Greece arrests neo-Nazi party leader

Greece arrests neo-Nazi party leader

Greece on Saturday arrested the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, Nikos Michaloliakos, pictured last year, and hunted for dozens of members as part of a crackdown launched after the murder of a leftist musician

AFP - Greece on Saturday arrested the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party and hunted for dozens of members as part of a crackdown launched after the murder of a leftist musician, a police source said.
Nikos Michaloliakos, 56, was arrested along with Golden Dawn lawmaker and spokesman Ilias Kassidiairis and two other party members on charges of belonging to a "criminal organisation," the source said on condition of anonymity.
Arrest warrants have been issued for at least five other MPs and dozens of members of the party, which has 18 lawmakers in parliament.
The arrests came a day after Golden Dawn threatened to quit parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in the recession-hit country where the government is struggling to implement painful public sector reforms in return for international bailout funds.
Greece launched a crackdown on the party after the fatal stabbing of 34-year-old anti-fascist hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas on September 18 by a self-confessed neo-Nazi.
On Friday, Michaloliakos threatened to pull the party's 18 lawmakers out of parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in 15 regions around the country.
The by-elections could hurt the coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, which has a slim majority of 155 MPs in the 300-seat parliament.
Golden Dawn was voted into parliament for the first time in 2012 elections, amid widespread anger over structural reforms international creditors have imposed on the debt-wracked country, which is currently in its sixth continuous year of recession and that has a staggering 27 percent unemployment rate.

Thieves target walnut farms as nut prices triple...

Stockton Farmers Say Walnut Crops Are Prime Targets For Creative Thieves

September 26, 2013 7:06 PM

Share on email2

View Comments

Reporting Cambi Brown

Filed Under

Local, News, Seen On,Syndicated Local

Related Tags

Crime, stockton, theft,Walnut, Transportation and Logistics

STOCKTON (CBS13) — Thieves are targeting walnut farmers whose crops have seen a significant increase in value in recent years.

The price of walnuts have more than tripled in recent years, going from 60 cents to $2 a pound.

In the back of a truck, Skipp Foppiano says he has almost $100,000 worth of walnuts.

“The theft is getting bad. You’ll see more fences going up around fields,” he said. “Its gotten worse lately because the price of the walnuts is so much higher now.”

Thieves are finding inventive ways to steal the crop. Foppiano says if he leaves the truck out, he’ll be left with a just semi in the morning.

“They’ll come with a truck and unhook it and steal it all,” he said.

Foppiano has 24-hour security, puts all of his equipment away at night and even locks the bins filled with walnuts.

But because of the possibility of a big payout, the criminals are taking greater risks.

“There’s trucks that come in with phony paperwork. They’ll hook up to a trailer, sign out and then take off,” he said.

It’s a huge loss, and if it keeps happening, consumers could pay more at the grocery store. That’s why Foppiano doesn’t mind paying to protect his orchard.

“Thousands of dollars, but its cheaper than losing it,” he said.

Farmers in the area get together and share the ways they’ve been conned by thieves, so they can be on the lookout and protect their investment.

'Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers': Horrific claims of torture emerge as soldiers reveal gory Kenyan mall massacre

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434278/Kenya-mall-attack-torture-claims-emerge-soldiers-Eyes-gouged-bodies-hooks-fingers-removed.html

'Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers': Horrific claims of torture emerge as soldiers reveal gory Kenyan mall massacre details

• Kenyan soldiers claim to find scenes of torture by mall terrorists
• They say children found dead in food fridges with knives still in bodies
• Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed

By PAUL BENTLEY

PUBLISHED: 17:56 EST, 26 September 2013 | UPDATED: 05:16 EST, 27 September 2013

 
 
 

2,111 shares

735

View
comments

Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling.

Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged. 

Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed. 

Scroll down for video

Soldiers have told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday as the first pictures of inside the centre have emerged

Most of the defeated terrorists, meanwhile, were reportedly discovered ‘burnt to ashes’, set alight by the last extremist standing to try to protect their identities.

The horrifying details came yesterday as the first pictures emerged from within the wreckage of the building, showing piles of bodies left strewn across the floor. 

A third of the mall was destroyed in the battle between terrorists and Kenyan troops. 

 

More...

• World's most wanted woman: Interpol issues global arrest warrant for White Widow as it emerges she 'worked in halal pie shop while on the run'
• Mall massacre survivor smeared herself in the blood of teenage victim to make gunmen think she was dead
• Think he's going to need a lawyer: Bizarre road-rage video of attorney punching driver leaves passers-by in hysterics

Lying in the rubble are feared to be the bodies of as many as 71 civilians who have been declared missing by the Kenyan Red Cross.

With detectives, including the FBI and the Metropolitan Police, still unable to reach the wrecked part of the mall for fear of setting off explosives, it could take up to a week to determine exactly who is still inside.

 

Security forces storm Kenya mall as building burns in siege

Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged during the four day siege

Pictured is the aftermath at Westgate Shopping Mall where the roof of the car park collapsed crushing three floors

Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes inside.

‘You find people with hooks hanging from the roof,’ said one Kenyan doctor, who asked not to be named.

‘They removed eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood. 

‘They drive knives inside a child’s body. 

'Actually if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers. Here it was pain.’

A soldier, who took pictures at a bread counter and at the ArtCaffe, said he was so traumatised by what he saw he has had to seek counselling.

Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies. 

 

Footage shows full extent of destruction to Westgate mall

Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes inside

Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies

The collapse happened on Monday when government troops launched a massive assault on the mall where up to 150 people are thought to have been killed

Images also emerged yesterday revealing the true extent of the destruction caused to the centre during the four-day battle between Kenyan forces and Islamic militants.

The first pictures taken inside the site show a gaping hole in the mall's roof after three storeys collapsed when Kenyan soldiers fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the complex, knocking out a support column, a government official said. 

Children's buggies are left abandoned just metres from the yawning pit, as cars hang precariously over the edge. Beneath many more vehicles lie on top of each other, smashed to pieces.

The collapse happened on Monday when government troops launched a massive assault on the mall where up to 150 people are thought to have been killed.

During the firefight, hostages reportedly had their throats slashed from ear to ear and were thrown screaming from third-floor balconies as the siege came to a bloody end. Forensics teams, still sifting through the mountains of rubble, fear many more bodies are yet to be found.

Shell-shocked Kenyan troops said the inside of the Israeli-run mall resembled a ‘scene from a horror movie’ with blood spattered everywhere and dead bodies strewn across the floor.

Between 10 and 15 terrorists are thought to have stormed the mall on Saturday, according to Kenyan officials. The police said five insurgents were killed in the battle and at least 10 taken into custody

The main thrust of the operation began at 6am on Monday when troops and helicopters surrounded the building, but their efforts were hampered by an Al Shabaab sniper who managed to pin them back for nearly 24 hours.

As tear gas was used to try to flush him out, another terrorist reportedly blew himself up. It is believed the resulting fire may have killed dozens of shoppers in a supermarket.  

The following day, the soldiers were ordered to adopt a 'shoot to kill' policy and launched their final attack on the terror group on the roof of the mall at 5pm.

The mall was retaken about half an hour later.

 

More...

• World's most wanted woman: Interpol issues global arrest warrant for White Widow as it emerges she 'worked in halal pie shop while on the run'
• Mall massacre survivor smeared herself in the blood of teenage victim to make gunmen think she was dead
• Think he's going to need a lawyer: Bizarre road-rage video of attorney punching driver leaves passers-by in hysterics

Between 10 and 15 terrorists are thought to have stormed the mall on Saturday, according to Kenyan officials.

The police said five insurgents were killed in the battle and at least 10 taken into custody.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434278/Kenya-mall-attack-torture-claims-emerge-soldiers-Eyes-gouged-bodies-hooks-fingers-removed.html#ixzz2g5n6et13
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

US appeasement of Iran drowns Israel’s military option against nuclear Iran or chemical Syria

DEBKAfile Special Report September 27, 2013, 11:05 AM (IDT)

Thursday, Sept.26, will go down in Israel’s history as the day it lost its freedom to use force either against the Iranian nuclear threat hanging over its head or Syria’s chemical capacity – at least, so long as Barack Obama is president of the United States. During that time, the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah axis, backed by active weapons of mass destruction, is safe to grow and do its worst.
Ovations for the disarming strains of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani’s serenade to the West and plaudits for the pragmatism of its Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif flowed out of every window of UN Center in New York this week.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who took part in the highest-level face to face encounter with an Iranian counterpart in more than 30 years, did say that sanctions would not be removed until Tehran produced a transparent and systematic plan for dismantling its nuclear program.

But then, in an interview to CBS TV, he backpedaled. Permission for international inspectors to visit the Fordo underground enrichment facility would suffice for the easing of sanctions starting in three months’ time.
By these words, the US pushed back Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first demand to shutter Fordo and its equipment for enriching uranium to near-weapons grade, which he reiterated at this week’s Israeli cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

To Tehran, Kerry therefore held out the promise of a short deadline for starting to wind sanctions down - this coming December.

Tehran’s primary objective is therefore within reach, the easing for sanctions without having to rescind any part of its nuclear aspirations - called “nuclear rights” in Iranian parlance.

The foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany, meeting Thursday with Zarif, arranged to resume formal nuclear negotiations next month in Geneva.
In another chamber of the UN building, the Americans were busy climbing all the way down from the military threat Barack Obama briefly brandished against Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons eons ago – on August 31 – before he killed it by passing the decision to the US Congress.
Any suggestion of force against Assad was finally buried at the UN Security Council Thursday, when the United States accepted a formal motion requiring Syria to comply with the international ban on chemical weapons, while yielding to Moscow’s insistence on dropping the penalty for non-compliance incorporated in the original US-British-French draft.

The message relayed to Tehran from both wings of UN headquarters was that it was fully shielded henceforth by a Russian veto and US complaisance against the oft-vaunted “credible military option” waved by Washington. Iran and its close ally, the Syrian ruler Assad, were both now safe from military retribution – from the United States and Israel alike – and could develop or even use their weapons of mass destruction with impunity.

Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who was on the spot, could do little but repeat his government’s demands of Tehran to anyone who would listen, shouted down by the flood of conciliation pouring out for the new Iranian president. There was no escaping the conclusion that the Netanyahu government’s policy – if that is what it could be called - for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran is in tatters.

Iran, instead of facing world pressure to disarm its nuclear program, managed to turn the spotlight on Israel, requiring the world to denuclearize the entire Middle East and force Israel to join the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

Given the atmosphere prevailing in the world body these days, it is not surprising that the speech delivered to the assembly by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was rated moderate – even when he called the establishment of the State of Israel a “historic, unprecedented injustice which has befallen the Palestinian people in al-Nakba of 1948” and demand redress.
This perversion of the UN's historic action to create a Jewish state could only go down as moderate in a climate given over wholly under John Kerry’s lead to appeasing the world’s most belligerent nations and forces, so long as they made the right diplomatic noises.

Palin rips GOP defeatists who fear defunding ObamaCare

"Heck, about the most significant thing that happened during the last government shutdown was Clinton hooked up with Monica." In absolutely awesome piece, Palin rips GOP defeatists who fear defunding ObamaCare By Dan Calabrese (Bio and Archives)  Sunday, September 22, 2013  Comments | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us Dang, I’m jealous that Breitbart got her to write this and we didn’t. Next time! We love Gov. Palin here, and this is exactly why. As Washington GOP insiders cower in fear over the efforts of people like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul - who actually want to fight this boondoggle - Palin lays out the real truth. For Republicans who insist the defunding of ObamaCare is unachievable, Palin exposes exactly why they think that: They expect to get beaten up by the media, and they’re afraid of that. If the House majority holds together and refuses to fund any particular thing, no money can be spent on it. That’s just a basic fact. If 218 House members refuse to fund ObamaCare, then funding ObamaCare is unachievable, no matter how much Obama, theDemocrats and the media shriek about it. The problem is that Beltway Republicans and their political consultants are terrified of the shrieking. It wouldn’t be fair to Breitbart to excerpt too much of Palin’s piece, but here’s a particularly choice passage: But the permanent political class is handwringing and howling that if there’s a government shutdown the media will blame Republicans for it. Here’s a little newsflash, GOP establishment: Whenever anything bad happens, the media blames Republicans for it. That’s not an excuse to roll over and play dead. It’s a call to follow theadvice I give my daughters: Woman up, stand your ground, and fight like a girl! I want no pity. I need no empathy. But use me as a barometer. Over the years, the leftwing media has falsely and irrationally accused me of everything from faking a pregnancy to abetting murder. They lie. Deal with it. Republicans in Congress support funding the government. If the Democratsblock these funding measures, a government shutdown is on them. In the meantime, stop the ridiculous hysterics. Heck, about the most significant thing that happened during the last government shutdown was Clinton hooked up with Monica. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Be sure to click over to Breitbart and read the whole thing, and share it. I also want to add to Palin’s point about the shutdown. A narrative has dominatedWashington for nearly two decades that the Republicans got their clocks cleaned politically from the 1995 shutdown, that Clinton got the best of Gingrich, and that’s why Republicans can never really stand up to Democrats on a big budget issue. If Democratsare threatened with not getting something they want, they can simply refuse to deal and let the Republicans face the horror of a government shutdown and all the media abuse that will come with it. Republicans need to get over that, and fast. Otherwise they will never have any hope of standing their ground on anything. I understand that politics is rough and tumble, which is why you can’t accomplish anything in it if you’re always afraid. If the government shuts down because Obama and Reid wouldn’t accept a spending bill that didn’t fund ObamaCare, and the media starts doing what it always does and blames Republicans, then stand up and fight that narrative you sniveling little cowards! Geez.

America-hating Obama a Threat to World Freedom

‘Tolerance Overkill’, the same one keeping the masses asleep, but as lethal as nerve gas America-hating Obama a Threat to World Freedom By Judi McLeod (Bio and Archives)  Sunday, September 22, 2013  Comments | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us The impassable roadblock now facing civilized society can be summed up in a single sentence: While radical Islam becomes increasingly intolerant of all others, the West has become hopelessly hooked on ‘Tolerance Overkill’. The U.S. is tolerating a president whose life’s passion is a poisonous hatred of America. Not a single Senator from either side of the political aisle has called Barack Hussein Obama out on his palpable hatred of the country that pays his heavy freight. This is where ‘Tolerance Overkill’ has already taken a not-so-long-ago free society: “I can hear you.  The rest of the world hears you!” The words shouted by President George W. Bush via bullhorn at a decimated Ground Zero in 2001 were replaced 12 years later by a president who trashed freedom by officially throwing America in with al Qaeda, now claiming thousands of lives in Syria. In 2001, the New York Times openly providing op-ed space for ex-KGB agent, Russia President Vladimir Putin would never have been tolerated without vociferous public outrage.  Nor would Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s op-ed in the Washington Postproclaiming “gone is the age of blood feuds” when those blood feuds were ongoing even as his words were being read,  including today’s terrorist attack in Kenya Mall, where at least 15 are dead when non-Muslims were targeted. The US mainstream media, which brought a radical malcontent community organizer into power and keeps him there, is now the welcome mat for the American disseminated propaganda of despots like Putin and Rouhani. It is largely thanks to the mainstream media that the takeover of MidEastcountries by the Muslim Brotherhood was passed off on an unsuspecting citizenry as replacement by a democracy-loving Arab Spring. Why does our tolerance allow the media to define, shape, propagandize and flat out lie about the current shift of power that is leading the Free World into a helpless Socialist State? Why do the talking heads of cable television networks go so far to distort the big picture of what is actually taking place in the world? Why do they bore us to tears with specious arguments, talking non-stop about presidents of the past without focusing on the one who hates America and who is getting a pass? Why is it that every hiccup from a champagne imbibing celebrity makes front pageheadlines,  but Obama’s latest executive order must be picked up by the alternatemedia? How is it even possible that ratings support Tea Party backstabber Karl Rove on a supposedly “balanced” Fox News? How do ratings support former ‘Britain’s Got Talent’,  ‘America’s Got Talent’ judge and fired Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, who claims guns and not people kill, or former Obama Green Jobs czar Van Jones on CNN’s Crossfire? When did it become inevitable for Americans to accept any president that the same faceless elite continue to put forward every election? When is the rest of the world going to realize that many Western leaders are lemmings on the Obama trail to destruction and will do nothing to protect their own countries when crisis strikes? When is the rest of the Free World going to realize that Obama is not just a threat to America but to the entire West? ‘Tolerance Overkill’, the same one keeping the masses asleep, but as lethal as nerve gas, is throwing individual rights and freedom into the dust bin of history.

SAUDI TAIL WAGGING U.S. INTO WAR? Ambassador lobbying Congress, White House to take action

3 Klein Online by Staff  /  4h  //  keep unread  //  trash  //  preview SAUDI TAIL WAGGING U.S. INTO WAR? Ambassador lobbying Congress, White House to take action   +TAG By Aaron Klein Powerful U.S. ally Saudi Arabia has been a driving force behind the scenes, pushing for the U.S. to act militarily in Syria. The Saudis already have been secretly helping to fuel the insurgency to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the two years that the uprising has been going on. And it was reportedly the Saudi security services that alerted the U.S. to the first claim last February of a sarin gas attack by Assad’s regime. And KleinOnline reported in October 2012 that Saudi Arabia was working with Qatar and Turkey to send weapons to the Syrian rebels. Further, KleinOnline reported at the time that murdered U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens served as a key contact with the Saudis to coordinate the recruitment by Saudi Arabia of Islamic fighters from North Africa and Libya. The jihadists were sent to Syria via Turkey to attack Assad’s forces, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials. In a hearing last week, Secretary of State John Kerry said Arab countries have offered to pay for any U.S. military intervention in Syria. Now the Wall Street Journal has detailed a massive Saudi lobbying effort to push the U.S. to act in Syria. The Journal fingered Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, as leading a campaign to convince Congress and the White House to expand the U.S. role in Syria. The newspaper reported an original Saudi goal was to secure U.S. support to train the Syrian rebels at camps in Jordan. The Saudis were apparently successful. KleinOnline was first to report in February 2012 the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region, according to knowledgeable Egyptian and Arab security officials. In May, The New York Times confirmed the CIA was training the rebels in Jordan under a covert program that also included a U.S. campaign to send weapons to the rebels via Arab and Turkish points. Now the Journal is reporting the Saudis pushed for the Jordanian training camps and sent AK-47s and ammunition, according to Arab officials. The Journal reported that in September and October 2012 the Saudis approached Croatia to procure more weapons. The choice of Croatia may be instructive. It has been confirmed that on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, U.S. Special Forces were stationed just a few hours away from Benghazi on a training exercise in Croatia. The Journal reported that in April, “the Saudi king sent a strongly worded message to Mr. Obama: America’s credibility was on the line if it let Mr. Assad and Iran prevail.” The king “warned of dire consequences of abdicating U.S. leadership and creating a vacuum, said U.S. officials briefed on the message,” reported the Journal. Is this what Syria war really about? Is the reported willingness of Arab Gulf states to fund a U.S. military campaign in Syria really about major oil and gas interests that run through the country? The potential for trillions of dollars of energy revenue in deals that snake through Syrian territory may be a motivating factor for the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Arab states in the current Syria crisis. Syria is a key energy transit route to Europe. A number of countries appear to be seeking dominance of the energy market that runs through Syria. Beside the prospect of its own gas field, Syria is also one of the most strategic locations for natural gas pipelines to flow to Europe. Qatar, home to the world’s largest gas field along with Iran, has proposed a gas pipeline from the Gulf to Turkey that would traverse Syria to the Mediterranean, with the gas then being shipped to Europe. However, Assad in 2009 refused to go along with the plan, instead inking deals with Russia and Iran. Syria is the site of the proposed construction of a massive underground gas pipeline that, if completed, could drastically undercut the strategic energy power of U.S. ally Qatar and also would cut Turkey out of the pipeline flow. Dubbed the “Islamic pipeline,” the project may ultimately favor Russia and Iran against Western energy interests. Set to open in 2016, Iran, Iraq and Syria signed a deal in 2010 to construct the 3,480-mile natural gas pipeline connecting Iran’s South Pars field to European customers. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji announced the pipeline would ultimately have the capacity to pump 3.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. He told Iran’s official Mehr News Agency the route would “pass through Iran, Iraq, Syria, the southern Lebanon territories and also through the Mediterranean basin,” with a refinery and infrastructure to be built in Damascus. A key portion of the Islamic pipeline is concentrated on the Syrian ports, which would export directly to Europe out of the Eastern Mediterranean. Russia has reportedly built up its naval presence along the major Syrian ports of Latakia and Tartus. The Islamic pipeline is viewed as a major threat to Turkey, which has long desired to become the main bridge for natural gas and oil between the East and the West. Turkey, however, is a key player in the Nabucco natural gas pipeline, which is being constructed to transit natural gas to Europe from the Central Asia and Caspian regions. The pipeline is set to traverse Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, ending in Austria. Turkey has been a key supporter of the rebels fighting Assad’s regime, while Qatar has reportedly been supplied arms and training to the rebels. If Assad can be deposed, Turkey and Qatar would like the Nabucco pipeline to run through Syria. Perhaps in a bid to wean Russia off of the Islamic pipeline, Saudi Arabia last month presented a plan to Moscow in which Russia would reject Syria’s president in return for a huge arms deal and a pledge to boost Russian influence in the Arab world. Agence France-Presse reported President Vladimir Putin refused the plan in a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Bandar reportedly proposed that Saudi Arabia buy $15 billion of weapons from Russia and invest “considerably in the country,” according to AFP. Demonstrating that oil interests are clearly at play, AFP reported: “The Saudi prince also reassured Putin that ‘whatever regime comes after’ Assad, it will be ‘completely’ in the Saudis’ hands and will not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports.” With additional research by Joshua Klein.