Russian Bear Back on the Prowl: Is NATO Ready?

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

BRUSSELS AND STOCKHOLM — A famous 1984 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign commercial warned voters that “there is a bear in the woods.”

It was a reminder that the Soviet Union was a dangerous adversary and that America needed a strong military to oppose the Russian “bear.”

In 2014, there is a bear in the woods again. But this time, NATO and Western Europe seem unprepared.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Western Europe began to disarm. Now, it’s scrambling to rearm.

When a suspected Russian sub was found lurking in Swedish waters in October, Sweden, a NATO “partner,” was unable to find it, perhaps because it scrapped its anti-submarine helicopters.

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Breaking News – Islamic Terrorist Takes Hostages in Sydney

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Credit - Townhall.com

Credit – Townhall.com

The rise of ISIS-inspired terrorist threats in Australia has been a growing problem. Last September, for example, hundreds of officers conducted a series of raids throughout Sydney and Brisbane that authorities claimed stopped a major terrorist plot in its tracks. More than a dozen suspected terrorists were apprehended and detained.

Now, however, a café in the same city has reportedly been overrun by a lone gunman, and civilians are being detained against their will. A black, Arabic flag has also been put on display:

Hostages were being held inside a central Sydney cafe where a black flag with white Arabic writing could be seen in the window, local television showed on Monday, raising fears of an attack linked to Islamic militants.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was convening a meeting of the cabinet’s national security committee for a briefing on what he called a hostage situation in Australia’s commercial capital.

Australia, which is backing the United States and its escalating action against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, is on high alert for attacks by radicalised Muslims or by home-grown fighters returning from the conflict in the Middle East.

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Americans, Belgians Mark 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge

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OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA

OLIVIER HOSLET/EPA

By Associated Press

BASTOGNE, Belgium – Braving snowy weather, Americans and Belgians gathered in the Ardennes region of Belgium on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the biggest and bloodiest U.S. battles of World War II–the Battle of the Bulge.

Jean-Claude Klepper, 62, of Virton, Belgium, and his 15-year-old daughter Aurelie dressed up like World War II GIs to mark the occasion.

“We must never forget what happened in 1944,” the elder Klepper told The Associated Press. “Many American soldiers came here to defend Europe. We must honor them for what they did.”

Stephen Sams, 41, a U.S. soldier based in Germany, said for him the battle waged in the dense forests and narrow valleys of Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg epitomized “the unwillingness of American forces to give up in the face of adversity.”

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Veterans of Battle of the Bulge Gather in the Ardennes to Mark the 70th Anniversary

Starting on Dec. 16, 1944, and for nearly six weeks, more than 600,000 American soldiers, fighting in freezing conditions, took part in desperate efforts to contain, then throw back, a surprise German counteroffensive masterminded by Adolf Hitler himself.

The battle waged in the dense forests and narrow valleys of Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed the ultimate result as “an ever-famous American victory.”

But it came at a high cost: 80,987 U.S. casualties, including 10,276 dead, 47,493 wounded and 23,218 missing, according to the U.S. Army’s official history.

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Israel Erased from Map by Biggest Children’s Book Publisher

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Times of Israel

Times of Israel

Arab textbooks are not the only ones erasing Israel from their maps. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, has also eliminated the Jewish state in a book.

“Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt,” part of the popular Geronimo Stilton children’s series translated from Italian and published by Scholastic in 2012, tells the story of a group of investigative journalists involved in a treasure hunt in Egypt.

The story commences with a map of modern Egypt and its neighboring countries. While Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia appear clearly on the map, the territory of Israel is completely covered by Jordan, painted red. A line indicating the Israeli border with the Sinai Peninsula does appear in the book.

Adina Golombek, a Jerusalem resident who emigrated to Israel from Canada last year, said she was shocked to discover Israel’s absence while reading the book with her 7-year-old son.

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Iran Criticizes US for 'Practice of Racism and Inhumane Behavior'

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

There have been two incidents of African Americans being killed by white law enforcement officers of late—Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Grand juries in both instances decided not to indict the officers, setting off racial riots across the nation. Apparently Iran has taken note.

The Hill reports:

“The U.S. administration has continuously criticized other countries and made an instrumental use of human rights and adopted double-standard criteria in the last few decades, while it has ignored domestic situation at home,” Iranian spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, according to the country’s semi-official FARS News Agency.

Afkham went on to challenge the Obama administration and U.S. courts “to comply with their duty and take lawful and just actions in dealing with their citizens and stop the practice of racism and inhumane behavior.”

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Report: ISIS Beheads Four Christian Children in Iraq for Refusing to Convert to Islam

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The brutality and barbarism of ISIS – the Islamic State – has been well documented, but the latest report is unspeakable.

The Christian “Vicar of Baghdad,” the Rev. Canon Andrew White, recounted that ISIS jihadists recently beheaded four Christian children.

As the Christian Post reports:

“ISIS turned up and they said to the children, ‘you say the words that you will follow Muhammad.’ The Children, all under 15, four of them, they said, ‘no, we love Yasua [Jesus]. We have always loved Yasua. We have always followed Yasua. Yasua has always been with us.'” White said. “[The Militants] said, ‘say the words!’ [The Children] said, ‘no, we can’t do that.’ They chopped all their heads off.”

“How do you respond to that?” White asked. “You just cry. They are my children. That is what we have been going through. That is what we are going through.”

Often the nonstop news of terrorist beheadings and persecution of Christians coming out of Iraq has had the devastating consequence of desensitizing many Christians here in America.

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Iran: We Will Get The Bomb

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Iran has no intention of reaching a settlement over its illicit nuclear program, the Islamic Republic’s senior strategist revealed last week on his blog.

Instead, the regime has adopted a policy of “elongation” with the 5+1 nations in which it strings along the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany as it develops nuclear weapons, wrote Alireza Forghani.

Forghani is a senior analyst and strategy specialist in the supreme leader’s camp and closely aligned with Mehdi Taeb, who heads the regime’s Ammar Strategic Base, a radical think thank, and thus speaks with the blessing of the Islamic regime.

“Elongation” is Iran’s sole doctrine, Forghani wrote, in which the Geneva negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran were “never supposed to be brought to a successful conclusion … whether positive or negative.” Those talks began in 2006 and have been extended several times as one deadline after another failed to produce a comprehensive agreement. The two sides agreed on Nov. 24 to yet another deadline extension, this time to June 30, 2015.

Forghani warned that soon he will promote the slogan “Nuclear weapon is our definite right,” and that there will be people in the streets demanding a nuclear-armed Iran. He also promised the destruction of Israel, which he claimed “is exactly what Almighty God wants.”

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Motorcycle Mob Slaughters Christian Village

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forestfiresSuspected Boko Haram militants, who arrived on motorcycles throwing bombs, raided a mostly Christian town in Nigeria’s northeast after nightfall on Saturday, residents and a military source said.

Residents said scores of people had been killed in the town of Shani, but a police source said they had been unable to verify the death toll as communications to the town had been largely cut off.

“They rode on motorcycles and were more than 30 men. They started throwing bombs into houses…then the Boko Haram fired shots at people fleeing,” resident Ishaya Brimah told Reuters by phone from a nearby village on Sunday.

“They set ablaze the police station, houses and a telecom mast…I saw people fleeing, some bodies on the ground.”

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Jordan’s King Abdullah: Battling ISIS Is ‘Our Third World War’ (+video)

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0 (8)Jordan’s King Abdullah believes battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other terrorist groups is “our third world war.”

Speaking to “CBS This Morning,” Abdullah stated that ISIS is a Muslim problem that they need to take ownership of.

“We need to stand up and say what is right and what is wrong. This is no reflection of our religion. This is evil and all of us have got to make that decision,” Abdullah, who is in Washington to meet with President Barack Obama, said. “We have to stand up and say this is the line that is drawn in the sand and those that believe in right should stand on this side and those that don’t have to make a decision should stand on the other. It’s clearly a fight between good and evil. I think it’s a generational fight. As I said to President Putin, I think this is our third world war by other means.”

The United States, along with allies, have been bombing ISIS targets in both Syria and Iraq. The terror group has released several videos showing the beheadings of Americans and British journalists and aid workers.

Abdullah is calling for a “strategic holistic approach” to deal with ISIS.

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WH Fails to Mention Victims in Kenya Terror Attack Were Christians

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de4b8615-d196-486b-8cd1-78e56738c0d3“We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the at least 38 individuals killed yesterday,” the White House said in a statement condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Kenya by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. “The United States will continue to support Kenya and our regional partners in combating terrorism and violent extremism and protecting human rights.”

The statement is missing one glaring detail, however: Those killed were mainly Christians who were singled out and separated from their fellow Muslim workers.

As a reminder of what happened:

Islamic militant group al-Shabaab has killed 36 non-Muslim quarry workers, mainly Christians, after separating them from Muslims at a camp in Kenya. The attack, 10 miles from the town of Mandera, was reportedly carried out in retaliation for the Kenyan army’s presence and anti-terror operations in Somalia.

“The militia separated the Muslims, then ordered the non-Muslims to lie down where they shot them on the head at close range,” said Hassan Duba, an elder at a nearby village, according to Reuters.

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