775: Fear is the Product

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:12

In new State Department emails obtained by Judicial Watch, Hillary Clinton's close personal aide, Huma Abedin, is seen warning another aide that Clinton is "often confused."

The watchdog organization Judicial Watch explains in a press release:

Judicial Watch today released more than 35 pages of emails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin revealing that Abedin advised Clinton aide and frequent companion Monica Hanley that it was ''very important'' to go over phone calls with Clinton because the former Secretary of State was ''often confused.'' The emails, from Abedin's ''Huma@clintonemail.com'' address, also reveal repeated security breaches, with the Secretary's schedule and movements being sent and received through Abedin's non-governmental and unsecured Clinton server account. The emails document requests for special State Department treatment for a Clinton Foundation associate and Abedin's mother, a controversial Islamist leader.

The Abedin email material contains a January 26, 2013, email exchange with Clinton aide Monica Hanley regarding Clinton's schedule in which Abedin says Clinton is ''often confused:''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:01

On Friday evening, a group of terrorists launched a string of simultaneous attacks in Paris, killing at least 129 people, according to mediareports.

Very little information is known about how the terrorists, who allegedly had links to ISIS, planned the attacks. Yet, that hasn't stopped commentators and the media from speculating the group likely avoided surveillance by using messaging apps that use encryption, and even by communicating over PlayStation 4.

Belgian interior minister Jan Jambon ignited the speculation over the weekend when he complained that communications over PlayStation 4 are extremely hard to spy on. His comments were not related to the Paris attacks, however; in fact, they came three days before they even happened, during a talk at a POLITICO event.

The author of the viral Forbes article that started the speculation over the weekend also posited that terrorists might very well be communicating ''without speaking a word,'' perhaps spelling out attack plans in Super Mario Maker's coins, or writing messages to each other by firing bullets on a wall in Call of Duty.

The height of the media frenzy over the unsubstantiated possibility that ISIS is using PlayStation 4 to plot attacks or communicate was probably this inadvertently hilarious segment on the Today show on Monday, where correspondents sent each other chat messages while playing video games.

''And remember this doesn't go through your phone company,'' a Today show producer said.

Yet, no one has presented any evidence to support the claims that the Paris attackers were using any of these methods.

No one has presented any evidence to support the claims that the Paris attackers were using encryption or the PlayStation 4Matt Suiche, a French security researcher who lives in San Francisco, said that obviously it's possible that ISIS is using video game consoles to recruit or communicate, but that in this case, it's more likely they ''they planned it physically, to avoid leaving any traces.'' Many of the suspects involved in the attack were reportedly all living in the same Belgian town.

''You may as well use a homing pigeon and write in slang to coordinate a meeting, and nobody would be able to do anything,'' Suiche told Motherboard in an online chat. ''When it comes to planning we are talking about people who live in the same area, within a few miles radius. They can also definitely pop up to the apartment of one other, like before cellphones existed.''

A spokesperson for Sony, which owns Playstation, declined to answer a series of specific questions regarding how Sony collaborates with law enforcement authorities to investigate potential crimes.

''We are dedicated to checking behavior and we urge our users and partners to report activities that may be offensive, suspicious or illegal,'' the spokesperson said in the statement, sent via email. ''When we identify or are notified of such conduct and verify it, we are committed to reviewing it and taking appropriate actions.''

Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and an expert on surveillance, said that as far as he knows, ''there's no end to end encryption of user communication'' on the PlayStation 4.

Sanchez, who noted that he owns and uses a PlayStation 4, also added that it's possible to access a user account from any device, something that'd be ''very hard'' to do if there was strong encryption. Moreover, he added, if Sony has mechanism in place to report users being abusive, the company probably has the capability to intercept and review users' communications for other reasons. In fact, Sony clearly says it can monitor the PlayStation network in its software usage legal terms.

Obviously, there are some theoretical advantages to using a non-traditional means of communication that's less likely to be monitored by authorities. But thanks to documents leaked by Edward Snowden we know that's not the case. Spies from the NSA and the British intelligence agency GCHQ have been so worried about this in the past that they've sent undercover agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life, and monitored users of Xbox Live.

''It's just going to be inherently very difficult to catch every single suspicious person who's having a conversation [online].''Jay Kaplan, who used to work at the NSA, told Motherboard that while non-traditional platforms are more challenging than widely used ones, ''at this point there is very much a 'whatever it takes' mentality.''

''It is possible that these networks have simply been overlooked or difficult to sort through the troves as data,'' Kaplan said in an email. ''Impenetrable? That word doesn't exist in the [intelligence community's] vernacular.''

It's not even clear ISIS tolerates the use of video gaming consoles. The group, which has very strict religious rules, has apparently banned its members from even playing billiards, according to documents retrieved from Syria, and published by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East forum think tank.

''It is not proper for the mujahideen servants of God to occupy their leisure time with these sorts of things that render no benefit on them but rather constitute a waste of time,'' reads a translated ISIS legal document, or ''fatwa.''

Moreover, given that ISIS members can use, and have been reported to use, encryption apps on their phones, why use the less-portable PlayStation? On Sunday, a New York Times article reported that the attackers used encryption to communicate, namechecking the popular chat program WhatsApp. The article was based on quotes of unnamed European officials, and has since mysteriously disappeared.

It's worth noting that despite the fact that WhatsApp has enabled encryption between Android users, the platform doesn't appear to be spy-proof. Earlier this year, in fact, a group of alleged terrorists were arrested in Belgium after authorities intercepted their WhatsApp messages. Moreover, even if the messages over WhatsApp are encrypted, authorities likely can still see who's talking to whom'--in other words, metadata.

Europol declined to comment for this article.

It's possible that the Paris attackers used encryption apps, and even the PlayStation 4, to communicate. But so far, no one has presented any evidence supporting this claim.

The mayor of Vilvoorde, a Brussels suburb where many jihadists who have travelled to Syria reportedly originate from, said on Monday that the country's intelligence agencies lack of Arabic speakers is ''without doubt one of the biggest challenges'' to investigating jihadists, according to a Belgian newspaper. Also on Monday, Turkish authorities said they had alerted France months ago about one of the attackers involved in the massacre on Friday, to no avail.

The reality might very well be that intelligence and law enforcement simply missed the clues that would have led to the suspects.

''It's just going to be inherently very difficult to catch every single suspicious person who's having a conversation [online],'' Sanchez told Motherboard. ''Totally independent of the technical obstacle, it's always going to be tough.''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 15:59

Exclusieve artikelen van de Telegraaf redactie

ma 16 nov 2015, 16:42

PRESEVO - De Servische politie heeft bij een aangehouden vluchteling vrijwel precies hetzelfde paspoort gevonden als dat werd aangetroffen bij het lichaam van een van de daders van de aanslagen in Parijs.

Bij het stoffelijk overschot van een van de mannen die zichzelf vrijdag opbliezen buiten het Stade de France is een paspoort gevonden met de naam Ahmed al Mohammed. De vluchteling in de Servische stad Presevo had een identiek paspoort, meldt maandag de Servische krant Blic.

"Het document had dezelfde naam en dezelfde persoonsgegevens maar een andere foto en is zaterdag ontdekt in een opvangcentrum in Presevo", stelt de krant zonder een bron te melden.

Eerder is al gesuggereerd dat het paspoort dat in Parijs is gevonden zou zijn vervalst.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 15:51

Calls to redraw zone which is blamed for spiralling migrant crisis A new 'mini-Schengen' with fewer countries proposed to help ease flows Emergency EU meeting on Friday will discuss new Schengen borders European Council president Donald Tusk says 'clock is ticking'See more on Europe's migrant crisis at www.dailymail.co.uk/migrantcrisisBy John Stevens for the Daily Mail

Published: 13:41 EST, 18 November 2015 | Updated: 01:25 EST, 19 November 2015

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Eastern European countries will be kicked out of the Schengen Zone along with Greece, Spain, and Italy under a radical plan to save the European Union passport-free travel area in the wake of the migrant crisis.

Belgium, France, German, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are set to re-draw the boundaries to just include the original members, creating a 'Mini-Schengen'.

Strict checks could also be introduced at passport control to systematically compare the names of all arrivals against those on counter-terrorism databases '' potentially leading to much longer queues.

Crossing: Migrants and refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. The EU will discuss redrawing the borders of the Schengen Zone

Influx: Migrants and refugees enter a registration camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border. Greece is among the countries to be kicked out of the passport-free travel area in the wake of the migrant crisis

The five countries removed all check points between each other 20 years ago, but the travel area has since grown dramatically to being 26 countries with a single external border.

The present-day zone covers all the EU Member States '' except the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia '' as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, which are all outside the EU.

As the migration crisis has spiralled, the Schengen Zone has been blamed for allowing crowds of asylum seekers to make their way uncontrolled through the continent.

Kept out: A migrant is lowered down from a border fence by a Spanish Civil Guard at the border between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of Melilla. The migrant crisis is leading to calls to kick Spain, as well as Greece and Italy and eastern European countries out of the passport-free travel zone Schengen

In response countries have been bringing back temporary check points between each other to stem the flow of people and get back control of who crosses their borders.

One of the suicide bombers involved in the Paris attacks is believed to have got to France after posing as a Syrian refugee on the Greek island of Leros.

An emergency meeting of EU justice and interior ministers '' called following the attacks - will discuss re-drawing the Schengen Zone in Brussels on Friday.

In the zone: This is the Schengen area which could be a lot smaller according to EU plans to stem the migrant crisis. The countries in red could all be kicked out, leaving in only the countries in blue

Leaders have been holding behind closed door discussions ahead of the summit to work out if a much smaller passport-free travel zone could help ease the crisis.

The countries in the new area would work together to control their new external border more tightly and impose thorough checks on asylum seekers on arrival.

Refugee camps would also be set up close to the new frontier to help manage the flows.

An EU diplomat told the Daily Mail: 'We all recognise that Schengen is in trouble and all parties are trying to find a way to ease the burden created by the migrant crisis.

Target: European Council president Donald Tusk says radical action is needed

'We have not agreed a solution yet, but we are talking to each other and discussing different options ahead of Friday's meeting.

But EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who has led the European Commission shambolic response to the crisis, insisted there was no need to discuss whether Schengen should be sheleved.

'If we make full use of the tools given to us by Schengen our external borders will be protected in a more efficient way," he said.

'We don't intend to open a discussion on Schengen's future. Schengen is the greatest achievement of European integration.'

EU leaders last week admitted they were in a 'race against time' to stop the impending collapse of Schengen as Sweden became the latest country to slam shut its borders.

The move was seen as particularly significant as the Scandinavian country has been one of the most hospitable to migrants with the highest number per capita in any of Europe.

European Council president Donald Tusk said the travel zone was destined to fail without radical action to secure Europe's external border

'Let there be no doubt, the future of Schengen is at stake and time is running out,' the former Polish prime minister said.

'The clock is ticking, we are under pressure, we need to act fast.

Fight: Migrants try to get onto the train heading to the Serbian border at the train station in Gevgelija. Eastern European countries could be excluded from the Schengen Zone under EU plans

Queue: Migrants after disembarking from the Royal Navy ship HMS "Bulwark" upon their arrival in the port of Catania on the coast of Sicily

'Saving Schengen is a race against time, and we are determined to win that race.'

Mr Tusk, who chairs the meetings of all 28 EU leaders, said urgent measures needed to be implemented. 'This includes, first and foremost, restoring external border control,' he said.

'Without effective border control, the Schengen rules will not survive. We must hurry, but without panic.'

The Schengen Agreement includes strict rules that mean police are not allowed to conduct identity checks on those going between countries if they have 'an effect equivalent to border checks'.

Border controls can only be temporarily re-instated for a short period if this is necessary for 'public policy or national security' reasons.

The agreement is named after the town in Luxembourg where it was signed in 1985, a decade before the borders were removed.

EU TO STOP ILLEGAL FIREARMS TRADEThe European Union said it will push through plans to tackle the trade in illegal firearms, ahead of a crisis meeting of interior ministers in Brussels following the Paris attacks.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos also urged member states to make better use of intelligence-sharing tools to protect Europe's borderless Schengen area, which has come under scrutiny after the attacks.

'We will soon present a communication with concrete actions to tackle illegal firearms trafficking and explosives. We need actions to protect our citizens from the harm caused by smuggled Kalashnikovs,' he said.

Brussels also aims to have agreement by the end of the year on a controversial plan for the US-style sharing of air passenger name records, regarded as a key step for maintaining security within the passport-free Schengen zone, he said.

France requested the emergency meeting of interior ministers in the wake of Friday's carnage in Paris in which 129 people were killed in a gun and suicide bomb rampage claimed by the Islamic State group.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 15:50

April 28, 2013 · 0 Comments

Robert Johnson|Apr. 22, 2013, 6:45 AM

Of the jets in production that promise to take military fighters deep into the 21st century and beyond, the U.S. F-35, the Chinese J-20, and the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA are at the top of the heap.

Unfortunately, there are problems with all three fifth-generation planes and the F-35 in particular is having global buyers back away much faster than it would like.

Russia is looking to fill this gap with a known and dependable jet, the Su-35, to which it added cutting edge avionics and amenities for the 21st century.

Dewline reports that a pilot who took the Su-35 for a spin was blown away by the jet's abilities and its low fuel consumption even at speeds faster than the speed of sound.

It's not a fifth-generation plane like the F-35, with all the attendant problems. It is a 4++ generation plane with all the tried and true basics overlaid with cutting edge avionics and navigation equipment.

It's hard to tell which is the better jet, but one of them has no problem flying and that's an issue the F-35 can't seem to shake.

While America uses the F-22 fifth-generation fighter and struggles to get the F-35 in the air, Russsia is beefing up the Su-35s into 4++ generation fighters.The Su-35s employs the known technology of fourth-generation fighters with additions at the fifth-generation level that could in fact make them an all-around better jet. A US pilot with Tactical Air Support took the Su-35 for a spin and was shocked at its abilities. The Russian jet holds as much fuel as an older American F-14 but goes through it far more slowly.

The Su-35 tops out at Mach 2.5 with a range of 1,900 miles, compared to F-35's 1200 mph and 1,380 mile range.Russia hoped to capture a third of the fifth-generation stealth fighter market with its T-50, but it may be able to do that with its upgraded Su-35 and avionics packages.

http://www.businessinsider.com

By myfuamerica

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:45

Another empty gesture. (Photo: Google Commons)

In Paris on the evening of Tuesday, November 18, a legendary band from the Emerald Isle stood on stage in a rock club. In the face of fear, in the face of terror, in a city that is the epicenter of the world's anxiety and the word's beauty, this group sang rousing anthems about war and peace, about bridging ancient hostilities caused by ignorance, about loving your fellow man even if their religion is one you were raised to hate. This foursome used the power of simple rhythms and soaring vocals to bravely raise the flag of hope and brotherhood.

U2 had the opportunity to make possibly the grandest and most meaningful gesture of their careers. But they didn't. Fuck them forever.

That band, of course, were Stiff Little Fingers from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who performed as scheduled in Paris last night. U2, on the other hand, cancelled concerts in Paris this past weekend in the wake of Friday's terror attacks.

Rock and roll is full of empty gestures, many of them beautiful, some of them stirring, a very, very few of them even necessary. After all, amongst our greatest icons is a multimillionaire, one of the wealthiest musicians of his era, who sang, ''Imagine no possessions.'' Rock and roll sends shivers up our spine, and leaves our lives inspired and our jaws agape. But it is also defined by the raised fist that meets no flesh.

When Jim Morrison mewled, ''There's a killer on the road/His brain is squirmin' like a toad,'' the Vietcong didn't exactly drop their weapons, jump out of their spider holes and sing ''Kumbaya.'' And all that shrieking about ''White Riot'' didn't keep Thatcher from rising to power, did it? But it was great fucking theatre.

This past weekend, U2 found themselves in the perfect place to do something exceedingly rare: They had a chance to actually make a meaningful gesture (those two words are generally oxymoronic).

I genuinely understand why U2 couldn't go through with the EnormoDome gig they had originally booked in Paris, and the accompanying HBO simulcast; I understand the responsibility they had for hundreds of employees, both in their organization and at HBO, not to mention the fans who could potentially be a target. But are you telling me they couldn't busk in the street, or show up at a club? Maybe they could have even opened for Stiff Little Fingers, the band who inspired much of U2's strident lyrical imagery and emotional force.

Do not wait for some organized concert. Go there and hold hands with the frightened and the mourning; engage the ignorant with words, music and the peculiar fool's gold glimmer of stardom; and give a soapbox to the tolerant, wise and compassionate.

A few paragraphs back, I spoke of the very exclusive category of ''necessary'' gestures. Over the last few days, U2 missed the chance to make one of those; they missed the chance to urge tolerance when intolerance is rampant; they missed the chance to educate amidst an epidemic of ignorance; they missed the chance to say that the faith of the oppressors is also the faith of the oppressed.

(Ohhhh but they did have their picture taken at the memorial.)

In a career bursting with gestures, U2 had the opportunity to make what could have been the grandest and most meaningful gesture of their careers. Never, ever would U2's message of Coexistence have had more meaning; Bono, the Edge, Clayton and Mullen could have begged for compassion, shed tears of mourning, shredded chords of anger. They could have walked in the bloody path of atrocity and opened their arms to the angels of peace. In other words, they could have done everything U2 always do in every concert; only they could have done it in a setting where it actually would have meant something.

But they didn't.

Fuck them forever.

Fuck them for underlining that there's a paste-filled gem set in the paper mache ring of our rock and roll dream. Fuck them for reminding us that all those slogans really do mean virtually nothing. Fuck them for not trotting out one of their most gorgeously meaningless catchphrases'--something about ''In The Name of Love'''--and placing this cheap, bubble-gummy piece of zircon in a setting where it actually would have meant something, where it would have sparkled like a diamond.

In 1968, The MC5 and Phil Ochs sang as the truncheons of Mayor Daley's Chicago Goon Squad rained down on their skulls; in 1973, Victor Jara sang in Chile Stadium, his hands broken, his fingers burst and his death imminent, because a gesture was important and the world was watching.

I literally have no idea why U2 passed on this opportunity. Perhaps, to give them the benefit of the doubt, they were afraid of being labeled opportunistic; well, pal, revel in that, underline those accusations and give them a new context, make certain the world is watching so you can say, ''This atrocity happened here, these obscenities of intolerance and violence can unite us, not divide us.''

In 1968, The MC5 and Phil Ochs sang as the truncheons of Mayor Daley's Chicago Goon Squad rained down on their skulls, because a gesture was important and the world was watching; in 1973, Victor Jara sang in Chile Stadium, his hands broken, his fingers' burst and his death imminent, because a gesture was important and the world was watching; in mid-November 2015, U2 could have fucking tuned up some acoustic guitars and sang ''Sunday Bloody Sunday'' and preached coexistence, because the world was watching.

Every musician of any goddamn importance and political and social pretension'--Dave Grohl, Billy Joe Armstrong, the loathsome Sting'--should be in Paris tonight singing their songs. I mean, that's a fucking no-brainer. Do not wait for some organized concert. Go there and hold hands with the frightened and the mourning; engage the ignorant with words, music and the peculiar fool's gold glimmer of stardom; and give a soapbox to the tolerant, wise and compassionate.

U2 had the perfect chance to do that. For some reason they didn't. Of course, it would have all just been a gesture. But now is the perfect time for a gesture.

READ: HOW CAN YOU NOT CALL THE PARIS ATTACK ANTI-SEMITISM?

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:38

The growing prevalence of smartphones and tablets in homes and schools may be retarding kids' development of IT skills, according to an Australian study.

The research in question was conducted by Australia's National Assessment Program (NAP_, a body that undertakes research of students' skills. Every three years, NAP assesses science literacy, civics and citizenship, and information and communication technology (ICT) literacy. The latter was tested in 2014 and results emerged this week.

Those tested were in what Australia calls Year 6 and Year 10. Year 6 is Australia's last year of Primary School and kids turn 12 during the school year. Year 10 kids typically turn 16 and complete their fourth year of High School along the way. 10,500 students participated in the online assessments, randomly selected from different schools around Australia.

Tasks that students were asked to complete included:

Use a blog and a comparative search engine to identify a venue for a sports picnic and to select sports equipment, then use tailored graphics software to produce invitations that included a map generated by using embedded mapping software;Work with a scenario of three students forming a music band that has won a talent contest and been invited to enter an interstate competition. Tasks included to help the band by completing the online registration for the competition, promote the band's next gig through social media and set up a crowd-funding web page to raise money;A student is asked to set up a tablet computer to access the internet, install a number of applications on the tablet computer, set up one of the applications to collect weather data and use software to manage the data;A scenario where a student is part of a design team creating an animated video about water safety around lakes and dams, which is aimed at upper primary school students, and for which the student is required to upload a file to a video website, adjust settings on a video website and use specific software to make a video.The method used to score digital literacy is complex, but is consistent across the four cycles of testing. And as the table below shows, the 2014 result shows that Year 6 kids have descended below the digital literacy levels recorded in 2008 and Year 10 scores are at an all-time low.

If you're reading this table of digital literacy results in Australia, you probably can't understand it

Why is Australia doing so badly?

The report's authors advance a theory that kids are now using mobile devices that require different skills and a different style of teaching.

Here's what the report's conclusion has to say:

Firstly, it is possible that changes in the teaching and learning with ICT have resulted in less emphasis being placed on the teaching of skills associated with ICT literacy.

Secondly, it is possible that the development of ICT literacy competencies has been taken for granted in Australia where the level of access to ICT in schooling is extremely high.

Thirdly, it is possible that the emergence of mobile computing technology devices has led to increased emphases in teaching and learning on different skills (such as those associated with online communication).

The report goes on to note studies of the prevalence of tablets in Australian schools, find it's on the rise and leading to a hypothesis that '' it is perhaps not so likely that the emphasis [on teaching ICT literacy] has been removed, but rather that it has shifted with the uptake of mobile technology devices.''

''It is possible that this shift in emphasis may have contributed to changes in ICT literacy achievement between 2011 and 2014.'' The report also notes that the 2011 study took place mere months after the iPad's debut. Tablets have since become ubiquitous, while smartphones have become far more affordable and therefore find their way into more kids' hands.

Another likely reason for the poor performance was that Australia recognised its technologies curriculum needed an overhaul well before 2014. The nation therefore developed a new Digital Technologies Curriculum but delayed its implementation of for political reasons, as our Australian bureau has chronicled at length. The new and dedicated curriculum was due to be taught from 2014, so may not have made an impact on this study. But the fact remains that Australian schools worked with older curricula that may not have reflected modern technological realities before the 2014 study.

The study's gone down very badly in Australia, which has recently experienced an outbreak of bipartisan enthusiasm for all things STEM-and-startup. You can find the NAP report here (PDF) and a technical report here (PDF). ®

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:36

New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton (C) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (R) deliver remarks at a news conference in Times Square in the Manhattan borough in New York, November 18, 2015.

Reuters/Stephanie Keith

NEW YORK There is no "specific and credible threat" against New York City, despite a newly released Islamic State video suggesting America's most populous city is a potential target of attacks such as those in Paris, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday.

Police Commissioner William Bratton agreed with the mayor during an evening news conference by both men outside a police precinct in Times Square, adding that there was nothing new about the video, which he called "hastily produced."

"There is no credible and specific threat against New York City," de Blasio said, encouraging New Yorkers to "go about their business" as normal, while remaining watchful.

Islamic State has claimed credit for Friday's attacks in Paris that killed 129 people in shootings and suicide bombings at a concert hall, restaurants and a soccer stadium in Paris.

The assault on the French capital stirred memories in New York of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks that felled the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, killing more than 2,600 people.

The Islamic State video, which runs for nearly six minutes, includes a scene that appears to show a suicide bomber making preparations and zipping up a jacket, according to a description provided by SITE Intelligence Group, a Bethesda, Maryland, organization that tracks militant groups.

The clip briefly shows Times Square and Herald Square, two Midtown Manhattan crossroads popular with tourists, and a suicide bomber holding what appears to be a trigger. Most of the footage is scenes of Paris and French President Francois Hollande.

"Footage of New York shown in the ISIS video was taken from a video released by the group in April of this year. So while NYC is, and has been, a target for ISIS, today's video does not warrant any kind of panic," SITE director Rita Katz said in an email to Reuters.

De Blasio said New York City's police force of 35,000, the country's largest, was working tirelessly to keep the city safe from another attack.

"Just in this last week, we've initiated the first wave of our new Critical Response Command, which will grow to 500 officers specifically dedicated to anti-terrorism activities," he said.

The new unit will supplement an existing 1,000-officer counterterrorism program, police said.

The FBI said through a spokeswoman it was aware of news reports about the video and "ongoing terrorist threats to NYC," and would fully investigate.

(Reporting by Frank McGurty in New York and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento and Dan Whitcomb and Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Editing by Ken Wills and Clarence Fernandez)

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:44

The religious views of Adolf Hitler are a matter of interest and debate. Hitler was raised by an increasingly anti-clerical father and devout Catholicmother.[1]Baptized as an infant and confirmed at the age of fifteen, he ceased attending Mass and participating in the sacraments in later life.[2][3] In adulthood Hitler became disdainful of Christianity, but in the pursuit and maintenance of power was prepared to delay clashes with the churches out of political considerations.[4] Hitler's architect Albert Speer believed he had "no real attachment" to Catholicism, but that he had never formally left the Church. Hitler was not excommunicated[5] prior to his suicide. The biographer John Toland noted Hitler's anticlericalism but considered him still in "good standing" with the Church by 1941, while historians such as Ian Kershaw, Joachim Fest and Alan Bullock agree that Hitler was anti-Christian'--a view evidenced by sources such as the Goebbels Diaries, the memoirs of Speer, and the transcripts edited by Martin Bormann contained within Hitler's Table Talk.[6] Goebbels wrote in 1941 that Hitler "hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity."[7] Some historians have come to the conclusion that Hitler intended to eventually eradicate Christianity in Germany,[8] while others maintain that there is insufficient evidence for such a plan.[9]

Hitler's public relationship to religion has been characterized as one of opportunistic pragmatism.[10] His regime did not publicly advocate for state atheism, but it did seek to reduce the influence of Christianity on society. Hitler himself was reluctant to make public attacks on the Church for political reasons, despite the urgings of Nazis like Bormann. Although he was skeptical of religion,[11][12] he did not present himself to the public as an atheist, and spoke of belief in an "almighty creator".[13][14] In private, he could be ambiguous.[15][16]Evans wrote that Hitler repeatedly stated that Nazism was a secular ideology founded on science, which in the long run could not "co-exist with religion".[17] In his semi-autobiographical Mein Kampf (1925/6) Hitler declared himself neutral in sectarian matters and supportive of separation between church and state, and he criticized political Catholicism.[18] The book presents a nihilistic, Social Darwinist vision, in which the universe is ordered around principles of struggle between weak and strong, rather than on conventional Christian notions.[19] In Mein Kampf, Hitler makes a number of religious allusions, claiming to be "acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator" and to have been chosen by providence.[14][20] In a 1922 speech he said,"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter [...] who [...] recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them..."[21] In a 1928 speech, he said: "We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity ... in fact our movement is Christian."[22] Given his hostility to Christianity, Laurence Rees wrote that "The most persuasive explanation of these statements is that Hitler, as a politician, simply recognised the practical reality of the world he inhabited... Had Hitler distanced himself or his movement too much from Christianity, it is all but impossible to see how he could ever have been successful in a free election".[23]Alan Bullock wrote that even though Hitler frequently employed the language of "divine providence" in defence of his own myth, he ultimately shared with the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin a materialistic outlook "based on the nineteenth century rationalists' certainty that the progress of science would destroy all myths and had already proved Christian doctrine to be an absurdity".[24] According to Geoffrey Blainey, when the Nazis became the main opponent of Communism in Germany, Hitler saw Christianity as a temporary ally.[25] He made various public comments against "bolshevistic" atheist movements, and in favor of so-called "positive Christianity" (a movement which sought to nazify Christianity by purging it of its Jewish elements, the Old Testament and key doctrines like the Apostles' Creed).[18] While campaigning for office in the early 1930s, Hitler offered moderate public statements on Christianity, promising not to interfere with the churches if given power, and calling Christianity the foundation of German morality. Kershaw considers that use of such rhetoric served to placate potential criticism from the Church. According to Max Domarus, Hitler had fully discarded belief in the Judeo-Christian conception of God by 1937, but continued to use the word "God" in speeches.

In office, the Hitler regime connived at a Kirchenkampf (lit. church struggle). While wary of open conflict with the churches, Hitler generally permitted or encouraged anti-church radicals such as Himmler, Goebbels and Bormann to perpetrate their persecutions of the churches.[26] According to Evans, by 1939, 95% of Germans still called themselves Protestant or Catholic, with 3.5% 'Deist' (gottgl¤ubig) and 1.5% atheist'--most in these latter categories being "convinced Nazis who had left their Church at the behest of the Party, which had been trying since the mid-1930s to reduce the influence of Christianity in society".[27]Gottgl¤ubig" (lit. "believers in God"), had a non-denominational, nazified outlook on divine beliefs, often described as predominantly based on creationist and deistic views.[28] Despite all the promotion for positive Christianity and the gottgl¤ubig movement, the majority of the three million Nazi Party members continued to pay their church taxes and register as either Roman Catholic or mainline Protestant Christians.[29] Hitler angered the churches by appointing the neo-pagan Alfred Rosenberg as official Nazi ideologist. He launched an effort toward coordination of German Protestants under a unified Protestant Reich Church under the Deutsche Christen movement, but the attempt failed'--resisted by the Confessing Church. The Deutsche Christens differed from traditional Christians by rejecting the Hebrew origins of Christianity, preaching of an Aryan Jesus and saying that Saint Paul, as a Jew, had falsified Jesus' message'--a theme Hitler repeated in private conversations, including, according to Susannah Heschel, in October 1941, when he made the decision to murder the Jews.[30] From around 1934, Hitler had lost interest in supporting the Deutsche Christen.[31] He moved early to eliminate political Catholicism, while agreeing to a Reich concordat with Rome which promised autonomy for the Catholic Church in Germany. His regime routinely violated the treaty, closed all Catholic organisations that weren't strictly religious, and perpetrated a persecution of the Catholic Church. Smaller religious minorities faced far harsher repression, with the Jews of Germany expelled for extermination on the grounds of racist ideology and Jehovah's Witnessesruthlessly persecuted for refusing both military service and any allegiance to Hitlerism.

Kershaw wrote that few people could really claim to "know" Hitler, who was "a very private, even secretive individual".[32]Hitler's Table Talk has him often voicing stridently negative views of Christianity, in which Hitler said: "The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity." Bullock wrote that Hitler was a rationalist and materialist who saw Christianity as a religion "fit for slaves" and against the natural law of selection and survival of the fittest.[34] Toland, while noting Hitler's antagonism to the Pope and Church hierarchy, drew links between Hitler's Catholic background and his anti-Semitism.[35] Following meetings with Hitler, General Gerhard Engel and Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber wrote that Hitler was a believer. Kershaw cites Faulhaber's case as an example of Hitler's ability to deceive "even hardened critics". Steigmann-Gall saw a "Christian element" in Hitler's early writings and evidence that he continued to hold Jesus in high esteem as an "Aryan fighter" who struggled against Jewry.[36][37] Use of the term "positive Christianity" in the Nazi Party Program of the 1920s is commonly regarded as a tactical measure, but Steigmann-Gall believes it may have had an "inner logic" and been "more than a political ploy", though he notes that over time the Nazi movement became "increasingly hostile to the churches".[38]John S. Conway considered that Steigmann-Gall's analysis differed from earlier interpretations only by "degree and timing", but that if Hitler's early speeches evidenced a sincere appreciation of Christianity, "this Nazi Christianity was eviscerated of all the most essential orthodox dogmas" leaving only "the vaguest impression combined with anti-Jewish prejudice..." which few would recognize as "true Christianity".[39] Laurence Rees concludes that "Hitler's relationship in public to Christianity'--indeed his relationship to religion in general'--was opportunistic. There is no evidence that Hitler himself, in his personal life, ever expressed any individual belief in the basic tenets of the Christian church".[23]

Reliable historical details on the childhood of Adolf Hitler are scarce.

Hitler was born in 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria[40] and was baptised Catholic in the same year. Hitler's father Alois, though nominally a Catholic, was somewhat religiously skeptical and anticlerical,[41] while his mother Klara was a devout practicing Catholic.[42]

Hitler attended several primary schools. For six months, the family lived opposite a Benedictine Monastery at Lambach, and on some afternoons, Hitler attended the choir school there.[43] Around this time, Hitler is said to have dreamed of taking holy orders.[44][45][46] Hitler was confirmed on 22 May 1904. Rissmann relates a story where a boyhood friend[who?] claimed that after Hitler had left home, he never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.[2]

In 1909, Hitler moved to Vienna. According to Bullock, his intellectual interests vacillated and his reading included "Ancient Rome, the Eastern religions, Yoga, Occultism, Hypnotism, Astrology, Protestantism, each in turn excited his interest for a moment... He struck people as unbalanced. He gave rein to his hatreds'--against the Jews, the priests, the Social Democrats, the Habsburgs'--without restraint".[47]

AnalysisAccording to historian Michael Rissmann, young Hitler was influenced by Pan-Germanism and began to reject the Catholic Church, receiving confirmation only unwillingly.[2] Toland wrote of the 1904 ceremony at Linz Cathedral that Hitler's confirmation sponsor said he nearly had to "drag the words out of him... almost as though the whole confirmation was repugnant to him".[48]

Adulthood and political career[edit]Hitler's public and private statements on religion were often in conflict. The biographer Kershaw wrote that few people could really claim to "know" Hitler'--"he was by temperament a very private, even secretive individual", unwilling to confide in others.[32] In private Hitler scorned Christianity to his friends, but when out campaigning for power in Germany, he publicly made statements in favour of the religion.[49] "The most persuasive explanation of these statements", wrote Laurence Rees, "is that Hitler, as a politician, simply recognised the practical reality of the world he inhabited... Had Hitler distanced himself or his movement too much from Christianity it is all but impossible to see how he could ever have been successful in a free election. Thus his relationship in public to Christianity'--indeed his relationship to religion in general'--was opportunistic. There is no evidence that Hitler himself, in his personal life, ever expressed any individual belief in the basic tenets of the Christian church".[23]

Though Hitler retained some regard for the organizational power of Catholicism, he had utter contempt for its central teachings, which he said, if taken to their conclusion, "would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure".[50] In Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Alan Bullock, wrote that Hitler was a rationalist and a materialist with no feeling for the spiritual or emotional side of human existence: a "man who believed neither in God nor in conscience ('a Jewish invention, a blemish like circumcision')".[51] In Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, Bullock added that Hitler, like Napoleon before him, frequently employed the language of "divine providence" in defence of his own myth, but ultimately shared with the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "the same materialist outlook, based on the nineteenth century rationalists' certainty that the progress of science would destroy all myths and had already proved Christian doctrine to be an absurdity".[24]

For political reasons, Hitler restrained his anti-clericalism and refused "to let himself be drawn into attacking the Church publicly, as Bormann and other Nazis would have liked him to do. But he promised himself that, when the time came, he would settle his account with the priests of both creeds. When he did, he would not be restrained by any judicial scruples".[52] German conservative elements, such as the officer corps, opposed Nazi efforts against the churches.[50][53] In the long run, Hitler intended to destroy the influence of the Christian churches:[34]

Hitler had been brought up a Catholic and was impressed by the organization and power of the Church. For Protestant clergy he felt only contempt: 'They are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs...[-] They have neither a religion you can take seriously nor a great position to defend like Rome'. It was the 'great position' of the Church that he respected; towards its teaching he showed only the sharpest hostility. In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves; he detested its ethics in particular. Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest.According to Max Domarus, although Hitler did not "abide by its commandments", he retained elements of the Catholic thinking of his upbringing even into the initial years of his rule: "As late as 1933, he still described himself publicly as a Catholic. Only the spreading poison of his lust for power and self idolatry finally crowded out the memories of childhood beliefs and in 1937 he jettisoned the last of his personal religious convictions, declaring to comrades, 'Now I feel as fresh as a colt in the pasture'", wrote Domarus.[54] Ultimately, Domarus believed, Hitler replaced belief in the Judeo-Christian God with belief in a peculiarly German "god".[54] He promoted the idea of God as the creator of Germany, but Hitler "was not a Christian in any accepted meaning of that word."[55] Domarus also points out that Hitler did not believe in organized religion and did not see himself as a religious reformer.[55]

According to historian Laurence Rees, "Hitler did not believe in the afterlife, but he did believe he would have a life after death because of what he had achieved."[56] Historian Richard Overy maintains that Hitler was not a "practising Christian," nor was he a "thorough atheist."[57] According to Robert S. Wistrich Hitler thought Christianity was finished but wanted no direct confrontation for strategic reasons.[58] Samuel Koehne, a Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, working on the official Nazi views on religion, answers the question Was Hitler a Christian? thus: "Emphatically not, if we consider Christianity in its traditional or orthodox form: Jesus as the son of God, dying for the redemption of the sins of all humankind. It is nonsense to state that Hitler (or any of the Nazis) adhered to Christianity of this form."[59] Koehne says Hitler was probably not an atheist and refers to the fact that recent works have asserted that he was a deist.[59] Richard Evans concluded his statements on Hitler's religious views by suggesting that the gap between Hitler's public and private pronouncements was due to a desire not to cause a quarrel with the churches that might undermine national unity.[60]

In The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, it is noted that Hitler supported the Deutsche Christen church which rejected the Hebrew origins of the Gospel, and stated that Jesus was an Aryan and that Paul as a Jew had falsified Jesus's message, a theme Hitler repeatedly mentioned in private conversations. In October 1941, when Hitler made the decision to murder the Jews, he repeated that very proclamation.[30]

Richard Steigmann-Gall saw evidence of a "Christian element" in Hitler's early writings.[36] Steigmann-Gall wrote that while use of the term "positive Christianity" in the Nazi Party Program of 1920 is commonly regarded as a tactical measure", he himself believes that it was "more than a political ploy for winning votes" and instead adhered to an "inner logic".[61] Though anti-Christians later fought to "expunge Christian influence from Nazism" and the movement became "increasingly hostile to the churches", Steigmann-Gall wrote that even in the end, it was not "uniformly anti-Christian".[38] Even after a rupture with institutional Christianity (which he dated to around 1937), Steigmann-Gall saw evidence that Hitler continued to hold Jesus in high esteem, considering him to have been an Aryan fighter who struggled against Jewry.[37] In Hitler's view, Jesus' true Christian teachings had been corrupted by the apostlePaul, who had transformed them into a kind of Jewish Bolshevism, which Hitler believed preached "the equality of all men amongst themselves, and their obedience to an only god. This is what caused the death of the Roman Empire." Steigmann-Gall concluded that Hitler was religious at least in the 1920s and early 1930s, citing him as expressing a belief in God, divine providence, and Jesus as an Aryan opponent of the Jews.[63] However, he admits that by holding this position he "argues against the consensus that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it."[64]

Historian John S. Conway wrote that Steigmann-Gall made an "almost convincing case" and was "right to point out that there never was a consensus among the leading Nazis about the relationship between the Party and Christianity," but that "The differences between this interpretation and those put forward earlier are really only ones of degree and timing. Steigmann-Gall agrees that from 1937 onwards, Nazi policy toward the churches became much more hostile... [he] argues persuasively that the Nazi Party's 1924 program and Hitler's policy-making speeches of the early years were not just politically motivated or deceptive in intent... Steigmann-Gall considers these speeches to be a sincere appreciation of Christianity... Yet he is not ready to admit that this Nazi Christianity was eviscerated of all the most essential orthodox dogmas. What remained was the vaguest impression combined with anti-Jewish prejudice. Only a few radicals on the extreme wing of liberal Protestantism would recognize such a mish-mash as true Christianity.[39]

The Anschluss saw the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in early 1938. The Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, had traveled to Germany to meet Hitler, who, according to Schuschnigg's later testimony, went into a threatening rage against the role of Austria in German history, saying, "Every national idea was sabotaged by Austria throughout history; and indeed all this sabotage was the chief activity of the Habsburgs and the Catholic Church." This ended in Hitler's ultimatum to end Austrian independence and hand the nation to the Nazis.[65]

The biographer John Toland, noted that, in the aftermath of an attempted assassination in 1939, Hitler told dinner guests that Pope Pius XII would rather have seen the "plot succeed" and "was no friend of mine".[66] Later in his biographical study, Toland wrote that in 1941 Hitler was still "a member in good standing of the Church of Rome despite his detestation of its hierarchy, he carried within himself its teaching that the Jew was the killer of God. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of God '-- so long as it was done impersonally, without cruelty."[67] (for the official Catholic position against Nazi racism in the 1930s see Mit brennender Sorge). Derek Hastings sees Hitler's commitment to Christianity as more tenuous. He considers it "eminently plausible" that Hitler was a believing Catholic as late as his trial in 1924, but writes that "there is little doubt that Hitler was a staunch opponent of Christianity throughout the duration of the Third Reich."[68]

Following the 1944 assassination attempt in the "20 July plot", Hitler reportedly credited his survival to divine intervention. German deputy press chief Helmut Suendermann declared, "The German people must consider the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life as a sign that Hitler will complete his tasks under the protection of a divine power".[69]

In his writings on Hitler's recurrent religious images and symbols, Kenneth Burke concluded that "Hitler's modes of thought are nothing more than perverted or caricatured forms of religious thought"[70]

Mein Kampf[edit]Hitler combined elements of autobiography with an exposition of his racist political ideology in Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), published between 1925 and 1927.[71] According to the biographer Ian Kershaw, the reflections Hitler himself provided in Mein Kampf are "inaccurate in detail and coloured in interpretation", information that was given during the Nazi period is "dubious", as can be the postwar recollections of family and acquaintances.[72] The book contains various religious pronouncements.[14]Laurence Rees described the thrust of the work as "bleak nihilism" revealing a cold universe with no moral structure other than the fight between different people for supremacy: "What's missing from Mein Kampf", wrote Rees'--"and this is a fact that has not received the acknowledgement it should'--is any emphasis on Christianity"'--though Germany, Rees noted, had been Christian for a thousand years. So, concluded Rees, "the most coherent reading of Mein Kampf is that whilst Hitler was prepared to believe in an initial creator God, he did not accept the conventional Christian vision of heaven and hell, nor the survival of an individual "soul"... we are animals and just like animals we face the choice of destroying or being destroyed."[23]Mein Kampf makes various statements on Christianity.[14]

Paul Berben wrote that insofar as the Christian denominations were concerned, Hitler declared himself to be neutral in Mein Kampf'--but argued for clear separation between church and state, and for the church not to concern itself with the earthly life of the people, which must be the domain of the state.[49] According to William Shirer, Hitler "inveighed against political Catholicism in Mein Kampf and attacked the two main Christian churches for their failure to recognise the racial problem...", while also warning that no political party could succeed in "producing a religious reformation".[18]

Hitler wrote of the importance of a definite and uniformly accepted Weltanschauung (world view), and noted that the diminished position of religion in Europe had led to a decline in necessary certainties'--"yet this human world of ours would be inconceivable without the practical existence of religious belief." The various substitutes hitherto offered could not "usefully replace the existing denominations."[73]

The political leader should not estimate the worth of a religion by taking some of its shortcomings into account, but he should ask himself whether there be any practical substitute in a view which is demonstrably better. Until such a substitute be available, only fools and criminals would think of abolishing existing religion.Examining how to establish a new order, Hitler argued that the greatness of powerful organizations was reliant on intolerance of all others, so that the greatness of Christianity arose from the "unrelenting and fanatical proclamation and defence of its own teaching." Hitler rejected a view that Christianity brought civilization to the Germanic peoples, however: "It is therefore outrageously unjust to speak of the pre-Christian Germans as barbarians who had no civilization. They never have been such." Foreshadowing his conflict with the Catholic Church over euthanasia in Nazi Germany, Hitler wrote that the churches should give up missionary work in Africa, and concentrate on convincing Europeans that is more pleasing to God if they adopt orphans rather than "give life to a sickly child that will be a cause of suffering and unhappiness to all."[73] The Christian churches should forget about their own differences and focus on the issue of "racial contamination," he declared.[73]

The two Christian denominations look on with indifference at the profanation and destruction of a noble and unique creature who was given to the world as a gift of God's grace. For the future of the world, however, it does not matter which of the two triumphs over the other, the Catholic or the Protestant. But it does matter whether Aryan humanity survives or perishes.'--'‰Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

When he arrived in Vienna as a young man, Hitler recalled, he was not yet anti-Semitic: "In the Jew I still saw only a man who was of a different religion, and therefore, on grounds of human tolerance, I was against the idea that he should be attacked because he had a different faith."[74] He thought that anti-Semitism based on religious, rather than racial grounds, was a mistake: "The anti-Semitism of the Christian-Socialists was based on religious instead of racial principles. The reason for this mistake gave rise to the second error also... this shilly-shally way of dealing with the problem the anti-Semitism of the Christian-Socialists turned out to be quite ineffective.[75]

In Mein Kampf, Richard Steigmann-Gall saw "no indication of [Hitler] being an atheist or agnostic or of believing in only a remote, rationalist divinity, writing that Hitler referred continually to a providential, active deity."[76]

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."[77]

"His [the Jewish person's] life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine. Of course, the latter made no secret of his attitude toward the Jewish people, and when necessary he even took to the whip to drive from the temple of the Lord this adversary of all humanity, who then as always saw in religion nothing but an instrument for his business existence. In return, Christ was nailed to the cross, while our present-day party Christians debase themselves to begging for Jewish votes at elections and later try to arrange political swindles with atheistic Jewish parties'--and this against their own nation." [78]

In an attempt to justify Nazi aggression, Hitler drew a parallel between militantism and Christianity's rise to power as the Roman Empire's official state religion:

"The individual may establish with pain today that with the appearance of Christianity the first spiritual terror entered into the far freer ancient world, but he will not be able to contest the fact that since then the world has been afflicted and dominated by this coercion, and that coercion is broken only by coercion, and terror only by terror. Only then can a new state of affairs be constructively created. Political parties are inclined to compromises; philosophies never. Political parties even reckon with opponents; philosophies proclaim their infallibility."[79]

Elsewhere in Mein Kampf, Hitler speaks of the "creator of the universe" and "eternal Providence." He also states his belief that the Aryan race was created by God, and that it would be a sin to dilute it through racial intermixing:

"The v¶lkisch-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will."[80]

In Mein Kampf, Hitler saw Jesus as against the Jews rather than one of them: "And the founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God."[81]

Hitler to confidants[edit]Hitler's intimates, such as Joseph Goebbels, Albert Speer, and Martin Bormann, recorded that Hitler was deeply hostile to Christianity. Ian Kershaw wrote that, while Hitler would occasionally tell his inner circle that he wanted to delay the "church struggle" out of political considerations, his inflammatory remarks gave his underlings license to intensify it.[31] In 1945, his sister Paula was recorded as having stated "...I don't believe he ever left the [Catholic] church. I don't know for sure."[82]

Speer on Hitler and religionIn his memoirs, Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, wrote: "Amid his political associates in Berlin, Hitler made harsh pronouncements against the church...", yet "he conceived of the church as an instrument that could be useful to him":[83]

Around 1937, when Hitler heard that at the instigation of the party and the SS vast numbers of his followers had left the church because it was obstinately opposing his plans, he nevertheless ordered his chief associates, above all Goering and Goebbels, to remain members of the church. He too would remain a member of the Catholic Church he said, although he had no real attachment to it. And in fact he remained in the church until his suicide.The Goebbels Diaries also remark on this policy. Goebbels wrote on 29 April 1941 that though Hitler was "a fierce opponent" of the Vatican and Christianity, "he forbids me to leave the church. For tactical reasons."[84]

According to Speer, Hitler's private secretary, Martin Bormann, relished recording any harsh pronouncements against the church: "there was hardly anything he wrote down more eagerly than deprecating comments on the church".[85] Speer wrote that Bormann was the driving force behind the regime's campaign against the churches. Hitler approved of Bormann's aims, but was more pragmatic and wanted to "postpone this problem to a more favourable time":[86]

"Once I have settled my other problem," [Hitler] occasionally declared, "I'll have my reckoning with the church. I'll have it reeling on the ropes." But Bormann did not want this reckoning postponed [...] he would take out a document from his pocket and begin reading passages from a defiant sermon or pastoral letter. Frequently Hitler would become so worked up... and vowed to punish the offending clergyman eventually... That he could not immediately retaliate raised him to a white heat...'--'‰Extract from Inside the Third Reich, the memoir of Albert Speer

Hitler, wrote Speer, viewed Christianity as the wrong religion for the "Germanic temperament":[83] Speer wrote that Hitler would say: "You see, it's been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn't we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?"[87] Speer also wrote of observing in Hitler "quite a few examples", and that he held a negative view toward Himmler and Rosenberg's mystical notions.[88][89]

Bormann and Hitler's Table TalkExtensive transcripts on Hitler's thoughts on religion are contained within Hitler's Table Talk. Between 1941 and 1944, Hitler's words were recorded in these transcripts.[90] The transcripts concern not only Hitler's views on war and foreign affairs, but also his characteristic attitudes on religion, culture, philosophy, personal aspirations, and his feelings towards his enemies and friends. Within the transcripts, Hitler speaks of Christianity as "absurdity" and "humbug" founded on "lies" with which he could "never come personally to terms."

Michael Burleigh contrasted Hitler's public pronouncements on Christianity with those in Table Talk, suggesting that Hitler's real religious views were "a mixture of materialist biology, a faux-Nietzschean contempt for core, as distinct from secondary, Christian values, and a visceral anti-clericalism."[93] Richard Evans also reiterated the view that Nazism was secular, scientific and anti-religious in outlook in the last volume of his trilogy on Nazi Germany: "Hitler's hostility to Christianity reached new heights, or depths, during the war;" his source for this was the 1953 English translation of Table Talk.[60]

The widespread consensus among historians is that the views expressed in Trevor-Roper's translation of Table Talk, are credible and reliable, although as with all historical sources, a high level of critical awareness about its origins and purpose are advisable in using it.[94] The remarks from Table Talk accepted as genuine include such quotes as "Christianity is the prototype of Bolshevism: the mobillization by the Jew of the masses of slaves with the object of undermining society."[95] Alan Bullock's seminal biography Hitler: A Study in Tyranny quotes Hitler as saying, "Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure"; found also in Table Talk, and repeats other views appearing in Table Talk such as: the teachings of Christianity are a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and survival of the fittest.[97]

In the transcripts, Hitler spoke of the myths of religion crumbling before scientific advances, saying that: "The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble. All that's left is to prove that in nature there is no frontier between the organic and the inorganic. When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity."

In Table Talk, Hitler praised Julian the Apostate's Three Books Against the Galilaeans, an anti-Christian tract from AD 362, in the entry dated 21 October 1941, stating: "When one thinks of the opinions held concerning Christianity by our best minds a hundred, two hundred years ago, one is ashamed to realise how little we have since evolved. I didn't know that Julian the Apostate had passed judgment with such clear-sightedness on Christianity and Christians. ... Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism the destroyer. Nevertheless, the Galilean, who later was called the Christ, intended something quite different. He must be regarded as a popular leader who took up His position against Jewry.... and it's certain that Jesus was not a Jew. The Jews, by the way, regarded Him as the son of a whore'--of a whore and a Roman soldier. The decisive falsification of Jesus's doctrine was the work of St. Paul. He gave himself to this work with subtlety and for purposes of personal exploitation. For the Galilean's object was to liberate His country from Jewish oppression. He set Himself against Jewish capitalism, and that's why the Jews liquidated Him. Paul of Tarsus (his name was Saul, before the road to Damascus) was one of those who persecuted Jesus most savagely."

Goebbels on Hitler and religionAccording to the Goebbels Diaries, Hitler hated Christianity. In an 8 April 1941 entry, Goebbels wrote "He hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity." Hitler, wrote Goebbels, saw the pre-Christian Augustinian Age as the high point of history, and could not relate to the Gothic mind nor to "brooding mysticism".[7] In another entry, Goebbels wrote that Hitler was "deeply religious but entirely anti-Christian."[100][101] Goebbels wrote on 29 December 1939:[102]

The F¼hrer is deeply religious, though completely anti-Christian. He views Christianity as a symptom of decay. Rightly so. It is a branch of the Jewish race. This can be seen in the similarity of their religious rites. Both (Judaism and Christianity) have no point of contact to the animal element, and thus, in the end they will be destroyed. The Fuhrer is a convinced vegetarian on principle.In his diary Goebbels reported that Hitler believed Jesus "also wanted to act against the Jewish world domination. Jewry had him crucified. But Paul falsified his doctrine and undermined ancient Rome."[103] Goebbels notes in a diary entry in 1939 a conversation in which Hitler had "expressed his revulsion against Christianity. He wished that the time were ripe for him to be able to openly express that. Christianity had corrupted and infected the entire world of antiquity."[104]

In 1937, Goebbels noted Hitler's approval of anti-Christian propaganda and the show trials of clergy. Hitler's impatience with the churches, wrote Kershaw, "prompted frequent outbursts of hostility. In early 1937 he was declaring that 'Christianity was ripe for destruction', and that the Churches must yield to the "primacy of the state", railing against any compromise with "the most horrible institution imaginable".[31] In his entry for 29 April 1941, Goebbels noted long discussions about the Vatican and Christianity, and wrote: "The Fuhrer is a fierce opponent of all that humbug".[84]

Religion in Hitler's rhetoric[edit]Hitler typically tailored his message to his audience's perceived sensibilities.[32][105] In the early 1930s, Hitler's public comments on Christianity were moderate.[106] In public speeches, he often made statements that affirmed a belief in Christianity.[107] According to Max Domarus, Hitler had fully discarded belief in the Judeo-Christian conception of God by 1937, but continued to use the word "God" in speeches'--but it was not the God "who has been worshiped for millennia", but a new and peculiarly German "god" who "let iron grow". Thus Hitler told the British journalist Ward Price in 1937: "I believe in God, and I am convinced that He will not desert 67 million Germans who have worked so hard to regain their rightful position in the world."[108]

According to Bullock, Hitler had a materialist outlook, that believed science had already discredited Christianity and would ultimately destroy all myths'--but he continued to speak of "Providence" to support his own myth:

Hitler's own myth had to be protected, and this led him, like Napoleon, to speak frequently of Providence, as a necessary if unconscious projection of his sense of destiny which provided him with both justification and absolution. 'The Russians', he remarked on one occasion 'were entitled to attack their priests, but they had no right to assail the idea of a supreme force. It's a fact that we're feeble creatures and that a creative force exists'".Historian Joachim Fest wrote, "Hitler knew, through the constant invocation of the God the Lord (German: Herrgott) or of providence (German: Vorsehung), to make the impression of a godly way of thought."[109] He had an "ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity [from Bolshevism]" wrote Kershaw, which served to deflect direct criticism of him from Church leaders, who instead focused their condemnations on the known "anti-Christian party radicals".[110]

In public statements, especially at the beginning of his rule, Hitler frequently spoke positively about a Nazi vision of Christian German culture,[107] and his belief in an AryanChrist.[111] In 1922, a decade before his ascension to power, Hitler stated before a crowd in Munich:

My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. As a Christian, I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."[112]Key voting blocs which Hitler needed to persuade to drop their opposition to a Nazi Government were the Catholic Centre Party and German conservatives. He pursued their votes with a mix of intimidation, negotiation and conciliation.[113] In a proclamation to the German Nation February 1, 1933, Hitler stated, "The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life."[114]

On 23 March 1933, just prior to the crucial Reichstag vote for the Enabling Act which effectively dissolved Parliamentary government in Germany, Hitler described the Christian faiths as "essential elements for safeguarding the soul of the German people" and "We hold the spiritual forces of Christianity to be indispensable elements in the moral uplift of most of the German people."[18][115] "With an eye to the votes of the Catholic Centre Party", wrote Shirer, he added that he hoped to improve relations with the Holy See.[18] He promised that the passing of the Enabling Act would not threaten the Reichstag, the President, the States or the Churches. Hitler secured passage of the Act, but did not honour these promises.[116]

According to Steigmann-Gall, Hitler's references to Jesus, God as the "Lord of Creation" and the necessity of obeying "His will" reveals that Christianity was fused into his thinking. "What Christianity achieves is not dogma, it does not seek the outward ecclesiastical form, but rather ethical principles.... There is no religion and no philosophy that equals it in its moral content; no philosophical ethics is better able to defuse the tension between this life and the hereafter, from which Christianity and its ethic were born," Hitler stated.[117]

The propaganda machinery of the Nazi party actively promoted Hitler as a saviour of Christianity,[118] and Nazi propaganda supported the German Christians in their formation of a single national church that could be controlled and manipulated.[119]

During negotiations relating to the Concordat with the Catholic Church and the Nazis state in 1933, Hitler said to Bishop Wilhelm Berning: "I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc, because it recognised the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism the danger was no longer recognised. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognise the representatives of this race as pestilant for the state and for the church and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions".[120]

John Cornwell quotes Hitler as saying in 1933: "The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism is hostile to religion is a lie." Letter to the Nazi Party, 22 July 1933; John Cornwell (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. New York: Penguin, p. 118.

If positive Christianity means love of one's neighbour, i.e. the tending of the sick, the clothing of the poor, the feeding of the hungry, the giving of drink to those who are thirsty, then it is we who are the more positive Christians. For in these spheres the community of the people of National Socialist Germany has accomplished a prodigious work'--'‰Speech to the Old Guard at Munich 24 February 1939[121]Author Konrad Heiden has quoted Hitler as stating, "We do not want any other god than Germany itself. It is essential to have fanatical faith and hope and love in and for Germany."[122]

According to Steigmann-Gall, Hitler never directed his attacks on Jesus himself,[123] whom Hitler regarded as an Aryan opponent of the Jews.[124] Hitler viewed traditional Christianity as a corruption of the original ideas of Jesus by the Apostle Paul. In Mein Kampf Hitler had written that Jesus "made no secret of his attitude toward the Jewish people, and when necessary he even took the whip to drive from the temple of the Lord this adversary of all humanity, who then as always saw in religion nothing but an instrument for his business existence. In return, Christ was nailed to the cross."[125] In a speech 26 June 1934, Hitler stated:

The National Socialist State professes its allegiance to positive Christianity. It will be its honest endeavour to protect both the great Christian Confessions in their rights, to secure them from interference with their doctrines (Lehren), and in their duties to constitute a harmony with the views and the exigencies of the State of today.[126]

Former Prime Minister of Bavaria, Count von Lerchenfeld-K¶fering stated in a speech before the Landtag of Bavaria, that his beliefs "as a man and a Christian" prevented him from being an anti-Semite or from pursuing anti-Semitic public policies. Hitler while speaking the B¼rgerbr¤ukeller turned Lerchenfeld's perspective of Jesus on its head:

I would like here to appeal to a greater than I, Count Lerchenfeld. He said in the last session of the Landtag that his feeling 'as a man and a Christian' prevented him from being an anti-Semite. I say: My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. .. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison.[127]

Hitler and atheism[edit]Adolf Hitler was skeptical of all religious belief.[11]Alan Bullock saw Hitler as a "materialist", not only in his "dismissal of religion" but also in his "insensitivity to humanity".[12] Hitler's materialist outlook, wrote Bullock, was "based on the nineteenth century rationalists' certainty that the progress of science would destroy all myths and had already proved Christian doctrine to be an absurdity".[24]Richard J. Evans wrote that "Hitler emphasised again and again his belief that Nazism was a secular ideology founded on modern science. Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition [-] 'In the long run', [Hitler] concluded, 'National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together'".[17]

Samuel Koehne of Deakin University wrote in 2010: "Was Hitler an atheist? Probably not. But it remains very difficult to ascertain his personal religious beliefs, and the debate rages on." While Hitler was emphatically not "Christian" by the traditional or orthodox notion of the term, wrote Koehne, he did speak of a deity whose work was nature and natural laws, "conflating God and nature to the extent that they became one and the same thing..." and that "For this reason, some recent works have argued Hitler was a Deist".[128]

During his career, and for a variety of reasons, Hitler made various comments against "atheistic" movements. He associated atheism with Bolshevism, Communism, and Jewish materialism.[129] In 1933, the regime banned most atheistic and freethinking groups in Germany'--other than those that supported the Nazis.[130][131]

In A Short History of Christianity, the historian Geoffrey Blainey wrote that Hitler and his Fascist ally Mussolini were atheists, but that Hitler courted and benefited from fear among German Christians of militant Communist atheism.[25] "The aggressive spread of atheism in the Soviet Union alarmed many German Christians", wrote Blainey, and with the National Socialists becoming the main opponent of Communism in Germany: "[Hitler] himself saw Christianity as a temporary ally, for in his opinion 'one is either a Christian or a German'. To be both was impossible. Nazism itself was a religion, a pagan religion, and Hitler was its high priest... Its high altar [was] Germany itself and the German people, their soil and forests and language and traditions".[25]

Through 1933 and into 1934, Hitler required a level of support from groups like the German conservatives and the Catholic Centre Party in the Reichstag, and of the conservative President von Hindenberg, in order to achieve his takeover of power with the "appearance of legality".[132] During this period, he gave a number of undertakings not to threaten the German churches. On 21 March 1933, the Reichstag assembled in the Potsdam Garrison Church, to show the "unity" of National Socialism with the old conservative Germany of President von Hindenburg. Two days later, the Nazis secured passage of the Enabling Act, granting Hitler dictatorial powers. Less than three months later all non-Nazi parties and organizations, including the Catholic Centre Party had ceased to exist.[133]

In early 1933, Hitler publicly defended National Socialism against charges that it was anti-Christian. Responding to accusations by Eugen Bolz, the Catholic Centre Party Staatspr¤sident of W¼rttemberg, that the National Socialist movement threatened the Christian faith, he said:

And now Staatspr¤sident Bolz says that Christianity and the Catholic faith are threatened by us. And to that charge I can answer: In the first place it is Christians and not international atheists who now stand at the head of Germany. I do not merely talk of Christianity, no, I also profess that I will never ally myself with the parties which destroy Christianity. If many wish today to take threatened Christianity under their protection, where, I would ask, was Christianity for them in these fourteen years when they went arm in arm with atheism? No, never and at no time was greater internal damage done to Christianity than in these fourteen years when a party, theoretically Christian, sat with those who denied God in one and the same Government.Hitler's speech referred to the political alliances of the Catholic aligned Centre Party with parties of the Left, which he associated with Bolshevism, and thus, atheism. Eugen Bolz was forced from office soon after the Nazis took power, and imprisoned for a time. Later he was executed by the Nazi regime.

During negotiations leading to the Reichskonkordat with the Vatican, Hitler said that "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith."[135] However, as Hitler consolidated his power, schools became a major battleground in the Nazi campaign against the churches. In 1937, the Nazis banned any member of the Hitler Youth from simultaneously belonging to a religious youth movement. Religious education was not permitted in the Hitler Youth and by 1939, clergymen teachers had been removed from virtually all state schools.[136] Hitler sometimes allowed pressure to be placed on German parents to remove children from religious classes to be given ideological instruction in its place, while in elite Nazi schools, Christian prayers were replaced with Teutonic rituals and sun-worship.[137] By 1939 all Catholic denominational schools had been disbanded or converted to public facilities.[138]

In a radio address October 14, 1933 Hitler stated, "For eight months we have been waging a heroic battle against the Communist threat to our Volk, the decomposition of our culture, the subversion of our art, and the poisoning of our public morality. We have put an end to denial of God and abuse of religion. We owe Providence humble gratitude for not allowing us to lose our battle against the misery of unemployment and for the salvation of the German peasant."[139]

In a speech delivered in Berlin, October 24, 1933, Hitler stated: "We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out."[140] In a speech delivered at Koblenz, August 26, 1934 Hitler said: "There may have been a time when even parties founded on the ecclesiastical basis were a necessity. At that time Liberalism was opposed to the Church, while Marxism was anti-religious. But that time is past. National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary, it stands on the ground of a real Christianity. The Church's interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of today, in our fight against the Bolshevist culture, against an atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for the consciousness of a community in our national life, for the conquest of hatred and disunion between the classes, for the conquest of civil war and unrest, of strife and discord. These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles."[141]

According to Kershaw, Hitler could "pull the wool over the eyes of even hardened critics", thus, following a meeting with Hitler, Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, a man who had "courageously criticized the Nazi attacks on the Catholic Church'--went away convinced that Hitler was deeply religious".[32] In November 1936 the Roman Catholic prelate met Hitler at Berghof for a three-hour meeting. He left the meeting convinced of Hitler's religiosity and wrote "The Reich Chancellor undoubtedly lives in belief in God. He recognises Christianity as the builder of Western culture".[142] Kershaw wrote this demonstrated Hitler's "evident ability to simulate, even to potentially critical church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity".[143] Nazi General Gerhard Engel also wrote that Hitler was a believer, having written in his diary that in 1941 that Hitler had stated: "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."[35][144]

In Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, Bullock wrote that Hitler, like Napoleon before him, frequently employed the language of "Providence" in order to defend his own myth and sense of destiny.[24] In Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Bullock wrote that Hitler's belief in himself had an echo of Hegel's thoughts on heroes standing above conventional morality and the role of "world-historical individuals" as the agents by which the "Will of the World Spirit", the plan of Providence is carried out. Hitler, wrote Bullock, came to see himself as "a man with a mission, marked out by Providence, and therefore exempt from the ordinary canons of human conduct". Bullock concluded: "It is in this sense of mission that Hitler, a man who believed neither in God nor in conscience ('a Jewish invention, a blemish like circumcision') found both justification and absolution". Following his early military successes, Hitler "abandoned himself entirely to megalomania" and the "sin of hybris", an exaggerated self-pride, believing himself to be more than a man.[145]

Transcripts contained in Hitler's Table Talk have Hitler expressing faith that science would wear away religion. On 14 October 1941, in an entry concerning the fate of Christianity, Hitler is reported to have said: "Science cannot lie, for it's always striving, according to the momentary state of knowledge, to deduce what is true. When it makes a mistake, it does so in good faith. It's Christianity that's the liar. It's in perpetual conflict with itself." The transcript continues: "The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. ... The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble."

Nevertheless, wrote Evans, by 1939, 95% of Germans still called themselves Protestant or Catholic, while 3.5% 'Deist' (gottglaubig) and 1.5% atheist. Most in these latter categories were "convinced Nazis who had left their Church at the behest of the Party, which had been trying since the mid 1930s to reduce the influence of Christianity in society".[27] Another alternative was the Gottgl¤ubig" (lit. "believers in god") position. This was non-denominational and nazified, often described as predominantly based on creationist and deistic views.[28]Heinrich Himmler, who himself was fascinated with Germanic paganism[citation needed], was a strong promoter of the gottgl¤ubig movement and didn't allow atheists into the SS, arguing that their "refusal to acknowledge higher powers" would be a "potential source of indiscipline".[147] This was coupled with a strong antipathy to Christianity among SS officers 'that far exceeded traditional anti-clericalism,' with priests portrayed as 'befrocked homosexuals', and deliberate elision between Christianity, Judaism and Communism.[147]Instead, they were encouraged to see Hitler as a Messianic figure and to adopt the religious aura that surrounded him for themselves as well.[147]

However, John Conway notes that the majority of the three million Nazi Party members continued to pay their church taxes and register as either Roman Catholic or Evangelical Protestant Christians, "despite all Rosenberg's efforts."[29]

Religion under Hitler[edit]Role of religion in the Nazi state[edit]Hitler emphasised that Nazism was a secular ideology founded on modern science.[17] In a diary entry of 28 December 1939, Joseph Goebbels wrote that "the Fuhrer passionately rejects any thought of founding a religion. He has no intention of becoming a priest. His sole exclusive role is that of a politician."[149] In Hitler's political relations dealing with religion he readily adopted a strategy "that suited his immediate political purposes."[150]

According to Marshall Dill, one of the greatest challenges the Nazi state faced in its effort to "eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least subjugate it to their general world outlook" was that the Nazis could not justifiably connect German faith communities to the corruption of the old regime, Weimar having no close connection to the churches.[151] Because of the long history of Christianity in Germany, Hitler could not attack Christianity as openly as he did Judaism, communism, or other political opponents.[151] The list of Nazi affronts to and attacks on the Catholic Church is long.[152] The attacks tended not to be overt, but were still dangerous; believers were made to feel that they were not good Germans and their leaders were painted as treasonous and contemptible.[152] The state removed crucifixes from the walls of Catholic classrooms and replaced it with a photo of the F¼hrer.[153]

Hitler issued a statement[when?] saying that he wished to avoid factional disputes in Germany's churches.[154] He feared the political power that the churches had, and did not want to openly antagonize that political base until he had securely gained control of the country. Once in power Hitler showed his contempt for "non-Aryan" religion and sought to eliminate it from areas under his rule.[155][156] Within Hitler's Nazi Party, some atheists were quite vocal, especially Martin Bormann.[157] According to Goebbels Hitler hated Christianity.[158] In 1939, Goebbels wrote that the Fuhrer knew that he would "have to get around to a conflict between church and state" but that in the meantime "The best way to deal with the churches is to claim to be a 'positive Christian'."[149]

Hitler often used religious speech and symbolism to promote Nazism to those that he feared would be disposed to act against him.[159][160] He also called upon religion as a pretext in diplomacies. The Soviet Union feared that if they commenced a programme of persecution against religion in the western regions, Hitler would use that as a pretext for war.[161]

In his childhood, Hitler had admired the pomp of Catholic ritual and the hierarchical organisation of the clergy. Later he drew on these elements, organizing his party along hierarchical lines and including liturgical forms into events or using phraseology taken from hymns.[162] Because of these liturgical elements, Daim's claim of Hitler's Messiah-like status and the ideology's totalitarian nature, the Nazi movement, like other fascist movements and Communism, is sometimes termed a "political religion" that is anti-ecclesiastical and anti-religious.[163][164] However, Robert Paxton cautions that the circumstances of past fascism does not mean that future fascisms can not "build upon a religion in place of a nation, or as the expression of national identity. Even in Europe, religion-based fascisms were not unknown: the Falange Espa±ola, Belgian Rexism, the Finnish Lapua Movement, and the Romanian Legion of the Archangel Michael are all good examples".[165]

In 1920, the aspiring revolutionary, Adolf Hitler, included use of the term "Positive Christianity" in the 1920 Nazi Party Platform. Non-denominational, the term could be variously interpreted, but allayed fears among Germany's Christian majority as to the oft expressed anti-Christian convictions of large sections of the Nazi movement.[10] The Platform promised to support freedom of religions with the caveat: "insofar as they do not jeopardize the state's existence or conflict with the moral sentiments of the Germanic race". It further proposed a definition of a "positive Christianity" which could combat the "Jewish-materialistic spirit".[166] In 1937, Hans Kerrl, Hitler's Minister for Church Affairs, explained "Positive Christianity" as not "dependent upon the Apostle's Creed", nor in "faith in Christ as the son of God", upon which Christianity relied, but rather, as being represented by the Nazi Party: "The Fuehrer is the herald of a new revelation", he said.[167]

Given Hitler's personal hostility to Christianity, historians, including Ian Kershaw and Laurence Rees, characterise his acceptance of the term "Positive Christianity" and involvement in religious policy as driven by opportunism, and a pragmatic recognition of the political importance of the Christian Churches in Germany.[10] Nevertheless, efforts by the regime to impose a "positive Christianity" on a state controlled Protestant Reich Church essentially failed, and resulted in the formation of the dissident Confessing Church which saw great danger to Germany from the "new religion".[168] The Catholic Church too denounced the creed's pagan myth of "blood and soil" in the 1937 papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge and elsewhere.

Prior to the Reichstag vote for the Enabling Act under which Hitler gained the "temporary" dictatorial powers with which he went on to permanently dismantle the Weimar Republic, Hitler promised the German Parliament that he would not interfere with the rights of the churches. However, with power secured in Germany, Hitler quickly broke this promise.[169][170] He divided the Protestant Church and instigated a brutal persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses.[171] He dishonoured a Concordat signed with the Vatican and permitted a persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany.[171][172]William Shirer wrote that, under the leadership of Alfred Rosenberg, Martin Bormann and Heinrich Himmler, backed by Hitler, the Nazis intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if they could."[173]

In office, the Nazi leadership co-opted the term Gleichschaltung to mean conformity and subservience to the National Socialist German Workers' Party line: "there was to be no law but Hitler, and ultimately no god but Hitler".[174]Nazi ideology conflicted with traditional Christianity in various respects. Nazis criticized Christian ideals of "meekness and guilt" on the basis that they "repressed the violent instincts necessary to prevent inferior races from dominating Aryans".[175] The Nazi-backed "positivist" or "German Christian" church sought to make the evangelical churches of Germany an instrument of Nazi policy.[176]

Persecution of the Churches[edit]In effort to counter the strength and influence of spiritual resistance, Nazi security services monitored clergy very closely.[177] Priests were frequently denounced, arrested and sent to concentration camps.[178] At Dachau Concentration Camp, the regime established a dedicated Clergy Barracks for church dissidents.[179][180]

Hitler possessed radical instincts in relation to the Nazi conflict with the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany, and though he occasionally spoke of wanting to delay the Church struggle and was prepared to restrain his anti-clericalism out of political considerations, his "own inflammatory comments gave his immediate underlings all the license they needed to turn up the heat in the 'Church Struggle', confident that they were 'working towards the F¼hrer'".[181] As with the "Jewish question", the radicals pushed the Church struggle forward, especially in Catholic areas, so that by the winter of 1935''1936 there was growing dissatisfaction with the Nazis in those areas.[182] Kershaw wrote that in early 1937, Hitler again told his inner circle that though he "did not want a 'Church struggle' at this juncture", he expected "the great world struggle in a few years' time". Nevertheless, wrote Kershaw, Hitler's impatience with the churches "prompted frequent outbursts of hostility. In early 1937 he was declaring that 'Christianity was ripe for destruction', and that the Churches must yield to the "primacy of the state", railing against any compromise with "the most horrible institution imaginable".[31]

CatholicismHitler moved quickly to eliminate Political Catholicism in Germany. Amid intimidation, the Bavarian People's Party and Catholic Centre Party had ceased to exist by early July. Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen meanwhile negotiated a Reich Concordat with the Vatican, which prohibited clergy from participating in politics.[183] "The agreement", wrote Shirer, "was hardly put to paper before it was being broken by the Nazi Government". Almost immediately Hitler promulgated the sterilisation law, and began work to dissolve the Catholic Youth League. Clergy, nuns and lay leaders began to be targeted, leading to thousands of arrests over the ensuing years, often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or "immorality".[184] In Hitler's bloody night of the long knives purge of 1934, leading Catholic dissidents Erich Klausener and Edgar Jung of Catholic Action were murdered, as was Adalbert Probst, the national director of the Catholic Youth Sports Association, and anti-Nazi Catholic journalist Fritz Gerlich.[185] Catholic publications were shut down. The Gestapo began to violate the sanctity of the confessional.[184] By early 1937, the church hierarchy in Germany, which had initially attempted to co-operate with Hitler, had become highly disillusioned and Pope Pius XI issued the Mit brennender Sorge encyclical'--accusing the Hitler regime of violations of the Concordat and of sowing the tares of "open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church".[184] Goebbels noted heightened verbal attacks on the clergy from Hitler in his diary and wrote that Hitler had approved the start of trumped up "immorality trials" against clergy and anti-Church propaganda campaign. Goebbels' orchestrated attack included a staged "morality trial" of 37 Franciscans.[181]

Hitler's invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland in 1939 ignited the Second World War. Kerhsaw wrote that, in Hitler's scheme for the Germanization of the East, "There would, he made clear, be no place in this utopia for the Christian Churches".[186] Hitler instigated a policy of murdering or suppressing the ethnic Polish elites: including religious leaders. He proclaimed: "Poles may have only one master '' a German. Two masters cannot exist side by side, and this is why all members of the Polish intelligentsia must be killed."[187] Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 3,000 members (18%) of the Polish clergy, were murdered; of these, 1,992 died in concentration camps.[188][188]

ProtestantismAccording to Bullock, Hitler considered the Protestant clergy to be "insignificant" and "submissive" and lacking in a religion to be taken seriously.[189] The Nazi-backed "positivist" or "German Christian" church sought to make the evangelical churches of Germany an instrument of Nazi policy.[176] Although ideas about racial superiority and the destiny of their race which animated the German Christian movement had been present in German religious circles as early as 1930,[190] the movement was not formally established until 1932 when it officially became known as the "German Christians" with backing from Hitler himself.[191] It was nationalistic and anti-Semitic and some of its radicals called for repudiation of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) and the Pauline epistles of the New Testament'--because of their Jewish authorship.[148]

Kershaw wrote that the subjugation of the Protestant churches proved more difficult than Hitler had envisaged however. With 28 separate regional churches, his bid to create a unified Reich Church through Gleichschaltung ultimately failed, and Hitler became disinterested in seeking supporting the so-called "German Christians" Nazi aligned movement. The Church Federation proposed the well qualified Pastor Friedrich von Bodelschwingh to be the new Reich Bishop, but Hitler endorsed his friend Ludwig Muller and the Nazis terrorized supporters of Bodelschwingh.[192] Muller's heretical views against St Paul and the Semitic origins of Christ and the Bible quickly alienated sections of the Protestant church. Not all the Protestant churches submitted to the state, which Hitler said in Mein Kampf was important in forming a political movement. Pastor Martin Niem¶ller responded with the Pastors' Emergency League, which resisted Muller's efforts in making the Protestant churches an instrument of Nazi policy.[148][193] The movement grew into the Confessing Church, from which some clergymen opposed the Nazi regime.[31] By 1940 it was public knowledge that Hitler had abandoned advocating for Germans even the syncretist idea of a positive Christianity.[194]

By 1934, the Confessional Church had declared itself the legitimate Protestant Church of Germany, but Muller had failed to form a united Protestant movement behind the National Socialist Party. To instigate a new effort at coordinating the Protestant churches, Hitler appointed another friend, Hans Kerrl to the position of Minister for Church Affairs. A relative moderate, Kerrl initially had some success in this regard, but amid continuing protests by the Confessing Church against Nazi policies, he accused dissident churchmen of failing to appreciate the Nazi doctrine of "Race, blood and soil". He rejected the Apostle's Creed and called Hitler the herald of a new revelation.[195]

The pretension of the Hitler regime that all Protestant churches in Germany should be subsumed under the leadership of the German Christians served as an impulse to action for other Christian leaders who saw the racist, ultra-nationalistic, and totalitarian emphases of the German Christian church as incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.[196] When those not in agreement organised their opposition and, calling themselves the Confessing Church, publicly proclaimed articles of faith that denied the position of the German Christians, they eventually came under severe persecution by the State. About the end of March 1935 six hundred of the principal leaders of the Confessing Church were arrested and many others received visits from the Gestapo to emphasize the government's point of view concerning these matters.[197] Later, there were new arrests, and it began to be known that those who had been taken away were ending up in concentration camps.[198] Given the totalitarian atmosphere of Nazi Germany at that time, it would be ingenuous to believe that these measures against the Confessing Church and in support of the policies of the German Christians might have been taken without Adolf Hitler's consent.[119] The Confessing Church seminary was banned. Its leaders, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer were arrested. Implicated in the 1944 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, he was later executed.[199]

Jehovah's Witnesses were numbering around 30,000 at the start of Hitler's rule in Germany. For refusing to declare loyalty to the Reich, and refusing conscription into the army, they were declared to be enemies of Germany and persecuted. About 6000 were sent to the concentration camps.[200]

Steigmann-Gall argues that Hitler demonstrated a preference for Protestantism over Catholicism, as Protestantism was more liable to reinterpretation and a non-traditional readings, more receptive to positive Christianity, and because some of its liberal branches had held similar views.[201][202] According to Steigmann-Gall, Hitler regretted that "the churches had failed to back him and his movement as he had hoped."[203] Hitler stated to Albert Speer, "Through me the Protestant Church could become the established church, as in England."[204]

Plans to destroy Christianity[edit]Bullock wrote that, "once the war was over, [Hitler] promised himself, he would root out and destroy the influence of the Christian Churches".[205] Phayer wrote that "By the latter part of the decade of the thirties church officials were well aware that the ultimate aim of Hitler and other Nazis was the total elimination of Catholicism and of the Christian religion. Since the overwhelming majority of Germans were either Catholic or Protestant this goal had to be a long-term rather than a short-term Nazi objective."[206] According to Shirer, "under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler'--backed by Hitler'--the Nazi regime intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists".[207] Gill wrote that the Nazi plan was to "de-Christianise Germany after the final victory".[208] Dill states, "It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook." [209] According to Bendersky, it was Hitler's long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire"[210]

In 1999 Julie Seltzer Mandel, while researching documents for the "Nuremberg Project", discovered 150 bound volumes collected by Gen. William Donovan as part of his work on documenting Nazi war crimes. Donovan was a senior member of the U.S. prosecution team and had compiled large amounts of evidence that Nazis persecuted Christian churches.[211] In a 108-page outline titled "The Nazi Master Plan" Office of Strategic Services investigators argued that the Nazi regime had a plan to reduce the influence of Christian churches through a campaign of systematic persecutions.[212][213] "Important leaders of the National Socialist party would have liked to meet this situation [of church influence] by complete extirpation of Christianity and the substitution of a purely racial religion," said the report. The most persuasive evidence came from "the systematic nature of the persecution itself."[214]

In Hitler's scheme for the Germanization of Eastern Europe, there was to be no place for Christian churches. For the time being, he ordered slow progress on the 'Church Question'. 'But is clear', noted Goebells, himself among the most aggressive anti-church radicals, 'that after the war it has to be solved... There is, namely, an insoluble opposition between the Christian and a Germanic-heroic world-view".[215]Bullock wrote that "once the war was over, [Hitler] promised himself, he would root out and destroy the influence of the Christian churches, but until then he would be circumspect":[34] Writing for Yad Vashem, the historian Michael Phayer wrote that by the latter 1930s, church officials knew that the long term aim of Hitler was the "total elimination of Catholicism and of the Christian religion".[216]

In his memoirs, Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer recalled that when drafting his plans for Hitler's "new Berlin", when he told Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann that he had consulted with Protestant and Catholic authorities over the locations for churches: "Bormann curtly informed me that churches were not to receive building sites.[217]

Eastern religions[edit]Hitler's views on Islam[edit]Among eastern religions, Hitler described religious leaders such as "Confucius, Buddha, and Mohammed" as providers of "spiritual sustenance".[218] In this context, Hitler's connection to Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, who served the Mufti of Jerusalem until 1937 '-- which included asylum in 1941, the honorary rank of an SS Major-General, and a "respected racial genealogy" '-- has been interpreted by some as more of a sign of respect than political expedience.[219] Starting in 1933, al-Husseini, who had launched a campaign to free various parts of the Arab region from British control and expel Jews from both Egypt and Palestine, became impressed by the Jewish boycott policies which the Nazis were enforcing in Germany, and hoped that he could use the anti-semitic views which many in the Arab region shared with Hitler's regime in order to forge a strategic military alliance that would help him get eliminate the Jews from Palestine.[220] Despite al-Husseini's attempts to reach out to the Third Reich, Hitler refused to form such an alliance with al-Husseini, fearing that it would weaken relations with Britain,[221] and early relations between the two would be solely based on anti-Semitic ideology.[220]

During the unsuccessful 1936''39 Arab revolt in Palestine, which was instigated by mass Jewish migration to Palestine, Husseini and his allies took the opportunity to strengthen relations with the Third Reich and enforced the spread of Nazi customs and propaganda throughout their strongholds in Palestine as a gesture of respect.[222] In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would follow al-Husseini's lead.[223] Hitler's influence soon spread throughout the region, but it was not until 1937 that the Nazi government agreed to grant al-Husseini and the Muslim Brotherhood's request for financial and military assistance.[220]

Nazi-era Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer acknowledged that in private, Hitler regarded Arabs as an inferior race[224] and that the relationship he had with various Muslim figures was more political than personal.[224] During a meeting with a delegation of distinguished Arab figures, Hitler learned of how Islam motivated the Umayyad Caliphate during the Islamic invasion of Gaul and was now convinced that "the world would be Mohammedan today" if the Arab regime had successfully taken France during the Battle of Tours,[224] while also suggesting to Speer that "ultimately not Arabs, but Islamized Germans could have stood at the head of this Mohammedan Empire."[224]

In speeches, Hitler made apparently warm references towards Muslim culture such as: "The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France".[225]

According to Speer, Hitler stated in private, "The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?"[224] Speer also stated that when he was discussing with Hitler events which might have occurred had Islam absorbed Europe: "Hitler said that the conquering Arabs, because of their racial inferiority, would in the long run have been unable to contend with the harsher climate and conditions of the country.[224]

Similarly, Hitler was transcribed as saying: "Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers [...] then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world."

Influence of Ancient Indian religions[edit]Hitler's choice of the Swastika as the Nazis' main and official symbol was linked to the belief in the Aryan cultural descent of the German people. They considered the early Aryans of India to be the prototypical white invaders and the sign as a symbol of the Aryan master race.[227] The theory was inspired by the German archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna,[228] who argued that the ancient Aryans were a superior Nordic race from northern Germany who expanded into the steppes of Eurasia, and from there into India, where they established the Vedic religion.[228]

Mysticism and occultism[edit]Bullock found "no evidence to support the once popular belief that Hitler resorted to astrology" and wrote that Hitler ridiculed those like Himmler in his own party who wanted to re-establish pagan mythology, and Hess who believed in Astrology.[24][229] Albert Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view toward Himmler and Rosenberg's mystical notions. Speer quotes Hitler as having said of Himmler's attempt to mythologize the SS:[88]

What nonsense! Here we have at last reached an age that has left all mysticism behind it, and now [Himmler] wants to start that all over again. We might just as well have stayed with the church. At least it had tradition. To think that I may, some day, be turned into an SS saint! Can you imagine it? I would turn over in my grave...In a 1939 speech in Nuremberg, Hitler stated: "We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else'--in any case something which has nothing to do with us."[230]

According to Ron Rosenbaum, some scholars believe the young Hitler was strongly influenced, particularly in his racial views, by an abundance of occult works on the mystical superiority of the Germans, like the occult and anti-Semitic magazine Ostara, and give credence to the claim of its publisher Lanz von Liebenfels that Hitler visited him in 1909 and praised his work.[231] John Toland wrote that evidence indicates Hitler was a regular reader of Ostara.[232] Toland also included a poem that Hitler allegedly wrote while serving in the German Army on the Western Front in 1915.[233] This poem includes references to magical runes and the pre-Christian Germanic deity Wotan (Odin), but it is mentioned neither by Goodrick-Clarke nor by Fest.[citation needed]

Hitler's contact to Lanz von Liebenfels makes it necessary[according to whom?] to examine how far his religious views were influenced by Ariosophy, an esoteric movement in Germany and Austria that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. (Whether Ariosophy is to be classified as Germanic paganism or Occultism is a different question.) The seminal work on Ariosophy, The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, devotes its last chapter the topic of Ariosophy and Adolf Hitler. Not at least due to the difficulty of sources, historians disagree about the importance of Ariosophy for Hitler's religious views. As noted in the foreword of The Occult Roots of Nazism by Rohan Butler, Goodrick-Clarke is more cautious in assessing the influence of Lanz von Liebenfels on Hitler than Joachim Fest in his biography of Hitler.[234]

While he was in power, Hitler was definitely less interested in the occult or the esoteric than other Nazi leaders. Unlike Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess, nevertheless Hitler had interest in astrology.[235] Nevertheless, Hitler is the most important figure in the Modern Mythology of Nazi occultism. There are teledocumentaries about this topic, with the titles Hitler and the Occult and Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail.[236]

Comparing him to Erich Ludendorff, Fest writes: "Hitler had detached himself from such affections, in which he encountered the obscurantism of his early years, Lanz v. Liebenfels and the Thule Society, again, long ago and had, in Mein Kampf, formulated his scathing contempt for that v¶lkishromanticism, which however his own cosmos of imagination preserved rudimentarily."[237] Fest refers to the following passage from Mein Kampf:

"The characteristic thing about these people [modern-day followers of the early Germanic religion] is that they rave about the old Germanic heroism, about dim prehistory, stone axes, spear and shield, but in reality are the greatest cowards that can be imagined. For the same people who brandish scholarly imitations of old German tin swords, and wear a dressed bearskin with bull's horns over their heads, preach for the present nothing but struggle with spiritual weapons, and run away as fast as they can from every Communist blackjack.[238]

It is not clear if this statement is an attack at anyone specific. It could have been aimed at Karl Harrer or at the Strasser group. According to Goodrick-Clarke, "In any case, the outburst clearly implies Hitler's contempt for conspiratorial circles and occult-racist studies and his preference for direct activism."[239] Hitler also said something similar in public speeches.[240] Although, the quote is really just criticizing German romanticists for lack of action, not necessarily their spiritual or cultural beliefs. Hitler, himself, was very much into the culture he refers to here, especially in the case of Wagner operas.[citation needed]

Older literature states that Hitler had no intention of instituting worship of the ancient Germanic gods in contrast to the beliefs of some other Nazi officials.[241] In Hitler's Table Talk one can find this quote:

"It seems to me that nothing would be more foolish than to re-establish the worship of Wotan. Our old mythology ceased to be viable when Christianity implanted itself. Nothing dies unless it is moribund.

Jackson Spielvogel and David Redles in an article published by the Simon Wiesenthal Center assert alleged influences of various portions of the teachings of H.P. Blavatsky, the founder of The Theosophical Society with doctrines as expounded by her book "The Secret Doctrine", and the adaptations of her ideas by her followers, through Ariosophy, the Germanenorden and the Thule Society, constituted a popularly unacknowledged but decisive influence over the developing mind of Hitler.[242] The scholars state that Hitler himself may be responsible for turning historians from investigating his occult influences.[242] While he publicly condemned and even persecuted occultists, Freemasons, and astrologers, his nightly private talks disclosed his belief in the ideas of these competing occult groups'--demonstrated by his discussion of reincarnation, Atlantis, world ice theory, and his belief that esoteric myths and legends of cataclysm and battles between gods and titans were a vague collective memory of monumental early events.[242]

Religion, social Darwinism, and Hitler's racism[edit]Scholarly interest continues on the extent to which inherited, long-standing, cultural-religious notions of anti-Judaism in Christian Europe contributed to Hitler's personal racial anti-Semitism, and what influence a pseudo-scientific "primitive version of social-Darwinism", mixed with 19th century imperialist notions, brought to bear on his psychology. Laurence Rees noted that "emphasis on Christianity" was absent from the vision expressed by Hitler in Mein Kampf and his "bleak and violent vision" and visceral hatred of the Jews had been influenced by quite different sources: the notion of life as struggle he drew from Social Darwinism, the notion of the superiority of the "Aryan race" he drew from Arthur de Gobineau's The Inequality of the Human Races; from events following Russia's surrender in World War One when Germany seized agricultural lands in the East he formed the idea of colonising the Soviet Union; and from Alfred Rosenberg he took the idea of a link between Judaism and Bolshevism.[243] Hitler espoused a ruthless policy of "negative eugenic selection", believing that world history consisted of a struggle for survival between races, in which the Jews plotted to undermine the Germans, and inferior groups like Slavs and defective individuals in the German gene pool, threatened the Aryan "master race". Richard J. Evans wrote that his views on these subjects have often been called "social Darwinist", but that there is little agreement among historians as to what the term may mean, or how it transformed from its 19th century scientific origins, to become a central component of a genocidal political ideology in the 20th century.[244]

Derek Hastings writes that, according to Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, the strongly anti-Semitic Hieronymite[245] Catholic priest Bernhard Stempfle was a member of Hitler's inner circle in the early 1920s and frequently advised him on religious issues.[246] He helped Hitler in the writing of Mein Kampf.[247] He was killed by the SS in the 1934 purge.[248] Hitler viewed the Jews as enemies of all civilization and as materialistic, unspiritual beings, writing in Mein Kampf: "His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine." Hitler described his supposedly divine mandate for his anti-Semitism: "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."[249] In his rhetoric, Hitler also fed on the old accusation of Jewish deicide. Because of this it has been speculated that Christian anti-Semitism influenced Hitler's ideas, especially such works as Martin Luther's essay On the Jews and Their Lies and the writings of Paul de Lagarde. Others disagree with this view.[250] In support of this view, Hitler biographer John Toland offers the opinion that Hitler "carried within him its teaching that the Jew was the killer of God. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of God...".[251] Nevertheless, in Mein Kampf Hitler writes of an upbringing in which no particular anti-Semitic prejudice prevailed.[citation needed]

According to historian Lucy Dawidowicz, anti-Semitism has a long history within Christianity, and that the line of "anti-Semitic descent" from Luther to Hitler is "easy to draw." In her The War Against the Jews, 1933''1945, she writes that Luther and Hitler were obsessed by the "demonologized universe" inhabited by Jews. Dawidowicz states that the similarities between Luther's anti-Semitic writings and modern anti-Semitism are no coincidence, because they derived from a common history of Judenhass which can be traced to Haman's advice to Ahasuerus, although modern German anti-Semitism also has its roots in German nationalism.[252] Catholic historian Jos(C) M. Snchez argues that Hitler's anti-Semitism was explicitly rooted in Christianity.[253]

Richard J. Evans noted that Hitler saw Christianity as "indelibly Jewish in origin and character" and a "prototype of Bolshevism", which "violated the law of natural selection".[17] In the decades between Charles Darwin and the mid-twentieth century, various historians have noted that the concept of "Social Darwinism" had been vaunted by both "proponents of altruistic ethics", and by "spokesmen of a brutally elitist morality", but in many of its exponents, it took a rightward shift at the close of the 19th Century, when racist and imperialist notions joined the mix.[244] According to Evans, Hitler "used his own version of the language of social Darwinism as a central element in the discursive practice of extermination...", and the language of Social Darwinism, in its Nazi variant, helped to remove all restraint from the directors of the "terroristic and exterminatory" policies of the regime, by "persuading them that what they were doing was justified by history, science and nature".[254]

According to Fest, the Nazi dictator simplified Arthur de Gobineau's elaborate ideas of struggle for survival among the different races, from which the Aryan race, guided by providence, was supposed to be the torchbearers of civilization.[255] In Hitler's conception, Jews were enemies of all civilization, especially the Volk. Sherree Owens Zalampas wrote that, although Hitler has been called a "Social Darwinist, he was not such in the usual sense of the word, for, whereas Social Darwinism stressed struggle, change, the survival of the strongest, and a ceaseless battle of competition, Hitler, through the use of modern industrial technology and impersonal bureaucratic methods ended all competition by the ruthless suppression of all opponents."[256]Henri Ellenberger considered his understanding of Darwinism incomplete, and based loosely on the theory of "survival of the fittest" in a social context, as popularly misunderstood at the time.[257][258] Similarly the historian Karl Dietrich Bracher has argued that it would be wrong to believe that Hitler's views were formed through the discipline of close study and that rather Hitler had drawn on, 'a chance reading of books, occasional pamphlets, and generalisations based on subjective impressions to form the distorted political picture which became the Weltanschauung' that dominated his future life and work. An example from Hitler's formative Vienna years was the influence of Lanz von Liebenfels, whose programme spread 'the crass exaggerations of the social Darwinist theory of survival, the superman and super-race theory, the dogma of race conflict, and the breeding and extermination theories of the future SS state', and whose Ostara publication was widely available in the tobacco kiosks of Vienna. In Mein Kampf, p. 59, Hitler recounts the genesis of his anti-Semitism and says his 'books' are polemical pamphlets bought 'for a few pennies'.[259]

Hitler biographer Alan Bullock wrote that Hitler did not believe in God, and that one of his central objections to Christianity, was that its teaching was "a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest".[97] Steigmann Gall concludes that, to the extent he believed in a divinity, Hitler did not believe in a "remote, rationalist divinity" but in an "active deity,"[260] which he frequently referred to as "Creator" or "Providence". In Hitler's belief God created a world in which different races fought each other for survival as depicted by Arthur de Gobineau. The "Aryan race," supposedly the bearer of civilization, is allocated a special place:

"What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and the reproduction of our race ... so that our people may mature for the fulfilment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. ... Peoples that bastardize themselves, or let themselves be bastardized, sin against the will of eternal Providence."[260]

See also[edit]References[edit]^Smith, Bradley (1967). Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, p. 27. "Closely related to his support of education was his tolerant skepticism concerning religion. He looked upon religion as a series of conventions and as a crutch for human weakness, but, like most of his neighbors, he insisted that the women of his household fulfill all religious obligations. He restricted his own participation to donning his uniform to take his proper place in festivals and processions. As he grew older, Alois shifted from relative passivity in his attitude toward the power and influence of the institutional Church to a firm opposition to "clericalism," especially when the position of the Church came into conflict with his views on education."^ abcRissmann, Michael (2001). Hitlers Gott: Vorsehungsglaube und SendungsbewuŸtsein des deutschen Diktators. Z¼rich, M¼nchen: Pendo, pp. 94''96; ISBN 978-3-85842-421-1.^Smith, Bradley (1967). Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, p. 42. "Alois insisted she attend regularly as an expression of his belief that the woman's place was in the kitchen and in church... Happily, Klara really enjoyed attending services and was completely devoted to the faith and teachings of Catholicism, so her husband's requirements worked to her advantage."^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; Norton; 2008 ed; pp. 295''297Alan Bullock; Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives; Fontana Press; 1993; pp. 412''413Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933''1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; p. 138Laurence Rees; The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler; Ebury Press; 2012; p135Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p218^Guenter Lewy; The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany; 1964; p. 303^Albert Speer. (1997). Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 96.^ abFred Taylor Translation; The Goebbels Diaries 1939''41; Hamish Hamilton Ltd; London; 1982; ISBN 0-241-10893-4; pp. 304 305^Sharkey, Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity, New York Times, 13 January 2002Alan Bullock; Hitler: A Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p 219: "Once the war was over, [Hitler] promised himself, he would root out and destroy the influence of the Christian churches, but until then he would be circumspect."Michael Phayer; The Response of the German Catholic Church to National Socialism, published by Yad Vashem: "By the latter part of the decade of the Thirties, church officials were well aware that the ultimate aim of Hitler and other Nazis was the total elimination of Catholicism and of the Christian religion. Since the overwhelming majority of Germans were either Catholic or Protestant. this goal had to be a long-term rather than a short-term Nazi objective."Shirer, William L., Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, p. p 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: " ... under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler'--backed by Hitler'--the Nazi regime intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists."Fischel, Jack R., Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust , p. 123, Scarecrow Press, 2010: "The objective was to either destroy Christianity and restore the German gods of antiquity, or to turn Jesus into an Aryan."Gill, Anton (1994). An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler. Heinemann Mandarin. 1995 paperback ISBN 978-0-434-29276-9, pp. 14''15: "[the Nazis planned to] de-Christianise Germany after the final victory".Mosse, George Lachmann, Nazi culture: intellectual, cultural and social life in the Third Reich, p. 240, University of Wisconsin Press, 2003: "Had the Nazis won the war their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the German Christians, to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and the Catholic Church.Dill, Marshall, Germany: a modern history , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970: "It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany, or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook."Wheaton, Eliot Barculo The Nazi revolution, 1933''1935: prelude to calamity:with a background survey of the Weimar era, p. 290, 363, Doubleday 1968: The Nazis sought "to eradicate Christianity in Germany root and branch."Bendersky, Joseph W., A concise history of Nazi Germany, p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007: "Consequently, it was Hitler's long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire."^Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003) The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919''1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 260.Snyder, Louis L. (1981) Hitler's Third Reich: A Documentary History. New York: Nelson-Hall, p. 249.Dutton, Donald G. (2007). The Psychology of Genocide, Massacres, and Extreme Violence. Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 41.Heschel, Susannah (2008). The Aryan Jesus. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 23.^ abcLaurence Rees; The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler; Ebury Press; 2012; p135.^ abRichard Overy; The Third Reich, A Chronicle; Quercus; 2010; p.99^ abAlan Bullock; Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives; Fontana Press; 1993; pp.413^Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19''20, Oxford University Press, 1942^ abcdHitler, Adolf (1999). Mein Kampf. Ralph Mannheim, ed., New York: Mariner Books, pp. 65, 119, 152, 161, 214, 375, 383, 403, 436, 562, 565, 622, 632''633.^Richard J. Evans; The Third Reich at War; Penguin Press; New York 2009, p. 547: According to Evans "Science, [Hitler] declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition [-] 'In the long run', he concluded, 'National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together'."^Hitler's Table Talk 1941''1944, Cameron & Stevens, Enigma Books pp. 59''61: Hitler is quoted as saying: "The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble. All that's left is to prove that in nature there is no frontier between the organic and the inorganic. When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity."^ abcdRichard J. Evans; The Third Reich at War; Penguin Press; New York 2009, p. 547^ abcdeWilliam L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; p234 Cite error: Invalid tag; name "William_L._Shirer_p234" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).^Laurence Rees; The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler; Ebury Press; 2012; p135^Ralph Manheim, ed.; Adolf Hitler (1998). Mein Kampf. New York: Houghton Mifflin. p. 65. ISBN 0395951054. Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord. ^Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19''20, Oxford University Press, 1942)^Speech in Passau 27 October 1928 Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf; from Richard Steigmann-Gall (2003). Holy Reich: Nazi conceptions of Christianity, 1919''1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 60''61^ abcdLaurence Rees; The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler; Ebury Press; 2012; p135.^ abcdeAlan Bullock; Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives; Fontana Press; 1993; pp.412^ abcGeoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; pp. 495''6^Ian Kershaw; Hitler: a Biography; Norton; 2008 Edn; pp. 295''297^ abRichard J. Evans; The Third Reich at War; Penguin Press; New York 2009, p. 546^ abValdis O. Lumans (1993). Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933-1945. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-8078-2066-7. ^ abThe Nazi Persecution of the Churches, 1933''1945, by John S. Conway p. 232; Regent College Publishing^ abSusannah Heschel, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, Princeton University Press, 2008. pp 1''10^ abcdeIan Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 ed; Norton; London; pp. 295''297 Cite error: Invalid tag; name "Ian_Kershaw_pp._295.E2.80.93297" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).Cite error: Invalid tag; name "Ian_Kershaw_pp._295.E2.80.93297" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).^ abcdIan Kershaw; Hitler: a Biography; Norton; 2008 ed; p. 373 Cite error: Invalid tag; name "Ian_Kershaw_p._373" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).^ abcAlan Bullock; Hitler, a Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial Edition, 1991; p219"^ abJohn Toland, Adolf Hitler. New York: Anchor Publishing, 1992, p. 507.^ abSteigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.27.^ abSteigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 118''20, 155''6. ISBN 0-521-82371-4. ^ abSteigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 13''50, p. 252.^ abJohn S. Conway. Review of Steigmann-Gall, Richard, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919''1945. H-German, H-Net Reviews. June, 2003.^Encyclopedia Online - Adolf Hitler^Smith, Bradley (1967). Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, p. 27. "Closely related to his support of education was his tolerant skepticism concerning religion. He looked upon religion as a series of conventions and as a crutch for human weakness, but, like most of his neighbors, he insisted that the women of his household fulfil all religious obligations. He restricted his own participation to donning his uniform to take his proper place in festivals and processions. As he grew older, Alois shifted from relative passivity in his attitude toward the power and influence of the institutional Church to a firm opposition to "clericalism," especially when the position of the Church came into conflict with his views on education."^Smith, Bradley (1967). Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, p. 42. "Alois insisted she attend regularly as an expression of his belief that the woman's place was in the kitchen and in church... Happily, Klara really enjoyed attending services and was completely devoted to the faith and teachings of Catholicism, so her husband's requirements worked to her advantage."^John Toland; Hitler; Wordsworth Editions; 1997 Edn; p 9^William L. Shirer (1990). Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon & Schuster. pp. 11''. ISBN 978-0-671-72868-7. Retrieved 2013-04-22. ^Adolf Hitler (1940). Mein Kampf. ZHINGOORA BOOKS. pp. 10''. ISBN 978-1-105-25334-8. Retrieved 2013-04-22. ^Toland chapter 1; Kershaw chapter 1. By his account in Mein Kampf (which is often an unreliable source), he loved the "solemn splendor of the brilliant Church festivals." He held the abbot in very high regard, and later told Helene Hanfstaengl that one time as a small boy he had once ardently wished to become a priest. His flirtation with the idea apparently ended as suddenly as it began, however. (Ibid.)^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial Edition 1991; p11^John Toland; Hitler; Wordsworth Editions; 1997 Edn; pp. 18^ abPaul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933''1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; p. 138^ abAlan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial Edition 1991; p218"^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial Edition 1991; p216^Alan Bullock; Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives; Fontana Press; 1993; pp. 412''413^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial Edition 1991; p236^ abMax Domarus (2007). The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary. Wauconda: Bolchazy-Carducci, p. 21.^ abAdolf Hitler; Max Domarus (1 April 2007). The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary. Bolchazy-Carducci. pp. 137''. ISBN 978-0-86516-627-1. Retrieved 2012-08-06. Cite error: Invalid tag; name "HitlerDomarus2007" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).^Kelly, Jon (2001) "Osama Bin Laden: The power of shrines" BBC News Magazine (4 May).^Overy, R. J. (2004). The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. New York: Norton, pp. 280''282.^Robert S. Wistrich (1 May 2007). Laboratory for World Destruction: Germans and Jews in Central Europe. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 375''. ISBN 978-0-8032-1134-6. Retrieved 2012-08-25. ^ abKoehne, Samuel, Hitler's faith: The debate over Nazism and religion, ABC Religion and Ethics, 18 Apr. 2012^ abEvans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War: How the Nazis led Germany from conquest to disaster. London: Penguin. pp. 547''8. ISBN 978-0-14-101548-4. ^Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 14''15^Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 26''7. ISBN 0-521-82371-4. ^Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. abstract. ISBN 0-521-82371-4. ^William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 325''329^John Toland; Hitler; Wordsworth Editions; 1997 Edn, p.589^John Toland. (1976). Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography. New York: Anchor Books, p. 703.^Hastings, Derek (2010). Catholicism and the Roots of Nazism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 181.^BBC News (1944-07-20) Hitler survives assassination attempt. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3505000/3505014.stm^Stephen McKnight; Glenn Hughes; Geoffrey Price (1 January 2001). Politics, Order and History: Essays on the Work of Eric Voegelin. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-84127-159-0. ^Encyclopedia Britannica Online - Mein Kampf; web 24 May 2013^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 ed; Norton; London; p.3^ abc"Mein Kampf". gutenberg.net.au. Project Gutenberg Australia. Retrieved 8 July 2015. ^Hitler, Adolf (1999) Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: Mariner Books, p. 52.^Mein Kampf^Richard Steigmann-Gall. (2003). The Holy Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 26.^Hitler, Adolf (1999) Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: Mariner Books, p. 65.^Ralph Manheim, ed. (1998). Mein Kampf. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-95105-4, p.307^Hitler, Adolf (1969). Mein Kampf. McLeod, MN: Hutchinson, p. 562.^Hitler, Adolf (1999). Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: Mariner Books, p. 562.^Ralph Manheim, ed. (1998). Mein Kampf. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-95105-4, p.174^Interrogation of Paul Wolff (Paula Hitler) at the Wayback Machine (archived January 1, 2007)^ abInside the Third Reich: Memoirs. New York: Simon and Schuster, pp 95''96.^ abFred Taylor Translation; The Goebbels Diaries 1939''41; Hamish Hamilton Ltd; London; 1982; ISBN 0-241-10893-4; p.340^Speer, Albert (1971). Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 95.ISBN 978-0-684-82949-4.^Albert Speer; Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs; Translation by Richard & Clara Winston; Macmillan; New York; 1970; p.123^Speer, Albert (1971). Inside the Third Reich. Trans. Richard Winston, Clara Winston, Eugene Davidson. New York: Macmillan, p. 143; Reprinted in 1997. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 96.ISBN 978-0-684-82949-4.^ abInside the Third Reich: Memoirs of Albert Speer; New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 94^Albert Speer; Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs; Translation by Richard & Clara Winston; McMillan Publishing Company; New York; 1970; p.49^Encyclopedia Britannica - Reflections on the Holocaust; Hitler, Adolf: Additional Reading - Writings and speeches; web May 2013.^Burleigh, Michael (2001). The Third Reich - A New History. London: Pan Books. pp. 716''717. ISBN 978-0-330-48757-3. ^Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. London: Penguin. pp. xiv. ISBN 978-0-14-013363-9. ^Evans, Richard J. (2008). The Third Reich at War: How the Nazis led Germany from conquest to disaster. London: Penguin. pp. 547 (546''9). ISBN 978-0-14-101548-4. ^ abSee Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p219 & Cameron et al. 2007, p. 51^Bonney, Richard (2009). Confronting the Nazi war on Christianity: the Kulturkampf newsletters, 1936''1939 Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang Pub., p. 20.^Lang, Peter (2009). Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography. New York: Anchor Books, p. 703.^Fred Taylor Translation; The Goebbels Diaries 1939''41; Hamish Hamilton Ltd; London; 1982; ISBN 0-241-10893-4; p.77^Friedl¤nder, Saul (2009). Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933''1945. New York: HarperCollins, p. 61.^Elke Fr¶lich. 1997''2008. Die Tageb¼cher von Joseph Goebbels. Munich: K. G. Sauer. Teil I, v. 6, p. 272.^Anthony Court (2008). Hannah Arendt's Response to the Crisis of Her Times. Rozenberg Publishers. pp. 97''. ISBN 978-90-361-0100-4. Retrieved 2013-04-22. ^William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960^ abBaynes, Norman H., ed. (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. New York: Howard Fertig. pp. 19''20, 37, 240, 370, 371, 375, 378, 382, 383, 385''388, 390''392, 398''399, 402, 405''407, 410, 1018, 1544, 1594.^Max Domarus (2007). The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary. Wauconda: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, p. 21.^"Hitler wusste selber durch die st¤ndige Anrufung des Herrgotts oder der Vorsehung den Eindruck gottesf¼rchtiger Denkart zu machen." J.C. Fest. Hitler. (German edition), p. 581.^Kershaw 1987, p. 109"Hitler's evident ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity was crucial to the mediation of such an image to the church-going public by influential members of both major denominations. It was the reason why church-going Christians, so often encouraged by their 'opinion-leaders' in the Church hierarchies, were frequently able to exclude Hitler from their condemnation of the anti-Christian Party radicals, continuing to see in him the last hope of protecting Christianity from Bolshevism."

^Heschel, Susannah (2008). The Aryan Jesus: Christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 8.^Speech delivered at Munich 12 April 1922; from Norman H. Baynes, ed. (1942). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19.^Alan Bullock; Hitler: A Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial 1991; ch The Months of Opportunity^Adolf Hitler. (1941). My New Order. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 144.^Dennis Barton. (2006). Hitler's Rise to Power. www.churchinhistory.org.^Alan Bullock; Hitler: A Study in Tyranny; Harper Perennial 1991; ch Revolution After Power^Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 46.^The 'Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich. Oxford University Press. 1987. pp. 50''. ISBN 978-0-19-280206-4. Retrieved 2013-04-22. ^ abIan Kershaw (2000). Hitler, 1889''1936: Hubris. W W Norton & Company Incorporated. pp. 489''. ISBN 978-0-393-32035-0. Retrieved 2013-04-22. Cite error: Invalid tag; name "Kershaw2000" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).^Nazi Germany & the Jews: The Years of Persecution 1933''39, Saul Friedl¤nder, p.47, Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1997, ISBN 978-0-297-81882-3^from Norman H. Baynes, ed. (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. 1. New York: Howard Fertig. p. 402.^Heiden, Konrad (1935). A History of National Socialism. A.A. Knopf, p. 100.^Steigmann-Gall 2003, p. 255^Steigmann-Gall 2003, pp. 257''260^Hitler, Adolf (1998). Mein Kampf. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: Houghton Mifflin, p. 307.^Baynes, Norman H. ed. (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. Vol. 1. New York: Howard Fertig. p. 385.^Speech 12 April 1922; Baynes 1942, pp. 19''20^Hitler's faith: The debate over Nazism and religion; Samuel Koehne; ABC Religion and Ethics; 18 Apr 2012^Norman H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942, pp. 240, 378, 386.^Bock, Heike (2006). "Secularization of the modern conduct of life? Reflections on the religiousness of early modern Europe". In Hanne May. Religiosit¤t in der s¤kularisierten Welt. VS Verlag fnr Sozialw. p. 157. ISBN 3-8100-4039-8. ^Kaiser, Jochen-Christoph (2003). Christel G¤rtner, ed. Atheismus und religi¶se Indifferenz. Organisierter Atheismus. VS Verlag. pp. 122, 124''6. ISBN 978-3-8100-3639-1. ^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991^Encyclopedia Britannica Online - Adolf Hitler; web 20 Apr 2013^from Norman H. Baynes, ed. (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. 1. New York: Howard Fertig. p. 240^Ernst Helmreich, The German Churches Under Hitler. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1979, p. 241.^Richard Overy; The Third Reich, A Chronicle; Quercus; 2010; p.157^Encyclopedia Online - Fascism - Identification with Christianity web 20 Apr 2013^Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-303790-3; pp. 245''246^Norman H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942, pp. 369''370.^Norman H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942, p. 378.^Norman H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942, p. 386.^Hitler, Ian Kershaw, p. 373, 2008, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-103588-8^Kershaw, Ian (2001). The "Hitler Myth": Image and reality in the Third Reich. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 109.^Michael, Robert (2008). A history of Catholic antisemitism. New York: Macmillan, p. 111.^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; pp 215 6"^ abcMichael Burleigh (22 March 2012). The Third Reich: A New History. Pan Macmillan. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-330-47550-1. ^ abcEncyclopedia Britannica Online - German Christian; web 25 Apr 2013^ abFred Taylor Translation; The Goebbels Diaries 1939''41; Hamish Hamilton Ltd; London; 1982; ISBN 0-241-10893-4; p.76^Conway, John S. (1968). The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933''45. p. 3, ISBN 978-0-297-76315-4^ abDill, Marshall (1970). Germany: A Modern History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, p. 365.^ abDill, Marshall (1970). Germany: A Modern History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, p. 369.^Dill, Marshall (1970). Germany: A Modern History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, p. 363.^Zipfel 1965, p. 226^Miner 2003, p. 54^Thomsett 1997, pp. 54''55^Overy, R. J. 2004. The dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 286.^"He hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity" - from The Goebbels Diaries 1939''41, see entry for 8 April 1941^Davies 1996, p. 975^Sage 2006, pp. 154''60^De George & Scanlan 1975, pp. 116''117^Rissmann, Michael (2001). Hitlers Gott. Zurich, p. 96.^Voegelin, Eric (1986). Political Religions. New York: Edward Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-88946-767-5. Discussion at Rissmann, pp. 191''197.^Hans Maier; Michael Sch¤fer (24 December 2007). Totalitarianism and Political Religions, Volume II: Concepts for the Comparison Of Dictatorships. Taylor & Francis. pp. 3''. ISBN 978-0-203-93542-2. Retrieved 2013-05-29. ^Robert O. Paxton. The Anatomy of Fascism. New York, New York, US; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Random House, Inc., 2005^United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; The German Churches and the Nazi State; web 25 Apr 2013^ abWilliam L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp 238''9^Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933''1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; pp. 139''141^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; W.W. Norton & Company; London; pp. 281''283^Alan Bullock; Hitler, a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; pp 146''149^ abGeoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; pp. 495''6^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; W.W. Norton & Company; London; pp. 295^William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; p240"^Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; pp. 14''15^Encyclopedia Britannica Online - Fascism - Identification with Christianity; web 24 April 2013^ ab"Confessing Church" in Dictionary of the Christian Church, F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingston, eds.; William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960), pp. 235 f.^Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933''1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; pp. 141''2^Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933''1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; pp. 142^Encyclop...dia Britannica: Dachau, by Michael Berenbaum.^Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933''1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; pp. 276''277^ abIan Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London; pp. 381''382^Kershaw, Ian, Hitler, 1889''1936: hubris, pp. 575''576, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; W.W. Norton & Company; London; p.290^ abcWilliam L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp 234-5^John S. Conway; The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, 1933''1945; Regent College Publishing; 2001; ISBN 1-57383-080-1 (USA); pp. 90''92^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London p.661"^"Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 15 October 2004. Retrieved 8 July 2015. ^ abCraughwell, Thomas J., The Gentile Holocaust Catholic Culture, Accessed 2008-07-18^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p219"^Miguel Power, La persecuci"n Nazi contra el cristianismo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Difusi"n, 1941), pp. 99''102. This book is a Spanish translation corresoponding to Michael Power, Religion in the Reich: the Nazi Persecution of Christianity, an Eye Witness Report (n.p.: Longman´s Green and Co. Ltd., 1939).^Miguel Power, La persecuci"n Nazi contra el cristianismo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Difusi"n, 1941), p. 103.^William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 234''238^"Churchmen to Hitler". Time Magazine. 1936-08-10. Retrieved 2008-04-28. ^Poewe, Karla (2006). New Religions and the Nazis. Routledge, p. 30.^William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 238''239^Kenneth Scott Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age vol. IV The Twentieth Century in Europe (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1961), pp. 259 f.^Miguel Power, La persecuci"n Nazi contra el cristianismo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Difusi"n, 1941), p. 127.^Miguel Power, La persecuci"n Nazi contra el cristianismo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Difusi"n, 1941), p. 128.^Encyclopedia Britannica Online - Dietrich Bonhoeffer; web 25 April 2013^Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; pp.496^Steigmann-Gall 2003, p. 84^Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2007-06-01). "The Nazis' 'Positive Christianity': a Variety of 'Clerical Fascism'?". Kent State University. Retrieved 2008-04-28. ^Steigmann-Gall 2003, p. 260^Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich. New York: p. 95.^Alan Bullock; Hitler: A Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p 219^Michael Phayer; The Response of the German Catholic Church to National Socialism, published by Yad Vashem^Shirer, William L., Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, p. p 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990:^Gill, Anton (1994). An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler. Heinemann Mandarin. 1995 paperback ISBN 978-0-434-29276-9, pp. 14''15^Dill, Marshall, Germany: a modern history , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970^Bendersky, Joseph W., A concise history of Nazi Germany, p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007^Claire, Hulme; Salter, Michael. "The Nazi's persecution of religion as a war crime: The OSS's response within the Nuremberg Trials Process"(PDF). Rutgers University. ^Sharkey, Joe (13 January 2002). "Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-06-07. ^Bonney, Richard ed. (2001). "The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches"Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion (Winter): 1''4.^Office of Strategic Services (1945). The Nazi Master Plan. Annex 4. Ithaca NY: Cornell Law Library, p. 9.^Ian Kershaw; Hitler a Biography; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London p.661^The Response of the German Catholic Church to National Socialism, by Michael Phayer published by Yad Vashem^Albert Speer. (1997). Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 177.^Angebert 1974, p. 246^Angebert 1974, pp. 275''276 note 14^ abcKlaus Gensicke (1988). Der Mufti von Jerusalem Amin el-Husseini, und die Nationalsozialisten. Frankfurt/M. p. 234. ^Holocaust Encyclopedia. "Hajj Amin al-Husayni: Arab Nationalist and Muslim Leader". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2013-07-17. ^Ralf Paul Gerhard Balke (1997). Die Landesgruppe der NSDAP in Pal¤stina. D¼sseldorf. p. 260. ^Gudrun Kr¤mer (1982). Minderheit, Millet, Nation? Die Juden in gypten 1914''1952. Wiesbaden. p. 282. ^ abcdefAlbert Speer (1 April 1997). Inside the Third Reich: memoirs. Simon and Schuster. pp. 96''. ISBN 978-0-684-82949-4. Retrieved 2010-09-15. ^Hitler's apocalypse: Jews and the Nazi legacy, Robert S. Wistrich, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 17 Oct 1985, page 59^"Origins of the swastika". BBC. 2005-01-18. Retrieved 2008-04-28. ^ abK. Kris Hirst. "Who Were the Aryans?". About.com Education. Retrieved 8 July 2015. ^Alan Bullock; Hitler: a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p219^Speech in Nuremberg on 6 September 1938. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Volume 1 Edited by Norman Hepburn Baynes. University of Michigan Press, p. 396.^Rosenbaum, Ron [Explaining Hitler] p. xxxvii, p. 282 (citing Yehuda Bauer's belief that Hitler's racism is rooted in occult groups like Ostara), p 333, 1998 Random House^Toland, John [Adolf Hitler] p. 45, 1976 Anchor Books.^Toland 1992^Goodrick-Clarke 1985, p. x^"Hitler/Jaeger File - Hosted by Google". google.com. Retrieved 8 July 2015. ^Entry for "Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail" at the Internet Movie Database^Fest 1973, p. 320^Hitler 1926, ch. 12^Goodrick-Clarke 1985, p. 202^"We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else'--in any case something which has nothing to do with us." (Speech in Nuremberg on 6 September 1938)^Gunther 1938, p. 10^ abcJackson Spielvogel and David Redles: Hitler's Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Sources, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, 1997^Laurence Rees; The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler; Ebury Press 2012; pp. 61''62^ abRichard J. Evans; In Search of German Social Darwinism: The History and Historiography of a Concept; a chapter from Medicine & Modernity: Public Health & Medical Care in 19th and 20th Century Germany; Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge; 1997; pp. 55''57^Derek Hastings, Catholicism and the Roots of Nazism, p. 67^Hastings, Derek (2010). Catholicism and the roots of Nazism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 119.^Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship, p.111^"The History Place - Triumph of Hitler: Night of the Long Knives". historyplace.com. Retrieved 8 July 2015. ^Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Ralph Mannheim, ed., New York: Mariner Books, 1999, p. 65.^Shirer 1960, pp. 91''236 argues that Luther's essay was influential. This view was expounded by Lucy Dawidowicz. (Dawidowicz 1986, p. 23) Uwe Siemon-Netto disputes this conclusion (Siemon-Netto 1995, pp. 17''20).^John Toland. (1976). Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography. New York: Anchor Books, p. 703.^The War Against the Jews, 1933''1945. First published 1975; this Bantam edition 1986, p.23. ISBN 978-0-553-34532-2^Jos(C) M. Snchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust; Understanding the Controversy (Washington, D.C: Catholic University of American Press, 2002), p. 70.^Richard J. Evans; In Search of German Social Darwinism: The History and Historiography of a Concept, 1997 - (quoted by Richard Weikart in From Darwin to Hitler; Palgrave MacMillan; USA 2004; ISBN 1-4039-7201-X; p.233)^Fest, Joachim (1974). Hitler. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 56,210.^Zalampas, Sherree Owens. (1990). Adolf Hitler: A psychological interpretation of his views on architecture, art, and music. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, p. 139..^Ellenberger, Henri (1970). The Discovery of the Unconscious: The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry. New York: Basic Books. p. 235.^Sklair, Leslie (2003). The Sociology of Progress. New York: Routledge, p. 71.ISBN 978-0-415-17545-6^Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship, pp. 86''87^ abSteigmann-Gall 2003, p. 26Bibliography[edit]Angebert, Jean-Michel (1974), The Occult and the Third Reich, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-02-502150-1 .Baynes, Norman (1942), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 19391, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-598-75893-4 .Bullock, Alan (1991), Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Abridged Edition, New York: Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-092020-3 .Carrier, Richard (2003), ""Hitler's Table Talk": Troubling Finds", German Studies Review26 (3): 561''576, doi:10.2307/1432747 .Davies, Norman (1996), Europe: A History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-820171-7 .Dawidowicz, Lucy (1986), The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945, Bantam, ISBN 978-0-553-34532-2 .De George, Richard; Scanlan, James (1975), Marxism and religion in Eastern Europe: papers presented at the Banff International Slavic Conference, September 4''7, 1974, Dordrecht: D. Reidel .Fest, Joachim (1973), Hitler: Eine Biographie, Propyl¤en, ISBN 978-3-549-07301-8 .Fest, Joachim (2002), Hitler, Harcourt, ISBN 978-0-15-602754-0 .Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1985), The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890''1935, Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press, ISBN 978-0-85030-402-2 .Gunther, John (1938), Inside Europe, New York: Harper & brothers .Hart, Stephen; Hart, Russell; Hughes, Matthew (2000), The German soldier in World War II, Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI .Hitler, Adolf (1926), Mein Kampf2 .Irving, David (1978), The War Path: Hitler's Germany, 1933''1939, New York: Viking Press, ISBN 978-0-670-74971-3 .Kershaw, Ian (1987), The 'Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich, Oxford University Press .Kershaw, Ian (2000), Hitler, 1889''1936: Hubris, London: W. W. Norton & Company (published 1999), ISBN 978-0-393-32035-0 .Kershaw, Ian (2008), Hitler a Biography, W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6 .Miner, Steven (2003), Stalin's Holy War, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-2736-9 .Rissmann, Michael (2001), Hitlers Gott. Vorsehungsglaube und SendungsbewuŸtsein des deutschen Diktators, Z¼rich M¼nchen: Pendo, pp. 94''96, ISBN 978-3-85842-421-1 .Sage, Steven (2006), Ibsen and Hitler: the playwright, the plagiarist, and the plot for the Third Reich, New York: Carroll & Graf, ISBN 978-0-7867-1713-2 .Shirer, William (1960), The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, New York: Simon & Schuster, retrieved 2008-04-28 .Siemon-Netto, Uwe (1995), The Fabricated Luther: The Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, ISBN 978-0-570-04800-8 .Speer, Albert (1997), Inside the Third Reich, Orion, ISBN 978-1-85799-218-2 .Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003), The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919''1945, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-82371-5 .Thomsett, Michael (1997), The German opposition to Hitler: the resistance, the underground, and assassination plots, 1938''1945, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, ISBN 978-0-7864-0372-1 .Toland, John (1976), Adolf Hitler, Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-03724-2 .Toland, John (1992), Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, New York: Anchor, ISBN 978-0-385-42053-2 .Westerlund, David; Ingvar, Svanberg (1999), Islam outside the Arab world, New York: St. Martin's Press .Zipfel, Friedrich (1965), Kirchenkampf in Deutschland 1933''1945, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. .Cameron, Norman; Stevens, R. H. Stevens; Weinberg, Gerhard L.; Trevor-Roper, H. R. (2007). Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944: Secret Conversations.(PDF). New York: Enigma Books. ISBN 9781936274932. Retrieved 7 July 2015.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:25

JURIST Contributing Editor Michael Kelly of Creighton University School of Law argues that France has the legal right to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty following the Paris ISIS attacks...Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, Syria was a French mandate from 1923 to 1946. The deal struck between Paris and London, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, divided up power and influence in the Fertile Crescent region between France and Britain. The British basically got what is now Iraq and Kuwait, and France got Lebanon and Syria. The map to the right depicts "Zone A" under French control which forms the core of modern-day Syria. The French have long held fast to the prerogative to return to former French possessions via military incursion when necessary to "set things right." In recent times, this has included military intervention in Mali, Cote d'Ivoire,and the Central African Republic. Now, that list may include Syria.

But the French may not be going alone. In the wake of the November 13, 2015 ISIS-coordinated attacks in Paris that killed over 100 people in at least half a dozen sites, France has the legal right to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. This pivotal article describes the casus foederis, case for alliance, as coming into play when one of the allied states is attacked. Literally, it means that an attack against one of the NATO allies is considered an attack against all. The language of Article 5 is clear:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Article 5 has only been invoked once in NATO's 66-year history. The date was October 4, 2001. That was when NATO confirmed the request by the US for a collective NATO response after the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the US homeland. Several operations were authorized in support of the invasion of Afghanistan that followed and NATO officially took control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2003. France was in the forefront of these operations, providing ground troops and air support.

It is unclear if France will decide to trigger this legal obligation like the US did. President Hollande has put France on a war footing and declared in a joint session of the French parliament that he will "destroy" ISIS as he requested an extension of his emergency powers. The terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, like the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, were executed by non-state entities. The US-led NATO response resulted in an extensive air campaign followed by a full-scale invasion, occupation and a decade-long semi-successful nation-building exercise. A French-led NATO response in Syria is not likely to follow that pattern, but it could. Intensified French airstrikes are already underway utilizing US targeting intelligence.

After the French went loyally with us into Afghanistan after September 11, it would be difficult for the US to avoid going into Syria with France if it so chose. NATO of course would be the ultimate arbiter of what actions it would take, but the reality is that while French military power is significant on its own, it is also significantly enhanced with NATO support'--both in terms of force projection and support. France knows this, and could well decide that this moment, unlike the moment following the Charlie Hebdo ISIS attacks in January 2015, is the moment to trigger Article 5.

That said, while ISIS operates throughout large swaths of Syria and Iraq, it does not do so in isolation. Also on the ground are Kurdish forces friendly to the US that must be avoided as well as Syrian rebel forces seeking to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad'--still clinging to power along the western coast. And there is Russia. Only recently inserted in this chaotic theatre of combat, Russia has secured bases in Assad-held territory and is actively bombing both the rebels and ISIS. Although Russia and the US have undertaken "de-confliction" measures to stay out of one another's way in Syria, close encounters have occurred and Russian planes have repeatedly violated Turkish airspace. Turkey, also a NATO ally, has not yet suffered direct attacks sufficient enough to trigger a similar Article 5 invocation.

The US views Russian involvement in Syria with both suspicion and quiet alarm. The French, however, may not. Paris may in fact see this as a diplomatic and military opportunity to re-engage Russia and NATO in a positive manner. Since the second term of President George W. Bush, relations between Moscow and Washington soured. This affected the NATO-Russia relationship negatively. After the Cold War, Russia and NATO entered into a dialogue that lead to creation of the NATO-Russia Council, which began an institutionalized partnership of sorts that lead eventually to joint exercises. But the American pivot away from Russia by unilaterally abandoning the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty to pursue a strategic missile defense initiative provoked the slow unwinding that reached its nadir with the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008. NATO military upgrades in Eastern Europe fed into President Putin's rhetoric about NATO encirclement of Russia, and the Russian annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine in 2014 appeared to finally cement a permanent break.

On April 1, 2014, NATO suspended "all practical civilian and military cooperation between NATO and Russia." By opening a dialogue with Moscow, which announced last week its desire to begin a constitutional conversation among all non-terrorist parties in Syria, balancing its ongoing communication with Washington, and asserting its legal right of collective defense with Brussels under the North Atlantic Treaty, Paris could be in a unique position to restart the NATO-Russia engagement while simultaneously delivering a body blow to ISIS and brokering a peace process for Syria. Since Russia has discovered ISIS involvement in the bombing of its Metrojet Airbus A321 over the Sinai that killed all 224 people on board last month, it has decided to coordinate Russian airstrikes against ISIS with France. As a next diplomatic step, Paris could host the constitutional conference called for by Russia even as it helps lead the war effort in Syria as a joint NATO-Russia coordinated assault. To accomplish such a feat, the US would have to be persuaded to abandon its red-line of Assad's continuing involvement in a future Syria. Whether President Obama is persuadable on that point is an open question, but President Hollande and the French will never have more legitimacy than they do right now to try.

Michael J. Kelly is Associate Dean and Professor of Law at Creighton University School of Law. He has consulted with the Kurdish government on their constitution and is the author of the book "Ghosts of Halabja: Saddam Hussein & the Kurdish Genocide" (2008) and the article "The Kurdish Regional Constitution within the Framework of the Iraqi Federal Constitution: A Struggle for Sovereignty, Oil, Ethnic Identity, and the Prospects for a Reverse Supremacy Clause" in vol. 114:3 of the Penn State Law Review (2010).

Suggested Citation: Michael Kelly, France May Invoke NATO Article 5 In Wake of Paris ISIS Attacks, JURIST - Academic Commentary, November 18, 2015, http://jurist.org/forum/2015/11/michael-kelly-france-nato.php.

This article was prepared for publication by Maria Coladonato, JURIST's Managing Editor. Please direct any questions or comments to her at commentary@jurist.orgOpinions expressed in JURIST Commentary are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JURIST's editors, staff, donors or the University of Pittsburgh.

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Soldiers on patrol at the Eiffel Tower. France admits it is struggling to cope with foreign military commitments and the need for extra security at home. Photograph: ECPAD/SIPA/Rex Shutterstock

France has taken the European Union into uncharted territory by obliging the other 27 member states to come to its defence following the terrorist atrocities in Paris.

Invoking article 42.7, a never used clause of the EU treaty triggering mutual defence among the 28 member states, Paris admitted it was struggling to cope with its foreign military commitments while beefing up security at home in the wake of the attacks, and asked the rest of Europe to come to its assistance.

Related:Paris terror attacks: arrests in Germany as France requests EU help '' live

The request was supported unanimously in what Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defence minister, described as an emotional and highly charged meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels.

As a result of the train attacks in Spain in 2004, the EU inserted mutual defence measures into the Lisbon treaty similar to the Nato alliance's article five, which obliges all member countries to come to the defence of one of their number if attacked.

As the EU does not have an army, the French will now conduct a set of bilateral negotiations with other EU states on what kind of military help might be available.

Article 42.7 stipulates that ''if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with article 51 of the United Nations charter''.

However, the article adds: ''This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member states.''

The latter sentence means that the neutrality of countries such as Ireland, Austria, and Sweden cannot be impugned, while the emphasis on help from ''member states'' means that the defence arrangements are agreed between national governments in the EU without the involvement of the institutions in Brussels such as the European commission or the European parliament. This leaves France free to strike deals with other governments without any interference from Brussels.

By contrast, article 222 of the treaty, eschewed in this instance by the French, says that ''the union and its member states shall act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a member state is the object of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster. The union shall mobilise all the instruments at its disposal, including the military resources made available by the member states.''

This would hand a major role to the European commission, which Paris has opted to avoid.

The British government said it stood ready to assist the French. The German defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the French invocation of the mutual defence clause meant only that there was ''a basis for consultation''.

A priority is likely to be an attempt at greater sharing of intelligence among EU states to try to counter terrorism, amid growing evidence that failure to act on intelligence by the French and Belgian security services may have contributed to the Paris attacks.

''We need greater intelligence sharing,'' said an ambassador to the EU.

The issue is likely to come up on Friday at an emergency meeting in Brussels of EU interior ministers.

Reinforcing the external borders of the EU is another area where the pledges might be applied, with increasing talk of military elements being added to police operations on the EU's frontiers.

But Paris also appeared to be asking its EU partners for some relief from its foreign military commitments, including participation in UN missions in Africa and Lebanon as well as its involvement in the bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Le Drian admitted that France was overstretched. ''France can't do everything. It can't act alone,'' he said. ''Every country said, I am going to help you. That can take different forms. There are many types of assistance possible, whether in the Middle Eastern arena or elsewhere.

''How is this going to work?'' said Le Drian. ''It may be by cooperating with French interventions in Syria, in Iraq, it may be in support of France in other operations.''

Attending the EU defence meeting, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Paris had not tabled any parallel request to trigger article five.

''It's a political act, a political message,'' said Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign and security policy coordinator. Each member state would contribute to helping France in line with their capabilities and foreign policies, she added. The details would be developed in a set of bilateral talks between national governments and France.

''The prime minister has been clear that we will do whatever we can to help the French government at this time, and that we need to work together to defeat these terrorists,'' said a UK government spokesman.

''We have been in constant contact with the French authorities since Friday. This is about a French request for bilateral assistance from other EU member states. We understand and support the French decision, and we stand ready to consider any French request for assistance.''

EU positions on Syria were shifting as a result of the Paris attacks, senior diplomats said. Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain are now said to support concentrating military efforts on eradicating Isis and being less insistent for the time being on bringing down the Syrian regime.

France, which has consistently taken the most hawkish line on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, was not diluting its position, the diplomats said, while tiny Luxembourg, currently chairing the EU, takes the toughest line of all, arguing that Assad should be deposed by military means.

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By Eric Wolff

11/17/15 10:00 AM EST

With help from Alex Guill(C)n, Darius Dixon, and Kalina Oroschakoff

SENATE TO TAKE UP CLEAN POWER PLAN CHALLENGE TODAY: The Senate is set to vote as soon as this evening to overturn EPA's carbon rules for power plants. President Obama would protect the Clean Power Plan by vetoing the Congressional Review Act resolutions of disapproval. But their expected passage lets Republicans send the world a message: When you talk to Obama at the climate talks in Paris, know he does not have the backing of Congress for the centerpiece of his climate change agenda. ''These regulations make it clearer than ever that the President and his Administration have gone too far, and that Congress should act to stop this regulatory assault,'' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement last night.

Story Continued Below

The resolutions cannot be filibustered, and should secure the majority they need in the Senate. Democrats Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin, who often side with fossil fuel industries against EPA regulation, already are on board. Their votes could make up for moderate Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte and Susan Collins, who are not expected to support the resolutions. Sen. Mark Kirk, another moderate who is facing pressure from green groups ahead of his re-election next year, has suggested he likely will support the resolution. Debate is expected to begin at 11 a.m. on a CRA resolution targeting EPA's rule for existing power plants, one of two aimed at the Clean Power Plan. A second resolution to overturn the rule for new plants is also expected to come up as soon as today.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to advance companion CRA resolutions tomorrow, but they are not scheduled to come to the floor until sometime after the climate talks start Nov. 30.

Democrats are urging Republicans to back away from the resolution. Sens. Tom Carper, Ben Cardin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Brian Schatz and Ed Markey are holding a press conference today at 9:30 a.m. to ask Republicans to stop trying to roll back the Clean Power Plan. "Republicans, encouraged by Big Oil and special interests, plan on gutting the regulations without an alternative plan to address climate change and continue to deny this problem all together," the Democratic press release said. A coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, 350.org, and the League of Conservation Voters sent a letter to Senators yesterday asking them not to vote for the resolutions. Leaders from Voces Verde, a Latino environmental group associated with the NRDC, sent a separate letter to members of the Senate yesterday asking for opposition to the resolutions.

WELCOME TO TUESDAY! I'm your host Eric Wolff, and NHL scoring is down again, which is a drag, but I hear Patrick Roy has an idea: Make the goal nets bigger and goalie equipment smaller. If it's good enough for a man who used to talk to the goal posts, it's good enough for ME! If you've got suggestions for increasing the scoring in hockey, or better yet, energy tips, quips, or comments, send them to ewolff@politico.com, or follow us on Twitter @ericwolff, @Morning_Energy, and @POLITICOPro.

PARIS IS ALREADY HOSTING ENERGY BIGWIGS FOR IEA MEETING: Amid the fallout of last week's Paris attacks, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will chair a ministerial meeting of the International Energy Agency in Paris today and tomorrow. Ministers from the 29 member countries, and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and Thailand are meeting. One news item to look out for: Mexico has asked to join the agency. ''This ... opens the door to greater engagement across Latin America. It is a key step towards our objective of building a truly global international energy organization,'' IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. The terror attacks had briefly called into the question whether the meeting would go ahead. For Irish energy minister Alex White ''The decision to go ahead ... offers an opportunity to demonstrate our solidarity with France.''

PARIS: NUCLEAR POWER SUPPORTERS WANT AN ENTR‰E TO THE DEAL: The nuclear power industry has been working since last year to build international alliances in preparation for the upcoming climate talks. A 2001 deal struck in the aftermath of the 1997 Kyoto Agreement excluded nuclear power from receiving international financing, despite producing power with no carbon emissions. This time around, as Darius Dixon reports, the industry wants to be part of the solution '-- or at the very least, to not be excluded. And it's getting some backing from the Obama administration: "We move forward to Paris with a technology-neutral approach,'' Paul Bodnar, the National Security Council senior director for energy and climate change, said at a White House nuclear summit recently. ''Nuclear power really has a comparative advantage over other forms of baseload power generation.''

** A message from America's Advanced Biofuel: From coast to coast, biodiesel is getting us where we need to go. Made from sustainable resources, biodiesel is diversifying our fuel supply, making our economy stronger and our communities healthier. Get biodiesel going in your community. Learn more today at www.AmericasAdvancedBiofuel.com. **

GORE WON'T ENDORSE IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY: Climate crusader and former vice president Al Gore will stay out of the Democratic presidential primary, POLITICO Agenda's Darren Samuelsohn reports: "Gore's reticence, his friends and allies say, is in part to maximize his own leverage on fighting climate change. But his repeated demurrals also reflect a complicated relationship with his former boss's wife that dates back more than two decades. While Gore and Hillary Clinton may not be enemies, they're not exactly close friends, either. 'They have a lot of history. More than the average bear,' said one Democratic source close to Gore."

HIGHWAYS GET TWO-WEEK REPRIEVE: The House extended current policy for the Highway Trust Fund last night by voice vote, giving lawmakers till Dec. 4 to work out the last details. The Senate is expected to do the same later this week.

U.S. AIRLINES MIDDLE OF TRANSATLANTIC PACK ON EMISSIONS, REPORT SAYS: U.S. airlines generally lag behind their European counterparts in fuel efficiency, according to a study out today from the nonprofit International Council on Clean Transportation. Among carriers performing North America-Europe flights, the best-performing U.S. carrier, Delta, was right at the average of carriers. The most efficient airline was Norwegian Air Shuttle, and the top eight airlines were all European or Canadian. The worst performer was British Airways. ICCT notes that first class and business seats make up an outside portion of greenhouse gas emissions. The group also warns that global aviation emissions will triple by 2050 without intervention. The International Civil Aviation Organization is planning to set standards next year, though environmentalists fear the measure won't be strong enough.

BISHOP TO BLM: WE HAVE A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE (WITH INDUSTRY): Rep. Rob Bishop says in a letter going to BLM today that the bureau's efforts to revise some rules governing oil and gas royalties on public lands have not included enough input from industry. BLM held one public hearing in Washington, D.C. Bishop, speaking as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, would like to see BLM host additional hearings at each of the bureau's 12 state offices before finalizing its rules.

TURNING UP THE PRESSURE ON LWCF: The Land and Water Conservation Fund, the expired program used to purchase land located within national parks, found itself some new champions today. The Evangelical Environmental Network will buy ads on Christian radio and on religious programming on Pandora to support Reps. Paul Cook,Dan Newhouse,Rob Wittman, and Ryan Zinke, all members of the House Committee on Natural Resources, who back the LWCF. Also today, a group of 50 venture capitalists are running a half-page ad in the Wall Street Journal backing the fund. The House Natural Resources Committee will discuss legislation to reauthorize and revise the fund at a hearing tomorrow.

GET UP, STAND UP, SPEAK UP: D.C. utility regulators are preparing to get an earful today about what the public thinks of Exelon and Pepco Holdings' latest effort to push their merger through its only remaining hurdle. ME readers know that the D.C. Public Service Commission rejected the multibillion dollar merger proposal in August, only to later accept the utilities' request to reopen the failed application to consider a settlement reached with several District officials. The DC PSC largely approved the companies' expedited timetable to take testimony and hold hearings but regulators added a "community hearing,'' which starts at 10 a.m. The session is scheduled to run until 7 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break. Then the commission will do it all over again tomorrow. Critics of the deal plan to come out in force, protesting the merger itself as well as to continue pushing for an investigation into whether a $25 million Pepco stadium sponsorship deal played into Mayor Muriel Bowser's decision to switch sides and back the merger (Bowser has denied any connection between the two issues). The meeting will be in the Commission hearing room at 325 G Street, N.W.

NRC'S POST-FUKUSHIMA UPDATE: The leaders of the NRC are getting a status report today on safety regulations put in place after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, and the bulk of the staff presentation lays out their strategy for dealing with so-called Tier 2 and Tier 3 recommendations. NRC leadership gets these briefings roughly every six months. In a proposal sent to the commission last month, NRC staff say it will cost $130,000 to resolve and close nearly a dozen of these open recommendations. The plan calls for four recommendations to be closed now while the rest, such as whether to expand the application of hardened vents to more reactor designs, are slated for completion either in May or December 2016. The briefing starts at 9 a.m. at NRC headquarters and will be webcast.

WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS, ONCE AND FUTURE EPA CHIEF, TO RECEIVE MEDAL OF FREEDOM: Imagine running the EPA not once, but twice. William Ruckelshaus originated the role of EPA Administrator, building the new agency from the ground up startling 1970 in service to President Richard Nixon. He would leave for other roles in government, eventually leading to his resignation in the Saturday Night Massacre. In 1983, with the EPA reeling under scandals related to management of the Superfund program, Ruckelshaus came back to the EPA at the behest of President Ronald Reagan, where he restored some public faith in the agency. The Medal of Freedom is the U.S. highest civilian honor. Ruckelshaus will receive the honor at a White House ceremony next week. Other recipients this year include Yogi Berra, Shirley Chisholm, Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Willie Mays and Barbara Mikulski.

READING LIST: "The Big Corn Sellout: How National Politics and Ethanol Mandates Are Hurting California's Economy," by The Center for Regulatory Solutions

JUST IN TIME FOR 2016, the updated POLITICO App is now live. Get the politics and policy you need in a dynamic new design. Don't miss out. Download on the App Store.

THE INSIDERS TAKE: As 2016 heats up, so has the POLITICO Caucus. POLITICO's exclusive insider survey of more than 200 political operatives, activists and elected officials has expanded from Iowa and New Hampshire to two additional states: South Carolina and Nevada. Check out the weekly survey and the new Caucus home.

QUICK HITS

'-- Enbridge cuts 5% of workforce, CBC News: http://bit.ly/1NAlWrb

'-- Plan to Close Nuclear Plant in Upstate New York Rattles Its Neighbors, NYT: http://nyti.ms/1S0qvyC

'-- Stanford students begin 'indefinite' sit-in over fossil fuel divestment, The Guardian: http://bit.ly/1lsalDX

'-- It's easy to buy "green power." Making a difference is a little harder, Vox: http://bit.ly/1PKJzln

'-- Blankenship defense rests without calling witnesses, Charleston Gazette: http://bit.ly/1WVWDtT

THAT'S ALL FOR ME!

** A message from America's Advanced Biofuel: Biodiesel is getting us where we need to go. From coast to coast, it's powering our vehicles, heating our buildings and homes, and providing an alternative, renewable energy source. Made from sustainable resources, biodiesel is diversifying our fuel supply, making our economy stronger and our communities healthier.

You wouldn't invest your life savings in just one stock. So why would America risk everything on a single transportation fuel? No matter how much oil we produce or where we produce it, having only one source to power our cars, trucks, trains and barges makes us vulnerable to a volatile global market. Biodiesel is getting us where we need to go, but we're not there yet. Get biodiesel going in your community. Learn more today at www.AmericasAdvancedBiofuel.com. **

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A lot has changed in science since the 1970s. Scientists, activists and politicians are now concerned human activities are causing global temperatures to rise and making droughts and other extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

The Pentagon has called global warming a ''threat multiplier'' because ''it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we are dealing with today '' from infectious disease to terrorism.''

Interestingly enough, the Pentagon has the same concerns about global warming as the C.I.A. did about global cooling in the 1970s.

''The impacts of climate change may cause instability in other countries by impairing access to food and water, damaging infrastructure, spreading disease, uprooting and displacing large numbers of people, compelling mass migration, interrupting commercial activity, or restricting electricity availability,'' the Pentagon reported in 2014.

These developments could undermine already-fragile governments that are unable to respond effectively or challenge currently-stable governments,'' the Pentagon noted. ''These gaps in governance can create an avenue for extremist ideologies and conditions that foster terrorism.''

Global cooling would have caused many of the same problems, according to the C.I.A.'s 1974 report.

''The new climatic era brings a promise of famine and starvation to many areas of the world,'' the C.I.A. wrote in its report based on a study by the University of Wisconsin predicting a return to the cooler conditions of the ''Little Ice Age.''

''For 250 years most of the world suffered major economic and political unrest which could be directly or indirectly attributed to the climate of the neo-boreal era,'' the C.I.A. warned, adding that another Little Ice Age would cause hundreds of millions of deaths around the world and cause massive social unrest.

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A lot has changed in science since the 1970s. Scientists, activists and politicians are now concerned human activities are causing global temperatures to rise and making droughts and other extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

The Pentagon has called global warming a ''threat multiplier'' because ''it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we are dealing with today '' from infectious disease to terrorism.''

Interestingly enough, the Pentagon has the same concerns about global warming as the C.I.A. did about global cooling in the 1970s.

''The impacts of climate change may cause instability in other countries by impairing access to food and water, damaging infrastructure, spreading disease, uprooting and displacing large numbers of people, compelling mass migration, interrupting commercial activity, or restricting electricity availability,'' the Pentagon reported in 2014.

These developments could undermine already-fragile governments that are unable to respond effectively or challenge currently-stable governments,'' the Pentagon noted. ''These gaps in governance can create an avenue for extremist ideologies and conditions that foster terrorism.''

Global cooling would have caused many of the same problems, according to the C.I.A.'s 1974 report.

''The new climatic era brings a promise of famine and starvation to many areas of the world,'' the C.I.A. wrote in its report based on a study by the University of Wisconsin predicting a return to the cooler conditions of the ''Little Ice Age.''

''For 250 years most of the world suffered major economic and political unrest which could be directly or indirectly attributed to the climate of the neo-boreal era,'' the C.I.A. warned, adding that another Little Ice Age would cause hundreds of millions of deaths around the world and cause massive social unrest.

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Exclusieve artikelen van de Telegraaf redactie

wo 18 nov 2015, 05:30|

lees voordoor Jorn Jonker en Niels RigterDen Haag - Nederland broedt op een plan om met gelijkgestemde landen grenscontroles in te voeren binnen de huidige Schengenzone. Het gebied waarbinnen Europeanen zonder paspoort kunnen reizen wordt dan fors kleiner. Bronnen melden De Telegraaf dat zo'n verkleinde Schengenzone in het kabinet is besproken.

Het plan is verkend als onderdeel van de Nederlandse inzet bij de Europese onderhandelingen om de asielinstroom te beteugelen. In de ministerraad van afgelopen vrijdag is langdurig overleg geweest over het onderwerp. Er zouden tenminste twee opties op tafel liggen. E(C)n daarvan is het oprichten van een mini-Schengenzone, bestaande uit Nederland, Belgi, Luxemburg, Duitsland en Oostenrijk. Aan de buitengrenzen van dit gebied zouden dan grenscontroles plaatsvinden. Aan die nieuwe grenzen moeten dan transitkampen komen voor migranten. Een andere variant is een verbond tussen Nederland en Belgi.

Bronnen bij de betrokken departementen bevestigen dat er verkennende gesprekken plaatsvinden voor een 'klein-Schengen'. PvdA-leider Samsom weet er ook van, maar die ziet nog wel haken en ogen.

Lees ook:Mini-Schengen als buffer(C) 1996-2015 TMG Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlGebruiksvoorwaarden | Privacy | Cookies | Cookie-voorkeuren

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:57

CHICAGO (AP) '-- In a story Nov. 17 about the American Medical Association calling for a ban on direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads, The Associated Press misidentified PhRMA spokeswoman Tina Stow as Trish Stow. A corrected version of the story is below.

American Medical Association backs prescription drug ad ban

American Medical Association says direct-to-consumer Rx drug ads fuel costs, should be banned

By LINDSEY TANNER

AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) '-- The American Medical Association on Tuesday called for a ban on direct-to-consumer ads for prescription drugs and implantable medical devices, saying they contribute to rising costs and patients' demands for inappropriate treatment.

Delegates at the influential group's policy-making meeting in Atlanta voted to adopt that as official policy as part of an AMA effort to make prescription drugs more affordable. It means AMA will lobby for a ban.

"Today's vote in support of an advertising ban reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially driven promotions and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices," said Dr. Patrice Harris, an AMA board member.

According to data cited in an AMA news release, ad dollars spent by drugmakers have risen to $4.5 billion in the last two years, a 30 percent increase. Other data show prices on prescription drugs have climbed nearly 5 percent this year.

"Patient care can be compromised and delayed when prescription drugs are unaffordable and subject to coverage limitations by the patients' health plan," Harris said in the news release.

The pharmaceutical industry opposes the AMA's stance. Direct-to-consumer ads aim to provide "scientifically accurate information to patients so that they are better informed about their health care and treatment options," said Tina Stow of the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

The ads also encourage patients to visit their doctors' offices "for important doctor-patient conversations about health that might otherwise not take place," Stow said.

The AMA will evaluate the new policy in the coming weeks to determine how to proceed with seeking a ban.

___

Online;

AMA: http://www.ama-assn.org

___

Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/lindsey-tanner

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:53

Even as computer models grow more powerful and more precise, they remain uncertain as to regional effects.

The rapid melting of major on-land ice sheets is among the phenomena that have climate scientists rethinking their models.

Writing in Science last week, a group of researchers headed by Jeremie Mouginot of the University of California, Irvine, reported that the Zachariae Isstrom glacier, in northeast Greenland, is shrinking rapidly and ''will increase sea-level rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet for decades to come.'' The new paper also included a statement that has become all-too common in scientific journal articles on the effects of global climate change: the rate of melting of Zachariae Isstrom was unexpected.

''I think it's fair to say that we're seeing things we didn't expect to see so early,'' says Michael Mann, the director of the Earth Systems Science Center at Penn State University. Among the recent examples Mann cites: the very rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice, the dwindling of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, and the disruption of ocean circulation patterns detailed last year in work by Mann's group at Penn State. All of these changes outstrip the rate of change anticipated in today's most commonly used climate models.

In the run-up to the international negotiations on climate change that begin in Paris on November 29, these findings raise an important question: How good are our models of climate change and its effects?

The Zachariae Isstrom glacier, in northeast Greenland, is shrinking at a rate that surprised many scientists.

The first thing to keep in mind is that, after more than three decades, hundreds of millions of dollars, and countless scientist-hours invested, climate models have gotten much, much better. For example, scientists have learned how to better integrate models of atmospheric and oceanic changes to gain a better sense of the interplay between the two. And the spatial resolution of the models has gotten more and more detailed, even as Moore's Law fuels enhancements in computing power to run simulations with more and more data points. Finally, better observational data (such as the melting of the Zachariae Isstrom) enables scientists to improve the inputs into the models, naturally leading to better outputs.

At a general level, those models have been remarkably consistent in establishing a linear relationship between the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global temperature rise. The second thing to remember, though, is that climate models are not good predictors of specific climate effects, such as the melting of Arctic sea ice or the frequency of major hurricanes in the north Atlantic.

There are two types of widely used climate models: large, complicated, planetary-scale models that harness supercomputing capabilities at major research institutes, generally known as atmosphere-ocean general circulation models, and higher-resolution models that use input from the general circulation models to make calculations at regional scales. Around 40 of the general circulation models were used for the Fifth Assessment Report, released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in November 2014; they are more accurate for long-term, worldwide forecasts, including the key measure of climate sensitivity'--the amount of warming, in global mean temperature, that will happen when the amount of carbon in the atmosphere doubles from pre-industrial levels. The smaller, high-resolution models are better for examining the likely regional effects of climate change.

So models continue to get better. But most climate scientists acknowledge that there are limits: no matter how sophisticated our models become, there will always be an irreducible element of chaos in the earth's climate system that no supercomputer will ever eliminate.

''The models are getting more accurate in the sense that they simulate many processes more realistically,'' explains Reto Knutti, a professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich who was one of the lead contributors to the Fifth Assessment Report. ''But having said that, all of that has not really helped in decreasing the uncertainty in future projections.''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:26

Fatima Hadfi had not seen her son since February when he went to SyriaJihadi's mother said she had impression he was going to explode any dayShe said his personality changed, he gave up drinking and smoking Held her in his arms before leaving because he knew he wouldn't be backFatima revealed she didn't tell police he'd gone for fear he couldn't return See full coverage of the ISIS Paris attackers at www.dailymail.co.uk/isisBy Hannah Roberts In Brussels For Mailonline

Published: 11:13 EST, 18 November 2015 | Updated: 13:07 EST, 18 November 2015

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The mother of the baby faced jihadi who wanted to kill hundreds at the Stade de France warned her son was a 'ticking time bomb' in the weeks before he blew himself up.

Bilal Hadfi, 20, was one of three extremists who detonated their suicide vests outside the stadium on Friday night, beginning Paris' worst night of violence since the Second World War.

Hadfi was already known to terror police in Belgium, which had been the family's home country for a number of years.

Now his mother Fatima says she knew her son posed a serious threat before he fled to Syria in February.

Dangerous: Bilal was a ticking time bomb when he left his home in Belgium for Syria where he would join ISIS in February this year, mother Fatima revealed

Killer: Her statement, made just days before Hadfi detonated his suicide vest outside the Stade de France, took on a chilling new meaning after his murderous act on Friday night

Disappeared: His mother said she had not heard from him in three months at the start of November

'I had the impression that he was going to explode any day,' she told La Libre Belgique, as she recalled the boy who left for Syria earlier this year.

He had given up smoking and drinking about a month before, and was fasting two days a week - something which Fatima had originally welcomed.

The day he ran away, he came to his mother with 'red eyes' and took her in his arms.

'He knew he was going and would not be coming back,' she said.

Fatima found out shortly afterwards where he had gone, but revealed then that she did not tell the police, for fear it would make it difficult to return.

But it did not seem he would. In one phone call home, Hadfi told her: 'I'm afraid you will die and go to hell because you live in a country of kuffar (non-believers).'

Fatima said she had not heard from her son for three months in an interview with journalist Christophe Lamafalussy on November 11.

Infidels: Fatima revealed he would call his her to tell her he was worried about her living in the land of the 'infidels'. Pictured: An AK47 on his archived Facebook page

Normal teenager: When he stopped smoking and began fasting, shortly before he left for Syria. Fatima was happy. Pictured: Sunbathing with a friend in a picture from the archived Facebook page

Religious zeal: His Facebook page reveals a young man who was concerned with having fun with his 'little brothers' (pictured), but that all changed in the months before he left

Others have already revealed how Hadfi stopped listening to music, saying it was haram, or forbidden, in the weeks before he left.

The student had also become vocal in his support for Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist terror group.

But it was when he agreed with the Charlie Hebdo massacres which took place in January that his school teacher Sara Staccino really became worried, however.

'He said it was right what happened was because the magazine had insulted his religion,' she told Belgium's Radio One.

But her attempts to warn others and stage an intervention fell on deaf ears: a week later he left to join ISIS.

Hadfi's Facebook page reveal the young man, of Moroccan descent, had once been quite different, posting photos of guns, piles of cash and sunbathing topless.

The profile, which has now been archived, dates back to 2011. It has posts from the 2007 France riots - above the press photo of a group of hooded men stand a top a police car he writes 'F*** the police'.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:05

Following the terrorist attack at Nov. 13'sEagles of Death Metal concert in Paris' Le Bataclan that claimed more than 80 lives, the California rock band has issued its first full statement on the tragedy, paying homage to the dead, thanking French police and notifying fans that all further Eagles of Death Metal concerts "are on hold until further notice."

Campaign Hopes to Bring Eagles of Death Metal to Top of U.K. Charts After Paris Shootings

Read it in full below:

"While the band is now home safe, we are horrified and still trying to come to terms with what happened in France. Our thoughts and hearts are first and foremost with our brother Nick Alexander, our record company comrades Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez, and all the friends and fans whose lives were taken in Paris, as well as their friends, families, and loved ones.

"Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terrorism, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion.

"We would like to thank the French police, the FBI, the U.S. and French State Departments, and especially all those at ground zero with us who helped each other as best they could during this unimaginable ordeal, proving once again that love overshadows evil.

"All EODM shows are on hold until further notice.

Vive la musique, vive la libert(C), vive la France, and vive EODM."

Prior to this, the band released a short statement on Facebook on Nov. 13, stating, "We are still currently trying to determine the safety and whereabouts of all our band and crew. Our thoughts are with all of the people involved in this tragic situation."

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:03

Unelected bureaucrats at the European Union have published their proposals for new gun bans and restrictions in light of the Paris murders. As expected, the proposal amounts to a constructive ban on virtually all semi-auto rifles and will have little or no effect on terrorists and other criminals.

The proposal, which mostly consists of restrictions on gun licensing, is now available on the EU website. The detailed wording is available from the link titled 'directive' under the heading 'for more information'.

The EU wants to ban all semi-auto rifles that look like military firearms. This, UKSN understands, would amount to a constructive ban on the vast majority of semi-auto rifles on the continent of Europe as well as affecting Britain's .22 semi-auto market.

The proposed directive was put together by Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elżbieta BieÅkowska (Poland) and Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos (Greece).

Collectors of firearms are explicitly highlighted by the EU as a ''possible source of traffic of firearms'' (sic).

The proposal is an amendment to the existing firearms diktat (Directive 91/477/EEC) and now needs to be approved by the European Parliament (the elected body which can only approve or reject new EU Commission diktats) and Council (made up of heads of governments, not directly elected).

Key wording of the ban, at clause 13(a)(i):

''Semi-automatic firearms for civilian use which resemble weapons with automatic mechanisms''

This is surprisingly clear language from the EU. It is a straight attempt to ban firearms because of their form, not function. As worded, the ban would also cover semi-auto pistols, particularly the long barrel versions popular in the UK.

EU member states will be required to tell the EU Commission how they have implemented the ban once it is rubber-stamped by the EU ''parliament''.

Mandatory medical testing

The EU wants every single firearm and shotgun owner in the bloc subjected to mandatory medical testing in order to own and use firearms. Wording, from page 16 under 'Article 6':

Member States shall provide for standard medical tests for issuing or renewing authorisations as referred to in paragraph 1 and shall withdraw authorisations if any of the conditions on the basis of which it was granted is no longer met.

This would have had no effect whatsoever upon the Paris murderers, who used illegally acquired full auto AK-pattern firearms.

Banning converted full-auto firearms

Fully automatic firearms which have been converted into legal semi-auto firearms will be made illegal. This is already the case in the UK but a small industry has built up around reducing full- or semi-auto rifles to spare parts and reassembling them as ''new'' (in the legal sense) straight pull rifles. It is unclear whether the directive would outlaw this business activity.

Converted full auto firearms are already illegal in Britain.

Building an EU-wide database of every individual gun owner

EUrocrats want to create a bloc-wide gun registry, of the type that was recently abandoned in Canada after costing taxpayers C$1 billion. Key wording, at page 17 under text proposed to be added to Article 13 of the existing EU Firearms Directive:

The competent authorities of the Member States shall exchange information on the authorisations granted for the transfers of firearms to another Member State as well as information with regard to refusals to grant authorisations as defined in Article 7.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 13a concerning the modalities of exchange of information on authorisations granted and on refusals.

This would create the EU-wide gun and gun owner database. It represents a huge threat to personal privacy and liberty and presents a massive target to hackers.

Britain already has a gun ownership registry, the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS). The system is known not to be 100% accurate, as acknowledged by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. Negotiations are under way to procure a new system.

Making alarm guns and flare pistols licensable

As well as licensing real firearms, the EU wants to make gun-like objects licensable. Key wording, from page 16 of the proposal, under text to be added to Article 10a:

Member States shall take measures to ensure that alarm and signal weapons as well as salute and acoustic weapons cannot be converted into firearms.The Commission shall adopt technical specifications for alarm and signal weapons as well as for salute and acoustic weapons to ensure they cannot be converted into firearms.Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 13b(2).

This would cover things like blank-firing starting pistols and other blank firers that are not firearms, in UKSN's opinion.

Deactivation standards to be 'harmonised'

Judging by how much of this document reflects domestic policy discussion in Britain, it seems likely that the EU wants to bring standards for deactivated firearms in line with Britain. This means completely destroying and/or removing the internal parts, replacing bolt carriers with dummy parts made from sheet metal, and welding actions solid so deactivated firearms cannot even be cocked.

In Britain the justification has been that EU-spec deactivated firearms from Eastern Europe are, allegedly, easy to reactivate.

Key wording, from page 17, to be added to Article 10b:

Member States shall make arrangements for the deactivation of firearms to be verified by a competent authority in order to ensure that the modifications made to a firearm render it irreversibly inoperable. Member States shall, in the context of this verification, provide for the issuance of a certificate or record attesting to the deactivation of the firearm or the apposition of a clearly visible mark to that effect on the firearm.The Commission shall adopt deactivation standards and techniques to ensure that deactivated firearms are rendered irreversibly inoperable. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 13b(2).

This, if applied retrospectively, would outlaw a very large number of deactivated firearms currently hung over fireplaces and used in battle reenactment scenarios.

'Good reason' for gun ownership '' i.e. a ban on 'shall-issue' licensing

Gun owners in the EU must, under these proposals, provide a 'good cause' for owning firearms. This is analogous to the UK's 'section 1' firearms licensing system, where a 'good reason' must be presented for each and every firearm owned.

From page 15, under text to be added to Article 5:

Without prejudice to Article 3, Member States shall authorise the acquisition and possession of firearms only by persons who have good cause and who:

(a) are at least 18 years of age, except in relation to the possession of firearms for hunting and target shooting, provided that in that case persons of less than 18 years of age have parental permission, or are under parental guidance or the guidance of an adult with a valid firearms or hunting licence, or are within a licenced or otherwise approved training centre;

(b) are not likely to be a danger to themselves, to public order or to public safety; having been convicted of a violent intentional crime shall be considered as indicative of such danger.

This would outlaw the UK's 'section 2' system of shotgun licensing, where any number of shotguns may be acquired subject to enough police-approved secure storage being available.

Outlawing private internet sales

All internet sales except those from licensed dealers or brokers will be made illegal. This is aimed at outlawing private individuals from advertising their guns for sale.

The wording is at page 16, under text to be added to Article 6:

The acquisition of firearms and their parts and ammunition concerning categories A, B and C by means of distance communication, as defined in Article 2 of Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(*), shall be authorised only with respect to dealers and brokers and shall be subject to the strict control of the Member States.

This would have a severe effect upon websites such as Gunstar and Gunbroker in the UK, which function as a shop window. No money passes through the sites: they are merely for advertising.

.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:03

A German policeman cradles a light machine gun as commuters walk by in a railway station | Getty

New gun measures are part of the Commission response to the Paris killings.

ByHans von der Burchard and Ryan Heath

11/18/15, 3:42 PM CET

Updated 11/18/15, 8:18 PM CET

The European Commission announced Wednesday it will tighten legal restrictions on the types of firearms used by terrorists in a string of attacks across Europe.

The new measures will affect the sale of decommissioned firearms '-- weapons which have been sold as deactivated but which can be put back into use. Authorities say such weapons may have been used by terrorists in last week's Paris attacks, and were already involved in a foiled terror attack on a Thalys train in August and reportedly also in the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January.

National authorities across the EU currently have different regulations in place under which old weapons, such as Kalashnikov rifles that date back to the Soviet Union but are still in stock in some Eastern European countries, might be sold to individuals after being deactivated.

''The recent terrorist attacks on Europe's people and values were coordinated across borders, showing that we must work together to resist these threats,'' said Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a statement.

Elżbieta BieÅkowska, the commissioner for the internal market, said the new measures were needed ''to address the new reality we are confronted with. We need to remove regulatory divergences across the EU by imposing stricter, harmonized EU standards for firearms and ensuring efficient exchange of information between member states.''

A regulation adopted Wednesday by the Commission will enter into force in three months. It introduces new common standards for decommissioning firearms in the EU.

EU countries must ''designate a competent authority to verify that the deactivation of the firearm has been carried out in accordance with the technical specifications'' set out by the Commission, the legal text says.

Slovakian media reported in February that the terrorists attacking Charlie Hebdo in January bought their Kalashnikovs legally in Slovakia, where they were sold as decommissioned weapons to be used as film props, but then found an expert in Belgium who was able to reactivate them.

As a second measure, the Commission proposed a revision of the EU's firearms directive, which completely bans the sale of semi-automatic firearms to private persons across the EU. Moreover, the online sale of decommissioned weapons of any type to private persons would be prohibited.

Under the directive, the Commission also proposed common rules on marking firearms to improve their traceability, on a better exchange of information between countries and on stricter conditions for the circulation of deactivated firearms.

This directive, however, will still need a green light from the Parliament and Council in the upcoming months.

''This is a very strict and tight legal package,'' BieÅkowska said, expressing her hope that Parliament and Council would move ahead quickly with their approval.

''Schengen is not the problem.'' '' Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU migration and home affairs commissioner.

The measures were part of an effort by the Commission to show the EU could boost internal security as a response to the Paris attacks, but without suspending the Schengen agreement on free movement across borders.

Some politicians, including French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, had attacked the Schengen zone in response to the terror attacks, arguing that national borders should be reintroduced to prevent terrorists moving freely between countries.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, responded Wednesday by saying that EU countries should increase safety by better applying the existing legal framework.

''Schengen is not the problem,'' Avramopoulos said. ''If we make full use of the tools given to us by Schengen, our external borders will be protected in a sufficient way.''

Schengen, he added, is the ''greatest achievement of European integration.''

Referring to the fact that several of the Paris attackers were EU citizens, Avramopoulos also demanded more engagement against radicalization. ''We must address the root causes of why people radicalize, particularly if they are born here. This is our youth that is turning against us.''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:02

better track legally held firearms, strengthen cooperation between Member States, and ensure that deactivated firearms are rendered inoperable.

The proposals presented today were foreseen in the European Security Agenda adopted in April 2015, but have been significantly accelerated in light of recent events. The Commission is hereby supporting Member States in their efforts to protect Europe's citizens and prevent criminals and terrorists from accessing weapons.

President Juncker said: "The recent terrorist attacks on Europe's people and values were coordinated across borders, showing that we must work together to resist these threats. Today's proposal, prepared jointly by Commissioners Elżbieta BieÅkowska and Dimitris Avramopoulos,will help us tackle the threat of weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. We are proposing stricter controls on sale and registration of firearms, and stronger rules to irrevocably deactivate weapons. We will also come forward with an Action Plan in the near future to tackle illicit arms trafficking. Organised criminals accessing and trading military grade firearms in Europe cannot and will not be tolerated."

Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elżbieta BieÅkowska and Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos added: "The adoption of the firearms package today is proof of the Commission's determination to address the new reality we are confronted with. We need to remove regulatory divergences across the EU by imposing stricter, harmonised EU standards for firearms and ensuring efficient exchange of information between Member States."

The package of measures on firearms adopted by the College of Commissioners today includes the following elements:

A revision of the Firearms Directive, to tighten controls on the acquisition and possession of firearms

The Commission has today tabled proposals to amend the EU Firearms Directive, which defines the rules under which private persons can acquire and possess weapons, as well as the transfer of firearms to another EU country. The main elements of the proposed revision are:

Stricter rules to ban certain semi-automatic firearms, which will not, under any circumstance, be allowed to be held by private persons, even if they have been permanently deactivated;Tighter rules on the online acquisition of firearms, to avoid the acquisition of firearms, key parts or ammunition through the Internet;EU common rules on marking of firearms to improve the traceability of weapons;Better exchange of information between Member States, for example on any refusal of authorisation to own a firearm decided by another national authority, and obligation to interconnect national registers of weapons;Common criteria concerning alarm weapons (e.g. distress flares and starter pistols)in order to prevent their transformation into fully functioning firearms;Stricter conditions for thecirculation of deactivated firearms;Stricter conditions for collectors to limit the risk of sale to criminals. The proposed amendments which the Commission has tabled today now need to be approved by the European Parliament and Council.

An Implementing Regulation on common minimum standards for deactivation of firearms

The Implementing Regulation sets out common and strict criteria on the way Member States must deactivate weapons so that they are rendered inoperable. The possession of the most dangerous firearms '' even if they are deactivated '' will no longer be allowed.

The Implementing Regulation is based on the criteria for deactivation developed by the Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms (the CIP). Following a positive vote on the draft Regulation by Member States in a comitology committee earlier this morning, the College of Commissioners formally adopted the text. The Regulation will be published immediately in the Official Journal and will enter into force after 3 months.

Today's package of measures to strengthen the control of firearms within the EU is based on a detailed evaluation of the implementation of the Firearms Directive carried out by the Commission last year in the context of its Regulatory Fitness programme (REFIT), which aims to ensure that existing EU regulation is fit for purpose. To ensure the best practical results on the deactivation of firearms, the Commission will regularly review and update the technical specifications laid down in this Regulation.

An action plan against the illegal trafficking of weapons and explosives

In addition to the adoption of these stricter rules and standards, the Commission also announced today that it is developing an action plan against the illegal trafficking of weapons and explosives. Issues to be tackled in this future action plan will include:

The illegal purchase of weapons on the black market;The control of illegal weapons and explosives in the internal market (especially from the Balkan countries or ex-war zones);The fight against organised crime.While arms trafficking is mainly a national competence, given the clear cross-border dimension there is a need for stronger police and intelligence service coordination and stronger import checks. The Commission will propose actions to support Member States' activities, building on the Action Plan on illicit trafficking in firearms between the EU and the Western Balkans. The EU-Western Balkans summit of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs on 7 December will be a further opportunity to take stock of progress on the Action Plan.

Background

The responsibility for ensuring internal security is first and foremost with the Member States, but cross-border challenges defy the capacity of individual countries to act alone and require EU support to build trust and facilitate cooperation, exchange of information and joint action.

President Juncker's Political Guidelines identified the security agenda as a priority for this Commission, and the 2015 Commission Work Programme committed to the delivery of the European Agenda on Security.

On 28 April 2015, the European Commission set out a European Agenda on Security for the period 2015-2020 to support Member States' cooperation in tackling security threats and step up our common efforts in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and cybercrime. The Agenda sets out the concrete tools and measures which will be used in this joint work to ensure security and tackle these three most pressing threats more effectively.

In the Agenda and in the Work Programme for 2016, the Commission promised to review the existing legislation on firearms in 2016 to improve the sharing of information, to reinforce traceability, to standardise marking, and to establish common standards for neutralising firearms. In light of recent events we have decided to significantly accelerate this work. Since then, significant progress has been made in implementing the elements of the agenda.

Today's initiatives complement ongoing work to tackle the illegal trafficking of firearms, including notably the operational action plan between the EU and the Western Balkans and joint investigations and police cooperation which have been in place since 2013.

For more information

Directive: http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/13965/attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/native

Report: http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/13965/attachments/2/translations/en/renditions/native

Implementing Regulation (deactivation): http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/13965/attachments/3/translations/en/renditions/native

Annexes to Implementing Regulation: http://ec.europa.eu/DocsRoom/documents/13965/attachments/4/translations/en/renditions/native

Memo/15/6111

European Agenda on Security '' Press release

The European Agenda on Security: State of Play

Firearms Directive

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 03:57

In what appears to be a first for a serious presidential contender, Hillary Clinton's campaign is going after five comedians who made fun of the former Secretary of State in standup skits at a popular Hollywood comedy club.

A video of the short performance, which is less than three minutes, is posted on the website of the renowned club, Laugh Factory, and the Clinton campaign has tried to censor it. Besides demanding that the video be taken down, the Clinton campaign has demanded the personal contact information of the performers that appear in the recording. This is no laughing matter for club owner Jamie Masada, a comedy guru who opened Laugh Factory more than three decades ago and has been instrumental in launching the careers of many famous comics. ''They threatened me,'' Masada told Judicial Watch. ''I have received complains before but never a call like this, threatening to put me out of business if I don't cut the video.''

Practically all of the country's most acclaimed comedians have performed at the Laugh Factory and undoubtedly they have offended politicians and other well-known personalities with their standup routines. Tim Allen, Jay Leno, Roseanne Bar, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Jim Carrey, Martin Lawrence, Jerry Seinfeld and George Lopez are among the big names that have headlined at the Laugh Factory. The First Amendment right to free speech is a crucial component of the operation, though Masada drew the line a few years ago banning performers'--including African Americans'--from using the ''n-word'' in their acts.

The five short performances that Clinton wants eliminated include some profanity and portions could be considered crass, but some of the lines are funny and that's what the Laugh Factory is all about. The video features the individual acts of five comedians, four men and a woman. The skits make fun of Clinton's wardrobe, her age, sexual orientation, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the former First Lady's relationship with her famous husband. The Laugh Factory has appropriately titled it ''Hillary vs. The First Amendment.''

Masada told Judicial Watch that, as soon as the video got posted on the Laugh Factory website, he received a phone call from a ''prominent'' person inside Clinton's campaign. ''He said the video was disgusting and asked who put me up to this,'' Masada said. The Clinton staffer, who Masada did not want to identify, also demanded to know the names and phone numbers of the comedians that appear in the video. Masada refused and hung up. He insists that the comedy stage is a sanctuary for freedom of speech no matter who is offended. ''Just last night we had (Emmy-award winner) Dana Carvey doing Donald Trump and it was hilarious,'' Masada said.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 03:43

The Finnish Parliament will debate next year on whether the country should abolish the euro. Disgruntled citizens raised the 50,000 votes necessary for a parliamentary debate on 'Fixit' - Finland's exit from the eurozone.

"There will be signature checks early next year and a parliamentary debate will be held in the following months," Maija-Leena Paavola, who helps guide legislation through parliament, told Reuters.

Three years of economic contraction prompted the country's finance minister to call Finland "the new sick man of Europe.''

"Now is a good time to have a wider debate whether we should continue in the eurozone or not," said Paavo Vayrynen, a Finnish member of the European Parliament who launched the initiative told Reuters.

Finland is the worst performer in the eurozone. According to official figures published last week, the county's economy shrank 0.6 percent in the third quarter. The European Commission expects Finland's economy to grow 0.7 percent in 2016, second worse to indebted Greece.

Some Finnish euroskeptics say the country would return to growth if it brings back its national currency the markka. They want to follow Sweden's example, a country outside the eurozone.

"Since 2008 the Swedish economy has grown by eight percent, while ours has shrunk by six percent," said Vayrynen, known for his distaste of Finland's further integration into Europe.

EuroThinkTank of Finland, a group of economists disappointed with the currency union, say returning to the markka would cost the country '‚¬20 billion, but the cost will be repaid in the long-term.

Despite the initiative, the majority of Finns still want to stay in the eurozone. According to a Eurobarometer poll in November, 64 percent of people backed the currency union, down from 69 percent last year.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 03:30

United StatesEditThe U.S. Department of Defense was originally created to provide overall coordination for the various branches of the U.S. armed services, whose infighting was seen as detrimental to military effectiveness during World War II.

The rivalries are also based on services' individual philosophies for rules and behavior. An author wrote in 2012 about the differing cultures of the United States Navy and United States Air Force's pilots:[4]

There was some truth in the old saying that the Air Force had a book for all the things you were allowed to do in the air, and anything not specifically written down was prohibited; whereas the Navy's rule book contained all the things you were not allowed to do, and anything not written down was perfectly legal.[4]

In some ways rivalries can encourage positive outcomes, such as improving the esprit de corps of a given branch of the military.[citation needed]

Various mechanisms are used to manage or curb interservice rivalries. In the United States military, for example, an officer must complete at least one joint tour in another service to reach the level of Flag or General Officer.[citation needed] Such officers may be described as "wearing purple," a reference to the Army's green, the Marines' navy blue, the Air Force's blue, the Navy's white, and the Coast Guard's blue uniforms.

One well-known encounter, the Revolt of the Admirals, took place after the end of World War II. The Army, with the newly created Air Force, sought to create a doctrine which relied heavily on strategic long-range bombing and large land troops. Both services had claimed that the future of warfare depended on the issue of nuclear deterrent, and as such the use of naval gunfire and support, as well as the amphibious assault doctrine of the Marines, was outdated and would never be used again. Chief of staff of the Army, George C. Marshall, along with General of the Army Omar Bradley, and Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson sought to strip the Navy of funds on its first Supercarrier, the United States, and to integrate the Marine Corps into the Army. The aftermath caused Congress to review and prevent the implementation of the Army and the secretary of defense's ideas, by continuing to fund the Navy's supercarrier and including a mandate protecting the Marine Corps in the National Security Act of 1947.

The case of the USMC is unique to the United States since it has always been a fully independent military service, although it is part of the Department of the Navy, compared to other marines of the world. The USMC is also unique in being the only military force in the world to be a combined arms force, as opposed to marines of European countries, that tend to have only a dedicated commando role, such as Pak Marines, the Indonesian Marine Corps, British or Dutch Royal Marines and all are subordinate to their respective Navies being commanded by a two-star general.

JapanEditThe long-term discord between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy was one of the most notorious examples of inter-service rivalry. The situation, with its origin traced back to Meiji period, came with geo-political consequences leading to Japan's involvement in World War II. The IJA/IJN rivalry expressed itself in the early 1930s as the ''strike north'' (Hokushin-ron) and ''strike south'' (Nanshin-ron) factions. The goal of both factions was to seize territories which possessed the raw materials, namely petroleum, which Japan needed to sustain its growth and economy, but which it did not possess itself. The strike north faction advocated the taking of the natural resources of Siberia, by way of Manchuria, a scenario in which the prime role would be taken by the Army, the strike south faction advocated the taking of Indonesia, a scenario in which the Navy would predominate.

In order to further their own faction relatively junior officers resorted to the assassinations of members of the rival faction and their supporters in government. With both factions being opposed to the peace faction, this period has become known as the era of Government by assassination. Insubordination by the Kwantung Army led first to the occupation of Manchuria, and later the Second Sino-Japanese War following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. However at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol any farther expansion northwards into Siberia was shown to be impossible given the Soviet superiority in numbers and armour.

With the loss of Army prestige, that followed the failure of the Soviet''Japanese border conflicts, the Navy faction gained the ascendency, supported by a number of the powerful industrial Zaibatsus, that were convinced that their interests would be best served fulfilling the needs of the Navy, and this paved the way to the Pacific War.

The IJA and IJN rivalry also saw both services developing air arms, the Army creating its own amphibious infantry units and running ships and submarines, including submarine chasers and aircraft carriers, the Navy meanwhile would create its own infantry and paratroop forces.

Other examples of this rivalry include, it is said, the Japanese Navy taking several weeks to inform the Army of the disastrous results of the Battle of Midway.

In his 1991 statement Shōwa Tennō dokuhakuroku (æ­å'Œå¤(C)皇独ç½éŒ²), Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) made a connection between the Army-Navy rivalry and the defeat of Japan.

GermanyEditIn Nazi Germany there was constant rivalry between the Wehrmacht (the combined services of the Third Reich) and the Waffen-SS since they were often in parallel order of battle situations, particularly with regard to armored divisions. In part fueled by his own political differences with the Heer, Hermann G¶ring created the Luftwaffe Field Division a third parallel ground-fighting force under the command of the Luftwaffe. The German Fallschirmjaeger (parachutists) were also part of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) for most of the Second World War until they were finally subordinated to the Heer at the end of 1944. The Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine were also at odds over various issues throughout the war years, with such issues as the format for the Bordfliegergruppe air units that were to be based aboard the embryonic force of German aircraft carriers, with the never-finished twin carriers whose hulls had been laid down before the start of World War II.

Adolf Hitler actively encouraged interservice rivalries within Nazi Germany, due to a belief in a "survival of the fittest" principle that competition would result in weeding out the weaker elements. Generally this proved to be a disaster: with no clear chains of responsibility, contradicting orders were often given, and the different services were at odds when fast coordinated action was vital.

United KingdomEditA case in point is the rivalry between the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines, which are part of the Army and the Royal Navy, respectively, in the U.K. Since some of their capabilities overlap, pressure can be put on the political or civilian decision makers to choose one or the other.

Another form of rivalry within the United Kingdom is with certain forces of the Cadets, often being between other forces and the Sea Cadet Corps, as the SCC is generally viewed as being inferior to the ATC or the ACF. Other examples may be the Army Cadets and the ATC, the ATC and SCC against the ACF or the ACF and the CCF.

PakistanEditPakistani Armed Forces used to fight over a number of issues. One in particular was predominantly between the Navy and the Army over budget distribution. A key point of friction was the induction of the Heavy Cruiser PNS Babar. This was resolved, however, when Pakistani Think Tanks realized the need for interservice harmony and established the Joint Services Headquarters. This unified headquarters has almost eliminated the friction between the services.

IndiaEditInfighting between the Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) over armed helicopters has existed for a decade; this came to light during the Kargil War in 1999.[3]

In response to the request for Army-owned attack helicopters from General Bikram Singh, Chief of Army Staff, the Indian government made an agreement about the transfer of IAF AH-64D Apache Longbows to the Army in 2012. The IAF, however, acted stiff resistance against the decision, and insisted that all attack and medium-lift helicopters be under its control.

In 2013, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, who faced against the Army for the helicopter issue, said that the AH-4Ds would be kept in the Air Force.[5]

Special forcesEditInterservice rivalries are often played out at divisional or regimental level or between special forces that are part of different services. The rivalry between special-forces units led to the creation of United Kingdom Special Forces in the United Kingdom (and SOCOM in the United States) to put them all under a unified command, putting an end to the "rice-bowl" doctrine which created absurd situations in Iran, Grenada and Panama in the 1980s. In the United Kingdom it has put an end to members of the Special Boat Service being recruited solely from the Royal Marines and it is now a tri-service branch.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 18:53

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:51

Like any other day, Russian President Vladimir Putin woke up, shaved himself with a sharpened axe (didn't even use shaving cream), and then mentioned casually to a reporter, ''To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to him is up to me.'' Sweet mercy.

Our second favorite Putin quote:

We are going to pursue terrorists everywhere. If they are in the airport, we will pursue them in the airport. And if we capture them in the toilet, then we will waste them in the outhouse. '... The issue has been resolved once and for all.

If you think this is empty talk, think again: Russia's air force just used its nuclear bombers to lay waste to a major stronghold of the Islamic State. The details:

The Russian air force just pulled off one of the biggest and most complex heavy bomber missions in modern history'--sending no fewer than 25 Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack bombers on a coordinated, long-range air raid against alleged ISIS forces in Syria.

Ladies and gentlemen: Vladimir Putin.

Now here's your obligatory Putin rap:

UPDATE: The RT anchor who reported this quotation has apologized, saying it's not accurate. The part about killing terrorists in the bathroom is genuine, though.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:46

Screen grab

After last week's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris linked to ISIS, the hacking collective Anonymous has declared war on the militant group '-- and a Silicon Valley startup has fallen in the firing line.CloudFlare is a service that helps websites stay online in the face of overwhelming traffic. It acts as an intermediary or filter and is a vital protection against DDoS attacks (in which someone sends huge amounts of traffic at a site in an attempt to make it collapse under the weight).

The six-year-old company doesn't discriminate when it comes to picking customers. It has even been accused of protecting dozens websites affiliated with ISIS '-- and has come under fire from some members of Anonymous as a result.

CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince has now hit back at his critics, suggesting that Anonymous is being hypocritical, given that many of its members apparently use the service.

"I did see a Twitter handle said that they were mad at us," he told The Register. "I'd suggest this was armchair analysis by kids '-- it's hard to take seriously. Anonymous uses us for some of its sites, despite pressure from some quarters for us to take Anonymous sites offline."

He added: "Even if we were hosting sites for ISIS, it wouldn't be of any use to us ... I should imagine those kinds of people pay with stolen credit cards and so that's a negative for us."

Prince told The Register that CloudFlare was willing to stop protecting websites if approached through the proper US legal channels, though "more often than not, investigators want him to keep sites up rather than take them down."

In a separate interview with International Business Times, the CEO elaborated on this. "Individuals have decided that there is content they disagree with but the right way to deal with this is to follow the established law enforcement procedures. There is no society on Earth that tolerates mob rule because the mob is fickle."

CloudFlare is worth more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reported in March, and expects to go public in 2017. Prince said the company by then could be worth about as much as Workday '-- which had a value of $7.8 billion at its initial public offering.

BIA message displayed when visiting a website protected by CloudFlare.

Anonymous, a loose-knit band of hackers and activists, declared "war" on ISIS after more than 120 people were killed, with hundreds injured, in deadly terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night that the militant group claimed responsibility for.

Anonymous activists have leaked the Twitter accounts and personal details of people it says are affiliated with ISIS and claimed responsibility for having more than 5,000 Twitter accounts deleted, according to The Independent.

ISIS-affiliated accounts have shot back at the campaign, calling Anonymous "idiots."

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:38

The University of Vermont held a three-day retreat so students who ''self-identify as white'' could confront their own ''white privilege.''

''Examining White Privilege: A Retreat for Undergraduate Students Who Self-Identify as White'' took place last weekend, November 13-15, and was ''specifically for white students.''

''How does whiteness impact you?''

According to the university, the self-identifying white students who attend the retreat will come to ''recognize and understand white privilege from an individual experience'' and have the opportunity to ''conceptualize and articulate whiteness from a personal and systematic lense as well as the impact of white privilege on the UVM community and beyond.''

The self-identifying white students also tackled tough questions such as ''What does it mean to be white?'' and ''How does whiteness impact you?''

The university website features testimonials from past attendees of the retreat, who praised the way the event was a ''safe space.''

According to the school's website, the University of Vermont offered the retreat at no cost to its privileged white students, covering all expenses including meals. The retreat was hosted at the Common Ground Family Center in Starksboro, Vermont. The center advertises its use of solar power and ''green construction projects'' on its website, and offers its services for everything from family reunions to civil unions.

The University of Vermont does host a retreat for ''women of color'' as well but it focuses on building leadership rather than confronting one's own privileges. Aside from the women of color retreat, the university does not appear to offer similar race-specific retreats.

Additionally, the university's Center for Cultural Pluralism recommends various readings for its students, including "The Invention of the White Race," "White Privilege, Male Privilege in Race, Class, Gender," "The Feminist Classroom," and "The Abolition of Whiteness."

Campus Reform previously reported on a similar conference held at Mount St. Mary's Los Angeles, which was also specifically intended to help white students confront their privilege.

The University of Vermont did not respond to Campus Reform's request for comment.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @peterjhasson

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Source: UN Agenda 21

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:11

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:10

11/17/2015Friday the 13th struck the FCC Universal Licensing System (ULS) electronic batch filing (EBF) system. It has not processed any VEC license and examination session files since early that day. ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, said her office has alerted the FCC IT staff, which are said to be looking into the issue but did not estimate how long the system would be down. Somma said it was the second time the EBF system has gone down since late September, when the FCC said a process had stopped running on an FCC server.

''We transmit the exam sessions to FCC as soon as possible, which is usually 24 to 48 hours from the day received in our office,'' Somma said. ''We make every effort to process each session quickly and efficiently while following FCC rules. Unless there is missing candidate information or paperwork, we normally aim to send the session to the FCC within a few days, because most of the VEC staff understands what it feels like to wait for your call sign to be issued.''

Somma said ARRL VEC has more than 400 applications and nearly 150 exam sessions in the queue waiting to be processed by FCC. Another 40 to 50 received in the office are ready to be put in the queue, she added.

She expressed the hope that applicants will be understanding and patient while the FCC resolves the problem that has been delaying the processing of applications.

The W5YI-VEC has told ARRL that it has been experiencing the same issue and also has been in contact with FCC IT staff.

FCC website maintenance in early September put the ULS and and other public applications offline for more than 5 days.

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Source: newest submissions : inthemorning

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:08

Univ. of Missouri student: 'Several of us are afraid to disagree with other students'

An innocent man lost his job. Racial tensions are at an all time high. Faculty members refuse to acknowledge students' First Amendment rights. Campus authorities are policing speech.

This is my reality as a student at the University of Missouri.

I believe in liberty for all people, but the current climate on campus runs counter to that. Some friends tell me they are afraid to voice their opinions lest they come under fire from the administration or peers '' or the police.

The University of Missouri police department sent an email urging students to report offensive or hurtful speech '' not because it is illegal '' but so the Office of Student Conduct could take disciplinary action against these students.

Several of us are afraid to disagree with other students, who in turn may report us to the authorities so we can be ''dealt with.'' Many students have told me they are also afraid to speak out against the protest narrative, afraid they will be called ''racist'' and become campus pariahs.

What's lost is honest dialogue.

Those of us who want to support on some level the protesters' pain bristle at their disregard for the First Amendment and freedom of the press and willingness to listen to others.

(Pictured, Ian Paris)

The ''safe space'' built at Mizzou means dissenting voices are decried as ''racist,'' ''offensive'' or ''hurtful.'' Students face diversity reeducation, pending expulsion.

Speech on my campus has become limited, not just on the quad. Grad students refuse to dissent from the opinions of liberal professors lest they lose their position, for example.

This is not an Orwellian dystopian novel '' this is the climate of the University of Missouri, and it's the reality that I, and my fellow students, face every day.

Despite this, some of us will not be silenced. We refuse to yield our rights. We will fight back against censorship and intimidation.

Mizzou's Young Americans for Liberty will host a ''Free Speech Wall'' on campus on Wednesday, Nov. 11, where students can express their feelings or concerns without fear of repercussions or administrative backlash.

A fitting tribute, considering Veterans Day is a time during which we honor those who have dedicated their lives to protecting our rights. The very rights which are being trampled by the ''authorities'' at the University of Missouri.

Later this week we will also host a free speech forum with the reporter who was harassed by Professor Melissa Click in response to the rampant free speech abuses on campus. We aim to educate students, and perhaps faculty, about the importance of free speech on campus.

Freedom is a necessary condition for love, and only love can overcome the hatred and anger that festers within this campus community. Hate cannot be shouted and beaten out of a person; love cannot be ''reeducated'' into a person.

Racism can and should be addressed organically by students '' but not at the expense of an honest discussion that includes all voices and all viewpoints.

There is more than one narrative.

Ian Paris is a senior at the University of Missouri majoring in political science and president of Mizzou Young Americans for Liberty.

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Source: Aangirfan

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:07

The 13 November 2015 Paris Attack is partly about making money.

Weapons manufacturers had a good opening at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday 16 November, with Lockheed Martin trading 3.5 percent higher, Northrop Grumman up 4.4 percent, and Raytheon up 4 percent.Stocks of French defense giant Thales were up 3 percent, even as French markets were down overall, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Western security services put both the Ayatollah Khoemini and Saddam Hussein into power and then manipulated them into having a war. This made lots of money for the arms dealers.

IRAN - THE CIA / SADDAM AND THE CIA

The 13 November 2015 Paris Attack is partly about creating a Greater Israel.

This Greater Israel will contain a part of Syria.

France and the USA have been protecting ISIS and killing innocent Syrian civilians.

The illegal French airstrikes on Syriahave hit a stadium, a museum and clinics.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the US and French airstrikes "didn't touch those ISIS units, which were capable of seriously challenging the Syrian army... They want ISIS to weaken Assad..."

US intentionally spare ISIS in Syria.

The 13 November 2015 Paris Attack is partly about helping President Hollande win in the coming French elections.According to Paul Craig Roberts:"It is entirely possible that the French Establishment made a decision to protect its hold on power with a false flag attack that would allow the Establishment to close France's borders and, thereby, deprive Marine Le Pen of her main political issue."

The 13 November 2015 Paris Attack is partly about the CIA using its Wahhabi-Salafi Moslem forces to destabilise parts of Europe. Only the very stupid Moslems do not know that Osama worked with the Jewish Mafia in the narcotics trade.British spies used the Salafi/Wahhabis to break up the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.MI6 used the Salafi/Wahhabis in Aceh to help topple President Sukarno in Indonesia.The CIA used the Salafi/Wahhabis in Afghanistan to frustrate the Russians.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar (L) and Israel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Israel.Reportedly, the founder of the Saudi Wahhabi sect of Islam, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, was a crypto-Jew."The ancestral lineage of the Saudi royal family goes back to the Jewish tribe of Banu Qunaiqa of 7th century Arabia.

"The 18th century founder of the Wahabi sect, Muhammed ibn Abd Al Wahhab, had his origin from the Jewish community of Turkey.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:55

Many people thought this might be the Apple Car.

Photo: Faraday FutureIs there room enough for both Tesla Motors and Faraday Future in our electric-car, uh, future? A Chinese billionaire is backing what hopes to be a rival to Elon Musk's enterprise. The 18-month-old company, based out of Southern California, aims to roll out its first long-range, premium model, comparable to Tesla's Model S, by 2017. The engineer who oversaw the chassis design of the Model S, Nick Sampson, is now Faraday's research-and-development chief.

The billionaire backer is Jia Yueting, founder of LeTV ("China's Netflix"). A partner of Yueting is listed on the incorporating documents as chief executive. There have been some rumors of the company being an Apple-affiliated venture; Apple is said to want to get into the car business. In any case, Sampson has said the car will be more like a smartphone.

''Our business model is not based around moving a car out of the dealer,'' Sampson said. ''We envision this like a smart phone. The revenue starts once you get the device in the owners' hands. We're looking at subscriptions and apps and other opportunities.'' This could include car-sharing services, which already operate off your phone.

The concept syncs with Yueting's background in streaming services, combined with his massive Chinese market success in the mobile-phone game. (LeTV claims to have sold 1 million of its Le Superphone in just five months.)

The company plans to sink $1 billion of this cash into a plant they're currently scouting locations for in Nevada '-- home to Tesla's massive ion-battery plant. Faraday is also renovating a former Nissan plant in Southern California to serve as its North American sales HQ.

One reason the start-up is being hailed as a worthy opponent is Faraday's aggressive poaching of current and former Musk engineers. R&D chief Sampson is snapping up plans to add an additional 100 staff to its current roster of 400 employees before the year's end, rounding out the top talent, which includes a battery specialist from Space X, Ferrari's interior designer, and the lead designer of BMW's i8.

Sampson, acting as the company's de facto spokesperson, is optimistic about their version of the electric car, despite Tesla's well-documented struggle to turn a profit on its vehicles. The Wall Street Journal points out that Tesla burns close to $100 million a month, posting ten-consecutive quarterly losses. And with gas prices low and plug-in-the-car infrastructure in short supply, demand for them is not yet expected to pick up.

Of course, cars are already being linked to the internet, with sometimes unnerving implications, as when a Jeep was hacked this summer.

FF, like Tesla, named itself after another influential scientist, Michael Faraday (1791''1867); Albert Einstein is said to have kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:44

A French army fighter jet sits on the tarmac at a military base as France launched airstrikes on Syria after the attacks in Paris. Photograph: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

French, Russian, British and US warplanes have struck Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq as the harrowing attacks carried out by the jihadi group in Paris spurred international efforts to crush the terrorist organisation.

The collective resolve on Tuesday came as police forces across Europe stepped up investigations into Friday's wave of shootings and suicide bombings in Paris bars and restaurants, a packed concert hall and a sports stadium.

Related:Paris attacks: French police seek 'second fugitive' '' live updates

Five suspects were being held in Germany and two in Belgium, while French officials told AP a second, unnamed fugitive was the subject of an international manhunt, as well as 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, one of two Belgium-based French brothers implicated in the attacks.

But four days after the bloodshed, French authorities admitted that the extent of the Syria-run, Brussels-based terror cell that carried out the attacks, the worst in France since the second world war, was still unclear.

''We don't know if there are accomplices in Belgium and in France '... we still don't know the number of people involved in the attacks,'' the prime minister, Manuel Valls, told French radio. Iraqi intelligence officials have said their information suggests up to 24 people were directly or indirectly involved.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, condemned the perpetrators of Friday's attacks, which killed 129 people and wounded more than 350, as ''psychopathic monsters''. He said during a visit to Paris that a political process agreed during peace talks in Vienna on Saturday was a ''gigantic step'', adding: ''We're weeks away conceivably from the possibility of a big transition for Syria.''

A picture provided by the Belgian police of Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam. Photograph: Belgian Federal police/EPA''My sense is that everybody understands that '... we have to step up our efforts to hit them at the core, where they're planning these things,'' Kerry said after meeting the French president, Fran§ois Hollande.

The aerial onslaught on Raqqa, the de-facto capital of Isis in Syria, followed Hollande's call on Monday for the US and Russia to join a global coalition to destroy the terror group. He said France was ''at war '... against jihadi terrorism which is threatening the whole world''.

Promising ''no respite and no truce'', Hollande dispatched the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the eastern Mediterranean, tripling France's capacity to carry out airstrikes in the region.

In a second series of airstrikes in 24 hours, 10 French warplanes launched from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan dropped 16 bombs on a command and recruitment centre for jihadis, while in London the British Ministry of Defence said RAF Tornado bombers had attacked a large group of more than 20 Isis terrorists in northern Iraq.

Moscow, too, was seeking retribution after it confirmed on Tuesday that a bomb brought down a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month, killing 224 people. The Kremlin said it would further intensify airstrikes against the Islamist militants in Syria with long-range bombers and cruise missiles.

The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the country's warplanes had fired cruise missiles at militant positions in Syria's Idlib and Aleppo provinces, while Russian bombers hit Isis positions in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.

Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for blowing up the airliner and ordered the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, currently in the Mediterranean, to establish contact with French naval forces in the region and treat them as allies. ''We need to work out a plan with them of joint sea and air actions,'' the Russian president told his military chiefs.

Officers of a German special operations team in Alsdorf. Photograph: Ralf Roeger/EPAThe ‰lys(C)e Palace said Hollande was due to meet Putin at the Kremlin on 26 November, two days after seeing his US counterpart, Barack Obama, at the White House, to discuss strengthening the countries' cooperation in the fight against Isis.

The White House press secretary said the Hollande-Obama meeting would ''underscore the friendship and solidarity between the United States and France, our oldest ally''.

France formally demanded the help of its EU partners, invoking for the first time ever the mutual assistance article in the EU's Lisbon treaty, which obliges member states to offer ''aid and assistance by all means in their power'' in the event of an ''armed aggression''.

Related:Jihadism a symptom of western policy? That's mangled history | Rafael Behr

The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said at a Brussels meeting with his EU counterparts that Europe could help ''either by taking part in France's operations in Syria or Iraq, or by easing the load or providing support for France in other operations''. The EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said the 28-nation bloc had unanimously agreed to help.

More than 221 of those wounded in Paris are still in hospital, including 57 in intensive care. The French justice minister, Christiane Taubira, said 117 of the 129 dead had been identified.

The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said police carried out 128 raids on Tuesday morning but gave no further details. Raids on Monday led to 23 arrests and the seizure of weapons including a rocket launcher. Cazeneuve added that 115,000 police, gendarmes and soldiers had been mobilised.

Seven terrorists died in the attacks, six after detonating suicide belts and the other from police gunfire. Police are still hunting Salah Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up during the onslaught. A third brother, Mohamed, was detained but later released without charge.

Three men are seen singing the French national anthem on the Place de la R(C)publique monument. Photograph: Pierre Suu/Getty ImagesAdvising his brother to ''give yourself up'', he told BFMTV: ''We are a family, we are thinking of him, wondering where he is, whether he's frightened, if he's getting enough food. The best thing would be if he gave himself up so the justice system can throw light on all of this.''

French intelligence officials have said they believe a Syria-based Belgian jihadi, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, 27, was the architect of the attacks. Like the Abdeslam brothers, Abu Oud has lived in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, long associated with Islamic extremism.

Related:France invokes EU's article 42.7, but what does it mean?

Officials cited Isis chatter that Abu Oud had advised foreign jihadis that a concert would be an ideal target for inflicting maximum casualties, as well as electronic communications between the suspected ringleader and Brahim Abdeslam.

In further evidence indicating the attacks were organised from Syria, French authorities identified the voice on an Isis video released after the attacks as that of Fabien Clain, a known French extremist in Syria since 2014.

German police arrested two men and a women in Alsdorf, near the western city of Aachen, not far from the Belgian border, but the interior ministry later said they were not ''closely connected'' to the Paris attacks.

The two suspects detained in Brussels, Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attou, 21, also come from Molenbeek. After admitting driving to France to pick up Salah Abdeslam early on Saturday, hours after the attacks, they are being held on charges of terrorist murder and conspiracy.

Arrest mapIn unconfirmed reports, Belgian media claimed the pair were being investigated as possible suppliers of the suicide bombs used in the attacks, since ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that can be used to make explosives, was recovered from their homes.

Two safe houses in the Paris area used by the attackers have been found, one reportedly rented by Brahim Abdeslam from 11-17 November in Bobigny, not far from the Stade de France, and the second in Alfortville, just south of Paris, where Salah Abdeslam booked two rooms for the same dates in a short-stay apartment block.

French media said police were analysing syringes, pizza boxes, needles, tubes and mobile phones recovered from the hideouts. A black, Belgian-registered Renault Clio found in the French capital's 18th arrondissement on Tuesday has also been traced to Salah Abdeslam, French media reported.

Related:Hollande completes transformation from 'marshmallow' to 'chief of war'

Prosecutors have identified five of the seven attackers who died in the assaults: four Frenchmen and a foreigner who was fingerprinted in Greece last month and later claimed asylum in Serbia. The man was carrying a Syrian passport bearing the name Ahmad Almohammad.

While the passport is almost certainly fake '' and so far there is no clue as to the actual identity or nationality of the attacker who used it '' the possibility that one of the terrorists may have entered Europe through one of the main refugee trails of the summer has reignited a fierce EU row about border security and how to tackle the continuing arrivals.

Three of the suicide bombers have been named as Omar Isma¯l Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, south-west of Paris, Samy Amimour, 28, a former bus driver from the Paris suburb of Drancy, and Bilal Hadfi, 20, a French national living in Belgium.

All three are thought to have spent time in Syria in the past two years. About 520 French nationals are believed to be in Syria and Iraq, while 250 have returned home.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:38

Maybe women just don't have as many problems in the sack as men.

Addyi, the new female libido pill, was all but ignored in its first few weeks on the market '-- in quite a contrast to the way men made a mad dash to their doctors in 1998 when Viagra debuted, according to a report on Tuesday.

Marketed as the ''little pink pill,'' Addyi, made by Valeant Pharmaceuticals' Sprout unit, appears to be off to a slow start, with doctors writing just 227 prescriptions in its first four weeks on the market, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Over the same period of time 17 years ago, more than half a million men got prescriptions for Viagra, according to data from IMS Health.

The apparent slow start for Addyi sales could signal a giant letdown for Valeant, which paid $1 billion for the 34-employee Sprout one day after it got FDA approval on the drug last Aug. 19.

Valeant Chief Executive Michael Pearson said at the time of the acquisition that his company would make the drug the centerpiece of its women's health business.

Addyi, Pearson said, was the company's first step in building a ''new portfolio of important medications that uniquely impact women.''

The day after Addyi won approval '-- on its third attempt '-- Sprout Pharmaceuticals CEO Cindy Whitehead appeared on ''CBS This Morning'' and said, ''Yesterday science won and so, too, did women.''

The pink pill was approved to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which Whitehead said affects ''1 in 10 women.''

Many thought there would be a rush to get the pill.

''I thought there was going to be this huge onslaught,'' Stephanie Faubion, director of the Women's Health Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told Bloomberg.

''There have been a few casual inquiries, but no prescriptions yet.''

To be sure, Valeant's marketing and sales team may not yet be at full strength. The company had cleared just 5,600 doctors to prescribe Addyi as of Nov. 10, Pearson said on an earnings call. That's only 1 percent of the roughly 470,000 obstetrician-gynecologists and primary care doctors in the US.

Plus, Sprout promised the FDA it would not advertise the drug by name for 18 months.A Valeant spokesperson on Tuesday would not confirm the sales numbers in the report, which were attributed to Bloomberg Intelligence data.

On Nov. 9, Pearson said in a conference call that Valeant had $25 million in orders for the drug. He did not elaborate.

With the drug wholesaling for about $800 for a month's supply, according to Sprout, that would come to more than 30,000 prescriptions.

Addyi's proponents point out that Viagra and the little pink pill work differently.

Viagra treats the physical inability of men to get an erection by promoting immediate blood flow to the penis.

Addyi works on the brain. It needs to be taken daily and can't be combined with alcohol.

Amanda Lanier Blackie is one of the early Addyi users and pays $20 for a month's supply for the drug through a co-pay and Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.

Addyi is cheaper than Cialis, a Viagra rival, which has a co-pay of $100 for 3 pills '-- not a month's supply.

''My husband wouldn't be satisfied with that,'' she told The Post

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:36

A concert venue in Germany has been evacuated as police ramp up security amid a terror alert sweeping the country.

The TUI-Arena, was reported to have been cleared out ahead of performance by the S¶hne Mannheims musical group.

Hanover mayor, Stefan Schostok, told German newspaper Bild: ''Safety is paramount.

BREAKING: According to BILD, the TUI-Arena is now also being evacuated. The S¶hne Mannheims pop band were playing there tonight.

'-- DW Sports (@dw_sports) November 17, 2015"This is a fear you will always have. I trust the police have made the right decision. If a threat situation exists, then those steps must be taken.''

Read more: Germany terror alert: 'Ambulance packed full of explosives' found in front of stadium ahead of international match

S¶hne Mannheims is a German musical band founded 1995 and has a huge following in the country.

The band took a selfie before the evacuation which happened within the last hour.

Von Anfang An Dabei... und S¶hne Mannheims bleiben! #OneLove#SM20 #onTour #onStage #Hannover

Posted by S¶hne Mannheims on Tuesday, November 17, 2015It is the second venue to be evacuated in the area coming after the HDI Arena in Hannover was evacuated earlier in the evening.

The step was taken after police received "concrete information" about a bomb threat.

An earlier bomb scare caused the evacuation of the Hannover stadium ahead of a German international friendly with the Netherlands.

Read more: Germany terror alert: Hannover in lockdown as police chief says he fears thwarted terrorists could strike AGAIN elsewhere

It comes just four days after a series of co-ordinated terror attacks killed 129 in Paris when terrorists stormed locations including concert hall Bataclan where rock group Eagles of Death Metal were due to play.

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Watch NextRead more: Paris victims remembered at Wembley as fans and players of England and France pay tribute

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:35

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a three-year, $120 million grant to Family Planning 2020 '-- a global public-private partnership comprising governments, multilateral and private-sector organizations, individual donors, and the research and development community working to provide 120 million more women and girls with access to effective contraception by 2020.

The grant represents a 25 percent increase in the Gates Foundation's funding for family planning initiatives. "We have it in our power to give every woman, every girl, everywhere the chance to not just survive but thrive; to lead healthy, prosperous lives; to empower them to ultimately transform their lives," said Melinda Gates.

The funds will advance efforts in priority areas that FP2020 and the foundation have identified as demonstrating potential for significant progress, including improving the quality of services and range of contraceptive options women receive; reaching the most marginalized, particularly the urban poor, with contraceptives and services; and supporting the work of local advocates making the case for budgets, policies, and programs which ensure that more women and girls can access contraceptives. In addition, the funds will support studies aimed at understanding the unique needs of young people and the challenges they face in accessing health services.

The Gates Foundation announcement is in response to the latest progress report from FP2020, which found that more women and girls than ever who want to avoid or delay a pregnancy '-- 290.6 million '-- are voluntarily using modern contraceptives in the world's poorest countries, an increase of more than 24 million since 2012. Because of the increase in the number of women using effective contraception, in the past year alone some 80 million unintended pregnancies have been averted, while 26.8 million unsafe abortions and 111,000 maternal deaths have been prevented. The report also found that family planning increasingly is a global development priority, with donor governments having increased bilateral funding for family planning by a third since 2012.

"Three years ago, the global community set an ambitious goal. More than that, we made a promise," said Gates. "A promise to a hundred and twenty million women and girls that by 2020 they would have access to family planning services and contraceptives if they wanted it. Since we made that promise, millions of unintended pregnancies have been avoided and thousands of lives saved. But the hard truth is that, to keep it, we must do more, and we must act now."

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:28

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Citing possible links between terror-related websites and online communications and Friday's attacks on Paris, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler suggested Tuesday Congress give the agency more authority to use 'big data' to monitor and act on potential threats.

Appearing at a hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Federal Communications Commission chairman told lawmakers that updating a 1994 law could give the agency more power to assist law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the surveillance of terror suspects online.

''We just had this terrible attack in Paris, and hundreds of people were killed,'' Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton said during the hearing. ''We need to do something about it. ISIS and the terrorist networks can't beat us militarily, but they are really trying to use the Internet and all of the social media to try to intimidate and beat us psychologically.''

Barton described the threat of ISIS as ''a clear and present danger,'' and asked commissioners if there was anything the FCC could do to tamp down the spread of Islamic extremism and radicalization online.

''I would think that even in an open society, when there's a clear threat '-- they've declared war against us, our way of life, they've threatened to attack this very city that our capitol is in '-- that we could do something about the Internet social media side situation,'' Barton said.

''I'm not sure that our authority extends to picking and choosing amongst websites, but I do think there are specific things that we can do,'' Wheeler told the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

Barton asked if Congress should give the FCC additional authority to allow the agency to ''shut those websites down.''

''One of the issues here is the question of, 'What is a lawful intercept?' '... Something the Congress can define,'' Wheeler responded. ''You did it in CALEA [Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act], things have moved on since then.''

Under CALEA, passed in 1994, Congress mandated telecommunications companies build into their networks the technology necessary to facilitate intelligence and law enforcement agency surveillance, which at the time was limited to telephone wiretapping.

''You read in the press that they were using PlayStation 4 games to communicate on, which is outside the scope of anything ever considered in CALEA,'' Wheeler added. ''And so there's probably opportunities to update the lawful intercept concept.''

RELATED: NYT Quietly Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Attacks

''I think there's also a question about the security of our networks,'' Wheeler said. ''There have been 17 fiber cuts in the Bay Area in the last few months mysteriously happening.''

The chairman added there were two additional fiber cuts just yesterday, though not in the San Francisco area. The fiber cables described by Wheeler make up crucial portions of the Internet's global infrastructure, carrying data underneath oceans to connect major online hubs like the EU and U.S.

''We need to have some kind of a big data capability of determining what's happening to our network out there, because it's not just people getting on the network, it's perhaps people doing things to the network,'' he added.

The FCC is currently the only agency capable of reporting network outages via its Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) '-- a system Wheeler said is vastly underfunded, outdated, and could potentially be used to collect and analyze ''big data'' to aid law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

''We don't have the ability to use that to go for big data, to have big data analysis,'' Wheeler explained. ''It's barely holding together with baling wire and glue because it's using ancient technology. We've been asking for appropriations to upgrade that.''

Wheeler didn't elaborate on what forms of data that could entail, or in what facets it could be used to aid in defense beyond protecting physical fiber networks.

''This experience has called out the importance of network security, and if we can't connect the dots '... '' Wheeler continued, ''You know after 9/11 we kept hearing, 'we couldn't connect the dots.' We have the ability inside our systems to use big data, connect the dots, but we don't have the capacity to do it.''

Wheeler pledged to would work with the committee on updating laws that would allow the FCC to aid agencies in defending against potential terrorist threats.

California Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo pointed out the FBI has already acknowledged it needs to work the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on investigating fiber cuts.

The agency announced in July it was investigating the cuts described by Wheeler, which disrupted Internet service to business and residents in the San Francisco Bay Area.

''I don't think this is coincidental either,'' Eshoo added.

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Source: American Everyman

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:23

by Scott Creighton

Russian FSB head Alexander Bortnikov has suddenly announced their ongoing investigation into the downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 shows a ''home-made'' bomb equipped with high explosives from somewhere ''other than Russia'' brought down the plane in what he describes as a terrorist act. They've offered $50 million US as a reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.

''According to our experts, a homemade explosive device equivalent to 1 kilogram of TNT went off onboard, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory. I can certainly say that this was a terrorist act,'' FSB head Alexander Bortnikov said.

He said tests showed the explosives had been produced outside of Russia, but gave no further details. AP

'--''

Russian A321 plane was blown up by homemade explosive device equivalent up to one kg of TNT, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said'...

''For providing evidence that will contribute to the detention of criminals a reward of $50 million will be paid,'' the FSB's public relations department said. TASS news agency

The timing of this announcement is interesting. With the G20 just wrapping up in Turkey as well as the Syrian peace conference that took place just this past weekend, it seems odd that the head of the Russian equivalent of the CIA would come forward with such an ambivalent statement about Flight 9268.

He release no description of the evidence as to where they found residues of high explosives and chose not to comment on the nation of origin of the high explosives themselves which would certainly be useful in determining who set that bomb (if it was in fact a bomb)

Adding to the oddness of this sudden announcement, Russian President Vladamir Putin said just yesterday that they were 'close'' to announcing their findings on the downing of Flight 9268 and that they were in the process of determining the origin of ''materials'' found in their investigation.

''The study of materials on the case of the crash of the Russian plane in Egypt is at its final stage, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Turkey's Antalya on Monday.'' TASS, Nov. 16, 2015

Personally, I still think the plane was taken out accidentally by a stray air-to-air missile fired by a fighter jet during the Israeli ''Blue Flag'' military drill and that the Russia CIA guy is merely covering for the guilty parties in exchange for something. Either something political arraigned by Putin and Lavrov during the meetings with Obama and Kerry this past weekend, or something he arranged personally on the side with vested US and Israeli interests. He certainly wouldn't be the first Russian bought by US interests and the CIA.

But there you have it. The ''official'' position by the Russians is that someone (''ISIS''?) bombed that plane and of course, that plays right into the ''ISIS ISIS EVERYWHERE!'' propaganda line.

Whether or not it's true is anyone's guess.

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Filed under: Metrojet Flight 9268, Scott Creighton

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:15

Three main provisions concern various kind of "states of emergency" in France. Two of those provisions emanates from the Constitution of 1958 and the third from a statute.

Article 16 of the Constitution allows, in time of crisis, "extraordinary powers" to the president. Article 36 of the same constitution regulates "state of siege" ((C)tat de si¨ge). Finally, the Act of 3 April 1955 allows the proclamation, by the President, of the "state of emergency" ((C)tat d'urgence).[1]

There are distinctions between article 16, article 36 and the 1955 Act, which concerns mainly the distribution of powers. These dispositions have been used at various times, in 1955, 1958, 1961, 1988, 2005, and 2015.

Legal framework[edit]The French Constitution, adopted in October 1958, was drafted with both the experience of the difficulties experienced by the executive in 1940 during the Battle of France and taking into account the contemporary state of affairs, namely the Algerian war.

Article 16 of the Constitution - Pouvoirs exceptionnels[edit]Article 16 of the Constitution[2] gives the President "extraordinary powers" in exceptional cases, leading to an effective "state of exception":

When the institutions of the Republic, the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory, or the fulfillment of its international commitments are under grave and immediate threat and when the proper functioning of the constitutional governmental authorities is interrupted, the President of the Republic shall take the measures demanded by these circumstances after official consultation with the Prime Minister, the Presidents of the Assemblies, and the Constitutional Council.

He shall inform the nation of these measures by a message.

These measures must be prompted by a will to ensure within the shortest possible time that the constitutional governmental authorities have the means of fulfilling their duties. The Constitutional Council shall be consulted with regard to such measures.

Parliament shall meet ipso jure.

The National Assembly may not be dissolved during the exercise of emergency powers.

After thirty days of exercise of the exceptional powers, the Constitutional Council can be referred to by the President of the National Assembly, the President of the Senate, sixty d(C)put(C)s or s(C)nateurs (members of each chamber), to determine if the conditions provided in the first paragraph are still met. The Council shall rule in the shortest time possible by a public ruling. The Council rules ipso jure and rules in the same conditions after sixty days of exercise of the exceptional powers and at any moment beyond this period.

The conditions are both that the state is confronted to exceptional circumstances and that the regular institutions are disrupted and cannot effectively govern.[3] This amendment to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic has been qualified as "liberticide" by critics.[3] Invoked on 23 April 1961 during the Algerian War; normal functioning of institutions was quickly restored.[3]

In the judgment Rubin de Servens of 2 March1962, the Conseil d'‰tat judged that he could not himself invoke Article 16, as that constituted an "act of government". Furthermore, the State Council considered that it could only pronounce on rulings which were not legislative acts carried out during this period. Thus, a legislative measure (although the role of Parliament is not specified, just that it is not to be dissolved) which breaches fundamental liberties cannot be appealed against before the State Council.[3]

In 1972, the Common Programme of the Left (issued from an alliance between the Socialist Party and the Communist Party) proposed to repeal Article 16. However, Fran§ois Mitterrand's program for the socialist presidential campaign in 1981, that he eventually won, did not include this proposition.

The Socialist government of Pierre B(C)r(C)govoy included a reform of this article in its project of Constitutional reform in 1992, but the project was not implemented. Also in 1992, the Vedel Commission, created by Fran§ois Mitterrand, proposed to give to the Conseil Constitutionnel (Constitutional Council), on the concerted initiative of the President of the Republic and the presidents of both chambers (the Assembl(C)e nationale and the S(C)nat), the mission to determine that the conditions required for the use of Article 16 were, in fact, met.[3]

On 23 July2008, a constitutional act was passed which, among other amendments, added a paragraph to Article 16 of the Constitution[4] which stated that after 30 days, the Constitutional Council can be requested to determine in a public ruling whether or not the conditions that justified the use of Article 16 are still current. At any time beyond 60 days, the Council rules on this issue without the need for a referral.

Article 36 of the Constitution - ‰tat de si¨ge[edit]Article 36 of the Constitution is concerned with the state of siege (in French), which can be decreed by the President in the Council of Ministers for a period of twelve days which can only be extended with the approval of the Parliament. A state of siege may be declared in case of an "imminent peril resulting from a foreign war [guerre (C)trang¨re, or simply "war"] or an armed insurrection (une insurrection main arm(C)e).[5]

Military authorities may take police powers if they judge it necessary. Fundamental liberties may be restricted, such as the right of association, legalization of searches in private places day and night, the power to expel people who have been condemned for common law matters or people who do not have the right of residence in the territory, etc.

Statute provisions - ‰tat d'urgence[edit]The state of emergency in France is framed by the Law n°55-385 of April 3, 1955 (pre-dating the Constitution of the Fifth Republic) and modeled on the "(C)tat de si¨ge". It was created in the context of the Algerian war, to allow the authorities to manage crisis without having to declare the "(C)tat de si¨ge", which allows the military to take over a large part of the civilian authorities and which was conceived for wartime.

The 1955 statute states that the state of emergency can be decreed by the Pr(C)sident de la R(C)publique in the Council of Ministers. The decision to proclaim the state of emergency can only last for 12 days. To extend the state of emergency for a longer period of time necessitates a law passed regularly through the Parliament.

Proclaiming the state of emergency gives exceptional powers to the Minister of the Interior and to prefects. The Minister can pronounce house arrests. The prefects can regulate or forbid circulation and gathering in some areas: the power of curfew, which mayors can pronounce for the territory of their city independently of the state of emergency, is extended to prefects.

The Minister and the prefects can, for the part of the territory concerned by the state of emergency, order places of gathering to be closed. Authorities can also order that legally-detained weapons be relinquished to them. There is no need for the administration to motivate its decisions: house arrests or decisions forbidding someone to enter a defined area can be appealed.

All of those powers are not enacted by the simple proclamation of the state of emergency, but may be decided by the authorities if the need arise.

If the decree, or later, the law, says so, the authorities can:

decide administrative searches and seizures, day and night, without judiciary oversight,censorship the press, radio, films and theater representations.Article 12 of the 1955 law allows to transfer, if a decree specifically provides it, the transfer of some crimes from the judiciary to military justice.

This law is modeled after the society of the time, to deal with a specific crisis, and its objective was to prevent a civil war or very severe unrest emanating from a part of the population. Some parts have since become obsolete:

censorship is not politically as acceptable in 2015 as it was at the time of the law (which doesn't mention either television or Internet);administrative search and seizures must now be submitted to judicial oversight;the 2012 law on gun control[6] has rendered partly obsolete the possibility of a decree for citizens to relinquish legally-owned weapons, which were more common a bare decade after the end of World War II;various terrorism laws have strengthened the criminal procedure since the 1980's: the powers available to the police and judges when investigating terrorism acts are beyond those described in the 1955 law.Historical instances[edit]Since 1955, a state of emergency has been decreed six times:

In 1955, in Algeria due to independentist unrest;In 1958, due to the uprising in Algeria;In 1961, after the Generals' putsch (invocation of article 16 from April 23 to September 29, 1961[3]);In 1984, in New Caledonia, due to independentist troubles;During the 2005 civil unrest in France, President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency on November 8, 2005. It was extended for three months on November 16 by the Parliament, which was dominated by the UMP majority. On December 10, France's highest administrative body, the Council of State, ruled that the three-month state of emergency decreed to guarantee calm following unrest was legal. It rejected a complaint from 74 law professors and the Green party, declaring that the conditions that led to the unrest (which began on October 27), the rapid spread of violence, and the possibility that it could recur justified the state of emergency. The complaint challenged the state of emergency's necessity and said it compromised fundamental liberties.[7][8][9]On November 13, 2015, immediately following a series of terrorist attacks in Paris.[10][11]Notes, citations, and references[edit]NotesCitationsReferences

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:13

Posted on November 17, 2015 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

And thus, the motive for the ''ISIS'' Paris false flag rears it's ugly head.

During a rare trip to the Palace of Versailles Monday French President Fran§ois Hollande called on lawmakers to change France's constitution in order to better protect the country.

Hollande referred to article 36 of the charter as outdated, and asked that parliament change it to give the government greater power without needing to resort to a state of emergency.

''We are at war, this new kind of war demands a constitution that can manage a state in crisis,'' he said.

He announced that he is submitting a proposal to extend the state of emergency by three months and asked parliament to vote on it before the end of the week.

He also suggested enacting a law that would revoke French citizenship from anyone linked to terrorist attacks, however he didn't elaborate on how this law would be applied. Huffington Post

By changing the constitution this way, Hollande is hoping he can set himself up as a war-time dictator in France. By revoking the citizenship of anyone they ''link'' to terrorist attacks, they can deprive French citizens of any and all of their constitutional rights.

That, dear friends, is a fascist dictatorship being set up in France to supposedly protect their people from terrorists who ''hate them for their freedoms''

Mission accomplished?

I guess it will make things easier for France to sign up for the TTIP in the next couple of months with all those pesky dissidents out of the way, now wont it.

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Filed under: Neoliberalizing France, Paris Attacks, Scott Creighton, The ISIS Crisis

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Source: Dark Web & Cyber Security

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:11

NOTE: The following materials are for information purposes only and may not be copied, reproduced, or transmitted without the explicit permission of SITE Intelligence Group and specific attribution to SITE Intelligence Group.

DetailsJihadist NewsCreated: 17 November 2015In the wake of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, a jihadi Twitter account dedicated to jihadi ideologue Abu Musab al-Suri forwarded excerpts of the al-Suri's document, ''Global Islamic Resistance'' (GIR) and incited a ''call for action and martyrdom.''

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Source: The Intercept

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:09

IN A STATEMENT PUBLISHED in its online magazine, Dabiq, this February, the militant group the Islamic State warned that ''Muslims in the West will soon find themselves between one of two choices.'' Weeks earlier, a massacre had occurred at the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attack stunned French society, while bringing to the surface already latent tensions between French Muslims and their fellow citizens.

While ISIS initially endorsed the killings on purely religious grounds, calling the murdered cartoonists blasphemers, in Dabiq the group offered another, more chilling rationale for its support.

The attack had ''further [brought] division to the world,'' the group said, boasting that it had polarized society and ''eliminated the grayzone,'' representing coexistence between religious groups. As a result, it said, Muslims living in the West would soon no longer be welcome in their own societies. Treated with increasing suspicion, distrust and hostility by their fellow citizens as a result of the deadly shooting, Western Muslims would soon be forced to ''either apostatize '... or they [migrate] to the Islamic State, and thereby escape persecution from the crusader governments and citizens,'' the group stated, while threatening of more attacks to come.

Last Friday, at roughly 9:20 p.m. local time in Paris, the Islamic State delivered on that threat. A group of young men pledging allegiance to the group, armed with firearms and explosives, carried out a series of coordinated bombing and shooting attacks on civilians in the heart of the city. Suicide bombers, wearing explosive vests packed with nails in order to maximize casualties, detonated themselves among crowds of young people, while men armed with assault rifles shot dead concertgoers and patrons in a restaurant.

By the time the attack was over, 132 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded in what was the worst terrorist attack in France's modern history. In a statement issued online, ISIS claimed responsibility, stating that its operatives had ''set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice.''

It is tempting to view such violence as senseless and nihilistic. However, taking into account the Islamic State's history, it is clear that such a determination would be a mistake. By launching increasingly shocking attacks against Western targets, the Islamic State is pursuing a specific goal '-- generating hostility between domestic Muslim populations and the broader societies that they live in.

Despite its dire connotations, such a strategy is achievable for the group. In fact, some group members have successfully implemented it before, in Iraq, when the Islamic State's predecessor organization, al Qaeda in Iraq, purposely provoked a sectarian civil war in that country following the 2003 U.S. invasion.

In a 2004 letter to Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, laid out his proposal for provoking such a conflict, calling for terrorist attacks against the Shiite majority population that would lead to a harsh crackdown on the Sunni minority. In such a scenario, his group could then coerce the Sunni population into viewing it as their only protector. ''If we succeed in dragging them into the arena of sectarian war,'' Zarqawi wrote, ''it will become possible to awaken the inattentive Sunnis as they feel imminent danger and annihilating death.''

The climax of this depraved strategy came in 2006, when an attack by al Qaeda in Iraq operatives succeeded in destroying the Al-Askari mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. The attack, which shocked Shiite Muslims across Iraq, ultimately succeeded in triggering a full-blown civil war that has not fully abated to this day.

The Islamic State has little hope of achieving that level of disastrous success in Western Europe or North America. But what the group is seeking to accomplish nonetheless mirrors its strategy of divide-and-conquer in Iraq. Through increasingly provocative terrorist attacks, hostage executions, and videotaped threats, the Islamic State is consciously seeking to trigger a backlash by Western governments and citizens against the Muslim minorities living in their societies. By achieving this, the group hopes to polarize both sides against each other, locking them into an escalating spiral of alienation, hatred and collective retribution. In a such a scenario, the group can later attempt to pose as the only effective protector for increasingly beleaguered Western Muslims.

Following the deliberately shocking attacks in Paris, some nativist politicians in both Europe and the United States have already responded with calls to collectively punish Muslims en masse through discriminatory migration policies, restrictions on religious freedoms, and blanket surveillance by law enforcement.

While politically popular among some, such measures, effectively holding Muslims collectively to blame for the atrocities in Paris, would be self-defeating. The Islamic State is deeply unpopular among Muslims. Like their non-Muslim compatriots, French Muslims recoiled with disgust at the recent atrocities in Paris. Indeed, several of them were killed in the attacks.

As such, it would be both perverse and counterproductive to lump them together with ISIS and blame them for the group's actions. Similarly, it would be absurd to treat refugees, many of whom are fleeing the Islamic State's draconian rule in Iraq and Syria, as though they too are responsible for the crimes of the group. Doing so would grant the Islamic State a propaganda coup, implicitly endorsing the group's narrative of Muslims and Westerners collectively at war with one another.

Instead, in response to an attack intended to sow xenophobia, Western countries should reaffirm unity for their own Muslim populations and honor their best values by continuing to accept refugees without religious discrimination. Simultaneously, they should also recommit to the military effort against Islamic State enclaves in Iraq and Syria, making clear that there is no contradiction to embracing Muslims at home while fighting terrorists abroad. Such an approach would show resilience in the face of violence, while fatally undermining ISIS' Manichean narrative of ''a world divided into two camps.''

Through murderous provocation, the Islamic State seeks to trigger a civilizational war between Muslims and the West, violently dragging both parties into such a battle if need be. There can be no real victory in a conflict with such apocalyptic connotations. Instead, Western nations should remain defiant, making clear through word and deed that they refuse to see the world divided on the Islamic State's terms.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:08

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DetailsMultimediaCreated: 17 November 2015

Al-Battar Media Foundation, the leading pro-Islamic State (IS) jihadi media group, released a video threatening Western nations in wake of the group's November 13, 2015 Paris attacks and challenged them to respond to the attacks.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:08

Author:Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

I am not going to repeat what you have already read or heard. I am not going to say that what happened in Paris on Friday night was unprecedented horror, for it was not. I am not going to say that the world stands with France, for it is a hollow phrase. Nor am I going to applaud President Hollande's pledge of ''pitiless'' vengeance, for I do not believe it. I am, instead, going to tell you that this is exactly how civilizations fall.

Here is how Edward Gibbon described the Goths' sack of Rome in August 410 AD:

''In the hour of savage license, when every passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed . . . a cruel slaughter was made of the Romans; and . . . the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies . . . Whenever the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the helpless . . .''

Now, does that not describe the scenes we witnessed in Paris on Friday night?

True, Gibbon's ''History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' represented Rome's demise as a slow burn over a millennium. But a new generation of historians, such as Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather, has raised the possibility that the process of Roman decline was in fact sudden '-- and bloody '--rather than smooth: a ''violent seizure . . . by barbarian invaders'' that destroyed a complex civilization within the span of a single generation.

Uncannily similar processes are destroying the European Union today, though few of us want to recognize them for what they are.

Let us be clear about what is happening. Like the Roman Empire in the early fifth century, Europe has allowed its defenses to crumble. As its wealth has grown, so its military prowess has shrunk, along with its self-belief. It has grown decadent in its shopping malls and sports stadiums. At the same time, it has opened its gates to outsiders who have coveted its wealth without renouncing their ancestral faith.

The distant shock to this weakened edifice has been the Syrian civil war, though it has been a catalyst as much as a direct cause for the great V¶lkerwanderung of 2015. As before, they have come from all over the imperial periphery '-- from North Africa, from the Levant, from South Asia '-- but this time they have come in their millions.

To be sure, most have come hoping only for a better life. Things in their own countries have become just good enough economically for them to afford to leave and just bad enough politically for them to risk leaving. But they cannot stream northward and westward without some of that political malaise coming along with them. As Gibbon saw, convinced monotheists pose a grave threat to a secular empire.

It is conventional to say that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Europe are not violent, and that is doubtless true. But it is also true that the majority of Muslims in Europe hold views that are not easily reconciled with the principles of our modern liberal democracies, including those novel notions we have about equality between the sexes and tolerance not merely of religious diversity but of nearly all sexual proclivities. And it is thus remarkably easy for a violent minority to acquire their weapons and prepare their assaults on civilization within these avowedly peace-loving communities.

I do not know enough about the fifth century to be able to quote Romans who described each new act of barbarism as unprecedented, even when it had happened multiple times before; or who issued pious calls for solidarity after the fall of Rome, even when standing together in fact meant falling together; or who issued empty threats of pitiless revenge, even when all they intended to do was to strike a melodramatic pose.

I do know that 21st-century Europe has only itself to blame for the mess it is now in. For surely nowhere in the world has devoted more resources to the study of history than modern Europe. When I went up to Oxford more than 30 years ago, it was taken for granted that in the first term of my first year I would study Gibbon. It did no good. We learned nothing that mattered. Indeed, we learned a lot of nonsense to the effect that nationalism was a bad thing, nation-states worse, and empires the worst things of all.

''Romans before the fall,'' wrote Ward-Perkins in his ''Fall of Rome,'' ''were as certain as we are today that their world would continue for ever substantially unchanged. They were wrong. We would be wise not to repeat their complacency.''

Poor, poor Paris. Killed by complacency.

"Paris and the fall of Rome." The Boston Globe, November 16, 2015.

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Source: FCW: The business of federal technology

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:04

Cybersecurity

Paris attacks revive 'going dark' concernsBy Sean Lyngaas, Adam Mazmanian, Mark RockwellNov 17, 2015The horrific terrorist attacks in Paris last week have revived a debate in the United States about law enforcement access to end-to-end encryption on mobile devices.

FBI Director James Comey and other officials have long warned of the so-called "going dark" phenomenon, in which security agencies' lawful interception of communications is thwarted by the end-to-end encryption of, say, Apple iOS or Google Android devices. Some current and former intelligence officials sounded the alarm again after a Nov. 13 rampage through Paris by Islamic State-backed militants left at least 129 dead.

"There are a lot of technological capabilities that are available right now that make it exceptionally difficult, both technically as well as legally, for intelligence and security services to have the insight they need to uncover it," CIA Director John Brennan said Nov. 16 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"I do think this is a time for particularly Europe, as well as here in the United States, for us to take a look and see whether or not there have been some inadvertent or intentional gaps that have been created in the ability of intelligence and security services to protect the people that they are asked to serve," Brennan added.

The Obama administration appears to have settled on a course of not asking commercial providers to provide special law enforcement access to encrypted communications via third-party keys or backdoors.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch acknowledged the problem in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 17, but she did not use Comey's dire "going dark" language. She characterized the problem as "challenging," but did not suggest that it was incumbent on the administration or Congress to create a legal remedy for the encryption issue, as Comey and others have done in the past.

"Certainly, when individuals choose to move from open means of communication to those that are encrypted, it can cause a disruption in our ability to use lawful legal process to intercept those communications, and it does give us concern about being able to gather the evidence that we need to continue in our ongoing mission for the protection of the American people," Lynch said.

The encryption issue is surfacing in terrorism investigations in the U.S., Lynch indicated. She noted that in the U.S., law enforcement has observed a pattern of individuals being recruited "to commit acts of violence, acts of terrorism, and then those individuals dropping from one type of communication to an encrypted method of communication, and we no longer have visibility into those discussions."

When tracking users of encrypted communications, Lynch said, "we rely on other means of surveillance, other means of gathering intelligence about those individuals and their associates, but it does cause us the loss of a very valuable source of information."

Michael Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA, said Nov. 15 on "Face the Nation" that hitherto, the debate over encryption has been "defined by Edward Snowden ... and the concern about privacy," but that it henceforth will "be defined by what happened in Paris."

It's not clear whether the events in Paris have rekindled interest in legislation on commercial encryption. Members of both parties have been skeptical of moves that could weaken commercial encryption by providing special access to law enforcement, or even just an extra set of keys to the providers themselves.

"Strong encryption is important," Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), chairman of the IT Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said at a Washington tech event on Nov. 17. "We need the strongest level. We can't make it less resilient."

"We have to talk with law enforcement, but also have to protect the digital environment, as well as civil liberties," he added. "It's a difficult conversation. It should be a collaborative effort among industry and law enforcement to come up with an innovative solutions. Instead of a key to the backdoor."

He acknowledged that strong encryption makes it "harder for law enforcement," but the congressman, who is also a former CIA officer, noted that from an investigative point of view, "knowing something is encrypted contains its own set of data'... you know other things about the message from that data."

Little information has emerged on the communications methods of the Paris attackers. A U.S. official told Reuters that there is no evidence yet showing the terrorists used a particular communication method, or whether their communications were encrypted in a particular way. However, a CNN report claimed that, given the dearth of information about the attackers' communications to turn up thus far, "U.S. investigators are increasingly convinced the attackers used encrypted communications to evade French intelligence."

About the Authors

Sean Lyngaas is an FCW staff writer covering defense, cybersecurity and intelligence issues. Follow him on Twitter: @snlyngaas.

Adam Mazmanian is FCW's executive editor. Connect with him on Twitter: @thisismaz.

Mark Rockwell is a staff writer covering acquisition, procurement and homeland security. Contact him at mrockwell@fcw.com or follow him on Twitter at @MRockwell4.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:04

Washington continues making an international fool of herself by her inability to effectively counter the impression around the world that Russia, spending less than 10% of the Pentagon annually on defense, has managed to do more against ISIS in Syria in six weeks than the mighty US Air Force bombing campaign has done in almost a year and half. One aspect that bears attention is the demonstration by the Russian military of new technologies that belie the widely-held Western notion that Russia is little more than a backward oil and raw material commodity exporter.

Recent reorganization of the Russian state military industrial complex as well as reorganization of the Soviet-era armed forces under Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu's term are visible in the success so far of Russia's ISIS and other terror strikes across Syria. Clearly Russian military capabilities have undergone a sea-change since the Soviet Cold War era.

In war there are never winners. Yet Russia has been in an unwanted war with Washington de facto since the George W. Bush Administration announced its lunatic plan to place what they euphemistically term ''Ballistic Missile Defense'' missiles and advanced radar in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Turkey after 2007. Without going into detail, BMD technologies are the opposite of defensive. They instead make a pre-emptive war highly likely. Of course the radioactive ash heap in such an exchange would be first and foremost the EU countries foolish enough to invite US BMD to their soil.

Then came the highly provocative US-instigated coup d'etat in Ukraine in February 2014, installing a cabal of gangsters, neo-nazis and criminals who launched a civil war against its own citizens in east Ukraine, an ill-conceived attempt to bring Russia into a ground war across her border. It followed two UN Security Council vetoes by Russia and China of US proposals for No Fly zones over Syria as was done to destroy Qaddafi's Libya. Now Russia has surprised the West by accepting the request of Syrian President Bashar al Assad to help eliminate the terrorism that has ravaged the once-peaceful country for over four years.

What the Russian General Staff has managed, since the precision air campaign began September 30, has stunned western defense planners with Russian technological feats not expected. Two specific technologies are worth looking at more closely: The Russian Sukoi SU-34 fighter-bomber and what is called the Bumblebee hyperbaric mortar weapon.

Sukhoi SU-34 'Fullback' fighter-bomber

The plane responsible for some of the most damaging strikes on ISIS and other terror enclaves in Syria is manufactured by the Russian state aircraft industry under the name Sukhoi SU-34. As the Russian news agency RIA Novosti described the aircraft, ''The Su-34 is meant to deliver a sufficiently large ordnance load to a predetermined area, hit the target accurately and take evasive action against pursuing enemy planes.'' The plane is also designed to deal with enemy fighters in aerial combat such as the US F-16. The SU-34 made a first test flight in 1990 as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the chaos of the Yeltsin years caused many delays. Finally in 2010 the plane was in full production.

According to a report in US Defense Industry Daily, among the SU-34 features are:

' 8 ton ordnance load which can accommodate precision-guided weapons, as well as R-73/AA-11 Archer and R-77/AA-12 'AMRAAMSKI' missiles and an internal 30mm GSh-301 gun.

' Maximum speed of Mach 1.8 at altitude.

' 3,000 km range, extensible to ''over 4,000 km'' with the help of additional drop tanks. The SU-34 can also refuel in mid-air.

' It can fly in TERCOM (Terrain Contour Matching) mode for low-level flight, and has software to execute a number of difficult maneuvers.

' Leninets B004 phased array multimode X-band radar, which interleaves terrain-following radar and other modes.

Now new EW technologies

Clearly the aircraft is impressive as it has demonstrated against terrorist centers in Syria. Now, however, beginning this month it will add a ''game-changer'' in the form of a new component. Speaking at the Dubai Air Show on November 12, Igor Nasenkov, the First Deputy General Director of the Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET) announced that this month, that is in the next few days, SUKHOI SU-34 fighter-bombers will become electronic warfare aircraft as well.

Nasenkov explained that the new Khibiny aircraft electronic countermeasures (ECM) systems, installed on the wingtips, will give the SU-34 jets electronic warfare capabilities to launch effective electronic countermeasures against radar systems, anti-aircraft missile systems and airborne early warning and control aircraft.

KRET is a holding or group of some 95 Russian state electronic companies formed in 2009 under the giant Russian state military industry holding, Rostec.

Russia's advances in what is euphemistically termed in military jargon, Electronic Counter Measures or ECM, is causing some sleepless nights for the US Pentagon top brass to be sure. In the battles in eastern pro-Russian Ukraine earlier this year, as well as in the Black Sea, and now in Syria, according to ranking US military sources, Russia deployed highly-effective ECM technologies like the Krasukha-4, to successfully jam hostile radar and aircraft.

Lt. General Ben Hodges, Commander of US Army Europe (USAREUR) describes Russian ECM capabilities used in Ukraine as ''eye-watering,'' suggesting some US and NATO officers are more than slightly disturbed by what they see. Ronald Pontius, deputy to Army Cyber Command's chief, Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, told a conference in October that, ''You can't but come to the conclusion that we're not making progress at the pace the threat demands.'' In short, Pentagon planners have been caught flat-footed for all the trillions of wasted US taxpayer dollars in recent years thrown at the military industry.

During the critical days of the March 2014 Crimean citizens' referendum vote to appeal for status within Russia, New York Times reporters then in Crimea reported the presence of Russian electronic jamming systems, known as R-330Zh Zhitel, manufactured by Protek in Voronezh, Russia. That state-of-the-art technology was believed to have been used to prevent the Ukrainian Army from invading Crimea before the referendum. Russian forces in Crimea, where Russia had a legal basing agreement with Kiev, reportedly were able to block all communication of Kiev military forces, preventing a Crimean bloodbath. Washington was stunned.

USS Donald Cook'...

Thereafter, in April, 2014, one month after the accession of Crimea into the Russian Federation, President Obama ordered the USS Donald Cook into the Black Sea waters just off Crimea, the home port of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, to ''reassure'' EU states of US resolve. Donald Cook was no ordinary guided missile destroyer. It had been refitted to be one of four ships as part of Washington's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System aimed at Russia's nuclear arsenal. USS Donald Cook boldly entered the Black Sea on April 8 heading to Russian territorial waters.

On April 12, just four days later, the US ship inexplicably left the area of the Crimean waters of the Black Sea for a port in NATO-member Romania. From there it left the Black Sea entirely. A report on April 30, 2014 in Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta Online titled, ''What Frightened the American Destroyer,'' stated that while the USS Donald Cook was near Crimean (Russian by that time) waters, a Russian Su-24 Frontal Aviation bomber conducted a flyby of the destroyer.

The Rossiyskaya Gazeta went on to write that the Russian SU-24 ''did not have bombs or missiles onboard. One canister with the Khibin electronic warfare complex was suspended under the fuselage.'' As it got close to the US destroyer, the Khibins turned off the USS Donald Cook's ''radar, combat control circuits, and data transmission system '' in short, they turned off the entire Aegis just like we turn off a television by pressing the button on the control panel. After this, the Su-24 simulated a missile launch at the blind and deaf ship. Later, it happened once again, and again '' a total of 12 times.''

While the US Army denied the incident as Russian propaganda, the fact is that USS Donald Cook never approached Russian Black Sea waters again. Nor did NATO ships that replaced it in the Black Sea. A report in 2015 by the US Army's Foreign Military Studies Office assessed that Russia, ''does indeed possess a growing EW capability, and the political and military leadership understand the importance'...Their growing ability to blind or disrupt digital communications might help level the playing field when fighting against a superior conventional foe.'' Now new Russian Khibini Electronic Counter Measure systems are being installed on the wingtips of Russia's SUKHOI SU-34 fighter-bombers going after ISIS in Syria.

Killer Bumblebees

A second highly-advanced new Russian military technology that's raising more than eyebrows in US Defense Secretary 'Ash' Carter's Pentagon is Russia's new Bumblebee which Russia's military classifies as a flamethrower. In reality it is a highly advanced thermobaric weapon which launches a warhead that uses a combination of an explosive charge and highly combustible fuel. When the rocket reaches the target, the fuel is dispersed in a cloud that is then detonated by the explosive charge. US Military experts recently asked by the US scientific and engineering magazine Popular Mechanics to evaluate the Bumblebee stated that, ''the resulting explosion is devastating, radiating a shockwave and fireball up to six or seven meters in diameter.'' The US experts noted that the Bumblebee is ''especially useful against troops in bunkers, trenches, and even armored vehicles, as the dispersing gas can enter small spaces and allow the fireball to expand inside. Thermobarics are particularly devastating to buildings '-- a thermobaric round entering a structure can literally blow up the building from within with overpressure.''

'Status-6'²

We don't go into yet another new highly secret Russian military technology recently subject of a Russian TV report beyond a brief mention, as little is known. It is indicative of what is being developed as Russia prepares for the unthinkable from Washington. The ''Ocean Multipurpose System: Status-6'' is a new Russian nuclear submarine weapons system designed to bypass NATO radars and any existing missile defense systems, while causing heavy damage to ''important economic facilities'' along the enemy's coastal regions.

Reportedly the Status-6 will cause what the Russian military terms, ''assured unacceptable damage'' to an adversary force. They state that its detonation ''in the area of the enemy coast'' (say, New York or Boston or Washington?) would result in ''extensive zones of radioactive contamination'' that would ensure that the region would not be used for ''military, economic, business or other activity for a long time.'' Status-6 reportedly is a massive torpedo, designated as a ''self-propelled underwater vehicle.'' It has a range of up to 10 thousand kilometers and can operate at a depth of up to 1,000 meters. At a November 10 meeting with the Russian military chiefs, Vladimir Putin stated that Russia would counter NATO's US-led missile shield program through ''new strike systems capable of penetrating any missile defenses.'' Presumably he was referring to Status-6.

US Defense Secretary Carter declared on November 8 in a speech that Russia and China are challenging ''American pre-eminence'' and Washington's so-called ''stewardship of the world order.'' Carter added that, ''Most disturbing is Moscow's nuclear saber-rattling,'' which in his view, ''raises questions about Russian leaders' commitment to strategic stability, their respect for norms against the use of nuclear weapons'...''

Not surprisingly, Carter did not mention Washington's own very loud nuclear saber-rattling. In addition to advancing the US Ballistic Missile Defense array targeting Russia, Carter recently announced highly-advanced US nuclear weapons would be stationed at the B¼chel Air Base in Germany as part of a joint NATO nuclear program, which involves non-nuclear NATO states in Europe hosting more than 200 US nuclear warheads. Those NATO states across Europe, including Germany, have just become a potential Ground Zero in any possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Perhaps it's time for some more sober minds to take responsibility in Washington for restoring a world at peace, minds not obsessed with such ridiculous ideas of ''pre-eminence.''

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine ''New Eastern Outlook''.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:03

In some recent false flag operations, the killers have been white men, trained by military.

The patsies who end up being killed are usually Moslem petty criminals.

Near the Cafe La Belle Equipe at the Rue de Charonne in Paris In the 13 November 2015 Paris Attack, one of the targets was La Belle Equipe caf(C). A witness, Mr Admo, 26, described the shooter.Paris attack witness says black Mercedes pulled up and ... "He was white, clean shaven and had dark hair neatly trimmed.

"He was dressed all in black accept for a red scarf.

"The shooter was aged about 35 and had an extremely muscular build, which you could tell from the size of his arms...

"The driver had ... a machine gun rested on the roof of the car. He stood there ... acting as a lookout.

"I would describe him as tall, with dark hair and also quite muscular.

"They looked like soldiers or mercenaries and carried the whole thing out like a military operation."

On 13 November, various friends, some of whom worked at the nearby Caf(C) des Anges, were in La Belle Equipe celebrating the 35th birthday of Cafe des Anges waitress Houda Saadi.Eleven of these friends were gunned down when La Belle Equipe was attacked by two gunmen.Houda Saadi is Tunisian.She was in La belle Equipe with her sister Halima, and her two brothers Khaled and Bashir.

Both Houda and Halima were killed.

The majority of the 19 victims at the La Belle Equipe caf(C) were from the birthday celebrations.

dailymail.

Psychotherapist Mark Colclough, a 43-year-old British-Danish dual citizen, was with a colleague on Rue de la Fontaine when he witnessed a gunman attack a cafeThe gunman was "a man in military uniform, black jumper, black trousers, black shoes or boots and a machine gun."

Paris attack witness: 'he was dressed in black, professional ....

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:02

November 17, 2015

November 17, 2015

Before a joint session of the French Congress at Versailles, President Fran§ois Hollande announced a 90-day state of emergency, proposed substantial changes to his country's constitution, and announced the dispatch of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the eastern Mediterranean, where it would triple the French capacity to conduct air strikes against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh. In contrast, at a press conference during the G20 summit in Turkey, President Obama declared, ''We have the right strategy and we're going to see it through.'' Once again, Obama has shown that he does not understand the severity of threat posed by ISIS, nor can he recognize the failure of his strategy to defeat the terrorist organization.

Shortly before the attacks in Paris, President Obama told ABC News that ''our goal has been first to contain'' ISIS and ''we have contained them.'' Obama justified his conclusion by explaining, ''They have not gained ground in Iraq'' nor have they made progress in Syria. His statement is inaccurate and misses the point. In May, ISIS captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq. Maps compiled by the Institute for the Study of War show that the ISIS zone of control in Syria is expanding southwest towards the country's population centers, despite the gains made by Kurdish forces in the north.

More importantly, the global expansion of ISIS, far beyond the borders of Iraq and Syria, demonstrates the deficiency of the assessment that it has been contained. The Islamic State now has branches in Libya, Sinai, Yemen, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Islamic State operatives have recently carried out mass casualty attacks in Turkey and Lebanon. In addition, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bomb that destroyed a Russian airliner departing from Cairo, killing all 224 passengers aboard. After spending a year with ISIS in Syria, Mehdi Nemmouche gunned down four visitors at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014. Ayoub el-Khazzani, who attempted to slaughter the passengers on a Paris-bound train, may also have spent time in Syria.

Friday's attacks in Paris demonstrate that the ISIS threat has gone global. The man suspected of planning the attacks is a Belgian citizen who fought with ISIS in Syria. President Hollande said the attacks were ''organized, and planned from outside, with help from inside.'' Yesterday, ISIS released a video threatening to carry out similar attacks on Washington.

Rather than display a new sense of urgency, President Obama has complacently dismissed criticism of his strategy. At his recent press conference in Turkey, he remarked, ''in the aftermath of Paris, as I listen to those who suggest something else needs to be done, typically the things they suggest need to be done are things we are already doing.'' He added, ''The one exception is that there have been a few who suggested that we should put large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground'' in Iraq and Syria.

In fact, the White House has ignored or dismissed numerous suggestions of how to prosecute the war against ISIS more effectively without employing a substantial number of ground troops. In light of the growing threat, both Congress and the President's advisers should encourage him to reconsider the following options:

An Expanded U.S. Mission in Iraq '' A bipartisan array of national security experts has called for an expansion of the U.S. training mission so that American advisers can partner with Iraqi forces down to battalion level, rather than remaining at higher headquarters. U.S. troops on the ground can also help to call in airstrikes, increasing their accuracy.U.S. Leadership for an International Combat Force '' Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey observes that no assault during the war in Iraq required more than 7,000 to 8,000 troops. France and other European countries could provide at least that many troops, yet Amb. Jeffrey warns, ''without U.S. ground forces, none of this will take place.'' This force could also incorporate the select few Iraqi units with advanced capabilities.An Accelerated Air Campaign Against ISIS '' While President Obama reports that there have been 8,000 air strikes to date, this impressive sounding number only amounts to about 15 strikes per day since September 2014. According to Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, ''Restrictive rules of engagement have prevented U.S. aircraft from attacking many [ISIS] targets in Iraq and Syria.'' They recommend that the United States use airpower to force ISIS ''to go to ground, to stop maneuvering vehicles, and to stop massing forces.''No-Fly Zones Along Syria's Borders with Turkey and Jordan '' There is growing bipartisan support for a no-fly zone. Christopher Harmer of the Institute for the Study of War showed earlier this month how one could be established with a comparatively low level of effort. At first, the no-fly zones would protect civilians from the Assad regime's air force. If defensible, these areas could provide a humanitarian enclave for displaced Syrians and give moderate opposition forces a place to organize and train in preparation for taking on ISIS and the Assad regime.Increased Support for Indigenous Forces ''The Obama administration tried and failed to create a viable Arab opposition force in Syria, yet its efforts were half-hearted at best. Now it should be clear that creating such a force is imperative. The United States should also invest more in developing local Sunni forces in Iraq.A Response to the Refugee Crisis '' Managing the refugee crisis will require tremendous organization and resources both to vet refugees for potential ISIS infiltrators and support the millions who are fleeing the chaos in Syria, Iraq, and the larger region. If the United States does not lead in this regard, this humanitarian disaster could further threaten the stability of regional partners like Jordan and allow ISIS to recruit within among refugees.America's efforts against ISIS must extend beyond Iraq and Syria. For instance, the organization's growing presence in Afghanistan and North Africa means that the United States should reconsider its military posture in those regions as well, and view ISIS as a truly global threat. However, Iraq and Syria remain the organization's heartland, and strategically defeating them there will have enormous ramifications for the group's global strategy.

CIA Director John Brennan said Monday, ''I certainly would not consider [Paris] a one-off event.'' He added, ''It's clear to me that ISIL has an external agenda, that they are determined to carry out these types of attacks. I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline.'' This threat to U.S. and international security is both daunting and unacceptable. The United States should commit the forces necessary to defeat and destroy ISIS and end the threat it poses to the world.

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Source: FCW: The business of federal technology

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:56

Oversight

Administration bows out of classified Hill briefing on OPM hackBy Adam MazmanianNov 17, 2015Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) criticized administration officials for bailing on a scheduled briefing on the OPM hack.

The chairman of a powerful House panel lashed out at the Obama administration when officials canceled a planned briefing on the hack of Office of Personnel Management records, allegedly because the classified discussion was going to be transcribed.

The briefing for the House Armed Services Committee, which was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 17, was supposed to include officials from OPM, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security.

"OPM, Homeland Security and OMB's last-minute refusal to appear before this committee is unacceptable. Their excuse, that the testimony would be on the record, is disturbing," said committee chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) in an emailed statement. "The committee transcribes classified briefings regularly.... The department has already been forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in identity protection services to try and repair the damage. There is no excuse at all for being unwilling to explain on the record about how the breach happened and what we are doing to prevent another one. What could they possibly have to hide? What a disservice to the men and women who placed their trust in these agencies."

In a joint response, DHS, OPM and OMB said that since May the three departments "have engaged in more than a dozen classified briefings and open hearings to ensure our partners in Congress are supported with the most up-to-date information on this issue. Unfortunately, we were unable to accommodate a last-minute change in the request today. We look forward to working with our partners in Congress for a briefing in the future."

Neither the majority staff on the committee nor the administration responded to requests about which individuals from the agencies had been scheduled to brief lawmakers.

About the Author

Adam Mazmanian is FCW's executive editor. Connect with him on Twitter: @thisismaz.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:55

Sean Lyngaas (@snlyngaas) on TwitterHTTP/1.1 200 OK cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate, pre-check=0, post-check=0 content-encoding: gzip content-language: en content-length: 8370 content-security-policy: default-src 'self'; connect-src 'self'; font-src 'self' data:; frame-src https://*.twitter.com twitter: https://www.google.com; frame-ancestors https://*.twitter.com; img-src https://twitter.com https://*.twitter.com https://*.twimg.com https://maps.google.com https://www.google-analytics.com https://stats.g.doubleclick.net https://www.google.com data:; media-src https://*.twitter.com https://*.twimg.com https://*.cdn.vine.co; object-src 'self'; script-src 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' https://*.twitter.com https://*.twimg.com https://www.google.com https://www.google-analytics.com https://stats.g.doubleclick.net; style-src 'unsafe-inline' https://*.twitter.com https://*.twimg.com; report-uri https://twitter.com/i/csp_report?a=O5SWEZTPOJQWY3A%3D&ro=false; content-type: text/html;charset=utf-8 date: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:55:43 GMT expires: Tue, 31 Mar 1981 05:00:00 GMT last-modified: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:55:43 GMT pragma: no-cache server: tsa_b set-cookie: _mobile_sess=BAh7ByIKZmxhc2hJQzonQWN0aW9uQ29udHJvbGxlcjo6Rmxhc2g6OkZsYXNoSGFzaHsABjoKQHVzZWR7ADoQX2NzcmZfdG9rZW4iJTk1NDQ1Y2IxMzMyMmRlNGEzZmNjYTYxMjM2NTYzOTcy--56b452db6415fa90ea08c33ee596537bb207ea5a; Expires=Sat, 16 Jan 2016 22:55:43 GMT; Path=/; Domain=.twitter.com; Secure; HTTPOnly set-cookie: _twitter_sess=BAh7CCIKZmxhc2hJQzonQWN0aW9uQ29udHJvbGxlcjo6Rmxhc2g6OkZsYXNo%250ASGFzaHsABjoKQHVzZWR7ADoPY3JlYXRlZF9hdGwrCBoyqRdRAToHaWQiJTlk%250AYjYzNDkwYmY2NzVlMDRiMTE5MjE4MGZiOTg3NTJj--8ad3c0b61e92758bbae2e542f0aa93a1a15d543a; Path=/; Domain=.twitter.com; Secure; HTTPOnly strict-transport-security: max-age=631138519 vary: Accept-Encoding x-connection-hash: d9101f2ea4d904aa543973641f4050f9 x-content-type-options: nosniff x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN x-response-time: 175 x-transaction: 257d1f985620719d x-twitter-response-tags: BouncerCompliant x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block

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Source: FCW: The business of federal technology

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:55

Defense

DISA to issue multiple Level 5 cloud authorizationsBy Sean LyngaasNov 17, 2015In the next 18 months, the Defense Information Systems Agency will issue four to five provisional authorizations for commercial cloud providers to handle sensitive Level 5 government data, according to a DISA official.

The move was announced Nov. 17 by John Hale, DISA's chief of enterprise applications, and it is the latest in a series of steps the Defense Department is taking to balance the potential cost-saving benefits of commercial cloud services with concerns about securing DOD data.

Level 5 includes high-sensitivity data on national security systems and runs through cloud access points to the unclassified NIPRNet. It is one level shy of the highest designation, which is for classified data.

Amazon Web Services already has provisional authorization to handle Level 5 data, which vendors must have in order to bid on contracts.

Hale said the Pentagon is taking an all-of-the-above approach to cloud by pursuing hybrid, public and private offerings. "There's no one size that fits all from the department's perspective," he said at an FCW-sponsored event in Washington.

The Pentagon's self-described cloud evangelizer went so far as to say he foresees a day when nuclear command and control information could be stored in a commercial cloud.

"There's a certain portion of the workload which we don't feel comfortable with in the commercial environment today, but I do wholeheartedly believe the commercial environment will get there very quickly," he said.

The Pentagon currently has added security controls -- detailed in a security requirements guide -- for cloud offerings that go beyond the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program for civilian agencies. But that could change as the FedRAMP process matures.

DOD is conducting pilot projects to determine whether the FedRAMP high-baseline security controls are enough to protect Levels 4 and 5 data, said Robert Vietmeyer, a cloud specialist in the DOD CIO's office. The second version of the guide is due out soon. The third version will include a verdict on the FedRAMP high baseline's ability to meet DOD security needs, he added.

"We would really love to have alignment as we move forward, but we do recognize that the Defense Department is under advanced persistent threats from a cybersecurity perspective that some of the other federal agencies aren't," he said at the FCW event. "So we don't want to force all of the federal government into accepting all the controls that are required" by DOD.

Hale expressed confidence that FedRAMP will reach a point where an additional DOD security process is no longer needed.

Vendors said they would welcome more clarity on the DOD cloud-approval process.

"It's still not defined well enough for most vendors...to be able to provide the government what they want," Dan Kent, CTO for the U.S. public sector at Cisco, told FCW.

About the Author

Sean Lyngaas is an FCW staff writer covering defense, cybersecurity and intelligence issues. Follow him on Twitter: @snlyngaas

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Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:54

For Immediate Release

November 17, 2015

The Vice President spoke with Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani to congratulate him on the Kurdish Peshmerga success against ISIL in Sinjar. The two leaders noted that this operation is part of a concerted campaign to increase pressure on ISIL in its heartland and disrupt supply routes between Mosul and Raqqa. They emphasized that this pressure will continue over the coming weeks and months. 'ŽThe Vice President praised cooperation between the coalition and Peshmerga forces and underscored the United States' strong commitment to working with the global coalition, the Government of Iraq, and the Kurdistan Regional Government to continue to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. Both leaders agreed on the importance of continued close cooperation in the fight against ISIL in all areas, including the military, economic, and political lines of effort.

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Source: Dark Web & Cyber Security

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:52

NOTE: The following materials are for information purposes only and may not be copied, reproduced, or transmitted without the explicit permission of SITE Intelligence Group and specific attribution to SITE Intelligence Group.

DetailsJihadist NewsCreated: 17 November 2015

The Nusra Front (NF), the al-Qaeda (AQ) branch in Syria, claimed to have downed two Russian reconnaissance planes from the Abu Dhuhur airbase located in Idlib.

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Source: Dark Web & Cyber Security

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 22:51

NOTE: The following materials are for information purposes only and may not be copied, reproduced, or transmitted without the explicit permission of SITE Intelligence Group and specific attribution to SITE Intelligence Group.

DetailsMultimediaCreated: 17 November 2015Furat Media, a media affiliate of the Islamic State (IS), released a video featuring French IS fighters celebrating and attempting to justify the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 21:11

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:42

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:36

Some 42 agents will receive short suspensions for illegally accessing a personnel file on Congressman Jason ChaffetzEarlier this year someone in the department told the press that Chaffetz applied for and was rejected from a job with the Secret Service in 2003 Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said Homeland Security hasn't decided how to punish the agent who spearheaded the smear campaignHe said this at a joint hearing held by House and Senate Homeland Security subcommittees today on Capitol Hill The agents' actions were 'reprehensible, disturbing, embarrassing,' he said. 'I agree with everything that's been said here today'By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:13 EST, 17 November 2015 | Updated: 13:12 EST, 17 November 2015

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Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said that as of today that dozens of agents will receive short suspensions for inappropriately accessing a personnel file on Congressman Jason Chaffetz.

The agent who spearheaded the smear campaign on Chaffetz, the chairman of the House committee charged with Oversight of government departments, will also be punished, Clancy told lawmakers today.

The Department Homeland Security is still processing his case, though, he said, and has not yet decided how to deal with him.

'I've heard the comments that were made today, they're reprehensible, disturbing, embarrassing - I agree with everything that's been said here today, and my work workforce does as well,' Clancy said during the Capitol Hill hearing.

SORRY: Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy said that as of today, some 42 agents will receive short suspensions for illegally accessing a personnel file on Congressman Jason Chaffetz

Clancy said he welcomes congressional review of the agency because it helps to convey the seriousness of the wrongdoing to his employees.

The government agency sends law enforcement officers through training and ethics classes, he said, but a 'hearing like this puts a definitive stamp on our failures.'

A retired agent who served on Bill Clinton's protective detail when he lived in the White House, Clancy was installed as the acting Secret Service director a little under 14 months ago after his predecessor, Julia Pierson, stepped down during another scandal.

President Obama named him permanent director of the protective organization in February in spite of a November 2014 Department of Homeland Security review of the organization that called for new management from the outside.

Less than two months after Clancy formally took over the post, in April, the Daily Beast ran a story revealing that Chaffetz applied for and was rejected from a job with the Secret Service in 2003.

Around that time Chaffez, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was looking into a report that two drunken Secret Service agents interrupted a suspicious package investigation when they collided a government vehicle into a barrier in front of the White House.

A DHS Office of Inspector General Report published at the end of September singled out Assistant Director Edward Lowery of the Secret Service as the instigator of the smear-campaign on Chaffetz, though it could not 'conclusively' determine he was the leaker.

'Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,' Lowery told a colleague in a March 31 email that was later circulated within the department. 'Just to be fair,' he wrote.

Clancy first said he heard a 'rumor' about Chaffetz's application on April 1. He later amended his statement to say he knew about it on March 25.

But as he told lawmakers today, it was just prattle at the time, and he thought little of it.

'I've heard the comments that were made today, they're reprehensible, disturbing, embarrassing - I agree with everything that's been said here today, and my work workforce does as well,' Clancy said during the Capitol Hill hearing

After DHS's inspector general went public with his report, which accused 45 officers of misconduct in the case, Clancy personally called Chaffetz to apologize.

'That ain't good enough,' Chaffetz said at the time. 'I worry that if they're doing this to me, they're doing it to who knows how many other people.'

John Roth, the IG for DHS, told lawmakers today at a joint hearing between Homeland Security subcommittees in the House and Senate that it's impossible to know whether agents improperly accessed other Americans' personal information, as well.

The data base the Secret Service is using was created in 1994, he said, and it doesn't have the functionality to easily track those sort of records.

For that reason the IG's office had to narrowly search Congressman Chaffetz's name for its investigation, Roth said.

'That's a bit unsettling,' Congressman Scott Perry, the head of the House subcommittee sponsoring the hearing, told him.

Of the 45 agents implicated in the data breach, approximately 42 of them are being brought to justice today, Clancy disclosed at the hearing.

They are receiving three to 12 day suspensions, he said, in accordance with a writ handed down by DHS, the parent organization of the Secret Service.

The other agents' fates, including Lowery's, haven't been determined, he said. They could receive anything from a reprimand in the form of a letter to dismissal from their jobs.

'The misconduct outlined in the report is inexcusable and unacceptable,' Clancy told legislators.

Roth said his department believes that Secret Service agents violated the law when they looked into Chaffetz's records, and as such are subject to a misdemeanor charge and the resulting fine.

But the agents invoked their fifth amendment rights, 'se we could not interview individuals, compel their interview, which we ultimately had to do in this case for a lack of voluntary cooperation,' he said.

Without those interviews, Roth said the case against them was not strong enough, and the Department of Justice therefore declined to prosecute them.

Around the time that Chaffez, seen above with his wife on Capitol Hill on October, was looking into a report that two drunken Secret Service agents interrupted a suspicious package investigation when they collided a government vehicle into a barrier in front of the White House, someone at the Secret Service leaked his personnel file to a reporter

'It seems like all of this has happened with a great impunity...."You cant touch me," as the chairman just talked about, or it's OK to do this,' North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp told Clancy.

Consequences are part of changing the culture at the Secret Service, she said, 'but what about the integrity at every level, of basically saying, We don't do this.'

'We don't go to hotels and, you know, hire people to service us...We don't drive into the White House and disrupt a major investigation. We don't access a congressman's secret records. We don't do that.....how are we training people at every level to stand up and stop this behavior?' the Democrat asked.

'Because I don't think we can do it, just having hearings like this,' she said.

The ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Johnson, told Clancy in his opening statement, 'There must be some sweeping changes made at the Secret Service.'

'I know that the deeply-rooted problems will not cease over night, but we must get to the source of them, instead of continuing glossing over, putting on band aides, and going forward with business as usual,' the Mississippi Democrat said.

Since the report on Chaffetz this fall, the Secret Service has found itself in the spotlight two more times - once when agents were caught sleeping on the job and once when an agent got caught up in a criminal case that resulted in his arrest.

Lee Robert Moore, a 37 year-old-agent who worked at the White House, admitted last week to sending a picture of his genitals to someone he thought was a 14-year-old-girl. He was actually caught up in a predator fishing expedition by Delaware police.

If convicted of the crime, he could receive up to 10 years in prison.

Since the report on Chaffetz this fall, the Secret Service has found itself in the spotlight two more times - once when agents were caught sleeping on the job and once when a White House agent got caught up in a criminal case that resulted in his arrest

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said last Friday that the allegations against Moore 'are disgusting and allegations that the administration, including the Secret Service, takes quite seriously.'

After the Secret Service learned of Moore's misconduct, Earnest said they immediately took away his security clearance and cut off his access tp the White House.

Shortly after those steps were taken, the White House was informed, the Obama administration official said.

'And I think the prompt and decisive action that was taken...I think is an endorsement of their commitment to implementing the kinds of reforms that are needed at the Secret Service to ensure that that agency continues to live up to the high standard that they've established for themselves,' Earnest asserted.

The president's spokesman noted how well the agency handled Pope Francis' visit to the United States and the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September, saying it was 'a strong performance by the agency.'

'And I think an indication that that is an agency that is both well-managed, but also stocked with professionals who are committed to their job,' he said.

Asked if the president still has 'confidence' in Clancy's ability to lead the scandal-plagued organization, Earnest promptly replied, 'Without a doubt.

HOOKERS, BOOZE AND BREACHES: ANOTHER SECRET SERVICE SCANDALMoore's arrest was the latest embarrassment for the Secret Service, which has been plagued by a series of scandals over the last several years.

PROSTITUTES

In 2012 more than a dozen agents and officers were implicated in hiring prostitutes during a South American presidential trip.

The Secret Service was in Cartagena, Colombia, for a Latin American summit before Obama's arrival.

The misconduct became public after a dispute over payment between a Secret Service agent and a prostitute at a Cartagena hotel on April 12.

All the alleged activities took place before Obama arrived in Cartagena for meetings with 33 other regional leaders, but the scandal overshadowed his visit.

DRINKING

In March of this year, two senior Secret Service agents rolled their government car through a secure area outside the White House, disrupting an active bomb investigation, according to a shocking report.

The agents, who were suspected of being drunk at the time, nearly drove over the suspicious package as they careened through police crime scene tape and smashed into a temporary barrier outside the president's home.

Also in March: three Secret Service agents protecting President Barack Obama on a trip to the G7 summit in the Netherlands were sent home and suspended after a night of drinking

One of the agents was found passed out in a hotel hallway.

BREACHES

Last September Omar J. Gonzalez, an Iraq army veteran with a knife in his pants, scaled the fence from the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House and made it inside. He overpowered an officer at the entrance and ran through most of the main floor and made it to the East Room before he was finally captured.

The shocking security breach launched congressional hearings and led to Secret Service director Julie Pierson's resignation.

Last August a presidential address on Iraq was postponed - and the whole place put on lockdown - after a toddler squeezed through the fence on Pennsylvania Avenue, making it onto the lawn.

In November 2009, three people crashed a state dinner for Indian Premier Manmohan Singh. They somehow made it past several security checkpoints and even met President Obama.

This September a Inspector General report revealed that Secret Service employees raided the personal records of Jason Chaffetz, a Republican representative who was probing the claims that agents drove a government vehicle while drunk, to 'make things even'.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 18:09

All morning, outlets from the Today Show to Forbes were sharing a new angle on the brutal attacks that struck Paris on Friday: Could the attacks have been planned on a PlayStation 4? At a conference, Belgian federal interior minister Jan Jambon described ISIS's preference for the platform and many outlets described a Playstation 4 being found at the apartment of one of the attackers, which was enough for the story to spread across dozens of different sites.

There's only one problem: the interview took place three days before the Paris attacks. The Forbes reporter who championed the PlayStation connection, including new details about a PlayStation 4 being found at an attacker's apartment, has now admitted to Kotaku that he got the story wrong, entirely inventing the discovery of the console at the attacker's apartment. That leaves us with no evidence linking the PlayStation 4 or Sony networks to the Paris attacks.

There's some precedent for Jambon's claims. In Austria last year, a 14-year-old boy was arrested after downloading bomb-making plans onto his PlayStation, after making contact with ISIS sympathizers online. But the download wasn't secret, and he didn't get away with it. In May, the boy was sentenced to two years in jail.

Still, it's a remarkable example of how false information can spread in the wake of a tragedy. After a full news cycle, tens of thousands of people have now been informed of the PlayStation 4's possible role in the Paris attacks, a connection that has little to no basis in fact. The Verge has reached out to Minister Jambon for confirmation, and will update with any response.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 18:08

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 17:52

For the last five years, the French people have been hearing about distant wars, but without ever understanding what they meant. The Press informed them about the engagement of their army in Libya, but never about the presence of French soldiers on mission in the Levant. My articles on this subject are widely-read, but perceived as some sort of Oriental aberration. Despite my personal history, it remains quite acceptable to qualify me as an extremist >>, or a conspiracy theorist >>, and to point out that my articles are reproduced by Internet sites of all political colours, including those which are in fact authentically extremist or conspiracist. Yet nobody seems to have any quarrel with what I write. But neither do they pay any attention to my warnings about the alliances concluded by the French governement.

Now, suddenly, the unheeded truth surfaces.

France was attacked on the night of Friday 13th November 2015 by several commandos who massacred at least 130 people in five different areas of Paris. The state of emergency was decreed for a period of 12 days over the whole territory, and may be extended by act of Parliament.

No direct link with the Charlie Hebdo affairThe French Press interprets these acts of war by linking them to the attack made on Charlie Hebdo, although the operational modes were completely different. In January, the attack was aimed at killing specific people, while in this case, it was a co-ordinated attack on a large number of people chosen at random.

We know today that just before the January attack, the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo had received a gift >> of 200,000 Euros from the Near East in order to continue his anti-Muslim campaign [1] ; that the killers were linked to the French intelligence services [2] ; and that the origin of their weapons is covered by the Official Secrets Act [3]. I have already demonstrated that the attack was not an Islamist operation [4], that it was immediately recuperated by a state [5], and that this recuperation had raised echoes in populations hostile to the Republic [6] '' an idea which was brilliantly developed a few months later by the demographer Emmanuel Todd [7].

To get back to the war which has just spread to Paris, it has been a shock for Western Europe. It can not be compared to the attacks in Madrid in 2004. In Spain, there were no shooters, no kamikazes, but 10 bombs placed in 4 separate locations [8]. The type of horror which has just exploded in France is the daily lot of many populations of the Wider Middle East >>, and has been since 2001. And comparable events can be found elsewhere, like the three days of attacks in six distinct locations, in Bombay, 2008 [9].

Even if the assaillants of the 13th November were Muslims, and even if some of them shouted Allah Akbar ! >> as they killed passers-by, there is no link to such earlier attacks, to Islam, or to an eventual war of civilisations >>. These commandos had clearly received the order to kill at random, without first enquiring as to the religion of their victims.

In the same way, it is absurd to take at face value the motive claimed by Daesh against France '' even if there is no doubt about its implication in this attack. Indeed, if the terrorist organisation had wanted to avenge >> itself, it would have struck at Moscow.

France has been a terrorist state since at least 2011The interpretation of these events is unclear, because behind non-state groups there are always states which sponsor them. In the 1970's, the Venezualan Ilich Ram­rez Snchez, known as Carlos >> or The Jackal >> aligned himself by conviction with the Palestinian cause and the Revolution, and was offered the discrete support of the USSR. In the 1980's, the example of Carlos was revived by mercenaries working for the highest bidder, like Sabri al Banna, known as Abou Nidal >>, who carried out terrorist attacks for Libya and Syria as well as Isral. Today, there exists a cloudy network of terrorism and secret actors implicating a large number of states.

In principle, states always deny their participation in terrorist groups. However, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, declared in December 2012, during the Friends of Syria >> conference in Marrakesh, that Al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al-Qa¯da, had done a good job >> [10].

Because of his status, M. Fabius knew that he did not risk being taken to court to answer for supporting an organisation listed as terrorist >> by United Nations Security Council, but he took a serious risk for his country by dropping them into the cauldron of terrorism with this statement.

In truth, France had been implicated on the side of Al-Qa¯da at least since the beginning of 2011. At that time, the United Kingdom and France had signed up for the US project called the Arab Spring >>. The goal of this operation was to overthrow all the secular Arab r(C)gimes and replace them with dictatorships run by the Muslim Brotherhood. Although London and Paris had discovered this operation while it was on-going in Tunisia and in Egypt, they had previously been solicited for Libya and Syria [11]. In Libya, with the help of the Italian Special Forces, they organised the massacres in Benghazi, and then, with the help of Al-Qa¯da, the capture of the Libyan arsenals. I can attest to the fact that in August 2011, while I was under the protection of Khamis el-Kadhafi, NATO assaulted the capital, and the Hotel Rixos, where we were staying, was seiged to cries of Allah Akbar ! >> by a unit of Al-Qa¯da. They were called the Tripoli Brigade, and were commanded by Mahdi al-Harati and supervised by operational French officers. The same Mahdi al-Harati was present with his commanding officer, Abdelhakim Belhaj, the founder of the so-called Free Syrian Army >> which was in reality a section of Al-Qa¯da, fighting under the French colonial flag.

In Syria, the presence of French officers supervising armed groups while they were committing crimes against humanity is widely attested.

France then went on to play an extremely complex and dangerous game. In January 2013 - in other words, one month after Laurent Fabius' public support for Al-Qa¯da in Syria - France launched an operation in Mali against the same Al-Qa¯da, provoking the first reaction against its agents infiltrated in Syria.

You, of course, have never heard anything about all that, because although France has democratic institutions, its current policy in the Arab world has never been publicly discussed. In violation of article 35 of the Constitution, it decided to enter into war with Libya and Syria after only a few hours of superficial parliamentary debate - at the most - and without a vote. The French parliamentarians thus discarded their mandate to excercise control over the Executive as far as foreign policy was concerned, apparently believing that this was a private domain of the President, and without real consequence for daily life. However, as anyone can now see, on the contrary, peace and security, one of the four Human and Citizens' Rights >> of 1789 (article 2), depend upon it directly. The worst is yet to come.

In the beginning of 2014, while the liberal US hawks were working on their plan for the transformation of the Islamic Emirate in Iraq and Cham into what was going to become Daesh, France and Turkey transported munitions to Al-Qa¯da so that they could fight the Islamic Emirate '' this point is attested by a document presented to the Security Council on the 14th July 2014 [12]. However, France later joined this secret operation, and participated in the international anti-Daesh Coalition, which, as everyone now knows, contrary to its name, did not bomb Daesh, but delivered weapons to it for a year [13]. The situation evolved further after the signature of the 5+1 agreement with Iran. The United States suddenly turned on the terrorist organisation and pushed it back to Al-Hasakah (Syria) [14]. But it was only in mid-October 2015 '' a month ago '' that France began to fight Daesh. Not to stop the massacres, but to conquer part of the territory it occupies in Syria and Iraq, and install a new colonial state which is to be called Kurdistan >>, even though the Kurdish population will be largely in the minority [15].

In this perspective, France sent its aircraft-carrier '' which has not yet arrived '' to support the Marxist-Leninists of the Kurdish party YPG against its ex-ally Daesh. But what does this polititcal reference mean when the project is to create a colonial state ?.

We are currently witnessing the second reaction. Not from al-Qa¯da in Syria this time, but from Daesh in France, on the instructions od France's unmentionable allies.

Who directs DaeshDaesh is an artificial creation. It is nothing more than the instrument of the policies of several states and multinationals.

Its principal financial resources come from petrol, Afghan drugs '' of which the French have not yet understood the implications on their own territory '' and Levantine antiques. Everyone agrees that the stolen petrol freely crosses Turkey before being sold in Western Europe. Given the quantities involved, there can be no possible doubt about Turkish support for Daesh [16].

Three weeks ago, a spokesperson for the Syrian Arab Army revealed that three planes, respectively chartered by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had exfiltrated Daesh combatants from Syria and taken them to Yemen. Once again, there can be no possible doubt concerning the links between these three states and Daesh, in violation of the pertinent resolutions of the UN Security Council.

Following the first Geneva Conference in June 2012, I explained in depth that a faction within the US state apparatus was waging its own policy, contrary to that of the White House. At first, this conspiracy was directed by the head of the CIA, which was the co-founder of Daesh in 2007 ( The Surge >>) [17], General David Petraeus, until his removal in handcuffs the day after the re-election of President Barack Obama. Then it was the turn of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was prevented by an unfortunate accident >> from completing her mandate during the period of presidential transition. Finally, the combat was continued by ambassador Jeffrey Feltman from his offices at the UNO, and by General John Allen, at the head of the phoney anti-Daesh Coalition. This group, a part of the US deep state >>, which had never ceased from opposing the 5+1 agreement with Iran and fighting the Syrian Arab Republic, maintains its members within the Obama administration. Above all, it can count on the multinational corporations, whose budgets are greater than those of the states themselves, and who can finance their own secret operations. In particular, this is the case of the petrol company Exxon-Mobil (the true owner of Qatar), the investment fund KKR, and the private army Academi (ex-Blackwater).

France has thus become a mercenary state working for these multinationals.

France, object of blackmailOn the 11th November 2015, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared that France was engaged against terrorism [18].

On the 12th November, the Observatoire national de la d(C)linquance et des r(C)ponses p(C)nales (National Observatory for Delinquency and Legal Response) - attached to the Ministry of the Interior '' published a report stating that terrorism has become the second preoccupation of the French people, after unemployment [19].

On the morning of the 13th November, in Nanterre, the Minister for the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, presented a 20-part plan to limit the arms traffic [20].

Clearly, the government was expecting the worst, which implies that France was in negotiation with the organisation that attacked it. France made engagements that it did not respect, and is now certainly the victim of blackmail by the terrorist leaders it has betrayed.

An excercise simulating terrorist attacks was carried out on the very morning of the attack by the hospital emergency services [21]. A co¯ncidence that had already been revealed during the attacks of the 11th September 2001 in New York and Washington, those of the 11th March 2004 in Madrid, and also the 7th July 2005 in London.

Provisional ConclusionThe successive French governments have created alliances with states whose values are opposed to those of the Republic. They have successively engaged in secret wars on their behalf, and then retreated. President Hollande, his private Chief of Staff, General Benoit Puga, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, and Fabius' predecessor Alain Jupp(C), are today the objects of blackmail from which they can not extricate themselves without revealing the mess in which they have implicated their country, even if this exposes them to the High Court of Justice.

On the 28th September, at the tribune of the United Nations, President Putin, addressing the United States and France, exclaimed: I would like to ask those responsible for this situation '' "Are you at least aware of what you have done ?" But I fear that this question will remain unanswered, because these people have not renounced their politicies, which are based on an exaggerated self-confidence and the conviction of their exceptional nature and their impunity >> [22]. Neither the United States nor France listened to him. It is now too late.

Keep in mind The French government has progressively distanced itself from international legality. It has perpetrated political assassinations and supported terrorist actions since at least 2011. The French government has created unnatural alliances with the petrol dictatorships of the Persian Gulf. It is working with a group of US personalities and multinational companies to sabotage the politicies of appeasement advanced by Presidents Obama and Putin. The French government has entered into conflict with some untrustworthy allies. One of these organisations sponsored the attacks in Paris.

[1] Charlie Hebdo : les r(C)v(C)lations de la derni¨re compagne de Charb>>, Thibault Raisse, Le Parisien, 18 octobre 2015.

[2] Selon McClatchy, Mohammed Mehra et les fr¨res Kouachi seraient li(C)s aux services secrets fran§ais >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 9 janvier 2015.

[3] Les armes de Charlie-Hebdo couvertes par le Secret-D(C)fense >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 17 septembre 2015.

[4] Qui a commandit(C) l'attentat contre Charlie Hebdo ? >>, par Thierry Meyssan, R(C)seau Voltaire, 7 janvier 2015.

[5] Charlie Hebdo a bon dos >>, par Thierry Meyssan, R(C)seau Voltaire, 12 janvier 2015.

[6] De quoi ont peur les politiques et les journalistes fran§ais ? >>, par R(C)seau Voltaire, 25 janvier 2015.

[7] Qui est Charlie ? : Sociologie d'une crise religieuse, Emmanuel Todd, Seuil,'Ž 5 mai 2015, 252 p.

[8] 11 mars 2004 Madrid : (C)tait-ce vraiment un attentat islamiste ? >>, Attentats de Madrid : l'hypoth¨se atlantiste >>, par Mathieu Miquel, R(C)seau Voltaire, 11 octobre et 6 novembre 2009.

[9] The Siege, Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark, Penguin, 2013.

[10] Pression militaire et succ¨s diplomatique pour les rebelles syriens >>, par Isabelle Maudraud, Le Monde, 13 d(C)cembre 2012.

[11] Watch the declaration of the ex-President of the Constitutional Council Roland Dumas sur LCP.

[12] Lire l'intervention du repr(C)sentant syrien R(C)solution 2165 et d(C)bats (aide humanitaire en Syrie) >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 14 juillet 2014.

[13] This point is ignored by the Western Press, but has been widely discussed for a year by the Arab and Persian Press. The truth was made clear when fifty analysts from CentCom denounced the lies in the Coalition reports, an internal inquiry was set into motion, and finally, General John Allen was obliged to resign. See, in particular : Stewart, Brennan et Cardillo d(C)noncent les manipulations du Renseignement au Pentagone >> et Le g(C)n(C)ral Allen pr(C)sente sa d(C)mission (Bloomberg) >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 12 et 23 septembre 2015.

[14] La France tente d'entraver le d(C)ploiement militaire russe en Syrie >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 6 septembre 2015.

[15] Les ‰tats-Unis et Isral d(C)butent la colonisation du Nord de la Syrie >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 1er novembre 2015.

[16] More information : Le r´le de la famille Erdoğan au sein de Daesh >>, R(C)seau Voltaire, 26 juillet 2015.

[17] Daesh was initially created in Iraq as part of a plan aimed at stopping the Resistance to the US occupation. To facilitate this plan, the USA created a number of anti-Chiite armed groups '' including the Islamic Emirate in Iraq, the future Daesh >> - then a number of anti-Sunnite groups. Finally, the two groups of the local population forgot about the occupying army and fought each other.

[18] Valls: la France engag(C)e contre le terrorisme>>, AFP et Le Figaro, 11 novembre 2015.

[19] La grande peur du terrorisme>>, Timoth(C)e Boutry, Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, 13 novembre 2015.

[20] Bernard Cazeneuve pr(C)sente un plan contre le trafic d'armes>>, AFP, 13 novembre 2015.

[21] Cf. Declaration by Dr Patrice Pelloux, President of the Association of Emergency Specialists of France, on France Info at 10h26 and on the evening news on France2, 14th November 2015. Comment le Samu s'est pr(C)par(C) aux attentats simultan(C)s de Paris>>, Kira Mitrofanoff, Challenges, 15 novembre 2015.

[22] Discours de Vladimir Poutine la 70¨me Assembl(C)e g(C)n(C)rale de l'Onu >>, par Vladimir Poutine, R(C)seau Voltaire, 28 septembre 2015.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 08:14

'Ž ×× ×—× ×• בפ×××בוק

What's In a NameISIS or 'Daesh' supporters in Syria (Photo: AP) Photo: AP Daesh - short for Dawlat al-Islamiyah f'al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham Photo: Hassan Shaalan

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 08:13

After the Islamic State group, the extremist organization that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, took responsibility for the slaughter in Paris Friday night, many people may be confused about the name of the group, which has several different iterations. The terrorists are known variously as ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic State and Daesh -- so what's the difference?

Islamic State: This is the English version of what the terror group calls itself. It also claims to be a caliphate, which is a state ruled by a caliph, which is Arabic for "successor," meaning successor to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. The last generally acknowledged Muslim caliphate was the Ottoman Empire, which ended in 1923. Many governments and media refuse to use this name because it gives the group legitimacy as a state and a representaive of Islam.

ISIS: The militant group, which began as the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda during the U.S. occupation, gained this name after it invaded Syria in 2013. ISIS is short for "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria," or "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham," which is an old Arabic term for the area.

ISIL: Similar to ISIS, ISIL translates to ''Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.'' The Levant is a geographical term that refers to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean -- Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Jordan. It's the term the U.S. government uses since the "Levant" is apparently a better translation for al-Sham, the Arabic name for the region.

Daesh: This is a term the militant group hates. French President Fran§ois Hollande has used it since the attacks Friday, and first used it in September 2014. It's an Arabic acronym for ''al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham.'' It can sometimes be spelled, DAIISH, Da'esh or Daech, a popular French version. The hacktivist group Anonymous and President Barack Obama have used the term since the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

Thanks to Arabic wordplay, it could also be an insult. ''Depending on how it is conjugated in Arabic, it can mean anything from 'to trample down and crush' to 'a bigot who imposes his view on others,'" Boston Globe writer Zeba Khan reported in October 2014. ISIS threatened ''to cut the tongue of anyone who publicly used the acronym Daesh, instead of referring to the group by its full name,'' the Associated Press wrote in September 2014.

International efforts to stem the flow of funds to the self-described Islamic State group have run into steep challenges. The group is known by several names. Above, an ISIS parade in Syria. Reuters

Follow me on Twitter@mariamzzarella

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 08:07

Whistleblowers are always accused of helping America's enemies (top Nixon aides accused Daniel Ellsberg of being a Soviet spy and causing the deaths of Americans with his leak); it's just the tactical playbook that's automatically used. So it's of course unsurprising that ever since Edward Snowden's whistleblowing enabled newspapers around the world to report on secretly implemented programs of mass surveillance, he has been accused by ''officials'' and their various media allies of Helping The Terrorists'.

Still, I was a bit surprised just by how quickly and blatantly '-- how shamelessly '-- some of them jumped to exploit the emotions prompted by the carnage in France to blame Snowden: doing so literally as the bodies still lay on the streets of Paris. At first, the tawdry exploiters were the likes of crazed ex-intelligence officials (former CIA chief James Woolsey, who once said Snowden ''should be hanged by his neck until he is dead'' and now has deep ties to private NSA contractors, along with Iran''obsessed Robert Baer); former Bush/Cheney apparatchiks (ex-White House spokesperson and current Fox personality Dana Perino); right-wing polemicists fired from BuzzFeed for plagiarism; and obscure Fox News comedians (Perino's co-host). So it was worth ignoring save for the occasional Twitter retort.

But now we've entered the inevitable ''U.S. Officials Say'' stage of the ''reporting'' on the Paris attack '-- i.e., journalists mindlessly and uncritically repeat whatever U.S. officials whisper in their ear about what happened. So now credible news sites are regurgitating the claim that the Paris Terrorists were enabled by Snowden leaks '-- based on no evidence or specific proof of any kind, needless to say, but just the unverified, obviously self-serving assertions of government officials. But much of the U.S. media loves to repeat rather than scrutinize what government officials tell them to say. So now this accusation has become widespread and is thus worth examining with just some of the actual evidence.

One key premise here seems to be that prior to the Snowden reporting, The Terrorists helpfully and stupidly used telephones and unencrypted emails to plot, so Western governments were able to track their plotting and disrupt at least large-scale attacks. That would come as a massive surprise to the victims of the attacks of 2002 in Bali, 2004 in Madrid, 2005 in London, 2008 in Mumbai, and April 2013 at the Boston Marathon. How did the multiple perpetrators of those well-coordinated attacks '-- all of which were carried out prior to Snowden's June 2013 revelations '-- hide their communications from detection?

This is a glaring case where propagandists can't keep their stories straight. The implicit premise of this accusation is that The Terrorists didn't know to avoid telephones or how to use effective encryption until Snowden came along and told them. Yet we've been warned for years and years before Snowden that The Terrorists are so diabolical and sophisticated that they engage in all sorts of complex techniques to evade electronic surveillance.

By itself, the glorious mythology of How the U.S. Tracked Osama bin Laden should make anyone embarrassed to make these claims. After all, the central premise of that storyline is that bin Laden only used trusted couriers to communicate because al Qaeda knew for decades to avoid electronic means of communication because the U.S. and others could spy on those communications. Remember all that? Zero Dark Thirty and the ''harsh but effective'' interrogation of bin Laden's ''official messenger''?

Any terrorist capable of tying his own shoe '-- let alone carrying out a significant attack '-- has known for decades that speaking on open telephone and internet lines was to be avoided due to U.S. surveillance. As one Twitter commentator put it yesterday when mocking this new It's-Snowden's-Fault game: ''Dude, the drug dealers from the Wire knew not to use cell phones.''

The Snowden revelations weren't significant because they told The Terrorists their communications were being monitored; everyone '-- especially The Terrorists '-- has known that forever. The revelations were significant because they told the world that the NSA and its allies were collecting everyone else's internet communications and activities.

The evidence proving this '-- that The Terrorists have been successfully using sophisticated encryption and other surveillance-avoidance methods for many years prior to Snowden '-- is so overwhelming that nobody should be willing to claim otherwise with a straight face. As but one of countless examples, here's a USA Today article fromFebruary 2001 '-- more than 12 years before anyone knew the name ''Edward Snowden'' '-- warning that al Qaeda was able to ''outfox law enforcement'' by hiding its communications behind sophisticated internet encryption:

The Christian Science Monitorsimilarly reported on February 1, 2001, that ''the head of the U.S. National Security Agency has publicly complained that al Qaeda's sophisticated use of the internet and encryption techniques have defied Western eavesdropping attempts.''

After 9/11, we were constantly told about how wily and advanced The Terrorists were when it came to hiding their communications from us. One scary graphic from the November 2001 issue of Network World laid it out this way:

All the way back in the mid-1990s, the Clinton administration exploited the fears prompted by Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City attack to demand backdoor access to all internet communications. This is what then-FBI Director Louis Freeh told the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 1997 '-- almost 20 years ago:

The looming spectre of the widespread use of robust, virtually uncrackable encryption is one of the most difficult problems confronting law enforcement as the next century approaches. At stake are some of our most valuable and reliable investigative techniques, and the public safety of our citizens. We believe that unless a balanced approach to encryption is adopted that includes a viable key management infrastructure, the ability of law enforcement to investigate and sometimes prevent the most serious crimes and terrorism will be severely impaired. Our national security will also be jeopardized.

How dumb do they think people are to count on them forgetting all of this, and to believe now that The Terrorists only learned to avoid telephones and use encryption once Snowden came along? Ironically, the Snowden archive itself is full of documents from NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, expressing deep concern that they cannot penetrate the communications of Terrorists because of how sophisticated their surveillance-avoidance methods are (obviously, those documents pre-date Snowden's public disclosures).

As but one example, the GCHQ files contain what the agency calls a ''Jihadist Handbook'' of security measures, dated 2003, that instructs terror operatives in the use of sophisticated surveillance-avoidance techniques that '-- as we noted when we first reported it '-- are very similar to what GCHQ still tells its own operatives to use:

In light of all this, how can ''officials'' and their media stenographers persist in trying to convince people of such a blatant, easily disproven falsehood: namely, that Terrorists learned to hide their communications from Snowden's revelations? They do it because of how many benefits there are from swindling people to believe this.

To begin with, U.S officials are eager here to demonize far more than just Snowden. They want to demonize encryption generally as well as any companies that offer it. Indeed, as these media accounts show, they've been trying for two decades to equate the use of encryption '-- anything that keeps them out of people's private online communications '-- with aiding and abetting The Terrorists. It's not just Snowden but also their own long-time Surveillance State partners '-- particular Apple and Google '-- who are now being depicted as Terrorist Lovers for enabling people to have privacy on the internet through encryption products.

As I documented last November, the key tactic of American and British officials is to wage a P.R. war against Silicon Valley companies who offer encryption by accusing them of Helping The Terrorists. Last September, FBI Director James Comey actually said, ''What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to hold themselves beyond the law,'' while the New York Times gave anonymity in that article to a security official to link the new iPhone 6 to terrorism. The head of GCHQ called Apple and Google ''the command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals'' as part of what the New York Timescalled ''a campaign by intelligence services in Britain and the United States against pressure to rein in their digital surveillance after disclosures by the American former contractor Edward J. Snowden.''

Then there's the blame-shifting benefit. For most major terror attacks, the perpetrators were either known to Western security agencies or they had ample reason to watch them. All three perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo massacre ''were known to French authorities,'' as was the thwarted train attacker in July and at least one of the Paris attackers. These agencies receive billions and billions of dollars every year and radical powers, all in the name of surveilling Bad People and stopping attacks.

So when they fail in their ostensible duty, and people die because of that failure, it's a natural instinct to blame others: Don't look to us; it's Snowden's fault, or the fault of Apple, or the fault of journalists, or the fault of encryption designers, or anyone's fault other than ours. If you're a security agency after a successful Terror attack, you want everyone looking elsewhere, finding all sorts of culprits other than those responsible for stopping such attacks.

Above all, there's the desperation to prevent people from asking how and why ISIS was able to spring up seemingly out of nowhere and be so powerful, able to blow up a Russian passenger plane, a market in Beirut, and the streets of Paris in a single week. That's the one question Western officials are most desperate not to be asked, so directing people's ire to Edward Snowden and Apple is beneficial in the extreme.

The origins of ISIS are not even in dispute. The Washington Postput it simply: ''almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes.'' Even Tony Blair '-- Tony Blair '-- admits that there'd be no ISIS without the invasion of Iraq: '''I think there are elements of truth in that,' he said when asked whether the Iraq invasion had been the 'principal cause' of the rise of ISIS.'' As The New Yorker's John Cassidy put it in August:By destroying the Iraqi state and setting off reverberations across the region that, ultimately, led to a civil war in Syria, the 2003 invasion created the conditions in which a movement like ISIS could thrive. And, by turning public opinion in the United States and other Western countries against anything that even suggests a prolonged military involvement in the Middle East, the war effectively precluded the possibility of a large-scale multinational effort to smash the self-styled caliphate.

Then there's the related question of how ISIS has become so well-armed and powerful. There are many causes, but a leading one is the role played by the U.S. and its ''allies in the region'' (i.e., Gulf tyrannies) in arming them, unwittingly or (in the case of its ''allies in the region'') otherwise, by dumping weapons and money into the region with little regard to where they go (even U.S. officials openly acknowledge that their own allies have funded ISIS). But the U.S.'s own once-secret documents strongly suggest U.S. complicity as well, albeit inadvertent, in the rise of ISIS, as powerfully demonstrated by this extraordinary four-minute clip of Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan with Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency:

Given all this, is there any mystery why ''U.S. officials'' and the military-intelligence regime, let alone Iraq War-advocating hacks like Jim Woolsey and Dana Perino, are desperate to shift blame away from themselves for ISIS and terror attacks and onto Edward Snowden, journalism about surveillance, or encryption-providing tech companies? Wouldn't you if you were them? Imagine simultaneously devoting all your efforts to depicting ISIS as the Greatest and Most Evil Threat Ever, while knowing the vital role you played in its genesis and growth.

The clear, overwhelming evidence '-- compiled above '-- demonstrates how much deceit their blame-shifting accusations require. But the more important point of inquiry is to ask why they are so eager to ensure that everyone but themselves receives scrutiny for what is happening. The answer to that question is equally clear, and disturbing in the extreme.

Research: Margot Williams

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 07:50

CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday that officials had "strategic warning" about the terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed the lives of more than 130 and injured hundreds more, also saying that Islamic State likely has more operations in the pipeline.

"It's not a surprise this attack was carried out, from the standpoint of we did have strategic warning," Brennan said at a Center for Strategic & International Studies forum. "We knew that these plans or plotting by ISIL was underway looking at Europe in particular as a venue for carrying out these attacks."

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Brennan did not assert that the CIA or the West more broadly had specific indications about the shootings and suicide bombings in Paris, but he did warn that the Friday attacks were not likely a "one-off event."

"This is something that was deliberately and carefully planned over the course I think of several months," he said. "I would anticipate that this is not the only operation ISIL has in the pipeline'....it's not going to content itself with violence inside of the Syrian and Iraqi borders."

The blunt comments from Brennan come as the Islamic State in a new video on Monday threatened all countries taking part in airstrikes against the terrorist group, specifically saying Washington could be a target, just as Paris was last Friday.

"We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day God willing, like France's and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington," a man in the video said, according to Reuters, which could not verify the video's authenticity.

The video comes hours after U.S. warplanes bombed 116 oil trucks in eastern Syria, in a new effort to cut off the group's ability to transport crude oil that it has been producing in the country.

Brennan also talked about how the global intelligence community has been hamstrung to a degree after new privacy protections were put in place in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations on government surveillance.

"In the past several years, because of a number of unauthorized disclosures and a lot of handwringing over the government's role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists, there have been some policy and legal and other actions that are taken that make our ability collectively, internationally to find these terrorists much more challenging," he said. "I do hope that this is going to be a wake-up call particularly in areas of Europe where I think there has been a misrepresentation of what the intelligence security services are doing by some quarters that are designed to undercut those capabilities."

In another apparent allusion to the Snowden leaks, Brennan claimed that terrorist operatives have "gone to school" recently on techniques that render their communications more difficult to intercept. "There are a lot of technological capabilities that are available right now that make it exceptionally difficult both technically as well as legally for intelligence security services to have insight that they need to uncover it," he said.

Brennan's comments come after Michael Morell, former deputy CIA director under Obama, had some sharp words over the weekend for the administration's approach to confronting Islamic State. "I think it's now crystal clear to us that our strategy, our policy vis- -vis ISIS is not working and it's time to look at something else," Morell told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 07:49

Well, that didn't take long:

As Paris reels from terrorist attacks that have claimed at least 128 lives, fierce blame for the carnage is being directed toward American whistleblower Edward Snowden and the spread of strong encryption catalyzed by his actions.

Now the Paris attacks are being used an excuse to demand backdoors.

CIA Director John Brennan chimed in, too.

Of course, this was planned all along. From September:

Privately, law enforcement officials have acknowledged that prospects for congressional action this year are remote. Although "the legislative environment is very hostile today," the intelligence community's top lawyer, Robert S. Litt, said to colleagues in an August e-mail, which was obtained by The Post, "it could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement."

There is value, he said, in "keeping our options open for such a situation."

I was going to write a definitive refutation to the meme that it's all Snowden's fault, but Glenn Greenwald beat me to it.

EDITED TO ADD: It wasn't fair for me to characterize Ben Wittes's Lawfare post as agitating for back doors. I apologize.

Better links are thesetwoNew York Times stories.

Tags: back doors, cryptography, Edward Snowden, France, terrorism

Posted on November 16, 2015 at 2:39 PM ' 56 Comments

Photo of Bruce Schneier by Per Ervland.

Schneier on Security is a personal website. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Resilient Systems, Inc.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 07:35

About WISEAlso in this sectionWhat is WISE?The Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) is a global program, social network and grassroots social justice movement led by Muslim women. WISE is empowering Muslim women to fully participate in their communities and nations and amplifying their collective voices. Muslim women have enjoyed a rich legacy of excellence in their roles as leaders, professionals, caregivers and activists, and Islamic history is an impressive record of their remarkable contributions as teachers and scholars of sacred text and law. WISE represents an authoritative Muslim women's movement to reclaim this legacy.

Who sponsors WISE?WISE is a program of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening an authentic expression of Islam through interfaith collaboration, youth and women's empowerment, and arts and cultural exchange.

Who supports WISE?MDG3 FUNDUNFPAThe Sister FundThe Rockefeller Brothers FundHenry Luce FoundationWhat is the need for WISE?Gender-based inequality is a global human rights issue that transcends culture, religion and socio-economic status. Though such problems as domestic violence, inadequate access to technology, poor education, and lack of economic opportunity are widespread, Muslim women in particular confront the limitations of discrimination and inequality. In fact, 20 of the 25 lowest-ranking countries on the World Economic Forum's 2010 Gender Gap Index, which ranks women's participation in society, are Muslim-majority countries. Although these women's lives are influenced by a complex interaction of religious, cultural, social, economic, political and other factors, Islam wields enormous influence, and it is drawn upon to both empower and oppress women. Thus, reframing women's rights within an Islamic framework and approaching the numerous factors that disempower women must be addressed directly and collectively.

What is our mission? TopTo build a cohesive, global movement of Muslim women that will reclaim women's rights in Islam, enabling them to make dignified choices and fully participate in creating just and flourishing societies.

How did WISE start?TopIn November 2006, ASMA launched WISE at a historic conference in New York City. As these 150 leading Muslim women scholars, activists, artists and religious and civil society leaders '' representing over 25 countries '' joined together to develop a holistic and comprehensive vision for improving the position of Muslim women around the globe, WISE was born. Since this inaugural conference, WISE has energized a diverse and unified movement, soliciting participation from across religions and embracing a wide spectrum of ideologies, professions and nationalities.

Who is a WISE woman? TopWomen exhibiting leadership in their communities;

Women creating positive social change and uplifting their community through service, education and media, health and social services, philanthropy and spiritual growth;

Women committed to empowering Muslim women to realize their full potential as individuals and in relationship to family, community, nation and globe;

Women using their Islamic faith as a justification and inspiration for Muslim women's empowerment;

Women dedicated to building a global change movement through the open exchange of diverse perspectives.

What is the WISE Compact?TopThe WISE Compact is a cornerstone of the WISE initiative, an encapsulation of its principles and mission. The Compact ties together the WISE network, serving as a common manifesto that guides each of the WISE women in their individual work.

The Compact is being translated into Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Urdu, Dari and Bahasa and disseminated in multiple formats. It will be presented and discussed at the 2009 conference, and participants will be asked for their endorsements. The participants also will be queried about their suggestions for activating the WISE Compact and documenting its operationalization at the global, regional, country and local levels.

Read the WISE Compact here and learn about related resources.

Join the Movement. Sign the Compact.

Why is WISE unique?TopAs an initiative with both global scale and deep roots in Muslim communities throughout the world, WISE is generating critical momentum for change.

The problems and challenges facing Muslim women across the globe are vast and multi-various. Consequently, the more organizations dedicated to creating change, the more powerful this momentum can become. The WISE program has developed a collaborative strategy that compliments organizations working to advancing the position of Muslim women. It fosters collaboration and supports the diverse work of Muslim women leaders worldwide, building capacity for collective action.

Nevertheless, all WISE programs are without precedent in scope, scale and mission. Holistic and comprehensive, WISE is transforming the position of Muslim women in innumerable contexts from within the Islamic faith and traditions. The initiative is unique in the following key ways:

WISE is authentic to the Islamic tradition. Muslim women's movements remain hampered by their inability or unwillingness to confront destructive religious interpretations. Activists have tended to ignore or avoid religion, thus failing to mobilize large portions of their grassroots constituencies who draw upon religion within their daily lives. WISE, in contrast, offers a Muslim voice. It directly addresses the need for a Muslim women's movement with religious legitimacy and authenticity. It recognizes the importance of religion in the day-to-day lives of women, both promoting Islamic arguments to demand the human rights of women and facilitating the dissemination of these arguments to the larger WISE network.

WISE is comprehensive and holistic. Though numerous organizations have wrestled with Muslim women's disempowerment, rarely have they taken into account the various factors in a holistic manner. Due to a lack of context-specific knowledge, these approaches typically have employed a distinctly Western framework for understanding the problem, relying exclusively on measurements of economic status, educational level, health care or political participation. WISE approaches change from a holistic perspective that addresses the many interrelated factors that contribute to gender-based inequality.

WISE is structured as a global and inclusive movement. While Muslim women's advocacy efforts have often fragmented, WISE breaks ground as an inclusive initiative. Drawing in women from across a wide spectrum of ideologies, professions and nationalities, it has fostered cooperation amongst divergent and sometimes opposing groups. Facilitated by this national, ideological and professional diversity, WISE women have united behind Islamic ideals and the commitment to creating positive, sustainable and much-needed change. Furthermore, WISE utilizes a top-down and bottom-up approach that is simultaneously global and grassroots, insuring direct access to local contexts via its network and local chapters.

How is WISE creating change? TopBy creating the infrastructure and space for a diverse group of Muslim women to join together, WISE leads collective efforts to challenge distorted interpretations of Islam, increase women's social and economic self-determination, and amplify women's voices at all levels of political, religious and social discourse. The WISE program approaches change in a holistic manner through four key strategies: communications, interpretation, philanthropy and collaboration.

Change through CommunicationsChange must be created through effective communications, both within the global WISE network and without, to the media and larger public. In response, WISE has developed a state-of-the-art Muslim women's portal. No longer will Muslim women be defined by others. This comprehensive portal will serve as a clearinghouse of all information relating to Muslim women (past and present) and Muslim women's activism, as well as a tool for connecting members of the global WISE network.

Change through ActionChange must be created through community organizing and mobilizing a global movement of Muslim women for social justice. Guided by the principles of the WISE Compact and aided by the various tools and resources of the program, the WISE community of leading Muslim women scholars, activists, artists, civil society and spiritual leaders and their respective constituents across the world are at the forefront of creating change.

Change through CollaborationChange must be created through strategic partnerships, including with men and women of other faiths. WISE has fostered a number of key collaborative relationships with individuals, institutions and organizations throughout the globe (including the Aspen Institute, Naropa University, and many more) and in diverse sectors including offering a range of trainings; capacity-building activities and consultative services work in targeted countries.

Change through InterpretationChange must be created through the interpretation (and reinterpretation) of key Islamic texts. WISE has created a global Muslim women's Shura Council of Muslim women scholars and activists. Authentic to Islam and as an agent of the 21st century, this Council promotes women's rights within an Islamic framework through education and advocacy activities.

What services does WISE offer? TopThe WISE program builds on the collective strengths, talents, expertise and experiences of its members: leading women activists, scholars, politicians, civil society leaders, journalists, philanthropists, spiritual leaders and artists from around the globe. It fosters collaboration and supports the diverse work of these Muslim women leaders worldwide. Building capacity for collective action, its effectiveness rests on the following components:

Convenings to allow a diverse spectrum of participants to strategize on the most critical issues facing Muslim women, enable the sharing of best practices and facilitate partnerships between otherwise fragmented movements. View 2009 Conference information.Communications to leverage digital information on Muslim women and Islam and support proactive information exchange, first and foremost of WISE members, but also community leaders, policymakers, media representatives, educators and students.Consultation services to offer strategic support, training and guidance for building, operating and sustaining the WISE's global network, as well as country and local networks. View 'Ask a WISE woman' request form.Common learning to provide accessible knowledge and the sharing of critical strategies, enabling Muslim women around the globe to benefit from each other's experiences and expertise. View resources.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:46

Georgetown University will rename two buildings named for school presidents who organized the sale of Jesuit-owned slaves to help pay off campus debt in the 1830s, the university's president announced.

Mulledy Hall, a new student dormitory named for the president who authorized the sale of about 272 slaves to a Louisiana plantation owner in 1838, will be called Freedom Hall until a permanent name is chosen.

McSherry Hall, which houses a meditation center and was named for another university president who served as an adviser on the slave sale, will be called Remembrance Hall until it is renamed.

In a letter e-mailed to the Georgetown community Saturday evening, President John J. DeGioia said he was changing the names based on a recommendation he received Friday from his Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation. DeGioia appointed the panel of 16 administrators, faculty and students in September to examine slavery­-related sites on campus.

''As a university,'' DeGioia wrote, ''we are a place where conversations are convened and dialogue is encouraged, even on topics that may be difficult.''

The announcement came amid weeks of heightened racial tensions at some U.S. universities, including a demonstration Thursday in Georgetown's Red Square. A reported 250 Georgetown students and other activists gathered to show solidarity with students protesting the failure of administrators at the University of Missouri and Yale University to take complaints about racism and racial incidents on their campuses seriously.

[Missouri's impact is felt on campuses nationwide]

At the Georgetown demonstration, student leaders announced a sit-in outside DeGioia's office Friday morning to protest the two building names. About 50 people sat outside DeGioia's office at the peak of the sit-in Friday afternoon, doing homework on their laptops and eating pizza sent by supportive alumni, organizers said.

Queen Adesuyi, a Georgetown senior who helped organize the demonstration and sit-in, said activists ''used the momentum'' from student protests on other campuses to build support for the name changes. She said many protesters, who first called for the name change in August, believed DeGioia had appointed the working group to pacify them while stalling on a decision.

''We recognized we can't be complacent anymore,'' said Adesuyi, who is from the Bronx. ''The fact that the sale [of slaves] helped Georgetown to be the prestigious school it is now is an important part of our history that's important to recognize. It's a history not being told.''

As communities across the country debate the future of monuments and flags commemorating the Confederacy, universities have begun taking closer looks at their own histories. Brown University became an early leader in 2006, when a panel appointed by Brown's president found that the school had benefited from the slave trade. In 2007, the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors formally expressed regret for the fact that slaves had helped build the Rotunda and other buildings.

[Oscar winners work to strip Virginia school's Confederate name]

In his book ''Ebony & Ivy,'' Craig Steven Wilder, a history professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writes about numerous other universities, including Harvard University and Dartmouth College, where slaves were owned by university presidents or served faculty and students.

At Georgetown, most students learned about the slavery ties of the Mulledy Hall name in August, when DeGioia wrote to students that the building, which had been vacant for a decade, was being reopened as a newly renovated dorm. The building also had been known as ''FJR,'' or the ''Former Jesuit Residence.''

DeGioia noted that the building had been named for former president Thomas F. Mulledy, a Jesuit priest who, after stepping down as university president, had organized the sale of 272 slaves owned by the Society of Jesus in Maryland. DeGioia wrote that he would soon appoint a panel to examine Mulledy's and the university's role in slavery.

David J. Collins, a Jesuit priest and Georgetown history professor who chaired the working group, said Mulledy used the proceeds from the slave sale to pay off debt the university had incurred from new building. He said the sale was controversial because some Jesuits at the time believed the slaves should have been freed, and Mulledy ignored instructions from church officials to keep slave families together.

William McSherry, another former university president, also had sold off some Jesuit-owned slaves before Mulledy's larger sale and advised Mulledy in the 1838 sale, Collins said.

Collins, who teaches Jesuit history to Jesuits in training, said other priests and administrators had spoken to him over the past couple of years about how the university should handle Mulledy's ties to slavery. He said the issue gained traction after DeGioia raised it in his August letter.

Collins said the working group came to ''an easy consensus'' that the building names should be changed. He said the panel will continue to discuss how the university should mark its role in slavery.

''We want people to think broadly and thoughtfully about how we want to memorialize this chapter in our history,'' he said.

The student activists say they also want the university to pay reparations by establishing an endowment that, accounting for inflation, would match what the university made from the slave sale. The money, they said, should provide scholarships or a professorship based on race issues.

Some student activists also say Mulledy Hall's new name should reflect their social media hashtag: ''BuiltOn272.''

''A lot of folks don't think we should be honoring someone who sold people,'' said Crystal Walker, a Georgetown senior from Oklahoma City who demonstrated and served on the working group. ''The name should honor them.''

Katherine Shaver is a transportation and development reporter. She joined The Washington Post in 1997 and has covered crime, courts, education and local government but most prefers writing about how people get '-- or don't get '-- around the Washington region.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:43

The U.S. spread about $35 billion in economic aid across 142 countries last year. In some cases, where it went may come as a surprise. In others, not so much.

Cost-estimating website HowMuch.net put the figures in perspective by using the numbers to create a map showing the relative size of each country by the amount they received. The color indicates gross domestic product per capita. The map includes the top 40 by total aid sent, along with 37 others, such as Portugal and Malta, just to show geographic diversity.

Israel is the clear leader with $3.1 billion, which was used for military financing. Egypt was next with $1.5 billion, most of that also used to fund military activity. Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan round out the top five, and the bulk of the money there was used for economic development, according to government data. In total, a quarter of the funds went to these countries.

Breaking down the $35 billion by category, $8.4 billion (24%) went toward global health programs, $5.9 billion for military, $4.6 billion for economic support and $2.5 billion for development assistance.

All told, 76% of the world's countries received financial help from the U.S. last year, most of that taking place within Africa and the Near East.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:33

Newsweek reports Hacker Group Anonymous Announces 'Biggest Operation' Against ISIS After Paris Attacks.Hacker group Anonymous declared "total war" on the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group on Sunday following the wave of attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people and left dozens more in a critical condition.

A masked, French-speaking figure with a distorted voice is shown reading a statement from the group in the two-minute-long YouTube video [In French].

"War is declared. Get prepared," the masked figure says in the video in reference to ISIS. "The French people are stronger than you and will come out of this atrocity even stronger. Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go. We will launch the biggest operation ever against you."

The escalation in Anonymous's operation against ISIS comes after at least seven suspected attackers carried out gun and bomb attacks against a number of civilian targets across the French capital, leaving 352 wounded and at least 99 in a critical condition. French police are continuing a manhunt for a man they believe took part in the attacks, identified as 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam.

Anonymous has targeted ISIS for a number of months, revealing the Twitter accounts of ISIS members and hacking a number of the group's sites. U.S. magazine Foreign Policy estimates that the group has dismantled at least 149 of the extremist group's affiliated websites, flagged approximately 101,000 Twitter accounts and nearly 6,000 propaganda videos.

Their campaign against ISIS began after the extremist group's cyber wing hacked the Twitter accounts of U.S. CENTCOM and Newsweek, in January and February respectively, and the radical Islamist attacks on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January.

Is Anonymous doing more for security than the NSA?Given the NSA's data gathering efforts are a clear constitutional violation of our right to privacy, and given the NSA's actual results in combating terrorism appear to be useless if not outright counterproductive for security purposes, the answer seems to be "yes".

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:28

Mass casualty terror attacks seem to have a strange side effect of sending the leftist Twitterati into a spin, leaving them totally off-note and publishing inappropriate, tone-deaf nonsense. Salon was dishing up family size portions of it almost immediately, rushing out a Saturday editorial linking Islamist murder in Paris with the American right and Fox news and #BlackLivesMatter.

No doubt many will have been upset that Al Gore's live podcast about climate change from the top of the Eiffel Tower had to be cancelled because of the attacks. Keen not to let this incredibly important narrative be lost in the panic and stress of terrorism, the French Huffington Post have stepped up to the mark with an article they considered so important it has now been ported to the U.S. site:

''Certain people have perhaps been thinking, after the immense shock of the attacks of November 13, that the only thing that matters from now on, as a response to terrorism, is a security reinforcement, and of course, a reexamination of our priorities'' since ISIS has declared war on us all.

''However, people forget that the war that's been declared on us is also psychological. The report released by ISIS to claim the massacre in Paris uses all the tools of conditioning and psychological manipulation: a turning of tables, presenting the Islamic State as a victim instead of an assassin, while promising to continue to spread terror, and criticizing policy makers for creating internal divisions'' a criticism intended to bring about self-doubt.

''Our first response should be to understand this psychological tactic, so that we don't allow them to win. No, we do not have to be guilt-tripped into fighting these barbaric groups that slit throats, rape, torture and kill innocent civilians in the most cowardly ways possible. No, our values are strong enough to refuse to sink to their level, and instead, to turn towards reinforcing national unity against their aggression. No, we do not doubt that enlightenment and democratic progress are strong enough to stand up to such behavior, which is sending us back to prehistoric times. No, we are not afraid, and it's because we have no doubt that we will continue to live as we choose, and to defend the policies that we believe to be essential.

''Amongst these is the climate change issue, which will determine, in the long term, the survival of mankind, and, in the short term, the demographic balance. Because, contrary to what many people would say ''especially those who are excited about averting the dangers that an agreement on climate change may pose for them'' there are definitely several undeniable links between these barbaric and fascist acts by radical Islamists and the climate''.

Read the rest at the Huffington Post.

Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter:or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:25

A COMPUTER glitch that grounded flights at two Paris airports has been traced to air traffic control software that has not been updated since 1992.

An aviation engineering expert has told Le Canard Enchain(C) that such a glitch could reoccur during the UN Conference on Climate Change which is due to take place in the capital on November 30 to December 11.

After the discovery of a glitch in the DECOR system which communicates weather information to pilots and runs on Windows 3.1 there will not be enough time to overhaul the system ahead of the conference, when hundreds of world leaders are expected to arrive.

On November 7 a software fault prevented air traffic controllers at Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports from relaying information about visual distances to pilots as fog began to settle.

Flights were grounded for half an hour before being progressively restored.

"The tools used by A(C)roports de Paris controllers run on four different operating systems, that are all between 10 and 20 years old," said the secretary general of France's UNSA-IESSA air traffic controller union Alexandre Fiacre.

Mr Fiacre said that finding spare parts for the ageing machines was becoming increasingly difficult, as was employing staff who understood how they worked.

France's transport minister told Le Canard Encha®n(C) that "equipment will be upgraded by 2017."

France is not the only country facing this problem.

In December 2014, a software failure closed the skies over London for more than half an hour and last August a computer glitch resulted in diversions and delays for hundreds of flights and the closure of skies above north-east America.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:23

37 year-old accountant Simon Williams is probably an ISIS sympathiser after friends noted he has yet to change his profile pic to that of a tricolore.

Friends of Williams claim that despite having 48 hours in which to update his profile picture to show his support for the victims of the Parisian attacks, he has staunchly remained anti-tricolore.

One of Williams' colleagues told us, ''At this stage we haven't been able to determine if his refusal to support the French victims is because he hates French people, or because he loves ISIS '' but it can only be one of those reasons, nothing else.''

''If you want to defeat ISIS, change you profile picture '' it is the only way to beat them.''

''Why he would be so brazen about his decision not to have a tricolore profile picture, I have no idea '' but then again how are we supposed to understand the mind of these terrorist types?''

''I know that the whole Da'esh / ISIS situation is a complicated one, with nuances and details most people don't understand, but clearly if you don't do the same as me then you don't care about ISIS killing people and want them to win.''

We approached Williams for an explanation of his Facebook profile picture and why he is apparently supporting Da'esh.

He told us, ''I've been away all weekend, Jesus.''

Tweet

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:21

A profile image from a Telegraph-encrypted social media channel called "Be a Lone Wolf" has the caption, "Lone Wolves: Soon [Will Be] My Turn."

The investigation into last Friday's coordinated terrorist attacks has quickly turned up evidence that members of the Islamic State (ISIS) communicated with the attackers from Syria using encrypted communications, according to French officials.

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said in an interview on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, "I think what we're going to learn is that these guys are communicating via these encrypted apps, this commercial encryption which is very difficult or nearly impossible for governments to break, and the producers of which don't produce the keys necessary for law enforcement to read the encrypted messages."

The use of encrypted communications by ISIS has prompted various former intelligence officials and media analysts to blame NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for tipping off terrorist organizations to intelligence agencies' surveillance capabilities and for their "going dark" with their communications. Former CIA Director James Woolsey said in multiple interviews that former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden "has blood on his hands," and the changes made by the Obama administration to surveillance as a result of the Snowden leaks and the changes that terrorists made in communicating with each other based on the leaks had led directly to the inability of the intelligence community in the US and in France to stop the Paris attacks from happening.

That blame seems a bit far-fetched, given that terrorist organizations have been using encryption of various sorts for more than 15 years at least. And additional details shared by officials since the attack suggest that metadata from the encrypted communications provided early warning that an attack in France was imminent. US intelligence officials warned the French government nearly two months ago that ISIS was planning an attack in France. The French Air Force struck targets in Raqqa, Syria'--ISIS' proclaimed capital'--on October 8, based on that intelligence, in an attempt to take out those planning and coordinating the attacks.

But while the use of encrypted "apps" to communicate may not have entirely screened the operation from the eyes of intelligence organizations, it may have had an impact on authorities' ability to act more decisively to prevent the attacks in Paris, which left 129 dead and hundreds more wounded. And that may spur another round of calls from US intelligence and law enforcement officials for restrictions on encryption without assured law enforcement access.

It's been known for some time that terror organizations use cryptography of various sorts. Since the late 1990s, Al Qaeda has used various forms of encryption to hide files on websites for dissemination, as well as using encrypted or obfuscated files carried on CDs or USB drives by couriers. The organization has heavily used steganography to conceal electronic documents'--even files within pornographic videos on websites'--rather than relying on e-mail, and has used the technique since before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

So the placing of blame on Snowden for terrorists using some of the most widely recognized pieces of operational security tradecraft seems a bit outlandish. But the propagation of free, end-to-end encrypted communications applications such as WhatsApp, Signal, RedPhone, Wickr, and Telegram have made it easier to encrypt communications and anonymize the recipient of the messages.

ISIS is known to use Telegram, an ephemeral messaging service created by Vkontakte creator Pavel Durov. Telegram allows for the creation of "channels" that can be used to broadcast messages and hold group conversations with up to 200 recipients. In October, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported that both ISIS and Al Qaeda had created several channels on Telegram for secure communications to share files securely, including "tutorials on manufacturing weapons and launching cyberattacks, calls for targeted killing and lone-wolf attacks, and more," wrote MEMRI research fellow M. Khayat.

These chat applications aren't necessarily foolproof in maintaining operational security. In June, a group of alleged Chechen jihadists operating in Belgium were caught in part because WhatsApp had not yet fully implemented end-to-end encryption'--the encryption libraries used at the time were not supported on Apple iOS devices. And even in situations where end-to-end encryption is available, intelligence agencies can use techniques like traffic analysis to attempt to identify the participants in an encrypted conversation over some messaging tools.

The Paris attacks will likely be used to revive calls by government officials, including FBI Director James Comey, for "golden key" backdoors into encrypted communications tools. That demand had been largely dropped by Comey after he cited "deep cynicism" about the government's need for access to encryption keys from the technology community. But even if the US government were to press forward a demand for companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google to provide a way to tap into message traffic, that would do little to prevent the use of existing peer-to-peer encryption and other encrypted social media tools by terror organizations.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:20

AP Photo

By Josh Gerstein

11/16/15 05:37 PM EST

Updated 11/16/15 06:03 PM EST

A federal appeals court has granted a stay that will allow a controversial National Security Agency telephone surveillance program to continue through its planned end on November 29.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order Monday afternoon without offering any explanation beyond saying that the government had "satisified the requirements for a stay pending appeal."

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon issued an injunction last week ordering NSA to stop collecting the telephone data of California lawyer J.J. Little and his legal practice. The judge had previously found the anti-terrorism phone-records program appeared to violate the Constitution by collecting metadata on calls of people not suspected of any crime.

Conservative lawyer Larry Klayman, who brought the lawsuit which led to the injunction, said Monday he plans to ask the full bench of the D.C. Circuit to overturn the stay granted Monday by a three-judge panel. If that fails, he said, he plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the D.C. Circuit's action and effectively require the NSA data-gathering program to shut down.

"We're going to go to Supreme Court and ask them to lift that stay," Klayman said. "It's important the Supreme Court entertain this because as Judge Leon pointed out, the D.C. Circuit sat on this case [at an earlier stage] for almost two years. It's unconscionable they would now stay it again."

Asked if the terrorist attacks Friday night in Paris may have made some judges reluctant to interfere with government surveillance programs for fear of being blamed for an attack, Klayman said: "That may have played a role but it shouldn't have played a role. '... As Judge Leon pointed out, the telephone metadata surveillance has not stopped one terrorist attack."

Government officials have claimed the program did thwart plots abroad. Obviously, however, the bulk collection program '--which remains up and running '-- did not forestall the shootings and bombings in Paris that killed more than 120 people and left hundreds more wounded.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the appeals court order, but CIA Director John Brennan warned in a speech Monday morning that legal and policy changes were making it harder to detect terror plots.

"Because of a number of unauthorized disclosures and a lot of handwringing over the government's role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists, there have been some policy and legal and other actions that are taken that make our ability collectively, internationally to find these terrorists much more challenging," Brennan said, adding that it was time to "take a look" at gaps in surveillance and consider potential fixes.

While the injunction Leon issued last week was relatively narrow in simply barring collection and storage of data on what would likely amount to just a handful of telephone numbers, the Justice Department said in court filings that it likely could not comply with Leon's order without shutting down the entire program because telecommunications providers could not be obliged to exclude particular numbers from the data the companies submit to the NSA. The government said it could block access to certain numbers in its own database, but doing so would require about two weeks to implement.

That wouldn't offer much or any relief to Little since the telephone metadata program is already scheduled to shut down on Nov. 29. Congress passed a law in June, the USA Freedom Act, aimed at ending bulk collection of phone data by the government and moving to a system where telephone companies store the data, sharing only selected portions in response to queries.

The USA Freedom Act extended current legal authorities through the end November, but critics of the NSA program said the legislation did not clearly authorize bulk collection during the transition period. Another federal appeals court, the 2nd Circuit, rejected that argument in an opinion issued last month.

The stay granted Monday was issued by D.C. Circuit Judges David Tatel, Thomas Griffith and Patricia Millett. Tatel was appointed by President Bill Clinton, Griffith by President George W. Bush and Millett by President Barack Obama. Leon is also an appointee of President George W. Bush.

UPDATE (Monday, 5:58 P.M.): This post has been updated with Klayman saying he plans to ask for en banc review at the D.C. Circuit before going to the Supreme Court.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:09

Once you sign in to Dropbox, the photos and videos in this album will be instantly saved to your Dropbox and downloaded to all the computers linked to your account.

Once you sign in to Dropbox, this folder will be instantly saved to your Dropbox and downloaded to all the computers linked to your account.

Once you sign in to Dropbox, this file will be instantly saved to your Dropbox and downloaded to all the computers linked to your account.

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Mon, 16 Nov 2015 01:25

As co-blogger David Bernstein points out, the recent horrifying terrorist attack against France gives the Obama administration an opportunity to legalize its previously unconstitutional war against ISIS. Up until now, the war has been illegal because the president lacks congressional authorization for it. Assuming (as is highly likely), that ISIS was indeed behind the attacks, the United States has a legal obligation to help defend France under Article 5 of the 1949 North Atlantic treaty, which created the NATO alliance. Here is the relevant text:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

France is a signatory of the North Atlantic treaty, and Friday's brutal terrorist attack surely qualifies as an ''armed attack against [France] in Europe.'' Therefore, the US now has a legal obligation to consider the attack against France as an attack against the US itself, and to ''assist'' France with ''such action as it deems necessary,'' including ''the use of armed force.''

Some scholars and jurists contend that it isn't possible for a nation-state to be in a true state of war with a private terrorist organization. Even if this is correct, by this point ISIS qualifies as a state-like entity, having seized control of a large portions of Syria and Iraq. In any event, the NATO treaty applies to all ''armed attacks'' on the signatories in ''in Europe or North America,'' regardless of the qualify as a war or not. The NATO allies did in fact invoke Article 5 after the 9/11 attacks against the US, an incident with obvious similarities to the attack on France.

Article VI of the Constitution makes treaties the ''supreme law of the land'' if they were made ''under the authority of the United States.'' This, at the very least, allows the president, with Senate ratification, to make legally binding commitments to use the powers of the federal government, which clearly include the power to wage war, and otherwise use military force. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty is such a commitment, and it pretty clearly applies in this case.

The Alliance could formally invoke Article 5 by doing so at a meeting organized in accordance with Article 4, which requires member states to ''consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.'' However, the US likely has a legal obligation to aid France under Article 5 even in the absence of an Article 4 consultation.

Article 5 provides a much stronger justification for the war against ISIS than the previous extremely dubious rationalizations presented by the Obama administration. But it cannot retroactively legalize the President's previous illegal actions, or the similarly unconstitutional war against Libya in 2011.

Citing Article 5 might not be an attractive option for the Obama administration, because it might be seen as an implicit admission that the war was previously illegal (as it in fact was). For this reason, they might well decide not to rely on it. But it is nonetheless the only sound legal justification for continuing the war against ISIS, unless and until the president gets a new authorization from Congress.

As I have previously explained, the president's failure to get congressional authorization for the wars against ISIS and Libya is not just a purely legal problem. In addition to creating terrible precedents for the future, it also has made it more difficult to build the kind of political consensus needed to wage war effectively. Invoking our Article 5 obligations to a key NATO ally may not fully cure these problems. But it would at least be a valuable step in the right direction.

UPDATE: James Stavridis presents a related argument for invoking Article 5 in this recent article in Foreign Policy. GOP presidential candidates John Kasich and Marco Rubio have also urged NATO action under Article 5. None of them, however, has noted the implications for the domestic constitutional rationale for the war.

UPDATE #2: Obviously, it might be politically difficult to rely on Article 5 if France does not want NATO assistance for whatever reason. However, President Francois Hollande has already called Friday's attack an ''act of war'' pinned the responsibility on ISIS, and stated his determination to wage the war aggressively. Most likely, therefore, the French would welcome Article 5 support from the US and other NATO allies.

Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and popular political participation. He is the author of "The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain" and "Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter."

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 15:08

With oil revenue reckoned to provide ISIL militants with more than $1 million a day, Russian bombers have targeted tankers and refinery facilities controlled by the extremists in Syria.

Russian military spokesman Col. General Andrei Kartapolov presented satellite images of the air strikes, telling a briefing at the Defence Ministry:

''You can see hundreds of fuel tankers in columns.

''In recent days, the air force has destroyed 500 vehicles. This has significantly hampered the militants' ability to export fuel and, as a result, it has hit their profits from oil smuggling.''

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his defence chiefs to redouble their campaign against ISIL, in Syria and elsewhere, after Russian officials confirmed that a bomb had brought down a Russian passenger jet in Egypt on October 31, killing 224 people

Separately, US-led air strikes have hit at least 177 targets in the so-called Islamic State's main oil-producing region over the past month.

France has sent its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the eastern Mediterranean in its intensified campaign, following ISIL's claim of responsibility for Friday's deadly terror attacks in Paris which left 129 people dead.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that he believed Russia is open to cooperation in forming a grand coalition against the militant group.

With this in mind, French President Francois Hollande will meet President Putin and US President Obama next week.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:23

Now Playing"Their main bread-and-butter has been recruiting people online,'' Miller, the NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counter-terrorism, told Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. "The videos are part of the cheerleading section of that. That's for one audience. The flipside of that audience is fear is the grist of the terrorist mill and the videos are meant to inspire that. So one part is for potential recruits, the other part is for us, but we operate under a fairly high state of alert normally (in New York City)."

The nearly-five-minute video appears less slickly packaged than the usual ISIS propaganda videos and cobbled together in the wake of the Paris attacks. Miller believes the constant threat New York faces, which has included the NYPD foiling three potential ISIS plots in the just over the past year, makes them as prepared as any city in the world.

RELATED: Can the TSA find hidden weapons? Rossen Reports goes undercover

"One thing that ISIS understands almost better than terrorism is marketing,'' Miller said. "What you saw last night was a commercial. It was meant to sell a product. The product is fear. Could it happen here? Of course it could, but that's because it could happen anywhere. Are we better prepared here than most if not all other places? The answer to that is yes."

Just like the video, Miller said the latest edition of ISIS' propaganda magazine, Dabiq, was hastily put together for a release on Wednesday in the wake of the attack. The magazine shows bomb-making materials that ISIS claims were used to make an explosive that brought down a commercial Russian jet.

"They wanted to take credit for as much as possible,'' Miller said. "Our bomb squad, as well as the FBI's bomb techs, are looking at that diagram saying what they have here couldn't have done what they said."

Follow TODAY.com writer Scott Stump on Twitter.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 07:00

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

As the police shootout and standoff early Wednesday morning in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis, France was in its contentious moments, CNN's Christiane Amanpour and guest Julien Theron couldn't help but fret about how the standoff was helping to ''literally stok[e] the fires of the far right, anti-immigrant, anti-immigration, xenophobic parties'' in Europe.

In an pause between updates from correspondents Atika Shubert and Frederik Pleitgen on the scene, Amanpour turned to Theron for a brief diversion by expressing concern that the raid was contributing to some ''very ugly political ramifications.''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:52

Video cross-posted here at NewsBusters. On Wednesday's Fox & Friends, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck pressed White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest over language used by Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama following last week's ISIS terrorist attack in Paris. The Fox host strongly argued that Obama calling the Paris attack a mere ''setback'' and John Kerry saying the Charlie Hebdo attack was ''understandable'' was evidence the administration needs to change its ''verbiage'' because ''everyone in this world right now sees them as aloof, apathetic and quite cavalier about these lives being lost at the hands of ISIS.''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:49

More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.

Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge repeatedly ripped President Obama's failing foreign policy against ISIS as co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer sat back without comment.

Lauer asked: ''From where you're sitting, what are we learning about ISIS based on what we're seeing in Paris?'' Ridge replied by firing his first shots at Obama: ''Well, we know they're not a JV team, we know they're not contained....You also have to start playing offense....the President can't let the clock run out. I know he loves basketball, but it's not like running out the clock. You run out the clock when you're winning.''

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:31

(Relevant portion begins at 16:50)

''We have a fifth column that we have welcomed into our country," UK Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage said yesterday. "And what makes me really angry is that the European Union's common asylum policy is taking a bad situation and making it even worse."

"The thing that makes me angry about what happened in Paris is frankly the fact that it was so utterly and entirely predictable,'' said Farage. "I think we've reached a point where we have to admit to ourselves, in Britain and France and much of the rest of Europe, that mass immigration and multicultural division has for now been a failure."

"We have to be frank, every single one of those killers beleived they were doing what they were doing in the name of Islam. And our weakness, the weakness of our leaders, has actually allowed in our country, the creation of a parallel society."

"A blind eye turned to polygamy, to forced marriage. Now 80% of musim marriages are completely outside and unregistered from British law."

"When I hear there are 400 fresh jihadi fighters, fresh back --battlescarred veterans from Syria..."

"This dream of the free movement of people, this dream for others of the Schengen area. It hasn't just meant the free movement of people, it has meant the free movement of Kalashnikov rifles. It has meant the free movement of terrorists, and it has meant the free movement of jihadists."

"It is time that democratic groups in Britain and right across Europe stood up and fought and gained and strength, and say an end to this! We want back border controls, we want back national security."

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:15

[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

On the 18 November 2015 edition of New Day, CNN kept up their skepticism of the Obama administration's talking points on ISIS. Chris Cuomo noted that "the word from the White House is...that we are having success....How does that make sense, given...[what] we just saw what happened in Paris?" Christiane Amanpour threw cold water on John Earnest's claim that there wasn't a military solution for the terrorist group: "Most military analysts who I speak to...say right now, there needs to be a military solution. You have to eradicate ISIS, and that's not going to happen with some nice de-radicalization programs."

Jim Sciutto later made the most blunt assessment of the Obama White House's spin on the issue:

JIM SCIUTTO: ...The argument '-- the statistic that Josh Earnest used is '-- one, it's weeks old. I've heard it from the administration, going back months, that they've denied them 25 percent of the territory and populated areas in Iraq. And see, I've looked at the map. It's hard to figure out, to me, what they're talking about there....

The far more difficult argument to make '-- which he made '-- is that they're denying them a safe haven there. But listen '-- I mean, if you've plotted an attack on the streets of Paris; and, in the span of a week, brought down a Russian plane and killed 60 some odd people on the streets of Beirut with suicide bombers; you have enough of a safe haven to project terror power beyond those borders '-- meanwhile, greater territory being gained in the Sinai, in Libya, and elsewhere. It's just a very difficult argument to make that you have made military progress against this group.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 06:05

GOP presidential candidate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told "America's Newsroom" on Fox News Wednesday that Secretary of State John Kerry "needs to get some sleep and shut up" for saying ISIS had "a rationale you could attach yourself to" with the terrorist attack against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January as opposed to the terrorist attacks in Paris last week.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 05:15

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Thu, 19 Nov 2015 03:57

Hillary Clinton vs. the First Amendment at The Laugh Factory

Christian Duguay - YouTube Tutorials

Mike E. Winfield - Grocery Store

Dan Ahdoot - Spin Class

Johnny Beehner - Healthy Eating

Zoe Rogers - Pep Talk

Steve Gillespie - Netflix Illuminati

Brian Babylon - Weed Man

Mateen Stewart - Snitches

Sean Leary - Airport Romance

Jenny Zigrino - Gentrified Haircuts

Vince Royale - Illegal Tortise

Craig Robinson

Kirk Fox Returns - The Kevin Nealon Show

Alonzo Bodden - Grocery Store Racism

Erik Myers - Taco Bell Application

Kate Quigley - Dom Irrera Live From the Laugh Factory

Steve Hofstetter - Tebow and Two Hecklers

TJ Miller Returns - The Kevin Nealon Show

Erik Griffin - Orgasm Gun

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:31

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:09

The world watched in horror as the death toll from the Paris terror attacks steadily climbed. By the time the three-hour rampage ended on Saturday and authorities put the number of those killed at 129, onlookers could only brace for worse news to come. More than 400 people received medical treatment at hospitals in the stricken city; dozens of them were listed in critical condition.

The second spike in the death toll never came. Just three of those hospitalized with grave injuries have died in the four days since the attacks.

The world-class status of the French health-care system deserves much of the credit. But a good deal of preparation, experience, and more than a little bit of lucky timing also helped save lives.

Since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, from which 16 people died, Paris-area ambulance crews and emergency personnel have taken part in regular exercises designed to test their readiness for possible attacks. One such exercise was held on Friday morning, the day of the latest terror attacks. In a twist of fate, the simulated emergency was a mass shooting, according to Dr. Mathieu Raux, emergency room chief at the Piti(C)-Salpetri¨re hospital in Paris.

During Friday's exercise, trauma specialists used a centralized dispatch system to set priorities and direct victims to the ER best equipped to treat their injuries. Ambulance services made sure they were ready to roll, and hospitals verified that surgeons and staff could be quickly summoned to treat arriving victims. "We tested every link in the chain," Raux said. Because Paris emergency physicians work 24-hour shifts, virtually every ER doctor on duty in the city Friday night had already taken part in the exercise earlier that day.

The training paid off at Piti(C)-Salpetri¨re, a sprawling medical complex in southeastern Paris that specializes in emergency treatment of what doctors call "penetration trauma," such as gunshot wounds. The hospital was alerted to the attacks at 9:40 p.m., 20 minutes after explosions at the Stade de France marked the beginning of the rampage. Within an hour, just as the first ambulances were pulling up, Piti(C)-Salpetri¨re had 10 operating rooms prepared and fully staffed with surgeons and surgical nurses.

Piti(C)-Salpetri¨re received 52 victims in total, 25 of which had suffered critical injuries. "Some were shot in the head, some had bullets everywhere, in the chest, arms, legs," Raux said. "I never, ever saw anything like it."

Two patients at Piti(C)-Salpetri¨re died shortly after arrival and a third victim died at another hospital in the city, according to a spokeswoman for Paris's public hospital system. No additional attack victims have died since Saturday, although 29 remained in intensive care as of Monday night.

Attack victims also benefited from the battlefield experience of veterans who now hold key positions in Paris's emergency response system. Philippe Juvin, head of emergency services at the Georges Pompidou hospital, a major trauma center, served as an anesthesiologist in Afghanistan in 2008. In interviews during the past few days, Juvin told French news media that his experience helped prepare him for the 50 victims who streamed into his ER. Juvin told the Associated Press that he saw "gun battles, explosions, buildings on fire, accidents with casualties" during his time in Afghanistan. Still, the doctor said, he had "never seen as many victims at once."

Raux is optimistic that most victims still hospitalized at Piti(C)-Salpetri¨re will survive. "These were young patients," he said, "between 20 and 40 years." That makes them strong and resilient, as well as fortunate that Paris's first responders were ready for the worst.

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Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:09

The Foreign Policy Initiative seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness.Read More

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:03

We were about 20 metres away from the cafe when we heard a firecracker and I looked around and I could see a man, maybe 185cm tall, and the position made it clear he was shooting.

Related:Paris attacks: what we know so far

He was standing in a shooting position. He had his right leg forward and he was standing with his left leg back. He was holding up to his left shoulder a long automatic machine gun '' I saw it had a magazine beneath it.

Everything he was wearing was tight, either boots or shoes and the trousers were tight, the jumper he was wearing was tight, no zippers or collars. Everything was toned black.

If you think of what a combat soldier looks like, that is it '' just without the webbing. Just a man in military uniform, black jumper, black trousers, black shoes or boots and a machine gun. Maybe a woolly hat.

He was left handed and shooting in bursts of three or four shots. It was fully intentional, professional bursts of three or four shots.

He killed three or four individuals who were sitting in the chairs in front of the cafe. We saw them get shot down. They fell off their chairs onto the ground.

Survivor of Bataclan attack: 'it was a bloodbath'He then swivelled and shot through a car drivers' window.

We then saw him walk into the cafe. He swivelled right and then swivelled left and opened fire. That is when we dived for cover.

We heard a total of maybe 15 or 20 shots, then everything went quiet.

We went back after the shooting had stopped and all three people at the front were still lying there. We walked toward the white car that was shot. The driver has been helped outside the car by pedestrians and he had been propped up against a light pole and he was dying.

We left the scene and then we walked away about 150 metres and we saw all the police cars and ambulances and fire trucks coming in. Although our instincts were telling us we should go home to safety, we have a very strong sense of community and we thought we should go back.

To my surprise, we were taken back into the cafe by police. It was pretty horrific. We could see people, who were either wounded or severely wounded or dead. Maybe 10 or a dozen.

The paramedics had arrived and were tending to people. We saw dead bodies and saw people '' I saw a guy who had been shot in the stomach. It was horrendous. There was blood everywhere. And the one thing that struck me was about the blood in the movies and the blood in real life. In real life it is thick.

We took a circular stairs upstairs to the first floor of the cafe and up there were more witnesses and wounded people.

Related:Deadly attacks in Paris: today's front pages '' in pictures

The police asked if we had heard an escape vehicle or motorcycle. We had sought cover in a road which would have been a very good escape route for him. We were between some cars but saw nothing.

We were taken to the police station to give a witness statement. The gunman we saw has not been apprehended. They confirmed that on the way out. We asked if it was safe to walk home and they said definitely not.

There were witnesses everywhere. Lines and lines of them. We were sitting next to people who were in a different place. They were caught underneath dead bodies. They had to crawl out. There were people on top of them dead. It was quite horrific for everybody.

As told to David Munk

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:35

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 18:06

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 07:50

CAIRO Islamic State warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.

The video, which appeared on a website used by Islamic State to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday's Paris shootings in which at least 129 people were killed.

The message to countries involved in what it called the "crusader campaign" was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a turban, and identified in subtitles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian.

"We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France's and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington," the man said.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the video, which purports to be the work of Islamic State fighters in the Iraqi province of Salahuddine, north of Baghdad.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would not comment on the video but said it has not received information indicating a potential attack.

"While we take all threats seriously, we do not have specific credible information of an attack on the U.S. homeland," a DHS official said on condition of anonymity.

The French government has called the Paris attacks an act of war and said it would not end its air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date on Sunday, targeting the Islamic State's stronghold in the city of Raqqa, in coordination with U.S. forces.

Police raided homes of suspected Islamist militants across France overnight following the Paris attacks.

"Al Ghareeb the Algerian" also warned Europe in the video that more attacks were coming.

"I say to the European countries that we are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before," he said.

Apparently referring to international talks to end the Syrian war, another man identified in the video as Al Karrar the Iraqi tells French President Francois Hollande "we have decided to negotiate with you in the trenches and not in the hotels."

(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Lin Noueihed; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Ahmed Aboulenein, Michael Georgy, David Stamp and Jonathan Oatis)

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 01:16

On the night of the Paris attacks, Rurik Bradbury noticed an inevitable and tiresome trend popping up on Twitter. ''I think I saw a professional news organization tweet about the lights of the Eiffel Tower being turned off in memory of the victims,'' recalled Bradbury, the New York-based CMO of a software company. In the fog of war, and in the pursuit of virality, someone had mistaken the Eiffel Tower's ordinary 1 a.m. darkness for a moving tribute.

Bradbury fired up the Twitter account of his alter ego, @ProfJeffJarvis. He used the well-known parody account, which makes fun of tech jargon and media ''thinkfluencers,'' to write a deadpan tweet about the icon of Paris going dark.

It was a perfect imitation of the serious tone and hastily assembled expertise that was filling Twitter all night. And it became Bradbury/ProfJeff's most popular tweet by many orders of magnitude. By Sunday, nearly 30,000 people had retweeted his utterly fake news, which he'd written to prove that people will fall for anything.

''In general I am fascinated by the way history and fake history spreads on Twitter, such as the many 'History in Pics' type accounts, and the very low bar for spreading a viral meme through a credulous public,'' said Bradbury in an interview.

France's Eiffel Tower, which prides itself on staying open 365 days a year, closed after a string of deadly attacks that killed at least 132 people and injured hundreds more in Paris on Nov. 13. (AP)

But this was something else. Several actual news organizations retweeted ProfJeffJarvis, even though the item was ''prima facie absurd,'' and the source's avatar was an old man wearing a beer-funnel baseball cap, with a bio that labeled him a ''hyperglocal thinkfluencer'' who had co-founded the ''Mogadishu:REinvent unconference.'' He hadn't even tweaked his Halloween Twitter handle, ''Scary PJJ 2016.'' He was trusted even though he begged people not to trust him.

''It should be obvious, with a pause for thought, that the lights haven't been on continuously since 1889: that scale of lighting would not have been viable in the late 1800s (the lighting was only installed in 1925); there were two world wars in between; it would be hugely expensive to leave the lights on continuously (as one French person pointed out); there have been many tragedies since then that would justify turning off the lights in mourning, such as the Charlie Hebdo murders as recently as January this year, and so on.''

Yet Bradbury's timeline transformed into a cascade of ''I can't believe this'' and ''actually you're wrong.'' He made the best of it:

And as he did so, more fake stories mushroomed across social media. ''A number of legitimate news organizations posted the footage of the Eiffel Tower lights going off from January in memory of the Charlie Hebdo victims, but labeled the footage as November 13,'' noted Bradbury.

In an e-mail, Bradbury explained why the rapid sharing of anything vaguely inspiration-shaped after a tragedy was so unsettling to him.

The social media reaction to a tragedy is a spaghetti mess of many strands, some OK but most of them useless. There are positive elements (in intention, at least), such as the #porteouverte hashtag and the Facebook ''Safety Check'' in Paris -- though it remains to be seen how many people actually gained from these, either finding a place to stay or letting relatives know they were OK. (Also, it does trouble me that Facebook scored a PR win from Paris, furthering its agenda of becoming the de facto social identity of all humans, then monetizing this monopoly: if the Safety Check becomes a default state of affairs, is Facebook then responsible in some way for emergency responses; what are the implications when someone doesn't post their safety status on Facebook and so on)

But the part that feels the most useless to me is people's vicarious participation in the event, which on the ground is a horrible tragedy, but in cyberspace is flattened to a meme like any other. Millions of people with no connection to Paris or the victims mindlessly throw in their two cents: performative signaling purely for their own selfish benefit, spreading information that is often false and which they have not vetted at all, simply for the sake of making noise. If people wanted to be helpful, they would either be silent, or they would put in some '-- even minimal '-- effort to be thoughtful. First, they could spread useful and vetted information. And second, they could throw support behind a viewpoint they believe in, such as speaking out against politicians using the attacks to demonize Muslims or migrants, which is exactly what the murderers responsible for the Paris attacks want to provoke.

Instead of silence or helpfulness, social media pukes out stupidity, virtue-signaling and vicarious ''enjoyment'' (in a psychoanalytic sense) of a terrible tragedy by people thousands of miles away, for whom the event is just a meme they will participate in for a couple of days, then let fade into their timeline.

Crawling out from under the traffic, Bradbury managed to retweet someone who got that '' and got the joke.

Read more:

French President Hollande's remarks after Paris attacks

The Bataclan theater, the epicenter of the terror attacks in Paris

Maps: Where the Paris attacks occurred

David Weigel is a national political correspondent covering the 2016 election and ideological movements.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:45

When French President Francois Hollande addressed the nation Saturday in the aftermath of the Paris massacre, he vowed that France "will be unforgiving with the barbarians from Daesh."

What is "daesh"?

According to Arabic translator Alice Guthrie, "D.A.E.SH is a transliteration of the Arabic acronym formed of the same words that make up I.S.I.S in English: 'Islamic State in Iraq and Syria', or 'al-dowla al-islaamiyya fii-il-i'raaq wa-ash-shaam'."

It is a term that most Arab states and many European governments use to refer to the Islamic State or ISIS. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry often uses the term, too.

It, like most things involved with the terrorist organization, is not without controversy.

Depending on how it is conjugated in Arabic, the word can mean "to trample down and crush." But it can also mean "a bigot." ISIS has reportedly threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone it hears using the term.

"It's a derogatory term and not someting people should use even if you dislike them," said Evan Kohlmann, a national security analyst at Flashpoint and a contributor to NBC News. "It would be like referring to Germans as 'Huns.'"

Kohlmann said government officials choose the term to avoid using other, more common, names for the group because of the loaded words in those popular references. Using "Islamic" and "State" together offers legitimacy to the group, some believe, and referring to it as ISIS '-- short for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria '-- brings Syria into play.

That's why Guthrie believes ISIS hates the term more than any conjugation issue.

"They hear it, quite rightly, as a challenge to their legitimacy: a dismissal of their aspirations to define Islamic practice, to be 'a state for all Muslims' and '-- crucially '-- as a refusal to acknowledge and address them as such."

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:36

"Moschino Barbie is so fierce!"

November 15 2015 4:29 PM EST

The new Moschino Barbie is a huge hit (currently sold-out!), and its commercial is breaking boundaries by featuring a young boy in it.

"Moschino Barbie is so fierce!" the boy screams as he and two female friends laud the doll, done up in designer Jeremy Scott's sleek glamour. Barbie's cellphone goes off and the male child says, "It's for you, Moschino Barbie," before winking at the camera. Watch the ad below.

The strict gender lines of toys and children's accessories have slowly been breaking down, with Target moving to make its signage more gender-neutral.

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:35

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:22

PARIS '-- On both sides of the Atlantic, the fast-moving investigation into the deadly Paris terrorist attacks steadily accumulated clues on Sunday: a car discovered in the Parisian suburbs with a cache of weapons. Mounting proof of links between the Islamic State in Syria and the attackers. And intense scrutiny on three brothers, living in Belgium, as crucial suspects in the elaborate plot.

With investigators moving on multiple fronts and a manhunt underway for a suspect described as dangerous, with much still unknown, increasing evidence suggested that at least one of the eight attackers had visited Syria, where the Islamic State has its main stronghold.

Others had been communicating with known members of the group before the horrific assault on Paris, investigators said. Officials were also investigating the possibility that a Syrian citizen may have been sent to join the attackers, slipping into Europe along with thousands of refugees.

French officials said American security services had alerted them in September to vague but credible information that French jihadists in Syria were planning some type of attack.

Salah Abdeslam

Police Nationale

That tip, the officials said, contributed to France's decision to launch what it had hoped might be pre-emptive airstrikes on Oct. 8 against the Islamic State's self-declared capital in Syria, Raqqa, where France struck with a new and far larger round of airstrikes Sunday night '-- this time in retaliation.

The carnage from the attacks in Paris, which so far have claimed 129 lives and left hundreds wounded, has presented France with its second major security breakdown in less than a year, after the terrorist assault in January against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery store.

But the complexity and coordination of the latest attacks suggest a growing and ominous sophistication among terrorist networks, American and French officials said.

The attacks also illustrated how such networks operating in Europe are oblivious to national boundaries, posing yet another challenge. The authorities said that several of the assailants had lived quietly in Belgium even as they prepared to strike France.

European intelligence officials said that the one attacker who they believed had gone to Syria was Ismal Omar Mostefa¯, a French citizen. He traveled to Turkey in 2012, and probably then slipped into Syria.

European officials said they believed the Paris attackers had used some kind of encrypted communication, but offered no evidence. ''The working assumption is that these guys were very security aware, and they assumed they would be under some level of observation, and acted accordingly,'' said a senior European counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.

A French official said that some of the attackers had shown a discipline that suggested military-style training, and that the plot involved considerable planning and input from an organized group.

But some analysts noted that many aspects of the assault had failed. The suicide bombers sent to attack the soccer match between France and Germany at the Stade de France did not inflict many casualties. The Islamic State had also boasted of carrying out an attack in the 18th Arrondissement, but it never happened.

And the suicide bombs used by at least six of the attackers were unsophisticated, according to some analysts. At one cafe in Paris, an attacker managed only to kill himself. Indeed, his explosives belt may have detonated prematurely on the way to a target in the 18th Arrondissement, officials said.

Even so, analysts and security officials agreed that the willingness of the attackers to carry out suicide bombings and to kill relentlessly with assault rifles suggested a new level of commitment for attacks in Europe.

''It is coordinated,'' said Alain Bauer, a French criminologist who serves on an advisory council to the government. ''But the big thing is the determination of the attackers. That in France and Europe is new '-- people who are willing to kill bullet by bullet.''

The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said the attackers had ''prepared abroad and had mobilized a team of participants in Belgium, and who may have benefited '-- the investigation will tell us more '-- from complicity in France.''

Interactive Feature | How Belgium Became Home to Recent Terror Plots Several recent terrorism cases in Europe have had some connection to Belgium.

The immediate challenge for investigators is to identify all the attackers and piece together how they carried out the plot. French officials say that six attackers died by suicide bombs and a seventh died in a shootout with the police.

One of those who died after setting off a suicide bomb at the Bataclan concert hall, where 89 people were killed, was identified by the authorities after they recovered a finger and matched his prints to a file that listed him as radicalized and a potential security threat. He was named as Mr. Mostefa¯, a native of Courcouronnes, France, who had been living in Chartres, about 60 miles southwest of Paris.

Mr. Mostefa¯ was the middle of five children born to an Algerian father and a Portuguese mother, and he had once worked at a bakery, according to a former neighbor at a housing development outside Chartres.

''It was a normal family, just like everybody else,'' said the neighbor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''He played with my children. He never spoke about religion. He was normal. He had a joie de vivre. He laughed a lot.''

Interactive Feature | Latest Updates Get the latest from the attacks Friday in Paris.

For reasons that are unclear, Mr. Mostefa¯ changed. ''It was in 2010, that's when he started to become radicalized,'' the neighbor said. ''We don't understand what happened.''

European officials said Mr. Mostefa¯ traveled to Turkey in 2012 and probably continued into Syria. It was unclear exactly where he went during the trip, how long he stayed or whom he met, but officials said they were confident he had entered Syria.

''Yes, it is very probable that he went to Syria after first traveling to Turkey,'' the senior European counterterrorism official said. ''He went there and then returned to France.''

In the effort to trace the others, investigators focused on Belgium. Authorities there have arrested several people in Molenbeek, a poor section of Brussels that is home to many Arab immigrants and that has been linked to past terrorist attacks.

Interactive Feature | What We Know About the Paris Attackers Seven of the attackers died, and authorities were looking for an eighth suspect.

Amedy Coulibaly, who carried out the January attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, is believed to have bought weapons in Molenbeek. Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman who targeted the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels in 2014, killing four people, also reportedly obtained weapons there.

Most recently, Ayoub El Khazzani, a Moroccan who was thwarted in his attempt to attack passengers on a high-speed train to Paris from Amsterdam, is also thought to have lived there at some point.

''I notice that each time there is a link with Molenbeek,'' Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium said on Sunday. ''This is a gigantic problem.''

Investigators have identified three brothers in Molenbeek as crucial suspects in the Paris attacks. Belgian prosecutors identified one, Ibrahim Abdeslam, as the suicide bomber who struck the Comptoir Voltaire cafe. Another brother, Mohamed, was detained Saturday in Molenbeek.

Graphic | Three Hours of Terror in Paris, Moment by Moment Many of the attacks were just minutes apart.

A third, Salah Abdeslam, 26, described as dangerous, is the subject of a widening manhunt by the French. He apparently slipped through their fingers immediately after the attacks.

''He was stopped and his papers were checked,'' said Agn¨s Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office. ''It was a routine road check. He showed his papers. ''

Asked if there had been anything in his papers to indicate that he should have been arrested, she replied, ''Nothing.''

Two vehicles used in the attacks were rented in Belgium last week, the federal prosecutor for Belgium announced on Sunday. One was a gray Volkswagen Polo, abandoned near the Bataclan hall after being used by the three attackers who died there.

The other, a black Seat Leon, was discovered early Sunday morning in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil. Inside were three Kalashnikov rifles; there was speculation that the vehicle had been a getaway car for gunmen in central Paris.

Beyond Belgium, the investigation also focused on a presumed support network in France, and on Greece, amid the possibility that one of the attackers had come into Europe posing as a refugee. It is still unclear whether one of the suicide bombers was a Syrian citizen who had come into Greece last month on one of the thousands of boats arriving from Turkey, many of them stuffed with Syrians fleeing civil war. Investigators found a Syrian passport near the remains of one of the suicide bombers.

On Sunday, Greek officials confirmed that someone holding that passport, in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, had landed on the Greek island of Leros on Oct. 3, and then traveled through Croatia and Serbia. The possibility that terrorists have sneaked into Europe posing as refugees has inflamed the already explosive migrant debate in Europe.

But the senior European counterterrorism official raised a yellow flag about the passport, saying that authorities were still not convinced that he was one of the gunmen. The official said that when foreign fighters go to Syria, the Islamic State makes them surrender their passports. If they are killed, or even if they are not, their passports can be given to someone else returning home.

The United States, France and several European countries had obtained intelligence in recent months showing that the Islamic State was plotting something in France, but the countries did not know when it would occur and what it would entail, according to senior American officials.

Several Western intelligence agencies helped develop the information, the officials said, adding that the agencies had shared the information with one another.

Since the Islamic State grabbed wide stretches of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014, the intelligence agencies have detected a wide array of chatter about potential plots, but many never came to fruition.

''We had some indication something was happening, but we did not have enough information to take action to disrupt it,'' one of the officials said. ''We didn't know when and where.'' Another official said it was clear ''something was in the wind, but there weren't specifics.''

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:18

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Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:16

NBC News has learned that ISIS is using a web-savvy new tactic to expand its global operational footprint -- a 24-hour Jihadi Help Desk to help its foot soldiers spread its message worldwide, recruit followers and launch more attacks on foreign soil.

Counterterrorism analysts affiliated with the U.S. Army tell NBC News that the ISIS help desk, manned by a half-dozen senior operatives around the clock, was established with the express purpose of helping would-be jihadists use encryption and other secure communications in order to evade detection by law enforcement and intelligence authorities.

The relatively new development -- which law enforcement and intel officials say has ramped up over the past year -- is alarming because it allows potentially thousands of ISIS followers to move about and plan operations without any hint of activity showing up in their massive collection of signals intelligence.

Authorities are now homing in on the terror group's growing cyber capabilities after attacks in Paris, Egypt and elsewhere for which ISIS has claimed credit.

"They've developed a series of different platforms in which they can train one another on digital security to avoid intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the explicit purpose of recruitment, propaganda and operational planning," said Aaron F. Brantly, a counterterrorism analyst at the Combating Terrorism Center, an independent research organization at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Brantly was the lead author of a CTC report on the Islamic State's use of secure communications, based on hundreds of hours of observation of how the Jihadi Help Desk operates.

"They answer questions from the technically mundane to the technically savvy to elevate the entire jihadi community to engage in global terror," Brantly said in an interview Monday. "Clearly this enables them to communicate and engage in operations beyond what used to happen, and in a much more expeditious manner. They are now operating at the speed of cyberspace rather than the speed of person-to-person communications."

The existence of the Jihadi Help Desk has raised alarm bells in Washington and within the global counterterrorism community because it appears to be allowing a far wider web of militants to network with each other and plot attacks. A senior European counterterrorism official said that concerns about the recent development are especially serious in Europe, where ISIS operatives are believed to be plotting major attacks, some of them with direct assistance from ISIS headquarters in Syria.

At a congressional hearing in October, FBI Director James Comey said the FBI is extremely concerned about ISIS' increasing ability to "go dark." Comey told the House Judiciary Committee that the U.S. is " confronting the explosion of terrorist propaganda and training on the Internet."

"While some of the contacts between groups like ISIL and potential recruits occur in publicly accessible social networking sites," said Comey, "others take place via encrypted private messaging platforms. As a result, the FBI and all law enforcement organizations must understand the latest communication tools and position ourselves to identify and prevent terror attacks in the homeland."

Nick Rasmussen, director of the U.S. government's multiagency National Counterterrorism Center, said in an interview with the Combating Terrorism Center's in-house publication that the "agile use of new means of communicating, including ways which they understand are beyond our ability to collect," is one of his greatest concerns when it comes to ISIS and other terrorist groups.

Brantly described the Jihadi Help Desk as "a fairly large, robust community" that is anchored by at least five or six core members who are technical experts with at least collegiate or masters level training in information technology. There are layers of other associates, living all around the world, who allow the service to operate -- and respond to questions -- at any time of the day or night. CTC researchers have spent a year or so monitoring the help desk -- and its senior operatives -- via online forums, social media and other means.

"You can kind of get a sense of where they are by when they say they are signing off to participate in the [Muslim] call to prayer,'' which traditionally occurs at five specific times a day, Brantly said. "They are very decentralized. They are operating in virtually every region of the world."

The help desk workers closely track all of the many new kinds of security software and encryption as they come online, and produce materials to train others in how to use them. The CTC has obtained more than 300 pages of documents showing the help desk is training everyone from novice militants to the most experienced jihadists in digital operational security.

ISIS also distributes the tutorials through Twitter and other social media, taking pains to link to versions of it that can be downloaded even after their social media sites are shut down.

And once the help desk operatives develop personal connections with people, ISIS then contacts them to engage them in actual operational planning -- including recruiting, fundraising and potentially attacks.

"They will engage in encrypted person-to-person communications, and these are extremely hard to break into from a cryptographic perspective," Brantly said.

"They also post YouTube Videos, going step by step over how to use these technologies," Brantly said. "Imagine you have a problem and need to solve it and go to YouTube; they have essentially established the same mechanism [for terrorism]."

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Mon, 16 Nov 2015 01:23

Breadth of attacks challenge assessment

Laura Haim, White House correspondent for Canal Plus, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the roaming nature of the attacks, some based from cars, created multiple scenes of killing, and make it difficult for authorities to say with specificity a...

The Rachel Maddow Show

11/13/15

Duration: 4:52