A Bridge too Near

Posted by Kumiko Oumae on Monday, 28 September 2015 17:03.

When jokes threaten to become reality

A long time ago at the beginning of this ‘refugee crisis’, people used to make a joke and say, “If this keeps up, liberals might start asking for a bridge to be built so that no one would need to smuggle humans across water any more”. Who could have known that this joke would become a jinx?

Watch this:

Youtube: The Bridge (28 Sep 2013)

Austria’s refugee coordinator Christian Konrad has called for the construction of a 200km long bridge from Al Huwariyah in Tunisia to Agrigento in Sicily. This is after Konrad had previously called for housing solutions to be constructed in Austria as hundreds of asylum seekers currently staying at the Traiskirchen reception centre in Lower Austria are sleeping in tents due to overcrowding there.

Education Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek is tasked with devising proposals on how to integrate refugee into Austrian schools. This integration will likely be of the sort that parents of non-Muslim children will have no ability to veto. Integration of school systems never seems to come ‘organically’.

Social Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer will be looking for ways to ease the strictures of employment laws, so as to make it easier for big businesses to employ refugees, and for the purpose of lowering the standards that govern social bargaining at the enterprise and state level, the standards which Austria actually would have had to agree to have upheld upon joining the ERM back in March 1979. So now they have come full circle, and have ended up considering imposing a very ‘American’ form of social bargaining and employment laws, even though the European approach was supposed to have some significant differences.

Under the so-called emergency, the crisis that ‘demands’ compromise, one of the supposed prized qualities of the European labour market, will be dismantled for the benefit of a certain cross section of large companies which see it as being in their interest to use these migrants as a battering ram against any attempts to have any kind of organised labour movement in the continent. It is against this backdrop of the tendencies within the Austrian ruling class, that this bridge proposal is set.

Construction companies

The construction company STRABAG AG would get the contract for the bridge. STRABAG AG is a company that was created through the merger of ILBAU and STRABAG in the 1930s, both being founded by Anton Lerchbaumer. It acquired Deutsche Asphalt Group in 2002, Waltr Bau Group in 2005, it took on a majority stake in Ed Züblin in 2005, Adanti SpA, KIRCHNER Holding GmbH, F. Kirchhoff AG and Deutsche Telekom Immobilien und Service GmbH in 2008.

In 2013 the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic stated that it believed that one of the companies of the STRABAG Group participated in bid rigging cartel of construction companies in that country. Amongst the companies involved in that cartel, was a company called Doprastav a.s., which is part of Doprastav Group. The illegal conduct centred around the D1 Highway which was constructed from 2004 and continued to have work done on it and its surroundings up to at least 2010.

STRABAG is managed by CEO Thomas Birtel. The Chairman of the supervisory board at STRABAG is Alfred Gusenbauer. Alfred Gusenbauer is an Austrian politician who until 2008 had spent his entire professional life as an employee of the Social Democratic Party of Austria or as a parliamentary representative. He headed the Social Democratic Party of Austria from 2000 to 2008, and served as Chancellor of Austria from January 2007 to December 2008. Since then he has positioned himself as a consultant and lecturer, and as a member of supervisory boards of Austrian companies, STRABAG being one of these.

Gusenbauer is known for having exploited the occurrence of the BAWAG Scandal, in which BAWAG—the bank of the Austrian Trade Union Federation—engaged in failed bets using risky undocumented derivative instruments held off-balance-sheet. After the losses became unmanageable, Fritz Verzetnitsch resigned from the Austrian Trade Union Federation in disgrace, and Gusenbauer used this opportunity to exclude all of the Trade Union leaders from the ballot lists of the Social Democratic Party, an action which moved the party to the right structurally.

STRABAG’s Gusenbauer and Austria’s refugee coordinator Christian Konrad obviously are not strangers to each other, seeing as they come from the same party and travel in the same social circles. In the world of business and politics, it’s quite often about who you know and who you’ve worked with. Aside from the fact that STRABAG is one of the largest construction companies in Austria, there is also the political connection that would exist between persons within the state and within that company’s structure.

Russian-Jewish Mafia involvement

A notable stakeholder in STRABAG is Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, a extremely wealthy Russian oligarch, who—when he is not exploiting the mineral and energy resources of impoverished Asians in Siberia—also has for some reason cultivated over the years a very amicable relationship with people who may or may not be associated with former Russian soldiers who had been veterans in Afghanistan who may be part of the presently existing heroin smuggling operations which have been occurring at an ever-heightening rate since the year 2005.

Additionally, Deripaska has a good relationship with the Russian-Israeli Mafia, which helped him with the purchase of Sayansk aluminium plant in Siberia when he was first starting up as a businessperson in the 1990s. He has a especially tight relationship with the Israeli business and crime figure known as Michael Cherney, who personally assessed Deripaska and pulled the necessary strings on his behalf. Deripaska has since operated in the debt of Cherney and the Russian-Israeli Mafia. Cherney also operates security think tank groups, which may or may not be actually just front groups which allow him and his criminal networks to plug into the stream of intelligence exchanges that go on in the War on Terror, so that he can smuggle contraband through conflict zones with less risk of detection. Cherney also publishes anti-fascist publications through the Michael Cherney Foundation which is registered as a ‘charitable foundation’.

Interfacing with activist groups

The proposal for this Africa-to-Europe 200km long bridge, whose construction contract sits at the centre of all of these groups and individuals, also is associated with a local Austrian ‘anti-racist’ activist group. That group is named Zentrum für Politische Schönheit, which in English is ‘Centre for Political Beauty’.

The Centre for Political Beauty refers to itself as a group that “makes art” for the purpose of encouraging the European peoples to adopt a more liberal-humanitarian outlook on the world. Much of what they do is done for the sake of “not rendering void of the legacy of the Holocaust”. One of their members, Massimo Sestini, is perhaps known to Majorityrights readers because he is one of the persons who has consistently been providing ‘humanistic’ photography of the migrants to various media outlets including the British Newspaper, the Guardian, since at least mid-2014. The power of images cannot be underestimated.

The Centre for Political Beauty takes its activism beyond simply creating static pieces of art, and in fact, merges art with political action while invoking shadows of past events which they believe hold immense sway over the European psyche.

Here are four relevant examples of them merging art with political action:

They have removed sections of the Berlin Wall monument, the sections that contain Christian cross logos with names on them. They have removed some of these because they have transferred those crosses to the outer border fences of the European Union, and affixed them there. In some images African migrants are posing with the crosses for photographs. This is a kind of art creation that is apparently supposed to symbolise the idea that the internal wall between the West Germany and East Germany that was removed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is ontologically the same as the border between Europe and Africa which they believe would be removed after the fall of racially cohesive European identity.

They plan to actually cut holes into some segments of the EU border fences on 09 November 2015, during the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This would allow migrants to break through the fences at the precise timing of the celebrations, so that they can link the celebration of one thing, with the celebration of another thing that they plan to superimpose onto it.

Since the idea for the creation of a bridge between Africa and Europe is a project that would take them until the year 2030 to complete if it gets started on time and isn’t thwarted in some way, they want to call on Austria to supply state funding for 1,000 rescue platforms to be permanently installed into international waters between North Africa and Italy. The first one of these platforms will be unveiled in the water on 01 October 2015, in Licata Harbour. The press will be invited at 0630 on that day.

Dead African and Middle Eastern bodies will be exhumed and transported from the sea and into the capital city of Germany. The bodies will be displayed and placed into open shallow graves in plain view, so that persons running the media operation can then talk about the ongoing crisis in terms that have allusions to the narratives of the Jewish Holocaust.

They are absolutely serious. It would not be hyperbolic to say that the intention behind these actors who have come together to make these things happen, is that they would like to inflict extreme demographic damage onto the European Union.

The resources being allocated to these plans, and all such operations, stand in stark contrast to the fact that countries in the South of Europe have been placed under austerity policies so harsh that civil society in countries like Greece are breaking down, and money allocated to even basic state functions like national defence have been so low that the topic of whether enough counties are meeting the basic NATO obligations is often raised.

Yet, mysteriously, certain richer state governments of north-western and south-central Europe seem to be very capable of sourcing funds for extravagant migrant rescue operations and even funds for building a 200km long bridge. Where is it coming from? It’s coming from your bank account via taxation.

Kumiko Oumae works in the defence and security sector in the UK. Her opinions here are entirely her own.

Comments:

Posted by Big Mulatto Bro's audacity and ominous implication on Mon, 28 Sep 2015 17:44 | #

From the Post:

They plan to actually cut holes into some segments of the EU border fences on 09 November 2015, during the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This would allow migrants to break through the fences at the precise timing of the celebrations, so that they can link the celebration of one thing, with the celebration of another thing that they plan to superimpose onto it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhMFU7IdtrY

“The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews, cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down!”

- Obama, Berlin 2008

From the Post

They have removed sections of the Berlin Wall monument, the sections that contain Christian cross logos with names on them. They have removed some of these because they have transferred those crosses to the outer border fences of the European Union, and affixed them there. In some images African migrants are posing with the crosses for photographs. This is a kind of art creation that is apparently supposed to symbolise the idea that the internal wall between the West Germany and East Germany that was removed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is ontologically the same as the border between Europe and Africa which they believe would be removed after the fall of racially cohesive European identity.

Posted by Kumiko Oumae on Mon, 28 Sep 2015 20:39 | #

I wonder if Barack Obama was aware that some Europeans would actually take this speech seriously. Sometimes I wonder if he just talks nonsense that has been written for him by his speech writers, thinking that it is nonsense, only to later discover that it actually became policy because of certain individuals.

Who was the speech writer for that particular speech? Was it ever revealed?

Posted by DanielS on Mon, 28 Sep 2015 21:36 | #

President Mulatto makes no mention of how he expects that his speeches might be received, however he does say that his speech writer, Jon Favreau, has an uncanny ability to anticipate his thoughts, “as if he can read his ‘mind.”

Favreau goes for emotional impact and judging by content, it is not hard to believe that the was just 27 when he wrote this rubbish. It is clear that he knew nothing about life despite his inordinate influence.

Favreau reading the President’s mind

Reading the President’s Mind

Longtime Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau reflects on rhetoric at Harvard Kennedy School

March 29, 2013
by Katie Koch, Harvard Gazette

Jon Favreau has been called the president’s mind reader, by none other than Barack Obama himself. But during a visit to Harvard Kennedy School on Wednesday, the former director of speechwriting at the White House — a veteran of both of Obama’s presidential campaigns — stressed that there’s nothing supernatural about the day-to-day grind of putting words in the mouth of the commander in chief.

“Your only goals are to clearly explain simple policies in as little words as possible, and then spend as much time as you can … inspiring people,” Favreau said.

Favreau sat down in the packed John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for a conversation with David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership and himself a onetime presidential speechwriter — for Richard Nixon. (Gergen was also an adviser for Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.)

It was a fitting venue, given that Favreau’s relationship with Obama closely parallels that of John F. Kennedy and his famous speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, Gergen said. Indeed, just as Sorensen helped Kennedy develop his distinctive voice while working closely with him during his Senate career, Favreau crossed paths with Obama at a similar turning point.

The two met when Favreau was only 22, the day Obama was set to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, a speech that would catapult him to national prominence. Favreau’s role in that moment was less than illustrious, he said.

His job, as a staffer for presidential nominee John Kerry, was to ask Obama to remove a line from his speech so that Kerry could use it instead.

“He’s like, who the hell is this kid?” Favreau recalled of Obama’s reaction. “I thought that was the last I’d ever hear from Barack Obama.” But after Kerry lost in November: “I had no job, and I got an email from [Obama adviser Robert] Gibbs that said, ‘It turns out Barack Obama needs a speechwriter.’”

Favreau became the Illinois senator’s only speechwriter. Before a speech they would sit in Obama’s office “and he would talk for 20 or 30 minutes and I would type as fast as I could,” Favreau said. (“I’m a horrible note taker,” he explained. “My penmanship’s like a second grader’s.”)

Posted by Kumiko Oumae on Mon, 28 Sep 2015 22:05 | #

Oh, it makes sense then. Favreau’s style of writing is high amounts of emotional nonsensical content, and very little in the way of concrete policy. That same kind of behaviour during speeches and debates, is what lost John Kerry the election in the first place. Which is probably why Barack Obama’s speeches are similarly vacuous. They are written by people like Favreau, who have no idea what normal people want to hear when they attend these events.

Favreau’s kind of thing is ‘good’ if your head of state is pretending to be a rockstar, but not so ‘good’ if anyone actually stops to think about any of it rationally.

Gordon Brown actually found Kerry’s performance to be bad for that kind of reason:

The Huffington Post, ’‘Total Rubbish, He’s Lost The Election’: Gordon Brown’s Frustration With John Kerry’s Debate Performance Revealed’, 01 Oct 2012:

Gordon Brown could not believe the way Democratic US Senator John Kerry “lost” his first presidential debate with George W. Bush in 2004, a former aide to the prime minister has revealed.

Writing on his blog on Sunday, Damian McBride recalls how the then chancellor watched Kerry go head-to-head with Bush after he had discovered that Tony Blair would not be stepping down as prime minister in the near future.

“That evening, I sat with Gordon Brown at the hotel bar, and watched the first Presidential debate between John Kerry and George W Bush,” McBride writes.

“In six years working for Gordon Brown, I never saw him so down. Within ten minutes of the debate starting, he was rasping criticism at his friend John Kerry. ‘Look what Bush is doing – security, security, security. He’s defining the election, and instead of challenging him, Kerry’s going along with it. He’s trying to win on security – he’ll never win on security. Where’s the economy? Where’s jobs? Madness. Madness. He’s just lost the election.’”

McBride adds: “As each question was asked by the debate moderator, Gordon would thump the bar and deliver a word-perfect response for Kerry to deliver, and then thump the bar again and shake his head as Kerry made his own response. ‘Rubbish. Total rubbish. You’ve lost, man. You’ve lost.’”

“It was a remarkable thing to watch, Gordon Brown gripped by anger and frustration, projecting his own feelings onto Kerry, but still the consummate political genius.”

Posted by DanielS on Mon, 28 Sep 2015 22:30 | #

Kerry fails to take advantage of low hanging fruit readily accessible to him, goes with speech written melodrama instead.

Gordon Brown recoiled at Kerry’s (Cohen’s) ineptitude in his debate with Bush.

You suggest that Brown’s wonkishness may well be what is needed in the face of the immigration crisis.

Please explain “wonkishness”, and how it would help?

How would Brown act as opposed to Merkel? Surely it could not be worse.

The only consolation that one can offer of Merkel’s position is that “worse is better.”

However, as regards the immigration crisis, worse cannot be better - it augurs to do irreparable harm to European E.G.I.

Posted by Kumiko Oumae on Tue, 06 Oct 2015 22:47 | #

Well, wonkishness in general would help because it would move the argument more into the domain of rationality, facts and figures, places where liberals tend to be pretty weak these days because they’ve become used to throwing their arms into the air and waggling them around while screaming about how ‘terrifyingly racist’ everyone is.

So, to the extent that there is anything to be learned from Gordon Brown, his ability—and the ability of those like him—to befuddle social conservatives with massive amounts of argumentation from ‘facts and figures’, is something that also needs to be deployed by ethnic-nationalists against liberals.

An example of this would be the Gumballs video, which illustrated that mass migration never helped any developing country to prosper. The only thing that has ever helped developing countries, is more development inside developing countries.

Posted by Political Beauty offers 25k Reward on Sat, 12 Dec 2015 17:51 | #

Political Beauty is now offering a 25,000 Euro reward for information leading to the conviction of arms manufacturers:

http://www.politicalbeauty.com/25000.html

Where do they get 25,000 Euro and the backing to leverage such a campaign?

Posted by Political Beauty on Sun, 13 Dec 2015 09:19 | #

Where do they get 25,000 Euro and the backing to leverage such a campaign?

Well, according to your own exclusive information they are affiliated with the Austrian government. (Already forgot about that?) So 25,000 Euros are really just a pittance.

Posted by "Nouvelle Europe" on Thu, 08 Dec 2016 05:25 | #

Novelle-Europe.eu, “Cesy Leonard (Center for Political Beauty) : ‘How easy would it be to end the endless death toll – but we do not do it!”

By Annamária Tóth | 2 November 2015

A bridge from North Africa to Europe to save the lives of thousands of people dying in the Mediterranean. What sounds like a concrete political decision to end the humanitarian catastrophe at Europe’s shores is in fact the most recent art work by the Berlin-based Centre for Political Beauty. Interview with the Centre’s Chief of Staff Cesy Leonard by Annamária Tóth

Far from purely humanistic, the “Jean-Monnet-Bridge” is also a long-term economic investment government needed in times of crisis. Construction of the Jean-Monnet-Bridge, a project of the Austrian government, is planned to end by 2030. Until then, in order to end the deadly drama staged on a daily basis in the sea between Europe and North Africa, the Austrian government has decided to erect rescue platforms (around a 1.000) in the Mediterranean equipped with navigation lights, food reserves, an emergency call device, photovoltaic modules, a flagpole, life belts, a camera and two anchors. “If they were installed in the right manner, the platforms would be a reasonable and practical way to save human lives. How easy it would be for us wealthy countries to end the endless death toll in the Mediterranean – but we do not do it!”, Cesy Leonard, Chief of Staff at the Centre, argues. This is why the Centre for Political Beauty (CPB) has decided to act and has already installed the first island close to the Italian shores, Leonard explains.

How easy would it be to end the endless death toll – but we do not do it!””, Nouvelle Europe [en ligne], Monday 2 November 2015, http://www.nouvelle-europe.eu/node/1933 displ,ayed on 08 December 2016

Posted by S.S. "Defend Europe" on Mon, 07 Aug 2017 18:58 | #

TNO, “Anti-Invasion “Defend Europe” Ship Arrives off Libyan Coast; Pro-invader Boat Flees”, 6 August 2017:

The C-Star—a ship run by the anti-invasion “Defend Europe” organization has arrived off the Libyan coast for the first of its anti-human smuggling operations, and almost immediately one of the pro-invasion leftist ships which are actively assisting the sub-Saharan invasion force, fled at full speed rather than be filmed breaking the law.

The C-Star—financed by a crowd-funding effort organized by the Generation Identity movement—announced on its Twitter account that it had identified the Aquarius, which belonging to the pro-invasion non-government organization (NGO) SOS-Méditerranée, off the coast of Libya, where it was about to pick up yet another load of Africans.

The boat spent 30-45 minutes tracking the Aquarius at a distance of a few hundred meters, before continuing to follow it from further back.

The Aquarius, a converted coastguard patrol boat, is operated by French aid group SOS Mediterranee and Doctors without Borders (MSF). Maritime trakcing showed that the pro-invasion NGO boat’s speed had doubled in the time the C-Star was close to it.

The two boats were about 20 nautical miles off Libya in an area east of the capital Tripoli.

The C-Star closes in on the Aquarius.

On its website, the Defend Europe alliance accuses the pro-invasion NGOs of “smuggling hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants to Europe, endangering the security and future of our continent” and vows to “do something against it.”

French activist Clement Galant posted a video from the C-Star on Twitter on August 1 in which he says the C-Star will accompany any invader boat it comes across back to the African coast.

The pro-invader boats have been filmed meeting up with smugglers off the Libyan coast, transferring the Africans to their care, and then returning the empty vessels back to the smugglers who go back for another load.

In this way, the pro-invasion NGO-chartered boats have imported over a third of all the invaders picked up at sea off the Libyan coast this year and transported to Italy.

In this way, the pro-invasion boats are actively colluding with the smugglers—even to the point of being in radio contact with them to arrange meeting points—and have provided a free taxi service across the Mediterranean Sea for the African invasion force.

Just last week, Italian authorities last week impounded one NGO boat, the Iuventa, which is operated by German crypto-communist group association Jugend Rettet, accusing its crew of being in direct contact with traffickers to organize pick-ups of boatloads of African invaders from locations very close to the Libyan coast.

The Prosecutor’s Office at Trapani’s investigation, which seized the Iuventa, have announced that they are investigating charges against 15 of its crew members. The authorities are going over the phone records of the suspects to prove their involvement in the smuggling process, prosecutors said.

These phone records confirmed that the crew members had been in direct contact with the smugglers to arrange meeting points at sea to pick up the Africans. One of the charges, against team leader “Katrin,” states that she had a conversation with a smuggler in which they spoke of the “scheduled start of the mission for midnight on the following day.”

The prosecutor’s office pointed out that it was impossible for the Iuventa team leader to know 24 hours in advance that there would be Africans ready to be picked up, and that the only way she knew this was by prior arrangement.

Posted by Jacob Schoen, Jugend Rettet on Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:42 | #

RIGHTEOUS WITHOUT BORDERS
Acting for the sake of dignity and human rights

Jugend Rettet – the youth coming to rescue
MEDITERRANEAN SEA

I will never forget the moment when I saw a sinking boat full of terrified people. I was frozen with terror. We saved 1,300 refugees over the period of two weeks - Jacob Schoen.

In April 2015, Jacob Schoen passed his high school graduation exam. Soon after, he read in a paper that a boat carrying 800 refugees sank on the Mediterranean. He gathered information on rescue missions, found out what kind of ships are used in such missions, counted how much money he would need, and set off for Hamburg, a port city, to meet with experts. In autumn, he founded an organization called Jugend Rettet.

By May 2016, the youth collected 290,000 euro via a crowdfunding campaign. They purchased, renovated and equipped a fishing vessel. The money sufficed for the first missions.

“I was planning to go to uni, European Studies, but at this moment I could not engage in anything else,” Jacob told the reporter of Duży Format supplement to Gazeta Wyborcza Polish daily.

Already during the first mission of ‘Iuventa’ Jacob participated in a rescue action. “I will never forget the moment when I saw a sinking boat full of terrified people. I was frozen with terror. We saved 1,300 refugees over the period of two weeks.”

The organisation ambassadors are active in several dozen European cities, seeking support for the project. The boat crew consists of international team of professionals and amateurs, all of them volunteers.

“Our goal is clear,” they inform on the organisation website. “To limit the number of deaths on the Mediterranean.”

The organisation founded by Jacob also serves as a platform to exchange opinions. “We want to let the young people speak, to open a discussion – aimed at finding solutions – on the shortcomings of the current asylum policy, and developing a new policy for the future.”

By uniting young Europeans, Jugend Rettet wants to stress the importance of developing together a more humanitarian migration policy.

“Our boat is by no means a long-term solution, but it will save people’s lives and will encourage reflection on why young people are involved in this problem, rather than the European Union governments.”

Italy seizes NGO rescue boat for allegedly aiding illegal migration

AUGUST 2, 2017

By Wladimiro Pantaleone

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) – Italian coastguards seized a migrant rescue boat operated by a German aid group in the Mediterranean suspected of aiding illegal immigration from Libya, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. …

It was the first time Italian police have seized a humanitarian boat.

About Time.

The move came amidst growing suspicion over the role non-governmental organizations are playing in picking up migrants off the Libya coast and bringing them to Italian ports. …

What’s going on?

Well, Italy finally, for the first time since the halcyon days of the Berlusconi-Gaddafi deal to stifle illegal immigration from Libya to Italy, has a non-feckless politician in power.

From The Local Italy, AFP 17 August 2017:

Former spymaster Minniti credited with stalling migration flow

He was tasked with fixing Italy’s migrant crisis: eight months after becoming interior minister, ex-communist turned spy master Marco Minniti’s hardline approach and contacts seem to have borne fruit. …

But it is a recent sharp drop in migrant arrivals that has really boosted the veteran fixer’s profile, even if it remains unclear how much credit he can take for it. According to the latest polls, this expert in backdoor diplomacy has been named Italy’s most popular politician.

It is an accolade that has prompted suggestions that Minniti — with his leftist background but firm stance on migration — is perfectly placed to stand as a candidate for prime minister in elections next year. …

Minniti’s action plan has been multi-pronged, starting with a threat that unless other European countries do more to help Italy, Rome could issue newly-arrived migrants with visas allowing them to leave the country and head north.

The man … was also quick to lay down the law to privately-funded rescue boats saving migrants at sea…. Faced with reluctance among some members of the cabinet as well, he threatened to resign if they did not back him, and his polling numbers won the day, according to Italian media reports.

Drawing on contacts in Libya made during his years in intelligence — he made his first visit to the ex-Italian colony at the end of the 1990s — Minniti persuaded tribes in the crisis-hit country’s south to crack down on people smugglers. … Minniti has been pushing hard for the Libyan coast guards to up their interception of migrants at sea — a move heavily criticised by rights groups. …

Soon enough the number of arrivals began to drop off: this year Italy has taken in 13,500 new migrants or asylum seekers since July 1, compared with 30,500 last year in the same period. …

His plan to block migrants in Libya echoes a deal between former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi …

The modern state that emerged in Europe over the last few hundred years can be quite powerful when it feels like it, as Minniti’s rapid accomplishments have demonstrated. Here in the U.S., we think of the Secretary of the Interior as a semi-comic figure in charge of stopping Yogi Bear from swiping picnic hampers, but in the rest of the world the Minister of the Interior is The Crackdown.

The problem for Europe hasn’t been a lack of ways to defend itself, but demoralization: the feeling that Europeans don’t deserve to defend themselves from invasion.

Source, Unz Review

Posted by NGO immigrant "rescue" ship impounded on Thu, 26 Apr 2018 09:46 | #

New Observer, “Italy: Supreme Court Rules that Fake Charity “Rescue” Ship Must Remain Impounded”, 25 April 2018:

The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that that the pro-invasion fake charity invader-“rescue” ship, the Iuventa—seized last year for criminal collusion with people smugglers in Libya must remain impounded pending charges to be brought against the crew.

The court has rejected an appeal against the seizure of the Iuventa, which was impounded in August 2017 following an investigation initiated by the Italian authorities.

The ship—run by the crypto-communist Jugend Rettet (“youth rescue”) organization in Germany—was impounded after evidence showed that the crew had actively colluded with invaders and organizers of small invader boats in Libya.

The collusion—mainly in the form of radio contact—allowed the Iuventa to sail to pre-determined spots off the Libyan coast, where it would load up hundreds of African invaders off rubber dinghies, claiming that they were being “rescued.”

This formal taxi service was a great boon to the smugglers, who then did not have to attempt to even cross the Mediterranean, but simply sail a few miles out to sea off the Libyan coast to discharge their cargo of Africans.

The Iuventa has been held in the port of Trapani since a judge in the western Sicilian city ruled in favor of the prosecution’s request for pre-emptive seizure, based on an anti-mafia law and done in order to prevent the alleged crimes from being committed again.

The investigation against the Iuventa included the use of an undercover agent, bugging devices, tapped phone calls as well as informant testimonies.

Aiding and abetting illegal migration can carry a prison sentence ranging from five to 15 years, and a fine of 15,000 euros (about $18,300) for each person who has been let in the country.

Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation will publish an explanatory statement in the coming weeks.

Posted by Spanish Inquisition on Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:13 | #

Speaking of bridges, the Spanish city of Segovia which is situated north of Madrid has a bridge that was built by the Romans. A problem for the local council is that the 800,000 tourists who flock to the city every year tend to ignore it in favour of the viaduct. So in order to attract more tourist attention to the bridge and disperse visitors to other interesting parts of the city, it was decided to make use of a local myth that the bridge wasn’t built by the Romans but rather was the work of Mephistopheles himself. Someone thought it would be a good idea to erect a statue of a smiling devil taking a selfie by the bridge.

A harmless bit of fun, no? In most places but this is Spain we are talking about. After complaints from a few local residents, two of whom started an association and online petition stating “The devil is offensive to Catholics because it constitutes the glorification of evil” work has been halted until a court decides if the statue represents “an attack on religious sentiments” or not.

“It’s insane. It would appear that the inquisitors never left the country for good” said the statues creator and retired doctor José Antonio Abella. In fact the statue would be placed right by the Inquisitions old HQ (lol)

Claudia De Santos of Segovia Heritage said “I just can’t believe that this could happen in 21st Century Spain” adding that protesters have gone so far as to say “Segovia is going to become a focal point for Satanic worship”.

Right, that’s this years holiday destination sorted then…..

Full story & pics…

https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/01/14/inenglish/1547483270_385288.html

posted by mancinblack.

When jokes threaten to become reality

Construction companies

Russian-Jewish Mafia involvement

Interfacing with activist groups

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