Investigation of illegal trafficking in human bodily organs in Kosovo has revealed more victims besides the Serbs who were kidnapped, killed, and butchered for their organs during the Kosovo War and its aftermath. Once the supply of Serb victims ran out, the criminals used fraud to obtain kidneys from desperately impoverished living donors, and transplanted those kidneys into unwitting recipients. The organ donors never received the promised financial recompense, but were simply dumped out after the surgery to fend for themselves.

Kosovo organ trade probe tracking victims abroad

AFP/Pristina

EU prosecutors in Kosovo trying seven people accused of organ trafficking in a landmark case said yesterday that they had asked Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Turkey to help them identify victims of the scam.

“We have several requests for legal assistance out to many countries including most importantly the Russian Federation, Israel, Ukraine and Turkey, requesting legal assistance to identify and locate victim donors as a matter of urgency,” EU special prosecutor Jonathan Ratel told AFP.

The seven suspects are accused of organ trafficking and of being part of an organised crime ring in the so-called Medicus case, named after the Pristina clinic where the crimes allegedly took place.

The main defendants in the case, which is being heard before EU judges in a Pristina court and prosecuted by EU lawyers, are former Kosovo health secretary Ilir Rrecaj and Lutfi Dervishi, a prominent Pristina urologist.

Other suspects in the case include Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez, who is accused of having carried out illegal operations to remove organs, and Moshe Harel, an Israeli accused of recruiting and bringing the victims to Kosovo. They are both indicted in Turkey.

According to the indictment, the victims were recruited from poor eastern European and Central Asian countries. They were promised about 15,000 euros ($19,440) for organs, while recipients were charged up to 100,000 euros.

The charge sheet alleges that around 20 victims identified so far were not paid the promised amount for their organs but were left to their own devices after their kidneys were taken from them.

“They were literally cast aside at the airport. They were discarded as used material after the operation,” Ratel said.

The Medicus clinic was raided by police in 2008 after Turkish national Yilman Altun, 28, nearly collapsed at Pristina airport waiting for a flight back to Istanbul after donating a kidney to an Israeli man.

After that incident in Kosovo, Altun disappeared.

“He is still missing. And he is probably the most important witness,” Ratel said. “I need to find him. I need this witness.”

The prosecutor is also working with the US, Canada, Germany and Britain to find more victims.

“We are working aggressively with all those countries and pursuing that with everything we have, (so we can) locate and identify and have those victims as witnesses,” he said.

On Monday an American witness, New York store manager Joseph Koralashvili, testified via video-link how he had joined his late father Raphael from Israel on a trip to Kosovo to receive a kidney transplant in October 2008. “His kidneys were no longer functioning. That’s why he was very ill,” the 41-year-old said.

Koralashvili, whose father died three months ago from leukaemia, told the court that no one at the Medicus clinic had identified himself or herself as a doctor to him and his father during their six-day stay in Pristina.

“Did you know where that kidney your father received came from?” Ratel asked him by video link.

“No,” replied Kotalashvili whose testimony was secured with the help of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

It is the first such case with an international dimension tackled by the European rule of law mission EULEX, which has about 3,000 members and which was launched after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

The Medicus clinic was mentioned in the report of Council of Europe special rapporteur Dick Marty, who alleged that Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and some his associates from the ethnic Albanian guerrillas were involved in organised crime and organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.

However Ratel insisted that “there is no clear evidence of any link between the private clinic Medicus and any other allegation during the conflict at this time”.

Ratel is being deceptive here. Dick Marty’s report is well known, but the EULEX investigators are simply unwilling to investigate or publicize any cases where Serbs are the victims.

The Albanian mafia devastates forests in southern Serbia

Albanians in Kosovo are devastated forests in the southern Serbian province and now find themselves in the municipality of Medvedja, Raska, Kursumlija, Leskovac and Vranje in southern Serbia, writes Belgrade’s “Evening News.” [See: Albanska mafija krade naše šume!] Most Albanians are cut down trees in a forest farm “Kuršumlija” where is the beginning of 2011. The illegally harvested 10,315 cubic meters, which is 62.9 percent of the total illegal logging in the central and southern Serbia, according to a report of illegal deforestation of the Public Company “Srbija”.

Ever since international forces arrived in Kosovo and Metohija, the 1999th year, she began a massive theft of state forests are carried out by the Albanians, but also in municipalities situated in the zone proper.

Executive Director of Forestry and Environmental Protection “Srbija” Predrag Aleksic said that the Serbian state officials are not allowed to enter the safety zone between central Serbia and Kosovo, while on the other hand allow EULEX to Kosovo Albanians.

Aleksic explained that the Albanian mafia organized forest in groups that usually have three tractors, chain saws and a dozen truck. Fall in najtesnije canyons, wherever there is a forest road. To intimidate the forest guards, Albania on the Serbian territory šumokradice shoot or throw grenades in their direction.

It is suspected that the Albanian mafia has forest associates among the Serbs, who live in the municipalities of Kuršumlija, Leskovac, Vranje and Raska Medvedja.

“Most of the stolen wood in Serbia, which is transferred to the province, sold for fuel at a price about 45 euros per cubic meter. In addition, in Kosovo there are wild sawmill, whose forest mafia boss ordered the theft of logs from Serbian forests. They fall, just cut a healthy tree corpse transported to Kosovo, and cut branches left in the forests in southern Serbia. while these cases have been reported, KFOR and EULEX refuse to protect the forest wealth of the Serbian and the Kosovo šumokradice catch,” said Aleksic.

Byron York: Final count could show Romney lost Iowa

(h/t: Flyovercountry)

Weasel Zippers: Report: Santorum Currently Up 80 Votes In Iowa Caucuses Ballot Count…

(h/t: waldensianspirit)

CzechRebel on 1389 Blog had it all figured out on January 6. Both of us noticed that something very fishy was going on that night. Problem is, even if the final vote certification shows Santorum, and not Romney, to be the actual winner in Iowa, Romney has already enjoyed a huge, undeserved, and artificial boost from having been prematurely declared the victor.

A funny thing happened to me Tuesday night…

I watched an Iowa caucus that ended more like a Chicago election. I got in late. The score was tied: 23% Santorum, 23% Romney and 23% Paul. It looked like an interesting finish, but it got even more interesting!

Anyone who has lived in Illinois, or in a media market that covers Illinois (i.e, St. Louis, Missouri; northwest Indiana; Davenport, Iowa, etc.) for any length of time can remember those “exciting” state-wide elections.

The Illinois election scenario goes something like this:

Chicago voters arrive at the polls in two precincts, but discover that the doors are locked. Hours go by before someone with keys can be found and the polling place can be opened. Someone in the Democratic Party (or some “person of interest” who actually was doing it clandestinely on the part of said Chicago ruling party) gets an “emergency motion” to a Cook County Court. A Cook County judge (who is more likely to be a loyal Democrat than the Pope a loyal Catholic) rules that that those two precincts must be left open longer to make up for the fact that they started voting late. The rule of thumb on how long those polling places remain open is “long enough to steal an election” but “not long enough for a federal court to come in and order those polling places to be closed.”

For all other Illinois voters, the polls close according to the statute. For many years, that was 6 P.M. Last time I witnessed an Illinois election, it was 7 P.M. The rest of the State counts its votes while the “powers that be” in Chicago are watching. There is a certain amount of election magic that the thieves in Chicago can work every year. “Oh, look, this guy forgot to vote for Treasurer; I think he would have voted Democrat. PUNCH!” Or, “Gee whiz, we have three more ballots than applications. Someone is playing a practical joke. OK, I found three straight Republican tickets, those must have been the ones, throw them out!”

A vote for Obama is a vote for Chicago-style corruption

If the above scenario sounds silly to you, bear in mind that in Cook County, where Chicago is located, the votes are counted INSIDE the precinct where they were cast. The level of scrutiny is very low. In theory, there are an equal number of election judges from each party; however, in Chicago, any Republic judge may actually be a Democrat or may need something from the ruling party and be willing to help steal a few votes here and there to get it. So, stealing elections in Chicago is a way of life.

Now, for the massive numbers needed to help steal an election on a state-wide basis, those precincts where the polls close late can be a lot of help. The “powers that be” in Chicago watch the vote tally come in for each candidate that they would like to help, focusing particularly on the close races. Typically, there will be a number of Chicago precincts that close their doors on time according to the statute, but seem to be really slow at counting their votes. As those precincts come in, the lead for some Republican who is running for a state-wide race starts to evaporate. Complaints of “polling place irregularities” also start coming in. Because a federal investigation could mean jail time for some precinct workers, the vote theft is spread out carefully. Those late-closing two precinct close and wait for their orders. If the race is close enough to steal (in other words, within the “margin of fraud”), that unlucky Republican can kiss his election chances goodbye. Worst of all, even if some of the crooks get caught and punished, the election results stand.

When Americans voted for Obama, the quintessential product of the Chicago Machine, they were actually voting for Chicago-style corruption. It won’t make any difference how much makeup they put on the pig; all Chicago Democrats who succeed are either crooks or vassals of crooks.

Getting back to Tuesday night…

It looked pretty good for Santorum and Paul, especially for Paul. Tallies for two counties with big college towns had not yet come in. Paul does so well with young voters, especially college-age folks. Darned if Paul’s position didn’t get worse as the results trickled in. How could that be? Lack of organization on those two college campuses? Support for one of the other candidates that just wasn’t in the rest of the Iowa? Or something else?

Poor Ron Paul. Now, let’s look at Rick Santorum. He jumped into the lead. It wasn’t by much, but darned if strange things didn’t start happening again. “Some guy with a truck” had the election results with him, and according to a Fox News reporter, was “going somewhere with them.” Don’t you just love it when the reporters give you the election story in such technical terms? If I didn’t know better, I would think that someone lied to that reporter, and reporter knew it, but didn’t want use the word “liar” on the air.

Who benefits? The candidate from Massachusetts

Out of the blue, Rick Santorum’s lead over Romney narrowed. No new results came in. They just “revised” the figures from one caucus. It sure is funny that it always seems to be the guy with the most money whose figures are “revised” upward. Does anyone know how far Des Monies, Iowa is from Chicago, Illinois? The number of miles may have been unimportant Tuesday night, as they became political soul mates.

The only other caucus came in for Romney, but the “guy in the truck” was still A.W.O.L. According to the news reports, a representative from the Romney camp and a “representative” from the Santorum camp “agreed” that the “paper in the truck” would have given the caucus to Romney by just enough votes so that Romney could have a narrow victory. We don’t know who this “representative” from the Santorum camp was, but I am sure that one can be found who will swear to it on a stack of Bibles if necessary. No, make that on a stack of that Book of Mormon.

I have kinfolk who farm in Iowa. (What person of Czech descent does not?!) I know they have some nasty-smelling manure out there. However, none of ever stunk as much as the 2012 Iowa Caucus!

So, I guess I know how folks from Chicago and, and now, folks from Massachusetts, go about stealing elections. Go ahead, Republicans, nominate Romney. That way we can have yet another crook v. crook in election in 2012!

First, please read this article at Ashby Law Firm:
Why It’s Time to Change Virginia’s Unreasonable Ballot Access Law

(h/t: GOV)

I left a message on the Ashby site; here is that message in its entirety:

Evidently, the Virginia GOP are either controlled by, or are themselves, Washington insiders who are rigging the game to keep out any candidate who both:

(1) has a chance of winning (unlike Ron Paul);
and
(2) is a genuine conservative who excites real people in flyover country, and who provides a legitimate alternative to RINOs, Washington insiders, and other subhuman parasites on the body politic (unlike Mitt Romney and Ron Paul).

A large part of your Commonwealth is, in fact, a suburb of Mordor on the Potomac. The Constitution makes it difficult to partition any Commonwealth or State, so you’re stuck with them. I don’t envy you.

Unfortunately, this electoral wrongdoing in Virginia – and wrongdoing it is – has a deleterious effect on the rights of the rest of the citizenry of these United States, who don’t want an evil or crazy pair of presidential candidates foisted on us by having primaries stolen by one method or another, in one State after another.

Both parties, and the government at all levels, are rapidly losing the already tattered fig leaf of the consent of the governed. When that happens, the result may be a preference cascade. If you don’t know what that is, Google is your friend. We hope to have emigrated by that time.

What the mainstream media doesn’t want to tell you…

Muslim Father Aziz Yazdanpanah Honor-Massacres Entire Family . . . in Texas

I watched this story more than a dozen times on the news over the past couple of days. I didn’t see a single program that noted the obvious honor-killing elements of this massacre. Yazdanpanah had lost control of his family. His wife had left him. His daughter was dating a non-Muslim. And he killed them all.

Just as the Ft. Hood Massacre was attributed to “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” and “Workplace Violence,” you can expect this massacre to be attributed to “Holiday Blues,” “Depression,” “Stress,” etc.

GRAPEVINE — Aziz Yazdanpanah seemed to be losing control of his life in recent months — his wife left him, his house was in foreclosure, and his 19-year-old daughter was dating a young man he didn’t like.

Even so, the 58-year-old former real estate agent from Colleyville seemed to be holding it together. Neighbors say he would smile and wave as he drove through his middle-class neighborhood. Recently, he was seen raking leaves in his yard.

“He was very friendly, a very good neighbor,” said Carrie Stewart, who lives across the street. “He was out here often doing yard work and he even watched our house for us when we went to Colorado.”

Yazdanpanah, a volunteer high school debate coach described as a doting father, is the focus of suspicion a day after a Christmas morning massacre in which a man dressed as Santa Claus killed six relatives and then committed suicide.

Grapevine police arrived at the Lincoln Vineyard Apartment Homes a few minutes before noon and discovered bodies sprawled among opened presents and wrapping paper. The victims were ages 15 to 58. . . .

Read it all.

1389 Blog is all about hard news, focusing on the Counterjihad. On a holiday or any other day, if you visit 1389 Blog, hard news is what you will find. This hard news is very hard indeed. It goes far beyond any wrongdoing that you might expect to find on “Santa’s naughty list” for 2011.

Follow each link to learn the details – not for the fainthearted:

• IOTW has this story on Muslim corruption of children:
  “Barbaric textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief’s hands and feet under Sharia law, it has emerged…”
• IOTW asks: Seriously, Civilization, What Is Our End Game Here?
  “Dutch TV hosts resort to cannibalism to survive… in the ratings.”

Taboos are taboo for a reason. The continued functioning of civil society requires that violators of such taboos be punished severely.

Human existence in communities and societies that condone or promote such heinous behavior becomes solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Some jurisdictions lack specific laws against cannibalism, simply because no legislators foresaw that anybody in the modern world would be perverse enough to commit it.

You may ask: What does cannibalism have to do with the Counterjihad?

• Weasel Zippers has the story on jihadi cannibalism: “UN-Backed Report: Pakistani Taliban Fighters Cut Breasts Off Woman Seen Breastfeeding, Ask Other Women To Eat The Pieces…”

More Muslim violence:

• Muslim Persecution of Christians: November 2011 “Everyone is Born a Muslim”
• No visitation allowed to blasphemy victim Asia Bibi in jail on Christmas:
  “Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five children, sentenced to death on blasphemy and waiting for her appeal in Lahore High Court LHC in high security cell in District Jail Seikhupura will not be able to offer Christmas services or to see her daughters and husband as it is not permitted by authorities in Punjab.”
• Sultan Knish on Rafiqi Islam
  He is the Emirati Muslim who cut off his wife’s fingers to stop her from getting an education.
• ACT For America: British Court Denies Philandering Biological Father Custody of His Daughter to Prevent Honor Killing
• ACT For America: Groomed for sex then thrown into a canal and killed: Life for man who murdered white girl for ‘shaming’ Asian family
• BNI: UK MUSLIM illegal alien who hacked off his neighbour’s head with a meat cleaver has his sentence CUT by six years

Three burqa dudes have robbed a check-cashing establishment, a jewelry store in Fairview Park Mall, and a flea market. Two Muslim males have been arrested; a third remains at large. Blazing Cat Fur has the story.

Shaidle & Levant on stealing while burka’d

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by SDAMatt2a on Dec 5, 2011
Diversity consultant Kathy Shaidle joins Ezra Levant to discuss the recent burka-clad thefts in Kitchener.

Ben Moss Security Camera Footage

Burqa dudes perpetrating crimes are not a new phenomenon:

Md. police say man wearing long black burqa over his face robs bank

Published August 11, 2010 | Associated Press

SILVER SPRING, Md. –  Montgomery County police said a man wearing a burqa robbed a bank in Silver Spring. Police said the man who robbed a TD Bank branch on Briggs Chaney Road about 4:20 p.m. Tuesday was wearing a “long black burqa over his face.” He also wore jeans and tan boots.

Authorities said the man showed a gun and demanded money. He took an undetermined amount of money and fled.

Police said the man spoke with what they described as “a Middle Eastern accent.” They say a silver car, possibly a Chevrolet, was seen leaving the scene.

The FBI also is helping with the investigation.

Please visit these links:

Secret Video Shows Egyptian Police, Security Staging Attack on Copts

(h/t: ACT for America)

Copts: Behind You Is the Junta, Before you the Islamists

Obama Admin Wants Egyptian Elections to be Free of What?

As we have already mentioned, the entire US is being run by the methods of the Chicago Machine.

Now the cat seems to be out of the bag once again: a screen shot of a Wisconsin Democrat website that was accidentally made public shows instructions to their ward heelers to “sign up” ghost petitioners for the recall of Governor Scott Walker.

Doug Ross has the screen shot and the story.

(h/t: IOTW)

No, we did not take this screen shot and we cannot be certain of its origins. That said, the Wisconsin Democrat Party has become nearly as ruthless as its neighbor to the south, and we cannot put anything past them.

When are we going to start enforcing the laws against election fraud? Any election where there was enough fraud to change the results should be invalidated and conducted again. The US Constitution guarantees every State a republican form of government. Without honest elections, there is no republic, and that’s that.

How much do you know about your mayor?

Where does he or she stand regarding the #Occupy movement?

If you live in an incorporated area, you have a mayor and a city, town, or village government. You also live in a county (or parish) and you need to know about that too.

Too many voters pay close attention to the presidential election to the exclusion of everything else, because that’s where nearly all of the media coverage is. Voters who are uninformed about local politics cannot hold their local politicians accountable.

In most cities, the media are all left-leaning and they won’t help you very much in this regard. You can get the real scoop face-to-face, at your local Tea Party gatherings.

Local government is especially important now that the #Occupy movement has invaded so many cities and towns. They have assembled squalid ad-hoc “communities” without taking responsibility for governing them. As we have pointed out, if the “useful idiots” involved in this movement weren’t, well, idiots, they would be protesting against the very people and organizations who recruited them. (See Occupy Wall $treet Explained for a cartoon on this.)

For now, though, let us focus on stopping the Occupiers from doing any more damage than they already have.

The Victim Factory: Occupy Wall Street and The Left’s Culture of Crime

In his debut PJ Crime column Rob Taylor reveals the painful price of moral relativism.

While the big story in conservative circles is the stunning amount of criminality coming out at the Occupy Wall Street protests, I’m shocked there hasn’t been more. The Occupy protesters are — by and large — downwardly mobile, sheltered, white drug users who have joined a variety of fringe movements and refuse to cooperate with police in any criminal matters. In the highly politicized blogosphere where most of these stories are being broken we often call people like these “radicals” or “revolutionaries,” but in the real world they are known by another name.

Victims.

I often describe the mainstream Left in this country as a cult — and it is. But a better description for the Left is a victim factory. We have allowed the Left to indoctrinate generation after generation of our youth into a worldview designed to create a dependent, addicted, rudderless population adrift in a sea of moral relativism. That the Left does this to create lifelong clients of the authoritarian state they dream of is a moot point because the real danger in this country isn’t that leftists can succeed in overthrowing America, but that the byproduct of their plan is the social chaos that comes from the criminality their learned weakness encourages. Leftism extols the supposed virtue of moral, emotional, and physical weakness; it applauds those who remain dependent on the largess of others all the while vilifying the very ideas of self-reliance, honor, and morality. It teaches that crime is caused not by moral failings but by income inequality. At Occupy Wall Street we see the truth about crime.

Crime is driven by the criminals’ belief they can get away with it.

Next: Like lions targeting the weakest, sickest wildebeest in the pack…

Put yourself in the shoes of a criminal for a second. Fifty+ years of Marxism has produced frail, helpless adult children with drug habits and no ability or desire to ensure their own health and safety. Many are rich but take that wealth for granted. All have no sexual or moral boundaries they are willing to publicly share. And now they’re camping out in makeshift tent cities where they won’t allow police.
[…]
I read about one of the numerous rapes in a Joel Pollak piece at Big Government:

There are many incidents of sexual touching and groping that goes unreported to us, mainly because the alleged victim is either too stoned or high to properly ID them or they “dont want to get the guy in trouble.”  One girl, with hickeys all over her neck was brought to us and claimed she was raped….She said she had gotten high and had sex with one guy then sex with the other guy, but when guy #3 tried, she rebuffed him. She later got stoned somewhere else and returned to her place where guy #3 came back and had sex with her (she thinks) but she remembers blacking out and him leaving and her pants off.

Surprise! Predators prey on drug abusers. In the real world this is common knowledge, but among young leftists it’s some sort of shock to find that criminals prey on people who are vulnerable. The worst part of this story is the victim seemingly doesn’t even realize that guy #1 and #2 were probably in on the whole thing. The idea that men who want to get you high simply want to take advantage of you in some way is totally foreign to her, thus she ends up a victim. And she will continue to be victimized.

Read it all.

Dark Ages redux

As one commenter points out:

Of course, in addition to the profound corruption of mind, from these medieval sh*t-infested slums shall blossom a rebirth of diseases long considered out of circulation. Watch for a spike in cases of TB and other nastiness in all of the “occupy” cities…with each passing day the muddy road to a new dark ages full of ignorance and black death gets wider and wider. Who needs bio-warfare when you have “occupy” germ bombs across the entire country?

What’s going on here?

Why did the mayors allow these “Obamavilles” to be constructed in the first place? Sure, people have the right to protest…but if the Tea Party has to pay for parade permits, rental of porta-potties, and so forth, so should the #Occupy movement. I blame the mayors for letting the Occupiers bring camping equipment into the parks, when this is forbidden to everyone else. And since when is depositing urine and fecal matter everywhere considered protected speech under the First Amendment?

Problem is, the mayors all too often SYMPATHIZE with these wastrels. It’s time to vote them out.

Just as an aside, it IS possible to camp without living like a pig. It just takes a reasonable amount of effort and planning, as well as respect for other people and for the law. You can’t “squat” or trespass on somebody else’s property without their permission. We live in a motorhome and have done so for some years. But we PAY for a lot in an RV park, where the property is kept in good order with sewer and water connections, electricity, and so forth included in the rent.

What YOU can do

Any mayor who refuses to use police power to clear out a hazardous public nuisance, deserves to be removed from office for dereliction of duty. The same is true of a mayor who refuses to use police power to quell rioting and mob violence.

If your mayor sympathizes with the #Occupy movement and has no problem with allowing Occupiers to deposit their, well, movements on public soil, it’s your job to get that mayor outta there. This is just crazy. Don’t tolerate it! Go to your town council and complain. If your jurisdiction has recall elections, then try that route too!

Fellow Tea Partiers: The time is NOW to recruit candidates to run against mayors and city or town council members who are failing to keep public order.

By James Bissett, Ottawa Citizen October 24, 2011

In the three years since Kosovo, urged on by the United States, declared its unilateral independence, there has been no final resolution of this long-festering wound in the heart of the Balkans.

After the expulsion of the Serbian military from Kosovo in 1999 there was a systematic purging of the non-Albanian population and a rampage of revenge killing, and destruction.

In March, 2004, the Albanian mobs burned or dynamited more than 204 Christian churches and monasteries – some of them heritage structures dating back to the 14th century. This veritable orgy of devastation was accomplished under the watchful eyes of NATO troops who did nothing to stop the violence.

On Sept. 15, the Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Pristina, the capitol of Kosovo, and again repeated the usual refrain that NATO was there to maintain a secure and safe environment and emphasized that “We will continue to do so – firmly, carefully, and impartially.”

Less than two weeks after his departure from Kosovo on Sept. 27, his impartial NATO troops opened fire with live ammunition on a crowd of Serbian civilians demonstrating against the establishment of Kosovo customs posts along the border between Serbia and northern Kosovo, effectively cutting them off from Serbia proper. At least six of the demonstrators were wounded. The standoff continued over the weekend. [emphasis added]

This incident took place at the same time our NATO leaders were vigorously protesting the shooting of protesters in Syria and Yemen.

So far, there have been no apologies from the NATO leadership and no demands for a full inquiry.

Kosovo, since its so-called liberation from Serbia, has become a failed state with massive unemployment, crime and corruption prevalent, and a leadership deeply involved in the importation of heroin and arms, and human smuggling – not to mention serious allegations about the harvesting of human body parts.

Nevertheless, Kosovo is the stepchild state of the U.S.-led NATO powers, and therefore must be seen to be a success. NATO cannot admit to failure.

After all, we are told 80 countries have recognized its independence. Little mention is made that there are 113 countries of the United Nations who refuse do so – including Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Slovakia – all members of NATO.

There is a larger than life statue of president Bill Clinton in Pristina. Shortly after the occupation of Kosovo the Americans constructed the enormous Camp Bonsteel. Kosovo is their baby and at all cost it must be accepted as a sovereign state. Unfortunately, the costs are high and may well spell the demise of NATO as a respected champion of the rule of law and democratic freedom.

Canada was involved in drafting Article 1 of the North Atlantic Treaty that stated that NATO would never use or threaten to use force in the resolution of international disputes and would always act in accordance with the principles laid down by the United Nations Charter. Alas, we never hear anything more about Article 1.

After the collapse of the Soviet empire, Article 1 came to be seen by the United States as an obstacle in preventing NATO (read the United States) from intervening in out-ofarea disputes and in using force to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives, frequently under the guise of humanitarian intervention.

The first opportunity of doing this was the bombing of Serbia on the false grounds that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was planning to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of its majority Albanian population and that genocide was taking place there.

Without consulting the United Nations and in violation of its own treaty, NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days and nights and was successful in tearing away an integral part of that country’s territory.

The United States and some of the NATO countries, including Canada, have gone further by recognizing the declaration of independence of Kosovo, despite UN Resolution 1244 that reaffirmed Serbia’s sovereignty over that province.

By doing so they have opened Pandora’s Box and issued an open invitation to the many groups and tribes around the world aspiring for their own state to do so by simply declaring independence. Can anyone really blame the Palestinians for expecting anything less?

James Bissett is former Canadian ambassador to the former Yugoslavia.

I mean, the dude can’t even call his DOG without a teleprompter.

The Blaze: Thieves Steal President’s Teleprompter

TOTUS was taken — at least for a little bit.

That’s right, a truck carrying the president’s teleprompter (jokingly referred to as TOTUS, or the teleprompter of the United States), podiums, and audio equipment was stolen in Virginia, WWBT-TV reports.

The Department of Defense confirmed the heist, but it’s unclear if the thieves targeted the vehicle for what it contained or simply got “lucky.”

WWBT has more:

We‘re told the truck was parked at the Virginia Center Commons Courtyard Marriott in advance on Wednesday’s presidential visit to Chesterfield.

Sources said inside that vehicle was about $200,000 worth of sound equipment, several podiums and presidential seals, behind which only the President himself can stand.

They told NBC12 around 12:30 Monday afternoon that truck was recovered in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express near the airport and hotel staff confirm police activity.  One guest we spoke with said he saw various law enforcement agencies examining a white box truck parked there.

Still, even though the truck was recovered it’s unclear from reports if any of the equipment was removed from the vehicle or if it was just missing temporarily.

“No classified or sensitive information was in the vehicle,” a Defense Information Systems Agency spokesperson told WWBT. “We take incidents such as this very seriously and a formal investigation is continuing.”

(H/T: Business Insider)

Video here.

Iowahawk: A Special Message from Barack Obama’s Teleprompter

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by iowahawk on Sep 29, 2008
Hope, Change, and concert riders

More lollage here: Investors.com: Obama’s stolen teleprompter recovered, national silence averted

In this instance, the suspect seems to have been motivated not by the jihad, but by anger at a New Zealand law regarding file sharing and intellectual property. That said, Judge Heather Simpson deserves applause for resisting pressure to give preferential treatment to a Muslim suspect.

Teen govt bomb threat accused named

By Matthew Theunissen
12:52 PM Wednesday Oct 12, 2011

A teenager who allegedly claimed explosives were hidden in government buildings has lost his bid for name suppression.

That’s despite his lawyer’s plea that publication could potentially mark the young Muslim as having links to international terrorism.

Ifraaz Joseph, 18, pleaded not guilty to one charge of threatening to harm people or property when he appeared in Manukau District Court this morning.

Defence lawyer Giles Harvey applied for interim suppression to be continued, arguing that his client’s Muslim background combined with what was being alleged could create a public backlash and put him and his family at risk.

There was the potential people could wrongly perceive links with international terrorism, he said.

Mr Harvey also argued that Joseph’s name was very similar to other male members of his family and publication could wrongly implicate them in the alleged crime.

Furthermore, “publication of his name might cause public stigma against the defendant regardless of whether he is acquitted or not”.

Judge Heather Simpson said she took into account Joseph’s young age: “he’s still at school and he should be protected, to some extent, from the foolishness of his own actions.”

However, she decided the seriousness of the charge, and the genuine public interest “in matters of this kind”, outweighed the potential harm publication could have on Joseph and his family.

She ordered that the defendant be referred to by his middle name, Ifraaz, to avoid possible confusion with other family members.

Mr Harvey also asked for a variation of Joseph’s bail conditions to allow him limited access to the internet to enable him to finish school assignments.

Judge Simpson postponed hearing this application until October 19 when further written material could be made available.

There will also be a case review hearing on November 22.

Joseph allegedly intended to cause significant disruption to the Government by suggesting there would be explosions in municipal buildings, court documents show.

The video, which was posted onto YouTube on September 6, also said Government and media websites would be hacked.

The threats were allegedly part of a protest against the new Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act that came into effect earlier this month, police said.

Acting Detective Inspector Pete Jones of the Counties Manukau CIB said after the arrest that police took such threats very seriously.

Multiple areas of the police force worked together closely on the investigation, he said.

“Counties Manukau CIB and Wellington District were able to draw on the expertise of the National Cyber Crime Centre (NC3) and the Electronic Crime Laboratory to help us locate this individual.”

He said the investigation showed police could trace individuals who made serious threats on the internet.

From nzherald.co.nz

FIGHT TO HOLD WALLSTREET ACCOUNTABLE NOW! MAKE A DIFFERNENCE[sic] GET PAID!
Protesters for hire! Astroturf by the “Working Families Party”

…The WFP is seeking immediate hires.

You must be an energetic communicator, with a passion for social and economic justice.

Only outgoing, articulate dedicated, determined candidates will be considered for the positions…

Big Government: Convicted Bank Fraudster Robert Creamer Leads Democrats, #OccupyWallStreet Against Bank of America
The Illinois connection

Convicted bank fraudster Robert Creamer, who recently set up a nationwide political consultancy to boost Democrats’ 2012 campaigns, and who wrote the Democrats’ political strategy on health care from federal prison, is promoting efforts by Democrats and the #OccuptWallStreet protestors to single out Bank of America.

Bank of America has been a focus of the #Occupy demonstrations across the country. Last Thursday, in downtown Los Angeles, eleven #OccupyLA protestors were arrested after illegally occupying a Bank of America branch.
[…]
Creamer, who is married to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), went to prison in 2006 for bank fraud and tax evasion. That has not stopped him from demanding that Americans pay higher taxes and attacking Bank of America for introducing–as other banks have done–a monthy fee for debit card usage.

It is unknown how closely Creamer is involved in the #OccupyWallStreet movement, but he has visited lower Manhattan as the protests have unfolded, and has been promoting the demonstrations at his Huffington Post blog. (Schakowsky has described visiting the #OccupyWallStreet protest at the same time that Creamer was in Manhattan, and has claimed ignorance about “who’s organizing it or how.”)…

New York Post: Sex, drugs and hiding from the law at Wall Street protests
Living in a pigsty

The criminals are crashing the party.

Lured by cheap drugs and free food, creepy thugs have infiltrated the crowd of protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park for Occupy Wall Street, The Post has learned.

“I got warrants. I’m running from the law,” boasted Dave, 24, a scrawny, unshaven miscreant in filthy clothes from Stamford, Conn. “I’m not even supposed to be here, but it’s as good a spot as any to hide.”

Wanted for burglary, the drug-addled fugitive said some of his hard-partying pals clued him in that the protest was a good place to be fed, get wasted and crash.

“I’ve been smoking and drinking in here for eight days now,” said Dave, booze on his breath and his eyes bloodshot as he lay sprawled on a tattered sheet of cardboard. “I need to get some methadone. Every day, I wake up, and I’m f–ked up.”

Drugs can be easy to score — a Post reporter was offered pot for $15 and heroin for $10.

They’ve already fueled at least one violent incident, when a wasted nut job socked a medical volunteer in the face before others hauled the attacker away.
[…]
Zuccotti Park smelled like an open sewer — with people urinating and defecating in public.

And some couples have taken advantage of the free condoms distributed by organizers to do the nasty in full view of other protesters.

“It kinda makes me think of what Woodstock must have been like,” said one protester, Sarah, 19 from the Upper West Side.

“I haven’t hooked up with any guys … but one of my friends did have sex in a tarp with a guy last night.”

The free chow offered to protesters was boosting the crowd.

“People say they are here for the cause, but the real reason is the free food,” quipped Cameron, 26, of Jersey City.

“On my third day, they had smoked salmon with cream cheese. You know how much smoked salmon is a pound? Sixteen dollars. I eat better here than I do with my parents!”…

Fast Company: The Inside Story Of Occupy Wall Street
The Eurotrash connection

…During a lull, I spoke with a student named Isham Christie (one of the first to provide his full name). “Democracy is a long meeting,” he said.

He also gave me the backstory. Some people there had been in the anti-austerity occupation in Madrid. And several had experienced a very mini version of #occupywallstreet, a camp-out protest against city budget cuts called Bloombergville. It got by on as little as 12 people overnight, and sometimes hit 200 for rallies…

This is the origin of the robotic “call and response” behavior

…The General Assembly simply assumed that the occupation would work, so it did. When they couldn’t get to Wall Street, they settled in Zucotti Park, renamed Liberty Plaza. And they slept there–just about 200 the first night (and ongoing).

Because the police wouldn’t allow amplified sound, the GA deployed “The People’s Mic”–repeating what the speaker says outward until everyone hears…

techPresident: #OccupyWallStreet Communications Technology: ‘If You Cannot Hear, Point Upwards’
This is the origin of the crowd hand-waving

…The protesters on Wall Street came up with some new technology for communicating to a big crowd without a microphone: Their own set of hand signals…