Otto Warmbier, American Student Held Captive in North Korea for 17 months, Has Died (VIDEO)

SOME THING MUST BE DONE TO MAKE NORTH KOREA PAY FOR THIS MURDER …

As reported at ABC News, Otto Warmbier, the 22 year old American student who was imprisoned in North Korea for more than 17 months and was just returned home to Ohio last week, has died. Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate student, returned to the U.S. in a comatose state after North Korea released him for medical reasons last Tuesday. It is obvious that Warmbier died from his treatment that he received at the hands of North Korea, not the so-called botulism claimed by North Korea. Otto Warmbier’s doctors at University of Cincinnati Medical Center said last week that he had extensive brain damage dating back longer than a year. The Warmbiers thanked those who assisted in their son’s care back home in Cincinnati, Ohio, and condemned the North Korean regime.

VIDEO – NBC News

“It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home,” his family said in part in a statement. “Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20 p.m.”

Doctors from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said last week that Warmbier, 22, was suffering from injuries related to cardiopulmonary arrest and was in a state of unresponsive wakefulness. Scans showed extensive loss in all regions of Warmbier’s brain, doctors said.

Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was medically evacuated from North Korea and flown to Cincinnati late last Tuesday. He was then transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

On Monday, the family paid tribute to Warmbier in their emotional statement.

“It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost — future time that won’t be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds,” the family’s statement continues. “But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person. You can tell from the outpouring of emotion from the communities that he touched — Wyoming, Ohio, and the University of Virginia to name just two — that the love for Otto went well beyond his immediate family.”

The statement also thanked “the wonderful professionals at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center who did everything they could for Otto.”

“When Otto returned to Cincinnati late on June 13th he was unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands. He looked very uncomfortable — almost anguished. Although we would never hear his voice again, within a day the countenance of his face changed — he was at peace. He was home and we believe he could sense that.”

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Passing of Otto Warmbier:

Melania and I offer our deepest condolences to the family of Otto Warmbier on his untimely passing.  There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto’s family and friends, and all who loved him.

Otto’s fate deepens my Administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency.  The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.

UPDATE I: Tour group says no more Americans to North Korea after Warmbier’s death.

Really, this tour group is finally figuring this out now? The unlawful and ridiculous imprisonment of an American college student was not enough? The basic holding of a student as a hostage was not enough? It actually took the systematic torture and beating of an American college student resulting in his death to do it? UNREAL.

The travel company that took University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier to North Korea said Monday that it is wrangling with the 22-year-old’s death and will no longer take Americans to North Korea.

For years, Young Pioneer Tours has happily boasted: “We provide budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from.” On Monday, after Warmbier’s family announced he’d died that afternoon at a Cincinnati hospital, the message that the China-based tour company sent via e-mail to USA TODAY wore a darker and more anguished tone.

25th Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall … Nov. 9, 1989

It is hard to believe it has been 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall …

Nov. 9, 1989, 25 years later and it seems like yesterday I can remember watching the news of the German people hammering, chiseling and tearing down the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the freedom of the East German people and the defeat of Communism. Thousands of East Berliners poured into West Berlin and freedom.  It was a moment in history that you remember where you were when you saw the images of the fall of Communism and the rise of freedom. It is a forever remembered moment in history for the world, not just Germany. The people celebrated in the streets, as Germans shed their hammers and sickles for hammers and chisels and brought the wall down forever.

White balloons spanning a stretch of the former death strip floated over hundreds of thousands of revelers in the German capital on Sunday, culminating a day of celebrations to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

More than 300,000 people gathered in Berlin to watch a light installation of 8,000 helium balloons tracing a nine-mile stretch be released into the night sky, police said. The illuminated balloons snaked past historic locations such as Checkpoint Charlie as part of a celebration that included music and fireworks at the city’s Brandenburg Gate—a location once circumvented by the wall.

Speaking earlier in the day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the fall of the Berlin Wall proof that dreams could come true during a ceremony to mark the event’s 25th anniversary. She added that its collapse offered hope to regions where “freedom and human rights are threatened or even trampled on.”

For days, celebrations throughout Germany have been commemorating the opening of the East German border on Nov. 9, 1989. The breaching of the border heralded the collapse of the Communist system and led to German reunification less than a year later.

The Iconic Photo of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

National Geographic on the Berlin Wall, pretty good documentary.

The Guardian: A city undivided: the fall of the Berlin Wall commemorated 25 years on.

This year’s commemoration of the fall of the Iron Curtain may also feel more poignant because there is a palpable sense that peace in Europe in 2014 is more fragile than it was at the 20th anniversary in 2009.

In her speech at the wall memorial on Bernauer Strasse on Saturday afternoon, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, had explicitly emphasized the geopolitical resonances of the event, instead of indulging in personal reminiscences.

“We have the strength to shape things, to turn things from bad to good, that is the message of the fall of the wall,” she said. “These days, that message is directed at Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and many, many other regions in the world.”

Let us never forget what real leadership looks like. Where US President Ronald Wilson Reagan not only went to Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987 and gave his famous speech when he uttered those famous words  that would eventually come true … “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall,” but also helped bring about the fall of Communism. Wow, imagine that, a president with a spine and resolve to effectuate real change that brought liberty to millions, not one apologizing for America’s actions. A president that looked to unify people, not divide them. A president that looked to end Communism, not partake in it. God bless Ronald Reagan. These days we can only say, what a novel concept.

President Ronald Reagan – Speech at the Brandenburg Gate – West Berlin, Germany – June 12, 1987:

Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city.

We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it’s our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. But I must confess, we’re drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.” But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind–too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Boko Haram Claims Responsibility For Kidnapping More Than 200 Missing Nigerian Girls … Islamist Militant Terrorist Leader Says … “I Will Sell Them … Allah Says I Should Sell”

THE REAL WAR ON WOMEN …

Abubakar Shekau,  man claiming to be the Boko Haram leader has claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian girls. In a video tape the Muslim Islamist militant leader said, “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell.” Over 200 girls were abducted on April 14, 2014 when a school in north-east Nigeria was attacked by members of the Islamist group Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” in Chibok.

And of course Islam is a religion of peace.

About 230 girls are still believed to be missing, prompting widespread criticism of the Nigerian government.

The Boko Haram insurgency has left thousands dead since 2009.

The girls were taken from their boarding school in Chibok, in the northern state of Borno, on the night of 14 April.

CNN:

“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained by Agence France-Presse.

“There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women,” he continued, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language.

Boko Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to U.S. officials. Its name means “Western education is sin.” In his nearly hour long, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end.

Democrats would tell you that the GOP is conducting a war on women. Sorry, but you trivialize the actual war on woman and their exploitation that is taking place in the world no different than Democrats fauz cries of racism just because someone may disagree with Obama’s policies. As Legal Insurrection states, take a real good look at the real war on women courtesy of Islamists.

Daily Commentary – Friday, February 21, 2014 – Kim Jong-un Forces Women to Drown Their Babies, Have Abortions

• More human rights abuses in Korea according to a United Nations report

Daily Commentary – Friday, February 21, 2014 Download

Former NBA Player Dennis Rodman Says,Obama and Kim Jong Un Could Bond If They Shoot Hoops … Also, ‘Won’t Apologize’ For ‘My Friend’ Kim Jong Un’s Murderous Regime: ‘We Do The Same Thing Here’

MY FRIEND FLICKA KIM JUNG UN …

File this one under why you don’t let idiots go to an oppressive Communist country and become “useful idiots” for propaganda.  Some called it ”BASKETBALL DIPLOMACY”, personally I call it IDOCY and more Dennis Rodman attention seeking behavior. What a joke. Is this what we have come to in the United States in allowing a fool like Dennis ‘The Worm” Rodman to act as an ad hoc diplomat?  Then again, John Kerry is now in charge of the State Department, I guess anything is possible.

Why would anyone take this clown seriously?

Former NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman and attention seeking whore who thrives on the outrageous recently visited North Korea and spent time palling around with communist dictator Kim Jong Un. However, after returning to the US, Rodman told reporters that Barack Obama and Kim Jong Un could bond if they shot hoops. Wow, who knew that North Korea would stop threating to nuke America and killing their own people if Kim Jong Un and Obama played a game of HORSE or played some one on one? WTF!!! Rodman stated in his interview on ABC’s ‘This Week’, that Kim Jong Un wanted Obama to call him. I almost have to ask why the media even interviewed Rodman and gave anything he does credibility. Rodman is a fool, an attention seeking fool. Nothing more. Either Rodman is ignorant to the fact of what actually goes on in North Korea, or he does not care. North Koreans are being unjustly imprisoned and they are being starved to death and we have a bridal dress wearing Dennis Rodman allowed to go there and act like this brutal leader is like everyone else. Unreal. Just curious, why did State Department allow this A$$ clown to go there?

DENNIS RODMAN, otherwise known as a “USEFUL IDIOT”.

During the interview with George Stephanopoulos on ‘This Week,’ Rodman kept referring to Kim Jong Un as his friend and a good guy. When pressed about the prison camps, the lack of human rights and the murderous North Korean regimes, Rodman made excuses and said that “we do the same thing here”. REALLY? As reported at Mediaite, Dennis Rodman ‘Won’t Apologize’ For ‘My Friend’ Kim Jong Un’s Murderous Regime: ‘We Do The Same Thing Here’.

Check out Rodman’s comments below that the US has death camps and that the North Korean dictator is his friend. Some how an ignorant Rodman is able to over look the killing and starving of people because the dude is his friend. Newsflasf to Dennis, the North Korean people do not respect Kim Jong Un, they fear him.  If they showed the slighted bit of opposition, they would be imprisoned or killed.

Rodman downplayed his trip that some are calling “basketball diplomacy” saying that he is not a diplomat while brushing aside allegations about North Korean death camps by saying “we do the same thing here.”

“I don’t condone that. I hate the fact that he’s doing that. I didn’t talk about that. I saw people respected him, his family. He’s only 28. He’s not his dad. He’s not his grandpa. He is 28 years old. He’s very humble. He’s a very humble man. He don’t want war, that’s one thing he don’t want. He loves power. He loves control, because of his father, you know, stuff like that. But he’s just…he’s a great guy. He’s just a great guy. You sit down and talk to him,” said Rodman.

When Stephanopoulos went after Rodman on not talking about North Korean death camps he said, “We do the same things here.”

A dumbfounded Stephanopoulos replied, “We have prison camps here in the United States?”

“This is all politics right? He don’t want to do that,” said Rodman.

“It sounds like you’re apologizing for him?” said Stephanopoulos.

“No, I’m not apologizing for him. He was a great guy to me. He was my friend. I don’t condone what he does. But as a person to person, he’s my friend. What I did was history. He’s a friend to me. That’s about it,” said Rodman.