Friday, 13 September 2013

CNN's Christiane Amanpour Angrily Calls For Intervention In Syria (VIDEO) ...said she could "barely contain" her anger at this position.

Christiane Amanpour angrily denounced her fellow panelists on Thursday's "AC360 Later" for their unwillingness to support American intervention in Syria.

Writers Andrew Sullivan, Charles Blow and Christopher Dickey all spoke against intervention, echoing the sentiments of most Americans and of Congress.

Amanpour said she could "barely contain" her anger at this position.

"How many more times do we have to say that weapons of mass destruction were used?" she said. "And as bad as it is to decapitate somebody, it is by no means equal. We can't use this false moral equivalence about what's going on right now. They tried to do it in the Second World War. They tried to do it in Bosnia. They tried to do it in Rwanda and they're trying to do it now. There is no moral equivalence."

As her panelists tried to interject, Amanpour snapped, "Wait just a second!" Once she had the floor, she continued, "The president of the United States and the most moral country in the world based on the most moral principles in the world, at least that's the fundamental principle that the United States rests on, cannot allow this to go unchecked, cannot allow this to go unchecked...I'm so emotional about this."

Later, Amanpour tweeted that she was trying to recall "America's proud history" of liberal interventionism:

Christiane Amanpour ✔ @camanpour

[1/2] My passion based on justice and the moral imperative, & indeed America’s proud history of now-forgotten humanitarian interventionism.

1:01 PM - 13 Sep 2013

#huffingtonpost

VIDEO: Simon Cowell sings on the X Factor!!

Those who can't sing, judge, apparently. And those without eardrums made of steel shouldn't watch this video...LOL!

We're not sure what's more surprising: that Simon Cowell can't sing at all. Or that we've never seen him attempt it before.
But thanks to Demi Lovato, Kelly Rowland and a lovely gentleman called Russ Pouliot, that's all changed.
After Russ - who described himself as a modern day Frank Sinatra - sang an Elvis song to the judges, Demi Lovato made a striking observation.
"I feel like, had you had a British accent, you would sound like Simon if he sang!" she joked.
"I would, I've just got a bit of a sore throat today," the music mogul says, making his apologies as the producers start the music up again.
Apologies which Kelly promptly ignores.
Thrusting the microphone into his face and almost headlocking him in the process, she doesn't really give the high-waisted-one much of an option.
"I-i-i-i-i-i-i-iiiiii caa-a-a-a-a-a-n't h-el-el-el-el-el-el-puhhh faw-aw-aw-aw-aw-ll-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ng in l-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-ve w-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-th you-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou," he warbles.

Of course, this isn't actually the first time Simon Cowell has sung on the X Factor... just have a gander at this video from three years ago:

We're just hoping that somebody shows this video to Simon's baby when it grows up.

#mirror.co.uk

Syria: Assad's thugs butchered and beheaded in front of children, jeering crowd (Graphic Photos)

The sword rests briefly on his neck as a blindfolded man kneels under a clear blue sky.
Moments later, the executioner raises his right arm, slashes downwards and the prisoner is dead.
The whole barbaric episode is watched by a crowd of jeering men, many of them armed.
And sitting on a low wall only a few feet from where the wretched captive died so violently is a line of young boys.
They were still there as the dead man’s head was dumped on his body. Another child, even younger, was led by the hand past the corpse.
Warning: Graphic content

As a cheering crowd of fighters look on, an executioner - believed to belong to the Al Qaeda-linked faction ISIS - lines up his sword in a practice run before delivering the final blow

A Syrian boy is held by the hand as he walks past the body of a beheaded Islamic militant loyal to Assad. An unnamed photojournalist was given rare access to the public execution in the town of Keferghan in the north of the country

A group of young children sit on a wall as they stare at the dead body

The severed head of a militant is held aloft. The photographer witnessed four public executions on August 31

The public execution was the last of four that took place on August 31 in the town of Keferghan in the north of the country.
The picture forms part of a set taken by a photojournalist - whose identity has not been revealed in order to protect him - who was given unprecedented access to the gruesome proceedings.
Among the other photos are an executioner lining up his sword before delivering the final blow as his victim kneels in the village square - and a victim's head being held aloft by a jubilant fighter.

Although it is difficult to confirm the political affiliation of those involved, an eyewitness told Time that the executioners belonged to ISIS - an Al-Qaeda faction opposed to President Bashar Assad's regime.
The captives, meanwhile, are understood to belong to the fearsome Shabiha ('ghosts') - thugs loyal to Assad who are said to roam the country massacring women and children.

The captives are understood to belong to the fearsome Shabiha ('ghosts') - thugs loyal to Assad who are said to roam the country massacring women and children

Above, a captive prepares to meet his fate. Describing the scene, the photographer said: 'That scene in Syria, that moment, was like a scene from the Middle Ages, the kind of thing you read about in history books'

Below is an edited account of the photographer's harrowing experience:
'The man was brought in to the square. His eyes were blindfolded. I began shooting pictures, one after the other. It was to be the fourth execution that day I would photograph. I was feeling awful; several times I had been on the verge of throwing up.
But I kept it under control because as a journalist I knew I had to document this, as I had the three previous beheadings I had photographed that day, in three other locations outside Aleppo.
The crowd began cheering. Everyone was happy. I knew that if I tried to intervene I would be taken away, and that the executions would go ahead. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to change what was happening and I might put myself in danger.
I saw a scene of utter cruelty: a human being treated in a way that no human being should ever be treated. But it seems to me that in two and a half years, the war has degraded people’s humanity. On this day the people at the execution had no control over their feelings, their desires, their anger. It was impossible to stop them.

A member of the notorious Shabiha is held by the scruff of his neck as he is led to his doom

The pictures emerged as the organisation Human Rights Watch released a video and report into brutal summary executions carried out by the other side - Syrian government forces

The executions took place near Syria's largest city, Aleppo, which has seen intense fighting between the rebels and Assad's forces

I don’t know how old the victim was but he was young. He was forced to his knees. The rebels around him read out his crimes from a sheet of paper. They stood around him. The young man was on his knees on the ground, his hands tied. He seemed frozen.
Two rebels whispered something into his ear and the young man replied in an innocent and sad manner, but I couldn’t understand what he said because I don’t speak Arabic.
At the moment of execution the rebels grasped his throat. The young man put up a struggle. Three or four rebels pinned him down. The man tried to protect his throat with his hands, which were still tied together.
He tried to resist but they were stronger than he was and they cut his throat. They raised his head into the air. People waved their guns and cheered. Everyone was happy that the execution had gone ahead.
That scene in Syria, that moment, was like a scene from the Middle Ages, the kind of thing you read about in history books. The war in Syria has reached the point where a person can be mercilessly killed in front of hundreds of people who enjoy the spectacle.
As a human being I would never have wished to see what I saw. But as a journalist I have a camera and a responsibility. I have a responsibility to share what I saw that day. That’s why I am making this statement and that’s why I took the photographs. I will close this chapter soon and try never to remember it.'

'The war in Syria has reached the point where a person can be mercilessly killed in front of hundreds of people - who enjoy the spectacle,' said the photographer

The picture forms part of a set taken by the photojournalist, whose identity has not been revealed in order to protect him

Wearing a bloodied blindfold, one of the captives kneels before his executioners

The dreadful pictures emerged as the organisation Human Rights Watch released a video and report into brutal summary executions carried out by the other side - Syrian government forces.
They massacred at least 248 innocent people in the towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May this year, the report said.
The executions - which included at least 37 women and children - came after military clashes had ended and opposition fighters had retreated.
People were rounded up and shot at close range in an apparent attempt to ‘teach a lesson’ to the townsfolk not to side with the rebels.
The United States and Russia undertook a second day of talks in Geneva yesterday to try and achieve a diplomatic solution to the brutal conflict and get Syria to hand over its chemical weapons.

Anti-Assad fighters are seen here near Aleppo, in norther Syria

The U.S. and Russia undertook a second day of talks in Geneva yesterday to try and achieve a diplomatic solution to the brutal conflict and get Syria to hand over its chemical weapons

Syrian government forces massacred at least 248 innocent people in the towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May this year. Above, a rebel fighter

#dailymail

400 level student excretes 25 wraps of liquid cocaine at the newly upgraded Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu.

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency of Nigeria (NDLEA) Thursday arrested a 400 level student at the newly upgraded Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu.

The suspect, Chizoba Anselem Nwabuwa, 32 year-old Fine and Applied Arts student at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State was apprehended during the inward screening of passengers on an Ethiopian flight from Brazil enroute Addis-Ababa.

According to the head of the NDLEA at the Enugu Airport, Mr. Nsikak-Abasi Udoh who confirmed the arrest the suspect excreted 25 wraps of liquid that tested positive for cocaine.

“The suspect excreted twenty-five (25) wraps of liquid substance. When tested with the United Nations drug testing kit, it tested positive for cocaine weighing 1.250kg. This first arrest and seizure is exciting to us because we just commenced operations” Nsikak-Abasi stated.

Narrating his ordeal Nwabuwa stated that he had wanted to use the proceeds from the illicit trade to finance his Art Gallery.

His words: “I am a 400 level student of Fine & Applied Arts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State. I wanted to use the half a million naira (N500,000) they promised to pay me in developing my Art Gallery.

They assured me in Brazil that authorities will not be able to detect liquid cocaine, so I was confident. Unfortunately, things have turned-out the other way. I regret my involvement in drug trafficking”.

#vanguard

Thursday, 12 September 2013

PHOTOS: Horrifying dungeon uncovered...where paedophile and would-be cannibal Geoffrey Portway planned to act out his sick fantasies on innocent children.

A butcher's set found in Portway's torture chamber

Handcuffs found in Portway's dungeon

The staircase leading down to the basement

The steel-topped table in Portway's dungeon

Portway's house on Beechmont Street, Worcester, MA

Geoffrey Portway

The photos (above and below) show the terrifying dungeon where would-be cannibal Geoffrey Portway planned to act out his sick fantasies on innocent children.

Shocked US police uncovered the evil lair after a two-year crackdown on paedophiles led them to the British-born pervert’s home in Worcester, Massachusetts.

They found the place strewn with indecent images of children – and a fully equipped “torture chamber”.

FBI pictures show how he had built a staircase leading down to a hidden, sound-proof cellar.

Inside was a “child-sized homemade coffin” covered in wire mesh and fitted with padlocks. It had six metal rings inside to act as restraints.

Alongside the cask was a steel cage 3ft wide, 4ft long and 2ft high. It, too, was fitted with locks.

Investigators also found bondage equipment, knives, handcuffs, castration tools, butchery equipment, two large freezers and disposable scalpels.

Portway has already pleaded guilty earlier this year to plotting to kidnap a child and to distributing and possessing child pornography.

On Tuesday prosecutors will demand that he serves at least 27 years in prison before being deported back to the UK.

In court papers filed earlier this week it emerged that he used the alias Longpig – the cannibal name for human flesh – as he chatted online with other paedophiles.

One of his contacts was sex offender Ronald Brown, jailed for 20 years in Florida this month for plotting to kidnap youngsters through his local church.

He is said to have sent Portway a picture of a young boy with lines drawn on it to show how the body should be sliced into various cuts of meat.

The pair also discussed taking a child to a rented house in the Everglades, mutilating him, eating him, then feeding the “leftovers” to alligators.

Portway wrote: “Just need to open a mortuary. Any boy who is scheduled to be cremated, disappears.”

More Horrifying photos od the dungeon...

The label reads: "Special design latex rings for castrating and docking of tails on lambs and calves."

Children's pyjamas

Door leading into a room with a child-sized steel cage.

Federal agents began investigating the pervert in 2012 after linking him to an internet chat room obsessed with cannibalism and child rape.

He would trade sick images and videos of youngsters being horrifically abused.

In one internet conversation the computer programmer talked about children he knew, identifying them as potential victims.

A paedophile told Portway it would not be hard to find out where a particular boy lived in Baltimore.

He asked: “Question is, would you go that far to snatch him?”

Portway replied: “I might – if I could get him.”

US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said: “Clearly, the facts of this case are very disturbing. We are grateful our law enforcement officers acted when they did.”

Special agent Bruce Foucart added: “Since we began this operation a worldwide network of offenders has been and continues to be unravelled.”