[VIDEO] How Can Capitalism Help End Poverty? Here’s How
Posted: December 3, 2016 Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Africa, Banknote, Barack Obama, Ben Folds, Boko Haram, Capitalism, Fortune (magazine), Free market, Nigeria, Steven Mnuchin, United States Secretary of the Treasury Leave a comment
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Nigeria‘s former finance chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy Hernando de Soto join us at Fortune-Time Global Forum.
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[PHOTO] Shield Used by French Police When They Entered the Bataclan Theater
Posted: November 21, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, France, Global, Guns and Gadgets, Terrorism, War Room | Tags: Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Boko Haram, Calais, Cameroon, Islamism, Kolofata, Law enforcement in France, Nigeria, Paris, Paris Attacks, Police officer, Tear gas Leave a comment
This shield was used by French Police when they entered the Bataclan Theater to rescue the victims and stop the carnage. Despite taking withering fire, the police continued charging the threats until they were shot dead or detonated their suicide belts.
Source: gop-tea-pub
Heidi Vogt: Boko Haram’s Abduction of Girls Still Grips Nigeria
Posted: April 14, 2015 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: Abuja, Boko Haram, Caliphate, Chad, Chibok, Gwoza, Nigeria, Nigerian Armed Forces, Twitter, West Africa Leave a comment
Boko Haram has abducted at least 2,000 women and girls since the start of 2014. Many have been forced into sexual slavery or trained to fight, says Amnesty International
YOLA, Nigeria— Heidi Vogt reports: In the year since Boko Haram militants kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from their dormitories in northeastern Nigeria, the missing girls have come to symbolize an insurgency that doesn’t need a large footprint to terrorize a population.
Protests continue in the capital Abuja to urge the government to do more to free the more-than-200 girls. Each time a town has been retaken, local newspapers and radio stations ask the government if the girls were found there.
“This is about Chibok but it is also about what’s happening in northeast. It is about Boko Haram. It’s something that people can organize around.”
— Liz Donnelly, a London-based Nigeria analyst with the Chatham House policy institute
After the recapture of the key town of Gwoza in late March, the headline of the Nigerian website Pulse headlined its story: “No sign of Chibok girls as soldiers recover Gwoza from terrorists.”
In the past two months, Boko Haram has lost much of the territory it had seized. But what may be a more persistent threat remains—that of a hit-and-run organization that instills terror through mass abductions.
Boko Haram has abducted at least 2,000 women and girls since the start of 2014, Amnesty International said in a new report. Many have been forced into sexual slavery or trained to fight, the rights group said.
But the girls seized in the town of Chibok and publicized in the #bringbackourgirls Twitter campaignhave been the ones that caught the world’s attention and galvanized Nigerians.
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
“This is about Chibok but it is also about what’s happening in northeast. It is about Boko Haram. It’s something that people can organize around,” said Liz Donnelly, a London-based Nigeria analyst with the Chatham House policy institute.
There have been rumors in recent weeks both that the girls have been killed and that they were spotted in Gwoza, but neither has been substantiated.
And there may be more kidnappings to come. Read the rest of this entry »
Elections Massacre: Lawmaker, 8 Others Killed by Insurgents in Gombe, Nigeria
Posted: March 28, 2015 Filed under: Global, Politics | Tags: Adenomatous polyposis coli, Biu, Boko Haram, Fula people, Gombe State, Improvised explosive device, Islamism, Nigeria, Polling place, Reuters, Yobe State 1 Comment
A member of Gombe State House of Assembly, Alhaji Umar Aminu (APC), and eight others are feared killed by insurgents on Saturday. The insurgents who attacked Dukku and Nafada local government areas of the state were said to have killed the lawmaker representing Dukku South Constituency.
A source told newsmen that the insurgents, who came from Yobe, initially attacked Shole, Birin Bolewa and Birin Fulani towns of Nafada and later attacked Dukku. There was confusion in the two areas as some voters left the polling units but others later returned to be accredited, the source said.
Gombe State, located in the northeastern part of Nigeria, is one of the country’s 36 states; its capital is Gombe. The boundaries of the state roughly correspond to those of the Tangale-Waja Chiefdom and Gombe Emirate, a traditional state.
According to the source, the insurgents killed three persons in Nafada Local Government Area, including a policeman and killed six persons in Dukku Local Government Area, including the legislator.
The source further said the insurgents left on the Dukku-Darazo road after the attack.
DSP Fwaje Atajiri, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, confirmed the report, adding that details of the incident would be given after investigations were completed. “There was an attack on the outskirts of Nafada in attempt to disrupt the elections.”
A joint team of military and policemen promptly moved to Dukku and pushed the insurgents to the bush,” he said. Atajiri said elections were going on in the area and other areas of the state as the Special Forces were in control of the situation. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Mrs Amina Namadi, Wife of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Seen Buying Votes with Cash on Live TV
Posted: March 26, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Bayero University Kano, Birnin Kebbi, Boko Haram, Goodluck Jonathan, Independent National Electoral Commission, Namadi Sambo, Nigeria, Peoples Democratic Party, Peruvian Democratic Party, Vice President of the United States Leave a commentWife of the vice president of Nigeria, Hajiya Amina Namadi Sambo, was seen sharing money on live television to sway voters during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) women presidential campaign rally on Tuesday in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state.
BREAKING: Mergers & Acquisitions Update: Boka Haram ISIS Merger Officially Approved
Posted: March 7, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Religion, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: Abu Dua, Abubakar Shekau, al Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Beheading, Boko Haram, Borno State, Global Panic, Goodluck Jonathan, Islamism, Jihadism, Nigeria, Terrorism Leave a comment
BREAKING: Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS), according to an audio statement.
The message, which was not verified, was posted on Boko Haram’s Twitter account and appeared to be by the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.
Boko Haram began a military campaign to impose Islamic rule in northern Nigeria in 2009. The conflict has since spread to neighbouring states.
It would be the latest in a series of groups to swear allegiance to IS.
In the past Boko Haram is thought to have had links with al-Qaeda.
IS took control of large swathes of territory in eastern Syria and across northern and western Iraq last year.
The group aims to establish a “caliphate”, a state ruled by a single political and religious leader according to Islamic law, or Sharia. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is known to his followers as Caliph Ibrahim. Read the rest of this entry »
Suspected Boko Haram Gunmen Kill 68 in Nigerian Village
Posted: March 5, 2015 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Boko Haram, Borno State, Cameroon, Chad, Islamism, Kano, MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Leave a comment
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) Aminu Abubaka reports: Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot dead and slit the throats of 68 people — including children — in an attack on a village in Nigeria‘s Borno state, according to survivors and vigilante sources.
The attackers then burned down the entire village of Njaba, the sources said.
“They shot dead anyone that tried to flee but spared children younger than 13 years old.”
Dozens of gunmen invaded the remote northeastern village before dawn Tuesday, singling out boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 19 and killing them alongside their parents, witnesses said.
Njaba village lies about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
“They hurled petrol bombs into homes and opened fire on anyone trying to flee. They particularly targeted teenagers and elderly people.”
Karimu Lawani, who escaped to Maiduguri after hiding with eight other people behind the barn of a neighbor, said the attackers came into the village at around 5 a.m.
“They shot dead anyone that tried to flee but spared children younger than 13 years old,” Lawani said.
He and other survivors counted the victims of the massacre before leaving the village some hours later.
His account was supported by Faltama Bisika, 62, who lost four grandchildren in the attack.
“They hurled petrol bombs into homes and opened fire on anyone trying to flee. They particularly targeted teenagers and elderly people,” Bisika said. Read the rest of this entry »
Report: Charlie Hebdo Terrorist Texted Kosher Mart Shooter an Hour Before Attacks
Posted: February 17, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Angela Merkel, Attahiru Jega, Centre for Democracy and Development, Chancellor of Germany, Death of Osama bin Laden, Hillary Clinton, Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigeria, Paris, White House Situation Room 1 CommentReport: #CharlieHebdo terrorist texted kosher mart shooter an hour before Paris attacks began: http://t.co/wJSgobnXF1 pic.twitter.com/FdYjTAMnRn
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) February 17, 2015
The Spreading Menace of Boko Haram
Posted: January 27, 2015 Filed under: Global, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Abubakar Shekau, Africa, Amnesty International, Boko Haram, Borno State, Cameroon, Council on Foreign Relations, Islamic state, Islamic terrorism, Islamism, Nigeria 1 Comment
The jihadist group in Nigeria killed 11,245 people last year. Now their rampage seems ready to escalate in 2015
Emad Mostaque writes: The new year began with terror attacks in Paris inspired or orchestrated by al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula and ISIS and then reports of up to 2,000 residents killed by Boko Haram in a days-long massacre in Baga, Nigeria. While Paris has grabbed the majority of media attention, the events in Baga may prove to be the most significant as Boko Haram expands in northeastern Nigeria. This weekend the group captured the town of Monguno and its military barracks while simultaneously attacking the state capital, Maiduguri.
“While Paris has grabbed the majority of media attention, the events in Baga may prove to be the most significant as Boko Haram expands in northeastern Nigeria.”
A key goal of all terrorists is to provoke outsize reactions by committing heinous deeds. This is particularly true of jihadists, whose main feature is the takfir they impose on the majority of other Muslims—declaring them not to be “true” believers and thus outside of their group and liable for death. High-profile attacks aim to polarize societies and create animus against mainstream Muslims, creating more potential recruits for the radical Islamists.
A key goal of all terrorists is to provoke outsize reactions by committing heinous deeds. This is particularly true of jihadists, whose main feature is the takfir they impose on the majority of other Muslims—declaring them not to be ‘true’ believers and thus outside of their group and liable for death.”
ISIS has intensified its bloodletting over the last year, using social media to amplify its mass beheadings and other fearsome deeds—and thus the group’s power and threat—in line with the recommendations outlined in jihad theoretician Abu Bakr Naji ’s 2006 text “The Management of Savagery.” However, ISIS has reached the limits of unopposed and easy expansion in Iraq as it now faces well-armed forces in non-Sunni areas, bolstered by coalition airstrikes. ISIS gains in Syria continue, but the group appears more contained, having failed to take Kobani from its Kurdish defenders. Read the rest of this entry »
Satellite Images Reveal Scale of Destruction in Boko Haram Massacre in Nigeria
Posted: January 15, 2015 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: Abuja, Accra, Air chief marshal, Amnesty International, Boko Haram, Cameroon, Chad, Cinema of Nigeria, Divorce, Islamic extremism, Nigeria Leave a comment
Drew Hinshaw in Accra, Ghana and Gbenga Akingbule reporting from Abuja, Nigeria: Boko Haram killed hundreds of people and burned down almost an entire town this month, Amnesty International said Thursday, citing satellite photos to offer the clearest indication to date of the damage the Nigerian insurgency wrought.
Not from a satellite photo
More than 3,700 buildings, including homes, schools, and clinics, were torched by Boko Haram in and around the remote town of Baga during an assault that began on Jan. 3, the human rights group said. Satellite photos showed the entire town of Doron-Baga, which is next to Baga, had been effectively burned down.
Amnesty said the pictures corroborate the stories of refugees who have spoken of many hundreds killed in the remote area, which is dangerous and inaccessible for journalists and aid workers. Residents who fled have described walking through a countryside littered with bodies. Read the rest of this entry »
Deaths in Nigeria Child Suicide Bombings
Posted: January 11, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, War Room | Tags: Boko Haram, Borno State, Chad, Council on Foreign Relations, Far North Region (Cameroon), Goodluck Jonathan, Hassoumi Massaoudou, Lake Chad, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria 1 Comment
Two suspected child suicide bombers blow themselves up killing six, in the latest assault involving young girls
At least six people have been killed after two suspected child suicide bombers blew themselves up in a market in northeast Nigeria, witnesses say.
“I saw their dead bodies. They are two young girls of about 10 years of age…you only see the plaited hair and part of the upper torso.”
— A trader at the market, Sani Abdu Potiskum
Sunday’s assault was the second attack involving young girls strapped with explosives.
The blasts struck around mid-afternoon at an open market selling mobile handsets in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, one of three northeastern states after Adamawa and Brorno that have been hit by the armed group Boko Haram.
A trader at the market, Sani Abdu Potiskum, said the bombers were about 10 years old.
“I saw their dead bodies. They are two young girls of about 10 years of age … you only see the plaited hair and part of the upper torso,” the trader said.
The town was hit by a suicide bomber in November when at least 48 people, mainly students, were killed during a school assembly.
On Saturday, a bomb exploded at a police station in Potiskum.
Who fucking does this http://t.co/AK9rbMSP7T
— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) January 11, 2015
Sunday’s explosions came a day after a bomb strapped to a girl aged around 10 years old exploded in a busy market place in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 20, security sources said.
Boko Haram, which opposes Western influence and education, has been fighting since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in the northeast of the country. The the army’s inability to crush the movement has created problems for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in February.
Last year more than 10,000 people died in the violence, according to an estimate by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Army losses
The military lost ground in worst-hit Borno state last weekend after fighters took over the town of Baga and nearby army base, killing over 100 people and forcing thousands to flee. The defence headquarters said on Saturday that the army was regrouping to retake the area. Read the rest of this entry »
Ready for Increased Costs and Decreased Access? 2015: Obamacare’s Supporters Prepare To Get Care, They’ll Get It Good & Hard
Posted: January 6, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, U.S. News, White House | Tags: A. M. Best, Airline, Allied Insurance, Aon Hewitt, Attorney's fee, BBC, Board of directors, Consumer, Contract, Corporate law, Corporation, Insurance, Insurance policy, Life insurance, Limited partnership, National Insurance, Nigeria, Washington State 1 Comment
David Catron writes: Obamacare was designed such that its most harmful provisions would not be implemented until after the President had been returned to office for a second term and his Democrat accomplices had been reelected to their congressional seats. Fortunately for the nation, the latter part of that strategy was a spectacular failure. Nonetheless, it did provide the public with a temporary reprieve from the health care law’s most painful exactions. That brief respite is now at an end. This year, you will begin to experience the realities of “reform” first hand and you are not going to like how it feels.
“But your premiums are just the start. The real pain will come when you need medical services. Your new plan probably has a far higher deductible and co-pay requirement than your old one. Consequently, when you see a doctor or have a test performed, you’ll have to pay the entire cost.”
In fact, you are probably already feeling the first twinges without recognizing that their source is Obamacare. If you are among the 150 million Americans who get health insurance through their employers, for example, chances are that the coverage your company offered for 2015 has much higher premiums than did last year’s plan. The President and his toad eaters in the legacy media will do their best to convince you that these increases are caused by insurance company avarice, but this is merely another lie they are peddling in the hope that they can save Obama’s “signature domestic achievement.”
“This need to pay for such services out-of-pocket despite being insured, according to USA Today, is already causing people to forego care.”
The actual cause was the looming employer mandate and other Obamacare regulations that took effect January 1. The mandate and accompanying red tape dramatically increase the cost of employee health insurance for companies with 100 or more full-time-equivalent workers. It requires all such firms to offer “minimum essential” coverage to 70 percent of their full-time employees or pay huge fines. These PPACA-mandated benefits are expensive, and very few small-to-medium sized employers can unilaterally absorb the costs of such “essential” coverage. So you get to share the pain. Read the rest of this entry »
FBI: Air Marshal Attacked With Syringe In Nigeria
Posted: September 9, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Space & Aviation | Tags: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ebola virus disease, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Houston, Lagos, Nigeria, Syringe 1 Comment
(AP) — The FBI says a U.S. air marshal was attacked with a syringe at a Nigerian airport.
FBI spokesman Christos Sinos said Tuesday that preliminary tests show the syringe did not contain any deadly pathogens. It’s not known what was in the syringe, but Sinos says the tests are “negative for any bad stuff.”
The air marshal was attacked Sunday at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, a country dealing with an Ebola outbreak. Read the rest of this entry »
‘A Man in Denial, On the Verge of Delusion’
Posted: September 2, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Breaking news, Charles Krauthammer, Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, War on Terror, Yemen 2 CommentsThe Hammer: Dr. Charles Krauthammer, discussing the president’s handling of ISIS, on Special Report.
“Here’s a man who comes into office and denies the existence of a war on terror.”
“And what do we see?” Krauthammer then proceeded to list attacks by Islamic jihadists in Somalia, Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Yemen, and, of course, Syria and Iraq. “It’s everywhere.”
“Obama persists in calling them ‘extremists.’ As if they are extremists for — what reason?”
[Charles Krauthammer‘s book “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics”, available at Amazon]
“He will not call it by its name, Islamic radicalism.”
“He will not explain or concede that it is a worldwide movement, and he will not concede that what he’s done for these five years — underestimating, underplaying…(read more)
NY POST Cover August 5 2014: ‘CNN GAL BITES EMT!’ ‘EBOLA! Man Tested in NYC’
Posted: August 5, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere | Tags: CNN, Ebola, Ebola virus disease, Liberia, New York Post, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, United States, World Health Organization 1 Comment
New York Post front page for Tuesday, August 5,….
Turn On, Retweet, Tune Out
Posted: August 4, 2014 Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Boko Haram, Central African Republic, Chibok, Democratic Republic of Congo, NewYorker, Nigeria, Sanya, Syria Leave a comment
From Syria to Gaza to #BringBackOurGirls, what makes people care about stories one minute — and forget about them the next?
For ForeignPolicy.com, Lauren Wolfe writes:
Deborah Sanya, an 18-year-old Nigerian student who was kidnapped by Boko Haram in the mass raid on a school in Chibok back in mid-April, took a tremendous risk and bolted. Through the night, she and two friends ran and ran, eventually reaching safety in a village. When New Yorker reporter Alexis Okeowo spoke to Sanyaat the end of April, she described how the young woman was fasting and eating, fasting and eating, all the while interspersing that with prayer.
“What exactly is going on in the attention economy that people have little room (or desire) for sustained empathy?”
At the time when Okeowo’s article came out, many in the world were riveted by the plight of the Nigerian schoolgirls: It was a story with terror and mystery and a need for world attention — immediately. The infamous #BringBackOurGirls campaign began online. People got mad. Op-eds appeared. World leaders indignantly spoke out.
Yet more than three months later, with most of the girls still in captivity, global cries to help them are intermittent at best. It’s hardly the first time a cause has hit the headlines, only to slide slowly into the shadows, like a cranky child quietly banished to her room after throwing a temper tantrum. Remember Kony 2012?
Right.
In addition to the big hits that live and die hard, there are countless issues people care about on and off at best. See: Syria; Israel-Palestine; a number of countries with intense war and suffering in Africa (the Central African Republic, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo); HIV/AIDS. Read the rest of this entry »
Boko Haram Extremists Kill More than 100 in Northeast Nigeria
Posted: July 19, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, War Room | Tags: Associated Press, Boko Haram, Damboa, Friday, Islamic terrorism, Lagos, MAIDUGURI, Nigeria 1 Comment
Boko Haram wants to enforce an Islamic state in Nigeria though half the country’s population of 170 million is Christian.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Boko Haram extremists have killed more than 100 people and hoisted their black and white flag over a town left undefended by Nigeria’s military, just 85 kilometers (53 miles) from the northeastern state capital of Maiduguri, a civil defense spokesman and a human rights advocate said Saturday.
“Nine major villages are on the run.”
Hundreds of villagers in another northeast area, Askira Uba, are fleeing after receiving letters from the Islamic extremists threatening to attack and take over their areas, spokesman Abbas Gava of the Nigerian Vigilante Group said.
Survivors said Saturday that insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and lobbed homemade bombs into homes, and then gunned down people as they tried to escape the fires in the attack on Damboa town launched before dawn Friday. Most of the town has burned down, they said. Read the rest of this entry »
LEAVING A TRAIL OF SLIME, THE GLOBAL PANIC OF JULY 2014 REACHES LAX
Posted: July 15, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Health and Social Issues, U.S. News | Tags: Archachatina marginata, CBP, Global Panic of 2014, Lagos, Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Airport, Nigeria, San Dimas California, US Customs and Border Protection 1 Comment
67 Extremely Invasive Jumbo-Sized Weaponized Ass-Whooping Giant African Snails Intercepted at LAX
“They can be carriers of several parasites which are harmful to humans, one of which can lead to meningitis”
For Breitbart.com, Kerry Picket reports: U.S. Customs and Border agents may have to allow young unaccompanied illegal immigrants into the country, but giant African snails are turned away.
Our Roving Anthropod News Analyst and noted Achatina Fulica expert concurred: “You don’t want to mess with these Giant African snails. It’s a nightmare…don’t get me started…”
According to a CBP press release, U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) inspected an air cargo shipment declared as 67 live snails. Paperwork accompanying the giant foreign mollusks described them as Achatina Fulica for human consumption.
“These pests are a very serious threat to our agriculture, natural ecosystem, public health and economy.”
— From the CBP release
The snails came in from Lagos, Nigeria in two plastic basket packages, CBP says, and weighed slightly more than 35 pounds in total and were destined for San Dimas, California. Read the rest of this entry »
BLINDED: Ivy League Denier of Islamic Terrorism Baffled by Recent Violence
Posted: July 3, 2014 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Allah, Boston Marathon, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Islam, Jew, Nigeria, Qur'an, Sharia, Stop Islamization of America 1 Comment
For Breitbart.com, Pamela Geller writes: Yale University’s Yale Global Online has published a piece by Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, asserting that “Islam has no centralized controls; any power-hungry despot can use religion as an excuse.” But it’s no excuse; it’s a theological imperative.
The article complains about “the excessive use of ‘Islam’ in denoting as many aspects of daily life as possible. With Islam being a holistic religion, modern leaders of Muslim-majority societies tend to encourage the description of as many aspects as possible of modern life under a restrictive Islamic paradigm. Regrettably, this tendency mirrors and sustains the simultaneous propensity of non-Muslims to regard Muslim societies as being steered by a rigid religious ideology.”
Ooi suggests that some of the major horrors committed in Islam’s name and justified by its texts and teachings have nothing to do with Islam: “The kidnapping of the school girls in Nigeria is but the latest extreme event involving a claim to know ‘Islam.’ The 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, major bombings in European cities, the bombings in Indonesia, the attack on the Boston Marathon, and America’s war on terror have all made ‘Islam’ a modern newsmaker that is second to none.”
Ah, yes. It’s all because modern Muslim leaders ascribe everything to Islam that we see violence and atrocities committed in the name of Islam every day, you see. Yet we do not see power-hungry despots or majors in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood or doctors in Glasgow or students at the Boston Marathon invoking Jesus or HaShem in order to kill, maim, and control. They only invoke Islam, and they only quote the Quran with its promise of Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111) and mandate to wage war against and subjugate Jews and Christians under the rule of Islamic law (9:29). Read the rest of this entry »
Reality Check: Boko Haram and the Sultan of Brunei Couldn’t Care Less About Western Twitter Outrage
Posted: May 20, 2014 Filed under: Global, History, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Brendan Eich, Donald Sterling, Hoover Institution, Nigeria, North Korea, Stanford University, Tribune Media Services, Victor Davis Hanson, Vladimir Putin 2 Comments
For National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson writes:
Nigeria’s homegrown, al-Qaeda linked militant group, Boko Haram, brags openly that it recently kidnapped about 300 young Nigerian girls. It boasts that it will sell them into sexual slavery.
What do we do in the face of 19th-century evil that is unapologetic, has lethal weapons at its disposal, and uses savage rhetoric to goad us? Tweet it to death?
Those terrorists have a long and unapologetic history of murdering kids who dare to enroll in school, and Christians in general. For years, Western aid groups have pleaded with the State Department to at least put Boko Haram on the official list of terrorist groups. But former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s team was reluctant to come down so harshly, in apparent worry that some might interpret such condemnation as potentially offensive to Islamic sensitivities.
[Order Victor Davis Hanson’s book “The Savior Generals“ from Amazon.com]
From Greece to Jerusalem to Rome to the Enlightenment to the Founding Fathers slowly grew a standard of human rights that could be applied to anyone, regardless of race, creed, or color. But that is still not how most of the non-Western world works today.
Instead, Western elites now flood Facebook and Twitter with angry postings about Boko Haram — either in vain hopes that public outrage might deter the terrorists, or simply to feel better by loudly condemning the perpetrators. Read the rest of this entry »
A Group of Nigerian Hunters Join the Search for Missing Schoolgirls
Posted: May 19, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, War Room | Tags: Boko Haram, Chibok, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria, Twitter, Wall Street Journal 1 CommentA group of Nigerian hunters have joined the search for missing schoolgirls: http://t.co/rMdN0OSzdP (Glenna Gordon) pic.twitter.com/H3rezlt3Vl
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 19, 2014
Boko Haram Strikes Chinese Company in Cameroon
Posted: May 18, 2014 Filed under: Asia, China, War Room | Tags: Boko Haram, Cameroon, China, CNN, Islamism, Nigeria, Sinohydro 2 Comments
For Breitbart.com, Jordan Schachtel reports: Late Friday, Boko Haram Islamist insurgents reportedly attacked a Chinese-owned camp in Cameroon. Chinese news agency Xinhua reported ten Chinese nationals unaccounted for and one injured. According to CNN, a Cameroonian soldier was killed during the attack.
The attack took place in the town of Waza. The northern Cameroon town is just a few miles from the Nigerian border, where Boko Haram recently kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls. The area is in close proximity to the Sambisa forest, a location that remains a stronghold for the Islamist terrorist group. Read the rest of this entry »
The Sound and the Fury — and the Tweet
Posted: May 16, 2014 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Boko Haram, Charles Krauthammer, Damascus, Michelle Obama, Nigeria, Nigerian government, RUSSIA, Tahrir Square, Tehran, Twitter Leave a commentVideo: Protesters spoke out at the Nigerian embassy in Washington, D.C. to express their disappointment in the Nigerian government after an extremist group kidnapped nearly 300 girls on April 15th
For The Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer writes: Mass schoolgirl kidnapping in Nigeria — to tweet or not to tweet? Is hashtagging one’s indignation about some outrage abroad an exercise in moral narcissism or a worthy new way of standing up to bad guys?
“As always, however, we tend to romanticize the power of the tweet…”
That is nothing but preening, a visual recapitulation of her boss’s rhetorical fatuousness when he sternly warns that if the rape of this U.S. friend continues, we are prepared to consider standing together with the “international community” to decry such indecorous behavior — or some such.
[Read more: Will: I Can’t Believe Adults Use Hashtag Foreign Policy, ‘An Exercise in Self-Esteem’]
When a superpower, with multiple means at its disposal, reverts to rhetorical emptiness and hashtag activism, it has betrayed both its impotence and indifference. But if you’re an individual citizen without power, if you lack access to media, drones or special forces, then hashtagging your solidarity with the aggrieved is a fine gesture and perhaps even more. Read the rest of this entry »
Geller: According to The Daily Beast, Boko Haram Terrorists Are Not ‘Islamic’
Posted: May 15, 2014 Filed under: Global, Politics, War Room | Tags: Boko Haram, Daily Beast, Dean Obeidallah, Islam, Islamism, Jihad, Nigeria, Pamela Geller, The Daily Beast 4 Comments
Pamela Geller writes: On the very day that the devout Muslim group Boko Haram released a video of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, clad in burkas and being forced to recite the Qur’an, author Dean Obeidallah declared in the Daily Beast that “The Nigerian terrorist group that kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls has nothing to do with Islam, and it’s grotesquely irresponsible of the media to suggest it does.”
Mr. Obeidallah, it’s not the media that suggests it; it is Boko Haram that declares it.
“The reason the media use the rather silly term ‘Islamist’ or ‘Islamic radical’ is because the devout Muslims engaged in jihad are citing Qur’an chapter and verse. They are identifying themselves as such.”
It is not grotesque to tell the truth. What is grotesque is that the widely-read Daily Beast would run such damaging propaganda by a failed yet self-described “comic.”
[Geller‘s book: Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance
The Daily Beast is doing an end run for Islamic jihad when these girls’ lives hang in the balance. That is a different kind of savagery. The Beast is more worried about Islam’s PR than it is in educating the public on the most grave threat to freedom, not just in Nigeria but across the world.
“Disinformationalists like Obdeillah don’t have a theological leg to stand on.”
Clearly, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls is just more empty rhetoric from hypocrites, not an honest clarion call for action.
Boko Haram Demands Release of Fighters for Girls
Posted: May 12, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, War Room | Tags: Abubakar Shekau, Abuja, Allah, Associated Press, Boko Haram, Chibok, Islam, Nigeria 2 Comments
“I swear to almighty Allah, you will not see them again until you release our brothers that you have captured.“
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Under the guns of their captors, dozens of barefoot girls sat huddled together wearing gray Muslim veils as they chanted Quranic verses in Arabic. Some Christians among them said they had converted to Islam.
“I swear to almighty Allah, you will not see them again until you release our brothers that you have captured,” the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist network threatened, an assault rifle slung across his chest.
A video released by the group Monday offered the first public glimpse of what it claimed were some of the nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped a month ago. The girls’ plight has spurred a global movement to secure their freedom.
It is not known how many suspected Boko Haram members are detained by security forces. Hundreds were killed last month when leader Abubakar Shekau‘s fighters stormed the military’s main northeastern barracks in Maiduguri, the terror group’s birthplace and the headquarters of a year-old military state of emergency to put down the 5-year-old Islamic uprising.
In the video, two of the girls were singled out for questioning.
“Why have you become a Muslim?” one girl, who looked to be in her early teens, was asked.
“The reason why I became a Muslim is because the path we are on is not the right path,” the girl said, nervously shifting her body from side to side, her eyes darting back and forth. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Breaking: Boko Haram Video Claims to Show Missing Nigerian Schoolgirls
Posted: May 12, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Global | Tags: Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram, Cameroon, Islamic terrorism, Nigeria, United States, YouTube Leave a commentBoko Haram released a new video on Monday claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging the teenagers had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. Duration: 01:08
Robert Spencer: 5 Things Media & Government Won’t Tell You About Boko Haram
Posted: May 11, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: AK-47, al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Dawah, Hillary Clinton, Luddite, Nigeria, Obama administration, United States Department of State 10 Comments
Why was Hillary Clinton’s State Department so notoriously slow to recognize a terrorist group?
5. The abduction of the schoolgirls is only the latest in a huge string of atrocities.
The world has only begun to notice them because of the abduction of the schoolgirls, but the Nigerian jihad terror group Boko Haram has been around for years. Without attracting the international outrage they have drawn upon themselves now, they have committed innumerable acts of unimaginable savagery,murdering over 2,500 people in the first three months of 2014 alone andtorching numerous churches and Christian homes.
At my website Jihad Watch a Google search turns up about 115,000 results for “Boko Haram,” indicating that anyone who has been tracking jihad activity over the last few years has had plenty to track in Boko Haram, and that the outrage over the abducted schoolgirls, as welcome as it is if it results in genuine action to stop this brutal and bloody group, is quite late and arbitrary.
Of course, in the Obama administration it hasn’t been fashionable to talk about jihad activity other than within the context of al Qaeda, and Boko Haram is not al Qaeda. Therefore it essentially did not exist (either for the administration or for the mainstream media that it carries around in its pocket like so many nickels), or if it did, it wasn’t a terrorist group: Hillary Clinton’s State Department wasnotoriously slow to designate it as such, even as the dead bodies piled up.
4. Their real name is Party of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad.
Boko Haram means “Western education is sin,” or more literally, “Books bad.” The mainstream media has reported this as if the group were a bunch of Luddites with AK-47s – people who for some unexplained reason object to modern technology except for the weaponry. But actually the moniker “Boko Haram” is a specifically Islamic name, referring to the sinfulness of any system of education that is not based and centered upon the Qur’an and Islam.
And the actual name of the group is not Boko Haram at all; it is the Party of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad. Sunnah is accepted Islamic practice as derived from the Qur’an and Hadith; dawah is Islamic proselytizing; and jihad, of course, is (according to mainstream Islamic tradition) primarily warfare against unbelievers in order to establish the hegemony of Islamic law. Clearly, then, the group’s focus and motivation is entirely Islamic – which is probably why the media never calls the group by its actual name: too much focus on Islam in connection with terrorism is, for the media, as verboten for today’s media as it would have been for Der Stürmer to run a piece favorable to Jews. Read the rest of this entry »
Rep Mike Rogers: ‘You Can’t Base Your Policy on What’s Trending on Twitter’
Posted: May 11, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Boko Haram, Hillary Clinton, Mike Rogers, Nigeria, Twitter, United States Department of State 2 CommentsThe administration is right to address the kidnapping of hundreds of young girls in Nigeria, but its decision to not designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group years ago displays a failure to take these foreign policy issues seriously, says Representative Mike Rogers (R., Mich.).
“You can’t base your policy on what’s trending on Twitter. It has to be more than hashtags and selfies.”
Rogers outlined other examples of threats and dangerous situations abroad that are largely going unaddressed under this administration, particularly those affecting and harming women…(read more)
Will: I Can’t Believe Adults Use Hashtag Foreign Policy, ‘An Exercise in Self-Esteem’
Posted: May 11, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Boko Haram, George Will, Jennifer Psaki, Michelle Obama, Nigeria, Obama administration, Twitter, Ukraine 2 Comments“Are these barbarians in the wilds of Nigeria supposed to check their Twitter accounts and say, ‘Uh oh, Michelle Obama is very cross with us — we better change our behavior’?”
George Will doesn’t quite understand the thinking behind the first lady’s recent tweet in which she used the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, referencing the Boko Haram kidnapping of Nigerian girls.
“It’s an exercise in self-esteem. I do not know how adults stand there, facing a camera, and say, ‘Bring back our girls.’”
In March, the State Department engaged in a similar strategy to signal its support for Ukraine by tweeting a picture of spokeswoman Jen Psaki with the hashtag #UnitedForUkraine.
“Power is the ability to achieve intended effects, and this is not intended to have any effect on the real world.”
To echo @BarackObama today-proud to stand #UnitedForUkraine World should stand together with one voice pic.twitter.com/VeMt578UdY
— Jen Psaki (@statedeptspox) March 26, 2014
Mark Steyn: #BringBackOurBalls
Posted: May 10, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, War Room, White House | Tags: Boko Haram, Daniel Payne, Don Pacifico, Mark Steyn, Muslim, Nigeria, Ukraine, White House 3 CommentsMark Steyn writes: It is hard not to have total contempt for a political culture that thinks the picture at right is a useful contribution to rescuing
276 schoolgirls kidnapped by jihadist savages in Nigeria. Yet some pajama boy at the White House evidently felt getting the First Lady to pose with this week’s Hashtag of Western Impotence would reflect well upon the Administration. The horrible thing is they may be right: Michelle showed she cared – on social media! – and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?
Just as the last floppo hashtag, #WeStandWithUkraine, didn’t actually involve standing with Ukraine, so #BringBackOurGirls doesn’t require bringing back our girls. There are only a half-dozen special forces around the planet capable of doing that without getting most or all of the hostages killed: the British, the French, the Americans, Israelis, Germans, Aussies, maybe a couple of others. So, unless something of that nature is being lined up, those schoolgirls are headed into slavery, and the wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama’s hashtag is just a form of moral preening.
But then what isn’t? The blogger Daniel Payne wrote this week that “modern liberalism, at its core, is an ideology of talking, not doing“. He was musing on a press release for some or other “Day of Action” that is, as usual, a day of inaction:
Diverse grassroots groups are organizing and participating in events such as walks, rallies and concerts and calling on government to reduce climate pollution, transition off fossil fuels and commit to a clean energy future.
It’s that easy! You go to a concert and someone “calls on government” to do something, and the world gets fixed.
There’s something slightly weird about taking a hashtag – which on the Internet at least has a functional purpose – and getting a big black felt marker and writing it on a piece of cardboard and holding it up, as if somehow the comforting props of social media can be extended beyond the computer and out into the real world. Maybe the talismanic hashtag never required a computer in the first place. Maybe way back during the Don Pacifico showdown all Lord Palmerston had to do was tell the Greeks #BringBackOurJew.
As Mr Payne notes, these days progressive “action” just requires “calling on government” to act. But it’s sobering to reflect that the urge to call on someone else to do something is now so reflexive and ingrained that even “the government” – or in this case the wife of “the government” – is now calling on someone else to do something. Read the rest of this entry »
Mollie Hemingway: Who Has It Worse? Women In America Or Elsewhere?
Posted: April 24, 2014 Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, Politics | Tags: Boko Haram, Condoleezza Rice, Elle, Islamic terrorism, McDonald, Nigeria, Sheryl Sandberg, Women's rights 4 Comments
Mollie Hemingway writes: Who could deny that the problems identified by feminists in America are serious? Here are just five recent examples of how bad women have it in the States, each followed by a look at a minor problem faced by women in other parts of the world.
American Problem #1
Gendered toys being distributed McDonald’s.
Did you know that McDonald’s distributes toys with its so-called Happy Meals? And that these toys come in “boy” and “girl” varieties? Can you believe what a human rights violation this is? Slate is on it, thank goodness. This must be stopped.
Global Problem #1
234 girls kidnapped from Nigerian schools last week by Islamist extremists.
As the Associated Press reports:
The kidnappings are believed to have been carried out by Nigeria’s Islamic extremist rebels, known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram — the nickname means “Western education is sinful” — is violently campaigning to establish an Islamic Shariah state in Nigeria, whose 170 million people are about half Muslim and half Christian. Boko Haram has been abducting some girls and young women in attacks on schools, villages and towns but last week’s mass kidnapping is unprecedented. The extremists use the young women as porters, cooks and sex slaves, according to Nigerian officials.
American Problem #2
High school boys asking famous people to the prom.
Reigning Miss America Nina Davuluri was at a high school assembly recently to discuss the importance of science and math. Male aggressor Patrick Farves took the opportunity to ask her to prom. He was suspended.
Feminist leader Amanda Marcotte called this practice what it really is: sexual harrassment of the worst kind imaginable.
Global Problem #2
Iran to hang 26-year-old rape victim.
Rayhaneh Jabbari, a 26-year-old former interior designer, was scheduled to be hanged after serving seven years in prison for stabbing a man she claims drugged her and attempted to rape her. The execution has been postponed, but is still pending.
American Problem #3
Banning the word “bossy.”
In March, high-achieving women such as Beyonce and Condoleezza Rice joined Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s campaign to ban the adjective “bossy.”
And no, it’s not bossy that all the cool and beautiful girls who are super-popular and wealthy got together and decided that not only were they not going to use a word but that no one else could either. Why do you ask?
Beverley Hill, the founder and President of a women rights organization “Gendercide Awareness Project”, which was formed to combat prejudice and injustice against women, has said that China is leading in Gendercide index and India is at second place. Addressing a special meeting of South Asia Democracy Watch Board of Directors, Ms. Hill said that her group is fighting a systematic mass genocide of women population, through selective abortion in many countries of the world.
Global Problem #3
Gendercide
According to a Pakistani media outlet this week:
Beverley Hill, the founder and President of a women rights organization “Gendercide Awareness Project”, which was formed to combat prejudice and injustice against women, has said that China is leading in Gendercide index and India is at second place…
Nigerian Extremist: Allah Says We Must Decapitate
Posted: December 28, 2013 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, War Room | Tags: Abubakar Shekau, Allah, Christian, Christmas, Islamic extremism, MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, United States 2 Comments
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria December 28, 2013 (AP) An Islamic extremist leader in northeastern Nigeria says the bloody insurgency will continue because Allah says they must decapitate and mutilate.
In a video newly released Saturday, Abubakar Shekau claims responsibility for the Dec. 20 attack on a tank battalion barracks and says his men would have eaten their enemies, but Allah forbids cannibalism. Witnesses said insurgents put soldiers to flight and set the complex ablaze before they were driven off by a jetfighter.
Shekau warns Christians not to go to churches in this holy month, though Christmas passed in Nigeria with none of the feared terrorist attacks. Five churches were bombed Christmas Day 2011 and dozens of people died.
The extremist leader scoffs at bounties on his head — $7 million from the United States and $312,500 from Nigeria.
Chinese Kids Know Their Smokes
Posted: October 13, 2013 Filed under: Asia, China | Tags: China, Cigarette, Fudan University, India, Joe Camel, Johns Hopkins University, Malboro, Nigeria, RUSSIA, Shanghai, World Health Organization 1 CommentNearly nine out of 10 Chinese children aged 5 and 6 can identify at least one cigarette brand, and roughly one out of five say they expect to smoke when they grow up.
Students posed with cigarette models during a campaign ahead of the World No Tobacco Day in Handan, Hebei province, in May.
Brittany Hite reports: Those are some of the breathtaking results of a recent study by Johns Hopkins University on the effects of tobacco marketing on children in low- and middle-income countries.
The survey, which questioned 396 children Jialing town in Qi County, Shanxi province, found that 71% of Chinese 5- and 6-year-olds had someone who used tobacco in their household while 86% could identify at least one cigarette brand – higher than survey counterparts in Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan or Russia.
The researchers said they chose Jialing, a small town in China’s northwest, rather than a place like Beijing or Shanghai because they thought it would be representative of what a typical child in China might see. Previous surveys have foundsmoking rates to be higher in the Chinese countryside than they are in cities.
