Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday, 23 August 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 22 Aug 2014 11:55 AM PDT

Britain’s right-wing party UKIP have formally called for the British government to block the return of UK nationals who left British shores to fight alongside Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
In a formal statement issued on Wednesday, the party emphasized the UK government can and should strip all militants who hold dual nationality of their official UK citizenship. The coalition could also withdraw the passports of Jihadists whose sole nationality is British, while those who do not hold official UK citizenship but have been granted the right to live in Britain should have that right revoked immediately, it added.
The party’s statement followed the release of a chilling video depicting what appeared to be the beheading of American journalist James Foley by an Islamic State (IS) militant. In the ominous film, Foley is seen kneeling adjacent to a masked man prior to his beheading. The man, dressed from head to toe in black wielding a knife, speaks with a distinctly British accent. Dr Claire Hardaker, a linguistics expert who has analyzed the film’s audio, told LBC Radio listeners she believes the killer is from London.
Commenting on the video, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “The Islamic State (IS) Militants are a group like no other. The sheer barbarism we are witnessing in countries like Iraq is without precedent in the modern era. It would be totally unforgivable and unacceptable for UK nationals who have made the decision to go and fight for Islamic State militants in the middle-east to be permitted to return to the UK and quietly slide back into our communities to take advantage of all that modern Britain has to offer.”
The British government simply cannot allow these militants to return to British soil and reap “benefit from NHS treatment, welfare benefits, [and] council housing” when they have consciously elected to fight against Western values in “the most appalling way possible”, Farage emphasized.
“We also cannot risk these militants coming back to the UK and bringing with them their ideologies and barbarous practices,” he added.
Those who choose to flee British shores and fight for this ideology have “rendered themselves effectively stateless” by endorsing an ideology hinged upon the creation of “a terrifying caliphate”, Farage warned. The Ukip leader cautioned “where intelligence identifies UK nationals fighting for IS, their repatriation absolutely should be blocked.”
The UK government should amend the Foreign Enlistment Act, according to UKIP, to expand its scope beyond Britons who fight for foreign states against Britain’s interests to include those who fight for “non-state actors – such as those on the proscribed Terrorist organizations list”.
Following the James Foley video – a film which has attracted international attention in the West and elsewhere – the Metropolitan Police Service have confirmed their Counter Terrorism Command Unit (SO15) is investigating the footage.
“We would like to remind the public that viewing, downloading or disseminating extremist material within the UK may constitute an offence under Terrorism legislation”, a Met official added.
In response to the brutal beheading of Foley, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC IS Jihadists were representative of a “poison” that could spread to other parts of the international community, potentially “affecting us all directly.”
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Posted: 22 Aug 2014 11:38 AM PDT

The European Union has blamed Moscow for the “clear violation” of Ukraine’s border after a Russian aid convoy crossed into the Ukrainian territory.
“We deplore Russia’s decision to enter the humanitarian consignment into Ukrainian territory, without the ICRC’s [International Committee of the Red Cross] escort or the consent of the Ukrainian authorities,” Sebastien Brabant, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, said on Friday.
“This also goes counter to the previous arrangements reached between Ukraine, Russia and the ICRC. We urge Russia to reverse its decision.”
He emphasized that Ukraine’s sovereignty “must be respected.” The EU official praised the authorities in Kiev for their “restraint as well as their readiness for further talks in order to avoid a further escalation of the crisis.”
Ukraine accuses Russia of launching a “direct invasion” of its territory after dozens of Russian trucks carrying aid crossed the border with Ukraine to deliver food and medical supplies to the people in the conflict-stricken regions in eastern Ukraine on Friday.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said the entry of the Russian convoy represented a “flagrant violation of international law.”
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had earlier said it did not grant permission for the convoy to enter Ukraine but the action was informally allowed to avoid “provocations.”
Russian media have reported that the first aid convoy, which includes a total of 70 trucks loaded with food, water, generators and sleeping bags, has reached the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk.
Kiev is zeroing in on pro-Moscow activists in their two important eastern bastions of Donetsk and Lugansk. This is while the humanitarian situation on the ground is deteriorating in the two regions as the people there have been suffering from the lack of water and power supplies for weeks now.
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Posted: 22 Aug 2014 11:27 AM PDT
A Salt Lake City police officer shot and killed 20-year-old Dillon Taylor outside a convenience store Aug. 11, 2014.
While national news media continue to focus on race in Ferguson, Missouri, where a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, they apparently don’t think a similar case in Utah with the races reversed is that newsworthy.
Police in Salt Lake City are continuing their probe into an Aug. 11 shooting outside a 7-Eleven convenience store, when a black police officer, whom local media are referring to as “not white,” shot and killed 20-year-old Dillon Taylor, who was unarmed at the time, according to his supporters.
Police Chief Chris Burbank said the entire incident was captured on the body camera of the officer who shot Taylor.
“You will see on camera … the actions of everyone involved, including up to the point where our officer utilizes deadly force and his response thereafter,” Burbank told reporters.
He said the video, along with the officer’s identity, will be released at the “appropriate” time, adding it could be days, weeks or months.
“It would be wholly inappropriate to take the most vital piece of evidence that we have and put it out to the public prior to the officer having some due process,” he said.
The chief indicated he has personally viewed the footage, but would not comment on whether he believed the shooting was justified.
“I do not send officers out to use deadly force. That’s never our intention. In fact, our policy specifically says that is the last resort,” he said. “The officer in this circumstance did not set out to use deadly force. We have an unfortunate incident where Dillon Taylor lost his life.”
Burbank also refused to say whether Taylor had a gun, but the victim’s family and friends maintain he was unarmed.
“It didn’t make sense to me when I first heard everything, and they tried to say he had a gun,” Taylor’s friend, Aaron Swanenberg, told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I knew Dillon. He never packed a gun.”
Police said officers were responding to a report of a man “waving a gun around.”
When officers arrived, they found three men leaving the convenience store, with one, later identified as Taylor, reportedly matching the description of the person reported in a 9-1-1 call.
Witnesses say Taylor was wearing headphones at the time and may have been trying to pull his pants up when he was gunned down.
Dillon Taylor (Facebook)
At the time of his shooting, court documents show Taylor had a $25,000 bench warrant for a probation violation in connection with felony robbery and obstructing justice convictions.
But Marissa Martinez, whose sister used to date Taylor, told the Salt Lake Tribune that Taylor had turned over a new leaf.
“He was trying to do better for himself. And this is what happens to him?” Martinez said. “It was really heartbreaking.”
Regarding the race of the officer, Utah’s Deseret News reported the police chief “saying the officer is not white.” The Salt Lake Tribune noted, “the officer involved was not white.”
The Taylor case was examined Wednesday by talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, who said, “Note the similarities to the Michael Brown story [in Missouri], except in this case there’s no evidence the victim actually committed a crime.”
He noted Taylor “didn’t resist. He didn’t hit the cop. He didn’t try to flee and yet he was shot dead.”
He also pointed out how most news accounts did not specify the race of the police officer who killed Taylor.
“They are referring to the officer as ‘other-than-white,’ which reminds me of George Zimmerman becoming only the second-known white Hispanic, a title given by the New York Times.”
“They can’t wait to mention the racial aspects in St. Louis,” Limbaugh continued. “They don’t talk about the racial aspects in [the shootings in] Chicago, and there aren’t any racial aspects here in Salt Lake City.”
Radio host Rush Limbaugh
“There’s a mindset out there, and the way it works in situations like this [is] only people of color can be victims. A white person can never be a victim. It just can’t happen. That’s not permitted, that’s not allowed because it isn’t the case. The whites are the oppressors. They’re the majority. In the liberal worldview, every majority is an oppressor, whether they’re white or whatever. They’re all oppressors. The minority is always the victims, and the victims are with whom we should always sympathize, no matter what. And the victims are permitted to do anything precisely because they’re a minority, and I’m talking about in numbers, not skin color. They’re outnumbered. The evil majority does horrible things to the minority. And so the minorities, be it skin color or numbers … [are] always victims. And so anything they do is justified and we must try to understand the rage.
“But in the current climate in the United States, a black person can never be the oppressor and a white can never be the victim. And that’s how you have a corrupt or perverted news business in Salt Lake City, refusing to identify a black cop who may have shot an innocent person. That destroys the whole picture we’ve been creating here for centuries. That could totally destroy the image that we’ve been trying to concoct. Oh man that could blow it sky high; that’s just not supposed to happen. And so they come up with these things to hide it or to not reference it at all.”
Taylor’s aunt, Gina Thayne, told the Deseret News that police know they “killed an innocent kid.”
“If in fact they actually produce a tape, it will show exactly what happened,” Thayne said. “It will come out eventually. It will never bring Dillon back, though.”
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Posted: 22 Aug 2014 11:06 AM PDT

Texas Governor Rick Perry has raised the alarm that terrorists from the ISIL Takfiri group and other extremist militants may have already entered the US soil via the Mexican border.
On Thursday, Perry stressed the need for Washington to take immediate action to prevent Takfiri terrorists from sneaking into the United States via Mexico, saying the militants could have already taken advantage of the country’s lax border security and stepped on the American soil.
“I think there is the obvious, great concern that because of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across,” said the former presidential candidate.
The American politician further stated there was “no clear evidence” that the Takfiri terrorists have slipped across the Mexican border. However, he emphasized the “very real possibility” that the militants might already be within the country’s borders.
Perry’s comments come a few days after a gruesome video surfaced on the Internet showing a suspected British Muslim terrorist beheading American journalist James Foley in what is said to be retaliation for recent US airstrikes against the ISIL Takfiri group in Iraq.
The footage, dubbed “A Message to America,” also warned that the ISIL terrorist group would slay kidnapped American journalist Steven Sotloff if Washington did not halt the airstrikes.
In an interview with The Hill on Wednesday, US Congressman Peter King said the beheading of the American journalist by the ISIL Takfiris is “a declaration of war” on the United States, stressing, “There is a war. It’s a threat to the US and we have to fight back.”
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Posted: 22 Aug 2014 04:13 AM PDT

Several dozen trucks in the Russian humanitarian convoy have crossed the Ukrainian border and started moving in the direction of Lugansk, after Moscow ordered the convoy to proceed, without waiting for further permission from Kiev.
Moscow has accused Kiev of deliberately holding up the delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, according to a new statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Our convoy with humanitarian aid is starting to move in the direction of Lugansk,” the Foreign Ministry’s statement reads. “We are of course ready for it to be accompanied by Red Cross representatives and for their participation in the aid’s distribution.”
A third of the Russian humanitarian convoy, which is around 90 trucks, has now reportedly crossed the border with Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is not escorting the convoy.
“That’s because of the problems with security,” Galina Balzamova of the ICRC told RT. “Lugansk was shelled all night long. We believe we did not get sufficient guarantees of safety from all the parties to the conflict to start escorting the convoy.”
The head of the Russian Red Cross, Raisa Lukutsova, has said the organization supported the decision to get the humanitarian convoy moving.
The Ukrainian Border Service has said that by ordering the convoy to proceed Moscow has “ignored the agreements reached on registering the humanitarian load.”
“The trucks started moving through Ukraine, after a group of Ukrainian border customs’ officers had been blocked at the Russian check-point ‘Donetsk’,” a statement by the Ukrainian Border Service reads.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the “excuses” for delaying the aid from entering Ukraine have been “exhausted”.
Ukraine agreed to let the convoy pass during an August 20 phone call between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers. That gave a start to customs procedures for checking and registering the contents of the trucks comprising the convoy.
The next day the process was stopped by Ukraine, citing intensified shelling of Lugansk.
“In other words Ukrainian authorities are bombing the place of the aid’s point of destination and cite this as a reason for banning delivery of the aid,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
A convoy of 280 Kamaz trucks carrying food, medicines and other essentials for Lugansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine left the Moscow region on August 12.
It has been stuck at the border with Ukraine for more than a week.
“There’s a feeling that the current Ukrainian authorities have been consciously putting the humanitarian aid delivery on hold to arrive at a situation where there’ll be just no one left to get it,” the Ministry’s statement reads.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 08:52