The Dudley Two Go Free

Remember the Dudley Two?

Leon and Snowy are two English Defence League members who were arrested back in May for occupying the roof of the existing building on the site of the proposed mosque in Dudley. They were held in jail for several days and then charged with burglary and breach of the peace.

Now comes word that the charges have been dropped, and both men are free. However, one of them had his arm broken when he was beaten by the police — I suppose that’s just a little souvenir to remind him of his little visit with Dudley’s law enforcement community.

According to The Dudley News:

Charges Dropped for EDL Rooftop Protestors

TWO English Defence League members, who were arrested during a rooftop protest, have had all charges dropped against them.

Leon McCreery from Stockport and John Shaw from Knaresborough were arrested during the incident over the May Bank holiday, after being taken down from the roof of a disused factory in Hall Street by riot police.

The pair were bailed following an appearance at Dudley Magistrates Court, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has today announced it has dropped all charges against them because of “insufficient evidence”.

Gill Casey, District Crown Prosecutor for CPS Wolverhampton, said: “When considering whether a case should be prosecuted, the CPS applies the Code for Crown Prosecutors in two parts. The first is the evidential test where we have to be satisfied that there is enough admissible evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction. If the evidence satisfies the first test, then we have to consider the second part the public interest test.

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“In the case against John Shaw and Leon McCreery a preliminary evidential test called the threshold test was applied. This was permissible because they were considered a substantial bail risk if released from custody and not all of the evidence was available to the prosecutor at the time that the charging decision was sought by the police. Additionally it was considered to be in the public interest to commence a prosecution.

“I have now had an opportunity of carrying out a review of all the evidence and have applied both parts of the Code and I have made the decision to discontinue the prosecution on the basis that there is now insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”

A rumor is circulating to the effect that Muslims in Dudley are now rioting in protest over the release of Leon and Snowy. I don’t have any confirmation of this intriguing report, but another news story seems to support the contention that Dudley’s “youths” have indeed been rioting.


Hat tips: Gaia and Vlad Tepes.

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Dutch Government Denies Funding Ground Zero Mosque

As a follow-up to his earlier post on the topic, our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article from yesterday’s Trouw about the Dutch government’s denial that it is helping to fund the mosque at Ground Zero:

Dutch Ministry denies subsidy for Ground Zero Mosque

The Netherlands provides no subsidy for the building of a mosque at Ground Zero, the place in New York where the WTC towers stood until the attacks of September 11. So writes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the parliamentary questions of the PVV.

PVV MPs Geert Wilders and Sietse Fritsma had recently asked for clarification when news recently broke that the Netherlands is providing a one-million euro subsidy to the American Muslim organization Asma. According to the PVV, this organization is involved in the construction of the mosque at Ground Zero.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen [CDA; Christian Democrats; Verhagen is also at present fraction leader of the CDA] makes it known in writing to the PVV that the grant was earmarked for a program of Asma that focuses on the emancipation of Muslim women in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Pakistan. [see Parliamentary Letter below.]

Verhagen additionally denies that Asma is involved in plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero. “For that, therefore, no Dutch tax money used,” states Verhagen. For that reason he is not planning to withdraw the subsidy, as the PVV had demanded.

However, on the website of the Cordoba Initiative, which wants to build the mosque, Asma on the contrary is indeed is listed as a partner organization. Asma’s founder, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, moreover, is also chairman of the Cordoba Initiative.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Thursday could not immediately explain the reading by Verhagen.

From the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
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Parliament Letter on answering questions from members Wilders and Fritsma on ‘By the Netherlands co-financed of a mosque on Ground Zero’

Parliamentary Letter | July 28 2010

I am pleased hereby to offer you the answers to the written questions by members Wilders and Fritsma about ‘the co-financing by the Netherlands’ of a mosque on Ground Zero’. These questions were filed on July 21, 2010 with reference number 2010Z11149.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Dr. M.J.M. Verhagen

Answers from Mr. Verhagen, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to questions of members Wilders and Fritsma (PVV) on ‘the co-financing by the Netherlands of a mosque on Ground Zero’.

Question 1

Is it true that Dutch taxpayers’ money is used for the support of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), the organization Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who wants to build a mosque on Ground Zero?

Answer

No, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) is not involved in the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero in the United States. For that reason, therefore, there is thus no Dutch tax money used.

However, the American Society for Muslim Advancement does receive subsidy from the Dutch MDG3 Fund to implement the program of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE) Compact program. WISE has as its aim the self-determination and full participation of Muslim women in their communities. To achieve this goal, activities focus on among other things the reform of existing legislation, the design of new legislation, and training for women, activities that are oriented towards increased equality between women and men. They do this primarily in Afghanistan, Egypt and Pakistan. It is about programs to prevent genital mutilation, counteracting violence against women, and organizing training of women (including media, leadership).

The duration of the project is from 13 October 2008 to June 30, 2011.

Question 2

If yes, do you acknowledge that it is absurd to build a mosque right at Ground Zero and that this is also an insult to (the families of) the victims of 9-11? If not, why not?

Answer

See question 1

Question 3

If so, are you, given the offensive plan to build said mosque, willing to immediately withdraw the subsidy to ASMA? If not, why not?

Answer

No. Because there is no question of support for the construction of a mosque. The withdrawal of the subsidy to ASMA, which focuses on promoting equal rights for women in countries such as among others Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt, is therefore not being considered.

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A Right-Wing Government for the Netherlands?

According to Elsevier, the political impasse in the Netherlands has been broken, and a government will be formed. It will be a minority right-wing government that will not include Geert Wilders’ PVV, but will be supported by it.

This announcement validates the open letter to the Queen that I just posted.

Many thanks to our Flemish correspondent VH for the translation:

VVD, PVV, and CDA go for it: right-wing government is near

by Jeroen Langelaar

The Netherlands is heading for a right wing minority government consisting of the VVD and the CDA, with the support of the PVV. As far as the three parties concerned, the “formal” negotiations on this will start as soon as possible.^[1]

The three separate fractions decided this today (Friday), VVD leader Mark Rutte said. According to him, the Parties see future prospects.

In a joint statement, the three parties state: “There is much that unites us: making the Netherlands stronger, safer and more prosperous, is the common goal and starting point.”

In the “support-agreement” important demands by the PVV will be included: on the field of immigration, integration and asylum, safety and elderly care. The PVV will have to support the agreements on the budget cuts.

PVV leader Geert Wilders announced that he is very happy with the step taken.. “This may succeed. We will prove our reliability, and not send this government home on issues addressed in the government-agreement.”

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From 14.00 hours onwards Friday, party leaders Rutte, Wilders, and Maxime Verhagen (CDA) conducted consultations with their own fractions on possible cooperation in a government. Analysts expect that Rutte will be appointed by Lubbers as the new informateur.

Rutte, Wilders, and Verhagen, last week held “informal” negotiations on cooperation with one another. This happened at the initiative of the informateur.

Note:

[1]

This is similar to the “Danish model”, following the Danish People’s Party of Pia Kjærsgaard, who since 2001 successfully supported a government of Liberal and Conservative parties.

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An Open Letter to Queen Beatrix

The following open letter offers a glimpse into the Byzantine intricacies of public corruption in the Netherlands. According to the author, the time-hallowed place of the Christian Democrats at the government gravy trough will prevent the formation of a right-wing cabinet that includes the PVV.

Many thanks to our Flemish correspondent VH for translating this fascinating document and researching all the links.


Open letter to Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands

23 July 2010

Copy to the Fraction leaders:
Maxim Verhagen CDA m.verhagen@tweedekamer.nl
Mark Rutte VVD m.rutte@tweedekamer.nl
Geert Wilders PVV g.wilders@tweedekamer.nl
Emile Roemer SP e.roemer@tweedekamer.nl
and the (in)formateur Ruud Lubbers via info@uaf.nl

Published at Het Vrije Volk:

“The left wing of the CDA [Christian Democrats] depends on subsidies. And that is what they will not let go.”

Majesty!

by Peter Siebelt

Already with the first talks on the formation of a coalition government, the big loser of the recent elections, the CDA, represented by its leader Maxime Verhagen, disavowed any consultations to investigate a possible right-wing government. Initially surprising, but upon closer examination very understandable.

The major obstacle to any contribution to this [a right wing government] by Maxime Verhagen is most likely presented by the left-wing Christian Democrats, who views the party’s extra-parliamentary interests and activities endangered by the announced policy intentions of both the VVD and PVV with regard to budget cuts. Interests and activities that in 2009 alone cost the Dutch government [and thus the taxpayer] billions of euros, not to mention the social burden and aggravating effects to our society.

Activities that essentially take place under the themes of development aid, the environment, climate, and refugee assistance. Activities that take place in close collaboration with the left-wing political elite and its extra-parliamentary networks. Activities that have saddled the Netherlands over the years with a huge and almost irreversible fixed cost which has significantly contributed to the debt of the Netherlands (until 2009 more than 347 billion euros, rising in 2010 by 100 million euros per day).

Given the foregoing, it is not surprising that various attempts to form a government have until now run aground over the way the debt of the state should be reduced, for “budget cuts” is the key word nowadays. How to execute these cuts is the major stumbling block and has caused deep divisions between possible coalition partners. The left-wing politicians do not want to touch the aforementioned themes, but the VVD and PVV, on the contrary, want to do precisely that. And the “leftist” fear of the participation of the PVV in a new government plays a role, because the latter political party, in particular and above all, wants to cut back drastically on the policies that put an irresponsible financial burden to our country.

Now for the second time you have decided to assign a new (in)formateur who, as I see it, will seek ways to prevent a right-wing coalition government from being formed, and in my view it is of the utmost importance to remind you of a few issues, and also inform in detail a broader Dutch audience. Because your new informateur, Ruud Lubbers [former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] is infected and captured by his own interests. He is not only of the left wing of the CDA, but is also deeply involved with the issues that the left-wing political elite wants to leave untouched.

As former prime minister (1982 to 1994), Ruud Lubbers was responsible for the billions of euros that were drawn from our treasury on behalf of the aforementioned themes, and partly because of the consequences thereof have contributed significantly — and still do — to the accumulation of our countries’ debt. Since his resignation as prime minister, Ruud Lubbers holds positions within Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) that are subsidized with millions of tax payers money.

The current (in)formateur Ruud Lubbers for example is chairman of the Stichting voor Vluchteling Studenten (UAF, “Foundation for Refugee Students”) and in 2009 alone this association was awarded 2,678,580 euros in government subsidies. He is also involved with the Nationale Commissie voor internationale samenwerking en Duurzame Ontwikkeling (NCDO, “National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development”), that over the period 2007-2010 collected 128.4 million euros in government grants. In cooperation with the NCDO, Lubbers has taken the initiative to establish “Worldconnectors”, an organization of which he is also chairman. “Worldconnecters” among other things focuses on climate issues, on connecting cultures, global power shifts, and Europe’s position in the world.

And more people in the left wing of the CDA are in similar circumstances, whose collars will fit too tight at the thought of a right-wing government.

Take for instance one of Lubbers’ main godfathers and colleagues, Jos van Gennip. The man who is often described in the media as the party ideologist of the CDA, and who is in large part responsible for the enlargement of the left wing within that party. He managed to interest many prominent Christian Democrats in this. The themes mentioned above have for years been high on his political agenda. According to Jos van Gennip, not the national issues, but the international events, the internationalism, must dominate the political agenda. His dual role is multiple and represents a shining example of the entanglement between politics and the billions-hungry extra-parliamentary action-environment. A few of his many activities:
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From 1967 till 1976, Van Gennip was director of the Centraal Missie Commissariaat (CMC, “Central Mission Commissariat”). An organization that stood at the basis of the left-wing Christians penetrating the churches and was responsible for the interests of 8,000 Dutch missionaries. Missionaries who embraced a Marxist liberation theology and supported bloody revolutions in the Third World. Missionaries who looked the other way when their “clients” horribly violated human rights, or purchased weapons with development aid money. One of those for example, Jan Schrama, who to a large extend supported the opposition in the Philippines and also was part of to the advisory board of the Catholic development organization Cebemo.

Ruud Lubbers was a regular guest speaker at meetings organized by Cebemo. Since the founding of both organizations [CMC and Cebemo], huge amounts of public money have flowed to it. Meanwhile, the CMC changed its name to Mensen met een Missie ([link] “People with a Mission”), and was funded by government and others in 2009 to the amount of 4,466,872 euros. The name Cebemo was changed to “Cordaid”, and it was rewarded with government subsidies for the period 2007 to 2010 amounting to 421,830,126 euros.

These organizations emerged around 1967. The need for public money became ever larger, and to attract more funding, and also to expand their network, they began step by step to set up new organizations. So in 1968 Van Gennip was involved at the inception of the national commission “Justitia et Pax”. The Netherlands thereby was one of the first countries to found its own commission, one year after the international committee had gone to work in Rome. Justitia et Pax at present is being subsidized by among organizations People with a Mission, Solidaridad, religious institutions, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the co-financing organisation (MFO), Cordaid.

But in Cordaid, Van Gennip has also left his traces. Following the MFO, NOVIB (currently the Foundation Oxfam Novib and over the period 2007 to 2010 funded with 509 million euros), which was founded in 1956 by his Christian soulmate Father Simon Jelsma, Van Gennip in 1965 — from out of the CMC — stood at the cradle of the Catholic Cebemo. A year earlier, in 1964, the Protestant ICCO was established. Also there the left wing of the CDA is well represented. The CMC and Cebemo remained closely linked. As director of Cebemo, in 1973 Van Gennip advised his comrade Jan Pronk, the former Labour (PvdA) Minister for Development Cooperation in several coalition governments [and former Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission for the United Nations Mission in Sudan], on how they could pass through money to the [Marxist] opposition in Chile.

Subsequently Jan Pronk reciprocated and appointed Van Gennip to investigate reports of the abuse of development aid by the armed resistance in the Philippines. Given his years of support for this resistance, the result of his research may be guessed beforehand. Van Gennip remained the general director of Cebemo until 1984 (Cebemo is currently merged into “Cebemo Cordaid”). Interestingly, also the daughter of Jos van Gennip, Karien van Gennip, is a CDA politician and currently in the Board of Trustees of Cordaid, and is accompanied there by the prominent CDA members Gerrit. H.O. van Maanen and Arie M. Oostlander.

In 1984, Van Gennip was like a cat tied to the bacon. He left Cebemo to begin as Deputy Director-General of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1990, and supervised Dutch bilateral development aid. Partly because of his involvement and collaboration with Jan Pronk, the relationships of the ministry and its officials became intimately intertwined with the NGOs. In 1986, Van Gennep also became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rabobank in The Hague. His party associate Herman Wijffels was a member of the Executive Board of the Rabobank Netherlands, and as informateur in 2006 constructed a coalition government of CDA [Christian Democrats], PvdA [Labour party, Socialists] and CU [Christian Union, left-wing Christians]. Wijffels steered the Rabobank into development aid (in 2009 over 14.7 million euros). On the occasion of his departure, the Herman Wijffels Fund was installed.

After his job at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Van Gennip became Director of the Scientific Institute of the CDA (SID; from 1991-1999). And here also he operated with double loyalty. From June 1997 onwards he became chairman of Netherlands International Development Society (SID), and one month later (January 16, 2008) Vice President. As chairman of the SID Van Gennip stressed that this organization is “one of the driving forces” in the promotion of alternative views and actions relating to development aid and plays a unique role “in bridging the gap between policymakers and activists at the base”. Currently the SID counts nearly 6,000 members in 115 countries, and works closely with like-minded international organizations and networks, including parliamentarians and students. SID is also supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. How SID gained this support will by now be obvious.

Beginning in May 2004, Van Gennip became President of the Nationale Commissie voor Internationale Samenwerking en Duurzame Ontwikkeling (NCDO), “National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development”). For the period 2007-2010 the NCDO received a government grant of 128.4 million euros. From 1991 to 2007, Van Gennip was a member of the Dutch “First Chamber” [Senate or Higher House; Parliament is called “Second Chamber”]. He also there was involved with development aid issues and was CDA spokesman for “Development Aid and Foreign Affairs”. Interestingly, he is also a board member of the “Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy” (NIMD) of which his CDA-colleague [and former foreign minister] Bernard Bot is chairman. The NIMD in 2008 received almost 10 million euros from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [while the present fraction leader of the CDA, Maxime Verhagen, was Minister of Foreign Affairs].

His CDA colleague Sophie van Bijsterveld is a member of the Senate and is also infected by a double loyalty, and serves on the members’ council of (IKV)PaxChristi, an organization receiving over 15 million euros in government funding in the period 2007-2010.

In his role as chairman of NCDO, Van Gennep subsidized the SID (in 2004 €75,000; 2005 €75,000; 2006 €241,612; 2007 €211,120). And it did not stop with this. Other organizations in which he operates he lavishly enriched with NCDO grants, such as the Eduardo Frei Foundation (EFF; 2004 €100,000; 2007 €90,000 [also present CDA fraction leader Maxime Verhagen has been a board member of the EFF]). Further, as chairman of the NCDO he is active in the “Knowledge and Advisory Centres” in which his CDA colleague [and anti Wilders campaigner] Doekle Terpstra and the very controversial Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan also participate.

Furthermore, Van Gennip is also a strong supporter of Gemeentelijke Samenwerking met Ontwikkelingslanden (“Municipal Cooperation with Developing Countries”) and to that end is on the Board of the Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten (VNG, “Association of Dutch Municipalities”). An organization which in this context is partly responsible for the vast sums of taxpayers’ money flowing abroad through municipalities, and works closely with, and is financed by, the NCDO (more than 300,000 euros in 2009; see this).

And then we still have the vice-presidency of Van Gennip with Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland (Refugee Work Netherlands [link]). The organization which not only for many years has sabotaged the curbing of the massive flow of asylum seekers to the Netherlands, but with its activities also has a priming effect. Refugee Work Netherlands is partly responsible for the establishing of the “Generaal Pardon” [“general amnesty”, legalization in 2006-7 of some 27,500 rejected asylum-seekers]. A legalization that was enforced by a powerful lobby called “26.000 Faces”. In this lobby Van Gennip walked hand in hand, so to speak, with the newly appointed informateur Ruud Lubbers and the president of the HBO-Raad (“Higher Education Board”) and ICCO, Doekle Terpstra.

Now ICCO is an inter-church organization, founded in 1964 and also concerned with development aid. During the period 2007-2010, ICCO received 525 million euros of tax payers money. This organization was involved in the Filipino resistance movements and was part of the reprehensible research by Van Gennip, as commissioned by Jan Pronk (see earlier on in his article). In a response in Dutch left wing newspaper De Volkskrant on June 5, 1990, he made clear that: “Support for armed resistance remains possible with ICCO.”

The predecessor of Doekle Terpstra at ICCO was a prominent CDA member Tineke Lodders. She was its Chairperson form January 1996 till January 1, 2006. She is also Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of Samenwerkende Hulporganisaties (“Joint Aid Organizations”) and since September 2007 has also be on the board of the NCDO. Furthermore, Tineke Lodders is chairperson of the Landelijk Beraad Stedenbanden Nederland-Nicaragua (LBSSN, “National Council of City Connections Netherlands-Nicaragua”) which collected for the period 2007 till 2010 government grants to the amount of 2,000,000 euros. As a member of the CDA fraction in the Senate she was mainly involved with development aid, spatial planning and environmental-issues and social affairs.

Other CDA members in this context are also quite worth mentioning:

Gerrit Terpstra and Pieter Kooijmans, both among other things members of the Board of Trustees of the Refugee Foundation (see above), which for 2007 till 2010 was rewarded 6,419,725 in government grants.

But also Jan Schinkelshoek, the former campaign spokesman of then CDA party leader Ruud Lubbers in 1986 and 1989. Schinkelshoek is a member of the board of the Dutch foundation “Press Now”, which received a government grant of 9,966,144 euros for the period 2007-2010.

And then I still have to mention the recently established “Rights Forum”, which focuses on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. A forum in which the CDA members Dries van Agt (former prime minister; notorious anti-Semite]) and Hans van de Broek (former foreign affairs minister, EU politician and member of the Queen’s Council of State; Van de Broek was the first to censor due to possible Muslim sensitivities, in 1987 he prevented the broadcast of a sketch by the comedian Rudi Carrell in which ladies’ underwear was thrown at Ayatollah Khomeini), Frans Andriessen (former finance minister), Pieter Kooijmans (see above), Tinneke Lodders (see above), and Bert de Vries (former fraction leader, Social Affairs minister), Doekle Terpstra (see above), participate. A forum for which the government grants are not yet known, but most likely will receive funding through the previously-mentioned subsidy channels.

Well, I could continue for a dozen pages with similar conflicts of interest that make a negotiation towards a right-wing cabinet virtually impossible.

I will end this letter to you by mentioning the interesting fact that your son [prince] Constantine is Chair of the Board of the foundation “The Hague Process on Refugees and Migration”. A foundation in which both the aforementioned Jos van Gennip as well as your newly-appointed informateur Ruud Lubbers are member via the department of the “Club of the Hague”, a foundation that works closely together with the aforementioned SID and receives subsidies entities that include from the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the municipality of The Hague, Refugee Work, ICCO, Novib and NCDO.

Sincerely,

Peter Siebelt


Note:

[1]

For decades Peter Siebelt has been the Dutch top expert on left wing activism and activists and their networks, a security expert, an author, and a reporter. He has his own blog and publishes among other places at the Het Vrije Volk site. Links added by the translator.

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Back to Work

Our (allegedly) quarterly fundraiser is over at last. Time to pack up the lunchbox, retrace our steps along the girder, pick up the welding torch, and get back to work.

The seven days of our recent bleg far exceeded any previous week of fundraising. Given the hard times and straitened circumstances that most of us are living through, the generosity expressed by our donors was gratifying and humbling.

The geographic range of people who contributed was also amazing — as near as I can tally it, here is the final breakdown of locations:

From the USA: California, Washington D.C., Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

From elsewhere: Australia, Austria, Brazil, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, Denmark, the Faeroe Islands, Flanders, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Dymphna is still firing on only two or three cylinders, so some of the thank-you notes haven’t gone out yet. Bear with her; she’s slowly catching up.

Once again, many thanks to everyone who donated. With your help, this modest endeavor will be able to continue indefinitely.

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One of our donors wrote and asked me: “Suppose you had a really rich benefactor — what would you do if someone were to donate a million dollars to the cause?”

Ah…. Fantasy time!

In my idle moments I sometimes imagine:

The Gates of Vienna Foundation
A million isn’t much of an endowment, but still…

It’s a nice dream. I picture an outfit like the Manhattan Institute, which is an excellent organization that employs a variety of scholarly authors. Our foundation would also require a glossy quarterly publication, perhaps resembling City Journal, but featuring a more classical style of cover art:


“But Baron,” you ask, “why ‘The Löbel Bastion’? Do you enjoy being obscure?”

Well, yes, I do. But it’s also true that the Löbel Bastion played an important role in the Siege of Vienna in 1683, and it fits in well with the Gates of Vienna theme.
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The bastions were projecting sections of the city’s fortifications that allowed the defenders to fire on the flanks of the besiegers. As the Turks came nearer to reducing Vienna in September 1683, they approached the city walls closely enough to tunnel under the Löbel Bastion and lay mines. Portions of the walls had collapsed from previous explosions, and the garrison was forced to close the breaches with temporary repairs that became more and more flimsy as the damage to the walls increased.

On the climactic day of the siege — September 11th, 1683 — the Turks had tunneled deep under the Löbel Bastion and laid a large mine. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa and his generals calculated that this charge would blow a big enough hole in the defenses to allow the Turks to enter the city. September 12th was to be the day when the Turks finally broke the siege.

As a result, the besiegers committed most of their resources south of the city, leaving their left flank relatively unprotected. Even when King Jan III Sobieski of Poland began his descent from the hills to the north and approached the city with his Winged Hussars, the Grand Vizier remain focused on the Löbel Bastion, certain that his troops were about to storm the city.

The murk of history obscures exactly what happened to the Turkish mine, but legend has it that the defenders dug a counter-tunnel, and sent a young boy — who was the only person who could fit through the end of the hastily-dug shaft — to stop the mine from exploding. According to the story, the young man extinguished the fuse just before the powder detonated.

In any case, the mine failed to explode. The Löbel Bastion held. Sobieski and his men rolled up the Turks’ left flank while the garrison sallied forth from the city, routing the besiegers. The Grand Vizier and his janissaries fled eastward in panic, leaving behind their tents, baggage, captives, and slaves.


The humiliation that Kara Mustafa inflicted upon the Sultan through his ignominious defeat was too much to bear, and the Grand Vizier was ritually garrotted a few months later.

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The Löbel Bastion is a fitting metaphor for the current state of Western Civilization. Like the walls of Vienna, our culture has been sapped, undermined, weakened, and is now near collapse.

There are a few defenders left behind the walls who have yet to flee, and they are ready to fight to the last man to defend their city. Nobody knows whether relief will come in time, so all we can do is counter-tunnel in hopes of sending an urchin along the shaft to thwart that final explosion…

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/29/2010

Abdul Hakim Muhammad, the man who killed one soldier and wounded another at a Army recruiting center in Little Rock last year, attempted to firebomb the rabbi of a synagogue in Nashville before he paid his murderous visit to Little Rock. This news has been publicly revealed for the first time, based on revelations in a psychiatric evaluation of Mr. Muhammad.

In other news, a bus driver in London who was accused of “Islamophobia” after refusing to let to veiled women board his bus has been exonerated. CCTV evidence backed up his story that the women were aggressive and argumentative, and that his refusal to let them board was justified. He faced the possible loss of his job if the charge against him stuck.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Barry Rubin, CSP, DS, Fjordman, Gaia, Henrik, JD, JP, Lurker from Tulsa, Nilk, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

[This post is a stub — nothing further here!]

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A Radical Imposition of Sharia

Former congressman Newt Gingrich gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute today, and his topic was stealth jihad and creeping sharia. Below is an excerpt from his speech:


Many thanks to Kitman for YouTubing this clip. The entire speech is available at KitmanTV.

See also Frank Gaffney’s account of the speech at Big Peace.


[Post ends here]

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The Taliban Say: “A Vote for the PvdA is a Vote for Jihad!”

The formation of the new Dutch government is still in limbo, but if the Taliban have any say, the PvdA will be included in the coalition. The Socialists are regarded as friends of the Islamic radicals, and a Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan is not shy about saying so.

Here’s the latest from today’s Elsevier, as translated by our Flemish correspondent VH:

The Taliban hopes the Labour Party will govern again

by Marlou Visser

The Taliban thanks the PvdA [Labour Party, Socialists] for the upcoming departure of Dutch troops form Uruzgan. The radical Islamic terrorist organization says it hopes the PvdA will again become part of the Dutch government so that there will be a lasting friendly policy “toward Afghanistan”.

This was said by Qari Yusuf Ahmadii, the spokesman for the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan in an exclusive interview with Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

The Taliban already had congratulated the Netherlands earlier in a telephone interview with Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad for the intended departure from Afghanistan. “The Dutch have said to themselves: we will not benefit here; our goals are not in this country, so why should we sacrifice ourselves?” Ahmadii said then.

This weekend the roughly two thousand Dutch troops will withdraw from the Afghan province of Uruzgan. Their task will be taken over by Americans, Australians, and NATO troops from Singapore.

Recently it was made public that the entire Afghan operation [of the Dutch], militarily and in terms of development, cost the Dutch €2 billion.

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The new government may decide whether it will accede to the request by NATO for the Dutch to send police trainers to Afghanistan. However, with a right-wing government it will also be uncertain whether the Netherlands will comply with this request. The Party for Freedom is opposed to the military mission.

NATO will probably request the new Dutch government to allow the Air Force to remain a while longer in Afghanistan, as Dutch newspapers report.

Photo caption: “Congratulations”

“We still remember well the day the Dutch government resigned,” says Ahmadii, who states that the Taliban keep a sharp eye on the international media over the Internet. The spokesman also promises that there will never be peace in Afghanistan as long as foreign troops are present in the country. “The resistance will only become stronger.”

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The Destiny of the West is Tied to Israel

Last winter we featured an op-ed by the Danish writer Jeppe Juhl. The author returns with a new essay, which was published in 180grader on July 22. Many thanks to Anne-Kit of Perth, Australia, for translating it into English.


The Destiny of the West Is Tied to Israel
by Jeppe Juhl

(Written after comments on Israel’s Gaza blockade by Catherine Ashton, de facto Foreign Minister of the EU)

Israel Is the Canary of the West

It’s not that long since miners were still using caged canaries as an early warning system for detecting gas leaks. If something happened to the canary it was time to get out quickly. Or into one of the safety pockets that were part of the contingency plan. You wouldn’t even need to have finished primary school to understand that only a really, really stupid (or suicidal) miner would look the other way if his canary suddenly passed out in its cage. And it would be equally remiss of the miner not to care for his canary or not to help it if it should fall ill.

Right now we are witnessing not one but millions of stupid or suicidal “miners”. I am referring to all those in the West who are actively agitating against or directly oppose the State of Israel. For Israel is the “Canary of the West”. The day Israel succumbs is when the days of the West are numbered. There can be no reasonable doubt about this. This does not mean that our civilization will crumble instantly, but the moral collapse which must inevitably have preceded any future dissolution of the Jewish State would have to have been so massive that the West would necessarily be in a state of free fall. And no measures will be able to halt this moral gravitation. We will not be able to rise up again if that small spot which represents Israel is overrun by forces which we all know are evil, even though it is forbidden to say it aloud.

Yes, life will go on. For a little while. But the gas leak has been established. The canary’s death presages our own. If in any way we are dealing with a clash of civilizations, now is the time to occupy the “high ground”. I am not referring to a military confrontation, as this would inevitably lead to only temporary solutions, but to a moral struggle where we in the West proudly and fearlessly fight for the beautiful ideals which the intellectual canary haters benefit from in their own privileged and protected lives, but which they denounce to the world in their eternal quest to appear as “good people”.
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What is the nature of this self-hatred that drives Western intellectuals, especially those in Europe, to combat the canary of the Middle East? What perverse mechanisms compel many Westerners to demand that our canary always be more colourful and sing with a purer voice than any other birds around the world? What makes these intellectuals and their thoughtless followers punish our bird instead of kindly shipping it off to the doctor when it shows signs of illness, which would be the only rational thing to do? Is it perhaps because they no longer perceive themselves as part of our community? Is it maybe because they are not down in the mineshaft with the rest of us but live their danger-free lives at the higher levels, where they can breathe easily and enjoy their expensive vintage wines, while they gaze with pity and condescension upon the swarthy workers down in the mine who day in and day out live their insect-like lives watching the X-Factor and reading Dan Brown? I think this is how it is. The only problem is that these cerebral aristocrats do not understand that they are living on top of the mine. And when the mine collapses, they go down with the rest of us.

If the greatest statesman of the Western world had been alive today, and here I am thinking of course of Winston Churchill, he would have been on the barricades just like he was in the thirties. And Churchill would not have minced his words. He would have denounced the meaningless lunacy of condemning Israel in the wake of the flotilla. An episode which Israel should have avoided but which happened because they naively had not foreseen the evil present on the boat. Instead Catherine Ashton, the so-called Foreign Minister of the EU — a person whom it is safe to say the late Churchill would have viewed with the utmost contempt — steps in to make demands of Israel. Demands which we in the West would never dream of making of many other countries which behave so badly that it is inconceivable that no-one has noticed. Likewise, of course, it went unnoticed by the entire Danish press that last week Germany banned the Turkish organization IHH, which was the real villain of the flotilla episode.

The flotilla is but one of a veritable shower of episodes which expose the moral relativism that has infected us in the West. Yes, there are lots of things wrong with our canary. But perhaps we should consider the part we ourselves play in inflicting diseases on our bird when we choose to desert it. We do not even have to like our bird, but our sense of self preservation alone should be enough to make us treat it better.


Hat tip: TB.

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Talks About Talks

Since last month’s general election, the Netherlands has been in constitutional limbo. At first all the mainstream parties absolutely refused the possibility of forming a coalition with Geert Wilders’ party, the PVV. Then, after a lot of wrangling and dickering, it became apparent that a government without the PVV could not be readily achieved.

At that point the two least left-wing parties — the VVD and the CDA — decided that, well, yes, maybe they would be willing to work with the PVV, if only Mr. Wilders were to ease up on some of his most extreme Islamophobic positions.

Since then there have been talks about talks, but no actual official talking. Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated two articles about the process. First, here’s what De Telegraaf had to say about the situation early on Monday:

Informal consultations on Monday

THE HAGUE — The party leaders Mark Rutte (VVD) Geert Wilders (PVV) and Maxime Verhagen (CDA) are meeting Monday at a secret location in The Hague for informal consultation to see whether there are possibilities to form a government together. The consultation was at the request of informateur Ruud Lubbers. It is not clear how long the consultation will lasts. Possibly also in the coming days there will be meetings [they will continue on Tuesday].

The CDA has always been opposed to a three-way conversation with the VVD and PVV. VVD and PVV should first agree in broad terms. But under pressure from informateur and former Christian Democrat prime minister Ruud Lubbers, the CDA fraction accepted an initial informal meeting. Lubbers will not be there himself.

Since the elections on June 9 there has been quite a bit of puzzling going on about forming a cabinet. The formation of a coalition of VVD (major party), PVV (biggest winner) and CDA have up till now encountered objections from the latter party [CDA]. The formation of a right-wing government thus seemed impossible, but that option was still in the air. Therefore Lubbers wants these parties to first talk informally, without himself present, to see if any business can be done.

The CDA will enter the informal consultation without preconditions. But if the CDA were then to decide to really negotiate with the PVV for cooperation [minority cabinet supported by the PVV for instance, according to the Danish model] or a coalition government, there would be a few issues, according to Maxime Verhagen, that would be of great importance to the CDA. For example, a tax on headscarves and the desire of the PVV to scrap development aid must be taken off the table.

PVV leader Geert Wilders is pleased that the CDA wants to enter the conversation with his party and the VVD. He finds it a good thing that the CDA is doing that without preconditions.

Then, two days later, Elsevier reported that the talks about talking are continuing:
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Parties continue talks about right-wing cabinet Wednesday

by Jeroen Langelaar

Mark Rutte, Geert Wilders and Maxime Verhagen are taking their time. The talks among the fraction leaders of VVD, PVV and CDA have been suspended early Tuesday. VVD and CDA spokesmen made it known afterwards that the three gentlemen will continue talks this Wednesday about a right-wing government.

On Monday Rutte (VVD), Wilders (PVV), and Verhagen (CDA) started informal discussions at a secret location, an initiative of informateur Ruud Lubbers, who himself did not join in. The three fraction leaders returned between three and half past three at the Binnenhof [parliament buildings in The Hague]. Nobody wanted to provide comments on their progress. Lubbers also said nothing.

It is unclear why the consultation was suspended so soon. The faction leaders of the four-plus Purple-plus parties had in recent weeks been talking regularly until late at night.

The informateur Lubbers has been assigned by Queen Beatrix to clarify as soon as possible whether a right-wing cabinet of VVD, PVV and CDA, or a minority government with two of the three parties, is possible. Negotiating with the PVV is controversial in leftist circles of the CDA. A slight majority of CDA voters (53 percent) is in favor of a right-wing government.

Make yourselves comfortable, everybody. It looks like this one is going to take a while.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/28/2010

In a mysterious incident in the Straits of Hormuz, a Japanese oil tanker is said to have been attacked from the Iranian shore. An explosion resulted, the tanker was damaged, and one person was killed. Iran and Oman, however, deny that there was any attack. Iran says the cause of the explosion was an earthquake.

In other news, South Korea has gone on alert due to an expected cyber attack from North Korea. Meanwhile, a financially strapped Italy is looking for private investors to help rehabilitate the deteriorating Coliseum in exchange for advertising rights.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Derius, Fjordman, JD, JP, Kitman, Lurker from Tulsa, natskvi, SC, Vlad Tepes, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

[This post is a stub — nothing further here!]

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Swedish Absurdity

The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna.
For a complete Fjordman blogography, see The Fjordman Files. There is also a multi-index listing here.


When it comes to taking cultural Marxism and “gender neutrality” to its logical conclusion, you just can’t beat the Swedes:

Transgendered people need more protection, the Liberal Party has announced, adding it proposes that the hate crime law be clarified so that it is clear that it also applies to this group.

A previous sample from Gates of Vienna:

Meet Pop, a two-and-a-half-year-old Swedish child whose parents are refusing to say whether the apple of their eye is a boy or a girl. Pop’s parents, both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few — those who have changed the child’s diaper — nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information. In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction.

And from the Brussels Journal:
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The Swedish Green Party state explicitly that the concepts male and female are “socially constructed” and forced upon all human beings. In order to reach the new world order, it is paramount that all such artificial identities are broken down. This should be facilitated by the education system and specially trained teachers. They believe that “all human beings” should be free to choose whatever name they desire. By this they appear to mean “gender” as well. They want everything to be “gender neutral,” not only marriage ceremonies but identity cards.

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Nicolai Sennels: An Open Letter to David Cameron

We’ve posted previously about the Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennels and his work with Muslim criminals in Denmark’s juvenile justice system. After hearing the British Prime Minister’s speech in Turkey yesterday, he wrote an open letter to Mr. Cameron, which was posted at 180grader:

Dear Prime Minister David Cameron,

You say you want Turkey to be member of EU. I personally think that you just want the rest of Europe to have the same problems with Muslims as you do. But that is my personal guess — here are the hard facts:

99.8 percent of the more than 77 million Turks living in Turkey are Muslims. Please study the Quran and see what that means: It is a criminal book that forces people to do criminal things! From September 11th 2001 (do you remember…?) to July 28th 2010 there have been 15,373 confirmed murders motivated by the Quran and the inhuman example of the Muslims prophet as described in his life story in the Hadiths. Do you really think we need to open our European borders to 77 million followers of such an ideology?

Turkish immigrants in Denmark have a crime index of 184 (meaning that they are close to double as criminal as the average Danish citizen). Do you really think we need more of that on our continent?

Did you know that “Three out of four women in all of Turkey is in average victim to physical or psychological violence at least one time per month.”? Do you want such a view on women to take root in our societies?

And did you know that “70 percent of the Turkish citizens never read books, Konda public opinion researchers said, APA reports. The research centre conducted opinion poll among 6482 respondents and found out mood of national and religious discrimination, as well as isolation is still in a high level in the country. According to researches, despite that there are many Turks living in the European countries, 90 percent of Turkish citizens never travel to the foreign countries. 73 percent of respondents were against the purchasing of real estate by the foreigners. Most of them considered the neighbour countries as a threat for the territorial integrity of Turkey. The researchers found out interesting facts about the women’s role in the Turkish society. 70 percent of respondents think that the woman can work only by consent of her husband. 57 percent said considered appearance of women in the public places without headscarves as unacceptable.” Do you think such a culture belongs in Europe?

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“Public opinion in EU countries generally opposes Turkish membership, though with varying degrees of intensity. The Eurobarometer September-October 2006 survey [77] shows that 59% of EU-27 citizens are against Turkey joining the EU, while only about 28% are in favour.” Do you know what representative democracy means?

Turks in Denmark are more criminal than Somalis, Iranians and Iraqis (all war stricken countries with a high amount of traumatized refugees). This statistic is made by the Danish State’s Bureau of Statistics and is correlated for economical and educational status. We Europeans are sick and tired of criminal foreigners being invited to our countries by the politicians that we — with our votes — trusted to take good care of our countries!

25-30 percent of all marriages in Turkey are intermarriages. This means that 25-30 percent of all Turks are the result of inbreeding. Surely you already know that inbreeding between cousins doubles the risk of mental and physical handicaps and that Western societies are already struggling hard with the economic consequences of handicapped immigrants. Besides the 100 percent increase in handicaps it also effects the intelligence of the offspring negatively — which surely our schools and institutions have noticed: “…studies in which the effects of inbreeding on cognitive performance have been examined revealed that offspring of first-cousin marriages had lower IQ scores than offspring of unrelated parents. …offspring of unrelated parents performed better than offspring of first-cousin marriages in intelligence and achievement tests administered at grades 4 and 6. The lowest level of performance and a higher variance were found for offspring of double-cousin marriages. The inbreeding depression found in this study is consistent and cannot be explained by the effects of socioeconomic status.” Do you think that this can partly explain why the Turkish population already living in Europe proved to be incapable of integrating to the necessary extent in our high tech knowledge societies?

Did you know that in several provinces in Turkey “13 percent of the parents and 9.9 percent of students had witnessed an honour killing. … The study also showed that 26.2 percent of the parents and 25.9 percent of the students said they support such killings”? Can you tell me: What honour is there in killing unarmed and helpless family members?

The majority of Turks elected a prime minister — Erdogan — who has been in jail for promoting violent Islamic messages in Turkey. Erdogan sent his daughters abroad to avoid the Turkish ban on head scarves in public schools and universities. Do you want a people that elect such a leader free access to our welfare societies?

I tell you one thing, David: You will never ever succeed in getting Turkey into Europe! Never.

Yours,

Nicolai Sennels

Psychologist and author of “Among Criminal Muslims. A psychologist’s experiences from the Copenhagen Municipality.”

Hat tip: TB

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WikiLeaks Provides a Hit List for the Taliban

Pundita and I had an email conversation this morning about the latest twist in the WikiLeaks scandal. Despite the leakers’ assurances that any material that would endanger specific individuals had been redacted, it turns out that hundreds of individuals Afghan informants are named in the leaked reports. The villages where they live are also included in some cases, which means an effective death sentence for those identified.

Pundita posted some of what she said in her emails, including this:

Just before going off air this AM Batchelor mentioned a report from today’s Times — I think he meant London Times. After two hours of reading through the docs, Times reporters found scores of names and precise locations of Afghan informants for NATO. Batchelor said that the WikiLeaks document dump is a “death list.”

Haven’t had the heart to look up the Times report but I imagine it’s splashed all over Google.

From an interview with Guardian editor on PBS Newshour Tues night, Assange was originally going to dump all the pages onto the internet without making any attempt at redactions. The Guardian editor talked him into letting Guardian and NYT help review the documents to try to redact them and then they brought in Spiegel. But they couldn’t cover any more than a fraction of the pages before the July 25 deadline he gave them.

If Assange released those papers as a human rights/anti-war protest it has seriously backfired. And I can only imagine the scandal for the journalism profession.

Also, see PBS NewsHour transcript for Tues for a good summary of how Obama is now trying to spin the WikiLeaks situation. He’s sticking to his original story that there was no real news in the leaks and that the new war policy for Afghanistan he worked out late last year addresses all the issues raised in the leaked documents.

I don’t think the leftist press will ever be held accountable for risking people’s lives by leaking classified material. The words “sedition” and “treason” no longer exist in our legal vocabulary. The fact that their irresponsible actions may well cost people their lives is of little concern to progressive journalists, as long as those deaths serve the larger cause of damaging Republicans, conservatives, and the American military. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Another point that came up in our discussions was the incompetence and ineptitude of the Obama administration — which was highlighted by this incident, as it has been by so many others. A common right-wing meme is that the hard-left handlers behind Obama (if not Obama himself) are evil geniuses who are orchestrating our destruction with perfect timing and precision. But I don’t buy that. I’ve been watching and analyzing their decisions carefully, and they are incoherent, inept, and just plain stupid — if they intend our destruction, they are making major mistakes at every step.
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An example of the Messiah’s incompetence may be found in his recent treatment of various European leaders. Obama needs the European apparatchiks to help him implement his Full Socialist program, yet he has alienated them at every possible turn. Weighed in the pragmatic balance, this is a very stupid move. Either Obama has slipped the leash, forgotten his lines, and just says these disdainful and contemptuous things — which is quite possible — or his handlers scripted them, which was a foolish thing to do. Either way, it shows the inept and amateurish nature of the O-crowd. It’s evidence that there is no great evil intelligence behind this administration. They’re simply winging it.

A true Machiavel always keeps his political ends — whatever they might be — in mind. He will weigh every action carefully and shrewdly, balance the positive consequences against the negative consequences, judge the likely outcome, and act according to his best interests.

All the evidence indicates that Obama and his entourage are not doing this at all. They are either stupid, ignorant, inexperienced, or overconfident, or some combination of the above.

Obviously, they have enough power to destroy much of America’s prosperity and political capital. But they lack the savvy to implement their own agenda.

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