Nazi Atrocities Were Not Limited to SS; New Book Details Widespread German Barbarity

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For years the blame for horrific war crimes, rape and genocide were laid at the hands of the SS and Hitler’s right hand men but a new book details how widespread the barbarity went.

Between 1940 and 1945 the British and Americans bugged about 13,000 German and several hundred Italian soldiers of all ranks and services – many of which in the Trent Park detention centre for POWs in north London.

It was hoped the recordings would reveal military secrets of potentially strategic importance, instead they catalogued open and uncensored conversations about war experiences – often as to boast.

They detail not only the extreme level of violence but a disturbing sense of enjoyment from the soldiers.

One example of many recounts: ‘There was an event in the market square, crowds of people, speeches given. We really sprayed them! That was fun!’

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US Buys Advertising on Pakistani National TV to Broadcast Obama Denouncing Anti-Muslim Video

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The US Embassy in Islamabad is spending $70,000 to run advertisements on Pakistani TV showing US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing an anti-Islam video that has sparked protests in many Muslim nations.

The American Embassy in Islamabad, in a bid to tamp down public rage over the anti-Islam film produced in the U.S., is spending $70,000 to air an ad on Pakistani television that features President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denouncing the video.

The State Department said Thursday the embassy had compiled brief clips of Obama and Clinton rejecting the contents of the movie and extolling American tolerance for all religions into a 30-second public service announcement that is running on seven Pakistani networks. Obama and Clinton’s comments, which are from previous public events in Washington, are in English but subtitled in Urdu, the main Pakistani language.

Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the aim was to get the messages to the widest possible audience in Pakistan, where tens of thousands of protestors angry about the film tried to reach the U.S. embassy before being turned back by Pakistani police. She said embassy staffers had decided the ads were the best way to spread the word. The seven networks have a potential audience of 90 million people, she added.

“The sense was that this particular aspect of the president and the secretary’s message needed to be heard by more Pakistanis than had heard, and that this was an effective way to get that message out,” Nuland told reporters in Washington. The ads are not running in other countries, she said.

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Horror of Black Christian Crucifixion in Yemen & Egypt

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Shocking evidence has emerged from the Mideast about an escalation in the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. According to a report in Lebanon Today, at least one man was crucified and two others were otherwise executed by the jihadist group Ansar al-Shariah that had taken control of a region in Yemen and imposed Islamic religious law, known as shariah. The jihadists accused the trio of being agents or spies for the United States and killed them several months ago during a period when the Yemeni government was challenged by riots and rebellion. The MEMRI website has photographs of the jihadists’ victims.

A caption to a video of a victim of crucifixion explained that he was an accused “spy who was executed by extremists for placing sensors in militant’s cars to direct U.S. attacks on them.”

A report issued to subscribers only by the MEMRI website showed a photograph of the victim crucified on an electric pylon in south Yemen’s Abyan province. Translated, a sign affixed above the victim’s head displayed the flag of the Al-Qaeda-linked group and a text from verse 5:33 of the Koran: “The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off from opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a great torment is theirs in the Hereafter.”

Walid Shoebat, a former PLO operative who is now a terrorism analyst, said that the inscription in one of the photos reads, “He was crucified for three days in accordance with shariah.” According to Shoebat, the group carried out the Shariah-prescribed penalties as retribution for allegedly giving information to U.S. forces which then carried out drone strikes against terrorist in Yemen.

According to a translation by Shoebat, a report on the crucifixions said, “One they nicknamed ‘Captain’ was executed by crucifixion for three days at the entrance to the city of Jaar in the Abyan province, to be viewed by passersby entering and leaving the city.” Shoebat provided a translation of other summary executions carried out by the jihadists, “Two Saudis and a Yemeni were also executed by the sword at dawn at the hands of Ansar al-Shariah, and [the terrorists] absolved [a] fourth defendant from execution for his young age.”

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Pakistan Calls National Holiday So Citizens Can Protest US Video; 2000 Try to Storm US Embassy

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Photo credit: Omer Wazir

Some 2,000 protesters attempted to storm the US Embassy in the Pakistani capital on Thursday, even as US officials in the country tried to staunch lingering anti-US fervor by posting ads condemning the anti-Islam film that sparked worldwide attacks on US interests.

Riot police used tear gas and batons to keep the stone-throwing demonstrators away from the guarded enclave housing the embassy, and hundreds of shipping containers were lined up to cordon off the area. The government later called in army troops to protect the restricted areas when it appeared that police could not handle the situation.

“It is our responsibility to protect all our diplomats, all the foreigners,” said Pakistani Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. He criticized protesters for resorting to violence and suggested that various religious and militant groups among the crowd were to blame.

Most of the protesters appeared to be students affiliated with the Islamist hardline Jamaat-e-Islami party. Flags from other Islamist groups, Jamaat-u-Dawa and the al-Qaeda linked militant group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, could be seen flying among the crowd. Demonstrators also rallied peacefully in the Pakistani cities of Lahore, Chaman, Karachi and Peshawar.

The demonstrations are expected to grow on Friday, the traditional Muslim day of prayer. The Pakistani government deemed Friday a national holiday so people can demonstrate peacefully against the film.

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Son of Hamas Founder: “Islam is a Religion of War”

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[Publisher’s note: Although this article was published several months ago, the below-interview provides insights into the violence that is currently spreading across the Muslim world]

Mosab Hassan Yousef has a knack for controversy. The son of Hamas founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, he has already broken every taboo in the Palestinian book. He has worked for Israeli intelligence and converted to Christianity. Now he is developing a new film which is sure to be no less sensational: a biography of the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

Yousef, 33, broke ranks with Hamas in 1997 and began working for the Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet. Ten years later, after helping Israel thwart dozens of terror attacks and arrest many members of his former movement, Yousef left for the United States where he sought political asylum and later converted to Christianity.

Today, he says, he is back in Israel for the first time on a personal visit “to inspire a new generation of Palestinians.”

“I love Israel because I love democracy,” he told journalists in Jerusalem Tuesday. “I am here to protest religion’s absolute control of people’s lives.”

Standing next to his retired Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben-Itzhak, Yousef refused to answer questions in Arabic. He said he was on a mission to educate the public about the true nature of his former religion.

“Islam is not a religion of peace. It’s a religion of war,” he said. “Muslims don’t even know the true nature of their own religion.”

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Iran Cementing Relations With Venezuela & Bolivia While Obama Looks On

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With little notice in the main stream media, Iran has been cementing it’s relationships with regimes in Venezuela & Bolivia, both countries under the control of strongmen friendly to communism. Iran is the main funder of terrorism throughout the world, For them to gain a foothold in Latin America, does not bode well for peace in our hemisphere.

Recently I spoke with Bolivian Senator Ms. Carmen Gonzales. She has had the courage to stand up and speak out about the repression besetting her country and it’s ever closer alliances with Iran. She has been the object of continual harassment by the government for her vocal opposition; including being buried in lawsuits (18) designed to silence her.

Tell us about Iran’s influence in Bolivia?

The influence of the Iranian theocracy in Bolivia is very wide and deep. Iran has inked many agreements with Bolivia, both known and unknown to the Bolivian people. I have demanded to know the extent of these agreements, but as of yet there has been no response from the leadership. Iran is interested in our mining industry, gas and uranium. Iran is interested in expanding its influence in Latin America, to provoke the United States. It is very advantageous to Iran to have the friendship of the Bolivian regime, with all of its natural resources, including uranium and being strategically placed in the center of the continent.

But most people of Bolivia repudiate the Iranian regime: They abuse human rights, they do not respect their women and are dangerous to world peace and stability. Recently Canada withdrew its embassy in Tehran in a clear sign that the civilized world will not tolerate the authoritarian practices of undemocratic and abusive Iran.

I am also worried as a Bolivian Senator ,what may happen to the Jewish community here. Recently, the Iranian defense minister was with our ruler, Evo Morales. That same minister is under orders for international prosecution, accused by an Argentine federal judge to be part of the deaths of hundreds of Jewish-Argentine AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina in 1994).

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Antarctica Sea Ice Sets Record, NPR Lies, Mainstream Media Ignores

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Photo credit: NASA Goddard

Antarctic sea ice set another record this past week, with the most amount of ice ever recorded on day 256 of the calendar year (September 12 of this leap year). Please, nobody tell the mainstream media or they might have to retract some stories and admit they are misrepresenting scientific data.

National Public Radio (NPR) published an article on its website last month claiming, “Ten years ago, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island disintegrated and melted in the waters off Antarctica. Two other massive ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula had suffered similar fates a few years before. The events became poster children for the effects of global warming. … There’s no question that unusually warm air triggered the final demise of these huge chunks of ice.”

NPR failed to mention anywhere in its article that Antarctic sea ice has been growing since satellites first began measuring the ice 33 years ago and the sea ice has been above the 33-year average throughout 2012.

Read more from this story HERE.

Al Qaeda, Ex-Guantanamo Bay Detainee Freed in 2007, Involved in Killing of Libyan Ambassador (+video)

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By Erik Ortiz. An ex-Guantanamo detainee once considered a “threat” to America is believed to have been involved in the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya — possibly leading the deadly rampage, intelligence sources told Fox News.

The potential link with the militant, identified as Sufyan bin Qumu, could lead the White House to revise its claim that administration officials saw “no evidence” that last week’s attack on Sept. 11 was preplanned, and was instead a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islamist film produced in the United States.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official on Wednesday also called the assault a “terrorist attack” — the first time someone in the Obama administration has used that term. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American embassy workers died after the consulate compound was overrun by heavily armed militia and became engulfed in flames, according to reports.

A Fox News report didn’t say how Qumu, a Libyan, may have been explicitly involved with the attack, although his fighting group — Ansar al-Shariah — is suspected in taking part.

Analysts at Guantanamo branded him in 2005 as “medium to high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies,” the New York Times reported last year. Bin Qumu was transferred from the detention camp to Libya in 2007, and was freed the next year in an amnesty for militants, according to The Times. Read more from this story HERE.

Intel official says al Qaeda link probed in Libya terrorist attack

By Jordy Yager. A senior counterterrorism official told senators Wednesday that the assault on a U.S. consulate in Libya — which left four Americans dead — was definitely a terrorist attack and that some of those involved might be connected to al Qaeda.

“Yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” said Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Olsen was responding to a question from Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) during an appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“A number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area,” Olsen said.

“As well, we are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb.” Read more from this story HERE.

Al Qaeda, ex-Gitmo detainee involved in consulate attack, intelligence sources say

By FoxNews.com. Intelligence sources tell Fox News they are convinced the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was directly tied to Al Qaeda — with a former Guantanamo detainee involved.

That revelation comes on the same day a top Obama administration official called last week’s deadly assault a “terrorist attack” — the first time the attack has been described that way by the administration after claims it had been a “spontaneous” act.

“Yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said during a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Olsen echoed administration colleagues in saying U.S. officials have no specific intelligence about “significant advanced planning or coordination” for the attack.

However, his statement goes beyond White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, saying the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate was spontaneous. He is the first top administration official to call the strike an act of terrorism. Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the Fox News Video:

Romney & Netanyahu: “Two Peas in a Pod”

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Photo credit: DonkeyHotey

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s comments expressing doubt about Palestinians’ commitment to peace again highlight the closeness of his position to that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Romney has sometimes echoed hardline Israeli positions similar to those of Netanyahu, although not always intentionally in public.

In a newly disclosed video clip of a private fundraiser in May, Romney tells wealthy supporters that Palestinians “have no interest” in peace with Israel and that the conflict “is going to remain an unsolved problem.”

The video’s disclosure comes at a time when the Israeli leader, a personal friend of Romney since they worked together in Boston financial houses as young men, has been closely involving himself in the U.S. presidential race.

Netanyahu increasingly has criticized allies including President Barack Obama who have failed to agree to declare a “red line” for Iran — one that could trigger a U.S. military response if crossed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Japanese-Chinese Island Dispute Heats Up With Beijing Defense Minister “Reserving the Right to Act”

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China’s national defense minister warned Tuesday that Beijing reserves the right to take further action against Japan in the ongoing dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Standing next to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Gen. Liang Guanglie said Japan should bear full responsibility for the dispute, which has triggered violent protests in China against the Japanese. Panetta has been pressing both Liang and defense leaders in Japan to find ways to resolve the problem peacefully and diplomatically.

Liang, however, made it clear during a press conference that while China still would like to see a negotiated solution, he hopes the Japanese government “will undo its mistakes and come back to the right track of negotiations.” Tensions over the string of islands, called the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyu in China, spiked last week when the Japanese government said it was purchasing some of the islands from their private owner.

The island dispute has been a hot topic during Panetta’s weeklong tour of the Asia-Pacific region. But his session with Liang also touched on a wide expanse of issues as the U.S. and China try to find a way to improve their military relationship.

U.S. relations with China have been rocky, especially over America’s support of and arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own. The U.S. also has been critical of China for its lack of transparency regarding its massive military buildup.

Read more from this story HERE.