Jul 25

Today’s News 25th July 2016

  • "Politically Correct" German MP Demands Probe Over Police Shooting Of Axe-Wielding Jihadist

    Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

    • "I am a soldier of the Caliphate and am launching a martyrdom operation in Germany. … I have lived among you, lived in your homes. I planned this in your own land. And I will slaughter you in your own homes and in the streets. … I will slaughter you with this knife and sever your necks with an axe, if Allah permits. " – Germany's axe-attacker, in an Islamic State video.

    • "Künast should not be watching so many bad movies. Who would believe that if someone attacks the police with an axe and a knife, the police are supposed to shoot the axe out of the attacker's hands? That is really clueless and stupid. If police officers are attacked in this manner, they will not engage in Kung Fu. Unfortunately, it sometimes ends in the death of the perpetrator. This will not change." – Rainer Wendt, Chairman of the German Police Union.

    • The Bavarian Criminal Police Office has now launched an internal investigation to determine if police were justified in shooting a jihadist.

    A 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker brandishing an axe and shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest") seriously injured five people on a train in Würzburg, Bavaria. The assailant was shot dead by police after he charged at them with the axe.

    The teenager, who had claimed asylum after arriving in Germany in June 2015 as an unaccompanied minor, had been placed with a foster family just two weeks before the attack as a reward for being "well integrated."

    Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said police had found a hand-painted Islamic State flag in his room at his foster home in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt. They also found a farewell letter to his father which read: "Now pray for me so that I can take revenge on these infidels. Pray for me that I can get to paradise."

    Shortly after the attack, the Islamic State released a video purporting to show an Afghan asylum seeker holding a knife and making threats against Germany:

    "In the name of Allah, I am a soldier of the Caliphate and am launching a martyrdom operation in Germany.

     

    "Here I am. I have lived among you, lived in your homes. I planned this in your own land. And I will slaughter you in your own homes and in the streets.

     

    "I will make you forget about the spectacular attacks in France, if Allah permits.

     

    "I will fight to the death, if Allah permits. I will slaughter you with this knife and sever your necks with an axe, if Allah permits."

    In the video, the Islamic State identified the attacker as Muhammad Riyad, who can be heard speaking Pashto, a language spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. But German media identified the attacker as Riaz Khan Ahmadzai. The discrepancy raised questions about the teenager's true identity.

    Police found a Pakistani document in the teenager's room, leading some to believe he may have lied about being from Afghanistan in order to improve his chances of securing asylum. German authorities generally classify migrants from Pakistan as economic migrants and those from Afghanistan as refugees. But Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said there is no reason to doubt that the attacker was indeed from Afghanistan.

    There are also unresolved questions about the teenager's ties to the Islamic State. Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said the video is authentic: "The man in the video is the Würzburg attacker." The federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said it believed "the attacker committed the offense as a member of the Islamic State."

    Left: The 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who seriously injured five people on a train in Germany, while shouting "Allahu Akbar," is shown in an Islamic State video saying, "In the name of Allah, I am a soldier of the Caliphate and am launching a martyrdom operation in Germany… I will slaughter you in your own homes and in the streets." Right: The attacker's body is removed from the place where police shot him, after he charged at them with the axe.

    By contrast, De Maizière said the attacker was a self-radicalized "lone wolf" who had been incited by Islamic State propaganda. The public prosecutor in Bamberg, Erik Ohlenschlager, said "We have no evidence that he was in direct contact with the Islamic State."

    After the blood-filled train — an eyewitness said it "looked like a slaughterhouse" — came to a stop at a station in Heidingsfeld near Würzburg, the teenager jumped off and tried to escape. Surrounded by police, he lunged at them with an axe. Police shot the attacker dead because "there was no other option."

    Green Party MP Renate Künast criticized the police for using lethal force. In a tweet, she wrote: "Why could the attacker not have been incapacitated without killing him???? Questions!"

    Künast's comments provoked a furious backlash, with many accusing her of showing more sympathy for the perpetrator than for the victims. The outpouring of anger against Künast indicates that Germans have had enough of their politically correct politicians.

    The chairman of the German police union, Rainer Wendt, said:

    "The final rescue shot is clearly regulated by law. The policemen were attacked and used their firearm to defend against an immediate danger to life and limb. That is their statutory duty. The Green MP Renate Künast has absolutely no idea about reality of dangerous police actions."

    Speaking on N24 television, Wendt added:

    "Künast should not be watching so many bad movies. Who would believe that if someone attacks the police with an axe and a knife, the police are supposed to shoot the axe out of the attacker's hands? That is really clueless and stupid.

     

    "If police officers are attacked in this manner, they will not engage in Kung Fu. Unfortunately, it sometimes ends in the death of the perpetrator. This will not change."

    The head of the police union in Bavaria, Peter Schall, said: "If a police officer is not allowed to shoot in such situations, he might as well stop carrying a weapon."

    Mike Mohring, a politician with the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), called for stiffer penalties for those who attack police officers. He said attacks against police are on the rise across Germany and "the only effective deterrent is that the law provides an appropriate penalty." He also said German police should be outfitted with body cameras to protect both the police and the public.

    Bavarian Justice Minister Winfried Bausback called on Künast to resign: "Anyone who publicly suspects police in such a situation without any knowledge of the matter — as Künast has done in her tweet — is unacceptable as chairman of the parliamentary legal committee."

    Green leader Cem Özdemir distanced himself from Künast:

    "I did not understand what she wrote there. It is always a good idea to think about what you are writing before you send a tweet. What are police officers supposed to do if they are attacked? They protected others and they protected themselves. Her view is not the position of my party."

    Andreas Scheuer, the general secretary of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU, said Künast's comments were "perverse." He added: "The CSU's policy is: protection of victims takes priority over protection of perpetrators."

    German commentator Klaus Kelle wrote:

    "Our police in Germany do an excellent job and are hardly ever thanked for it. They are poorly paid … and repeatedly are whipping boys for errors of policy. Endless overtime, violent attacks, even in harmless situations such as illegal parking, is part of everyday life for our sons and daughters, who serve all of us.

    "Where are the politicians who support our policemen, rather than those who mindlessly criticize them, as now? Ms. Künast, does the presumption of innocence apply to police officers in this country?"

    The Bavarian Criminal Police Office has now launched an internal investigation to determine if police were justified in shooting a jihadist.

  • Paul Craig Roberts Warns "Armageddon Approaches" After German Leak

    Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

    The Western public doesn’t know it, but Washington and its European vassals are convincing Russia that they are preparing to attack. Eric Zuesse reports on a German newspaper leak of a Bundeswehr decision to declare Russia to be an enemy nation of Germany.

    According to a report issued on June 6th in German Economic News (Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or DWN), the German government is preparing to go to war against Russia, and has in draft-form a Bundeswehr report declaring Russia to be an enemy nation. DWN says: “The Russian secret services have apparently thoroughly studied the paper.

     

    In advance of the paper’s publication, a harsh note of protest has been sent to Berlin: The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexei Puschkow, has posted the Twitter message: ‘The decision of the German government declaring Russia to be an enemy shows Merkel’s subservience to the Obama administration.’”

    This is the interpretation that some Russian politicians themselves have put on the NATO military bases that Washington is establishing on Russia’s borders.

    Washington might intend the military buildup as pressure on President Putin to reduce Russian opposition to Washington’s unilateralism. However, it reminds some outspoken Russians such as Vladimir Zhirinovsky of Hitler’s troops on Russia’s border in 1941.

    Zhirinovsky is the founder and leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party and a vice chairman of the Russian parliament. In a confrontation with the editor of a German newspaper, Zhirinovsky tells him that German troops again on Russia’s border will provoke a preventive strike after which nothing will remain of German and NATO troops. “The more NATO soldiers in your territory, the faster you are going to die. To the last man. Remove NATO from your territory!” 

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed his frustration with Washington’s reliance on force and coercion instead of diplomacy. It is reckless for Washington to convince Russia that diplomacy is a dead end without promise. When the Russians reach that conclusion, force will confront force.

    Indeed Zhirinovsky has already reached that point and perhaps Vladimir Putin also. As I reported, Putin recently dressed down Western presstitutes for their role in fomenting nuclear war.

    Putin has made it clear that Russia will not accept US missile bases in Poland and Romania. He has informed Washington and the imbecilic Polish and Romanian governments. However, as Putin observed, “they don’t hear.”

    The inability to hear means that Washington’s arrogance has made Washington too stupid to take seriously Putin’s warning. If Washington persists, it will provoke the preventive strike that Zhirinovsky told the German editor the Merkel regime was inviting.

    Americans need to wake up to the dangerous situation that Washington has created, but I doubt they will. Most wars happen without the public’s knowledge until they happen. The main function of the American left-wing is to serve as a bogyman with which to scare conservatives about the country’s loss of morals, and the main function of conservatives is to create fear and hysteria about immigrants, Muslims, and Russians. There is no sign that Congress is aware of approaching Armageddon, and the media consists of propaganda.

    I and a few others try to alert people to the real threats that they face, but our voices are not loud enough. Not even Vladimir Putin’s voice is loud enough. It looks like the West won’t hear until “there remains nothing at all of the German and NATO troops,” and of Poland and Romania and the rest of us.

  • Here's Why The New DNC Chair Is About To Make Bernie Supporters Just As Angry

    Meet Donna Brazile – interim party chair after Debbie Wasserman Schultz (DWS) resignation over Wikileaks-email-leaked proof confirming months of accusations that she had put her thumb on the scales in favor of presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton…

     

    The only problem is… a quick search of Wikileaks leaked DNC email database shows… Brazile is exactly the same as DWS – clearly demonstrating bias against the Sanders’ camp…

     

    And rejecting Sanders’ efforts to battle the rigged super-delegate system as “another lunacy”…

     

    So now, following Bernie’s statement with regard DWS’ resignation…

    We suspect, Sanders’ supporters will be screaming for more blood (and rightfully so) and the deeply-rigged nature of today’s body politik spews to the surface once again.

  • China Bans Websites From Original Reporting

    It was about six months ago when global stock markets were crashing, that China tightened its control on local media, and ordered the local press and news outlets to stick to “positive reporting” or else “risk the stability of the country.”  As we reported back in February “China is now openly declaring war on anyone who dares to even suggest that not all may be well in China.  A separate commentary by Xinhua yesterday said that controlling public opinion was essential for a a ruling party: “With one hand we grab the guns; with the other we grab the pens,” it said. “Mobilising public opinion is the great tradition of our party.”In other words, China is worried that popular anger and negative sentiment is starting to stir especially after the recent economic troubles, and that those who dare to promote an objective version of reality will likely be promptly quieted.”

    Since then while superficially the economy may have improved on the back of nearly $2 trillion in freshly-created new loans, it appears that reports of bad news have not stopped. As such, China has decided to come up with an even more draconian measure: ban original reporting altogether.

    According to The Paper, major internet portals in China including Sina, Sohu, Netease and Ifeng.com have shut down some of their original reporting operations after receiving “harsh criticism” from country’s top industry regulator. 

    As Bloomberg adds, the Beijing branch of Cyberspace Administration of China has set deadlines for portals for rectification. It also reports that an unidentified head of Beijing branch cited portals for violating China’s internet regulations by carrying plenty of news content obtained through original reporting.

    What happens to those who dare to do what news organizations are expected to by definition, i.e., original reporting? Nothing good: portals also to face other penalties including fines and warnings.

    Full source from China’s The Paper, google translated:

    Recently, the Beijing Information Office of the territorial network Sina, Sohu, Netease, Phoenix and other sites provide a large number of illegal behavior in the presence of Internet News Information Service raised harsh criticism, ordered the site to be a deadline for correction.

     

    Currently, Sina has been shutting down “Geek News” section, are cleaning “Sina studio” section of the offending content; Sohu has been shutting down “News party”, “rad”, “click Today” and other columns;

     

    Netease been shut down. ” echo “,” roadmap “and other columns, is cleaning” School of Journalism “section of the offending content; Phoenix has been shut down” serious report “section. All shut down, cleaning section including website pages, mobile clients, micro-channel public account other publishing platform.

     

    Beijing letter network do the responsible person, said the channel was ordered to rectification column, a serious violation of the national “Provisions on the Administration of Internet News Information Services” provisions of Article XVI, were published a large number of self-editing of news and information, and serious violations , a very bad influence. Beijing Information Office in addition to ordering the territorial network related sites suspected of illegal channels to be rectification column, the law will give a warning and impose a fine of administrative penalties.

     

    The next stage, the Beijing Municipal Information Office will continue to increase network administration and law enforcement, standardize territorial website news and information service activities, maintain good order in the Internet industry. Welcome to the majority of users of the Internet illegal and unhealthy information supervision and reporting, and jointly create a good ecological network.

    What happens next? Sooner rather than later, China prohibits all forms of “original reporting”, at
    which point the only allowed form of “news” will be whatever the
    politburo greenlights… very much in the same way that the DNC would preapprove articles by Washington Post or segments by MSNBC or CNN.

  • With Kuroda Under Pressure To Increase Stimulus Again, Dissenters Appear

    With the yen strengthening ~12% against the US dollar and the Nikkei down ~10% YTD, it seems Haruhiko “Peter Pan” Kuroda is having a difficult time working his magic in favor of Abenomics. As the WSJ reports, Kuroda is under increasing pressure from the Prime Minister’s advisers to coordinate efforts to jumpstart the economy. Earlier this month, we first reported of the secretive meeting between Kuroda and Bernanke, where the former Fed Chairman urged Japan to unleash helicopter money.

    With what little credibility it still has, the Bank of Japan is set to meet this week and likely agree on the size of yet another stimulus package for the economy. Prime Minister Abe’s main economic advisor Etsuro Honda recently detailed in an interview that the BOJ should increase its Qualitative and Quantitative Monetary Easing (QQE) program from ¥80 trillion to ¥90 trillion.

    In addition, there has been growing speculation regarding coordinated fiscal and monetary stimulus. The fiscal stimulus efforts are not expected to be unveiled until August, according to the WSJ. Expectations point to a “multiyear program valued at ¥20 trillion ($188 billion), including direct spending, government loans and public-private financing.”

    Perhaps more interesting, this time, Kuroda may have a difficult time convincing the 8 remaining members of the monetary board. As the Journal notes, “other BOJ officials are signaling a reluctance to act, underscoring questions about whether the central bank has reached the limits of its powers to revive Japan’s economy. They note that monetary policy is already extremely accommodative, with bond yields and interest rates at or near record lows, and express doubts that additional easing would make fiscal stimulus much more effective, according to people familiar with the central bank’s thinking.”

    As core metrics and corporate expectations of inflation plummet, Kuroda’s promise to do “whatever it takes” to reach 2% inflation seems to be under significant threat. Doing nothing now would “amount to an admission that the BOJ’s monetary policy has reached its limits—it wants to move, but it can’t,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance.

    Not unlike the Fed, it is clear that the BOJ is trapped in its own end game. As Kyle Bass recently told CNBC, “The textbooks aren’t working for the academics … I fear they’re going to have to go into some sort of jubilee where the central bank just forgives the debt that they own…I don’t know what happens to the yield curve then. The unconventional policies aren’t working, so they’re going to have to go to unconventional, unconventional policies next. I don’t know where that takes them.”

    The answer appears to be a one-way ticket to Neverland, where we can all believe in our hero, Peter Pan.

  • 27-Year-Old Syrian Suicide Bomber Behind German Music Festival Attack That Injured 12

    Update 2: The suspect behind an explosion that injured 12 people in Bavaria was a 27-year-old asylum seeker from Syria, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann says early Monday. The suspect, who arrived in Germany two years ago, died in the blast. He had been refused asylum, Bavarian authorities told a press conference. His application was rejected a year ago but the man was allowed to stay in Germany temporarily, due to ongoing hostilities in Syria.

    Police say they do not yet known if the attacker had any radical Islamist background. The investigations is currently focused on attacker’s communications.

    *  *  *

    Update 1: "A man, according to our current knowledge the perpetrator, died" in the blast they said in the short statement. Further details weren't immediately available and they did not pick up their telephone lines.

    *  *  *

    As we detailed earlier, capping an awful week for Germany (and France), an explosion in the city of Ansbach, originally reported as a gas leak, has been confirmed as being caused by "an explosive device."

    As The Telegraph reports, one person is dead (believed to be the bomber) and at least 11 more injured as the explosion occured shortly after 10pm outside a wine bar near the entrance to an open-air music festival, where there were some 2,500 people in attendance. The festival was shut down as a precaution.

    With Germany already on high alert following the events in Reutlingen and Munich.

    On Sunday, 21-year-old asylum-seeker from Syria killed a woman, reported to be pregnant, with a meat cleaver in the southern German town of Reutlingen.

     

    Only two days earlier an 18-year-old man killed nine people in a shooting near a shopping centre in Munich, before turning the gun on himself.

    One person has been killed and another 11 injured in an explosion at a cafe in the Bavarian city of Ansbach. (via The Telegraph)

    A spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry said the explosion was not an accident and appears to have been intentional.

     

     

    Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann was en route to the site, the spokesman said.

     

    The blast killed one person and injured 11 others in the Bavarian city, police confirmed late on Sunday. It said the cause of the blast was unknown.

     

     

    The blast a at Eugene's Wine Bar triggered a large-scale police operation involving police, rescue workers and one helicopter, Sky News said.

     

    The blast was initially reported to have been caused by a gas leak.

     

    News agency Dpa reports that an open-air concert nearby with some 2,500 in attendance was shut down as a precaution after the explosion.

     

    Additionally,  AP reports that

    Police in the southern German city of Ansbach say the man was killed when an explosive device he was believed to be carrying went off near an open-air music festival,

    The only question left now is how long before an otherwise patient German population react after three apparent mass attacks in one week?

  • Deep Underground Military Bases? California Hit By Mysterious Clockwork "Booms" Daily For Years

    Submitted by Piper McGowan via The Daily Sheeple,

    For years now, residents of Sonora, California have been hearing a window-shaking loud and so far officially unexplained BOOM! that always happens between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily.

    Inquisitr reports that the explanation floating around Sonora from a local geologist/teacher is that an Army Depot in Hawthorne, Nevada, all the way across the state and behind a mountain range which disposes of old munitions like bombs, might be what residents have been hearing.

    But do they have so many old bombs to dispose of that they do it daily every single day even on weekends and holidays without fail for years? Why would Sonora, California of all locations near Hawthorne be the seemingly most affected city of all?

    Besides, even people who work at the depot aren’t hearing the booms regularly (via ABC News):

    Ken Thomas, a contracting officer for the Hawthorne Army Depot, told ABC News today that they do detonate munitions regularly at the depot when the munitions are past their shelf-life, but he is not convinced that it can be heard in Sonora.

     

    “It doesn’t feel right that what we’re doing here would be heard 200 miles away when there’s a mountain range in between us,” Thomas said. “My office is 27 miles from where they detonate the old munitions, I only hear it here maybe one time a month, and just barely and it’s like ‘Was that a boom?'”

    On top of that, not only are they clockwork, but these have been described as deep, low booms which can almost be felt by the people who live there. In fact, a friend who lives near Sonora said that sometimes they can actually see their windows warp during the booms.

    So what is it? Lots of conspiracies are, of course, floating around including aliens (as per the usual).

    But one in particular sounds a lot more plausible than an old weapons depot that’s a three-hour drive from Sonora: DUMBs.

    Deep underground military bases.

    We all know there’s an extensive network of them which has been significantly expanded since 9/11 and the creation of Homeland Security…

    …and we’re all just supposed to put our fingers in our ears and go “la la la” and pretend like they don’t exist.

    The tunneling project is a joint venture involving the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI, MiB, Homeland Security & a few other groups that are buried in the Congressional Intelligence Committees with some weird acronyms no one really understands. Much of the info on this comes from private citizens in the county, public officials, as well as Coast to Coast with George Noory & Art Bell. These shows have given incredibly good information on the topic for the last several months, beginning in late 2003…

     

    According to the information available, there are several reasons for the project:

     

    1) Homeland Security needs an system of rapid deployment in the South, free of traffic;

    2) certain gov't agencies want an easy connection route with other gov't installations in the South;

    3) there is a move on in the intelligence community to begin more efficient use of the underground rail system already in place at Lockheed in Marietta;

    4) Paulding is a central location for the complete project that will eventually connect installations in Anniston, AL; Macon, GA; Lockheed in Marietta; Lookout Mtn, TN; Greenville-Spartanburg, SC; & Raleigh-Durham, NC;

    5) the Yorkville area of Paulding has been designated as the prime location for these hubs to come together because of geological preference;

    6) the addition of new Walmart facilities in NW GA give spur hubs & depots easy access to large areas that can be partitioned off for moving of very large equipment & large numbers of people in case of national emergency.

    (source)

    Kinda like the CIA kept pretending Area 51 didn’t exist for decades until it was finally, quietly admitted it in 2013.

  • "Game Over" – Nintendo Crashes Most Since 1990 After Admitting "Limited Earnings Impact" From Pokemon Go

    Update: Things have proceeded south… Nintendo is now down over 17% – the biggest drop since October 1990… following Super Mario World’s release on the NES & Gameboy and the crash in the Tokyo Stock Market…

     

    After the close Friday, Nintendo admitted that the earnings impact from the newly-released ‘Pokemon Go’ game would be limited (and that it has no plans to adjust its forecasts). This has sent Nintendo shares down over 16% today, following last Wednesday’s 12% collapse. 

     

    Nintendo has given up half its panic-buying gains of last week…

     

    Today’s drop is the largest since March 2000…


  • Did Verizon Just Signal The Top?

    The last time AOL (bought by Verizon in May 2015) was involved in a mega merger was January 2000, when AOL acquired Time Warner for $182 billion in what was the mega deal of the last tech bubble, creating a $350 billion behemoth… which nearly dragged down both companies a few years later. The timing could not have been more perfect as it marked the tech bubble top…

    Will it happen again?

    As Bloomberg reports, Verizon Communications will announce plans to buy Yahoo!’s core assets for about $4.8 billion on Monday, a move that would finally seal the fate of the iconic web pioneer after months of speculation and pressure from investors.

    News of the takeover is expected to come before the market opens, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The deal includes Yahoo real estate assets, while some intellectual property is to be sold separately, the person said. Yahoo will be left with its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, with a combined market value of about $40 billion.

     

    With its core wireless business maturing, Verizon is expected to keep Yahoo mostly intact to compete with Alphabet’s Google and Facebook in digital ads by tapping into users on sites like Yahoo Finance. The takeover will double the size of Verizon’s digital advertising, placing it as a distant third behind Google and Facebook in the $187 billion market.

     

    “The deal speaks to a clear strategy shift at Verizon,” Craig Moffett, an analyst with MoffettNathanson, said Sunday. “They are trying to monetize wireless in an entirely new way. Instead of charging customers for traffic, they are turning to charging advertisers for eyeballs.”

    Desperately overpaying for already over-valued assets with market-wide valuations at record levels. What could go wrong?

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