Europe: Combating Fake News

Via Fjordman,

  • If present demographic trends continue, in a few decades, native Swedes could easily become a minority in their own country.
  • Swedish ambulance personnel want gas masks and bulletproof vests to protect their staff against the escalating attacks, similar to equipment used by staff working in war zones.
  • Most dangerous, however, is our inability to deal forcefully with problems undermining Western societies, because some Western media refuse to admit that the problems exist.

In January 2015 The New York Times denied that there are "no-go-zones" — areas that are not under the control of the state and are ruled according to sharia law — dominated by certain immigrant groups in some urban areas in Western Europe. The American newspaper mentioned this author, alongside writers such as Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes, for spreading this alleged falsehood. The article was published shortly after Islamic terrorists had massacred the staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7, 2015. Other established media outlets such as the magazine The Atlantic also dismissed claims of no-go-zones.

Fox News issued an unusual on-air apology for allowing its anchors and guests to repeat the suggestion that there are Muslim "no-go zones" in European countries such as Britain and France.

Regarding the subject of "no-go-zones," this is largely a question of semantics. If you say that there are some areas where even the police are afraid to go, where the country's normal, secular laws barely apply, then it is indisputable that such areas now exist in several Western European countries. France is one of the hardest hit: it has a large population of Arab and African immigrants, including millions of Muslims.

I have been writing about the problems in Sweden and the rest of Europe for many years. The problems are unfortunately all too real. Here are a few facts:

Sweden surpassed ten million inhabitants in early 2017. The recent population growth is almost entirely due to mass immigration. If present demographic trends continue, in a few decades native Swedes could easily become a minority in their own country. The economist Tino Sanandaji suggests that this transformation could happen within the coming generation.

Statistics from January 2017 indicate that for people born in Sweden, the unemployment rate is 4.3%. Yet for people born abroad, the unemployment rate is a staggering five times higher, at 22.1%. This constitutes a huge economic and social burden for the taxpayers. The famous Swedish welfare state has been quietly cut back for many years.

In an essay published in February 2016, Stockholm police inspector Lars Alvarsjö warned that the Swedish legal system is close to collapse. The influx of asylum seekers and ethnic gangs has overwhelmed the country and its understaffed police force. In many suburbs, criminal gangs have taken control and determine the rules. The police, fire brigades and ambulance personnel in these areas are routinely met with violent attacks.

Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, houses over 300,000 people, as of 2017. Despite its modest size, the town has a crime rate equal to that of vastly larger cities. The local police are barely able to investigate murders. Less serious crimes often go unpunished. Malmö probably has the highest percentage of Muslim immigrants of any city in Scandinavia. The most Islamic city in Scandinavia also happens to be the most criminal and the most violent.

In November 2016, Malmö's chief prosecutor Ola Sjöstrand publicly admitted that his office was approaching a total collapse in terms of criminal investigations. "If people are hit by crimes which then aren't investigated, they will lose faith in the rule of law," Sjöstrand told the regional newspaper Sydsvenskan.

During New Year's Eve celebrations at the beginning of 2017, parts of central Malmö resembled a war zone. Young immigrants shouted "Jihad!" while throwing fireworks at people. Swedish teenagers gathered in a large group to avoid being robbed.

A janitor in Malmö was shot and sustained life-threatening injures while clearing snow in February 2017. Police detained several suspects, understood to be linked to gang violence, for questioning. A 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Meanwhile, officials at a local electrical firm announced that they would no longer expose their staff to risk by taking jobs in Malmö; there is just too much violent crime in the city.

Beginning in March 2017, the emergency ward at the hospital in Malmö will lock the doors at night. This is a security precaution that became necessary due to repeated violent threats from certain gangs or clans against patients and staff.

In July 2015, the police in Malmö asked for assistance from the national police to stop the wave of violence. Apparently, even that response was not enough. In January 2017, the police chief, Stefan Sintéus, publicly appealed to residents in Malmö for help in containing violent crime and deadly gang shootings: "Help us to tackle the problems. Cooperate with us."

Peter Springare, a police officer in the town of Örebro in central Sweden, finally vented his frustration in February 2017. Migrants are to blame for the vast majority of serious crime in Sweden, causing the police force to become overloaded, he wrote on Facebook. When dealing with drug crimes, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, murders, extortion or violence against the police, the suspected perpetrators very often have names such as Ali, Mahmoud or Mohammed. They usually have a family background from Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan or Somalia. Others do not have valid papers.

Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, has been for several years one of the most important recruitment centers in Europe for jihadists seeking to join the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). A survey carried out in 2016 showed that about one in nine school students aged 12-18 in certain Gothenburg suburbs openly expressed sympathy with militant Islamic groups.

Nordstan in Gothenburg is one of the largest shopping malls in Sweden, located in the heart of the city. 3,250 crimes were reported to the police from Nordstan in 2016. That number is from a single shopping mall in one year. Aggressive groups of Muslim immigrants, especially young men from North Africa, Syria or Afghanistan, partly dominate the mall. "I've had people in front of me that look like they are 35, but who claim to be 15. I can't prove they're lying so we have to release them," Rikard Sörensen from the police said.

Stockholm suburbs such as Husby, Rinkeby and Tensta house large concentrations of recent immigrants. These districts are riddled with crime, violence and social problems. The Swedish police have repeatedly been attacked by criminal gangs there, even with hand grenades.

One day in December 2016, shopkeepers in Husby closed their stores as a protest. Salam Kurda is the chair of the local shopkeepers' association. He says he has had enough after his shop was burgled. Politicians and the police have abandoned Husby to the criminals, states Kurda, who plans to give up his shop. He says it is not profitable and he doesn't feel safe.

In December 2016, the American Jewish documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz told the story of his venture into Husby. A few seconds after they arrived, five men approached them. They said "You guys gotta get out of here right now." The film crew, being Swedish, turned around and ran for it. Horowitz decided to stay and try to figure this thing out with the men.

The five men then immediately attacked Horowitz, punching, choking and kicking him. Nobody came to his aid, even though this attack took place in a public area outside Stockholm. Horowitz recalls his assailants saying something in Arabic as they beat him to the ground.

"Let's define what a 'no-go area' means, really, at least in Sweden," Horowitz says.

"What's interesting is, there's an actual debate out there whether or not these places even exist, right? You go to CNN, the BBC, and you listen to people discuss no-go areas in France, in Belgium, in Sweden, in Germany. And there's an actual debate whether this is real or the figment of the conservative imagination. I can tell you for a fact they exist. And in Sweden what that means is, and this is what the police tell me, they use the words 'no-go area.' They said, in their words, 'If we're chasing a suspect, and they cross into this no-go area, we simply stop pursuit.' And if we want to enter this area, we have to go in with an armed convoy, as if you're going into like the kill zone in Afghanistan."

In 2014, the Swedish police themselves estimated that there were 55 areas in which they are no longer able to uphold law and order. That number is increasing. The country also experiences shocking levels of violence against ambulance personnel in some areas. Swedish ambulance personnel want gas masks and bulletproof vests to protect their staff against the escalating attacks, similar to equipment used by staff working in war zones.

In February 2017, the local police chief Erik Åkerlund in Botkyrka near Stockholm denied that "no-go zones" exist in Sweden. This claim does not sound very credible.

When dissident writers such as this author wrote about these issues 10-15 years ago, the real problems we raised were falsely dismissed as the "xenophobia" of alleged "right-wing extremists."

Unfortunately, the "multicultural" problems in Sweden have grown so large and visible that some international media now regularly write about them. Swedish authorities apparently find this hugely embarrassing. They try to conceal this unpleasant reality as much as possible. In 2016, the Swedish embassy in London complained that Britain's Daily Mail newspaper was running a campaign against Sweden's immigration policy.

In February 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump made some critical remarks about the situation in Sweden, regarding immigration and security. This triggered protests from the Swedish government and the mass media. At the same time, violent riots once again erupted in Rinkeby, a Stockholm suburb with many Muslim immigrants. A Swedish press photographer was assaulted by around 15 people when arriving in Rinkeby to report on the riots.

Cars burn during a riot in Stockholm, on February 20, 2017. (Image source: YouTube/gladbecker82 video screenshot

Two leading politicians from the Sweden Democrats supported Trump's comments in the Wall Street Journal. Immigration, they argued, has indeed caused major problems in Sweden.

In Malmö, violent crime is no longer limited to districts such as Rosengård. Gang-related shootings happen in different parts of Malmö, and in other cities such as Gothenburg.

A survey from 2016 indicated that nearly half of all Swedish women are afraid to go outside after dark. 46% of women feel very unsafe or somewhat unsafe when they exercise alone in the dark — an indication that there is a widespread sense of fear and uncertainty across much of the country, not just in a few urban areas. "Feminist" Sweden has very high rape rates.

Swedish women have never had more feminism, and have never been less safe.

In January 2017, Magnus Olsson, a politician from the Sweden Democrats in Malmö, suggested that the military should be deployed in the city. "There is a great lack of police officers in Sweden and Malmö. For this reason, it is perhaps time to let the military and police stand together to reestablish order in the country," he said.

Sweden's military forces have been drastically reduced since the Cold War. However, the authorities suddenly seem to have realized that there could be potential for armed conflict in the future. There are now plans to reintroduce compulsory military service.

In early 2017, the Swedish police were instructed to increase their preparations for war. They were not told who this potential war would be against, although the authorities like to talk about an alleged threat of an invasion from Russia.

It is not, however, the Russians who now routinely burn cars and commit gang-rapes in Swedish cities. These crimes are largely committed by recent immigrants, many of them Muslims coming from war zones. These immigrants have for decades been allowed in by the ruling political elites, applauded by the mass media and supported by the EU and the UN.

The Islamic terror threat in Western Europe is now endemic. In late 2016, the police at Brussels International Airport detained 30 terror suspects in one month. That is one potential terrorist per day, at one European airport. Belgium's highest-ranking police chief warned in February 2017 that the terror threat remains "grave" after the Brussels bombings on March 22, 2016. Because of the many radical Muslims living in Belgium, the authorities are concerned that Belgian citizens may lose their visa-free access to the United States.

Due to the threat of terrorism, robberies and street crime, many Chinese, Japanese and Korean travelers have dropped their holiday plans in France. Chronic instability and violence have damaged the country's reputation as a travel destination. Even a prolonged state of emergency and large numbers of police and soldiers deployed in the streets are not enough to uphold law and order.

In February 2017, Paris and other French cities were once more rocked by days of rioting by Muslim and African immigrant. The trigger was an allegation of police violence. However, discontent seems to be endemic. Riots among immigrants could erupt again at any moment.

After a firebomb attack on four police officers near Paris in 2016, France's prime minister insisted there were no no-go zones in the country. However, this is not what the police themselves say.

"Of course there are no-go zones in France where the police cannot intervene and do their jobs in safety," says Denis Jacob from the union Alternative Police-CFDT.

"And it's the same for fire fighters or pretty much any representative of the state. The police can't apply the law in these areas, they are attacked. If the police can't do their work it's because there are criminals and delinquents who don't respect the law."

Yet it would be very bad for business and tourism if the authorities openly acknowledged this. "Governments will never admit there are no-go zones because it's a sign of a failed state," Jacob adds.

As Soeren Kern writes at Gatestone Institute:

"The problem of no-go zones is well documented, but multiculturalists and their politically correct supporters vehemently deny that they exist. Some are now engaged in a concerted campaign to discredit and even silence those who draw attention to the issue."

What does it take for the New York Times and other established media to define an area as a no-go zone?

It is an indisputable fact that a number of areas exist in several Western European countries where criminal ethnic gangs dominate the streets and where even the police find it very difficult to walk in safety. The number and size of these areas, fueled by mass immigration, seems to be growing.

If the New York Times and other mass media deny this fact, then they are engaged in producing "fake news." People who truthfully warn about these problems thus risk being unfairly vilified and smeared for doing so.

Most dangerous, however, is our inability to deal forcefully with problems that are undermining Western societies, because some Western media refuse to admit that the problems exist.

Mass immigration from incompatible cultures, particularly from the Islamic world, is gradually undermining law and order in many Western cities. If Western media refuse frankly to acknowledge this fact, they are putting the long-term survival of our societies seriously at risk.

via http://ift.tt/2ozWv4Q Tyler Durden

Brickbat: Beer Run

BeerUnder Indiana law, convenience stores may not sell cold beer, only beer that has not been refrigerated. It’s the law. But the Ricker’s chain figured out a way around that law. Since it sells Mexican food in its stores it applied for restaurant licenses, which allow it to sell cold beer. Leaders in the state legislature have vowed to change the law to stop Ricker’s from selling cold beer.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/2os2pI1
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Is This The Greatest ‘Arb’ In The World?

Since it first entered service with the Soviet army in 1948, the AK-47 and its derivatives have become the world's most widely used assault rifles.

As Statista's Niall McCarty writes, in his book "AK47: The Story of The People's Gun", author Michael Hodges estimates that there are as many as 200 million Kalashnikov rifles in circulation, one for every 35 people on earth. Its popularity among soldiers, criminals and militants is primarily due to its cheap price, durability, reliability and sheer simplicity.

However, while demand may be high, prices vary dramatically… which gave us an idea.

Infographic: The Cost Of An AK-47 On The Black Market  | Statista

You will find more statistics at Statista

200 different types of Kalashnikov are produced in at least 30 countries with vast quantities of rifles turning up in trouble spots all over world, especially in Africa. The AK rifles used in the Paris attacks at Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan theater were purchased in Belgium and traced back to the Balkans (and to Serbia in particular). Given that the AK-47 is at the center of the illegal ams trade (worth an estimated $1.7 to $3.5 billion every year), how much would one cost on the black market?

A recent report from Global Financial Integrity has shed light on the cost of an illegally-procured AK-47 in several selected countries. Somebody seeking one in Pakistan could pay $148 for a locally produced version or $1,200 for the real deal. In Belgium, where the Paris attackers obtained their guns, an AK-47 has an average pricetag of $1,135. It's also possible to find AK-type rifles through the darknet and they can cost anywhere from $2,800 to $3,600.

So, is buying AK-47s in Afghanistan and selling them online via the Dark Web, the greatest globalization 'arb' ever? Or simply the correct risk-premium for life-threatening procurement costs and jail-threatening sales anxiety?

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Evidence Indicates French Government Coverup Of ISIS Involvement In Kardashian Paris Incident

Via Disobedient Media

The 2016 robbery of Kim Kardashian sent shockwaves around the globe and caused observers to question the efficiency of France’s state of emergency. However, the incident may have been more serious than authorities and the press have previously admitted. Research by Disobedient Media has revealed that the French government may be attempting to conceal the involvement of terror group ISIS in Kardashian’s robbery to prevent further public panic over the event.

Conflicting facts given by sources to the media, analysis of the criminal group allegedly behind the attack given the known involvement of terror groups in organized crime, the French government’s apparent mishandling of the investigation into the robbery and reports that the proceeds from the heist made their way into the hands of jihadists all suggest that authorities may be seeking to conceal the involvement of terrorism in the incident.

I. Timeline Of The Paris Incident

The facts of Kardashian’s robbery are muddled and confused even months after the event occurred, but a basic timeline of events still can be constructed. On October 3rd, 2016, The Guardian and other outlets reported that a group of five armed assailants wearing masks and police armbands approached the Hotel Pourtales in Paris both on foot and riding bicycles. The group was captured on a CCTV security camera in a nearby nail salon as they came and went from the incident.

CCTV footage showing one of the intruders donning a mask as he approaches the Hotel Pourtales on foot

The men made their way into the hotel just a few minutes after 2:30 AM, where they restrained the hotel’s concierge. AP reported that they then took Kim Kardashian hostage in her hotel room, restraining her with zip ties and locking her in the bathroom. The celebrity oddly was alone and did not have any security present with her that night. Kardashian feared that she would be raped as she was held at gunpoint.

Evidence indicates that Kardashian’s attackers may have originally intended to kidnap her. CCTV footage taken from a shoe shop near the Hotel Pourtales caught a black car with tinted windows passing by the hotel just four minutes after the attackers entered. It circled the block and passed by two additional times.

The presence of a vehicle circling the block just minutes after a breach of the premises is a disturbing sign that the intruders were likely not only after Kardashian’s jewelry, but attempted to take her with them. An employee from the shoe shop where the camera was located stated that French police had spent more than 30 minutes viewing and analyzing the footage.

CCTV footage showing a black car with tinted windows passing the Hotel Pourtales at 2:45 AM for the second time while the attack occurred

It appears that after entering the Hotel Pourtales however, the intruders may have struck a hitch in their plans and had to exit the premises in haste. Reports have indicated that Kardashian’s stylist Simon Harouche was in a different room nearby Kardashian and apparently contacted members of her security detail to raise the alarm. The attackers left, taking a large amount of Kardashian’s jewelry worth over €10 million as well as a number of cell phones and €1,000 in cash. In their rush to escape the premises, the robbers dropped a jeweled cross outside the Hotel Pourtales which was found by a pedestrian several days after the attack and handed over the police.

People Magazine reported that Kardashian was somehow able to subsequently free herself from the zip ties that had been used to restrain her and call for help. But Daily Mail has cast aspersions on this claim, pointing out that zip ties are designed to tighten, not loosen when moved. They can be broken if pulled apart with great force, but survival experts warn that trying to break free in this manner will likely cut ones wrists. Kardashian did not display any such injuries after the incident.

In the United States, Kardashian’s husband Kanye West immediately walked off the stage of a show at the New York City festival The Meadows to rush to Paris and bring her home. On October 4th, 2016, Page Six reported that West suffered a nervous breakdown the day after the attack and fired 30 staffers from his Yeezus Season 4 fashion show. Media outlets blamed the incident on stress caused by a underperforming fashion show, totally ignoring the fact that West’s wife had been attacked just one day prior.

On January 9th, 2017, multiple media outlets reported that French police had arrested 17 individuals in connection with the robbery, confiscating a number of firearms and more than €140,000 in cash. Daily Mail reported that the arrestees included the chauffeur who had been driving Kardashian around Paris the week of the incident.

II. Misinformation About The Robbery, Conflicting Facts Were Promoted By French And American Media

In the months following the Paris incident, the media engaged in a frenzy of reporting on the robbery, promoting a large amount of information which conflicts with government records and expert testimony.

On October 27th, 2016, the concierge from the hotel, identified only by his first name, Abdulrahman, gave an interview to Entertainment Tonight where he claimed, among other things, that the attackers were looking primarily for cash instead of Kardashian’s jewelry. His statements directly contradict the contents of Kim Kardashian’s police report, which was obtained by Le Journal du Dimanche (an English version can be found here) where she stated that the robbers immediately asked her for her ring, and for her other jewelry immediately afterwards. She also told police that her phones had been stolen and that she could only be reached through her bodyguard. But video taken by an unknown individual in the hotel soon after police arrived shows Kardashian huddled on the couch using a cell phone. Radar Online published the video, asking where Kardashian obtained the phone from and citing security experts who wondered why there had been no cameras installed within her room for security per standard procedure. The online publication was forced to remove the video after legal threats from Kim Kardashian’s lawyers, raising questions about whether or not they were attempting to conceal evidence that she made false statements to the French police.

Screengrab from the video obtained by Radar Online showing Kardashian using a cell phone after police arrived on the scene

Though a number of the attackers appeared to approach the hotel on bicycles, several others did so on foot. Media outlets mentioned the CCTV footage which caught the attackers approaching the Hotel Pourtales, but only ran footage showing the assailants on bikes and omitted to mention the individuals who approached on foot in an apparent attempt to spin a false narrative about the incident. But CNN ran an interview with former jewel thief turned security consultant Larry Lawton and former Kardashian bodyguard Steve Stanulis where Lawton stated that it is common for robbers to move a few blocks before making their getaway in a van or truck. The notion that the attackers attempted to escape on foot and by bicycle does not seem consistent with what appeared to be a very thorough and well thought out operation.

On February 20, 2017, the Mirror ran a bizarre article where they showed footage run by French TV broadcaster TF1 which they claimed showed “surveillance tape” footage of Kardashians attackers. However, the images were zoomed in, focused on the subjects and very clearly taken by an individual using a telephoto lens, rather than on CCTV or any other kind of surveillance camera. The broadcast appeared to be a strange attempt by the French media outlet to misrepresent information about the case.

Image run by French broadcaster TF1 claiming to show “surveillance tape” footage of one of the attackers

III. Evidence Indicating ISIS Involvement In Kardashian’s Robbery

In February 2017, Disobedient Media published an analysis piece which referenced studies by the French anti-counterfeiting agency Union des Fabricants (UNIFAB) highlighting the growing involvement of ISIS in petty crime such as counterfeiting and The International Centre For The Study Of Radicalisation And Political Violence, who reported last year that “up to 40 per cent of terrorist plots in Europe are at least part-financed through ‘petty crime,’ especially drug-dealing, theft, robberies, the sale of counterfeit goods, loan fraud, and burglaries.” ISIS supporters have also penned and distributed guides teaching readers how to establish “Muslim gangs” in an effort to fuse organized crime and terror in Western Europe.

On January 24th, 2017, Radar Online cited an official from Interpol who informed them that the stolen jewels had made their way into the hands of money launderers connected to jihadist groups, as well as a European official involved with tracking terror funding networks who said that the proceeds of the haul had gone to terror groups. Radar also spoke with David Levine, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley who stated that terror groups are commonly funded by the sale of black market gems. Hollywood tabloid Gossip Cop claimed that Radar’s article was false but offered no proof for this beyond citing “sources close to Kardashian.”

On January 28th, 2017, Daily Mail reported that Aomar Ait Khedache, the alleged ringleader of Kardashian’s attackers, told French police that his team took the stolen jewelry to Antwerp, Belgium where they had it melted down and sold on the black market. The Financial Action Task Force has designated Belgium as one of several locations in Europe where organized crime funds terrorist groups.

In the aftermath of the attack, The Sun reported that Kardashian majorly ramped up security, purchasing an armored car and hiring former members of the Secret Service, CIA and Israeli Special Forces. Daily Mail also reported that Kardashian was adding a $100,000 panic room to her home in Los Angeles. Ynet News reported that Aaron Cohen, one of Kardashian’s Israeli hires had been a member of Israel’s elite Duvdevan Unit. Cohen has trained soldiers around the world in fighting terrorism. The drastic security increases and employment of individuals with explicit counter-terror backgrounds suggests that Kardashian’s attackers were likely more than mere jewel thieves.

IV. The French Government Is Covering Up ISIS Involvement To Prevent Fears About Security Failures

There are a number of concerning indications that the French government has no intention of properly investigating the Kardashian robbery and may in fact be attempting to cover up details of the incident to prevent further embarrassment. As Kardashian left Paris the day after the attack, Daily Mail ran an interview with Matt Fiddes, Michael Jackson’s former bodyguard, where he expressed surprise at the French government’s decision to allow Kardashian to leave the country so quickly and noted that it is common procedure for victims of serious crimes to assist police and prosecutors with inquiries for at least a few days. Kardashian has still not returned to Paris since the incident, possibly due to reports in tabloids that Kanye West will not allow it out of fears for his wife’s safety.

The French government has routinely displayed a disinterest in speaking to any of the key witnesses who actually interacted with the attackers in the Hotel Pourtales. Despite being labeled a key witness by the media, the concierge at the hotel who was one of the only individuals to see the intruders face to face appears to remain outside of France, and is being denied re-entry by authorities. On January 9th, 2017 the concierge spoke with Daily Mail and revealed that he had left for Algeria to recover from the stress of the attack. He stated that the French authorities were refusing to renew his residence permit so that he could return to France, and that investigators had not contacted him to identify the suspects who were arrested. These details are troubling indications that France is more concerned with suppressing details about the attack than conducting a transparent and fair investigation into the incident.

French police have also insisted that there was no CCTV footage or cameras installed in the Hotel Pourtales. On October 5th, 2016, Fox News interviewed several security experts with backgrounds in law enforcement and private investigation who expressed skepticism about these claims given the relative cheapness of security surveillance equipment and the high end, prestigious nature of the Hotel Pourtales. The experts stated that the claimed lack of security cameras indicated that either French authorities were lying about this fact, or that Kardashian’s security team was so utterly compromised that the attackers had foreknowledge of this blatant weakness. The Hotel Pourtales and Paris police department refused to comment to Fox News when the media outlet reached out with questions.

An alleged coverup of ISIS involvement in Kardashian’s robbery would not be the first time that the French government engaged in unethical censorship to keep details about terror attacks from the public. In July 2016, online publication Heat Street translated and published a report by France’s Commission of Inquiry which revealed that the attackers of the Bataclan Theater in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks subjected victims to horrific torture, including disembowelment, cutting off body parts while victims were still alive, decapitation and other actions too graphic to put into print while videoing the acts for future use in propaganda. French lawmakers were outraged when prosecutors tried to claim that these details were just “rumors” despite a preponderance of evidence that this was not the case.

The involvement of ISIS in the Kardashian attack would be a major blow to French efforts to ramp up security in the city after ISIS killed hundreds there in 2015. The day of Kardashian’s robbery, The Washington Post noted that the incident would do nothing but fuel already heightened concerns about the security situation in Paris and would create doubts about France’s state of emergency which was ostensibly put in place to prevent further terror attacks. BBC News has noted that there were a million fewer tourists visiting Paris in 2016 compared with the year before. To admit that not even an A-list celebrity was beyond the reach of terror groups operating in France would continue to cripple the vital tourism industry, which makes up more than 7% of France’s annual GDP.

The facts surrounding the Kardashian robbery indicate that both authorities and various outlets of the media have not only ignored telltale signs that terror was a factor at play, but in some cases have actively sought to minimize or ignore evidence in the case. Given the unwillingness of the French government to address the increasing involvement of terrorism in European organized crime and its focus on prioritizing the prevention of public alarm at the true state of affairs in Paris, France could continue to remain unsafe, even for the rich and famous, despite the country’s longstanding state of emergency.

via http://ift.tt/2nQIpO0 William Craddick

Sheelah Kolhatkar: Hedge Funds Are The Robber Barons Of Our Time

Authored by Adam Taggart via PeakProsperity.com,

Sheelah Kolhatkar, former hedge fund analyst and staff writer at the New Yorker, thinks hedge funds have enjoyed enormous unfair advantages for far too long.

In her recent book Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street, she details out how many hedge funds use financial engineering and accounting tricks — even illegal insider information — to fill their coffers at investor expense. And then they use those ill-gotten gains to influence politics.

The hedge fund industry grew up quietly out of almost nothing into this enormous force on Wall Street. There's almost $3 trillion estimated to be under management at hedge funds around the world — but hedge funds are lightly regulated, so we don’t always know what's going on in that sector.

 

The people who have founded many of these hedge funds have become enormously wealthy. They have become the new robber barons of our time. The most successful among them have amassed multi-billion dollar fortunes largely based on trading and extracting very large fees from their investors for trading their money.

 

These people now exert outside influence in our society, including as major political donors and lobbyists and in the world of philanthropy and other areas as well. So, I always like to keep an eye on that world — I think there’s a lot going on there that explains what’s going on in Washington, and we don’t always realize it’s connected

In this podcast, Chris and Sheelah discuss the racket the hedge funds run, and as a case study, give close examination to the US government's tortured (and ultimately, unsuccessful) efforts to convict hedge fund kingpin Steve Cohen of SAC Capital on insider trading charges. Given their vast resources and paid influence, these modern robber barons remain practically untouchable.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Sheelah Kolhatkar (44m:50s).

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The Balance of Gold and Silver, Report 2 April, 2017

Last week, we discussed the growing stress in the credit markets. We noted this is a reason to buy gold, and likely the reason why gold buying has ticked up since just before Christmas.

Many people live in countries where another paper scrip is declared to be money—to picture the absurdity, just imagine a king declaring that the tide must roll back and not get his feet wet when his throne is placed on the beach—not real money like the US dollar. It should be obvious, but we have seen much disinformation out there promoting the idea that the dollar is collapsing. Most of the time, most of these people buy dollars as the escape hatch from their native currencies.

They buy the dollar first, and gold (for now) is a distant second.

That leads to the question of silver. Do they buy silver in equal measure as gold, or is silver a distant second to gold, as gold is a distant second to the dollar?

Theory tells us that gold is more portable. It is much, much more portable. First, the same weight of gold is about half the volume of silver. A 1oz gold Maple Leaf coin (which is pure gold) is much smaller than a 1oz silver Maple. And right now, the value of an ounce of gold is just about 70 times greater than the value of an ounce of silver. The math works out that the same value of silver is 126X more bulky than gold.

If you are paying for storage, that may be important. It sure is, if you are thinking you may need to carry it on your person. A gold bar worth $120,000 would fit in your trouser pocket (a bit heavy at 3kg, but you could do it). That much silver would be almost 7 of those big bars which are the size of small loaves of bread. Each. All that silver would weigh about as much as two heavyweight boxers.

Gold is also more liquid.

What does the data tell us about demand for silver relative to gold right now?

We will look at that below in the only true picture of supply and demand in the gold and silver markets. But first, the price and ratio charts.

The Prices of Gold and Silver
The Prices of Gold and Silver

Next, this is a graph of the gold price measured in silver, otherwise known as the gold to silver ratio. It moved down this week. Is it approaching a line of support?

The Ratio of the Gold Price to the Silver Price
The Ratio of the Gold Price to the Silver Price

For each metal, we will look at a graph of the basis and cobasis overlaid with the price of the dollar in terms of the respective metal. It will make it easier to provide brief commentary. The dollar will be represented in green, the basis in blue and cobasis in red.

Here is the gold graph.

The Gold Basis and Cobasis and the Dollar Price
The Gold Basis and Cobasis and the Dollar Price

The price of the dollar fell a bit more (this is the inverse of the rising price of gold, measured in dollars, +$14). But look at that move in the cobasis (i.e. the red line, our measure of scarcity). What does it mean when the price of gold rises, but the metal becomes more scarce?

We have been saying for a few weeks that fundamental buying—when people take real metal home, presumably not to bring it back to the market for the foreseeable future—is “sputtering”.  Last week, gold buying this week was biased towards speculation on futures. This week, the bias is back to physical metal.

Our calculated fundamental price of gold is up over $30. It’s just a hair under $200 over the market price. Gold is being offered at a quite a discount.

Now let’s look at silver.

The Silver Basis and Cobasis and the Dollar Price
The Silver Basis and Cobasis and the Dollar Price

Uh oh. We can see immediately, that the cobasis has fallen in silver about 2/3 as much as it rose in gold. Granted, the price of silver rose 2.9% whereas that of gold went up only 0.5%. The speculators were much more aggressive in the silver market, as they often are.

Our calculated silver fundamental price is up about 40 cents, whereas the market price was up 51 cents. The silver fundamental price is now about $0.80 over the market.

Getting back to our question at the top, we can see in the data that people buy first gold when they fear credit stress and default. Speculators can temporarily move the price quite a lot, as they attempt to front-run the market. So, naturally, they are focusing on the silver market as the general rule when gold goes up, silver goes up more. That may be true when central banks’ stimulus efforts are successful in causing an increase in production of goods, including goods that contain silver.

Less so, when metal buyers are not buying to consume but to opt out of the banking system.

There are people who buy silver metal in preference to gold, for example those who cannot afford to buy gold. But at this stage, the balance favors gold.

We calculate a fundamental gold-silver ratio of about 75.8.

© 2017 Monetary Metals

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REPORT: Mike Cernovich Reveals Obama Natl Security Advisor Susan Rice Responsible For Unmasking Trump Team

Journalist and author Mike Cernovich has just dropped an exclusive bombshell – naming Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice as the official responsible for the ‘unmasking’ of the incoming Trump team during ‘incidental’ surveillance. This was apparently discovered after the White House Counsel’s office reviewed Rice’s document log requests:

The reports Rice requested to see are kept under tightly-controlled conditions. Each person must log her name before being granted access to them.

Upon learning of Rice’s actions, [National Security Advisor] H. R. McMaster dispatched his close aide Derek Harvey to Capitol Hill to brief Chairman Nunes.

Cernovich points out, as revealed in an article by Circa, that President Obama began loosening the rules regarding “incidental intercepts” starting in 2011 – making it easier for the US Government to spy on individuals who are not the primary target(s) of a surveillance operation.

As his presidency drew to a close, Barack Obama’s top aides routinely reviewed intelligence reports gleaned from the National Security Agency’s incidental intercepts of Americans abroad, taking advantage of rules their boss relaxed starting in 2011 to help the government better fight terrorism, espionage by foreign enemies and hacking threats

And guess who had authorization to unmask individuals who were ‘incidentally’ surveilled? Former CIA Director John Brennan, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Obama’s National Security advisor Susan Rice.

Also of note is the claim that New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman has been sitting on the Susan Rice story for at least two days:

This reporter has been informed that Maggie Haberman has had this story about Susan Rice for at least 48 hours, and has chosen to sit on it in an effort to protect the reputation of former President Barack Obama.

Fox News anchor Adam Housley tweeted on Friday that the surveillance that led to the unmasking began before Trump was the GOP nominee:

Housley also said that the person who did the unmasking is a “very senior” and “very well known” person in the surveillance community – and not someone in the FBI.

It seems the spreading of names was done for “political purposes that have nothing to do with national security,” or foreign intelligence, but hurting Trump’s team, Housley noted.

“It had everything to do with hurting and embarrassing Trump and his team,” according to his sources. TownHall

This of course begs the question of whether or not President Obama would have ordered Rice to perform the unmasking…

 

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com * Follow on Twitter @ZeroPointNow

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Experts Warn A Single North Korean Nuke Could Blackout National Electric Grid And Kill 90% Of Americans

Authored by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) via SHTFplan.com,

For those who are skeptical about North Korea’s capabilities, there is an excellent article presented by The Hill, entitled How North Korea could kill 90 percent of Americans.”  The article is authored by none other than R. James Woolsey, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, the Executive Director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security and a former analyst with the CIA.

Although the President is moving forward with his agenda, he has hit a “stall” in these first two months just on repealing Obamacare: The Republican Party has been the stall, refusing to give him the necessary votes and impetus to overcome it.  As mentioned in previous articles, it will take the President at least 6 months before his actions and effectiveness can be assessed.  Six months is a long time.  In the meantime, the U.S. continues to emplace measures such as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense) being deployed to South Korea.

China and Russia view it as an aggressive measure and a threat rather than a defensive strategy to protect South Korea and Japan.  This is partially correct.  The important thing to consider here is that North Koreans and their leader are starting to become more irate regarding the deployment of THAAD, the ongoing military exercises of U.S. and South Korean troops in the latter’s nation, and the demand by Japan for a first strike initiative to occur.

Here are some excerpts from the article that readers should keep in mind:

“The mainstream media, and some officials who should know better, continue to allege North Korea does not yet have capability to deliver on its repeated threats to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons.  False reassurance is given to the American people that North Korea has not “demonstrated” that it can miniaturize a nuclear warhead small enough for missile delivery, or build a reentry vehicle for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of penetrating the atmosphere to blast a U.S. city.

 

Yet any nation that has built nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, as North Korea has done, can easily overcome the relatively much simpler technological challenge of warhead miniaturization and reentry vehicle design.”

These two paragraphs clearly state that North Korea can miniaturize a warhead.  Once again, the naysayers will only be satisfied that they “can” when either an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) weapon and/or a nuclear warhead is delivered with either complete loss of power in the U.S. and/or the loss of an American city.  When such occurs, the naysayers will then say nothing.

The objective is not to be “right” in this debate, but to be aware…to foster such awareness and help others to make whatever preparations they can before such occurs.  Here is another declaration by this article…a deep one:

“The notion that North Korea is testing A-Bombs and H-Bomb components, but does not yet have the sophistication to miniaturize warheads and make reentry vehicles for missile delivery is absurd.”

The threat could not be made any clearer than that.  The article goes on to describe assessments made in February and March of 2015 by former senior national security officials who warned this:

“…North Korea should be regarded as capable of delivering by satellite a small nuclear warhead, specially designed to make a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against the United States.”

In April Admiral William Gortney, former Commander of North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) warned at a press conference that the KN-08 mobile ICBM missile system of North Korea could strike the United States with a nuclear warhead.

Exactly six months later, Gortney declared (based on intelligence analyses) that North Korea has nuclear weapons, the capability to miniaturize them, and is capable of placing them on a missile that can reach the continental United States. This last excerpt of the article is very important due to the gravity of the current situation (the article was written today), the warning it gives, and the denouncement of the MSM (mainstream media) for obfuscating the facts on the matter and “underreporting” an issue of this magnitude:

“According to the Congressional EMP Commission, a single warhead delivered by North Korean satellite could blackout the national electric grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures for over a year – killing 9 of 10 Americans by starvation and societal collapse.  Two North Korean satellites, the KMS-3 and KMS-4, presently orbit over the U.S. on trajectories consistent with surprise EMP attack. 

 

Why do the press and public officials ignore or under-report these facts?  Perhaps no administration wants to acknowledge that North Korea is an existential threat on their watch.  Whatever the motives for obfuscating the North Korean nuclear threat, the need to protect the American people is immediate and urgent…”

These men are experts in the field.  Why is the United States (as a whole) being so lackadaisical when it comes to such a problem?  As I have written in the past, it is my fervent wish that it never comes to pass…because the death of millions is not a “fair tradeoff” just to be able to be “right” or “correct” in a point of view.  For me personally, it is not about that.  It is about paying attention to men who make it their full-time business to be aware of the true threat that the MSM does not report, and reporting it here.  In this manner, you may be able to give yourself a small edge to make it by being aware and taking any precautions you can take with your family.  It is better to be aware, prepared, and have nothing happen than to wake up one morning and find an American city has been nuked and an EMP has rendered us without power.  Let us hope that doesn’t ever happen.

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UK Puts Nuclear Power Plants And Airports On Terror Alert Over “Credible” Cyber Threat

The global cyberwarfare scare washed ashore the British isles this weekend after UK nuclear power stations and airports were told to tighten defenses against terrorist attacks in the face of increased threats to electronic security systems, after intelligence agencies concluded terrorists could plant explosives in laptops and mobile phones that won’t be caught by normal security screenings.

The Telegraph reports that British security services issued a series of alerts in the past 24 hours, warning that “terrorists may have developed ways of bypassing safety checks.”

To be sure, there was no surprise as to the bogeyman behind the latest terror threat: intel agencies believe that ISIS and other terrorist groups have developed ways to plant explosives in laptops and mobile phones that can evade airport security screening methods.

What is perhaps surprising, is that it is this latest intelligence which is said to be behind the recent bans, in both the US and UK, of travellers from a number of countries carrying laptops and large electronic devices on board. Furthermore, “there are concerns that terrorists will use the techniques to bypass screening devices at European and US airports.”

There are also fears that computer hackers were trying to bypass nuclear power station security measures. Government officials have warned that terrorists, foreign spies and “hacktivists” are looking to exploit “vulnerabilities” in the nuclear industry’s internet defences. Energy minister Jesse Norman told The Telegraph that nuclear plants must make sure that they “remain resilient to evolving cyber threats”.

Norman said: “The Government is fully committed to defending the UK against cyber threats, with a £1.9 billion investment designed to transform this country’s cyber security.”

 

He said the civil nuclear strategy published in February sets out ways to ensure that the civil nuclear sector “can defend against, recover from, and remain resilient to evolving cyber threats”.

Meanwhile, back in the US, intelligence officials have warned that groups including ISIS and al-Qaeda may have developed ways to build bombs in laptops and other electronic devices that can fool airport security. There are fears that terrorists made the breakthrough after obtaining airport screening equipment to allow them to experiment. FBI experts have tested how the explosives can be hidden inside laptop battery compartments in a way that allows a computer still to be turned on.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement: “Evaluated intelligence indicates that terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation, to include smuggling explosive devices in electronics.

“The US government continually reassesses existing intelligence and collects new intelligence. This allows us to constantly evaluate our aviation security processes and policies and make enhancements when they are deemed necessary to keep passengers safe.”

Manny Gomez, a former FBI special agent, cited by the Telegraph said: “We had the shoe bomber, cartridge attempt, now this is the next level. We need to be several steps ahead of them.”

For now there have been no effected cyber-terrorist attacks, although few things can redirect public attention and send the world to scramble demanding the “safety of the government” quite like a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant. We can only hope that despite the overt warnings, such an escalation will not take place.

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Bond Bears Battered As March Saw Biggest Short-Covering In 10Y Futures History

Bond bears covered over 340,000 10Y futures contracts in March – more than $34 billion notional Treasuries – making it the biggest short-squeeze in Treasury Futures history.

 

In fact, shorts covered across the entire yield curve complex… except for the every short-end…

Net Treasury futures shorts are now back to the lowest levels since early December 2016 but traders continue to pile into the short-end betting massively on further rate hikes as Eurodollar shorts push on beyond $3 trillion…

Seeingly betting on the continued "policy error" collapse of the yield curve…

This was not a surprise to Raoul Pal who explains "Why Everyone’s Got It Wrong on Bonds"

Raoul Pal is the man who correctly called the strong dollar in late 2014.

And the crash in oil prices in 2014.

And the fall in emerging markets.

And the fall in junk bonds.

He is the man who wrote ‘The End Game’ which is the most widely read financial article in the history of the internet.

He’s also the person who writes The Global Macro Investor, an original research service for a hand-picked selection of hedge funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and other high-end investors. Not to mention he has a background in co-managing the Goldman Sachs hedge fund sales business in equities and equity derivatives. As well as founding and managing a macro hedge fund for GLG Partners, one of the world’s largest hedge fund firms.

It might not surprise you to know that Raoul retired at 36 and now lives in a beach house on the tropical island of Little Cayman in the Caribbean.

(That’s what happens when you get the big calls right).

Today, he is predicting that the biggest ever short positions in the bond market are about to be proven wrong.

Pal believes investors are looking the other way, with the economy likely to do the opposite of what people expect. In this exclusive presentation, Real Vision co-founder and writer of the elite research service, The Global Macro Investor, he explains why everyone’s wrong on bonds and why they are probably wrong on the dollar too – outlining two trades with a great risk reward and a high probability of success. 

While the market narrative is one of reflation and growth, Raoul looks behind the headlines and lays out the scenario for an exciting opportunity in fixed income and an additional related FX play. Speculative short positioning in bonds was recently at record levels, but with real growth more of an illusion, due to the translation effects of very weak data this time last year, Raoul thinks the market could be caught out on the wrong side, with a great trade for right here, right now. While everyone is talking about Trump and reflation, Raoul is looking for the reversal of inflation and the actual story where everything is going to weaken dramatically.

In this special video presentation, Raoul also alludes to what he thinks could be: ‘The Trade of 2017’ in the oil market and Real Vision subscribers will be the first to get in on the action.

Here is a short clip of Raoul’s presentation:

To access his full presentation for free, simply click the link below:

http://rvtv.io/2mJ4nE5 

 

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