Clergy Abuse: Rabbis, Cantors & Other Trusted Officials

Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16).

Please note : The Awareness Center looks at Clergy Abuse and Mass Molestation Cases as a Jewish Issue, not a denominational issue. We need to tackle these issues together as a people.

Opening up darkened spaces is a scary, saddening task, but it is a sacred one as well. For as we have been taught by our learned rabbis of the Sanhedrin, "anyone who saves one soul of Israel, it is said about him that he/she has saved a whole world" (Sanhedrin 37/a). Let us be "or La-Goyim", a light to show the way for other nations, by mending our communities without fear or shame.

Cases of Clergy Abuse

Case of Shlomo Aviner (Rosh Yeshiva, Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva, Rabbi of Beit El, Israel)

Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner (Convicted of child molestation. The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years' probation.)

Case of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak Brizel (Accused of child molestation)

Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (Accusations about sexual inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980's. Rabbi Bryks is currently a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. The Vaad is a Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within an orthodox community.)

Case of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (Accused of several cases of child molestation, and sexual assault of young women)

Case Rabbi Perry Ian Cohen - Montreal and Toronto Canada (Accused of sexual abuse of a seventeen year old. Fired for sexual impropriety with congregants)

Case of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen (Accused of sexually harassing students at Bar-Ilan University)

Case of Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg - Boca Raton, Flordia (Pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of exposure of sexual organs in a washroom at a Palm Beach Mall.)

Case of Rabbi/Cantor Sidney Goldenberg (Convicted of molesting children. The first complaints came in 1971. He was finally convicted in 1997.)

Case of Cantor Joel Gordon (Convicted of having keeping a house of prostitution and involvement in a prostitution ring.)

Case of Rabbi Israel Grunwald (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. The charge against him were dropped after agreeing to perform 500 hours of community service and to seek counseling. Grunwald was the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas).

Case of Yehudah Friedlander - Rabbi 's Assistant (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. Friedlander was the assistant to the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas)

Case of the Rabbi at Hillel Torah, Chicago, IL (A teacher at the Chicago school was accused of child molestation. His name was not released. The school did everything correctly in attempting to keep the children safe once accusations were made.)

Case of Rabbi Solomon Hafner (Accused of sexually abusing a developmentally disabled boy)

Case of Rabbi (Alan J.) Shneur Horowitz (Convicted and sentenced to 10 - 20 years in prison for sodomizing a nine-year-old psychiatric patient. Allegedly, he has assaulted a string of children from California to Israel to New York in the past twenty years. Alan J. Horowitz is an Orthodox rabbi, magna cum laude, M.D., Ph.D. A graduate of Duke University, and was a writer for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association).

Case of Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)

Case of Cantor Stuart Michael Friedman (Convicted and sentanced to 15 months in federal prison on one count of distributing child pornography).

Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum (Accused of child pornography on the internet)

Case of Rabbi Robert Kirschner (Accused of sexually exploited or harassing three congregants and a synagogue employee)

Case of Rabbi Ze'ev Kopolevitch (Convicted of molesting students at Rosh Yeshiva, Netiv Meir yeshiva high school)

Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner (Convicted - child molestation.)

The list was originally published on the Awareness Center's web pages that have been hacked and useless for years.

http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/clergyabuse

http://12160.info/profiles/blogs/long-list-of-jewish-child-molestor-rabbis-gets-no-media-coverage-?overrideMobileRedirect=1

1/2

>>4580560

22K Minors ‘Illegally Crossed’ Border in December, Says DHS

As the humanitarian crisis continues along the U.S-Mexico Border, officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) say that 22,000 minors “illegally crossed the border” in December. Nearly 25 percent of those were unaccompanied.

“Vulnerable populations are embarking on the dangerous journey north in record numbers putting themselves and minors in harm’s way, last month 22,000 minors illegally crossed our borders,” DHS Spokeswoman Katie Waldman said in a written statement. Of those, approximately 5,000 cross the border without a parent or guardian as Unaccompanied Alien Children, she said.

During the first three months of Fiscal Year 2019, more than 15,000 children crossed the border without parents. It is not clear how many minors in total crossed the border during this period, but in the first two months of the new fiscal year, nearly 60,000 crossed as unaccompanied minors or family units, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s November Southwest Border Migration Report.

“The lack of a physical barrier coupled with major loopholes from badly written laws and a terrible ruling from the Ninth Circuit act a magnet for family units and unaccompanied alien children,” Waldman said. “Congress must act to fund the border wall, amend the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act, and terminate the Ninth Circuit’s Flores Settlement Agreement to stop the cycle of illegal immigration.”

The massive increase in minors crossing the border led to what is now being called a humanitarian crisis by U.S. officials. The increases in border crossings by families and minors have resulted in a “significant” number of referrals for medical treatment because of the stress of the journey, crowded conveyances, and the current flu season, government officials stated.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said, “We are facing an unprecedented crisis on the southern border that is putting the most vulnerable populations at risk. 129 children under the age of five have been referred for emergency medical care in the last week. The care of those in CBP custody is paramount, and the United States Border Patrol is doing everything in its power to handle this crisis.”

“The status quo is not acceptable,” the commissioner said. “As [DHS Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen has stated, the system is at the breaking point. Border Patrol stations built decades ago are not resourced to handle this crisis and are not the best facilities to house children with their parents for extended periods.”

During the last week of the year, CBP referred 451 cases to medical providers, the agency reported. Of those, 129 were children under the age of five and 88 were between the ages of six and fourteen. The remaining 42 aged between 15 and 17, officials reported. These referrals resulted in at least 17 hospitalizations for illness.

Officials reported these numbers for the period beginning on December 22 and ending on December 30. They cautioned that these are “operations reporting” numbers and could change on a daily basis.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/01/02/22k-minors-illegally-crossed-border-in-december-says-dhs/

New act of Dieselgate: Over 300,000 Volkswagen owners sue company for damages over emissions fraud

More than 300,000 people have joined a collective case against Volkswagen, suing the embattled German auto giant for damages over emissions manipulations.

The number of plaintiffs in the very first collective action against the company in Germany, is expected to be well above 300,000, spokesman for the German Federal Office of Justice, Thomas Ottersbach, said on Wednesday.

As of December 28, 294,000 VW owners had joined the action, and many more claims were submitted in the last three days of 2018. The action against Volkswagen was launched on November 1 by the German consumer rights protection union (VZBV) and the All-German Car Club (ADAC).

The plaintiffs seek to prove that the company deliberately harmed its customers through emissions manipulation. Anyone, who bought diesel cars from the manufacturer, packed with EA189 motors could have joined the action.

The scandal – commonly known as Dieselgate – around manipulated emissions erupted back in 2015, when Volkswagen was forced to admit that it packed its cars with a special software. The undocumented function allowed the cars to engage emissions control systems only during laboratory testing to meet the US regulatory standards, while producing up to 40 times more gases during regular driving.

The admission of the systematic emissions cheating made the company’s shares plummet, as well as resulting in multi-billion fines. Aside from that, its investors sued for damages of nearly $11 billion.

https://www.rt.com/business/447945-vw-dieselgate-germany-auto/

Voice of Europe, official statement

Rumours were spread that the editorial team of Voice of Europe has been infiltrated by the intelligence services.

Those rumours, stemming from private sources, are untrue. We are a private organisation owned by private individuals with no government influence or ties.

We are here for you, the people, to continue to share the news uncensored.

To avoid further damage to those concerned we will not comment further on these rumours.

Editor-in-chief

Voice of Europe

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/01/voice-of-europe-official-statement/

Terrorists Seize Anti-Tank Missiles U.S. Intended for Syrian Rebels

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) ran a troubling report on Wednesday describing how high-powered anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) are now in the hands of terrorist groups thanks to years of outside programs for arming various factions in Syria, including the Obama administration’s effort to arm “white hat” Syrian rebels.

As the Journal recalled, this is the program interventionists excoriated President Donald Trump for ending in 2017, but his concern about terrorist gangs gaining access to advanced weapons appear to have been well-founded. The threat of those weapons turning against American positions is one reason to reduce the American footprint in Syria.

It is not just American-made weapons vanishing into the Syrian quagmire. All of the regional and world powers that tossed weapons into the fighting pits of the Syrian civil war have reason to worry about those weapons coming back to haunt them:

A U.S. program begun in mid-2013 provided weapons including ATGM missiles to rebels fighting the Assad regime in Syria. President Trump later canceled the program, saying in a 2017 interview with The Wall Street Journal that it allowed weapons to fall into al Qaeda hands.

“There is absolutely the possibility that the U.S. may face some of the same ATGMs it has delivered in the past to the Middle East,” said Omar Lamrani, a senior military analyst with the Austin, Texas-based defense-intelligence firm Stratfor. Islamic State and al Qaeda offshoots, among others, now possess American-made missiles, he added.

Those and other nonstate actors in the Middle East also have antitank missiles—some of them based on U.S. designs—manufactured in Bulgaria, China, France, Iran and Russia, according to analysts who track weapons proliferation.

As the article explained, guided anti-tank missiles are far more dangerous than the ubiquitous rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs. Reports suggest the Islamic State, the Taliban, and Hezbollah possess missiles they can launch from over a mile away and that can punch through a thousand millimeters of armor. Enterprising militia fighters have found ways to use the missiles against targets other than tanks, such as taking out grounded military helicopters and attacking entrenched infantry positions.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/01/03/report-terrorists-seize-anti-tank-missiles-u-s-intended-syrian-rebels/

Israel Brags That It Received “Almost Everything It Wanted” In Meeting with Pompeo

In yet another display of utter subservience to the Jewish state of Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brazil yesterday to reassure his Zionist masters that the U.S. was still committed to Israel’s security and protection, despite President Trump’s vague decision to withdrawn U.S. military forces from Syria.

Following the meeting, an Israeli official boasted that his country got “almost everything it wanted” out of Pompeo, once again demonstrating that the U.S. government, by and large, places the interests of Jews and the Jewish state of Israel ahead of Americans, especially in the realm of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

The Algemeiner reports:

Israel Got Everything It Wanted

Jerusalem got “almost everything it wanted” from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting in Brazil on Tuesday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an unnamed senior Israeli diplomatic official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“Israel had 8 requests — 7 of which were accepted,” the official revealed. […]

Pompeo told Netanyahu that the pullout of US military forces from Syria “in no way changes anything this administration is working on alongside Israel.”

“The counter-ISIS campaign continues, our efforts to counter Iranian aggression continue and our commitment to Middle East stability and the protection of Israel continues in the same way it did before that decision was made,” he added.

Later on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said Pompeo and Netanyahu had talked about “the unacceptable threat that regional aggression and provocation by Iran and its agents poses to Israeli and regional security.”

Let’s be clear here: the Israelis and their Western puppets – the U.S. and NATO allies – are the only ones in the Middle East engaging in “aggression and provocation” in the region.

The U.S. and her NATO allies have invaded, occupied, destabilized, and interfered with countless sovereign nations in the region, including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Libya, among others. The Israelis regularly launch military strikes on Syria, which has almost led to a broader war involving Russia who has backed the Assad regime, and both Israel and her Western puppets have covertly influenced countless countries in the Middle East, all in order to ensure Israeli domination and expansion in the region. It’s a total disgrace, and the narrative endlessly disseminated by Zionist stooges like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a total inversion of reality.

President Trump’s “America First” rhetoric is becoming more and more of a joke as his administration continues to grovel before Israel while he largely fails to accomplish any of his “America First” campaign promises, particularly his pledge to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico.

http://therealistreport.com/israel-brags-that-it-received-almost-everything-it-wanted-in-meeting-with-pompeo/

Early Elections: Who Will Dethrone ‘The King of Israel’?

"A historic mistake" is how Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu responded to calls for early elections last November. A few weeks later, he spoke, in exaggerated confidence of the "unanimous" agreement of his right-wing coalition that early elections must be held next April.

So why the change of heart?

Netanyahu may not be a good leader, but he is certainly a cunning politician. The fact that he is gearing up for a fifth term at the helm of Israel’s fractious political scene speaks volumes of his ability to survive against many odds.

But it is not all about Netanyahu and his clever ways. Israeli politics are truly dismal. The Left, if it ever earned such a title, is marginal, if not entirely irrelevant. The Center lacks any real political identity or decipherable discourse concerning, for example, foreign policy or true vision for peace and coexistence. The Right, which now defines Israeli society as a whole, has moved further to the right, and is saturated in religious zeal, ultra-nationalism, while some of its parties are flirting with outright fascism.

As strange as this may sound, in the company of Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, and the recently-resigned Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu is not the most extreme.

Indeed, per Israel’s Orwellian politics, nothing is what it seems.

Netanyahu is now paying the price for his overconfidence. The right-wing creature that he has so diligently created to quash his enemies, has grown so powerful and unhinged, that even the prime minister himself could no longer control political outcomes.

The once unchallenged Israeli leader has himself grown too comfortable with power. His family too has become too accustomed to the good life. His wife is now standing trial for corruption and misuse of public funds.

As of early December, the police have recommended, and for third time, that Netanyahu be charged with fraud, accepting bribes and breach of trust. Between direct involvement in the massive corruption racket that his office has espoused, and the dirty dealings of his own circle of aides and profiteers, the Israeli leader is no longer untouchable.

Netanyahu’s sense of safety has always been buttressed by his good standing in opinion polls.

Even now, his numbers are still relatively high. His Likud party would still win an easy election – 30 seats in the Knesset’s 120 seats – if the vote was to be held today.

https://original.antiwar.com/ramzy-baroud/2019/01/02/early-elections-who-will-dethrone-the-king-of-israel/

>>4580679

I agree but it still needs light on it

Muslim Congresswoman to be Sworn in with Thomas Jefferson’s Quran

Incoming Muslim Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, will be sworn into office Thursday to serve Michigan’s 13th district using Thomas Jefferson’s centuries-old Quran.

What a disgusting mockery.

Former Minnesota Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison also used Thomas Jefferson’s Quran when he took his ‘oath of office.’

Thomas Jefferson owned a Quran not because he cherished Islam or saw ‘Mohammadans’ in a favorable light — he used it to study the enemy.

As the Washington Post reported, Jefferson’s Quran includes an opening from George Sale that says the following:

“Whatever use an impartial version of the Koran may be of in other respects, it is absolutely necessary to undeceive those who, from the ignorant or unfair translations which have appeared, have entertained too favourable an opinion of the original, and also to enable us effectually to expose the imposture.”

Rashida Tlaib echoed Barack Hussein Obama when she said Islam helped shaped the US because Muslims were ‘here at the beginning.’

“It’s important to me because a lot of Americans have this kind of feeling that Islam is somehow foreign to American history,” Tlaib told The Detroit Free Press. “Muslims were there at the beginning. … Some of our founding fathers knew more about Islam than some members of Congress now.”

Of course this is a distorted revision of history.

Thomas Jefferson studied the Quran to help him deal with ‘Mohammaden’ pirates who were seizing ships in the Barbary Coast of Northern Africa and holding US military members for ransom.

In fact, the first Barbary War was America’s first war with Islamic terrorists.

Now Muslim lawmakers are using Thomas Jefferson’s Quran to take their ‘oath’ to defend the Constitution.

The incoming Michigan Congresswoman will also wear a Palestinian gown called a thobe for her swearing-in ceremony.

As TGP’s Kristinn Taylor previously reported, Tlaib was draped in a Palestinian flag as she celebrated her primary victory with supporters in August.

Video taken of Tlaib’s victory speech for the August 7th primary showed an emotional Tlaib being embraced by her Palestinian mother, Fatima Elabed, who took the flag off her daughter and draped it on her own shoulders.

No American flag was seen in video taken of Tlaib’s speech. Tlaib is a member of Democrat Socialists of America.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/01/muslim-congresswoman-to-be-sworn-in-with-thomas-jeffersons-quran/

“The Party is Over!”: Israel Vows To Worsen Conditions For ‘Terrorists’ In Prisons

Israel will lower the prison conditions for persons charged with terrorism, making them as rigid as possible, but still in accordance with international law, the Jerusalem post reported on January 2nd. The move was described as an attempt to deter terrorists from committing acts of violence against Israelis.

“We will not be deterred by threats and hunger strikes,” Strategic Affairs and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan announced on at a press conference. “Making the terrorists’ conditions worse is necessary both to create deterrence and to fulfill our moral duty to terror victims and their families.”

Erdan explained that security and criminal prisoners should be treated differently.

“When it comes to security prisoners, one of the main goals of imprisonment, rehabilitation, does not exist, because prisoners are infused with a terrorist ideology that does not regret their actions,” he said.

For example, prisoners from the Fatah and Hamas factions will no longer be separated in the Israeli prisons, despite tensions that often result in deaths between the groups. Earlier, they were held in cells according to their affiliation, which, Erdan says, only cemented the bonds within the respective groups, “strengthening their organization identity.”

Security prisoners will also not be allowed to cook for themselves inside the wards, because this was an “unfair advantage” over criminal prisoners. “Every so often, infuriating pictures appear of cooking in the terrorist wings. The party is over,” Erdan said.

Cooking appliances and utensils will be confiscated and the “canteen money” prisoners receive from rights organizations and relatives will be drastically reduced.

Showers would also be removed from prisoner wings and access to them would be restricted.

Family visits will also be limited and Israeli MPs will be completely banned from visiting Palestinian detainees in prison.

“Seven months ago, Erdan set up a committee to determine what steps Israel could take to make incarceration conditions harsher for those who committed acts of terrorism. He decided to fully comply with the recommendations.

https://southfront.org/the-party-is-over-israel-vows-to-worsen-conditions-for-terrorists-in-prisons/

Croatia threatens to cancel F-16 purchase from Israel over months of delays

Croatia threatened to cancel its purchase of F-16 fighter jets from Israel on Thursday, January 2 after months of stalling due to a lack of U.S. approval.

Croatia had in March agreed to buy 12 used F-16s from Israel to replace its Russian-made MiG-21s.

The deal, worth $500 million (€440 million), was the Balkan nation’s biggest arms purchase since splitting from former Yugoslavia in the 1990s war.

But Washington objected to the sale of the U.S.-made jets because it wants the removal of electronic system upgrades that Israel added.

After months of delay, the Croatian defense ministry said it asked Israel for “official information by January 11 on whether Israel can deliver the planes.”

If Croatia is not able to buy the specific jets it chose, the government will cancel the deal, the ministry said.

“We are not happy that this happened,” said Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Wednesday.

“The government firmly stands by its decision … to realize only the offer as accepted” in March, he said.

Apart from Israel, several other countries also put in bids for the tender, including Greece, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.

Croatia joined NATO in 2009 and the European Union four years later.

Last month, Slovakia’s defense minister Peter Gajdos signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin Vice President Ana Wugofski after the government approved the €1.6 billion purchase. The Ministry of Defence had announced the deal for 14 F-16 block 70/72 aircraft on November 30, only to be rebutted by Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who said in a statement that three procurement documents were invalid because they had not been approved by the finance ministry.

https://thedefensepost.com/2019/01/03/croatia-threatens-cancel-f-16-purchase-israel/

Afghan forces open fire on NATO advisors at base in Herat

Two Afghan border guards opened fire on NATO Resolute Support mission advisors at the military base in Herat province in western Afghanistan, according to reports.

An Afghan service member was killed and another wounded, Noorullah Qaderi, Commander of the 207 Zafar Military Corps told Pajwok.

The Resolute Support members were visiting the Fifth Border Security Forces battalion in Islam Qala, a town at the Afghanistan-Iran border.

None of the foreign troops, who were traveling in a vehicle at the base, were injured. One of the attackers was killed and another taken into custody, Tolo News reported Qaderi as saying.

“Today, an insurgent acting as a member of the Afghan security forces fired on Coalition members, the Coalition members returned fire and killed the attacker. No Coalition members were injured in the attack,” Resolute Support told The Defense Post in an emailed statement.

On October 22, a Czech service member with the NATO mission in Afghanistan was killed in an insider attack at the Shindand airbase in Herat. It was the second “green on blue” attack in Afghanistan in less than week. Four days earlier, a bodyguard for Kandahar governor Zalmay Wesa opened fire on Afghan and U.S. officials following a high-level security meeting.

Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq and National Security Directorate provincial chief Abdulmomin Hassankhail were killed. Wesa and U.S. Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley were injured.

General Scott Miller, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, attended the meeting but was not injured.

https://thedefensepost.com/2019/01/02/afghanistan-guards-open-fire-nato-advisors-herat/

Syria: The Western Rogue States Must Confess Their Crimes Against Humanity and be Held Accountable

The West and its allies in the Gulf States, Turkey and Israel have waged an eight year war against the Syrian people. The West has besieged, starved and deprived the Syrian people of humanitarian aid while pouring “aid” into the areas controlled by their extremist sectarian proxy armies.

The West has violated international law and it has enabled the destruction of Syria’s history, heritage and cultural footprint. The West has behaved as a collective rogue state without conscience and without pity for a people its media has systematically dehumanised to enable such a crime to take place.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-the-western-rogue-states-must-confess-their-crimes-against-humanity-and-be-held-accountable/5664521

NATO Member-states to be Sued for 1999 Attack on Serbia

A legal team is being put together in order to file lawsuits against NATO countries that took part in the 1999 bombing of Serbia. The team of experts is led by Mr Srdjan Aleksic, a well known Nis-based lawyer. The legal team will put together cases backed by firm material evidence, collected from medical documents that indicate a causal relationship between NATO’s use of (depleted) uranium ammunition, and the increased number of cancer cases in Serbia. Mr Aleksic is visiting Melbourne for few days and he has joind us to talk about his initiative in more details.

“Between 10 and 15 tons of uranium have been dropped on the territory of then Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). The number of those ill with cancer is alarming. 2.5 percent of Serbia’s population is diagnosed with malignant diseases each year, i.e., 33,000 people. One child is diagnosed every day. Since 1999, the number of cancer patients has grown five times. The population is falling ill on a mass scale, especially in southern Serbia and in Kosovo and Metohija,” Aleksic said.

He stressed that during the aggression, so-called hazard facilities – chemical and petrochemical industry sites – have also been targeted, although this is prohibited by international law of war.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-member-states-to-be-sued-for-1999-attack-on-serbia/5664603

Lebanese security forces bust Daesh terrorist network during New Year holidays

Lebanese security forces have arrested a group of people affiliated with the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in neighboring Syria, who planned to carry out a series of deadly attacks in Lebanon.

“As a result of intensive efforts made by the General Security Directorate in various Lebanese regions during New Year holidays to guarantee public security, government forces have managed to disband a cell linked to [the] Daesh terrorist group,” the Army Command Center said in a statement.

It added that the Daesh sleeper cell consisted of four Syrian nationals, who were operating in Mount Lebanon and North provinces.

“They were in direct contact with leaders from the terrorist group. The four Syrians were sent to judicial bodies for investigations and further legal procedures,” the statement pointed out.

On November 17, 2018, Lebanese security forces arrested a group of Syrians that had formed a network to conduct terror missions.

“They were tasked with monitoring [the] Lebanese Army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) centers in southern Lebanon in order to collect information on military personnel and equipment … and their methods of operation,” Lebanon’s General Security Directorate said in a statement at the time.

The statement added that the detainees had taken pictures of sensitive facilities, and sent them to Daesh terrorists in Syria’s northern city of Raqqah as well as the eastern town of al-Bukamal on the border with Iraq.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/01/03/584755/Lebanese-security-forces-bust-Daesh-terrorist-network-during-New-Year-holidays

Rep. Hank Johnson Compares Trump to Hitler, Says MAGA Supporters are 'Less Educated,' 'Dying Early'

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) gave an eyebrow-raising speech on New Year's Day, comparing President Trump to Adolf Hitler and insulting his supporters as "older, less educated, and less prosperous individuals" who "are dying early" of a laundry list of maladies including "a broken heart."

Johnson gave the dystopian speech at the Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta for the local NAACP chapter's Jubilee marking the 156th anniversary of the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation. His remarks comparing Trump to Hitler have prompted condemnations from multiple Jewish groups, including the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), which recommended that Johnson be censured by his colleagues.

In his speech, the Georgia Democrat urged his constituents to have vigilance here at home where, he stated, "Americans elected an authoritarian, anti-immigrant, racist strongman to the nation's highest office."

"Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again followers who want to return America back to a time when white men and white privilege were unchallenged and where minorities and women were in their place, are older, less educated, less prosperous, and they are dying early," Johnson declared.

He painted MAGA voters as sad sacs whose short, brutal lives were ripe for a Hitleresque tyrant to exploit.

"Their lifespans are decreasing, and many are dying from alcoholism, drug overdoses, liver disease, or simply a broken heart caused by economic despair," he said.

The Georgia Democrat warned that "right-wing ideologues gain power by playing on peoples' economic despair, pitting working people against each other, inflaming racial tensions by blaming economic hardship on people of color."

Then he compared the pro-life Republican president to Adolf Hitler.

https://pjmedia.com/video/rep-hank-johnson-compares-trump-to-hitler-says-maga-supporters-are-less-educated-dying-early/

Dem states take first step in appealing ObamaCare ruling

A coalition of Democratic states defending ObamaCare filed notice Thursday to appeal a recent federal court ruling that struck down the health care law as unconstitutional, sparking what's likely to be a lengthy legal fight that could reach the Supreme Court and influence the 2020 elections.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said that by appealing to the Louisiana-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the 17 states are standing up for Americans who count on health care.

“In this particular case we believe the stakes are not only great, but compelling,” he said Thursday on a call with reporters.

Judge Reed O’Connor last month sided with the 20 Republican-led states that sued to overturn ObamaCare. He ruled that the 2010 law could not stand without the individual mandate penalty, which Congress repealed. O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, issued another ruling on Sunday that ObamaCare can remain in effect while his decision is appealed.

President Trump in 2017 signed a tax law that eliminated the penalty for people who did not comply with the mandate to obtain health insurance, leading Texas and 19 other GOP states to challenge the law.

O’Connor said Congress can’t rewrite ObamaCare without the mandate, since it was considered an essential feature when the law was passed in 2010.

Democrats argue the ruling violates congressional intent, because Congress left the rest of the law standing when it repealed the penalty.

House Democrats will vote next week to intervene in the case, a move that will once again force Republican lawmakers to cast a vote on ObamaCare.

“Republican attorneys general and the Trump administration may think this is some kind of political game to score points with their base but it has real life consequences that could be devastating for millions of Americans,” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) said Thursday in the same call with reporters. “They are blindly pursuing the destruction of Obamacare while overlooking real life health and economic impacts.”

Democratic attorneys general called the GOP's legal arguments flimsy at best. They also criticized O’Connor for invalidating the entire law.

“Really, this is an absurd interpretation of the law and an overreach of the federal court that will hopefully be stopped at the appellate level,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.

O’Connor’s ruling shocked legal scholars on both sides of the aisle, with some opponents of ObamaCare saying it was a bad decision.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/423693-dem-states-take-first-step-in-appealing-obamacare-ruling

Splenda Isn’t So Splendid: The Toxic Rumsfeld-Monsanto Link

As we get closer to the holidays, many people look for ways to cut back on sugar and other indulgences so that when the New Year rolls around, they won’t have to work so hard to lose those extra pounds. While it is a good idea to avoid sugar altogether, using the artificial sweeteners Splenda or Aspartame might be even worse. There are numerous reasons you should avoid the stuff in little yellow packages (or pink, or blue). Here is why.

Donald Rumsfeld, the very same politician who supports GMOs, is perhaps the singular man who got Splenda onto the market after the FDA initially refused it. If you have gotten sick from consuming this toxic substance, you can thank him, along with its makers. Splenda was created by the British company Tate & Lyle along with the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.

Perhaps you remember when the Coca-Cola company launched its ad campaign to fight obesity back in the early 80s? This was all part of a ploy to begin the use of aspartame, whose patent was once owned by none other than Monsanto! Ironically, there are numerous studies that show this stuff causes obesity. It doesn’t prevent obesity.

Before they started selling you Splenda, it was called NutraSweet. In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet, as well as Splenda and many other artificial sweeteners. Is Splenda safe? It depends who you ask.

Let’s look at a little timeline, shall we?

1901: Monsanto Chemical Works is formed.

1976: When Ford loses the 1976 election, Rumsfeld returns to private business life, and is named president and CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation G. D. Searle & Company, during which time he leads the legalization of Aspartame.

1977: Monsanto stops producing PCBs.

1997: Monsanto businesses are spun off as Solutia Inc.

1999: John Hunter is named chairman and CEO.

2000: Monsanto’s Pharmaceutical Services Division is created. Monsanto also merges with the drug-maker Pharmacia & UpJohn Inc., which took control of the Searle pharmaceutical operations, and the current Monsanto Co. was incorporated as a subsidiary in October 2000.

2002: PCB trial results in sharp drop in stock price.

http://naturalsociety.com/splenda-isnt-splendid-rumsfeld-monsanto-link/

>>4581223

Ocasional-Cortex