Nigerian ‘Death Cult’ Gang Kidnapping Victims with Help of Voodoo in Sweden

And not just Sweden, they are taking hold from

Europe, to Africa, to Canada

FILE PHOTO: African voodoo dolls. ©  Global Look Press / Impact Photos / Janet Wishnetsky

A criminal gang notorious for its brutality is gaining a foothold in major Swedish cities, police have warned. The drug-traffickers and people-smugglers from Nigeria are known for using “black magic” to coerce people into crime.

The ‘Black Axe’ – a group described as nothing but a ‘death cult’ that kills, kidnaps, resolves internal conflicts with machete fights and uses voodoo as an instrument of blackmail – has firmly established itself in Sweden and is now coming to the city of Uppsala in the latest concerning development, local police have said.

“Unfortunately, we see signs of that,” Jale Poljarevius, a local police spokesman told the Swedish SVT broadcaster. So far, it is mostly about drug trafficking and prostitution – yet, the “black magic” footprint of the gang is already clearly visible.

“They are holding women hostage and are tricking them [into believing] through the use of voodoo that it will end up badly for them if they quit the job,” Poljarevius said. “Yet, it is also about selling cocaine and heroin.”

Now, the police fear that the group’s rise in the city would lead to a wave of gang violence, as it will have to fight for its place in the sun in an already extremely crowded criminal environment. “There is a lot of cocaine but not so many users so the market is quite saturated. It would lead to violence rather than cooperation,” the police spokesman said.

Network of evil

Uppsala appears to be just the latest battleground for the gang that has already entrenched itself in other major cities like Gothenburg, or Sweden’s capital of Stockholm. In early October, the Swedish media reported that 15 people linked to the dreaded mafia have been charged with “particularly serious drug offenses” in what was described as one of the Swedish Customs Administration’s “largest investigations ever.”

A 179-page lawsuit filed with the Gothenburg District Court says that “the organization is estimated to have sold drugs worth a total of 112 million Swedish Krona ($11.51 million) … amounting to approximately 42 kilograms of cocaine, 50 kilograms of heroin and 40 kilograms of heroin/cocaine mix,” Expressen newspaper reports.

Around the same time, the Swedish prosecutors admitted that the group has also long been active in Stockholm. “They have really heavily established themselves over the past five years,” a local police spokesman Lennart Karlsson, told the Ekot newspaper.

The gang lures migrants from West Africa with a promise of jobs only to drag them into criminal activities afterwards. According to police, they particularly use a Stockholm mosque frequented by the people of West African origin for recruitment purposes. “People … [are] told to come there and get contacts to get a job. The Black Axe members hang out outside and [recruit] them,” Karlsoon explains.

In their methods, the criminals heavily rely on juju – a Nigerian version of the voodoo magic – as they perform rituals and then convince their exploitation victims – mostly migrants – that the gang would “obliterate their souls” should they disobey orders or report its members to police. But they do not shy away from more “traditional” blackmail methods involving kidnappings and killings.

In early September, a man of Nigerian origin was arrested in Stockholm’s Arlanda airport as he tried to smuggle 70 capsules of heroin and cocaine in his body. He told the investigators that he was forced to act as a drug courier by the Black Axe after they killed his father and threatened to also kill his mother in his native Nigeria.

“They threaten but we also know that they simply murder people. However, there is no indication that this happened in Sweden. Yet, it did happen in their home country [Nigeria] and in other countries where the network is established,” Prosecutor Karolina Lindekrantz told the Swedish media.

Long established in Canada

Over the years, the Black Axe has evolved into an international crime syndicate that challenges law and order across the world from Europe to Canada, where the group has held an iron grip on the local Nigerian community since after 2005, and runs large-scale smuggling operations as well as millions of dollars-worth money laundering and fraud schemes.

RT✔
Gang shootings, rapes and no-go zones? Sweden battles crime wave https://on.rt.com/996f 

Gang shootings, rapes and no-go zones? Government blamed as Sweden battles crime wave — RT World...
Swedish authorities held an emergency meeting this week to discuss the recent spate of gang shootings that have plagued Sweden’s cities and made crime a major issue ahead of elections in September.

However, the gang’s taking root in Europe is relatively recent. Stemming from a nationalist student movement that turned into a ruthless organized group after the 1980 military coup in Nigeria, the group gained power through terror tactics in that and other nations – but did not gain a foothold in the EU until 2015.

When the doors were thrown wide open and everyone was welcomed, everyone!

Then, at the height of the refugee and migrant crisis, Black Axe members arrived to Sicily and engaged in a turf war with the notorious Cosa Nostra mafia – only to start collaborating with it soon afterwards. From there, the gang spread its influence in other European countries, including Austria and the Netherlands.

Now Swedish media describes it as a business-like, tech-savvy organization, excelling at modern technologies and keeping a low profile to stay largely below the police radar.

“In my opinion, it is one of the world’s most effective crime syndicates,” Stockholm police spokesman Karlsoon has admitted. “So, unfortunately for us, they [will] probably have a pretty bright future.”

Certainly as long as you have a far-left, lunatic government.

Multiple NASA Studies Confirm Bedrock Heat Flow Behind Melting Polar Ice, Not Global Warming

In what amounts to dissension from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate change policy, a series of just-released studies by working-level scientists prove that geological and not atmospheric forces are responsible for melting of Earth’s polar ice sheets.

Figure 1. The eruption of Antarctica’s Mount Erebus, one of the continent’s 149 active land volcanoes,

many of which lie beneath miles of glacial ice. 

A review of these studies and their significance relative to what force or forces control the climate and climate-related events of Earth’s polar regions is as follows.

NASA Antarctica Study October 30, 2015

This research study authored by NASA Glaciologist Jay Zwally concluded that Antarctica is gaining, not losing, ice mass and thereby challenging the conclusions of many previous studies, most importantly the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report (see the quote from the study below).

“A new NASA study says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers.

“The research challenges the conclusions of other studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report, which says that Antarctica is overall losing land ice.

The conclusions of this NASA study were immediately challenged by numerous climate activist groups and biased media outlets (see here). These challenges have since been proven incorrect for several reasons.

Statements by NASA Glaciologist Jay Zwally concerning his soon-to-be-published Antarctic follow-up study reconfirm that Antarctica is gaining, not losing ice.

The results of this follow-up study are bolstered by two other NASA research studies.

The first, dated January 1, 2018, shows that East Antarctica has for many years been accumulating huge amounts of snow that compact into ice and increasing overall ice mass (see here).

The second NASA study released on July 19, 2018, showed that the atmosphere above the Antarctic Continent has been continuously cooling and not warming for many years (see here).

Obviously, it’s impossible to melt Antarctica’s glaciers via atmospheric warming when the atmosphere is not warming.

Actually, it's impossible to melt the Antarctic ice cap from above regardless of how warm it gets. It would take millions of years.

Lastly, a NASA study dated Feb. 20, 2018, concludes that outflow of East Antarctic glaciers into the ocean is stable and not increasing (see here). This is proof that East Antarctica’s ice mass is not being diminished by glacial outflow into adjacent oceans.

Bottom line, research by NASA scientists clearly shows that the well-documented ice loss in West Antarctica is more than accommodated by ice gains in East Antarctica. Contrary to hundreds of pro-melting articles, Antarctica’s ice mass is increasing!

NASA Antarctica Study November 7, 2017

This research study entitled “Hot News from the Antarctic Underground“ investigated West Antarctica’s subglacial geology.

It substantiates many previous research studies that have documented this region’s subglacial high-bedrock heat-flow, active faulting, and prevalent volcanism.

Recent research by the University of Rhode Island scientists confirms the premises of a previous Climate Change Dispatch article that subglacial, volcanic heat-flow is melting West Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier (see here).

Many previous Climate Change Dispatch articles have reviewed West Antarctica’s subglacial mantle plume and the world-class fault system that is acting to bottom-melt this region’s glacial land sea ice (see here, here, and here).

NASA Greenland Study August 1, 2018

The results of this research study illustrated in Figure 2 confirm the very high geothermal bedrock heat-flow from Greenland’s massive subglacial Mantle Plume, which was originally documented in four previous research studies (see here, here, here, and here).

A geothermal heat-flow cause for the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet has been the focus of numerous Climate Change Dispatch articles (see here, here, here, and here).

Figure 2.) Geological time-frame movement of Earth’s outer crust across the stable deep inner-earth Greenland/Iceland mantle plume and superimposed in color the present-day anomalously high heat-flow rates. 

In summary, the NASA studies mentioned in this article have accelerated the ongoing demise of the once one-hundred-percent-settled-science status of global warming theory.

It is now abundantly clear that even respected mainstream NASA geologists and glaciologists are advocating that formerly under-appreciated geological forces working in concert with atmospheric forces are responsible for polar ice cap melting.

Here we note that in many cases these geological forces are dominant and, in some cases, the complete cause of modern-day and ancient polar ice cap melting

Knowing this brings into question other aspects of supposedly 100 percent settled climate dogma.

Specifically, that man-made global warming is the root cause of other supposedly unnatural polar ice cap events such as alteration of marine and land animal migration patterns, anomalous plankton blooms, chemical alteration of adjacent ocean waters, alteration of polar area ocean currents, and changes in meteorological patterns.

Many of these events are more likely the result of, or strongly influenced by, geologically induced heat and chemically charged heated fluid flow at the base of polar ice sheets or in adjacent oceans.

Lastly, there is a quiet revolution occurring within NASA that will play out within the next year or two ending in the complete reconstruction of global warming theory.

Yeah, I have my doubts about that. It's far too political for actual science to emerge.

The remodeled version will reflect the now proven and significant climate influence of geological forces as per the 2014 Plate Climatology Theory.

James Edward Kamis is a retired professional Geologist with 42 years of experience, a B.S. in Geology from Northern Illinois University (1973), an M.S. in geology from Idaho State University (1977), and a longtime member of AAPG who has always been fascinated by the connection between Geology and Climate. More than 14 years of research/observation have convinced him that the Earth’s Heat Flow Engine, which drives the outer crustal plates, is an important driver of the Earth’s climate as per his Plate Climatology Theory.

Yemen: Up to 85,000 Young Children Dead from Starvation

Yemen is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, ie Shia and Sunni Islam. Western countries

happily provide Saudi Arabia with weapons while Eastern countries provide Iran with weapons.

So, in effect, it is also a proxy war between Eastern and Western arms manufacturers.

And, as always, it is children who suffer the most from adult madness.

This article is more than 11 months old - Update follows.

Save the Children condemns ‘preventable’ deaths of under-fives and calls for end to war

Bethan McKernan, Middle East correspondent, and agencies

The Guardian

An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five have starved to death over the last three years as a result of Yemen’s civil war, a report from Save the Children has found, as the charity urged an immediate ceasefire to prevent more loss of life.

The figure is a conservative estimate based on UN data on severe acute malnutrition, which the international body says has afflicted more than 1.3 million children since the conflict between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition that seeks to restore Yemen’s exiled government began in 2015.

About 14 million people – half of Yemen’s population – are currently at risk of famine, largely because of Saudi border blockades designed to weaken the Houthis, which have also strangled civilian access to food, fuel, aid and commercial goods.

Fears for Yemen’s civilian population have increased in recent weeks because of an escalation in fighting around the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, through which about 80% of the country’s imports flow.

Even a small amount of damage to the port’s facilities, and a delay in aid deliveries, is likely to lead the UN to declare a widespread famine.

“I am scared of the war and worried we won’t have food. It is distressing,” said Suad, a mother to 13-month-old Nusair, whom Save the Children is treating for severe acute malnutrition. “I can’t go to sleep, it is torturing, and I am worried about my children. I couldn’t live if any harm came to them.”

The new violence in Hodeidah has forced the charity to divert shipments for the rebel-held north of the country via Aden, a city nominally loyal to the government, causing delivery delays of up to two weeks.

“This conflict has created a perfect storm of conditions that has driven the country to the brink of famine,” said Bhanu Bhatnagar, a Save the Children spokesman. “The violence has disrupted food production and destroyed hospitals and health centres where the weak and sick can be treated.

“Barriers to importing and distributing supplies have severely restricted the amount of food getting into and around the country. And in markets where food is actually available, ordinary people simply can’t afford to buy it as salaries have been unpaid for months and the currency has collapsed in value.”

The UN’s special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has extracted promises from both the coalition and the Houthis to attend peace talks at the end of November after a failed round in September.

Griffiths flew into rebel-held capital Sanaa Wednesday to push for fresh peace talks.

A draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire was presented to the UN security council on Monday, although a vote has not yet been timetabled.

“For children under the age of five this situation is proving a death sentence,” Bhatnagar said. “What is shocking about Yemen is that these 85,000 deaths are not a result of drought or climate change, they are entirely the result of a manmade conflict that is fuelled by countries who have the power to stop it.”

The UK – along with other western governments – has been repeatedly criticised by rights groups for its support for the Saudi-led coalition, including arms sales.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday, British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said the conflict was a “humanitarian catastrophe”, and told MPs the UN resolution seeking to relieve the humanitarian crisis in the country put forward by Britain aimed to “maximise the chances of achieving a political settlement”.

Hunt said: “The important thing about the resolution that we are proposing is not that this is the end of the story, in terms of international efforts to broker a ceasefire, this is a step in the road.

“We want a ceasefire, we want a ceasefire that will hold, and we know that the risk that if you go for too much too early in these resolutions is that they end up getting ignored.

“And so this is a carefully brokered form of words designed to get a consensus from both sides that allow talks to start before the end of this month in Stockholm. That’s the objective of this resolution.

“If the talks are successful we will be able to have a much stronger resolution that follows those talks.”

Update: Oct 4th, 2019 - 

Saudi Arabia considering some form of Yemen ceasefire

Aziz El Yaakoubi, Stephen Kalin, Lisa Barrington, 

DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is considering a proposal by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement for some form of ceasefire which, if agreed, could bolster U.N. efforts to end a devastating war tarnishing Riyadh’s reputation.

The Houthis offered two weeks ago to stop aiming missile and drone attacks at Saudi Arabia if the western-backed coalition led by Riyadh does the same, as a step to what a Houthi leader called a “comprehensive national reconciliation”.

In other words, there has been no real progress in the 9-10 months following the Guardian article. Children are still dying, Western countries are still raking in Saudi cash, and no governments or media outlets are standing up for the suffering and dying children of Yemen. The media is all too focused on the climate change hysteria. What a sad commentary on 21st century society.

As Germany and Italy Slide Slowly to the Right, Sweden Doubles Down on Far-Left #PCMadness

Elections in Germany, Italy shift political landscape

By Nicholas Sakelaris

The Alternative for Germany Party -- led by Bjorn Hocke, at left -- made key gains in the regional parliament of Thuringia Sunday. File Photo by Filip Singer/EPA-EFE 

(UPI) -- The Alternative for Germany Party gained some key ground in elections over the weekend, but not enough to remove the Left Party from power.

The Left Party won 31 percent of the vote Sunday while the AfD Party claimed 23 percent in in Thuringia in eastern Germany. The Left Party was once part of the Communist Party in East Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union Party finished third in voting, adding uncertainty to the makeup of the future state government.

The AfD Party in Thuringia is led by Bjorn Hocke, who made a name for himself by speaking against the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, calling it a "memorial of shame." He wants a "reversal" of Germany's culture of remembrance.

Thuringia, Germany

In central Italy, the League Party gained control for the first time in a half-century in a landslide victory. It won 58 percent of Sunday's vote in Italy's Umbria region. The two ruling parties, the Democratic Party and the 5StarMovement, earned 37 percent.

"We are writing history here tonight," League leader Matteo Salvini said

The results could shake up Italy's government just two months after the Democratic Party and 5StarMovement removed League from power. Umbria has long been a left-leaning stronghold ruled by communist, left or center-left parties.

Sunday marked the first time the Democratic Party and 5StarMovement teamed up with a joint candidate. Before the election, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the election was "not a vote on my government."

Umbria, Italy

Civil war or bright future? Sweden beckons more migrants with ‘land of benefits’ website as ex-Scania CEO predicts grave conflict

A crowd of refugees arrives in Malmo © Reuters / TT News Agency

Sweden is beckoning even more migrants with a government website advertising its generous benefits system, while the former CEO of automaker Scania warns that a glut of foreigners is pushing the country toward civil war.

Sweden.se, a government-run website, entices migrants to make the journey north and details the benefits they can receive. Boasting the world's longest parental leave (though most new arrivals from the Middle East and Africa remain unemployed), Sweden also offers free health and dental care to immigrants, as well as sizable child allowances – which the website calculates for a family with six children.

The site, operated by the Swedish Institute (SI), is available in four languages – English, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic. While the English version offers the usual tourism-industry listicles on "10 Swedish myths uncovered" and "20 things to know before moving to Sweden," the Arabic version prominently features sections on benefits, acquiring work permits, and the rights of the child (including the right to education in their mother tongue).

Per-Arne Wikström, SI's head of communications, defended Stockholm's creation. "I have no problem with showing off that Sweden is a welfare country. We have a system that arouses interest," he told TV4 on Monday as politicians eviscerated the site for enticing even more migrants - needy, yet internet-connected - into a country already overburdened with benefits-seekers.

"Incredible. The government's own authority markets Sweden abroad as a generous grant country," tweeted Elisabeth Svantesson, economic policy spokesperson of the Moderate Party, while party leader Ulf Kristersson slammed the page for sending "a completely wrong signal" about Sweden.

Already, some 94 percent of migrants who came to Sweden in 2015 to seek asylum take state benefits, according to Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet, a situation which has nearly bankrupted municipalities like Bengtsfors and Filipstad. With almost 420,000 asylum seekers arriving in the country since 2011 - and a total of over 920,000 immigrants - the country, with less than 10 million inhabitants, is struggling to accommodate the new arrivals. 

"What Sweden needs is quotas in the welfare system and a strict migration policy. For a long time to come," Svantesson continued.

Sweden No-Go Zones

The cultural divide between native Swedes and new arrivals from the Middle East and Africa is too great to bridge in a single generation, former Scania CEO Leif Östling told Swedish outlet SwebbTV on Saturday. He warned that clashes between migrants and locals, which have already turned some areas into "no-go zones" where even the police fear to tread, could spiral into "internal wars" requiring the military to get involved.

The future is grim for Sweden's economy, Östling continued, "and it's because we've taken in far too many people from outside," with no thought toward whether they would be able to assimilate and acclimatize to Sweden's "incredibly complicated society."

Those who come from the Middle East and Africa live in a society that we left almost a hundred years ago.

Many corporate executives share his views, Östling said, but they are afraid to speak up for fear of hurting their companies. Sweden has long had a reputation as a country that is welcoming to migrants, and its government appears determined to keep up that image.

Even if it kills them!

Corruption is Everywhere - Half a Trillion Dollar's Worth in London

UK slammed for ‘under-enforcement’ of corruption laws as new report identifies

£325 BILLION in ‘suspect’ cash

© Reuters / Leonhard Foeger

It’s no secret that some of the world’s most corrupt flock to the UK to take advantage of lax enforcement of anti-corruption laws, but new research claims to show how UK firms are wittingly and unwittingly facilitating the crime.

Maybe not the whole world. The far-east corrupt flock to Vancouver to launder their money.

Transparency International (TI) analyzed more than 400 corruption and money-laundering cases, totalling £325 billion-worth of “suspect funds,” and revealed the lavish spending habits of the elite.

Among other things, TI said corrupt money had been spent on a £1 million Cartier ring and huge sums on masterpieces from Sotheby’s, a Tom Ford crocodile-skin jacket and matching handbag from Harrods, 421 luxury properties worth £5 billion – and a hovercraft.

The cash in question frequently comes from embezzlement by corrupt state officials in foreign countries, the report said. British service providers, it adds, “have been involved in some of the most egregious cases of corruption in our time.”

Yet, despite the fact that the problem is occurring on a regular basis, Britain seems unable or unwilling to tackle it efficiently. TI said laws to combat such corruption "remain under-enforced" – and the lax enforcement therefore contributes to the "lack of a credible deterrent against wrongdoing."

1455 companies registered to one address

The report found that 582 British firms or individuals had helped the super-rich bring their dodgy money into the country. Money was laundered through a whopping 17,000 shell companies and, incredibly, 1,455 of those were registered to the same address, over a wine bar in Birmingham.

The report also points to "significant deficiencies" in the UK's corporate liability laws, which mean it is incredibly difficult to successfully prosecute a big multi-national company for money laundering or bribery.

The nature of the involvement of British companies and institutions in these schemes varies from “unwitting involvement” to fully complicit and “knowingly facilitating” corruption.

The Chief Executive of Transparency International UK, Daniel Bruce, said that while government and law enforcement agencies have made progress in recent years, it is still "far too easy" for corrupt individuals to receive assistance from UK businesses. "There remains too much poor practice to be able to assume bad behaviour is confined to a few rotten apples," he said.

“This should act as a wake-up call for Government and regulators, and deliver much-needed reforms to the UK’s defences against dirty money,” Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International UK, said.

London has long been seen as a playground for the rich and corrupt, but it’s not just luxury items that these people are after, either. They are also forking out cash on “educational consultants” to help secure places for their kids at the most prestigious British schools and universities. Nearly £3 million was paid to private schools like Charterhouse and Lancing College. Universities like the London School of Economics and University College London also received hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

The report describes the UK property market as a "prime destination" for criminals to launder and enjoy their stolen wealth "with impunity" –  using the properties as their own personal "safety-deposit box."

In May, Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of a corrupt Azeri banker serving 15 years in prison, became the subject of the UK's first unexplained wealth orders (UWO). Hajiyeva coughed up £30,000 on luxury Godiva chocolates at Harrods as part of a decade-long, £16 million spending spree.

The War on Christianity About to Heat Up in Norwegian Schools as Darwin Challenged

Wealthy Norwegian shipowner funds research

to counter Darwin in schools

One of Norway’s richest people, shipowner Einar Johan Rasmussen, has pumped $1.6 million into a foundation that aims to challenge Darwin’s theory of evolution and to promote intelligent design in its place.

The BioCosmos Foundation calls for “more open debate on biology and the cosmos” and targets “everyone interested in science and the big questions,” especially “youth and young adults” – incorporating schoolchildren.

As with all proponents of Intelligent Design theories, the foundation extols the virtues of a pseudo-scientific theory that nature is so finely tuned and well-crafted that it could not have evolved via natural selection and must instead have been engineered. 

Rasmussen, 81, who hails from Kristiansand in the country’s south – Norway’s answer to the Bible Belt in the US – told national broadcaster NRK that his “wish is to make much of this modern research known to the public. It breaks with Darwin in significant ways.”

The millionaire agrees with the BioCosmos Foundation, whose members include a Danish professor, a doctor, a civil engineer and a theologist, that evolution “can no longer be clarified as a result of coincidental mutations and natural choice.”

Needless to say, there were many strong reactions to a rich and powerful businessman attempting to influence the Norwegian education system. 

Of course, you attack the messenger and dismiss the message, rather than actually engaging in honest debate.

“It’s completely wrong for wealthy people to try to buy access to Norwegian classrooms,” MP Torstein Tvedt Solberg told NRK. “This is way too alternative, it’s not scientific. It’s quite close to rubbish.”

“When you wonder how nature came about, you should talk with a scientist,” researcher Martin Jakobsen at the Ansgar Theological College in Kristiansand told NRK. “When you wonder how God functions, you can speak with a theologian.”

That might make sense if, in fact, nature didn't come about by acts of God. You can't seriously separate science from God; you will never arrive at the truth about nature.

OPCW Put Lid on Key Evidence in Douma Chemical Incident – Watchdog Whistleblower

Did John Bolton corrupt the OPCW in order to demonize Syria

and create an excuse for more war?

A scene at a Douma hospital that was used to push a claim of a chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government. Screengrab via Reuters.

The international chemical weapons watchdog likely skewed its own investigation of the 2018 chemical weapons incident in Douma, Syria to come to a predetermined decision, a damning conclusion based on whistleblower testimony said.

The April 2018 incident in the Damascus suburb was quickly blamed on the Syrian government by the West. Within days, the US, the UK and France launched barrages of cruise missiles in retaliation. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international chemical weapons watchdog, later backed the justification, all but pointing the finger at Syria in its final report, which was released in March.

Now a panel of experts says the report was based on a flawed conclusion and likely deliberately steered toward the West-favored outcome. The accusation is based on evidence and testimony of an OPCW investigator, who came forward with damning evidence that his own organization had breached its mission.

After talking to the whistleblower and examining internal reports, text exchanges and other evidence, the panel was convinced that “key information about chemical analyses, toxicology consultations, ballistics studies, and witness testimonies was suppressed, ostensibly to favor a preordained conclusion,” it said in a statement.

The statement said the OPCW took effort to exclude dissenting investigators and silence their attempts to raise concerns about the report, which is “a right explicitly conferred on inspectors in the Chemical Weapons Convention.” The experts called on the organization to revisit its investigation and allow those not agreeing with the conclusion put in the final report to voice their concerns without fear of reprisal.

The panel convened by the Courage Foundation, which accepts donations for the legal defense of whistleblowers and journalists that report on leaks, includes several prominent specialists and public figures, including José Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat who served as the OPCW’s first Director General before being strong-armed from the office by US superhawk John Bolton.

Bustani said the whistleblower confirmed his doubts about the report, which “seemed incoherent at best” right from the start.

“My hope is that the concerns expressed publicly by the Panel, in its joint consensus statement, will catalyze a process by which the Organization can be resurrected to become the independent and non-discriminatory body it used to be.”

The panel did not make public the name of the whistleblower or any previously unpublished evidence of the OPCW’s alleged misconduct. WikiLeaks, whose editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson was a member of the panel, re-printed a draft engineering assessment penned by an OPCW investigator, which was leaked in May. The document rejects the claim that chlorine cylinders, which were used for delivery of the toxic gas in Douma, had been dropped from the air, which was used as a key argument in accusing the Syrian army for the attack.

Actually they attacked even before the OPCW had time to investigate. It was all about moving the military inventory and ramping up the excuse to continue the war they should never have been in in the first place.

UK Reporter Astounded By What He Found in Douma

BBC Producer Says Hospital Scenes After 2018 Douma ‘Chemical Attack’ Were Staged

German Reporter Says Douma was Completely Staged - MSM Won't Report It

Neither Nerve Agents, Nor Any Banned Chemicals Found in Samples From Syria's Douma - OPCW

The World: What is Really Happening - Craig Murray

Top MIT Scientist Slams OPCW Leaders for Repressing Dissenting Report on Douma

Northern Ireland Morality Lurches Hard Left - Whether It Wants To Or Not

Same-sex marriage, abortion now legal in Northern Ireland

By Clyde Hughes

Pro-life demonstrators stand outside the Supreme Court in Central London in 2018. New laws legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage started in Northern Ireland Tuesday. Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- A last-ditch effort by the Democratic Unionist Party to block British government reforms on same-sex marriage and abortion failed Monday, allowing both to become legal in Northern Ireland for the first time on Tuesday.

The new laws, which went into effect at midnight, ended the practice of women from Northern Ireland traveling to England to get abortions. Activists said they expect the first same-sex marriage to happen there around Valentine's Day 2020.

"This is a hugely significant moment and the beginning of a new era for Northern Ireland, one in which we're free from oppressive laws that have policed our bodies and healthcare," Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland campaign manager, said in a statement.

"No longer will those experiencing crisis pregnancy, who need to access abortion, feel they need to conceal what they're going through. Finally, our human rights are being brought into the 21st century. This will end the suffering of so many people," Teggart continued.

Not to mention the lives of thousands of babies!

DUP leadership, though, vowed to keep fighting the laws. Party leader Arlene Foster said she will examine "every possible legal option" to stop the measures.

"Until this moment, until this day in Northern Ireland, the safest place for an unborn child was in the sanctuary of its mother's womb," Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice, which also supported blocking the measures. "Sadly (now) the most dangerous place for some unborn will be in the mother's womb because the wanton decision can be taken to kill them."

Sinn Fein Party deputy leader Michelle O'Neill, though, called the last-second effort to block the new laws "pointless."

"Sinn Fein welcomes the end of the denial of the right of our LGBT brothers and sisters to marry the person they love," O'Neill said. "Sinn Fein also welcomes the end of the archaic law criminalizing women."

No wonder the secular violence has settled down in Northern Ireland, very few people believe in God anymore, nor do they fear Him. That might seem like a good thing at first glance, but in the final analysis, it will be disastrous. Turning your back on God is always disastrous eventually.

Corruption is Everywhere - College Admission Scandals All Over the World, and More

Turkey names banker US convicted of Iran sanctions-dodging

as head of STOCK EXCHANGE

© Reuters / Murad Sezer

A Turkish banker convicted of helping Iran avoid US sanctions has been named head of the Turkish stock exchange in a defiant gesture to Washington as US President Donald Trump threatens Ankara with its own sanctions.

Hakan Atilla has been appointed general manager of Borsa Istanbul, Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak announced on Monday. Atilla, a former deputy general manager at Turkish state-owned Halkbank, returned to Turkey in July after serving part of a 32-month prison sentence. He was convicted in 2018 of five counts of conspiracy and bank fraud related to his alleged involvement in a multibillion-dollar sanctions dodging scheme, but Turkey maintained his innocence throughout the trial proceedings, slamming the guilty verdict as “scandalous.” 

Halkbank itself was hit with a six-count indictment for fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses last week centering on the transfer of some $20 billion in Iranian oil and gas profits between 2012 and 2016. Meanwhile, Trump has promised a 50-percent tariff on Turkish steel and cancelled a $100 billion trade deal over Turkey’s anti-terror operation in northeast Syria, while the Pentagon has called on Ankara’s NATO allies to sanction the country. Should Turkey misbehave in some way, Trump warned repeatedly, he would “destroy Turkey’s economy.”

Congress has also begun the process of sanctioning Turkey over its activity in Syria, which is aimed at carving out a safe zone some 30km from the Turkish border to prevent attacks from Kurdish militias Ankara considers terrorists. 

Giuliani's greasy fingers?

Accused of devising a system to smuggle billions of dollars in Iranian funds through US financial institutions, Attila was fingered in 2016 by gold trader Reza Zarrab, who turned state’s witness and worked with the US government to ensnare the banker when he came to the US on a business trip. While Zarrab admitted to lying to federal agents, netting $150 million in profits from the scheme, and bribing Turkish co-conspirators, it was Atilla - who was on a plane with no cellphone service when he was supposedly making the calls that proved his involvement in the setup - who ended up taking the fall.

Zarrab was insulated from the fallout from his own misdeeds by his relationship with former New York mayor and current Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, who pressed the president to drop the charges against the gold trader.

Bangladeshi MP expelled from uni for hiring EIGHT LOOKALIKES to take exams for her

Woman posing as Bangladeshi MP Tamanna Nusrat / Tamanna Nusrat herself

©  Nagorik TV / Tamanna Nusrat's Twitter page

A Bangladeshi politician has been expelled from university after reportedly hiring a small ‘class’ of her impersonators to take exams on her behalf.

Apparently being unable to tackle the challenge of combining parliamentary work and university study, Tamanna Nusrat from the ruling Awami League party found at least eight female students who looked like her and paid them to pass her university tests. The fraud had been successful for some time. Nusrat - or those acting in her name - managed to pass as many as 13 exams.

The scheme was revealed when local broadcaster Nagorik TV entered a test hall and confronted one of the women posing as Nusrat, turning a personal cheating fail into a TV scandal.

Nusrat, who became a member of parliament last year, was studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bangladesh Open University. Vice Chancellor of the University has commented on the case, ruling out any exceptions for the MP: “We expelled her because she has committed a crime. A crime is a crime. She will never be able to get admitted here again.”

It is still unclear if Nusrat is to keep her parliamentary seat after a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court suggested, according to local media, the authorities to amend the existing law by including a provision to expel a lawmaker for “this type of immoral acts”.

Test fraud is a common problem in Bangladesh with a history of government addressing the problem at a law enforcement level. Country’s police intercepted a ring of professional exam cheaters in Dhaka in 2012. They facilitated successful test results by sending answers to mobile phones disguised as wrist watches.

So, it's not just rich Americans cheating on entrance exams. Corruption is Everywhere! Is it just me or do rich people seem like the least likely to deserve being wealthy? Probably just me!

4 more USA parents pleading guilty in college admissions scandal

by COLLIN BINKLEY AP 

FILE - In this April 3, 2019, file photo, Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez arrive at federal court in Boston to face charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. The couple are scheduled to plead guilty on Monday, Oct. 21. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

BOSTON (AP) — Four more parents are pleading guilty in the college admissions bribery scandal, and a Texas man accused of helping to orchestrate the scheme has also agreed to a plea deal.

Parent Douglas Hodge entered his guilty plea in Boston's federal court Monday after previously pleading not guilty in April. Also scheduled to reverse their pleas on Monday are parents Michelle Janavs, Manuel Henriquez and Elizabeth Henriquez. Each faces charges of fraud and money laundering.

Martin Fox, the president of a private tennis club in Houston, also agreed to plead guilty in a deal that prosecutors announced Monday. He is charged with a single count of racketeering.

Authorities say Fox brokered bribes to help wealthy parents cheat on their children's college entrance exams at a Houston testing site. He's also accused of arranging bribes to get two students admitted to the University of San Diego as recruited athletes, and one student to the University of Texas. He will return the $245,000 he received through the scheme, according to his plea deal.

The four parents join 15 others who have pleaded guilty in the case, while 15 other parents are fighting the charges. Out of 10 parents sentenced so far, nine have been dealt prison time, with terms ranging from two weeks to five months.

Hodge, of Laguna Beach, California, was accused of paying more than $500,000 in bribes to get two of his children into the University of Southern California. Authorities say he paid $200,000 to get his daughter admitted as a soccer recruit in 2013, and $325,000 to get his son in as a football recruit in 2015. Neither played on those sports teams.

Hodge, a former CEO of the Pacific Investment Management Company, is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2020. He apologized in a statement Monday, saying he takes full responsibility for his conduct.

"I have always prided myself on leading by example, and I am ashamed of the decisions I made," he said. "I acted out of love for my children, but I know that this explanation for my actions is not an excuse."

Janavs, of Newport Coast, California, is accused of paying $400,000 to get her son admitted to Georgetown University as a fake tennis recruit in 2017. She separately paid $100,000 to help two of her daughters cheat on the ACT exam in 2017 and 2019, prosecutors said.

Janavs is a former executive of Chef America Inc., a food producer that created the Hot Pocket frozen snack.

Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez, of Atherton, California, are accused of paying $400,000 in bribes to get their oldest daughter into Georgetown as a fake tennis recruit in 2016. They're also accused of paying to help two of their daughters cheat on college entrance exams a total of four times.

Manuel Henriquez is the founder and former CEO of Hercules Capital, a finance firm in Palo Alto, California.

Lori Loughlin faces new charges in

college admissions scandal

The Associated Press 

Full House actress Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and nine other parents were indicted Tuesday on new federal charges as prosecutors pressure them to admit guilt in a college admissions bribery scheme.

A grand jury in Boston indicted the parents on charges of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery. The count accuses the parents of attempting to bribe officials at an organization that receives at least $10,000 in federal funding.

The bribery charges carry a possible sentence of up to ten years incarceration along with a fine of up to $100,000, though all of the sentences already handed down in relation to the case have been for far less than that.

All eleven named in the new indictments have previously pleaded not guilty to other charges in the scheme.

It's the second time prosecutors have added new charges for parents pleading not guilty in the case. In April, they added money laundering to the initial charges of fraud and conspiracy.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling in Boston said the latest charges stem from an ongoing investigation. The charges will further his goal of holding the defendants "fully accountable for corrupting the college admissions process through cheating, bribery and fraud," he said in a written statement.

Lawyers for Loughlin and Giannulli did not immediately respond to the charges. The couple are accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits on the crew team, even though neither participated in the sport. Loughlin and Giannulli have pleaded not guilty.

Others indicted on the new charge include William McGlashan, who co-founded an investment fund with U2's Bono in 2017, and Robert Zangrillo, a prominent Miami real estate developer.

South Korean court to review arrest warrant for ex-minister's wife over college admission

By Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, (UPI) -- A Seoul court is expected to decide whether to arrest the wife of ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk this week over charges related to her daughter's college admission and a private equity fund investment.

The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to review the arrest warrant request made by the prosecution Wednesday morning. Prosecutors have been investigating Cho's wife, Chung Kyung-sim, for two months regarding the college admission process and an $853,970 PEF investment.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office filed the request for Chung, a Dongyang University professor, Monday over 11 charges that include obstruction of business, violation of capital market law and involvement in the destruction of evidence.

This is not the first time the prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for a member of the former justice minister's family.

Earlier this month, the prosecution sought an arrest warrant for Cho's younger brother on allegations of dereliction of duty. The court, however, rejected the request, citing the quantity of evidence and his medical condition.

Eyes are on whether Chung's health will also affect the court's decision. Citing MRI test results, her legal representatives said she has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor and cerebral infarction.

The latest developments come a week after Cho abruptly resigned amid controversy about whether he was suitable for the Cabinet post.

A key architect for President Moon Jae-in's drive to reform the prosecution, Cho was appointed on Sept. 9 despite objections from opposition parties.

For about two months, protesters staged street rallies for and against his appointment and prosecution reform measures.

Supporters of Cho called for thorough reform of the elite investigative agency and branded the prosecution's probe into his family a politically charged one.

Florida Mayor Arrested Just 3 Weeks After Taking Over for Florida Mayor Who was Arrested

Benjamin Sutton, News Breaking

A second mayor has been arrested in Port Richey, Florida, 20 days after taking over for the previous mayor, who had been arrested.

Terrence Rowe, 64, was arrested on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate the commission of a crime.


This was the second time in 20 days that a mayor had been arrested in the Florida town, the first being Dale Massad, 68, who is accused of firing at a Pasco sheriff’s SWAT team that was arresting him on allegations that he was practicing medicine without a license.

You can find our coverage of that story here.

Rowe was acting mayor after Governor DeSantis suspended Massad from office. Authorities say that Rowe’s arrest is an off-shoot of Massad’s arrest, but did not elaborate.