Twitter Suspends Al-Shabaab's English Language Account

Who would have thought those nasty little Islamist terrorists in Somalia, al-Shabaab, would have several Twitter accounts, with one in English to boot. Surely Western technology and social media would be considered un-Islamic, but I guess not when they can use it to disseminate information to their jihadist followers, including photos of dead infidels. One of those photos along with threats to kill Kenyan hostages, however, prompted Twitter to shutter the English account @HSMPress, although the Arabic and Somali-language ones are still functioning, and they just opened another @HSMPress_ account.

The Twitter account of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents was suspended Friday, days after they posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages.

A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSMPress account read that the account had “been suspended,” without elaborating.

However, the Shebab’s Somali- and Arabic-language accounts continue to operate, and the extremists used their Arabic account to denounce the suspension as censorship.

“This is new evidence of the freedom of expression in the West,” the message read.

On Wednesday the Shebab used the account to release a link to a video of several Kenyan hostages they said they will execute within three weeks if the Kenyan government does not release prisoners held on terrorism charges.

Earlier this month they posted graphic photographs of a French soldier killed during a failed bid to release a French agent whom the Shebab had held for more than three years. They later used Twitter to announce the hostage's execution.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault denounced the publication of the photographs as a “particularly odious display.”

Twitter warns that accounts can be suspended if they violate its rules, which include the publishing of “direct, specific threats of violence against others,” according to regulations posted on its website.

Users are also blocked if they use Twitter “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities.”

Last year the Shebab used the account -- which was opened in December 2011, and most recently had more than 20,000 followers -- for a series of exchanges with Kenya’s army spokesman, taunting the Kenyans after they invaded southern Somalia to attack the Islamists.

Complaining about censorship? What a joke.

But they'll keep popping back up until they are eradicated, if that's at all possible. It will be the Islamist extremists and the roaches that will survive a nuclear war.

I do wonder, though, who really is running their Twitter accounts. Probably someone based in the U.K.

Read the rest.

Overly Taxed Rich Leaving France Including Actor Gerard Depardieu-

The rich in France are leaving in droves especially after Socialist President Francois Hollande's administration has raised taxes on individuals making over 1 million Euros to an outrageous 75%, and they're taking their businesses with them. But it's not just income tax that has them in a tizzy:

..a sharp increase in taxes on capital gains from the sales of stock and company stakes is pushing most people to leave, according Didier Bugeon, head of the wealth manager Equance.

French entrepreneurs have complained vociferously against a proposal in the Socialist's 2013 budget to increase the capital gains tax on sales of company stakes, which they argue will kill the market for innovative start-up companies in France.

They say a stiff increase in capital gains tax would remove incentives to do this in France. They also argue that capital has already been taxed several times in the making.

The French government did wind up "backtracking" on the hefty tax increase on the sale of a company, and the 75% tax is now only for two years, but people are still packing up and moving. Actually they started moving in anticipation of an Hollande win, and are now following through with it.

And it's not just businesses, French actor Gerard Depardieu (a Nicolas Sarkozy supporter, it turns out) is planning on moving to Belgium where the taxes aren't quite so exorbitant. His decision so infuriated the French government, that its criticism led to Depardieu writing a scathing letter which was published in the Journal du Dimanche. Addressed to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who called Depardieu "pathetic" for wanting to move to Néchin, Belgium and take all his money with him, it said, in part:

"I am handing over to you my passport and social security, which I have never used," he said. "We no longer have the same homeland, I am a true European, a citizen of the world, as my father always taught me to believe."

He concludes: "Despite my excesses, my appetite and love for life, I am a free being, Sir, and will remain polite."

He also wrote:

"Unfortunately there's nothing left for me to do here, but I will continue to love the French, the public with whom I've shared so many emotions! I leave because you consider that success, creation, talent, difference, in fact, should be sanctioned."

Bottom line Depardieu doesn't want to live in a socialist country that is going to tax the bulk of his earnings, which is unfortunate for France since he had 80 people working for him.  Plus he claims he has paid over 145 million Euros in taxes during the past 45 years that he's been working. He also allegedly paid 85% tax on his 2012 income. That's a lot of tax monies that France will no longer have.

Naturally the leftists would be apoplectic, after all, who else is going to fill those coffers to pay for all their social programmes if all the rich bail. Some call those leaving 'traitors'. Socialist Aurelie Filippetti, minister of culture, likened Depardieu's abandoning ship to:

 "deserting the field in the middle of a war against the [economic] crisis," and that "French citizenship is an honour, and includes rights and also duties, which include the ability to pay taxes."

The conservatives there, however, know the consequences of overly taxing the rich.

"We're losing the rich, like Gerard Depardieu, and the poor feel betrayed," said Rama Yade, a former Sarkozy minister, and vice president of the moderate conservative Radical Party, referring to workers at factories expected to close down. "France is the one getting weakened, and its future is being sold off cheaply," she said.

Sound familiar? The U.S. should take heed before the mass exodus of our rich, since that has already started to happen. 

Ironically, a bunch of the rich and famous of France had banded together to petition to be taxed a higher percentage:

“We are conscious of having benefited from a French system and a European environment that we are attached to and which we hope to help maintain,” wrote the group, which included the chief executives of Air France-KLM and Société Générale, and the billionaire heiress to the L’Oréal fortune, among others. “When the public finances deficit and the prospects of a worsening state debt threaten the future of France and Europe and when the government is asking everybody for solidarity, it seems necessary for us to contribute.”

That is, until they realized how high.

France's 'Charlie Hebdo' Publishes More Mohammed Cartoons- Update

Charlie Hebdo, the French (mostly leftist) weekly satirical magazine that had the guts to republish the Danish Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons back in 2006, and was subsequently sued by a group of Muslims in 2007, is at it again.  In today's edition, it plans on publishing a few more Mohammed cartoons that the editor claims will "shock those who will want to be shocked." And, no doubt, there will be plenty.

However, those champions of 'freedom of expression' don't seem to be too worried about being the next targets of Muslim rage; after all, Charlie Hebdo survived a firebombing of its offices last November over the "Charia Hebdo" edition. If you recall, that was the one "guest edited" by the "Prophet Mohammed", and captioned with "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter."  Well, we all know there is no humor in Islam, or at least its adherents are sorely lacking.

Naturally, everyone is panicking in that country- considering the amount of disenfranchised, unemployed Muslim youth just waiting for an excuse to rampage.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, issued a statement expressing his "disapproval of all excesses."

The magazine's editor, originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb, denied he was being deliberately provocative at a delicate time.

"The freedom of the press, is that a provocation?" he said. "I'm not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn't go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe."

Muslim leaders have also piped in, not that anything they might say will change the minds of those hell bent on revenge.

Dalil Boubakeur, the senior cleric at Paris's biggest mosque, appealed for France's four million Muslims to remain calm.

"It is with astonishment, sadness and concern that I have learned that this publication is risking increasing the current outrage across the Muslim world," he said.

"I would appeal to them not to pour oil on the fire."

France's Muslim Council, the community's main representative body, also appealed for calm in the face of "this new act of Islamaphobia."

Muslim leaders need to control their wayward followers, and not simply try to appease them.

In the meantime, I'll be waiting for the news about the angry mobs taking to the streets in France.

UPDATE 9/19/12:  Here is one of the cartoons published on the front of Charlie Hebdo.

The cover of Charlie Hebdo (seen above) shows a Muslim in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title Intouchables 2, referring to an award-winning French film about a impoverished black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic. Another cartoon on the back page of the weekly magazine shows a naked Mohammed exposing his backside to a film director.

Asked if it was a provocation, Editor Stephane Charbonnier said:

“The freedom of the press, is that a provocation? I’m not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn’t go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe.”

Many people do. But as Charbonnier says, if you are offended by something just turn your head. No-one is forcing you to watch or read something you might find offensive.