Submitted By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
No, this is not The Onion website. Reportedly Omar Borkan Al Gala and two other attractive men were deported by Saudi Arabia because they were too handsome and debauchery would ensue.
Telegraph reports the men were delegates of the United Arab Emirates for the Jenadrivah Heritage and Cultural Festival. They attracted more than just the ladies it seems.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Deports Men For Being Too Handsome”
Islamic State jihadists have worked hard to establish the image of murderous extremists who slaughter innocent people and destroy ancient religious temples and shrines. However, various newspapers are reporting, the group appears to be eager to show on social media that they are also domesticated as well as hip in recruiting new followers. Appearing across social media are images of Islam Yaken, a young Egyptian law student who left his affluent family in Cairo to become a soldier for Islamic State with signature sword and slaughterous slogans. At the same time, the ladies of Islamic State are recruiting Western and European women to come and hook up with jihadi in a bizarre version of eHarmony or JDate. JihadDate is a bit different. It promises that, if lucky, you can watch your loved one martyr himself — I kid you not.
Continue reading “eTyranny: Islamic State Has The Perfect Match For You”
We previously discussed how the CIA used a doctor in an international vaccination program to help locate Osama Bin Laden. The use of such a cover violated international agreement and led to other doctors being attacked or barred from areas as suspected CIA operatives. Under huge international pressure, the Obama Administration finally agreed not to use such programs as covers for the CIA this year. However, a new story alleges that the CIA used young, undertrained Latin Americans for spying in Cuba while working as part of a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in dealing with HIV prevention and other subjects.
Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The Russian Parliament passed worrying laws that will certainly have a chilling effect on free speech in Russia. Now these laws are in effect and certainly prove to be useful to the government in stamping out dissent and non-sanctioned information.
BBC news reports bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country’s larger media outlets.
Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users’ information.
Submitted By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
On August 3, 1914 Europe began the worst human disaster known to that time when the German Empire declared war on France. The subsequent world war would cost the lives of at least fourteen million individuals and shattered the fabric of society that had evolved for centuries. The devastation that was once Germany set in motion a chain of events and underlying conditions that would lead Europe into the Nazi terror of the Second World War.
Today, the presidents of Germany and France presided over a ceremony in the French region of Alsace marking the beginning of the conflict between their nations with an affirmation of their continued solidarity to maintain peace between their nations and of Europe generally.
Submitted By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The nation’s top constitutional court invalidated the Uganda’s highly controversial anti-homosexuality law, citing improper parliamentary procedures. The opinion cites that the Speaker of the House acted illegally when she allowed the original bill to be voted for passage by MPs despite the lack of a quorum in the chamber. Afterward, President Museveni signed the legislation into law.
Activists held the decision as a significant victory in for civil rights in Uganda, but will this be only a temporary legal reprieve?
Continue reading “Uganda Constitutional Court Strikes Down Anti-Homosexuality Law”
Following the admission that the CIA hacked Senate computers and lied to Congress, President Obama today affirmed that it did indeed torture people. This admission (while belated) is an important recognition by the United States of what is obvious from a legal standpoint. However, that also means that CIA officials violated both federal and international law. The question is why Obama began his first term by promising CIA employees that they would not be tried for what he now describes as “tortur[ing] some folks.”
A 48-year-old woman caused a Thomson Airlines flight to diverted to Gatwick airport after she began to yell profanities, throw food, and beat people with her prosthetic leg. The airline response below is quintessential British.
We have another grotesque application of Sharia law out of Saudi Arabia. A court in Medina has applied Islamic law to sentence a man to three years in jail and 450 lashes for being gay. The unnamed 24-year-old man was arrested after a sting operation by the notorious Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) where they arranged a meeting over social media.
Continue reading “Saudi Court Hands Down Sharia Sentence To Gay Man: 3 years in Jail and 450 Lashes”
The State Department has issued a document that endorses the findings of the Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks. The document notably avoids references to “torture” but discussed now the CIA brutalized suspects and misled Congress. Putting aside such word substitutions of “brutalizing” for “torture” and “misleading” for “lying,” there remains one glaring omission: not a single CIA official was disciplined, let alone criminally charged. One official even publicly admitted to destroying evidence to avoid its use in court in a torture prosecution. He was allowed to retire with honors and accolades. The Bush and Obama Administration steadfastly refused to prosecute such officials. Indeed, soon after coming to power, Obama went to the CIA to assure officials that they would never face prosecution.
In Pakistan, a Muslim mob has killed a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister (as well as their grandmother) in the latest carnage to defend the faith from blasphemy. The cause of the outrage was a simple picture posted on Facebook that was deemed offensive to Islam. The mob accused members of the Ahmadi sect, who live under continual discrimination by the Pakistani government and the threat of death from Muslims over their faith.
A woman identified as Ekaterina Parkhomenko from Torez has become the very face of inhumanity and greed around the Malaysian Air crash site in the Ukraine. People around the world have been disgusted by stories of the Russian-backed militia stealing credit cards and cellphones from the crash site as well as preventing investigators from detailing the facts about the crash. However, pro-Russian local Parkhomenko allegedly went further and actually posted pictures on social media sites bragging about how she was able to snatch looted mascara from a dead woman and then took selfies showing how the mascara looked on her.
There is an interesting (and tragic) case out of France where Andre Bamberski, 76, was convicted for organizing the kidnapping five years ago of retired doctor Dieter Krombach. Krombach was accused at the time of raping and murdering Kalinka Bamberski, 15: the daughter of Bamberski and the step daughter of Krombach. When a German court refused to extradite Krombach for the 1982 murder, Bamberski had him kidnapped and dumped (tied up) in front of a French courthouse in 2009. Bamberski was found guilty and was looking at ten years but was given a one-year suspended sentence.
Continue reading “German Doctor Drugs, Rapes, and Kills Teenager in France Before Fleeing Country . . . Father Arranges Doctor To Be Kidnapped and Dumped in Front of French Courthouse”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
Since the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted in April of this year to declassify its long-awaited Torture Report, the intelligence agencies have been working behind the scenes to convince the Executive Branch to further sanitize it or keep it entirely secret. Needless to say, the declassification process used to prepare the report for public consumption has been dragging on. With the CIA and other defense agencies working overtime to keep a lid on the report, the truth may never reach the public.
What can Congress do to make sure that its report gets declassified and distributed to the public if the President agrees with the intelligence agencies and does not order the release? Continue reading “Senate Resolution 400 and the Torture Report”
Continue reading “Mao’s Little Red River: China’s Latest Pollution Disaster Turns River Red”