Questions about the Murder of Agnès Marin

The length of this post may put you off. Read it or skip it as you choose. I will leave it on the home page for a while then move it to another section of the blog.

The essential responsibilities behind the murder of Agnès Marin remain a mystery. Even the event itself has not been adequately explained in such a way that we know where everybody in the school was at the time of the murder. And we certainly don't know the identity of the killer, even though he has, presumably, confessed. If you follow the comment section under my post on Agnès, you will find some crucial questions raised by Lawrence Auster. Similar questions have also been raised by several readers at Le Figaro's post on the interview with "Paul", a student whose identity remains protected. For in fact, if you re-read this interview and then compare it with the video where a black student in a baseball cap relates his version, there is a major discrepancy: How could "Mathieu" have been part of the search party, as the black student asserts, and at the same time have emerged, alone, from the woods with scratches on his face? Where was "Mathieu" when they heard the screams? Obviously he was killing Agnès. Then he could not have been with the others searching for her.

There is another discrepancy I noticed when I first did the post, but at the time I preferred not to speculate, since I assumed (wrongly) that much more information would be forthcoming: Paul states that the search party went into the woods as far as they could go but they could not reach the area that screams and burnt odors seemed to be emanating from. He says that parts of the woods were inaccessible. Then HOW DID THE KILLER GET THERE?

I remember trying to speculate on these incoherencies: the killer did the deed, then joined the search party, then wandered off again, then re-emerged, and that's when they saw the scratches. As for the inaccessibility, perhaps the killer knew a way into the deep woods and led his victim there easily because he had better knowledge of the site, having worked out a plan.

But why speculate when you have so little information? Leave the speculation to the investigators. I have no new facts about this case. The one blogger I know of who has done some serious thinking about the murder is Robert Pioche, whom I quoted in my post. He has subsequently written more articles on the story, notably an article on the sexual goings-on in the school - kisses, frequent overt fondling in the hallways. His readers pick up on this, and one insists that kids today are much better-behaved on the whole than we are led to believe by all the sex talk. Another reader strongly takes issue with this sympathetic view and depicts the world of teens in school as sexually loose, if not worse. (I think they both make valid points.)

Regarding blogger Robert Pioche himself, he is what we would call a "liberal". Politically he has expressed his great admiration for François Mitterand and his late wife Danièle who died a few days ago at age 87. He does not believe there is any harm in teens kissing and fondling freely, and he holds "Mathieu" responsible only for his two crimes - one rape and one rape + murder + burning, not for his behavior outside of these two events. This is the point of view of the surgeon who wants to cut out the tumor, without any interest in how the tumor got there. Seeking underlying causes is not the surgeon's job. Pioche, while denouncing (to his credit) the psychiatrists, has no patience with those who want to restore the death penalty and the now-defunct "moral order". He has his own ideas on how to dissuade youngsters from violence, a topic I must leave for some other time.

His essential fears are that people will start clamoring for vengeance (i.e., the death penalty) and for a moral order (i.e., Christianity). These are the fears of the vast majority of leftists, (or liberals, if you prefer that term), who regard any attempt to restore civilized values as extreme right-wing measures that will lead directly to concentration camps. But he adheres to a law of journalism as if it were a moral imperative:

"As a former reporter, I have also done my investigation. I have all the information desirable or needed. No small amount of the information currently online on this crime is in some cases either false, or fragmented.

I say, moreover, that there is still a delayed-action time bomb that will sooner or later be revealed.

But, insofar as I am concerned, I will NEVER publish on the Internet the slightest PERSONAL information relating to third-parties, when they are minors."

What, o what is the time bomb? What could it be, if not that the murderer is non-European, OR that someone in the school bears major responsibility for this crime, either through criminal negligence or through the application of some twisted ideology, OR that subsequent to the crime some politician masterminded an elaborate and incredible cover-up, destined inevitably to be exposed some day in court?

Pioche, guided by his contempt for a moral order, fears that some will vote for Le Pen or Sarkozy in order to ensure that there are no more rapes. First, does he not see an ideological gulf between Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy? Second, does he believe it's misguided to vote for someone who will attempt to stop crime? He declares that "nothing guarantees that there will be no rapes." Of course that's true. But does he not want a reduction in crime? Is he asserting that to stop crime by the usual police methods is useless because there will always be crime?

According to those against a moral code, dots cannot be connected between the lack of moral standards and the behavior of people living in a moral-free zone. There are no dots. Just individual acts. But didn't Albert Camus try to show in The Stranger, that this is not possible? Even the amoral killer, Meursault, suddenly realizes that Life had meaning.

The young human being needs a great deal of discipline. A child may grow up in a chaotic situation and become a moral being only if he perceives, along the way, an obvious difference between good and evil, right and wrong. But if this distinction is deliberately blurred by adults engaged in the act of PREVENTING the young from becoming moral beings, then the child will grow up confused at best, psychopathic at worst, and definitely NOT a loyal citizen or a responsible adult.

Can the West live without the Christian moral standards that informed our conduct and our values for two thousand years? Can these values be separated from religion and recast into a non-religious formulation? In other words, Christianity without God?

Above, a magnificent painting called Redemption by the late Sergei Chepik, a Franco-Russian painter I have recently discovered thanks to the Blog of Bernard Antony. Born in 1953, Chepik died on November 18, 2011.

Below, a scene of the popular teen ritual known as hugging, taken at the funeral of Agnès Marin on Saturday, November 26, her 14th birthday.

Placing mounds of flowers, marching in silence, hugging and looking all bewildered, not understanding how such a thing could have happened because it makes "no sense", these and other gestures constitute the 21st century's replacement for grief. Grief implies feelings so deep no ritualistic hug or drippy Facebook message can allay it. It implies a sufficiently realistic view of the world that does not require lugubrious marches in solidarity with the deceased, and that does not recoil from the truth of human behavior. Apparently, at the church service no mention was made of the killer. Not that he should be named or condemned at that moment. But it sounds as if Agnès could have died from any cause - a car accident, a sudden illness, a fall - instead of the deliberate premeditated act of a troubled young man raised in a promiscuous age by parents in tune with their times and eager to place him somewhere so they did not have to control him, and supervised by adults who will not, who cannot (without risking their jobs) object to the permissive standards in the schools.

Apparently Agnès' sister Alexandre did say that she wanted "justice to be done". Well, if it's anything like that trial in Avignon where psychiatrists convinced the kangaroo court that a gang of rapists was merely indulging in a rite of passage, justice in the 21st century sense of the word may very well be done. Then the crying and hugging will begin again, and they will all shake their heads in disbelief.

Prophetic Words?

On the same general theme as my previous post about the police report, here are excerpts from an article also posted at François Desouche, last May. It is taken from a Muslim website AJIB.fr. The author mocks the Bloc Identitaire that was protesting in the city of Lyon against the Islamization of French society and the expansion of the halal market, calling the demonstration a complete fiasco:

"... opposition to Islam is not new, (…) ever since the first verse was revealed to the prophet Mohamed, men and women have violently opposed the Koranic message. In vain. Islam continued to spread throughout the world.

"To fight against Islam is a little like wanting to put out the sun with a glass of water. It is both stupid and impossible. The reasons are diverse (…) From a demographic point of view, you don't have to be a sociologist or a demographer to realize that the growth rate of the Muslim population is greater than that of the non-Muslims. A recent study from the Pew Forum indicates that in 2030 Muslims will represent more than 10% of the French population.

Note: We can consider that a very conservative figure. They are more than 10% today.

Furthermore, taking all religions together, we are witnessing in France a return to the religious life. More and more of our compatriots, known as "ethnic Frenchmen" embrace Islam and choose to become Muslim. And those born Muslim are finding too a more assiduous practice of Islam.

Another aspect to consider is the economic and social rise of the Muslim community. Muslims today are present in all socio-professional categories. You have only to visit hospitals, computer and digital services, schools, large outlets… to realize that they are today indispensable and are part of French society.

In other words, what we suggest to all these people who have a problem with Muslims and their religion is to accept the fact that Islam has become a national religion and that Muslims are here and will stay in France. It would be more beneficial for them and for our country if they devoted their energies to doing good, helping the underprivileged, fighting against employment uncertainties, fighting for the preservation of the patrimony… rather than fighting against a religion that will not be extinguished, whatever they do.

Not accidentally Muslims moved in en masse to the West at the precise moment when our intelligence was decaying from the long-term effects of what was once quaintly called "counter culture", from the loss of interest on the part of jaded Westerners in their heritage, a heritage bequeathed to them by better men and for which they feel boredom at best, from the sloughing off of the few remaining remnants of the Christian moral code, and the ensuing pandemic sexual decadence, now considered the "norm."

Muslims have said they are here to correct our sins. It may be too late to stop them. One person, such as Marine Le Pen, or Geert Wilders, cannot do it alone. The people have to want to prevent catastrophe.

"Your Country Is Finished..."

François Desouche has posted a copy of a police report ("procès verbal) dated November 7, 2011 from the city of Mantes-la-Jolie. It isn't clear how the report became available to HostingPics where a readable version can be found, except that an anonymous policeman must have uploaded it.

The report first gives the names (which are blackened out) and functions of the officers in charge that afternoon:

We testify that a person dressed all in black, with her face covered, rang the intercom. That she was also wearing black gloves. That she was still covered when she came to the door to inform us that she had come for her daughter who had been arrested for shoplifting.

In order to verify that she was really the mother of the girl, we asked the woman to prove her identity. She then handed us a national ID with the name Nadia……….., born……….

We then took this person into an office separate from the public area and informed her of the law concerning the niqab.

This person immediately replied that she was in her rights under Koranic Law which is her only law.

We asked her then to show her face in order to verify that it was really the person pictured on the ID.

After several minutes, hesitatingly, she agreed to show us a little bit of her forehead and a bit of her chin.

We informed her that covering one's face in a public area was a second degree violation and that the facts would be filed in a police report.

The woman, without allowing us to continue, said that our country is finished and that soon the Muslims will be in power, that Frenchwomen are all whores dressed as they do. That no one , not even the judge will prevent her from dressing this way.

At that moment, the woman began speaking to us in Arabic and refused to speak any more French.

We wanted to inform her of the reason for her daughter's arrest, namely, shoplifting an item worth 100 euros from a cosmetics counter, but she refused to sign the accusation against her daughter, a minor.

The woman then became hysterical and vociferated in the police station saying that we French will not be around much longer, that power will soon be in the hands of the Muslims.

The woman left the police station still vociferating at the admissions desk and swearing that Koranic Law would win.

She left the headquarters with her daughter, her face still covered.

I like comment #7 at François Desouche:

- She's nice. She gives us warning. Now, all we have to do is take a few preventive measures...

Pregnant Woman Killed

She was not only eight months pregnant, her boyfriend stuck her in the freezer! This macabre story is in Le Figaro:

The body of a pregnant woman was found yesterday in Villeneuve-le-Roi, Val-de-Marne, in the freezer of her apartment, after her boyfriend called the police to say he had killed her and to indicate where she was, according to a police source.

The man, 36, called the police to announce he had struck his wife (note: the text says "wife" but they don't seem to have been married) and killed her, adding that the body was in the freezer of their apartment. He also told the police that he had left France and was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On his information, the lifeless body of his companion, 25 and eight months pregnant, was found.

The couple's first child, 18 months, who was in the care of a neighbor, was placed in a foster home on a ruling by the court of Créteil.

An autopsy of the young woman's body will take place Saturday. The Créteil police are on the case.

Many of the readers' comments speak of a return to barbarity and of the possibility that the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not have extradition.

It sounds as if he knew exactly where to go to be protected. But what scruple caused him to inform the police?

There are more details at Le Parisien:

The man called not only the police but a cousin, to tell him what he had done. He prepared his escape. Earlier in the week he had turned his little boy over to a neighbor, saying he had to leave for Africa and his wife was in the hospital.

The neighbors describe them as a "quiet couple that hardly ever said hello." A police officer said that identifying him would be difficult because they don't even have proof he is in the Congo. He was apparently an illegal on French territory.

Below the Coat of Arms of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the words: Justice, Peace, Work.

No Risk

For Nicolas Sarkozy only French nationals should be allowed to vote in an election. And yet his Interior Minister Claude Guéant is all for the voting rights of foreigners. At least he claims that is his personal preference.

How will Sarkozy resolve the conflict between what he secretly wants (voting rights for foreigners) and what he is duty-bound to say, now that he is up against an ever-more popular Marine Le Pen?

Marine Le Pen tells us in a communiqué:

If Nicolas Sarkozy today regards the Socialist proposal to grant voting rights to foreigners as "risky", it is above all his own convictions that are risky. During the decade of the 90's he stood opposed to such an extension of voting rights, while in 2001 and 2005 he publicly supported the measure. And now, he has again rejected it. It's always by the barometer of electoral strategies that Sarkozy makes his determinations.

This latest swing, coming a few months from the presidential election, is obviously a campaign posture that will fool nobody. Worse, Nicolas Sarkozy made use of his speech to reveal his solution in a few words: if foreigners want to vote, they have only to become French!

And that is how, with one sentence, Sarkozy shows himself to be more liberal ("laxiste") even that the Left.

Marine Le Pen, candidate for the presidency, calls on the French people to discard together the UMP and the PS, both of whom conceal behind their rhetoric the same fondness for immigration. Nicolas Sarkozy has just confirmed today that he sees French nationality as a simple administrative formality.

Only Marine Le Pen thinks clearly: the right to vote must be reserved for the French people, and French nationality must become a source of pride once again, granted only exceptionally to foreigners when they demonstrate their love for France and their complete assimilation into our country.

Here is the complete sentence uttered by Sarkozy on Wednesday November 23, before an audience of 3000 mayors. From L'Express:

"If a person of foreign nationality who lives in our country, who respects our laws and our values, wants to participate in the political choices of our nation, then Ladies and Gentlemen, one path is open to him, this path is access to French nationality," he stressed to applause from a hall largely won over to his cause.

Below a poster from 2009 from the Comité Citoyen pour une Europe Solidaire (citizen's committee for European solidarity)

Petition Against the Right of Foreigners to Vote

There is a movement in France against the right of foreigners to vote, and a petition that can be signed until May 2012. This healthy and rational movement has spread to at least two of the political parties, the Droite Populaire, a satellite of the ruling UMP party, and the Front National.

The right of foreigners to vote is an initiative of the Socialist Party, but Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out of both sides of his mouth on this issue over the past several years. Currently, since he is running again for president, he claims to be against the foreign vote.

Catherine Blein is the spokesman for the collective Citoyens contre le droit de vote aux étrangers ("citizens against the right of foreigners to vote"). She outlines the reasons why French patriots should sign the petition posted at France-Petitions:

(…) To authorize foreigners to take part in elections by arguing that only local elections are involved is a trap in which the xenophile Left wants us to fall.

The Left knows that its electoral destiny plays out long term through the right of non-Europeans to vote. The Socialist Party wants to do the same thing that the Labor Party did in the United Kingdom: open wide the gates to Third World immigration in order to change permanently the electoral stakes in its favor.

Driven by self-hatred to tragic consequences for us all, the Left scorns the destruction of our identity that would result from the pursuit and exacerbation of population substitution.

Strengthened by its victory in the Senate, the Left feels it has a good chance to win in the presidential and legislative elections of 2012.

We must urgently mobilize to prevent the Left, with help from the Centrists, from massively legalizing undocumented aliens and pseudo-refugees. We must prevent the adoption of the right of foreigners to vote as a prelude to the great population replacement that the ideologues of the Socialist Party and their allies in SOS-Racism dream of: since the people no longer vote for the Left, change the people.

These are not words to be taken lightly. Martine Aubry declared publicly that it was a priority of the Socialist Party if the Left should regain power in 2012.

(…)

Note: A reminder that Martine Aubry is the pro-Islamist mayor of Lille, who lost the presidential nomination to François Hollande. No doubt her close and shady association with Dominique Strauss-Kahn did her no good.

If there are any French people who wish to sign the petition, click the link provided above.

Update: November 26 - A phrase that I used several times in the original version has been changed. This affects the title as well, but it will not change the perma-link. I had written "the right to vote for foreigners". This awkward and misleading phrase has been changed to "the right of foreigners to vote." Apologies for my clumsiness, but translating sometimes results in an inability on my part to think properly in English.

America Honors Le Puy du Fou

Those of you who have followed GalliaWatch for a while know that the department of la Vendée, in western France, is one of the very few areas of the country to remain strongly attached to its heritage and to the Church. La Vendée, formerly called Bas-Poitou was the scene of an extended conflict between revolutionaries and royalists from 1793 to 1795. The details of this conflict are massive and cannot be summarized here and French historians have been waging wars among themselves over the causes and the number of fatalities for decades. There is a Wikipedia page on the war.

In addition to the unique place held by la Vendée in French history, you may remember that the general councillor of the department was, until recently, Philippe de Villiers, who was also a presidential candidate in 2007. His platform was similar to that of Jean-Marie Le Pen who often accused him of plagiarizing, but his style was different, his patriotism unquestioned and his loyalty to the Church resolute. He lacked voters throughout the country, but he was popular at home in la Vendée.

His greatest accomplishment as general councillor of la Vendée was the construction of an historical theme park called le Puy du Fou, in the city of Les Épesses, that has become the most popular theme park in France after Disneyland, Paris. It is this theme park that has been awarded the Thea Classic Award from the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association). The park is divided into two independent attractions: Le Grand Parc and a nighttime spectacular called Cinéscénie. An English-language article posted at Lighting and Sound America provides more information.

Nouvelles de France has the story in French, as well as some ungracious comments from an anti-American reader:

Le Puy du Fou received the prize for the best "classic theme park" (Thea Classic Award) from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) during the annual meeting that took place from November 14 to 18 in Orlando, Florida. It's the first time that a French park has received this award. It's creator, Philippe de Villiers praised the "worldwide recognition" and "the crowning achievement of a wonderful enterprise." "The full-time employees of Puy du Fou (110 persons) all drank to it." He explained to the local paper Ouest France that this was "the Oscar of Oscars", "the ultimate star for a restaurant". The prize will be awarded officially to the Puy du Fou team on March 17, 2012 in Los Angeles.

Le Puy du Fou beat its own record during the 2011 season with more than 1,495,000 visitors, of whom 370,000 visited the Cinéscénie, which celebrated this year its 10 millionth spectator.

As I said, one reader was not impressed. Calling himself "Français de race" (racially French) he complains, and others reply:

- You certainly aren't going to feel pride in receiving a Yankee award!

- Why not? Just as we would be happy if it were Belgian, Russian or Chinese…

- Because they are not of the French race. They cannot judge the quality of our cultural sites. They don't have it in their blood. Philippe de Villiers should have only disdain for this vile flattery.

- On the contrary, they don't have our history, our traditions, and they feel the lack. They look with envy and admiration at what too many among us scorn and forget…

- Well, I find that it looks like a vassal going to be dubbed by his suzerain. It's humiliating.

- Français de race, are you a little left-wing provocateur who has come to make remarks that could discredit the blog, even bring about a lawsuit?

Or are you simply convinced of what you say? I have my own thoughts on this, but I'll let you answer. In all honesty, of course!

- Really? Because everybody finds that going to be dubbed in the USA is normal, I'm the one who discredits! How can the culturally analphabetic discern points to anyone? This is a servile masquerade that Villiers got himself into.

Thanks for calling me a leftist. I always enjoy that…

- Analphabetic? And the percentage of Nobel prizes? The reputation of their universities?

Note: The cracks made by "Français de race" sound phony to me, for many reasons. Disguised as a patriot, he implies that Villiers is a chump, but it sounds more as if he hates Villiers for his success. This would seem to imply he is a leftist. Or is he playing a game? Who knows?

The image below shows the recreation at Puy du Fou of the circus games performed by the Gauls for the Roman governor:

In the 3rd century A.D., there was increasing discontent among the Gallic people toward their Roman occupiers. In the magnificent Gallo-Roman Stadium, the atmosphere is charged; the Gauls are enraged as they face the governor on his raised platform, and altercations ensue as the crowd is moved to one side. Booing and jeering of the governor increase as he overlooks the sentencing of several prisoners in the center of the arena. To be spared the death penalty, they must win the circus games that are about to begin, while the governor does everything he can to make sure they do not. Without the support of the stadium spectators, the prisoners cannot win. A succession of gladiator fights, wildcat wrestling, chariot races, and exotic animal parades commence. The Romans and Gauls each try to win the favor of the stadium spectators.

From the IAAPA website.

The Great American Songbook

The radio has been playing a lot of good songs this Thanksgiving Day. If a country can be judged by its popular culture, we must have been very good indeed at one time. The songs that poured out of America in the 20th century were heard and sung all over the world. And what a stellium of great composers we had, some of them born here, others born in Europe and Russia. Hollywood was flooded with Jewish immigrants during and after WWII - classically trained musicians, prodigiously gifted tune-smiths. And Jazz that began as scandalous music was worked on tirelessly by men of supreme talent, white and black, elevating Jazz and creating a sound uniquely American that is today called "classic". I can't resist posting three songs. If you're "in the mood", as Duke Ellington wrote, listen in. If not, I won't be angry.

Here's Patsy Cline in a fine rendition of Irving Berlin's Always. Patsy was killed in a plane crash in 1963. This is not her original version but a dubbed version over orchestra, made in 1980. I could not find the original.



Another gorgeous version is from Ella Fitzgerald.

Having posted a marvelous religious hymn played by Jan Garbarek on the sax, I now turn to another great saxophonist, Stanley Turrentine, playing Someone to Watch Over Me by one of America's greatest - George Gershwin.



I couldn't resist a sentimental clip from a 1951 movie called Two Tickets to Broadway with Tony Martin and Janet Leigh, one of my childhood heroines. Here they sing Rodgers and Hart's Manhattan, with a little soft-shoe thrown in for good measure. Tony Martin is the widower of the incomparable dancer Cyd Charisse, who died at age 86, a few years ago. I believe he is still alive. While I'm thinking about it, another Tony - Tony Bennett - reached the top of the charts recently at age 85, the oldest singer ever to achieve such a feat. He's one of our greats and I hope he lives forever.



If you like this wildly popular song, but prefer a more dazzling performance, listen to Dinah Washington. It's fabulous.

Thanksgiving Already

Enjoy the feast and be thankful things aren't worse.

O Salutaris Hostia by Jan Garbarek

A while back when we were talking about Norway, a reader sent me a link to videos featuring Jan Garbarek, a Norwegian-born saxophonist, Polish through his father. The above video is his rendition of a fifteenth century work by Pierre de la Rue (1415-1518): O salutaris hostia, O saving host.

In memory of Agnès Marin, who died so brutally, terrifyingly, at the hands of the psychopathic killer with whom she had gone walking, and who had in his possession the necessary tools with which to kill her, including the gasoline he poured on her dead body, before setting her on fire. And for all those victims throughout the Western world who are being sacrificed on the altar of hollow, yet murderous, ideologies, against which there is not yet a meaningful or effective insurrection by the European and American peoples.

(Latin text)
O salutaris hostia
quae caeli pandis ostium,
bella premunt hostilia:
da robur, fer auxilium
Uni trinoque Domino
sit sempiterna gloria,
qui vitam sine termino
nobis donet in patria.

(English translation)
O saving victim
who open the gate of heaven,
hostile wars press on us:
give strength, bring aid.
To the Lord, three in one,
be everlasting glory,
for life without end
he gives us in (his) Kingdom.

According to Wikipedia, in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, a middle stanza is inserted, localizing the text:

O vere digna Hostia,
Spes unica fidelium:
In te confidit Francia;
Da pacem, serva lilium.

O truly worthy Victim,
Only hope of the faithful :
France trusts in You;
Give peace, conserve the lily.

The Latin word "hostia" translates sometimes as "host", sometimes as "victim".

Below, a view of Clermont-Ferrand, central France, not very far from the Cévenol boarding school where Agnès was killed.

The Murder of Agnès Marin

Browsing through the numerous articles on the brutal murder of Agnès Marin, I found much useless talk from government officials on how "we must understand what went wrong" and on how "thorny the problem of recidivism is", etc… etc… The pretense of bewilderment is their default reaction, when in fact they should be perplexed that such horrors don't happen more often.

Rapes are very common in Europe, as you all know. I have received numerous comments in recent months from Norwegians about Oslo being the rape capital of Europe.

Many girls are raped, often gang-raped, in France, and the crime is not reported. If it is reported and the case goes to trial you are apt to find a corrupt justice system, as was the case last summer in Avignon when psychiatrists testified that a gang of Muslim rapists had been merely performing a rite of passage. (Review my post)

Regarding the latest rape and murder to shatter the complacency of the authorities, the big question is not "Why?" We know why it happened. He was known to the police and he had raped previously. Le Figaro has an article in which a person the paper designates as "Alain Diaz" claims that his niece had been raped in 2010 by the same person who killed Agnès. The girl pleaded for her life and he decided, for whatever reason, not to kill her. More verification of this first rape is needed, but Agnès' killer did spend some time in jail for a 2010 rape, and was released with the assurance from psychiatrists that he was not dangerous. He has still NOT stood trial for this first rape.

The big question is "Who is he?" Is he ethnic French or non-European? We don't know yet. He has been given various names by the media: Mathieu, Matthieu and Martin. He is from a well-to-do family, his father is a professor, his mother an accountant. He has a history of drug abuse and according to "Alain Diaz" in the Figaro article cited above, his father allowed him to watch porn movies. The school (grades 7 through 12) he attended - Cévenol Internat - is an international boarding school of Protestant denomination, in a rural area, and is racially mixed (or as they say, "cosmopolitan"). Many of the students are from wealthy or prominent families.

This was certainly an easily predictable crime. All the elements of a lax justice system, preposterously liberal parents, and psychiatrists in need of psychiatrists converged to permit this horrible deed, where a very young girl was raped and murdered, and her charred body left in the woods near the school. Another glaring injustice was that the school administrators, though aware of the killer's past encounters with the law, did not know precisely what he had done! If this is true, my opinion is that they should have forced the issue in order to find out what the previous crimes were, even if the "system" did not allow such sharing of vital information. The school principal said that it was Mathieu's father who informed them that he had been in trouble before.

However, it is possible that the school DID KNOW that his previous crimes were of a sexual nature. A blogger named Robert Pioche writes:

Jean-Yves Coquillat, the State prosecutor from Clermont-Ferrand has a different version:

"The school admitted the minor in full cognizance after several other establishments had refused him. There are letters in the file that attest to this. It was the boy's father who, during his temporary incarceration in August and September 2010, searched for a boarding school willing to take him."

The obscure point being, at bottom, that in this type of case it is the family - and not the State - that has to find a boarding school…

Agnès' family declared that the administration of the school was "au courant" that Martin "had had problems involving sexual assaults" and that it had considered "kicking him out."

Note that here the killer is called "Martin".

Le Figaro published this interview with "Paul", a school friend of Agnès. Paul begins by explaining that "Mathieu" had inquired about the price of a canister of gas. His friends thought he wanted to fill his cigarette lighter.

- No one suspected Mathieu?

- No, he was quite cultivated and rather nice-looking. Enrolled in 12th grade he was a computer fanatic, good at hacking. To cover up his trail he invented a life and lied to us constantly. He said he was 19 and he never spoke about his past. He only said that he had had problems with drugs.

Paul says they first knew something was wrong last Wednesday when Agnès did not return to class, nor did she go to dinner. They began to be afraid and searched the surrounding area, then entered the woods.

- Then what?

- About forty students, volunteers of all ages searched the woods that extends for 18 hectares. Some areas are hard to get into. At nightfall we clearly heard two loud cries, like screams. We tried to go in their direction but we couldn't get into that area. No one could go any further. Then we smelled an odor of something burning. We thought it was a fire, but some of us began to panic. Around 8:00 p.m. we stopped.

- So you returned to the school?

- Yes. That's when the students caught sight of Mathieu emerging from the woods. He was alone and his face was covered by a scarf. Only later did we see the scratches on his cheek. Without a word, he took a shower for one hour. He was sweating and did not look us in the eye. He explained the scratches by saying he had fallen first into a pond, then in the school, then in the bushes. That's when we were 100% sure he was linked to Agnès' disappearance. We told the education counselor of our doubts and he told us to call the gendarmes. Mathieu was immediately implicated, but we didn't know what the charge was…

- You still don't know anything about Agnès' tragic end?

- We learned about her death Friday evening. Everyone was seated around the television when a school official interrupted the program because he "had something to tell us", then said that a "body had been found". Even if her name was not uttered everyone knew it was our Agnès. For several hours, teachers, administrators, guards and pupils all wept. Now, we all want to know why, and especially how, a potential assassin was allowed among us.

At the end of this interview is a BFMTV video that lasts a little over sixty seconds. We see the prosecutor and the police, then a young black male student speaks about how Mathieu had participated in the search for Agnès, knowing he had killed her. He comments on the cold-bloodedness of Mathieu who went with the others to look for her. The narrator says that the other students thought of him as rather solitary, fond of video games and the guitar. Then the black student returns and says that the killer did not seem to be the type to look for trouble. He lived in his own "bubble". Next, a youth who appears to be North African, with Western-style facial piercings repeats what the other student had said. Then there's a shot of a young white man at the window of the school. At first I thought it was "Mathieu", but that would not be possible since he had been taken into custody. The narrator talks about his previous convictions, and the court's ruling that he be monitored, a ruling that he complied with. The experts found him to be "re-insertable" (i.e. capable of rejoining society), and not dangerous.


Agnès : portrait du meurtrier présumé by BFMTV

Here are Marine Le Pen's comments:

"We are rotted by this ideology of constantly excusing crime. The constant intervention by psychiatrists is the proof: they regard criminals as being sick. It's the psychiatrists who should be locked up (along with the ideologists of the culture of excuse). For five years we have watched recidivists repeat their crimes. Before 2007 and the arrival of Nicolas Sarkozy to power, we had never seen a recidivist repeat his crime."

Elsewhere Marine Le Pen has voiced her intention to restore the death penalty if elected, and if the people agree:

"I think that those who kill our children must risk their lives. It is an essential topic that the French people must decide on." She said that she would "organize a referendum so the people can choose between the death penalty and life in prison."

Her remarks have triggered a lot of commentary at the message boards where many readers cite the case of the governor of Oregon who, having condoned capital punishment, has now gone back on his decision. My impression is that many French people are afraid of the death penalty because of the risk of judicial error, others think it's an abomination even if there is no error, and others want it restored.

Below, a view of the Cévenol boarding school.

13-Year-Old Girl Raped and Murdered

I've been out all day, so of course there is a big story. A horror story of a rape and a murder. This time a 13-year-old girl was the victim. Lawrence Auster sent me the following link. Read it if you have not already done so. I will try to have more soon.

Where To Run To?

While some Kosovo Serbs are regarding Russia as the new El Dorado, and many Flemish are more than willing to split from Belgium to re-join The Netherlands, there are conservatives in America who are pondering the necessity of secession, with its dangers and its inevitable logistical complexities. The topic of secession has been discussed before at Lawrence Auster's VFR, and that article was then discussed at The Brussels Journal by Norwegian blogger Fjordman.

In France, Jean Raspail famously described the subsistence of "isolates", surviving cells of the old culture:

All the same let us not despair. Without doubt, there will remain what is called in ethnology some isolates, powerful minorities, perhaps about 15 million French - and not necessarily all of the white race - who will still speak our language more or less unbroken and will insist on remaining impregnated with our culture and our history such as was transmitted to us from generation to generation. It will not be easy for them.

Now, Thomas Bertonneau has revived the discussion in a new, beautifully written piece posted at VFR. Those who feel that the values of the West are doomed unless we can separate ourselves from the liberal-Socialist-Islamic complex, may find much food for thought in these articles. Included in the idea of secession are the possibilities of Balkanization, "inner emigration", and a gradual reconquest of the country over a long period of time. This reconquest would be possible simply because Good must triumph over Evil in the end.

One of my readers sent this succinct comment on a similar theme:

The vision has been to kill off European nations into a common sovereign block.

Honestly, modern European nations have lost any modicum of respect for their old cultures and traditions, regional identities are breaking up old nations, Muslims and Africans are everywhere.

I think we have more important things to fight for than pre-1914 nationalism. It's dead, and it was never very old. Let us fight for European Christian culture and let nations die.

In other words, keep Christianity alive as much as possible, even if it has to be done clandestinely. With time, it will grow. Let the nations die because, for all intents and purposes, they are already dead.

Below a wood cut with a quote from Zephaniah, 2:14, predicting the end of the great city of Nineveh. The quote continues in 2:15 (KJV):

This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.

Running Again

What will be Nicolas Sarkozy's trump card for winning the 2012 election? What topic will he decide to make the focal point of his campaign? There is speculation that it may be gay marriage. I was surprised to read this since I thought he had already come out in favor of this assault on traditional marriage, but I was confusing this issue with gay adoption, something he has condoned. (Note: How can you condone gay adoption and not, implicitly, condone gay marriage at the same time?) Here is an article from Atlantico.

"There are not many social issues on which Nicolas Sarkozy will be able to move forward significantly during the campaign. He won't budge on the legalization of marijuana, or on the right of foreigners to vote, or on gay adoption. The only gimmick he's thinking about is gay marriage." An off-the-record confidential disclosure from a cadre of the UMP party. He goes on: "David Cameron surprised everyone in Great Britain on this issue."

And in fact, during the recent convention of his party in Manchester, the British Prime Minister revealed he was "in the process of consulting for the purpose of legalizing gay marriage." And he justified this shift in policy thus: "To those who express reservations, I say this: yes, it is about equality, but it is also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the links that unite us (…) I support gay marriage because I am a conservative."

Cameron has a sense of contrariness. For while opponents of gay marriage present themselves as defenders of traditional values, he turns the argument on its head, and implies that, at bottom, it is better to have a family, even gay, than no family at all.

Note: This is similar to the argument put forth by some priests that any religion, even Islam, is better than no religion at all.

Could it be that the probable candidate of the ruling party in France, inspired by this initiative, will introduce factors into his platform that tend toward greater recognition of a homosexual couple?

Note: Does anyone know of any gesture on Sarkozy's part that indicates hostility towards gay marriage? Has he ever said he's against it? It seems to me that long ago he said that he was personally against it, but he knew that many were favorable, and he was the president of all the people, not just a few, implying he would do what the "people" wanted. The Socialist people, that is…

Marine Le Pen has always taken an opposing stand. Let's hope she sticks to it.

Remember that during the 2007 campaign, side by side with the Sarkozy who hoped to create a ministry of immigration and national identity and who said he would clean up the ghettos with a power hose, we cold distinguish the profile of another Sarkozy: the apostle of affirmative action who abolished the "double sentence", as he himself used to enjoy pointing out.

Note" The "double sentence" refers to the two penalties that were given to a foreign criminal: time spent in a French prison and deportation.

If he seems to be intent upon leading a very right-wing oriented campaign for the first round, in order to stymie the Front National, Nicolas Sarkozy knows too that he conquered through transgression and through his ability to take his adversary by surprise. Even though he seeks a second term, the president will have to appear like a new man, promising a rupture with the rupture. And after all, wasn't gay marriage legalized in 2005 in Spain where the weight of religion is certainly more important than in France?

Note: The "rupture with the rupture" is a reference to Sarkozy's promise in 2007 to bring about a rupture with the past. Now he will have to bring about another rupture.

We can assume that all of Sarkozy's ruptures are identical: "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

The article is spot on in its description of Sarkozy's campaign strategy. Before the first round, he is suddenly cloaked in the banners of traditionalism, a patriot who loves France and her great heritage, who wants nothing more than to protect her from criminals and terrorists. Having survived the first round he then adopts the left-wing agenda, in this case gay marriage. It worked before, it may work again.

Some readers at Le Salon Beige commented on this article:

- I think that what happened in 1981 will happen again in 2012. Giscard, the "right-wing" president lost the election because the voters on the right didn't want him anymore. Today, I would greatly prefer a Hollande victory over Sarkozy, with all due respect to certain professional journalists who say "anything but the Left." For as my father used to say: "It is better to have a real Socialist in front of you than a disguised Socialist."

- Please, I hope he goes through with it, and we will find ourselves with 25/25/30 result before the second round. I don't like Marine and the compromises her father made with Chirac (see below), but at least we'll be rid of this gang of clowns that have been living off the fat of the land for so long!!! When you realize that an election such as the last one is won or lost by 100,000 votes, if only those who abstain (and they are not from the Left, according to reports) would vote one little time, just once!

Note: By 25/25/30 he is indicating that he hopes for a three-way battle in the second-round. However, this is unlikely. And how do the election rules deal with such a situation?

Note: The reader demonstrated what he meant by "compromises her father made with Chirac" with a quote from Jean-Marie Le Pen:

"As soon as I go up in the polls, I'll send you one of my stupid comments and you can keep the tax collector at a distance."

I have no idea where the reader got this particular quote, but it fits in completely with what I have heard about Jean-Marie Le Pen, namely, that all those provocative cracks, all those offensive anti-Semitic, pro-Islam, anti-this, anti-that comments from Le Pen were calculated and orchestrated to coincide with an election, in order to see to it that so-and-so, in this case Chirac, won and the Left lost. Jean-Marie Le Pen actually sacrificed the Front National and its members, many of whom worked diligently for him and hoped for change through the electoral system. But he never had any intention of winning. He just wanted a big tax break and a sinecure as the voice of the opposition. So in a very real way he is a major Establishment player.

He not only betrayed his party, he gave a bad name to the principles of tradition, sovereignty, and patriotism, since these notions have now become indissolubly linked to the "extreme-right" and the "fascistic" Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The photo is from October 2011 and shows Sarkozy jogging through the woods at Versailles.

Serbs Look To Russia

A reader sent this link a few days ago about Kosovo Serbs seeking refuge in Russia. Why not? They cannot come to America. We are the ones that deprived them of their homeland. Whether they will find peace in Russia, no one can say, but their desires are understandable, if not well-founded. Here are a few excerpts:

"More than a thousands Serbs have been killed since the arrival of peacemaking forces, even though we stay under the protection of those forces. We are completely rightless, we are on the brink of extinction. The parties that support the recognition of Kosovo's independence now appear even in Serbia. That's why we created the list of those who want to obtain Russian citizenship. We delivered the list to the first secretary of the Russian embassy. We have not received the answer yet, though. We see Russia as our only protection and savior," Zlatibor Djordjevic, a spokesman for the Old Serbia movement said. (…)

Assistant Minister for Kosovo Kruna Kaličanin, described a terrifying picture of the genocide of the Kosovo Serbs.

"For twelve years, the international community has been trying to silence everything that has been happening. They are trying to underestimate the number of Serbian victims of violence in Kosovo. The authorities of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo take no steps to defend the Serbs that live there," Kalicanin said. (…)

Read more:

The Carlton Affair

The French press has been printing volumes on the elaborate prostitution ring involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and other high-profile figures. In the space of seven months DSK has gone from political super-star to immoral cad to bottom-of-the-barrel scumbag. Now it seems that even his long-suffering wife Anne Sinclair has had enough and is contemplating divorce, except for her fear of causing him a nervous breakdown. A reader sent this English-language article from the Telegraph for your perusal.

Checking the French sites, I find the headlines read "The word divorce is no longer taboo", "Revelations on the hidden face of DSK", and "The frightful double life of DSK". I also find that the Strauss-Kahns are preparing lawsuits against certain media for violation of privacy.

In this embarrassment of riches, it was difficult to choose an article, so I went back to English Google and found one that conveniently lists the names of the leading players in this marathon tale of smokey brothels and dens of iniquity. One is Jean-Christophe Lagarde, the police commissioner for the department of the Nord, which includes the city of Lille:

An ambitious senior civil servant, Lagarde believed that “by cultivating a close relationship with DSK he would have an important role in a future Socialist administration,” according to one unnamed source quoted in the French daily newspaper Libération.

Lagarde is accused of having booked rooms at the Carlton Hotel in Lille with “extras” (prostitutes) thrown in, according to the newspaper.

He is also accused of attending a night out in Paris in the spring of 2010, with a prostitute, in the company of Strauss-Kahn. Lagarde also accompanied Roquet and Paszkowski on trips to New York in the company of the “secretaries”.

Lagarde, who was detained by police last Thursday for questioning, denies any wrongdoing.

Then we have René Kojfer, the public relations manager of the Carlton Hotel in Lille:

Head of public relations at the Carlton Hotel in Lille, 69-year-old Rene Kojfer is also under investigation for "aggravated pimping".

Investigators believe that Kojfer supplied the prostitutes through a Belgian contact, Dominique Alderweireld, the owner of massage parlours and hostess bars.

Kojfer was arrested on the basis of hours of tapped telephone calls with Alderweireld.

Another key figure is the Belgian pimp - Dominique Alderweireld, a.k.a. Dodo la Saumure:

Alderweireld owns massage parlours in Belgium, near the French border and the city of Lille.

He was arrested in early October in Belgium for prostitution offenses.

French Prosecutors are investigating whether Alderweireld supplied the prostitutes that attended the "special evenings" in Paris, and even in Washington.

The background of these adult games is long and complex and reads like an X-rated film noir where ambitions, perversions, money-laundering, delusions of grandeur, greed, and manipulation of the authority converge on an international scale. Le Figaro has a series of articles on the Carlton Hotel scandal, one of which is entitled "The Underside of the Carlton Hotel Affair". Here are just the opening paragraphs, which should be enough to give you an idea of the prevailing tone:

There was talk about call-girls, orgies, and juicy details. Then they discovered that this incredible "palace scandal" that is sullying the dignitaries of Lille, the police and also… DSK, masked an international network of prostitution, drug trafficking and trafficking of all sorts. It was an instructive investigation.

"I too had problems with DSK. My girls had come for that… and still he managed to corner one in the washroom." Dodo la Saumure, pimp by profession, was not talking about Sofitel in New York with Nafissatous Diallo, but L'Aventure in Paris with his "companion" Béa. According to the king of Belgian brothels, Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been rough with her in the marbled basement of the restaurant. Rough with this heady blond who didn't like it. Pinch yourself…

According to our information, the pimp Dodo la Saumure blackmailed the prostitutes. He took photos of them and threatened to send copies to their families or to the welfare office if they tried to get out of the prostitution business.

Let's go back to May 17, 2011, to the Smoke Havanas, a bar for meeting girls in Tournai, near the Franco-Belgian border In the middle of the afternoon, the bar was deserted. But it was in this dark atmosphere that Dominique Alderweireld, known as Dodo la Saumure, wanted to be seen. Sprawled out on a faux leather sofa, served by Pat, a blond worn out by thirty years of street-walking, the pimp was master of his realm. Amidst acrid cigar smoke, before a bottle of champagne, the decor was established: Dodo and his friends reenacted The Godfather, with a lot less class. Three days previously, the head of the IMF had gotten caught with his pants down at the Sofitel in New York. The 62-year-old pimp wanted to show that he "knew" that powerful men were among his clients. What he did not know, however, was that at the precise moment when he was tasting victory, at the moment when he swore that he had "cops and judges in his pocket", and waved about a copy of a court ruling exonerating him, he was already watched by the police. And so was his friend René Kojfer, the public relations man at the Carlton Hotel, sitting in front of him. This grandfather perfumed with eau de Cologne, a charmer when he wanted to be, did not realize that at the moment when he called "a policeman who owed him a favor", he was being bugged. It was already a fait accompli. In barely five months, the accomplices who chuckled in the light of a faceted crystal pendant would be caught in an immense Franco-Belgian dragnet.

Below, Dodo la Saumure (real name Dominique Alderweireld) with his cigar.


The affair might have gone unnoticed if the pimp and his accomplice had been willing to "fall" alone. But this was not the case. The Dodo-Kojfer duo carried with it in its fall eleven other persons. Among them dignitaries, a lawyer, police, business leaders, managers at the Carlton… Le Tout-Lille seemed to have gone wild in orgies and call-girls. Their playgrounds? Luxury hotels in Lille, Paris and Washington.

In October, the party's over: twelve persons were investigated in France and Belgium, and the name of DSK was again was badly damaged. But we have gone too far. The truculent affair that had caused all of the high society of Lille to tremble began far from the cameras, miles away from the palaces, among Dodo la Saumure's sordid conspirators. At the heart of the "Carlton Affair" was an international prostitution network that grew larger as time the years passed, a network sustained by a forty-year-old trans-border friendship. (…)


The story goes on for many pages. The friendship in question is that between Dodo la Saumure and René Kojfer. Dodo began life as a Frenchman, but moved his business across the border to Belgium. A prostitute named Béatrice Legrain, known as Béa, became his companion, and was presumably molested by DSK as described above. Béa, who was known to be "borderline psychopathic", was multi-lingual and aided in the proliferation of the business in foreign countries, including Spain, Morocco and Eastern Europe. The business may have included child prostitution, as Kojfer was said to prefer little girls, as well as weapons trafficking. It is possible, though not certain, that cocaine traffic was also one of Dodo's activities, and that the drug was transported by his right-hand man Jean-Jacques Martin, nicknamed The Assassin.

The photo above shows Béa, seated, with a woman who is obviously one of her employees.

Thanks to a mysterious French informer, Dodo, Béa, and The Assassin are now behind bars. René Kojfer is under investigation in France. DSK is soon to be interrogated, and he is suing Le Figaro.

The above is only a sample of the great amount of information available in French on this scandal. I cannot say that this affair is a sign of the times, because this sort of activity is not new. It truly is the oldest established... And when we factor in the political situation in Lille, where the mayor has worked hard to Islamize the city, and Brussels, the center of the loathsome European Union, and Washington where the President of the United States is aiding in the establishment of sharia law in many parts of the world; when we consider the rampant crime throughout Europe and the sexual depths to which people are sinking, then we can regard the Carlton Affair as almost quaintly old-fashioned. After all, there were right-minded people within the police department who tracked down the culprits after an informer who still had a sense of moral right and wrong spilled the beans. And some of the curs are actually behind bars! But we cannot put behind bars our progressive pedagogues who teach our children the joys of homosexual sex, or the imperative to mix races, or the right of women to do with their bodies anything they please, or the evils of colonialism, or the evils of nationalism, etc...