Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday, 19 July 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 19 Jul 2014 01:30 AM PDT

An Italian newspaper has quoted the Pope as saying that “about two percent” of Roman Catholic priests are pedophiles. The Pontiff allegedly said that child sex abuse is “a leprosy in our house” and promised solutions to priests’ enforced celibacy.
The article, published in the left-leaning La Republica, is a recollection of an hour long conversation between the Pope and one of Italy’s most respected journalists, Eugenio Scalfari, who is also the founder of the newspaper. Scalfari is an atheist who has written about several past meetings with Pope Francis.
“Many of my collaborators who fight with me [against pedophilia] reassure me with reliable statistics that say that the level of pedophilia in the church is at about two percent,” Pope Francis was quoted as saying.
The Pope also allegedly said that while most pedophilia happens in family situations, “even we have this leprosy in our house.”
He added that the requirement that priests take vows of celibacy is “a problem,” and that “there are solutions and I will find them.”
There are 414,000 Roman Catholic priests in the Church which means that about 8,000 of them are pedophiles, if the Pope’s figure is correct.
Pope Francis’ estimate of two percent allegedly came from advisors. However, although statistics on pedophilia are often available in developed countries, information on the issue in the developing world is not as readily available.
The Vatican issued a statement reminding people that 90-year-old Scalfari has long conversations with public figures, but does not take notes or tape them. Instead, he reconstructs conversations from memory.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico said that while the article conveyed the “sense and the spirit” of the conversation, it was not an interview in the normal sense of the word and therefore could not be attributed to the Pope “with certainty.”
Lombardi said a quote that cardinals are among the abusers is not accurate, adding that La Republica is trying to “manipulate naive readers.”
Last week, the Pope held his first meeting with victims of sexual abuse from priests and told them that the Church must “weep and make reparation.” He also said there would be no tolerance for any abusers within the Church, and that bishops trying to cover anything up in their diocese would also be held accountable.
The Argentine Pope also took a swipe at the mafia. Pope Francis recently excommunicated all members of organized crime in Italy, which was met with resistance in some parts of the country.
“Unfortunately I know what they do, the crimes that are committed, the enormous economic interests that they control. But the mafia’s way of thinking escapes me,” he allegedly said.
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Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:30 AM PDT

A subversive website has been launched to keep track of news and other webpages Google has “censored” from the search engine’s index, following the European Court of Justice’s controversial Right to be Forgotten ruling.
The tech giant has reportedly been inundated with 70,000 requests to remove sensitive information from its search results in the aftermath of the ECJ’s decision. While this data may be accurate, it is considered “irrelevant” and possibly defamatory under the EU policy shift.
In a mark of protest against online censorship, a new site ‘Hidden From Google’ has begun archiving links censored by search engines intent on complying with ECJ demands. The site was set up by US web developer and transparency advocate, Afaq Tariq.
The New Jersey developer asserts the removal of links from a search engine’s index amounts to censorship. So in an effort to preserve transparency in Europe’s online realm, he invites visitors to log data that has been removed from Google on the site.
“This list is a way of archiving the actions of censorship on the Internet,” Tariq states on the site’s about page. “It is up to the reader to decide whether our liberties are being upheld or violated by the recent rulings by the EU.”
Following the ECJ’s ruling in May, Google allows European users to request the deletion of data referencing them if they consider it irrelevant or outdated. Implementing the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling has proven difficult for Google, however, despite the firm’s creation of a special advisory committee to assist in the process.
Ironically searches conducted in Europe for information the tech firm has censored are returning links to Tariq’s site.
Google says that when evaluating users’ requests, it checks “whether the results include outdated information” and if the data relates to the public interest. Thus far, requests tendered to the tech company for consideration under the EU ruling relate to financial fraud, violent crime, child pornography arrests and more.
Google retains the power to reject data removal applications in cases where the public interest is deemed to trump individuals’ right to privacy. But such a position of power is arguably more appropriate for a state body than a mammoth commercial firm.
“Here state power is being exercised without the involvement of the state: Google decides how to handle redaction requests”, Johnathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard University, recently told the Financial Times.
“If a search engine declines to alter its results, the claimant might appeal to a national data protection authority. Under the court’s decision, the public’s right to know is to be balanced against a claimant’s right to privacy but there is no easy way for the public to remonstrate against poor balancing”, he said.
While Tariq’s site creates a degree of transparency, independent and comprehensive scrutiny of how this new EU right operates in practice is warranted. Zittrain proposes Google and its peers should contribute to “an independent database of takedowns”. But such a move is far from EU-wide implementation.
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Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:27 AM PDT

Former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been criticized over her remarks about impeaching President Barack Obama.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Attorney General Eric Holder attacked Palin when he discussed Republican complaints about the White House.
“She wasn’t a particularly good vice presidential candidate,” he said. “She’s an even worse judge of who ought to be impeached and why.”
Last week, former Alaska Gov. Palin said President Obama should be impeached for his administration’s decisions on immigration.
“The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored,” Palin said.
Holder also spoke about racial issues and discrimination in the United States.
“There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me [and] directed at the president,” he said.
“You know, people talking about taking their country back.… There’s a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.”
“I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues,” he said.
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Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:12 AM PDT

Another international conference regarding the high rates of “anti-semitism” took place on the 7th and 8th of July, in Berlin. The Conference, organized by the Centre for Research on Antisemitism (ZFA). This event was held at Berlin’s Technical University, and included representatives from the Center Of Hellenism and the National Center For Social Research (EKKE).
What the board concluded at this conference, as was described by a professor from the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa, Mina Rosen: Greek “anti-Semitism” is thanks to the national religion of Orthodox Christianity, rather than any political catalyst: “[Greek anti-semitism] stems from religious intolerance and specifically the age old accusation that the Jews were responsible for killing Christ. And it goes on to this day. Once anti-Semitism interacts with a nationalism, then it begins to take an economic character. The basis is the fundamental beliefs and traditions of the people. If it is said again and again that Jews killed Christ, ie, their Lord, then what else can you expect to happen?”
It is beyond any reasonable doubt that global Zionism and their pawns within Greek borders have worked tirelessly to undermine, reform and attack the various traditions within Orthodoxy.
In response to the above conference, the Bible can speak for itself:
When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this Just person. You see to it.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be upon us and on our children.” (Matthew 27: 24-25)
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Posted: 18 Jul 2014 05:40 AM PDT

Hawkish US Senator John McCain has pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin after a passenger plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
McCain said on Thursday if pro-Russian forces are linked to the crash, it would point directly to Putin.
“The separatists could have only gotten that capability from Russia and so therefore the culpable party here is Vladimir Putin,” he claimed.
After receiving a classified briefing from intelligence officials, US senators voiced concern over what they called suspicious circumstances of the Malaysian Airlines jet.
The aircraft was shot down over Ukraine, with all 295 people on board dead. The Boeing plane was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday when it crashed at an altitude of 10 kilometers above eastern Ukraine.
The Senate Intelligence Committee members said the plane likely exploded at high altitude, The Hill reported.
“The likelihood of the aircraft impacted by some sort of missile is very likely because we see that the wreckage, published reports of the wreckage is spread over a long distance,” McCain said. “The aircraft was hit before it hit the ground, was coming apart before it hit the ground.”
He also noted that the crash was not likely an accident.
The Republican senator warned that there would be “hell to pay” if Russia was involved in the crash.
“It has the earmarks of a tragic mistake made by someone who had the capability to shoot down an aircraft,” he said. “And we know at least from the last few couple of weeks that could be Russian or separatist Russian capability. If that is true, this is really, really something that commands our attention to bring this kind of thing to a halt.”
If Russia was involved in the incident, McCain said, “I think there is going to be hell to pay and should be.”
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Posted: 18 Jul 2014 05:34 AM PDT

A ‘damning’ report into the alleged extremist infiltration of Birmingham schools has been leaked to a UK newspaper, revealing an aggressive plot to introduce hardline Sunni Islam into British schools.
The Guardian newspaper claims the leaked draft inquiry into 25 schools in the UK’s second city reveals evidence of a “coordinated, deliberate and sustained action to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamist ethos into some schools in the city.”
The document, written by the former head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit, Peter Clarke, unearthed a “sustained and coordinated agenda to impose upon children in a number of Birmingham schools the segregationist attitudes and practices of a hardline and politicized strain of Sunni Islam.”
Due to be published next week, the Clarke report was requested by former Education Secretary Michael Gove, who himself has fallen under criticism for policies that have allowed a lapse of oversight by local government.
While the report is critical of the city council’s management of schools and its failure to monitor or intervene sooner, it found no evidence of violent extremism, radicalization or an anti-British agenda being promoted.
Last month, five schools were placed in special measures following separate reports from Ofsted inspectors and the Education Funding Agency. Arguing they had been made victims of a “coordinated and vicious” attack, the board of trustees at the Park View Education Trust at the centre of claims resigned on Tuesday.
The investigation began after an unverified, anonymous letter, allegedly written by hardline Islamists, made its way into government hands in March, prompting an investigation into a so-called “Trojan Horse” plot, which entailed a takeover of the British education system by Muslim teachers.
The teachers allegedly intended to move any staff who disagreed with their beliefs out of the way, as well as imposing the kind of school discipline advocated by devout Islamists.
The letter’s contents detailed “deeply concerning” details of a strategy to adopt a number of Islamic cultural facets, including a system of school governors and the hiring and teaching of staff who would work to promote an Islamic religious agenda with its own rules and moral regulations.
The letter with the alleged Islamization plot has brought to attention past and present findings of investigations into some Birmingham schools that do not conform to the current national curriculum.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 08:40