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Laws in some European countries that impede migrant children from reuniting with their families or force them to leave when they turn 18 create a “huge security risk” by potentially turning young people to crime and extremism, the chief of Europe’s top human rights body said Friday. Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said such laws compel many young migrants facing uncertain futures to flee, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation from human traffickers who could push them into crime or the illicit sex trade. “This is causing a huge security risk for Europe,” Jagland said during an interview with...

A vast trove of Jeffrey Epstein's private calendars and emails are being revealed today by DailyMail.com. The hundreds of pages in the files give an unprecedented insight into the late pedophile's extraordinary network of power and influence. Among the revelations is that Epstein appeared to know personal details about the marriage of Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda – while magician David Blaine had numerous dinners with the financier.

As most readers of this newsletter know, we believe in calling things what they are, in plain English, and in such a way that there is no doubt in what we mean. So we haven't been using words like duplicitous, deceitful and devious when describing the Democrats in Congress. Instead, when they act like socialists (as do some Republicans), socialists is what we call them. There is a very good reason for this socialist tag, too. We are far from being alone in this assessment. Specifically, we find the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in total agreement. First, though, a...

Vice President Kamala Harris had another call with a foreign leader Tuesday, independent of President Biden. Harris spoke with the prime minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, where Harris "affirmed her commitment to deepening the strong alliance between Norway and the United States." " The Vice President thanked the Prime Minister for Norway’s close security partnership with the United States and generous contributions to development and health security efforts around the world," according to a readout of the call. Harris previously took calls alone with French President Emanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as Israeli Prime Minister...

The foreign-headquartered company that recently purchased the leading U.S. electronic voting firm is boasting that it was highlighted in a report on how technology is making the election process more efficient, secure, transparent, accessible and reliable. The report, WND has learned, was authored by a firm with links to billionaire activist George Soros. The information comes after WND reported two weeks ago that SCYTL recently acquired the software division of a non-profit election organization tied to Soros’ Open Society Institute. Yesterday, WND reported SCYTL announced its technology will be deployed at more U.S. jurisdictions ahead of the 2014 midterm elections....

Blair re-elected to Socialist International post amid protests SAO PAULO (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) was re-elected vice president of the Socialist International, drawing protests from delegates who said his support of the US-led war in Iraq (news - web sites) made him ineligible. Socialist parties in Argentina, Chile, Panama, Mexico and Nicaragua sought to derail the re-election of Britain's Labour Party leader. "It is necessary to make a distinction between the Labour party and its place in history and the leadership of Tony Blair, which has been so horrible for world peace," said Hernan...

On January 13, Robert González Nieves, archbishop of San Juan, revealed Pope Francis’ role in Barack Obama’s pardon of terrorist mastermind Oscar Lopez-Rivera. Speaking from the Cathedral of San Juan, Nieves announced that although the Holy Father made no public statement of his involvement, he had indeed worked behind the curtain on behalf of the unrepentant, bloody-handed Lopez-Rivera. The archbishop was pleased to say: “I know that there have been efforts made through diplomatic channels. The pope is very aware. We are grateful to the Holy Father for his support.” Papal complicity in this politically charged act received little notice...

JTA - The choice for next secretary-general of the United Nations said he wants to be an “honest broker” and a “bridge builder.” Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, was approved unanimously by the Security Council on Thursday after several straw polls in recent days. The General Assembly, made up of 193 nations, is expected to approve the choice in its vote next week. Until December, Guterres served 10 years as the UN high commissioner for refugees. He said the experience prepared him for his new post. Guterres, 67, told The Associated Press before the closed door Security...

The UN today is a bloated organization, which is rightly perceived as non-transparent, non-accountable, ineffective and, at times, hypocritical United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will commence his duties as secretary general on January 1, 2017, succeeding Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Guterres took the oath of office on December 12th in a ceremony presided over by the president of the UN General Assembly. Mr. Guterres, a former Socialist prime minister of Portugal, former UN high commissioner for refugees, and president of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005, then delivered an address outlining his priority to restore trust in the United...

UNITED NATIONS - The world's governments are failing refugees, especially in Africa, where a lack of funding has led to family violence and a host of other problems, the top U.N. refugee official said Monday. Antonio Guterres, the new U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told reporters there were a range of crises that deserve attention - from displaced Uzbeks and North Koreans to Iranians and the Palestinians - but it's Africa where the refugees' plight is most dire. "Almost all if not all our operations in Africa are underfunded, and in some circumstances extremely underfunded," Guterres said. "In many of...

Security council agrees, in surprisingly quick decision, that former Portuguese PM will succeed Ban Ki-moon at start of 2017António Guterres, the former Portuguese prime minister, will be the next UN secretary general, after the security council agreed he should replace Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of next year. In a rare show of unity, all 15 ambassadors from the security council emerged from the sixth in a series of straw polls to announce that they had agreed on Guterres, who was UN high commissioner for refugees for a decade, and that they would confirm the choice in a formal vote...

The graphic at the top of this post is derived from the logo of the Socialist International. The original image — which can be seen on the left side of my adaptation — is vaguely repellent. A clenched fist holding a rose — what is that supposed to mean? Is it going to punch me in the face to make me accept the socialist state, and then hand me a flower as a consolation prize? Or is it maybe a kinder, gentler version of the upraised clenched fist, the venerable symbol of World Revolution? That image was brought to mind...

Tehran, 17 Jan. (AKI) - One of the five Iranians arrested last week by the US army in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil is wanted in Austria in connection with the assassination of Kurdish leader Andol Rahman Ghassemlu in 1989. Mahommad Jaafari Sharoudi was one of five Iranian officials detained last week in the Kurdish-controlled city on charges of being connected to a faction of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Pasdaran, that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq. Abdol Rahman Ghassemlu, the historic leader of Iranian Kurds, was killed in an apartment in the outskirts of the Austrian capital...

I wrote about Bruno Kreisky last year in the context of discussing Austria’s Islamization. There’s no doubt that Kreisky was a real demented piece of work, on a par with Norman Finkelstein or M.J. Rosenberg. Austria’s Socialist Chancellor, Bruno Kreisky, despite being of Jewish ancestry, was fond of Muslim terrorists and Nazis. He had a habit of filling his cabinet with former Nazis while comparing Zionism to Nazism. His political success rested on a welfare state built with Soviet money funneled through commercial orders and turning a blind eye to terrorist attacks carried out with Soviet and Polish machine guns...

I need a quick list of all the Communist and Marxist ties in the Obama administration for use at a meeting tonight. Something beyond his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, and appointee Van Jones. I know this topic is rich, and I hope other FReepers can help me tie it altogether in one neat package. Thanks in advance.

Czar is perhaps the perfect title for Carol Browner, the person President Obama chose to rule over his climate policy. The woman will run her kingdom like an autocrat, she will take no prisoners and she will hide all the "bodies" For Example: Until early January Carol M. Browner, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change. Then Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo...

Incoming Global Warming Czar Carol Browner was — until last week — listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group that advocates what's called "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change. The Washington Times reports Browner's name and biography were listed on the Web page for Socialist International . Mr. Obama's transition team says Browner's membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in policymaking to her new role. But House Minority Leader John Boehner’s spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier asks, “Does she agree with the group's positions...

WASHINGTON -- Carol Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be his climate czarina, served until last summer as a member of a socialist organization whose mission is to enact progressive government policies, including toward environmental concerns like climate change. Browner's name and biography have been scrubbed from the Web site of Socialist International, the umbrella group for 170 "social democratic, socialist and labor parties" in 55 countries. But a photo of Browner speaking in Greece to the group's Congress on June 30 remained in the site's archives. Browner, formerly the longest serving administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, having served...

Incoming White House energy-environment czar Carol Browner was recently discovered to be a commissioner in Socialist International. While that revelation has been ignored by the mainstream media and blithely dismissed by her supporters, you may soon be paying the cost of Browner’s political beliefs in your electricity bill. So what does all this have to do with your electricity bill? In late-December, Carbon Control News reported that Browner was a “strong backer” of utility “decoupling,” which had emerged as a “key climate policy priority for Obama.” How would decoupling actually function in practice? There are several different schemes for decoupling,...

Politics: Is anyone surprised that the would-be czarina of federal climate and energy policy has ties to a socialist group? The environmental movement's goal is to afflict the economy, not comfort the ecology.Carol Browner, who'll run the new White House office of climate and energy policies, isn't new to Washington. The public will recognize her name from the years she served as Environmental Protection Agency administrator under Bill Clinton. The public, however, knows little or nothing about her work with Socialist International, a group that describes itself as a worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties that envisions...