REVEALED: Imams Preaching Saudi-Imported Hate Texts in British Jails

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Lecumberri_Prison_CellMuslim chaplains working within Britain’s prison system have been routinely distributing Islamist hate literature, leaving extremist pamphlets preaching death to non-believers and hatred of the West within easy reach of inmates, a leaked review has revealed.

The Ministry of Justice, who has oversight for chaplaincy appointments within prisons, is understood to have issued an urgent internal alert warning of “severe reputation damage” thanks to the extremist nature of the material.

The compact discs (CDs) and leaflets, some of which were imported from Saudi Arabia, contain homophobic and misogynistic messages, as well as inciting hatred against non-Muslims and Western culture. Yet it was left by the Muslim chaplains on library bookshelves where inmates were free to come and peruse it, The Times has reported.

Lack of scrutiny inside the jails paired with weak corporate guidance meant that there was very little or even no assessment of the material before it was released to “impressionable minds”, the leaked report said.

And it found that the chaplains at several jails had been encouraging inmates to raise funds for Islamic charities with links to extremist organisations and international terrorism, warning that failings at senior levels within the prison service had created a breeding ground for Islamic radicalisation. (Read more from “REVEALED: Imams Preaching Saudi-Imported Hate Texts in British Jails” HERE)

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Wife of Chinese Church Leader Reportedly Buried Alive and Killed After Protesting Church’s Demolition

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summit-cross-225578_960_720 (1)Two members of a church demolition team in China’s central Henan province buried a house church leader and his wife alive Thursday when the pair tried to prevent the destruction of their church, according to local news sources. Though the church leader managed to escape, his wife suffocated to death before she could be freed.

The couple had petitioned the destruction of their church, China Aid reported Monday.

On April 14, a government-sponsored company sent workers to bulldoze Beitou Church in Zhumadian. The order came after a local developer expressed interest in the church’s valuable land.

When the demolition crew showed up, Li Jiangong, the church leader, and his wife, Ding Cuimei, stepped in front of the bulldozers to protest the demolition.

“Bury them alive for me,” one of the workers said, according to China Aid. “I will be responsible for their lives.” (Read more from “Wife of Chinese Church Leader Reportedly Buried Alive and Killed After Protesting Church’s Demolition” HERE)

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Once Seen as White House Triumph, New Nation of South Sudan Descends Into War, Misery

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Village_in_South_SudanJust five years ago, celebrities such as George Clooney and Don Cheadle hailed the creation of a new African nation as one of President Obama’s foreign policy success stories, but now South Sudan is looking like a failed state.

The nation, sought as a means of bringing peace to Sudan’s long-running civil war, was promoted as a potential U.S. ally and was formed following a referendum passed with 98 percent of the vote to secede from the northern part of Sudan and the Khartoum government. But hope has given way to desperation, as South Sudan has descended into bloodshed and chaos.

“The euphoria has faded and South Sudan is an embarrassment for the administration, and that comes with reputational costs,” Joshua Meservey, policy analyst for Africa and the Middle East at The Heritage Foundation, told FoxNews.com. “Bringing attention to it is not in the White House’s interest.”

Meservey said the U.S.-backed solution was based on a “very superficial” grasp of the war between Sudan and South Sudan, and the deep divisions that existed in the nascent nation . . .

The civil war that rocked Sudan from 1983-2005 started in what is now South Sudan, and would eventually see more than 2 million people die as a direct result of war or of famine and disease related to the conflict. Twice as many people were displaced before a peace agreement was signed in 2005 and laid the groundwork for the creation of the new nation. (Read more from “Once Seen as White House Triumph, New Nation of South Sudan Descends Into War, Misery” HERE)

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Obama Did Not Press Putin on Recent Military Provocations

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Vladimir PutinPresident Obama did not raise Russian military provocations against a Navy warship and Air Force intelligence jet last week during a Monday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House disclosed Monday.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the president had “an intense discussion” by telephone with Putin, but not about two dangerous aerial actions by Russian warplanes.

The conversation instead was limited to Russian activities in Ukraine, where Moscow has militarily annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and the conflict in Syria.

“We have ample opportunities to express our concerns about these kinds of provocative actions to the Russians and it did not necessitate a presidential level conversation,” Earnest told reporters at the White House.

Two Russian Su-24 jets buzzed the guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea on April 14, flying dangerously close to the ship as it was conducting operations. (Read more from “Obama Did Not Press Putin on Recent Military Provocations” HERE)

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REPORT: ISIS Has Destroyed the Ancient Babylonian City of Nineveh

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2000px-AQMI_Flag_asymmetric.svgThe Islamic State has destroyed the ancient city of Nineveh, YNET reported Friday. The Israeli news site didn’t provide any details of the destruction, but the news followed an earlier report this week about the destruction of the gates of Nineveh.

ARA News in Syria reported that local activists had confirmed ISIS demolished the so-called Gate of God (Misqi) that was built in the seventh century B.C., when King Sennacherib ruled over Babel, which is now Iraq.

Local media activist Zuheir Mousilly told ARA News that since Islamic State took over Mosul (which is modern day Nineveh), the terrorists have destroyed most of Iraq’s historic sites and monuments. These include the Assyrian city of Nimrud, the Winged Bulls and the Mosul National Museum that was destroyed after ISIS stole removable artifacts.

Nineveh was mentioned in the book of Jonah and was once the largest city in the world. Under Sennacherib, the city became truly magnificent. The Babylonian King, who also laid siege to Jerusalem but failed to conquer, built many famous buildings and laid out new streets and squares in Nineveh. (Read more from “REPORT: ISIS Has Destroyed the Ancient Babylonian City of Nineveh” HERE)

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Why China’s Economy Is on Borrowed Time

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maxresdefault (93)On Friday China announced its economy had expanded at a 6.7 percent rate in the first quarter of 2016. While this is the slowest growth since the depths of the great recession, it conveniently remains within the government’s official target of 6.5-7.0 percent. Unlike all developed countries, there will be no revisions to this figure in the coming months or quarters.

There were two factors that kept Beijing’s growth within its target range: Easy money and the property market. The level of “total social financing,” or borrowing, rose 16 percent in March from a year ago.

This was fueled by the bond issuance by local governments as part of its bailout program and investment in ‘fixed asset investment’ which is largely composed of infrastructure and factories.

With total debt approaching 300 percent of GDP and massive overcapacity in many industries such as coal, cement, chemicals and refining, this development only exacerbates China’s serious structural problems.

The property market witnessed a strong recovery in China’s largest cities, causing property investment to rise at its fastest pace in a year. Outside the largest four cities, however, where 95 percent of home sales occurred, the housing sector remains sluggish. With an estimated 70 million inventory of unsold homes, China’s housing construction rebound does nothing to begin resolving this problem.

If this pattern sounds eerily familiar, it should. Debt issuance, investment in factories and the property market have been consistently the engines for growth since the economic crisis and beyond. China’s economic plan to move toward a more market-oriented policy, such as improving property rights, financial sector liberalization and Hukou reform (giving the massive migrant work force basic rights in urban areas) have been slow in development or nonexistent.

How long can this trend last? As the well-known economist Herb Stein once said, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” (For more from the author of “Why China’s Economy Is on Borrowed Time” please click HERE)

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Failed Obama ‘Reset’ Has Encouraged Russian Aggression

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6Yzp2IFSgB3zTsa73qLnFRHuNABPFkpsPeople seem a bit surprised—even perplexed—by the breathless news reports and video of Russian warplanes “buzzing” an American warship operating in international waters in the Baltic Sea this week.

The reality is that they shouldn’t be.

That, of course, isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be deeply troubled for the safety of our sailors on the USS Donald Cook at the hands of some “hot dog” Russian pilots involved in reckless and provocative actions that could have had dire and or unintended consequences.

But, that said, there’s a method to Moscow’s madness.

First, there’s the matter of geography. The Baltic Sea has long been a Russian security priority. For instance, the Baltic waters lap up against the Russian coast at the iconic city of St. Petersburg (once Leningrad), where a successful invading force could drive into the heart of Russia, including reaching Moscow.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union controlled the southern Baltic Sea coastline from Russia through the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), across Poland and into East Germany. In Moscow’s eyes at that time, the Baltic Sea should be a Soviet “lake.”

Today, rather than lined with Soviet Republics and loyal members of the Warsaw Pact, that same coastline is instead populated with NATO states with rough relations with the Russians. That’s not at all comforting to Kremlin & Co.

The only section of the southern Baltic Coast that isn’t part of NATO is Kaliningrad, a Russia-controlled outpost between Poland and Lithuania that Russia sees as not only isolated and vulnerable, but strategic to Russian security.

Indeed, after the less-than-stellar response to the Crimea crisis, there’s been a constant concern among some that Moscow might try to carve out a Russian-controlled access route to Kaliningrad through NATO member Lithuania

Of course, taking on NATO is different than taking on Ukraine.

Second, the Russian show of force in the Baltic is meant to send a signal of strength in response to perceptions of American weakness, resulting largely from the White House’s failed “reset” policy toward the Kremlin, going back to 2009.

In fact, concerns about Russian aggression in the Baltics and Eastern Europe along NATO’s eastern flank have caused the Pentagon to rotate a Brigade Combat Team (BCT) back to Europe under the European Reassurance Initiative.

This effort involves several thousand U.S. soldiers, a couple hundred tanks, armored vehicles and artillery pieces that will join 60,000-plus of America’s bravest already in Europe. U.S. pre-positioned weapons stockpiles will also be improved.

The returning American BCT will be forward-deployed along NATO’s eastern flank to frontline states including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

It’s a good move, but is it enough?

Not surprisingly, Russia isn’t happy about the U.S.-NATO moves and has promised an “asymmetric response,” which may include this week’s dangerous fly-bys of the Russian Su-24 Fencers against the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic.

More Moscow mischief may be in the offing.

Sure, Russia could get more feisty, but considering the failure of the White House’s “reset” policy toward the Kremlin so far, it’s probably time for a serious change toward Russia—one that comes from a position of strength. (For more from the author of “Failed Obama ‘Reset’ Has Encouraged Russian Aggression” please click HERE)

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Declassified Cable: Pakistani Intelligence Agency Funded Deadly Attack on CIA Personnel. US Gov’t Won’t Comment

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The_CIA_Original_Headquarters_BuildingIt was the deadliest attack sustained by the CIA in 26 years, and according to a just-declassified U.S. intelligence cable, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency paid a notorious Islamist terror group $200,000 to carry it out.

State Department spokesman John Kirby, asked about the claim Thursday, declined to “speak about intelligence matters.”

The shock allegation – that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate financed the Haqqani network’s suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees at Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan on December 30, 2009 – is contained in a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document, marked secret and dated February 6 of the following year.

It was obtained, in heavily-redacted form, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute at The George Washington University.

Claims about collusion between the ISI and terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan are not new, but the document indicates that the military intelligence agency of a major recipient of U.S. military funding directly financed the costliest attack against CIA personnel since Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. (Eight CIA personnel were among 17 Americans killed in Beirut, where a total of 63 people died.) (Read more from “Declassified Cable: Pakistani Intelligence Agency Funded Deadly Attack on CIA Personnel. US Gov’t Won’t Comment” HERE)

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Turkey Arrests, Detains Without Charge, US Evangelist; Russia Says Turkish Civil War Underway

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6711234961_a6d9c006b7_oBy Morning Star News. Turkish authorities have detained a U.S. evangelist and ordered him held for 30 days without charge ahead of deportation, sources said.

Declaring David Byle “a danger to public order,” authorities in Turkey took him into custody on April 6 after asking him to report to the immigration office in Istanbul regarding his application for a residency permit.

Byle, 46, was told his application had been denied; he was immediately taken into custody and then transferred to the Fatih police station in Istanbul. Police held him for two days before transferring him on Friday (April 8) to a holding center for foreigners awaiting deportation, the sources said. . .

The arrest took place days before Byle was set to teach a class to a group of Turks on how to tell people about the gospel, though there was no public indication of a link between the arrest and the scheduled training. (Read more from “Turkey Arrests, Detains Without Charge, US Evangelist; Russia Says Turkish Civil War Underway” HERE)

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Putin: Ankara ‘Not So Much Fights Radicals as Cooperates With Them,’ Civil War Underway in Turkey

By RT. The Turkish authorities are not so much fighting with the radicals, but working side by side with them instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual Q&A session, noting that there is a civil war going on in southern Turkey.

“We believe that the current Turkish leadership not so much fights the radicals, but rather cooperates with them,” Putin said.

“In fact, there is a civil war going on in southern Turkey. We try to ignore it, the international community pretends not to notice it, but it’s a fact. Moreover, [the war goes on] with the use of heavy weaponry and equipment, artillery and so on,” he said, highlighting the fact that terrorist attacks take place in Turkey “nearly each week.” (Read more from “Putin: Ankara ‘Not So Much Fights Radicals as Cooperates With Them,’ Civil War Underway in Turkey” HERE)

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Christian Defense Forces Mobilize Across Middle East

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hqdefaultBy Ahuva Balofsky. Persecution of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) has become so serious a problem that it has been recognized as genocide. Some Christians in the region are unwilling to go like lambs to the slaughter, however, and have begun forming militias to fight back.

One such group is the Babylon Brigade, some 500 to 1,000 Christian fighters who mobilized after ISIS took control of their hometown in Mosul, Iraq in 2014. Christians were forced to leave, convert or pay bribes, and many were expelled from their homes. Women were raped and sold into slavery or killed.

Not content to let things be, the members of the Babylon Brigade are offering resistance to ISIS forces. They are a part of a larger group called the Popular Mobilization Forces, which qualifies them for funding from the government.

ISIS “displaced us from our houses, they took our money, killed our young men and women and they took our properties,” the group’s commander, Rayan Al-Kildani, told NBC News. “Therefore, Christians decided to fight the terrorists of ISIS.” (Read more from “Christian Defense Forces Mobilize Across Middle East” HERE)

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U.S. Sends Weapon to Hit ISIS Communications

By Jamie Crawford. The United States has deployed tactical aircraft capable of attacking ISIS’s ability to communicate closer to the front lines of the battle against the terrorist group.

The U.S. European Command announced a squadron of Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft has been sent to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to support operations against ISIS.

In addition to being able to intercept communications by ISIS, the Prowler can protect allied forces on the ground and strike aircraft by jamming any radar and communication devices ISIS has. (Read more from “U.S. Sends Weapon to Hit ISIS Communications” HERE)

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