Bits and Bites From Around the World > Man Survives Outer Space, Dies in Cessna; Woman Sues Doctor for Being Born

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Millionaire who flew to space on Bezos’ rocket dies in plane crash

12 Nov, 2021 22:56

The late entrepreneur Glen de Vries (far left) is seen in suborbital flight during

Blue Origin's New Shepard mission, October 13, 2021. ©  Reuters / Blue Origin handout

Glen de Vries, the businessman who visited space last month alongside ‘Star Trek’ lead & RT host William Shatner aboard a rocket produced by Jeff Bezos’ aerospace firm, has died in a plane crash at the age of 49.

A small private plane carrying de Vries and another man, 54-year-old Thomas Fischer, crashed in Hampton Township, New Jersey near the border with New York on Thursday, killing both, the New Jersey state police told media outlets.

The 49-year-old had made a brief suborbital flight to space on October 13 with William Shatner, who hosts the talk show ‘I Don’t Understand’ on RT America, as well as Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen and Audrey Powers, an executive of Bezos’ space tourism company Blue Origin. It was Blue Origin’s second manned space mission, with a third planned for later this year. 

The company also noted the entrepreneur’s passing, saying it was “devastated” by the news, which wasn’t reported until Friday afternoon.

“He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired,” the firm tweeted.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the crash, the cause of which remains unclear, police added. FAA records cited by CNN said the plane was a four-seat Cessna 172, which went down under “unknown circumstances in a heavily wooded area.”

Reportedly a certified private pilot, de Vries co-founded Medidata Solutions in 1999, a company that specializes in software used for clinical trials and medical research which has since become among the most-used platforms of its kind in the world.

Woman sues doctor for letting her be born

24 Nov, 2021 19:48

A champion showjumper born with a spinal defect has filed a lawsuit in London against her mother’s physician, alleging that he failed to properly emphasise the importance of supplements in pregnancy, resulting in her disability.

Evie Toombes, 20, of Skegness in Lincolnshire has pressed “wrongful conception” charges against Dr. Philip Mitchell. She claims Mitchell did not advise her mother, Caroline, to take folic acid supplements prior to and during pregnancy, resulting in her “having been born in a damaged state.” 

Toombes is asking for millions in damages to cover the cost of living with her disability. Her barrister told Judge Rosalind Coe QC that Toombes will most likely need a wheelchair as she gets older.

Dr. Mitchell has denied the charges and insisted he gave Caroline Toombes “reasonable” and appropriate medical advice about folic acid supplements. 

Evie Toombes was diagnosed with lipomyelomeningocele (LMM), a form of spina bifida, in November 2001. She works at Nottingham University teaching nursing students, and competes in both “para and able bodied showjumping” equestrian sports, both in the UK and internationally, according to her website.

She has appeared on an episode of ITV’s show about ‘Hidden Disabilities’ and met Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 after receiving the WellChild Inspiration Young Person Award.

20 years after being diagnosed and she's still show-jumping. I think her law-suit may be a little premature.

Corruption is Everywhere > German Ministries Investigated; Judge Murdered in Ukraine; Von der Leyen - Pfizer Secret Negotiations; Zuma's Appeal Rejected; Weightlifting Doctor Banned for Life

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German prosecutors search finance & justice ministries

as part of money-laundering probe

9 Sep, 2021 13:15

Germany's finance ministry in Berlin. © Reuters / Annegret Hilse

German prosecutors have searched the offices of the finance and justice ministries in Berlin, seizing documents related to a probe into possible obstruction of justice by a government agency tasked with tackling money laundering.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is part of the Finance Customs Administration controlled by the Finance Ministry, has been under investigation since last year. The agency is suspected of not forwarding to law enforcement agents reports by banks of possible money laundering in the millions of euros.

The probe had been initiated after sketchy payments of more than €1 million (around $1.18 million) to Africa in 2018. At that time, the bank warned the FIU that the money could’ve been linked to trafficking of arms and drugs as well as financing of terrorism. The agency took note of the information, but refrained from passing it on to the police and the justice ministry.

The prosecutors were also looking into the reasons for a drastic decrease in the overall number of reports of suspicious activity since the FIU was assigned the job of controlling money laundering in Germany.

The investigators had previously raided the Finance Customs Administration, saying the papers they secured back then revealed “extensive communications” between the FIU and the two ministries.

The search at the Finance and Justice Ministries on Thursday was aimed at “further clarifying the suspected criminal offense” and establishing if the officials in those ministries had been involved in the decision made by the FIU. The analysis of the newly obtained documents is going to take at least several weeks, the prosecutors said.

The two ministries released almost identical statements in response to the raid, saying that they expressed full support of the investigation, but stressing that no suspicion was directed against their staff.

Ukrainian authorities launch probe over death of judge who oversaw

investigation into car-bomb murder of Russian journalist 

13 Sep, 2021 18:15 / Updated 2 hours ago

Journalist Pavel Sheremet. © Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko

Ukrainian police have launched a probe following the death of Vitaly Pisants, an investigating judge in the as-yet-unsolved case of Pavel Sheremet, a Russian journalist murdered in the center of Kiev by a car bomb in 2016.

According to Ukrainian outlet Novaya Vremya, Pisants' death came as he was considering motions to extend the detention of three people thought to be behind Sheremet's murder.

Sheremet, who was best known for his writings about Belarus, died in the Kiev explosion, which the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office says was caused by a bomb. In December 2019, three were arrested on suspicion of murdering Sheremet. According to the authorities, the killing was ordered and organized by Andrey Antonenko, a well-known military veteran and musician. Two other defendants, Yana Dugar and Yulia Kuzmenko, were detained as accomplices. They were all put under house arrest awaiting trial.

Now, with Pisants dead, the police are considering whether he may have been murdered to stop him from keeping the three in prison.

According to reports, the judge died on September 11 in the village of Pogreby, where he was visiting the house of Pyotr Onopenko, the brother of the former head of the Supreme Court. Some Ukrainian media sources have claimed that he died in a drunken fight between his friends: a police officer and a lawyer.

The case of Sheremet's murder is still unsolved, five years after it happened. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, counterintelligence officers from the country's Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) could have been involved.

"There is a possibility that certain individuals who were connected to counterintelligence during [Petro Poroshenko's] presidency may be involved [in the killing]," Zelensky said.

"I do not interfere in the activities of law enforcement agencies and the court. But I know in detail what happened," he said.

Born in Soviet Belarus, Sheremet was a naturalized Russian and spent much of his career working on TV. He also wrote for the Ukrainian online publication Ukrayinska Pravda. At the time of his murder, Sheremet was a public critic of Poroshenko, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and their Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

That's a lot of powerful enemies!

Pohreby, UKR

Inquiry launched into European Commission chief’s refusal

to hand over text messages she exchanged with Pfizer CEO 

17 Sep, 2021 13:41

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visits a Pfizer vaccine production plant in Puurs, Belgium, April 2021.

© John Thys / Reuters

The European Ombudsman has demanded that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen explain how she lost text messages that she exchanged with the CEO of Pfizer during talks about vaccine procurement.  

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, the EU’s top accountability and governance officer, launched an inquiry into the European Commission’s refusal to hand over the contents of communications between von der Leyen and a CEO of an unnamed pharmaceutical company about a Covid-19 vaccine contract. 

As a first step, O’Reilly asked the Commission to explain its policy on keeping records of von der Leyen’s text messages. “The Commission has an obligation to record instant messages relating to important policy or political matters, such as the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines,” O’Reilly’s office wrote in a statement about the case.

In April, the New York Times reported that von der Leyen had been exchanging texts and calls with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla for a month as part of negotiations about vaccine procurement for the bloc. The paper wrote at the time that personal diplomacy played a big role in securing the vaccine deal. 

O’Reilly requested that the Commission hand over the text messages, but the Commission claimed that “no record had been kept of any such messages,” according to the ombudsman’s office. 

The office has previously warned about the importance of record-keeping within EU institutions amid an increased amount of remote work in the Covid era. “EU administration is required by EU law to draw up and retain documentation pertaining to its activities, as far as possible and in a non-arbitrary and predictable manner,” the watchdog said in June.

Pfizer remains one of the EU’s major vaccine suppliers after sealing several deals with Brussels. The delays in shipments earlier this year frustrated EU leaders, including von der Leyen herself. “Europe invested billions to help develop the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines,” she said in January. “And now, the companies must deliver. They must honor their obligations.”

Did Ursula use her private e-mail account to bargain with Bourla? Is that legal? It is certainly not secure. Did she learn this from Hillary Clinton?

The head of the tech department needs to be fired, at the very least.

South Africa top court rejects ex-president Zuma’s bid

to overturn 15-month jail sentence

17 Sep, 2021 11:25

Former South African President Jacob Zuma speaks to supporters after appearing at the High Court in Pietermaritzburg,

South Africa, May 17, 2021. © Reuters / Rogan Ward

South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma’s plea to overturn his 15-month prison sentence handed to him after failing to attend a corruption hearing has been rejected by the country’s top court.

South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled in a majority on Friday and rejected Zuma’s request to annul his jail time, which the disgraced former leader had argued was excessive and that Covid-19 could pose serious risks to his health, and even life, in July.

The 79-year-old anti-apartheid veteran was released on medical parole earlier this month after the country’s Department of Correctional Services (DCS) evaluated a report on Zuma’s health. The placement meant that he will instead serve his remaining jail time on a community corrections course, “whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires,” the DCS stated.

In August, Zuma underwent an unspecified surgery away from the Escourt prison he was being kept in. The politician is slated to undergo more surgeries in the future.

Zuma handed himself in to police on July 7 and began serving his 15-month jail term for contempt of court after failing to give evidence at an inquiry concerning high-level corruption during his nine years in office.

His jailing, combined with soaring unemployment and poor economic conditions, spurred some of the worst riots seen in South Africa, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, where the Army was called in to deal with the unrest. More than 300 people died during the turbulent period and some 3,400 people were arrested.

The current president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, condemned the riots, describing them as “opportunistic acts of criminality, with groups of people instigating chaos merely as a cover for looting and theft.”

International weightlifting doctor lands lifetime ban for sending

lookalikes to take drugs tests for athletes charged with doping

18 Sep, 2021 13:14

Doctor Dorin Balmus has been found guilty of sending lookalikes to doping tests

© Action Images / John Marsh via Reuters | © Facebook / Dorin Balmus

A doctor who worked with three weightlifters has been banned for life after being found guilty of sending lookalikes to take drugs tests for the athletes at world championships before they were charged with doping offenses.

Moldovan medic Dorin Balmus was representing Iurie Bulat, Ghenadie Dudoglo and Artiom Pipa when the trio of weightlifters were asked to provide samples shortly before the world championships in Houston in 2015.

Instead, Balmus arranged for three doppelgangers to give samples under the names of the stars because they were "each undergoing a doping cycle at the time", the International Testing Agency (ITA) has revealed.

An investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency's Intelligence and Investigation Department found that the three stand-ins had been asked to provide clean samples on behalf of the athletes to negate the risk of failed tests.

The athletes subsequently tested positive for a prohibited substance, receiving punishments for that offense and using urine substitution in an attempt to dupe testers.

Balmus admitted the offense when he was covertly filmed in an interview with the makers of a documentary, 'Secret Doping – the Lord of the Lifters', which was aired by a German broadcaster in January 2020.

The experienced orthopedic traumatology specialist unwittingly told the reporters that he would also pay Doping Control Officers (DCOs) to "turn a blind eye" rather than closely scrutinize passports presented by the athletes, according to the ITA's findings.

His statements to the documentary suggested "a co-ordinated program of urine substitution implicating athletes, DCOs and high-ranking officials", their report said.

The agency has taken the rare step of exiling Balmus for life from any activity authorized or organized by any signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code, acting because of the "nature and severity of the rule violations."

Responding to the report, which included the Balmus case as part of a review of numerous Anti-Doping Rule Violations between 2009 and 2019 across a range of countries, Antonio Conflitti, the President of the Moldavian Weightlifting Federation, called it "another blow" to the sport that he "very much hoped" would be the last of its kind.

"I will continue my fight against doping and my work to consolidate and create a new and clean European Weightlifting Federation governance," he added.

Tamas Ajan, the long-standing president of the federation, stood down following the documentary, which reported on other doping cover-ups and financial irregularities at the organization.

The three Moldavian athletes were each handed four-year bans in 2015.

This Week's Global Terrorist Stories 20-12 > Japan, Egypt, Syria, Mali, NSW, USA-3, UK-2

Judge sentences Japanese man to death
for 2016 stabbing rampage

By Clyde Hughes

March 16 (UPI) -- A Japanese district court Monday sentenced Satoshi Uematsu to death after finding him guilty in the 2016 stabbing deaths of 19 people at a facility for people with disabilities where he once worked.

The stabbing spree was one of Japan's worst mass murders since the end of World War II. Prosecutors accused Uematsu, 30, of breaking into the Tsukui Yamayurien Home in Sagamihara early July 26.

He tied up several staff members on duty before stabbing a total of 43 disabled residents. Many of those residents were still in their beds when they were attacked. Uematsu turned himself in shortly after the attacks still wearing bloody clothes and a blood-stained knife.

Defense attorneys said Uematsu had abused marijuana for several years and it altered his personality where he started to have delusions and hallucinations. They argued he was mentally incompetent and asked for acquittal or a lesser sentence.

Prosecutors said, though, Uematsu was competent enough to be held responsible for the rampage, saying he was motivated by working at the facility. They said he was motivated by wanting to "kill the disabled who cannot communicate."

Uematsu started working at the facility in 2012 and while he did not have any reported problems there, he had run-ins with the police, injuring a man in Tokyo in 2015. He was placed in an institution before the attack after writing a letter saying he had the "ability to kill 470 disabled people."

Authorities, though, failed to inform the facility when he was released in March 2016, just three months before the attack.

Good grief! Another story highlighting the insanity that sometimes follows marijuana use in teens or young adults. Someone should be held responsible for not informing the facility of his threats.

Six terrorists killed in Egypt's North Sinai

By: Egypt Today

CAIRO - 16 March 2020: Six terrorists were killed by Egyptian security forces in Abu Shilla city, North Sinai, said the Egyptian Ministry of Interior in a statement on Monday.

When the security forces stormed a hideout taken by the terrorists in the city, a shoot-out occurred between two sides and resulted in the killing of the six militants, the statement added.

On February 11, 2020, 17 terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire with police forces in Obeidat district in Arish, North Sinai, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

This comes as part of the ministry’s continued efforts in tracking and prosecuting terrorist elements involved in hostile operations that claimed the lives of many martyrs among the armed forces, the police and ordinary people.

Unfortunately, there is no indication of the targets of these terrorists; they might be Muslim Brotherhood against the current Egyptian government; they might be Muslim hard-liners who attack Coptic Christians, or the might even be antisemitic. I suspect the first category is most likely here.

There is no indication from either raid of any prisoners taken. One wonders if this is policy?

Sinai Penn., Egypt

Terrorists block Russian-Turkish patrol

crossing in Idlib, Syria

Damascus, Mar 16 (Prensa Latina) Terrorist groups prevented on Monday for the second consecutive day the passage of military joint patrols between Russia and Turkey on the M-4 motorway connecting the Syrian cities of Aleppo in the north and Latakia on the coast.

Extremists dynamited the Muhambel bridge in Idlib province, and implanted metal nails to thwart the circulation of Russian and Turkish military vehicles, local press reported.

Sources indicated that dozens of armed irregular terrorists took civilians as hostages using them as human shields, and concentrated on the road where they installed tents to block traffic.

Russia denounced on Monday the presence of armed terrorist organizations with al-Qaida-like ideology as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and the Guardians of Religion, who refuse to recognize the cease-fire deal reached on March 5 between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Why should they if they are still being supplied with money and arms from another country, which I shall leave unnamed.

Hashem Abedi convicted in 2017 attack at

Ariana Grande concert

By Clyde Hughes

Flowers and other items form a makeshift memorial for the victims of a suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert
in central Manchester, Britain, on May 26, 2017. File Photo by Mushtaq Mohammed/UPI | License Photo

March 17 (UPI) -- A London court on Tuesday convicted a man in the terrorist attack that killed 22 concertgoers who'd gone to see singer Ariana Grande in Manchester nearly three years ago.

The court found Hashem Abedi guilty of being an accomplice in the suicide plot, which prosecutors say was carried out by his brother, Salman Abedi, as the crowd exited the concert at Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017.

At trial, prosecutors said Abedi bought bomb-making chemicals, helped buy the vehicle where they were hidden and helped craft the detonator tubes. They argued that his activities made him as responsible for the attack as his brother.

"He is a man who is equally responsible as his brother for this horrendous attack, this monstrous attack," Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough said. "The way he has conducted himself since he landed demonstrates, even more, the jihadi mindset that would be supportive of the sick ideology of [the Islamic State]."

Although Abedi was in Libya at the time of the attack, investigators said his DNA and fingerprints were in the locations where the bombs were made.

Abedi, who'd fired his defense team, was not in court Tuesday when the verdict was read. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last October.

29 killed in terror attack in Mali, military says

By Don Jacobson

U.N. peacekeepers secure an area in the Timbuktu Region of Mali, on May 6, 2019.

File Photo by Nicolas Remene/EPA-EFE

March 20 (UPI) -- Twenty-nine people were killed, including two Malian soldiers, in a terrorist attack in Mali's Gao region, military officials said.

The Armed Forces of Mali said the attack occurred Thursday in the village of Takrint, located about 100 miles north of the regional capital and 300 miles east of Timbuktu.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic extremists who have been active in northern Africa's Sahel region in recent years are suspected.

Thursday's attack follows a string of others carried out by militants associated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State, which have staged an insurgency in the former French colony and the surrounding countries of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Earlier this month, six other Malian soldiers were killed in a rocket attack and last month three troops died at an army camp south of Timbuktu. Fifty soldiers were killed in another attack last November.

The U.S. military said last month a coalition loyal to al-Qaida has about 2,000 fighters in the Sahel, while the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara is thought to have hundreds and is recruiting more in northeastern Mali.

The region remains highly unstable despite a French-led United Nations intervention in 2013.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said last month he was willing to open talks with militant groups after seven years of refusing to do so. The al-Qaida-affiliated jihadist group GSIM, or Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, responded that it would negotiate only if French troops and the U.N. mission left Mali.

Counter terror swoop: Batemans Bay, NSW, man charged over alleged bomb plot

South Coast Register

JCTT officers swarm over a Tapitallee property on Friday. Photo: John Hanscombe

The NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) has charged a second man with a terrorism offence following the execution of further search warrants over the past five days on NSW's South Coast.

The 23-year-old Batemans Bay man was arrested outside Nowra Police Station on Sunday, March 15, after hunting knives and survivalist equipment were found in the car he was driving.

He was detained under specified time provisions of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) as members of the JCTT conducted enquiries into his links to a 21-year-old Sanctuary Point man, who was charged with a terrorism offence on the same day.

The Batemans Bay man was charged with one count of acts done in preparation for, or planning, terrorist acts, on Friday, March 20. This offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

He was also charged with two counts of possessing a prohibited firearm, contrary to Section 7(1) of the Prohibited Firearms Act 1996 (Cth).

Police will allege in court that the 23-year-old man was involved in early-stage planning and preparation for a terrorist act.

It will further be alleged he was working with the Sanctuary Point man to acquire military equipment, including firearms and other items capable of making improvised explosive devices.

During a search of the man's Catalina home, police seized electronic items, hunting knives, survivalist equipment and a replica firearm.

An initial forensic examination of the electronic items uncovered a large quantity of extreme right-wing and anti-government material.

Further search warrants on properties at Sanctuary Point, Falls Creek and Tapitallee - all located near Nowra - between Thursday, March 19 and Saturday, March 21, resulted in the seizure of items that could be used in the construction of an improvised explosive device, electronic devices and other material which will be subjected to further examination.

These locations were of interest to JCTT investigators due to possible links to both men charged as part of this investigation.

The 23-year-old man is expected to face Nowra Local Court later today. Investigations by the NSW JCTT remain ongoing.

The NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team is comprised of the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police Force, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and NSW Crime Commission.

Anyone with information about extremist activity or possible threats to the community should come forward, no matter how small or insignificant you may think the information may be.

The National Security Hotline is 1800 123 400.

Rapides, La, Sheriff’s Deputies charge writer of false COVID-19 social media post with terrorism

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When stupidity becomes a criminal offence

by: James Selby

RAPIDES PARISH, La. (KLFY) — A Forest Hill man was arrested by Rapides Parish sheriff’s deputies after sending out an email that officials said promoted false information.

Waylon Allen Bailey, 27, of Forest Hill was the alleged author of a social media post that said:

SHARE SHARE SHARE ! ! ! ! JUST IN: RAPIDES PARISH SHERIFFS OFFICE HAVE ISSUED THE ORDER, IF DEPUTIES COME INTO CONTACT WITH “THE INFECTED’ SHOOT ON SIGHT….Lord have mercy on us all. #Covid9teen #weneedyoubradpit

Bailey was located near his residence and taken into custody without incident. He was booked into the Rapides Parish Detention Center in reference to one count of terrorism.  Bailey is currently being detained at the detention center as bond has yet to be set.

Sheriff William Earl Hilton said he would like to again impress upon everyone that we are all in this together. Communicating false information to alarm or cause other serious disruptions to the general public will not be tolerated.

Pakistani doctor arrested in Minnesota

on terrorism charge

By Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic research coordinator was arrested Thursday in Minnesota on a terrorism charge, after prosecutors say he told paid FBI informants that he had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State group and wanted to carry out lone wolf attacks in the United States.

Muhammad Masood, 28, was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday by FBI agents and was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Prosecutors say Masood was in the U.S. on a work visa. They allege that starting in January, Masood made several statements to paid informants — whom he believed were members of the Islamic State group — pledging his allegiance to the group and its leader. He also allegedly expressed his desire to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS and a desire to carry out lone wolf attacks in the U.S.

At one point, Masood messaged an informant “there is so much I wanted to do here .. .lon wulf stuff you know … but I realized I should be on the ground helping brothers sisters kids,” according to an FBI affidavit.

Prosecutors say Masood bought a plane ticket on Feb. 21 to travel from Chicago to Amman, Jordan, and then planned to go to Syria from there. He had planned to leave at the end of March. But on March 16, he had to change his travel plans because Jordan closed its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Masood and one of the informants then developed a plan for him to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to meet with that informant, whom Masood believed would help him travel in a cargo ship into Islamic State territory.

Masood was arrested Thursday at the airport after he checked in for his flight to Los Angeles. His attorney, Manny Atwal, had no immediate comment.

There is much more on this story at Albert Lea Tribune

Miss Hitler beauty queen convicted of membership to a homophobic neo-Nazi terrorist organisation

LILY WAKEFIELD MARCH 20, 2020

Alice Cutter once entered a Miss Hitler beauty pageant. (West Midlands Police)

A former contestant in a Miss Hitler beauty pageant has been convicted of membership of banned neo-Nazi racist, homophobic, anti-semitic terrorist group National Action.

National Action was founded in 2013, and in 2016 the group was banned under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it the first far right group to be proscribed under the act since the Second World War.

According to the Home Office: “The group is virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic. Its ideology promotes the idea that Britain will inevitably see a violent ‘race war’, which the group claims it will be an active part of.”

Through material disseminated on social media, National Action has celebrated the Pulse massacre and the murder of MP Jo Cox. They have also called for the reintroduction Section 28, banning the “promotion of homosexuality” in schools.

Alice Cutter, 23, was convicted on March 19 of being a member of the neo-Nazi group along with her partner 24-year-old Mark Jones, both from Wharf Street, Sowerby Bridge, Halifax.

Two other members were also convicted on the same day: Garry Jack, 24, from Heathland Avenue, Shard End, Birmingham, and Connor Scothern, 19, of Bagnall Avenue, Nottingham.

All four were members of the Midland Chapter of National Action. Two members of the same chapter were sentenced to eight years in prison in 2018.

Alice Cutter and her partner Mark Jones were both convicted of being members of National Action.

(West Midlands Police)

Although Cutter denied being a part of the group, the jury at Birmingham Crown Court unanimously found them guilty.

Cutter previously entered a Miss Hitler pageant under the name Buchenwald Princess, a reference to the Nazi death camp. She met Jones through the Miss Hitler pageant, but they broke up before the trial.

Although Cutter denied being a part of the group, it was revealed that she had exchanged hundreds of messages with other members and was still attending meetings months after National Action was banned.

According to the Salisbury Journal, prosecutors said Cutter had been a “central spoke” of the organisation, and had made jokes about using a Jewish person’s head as a football and gassing synagogues.

Cutter also denied attending a National Action demonstration in York in 2016, but footage was later found showing her there giving the Nazi salute and standing behind a banner that read “Hitler was right”.

Alice Cutter. (West Midlands Police)

After the conviction, head of West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU), Detective Chief Superintendent Kenny Bell said: “National Action is an extreme right wing neo-Nazi group.

“Their ambition is to prepare for a race war by amassing weapons and trying to recruit others by the spread of their extreme ideology. Being convicted of membership of this extreme right terrorist group is the same as belonging to other terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh.”

He continued: “This group was amassing weapons and recipes for bomb-making. They communicated through secret channels to recruit others to their cause. Left unchecked they presented a real threat to the public.

“We have seen a significant increase of right-wing referrals to our Prevent programme and we will investigate the threat as robustly as we would any other terrorist group, as well as training our officers on the signs to look out for and working with communities to increase awareness.

“Terrorists and extremists use this kind of ideology to create discord, distrust and fear among our communities and we strive to counter this. I would encourage people to report hate crime to us and it will be taken seriously.”

The convicted National Action members have not yet been sentenced.

Feds seek significant prison time for Zion men

convicted in terrorism case

By Jon Seidel  Mar 20, 2020

Joseph D. Jones (left) and Edward Schimenti caught on camera with a confidential FBI source prosecutors say

they believed was an ISIS supporter. Prosecutors blurred the source’s face.  U.S. District Court filing

Federal prosecutors are seeking significant prison time for a pair of Zion men found guilty at the end of a lengthy trial last year of a conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State.

Edward Schimenti and Joseph D. Jones are set to be sentenced next month by U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood. The sentencings could still be delayed by the coronavirus outbreak, but federal prosecutors filed a 26-page memo Thursday in anticipation of the hearings.

The feds are seeking a 20-year prison sentence for Schimenti and a 17-year prison sentence for Jones. They said Schimenti deserved more time behind bars because he lied to the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas in the memo described the conduct of Jones and Schimenti as “egregious and dangerous.” He wrote they were fully aware of the “murderous acts” committed by the Islamic State but “did not hesitate to provide support to the group.”

However, when the government intervened, Jonas noted, “They were not actively plotting to either travel to join ISIS, looking to facilitate travel for others, or to commit a terrorist attack in the United States. On the spectrum of comparable terrorism cases, the government does not believe a statutory maximum sentence is warranted.”

Prosecutors unveiled a 77-page criminal complaint in April 2017 that accused the pair of sharing gruesome Islamic State videos online, fantasizing about the ISIS flag “on top of the White House,” and, crucially, collecting cellphones they thought could be used as detonators by terrorists overseas.

The pair met a man who turned out to be a confidential informant for the FBI. They helped him collect the cellphones, introduced him to an undercover fed they believed would get him overseas, and then drove the man to O’Hare Airport to begin his journey on April 7, 2017.

“To be perfectly clear,” Jonas wrote in the memo Thursday, “the defendants believed that every phone equaled a bomb and each bomb would bring harm to enemies of ISIS. They showed no compassion for their intended victims or their families.”

War on Christianity - Major New Offensive for #PCMadness

Forced to use transgender pronouns: Doctor speaks out after tribunal rules

Bible ‘incompatible with human dignity’

© REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A British doctor has warned that a dangerous precedent has been set after a tribunal ruled that he was rightfully terminated for refusing to use transgender pronouns, and that his Christian values clash with those of UK society.

Dr. David Mackereth was fired from his job at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after telling his manager that in a hypothetical scenario, he would never “call any 6-foot tall bearded man madam.”

He would never “call any 6-foot tall bearded man madam.”

The case was brought before a Birmingham employment tribunal, which said in its ruling that the government department had every right to sack Mackereth, and that the doctor’s biblical beliefs have no place in British society.

"Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others."

“Core” Christian beliefs have been labeled as

unfit for modern life

Speaking to RT, Mackereth said that the ruling has profound and troubling implications for freedom of speech and conscience in the UK.

"The question here is whether I can be forced to do something and to say something that goes deeply against my conscience."

He said that the judgment means that “you’re not allowed not to believe the transgender movement’s maxims,” while “core” Christian beliefs have been labeled as unfit for modern life.

Mackereth plans to appeal the ruling.

It was just a matter of time before PCMad western societies got around to declaring the Bible as incompatible with #PCMadness. We need to pray that courts abandon this anti-Christian ruling, but we shouldn't be surprised if we see this insanity spread like wildfire in western societies.

Politically correct people do not, in general, believe in God, and have no fear of standing in judgment before Jesus Christ. They will, as we all will, and they will then find out that 'modern life is unfit for Christianity'! 

Jude 1:7 - Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

2 Peter 2: 1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.

Is ISIS Star Doctor a Creep and a Drunk?

by Daniel Greenfield
Recently ISIS announced its version of ObamaCare fronted by this guy, an Australian trained Muslim doctor who hadn’t figured out how to shave or grow a beard.

Colleagues remember him as a creepy drunken pervert, which is exactly the kind of guy you expect to end up as the face of socialized medicine in the Caliphate.

Tareq Kamleh, who referred to himself as Abu Yusuf in a stylised IS propaganda video, said he was a doctor who had travelled to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa from Australia to offer his medical services as part of his “jihad for Islam”.

His Jihad in Australia though was 100 proof sexual harassment.

The former Adelaide University medical student was previously referred to as a “womaniser” and a drinker…

His Facebook site shows photos of him surfing and hunting but does not list his crude party trick — sneaking up behind seated women and placing his exposed penis on their shoulder.

Let's hope that is not indicative of his bedside manner, especially since he is a pediatrician.

“He was pretty drunk at the time, but when I rang him the next day to tell him the woman was quite upset he thought it was just one big joke,” a former colleague who was at the function recalls.

Another colleague — who declined to be named — said Kamleh claimed to have had sex with a Mannum District Hospital patient — a former sex worker — after first checking her medical records from Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The former colleague said Kamleh operated a second Facebook page under the name “Adam Kamlah” to pursue women while hiding his indiscretions from girlfriends. The page has since been deleted.

The colleague said Kamleh admitted to being forced out of a shared house following “improper conducts” towards a female housemate.

I am disappointed at the lack of drug dealing, since that seems standard for Jihadists, but the rest is exactly the sort of person who would be attracted to a totalitarian state in which bandits have absolute power and can buy women at slave markets.

But all this is fairly typical of how “devout” Muslims behave in the West and it’s not even at the extreme end, which includes rape and sex grooming of young girls. None of this contradicts Islam which allows Muslim men to abuse women as long as they’re not married to another Muslim man.

Michael Gannon, president of the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association, told the West Australian on Monday that he was “appalled” that an Australian doctor would join Islamic State, saying: “It’s mind-boggling that the death cult could hold appeal for an educated man.

The Muslim Brotherhood and assorted terror groups are fronted by educated men, mostly doctors and engineers. (They don’t need jobs.)

There are a lot of pediatricians like Kamleh that go into terrorism for some reason. 

I can think of a reason or two, can you?

According to the Adelaide Advertiser, Kamleh stocked up on outdoor gear in a Perth shop in December and told the store owner he was going to join Doctors without Borders.

Doctors without Borders and ISIS are pretty close.

He grew up in Perth with a Palestinian father and a German mother who converted to Islam and became “ultra-religious”, a former associate said.

Just more cultural enrichment. How much more of it can we afford?

But the money question is, was Kamleh able to get away with so much that would have gotten another doctor “sacked” because he was Muslim and no one wanted to appear Islamophobic?

About Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

Doctor Joins ISIS Medical Team in “Jihad” Against the West: “I Wish I’d Come Sooner”

Australian-doctor joins jihad

Pamela Geller
Another doctor, affluent and Western educated, leaves everything to join the Islamic State, blowing up Obama’s and every other Western leader’s delusional narrative about poverty, disaffection and illiteracy driving Muslims to jihad.

It’s Islam.

I’ll also point out that calling those who oppose jihad terror “racists” is laughable. Islam is not a race. Just ask this blue-eyed doctor.

Herdsmen in Nigeria, rappers in Germany, doctors in Glasgow, chemical engineering students in Canada, heart surgeons in Saudi Arabia, university students in Britain, imams in America and so forth – what brings these wildly different people together? Jihad. From the Sahara to the Kalahari, London to Lisbon, Manhattan to Madrid, Bali to Boston, Tiananmen Square to Thailand, Myanmar to Malaysia, Nairobi to Nigeria ….. no matter what the background, upbringing, schooling, wealth or poverty, color, what have you, it doesn’t matter. The understanding of Islam and jihad is the same, and it is the motive, the incitement to this monstrous war on the West and and the East and all points in between.

If the world were as concerned with the mass slaughter of non-Muslims by jihadists as they are about the fictional narrative of “islamophobia,” we might begin to defeat this enemy of humanity.

Why a 'normal' person would chose to become Muslim is barely conceivable. Unfortunately, the inability of politicians and media to relate the truth about Islam makes it seem more attractive than it is. To make it worse, people like Pamela Geller are shouted down as bigots, or barred from entering some countries, for telling the truth. 

The west is feeding the human supply lines of jihad with our culturally suicidal, political correctness. Boy, are we stupid!

The Age
Victoria, AU APRIL 25, 2015

Australian doctor joins ISIS medical team in ‘jihad’ against the west

 

The Australian doctor, who calls himself Abu Yusuf, says he travelled from
his home country to join IS and is using his medical skills
“as part of my jihad for Islam”

A YOUNG Australian doctor has appeared in an Islamic State video urging other medical professionals to travel to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria to join the jihad against the west.

The stylish promotional IS video has not been verified but was circulated on IS-affiliated social media accounts.

The video introduces the “ISHS” — or IS Health Service — and appears to have been filmed in Raqqa in the Raqqa General Hospital.

The video features a number of doctors talking about medical facilities in the IS stronghold.

The Australian doctor introduces himself as Abu Yusuf and says he travelled to Raqqa from Australia to offer his medical services as part of his “jihad for Islam”.

Aussie doctor appears in IS video

“My name is Abu Usef. I’m one of the medical team here. I came from Australia to the Islamic State to live under the khalifah.

“I saw this as part of my Jihad for Islam to help the Muslims in the area that I could, which is the medical field and when I got here while I was very happy that I made the decision and I was a little bit saddened by how long I’d delayed it.

“I wish I’d come sooner.”

Facing the camera in a section of the video titled Pediatrics, he urges other doctors and medical professionals to join the medical team.

He is also shown treating babies in incubators. He says repeatedly that equipment is not the issue for the hospital but the availability of well-trained doctors

“We need the brothers and sisters to come and help us from all around the world. We just need the manpower … to help us grow this.

“After being here it’s disappointing to think how many fellow Muslim brothers and sisters who are in the medical field; doctors and nurses, physios and dentists are still living in the west and unfortunately here the Muslims are really suffering from not lack of equipment or medicine but lack of qualified medical care.

“So I suppose a message I would want to send out to any brothers and sister still living in the west who are considering coming … we really need your help. Any little thing gives the local people who are truly suffering a lot of benefit.

“Please consider coming, please don’t delay.

“I’ll see you soon”.

Australian National University terrorism expert Clarke Jones confirmed the video’s authenticity.

“This is certainly legit,” he said.

“It’s appealing with the use of the Australian to others, by showing them any ordinary Australian, in this case, can go across there and live a comfortable life beyond their expectations.

“It’s appealing to normal, rational people within the educated young crowd and it’s not just about fighting now, it’s about going over there and supporting brothers and sisters in the Islamic State.”

Dr Jones said the man broke the mould of those expected to flee Australia to fight.

“People want to say its either or (but) this guy does break the mould and that it appeals to a wide variety of people,” he said.

“If we don’t start to take a more understanding approach to this, which the Islamic State is beginning to have more appeal than Australia, we are going to continue to lose.”