Opec under siege as Isil threatens world's oil lifeline

By Andrew Critchlow 30 May 2015

As the bloc’s 12 oil ministers meet in Vienna, the march of Isil jihadists in the Middle East is putting Iran and Saudi Arabia on a collision course with explosive consequences



Oil markets are wrong to ignore Isil's march across the Middle East

Thick black smoke rising from the Baiji oil refinery could be seen as a dirty smudge on the horizon as far away as Baghdad after fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) set fire to the enormous processing plant just over 100 miles north of the capital last week.

The decision to torch the refinery, which once produced around a third of Iraq’s domestic fuel supplies, was made as the insurgents prepared to pull out of Baiji, which they captured last June in a victory that sent shock waves across world oil markets.

A year on from the start of the siege and a shaky alliance of the Middle East’s major Arab powers, with the limited support of the reluctant US government, has failed to contain the expansion of Isil.

The problem for the US and the rest of the industrialised world is that the Middle East controls 60pc of proven oil reserves and with it the keys to the global economy. Should Isil capture a major oil field in Iraq, or overwhelming the government, the consequences for energy markets and the financial system would be potentially catastrophic.

Many of the countries most threatened by the onslaught of the extremist group, which has grown out of the chaos of Syria but was initially dismissed as a wider threat to regional stability, will gather at the end of this week in Vienna for the meetings of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Iraq – which together account for two thirds of the cartel’s production – are all now affected by the inexorable march of the Isil jihadists but appear powerless to prevent it due to the widening sectarian schism between the Sunni and Shia Muslims across the region in the wake of the Arab spring uprisings five years ago.

Oil ministers gathering to decide on production levels at Opec’s secretariat building in Vienna will normally stay clear of wider geopolitical issues during their deliberations in the Austrian capital. However, the threat posed by Isil and its brutal brand of Islamist extremism is likely to force politics onto the agenda. It certainly can no longer be ignored.

According to Daniel Yergin, the energy expert and vice-chairman of IHS, the business information provider, the biggest threat to oil prices is the political chaos that threatens to engulf the Middle East, combined with the West’s reluctance to intervene.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Yergin argued that the price of a barrel of oil could skyrocket to levels above $100 per barrel if Isil is allowed to press deeper into Iraq, the second-largest producer in the cartel after Saudi Arabia.

“Isil presents a whole new reality for the region, which just isn’t reflected in the oil market at the moment,” said Mr Yergin. “It’s an increasingly grave situation for most of Opec and the Middle East. At some point the security issues will start to come back into the price of oil.”

Up to this point, oil markets have shrugged off the risk of a major supply disruption caused by the worsening security situation. Traders have remained focused on the market fundamentals that almost 2m barrels per day (bpd) of excess oil capacity will be more than enough to absorb any supply-driven shock. A rally in the price of Brent crude – a global benchmark – which began in January and saw prices push close to $70 per barrel has lost momentum amid signs that higher prices could revive drilling in the US. Just over six months ago when Opec’s 12 oil ministers last met in Vienna the cartel decided to continue pumping oil at a level of around 30m bpd, which effectively fired the first shots in an oil price war against shale drillers in North America, and Russia.

After almost a decade of oil prices ticking along at above $100 per barrel during which the group ignored the shale revolution taking place in the US, Opec decided to act last November. Under massive pressure from its most powerful member Saudi Arabia, the cartel allowed market forces to drag down oil prices. Initially, the strategy worked.

Within a month, oil prices had fallen to multi-year lows below $50 per barrel, sharply lower than the $115 year-high achieved last June when concern over the civil war in Syria caused a spike in prices. The sudden downturn in prices immediately had the desired effect on oil producers outside the Opec cartel.

"It’s an increasingly grave situation for most of Opec and the Middle East. At some point the security issues will start to come back into the price of oil."

Daniel Yergin, IHS

In the US, oil companies began to shut down drilling rigs at a record rate. According to Baker Hughes, rig numbers have fallen for 24 straight weeks to 659 rigs as of last week compared with a record 1,609 rigs operating last October. In high-cost production areas such as the North Sea the impact of Opec’s decision to allow oil prices to fall naturally has shaken the industry to its core.

In his last budget of the Coalition government, George Osborne was forced to offer North Sea oil companies tax breaks to soften the blow of lower prices, while hundreds of jobs have been lost in Aberdeen.

“Opec has embarked on a strategy of leaving the oil price to the market and is willing it seems to allow the economics of supply and demand to take effect,” said Mr Yergin. “What is so startling is that geopolitics has been stripped out of the oil price for now but sooner or later it will be factored back in.”

Oil prices have gained roughly 30pc since the beginning of the year to trade at around $65 per barrel, with major banks and trading houses. However, traders have so far ignored the risks posed by Isil now to oil supplies, or the danger of a major terrorist attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Goldman Sachs has instead forecast that prices could again fall to $45 per barrel by October as US shale drilling picks up.

According to Mr Yergin this analysis ignores the dire political situation in the Middle East and the US government’s reluctance to acknowledge the danger to the wider global economy. Many of these analysts have focused on the continuing glut of new oil supplies from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Both nations appear to be fighting for greater market share by filling the gap that is opening up in the oil market as higher cost production is shut down.

Swing producer Saudi Arabia is now pumping more than 10.3m bpd of crude, a record for the kingdom which maintains the capacity to produce up to 12m bpd if required. Despite the encroachment of Isil, which now controls the country’s largest province, Iraq has also dramatically increased its oil production over the past six months.

Iraq is poised to lift its exports by as much as 800,000 bpd to around 3.75m bpd next month as the government in Baghdad desperately tries to increase its revenues, which have been crippled by falling prices. In either case, a major terrorist attack on oil export facilities would shatter confidence and the notion that $100 oil is a thing of the past.

Although most of Iraq’s major oil fields are located in the south of the country, which are Shia Muslim heartlands, the failure of the Iraqi army to deal with the threat of Isil is a sign of their vulnerability to isolated attacks. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is in a virtual state of lockdown after the bombing by Isil militants of a Shia mosque in the oil-rich Eastern Province. The brutal attack, which appeared designed to provoke sectarian unrest in the kingdom, killed 21 worshippers and injured 80 others.

Saudi authorities have stepped up security at the country’s vast oil installations. The kingdom, which accounts for 12pc of global oil supply, is effectively under siege. To the north, jihadists threaten its borders from Iraq and Syria. In the south it launches air strikes against Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen but has so far failed to defeat the tribes, which have continued to make territorial gains.



King Salman of Saudi Arabia: Lord of oil

To add to the problems facing Saudi Arabia’s new ruler, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, his kingdom is also facing insurgency from the so-called Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terrorist group which is intent on destabilising the regime.

Against this cataclysmic backdrop of bombs falling in Sana’a and with Isil literally at the gates of the major Iraqi city of Ramadi, many US energy and security experts were shocked to hear President Barack Obama ignore the danger in a recent keynote speech in which he pinpointed global warming as an equally big risk for Americans.

“Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security,” warned Mr Obama in a speech that many have criticised as symptomatic of the administration’s desire to disengage from the region which still provides a significant share of its oil.

Despite the growing focus on climate change and the campaign to limit fossil fuel production, Isil will be a bigger concern for the majority of oil ministers around Opec’s table next week.

The Obama administration’s reluctance to intervene marks the end of a US policy to protect the region’s oil which has remained in existence since President Franklin D Roosevelt first met with modern day Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdulaziz in 1945. It was this commitment that drew America into the first Gulf War in 1991 and again in 2003 when it decided to bring down the curtain on Saddam Hussein’s regime.

However, Mr Obama’s lack of a viable alternative foreign policy for the region has put world energy markets at risk.

“How US national and foreign policy will integrate itself again with the region is unclear,” said Mr Yergin.

Washington’s determination to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran has arguably destabilised the region by placing Riyadh and Tehran on a collision course. Saudis are dismayed that Iranian military advisers are aiding the assault to recapture Ramadi, a city in Iraq’s Anbar Province which US forces fought so hard to secure 10 years ago.

Although Opec makes it a rule to stay away from politics, tensions between its 12 members are never far from the surface when they gather in Vienna. The organisation is one of the only remaining inter-governmental settings outside the United Nations where senior Saudi and Iranian officials can sit down together, which makes next week’s gathering potential dynamite.

“What is so startling is that geopolitics has been stripped out of the oil price for now but sooner or later it will be factored back in.”

Yergin

Iran opposed Saudi Arabia last November when the kingdom’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, insisted that the group should stand on the side lines and allow market forces to drive down the oil price in order to render high-cost oil such as US shale unprofitable. Years of sanctions have crippled Iran’s economy and eroded its oil industry, which has added to pressure on the regime to agree to a nuclear deal with America under any terms. However, Iran needs oil prices above $100 per barrel in order to support its Shia Muslim allies, including the Houthis fighting Saudi Arabia in Yemen, in the wider Middle East.

Insiders say Saudi Arabia will get its way once again in Vienna and expect Opec to agree to “roll over” their production settings. With vast foreign currency reserves Riyadh and its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf can weather the storm better than Iran, while the continuation of lower oil prices will limit Tehran’s ability to support Saudi’s enemies in Yemen.

The danger is that Isil has other plans.


Opec under siege as Isil threatens world's oil lifeline - Telegraph

Mosul under the Islamic State

by The Fifth Column • May 28, 2015

Mosul, Islamic State (OD) – “The night before we first saw IS militants in our streets we couldn’t sleep because of the sound of the fighting outside. But when we got up in the morning we were totally surprised. Our home is very close to a military post, less than a kilometre away. Even outside of our house all over the ground there were military uniforms, helmets, boots and also guns. The army had fled, and they abandoned weapons to the value of millions of dollars on the streets and in their barracks.”

Telling me this was Fuad, a young doctor in his mid-twenties whom I met in a refugee camp of Yazidi Kurds from Shengal in Turkey. Located on a former military base, the camp was surrounded by snow-streaked mountains. Pale-skinned and wearing a thin moustache, Fuad was himself from Mosul.

He told me many things about life in his city during the past year, after the attack by the jihadist organisation known as the Islamic State. Reliable sources speak of half a million refugees, as all minorities such as Shi’a Muslims, Christians and Yazidis had to flee. Sunnis such as Fuad’s family—or those who converted under pressure—were the only segment of the population able to stay.

Even in a country as war-torn as Iraq, the violence of the Islamic State (IS) seems beyond anything that has happened before. Despite this, there is a way to classify and analyse the terrorist organisation: they are the amalgam of the Sunni resistance in Iraq and Syria.

What unites both countries is a modern history of Sunni oppression. In Syria, the Assad regimes systematically marginalised the Sunni majority for decades before the Arab Spring. In Iraq, the marginalisation of Sunnis began more recently. When Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime was toppled by the 2003 US invasion, a Shi’a dominated government was put in place. The Sunnis were numerically a minority in the country, but for decades had constituted the ruling class. As they were increasingly side-lined, resentment grew.

The Sunni extremists of the Islamic State had formerly fought in Iraq, from 2006 to 2008. They were pushed out by government troops fighting alongside pro-government Sunni tribes. But when the Arab Spring happened and spread to Syria this proved to be a windfall for IS. For a long time the two Jihadist organisations of the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra Front had collaborated, but after a rift between leaders Al-Golani and Al-Baghdadi, many fighters from the Al-Nusra front defected to IS.

In 2014, IS returned to push for Iraq again, “reinvigorated” from their stint in Syria. In Iraq, Shi’a president Al-Maliki had not given the Sunni tribes that had earlier helped keep Iraq stable the promised seats in parliament—or even paid out their salaries. Now, these Sunni tribes saw it in their best interest to fight with IS. When IS took Mosul in 2014, the city was essentially handed over.

The rank and file of the Iraqi army had been coming to Mosul because soldiering was well-paid work. But they were not willing to risk their lives or health for a city in which they were outsiders. The army was also corrupt on all levels. Corruption scandals concerning several high-ranking officers came out in December 2014, but stories of torture, murder and extortion by Mosul’s former top general, Mahdi Gharawi, had been told even before that.

Of course hindsight is always perfect, but it now may seem to have been inevitable that in any seriously threatening situation the army would prove itself unreliable, if not entirely useless.

Another man from Mosul I met was Hashim, a student of English literature. We first chatted in our hotel, in the city of Duhok in the Iraqi Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, which has remained safe throughout the war years. Refugees from the south of Iraq now occupy many of the hotels in Duhok.

Hashim reclined on the worn-out lobby sofas in jeans and a casual blue shirt as our conversation veered from current politics to art and our favourite writers. It was a déjà vu experience for me. Every time I come to Duhok—eight years ago, three years ago and earlier this year—I meet at least one student from Mosul filled with sadness about not being able to continue his studies.

“My family is still in Mosul, but I don’t want to return,” was one of the first things Hashim told me. “Mosul has become a huge prison for two million people. You cannot smoke, you cannot listen to music, and women cannot go out by themselves. But that’s not even it—my family smokes in the home and listens to music, of course they don’t obey those silly rules. Still, I cannot bear to see what they are doing to my city. All the violence and destruction is just too much. I could not bear looking at it and I left.”

Fuad had told me about the situation in Mosul just before the IS invasion:

“Of course Mosul had been a very unsafe place for a long time, but if you stuck to certain areas, you could live your life relatively unperturbed. Still, there were bombings or kidnappings every other day in other parts of the city. And that’s why some people didn’t mind IS coming. The jihadists used to explode huge car bombs that killed not only military but also many civilians at the same time. So while some people in Mosul didn’t exactly like them, in a way, they welcomed them when they arrived. They thought, ‘at least there will be quiet now’. After years of having both military and jihadists in the same city and the two groups attacking each other, they thought if there is one group at least that’ll be over.”

Fuad was staying by himself in a hotel near the refugee camp, while the rest of his family lived in exile in Duhok. The family had left Mosul together, but Fuad decided to move to a refugee camp where he could work as a doctor. When I travelled to Duhok I also met his father Rashid, a university professor.



Children in Mosul. Image Source:DVIDSHUB

Rashid was a portly man with sparse white hair, wearing a suit the day I met him. He was also a good source of information about Mosul:

“For one month or so after IS arrived, they did not really do all that much. Most shops were open, life continued. Our Christian friends were still living among us, and my wife and daughter went about their business in the city just as normal. They drove their cars and went around wearing only the usual headscarf, showing their faces, of course. Only after a period of thirty or forty days the rule of having to cover up entirely with a black niqab (facial veil) was enforced. Now, women cannot show their faces or hands. And if the veil they wear to cover their face is of too thin a material, they get whipped if they are caught.”

Later, there were news stories of how members of the IS all-female Al Khansa brigade disfigured the faces of unveiled women by throwing acid on them.

I also asked the men about some other, incredible, stories I had read in western news sources. For example, that in 2006 the jihadists had made rules that restaurants were not allowed to sell salads that mixed “male” cucumbers and “female” tomatoes. And that one of the new city rules was that women are not allowed to sit on chairs.

Fuad’s opinion was this: “I’ve never heard of these stories, but that does not mean that they are completely invented. You have to understand that those jihadist organisations are not monoliths at all. There are a lot of crazy guys relishing the power they get by holding a gun, and they will act on their own, making up absurd rules and threatening punishment just to see others grovel in fear.”



Source: Voice of America

I asked professor Rashid if, among those who stayed in Mosul, he personally knew anyone who had collaborated with IS. He replied: “I lived my whole life in Mosul, I know many people in that city, so of course some of the men I know became members of IS. Believe me, I know them; these men have no religious feelings at all. They do this only for the money.”

I asked Rashid why he had decided to leave the city. Since he and his family are Sunnis, they could have stayed. They did not have to move to a whole new city, leaving their house and possessions behind. He grew sad as he tried to explain:


“The first thing that happened was that IS asked the Christians to either leave, convert to Islam or pay an exorbitant jizieh, the Islamic tax on minorities. The Christians took what they could, their gold and their money, and they left. But IS had planned this. They made roadblocks on the highways out of Mosul. There, they took all the jewellery and money from any Christians passing. Everything they had on them. The whole thing was nothing but a huge thievery operation.”

Another woman now living in Erbil, a Christian herself, had told me how IS militants had put a gun to her son’s head to make him hand over whatever they had. Rashid went on, chest heaving:


“A few days after that they went on a destroying spree, they dynamited shrines and mosques across the city. They also destroyed Nabi Jirjis mosque [the prophet George mosque], one of the oldest Sunni mosques in Mosul. It dated to the fourteenth century…Do you know how many they senselessly killed in the prisons, for example? They published two or three videos, but so many others became victims, too. Anyone whose name so much as appeared on the election list.”

It clearly hurt him to talk about it, and it hurt me to push him any more. I nodded, thanked him, and took my leave.

And what was the most recent news out of Mosul? Hashim told me he usually spoke to his family there every day. But two weeks ago they had banned mobile phones, and cut signal tower cables. A few days ago they cut off the internet as well.


“Now I don’t talk to them at all…After a couple of months under IS, we started to have shortages of kerosene and gas. And although there was food, prices rose sharply—for vegetables, for instance. With time, living conditions became tougher and tougher. In the end, some families in Mosul were taking their children out of school to save the tuition fees, since they could not pay for food anymore.”

It later became clear that the prohibition of the internet and telephones had happened in preparation for a US attack. IS feared that the locals would give away their position, and there was news that IS flogged and chopped off people’s hands for using their mobiles.

On 3 February, US warplanes started hitting targets in Mosul. The bombing campaign is on-going. There have been civil casualties, such as when on 22 April a house next to an IS hideout collapsed, killing a family of four. While the airstrikes have killed hundreds of IS fighters since February, they are terrifying to live with for the Mosul population.

Written by Rebekah Giersiefen for openDemocracy.net



Mosul under the Islamic State | The Fifth Column

Hasidic sect tells London mothers to stop driving

Aisha Gani Friday 29 May 2015

Belz rabbis say children driven to school by their mothers will be turned away for breaching ‘traditional rules of modesty’

A school crossing sign. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/Guardian

Leaders of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in north London have said children who are driven to school by their mothers will be turned away at the school gates.

Rabbis from the marginal Hasidic sect Belz have told women in Stamford Hill who drive that they go against “the traditional rules of modesty in our camp”.

In a letter sent to parents last week, seen by the Jewish Chronicle, they say there has been an increase in the number of mothers driving their children to school and add that this has led to “great resentment among parents of pupils of our [Hasidic] institutions”.

The letter says the ban, to come into force in the summer, is based on the recommendations of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the Belzer spiritual leader in Israel.

It says that if a mother has no other choice but to drive her child to school – for medical reasons, for example – she should “submit a request to the special committee to this effect and the committee shall consider her request”.

The move has been met with some disagreement within the Orthodox community. Dina Brawer, the UK ambassador of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, said: “What this is really about is the curtailing of women’s freedom of movement rendering them dependent on men. It’s an issue of power and control not one of religious sensibility.

“The positioning of this ban is that women drivers somehow breach the values of modesty, which is absurd, as by any objective standpoint there is nothing at all immodest about a women driving a car.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews distanced itself from the decree, saying the letter was from a marginal and unaffiliated group.

But a statement issued on behalf of women in the sect by a local Belz women’s organisation said they felt “extremely privileged and valued to be part of a community where the highest standards of refinement, morality and dignity are respected”.

“We believe that driving a vehicle is a high pressured activity where our values may be compromised by exposure to selfishness, road-rage, bad language and other inappropriate behaviour,” they said.

“We do, however, understand that there are many who conduct lifestyles that are different to ours, and we do not, in any way, disrespect them or the decisions they make.”

Not all Orthodox sects discourage women from driving. This is believed to be the first time a ban has been imposed in the UK.

The Belz, who originated in Ukraine in the early 18th century and established their headquarters in Israel after the second world war, are one of the most prominent Hasidic sects.

In September last year, there was similar controversy when posters put up by an Orthodox Jewish group warned women to walk on one side of the road for a religious parade. The posters were removed by Hackney council after they were deemed unacceptable.



Hasidic sect tells London mothers to stop driving | UK news | The Guardian

Fifth Column in the West

• WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER ATHOS
• PUBLISHED IN TERRORISM

Our enemy in the West is not Islam, it's a fifth column of Wahhabi Salafi hate preachers and their appeasers who allow the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Jihadi ideology to proliferate and radicalize Muslim youth to commit atrocities here and abroad as foreign fighters.

The West cannot allow the extremists to hide behind the skirts of religion, so called charities and misguided notions of free speech to facilitate radicalization and lone wolf terrorism in our homelands.

The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes itself as a "non-profit, grassroots membership organization … established to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America," to protect Muslims from hate crimes and discrimination, and to present “an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public.” However an investigation of its activities and publications (in Arabic) shows that CAIR supports Wahhabi Salafi ideology and are instrumental in the propagation of that cult throughout America and have been the root cause of radicalization of terrorists. It is reported that CAIR have been instrumental in Wahhabi Salafi cult infiltrating or controlling over half the mosques in America with the help of huge donations from Saudi Arabian sources and so-called charities in the US such as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) headquartered in Richardson, Texas with branch offices in New Jersey, California, and Illinois. The Freedom House yearlong investigation concluded in its 89 page report, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques." that hundreds of Saudi documents disseminated at Wahhabi Salafi mosques in the US are telling America's Muslims (surreptitiously in Arabic) that it is a religious obligation for all 'good Muslims' to hate Christians and Jews.

With the threat of fanatical lone wolves being so radicalized that they want to axe, bomb and kill their fellow non-Muslim citizens, it is imperative that CAIR and Wahhabi Salafi mosques, bookshops and hate preachers are fully investigated and if appropriate prosecuted under Anti-Terrorism legislation. The UAE terror listing of CAIR accords with the evidence it seems.

"CAIR has a key role in the "Wahhabi lobby"—the network of organizations, usually supported by donations from Saudi Arabia, whose aim is to propagate the especially extreme version of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. For one, it sends money to other parts of the lobby. According to CAIR's Form 990 filings for 2003, its California offices invested $325,000 with the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). The NAIT was established in 1971 by the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada, which bills itself as the precursor to the Islamic Society of North America, now the largest member of the Wahhabi lobby. According to Newsweek, authorities say that over the years "NAIT money has helped the Saudi Arabian sect of Wahhabism—or Salafism, as the broader, pan-Islamic movement is called—to seize control of hundreds of mosques in U.S. Muslim communities." J. Michael Waller, a terrorism expert, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that NAIT is believed to own 50 to 79 per cent of the mosques in North America. According to Waller, NAIT was raided as part of Operation Green Quest in 2002, on suspicions of involvement in terrorist financing”

Randall ("Ismail") Royer, an American convert to Islam, served as CAIR's communications specialist and civil rights coordinator; today he sits in jail on terrorism-related charges. In June 2003, Royer and ten other young men, ages 23 to 35, known as the "Virginia jihad group," were indicted on forty-one counts of "conspiracy to train for and participate in a violent jihad overseas." The defendants, nine of them U.S. citizens, were accused of association with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a radical Islamic group designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State in 2001. They were also accused of meeting covertly in private homes and at the Islamic Centre in Falls Church to prepare themselves for battle by listening to lectures and watching videotapes. As the prosecutor noted, "Ten miles from Capitol Hill in the streets of northern Virginia, American citizens allegedly met, plotted, and recruited for violent jihad." According to Matthew Epstein of the Investigative Project, Royer helped recruit the others to the jihad effort while he was working for CAIR. The group trained at firing ranges in Virginia and Pennsylvania; in addition, it practiced "small-unit military tactics" at a paintball war-games facility in Virginia, earning it the moniker, the "paintball jihadis." Eventually members of the group travelled to Pakistan.

Five of the men indicted, including CAIR's Royer, were found to have had in their possession, according to the indictment, "AK-47-style rifles, telescopic lenses, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and tracer rounds, documents on undertaking jihad and martyrdom, [and] a copy of the terrorist handbook containing instructions on how to manufacture and use explosives and chemicals as weapons."

After four of the eleven defendants pleaded guilty, the remaining seven, including Royer, were accused in a new, 32-count indictment of yet more serious charges: conspiring to help Al-Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan. [25] Royer admitted in his grand jury testimony that he had already waged jihad in Bosnia under a commander acting on orders from Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors also presented evidence that his father, Ramon Royer, had rented a room in his St. Louis-area home in 2000 to Ziyad Khaleel, the student who purchased the satellite phone used by Al-Qaeda in planning the two U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in August 1998. [26] Royer eventually pleaded guilty to lesser firearms-related charges, and the former CAIR staffer was sentenced to twenty years in prison.[http://www.meforum.org/916/cair-islamists-fooling-the-establishment]

Laws banning incitement to terrorist acts must be uniformly promulgated amongst civilized nations and strictly enforced until the Wahhabi Salafi madness stops and the blood stops dripping from the hatchets of the haters of our way of life.

‘Inspire’,‘Resurgence’,‘Dabiq’ and all hate websites and Social Media sites must be taken down and all hate preachers who distribute or promote them and their incitement to terrorism and criminality must be prosecuted to decrease the very real terrorist risk to our homelands of radicalized Salafi’s cashed up with Saudi petro dollars.

On Monday 13 October 2014, in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu Canada, a new but zealous convert to Wahhabi Salafi Islam 12 months ago, Canadian Martin Couture-Rouleau murdered Canadian soldier Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent by running him and another soldier down in a car pointing his finger to heaven seeking Allah as his justification for doing so. Like so many Salafi’s this convert changed his name to a more Arabic one; Ahmad LeConverti (Ahmad the Converted) before embarking on his jihad against the West. Like so many young Salafi’s he became enamoured with ISIS and heeded its online call to glorify Allah by running down and murdering infidels by using motor cars.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was radicalized at a British Columbia Mosque, the Masjid Al Salaam & Education Centre. The umbrella organization for that Mosque, the British Columbia Muslim Association (BCMA) manage many schools and 15 Mosques in British Columbia. They are (according to their own literature) funded in large part by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Muslim World League. BCMA have a history of inviting radical hate preachers (like Siraj Wahhaj alleged co-conspirator with the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the first World Trade Centre Bombings in 1993 who also spoke at the BC mosque calling the West a ‘filthy garbage can’) to speak to their community (said to number 80,000) in British Columbia. The Koran’s they distribute are the Wahhabi annotated Korans that emphasize armed and violent Jihad as an obligation of all ‘good Muslims’.

Zaim Farouq Abdul-malik (Zale Thompson) like Wahhabi Salafi inspired maniac, Michael Adebolajo (the Woolwich hatchet slayer) just followed the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri ‘script’ as articulated by its ideologues like:

•    The Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman,

•    Anwar al-Awlaki,

•    Omar Bakri Mohammed,

•    Abu Hamza (al-Masri) ,

•    Anjem Choudary,

•    Trewvor Brooks (Abu Izzadeen),

•    Mizanur Rahman,

•    Mohammed Achamlane,

•    Mohammad Ali Baryalei, and

•    Abu Musab Al Suri,

•    Al-Bagdadi etc

Many troubled Muslim youths approached by Salafist groups like Forsane Alizza (FA- The Knights of Pride) and encouraged to progress his study their cult which was their brand of militant Salafi ‘Islam’ from their radical mosques or private ‘prayer groups’ and if suitable for mission training Al Qaeda operatives then arranged for the acolyte go to Pakistan for deeper indoctrination into the cult and specialist weapons and bomb training when he got out.

Forsane Alizza aka ‘Sharia4France’ is ostensibly an anti-Islamophobia group but authorities say it is a terrorist organization that used the mantra of anti-Islamophobia to mask its deeper purpose of radicalizing disenchanted youth from Islamic backgrounds. They followed the rhetoric of fellow terrorists like Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to recruit disillusioned youth from Islamic communities in the West away from the traditional Islamic faith of their parents who immigrated to the West and instead adopt their cult. Their cult made everything from their plight to the perceived injustice of Muslims around the world easily understood in a populist way and in the vernacular. The converts were shown a way out of their sin and into heaven by taking the express lane of radical militancy to attack all enemies of the Wahhabi-Salafi Jihadi’s (the only true Muslims) whether they be Crusader-Zionists in AF-PAK, Shia Muslims, Sufi Muslims or Moderate Sunni Muslims (all apostates in the cults eyes to be excommunicated (Takfiri) and worthy of death) or non-Sharia democracies in the West. The ultimate goal of the cult is establishing a kind of ‘Third Reich’ Salafist caliphate stretching from Chechnya to the Philippines that will restore pride and power to “Muslims” (the ones that are left after the bad Muslims have been enlightened as to the true ‘path’ or eliminated); hence their name Forsane Alizza -The Knights of Pride.

Forsane Alizza has links to other radical Islamist groups in Europe, such as al-Muhajiroun / ‘Islam4UK’ in Britain and ‘Shariah4Belgium’, ‘Muslims against Crusades’ as well as ‘Revolution Muslim’ in the United States. Al-Muhajiroun means "the Emigrants". The name comes from their ‘target market’, the children of traditional Islamic parents who immigrated to the West. These Islamo-Fascist cult’s modus operandi is not unlike the Hitler Youth movement of the Nazi’s, brainwashing the youth with magazines, and sending them to specialized indoctrination schools and camps with their ‘brothers’ and SS style (Mujahedeen) elite training, how to be ‘good Muslims’ just like the Nazi’s did in the 1930’s by teaching the ‘jugend’ how to be ‘good Germans’. The devotees would then have no qualms about the war ahead and what had to be done to the ‘untermench’ (Jews, Crusaders and Takfiri or moderate/traditional Muslims). The allies upon liberating Eastern Europe could not believe how civilized people could commit the atrocities that the Einsatzgruppen did especially against women and children. These Hitler Youth graduates were formed into heartless death squads responsible for the murders of over 1,000,000 people, mainly Jews including women and children in occupied Eastern Europe between 1939 and 1944.

It is no surprise then that when today’s Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Jihadi’s strike whether its Bali, Beslan or Toulouse, they do so without mercy and show no remorse afterward if they survive. Indeed they often laugh and smile chanting "Allahu Akbar” like the Bali mass murderer Amrozi bin Nurhasyim did when sentenced by an Indonesian Court rejecting his defence that his actions in 2002 planting bombs that indiscriminately killed 202 tourists because he was seeking to ‘strike at America and its allies, especially Israel’ were justified under  Islam.

If we in the West allow them and other Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri’s free reign to radicalize our youth and the Wahhabi warpath will be strewn with the lives of more innocents in our homelands and ordinary Muslims will start to face persecution from an ill-informed public. This will play into the hands of Al Qaeda and ISIS and their narrative of a clash of civilizations and so become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Security agencies and Police must be able to fully investigate radical hate preachers the mosques, bookshops and internet sites known to incite, support and facilitate hatred, extremism and terrorism. How else can lone wolves be interdicted before they execute their schemes? For example:

Islamic Centre of Queens on 37th Avenue Woodside (aka Masjid al-Fatima) which was founded by Brother Aqeel Khan and taken over by radicals from the Wahhabi Salafi group Hizb ut Tahrir and associated group al-Muhajiroun/Sharia4UK (via Omar Bakri Mohammed)

•    American Al-Muhajiroun member Syed “Fahad” Hashmi frequented the Mosque. He was indicted on terrorism charges in May 2007

•    Sajil Shahid / Sajeel Shahid also went to this Mosque. Sajeel was one of the Wahhabi Salafi mentors of the London 7/7 tube bombers setting up a safe house for them during their bomb making training in Pakistan. Shahid is associated with the Queens mosque by reason of his being both a leader of al-Muhajiroun in Pakistan as well as UK. Britons were outraged this year to learn he and his brother Adeel Shahid set up and ran for the last 5 years a government funded Wahhabi Salafi primary school ‘Ad-Deen’ in Ilford Essex using the pseudonym Abu Ibrahim. He said in an interview

•    ‘We see the US and British governments as the biggest terrorists in the world.’

•    Al Muhajiroun and its leadership (through such operatives as brothers Sajil and Adil Shadid and associates such as Junaid Babar) used Lahore Pakistan as a base to train British Muslims to perform armed jihad in Af-Pak, Chechnya, Bosnia and UK. Richard Reid the Al Qaeda shoe bomber was a regular attendee of the Essex Islamic Community Centre before his failed attempt in 2001 to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 over Miami. Several jihadi brothers meeting at Ilford for ‘prayer’ were also foreign fighters with the Taliban in AF-Pak and now Syria/Iraq.

•    “'Al-Muhajiroun (aka Sharia4UK) has one goal,' said Anjam Choudry, its UK chairman.’we would like to see the implementation of the sharia law in the UK. Under our rule this country would be known as the Islamic Republic of Great Britain. To do that, attracting young Asians is not enough. So we are making a conscious effort to recruit large numbers of non-Muslims. 'Whites, Chinese, Japanese and Indians in this country are all bored with the capitalist system. It's a bankrupt ideal. We have found that young non-Muslims, like our Asian followers, want something new. You can tell that from the anti-globalisation movement. So we're offering them something pure: a religious mission, the values of sharia law and jihad.'” http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/24/religion.september11

That is one of the reasons why Anjam Choudry, loves and promotes ISIS so much as they are imposing Sharia law strictly wherever their black flags capture a town in Syria or Iraq.

•   

“In July 2006, while London mourned the victims of 7/7 on the first anniversary of the attacks, the Islamist Mohammed Sawalha held an exhibition celebrating Islam. This Islam Expo, held at Alexandra Palace in north London. Here Sajil Shahid had a stall, promoting Islamic computer games.... Al Muhajiroun members such as Abdul Raheem Saleem, aka "Abu Yahya" in 2006 demonstration in Sloane Square, where placards called for the beheading of "those who insult Islam" ... Abu Hamza, the radical preacher at Finsbury Park Mosque (and leader for a time of UK Muhajiroun had a role to play in the brainwashing of) Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th man" in the 9/11 conspiracy” http://www.islam-watch.org/adrianmorgan/How-Britain-Encouraged-Terrorism2.htm

•    • Masjid al-Fatima Mosque also has links to Pakistani/American Wahhabi Salafi terrorist Moahmmed Junaid Babar who was implicated as a bomb instructor at a Lahore terrorist training centre used by the radicalized Muslim youths who committed the 2005 London 7/7 Bombings. He grew up in Queens NY before becoming radicalized by Al Muhajiroun’s with Abu Hamza al-Masri and Omar Bakri Mohammed. Babar was an associate of Pakistani/Canadian Momin Khawaja, andOmar Khyam who were part of a fertilizer bomb plot in London. He was also an associate of Kazi Nurur Rahman of East London who was planning a Mumbai style attack in the UK (having been trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) who carried out that atrocity as well as being part of the fertilizer bomb plot. Kazi Rahman was jailed for 9 years and will be released this year. Babar although guilty and liable for a life sentence went to prison for only 4 years being released in 2011 (as part of a plea bargain). He said in a BBC TV interview “I will kill every American that I see.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zAHW1MVTP4

Salafi Lone Wolves and Wahhabi-Salafi hate preachers who radicalize them are hatchet wielding ISIS jihadists on our streets seeking to do the ‘will of Allah’ as they are brainwashed to believe with radical zeal, especially if freshly ‘converted’.

How does one stop the Wahhabi warpath? Deal with KSA funding of Wahhabi Mosques and Islamist ‘Centres’ in our homelands and shut the mouths of the Salafist hate preachers and you minimize the Jihadist threat at our Parliaments and on our streets. Hadal Muhajiroun/Sharia4UK been dealt with in London, Forsane Alizza/Sharia4France, Sharia4Belgium been dealt with sooner by appropriate laws and LEO in France and Belgium, and had Masjid Al Salaam & Education Centre and BCMA been dealt with in Canada and the poison dripping from the hate preachers lips who use Masjid al-Fatima dealt with in New York, London’s ‘7/7’, the Woolwich slaying, the Toulouse and Brussels massacres would not have happened and Patrice Vincent would be alive today and also Nathan Cirillo ( whose funeral is pictured above) would be alive today and the New York policemen would not be in hospital from axe wounds of the Wahhabis on the warpath.

The UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) at a regional workshop on incitement and violent extremism held in Nairobi November/December 2011 reaffirmed the UN’s policy that States need to prohibit and prevent incitement to terrorist acts motivated by extremism and intolerance.

It is clear that the United Nations General Assembly circumscribes the right of people (including religious preachers and political leaders of whatever ethnicity) to have freedom of opinion and expression and dissemination of ideas (Article 19 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948) by the necessary caveat that laws can and should be made to curb that freedom for the protection of national security and the rights of others (Article 19 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966).

Moreover in 2005 the Security Council of the UN made Resolution 1624 concerning threats to international peace and security caused by acts of terrorism condemning in the strongest terms the incitement of terrorist acts.

The UN repudiates any attempts at the justification or glorification (apologie) of terrorist acts that may incite further terrorist acts. The international community recognizes that incitements of terrorist acts are motivated by extremism and intolerance and that this poses a serious and growing danger to global communities.

Many terrorists masquerade as religious organizations and so the UN has made it clear that States must prevent the subversion of educational, cultural and religious institutions by terrorists and their supporters.

The Salafi-Takfiris seek like the Nazi party or the Bolsheviks, to be the vanguard of their own form of global revolution of what they see as their constituency (not Arians or the proletariat as Nazis and communists do) but of the world wide Ummah of Muslim people who they are actively seeking to convert to their cause and their dogma. They do this primarily through the financial and ideological infiltration and takeover of traditional Muslim mosques, educational institutions and ‘charities’.

If there is trouble with Turkey in relation to Cyprus or with respect to the treatment of Muslim minorities in Greece, it would serve Greece well to make lawful categorizations and distinctions in their laws and policies based on a thorough understanding of the real source of terrorism. That way it can withstand the international pressure and scrutiny that may come to try and exploit any domestic problems that may arise from the country trying to protect its legitimate national interest.

In a recent article in ‘Defecnegreece.com’, Ionnis Michaletos titled, ‘Radical Islam passing through Greece’ (Nov 25 , 2011), the point is made that Greece in its delicate financial state is at serious risk from domestic terrorism and a transit point for the flow of terrorist resources across its borders and further into Europe.

However, it is dangerous, against the UN resolutions and counter-productive to label people too broadly by reference to religious, ethnic or national profiling as ‘terrorists’. For example the use of ‘Islamists’ by Ioannis and many others is unfortunate. The perpetrators of terrorist acts in the name of ‘Islam’ are not really ‘Muslims’ at all but simple political terrorists who try and legitimize their criminality and hatred by adopting the mantle of religion. By analogy it would be unjust to call anarchists who commit terrorist acts as ‘Orthodox Extremists/Orthodoxists’ even if the anarchists sought to justify their criminality by reference to the Orthodox religion.

The better approach would be to call them by the name of their philosophy; ‘Salafi-Takfiris’.

They are the Islamo-fascist ideological umbrella, source of funds and foot soldiers for Al Qaeda and associated movements (AQAM); Indonesian ‘JI’ ; Pakistani ‘JeM’; ‘LeJ’; Moroccan ‘Direct Path’; Algerian ‘GSPC’ Philippines ‘Abu Sayyaf’, etc. and lone wolves/home-growns.

99.99% of the terrorist problem in Greece and the West (whether cells or lone wolves) does NOT come from traditional/orthodox Islam but from the well-funded and extreme Salafi-Takfiris (AKA Salafi-Jihadis).

Any Greek who is serious about wanting to know the truth behind unrest at home or in the Middle East should simply type ‘Salafi’ into the Google box before the issue they want to research. This will open up avenues of investigation that can ‘cut through’ the media speak that sometimes play to the tune of the rich and powerful who have an unfortunate financial vested interest in the nation states that support them that often leads to misinformation in the global media.

Read articles and books on Salafi- Takfiris and then you will see the scale and nature of the threat not just to our Greek homeland but also to millions of traditional Muslims who they hate as much as us. For example a Muslim referred me to an excellent small book ‘Terror’s Source' by Vincenzo Oliveti. Even though it’s a 2002 book, it is well worth reading.

In fact because it’s central thesis is that Takfiris are spawned from Salafis and Salafis are the growing in number and themselves spawned from state sponsored/petro dollar driven Wahhabi infrastructure. Their game plan is the world 'take over' of mosques in the West, nation states in the Middle East then the mobilization of them against the West.

It is the current generation of ordinary orthodox Muslims more than the West that are currently the victims of this right wing ‘putsch’ into the West via traditional/orthodox Islam.

Rather than ethnic/cultural profiling and casting the net wide in a discriminatory manner against all Muslims or people from the Middle East, all law enforcement (LE) has to do to maximize its effectiveness both at counter radicalization and interdiction of lone wolves and extremist cells is to concentrate their efforts against all and any forms of Salafi-Takfiris and the nation states that sponsor them.

That includes funding (whether through so called 'charities or schools) and propaganda (whether that be disguised as religion or not).

If all else fails 'follow the (source of the) money’ and make laws that stop that flow and you will reduce the risk of contagion and brainwashing of home-grown individual terrorists and cells.

If you do not tomorrow’s generation of Muslims may well be press ganged; financed or duped into Salafi-Takfirism.

It would serve the Greek people well if the war on terrorism properly defined who the ‘terrorists’ are (especially as Al Qaeda was but a form of Salafi-Takfirism).

The term ‘terrorist’ should therefore not be classified as 'Islamists' but rather 'Salafi-Takfiris' and that adherents to that philosophy be named in the anti-terrorist legislation as ‘terrorists’ or ‘supporters of terrorist organization’.

Once the law is focused on the real threat (in our Greek homeland) the imposition of criminal sanctions can be effective and non-discriminatory. Also with broad community dialogue with Islamic communities in Greece with this understanding (whether they be domestic or refugees) can assist to ‘inoculate’ the broad Islamic community (on our own soil and in Europe more broadly) from contagion of this extremist group. In this way the authorities in Greece can protect the national interest in conformity with international law. 

Immigration nation: where are Britain's migrants coming from, and why?

By Asa Bennett 22 May 2015

As Gillian Duffy once asked, where are they flocking from? Our map shows the top countries of origin

"If you have uncontrolled immigration," David Cameron warned on Thursday, "you have uncontrolled pressure on public services". Last year, 641,000 people came to Britain, 318,000 more than the number who left.

Recent official figures indicate that Mr Cameron is further away from getting net migration into the tens of thousands - as per his "no ifs, no buts" pledge - than at any time since he entered Number 10.

Gillian Duffy, the member of the public who infamously ambushed Gordon Brown, personified the public's concern about immigration in 2010 when she asked him "where are they flocking from?". Our map above, using the ONS' most recent data, shows the 15 most common "last countries of residences" for migrants coming to Britain in 2013.

China is the most popular country of origin, with 46,000 arriving in Britain in 2013. The second most popular "last country of residence" is Spain, with 33,000 of its denizens arriving in Britain that year, and a similar amount from India.

Around 29,000 came from Australia, 27,000 from Poland, 22,000 from France and 20,000 from the USA. Malaysia and Portugal are the 14th and 15th most popular countries of origin, with 9,000 and 8,000 migrants from each respectively.

So what drew them to Britain? Three-quarters of immigrants to the UK are people migrating to work or study, the Office for National Statistics said in its study of long-term international immigration.

According to the ONS, most British expats are coming back to Blighty for work-related reasons, with 46,000 doing so last year. The next most common reason is "going home to live" - with 14,000 returning home for that, followed by 11,000 coming back to accompany or join relatives, and 5,000 British expats coming home to study.

"Generally, immigration of British citizens remains relatively stable, both in terms of the overall level and the main reasons for immigrating," the ONS notes.

So what work are these immigrants doing? A look at the Home Office's figures on what skilled work visas were issued, by industry sector, reveals that most of them were for people going to work in the IT or communication sector. Other fields like science and finance follow closely behind.

It should be flagged up here that these figures would apply to migrants outside of Europe, as those in the EEA do not require a visa to enter the UK.

Any change to immigration policy by the government, like tightening up visa rules, will affect how many people come in. So what factors could have changed things over time?

Immigration regulations were relaxed in 2006 for citizens and their family members in the European Economic Area (i.e. the European Union and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), as they were then allowed to live and work in Britain without explicit permissions. Bugalra and Romania joined the European Union that year, with transition arrangements in place to control migration.

• Emigration nation: who are the thousands fleeing Britain each year?

• Immigration rises to highest ever level under David Cameron - live

In 2008, the United Kingdom's visa system was bolstered, with tier 1 ("high-value migrant"), tier 2 ("skilled migrants") and tier 5 ("temporary worker") being implemented to regulate immigration for work for nationals from outside of Europe. The age at which person can enter the country as a spouse is raised from 18 to 21, which would impact on those coming to Britain to join a partner.

• James Kirkup: Yet more promises and new laws won't solve Britain's problem with immigration

• The unsayable truth about immigration: it's been a stunning success for Britain

• For all the latest on politics straight to your inbox, sign up for our Telegraph morning briefing e-mail

In 2009, as the recession hit, "tier 4" of Britain's points-based visa system was introduced for students, with student visas peaking at more than 300 thousand for the first time. After student immigration rules were tightened in 2011, the number of student visas issued fell.

Immigration does not mean there's a constant stream of people coming into Britain, as some do later leave. What originally attracted them? Work - again - appears to be the main reason.

According to the ONS' International Passenger Survey (INS), 86,000 former immigrants who had come to Britain, and left in 2014, said they originally had come to the country for work-related reasons. Around 65,000 said it was because they had completed their studies. Of those who had previously immigrated to the UK for work, 49,000 (57 per cent) were EU citizens, 13,000 (15 per cent) were citizens of the old or "new" Commonwealth, and 12,000 (14 per cent) were citizens of other foreign countries.

Britain's migrants have been coming here mainly to work, or study, although David Cameron has seized upon the number of coming to look for work as proof that the European principle of free movement is being abused, saying this week: "Freedom of movement was always supposed to be the freedom of movement to go and take a job, and that is the freedom of movement I support."

The Prime Minister is trying to balance keeping Britain "open for business" with his desire to make it "less attractive place to come and work" for illegal immigrants. The flow of immigrants into Britain will continue to be much watched, and emotive, issue.

Immigration nation: where are Britain's migrants coming from, and why? - Telegraph

Sheep stay silent in war of words over whether animals can suffer verbal abuse

By Cherie von Hörchner

A case of alleged animal abuse in the far west of New South Wales has led to debate about whether sheep can comprehend human speech.

It began in September last year, when the New South Wales branch of the RSPCA received a tip-off about the alleged mistreatment of sheep, including verbal abuse, that were being shorn at Boorungie Station, 130 kilometres from Broken Hill.

The complaint was lodged by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which had apparently obtained footage and testimony from an undercover operative working at the station.

For Ken Turner, who operates Boorungie Station, the complaint itself suggests the sheep could at least understand English.

"The basis for the concerns was the rights of the animals, that they might have been harassed by viewing things they shouldn't have seen or verbal abuse by people using bad language," he said.

"To my knowledge, there was no actual cruelty on the job.

"The allegation was that bad language was used by an employee on the property in front of the sheep, and that they could have been offended by the use of bad language."

Steve Coleman, CEO of NSW RSPCA, said the war over the words began when it was decided, for reasons that remain unclear, that the video footage was not legally usable.

"We felt the footage was inadmissible and therefore we relied on what oral evidence came from both parties," he said.

"It was conflicting and on that basis we were unable to continue.

"The evidence that was available basically came down to one person's word against another."

While Mr Coleman did not deny that verbal abuse was a factor, he insisted the complaint contained more concerning issues than just bad language.

"Certainly there were other concerns well beyond yelling at sheep," he said.

While describing claims about verbal abuse of animals as "rare", Mr Coleman said the RSPCA took such allegations seriously.

 

The allegation was that bad language was used by an employee on the property in front of the sheep.

Ken Turner, Boorungie Station

"If there is an allegation that puts at risk an animal that would cause it unnecessary suffering and distress, we would investigate it," he said.

"I don't know if it matters what language is used. An animal is not going to understand it."

But Nicolah Donovan, president of Lawyers for Animals, said animals did understand.

"I think it is conceivable that verbal abuse of an extreme nature against an animal, whether it be human, sheep or otherwise, could constitute an act of violence," she said.

"We have accepted that domestic violence can certainly be constituted by acts of extreme verbal abuse, particularly when the victim of the abuse is especially vulnerable - if they have a low fear threshold or they lack understanding that the verbal abuse isn't going to proceed to a physical threat against them.

"This might be the case with children or farm animals, and the level of abuse needn't be that extreme to cause that kind of fear in an animal."

Lynda Stoner, CEO at Animal Liberation NSW, agreed.

She said animals did not need to understand language in order to comprehend that a human speaker was frustrated or angry.

"I'm not sure all animals can understand different dialects," she said.

"I don't think they're getting the nuances someone is using.

"What they will be getting though is the threat inherent in the way that voice is used.

"I believe they can absolutely comprehend emotion.

"We all know that animals feel pain and suffering, we know animals remember what's been done to them, and we know they can anticipate brutality if it's come before.

"I don't think that's placing human emotions on animals. It's simply that all animals, all species, are capable of feeling pleasure, pain, suffering and all those feelings we feel."

Photo: It was alleged sheep were abused verbally during shearing. (ABC)

The issue was a topic of some debate at last week's Pastoralist's Association AGM in Broken Hill, where some graziers argued that livestock handling - during mustering, for example - necessarily required a degree of intimidation.

Dean Boyce of the RSPCA, who was addressing the meeting, also voiced a concern that many of the 15,000 complaints received by his organisation each year amounted to concerns that were "petty".

But Ms Stoner argued that, far from excusing bad language and behaviour, the challenges posed by livestock handling required workers who were level-headed and compassionate.

She said that, as in the field of surgery, where bad language might be seen as a sign of dangerous frustration levels, the fields of farming required individuals who could keep a cool head.

"There are ways with working with animals that don't require screaming, shouting and just losing it completely," she said.

"Someone who needs to resort to constant bad language, constant screaming and shouting … there is something inherently flawed in a person like that.

"That person has issues whereby they need to dominate and they can't step back from what kind of person they are.

"They need to step back and see there's another way of doing things."

The case against Boorungie Station has been formally dropped.

In a statement to ABC Rural, PETA said "if foul language were the worst that sheep in Australian shearing sheds had to endure, then no complaint would have been filed".

As for Ken Turner at Boorungie Station, the experience has been an eye opener, but he is not about to watch his words in future.

"It made me ask a lot of questions of myself about what we're allowed to do and not allowed to do," he said.

"I believe we do things properly.

"We'll continue as normal."

Sheep stay silent in war of words over whether animals can suffer verbal abuse - ABC Rural (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Illegal migrant workers will have wages seized, vows David Cameron

By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor 21 May 2015

Radical new plan unveiled by the Prime Minister will also see illegal migrant workers deported without appeal

David Cameron will unveil radical new plan to tackle illegal migrant workers Photo: Lynne Cameron/PA Wire

Foreign workers will have their wages seized by police and face deportation without appeal if they are in the UK illegally, David Cameron will announce today as part of a “radical” crackdown on immigration.

The Prime Minister will vow to make the UK a “less attractive place to come and work” by using next week’s Queen’s Speech to announce a series of laws to “root out illegal immigrants and bolster deportations”.

Mr Cameron will also unveil plans to make it a criminal offence for businesses to recruit abroad without advertising in the UK first.

He will give councils powers to evict migrants and force all banks to check bank accounts against databases of people who could be in the country illegally.

It comes as official statistics are today expected to show that net migration is still far higher than the Government’s target of reducing it to fewer than 100,000 every year.

Mr Cameron will on Friday officially begin renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the European Union at a major summit in Riga.

Immigration will form a key plank of Mr Cameron's demands as he attempts to negotiate changes to EU laws to ensure that he can further restrict migrants’ access to benefits in the UK.

On Wednesday a close ally of Mr Cameron gave the strongest hint yet that the EU referendum could take place in 2016.

David Lidington, the Europe minister, became the most senior member of the Government to openly suggest that Mr Cameron now wants to hold an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU earlier than his previous 2017 deadline.

A would-be illegal immigrant sneaks into the cab of a lorry at Calais port (AFP)

• EU elections 2014: Is immigration good for Britain?

• Suspected illegal immigrants found hiding in brand new imported Maseratis in Surrey

And there was a further boost for the Prime Minister as Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, said that there is a “a big margin of manoeuvre” for the treaty changes that Mr Cameron needs to drive through significant reforms in the EU.

Mr Cameron will use a speech in central London today to signal that he will put restricting migration at the heart of his second term in office.

It has been estimated that there could be as many as 600,000 illegal immigrants living in the UK.

As well as the new criminal offence of “illegal working” allowing the authorities to seize wages, Mr Cameron will also extend the “deport first, appeal later” scheme to all immigrants thought to be in the UK illegally.

Currently it applies only to foreign criminals. It will mean that thousands of illegal migrants could now be deported and forced to appeal in their country of origin.

The Prime Minister will announce satellite tracking tags for foreign criminals awaiting deportation “so we always know exactly where they are”.

Mr Cameron will say that “dealing with those who shouldn’t be here… starts with making Britain a less attractive place to come and work illegally”.

“The truth is it has been too easy to work illegally and employ illegal workers here,” the Prime Minister will say.

“So we’ll take a radical step – we’ll make illegal working a criminal offence in its own right.

“That means wages paid to illegal migrants will be seized as proceeds of crime and businesses will be told when their workers’ visas expire so if you’re involved in illegal working – employer or employee – you’re breaking the law.”

Mr Cameron will say that a “strong country isn’t one that pulls up the drawbridge…it is one that controls immigration”.

He will add: “With this Immigration Bill, and our wider action, we will put an end to houses packed full of illegal workers; stop illegal migrants stalling deportation; give British people the skills to do the jobs Britain needs. We are for working people. For them, we will control and reduce immigration.”

As part of his renegotiation with Brussels, Mr Cameron wants to have the right to make European migrants wait four years before receiving welfare or council houses and he wants to stop EU workers sending child benefits and tax credits abroad.

Would be illegal immigrants to the UK attempt to storm a convoy of lorries heading to the French port of Calais (AFP)

• Mapped: the world's immigration landscape

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Mr Cameron went into the general election promising to reform Britain’s relationship with Brussels before holding the referendum before the end of 2017.

However, Mr Lidington on Wednesday suggested that the Prime Minister would “welcome” the chance to hold the vote earlier.

Mr Lidington said: “There will be tough and difficult negotiations but I think there is growing recognition around the continent that Europe cannot go on the way it has been going.”

Asked about the prospect of an early referendum, Mr Lidington added: “David Cameron has said the deadline is 2017 but if we can do it earlier we would welcome that.”

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr Schäuble indicated that Germany is now prepared to work with Mr Cameron for EU reform.

Asked about the possibility of treaty change, which many Brussels leaders have previously said Mr Cameron will be unable to achieve, Mr Schäuble said: “We will try to move in this direction, possibly through agreements that would later be incorporated into treaty changes. There is a big margin of manoeuvre.”

In a significant concession, Mr Schäuble also suggested linking the Conservative Government’s demands for change to reform of the Eurozone.

He said that George Osborne, the Chancellor, will be “coming to Berlin so that we can think together about how we can combine the British position with the urgent need for a strengthened governance of the Eurozone”.

He added: “The structure of this currency union will stay fragile as long as its governance isn’t substantially reinforced. Maybe there is a chance to combine both goals.”

His comments raise the prospect of a two-speed EU, with countries not in the Eurozone having a far looser relationship with Brussels.

Illegal migrant workers will have wages seized, vows David Cameron - Telegraph

Europe faces second revolt as Portugal's ascendant Socialists spurn austerity

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 19 May 2015

Germany is worried that any concession to Greece will set off political contagion and cause fiscal discipline to collapse across southern Europe

A protester holds a flare during a demonstration in Lisbon during a general strike in 2012

Europe faces the risk of a second revolt by Left-wing forces in the South after Portugal’s Socialist Party vowed to defy austerity demands from the country’s creditors and block any further sackings of public officials.

"We will carry out a reverse policy,” said Antonio Costa, the Socialist leader.

Mr Costa said a clear majority of his party wants to halt the “obsession with austerity”. Speaking to journalists in Lisbon as his country prepares for elections - expected in October - he insisted that Portugal must start rebuilding key parts of the public sector following the drastic cuts under the previous EU-IMF Troika regime.

The Socialists hold a narrow lead over the ruling conservative coalition in the opinion polls and may team up with far-Left parties, possibly even with the old Communist Party.

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“There must be an alternative that allows us to turn the page on austerity, revive the economy, create jobs, and – while complying with euro area rules – restore hope to this county,” he said.

While the Socialist Party insists that it is a different animal from the radical Syriza movement in Greece, there is a striking similarity in some of the pre-electoral language and proposals. Syriza also pledged to stick to EMU rules, while at the same time campaigning for policies that were bound to provoke a head-on collision with creditors.

Portugal's total debt ratio is the highest in Europe

Mr Costa accused the Portuguese government of launching a blitz of privatisations in its dying days, signalling that the Socialists will either block or review the sale of the national airline TAP, as well as public transport hubs and water works.

His harshest language was reserved for the International Monetary Fund but this reflects the cultural milieu of the Portuguese Left. In reality the IMF was the junior partner in the Troika missions.

Mr Costa unveiled a package of 55 measures in March, led by a wave of spending on healthcare and education that amounts to a fiscal reflation package. The party would also roll back labour reforms and make it harder for companies to sack workers.

The plan would appear entirely incompatible with the EU’s Fiscal Compact, which requires Portugal to run massive primary surpluses to cut its public debt from 130pc to 60pc of GDP over 20 years under pain of sanctions.

The increasingly fierce attacks on austerity in Lisbon are likely to heighten fears in Berlin that fiscal and reform discipline will break down altogether in southern Europe if Greece’s rebels win concessions. Worry about political "moral hazard" is vastly complicating the search for a solution in Greece.

“Greece is the testing ground and everybody is watching very carefully. That is why the Spanish and Portuguese prime ministers have been so hawkish,” said Vincenzo Scarpetta, from Open Europe.

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No deal for Greece is yet in sight. Syriza continues to live from hand to mouth, narrowly putting off default week after week by raiding obscure funds. The country’s finance minster, Yanis Varoufakis, told Greek television on Monday night that “pensions and salaries are sacred” and will take priority if the money runs out. “I would prefer to default to the IMF rather than on salaries,” he said.

Sending out mixed messages, he also said that Greece had no plans for a rupture with Brussels or a “change of currency”.

Portugal is no longer under Troika control. It exited its €78bn bailout programme last year and returned to the markets. It is currently able to borrow money for 10 years at an interest rate of 2.35pc. “We no longer have any direct leverage,” said one EU official.

However, countries remain under “post-programme surveillance”, with two monitoring missions on the ground each year until they have repaid 75pc of the money. Portugal will not be in the clear for a long time.

The legal text stated that the council of EMU ministers can issue “recommendations for corrective actions if necessary and where appropriate”. The EU bail-out funds (ESM and EFSF) have their own “early warning mechanism” to ensure that debtors stay on the right track.

Portugal has weathered the austerity crisis in much better shape than Greece but it remains vulnerable, with higher aggregate debt levels and far lower levels of education than Greece.

Total combined public and private debt is more than 370pc of GDP, the highest in Europe. This leaves the country badly exposed to the effects of debt-deflation and stagnant nominal GDP.

William Buiter, Citigroup’s chief economist, said Portugal has many of the same economic "pathologies" as Greece, and is likely to be first in line for contagion if the sanctity of monetary union is violated by the ejection of Greece.

Citigroup calculates that Portugal’s debt ratios have already gone beyond the point of no return, warning that the country will ultimately need some form of debt-restructuring to wipe the slate clean. This lingering fear in the market leaves Portugal prone to a fresh debt crisis if the Eurozone recovery runs out of steam.

The IMF said in its Article IV health check this week that Portugal’s bailout has been a success but warned that the "country remains highly vulnerable".

The “export miracle” is narrowly based and does not yet reflect lasting gains in competitiveness. “A durable rebalancing of the economy has not taken place and the non tradable sector is still dominant,” it said.

While exports have jumped from 30pc to 40pc of GDP since 2010, the picture is far less rosy for "domestic-value added exports", the metric used by the IMF to measure meaningful gains.

The Fund said Portugal is currently benefitting from a “trifecta of record-low interest rates, a weakening euro, and low oil prices” but this cyclical tailwind will fade over time.

“Portugal faces an acute growth challenge. Productivity growth has been declining over the past half-century. Looking forward, Portugal’s working-age population is projected to fall, and the country’s capital stock is contracting because of under-investment,” it said.

This stagnation trap makes it extremely hard for the country to grow its way out of debt, or to overcome external liabilities of 215pc of GDP. “A systemic solution to the problem of excessive leverage is needed. Not only do the banks that keep too much bad credit on their books endanger financial stability, they are also unable to finance the economic recovery,” it said.

Europe faces second revolt as Portugal's ascendant Socialists spurn austerity - Telegraph