madrid and Bankia, at a time when both groups were having difficulties.

Rato, who is tied to a slew of other allegations was convicted and sentenced for misusing €12m between 2003 and 2012 — sometimes splashing out at the height of Spain’s economic crisis, according to the AFP.

The people of Spain were outraged over the scandal as it was discovered during the height of a severe financial crisis in which banks were receiving millions in taxpayer dollars. Bankia was eventually nationalized and given 22 billion in public money.

Although he was sentenced, Rato, who is also a former Spanish economy minister, remains at liberty pending a possible appeal because of highly connected elite status.

Rato was brought down in a massive effort by Spain to get rid of corruption within the banking system. The problem had gotten so bad, that Spain decided to clean house, and 65 people, include Rato, were brought to task.

According to the AFP, they were accused of having paid for personal expenses with credit cards put at their disposal by both Caja Madrid and Bankia, without ever justifying them or declaring them to tax authorities. These expenses included petrol for their cars, supermarket shopping, holidays, luxury bags or parties in nightclubs.

According to the indictment, Rato maintained the “corrupt system” established by his predecessor Miguel Blesa when he took the reins of Caja Madrid in 2010, reports the AFP. He then replicated the system when he took charge of Bankia, a group born in 2011 out of the merger of Caja Madrid with six other savings banks, prosecutors said.

According to the report:

Rato was economy minister and deputy prime minister in the conservative government of Jose Maria Aznar from 1996 to 2004, before going on to head up the IMF until 2007. His subsequent career as a banker was short-lived — from 2010 to 2012 — but apart from the credit cards case, it also led to another banking scandal considered the country’s biggest ever.

Thousands of small-scale investors lost their money after they were persuaded to convert their savings to shares ahead of the flotation of Bankia in 2011, with Rato at the reins. Less than a year later, he resigned as it became known that Bankia was in dire straits.

The state injected billions of euros but faced with the scale of Bankia’s losses and trouble at other banks, it asked the EU for a bailout for the banking sector and eventually received €41bn.

Rato and others were probed, accused of misleading small investors in the listing of Bankia, which has since paid out €1.2bn in compensation.

To highlight the utter corruption within the banking cartel that is the IMF, Rato is the third former chief to be ousted for illegal activity.

For those who don’t remember, Rato’s successor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was tried in 2015 on pimping charges in a lurid sex scandal. Naturally, he was acquitted — in spite of the fact that he admitted to engaging in illicit sex with prostitutes at a series of orgies that supposedly took place at the Hotel Carlton in the northern French city of Lille. The court sided with DSK and agreed that he had no idea the women he repeatedly filled the orgies with were being paid.

Christine Lagarde, who took over from Strauss-Kahn and is the current IMF chief, In December, was found guilty of “negligence” for approving a massive government payout to business tycoon Bernard Tapie during her tenure as French finance minister.

Despite being found guilty of corruption, Lagarde was not sentenced to a single day in jail. She has since been meeting with Trump’s Goldman Sachs-connected Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, noting that they’ve had “some very positive discussions.” (For more from the author of “Spain Takes Down Ex-Head of IMF; Dozens of Others Prosecuted in Enormous International Banking Corruption Scandal” please click HERE)

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ISIS Gains Ground, Targets Egyptian Christians in Sinai

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In the past three days, Islamic State militants in Egypt’s volatile northern Sinai region abducted four men accused of collaborating with the government, three of them during a brazen raid in the middle of a public market. Two of the men have been found slain while the others remain missing; Egyptian officials say that one of the slain men had his eyes plucked out and was set on fire before being shot to death.

Women are being threatened with punishment if they don’t wear the niqab and farmers are being forced to pay financial tribute to ISIS under the guise of the “zakat” mandatory Islamic donation to charity. The militants have set up their own checkpoints especially on the roads around the city of Rafah, which borders the Gaza Strip. Passengers are forced to recite from the Quran before being allowed to pass, according to area residents and tribal leaders.

This recent show-of-strength campaign by ISIS loyalists in northern Sinai comes on the heels of a recent easing of the military campaign against them and represents a move to reassert their control over the local civilian population, according to residents, tribal leaders and officials. (Read more from “ISIS Gains Ground, Targets Egyptian Christians in Sinai” HERE)

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Islamists Just Sawed off a Jew’s Finger. That’s Not Enough Bloodshed for the ‘Tolerant’ Left.

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All these churches working their hearts out for “the religious liberty right” to import Shariah immigration — instead of fighting for religious conscience rights at home for Christians — ought to pay attention to what’s going on in Europe.

The issue of mass Islamic immigration to western countries has become the Waterloo of political correctness that has plagued western democracies in recent decades. That is because under the guise of “tolerance,” they have tolerated the intolerant, importing large numbers of individuals whose value system is irreconcilably against western enlightened values.

When liberals lecture us on the need to bring in record numbers of migrants from the Middle East under the guise of tolerance and compassion, they never discuss the results of such policies that are so vividly on display across the pond in Europe.

It is well known that Jews cannot live safely in many parts of Europe thanks to the suicidal immigration policies they have pursued over the past 50 years; policies, by the way, we have mimicked in recent years, placing us just one generation behind the tipping point they are experiencing today. Just to get a flavor of what has become so commonplace in Europe (that it is no longer newsworthy), here is a story of the most recent attack on Jews in France:

The kippah-wearing brothers, whose father is a Jewish leader in Bondy, were forced off the main road by another vehicle on to a side street, according to the BNVCA report. While the vehicle was in motion, the driver and a passenger shouted anti-Semitic slogans at the brothers that included “Dirty Jews, You’re going to die!” the father told BNVCA based on the complaint filed by his sons.

The vehicle forced the brothers to stop their car, and they were surrounded by several men whom they described as having a Middle Eastern appearance. The men came out of a hookah café on to the side street, according to the case report published by the news website JSSNews.

The alleged attackers surrounded the brothers, then kicked and punched them repeatedly while threatening that they would be murdered if they moved. One of the alleged attackers then sawed off the finger of one of the brothers.

This particularly gruesome incident is not an aberration. Jews need armed guards at all their major institutions, reminiscent of what Israel had to do for years during the intifada. The chief rabbi of Belgium said last year there is no future for Jews in Europe. It is actually safer for Jews living in Judea and Samaria near Middle Eastern Arabs than those living in parts of Europe because European countries don’t have a security apparatus to deal with suicidal immigration policies into western countries.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise everywhere in the world commensurate with the rise of Islam in western countries and the prominence of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups operating on campus and in other areas of society. Liberals, including Hillary Clinton, are suddenly discovering the growing anti-Semitism, but they are obfuscating the root cause of it and trying to pin it somehow on the few weeks since Trump assumed office.

Liberals refuse to recognize the common sense that our founders understood when they were so careful to bring in only individuals who championed our “republican values,” as Jefferson wrote in his essay on immigration in the “Notes on the State of Virginia.” Yet liberals are now importing the values of the Middle East.

According to Pew, most individuals in predominantly Muslim countries harbor virulent hatred for Jews. Obviously, if we bring in small numbers from these countries, it’s possible to assimilate some of them, but when admitted in such large quantities, we are invariably importing the values of the Middle East.

It’s amazing watching both liberals and pseudo-conservatives espouse a view on immigration completely divorced from our history and founding. It’s as if there is a default right for anyone to come here unless we can demonstrate up front that the individual is a known terrorist. The reality is that most of these attacks in Europe come from radicalized Shariah Muslims that either immigrated from North Africa or are children of immigrants that, at the time they came in, there was no way to “vet” their behavior aside from looking at their values system.

Why should we let in anyone with values antithetical to our universal values of enlightenment and true tolerance? While many of them won’t necessarily commit terror attacks, their cumulative growth in numbers cultivates the climate for those who do. Moreover, many of them grow up hating Americans and hating our values. Leo Hohman did a terrific job chronicling the cultural problems and the sexual harassment emanating from members of the Minneapolis Somali community in his new book, “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and the Resettlement Jihad” (Listen to my podcast interview with him here.)

To be clear, everyone who is in America has a right to be hateful and harbor a supremacist mindset as long as they don’t break the law. But there is no right to immigrate. The same way we should be careful about bringing in large numbers of immigrants from hypothetical parts of the world that are saturated — albeit not exclusively populated — with white supremacists. Shouldn’t the same apply for Islamic supremacists who are at war with our entire culture and pose a greater security threat than any other hateful ideology?

Amazingly, liberals have the nerve to compare not importing Shariah values to countries that refused to admit Jews in before the Holocaust. Well, maybe they should look at what’s going on in Europe, and they will understand that it is more analogous to not letting in the Nazis. Scandalously, these same liberals are the ones who want Israel to commit suicide, thereby eliminating the one safe harbor for European Jews fleeing anti-Semitism … thanks to their suicidal immigration policies in the West!

During the debate in the House of Representatives over the Naturalization Act of 1790, Theodore Sedgwick explained that Congress was handed the keys to immigration so that it would use discretion to “admit none but reputable citizens, such only were fit for the society into which they were blended.”

Madison expressed his desire to bring in only those who would be “a real addition to the wealth or strength of the United States.” This was a point he made 26 years earlier at the Constitutional Convention when he declared we should only admit “foreigners of merit & republican principles among us” in order “to maintain the character of liberality which had been professed in all the Constitutions & publications of America.”

And remember, their concerns about undesirable immigration was about Europe, not the Islamic world. They could never have envisioned the self-immolation of today’s “leaders.” They are rolling over in their graves. (For more from the author of “Islamists Just Sawed off a Jew’s Finger. That’s Not Enough Bloodshed for the ‘Tolerant’ Left.” please click HERE)

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Christian Group: Israel Is Key to Christian Presence in Middle East

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In the past decade, millions of Christians have fought to escape persecution and violence in the Middle East. Many have died, while others have traveled to Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere in search of safety.

According to Robert Nicholson, Executive Director of The Philos Project, two of the keys to a continued Christian presence in The Holy Land include a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and a thriving Israel.

“It is imperative that the United States continue to support the existence of the State of Israel,” Nicholson told The Stream at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “It is imperative that we not withdraw from Iraq after its liberation, as that will create a power vacuum which will be filled by another insurgency.”

The U.S. has led a coalition of nations against terrorist actors and others in Iraq for nearly 15 years. Some say the terrorist group ISIS, which in recent years has been the focus of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, arose because former President Barack Obama drew down the U.S. presence in the nation. Others say ISIS wouldn’t exist if former President George W. Bush had not launched the invasion in the first place in 2003.

Christians make up between five and 10 percent of the Syrian population, but just one-half of one percent of the refugees accepted from Syria in the 2016 fiscal year. Nicholson told The Stream that U.S. policy on the Middle East should aid both Christians who want to come to America and those who wish to stay in their homelands.

I support the prioritization of Christian and other minority refugees whose lives have been destroyed by the Islamic state. After being forced from their homes, they are often the victims of further discrimination in neighboring Arab countries who have been aiding in the refugee crisis. It is imperative, however, that by favoring certain minorities, U.S. policy does not inadvertently drain the region of Christianity. At-risk minority communities in Iraq and Syria must be preserved.

“I see a deep need to protect minority interests on the ground in Iraq and Syria,” Nicholson continued. “Christianity and Judaism is quickly disappearing from the Arab world – the cradle of both those religions. The Philos Project seeks to reinvigorate thoughtful discussion on sustainable solutions to preserve minority heritage in the region.”

The Philos Project hosted a panel at CPAC is entitled, “Why Disengagement Isn’t an Option in the Middle East.” Nicholson said his group is aiming “to inform and educate Christian leaders and future leaders to have a holistic understanding of the complex situations in the Middle East.”

“We recognize that many leaders who care about Israel and Christianity in the Middle East come to the CPAC conference,” concluded Nicholson, who said the CPAC panel “will explore strategies for sustainable U.S. policy in the region.” (For more from the author of “Christian Group: Israel Is Key to Christian Presence in Middle East” please click HERE)

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What the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About Donald Trump and Crime in Sweden

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President Donald Trump’s tortured relationship with the spoken word can lead to problems. Case in point, his remarks about Sweden at a rally in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday night. While Trump seemingly made a remark about a recent terrorist attack in Sweden, what he meant was the reported uptick in crime in migrant centers in the country. His remarks have ignited a firestorm online. I try to wade through it all to present to you what is exactly “going on in Sweden.”

If President Trump is right and there is a growing Islamic migrant caused crime wave in Sweden, the first step is to define when the surge in refugees from predominately Muslim countries started to spike in the country. Migrationsverket, the Swedish Migration Agency, has published country of origin data from 1980 to 2014 (pdf). This data does not include 2015, which saw the highest level of asylum seekers in the recent history of the nation.

Resident Permits Geneva Convention

Migrationsverket breaks out nine Muslim majority countries in their data set. Those countries are Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. It is clear that the Syrian civil war and ISIS has created a significant uptick in refugees from Syria, beginning in 2012. Prior to that year, immigration from that country was negligible. The second largest number of migrants come from the Horn of Africa with Eritrea and Somalia combining for close to 6,900 persons. The agency has not yet compiled country of origin for the roughly 160,000 asylum seekers that entered in 2015, but there are reports that have placed the Syrian number at over 50,000.

The recent surge in refugees caused Sweden, in the middle of 2016, to toughen its rules. The New York Times reported that Sweden took steps to curb the open door policy it had in place. The country was on pace to admit 200,000 refugees in 2016, or two percent of its population, the majority of whom were from Muslim majority countries.

Does this dramatic uptick in migrants starting in 2012 have anything to do with crime in Sweden? That’s where it gets complicated. As Politfact noted, Swedish authorities do not break out crime data by immigration or refugee status. So it is impossible to determine if any crime increase can be definitively linked to migrants.

What is apparent however, despite the media cherry-picking two years 2014 and 2015, is the significant increase in the number of reported sexual assault and homicides that have coincided with the increased numbers of migrants. According to the Brå, which reports Swedish crime statistics, reported sexual assaults have increased from 17,077 cases in 2011 to 18,057 in 2015. They peaked in 2014 at 20,326, which was 19 percent higher than in 2011. Preliminary data from 2016 show a reported 20 percent increase in sexual “molestation” from 2015, according to Brå numbers. Rapes increased by 13 percent from 2015 to 2016 according to the same preliminary report.

Swedish sexual assault statistics

Similarly, according to Brå, lethal violence has shown an increase. Lethal violence is described as murder, manslaughter, or assault that results in death. In 2011 there were 81 instances of lethal violence reported; in 2015 there were 112 cases. This is an increase of 38 percent. From 2014 the increase was almost 29 percent. Lethal crimes data for 2016 will not be available until the end of March according to Brå.

swedish lethal violence

The data does show an uptick in violent crime, particularly sexual assault and lethal crimes that coincides with the increased migrant wave. That fact is undeniable and buttressed by the data from Swedish authorities. The media, who have cherry-picked the drop in reported sexual assaults from 2014 to 2015, are misleading with their reporting. But there are also two critical pieces of data missing: 2016 assault numbers, and a breakdown of crime by immigration status. Without those data points, both sides of the argument have cases to be made.

There is certainly a significant amount of anecdotal evidence to buttress the claims of increased violence by migrants in Sweden. Most significantly is the documentary by Ami Horowitz which kicked off the current news cycle. Horowitz was interviewed by Tucker Carlson the day before President Trump made his statement.

Horowitz, with on-the-ground reporting, shows a very different picture than what the MSM or Swedish authorities want you to believe.

In Norway, a bordering Scandinavian country, the authorities recently produced a guide on how migrants should treat women. This was a direct result of a rise in rapes that accompanied a similar increase in migrants.

A spring 2016 Pew poll showed that a whopping 88 percent of Swedes disapprove of the way the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is handling the refugee crisis. That is the second highest number after Greece, which has been a first port of entry for many migrants as they make their way through Europe. The next highest is 77 percent in Italy.

No matter where the debate here in America stands on the issue, it is clear the Swedish people are concerned about migration to their country. That is why, as previously mentioned, the government took extraordinary means to limit refugee settlement after a long history of virtually open borders. This action happened shortly after the Pew poll was conducted.

The data clearly show an uptick in sexual assaults, and lethal crimes since the massive increase in refugees to Sweden from majority Muslim countries. It is careful to remember that correlation does not always equal causation. Until Sweden publishes data which includes the immigration status and country of origin in their crime statistics, on-the-ground experience will continue to drive the narrative. Politifact and other “MSM fact checkers” owe it to their readers to paint a complete picture. (For more from the author of “What the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About Donald Trump and Crime in Sweden” please click HERE)

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What’s Happening in Sweden

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As if on cue, riots broke out in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm as soon as the media mocked President Donald Trump for a vague warning about immigration-related problems in Sweden.

At a campaign rally over the weekend, Trump issued forth with a mystifyingly ominous statement. “You look,” he declared, “at what’s happening last night in Sweden.” What? Had the president invented a nonexistent terror attack? As it turned out, the reference was to a segment on Sweden he had watched on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight the previous night rather than to any specific event in the Nordic country . . .

By welcoming a historic number of asylum-seekers proportionate to its population, Sweden has indeed embarked on a vast social experiment that wasn’t well thought out and isn’t going very well. The unrest in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after police made an arrest the other night underscored the problems inherent in Sweden’s immigration surge . . .

Sweden welcomed more than 160,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, and nearly 40,000 in October of that year alone. For a country of fewer than 10 million, this was almost equal to 2 percent of the population — in one year. The flow doubled the number of asylum-seekers at the height of the Balkans crisis in 1992 . . .

There is a stark gap in the labor-force-participation rate between the native born (82 percent) and the foreign born, (57 percent). As the Migration Policy Institute points out, Sweden is an advanced economy with relatively few low-skills jobs to begin with. On top of this, high minimum wages and stringent labor protections make it harder for marginal workers to find employment, while social assistance discourages the unemployed from getting work. (Read more from “What’s Happening in Sweden” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.