Yazidi Children Screamed and Cried Outside the Door While ISIS Fighters Raped Their Mothers

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As the Islamic State continues its genocide of Yazidis and Christians in Syria and Iraq, a detailed report by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council reveals that Yazidi mothers and their children are brutally persecuted – mothers sold and re-sold as sex slaves, children murdered, and children traumatized from being forced to listen behind locked doors as their mothers are raped and beaten.

One Yazidi woman who was sold seven times to ISIS fighters said, “When he would force me into a room with him, I could hear my children screaming and crying outside the door. Once he became very angry. He beat and threatened to kill them. He forced two of them to stand outside barefoot in the snow until he finished with me.”

An ISIS fighter killed the children of a Yazidi woman who was sold three times as a sex slave. When she asked him, “What did you do to them?” he beat her and said, “They are kuffar [non-Muslim] children. It is good they are dead. Why are you crying for them?”

The U.N. report from June, They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis, explains the Islamic State’s attacks on Yazidi villages in Sinjar in August 2014 and the subsequent (and ongoing) genocidal actions taken by ISIS to destroy the Yazidi people.

The report is based on 45 interviews with survivors, religious leaders, doctors and journalists. An estimated 5,000 Yazidis have been killed, so far, by the Islamic State. “ISIS has sought to destroy the Yazidis through killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily and mental harm,” states the report. (Read more from “Yazidi Children Screamed and Cried Outside the Door While ISIS Fighters Raped Their Mothers” HERE)

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Socialist, Refugee Advocate to Run UN for Next 5 Years

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While it’s hardly the election to get the most attention this year, the United Nations General Assembly has confirmed a nominee with a background in socialist politics and refugee matters to be the organization’s new secretary-general.

The 193-member United Nations General Assembly approved Antonio Guterres, a socialist whom President Barack Obama called a man of “character, vision, and skills” in a statement five days before speaking with him on the phone.

Guterres replaces U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who served two five-year terms and is stepping down from the position on Dec. 31.

Obama said in his statement that the new secretary-general would be instrumental in dealing with “unprecedented challenges” facing the world, including the surge of millions of displaced people and climate change.

In the midst of the Syrian civil war, the refugee crisis has become front and center for most Western countries, including the United States. Guterres, 67, was prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, as head of the country’s Socialist Party. He also was the head of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees from 2005 through 2015. Both roles involved some controversy.

When addressing the U.N. General Assembly after his victory, Guterres talked about bringing relief to refugees and promoting gender equality as key priorities, but also said he would take a limited approach to his new office.

“I believe this process means that the true winner today is the credibility of the U.N. And it also made very clear to me that, as secretary-general, having been chosen by all member states, I must be at the service of them all equally and with no agenda but the one enshrined in the U.N. Charter,” Guterres said.

The bigger question might be whether the role matters, said Fred Fleitz, a former U.N. analyst for the CIA and the chief of staff for former U.N. ambassador John Bolton.

“The U.N. is more and more a nonentity,” Fleitz told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “It’s used to justify actions, but because of the vetoes on the Security Council, there is no way to act on Syria or North Korea. I don’t know if this election matters.”

Still, Fleitz said he believes the socialist background of the new secretary-general is relevant.

“It should be concerning to have someone with that perspective for thinking along the lines of one-world government at a time when the world is moving away from that, if you look at the European Union,” Fleitz said.

In addition to leading the Socialist Party in Portugal, Guterres presided over Socialist International, a global group of 153 socialists, social democratic, and labor party leaders, from 1999 to 2005.

Guterres weathered controversy in both of his past positions, said Brett Schaefer, a senior fellow in international and regulatory affairs at The Heritage Foundation.

Guterres resigned as prime minister of Portugal when the Socialist Party took heavy losses in the 2001 local elections following an economic downturn. At the U.N., a 2010 independent Board of Auditors cited the United Nation’s refugee agency for weak financial management and oversight.

Still, Guterres was clearly the best out of a crowded field of candidates for the job, Schaefer said. Schaefer said he thinks the new U.N. chief’s socialist affiliations say something about him.

“It provides some insight into his political leanings and shows that he advocates an economy where the state is more interventionist in markets and over the lives of individuals,” Schaefer told The Daily Signal.

Schaefer anticipates that Guterres will be a strong spokesman on the refugee front, possibly using his platform to call for more Western countries to increase the number of refugees they take in.

“I’m sure he will advocate for the part of the U.N. system he knows the best, given the significant rise in refugees we’ve seen in recent years, he will do what he can to address that problem,” Schaefer said.

Ultimately, Guterres’ ability to push an agenda will be limited, since the U.N. Security Council has the ultimate authority to make major decisions, Schaefer said. That’s why Schaefer contends it would be better to focus on weeding out waste and corruption in the organization.

Guterres, a practicing Catholic, is a trained engineer and was a professor before going into politics in 1974. Guterres will take his post in January, just weeks before the inauguration of a new U.S. president. (For more from the author of “Socialist, Refugee Advocate to Run UN for Next 5 Years” please click HERE)

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What the US Needs to Do About Russia’s Cyberattacks

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The U.S. finally is ramping up its response to Russian cyberattacks. Good.

The bad news is our response shows how ill thought-out both our strategy toward Russia and our policies for retaliating against malicious cyber operations are.

Russia has been linked to many cyber incidents, most notably the hack of the Democratic National Committee and subsequent email leak that led to the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., as party chairman.

Vice President Joe Biden, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and other parts of the U.S. intelligence community now publicly blame Russia for these breaches.

Russia’s cyber aggression recently has been aimed at the U.S. presidential election, making many Americans concerned about Russian interference in our political system. Indeed, that’s the point: Russia long has used information and psychological warfare to attack and undermine those who oppose it.

In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd recorded Oct. 13, Biden said an upcoming retaliatory strike “will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact.”

The vice president said he hoped it would go unnoticed by the American public. Openly hinting that a covert action soon may be underway probably wasn’t the best decision, though.

The United States has indicted hackers from China and Iran in the recent past.

In 2014, the Justice Department filed charges against five Chinese military hackers for computer hacking and economic espionage. It was the first time in American history that the government charged a state actor for that type of hacking.

In March 2016, the government charged seven Iranian hackers for conducting a coordinated campaign of cyberattacks against the U.S. financial sector.

But while indicting hackers is a step in the right direction, these limited responses from the U.S. are not effectively deterring countries such as Russia.

So it’s good to see the Obama administration seriously contemplating how to retaliate for Russian aggression in cyberspace. However, it already should have had a strategy in place for how it would respond. The U.S. has faced ever-increasing cyberespionage, breaches, and attacks over the past decade, but does not yet know what it will do.

The response from the U.S. should have been as swift as possible, using one of many tools at our disposal: cyber action of our own, legal action, sanctions, increased support to nations threatened by Russia, and so on. But better late than never.

And this should not be a one-time deal. The U.S. should make this type of retaliation a more regular occurrence.

While retaliation and providing evidence to justify it must be balanced with keeping intelligence secrets, the U.S. has done little to publicly push back against bad actors. More must be done.

Nor should the U.S. be alone in this effort. The U.S. should coordinate with allies and other partners affected by malicious cyber operations in pushing back against the nations behind that aggression. More effective responses will help deter these nations from acting so aggressively in the first place.

When foreign governments compromise our nation’s cybersecurity, the United States cannot rely on words or speeches as deterrence. A firm response sends a clear message and conveys American resolve. (For more from the author of “What the US Needs to Do About Russia’s Cyberattacks” please click HERE)

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Duterte Aligns Philippines With China, Says U.S. Has Lost

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his “separation” from the United States on Thursday, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks.

Duterte made his comments in Beijing, where he is visiting with at least 200 business people to pave the way for what he calls a new commercial alliance as relations with longtime ally Washington deteriorate.

“In this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,” Duterte told Chinese and Philippine business people, to applause, at a forum in the Great Hall of the People attended by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

“Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also. America has lost.”

Duterte’s efforts to engage China, months after a tribunal in the Hague ruled that Beijing did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous administration in Manila, marks a reversal in foreign policy since the 71-year-old former mayor took office on June 30. (Read more from “Duterte Aligns Philippines With China, Says U.S. Has Lost” HERE)

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Christian Missionaries in Aleppo Crucified and Beheaded

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“At several steps on their path to death by beheading and crucifixion last month, 11 indigenous Christian workers near Aleppo, Syria had the option to leave the area and live. The 12-year-old son of a ministry team leader also could have spared his life by denying Christ…” . . .

We’re not hearing much about Aleppo’s Christians: the mainstream media don’t care very much what happens to them:

..The Syrian ministry workers in those villages chose to stay in order to provide aid in the name of Christ to survivors.

“I asked them to leave, but I gave them the freedom to choose,” said the ministry director, his voice tremulous as he recalled their horrific deaths. “As their leader, I should have insisted that they leave.”

They stayed because they believed they were called to share Christ with those caught in the crossfire, he said.

(Read more from “Christian Missionaries in Aleppo Crucified and Beheaded” HERE)

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Cuban Dictatorship Governed More Severely During 2 Years of US Engagement

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In the waning months of his presidency, President Barack Obama issued a directive he called “irreversible,” expanding transactions related to Cuban pharmaceuticals, increasing transportation, and greater commercial opportunities between the United States and the communist dictatorship.

Part of the expanded cooperation will include doing business with state-owned enterprises on property confiscated from Americans during the revolution, said Jason I. Problete, an attorney representing American families who saw their homes and businesses taken by the Cuban government.

“Access to U.S. markets is a privilege, not a right,” Problete told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “The U.S. will be authorizing engaging with businesses stolen from Americans.”

Obama’s directive marks an expansion on his December 2014 move to normalize relations with Cuba. Notably, the directive will lift rules to make it easier to import Cuban cigars and rum by removing the monetary value restrictions on what people can bring to the U.S. when returning from Cuba.

Americans have made 5,913 certified claims against the Cuban government regarding confiscated property from the 5-decade-old revolution. Of those, about 5,000 are from families, while the rest are corporations that operated in Cuba, Problete said.

Taking steps to return property is one condition the United States placed on Cuba in order to lift the embargo. Other requirements include taking steps toward democracy and a free press. Critics complain that the Cuban government not only made no concessions, but has tightened its power grip since the Obama administration normalized relations.

“Almost two years after a policy should be enough to know what the behavior of the regime is going to be,” Cuban dissident leader Antonio Rodiles, who met with Obama in the Cuban capital of Havana this year, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “The Obama administration is moving ahead even though the regime has become more aggressive.”

On Friday, Obama touted his directive as building on the success.

“This directive takes a comprehensive and whole-of-government approach to promote engagement with the Cuban government and people, and make our opening to Cuba irreversible,” Obama said in a statement Friday. “These changes are representative of the progress I saw firsthand when I visited Havana to personally extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people.”

It was during Obama’s visit in March to Cuba that the communist government made 498 politically motivated arrests, according to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights.

In the time since Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed to normalize relations, the Cuban government made 8,616 politically motivated arrests in 2015, and 7,418 in the first six months of 2016, according to the human rights group. The Cuban government increased its violations of religious freedom “tenfold” according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, with 2,300 violations in 2015, up from 220 in 2014.

“There is no such thing as dictator-down economics,” said Ana Quintana, policy analyst for Latin America and the Western Hemisphere at The Heritage Foundation.

“There is no evidence this will help the Cuban people. It will help the Cuban government and Communist Party elite.”

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew insisted the directive would be a benefit for bringing prosperity to Cubans.

“The Treasury Department has worked to break down economic barriers in areas such as travel, trade and commerce, banking, and telecommunications,” Lew said in a statement. “Today’s action builds on this progress by enabling more scientific collaboration, grants and scholarships, people-to-people contact, and private sector growth.”

Lew’s comments illustrate another problem in the upbeat scenario framed by the Obama administration, Quintana said.

“There is no such thing as a private sector in Cuba,” Quintana said. “If it isn’t state-owned, what you have is the black market. The Cuban government owns and operates the rum and the cigar manufacturing.”

Under the new directive, the Treasury Department will allow Americans and Cubans to engage in joint medical research. Certain Cuban-made pharmaceuticals will be imported into the United States.

The Treasury is also authorizing American companies to award grants and scholarships to Cuban nationals, while also allowing U.S. entities to spend money on Cuban infrastructure. New Commerce Department rules also lift numerous trade restrictions even though the Cuban embargo is still in place.

It would take an act of Congress to lift the Cuban embargo.

Rodiles said even if the 50-year-old embargo wasn’t deemed effective, the current policy is not a sufficient substitute.

“If the previous policy was not working, don’t just change the policy to something that is not gaining the results you are seeking,” Rodiles said. “There were no commitments made by the regime. They can still do whatever they want to do.” (For more from the author of “Cuban Dictatorship Governed More Severely During 2 Years of US Engagement” please click HERE)

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CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia

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The Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the CIA has been asked to deliver options to the White House for a wide-ranging “clandestine” cyber operation designed to harass and “embarrass” the Kremlin leadership.

The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation. Former intelligence officers told NBC News that the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vice President Joe Biden told “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd on Friday that “we’re sending a message” to Putin and that “it will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact” . . .

Retired Admiral James Stavridis told NBC News’ Cynthia McFadden that the U.S. should attack Russia’s ability to censor its internal internet traffic and expose the financial dealings of Putin and his associates. (Read more from “CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia” HERE)

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UNESCO, Which Obama Wants US to Fund, Calls Israel ‘Occupying Power’ and Rewrites Jewish History

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Despite the fact that the membership of UNESCO brought this situation upon itself, the Obama administration has repeatedly asked Congress to change the law to allow the U.S. to renew funding, offering a number of highly dubious assertions on how U.S. interests were being undermined by the failure to provide funding.

Congress has rightly refused.

Part of this resistance is UNESCO’s history of controversial actions and anti-Israel bias, including approving a Palestinian request to add the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the pilgrimage route to the Palestinian World Heritage list over the objections of the U.S. and Israel.

This week, UNESCO doubled down on its efforts to appease Palestinian complaints by adopting a resolution that condemns Israel on its policies regarding Jerusalem and deliberately downplays Jewish history with the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Specifically, the resolution repeatedly refers to Israel as the “occupying power” and accuses Israel of a long list of offenses.

Although the resolution acknowledges that the Old City of Jerusalem is sacred to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, it refers to the “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif” only as Muslim holy sites and ignores the historical and religious connections of these sites to the Jewish people.

Only six Western nations—Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S.—voted against the resolution.

Israel has suspended all professional activities with the organization. As noted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is like saying that China has no connection to the Great Wall of China or that Egypt has no connection to the pyramids. By this absurd decision, UNESCO has lost what little legitimacy it had left.”

The U.S. should join Israel and cease its cooperation with UNESCO until the resolution is reversed.

Beyond UNESCO’s controversial decisions, the resistance to funding UNESCO in Congress is based on a bigger concern—that Palestinian membership in the U.N. and its specialized agencies prior to formal recognition of Israel by the Palestinians and a negotiated peace threatens U.S. and Israeli interests.

Additionally, allowing funding for UNESCO would encourage other U.N. organizations to similarly grant membership to the Palestinians. As noted by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Brad Sherman, D-Calif., the funding prohibition is: “vital in successfully derailing attempts … to seek de facto recognition of a Palestinian state from the U.N. via the granting of membership to ‘Palestine’ in U.N. agencies, including UNESCO. … ”

Unfortunately, because the U.S. remains a member of UNESCO but is legally prohibited from providing funding, it is accumulating debts to the organization. This is not in our interests.

But changing the law to allow funding for UNESCO would undermine more significant U.S. interests by rewarding Palestinian efforts to avoid a negotiated peace with and recognition of Israel, accepting UNESCO’s support for that position, and encouraging other U.N. organizations to follow suit.

The next administration should act responsibly and withdraw the U.S. from UNESCO. (For more from the author of “UNESCO, Which Obama Wants US to Fund, Calls Israel ‘Occupying Power’ and Rewrites Jewish History” please click HERE)

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American Aid Worker Kidnapped in Niger, Official Says

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Gunmen stormed the house of a longtime American aid worker in Niger, killing two people before fleeing with the man toward the border with Mali, authorities said Saturday.

It is believed to be the first time an American citizen has been abducted in the vast Sahel region, where al-Qaida and criminal gangs have long targeted French nationals and other Europeans for kidnappings and demanded millions of dollars for their release.

“We are aware of reports of the kidnapping of a U.S. citizen in Niger,” a State Department official said after the abduction late Friday. “The U.S. Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. (Read more from “American Aid Worker Kidnapped in Niger, Official Says” HERE)

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Obama Involves Our Military in Another Islamic Civil War

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Forget about Syria; the new rage is Yemen.

Obama has finally found a way to get tough on Iran. He is attacking their proxy, the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. The only problem? These Shiite rebels are fighting Al Qaeda and other Sunni factions backed by Saudi Arabia. Is this the beginning of a new Sunni-Shiite dumpster fire into which Obama will send ground troops?

Over the past few days, the Houthi rebels launched two unsuccessful missile attacks on the USS Mason, a destroyer operating in international waters in the Mandeb Straight between Yemen and the horn of Africa. Late last night, according to the Pentagon’s press office, the U.S. Navy retaliated by launching Tomahawk cruise missile strikes against three Houthi radar installations. The Houthis control the western part of Yemen, abutting the key waterway between the Horn of Africa.

On the one hand, this sounds like news to celebrate. Obama is finally retaliating against Iran, at least in a very limited way, after an enemy faction attacked our Navy. This is especially significant as today is the 241st birthday of the Navy. The problem is this is the worst hill to die on as it relates to confronting Iran. Why should we side with Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in this civil war? This is similar to the approach of attacking Assad because he is an Iranian ally, while helping ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria. Why can’t we stay out of Islamic civil wars?

Contrast this action taken by the Navy against an Iranian proxy locked in a war with Al Qaeda to Obama’s scandalous indifference to Iranian aggression mano-a-mano with the U.S. Iran has been harassing U.S. ships operating in the Persian Gulf all year, including the time they actually seized a boat and humiliated the crew, a provocation that would have been an act of war in any other era. Instead of retaliating against Iran, Obama has made them his biggest ally and has continued to violate the terms of the nuclear agreement in their favor. Meanwhile, Obama continues to serve as the Shiite air force in Iraq where our military is giving air support to Iranian-backed militias being directed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) Commander Qassem Soleimani.

Of all times to get tough with Iran, involving our military in the Yemeni civil war — which in itself is a creation of this administration’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood Arab Spring — is not one of them.

The only thing coherent about this administration’s Middle East policy is to involve the U.S. military in exactly wrong theaters while ignoring the real threats to our strategic interests. (For more from the author of “Obama Involves Our Military in Another Islamic Civil War” please click HERE)

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