WHO Singles Out Israel as Violator of Health Rights - UNWatch

 

​ by UNWatch

GENEVA, May 31, 2023 — The annual meeting of the UN’s World Health Organization, which wrapped up yesterday, singled out Israel for condemnation, while electing North Korea to a leadership role.

 

Deviating from its focus on public health emergencies, the 76th World Health Assembly held a special debate on May 24th  to single out Israel, which was condemned by Iran, Syria, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, for allegedly violating the health rights of Palestinians and the Druze population in the Golan Heights.

By a vote of 76 to 13, with 35 abstentions, the WHO assembly adopted a resolution submitted by the Syrian and Palestinian delegations requiring the WHO to hold the same debate at next year’s meeting, and to prepare another report on the “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”

Co-sponsors of the resolution included Syria, Libya, Algeria, Cuba, Pakistan, Somalia, Venezuela and Yemen. No other country received a special agenda item at the WHO assembly.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, an independent non-governmental organization that monitors the UN, condemned the “cynical politicization of the world’s top health agency at the expense of focusing on urgent health priorities affecting hundreds of millions around the globe.”

WHO Singles Out Israel, Ignores Russia, Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia

“Out of 25 items on the current world health assembly’s agenda,” said Neuer, “only one focused on a specific country — Israel.”

“There has been no agenda item or resolution adopted on any other country, conflict, civil war or political impasse. Nothing on Syria, where hospitals and other medical infrastructure are deliberately bombed by Syrian and Russian forces; nothing on Afghanistan where the Taliban takeover has led to a collapse in basic health systems; and nothing on Ethiopia where more than 5 million people in Tigray are in dire need of humanitarian support, including health care, due to the conflict there,” said Neuer.

Session Falsely Accused Israel of Violating Palestinian & Syrian Health Rights

Syria, which two years ago was elected by consensus to the WHO executive board,  accused Israel of  “continuing to attack the Palestinian people under the nose of the international community.”

Russia condemned the “the one-sided activities of Israel that are supported by the United States including the continuing illegal activities in the Gaza strip, the reassigning of the populations, and the ruining of buildings and homes.”

North Korea, which was just elected to a 3-year term on on the WHO executive board, said it was “deeply concerned about the health conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The prolonged occupation, illegal settlement activity, and discriminatory practices continue to negatively impact the living conditions of the population.”

Venezuela expressed support for “the Palestinian people and their legitimate cause to seek self-determination and their legitimate right to access health services and medications which is constantly blocked by Israel.”

Neuer condemned the inflammatory remarks. “Today’s assault on Israel at the WHO by some of the world’s most oppressive regimes promoted the lie that Israel is harming Palestinian health rights,” said Neuer. “The opposite is true.”

“The regimes who attacked the Jewish state were projecting: the more oppressive they are to their own people and to their minorities, the more they resort to trying to demonize the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Biased Resolution Heavily Backed by Dictatorships and Minority of EU

The vote was 76 to 13 in favor of the resolution, with 35 abstentions and 56 absent.

Neuer commended Italy and Fiji for changing their votes from Abstain to No, as well as those nations that continued to vote in opposition as they did last year, including the US, UK, Australia, Austria, Cameroon, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands.

“However, the minority of EU member states and other democracies who voted for the absurd resolution should be ashamed, including France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, India, Ireland, New Zealand and Luxembourg.”

“These countries have now encouraged the continued hijacking of the world’s health priorities, and the diversion of precious time, money, and resources to fight global disease, in order to wage a political prosecution of Israel.”

“Anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they provide world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs as well as to Syrians fleeing Assad,” Neuer added.

Resolution Mandates Renewed Report & Debate on Israel

Last week’s resolution mandates the WHO director-general to prepare another report next year, to be submitted to the 77th World Health Assembly in 2024, thereby ensuring another day devoted to vitriolic accusations against Israel by Iran, Syria, Venezuela and others.

Unlike similar reports from the last two years, this year’s report did not rehash long-debunked claims of alleged Israeli “discrimination” in access to COVID-19 vaccines.

But as with previous reports, Palestinians fatalities in violent confrontations with Israelis are described as “the result of occupation-related violence,” a curious formulation that obfuscates the reality of a bitter conflict between two parties.

No mention is made that the overwhelming majority of Palestinian casualties in this violence are combatants or terrorists killed while carrying out attacks, though the report does mention that the overwhelming majority are adult males.

The number of Israelis killed is noted in passing, with no mention being made that the majority of them were noncombatants killed in Palestinian terror attacks.

Palestinian casualties in Gaza are also counted as “occupation-related violence,” despite Israel having withdrawn entirely from Gaza 18 years ago. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are nowhere mentioned.

The WHO report likewise fails to acknowledge legitimate Israeli security concerns when it calls on Israel to “end the arbitrary delay” of permits for Palestinian patients and the movement of ambulances and health care staff at checkpoints.

The WHO report makes repeated references to Israel’s West Bank barrier and  security checkpoints as well as the Gaza blockade, but never notes the deadly Palestinian terrorism which has made such barriers and the Gaza restrictions a necessity in the first place.

I just addressed #WHA76.
For decades now, the Palestinians & Syria have brought a political resolution @WHO. It is time to end this absurdity!

Its sole purpose is to attack Israel. It has not benefited the Palestinians & does not support in any way WHO’s assistance program for… pic.twitter.com/8uzyEXANpj

— Meirav Eilon Shahar 🇮🇱 (@MeiravEShahar) May 24, 2023

BREAKING: North Korea, a regime that starves its own people, was just elected to the @WHO Executive Board. No joke: https://t.co/cBmNO6AmvJ pic.twitter.com/661rILwqEY

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 31, 2023

UNWatch

Source: https://unwatch.org/whos-2023-assembly-once-again-singles-out-israel-as-violator-of-health-rights/

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Ehud Barak’s complicated position in Israeli politics and industry - Caroline Glick

 

​ by JNS

Two stories have come out that placed the left’s anti-government riots in a new light.

 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at a protest against the Israeli government's planned judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv, Feb. 25, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni‎‏/Flash90.

This week, two stories came out that placed the left’s anti-government riots in a new light.

First, in a podcast with Haaretz reporter Amir Oren, Gilead Sher—one of the leaders of the “Resistance” against the Netanyahu government—explained that he and his colleagues put together the organizational and financial structure for the mass rioting that Israel has experienced since January, before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues formed the government. In other words, the riots, protests, acts of political violence and intimidation that have swamped Israel since January were not spontaneous responses to the government’s legal reform proposals. They were planned and financed weeks before Justice Minister Yariv Levin was appointed to his position and well before the government took any position on anything.

Sher served as Ehud Barak’s chief of staff during Barak’s brief tenure as prime minister from 1999-2001. He was Barak’s chief negotiator with the PLO at the failed Camp David Peace Summit and has remained close to Barak ever since.

Speaking to Oren, Sher revealed that the plot to light the country on fire was hatched in mid-December, three weeks before the government was formed. In a meeting hosted by Yossi Kutchik, who served as the director general of the Prime Minister’s Office during Barak’s premiership, Sher and Kutchik met with former IDF Chief of General Staff Dan Halutz and high-tech billionaire and far-left political activist Orni Petruschka.

In Sher’s telling, “The four of us met and very quickly, maybe a week or two, we were joined by a number of other people.”

Among others, Sher mentioned former deputy attorney general Dina Zilber and Shikma Bressler. In 2020, Bressler burst into the public consciousness as head of the “Black Flags” group of anti-Netanyahu protesters. As Israel’s Channel 13 revealed in January 2020, Bressler’s group was funded by Ehud Barak.

Barele Crombly, who organized several of the right’s major pro-judicial reform protests, claimed in a recent interview that Barak is one of the largest funders of the “Resistance.” Crombly claimed that “Ehud Barak is funding the protest with millions if not tens of millions of shekels.”

Sher’s claims were later expanded by former leftist activist Eldad Yaniv. Yaniv, who was a senior adviser to Barak during his 1999 campaign against Netanyahu and maintained close ties to the former premier in the intervening years, organized the 2017 protests outside then-Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s home demanding that he indict Netanyahu. After the Nov. 1 elections, Yaniv broke with his political colleagues because he felt that the public had spoken and that Netanyahu and his government had the right to lead the country.

After Sher gave his interview, Yaniv explained on Channel 11 said that the same people Sher mentioned in his interview approached him before the elections. Convinced by their polling data that Netanyahu and the religious right would win the elections, they asked Yaniv to begin planning the campaign Sher claims he initiated last December.

The first thing that we learn from these revelations again is that the impetus for the protests and direct actions against Netanyahu, his government and the majority of the Israeli public that voted for Netanyahu’s government was not the government’s judicial reform agenda, nor any other policy the government has launched. Rather, the protests were a preconceived program to paralyze and destabilize the government with the plan to overthrow it. The anti-judicial reform banner was attached to the protests because it was the new government’s first major initiative.

The other aspect that is notable is the apparent centrality of Ehud Barak in everything that has happened. Barak has been one of the most outspoken and radical critics of Netanyahu and his government. And now we learn that while he wasn’t present at the meeting Sher described, Sher and Kutchik—like many of the dozens of retired generals, colonels and high-tech tycoons running the protest and riot campaigns—are closely associated with Barak. These are the people who initiated the hi-tech sector’s anti-government campaign and who organized retired generals to take a leading role in calling for active duty reservists to refuse to serve in reserves.

‘Deliberately destroying’ an industry to placate Washington

The second major story this week was an expose by the Financial Times regarding Israeli cyber security firm Paragon. Barak sits on the firm’s board of directors.

Israel was arguably the first country to recognize the centrality of cyber security for 21st-century intelligence operations. In recent decades, former soldiers and officers from the IDF’s cyber intelligence unit 8200 formed private companies that developed cyber espionage tools used by Israel’s intelligence agencies, and, under the strict supervision of the Defense Ministry, exported those tools to friendly nations. Cyber tools are vital to today’s counterterror operations. Untold numbers of lives in Israel and around the world have been saved through the penetration of the electronic communications of terrorists.

Beginning in 2018, an NGO called Citizen Lab which operates out of the University of Toronto began publishing a series of reports claiming that one Israeli cyber firm, NSO Group, was being used by authoritarian regimes to harm journalists and human-rights activists. That report, together with several follow-up reports with additional allegations, most of which were debunked, formed the basis of the Biden administration’s decision in November 2021 to blacklist NSO Group and Candiru, another Israeli cybersecurity firm. Notably, The New York Times reported last year that days after the United States blacklisted NSO Group, it signed a secret contract with the group to purchase NSO’s geolocation tool that can covertly track mobile phones around the world without the owner’s knowledge.

Last July, two weeks after the Bennett-Lapid-Gantz government lost its parliamentary majority and new elections were called, Channel 13’s military correspondent Alon Ben David reported that the Biden administration and the U.S. intelligence agencies had decided to destroy Israel’s cybersecurity industry and force Israel’s cybersecurity firms to transfer their ownership, operations—and allegiance—to the United States.

The Bennett-Lapid-Gantz government was beholden to the Biden administration as no previous Israeli government had ever felt beholden to any U.S. administration. Rather than defend Israel’s industry, according to Ben David, the government was “deliberately destroying” the industry to placate Washington. “The Defense Ministry has already frozen most of the export licenses and the Americans have simply decided to shut down our offensive cyber industry and transfer it to them,” Ben David explained.

The heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies were up in arms. They told Ben David that shuttering the industry would cause massive harm to Israel’s capacity to defend itself. But in short order, Israel’s cybersecurity firms folded, sold their shares or closed their offensive cyber divisions.

Not all Israeli firms were upset about what was happening. As Ben David put it: “Unfortunately, there were Israeli companies that, in their greed for sales, gave the Americans the excuse to act.”

Ben David didn’t provide any details about which Israeli firms were benefiting from the U.S.’s bare-knuckled assault on Israel’s cyber industry. This week, the Financial Times appears to have provided the backstory. According to a news report, as Citizen Lab was going after NSO Group, NSO Group’s competitor with a cyber weapon of its own called Graphite, decided to take advantage of the situation. The competitor’s name was Paragon.

According to the report, “In 2019, even before work on Graphite had been completed…, Paragon hired DC-based WestExec Advisors, the influential advisory group staffed by ex-Obama White House officials including Michele Flournoy, Avril Haines and Antony Blinken. Ex-U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, was also consulted.”

After Biden’s election, Haines was appointed director of national intelligence and Blinken became secretary of state.

The Financial Times’ report continues, “WestExec said it ‘advised Paragon on its strategic approach to the U.S. and European markets, as well as the formulation of its industry-leading ethical commitments designed to ensure the appropriate use of its technology.’”

The report explained, “American approval, even if indirect, has been at the heart of Paragon’s strategy. The company sought a list of allied nations that the US wouldn’t object to seeing deploy Graphite.”

Last year, Paragon won a contract to provide cyber security tools to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. As the Financial Times’ story explains, while Paragon built its marketing strategy on subordinating its activities to U.S. approval, NSO Group worked with the government of Israel which provided it with export licenses to countries that Israel wished to assist. Israel’s cybersecurity prowess is one of the foundations of its strategic ties with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. And as Ben David hinted, the sale of NSO’s Pegasus spyware to these countries was one of the reasons that the Abraham Accords were achieved.

Barak’s position in the United States is strong but precarious. On the one hand, he enjoys close relations with senior U.S. political and national security officials. On the other hand, Barak’s name has come up as one of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s associates. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that according to Epstein’s diary, Epstein met Barak 30 times between 2013 and 2017. Barak also flew several times with Epstein on Epstein’s private jet. Epstein was convicted of child sex solicitation in 2009.

Barak told the Journal that his wife and security detail accompanied him on all of his flights.

In 2020, court documents revealed that in a sworn deposition, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claimed that Epstein forced her to have sex with Barak. Barak flatly rejected the allegation, and others have challenged Giuffre’s credibility.

In July 2019, while Epstein was jailed in Manhattan pending trial on child sex trafficking charges, the Daily Mail published a photo of Barak taken in January 2016. The photograph showed Barak wearing a facemask and standing outside Epstein’s New York townhouse. In the four hours that followed, four young women were photographed entering Epstein’s home.

Barak admitted that it was him in the photograph but insisted that his meeting that day with Epstein was innocent. “I was there for lunch or a chat, nothing else. So what? I never attended a party with him. I never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls.” Barak said in a comment to The Daily Beast. Barak also admitted to flying on Epstein’s plane to his island residence in the Caribbean where Epstein allegedly held illicit sex parties with underage girls.

Also in July 2019, Haaretz reported that in 2015, Epstein invested millions of dollars in Barak’s company Carbyne, which develops geolocation software for emergency services.

Several men whose names were associated with Epstein, including Prince Andrew, and senior Morgan Stanley executive Jes Staley were forced to resign their positions and withdraw from public life. Barak’s close ties to Epstein, in contrast, have been downplayed by the Israeli media and ignored by the state prosecution. Obviously, the situation would change immediately if U.S. officials decided to investigate Barak’s close ties to Epstein.

Barak’s Twitter feed is filled with enraged, threatening posts against Netanyahu and his coalition partners. In recent weeks, it has focused its ire at opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, whom Barak has been trying to intimidate into rejecting all efforts to negotiate an agreed program for judicial reform with the government, under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog.

It is impossible to know whether Barak’s ties with senior U.S. officials are related to his multiyear efforts to oust Netanyahu from power. But from this week’s revelations we learned that Barak’s associates organized the continuous campaign to destabilize and paralyze the Netanyahu government, and that they began their efforts before the government was formed. We also learned that Barak benefited personally from the U.S. move to seize Israel’s cybertechnology industry.

Beyond that, we know that Netanyahu is the Israeli leader who transformed Israel into an independent, regional power and did so despite the fervent opposition of Barak, his associates and key members of the Biden administration.

Caroline Glick is the senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate and the host of the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS. Glick is also the diplomatic commentator for Israel’s Channel 14, as well as a columnist for Newsweek. Glick is the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington and a lecturer at Israel’s College of Statesmanship.

Source: https://www.jns.org/jns/benjamin-netanyahu/23/6/2/292333/

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Three IDF soldiers killed in shootings carried out by Egyptian policeman - Shira Silkoff

 

​ by Shira Silkoff

The IDF is investigating the possibility that the shooter was an Egyptian border guard • Gallant, Halevi hold situational assessment.

 

View of road 10, on the border with Egypt, which opened up for visitors today, for the Jewish holiday of Passover. April 7, 2023.

(photo credit: YOSSI ALONI/FLASH90)

Two IDF soldiers were shot and killed in a security incident on the Israeli-Egyptian border early on Saturday morning, the IDF confirmed early on Saturday afternoon. 

An additional third soldier was killed by the same terrorist several hours later in an exchange of fire.

Two of the soldiers were identified as Sgt. Lia Ben-Nun and St.-Sgt. Ohad Dahan.

Ben-Nun and a male soldier were found lifeless at an IDF guard post sometime after 6 a.m. by members of their team who had been sent to check on their wellbeing after they failed to respond to their radios, an initial investigation has shown. 

Following the discovery of their bodies, additional reinforcements arrived and a search operation was carried out in order to locate the perpetrator, who was believed to have infiltrated Israel from across the border at some point during the night.

Armoured Israeli military vehicle driving along border with Egypt (credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

The terrorist was later confirmed by the IDF to be an Egyptian police officer. The IDF added that it and the Egyptian military were conducting a thorough investigation.

Shortly after midday on Saturday, the IDF confirmed an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and the terrorist, who was killed in the exchange.

During the operation, Dahan was shot and killed, and an additional soldier was lightly injured. The injured soldier was hit in his hand by shrapnel but was released from the hospital in the late afternoon.

The Egyptian army later said in a statement that he was chasing drug smugglers, adding that "during the chase, the security man was involved in an exchange of fire that caused the deaths of three Israeli soldiers."

They did not add how the police officer ended up in a shootout with IDF soldiers when he should have been chasing drug smugglers.

IDF and Egypt coordinate response to shooting

At around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, the IDF thwarted a drug smuggling operation in the same area as the shooting, seizing NIS 1.5 million worth of drugs. The smuggling attempt was carried out with the help of ladders, and the IDF is investigating the possibility that the two incidents were connected.

The IDF is continuing to scan the areas close to the border for additional threats due to concerns that the terrorist had not acted alone and had coordinated with people inside of Israel, an IDF spokesperson confirmed during a press briefing.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, along with other security officials, held a situational assessment early on Saturday afternoon in light of the ongoing developments, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is receiving regular updates.

"I'm pained by the death of the three soldiers at the Egyptian border incident," said Gallant on Twitter. "IDF soldiers did their jobs with dedication, but the incident ended with terrible results. My family is with the families in their most difficult hour."

"Such a sad Shabbat," said President Isaac Herzog on Saturday evening. "We were horrified by the report of the death of three IDF soldiers in incidents this morning on the Egyptian border. There are no words to describe the pain and the loss. Together with all the people, I send sincere condolences to the families and share in their loss at this difficult time. We will guard their memories and continue to guard our borders diligently."

He added that he had taken part in the situation assessment and that the IDF would investigate fully. He ended by expressing trust in the soldiers and their commanders.

This is a developing story. 

Shira Silkoff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-745074

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House Republicans call on DOJ to turn over documents on FBI role in Trump investigation - Charlotte Hazard

 

​ by Charlotte Hazard

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for records and details.

 

House GOP members have called on the Department of Justice to turn over records regarding the FBI and its role with special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into former President Donald Trump.

Republican members of Congress, led by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Friday asking for details and records.

“The extent of the FBI’s bias and reckless disregard for the truth, which Special Counsel Durham laid out in painstaking detail, is nothing short of scandalous," Jordan wrote in the letter. "The FBI has tried to dismiss the report’s findings by claiming to have ‘already implemented dozens of corrective actions’ to prevent similar misconduct in the future."

According to Jordan, Durham's report found no evidence of Russia collusion and the FBI hasn't given clear answers about its part in the Trump investigation. 

“The FBI has tried to dismiss the report’s findings by claiming to have ‘already implemented dozens of corrective actions’ to prevent similar misconduct in the future,” Jordan stated. “The FBI’s window dressing is not enough.”

Jordan has invited Durham to speak with the committee about the investigation, and he is scheduled to do so on June 21. 

"Jordan is now conducting congressional oversight with a request that the DOJ disclose how many FBI agents are working under Smith on his investigation and what kind of resources the FBI has dedicated to the effort," a statement from the House Judiciary Committee website reads. The Judiciary chair gave the Justice Department two weeks to respond; the deadline is June 15.

Charlotte Hazard

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/house-republicans-call-doj-turn-over-documents-fbi-role-trump-investigation

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Doctored evidence? Democrat-led J6 panel added audio to silent security video for primetime hearings - John Solomon and Nicholas Ballasy

 

​ by John Solomon and Nicholas Ballasy

J6 Unmasked: Silent Capitol Police security footage altered by adding audio from another source during a montage that aired at the select committee's first primetime hearing last June.

 

Watch footage

 

The Democrat-led House Select Committee to Investigate Jan. 6 doctored a key piece of its evidence, adding audio to silent U.S. Capitol Police security footage used to create a dramatic video montage for the opening of its primetime hearings last summer, according to a Just the News review of the original raw footage and interviews.

In at least two instances identified by Just the News, the panel's sizzle reel that aired live and on C-SPAN last June failed to identify that it had overdubbed audio from another, unidentified source onto the silent footage. Multiple current and former Capitol Police officials as well as key lawmakers and congressional aides confirmed that the closed-circuit cameras that captured the video do not record sound and that it was added afterwards.

A former spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee told Just the News that the panel was supposed to clearly mark any video that was dubbed with another audio source, and it did so on some occasions in the sizzle reel. 

But Just the News identified two key pieces of Capitol Police closed circuit television (“CCTV”) footage -- one from an inside angle showing the dramatic breach of a key entrance to the Capitol by rioters and the other an aerial view of the agitated crowd outside – from a camera system that Capitol Police officials confirmed did not have sound recording capabilities. Yet, the footage shown by the committee inexplicably included sound on the video montage they produced. That video is without any disclaimer showing the audio had been dubbed.

You can see those videos in the player above.

Spokesmen and other aides for the Jan. 6 committee and its former chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., did not return repeated requests for comment on why the two key scenes were dubbed without the public being told.

The chairman of the current GOP-led House Administration subcommittee that continues to investigate the security failures of the Jan. 6 tragedy blasted the decision to dub audio without informing the public, saying it was further proof Democrats wanted to sway opinion rather than gather facts.

"What the American people want to know is the truth, and this was nothing but a Hollywood production," Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., told the Just the News, No Noise television show Friday night. "The committee spent $18.5 million, at least that's what we know of, to write a dossier against Donald Trump and to create this Hollywood production. And when I looked at the videos, it's clear, it's apparent to me that it is a Capitol police security video film, and there is no audio whatsoever.”

"And so yes, it was dubbed on there for dramatic effect” Loudermilk continued, “And that shows that what they were trying to do is sway public opinion, not just get the truth out." 

The full and unadulterated CCTV security footage of the Jan. 6 riots is in the possession of the House Administration Committee. Just the News was authorized by Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the committee to review the footage and make copies of any newsworthy moments. On Thursday, Just the News released footage of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's evacuation from the Capitol during the riot that showed she let her daughter film the exit Hollywood style, an act the former police chief said was a "distraction" for her security detail.

Loudermilk has had his own battles with the Jan. 6 committee, which falsely accused him of leading a reconnaissance operation inside the Capitol for rioters the day before the attack. Capitol Police concluded the committee's allegation was false and all the congressman had done was give a tour to constituents in nearby congressional office buildings.

As part of its review, Just the News compared original raw footage from the security cameras to the same footage aired during the Jan. 6 committee's sizzle reel.

One video clip from the genuine security footage shows an aerial view of the U.S. Capitol Building without sound as the riot unfolded on Jan. 6. Yet during the hearing the same clip aired with audio of crowd noises.

Another clip shows rioters entering the building through the Senate wing door. Viewers can hear glass breaking and a lot of shouting as the clip played during the hearing, but the Capitol Police and others have confirmed that the genuine and original version of this security footage had no audio. 

Just the News contacted Thompson’s office and asked why it showed silent Capitol security footage with added audio. A spokesperson for Thompson responded with a statement from a staffer who works on the committee who said graphics on the clips indicated the audio sources that were used. However, the clips in question do not show an audio source.

"The police video, both in terms of surveillance video and body-cam video, was synced with the D.C. Metropolitan Police and US Capitol Police radio transmissions going on at the same time," the spokesperson said, replaying the response from the select committee staffer. "And the source of the audio was clearly identified in the video clips shown during the hearings and in the transcripts of the proceedings, where the audio is clearly marked as 'Police Radio Transmission' or 'USCP Radio Transmission or 'MPD Radio Transmission'." At press time, Just The News has been unable to determine whether the overdubbed police transmissions contained the crowd noises in the background audio.

Just the News followed up and asked for the audio source of the two clips but did not receive a response.

A former spokesperson for the committee also told Just the News that audio sources appeared as graphics on each video clip that aired during the public hearings. When presented with two examples of silent security footage where audio had been overdubbed without indication that the video had been doctored or the source of the soundtrack, the former spokesperson did not respond.

Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said if the video evidence was altered and the public wasn't told, it warranted an investigation and forensic exam by Congress and would likely have resulted in serious repercussions had it occurred in a court of law.

"Well, if this is true, if they really did dub the tapes without telling the public, if a lawyer did that, that lawyer would be disbarred," Dershowitz said. "It would be fraud if a person introduced that as testimony and didn't disclose that it had material added. That would be a form of perjury.

"We ought to be able to prove that forensically, without any doubt, and we ought to be able to get the evidence of who added the words, where the words came. ... We have to get all the facts. But once the facts are known if it confirms what you've said, this is a very, very serious ethical and perhaps even legal breach."

Democrats have a history of accuracy issues in their efforts to investigate Jan. 6. In the second impeachment trial of the 45th president, Democrats omitted from a video of Trump's speech that he had urged his followers to protest peacefully on Jan. 6.

During the early Jan. 6 committee investigation, lawmakers falsely accused former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik of being in Washington at a planning meeting for the protest the day before the riots. In fact, evidence uncovered by Just the News showed he was in New York caring for a sick relative. The committee apologized.

The committee also was forced to apologize when it altered a text message sent by Rep. Jim Jordan, angering Republicans. "The Select Committee is responsible for and regrets the error," it said at the time.

 
John Solomon and Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/jan-6-select-committee-added-audio-silent-capitol-police-security-footage

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs bill banning transgender surgery for minors - Charlotte Hazard

 

​ by Charlotte Hazard

The bill forbids health care providers from performing gender-affirming surgery on anyone under the age of 18.

 

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law on Friday a bill which bans transgender surgeries for minors. 

The bill forbids health care providers from performing gender-affirming surgery on anyone under the age of 18. It goes into effect September 1.  

The bill includes some exceptions for minors who have received non-surgical gender-affirming care before June 1, 2023, and have undergone 12 or more sessions of counseling at least six months before going on prescription drug care.

Senate Bill 14 passed the legislature last month, and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and Transgender Law Center vowed to file a legal challenge to the bill if it got signed. 

Texas lawmakers “are hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of transgender youth, in direct opposition to the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as appropriate and necessary,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas wrote in a statement.

“Transgender youth in Texas deserve the support and care necessary to give them the same chance to thrive as their peers," the statement continued.

Abbott had issued an order last year stating that medical treatment of transgender minors should be investigated as child abuse. 

Other states that have also banned gender-affirming surgery for minors include Nebraska, Oklahoma and North Dakota. 

 
Charlotte Hazard

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/greg-abbott-signs-bill-banning-transgender-surgery-minors

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New York Dems Want to Free ‘Son of Sam,’ All Serial Killers - Daniel Greenfield

 

​ by Daniel Greenfield

New bill would end life sentences, offer parole to the worst monsters.

 

[Frontpage Editor’s note: Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s masterpiece contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]

Last year, California’s Gov. Newsom announced that he was dismantling Death Row, providing relief to monsters like the “Grim Sleeper” serial killer who killed nine women, the “Yosemite Killer,” and Charles Ng, who raped, tortured, and killed unknown numbers of women.

New York Democrats have decided to go one better by offering parole to serial killers.

The campaign, promoted by celebrities like Common and John Legend, could set the worst monsters in prison loose on a city and state already drowning in crime.

Senate Bill S2423, known to its backers as Elder Parole, eliminates life sentences by offering parole to all prisoners regardless of how horrific their crimes may have been.

Any murderer, rapist, or pedophile over the age of 55, who spent at least 15 years in prison, will be automatically eligible for parole under a  pro-crime bill that has 33 state senate co-sponsors.

Potential parolees could include the “Son of Sam” serial killer, mass shooter Colin “Black Rage” Ferguson, and Richard “Angel of Death” Angelo, a nurse who poisoned dozens of patients. Even if these monsters aren’t paroled immediately, numberless other killers, rapists and pedophiles will be set loose.

After New York Democrats abolished bail and set out to free as many criminals as possible, homicide rates and all crime rates shot up. Many of the Democrat legislators proposing to end life sentences and free serial killers had also backed previous pro-crime measures like the “Less is More Act” which put more convicts back on the street and kept them there.

Charles Rowe (pictured above) raped and stabbed to death a 10-year-old girl; after being paroled he went on a crime spree, but he was kept on the street thanks to Gov. Hochul and the Democrat “Less is More Act,” until he sexually assaulted a 69-year-old woman.

“Let’s not turn this into a murder,” Rowe told his victim.

Not satisfied with the massive increase in crime since the wave of pro-crime laws were unrolled, New York Democrats are on a mission to free every single criminal in prison. Literally.

Senate Bill 2423 or Elder Parole complains that “New York State holds the shameful distinction of having the third-largest population of people serving terms of life imprisonment in the country.” The victims that Elder Parole is lobbying for include not only Son of Sam, but John Jamelske, who ran a house of horrors in his homemade dungeon, and Joel Rifkin, who dismembered women and scattered their parts across parts of New York and New Jersey.

There’s also Calvin Jackson, who murdered nine women in Manhattan and then sexually assaulted their corpses. Jackson is black, making him one of the “disproportionately black and Latinx” monsters that the Democrat pro-crime Elder Parole bill claims are “aging rapidly behind bars.”

Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is responsible for the proposal to free all the serial killers, does not believe that it’s “shameful” that these crimes were committed against innocent women or that it took so long to catch these monsters; he only believes that it’s shameful that we keep them locked up instead of setting them loose so they can strangle and dismember more women.

“There is a growing consensus among people across the political spectrum that mass incarceration is ineffective, flawed, and racially biased,” Sen. Hoylman-Sigal’s bill argues. That pro-crime consensus among leftists and libertarians has already led to thousands of added deaths over the past few years. Murder rates continue rising nationwide while pro-crime Democrats like Hoylman-Sigal argue that we just haven’t freed enough monsters.

The pro-crime Democrats backing the Elder Parole bill claim that their bill isn’t meant to free serial killers and the worst offenders, but whom exactly do they think is serving life sentences?

Had they wanted to exclude serial killers, murderers, and pedophiles, all they had to do was add a few words to their bill. Sen. Hoylman-Sigal and pro-crime Democrats chose not to do so because they want to provide the Son of Sam and every other monster with a chance at parole.

And if they don’t get paroled on their first try, they will automatically be able to reapply “no more than 24 months later.” Go through parole hearings often enough and something may give. Just ask Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s killer, who was recommended for parole in 2021.

New York Democrats could have chosen to limit the scope of the Elder Parole bill by excluding murderers, serial killers or child rapists. They didn’t do that because they wanted them to have a chance at parole. Why? It’s right there in the bill. They oppose “mass incarceration.”

The pro-crime bill contains no mention of victims except for the name of the committee responsible for this abomination: the Senate Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee.

Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and his pro-crime allies announced the launch of the Elder Parole bill at a session with Release Aging People in Prison Campaign (RAPP). And afterward? RAPP’s site contains a proposal titled, “The Next Step: Ending Excessive Punishment for Violent Crimes” in order to “end mass incarceration.” Life sentences are considered “excessive.”

The ultimate goal of the pro-crime movement is to free all the criminals, to eliminate police and prisons, and turn everyone who isn’t a criminal into a victim. This endgame is to be achieved through incremental measures like freeing “non-violent offenders” and then violent offenders over 55 and then all criminals. A growing list of crimes will be decriminalized. Police will be replaced with pro-crime social workers, prisons with “restorative justice” and public safety with perpetual terror. That is what “ending mass incarceration” and “defunding police” really means.

There will still be some crimes punishable with the harshest sentences. Just ask former Marine Daniel Penny who put his life on the line to stop deranged subway psycho Jordan Neely.

In a society of criminals run for the benefit of criminals, self-defense is the only crime.

Gov. Hochul and New York’s Democrat Senate and Assembly legislative majority under pro-crime politicians like Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie will quickly roll out the end of life sentences and parole for the worst criminals the way that they have every previous piece of pro-crime legislation.

New York will become even more violent and dangerous. Innocent people will be robbed, beaten and killed by the criminals whom the Democrats have set loose on the populace.

And if you happen to spot the Son of Sam or the Angel of Death while riding the A train, try not to make eye contact. They might take it personally.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/new-york-dems-want-to-free-son-of-sam-all-serial-killers/

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The Anti-Western Nuclear Club: North Korea, China, Russia and Iran Dangerously Target the West - Majid Rafizadeh

 

​ by Majid Rafizadeh

"Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict."

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered this January that his country carry out "exponential" expansion of its nuclear arsenal and the manufacturing of a more powerful ICBM.

• "Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict. By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons.." — Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

• Russia is most likely helping Iran to boost its nuclear program in exchange for the weapons that the Islamic Republic is supplying to Russia for use against Ukraine.

• The headline of a report by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News read: "American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs". The report boasted: "The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe...."

• "After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration revived missile defense.... In 2009, the Obama administration scrapped this plan. Then it canceled key parts of its own plan, leaving the U.S. and Europe vulnerable to an array of threats and potential nuclear coercion by adversaries." — Rep. Mike Turner, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

• "[T]he Biden administration has shown a lack of foresight. In its 2021 Missile Defense Review, President Biden ignored our defense industrial base supply chain issues..." — Rep. Mike Turner, Fox News, May 4, 2023.

• Unfortunately, through its failure to take on the Free World's adversaries in a serious, credible way, the Biden Administration has been empowering tyrants and rogues states, at the forefront: North Korea, Russia, China and Iran.

The anti-Western nuclear club -- North Korea, Russia and China, with Iran close to joining the club -- have become emboldened and empowered as never before, thanks to the Biden administration's feeble leadership. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 14, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)

The anti-Western nuclear club -- North Korea, Russia and China, with Iran close to joining the club -- have become emboldened and empowered as never before, thanks to the Biden administration's feeble leadership.

China, North Korea and Russia are building up their nuclear weapons. China may have even surpassed the United States when it come to the number of nuclear warheads on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) that it currently possesses. On February 21, 2023, the U.S. Strategic Command informed Congress that China now has more ICBM launchers than the United States.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered this January that his country carry out "exponential" expansion of its nuclear arsenal and the manufacturing of a more powerful ICBM. Russia is also upgrading and expanding its nuclear arsenal.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, warned last month:

"Today, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran continue to invest in technologies to expand their capabilities to hit the United States with nuclear weapons. All four countries have also escalated their threatening rhetoric, indicating their willingness to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict. By expanding their nuclear programs, each has made clear that our nuclear arsenal is no longer a deterrent to their potential use of nuclear weapons.

"If deterrence is dead, then the concept of mutually assured destruction is obsolete and comprehensive missile defense must be revisited as an essential capability to protect our citizens."

The Iranian regime, at present, reportedly has enough enriched uranium to produce five nuclear bombs. "Make no mistake, Iran will not be satisfied by a single nuclear bomb," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos during a visit to Athens on May 4, 2023.

"So far, Iran has gained material enriched to 20% and 60% for five nuclear bombs... Iranian progress, and enrichment to 90%, would be a grave mistake on Iran's part, and could ignite the region."

Russia is most likely helping Iran to boost its nuclear program in exchange for the weapons that the Islamic Republic is supplying to Russia for use against Ukraine. According to a report by Associated Press:

"The United States accused China and Russia on Monday of shielding North Korea from any action by the U.N. Security Council for its unprecedented spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which violate multiple U.N. resolutions and jeopardize international aviation and maritime safety."

The Iranian regime has made its intentions clear. In November 2022, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed, "Death to America will happen. In the new order I am talking about America will no longer have any important role." The Iranian regime, now that it is aligned with Putin's Russia and the Chinese Communist Party, would like to conquer the US. The headline of a report by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News read: "American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs". The report boasted:

"The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe...."

As Rep. Mike Turner pointed out, the Bush and Trump Administrations took US missile defense seriously, but the Obama and Biden administration have ignored it:

"After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration revived missile defense with its deployment of ground-based midcourse defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic to defend against intermediate-to-long-range ballistic missiles targeting Europe or the U.S.

"In 2009, the Obama administration scrapped this plan, opting to adopt a short- and medium-range missile defense architecture instead of an ICBM-focused posture. Then it canceled key parts of its own plan, leaving the U.S. and Europe vulnerable to an array of threats and potential nuclear coercion by adversaries.

"The Trump administration correctly re-prioritized homeland missile defense as a central component of its National Defense Strategy in 2018.

"But despite a war in Europe and the increasing adversary capabilities, the Biden administration has shown a lack of foresight. In its 2021 Missile Defense Review, President Biden ignored our defense industrial base supply chain issues and emerging technologies such as directed energy."

Unfortunately, through its failure to take on the Free World's adversaries in a serious, credible way, the Biden Administration has been empowering tyrants and rogues states, at the forefront: North Korea, Russia, China and Iran.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source:https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19684/anti-western-nuclear-club

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How Sweden Became a Gangster's Paradise - Peder Jensen

 

​ by Peder Jensen

"Ten to fifteen years ago, it was about shoplifting when we were dealing with 14-year-olds, but now they deal in drugs and handle automatic weapons..."

• After the Russian invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland abandoned generations of neutrality to apply for membership in the NATO military alliance. However, there is already a gang war going on in Swedish streets, and it has nothing to do with Russia.

• [National Police Commissioner Anders] Thornberg estimated that more than 30,000 people are now involved in gang violence in Sweden... According to Thornberg, the situation is "extremely serious," with organized crime infiltrating and corrupting the democratic society, the business world and the public sector.

• Some two million immigrants (20% of the population) now live in Sweden, according to David Jones in the Daily Mail, Many come from the most troubled parts of Asia and Africa and have not integrated well into Swedish society. Rival gangs now shoot each other on a regular basis. In Stockholm alone, 52 gangs are vying for control of the burgeoning drug trade, according to a police report, and they are becoming ever more ruthless. Some child gang members even carry explosives in their school thermos flasks. Jones writes:

• "Twenty years ago, gun crime was almost non-existent here." — David Jones, the Daily Mail, February 10, 2023.

• "Ten to fifteen years ago, it was about shoplifting when we were dealing with 14-year-olds, but now they deal in drugs and handle automatic weapons... Older criminals use children to avoid being caught themselves, and for the children, it is a sign of status to be chosen. It starts as a cool thing for a kid who can't see consequences and ends up getting involved in gang conflicts."— Police officer who asked to remain anonymous, document.no, March 1, 2023.

• When available resources are dedicated to investigating shootings and bombings, other crimes such as burglary or theft have become effectively risk-free. This inversion of law enforcement contributes to a growing sense of lawlessness now being felt by many Swedes. What is the point of having laws if they are not enforced, or only used to punish honest citizens?

• Since 2010, shoplifting in Sweden has doubled.

• More serious crime is also being ignored or de-prioritized by an understaffed police force. In the city of Uppsala, victims of rape complain that they must wait for months to be interviewed.... Most available police resources are now dedicated to combating criminal gangs.

• Swedish schools are also becoming increasingly violent, for teachers and pupils alike. Reports about threats and violence at schools have more than doubled since 2012. These reports mainly concern students who have attacked teachers with threats, punches, or strangulation.

• In Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, native Swedes are already a minority. The city is experiencing a kind of "white flight." Many move to smaller towns to find safer environments and schools for their families.

• While ownership of rifles for hunting is not uncommon in Sweden, owning guns for self-defence had never, until recently, been a reason to be granted a firearms license.

There is a gang war going on in Swedish streets. The number of gang members already exceeds the number of police and keeps growing at an alarming rate. Pictured: Police officers look at pictures images of seized weapons in Rinkeby police station on August 31, 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images)

After the Russian invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland abandoned generations of neutrality to apply for membership in the NATO military alliance. However, there is already a gang war going on in Swedish streets, and it has nothing to do with Russia.

Between January and May 2023, Swedish police recorded on average one completed bomb detonation every two days. If you add the bombs that were in preparation, but not yet detonated, Sweden experienced one explosives-related crime per day. Rival gangs increasingly continue to target each other's relatives with revenge attacks.

In early May 2023, National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg stated that more than 1,000 people are initiated into criminal gangs across Sweden every year. Despite some arrests, the rate of recruitment shows no sign of slowing down. With three new recruits, many noticeably young, added every day, it is virtually impossible to reduce the total number of active gang members. Thornberg estimated that more than 30,000 people are now involved in gang violence in Sweden. For comparison, he stated that the number of police officers in Sweden is 22,600. The number of gang members already exceeds the number of police and keeps growing at an alarming rate. According to Thornberg, the situation is "extremely serious," with organized crime infiltrating and corrupting the democratic society, the business world and the public sector.

That Sweden has become one of Europe's most violent countries has finally attracted international attention. The French newspaper Le Monde lamented "Sweden's powerlessness in the face of organized violence." The paper quoted Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson from the Moderate Party stating that the situation is "uncontrollable" and may "get worse before it gets better." Kristersson labelled the dozens of criminal gangs in Sweden "domestic terrorists."

Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer admitted to state broadcaster SVT that with 62 fatal shootings in 2022, Swedish society has clearly failed in the fight against organized crime. Strömmer stated that there is no quick fix to the rise of gang crime in the country and warned it would take time for the government to get a handle on the situation.

Some two million immigrants (20% of the population) now live in Sweden, according to David Jones in the Daily Mail, Many come from the most troubled parts of Asia and Africa and have not integrated well into Swedish society. Rival gangs now shoot each other on a regular basis. In Stockholm alone, 52 gangs are vying for control of the burgeoning drug trade, according to a police report, and they are becoming ever more ruthless. Some child gang members even carry explosives in their school thermos flasks. Jones writes:

"Twenty years ago, gun crime was almost non-existent here. Today, the grisly murders we see in Scandi-Noir TV series are no longer fictional. Sweden is awash with real-life crime podcasts, documentaries and books."

In his view, the Swedish justice system, "which many feel prioritises young offender's rights over those of their victims," has failed at handling the ultra-violent gang crime of recent immigrants.

"Barely a day goes by in Stockholm without a shooting or a bombing," noted Swedish journalist Paulina Neuding.

"In one part of the city, housing estate residents have been informed about what to do if their building is a bombing target. For all too many Swedes, this is the new normal.

"Under Swedish law, children under 15 cannot be sentenced to any criminal punishment and older teenagers are seldom given more than four years in 'compulsory care'. So mobsters now recruit young people, arm them with thermos-flask bombs or guns and send them out as soldiers in their gang wars.

"The country's liberal criminal justice system and the fact that the police were never trained for such problems have made life comfortable for new gangs in immigrant neighbourhoods."

"Sweden has become a gangster's paradise – and a case study in how not to integrate migrants," wrote Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He further commented that its "liberal migration and criminal justice systems have incubated a shocking sub-culture of violence" and that Sweden's police are losing control of some cities and towns.

While true, it should be noted that France, Britain, and other Western European countries have plenty of problems of their own from violent crime. Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party said he fears that Britain, if it continues allowing in waves of young male illegal migrants into the country, could face the same fate as Sweden. His warning came after the arrest of four asylum seekers from Afghanistan accused of raping a 15-year-old girl in Kent. The suspects had arrived in Britain illegally by crossing the English Channel in small people-smuggler boats from France.

Almost all gang members in Sweden are either first- or second-generation immigrants, usually with a background from the Islamic world or Africa. Although many politicians may not like to admit it, this problem was largely imported.

Jama Omar, a Somali immigrant who resides in the troubled Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, lost his son to a fatal shooting in August 2021. So far, the police have not arrested anyone. Omar told the newspaper Aftonbladet that he does not believe that the legal system in Sweden works. Omar blamed racism from Swedes for why many Somali immigrants have been killed in gang-related crimes, adding:

"Shootings are happening all over Sweden, but have hit the Somali community extra hard. The state is responsible for the safety of residents, but we do not consider our children to be included in that protection."

Gang violence in Sweden has become so widespread, according to Christoffer Bohman, who resigned as a member of the Swedish police force in early 2023, that the police are no longer able to contain the problem.

A Swedish police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, warned that rampant organized crime gangs, using children for their criminal activities, are pushing the country toward the point of no return. He said Sweden had "lost its grip" on law and order, and that gangs now effectively have a license to operate free of reproach.

"Ten to fifteen years ago, it was about shoplifting when we were dealing with 14-year-olds, but now they deal in drugs and handle automatic weapons," the policeman stated.

"Older criminals use children to avoid being caught themselves, and for the children, it is a sign of status to be chosen. It starts as a cool thing for a kid who can't see consequences and ends up getting involved in gang conflicts."

He lamented the involvement of "very vulnerable" young children, many of whom are under the age of 15 and therefore below the minimum age for criminal responsibility in Sweden. The police officer remains pessimistic about the future. "There is no chance. It only gets worse and worse," he replied. "There is simply no respect for the police" in crime-riddled immigrant areas, he said.

When available resources are dedicated to investigating shootings and bombings, other crimes such as burglary or theft have become effectively risk-free. This inversion of law enforcement contributes to a growing sense of lawlessness now being felt by many Swedes. What is the point of having laws if they are not enforced, or only used to punish honest citizens?

Since 2010, shoplifting in Sweden has doubled. In an article in the newspaper Aftonbladet, a number of shop owners stated that the situation for Swedish grocery stores is urgent. One grocer in Uppsala said that his shop is forced to remove expensive meat in the evenings, for fear that it will be stolen. Shoplifting has become a big problem that is not given a high priority by the legal system. Few people in Sweden are now prosecuted for theft. Traders are therefore urging politicians and the police to expend more resources on stopping everyday crimes that affect many people – and necessary, they claim, to maintain the social contract and people's willingness to pay taxes.

More serious crime is also being ignored or de-prioritized by an understaffed police force. In the city of Uppsala, victims of rape complain that they must wait for months to be interviewed. Some of them choose to drop the case because of that. "We have had women who have waited up to eight months to get in touch with the police after they made a report [about rape]," said Josefine Agius, coordinator at the Uppsala women's shelter. According to section manager Andreas Pallinder from the local police, this situation is painful, but due to a lack of resources. Most available police resources are now dedicated to combating criminal gangs.

Despite diverting resources from investigating other types of crime, a disturbing number of murders and bombings in Sweden are never solved at all. Swedish Radio News has gone through all the bombing incidents that took place in Sweden during 2020 and 2021, a total of 186 explosions. The investigation shows that a person was convicted of either planning or carrying out a bombing in just 12 of those cases. Jon Wåhlander, head of operations at the police's national bomb squad, admits that the current conviction rate of merely 6 percent is unacceptable.

Violence has spread throughout all sectors of Swedish society like a cancer. The Work Environment Authority has received an increasing number of reports of threats and violence on the job from ambulance staff in various parts of Sweden. In 2022, there were more than three times as many such reports, compared to five years earlier. This includes staff being threatened with guns, receiving death threats, being beaten, or physically stopped from leaving an incident.

Swedish schools are also becoming increasingly violent, for teachers and pupils alike. Reports about threats and violence at schools have more than doubled since 2012. These reports mainly concern students who have attacked teachers with threats, punches, or strangulation.

In Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, native Swedes are already a minority. The city is experiencing a kind of "white flight." Many move to smaller towns to find safer environments and schools for their families.

A group of five Arab immigrants in Malmö were recently charged with aggravated assault. The incident took place on November 22, 2022. The gang harassed a Ukrainian truck driver who was fishing, pushed him into the freezing cold river, and laughed while watching him fight for his life while they filmed the event on a mobile phone. When pulled from the water by emergency responders, the victim's body temperature was just 34 degrees, classed as hypothermia.

During police questioning, one member of the gang insisted they were only "having fun." Four are from Iraq. They arrived in Sweden between 2007 and 2014 and all now possess Swedish citizenship. The fifth arrived in Sweden from Syria in 2014 and obtained Swedish citizenship in 2016.

On March 2, 2023, an Iranian immigrant stabbed a 10-year-old Dutch tourist and her grandmother in Gothenburg. The attack, which seems to have been totally unprovoked, happened in broad daylight in the middle of the city center. The girl suffered life-threatening injuries. According to the independent news sites Samnytt and Fria Tider, the assailant had 52 registered offenses on his criminal record. He had previously been convicted of many crimes in Sweden, including robbery and assault, but had escaped with lenient sentences.

A few months prior to nearly murdering the child, he was convicted of stealing a computer from a shop close to the scene of the stabbing. The prosecutor wanted him to be sentenced to prison; instead, he was given probation. The court said it was of the opinion that there had been an "improvement in his personal and social situation."

About 20% of Swedes now state that they would feel safer in their country if they had the right to self-defence with a firearm. This number might be considered low in the USA, with its Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. However, it represents a major shift in public opinion for a historically safe Scandinavian nation. While ownership of rifles for hunting is not uncommon in Sweden, owning guns for self-defence had never, until recently, been a reason to be granted a firearms license.

Peder Jensen is a Norwegian author and essayist.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19686/sweden-criminal-gangs

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