Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday 19 February 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 19 Feb 2015 01:14 AM PST


The Obama administration is preparing to equip the so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels with the ability to order U.S. air strikes despite the group’s admitted allegiance to the Islamic State.
Members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) will be provided with radios to call in strikes from American B-1B bombers as well as pickup trucks with mounted machine guns as the president puts the final touches on plans to train as many as 3,000 rebels in Jordan and Turkey by the end of 2015.
“Negotiations have been concluded and an agreement text will be signed with the US regarding the training of the Free Syrian Army in the coming period,” said Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgic.
The planes will reportedly use similar munitions to those seen in Afghanistan, targeting anything from small vehicles to tanks with 500 and 2,000-pound guided bombs.
Aside from the Toyota Hi-Lux trucks, multiple groups of rebels will also be given mortars and possibly antitank weapons as well.
A senior military official speaking with the Wall Street Journal stated that the decision would likely emulate recent bombing campaigns against the Islamic State in Iraq.
“The way we envision it, it would be very similar to Kobani,” the source said.
Ludicrously refuting previous statements by claiming not to be at war with the Syrian government, U.S. officials alleged that air strikes would likely not be ordered against the Syrian army.
Despite the Obama administration’s claims, countless intelligence and military officials have stated that the “moderate” rebels are essentially non-existent, with well over 90 percent being with terrorist groups or aligned in ideology.
Just last September, a commander with the FSA admitted to fighting alongside several terrorist organizations in the region including the Islamic State.
“We are collaborating with the Islamic State and the Nusra Front by attacking the Syrian Army’s gatherings in… Qalamoun,” Bassel Idriss, commander of an FSA-run rebel brigade, said. “Let’s face it: The Nusra Front is the biggest power present right now in Qalamoun and we as FSA would collaborate on any mission they launch as long as it coincides with our values.”
Jamal Maarouf, the leader of the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF), also told reporters last April thathis fighters regularly worked with Al Qaeda and Al-Nusra as well.
During the same time period it was reported that “several factions within the FSA, including Ahl Al Athar, Ibin al-Qa’im,” decided to hand their weapons over to the Islamic State before pledging their allegiance to the group.
An Islamic State fighter speaking with Al-Jazeera in 2013 revealed that the FSA regularly sold its weapons to them shortly after they would receive shipments from the U.S.
“We are buying weapons from the FSA,” Abu Atheer said. “We bought 200 anti-aircraft missiles and Koncourse anti tank weapons. We have good relations with our brothers in the FSA.”
Obama’s rebels and the Islamic State even went as far as to sign a non-aggression pact with one another in order to rally against the Assad government in late 2014.
In fact, with thousands of rebels openly defecting and joining ranks with the Islamic State, President Obama was forced to brazenly repeal sections of U.S. law that banned the arming of known terrorist groups in order to keep weapons flowing.
Obama’s actions spurred a major backlash within the military at the end of 2013, resulting in numerous U.S. troops taking to social media to post photos of themselves holding up signs stating that they would not fight on the same side as terrorists in Syria.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz presciently warned in 2013 that President Obama was quickly turning the United States into Al Qaeda’s air force as the situation in Syria continued to intensify.
“We should be focused on defending the United States of America,” Cruz said. “That’s why young men and women sign up to join the military, not to, as you know, serve as Al Qaeda’s air force.”
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Posted: 19 Feb 2015 12:53 AM PST
AIDS Virus under electron microscope
A radical new type of vaccine has shown positive results during tests on HIV-positive patients, bolstering hopes of fully protecting humans from AIDS in the future, researchers say.
A new type of molecule, used in the vaccine, was engineered by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California, which they claim blocks the HIV virus from attaching to cells, the Independent reported on Wednesday.
Usually HIV vaccination works by provoking a response in the immune system, but the new vaccine has a different approach.
During experiments initially reported in the journal Nature, the researchers discovered that four monkeys injected with the vaccine, which works by altering DNA, were protected for at least 34 weeks from all types of HIV.
Even though the new vaccine still requires human testing, experts have said it represents an “exciting” development in the fight against AIDS.
“We are closer than any other approach to universal protection, but we still have hurdles, primarily with safety for giving it to many, many people,” said lead researcher Professor Michael Farzan.
The researchers said they hoped to proceed to human testing within the year.
The search for a HIV vaccine has been going for over 30 years with only limited success. Scientists’ attempts to develop a significant protective therapy have been thwarted due to the ever-evolving nature of the virus.
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Posted: 19 Feb 2015 12:36 AM PST


A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pressuring the White House to declassify 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report that have been rumored to detail an investigation into alleged ties between Saudi Arabia and Al-Qaeda.
These pages have been classified since the original report was released during the presidency of George W. Bush, and President Barack Obama has so far declined to declassify them. While it’s unclear exactly what the contents of the documents are, several current and former lawmakers who have read the pages say they illustrate links between the Saudi government and some of the terrorists responsible for attacking the World Trade Center and Pentagon back in 2001.
Although the bill urging President Obama to release the 28 pages, known as House Resolution 14, was introduced in January after a failed attempt to pass it in 2013, recently released testimony from convicted Al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui has breathed new life into calls for declassification. In early February, Moussaoui said several members of the Saudi royal family, including three princes, donated money directly to Al-Qaeda.
Questions about the legitimacy of Moussaoui’s testimony persist, but lawmakers are nonetheless calling on President Obama to release what many people believe is the 9/11 Commission’s findings on the alleged links. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), the author of the bill, framed the issue as one of transparency.
“You cannot have trust in your government when your government hides information from you, particularly on something horrific like 9/11,” said Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) to The Hill on Friday.
According to Congress.gov, Jones’ bill has 13 co-sponsors, including 8 Democrats.
Adding pressure on the White House is the fact that former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee as the 9/11 report was drafted, recently said the remaining 28 pages “point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier” of the 9/11 attacks, according to the New York Times.
In 2012, meanwhile, Graham said he was “convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11 attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia.” The comment was given as a sworn statement as part of a lawsuit against the Saudi government, which was filed by families of 9/11 victims.
President Obama has also reportedly told families of victims of the 9/11 attacks that he supported declassifying the redacted pages. At a February 5 press briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the intelligence community is still reviewing the documents for any potential declassification.
“The administration, in response to a specific congressional request, last year asked the intelligence community to conduct a classification review of that material,” he said. “And we did so in keeping with the standard procedure for determining whether or not it’s appropriate to release classified material.”
Not everyone is convinced the 28 redacted pages are all that interesting. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-C.A.) of the House Intelligence Committee told The Hill that allegations against Saudi Arabia are “unsubstantiated,” but did not dismiss outright the possibility that the section would be made public.
“I have read the 28 pages and the issues raised in those pages were investigated by the 9/11 Commission and found to be unsubstantiated,” he said.
“I believe that at appropriate time in the near future they should be declassified – with any redactions necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods – as this would help demystify the issues raised.”
For its part, Saudi Arabia said back in 2003 that it supports the release of the documents, saying “the idea that the Saudi government funded, organized or even knew about September 11th is malicious and blatantly false.”
“Saudi Arabia has nothing to hide. We can deal with questions in public, but we cannot respond to blank pages.”
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Posted: 18 Feb 2015 08:52 AM PST


President Obama has criticized European efforts to regulate the internet, suggesting Brussels is unfairly targeting US tech companies, because their European rivals just “can’t compete” with Americans.
“We have owned the internet,” Obama stated in an interview with the technology portal Re/Code, during his summit on cyber-security in Silicon Valley on Friday. “Our companies have created it, expanded it, perfected it in ways that they can’t compete. And oftentimes what is portrayed as high-minded positions on issues sometimes is just designed to carve out some of their commercial interests.”
By the President’s own admission, his relationship with Silicon Valley “has historically been very good. Many of these folks are my friends, and have been supporters, and we interact all the time.” Obama’s chief technology officer, Megan Smith, was a Google executive before accepting the White House job.
However, top executives of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook declined invitations to the President’s cyber-security conference on Friday, sending lower-level officials instead. The four CEOs are part of a surveillance reform advocacy group, established following the NSA spy scandal.
Obama did note that certain European countries were “very sensitive” to privacy issues, specifically mentioning Germany’s “history with the Stasi,” the East German secret police infamous for mass surveillance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel actually brought up the Stasi at a December 2013 meeting with Obama to protest the NSA surveillance of foreign leaders, including herself.
Addressing a question about encryption and surveillance, Obama argued he remained a “strong believer in strong encryption”, and remained as strong on civil liberties as ever, but qualified that by saying “It’s just that I am sympathetic to law enforcement.”
European officials have defended their regulatory efforts as driven by concerns over privacy, monopoly behavior, and tax avoidance. Calling Mr. Obama’s comments “out of line,” the European Commission’s spokesperson explained that the EU was seeking to enforce its regulations in a uniform manner across the 28-nation bloc. “Regulations should make it easier for non-EU companies to access the single market,” they told the Financial Times.
Many US tech giants were using loopholes in national tax laws to avoid corporate taxes in the EU, via popular set-ups like the “Double Irish” or the “Dutch Sandwich”. Irish lawmakers finally closed the loophole last fall.
American tech companies have also used EU legislation to lobby against one another. Google has backed the browser antitrust case against Microsoft, while Microsoft has led a coalition lobbying against Google’s search engine dominance.
Last year, the European Court of Justice ruled that Google owed its European users the “right to be forgotten,” by scrubbing unwanted personal information at users’ request.
Obama’s interview was part of a push for the proposed regulation of the internet as a public utility, better known as “Net Neutrality”, which is coming up for a vote in late February. The proposal is under fire by Republican critics, such as FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
At a Republican tech conference last week, Cruz warned against trusting politicians who say “if you like your internet, you can keep your internet”, invoking the President’s famous phrase about doctors used to promote the 2010 “Obamacare” law.
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Posted: 18 Feb 2015 08:45 AM PST



A doctor has discovered the body of a tiny, 6-inch alien in Chile. The doctor has released a trailer showing off some footage of the adorable little extraterrestrial corpse.
Steven Greer, former emergency medical physician and current alien investigator, discovered the little guy in Chile’s Atacama Desert. UFOlogists agree that the tiny alien is from Planet Zeeba, a planet that has been known to be friendly to humans on Earth.
Greer now spends his days convincing the U.S. government to confirm the existence of alien life. And it’s working. President Obama has scheduled a meeting with Greer for next week.
Greer’s film Sirius focuses on some of the alternative energy technologies that currently exist and could exist soon, and he proves that they can be used by this tiny alien race on Earth.
The full documentary will apparently feature an autopsy of the little guy, who kind of reminds us of that little alien guy in the robo-man-suit from Men In Black.
Extraterrestrial experts are wondering, once again, why our government is hiding the truth about tiny aliens. Dr. John Malley, from the U.N. Panel on Extraterrestrials told WWN, “Tiny aliens from Planet Zeeba have been on our planet for at least two years. And they have come here to help us save our planet. We do not understand why the United States and China and Russia refuse to acknowledge their existence.”
This isn’t the first 6 inch “alien” found in the Atacama Desert. The first one was discovered in 1933 by Robert Ripley also in the Atacama Desert of Peru. He called his “alien” Atta-Boy.
DNA analysis calls this Humanoid “alien” fake, they claim its a “human” dwarf fetus
Scientists done all kinds of testing on this creature, CT scans, MRI scans, all kinds of stuff. They’ve done the DNA on it as well, sequenced the Mitochondria DNA. One of the strangest things with the Atacama Mummy, is its rib cage. A normal human being has 12 ribs, while the Atacama Mummy has only 10 ribs which is very unusual. There have been human beings that have had 11 ribs but never 10, this is the first one according to doctors and scientists who call this a human being, because it has 91% of the same human DNA that we have.
The bottom line is, so what? A chimpanzee has 97% of the same DNA as humans, a gorilla has 95% of the same DNA as humans, in fact a banana tree shares 55% of the same DNA as humans. Now are we go around start calling banana trees humans?
Clinical Professor of Pediatric Radiology Ralph Lachman, a specialist in dwarfism, claimed that the specimen’s size was roughly that of a 22-week-old fetus, but the high level of calcification observed in the legs suggested it was more likely a child between the ages of 5 and 8 years old, which is highly unlikely for not one but two of these bizarre “humans” to survive for 5-8 years in the past and in the same region, but yet 0 in our modern times and 0 ever found in other different regions of the world, either past or present.
The bottom line is, this is a very unusual humanoid and the authorities like usual are downplaying things like this, trying to portray it like “fake” and pretending to know everything about it while in fact their knowledge is so limited, its almost close to zero. Some of the scientists raced in making absurd speculations about its supposed “conditions”, some calming to be a fetus, others claiming to be a severe form of dwarfism and so on but the truth is, they don’t have a damn idea what it really is.
This isn’t science but pseudoscience and even though humanity is still at a very early stage in its scientific knowledge database in which more questions arise every day than answers, arrogance seems to reign high among the scientific community who now pretends to “know everything”. Science will only reach a mature level when in situations like the Atacama humanoid mummy (or alien if you like) their answers will be something like: “we don’t really know what it is, we are still studying it, hoping that some day we will finally unlock this mystery”.
        
Posted: 18 Feb 2015 06:01 AM PST


A Danish TV host has caused controversy after he laid flowers for dead Copenhagen terrorist Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein before remarking on his Facebook page, “All is forgiven”.
Christopher Læssø, a presenter with an African Muslim father for Denmark’s Got Talent, exemplified what many will view as an overly liberal response to the terror attack, commenting, “Nothing forgotten, all is forgiven.”
“When they are kicked away, I will put down new flowers!” stated Læssø, in response to reports that Danish citizens have been removing the flowers from the site of where El-Hussein was shot dead by police on Sunday.
Læssø also laid flowers for Finn Nørgaard, who was killed during the shooting at a free speech event, and Dan Uzan, who was shot and killed during El-Hussein’s attack on a synagogue the next day.
Læssø attempted to clarify his actions, commenting, “I put flowers where Omar got shot. Not to respect his actions, but because it’s tragic that no one got close enough to him to stop him from doing what he did.”
However, Søren Pape Poulsen, leader of the Danish Conservative Party, said it was, “silly, disrespectful and inhumane” to honor the dead terrorist.


“When you place flowers for someone, you do it in memory or honor for the deceased. I put flowers in Krystalgade and Krudttønden, because I want to honor those who died, and in my world it’s completely incomprehensible that there should be a visible symbol of where a terrorist has been killed,” said Poulsen.
Many will view Læssø’s comments as another example of how many European citizens are finding it difficult to balance their liberal views towards immigration and the deadly threat posed by Islamic extremism.
Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein was shot dead in an area of Copenhagen with a high immigrant population and a reputation for gang violence.
Muslim gangs are becoming an increasing problem in Copenhagen, having been responsible for an attack on a courthouses and numerous other criminal activities in recent years, including drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human trafficking, racketeering and murder.
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Posted: 18 Feb 2015 04:17 AM PST


Some government troops have retreated from the strategic eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltsevo, which has been besieged by pro-Russia forces, sources say.
“We are evacuating some of our units,” Ilya Kiva, a local police officer, said on Wednesday morning, adding, “But full-scale street fighting continues, and there was also a small tank battle.”
The pro-Russians said they have the town under their control and offered the Ukrainian military forces a chance to give in, an allegation that was denied by Kiev.
The pro-Russia forces staged five artillery strikes on Debaltsevo overnight, thus “grossly violating the peace accords” that came into effect on February 14, Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh claimed in a televised address on Wednesday.
The new deal endorsed by the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy armaments as the initial steps toward a political settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.
Also on Wednesday, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said a large number of Ukrainian troops had surrendered in Debaltsevo. Russian state-owned television aired images of some Ukrainian troops being escorted by the pro-Russians along a road.
The pro-Russia forces and Kiev troops have been battling for Debaltsevo for weeks; the town connects Donetsk and Lugansk, the strongholds of the pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine.
Both cities have been hit by deadly clashes between the pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April last year to crush pro-Russia protests there.
In May 2014, the situation in the two flashpoint cities started to worsen as residents overwhelmingly voted for independence from Ukraine in referendums.
Nearly 5,700 people have been killed and close to a million have been displaced since the armed conflict began in eastern Ukraine.
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Posted: 18 Feb 2015 03:59 AM PST


ISIS’ plans to conquer Europe via Libya have been revealed in letters seen by an anti-terrorism group. Owing to its perfect location on the continental doorstep, the terrorists plan to ferry fighters from North Africa across the Mediterranean.
The plans, analyzed by anti-terrorism British think tank Quillum, outline a strategy to illegally ferry fighters across the sea from Libya into southern Europe, into ports such as Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa, less than 300 miles (483km) away.
Libya “has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat,” an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) propagandist says in the letters seen by Quillum, according to the Telegraph.
That information originates from an IS supporter using the moniker Abu Ibrahim al-Libim. The propagandist is believed to be a strong force in IS recruitment online, with a focus on Libya.
The Telegraph could not independently confirm his identity, but the online recruiter is believed by analysts to be a great inspirer of troops and is widely-read.
“Twitter has shut down Libim’s accounts several times and each time he starts a new one he gets thousands of followers very quickly, which is typical of an influential [IS] affiliate,” Charlie Winter, researcher for the Quillam Foundation, told the newspaper.
The plans Libim reveals revolve around posing as illegal immigrants, to then start an all-out attack on southern Europe by seeding chaos and bloodshed. The terrorists reportedly hope to flood Libya with other fighters from Syria and Iraq, with a whole army at the ready to invade.
“We will conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission,” he says in a Sunday video depicting the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christian guest workers, the video that led to Egypt organizing a bombing campaign on militant positions in Libya. He also describes the country as having “immense potential” for the terrorist group, while making references to the spoils of war left after the ouster of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 – tons of weapons, ammunition and oil.
Libim continues to explain how illegal immigration across into Italy is “huge in number” and that “if this was even partially exploited and developed strategically, pandemonium could be wrought in the southern European states and it is even possible that there could be a closure of shipping lines and targeting of Crusader ships and tankers.”
The video and the letters come shortly after renewed calls in the West to do something about Libya’s security problem. President Obama’s strategy, for one, depended heavily on a president forced to step down recently. Now, the country’s security is at an all-time low, and the various factions and jihadist groups vying for control of the oil-rich state have plans to remake Europe in that image.
And owing to Libya’s vast desert swaths and porous borders with sub-Saharan Africa, the country has long been a firm favorite for trafficking people into Europe.
However, after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, Libya’s status as a terrorist hub shot through the roof and, according to the documents, this could be a perfect country for an all-out incursion into southern Europe.
Security bells are ringing, especially in Italy, which saw 2,164 illegal migrants rescued in the space of 24 hours over the weekend. It could now be faced with many that are terrorists, according to Egyptian Ambassador to London Nasser Kamel. “Those boat people who go for immigration purposes and try to cross the Mediterranean … in the next few weeks, if we do not act together, they will be boats full of terrorists also.”
Just as these assessments came to light, Italy issued its own statement, outlining just how great a risk there is of Libyan militants merging with the IS. On Wednesday its Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni spoke of an “evident risk” and that time for Libya was “running out”. He called for “a change of pace” from the international community.
IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has openly been claiming Libya for his ‘caliphate’ recently.
While still not completely submerged, the country is fast on its way, as whole cities conquered by the group now adhere to its strict form of Islam, complete with executions.
Navigating Libya’s terrorist circles is also a daunting task: some are allied with the IS, others with Al-Qaeda. All are fiercely anti-government, though some have helped install a new government in Tripoli, after banishing the internationally-recognized one to Tobruk in the east.
“In terms of the demographics of [IS] support in Libya, we see a lot in common with its base of support in Iraq and Syria – many of its fighters are young, disfranchised men who have only bought into ISIL’s brand of Islamist zealotry because they are looking to forcibly empower themselves in the penetrating absence of the state,” Winter explains.
“The risks Europe faces from ISIL pre-eminence in Libya are substantial.”
The onus would appear to be on the West to do something security-wise – especially in places like Italy. But that country is already facing a fierce backlash from UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, for seemingly caring more about implementing stringent security policies on immigrants, as opposed to caring for people’s safety when they drown just off the coast trying to make it to a better life.
More than 207,000 people have attempted the crossing to Europe over the Mediterranean Sea this year – “almost three times the previous known high of about 70,000 in 2011,” the UN pointed out. That year saw a spike on account of the Libyan civil wa.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 17:37