Month: January 2015

An Expat Russian’s Open Letter To His Former Countrymen

This part of Maksim Frank-Kamenetsky's letter is particularly astute:

"Russians are furious that Americans care about Crimea. It's a world away from them and a year ago no one in the United States had — and still has — the faintest idea where it's located. Russians don't understand this is not what it's all about. Americans don't give a damn about Crimea and they don't care a straw about Ukraine either (or about Russia, for that matter). But they do give a damn about stability in Europe. Americans are not good at geography, but they a have a good memory and they remember that twice in the 20th century thousands of American boys died in Europe because Europe was incapable of solving its own problems." [emphasis added]

“What Was Missing Was Somebody Who Could Stand His Ground And Draw The Line Without Reservations.”

Ahmed Akkari, one of the Muslim instigators of the 2006 Danish Cartoon Crisis, suggests how the situation could have been alleviated:

“If the U.S. from the beginning had said to Denmark—without reservations—‘we 100 percent support your right of freedom of the press’—and in that way supported the American tradition of freedom of speech—things might have turned out differently. They could have put much more pressure on the Muslim countries. The Egyptians especially would have reconsidered their actions.” [emphasis added]

Danish imams were apparently flabbergasted to learn that the crisis which they orchestrated had unintended consequences:

It was only after the whole project backfired that the imams started working for a peaceful solution, finally recognizing that instead of creating more respect for the cause of Islam, they were creating contempt and anger. The Danish public (and large parts of the Western world) now saw the imams as two-faced villains, which, according to Akkari, was exactly what they were. As the spokesperson of the group, Akkari himself was probably the most hated man in Denmark during 2006. [emphasis added]

Iranian General In The Running For This Year’s Darwin Award

"I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men."
— Don Corleone, The Godfather

From today's Jerusalem Post:

"The Lebanese newspaper Al-Joumhouria reported on Saturday that a Hezbollah investigation into [an Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed an Iranian general and the Hezb Allah commander in charge of Syria & Iraq] found that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Mohammed Allahdadi kept his cellphone on in a sensitive area targeted by Israeli intelligence…" [emphasis added]

ISIS Invokes Assassins Sent By The “prophet” Terrorist Mohammed

The Islamic State calls upon disaffected Muslims in Western countries to emulate Mohamed bin Maslama, Abdullah bin Unais, Fairus bin Dulaymi – terrorist contemporaries of the "prophet" Mohammed who did his bidding.

Bios via Wikipedia:

Mohamed bin Maslama:

"In 624, Muhammad ibn Maslamah volunteered when Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b, a chief of the Banu Nadir, who had written poetry which Muslims found offensive." [emphasis added]

Abdullah bin Unais:

"…it was reported that Khaled bin Sufyan Al-Hathali…considered an attack on Madinah and that he was inciting the people on Nakhla or Uranah to fight Muslims. So Muhammad sent Abdullah ibn Unais to assassinate him. After cutting off Sufyan bin Khalid's head at night, Unais brought it back to Muhammad." [emphasis added]

Fairus bin Dulaymi:

"He was sent out by Muhammad to assassinate Aswad Ansi, who had claimed prophethood in Yemen." [emphasis added]

How China Contributed To Venezuela’s Economic Meltdown

From the Financial Times:

What makes China unusual [among Venezuela's creditors] is not just the amount it is willing to lend but the way it lends. First, Beijing has chosen to be opaque: we know neither the terms of the loans nor the uses of the money. The debt is repaid in oil, making Wall Street bondholders junior to China.

[…]

Second, the debt was never authorised by the Venezuelan parliament due to the specious argument that it was not debt, but “finance”, because it was not to be paid in dollars but in oil… [emphasis added]