News Feed 20101118

Financial Crisis
» Brussels, UK Readying ‘Oliver Cromwell Package’ For Ireland
» Eurozone Let Them Go Bust
» ‘Germany Has a Vital Interest in Ensuring Irish Solvency’
» Ireland: Was it for This?
 
USA
» Airport Staff Warned They Face Prosecution if They Touch Passengers ‘Inappropriately’ As Backlash Over Pat-Down Security Checks Grows
» Barack Obama Under Pressure Over 9/11 Terror Trials
» Barack Obama ‘Determined to Close Guantánamo’
» Body Scanners Have ‘Mutagenic Effects’
» Essential U.S. Spy Satellite Launching Friday
» Expert: TSA Scans Would Let Al-Qaida Duplicate 9/11
» Napolitano Considering Allowing Muslim Women to Pat Themselves Down at Airports!
» Officials: Deerpark Middle School Bomb Threat Suspect a Juvenile Overseas
» Rattner is Sued by Cuomo, Settles With S.E.C.
» Soros Group Says Obama Can Use Armed Forces to Push “Progressive” Agenda
» USA/UK: Why Republicans and Tories No Longer See Eye-to-Eye
 
Europe and the EU
» Anti-Terror Police Probe Explosion Near Loch Lomond
» Churches Lose Their Vicars as Anglicans “Jump Ship” For Rome, Warns Rowan Williams
» Eastern Germany Confronts Skilled Labor Shortage
» EU Criticises New Immigration Regulations
» Germany Tells Al-Qaida ‘You Have No Chance!’
» Icelandic Minister Criticises ‘Kafka-esque’ EU Talks
» In Swedish Schools, Kids Can Listen to iPods and Use Mobiles in Class. And Anyone Who Protests is a ‘Nazi’
» Italy: Berlusconi Adds New Penis to Ancient Statue
» NATO Must Continue Operations ‘Beyond Our Borders’
» Secret Documents Group Was Like ‘Bad Le Carre Novel, ‘ MEP Says
» Suspected Bomb With Running Clock Found in Luggage on Air Berlin Flight From Namibia to Germany
» Sweden: Gothenburg Terror Trial Comes to a Close
» UK: Bomb in a Forest: Loch Lomond Blast is Linked to Al Qaeda
» UK: Cop Guard for Poppy Burner
» UK: Hague is No Longer the Right’s Standard Bearer [£]
» UK: Hague: Britain to Remain Closest US Ally
» UK: Hague Presses Clinton to Release Guantanamo Inmate
» UK: Police Arrest ‘Husband and Father-in-Law After Asian Woman is Found Stabbed to Death Following Family Row’
» UK: Schoolboy Who Received Death Threats From Muslim Gang After Supporting British Troops ‘Will Not Return to School’
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Increasing Tension Between Muslims and Copts. Burned Houses, Battle Over Church
» Elections: Egypt ‘Outraged’ By US ‘Interference’
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Hebrew-Language Message Threatens Continued Fire Into Israel
 
Middle East
» Baghdad Church Attack Victims to be Honoured in St Peters’ Mass
» Iraq: Archbishop of Mosul Warns of Change in Strategy in Attacks on Christians
» Iraq: President Talabani Refuses to Sign Tariq Aziz Execution Order
» Iraq: President Talabani Has No Objection to Form Christian Province
 
Russia
» Ex-KGB Soldier Named as Double Agent Who Exposed Anna Chapman Spy Ring
» Fears of a Muslim Russia
 
Caucasus
» Dagestan’s Deadly Islamic Insurgency
 
South Asia
» Afghan Christian to Go to Trial on Sunday for His Faith
» Man Accused of Blasphemy Killed in Pakistan
» Pope Appeals for “Full Freedom for Asia Bibi”
» Pope Benedict XVI Calls for Release of Christian Sentenced to Hang in Pakistan
» Turkmenistan: Appeal Denied for Ilmurad Nurliev, Pentecostal Pastor Convicted by False Evidence
 
Far East
» China Denies ‘Hijacking’ Internet Traffic
 
Australia — Pacific
» Prove it Was Me in the Burqa, Says Accused Woman
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» South Africa: Murdered Tourist Looking for ‘Real Africa’
 
Immigration
» By 2066, White Britons ‘Will be Outnumbered’ If Immigration Continues at Current Rates
» Far-Right Fringe Exploits European Coalitions
» Spain Outrage Over Migrant Bombing Game
» Stop Being So Generous to Migrants: French Plea to Britain After Dunkirk Suburb is Over-Run
» UK: Darwen Dad Told His Opinion Doesn’t Count at Asylum Seeker Hearing
» UK: Government’s Own Immigration Watchdog Says Numbers Must be Cut by a Quarter
» UK: More Than 100 Failed Asylum Seekers Have Gone Missing in Six Months After Being Ordered to Leave the Country
 
General
» Breakthrough: Mysterious Antimatter Created and Captured

Financial Crisis


Brussels, UK Readying ‘Oliver Cromwell Package’ For Ireland

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Senior Irish politicians and officials conceded on Thursday (18 November) that Dublin is in talks over a massive EU-IMF rescue that will likely also involve some UK involvement, a bail-out one European official darkly dubbed the “Oliver Cromwell Package.”

As negotiators from the EU-ECB-IMF troika arrived in Dublin on Thursday to oversee the crafting of Ireland’s 2011 and four-year austerity budgets, Irish Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said that he expects the government will take out a “very substantial loan” from the EU and IMF to fix its finances.

“It’s my expectation that [a multi-billion-euro loan] is what is definitely likely to happen. That’s why the large technical teams are sitting down discussing these matters,” he told Ireland’s public broadcaster, RTE.

“I think this is the way forward. Market conditions have not allowed us to go ahead without seeking the support of our international collaborators.”

“It will be a large loan because the purpose of the amount to be advanced, or to be made available, is to show Ireland has sufficient firepower to deal with any concerns of the market,” he added. “We’re talking about a substantial loan.”

Subsequently on Thursday, finance minister Brian Lenihan told the Dail, the Irish parliament, that the government will apply for a bail-out once talks with the troika team have concluded.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the bail-out could reach up to €100 billion, although Mr Lenihan said that any sums may not necessarily be immediately paid out but could be part of a facility that would be made available “but not drawn down,” similar to how a €110 billion bail-out operates for Greece.

Bail-out details trickling out

Meanwhile, more details about the outlines of a package are trickling out, along with the tasks being undertaken by the troika inspectors who arrived in Dublin on Thursday.

According to a commission source, who jokingly called a potential bail-out the “Oliver Cromwell Package,” after the Lord Protector of England who lead the reconquest of Ireland in 1649, two thirds of the monies contained in any eventual package would come from the EU and a third from the IMF.

“The [troika] team right now is there to make an assessment of how much money will be needed for the banks,” said the official. “At a later stage comes the conditionality, and the ‘last mile’ is always taken at a political level, not by the experts. It’s the member states that will have to decide.”

The stiff conditions attached to any rescue will be based around details of the four-year budget plan.

“This is a really massive amount of work that needs to be done,” continued the official. “A one-year budget is already an enormous amount of work, but we’re talking about a four-year budget outline that is dealing with a two-digit deficit and that needs to be sufficiently detailed to convince markets.”

The inspectors will also be parsing budget projections to ensure that any unwarranted optimism about economic growth is excised and prevent a fudging of the numbers.

However, despite the fine tooth-comb the inspectors are taking to Dublin’s spreadsheets, according to the official, reports suggesting that Ireland’s 2011 budget and four-year budget “are being written by the commission and the IMF are a bit exaggerated.”

Hiking taxes on low-income earners

A raising of the corporation tax however appears to be moving to the background, allowing Dublin to claim that it has won some concessions from the troika.

Irish government sources close to the discussions on what sort of conditionality could be imposed on the provision of funds say that there are in any case many other ways the state can broaden its tax base, notably an increase in property taxes and water rates. The government has already signalled that such moves are likely and have been suggested by a number of economic think-tanks.

In particular, there is also considerable room to manoeuvre in hiking taxes on low-income earners at the bottom of the tax pyramid. Ireland has a very high threshold before individuals begin to pay income tax, with almost half of all income earners paying nothing at all.

‘Britain ready to support Ireland’

The UK is also looking to participate in the bail-out, although whether this will be via a eurozone mechanism or direct bilateral loans remains unclear.

French finance minister Christine Lagarde told France Inter radio on Thursday said that the UK may do son on a bilateral basis.

On Wednesday, UK chancellor George Osborne met with his Irish counterpart and later said: “Britain stands ready to support Ireland.”

“I won’t speculate on what kind of assistance we might provide. There are options, and we are looking at all of those.”

“But remember, the Irish have not requested assistance and these are precautionary discussions,” he added.

The UK is more exposed in Ireland than any other EU state. A commission official told this website: “If Ireland does undergo a financial collapse, there is real exposure in the UK beyond the figures, assets — there would be a chain of events that would have serious implications.”

According to an analysis of data from the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements by UBS, UK banks’ claims in the country amount to $195 billion, equalling more than half of all Europe’s exposure in Ireland. German and French combined claims amount to just €50 billion.

With a number of prime UK banks nationalised, any fall-out from Ireland that leads to uncertainty in British financial institutions could ultimately require a cash injection from Her Majesty’s Treasury — essentially the same situation Ireland is in at the moment, at a time when London has announced its own swingeing cuts to public services.

A UBS analyst, Geoffrey Yu, recently wrote of the fears stalking Westminster: “The UK’s financial supervision authorities will … probably need to run a new round of stress tests to simulate the cost of serious problems in Ireland and associated contagion. It is probable that these costs will dwarf the cost of a UK financial contribution to a bail-out scheme by far.”

Already some Tory eurosceptics are demanding that the UK remain aloof from what they see as purely a eurozone crisis.

While the Irish foreign office is denying that any co-ordination between London and Dublin is occurring, and the UK Treasury “will not comment any private discussions that may or may not be ongoing between governments,” other sources report that a “very tightly restricted” conversation is indeed taking place between the two capitals over the issue.

200-year Irish struggle

Across the Irish Sea, citizens are awakening to the scale of the potential loss of sovereignty. A major demonstration in Dublin against the EU-ECB-IMF troika and the government has been called by trade unions and left-wing groups for Saturday 27 November, and early reports from organisers suggests the march could be the biggest yet seen since the advent of the crisis.

Even the legendarily sober Irish Times on Thursday published a blistering editorial pillorying the government.

“Having obtained our political independence from Britain to be the masters of our own affairs, we have now surrendered our sovereignty to the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund,” the editors of the paper wrote.

“Irish history makes the loss of that sense of choice all the more shameful,” the editorial continued. “The desire to be a sovereign people runs like a seam through all the struggles of the last 200 years. ‘Self-determination’ is a phrase that echoes from the United Irishmen to the Belfast Agreement.”

“To drag this state down from those heights and make it again subject to the decisions of others is an achievement that will not soon be forgiven.”

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



Eurozone Let Them Go Bust

Greece is building new mountains of debt. Ireland is expecting to go to the wall. Europe’s taxpayers fear they’ll have to club together again for another bailout. Things can’t go on like this, fumes Der Standard. Investors have got to pay their fair share of state and bank bailouts.

András Szigetvari

Josef Pröll is a good actor. On Tuesday the finance minister put on quite a one-man show playing the stern creditor upbraiding his debtors. Greece has fallen behind on the retrenchment schedule that was hammered out with the EU and the International Monetary Fund: Athens is running up more debts than allowed under the terms of the bailout deal.

Pröll threatened to withhold the next aid instalment for Greece. That’s what creditors generally do in normal cases, whether they’re dealing with states or banks. They badger and browbeat, though at the end of the day they usually extend the deadline: better a battered debtor than a dead one.

Irish bonds on a par with Pakistan and Venezuela

Unfortunately, however, the debt crisis in the eurozone is no longer a normal case, as Pröll knows all too well. Based on the latest updates to his deficit figures, Greek debt now comes to nearly 130% of its GDP. By 2015 Greece will have to repay debts of €140 billion, plus €90 billion in interest. And all that against the backdrop of a shrinking economy. One needn’t be a prophet to predict that this probably won’t work.

And this isn’t the only looming bankruptcy on the eurozone’s horizon. Ireland is also teetering on the brink. In the wake of its bank bailouts, the country’s debt ratio is due to soar to 150% of GDP by 2016. The markets are rating Irish bonds on a par with those of Pakistan and Venezuela. Irish economists are reckoning with default, with or without a bailout. Under these premises, policymakers can’t do much for now but buy time, so Pröll’s act is not unreasonable.

Liquidation for states

But the eurozone had better brace itself for the next wave of bankruptcies. And that means roping creditors in to share the cost of bankruptcies. Now that sounds simple, but it would mean breaking with current practice. First the banks were going under, till the taxpayers fished them out. Then the states got into hot water. And once again the taxpayers — from other countries —had to leap to their rescue.

That has got to stop. The G20 are already trying to come up with a workable model for international bank liquidation. The same is needed for states. In regular bankruptcy proceedings in a market economy, some of the debts simply get written off. Those who invest unwisely may lose their money, that’s the way it is.

We will probably never see some of our money again

Ironically enough, it was the Irish who most vehemently opposed Germany’s pitch for a law to cover state bankruptcies. In all likelihood, Ireland would have been among the main beneficiaries of such a scheme. But the very debate drove Irish interest charges up and knocked the nation further off-balance. And yet, much as we empathise, when should the matter be debated if not now? The debt crisis is going to last. How do we know the market won’t panic exactly the same way two years from now? It’s a shame Berlin backpedalled and is now saying creditors won’t be tapped in state defaults till some time in the distant future.

Well, that’s not enough. The charade can’t go on forever. Moreover, politicians will at some point have to begin admitting that we, too, as Greece’s creditors, will probably never see some of our money again. That’s a bitter pill, but nothing compared to what lies ahead for the Irish and the Greeks.

Translated from the German by Eric Rosencrantz

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



‘Germany Has a Vital Interest in Ensuring Irish Solvency’

First the Greeks, now the Irish. A second euro-zone country looks likely to need an EU bailout. Leading German economist Peter Bofinger says the crisis in Ireland is “very dangerous” for Germany. And he has deep concerns about the euro.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Bofinger, is the euro foundering?

Peter Bofinger: I have deep concerns. If the currency union is to have a future, then above all the strong member states have to do everything so that the weaker ones can succeed in reducing their debts. Countries like Ireland and Greece will have to cope with enormously difficult adjustments over the coming months and years.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How bad are things in Ireland? As bad as in Greece earlier in the year?

Bofinger: The situation in Ireland is very different from that in Greece. The Irish state does not have to take on any new debts until the middle of 2011. There is, therefore, far less of a danger of a state insolvency. However, Irish companies and banks are very highly indebted to foreign banks — three times more than the Greeks.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: According to Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, German banks are Ireland’s biggest creditors, to the tune of €166 billion ($226 billion), and that includes hundreds of short-term loans to Irish banks. How dangerous is the Irish crisis for Germany?

Bofinger: The situation is very dangerous. The German government has a vital interest in ensuring the solvency of the Irish state and its banks.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is to enter talks about a possible European Union bank rescue package. Should Germany now save the Irish banks too?

Bofinger: The rescue of Irish banks would also mean the rescue of German financial institutions. The arrears that Irish debtors owe to foreign banks amount to around 320 percent of Ireland’s gross domestic product. One has to ask oneself if the Irish state would ever be in a position to meet such huge commitments.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ireland has ruled out direct aid to the state — despite the massive public deficit of over 30 percent for 2010. Is this sensible?

Bofinger: I can understand their position. The EU rescue fund is conceived in such a way that it has a certain punitive character, in particular via higher interest rates than the normal rates states with a higher degree of creditworthiness face. And in addition, the government would be subject to very strict supervision by the International Monetary Fund.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The German government would like to see punitive interest rates linked with any EU aid payments — a sort of disciplinary method to force indebted states to save. What do you make of that suggestion?

Bofinger: I think that is a dangerous fallacy. Euro-zone countries apply for help when they have extreme financial difficulties. It is certainly not helpful to then accentuate these difficulties by adding on further interest. It is also better for Germany when problem countries succeed in paying off their debts at relatively favorable interest rates, rather than pushing them into insolvency by adding a punitive surcharge of 3 percent.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Irish are furious with the Germans. They blame the German government for causing the interest rates on state bonds to soar, because of Berlin’s demand that investors also incur losses in the case of a state insolvency. Do we really share some of the blame for the Irish debacle?

Bofinger: Well, let’s put it this way: If a grandmother is lying in hospital and her family is already looking for a headstone — does that create trust?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: No, of course not. However, the German position is justified, is it not? At the moment speculators are profiting when their investments pay off, while the taxpayers are taking on the risks. That cannot continue.

Bofinger: I’m not saying that the idea of creditors sharing in the risk is fundamentally wrong. However, at the moment the most important thing is to calm the markets. And to scare them with vague suggestions for a long-term crisis mechanism is unwise.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You and your colleagues on the German Council of Economic Experts, which advises the government on policy, have had a similar debate. And you have also suggested that investors share in the risks.

Bofinger: We at least presented an overall plan, one that would combine the Stability and Growth Pact with a lasting crisis mechanism. It envisages a differentiated procedure in the case of a crisis. A restructuring of debt to include private creditor participation would only occur in euro-zone member states which have already been sanctioned for breaching the Stability Pact. Countries that have stuck to the pact should continue to receive unrestricted support through the crisis mechanism — with favorable interest rates…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Ireland: Was it for This?

IT MAY seem strange to some that The Irish Times would ask whether this is what the men of 1916 died for: a bailout from the German chancellor with a few shillings of sympathy from the British chancellor on the side. There is the shame of it all. Having obtained our political independence from Britain to be the masters of our own affairs, we have now surrendered our sovereignty to the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Their representatives ride into Merrion Street today.

Fianna Fáil has sometimes served Ireland very well, sometimes very badly. Even in its worst times, however, it retained some respect for its underlying commitment that the Irish should control their own destinies. It lists among its primary aims the commitment “to maintain the status of Ireland as a sovereign State”. Its founder, Eamon de Valera, in his inaugural address to his new party in 1926, spoke of “the inalienability of national sovereignty” as being fundamental to its beliefs. The Republican Party’s ideals are in tatters now.

The Irish people do not need to be told that, especially for small nations, there is no such thing as absolute sovereignty. We know very well that we have made our independence more meaningful by sharing it with our European neighbours. We are not naive enough to think that this State ever can, or ever could, take large decisions in isolation from the rest of the world. What we do expect, however, is that those decisions will still be our own. A nation’s independence is defined by the choices it can make for itself.

Irish history makes the loss of that sense of choice all the more shameful. The desire to be a sovereign people runs like a seam through all the struggles of the last 200 years. “Self-determination” is a phrase that echoes from the United Irishmen to the Belfast Agreement. It continues to have a genuine resonance for most Irish people today.

The true ignominy of our current situation is not that our sovereignty has been taken away from us, it is that we ourselves have squandered it. Let us not seek to assuage our sense of shame in the comforting illusion that powerful nations in Europe are conspiring to become our masters. We are, after all, no great prize for any would-be overlord now. No rational European would willingly take on the task of cleaning up the mess we have made. It is the incompetence of the governments we ourselves elected that has so deeply compromised our capacity to make our own decisions.

They did so, let us recall, from a period when Irish sovereignty had never been stronger. Our national debt was negligible. The mass emigration that had mocked our claims to be a people in control of our own destiny was reversed. A genuine act of national self-determination had occurred in 1998 when both parts of the island voted to accept the Belfast Agreement. The sense of failure and inferiority had been banished, we thought, for good.

To drag this State down from those heights and make it again subject to the decisions of others is an achievement that will not soon be forgiven. It must mark, surely, the ignominious end of a failed administration.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

USA


Airport Staff Warned They Face Prosecution if They Touch Passengers ‘Inappropriately’ As Backlash Over Pat-Down Security Checks Grows

Airport staff were warned today they face prosecution if they touch passengers ‘inappropriately’ as the national outcry over ‘pat-down’ security checks gathered momentum.

The move by the California District Attorney represents the first sign of authorities taking a tough stand against the controversial new security checks.

With millions of Americans preparing to travel for Thanksgiving, experts today warned the measures could trigger a deluge of lawsuits from angry passengers.

Yesterday the man in charge of the new security measures faced a grilling in Congress, with one Republican senator telling him: ‘I wouldn’t want my wife touched like that.’

Incoming San Mateo County DA Steve Wagstaffe said any complaints would land on his desk and staff could be charged with sexual battery.

He told ABC: ‘The case would be reviewed and if we could prove the elements of it, that it was inappropriately done with a sexual or lewd intent, that person would be prosecuted.’

He said that if the contact was skin-to-skin, it would be counted as a felony, while if it was done over clothing it would be a misdemeanour.

If convicted of a misdemeanour, screeners would face up to one year in jail, while offences involving skin-to-skin contact could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Barack Obama Under Pressure Over 9/11 Terror Trials

Leading Republicans have demanded that Barack Obama scrap plans to try the organisers of the 9/11 attacks in civilian courts after a New York jury acquitted an alleged terrorist of more than 200 murder charges over al-Qaida’s bombing of US embassies in east Africa.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani’s conviction on the sole charge of conspiracy to destroy government property in the 1998 bombings has reignited the bitter debate about Obama’s plan to move the alleged 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and other Guantánamo detainees to the US and try them in civilian courts.

Ghailani was acquitted on 284 other charges, mostly murder and conspiracy, over the deaths of 213 people, including 12 Americans, in the attacks on the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. He faces imprisonment for 20 years to life.

Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate leader, said the verdict was “all the proof we need that the administration’s approach to prosecuting terrorists has been deeply misguided and indeed potentially harmful as a matter of national security”.

“Most Americans wondered why we would even take the chance. And now they’re wondering when the administration will admit it was wrong and assure us just as confidently that terrorists will be tried from now on in the military commission system that was established for this very purpose at the secure facility at Guantánamo Bay, or detained indefinitely, if they cannot be tried without jeopardising national security.”

Obama has argued that the military commissions were damaging to the US because much of the world regarded them as unjust. The military tribunals were tainted by the mistreatment and torture of prisoners.

The justice department says federal civilian courts have convicted more than 400 people on terrorism-related charges since 9/11. Military commissions have secured convictions for just five.

Peter King, who is expected to become head of the homeland security committee in the new Congress in January, said he would use that position to hold hearings into what he has called the administration’s “insane” handling of terrorism trials. “This is a tragic wake-up call to the Obama administration to immediately abandon its ill-advised plan to try Guantánamo terrorists [in civilian courts],” he said. “We must treat them as wartime enemies and try them in military commissions at Guantánamo.”

King blamed Ghailani’s acquittal on all but one count on rules of evidence in civilian courts which forced the judge, Lewis Kaplan, to exclude a witness who the US authorities learned about from information obtained during CIA interrogation. Ghailani’s lawyers claim he was tortured.

The witness, Hussein Abebe, was to have testified that he sold Ghailani the explosives used to attack the US embassy in Dar es Salaam. The judge ruled the information had been improperly obtained.

“Once the judge excluded the testimony of a witness who would have connected Ghailani to these horrible acts, which would have brought about a conviction, it became very, very difficult to convict him. This is the real danger, the real insanity if you will, of bringing these cases in a civilian court,” said King. “If this had been in a military commission, that evidence would have been allowed and I’m confident that Ghailani would have been convicted.”

However, Kaplan in his ruling on the witness said that the testimony would also have been excluded by a military judge because of restrictions on the use of evidence obtained through coercion.

But today, the nuances of legal procedure were largely drowned under a barrage of attacks on the president over the case. Keep America Safe, a rightwing group run by Liz Cheney, the former vice-president’s daughter, and other hardline conservatives, called the decision to try Ghailani in a civilian court “irresponsible and reckless”.

“The Obama administration recklessly insisted on a civilian trial for Ahmed Ghailani, and rolled the dice in a time of war,” it said. “It’s dangerous. It signals weakness in a time of war.”

King said he doubts Mohammed will go on trial in New York in the near future. “I doubt if he’s going to be tried in the next several years. I think the president has boxed himself in to a corner and I think you’ll find Khalid Sheikh Mohammed kept in Guantánamo along with the other 9/11 defendants and he’ll be held indefinitely and sometime after 2012, depending on what happens in that election, then the president will decide,” he said. “If they have a trial in Guantánamo it’ll look like too much of a reversal for the president. I think they’re just going to put everything on ice and let him sit there for the next several years.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Barack Obama ‘Determined to Close Guantánamo’

“The president remains committed to closing Guantánamo Bay to ensure that it is no longer the recruiting poster that it is right now for al Qaeda,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a news briefing.

A civilian jury on Wednesday acquitted a man once held at Guantánamo of all but one charge related to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani still faces a minimum sentence of 20 years for conspiring in the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

Critics say the verdict raised questions over the administration’s ability to successfully prosecute remaining Guantánamo Bay terrorism suspects, and what that meant for the facility’s eventual closure.

Mr Obama has already failed to meet an election campaign pledge to shut it down in the first year of his presidency and transfer its inmates to prisons in the United States.

Republicans favour military trials for suspects.

Mr Gibbs said the future of these trials has yet to be determined, but the outcome of the prosecution of Ghailani would be among the factors taken into consideration.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Body Scanners Have ‘Mutagenic Effects’

A Californian university professor of biochemistry said the Obama administration’s claim that full-body scanners pose no health risks to air travellers is in “error”.

The administration’s defence of the controversial machines, which use x-rays to perform what critics have dubbed naked strip searches, has “many misconceptions, and we will write a careful answer pointing out their errors”, said John Sedat, a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Because four people are working on this, it will not be done in one day,” Sedat said.

The scanners are being mulled by Australian officials and safety assessments will be conducted by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.

Earlier this week, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy posted a statement saying the x-ray scans are safe because “the issue had been studied extensively for many years” by federal agencies.

That post was a response to a letter (PDF) that Sedat and three other faculty UCSF members sent to White House science advisor John Holdren in April.

Their letter to Holdren said “it appears that real independent safety data do not exist”. In addition, the authors say: “There has not been sufficient review of the intermediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure associated with airport scanners. There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations.”

Air travellers over 65 years old are especially susceptible to the “mutagenic effects of the x-rays”, they say, as are HIV and cancer patients, children and adolescents, pregnant women, and men (because the x-rays can penetrate skin and put the testicles “at risk for sperm mutagenesis”). Eyes could also be at risk because x-rays can penetrate the cornea.

For its part, the administration rejects any health concerns. A letter last month from the FDA and the Transportation Security Administration responding to the UCSF researchers’ concerns says “the potential health risks from a full-body screening with a general-use x-ray security system are minuscule.”

The x-ray scanners have been used for years, but were turned on this week and are being used as the primary screening technique.

Anyone hoping to opt-out in favour of a manual pat-down may not like what happens. The TSA quietly changed its procedures a few weeks ago to what it delicately calls “enhanced pat-downs”, which involve screeners using their fingers — instead of the backs of their hands — to feel the outlines of male or female genitalia.

[Return to headlines]



Essential U.S. Spy Satellite Launching Friday

One cannot overstate the importance of Friday night’s Delta 4-Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral to national security, a mission by the massive rocket that will deploy “the largest satellite in the world” to hear the whispers of evil.

“Always vigilant, the NRO’s eyes and ears give America’s policy markers, intelligence analysts, warfighters and homeland security specialists the critical information they need to keep America safe, secure and free,” the agency says. The clandestine payload going up this time, known only by its launch identification number of NROL-32, is widely believed to be an essential eavesdropping spacecraft that requires the powerful lift provided by the Delta 4-Heavy to reach its listening post. In an address to the Air Force Association conference in September, NRO Director Bruce Carlson, a retired Air Force general, said this rocket launch would carry “the largest satellite in the world on it.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Expert: TSA Scans Would Let Al-Qaida Duplicate 9/11

A terrorism expert says the invasive screening procedures demanded by the Obama-run Transportation Security Administration would do almost nothing to stop a determined terrorist because they already are experimenting with inserting explosives in a body cavity or even surgically implanting the destructive charges.

The comments come from Brigitte Gabriel, who is the founder of Act! For America, a 150,000-strong group that works to warn Americans against the dangers of militant Islam and the Muslims who follow it.

She also is a member of the board of advisers for the Intelligence Summit, and she lectures internationally on global terrorism.

Join more than 17,000 others in a petition demanding action against the intrusive airport screening procedures implemented by Janet Napolitano and send a letter to Congress, President Obama and others telling them exactly what you think about the issue.

The issue has hit a flashpoint in the last few days as newly installed TSA procedures demand that airline passengers submit to a full-body scanning machine that generates an essentially nude image of the passenger for TSA workers to see, or a full-body pat-down that includes what critics have called “groping” of private parts of the body.

“These procedures are not effective at all with terrorists,” Gabriel told WND in an interview today. “If a true terrorist wants to go blow up an airplane, these machines will not detect it.”

She said like drug dealers already have proven, substances hidden inside body cavities or even embedded surgically remain undetected by any or all of the TSA’s procedures.

“If al-Qaida is planning against the U.S. multiple attacks in a day, in multiple airplanes, it could duplicate 9/11,” she told WND. “Al-Qaida is testing inserting breast implants, stuffing breast implants with explosives.”

She said a woman then could go into an airplane restroom and use a syringe similar to those used by diabetic patients to trigger an explosion that would disintegrate a modern jet.

“This is what al-Qaida is resorting to, and they’re exploring surgery for men,” she warned. “They want to implant explosives inside the body.

“Terrorists are conditioned and trained to blow themselves up, to become suicide bombers,” she said. “They are ready to die to go to heaven to meet Allah.”

It was last February that the special intelligence report Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin documented the same circumstances Gabriel described.

At that time, it was revealed in the special report that intelligence agents for Britain’s MI5 service found that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals had returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Napolitano Considering Allowing Muslim Women to Pat Themselves Down at Airports!

With the holidays fast approaching, the Transportation Safety Agency has announced new security procedures requiring passengers selected for secondary screening to go through a machine that produces a full body scan producing a nude but grainy, black and white image. Passengers choosing to opt out of the scan will face a full body pat.

The head of Homeland Security has indicated the government is considering the request of an Islamic organization that has suggested Muslim women be allowed to pat themselves down during a full body search that is part of new enhanced procedures at airports.

Since implementing the procedures, numerous complaints have arisen that the search is not a “pat-down” but rather feeling and grabbing along a person’s genitalia and other areas until they meet resistance. Critics have said the pat-downs would be considered sexual assault if performed elsewhere.

The TSA defends the procedures as necessary in light of last years “underwear bomber” and the recent issues involving printer cartridges being used in an attempt to blow up cargo planes.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, has expressed concern with the TSA over the regulations and recommended special procedures for dealing with Muslim women. The organization issued a travel advisory for Muslims over the procedure.

In the advisory CAIR advises all Muslims to contact them and file a complaint with the TSA if they experience any “disturbing incidents” with the new procedures and they feel they have been unfairly singled out for screening.

It goes on to make special recommendations for Muslim women wearing a hijab covering their face. The advisory says women are to inform the officer they are only to pat down the head and neck and says “They should not subject you to a full-body or partial body pat-down.” They also recommend that women should be permitted to pat themselves down and “have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands.”

Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Czar, Janet Napolitano, is considering changes to the procedures to address the issues raised by CAIR.

Since announcing the rules, several organizations have expressed concern over the procedures. Pilots and flight crews have expressed concern about constant exposure to the low level radiation generated by the machine, but the government denies any danger from having the scan done. The U.S. Airline Pilots Association has issued instructions to members to call in sick and not board a flight if they are too upset to fly after a pat-down. The Allied Pilots Association has urged members to boycott the body imaging machines.

At least one website has recommended Americans boycott the body scans by recommending everyone chosen for additional screening on Nov. 24 to opt out of the body scans and choose the pat down. Some have expressed alarm over the recommendation saying it could slow down or halt the security process on the day before Thanksgiving.

New Jersey lawmakers have pending resolutions demanding Congress tell the TSA that people must not be forced to give up their fourth amendment rights when they choose to travel by airline.

A Reuters poll asking if individuals were less likely to fly as a result of the new procedures revealed 96 percent of respondents affirming they would make alternate travel plans to avoid intrusive security and pat-downs.

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said the regulations came straight from the President himself.

In a recent commentary Whitehead said “legislation has been proposed to mandate full-body scanners and make them the primary screening method in all U.S. airports by 2013, but Congress has yet to act on it. So we can thank Barack Obama for this frontal assault on our Fourth Amendment rights.” He went on to say “Yet in the wake of the bumbling underwear bomber’s botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound plane, Obama directed the Homeland Security Department to acquire $1 billion in advanced-technology equipment, including body scanners, for screening passengers at airports.”

The machines have been purchased from California based Rapiscan Systems. The company is a client of the Chertoff Group, a security consulting agency headed by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who has lobbied for the need for installing the machines in airports.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Officials: Deerpark Middle School Bomb Threat Suspect a Juvenile Overseas

A bomb threat that forced the evacuation of a Round Rock middle school this week has been traced back to a juvenile living in Saudi Arabia, according to the Williamson County sheriff’s office.

The juvenile befriended several dozen Deerpark Middle School students through the social media website Facebook in recent days, said spokesman John Foster.

By Tuesday, the communications with the students turned threatening, with the juvenile issuing threats he would blow up the school, Foster said.

“If there is anything to learn from this … don’t befriend people you don’t know,” Foster said. “Use extreme caution when using any kind of social media. This is the worst thing that could happen, but the best because he was not living here, he is a juvenile and there was no (real) threat.”

The bomb threat forced the midday evacuation Tuesday of 1,600 students from Deerpark and nearby Live Oak Elementary School, and pulled in resources from the sheriff’s office, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas Department of Public Safety. For hours, students and staff were not allowed to retrieve items from the school as investigators cleared the school of any bomb threat before classes resumed again Wednesday.

The juvenile, who is not being identified because he or she is under 17 years old, posed as a Deerpark Middle School student online, Foster said. However, the student has no apparent connection to the school, and has never lived in the United States, Foster said.

The juvenile was identified with the assistance of several agencies, including the FBI, who will now take over the investigation of the case, Foster said.

The juvenile is said to be continuing his contact with students through Facebook, but it’s not exactly clear what online persona or personas the juvenile may still be using, Foster said.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Rattner is Sued by Cuomo, Settles With S.E.C.

Andrew M. Cuomo, the attorney general of New York, on Thursday sued Steven L. Rattner over his role in kickbacks to secure investment business from the New York State pension fund.

The attorney general filed two lawsuits, seeking at least $26 million from Mr. Rattner and a lifetime ban from the securities industry in New York. Mr. Rattner was also added to a forfeiture action against Hank Morris, a top adviser to a former New York State comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi.

The lawsuits came as the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement with Mr. Rattner in which he agreed to pay $6.2 million in disgorgement and penalties. He will also be banned from “associating with any investment adviser or broker dealer” for two years.

[Return to headlines]



Soros Group Says Obama Can Use Armed Forces to Push “Progressive” Agenda

John Podesta from the Center for American Progress released a report this week that, among other things, suggested that Obama can use the US Military to push the president’s radical totalitarian agenda.

The Blaze reported:

The liberal Center for American Progress doesn’t believe significant GOP gains in the House and Senate should stop the President from implementing more of his polices. The group released a report Tuesday suggesting ways Obama can bypass Congress to accomplish a progressive agenda, and it cites the president’s power as commander-in-chief to make its point.

“I think most of the conversation since the election has been about how President Obama adjusts to the new situation on Capitol Hill,” Center for American Progress head and former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta told the Daily Caller. “While that’s an important conversation, it simply ignores the president’s ability to use all levels of his power and authority to move the country forward.”

How does one “move the country forward”? In the center’s report, Podesta explains that Obama can use executive orders, rulemaking, and even the armed forces “to accomplish important change” and that such means “should not be underestimated.”

What exactly does Podesta think the president should use such powers to “accomplish”? Among others, the report suggests “job creation,” “quality affordable health care,” “sustainable security,” and “a clean energy future.”

The report cites specific goals such as mitigating the effects of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, supporting a Palestinian state, and reducing greenhouse gasses by 17 percent by 2020.

The Center for American Progress was given a 3-year $3,000,000 grant by George Soros’ Open Society Institute in 2006.

Media Matters, the communication wing of the Center for American Progress, was given a $1,000,000 grant by George Soros in October.

[Return to headlines]



USA/UK: Why Republicans and Tories No Longer See Eye-to-Eye

by Michael Goldfarb

Once upon a time, and not so long ago in political terms, the Anglo-American world was joined at the hip, and the surgical pin that held the two together was “conservatism”. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and the “isms” attached to their name were so close you could hardly understand why there had ever been all that commotion in 1776.

The recent mid-term election demonstrates that is no longer the case. A lesson from British history illustrates my point: from the time the welfare state was created, Britain ran a three-level secondary education system. The top level was the grammar school — entry was gained by outstanding performance on a test given at the age of 11. State-funded grammar schools opened the door to elite education for many working-class and lower-middle-class kids. If you’ve seen Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, you know the story.

Throughout the 1960s, Harold Wilson’s Labour government brought changes to the education system, the old elite versus equal argument was deployed. Grammar schools were forced to close, or accept pupils regardless of their academic ability. If you are a conservative by preference you are probably snorting as you read this. That’s socialism for you, you are probably thinking, reduce everything to the lowest common denominator.

Undoing what’s done

In 1970, the Conservative Party under Edward Heath won the election and took office. The newly appointed education secretary did not reverse the Labour Government’s policy and allowed grammar school closures to continue. The name of the education secretary was Margaret Thatcher. Yes, the distaff patron saint of modern conservatism ended up overseeing more grammar school closures than her socialist predecessor even though she, and Mr Heath, had both attended grammars. The reason I tell you this story is that it shows how Margaret Thatcher — the conservative’s Conservative — believed that in order for democracy to work, new governments cannot come into office and simply spend their time undoing what the previous government has done.

Yet in the wake of their victories in the mid-term election, the Republican Party has nailed its colours to repealing the health legislation passed earlier this year. Ohio Republican John Boehner, who will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives said after election night: “We have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill.” Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief in Florida supporting states who want to repeal the act. There is also a contrast with how the Conservatives have behaved on their return to power this year, after 11 years out of office.

Getting the house in order

With their Liberal Democrat coalition partners, they are focused on getting Britain’s financial house in order, not undoing the legislation passed during the Blair-Brown years. Structural deficit reduction — double quick, inside four years — is the goal of Prime Minister David Cameron’s government. American conservatives would say deficit reduction is our goal as well. But British Conservatives are putting up taxes, to get the deficit down, as well as making cuts to government spending across all departments except one: the National Health Service.

Republicans want to repeal health legislation, Conservatives know they would not have been returned to office without Mr Cameron’s eloquent commitment to the NHS. This is only one of many examples of how “conservatism” no longer means the same thing among people who call themselves “conservative” on either side of the Atlantic.

Culture wars

Cameron and Co are cutting defence spending. Yes, cutting defence, by 8%. The coalition government has not challenged the view that this means Britain will no longer be able to march to war with America the next time the US wants to fight in the Middle East. Welfare is being cut — dramatically — but it is not being eliminated. It is being reformed. To the chagrin of some of its old guard, Britain’s Conservative Party would not waste a moment campaigning against the idea of man-made climate change — indeed it campaigned last spring on how to grow the economy by funding solutions to the problem. Compare that to the Tea Party/Republican Party view on climate change.

To modern British Conservatives fighting culture wars seems a waste of political time. Gay lifestyles? That’s a non-issue, there are a number of out gay men in the British cabinet. Science using stem cells derived from human foetuses? Prime Minister David Cameron’s son suffered horribly in his brief life from a variety of nervous system disorders. Mr Cameron would not stand in the way of any research that might help future sufferers of Ivan’s myriad problems.

Perhaps the most profound difference today between British and American Conservatives is in the response to terrorism. British Conservatives are libertarian in striking the balance between security and personal liberty when it comes to living in a world where al-Qaeda operates. They have stopped funding for national ID cards — an expensive programme of the Labour government — and shut down many of Britain’s CCTV cameras. Critically, they are considering repealing Britain’s 28-day detention law for terror suspects. This law allows police to hold those suspected of plotting terrorism for 28 days without charging them. No other Western democracy gives the police this kind of power.

Republicans have been against shutting down Guantanamo and trying those detained there in civilian courts. I cannot see them renouncing a law allowing police to detain a suspect for a month without charge. Unlike Margaret Thatcher, British Conservatives no longer echo Ronald Reagan’s view that government is the problem not the solution. But the important point is this: Mrs Thatcher and Mr Reagan shared a governing philosophy: ideology and pragmatism. Ideology was great for speech-making and letting people know what you thought, pragmatism was necessary for governing. As American and British Conservatives drift apart, like Gondwana and Pangaea, it seems that American Republicans have let go of their pragmatic inheritance. Without pragmatic respect for what previous governments have done, can they really be considered “conservative” in the true meaning of the term?

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Anti-Terror Police Probe Explosion Near Loch Lomond

Anti-terrorism police and bomb disposal units have been called to a wooded area in West Dunbartonshire which is thought to have been damaged in an explosion.

Strathclyde Police were called to reports of an explosion in Garadhban Forest, near Gartocharn, at about 1200 GMT on Wednesday.

The area, to the south east of Loch Lomond, has been sealed off.

Police said enquiries were ongoing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.

Speaking at a media conference Ch Sup Calum Murray, of Strathclyde Police, said: “As you would expect, when we are dealing with a situation where we suspect that explosives may be involved, it is our immediate priority to assess the situation and to call on expertise where we think it is appropriate.

“By its very nature, this type of assessment and investigation is complex and does take time. I can confirm that we are currently being assisted by agencies from across the UK.

“I would stress that the site is secure and that there is no risk to public safety.”

Ch Sup Murray said that several other agencies — including the Metropolitan Police — were involved in the investigation.

He said the investigation team was “not ruling anything in or out” at this stage, which he described as “the assessment phase”.

Ch Sup Murray also said the damage in the woodland was “not an expansive area”.

Officers are also collecting CCTV footage from local businesses within the general area of the explosion…

           — Hat tip: 4symbols [Return to headlines]



Churches Lose Their Vicars as Anglicans “Jump Ship” For Rome, Warns Rowan Williams

Dr Williams acknowledged that traditionalists who cannot accept Church of England plans to ordain women bishops were in “considerable confusion and distress”.

But the Pope’s offer to accommodate disaffected Anglicans would leave the Church with “practical challenges” as vicars resign and churches lose worshippers, he said.

Dr Williams’s comments came in his first media interview since The Daily Telegraph disclosed that five Anglican bishops were to join a new section of the Roman Catholic Church established by Pope Benedict XVI.

The new structure, known as the English Ordinariate, is expected to begin operation early next year. It will allow traditionalist Anglo-Catholics who oppose recent liberal reforms in the Church of England to enter into full communion with Rome while retaining some of their Anglican traditions.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Dr Williams insisted that there was “no ill feeling” between him and the five bishops leading the exodus of Anglicans to Rome.

“Obviously my reaction to the resignations is one of regret but respect — I know the considerations they’ve been through,” he said.

“There are still a great many Anglicans in the Church of England who call themselves traditionalist who have no intention of jumping ship at this point, who are at the moment in considerable confusion and distress.

“But they don’t necessarily think if the Church of England isn’t working for them that the only option is Rome.”

For the first time, the Archbishop suggested that worshipers who join the Ordinariate could be allowed to stay in their Anglican churches under a plan to let Roman Catholics share Church of England facilities.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Eastern Germany Confronts Skilled Labor Shortage

For years, demographers have been warning that Germany could face a labor shortage as its population ages. In eastern Germany, such scarcities have already become reality. Competition for talent is fierce — and businesses are becoming more generous.

Olaf Kühn is happiest about his job when he is driving along the pearl necklace in the morning. That’s what locals call the A73 autobahn, which fills with cars in the morning and the evening, with their glittering headlights strung tightly along the highway like pearls on a necklace.

Thousands of commuters use the route, which stretches from Arnstadt in the eastern German state of Thuringia to Coburg in Bavaria and on to Nuremberg. “The traffic jams can go on for kilometers, but I just drive past,” Kühn says with a smile. His commute, after all, takes him from west to east, the opposite of the prevailing trend. Every morning at about six a.m., Kühn drives to work from Bavaria to Thuringia.

Kühn works as a CNC programmer at Analytik Jena, a company that emerged from optical instrument maker Carl Zeiss, in Eisfeld just southwest of Leipzig. The 48-year-old lives near Coburg in Upper Franconia, where he also worked until 2008. But then Reinhard Jacob, the Analytik Jena plant manager, recruited him. “I spent a year trying to convince him to work for us,” says Jacob. “We just didn’t have enough good people here.”

Kühn earns just as much as he did in Bavaria, even though salaries in eastern Germany generally remain significantly lower than in the West. With the emergence of a new economic boom in Germany, specialists like Kühn are more in demand than ever, and they are being courted and recruited accordingly. To attract employees like Kühn, companies have to come up with attractive incentives.

Stopgap Solution

Businesses in the states of the former East Germany have to be especially creative. The eastern states are ahead of the rest of the country in at least one respect: From Rügen in the north to Plauen in the south, the lack of skilled workers that western states will not fully experience until about 10 years from now has already become reality.

In the third quarter of 2010, the number of open positions throughout Germany grew to 986,000, a 19 percent increase over the same period last year, and the trend will only intensify in 2011. Although some three million people are also registered as unemployed, this doesn’t solve the problem.

Labor market experts use the term “mismatch” to describe a situation in which an unemployed person is not offered any of the unfilled positions on the market. Either the job seeker has the wrong qualifications or none at all, is too old, is insufficiently mobile or is unsuitable for other reasons. Additional job training and costly qualification measures are a stopgap solution at best.

So far, there has been little agreement among experts on the question of the lack of skilled workers. In a new study, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) even characterizes the issue as a “Fata Morgana.” According to the DIW, there is “no evidence” pointing to a general lack of available workers. For example, say DIW experts, salaries for skilled workers have hardly increased, and the number of qualified unemployed people exceeds the number of available jobs.

The DIW also points out that in light of the growing numbers of students pursuing degrees in science and technology, a shortfall is not to be expected. However, the DIW study also acknowledges that bottlenecks could develop in high-growth regions, as well as in large parts of eastern Germany…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU Criticises New Immigration Regulations

Points system the worst of its kind in Europe, say EU parliamentarians

The new points system for foreign spouse immigration is the worst of its kind in Europe, according to 185 members of the European Parliament.

The statement came from the red bloc of the EU in the wake of yesterday’s agreement between the government and the Danish People’s Party (DF) on changes in immigration legislation that will lead to the implementation of a point system.

“The Danish People’s Party is being blatantly ultra-nationalistic and hostile to foreigners. They divide people into first and second-rate citizens,” Martin Schulz, Leader of the Party of European Socialists, said yesterday at a conference in Budapest, where EU’s red bloc passed a confrontational declaration against the “extreme right forces” in the EU.

DF leader Pia Kjærsgaard called the statement an “intolerable intrusion into Danish affairs”.

“Social Democrats throughout Europe are crackling as a result of foreign policy. That’s why they’re attacking Denmark in panic by mistaking patriotism for xenophobia,” she said.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Germany Tells Al-Qaida ‘You Have No Chance!’

Security has been stepped up across Germany after Wednesday’s warning of an imminent terrorist attack. German media commentators encourage the populace to stay calm and continue with their daily lives as normal. Changing their behavior would amount to giving in to the terrorists, they argue.

Unlike his predecessors Otto Schily and Wolfgang Schäuble, the current German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière is considered restrained when it comes to his statements on terrorism. That is all the more reason why his warning on Wednesday that Germany may be the target of a terror attack in the near future has received so much attention.

At a hastily convened press conference, de Maizière told reporters that security officials both in Germany and abroad have information that an attack might be in the works for the end of November. For the first time, he said, there are “concrete investigative leads.”

De Maizière called on Germans to be vigilant but not to panic. “We will show strength and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated,” he said. “We will not allow international terrorism to limit our lifestyles nor our culture of freedom.”

Security precautions have been stepped up across Germany as a result of the warning. Armed police are patrolling at airports and train stations, and border controls have been tightened.

The interior ministers of the country’s 16 states will be discussing how to proceed at a conference on Thursday. Karl Peter Bruch, the interior minister of the state of Rheinland-Palatinate, said Thursday that Germany’s major cities were particularly at risk, saying there were “concrete indications” relating to Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and the Ruhr conurbation.

Police under Strain

Meanwhile Germany’s two main police unions have warned that the security forces are already massively overworked. The Federal Police, which is responsible for anti-terror operations and border security, already does not have enough officers to carry out its normal daily work, said Josef Scheuring from the Union of Police (GdP) on Thursday. The additional duties as a result of the terror warning means even more strain on the force’s resources, he said.

Rainer Wendt, the head of the German Police Union (DPolG), made similar comments to the German news station N-TV. “The security forces are already under a great deal of strain,” he said. “There are not many reserves left.”

The head of the GdP, Konrad Freiberg, also warned of a lack of security precautions. The population was not sufficiently prepared for the consequences of an attack, he told the newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. “If an attack happens, it is also important to know how to deal with it and manage the situation.”

Data Debate

As part of the debate on how Germany can best protect itself, politicians from Germany’s two main parties, the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats, have called for the reintroduction of telecommunications data retention. Under a law which came into force in 2008, the government could store data relating to telephone calls, e-mails and Internet usage for up to six months for possible use by law enforcement. That law was, however, overturned by a ruling by Germany’s Constitutional Court in March of this year. Since then, telecommunications data has not been stored.

“Anyone who still argues against data retention has not understood the current threat level,” said Hans-Peter Uhl, an expert on domestic affairs for the Christian Democrats, in remarks to the Financial Times Deutschland.

Suspicious Package Found at Airport

Also on Thursday, it was revealed that a suspicious item of luggage had been discovered on Wednesday while a Munich-bound plane was being loaded in Namibia. The Federal Criminal Police Office in Berlin said in a statement that the package contained batteries connected to an ignition device and a clock. It was not immediately clear if the device was capable of exploding, the police said.

The airline, Air Berlin, contradicted the police’s assertion that the package was intended for Germany. A spokesperson said that the item had been found in a hall at Windhoek airport where luggage for the Air Berlin flight was being processed, but that it was an “undeclared” object that was not addressed to a specific destination.

According to information obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, there are indications that the package could have been a test device designed to check airport security.

Commenting on the new terror warning in their Thursday editions, Germany’s main newspapers reiterate de Maizière’s exhortations for ordinary Germans to keep calm and carry on, with one newspaper suggesting that Germans seek inspiration in London’s famous “Blitz spirit” during World War II…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Icelandic Minister Criticises ‘Kafka-esque’ EU Talks

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Iceland’s justice minister, who last weekend called for stripped-down accession negotiations with Brussels that could be completed in just two months, has stepped up his criticisms, calling into question the need to make “Kafka-esque bureaucratic” changes to national law if the people are likely to ultimately reject joining the bloc in a referendum.

“Brussels has to understand that we have had a massive economic crash, and yet such changes are obviously an enormous burden of bureaucratic work that would cost a lot of money and energy,” the minister, Ogmundur Jonasson, told EUobserver.

“So it is a waste of time to go ahead with this if in the end we do not get a deal that is acceptable to Iceland and is then rejected by the people.”

Mr Jonasson, who hails from the Left Green Movement coalition partners of the governing Social Democrats, wants talks to proceed in the same way that the ultimately failed negotiations did with Norway.

In an opinion piece in Icelandic daily Morgunbladid last Saturday, he wrote that he wants the two sides to sit down for what he called “real negotiations” and reach an offer they can give to the Icelandic people to consider in a referendum.

Only after a Yes vote, should the country then begin to adjust its laws, and not during the negotiation process itself, he said.

If talks were stripped down to this, rather than the lengthy time it takes to change domestic laws, the negotiations could be concluded in two months, he said.

“In the early 1990s, Norway’s negotiations with Brussels on EU accession were conducted on exactly the same basis as I am suggesting now,” he clarified to this website. “That is to say, we negotiate over certain key, fundamental issues — in our case, fisheries, farming and some others — which we can then refer to our people, and put the question to the people before having to reform the sectors to be in alignment with the EU.”

He explained that this approach was no longer allowed: “But for some reason around the turn of the century, eastern European nations negotiated access under a completely different structure, a structure that is now being applied to us.”

“But we have been members of the European Economic Area since the 1990s. I don’t understand how it should be different for us than it was with Norway.”

“When they say that we have to accept 100 percent EU law, that we have to be 100 percent ready beforehand, this is so inflexible, this is beyond my understanding,” he continued.

“Why can’t we get these issues out into the open before setting to work on these Kafka-esque bureaucratic changes? Why on earth can Brussels not reconsider this?”

However, EU enlargement spokeswoman Angela Filota, responding to the minister’s complaints, told EUobserver that neither Iceland nor any other country can be treated in the same way as Norway was two decades ago, as a result of changes made to accession rules as a result of issues resulting from eastern European negotiations.

“There was a renewed consensus in 2006 as the basis for all new negotiations. It would be very difficult to depart from this agreed consensus,” she said.

She said that talks also begin on the basis of a negotiated framework that Iceland has already agreed to.

“It’s basically a set of rules on how the negotiations are to be conducted, between the member states and the country concerned. And Iceland agreed to this framework. They can’t go back on it now.”

“In some [negotiating] chapters, there has to be a good track record of matching EU law if you haven’t implemented anything. But actually in the Icelandic case, this is largely theoretical, because of course there is a track record because has implemented most EU law already.”

She said that the discussions “are actually quite likely to go faster for Iceland than other candidate countries,”

An EU source close to the talks said: “I think he’s just worrying unnecessarily over this. We really don’t expect any excruciating, long drawn-out negotiations at all.”

“I mean, there will certainly be a couple of rough spots eventually, but it’s been very positive so far compared to any other countries,” the source continued.

But a stripped-down, two-month process, as hoped for by the minister, is not on the cards.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



In Swedish Schools, Kids Can Listen to iPods and Use Mobiles in Class. And Anyone Who Protests is a ‘Nazi’

As I wander around this Swedish Free School, I note the windowed classrooms, so that anyone can see inside, the wooden walls with the alphabet painted in bright colours and the very warm and carefree feel of the place. The kids are a multicultural mix, though few are black, and they are working sensibly. They move with order around the building and they seem happy.

I’m talking with one of the teachers and I ask why she left the Swedish state school system.

“Because of the chaos,” she says. “There is no discipline. The students do what they want. They listen to their iPods and mobiles in class.”

My eyes open wide. “They have their mobiles out in lessons?”

She nods. “Yes. There is nothing the teacher can do about it. There are no punishments like detention in Sweden.”

I literally stop walking. “There are no detentions?”

“No.”

I hold my hand up. “Wait a minute, you’re saying that in all the state schools in Sweden, there are no detentions?”

The teacher smiles. “Well, that’s my experience and that of my friends. In Sweden, we don’t like discipline. In fact, we [this school] cannot even use the word in our brochures.”

I frown. “But here, it’s different, yes?”

She nods. “Oh yes. Here we’re all about order. They call us the Nazi school.”

I look around at the lovely wooden lockers and paintings on the walls and wonder how on earth this school could be described in this way. I should say, however, that “Free School” in Sweden does not necessarily mean “school with discipline”. Many Free Schools in Sweden follow the trend of the Swedish state sector. It is simply that this one has decided to take a radical stand against liberalism — banning phones, hats, iPods and the like, in lessons.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Italy: Berlusconi Adds New Penis to Ancient Statue

Rome, 18 Nov. (AKI) — Italy’s premier Silvio Berlusconi ordered controversial repairs to a 2nd century AD marble statue at his Rome office, which included adding a new penis. Critics say the repairs, which cost Italian taxpayers 70,000 euros, amount to ‘aesthetic surgery and ‘alter the authenticity of the work’.

Restorers replaced the long-lost penis of ancient Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who is portrayed in the priceless statue as the god of war, Mars, and replaced his missing right hand.

The restorers also replaced the missing right hand and nose of the emperor’s wife Faustina the Younger, who is portrayed as Venus, the goddess of love.

The statue has been placed against a ‘kitsch’ blue backdrop, at the request of the architect who oversaw the work, Mario Catalano, according to Italian daily La Repubblica.

Catalano hit back at criticism that he had ignored traditional restoration techniques. The statue’s restoration was fully authorised and body parts were “removable,” he said.

The costly repairs were carried out as the government planned to cut Italy culture budget for 2011 by 46 percent, La Repubblica noted.

Opposition centre-left Democratic Party MP Manuela Ghizzoni described the restoration of the 175 AD statue as “aesthetic surgery”.

“This is real aesthetic surgery carried out at prime minister’s personal whim,” Ghizzoni stated. She asked Italy’s culture minister Sandro Bondi to report on the case.

Berlusconi sparked earlier controversy when he moved the 1,400 kilogramme statue from Rome’s Terme di Diocleziano museum to his office at the 17th-century Palazzo Chigi.

Some commentators have dubbed sex-scandal plagued Berlusconi as ‘priapic’, after the ancient Greek fertility god Priapus whose permanent, throbbing erection gave rise to the medical term priapism.

Berlusconi is currently embroiled in several new sex scandals involving a prostitute and a teenage nightclub dancer who says she attended after-dinner sex games at his villa in Arcore, near Milan. He was earlier linked to a teenage underwear model and another prostitute.

The 74-year-old premier has decried what he calls “indecent attacks” against him.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



NATO Must Continue Operations ‘Beyond Our Borders’

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said alliance members must be willing and able to exercise military power “beyond our borders” to combat threats such as terrorism and missile attacks.

Mr Rasmussen spoke to The Daily Telegraph as Nato members prepared to gather today in Lisbon to plan the future role of the alliance.

After almost a decade of military operations in Afghanistan, some European Nato members have suggested that the alliance should focus on defending its home territory.

By contrast, Britain and the US believe that to remain relevant, Nato must be prepared to tackle potential security threats beyond its members’ borders.

Mr Rasmussen supported that view, urging alliance members to accept that new security threats may have to be met.

“Our core function will remain territorial defence of our populations,” he said. “But we must realise that in the modern world we have to go beyond our borders to actually protect and defend our borders.”

Afghanistan could serve a template for future threats and Nato’s response to them.

“After the Cold War, we have seen a number of new threats emerge,” he said. “Terrorism is one of them.”

The Lisbon summit will adopt a “strategic concept” or mission statement in a post-Afghanistan world.

“The purpose of the new strategic concept is to prepare the alliance to address the new security challenges — missile attacks, cyber attacks, terrorist attacks,” Mr Rasmussen said.

He also promised that a reform of Nato’s command structures will make alliance forces “more flexible”.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Secret Documents Group Was Like ‘Bad Le Carre Novel, ‘ MEP Says

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s Special Committee, which is to have access to classified documents on EU foreign relations, is getting ready to start work. But its previous incarnation, under ex-EU-foreign-affairs chief Javier Solana, fell short of expectations.

The outfit, an offshoot of the larger foreign affairs committee (Afet), will have five members: Italian centre-right Afet chairman Gabriele Albertini; German centre-right deputy Elmar Brok; Spanish centre-right member Jose Salafranca; Romanian centre-left MEP Adrian Severin; and Italian centre-left member Roberto Gualtieri. Belgian liberal MEP Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck is to be a substitute.

On the basis of a recent agreement with European External Action Service (EEAS) chief Catherine Ashton, the EU parliament president and other Afet deputies drafting reports on specific topics will also be given access on a temporary basis.

And members of the parliament’s trade committee (Inta) will get their hands on the European Commission’s negotiating mandates for international trade agreements, on the same temporary basis.

Every MEP to benefit from privileges first has to gain security clearance from their country of origin, a process which involves filling out a long questionnaire and then waiting for six to 12 months.

Mr Salafranca and Ms Neyts-Uyttebroeck still have valid clearance from their time in a similar body under Mr Solana. Mr Gualtieri obtained his in recent weeks. Mr Albertini and Mr Brok expect to get theirs in time for the committee to start work in early 2011, just as the EEAS itself gets up and running. The situation on Mr Severin is unclear.

The cell’s official purpose is to improve Afet decision-making by giving it access to top information. In practice, the MEPs are to have regular briefings on sensitive subjects by EEAS staff and then request secret papers that they read in a “Class I” secure room in the Council of Ministers building in Brussels after leaving recording devices, such as mobile phones, and paper and pens at the door.

The committee can appear like a form of democratic oversight on the EEAS and the Joint Situation Centre (SitCen), the member states’ intelligence-sharing bureau in the external service. “It’s important that people know what we are not doing, that we are not opening their post, reading their emails,” a contact familiar with the work of SitCen said.

But it will not be an oversight body in the strict sense of oversight committees in national parliaments because SitCen does not have a mandate to do real intelligence-gathering operations.

On paper, the MEPs are to have access to all levels of EU classification: Tres Secret UE; Secret UE; Confidentiel UE; and Restreint UE.

Tres Secret UE documents tend to deal with “life and death” subjects, such as military targets or assets in war zones. Secret UE documents are defined as being liable to “seriously harm the essential interests of the European Union or of one or more of its member states” if disclosed. Leakage of the lower-graded papers is deemed to do less harm.

In practice, very few Tres Secret UE documents exist in the EU institutions in the first place. The SitCen contact also noted that there is a difference between people who have clearance and people who “actually get stuff.” “What I can say is that for really top-level — Tres Secret UE — we are talking about a handful in the commission and a handful in the Council,” the source explained.

On top of this, MEPs’ access will be limited on the basis of the “originator principle” under which EU capitals which share intelligence with SitCen can stipulate who can and who cannot see it.

“We have to create an atmosphere of trust,” German MEP Mr Brok said. Italian deputy Mr Gualtieri noted that the time it takes to gain national security clearance could be “a real problem” for Afet and Inta rapporteurs who may find their report is due before they get the green light.

Meanwhile, Belgian MEP Ms Neyts-Uyttebroeck, a former foreign minister, said the quality of information under Mr Solana was variable.

“Sometimes when a document is stamped ‘super secret’ it’s not as sexy as you’d imagine. Sometimes it bordered on the ridiculous, like a bad Le Carre novel. We’d have to leave our mobiles and so on before entering the reading chamber. Then you saw a document that was, for example, the mission statement of Eulex, which was the same as we already had in the newspapers,” she said, referring to British spy novelist John Le Carre and the EU police mission in Kosovo.

“At other times it was really interesting, like the rules of engagement for UN troops in Lebanon. When you are operating in a war zone, there’s no need to tell the enemy what your rules of engagement are.”

She added that the set-up has questionable value for Afet because Special Committee members cannot tell their colleagues what they know and cannot claim a superior status in decision-making. “We can express our opinion on this or that. But we have to resist the temptation to try to substitute ourselves for the rest of Afet. That would not be a good thing,” she said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Suspected Bomb With Running Clock Found in Luggage on Air Berlin Flight From Namibia to Germany

Namibian police intercepted a suspicious object with a detonator and a running clock in luggage on an Air Berlin plane from Windhoek to Munich, Germany’s Federal Crime Office (BKA) said on Thursday.

The BKA said it was not clear if the object found during loading of the Airbus jet was an ignitable explosive.

The discovery came after Germany stepped up airport and railway security measures on Wednesday.

Germany has received intelligence pointing to a planned attack in the country towards the end of this month.

The flight left Wednesday after a six-hour delay after all of its cargo had been removed, the company said in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Windhoek.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Wednesday that the threat against the country from ‘Islamic groups’ had become ‘more serious’.

He said information had emerged following a spate of parcel bombs sent from Yemen to US targets at the end of October, coinciding with parcel bombs sent by Greek militants to targets including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

‘The security situation in Germany has become more serious,’ Mr de Maiziere told a news conference.

‘We have concrete indications of a series of attacks planned for the end of November.’

Mr de Maiziere said ‘a tip from an international partner after the Yemen incident’ warned of an attack planned later this month.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Gothenburg Terror Trial Comes to a Close

The Gothenburg trial of two Swedish citizens charged with “planning terrorist crimes” in Somalia ended Wednesday.

A clerk at the district court in the southwestern city of Gothenburg confirmed to AFP that the trial had ended and that both men, aged 22 and 26, would be remanded in custody until a verdict is rendered on December 8th.

Prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstroem asked for at least three years in jail for Mohamoud Jama and Bille Ilias Mohamed, who were arrested in Gothenburg and Stockholm in May and June this year.

“A terrorist crime has such tremendously grave consequences, not just for individuals but society,” she said in her closing statement, according to Swedish news agency TT.

According to the charge sheet the two men are members of the Somali Islamist movement al-Shabaab, which has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and controls most of southern and central Somalia.

The two men, one arrested in Gothenburg in May and the other in Stockholm the following month, are suspected of having plotted suicide attacks in Somalia, with the aim of “murder” or “maiming” a large number of people and causing “massive damage to property,” the charge sheet said.

The prosecution based its case on interrogations of the two suspects, witness accounts and a long line of tapped telephone conversations, claimed to have proof the two men had been in contact with al-Shabaab leader Yassin Ismail Ahmed.

The recorded telephone conversations also showed that Mohamed had attended an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia and that he aimed to “return to Somalia and wanted to become a martyr,” while Jama “was preparing for a future suicide mission,” the charge sheet said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Bomb in a Forest: Loch Lomond Blast is Linked to Al Qaeda

An explosion on the shores of Loch Lomond is being investigated as a possible Al Qaeda bomb test.

The blast, which was reported by walkers and workmen, damaged a large area of woodland on the south-west edge of the lake.

Police are believed to have found several suspicious devices at the site, which is being examined by bomb disposal officers and divers.

Explosives experts from Scotland Yard’s Counter Terror Command have travelled to the Garadhban forest near the village of Gartocharn to assess the scene.

They are investigating whether it might have been the site of an Al Qaeda training camp or a bomb testing and storage site.

Islamic extremists are known to use remote locations to store bomb-making materials and train in terror tactics.

The 7/7 London bombers were photographed on a training camp in the Lake District and other fanatics have trained in the New Forest.

The terrorists convicted of the plot to bring down transatlantic planes with liquid bottle bombs stored their materials in woodland near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

There were claims that camps were held in remote parts of Scotland in the run-up to the terror attack on Glasgow airport in 2007 — including one close to the scene of yesterday’s explosion.

No one is thought to have been injured in the blast 20 miles north-west of Glasgow.

The divers at the scene belong to the Northern Diving Group — the Royal Navy’s equivalent of the bomb disposal squad. Calum Murray, Strathclyde Police Chief Superintendent, said officers were looking at the possibility that the bomb was detonated by members of Al Qaeda.

‘We are investigating all lines of inquiry and have ruled out nothing,’ he said.

‘There is no risk to public safety but the public expect us to treat this seriously and we are doing so.

‘We are working with other experts to try to determine what caused this.

‘As people would expect when we are dealing with a situation where we suspect explosives may be involved it’s our immediate priority to call on experts to help where we feel it’s appropriate.

‘We have a number of Metropolitan police officers working with us and we are being assisted by agencies from across the UK.’

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Cop Guard for Poppy Burner

A MUSLIM fanatic who torched a wreath of poppies on Armistice Day was given a police guard to protect his home, The Sun can reveal. Taxpayers paid to cover the cost of placing two officers and a patrol car outside the house of Abu Rahin Aziz.

The zealot was part of a 40-strong mob who insulted Britain’s war dead on November 11.

We can reveal that the car was sent to his flat in Luton, Beds, last Sunday night and stayed at least 48 hours.

A police source said the move came as senior officers began fearing for Aziz’s safety — adding: “They were just taking precautions.”

Aziz and his group, calling themselves Muslims Against Crusades, also yelled vile insults during the two-minute silence and held placards saying: “British soldiers burn in hell.”

He, mob leader Abu Assadullah and organiser Abu Ubaidah were named and shamed by The Sun after the demo near London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the poppy-burning outrage.

Two men were arrested for insulting behaviour after the flowers were set alight.

The suspects, aged 25 and 30, were bailed until mid-December pending further inquiries.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Hague is No Longer the Right’s Standard Bearer [£]

by Tim Montgomerie [Editor, ConservativeHome]

The Foreign Secretary’s former supporters feel let down over Europe, Israel and defence

[…]

It is not just Mr Hague’s European views that have unsettled Tories. Two other important constituencies are also disappointed with him. The party’s Friends of Israel have never trusted Mr Hague since his declaration in 2006 that the Middle East’s only mature democracy had been “disproportionate” in fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. They also were disturbed by his decision later to question President Bush’s troop surge and instead endorse the Baker-Hamilton plan that would have given Iran and Syria a big say in Iraq’s future.

Tories who worry about national defence also feel let down. They feel Mr Hague sat on his hands when Liam Fox was fighting to protect the MoD budget. “Detached” is a word many now use to describe Mr Hague. Tory insiders are wondering if his heart is still in politics. Whispers of early retirement are circulating.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Hague: Britain to Remain Closest US Ally

William Hague insisted today that Britain would remain America’s most important military ally despite swingeing cuts to the defence budget. In a speech in Washington, the Foreign Secretary sought to allay concerns that the UK’s ability to respond to future threats would be diminished and the “special relationship” undermined.

Mr Hague also met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the nation’s capital. He maintained that Britain “still packs a punch” and that the coalition Government would not allow any decline in the UK’s role in the world. “We are confident that Great Britain is equipped to face the security challenges of the next decade and beyond, and to stand firm with its allies,” he said at Georgetown University. We have a clear long-term vision of Britain as an active global power and the closest ally of the United States..” He added: “Britain will remain a first rate military power and a robust ally of the US and in Nato well into the future.”

Last month’s strategic defence and security review was studied carefully in Washington amid fears about its implications for future conflicts. It heralded an 8% reduction in defence spending over the next four years, which will see 17,000 armed forces personnel cut, Harrier jets scrapped and the HMS Ark Royal decommissioned. Mr Hague said there was a “mistaken idea” that the Government was sacrificing national defence to reduce the UK’s massive budget deficit. Instead, the cuts would enable the UK to be even stronger in the future as its economy grows, he said. “This should be good news for our allies, and a timely reminder to potential adversaries that Britain still packs a punch on the world stage.”

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would never “shirk” its international responsibilities, he said. “Our government is determined to stand foursquare with the United States and our allies to confront the security challenges of the 21st century as robustly as we faced those of the past,” he said.

The Foreign Secretary said the relationship between the US and Britain was “still special” and that their counter-terror co-operation saved lives. “As the minister responsible for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service and our signals intelligence agency GCHQ, I witness every day, and sometimes every hour, that our relationship saves lives and is indispensable to the security of both our countries,” he said. He warned that Britain and America had to be seen to “stand up” for its values if they wanted to maintain their security over the long-term.

But that also meant maintaining “the moral advantage”, he said, referring to allegations of complicity with torture and mistreatment by security services. Former US president George Bush claimed last week that waterboarding had saved British lives. “If we are to maintain our influence in the world, we must always seek to retain the moral advantage,” Mr Hague said.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Hague Presses Clinton to Release Guantanamo Inmate

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday he urged the United States to send Guantanamo Bay inmate Shaker Aamer, the last British resident at the U.S. military prison in Cuba, back to Britain.

According to rights group Amnesty International, Aamer is a Saudi who moved to Britain in 1996 and was in Afghanistan doing voluntary work for an Islamic charity when he was captured by Northern Alliance fighters in 2001 and handed to U.S. forces. The group said he was later transferred to the prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay naval base. President Barrack Obama has pledged to close the detention centre.

Aamer, who has not been charged with any crime, is married to a British national and lived with their four children in London before he was detained in Afghanistan. Asked about the case in a speech at Washington’s Georgetown University, Hague said he had raised it with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I have been discussing that with Secretary Clinton today and reiterated our position that we would like to see this gentleman returned to the United Kingdom and that is under consideration by the United States,” Hague said.

Aamer is one of about 180 prisoners left at the Guantanamo prison. Obama’s pledge to close the military prison within a year of taking office in January 2009 was derailed by political, legal and diplomatic problems.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Police Arrest ‘Husband and Father-in-Law After Asian Woman is Found Stabbed to Death Following Family Row’

A husband was remanded in custody under the Mental Health Act today after a pretty young woman was knifed to death in a car in what was believed to be a violent family argument.

The 27-year-old victim bled to death on the back seat of the vehicle after the bloody attack which severed an artery was launched while she was travelling with two men, believed to be her husband and father-in-law.

Detectives found a bloodstained knife alongside the body of the young woman in the Volkswagen Passat car which was parked on the road outside the family’s semi-detached home.

A post mortem examination revealed that the mother-of-one, who has not yet been formally identified, bled to death after her femoral artery was severed.

Today a 30-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of murder, was detained in a hospital secure unit under the Mental Health Act.

His father, aged 51 years, has been released on police bail to return to Crawley police station on January 25.

Police confirmed that the victim and the two men arrested were all Asian and known to each other.

Neighbours identified them as the Baig family and said that they had been celebrating Eid, the Muslim equivalent of Christmas, last night when the killing happened.

The alarm was raised when ambulance controllers and police received a 999 call from the family home in, Crawley, West Sussex.

Two paramedic rapid response cars and an ambulance were sent to the scene but there was nothing the medics could do to save the woman who had been stabbed to death.

Police from the Sussex Major Crime Team were contacted immediately by the first officers to arrive at the scene and a major murder investigation was launched.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Schoolboy Who Received Death Threats From Muslim Gang After Supporting British Troops ‘Will Not Return to School’

A mother has vowed to remove her son from his local school after he received death threats from a gang of Muslim teenagers.

The students involved — five Muslim boys and one non-Muslim girl — have been suspended and may now be expelled from the Sidney Stringer Academy in Coventry after their chilling response to Darius’ patriotic online message.

And after the online revenge campaign — by a group calling themselves the ‘Muslim Defence League’ — Darius’ mother has removed him permanently from the West Midlands school.

‘I will never let Darius go back to that school,’ said Clare Allington, 42. ‘I fear for his life if he goes back.

‘The threats which were dangerous and terrifying, no child should have to put up with that treatment.

‘Darius and I have had a long talk about it and we’ve both decided that he won’t be going back.

‘I wouldn’t go back if I was him and I’d always be worrying if it happened again. Darius needs a fresh start.’

Darius — whose father is Muslim — had posted pictures of British troops on Facebook on Remembrance Day and wrote a message of tribute to the Armed forces, saying: ‘RIP TO ALL THE LADS WHO NEVER MADE IT HOME.’

Yet Darius’ patriotic message was met with hate, with pupils branding him ‘racist’ and threatening to attack Darius at school on the following Monday.

One of the online messages — which were littered with spelling mistakes — read: ‘Fight on Monday gonna be heavy knuckle dusters and knifes hopefully I don’t die.’

Another pupil added: ‘ill bang [attack] him ma slef [myself] am a terrorist.’

The Facebook profile of one of the pupils — an Iraqi — shows a picture of him posing with an AK47 rifle and features a poem about hijacking a plane.

On November 12, he wrote: ‘You better watch what the **** flies outta ya mouth. Or I’ma hijack a plane and fly it into your house.

‘Burn your apartment with your family tied to the couch. And slit your throat, so when you scream, only blood comes out.’

Five Muslim boys and one white girl — all aged just 12 — now face expulsion from the Sidney Stringer Academy, which has a 65 per cent Muslim student population.

The academy’s principal Wendy Tomes said: ‘We are very disappointed that Darius has chosen not to return to the school.

‘We can appreciate how upsetting this has all been and we are appalled by the behaviour of the students involved.

‘All the students are being dealt with very seriously by the school but not all of the Facebook comments are Sidney Stringer students, some are from other schools or even young adults who are friends with some of our students.

‘We have contacted all of our parents by text and sent letters to ask them to support us by being vigilant over Facebook and other social networking sites.’

Darius’ mother Clare said she is also considering moving house as she and her family are ‘genuinely scared of reprisals’.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: ‘The school has informed us of the incident.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Increasing Tension Between Muslims and Copts. Burned Houses, Battle Over Church

Muslims set fire to ten houses and a shop in southern Egypt. In Talby, near the Pyramids, hundreds of Coptic Christians patrol the land for a church whose construction was opposed by fundamentalists.

Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) — A love story between a young Christian and a Muslim girl has sparked violence in a small town 465 km south of Cairo, security forces intervened to take control of the situation and prevent that the violence spreading to nearby towns. Several people were arrested. The attacks were launched after a young Copt and a Muslim girl were seen together at night in the village cemetery. Both are now under police custody. After the intervention of the police, and after the local religious leaders appealed to the faithful of the two communities, peace returned. Clashes between Christians and Muslims are not uncommon in southern Egypt, many over issues of land, or because of the construction of churches. In recent months, however, the clashes have begun to spread in the capital.

The most recent example is a current tug of war over the construction of a church. Thousands of Copts have been guarding the site of the church of Santa Maria in Talbiya, in the area of the Pyramids, since 11 November to protest the raid made by dozens of police officers to stop the construction and demolish a ladder and some toilets constructed inside the church, despite the necessary permits given by authorities. On hearing of the police raid, hundreds of Copts gathered on the site, to prevent it from being sealed off. They said they will not give up their church, and nobody will prevent them from praying there. “Even if President Mubarak himself came here, the construction will go on. They’re just looking for excuses to slip inside and begin to demolish the church, “said one of their leaders, Mansour el-Sharkawy.

More than a million Copts live in the Talbiya, without even a church, and must travel several km every Sunday to attend religious services. The area is full of mosques built without permission, say the Copts, but when it comes to Christians, it takes years to obtain the necessary permits, and then the authorities find some excuse to stop everything. “When they saw the dome of the church, the Muslims went mad,” said one of Christian leaders. And when they learned of the construction of the church, they began to throw garbage. A jihadi forum “Atahadi” (Challenge) which is said to have connections with Al Qaeda, published a story on its website called: “Images of the church building at the pyramids, and how to demolish it.” And it said: “An easy and effective way which does not need weapons or explosives: just pour t sugar into the moulds of the columns, because the sugar chemically reacts with cement and sand”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Elections: Egypt ‘Outraged’ By US ‘Interference’

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 18 — Today Egypt expressed its ‘outrage’ over what it called ‘interference’ by the USA in its internal affairs, especially as regards the request of checks by international observers over the legislative elections that will be held on November 28. Egypt’s foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit stated that “The US interference in the Country’s internal affairs raises the outrage of Egypt”, in reference to a recent meeting between some of president Barack Obama’s advisors.

In a statement, Abul Gheit defined as “absolutely unacceptable” Washington’s requests concerning the sending of foreign observers to ensure transparency in the elections. Objection to the presence of foreign observers was also stated yesterday by Rafwat el Sherif, the general secretary of the National democratic party that is in power. The previous day the Department of State had emphasised that the USA “are still committed to supporting free and impartial elections in Egypt”, pointing out that this would entail the performance of peaceful political meetings during the electoral campaign, ample coverage by the media and even the presence of international observers. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Hebrew-Language Message Threatens Continued Fire Into Israel

A day after a senior figure in a Gaza-based Islamist group was slain in an Israeli targeted killing, another militant organization has released a Hebrew language audio message threatening continued rocket fire into Israel.

The message, addressed to “the attacking Jews”, was posted on website used by Islamic radical groups and came from a Gaza-based organization calling itself the Jemma Ansar al-Sunna or the Community of Sunna Supporters.

In Arabic accented Hebrew the speaker on the tape warned “the killing of our brothers will not stop us from continuing the Jihad …and our rockets will continue if you do not leave the land of Palestine.”

The message referenced the killing of Islam Yassin the day before in Gaza City. Yassin and his brother were driving Wednesday afternoon when their car exploded.

In a joint-statement released shortly after the explosion, Israel’s air force and internal security organization, known as the Shin Bet, acknowledged carrying out the strike claiming the target was a member of a known radical group.

“Islam Yassin was a senior operative in the Army of Islam terror organization…” the statement said.

“Most recently, Yassin had been personally involved in planning and directing a terror attack in which Israelis would be kidnapped from the Sinai Peninsula. “

The strike against the Army of Islam marks the second time this month that Israel has employed targeted killings against the group which it considers a radical Salafist organization with ideological ties to al Qaeda.

On November 3, in a similar strike, another Army of Islam leader, Mohammed al-Namnam was killed by Israel. A military spokeswoman at the time called him a “ticking bomb” who was involved in attacks against Israeli and American targets in the Sinai Peninsula.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Baghdad Church Attack Victims to be Honoured in St Peters’ Mass

Vatican City, 17 Nov. (AKI) — The Vatican announced a mass will be held in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on 25 November to commemorate the 58 people including two priests who died in an attack against the Syrian Catholic cathedral in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad last month.

The pontiff has frequently deplored attacks and discrimination against Christian minorities in Muslim countries. He condemned the Baghdad assault as “absurd” and “ferocious” and called for an end to sectarian violence in the war-wracked country.

Many Muslims denounced the attack, which was claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq. Besides the 58 people who died in the attack, 80 were injured.

Iraq’s approximately 500,000 remaining Christians fear pograms after further deadly bombings targeting Iraqi Christians since the attack on Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, one of the city’s main churches.

Most want to flee the country, observers say.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Iraq: Archbishop of Mosul Warns of Change in Strategy in Attacks on Christians

The United Nations should “put pressure on the Iraqi government,” therefore investigate attacks and killings “in depth”, says Mgr. George Basile Casmoussa, Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul. With the murder of two Christians, in their own homes, we are witnessing an escalation of attacks against the Christian minority in Iraq. Families are leaving the country.

Mosul (AsiaNews) — After the church attack in Baghdad that killed 55 people, and the statement of Al Qaeda that Christians are “legitimate targets”, there has been no end to the violence against the Christian minority in Iraq. On November 15, in Mosul, two other men were killed in their homes. According to the statements of police, some unknown persons broke into homes and gunned them down with automatic weapons before fleeing. The victims were Nabil Ghanem and Nashwan Khoder, both 36 years old. The first, Syrian Catholic, worked for the provincial unit of the organization to combat corruption, the second, a carpenter of Armenian origin.

This latest attack — a real execution- seems to indicate a different strategy in the attacks against Christians. Mgr. George Basile Casmoussa, Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, is convinced of this and spoke to AsiaNews about the dramatic situation of the Christian community in Iraq:

Do you believe, we are seeing a surge in attacks against the Christian minority in Iraq?

Yes and a new, dangerous growth: the novelty is that the terrorists are attacking people directly in their homes. There is a change in strategy.

Are these latest attacks — including that of 31 October against the church in Baghdad, claimed by Al Qaeda — pushing the Christian community to flee Iraq? And in this case, to where?

Many Christian families are leaving or would like to leave the big cities, Baghdad and Mosul in particular. The first step is to leave their homes. But some of them try to go abroad.

Would you like to make an appeal for Christians in Iraq through AsiaNews?

We are asking the United Nations to seriously discuss the issue of Iraqi Christians. To send a real commission for an inquiry. To put pressure on the Iraqi government to ensure attention and the highest security to churches and Christian villages. And to pursue the murderers, to the very end.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Iraq: President Talabani Refuses to Sign Tariq Aziz Execution Order

Iraqi president Jalal Talabani is refusing to sign the execution order for Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein.

Aziz, 74, was condemned to death last month by an Iraqi court for persecution of religious parties.

Mr Talabani told France 24 television he would never sign the order because of Aziz’s age and because he is an Iraqi Christian.

The president is known for his general opposition to the death penalty.

Our correspondent in Baghdad, Gabriel Gatehouse, said that in 2006 Mr Talabani refused to sign a warrant ordering the execution of Saddam Hussein.

Instead, the order was ratified by one of Mr Talabani’s two deputies, and the former Iraqi president was hanged all the same.

It is not clear what will happen in this case.

Iraq is in the middle of a drawn-out process of government formation.

Our correspondent says the constitution requires executions to be ratified by the presidency, and carried out within 30 days of the sentence being confirmed.

Mr Talabani was re-appointed last week after more than eight months of political wrangling. At the moment, he has no formal deputies who could authorise the death penalty in his place.

As Iraq’s foreign minister, as well as deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz was the face and voice of Saddam’s government on the world stage.

He had been previously convicted for his role in the execution of dozens of merchants for profiteering and for his role in the displacement of the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq.

He is also reported to be seriously ill.

The European Union, the Vatican and Russia have called on Iraq not to execute Aziz on grounds of age and ill health.

When he was sentenced last month, the BBC’s Jim Muir says, Aziz was not widely seen as one of Saddam’s evil insiders, and a lobby could spring up to prevent him being sent to the gallows.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



Iraq: President Talabani Has No Objection to Form Christian Province

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday that he has no objection to form a special province for Christians in Iraq.

“There are regions with Christian majority in Iraq and we do not have an objection regarding forming a special province for Christians in Iraq,” the president told France 24 television.

“Protecting Christians is a holy duty for Iraqi government and all political blocs,” he continued, asserting that Shiites have expressed their readiness to form armed teams to help and protect Christians.

The past few days have seen attacks with improvised explosive devices and rockets on houses inhabited by Christians in several neighborhoods of Baghdad, where dozens were killed or wounded and the houses severely damaged.

The attacks followed a raid by gunmen on the Church of Sayedat al-Najah (Our Lady of Salvation) in Baghdad on October 31 during which they kept dozens of worshippers during a Sunday mass hostage.

Security forces stormed the church, resulting in the death of 58 people, including five gunmen and seven security personnel. The wounded reached 75, including 15 army and police personnel. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack and pledged to target Christians in Iraq again.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]

Russia


Ex-KGB Soldier Named as Double Agent Who Exposed Anna Chapman Spy Ring

Russian intelligence sources told local media that the traitor who gave away Anna Chapman and nine others was Colonel Alexander Poteyev who served in the KGB’s elite ‘Zenith’ Special Forces unit during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

A criminal case for ‘state treason’ had been opened against him and he will be tried in absentia like other traitors before him, they said.

The scandal caused huge embarrassment in Russia and triggered the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

In its wake, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an internal investigation at the SVR foreign intelligence service, the agency that ran the compromised agents.

Fyodor Yakovlev, a KGB veteran who said he served with Colonel Poteyev in Afghanistan, told the Regnum news agency that he now regarded his former comrade as a “non-person”.

“This non-person will live a lonely life until the end of his days in fear,” he said. “Lonely because his relatives and loved ones will not be by his side. Either his children will have to alter their appearances or else they will be doomed to the same nightmarish existence as their father.”

Colonel Poteyev is believed to have fled to the United States in June through his native Belarus days before the ten agents were arrested in America. He was reportedly deputy director of ‘Department S’ inside the SVR, the unit which coordinates the work of illegal agents in the United States.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Fears of a Muslim Russia

Ravil Gainutdin, the head of the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR), says that opposition to the construction of mosques in Moscow shows that “in the subconsciousness of the contemporary urban residents of the titular nation, the Russians, there is a fear that on one fine day, they will wake up in a Muslim country.”

Such people, the Muslim leader said on the occasion of Kurban Bayram, are “seeking to frighten believing Muslims, to sow fear in the Muslim mmilieu, to spread doubts about the sincerity of the respect and attention to Muslims from the side of the power structures of the government by defining the question as is it necessary to build a mosque in Moscow?”

That is a dangerous step, he continued, because it could generate support for radical nationalists among Russians and for Islamist fundamentalists among Muslims, all the more so since “Moscow is not only the capital of the Russian state, not only an enormous megapolis … but also a mirror whose actions serve as a model for other regions of Russia.”

Indeed, Gainutdin said, “the real basis for extremism and terrorism is created by cultural and religion illiteracy, including on questions about the cultural heritage of other peoples and ethnic groups,” especially when those groups are not arrivals from somewhere far away but indigenous citizens.

The SMR leader’s remarks reflect the growing anger of many Muslims in the Russian Federation to the way in which they are being treated not only directly by the powers that be but also by extremist anti-Islamic groups that the regime is doing relatively little to restrain and that have been encouraged by recent anti-Muslim statements by European leaders.

Moreover, the anger Gainutdin expressed would undoubtedly have been even greater had it come after two developments reported today. On the one hand, Vladimir Zorov, prefect of the South East District of Moscow, announced that “no construction of a mosque [in Tekstilshchiki] is going on or being planned.

And on the other hand, the New Region news agency is reporting that some Russian nationalists are now saying that “there is only one means of forcing Muslims to take us into consideration and that is called deportation,” the kind of language that will only further enflame the situation.

Aleksandr Belov, the former leader of the openly xenophobic Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), told the news agency that Russian officials must “carefully study the results of the celebration of Kurban-Bayram [in Russian cities] and drawn corresponding conclusions for the future.”

“Thank Allah,” Belov continued, “that there is such a holiday. In one place and at one time all the illegals have assembled. “It only remains for the militia to detain them and rapidly deport them according to the existing legal order. The holiday is a beautiful moment for the identification of all migrants.”

For Belov, the distinction between illegal migrants and Muslims in this case is less hard and fast than it may be for other. Muslims, he said, “love to say that in Moscow there live 1.5 million of the faithful. But this is not so. … In the best case, there are 100,000 Muslims in all of Moscow. There is no Muslim community of a million here and never was one.”

“The basic mass of these uneducated people [who took part in the slaughter of animals for Kurban-Bayram] are not local Muslims, not Tatars, but rather arrivals from Central Asia and the Trans-Caucasus who interfere with the local Muslims who conduct their religious holiday in a normal way.”

But Belov then made a broader point: “I do not know a single country where Islam peacefully coexists with other religions. And that includes not only countries which have a predominantly non-Muslim population, but even in lands with a Muslim population such as Pakistan for example there are constant terrorist acts.”

“Among Muslims,” the nationalist continued, the phenomena of fanaticism and radicalism are very widely spread and if something isn’t just so, then let’s blow up a mosque. Therefore all this is a functional danger, a threat for the entire society. Consequently, the fewer of them, the more peaceful” for everyone else.

Another radical Russian nationalist, Dmitry Demushkin, the head of the banned Slavic Union, advocates equally harsh measures against not only immigrants but Muslims as such. “Why must we think about the national feelings of Muslims. They are in our country as guests, is it not true? They must observe our laws, our traditions, and our way of doing business.”

If they want to do otherwise, he continued, then let them do it in turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. “We won’t go into their monastery with our rules.” But while they are in our country, Demushkin said, they need to follow “our rules.” If they don’t, “deportation” is the answer, lest windows be broken and sheep sacrificed in public.

The Moscow militia, if it had been doing its job, the Slavic Union leader says, would have been able to send “two thirds” of those taking part in Kurban-Bayram celebrations in Moscow “immediately” out of Russia and back to their homeland where they could do as they please.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]

Caucasus


Dagestan’s Deadly Islamic Insurgency

Magomed has one of the most dangerous jobs in Russia. He is a policeman — in Dagestan.

“Police here are constant targets,” he tells me as we drive through the capital, Makhachkala.

“Whenever I get out of the police car, I always wonder if the insurgents will see my uniform and will shoot me. Six of my colleagues have been killed this year. At night you won’t find any policemen on the streets — we’re all too frightened.”

From the car window, Makhachkala looks like a normal, bustling city.

The roads are full of traffic, the streets bristling with pedestrians hurrying home from work. With its stunning backdrop of the Caucasus mountains on one side, and the Caspian Sea on the other, the place almost feels like the Russian Riviera. But an Islamic insurgency has turned a potential resort into a war zone.

Nearly every day, the rebels attack police and local officials. In one shooting spree last week, seven Dagestani policemen were killed. On Monday, a gunman burst into a hospital and murdered a traffic policeman who had been recovering in bed.

The Russian security forces respond by carrying out “special operations” in towns and villages across Dagestan. Acting on intelligence, they seal off streets, whole neighbourhoods, and open fire to root out rebel fighters.

But who are the insurgents? And what are they fighting for?

‘Foreign training’ “The aim of the extremists is to tear the Caucasus away from Russia,” Dagestan’s President, Magomedsalam Magomedov, tells me.

“Many of them are mercenaries who’ve undergone instruction in Taliban training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“They have links to al-Qaeda and to other terrorist groups across the Caucasus which share the same goal.

“They want to turn the whole region into an Islamic state based on sharia [Islamic] law but we will defeat them.”

Moscow sees this is as a battle it cannot afford to lose — not only if it is to retain control of the North Caucasus, but also provide security for the whole country.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghan Christian to Go to Trial on Sunday for His Faith

Said Musa was arrested on 31 May. He is set to appear before a judge without legal counsel and without knowledge of the charges against him. Many fear he might be made an example to show that Sharia is the law of the land.

Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) — An Afghan national, in prison since May because of his religion, will be put on tried this Sunday. However, he has been denied legal counsel. Local sources say no one knows what charges will be laid against him when he goes before a judge.

The authorities arrested Said Musa, 45, on 31 May, a day after a local station, Noorin TV, broadcast images of Christians praying after being baptised. This was followed by a wave of arrests against Christians in what local sources describe as a manhunt. Apparently, Said Musa is the only Christian to go on trial.

Leaving Islam for another religion is a capital offence under Afghanistan’s Islamic law, despite the fact that the Taliban lost power in 2001.

In June, the authorities forced Musa to abjure his Christian faith publicly, on television, but still kept him in prison without informing him of the charges against him.

In prison, Musa said he was a follower of Jesus, local sources report.

Last month, Musa was able to get a letter out, addressed to the world’s Churches, to US President Barack Obama and the chiefs of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

In it, he wrote that he was “physically and verbally abused” by his captors and other prisoners at Ouliat Prison in Kabul.

He alluded to the lack of justice he faced, saying that the prosecutor had given the judge a false report about him and had demanded a bribe.

Local Christians, human rights observers and religious freedom monitors fear that Musa might be made an example to show that Sharia rules in Afghanistan rather than international agreements.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Man Accused of Blasphemy Killed in Pakistan

A man accused of blasphemy was shot and killed near his home in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore shortly after being granted bail by a court, according to a media report.

Imran Latif, 22, was accused of burning pages of the Quran in a case registered at Sherakot police station in Lahore and spent five months in jail.

He was released on bail on November 3 after the man who filed the complaint of blasphemy told the court he was not sure that Latif was guilty.

Latif was shot by armed men near his home on November 11 but police learnt only later that he had been accused of blasphemy, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Inspector Rafique Ahmed, who is investigating the murder, said Latif’s killing was likely linked to the blasphemy case. “No Muslim tolerates a man who commits blasphemous acts,” he said.

Latif’s family had not mentioned the blasphemy case when they reported the murder, he said.

Latif’s 60-year-old mother Sharifan said two men armed with pistols had knocked at the door of their house near Pir Makki shrine on November 11 and asked Latif to accompany them.

“A few yards from the house, they suddenly opened fire,” she said. She said her son was shot five times and the attackers fled on a motorcycle.

“There were policemen present in the street but no one tried to stop them,” she said.

Latif’s brother Haider Ali said he was innocent in the blasphemy case.

He suspected that Ijaz Ahmed, a man who had a dispute with his brother over the ownership of a shop, had had Latif killed with the help of two other men.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Pope Appeals for “Full Freedom for Asia Bibi”

Appeal of Benedict XVI for the woman who lives in a country where Christians are “often the victims of violence or discrimination.” Respect for human dignity. In his speech during the general audience, the Pope illustrates the figure of Saint Juliana of Liège. In the Church there is a “new Eucharistic springtime”.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) — An appeal for the restitution of “full freedom” to Asia Bibi was launched today by Benedict XVI, at the end of the general audience. He noted that “the international community is following with great concern the difficult situation of Christians in Pakistan, often victims of violence or discrimination.” The Pope expressed his “spiritual closeness” to Asia Bibi and her family and called for the liberation of women. “I pray — he concluded — for those who are in similar situations that their human dignity and their fundamental rights be fully respected.”

Before the appeal, in his address to the 40 thousand people in St. Peter’s Square, Benedict XVI said the church is undergoing a “springtime of the Eucharist”, with many people, even young, “stopping in silence before the tabernacle to spend time with Him” . It is a “wonderful development” of Eucharistic worship for which the Church is particularly indebted to St. Juliana of Cornillon, from Liège a nun who lived between1191 and 1258 to whom Benedict XVI dedicated his general audience.

The Pope, continuing in his series of lessons on the great female figures of the medieval Church said that Jiuliana was born into an environment, that of Liege, which was “a true Eucharistic Cenacle, theologians had illustrated the supreme value of the Eucharist and there were women’s groups generously dedicated to the worship of the Eucharist and fervent communion. “

Orphaned at 5, Juliana, with her sister Agnes, was entrusted to the Augustinian nuns, whose orders she entered at 18. She was a woman of “high culture to the point that she cites the works of the Latin Fathers, especially Augustine and Bernard.” She had a “lively intelligence” and “propensity for contemplation.” At 16 she had her first vision that repeated itself several times. The vision represented “the moon in its full splendour with a diametric dark stripe. The Lord made it clear that the Moon was the life of the Church on earth and the dark line represents the absence of a liturgical feast” in which “believers could worship the Eucharist to increase faith in the practice of virtue and advancing reparation for the offenses of the Blessed Sacrament. “

It became the purpose of her life. Together with two other women, “Blessed Eve, who lived a hermit’s life, and Isabella, who had entered the monastery of Mont-Cornillon”, she created a kind of “spiritual covenant”. They also questioned “theologians and clergy on what was in their heart. The responses were positive and encouraging. “ This “appears frequently in the lives of saints: to confirm that an inspiration comes from God, they must always be immersed in prayer, they must know how to wait patiently, to seek friendship and comparison with other good souls, and submit everything to the judgement of the pastors of the Church”. And it was the bishop of Liege, Robert of Thourotte, who welcomed the proposal of Juliana and her companions, and instituted for the first time, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in his diocese. Later, other bishops followed suit.

The Lord, however, often ask the Saints to pass tests, so their faith may grow. This was also the case with Juliana, who had to suffer the bitter opposition of some members of the clergy and the same leaders from which her monastery depended. “ Juliana, then “voluntarily” left the convent, and for ten years, from 1248 to 1258, was the guest of various monasteries of Cistercian nuns. She died in 1258 in Fosses-la-Ville, Belgium. “In the cell where she was lying, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, in the words of the biographer, Juliana died contemplating a last outburst of love for Jesus in the Eucharist, which she had always loved, honoured and adored.” James Pantaléon of Troyes also joined in the “good cause of the feast of Corpus Domini, who had met during his ministry the Holy Archdeacon of Liege and who became Pope Urban IV in 1264, establishing the feast of Corpus Christi as a feast of obligation for the universal Church. It was he who wanted to take the lead in celebrating the feast of Corpus Domini in Orvieto, the city where he then lived and that still custodies the famous coporal with traces of the Eucharistic miracle” that had occurred ‘ years earlier, in 1263, in Bolsena. A priest, as he consecrate the bread and wine, was taken by strong doubts about the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Miraculously, a few drops of blood began to flow from the consecrated host, confirming that way what our faith professes”.

Urban IV also asked one of the greatest theologians of history, St. Thomas Aquinas to compose the texts of the liturgical office of this great feast. “They still used today in the Church, they are masterpieces, which combine poetry and theology. They are texts that pull on the heart strings in an expression of praise and gratitude to the Blessed Sacrament, while the intelligence, entering into the mystery with surprise, in the Eucharist recognize the true and living presence of Jesus, his sacrifice of love that reconciles us with the Father, and gives us salvation. “

Remembering Saint Juliana of Cornillon, the Pope concluded, “we also renew our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.” “Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist in a unique and incomparable way. He is present in a true, real and substantial way with his body and his blood, his soul and his divinity. In it he is thus present in a sacramental way, that is, under the Eucharistic bread and wine, Christ whole and entire, God and man. “

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Pope Benedict XVI Calls for Release of Christian Sentenced to Hang in Pakistan

The Pope told his weekly public audience in the Vatican of his “spiritual closeness” to Asia Bibi, a mother of five children, who is accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Last week The Daily Telegraph revealed that she had been sentenced to death after a mob of angry villagers, spurred on by clerics, tried to attack the 45-year-old over a dispute about whether a Christian should be allowed to handle a container filled with drinking water for Muslims.

The Pope said that Christians in Pakistan often faced violence or discrimination as he called for Mrs Bibi’s “full freedom”

.”I pray for those who are in similar situations that their human dignity and their fundamental rights be fully respected,” he said.

Supporters of Mrs Bibi said she had fetched water for other women working in fields in Punjab province, sparking a row over whether the water was still fit for Muslims to drink.

The dispute escalated a few days later, when she was accused of making derogatory remarks against the Prophet Mohammed. She has been in prison for the past one and a half years and is thought to be the first woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Similar convictions are usually overturned by higher courts and Mrs Bibi’s family have already lodged an appeal.

However, the verdict has drawn attention to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which human rights campaigners believe are used to persecute the country’s religious minorities and to settle personal rivalries.

Although governed by a secular party, Pakistan’s conservative clerics wield considerable influence and few political leaders are willing to risk their ire by repealing the blasphemy laws.

However, Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, said the government was working to reform the law so that it could not be abused.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Turkmenistan: Appeal Denied for Ilmurad Nurliev, Pentecostal Pastor Convicted by False Evidence

Sentenced to four years for fraud, in a closed door trial, access denied to diplomats, his wife complains that the witnesses testimony was false. Fears he will be sent to a labour camp that forcibly administers psychotropic substances for Christian prisoners. Now his last hope is international mobilization.

Ashgabat (AsiaNews/F18) — A sentence of 4 years in jail on false evidence for pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, in a court sentence that has been “hidden” to prevent an appeal. Fears are mounting that he will be sent to a labour camp known for its use of psychotropic substances on inmates. His wife Maya Nurlieva launches an appeal to denounce the persecution

The woman told Forum 18 that the court refused to give her a copy of the ruling issued on October 21, needed for an appeal to be lodged within 10 days, saying it would only be given to her husband, by court order of Judge Agajan Akjaev . Not even his lawyer has been given access to the written sentence.

Thus it has not been possible to appeal against the sentence to four years in prison for aggravated fraud, a charged based solely on very dubious testimonies of people who say they entrusted money to him. One of the witnesses, Aybolek Akmuradovna Gurbanov claimed to have given Nurliev money on January 1, 2010, but F18 found that on that date he was in prison on a previous conviction.

The trial was held behind closed doors, not even a single representative of the U.S. Embassy was allowed to attend.

Nurliev Light to the World Pentecostal Church, which the state has repeatedly refused to register. In the country unregistered religious groups can not hold activities, or even meet to pray.

The pastor is in jail since Aug. 27. The ruling also ordered that he be submitted to “forced medical treatment” like that of a drug addict, despite medical tests performed on October 5 showing that he does not need it. The fear is that he and Jehovah’s Witness Ahmet Hudaybergenov, also convicted, will be sent to Seydi labour camp, where there is evidence of torture against Baptist Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses prisoners with psychotropic drugs.

A letter dated October 21, 2010 from Doctor G. Gurtykov of Mary District Hospital says that Nurliev is registered as a blood donor, who are subjected to analysis and are not accepted if drug addicts.

The ruling also ordered the man to pay over 1,300 manat fine, equal to about two months of his salary. His wife was forced to immediately pay the sum.

Human rights activist Natalya Shabunts in an article published on November 2 in the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, has called Nurliev’s arrest and conviction “illegal”. The article praises the members of the Church because none of them have betrayed the pastor on false charges, despite the pressure received from police. “I hope — she says — to attract the attention of international organizations towards the arbitrary justice, for which anyone can be convicted on false charges”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Far East


China Denies ‘Hijacking’ Internet Traffic

China today denied US allegations that it “hijacked” highly sensitive internet traffic — including emails sent to and from US military websites — earlier this year.

A state-owned telecoms company in China had access to 15% of global internet traffic, including confidential emails from Nasa and the US army, for 18 minutes in April, according to an annual security report delivered to the US congress on Wednesday.

The report warned that the capture “could enable severe malicious activities” by China. The state-owned company accused of “hijacking” the encrypted information, China Telecom, today denied “any hijack of internet traffic”.

Online security experts say the capture represents “one of the biggest hijacks” of sensitive information in the history of the internet.

Relations between China and the US — number one and two in the world, respectively, in terms of internet users — have long been fraught when it comes to the web.

Earlier this year US technology giant Google said it was to stop censoring results on its Chinese search engine, following a sophisticated and allegedly state-sponsored cyber attack directed at the company. China earlier accused the US of making “groundless accusations” about restrictions on internet freedom against the country.

The US report said that some 15% of global internet traffic was routed through Chinese servers earlier this year, prompting worries that the country now has access to sensitive correspondence from US government bodies. US commissioner Larry Wortzel raised concerns on Wednesday that China would now “get the internet addresses of everybody that communicated” with the US armed services’ chiefs of staff.

The rerouting began at a smaller Chinese ISP called IDC China before being passed on to China Telecom, the report compiled by the US-China economic and security review commission claimed. Encrypted correspondence from the US senate, the department of defence and “many others” were among the huge amount of traffic captured by China.

Dmitri Alperovitch, a threat research analyst at internet security firm McAfee, said the capture “is one of the biggest — if not the biggest hijacks — we have ever seen”.

“No one except China Telecom operators” know what happened to the traffic during those 18 minutes, Alperovitch added. “The possibilities are numerous and troubling, but definitive answers are unknown.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


Prove it Was Me in the Burqa, Says Accused Woman

COVERED from head to toe in a burqa, with just a slit through which to see, a Muslim woman charged with making a false complaint to police now argues she has been a victim of mistaken identity.

Carnita Matthews was charged in June after allegedly falsely claiming that a highway patrol officer handled her in an attempt to see her burqa-hidden face during a random breath test.

She has pleaded not guilty.

After arriving at Campbelltown Local Court, in Sydney, yesterday with an identically dressed friend, Ms Matthews watched the in-car police video of her being pulled over and asked to lift the burqa so the officer could verify her licence photo.

The court was told that after being issued an infringement notice for not properly displaying her P-plates, the 46-year-old branded the officer “a racist” and claimed he only booked her because of what she was wearing.

“I’ve got my P-plates on my car … there was nothing wrong with how they were displayed,” Ms Matthews said on the video.

“You look at me and see me wearing this and you couldn’t handle it. All cops are racist.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


South Africa: Murdered Tourist Looking for ‘Real Africa’

Cape Town — The husband of murdered tourist Anni Dewani says she made the fatal decision to go into Gugulethu last Saturday night because she wanted to see the “real Africa”.

Speaking to UK tabloid The Sun, Briton Shrien Dewani, 31, revealed on Monday that his Swedish wife said she wanted a change from the “safe” region around their hotel, Cape Town’s luxury Cape Grace, where they were staying for their honeymoon.

“She had never been to Africa before, so she suggested that we should have a look at the ‘real Africa’,” Dewani told the newspaper.

“Anni grew up in Sweden, and she felt as if the area around the hotel was like at home, so clean and safe, and maybe a bit sterile.

According to The Sun, Anni was killed by a bullet which had severed an artery. She is also believed to have been sexually assaulted.

Township tourist hotspot

The couple are believed to have been heading to township tourist hotspot Mzoli’s Meat in Gugulethu at about 23:00 on Saturday night.

But an employee of Mzoli’s told News24 that they close at 19:00 every day.

Thabo Mbilatshwa of tour company Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory said this is because even the owner of Mzoli’s is aware of the dangers in Gugulethu at night.

The restaurant was recommended by UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in his magazine last year, when he described the food as “heaven” and “totally sexy”.

The couple were travelling in a shuttle car with a driver when they were stopped at traffic lights by two hijackers.

“The men kept saying, ‘We are not going to hurt you. We just want the car’. That was a lie,” Dewani told The Sun.

The attackers then dumped their driver and drove off with the couple.

‘We begged them to let us go’

He and Anni apparently begged their attackers to dump them together, but after about 20 minutes Shrien ended up being pushed out of the car.

Anni’s bloody body was later found in the car, which was in Khayelitsha.

Shrien said: “I don’t want to go into detail about what happened during the attack, because I will probably start crying. But they were so cold. They put a gun in my ear and pulled back the trigger — it really was the stuff of movies.

“Most of the conversation was us pleading to be dumped together. I held on to Anni as I said to them ‘Look, if you’re not going to hurt her, let us go’.”

Western Cape Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz said that police are close to catching the killers.

“We have found positive forensic evidence in the car and we know exactly who the person is,” Fritz said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Immigration


By 2066, White Britons ‘Will be Outnumbered’ If Immigration Continues at Current Rates

White Britons will be a minority by 2066 if immigration continues at the current rate, according to new research.

A leading population expert has warned that failure to deal with the influx of foreign workers would ‘change national identity’.

Professor David Coleman, of Oxford University, spoke out as the Migration Advisory Board recommended immigration levels from outside the EU be slashed by up to 25 per cent.

If immigration stays at its long-term rate of around 180,000 a year, the white British-born population would decline from 80 per cent of the total now to just 59 per cent in 2051, analysis of figures from the Office of National Statistics shows.

By then white immigrants would have more than doubled from 4 to 10 per cent of the total, while the ethnic minority population would have risen from 16 to 31 per cent.

Coalition told immigration levels should be slashed by up to 25%

If the trend continued, the white British population, defined as English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish-born citizens, would become the minority after about 2066.

The Migration Advisory Board suggested up to 12,600 fewer foreign visas should be handed out following complaints from businesses that the plans are hampering their ability to bring in key staff.

But even if the Coalition gets net immigration down to 80,000 a year, Prof Coleman says white Britons would be outnumbered by 2080.

In an article for Prospect magazine, he writes: ‘The 50 per cent benchmark has no special demographic significance, but it would have a considerable psychological and political impact.

‘The transition to a “majority minority” population, whenever it happens, would represent an enormous change to national identity — cultural, political, economic and religious.

‘In Britain, judging by the opposition to high immigration reported in opinion polls over recent years, it seems likely that such developments would be unwelcome.’

He warned that the relative youthfulness of the immigrant population means that the 50 per cent milestone will be passed much quicker among ‘schoolchildren, students and young workers’.

The ethnic minority population expanded by almost two million between 2001 and 2007, from 13 per cent to nearly 16 per cent of the total.

Immigration accounted for 57 per cent of population growth in this time, and foreign-born mothers now account for a quarter of births in England and Wales.

Both Leicester and Birmingham are expected to become ‘majority minority’ during the 2020s. Two London boroughs were already majority non-white in 2001.

Tory MP Nicholas Soames, who runs the cross-party group Balanced Migration, said: ‘Immigrants over the years have made a great contribution to British life but it’s now really out of control.

‘We must break the link between the right to work here and the right to settle here.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Far-Right Fringe Exploits European Coalitions

In the first of a series on the politics of immigration in Europe, Ian Traynor reveals how mainstream European parties appear paralysed by populism, unable to halt the rise of the far right

Europe’s mainstream political parties are engaged in a worsening feud over how to deal with the growing power of extreme rightwing anti-immigrant movements. Amid a backlash against immigration that has shaken Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden in recent months, governments of the centre-right or centre-left appear at a loss to counter the appeal of extremist populists who have moved from the madcap fringes of national politics into government, or propping up minority centrist coalitions.

A liberals-led coalition has just taken office in the Netherlands dependent on the parliamentary support of Geert Wilders, Europe’s leading Islam-baiter. In Denmark, another liberals-led government also relies on the anti-immigrant nationalists of the Danish People’s Party for survival. Last week, the DPP won a tightening of the most draconian immigration laws in Europe in return for agreeing to the government’s budget for next year.

Alarmed at the growing appeal of the far right, leaders of the centre-right and centre-left are struggling to form a coherent response. Attempts to construct a cross-party European anti-extremism pact are falling victim to the expediencies of national politics. “This is becoming a very hot political issue,” said a spokesman for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, a large grouping in the European parliament.

Last week Wilfried Martens, a former Belgian prime minister who leads the European People’s party which groups ruling Christian democrats in most of the EU, made approaches to social democrat and liberal leaders with the aim of forging a joint anti-extremist position.

“Martens wants a common approach of the political parties,” said his spokesman, Kostas Sasmatzoglou. “The phenomenon is growing and these far-right parties are getting stronger and stronger. We all face the same issue, but we should not be trying to score political points.”

The overture looks doomed. “I don’t see a solution in going hand-in-hand with the conservative parties,” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister who heads the pan-European association of social democratic parties, the Party of European Socialists (PES). “The conservatives are saying, ‘If you can’t beat the far right, join them,’“ he said.

Leading social democrats are to meet in Budapest on Wednesday to issue an appeal against deal-making with the far right. “It’s not about a cordon sanitaire,” said Rasmussen, referring to past failed policies of ostracising and ignoring the populists, particularly in Belgium and Austria. “It’s about confronting them.”

Last month, Europe’s social democrats endorsed a policy ruling out coalitions or electoral pacts “with a party inciting or attempting to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred at European or national levels”. The policy also rejected the forging of tacit parliamentary alliances with such parties, and the adoption of far- right policies that are proving popular. It demanded that all mainstream parties sign up to the principles.

But conservatives and liberals are already in bed with the far right in Denmark, Netherlands, and Italy. “We can’t dictate or intervene in domestic politics,” said Sasmatzoglou for the centre-right. “They are all different situations.”

Critics say that until earlier this year, Rasmussen and the PES were supporting a centre-left government in Slovakia that was in coalition with the extreme Slovak National party. Last week Turkey’s ambassador in Vienna denounced Austria’s governing social democrats for being too timid to attack the militant and increasingly popular anti-Muslim policies of the far-right Freedom party.

“There is a strong need for real political leadership to resist the ‘fortress Europe’ temptation and to avoid extremism and demagogy,” said Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs. “In a time of economic crisis, migrants are among the most vulnerable groups.”

The centre-left is losing support across Europe to the extreme right. Recent gains for the extremists have been at the expense of Sweden’s and Austria’s social democratic parties and the Dutch Labour party, with the far right prospering in cities with significant immigrant populations that traditionally voted for the left.

The anti-immigrant policy gains made in recent months look likely to continue. In Switzerland polls show majority support for a referendum this month demanding summary deportation of foreigners sentenced for petty crimes, not just for more serious crimes as up till now. The plebiscite is being organised by the rightwing Swiss People’s party, which a year ago won another referendum banning minarets.

In France there are growing calls within President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party for a merger with Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front. A poll last month showed one-third of UMP voters backed joint electoral pacts with the National Front. In Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi is in coalition with the far-right Northern League, the interior minister has announced a new crackdown on expelling EU citizens who cannot support themselves, a policy aimed at east European Roma and aping Sarkozy’s summer expulsions in France. Denmark’s tightened immigration laws should deploy a new weapon — bare breasts — to deter newcomers, the far-right People’s party said last week. A documentary film on Denmark that is shown to immigrants as part of the test for entry should include topless bathers, said Peter Skaarup, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman. “If you’re coming from a strict, religious society that might make you stop and think: ‘Oh no,’“ he told the newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. “Topless bathing probably isn’t a common sight on Pakistani beaches. I honestly believe “

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Spain Outrage Over Migrant Bombing Game

Spain’s main opposition party has provoked howls of outrage for producing a video game which invites players to bomb illegal immigrants.

The video game, Rescue, was launched on the website of the conservative Popular Party as part of the party’s campaign for regional elections in Catalonia.

It was removed hours after its launch, with the PP saying the developer did not follow instructions properly.

But opponents say the party has betrayed xenophobic leanings.

In the game, Alicia Sanchez-Camacho — the president of the PP branch in Catalonia — is depicted riding a white seagull called Pepe. She is dubbed Alicia Croft, in a reference to Lara Croft, the heroine of the popular video game Tomb Raider.

Points are awarded to players when they direct the bird to bomb aircraft containing illegal immigrants or symbols of Catalan nationalism.

Thousands of web users signed up to play the online game — which was also available in a mobile version — when it was launched on Tuesday, crashing the site, reported El Pais newspaper.

But only hours later it was removed from the website, and on Wednesday the PP issued a statement blaming the manufacturer for failing to follow directions.

Instead of bombing migrants, the PP said, the seagull should have targeted the organised crime groups that traffic them.

Popular Party spokesman Esteban Gonzalez Pon said the “realisation” of the video game “had not been as good as the original idea”.

“It was a mistake,” AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

“The idea was to have Sanchez-Camacho confront Catalonia’s problems, which are unemployment, the independentist fever at the situation of many people without work, and the mafias that brought them here and keep them here,” he told reporters.

“It’s just a game,” Ms Sanchez-Camacho was reported as saying, but her political opponents have lined up to condemn the party over the incident.

The deputy general secretary of the ruling Socialist Workers’ Party, Jose Blanco, has urged the party not to associate itself with a “xenophobic current” or become an apologist for violence, reported Spanish news agency Efe.

Montserrat Tura, a member of the Catalan parliament, said it was “unacceptable that in such serious matters the PP makes video games which incite violence against and the elimination of those who are not them”.

Artur Mas, the candidate for the Catalan nationalist party Convergence and Union, commented that “who plays with fire ends up getting burned”, Efe said, while fellow rival candidates in the 28 November elections also denounced the game.

Immigration is a sensitive issue in Spain.

Migrants flocked to Spain to take up jobs created in the construction boom, but nearly one in three are now estimated to be jobless following the collapse of the industry amid the global recession.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



Stop Being So Generous to Migrants: French Plea to Britain After Dunkirk Suburb is Over-Run

The mayor of a French village invaded by migrants has called on Britain to halt handouts to deter them from crossing the Channel.

His comments came after makeshift tents appeared in the Dunkirk suburb of Teteghem, which is less than five miles from the main port.

Fears are growing there that it could become the site of a new ‘Jungle’ — the infamous ghetto in nearby Calais which was torn down last year.

Franck Dhersin, a former MP and adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, says his village cannot cope, and pointed the finger at Britain’s benefits system. e told the Daily Mail: ‘The reason the migrants keep coming to France and slipping over the Channel is because the UK is too generous with them. Stop giving them money and a place to live and they will soon go somewhere else. End of problem.’

He revealed that his village was currently home to 200 Afghans, Iraqis, Kurds, Sudanese, Vietnamese, Eritreans and Palestinians.

‘For the past four weeks, numbers of migrants camping out have been increasing by 50 per week. At this rate within a month we will have another Calais Jungle on our doorsteps,’ he said.

‘I regularly visit the migrants and they all tell me they want to go to England.

‘Why? The reason is simple. They have money and a place to stay as soon as they arrive.

‘England has done a lot to help the situation by setting up police and Customs over here, but the problem still remains.

‘Since they razed the Calais Jungle last year the situation has changed,’ added Mr Dhersin.

‘Now, instead of choosing Calais, the migrants are trying Dunkirk and the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend.’

He said that Teteghem was an ideal squat location for migrants because it is next to the motorway linking France to Belgium and very close to the port of Dunkirk.

‘The reason they are here is because the people-smugglers have charged them money to camp here. The smugglers are dangerous and very violent. Last week a Vietnamese man stabbed another man and the week before that there was a shooting.’

Already migrants have been knocking on doors asking for water and power to charge their mobile phones, said the mayor.

‘We are a small village with a population of 7,500. The migrants are hardened people. They have travelled thousands of miles to get here.

‘They have nothing to lose and will stop at nothing to get what they need’, he added.

‘Something has got to be done, but in the long term the problem must be solved in Britain. We are just victims of a British problem here.’

Francoise Lavoisier, of the Salam migrant charity, said: ‘Lots of the migrants used to live in the Jungle. They are trying to go to Britain because they think it’s an Eldorado.’

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Darwen Dad Told His Opinion Doesn’t Count at Asylum Seeker Hearing

A GRIEVING dad was told his views ‘would not count’ over whether the asylum seeker who left his daughter dying in the road will be deported.

Paul Houston attended the immigration hearing today hoping to read a letter explaining the impact on his family since 12-year-old Amy’s death in November 2003.

But he was left in tears after being denied the chance to express his views.

After seeing how upset Mr Houston, 41, was, senior immigration judge Deborah Taylor agreed to take the letter but told him it would not count in her judgment.

Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, an Iraqi, left Amy dying under the wheels of his Rover car in Blackburn after she ran into the road.

Ibrahim was disqualified from driving and had already exhausted all his appeals to stay in the country.

After the hearing, Mr Houston, an engineer from Darwen, said: “I hope the letter means something to them.

“Amy was my only child. She was my family.

“My life has been destroyed by what’s happened.

“But I still have to keep the faith that this appeal can be won.”…

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Government’s Own Immigration Watchdog Says Numbers Must be Cut by a Quarter

Tens of thousands of students and foreign workers must be refused visas every year if the government is to meet its promises on immigration, experts said yesterday.

A report for the Home Office showed the huge challenge ministers face in slashing net migration — the difference between the numbers arriving in the UK and those leaving — by around 150,000 by 2015.

The number of non-EU students arriving each year will need to be cut by almost 60 per cent — with around 87,000 fewer visas issued.

Between 13 and 25 per cent fewer work permits will have to be given to non-EU workers, the report said.

The Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee also warned there will need to be sharp reductions in immigrants allowed into the UK for ‘family reunion’ reasons — such as marriage.

[Return to headlines]



UK: More Than 100 Failed Asylum Seekers Have Gone Missing in Six Months After Being Ordered to Leave the Country

At least 100 failed asylum seekers have gone missing after being ordered to leave the UK since May, figures showed today.

A total of 176 unsuccessful asylum applicants absconded after authorities served them with removal notices, and a maximum of 75 have been tracked down since.

But the figure of 101 unaccounted for may be higher because of the way records are kept.

Tory MP David Nuttall, who uncovered the figures, said there could be ‘hundreds’ of failed asylum seekers in the country and that it was ‘pointless’ to tell people to leave if they could not be forced to do so.

The UK Border Agency said it makes ‘strenuous efforts’ to stop failed asylum seekers from absconding and that measures are in place to try and track them down.

In a written parliamentary reply to Mr Nuttall (Bury North), immigration minister Damian Green said 176 failed asylum seekers absconded between May 1 and October 31 this year after being served with removal notices.

Home Office figures showed 32 had subsequently been detained, 19 removed or embarked, and 24 had subsequently lodged a new application for asylum. But officials said the same individuals could be counted in more than one of the categories.

In the same period for 2009, 265 absconded with 94 subsequently detained, 43 removed or embarked, and 66 new applications lodged — leaving at least 62 unaccounted for.

‘This is evidence that there are hundreds of failed asylum seekers somewhere in the country and we know not where,’ Mr Nuttall said. ‘The vast majority of my constituents expect that once asylum seekers have exhausted the appeals process, and it has been determined that they do not have the right to be here, that they would properly be removed.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

General


Breakthrough: Mysterious Antimatter Created and Captured

Scientists have created antimatter in the form of antihydrogen, demonstrating how it’s possible to capture and release it.

The development could help researchers devise laboratory experiments to learn more about this strange substance, which mostly disappeared from the universe shortly after the Big Bang 14 billion years ago.

Trapping any form of antimatter is difficult, because as soon as it meets normal matter — the stuff Earth and everything on it is made out of — the two annihilate each other in powerful explosions.

In a new study, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva were able to create 38 antihydrogen atoms and preserve each for more than one-tenth of a second. The project was part of the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus) experiment, an international collaboration that includes physicists from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

The antihydrogen atoms are composed of a positron (an antimatter electron) orbiting an antiproton nucleus.

“We are getting close to the point at which we can do some classes of experiments on the properties of antihydrogen,” said Joel Fajans, a University of California, Berkeley professor of physics, and LBNL faculty scientist. “Since no one has been able to make these types of measurements on antimatter atoms at all, it’s a good start.”

Antimatter, first predicted by physicist Paul Dirac in 1931, has the opposite charge of normal matter and annihilates completely in a flash of energy upon interaction with normal matter. Antimatter is produced during high-energy particle interactions on Earth and in some decays of radioactive elements.

In 1955, University of California, Berkeley physicists Emilio Segre and Owen Chamberlain created antiprotons in the Bevatron accelerator at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now called Lawrence Berkeley), confirming their existence and earning the scientists the 1959 Nobel Prize in physics.

To create antihydrogen and keep it from immediately annihilating, the ALPHA team cooled antiprotons and compressed them into a matchstick-size cloud. Then the researchers nudged this cloud of cold, compressed antiprotons so it overlapped with a like-size positron cloud, where the two particles mated to form antihydrogen.

All this happened inside a magnetic bottle that traps the antihydrogen atoms. The magnetic trap is a specially configured magnetic field that uses an unusual and expensive superconducting magnet to prevent the antimatter particles from running into the edges of the bottle — which is made of normal matter and would annihilate with the antimatter on contact.

“For the moment, we keep antihydrogen atoms around for at least 172 milliseconds — about a sixth of a second — long enough to make sure we have trapped them,” said Jonathan Wurtele, a University of California, Berkeley professor of physics and LBNL faculty scientist.

The team’s results will be published online Nov. 17 in the journal Nature.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101117

Financial Crisis
» “There Will be a World War Over Currency”
» Australia Wages Turn Higher, Ominous for Rates
» Barroso Says Netherlands Damages EU for Rejecting Budget
» Brüderle: EU Can’t ‘Throw Money’ At Debt Crisis
» Felix Salmon: The Case Against QE
» G.M. Shares Said to be Priced at $33, Raising More Than $22 Billion in Biggest U.S. Initial Offering
» Government Employees Owe Billions in Delinquent Taxes
» Greece’s Toothless Battle Against Corruption
» Greek Rescue Frays as Irish Crisis Drags on
» Real Perils: Debt Limit, EPA’s GHG Rule, ‘Green’ California
» ‘The Irish Should Stop Bashing Those Who Want to Help Them’
» The Fed is There to Serve the US, Not China
» The Horrible Truth Starts to Dawn on Europe’s Leaders
 
USA
» Dolan Chosen as President of U.S. Bishops’ Group
» House Democrats Re-Elect Pelosi as Their Leader
» Religion Offers No Break on Airport Screening, TSA Says
» Right of the Boom
» Terror Suspect Cleared of All Charges Except for One Count of Conspiracy
» The Big Disconnect: D.C. Elites Think Obama Will be Reelected, But the Public Doubts it
» The New American Citizen
» Will “Buy Fresh”; “Buy Local” Survive the FDA?
 
Europe and the EU
» Britain Extends the White Flag of Surrender to Islamist Radicals
» Clinton Critical of Religious Freedom in Europe
» Germany: Politician Demands More Police in Muslim Areas
» Germany: De Maizière Warns of Imminent Terror Attacks
» Germany Tightens Airport Security Over Attacks Threat
» Italy: Mafia Writer-Minister Row Escalates
» More and More Greeks Seek Work in Turkey
» Netherlands: Discontent Within Christenunie on Leftwing Course
» Pope: Episcopal Conferences Do Not Strip Bishops’ Role
» Ryanair Crew Lock Toilets, Turn Out Lights and Leave Plane as Re-Routed Passengers Stage Four-Hour Sit-in
» Sweden: Chlamydia ‘Refuseniks’ Face Police Round Up
» Sweden Green Lights ‘Fingerprint Time Clocks’
» UK: Five Muslim Boys and White Girl, All 12, Excluded Over Facebook Death Threats to Classmate Who Supported British Troops
» UK: Religion is Seen as ‘Irrelevant, Old-Fashioned and Violent’, Warns Former Met Chief
 
Mediterranean Union
» Algerian Writer Shows Different Side of Italy
 
North Africa
» CBN Exclusive Video: Al Qaeda Training in North Africa
» Egypt: Christian Girls Forced to Convert, Luxor Bishop
» Egypt: Vodafone Drops Muslim Scientist Ad After Complaints
» Muslims Torch Christian Homes in Egypt
 
Middle East
» BBC Series on Rafiq Al-Hariri Pulled as Tension Rises in Lebanon
» Stakelbeck on Terror Show Exclusive: The Iran/Venezuela Axis
» The Left’s Delusion Over Islam is Baffling to Middle Eastern Christians
» Turkish Journalist Charged With Insulting Prosecutor by Calling Him ‘Postmodern’
» US Writer Shows Her Love for Turkey With New Book
 
Russia
» From AEI: Putin’s Agenda and Medvedev’s Dilemma
 
South Asia
» Pakistan Mosque Shootout Wounds 18 Over Dispute Which Cleric Should Lead Holiday Prayers
 
Far East
» China’s African Safari Strictly Business
» Meeting Decline Face-to-Face
 
Immigration
» France Sees Tensions Rise Five Years on From Paris Riots
» Spain: PP Candidate is Anti-Immigrant Heroine in Videogame
» Sweden Stops Plane of Deported Iraqis
 
Culture Wars
» Canada: Carleton Student Association Bans Anti-Abortion Club
» New Forbidden Word in School
 
General
» The World Must Not Allow Islam-Muslim Murder Decrees in a Civilized Society

Financial Crisis


“There Will be a World War Over Currency”

The great dissident looks at the impact of the disastrous G20 on the currency issue. The existing economic system has favoured financial interests and Chinese capitalists, but has impoverished the peoples of China and America. Wei warns that if “the big capitalists of both China and the USA” are not stopped, disaster could follow.

Washington (AsiaNews) — The so-called G-20 Summit opened in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, on 11 November. Expectations for this meeting by the international community were very high, because it was considered as an important opportunity to solve the current economic crisis. Almost all the major news media in the world gave their unanimous pre-summit assessment of the need to solve the issue of the Chinese currency, the renmimbi (yuan). Otherwise, the summit would be considered as a failure.

Renmimbi and labour costs

Why is the renmimbi exchange rate so important? Why is this issue related to the recovery of the global economy? To answer these questions, we need to start from the reasons for the global economic recession. Now we all see the global economic recession started from the economic recession in the United States and Europe. The economic recession in developed countries started from the huge trade deficit year after year. There are many reasons for this huge trade deficit, but two stand out. One is cheap labour; the other is that the Chinese currency renmimbi is far lower than the market price.

Cheap labour causes increased competition. This is acceptable to all. With the accumulation of capital and the increase of skill levels, the labour costs should also gradually increase. Gradually, the whole society would enjoy the fruits of economic growth and the extraordinary competitive advantages would become more balanced. This situation is not only a normal and sustainable development model, but also a model, which is conducive to global economic development.

Brazil, India, and a number of developing countries use this type of development model. Therefore, while their economy develops, their national standard of living also grows, synchronized to expand the domestic market. This development is a positive factor for the economies of these developing countries. We could call this is a win-win development model.

However, this development model also has drawbacks. The disadvantage is that wages increase in synchrony with the economy, which is not favoured for big capitalists to make excess profits, and is not favoured for the growth of billionaires. As a government for the big capitalists using “the few to get rich first” model, the Chinese government under the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership took a totally different path: the so-called “China model.”

The “China Model”

The “China Model” is to maintain the lowest possible labour costs and not to develop the domestic market, while maintaining economic development. This approach sacrifices the national income of the people in an effort to guarantee the price gap with the international market, and so create the best conditions for the big capitalists. One cannot reach such a goal by simply suppressing the labour movement. That is because the market will automatically adjust the exchange rate along with the economic development, thus resulting in the rise of real wages. That is to say, if the government does not interfere with the rising of the Chinese currency renmimbi, people’s real purchasing power will keep rising. The benefits created by economic growth will automatically be delivered to the pockets of every member of society as it balances.

But this way will not only result in the pockets of the big capitalists shrinking, but also make it more difficult to buy major Western enterprises. To unite with the big capitalists in the world in an effort to defend the dictatorial regime of the Chinese Communist Party has become basic national policy of the Communist Party. Thus, the policy of keeping a super-low price for the renmimbi by manipulating the exchange rates comes into play. This is the so-called the “China model.” By the way, this policy is not the invention of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, but a policy started all way back in the Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang era.

Decline of Western economies

This policy of manipulating the price of the renmimbi is very effective. In particular, after China obtained free export rights, or say after it received the so-called most favoured nation treatment, a large number of low-quality goods flooded the developed countries markets with super low prices. As it destroyed the industries of the Western countries, it did not increase export to China, nor create a market for the superior industrial products of the Western countries. Therefore, naturally, the West’s economy gradually declined, while financial capital was in constant growth. The result is the characteristic of this global economic crisis: as the money seemed to be growing, the market has been rapidly shrinking. The big capitalists have their wealth and numbers increased, while the number of the poor people is also rapidly growing.

Due to the lobbying of Western big business, the Western politicians have been afraid to talk about this very obvious problem. However, the Western countries are democratic after all and they have freedom of speech, and the ultimate decision-making power rests in the hands of the people. In the past decade, this serious problem has been discussed more and more by the ordinary people and the media, to the extent that the politicians cannot avoid it.

With this year’s US mid-term elections as a turning point, the issue of the Chinese currency renmimbi exchange rate resulted in a miserable defeat of the Democratic Party. Finally, the US government felt compelled to address this fundamental issue, which has a serious impact on the global economy. To Western politicians, campaign contributions are important, yet of less importance and less direct than votes. Also, while democracy does not guarantee the selection of the most caring politician, it does ensure that the people can control the politicians, can force the politicians to care more for the people. This is the reason that the Obama administration has to address seriously the renmimbi exchange rate issue. In this situation, the Chinese Communist government’s policy of buying the Western big capitalists is not very useful.

Before the mid-term elections in the United States, all sectors expected the defeat of the Democratic Party. After the election, the US government immediately took measures to create a weaker dollar. In the past, the Obama administration has collaborated with the Chinese Communist government like a two-man show. As it faced an increased pressure of public opinion, it continued to send officials to China for negotiations seeming to be very concerned about the renmimbi exchange rate issue. Then, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao would pretend to be overbearing, thus the issue did not get solved. The result was that the big capitalists of both China and the United States could continue to make big money, while the ordinary people of both China and the USA have continued to be poor and the global economic recession has continued.

“Third World War”

Now, the American people have forced the Obama administration to choose between campaign contributions and votes. All of a sudden, the US government seems capable of working toward a solution. Indeed, while the renmimbi is under Premier Wen’s control, control of international finance remains in the United States. The control of the Chinese Communist Party really is not as great as they showed in the two-man show. Therefore, as soon as the US government started action, the dollar depreciated immediately. Exports are expected to increase immediately while imports are expected to slow down quickly, and employment should increase rapidly. A sensational French newspaper called it World War III. This time, it is not a nuclear war, but the currency war.

We can already predict the outcome of this war. The still most powerful United States, united with the majority of countries, will defeat the alliance of economic Fascists. These bumptious big capitalists in China are absolutely not an opponent to Western democracy. The G20 meeting is the last negotiation before the war. The United States has laid out the battlefield: there will be an appreciation of the renmimbi if the Chinese government is willing to negotiate; there will also be an appreciation of the renmimbi if it is not willing. However, the consequences of “with negotiation” and “without negotiation” are totally different.

If Chinese government takes the initiative to raise the value of the renmimbi, and opens up China’s domestic market to imports, then the trade war between China and the United States will subside, the global economy will start to recover, and domestic inflation in China will rapidly subside. This trade balance would be of great value, and will not cause any harm not only to China, but also to the world. Of course, the wealth of the big capitalists will shrink, while the gap between the rich and poor will narrow. However, it is very likely that Wen Jiabao will continue to resist this path.

The result of his resistance is that while there will be a world war on currency, countries will also begin to take measures like put up trade barriers. Then China’s exports will decrease and its economy will slow down while inflation will continue to rise until people cannot bear it any more. China itself will experience civil strife. When it is no good for the people, will it be good for the Communist Party?

I hope people with breadth of vision inside the Chinese Communist Party will think carefully, with a cool and clear mind. Which is more important, the immediate wealth of the big capitalists or the continued survival of the country?

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Australia Wages Turn Higher, Ominous for Rates

The government’s measure of total hourly pay excluding bonuses, known as the wage price index, rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter. That topped forecasts for a 1.0 percent increase and was the biggest rise since the last quarter of 2008.

The annual pace of wage growth picked up to 3.5 percent, from 3.0 percent, the fastest pace in over a year. That should be a boon to household incomes and consumption, but it could also add to cost pressures at a time when a mining boom is already heating up the economy.

“This acceleration in wages will get the Reserve Bank’s attention — it underlines everything they’ve been saying about future inflation pressure,” said Brian Redican, a senior economist at Macquarie.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) took a pre-emptive strike against inflation this month by lifting its cash rate 25 basis points to 4.75 percent, and further gradual tightening is expected over the coming year.

[…]

Some of the immediate pressure on wages could be lessened by a sharp rise in the number of people looking for work, which lifted the participation rate to a record peak of 65.9 percent in October.

As a result the jobless rate actually climbed 0.3 percentage points last month to 5.4 percent, even as employment grew at a blistering annual pace of 3.4 percent.

Analysts, however, doubt the participation can stretch much higher and expect unemployment to dip under 5 percent next year, lows that have fuelled inflation in the past.

“With the economy heating up and business investment surging, unemployment is certain to fall to 5 percent and lower next year,” said Felicity Emmett, an economist at RBS.

“That means the RBA has further to tighten, though the extent will depend greatly on what the banks do with their lending rates,” she added.

[…]

[Return to headlines]



Barroso Says Netherlands Damages EU for Rejecting Budget

BRUSSELS, 17/11/10 — The European Commission says that the Netherlands has inflicted damage on the EU by rejecting the EU budget for 2011. The Hague is responding with a shrug of the shoulders.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso said yesterday that he “regrets that a small number of member states was not prepared to negotiate in the spirit of Europe.” Those that believe they achieved a victory over ‘Brussels’ have shot themselves in the foot, the EC president declared. “They must know that they have inflicted a blow on people throughout Europe.”

Due to the opposition of the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden, the European Parliament failed to reach agreement with the EU member states on the EU budget for 2011 during a meeting in Brussels on Monday. Following this failed final mediation effort, the European Commission is forced to draw up a new budget, decision-making about which could take months.

The European Parliament wanted more say in the EU budgets. The MEPs were pushing for a greater role in the discussions about the financing of the EU over the long term, as part of which a European tax is being considered. In exchange for this, the MEPs wanted to accept the demand by the member states to raise the budget next year by a maximum of 2.91 percent to 126.5 billion euros.

“The budget increase of 2.91 percent was already a big concession from our side,” said EU Affairs State Secretary Ben Knapen yesterday. The Hague was originally for a zero increase, like the UK, he recalled. The state secretary said it was no disaster that the budget for 2011 is now not finalised. “The world will not come to an end.”

Finance Minister also rejected Barroso’s criticisms. “I am really not going to blow hot or cold about this criticism. The Netherlands has been a generous partner, but we do have a limit: thus far and no further,” he said.

“If you are against something as a country, you must always be able to be against it, without pressure,” added De Jager. “This was very important for the Netherlands, that the EU budget should not continue to go up enormously. If we have to tighten our belts here, then this also has to happen in Europe.”

According to the Dutch centre-left (D66) MEP Gerben Jan Gerbrandy, the Netherlands has taken the most “rabid” position of all EU member states. “The Netherlands led the resistance, the United Kingdom and Sweden followed.” He bases this on information from a fellow-MEP who was involved with the talks with the member states.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Brüderle: EU Can’t ‘Throw Money’ At Debt Crisis

German Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle warned on Tuesday that the EU cannot simply “throw money” at the spiralling debt crisis within the 16-nation eurozone.

“You can’t just throw money from helicopters … You have to create confidence in institutions, in the state, in public authorities,” Brüderle told reporters while visiting Rome, speaking in German with an Italian translation.

Brüderle said it was up to the Irish government to ask for assistance from the International Monetary Fund or from European funds.

He called on eurozone economies like Greece and Ireland to engage in deficit-reducing reforms “in order not to require assistance any more. The European community as a whole has an interest in finding a way to have guarantees of a solution when there are difficulties,” he added.

He said the situation in Italy was less dramatic.

The European Commission on Tuesday said it was holding talks with the IMF and the European Central Bank to resolve the Irish banking crisis.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy warned early that the 27-nation bloc’s very future could be at stake.

“If we don’t survive with the eurozone we will not survive with the European Union,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Felix Salmon: The Case Against QE

An impressive group of right-leaning technocrats has signed an open letter to Ben Bernanke, objecting to his adoption of QE2. And it’s hard to disagree with what they have to say:

We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment.

It seems clear that the G20 meeting in Seoul achieved absolutely nothing largely because of the unfortunate timing of Bernanke’s QE2 announcement. It overshadowed everything else, it put Obama on the defensive, and it made it impossible for the G20 to agree on anything. I don’t think that the FOMC anticipated the volume of the international criticism of U.S. policy, and that alone is reason to reconsider what they’re doing. After all, if a policy designed to increase confidence only serves to increase mistrust, it probably isn’t working.

QE isn’t necessary: there’s no immediate and obvious harm which will befall the U.S. if it’s discontinued. If it doesn’t increase employment or decrease unemployment, there’s certainly no reason to do it. And so far the evidence that QE has any effect on employment is slim at best. So yes, there’s a case to be made that QE should be discontinued.

The letter continues:…

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]



G.M. Shares Said to be Priced at $33, Raising More Than $22 Billion in Biggest U.S. Initial Offering

General Motors has set the offering price for its shares at $33 each, raising more than $22 billion and setting a record for the largest initial public offering in American history, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

The offering will cut the government’s stake in the company by more than half, to about 26 percent, and speed up the Obama administration’s efforts to remove itself entirely from the company, a goal that G.M. has also avidly sought. Strong demand for the company’s shares allowed a larger amount of the government’s stake to be sold than originally expected.

G.M. will return to the stock market as a public company on Thursday morning, almost 18 months after it filed for government-directed bankruptcy protection to shed billions of dollars in debt and reshape its business. The government’s stake in the company stemmed from that intervention, which injected $49 billion in public money into the company; $7 billion has since been repaid.

[Return to headlines]



Government Employees Owe Billions in Delinquent Taxes

[…]

The federal agency with the largest back-tax bill? The US Postal Service, where hundreds of thousands of employees owed a total of more than $283 million, said the report.

Also high on the list is the Department of Veterans Affairs, where employees had more than $156 million in back taxes.

The biggest group, though, is retired military personnel. That group owed more than $1.5 billion dollars.

And even the White House folks are behind in their taxes. Employees in the executive office of the president, which includes nearly 2,000 employees, owed more than $831,000 to Uncle Sam, the IRS found.

The large agency with the highest delinquency rate per employee was the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, where more than 11 percent of employees owed back taxes, followed by the Government Printing Office, where nearly seven percent were in arrears.

[…]

[Return to headlines]



Greece’s Toothless Battle Against Corruption

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is doing his best to ward off national bankruptcy. But not all government agencies are cooperating. The country’s justice system refuses to file charges in hundreds of prominent corruption cases.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Greek Rescue Frays as Irish Crisis Drags on

The clash caught markets off-guard and heightened fears that Europe’s debt crisis may be escalating, with deep confusion over the Irish crisis as Dublin continues to resist EU pressure to request its own rescue.

Olli Rehn, the EU economics commissioner, said escalating rhetoric in Europe was turning dangerous. “I want to call on every responsible European to resist the centrifugal tendencies and existential alarmism.”

Swirling rumours hit eurozone bond markets, while bourses tumbled across the world. The FTSE 100 fell 2.4pc to 5681.9, and the Dow dropped over 200 points in early trading. The euro slid two cents to $1.3460 against the dollar as the US currency regained its safe-haven status.

Austria’s finance minister Josef Proll said he was “very critical” of Greece’s performance, saying Athens had failed to meet the tax revenue targets agreed under the EU Memorandum.

Credit default swaps on Greek debt rocketed 97 basis points to 950 as investors woke up to the awful possibility that the EU could turn its back on Athens, which will run out of money by mid-January without loans. A Greek default would trigger $300bn (£188bn) worth of CDS contracts.

A ‘Troika’ of EU-IMF inspectors is currently in Greece but has not indicated whether the next €6.5bn (£5.5bn) tranche will be approved. German influence is crucial, yet Greek premier George Papandreou courted fate on Monday when he accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of driving the weaker EMU states into bankruptcy by scaring investors with talk of “haircuts”.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Real Perils: Debt Limit, EPA’s GHG Rule, ‘Green’ California

Catch up quickly: Read these summaries on Raising the Debt Limit, the similarities between the US and Weimar Germany, urgent necessity to rein in the job-killing EPA:

[…]

Of course, the overarching priority must be the defanging of Obamacare through the appropriations process, followed by its repeal.

The Tea Partiers, in our experience, are primarily concerned about the restoration of freedom. As Mark Steyn reminds us: “Government health care would be wrong even if it ‘controlled costs.’ It’s a liberty issue. I’d rather be free to choose, even if I make the wrong choices.”

These are four (counting Obamacare) serious and exigent challenges to which Tea Partiers and conservatives will want to give serious thought and then URGE APPROPRIATE ACTION…

[Return to headlines]



‘The Irish Should Stop Bashing Those Who Want to Help Them’

The Irish government insists it does not require a bailout, even as a team of EU and IMF experts heads to Dublin for talks. Yet aid could also come from another quarter, in the form of Ireland’s neighbor Britain. Meanwhile, the German press is divided on whether Berlin shares some of the blame for Ireland’s woes.

On Tuesday, embattled Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan fended off pressure from other euro-zone member states to seek a bailout package from the stability fund established by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund earlier this year. Yet Dublin may not be able to hold out for much longer.

The imminent arrival of IMF and EU experts in Dublin for what are being described as “short and focused discussions” starting on Thursday could see Ireland eventually tap into the fund, though on Tuesday night, following a meeting of euro-zone foreign ministers in Brussels, Lenihan was still insisting that such a bailout was “not inevitable.”

Speaking to public broadcaster RTE on Wednesday morning, Lenihan said Ireland would accept EU support if the banking crisis was too big for the country to fix on its own. “Ireland is a small country and if the banking problems in the country are too big for this small country to manage, Europe is making it clear that they will help and help in every possible way to secure the system,” Lenihan said.

Dublin’s preferred option is to confine any rescue deal to help with the enormous costs of propping up the Irish banking sector, which has been practically demolished by huge losses incurred from the collapse of the real estate bubble. A wider bailout would be regarded as a humiliation for an already deeply unpopular government which, due to its wafer-thin majority, is unlikely to survive a full legislative period.

Not Just a Bank Bailout

Speaking to the Dáil, the Irish lower house of parliament, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Brian Cowen again denied that the government was in negotiations for a bailout. “What we want to concentrate on now is in a focused way, over the coming days, to sit down and see in what way can assistance be provided to ensure that these issues can be dealt with properly and appropriately in present circumstances.”

However, euro-zone sources have told Reuters that once the joint mission completes its work there is an agreement in principle that aid would be triggered — and that this would not just be for the banks. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has already said a decision would be taken in days not months and that help needed to be seen in a broad context. “We should not qualify this as a plan to help the banks,” she said.

The fateful decision by Lenihan in 2008 to guarantee all deposits and debts in the Irish banking sector and the subsequent nationalization of three banks has already cost the state €45 billion ($ 61 billion) and pushed the nation’s 2010 deficit to a staggering 32 percent of gross domestic product. The government has already slashed public spending and the country is braced for another tough budget on Dec. 7, when a further €6 billion in tax hikes and public spending cuts are to be announced. In addition, the government is to present a four-year budgetary plan next week to Brussels.

Yet the Irish commitment to tough austerity measures has not placated the markets, and concerns over the costs of rescuing the banks have pushed up the borrowing costs not just for Ireland but for other vulnerable nations such as Portugal and Spain, and threatens to destabilize the common currency. On Tuesday, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy even warned that the EU was in a “survival crisis” due to the difficulties facing the euro.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Fed is There to Serve the US, Not China

As ye sow, thus shall ye reap. The mercantalism of Chinese economic policy in pegging the yuan to the dollar is rebounding, as eventually it was bound to, in now quite serious levels of Chinese inflation. Overnight, Wen Jiaboa, the Chinese premier, hinted at price controls and further rises in interest rates to stem the tide.

Yet he’s really only got himself to blame for what’s going on. The downside of pegging the yuan to the dollar is that China has to accept the influence of ultra-loose US monetary policy, which is plainly wholly inappropriate for an economy racing away at 10 per cent per annum growth rates.

It’s no wonder the Chinese have been the biggest complainants about the Fed’s latest bout of quantitative easing. It’s the very last thing that China needs right now. Yet there is a very simple solution to China’s troubles. All they have to do is disengage from the dollar and let the yuan appreciate. But they won’t, because they worry that this will destroy the competitiveness of their export industries, and with it, millions of jobs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Horrible Truth Starts to Dawn on Europe’s Leaders

The entire European Project is now at risk of disintegration, with strategic and economic consequences that are very hard to predict.

In a speech this morning, EU President Herman Van Rompuy (poet, and writer of Japanese and Latin verse) warned that if Europe’s leaders mishandle the current crisis and allow the eurozone to break up, they will destroy the European Union itself.

“We’re in a survival crisis. We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone, because if we don’t survive with the euro zone we will not survive with the European Union,” he said.

Well, well. This theme is all too familiar to readers of The Daily Telegraph, but it comes as something of a shock to hear such a confession after all these years from Europe’s president.

He is admitting that the gamble of launching a premature and dysfunctional currency without a central treasury, or debt union, or economic government, to back it up — and before the economies, legal systems, wage bargaining practices, productivity growth, and interest rate sensitivity, of North and South Europe had come anywhere near sustainable convergence — may now backfire horribly.

Jacques Delors and fellow fathers of EMU were told by Commission economists in the early 1990s that this reckless adventure could not work as constructed, and would lead to a traumatic crisis. They shrugged off the warnings.

They were told too that currency unions do not eliminate risk: they merely switch it from currency risk to default risk. For that reason it was all the more important to have a workable mechanism for sovereign defaults and bondholder haircuts in place from the beginning, with clear rules to establish the proper pricing of that risk.

But no, the EU masters would hear none of it. There could be no defaults, and no preparations were made or even permitted for such an entirely predictable outcome. Political faith alone was enough. Investors who should have known better walked straight into the trap, buying Greek, Portuguese, and Irish debt at 25-35 basis points over Bunds. At the top of boom funds were buying Spanish bonds at a spread of 4 basis points. Now we are seeing what happens when you build such moral hazard into the system, and shut down the warning thermostat.

Mr Delors told colleagues that any crisis would be a “beneficial crisis”, allowing the EU to break down resistance to fiscal federalism, and to accumulate fresh power. The purpose of EMU was political, not economic, so the objections of economists could happily be disregarded. Once the currency was in existence, EU states would have give up national sovereignty to make it work over time. It would lead ineluctably to the Monnet dream of a fully-fledged EU state. Bring the crisis on.

Behind this gamble, of course, was the assumption that any crisis could be contained at a tolerable cost once the imbalances of EMU’s one-size-fits-none monetary system had already reached catastrophic levels, and once the credit bubbles of Club Med and Ireland had collapsed. It assumed too that Germany, The Netherlands, and Finland would ultimately — under much protest — agree to foot the bill for a ‘Transferunion’.

We may soon find out whether either assumption is correct. Far from binding Europe together, monetary union is leading to acrimony and mutual recriminations. We had the first eruption earlier this year when Greece’s deputy premier accused the Germans of stealing Greek gold from the vaults of the central bank and killing 300,000 people during the Nazi occupation.

[…]

My own view is that the EU became illegitimate when it refused to accept the rejection of the European Constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005. There can be no justification for reviving the text as the Lisbon Treaty and ramming it through by parliamentary procedure without referenda, in what amounted to an authoritarian Putsch. (Yes, the national parliaments were themselves elected — so don’t write indignant comments pointing this out — but what was their motive for denying their own peoples a vote in this specific instance? Elected leaders can violate democracy as well. There was a corporal from Austria … but let’s not get into that).

Ireland was the one country forced to hold a vote by its constitutional court. When this lonely electorate also voted no, the EU again disregarded the result and intimidated Ireland into voting a second time to get it “right”.

This is the behaviour of a proto-Fascist organization, so if Ireland now — by historic irony, and in condign retribution — sets off the chain-reaction that destroys the eurozone and the European Union, it will be hard to resist the temptation of opening a bottle of Connemara whisky and enjoying the moment. But resist one must. The cataclysm will not be pretty.

My one thought for all those old friends still working for the EU institutions is what will happen to their euro pensions if Mr Van Rompuy is right?

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

USA


Dolan Chosen as President of U.S. Bishops’ Group

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elected Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York to be its president on Tuesday in a surprise move that reaffirmed the conservative direction of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

The vote makes Archbishop Dolan the most visible face of the church in the United States. It also suggested that the bishops were seeking a powerful and reliably orthodox voice to reassert the church’s teaching in the court of public opinion and to disarm critics who insist that the bishops have lost their moral authority as a result of their role in the sexual abuse scandals.

For the first time, the bishops overlooked tradition and passed over a vice president who was running for the presidency, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson. Bishop Kicanas represents the more liberal “social justice” tradition of the American church and is known for advocating dialogue between Catholic liberals and traditionalists. Archbishop Dolan is considered a moderate conservative.

Archbishop Dolan said in a news conference after the vote that he would carry on the forceful opposition of his predecessor, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, to the recent health care overhaul because the bishops believed it would permit expanded government financing for abortion.

“My major priority would be to continue with all vigor I can muster what’s already in place,” Archbishop Dolan said. “It’s not like we’re in crisis; it’s not like all of a sudden we need some daring new initiatives. Thank God for the leadership of Cardinal Francis George, things are going well.”

Archbishop Dolan also suggested that he would not countenance other Catholic leaders and organizations when they take public positions that contradict the bishops. That is what happened this year when some groups representing Catholic hospitals and nuns came out in support of the health care overhaul bill, despite the bishops’ staunch opposition.

“We’re pastors and teachers,” Archbishop Dolan said of the bishops’ role, “not just one set of teachers in the Catholic community, but THE teachers.”

[…]

[Return to headlines]



House Democrats Re-Elect Pelosi as Their Leader

Representative Nancy Pelosi was re-elected as the House Democratic leader on Wednesday despite a striking show of unrest among members of her caucus following the Democrats’ heavy losses in the midterm elections.

Meeting in private, House Democrats voted 150-43 to leave in place a woman who, as Speaker of the House, became a lightning rod for public anger over some of the sweeping and costly legislation passed during the past two years.

[Return to headlines]



Religion Offers No Break on Airport Screening, TSA Says

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration says airline passengers won’t get out of body imaging screening or pat-downs based on their religious beliefs.

TSA chief John Pistole told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday that passengers who refuse to go through a full-body scanner machine and reject a pat-down won’t be allowed to board, even if they turned down the in-depth screening for religious reasons.

“That person is not going to get on an airplane,” Pistole said in response to a question from Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on whether the TSA would provide exemptions for passengers whose religious beliefs do not allow them to go through a physically revealing body scan or be touched by screeners.

Civil rights groups contend the more intensive screening violates civil liberties including freedom of religion, the right to privacy and the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches.

The issue is getting new attention after a man posted an item online saying he was thrown out of the San Diego airport for rejecting a full-body scan and pat-down groin check and instead insisting on passing through a metal detector.

Pistole acknowledged the incident was drawing wide attention but told the committee an officer involved was “very cool, calm, professional” in dealing with the passenger.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center is among several civil liberties groups suing the TSA in federal court to stop use of the full-body scanners. Their lawsuit says the machines are overly intrusive and violate civil rights, and that it is questionable whether they can detect powdered explosives such as those used by a passenger in last year’s attempted Christmas airliner bombing. They also question whether the machines pose a health risk.

“There’s a very strong sense right now that the public attitude on the airport body scanner program has swung dramatically,” said Marc Rotenberg, director of EPIC. There is growing opposition from civil rights groups, religious organizations, libertarians, airline passengers and pilots, he said.

EPIC is urging air travelers to take part in a national opt-out day the day before Thanksgiving, refusing to go through the full-body detectors and insisting that any pat-down they receive as a result take place in full view of other passengers.

Several senators asked Pistole to address public criticism of the body-imaging machines and more intrusive pat-downs the agency is using. Pistole said the tougher screening is necessary, and that the FDA has found the imaging machines to be safe. Going through the whole-body scanning machine is similar to getting about three minutes of the radiation that passengers receive at 30,000 feet on a typical flight, he said.

Pistole said his agency was working to address pilot and flight attendant concerns about the screening.

           — Hat tip: LS [Return to headlines]



Right of the Boom

[…]

Wired argues that the problem with a “National Opt Out Day” is that it might actually work. “Some travel writers have expressed concern that the protest, called for the busiest air-travel day of the year, could cause backups and delays for all travelers.” If it works, not only will it short out the air traffic system but it will a message. The problem is: what message is that? That the public is willing to accept some amount of risk for the privilege of hassle free flying? Or the message that the government is going about security in the wrong way?

[…]

Airport security is last-ditch point defense. It is like armor on a troop carrier or the ECM that it carries. In both Afghanistan and Iraq the US military learned from hard experience that fighting roadside bombs was both expensive and comparatively ineffective…

[…]

In the end, CAIR may exempt all Muslims from pat-downs. And in the perverse nature of Washington politics that outcome will somehow solve the problem in the manner once described by a Belmont commenter as “Kick the Can Down the Road”.

[…]

Ultimately the only way “National Opt Out Day” can succeed is if it becomes transformed into WTF Day…Until then, just fly the friendly skies. And bend over.

[Return to headlines]



Terror Suspect Cleared of All Charges Except for One Count of Conspiracy

The first former Guantánamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court was acquitted on Wednesday of all but one of more than 280 charges of conspiracy and murder in the 1998 terrorist bombings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The case has been seen as a test of President Obama’s goal of trying detainees in federal court whenever feasible, and the result may again fuel debate over whether civilian courts are appropriate for trying terrorists.

The defendant, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, 36, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property.

The attacks, orchestrated by Al Qaeda, killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded thousands of others.

Mr. Ghailani faces a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.

[Return to headlines]



The Big Disconnect: D.C. Elites Think Obama Will be Reelected, But the Public Doubts it

[…]

This big difference can partially be explained by the different ways that the two groups see the economy and the world today.

Seventy percent of D.C. elites admit that they have been affected less than the average citizen when it comes to the economic downturn. The elites see the tea party as purely a fad (70 percent).

In contrast, those who say that the president will not be reelected see the country as headed in the wrong direction by 82 percent, see the economy as headed in the wrong direction by 81 percent and overwhelmingly want repeal of the health care law at the top of the agenda.

The quarter of the public who consider Obama’s reelection probable see the economy turning around by nearly 3-to-1. They are the outliers of the electorate, suggesting that the president has a lot more work to do to get back on track for a second term.

[…]

[Return to headlines]



The New American Citizen

We are at the dawn of a new age in America. The old ways are proving less and less viable. Sustainability is not a new word, it is the word for what came before. Now, there is unsustainable debt, unsustainable regulations, unsustainable oppression, unsustainable ignorance, unsustainable leisure, unsustainable inattention. Common sense tells us all we need to know about the future of America. It is up to us.

What we used to do can no longer be done…

[…]

[Return to headlines]



Will “Buy Fresh”; “Buy Local” Survive the FDA?

Senate Bill 510 the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act may come up for vote sometime this week, this bill which makes it easier for the Food and Drug Administration to issue recalls and which adds numerous new regulations will adversely affect small farms and businesses.

Food born illnesses that have recently made the news has once again spurred our federal government to over react in a way that will do harm to those who are not responsible for the problem.

Problems which resulted from inadequate enforcement of current regulations are now being addressed by imposing even more regulations. These added regulatory burdens which will be easily dealt with by the large corporations will cost time and money for the small local operations that are barely surviving as it is.

Businesses such as Archer Daniels Midland a fortune 500 company whose 2009 revenues were $69.2 billion will certainly have no problem absorbing the extra cost of these regulations. As a matter of fact large corporate farms, the same farms that receive most of the federal farm subsidies, are supporting more regulations which they believe will help eliminate their smaller local competition [emphasis added]

If this bill sees the light of day without some serious exemptions for small local farms and businesses we can forget about the by fresh buy local movement. Call your senators and urge them to vote no on this bill or at the very least to agree to attach the Tester Amendment (named after Sen. Jon Tester) which would exempt smaller food producers from some of the bill’s regulations.

[…]

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Britain Extends the White Flag of Surrender to Islamist Radicals

by A. Millar

“If we know anything,” former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, once observed “we know that weakness is provocative.” Mired in political correctness, Britain’s “elites” apparently prefer to think of displays of weakness as “outreach.”

Britain’s “elites” seem not to notice Islamism, but prefer to believe that if those protesting against Islamism could be silenced, the problem of radical Islam would disappear. It was this mindset that saw parliament introducing a religious hate speech law, aimed at silencing criticism of Islam and Islamism, in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings. Britain’s establishment, in other words, has busied itself clearing a very large space in which the Islamists can operate.

Last month, the British coalition government unveiled The Strategic Defense and Security Review [pdf]. The defense budget will be slashed by 8% over the next four years. Britain’s flagship HMS Ark Royal, Harrier jump jets, replacement Nimrod spy planes will be axed, as will 42,000 jobs in the armed forces and the Ministry of Defense .

The cuts are so severe that top military officers are said to be considering threatening resignation if the budget cuts go ahead as planned. US Secretary if Stare Hillary Clinton has also aired the US administration’s concern over the size of the cuts.

The scrapping of the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal must surely have caused top navy brass to reflect on the decommissioning of the HMS Intrepid in 1982: only four months after decommissioning had begun, Argentina invaded the British territory of the Falklands Islands. In the ensuing 74-day war, Britain lost more than 250 servicemen, before reclaiming the territory.

Prior to the outbreak of conflict, it was almost universally believed that Britain could not defeat the Argentine forces. The HMS Intrepid had to be hurriedly brought back into commission, and sent to the Falklands to defend the islands.

Since British companies began oil exploration off the islands early in the year, Argentina has once again made clear its intention to bring them under Argentine sovereignty.

There is also the Spanish and British dispute over the British territory of Gibraltar.

Both are potentially serious situations, even if they do not rank very highly in the concerns of the British public. To them, unsurprisingly, terrorism is considered “a Tier One risk,” if not the major threat to British security.

In the words of the Strategic Defense and Security Review: “The most significant terrorist threat to the UK and its interests overseas comes from the Al Qaeda senior leadership based in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and their affiliates and supporters.”

The risk sounds reassuringly far away.

It was, of course, intended to.

The sense that terrorism is a distant threat, however, is not only created by invoking the hinterlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan and “Al Qaeda senior leadership,” but by the complete absence of an acknowledgment of the ideology behind the threat. Nowhere in the report is Islamism, or political Islam, mentioned.

Much of Europe is now openly, if reluctantly, acknowledging the problems wrought by political multiculturalism, not least of all how it has facilitated the rise of Islamic radicalism in European states…

[Return to headlines]



Clinton Critical of Religious Freedom in Europe

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Wednesday the state of religious freedom in Europe, as Washington highlighted policies and attitudes toward Muslim veils and Islam as a whole.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Wednesday the state of religious freedom in Europe, as Washington highlighted policies and attitudes toward Muslim veils and Islam as a whole.”Several European countries have placed harsh restrictions on religious expression,” Clinton said, without elaborating as she unveiled the State Department’s report on international religious freedom for the last year.Her assistant secretary for human rights, Michael Posner, cited France’s ban on wearing the niqab and other face coverings in public places and a Swiss motion passed last year that bans building new minarets.Both measures have been criticized as intolerant moves stigmatizing Europe’s growing Muslim population.

Posner acknowledged “growing sensitivity and tension in Europe” over Islam.

“What we are urging our European friends to do is to take every measure to try to alleviate that tension,” he added.The different attitudes toward Muslims in Europe and the United States are the source of frequent tensions and misunderstandings between both sides of the Atlantic.

“We have gone to court in the United States to enforce the right of Muslim women and girls to wear a burqa, and on the streets, in schools, et cetera,” said Posner.”That’s our position. It’s a position we articulate when we talk to our European friends.”

France’s law banning veils — passed last month — was considered an especially controversial move in a country with Europe’s biggest Muslim population, estimated at nearly six million. The Netherlands is expected to follow suit.

Clinton defined religious freedom as the ability for people to freely practice their faith, raise their children within those traditions, publish religious texts without censorship and to be able to either change religion or practice none.

She noted strong US opposition to any legislation condemning religious libel because of freedom of expression concerns.

The State Department’s annual report — covering a period from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 — found that respect for religious freedom deteriorated in Afghanistan and Iran while China and Indonesia earned mixed scorecards.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]



Germany: Politician Demands More Police in Muslim Areas

Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Uwe Schünemann on Wednesday said more police were needed in predominately Muslim districts in Germany and Islamists should be banned from using mobile phones and computers to combat terrorism.

“A mobile and computer ban for Islamist agitators would hinder their communication,” Schünemann told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung

Speaking ahead of a meeting of German state interior ministers in Hamburg this week, Schünemann also said known Islamists should be forbidden from visiting radical Mosques and problem areas.

He said state police should be given the authority to monitor the e-mails and telephone calls of such suspects before they had committed a crime.

Schünemann is likely to find more support for his other initiative for the interior minister conference — ending the deportation of well-integrated young refugees and immigrants.

“With a unanimous resolution, preliminary protection against deportation could be achieved,” he told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.

His counterpart for the city-state of Bremen, Ulrich Mäurer, a centre-left Social Democrat, also supported such a move.

Meanwhile federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of the Free Democrats said clear rules on residency for underage immigrants was overdue.

At the conference on Thursday, the states of Lower Saxony and Hamburg hope to convince other states that well-integrated refugees and immigrants who came to Germany as children deserve residency status.

Currently these children and teens are dependent on their parents’ visas, regardless of how well they’ve settled in to German society.

Lower Saxony’s Schünemann vowed to change this.

“We’re giving the girls and boys affected by this a new chance to stay long-term in Germany if they have honestly tried to gain a foothold in German society,” he said, adding that until their children are grown, their parents must be allowed to remain too.

According to Schünemann’s plan, a preliminary agreement would protect the young people concerned until federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière could push a new law through parliament.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: De Maizière Warns of Imminent Terror Attacks

5 German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on Wednesday warned the government had indications Islamists were planning terrorist attacks in Germany later this month.

“There is information from our foreign partners that planned attacks are allegedly to be carried out at the end of November,” he said in Berlin, describing a “new situation” regarding the Islamist threat towards the nation.

“There’s reason to be worried, but no reason to panic,” he said, mentioning “concrete leads” being followed by the authorities.

De Maizière said he had put federal police on alert and ordered heightened security at German airports and train stations.

“From today, there will be a more visible police presence. I thought it should be explained to citizens,” he said.

The announcement is a marked departure from the German government’s warnings in recent weeks of an abstract terrorist threat.

Only last month, de Maizière criticized reports Islamists were planning imminent attacks in Germany as “alarmist” and said there was no reason to change the country’s security threat level.

But the minister said on Wednesday security services had noticed growing signs that the terrorist network al-Qaida was planning attacks in the United States, Europe and Germany since mid-2010.

“We now have more details and indications of danger,” he said. “It is the unanimous assessment of the security services that we are currently dealing with a new situation.”

He said Berlin had been tipped off by overseas authorities following the discovery of two US-bound parcel bombs originating from Yemen last month. One of the packages travelled undetected through Cologne-Bonn Airport before being stopped in Britain.

Daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported the United States had warned German officials that between two and four al-Qaida operatives were on their way to Germany and Britain to attempt attacks.

Security sources cited by the paper named Germany’s popular Christmas markets among potential targets and said the terrorists were expected to arrive in the country on November 22 via India or the United Arab Emirates.

But de Maizière said Germans should not be cowed by the threat of possible attacks.

“We will not allow international terrorism to limit our way of life or our liberty,” he said.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Germany Tightens Airport Security Over Attacks Threat

Germany is increasing security at airports and railway stations in light of “concrete indications” of terrorist attacks being planned for the end of November.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it followed a tip-off from another, unnamed country.

Germany had information on “sustained efforts” by Islamist extremists to carry out attacks, he said.

He said the extra security would remain in place “until further notice”.

“There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria,” Mr de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

The federal police force has been ordered to step up checks at airports and train stations, he added.

Yemen connection Mr de Maiziere said Germany had received a tip-off after two parcel bombs were intercepted en route from Yemen to the United States last month. One of the bombs was despatched via the German city of Cologne but was intercepted in the UK.

The Yemen plot showed “the adaptability and the persistence of terrorists in pursuing their aims,” Mr de Maiziere said, and also underlines “the reliability of some leads”.

Germany would not allow international terrorism to constrict its way of life or liberal culture, he said.

Last year, twelve militants vanished from Hamburg, some to resurface in Northern Pakistan where at least one, but not all were killed in an American drone attack.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Italy: Mafia Writer-Minister Row Escalates

Maroni demands denial after comments compared to Mob lawyer’s

(ANSA) — Rome, November 17 — A huge row between Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and anti-Mafia writer Roberto Saviano escalated Wednesday when the author compared a turn of phase used by the minister to comments made by an infamous mobster’s lawyer.

The furore exploded on Monday when Saviano said Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta syndicate had spread outside their southern base and was ‘talking” to the Northern League on a controversial hit show on state broadcaster RAI.

Northern League heavyweight Maroni said the comments were slanderous and demanded the right to reply on the show, adding: “I’d like a face-to-face with him to see if he has the courage to say those things looking me in the eye”.

The row heated up further when Saviano, whose 2006 book Gomorra (Gomorrah) on the Neapolitan Camorra mafia was an international bestseller, claimed that the lawyer of jailed Camorra boss Francesco ‘Sandokan’ Schiavone had once said something similar to him.

“Certain words are truly disturbing coming from the mouth of the interior minister,” Saviano told Wednesday’s edition of left-leaning daily La Repubblica.

Maroni said he was flabbergasted at that and suggested he was considering legal action.

“I’m astounded. I hope it was a mistake and therefore I ask Saviano for a denial, reserving the right to take any necessary action (if it is not forthcoming),” the minister said.

He added that if RAI did not allow him the right to reply on the show, Vieni Via Con Me, it would be “a sort of gag or censorship”.

Maroni had said on Tuesday he would appeal to President Giorgio Napolitano if he was not granted time on the show, after one of the chiefs of the RAI channel it is broadcast on said he could reply elsewhere. Saviano, who spends much of his time in hiding and is under 24-hour police protection after enraging mobsters with Gomorra, a play on the word ‘Camorra’, had justified his comments by saying they were based on the results of judicial probes into mafia attempts to penetrate northern Italy’s political environment. He cited the example of a local League councillor who met a man linked to ‘Ndrangheta, while stressing that the councillor had never been put under investigation. Maroni responded that he was well aware that ‘Ndrangheta were trying to infiltrate northern Italy’s political and economic spheres, pointing out that he had taken several initiatives to counter this.

These measures include a special commission he set up to watch out for mafia attempts to muscle in on contracts for the 2015 Milan Expo.

“But here we are talking about something else — it was said that ‘Ndrangheta talks to the League in the North,” said Maroni Wednesday.

“I reject that statement. It’s a serious falsehood”. The minister reiterated that the current government has fought hard against organised crime, saying a string of recent operations against ‘Ndrangheta, the Camorra and their Sicilian cousins Cosa Nostra have put the clans on the back foot.

Saviano’s comments also sparked indignation from other members of the League and of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, their government allies.

“The results the government and the interior minister have achieved in the fight against the Mafia are plain to see,” said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of the PdL.

“We are witnessing a poisonous, slanderous attempt to discredit this effort, the minister behind it and the party he belongs to”. But Saviano, whose book Gomorra was made into a successful film of the same name, also had supporters.

“Saviano was not mudslinging, as the League says, he was simply showing things as they are,” said Francesco Ferrante of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), the biggest opposition group.

On Wednesday the Antimafia Investigative Directorate (DIA) said ‘Ndrangheta’s presence in Lombardy was in “constant, progressive development” and that the syndicate “interacts” with the northern region’s business sphere in its latest report to parliament.

Monday’s edition of Vieni Via Con Me, which Saviano co-hosts, had already sparked polemics before going on air and attracting over nine million viewers, more than 30% of the overall audience share.

The PdL were furious at being excluded after PD leader Pier Luigi Bersani and House Speaker Gianfranco Fini were invited to give monologues on the values of the Left and the Right respectively.

Fini appeared on the same day he pulled his ministers from the government, leaving it on the brink of collapse, having split earlier this year from the PdL he founded with Berlusconi and forming his own party, Future and Freedom for Italy (FLI).

The appearance of euthanasia-supporting relatives of two deceased people at the centre of high-profile right-to-die cases also caused controversy.

Berlusconi was among the targets of Oscar-winning Italian director Roberto Benigni’s satire when he starred on the first episode of the show last week.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



More and More Greeks Seek Work in Turkey

Fifty years ago, Greek workers moved to Germany when Greece was unable to offer them an adequate standard of living. Now a new wave of emigration is building up, as many Greeks are looking for work abroad.

The search is no longer confined to Western Europe and includes Turkey. Dozens of requests from jobless Greeks are being sent to the Greek consulate in Istanbul each week. Applications are also being made at the Greek-Turkish Chamber of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki.

“At this time last year, our consulate had not received a single request for work. They started coming at the start of the year and have been building up gradually,” Yiannis Karkanis, head of the consulate’s commercial section, told Sunday’s Greek daily Kathimerini. “The Greeks who approach us are, for the most part, couples and heads of families. They come from all parts of Greece. Most of them don’t have special skills, nor do they speak Turkish. But when they look for a job as a laborer in Turkey, where salaries start at 300 euros per month, they are either desperate or they don’t know anything about the country that they want to emigrate to.”

On the other hand, young people who have approached the chamber in Thessaloniki are highly educated, with university degrees and post-graduate degrees and knowledge of the Turkish language. “This began in the last six months and continues on a daily basis, with at least one request each day,” the chamber’s president, Zano Apikyan, told Kathimerini. “What’s impressive is that quite a few Greeks speak Turkish. The Turkish departments of language schools are blooming.”

The fact that more than 400 Greek companies are active in Turkey is playing a key role in this growing interest. “Every foreign investment in Turkey is welcome. They believe that this helps in the fight against unemployment,” Apikyan said.

Istanbul brimming with opportunities

Dimitris Sourvalis, a criminologist, offered the viewpoint of someone who is interested in working in Turkey. “In the past year, there is growing interest in Istanbul. The bad economic climate in our country and the lack of opportunity for young people are creating a climate of despair,” he said. “This cannot be absorbed either by the academic establishment or by private business. On the other hand, in Turkey we see there is potential for us.”

Sourvalis is currently a post-graduate student in Thessaloniki’s Balkan Studies department, specializing in Turkey’s social, political and cultural structures. His choice has a practical side: Istanbul is the closest Balkan metropolis to northern Greece and it is a hub brimming with opportunities.

Medea Tsartsidou, 29, has been trying to find a job in Greece for the past six years. She graduated from the Balkan Studies department in Florina and has worked occasionally as a translator for businesses operating in Turkey. “The potential for finding a steady job in Greece is diminishing. Now, with the crisis, all hope is being lost,” she said. As the child of Russian-speaking ethnic Greeks, she chose a postgraduate degree in Turkish studies.

Twenty-five-year-old Georgia Yiambouri knows Turkish and Serbian and has studied Turkey’s culture, history and language at the postgraduate level. “Theoretically, we have specialized in the Balkans, but, in practice, in Greece there are no opportunities for work. Istanbul is a solution. I have been trying, sending my CV to companies, to universities. I’ll even consider further studies there,” she said.

Athens daily Kathimerini is a strategic partner of the Hürriyet Daily News.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Discontent Within Christenunie on Leftwing Course

ZWOLLE, 17/11/10 — Members of Christian party ChristenUnie have complained at a meeting with party leader Andre Rouvoet that the party has become too leftwing.

A delegation from Urk, a ChristenUnie bulwark, set the debate in motion. “We have a strong idea that ChristenUnie is GroenLinks with a Christian dressing,” said branch spokesman Albert Woord. “This causes me concern. I also experience it as an insult. We are suffering from this in Urk. I sometimes almost do not dare to say that I am from ChristenUnie.”

Others joined in. “ChristenUnie must not stand in the choir of the leftwing opposition by the intervention microphones,” said a member from Meppel. “Then you contribute to the picture of the party being leftwing.” And a farmer complained that “ChristenUnie supports everything that helps to get rid of farmers,” Christian newspaper Reformatorsich Dagblad reported.

A broad call was made to Rouvoet no longer to describe the party as ‘Christian-social’. He rejected the suggestion. “Christian politics is by definition social politics: defending the vulnerable, the position of families.” Leftwing the party is not, he said. “We consider that the government has a limited task. This is certainly not left. Nor do we form any bloc with leftwing parties.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Pope: Episcopal Conferences Do Not Strip Bishops’ Role

(AGI) Vatican City — “The Episcopal Conferences must not become parallel or substitute realities to the ministry of bishops.” This was part of Benedict XV’s his speech to a group of bishops from Brazil today, where the Episcopal Conference is currently celebrating its 60th anniversary. He went on to say that “Episcopal Conferences are born of the concrete application of the communion of love between the bishops and the Pontiff. They also constitute an effective and affective communion tool among its members.” They are, therefore, a precious institution because they “promote a coming together of the efforts and intentions of bishops, becoming an instrument that enables its commitment to be shared.” . ..

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Ryanair Crew Lock Toilets, Turn Out Lights and Leave Plane as Re-Routed Passengers Stage Four-Hour Sit-in

More than 100 furious passengers staged a mutiny aboard a Ryanair flight last night by refusing to get off a plane that was re-routed to Belgium.

The jet carrying mainly French travellers from Fez in Morocco was supposed to have landed at Beauvais airport near Paris on Tuesday night but was delayed by weather.

But because it took off three hours late, by the time it reached Beauvais, the airport had closed.

When it landed at the southern Belgian city of Liege, the militant travellers staged a four-hour sit-in, demanding to be taken back to France.

Passengers claimed that when they refused to get off the plane, Ryanair cabin crew locked the toilets, turned off the lights and left them on the tarmac for four hours.

Reda Yahiyaoui, travelling with his wife, three-year-old daughter and two-month old baby, said: ‘We were all tired after a long journey and angry at being dumped 200 miles away in Belgium.

‘We just wanted to get back home so we sat on the plane asking to be flown to France.

‘But they just parked the plane then turned off the lights and locked the toilets and left us with no food or water.

‘The pilot also got off and even left the cockpit door open.’

Another passenger Mylene Netange said: ‘We were staging a legitimate protest but what they did was unacceptable.

‘They just walked off and left us there.’

A Liege airport spokesman said they tried to coax the passengers off the plane by offering them food and drink in an airport lounge, then free buses back to Beauvais.

He added: ‘We said they could sit in comfort in a transit lounge but it was a difficult negotiation and they refused to budge.’

It was not until 3.30am, four hours after the plane touched down, that the passengers finally agreed to get off the plane, he added.

The passengers were said to have all finally agreed to board coaches for the three-hour drive back to Beauvais in the early hours of Wednesday.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said in a statement: ‘Due to the weather related (fog) closure of Paris Beauvais Airport on 16th Nov four Ryanair flights were forced to divert to Liege.

‘The majority of passengers followed crew requests to disembark for onward coach transportation to Paris Beauvais. Passengers on one flight, FR5222 (Fez — Paris Beauvais), ignored crew instructions and remained on the aircraft until requested to disembark by Airport Police.

‘Ryanair thanks the majority of passengers who followed crew advice and apologises to them for the inconvenience of these weather related diversions. All passengers were coached onward to Beauvais.

‘This is now a matter for the police.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Chlamydia ‘Refuseniks’ Face Police Round Up

Eight people in northern Sweden who have refused to submit to a test for the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia could be forcibly collected by police, reported the local Norrländska Socialdemokraten (NSD) daily.

After the refusal of repeated requests to submit to tests, the matter was referred to the administrative court (Förvaltningsdomstolen) which ruled on Monday to authorise the forcible examination of eight, of a total of eleven suspected cases, under provisions in the Communicable Diseases Act.

“They are fuss pots and refuseniks,” said the county medical officer Anders Österlund to the newspaper.

Österlund told NSD that it is unusual that cases go as far as forcible collection by the police, but that the county health authority felt obliged to act in response to tougher guidelines from the Swedish Health and Welfare Board (Socialstyrelsen).

“We haven’t changed the regulations. But the general understanding of monitoring these types of cases has been clarified. We have to trace the infection,” said Agneta Holmström at the Health and Welfare Board to The Local on Wednesday.

The group of people, all resident in Norrbotten in the far north of Sweden, have repeatedly ignored requests, summonses, and even resisted police visits to advise them of their obligation to take a urine test.

The Communicable Diseases Act (1988) allows for a doctor to enact forcible measures to ensure the control of infectious diseases. If a person continues to have unprotected sex despite being under suspicion of carry an infection, then isolation can be enforced as a last resort.

“They (the doctors) are their own authority. But the measures have to be in proportion to the risk of infection,” Holmström said, explaining that the law allows measures can be taken with respect to HIV, chlamydia and syphilis.

During the first half of 2010 17,253 case of chlamydia were reported to the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet — SMI), a decline of 8 percent on the corresponding period of 2009.

Despite the decline, the disease remains a priority for health authorities and SMI together with the Health and Welfare Board have recently published a joint guidance report on infectious diseases and the law, and the rights and obligation of infected individuals.

“We want to hinder the spreading of the diseases,” Agneta Holmström told The Local.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden Green Lights ‘Fingerprint Time Clocks’

Swedish employers have been authorised to use fingerprints to track worker’s job attendance following a review of the practice by the Data Inspection Board (Datainspektionen).

After receiving a complaint, the agency launched an investigation into a system in place at telephone and electronics retailer The Phone House which replaced a traditional time clock with a fingerprint scanner.

The system involved used employees fingerprints to track when workers came to work in the morning, when they took lunch, and when they left at the end of the work day.

In giving its approval to the system, the Data Inspection Board emphasised that employees must give their consent to the practice and be allowed to refuse to use the system.

In addition, the agency said that employees were entitled to receive “clear and detailed information” about what the fingerprint scanning system entailed.

The agency received an anonymous complaint, which led to a review of practices at The Phone House.

The company told the Data Inspection Board that it implemented the system at several of its retail outlets to protect against employees punching time cards for other workers.

“We think that it’s okay under the condition that this company receives consent from employees. It’s important to emphasise that the employees not be subject to any direct or indirect pressure to choose the system,” said Data Inspection Board lawyer Lars Söderberg to the TT news agency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Five Muslim Boys and White Girl, All 12, Excluded Over Facebook Death Threats to Classmate Who Supported British Troops

Six pupils have been excluded from school for making death threats to a classmate on Facebook after he admitted supporting British troops.

Five Muslim boys and one white girl, all aged 12, have been disciplined following the incident.

The yobs threatened to attack attack terrified Darius Gill, 13, with knuckle dusters and knives in revenge for not supporting Islamic extremists.

The chilling threats came hours after Darius — whose father is Asian — posted a touching tribute to the thousands of squaddies who have lost their lives defending Britain.

But a gang of pupils at a Coventry school in a predominantly Muslim area expressed outrage at Darius’s patriotism.

One message, littered with spelling mistakes, said: ‘Fight on Monday gonna be heavy knuckle dusters nd knifes hopefully I don’t die.’ His pal added: ‘ill bang him ma slef am a terrorist.’

One of the thugs also posted a chilling picture of himself holding a rifle.

Shockingly, other pupils — who have set up a Muslim Defence League which celebrates British deaths in Afghanistan — also added comments condemning Darius.

The boy’s mother Clare Allington read the comments on Monday morning — the day of the promised attack — and immediately pulled her son out of school.

Today Clare, 42, from Coventry, said: ‘I logged on and it broke my heart. I was reading all sorts about knuckle dusters, knives and death. They were planning to attack him at school that day so I rang the school straight away.

‘I usually keep an eye on what Darius posts on Facebook. I usually check it every day but didn’t last weekend until I was at the Warwick University campus on Monday.

‘If I hadn’t read the threats and pulled my son out of school he could be dead.

‘They might just be school children but they are fanatical and dangerous. The threats have to be taken seriously.

‘My son wrote supporting the British troops in Afghanistan and also said he was sad so many soldiers had died.

‘The so-called Muslim Defence League which has been set up in the school by a number of pupils believe Darius should join them in hating British soldiers.

‘It’s appalling and extremely upsetting for him.’

The new Facebook posting today read: ‘IM IN TROUBLE WIV DE POLICE CUZ OF SUSSPICIAN OF THREAT TO DARIUS OVER FB U HAVE A RITE TO REMAIN SILENCE!!! (JOKES) BUT IM IN TROUBLLE WIV DE POLICE IM BANGGIN DARIUS THURSDAY NO1 JUMP IN 1 v 1.’

The two boys now face expulsion from the school.

The school principal said: ‘Two boys are going to be excluded until we are able to meet with the parents and resolve the issue.

‘We will also be in contact with each and every pupil who also posted offensive comments to say they will not be allowed to return to school until they remove the comments from Facebook.

‘What the children have done is unacceptable.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Religion is Seen as ‘Irrelevant, Old-Fashioned and Violent’, Warns Former Met Chief

Religion is regarded by most people as ‘irrelevant, old-fashioned and violent’, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner claimed last night.

Lord Blair, who led Scotland Yard during the July 7 bombings in 2005, said faith leaders were losing the struggle to prove that religion is a force for good.

In particular, he said Islam is being ‘demonised’ as a result of atrocities carried out in the name of a ‘distorted’ version of the creed.

He described Islam as one of the ‘great’ Abrahamic religions and a ‘faith of peace’ which had suffered as a result of atrocities carried out by individuals.

The religious impulse should be recognised as a source of goodness in spite of the ‘horrors’ inflicted by organised religion, he said at the Theos think-tank annual lecture in central London.

Religious people were losing the struggle to make it ‘clear’ that faith impels them to do good deeds, he said.

To most people faith looks ‘irrelevant, clannish, prejudiced, old-fashioned and violent,’ he said.

But the greatest achievements of history, such as the abolition of slavery and the provision of education or free health care for all had their origins in the religious impulse, he said.

‘Religion should be the most peaceful of all the agencies of social cohesion,’ he said.

‘Its infinite number of unseen and unsung acts of charity and love are not known individually but in total they are part of public consciousness.

‘They should be and remain the glue that permits modern society to exist, particularly in an increasingly urbanised age — in other words, they are a bulwark of public order, in the sense of orderliness and tranquility.’

In his lecture, Lord Blair, who is an Anglican, emphasised the importance of doubt in religious faith.

He said certainty of being in the right had fuelled religiously-inspired violence.

‘Doubt is part of the mortar of a building faith,’ he said.

‘Unless your faith has been tested by doubt, it is not faith but just an attitude, a retreat from the modern world.

‘Doubt in the very nature of faith can surely be a useful companion to a necessary lack of shrill conviction that our own faith is more valuable than that of another.’

He added that, as an Anglican, he did not understand the ‘obsession’ in his own church over women priests and bishops or the way the Anglican Communion was ‘tearing itself apart’ over homosexuality.

He also failed to understand the Catholic Church’s insistence on priestly celibacy, he told his audience.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

Mediterranean Union


Algerian Writer Shows Different Side of Italy

Novelist Amara Lakhous on immigration and identity

(by Romina Spina).

(ANSA) — Rome, November 16 — Rome-based writer Amara Lakhous had no luggage when he arrived in Italy from Northern Africa fifteen years ago.

At the time, his native Algeria was imploding into civil war and he was forced into exile. The only thing the young author carried with him was the final draft of his first novel. “It was my real passport”, he told ANSA of the manuscript that would launch his career.

Today, the 40-year-old Lakhous is considered nothing short of a literary sensation in Italy.

In a country that has difficulties adapting to its growing multicultural society, his lyrical yet satirical stories revolving around immigration offer readers food for thought and raise important questions about identity. His third book, which he describes as “a real comedy born out of a great frustration”, has just been published to rave reviews.

In chapter-long monologues sprinkled with engaging scenes, Lakhous paints essentially sad pictures of everyday life in Rome’s Arab-Muslim community, an immigrant reality that he experienced first-hand for over a decade. His latest effort is set to repeat the great success of its predecessor, ‘Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio’, a black comedy populated by a melting pot of characters living in a run-down palazzo in Piazza Vittorio, Rome’s most multiethnic neighbourhood.

Based on an earlier version written in Arabic, Lakhous entirely rewrote the book in Italian and published it in 2006. The bestseller has been translated into English, Dutch, German and even Korean.

It won him numerous awards in Italy and abroad and was turned into a movie released last spring. Lakhous, who became an Italian citizen two years ago, is by no means the only former immigrant writing about issues related to identity in a multicultural environment.

Other authors of so-called migrant literature emerged in recent years aiming to challenge existing boundaries within the controversial debate on immigration in Italy, a country with a long history of emigration but relatively unaccustomed and ill-prepared to accept foreigners who arrive from Africa or the Middle East to settle in its cities.

Like his fellow writers, Lakhous invites Italian readers, often inhibited by racial stereotypes, to look at today’s world around them through the eyes of an immigrant in their country. “It’s like being a film director who arrives from the outside and sets up his camera to shoot the scene; he decides what to show and how to show it, and ultimately he shows reality”, said the author. Words like “integration” or “assimilation” hardly find their way into Lakhous’ books.

For the award-winning novelist and anthropologist they are double-edged swords as they presume that there is a correct way to integrate, when the real question is: “What is ‘Italian’? In which Italy does a foreigner have to integrate?” Paradoxically, it’s not only the immigrants’, but also the Italians’ identity that is at stake, he said.

An Italian reviewer noted that rather than talking about immigrants, Lakhous talked about Italians in his novels.

Written in two languages and dotted with expressions in both Arabic and Italian, his books are mirrors that critically reflect Italian society and force readers to question their own beliefs when debating issues like immigration, identity, culture and religion.

“Rather than asking themselves who they are, people have to ask themselves what they do”, Lakhous told ANSA.

The Algerian-Italian author’s work even goes a step further. While his books may be set within Rome’s immigrant community and reproduce lights and shadows of Italian society, the same stories about multicultural coexistence could also take place in Paris, London or New York. The stories’ authenticity and their ability to transcend borders are the result of Lakhous’ deep understanding of immigration issues, developed through personal experience and postgraduate studies.

By writing about what he knows best, the author is never afraid of being honest throughout his friendly satire so his protagonists can break cultural, racial or even religious taboos.

“I don’t write to comfort people and I don’t care how they react. I tell it as it is.” photos: Stills from the film ‘Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio’ directed by Isotta Toso.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


CBN Exclusive Video: Al Qaeda Training in North Africa

CBN has acquired exclusive, never-before-seen footage of Al Qaeda’s North African branch training in the Sahara desert for new attacks against the West.

You can watch it by clicking on the viewer here:

The group is known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb—or AQIM.

North African intelligence officials tell CBN News that AQIM has an extensive network in Western Europe. They are concerned that the Obama administration’s attention is being diverted by Pakistan and Yemen as a gathering al Qaeda storm brews in the Sahara.

Come next week, I will be available for interviews—with video—about this emerging front in the global jihad.

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]



Egypt: Christian Girls Forced to Convert, Luxor Bishop

(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, NOVEMBER 17 — “There are attempts to force Christian girls to convert to Islam”. This is happening in Egypt, according to Monsignor Joannes Zakaria, bishop of the Coptic Catholics bishops of Luxor, whose diocese includes al-Nawahid village in Qena, in the Qena (southern Egypt) province, where Muslim extremists burnt down the houses and businesses of Christian Copts after rumours of flirting between a Christian boy and a Muslim girl. “Fortunately, in this case the police acted swiftly and brought in a curfew immediately, preventing the incidents from causing more serious damage”, said Monsignor Zakaria to Fides. “A matter between a couple of young people was transformed into a pretext to lash out at Christians. We have reason to believe instead that there is a plan to force Christians to convert, with especial focus on girls who are the weakest,” he continued. “We are aware of a several episodes of Muslim young people who have been eyeing Christian girls and trying to kidnap them to force them to convert to Islam,” noted the Luxor bishop. “Similar episodes have occurred all the way from Alexandria to Aswan.” “As Egyptian Christians we feel very close to other brethren persecuted in Iraq,” said Monsignor Zakaria, who on Sunday in Luxor celebrated a mass of intercession for those who died on October 31 in an attack on the Syriac-Catholic church of Baghdad. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Egypt: Vodafone Drops Muslim Scientist Ad After Complaints

The Egyptian unit of telecom giant Vodafone has dropped an advertisement depicting an early Muslim scientist, Abbas Ibn Firnas, as a dim man who fell off a cliff when trying to fly with feathered wings.

The Britain-based company made the decision after receiving complaints from viewers, who took to the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to complain about what they said was an insult to the historic Islamic figure.

Vodafone said the advertisement was supposed to be funny but “due to the fact that some of our customers perceived (it) as offensive, we decided to remove this ad from YouTube and from our official Facebook fans page.”

In the statement, posted on its Facebook page, the company added however that due to the Eid al-Adha holidays, the complete removal of the advertisement from all TV channels “will take place gradually over the next few days.”

Ibn Firnas, a Muslim Berber scientist who died in 887, is said to have jumped from a height, wings attached and covered head to toe in feathers, in a failed attempt at flying, although he survived the jump.

The advertisement, for Vodafone’s USB internet service, shows three young men, who starred in an Egyptian time travel comedy, materialising before Firnas with a laptop and a USB stick to try talk him out of the experiment.

He grunts his refusal, even after they show him a Wikipedia entry on the Wright brothers, who pioneered aviation in the 20th century, and hurtles himself down the cliff.

In another advertisement, the trio try to persuade an imperious Richard the Lionheart, the medieval English king and crusader, not to battle the Muslim leader Salahuddin, by offering him a war game on a laptop.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Muslims Torch Christian Homes in Egypt

by Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — Coptic Christians in the Upper Egyptian village of el-Nowahed, Abu-Tesht, in Qena Province, were victims of an attack by a Muslim mob of nearly one thousand on Monday, November 15. The attack started at nearly 10:00 pm on Monday evening and lasted until the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The large mob of Muslims from el-Nowahed and the surrounding villages besieged and waged an attack against Coptic homes amidst cries of “Allah is the greatest” and other Islamic Jihadist slogans. They threw fireballs, gasoline and stones at Coptic homes and detonated Butane Gas cylinders. Christian-owned homes were looted and shops were broken into, plundered and burned. There were no reported casualties.

The attack resulted in the burning of twenty-two Coptic-owned homes (video), two commercial shops, a bakery, as well as livestock. The sound of automatic weapons fired in the air was heard, to terrorize and intimidate the Copts, according to Ra’fat Samir, who heads the Luxor branch of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights.

Coptic News Bulletin aired a recording of phone calls made to several Copts from inside the burning village. Terrorized Copts were hiding on the roof tops of their homes, afraid to venture in the streets, could only cry out: “help us, save us, they are burning us.” None of them could concentrate enough to tell the reporter the reason behind the sudden Muslim attack, they just kept pleading for help.

Security forces were able to impose order a few hours later, and a curfew was imposed on el-Nowahed village and the city of Abu-Tesht.

The rampage against the Coptic inhabitants of the village came in the wake of a story which circulated in town three days earlier, about an affair between 19-year-old Copt Hossam Noel Attallah and a 17-year-old Muslim girl, Rasha Mohamed Hussein, a relative of the village mayor. According to Anba Kyrillos, Bishop of the Diocese of Nag Hamadi, some witnesses saw the teenage couple walking together towards the graveyards, after which it was rumored in the village that he raped her, “although a Muslim woman confirmed that Hossam did nothing wrong to the girl,” he said.

A Police report was issued and both were brought before the public prosecutor, after which the young man was detained by State Security, fearing an escalation of events similar to what took place in Farshout last November in which Copts were attacked over a three days period by Muslim mobs, due to an accusation of a Coptic man having allegedly raped a Muslim girl (AINA 11-22-2009, 11-23-2009). No one knows the whereabouts of the Coptic teenager Hossam after State Security detained him.

An eyewitness who was himself beaten by Muslims said the mob blocked the fire brigade from reaching the burning homes and one fire engine arrived hours late, reported activist Miriam Ragy. He also said that security forces went into the houses of Copts and arrested them.

Copts accused the authorities of severe inadequacy, because although being aware of the incident of the Copt and the Muslim girl, they only stationed three security cars at the entrances of the village. “But when the security officers saw the large mobs entering the village from all sides and attacking it, they fled, leaving it unprotected to operations of terrorism, sabotage, arson and looting of Coptic property,” said activist Ra’fat, adding that security forces were only guarding St. George’s Church.

Activist Attorney Mamdouh Nakhla of Al-Kalema Human Rights Center condemned the Muslim attack, stressing the collusion of State Security with the offenders, by failing to arrest any of the perpetrators so far and even chasing the Copts and arresting them, “because of their interviews with some Coptic websites in relation to the incident.” Nakhla said that his Center will send a fact-finding committee to the village.

Bishop Kyrillos said that the present estimates of the damage to the Coptic property is approximately 250,000 Egyptian pounds.

Dr. Naguib Gobrail, President of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, said “We all reject that Copts would become a “Whipping-boy,” where every time an individual Copt is accused of committing some crime, the entire Coptic community should be made to pay the price and be punished by waging attacks on their lives and property. He asked if Muslims would accept the same treatment if circumstances were reversed.

Dr. Ghobrial said he will file a compensation lawsuit against the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister and the Governor of Qena, on behalf of all the Coptic victims of el-Nowahed for moral and material damage.

Ghobrial accused the authorities of failing in its duty of protection and complicity with the perpetrators, adding that it was completely unacceptable that security would arrest Copts, as was the case in el-Nowahed. “Has the victim become the perpetrator or are they afraid of the opponents?”

           — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih [Return to headlines]

Middle East


BBC Series on Rafiq Al-Hariri Pulled as Tension Rises in Lebanon

The BBC has suddenly pulled a documentary film series about the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri as tensions mount in Beirut over expectations that Hezbollah operatives are about to be accused of involvement in the killing.

The first of three parts of Murder in Beirut was scheduled to be broadcast on BBC World this Saturday, but the producer was told without warning on Tuesday that it was being delayed.

The BBC said the film had not yet complied with its editorial guidelines. No new date has been set. But the decision to postpone it was taken after a Lebanese newspaper described how it accused the militant Shia group of the 2005 assassination, in which Hariri and 22 others were killed by a massive car bomb.

The point of the film, al-Akhbar claimed in a front-page article on Monday, was “to implicate Hezbollah in the crime”, with one image showing partial details of a man described as a former member of the organisation’s foreign operations unit. Today extracts were broadcast on al-Jadeed TV, a pro-Syrian channel.

Tension has mounted sharply in Lebanon in recent weeks amid expectations that a UN-backed international tribunal will shortly issue indictments in the case, the country’s equivalent of the Kennedy assassination. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned last week that he would “cut off the hand” of anyone who tried to arrest its members. Hezbollah, the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon, is supported by Iran and Syria and has repeatedly accused the tribunal of serving US and Israeli interests.

Sa’ad Hariri, the dead man’s son and current prime minister, has insisted that he, Nasrallah and other leaders will not let Lebanon “explode” over the issue.

The series was made by ORTV, a British-Saudi production company, and originally commissioned by al-Arabiyya TV, the Saudi-owned satellite channel. The first version was completed last summer but never broadcast as Saudi Arabia sought to improve relations with Syria. BBC World then commissioned a re-edited version.

Initially Syria was widely blamed for the killing but it has become clear in recent months that Hezbollah is suspected of involvement, fuelling fears that Lebanon’s rivalries will escalate dangerously if indictments are issued.

The tribunal, based in a suburb of The Hague, began work in March 2009. In a new twist, Lebanese media reported that Alireza Asghari, a former Iranian revolutionary guard general who defected to the US, provided information about the role of Hezbollah’s Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

The films include interviews with decision-makers in Beirut, Damascus, Washington and Paris, promising to tell “the gripping inside story of what’s really at stake in the struggle for power in the Middle East”. The BBC has not been warned specifically not to screen the series, but insiders admit there is nervousness about its impact in the current volatile climate.

Nadim Shehadi, a Lebanon expert at the Chatham House thinktank in London, said: “There is an atmosphere of terror in Beirut. It may be a deliberate campaign to apply pressure to the tribunal. It is almost as if there is a communications strategy.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Stakelbeck on Terror Show Exclusive: The Iran/Venezuela Axis

The latest episode of the Stakelbeck on Terror show is a special 30-minute expose of the growing Iran/Venezuela axis in our hemisphere.

Watch as former high-ranking State Department official Roger Noriega and leading Iran expert Ilan Berman provide exclusive evidence that Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is providing heavy assistance to Iran on virtually every level: militarily, economically and in the nuclear realm.

We reveal how Iran is mining for uranium in venezuela. We also feature never-before seen-photos that show how Venezuela is working closely with Iran’s terrorist proxy, Hezbollah.

And we analyze how Hugo Chavez may be working on a nuclear weapons program of his own—in our backyard—as the U.S. government fails to respond.

You won’t get this information anywhere else. watch it by clicking the link above.

Breakdown by segments:

Top of the show: Venezuela helping Iran get around UN Sanctions

Second segment: Iran mining for uranium in Venezuela. Chavez Seeking his own nuclear weapons program? (6:48 into the show)

Third segment: Iran training Venezuela security forces? Plus, Iran/Venezuela military and nuclear cooperation grows (11:43 into the show).

Fourth segment: Exclusive aerials of covert Iranian military installation in Venezuela. Plus, never-before-seen photos of Venezuelan officials meeting with Hezbollah in Lebanon (17:14 into the show).

Fifth segment: What, if anything, is the U.S. government doing about this growing threat in our hemisphere? (23:31 into the show).

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]



The Left’s Delusion Over Islam is Baffling to Middle Eastern Christians

Two more Christians murdered in Iraq on Monday night and another three yesterday, as the community is driven to extinction.

And on the Today programme earlier this week there was yet another segment about this persecuted minority, perhaps suggesting that the media are waking up to what many Iraqis themselves call “genocide” (the word, incidentally, was coined in 1936 after a previous massacre of Iraqi Christians).

However the Left largely remains in denial about the situation faced by Middle Eastern Christians, despite widespread evidence by various human rights organisation. The Guardian had a piece on Friday in which the writer argued that this was part of a ‘clash of civilisations myth’:

One article in Foreign Policy went so far as to suggest the

church attack might spell “the end of Christianity in the Middle

East” altogether. Yet such generalisations play into the hands

of radicals wanting to perpetuate the clash-of-civilisations

myth. Though anti-Christian feeling may be rising on the extreme

radical fringe of some Arab societies such as Iraq, this should

not obscure the harmony that has long been a characteristic of

other parts of the Arab world.

However, as Robert Fisk has suggested declining Christian

numbers could also be largely due to demographics and favourable

immigration conditions rather than increased persecution.

In fact, large parts of the Arab world remain tolerant and

display deep inter-communal harmony. The fact that most of

Iraq’s displaced Christians have fled not to the west but to

other Arab states, notably Syria and Jordan, seems to illustrate

this.

Moreover, at a broader societal level across the region, it

seems wholly unjust to suggest Arab Muslims are suddenly turning

on their Christian compatriots. A radical fringe in each state

may share the extremist views of al-Qaida, but that does not

mean they are accepted by mainstream society. Even Islamists

such as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood expressed their disgust at

the Baghdad bombings, and called for Cairo to protect its

churches. This issue varies across the region more than

generalist commentators are allowing for.

Christian numbers may be diminishing and the radical fringe may

sadly be gaining the upper hand in certain pockets such as Iraq,

which the international community should rightly condemn.

However, the Arab world in general remains a place where

Christians and Muslims have lived side by side for centuries,

and look certain to continue doing so. Perhaps we should be

celebrating this fact rather than exaggerating the extent to

which the whole region is suddenly becoming anti-Christian.

Yes, cynical old British media. There we are focusing on the one unfortunate incident where dozens of people happened to be slaughtered in a church, when we could have focused on literally dozens of Iraqi churches where no one was murdered by Islamists that weekend.

It is understandable that the writer might believe this line, as his expertise is in Syria and Jordan, two countries where Christians are protected. Jordan is ruled by a benign monarchy and Syria by a secular dictatorship famed for its poor human rights record. They don’t tolerate Islamism in Damascus, which is probably why it’s so pleasant and the women’s famed beauty is generally not imprisoned behind the veil; in fact the current debate about torturing jihadis in the West must be baffling to Syrians, for whom waterboarding is probably considered the equivalent of being sent on safari by a misguided liberal judge.

Christians in Jordan and Syria are protected. But despite the Left’s “myth of the myth” of the clash of civilisations, the simple fact is that almost nowhere in the Islamic world are Christians free in the same way Muslims are free in Europe.

Deniers of this essential truth usually fall back on historical arguments about Islam’s famed tolerance, but this is deceptive. During the high middle ages, the Islamic world was far more tolerant than Christendom, but it couldn’t be otherwise. North of the Alps Europe was 95-99 per cent Christian, so minorities faced persecution; the “Muslim world” had enormous Christian minorities throughout this period and in some cases majorities, and this goes for modern-day Iraq, Syria, Egypt (probably majority Christian until the 18th century), Lebanon and Palestine.

That they slowly became Islamic was largely down to two facts of life which make a mockery of the tolerance myth: Muslims could not generally become Christians, and Christians had to pay a special tax, and so the class of people who subsidised the rest of the population gradually shrank over generations (a system that bears more than a passing resemblance to the modern British welfare state). From the 19th century a third factor arose when it became possible for Christians to emigrate to the West.

An Iraqi-British acquaintance of mine called Mardean Isaac says about the Guardian article:

“Using the word ‘tolerance’ here is slippery and insidious: ‘tolerate’ in the contemporary west means ‘see as at the least completely acceptable, at the most, equal or superior to’. See homosexuality, plurality of religion, lifestyle, modes of thought and being.

“Contrast with Islam’s historical ‘tolerance’, which has been apparently in continuous operation for centuries: see the jizya tax; see the requirement to wear distinctive clothing to demarcate non-Muslims; see the massive incentives to convert; see the economic and social marginalisation of the communities of subjugated peoples, from constraints on the social aspects of religious practice to building restrictions; see the barring of non-Muslim men from marrying Muslim women.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Turkish Journalist Charged With Insulting Prosecutor by Calling Him ‘Postmodern’

Accusing someone of being “postmodern” is as much of an insult as claiming he is a jihadist, according to the latest lawsuit filed against daily Radikal reporter Ismail Saymaz for his book “Postmodern Cihat” (Postmodern Jihad).

Saymaz was notified last week about the case, filed last month by Erzurum Prosecutor Osman Sanal, who has demanded damages of 7,000 Turkish Liras.

The journalist is accused of “Insulting [Sanal] by drawing an image [of him in the book] as pro-postmodern, belonging to post-modernity and engaging in jihad.”

Saymaz is currently embroiled in 12 legal cases, carrying a total potential prison term of 97 years. Many of them, including the suit filed by Sanal, deal with the case against Ilhan Cihaner. The former chief prosecutor of the eastern province of Erzincan was detained Feb. 16 and later arrested on accusations of forging official documents and being a member of the alleged Ergenekon gang’s Erzincan branch. He was released June 23 pending trial.

Sanal was the prosecutor leading the investigation against Cihaner, whose arrest sparked many debates and a conflict within the judiciary. The former Erzincan prosecutor had been leading an investigation against alleged religious communities in the region, and some alleged that his arrest was a way to threaten him because of this work.

As part of the same investigation, Sanal had ordered the detainment of three National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, members in Erzincan. When he went with police to arrest them, a conflict almost erupted between the police and the MIT, according to media reports. On the same day Cihaner was arrested, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, or HSYK, stripped Sanal of his special authorities.

One probe for terror-related crimes

The Erzurum prosecutor with special authorities meanwhile initiated a probe late last month into Saymaz’s book after receiving a complaint about it Oct. 22. That same day, the prosecutor’s office asked for a copy of the book from the publishing house.

Saymaz said he wrote a story about Sanal on that date, in which he said the prosecutor made a decision about Cihaner’s case even though he had been stripped of the special authorities necessary to make the decision. The journalist said he believes the probe and the story about Sanal are related to each other.

“As prosecutors with special authorities look into terror-related crimes, I can only be judged for crimes such as being a member of a terrorist organization, making propaganda for a terror organization, making judges and prosecutors targets of terror organizations or disclosing secret state documents,” Saymaz told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



US Writer Shows Her Love for Turkey With New Book

Katharine Branning, a US researcher and writer, has been traveling to Turkey for 30 years and has published her experience in a new book: ‘Yes, I Would Love Another Cup of Tea,’ which has already been translated into Turkish. ‘I want people in the US to understand Turkey better. I want to show how peaceful, right-minded and modern Turkey is,’ she says.

U.S. researcher-writer Katharine Branning has published a book about her 30 years of experience traveling to Turkey, titled “Yes, I Would Love Another Cup of Tea,” saying she wanted to show people in the U.S. how peaceful, right-minded and modern Turkey is.

Becoming Turkey’s volunteer ambassador with her book, which has been translated into Turkish under the title “Bir Çay Daha Lütfen,” Branning spoke about her observations of Turkey.

She said she had previously written many articles on Turkey, but the idea to write a book came up thanks to her poet friend Muhsin Ilyas Subasi. “One day when I went to visit him, he said Turks would be interested in my observations of their country. I said no at first, doubting that people would be interested in my travels. But later on I thought he was right because I have spent 30 years in Turkey and they were not travels with a tourist purpose only. I have been interested in Turkey for a long time. And then I started writing.”

She said the main reason she decided to write the book was to thank the Turkish people for their warm attitude and also to educate people in the U.S. about Turkey. “I want people in the U.S. to understand Turkey better. I want to show how Turkey is a peaceful, right-minded and modern country,” she said.

Turkey 20 years later

Branning said Turkey had a political role to provide dialogue among the Middle Eastern countries. “I am looking forward to the next 20 years, because Turkey will play a huge role in providing dialogue between countries that have conflict today.”

Mentioning the economic and social problems that Turkey had 30 years ago, Branning said Turkey was a magnificent success story. “It is wonderful that it is such a modern and developed country right now. I can’t even imagine what will happen 20 years later and can’t wait to see it.”

Branning said Turkey would never turn its back on the West. “Perhaps the U.S. people think Turkey turned its back on the West because it wants to carry out trade with Iran or develop gas lines with Russia. But no, Turkey is looking for new enterprises. This is why it will never turn its back on the U.S. or the West. Because this is what makes Turkey strong. It knows what democracy means. This is what also makes Turkey different from other countries in the Middle East.”

Positive reactions from Turks

Branning said the reactions of Turks to her book were very positive. “Turks liked that I wrote about my observations of their simple behaviors and their courtesy to each other in daily life. Such things seem normal to you, but in my opinion, these are wonderful behaviors. What I write in my books causes Turks to realize their richness and it makes me proud,” she said.

She also said U.S. people should read more about Turkey and learn about its cultural development. “I am very impressed by Turkey’s efforts to establish dialogue with its partners in the Middle East. Such things show that the Middle East has a peaceful country like Turkey. This is the most important point that should be highlighted in the U.S.”

Branning said she was currently preparing to write a second book about Turkey, adding that it would feature a love story from the 13th century in the time of the Seljuks. “Turks always ask me if my new book would be a love story. They are very romantic people. My new book will be a love story, but it is not only between men and women but also the love between the sultan and his country,” she said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Russia


From AEI: Putin’s Agenda and Medvedev’s Dilemma

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev’s sacking of Yuri Luzhkov, the powerful mayor of Moscow, and the spate of interviews given by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in September have been thoroughly analyzed by Russian and foreign experts and journalists in search of clues to the million-dollar question of Russian politics: will Putin run for president in 2012, or will he let his protégé Medvedev serve another term? There has been no “smoking gun,” but several strong hints have emerged. First, Putin has articulated, openly and proudly, what amounts to a strategic agenda. Second, this agenda negates virtually every key element of Medvedev’s “modernization” and liberalization, including the “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations. Third, with the policy disjoint this wide, it is almost certain that Putin will run, while Medvedev will face a stark dilemma: be a Khrushchev or a Gorbachev?

[URL gives link to full PDF]

[Return to headlines]

South Asia


Pakistan Mosque Shootout Wounds 18 Over Dispute Which Cleric Should Lead Holiday Prayers

QUETTA, Pakistan — A shootout inside a mosque in southwestern Pakistan wounded 18 people Wednesday in a dispute over who should lead prayers for one of Islam’s most important holidays, police said.

Followers of the two rival religious leaders pulled out weapons and started shooting Wednesday morning after arguing over which one should start the prayers at a small mosque in remote Khuzdar district of Baluchistan province, police official Javed Ahmed said. The district is about 550 miles (900 kilometres) southwest of Islamabad.

Many of the region’s ethnic Pashtuns typically carry rifles in daily life.

Millions of other Pakistanis peacefully celebrated Eid al-Adha on Wednesday, joining Muslims the world over for the three-day festival, known as the Feast of the Sacrifice, that involves slaughter of sheep and cattle in remembrance of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son.

Pakistan kicked off the holiday a day later than many other countries because of local authorities’ interpretation of when the new moon was sighted.

Celebrations were muted in some areas of Pakistan because of devastating floods that affected 20 million people, of whom 7 million remain homeless.

Most mosques also added additional security Wednesday to guard against attacks by the Taliban and other Islamist extremists. Earlier this month, at least 70 people died when a suicide bomber hit a mosque frequented by anti-Taliban elders and a grenade exploded at another place of worship in the country’s northwest.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Far East


China’s African Safari Strictly Business

By Kent Ewing

HONG KONG — Read China’s state media and you will learn that, thanks to projects financed by Chinese companies and the central government, Africa is booming while the continent’s political leaders trip over one another to express their appreciation for Beijing’s helping hand. And it’s all true.

Bridges, dams, roads, railroads and airports are rapidly multiplying. Oil refineries and zinc, copper and cobalt mines are going at full tilt. Beijing is even catering to Africa’s favorite sport as Chinese-designed and Chinese-built football stadia sprout up across the continent.

By all accounts , it’s an impressive tally. No wonder praise for China in the state houses and parliaments of Africa is also a boom industry these days. Gross domestic product (GDP) in many African nations is on the rise, with China playing a big role in spurring this growth. But these impressive GDP figures come with a nagging and potentially explosive problem that African leaders are loath to acknowledge: the economic benefits of China’s huge push into Africa are not trickling down to the more than one billion people who live on the continent. And rank-and-file Africans are not echoing the praise that African leaders have been heaping on Beijing. Perversely, as Chinese investment grows in Africa, so does resentment of the Chinese.

Indeed, China’s ventures into Africa are proving as self-serving and exploitative as anything perpetrated by Europeans during Africa’s colonial period. But there is also a big difference that is much appreciated by the continent’s political elite.

The Europeans brought with them a hypocritical moral justification for their greed, famously captured in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden”. Written after the United States had joined the colonial party by taking over the Philippines through the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the poem exhorts Europeans and their descendants to perform their moral duty — despite the sullen resistance and benighted ignorance that they should expect to encounter — to civilize the darker races of the world:

Take up the White Man’s burden

Send forth the best ye breed

Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives’ need;

To wait in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild

Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.

No 21st-century Western poet worth his salt would dare write such a racist rant. That said, however, the condescending conditions attached to Western aid often read like bureaucratic paeans to democracy and clean governance that, in the eyes of leaders in the developing world, continue to presume the superiority of Western institutions and to treat the people of their nations as second-class citizens…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Meeting Decline Face-to-Face

By Juan Cole

Blocked from major new domestic initiatives by a Republican victory in the mid-term elections, President Barack Obama promptly lit out for Asia, a far more promising arena. That continent, after all, is rising, and Obama is eager to grasp the golden ring of Asian success.

Beyond being a goodwill ambassador for 10 days, Obama is seeking sales of American-made durable and consumer goods, weapons deals, an expansion of trade, green-energy cooperation, and the maintenance of a geopolitical balance in the region favorable to the United States. Just as the decline of the American economy hobbled him at home, however, the weakness of the United States on the world stage in the aftermath of president George W Bush-era excesses has made real breakthroughs abroad unlikely.

Add to this the peculiar obsessions of the Washington power elite, with regard to Iran for instance, and you have an unpalatable mix. These all-American fixations are viewed as an inconvenience or worse in Asia, where powerful regional hegemons are increasingly determined to chart their own courses, even if in public they continue to humor a somewhat addled and infirm Uncle Sam.

Although the United States is still the world’s largest economy, it is shackled by enormous public and private debt as well as fundamental weaknesses. Rivaled by an increasingly integrated European Union, it is projected to be overtaken economically by China in just over a decade. While the president’s first stop, India, now has a nominal gross domestic product of only a little over a trillion dollars a year, it, too, is growing rapidly, even spectacularly, and its GDP may well quadruple by the early 2020s. The era of American dominance, in other words, is passing, and the time (just after World War II) when the US accounted for half the world economy, a dim memory.

The odd American urge to invest heavily in perpetual war abroad, including “defense-related” spending of around one trillion dollars a year, has been a significant factor further weakening the country on the global stage. Most of the conventional weapons on which the US continues to splurge could not even be deployed against nuclear powers like Russia, China and India, emerging as key competitors when it comes to global markets, resources, and regional force projection.

Those same conventional weapons have proved hardly more useful (in the sense of achieving quick and decisive victory, or even victory at all) in the unconventional wars the US has repeatedly plunged into — a sad fact that Bush’s reckless attempt to occupy entire West Asian nations only demonstrated even more clearly to Washington’s bemused rivals.

American weapons stockpiles (and copious plans for ever more high-tech versions of the same into the distant future) are therefore remarkably irrelevant to its situation, and known to be so. Meanwhile, its economy, burdened by debts incurred through wars and military spending sprees, and hollowed out by Wall Street shell games, is becoming a B-minus one in global terms.

A superpower with feet of clay

Just how weakened the United States has been in Asia is easily demonstrated by the series of rebuffs its overtures have suffered from regional powers. When, for instance, a tiff broke out this fall between China and Japan over a collision at sea near the disputed Senkaku Islands, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to mediate…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Immigration


France Sees Tensions Rise Five Years on From Paris Riots

Violence in the ghettos brought an outcry over racism — but President Sarkozy is now putting immigrants under even more pressure

Norwegian Infidel: Five years ago these estates in Clichy-sous-Bois on the edge of Paris exploded in riots that spread across France and led to a state of national emergency. The trigger for the violence was the death of two young boys electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police. But the root cause was the hopelessness of a generation of young French people, ghettoised in dismal suburbs, marginalised and jobless because of their skin colour or their parents’ immigrant origins. Since then discrimination against the third- and fourth-generation children of immigrants has worsened, tension is rife and Nicolas Sarkozy’s rightwing anti-immigrant rhetoric is blamed.

Allili, 21, shared a school desk with one of the boys who died in Clichy. He witnessed the nights of rioting firsthand. The fourth child of an Algerian cafe-owner, he’s one of the few youths on his estate who have managed to carve out a future, training in IT. But he doesn’t feel accepted as French. “Sarkozy’s constant talk of immigration and national identity chips away at you, but worse is the perpetual police stop and searches. Cops insult us, saying ‘Get back to your own country’, ‘you’re not welcome here’. That’s pretty hard to stomach when you’re French.”…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Spain: PP Candidate is Anti-Immigrant Heroine in Videogame

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 16 — Alicia Sanchez Camacho, a People’s Party candidate in the November 28 regional elections of Catalonia, is the main character of an electoral videogame in which, acting as Lara Croft, she clears out, among others, illegal aliens and the independence movement.

The videogame ‘Rescue’, launched by Catalonia’s youth movement of the People’s Party on its website, sees the heroine, renamed Alicia Croft, fly in the skies of Barcelona on the back of her seagull Pepe and launce “decisive ideas” in the shape of a light bulb to “transform and solve the problems of Catalonia”. Imitating the famous Lara Croft, the hero of the videogame can feed on “the elements that unite us”, such as the bull or the donkey, to gain points and shoot against her true targets: an aircraft parachuting two “illegal aliens”, an independence movement blimp or a mouth that wants to represent the imposition of language in Catalonia. With each light bulb strike by Alicia Croft the emphasised problems vanish and are replaced by the writing “proud to be Catalan and Spanish”. At the end of the game seagull Pepe appears for congratulations and to invite the Catalan people to go and vote on November 28 to transform the fiction into reality.

Many sectors in Catalonia sees the idea of the People’s Party as a further step in the fight against illegal immigration, which Camacho adopted as her battle cry in the election. In recent days the candidate proposed the signing of a contract of integration for foreigners, with the duty of learning the local language and customs, in order to reside in Spain, and of returning to their country of origin should they not find work.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Sweden Stops Plane of Deported Iraqis

A flight carrying deported Iraqi asylum seekers from Sweden back to Iraq has been cancelled following a request from the European Court of Human Rights that Sweden delay around 150 forced deportations.

The Court’s request, received Tuesday night by the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket), covered a number of deportees who were set to board the plane, which had been scheduled to depart on Wednesday morning.

The Migration Board has said previously it can’t stop all planned deportations of Iraqis who have had their asylum requests denied, a decision which has been roundly criticised.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, singled out Sweden in speaking out against reports that member states were preparing to return Iraqi citizens to Iraq in violation of a decision of the European Court of Human Rights.

“The Court has clearly asked Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom not to proceed with forced return of Iraqis in view of the recent deterioration of the security situation there. All Council of Europe member states must respect the decisions of the Court,” Jagland said in a statement.

The European Court of Human Rights is currently investigating if it’s safe for Iraqis, and in particular Iraqi Christians, to be sent back to certain parts of the country, including Baghdad.

As long as the investigation is ongoing, the Court has said that all Iraqis who so desire can have their deportation orders delayed and should be allowed to stay in the countries in which they are seeking refugee status.

“We’re doing this as a precautionary measure so that these people don’t get in a jam because the Court of Human Rights hasn’t had a chance to review their applications,” said Migration Board spokesperson Johan Rahm to the TT news agency regarding the cancellation of Wednesday’s flight.

The cancellation of the flight doesn’t mean the Migration Board has made a general decision to stop all deportations.

Migration minister Tobias Billström said each case must be assessed individually, even in decisions about whether or not to delay carrying out a deportation ruling.

“To go from individual reviews to collective reviews could result in every person in a group getting rejected or approved. And the question is how just that would be,” he told TT.

According to Billström, the Migration Board has delayed the deportation of Iraqis every time the European Court of Human Rights has requested the agency do so.

As a result, he has a hard time understanding criticism lodged against Sweden by the Council of Europe.

“Sweden has never acted in violation of a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights,” said Billström.

The minister also rejected reports that many Iraqis haven’t been informed that they can request to have their deportation rulings delayed.

“Several Swedish agencies provide information on how and where people can complain to the Court of Human Rights; it’s not like we’re withholding information,” he said.

The Migration Board said on Tuesday that it had stopped the forced deportation of 61 Iraqis who had filed complaints with the European Court of Human Rights.

According to the agency’s chief legal officer Mikael Ribbenvik, about half of the Iraqi’s who seek asylum in Sweden are allowed to stay.

He also pointed out, however, that Sweden’s Migration Court of Appeals ruled in 2007 that there is no longer an armed conflict in Iraq and that the situation has improved since then.

“We’re waiting to see how the Court of Human Rights reacts to information about the country we’ve submitted to them, Ribbenvik told TT.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Canada: Carleton Student Association Bans Anti-Abortion Club

Carleton University’s official student association has banned the Ottawa institution’s anti-abortion club, offering it just one way to get back into good graces: support abortion rights.

On Monday, the Carleton University Student Association (CUSA), decertified Carleton Lifeline for its anti-abortion views. It told the club that being against abortion violated CUSA’s anti-discrimination policy, but that it could get recertified in a day or two.

“We invite you to amend your constitution to create one that respects our anti-discrimination policy as laid out above,” wrote Khaldoon Bushnaq, CUSA’s vice-president of internal affairs. “If you are able to resubmit a constitution that meets our criteria by Thursday, November 18th we will be able to certify your club for this semester.”

Ruth Lobo, the president of Carleton Lifeline, said CUSA assumes all students are “pro-choice,” which is not necessarily the case. Its policy, she said, smacked of hypocrisy.

“It’s very ironic that they have a discrimination policy that allows them to discriminate against pro-life groups,” she said. “CUSA claims to be representative of all students. As a pro-life student I am not represented by an organization I am forced to pay dues to in my tuition. Either they should create a policy in which students can opt out of fees or get rid of the discrimination policy,” Ms. Lobo said.

“Pro-choice should also mean that a woman has the right to not have an abortion, so I think CUSA is being anti-choice by not allowing people to hear the other side.”

CUSA did not return phone calls on Tuesday. The Canadian Federation of Students, an umbrella group for student associations, said it does not get involved with local matters on specific campuses.

The letter from Mr. Bushnaq noted Carleton Lifeline believes in the “equal rights of the unborn and firmly believes that abortion is a moral and legal wrong.” Therefore, because of CUSA’s commitment to the pro-abortion-rights position, Carleton Lifeline can no longer promote its views on campus or lobby in any way that would oppose that position.

It can no longer book space for advocacy or events, nor is it eligible for funding.

Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos, who is defending the Lifeline students, said CUSA’s “appalling” decision goes against all principles of free speech.

In a letter to CUSA, Mr. Polizogopoulos noted that CUSA’s own constitution, which overrides all bylaws and policies enacted by CUSA, calls for “maintaining an academic and social environment free from prejudice, exploitation, abuse or violence on the basis of, but not limited to, sex, race, language, religion, age, national or social status, political affiliation or belief, sexual orientation or marital status.”

Mr. Polizogopoulos continued: “Since the Discrimination on Campus Policy explicitly calls for the discrimination [against] individuals on the basis of their political belief that life begins at conception, [therefore] it cannot, according to CUSA’s Constitution, continue to be in effect.”

Late on Tuesday Carleton University said in a statement: “CUSA is an independent, incorporated organization; they operate independently of the university and the university plays no role in and has no standing with regard to CUSA’s decision making.”

The Carleton Lifeline became certified in 2006 after a failed attempt by CUSA to keep the club off campus.

Ms. Lobo said she can only speculate why CUSA decided to ban them now but she assumes that it is related to an incident involving the club last month.

On Oct. 4, Ms. Lobo and four other students were arrested on campus by Ottawa police for attempting to display graphic anti-abortion posters. The police were called in by the school administration and the students were charged with trespassing. The case is still pending.

John Carpay, a civil liberties lawyer from Calgary, who has dealt with similar bans on anti-abortion groups, said CUSA’s offer to reinstate the club if they agree to endorse abortion rights can only be laughed at.

“That’s awfully generous of them to offer an opportunity for repentance,” said Mr. Carpay. “But it is truly alarming that CUSA would so easily suppress free speech. It’s tragic.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



New Forbidden Word in School

On one side, a Wayne Valley High school student claims that his use of the word “Taliban” was innocent, mentioned in a conversation about a video game, according to his mother.

But to a Muslim student who overheard it at school on Thursday, it was upsetting. And she had perceived that he had looked at her when he said it, Principal Robert Reis said.

Now the boy is facing a one-day suspension on Monday, because, Reis said, he continued to talk about the incident and it got back to the girl and upset her. Reis said she felt the boy was boasting that he’d gotten away with something.

“This has nothing to do with the fact that the boy used a word,” Reis said. “This has everything to do with the boy hurt a girl’s feelings.” And after the boy was told by administrators not to discuss what happened, Reis said, “He went back and hurt her feelings a second time.”

But the boy’s mother, Rosa Giordano, said the incident “is totally being blown out of proportion” and she plans to fight the disciplinary action.

The incident has unfolded during a time of heightened sensitivity about bullying in schools. Reis said the school takes a “no nonsense” stance and coincidentally had been planning a December forum to discuss the issue.

Giordano said her son was not being a bully and is himself bi-racial.

“He never saw this girl before,” she said. “It was an innocent thing. How does she know he was not talking about a newspaper story?”

She said she plans to go to the district offices early Monday morning to fight for her son to be allowed to attend school that day.

“I don’t want this on his record as a racial slur and bullying,” she said. “I am sorry the girl got offended by the world ‘Taliban.’ I will make sure my son never says the word again … the poor kid is so upset he doesn’t want to go to school.”

[…]

[Return to headlines]

General


The World Must Not Allow Islam-Muslim Murder Decrees in a Civilized Society

The patent absurdity and unfairness of Islam is beginning to reach the critical stage of survival of ALL religions.

Islam deserves to receive from ALL other religions the same edict that they themselves issue to those other religions. Just because their god tells them to eliminate by death those of all other religions who choose not to convert to Islam, it is not international legal justification for the action. Those who perpetrate such an action of killing should be brought to trial in some international or World Court on the charge of murder in the first degree. It is unquestionably premeditated.

Yes it is a radical concept for peoples of ALL other religions who possess the grace and intelligence to be able to live with each other and to tolerate the other religions’ needs as long as they do not inflict suffering or death on another. This is acknowledgment that all people are entitled to believe as they wish, unharmed and unchallenged, including Islam-Muslim.

But those who would go against this position of fairness to all by insisting on creating a single belief with punishment by death to those who choose not to accept that belief, deserve to meet the same fate as they would bestow on their detractors.

Does this represent advocacy of mass mayhem? Perhaps, but the only options available is to give in to the unfair demands of this maniacal force of bigoted and murderous thugs and become Muslims or face sure death.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101116

Financial Crisis
» Barroso ‘Extremely Disappointed’ Over Budget Collapse
» Dow Drops 179 Points to 11,023.50 After Global Worries
» EU in Talks With IMF as Irish Bailout Looms
» Euro Under Siege as Now Portugal Hits Panic Button
» Greek Deficit Much Bigger Than Estimate
» Ireland’s Debt Crisis Could Kill the European Union Stone Dead, EU President Warns
» Irish Debt Woes Make German Banks Uneasy
 
USA
» “Death to America!” a Declaration of War by Traitors?
» Amid Airport Anger, GOP Takes Aim at Screening
» Cartoonist Ted Rall to Appear at Communist Bookstore
» Conservative Group Calls on Justice Dept. To Investigate Muslim Prayers on Capitol Hill
» NASA Develops Puncture-Proof Space Tyre
» Obama’s Labor Secretary to Honor Communist
» Rangel Violated Numerous House Ethics Rules, Panel Finds
» Replace Humiliation With Respect
» State Warning to TSA: Stop Breaking the Law
» U.S. Left: Onward Muslim Soldiers
 
Canada
» Muslim ‘Parallel Society’ Within Canada a Threat: Report
 
Europe and the EU
» Carl Bildt Slams EU President Over Turkey
» Chechen Exile Murder Trial Begins in Vienna
» Claim: Danish Authorities Aware of US Monitoring Programme
» Four Ministers Set to Resign From Italian Government
» France: Sarkozy Appoints Right-Wing Cabinet With Eye on 2012
» Germany: ‘Naked’ Scanners Fooled by Creased Clothing
» Italy: Keats-Shelley House to Offer Taste of England
» Italy: Silvio Berlusconi Dealt Another Blow as Four Ministers Resign
» Italy: Berlusconi Wants Confidence Vote or Elections — But Only for Chamber of Deputies
» Jihadist Online Chat Rooms Also Have Contributors From Finland
» Local Liberal Too ‘UN-Swedish’ For Top Post
» Sweden: Neo-Nazi Site Charged Over Reader Comment
» UK Muslim Mob Threatens to Fly Black Flag of Islam Over Downing Street, White House for Jailed Cleric’s Release
» UK Still Cheerleader of Turkey’s EU Bid
» UK: ‘Disgusted’ Mother Turns in 14 Yr Old Daughter Who Vandalised War Memorial
» UK: ‘Criminal in Police Uniform’: Sergeant Who Helped Run Brother’s Drug Gang Jailed for 11 Years
» UK: Early Learning Centre Bans Toy Pig From Farmyard Set for Fear of Offending Muslims (But Keeps Sty and Oink Noise) By Louise Eccles
» UK: Hush Money: Multi-Million Pound Payouts to Silence British Terror Suspects Held in Guantanamo
» UK: Islamist Sympathisers Admit They Are Losing Ground in Government
» UK: More Than a Dozen Terror Suspects to Get Millions of Pounds Compensation
» UK: Middle Class Voters Are Liars and Hypocrites Says Top Labour MP in Astonishing Rant
» UK: Toy Pig Pulled From Farm Set on Religious Grounds
» UK: Two Jailed for Life for ‘Sickeningly Violent’ Murder of a Shopkeeper Who Refused to Meekly Abandon His Property
» UK: Toy Pig Removed From Farm Set to Avoid Offending Muslim and Jewish Parents
» UK: Westminster on Mumbai-Style Terror Attack Alert After Al Qaeda Threat
 
Balkans
» World’s Oldest Copper Age Settlement Found
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Fresh Tensions Between Copts and Muslims in South
» Egypt: Mob Burns Christian Homes
» Muslims Set Fire to Coptic Christian Homes in Southern Egypt, Officials Say
 
Middle East
» A Weak State Incubates Terror
» Germans Held in Iran Accused of Espionage
» NATO Summit: Clash With Turkey Over Missile Shield
» Pilgrimage: How Much Does it Cost to be a Good Muslim?
» Saudi Arabia: Country Dealing With Gold Smuggling
» Syria: Assad Family 40 Years in Power, Now Hezbollah Issue
 
Russia
» Hollywood to Slander Russia Internationally
 
South Asia
» Pakistan: Bishop of Islamabad, Asia Bibi Case “A Disgrace” — A Campaign by AsiaNews
» Pakistan: US Earmarks $500mln for Post-Flood Reconstruction
 
Far East
» Asteroid Dust Successfully Returned by Japanese Space Probe
» Chinese Brain-Imaging Device a Suspected Copy of U.S. Device
» Obama Delivers Only Hot Air
 
Australia — Pacific
» UK Too Full of Immigrants, Says Pauline Hanson
 
Immigration
» Australia: Population Boom Inevitable, PM Told Josh Gordon
» California Court Upholds in-State Tuition for Some Immigrants
» U.N.: Lower Barriers to Legal Immigration
» UK: What About My Right to a Family Life, Says Father of Girl Killed by Iraqi Criminal We Can’t Throw Out
 
Culture Wars
» Spain: Transsexuals Excluded From Work, 80% Prostitute

Financial Crisis


Barroso ‘Extremely Disappointed’ Over Budget Collapse

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has expressed his “extreme disappointment” over the failure of member states and MEPs to agree to the bloc’s 2011 budget, and warned of the negative impact of this breakdown.

“I’m extremely disappointed that talks between the Council and the European Parliament on the 2011 budget have broken down,” Mr Barroso said in a statement on Tuesday (16 November).

Mr Barroso said Britain and the Netherlands ‘have shot themselves in the foot’ (Photo: European Commission)

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Comment article

Without specifically naming Britain and the Netherlands, who were the most reluctant to give in to the MEPs demands, Mr Barroso said that “a small number of member states were not prepared to negotiate in a European spirit” and that a solution had been possible in the late hours of Monday night.

“Those who think they have won a victory over ‘Brussels’ have shot themselves in the foot. They should know that they have dealt a blow to people all over Europe and in the developing world,” the Portuguese politician said, in reference to EU subsidies paid to farmers, businesses, regions and humanitarian assistance abroad.

The commission has now to come up with a new draft, with the parliament and member states each presenting their opinion and then talks will start all over again, a process “likely to take several months,” according to EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski.

Meanwhile, the EU will now employ a system of provisional budgets funded each month up with up to one twelth of the total 2010 figure.

Diplomats on Monday night pointed out that this will certainly cause “no drama” and that even for new projects, such as the European External Action Service or the three new financial supervisory authorities, there will be enough money left over.

Neither will the safety net for troubled eurozone countries be affected, a spokeswoman for Mr Barroso said Tuesday during a press conference. Pressure has mounted in recent days on the Irish government to ask help from the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM), as its borrowing costs on the markets are reaching record highs every day.

“There is no impact of the absence of the budget for 2011 on the possible activation of the EFSM,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr Lewandowski, however, maintains that the month-to-month budget scheme will jeopardise investments in poorer regions — under EU’s cohesion policy — which need longer term planning and require co-funding from the public or private sector.

Poland, one of the big beneficiaries of cohesion policy, is the native country of Mr Lewandowski, himself a former MEP.

Speaking to the EUobserver, Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberal group in the European Parliament said that the uphill battle against reticent member states was not about money, but about “going back to the original formula of EU’s founding fathers, who based the European budget on ‘own resources’,” he said, employing the term used in Brussels jargon for giving the bloc its own fundraising powers.

“This is an opportunity to open a discussion about the financing system of the EU — it should be direct financed by citizens, so that they can have a direct influence on EU policies,” he argued.

Debt crises such as the Greek and the Irish ones could be averted, Mr Verhofstadt argued, if the current system of national contributions and rebates was abolished.

He dismissed British sovereignty concerns when it comes to taxation, arguing: “EU taxes exist already, on agricultural imports and part of the value added tax (VAT).”

In the Belgian politican’s view, to talk about EU taxes at times of budget austerity in member states was not inappropriate, since the European Parliament was not asking “for extra taxes,” but to replace some national taxes.

Mr Verhofstadt said that the group of reluctant countries has dropped from 12 mid-October to 3-4 on Monday night, “all the others were willing to start a discussion on it.”

Meanwhile, speaking at a breakfast event in Brussels, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy came to the defence of member states and pointed to the “political courage” governments have to muster when introducing painful austerity measures, despite street protests and “rising populism.”

He spoke of the Lisbon Treaty as offering “new tools” on monetary stability, jobs and growth, but said that while discussions in Brussels are important, “the most difficult political work has to be done in the member states themselves.”

“The choice is not between the ‘intergovernmental’ or the ‘community method’,” he said, referring to the two visions of how Europe should operate: on a national government-to-government basis or through EU-level institutions, “but between a co-ordinated EU position or nothing at all.”

When asked about the 2011 budget, Mr Van Rompuy said that “in the end, compromise will be found.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Dow Drops 179 Points to 11,023.50 After Global Worries

The Dow Jones industrial average briefly fell below 11,000 for the first time since early October.

Stocks were down for the seventh consecutive day after worries about Europe’s debt crisis and possible moves by authorities in Asia to slow fast-paced growth there swept the world’s markets on Tuesday.

[Return to headlines]



EU in Talks With IMF as Irish Bailout Looms

(BRUSSELS) — The European Union on Tuesday signalled that the IMF could be called in to help the bloc resolve a banking crisis in Ireland that has revived fears for the future of the euro.

The EU’s executive commission is holding talks with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank to resolve the Irish banking crisis, European economic affairs chief Olli Rehn said.

“The Irish sovereign (debt) is funded well until the middle of next year,” Rehn told reporters ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers to discuss a way out of the crisis in Ireland.

“At the same time the commission together with the ECB and IMF and the Irish authorities are working in order to resolve the serious problems of the Irish banking sector,” he said.

“I expect the Eurogroup (of finance ministers) to support this project.”

Rehn insisted that the current turmoil does not constitute “a matter of the survival of the euro, this is a matter of a very serious problem in the banking sector of Ireland.”

But earlier in the day the president of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, warned that the 27-nation bloc’s very future could indeed be at stake.

“If we don’t survive with the eurozone we will not survive with the European Union,” he said.

Finance ministers stepping into the talks expressed willingness to bail out Ireland but insisted Dublin had still made no request for assistance.

“If Ireland needs help we will help,” said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. “We have a mechanism in place, it’s a mechanical problem.”

But “Ireland hasn’t asked for help,” she added, echoing comments from other officials.

The IMF earlier this year rushed to rescue Europe from a fiscal crisis, joining the EU in establishing a 110-billion-euro (150-billion-dollar) fund for financially ailing Greece in May.

Rehn however brushed aside comparisons to fiscal troubles in fellow eurozone countries Portugal and Spain and sought to ease fears of contagion through the rest of the single currency area

“Ireland is a very different case,” Rehn said.

In Madrid, Economy Minister Elena Salgado insisted there was no reason why Spain should be affected by alarm on financial markets about the state of Irish and Portuguese finances.

“The situation in Spain is and will continue to be completely different,” she said, although the Spanish government had to pay a much higher interest rate to borrow money in a bond sale on Tuesday.

There is concern that any contagion to Spain would take the crisis to a new level since the Spanish economy is the fifth biggest in the EU.

Bond yields for Ireland, Portugal and Greece all remain high, suggesting a persistent lack of confidence on the part of investors.

The current drama has also weighed on the euro and on share prices in Europe, where markets fell hard on Tuesday.

Twenty-four of the EU’s 27 states are currently running deficits way above the EU limits of three percent of output.

At least one state indicated to AFP that it was fed up offering bailout assistance — Iceland and Latvia also benefit from its taxpayers’ solidarity — and suggested the outcome of talks in Brussels was not a foregone conclusion.

Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell said his government would withold its December installment of 190 million euros in aid to Greece, saying Athens had not met its commitments to the European Union.

The urgency this time is due to massive debt write-downs arising from an Irish property crash. Ireland’s public deficit this year is set to pass 30 percent of GDP, 10 times the permitted EU limit and double last year’s Greek deficit.

A source at the Luxembourg-based 440-billion-euro European Financial Stability Fund set up by eurozone leaders to prevent the Greek crisis from spreading said there was nothing to prevent money being pumped into Dublin purely to stabilise its banks.

“Ten billion (euros) of the money for Greece was for its banking sector. The percentage is a matter for political decision,” he stressed when asked by AFP if it could run to 100 percent.

Experts say Dublin will need about 70 billion euros. Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker, the ECB, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund have all said they are ready to act as soon as possible if asked.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Euro Under Siege as Now Portugal Hits Panic Button

The euro is facing an unprecedented crisis after another country indicated on Monday night that it was at a “high risk” of requiring an international bail-out.

Portugal became the latest European nation to admit it was on the brink of seeking help from Brussels after Ireland confirmed it had begun preliminary talks over its debt problems.

Greece also disclosed that its economic problems are even worse than previously thought.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, raised the spectre of the euro collapsing as she warned: “If the euro fails, then Europe fails.”

European finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to begin discussions over a new European stability plan that is expected to result in billions of pounds being offered to Ireland, Portugal and possibly even Spain.

David Cameron said he was thankful that Britain had not joined the euro, but indicated his displeasure that taxpayers in this country face a pounds 7 billion pound liability in any bail-out package.

The veteran Conservative MP Peter Tapsell warned that the “potential knock-on effect” of the Irish crisis “could pose as great a threat to the world economy as did Lehman Brothers, AIG and Goldman Sachs in September 2008”.

Ireland has resisted growing international pressure to accept EU financial assistance amid concerns that this would lead to a surrender of political and economic sovereignty.

However, the German government is expected to signal that Ireland may have to accept a pounds 77 billion pound bail-out, along with a loss of economic and political independence, as the price of preserving the euro.

Mrs Merkel said that the single currency was “the glue that holds Europe together”.

Her words came as fellow eurozone members Portugal and Spain rounded on Ireland. They fear that international concerns over the euro will lead to so-called market contagion spreading to them.

Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, the Portuguese finance minister, said: “There is a risk of contagion. The risk is high because we are not facing only a national problem. It is the problems of Greece, Portugal and Ireland. This has to do with the eurozone and the stability of the eurozone, and that is why contagion in this framework is more likely.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Greek Deficit Much Bigger Than Estimate

Greece’s goal of reducing its gargantuan debt received a fresh blow today when the EU statistics agency announced that the country’s 2009 budget deficit was much worse than first thought.

Six months after Athens received €110bn (£93bn) in emergency loans from EU nations and the International Monetary Fund to prop up its near-bankrupt economy, Eurostat revealed that Greece’s budget deficit reached 15.4% of GDP last year, substantially higher than its previous estimate of 13.6%.

In April, Eurostat had estimated the debt-to-GDP ratio would reach 115.1%. The revised data meant that Greece’s debt ratio has eclipsed those of every other EU state, officials said. By the end of 2009, its debt is projected to account for 126.8% of GDP.

Greece’s poor bookkeeping was blamed for the budget black holes.

As a team of visiting inspectors from the IMF, the European commission and the European Central Bank arrived in Athens, there was widespread acceptance that the new figures would throw out the fiscal and structural reform programme the socialist government has agreed to in return for the loans, the biggest bailout in history.

“We will face a profound strategic issue of how to repay €70bn-€80bn when redemption of the rescue loans comes,” a senior government aide told the Guardian. “There will have to be some disguised rescheduling of the time frame in which we repay the money.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Ireland’s Debt Crisis Could Kill the European Union Stone Dead, EU President Warns

The debt crisis facing Ireland, Greece and Portugal could threaten the future of the whole European Union, EU President Herman Van Rompuy warned today.

‘We must all work together in order to survive with the eurozone, because if we do not survive with the eurozone, we will not survive with the European Union,’ said Mr Van Rompuy.

He spoke out as finance ministers tried to keep Ireland’s market turmoil from triggering a domino effect that could topple other vulnerable nations and rock the region’s currency union.

Only months after saving Greece from bankruptcy in May, the 16-country eurozone has been shaken by concerns that Ireland will be unable to sustain the cost of its banks’ failure.

European nations are worried the tension is making borrowing more expensive for countries like Portugal and Spain, threatening to push them to the brink of default.

Stifling the contagion — a market panic that jumps from one weak country to the next — is the priority.

Behind Ireland stands Portugal, one of the eurozone’s smaller member with 1.8 per cent of its economy but one that is considered by some to have done less than the Irish to bring debt and deficits back under control.

Next comes Spain, with a proportionally smaller debt burden but a dead-in-the-water economy that is so big — 11.7 per cent of eurozone output — that it could present a much larger challenge if it needs help.

Rates on Irish bonds rose again today as investors’ expectations ebbed for an early decision on an Irish bailout — which would be expected to guarantee they will get paid back on their holdings.

The yield on 10-year Irish treasuries rose to 8.16 per cent from Monday’s closing yield of 7.94 per cent.

Ireland’s minister for European affairs, Dick Roche, concedes that Irish banks are having trouble drumming up operating cash, but insists no bailout agreement is in store.

He suggested that others in the EU were panicking over how to manage Ireland’s £49 billion bank-bailout bill and its deficit, which is forecast to reach a staggering 32 per cent of GDP this year, a record for post-war Europe.

‘I would hope that after the meeting this afternoon and tomorrow there would be more logic introduced to this. There’s no reason why we should trigger an IMF or an EU-type bailout,’ Roche said.

‘There is a problem with liquidity in banks, but I don’t think the appropriate response to that would be for European finance ministers to panic.’

Analysts suggested that Ireland should cut a deal now with EU colleagues and not wait until next year, when the country could rapidly reach the edge of bankruptcy.

Ireland says it has sufficient cash to fund government services through June 2011, and has postponed returning to the bond market until early 2011 in hopes that the interest rate demanded by investors will have fallen by then.

Ireland has already nationalised three banks — Anglo Irish, Irish Nationwide and the Educational Building Society — and has taken major stakes in Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland.

Allied Irish is expected to fall under majority state control within weeks.

David McWilliams, a former Irish Central Bank economist and prominent commentator, said Ireland’s only card worth playing in this week’s Brussels meetings was to admit defeat and stress that Ireland’s problems were Europe’s responsibility, thanks to the euro currency.

McWilliams said Ireland should agree to let the European Central Bank — which has full-time observers inside the Department of Finance in Dublin — take ‘direct responsibility for the Irish banks, over and above the Irish government.’

That would keep the Irish banks from contaminating the bond market, easing the market turmoil for everyone.

‘We need finally to be honest and say to our European colleagues that our banks are bust,’ he said.

‘No matter how much we bluff, that problem’s not going to go away — and our problem is your problem. You have got to help us, because your problem could transfer from Ireland, Portugal and Greece to Spain and Italy.

‘Although it’s not pleasant, we’ve got to defend ourselves. We’ve got to say we’re in this euro together, so what are you going to do for us?’

The rise in yields across highly-indebted European nations has pushed the EU back into the depths of crisis management, after policymakers had spent their recent gatherings focusing on crisis prevention.

‘This is a time for cool heads,’ Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, a spokesman for the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, said of the finance ministers meeting.

‘This is a time for political determination and this is a time for serious implementation of decisions that have been taken.’

In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro published Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou insisted his country won’t default on its £253billion in debt because doing so would be a ‘catastrophe’ for Greece, Europe and the euro.

On Monday, Greece said this year’s deficit would likely reach 9.4 per cent, well above the 8.1 per cent level it forecast earlier this year when it received a £93 billion bailout from European partners and the International Monetary Fund.

Portugal, which is struggling with high budget deficits, also saw itself forced to deny rumours that it would seek financial assistance.

‘Portugal has made no official or informal contacts with a view to seeking European aid,’ Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said in an interview Monday with financial newspaper Jornal de Negocios.

But he added that ‘if Ireland’s situation deteriorates’ the market pressure on Portugal would increase.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Irish Debt Woes Make German Banks Uneasy

British and German banks, which hold a combined 288 billion dollars worth of Irish debt, are looking on with increasing unease as Ireland’s debt crisis worsens. EU finance ministers are in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the plight with many saying a bailout is unavoidable.

It is being described as a day of reckoning for Ireland. On Tuesday, European Union finance ministers are gathering in Brussels for their regular monthly meeting — and the first item on the agenda is sure to be the state of Dublin’s finances.

As worries over the country’s debt have spread in the past week, the country has come under increasing pressure from the European Central Bank and other countries belonging to the European common currency zone to apply for aid from the €750 billion fund established earlier this year to prop up the euro. Ireland, however, continues to insist that, for the moment, no help is needed.

“I would hope after the (EU finance ministers’ meeting) this afternoon and tomorrow there would be more logic introduced into this,” Dick Roche, Ireland’s European affairs minister, reiterated to BBC Radio on Tuesday morning. “There is no reason why we should trigger an IMF or an EU-type bailout.”

Roche did say that Irish banks did face serious liquidity problems. But, he added, “I don’t think the appropriate response to that would be for the European finance ministers to panic.”

British and German banks are certain to be watching the developments in Brussels closely. According to data provided by Germany’s largest financial institutions in the summer as part of the Europe-wide banking stress tests, they hold some $138 billion in Irish debt, with Hypo Real Estate, the crippled German lender, leading the way with a portfolio worth €10.3 billion, according to a report in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday. British banks have total holdings of Irish debt worth $150 billion.

Chain Reaction

Ireland has repeatedly insisted that it will have no trouble covering expenditures through next April at least. But the country has, for the moment, ceased selling sovereign bonds given the extremely high — and rising — interest rates it would have to pay on those bonds. And there is growing concern that the increased focus on Ireland will lead to a crisis in other countries as well, primarily in Portugal and Spain.

On Monday, Bank of Spain Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez made a plea to Dublin that it take action to calm investors’ nerves. “It’s not up to me to make a decision on Ireland,” he said according to Reuters. “It’s Ireland that should take the decision at the right moment.” Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira told the Financial Times on Monday that his country might have to seek help because the return of European debt worries has meant renewed attention on his own country’s stretched finances.

Several media reports have indicated that Ireland has already entered into negotiations on a bailout deal should one become necessary. Citing EU sources, Reuters has reported that an amount between €45 billion and €90 billion ($63-123 billion) is under discussion, with the ultimate amount dependent on how much help Irish banks might need.

Both Ireland and Greece have accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of having triggered the most recent manifestation of Europe’s ongoing debt crisis. Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed in late October to a mechanism for sovereign debt restructuring which would require private investors to bear some of the risk for investing in heavily indebted countries like Greece and Ireland. The hope is that such a mechanism would take effect after the €750 billion euro backstop, established early this year, expires in 2013.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA


“Death to America!” a Declaration of War by Traitors?

In the question of whether Islam is at war with the West, The Propagandist has always taken a consistent line: No. A religion cannot be at war with anything. We are not fighting Islam. We are fighting Islamism (or jihadism, if you prefer) and its adherents; those religious fanatics who would use intimidation, everyday violence and terror to maintain an oppressive shariah law in Islamic nations and build the same medieval foundation outside the heart of the Islamic world — over the ashes of a beaten civilization, if need be.

But new footage from Mecca showing tens of thousands of Hajj pilgrims chanting “Death to America! Death to Israel” draws attention to the scale of a horrifying problem. Muslims from all over the world go to Mecca to fulfill their religious duty. They are supposed to be taking part in a spiritual journey, not an expedited course in radicalization and political indoctrination.

No one can claim that these chants are somehow “taken out of context”. They are what they are. When you call for a nation’s death, that is the equivalent of declaring war upon it. And when every Hajj pilgrim makes this declaration, it becomes exceedingly difficult to sort out the terror-minded psychopaths from ordinary Muslims who just want to live decent lives, do good things for their local communities and generally make the world a better place — and not be at war with their friends and neighbors.

There is no modern-day equivalent to this ceremony for any other major monotheistic religion anywhere in the world. We simply do not see the Pope telling his audience of thousands to chant “Death to (name a country that deserves to fall into the sea)”. We don’t see it in Judaism. There are no calls for genocidal conquest made by the head rabbi of Jerusalem. And of course, even if the Pope or the top rabbi actually uttered such instructions, they would be condemned by their followers and the wider, largely secular public immediately as genocidal madmen.

There are equivalents to these sorts of chants. Think of Hitler’s speeches at Nazi rallies. Going back much further in time, it’s possible to imagine that certain death-worshipping cultures like the Aztecs, where the elites codified torture and cannibalism as a necessary parts of their society, might have also called outright for the deaths of nations at rallies outside their great temples. We would rightly recoil if these sorts of gatherings if they existed today. And that’s the point. That’s what the Hajj pilgrimage of Mecca has turned into.

The soft bigotry of low expectations has undermined what ought to be a deafening shout of condemnation from all over the world. “How can we criticize a religious ceremony?” asks the naive observer. “It is their culture — to threaten war and genocide. All religious and cultural practices are legitimate. If we make an exception, we risk chaos, perhaps even religious war.”

Yet any such rationalization that fails to distinguish between religious practices upholding the values of life, justice and peace and those calling explicitly to make war in most treasonous fashion is simply foolish. And it is apparent that not just a mere handful of deluded false prophets have taken up that religious war. Fully tens of thousands of jihadist terrorists and a far larger pool of financiers and propagandists have already declared war upon us. And let us be clear, here, for those who do not live in the USA or Israel: the only reason other countries like the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy and a host of other countries get left out of the chants is for brevity’s sake. They are all “Infidel” nations in the eyes of the Islamists.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Amid Airport Anger, GOP Takes Aim at Screening

Did you know that the nation’s airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.

Mica, one of the authors of the original TSA bill, has recently written to the heads of more than 150 airports nationwide suggesting they opt out of TSA screening. “When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees,” Mica writes. “As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Cartoonist Ted Rall to Appear at Communist Bookstore

The communist book shop known as Revolution Books in New York City recently hosted a party and celebration for a 91-page book called Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. The book is officially published by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a Maoist cult that follows the rants of Bob Avakian, a former comrade of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in the Students for a Democratic Society. This coming Thursday, November 18, Revolution Books is hosting nationally syndicated cartoonist/columnist Ted Rall, a recent guest on the MSNBC television network who is going to read from his new book, The Anti-American Manifesto.

Interestingly, recent visitors to Revolution Books in New York City found a large pencil drawing of Cornel West, a Marxist academic and a member of Obama’s Black Advisory Council during his 2008 presidential run. The drawing was being auctioned off to benefit the communist bookstore. West had debated Carl Dix of the RCP at an event sponsored by Revolution Books. A DVD is now available of the debate and is titled, “The ascendancy of Obama and the Continued Need for Resistance and Liberation.”

According to the DVD, “Proceeds from this historic evening went to Revolution Books NYC and the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund, which provides subsidized subscriptions of Revolution newspaper and other revolutionary literature to prisoners.”

As stated, the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund provides copies of the RCP newspaper to criminals in prison. To understand the impact, consider this letter from a prisoner posted on the website:

“The recent issue #213 that was a special issue on Israel was excellent in its portrayal of the Imperialist attack dog known as the state of Israel. Most people don’t make the connection that what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, how it is oppressing the Palestinians is the same treatment all oppressed people get worldwide, of course on different levels.”

When there were indications that copies of the communist paper were being held back from the criminal population, the ACLU went into action, threatening a lawsuit against prison officials.

This program is supposed to guarantee that once the criminals get out of prison, they will be committed communists.

[Return to headlines]



Conservative Group Calls on Justice Dept. To Investigate Muslim Prayers on Capitol Hill

A conservative advocacy group on Friday called on the Justice Department to investigate a weekly prayer session on Capitol Hill that Muslims with terrorist ties have been participating in since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, issued the demand one day after FoxNews.com revealed that notorious Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was among the controversial figures who has attended the weekly Friday Jummah prayers hosted by the Congressional Muslims Staff Association during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.

The group held prayers informally for about eight years before gaining official status in 2006 under the sponsorship of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of two Muslims currently serving in Congress.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



NASA Develops Puncture-Proof Space Tyre

Anyone who’s ever had a puncture far from home knows how frustrating it can be. Imagine then, how annoying popping a tyre on the moon could be.

That’s why NASA has teamed up with tyre producer Goodyear to develop a model that won’t go flat. Conventional pneumatic tyres are unsuitable, because they can puncture and the extreme temperatures and solar radiation can degrade the rubber.

The new airless Spring Tyre improves on the wire-mesh designs employed on the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) driven by astronauts on Apollo missions 15 to 17 (1971 and 1972). It is made of 800 weight-bearing springs and is designed to carry loads 10 times heavier and 100 times further than LRV tyres could manage across the bumpy surface of the moon.

The Spring Tyre won an R&D 100 award for innovation in Orlando, Florida, last week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Obama’s Labor Secretary to Honor Communist

Group will give its highest journalism prize to People’s World writer

NEW YORK — A labor group affiliated with the nation’s largest union is giving its highest prize for journalism to a writer from the official newspaper of the Communist Party USA.

President Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis, will be on hand for the awards dinner this week to lead a special session on how to respond to “expected” attacks from the new Republican-led House.

The International Labor Communications Association, or ILCA, a national coalition of labor organizers, is bestowing its media award to John Wojcik, the labor editor for People’s World, the official Communist Party USA publication.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Rangel Violated Numerous House Ethics Rules, Panel Finds

A House ethics panel has found that Representative Charles B. Rangel committed multiple ethical violations. He had been accused of bringing dishonor to Congress by accepting rent-stabilized apartments from a Manhattan developer, failing to pay taxes on a rental income from his Dominican villa and raising charitable donations from companies and corporate executives who had business before the committee he led.

[Return to headlines]



Replace Humiliation With Respect

Franklin Raff spotlights successful interview system in Israeli airports

We should emulate El Al, the national airline of Israel.

El Al (according to Global Traveler magazine in 2008, for instance) is the world’s most secure airline. This is both despite, and because, her planes are assuredly the highest value terrorist targets in the air.

Though El Al incorporates many of the same screening techniques to which we have become accustomed (and more than a few more “behind the scenes” processes and procedures, ever-changing as El Al anticipates and adapts to new threats), the “security experience” for El Al passengers is quite different from that of other airlines. For those of us who might qualify for an imaginary “do fly” list, at least, the difference is this:

The El Al security experience is comfortingly intimate, as opposed to humiliating.

[…]

El Al, you see, is not focused on detecting nail clippers, marlinspikes or silverware.

It is focused, like a laser, on detecting terrorists.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



State Warning to TSA: Stop Breaking the Law

‘We won’t be able to walk across street without going through checkpoints’

New Jersey state lawmakers today demanded that Congress review the Transportation Security Administration’s new “enhanced” security screening of airline passengers that involves either an X-ray scan revealing a virtually nude image or a full-body pat-down that touches private parts.

And just as state Sen. Michael Doherty and others in Trenton announced resolutions calling on Congress to review the TSA procedures and complaints from travelers, a former top TSA official admitted on a Fox News Channel appearance what many passengers already knew: The procedures are legally questionable.

Mo McGowan was asked if the government could find a reasonable compromise that could detect terrorists without molesting adults and children.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



U.S. Left: Onward Muslim Soldiers

When I think of modern America, conjured up is an image of a boxer who, while sometimes bobbing, weaving, blocking, and occasionally directing a blow with his right, intermittently hits himself in the head with his left. I also might then imagine how the other man in the ring would laugh upon witnessing the spectacle of an opponent who, inexplicably, does half his job for him. The latest hard left thrown in our masochistic, self-flagellating land is the reaction to the Oklahoma constitutional amendment forbidding judges from using international or Sharia law when making decisions. First, and not surprisingly, a lawsuit was filed. The plaintiff was executive director of the Oklahoma CAIR chapter Muneer Awad, who claimed that the amendment’s targeting of Sharia violates First Amendment rights. This prompted U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange to block the measure by issuing a temporary restraining order that will remain in effect until a November 22 hearing. So, as is the modern American way, this issue will be hashed out in the courts. More interesting, however, are the diverging reactions in the courts of public and pundit opinion. While most Americans are cheering the 70 percent of Oklahomans who passed the amendment, the left-wing media’s and fogosphere’s reaction is as predictable as the lawsuit: They are leveling accusations of bigotry against the good residents of the Sooner State. For example, Michael Stone at Examiner.com writes, “The law is an embarrassing absurdity that reflects an unflattering portrait of ignorance and bigotry on the part of many Oklahoma voters.” And NationalPost.com pulls no punches, stating right in a headline, “Anti-Sharia law in Oklahoma has smell of bigotry.”

Now, since people become inured to their own odor, there’s some question as to what the Left is actually smelling. And I sense the smell of hypocrisy.

It’s not that it might take industrial-grade chutzpah for the set that preaches the separation of church and state to complain about an amendment banning the use of religious law in government courts. After all, opponents of the law could say that they don’t oppose any such blanket prohibition, just the targeting of a certain religion.

And I don’t buy it for a second. Leftists are the ones who for years have used the Establishment Clause as a pretext to relentlessly attack Christianity and strip longstanding Christian symbols and sentiments from the public sphere while remaining deafeningly silent about Islam’s inroads into it. For instance, in October of this year, Christian students at a Chattanooga, Tennessee, high school were told they may no longer pray before athletic practice and competition; in July, students from an Arizona Christian School were ordered by a police officer to stop praying outside the Supreme Court building during a school trip; and in June, four Christians were arrested five blocks from the Dearborn Arab International Festival for distributing the Gospel of John. They were, writes Janet Levy at American Thinker, “[led] away in handcuffs to shouts of ‘Allah hu Akbar’ from Muslim bystanders.” The official charge was disorderly conduct. I think the de facto one was “evangelizing while Christian.”

At the same time, a red Persian rug is rolled out for Muslim practices. Excelsior Middle School in Discovery Bay, California, adopted an Islamic immersion course in which seventh-grade students had to take on Muslim names, recite Islamic prayers, and celebrate Ramadan. The ACLU doesn’t seem to object, either, and the courts find it palatable under the umbrella of multiculturalism.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Canada


Muslim ‘Parallel Society’ Within Canada a Threat: Report

Islamists aim to build a “parallel society” in Canada that risks undermining its democracy and multiculturalism and becoming a “catalyst for violence,” warned a national security report published Monday.

The newly declassified document obtained by the National Post says Islamic hardliners are calling on Muslims living in Western countries to segregate themselves and adhere only to Shariah law.

“Even if the use of violence is not outwardly expressed, the creation of isolated communities can spawn groups that are exclusivist and potentially open to messages in which violence is advocated,” warns the report posted on the newspaper’s website.

“At a minimum, the existence of such mini-societies undermines the resilience and the fostering of a cohesive Canadian nation.”

The report was written by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre which collates threat information from Canada’s spy service, federal police, military, foreign affairs department and other agencies.

According to the National Post, it was circulated internally after a Hizb-ut-Tahrir conference in Toronto last year on establishing an Islamic caliphate. “By definition, their world views clash with secular ones. A competition for the hearts and minds of the diaspora Muslims has hence begun,” the report concludes.

It notes that Islamist hardliners while promoting the synchronization of state laws with religious beliefs “are careful to couch their policies in terms of Western freedoms.”

They see the movement as “the peaceful advocacy of minority rights,” it said.

But the report also notes the Dutch Intelligence Service has labeled the movement as “sinister” and one which “could gradually harm social cohesion and solidarity and could harm certain fundamental human rights.”

As well, it cites examples in Denmark in which Muslims bypassed the court system to administer their own form of justice, in one case beating a man accused of assaulting a young boy.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Carl Bildt Slams EU President Over Turkey

Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt roundly criticised European Union President Herman Van Rompuy on Tuesday for omitting to name Turkey in discussions over EU enlargement.

“To talk about enlargement policy and only name the western Balkans, and in a number of speeches forget Turkey, is a little strange and raises questions.

And it’s not a good thing,” Bildt told Swedish public radio, referring in particular to a speech by Van Rompuy in Berlin last week.

In a blog entry posted on November 10th — a day after the speech given in connection with the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — Bildt said Van Rompuy’s “silence on Turkey is as significant as it is remarkable.”

“He is the European Council’s chairman and must represent the policy the European Union decided on,” he continued.

Sweden, and Bildt in particular, is a strong supporter of Turkey’s entry into the European Union.

Turkey began accession talks in 2005, but has since only succeeded in closing one of 35 chapters that need to be negotiated, with 18 blocked either by the EU as a whole, by the Greek Cypriot-led government, or by France.

When asked on Tuesday about the fact that that Van Rompuy had never visited Turkey nor met with Turkish officials, Bildt said “I expect it is on his agenda to have such a meeting.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Chechen Exile Murder Trial Begins in Vienna

A trial involving the spectacular murder of a Chechen exile begins Tuesday in Vienna. Austrian investigators believe it was a contract killing which may be linked to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who is alleged to have a network of ruthless agents across Europe.

The room in the Berlin apartment has a dark wooden table and oil paintings on the wall. Water is being heated in a samovar. Men with serious expressions come in, embrace each other and sit down to drink tea.

The apartment is home to the translator Ekkehard Maass. The 51-year-old was a dissident in the former East Germany and now runs the German-Caucasian Society. It’s a meeting point for Chechen exiles, people who have fled the violence in the Caucasus region and emigrated to the West.

When exiles meet for tea these days, two names are frequently mentioned: Ramzan Kadyrov and Umar Israilov. Israilov, a Chechen exile, was murdered in Vienna on Jan. 13, 2009. Kadyrov, the feared 34-year-old president of Chechnya, a man who likes to pose for photographs with a tiger or holding a gold-plated pistol, was allegedly behind the murder. Both Chechen exiles and Austrian investigators believe that it was a contract killing. Israilov had accused Kadyrov of torture and had brought a case against him before the European Court of Human Rights.

The trial of the suspected killers opens in Vienna on Tuesday. The spectacular murder is likely to be followed by an equally spectacular trial, in which prosecutors will seek to shed light on the exact circumstances of the crime, and on a “military intelligence service” that terrorism experts in Vienna believe Kadyrov developed in Europe. Kadyrov is currently being investigated, although charges have not been brought yet. He denies all involvement in the murder case.

Living in Fear

German investigators are also interested in the Chechen president’s activities. His agents have been spotted in Germany, where about 6,000 Chechens live. Some 500 of them are believed to be tied to extremist groups. German intelligence officials find it difficult to get a clear picture of the milieu. The distinctions among freedom fighters, terrorists and ordinary criminals are complicated. In addition, some Chechens owe their asylum status to their cooperation with German intelligence, and the lines are sometimes blurred between informants and troublemakers.

One thing is clear, however: Chechens in Germany live in fear of Kadyrov, who has unscrupulous bodyguards. Chechen exiles have frequently told German authorities about Kadyrov’s influence in Berlin. The president is apparently determined to convince exiles to return home, if necessary with rough measures. He allegedly has middlemen and agents that he uses specifically for this purpose.

The award-winning Chechen poet Apti Bisultanov was one of the exiles who received an unwanted visit from Kadyrov’s men in Berlin. Apparently two former members of the Chechen government were working as agents for Kadyrov in Berlin: the brothers Umar and Magomed Khanbiyev. A witness told Viennese authorities about a conversation he had had with Umar Khanbiyev in Berlin. The Chechen agent apparently told the witness that a major campaign was underway to bring Chechens home, and that Kadyrov was behind it. According to the agent, Kadyrov had a team of six agents working in Europe. They had been provided with Russian visas and were apparently staying in a Berlin hotel.

Kadyrov’s agents, say Chechens in Berlin, try to entice exiles to return home with promises of jobs. Apparently the agents have also threatened violence against the exiles’ families at home in Chechnya. In the case of Bisultanov, Kadyrov’s men and Russian officials worked hand in hand. Russia had demanded his extradition and was trying to torpedo his application for asylum, but was unsuccessful on both counts.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Claim: Danish Authorities Aware of US Monitoring Programme

Former security officer said police received reports of surveillance activity

The former head of a company providing security services for the US Embassy in Denmark says law enforcement authorities were aware the embassy was monitoring individuals it considered suspicious, possibly in violation of Danish law.

Frank Rosendahl, the former managing director of the United International Investigative Service (UIIS), told Politiken newspaper that a six-member team was responsible for collecting information for the embassy’s Regional Security Assistant Officer.

He added that the team usually operated near areas they were supposed to monitor. However, during one surveillance operation in March 2000, one of the team members was caught speeding by a police camera while following another car.

Although Rosendahl had instructed the employee to pay for his own speeding ticket, he sent copies of his observation reports to the police in order to prove he had grounds for speeding.

The police forwarded the reports to the US Embassy, which then passed them on to Rosendahl, who chose to fire the man for having the “wrong attitude”.

The man declined to reveal his identify, but acknowledged to Politiken that the car chase was not “particularly wise”.

“This is not something we can document. But according to the process of elimination, it is clear that the information ends up with the police,” Rosendahl said.

Another former member of the team, who chose to remain anonymous, supported Rosendahl’s claims and said that to his knowledge, the police were aware of the surveillance programme.

Rosendahl added that he was never given any instruction as to how far the guards were allowed to go in order to monitor people it found suspicious.

“I was in a bit of a legal vacuum, in which it was left up to me to set the boundaries for what was morally justifiable,” he said.

The revelations come after the former members of domestic intelligence agency PET last week denied any knowledge of surveillance activities in Denmark, following the allegations in Norway and Sweden that the US embassies there have been conducting illegal surveillance programmes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Four Ministers Set to Resign From Italian Government

Four ministers are set to resign from the Italian government on Monday in a move that confirms a break with the coalition but will not automatically topple Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government.

The four — Europe Minister Andrea Ronchi, Deputy Economic Development Minister Adolfo Urso and two junior ministers — are supporters of speaker of parliament Gianfranco Fini, a former ally of Berlusconi turned rival.

“We propose a new government, a new majority, a new agenda for reform… Berlusconi is holing himself up in his palace like in a bunker,” Urso said in an interview on the news channel SkyTG24 ahead of the announcement.

“We need to open a new political chapter,” he added.

Antonio Buonfiglio, a junior minister for agriculture, said: “We will hand in our letters of… resignation from the government by 1:00 p.m.”

Buonfiglio said the decision was “irrevocable.”

Fini called on Berlusconi to resign earlier this month and threatened to pull ministers loyal to him out of the government if he did not.

Berlusconi has fought back, vowing to hold confidence votes in parliament and to fight off his rivals in parliamentary elections if needed.

Italy’s main political forces agreed this weekend that any confidence vote in parliament would only come after lawmakers approve a budget for 2011 at a tricky time for heavily-indebted Italy on international financial markets.

Debate on the budget is set to start on Tuesday in the lower house but final approval by the upper house may come only later in November or in December and the centre-left opposition says it fears “time-wasting tactics” by Berlusconi.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



France: Sarkozy Appoints Right-Wing Cabinet With Eye on 2012

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon emerged at the head of a more right-wing government, his status enhanced Monday, as President Nicolas Sarkozy regrouped for a possible 2012 re-election bid.

Despite months of intrigue in the run-up to the reshuffle, Sarkozy retained his big hitters, while shifting in favor of a loyal team more likely to fall in behind his government’s deficit-cutting austerity agenda.

And for many observers, the prime minister returned in a far stronger position, ready to work more as a partner of Sarkozy than his assistant.

Under a strengthened Fillon, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux remained in their jobs, while several other Sarkozy loyalists were promoted or saw their responsibilities widened.

Meanwhile, center-right Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo — the number two figure in the outgoing government and until recently a frontrunner to become prime minister himself — announced he was stepping down.

Popular Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a former Socialist minister, was replaced by Gaullist Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, and right-wing former Prime Minister Alain Juppe returned to take over defense.

But in an early sign of splits in Sarkozy’s support base, the outgoing defense minister, center-right leader Herve Morin, denounced the new cabinet line-up as a right-wing “campaign team” in which he had no place.

“France needs pluralism, and democracy needs balance. Since April 2010 the head of state has not agreed with this proposition, and so for my part I can’t remain in government,” said Morin, who is mulling running against Sarkozy.

The new cabinet will also be less ethnically diverse, with the loss of Urban Development Minister Fadela Amara, who is of North African descent, and Sports Minister Rama Yade, who was born in Senegal.

There are 31 ministers in the new team, down from 37 before.

The outgoing head of Sarkozy’s UMP party, Xavier Bertrand, was named labor minister, replacing fellow Sarkozy loyalist Eric Woerth, who has been implicated in a long-running party funding scandal.

Fillon vowed to boost France’s anemic recovery and cut unemployment, and praised what he boasted was the commitment of Sarkozy and his right-wing parliamentary majority to stick by unpopular but necessary reforms.

Socialist leader Martine Aubry slammed the reshuffle as a “blunt refusal” to address the concerns of the French electorate, after two months in which hundreds of thousands have protested against Sarkozy’s pension reforms.

“The French were anxiously expecting a change of policy,” she said. “Tonight, it’s clear — they were ignored.”

Limited reshuffle

Analyst Roland Cayrol of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris school in Paris said the limited nature of the reshuffle, and in particular Sarkozy’s failure to replace Fillon, showed the weakness of the formerly all-powerful “omnipresident.”

“There was a reshuffle simply because the president wanted to change the prime minister to show he was entering the closing straight with a second wind, with change … and he ended up choosing the same man,” he marveled.

Several French newspapers also argued that Fillon’s reappointment showed not just his rising stock, but Sarkozy’s relative weakness.

“The president’s wishes, as hyper as he might be, are no longer orders,” noted the regional daily La Montagne.

Sarkozy had first signaled in March he planned to reshuffle his cabinet, and there has been mounting political tension since he confirmed this in June, as Fillon jostled with several other candidates for his job.

The government pushed on, forcing through an unpopular hike in the pension age, but its leader plumbed new depths of unpopularity and many see the reshuffle as Sarkozy’s last chance to regain momentum before 2012.

A new poll, conducted by Viavoice for the left-wing daily Liberation just before the reshuffle began, showed Sarkozy’s popularity flat lining at its historically low level. Fillon beat him by 20 percentage points.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Germany: ‘Naked’ Scanners Fooled by Creased Clothing

Controversial “naked” body scanners currently being tested at Hamburg’s airport are constantly malfunctioning due to folds in passengers’ clothing, broadcaster NDR reported on Tuesday.

The public radio station said the trial of the body imaging security scanners has been plagued by serious problems. The units, which have been in use since September, are apparently unable to tell the difference between foreign objects and such things like pleated clothing.

The scanners use millimetre-wave technology to produce outline images of bodies, with each scan lasting less than three seconds.

While some passengers are being asked to remove thicker clothes such as jumpers, NDR reported that the devices are regularly malfunctioning due to creases in lighter clothes such as blouses and skirts.

Although use of the scanners remains optional, every passenger must now also be patted down and pass through a metal detector, whether or not they have been scanned.

The extra security checks are causing delays, resulting in longer lines and irritated passengers.

New software due to be installed to solve at least part of the problem is not yet ready for use, NDR reported.

The scanners has previously been criticised by civil liberties campaigners the world over, mostly due to fears of how the images would be stored.

Plans to fast-track tests of the controversial body scanners were announced in January following the foiled “underwear bomb” attack in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. The trial period is due to run until the end of March 2011.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: Keats-Shelley House to Offer Taste of England

Visitors to Rome foundation will be able to order tea

(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Visitors to Rome’s Keats-Shelley House, memorial to two of the most famous poets of English Romanticism, will be offered a “real taste” of England next time they come round.

Curators to the house, where John Keats briefly lived when he came to Rome in 1821, are preparing to open a small cafe’ so whoever visits will be able to sip a cup of English tea and treat themselves to a piece of carrot cake or banana bread.

“We didn’t want to do the usual Rome cafe’ fare such as espresso and cornetto (croissant),” Sarah Morgan, Assistant Curator to the museum, told ANSA.

Sometime in 2011 the memorial will also swing open up the doors to its terrace so visitors will be able to sip their tea while enjoying the spectacular view of the adjoining Spanish Steps and Bernini’s ‘Barcaccia’ Fountain in the piazza.

The Memorial has been home to the collections of both Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley since the early 1900s when a group of American literati in Rome decided to heed an appeal by poet Robert Underwood Johnson to save the house.

With its display cases of letters, clothes worn by the poets and a reliquary with locks of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s hair, it now celebrates the time when Italy was home to Byron, Shelley and Keats.

Keats had travelled to Italy in search of a cure to tuberculosis, the disease that had killed both his parents.

The poet died in 1822, aged 25, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome where he still lies.

Unlike the other Romantic poets, Keats did not write anything in Italy.

Byron and Shelley, on the other hand, were both inspired by Italy. Byron lived here from 1816 to 1824 before going to Greece where he died of a fever, Shelley in 1816 after his elopement with Mary Godwin and her sister, and from 1818 to 1822, when he drowned in a storm off the Tuscan coastal resort of Viareggio, aged 29.

The foundation is entirely self-funded, revenue mainly coming from rent paid by an Italian shoe shop on the ground floor and from visitors, many of whom are Italian school groups.

A small gift shop is a recent addition and it will soon be selling umbrellas with the house’s ceiling motif on the inside, wrapping paper, notepads, postcards, glittery bouncing rubber balls, and tote bags.

By Christmas, the store will also have greeting cards with a quote from Keats. The collection of memorabilia and original pieces continues to grow as curators are keenly on the lookout for possible acquisitions.

The Memorial managed to pick up the first edition of Shelley’s ‘Hellas’, published in 1822, the first English edition of ‘Adonais’ published in Cambridge in 1829 as well as a two-page Jorge Luis Borges manuscript entitled ‘John Keats 1795-1821’ at a recent auction in London by Sotheby’s. “This was actually the very first time we ever had money to buy things,” said Morgan.

She was particularly pleased about the acquisition of Hellas, which was to be the last work published by Shelley in April 1822, three months before he drowned.

The copy of ‘Hellas’ picked up by the Memorial is particularly precious as it still has its original wrappers, printed label and bookseller’s label. Shelley’s elegy for Keats, ‘Adonais’, was written in 1821 and first published in Italy.

The first English edition was privately printed, in a run of 500 copies, by a group of admirers of Keats and Shelley. The Borges manuscript, which dates from the early 1950s, contains the author’s notes on Keats in preparation for his essay ‘El ruiseñor de Keats’ (Keats’s ‘Nightingale’), which first appeared in ‘La Nación’ on 9 December 1951, and was reprinted the following year in his collection of essays ‘Other Inquisitions’. Morgan said curators had also considered bidding on a first edition of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and followed the auction on-line as it happened.

“It was exciting,” said Morgan who stressed that curators decided to withdraw from the auction because the 80,000 pound starting price was too steep.

She explained that it was thought best to wait for better opportunities in the future.

“We really like to pick what we’re keen to have. And what if a new letter of Keats appears on the market? We want to be ready for that,” she confided.

photos: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during her 2009 visit to the Memorial.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Silvio Berlusconi Dealt Another Blow as Four Ministers Resign

Silvio Berlusconi’s opponents hammered another nail into his crisis-hit coalition on Monday when four ministers loyal to his main rival resigned from the government, making early elections more likely.

The four were supporters of Gianfranco Fini, an ally of Mr Berlusconi until the pair had a spectacular falling-out during the summer.

The resignations hastened a looming showdown between the prime minister and Mr Fini, a former fascist turned moderate seen as a potential successor to Mr Berlusconi, whose term in office is meant to run until 2013.

“With the withdrawal of Fini’s government members, the betrayal has begun,” said Maurizio Sacconi, the welfare minister and a Berlusconi loyalist.

Mr Fini, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, had called on Mr Berlusconi to resign earlier this month, pledging to withdraw his ministers if he did not.

When Mr Berlusconi defiantly refused to stand down, claiming that 60 per cent of Italians still supported him despite recent polls showing that his party would only win 26 per cent of votes, Mr Fini made good on his threat.

The resignations of the four — including Andrea Ronchi, the Europe minister — will not topple the government but they do make its long-term survival unlikely.

They said they wanted to establish “a new government, a new majority, a new agenda for reform” and accused Mr Berlusconi, 74, of “holing himself up in his palace (as if it’s) a bunker.”

Mr Fini has set up his own political party, Future and Freedom for Italy, which could merge with two moderate opposition parties, the Unione di Centro and the Alleanza per l’Italia, to forge a new centre-Right bloc.

Mr Berlusconi faces a key confidence vote before the end of the year over the approval of Italy’s 2011 budget.

If he loses the vote, he would have to resign, opening up the possibility of early elections, probably in the Spring, or the formation of a national unity government.

His approval ratings have plummeted, the economy is in the doldrums and he faces awkward questions over his relationship with a teenage Moroccan belly dancer, on whose behalf he allegedly lobbied in May when she was accused of stealing.

Having risen from obscurity to national fame in the last two weeks, Karima El Mahroug, 18, is busy cashing in on her new-found celebrity.

On Saturday night she was paid a reported 2,000 euros (£1,700) for a 20-minute appearance at a Milan nightclub called Karma, where she sat on a mock golden throne, drinking Champagne and blowing kisses at guests.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Italy: Berlusconi Wants Confidence Vote or Elections — But Only for Chamber of Deputies

Prime minister confident of green light. “The government will go on”. Attack on RAI and newspapers

MILAN — Silvio Berlusconi is confident that the government will win a confidence vote in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. If the vote should go wrong in the lower chamber, where the numbers are currently less favourable, elections will be held, but only for the Chamber of Deputies. On the day after his letter to the leaders of both houses setting out his intention to demand a vote of confidence after approval of the budget, Silvio Berlusconi spoke by telephone to the People of Freedom (PDL) convention in Milan. “We will continue to govern with a vote of confidence from the Senate and which I think will also be given by the Chamber of Deputies. And if confidence is voted but not in the lower chamber then we’ll go to the polls for the Chamber of Deputies and see what the Italian people decide”. In the wake of the crisis on the Centre-right caused by the rift with Gianfranco Fini’s supporters, Mr Berlusconi renewed his attacked on his adversaries: “There are professional politicians who are able to aspire to be prime minister, or president, only by behind-the-scenes compromises. But that’s not democracy; it’s just an inter-party carve-up”. There was time for an attack on the RAI (“It’s a disgrace to have public broadcasting of this nature”) and the newspapers (“Don’t read them. They describe a situation that doesn’t exist and has nothing to do with the electorate. They describe party-dictated positions. The truth is that voters exist and 60% of them are with me”). On the day of the Centre-left primaries, Mr Berlusconi gave the PDL’s official support to Letizia Moratti in the race for the mayorship of Milan. “Every best wish to Letizia Moratti”.

BOSSI — “I reckon Berlusconi wants an election. That’s why he’s lowered stakes. I’d be raising them”, said Umberto Bossi, referring to a possible vote for only one of the two chambers instead of the whole Parliament. “Fini told me that he has no problem with Berlusconi as prime minister and I take him at his word”.

FINI SUPPORTERS — Whatever the case, the final showdown will not take place until the stability budget has been approved. But Mr Berlusconi’s move to ask first the Senate and then the Chamber of Deputies for a vote of confidence, with the option of an election for either only, provoked a harsh reaction from Mr Fini’s supporters as well as the anger of the Democratic Party (PD). “The possible dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies if the vote of confidence is unfavourable is sleight of hand. Its only objective is to reassure those senators who are ready to back a responsible course of action that would avoid yet another election campaign in Italy”, said the Future and Freedom for Italy (FLI) group leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Italo Bocchino. “We remain convinced that a decision in the interests of Italy would be expedient, with the government’s resignation and the start of a virtuous process calling all political forces to take responsibility towards Italians”, he concluded.

MINISTERS — Some government ministers took a different view. On RTL 102.5 radio, public administration minister Renato Brunetta, said: “This government will get a third severe budget approved, with or without a vote of confidence. The accounts are in place. Italy has been saved from the great crisis”. Mr Brunetta went on to say that the budget “allocates resources for schools, universities and productivity and trims back the cuts, particularly with regard to social action by municipalities. It’s a budget for hard times that meets the country’s needs”. Addressing the opposition without referring to it, he added: “Could the honourable gentlemen do any better? Do they want to go back to pork-barrel budgets? Let them say so: we want to go back to the sickly mess of governments coming together and breaking up”. The education minister Mariastella Gelmini, said: “The continuing attacks on Mr Berlusconi, which aim to forget about the past 15 years of the country’s history, actually invigorate the prime minister. If the government falls, the only other option is to go to the country. You can’t say there’s an interim government when those who won the election go into opposition and the losers are running the country”.

LETTER TO FINI AND SCHIFANI — Mr Berlusconi had outlined his next moves in a letter to the leaders of the two chambers, Renato Schifani and Gianfranco Fini. The prime ministers expressed his intention to deliver “communications in the Senate on the political situation, including the announced withdrawal of Future and Liberty for Italy [FLI] from the government over which I preside, immediately after the definitive approval of the stability budget and the national accounts. These last requirements are imperative to a positive stabilisation of Italy’s economic and financial profile, as several sources, some of great authority, have underlined. In connection with the communications, the government intends to verify whether a relationship of confidence still obtains in the Senate and immediately afterwards, in the Chamber of Deputies”.

NAPOLITANO — This is a significant step for the executive, and one appreciated by the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. According to the head of state, it is a good thing that “the government and all the political forces” should agree on the need to give priority to approval of the budget and then tackle the “political crisis”, in compliance with the presidential invitation. “After all, a similar solution was adopted in late 1994”.

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Jihadist Online Chat Rooms Also Have Contributors From Finland

Finnish help in maintaining hard-line Islamic web pages

Finns have been found to be among participants in international jihadist pages on the internet, says Timo Kilpeläinen of the Finnish Security Police (SUPO).

The discussions have taken place on pages where people sharing a hard-line Islamist ideology can network, spread propaganda, and strengthen their radical resolve.

“These include pages of al-Qaeda and al-Shabbab”, Kilpeläinen says.

Finns taking part in the discussions use the pages for the purpose of strengthening their ideological resolve. “They also seek social support for their thoughts”, Kilpeläinen says.

SUPO also knows of cases in which help in maintaining international jihadist web pages has come from Finland. There are no indications of terror sites in Finnish.

Taking part in the discussions are both native-born Finns and foreigners living in Finland.

There is no evidence that anyone from Finland would have been inspired by the content of any of the web pages to travel abroad to fight.

“The web pages are a catalyst, but going to fight often requires personal contact as well.”

The exact number of Finns taking part in jihadist discussion boards is not known.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Local Liberal Too ‘UN-Swedish’ For Top Post

A local Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) politician from suburban Stockholm is accusing her party colleagues of racism after being told she was unfit for a leadership post because she was “un-Swedish.”

“I was told I had a certain temper, that I had a strong voice, that I was different,” Sepideh Erfani told The Local.

“I wasn’t appropriate for the post because I was too un-Swedish. I was shocked.”

The comments by party colleagues about Erfani’s Swedishness came in connection with discussions about who among members of the Liberal Party’s local chapter in Haninge south of Stockholm should be given a number of leadership posts on the local council.

During a meeting to discuss the matter last Saturday, Erfani complained that four of the six posts allotted to the Liberal Party had gone to members of the party’s internal nominating committee.

“It was a clear conflict of interest,” she explained.

As the number two name on the local party list, Erfani felt she was a valid candidate for the post of vice-chair of the council’s social affairs committee.

But following the critique, her name was removed from consideration. When she pressed her colleagues for an explanation, one of the reasons cited was that she was “un-Swedish.”

“I felt like I’d been punished for speaking my mind,” she said.

“When I pressed them, no one in the room denied that I’d been called un-Swedish.”

Erfani singled out Peter Olevik Dunder, who occupies the top spot on the local party list, for questioning her Swedishness.

“During discussions he said, ‘you know, we can’t have someone who is so un-Swedish representing the party,’“ she explained.

Erfani’s version of events was confirmed by Mikael Trolin, chair of the Liberal’s local chapter in Haninge, who said he was told that she was ultimately left out of consideration because she was “too bombastic.”

“She’s simply too un-Swedish. I don’t know if they mean that she has a weird accent or that she gestures too much with her hands or what it can be,” he told Sveriges Radio (SR).

According to Trolin, it was Dunder who used the term “un-Swedish” in conversations about Erfani.

Erfani added that she has heard Dunder describe her in the same way on previous occasions, although he had refrained from calling her “un-Swedish” specifically to her face.

Attempts by The Local to reach Dunder for comment on Monday were unsuccessful. However, speaking with SR, he acknowledged that he and Erfani have had a “difference of opinion” on many issues, although he denied ever calling her “un-Swedish.”

“She and I have had many conversations over the years on a range of subjects, but I don’t think I ever said that exactly,” Dunder told SR.

Erfani lamented what she saw as a “dictatorial” approach to politics by her Liberal Party colleagues in Haninge and their seeming unwillingness to consider different points of view.

“If I wanted to be in a dictatorship, I would have stayed in Iran,” she said.

“What am I, an elected official or a robot?”

Erfani emphasised, however, she has no plans to leave the party after the incident, and that her complaint is directed only at the Liberal’s local chapter in Haninge, rather than the party as a whole.

“How they handled this was unacceptable,” she said.

She added that the matter is set to be discussed with county-level officials from the Liberal Party.

“We’ll see where the conversation leads,” Erfani said.

David Landes

+46 8 656 6518

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Neo-Nazi Site Charged Over Reader Comment

Charges have been filed against the publisher of a website affiliated with a Swedish neo-Nazi magazine for allowing a reader comment with racial slurs to remain on the site.

The site is the online version of Nationellt Motstånd (‘National Resistance’), a quarterly print magazine put out by the Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen), one of Sweden’s most active neo-Nazi groups.

The comment in question, entitled “Immigrants create racist roadblocks”, accompanies an article published in April 2010 about a highly publicized case in which a 78-year-old woman died from injuries sustained from being pushed by a 23-year-old man in a shopping centre parking lot in Landskrona in southern Sweden.

The 23-year-old came from a family of immigrants and his arrest led to heightened ethnic tensions in the town, prompting another right-wing extremist group, the National Democrats, to call a public meeting in the town square to “protest against anti-Swedishness”.

The article, published on April 15th, 2010, told of how star defence attorney Leif Silbersky was set to defend the 23-year-old in his upcoming trial.

The following day, a racially charged comment was published beneath the article which referred to immigrants as “****ing parasites” and encouraged people to “hit back” rather than “back up” when challenged.

The commenter added that he or she feels “satisfaction” every time “I can ‘lay’ my hands” on what he or she refers to as a “kulturberikare”, an increasingly common term of derision used in far-right circles in reference to immigrants.

The term, literally translated as “culture enricher”, is a play by the far-right on arguments in support of multiculturalism which often cite “cultural enrichment” as a positive aspect of diversity.

“This is about Sweden and the Swedes’ survival,” the commenter wrote.

Because ‘Nationellt Motstånd’ reviews reader comments before publishing them, the comment falls under the jurisdiction of Sweden’s libel laws.

Following a preliminary investigation launched in May, Sweden’s Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern — JK), concluded that the comment amounts to agitation against ethnic groups (hets mot folkgrupp), and has filed charges against the site’s publisher, 26-year-old Emil Hagberg for violating Sweden’s press freedom laws.

When reached by The Local, Hagberg declined to comment on the charges, claiming statements made by him and his colleagues at ‘Nationellt Motstånd’ are too often “misinterpreted” in the media.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK Muslim Mob Threatens to Fly Black Flag of Islam Over Downing Street, White House for Jailed Cleric’s Release

London, Nov.16 (ANI): Hate-filled Muslim extremists have vowed to fly the black flag of Islam above Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, and the White House, the official residence of the US President, in protest over the imprisonment of cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed in Lebanon.

Omar Bakri Mohammed is currently serving a life sentence for training and fundraising for al-Qaida.

Bakri has been banned from Britain since 2006.

The Daily Express quoted Abu Saalihah, a student of Bakri’s, as saying: “We will not rest until the black flag of Islam is flown over the White House and 10 Downing Street.”

The demonstration took place outside the Lebanese embassy in London.

Preacher Anjem Choudhary, 43, who organised the demonstration, said: “Lebanon is a very divided country. There is a very real chance that Sunni Muslims in that country will do everything they can to free Omar Bakri, even physically.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK Still Cheerleader of Turkey’s EU Bid

Britain has not “downed the pom-poms” for Turkey’s bid to become a European Union member, the country’s state minister for EU affairs said, following reports that Turkey had lost its principal supporters in the bloc.

“[The new coalition government in Britain is] the strongest supporter of Turkey’s accession to the European Union and proud to be a leading advocate for Turkey in the EU,” David Lidington, British minister for Europe, wrote in the Financial Times.

Earlier last week, the British daily said the progress of Turkish-EU accession talks had stalled in the five years since the EU unanimously voted to begin negotiations, with opponents of Turkey’s entry to the bloc using every trick in the book to delay it.

“Opponents hope that Turkish public enthusiasm for the EU will ebb away as the delays drag on. Sadly, this is possible. Support for joining the EU has fallen in Turkey, and some of the country’s main cheerleaders, such as the U.K. and Spain, have downed their pom-poms,” he wrote following the EU’s latest progress report published last Tuesday.

However, Lidington insisted that Britain is still one of the “main cheerleaders” of Turkey’s accession bid and that the country’s position could not be clearer since the coalition government came into power.

“U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron visited Turkey in July where he launched a new dynamic in relations between our two countries. Support for Turkey’s EU accession is at the heart of the U.K.-Turkey strategic partnership he signed with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” he said.

“Mr. Cameron was clear: he was there “to make the case for Turkey’s membership of the EU. And to fight for it.” And it is not just the U.K. cheerleading for Turkey — on Nov. 9 the Italian and Turkish foreign ministers published an article in Italy’s La Repubblica in support of Turkey’s EU ambitions,” Lidington wrote, recalling Cameron’s strong-worded speech in Turkey.

While acknowledging that the latest EU progress report highlighted Turkey’s shortcomings in protecting religious and ethnic minorities, press freedoms and the rights of women, Lidington noted the report also describes the far-reaching reforms and real progress Turkey has made over the last year on judicial reform, the role of the military and fundamental rights.

“These reforms demonstrate Turkey’s steady commitment to its EU accession. There are obstacles ahead. But we believe Turkey can achieve its full European goal with that steady commitment and determination to take forward reform. We will continue to make the argument for Turkey’s EU membership,” he said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Disgusted’ Mother Turns in 14 Yr Old Daughter Who Vandalised War Memorial

A schoolgirl who was shopped to police by her own disgusted mother after the teenager vandalised a city’s cenotaph has admitted the offence in court.

The 14-year-old sprayed obscene pink graffiti on the memorial in Wolverhampton, which so outraged passing war heroes on their way to a function that they were moved to tears.

The teenager admitted daubing the cenotaph with a lewd drawing of a penis and the slogans ‘I love Luke x’ and ‘Spar’s’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Criminal in Police Uniform’: Sergeant Who Helped Run Brother’s Drug Gang Jailed for 11 Years

A crooked police officer who took over his ‘enforcer’ brother’s drug gang was caught with a stash of machine guns, ammunition and cash hidden at his home.

Sergeant Salim Razaq, 33, who had a reputation as a dedicated officer, had already been picked out for promotion.

But his brother Hafiz — known as ‘Big Haf’ or ‘The Enforcer’ — was the feared ‘muscle’ for a local cocaine ring.

When Hafiz was locked up on remand accused of kidnapping a rival in a vicious turf war, his policeman brother plotted to help intimidate a key prosecution witness and hid a deadly cache of weapons and ammunition for him.

Today Razaq was jailed for 11 and a half years at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice, possession of firearms and ammunition as well as misconduct in a public office.

Tonight senior police chiefs in Lancashire said they were dismayed Razaq, a trusted officer, could have betrayed the force.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Cooke said: ‘Salim Razaq was nothing short of a criminal in a police uniform and I am appalled by the fact that a police officer was involved at the level he was in this criminality.’

Judge Henry Globe QC, told the disgraced officer: ‘Your actions have brought potential discredit to the police force.

‘It amounts to a breach of trust, a dereliction of duty and it amounts to extremely serious and persistent criminal offending whilst ostensibly, supposedly upholding criminal justice in your capacity as a serving police officer.

‘The guns were being kept by you to return to gangs who kill, maim, intimidate and terrorise.

Those who provide a safe hiding place for weapons and ammunition make a significant and distinctive contribution to the use of firearms on the streets and elsewhere. A significant and lengthy sentence is justified.’

The court heard Razaq, who was stationed in Nelson, Lancashire, was regarded as a promising young officer, while his brother was becoming notorious as an enforcer for the Deepdale drugs gang in nearby Preston.

His gang was involved in a feud with the rival Fishwick mob, and in April 2007 suspected associate Mohammed Beg, 22, was snatched from his BMW by a masked gang, held captive for three hours and tortured and beaten.

Hafiz, 25, was arrested and sent to prison charged with kidnapping from where his calls to his brother Salim were secretly taped discussing money laundering, witness intimidation and a ‘tick list’ of drug deals.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Early Learning Centre Bans Toy Pig From Farmyard Set for Fear of Offending Muslims (But Keeps Sty and Oink Noise) By Louise Eccles

A children’s shop has removed toy pigs from farmyard sets in case they offend Muslims and Jews.

The Early Learning Centre ditched the pig from its HappyLand Goosefeather Farm toy set after it upset some customers.

One mother realised the pig was missing from the set she bought for her daughter’s birthday when she found a pig sty and a button that made oinking noises, but no pig.

The interactive set, which also has a chicken, a horse, a cow and a sheep, makes the animal noises when buttons are pressed.

When the mother complained, she was told in an email: ‘Previously the pig was part of the Goosefeather Farm. However due to customer feedback and religious reasons this is no longer part of the farm.’

In some religions, pigs are seen as unclean.

Last night, the retailer did a U-turn and agreed to bring back the pigs after disappointed families complained at such a move driven by political correctness.

The angry mother, named only as Caroline, told The Sun newspaper: ‘This is political correctness gone loopy. Surely if someone has an issue with a toy they don’t agree with then they don’t buy it.’

On an internet chatroom, another mother said: ‘I’m a Muslim and it doesn’t bother me. It is just another animal. What is the store going to do next? Ban the Peppa Pig cartoon? Ban books with pigs in?’

The set, which costs £25 and is suitable for toddlers aged 18 months, also includes a dog, a farmer on a tractor, a farmer’s wife and a farmhouse.

A spokesman for the Early Learning Centre said: ‘We have taken the decision to reinstate the pigs and will no longer sell the set in international markets where it might be an issue.’

Customers have been told they can apply for their missing pigs through the store’s website.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Hush Money: Multi-Million Pound Payouts to Silence British Terror Suspects Held in Guantanamo

Terrorist suspects freed from Guantanamo Bay are to be paid off to silence their claims that UK spies were complicit in torturing them.

At least one former detainee will receive more than £1million in hush money from ministers desperate to stop the cases reaching court.

One of the largest payouts will go to Binyam Mohamed, the British resident who claims MI5 and MI6 fed questions to his CIA-backed torturers.

In return for the cash, the detainees will drop the civil cases for damages that had threatened to lift the lid on the activities of the intelligence agencies after 9/11.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke will today announce the out-of-court settlements that follow secret talks mediated by two independent QCs.

The deal clears the way for work to start on an independent inquiry into alleged British complicity in torture. David Cameron has put Sir Peter Gibson, the senior judge and Intelligence Services Commissioner, in charge of the inquiry.

The exact payouts will remain secret but ITV News revealed that the total runs into millions of pounds.

Ministers decided to act after a court ruled in the spring that more than half a million secret documents on the treatment of the detainees would have to be produced if their cases ever reached court.

Security sources say the publication of those documents would have seriously damaged intelligence relations with the U.S., which was embarrassed by the details of Mr Mohamed’s treatment that emerged at the High Court earlier this year.

Mr Cameron announced in July that he would seek to come to terms with the detainees because vetting the secret documents would take huge amounts of time for MI5 and MI6.

‘It was already costing £10million a year and more than 100 security agents were working on it,’ a source told the Mail last night.

Security chiefs in Whitehall were also concerned that if they fought the court cases and lost, taxpayers would have to shoulder payments for damages and legal fees that could be in excess of £50million.

The former detainees due to receive the money include British citizens and residents of the UK, some of whom entered the country as asylum seekers.

Those to receive settlements include Bisher Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Moazzam Begg and Martin Mubanga.

One allegation is that the British government knew they were being illegally transferred to Guantanamo Bay but failed to prevent it.

The High Court has been informed of the deal. Government sources said that the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee would be given a chance to scrutinise the terms of the deal.

The National Audit Office has also been briefed on the situation so that they can assess whether public money has been well spent.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said last night: ‘The Prime Minister set out clearly in his statement to the House on 6 July that we need to deal with the totally unsatisfactory situation where for the past few years, the reputation of our security services has been overshadowed by allegations about their involvement in the treatment of detainees held by other countries.

‘The Government will lay a written ministerial statement, updating the House on progress, tomorrow morning.’

The Prime Minister promised compensation if the inquiry discovered that the UK had been complicit in torture.

All relevant files would have been made available to the judge, but documents from foreign intelligence services were not under the remit of the inquiry.

Critics believed that any investigation which was not held in public risked covering up the truth.

Mr Cameron’s offer of ‘mediation’ to help any of the complainants settle their civil cases also raised suspicions that the government wanted to close down the cases before further damaging allegations were made about the security services.

Government officials argued that the decision to pay off the detainees was politically brave but the right one.

‘We could have kicked this into the long grass for five years, but we’ve grasped the nettle,’ one said.TODAY’S POLL Do you think the compensation payout to Guantanamo victims is fair? Yes No VOTE POLL RESULTS Close All polls Click to view yesterday’s poll results They argue that it would have been impossible to hold the Gibson inquiry with the threat of legal action hanging over the probe. But now that the detainees have agreed to drop their civil claims, intelligence officers will be freer to tell the truth about their involvement with the detainees.

Representatives of the detainees did not immediately respond but they would not have settled unless they were satisfied that their claims of maltreatment will be properly examined by Sir Peter.

Security sources also disputed the claims that the payments were ‘hush money’, stressing that the demand for secrecy about the terms of the deal came as much from the detainees as the government.

Last week George W. Bush claimed in his memoirs that information obtained by

waterboarding Al Qaeda suspects had helped prevent attacks on Canary Wharf and Heathrow.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Islamist Sympathisers Admit They Are Losing Ground in Government

Over the last few months, I and others monitoring Islamism’s influence inside the British state have started to believe that the tide is turning. Last week one of British Islamism’s most important fellow-travellers, a man called Bob Lambert, appeared to confirm my view.

When Lambert was head of the Metropolitan Police’s Muslim Contact Unit, he exemplified a view shared by some others in the security establishment: that we can anoint “good Islamists” and use them as a bulwark against the “bad Islamists.”

The showpiece for this approach is the North London Central Mosque, also known as the Finsbury Park Mosque. The mosque, formerly home to Abu Hamza and a centre of terrorist recruitment, was closed after a police raid in 2003. On its reopening, in a deal brokered by Lambert, it was essentially gifted to an Islamist group, the Muslim Association of Britain. The new leadership were certainly more moderate than Abu Hamza — not terribly hard — but they have close links with another designated terrorist organisation, Hamas.

Last week, in an article for the al-Jazeera website, Lambert defended a decision by some of his other Islamist allies, such as the East London Mosque, to host meetings with the terrorist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki. At first reading, I merely enjoyed Lambert’s piece as a rare full bingo card of all the techniques from the I-Spy Book of Advanced Islamist Rhetoric (lofty pseudo-academic tone? Check. Calling anyone who disagrees with you a “neo-con”? Check. Wilfully misrepresenting what they actually said? Check. Labelling as “speculative” any facts you don’t like? Check.)

But then I noticed, buried near the end, Lambert’s significant admission that “the weight of think-tank and media opinion appears to have discouraged the Government from adopting and promoting the Finsbury Park model.” Hurrah! The trustees of Finsbury Park include Mohammed Sawalha, described by the BBC’s Panorama as a former senior figure in Hamas who “is said to have masterminded much of Hamas’s political and military strategy” from his perch in London. The mosque’sspokesman, Azzam Tamimi, has justified suicide bombings against civilians (but only Israeli ones, so that’s all right, then.)

Lambert’s policy was a tamer version of the securocrats’ disastrous pre-9/11 misjudgment, the so-called “compact of security,” when they allowed Hamza and other al-Qaeda sympathisers openly to use London as a base in the touching belief that it would somehow count in our favour with Osama bin Laden. At Finsbury Park, Lambert legitimised fringe minority radicals as authentic, mainstream voices. Glad he knows he’s been rumbled.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: More Than a Dozen Terror Suspects to Get Millions of Pounds Compensation

Sixteen terror suspects who were allegedly tortured at the behest of the United States are being paid millions of pounds from the taxpayer in return for their silence over British involvement.

At least one former Guantanamo Bay detainee will receive more than £1million in hush money from ministers desperate to stop the cases reaching court.

One of the largest payouts will go to Binyam Mohamed, the British resident who claims MI5 and MI6 fed questions to his CIA-backed torturers.

The Government refused to confirm or deny reports that the total compensation was £5 million or £10 million.

The cash is being handed over in secret deals without any evidence being shown to the public that Britain condoned or was complicit in what happened.

In return for the cash, the detainees will drop the civil cases for damages that had threatened to lift the lid on the activities of the intelligence agencies after 9/11.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Middle Class Voters Are Liars and Hypocrites Says Top Labour MP in Astonishing Rant

A Labour frontbencher has launched an astonishing attack on middle-class voters, branding them liars, racists, drunkards and even paedophiles.

Eric Joyce, the party’s Northern Ireland spokesman, condemned the public for attacking lying politicians when they themselves may be ‘living lies’ at home.

In his rant, Mr Joyce condemned ‘articulate and intelligent’ parents for putting the interests of their own children over those of the poor.

He accused parents of hypocrisy for condemning drug use while drinking too much and said that MPs were right to appeal to the worst instincts of voters, including racism.

Mr Joyce even condemned attitudes to the danger of paedophiles, pointing out that most sex offenders target young victims within their own families.

He delivered his outburst in an article called Liar, Know Thyself for the website Labour Uncut.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Toy Pig Pulled From Farm Set on Religious Grounds

A retailer withdrew a toy pig from a children’s farm set to avoid the risk of causing offence on religious grounds, it emerged today.

A mother who bought the Early Learning Centre’s (ELC) HappyLand Goosefeather Farm for her daughter’s first birthday contacted the store after finding that the pig was missing, the Sun newspaper reported.

The £25 set contained a model of a cow, sheep, chicken, horse and dog but no pig, despite there being a sty and a button which generated an “oink”.

But ELC chiefs have since decided to reintroduce the pig, with parents who have bought the set invited to get the toy from the company’s website.

The mother, named only as Caroline, posted about her experience in a forum on parenting website Netmums.

She wrote: “Checked the box and discovered that there isnt a piggy. Went online, nope no piggy. So I emailed ELC and the response that I had makes my blood boil…(The ELC wrote) ‘Previously the pig was part of the Goosefeather farm however due to customer feedback and religious reasons this is no longer part of the farm.”‘

Caroline added: “This is political correctness gone loopy. On what basis did they remove it?

“This is as bad as no more ‘baa baa black sheep’ or other such things. Stuff like this is just insipid, it worms its way into every aspect of our lives and we just let it happen. Surely if someone has issue with a toy that they don’t agree with, then don’t buy it!”

A mother called Chouli responded: “Does it have a disclaimer on it, though? ‘Pig sold seperately (sic)’? Perhaps they keep a stash of them in the back somewhere in brown paper bags?”

And another named Safiyyah said: “I’m Muslim and it doesn’t bother me. It’s just another animal.

“What are the store going to do next? Ban the Peppa Pig cartoon? Stop selling books with pigs in? This is a multi-cultural country.”

The ELC later said it had decided to reinstate the pig.

A spokeswoman said: “ELC is a truly global brand, which means we need to be aware of the full range of customer expectations and cultural differences. The decision to remove the pig from our Goosefeather Farm set was taken in reaction to customer feedback in some parts of the world.

“We recognise that pigs are familiar farm animals, especially for our UK customers. Taking on board all the customer feedback, we have taken the decision to reinstate the pig and to no longer sell the set in those international markets where it might create an issue.

“Any customers who have bought Goosefeather Farm in the last few months will be able to order a pig free of charge to complete their set via our website in the coming weeks.”

           — Hat tip: McR [Return to headlines]



UK: Two Jailed for Life for ‘Sickeningly Violent’ Murder of a Shopkeeper Who Refused to Meekly Abandon His Property

Two men were jailed for life today for the ‘sickeningly violent’ murder of a shopkeeper who was battered to death with wine bottles from his shelves during a botched robbery.

Gurmail Singh, 63, was attacked for just a few pounds, some sweets, alcohol and cigarettes during a raid at his shop in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in February.

Muawaz Khalid, 20, was told he must spend at least 21 years in prison by a judge at Bradford Crown Court. Nabeel Shafi, 18, who protested his innocence as he was led from the dock, was given a 20-year minimum term.

The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, said: ‘This was a most violent and sickening attack by at least two of you on a lone shopkeeper late at night.

‘It is to be regretted that no defendant at any time during the eight-week trial showed the slightest remorse.’

The judge said the victim’s skull had been shattered into little pieces’ by the force of the blows.

‘One blow would have disabled him, seven blows took his life away,’ he said.

‘If Gurmail Singh had abandoned his property and money and said “take what you want boys”, he would not have lost his life. He was too brave for that.

‘There may have been mental or physical suffering inflicted on the victim before death, in the sense this was a sickeningly violent and unnecessarily savage assault on a man in his 60s.’

The court was told Mr Singh died as a result of a ‘robbery gone wrong’.

He ‘did not meekly hand over his property, his hard-earned money’ to a gang of robbers who targeted his shop, the court was told.

The jury heard how members of the public came to Mr Singh’s aid. One man trapped two members of the gang inside by holding the door shut but they got out of a back door after desperate attempts to smash their way out of the front, prosecutors said.

Both were tackled by other members of the public but managed to free themselves and get away, the court was told.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Toy Pig Removed From Farm Set to Avoid Offending Muslim and Jewish Parents

The pig was missing rom the Early Learning Centre’s HappyLand Goosefeather Farm, which costs about £25, when a mother bought it as a present for her daughter’s first birthday, the Sun newspaper reported.

The set did contain a model of a cow, sheep, chicken, horse and dog but no pig, the newspaper said, despite there being a sty and a button which generated an “oink”.

The mother, named only as Caroline, called the firm to complain and was told in an email that the pig had been removed in case it upset Muslim or Jewish parents.

Both the religions ban the eating of pork because they consider the pig an unclean animal.

The Sun reported that the email said: “Previously the pig was part of the Goosefeather Farm. However due to customer feedback and religious reasons this is no longer part of the farm.”

The issue came to light on internet forum Netmums, on which Caroline posted: “This is political correctness gone loopy.

“This is as bad as no more ‘baa baa black sheep’ or other such things. Stuff like this is just insipid, it worms its way into every aspect of our lives and we just let it happen.

“Surely if someone has an issue with a toy they don’t agree with, then don’t buy it.”

One mother called Chouli responded: “Does it have a disclaimer on it, though? ‘Pig sold seperately’? Perhaps they keep a stash of them in the back somewhere in brown paper bags?”

Another mother named Safiyyah said: “I’m Muslim and it doesn’t bother me. It’s just another animal.

“What are the store going to do next? Ban the Peppa Pig cartoon? Stop selling books with pigs in? This is a multi-cultural country.”

ELC said: “The decision to remove the pig was taken in reaction to customer feedback in some parts of the world.”

However, after The Sun contacted the firm, it said: “We have taken the decision to reinstate the pig and to no longer sell the set in international markets where it might create an issue.

“Any customers who have bought Goosefeather Farm in the last few months will be able to order a pig free of charge via our website.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Westminster on Mumbai-Style Terror Attack Alert After Al Qaeda Threat

MPs have been told to prepare themselves for a Mumbai-style terrorist attack on the Palace of Westminster.

Politicians and staff in the Houses of Parliament have been instructed to try to evacuate the buildings if there is a terrorist raid rather than barricading themselves in their offices.

The contingency planning comes after it emerged that Al Qaeda gunmen had planned to emulate the Mumbai attacks on European and American soil.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Balkans


World’s Oldest Copper Age Settlement Found

A “sensational” discovery of 75-century-old copper tools in Serbia is compelling scientists to reconsider existing theories about where and when man began using metal. Belgrade — axes, hammers, hooks and needles — were found interspersed with other artefacts from a settlement that burned down some 7,000 years ago at Plocnik, near Prokuplje and 200 km south of Belgrade.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Fresh Tensions Between Copts and Muslims in South

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 16 — There are further tensions between young Muslims and Copts in a village in the province of Qena in Upper Egypt, around 700 kilometres south of Cairo.

The press agency Mena says that security forces have put an end to the violence in the village of Al Nawahed, which was provoked by the alleged abuse of a Muslim girl by a young Christian. Around ten Coptic homes, including that of the father of the young man said to be at the root of the tension between the two communities, were set on fire by young Muslims, according to the satellite television channel Al Jazeera, which says that police this morning enforced a curfew after arresting a number of young people, both Muslims and Copts.

On January 7 this year, in Nagaa Hamadi, in the same province of Qena, six Copts and a policeman were killed as they came out of a Coptic Christmas mass. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Egypt: Mob Burns Christian Homes

Cairo, 16 Nov. (AKI) — A group of Islamic radicals set fire to 10 houses belonging to Christians in a village approximately 500 kilometres south of Cairo, less than a month after Al-Qaeda said it would target the northern African country’s religious minority.

Local security forces said the assailants would have caused far more damage had they not been arrested.

Following an October attack on a Baghdad church that killed at least 58 people, Al-Qaeda said it would target Christians in the Middle East and northern Africa and singled out those in Egypt.

Attacks on Christians have increased despite announcements of support by Muslim leaders.

Coptic Christians make up around 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Muslims Set Fire to Coptic Christian Homes in Southern Egypt, Officials Say

Muslims set fire overnight to at least 10 houses belonging to Coptic Christians in a village in southern Egypt over rumours that a Christian resident had an affair with a Muslim girl, security officials said Tuesday.

The officials said security forces sealed off the village of al-Nawahid in Qena province, some 290 miles (465 kilometres) south of Cairo, to prevent the violence from spreading to neighbouring towns. They said several people were arrested.

The attacks started after locals spotted a young Copt and a Muslim girl together at night inside the village cemetery, the officials said. They added that both were put under police custody as authorities investigate.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The village was calm by nightfall, after religious leaders from both communities persuaded their followers to end the confrontation. Residents called on police to withdraw.

Clashes between Christians and Muslims occasionally occur in southern Egypt, mostly over land or disputes over church construction. But sectarian tensions have also been on the rise recently in the capital.

Last year in Qena, a Coptic man was accused of kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old Muslim girl. The alleged assault led to widespread protests by the Muslim community and increased tensions between the two religious groups, which culminated in the murder of six Copts and one Muslim security guard at a church on Jan. 6.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s population of 80 million. Copts and Muslims generally live in peace, though tension and violence occasionally flare.

Human rights groups say attacks on Copts are on the rise, underscoring the government’s failure to address chronic sectarian strains in a society where religious radicalism is gaining ground.

The government insists Christians enjoy the same rights as Muslims.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Middle East


A Weak State Incubates Terror

By Jonathan Spyer

The revelations last week of a sophisticated plot emanating from the Yemen-based al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula organization have belatedly refocused attention on this most backward and poverty stricken of Arab states. The sending of explosive packages to synagogues in Chicago is only the latest act of international terror to have emerged from Yemen in the last year.

Yemen today exemplifies the central malaise of the Arab world in particularly acute form. Throughout the Arabic-speaking world, failed development, a political culture in which extremist Islamist ideology thrives and Iranian interference and subversion from outside serve to create a breeding ground for political violence to grow and proliferate.

Only in areas where strong and shrewd (though unrepresentative) state regimes exist — such as Egypt, Jordan and, in a more problematic way, Saudi Arabia — is the lid uneasily kept on this boiling cauldron.

Yemen is one of the weakest of Arab state regimes.

As a result, regional forces of subversion have linked up with local Islamists and are turning the country into a hub of instability — playing host today to no fewer than three separate armed insurgencies.

Yemen is the poorest Arab country; 40 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day. The country’s steadily depleting oil reserves are unable to generate sufficient income for the government to maintain the tribal patronage system on which it depends. Gas exports are failing to make up the shortfall. Yemen’s water supplies are also dwindling.

The regime of President Ali Saleh is autocratic, inefficient and largely ineffectual. Its economic policies have failed to develop the country. It rules in name only over large areas of the country.

Poverty, illiteracy, extremism and discontent are salient aspects of today’s reality in Yemen…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



Germans Held in Iran Accused of Espionage

Two Germans arrested in Iran last month as they tried to interview the son of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery came for “espionage,” an Iranian justice official claimed on Tuesday.

“These two Germans came to Iran claiming to be tourists,” said Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the justice department chief of East Azerbaijan province in the northwest of the country, quoted by Fars news agency.

“But the work of these two tourists in Iran and Tabriz and the way they reported in Tabriz shows that they came for espionage,” he said.

“In fact these two came here for espionage and, thank God, they were identified and arrested … The evidence for espionage was in their hands when arrested and they were planning a smear campaign against the Islamic Republic.”

Sharifi said “the crime of espionage for the two Germans who came to Iran to make smear campaign and for espionage has been proved.”

On Monday, Iranian state-run television showed blurred footage of the two German men “confessing” that they had been “tricked” into coming to Iran. According to the Farsi voiceover of the footage, the two detainees pointed fingers at Mina Ahadi, an Iranian human rights activist living in exile in Germany.

Ahadi, founder of the Germany-based International Committees against Execution and Stoning, has launched a global campaign to halt the impending execution of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani by stoning.

“I did not have any information about this case, but Ms Ahadi knew about it. She sent me to Iran and has gained propaganda value from my arrest. I will sue Ms Ahadi when I am back in Germany,” one of the detainees was quoted as saying.

“I accept that I made a mistake. Since I had no information on the case, I was tricked by Ms Ahadi,” the other German was quoted as saying.

But Ahadi on Tuesday rejected the accusations, telling news agency AFP: “I did not send them to Iran. I spoke to them about the risks and helped them make contacts.”

“I do not think the journalists were mistreated physically. That’s what I suspect. But they were certainly under psychological pressure,” she said. “They have been in prison for a month … no contact with their family, no phone contact, only once have German diplomats visited these journalists. They are under pressure.”

The two Germans, who were arrested in Tabriz on October 10, have not been identified. It was unclear where the footage, in which the two men were shown close-up and looking healthy, had been shot.

The television report said the pair were arrested at the office of Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s lawyer while trying to interview her son and after taking pictures of Tabriz prison, were the woman is held.

The Germans, who entered the country on tourist visas, reportedly work for the Axel Springer media group in Germany. Foreign reporters need special press visas to be able to work in Iran.

“We are following the news. But for the moment we have no specific information about it,” the German Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, adding the detained Germans have had “intensive consular assistance.”

Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s case, revealed last summer by human rights associations, has triggered an international outcry. She was initially given death sentences by two different courts in Tabriz in separate trials in 2006. A sentence to hang for her involvement in the murder of her husband was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007.

But a second sentence, to die by stoning on a charge of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband’s murder, was upheld by a different appeals court the same year.

Iran’s judiciary says a final decision is yet to be made about the case and that it is now focusing on the murder conviction of the mother of two rather than adultery charges.

“Her case is currently undergoing legal process in Tehran and if it is finalised and the order is given for the sentence to be carried out, the sentence will be carried out,” Sharifi said.

“Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is currently being held in Tabriz prison and is in perfect health,” said the justice official.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



NATO Summit: Clash With Turkey Over Missile Shield

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 15 — Turkey’s objection to indicate the names of the enemies against which NATO countries should defend themselves from with the new missile shield could thwart the most expected and ambitious plan of the NATO summit that will take place on Thursday and Friday in Lisbon. NATO sources in Brussels report that “Turkey does not want to list Iran and Syria, while France is not budging on this point”. NATO and the USA want to deploy a missile interception system to prevent the threat posed by the launch of short and medium range missiles from the Middle East, especially from Iran, whose nuclear programmes are deemed a growing threat, or by other ‘rogue’ states. The plan, which provides for the use of US resources in the NATO architecture, replaces the missile shield which the USA’s Bush Administration wanted to set up on its own in the Czech Republic and in Poland. The new shield would instead involve all 28 countries allied with NATO, which could link up with each other at the ‘modest’ cost of 200 million euros. The whole system would also be able to dialogue with Russia. However Turkey still has to decide if and how to join the NATO project. Aside from objecting to naming Iran in the final document of the Lisbon summit, Ankara is requesting that its territory be fully (instead of partially) covered by the new programme. The sources reported that “Turkey does not want Iran and Syria to be mentioned, but it demands weapons, patriots in particular, capable of defending it from the threat of Iran, at NATO’s expense”.

US diplomacy is pressing Turkey to reach a compromise that will not jeopardise the ambitious project. Diplomatic sources reported that “The Americans accepted Turkey’s request not to cite the names of the enemies, but they do not intend to give in on total coverage at NATO’s expense. But that is not enough for France”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Pilgrimage: How Much Does it Cost to be a Good Muslim?

(ANSAmed) — ROMA, NOVEMBER 15 — How much does it cost to be a good Muslim? With the arrival of the month of Hajj (the pilgrimage that sees millions of believers head, from all corners of the world, to the Mecca to live the experience that every Islamic believer should carry out at least once in a lifetime), shopkeepers and entrepreneurs of the Holy places of Islam start to get excited. In effects many rely on this incredible flow of people to adjust the accounts of shops and companies that experience a boost during this time of the year. According to figures published by Saudi media, an all inclusive two week pilgrimage can cost from 3,000 to almost 30,000 euros, according to whether one chooses a low cost or ‘VIP’ solution. Excluding certain fixed costs, such as visas and health insurance (vaccination against meningitis and influenza are a must, but are free of charge in certain health centres for those who go to the Mecca), the figure is impacted by the number of days spent in the Holy places, the type of lodging and transport, and the distance from the country of origin.

One can choose between a shared room in Mina or Al Aziziya or a double room in a five star hotel in the area of Markaziya, to which one must add the cost of public transport or private transport that connects the two cities of Mecca and Medina.

Those arriving from distant countries must also deal with the cost of air fares, part of the budget that some States are making an effort to limit. The government of New Delhi, through the Hajj Committee of India, reached an agreement with the Ministry of Civil Aviation to grant special prices to Muslim believers departing for Saudi Arabia. The same is being done by the government of Jakarta which a few months ago announced to the local press that, as stated by minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali, there would be an 80 dollar cut on the government’s “all inclusive” package, which changed from “3,422 dollars last year to 3,342 dollars this year”, without there being a lowering of service levels.

With great expectations the shopkeepers of Medina are not going to be caught unprepared: spurred by the encouraging signals that hint at a market recovery after the dark period of 2009, they are getting organised to attract pilgrims into their shops, even granting commissions to the bus drivers who carry the faithful. And there is more: Hajj also offers the chance to exalt tourist attractions offered by the Gulf Country. The authorities are also aware of this, and want to support the sector by sponsoring various locations in the area. As of this year the pilgrims will be met by a novelty, which was strongly wanted by the Saudi authorities: a radio will provide assistance in eight languages (including English, French and Farsi), offering information and directions. The radio also has another characteristic: once the period of pilgrimage is over, it will stop broadcasting until the next one. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: Country Dealing With Gold Smuggling

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 15 — While raw gold enters into Saudi Arabia tax-free, a 6% tax is applied to refined gold. This difference, according to the University of King Abdulaziz Economics Professor, Khaled Al Bassam, cited by Assharq Al Awsat, is the reason behind smuggling, a phenomenon which was unknown until a short while ago in the country. Most smuggling operations, according to the professor, are conducted through the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, where the precious metal is imported and then illegally exported to Saudi Arabia. Smuggling, according to Khaled Al Bassam, does not have much of an effect on the price, which is determined by the obvious greed of the merchants, who are concerned with making profits at all costs.

Under the pretext of restructuring, many goldsmith’s workshops in Saudi Arabia have moved abroad. The real reasons behind this migration are the tax on refined gold and the cheaper working conditions outside of the country, especially low labour costs. “Other countries,” underlined Khaled Al Bassam, “do not place limits on the quantity of raw gold that a merchant wants to import.” The President of the Gold and Jewellery Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, Jameel Al Farsi, was quite direct in saying that it is better for the smaller companies that do not create added value and benefits for the country and themselves to leave the country. Due to the lack of specialised labour, gold factories in Saudi Arabia must provide more training for the workers, underlined Al Farsi. If they are not able to do this, their activity should then be limited to simply importing refined gold. In the city of Jeddah there are four gold factories and 320 workshops where most of the processing of this precious metal takes place. Al Farsi also said that “precise figures do not exist” on smuggling, but there is a suspicion that the quantity of refined gold smuggled into the country is high. Despite a low level of raw gold production and the existence of only one gold mine (there is speculation about the existence of others that have not been discovered yet), Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the largest consumers of refined gold. Gold prices, explained Al Farsi, are linked to several factors such as the dollar (and its oscillating exchange rate, which pushes big investors towards gold) and large-scale speculation in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Syria: Assad Family 40 Years in Power, Now Hezbollah Issue

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — Seven regional conflicts, an exhausting armed insurrection, a dangerous coup attempt, a delicate leadership replacement attempt and an infinite succession of external pressures failed in 40 years to brush away the Syrian dynasty of the al-Assad family, which celebrates the ascent of its best known representative, Hafiz, president up to the year 2000 and father of the current rai’s Bashar, who has been in charge for the past decade. The latest storm survived by the al-Assad family is the one unleashed against Damascus by the accusations of the USA, France and Saudi Arabia, which blame it of being involved in the homicide in Beirut of the former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.

Since autumn of 2008, Syria has been implicitly absolved and the pointed finger of the western powers has shifted towards Lebanon’s Hezbollah, his allies in the fight against Israel. The UN’s Special Tribunal (Tsl), charged with identifying the authors of the 14 February 2005 attack, is about to issue an indictment against certain Hezbollah managers in order, according to the pro-Iranian Shiite movement, to delegitimize its resistance activities against Israel. But Syria, which has been Iran’s close strategic ally for thirty years, distanced itself from Hezbollah’s position, stating that in the event that “the indictment is based on irrefutable evidence, nobody will be able to challenge it”. It is the umpteenth test of the pragmatism of the Assad family, which is accustomed to rhetoric and political balancing acts in a Middle East that appears to be once more on the brink of a precipice. To the east, neighbouring Iraq appears to be anything but stabilised, while in its ‘backyard’, Lebanon, there are the marks of a “civil insurrection” threatened by Hezbollah, which is however forced to await the results of a timely “Saudi/Syrian plan” aimed at defusing the time-bomb they made themselves. On 16 November 1970 Hafiz al-Assad assumed control of Syria through a “corrective movement” whose events are celebrated every year in every corner of the Country. Since then, Assad the father managed to ferry the Country through the Arab/Israeli War (1973-74), Lebanon’s civil conflict (1975-90), Israel’s invasion of Lebanon (1982), the armed insurrection of the Muslim Brothers (1976-82), the Iran/Iraq War (1980-88), the coup attempt by his brother Rifaat (1984), the fall of the USSR and the Gulf War (1991). Having assured succession in power by his second son Bashar (his first son Basil died during a mysterious accident), a sick Assad died in June 2000 with a single major regret: having failed to win back the Golan Heights, which had been occupied by Israel back in 1967. The task of returning Syrian fishermen to the shores of the Lake of Tiberias now lays on the shoulders of 44-year-old Bashar, who has already been put to the test by tough regional challenges: the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq (2003-2009), the war between Israel and Hezbollah (2006), but above all by the political offensive launched as of 2004 by George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac, at the time respectively presidents of the USA and France, who were determined to weaken the Assad family (if not actually dethrone them) starting from the soft Lebanese flank.

Relying on the alliance with Iran and the recent friendship with Turkey, over the past 18 months Syria run by the Assad family has found reconciliation with Saudi Arabia and is again playing a leading role in ‘its’ Lebanon. In effects with the blessings of Washington and Paris. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Russia


Hollywood to Slander Russia Internationally

Hollywood is reportedly preparing an ideological operation against Russia. The goodie of the new “epic movie” is going to be Georgia’s sitting President Mikhail Saakashvili. The making of new Russophobic lampoons has become possible because of Russia’s ideological inactivity. If the situation is not going to change for the better, this “artifact” may become another victory of Mishiko the Fearless.

Any country and its people may face a variety of dangers throughout its existence: natural disasters, epidemics, riots and so on and so forth. War can be one of them. A war against a whole country can be waged not only militarily, but also peacefully. An attack conducted with the use of weapons of ideological destruction, or a political attack, can cause as much damage as common bombings.

Russia has always been lucky when it comes to the number of ideological adversaries. She has been lucky at it at all times and all eras. Now the country will have to deal with another anti-Russian ideological operation. Online publications report that Hollywood is currently working on a movie titled “Five Days in August”. The movie is being made on the order from Georgian producers. The main characters in the new film are: aggressive Russia, heroic Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and the helpless Georgian people who suffer from the attacks of Russian planes, helicopters and Kalashnikovs.

It seems that it was not the Georgian producers, who ordered the film of lies and slander. Most likely, it was vice versa: Hollywood followed orders from adequate special services to push Georgian producers towards ordering the film. It’s not much big of a deal, though: it is neither fighters for truth nor respectable movie makers who work on this piece of lies.

Why do they need to have another ideological nonsense about Russia? There is no simple answer to this question. One question prompts several answers.

First of all, the West needs to improve the authority of Mr. Saakashvili. The Georgians may eventually become very disappointed in their reckless president. The viewers either know nothing about him, or they have forgotten how Mikhail Saakashvili was hiding from the imaginary Russian air raid or how he was chewing his tie in front of TV cameras.

Second of all, the USA and the whole “civilized West” are very concerned about Russia’s positive activities on the international arena. A way to restrict her independence in international affairs is to portray Russia as a state that is always guilty and that always tries to justify its wrong-doings.”

The fabricated version of the real events of August 2008 is exhausted. The war has been forgotten. Why not stirring up the lies again? Many people tend to trust their eyes rather than their mind.

So, in March of 2011, millions of cinema-goers will have a chance to experience the horror of Russia’s “large-scale, brutal and mean” attack against the “small, noble and peaceful” Georgia.

Most likely, Russia will begin to expose the lies in the film. However, as we say in Russia “a first word matters a lot more than a second.” Many will perceive Russia’s reaction to the film as a series of awkward excuses.

Ideological operations bring material results in combination with political profit. Needless to say that investors will not turn their heads to an aggressive country.

There is another question. Why do anti-Russian forces attack our country so easily and delightfully? There are three answers to it.

First. Russian politicians fatally underestimate the significance of ideology in the modern world. They tend to think that the truth will find its way to the masses itself. Russia has heard too many Western tales about the life of Soviet people dominated by Soviet ideology. As a result, Russia has virtually declined ideology. The West hasn’t. Now we have Russia ideologically disarmed, whereas the West is armed ideologically very well. The West uses this weapon of spiritual destruction — ideology — on a regular basis. Russian politicians have something to think about here.

Second. Many years of experience confirmed: the authors of the movie will not carry any responsibility for any fiction about Russia. They can be sure that their product will entail no action on Russia’s part.

Third answer. Political adventurers of the whole world know that Russia may take inconsistent actions in response to vile insinuations from other countries. Russia said many times to the whole world that it would defeat any aggressor. As for slanderers — personified or corporate — Russia said that it would use toughest diplomatic, political and economic sanctions against them.

The attack conducted by Georgian troops against Russian peacemakers and Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia should have ended with complete destruction of the Georgian army, the storm of Tbilisi and a severe sentence for Mikhail Saakashvili.

If that had happened, would the international community have been concerned too much? It does it all the time anyway. It is not ruled out that the international community would have understood Russia’s toughest measures against the aggressor a lot better than Russia’s minimum punishment for Georgia. The truth about five days in August would have probably reached the West if the aggressor had been defeated, rather than forced to peace.

What if Georgia’s supporters would have provided military help to the country? The West provided that help anyway as it shipped military hardware and instructors to Georgia. That was all the West could do — they had to deal with more important things in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Does this all sound too radical? This is politics. Politics is communication, as Aristotle said. There are two special points, where politics disappears: complete agreement and complete inability to cooperate (war). If there is complete content, there is no point of communication. If it is impossible to communicate, people develop hostilities to each other.

Politics exists between these two extreme points. Saakashvili took communication with South Ossetia and Abkhazia to the point of war. War has its own laws. A war ends when one of the parties is destroyed, and the winner obtains the right to handle the way of the defeated enemy.

Half-measures only suspend a war — they do not cancel it for good. Incomplete wars continue in other forms — most likely in the form of ideological attacks against the winner. Aggressors must be destroyed to their capitulation.

It should be as clear as day to all politicians harboring aggressive plans. The nations (armies, first and foremost) should know it. If they unleash a war against another country, they must be prepared to lose everything: life, freedom, honor and well-being.

Half-measures build grounds for various speculations, and this is what Russia reaps right now because Russia has not punished the aggressor (Georgia) accordingly.

There is another aspect to this story. There is evil, ambitious and stupid Saakashbili, but there are also the people of Georgia, with whom Russia has been friendly for many years. They say that every nation has the rulers that it deserves, but I do not think that it is true. I’m talking about friendship, about the truth of life.

Maybe some people in Russia have good friends in Georgia. I would not say, though, that the Georgians have warm feelings towards Russians. Many years ago, many Soviet citizens used to spend their holidays in Georgia. Did the Georgians treat the Russians, especially blonde women, with respect? No. The Georgians look at all other nationalities from above, except for other Georgians. They can be even arrogant and disdainful to people of other nationalities.

If Hollywood releases the above-mentioned film, Russia should entirely and completely boycott that “work of art.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Pakistan: Bishop of Islamabad, Asia Bibi Case “A Disgrace” — A Campaign by AsiaNews

Mgr. Rufin Anthony the blasphemy law “must be repealed; it does not fit with 21st century world “ Petitions to save Asia Bibi and repeal the blasphemy law in Pakistan, Italy, USA, India, France. Within hours, the AsiaNews site received over 500 signatures. Even cloistered monasteries prayfor Asia Bibi. A text to send to President Asif Zardari.

Islamabad (AsiaNews) — “It’s really a shame”, says Msgr. Rufin Anthony, Catholic bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi in comments to AsiaNews about the death sentence against Asia Bibi (see photo), the woman convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan’s Punjab state. The prelate stresses that the law is abused and manipulated for petty reasons and it is time to repeal it to make Pakistan a modern country.

“In the villages — the bishop says — there is a lot of meanness. I asked a woman about the characteristics of her [Asia Bibi] village. She replied immediately: Malice, envy, apathy and brutality. Here is the full picture. Can this justify the killing of a good person? The answer is no! I think that the blasphemy law should be repealed, is not at all suited to the world of the 21st century”.

Already, a year ago, the Justice and Peace Commission in Pakistan had asked for the abolition of the blasphemy law, collecting more than 75 000 signatures from Christians and Muslims. AsiaNews had helped to spread their campaign in Italy and at the European Parliament (see dossier Save Christians and Pakistan from the blasphemy law).

These days, after the ruling against Asia Bibi, many nongovernmental organizations in the country are gathering signatures for the same reason. In a few days more than 40 thousand signatures have invaded government offices calling for the liberation of women.

Aid to the Church in Need has also launched a signature campaign in France and Italy. Other groups in India and the United States have launched campaigns against the blasphemy laws.

AsiaNews launched its campaign yesterday urging its readers to “do something”, and in a few hours collected more than 500 signatures from Italy, the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, India, Great Britain, ….

Among the first to sign up, were Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, the famous Egyptian scholar on Islam, Phil Lawler, editor of U.S. Catholic, Kenneth Lewis, president of International Christian News, David Cantagalli, editor. There are also several messages from cloistered monasteries, praying for Bibi Asia and Pakistan.

As reported yesterday, the campaign asks you to save Bibi Asia and Pakistan, by sending an e-mail to salviamoasiabibi@asianews.it , or directly to President Asif Zardari to this address: publicmail@president.gov.pk .

Some readers have asked for a basic text to be sent as a message to President Zardari. Here it is:

To Mr Asif Ali Zardari,

The President of Pakistan

Mr. President,

Asia Bibi’s death sentence is not just a sentence, it is a State crime.

Therefore I hope you will not permit that, not only because of your sense of Justice but also because it is badly affecting the reputation of your country.

Please intervene as soon as possible to reduce the pains Asia Bibi and her family are suffering.

Moreover the constant deliberate persecution of Pakistani Christians through the law on blasphemy is offending the Almighty God more than any human being.

Sincerely

(signature)

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: US Earmarks $500mln for Post-Flood Reconstruction

Rome, 15 Nov. (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — The United States will commit 500 million dollars to help Pakistan rebuild after the catastrophic flooding that hit much of the country in July and August, US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke announced on Monday.

“As a demonstration of our sustained commitment to expanding our partnership with Pakistan, and in close consultation with our Congress, the US will commit up to $500 million of the first year of Kerry-Lugar-Berman funds,” Holbrooke said.

He was speaking at the Pakistan Development Forum in the capital, Islamabad.

Holbrooke was referring to a 1.5 billion dollar annual development budget already promised to Pakistan under a bi-partisan bill sponsored by Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Dick Lugar of Indiana.

Holbrooke said the money would benefit victims recovering from the flooding which killed nearly 2,000 people , displaced millions and devastated agriculture and infrastructure.

The funds for rebuilding came on top of the 500 million dollars already provided by the United States for flood relief, he added. Pakistan’s military has been spearheading efforts to help the flood victims.

The administration of US president Barack Obama is working closely with the US Congress and Pakistan’s leadership to determine how these funds can best be deployed so that they are aligned with Pakistani priorities.

Rebuilding agriculture in areas worst affected by the flooding, infrastructure projects and the rebuilding of schools are expected to be high priorities.

The World Bank had assessed the funding and said it was satisfied controls were in place to minimise corruption and make sure the aid reached the people and projects that most needed it, Holbrooke said.

The US is also committed to supporting Pakistan’s long-term economic stabilisation programme. “The Government of Pakistan’s plans to move forward on macro-economic reforms mark a significant step toward self-sufficiency,” said Holbrooke.

“However, Pakistan needs to continue its work with the International Monetary Fund and the development banks to expand the tax base and develop sustainable energy policies critical to Pakistan’s future and economic growth.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Far East


Asteroid Dust Successfully Returned by Japanese Space Probe

A Japanese spacecraft that touched down on a space rock during a billion-mile mission successfully returned the first ever samples from the surface of an asteroid, Japan’s space agency said today (Nov. 16).

The samples are in the form of tiny dust grains collected directly from the asteroid Itokawa in 2005 by Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, which returned to Earth in June. It was a 1.25 billion-mile (2 billion-kilometer) trip that took seven years to complete. [Photo of the asteroid samples]

The dust was found inside a sample return capsule that landed in Australia and was flown back to Japan for analysis.

“About 1,500 grains were identified as rocky particles, and most of them were judged to be of extraterrestrial origin, and definitely from Asteroid Itokawa,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a statement.

JAXA scientists have known there were particles of material in the Hayabusa sample return capsule since July. But they were unsure if those particles were actually pieces of an asteroid, cosmic dust or contamination from Earth.

Now, they said, it is clear. The Hayabusa spacecraft collected samples of an asteroid.

“Being able to retrieve material from a celestial body beyond Earth was more than we had hoped for,” Hayabusa project manager Junichiro Kawaguchi told Japan’s Mainichi Daily News. “When the capsule returned, I said, ‘Just having it return is like a dream,’ so I don’t know how to express this, which was beyond my dreams.”

This graphic shows how the Hayabusa asteroid mission worked. Itokawa is a silicon-rich asteroid about 1,755 feet (535 meters) long at its longest side. It takes about 556 days to complete one orbit around the sun.

JAXA scientists used a scanning electron microscope to study the asteroid samples collected by Hayabusa. They found signs of minerals such as olivine, pyroxene and others, which matched remote-sensing observations taken by Hayabusa when it visited asteroid Itokawa.

Most of the particles are about 10 micrometers in size, roughly 1/10th the width of a human hair. They were found in one of two compartments inside the Hayabusa sample return capsule and must be handled delicately, JAXA officials said.

“JAXA is developing the necessary handling techniques and preparing the associated equipment for the initial (but more detailed) analyses of these ultra-minute particles,” they added.

The fact that the Hayabusa spacecraft returned asteroid samples is the ultimate vindication for Japan’s mission team.

JAXA launched Hayabusa (Japanese for “Falcon”) in 2003. The spacecraft arrived at the asteroid Itokawa in 2005 while the asteroid was 180 million miles (nearly 290 million km) from Earth — almost twice the distance between our planet and the sun.

But Hayabusa experienced several crippling problems during the mission, including a fuel leak, communications breakdowns and malfunctions with its ion engines. The setbacks added an extra three years to Hayabusa’s mission.

The probe was supposed to drop a lander on Itokawa, but the lander missed the asteroid’s surface. Attempts to fire a projectile at the asteroid to kick up dust to be collected also failed.

Ultimately, JAXA directed Hayabusa to directly land twice on asteroid Itokawa in attempts to force some samples into its return capsule.

The Hayabusa spacecraft returned to Earth on June 13. Most of the craft burned up in Earth’s atmosphere as planned during re-entry. Its sample return capsule, which was equipped with a heat shield and parachute, was ejected to make its own successful landing in the Australian outback and was later recovered.

“I’m filled with emotion and I can’t believe it,” Kawaguchi said. “A long period of hard work has paid off.”

With the mission’s success, JAXA has already begun planning a follow-up mission — called Hayabusa 2 — which would send a $200 million spacecraft to visit a carbon-rich asteroid. That mission is slated to launch in 2014, arrive at the asteroid in 2018 and return samples to Earth by 2020, JAXA officials have said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Chinese Brain-Imaging Device a Suspected Copy of U.S. Device

A Chinese team’s brain imaging device has come under question from developers of a U.S. device who say it’s a near duplicate of theirs, LiveScience has learned. An article on the Chinese device was published in the prestigious journal Science, and the U.S. researchers are preparing a formal letter to the journal in response.

According to the report appearing in the Nov. 4 online edition of Science, the Chinese imaging device used a diamond knife to shave ribbons off a centimeter-size mouse brain and imaged the slices during the process. That allowed the Chinese team to create a 3-D map of the brain that revealed details as small as the axons and dendrites — the circuitry that transmits signals between brain cells — as a step in the race to map the connections in the brain.

LiveScience contacted Yoonsuck Choe, director of the Brain Networks Laboratory at Texas A&M University, for comment on the Chinese device the day the paper was published, and the inquiry by the website immediately set off alarms.

Choe’s lab, which had developed its own knife-edge scanning microscope, or KESM, said today (Nov. 15) it will not officially comment in detail because it is preparing an official “Letter of Science” submission to formally alert the editors of the journal.

The U.S. researchers have already contacted the journal with their concerns, and a Science representative told LiveScience that the matter is being taken seriously.

Choe said he suspects the Chinese researchers copied the KESM design to create their own version of the brain imaging device. Due to LiveScience’s early involvement in the controversy, the website has been able to reconstruct some background on how the U.S. brain imaging device could have been copied.

How it went down

Choe’s lab started the development of its KESM almost a decade ago. The main architect behind the instrument was Bruce McCormick (1928-2007), a computer scientist at Texas A&M University.

The Chinese group in question hails from the Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics—Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in China.

Choe possesses an e-mail that shows the same Chinese lab previously asking the main engineering contractor for Choe’s lab, Micro Star Technologies, for a custom-made diamond knife. The knife forms a key part of the KESM, along with commercially available components such as the camera.

Micro Star Technologies refused the Chinese request.

Now made in China

Despite Micro Star’s refusal, Choe said he believes the Chinese team may have gotten enough information about KESM from detailed online technical reports and a Journal of Microscopy article to manufacture a nearly exact replica.

The Chinese researchers, led by Qingming Luo, named their device the Micro-Optical Sectioning Tomography, or MOST. They did not respond to an e-mail request for an interview from LiveScience at the time they announced the device.

Initial e-mail requests for comment by the Chinese team were not returned.

Choe said technical specs and details for MOST make the device an almost perfect replica of KESM. The Chinese researchers gave only passing mention to the U.S. team in the Science article.

Suspicions first arose when LiveScience contacted Sebastian Seung, a computational neuroscientist at MIT. He leads a collaborative effort to speed up the mapping of the brain’s wiring diagrams, known as connectomes.

“I just looked at it briefly, but it doesn’t seem novel,” Seung said in an e-mail on the morning of Nov. 4. “Isn’t it equivalent to this?”

“This” referred to the KESM developed by Choe’s lab. Seung then suggested contacting Choe.

A tale of two labs

Choe and his colleagues e-mailed their concerns to Science on the night of Nov. 4, along with the technical information and publication references to support those concerns.

The journal confirmed to LiveScience that it had received the concerns of Choe’s lab and that the Science editorial department would take them seriously.

“It’s so preliminary right now and we don’t have the facts — we weren’t involved with [what] happened between these researchers,” said Kathleen Wren, Science press package director, in a phone interview Nov. 5. “Certainly our editorial department will evaluate this, and the next step is to make sure they have all the relevant facts.”

The Science editors eventually responded on Nov. 12 by telling Choe’s Texas A&M group that it could either contact the Chinese researchers directly or write a formal “Letter of Science” for publication in the journal. The U.S. researchers are currently preparing their official letter to the journal.

“Science is a self-correcting enterprise, and the publication of letters to the editor, technical comments, and other responses to original research, including other research papers, are a routine part of the scientific process,” Wren said in an e-mail to LiveScience.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Obama Delivers Only Hot Air

By Donald Kirk

SEOUL — Theodore Roosevelt, a great American president with a clearly imperialist agenda, uttered one of the most famous lines in US history in 1901 when he advised a crowd, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”. These days, US President Barack Obama seems to have gotten that aphorism reversed. He speaks a lot but doesn’t seem to be carrying a big stick.

That was the impression he gave after winding up his 11-day Asian odyssey in Japan at a tepid weekend gathering of Pacific rim leaders banded together in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, otherwise known as APEC. It was as though his whirlwind tour had reached a crescendo at the Group of 20 confab in Seoul on Friday and, having no more to say, he just couldn’t stop talking.”

Obama, as the world has come to recognize, speaks quite well; he mingles homey expressions and sardonic remarks in response to journalists’ skeptical questions. “Instead of hitting home runs, we’re hitting singles,” he remarked, taking a phrase from American baseball that Koreans and Japanese and Taiwanese at least might understand even if it seemed a little esoteric to the Chinese, Indians and others in attendance. The measures taken were “not revolutionary”, he said, in another spasm of rhetoric. “It’s evolutionary progress.”

Unfortunately, it was hard to see all that much progress in the blizzard of words that piled up in several days of negotiations that did more to suggest and highlight problems and differences than to do much about them.

The frustrations were most evident on Saturday and Sunday in Yokohama, where Obama wound up his travels at the APEC summit. By the time the meeting ended, skepticism if not cynicism had become the motif of the mission after reading statements that were skillfully crafted to say a lot but actually did not say all that much.

The final APEC statement was a masterpiece of obfuscation in which the group assured the few who might still be interested of its commitment “to maintaining open markets and fighting protectionism”. Moreover, it said, “We reaffirm our common resolve to support the recovery in a collaborative and coordinated way.”

Then there was China’s President Hu Jintao, as skilled as anyone at the table in parrying demands for China to place a realistic value on its currency and stop dumping cheap goods on world markets, notably the United States.

Unlike Obama, who specifically cited China’s habit of depreciating the value of its currency by large infusions of funds, Hu in Yokohama said simply that the danger of protection was rising “notably” around the region. He did not have to name the United States as the villain though lesser officials have not hesitated to do so.

And, in a bow to all the talk about “global imbalances”, a code term for inequitable exchange rates, Hu said that the recovery from economic crisis had not been “firmly established”. Nor, he said, was it “balanced”.

By the time Obama and Hu got to confront one another across the table yet again at APEC, the day after the windup of the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Seoul, Obama had already lost the major battles of the whole trip. It was here that his Asian odyssey reached a crescendo of excitement, and then disappointment.

First there was the disappointment of the failure to come to terms on a South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement that was completed in the waning months of the presidency of George W Bush but still needs ratification by the US Congress.

US Special Trade Representative Ron Kirk said after a long lunch discussion between Obama and South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak that US officials still were not happy about differences over the huge disparity in market access for the American motor vehicle industry. “It became apparent that we weren’t going to resolve all of these in the remaining hours,” he said, so Obama and Lee “wisely made the decision” to go on with the talks over the coming weeks.

Korean experts were shocked, as were many foreign observers. “It’s a big disappointment we didn’t get the FTA,” said Jang Ha-sung, dean of business at Korea University. “Korea has done much for its own share.”

Jang said he had “no idea” on what issues the deal was stuck, and “they’re not revealing” the reasons, but US manufacturers cite a long list of standards, requirements and taxes that discourage US imports.

As for the G-20 summit, Jang was sympathized with the Chinese view. While Obama and others say China’s central bank is intervening to maintain the Chinese yuan at an artificially low rate, he noted that the dollar is going down in value partly as a result of the Federal Reserve Bank’s decision to buy US$600 billion in Treasury bonds over the next seven months.

“Overall, the hard currency issue has surfaced” at the summit, he said, but “the US view might be a problem.”

Lee Chang-choon, a former Korean ambassador to a number of countries, was still more critical. “Obama has been losing clout” since the congressional elections in which the Republicans won an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives. “He is counting down to his last days.”

Lee laughed at plans by his president to ballyhoo the summit as a great event in modern Korean history. “The Lee government is making a continued press campaign,” he said. “They are so eager to celebrate the success of G-20. We are living in a very strange period.”

Chosun Ilbo, Korea’s biggest-selling newspaper, adopted a skeptical view as well. “Concrete agreements have been put off,” said the paper. “For Korea as the host, the results leave something to be desired.”

The paper, in an editorial, questioned the G-20’s real future. “It remains to be seen whether the G-20 will truly become the world’s top economic decision-making body,” it said, “because consensus about the economic crisis and a sense of urgency among G-20 countries are diminishing.”

While no one was paying much attention, the deliberations of the APEC leaders did bring new initials to the fore.

Look out for FTAAP. That stands for “Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific”, though how to pronounce it as one word will be a problem. F-TAP, as someone noted, has a ring about it that won’t sound great on the evening news.

The idea, as APEC potentates all agreed, was to have one vast “free trade area” that will unite the eastern with the western rims of the Pacific. Think of it. Chile and Mexico and El Salvador and Honduras, not to mention the US and Canada, all enjoying free trade with China and Japan and India and points in between.

“Now is the time for APEC to translate FTAAP from as aspirational to a more concrete vision,” they decided in Yokohama. “We instruct APEC to take concrete steps toward realization of an FTAAP.”

It might be a few years, or decades, too soon to expect that one to get very far, but leaders in Yokohama did go home with one comforting thought. Most of them privately agreed that the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations is dead — that is, the grand illusion of breaking down trade barriers that everyone meeting at Doha nine years ago hoped to turn into reality will not do so.

As an Australian banker on the APEC Business Advisory Council remarked, “We’ve moved past Doha.”

But to where? Here’s another set of initials mooted at Yokohama — TPP for Trans-Pacific Partnership. That was one that even President Lee, basking in the glory of having hosted G-20, could endorse. Its future was not clear, he said, but South Korea might just sign on.

Could TPP serve as a substitute for KORUS — the Korea-US free trade pact — and perhaps a device for curing global imbalances?

Optimism was not exactly rife, but be prepared to hearing those initials a lot in the next few years of “currency wars” — a term that no self-respecting leader uses but which in reality may continue to rage unabated after all the talking is done.

Donald Kirk, a long-time journalist in Asia, is author of the newly published Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


UK Too Full of Immigrants, Says Pauline Hanson

PAULINE Hanson has abandoned plans to move to Britain, after discovering it’s not the racially pure utopia she was hoping for.

After returning a fortnight ago from an extended holiday in Europe, the former One Nation leader has reportedly said she’s back in Australia for good and considering yet another return to politics.

“I love England but so many people want to leave there because it’s overrun with immigrants and refugees,” Ms Hanson said.

“France is becoming filled with Muslims and the French and English are losing their way of life because they’re controlled by foreigners in the European Union.

“Problems are worse over there than they are in Australia and Australia is still the best place in the world to live, but the same sorts of awful things are happening here too. Residents of Commonwealth countries who want to live here are discriminated against in favour of others.”

Ms Hanson, 56, spent two months touring countries including England, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania and France.

In February, Ms Hanson told Woman’s Day magazine she was selling her home and property at Coleyville, south-west of Brisbane, and moving to Britain, partly because she was disappointed by the way Australia had changed.

Ms Hanson reportedly said she wouldn’t rule out a return to politics.

“I still haven’t got politics out of my system,” she said.

“I get asked constantly, ‘Are you going back into politics?’ — even by people who recognised me overseas.”

It was “difficult to say” whether she would sell her Coleyville house, but she said she would move “very soon, possibly interstate”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Australia: Population Boom Inevitable, PM Told Josh Gordon

JULIA GILLARD’s election pitch to avoid a “big Australia” is to be abandoned after a Treasury warning that strong future immigration is “probably inescapable”.

In another policy retreat, the government’s population review has been delayed and “recalibrated” to focus on skills shortages and regional growth, rather than nominating population targets.

During the election campaign in August, Ms Gillard said Australia should not “hurtle” towards a big population. At the time, she said a Treasury projection that Australia would have a population of 36 million people by 2050 was excessive. “I don’t support the idea of a big Australia with arbitrary targets of, say … a 36 million-strong Australia,” she said.

However, a Treasury briefing sent to Ms Gillard after the campaign suggests she could have no choice. The briefing warns that the prediction of 36 million people “factors in a significant reduction” in migration, from a recent peak of 300,000 to an annual average of 180,000.

It concludes that even if annual net migration was lowered to an unrealistically low 60,000 per annum, Australia’s population would still reach 29 million by 2050.

“Given the powerful global forces driving the Australian economy, net immigration figures well in excess of that low number are probably inescapable,” the briefing says.

“Strong population growth is not necessarily unsustainable. It need not adversely affect the environment, the liveability of cities, infrastructure and service delivery, provided the right plans and policies are put in place now in anticipation of it.”

A senior Labor source said business groups had been pressuring the government to adopt a default position “where the issue of specific targets is not addressed”.

“I believe the government has accepted the reality that it is not prepared to cut migration to the extent needed to significantly reduce population growth,” the source said.

Population Minister Tony Burke has indicated the government might miss an April 2011 deadline for its population review, blaming the extended caretaker period while a new government was being formed.

“I don’t want to give a commitment that we’ll be able to get to that [April] time frame,” Mr Burke said.

Days before the election was called in July, Mr Burke appointed three population panels to provide advice on demographic change and liveability, productivity and prosperity, and sustainable development.

Treasury’s budget update released last week predicted that unemployment will fall to 4.5 per cent by June 2011, heightening concerns that skills shortages could re-emerge as a key issue.

Asked if it was prudent to be talking about immigration cuts at such a time, Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government had refocused the migration program on skills.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



California Court Upholds in-State Tuition for Some Immigrants

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The California Supreme Court weighed in Monday on the politically charged immigration fray when it ruled that illegal immigrants are entitled to the same tuition breaks offered to in-state high school students to attend public colleges and universities.

While the ruling applies only to California, the case was closely watched nationally because nine other states, including New York and Texas, have similar laws.

Republican congressmen Lamar S. Smith of Texas and Steve King of Iowa filed a so-called friends of the court brief urging that illegal immigrants be denied the reduced rate. The politicians and others argued that federal legislation l

The lawsuit considered by the court was part of a broader legal assault led by immigration legal scholar Kris Kobach, who has filed numerous cases across the country seeking to restrict the rights of illegal immigrants.

He represented a group of U.S. students who filed the lawsuit seeking to invalidate the California law.

Kobach said he would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A unanimous state Supreme Court, led by politically conservative Justice Ming Chin, said the California provision was constitutional because U.S. residents also had access to the reduced rates.

The California Legislature passed the controversial measure in 2001 that allowed any student, regardless of immigration status, who attended a California high school for at least three years and graduated to qualify for in-state tuition at the state’s colleges and universities. In-state tuition saves each state college student about $11,000 a year and each University of California student about $23,000 a year.

A state appellate court ruled in 2008 the law was unconstitutional after a group of out-of-state students who are U.S. citizens filed a lawsuit. The suit alleged the measure violated federal prohibitions barring illegal immigrants from receiving post-secondary benefits not available to U.S. citizens based on state residency.

However, the state Supreme Court noted the California law says nothing about state residency, a distinction that foes of the plan said shouldn’t matter. Kobach said the federal legislation was meant to prohibit exactly what the California Supreme Court allowed for illegal immigrants on Monday.

“It presents a rather incomprehensible reading of the federal statute,” Kobach said.

The Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, which supports numerous political efforts, said the spirit of federal law was to deny tuition breaks to illegal immigrants.

Foundation attorney Ralph Kasarda, who submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, said California was not in sync with the federal mandate against showing favoritism to illegal immigrants.

“California’s policy is also atrocious financial stewardship,” he said.

The state law also requires illegal immigrants who apply for the in-state tuition to swear they will attempt to become U.S. citizens. The applicants are still barred from receiving federal financial aid.

“Through their hard work and perseverance, these students have earned the opportunity to attend UC,” said University of California president Mark G. Yudof. “Their accomplishments should not be disregarded or their futures jeopardized.”

Kobach also failed to invalidate a similar law in Kansas. His lawsuit in Nebraska is pending…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



U.N.: Lower Barriers to Legal Immigration

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (UPI) — The head of the U.N. Commission for Human Rights says nations should expand opportunities for legal immigration.

“Although states have legitimate interests in securing their borders and exercising immigration controls, such concerns do not trump the obligations of the state to respect the internationally guaranteed rights of all persons,” said Navi Pillay, U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Pillay addressed the issue of discrimination and prejudice against migrants this week at a five-day forum on migration and development in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The international meeting began Monday.

Pillay said nation states must halt criminalization of international migrants, an estimated 214 million people globally, and lower barriers preventing legal immigration.

“The principle of non-discrimination is fundamental in international human rights law and runs across all international human rights instruments inspired by the Universal Declaration (of Human Rights), notable the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” she said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: What About My Right to a Family Life, Says Father of Girl Killed by Iraqi Criminal We Can’t Throw Out

The father of a girl fatally injured in a hit-and-run crash pleaded with judges yesterday to deport the failed asylum seeker who was at the wheel.

Paul Houston handed a court an emotional letter spelling out the heartbreak caused by banned driver Aso Mohammed Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, a serial criminal, ran off leaving Mr Houston’s 12-year-old daughter Amy lying conscious but badly hurt beneath his car. She was just yards from her mother’s home.

[…]

For seven years Ibrahim — a 33-year-old father of two — used human rights laws to remain in the country, claiming his right to life and to family life trumped attempts to return him to his native Iraq.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Spain: Transsexuals Excluded From Work, 80% Prostitute

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 15 — Transsexuals are still the most discriminated people in Spain, to the point that, since they are kept out of jobs, 80% are forced to prostitute themselves. Such is the result of a report drawn up by the University of Malaga following a proposal by the Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (Felgtb), which was presented today. Presenting the results of the report, Federation spokesperson Mar Cambrolle’ stated that “In any profession there are gays or lesbians, but no transsexuals”. It has been estimated that in Spain there are 20 to 30,000 transsexuals, for which, in most cases, “the only way out is prostitution, which is not a free option or a voluntary choice”, according to Cambrolle’. Even in terms of health assistance, only the Communities of Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid have specific units, whereas in others, such as in Asturias or Estremadura, transsexuals “are transferred to other units”, and in the remaining Regions “there is no specific assistance”, according to the Felgtb spokesperson.

As for education, the report highlights the transsexual’s difficulty in passing the first stages of education because they are often “targets of jokes and misunderstandings” that lead them to quit school. The coordinator of the report, Juan Manuel Dominguez, explained that the gathering of information, through forms, will continue in the next months, and will end up in a report that will offer an overall picture of the situation across all of Spain. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101115

Financial Crisis
» Eurozone Debt Crisis: Portugal Admits ‘It Could Need EU Bail-Out’
» Eurozone Talks Keep Irish Crisis in Focus
» Greece Blames Berlin for Irish Debt Crisis
» Greek Debt Higher Than Expected, EU Audit Reveals
» Herman Van Rompuy Wants Your Money
» Ireland and Greece Should Ditch the Euro
» Ireland in Talks Amid Eurozone Warning on Debt
» Pressure Building on Ireland to Seek EU Help
 
USA
» Black Man Tied to Actions of White Supremacy Group
» BP Pays Stripper $80k, Fishermen Get Peanuts
» Frank Gaffney: (un)Welcome to Washington, Senators-Elect!
» Oklahoma’s Sharia Problem is Every American’s Problem
 
Europe and the EU
» Czech Republic: Historical Detectives Exhume a Mystery
» Danes Most Impudent, Study Finds
» Finns Desert Church in Record Numbers After Watching Gay Marriage TV Show
» German Ministers Demand Football-Free Weekend in May
» Germany: ‘Wetlands’ Author Offers Sex to President for Nuclear Extension Veto
» Merkel: Germany Doesn’t Have “Too Much Islam” But “Too Little Christianity”
» Northern German Accent in Its Last Generation, Experts Say
» The Mawkishness That Shows Britain No Longer Knows What Its Heroes Are Dying for
» UK: Blood-Clotting Drug Given to Wounded Soldiers Can Cause Heart Attacks
» UK: Government to Compensate Ex-Guantanamo Bay Detainees Continue Reading the Main Story
» UK: Happiness Index to Gauge Britain’s National Mood
» UK: Islam Channel to Appeal Against Ofcom Ruling
» UK: Woman Tied Up in Lancashire Home by Teenage Burglarsa Woman Was Tied Up in Her Lancashire Home by Two Armed Burglars — One of Whom is Thought to be 14 Years Old.
 
Balkans
» ‘I Stopped World War Three by Refusing US Orders to Destroy Russian Forces, ‘ Claims James Blunt
 
North Africa
» Egyptian Al-Adel, New Al Qaeda Leader for West
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Archbishop Bustros Clarifies His Words About Israel and the Promised Land
» Caroline Glick: What the Palestinians Buy With American Money
» Eid Al-Adha: Sheep Smugglers Kept Busy for Muslim Festival
» Hamas: Aid From Iran Without Any Political Price
» The Hour of the Hanging Judges: Demonizing Israel and Pretending it is Ordinary Criticism
» US Weapons for Settlement Moratorium, Israeli Press
 
Middle East
» Christians in the Middle East Essential for the Survival of the Arab World
» Hillary Clinton’s Silence on Iraqi Christian Genocide Must End
» Injured From Iraq Church Attack to be Treated in Rome
» Saudi Arabia: Man Jailed for Displaying Photo of Hezbollah Leader
» ‘Virginity Healer’ Seized in Saudi Arabia
 
South Asia
» Afghani Former Muslim May Get Death Penalty for Conversion
» India: Talaq Uttered by Muslim Man on Cellphone Valid: Deoband
» Pakistan: Persecution in the Name of Islam
» Qantas A380 Sustained Worse Damage Than First Thought
» Taliban Chief Mullah Omar Rules Out Afghan Peace Talks
» Your Signature to Save Asia Bibi and Pakistan
 
Far East
» Cote d’Azur: Second French Destination for Chinese
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Swedish Honeymooner Killed in South Africa
 
Immigration
» Latino Kids Now Majority in California’s Public Schools
» Netherlands: VVD: Romania, Bulgaria Not in Schengen Yet
» UK: Home Office Sends Boy, 4, Letter Telling Him He and His Mother Will be Deported
 
Culture Wars
» Germany: Funeral Home Tries to Cater to Gay Funerals With Erotic Caskets
 
General
» World’s Oldest Embryo Fossils Shed Light on Dinosaur Parenting

Financial Crisis


Eurozone Debt Crisis: Portugal Admits ‘It Could Need EU Bail-Out’

Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, the Portuguese Finance Minister, has warned that the fall out from concerns over Ireland’s public finances could create a contagion effect among its neighbours.

“The risk is high because we are not facing only a national or country problem,” he told Dow Jones news wires, in reference to the possibility that Lisbon will need international financial assistance.

“It is the problems of Greece, Portugal and Ireland. This is not a problem of only this country. This has to do with the euro zone and the stability of the eurozone, and that is why contagion in this framework is more likely.

“It is not because markets consider we have similar situations. They are only similar in what concerns markets, but as I said they are very different.”

He added: “Markets look at these economies together because we are all in this together in the euro zone, but probably they could look different if we were not in the euro zone.

“Suppose we were not in the eurozone, the risk of the contagion could be lower.”

The Portuguese minister insisted that Portugal was improving its finances as it struggled with burgeoning public debt and deficit levels and later tried to back away from suggestions Lisbon was poised to call for help.

“Such a request is not imminent, there are no contacts, be it formal or informal,” he said. “The rest are rumours and speculation.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Eurozone Talks Keep Irish Crisis in Focus

Eurozone ministers are set to meet in Brussels as the debt crisis once again threatens the 16-member bloc’s economic stability.

The talks come as the spotlight once again falls on the weaker member countries, and whether they can manage their debt without help from European Union (EU) assistance funds.

The Irish Republic on Monday insisted it did not need EU help.

But there is intense speculation it may be forced to use EU bail-out money.

Dublin said it was in contact with “international colleagues” but the Prime Minister, Brian Cowan, dismissed talk of a bail-out by the EU or IMF.

“One of the great pejorative phrases that continue to be used is this thing of bail out which suggests that the country is in some way seeking not to meet its obligations to meet its own debts — that is not the case,” he said.

He added that his government had firm plans for sorting out the country’s problems.

“In the coming weeks will be putting forward the plans that show how we put our budget back into order as a member of the Euro area,” he said.

‘Theoretical’ Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, said the eurozone was ready to act “as soon as possible” if Ireland sought financial assistance.

But he stressed that “Ireland has not put forward their request”.

“As long as they don’t, we are not supposed to deal with a theoretical request,” he said.

A spokesman for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said that pressure on Dublin to take a bail-out was not coming from the European Commissioner, but from “another player”…

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Greece Blames Berlin for Irish Debt Crisis

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou blamed Germany on Monday for the spectacular rise in the borrowing costs of Ireland and Portugal last week, accusing Berlin of spooking the bond markets.

Both Ireland and Portugal saw the cost of their debt shoot up last week amid fears they might be forced to seek bailouts or even default, as Germany pushed for private lenders to contribute to future rescue packages.

“Some have suggested, such as the German government, that markets and banks that financed nations with high debts, should be prepared to take the cost of a possible default,” Papandreou told reporters in Paris.

“That created a spiral of higher interest rates for the countries which seem in a difficult position such as Ireland and Portugal,” he added, even as Greece’s own massive debt came under renewed pressure.

“This could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s like saying to someone: ‘Since you have a difficulty, I will put an even higher burden on your back.’ But this could break your back,” he charged.

Portugal and Ireland are struggling with burgeoning public debt and deficit levels and as a result have had to pay ever higher returns to bond buyers in order to raise funds.

Finance ministers from the 16 members of the eurozone single currency bloc are due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday for scheduled talks that are expected to focus heavily on the situation in Ireland and other big debtors.

Ireland is under pressure from some quarters to accept European Union aid to help it through its bad patch without further destabilising the currency.

European leaders agreed at a summit last month to discuss in December the issue of a permanent mechanism to replace the €440-billion ($607-billion) European Financial Stability Fund that expires in 2013.

Berlin is pushing for a procedure to be drawn up in case a eurozone country goes bankrupt, insisting that bondholders should take their share of the costs rather than the public picking up the tab.

While this future provision would not change the EU member’s commitment to the existing crisis fund, Germany’s position sent tremors through the bond markets, contributing to pressure on Ireland’s bond yields.

For his part, Papandreou said the long-term debt problems of EU member states exist because of a “lack of democratic control” on financial markets, and called the campaign for tighter regulation a “battle for civilization.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Greek Debt Higher Than Expected, EU Audit Reveals

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Greece has incurred a much larger budget deficit and levels of public debt than the country had earlier estimated, EU audit figures revealed on Monday (15 November) morning, in an adjustment that could kick off another round of sell-offs not just in the Greek bond market but in those of other creaking eurozone peripheral states.

The republic’s budget deficit for 2009 amounted to 15.4 percent of gross domestic product, according to numbers from Eurostat, the EU’s audit office, sharply up on its earlier estimate of 13.6 percent, as government cuts and increased taxes fail to deliver growth.

The ratio of deficit to GDP for the country is the highest in the eurozone and the EU as a whole, even though Ireland is in 2010 expected to leapfrog Greece due to the cost of bank rescues.

The country’s overall public debt meanwhile amounted to 126.8 percent of GDP, also up from the 115.1 spring estimate from Eurostat.

The upward revision on both figures had been expected means that Greece is unlikely to be able to meet its promised deficit reduction for 2010 to 8.1 percent.

In April, Greece signed up to a three-year €110 billion bailout package from the EU and the IMF. In return for the cash, Athens agreed to impose a four-year austerity package of swingeing cuts under requirements that it chop its deficit to 8.1 percent in 2010, 5.6 percent next year and 2.8 percent in 2012.

In the wake of the news, the Greek finance ministry said in a statement that its deficit for 2010 will be 9.4 percent of GDP.

On the weekend, Prime Minister George Papandreou said the expected revision could mean a further round of austerity measures and the country may seek to extend the payment schedule of the EU bailout monies

However, with the existing austerity measures having provoked widespread social unrest, the government may be reluctant to impose reduce social services, slash wages or to increase taxes still further, so could instead delay infrastructure projects.

The 2011 budget is due to be presented to the parliament on Thursday, where the government is set to announce further cuts worth some €4.5 billion.

On Tuesday, the country is to hold an auction on some €300 million worth of 13-week bonds.

The grim news from Brussels came as the ‘troika’ of officials from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund descended upon the Greek capital as part of their regular inspections of the government’s implementation of the conditions of its loan agreement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Herman Van Rompuy Wants Your Money

The European president Herman van Rompuy offers a tempting target for jokers. But his call for for the imposition of a common economic policy, backed up with surveillance and punishments, has a decidedly sinister ring .

Mr van Rompuy’s “action on that fact” is something he and his supporters call “European economic governance” — essentially, a political semi-union giving the EU sweeping new powers to impose economic policy on its members. As he put it bluntly in Berlin, “one cannot maintain a monetary unity without a political union…”

Three weeks ago, almost unnoticed in Britain, a taskforce chaired by Mr van Rompuy called for a “fundamental shift” in this direction, with a “wider range” of sanctions, fines and other punishments for countries that do not follow economic prescriptions laid down by Brussels. Ultimately, some suggest, economic governance could mean the harmonisation of tax and benefit levels, and forced redistribution of funds from rich to poor EU countries on a scale far greater than now.

Fully fledged economic governance would apply only to members of the euro. But the van Rompuy taskforce also recommended that “all EU member states”, Britain included, should be subject to “deeper macro-economic surveillance”, including an “enforcement framework” of “corrective” measures “designed to enforce the implementation of remedies” for countries that stepped out of line. One of the members of the taskforce was George Osborne, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In his first six months as Prime Minister, David Cameron has largely managed to keep Europe out of the headlines. But now, with a series of Euro-issues lining up to face him, the E-word is back.

[Return to headlines]



Ireland and Greece Should Ditch the Euro

This is what the Spanish prime minister, Jose Zapetero, declared in an interview with the Wall Street Journal as recently as September 22: “I believe that the debt crisis affecting Spain, and the eurozone in general, has passed.”

Or let’s listen to Patrick Honohan , governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, who soberly informed the markets last week that surging yields on Irish government debt would soon be back to normal levels. Both men are deluding themselves — and us. From time to time, events take a turn which is too grave, unsettling and unfathomable for politicians to cope with. They enter a state of denial. We are now living through one of those times.

The European Single Currency cannot be saved. Yet the euro elite are unable to bring themselves to acknowledge the magnitude of this disaster. They have convinced themselves that all is well. The pattern is familiar and indeed we in Britain experienced something very similar in the months leading up to Black Wednesday and the eviction of sterling from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in September 1992.

First, the markets smell blood. Then the shoring-up operation begins, and finance ministers start to make statements of confidence. Ingenious financial devices are conjured up to avert disaster and, inside state chanceries, secret talks begin, to make contingency plans in case the worst happens. Only after a long, expensive and excruciating battle comes the ignominious exit.

So last week’s Irish humiliation — which has brought with it the extinction of the country’s economic sovereignty — is no more than a desperately sad moment in a much bigger story. And though the exact date of the final euro implosion cannot be predicted, a number of points can already be made with certainty.

The euro elite is utterly ruthless. In its mission to save the euro, it is ready to throw tens of millions out of work and in the process destroy businesses, lives and whole economies. Consider the terrifying facts. The Irish economy has gone through recession and entered what economists call a depression. Its output contracted by an extraordinary 10 per cent last year, and may well do so again over the next 12 months.

In Spain, unemployment stands at 20 per cent, and youth unemployment a horrifying and tragic 40 per cent. The depths of misery lying behind these statistics cannot be exaggerated. A friend of mine who lives in the Spanish province of Andalusia tells me that some children in his village cannot go to school. This is because their parents cannot afford to buy them shoes. Effectively large parts of Europe are de-industrialising. In Greece, the economy may contract by 15 per cent over the next two years as a result of massive cuts in state spending.

For Greece and Ireland, there is an absurdly easy way back to economic growth: return to the drachma and the punt. Such a move would enable national currencies to fall back to levels where they can be internationally competitive — which in the case of hapless Greece would be approximately one third of where it stands today.

Assertions by the big bankers and eurocrats that such a move is technically impossible are self-serving and false. It would of course be very messy in the short term, but there are many examples of countries pulling out of currency unions with no lasting ill-effect.

The peripheral eurozone nations are being prevented from taking this sensible move by a cynical alliance between the big banks and the Brussels elite. The banks cannot countenance any contraction of the eurozone because once Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain pull out, they will have no choice but to default on their debts. Such a move would bankrupt almost all European banks. Between them these four countries have a combined sovereign debt of well over £1 trillion. A very large part of this debt is owned by the major European banks. The Bank of International Settlements estimates, for example, that French financial institutions have lent the equivalent of 37 per cent of total French GDP to these failing countries.

However there are also hugely powerful political considerations. The collapse of the euro project will come as a shattering blow from which the European project cannot recover. That is why key members of the Euro elite are so determined to use this moment to press forward with their plans for political and economic integration.

Last May, as the storm clouds gathered, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister who is now managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told a gathering of bankers that “crisis is an opportunity”, adding that there is now the chance to launch “a new global currency issued by a global central bank”.

This mad vision lies behind the decision to build a vast new set of offices for the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, which is due for completion in 2014. It is virtually impossible for the eurozone to last in its present form till then. If it does, its survival will only come at the price of untold economic devastation.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



Ireland in Talks Amid Eurozone Warning on Debt

(DUBLIN) — Ireland said Monday it was in contact with “international colleagues” over its debt crisis but denied seeking a bailout as the EU warned that Dublin’s woes were a concern for the whole euro area.

Brussels and Dublin both insisted there were no formal talks despite persistent reports that Ireland was facing pressure to ask for help from a special European Union fund set up after the Greek debt crisis six months ago.

But with fears also mounting over the public finances in Greece and Portugal, Ireland said for the first time that it was in contact with international partners over its problems.

“Ireland has made no application for external support. Ongoing contacts continue at official level with international colleagues in light of current market conditions,” a Department of Finance spokesman said.

He said that Ireland was “fully funded till well into 2011.”

On the eve of a meeting of euro finance ministers in Brussels, speculation has reached fever pitch over a possible rescue for Ireland running up to 90 billion euros (123 billion dollars).

Ireland has been desperate to avoid a bailout, with Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s embattled government insisting it is a matter of sovereignty and planning more harsh austerity measures in the annual budget on December 7.

“We have to resolve our own problem,” Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche told Newstalk radio.

He branded reports of Dublin asking for a bailout as “frankly wrong and grossly irresponsible.”

The Irish Independent newspaper reported that the government was considering asking for money for Irish banks from the EU emergency fund to fend off a threatened bailout for the state.

Irish opposition finance spokesman Michael Noonan said the government had not briefed him on the situation but added that he believed media reports pointing to a bailout were true.

“I think there is European intervention under way … I believe things will come to a head in the next 24 hours,” he told BBC television.

The one-time “Celtic Tiger” economy is in deep trouble mainly due to the costs of dealing with a huge crisis in its banking system, which in turn was the result of its banks’ massive over-exposure to a busted property market.

The European Commission said it was in “close contact” with Dublin but the discussions stopped short of being talks on assistance, adding that it was an “exaggeration” to suggest there were pressures on Ireland from within the EU.

“Yes, there are concerns in the euro area about the financial stability of the euro area as a whole,” Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, a European Commission spokesman, said in Brussels.

The deputy president of the European Central Bank, Vitor Constancio, said it stood ready to help Ireland, but added: “If and when Ireland applies for help is a matter solely for the Irish government.”

The crisis has sent the Irish 10-year bond yields shooting through the roof but they stabilised at 7.839 percent on Monday, having hit 8.949 percent last week — the highest level since the creation of the European single currency in 1999.

Portugal said on Monday that Ireland needed to consider the needs of the eurozone as a whole, adding that it too was at a high risk of needing a bailout due to “contagion”.

“I want to believe they will decide to do what is most appropriate together for Ireland and the euro,” Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos told Dow Jones newswires.

He later added that he felt his own country was at higher risk itself of needing a bailout given the problems in the eurozone.

Irish public deficit this year is set to be slightly more than 30 percent of gross domestic product — 10 times the EU limit and more than three times the massive Greek deficit for 2010.

British and Irish media said there were official talks late on Sunday involving officials from Ireland, Germany, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

The pattern resembles the build-up in the spring to the 110-billion-euro (150-billion-dollar) EU-IMF rescue of Greece.

Greece acknowledged Monday it would breach conditions for a new installment of the bailout as public deficit and debt figures for the four years to 2009 were revised up sharply on Monday.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou blamed Germany on Monday for the soaring borrowing costs of Ireland and Portugal, saying Berlin’s push for private lenders to contribute to future rescue packages created a “spiral of higher interest rates.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Pressure Building on Ireland to Seek EU Help

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — The European Central Bank told Ireland on Monday (15 November) that EU emergency funds can indeed be used to bail-out its debt-ensnarled banks, adding to the pressure on the country to finally access a European rescue mechanism.

Ireland continued to insist on Monday that it has no need of funding for government spending, but ECB vice-president Vitor Constancio said that a pool of monies set up by eurozone government for bailing out countries can be used for banks instead.

The EU facility was not set up to lend directly to financial insitutions, but the Irish government if it access the fund, can then decide to “use the money for that purpose,” Mr Constancio said from Vienna.

Frustration in other European capitals at Ireland’s reluctance to seek financial help from the EU and IMF also spilt out into the open on Monday as Portugal, trapped in its own debt whirlpool, all but demanded that Ireland reach out to Brussels.

Portuguese finance minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said in Dow Jones Newswires that: “I would not want to lecture the Irish government” but added “I want to believe they will decide to do what is most appropriate together for Ireland and the euro. I want to believe they have the vision to take the right decision.”

For his part, Spain’s member of the European Central Bank council, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez openly attacked Dublin for its reticence.

“The situation in the markets in recent weeks has been very negative due in some way to the lack of a final decision by Ireland,” he told reporters in Madrid on the same day.

Echoing the words of the Portuguese finance minister, he added: “It’s not me who should take a decision about Ireland, it’s Ireland that should take the right decision at the right moment.”

Portugal and Spain are petrified that Ireland’s stubbornness could lead to a contagion of lack of market confidence, as Spanish and Portuguese bond yields increase.

“From a strategic point of view, Madrid and Lisbon are worried that the uncertainty will spread to them, with ramifications for the euro as a whole,” Tom McDonnall, an economic policy analyst with Tasc, an Irish economic think-tank, told EUobserver. “The ECB believes that if Ireland was in the fund, the uncertainty could be removed and thus lower bond yields.”

“But for Ireland to go into the fund, this is effectively handing over sovereignty over fiscal levers. This is why you are seeing ministers making these comments about Ireland’s struggle for sovereignty and so on,” he explained.

On Sunday, enterprise minister Batt O’Keeffe said: “It has been a very hard-won sovereignty for this country and the government is not going to give over that sovereignty to anyone.”

For Ireland, a country that fought a long, bitter struggle to free itself of British rule, to surrender economic sovereignty to the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as occurred when Greece tapped the EU fund, is an ignominious dishonour for any Irish government.

But for a one headed by Fianna Fail, whose full name in Irish translates as “Soldiers of Destiny — The Republican Party,” such a move would be a historic humiliation for the party of the first president of the republic.

The government does have enough money to fund public expenditure through till July next year, but the yawning debts of Irish banks is steadily undermining confidence that the government will not be forced to default.

On Friday, fresh data showed that outstanding loans to Irish banks, mostly coming from German, British and French banks, climbed to €130 billion at the end of October, up from €119 billion in September.

That Ireland would be giving up its economic sovereignty to in effect transfer funds to, amongst others, British bankers, can only add to the indignity.

Brussels however denied that EU officials were adding to the pressure on Dublin.

“As the Irish authorities have reiterated themselves over the last few days, they have not made any request for financial assistance. Further, Irish sovereign debt is fully financed till the summer of 2011, so there is no imminent need on that area,” commission economy spokesman Amadeu Tardio told reporters in the European capital.

“The commission is in close contact with the Irish authorities at the moment as you can imagine, but there is no news from that in itself.”

If Dublin were to apply for help, the troika would likely demand very significant reductions in public sector pay and social transfers, albeit likely in line with those under consideration by the government.

More controversially, there will be pressure for Ireland to raise substantially its ultra-low rate of corporation tax as part of the overall policy mix.

However, the troika will have difficulty pushing through such a move, as Ireland won a series of legal guarantees, including notably on tax sovereignty, attached to the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in return for a second referendum on the text, which was ultimately approved.

However, as some might argue, the Irish guarantees have yet to be approved.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA


Black Man Tied to Actions of White Supremacy Group

BRIDGEPORT — One co-defendant in the trial of two avowed white supremacists will stand out Monday morning in a federal courtroom.

That’s because David Sutton is a black man — caught up in a conspiracy to sell homemade hand grenades to what his co-defendants believed was a member of the powerful Imperial Klans of America.

For the next three weeks, Sutton will be there, with his lawyer, Frank Riccio II, listening to a litany of evidence, recordings and videotapes involving Kenneth Zrallack, the 29-year-old Ansonia man the government claims is the leader of the Connecticut White Wolves — now known as Battalion 14 of North East White Pride — and Alexander DeFelice, a 33-year-old Milford man described by investigators as the “dealmaker” in this case.

Prosecutors intend to call 29 witnesses and play 101 excerpts from video and audio recordings that could take about two and a half hours during the trial, which begins Monday.

Even Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Kopel concedes, in court papers, that he has “no evidence to suggest” that Sutton, 46, of Milford, “was associated or supportive of the white supremacist movement … He was not a member or participant.”

Still, Sutton will be there — with Zrallack and his lawyer Nicholas Adamucci to his right and DeFelice and his lawyer, Michael Hillis, to his left.

Sutton’s name is the fifth of five on a federal grand jury indictment where he is charged only in the conspiracy.

Two other defendants, William R. Bolton, 31, a reputed member, and Edwin T. Westmoreland, 27, a participant, both of Stratford, pleaded guilty to charges and are awaiting sentencing.

So how does a black man find himself on trial with members of a white supremacy group, particularly in a case where Kopel claims the Wolves are attempting to bolster their presence in the white supremacy world by becoming arms suppliers to their bigger and badder brother groups?

Riccio, Sutton’s lawyer, said his client “strenuously denies being part of such a conspiracy … He hopes to be vindicated after trial.”

One theory, Kopel raises in court papers, is that Sutton became involved in the hopes that his brother-in-law could buy guns from DeFelice.

None of this shocks Rachel Ranis, an emeritus professor of sociology at Quinnipiac University.

“There are always people who act as individuals,” said Ranis. “They do things for individual reasons. Maybe he doesn’t care about who the target is.”

Clearly, Ranis said a group like the White Wolves would like having a black man as an associate.

Riccio raised the race issue during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in which he asked his client be tried separately.

“His appearance in court with the others cuts both ways,” Riccio told the judge.

The Bridgeport lawyer conceded that, in one respect, having a black man on trial with white supremacists could lead to the jury to asking themselves what’s wrong with this picture.

“How could a black man be involved in any respect in a conspiracy with white supremacists,” he asked. “It’s so night and day.”

On the other hand, Riccio said his client could suffer “the spillover effect” of seeing and hearing two and a half hours of tape-recorded evidence against the others.

“He could suffer prejudice, not only legally but literally,” Riccio said…

           — Hat tip: Henrik [Return to headlines]



BP Pays Stripper $80k, Fishermen Get Peanuts

Adding insult to physical and mental injuries in Gulf Coast communities where destitute residents are struggling with unpaid claims, BP paid $80,000 to a stripper recently, but nothing to many fishermen. One Gulf Shores, Alabama fisherman has only been paid $15,000. — in six months. Living without meals, electricity and even a home because of unjust government and BP systematic abuse are realities for many Gulf Coast families, a reality that hits even harder at holiday time, such as Thanksgiving.

To prevent starvation, families in Alabama fishing communities are forced to rely on eating Gulf seafood. They are out of work; many BP claims are not honored; and many who worked for VOO, BP’s “Vessels Of Opportunity” cleaning toxic waters and beaches, have not even been paid.

An estimated 10-25% of legitimate BP claims by Gulf Shores fisherman have not been paid according to one couple there. Along with neighbors, they are outraged over learning what pbrcoastie’s November 12th post on WKRG News forum exposed:

“So….take this for what you will. A good friend of mine who works at a credit union here in town said an “employee” of cookies and cream walked in and cashed a $80K check for her claim against BP. She was due to a drop in business. I am so sick at some of these outlandish claims. This is disgusting considering the number of legit claims that are still waiting to be paid.”

[Return to headlines]



Frank Gaffney: (un)Welcome to Washington, Senators-Elect!

President Obama has set the stage for an acrimonious relationship with the newly elected Senators of the 112th Congress. As they come to Washington this week for freshman orientation, his welcome message amounts to: “I want to disenfranchise you.”

This unwelcome applies especially to those occupying six new Republican seats in the Senate come January. And it bears most particularly on two issues that will affect U.S. security profoundly over the next six years of these newly minted Senators’ terms in office and far beyond: the so-called “New START” Treaty and the repeal of a statute prohibiting homosexuals from serving in the armed forces.

New START is a seriously defective bilateral arms control agreement with the Russians, one that would make dramatic and ill-advised cuts in the number of U.S. strategic weapons and delivery systems. To be ratified, such a treaty needs the affirmative votes of 67 Senators. President Obama believes he may be able to secure those votes if he makes utterly incredible promises to yesterday’s Senate, the one now running out the clock in a post-election “lame-duck” session.

Specifically, Mr. Obama is reportedly prepared to pledge to spend nearly $90 billion over the next ten years on long-overdue improvements to the nation’s nuclear weapons industrial base. Even if he were committed to such a worthy investment, much of it would be made towards the end of what would be his second term (should he be reelected) or later — hardly a bankable proposition. That is all the more true since the President is determined to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Does anyone really think he will sink vast sums at a time of acute fiscal distress in an enterprise he wants to dismantle, not preserve?…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]



Oklahoma’s Sharia Problem is Every American’s Problem

In a particularly egregious example of a Muslim group’s self-serving, manipulative distortion of Western democratic principles — a trend we are seeing more and more of lately — the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) last week filed suit against the state of Oklahoma, declaring that a proposed ban on the use of sharia law in the Oklahoma courts violates the First Amendment.

Huh?

Let’s go over this again. The First Amendment, as a reminder, is the one that states that government shall make no laws establishing religion. The purpose of this, of course, was to ensure that this newly-created, democratic nation called “America” would impose no state religion: that all religions — including no religion — would be held equal, and would be handled equally under the law. By extension, this meant, too, that no religious precepts would determine what the laws of the land would be. That is the very basis of the democratic, secular state — that entity, that concept, that we as Americans hold most dear.

That is, it is the concept held most dear by those Americans who support a secular democracy, rather than an Islamic theocracy. Apparently, CAIR is not among them.

Yet herein lies the critical distinction between Muslims who happen to be American, and Americans who happen to be Muslim. It is a vitally important difference.

True, the wording of the proposed amendment to Oklahoma’s state Constitution — known as “State Question 755” — is poor. The proposal does single out Islamic law, rather than religious law in general, and does so with such bold strokes as to make it difficult even to uphold secular laws that bear similarities to the laws of sharia. But this is not what really is at issue.

A bit of background: Concerned about the growing encroachment of sharia law tribunals on communities in the UK, Canada, and elsewhere in the West, Oklahoma passed a referendum earlier this month seen as a “pre-emptive strike” against the creation of such tribunals in that state, and against the incorporation of sharia law or principles in legal decisions issued by the Oklahoma courts. And, I might add, with good reason.

Indeed, Muslim groups in Canada have, in recent years, actively fought against such tribunals and sharia involvement in Canadian courts, which have repeatedly been shown to violate Canadian laws protecting women’s rights.

Logically, of course, such a ban should not even be necessary in Oklahoma; a judge who made a decision on the basis of sharia law would, ipso facto, be violating the US constitution.

Which takes us back to the absolute insanity of Oklahoma CAIR and its manipulative executive director, Muneer Awad, who has the temerity to maintain that a ban on sharia law in the US court system is racist, that it isolates and vilifies Islam. With utter self-aggrandizement and an egotistical positioning of himself in the center of the universe, Awad declared in the (at times incoherent) suit documents: “Surely, people will whisper, there must be something deeply threatening about Muneer’s faith. For why else would the great state of Oklahoma allocate space in the state’s most cherished document to burden Muneer’s faith and no other.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Czech Republic: Historical Detectives Exhume a Mystery

Scientists hope to put an end to conspiracy theories about astronomer’s death

Some mysteries refuse to remain buried. Today, Danish scientists reopened the grave of the astronomer Tycho Brahe, dead now for over 400 years.

According to the Prague Daily Monitor, after removing the remains from Brahe’s tomb on Monday, scientists will study the samples at the anthropological depository of the National Museum of Prague until Friday, before returning the remains to the astronomer’s resting place in Tyn Church.

Born Tyge Ottesen Brahe in 1546, Brahe was an astronomer, an alchemist, and one of the brightest scientific minds of the Renaissance. In 1572, he detected a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia, a shocking discovery at the time, given the prevailing notion that the heavens were perfect and unchanging. The following year, he became the first person to describe a supernova.

Brahe attended a Prague dinner party on 24 October 1601, shortly afterwards he fell ill and died eleven days later. The cause of death was written up as a urinary infection, but rumours of something more sinister persisted.

Suspicion that Brahe may have been murdered persisted through the centuries and this is not the first time the theory has been scientifically tested. In 1901, a study of hair from his moustache showed high traces of mercury, adding weight to the argument that he might have been poisoned.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Danes Most Impudent, Study Finds

Danish informality perceived by others as insensitivity

Danish people are best at dealing with mockery by other people, a new study shows. But others may well view this characteristic as a sign of insensitivity, concludes psychologist Martin Führ, whose specialist research area is humour.

Führ’s study forms part of an international research project in which 72 countries have measured their population’s fear of being mocked — a social phobia known as gelotophobia.

“We run a great risk of being perceived as impudent,” Führ told Berlingske Tidende newspaper. “We need to understand that other cultures have different values and different rules of interaction.”

Führ is not suggesting that we should change the way we communicate, but he points out that we need to be more aware of how our signals are interpreted by other cultures.

This view is supported by former foreign affairs minister Uffe Ellemann Jensen, who said that ridicule and mockery are a natural part of Danish banter.

“But our little ‘tribe’ needs to understand that other cultures may not find this funny. It is naïve to think that we can thrust our unique sense of free speech onto others,” he said, referring in particular to the Mohammed drawings.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Finns Desert Church in Record Numbers After Watching Gay Marriage TV Show

A RECORD number of Finns quit the Evangelical Lutheran Church this week after seeing negative religious attitudes towards gays in a TV programme. Those who ditched the church carried out their mass exodus via an online service, the standard procedure used nowadays.

According to this report, information Officer Heikki Orsila, of eroakirkosta.fi, which facilitates the secession process, thought that the spike resulted from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE’s current affairs programme Ajankohtainen Kakkonen, aired on Tuesday.

The show entitled Homoilta (Gay Night) was a panel discussion dealing with gay rights issues, including the question of the rights of same-sex couples to marry in church. The panel included Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen, who has been fiercely critical of same-sex marriages and was a principal opponent in the Parliamentary debate on adoption rights for registered same-sex couples; and the Bishop of Tampere Matti Repo.

More than half of Tuesday’s 372 resignations were sent while the programme was running.

According to the eroakirkosta.fi website, the total number of people to make their exit was 2,633. This was not merely around 1,500 more than the previous daily high, but greater than the total number in the entire month of July.

The previous record of 1,049 individuals parting ways with the state church in the space of one day occurred on the last day of 2008.

According to Orsila, around 90 per cent of all the resignations from the church now happen via the Internet.

The eroakirkosta.fi site also noted that women have normally made up roughly 44 percent of church-leavers, but that this ratio rose on Wednesday to 48 percent, and that those announcing their departure were also older than the norm.

Whilst roughly eight out of ten Finns belong to the state church, actual attendance at services is at a much lower level. Many remain inside the church — something that also involves an obligation to pay an annual parish council tax — largely to be able to get married in church.

Numbers have been declining steadily as the society becomes increasingly secularised. However, sudden increases in resignations occur when fundamental differences of opinion on hot-button issues, such as gay rights or the ordination of women, arise.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



German Ministers Demand Football-Free Weekend in May

German state officials want the country’s soccer league to cancel all first-division Bundesliga matches on the May 1 weekend next year. They fear that police won’t be able to provide game security and cope with traditional Labor Day riots at the same time.

German anarchists are sticklers for tradition — they do their rioting on April 30 and May 1, without fail, in an annual ritual of cobblestone throwing and automobile arson in Berlin and Hamburg.

Their punctuality allows police forces to plan their work schedules for the day, celebrated as Labor Day in Germany and many other European countries, years in advance. But next year, the day falls on a Sunday, which means authorities face the dual task of tackling rioters and policing Bundesliga football matches — something the interior ministers of Germany’s 16 states say will overstretch their resources.

SPIEGEL has learned that the ministers, meeting in Hamburg at the end of this week, plan to call on the German Football League (DFL) to cancel all Bundesliga matches on April 30 and May 1 next year.

Threatening Consequences

DFL has already agreed not to play matches on the Sunday, but insists it will be “very, very difficult” to cancel matches on the Saturday as well because clubs are locked into television broadcasting contracts and international match timetables.

But Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, has threatened the DFL with consequences if it fails to comply. “We will have to think about demanding money for policing games in the future.”

This isn’t the first demand for police to be relieved of their soccer duties during major events. Last week the chairman of the German Police Federation called for all Bundesliga matches on Nov. 13 and 14 to be cancelled because the nation’s police were too exhausted after spending days hauling thousands of anti-nuclear protesters off the train tracks to allow a shipment of radioactive waste to complete its trip to a storage site in Gorleben, northern Germany. His call went unheeded.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: ‘Wetlands’ Author Offers Sex to President for Nuclear Extension Veto

German writer Charlotte Roche offered in an interview Sunday to spend the night with President Christian Wulff if he votes against government plans to extend the lifetime of Germany’s nuclear reactors.

“I am offering to sleep with him if he does not sign,” the 32-year-old anti-nuclear activist told the weekly Der Spiegel. “My husband agrees. Now it is up to the First Lady to give her consent. I am also tattooed,” she said, referring to Bettina Wulff’s much-talked about body adornment.

Roche, British-born author of the sexually explicit 2008 bestseller “Wetlands,” took part in major demonstrations last week against the transport of radioactive waste that underlined unease in Germany over nuclear power.

Wulff has to decide this year if a law prolonging the lifetime of the country’s 17 nuclear reactors by up to 14 years should be enacted without the consent of the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of parliament that represents the regions.

The hotly disputed plans were approved by cabinet in September and will postpone by more than a decade to around 2035 the date when Europe’s biggest economy abandons nuclear power.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Merkel: Germany Doesn’t Have “Too Much Islam” But “Too Little Christianity”

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans debating Muslim integration to stand up more for Christian values, saying Monday the country suffered not from “too much Islam” but “too little Christianity.”

Addressing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, she said she took the current public debate in Germany on Islam and immigration very seriously. As part of this debate, she said last month that multiculturalism there had utterly failed.

Some of her conservative allies have gone further, calling for an end to immigration from “foreign cultures” — a reference to Muslim countries like Turkey — and more pressure on immigrants to integrate into German society.

Merkel told the CDU annual conference in Karlsruhe that the debate about immigration”especially by those of the Muslim faith” was an opportunity for the ruling party to stand up confidently for its convictions.

“We don’t have too much Islam, we have too little Christianity. We have too few discussions about the Christian view of mankind,” she said to applause from the hall.

Germany needs more public discussion “about the values that guide us (and) about our Judeo-Christian tradition,” she said. “We have to stress this again with confidence, then we will also be able to bring about cohesion in our society.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Northern German Accent in Its Last Generation, Experts Say

The northern German accent is dying out. The quirky regional manner of speech has become more homogeneous and won’t be passed on to young people, language experts said Monday.

“It’s the last generation,” said Kiel German language professor Michael Elmentaler.

Characteristic to prominent Germans such as recently deceased Loki Schmidt, Heidi Kabel and Günter Gaus, the staccato dialect is most closely associated with Hamburg. Instead of the “sch” sound, speakers use simply an “s,” usually separated by a brief pause before the consonant that follows.

The accent, which is influenced by Plattdeutsch, or Low German, was spoken throughout the Hanseatic League and became the prominent form of speech for most of northern Germany before the 16th century.

But by the 19th century this began to change, says Elmentaler, who has just completed a 12-year study of the regional accent.

According to his findings, in 1998 almost all northern Germans older than 70 still spoke with northern inflection. Meanwhile only 30 percent of those under 61, and none younger than 40 were familiar with it.

The development is part of what Elmentaler calls a “de-regionalization” of the accent, though he said “it will never come to pass that everyone speaks the same” because many Germans are actively preserving their language.

“The tendency in the north as well as the south is heading toward a similar standard,” confirmed Augsburg professor Werner König, explaining that today the use of a clear German was more important at work than in the days when most tasks were completed by hand.

While the lilting southern German dialect is often looked down upon by northern Germans, whose speech is closest to the standard High German, König said the northerners make their own mistakes.

“Of course that is wrong according to articulation experts,” he said in reference to the northern German tendency to leave the “p” off of words like Pferd, or horse.

But König rejected placing value judgements on regional accents and dialects, citing Norway’s educational system as Europe’s best example for language preservation. Since 1878, teachers in the Scandinavian country have been forbidden from chiding students for their different regional accents, he said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



The Mawkishness That Shows Britain No Longer Knows What Its Heroes Are Dying for

They were words one hardly expected to hear from one of our most distinguished military figures — especially in the week of Remembrance Sunday.

However, that only makes the comments at the weekend of Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Fry, former commander of British forces in Iraq, all the more disturbing.

He said the British people had developed a dangerously ‘mawkish’ attitude towards the Armed Forces.

‘I think that the British people hold the Armed Forces in a state of excessive reverence at the present time. It is a greater infatuation than at any other stage of recent military history that I can recall,’ he said.

With these comments, he has put his finger on a subtle, but crucial and potentially catastrophic shift in our national psyche. So what’s wrong with ‘reverence’, you may ask. Well, General Fry is making a brutal and, indeed, shocking observation — that the British hold dead soldiers in deep esteem while despising the causes for which they are currently laying down their lives.

This is because fundamental assumptions about this nation and the wars fought on its behalf have been shattered.

For most of the past two centuries, he observed, there had been an unspoken agreement that any war fought by Britain would be based on acknowledged rules; this country would most likely win that war; and the outcome would be largely beneficial.

That consensus, however, was broken with the war in Iraq — and may never be repaired.

The result has been that the public now mourn excessively the soldiers who have fallen in battle — who are seen increasingly as the victims, not of the enemies of this country but of its government that commits Britain to fight wars its people no longer support.

That is an utterly devastating observation. Devastating because it is true — and because of its implications.

For Britain is a fighting nation. It is a land of historic and classic warrior heroes. Military power is part of its DNA.

For centuries, it has successfully used that power to advance its national interests abroad and defend them at home. From the Armada to Trafalgar to the Battle of Britain, military prowess has been synonymous with British greatness and is etched deep into the nation’s cultural memory.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Blood-Clotting Drug Given to Wounded Soldiers Can Cause Heart Attacks

Trials of NovoSeven, used to halt blood loss, suggest it is no more effective than placebo and raises risk of clots in arteries

A drug given to wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan may be putting their lives in further danger by causing heart attacks and strokes.

The treatment is used to stop serious bleeding in injured troops, but trials show the drug increases the risk of blood clots forming in arteries, which can kill or cause complications that result in amputation.

The dangerous side effects are all the more concerning because years of trials have yet to prove the drug is any better at saving the lives of injured soldiers than a placebo.

[Return to headlines]



UK: Government to Compensate Ex-Guantanamo Bay Detainees Continue Reading the Main Story

Former detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp are in line for UK government compensation totalling in the millions of pounds.

About a dozen former prisoners, including Binyam Mohamed, will be granted the out-of-court settlement.

They had alleged that British security forces were complicit in their torture before they arrived at Guantanamo.

The UK’s Cabinet Office has said a ministerial statement will be made on Tuesday.

It is believed the government wanted to avoid a lengthy and costly court case which would also have put the British secret intelligence services under the spotlight.

Avoiding costs

Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed, Martin Mubanga were among those who had begun High Court cases against the government.

In July, the High Court ordered the release of some of the 500,000 documents relating to the case.

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said that around 100 intelligence officers had been working around the clock preparing legal cases.

He said the government wanted to avoid the cost of the court case, and that the terms of the settlement would remain confidential — something wanted by both the men and ministers.

He added that the Intelligence and Security Committee and the National Audit Office would be briefed about the payments.

He said the government would now be able to move forward with plans for an inquiry, led by Sir Peter Gibson, into claims that UK security services were complicit in the torture of terror suspects.

The Cabinet Office said: “The prime minister set out clearly in his statement to the House (of Commons) on July 6 that we need to deal with the totally unsatisfactory situation where for ‘the past few years, the reputation of our security services has been overshadowed by allegations about their involvement in the treatment of detainees held by other countries’.”

Tuesday’s statement is expected to be made by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.

The UK security services have always denied any claims that they have used or condoned the use of torture.

           — Hat tip: 4symbols [Return to headlines]



UK: Happiness Index to Gauge Britain’s National Mood

The UK government is poised to start measuring people’s psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.

Despite “nervousness” in Downing Street at the prospect of testing the national mood amid deep cuts and last week’s riot in Westminster, the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked to produce measures to implement David Cameron’s long-stated ambition of gauging “general wellbeing”.

Countries such as France and Canada are looking at similar initiatives as governments around the world come under pressure to put less store on conventional economic measures of prosperity such as gross domestic product.

British officials say there is still hesitation in some parts of Whitehall over going ahead with the programme during such difficult economic times, but Cameron is said to want to place the eventual results at the heart of future government policy-making.

On 25 November, the government will ask the independent national statistician Jil Matheson to devise questions to add to the existing household survey by as early as next spring.

It will be up to Matheson to choose the questions but the government’s aim is for respondents to be regularly polled on their subjective wellbeing, which includes a gauge of happiness, and also a more objective sense of how well they are achieving their “life goals”.

The new data will be placed alongside existing measures to create a bundle of indications about our quality of life.

A government source said the results could be published quarterly in the same way as the British crime survey, but the exact intervals are yet to be agreed.

The source said: “The aim is to produce a fresh set of data, some of it new, some of using existing data sets currently not very well used, to be published — at a frequency to be decided — that assesses the psychological and physical wellbeing of people around the UK. So that’s objective measurements of, for instance, how much recycling gets done around the UK, alongside more subjective measures of psychology and attitudes.”

There are currently different views within the government on whether all indicators should be shrunk into one single wellbeing indicator or simple happiness index.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



UK: Islam Channel to Appeal Against Ofcom Ruling

Islam Channel is planning to appeal against Ofcom’s ruling that the satellite TV network breached the regulator’s broadcasting code for advocating marital rape and violence against women.

Five programmes broadcast on the London-based Islam Channel between 2008 and 2009 were in breach of Ofcom’s broadcasting code, the regulator ruled last week.

Islam Channel was censured for breaching impartiality rules in programmes on the Middle East conflict and for programmes appearing to advocate marital rape, violence against women and describing women who wore perfume outside of the home as “prostitutes”.

Ofcom launched its investigation into Islam Channel programmes in March, following a report by the Quilliam Foundation thinktank accusing the broadcaster of regularly promoting extremist views and regressive attitudes towards women.

The Islam Channel today said it will request a review of all five Ofcom rulings, claiming it must have been “particularly difficult” for the regulator to make an objective judgment about the broadcaster’s output given the “media frenzy and sensationalist headlines” that surrounded the Quilliam report earlier this year.

Islam Channel claimed in a statement that it was “no stranger to attacks from those who wish to discredit and undermine those of influence in the Muslim community”.

The broadcaster cited the Quilliam Foundation as one of its chief attackers, accusing the thinktank of being a “fundamentalist organisation whose corrosive techniques of misinformation” and “junk research” had served to discredit its work.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Woman Tied Up in Lancashire Home by Teenage Burglarsa Woman Was Tied Up in Her Lancashire Home by Two Armed Burglars — One of Whom is Thought to be 14 Years Old.

The pair forced their way in to a house in Shearwater Drive, Blackburn, at about 2045 GMT on Friday. One was carrying a knife.

They tied the 36-year-old woman’s hands before fleeing with jewellery and cash.

The pair are both described as Asian. One was aged 14 to 15, and 5ft 3in (1.6m) tall. The other was aged about 25 and 5ft 10in (1.8m).

‘Serious offence’

The teenager was wearing a hooded jacket with the hood up and the man had dark tracksuit trousers and a black hooded jacket, also with the hood up, police said.

Det Sgt Tim Brown, of Lancashire Police, said: “This is a very serious offence and must have been particularly upsetting for the lady involved.

“We know the two men left the house via the back yard or garden on to Shearwater Drive and, even though it was dark, I’m sure there were lots of people about at the time that may have seen something important.”

He urged anyone with information to contact police.

           — Hat tip: GB [Return to headlines]

Balkans


‘I Stopped World War Three by Refusing US Orders to Destroy Russian Forces, ‘ Claims James Blunt

James Blunt’s refusal to obey orders during the Balkans war prevented the start of World War Three, the singer has claimed.

The 36-year-old chart-topping singer made the stunning claims in an interview with John Pienaar on Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics.

Blunt, a former cavalry officer in the British Army, was leading a NATO column under order to seize the Pristina airfield in Kosovo in 1999.

Facing a 200-strong Russian advance, the then- 25-year-old was given orders to ‘destroy’ the Russian troops by the Supreme Allied Commander of the NATO Forces in Europe.

‘I was given a direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there,’ the You’re Beautiful hitmaker has revealed for the first time.

‘I was the lead officer, with my troop of men behind us… It was a mad situation.’

‘The direct command came in from General Wesley Clark was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as “destroy” came down the radio.’

He said his men were given orders by the American general to ‘reach the airfield and take a hold of it.’

But Blunt — who served under his real name James Blount — says: ‘We had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively.’

The singer, who has gone on to sell over 11 million albums since leaving the forces in October 2002, risked a court martial by refusing to go along with the orders to attack, a command he feared would spark a major conflict with Russia.

‘I was declining my order. I was very clear on that,’ he said.

‘There are things that you do along the way that you know are right, and those that you absolutely feel are wrong.

‘That sense of moral judgment is drilled into us as soldiers in the British army.’

Blunt’s instinct was backed by the commander of the British Forces. ‘Fortunately, the singer remembered, ‘Up on the radio came General Sir Mike Jackson, whose words were, “I’m not going to have my soldiers start World War Three.”

[Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egyptian Al-Adel, New Al Qaeda Leader for West

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 11 — The Egyptian national Saif Al-Adel, in Arabic “sword of justice”, is one of the most important al Qaeda members and — according to the Daily Telegraph — was appointed by Osama bin Laden as the new leader of operations in the West.

According to his profile published on the FBI website on most wanted terrorists, the man was born between 1960 and 1963 in Egypt. He is wanted for the 1988 attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and has a price of two million dollars on his head.

An expert in explosives, he has reportedly trained dozens of terrorists in Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan.

Globalsecurity reports that Al-Adel recruited suicide bombers by the end of the ‘90s, culminating in the attack in October 2000 in the Yemenite port of Adan on the US torpedo-boat destroyer USS Cole, in which 17 Americans were killed. He fled to Iran after the September 11 2001 attacks and was forced to stay in a villa in a well-known tourist resort on the Caspian Sea. The man is thought to be one of the al Qaeda leaders who were released by the authorities in April. He is in Yemen at this moment, according to the Arab press. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Archbishop Bustros Clarifies His Words About Israel and the Promised Land

During the Synod for the Middle East controversy was sparked between Israel and the Holy See over words pronounced by the Melkite bishop at a press conference. The bishop said that he was referring to the claim of the settlers to build on Palestinian land because they are part of biblical Israel.

Washington (AsiaNews) — Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, archbishop of the Melkite Rite in Newton, Massachusetts, in an interview with “Jihad Watch” has clarified the meaning of his words, the Holy Scriptures, Promised Land and the Palestinians, which stirred controversy from Israel on October 23 during the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East.

Archbishop Bustros was quoted this sentence: “The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands,” adding, “we Christians cannot speak of the ‘promised land’ as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people— all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people”

The archbishop has now told “Jiahd Watch:” During the press conference which was held at the end of the Synod, I presented this message in my role as president of the commission that drafted the message. I stated that, Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land to justify its occupation of Palestinian territory and the expulsion of Palestinians who have been living there for centuries”. He added: “We Christians cannot now speak about the Promised Land for the Jewish people. With Christ the Promised Land became the Kingdom of God.” Bustros concluded: “In my answer I was thinking in particular of Jewish settlers who claim their right to build on Palestinian territory by saying it forms part of biblical Israel, the land promised by God to the Jews according to the Old Testament… The creation of Israel in 1948 is a political issue, not religious”. Bustros realls that we are dealing with two extremes: that of the settlers, claiming the land by referring to the Bible, and those of Muslim fundamentalists, who claim it as part of Islam. “The message of the Synod takes a moderate position and clearly suggests, as regards the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, the two-state solution.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Caroline Glick: What the Palestinians Buy With American Money

Two weeks ago, a Palestinian from Bethlehem was arrested by the US-financed and trained Palestinian Authority security forces. He was charged with “carrying out commercial transactions with residents of a hostile state.”

No, he was not buying uranium from Iran. His purported crime was purchasing wood products from an Israeli community located beyond the 1949 armistice lines.

Denied bail by the US-funded PA magistrate’s court in Bethlehem, he has been remanded to custody pending the conclusion of his trial.

This man’s arrest is part of what the unelected, US-supported Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has touted as his “National Honor Fund.” The goal of this project is to ban all economic contact between Palestinians and Jews who live and work beyond the 1949 armistice lines. As far as the supposedly moderate Fayyad is concerned, those Jews and Israel generally comprise the “hostile state,” that the Palestinians under Fayyad’s leadership are being compelled to boycott…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]



Eid Al-Adha: Sheep Smugglers Kept Busy for Muslim Festival

Eid al-Adha means “the festival of the sacrifice” and is the most important holiday in the Muslim calendar.

Palestinians crowded into Ramallah’s market to shop and prepare for the four-day holiday. In Gaza’s market, sheep were paraded through the streets as people chose their meat for the holiday.

Muslims traditionally slaughter an animal during Eid-al-Adha, splitting the meat between the needy and family members.

But many may face disappointment this year as Gaza experiences a large shortage of cows and sheep for slaughter.

Smugglers have started bringing in sheep and cows for slaughter, to supplement what’s coming in from Israel, where bottlenecks at the only cargo crossing mean supply hasn’t kept up with demand.

Israel imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after the militant group Hamas seized power in June 2007 with only humanitarian aid and limited commercial goods allowed in.

Eid marks God’s gift of a ram to substitute for Abraham’s impending sacrifice of his son and begins on the tenth day of the month of Thi al-Haja, the twelfth month of the lunar Islamic calendar.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Hamas: Aid From Iran Without Any Political Price

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 11 — Hamas receives aid from Iran “without paying any political price,” said a high ranking official from the radical Palestinian movement in an interview that appeared today in pan-Arab daily al Hayat. “Hamas receives support from Iran, which does not attach any political price tag in return,” assured Khalil Hayya, a member of the political office of Hamas and part of the Palestinian legislative council. “We thank anyone who supports the Palestinian people and the resistance, and we thank Iran in particular,” added Hayya, who reiterated that “we will not allow any other denomination other than the Sunni tradition to penetrate into our land”. Hayya also denied speculations that Iran and Syria, the two main regional allies of the radical Palestinian movement, asked Hamas to make reconciliation efforts fail with Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). “Iran and Syria encourage us in terms of reconciliation,” said the Palestinian official. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Hour of the Hanging Judges: Demonizing Israel and Pretending it is Ordinary Criticism

By Barry Rubin

This is getting to be a pretty common kind of story. The mayor of Frankfurt invites a Jewish intellectual whose family left Germany in 1932 to speak on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The problem is that this man, Alfred Grosser, is a ferocious critic of Israel.

Grosser claims the Gaza Strip is a concentration camp (possibly true, but if so it is a concentration camp owned and run by Hamas); calls for ending Israel as a Jewish state; urges Germany to be more critical of Israel; and blames Israeli policies (rather than the deliberate lies about them) as being responsible for increasing antisemitism (isn’t that what George Soros said?)

All of this is interpreted by the Christian Science Monitor, and many others, as merely rejecting:

“…the notion that criticism of Israel is synonymous with anti-Semitism. If Germans want to criticize the blockade of Gaza or treatment of Palestinians, they should be able to without guilt, many say.”

This is the usual absurd response.

But one can criticize Israel’s “blockade” of Gaza (I won’t explain here why it is needed and, no doubt, the people who criticize it have never read these reasons) without calling it a “concentration camp,” which implies deliberate mass murder.

But it is possible to criticize Israel without calling for its extinction-since that is, in fact, what abolishing the existence of a Jewish state means.

But one can say that Israeli policy is an element in growing antisemitism while also listing other elements, including the lying demonization of Israel so prevalent today. Of course, one would then have to talk about all the concessions and risks Israel has taken on behalf of peace in the last twenty years.

And when someone systematically uses such exaggeration, obsessively promotes such hatred, seeks such extreme solutions, sympathizes with those using violence to murder Jews, and leaves out so many facts…it is possible to speak of antisemitism as an element in that overall approach, isn’t it?

At times, I reflect, one hears echoes in such rhetoric and activity of a brave, new slogan: Kill the Jews! They really deserve it this time!

Often, however, this kind of talk is actually a result of naiveté and ignorance. This is equally true for Jews who say such things. Being Jewish doesn’t make them experts on Israel. But there is also a strong element of opportunism in taking such highly rewarded positions. No Jew need ever starve since he can always make a career bashing Israel.

Yet there is also a remarkable detachment from the facts on the ground.

In an interview, Grosser explains:…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



US Weapons for Settlement Moratorium, Israeli Press

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 11 — A sign of a partial resumption of the moratorium on building in Israeli settlements in the West Bank in exchange for more US security aid to Israel is reported today by Israeli press sources, according to which Washington has already decided to increase its stock of weaponry in Israel. The press leak, which has not yet received official confirmation, has come out a few hours before a delicate meeting in New York between Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, overshadowed by the Israeli announcement of a new building plan for East Jerusalem.

According to the daily paper Haaretz, Washington — despite the irritation over East Jerusalem — is prepared to increase the value of its armaments kept in Israel by 400 million dollars (from the current 800 million to 1.2 billion) as a sort of guarantee against threats to regional security. It is a move which seems targeted at softening the Netanyahu’s position on the settlement issue. On this subject Yediot Ahronot added that the premier may announce a much-hoped for extension of the moratorium on settlement building (with the exclusion of certain compact blocks of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as well as East Jerusalem) in exchange for a new agreement with the US for security and real time access to data from US satellites for Israeli anti-missile defense. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Christians in the Middle East Essential for the Survival of the Arab World

For the Saudi journalist Mshari Al — Zaydi, fundamentalism and the economic crisis have overshadowed the importance of Christians to Muslims in the construction of their countries. Arab society is self-destructing and attacks against minorities are an excuse to vent the blame on someone for the failures of the Islamic world. “Pluralism is the best protection against ignorance and intolerance.”

London (AsiaNews / Agencies) — “Christians are an essential part of the Middle East. Jesus himself was born in Palestine and was baptized on the banks of the Jordan. The Arab nations should co-exist with them and defend them. “ This, the assertion of Mshari Al — Zaydi, Saudi journalist and expert on Islam in Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic newspaper based in London.

In an article entitled “Our citizens Arab Christians” published today, Mshari examines the plight of Christians in the Middle East, starting with the recent attack against the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. He writes”The bloody assault on Baghdad’s Church of Our Lady of Salvation has opened the door to a bigger question about the fate of Christian citizens in Middle Eastern countries, and the future of their presence there. Furthermore, it has exposed an Arab and Islamic wound, and we must get to the source of this crisis”.

Mashari stresses that recent events in Iraq is just the latest chapter in a campaign of murder that has as its goal to drive all Iraqi Christians from Mosul to Baghdad. “What is happening in Iraq — he continues — cannot be exclusively attributed to the deterioration of the security situation and the stagnation of the political condition. We cannot say that the attacks on Iraq’s Christians is a direct result of American incitement in the region, or part of some secret plan to drive a wedge between the people Iraq. “ The journalist mentions, in addition to the episodes in Iraq, attacks and other situations of intolerance against Christians and other minorities in Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen and other Muslim-majority countries.

Citing the Lebanese intellectual Radwan al-Sayyid, Mshari points out that the situation experienced by Christians does not depend only on the growth of Islamic extremism and its rhetoric against the West. He points out that the economic crisis contributes to the exodus of Christians and is often the real excuse for the attacks against minorities.

“We suffer from a self-consuming syndrome in our Arab societies — he says -, and a desire to search for a scapegoat to blame for our general failure and decline. The minorities have always represented this scapegoat to the radicals and extremisms; with these minorities becoming the object of condemnation, taking the blame for polluting our nations. The idea that there is a pure untainted national identity with its own unique characteristics is a form of intellectual naivety. However the most dangerous thing about this is that it is an idea that resonates with the instincts of the general public who are looking for a demon to blame for society’s ills”.

Mshari stresses that Christians have taken part alongside the Muslims in the construction of the various Arab nations. “The ideas of those years — he says — served — and continue to serve — as categories for political identity, which have included many Arab intellectuals under non-religious and non-sectarian banners”. For the journalist the nature of the Arab world must be reconsidered starting from those ideas which previously succeeded in removing the influence of religious extremism, taking the best from various faiths. “If the Christian presence is removed completely from the Arab world — he concludes — this region will be characterized solely by Muslims and lose its Arab identity.” “Pluralism — Mshari insists — is the best protection against ignorance and intolerance.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Hillary Clinton’s Silence on Iraqi Christian Genocide Must End

Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is on the brink of extinction, its members targeted by al Qaeda attacks and fleeing abroad. But Hillary Clinton, the one person who could force the Iraq government to act, is keeping her mouth shut.

A full-scale genocide is under way in Iraq: a well-planned, well-financed, deliberate plot to cleanse the country of its Christian citizens. And thus far, neither the Iraqi government nor the United States is doing anything to stop it.

On Wednesday, al Qaeda militants launch a synchronized bombing attack on 11 Christian communities throughout Iraq, killing six and wounding more than 30. That attack followed on the heels of the ghastly assault last month on Christian worshippers attending a service at Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, in which 58 people were brutally murdered and another 60 wounded.

After that attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement condemning the violence: “Those with deviant thoughts from al Qaeda and their allies belonging to the followers of the ousted regime targeted our Christian brothers in a terrorist crime that aims at undermining security and stability, inciting strife and chaos and sending Iraqis away from their home.”

Yet beyond these empty words, the Iraqi government has done absolutely nothing to protect the besieged Christian community from further attack, despite a promise from al Qaeda in Iraq that “all Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for Mujahedeen wherever they can reach them.” Indeed, just a couple of days after Maliki’s speech, three more bombs aimed at Christians went off in western Baghdad.

But now this historic community is on the brink of extinction. Since the American invasion in 2002, more than half of Iraq’s Christians have fled the country. The Christian community, like everyone else in Iraq, was caught up in the ethnic war that erupted in 2004 between the Shiites and Sunnis, and they have frequently been targeted both by Iraqi militants and by the mostly foreign fighters who constitute al Qaeda in Iraq. But Iraq’s Christians have not experienced anything like the deliberate targeting of their community over this past year. Hundreds of Christians have been murdered in 2010 and thousands more have left the country, fearing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Despite this unprecedented bloodshed, little effort has been made by the Iraqi or U.S. governments to secure the livelihoods of Iraq’s Christians. “I blame the government for all these attacks. It’s a very weak government and it can’t protect us,” Zeya Moshi, an Iraqi Christian, told the Christian Science Monitor. After meeting with Maliki, the Syrian Archbishop Matti Shaba Matoka sounded less than confident in the government’s ability to protect his congregation. “The security authorities promised to protect us, but we don’t know what kind of procedures they’ve put in place,” he told the Christian Science Monitor.

The silence of the Iraqi government has led to calls from the U.K.-based Syriac Archbishop Athanasios Dawood for Iraq’s Christian community to flee the country. “The Christian people should leave their beloved land of our ancestors and escape the premeditated ethnic cleansing,” he said in a statement to CNN. “This is better than having them killed one by one.” Many Christians have already left Iraq; almost 150 were recently granted asylum by the French government. Those who cannot afford to do so have found some measure of refuge in the Kurdish north.

Maliki has not taken kindly to the offers of international organizations and foreign governments to take in Iraq’s beleaguered Christian community. “The countries that have welcomed the victims… of this attack have done a noble thing,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. “But that should not encourage emigration.”

The prime minister is right. Emigration is not the answer. Christians were residing in Mesopotamia more than 500 years before Muslims arrived in the region. This sacred land belongs as much to them as to anyone else, and it would be a tragedy if it were stripped of its Christian presence. But without a concerted effort to protect the Christian population, the Iraqi government will be complicit in what is fast becoming a catastrophic act of ethnic cleansing.

Now that a new government has finally formed, it is time for Maliki to switch his focus from trying to remain prime minister to fulfilling his duty as head of state to protect the most vulnerable among his population. But let’s be honest—without enormous pressure from his backers in the U.S., Maliki has little incentive to turn his attention to this problem. And yet the U.S. and the international community thus far have barely managed to muster the most muted response to anti-Christian violence in Iraq. This week the United Nations Security Council and the United States released a bland and utterly ineffectual statement condemning the attacks on Iraq’s Christians “in the strongest terms,” while at the same time reaffirming its support “for the people and government of Iraq.”

That is not nearly enough to get the attention of the Iraqi government. What is needed is a firm condemnation by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reacting specifically to al Qaeda’s explicit plans to rid Iraq of its Christian communities and warning the Iraqi government that there will be dire consequences to its continuing inaction on this urgent matter. A number of online petitions have sprung up on the Internet urging Clinton to do just that, but so far there has been no official statement by the U.S. government.

This silence cannot stand. Americans of all faiths must band together and pressure the State Department to do something about the wanton murder of Iraqi Christians before it’s too late and there are no more Christians in Iraq to protect. What is happening in Iraq is genocide, plain and simple. It must be stopped now.

           — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines]



Injured From Iraq Church Attack to be Treated in Rome

Rome, 12 Nov.(AKI) — More than two dozen Iraqis wounded in an deadly attack on a Christian church in Baghdad are expected to arrive in Rome on Friday for treatment, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Italy transported 26 wounded aboard a military aircraft after Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, asked Italy to treat survivors of the assault on Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation church which left 58 people dead and 78 wounded on 31 October, according to the Friday statement.

The attack — the deadliest against Christians in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq — was condemned by Pope Benedict XVI as “senseless” and “ferocious”.

Many Muslims also denounced the killings.

Militants have carried out further bombing assaults targeting Iraqi Christians following the church attack.

The injured will be transferred to a Rome hospital after arriving at a military base near the Italian capital.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: Man Jailed for Displaying Photo of Hezbollah Leader

Riyadh, 15 Nov. (AKI) — A Saudi court has sentenced a Shia man to 15 days in prison for displaying a photo of a Lebanese Hezbollah leader in his office in the al-Ahsa governorate, according to Arab-language news service Al-Rased.

Samir Ahmad al-Hamadi was arrested for having a photo of Hassan Nasrallah — the current secretary general of the powerfulLebanese political and paramilitary organisation Hezbollah.

Security forces have in the last few days arrested other members of the minority Shia community for fixing a sticker of Nasrallah onto a car window.

Shias make up only a tiny minority of the overwhelmingly Sunni Saudi Arabia.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



‘Virginity Healer’ Seized in Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities have arrested an Arab woman who had claimed she can restore lost virginity for girls by simply inhaling burning incense, the Saudi Arabic language daily Okaz reported on Saturday.

The unidentified woman had lured many girls into her house in Makkah and made them inhale burning acacia wood, the paper said.

The woman had charged SR200 for each treatment session and required victims to undergo many sessions for a full cure, the paper said.

A female relative was acting as the woman’s secretary by giving appointments by mobile phone to patients seeking to recover their lost virginity, it said.

“We have arrested this woman because her activities are mere deception and have no medical basis,” said Abdul Rahman Al Ruwais, head of the Arab Medicine Section at Health Department in Makkah. “We have handed her over to the concerned authorities to take the necessary measures against her.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghani Former Muslim May Get Death Penalty for Conversion

Our soldiers die for them and they kill Christian converts.

Celebrating Veteran’s Day is an important reminder that our soldiers die for our freedom and often the freedoms of others. So how should we respond when a country we have set free from tyranny is murdering their people that leave Islam for Christianity? That has been happening in Afghanistan and may happen again after a judgment today in an Afghani court.

Sayed Mossa, an Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity, has been scheduled to stand trial today and most likely will be sentenced to death. His trial for apostasy will probably be televised in the war-torn country, and it appears Mossa may not even have adequate representation. Every lawyer, all Muslims, that has been appointed by the courts to represent Mossa have refused. They dare not defend someone who converted to Christianity.

Mossa is a 45 year old, married, father of six children. His youngest is 8 and he has one disabled child. Mossa is an amputee and has spent 15 years of his life helping others with the International Red Cross. However a co-worker turned Mossa in for being a Christian convert — a crime in most Muslim nations practicing Sharia law.

In October Mossa gave a letter to a Western visitor so others may hear his story. Mossa said he has been imprisoned since May “due to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, saviour of the world.” He went on to describe much of what he has gone through while in prison.

The government appears to have been promoting such ill treatment. Many outside observers wonder how the courts could condemn Mossa considering some of the country’s commitments in UN statements and their own Constitution. The Karzai government is a signatory of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. That document calls for freedom of religion and equal access to “a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.” It also states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.”…

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]



India: Talaq Uttered by Muslim Man on Cellphone Valid: Deoband

Talaq uttered thrice by a Muslim man on a mobile phone will be considered valid even if his wife is unable to hear it all the three times due to network and other problems, a fresh fatwa has ruled.

The fatwa was given by Darul-Ifta, the fatwa department of leading Sunni Islamic seminary Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, in reply to a query by a man.

The man in his query had asked that in case no witness was present when he utters talaq thrice to his wife over phone whether it would be considered valid or not.

“I angrily said talaq three times to my wife on cell phone but she claimed that she didn’t hear it even once and nobody was around both of us. Please tell me whether talaq has taken place,” he asked.

In its reply, Dar-ul-Ifta said, “If you have given three talaqs to your wife, all the three took place and she became haram (forbidden) for you.”

The fatwa said the woman will be free to marry anywhere she likes after her iddat (three month period after divorce) is over.

“It is not necessary for talaq to take place that the wife hears it or the witnesses are present,” it ruled.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Persecution in the Name of Islam

Earlier this year the European Parliament passed a resolution highlighting the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan. For the European Union, and in particular for MEPs, the right to freedom of worship is fundamental, universal and non-negotiable. In Pakistan, however, the free practice of religion — at least for non-Muslims — is difficult, hazardous and rare.

Part of the problem of religious persecution in Pakistan stems from the establishment of the country itself in 1947 and the promulgation of its constitution in 1956. It is officially called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which, in effect, makes the state indivisible from Islam. Pakistan placed religion at the heart of its raison d’etre in order to distinguish itself from its rival India, from which it had been separated.

But whereas India has developed into a sophisticated democracy in which people of all religions and none live side by side in relative harmony, Pakistan has gone the opposite way. Indeed, Pakistan’s attitude to religious freedom stems also from its attitude to political freedom.

Democracy — at least as we in the EU understand it — remains elusive in Pakistan. For much of its history Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators, and even during periods of civilian government the army has maintained ultimate power, as regular coups d’état have shown. Moreover, the military has cynically used Islamisation as a means of controlling the population.

This process gathered pace under General Zia ul-Haq, who imposed draconian and disproportionately harsh laws during the 1970s and 1980s in order to enshrine the dominance of Islam.

The Hudood Ordinance was a law passed in 1979 that replaced civil sentences for various crimes with sharia punishments as mandated by the Koran. One of its consequences was to make it extremely difficult and dangerous for women to prove an allegation of rape. Pakistan’s own National Commission on the Status of Women estimated in 2003 that eighty per cent of women in prison had been incarcerated for adultery because they had failed to prove an allegation of rape.

This part of the Hudood Ordinance was repealed in 2006 by a law that made rape a crime prosecutable under civil law. However, the new law has proved extremely difficult to enforce in a country with such a weak government and conservative society. Islamist groups, which maintain a powerful grip over Pakistani society, have demanded the reintroduction of the Hudood Ordinance calling it God’s divine punishment and a victim of unjust propaganda by human rights organisations.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Qantas A380 Sustained Worse Damage Than First Thought

The exploded engine was scary enough. But in the days following the emergency landing of the Qantas A380 in Singapore, it has become clear just how dangerous the situation was. Multiple systems on the aircraft failed and a disaster was only narrowly avoided.

Rarely had so much flying expertise been assembled in one cockpit. A training pilot was sitting behind Captain Richard de Crespigny, who was completing his annual flight test. Sitting next to them was a third captain whose job was to supervise the training pilot. Together, the Airbus A380 operated by Australia’s Qantas Airways had a total of 100 years of flying experience sitting in its cockpit.

Four minutes after takeoff from Singapore, that accumulated expertise was suddenly in great demand. At an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet), engine two of the double-decker aircraft exploded. The loud bang of the detonation had hardly faded away before 53 error messages appeared on the monitors.

Upon reading the matter-of-fact messages, the five pilots realized immediately how serious the situation was. Kerosene was leaking from two of the 12 fuel tanks, which meant that the plane could catch fire at any moment.

“It was unbelievably stressful. But in a situation like that, you have no choice but to keep on going,” says Richard Woodward. The captain knows what he is talking about. He also flies the A380 for Qantas, is the vice president of the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) and has looked after the crew since the near-catastrophe almost two weeks ago. “The crew has dealt with this situation extraordinarily well,” Woodward reports. “They’re like horseback riders who, after a fall, are eager to get back on their horses.”

Failed to Activate

The men have given him their accounts of those dramatic moments in the air. There were no warnings before the engine exploded — no change in oil pressure, no unusual vibrations, nothing. When the explosion occurred, the captain quickly pressed an emergency button that activates an automatic extinguishing system when there is an engine fire. But the system failed to activate. “It was clear to him at that point that there must have been more damage,” says Woodward.

One of the training pilots ran back into the cabin, where he saw the holes in the wing caused by loose metal parts from the turbine. As a result, De Crespigny could not dump fuel properly to reduce the weight of the fully fueled aircraft for an emergency landing. He was also unable to pump kerosene from the back to the front of the aircraft, causing it to become increasingly unstable as kerosene escaped.

The incident raises serious questions for both engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and Airbus. “How could there have been this much loss of function?” asks Woodward.

One of the two hydraulic systems failed and important connecting cables were severed, including those leading to the outer engine one. Although the pilot could still control the engine manually, it could no longer be shut off, so that firefighters had to smother it with extinguishing foam after the emergency landing.

Bad Brakes

“This raises the question of whether the aircraft is improperly designed,” says Woodward. “Apparently certain connections are not redundant; or the two cables are positioned so close together that the shrapnel destroyed them simultaneously.”

The aircraft manufacturer is defending itself against such accusations. The aircraft, says Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath, was “controllable until the landing,” and the autopilot continued to function. “There are two separate hydraulic and electrical systems,” Schaffrath adds.

But some of the brakes were no longer working properly. Luckily, the pilots were able to land in Singapore, which has a very long, 4,000-meter runway.

Another dramatic aspect of the emergency landing was that an anti-lock system also stopped working. Three tires burst when the plane touched down as a result, sending sparks into the air. “And that was with two holes in the tank!” says Woodward…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Taliban Chief Mullah Omar Rules Out Afghan Peace Talks

In a statement, Mullah Omar said “rumours of negotiation” were a ploy by Western powers to “cover up” their military defeat in Afghanistan.

A BBC correspondent says some insurgents — including some Taliban — have spoken to the Afghan government.

But Western diplomats say there have been no high-level talks.

Mullah Omar’s wordy statement was released to media outlets and jihadist websites on the eve of the Muslim holiday Eid.

It comes four days before Nato leaders gather in the Portuguese capital Lisbon for a summit set to be dominated by the Afghan conflict.

Withdrawal In his statement, Mullah Omar says: “The enemy is retreating and facing siege in all parts of the country day in and day out. Their life casualties are spiralling up.

“It is because of this pressure that the enemy has resorted to spreading the misleading rumours of peace talks.”

Mullah Omar, who is rumoured to be in Pakistan, says the “sole way for our salvation is the armed jihad”, or holy war.

The “solution of the issue lies in withdrawal of the foreign invading troops and establishment of a true Islamic and independent system in the country,” he adds.

Mullah Omar also addresses former jihadi leaders working with Hamid Karzai’s administration, urging them to join the struggle against the invaders.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Your Signature to Save Asia Bibi and Pakistan

An online petition (to be sent to AsiaNews, or directly to the President of Pakistan) for the revocation of the death sentence for a Christian woman sentenced to hang for blasphemy. But we are also asking for the cancellation or overhaul of the blasphemy law, which is destroying harmony and development in Pakistan.

Rome (AsiaNews) — At our reader’s request, AsiaNews has decided to launch an international petition to be sent to President Asif Zardari to save the life of Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to hanging for blasphemy. AsiaNews is also asking President Zardari to cancel or change the unjust blasphemy law, which kills many innocent victims and destroys coexistence in the country. We are asking you to support this initiative by sending a message to the following email:

salviamoasiabibi@asianews.it

Or you can send a message directly to the Pakistani President:

publicmail@president.gov.pk

Our campaign is one of many being launched in Italy (with Tv2000), Pakistan, India and the United States.

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman of 45, mother of five children, was sentenced to death for blasphemy on November 7 last. A Punjab court in ruled that the woman, a farm worker, offended the Prophet Mohammed. But in reality, Asia Bibi was first insulted as “impure” (because not-Islamic), then forced to defend her Christian faith in the face of pressure from other Muslim labourers. The husband of one of them, the local imam, decided to launch charges and denounce the woman, who was first beaten, then imprisoned and finally, after one year, sentenced to death.

Asia Bibi and her husband Ashiq Masih have decided to appeal to overturn the ruling. Meanwhile, the mother now faces months of imprisonment at the mercy of prison guards or some fanatic who could kill her under the misguided belief that he is giving glory to Allah.

Up until now, the blasphemy law had not led to an execution of any accused or convicted. But 33 people charged with blasphemy were killed in prison by guards, or in the vicinity of the court. The latest such case involved two Protestant Christians, Pastor Emmanuel and his brother Rashid Sajjad, shot at point blank range as they left the court in Faisalabad on 19 July. However we can group these deaths with those killed in the massacres of entire villages, in Gojra, Korian, Kasur, Sangla Hill, where hundreds of houses belonging to Christians were burned and where women and children were killed or burned alive, just because one member of the village had been accused of blasphemy.

It is now startlingly clear that this law has become a tool in the hands of fundamentalists that pit Muslims against Christians in order to measure the extent of their power over Pakistani society. It is also clear that almost all the accusations of blasphemy are born from envy, revenge, competition, and that the arrest of the accused is but the first step to allow the expropriation of land, looting and theft.

We desperately want to save Asia Bibi. But we can not content ourselves with this alone. We must strive so that this law, defined by the Pakistanis themselves as “obscene”, is changed or better yet, revoked. It was desired by the dictator Zia ul-Haq in 86, in exchange for the Islamic community’s support. But in doing so he laid the foundation for the destruction of Pakistan. This country, founded as a secular republic and neutral toward religion, has become an Islamic state that kills its own people, destroys its own social fabric and is of major concern to the international community.

The blasphemy law has become a sword of Damocles over every person’s head and especially those belonging to minorities, who are paying dearly; Christians, Ahmadis, Hindus, Muslims but also Shiites and Sunnis.

By eliminating this law — or at least curbing it — new impetus will be given to interfaith coexistence in Pakistan, to democracy and development. This will also give greater breadth to security and the international community, which views the spread of Taliban rule in a country that has nuclear weapons with concern.

We believe that the only bulwark to the growth of fundamentalism is to ensure equal coexistence between Christians and Muslims. For this reason we ask for the life of Asia Bibi to be saved. And with this we ask, we hope that Pakistan may also be saved.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Far East


Cote d’Azur: Second French Destination for Chinese

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 5 — The Cote d’Azur, where the Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to arrive this afternoon, is the second favourite destination for Chinese people visiting France, after Paris. The clientele (6%) has developed exponentially and is high-end,according to the head of tourism in Nice, Rudy Salles, especially if considered that tourism was practically non-existent ten years ago.

On the Cote d’Azur, Chinese tourists spend an average of 2’5 euros a day per person, less on organised trips and more individually or as part of family trips.

Nice hosts the majority of Chinese tourists (60%), who are particularly interested in shopping (60%), landscapes, monuments and museums (30%) and casinos (10%). Paris remains the favourite destination (80% of the market) and is the only French city directly linked to China. Salles has asked the Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific to extend one of its two flights from Hong Kong to Italy (Milan and Rome) as far as Nice. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Swedish Honeymooner Killed in South Africa

A Swedish woman on honeymoon in South Africa with her British millionaire husband has been found dead following a carjacking incident outside of Cape Town.

The 28-year-old Swedish woman, named by the Expressen newspaper as Anni Dewani from Mariestad in central Sweden, was traveling with her 31-year-old British husband, Shrien Dewani of Bristol, when two armed men stopped the minivan in which they were traveling, according to several media reports.

“It’s just terrible. She was the most beautiful girl in the world,” Dewani’s father, Vinod Hindocha, told Expressen.

Anni and Shrien Dewani had been married just three weeks ago in India and arrived in South Africa last week to celebrate their marriage.

The newlyweds had been out to dinner on Saturday night and taken a taxi from the restaurant when two men forced the driver out of the minivan and drove off with the couple around 11pm.

Upon being released by the kidnappers, Shrien Dewani called the police, who later found his wife murdered in the taxi.

“We know that a Swedish citizen has been found dead in South Africa and that the police are looking into it,” Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson Camilla Åkesson told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

According to the foreign ministry, the woman is from central Sweden.

The carjackling and murder has received a great deal of attention in the South African and British media. The Cape Town tourism office said that the murder was the first killing of a tourist since last summer when South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup football tournament.

The two men stopped the taxi as it was traveling in Guguletu, a township about 15 kilometres outside of Cape Town, the tourist office told the Sapa news agency on the News24.com news website.

After being released near the Khayelitsha shantytown, Shrien Dewani received a ride to a nearby police station from a passing motorist.

The police launched a search for Anni Dewani and later found the taxi in Lingelethu West. The murdered woman’s body was in the back seat. The killers disappeared without a trace.

Alan Winde, a tourism official for the Western Cape, theorised that the taxi driver may have gotten lost.

“They were returning to the city at 10pm and they asked the driver to take them to a very well-known hotspot in Guguletu,” Winde told SkyNews.

“It sounds as though they had gone a little off course when the carjacking took place.”

Police spokesperson André Traut refused to comment on how the woman was killed prior to an autopsy, he told Sapa.

But Anni Dewani’s father told Expressen his daughter had been shot.

“She took three bullets to the chest,” he told the newspaper.

“There aren’t words to describe her. She was a dream girl.”

According to Expressen, Anni Dewani grew up in Mariestad and studied engineering at colleges in Gävle in eastern Sweden and Halmstad in western Sweden.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Latino Kids Now Majority in California’s Public Schools

Latinos now make up a majority of California’s public school students, cracking the 50 percent barrier for the first time in the state’s history, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Education.

Almost 50.4 percent of the state’s students in the 2009-10 school year identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, up 1.36 percent from the previous year.

In comparison, 27 percent of California’s 6.2 million students identified themselves as white, 9 percent as Asian and 7 percent as black. Students calling themselves Filipino, Pacific Islander, Native American or other total almost 7 percent.

While the result was no surprise to educators, experts say the shift underscores the huge impact Latinos already have on California’s politics, economy and school system.

That influence will only grow as Latino parents — now in the majority — realize many of the schools their children attend are underfunded, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley.

“It turns upside down how we think about California students,” he said.

“A lot depends on the extent to which Latino parents come together and organize,” Fuller added. “These are parents who historically have not had much political power. But as they are coming together and feeling their oats, they may organize around education.”

Corresponding growth

It’s no surprise that Latinos make up the new majority in California schools, considering that their numbers have grown by leaps and bounds in recent decades. In 2009, Latinos made up 37 percent of the state’s population, a number that continues to increase, according to the California Department of Finance.

But their electoral sway has not grown by similar amounts, because almost 40 percent of adult Latinos in California are ineligible to vote, said Lisa Garcia Bedolla, an associate professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education.

The challenge, she said, is finding ways to get Latino parents involved in schools when they cannot vote for members of their local school board.

“How do we come up with constructive ways to do that, considering the limitations on how these parents can participate? That’s the question from here,” she said.

In San Francisco, where an estimated one-third of public school students have a parent who was not born in this country, voters were asked this month to allow noncitizens to vote in school board elections. While Proposition D lost, 45 to 55 percent, the support the ballot measure received from civic leaders showed the growing concern about the role of immigrant parents in local schools.

Electoral clout

While underrepresented on the voting rolls, Latino voters are an increasingly important factor in California elections.

In this month’s gubernatorial election, Republican candidate Meg Whitman’s firing of an undocumented immigrant housekeeper who worked for her for nine years, and her handling of the controversy after the employment was disclosed, was seen as damaging her standing among Latinos and hurting her at the polls.

In that election, 16 percent of likely voters were expected to be Latino, according to a Field Poll released the day of the election. Latinos now make up 22 percent of the state’s registered voters, according to the same survey.

California schools need to do a better job of reaching out to that increasing number of Latino students, said David Gomez, president of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators and a school superintendent in Ventura County.

Everybody bilingual?

Nearly 1.5 million students are English language learners, but many more still struggle in the classroom with difficult, subject-specific terms, he said.

“For example, if you are studying social science, understanding words like ‘justice’ and ‘beauty’ can be difficult,” he said. “In math, it can be even harder.”

#ixzz15Ove4Cf1

[Return to headlines]



Netherlands: VVD: Romania, Bulgaria Not in Schengen Yet

AMSTERDAM, 16/11/10 — The conservatives (VVD) fear a flood of poor Romanian and Bulgarian fortune-seekers if these countries join the Schengen zone next year. The biggest government party wants the cabinet to follow the critical line that France has taken.

Citizens from Schengen counties can travel to other Schengen countries without passport control and visas. Romania and Bulgaria became EU members in 2007. Currently, their citizens are still subject to controls at the border of, for example, Hungary. But under current planning, they will become Schengen countries from March 2011.

For the VVD, a flood of poor East European fortune-hunters is a spectre of horror. The party has asked Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal and Immigration and Asylum Minister Gerd Leers to follow the French wish not to award Schengen membership for now and to link the question to the results of a report to be presented next summer by the European Commission on the progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime in Romania and Bulgaria.

French Economic Affairs Minister Lellouche said last week that he hoped to postpone the decision with Dutch support at least until the summer. According to VVD MP Han ten Broeke, the Dutch government shares the same wishes as Paris but The Hague must be “much more active and immediately seek to join up with France.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Home Office Sends Boy, 4, Letter Telling Him He and His Mother Will be Deported

A boy aged four has been sent a letter from the Home Office informing him that he and his mother are facing deportation.

British-born Cher Siyamuanya, and his mother Netsui Karota, 28, received separate letters telling them they were ‘liable to removal’ from the UK.

But Ms Karota fears if she is returned to her homeland of Zimbabwe she will be executed or jailed for speaking out against Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime.

This would mean that Cher could be thrown into prison with her, or forced to live as an orphan on the country’s lawless streets.

An immigration judge said her story was ‘a pack of lies’ and ordered her out of Britain.

In a heartfelt plea to Home Office officials, she said: ‘I can’t go back there, I don’t know what will happen.

‘They sent me and Cher letters last month saying we are ‘liable to removal’, he can’t read or understand his, but he is worried when he sees me worried.’

A Home Office spokesman said it was a legal requirement for all members of a family facing deportation proceedings to be served with such a notice.

Ms Karota came to the UK in 2006 after fleeing Zimbabwe via Malawi. Her parents were both murdered.

[Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Germany: Funeral Home Tries to Cater to Gay Funerals With Erotic Caskets

A Cologne funeral home is hoping to draw in gay clientele by offering erotic caskets with nude renaissance imagery or rainbow-coloured urns, along with other tailored services for homosexuals and their mourners.

A casket featuring the figures of muscular young men in athletic poses has been in the display case at Königsfeld & Brandl for the last three weeks.

The operators of the funeral home Thomas Brandl, 32, and Michael Königsfeld, 34, are themselves are a couple and aim to cater to both gays and lesbians in addition to straight customers.

Their ad reads: “Those who want a warmer, somewhat more fantastical departure, will find us to be a sensitive partner.”

They put gay customers in contact with special speakers and religious leaders for funeral services, organise natural burials in places where only other gays or lesbians have been laid to rest, arrange for graveside champagne toasts and colourful balloon decorations.

“There is also a casket in rainbow colours, but I think it looks awful,” Brandl says.

The mortician couple hopes tap into the community needs in the Rhineland city, one of Germany’s centres of gay culture where every tenth resident is estimated to be gay.

“Naturally there were people who threw their hands up in horror in front of the display window,” said Königsfeld.

But most passers-by are delighted by what they call their “gay caskets,” including women of a certain age, he added.

“We had a widow in the office whose husband we buried and she was quite taken with the firm young men on the casket,” he said.

In particular, women between the ages of 60 and 80 seem particularly open to the model, he said.

But one rival undertaker has called the caskets “borderline,” while another said he wasn’t sure such a casket provided a dignified burial.

Still Brandl and Königsfeld believe they are on the right track.

“It’s not easy for gays and lesbians to tell an undertaker that they must bury their life partner,” they said together in an advertisement. “In this most difficult of situations it is easier for them to have a contact person who understands them.”

DAPD/ka

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

General


World’s Oldest Embryo Fossils Shed Light on Dinosaur Parenting

Fossilized dinosaur embryos, found still in their eggshells, have claimed the title of the oldest vertebrate embryos ever seen—they were fossilized in the early Jurassic Period, around 190 million years ago, researchers say. The embryos are from the species Massospondylus, a prosauropod, the family of dinosaurs which gave rise to iconic sauropods like the Brachiosaurus.

Robert Reisz and his team found the embryos when analyzing a clutch of fossilized eggs collected in South America in 1976. The find was just published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

“This project opens an exciting window into the early history and evolution of dinosaurs,” said Professor Reisz. “Prosauropods are the first dinosaurs to diversify extensively, and they quickly became the most widely spread group, so their biology is particularly interesting as they represent in many ways the dawn of the age of dinosaurs.” [BBC News]

The well-preserved embryos are about 8 inches long and are detailed enough to give researchers a good look at what the juvenile Massospondylus looked like. What they found wasn’t exactly elegant. The juveniles looked similar to adult sauropods like Brachiosaurus, with an oversized head and four-legged strut (unlike the adult Massospondylus, which walked on two legs).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101114

Financial Crisis
» Debt Crisis: Spanish Fears Amidst Irish Black Humour
» Portugal: International Beijing is Buying Our Connivance
 
USA
» Blind Student Saves for Three Years to Buy a Guide Horse Because Her Strict Muslim Parents Consider Dogs Unclean
» Ground Zero Imam’s Union City Building is Put Into ‘Custodial Receivership’ Due to Bedbugs, Other Issues
» Muslim Who Shot Soldier in Arkansas Says He Wanted to Cause More Death
» Still Hating: Our Summer of Islamophobia
» U.S. Army Cracks Down on Unauthorized Violence
 
Canada
» Metro Vancouver Ethnically Much Different Than Experts Predicted in 1980s
 
Europe and the EU
» Austrian Press Likens Turkish Envoy to Debated German Figure
» Austria: Turkish Ambassador to Keep Post
» Demonstrators Protest U.K. Poppy Burnings Outside Mosques
» EU Grows Weary of Enlargement
» France: Excrement Thrown on Church in Avignon
» George Galloway ‘Can Stand in Scottish Elections’
» Goodspeed Analysis: Is Jensen What Norway Wants?
» Italy: Main Centre-Left Opposition Party Eyes Muslim Vote
» Italy: Free Palestine Protests Against Amos Oz in Turin
» The Jewish People vs George Soros
» UK: Dutch Lesbian and Nigerian Man Arrested at Altar Moments Before Sham Marriage
» UK: Join the Campaign to Keep Greenwich Mean Time
» UK: Man’s Severely Burnt Body Found After Explosion Rips Through Flat
» UK: Poor? Disadvantaged? Pull the Other One… The Rich, Rioting Students Are Unmasked
» UK: Police Told to Send Text Messages Because it is Too Expensive to Speak on Their Radios
» UK: Students Winning Thousands of Pounds in Refunds for Poor Teaching
» UK: Smith…a Decent Man Who’s Been Conned by the Fake Conservatives
» West Cannot Defeat Al-Qaeda, Says UK Forces Chief
 
Mediterranean Union
» Brussels-Vienna-Ankara
 
North Africa
» Egypt Frees Brotherhood Candidates
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israeli Student Attacked by Palestinians in Italy
 
Middle East
» IAEA Fears That Syria Will Follow Iran’s Steps
» ‘Islamophobia Rising’
» Muslim Cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad Arrested in Lebanon
» Saudi Arabia Blocks Facebook Over Moral Concerns
» Saudi Arabia’s Spot on the Board of UN Women a Sad Joke
» The Tragedy of Iraq’s Christians is That it Does Not Interest Anyone, Chaldean Catholic Says
» Top Tories Are Accused of ‘Abandoning’ Gay Briton After His Arrest by Syrian Secret Police
 
Russia
» Inquiry Into Police Requests for Data on Moslems Underway in Voronezh Rgn
 
South Asia
» “Islamic Love Jehad” Making Inroads Into Jammu: VHP
» An Ugly Reality — The Persecution of Christians in Malaysia
» Chinese Mine in Afghanistan Threatens Ancient Find
» Eight Suicide Bombers Killed in Foiled Taliban Plot to Blow Up NATO Base in Afghanistan
» Pakistani Bishops Urge Pope to Save Pakistani Woman From Execution
» Pakistan: Asia Bibi’s Conviction is an Incitement to Crime, Says Justice and Peace Official
 
Far East
» Japan: Islamic Community Lays Down Roots
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» British Yacht Couple Kidnapped by Somali Pirates Are Finally Released After 388 Days of Captivity
 
Immigration
» Libya Says No to Legislation on Asylum and UNHCR
» Xenophobia: What’s Gone Wrong in Denmark?
 
Culture Wars
» Building Bridges With Graffiti Art
» UK: Tribunal Fight for Christian Doctor Axed by Panel in Gay Adoption Row
 
General
» Phyllis Chesler: The Feminist Politics of Islamic Misogyny

Financial Crisis


Debt Crisis: Spanish Fears Amidst Irish Black Humour

“Market pressures are forcing Ireland to the edge of the abyss,” runs El País’ dramatic headline, as yields on 10 year Irish bonds rocketed to 9.26% on the morning of 11 November. With rumour rife that a Greek style bailout for the economically stricken country is imminent, the Spanish daily notes that this is not without consequence for its Eurozone partners. “Ireland is burning and the weakest economies of southern Europe fear that the flames will come creeping into their own territories.” While Spanish bonds hit 4.52% on November 10, Greek and Portuguese yields surged to 11.65% to 7.33% respectively. “Investors have spent several weeks criminalizing everything that smacks of European periphery,” the Spanish daily notes, adding that “to make matters worse the investment bank Goldman Sachs yesterday requested a rescue plan for Ireland and Portugal from the European Financial Stability Facility.”

Meanwhile, the front pages of Irish press are refraining from such blood curdling pronoucements. However, Irish Independent columnist Lise Hand reports that the mood in the national parliament is bleak. “‘It’s like the last days of the Roman Empire around here at the moment, Taoiseach,” quipped one opposition member to Irish PM Brian Cowen. “And yesterday,” writes Hand, “the Irish bonds soared to hitherto unimaginable heights and some of the uglier Masters of the Universe had the insolence to pronounce on Irish sovereign matters by proclaiming that only a general election would settle international jitters.” “Unfortunately for Caligula Cowen,” she concludes, “the impression continues to build that he is the head of a Nero Government which continues to fiddle about while the homeland burns.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Portugal: International Beijing is Buying Our Connivance

Portugal, a nation battered by the crisis, is welcoming Chinese investment with open arms — as are Greece and France. But there’s a price to be paid for doing business with Beijing: the end the West lecturing China on democracy.

It was a very special Sunday morning indeed. Attended by the entire inner circle of major Portuguese corporate CEOs (Energias de Portugal, Banco Comercial Português, Portugal Telecom) at the Palácio das Necessidades in Lisbon, Chinese president Hu Jintao and Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates made no effort to conceal their satisfaction at the deals just signed by companies from both countries [see box below]. Not a word was said in public about sovereign debt purchases, but Portuguese diplomacy had ample cause for contentment. China is an emerging power to be reckoned with, and a little country like Portugal has everything to gain from a partnership with the Middle Kingdom.

Then again, there’s another side to doing business with Beijing. There is the issue of China’s growing influence in the world — and that of democracy and human rights going by the board. The whole quandary is how to reconcile these two conflicting aspects of the rise of the Chinese leviathan, and there is no consensual answer.

The consequences of rapprochement

Hu Jintao’s visit to Lisbon shows that Portugal is yet another stop on the road to the fulfilment of China’s global ambitions, the reason being that Portugal happens to be a member of the European Union. It would now be absurd to foment fears of economic partnership with China: besides, the Chinese manifestly treat us better than the markets in some democratic countries do.

Still, we mustn’t overlook the consequences of this budding rapprochement between Europe and China. A rapprochement which, incidentally, comes at the very time that Europe and the United States are gradually pulling apart. The geostrategic balance of the whole planet is now shifting in the wake of a war waged with euros, yuans and dollars. And this war spells the death of the Western dream of giving Beijing lessons in democracy. That is the biggest risk of doing business with China. Our oh-so-convenient forgetfulness poses a threat to Europe’s most intangible and yet most important asset: being viewed throughout the world as a realm of freedom.

The contracts and bilateral trade agreements signed by Chinese president Hu Jintao and Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates on 7 October in Lisbon amount to $1 billion (€718 million), according to estimates in the Chinese press relayed by Diário de Notícias. The Portuguese daily explains that Portugal and China signed four cooperation deals and nine trade agreements, involving companies such as Portugal Telecom, EDP, Huawei, Millennium BCP and ICBC. Even though the question of Beijing’s buying Portuguese debt was scrupulously avoided in the official statements, “it was discussed in the meetings that preceded the signing ceremony,” reveals the Lisbon-based daily, adding that “Portugal has already put on the market 93% of its planned bond issues for this year”. Meanwhile, new Portuguese newspaper i observes that the deals with China are but the first step towards the financial recovery of Portugal, which also aims to forge ties with other emerging markets like Indonesia and Singapore.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

USA


Blind Student Saves for Three Years to Buy a Guide Horse Because Her Strict Muslim Parents Consider Dogs Unclean

The 28-year-old’s strictly religious parents would not allow a dog in the house, considering the animal unclean.

But then Miss Ramouni stumbled across a website article about miniature guide horses in April 2008.

‘It was something that I never thought about for myself,’ she said.

The psychology student used three years of savings from her job at a Braille proofreading company to pay for a horse to be trained to act as her guide.

Since welcoming three-year-old guide horse Cali into her Dearborn, Michigan, home last year, Miss Ramouni has seen her life turned around.

Cali measures about 2ft 6in tall and has been taught to stand still indoors. She also helps Miss Ramouni get out of vehicles and move through crowds.

Her proud mistress said: ‘She is an awesome little horse. What I really want is to be able to take her places neither of us would have been able to go without each other.

‘Before Cali, I had given up. I got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m going to get nothing out of my life’. Cali has given me the confidence back I used to have as a kid.’

Born three months premature, Miss Ramouni lost her sight shortly after birth.

Among the challenges she had to overcome in order for Cali to stay at her home were getting a permit to place a large shed in her family’s garden and to find a farrier to look after the horse’s hooves.

Her friends warned her it would be a difficult thing to do.

But Miss Ramouni said: ‘The more everybody told me “No, don’t do it,” the more I wanted to do it,’ she said. ‘I got to a point in my life where I thought… “Why should I settle for something less than I can have?”

‘There have been so many obstacles. People said ‘You’ll never find a vet. You’ll never find a farrier.” I found them all.’

She added: ‘More than even the independence, I found that Cali showed me that there are possibilities.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Ground Zero Imam’s Union City Building is Put Into ‘Custodial Receivership’ Due to Bedbugs, Other Issues

[Note: most reports on this story lead with the following edit:]

The bedbug-infested building owned by the imam embroiled in controversy over his request to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site has been placed into temporary custodial receivership by Hudson County Judge Thomas Olivieri, who cited a lack of improvements as the reason for his decision.

According to Tuesday’s decision, the custodial receiver, Raymond Bulin, will be in charge of using the October rent money to eliminate bedbugs from four apartments, cap sewer lines in the basement and improve the fire escape ladder.

The building, located at 2206 Central Ave., is owned by Feisal Abdul Rauf, who was sued by the city in late September for failing to address multiple health and fire code violations, from moldy bathrooms to a non-working fire alarm system.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Muslim Who Shot Soldier in Arkansas Says He Wanted to Cause More Death

Memphis man drifted to the dark side of Islamic extremism and then plotted a one-man jihad against his homeland

What I had in mind didn’t go as planned but Allah willing He will reward me for my intentions.

He planned for weeks, buying guns secondhand to avoid the FBI.

Then, to test whether the feds were watching, he bought a .22-caliber rifle over the counter at Walmart. He stockpiled ammo and practiced target shooting at empty construction sites.

By his own account, he was preparing for jihad.

From a black Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Memphis native, watched two soldiers in fatigues smoking outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. He aimed an assault rifle out the window and fired.

Muhammad sped away, hoping to flee 150 miles to Memphis where he would switch cars. But a wrong turn in a construction zone led him to police.

He stepped out of the SUV wearing a green ammo belt around his waist.

“It’s a war going on against Muslims, and that is why I did it,” an officer heard him say. “You see how I gave up with no problem.”

Much of this account emerges from police reports and an 18-page mental-health evaluation contained in court files. But Muhammad tells a far broader, detailed story in seven handwritten letters to The Commercial Appeal. Taken together, those letters are not just an admission of guilt but a profession of failure for having not caused more death and destruction.

The letters, written in pencil between May and October, provide a rare glimpse into the thoughts of a self-described jihadist, according to one national security expert. Muhammad describes in his own words how he took his declaration of Muslim faith in a Memphis mosque; his motives for moving to Yemen and his attempt to travel to Somalia for weapons training; how and why he planned multiple attacks in the U.S, including ones in Nashville and Florence, Ky., that didn’t go as intended; and how he allegedly executed the Little Rock assault.

In his own words:…

           — Hat tip: Freyja [Return to headlines]



Still Hating: Our Summer of Islamophobia

After 9/11, Muslims Spent Nine Years Educating Neighbors, Coworkers About Islam

This summer, we rolled over and showed our ugly underbelly.

While hounds bayed over a not-mosque planned for not-Ground Zero, a nutty pastor in Florida threatened to mark 9/11’s ninth anniversary by burning the Qu’ran. People who in times of floods might volunteer to fill sandbags contributed to a different kind of deluge by staging loud opposition to the construction of mosques in their neighborhoods in Tennessee, in California.

We can still hate in America. We have this summer to prove it.

Imam Abdullah Antepli is a former Hartford Seminary student, former Muslim chaplain at Welseyan University, and now Duke University’s first Muslim chaplain. Right after college, Antepli left his native Turkey to avoid pressure to homogenize in a land once proud of its colorful tapestry of cultures.

We are not the same, we won’t ever be, and it suits us better to embrace our differences. As Antepli earned his education around the world, he discovered the golden truth about multi-faith efforts.

“Some of my most transcendental personal moments have not come in a mosque, not when I am dealing with a uniquely Muslim community, but when I am dealing in a cross-religious, cross-lingual society,” Antepli said. “That’s when I say, ‘Oh, my God. There you are.’“

The terrorist attack of 9/11 was a horrible way to be introduced to Islam because that act was not Islam. That was evil, and for nine long — and, up until the summer, fruitful — years, Muslims in this country made important inroads educating neighbors and co-workers about what Islam is not.

There should have been time to talk about what Islam is, but ignorance is an ugly beast and sometimes, the terrorists win. They may not kill our physical selves, but they kill the American tradition of standing together.

And then this cancer of a summer happened, and the beast arose again.

Antepli chose Duke over Princeton or Yale. He was drawn to the opportunity to serve the school’s 6,600 undergraduates, including its 500 Muslim Blue Devils. He became the face and voice of Islam for a land not overly familiar with his religion.

That has been challenging, to say the least. Duke Country is dotted with church signs that say things like “Hell is Full of Fags and Muslims.” Antepli has visited churches where, before he settles into a pew, someone asks him about the virgins he can expect in the afterlife.

In answer, he hands them his Qu’ran and asks them to find the verse that promises virgins. In fact, it’s not there. My response? People generally don’t read their own sacred text, much less the holy verses of someone else. They prefer someone to spoon-feed them their religious beliefs because learning for themselves takes blood, sweat and tears. Ignorance is and ever will be easier. But that’s me talking, not Antepli.

Dawn pierces even the darkest night. As a Duke chaplain, Antepli befriended U.S. Rep. David Price, who invited him to deliver the opening prayer for a House session in March. That, in turn, has led to more contacts in Washington.

“The civic culture we have in this society is one of the best, shariah-compliant, in my understanding of Islamic theology,” Antepli said. “We’ve made huge progress. We’ve inspired the global community with our successes. And we have worked together, but the work is not done.”…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



U.S. Army Cracks Down on Unauthorized Violence

November 8, 2010: The U.S. Army is making changes in how it operates at home. This is in response to major Nidal Malik Hasan’s murder of 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5th, 2009. This was the act of an Islamic terrorist, although the U.S. government initially tried to explain it as just the act of a lone madman. Now it’s realized that this is what terrorist attacks often are. Meanwhile, the investigation of Hasan revealed that he had not made a secret of his beliefs, and that many of his peers, subordinates and superiors had complained about his Islamic radical beliefs and actions. But nothing was done.

Several officers were punished, or investigated, for their role in allowing Hasan to do what he did. But the army also realized that there were institutional problems, and these were addressed, at least on paper, with the newly introduced rules. First, the army is conducting more thorough background checks. Not just to catch actual or potential Islamic radicals, but also gang members or radicals of any sort. This has already caught some questionable recruits, and, based on the few who got into the news, kept some dangerous, although otherwise qualified, applicants out of uniform.

The army is also attempting to deal with the atmosphere of political correctness that underpinned most of the bad decisions that enabled Hasan to stay in uniform, and even get promoted. In the army, as in any large organization, all the rules are not written down. In the army, many of the unwritten rules come in the form of “the commanders’ intent.” Sometimes this “intent” is spelled out, but in many cases, subordinate commanders have to figure it out. In the Hasan case, the commanders’ intent was that Moslem officers, especially doctors, were to be kept happy and in uniform. When in doubt, look the other way, and hope for the best. In the case of Hasan, no one expected the guy to turn into a mass murderer. But, then, Hasan’s superiors were encouraged to be optimistic about their Moslem problem child. So Hasan’s radical rants and abusive behavior towards non-Moslems was, if not ignored, then played down.

Commanders have now been ordered to pay attention to religious or political activities of their subordinates, and sound off if radical or dangerous behavior appears to be in the works. This is a lot to ask from officers who know that some bad publicity not only makes the army look bad, but damages career prospects.

Another new rule is less risky to careers. Given the large amounts of stress troops undergo from numerous tours of duty in combat zones, troops coming back (and going to) combat zones now have to undergo a “risk assessment” (mostly answering questions about their state of mind.) This is something that’s been going on for a while, but now is more intense. This is part of the growing effort to treat PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which has already benefited from the large amount of information collected from troops who have experienced a lot of combat.

Considerable recent research is showing that PTSD is a distinct form of mental distress. For example, research turned up the fact those who had killed someone in combat, were 40 percent more likely to show symptoms of PTSD, or similar symptoms found in those who suffered concussions from roadside bombs. Thus it is becoming clear that there are several different conditions here, all with similar PTSD symptoms, but not with similar effects on the brain. Each strain of PTSD will require a different type of cure. Finding these cures is increasingly important, since better diagnostic capabilities has made it possible to more frequently, and accurately, diagnose PTSD.

Some counter-terrorism researchers see a connection between PTSD and the kind of mental state often found in Islamic terrorists, or those inclined to violent behavior in the name of some religious or political beliefs. The assessments are trying to detect those who are strongly inclined towards unauthorized violent behavior. It’s a tricky business, because soldiers are conditioned and trained to undertake authorized violent behavior. Some of the other changes are needed, or annoying. Bases will improve their 911 (emergency response) procedures, while registration and regulation of private weapons troops keep on base have also changed.

Would any of this have caught Hasan before he went at it with his murderous intentions? Probably. Hasan made no secret of his Islamic radical attitudes. Some of his fellow soldiers reported this, but nothing came of this. Now, at least on paper, something should happen. But, already there are complaints about medical personnel being required to report troops who indicate potentially violent behavior. Civil rights groups are questioning whether the army can punish, or even investigate, troops exercising their constitutional right to free speech or practicing religion as they choose to. Commanders are caught between stopping another massacre, or getting accused (especially in the media, which loves stuff like this) of violating the civil rights of soldiers, and their civilian dependents living on base. Officers will be tempted to back off, rather than risk their career on a hunch. Commanders closest to the potential problem are supposed to pass their findings up the line, with the FBI now sharing this information. But the media will head for the source, and the officers in the line of fire know it.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Canada


Metro Vancouver Ethnically Much Different Than Experts Predicted in 1980s

VANCOUVER — What a startling difference 26 years can make, particularly when you’re talking about immigration patterns in Metro Vancouver.

I recently uncovered an old, yellowing Vancouver Sun clipping by the excellent retired writer, Doug Sagi.

It was a Saturday Sun feature from 1984 headlined: “As Canada’s Faces Change … We Seem to be Growing Up.”

The article detailed how British Columbians were accepting that immigrants were no longer coming predominantly out of Britain but also emerging from Holland, China and India.

At the time, Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney was about to be elected, while Bill Bennett served as B.C. premier, and things seemed to be going smoothly as 90,000 immigrants a year flowed into the country.

Italian Rudy Bonora, head of B.C.’s Brotherhood-Interfaith Society, told Sagi that racism was declining compared to when he arrived in 1956.

“We were called ‘wops’ then and the Chinese were called ‘chinks’ and the Germans were called ‘squareheads.’ You don’t hear that any more.”

In his feature, Sagi remarked on how Metro Vancouverites were enjoying boasting that they have “the largest Chinatown outside San Francisco,” and how residents were revelling in being able to dine out at Greek and Vietnamese restaurants.

This is how Sagi concluded his 1984 essay: “Some of us stop to think we may, possibly, be on the way to becoming quite an interesting country, a cultural mosaic like no other country on earth.”

Well, the future is now. And no one would deny it’s been “interesting.”

It is revealing to reflect on how Sagi and company imagined the ethnic evolution of Canada, particularly Metro Vancouver, and what has actually happened.

For starters, Canada now welcomes 250,000 immigrants a year, almost three times more than in the 1980s.

And when Sagi interviewed immigration officers, they predicted the largest source countries of newcomers to B.C. would be, in order: Britain, the U.S., India, Hong Kong and China.

That wasn’t a particularly accurate guess. Global geo-politics has been transformed by war, economics and changing regimes.

The reality is that the largest source countries for immigrants to B.C. are now, in order: China, India and the Philippines, followed by Iran, South Korea and Britain.

While people of British origin still account for roughly 57 per cent of the B.C. population and Germans make up about 13 per cent, the number of ethnic Chinese, South Asians and Filipinos has grown exponentially.

Meanwhile, Greeks — who once made up the 22nd largest ethnic group in B.C. — have fallen to 37th, behind Iranians.

When Sagi wrote his feature more than 25 years ago, no one seemed to be predicting perhaps the most remarkable shift of all: that eight out of nine immigrants to the province, or almost 40,000 a year, would choose to settle in Metro Vancouver.

As a result, Metro Vancouver — especially Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond and the city of Vancouver — are growing sharply distinct from the rest of B.C. Four out of 10 of Metro Vancouver’s 2.1 million residents now belong to a visible minority.

Where people of Chinese origin made up less than three per cent of the B.C. population according to the 1981 census, by 2006 they made up at least 11 per cent of all B.C. residents, and 20 per cent of all Metro Vancouverites.

Instead of boasting about having “the largest Chinatown outside San Francisco,” Metro Vancouverites now consider Vancouver’s Chinatown a faded enclave compared to the thriving Chinese-language malls in Richmond, where 44 per cent of the population is Chinese.

The so-called “East Indian” population has skyrocketed even faster than the ethnic Chinese community, from just one per cent of B.C. residents in the early 1980s to six per cent.

In Metro, people with roots in India and Pakistan, now referred to as “South Asians,” make up one in 10 people, including a significant one out of four of those who live in fast-growing Surrey.

In the more than 25 years since Sagi wrote his feature on immigration, here are just a few more of the “interesting” things that have occurred in Metro: …

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Austrian Press Likens Turkish Envoy to Debated German Figure

A Turkish ambassador’s remarks on Austrian integration policy have become a hot topic for news media in Austria with a daily likening Kadri Ecved Tezcan to a German figure who recently sparked an intense migration debate with a controversial book.

A columnist for Austria’s Die Presse, which published Ambassador Tezcan’s much-debated interview, wrote that “Austria now has its own Sarrazin,” referring to former Central Bank board member Thilo Sarrazin, who advocates a restrictive immigration policy and the reduction of state welfare benefits for immigrants in Germany.

In an interview with Die Presse, Tezcan said Turkish immigrants in Austria were treated like a virus and that leaders in the nation were not doing enough to help the 250,000 Turkish immigrants integrate. Both Turkey and Austria have played down any tension in ties and have said it was too early to judge the current state of relations as a “diplomatic crisis.”

However, Die Presse said Tezcan’s remarks have already provoked hysterical reactions by Austrian politicians and argued that the outburst revealed a political suppression of the issue. The daily said government officials were offended by Tezcan’s criticism of their political competence in dealing with the integration issue.

“Turkey now perceives itself as a big Eurasian player and does not want to be treated by the Austrian government only as the homeland of guest workers,” it added.

Common perception

Cengiz Günay, a political scientist and Senior Fellow at the Austrian Institute for International Relations, or OIIP, said in an interview with daily Der Standard that Tezcan’s remarks reflected what many in Turkey think given that many are disappointed by the anti-Turkish sentiments in the European Union, he said.

Wirtschaftsblatt, Austrian business daily, noted the harmonious economic relations with Turkey, warning of a possible “diplomatic crisis” in the event of Tezcan’s removal from office or a freeze in Turkey’s EU accession negotiations. “Turkey is booming and is lobbying with growth rates as sweet as Turkish honey,” the daily said.

Meanwhile, Tezcan found unexpected support from local administrations. Helmut Modlhammer, president of the Association of Local Councils in Austria, said he agreed with the Turkish ambassador.

“Local councils, federal states and the federal government, they all have failed in the context of integrating migrants,” Modlhammer said.

He also appealed to governors to be more active and for example aid in the prevention of what he called “ghettoization,” according to a report by Austrian Broadcaster ORF.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Austria: Turkish Ambassador to Keep Post

The Turkish ambassador in Vienna will not be removed from office — despite stressing he would relocate the United Nations (UN) from Vienna were he leader of the international organisation.

Turkish newspapers reported today (Fri) that the country’s government had no plans to dismiss Ambassador Kadri Ecvet Tezcan. The 61-year-old took over as Turkish ambassador in Austria just one year ago, but infuriated political leaders with a string of controversial claims made in an interview with daily newspaper Die Presse earlier this week.

Tezcan said children from families with a Croatian background were mostly doing better at schools in Austria “because they are welcome in the society for being Christians. Turks aren’t — that’s why they are constantly being pushed to the corners of society.”

The diplomat also attacked Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Interior Minister Maria Fekter. Tezcan called on Fekter — who represents the party’s right-wing branch — to “stop interfering” in the integration process. The ambassador said it was no surprise there were just “police solutions” to the issue as long as the current interior ministry was in charge.

All five parties represented in the Austrian parliament but the Greens generally criticised Tezcan for his remarks. Alexander Van der Bellen, the Green Party’s foreign affairs spokesman, however praised the ambassador for his “refreshingly undiplomatic approach” and called on political rivals to openly discuss raised issues.

Turkish dailies have it that the country’s government had no intentions to reprimand or dismiss Tezcan after the interview made headlines across Europe. Heidemarie Gürer, the Austrian ambassador in Ankara, announced today that the Austrian foreign ministry did not ask its Turkish counterpart to dismiss Tezcan.

Austrian ÖVP Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said yesterday that he considered Tezcan’s statements as “insulting”. The foreign minister is, however, understood to be trying to avoid a worsening of the political and economic relationship between his country and Turkey.

Around 150 Austrian firms are currently doing business in Turkey, according to Marco Garcia, the Austrian trade commissioner in Istanbul.

Garcia said the number of Austrian companies considering to start operating in Turkey was on the rise since the country “offers business-friendly policies, safe legal structures and a booming stock market.”

The trade commissioner emphasised Austria was currently the eighth biggest investor in Turkey which started accession talks with European Union (EU) leaders in 2005.

Gastronomy company DO&CO, which is currently quoted on the Vienna Stock Exchange (WBAG), said only a few days ago it would enter the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) next month.

Other major firms doing business in Turkey are oil and gas company OMV, Bank Austria (BA) and electricity provider Verbund.

Meanwhile, ÖVP Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Othmar Karas appealed on the Austrian government coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the ÖVP once more to set up a integration affairs state secretary.

Karas said in an interview with the Kurier newspaper: “Only 10 of the EU’s 27 member states coordinate integration issues in the interior ministry.”

The European People’s Party (EPP) vice president also said: “We got problems (handling immigration and integration issues). They will not be solved by suggesting to banish the ambassador.”

Karas said political decision-makers must face the problems. “Hostility won’t lead to solutions, but mutual respect does,” he stressed.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Demonstrators Protest U.K. Poppy Burnings Outside Mosques

A British imam says he is “deeply hurt” by demonstrations outside two mosques protesting the actions of a Muslim group that disrupted moments of silence during Remembrance Day services and burned models of poppies.

On Friday, a mosque in Portsmouth on the south shore of England, had a poppy painted on the front of the building. On Saturday, protests were held outside two mosques.

“It deeply hurts me,” Muhammed Muhi Uddin told the BBC. “If they [the protesters] talked to us then we would explain where we stand.”

While Uddin said every group has a right to be heard, “it’s a matter of respecting each other.”

He denounced the burning of poppies during Armistice Day ceremonies Thursday.

A group called Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) were behind protests. On Thursday during the two minutes of silence, group members chanted, “British soldiers burn in hell,” and held signs saying, “Islam will dominate” and, “Our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell.”

The group also vowed to disrupt Remembrance Sunday events in England.

MAC says it is “breaking the silence,” on its website. In an audio loop, voices chanting, ‘British soldiers, burn in hell” with the toll of a clock in the background is heard when the website is launched.

There are photos of children with the headline, “British soldiers kill one Muslim child every six hours.”

The group claims that statistic is “based on conservative estimates. Actual figures are likely to be much larger.”

There is also a video that starts with a still of Prince Harry in his military uniform, then shows what appears to be troops beating up and arresting civilians behind a wall. It then captures images of injured children ending with the words “Britain and its allies, the real terrorists.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



EU Grows Weary of Enlargement

For the European press, the publication of the annual “progress report” on prospective candidates for EU accession, has failed to dispel the general apathy that surrounds the question of enlargement.

“The heyday of European enlargement is well and truly at an end”, remarks Les Echos. The French business daily notes that on the 9 November in Brussels “(t)he change in attitude to the issue was apparent in the tone and words used by European Commissioner, Stefan Füle, who presented the report on the status of nine Balkan countries, as well as the applications made by Turkey and Iceland”.

According to the Les Echos, the Commission “has done little to move forward the applications of the nine countries that are knocking at its door, with the exception of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Montenegro (FYROM), which has been awarded the status of candidate — a privilege not conferred on neighbouring Albania, which has been encouraged to do more to protect ‘the stability of institutions and safeguard democracy and the rule of law.’“

“Croatian accession in sight,” announces a delighted Vjesnik in Zagreb. Citing Commissioner Füle, the daily — which is close to the Croatian government — points out that “the last 100 metres of a marathon are always the most gruelling.” Most gruelling of all, Vjesnik notes, will be the last eight outstanding chapters in the 33-chapter negotiating process particularly concerning “the rule of law and the fight against corruption.”

Neither France nor Germany want to discuss the Turkey question

Novi List, another national daily, believes that Brussels “is waiting for Croatia to intensify its drive to combat high-level corruption, and to target scandals involving the ruling HDZ party, which has been accused of extorting funds from state companies.” Ongoing investigations have already implicated a government minister and the HDZ treasurer, as well as former prime minister, Ivo Sanader, who resigned for no apparent reason in 2009. In Poland, Rzeczpospolita argues that, Croatia aside, the EU has been “prudent and hesitant” in opening its doors to the new Balkan candidates. As for Turkey, which remains “an enormous problem for the EU,” the outlook is increasingly gloomy.

In Turkey, the press has barely raised the topic. Could it be that the Turkey is mainly focused on the anniversary of the death of Atatürk (10 November 1938), and is this yet another sign of waning enthusiasm for the EU? Hürriyet emphasises that the Commission was unhappy with Ankara’s failure to consult it on an amendment to the constitution approved on 12 September. The daily notes that the Commission report criticised the election threshold of 10% which parties must obtain if their representatives are to sit in national parliament, since because no EU state has such a harsh rule. According to the daily, this remark, which was absent from the 2008 and 2009 reports, is meant to encourage a greater Kurdish presence in parliament as a means to overcoming obstacles on the minority issue.

In Italy, La Stampa points out that dialogue between Brussels and Ankara “is apparently stalled over legal and political issues: the fate of the Kurds, unresolved disputes with Athens, human rights, and discrimination against women and religious minorities. However, the truth of the matter is that neither France nor Germany want to discuss the issue. And if these two countries are unwilling, no one will be able to put the application made on behalf of the Sublime Porte (ironic reference to the open court of the Ottoman sultan) back on track.”

We were overcome by feelings of weariness

More generally, “the EU has grown weary of enlargement,” notes Gazeta Wyborcza, explaining that apathy has been fuelled by the economic crisis and the significant influx of Romanian and Bulgarian migrants which followed the inclusion of both these countries in 2007. “The French, the Germans, and the Austrians are very reluctant to award rapid approval to new candidates. As a consequence, a number of Balkan governments, discouraged by the dwindling chances of accession in the next 10 years, are more likely to neglect the fight against corruption and violations of the right to free speech,” remarks the Warsaw based daily.

In this context, “the presentation of an annual report on enlargement and accession negotiations has become an empty and cliché-ridden exercise,” argues Der Standard. “Shortly after we ratified enlargement to the East and the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria, we were overcome by feelings of weariness.” The Austrian daily goes on to point out that since then, whenever “the Commission certifies a number of small advances made by candidates like Croatia and Turkey — and more recently Iceland and Montenegro — it also highlights a number of unresolved political and economic problems. In fact, every one of these reports has resulted in heated public debate over Turkish accession.”

The widening rift over the question of enlargement has led us “to overlook fine details,” deplores Der Standard. “It is unfortunate that controversy over Turkish accession has obscured the fact that countries in the Balkans, the enlargement region closest to the Union, have made some major progress. […] And this is particularly important to Austria. We should give up bickering over Turkey and do more to prepare for the inclusion of small Balkan states in the EU — which will probably be well before the inclusion of Turkey.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



France: Excrement Thrown on Church in Avignon

I saw this story late last night while browsing through François Desouche. It’s one of many similar stories of church destruction and profanation. This time, however, the parish priest says it is connected to the recent brutal killings of Christians in Iraq. The following is from the local paper Avignews:

Wednesday, the church of Saint-Jean. Father Gabriel, the parish priest, speaks to the press almost in desperation. For several months his church has been the target of insulting and obscene graffiti, and of excrement… Last week the cypress tree next to the building (photo above) was set on fire, threatening the church itself. For the priest, “these acts have a direct connection with what has been happening in Iraq where Christians are being attacked.” Right away father Gabriel speaks of inter-ethnic tensions and denounces the “climate that is becoming more and more aggressive and violent because of a small group of young persons whose ages range from 12 to 16.” At first, father Gabriel thought it was a matter of “incivilities” by young idle neighborhood youth. Foolishness from teens trying to provoke.

Then, a few days before the burning of the cypress tree, a young person entered the church, in the middle of Mass, urinated on the floor and uttered these terrible words: “We’re going to burn you out, you and your church.” The priest filed a complaint at police headquarters on November 9.

How could such deeds perpetrated against a house of worship, whatever it may be, pass unnoticed by the public authorities? At City Hall, the chief of staff admitted he was “shocked and dumbfounded”. “We learned the facts through the press this very morning,” declared the spokesman at the mayor’s office. Dumbfounded by the deeds themselves but also by the absence of communication and the lack of information between the neighborhood and the mayor’s office… “We traced all the mail received in the office over the last few months, but there is nothing about the Saint-Jean church.”

Another reason for their shock is the fact that the archbishopric did not directly phone the mayor to designate these acts as “intolerable.”…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



George Galloway ‘Can Stand in Scottish Elections’

Galloway can stand for the Respect party in the next Scottish election after it agreed to changes at its annual conference.

The Respect party reversed a policy which stopped it from campaigning and organising in Scotland.

He said he was “buoyed up” by the change and by the party’s “confidence”.

Dundee-born Mr Galloway was elected MP in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in 2005 but failed to win a seat in May’s general election.

He had attempted to secure the nearby Poplar and Limehouse seat in London’s East End as a Respect party candidate.

Respect said it had not previously targeted Scotland because it was already represented by Socialists in Parliament but the political landscape shifted in 2007 when the Scottish Socialist Party failed to return any candidates.

Respect said the change was supported by about 80% of the vote but also said a final decision was yet to be taken on whether the party would fight the election.

Mr Galloway said: “I’m buoyed up by today’s vote and by my party’s confidence, even more so by the sentiment from the overwhelming majority of delegates and from supporters in Glasgow encouraging me to stand.”

           — Hat tip: 4symbols [Return to headlines]



Goodspeed Analysis: Is Jensen What Norway Wants?

Siv Jensen, the 41-year-old leader of Norway’s Progress Party, is something of a curiosity in socialist-inclined Scandinavia.

Her parliamentary office in Oslo sports a bust of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and a small Israeli flag. She brags that her chief political hero is former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

“I think she is one of the toughest politicians ever,” Ms. Jensen said, who has been dubbed a “Norwegian Thatcher,” told the National Post this week, as she toured Toronto after attending an international conference in Ottawa on anti-Semitism.

“She handled some serious reform work in Britain. She may not have been popular at the time, but her reforms still stand.”

A breakthrough politician in her own right, who came within a whisker of seizing power in Norway’s September 2009 elections, Ms. Jensen appears poised to transform politics in her homeland.

With 41 seats in Norway’s 169-seat parliament, she heads the country’s second-largest party and led the Progress Party to winning its highest percentage of votes ever — 22.9%.

She recently changed her formal party title, from the more male-oriented “foreman” to “leader.” But, more importantly, she intends to overhaul Norway’s cradle-to-the-grave welfare system.

“We are a classical liberal party that is very much in favour of market mechanisms,” she said.

“I think those values are applauded by a substantial number of people. They are sick and tired of politicians taking more and more of their salaries in taxes and then redistributing them for whatever reason.

“The problem with this is you make people so dependent on donations through budgets that you end up unable to think for yourself. I want these people to be free, to make their own decisions, to take more control of their own lives. That means they have to take more control of their own income as well.”

It is a message that resonates with voters weary of high taxes and declining social services. But it’s also a message that has shattered the old politics of Europe, which used to be split between a conservative Christian democratic right and the social democratic left.

Europe has experienced its biggest shake-up since the collapse of communism with a surge of support for right-wing political parties such as the National Front in France, the Northern League in Italy, Geert Wilders’s Dutch Freedom Party in the Netherlands, the Swiss People’s Party in Switzerland and Hungary’s Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary.

Last month the far-right Sweden Democrats, a populist, anti-immigration party with neo-Nazi roots, garnered an unexpected 5.7% of the vote in national elections, winning 20 seats in parliament for the first time.

While most new right parties are manifestations of local economic discontent, they share a perceived loss of national identity and an anger over immigrants and outsiders who threaten established cultures.

Ms. Jensen has earned a reputation for taking a hard-nosed stance on immigration. She has demanded immediate curbs to limit immigration to no more than 1,000 people a year and advocates tough new measures to force new immigrants to integrate more fully into Norwegian society.

It should be easy to revoke the citizenship of immigrants who defy Norwegian laws, she said.

“We need to be better at integrating the immigrant population,” she insisted. “I want Norway to be a free country — where everybody has the right to free speech, to experience democracy and is not afraid, where women have the same rights as a man.”

Norway, a small country of about 4.6 million people, is reeling under immigration from Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia and Turkey.

Foreign-born immigrants now account for about 10% of its population.

“In Oslo, the capital, now, almost 25% of the population is foreign-born. And in many schools you will find 95% non-ethnics and, of course, that creates disturbances, problems and debates. Of course, we have problems with integration,” said Ms. Jensen.

“There are demands for not wanting to adapt to the mainstream society. They don’t want to stick to Norwegian law. Some argue that they want to implement shariah laws. In schools children are prevented by their parents from participating in gymnastics or swimming because there are other children there.

“We have forced circumcision going on, forced marriages. We have equality in Norway, but for many young women from certain countries, they don’t experience it. We would like them to.”

In last year’s election, Ms. Jensen received a groundswell of support when she objected to government attempts to accommodate Muslim religious sensitivities and traditions by permitting female police to wear the hijab.

She angrily warned Norway was facing “sneak-Islamization” and accused the other political parties of being cowardly and ignoring the problem.

She has branded radical Islam, a “dark and scary ideology” and declared its defeat “the most important fight of our time.”

“We are not going to allow special demands from any single group in society,” Ms. Jensen promised voters.

“We will enforce Norwegian law and Norwegian rules.”

The Progress Party’s fortunes have soared along with its tough anti-immigrant rhetoric.

In the 2005 election, the party’s television ads showed a long-haired youth in a hooded sweat suit, pointing a gun at viewers.

A caption beneath the picture read simply, “The perpetrator is of foreign origin!!”

At the time, Statistics Norway had compared crime rates and ethnicity and concluded non-western immigrants committed twice as many crimes as native Norwegians.

But Ms. Jensen insists you can’t “win election in Norway on this issue [immigration] alone.” Health care, infrastructure spending and schooling are the main issues people really worry about she said.

Still, strong forceful leadership is important and she has developed a Thatcher-like reputation for firmness in the 13 years she has been in the Norwegian parliament.

She wasted no time castigating the current Norwegian government for being the first in the world to officially recognize Hamas’s hold on Gaza, saying, “You don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Two years ago, her party was the only one in Norway to publicly support Israel during its invasion of Gaza in December 2008. In interviews she has recalled being in Sderot in Israel when it was bombed.

The Progress Party also advocates abolishing development aid to the third world, saying most of the money is spent on “arms and luxury goods” for corrupt elites.

Tax relief tops the party agenda. It wants lower income taxes, lower alcohol taxes, lower taxes on cars and more money for pensioners, police and care for the elderly.

It also favours more oil exploration in the Arctic, to offset dwindling oil and gas reserves in the North Sea, and it questions the need for measures to combat climate change, dismissing predictions of global warming as unreliable.

Party members, who oppose capital punishment, also support proposals to make euthanasia legal in Norway, saying the terminally ill should be allowed to end their lives under controlled circumstances involving at least two doctors.

“The hallmark of a free society is individual liberty,” said Ms. Jensen. “Individual liberty is a fundamental requirement for human progress and prosperity.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: Main Centre-Left Opposition Party Eyes Muslim Vote

Milan, 12 Nov. (AKI) — A leader of Italy’s Islamic community has launched an appeal to Muslims living in the northern city of Milan, urging them to vote in primaries on Sunday to elect the country’s main centre-left opposition Democratic Party’s leader.

The party is currently led by Pierluigi Bersani, and the primaries are an opportunity to gauge current grassroots support for his stewardship. Snap elections are looming in Italy since prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s key former ally, parliament speaker Gianfranco Fini, formed a new party this month and threatened to withdraw his support from the government.

Milan has 208,021 immigrants making up 16 percent of its population — more than double the national average of 6.5 percent, according to a September report by the Milan city council. Many of the immigrants are Muslims arriving from northern Africa.

Abdullah Paolo Gonzaga, who heads the Islamic Relief charity, has issued a call to Muslims in Italy on the Islam-Online.it website, telling them to take part in the Democratic Party primaries to elect the party leader and top regional officials.

A major reason for Muslims to lend support to the Democratic Party is that it backs the construction of an official mosque in Milan. Italy only has one official mosque, the Grand Mosque in the Italian capital, Rome.

“Milan is the Italian city with the highest Muslim population, and which lacks a real mosque, thanks to the current city council,” Gonzaga said, quoted by Islam-Online.it.

Muslims in Milan have for years sought to have their own mosque. The city’s conservative council has offered Muslims a series of makeshift venues to hold Friday prayers, most recently a velodrome on the outskirts of the city, claiming there is no suitable site to build a place for them to worship.

Muslims should also vote for centre-left candidates in local elections next March, Gonzaga said.

“We need to understand this is a major opportunity for Milan’s Muslim community and all its citizens to have a better city, “ he said.

“We have seen years of segregation and and passive acceptance of decisions that are often harmful and which are taken without any prior consultations,” he added.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Free Palestine Protests Against Amos Oz in Turin

(ANSAmed) — TURIN, NOVEMBER 12 — Today the Free Palestine movement protested two times against the Israeli writer Amos Oz in Turin. The first time this morning in the Regio Theatre, where the writer addressed 1,500 students in a lectio magistralis against fanaticism, and in the afternoon in the Luxemburg bookshop of Angelo Pezzana, a member of the Jewish community in Turin. In both cases leaflets were handed out against Israel and two banners were held up. One of these carried the text “Free Palestine. Boycott Israel”, the other listed the names of 1,800 Palestinians who died during the military operation Cast Lead in December 2008. Free Palestine also demonstrated in 2008 against the participation of Amos Oz, David Grossman and Abraham Yehoshua in the book salon, all Israeli writers who are considered to be pro-government. “These people waffle and refuse any debate”, said Pezzana, who added: “only people who are blinded by hate against Israel and deaf for any for dialogue can say, as these persons said today, that Oz is a warmonger”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Jewish People vs George Soros

Difference between a perpetrator and a rescuer. Between a collaborator and a hero

I spent yesterday evening in the company of a man whose grandfather spent much of the Holocaust dressed in a Nazi uniform. The difference between him and George Soros, is that he used that uniform as a disguise in order to find Jewish refugees and lead them to shelter.

And that difference is a profound one. It is the difference between a perpetrator and a rescuer. Between a collaborator and a hero.

Soros did not wear a Nazi uniform, but he might as well have, because he aided in the persecution of the Jews of Europe, without compassion, without guilt and without regret.

Various excuses have been made for his actions, and none of them hold the least bit of water.

Yes Soros was only a teenager at the time. So was my father, who nevertheless escaped to join the partisans, rather than accompanying a Nazi officer in his search for Jewish property he could loot. He had no choice? He certainly had a choice. Even in the worst of times, people still can and do make moral choices. And the choice for everyone, for Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Frenchmen and so on down the line — was to collaborate with evil, or to do the right thing.

George Soros made the wrong choice then. As he has made the wrong choice over and over again. And he has never regretted any of them. And the one thing that clearly emerges from that, is that he has no understanding that evil is wrong. That participating in the persecution and murder of Jews is wrong. He didn’t know it back then, while the Holocaust was going on. He doesn’t know it today, when he helps set up and fund organizations like J Street, whose sole purpose is to help the Muslim terrorists who are murdering Jews today.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Dutch Lesbian and Nigerian Man Arrested at Altar Moments Before Sham Marriage

It was hardly a marriage made in heaven.

She was a lesbian from Holland and he was a man from Nigeria, with no right to live and claim benefits in Britain. Until their wedding was over that is.

But thanks to a sharp eyed vicar, this pair were arrested at the altar moments before they said their vows.

Police and Borders Agency staff hiding in the vestry leapt out and slapped them in handcuffs after a tip-off by the priest, Father Tim Codling.

‘Bride’ Roqsilmar Marti, 28, and ‘groom’ Abraham Akinola, 32, both pleaded guilty in Basildon crown court to conspiracy to commit an immigration offence.

Marrying a citizen of not only Britain, but of any European Union country, gives a non-EU national the right to live, work and claim benefits here.

Such sham marriages are a widespread problem, but Father Codling had become wise to such antics at his Church of England church, St John the Baptist in Tilbury, Essex.

And when the Dutch lesbian and the Nigerian man applied for their marriage banns on June 6 for a church wedding in August he realised the groom had given two different homes addresses on official paperwork.

The authorities were duly informed and lay in wait as the bride and groom arrived for the ceremony.

The court heard on Friday that Marti had been involved in a lesbian relationship for the past eight years, and that her worried female partner had flown to the UK and reported her missing on the day of the fake wedding.

Rotterdam-resident Marti, who speaks limited English, needed a translator in court. Judge John Lodge remanded the pair in custody and asked for reports into their background to be conducted so they could be sentenced at a later date.

A third man, Abdallah Magezi, 35, from Plumstead, south east, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to hold the sham marriage and will go on trial next year.

Father Codling said the number of weddings he carried out in his church had tripled following a Government clampdown of bogus weddings at registrar offices — although numbers noticeably dropped after the August arrests.

He began to suspect many of the weddings he carried out were bogus, but was legally powerless to stop them.

Father Codling said fraudsters were targeting his church because of its growing ethnic diversity and good train links with London making bogus marriage awaydays easy.

He said: ‘I think the vast majority of weddings we have at the church appear to be sham marriages. But the way the legislation works means if someone has been given a wedding licence I have to marry them.

‘We can only stop weddings if we have reasonable grounds to suspect they aren’t genuine.’

He said one suspect bride had stripped down to her underwear and the back of his church, pulled a wedding dress out of a black bin back and put it on, even though it was clearly twice her size.

He caught out another couple because when he asked the bride to repeat the vows, he began reading out train station names and she repeated them back.

And another couple walked off in opposite directions when their wedding was concluded.

Father Codling said: ‘I was asking the bride to repeat the vows and I just knew something wasn’t right.

‘So I started calling out the names of stations on the London to Shoeburyness line — Pitsea, Benfleet and Leigh-on-Sea, and the bride started saying them back to me.

‘She clearly couldn’t understand anything I was saying — I don’t think she even knew why she was in the church.’

Father Codling, 48, said that when he began questioning suspect weddings, his home was broken into and his wife threatened.

Detective Sergeant Andy Harvey of Essex Police said after the arrests in August: ‘Sham weddings are big business with the organisers charging £10,000 or more to arrange ceremonies and to pay ‘brides’ and ‘witnesses’.

‘The UK Border Agency and Essex Police are working closely to crack down on the criminals involved in these activities.’

Sam Bullimore of the Border Agency said: ‘Our immigration crime teams are cracking down on sham marriages all over the country.

‘If we uncover marriages that are not genuine, we will challenge them and prosecute where appropriate. Our main aim is to identify the organisers who profit from and fuel the demand for sham marriages, and destroy their criminal business.

‘We do not expect vicars or registrars to be experts in immigration law or spotting forged documents — that’s our job. But if they have any suspicions about whether a relationship is genuine, we urge them to get in touch.’

           — Hat tip: Bewick [Return to headlines]



UK: Join the Campaign to Keep Greenwich Mean Time

On December 3, MPs vote on the Bill which could abolish Greenwich Mean Time forever. Today, the Mail on Sunday’s Peter Hitchens launches a campaign against it.

Sooner than you think, we could all be living our lives on Berlin Time, an hour ahead of GMT in winter and two hours ahead of GMT in summer.

Such time is fine for that great and historic city, you might say. But Berlin is 580 miles and 15 degrees of longitude east of Greenwich, which means that the sun rises and sets there an hour earlier than it does in England.

The German capital, quite reasonably, does not fix its clocks to the time in Kiev or Minsk. Nor does it seem to suffer greatly by refusing to do so. So why should it be thought sensible for us to live as if we were far further east than we are?

And especially why should the people of the North of England and Scotland do so, when it will mean black darkness till around ten o’clock in the morning in the winter months?

According to Rebecca Harris, a chirpy, enthusiastic young Tory MP, this is a price worth paying for the many sparkling advantages of living our lives in step with Berliners. She believes that later, lighter afternoons in winter — and even later ones in summer — will make the roads safer, make old people less lonely, reduce crime, save energy and boost business.

She has all kinds of studies that appear to prove this, and is supported by a mass of pressure groups that agree with her.

My own impression is that many of these claims are pretty much guesswork. Shifting the clocks about changes less than you might think. The amount of actual daylight remains the same. It is just available at different times of day.

[…]

But Mrs Harris’s well-supported Bill is well on its way anyway, unlike several similar efforts on the subject over the past dozen years. These all ended in defeat, as did the 1968-71 experiment.

But this one is different. An active and busy lobby seems to have got behind this measure, as any careful student of the media will have spotted. How did all those breezy, uncritical articles come to be written? How did the Prime Minister find the time to imply his own support?

It goes before Parliament on Friday, December 3, and if passed it will trigger the first steps towards this momentous change, possibly separating us for ever from the Greenwich Mean Time which we invented.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Man’s Severely Burnt Body Found After Explosion Rips Through Flat

The badly burnt body of a man has been found after a suspected gas explosion ripped through a flat.

Neighbours have spoken of their shock after being woken by a ‘massive bang’ followed by their houses shaking.

The body was discovered in the loft of a first-floor maisonette in Battersea, south London.

After the explosion firefighters battled a blaze but were unable to stop fire devastating the block.

Dominique Fregiste, 17, said she felt her bed ‘shudder’ before she noticed flames billowing from the roof of the property on Crichton Street.

‘I was asleep when the explosion happened and the whole house shook,’ she said.

‘I thought someone had driven into the side of the house with a lorry.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Poor? Disadvantaged? Pull the Other One… The Rich, Rioting Students Are Unmasked

The six-man security team guarding Tory headquarters during the Millbank riot made a 999 call — but had to wait nearly an hour for police reinforcements.

They requested help at 1.50pm when they feared hundreds of protesters — who had broken away from the 52,000-strong march — would storm the building.

But by the time about 30 to 40 officers arrived, it was, according to a source, ‘too little, too late’. The failure to hold off the protesters at 30 Millbank, which is near the Houses of Parliament, was described by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson as an ‘embarrassment’. But the extent of the slow response to the disturbances has not been made clear until now.

The Met knew for weeks that thousands were due to march past the Conservative Party’s offices — but were still caught off-guard by the violence.

‘The security guys working at the building were left feeling acutely vulnerable,’ said a source. ‘There had been a chance for the police to get down in time to protect the building, because the protesters initially grouped outside Millbank Tower next door for 30 minutes, wrongly believing that building housed Tory HQ.

‘But the police didn’t come for nearly an hour and the opportunity was lost.’

Shortly after the first wave of rioters flooded the rear of the building, after forcing a reinforced glass fire door, others smashed down its glass front.

‘It all happened in front of the heavily-pregnant receptionist and she was left very badly shaken,’ said a source.

Over the following three hours, hundreds of rioters entered the building and caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage as they smashed windows, sprayed graffiti and destroyed office equipment.

Since Wednesday’s riot — during which a fire extinguisher was flung from the roof of 30 Millbank, landing inches from police — many questions have been asked about the social make-up of the protesters who occupied the building. Were they an unruly rent-a-mob, hell-bent on violence — or well-meaning students caught up in the dizzying excitement of civil disobedience? Probably a mixture.

On Friday a Guardian writer, John Harris, who does not appear to have witnessed the protest first-hand, wrote of speaking to an unnamed ‘Guardian colleague’ who was there.

He said: ‘He was also unimpressed by talk of an assembly of self-indulgent, bourgeois moaners: time and again, he said, he had bumped into people from such Northern towns as Bradford and Wakefield, who were students at FE colleges, angered to the point of fury by the Government’s axeing of the educational allowance.’

It is clearly difficult to chart precisely the social backgrounds of all 52,000 demonstrators. But after studying the video footage and learning more about some of those whose names have entered the public domain during the week, The Mail on Sunday has established a different picture. It seems the protest was distinctly southern-centred and middle class and that many of those involved had no experience of hardship or disadvantage.

Winchester & Wadham College, Oxford

Dressed in a hoodie, James Norrie was pictured last week at the front of the demonstration at Millbank Tower.

Hours later, the 22-year-old wrote on Facebook: ‘Why all the furrowed-brows over smashed windows from Cameron and Johnson now?

‘They were perfectly happy to engage in such acts with their fellow Bullingdon Club peers, and yet for what? Their own sickening self-indulgence. And yet neither act of vandalism is anything like of the same order of magnitude as what the Con-Dems are seeking to visit upon a whole nation.’

So it may come as a surprise to discover that last summer James completed a degree at Oxford’s world-famous Wadham College where alumni include former Labour leader Michael Foot and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

James was also a pupil at £30,000-a-year Winchester College, said to be Britain’s costliest public school.

His parents have an apartment in a stately home in West Sussex, and his father is majority shareholder in an investment company worth £25 million. James could not be contacted last night.

Fortismere School, North London

Liv Thurley was pictured laughing amid the rubble at the protest last Wednesday — which surprised her headteacher at Fortismere School in the affluent suburb of Muswell Hill in North London.

The 18-year-old lives with her parents in an £800,000 red-brick home.

Fortismere is one of the most sought-after comprehensives in London.

Admissions are so competitive that house prices in the catchment area are up to £150,000 higher than equivalent homes elsewhere.

Headmistress Helen Anthony said: ‘Anyone who absented themselves from school for the march has done so without my permission or knowledge.’

But Liv’s father Kevin, 49, said she had the day off and was probably there ‘because she was curious.’

Esher College, Surrey

Olivia Wedderburn, who admitted climbing on to the roof of 30 Millbank, is an 18-year-old student at Esher College in Surrey. The highly rated sixth-form college’s alumni include actress Keira Knightley.

Wedderburn lives in her family’s imposing £1.8 million townhouse on one of the most desirable streets of genteel Kingston upon Thames.

Her father Peter, 59, was a director of Reed Business Publishing but left to set up Kingston Bridge Communications, a successful events company and a PR consultancy.

Olivia maintains a web log called ‘Whatever Give A S***’ which advises readers to ‘check yourself before you wreck yourself’.

Last night Mr Wedderburn said: ‘I was perfectly happy for her to go. From what I understand she didn’t know where she was.

‘The students moved into the building after smashing their way in and she was carried with them.

‘She went up to the roof briefly but her friend with her had a panic attack and they spoke to the police and they let them leave.

‘An officer took her name but we haven’t heard from them so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.’

Asked how his daughter would afford higher education fees he said: ‘I suppose we’d be contributing but I’d expect Olivia would take out a loan as well.’

St Edmund’s Hall, Oxford

The day after the riot, Sky Herington, a student at Oxford, wrote on Facebook: ‘When they say cutback we say smash Millbank.’

She admitted to The Mail on Sunday she was inside 30 Millbank. Sky, 22, said: ‘I believe in direct action. That is the only way people will wake up and listen.’

Yet her radicalism is a far cry from her elite existence as a student at St Edmund’s Hall, which was founded in 1278 and is said to be Britain’s oldest undergraduate college.

Alumni include Sir Robin Day and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. Her family live in a double-fronted house in Newton

St Margarets in Herefordshire. Sky gained five As at A-Level at nearby Fairfield High School, judged by Ofsted as one of the top ten state schools.

Extinguisher thug an ‘anarchist with dreads’

The thug who hurled a fire extinguisher 70ft off the roof of Tory headquarters is thought to be an anarchist with strawberry-blond dreadlocks in a black jacket — highlighted in TV news footage.

Police are examining the film in the hope of securing evidence to charge him with attempted murder. The extinguisher landed inches from policemen who said they would almost certainly have been killed if it had hit them. Police said the thug was one of a ‘hard core group of anarchists’ on the roof.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]



UK: Police Told to Send Text Messages Because it is Too Expensive to Speak on Their Radios

Police officers are being ordered to send texts rather than speak on their radios because of the sums charged by the firm that owns the police communications network.

While chief constables face unprecedented cutbacks, the company that operates the system on which all the emergency services communicate has seen a massive rise in profits. Last year Airwave Solutions’ profit margin outstripped even that of mobile-phone giant Vodafone.

Airwave’s pre-tax profit was £170 million, a 26 per cent increase on the previous 12 months. It represents an eye-watering return of 45 per cent on the company’s £380 million turnover.

The company’s charges are said to be putting a severe strain on police budgets. Officers in one rural force have been told that a penalty charge of up to £2 a second is imposed as soon as the number of calls they make goes over a pre-arranged limit.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Students Winning Thousands of Pounds in Refunds for Poor Teaching

The financial compensation awarded has so far ranged from a few hundred pounds to £45,000.

And the country’s leading student watchdog has warned that complaints against lecturers and universities are set to rise as the tuition-fee cap increases from £3,290 per year to £9,000.

Student complaints to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), which looks into compensation cases on behalf of students, have doubled since 2005, to more than 1,000 last year.

‘Having looked at the figures, complaints rise as fees rise — that is very likely to happen. That is already a trend we have seen over the past few years,’ said Rob Behrens, the head of the OIA.

The highest amount that the OIA has secured is £45,000, which was awarded to a postgraduate student last year. Some students are calling in their own lawyers to sue universities independently.

A Freedom of Information request by The Mail on Sunday found that universities refunded a total of almost £60,000 to 50 successful claimants last year.

Mr Behrens added: ‘One of the effects of tuition fee rise is that students will act like consumers and will demand more.’

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]



UK: Smith…a Decent Man Who’s Been Conned by the Fake Conservatives

For many years, most British Governments have followed a policy best called Fake Conservatism.

This involves loudly pretending to do what the public wants. But while the country is distracted by these stunts and spectaculars, the Cabinet gets on with its real task of turning Britain into a multi-culti socialist Euro-Province.

[…]

Well, now we have the same thing happening with welfare. Mr Blair’s New Labour Government is ably headed by his understudy David Cameron — while Mr Blair is on leave of absence addressing conventions of lavatory-paper makers. And among its many mini-Blunketts is poor old Iain Duncan Smith, a decent man fallen among liberals. IDS has indeed thought a lot about welfare.

But his colleagues forbade him to think about the real problem. This is that, since the catastrophic Labour Government of 1964-1970, the welfare state has deliberately encouraged parasitism, as well as flooding the country with professional social workers.

Nor can he actually do anything about the suicidal subsidy to single-mother families, which has helped destroy fatherhood and wreck our society.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



West Cannot Defeat Al-Qaeda, Says UK Forces Chief

General Sir David Richards, a former Nato commander in Afghanistan, said Islamist militancy would pose a threat to the UK for at least 30 years.

But he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper a clear-cut victory over militants was not achievable.

The BBC’s Frank Gardner said the comments reflect a “new realism” in UK and US counter-terrorism circles.

Our security correspondent said such an admission five years ago might have been considered outrageous and defeatist.

Gen Richards, 58, took over as chief of the defence staff last month, after a spell as head of the British army.

He is due to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in London later as part of the UK’s Remembrance Sunday commemorations.

In his Sunday Telegraph interview, Gen Richards expressed confidence that al-Qaeda could be contained to such an extent that Britons could lead secure lives.

Gen Richards said: “In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation’s capital.

“First of all you have to ask: do we need to defeat [Islamist militancy] in the sense of a clear-cut victory?

“I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved.”

Gen Richards added: “But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children’s lives are led securely? I think we can.”

He said the best weapon in the battle against al-Qaeda was the use of “upstream prevention” and the promotion of “education and democracy”.

He drew similarities between militant Islam’s “pernicious ideology” and that of Nazi Germany.

Gen Richards also admitted the Afghan people were beginning to “tire” of Nato’s inability to follow through with its promises to the country.

Britain has lost 343 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001 but Gen Richards said their sacrifice had been worth it.

He said he saw no reason for Britain to intervene militarily in other countries like it had in Iraq and Afghanistan but added: “It would be barmy to say that one day we wouldn’t be back in that position.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Mediterranean Union


Brussels-Vienna-Ankara

The good news is that after the 12 annual progress reports Brussels has released on potential Turkish membership, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bagis, heralded that “membership has eventually begun to smell.” And the other good news is that there is no bad news.

As always the report gives everyone something to chew on — something to celebrate, ponder, criticize, give pats on the shoulder over, toast and praise… In modern social science this is called “being analytical.” So be it…

Ironically, Minister Bagis did not hide his “general contentment” over the commission’s report which clearly talked about Turkey’s “failure to revive key reforms in areas including media freedom and human rights.” That “failure” was established after 12 reports from Brussels and eight powerful years of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP. But at least we can now smell membership!

Meanwhile, let’s hope that the Europeans do not copy Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s frequent reasoning and decide to take advice from the Vatican before deciding on Turkish membership. Most recently, Mr. Erdogan proposed taking advice from the Religious Affairs Directorate, or Diyanet, before Parliament moved to set the Islamic headscarf free on campuses.

Shortly after the prime minister’s suggestion, Professor Ali Bardakoglu, Diyanet’s president, said in an interview: “It would be against secularism to seek Diyanet’s advice before making laws. Our duty is to tell what is true about religion. For instance, alcohol consumption amounts to sinning. But it falls into the legislative jurisdiction to say under which circumstances alcohol consumption is illegal.”

Words of wisdom? No doubt. For some reason, I suspected too many typos when I read those lines. There were none. Then I joked to a colleague: “Professor Bardakoglu must be unhappy with his job.”

A week later, news reports told us that Professor Bardakoglu had been fired (and I am writing this several hours before Professor Bardakoglu spoke to the press about his departure).

Apparently, we need bureaucrats with better foresight in order to “smell” EU membership better. One such man is our ambassador to Vienna, Ecvet Tezcan, whose words in Austrian daily Die Presse did not only cause outrage among important Franks like Chancellor Werner Faymann and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, but also caused a mini crisis between Ankara and Vienna.

Pity… My dislike of the Franks who blocked the Ottoman march into the heart of Europe had started to subside after I read in fellow columnist Mustafa Akyol’s piece on Nov. 9 about how generously the Austrians welcomed with open arms and tolerated pious Turkish students. A day later, Ambassador Tezcan’s heart-breaking comments entered the public domain.

Mr. Tezcan was angry with Austria(ns) “because the freedom to swim naked existed but not to wear the Islamic headscarf.” Also, according to the interview published in Die Presse, because “he had been invited only by one Austrian family since he arrived in Vienna a year ago.”

When Die Presses reminded the Turkish ambassador that women’s employment rate in Turkey stood at a poor 39 percent, Mr Tezcan replied: “Oh, but housewifery too is a profession.”

Apparently, Mr. Tezcan is not happy in Vienna. He said that “he would not stay there a moment if he were the secretary general of the U.N. or the OSCE or OPEC.”

Naturally, tensions flared up in Vienna. But according to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, “those words were the ambassador’s personal opinion.”

I personally do not know whom to view with more credibility: a respected ambassador who claims there is no freedom to wear the headscarf in Austria, or a respected journalist who only two days ago praised Austrian freedoms for pious Muslims. I incline towards Mr. Akyol, not because he is an acquaintance and Mr. Tezcan is not, but because the ambassador’s other remarks look a little bit… errr less convincing.

For instance, I had not heard of a profession called housewifery. But if it exists, women’s unemployment rate in Turkey automatically falls to zero. Imagine a country where all of the nearly 40 million women have jobs! I expect the EU’s next progress report to note and praise this.

But I felt offended by the Austrians no matter how warmly they embraced the children of Fethullah Gülen in their beautiful, free country. They should send more invitations to Ambassador Tezcan. Some occasions could be inviting the ambassador to deliver a keynote speech at conferences on employment, women’s rights and diplomatic courtesy.

And a final word of caution to two of the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s heavyweights, Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and Ambassador to Washington Namik Tan: Watch out for your seats as you now have a powerful rival in Vienna!

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt Frees Brotherhood Candidates

Egypt has released three Muslim Brotherhood candidates running for the November 28 parliamentary elections, says a judiciary official.

The three candidates, along with 16 Muslim Brotherhood members, were arrested in the port city of Ismailia on Wednesday and Thursday.

The candidates were released on bail to appear in court at a later date, the official was quoted by AFP as saying on Saturday.

A total of 44 Brotherhood members will be also freed on bail ahead of court hearings on November 20, 21, and 23, AFP reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition movement, holds 88 seats in the 454-seat parliament. Its candidates run as independents.

It plans to contest for 134 out of the 508 seats up for grabs at the end of the month.

The religious-political organization was banned in 1954 — 26 years after its foundation — but has continued to play a key role in Egypt’s political arena.

The government accuses the group of seeking to take over the country and has passed a series of constitutional amendments in an attempt to curtail the Brotherhood’s ability to participate in politics.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Israeli Student Attacked by Palestinians in Italy

Student in Italian university threatened by Palestinian students, one of whom was armed. Police fail to apprehend suspects. Israeli: They shouted ‘slaughter the Jews’

An Israeli student at the University of Genoa in Italy was harassed and threatened by Palestinian students last Tuesday, only to be ignored by the police.

Assaf, a 26-year-old Israeli architecture student, was eating at the cafeteria when Ibrahim Haji, a student from Gaza, came and began taunting him.

“He came towards me, punched me and said ‘why are you looking at me?’ I told him I wasn’t looking at him, and asked him to let me eat in peace,” Assaf said. “A minute later he was back, swinging a fork, and called me in front of everyone to come outside while cursing Israel and declaring his intention to kill.

I understood that I have to avoid this dangerous situation. I told my Italian friends, who were eating with me, that I’m going back to my room so as not to respond to this provocation. On my way out I turned to the cashier and told her, ‘Call the police. You heard the man threatening to kill,’ and she responded, ‘It’s not my job to separate Jews and Arabs.’“

‘I saw death in front of my eyes’ Assaf’s attempt to distance himself from the fight failed. Ibrahim waited for him outside and went for the attack. As Assaf tried to defend himself, Italian passersby stepped in to intervene and held him back. Ibrahim took the opportunity to draw a large kitchen knife. The Italian students tried to stop him.

“I saw death in front of my eyes. I broke free and ran into the storage in the kitchen and locked myself in. After a few minutes more Muslim students arrived and began shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) and ‘Itbach el Yahud’ (slaughter the Jews). Later I understood that there are over 40 angry students there.

The Italians disappeared; they were scared to deal with them. I managed to get myself into the trash facility. I climbed a three-meter wall and jumped. I told myself it’s better to break a leg than to get killed.”

Assaf said that he went to the police but was ignored, until he turned to the community rabbi and additional Jewish families for assistance. “We filed an official complaint with the police, and they even informed the local investigation agency,” said Chaim Amar, a 28-year-old medical student who serves as a security officer at the local synagogue. “Unfortunately, nothing came of it so far.”

According to Amar, the police are familiar with Haji from previous violent incidents. It wasn’t his first time threatening the life of an Israeli student, and he reportedly harasses female Israeli students regularly. “It’s a matter of time before his next violent outburst,” Amar said.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Middle East


IAEA Fears That Syria Will Follow Iran’s Steps

(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 10 — There are growing suspicions that Syria, like Iran, might be developing an illegal nuclear programme. This is the fear of the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, who has said that he is ready to launch a special investigation into Syria as a result of President Bashar Al Assad’s reluctance to grant access to the country to UN inspectors. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Amano said that he was “open to a number of options” with regards to Damascus, and one of them, which is advocated by the United States, involves a special inspection of nuclear sites in the Arab republic.

Refusal by Damascus could lead to Syria being hauled in front of the United Nations Security Council and, like Iran, the country could face sanctions for failing to comply with the IAEA.

Syria’s nuclear history is a complex and mysterious one.

In 2007, Israeli fighter planes bombed a mysterious site along the river Euphrates. Israeli secret agents say that the Dair Alzour power station housed an atomic reactor with components made in North Korea, another country under “special surveillance” by the agency. Yet as George W. Bush recounts in his recently published memoirs, the then US President refused to sanction a raid, provoking the anger of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. An initial IAEA inspection revealed traces of uranium particles, which suggests the possible production of nuclear material. Damascus has since blocked the subsequent investigations requested by the agency. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



‘Islamophobia Rising’

JEDDAH — Growing Islamophobia echoes the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s with US leaders resisting it, but Europeans abetting the trend for political gain, the head of the world’s largest Islamic group said.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said xenophobia directed at Muslim immigrants was taking hold, especially in Europe. Vote-seeking politicians were advancing extremist groups behind the anti-Muslim sentiment.

“This issue has become a political agenda item,” the Turkish head of the 58-member OIC told AFP in an interview, while stressing that Islam was also a European religion. What worries me is that political authorities or political parties, instead of stopping this, or fighting this, some of them are using this for their political ends, to gain more popular support in elections,” he said. — AFP.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Muslim Cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad Arrested in Lebanon

Police in Lebanon have arrested the radical Muslim cleric, Omar Bakri Muhammad, several days after a military court sentenced him to life in prison.

He was tried in his absence, accused of forming a militant group to weaken Lebanon’s government.

Omar Bakri Muhammad was born in Syria and also holds Lebanese nationality.

He lived in the UK for 20 years then travelled to Lebanon in 2005 amid a media storm over the London bombings. The UK excluded him from returning.

The British government said his presence was “not conducive to the public good”.

Lebanese security officials told news agencies that Bakri Muhammad had been arrested at his home in the northern city of Tripoli.

“He is currently being transferred to Beirut,” an official told the news agency AFP.

‘Terrorist acts’ Correspondents say it was not immediately clear why the authorities did not arrest Bakri Muhammad earlier.

He was among 54 people sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment in trials of militants who fought the Lebanese army in 2007.

He was convicted of membership of an armed group aiming to commit “terrorist acts” and plotting to kill Lebanese soldiers.

Speaking to reporters after the sentence was handed down he said he would “not spend one day in prison”.

“I will not hand myself in to any court. I do not believe in the law in Britain as in Lebanon,” he said.

Bakri Muhammad ran a radical Islamist group, al-Muhajiroun, from north London until it was disbanded in 2004.

He provoked outrage after the London bombings in July 2005 by saying he would not inform the police if he knew Muslims were planning such attacks.

He left the UK soon afterwards on what he described as a holiday to see his mother in Beirut, but while he was abroad the British government used its powers to ban him from returning.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia Blocks Facebook Over Moral Concerns

An official with Saudi Arabia’s communications authority said it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn’t conform with the kingdom’s conservative values.

The official said Saudi’s Communications and Information Technology Commission blocked the site Saturday and an error message shows up when Internet users try to access it.

He said Facebook’s content had “crossed a line” with the kingdom’s conservative morals, but that blocking the site is a temporary measure.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam and religious leaders have strong influence over policy making and social mores.

Pakistan and Bangladesh both imposed temporary bans on Facebook this year.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia’s Spot on the Board of UN Women a Sad Joke

NEW YORK—It took years to make the United Nations’ newest agency, UN Women, a reality, and then just one day to effectively kill it.

Death was effected by allowing onto its board a kingdom where women are not just infamously prohibited from driving but are also virtual minors who need a male guardian’s permission to travel and to have surgery — and must be covered from head to toe in public.

As one of two countries guaranteed seats as emerging donor nations, Saudi Arabia essentially bought its way onto the board of UN Women, which is dedicated to gender equality

around the world.

Just three days after securing an automatic seat, Saudi Arabia gave us a reminder of just how oxymoronic its place on UN Women is, when its team showed up at the Asian Games in China without a single woman among the 180-strong delegation.

Iran, another country with a dismal women’s rights record, lost its bid for election to the board of UN Women after furious back-channel diplomacy by the United States and its allies. Still, at the games, which started in China on Saturday, Iran will field 92 female athletes in its 395-strong delegation.

Welcome to the ugly world of wrangling over women’s rights records depending on whether “we” like you or not.

Don’t misunderstand — Iran deserves to be kept out of UN Women. Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi had warned just before the vote that it was a “joke” that her country was in line to get a place on the board. But she said the same of Saudi Arabia, rightly pointing out that its women’s rights record was worse than Iran’s.

It’s not as if the UN was unaware of that abysmal record. After all, who could forget the farce that ensued when a Saudi delegation appeared for the first time before the UN women’s rights panel in Geneva in 2008 and absurdly insisted that women in their country faced no discrimination?

But the most ludicrous claim came when the UN committee asked why Saudi men could marry up to four wives. With a straight face, a Saudi delegate — a man, of course — explained that it was to ensure a man’s sexual appetite was satisfied legally if one wife could not fulfill it.

Not surprisingly, then-UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Yakin Erturk, soon went to Saudi Arabia on a 10-day fact-finding mission.

So where was the outrage on voting day, Nov. 10, as Saudi Arabia’s “generous contribution” landed it on UN Women’s board?

Distracted, at best.

U.S., European Union, Australian and Canadian diplomats had been working hard to kick Iran off the list of 10 countries from the Asian region up for election to the board. Iran — which for weeks has been threatening to stone a woman for alleged adultery — does not belong on the board.

But it was disgusting to hear American ambassador to the UN Susan E. Rice celebrate Iran’s defeat and yet, when pushed on Saudi Arabia, say only that she would “not deny that there were several countries that are going to join the board of UN women that have less than stellar records on women’s rights, indeed human rights.”

Once again, women are the cheapest bargaining chips, thrown on the table to silence and appease allies and “major donors.”

Why are countries such as Saudi Arabia eager to join international bodies like UN Women? Because it translates into clout — membership in a powerful new agency — with very few obligations…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



The Tragedy of Iraq’s Christians is That it Does Not Interest Anyone, Chaldean Catholic Says

Under Saddam Hussein, Christians in Iraq were around a million. Today, more than half have fled, living as refugees in other countries, in particular Syria and Jordan. Those who are left behind feel betrayed and abandoned by the government and the international community, with only one desire, to be able to live and worship in peace.

Birmingham (AsiaNews) — “There is now a real danger that Christians in the Middle East, and in Iraq in particular, of being exterminated, due to both persecution and large-scale emigration,” this according to Dr Joseph Seferta, an Iraqi-born Chaldean Catholic living in Birmingham, Britain, where he is a member of the Commission for Inter-faith Dialogue of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. He gave an exclusive interview to AsiaNews about the difficult situation Christians face in Iraq and across the Middle East. Here it is.

“I belong to the Chaldean Catholic Church, which makes up the majority of Christians in Iraq. Others include Assyrians, as well Syrian, Armenian and Byzantine Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox. Christians under Saddam Hussein totalled some one million, but now only half that number remains in the country, the rest having fled and are living as refugees, particularly in Syria and Jordan.

The atrocity committed by Muslim fanatics, which resulted in dozens of Syrian Catholics dead and dozens of others wounded, was a big blow to the struggling Christian minority. It has been followed by other assassinations of Christians in their homes and shops. All these fanatics (known by various names) in the Middle East and other Muslim-majority countries, are bent on imposing Shari’a and running Islamic states that have no place for Christians in them.

Christians in the Middle East, of course, predate Muslims by hundreds of years and go back to Apostolic Times. Since the 7th Century Islamic conquest, they have been made second-class citizens with hardly any rights at all. They have undergone many waves of persecution, which have greatly reduced their numbers and influence. They suffer prejudice and discrimination on a daily basis, while Muslim minorities here in the West enjoy full rights and have built hundreds of mosques.

Tragically, Iraq’s Christians had nothing to do with the American invasion, but they always wrongly get accused of siding with the “Christian” West. Now they feel both isolated and betrayed by their own government as well as the international community. They have always been model citizens, serving their country in every field, and their only desire is to be left alone to live and worship in peace. But they have become a soft target for extremists.

There is now a real danger that Christians in the Middle East and in Iraq in particular, of being exterminated, due to both persecution and large-scale emigration, unless something is done urgently to stem the tide and save them. Too many cannot bear their suffering any longer and are sick and tired of waiting for someone to come to their aid. People either do not know or do not seem to care about them. Even the recent Middle East Synod convoked by the Holy Father was a disappointment, due to lack of both unity and courage. It is now high time that the United Nations seriously tackle this huge problem, for otherwise we will end up with the catastrophe of an Iraq and even a Middle East devoid of any Christians.

In October 2007, 138 Muslim leaders issued ‘A Common Word between Us and You’, a substantive invitation to Christians to dialogue based on the commandments to love God and love one another, found in the Bible and the Qur’an. The problem is that no such thing exists in the Qur’an.

While love is central in Christianity, it is hardly relevant in Islam. The few Qur’anic verses that mention love mean something that is totally different from the New Testament. In the Qur’an, Allah’s love is conditional upon man’s blind obedience to his laws. Thus, we read in verse 4:107, for example, “Allah loveth not the impious and the guilty.”

Love in the Qur’an is just an attribute rather than a part of God’s very essence (as in “God is love”, 1 John 4:8). The concept of love of neighbour does not exist either. There is only love for fellow Muslims, who, for example, are told in 5:59, “Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends”, and in 9:29, “Fight those who believe not in Allah or his Apostle, even if they are the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] until they submit”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Top Tories Are Accused of ‘Abandoning’ Gay Briton After His Arrest by Syrian Secret Police

Three senior Tories have been accused of ‘abandoning’ a Syrian-born Briton who is being held by secret police in Damascus.

Sebastian Akkam, 31, an openly gay shop owner, has been denied access to UK consular staff since his arrest last month. No reason has been given for his detention.

His brother Mohammed said Sebastian had been let down by British establishment ‘friends’ he identified as MP Alan Duncan and former MPs Richard Spring and Michael Portillo.

The trio have privately expressed surprise as to why their names are being linked to the case.

Mr Akkam, who changed his name from Abdo in tribute to Oscar Wilde’s pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth, runs a shop in Damascus which has a shrine to Wilde — a risky move in a country where homosexuality carries a jail sentence.

As a teenager he was held naked for several weeks and badly beaten by the secret police. In 2006 he moved to the UK and took out citizenship on entering into a civil partnership, now dissolved, with a British man.

Mohammed says his brother was anxious about returning to Syria to visit their sick mother but claims in a phone call last month, Mr Spring, a director of the British Syrian Society, said his passport would protect him.

It is thought Mr Spring met him on a few visits to the shop. Mr Duncan and Mr Portillo also only met him briefly on trips to Syria.

British officials have made great efforts to gain access but believe public protests would be counter-productive. Last night Mr Spring said: ‘This man is fully entitled to consular access.’

Mr Portillo did not return calls, but has said he ‘did not know Mr Akkam well’. Mr Duncan did not want to comment until he had the full facts. The Foreign Office is pressing Syria daily to gain access to Mr Akkam.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Russia


Inquiry Into Police Requests for Data on Moslems Underway in Voronezh Rgn

VORONEZH, November 11 (Itar-Tass) — Prosecutor’s Office of the Voronezh region, some 600 kilometers to the southeast of Moscow, has opened an inquiry into the legitimacy of police requests for registration data on the Moslem believers living in the city of Voronezh, a senior aide at the Prosecutor’s Office said.

The inquiry was opened pending a complaint filed by the leader of a local Islamic religious organization, who said the police had sent in a request to provide personal data on all the Moslems living in the city, the educational institutions where their children study, and the sources providing finance for the Moslem religious community, said the regional prosecutor’s aide, Mikhail Ussov.

The police claimed it needed the data “for examining the situation in Voronezh”.

Ussov said on his part queries of this kind run counter to the law on the freedom of consciousness and religious associations.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

South Asia


“Islamic Love Jehad” Making Inroads Into Jammu: VHP

Vishva Hindu Parishad has termed the recent movement of interfaith marriages in Jammu among Muslim boys and Hindu girls as an “Islamic Love Jehad” to induct Islamic domination in the region. “The exercise contains government patronage as everything is being done openly without any administrative

check to it,’ said Ramakant Dubey, VHP president sounding a warning that if immediate containment is not maintained against the ‘unholy practice’, Jammu people would have to rise for a rebellion.

“The only way to fight against jehad is jehad,” said Ramakant adding that present dispensation instead of making tall claims on national and international levels must look into the state affairs first.

“We submit a request to chief minister to take serious note of the unholy practice and rein in such exercise, failing which, Jammu would be left with no option but to revolt which may lead to damaging consequences,” said the VHP chief.

Quoting a recent example of a Muslim married man of three children in government employment having fleeced a Hindu girl into ‘love trap’ and tried to elope, VHP chief said that since the incident came into light only, many girls in the remote and hilly terrains are being subjected to such ‘jehad’ which is unaccountable.

He also referred to government’s apathy by putting up a deaf ear to the recent incident while acting indifferently in “Rajneesh’s alleged custodial death’ where a Hindu boy had married a Muslim girl and invited administrative ire.

“It is a well planned network of activity which starts with Muslim girls making close acquaintances with Hindu Girls in Jammu province and then paving way for Muslim boys to intrude and fleece the gullible girls into their love traps,” said the VHP chief holding government equally responsible in the act.

He said the practice is still in vogue in Ladakh where a large number of Bodh girls have been converted as the area now have more of Muslim domination than its own identity as Buddhists.

“Same is the modus operandii embarked by the majority community here in Jammu province which is a grave danger towards which parental and administrative vigil is needed round the clock,” said the VHP chief.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



An Ugly Reality — The Persecution of Christians in Malaysia

Under Malaysia’s modern, moderate, harmonious veneer is an ugly truth. What is *really* happening here is that a Muslim government and Muslim religious officials — acting with the state’s sanction — are viciously oppressing anyone who dares to question and/or leave Islam. The regular media even outside of Malaysia won’t touch this issue — Muslims have successfully put their ruthless religious persecution of ‘apostates’ and others beyond the pale and out of public scrutiny. Not that it would much matter to most Malaysians, who either approve their government’s religiously-based persecution, or couldn’t care less.

But the Christian, American-based network CBN is not so easily cowed, and has filed this report on Malaysia’s deplorable treatment of people whose sole crime is wanting to no longer be Muslims.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Living as a Christian in a Muslim nation can carry severe risks and suffering.

CBN News traveled to Malaysia — a country that presents itself as a model for Islamic moderation, yet has many former Muslims who say they are persecuted after finding Christ.

A two-hour journey from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur revealed an isolated encampment where some Christian converts say they’ve been taken in order to be forced back to Islam.

The Malaysian government calls the facilities — retreat centers. Muslims willingly come there to strengthen their faith.

CBN News spoke to one Christian who wanted to remain anonymous, in fear he would be taken back to one of the “faith purification” facilities.

“They were clearly angry and they wanted to kill me, but they did not harm me physically,” he recalled. “I know of many others. They force you to recite Islamic prayers and the Koran, to do all the things you’re suppose to do as a Muslim.”

“They’re trying to force us to believe what we can’t believe,” the man continued. “These re-education centers come from the power of darkness.”

Read the rest if you have the stomach for it.

The outside world probably could not care one bit about any of this, and Malaysians — well, we are cowards or worse, we quietly applaud what our own ‘government’ does. And even if the fragmented opposition PKR took over — an unlikely event to say the least — would they do anything to stop this? You know the answer as well as I.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Chinese Mine in Afghanistan Threatens Ancient Find

MES AYNAK, Afghanistan (AP) — It was another day on the rocky hillside, as archaeologists and laborers dug out statues of Buddha and excavated a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery. A Chinese woman in slacks, carrying an umbrella against the Afghan sun, politely inquired about their progress.

She had more than a passing interest. The woman represents a Chinese company eager to develop the world’s second-biggest unexploited copper mine, lying beneath the ruins.

The mine is the centerpiece of China’s drive to invest in Afghanistan, a country trying to get its economy off the ground while still mired in war. Beijing’s $3.5 billion stake in the mine — the largest foreign investment in Afghanistan by far — gets its foot in the door for future deals to exploit Afghanistan’s largely untapped mineral wealth, including iron, gold, and cobalt. The Afghan government stands to reap a potential $1.2 billion a year in revenues from the mine, as well as the creation of much-needed jobs.

But Mes Aynak is caught between Afghanistan’s hopes for the future and its history. Archaeologists are rushing to salvage what they can from a major 7th Century B.C. religious site along the famed Silk Road connecting Asia and the Middle East. The ruins, including the monastery and domed shrines known as “stupas,” will likely be largely destroyed once work at the mine begins.

Hanging over the situation is the memory of the Buddhas of Bamiyan — statues towering up to 180 feet high in central Afghanistan that were dynamited to the ground in 2001 by the country’s then-rulers, the Taliban, who considered them symbols of paganism.

No one wants to be blamed for similarly razing history at Mes Aynak, in the eastern province of Logar. The Chinese government-backed China Metallurgical Group Corp., or MCC, wanted to start building the mine by the end of 2011. But under an informal understanding with the Kabul government, it has has given archaeologists three years for a salvage excavation.

Archaeologists working on the site since May say that won’t be enough time for full preservation.

“That site is so massive that it’s easily a 10-year campaign of archaeology,” said Laura Tedesco, an archaeologist brought in by the U.S. Embassy to work on sites in Afghanistan. Three years may be enough time just to document what’s there, she said…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Eight Suicide Bombers Killed in Foiled Taliban Plot to Blow Up NATO Base in Afghanistan

Eight attempted suicide bombers who tried to storm a Nato base in eastern Afghanistan have been killed in a two-hour long gunbattle, officials said today.

The Taliban claimed to be responsible for sending the group of militants to the base — their second assault on the Nato base and an adjoining airport outside Jalalabad city in six months.

But Nato forces and Afghan National Army (AN) troops scrambled to suppress the attack in a ferocious dawn gunbattle that saw rocket-propelled grenades launched at two helicopters.

Heavy fire: An Afghan National Army soldier fires during the two-hour long gunbattle that killed at least eight suicide bombers near Jalalabad airport

The battle, which was around 95 miles from Kabul, came as a bomb attack in the north of the country killed a further seven people.

The militants attacked the Afghan army checkpoint outside the Jalalabad base shortly after dawn, sparking a gunbattle that lasted at least two hours and involved Nato helicopters firing from overhead, said Sgt Abdullah Hamdard, a national army commander at the site.

A spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, confirmed the attack and said eight assailants were killed — including two who were wearing explosives vests.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said there were 14 attackers and that 11 of them were killed, though the insurgent group typically gives inflated numbers.

Nato forces said in a statement that the base received fire but initial reports indicated no foreign or Afghan forces were killed.

Aim: Two Nato helicopters and AK-47 rifles were used to overpower the group of Taliban suicide bombers at the military base in Jalalabad

Scrambled: Afghan National Army soldiers rush towards the site of a gunbattle between Nato forces and Taliban insurgents

A photographer at the scene saw three dead bodies laid out, all in Afghan army uniforms, which militants often wear as a disguise.

An AK-47 assault rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and a grenade were laid out nearby.

Mr Abdulzai said the area was secure by late morning and that they had killed all the attackers.

In June, militants assaulted the Nato base with a car bomb, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons but did not breach its defences. Eight militants were killed in that attack.

Aftermath: US and Afghan security forces gather at the site of a previous suicide attack in which three soldiers were wounded in Kabul on November 13, 2009

The base is about 75 miles east of Kabul on the main road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistan border.

In northern Kunduz province a bomb hidden in a motorbike exploded on a busy street in Imam Sahib district, killing seven people.

The bomb was detonated just as a vehicle belonging to a police official drove past. The official — Commander Mohammad Manan — was killed, along with one of his bodyguards and five civilians, said Abdul Qayum Ebrahimi, the district police chief.

Mr Ebrahimi said they believed the bombers had targeted Mr Manan.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Pakistani Bishops Urge Pope to Save Pakistani Woman From Execution

Rome, 12 Nov.(AKI) — Pakistan’s auxilary bishop to Lahore Bernard Shaw has implored Pope Benedict XVI to save a Pakistani woman sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother Asia is believed to be the first woman sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

“We send a heartfelt appeal to the Holy Father to pray, intercede, and speak out on behalf of Asia Bibi,” Shaw said an appeal launched on Friday via Vatican missionary agency Fides.

Shaw called on people around the world to “raise [their] voices, put pressure and use all means necessary” to save Bibi.

Bibi’s relatives announced on Monday there were appealing against the death sentence handed to her on Monday by a court in the town of Nankana, around 75 kilometres from the city of Lahore in eastern Punjab province.

Secretary to the Peace and Justice commission of the Pakistan church, Peter Jacob, condemned Bibi’s sentencing, calling it “an authentic outrage to human dignity and truth.”

Ashiq Masih, who is a field labourer, said his wife was accused of blasphemy after getting into an argument last year with a group of women when she was sent by the wife of a village chief to fetch water.

The other women challenged his wife and said it was sacrilegious to drink water collected by a non-Muslim.

Local clerics raised the issue with the police five days later and Bibi was arrested and charged with insulting the Prophet Muhammad, according to Masih.

Human rights activists want the blasphemy law repealed as they say it is often exploited by Islamist extremists or those harbouring personal grudges.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Asia Bibi’s Conviction is an Incitement to Crime, Says Justice and Peace Official

Peter Jacob, secretary of the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission, said the death sentence is unjust, that it does not take into account how the law is being abused. Nazir Bhatti calls on the government to cancel the sentence as it has done in the past for some of terrorists.

Islamabad (AsiaNews) — “The sentence against Asia Bibi is a veritable incitement to crime. There was never any insult to Islam in the case and the judge did not take into account how the blasphemy law is being abused. So he came down with a harsh sentence,” said Peter Jacob, secretary of the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission, as he spoke to AsiaNews about the death penalty inflicted on a 37-year-old female farm worker by a court in Punjab last Sunday. “We absolutely condemn this way of doing things; we call on the government to intervene and stop the law from being abused,” he added.

Asia Bibi, mother of two, is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy. She has been in prison since last year. The trial judge accepted the prosecutor’s contention that she insulted Muhammad in a heated discussion with colleagues. In fact, all she did was to object to her fellow workers’ name-calling (infidel) and their attempt to get her to renounce Christianity. For this, Asia was beaten and reported to police in Ittanwali (Punjab) who arrested her on false blasphemy charges.

For Nazir S. Bhatti, who heads the Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC), Asia’s case is a clear attack on inter-faith dialogue because she was sentenced to death for her comment on Muhammad, not for any insult to the prophet.

“According to the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president of Pakistan or the interior minister have the power to withdraw any case,” Bhatti said. “There are examples of cases of terrorism withdrawn by the government of Pakistan. Why then the Pakistani administration is silent on Asia Bibi’s sentence?”

“In Pakistan, some 2.8 million Christians are treated as second class citizens, whilst Islamic government feel no shame to release Muslim criminals and terrorists,” he said.

Yet, despite the authorities’ silence, many figures in Pakistan’s civil society, both Christians and Muslims, are mobilising on Asia Bibi’s behalf as well as calling for the repeal of the blasphemy law.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Far East


Japan: Islamic Community Lays Down Roots

Muslims try to shake negative perceptions

Noon prayers at Tokyo Camii, also known as Tokyo Mosque, began peacefully with Imam Ensari Yenturk reciting verses from the Quran, while worshippers, who included a middle-aged Japanese man, bowed and offered prayers toward Mecca.

The Tokyo Camii & Turkish Culture Center in Shibuya Ward, notable for its Ottoman architecture and intricate Arabic reliefs, is one of the mosques located across the nation that serve a small but thriving Muslim community estimated to number around 110,000 to 120,000, including roughly 10,000 Japanese Muslims.

The Islamic community was recently offended by leaked counterterrorism files that revealed police have been identifying Muslim residents as “terrorist suspects,” an embarrassing incident that coincided with a heightened police alert for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that wraps up Sunday in Yokohama.

But despite the incident, the Muslim community solemnly embraces its religion while trying to adapt to Japanese society.

“Terrorism is an activity that Islam doesn’t accept,” said Yenturk, who is also the director of Tokyo Camii, an institution that serves as a cultural hub for those interested in Islamic culture.

This sentiment is shared by many Muslim residents in Japan.

“Myself and many Muslims in Japan love this country and consider it our home. Why would we destroy our own home?” asked Ehsan Bhai, a founding member of the Islamic Circle of Japan, expressing displeasure at the recent leak of police documents.

Tokyo Camii, which was built in 1938 and is the second-oldest mosque in Japan, is open to worshippers and visitors of any nationality. It also hosts classes, Islamic “nikah” marriage ceremonies and conversions to Islam, which require two Muslim witnesses.

While relatively few worshippers visit Tokyo Camii to pray during regular weekdays, Yenturk said 400 to 500 Muslims, many from other parts of Asia, including Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, regularly attend the important Friday noon prayers.

Although Islam is regarded as the world’s second-largest religion after Christianity, Japan’s population remains small compared with their numbers in the United States, where 2.454 million reside, or Britain, with a community of 1.647 million Muslims, according to a 2009 report by the Pew Research Center.

According to studies conducted by Hirofumi Tanada, professor of human sciences at Waseda University in Tokyo, there were 58 mosques in Japan as of April 2009, although he said more were founded recently, bringing the total to around 60.

Most of these mosques do not boast the elaborate decorations and Islamic architecture of Tokyo Camii or the Kobe Muslim Mosque — built in 1935 as Japan’s first mosque — but are funded through donations and situated in nondescript houses and buildings featuring prayer rooms.

Although hard statistics do not exist, Tanada said he believed that besides the mosques, which he defines as being open for services year-round, there are probably over 100 “musalla,” or temporary locations where prayers are performed or congregations held, scattered across the country…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


British Yacht Couple Kidnapped by Somali Pirates Are Finally Released After 388 Days of Captivity

Ransom of $1million believed to have been paid to Somali pirates

Couple released in Ethiopian border town Adado at 4am this morning

A British couple held for more than a year by Somali pirates have finally been released after a ransom was paid.

Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were seized in October last year while sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania, were ‘tired but happy’ after being handed over to officials in Adado.

The couple, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, have now touched down in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, signalling an end to their 338 day ordeal that started when gunmen hijacked their boat.

The couple landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and were handed over to officials from the British High Commission.

In a statement, the family said: ‘Yesterday evening, we received the wonderful news that Paul and Rachel Chandler were to be released by the Somali pirates who had held them in captivity since October 23 2009.

‘The videos that were shown on television earlier this year indicated that they were coping with the conditions and were in relatively good health.

‘But we cannot yet be certain how the difficulties that they have had to endure in recent months will have affected them physically and emotionally.’

‘Throughout the protracted discussions with the pirates it has been a difficult task for the family to get across the message that these were two retired people on a sailing trip on a small private yacht and not part of a major commercial enterprise involving tens of millions of pounds of assets.’

Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, said: ‘We are very pleased at the news.’

Richard Neylon, a lawyer for the Chandler family, said: ‘I confirm that Paul and Rachel Chandler have reached a place of safety.’

TV footage showed Mr and Mrs Chandler, aged 60 and 57 respectively, walking unaided in Adado.

They were released at around 4am this morning at the small town on the Ethiopian border and were given mobile phones to make calls as soon as they entered the safety of the compound housing the administration headquarters.

Mayor of the town, Mohamed Aden, said the couple had been given breakfast.

He told Sky News: ‘They were tired but happy — I am very, very happy. We gave them a cold shower, we have them a breakfast.

‘Then we showed them to the community, and the community showed them they are sorry about what happened.

‘They apologised for the treatment they were subjected to in our neighbourhood.’

A Somali physician who saw the couple, Dr Mohamed Elmi Hangul, told Al Jazeera: ‘Aside from the deep emotional and psychological abuse they endured over the past 13 months, they are doing relatively well.’

Reports suggest that a ransom of up to $1million (£620,000) was paid to secure the couple’s release.

The money is said to have come from a mixture of private investors and the Somali government. The British Government’s policy is not to pay ransom demands.

The Foreign Office has not yet commented on the reports.

The Chandler’s release ends a 388-day ordeal which began on October 23 last year when their 38ft yacht was stormed by armed men.

A last message posted on the couple’s online travel blog read: ‘Please ring Sarah’ — thought to be a reference to Mrs Chandler’s sister.

News of their capture emerged four days later after a pirate contacted a news agency and said ransom demands would follow, sparking a long series of negotiations between the pirates and a host of UK and Somali government officials.

The Chandlers themselves also made a series of appeals for help during television interviews permitted by the pirates.

In them, the emaciated couple told of being beaten, starved and kept apart in makeshift tents.

The pirates also threatened to ‘burn the bones’ of the Chandlers if a rescue attempt was made.

They had been sailing around the world on their yacht, the Lynn Rival, for several years when they left the Seychelles on October 22.

Their route took them near Somali waters notorious for pirate attacks on ships and smaller boats.

After their seizure, the pirates demanded $7million (£4.35million) for their release, but that figure is thought to have dropped towards the $1million mark.

It also emerged that the crew of a Royal Navy vessel was forced to watch the couple being kidnapped.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary replenishment tanker Wave Knight, carrying 75 merchant seamen and 25 Royal Navy sailors, was within sight at the time.

Military officials insisted the crew could not have acted without endangering the couple’s lives.

In November last year, the couple appeared on Channel 4 News to say their captors were ‘losing patience’ and that they could be killed within a week.

Their last appearance came in May, when Mr Chandler called on the new coalition government to make a statement on whether it would assist the couple.

He said: ‘I would like to say “congratulations” to David Cameron first. As the new Prime Minister we desperately need him to make a definitive public statement of the Government’s attitude to us.

‘If the Government can help, and I think they should, then we would welcome that and would they please do so.

‘But either way they must make a statement so that we know where we stand.’

According to Professor Mohamed Omar Dalha, deputy speaker of the parliament in the East African state, the pirates had been on the brink of backing down and releasing the Chandlers on compassionate grounds after their health deteriorated alarmingly.

Hostage negotiator Andrew Mwangura said he believed an initial payment was made two months ago to the gang who have held the couple for more than a year.

He added that it was thought the British sailors were finally released this weekend once a second balance payment had been transferred to the pirates.

The maritime official, who runs the Kenya-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, said: ‘We have been expecting a development for some time and we are now hearing word that the couple have been released.

‘We are still waiting to confirm everything with our sources on the ground, but I believe a significant ransom payment was made some time back — perhaps two months ago.

‘I believe that was followed by a balance payment made this month.

‘If it is true that the couple have been released then that would suggest the pirates have kept their side of the bargain and freed them once the second payment had been transferred.’

Friends of the Chandlers were delighted that the couple finally been released and looking forward to them coming home.

Jacqueline Charlton, a neighbour of the Chandlers, said: ‘It hasn’t really sunk in yet. We can stop wondering now.

‘It’s been such a long time. They’ve been given a punishment worse than most criminals.

‘We’ll be very happy to see them back.’

Mr Chandler’ sister spoke of her ‘happiness’ at the news that her brother and sister-in-law Rachel had been released.

Mother-of-three Jill Marshment, 70, said she was ‘absolutely delighted’ from her home in Bredon, near Tewkesbury, Glos.

Mrs Marshment declined to comment further until she had spoken to the couple.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Libya Says No to Legislation on Asylum and UNHCR

(ANSAmed) — GENEVA, NOVEMBER 12 — Today in Geneva Libya rejected the recommendations, given in the context of a UN examination, to adopt legislation on asylum and to sign an agreement on the presence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the country.

Tripoli also rejected the advice to abolish the death penalty and to guarantee equality to women in word and deed.

The recommendations on asylum and the UNHCR had been formulated by countries like the USA and Canada, as part of the periodical examination of the human rights situation in Libya, last Tuesday in Geneva. Tripoli also rejected the advise to abolish the death penalty, but at the same time delayed its reply to the request to adopt a moratorium on executions ahead of the abolition of the death sentence. Libya — in its answers to the 97 recommendations made by the UN member States during the examination — also rejected the recommendation to adhere to the 1967 Protocol of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. All in all, Libya has accepted 66 recommendations (almost all those that were signed by countries with which it has friendly ties), and rejected 25 (mainly those signed by Western countries). Other requests that were rejected include the equal treatment of women in word and deed, presented by Israel.

Libya announced on June 8 that it will close the UNHCR office in Tripoli; later the presence of the UNHCR was accepted but only to deal with existing cases. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Xenophobia: What’s Gone Wrong in Denmark?

The Danish parliament has recently toughened up laws regarding family reunification for immigrants. German daily Frankfurter Rundschau fears that this marks yet another step towards in an openly aggressive anti-immigrant policy, one which could spread throughout Europe.

Hannes Gamillscheg

Once upon a time there was a small country in northern Europe that was proud of — and esteemed for — its liberal, humanitarian attitudes, which served as a model for others. That country was Denmark. Now the Danish are making headlines with their xenophobic policies and Europe’s harshest immigration regulations, which are a mockery of liberal broadmindedness. They are setting an example again, only the ones applauding them nowadays are from the other end of the political spectrum. “The decisions we are making now will soon serve as a yardstick for other countries too,” boast Danish rightwingers, and past experience shows that may well be true.

Calls to check the influx of “non-Western” foreigners are spreading like wildfire across Europe. And Denmark is spearheading the crusade. The government had already outdone all the others by requiring that spouses from outside the EU be at least 24 years old before even applying for family reunification in Denmark. In future, they will also have to have a certain number of “points” to qualify for admission.

Calling Islam a plague and a terrorist organisation

And the way the scoring system is rigged, non-academics from Third World countries are bound to fail — which is of course the whole point: “Some people are simply not supposed to make it into our country,” says Prime Minister Rasmussen. Copenhagen has already set the hurdles for permanent residency and naturalisation so high that, for all intents and purposes, immigrants without a university degree don’t stand a chance. Henceforth similar regulations will apply to those who assert their human right to start a family. Partners are welcome only if they are of use to Denmark. For the rest, the border’s closed till further notice.

There’s no denying the problems caused by the failed integration of some immigrant groups. But the solutions Danish politicians have been concocting for years have poisoned the atmosphere and nurtured a mindset that would still be unthinkable in most other countries. Where else could members of parliament call Islam a plague and a terrorist organisation, or say Muslims murder their daughters if they can’t hand them over to be raped by their uncles, without being swept out of office by a wave of public outrage? In Denmark even the grossest violations have become so common that most people just shrug them off now. And these immigrant-bashers [the Danish People’s Party] happen to be the faithful majority-makers for the centre-right coalition government.

Few make a stand against the xenophobic mainstream

So the liberalminded role model has morphed into a cautionary tale. How could it come to this? Not for objective reasons, at any rate. The proportion of immigrants from “non-Western” countries is comparatively low, at six per cent; the “ghettos” many of them inhabit are pretty, green housing estates; Denmark is not plagued by unemployment or a high crime rate.

And yet right-wing populists have made it big by relentlessly agitating against immigrants, the right-of-centre parties have already won three elections on the highly effective anti-immigration ticket; and for fear of renewed electoral setbacks, even social democrats and socialists are now toeing the xenophobic line. Only one social-liberal party and one left-wing party, which, combined, hold less than ten per cent of the vote, are making a stand against the xenophobic mainstream.

Empty coffers and recurrent scandals

The upshot is an endless series of laws and rule changes aimed at making life harder for immigrants. And every time it looks as though the crackdown has gone as far as it could possibly go, the government finds yet another screw to tighten: e.g. halving welfare benefits for the first seven years in the country, cutting benefits for parents if their children do not behave. Particularly among youths from hard-to-integrate groups, this ongoing exclusion is breeding a disaffection with Danish society that could morph into hatred. How, even centre-right politicians ask, are these immigrants supposed to integrate if they wake up every morning to hear that they are a problem.

And yet keeping the “migrant problem” simmering has kept the centre-right camp in power for nearly ten years now. With the next elections coming up in 2011, empty coffers and recurrent scandals have dimmed the coalition’s prospects of winning again. So once again they are playing the immigrant card that has already turned up trumps at the ballots three times running — to the detriment of integration and the values that once distinguished Denmark.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Building Bridges With Graffiti Art

Graffiti art seen as resource in addressing issues of multiculturalism, community cohesion.

We hear government officials, academics and politicians talking about the problems of multiculturalism and community cohesion, but I feel they have left one resource untapped when it comes to finding solutions: art. In fact, I often make the bold statement that graffiti art has the power to change the world.

Art that is bursting outside of conventional art spaces, outside of galleries, and is quite literally spilling onto the streets is an amazing means of connecting people. Murals I have painted on busy street corners have brought people together as every day perhaps thousands ponder the messages of the art I create.

Those who have seen my work say it brings together the best of both worlds. My pieces are an amalgamation of two almost opposite extremes, in terms of art forms at least. I take street art, born on the streets of the West, and combine that with a sacred, classical style of Islamic script and patterns — introducing this art form in places where I have permission to paint.

This is my personal attempt at challenging the notion of the “clash of civilisations”. The art I create actually merges two civilisations and communicates a unique message that we can be inspired by spirituality and faith, but that we should learn to apply these to modern life. We can deal with contemporary issues and connect with others in doing so.

In the post-9/11 world, Islam has come under the spotlight and is often portrayed negatively by the media and misunderstood by non-Muslims. Amid the negativity, I feel encouraged to stick my neck out even further, go against the grain and express who I am without any insecurity hindering my efforts. Despite this hype about Islam, I feel good about being a Muslim living in the West. I can be inspired by my faith, yet also contribute to developing a harmonious society.

It’s an important time to challenge these stereotypes and encourage real dialogue between ordinary people with different ideas, identities and backgrounds, not leave it to faith leaders sharing tea and biscuits.

Art is one way of facilitating this dialogue. In my art, I convey principles — peace, justice, brotherhood and respect — that I believe are fading away from our modern societies, but which I highlight to make people aware that they do in fact share common principles. For the average Joe or Jane who travels to work during rush hour traffic, and for local residents who walk past a particular mural every day, I want the walls that carry my messages to come alive and remind people of these shared principles.

Man has forever told his story by carving or scratching his message into a wall in a public space. Graffiti has been around for thousands of years, way before the spray painted subways of New York. So before we throw out the baby with the bathwater and view graffiti as something that is only for mindless youth, I ask everyone to stop and realise that we are all graffiti artists. It is an innate part of man’s nature. After all, when we are on the phone and we have a pen in our hand, what do we do? We create our own graffiti.

Let’s harness the energy and power of the spray can, and use our public spaces to convey something colourful and meaningful to deal with some of the problems we face in the world today.

Mohammed Ali is a UK-based artist whose work can be seen at www.aerosolarabic.com. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: Tribunal Fight for Christian Doctor Axed by Panel in Gay Adoption Row

A Christian doctor ousted from a council adoption panel after refusing to endorse gay couples is taking her case to an employment tribunal, claiming religious discrimination.

In a case that could go all the way to the European courts, Dr Sheila Matthews said there was ‘no reason’ the council could not find a compromise to accommodate her views.

She has now resigned from her £72,000-a-year post as a community paediatrician, claiming her career has been irreparably damaged.

Dr Matthews blames political correctness for creating a ‘hostile climate’ for Christians, adding: ‘It is getting really scary.

‘The anger I feel is not only for me but for lots of other people of faith who feel they have to choose between their beliefs and their job.’

Her case, which starts tomorrow in Leicester, follows that of Eunice and Owen Johns, a couple from Derby who were banned from fostering because of their traditional Christian views about homosexuality.

Dr Matthews says her objections to gay adoption are based on scientific findings as well as biblical teachings.

The 50-year-old mother-of-one was appointed as medical adviser to one of Northamptonshire County Council’s two adoption panels six years ago.

She medically examined couples who applied to adopt to make sure they were healthy enough to provide a child with long-term care. She then reported to the ten-strong panel made up of councillors, social workers and lay people, of which she was a full member.

The panel then interviewed applicants before members voted on whether the prospective adoptive parents should be recommended.

But the final decision in all adoption cases was made by the council’s head of children and young people’s services, who was not bound by the panel’s advice.

Dr Matthews’s problems arose in January 2009 when a gay couple applied to adopt, the first such case since the introduction in 2006 of equality laws that required adoption agencies to consider homosexual candidates in the same way as heterosexual ones.

Dr Matthews, a Christian since she was a teenager, said she had concluded after years of research that gay households were not as good for vulnerable children as a father and mother.

Rather than voting against the gay applicants, however, she told the head of Northamptonshire’s adoption team that she would abstain.

In April last year, however, she was summoned to a meeting with the head of children’s services. A month later, she was removed as a full member of the panel.

In August, the NHS Primary Care Trust, which had allowed her to continue as the medical adviser without voting rights, replaced her in this role. In March this year she resigned.

Dr Matthews said the council had acted unreasonably as only a tiny number of cases involved gay couples, and it would have been easy to allow her to abstain or find a substitute for her on the panel on those occasions.

Her case is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre and she is being represented by human rights lawyer Paul Diamond.

Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, said: ‘It cannot be right that a doctor of such standing is forced from her role on an adoption panel just because of her professional and Christian views.’

A Northamptonshire County Council spokesman said: ‘It is inappropriate to comment on this matter at this stage’.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

General


Phyllis Chesler: The Feminist Politics of Islamic Misogyny

Studying honor killings is not the same as sensationalizing them — but Columbia University professor Lila Abu-Lughod disagrees. Moreover, she believes that indigenous Arab and Muslim behavior, including honor-related violence, is best understood as a consequence of Western colonialism — perhaps even of “Islamophobia.”

On October 25, 2010, at the American University of Beirut, Abu-Lughod admonished feminists who ostensibly sensationalize honor killings, a position which, in her opinion, represents “simplistic, civilizational thinking.” She “warned that an obsessive focus on the so-called honor crime may have negative repercussions” and that “people should be wary of classifying certain acts as a distinctive form of violence against women.” (Her remarks are summarized in a press release published by the university. According to the university, the article on which the speech is based will be published early next year in Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies.)

Abu-Lughod opposed the “concept of clear-cut divisions between cultures, which she viewed as a form of imprisoning rural and immigrant communities,” and suggested that focusing on “honor crimes” allowed “scholars and activists to ignore important contexts for violence against women: social tensions; political conflicts; forms of racial, class, and ethnic discrimination; religious movements; government policing and surveillance; and military intervention.”

What kind of feminism does Abu-Lughod represent? She is a post-colonial, postmodern, cultural relativist, a professor of anthropology and women’s and gender studies who does not believe in universal standards of human rights. However, her allegedly feminist work primarily serves the cause of one nationalism only — Palestinian — and of one tradition only — Islam/Islamism.

Abu-Lughod has long held the positions she expressed in Beirut. According to her 2002 article in The American Anthropologist, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?,” Abu-Lughod believes that wearing the Islamic veil signifies “respectability” for Muslim women. More, it can be “read as a sign of educated, urban sophistication, a sort of modernity.” She writes,…

[Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101113

Financial Crisis
» Bernanke’s Worst Nightmare: Ron Paul New Fed Overseer
» Ireland Has Been Betrayed by Its EU ‘Friends’
» Ireland ‘In Preliminary Talks With EU on Bailout’
» It’s Not the “Great Recession”. It’s the Great Bank Robbery
» Leading Chinese Credit Rating Agency Downgrades USA Government Bonds
» Paul Craig Roberts: Phantom Jobs
» Syria: Youth Unemployment Situation Worsens
» Why World Leaders Smacked Down Obama at G20 Summit
 
USA
» 8 House Races Still Undecided
» America’s Clearest and Present Danger
» CAIR Tells Muslims How to Limit TSA Inspection
» Corrupt MSM Will Reap What it Has Sown
» Dupage Proposal Would Ban New Neighborhood Churches
» Expert: Past 10 Days Have Been Worst of President Obama’s ‘Political Life’
» How to Restore States’ Sovereignty
» How the West is Being Lost
» Muslim Group Advises Women Wearing Hijabs to Allow TSA ‘Enhanced Pat Downs’ Only on Head and Neck Area
» Tax Records Belie CAIR Spokesman’s Claim
 
Europe and the EU
» Autobiography of Danish Mohammed Cartoonist Goes on Sale
» Britain’s Top Soldier Says Al-Qaeda Cannot be Beaten
» Christopher Hitchens: ‘You Have to Choose Your Future Regrets’
» Germany: French Police Deployed at Anti-Nuclear Protests
» Germany Considers Loosening Arms Export Controls
» Germany: Jewish Doctor Refuses to Operate on Nazi Patient
» Italian Aids Vaccine ‘Working’
» Italy: Pompeii to Get Foundation After Gladiator School Collapse
» Italy: Most of Pompeii Site ‘At Risk of Collapse’
» Italy: House of the Vestal Virgins to Reopen After 26 Years
» The Indictment of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff
» UK: Disgusting Islamophobia: Woolas Smears MPACUK With Fake ‘Death Threat’ Leaflet [4 May 2010]
» UK: Election 2010 Success: Four Zionists Taken Out by MPACUK
» UK: MPACUK CEO Zulfi Bukhari: Election Wrap Up [7 May 2010]
» UK: Muslim Tactical Voting Brings UK Election Success [11 May 2010]
» UK: MPACUK Criticises Woolas Appointment [5 October 2008]
» UK: Muslim Fanatics: We’d Burn More Poppies
» UK: Muslim Group Plans Remembrance Sunday Protest
» UK: Oldham Pitt Street Mosque: Phil Woolas’s ‘Religous’ Thugs
» UK: Rolling Election Views From You — the Public! [7 May 2010]
» UK: The JC and the Phil Woolas Affair
» UK: The Sun Finds Poppy Thugs
» UK: Woolas Should Go Quietly
» Vatican: Envoys Set to Travel to Ireland for Abuse Probe
 
Balkans
» Kosovo: Seven Indicted for Human Organs Trafficking
 
North Africa
» Egypt Raises Sinai Alert Level Over Gaza-Bound Terror Squad
» Egyptian Security Attempts to Stop Construction of Church
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Barack Obama: The Most Anti-Israel President!
» Column One: Addressing Our Homegrown Enemies
» Six Years Ago, Yasir Arafat Died; Today His Legacy Still Prevails: No to Peace, No to Compromise
 
Middle East
» De Varthema’s Journey in Mecca of the 16th Century
» Fundamentally Freund: Why is Obama Arming Israel’s Enemies?
» Into the Iraqi Night
» Saudi Arabia: ‘Mecca Metro’ Ready for Pilgrims
» UAE: Nuclear Power in Dubai’s Future
» Yemen: The War on Terror and a Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Taliban Insurgents in Attack on NATO Base
» Are Religious Fasts-Unto-Death Suicide?
» Coup in Pakistan ‘A Real Possibility’
» Malaysia: Boy Caned for Bringing Pork to School
» Repeal Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law
 
Far East
» Disney World in Which Chinese Children ‘Toil for 76 Hours a Week’
 
Australia — Pacific
» Indian Websites Do Your Homework for $2
 
Immigration
» UK: Muslims Vow to Unseat Zionists [8 April 2010]
 
Culture Wars
» The Feminist Politics of Islamic Misogyny

Financial Crisis


Bernanke’s Worst Nightmare: Ron Paul New Fed Overseer

Promises to change House committee’s focus from commemorative coins to monetary policy

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Ben Bernanke has had his hands full since his first day on the job as Federal Reserve chairman nearly five years ago. It’s about to get even tougher.

His harshest critic on Capitol Hill, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, is about to become one of his overseers.

With the Republicans coming to power, Paul, who would like to abolish the Fed and the nation’s current monetary system, will become the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy.

If you’ve never heard of the committee before, you’re not alone. But Paul promises you’ll be hearing a lot more from it.

Paul doesn’t think he’ll be able to move his proposal to eliminate the Fed, or to allow Americans to use gold instead of paper money as currency. But he said he does intend to use his new position as “a mini-bully pulpit” to criticize Fed policy and call more attention to what he sees as its negative consequences. And he’s confident that American voters are ready to delve into those monetary policy questions.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Ireland Has Been Betrayed by Its EU ‘Friends’

The country is now effectively bust — its brutal cuts will have been in vain, says Jeremy Warner.

When politics and economics collide, it is often said, the economics always ends up winning. The curiosity of the euro is that it has managed to defy this otherwise universally applicable rule; the politics somehow continues to triumph over the single currency’s self-evidently flawed economics.

For how much longer can this continue? Events in the bond markets this week make it more or less inevitable that Ireland is going to have to follow Greece in seeking support from the European Union’s new bailout fund. Unlike Greece, Ireland is fully funded through to the middle of next year, so there is no immediate danger of a liquidity crisis. All the same, markets aren’t waiting around to find out: some kind of denouement seems to be fast approaching.

Yields on Irish government debt have rocketed to their highest level since the launch of the euro, threatening to wipe out virtually all the benefit that Ireland has derived from the eurozone’s low interest rate environment.

[Return to headlines]



Ireland ‘In Preliminary Talks With EU on Bailout’

The Republic of Ireland is in preliminary talks with EU officials for financial support, the BBC has learned.

It is now no longer a matter of whether but when the Irish government formally approaches the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) for a bailout, correspondents say.

The provisional estimate for EFSF loans is believed to lie between 60bn and 80bn euros ($82-110bn; £51-68bn).

Dublin says there are no talks on an application for emergency EU funding.

A spokesman for Ireland’s department of finance said the country was funded until the middle of 2011, the public-service RTE broadcaster reported.

RTE had earlier said talks had been held on how a bail-out might happen in a theoretical worst-case scenario.

The European Commission would not formally comment on the matter.

Eurozone officials told the Reuters news agency on Friday that discussions were under way, with one saying that it was “very likely” Ireland would receive financial assistance.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said on Saturday that it had not been asked for aid.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



It’s Not the “Great Recession”. It’s the Great Bank Robbery

In case it’s not crystal clear, this isn’t the “Great Recession”.

It’s really the Great Bank Robbery.

First, there was the threat of martial law if the $700 Billion Tarp bailout wasn’t passed. Specifically, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson warned Congress that there would be martial law unless the Tarp bailouts were approved.

[…]

As I wrote in March 2009:

The bailout money is just going to line the pockets of the wealthy, instead of helping to stabilize the economy or even the companies receiving the bailouts:

  • Bailout money is being used to subsidize companies run by horrible business men, allowing the bankers to receive fat bonuses, to redecorate their offices, and to buy gold toilets and prostitutes
  • A lot of the bailout money is going to the failing companies’ shareholders
  • Indeed, a leading progressive economist says that the true purpose of the bank rescue plans is “a massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives”
  • The Treasury Department encouraged banks to use the bailout money to buy their competitors, and pushed through an amendment to the tax laws which rewards mergers in the banking industry (this has caused a lot of companies to bite off more than they can chew, destabilizing the acquiring companies)

And as the New York Times notes, “Tens of billions of [bailout] dollars have merely passed through A.I.G. to its derivatives trading partners”.

***

In other words, through a little game-playing by the Fed, taxpayer money is going straight into the pockets of investors in AIG’s credit default swaps and is not even really stabilizing AIG.

[…]

But certainly quantitative easing is helping the little guy?

Unfortunately, QE only helps the big banks and giant corporations, and the small number of investors who hold most of the stock. See this, this, this, this and this.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Leading Chinese Credit Rating Agency Downgrades USA Government Bonds

One of China’s leading credit rating agencies has downgraded United States of America government debt in response to what it sees as deliberate devaluation of the dollar by quantitative easing and other means.

If China, now the second biggest economy in the world, stops buying US government bonds this could have a very negative effect on the global recovery. The Dagong Global Credit Rating Company analysis is highly critical of American attempts to borrow their way out of debt. It criticises competitive currency devaluation and predicts a “long-term recession”.

Dagong Global Credit says: “In order to rescue the national crisis, the US government resorted to the extreme economic policy of depreciating the U.S. dollar at all costs and this fully exposes the deep-rooted problem in the development and the management model of national economy.

“It would be difficult for the U.S. to find the correct path to revive the US economy should the US government fail to understand the source of the credit crunch and the development law of a modern credit economy, and stick to the mindset of traditional economic management model, which indicates that the US economic and social development will enter a long-term recession phase.”

The analysis concludes: “The potential overall crisis in the world resulting from the US dollar depreciation will increase the uncertainty of the U.S. economic recovery. Under the circumstances that none of the economic factors influencing the U.S. economy has turned better explicitly it is possible that the US will continue to expand the use of its loose monetary policy, damaging the interests the creditors.

“Therefore, given the current situation, the United States may face much unpredictable risks in solvency in the coming one to two years. Accordingly, Dagong assigns negative outlook on both local and foreign currency sovereign credit ratings of the United States.”

[Return to headlines]



Paul Craig Roberts: Phantom Jobs

If we cannot trust what the government tells us about weapons of mass destruction, terrorist events, and the reasons for its wars and bailouts, can we trust the government’s statement last Friday that the US economy gained 151,000 payroll jobs during October?

Apparently not. After examining the government’s report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reported that the jobs were “phantom jobs” created by “concurrent seasonal factor adjustments.” In other words, the 151,000 jobs cannot be found in the unadjusted underlying data. The jobs were the product of seasonal adjustments concocted by the BLS.

As usual, the financial press did no investigation and simply reported the number handed to the media by the government.

The relevant information, the information that you need to know, is that the level of payroll employment today is below the level of 10 years ago. A smaller number of Americans are employed right now than were employed a decade ago.

Think about what that means. We have had a decade of work force growth from youngsters reaching working age and from immigration, legal and illegal, but there are fewer jobs available to accommodate a decade of work force entrants than before the decade began.

During two years from December 2007 — December 2009, the US economy lost 8,363,000 jobs, according to the payroll jobs data. As of October 2010, payroll jobs purportedly have increased by 874,000, an insufficient amount to keep up with labor force growth. However, John Williams reports that 874,000 is an overestimate of jobs as a result of the faulty “birth-death model,” which overestimates new business start-ups during recessions and underestimates business failures. Williams says that the next benchmark revision due out next February will show a reduction in current employment by almost 600,000 jobs. This assumes, of course, that the BLS does not gimmick the benchmark revision. If Williams is correct, it is more evidence that the hyped recovery is non-existent.

Discounting the war production shutdown at the end of World War II, which was not a recession in the usual sense, Williams reports that “the current annual decline [in employment] remains the worst since the Great Depression, and should deepen further.”

In short, there is no employment data, and none in the works, unless gimmicked, that supports the recovery myth. The US rate of unemployment, if measured according to the methodology used in 1980, is 22.5%. Even the government’s broader measure of unemployment stands at 17%. The 9.6% reported rate is a concocted measure that does not include discouraged workers who have been unable to find a job after 6 months and workers who who want full time jobs but can only find part-time work.

Another fact that is seldom, if ever, reported, is that the payroll jobs data reports the number of jobs, not the number of people with jobs. Some people hold two jobs; thus, the payroll report does not give the number of employed people.

The BLS household survey measures the number of people with jobs. The same October that reported 151,000 new payroll jobs reported, according to the household survey, a loss of 330,000 jobs.

The American working class has been destroyed. The American middle class is in its final stages of destruction. Soon the bottom rungs of the rich themselves will be destroyed.

The entire way through this process the government will lie and the media will lie.

The United States of America has become the country of the Big Lie. Those who facilitate government and corporate lies are well rewarded, but anyone who tells any truth or expresses an impermissible opinion is excoriated and driven away.

But we “have freedom and democracy.” We are the virtuous, indispensable nation, the salt of the earth, the light unto the world.

[Return to headlines]



Syria: Youth Unemployment Situation Worsens

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 12 — The lack of job opportunities and highly qualified personnel needed in the private sector have worsened the unemployment problems that young people in Syria are facing. The conditions for many jobs are seen as unfair, forcing the majority of people to turn to the public sector, according to the website of satellite network Al Arabiyya, which cited data from the statistics office. Eighty-one percent of university graduates, according to official data, wait for four years before getting their first job. This percentage drops to 61% for young people with secondary school diplomas or for those who have taken a professional training course. “The state absorbs about 30-40% of the 250,000 graduates,” commented economic researcher Samir Sefan, who added that the rest look for work in the private sector, which is not growing and which cannot create sufficient job opportunities. The Syrian population, according to a report from the Planning Agency, increased between 1991 and 2008 by 50%. During the same period the percentage of workers in the total eligible working population dropped during the same period from 46.6% to 44.8%. The average employment percentage for the younger segment of the population from ages 15-24 declined from 30.8% of the total workforce in 2001 to 20.4% in 2008. “The main interest for young Syrians is finding a job that can guarantee their future,” according to Bilal Urabi, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Damascus. Finding employment, he continued, is a very difficult task according to young people. As soon as a help wanted add comes out, you immediately find a long line of unemployed people applying. “The high rate of youth unemployment is due,” continued Bilal Urabi, “to demographic growth and an inadequate education system, which does not provide youngsters with the qualities that the private sector demands.” “When we are studying at university,” commented Lama, who recently graduated with a degree in journalism and who works for a small magazine, “we are very optimistic, but after graduating disappointment comes quickly because our qualifications are not sufficient to obtain a job.” The problem, added Lama, is that many of us do not have the necessary “drive to obtain a job”. The majority of young people who are not qualified prefer to work in the public sector because it is seen as safer and more stable than the private sector. “Due to the absence of trade unions in the private sector, employers act at times like ‘father-bosses’ and force us,” concluded Lama, “to work more than 12 hours per day for very low wages.” (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Why World Leaders Smacked Down Obama at G20 Summit

Fresh from his self-described shellacking in this month’s midterm elections, President Obama has gotten pretty much the same treatment from foreign leaders as he has made his way through Asia this week.

Leaders at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Seoul, South Korea — China and Germany topping the list — made it clear that they feel freer than ever to stand up to the United States on global economic issues. And South Korea refused to bow to Obama administration demands for reworking a US-Korea free-trade agreement dating from the Bush administration, putting off conclusion of the trade pact until at least next year.

[…]

But perhaps nothing played a bigger role in lining up international opposition to Obama than the Federal Reserve’s action last week — pumping $600 billion in new money into the economy. The world saw that move as devaluing the dollar to make American products cheaper, rather than as an effort to stimulate US economic growth.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


8 House Races Still Undecided

Republicans gained at least 59 House seats in last week’s election, but they are positioned to win more. While Democratic incumbents hold leads in three of the still-contested races, they trail in five others, with thousands of ballots still to be counted.

Here is POLITICO’s list of undecided races…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



America’s Clearest and Present Danger

Communists eat their own in pursuit of any means to an end. Stalin is the classic example, killing 50 million people under his control through purges, starvation, and any other means to his ends.

George Will stated in a recent writing the opinion that Obama is a spent volcano. The evidence is legion and growing. His swaggering and lecturing foreign leaders is mocked and now routinely rebuffed. His domestic policies ridiculed and reviled. His control of congress crippled. His only remaining usefulness to Soros is that of a rear guard continuation of sowing seeds of diversity within the American populace. Here too his effectiveness is shown by polls to be dwindling precipitously.

Obama has served several functions consistent with ‘Soros’ strategy, the quotation marks indicating that the strategy is a group effort. Their activities represent the classic model of first destabilizing a target government as a prelude to crushing it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



CAIR Tells Muslims How to Limit TSA Inspection

‘They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down’

An Islamic group that was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-funding case is telling Muslim women how to instruct Transportation Security Administration agents at airport checkpoints.

The advisory by the Council on American-Islamic Relations comes amid controversial new requirements set by the TSA for passengers traveling by air either to submit to a nude full-body scan or have a full pat-down that includes private parts of the body.

Now, according to CAIR, those procedures may be for others but not necessarily for Muslim woman.

“If you opt out of the full-image body scanner, you have the right to request that the manual search be conducted in private,” CAIR said on its website. “It is your right to be screened by an officer of the same gender. The TSA states in its Head-to-Toe Screening Policies: ‘It is TSA’s policy that passengers should be screened by an officer of the same gender in a professional, respectful manner.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Corrupt MSM Will Reap What it Has Sown

John Ziegler’s film Media Malpractice — How Obama Got Elected

John Ziegler’s film Media Malpractice — How Obama Got Elected is finally getting the attention it deserves, mainly through the Internet blogosphere. The film exposes the morally bankrupt mainstream media (MSM) for the shameful role it played in having Barack Obama elected as U.S. President.

Many of the contributors to Canada Free Press have been warning for several years that the MSM in both the United States and Canada have abandoned any pretense of unbiased reporting in favor of political activism and propaganda.

What Media Malpractice does is tie it all together in a neat package using the MSM’s own words and images to expose them for what they are, namely liars, duplicitous cowards and ridicule to destroy their victims, ostensibly under the guise of news coverage. If I still worked in that industry I would be profoundly ashamed and embarrassed to call myself a journalist at any level.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Dupage Proposal Would Ban New Neighborhood Churches

Neighbors of a house on Army Trail Road where people come to pray together several times daily want to know why that’s being allowed.

The practice violates DuPage County zoning regulations, but enforcement of the code is on hold while the Islamic Center of the Western Suburbs completes a lengthy permitting process to use the site near West Chicago, now zoned for residential use, as a worship center.

“They are attempting to come out from underneath the violation through the zoning process,” said Paul Hoss, a county planner.

Jackie Sitkiewicz and her husband Ray have a driveway that adjoins the center’s western access point. The couple, who have blocked off their property with plastic cones and railroad ties, are incensed that the five-times-daily prayer continues.

“I’m 64 years old. I have never experienced anything like this in my life,” Jackie said. “When we were told not to do something, we didn’t do it.”

The case has assorted parallels to the Irshad Learning Center, which was proposed for property on 75th Street just east of the Naperville border. After county officials earlier this year turned down the center’s request for a conditional use permit to open an Islamic prayer site and school, they were named in a complaint alleging infringement of constitutional freedom. The 18 County Board and Zoning Board of Appeals members targeted in the suit are awaiting a court ruling on their request to have the case dismissed.

Restricting districts

The county also is taking steps to fend off future struggles between religious organizations and homeowners who don’t want them practicing their faith next door. Designed to encompass places of assembly in general, the proposed zoning code changes face considerable opposition from those who contend they would deny the faithful their right to religious freedom.

The ZBA on Monday will continue hearing what people have to say about the prohibition of group gathering sites in residential areas of unincorporated DuPage. County staff say the proposed modifications would keep intensive uses from taxing the neighborhoods’ finite street, sewer and water networks. Opponents who have spoken up at the two hearing sessions held so far say it would be at odds with a long tradition of religious places comprising a pillar of community life.

According to the Rev. Tim Casey, pastor of the church near Bartlett where the ICWS meets for larger gatherings, the proposal provides no “wiggle room” — for example, sites fronting on busy thoroughfares, that formerly were sleepy country lanes.

Does one size fit all?

The Rev. Linda Tossey, pastor at Community Baptist Church in Warrenville, said some kinds of worship spaces are distinctly well-suited to neighborhoods. Her church hosts a variety of weekday programs, and some participants and congregation members walk to the property. She agrees with the assertion that “mega church” buildings and large synagogues and mosques are better located in nonresidential areas near major roads.

“If this goes into effect, then are we saying there is only one type of church or place of worship that you can build?” Tossey said. “Merely by doing that, you are, by government regulations, really restricting when and where churches may be.”

There’s nothing new about houses of worship operating in people’s backyards. DuPage County has 79 assembly places outside of municipal boundaries, 90 percent of them situated in neighborhoods.

At least a half-dozen churches sit within a mile of the Irshad site, all of them abutting residential areas. A woman who lives on Tranquility Lane, adjacent to The Church in Naperville, said the facility doesn’t detract from her family’s quality of life. The former home has been used as a church since 1989.

“Honestly, it was six or eight months (after we moved in) before I even realized it was a church,” said the resident, who preferred not to have her name published. She added that neither of the much-larger churches that are also nearby creates a problem with noise, traffic or other crowd-driven factors, either.

Tony Michelassi, the County Board member who heads the Development Committee, said work is under way to modify the proposal so it accommodates issues that have been raised in the hearings — including the difference in the infrastructure requirements for a large church relative to a small one.

Islamic undertones

To some who have followed the controversy, apprehension of Islam is a significant issue.

“Certainly I have a concern that it is related to that,” said Tossey, whose church is hosting a four-session seminar designed to better familiarize participants with Islam.

Woodridge resident Tasneem Osmani was more openly critical of the county proposal.

“In essence, the county is banning Islamic groups from practicing in the county,” he said.

But according to the Naperville attorney representing the ICWS, at least part of the problem is that religious spaces aren’t homes.

“There’s an inherent conflict between residential and institutional uses,” said Kevin Gallaher of Nyberg & Cassioppi, who has worked with assorted religious groups seeking to locate in unincorporated areas. “I think it’s more the unknown, because to be honest, once the religious uses have moved in, it seems that everyone has been able to get along just fine.”

The neighbors of the Army Trail location appear disinclined to extend an olive branch just yet. Several of them last week grilled traffic engineer Javier Milan, hired by the ICWS, over his report that no more than seven cars at a time were seen on the site in his seven visits to the location. The project wouldn’t worsen travel on nearby roads, Milan said.

Nearby resident and project opponent Paul Ciolino queried Milan about his other studies, which have included work done for another Muslim organization hoping to locate in the county.

“Do you have a new stream of business dealing with Islamic centers exclusively?” Ciolino said.

Seeking proper fit

Some of those watching the county zoning process believe there’s a better way to accommodate the assorted concerns. Faiyaz Hussain, spokesman for a task force reviewing the proposal on behalf of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, said he doesn’t see “discriminatory animus” as an underlying factor in the proposal. More consideration needs to be given to the different forms a house of worship can take.

“They’re taking a very blunt sledgehammer approach to solve a problem that really needs a more surgical strike,” Hussain said.

Local attorney Mark Sargis, a member of the Wheaton Planning and Zoning Board, has represented opponents of church zoning requests as well as applicants. He cautioned during the ZBA’s hearing against adopting a blanket provision countering the long-standing trend of neighborhood churches.

“Is there a problem that needs to be fixed?” he said. “And if there is a problem, how can it be addressed in the least burdensome way?”

Michelassi also sees the logic in taking a look at honing the zoning to make its impact more precise.

“The task that really lies before the county now is to take all the public comments that have been brought forward and bring them into a policy,” he said, declining to discuss the specifics of the discussions so far. “There’s going to be a lot more work done on this.”

Committee discussions begun more than two years ago recognized that finding a solution would not be a simple matter.

“We won’t be trying to make a one-size-fits-all solution that is perhaps too far-reaching,” said committee member and District 4 County Board member Debra Olson in May 2009.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Expert: Past 10 Days Have Been Worst of President Obama’s ‘Political Life’

WASHINGTON — President Obama is coming home from his overseas trip pretty much empty-handed.

After watching his party take a beating in the midterm elections, Obama wasn’t able to secure even a symbolic victory on a trip that was expected to give him plenty of opportunities to claim a win.

“This certainly was the worst 10 days of his political life,” said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio. “Given that he’s not going to be able to get any domestic achievements with the Republicans in control of the House … if he doesn’t do it in foreign policy that’s a big problem for him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



How to Restore States’ Sovereignty

“What’s Harry Reid done for us lately?”

That question was posed in one of the informal voter opinion sessions in Nevada hosted by Fox News during the recent election cycle. The constitutional response would be: U.S. senators are not supposed to represent the citizens of the state.

When the First Continental Congress was convened via a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation, one of the first issues discussed on May 29, 1787, was the balance of power for a newly created federal government:

[…]

The framers of the Constitution wisely understood the absolute necessity of ensuring we the people would have the right to vote for our representative in Congress, and at the same time because they all jealously guarded freedom and liberty, the states must also have equal representation. We the people would have the ability to remove via the ballot box miscreants and scoundrels, while the state legislatures could recall their U.S. senators who acted against the best interests of their states.

The Senate was supposed to be a sort of check and balance, but that disappeared when U.S. senators began to be voted into office by special interests and mobs demanding more from the people’s treasury. The absolute right of the states to equal representation was wiped out when the 17th Amendment was declared ratified April 8, 1913.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



How the West is Being Lost

Wall Street financial scammer Bernie Madoff’s success stemmed from preying upon people’s trust, coupled with the naïve cooperation of federal regulators who failed to see what was coming. But Madoff’s scam pales in comparison to one being pulled off against unsuspecting Americans with the naïve cooperation of a President similarly disposed. The recent firing of NPR analyst Juan Williams is but one more telltale sign that the scam is working.

Formed in Egypt during the 1920s, the Muslim Brotherhood is an extremist Islamic group. Among its most revered thinkers is the martyr Sayyid Qutb who called for worldwide rejection of Western values before his 1966 execution. Ever since, his writings have radicalized Islamic thought, including that of al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

A 2007 criminal investigation into organizers of a charitable Islamic organization’s terrorist funding links yielded evidence of the Brotherhood’s strategy for implementing Sharia law in the US through gradual erosion of the Constitution. Ironically, this evidence was found in the residence of an unindicted co-conspirator in Virginia—home to many of our Constitution’s framers.

The evidence included the “Ikhwan,” a 1991 document describing the Brotherhood’s work in America as “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” Called the “civilianization-jihadist process,” it requires a “mastery of the art of ‘coalitions,’ the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of ‘cooperation.’“ Audiotape evidence emphasized deception.

The Brotherhood’s mandate is to establish a global caliphate, governed under Sharia. The proposed infrastructure for doing this in the US is via a complex network of benign Muslim organizations, the missions of which are to spread militant propaganda and to raise money. One such group—also an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 case—is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR has proven to be a political correctness (PC) gunslinger, quickly raising the issue to silence any criticism of Islam. After the interview in which NPR’s Juan Williams, obviously still traumatized by 9/11, expressed a personal uneasiness about seeing Muslims on airplanes, CAIR immediately demanded that action be taken against him for “inflammatory comments”—for which he was fired. CAIR’s linkage to the violent Muslim Brotherhood makes its demand about Williams’ comment the ultimate hypocrisy.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Muslim Group Advises Women Wearing Hijabs to Allow TSA ‘Enhanced Pat Downs’ Only on Head and Neck Area

CAIR said Muslims who object to full-body scans for religious reasons should know their rights if they are required to undergo a pat-down, including asking for the procedure to be done in a private place. In addition, CAIR offered a “special recommendation” for Muslim women who wear a hijab, telling them they should tell the TSA officer that they may be searched only around the head and neck.

In the “special recommendations for Muslim women who wear hijab,” it states: “Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Tax Records Belie CAIR Spokesman’s Claim

In a heated exchange over the Juan Williams-NPR flap, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly cornered a senior Council on American-Islamic Relations official into making what appears to be a false statement about the embattled group’s financial dealings.

Kelly asked CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper if his Washington-based Muslim nonprofit organization, an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator recently cut off from FBI outreach, gives money to NPR.

The question was relevant, because, as WND reported, CAIR just days earlier had fired off a letter to NPR urging action against Williams, who it employed as a radio show host. Williams, also a Fox News political analyst, recently confessed on the air that since the 9/11 hijackings, flying with conspicuously Muslim passengers on commercial flights has made him nervous. CAIR was widely credited with pressuring NPR to fire Williams from his radio job for spreading “Islamophobia.”

“Does CAIR contribute to NPR?” Kelly asked Hooper.

“No, we don’t contribute to anybody,” Hooper replied, suggesting CAIR does not donate funds even to Islamic nonprofits and charities.

But tax records tell a different story.

The Holy Land Foundation, recently busted as the main fundraising arm for Hamas in America, commingled funds and assets with CAIR to a degree previously unreported, raising new alarms in the wake of Holy Land’s 2008 conviction on terror money-laundering charges.

As Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism has already revealed, Holy Land provided at least $5,000 in revenues to CAIR as it was starting up operations in the 1990s. CAIR, in turn, solicited funds for the Holy Land Foundation.

After 9/11, as rescue workers were still pulling bodies from Ground Zero, CAIR fooled visitors to its website into contributing to the charitable front by telling them their donations would benefit World Trade Center victims — including New York firefighters. The link it posted actually took contributors to the home page for the Holy Land Foundation — a charitable front for Palestinian terrorists.

Federal tax records also show CAIR’s chapters have donated money directly to the illegal charity. For example, CAIR’s regional office in Northern California sent at least $500 to Holy Land’s post office box in Richardson, Texas, in 1999. Signing off on the transaction was none other than Omar Ahmad, then chairman of CAIR National.

All this is well known, however, at least among jihad watchers.

What has not been reported is that CAIR’s national organization in late 1995 contributed at least $40,000 to a Holy Land subsidiary that also was raided and shut down after 9/11, according to never-before-seen tax records uncovered by investigative journalist and terrorism analyst Paul Sperry, co-author of “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”

The item is revealed on a balance sheet attached to the original corporation franchise-tax return that CAIR filed the following year with the District of Columbia. The subsidiary — InfoCom Corp. — fronted as a Web-hosting firm, and shared officers and funds with Holy Land. In fact, InfoCom was located across the street from Holy Land’s headquarters in Richardson, Texas.

The company was run by convicted terrorist and CAIR-Texas founding director Ghassan Elashi. InfoCom itself was convicted on charges of terror money-laundering in 2004. At least $250,000 in investment capital was funneled through InfoCom by senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, who was designated a terrorist in 1995 and had his accounts frozen. The FBI says he “financed terrorist activities.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Autobiography of Danish Mohammed Cartoonist Goes on Sale

The autobiography of the Danish cartoonist who sparked Muslim outrage by depicting the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb for a turban was quickly whisked off shelves by book buyers when it went on sale Friday.

In Denmark’s western town of Aarhus, the autobiography of Kurt Westergaard had already sold out and book stores there were “desperate” for more copies, John Lykkegaard, the author and publisher of the book, said Friday evening.

Book shop owners “visited me today to get more copies so I even handed out those that were meant for the press conference in Copenhagen on Monday,” he told AFP.

The book entitled “The Man Behind the Line” details the life of 75-year-old Westergaard, and also features a republished version of his controversial drawing that has earned him numerous death threats and assassination attempts.

Westergaard’s cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb-like turban with a lit fuse was one of a dozen first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 that caused violent and in some cases deadly protests the following year.

And the controversy has not gone away.

This past January a Somali man broke into Westergaard’s home and allegedly threatened to kill him with an axe and a knife.

In September a man was arrested after what appeared to be a letter bomb destined for the Jyllands-Posten went off prematurely, causing a small blast in a central Copenhagen hotel. Only the bomber was injured.

Suspected attack plotters against the newspaper have also been arrested in Norway and the United States over the past year.

Westergaard, who recently described Islam as a “reactionary religion” but said he would “stand up for people having the right to practice this religion,” has insisted on the importance of his cartoon in the defence of freedom of expression.

According to the back-cover of his autobiography, the book aims to tell the story of the cartoonist’s life, “and why he cannot give up his fight for freedom of expression.”

The offending drawing figures inside the book, while the cover is adorned with the last caricature Westergaard published in Jyllands-Posten before retiring in June.

That drawing features Westergaard riding a scraggy horse and carrying an oversized fountain pen and notebook, being pursued by a donkey carrying a weight with the words “freedom of expression” scrolled across it, topped with a live bomb and menacing clouds with the crescent moon of Islam lurking above.

Six thousand copies had been printed for the Friday release, although a technical problem meant Copenhagen shops did not receive the books on time Friday.

Lykkegaard nonetheless said 10,000 more copies would probably need to be printed early next week.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Britain’s Top Soldier Says Al-Qaeda Cannot be Beaten

He said defeating Islamist militancy was “unnecessary and would never be achieved”.

However, he argued that it could be “contained” to allow Britons to lead secure lives.

Gen Richards, 58, said the threat posed by “al-Qaeda and its affiliates” meant Britain’s national security would be at risk for at least 30 years. The general, who will tomorrow lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in memory of Britain’s war dead, said the West’s war against what he described as a “pernicious ideology” had parallels with the fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the general disclosed that Prince William was unlikely to serve in Afghanistan but suggested that his brother Harry, training to be an Apache helicopter pilot, could return to front-line duty in Helmand province.

He said the British military and the Government had been “guilty of not fully understanding what was at stake” in Afghanistan and admitted that the Afghan people were beginning to “tire” of Nato’s inability to deliver on its promises.

However, he said the sacrifice being made by the Armed Forces in Afghanistan, where 343 soldiers have been killed since 2001, “has been worth it”. Progress was being made and Nato was “in the right parish”. He said: “Don’t give up folks, it’s all to play for.”

The general also dismissed suggestions that troops badly injured fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan would ever be “forced” to leave the Armed Forces, but said most of those seriously wounded wanted to leave to begin new careers.

He rejected claims by former senior Royal Navy chiefs who said scrapping the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the Harrier force would jeopardise the security of the Falkland Islands. But it is the general’s assertion that victory against militant Islam cannot be achieved that is likely to prove most contentious.

The general said: “In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation’s capital. First of all you have to ask: do we need to defeat it [Islamist militancy] in the sense of a clear cut victory? I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved.

“But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children’s lives are led securely? I think we can.”

He also said the real weapon in the war against al-Qaeda was the use of “upstream prevention” as well as “education and democracy”. The problems that gave rise to militant Islamism were unlikely to be solved soon, he added.

On the issue of future wars, the general said he could see no case for military intervention in other countries “at the moment” but added that he would be “barmy to say that one day we wouldn’t be back in that position”.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Christopher Hitchens: ‘You Have to Choose Your Future Regrets’

Hitchens genuinely believes radical or jihadist Islam to be an existential threat to civilisation. First because it is a pronounced enemy of free speech and social liberty and has succeeded in intimidating and silencing civilians across “an extraordinary number of countries in Europe” and the rest of the world. And second, he says, “because it has potential access to weapons of mass destruction.” In the end, he argues, there are no pain-free options. You have to choose which future regret you’re going to have.

“I was at a Hezbollah rally in Beirut about two and a half years ago,” he says. “Very striking. Everyone should go. But of the many things that impressed me about it, having the mushroom cloud as the party flag in an election campaign was the main one. You wouldn’t want to look back and think, I wish I’d noticed that being run up. Now I can give you all the reasons that it’s bombast on their part. Still, I know which regret I’d rather have.”

There appear to be two main criticisms of this stance. Either people think he’s a bonkers Islamophobe — though many who do were content enough to leave Muslims to their bloody fate in Bosnia — or they believe such antagonistic talk only serves to create the problem it seeks to prevent. Hitchens is contemptuous of the former, but scathing of the latter. He says that those who tell him to tread more softly believe that the price of not doing so is more violence. “Oh I see, so you’re always aware when you’re contesting the holders of this view of the threat that lies behind it? Would you care for their opinions if it wasn’t for that? Or are you telling me you’d be reading their stuff just for the sheer pleasure of it. I don’t think so. If you say that this looks like war, you’re accused of liking it. Not true. Demonstrably not true.”

Demonstrably? Certainly he can sound like he enjoys the conflict. He has said that he experienced “a feeling of exhilaration” while watching the World Trade Centre collapse on 11 September. “Here we are then,” he later recalled thinking, “in a war to the finish between everything I love and everything I hate. Fine. We will win and they will lose.”

He says the exhilaration was born of a sudden if overdue sense of clarity.

“What I felt is that we’d been suffering from all this for some time. And yet people’s main interest seemed to be in ignoring it or denying it, or if they were politicians or soldiers, running away from it: abandoning Somalia, leaving Afghanistan to rot, trying to subsume Islamism into multiculturalism. I thought: until yesterday, they knew they were at war, and we didn’t. And now we do: of course that’s exhilarating. It was the feeling that the somnambulance was over. Of course it turned out to be a very brief wake-up call, followed by a very long nap: ‘Turned over in bed briefly. It’s 8.59? No, it can’t possibly be!’“

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Germany: French Police Deployed at Anti-Nuclear Protests

A row has broken out over the use of French police officers in Germany during last week’s demonstrations against the nuclear waste transport to Gorleben. Meanwhile northern ports cities could refuse to let new waste transports through.

Opposition politicians have criticised the French policing operation as illegal, while Lower Saxony police and politicians were not informed by their federal colleagues, according to Saturday’s Berliner Zeitung.

A note from the Lower Saxony state Interior Ministry seen by the paper says the police force in the state, “was also not aware during the operation that French officers conducted operational duties in uniform and with equipment.”

The activities of the French officers only became apparent after photos merged of the elite unit CRS officers ‘taking action’ against protestors in Wendland, the paper said.

Lower Saxony police managers had no idea of the French officers’ presence, nor of how many there were operating in the area. The paper said that 17 photos show people wearing the French unit’s uniform, “obviously taking steps against demonstrators.”

The operation was being led by the federal police, the paper said, while the French police attaché, who was supposed to be overseeing his countrymen’s actions, lost contact with at least one officer during the operation.

The federal Interior Ministry has admitted the deployment of the CRS officers, with a spokesman saying they were only on site as observers. He said the photos showed the French officers helping the German federal police in an emergency situation. Opposition politicians in Berlin said this was not a credible explanation.

Meanwhile the greens in Hamburg’s state government coalition have said they would refuse permission for a nuclear waste transport heading for Russia to go through the port there.

“We are determined to use all possibilities to prevent the transport and transfer of nuclear waste en route to Russia via Hamburg harbour,” said Jens Kerstan, parliamentary party chairman of the Hamburg greens, GAL, which rules Hamburg in coalition with the conservative Christian Democratic Union.

Kerstan said he would be checking whether the contract with Russia was legally valid and whether a final decision had been made on the route the transport would take from the Westphalia temporary storage facility in Ahaus.

The 18 containers of radioactive waste originated at the East German nuclear research facility in Rossendorf near Dresden, and is planned to end up at the Russian nuclear centre in Majak, in the southern Urals. This has not yet been approved by the German authorities, which are planning to make a safety inspection there.

Environmentalists say a route is being planned from Ahaus to Hamburg via the Autobahn 1, through Lower Saxony and past towns such as Osnabrück, Wildeshausen and Buchholz.

The Bremen state government decided on Thursday to not allow any further nuclear transports to pass its port, while the city of Lübeck decided to ban such transports back in 1990.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany Considers Loosening Arms Export Controls

“Eurofighter,” “Leopard,” Submarine Class 214: Germany is the third largest weapons exporter in the world, despite restrictive guidelines. Now the federal government wants to make arms sales abroad even easier to make up for defense budget cuts at home.

It all started with the French. Years ago, the Defense Ministry in Paris presented an official plan promoting arms exports. The German response? Self-imposed limits. Arms exports should be “restrictive,” according to the “Federal Arms Exports Guidelines” from the year 2000.

The situation hasn’t changed much since. In a recent issue of the financial magazine Wirtschaftswoche, an unnammed head of a German weapons manufacturer complained about the French: “We are the ragamuffins here, and they are the heroes.”

That, though, will soon come to an end.

A recent report from the commission studying the structure of the German military, led by Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of the Federal Labor Agency, states that the German defense industry will “depend more than before on their exports and civilian use of their products.” The commission forwarded a recommendation to Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) for the “alignment of national arms exports guidelines to European standards.”

“Export, Export, Export”

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), is alarmed. For 11 years, she was Germany’s development minister and sat on the so-called “Federal Security Council,” a group which decided on what weapons exports to allow, and to where. Wieczorek-Zeul told SPIEGEL ONLINE, that she fears “those who are now talking about aligning with EU partners only want to find a way around Germany’s restrictive arms exports laws.” For her, the coalition agreement between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) only has one goal in its chapter on arms, and that is: “Export, Export, Export.”

The coalition agreement reads: “We are committed to current arms export regulations and will continue to advocate the harmonization of arms export directives within the EU. We actively support fair competition in Europe.” The idea is to remove bureacratic red tape and speed up administrative procedures.

Elke Hoff, the defense policy spokeswoman for the FDP fraction in German parliament, finds many similarities between the recommendations of the Weise commission and the proposals included in the German government’s coalition agreement. They are so sensible, she said, that they could have “almost come directly out of our coalition agreement.”

Hoff can’t comprehend why her opponents are so agitated. “If we weren’t interested in selling German armaments to friendly nations, then we could shut down our defense industry right away, “ she says. “But we want to hold on to the jobs.” In all, about 80,000 German workers are employed in the defense industry, and another 10,000 jobs are tied to subcontractors.

Trade unions in Germany are estimating that Defense Minister Guttenberg seeks to cut the German military’s procurement budget by some €9 billion in coming years. Last Wednesday, in the Bavarian town of Manching, more than 2,000 employees of the defense company Cassidian (a division of the EADS Corporation) demonstrated against proposed cuts to the defense budget. A representative from the union IG Metall warned that the cuts could result in 10,000 lost jobs in Germany.

Are arms exports to provide a way out of this dilemma?

Florian Hahn, a defense expert from the Christian Social Union (CSU) — the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats — says, “because the domestic market will shrink due to the military reforms, we must actively support arms exports. Other nations are ahead of us on this.”

In India, for example, he says much too little is being done to advertise the “Eurofighter,” the European designed-and-built fighter plane. The Indians are currently interested in buying 126 fighter jets, a contract worth more than €10 billion. The European plane manufacturer EADS is competing with the Americans, Russians, French and Swedish for the contract. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle offered assurances during his visit to India in October that Germany has the “best and most reliable technology.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Jewish Doctor Refuses to Operate on Nazi Patient

A Jewish doctor in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Paderborn has reportedly walked out of a surgery after discovering a Nazi tattoo on the arm of a patient.

A 36-year-old man needing an operation was tattooed with the image of the Reichsadler, or Imperial Eagle, perched upon a swastika, daily Bild reported on Friday.

The patient’s 46-year-old doctor said he could not reconcile proceeding with the surgery with his conscience, the paper reported.

“I will not operate on your husband,” the doctor told the man’s wife. “I’m Jewish.”

The doctor then had another physician finish the procedure, Bild reported.

Since the end of World War II the public display of Nazi party symbols, such as the swastika, have been forbidden in Germany, and carries punishment of up to three years in prison. The eagle, which was a German national symbol long before the Third Reich, is now called the Bundesadler.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italian Aids Vaccine ‘Working’

Research chief Ensoli ‘thrilled’ by results

(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — A ground-breaking Italian AIDS vaccine appears to be working, researchers said Friday.

“We have seen the vaccine reach parts where drugs cannot go,” said lead researcher Barabara Ensoli of the Higher Health Institute (ISS).

It was “thrilling” to see the results, which have been published in the Plos One journal, she said.

“The vaccine seems to bring the immune system back into kilter”. Testing is currently at the second stage and should be completed “with another 160 patients,” Ensoli said.

“Even so, we decided to publish now because we have achieved statistically significant results very quickly,” said the researcher, who has been working on the vaccine for 10 years.

Ensoli noted that 48 weeks after the vaccine was given to the volunteers, “their parameters are still improving and it appears we have managed to stop the damage”.

ISS Chair Enrico Garaci said the results “corroborate our efforts” and “confirm our model of research, from the lab bench to the patient’s bed”.

He made an appeal to private and public bodies for funding to complete the current round of tests.

The second stage of testing began in late 2008 in ten centres across Italy with 128 HIV-positive people between the ages of 18 and 55, both men and women.

In 2006 Ensoli ended the first phase of research and reported that her AIDS vaccine had passed its initial tests with flying colours.

She said all the Italian volunteers had shown a “100% response to the vaccine by producing specific antibodies”.

Ensoli’s vaccine is considered ground-breaking because it adopts a new approach to fighting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Traditional vaccines seek to bolster the immune system, the aim being to boost the body’s ability to fight off the disease.

This approach, however, has been relatively unsuccessful against HIV, a virus good at mutating and reviving itself.

Ensoli’s ‘tat-protein’ vaccine, on the other hand, attempts to block the spread of the infection and prevent the reproduction of infected cells.

Ensoli believes the HIV virus needs tat-proteins to be able to take root and spread.

By targeting tat-proteins her treatment might be effective against all strains of HIV.

Results from studies of the vaccine on laboratory animals have shown the treatment could be a vital step forward in the fight against AIDS.

The vaccine — described by eminent oncologist and former health minister Umberto Veronesi as “intelligent” — received the green light for human testing in 2003.

Ensoli’s technique is not without its critics, however.

In August 2007 the American magazine Science reported that Ensoli had filed a suit against prominent immunologist Ferdinando Auiti accusing him of slander and seeking to tarnish her reputation.

Aiuti, Science wrote, had repeatedly cited “critical errors” in the first experimental stages of Ensoli’s vaccine.

Aiuti said he was “surprised” about the suit, adding that he had “nothing personal” against Ensoli and that he had not changed his opinion on her experimental vaccine.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Pompeii to Get Foundation After Gladiator School Collapse

Culture minister rejects calls to resign

(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — The government is to set up a new foundation for Pompeii after the weekend collapse of its famous Gladiator School, Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said Wednesday.

Rejecting calls that he should resign over the incident, Bondi claimed he had done a “good job” on Pompeii in appointing special officials for its upkeep.

“The collapse of one building can’t wipe out the work we have done over the past two years”.

But he acknowledged more needed to be done and announced a new foundation where the culture ministry would work with experts to better use the money that comes from millions of visitors.

“The problem is in the management, not in resources,” he told parliament, saying the ancient site brought an average of more than 50 million euros ($70 million) a year. “We need management that uses the resources better”.

“Therefore, the ministry is drafting guidelines for a Pompeii Foundation; the superintendents and culture minister managers must work together”.

The new body, Bondi said, would “assess the state of decay” all over the ancient city and decide what action to take. Work would resume on five Pompeii houses including the famous Villa of the Mysteries “in the next few days”, he said, denying reports that two other houses were damaged when the Gladiator School came down on Saturday morning.

The reports were a sign of “groundless alarm”, Bondi said. The centre-left opposition was not impressed by the minister’s report and the two main groups, the Democratic Party and Italy of Values (IdV), announced a no-confidence motion aimed at bringing him down.

“Bondi has done more damage than Vesuvius,” the IdV claimed.

COLLAPSE SPURRED FRESH FEARS, POLEMICS.

The collapse of the school earned headlines worldwide and rekindled claims the 2,000-year-old site is not being properly protected.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called the incident a “disgrace” for Italy.

Institutions and art experts worldwide said the conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage site was not being adequately funded.

British author Robert Harris, author of the 2003 global bestseller ‘Pompeii’, published a plea in Rome daily La Repubblica asking for more to be done.

Harris said he was “not surprised” at the collapse and argued that the right of visitors to see the site’s wonders should be balanced with conservation needs.

“We are faced with a paradox: the more people visit Pompeii, the more Pompeii is destroyed”.

In his report, Bondi said that water infiltration from heavy rains dealt a killer blow to the school, which was precarious because a 1950 restoration “wrongly” put reinforced concrete on the roof, making it “inevitable” that it would buckle under the weight.

The minister reaffirmed his confidence that famous frescoes giving insights into gladiators’ lives may have survived the crash.

Polemics about looting, stray dogs and structural decay have dogged Pompeii in recent years and the government appointed a special commissioner who has been credited with solving some of these problems since 2008.

Every year over two million people visit Pompeii, which was smothered in lava and ash by the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Most of Pompeii Site ‘At Risk of Collapse’

Naples, 9 Nov. (AKI) — Almost three-quarters of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii was ‘at risk’ of collapse and 40 percent of its buildings in need of highly urgent restoration work, according to a 2005 report cited on Tuesday by Naples daily Il Mattino.

Seven out of ten of Pompeii’s ancient buildings were in danger of collapse and only thirty percent were in good condition, while forty percent were crumbling, according the 2005 report, Il Mattino said.

The report surfaced after the collapse on Saturday of one of the most archaeologically important houses in Pompeii, the 2,000-year-old House of the Gladiators during heavy rains.

The collapse of the celebrated structure shocked the world and prompted calls for Italian culture minister Sandro Bondi’s resignation. Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bondi was due to report Wednesday to the Italian parliament on the disaster. The building is thought to have been used by combatants to train or relax before entering the nearby amphitheatre.

Bondi has said he believes the damage was caused by faulty restoration in the 1950s and by the recent heavy rains.

The 2005 report on Pompeii, located near Naples in southern Italy, was commissioned by its former superintendent Pietro Giovanni Guzzo and carried out by a team of archaeologists and architects.

Pompeii is the largest archaeological site in the world. It received 2.2 million visitors in the first 10 months of 2010, according to Antonio Varone, director of excavations at the site.

Police have sealed off the area around the collapsed building and an investigation is underway. Archaeologists are assessing the current state of the site and police have been searching the Pompeii Archaelogical Superindendency offices for any relevant documents, according to Il Mattino.

It was not clear what action was taken to safeguard buildings at Pompeii after the 2005 report. In January this year, a wall surrounding the nearby House of the Chaste Lovers collapsed amid heavy rains.

Work was reportedly done on the roof of the 2,000-year-old House of the Gladiators in 2007. The structure was rebuilt in the 1950s after it was flattened in World War II bombing raids.

Critics say Pompeii and dozens of other ancient Italian sites risk damage or destruction because of mismanagement and a lack of maintenance, in part owing to culture funding cuts.

A volcanic eruption in 79 AD buried Pompeii under 6 metres of volcanic ash, preserving much of the city. The archaelogical site extends over 76 hectares.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: House of the Vestal Virgins to Reopen After 26 Years

Rome, 10 Nov.(AKI) — The House of the Vestal Virgins located in the Roman Forum is set to reopen to visitors after undergoing 26 years of work. The six Vestal virgins were responsible for making sure the flame in the House was never extinguished.

“After 26 years of restoration a monumental temple will be given back to the city of Rome,” said Italian undersecretary of culture Francesco Giro in a statement on Wednesday.

Only female priests resided at the House. The complex, which contained three ponds within its courtyard, was the home to six females of noble blood who were chosen when they were between 3 and 10 years of age. Only after 30 years of service could they be released from their duties, at which time they were free to marry.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



The Indictment of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Referring to the Austrian penal code’s § 283, sections 1 and 2, the Public Prosecutor in Vienna has presented Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff (ESW) with a Strafantag (indictment) for having publicly “gegen eine inösterreich gesetzlich anerkannte Kirchen und Religionsgesellschaft, den Islam gehetzt” (i.e. for having “publicly incited hatred against a legally recognized church and religious community — Islam”).

The indictment consists of a number of quotes transcribed from two lectures given by ESW in October and November 2009. There are altogether eight hours of tape.

I have not reviewed the tapes and therefore cannot vouch for the accuracy of the quotes adduced by the Public Prosecutor. Nor do I know whether these quotes are a fair summation of what ESW was attempting to convey.

Interestingly, no particular statement quoted by the Public Prosecutor is singled out as especially punishable, and one must therefore assume that the Public Prosecutor considers every statement quoted (some 8000 words) to be criminal under Austrian law.

This is very strange as the quotes fall into several categories including:

1) Renderings of Islamic canonical teachings in the Koran and the Hadith 2) Sociological observations on Muslim behaviour inspired by or consistent with Islamic canonical teachings 3) Moral observations or value judgments on Islamic canonical teachings 4) Interpretations of Islamic canonical teachings and their social and political consequences 5) Observations on differences between Islamic and Christian teachings

It is important to stress that nothing in the quotes indicates that ESW advocates violence, repression or discrimination against Muslims.

Generally speaking, it must be noted that ESW’s statements are well founded in the very texts that orthodox Muslims, including ulema, consider infallible and beyond discussion or interpretation. Her statements are overwhelmingly supported by empirical data and by a vast body of scholarly work by both Muslim and non-Muslim authorities.

It is, e.g., a fact that all contemporary Muslim terrorists and advocates of jihad defend their political programme and actions with reference to Islamic canonical teachings. One would therefore assume that it is well within ESW’s right of free speech to point to the very connections between Islamic teachings and Muslim behaviour that are stressed by an overwhelming number of Muslim authorities and which they consider laudable and mandated by Allah.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Disgusting Islamophobia: Woolas Smears MPACUK With Fake ‘Death Threat’ Leaflet [4 May 2010]

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has decided to play very dirty in a last ditch attempt to hold onto his seat in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency. He has attempted to smear MPACUK by accusing them of being responsible for supposed death threats against him. This is a complete fabrication and he is using this to gain sympathy amongst his electorate.

What is even more dirty is that he has produced an eight-page, newspaper-style leaflet which only aims to breed fear within his constituency [This can be viewed here: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Pages 4+5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8]. The leaflet includes outrageous claims against Elwyn Watkins the PPC for the Lib Dems and accuses MPACUK as being an extremist organisation. This material is very cunningly put together, using images of Al-Muhajirun, an organisation MPACUK has regularly opposed, when talking about MPACUK’s campaign in the constituency.

Now here’s the shocking thing : he has produced 45,000 of these leaflets and is distributing them only to the predominantly white areas of the constituency. Racial tensions between whites and Asians in Oldham have always been very fragile, what with the history of race riots that recently blighted the city. What Phil Woolas has done is stoked these racial tensions once again. We can even go as far as to say that this leaflet that he has produced and distributed could be considered as an incitement to racial hatred.

Phil Woolas has stooped so low, but we ask ourselves : did we expect anything less from such a sly and conniving man?

This two-faced politician has prided himself on his immigration policy, pushing for ID cards and tighter border controls on one hand, yet on the other, over his eight-year reign, it has been claimed by some of the Muslims we met who supported him, that he has been responsible for securing over 4,000 Visa applications in his constituency. This fact is corroborated by his supporters from the ethnic minorities and they cite this as the reason why they will put a cross against his name on election day.

Further evidence of the dirty game at play was demonstrated when a member of our team was threatened by a Labour supporter to: “switch that off before I ram it down your throat” directed at our cameraman during a peaceful leafleting session outside a Mosque on Friday 30th April 2010. Video footage of this incident has been kept as evidence in case it is required by the police. Furthermore on Saturday 1st May 2010, MPACUK’s peaceful campaigners had to endure a tirade of verbal abuse, sexist remarks and even threats of violence. At one point, one Muslim supporter shockingly threatened two Muslim sisters by stating, “Get out of here before I burn you”. An incident that has been reported to the police.

MPACUK has been campaigning peacefully in Oldham for the past few weeks . We as an organisation believe that the only way for Muslims to channel their frustration at the status-quo is through becoming politically active. Lobbying against politicians that support illegal invasions which kill innocents abroad, lobbying against politicians that have an anti-Islam agenda, lobbying against politicians that support the erosion of one’s civil rights in this country.

The leaflet that we produced stated publicly available facts about Phil Woolas’ voting record in Parliament . The leaflet can be viewed here. One thing we must make absolutely clear is that any literature produced or distributed by MPACUK always clearly displays our official branding. If it does not then it has nothing to do with our organisation. If any one has an objection to anything other than that which is distributed by MPACUK they should contact the people distributing it and not MPACUK.

It is obvious that Woolas is afraid that his past track record will come back to bite him and this last throw of the dice is a desperate attempt to hold onto his seat.

[JP: note date of post two days prior to UK General Election on 6 May 2010.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Election 2010 Success: Four Zionists Taken Out by MPACUK

MPACUK have taken another scalp — this time of the infamous electoral cheat and, ironically, the former Minister for Race Relations, Phil Woolas. For all those Muslims who think you can’t make a change, here’s proof you can. For all those Muslims who think democracy doesn’t work, here’s proof it does. For all those Muslims who said Woolas would never lose, here’s proof he did. And for all those Muslims who joined us in the fight and thought we had lost, here’s proof that we won.

We targeted six Zionist, pro-War and Islamophobic MP’s in the 2010 general election. Here’s a list of our scalps:

1. Labour — Clare Ward — Watford. OUT

2. Labour — Andrew Dismore — Hendon. OUT

3. Labour — Terry Rooney — Bradford. OUT

4. Labour — Phil Woolas — Oldham. OUT

The two that got away:

1. Labour — Mike Gapes — Ilford. Target: 2015 Election

2. Khalid Mahmood -Birmingham. Target: 2015 Election

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: MPACUK CEO Zulfi Bukhari: Election Wrap Up [7 May 2010]

MPACUK.org picked their targets about 3 years ago. We knew each area we wanted to target and we built teams in each town. The strategy MPACUK have adopted is creating swing voters through knowledgeable empowerment, an informed Ummah that will then make an informed choice. Simple. A choice no longer based on part loyalty or the old politics of ‘back home’, but a choice made on policy, ideology and aspirations.

We weren’t unchallenged in our mission to create an informed Muslim electorate. We faced the tribal braderi system with its local boss-hoggs who love their Labour Zionist MP’s more then the life of a Palestinian child. MP’s like Woolas, Gapes, Dismore and McShane who tried to intimidate us by using crude stereotypes by name-calling us ‘Muslim extremists’ because we had political differences. They failed. If anything it motivated us more to expose their vile, bigoted hatred.

There was the background noise of the Community Security Trust (a Jewish, pro-Israeli militant group) which had gone to the police and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, amongst others, and whinged about MPACUK being anti-Semitic. We ignored it, as did the Police, and carried on. A elephant doesn’t stop for a fly. MPACUK were challenged by an uneducated Ummah which was apathetic to voting and those who were political were of the HT-mindset which eschewed voting in favour of doing nothing, if anything more poisonous to the Ummah than the above three.

MPACUK have a strategy, and that strategy worked in Watford, Hendon and Bradford, and that is to destroy the loyal Muslim Labour block vote and empower enough of them to swing an election. Loyal strongholds are now going to be fought over. If Labour want them back, they need to talk about issues that concern their politicised communities. The movement is happening.

In Oldham, Phil Woolas was stunned to see his majority reduced to a paltry 103. His racist and Islamophobic leaflet didn’t save him — the loyal chawalas did. But how long can they continue to save Woolas now that his Islamophobic agenda has been exposed? Watford lost a Minister in Claire Ward, a bright young aspiring MP who could one day lead the party, but now due to her lack of foresight is unemployed. MPACUK empowered enough of the Muslims to vote differently so that it made a difference to the outcome.

No doubt some will cry but Richard Harrington is an open Zionist and he won for the Tories. Shouting from the sidelines is easy. If those Muslim detractors had joined the Lib Dem campaign rather then comment on MPACUK maybe he wouldn’t have won. And to our Zionist detractors, the moment he shows he is an Israel-first MP and targets his Muslim community like Woolas or Dismore, we will focus on getting him out as well. MPACUK predict he will be a one-term Tory.

MPACUK took out Terry Rooney in Bradford. MPACUK took out Dismore MP in Hendon, and MPACUK are continuing to build the defence of the Ummah. And lastly, a private note to Khalid Mahmood and Mike Gapes: we haven’t finished with you yet. You’re one election away from having a sustained swing away from Labour, and when it does, our efforts will push it over the edge.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslim Tactical Voting Brings UK Election Success [11 May 2010]

[…]

Muslims Vote against Pro-Zionists and Islamophobes

Writing for The Jewish Chronicle in the same month, Martin Bright reported that “openly anti-Zionist” Muslim organisation, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK), had launched an election campaign where it said it would “target MPs and candidates known to support Israel and those they have identified as ‘Islamophobic’“. Among those targeted was Oldham’s Labour MP and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, as well as Hendon’s Labour MP and “arch-Zionist” Andrew Dismore.

MPACUK, which claims to “oppose the racist political ideology of Zionism and aim[s] to counter the influence of the Zionist lobby”, says its aim is in “reviving the fard (obligation) of jihad…struggle for justice in the way of Allah”, in order to “empower Muslims to fulfil this Islamic obligation through intelligent political action to protect the Ummah [Muslim community]”.

Following what it called ‘Operation Muslim Vote 2’, the organisation subsequently boasted that its campaign efforts helped to take its “biggest scalp” by removing Labour’s “war monger” Claire Ward; defeat “a leading member of Labour Friends of Israel… who backed the Iraq war and has a long record of Islamophobia” Dismore by 106 votes; and Bradford East’s “Pro-Israeli MP” Terry Rooney.

Although it failed to remove Woolas, the group said that despite “103 Muslim votes that saved him from being booted out” MPACUK had “destroyed Woolas’ majority”.

Such was the level of strategic political planning that Muslims even dared to vote against their very own fellow faithful MPs (or faithless, as the case may be) if they failed to live up to their community’s expectations. This was no better and more defiantly demonstrated than by MPACUK who also campaigned against Perry Barr’s MP Khalid Mahmood for apparently taking the Muslim vote for granted.

Among the grievances expressed against Mahmood was his decision to vote against a public inquiry in to the invasion of Iraq and an arms embargo on Israel; while supporting ID cards, an extension of the detention period terror suspects could be held without charge to 90 days, racial profiling at airports and the war in Afghanistan

In the end, Dr Hellyer was correct in forecasting: “One way or another, this will be a new era for Britain, and a new era for its Muslim community — for better or for worse”.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: MPACUK Criticises Woolas Appointment [5 October 2008]

Muslim groups expressed anger last night after a Labour politician who has been at the centre of a series of race controversies was made Immigration Minister. Phil Woolas, previously an Environment Minister, was handed the brief despite infuriating the Pakistani community earlier this year by warning they were fuelling birth defects by inter-marrying. He also caused anger following the Oldham race riots by calling for “the reality of anti-white racism” to be acknowledged. Last night, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee condemned his appointment. A spokesman said: “Phil Woolas has a track record of insensitive, inappropriate outbursts that have verged on Islamophobia. He is a Minister clearly out of his depth. We will monitor his work for any more signs of his all too obvious antipathy towards British Muslims.”

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslim Fanatics: We’d Burn More Poppies

THREE Muslim protesters who burned a giant poppy during the Armistice Day silence in London were last night unrepentant about the sickening incident which sparked nationwide revulsion.

The Daily Express was inundated with calls from angry readers over the incident in Kensington.

The men, all in their 20s, said they would happily burn poppies again and will not stop campaigning until Sharia law is implemented in the UK.

Describing themselves as the British-born children of moderate Muslim immigrants, all three said they are students of the Islamic preacher Omar Bakri who is holed up in the Lebanon after fleeing Britain. They are also students of radical Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary.

The trio — Asad Ullah, Abu Yahya, and Abu Hifzudeen — said they had turned to radical Islam.

They were not willing to rev eal their occupations, but all said that they were university educated and in full-time employment. Ullah, founder of Muslims Against Crusades, said he would be fired if his emp loyers found out about his radical views.

“I used to work for the London Underground, but then MI5 found out and I was sacked,” he said.

Ullah said his parents were from a “colonised Islamic state”. They had come to Britain and had been reduced “to pieces of dirt”. He added that his views started hardening when he was just 13.

“We are revolutionaries, but do not practise violence,” he said. “We believe there are ways to bring about our goals other than violence.”

Yahya, an office administrator, said he studied under firebrand imams and claimed he was “on a journey to find the meaning of life”.

Hifzudeen would only say that he was “employed”. He was from a “well off” moderate family and turned to a stricter form of Islam around 2005.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslim Group Plans Remembrance Sunday Protest

A group that protested Remembrance Day celebrations in England have vowed to demonstrate again Sunday.

The organization, Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), said it will fill two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday “with an unrelenting condemnation of the British Armed Forces.”

Remembrance Sunday is held on the second weekend in November in the United Kingdom. It is marked my ceremonies at local memorials as well as two minutes of silence at 11 a.m.

The same group burned a large model of a poppy and chanted during a moment of silence during Armistice Day ceremonies on Thursday.

Protesters chanted, “British soldiers burn in hell,” and held signs saying, “Islam will dominate” and, “Our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell.”

The Remembrance Day protest, near Hyde Park, involved 50 members of the group, the Daily Mail newspaper reported. Another 50 counter-demonstrators were also there. The two groups were separated by police.

The MAC website includes a countdown to Sunday’s demonstration. It also advertises a message will be posted to the site at 11 a.m. GMT and will tell British citizens “what we have to say about your government and in particular, your army.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: Oldham Pitt Street Mosque: Phil Woolas’s ‘Religous’ Thugs

With the Phil Woolas election fraud case rocking the political sphere across the country, we take a look back at those bitterly cold days of April and May, this year, when the MPACUK team was out in full flow campaigning against the disgraced politician. We approached mosques across Oldham to inform them and their congregations about how vile a politician Phil Woolas was.

One particular mosque where we faced aggressive opposition, was Pitt Street Mosque in Glodwick. This mosque was well known for its uncompromising support for all things Labour, to such an extent that they brown-nosed Woolas into attending a meeting there. This mosque, that asks it congregation to bow their heads to Allah, bowed its own to the liar, Phil Woolas.

We leafleted outside this mosque after one Jummah (Friday prayer) and were astounded by the reaction we got from some of the worshippers leaving the mosque. We were there peacefully distributing leaflets against an Islamophobic MP, to educate the congregation about the need to vote tactically, to oust someone that hates their religion. Out came the die-hard Labour lackeys in support of Woolas, arguing the “good” that he has done for the community. They didn’t mention the harm he was doing, by sending incendiary leaflets to the white only areas, aiming to make the “white vote angry.”

These people didn’t care, these people knew about the leaflets and still supported Woolas. While MPACUK were threatened, bullied and pushed around, they allowed the Labour machine to demonise the very community they represented, and these traitors then had the gall to denounce MPACUK as extremist. The sell out scum. One worshipper even threatened an MPACUK member with violence. These people bleed Labour and are clueless about the dynamics of politics and the conduct of politicians during political campaigns, in order to secure votes they will say and do just about anything.

This is to the sell-out Muslims of Pitt Street Mosque in Oldham. We told you so. Your beloved Woolas, that you so vehemently defended, has now been stripped of his position, and for what? His hatred for you and your religion. If ever there was a love-hate relationship, it was this. And now your lies and your hypocrisy have been exposed we want you to know that the time for traitors and hypocrites is over. If you will not represent your community you will be held to account by your community.

[JP note: It would probably require a full-blown Royal Commission on Integration to sort out this unholy mess — but the problem would appear to have the capacity to challenge even the most venerable sages, I fear. A good place for a putative Royal Commission to start would be to determine why liberal UK has abandoned equality before the law in favour of non-functioning and unworkable racial shibboleths.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Rolling Election Views From You — the Public! [7 May 2010]

Please post your views on the elections today, anything from who you think will win to who you voted for. We hope to carry comments from Muslims all over the country so they can keep in touch throughout the day on what others are doing.

MPACUK too will update you, with our thoughts as polling starts and the results come through.

Let us pray that those who voted ethically to stop oppression around the world and to stop Islamophobia right here in the UK, get the candidates they deserve.

Look out for seats where MPACUK and activists fought an ethical voting campaign to remove MP’s who in our opinion are highly dubious voting record — these are:

Ilford South (Mike Gapes MP)

Birmingham (Khalid Mahmood MP)

Bradford (Terry Rooney MP)

Oldham (Phil Wool-ass MP)

Hendon (Dismore MP)

Watford (Claire Ward MP)

Rotherham (Denis MacShane MP) — local activists contacted us wanting to do something here.

Ethical Voting campaigns run by Muslims not linked to MPACUK were:

Ilford North: Campaign aimed at removing (Lee Scott Conservative MP) — Muslim activist group unknown

Bethnal Green & Bow: (Galloway departing and is being targetted by Abjol Miah a well known Muslim activist and Respect party member who is backed by Muslim activists from the group IFE.)

Birmingham Sparkbrook (Salma Yaqoob fighting for this seat as a Respect party member and is also backed by Muslim activists — group/activists unknown.)

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: The JC and the Phil Woolas Affair

A key section of evidence in the court case which saw a Labour MP stripped of his job focused on a JC report of pre-election attacks on Israel. At the specially convened election court last week, the former Immigration Minister Phil Woolas was found guilty of lying about his opponent on campaign leaflets. The court ruled that Mr Woolas had stirred racial tensions in the Oldham and Saddleworth constituency, which he won by just 103 votes. He has been removed from Parliament and thrown out of the Labour Party following the judgment.

The High Court rejected Mr Woolas’ request for a judicial review. During the hearing Mr Justice Teare and Mr Justice Griffiths Williams considered statements made by Mr Woolas and his opponent Elwyn Watki ns concerning arms sales to Israel. In March, Mr Woolas wrote to LibDem leader Nick Clegg, questioning his party’s views on the matter after Mr Watkins had written to Muslim supporters condemning Israel’s “disproportionate use of force” during the Gaza conflict.

The hearing studied the JC’s report of the men’s clashes. The final judgment stated: “When the Respondent [Mr Woolas] raised the question during the campaign, the Petitioner [Mr Watkins] made clear in his own website and in his interview with the Jewish Chronicle in early March 2010, that arms should not be sold to either side in the conflict.

“It is therefore clear that…the Petitioner had not attempted to woo the extremist vote by calling for arms sales to Israel to be stopped but not arms sales to Palestine.”

The judges were surprised Mr Woolas and his agent had been unaware of the JC report and would have expected his campaign team to have read the story to learn of Mr Watkins’ views. Mr Watkins was quoted in the story saying: “Woolas is trying to portray this as me being antisemitic. I’m not antisemitic at all. He has taken something and tried to make it something it’s not.

“It’s not an anti-Israel thing. I would not sell rockets to Hamas either. I was following the party line. I would equally condemn Hamas, Hizbollah or whoever targets civilians.”

Mr Woolas is attempting to persuade the Court of Appeal to grant a judicial review.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: The Sun Finds Poppy Thugs

FANATICAL Muslims behind the burning of a giant poppy in an Armistice Day outrage are unmasked today by The Sun.

The hate-filled extremists whipped up a 40-strong mob who screamed insults about Britain’s war dead during the nation’s two-minute silence on Thursday.

They head Muslims Against Crusades — formed after the radical group Islam4UK was banned — and want Sharia law imposed in the UK.

Pony-tailed leader Abu Assadullah masterminds the organisation’s sick demos from a website where he spouts bile supporting al-Qaeda. He shares the name of a dead chief of the terror network linked to the 2008 Mumbai massacre, and posts video diatribes on MAC’s YouTube channel.

Sidekick Abu Ubaidah helped organise Thursday’s rally, near the Royal Albert Hall, central London, and was seen holding placards reading “British soldiers burn in hell” and “Afghanistan: The graveyard of empires”.

He was wearing the distinctive black and white headscarf he donned for a vile video rant four days earlier, drumming up support for the anti-Britain event. In that, Ubaidah accused our brave boys of being “serial killers” who were “killing, torturing and raping Muslims”.

He called on followers to hold a two-minute silence to honour terrorist Roshonara Choudhry, 21, who was jailed for life this month for stabbing Labour MP Stephen Timms in a failed murder attempt.

Zealot Abu Rahin Aziz, 28, was also seen at Thursday’s protest, hurling abuse against our soldiers.

Former workmates told how Aziz used be a credit control operator at cable firm NTL and would hound female Asian workmates for wearing Western clothing. One said: “There were four or five Muslims who would hang around in a group. He was one.

“If the Asian women dressed in a Western way they would pressure them to try and get them to wear traditional Islam clothes. He always wore traditional white robes.

“When I saw the picture in The Sun, I instantly recognised him.

“This protest he was part of was absolutely disgraceful.”

Aziz, fined £525 in June for driving without insurance, remained defiant yesterday about his role in the Remembrance Day rally when confronted by The Sun.

He said: “It was a peaceful demonstration. To us the poppy represents the killing of women and children in Afghanistan and Iraq by British soldiers.”

Muslims Against Crusades follows the same agenda as banned groups al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK, which were fronted by notorious firebrand Anjem Choudary.

He has claimed the men behind MAC as his “students”. The group protested in Barking, East London, in June and called for Muslims to burn the Stars and Stripes outside the US embassy on the anniversary of 9/11. Islam4UK was outlawed in January after threatening to protest in Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire town through which dead British soldiers are transported after being brought back from Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: Woolas Should Go Quietly

There’s more bad news for Phil Woolas today. The high court has rejected his request for a judicial review of the election court ruling, saying he should instead appeal against the ruling. Despite this, Woolas’s legal team is reportedly planning to make a fresh application for judicial review. But any victory (and the odds are against it) would be decidedly pyrrhic. Woolas’s political reputation is already shot and Harriet Harman has confirmed that he is not welcome in the Labour Party, even if he overturns the court ruling. In order to salvage some dignity, Woolas should s urely drop all legal proceedings and apologise to the Liberal Democrats, Labour and his constituents.

Meanwhile, as I feared, Woolas has attracted a growing number of Labour apologists. “Hung out to dry” was the cliché of choice for the Labour MP Graham Stringer and Peter Watt, the party’s former general secretary. With remarkable understatement, Watt describes Woolas’s leaflets as “controversial, to say the least”. He cannot bring himself to condemn an election campaign that deliberately sought to whip up racial and religious tensions for political gain.

As for Stringer, echoing those who have warned (employing another cliché) that the Woolas judgment “opens a can of worms”, he describes Woolas’s removal as a “dangerous precedent”. Those who adopt this line are either ignorant of the court’s ruling, or are misrepresenting it.

Here is the full wording of the law (Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983) that Woolas brea ched:

(1) A person who, or any director of any body or association corporate which –

(a) before or during an election,

(b) for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at the election, makes or publishes any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate’s personal character or conduct shall be guilty of an illegal practice, unless he can show that he had reasonable grounds for believing, and did believe, that statement to be true.

As Mike Smithson points out, the court judgment was based entirely on the false claims Woolas made about his Lib Dem opponent, not his policy statements. Thus, those such as Robert Halfon MP and Tory Radio, who suggest that parties could now be hauled up over misleading manifestos, or that Labour MPs could be punished for the party’s cancer leaflets, could not be more wrong. But what does it say about our political culture that a court judgment that should deter candidates from lying about their opponents is condemned as a “dangerous precedent”?

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Vatican: Envoys Set to Travel to Ireland for Abuse Probe

Vatican, 12 Nov.(AKI) — The Vatican aims to send high-ranking Church officials to overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland “by Easter” on a mission to investigate whether its efforts to help victims of sexual abuse by clergy is having any effect.

The trip “has the goal of verifying the effectiveness of the present process used in responding to cases of abuse and of the current forms of assistance provided to victims,” the Vatican said in a statement on Friday.

An Irish government compensation board has paid out more than 800 million euros to 13,000 people who were abused while in church-run institutions as children. Many of the cases date back decades.

The statement said the Vatican’s own investigation will not interfere with probes conducted by local magistrates and and an Irish parliamentary commission.

The trip will be completed “if possible” by Easter and conducted by English Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Toronto Archbishop Christopher Collins and Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast.

Following the revelations of Irish abuse , Pope Benedict XVI in an historic letter on 20 March expressed “shame and remorse” to victims and their families for “sinful and criminal” acts committed by members of the clergy in Ireland.

The letter came after thousands of allegations that child abuse by Catholic clergy had been covered up emerged in several European countries, including Benedict’s native Germany, where it raised questions as to the pope’s own involvement in concealing abuse while he was archbishop of Munich and subsequently as head of the Vatican body responsible for disciplining priests.

The Irish pastoral visit is particularly sensitive. The scandal has had massive ramifications after two government reports uncovered widespread sex abuse in schools and seminaries and evidence Catholic authorities covered this up for decades.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Balkans


Kosovo: Seven Indicted for Human Organs Trafficking

Pristina, 12 Oct. (AKI) — A European Union prosecutor in Pristina has indicted seven individuals for human organs trafficking and illegal transplant, an official confirmed on Friday. The suspects include a Turk and an Israeli as well as five Kosovans.

Karin Limdal, a spokesperson for the European mission in Kosovo (EULEX), told Adnkronos International (AKI) the case has been turned over to Pristina district court, but couldn’t comment on it “until the indictment was read out in court”.

Limdal said she expected some action to be taken by the end of this month.

“Before that, the prosecutors decided not to go public,” she told AKI.

The Associated Press (AP) reported from Pristina it has seen the indictment, signed by EU prosecutor Jonathan Ratel, charging five Kosovo nationals, one Turk and one Israeli as suspects in international organ trafficking network.

AP reported none of the suspects was in custody, but Limdal said she couldn’t comment on their whereabouts.

According to the indictment, “the organized criminal group trafficked people into Kosovo for the purpose of removing “human organs for their transplant to other persons”.

It said the investigation found that some 20 foreign nationals “were recruited with false promises of payments” in 2008.

According to the indictment, the victims came from Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey and lived in “extreme poverty or acute financial distress”. It was not clear whether they got paid for their organs, the indictment said.

Among the seven indictees is Ilir Rrecaj, a former senior health ministry official who was sacked in early stages of the investigation, and Pristina surgeon Lutfi Dervishi, whose son owned the “Medicus” clinic in Pristina where transplants were allegedly carried out. The clinic has since been closed down.

Dervishi, along with Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez and an Israeli citizen, Moshe Harel, who are wanted by Interpol, are listed as leaders of the criminal group.

Former prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, had claimed that during the ethnic Albanian rebellion in the 1990s, the Kosovo Liberation Army was transporting Serb civilians to Albania where their organs were removed for transplant and the victims were left to die.

Kosovo and Albanian authorities have rejected these charges, ascribing them to “Serbian propaganda”.

The EU deployed its 2,500-strong police and judicial mission in Kosovo in December 2008 to help local authorities after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February that year.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt Raises Sinai Alert Level Over Gaza-Bound Terror Squad

Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula have been put on high alert over the hunt after an Army of Isalm terror squad which is believed to have infiltrated the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported on Saturday.

The report comes mere days after Egypt reportedly rounded up a cell of over 25 people suspected of being part of a radical Islamic group that planned to attack Israeli tourists visiting the Sinai peninsula.

In recent months Egyptian forces have made dozens of arrests and uncovered large caches of arms apparently destined for terrorist activities against Israelis.

In its report on Saturday, Ma’an claimed that Egyptian security forces were searching for a group of seven Army of Islam militants who may have already infiltrated into the coastal enclave, and who may be linked to a recent rocket attack on Eialt and Aqaba believed to have been launched from the Sinai.

The raised alert comes a little over a week after Israel claimed responsibility for the assassination of a top-ranking Army of Islam militant in the Strip.

On Thursday, Time Magazine reported that Egyptian intelligence had aided Israel’s hit on the terror strongman, as a result of its desire to damage Hezbollah’s efforts in the Sinai Peninsula.

Mohammed Nimnim, 37, a senior member of the Army of Islam was killed when his car exploded outside a police station in Gaza City.

Israel initially refused to comment on the attack but the Israel Defense Forces later confirmed it had carried out a joint operation with the Shin Bet security service.

The IDF spokeswoman referred to Nimnim as a “ticking bomb”, saying he was part of an al Qaida-linked group that was planning attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Egyptian Security Attempts to Stop Construction of Church

by Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — Thousands of Copts staged a sit-in inside and outside the Church of the St. Mary in Talbiya, in the Pyramids area, since the morning of November 11, to protest the storming of the church premises by dozens of security forces to stop construction work and demolish stairs and toilets inside the church, despite the church having obtained the necessary permits.

As soon as news of the arrival of security forces at the church became known, hundreds of Copts arrived to congregate. The angry protesters vowed to remain in the church, having heard that security is waiting for them to leave the premises so as to come back and seal it off. They said they are adamant that this is their church and no one is going to stop them from praying there. “Even if President Mubarak himself comes, the church building will go on,” said Mansour el-Sharkawy in the interview. “They are just finding excuses to put their foot in, then start demolishing the church.”

More than one million Copts live in the Talbiya area, without a single church to serve them, having to travel for miles every Sunday with their children to the nearest church. The protesters pointed out that the area is full of mosques without licenses, but when it comes to the Copts, they toil for years to obtain a permit for a church, then security comes out with some sort of excuse to stop them from praying there.

The standoff started on Thursday morning, when the Omrania local authorities committee came under the pretext of completing the papers for the construction works and found that builders were building a second staircase, as well as toilets, which they considered to be in violation of the permit granted. “It was the Civil Defense authorities who asked the church to erect a second staircase to relieve congestion inside the church in case of emergencies and the necessary permit amendments were made,” said Shehata, adding that “if a fire broke out, how do you get hundreds of people out of church with just one staircase, and if women and children want to use the toilets, where should they go?”

After the local authorities left the church, five priests and the contractor went to the local authorities to solve the problem, but were unsuccessful. After their return, security forces arrived with their vehicles.

According to Shehata they were in church when the security forces arrived in huge numbers, to force them to stop construction. “As a means of intimidation, the forces tried to break the church door down, arrest the builders and take away the children as young as seven years old who were present at church. One of the children, a 7 year-old girl named Marina, was terrorized by officers and their rifles. She sobbed and begged one officer, saying “I beg of you uncle, let us live, We don’t want to die, for God’s sake.” A ten-year-old Coptic boy, a nephew of the church contractor, was on his way to church, but was detained and asked by security to get into their car. He was later released.

“They wanted to get the women out of the building, so that they can arrest the builders and church youth who were helping them,” Shehata said. “They are just finding excuses to prevent the building of the church; but the builders are still working and nothing will stop them.” Land for the church was bought over 20 years ago, but the necessary permit to build the Church was granted only six years ago, but it was stopped by the security authorities. This year President Mubarak was approached and he granted another decree to build the church.

“I would like to know what wrong have we committed, we are just asking for our rights to have a place of worship,” said Shehata to Coptic activist Miriam Ragey. “The moment the Muslims saw the Church domes being built, they went mad,” she added.

It was said that when Muslims learned of the construction of the church, they started dumping rubbish on the land to be used for the church.

On September 15, 2010, an Islamic Jihadist Forum called Islamic Atahadi (Challenge) Network, which is said to be an affiliate of Al-Qaida, published on its website under the title “Images of the Church under construction in the Pyramids and how to demolish it, in retaliation for Camelia.” Camelia is the priest’s wife, falsely rumored by Muslims to have converted to Islam and subsequently “abducted” by the Coptic Church (AINA 9-18-2010).

The Forum told its members showing photos of the church’s construction and instructions on how to demolish the St. Mary’s Church in Talbiya, Pyramids: “An easy and affordable way for the demolition of the church before its completion, no need for demonstrations, no need for the use of weapons or explosives, you only need to introduce certain quantities of sugar, yes normal sugar.” They went on to explain how to introduce reasonable quantities of sugar inside the forms prepared for pouring the columns, “Because sugar affects concrete and cancels the chemical reaction which makes the sand and gravel hold together with the cement.” They advised in their the step by step instructions that timing was very important in the process; the best time being immediately before pouring the roof” (link).

On the morning of November 12 it was reported that security prevented the entry of bricks and sand to the Church site. The congregation, who were still guarding the church, said they got threats published on the Internet, that their girls will be abducted, and to keep them indoors. Priests at St. Mary’s Church refused to make any statements, in order to avoid a clash with security and on the instructions of Bishop Theodosius of Giza, who is expected to return from Germany this evening, to resolve the Church crisis.

           — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Barack Obama: The Most Anti-Israel President!

With his remarks in Jakarta, Indonesia, President Obama made history once again. Sadly, it’s a most unenviable title. I believe he is the most anti-Israel President in U.S. history.

In going to Jakarta, Indonesia, to launch his latest attack, he literally went to the ends of the earth to give voice to his displeasure. He emphasized his opposition to the policies of the elected government of Israel.

He used his Jakarta platform to complain about Israel building apartments for her growing population. Where? In Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

To make matters even worse, Jakarta is a city no Israeli is allowed to enter! The symbolism of saying what he said in the country and city where he said it is simply atrocious.

He was in Indonesia less than 24 hours. If he had to make such a one-sided and unfair pronouncement, couldn’t he at least have waited until he got to South Korea? Touting Indonesia’s great tolerance is offensive. Indonesians love everybody, except the Israelis, of course, and except Catholic school girls who get beheaded on their way to school.

What could he have been thinking in traveling to his boyhood home — in what is widely described as the largest Muslim country in the world — and sharply criticizing Israel? It’s as if he is determined to take an unfriendly stance and to reinforce it with his own biography: This place was a second home to me, and I am telling you, Israel, to knock it off! Those were not his actual words, but how else can we interpret his bizarre sense of time and place?

President Obama’s foreign policy puts much greater emphasis on the UN as a world body. He has changed previous policy by bowing to the UN’s horrendous Human Rights Council. This is a body that contains Russia, China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia — those paragons of human rights. It is to this body that the Obama administration finds it necessary to “report.” The reports we have submitted essentially apologize to these brutal despots at the UN for not fully implementing more of the Obama legislative agenda at home.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Column One: Addressing Our Homegrown Enemies

This week we learned that Nazareth is an al-Qaida hub. Sheikh Nazem Abu Salim Sahfe, the Israeli imam of the Shihab al-Din mosque in the city, was indicted on Sunday for promoting and recruiting for global jihad and calling on his followers to harm non-Muslims.

Among the other plots born of Sahfe’s sermons was the murder of cab driver Yefim Weinstein last November. Sahfe’s followers also plotted to assassinate Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to Israel last year. They torched Christian tour buses. They abducted and stabbed a pizza delivery man. Two of his disciples were arrested in Kenya en route to joining the al-Qaida forces in Somalia.

With his indictment, Sahfe joins a growing list of jihadists born and bred in Israel and in free societies around the world who have rejected their societies and embraced the cause of Islamic global domination. The most prominent member of this group among US citizens today is the American-born al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki.

US authorities describe Awlaki as the world’s most dangerous man. His jihadist track record is staggering. It seems that there has been no major attack in the US or Britain — including the September 11 attacks and the July 7 attacks in London — in which Awlaki has not played a role.

Sahfe and Awlaki, like nearly all the prominent jihadists in the West, are men of privilege. Their personal histories are a refutation of the popular Western tale that jihad is born of frustration, poverty and ignorance. Both men, like almost every prominent Western jihadist, are university graduates.

So, too, their stories belie the Western fantasy that adherence to the cause of jihad is spawned by poverty. These men and their colleagues are the sons of wealthy or of comfortable middle class families. They have never known privation.

Armed with their material comforts, university degrees and native knowledge of the ways of democracy and the habits of freedom, these men chose to become jihadists. They chose submission to Islam over liberal democratic rights because that is what they prefer. They are idealists.

This means that all the standard Western pabulums about the need to expand welfare benefits for Muslims or abstain from enforcing the laws against their communities, or to give mosques immunity from surveillance and closure, or to seek to co-opt jihadist leaders by treating them like credible Muslim voices, are wrong and counterproductive. These programs do not neutralize their supremacist intentions or actions. They embolden the Western Islamic supremacists by signaling to them that they are winning. Their Western societies are no match for them.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Six Years Ago, Yasir Arafat Died; Today His Legacy Still Prevails: No to Peace, No to Compromise

By Barry Rubin

Six years ago, on November 11, 2004, Yasir Arafat died. On that occasion, former President Bill Clinton explained why he wouldn’t attend Arafat’s funeral: “I regret that in 2000 he missed the opportunity to bring [Palestine] into being….” Not Israel, but Arafat did so.

Today, the Arafat era’s lessons have been largely swept under the rug: his persistent mendacity, use of terrorism, cynical exploitation of an “underdog” posture to garner sympathy, and unfailing devotion to the dream of wiping Israel off the map. The placing of that last priority over creating a Palestinian state is why there is none today. Not Israeli policy, not settlements, but the preference for total victory over compromise.

At Arafat’s funeral, one of his lieutenants, Saeb Arikat, proclaimed: “Give him the honor he deserves!” Let it be so.

As the editorial in the London Times put it, he was the man who “threw away the best chance in a generation for an honorable settlement to the Middle East conflict.” In the New Yorker, David Remnick accurately wrote, “Rarely has a leader blundered more and left more ruin in his wake.”

Yet, too, perhaps, as never before in modern history, have so many relentlessly airbrushed away a leader’s career of faults and crimes. What was especially remarkable in so much of the coverage and discussion was the virtual erasure of a career in terrorism which had spanned forty years. There were no scenes of past carnage shown; no survivors or relatives of his victims interviewed. In political terms, his dedication to the elimination of another state and people, consistent use of terrorism, and rejection of peace were thrown down the memory hole of history.

The timeline for Arafat’s life prepared by both the BBC and the Associated Press omit any mention of terrorist attacks and skip the fatal year 2000 altogether. In its timeline the Associated Press only invokes the word terrorism to claim that Arafat had “renounced” it in 1988, though this had not prevented the PLO from committing scores of attacks-usually with Arafat’s blessing-thereafter.

Arabs, who knew him and his history better, were more critical. An article surveying Arab reaction in Cairo’s al-Ahram newspaper concluded that most Arab officials’ private reaction was one of “relief.” They said he had been an obstacle to achieving peace “largely for the sake of his own glory” and called him a man “too self-centered to really care about the misfortunes of his own people.” Not a single interviewee expressed a word of sorrow.

At the time of Arafat’s death his people still did not have a state, a functioning economy, or the most elementary security after following his leadership for thirty-five years. Much of that situation remains the same today.

Yet Arafat’s narrative had largely triumphed, certainly in persuading those who wanted to believe it that the movement he shaped and created was noble and sympathetic, a victim of other’s treatment rather than of its own policies…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

Middle East


De Varthema’s Journey in Mecca of the 16th Century

(ANSAmed) — ROME- “We must now correct those who say that the body of Mohammed is raised into the air in Mecca. I say that this not the truth. I have seem his tomb in this city of Medina”. To today’s reader, such statements seem obvious, but to the erudite readership of the 16th century, hungry for exotic accounts, the words of the Bolognese writer Ludovico de Varthema must have seemed revolutionary. Indeed, this was the first time that anyone, a Christian to boot, had revealed the real whereabouts of the tomb of Mohammed. So the body of the Prophet was not, as was believed at the time, kept in an iron sarcophagus suspended in the air with giant magnets.

This anecdote is one of the many recounted in “The travels of Ludovico de Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India and Ethiopia”, the diaries published for the first time on Rome in 1510 at the request of Giulio II (and dedicated to the Duchess of Tagliacozzo, Agnese di Montefeltro, who would later become the owner of the only manuscript), and which became a bestseller at the time, as a result of being translated into Latin, Spanish, French, Flemish, and later around 50 others.

Skira is presenting the book in Milan in the next few days, in Milan, to mark the opening of the exhibition at Palazzo Reale entitled “Al Fann, the art of Islamic civilisastion”, which features 350 priceless pieces from the collection of the Kuwaiti Sheikhs Al-Sabah.

In “Voyage to Mecca” (Skira, 15 euros, p. 128), there is a presentation of the books that the Bolognese traveller (1470-1517) dedicated to the first part of his trip — the journey towards the Middle East — which he undertook dressing as a mamluk as he travelled with a convoy to Cairo, Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo, Damascus, Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, until he reached Aden, where his Christian identity was discovered.

An attentive and sharp-witted observer, de Varthema — of whom little is known, according to the Franco Cardini’s preface to the work, because many such boasts were made at the time — was fascinated by pilgrimage rites, by crowds filling the squares, by the richness of markets packed with products from faraway lands. His account also feature stories of his sentimental and sexual adventures.

“He was the first to go to Mecca and write about it on his return,” Eileen Romano, the curator of the Milanese publisher’s new Art Stories series, tells ANSAmed. “The Church did not allow Christians to travel to these places”. It is uncertain whether this courageous sixteenth century traveller converted “because he denies such a thing in his account”. “One thing is for sure, though, and this is that, like today, one needed to be Muslim in order to enter the holy sites of Islam, and this makes the testimony of de Varthema even more precious”. The descriptions regarding the lives of pilgrims to Mecca and the moment of prayer around the Ka’ba are equally rare for the time.

In the six years that eventually saw him arrive in India, the Bolognese adventurer managed to pass himself off, depending on the requirements of different situations, as a doctor, a merchant and an expert in weaponry, showing an invention and sharpness that he never tired of showing off.

After the explosion of the “de Varthema phenomenon”, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, his accounts were re-edited a number of times. In Italy, the Skira curator concludes, the diaries were republished in 1929 and again later in 1991. De Varthema’s accounts will be available in bookshops from the middle of November to mark five hundred years since they were first published. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Fundamentally Freund: Why is Obama Arming Israel’s Enemies?

For someone who insists his administration is a friend of Israel, Barack Obama sure has a funny way of showing it. Last month, in a move that raised plenty of eyebrows, the US announced that it is planning a new round of arms sales to Saudi Arabia — to the tune of $60 billion.

Under the proposed arrangement, the Saudis will be getting some of America’s finest military hardware, including F-15 fighter-bombers, Blackhawk and Apache helicopters, laser-guided bombs, advanced radar systems, and Harpoon and Sidewinder missiles. That’s more than enough firepower to make another round of Rambo sequels.

Indeed, this is by far the largest arms deal in American history, and it will significantly improve the desert kingdom’s military potential.

As Joshua Teitelbaum, principal research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, put it: “There is no doubt that the package represents a considerable improvement in the offensive capability of the Saudi armed forces.”

Just consider the following: Between 1950 and 2006, the US sold some $60 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia. Now, in one fell swoop, Obama plans to offer Riyadh a package equal to all those decades of military sales.

This, of course, is the same Saudi Arabia that refuses to recognize Israel, has served as a source of funding and manpower for militant Islamic fundamentalism, and ruthlessly represses any semblance of human rights for its own citizens.

But the Saudis aren’t the only dubious characters to benefit from Obama’s military marketing plan. In the past week, the Obama administration has notified Congress of three additional arms deals with Gulf Arab states, all of which are unfriendly toward the Jewish state. These include the sale of $5 billion worth of Apache helicopters to that bastion of freedom and democracy known as the United Arab Emirates, as well as a pact to send tactical missile systems to Bahrain.

And since the summer, Washington has also moved ahead with the proposed sale of aircraft and Patriot missiles to Kuwait, and $3.5 billion worth of F-16s to Oman.

This is all on top of the $13 billion in arms sales to Arab countries that Obama approved during his first year in office.

WHAT IS going on here? Why is Obama so busy arming Israel’s enemies? The ostensible reason is growing fears about the power of Iran and the threat that it poses to the region.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Into the Iraqi Night

The redefinition of Al Qaeda as “Pre-Islamic Pagans”

Good news. Apparently there is no such thing as Muslim terrorism after all, because Al Qaeda have been redefined as “Pre-Islamic Pagans”. Lisa Graas, who has been providing extensive coverage of the murder of Christians in Iraq, picked up on this bizarre claim by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki.

The redefinition of Al Qaeda as “Pre-Islamic Pagans” is surreal to most Westerners, but this kind of constant editing and re-editing of history has become commonplace in the Muslim world. If Muslims can insist that Abraham and King David were Muslims and that Jesus was a Palestinian, it’s a hop and a skip to claiming that Bin Laden’s followers are somehow pre-Islamic.

This kind of reasoning isn’t completely random. Maliki is a member of the Dawa Party, which is noted for its convoluted path to promoting an Islamic state. Getting a Fatwa against fellow Muslims is tricky. But by defining Al Qaeda as pagans, suddenly there’s Koranic permission to kill them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: ‘Mecca Metro’ Ready for Pilgrims

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 12 — Worshipers can say goodbye to being stuck in lines and traffic jams for hours in cars or on foot, risking car accidents and getting trampled. Starting on November 15, the date marking the beginning of pilgrimages to Mecca, pilgrims will be able to travel from one holy site to another using the metro. The Al Mashaar Al Muqadassah, or “the metro of the Holy site”, whose name has already been changed to the more streamlined ‘Mecca metro’, will lighten traffic around the main Muslim holy sites by at least 30,000 vehicles, estimates the Saudi Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Habin bin Mustafa Zain Al Abdeen, and is considered one of the most important projects in the country in the public transport sector. When the metro operates at full capacity in 2011, it will have twenty 12-car trains holding about 3,000 passengers, but this year, warned officials, it will run at 35% capacity, with 10 trains doing the route in about 7 minutes, transporting about 72,000 pilgrims each trip.

The route will start in Mina, the arid valley where worshipers gather in prayer, then will travel to Mount Arafat, where Mohammed made his final sermon before his death and where the sacrifice of a ram takes place to commemorate Abraham, and then heads to Muzdalifah, the final stop of the pilgrimage. The idea of a metro to relieve some of the congestion from the Muslim holy sites in order to make them safer materialised three years ago when during Hajj, the pilgrimage that every Muslim is required to take at least once in their lifetime, 23 pilgrims died when two buses crashed. This was the last of a long series of incidents over the years, which have taken thousands of lives. Originally designed as a monorail, the Mecca Metro was built with conventional tracks and will be part of a more extensive railway network whose construction is already underway. Initially, it will be connected to the Haramain Railway, a 500km tract designed for pilgrims travelling between Mecca and Medina, the two most sacred cities for Islam, and later to the Gulf network. The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — have independently begun to build national railway networks, which, once completed, will be interconnected throughout the region. The nearly 8 billion euro project then aims to extend to Jordan and Syria, eventually reaching Europe via Turkey. The Mecca Metro, built by a Chinese railway company, with contributions also made by European businesses and with an investment of over 1.3 billion euros, will make use of automatic driverless trains. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



UAE: Nuclear Power in Dubai’s Future

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI , NOVEMBER 11 — Twenty per cent of Dubai’s energy needs will be met in the future by nuclear power, said Said Mohammad Al-Tayer, vice president of the High Council for Energy. An additional 20% will instead be guaranteed by coal-fired plants, which will satisfy 49% of the emirate’s energy requirements by 2020. “The study has almost been completed,” said Al Tayer, quoted by the daily paper Gulf News, refering to the strategic energy plan which carries out short, medium and long-term assessments. The study, however, does not set down a timeline for the building of nuclear power plants. Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has already assigned the contract for the building of four plants to a South Korean enterprise and identified the location in which they will be built: in the extreme south-west of the emirate, on the border with Saudi Arabia in a desert area. Committed to an energy plan which is ever less dependent on oil, by 2020 the UAE is expected to be able to ensure the production of 40,000 MW to meet growing demand. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Yemen: The War on Terror and a Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse

Sheikh Ahmed Shuraif certainly has the tools for the job the Americans and British want him to do. Kalashnikov rifles litter the floor of the spacious lounge where he and his men gather in the afternoon to chew qat, Yemenis’ favourite narcotic leaf. And this is just his town house in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a. Out in the province of Marib, where he commands one of Yemen’s most important tribes, he is reputed to have the country’s largest private army, including tanks.

Since Marib is one of the main homes of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Sheikh Ahmed should be a useful ally in the war on terror, his men the very people the West hopes will turn on the terrorists in their midst. Unfortunately, he says, it is not as simple as that. “In our religion we are against what al-Qaeda does,” he says, smiling gently and thoughtfully from his couch in the middle of the room. “What they are doing is very bad. It’s not in Islam at all.”

His sons, one a provincial deputy governor, and some of his followers line the cushions set against the walls around him, nodding and hanging on his every word. “But who is al-Qaeda, and who is not? Even they don’t know themselves sometimes. How can we tell? In our tribal custom, if someone comes among us we have to protect them. If we discover later they are al-Qaeda, we cannot turn them in. We would no longer accept him, but we would not give him to the government.”

The hunt for al-Qaeda in Yemen, and its spiritual mentor, Anwar al-Awlaki, has become the latest spectator sport of a security-obsessed world. If the battle raging in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a bloody teenage computer game, with militants taking on western infantry with mines, and being struck in turn by drone-fired missiles, the war in Yemen is more cerebral.

Scientifically minded al-Qaeda recruits invent devilish ways of smuggling bombs out of the hills and into the homes of their enemies — odourless explosives in Fedex packages, youthful assassins with bombs hidden in their private parts. Those taking them on have to plan equally cleverly. The war is as much psychological as physical. Al-Qaeda’s new strategy is to set the West on edge rather than destroy manifestations of its power, as in 9/11. It wants to undermine our self-confidence and credibility with its potential recruits.

Aerial attacks by drones, as in Afghanistan, along with the inevitable “collateral damage”, could play into al-Qaeda’s hands. The government has put Awlaki on trial in absentia since al-Qaeda sent two parcel bombs two weeks ago via courier to America, which were intercepted in Dubai and England before they could explode. It has also launched raids with the overt purpose of seizing or killing al-Qaeda’s local leader, Nasser al-Nuhayshi, and his number two, the former Guantanamo inmate Said al-Shehri, without success.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghanistan: Taliban Insurgents in Attack on NATO Base

Taliban militants have attacked a Nato military outpost near the airport in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the attack on its forward operating base in Nangahar province lasted two hours.

Eight militants, one of whom was wearing a suicide belt, died. The Taliban said it was behind the assault.

Later, two policemen and six civilians were killed by a bomb on a motorbike in Kunduz province, local officials said.

Another 18 people were wounded in the attack on a crowded market, which appeared to target a local militia leader in Emam Sehab district.

In a separate incident in southern Afghanistan, Isaf reported that three Nato soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack.

No further details were given about the incident, including the nationalities of those killed.

‘Showered with bullets’ The attack near Jalalabad’s airport began at about 0530 (0100 GMT) on Saturday, the second time in six months that the area has been targeted.

Witnesses said they heard explosions and saw smoke rising in the area.

An Isaf statement said that Forward Operating Base Behsud “received small arms fire from an unknown number of insurgents”.

It said the assault was repelled by Isaf and Afghan troops, who sustained no casualties. Helicopters were also called in.

Afterwards, a nearby residential district was showered with bullets, witnesses said, and a number of bodies were seen lying on the ground.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said 14 suicide bombers had been involved.

“They entered the airport. Some of them have blown themselves up,” he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Isaf said four of the attackers were dressed in Afghan army uniforms.

The attacks come a day after a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of Isaf troops in Kabul. The explosives were detonated before the car reached the convoy, killing one Afghan civilian.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Are Religious Fasts-Unto-Death Suicide?

Three members of a Muslim family recently died and 10 others were hospitalised in a critical condition during a 40-day-fast at a 14th century Sufi saint’s dargah in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

The fast was undertaken at the behest of a senior family member who claimed he was acting under the “orders” of the saint who appeared in his dreams and prescribed the ‘Chilla Kashi’ ritual to ward off black magic.

The Ajmer tragedy could perhaps be explained away as a stray instance of irrational misinterpretation of an imagined cult diktat. In contrast, the ongoing debate over Santhara — the ritualised fast-unto-death practiced sometimes in the Jain community — has ended up with the Rajasthan high court.

After failing to get the police to prevent Keila Devi Hirawat of Jaipur from killing herself through Santhara, Nikhil Soni, a human rights activist, filed a writ petition against the practice. Calling it “a social evil” that should be considered “suicide” under Indian law, the petition in effect demands that practitioners of Santhara should be prosecuted under section 309 of the IPC for attempted suicide and its supporters charged with abetting a crime.

If the court finally agrees with Soni’s contentions and outlaws Santhara, the decision would seriously dent the religious sensitivities of nearly six million practising Jains, for whom the centuries-old ritual holds a pride of place among their sacred traditions. Its apologists — including PC Jain, a retired high court judge — argue that Santhara cannot be characterised as “suicide” when a person relinquishes food and drink voluntarily after calm introspection with an intent to cleanse oneself of karmic encumbrances.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Coup in Pakistan ‘A Real Possibility’

Western countries would like to negotiate with the Taliban, but Pakistan would rather they didn’t. US terrorism expert Bruce Riedel spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about just how explosive the situation currently is in Pakistan and how much influence al-Qaida still has.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Riedel, there is increasing talk of trying to negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan in order to achieve a political settlement. How can this be achieved?

Bruce Riedel: We are all war weary, we are all looking for a way out, we would all like a political solution. The question is: Is the Taliban capable of the kind of process of compromise and negotiation that we want? And can it be separated from al-Qaida? There is every reason to test those propositions, and we have nothing to lose by testing them. But we also have to be honest with ourselves. The odds are good that the answer is no and that the ties between the two are too strong at the operational and ideological level. In the US last year, we had an attempted attack on the Metro system in New York City which was al-Qaida sponsored but in which the terrorists had been given to al-Qaida by the Afghan Taliban. So in this sense they were involved in recruiting for a terrorist attack on America. That suggests it is going to be very, very hard to break up this connection.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Officially ,the Afghan Taliban regularly insist that they are not interested in international terrorism and would instead like to establish good neighborly relations with Afghanistan’s neighbors. Does this mean the Afghan Taliban is not as monolithic as it claims to be?

Riedel: The Afghan Taliban is composed of several networks and it is not clear how monolithic even these networks are within themselves. But there is a broader phenomenon going on inside all the militant groups based in Pakistan, which is a radicalization. The idea of global Jihad is becoming more and more popular at the grassroots level. Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, who traditionally had a domestic agenda, are increasingly buying into the idea of globalized terrorism.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: One possible negotiating partner within the Afghan Taliban would be Mullah Baradar, who made it known he was ready to discuss the idea of holding talks. But he was arrested by Pakistan. Was this an attempt by Pakistan to stop negotiations altogether?

Riedel: That is in fact another dimension of this complicated problem. Pakistan does not want direct negotiations between the Afghan Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai or between the Afghan Taliban and the West. It wants to control the process so as to ensure it gets its preferred outcome, which is a satellite state next to Pakistan. When Mullah Baradar started to talk about talks, the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) had him arrested. He is, from what I understand, under some sort of friendly house arrest now. But he is being used by the ISI as a signal to the other Taliban to prevent them from taking independent action.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Pakistan’s interests in Afghanistan may very well be legitimate, but they become less important when Pakistan itself is becoming instable…

Riedel: Pakistan today is already in the midst of a small scale civil war. Last year 25,000 Pakistanis were killed or wounded in terrorism-related violence, and that’s just civilians. That’s three times the number of civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan in the same year. It is a very fragile, very volatile and very combustible country right now. In many ways it is the strategic prize in this whole equation. What happens in Afghanistan will have huge ramifications for what happens in Pakistan. A jihadist victory in Afghanistan would have enormous reverberations and could even signal a take over by jihadist forces in Pakistan.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Some people believe a jihadist takeover is already more likely in Pakistan than in Afghanistan…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Malaysia: Boy Caned for Bringing Pork to School

MALAYSIA’S parliament this week debated whether or not it was right for teachers to cane a 10-year-old boy for bringing pork to school.

The Malaysia Star reported the argument centered on whether the boy, who was caned 10 times across the hand for eating a home-cooked meal of fried rice with pork, is Muslim or Christian. If the boy was Christian he would not have broken any rules by eating pig products.

Angela Jabing said her son Basil was disciplined for eating a non-Halal meal. She is a Christian and her husband, Beginda Minda, has denied being a Muslim.

The Star reported that a decree issued by the National Fatwa Council means that if either parent is Muslim the child must be Muslim.

“I admit I was a Muslim before. But in 1999, I changed my religion. Now I am a non-Muslim,” Beginda said.

The government is now investigating whether Beginda is a Muslim or non-Muslim.

“Only after this can conclusions be drawn on why his son was caned,” said government minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Repeal Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law

Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five, is the first woman to have been convicted under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law. But numerous Christians like her and others have been victims of it, either because they have made a comment which has been construed as critical of the prophet of Islam or as a way of settling property and business disputes. Now she has become the first person to be sentenced to death under it.

Did she blaspheme Muhammad? It seems more likely that she angered her tormentors in a theological discussion about the relative merits of Christianity and Islam. Such debates take place all the time among adherents of different faiths. Whichever it may have been, the law has created intolerable injustice for often powerless people and quite unacceptable restrictions on freedom of speech to which the state of Pakistan is committed.

In undivided India, the British had laws which were meant to prevent incitement to religious hatred (yes, that is where this approach was first tried). The penalties, however, were generally moderate and proportional to the offences. Increasing Islamisation in Pakistan has made these laws more and more draconian. Thus there is now a mandatory life sentence for desecrating the Qur’an and a mandatory death sentence for blaspheming the prophet.

We need to know urgently from our Muslim friends whether these laws are really Islamic. The different formal schools of medieval sharia were unanimous that anyone who insults the prophet is to be put to death and differ only about the method of execution. It is this unanimity which has led the federal shariat court to rule that the death penalty is mandatory and left the judges with little discretion in particular cases.

Against this, the Qur’an only threatens those who insult God as the prophet with a curse and a humiliating punishment in this life and the next. It is claimed sometimes that the execution of poets, such as Ka’ab ibn al-Ashraf, for insulting the prophet is a precedent for executing blasphemers. On the other hand, it is said that they were put to death not for blaspheming but for sedition. The Hadith also tells us that while some were punished, others were freely pardoned by Muhammad himself. The question is, which of these attitudes is to prevail in Muslim nations and communities today?

It may be that a country like Pakistan needs laws to prevent religiously aggravated hatred discrimination. Such laws would be very different from the present ones and would protect religious minorities equally with Muslims.

How can Asia Bibi and others be saved from the gallows? The blasphemy law is a bad law enacted under pressure from extremists who threaten violence if the government does anything to lessen its impact or to ameliorate the lot of those who have fallen victim to it. A bad law will always come back to haunt us and that is why our ultimate aim must be its repeal.

Pakistan is a signatory to international agreements which prohibit cruel and degrading punishment. It is time for it to honour its commitments and to stand up to extremist purveyors of hate, if it is to have a respected place in the family of nations. The international community, the UN, the Commonwealth and the EU must do everything they can to make sure this vulnerable woman does not suffer the extreme penalty and that others, like her, are not subjected to months and even years of harassment, imprisonment and anxiety as they await a final verdict on their cases.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Far East


Disney World in Which Chinese Children ‘Toil for 76 Hours a Week’

To Western children, Disney is a fairytale world of talking mice, princesses and dragons. To Chinese children, it sometimes means working from 8am to 10pm, handling chemicals without protection, being chastised for failing to hit production targets, and eating food laden with cockroaches.

Staff at two factories making Disney toys for Westerners employed children between the ages of 14 and 16 in breach of local labour laws and the entertainment giant’s own code of conduct, according to a report by China Labour Watch (CLW), a US NGO.

Along with their adult colleagues, the children worked 12-hour days in “unacceptable conditions”, the 25-page document says. One factory was making Winnie the Pooh and Piglet toys and the other was making Disney dolls and stamps. They also made goods for other companies.

CLW said it launched the undercover investigation because problems had been found at factories producing Disney-branded goods in the past. In 1996, another NGO, the US National Labour Committee, found abuses at suppliers in Haiti in a report called The US in Haiti: How to get Rich on 11c an Hour.

Last year, CLW found breaches of working hours, wage and contract laws at a factory in Guangdong that was producing Disney gifts after a 17-year-old worker, Liu Pan, was crushed to death in machinery. CLW claimed the factory was hiring workers as young as 13. To uncover current conditions, CLW randomly selected two plants making Disney-branded merchandise, sent in undercover investigators and interviewed staff.

According to the report, working hours were excessively long: two four-hour stints daily between Monday and Saturday were typically followed by another four hours of compulsory overtime in the evenings, adding up to 76 hours a week. The children also worked these hours, up to 330 a month, including 150 of forced overtime, it said, adding they sometimes worked seven days in a row.

Workers were supplied with gloves for handling hazardous chemicals but allegedly did not wear them because it made their work rate too slow. As a result, some of them had developed skin rashes, while for some, layers of skin were “falling off”.

Staff complained they found it difficult to resign, and could do so only at set times, leaving with less pay than they were owed. There were “harsh and unreasonable” discipline practices, and dormitories — housing typically 12 workers each — were said to be dirty and smelly. Daily food at one of the factories consisted of two vegetable dishes and one meat meal. The report said: “In all of the meat dishes, one can only see two small pieces of meat or fish. Regardless of what kind of food or oil it is cooked in, workers often detect food additives, hair or cockroaches.”

Although members of staff were allowed to join a trade union, they were not aware it existed and were not members. There was no safety training, no fire drills and “fire hazards existed”, the report said. After deductions for accommodation, meals and drinking water, one factory paid 1,100 yuan (£103) a month — about three yuan an hour.

CLW said: “The investigations showed the old problems with Disney remain: child labourers are still hired in factories, and labour conditions are still unacceptable.” It called on Disney to publish details of its supplying factories and open them up for some independent inspections.

[Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


Indian Websites Do Your Homework for $2

Australian high school and university students are outsourcing their homework to sweatshops in India, Pakistan and Egypt which provide English essays and maths papers for as little as $2.

Websites such as canadian essays.com, realassignment writing.com and dissertation india.com offer fixed-price tariffs or auction-style services where students put work out to tender and workers, mostly graduates from India and Pakistan, bid to take on the projects, News Ltd newspapers say.

Schools are powerless to stop cheaters using the outsourcing services because custom-made work cannot usually be detected by plagiarism software.

Matt Barrie, founder of www.freelancer.com, a website designed to put small businesses in touch with affordable labour in emerging economies, says homework assignments are frequently submitted to his site.

“We get them all the time,” he said. “As a lecturer myself, I really don’t approve, but kids will be kids — they will always find a way to cheat.

“There are students in India who will give answers for just a few dollars and I have seen maths questions answered for $2 a go.”

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Immigration


UK: Muslims Vow to Unseat Zionists [8 April 2010]

The Muslim organisation that claimed responsibility for unseating “pro-war, pro-Israel” Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimons from her Rochdale constituency at the last election has launched its campaign for the 2010 election. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which has an openly anti-Zionist agenda, has said it will target MPs and candidates known to support Israel and those they have identified as “Islamophobic”. It claims that 82 constituencies now have a Muslim population larger than the incumbent’s majority.

MPAC will concentrate its resources on the Oldham seat of Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, who recently raised concerns about the prevalence of marriage between cousins in the Muslim community. “Muslim voters can no longer be taken for grant ed by Labour, as a new politicised generation are becoming swing voters who demand action, on issues from Palestine to anti-terror laws,” said Rukiya Dadhiwala, MPAC’s campaign co-ordinator.

The organisation has also warned Muslim voters in Hendon to vote for anyone but sitting Labour MPAndrew Dismore, who is considered an arch-Zionist. It claims 2,000 leaflets attacking the Labour candidate were distributed outside Hendon mosque at Friday prayers. However, his opponents, Conservative Matthew Offord and Lib Dem Matthew Harris are also both strong supporters of Israel. “They may be Zionists, but they are not as bad as he is,” said spokesman Tahir Shah.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


The Feminist Politics of Islamic Misogyny

Studying honor killings is not the same as sensationalizing them — but Columbia University professor Lila Abu-Lughod disagrees. Moreover, she believes that indigenous Arab and Muslim behavior, including honor-related violence, is best understood as a consequence of Western colonialism — perhaps even of “Islamophobia.”

On October 25, 2010, at the American University of Beirut, Abu-Lughod admonished feminists who ostewww.huffingtonpost.com/ken-blackwell/barack-obama-the-most-ant_b_782627.htmlnsibly sensationalize honor killings, a position which, in her opinion, represents “simplistic, civilizational thinking.” She “warned that an obsessive focus on the so-called honor crime may have negative repercussions” and that “people should be wary of classifying certain acts as a distinctive form of violence against women.” (Her remarks are summarized in a press release published by the university. According to the university, the article on which the speech is based will be published early next year in Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies.)www.huffingtonpost.com/ken-blackwell/barack-obama-the-most-ant_b_782627.html

Abu-Lughod opposed the “concept of clear-cut divisions between cultures, which she viewed as a form of imprisoning rural and immigrant communities,” and suggested that focusing on “honor crimes” allowed “scholars and activists to ignore important contexts for violence against women: social tensions; political conflicts; forms of racial, class, and ethnic discrimination; religious movements; government policing and surveillance; and military intervention.”

What kind of feminism does Abu-Lughod represent? She is a post-colonial, postmodern, cultural relativist, a professor of anthropology and women’s and gender studies who does not believe in universal standards of human rights. However, her allegedly feminist work primarily serves the cause of one nationalism only — Palestinian — and of one tradition only — Islam/Islamism. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ken-blackwell/barack-obama-the-most-ant_b_782627.html […]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101112

Financial Crisis
» A Growth Agenda for the New Congress
» Barroso: EU Ready to Help Ireland
» Co-Chairmen of Obama’s Fiscal Commission Unveil Real Tax Increases and Fake Spending Cuts
» G-20 Rejection Leaves U.S. To Go it Alone
» Jobless Swedes Told to Look for Work Abroad
» Saving Hayek From the People Who Think They’re Saving Hayek
» The 77% of Income Fallacy
 
USA
» A Look at Challenged Alaska Ballots
» ADL Slams Beck for ‘Offensive’ Comments About Soros
» Al-Qaeda’s ‘Sword of Justice’ And the Coming War of Attrition With the West
» Authorities on Lookout for 2 Men Seen Videotaping D.C. Subway Station
» Gaffney: Protecting Our Troops From Policy Makers
» It’s “Otb” Time: One-Term Barack
» Lt. Col. Allen West Gets it: Islam is the Enemy
» Native American Tribes Seek Trade Ties With Turkey
» Obama: Center of the Soros System?
» Pruden: Obama’s Grim Pursuit of Muslim Romance
» Some Muslims Attending Capitol Hill Prayer Group Have Terror Ties, Probe Reveals
» Some in-Fighting for the Republican National Committe Chairmanship.
» The Fragile Family Effect
 
Europe and the EU
» Denmark: Money Transfers Lifeline for Families of Foreigners
» EU to Grab Even More Power Without Vote
» France Wants to Delay Schengen Accession for Bulgaria and Romania
» Germany: Births Hit Record Low
» Ireland: Reds Lose the Head After Zoo Pairs Them Up With Orang-utans
» Italy’s Scandal Magnet
» Italy: Pamela Anderson Asked Obama to ‘Legalise All Drugs’
» Italy: Police Nab Unsafe Toys Valued at 2 Million Euros
» Italy: Berlusconi Rejects ‘Quit’ Call
» Pope Asks Muslim World to Reciprocate Religious Tolerance
» Sweden: Containers Proposed as Student Housing Solution
» Sweden Helps World’s Poor Most: Study
» Sweden: ‘Alcolocks’ For All New Cars: Social Democrats
» Switzerland: Retail Scene Changes as Coop Overtakes Migros
» UK: Chinese Vase Found in London Home Sells for $83 Million
» UK: Jailed Hate Preacher Abu Hamza’s Home Has a £40,000 Makeover… Paid by Taxpayers
» UK: MCB Organises Successful Inset Day for Primary School Teachers
» UK: Right-Winger Charged With Assault at Muslim Poppy-Burning Protest
» UK: Riot Rabble Who Targeted Tory HQ: Unmasked, The Hardcore Leaders of the Student Mob
» UK: The Boy Brimming With Pride, The Fanatics Burning With Hate… Two Faces of Armistice Day
 
North Africa
» Coptic Christian Woman Unwittingly Becomes Focal Point of Islamic Clash With Christianity
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Addressing Our Homegrown Enemies
» Obama’s Israel Squeeze: Worse Than You Know
 
Middle East
» Hate Cleric Bakri Sentenced to Life
» Hate Preacher Omar Bakri is Sentenced to Life in Jail for Training and Funding Al Qaeda Members
» Yemen: Al-Qaeda ‘Leaders’ Take Refuge
 
Far East
» Chinese Turning to Mental Wards to Break Activists
 
Latin America
» Brazil Paper Must Pay ‘Moral Damages’
 
Immigration
» Almost 2 Million More Foreign Citizens Living in UK Than 10 Years Ago
» Austria: Chase Foreigners Off if You Don’t Want Them, Says Turkish Ambassador
» Danish MP: Breasts Best Defence Against Extremism
» Michelle Malkin: Why Are We Giving Illegal Immigrants No-Hassle Pilot Lessons and Licenses?
» Study: 100,000 Hispanics Left Arizona After SB1070
» Sweden: Lack of Interpreters Threat to Asylum Process
 
Culture Wars
» Video: School Tells Student to Remove Flag From His Bicycle
 
General
» The Race for Private Space Stations: It’s U.S. Versus Russia
» When it Comes to Women, The UN Flogs Its Own Integrity

Financial Crisis


A Growth Agenda for the New Congress

by Arthur Laffer

Since its cyclical zenith in December 2007, U.S. economic production has been on its worst trajectory since the Great Depression. Massive stimulus spending and unprecedented monetary easing haven’t helped, and yet the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve still cling to the book of Keynes. It’s an approach ill-suited to solving the growth problem that the United States has today.

The solution can be found in the price theory section of any economics textbook. It’s basic supply and demand. Employment is low because the incentives for workers to work are too small, and the incentives not to work too high. Workers’ net wages are down, so the supply of labor is limited. Meanwhile, demand for labor is also down since employers consider the costs of employing new workers—wages, health care and more—to be greater today than the benefits.

Firms choose whether to hire based on the total cost of employing workers, including all federal, state and local income taxes; all payroll, sales and property taxes; regulatory costs; record-keeping costs; the costs of maintaining health and safety standards; and the costs of insurance for health care, class action lawsuits, and workers compensation. In addition, gross wages are often inflated by the power of unions and legislative restrictions such as “buy American” provisions and the minimum wage. Gross wages also include all future benefits to workers in the form of retirement plans…

[…]

[Return to headlines]



Barroso: EU Ready to Help Ireland

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said the EU is ready to come to Ireland’s rescue if necessary, amid ongoing market turmoil surrounding eurozone peripheral states.

The head of the EU executive body made the comments to reporters in Seoul on Thursday (11 November), where G20 leaders are meeting to discuss global trade imbalances and currency values, two areas where China is deemed to be out of line by many.

“What is important to know is that we have all the necessary instruments in place now to support Ireland if necessary,” said Mr Barroso when asked on the subject. “We are monitoring the situation closely,” he added. “We support the efforts of the Irish authorities [to rein in their budget deficit].”

EU leaders hastily agreed a €440 billion European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) for struggling eurozone states earlier this year, backed up by a further €60 billion in commission support and €250 billion from the IMF. The deal followed a separate bail-out for Greece.

Attention is now focused on how the as-yet-untested EFSF will work, after Irish borrowing costs reached record euro-era levels on Wednesday.

A commission spokesman on Thursday confirmed that Dublin had not requested financial assistance, insisting that this was the first step towards activating the stability fund based in Luxembourg.

Meanwhile the cost of insuring sovereign debt using credit default swaps for Ireland, Spain and Portugal rose to new heights, with the value of the euro also falling against other major currencies.

“With three countries in the euro area now having virtually lost access to capital markets, the implications for the region as a whole could easily become systemic again,” Royal Bank of Scotland analysts said in a report to investors.

The renewed turmoil forced the ECB to step up bond purchases last week, amid signs that Europe’s fragile economy is starting to stagnate. New figures show Spain’s economy neither grew nor contracted during the third quarter of this year.

G20

Ireland’s woes will be an unwelcome distraction for top EU policymakers in South Korea for the G20 leaders’ meeting this week (11-12 November).

In preliminary speeches, both Mr Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy signaled their desire to tackle global trade imbalances, amid doubts over China’s willingness to agree to a US-proposed system of limits.

“I do not believe that mechanical, one-size-fits-all numerical targets are the answer to this challenge,” said Mr Barroso. “But I think indicative guidelines could help to address large imbalances and trigger a more in-depth assessment of their nature.”

The bloc’s senior policymakers have taken a tougher stance on currency issues, repeating their long-held view last month that the Chinese yuan is undervalued and therefore hurting EU exporters.

“We rather want exchange rates that reflect the reality of the economic fundamentals and are market-determined,” said Mr Van Rompuy in Seoul.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Co-Chairmen of Obama’s Fiscal Commission Unveil Real Tax Increases and Fake Spending Cuts

by Dan Mitchell

I have many pet peeves, but one that causes me endless frustration is the Washington “spending cut” scam. This happens when politicians increase spending, but claim that they’re cutting spending because they previously had planned to make government even bigger.

The proposal unveiled yesterday by the Co-Chairman of President Obama’s Fiscal Commission is a good example. If you read through their report, it sounds like there are lots of spending cuts. But they never explain that these supposed cuts are really just reductions in previously-planned increases.

Here’s the bottom line. As shown in the graph, it is quite simple to balance the budget (and permanently extend all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts) if politicians simply limit spending growth. You can balance the budget within a few years with an overall cap on spending at current-year levels. But if you prefer a more moderate approach, you can let spending increase 2 percent each year and balance the budget by the end of the decade.

[…]

Note: good comments, too, on both sides of this issue.

[Return to headlines]



G-20 Rejection Leaves U.S. To Go it Alone

By Don Lee, John M. Glionna and Christi Parsons, Los Angeles Times

The Group of 20 summit ended Friday with a declaration of broad principles but no commitment to immediate action, signaling that the United States will have to go it alone in dealing with its fragile economy and near-double digit unemployment.

In their final declaration, leaders of the world’s most powerful economies pledged to work together and to refrain from protectionism and competitive devaluation of currencies. They also agreed to take steps to promote growth in low-income countries.

But when it came to specifics, a U.S. proposal to set numerical limits on trade surpluses and deficits was rejected. Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies pledged only to develop “indicative guidelines” to assess imbalances in the first half of next year.

They also refused to endorse a U.S. effort to force China to raise the value of its currency.

“Any sense of global solidarity looks to have been yesterday’s story,” said Tim Condon, chief economist at ING Financial Markets in Singapore.

Essentially, that left the administration — along with American workers, families and businesses — to shoulder the challenge and the likely pain of trying to solve the nation’s economic problems on its own.

“ Obama is now in a position where he must be prepared to act unilaterally to reduce the trade deficit and to shore up U.S. industrial and technological competitiveness or risk losing not only the presidency in two years, but also the American dream,” said Clyde Prestowitz, a former Reagan administration trade negotiator and now president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington.

There are several possible scenarios going forward…

[…]

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Jobless Swedes Told to Look for Work Abroad

With unemployment reaching double digits in some parts of northern Sweden, job seekers are being encouraged to look for work in other countries.

Unemployment in Västernorrland County in northern Sweden has reached 9 percent, while the jobless rate in the town of Sollefteå has hit 12 percent, according to a report by Sveriges Radio (SR).

In an effort to get more Swedes back in the workforce, the local branch of Sweden’s National Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) in Örnsköldsvik is encouraging people to look for work outside of Sweden.

“If people have a hard time finding work at home it can be good to move where the jobs are,” Lena Lundkvist of the local Örnsköldsvik employment office told The Local.

“Getting experience elsewhere can then help your chances of getting a job when you get back.”

In order to help Swedes find work in other countries, Lundkvist’s office is organising a one-day seminar titled “European Job Days”.

Scheduled to take place on November 17th, the job fair will feature representatives from Spain, Norway, the UK, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

The event, arranged in cooperation with the European Job Mobility Portal (EURES), will provide information about living and working abroad and other “valuable information” for people thinking about working or studying in another country.

Nineteen-year-old Andreas from Örnsköldsvik told SR he wants to find work before pursuing further education and viewed working in the Czech Republic as an exciting prospect.

“A call centre job wouldn’t be totally foreign for me. And there’s also plenty of good beer in the Czech Republic,” he told the radio programme.

Lundkvist said that interest in finding work in other countries has increased substantially in recent years, with Sweden’s high unemployment rate being one of the factors behind the rising popularity of looking abroad for jobs.

“If there are jobs elsewhere in Europe, we should be telling people about them,” she said, explaining that as one of 55 representatives for EURES in Sweden, her job is to promote mobility within a unified European job market.

According to Lundkvist, prospective employers in other countries look favourbly on Swedish workers.

“Swedes have an excellent reputation as good workers,” she said.

While acknowledging that working abroad has certain benefits, Thomas Carlén, a labour economist with the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) who studies youth unemployment, warned that promoting jobs in other countries was probably not the best way to address youth unemployment in Sweden, which he described as a “major problem”.

“That’s not the right message to be sending people, that they should give up on the Swedish job market and look for work abroad instead,” he told The Local.

“I don’t see anything wrong with helping people learn more about how to seek employment in other countries, but that shouldn’t be seen as the solution.”

Instead, argued Carlén, more energy should be focused on reforming education and labour market policies in Sweden so that it’s easier for young people to find jobs at home.

He explained that half of Sweden’s unemployed youth are students who are unable to find part time work in Sweden. Carlén also pointed out that 25 percent of Swedish young people leave high school without a diploma, which hampers their ability to find work.

“Swedish schools and the labour market need to work in a way that ensures that more young people find work in Sweden,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Saving Hayek From the People Who Think They’re Saving Hayek

Quoting a WaPo writer,Jason Kuznicki at Cato fisks the left’s ideas about what they THINK Hayek means:

I hate to say it, but this is quite the dog’s breakfast of confusion, misinterpretation, and strained reading. One ought to be suspicious when your author writes an entire book entitled The Mirage of Social Justice. Perhaps he’s not really too enthused about social justice, you know.

Although it’s probably true that most socialists’ idea of justice would be satisfied if income from private property were abolished, it does not follow that this was Hayek’s idea of justice. Hayek didn’t think it was “okay” to collectivize the entire means of production, whether by the state or by private action.

The ability to accumulate capital and to believe that one held it justly was, for Hayek, a most important incentive for the formation of responsible individuals. If the means of production were collectivized, individual character would suffer, and society would suffer with it. He wrote…

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The 77% of Income Fallacy

by Diana Furchtgott-Roth

When Congress returns next week for a “lame-duck,” post-election session, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev) will try to muster the 60 votes he needs to block a filibuster of a vote on the misnamed Paycheck Fairness Act. It would be better titled the Paycheck Rareness Act, because it would make paychecks rare by driving small firms out of business and sending larger corporations overseas.

This bill would thrust the government deep into compensation decisions of employers. Its declared purpose is to close the alleged “pay gap” between men and women. That gap is mostly a statistical artifact, a false conclusion-and a rallying cry for feminist lobbyists who are well paid to advocate bills like this one.

Passed by the House of Representatives in January 2009, if the Senate concurs the bill is certain to be signed by President Obama. If it is not passed by the Senate, then, as the frantic feminists warn, there would be no chance of its being enacted next year because the House will have a Republican majority.

[…]

[Return to headlines]

USA


A Look at Challenged Alaska Ballots

Yesterday about twenty percent of the write-in ballots were counted. 98 percent were for Murkowski and 89% of those weren’t challenged by Miller’s poll watchers. DrewM did the math and at that rate Murkowski would win by about 1000 votes without even having to count the challenged ballots. In other words, the exact-spelling rule dispute will be moot if the the 89% rate persists.

Miller must have done the math too because he’s challenging a lot more ballots today…

According to Miller’s poll watchers, the three voters who filled out those ballots should be disfranchised. By challenging ballots like these, which are clearly Murkowski votes and don’t appear misspelled to me, Miller is ensuring that the pile of challenged ballots will have to be considered to determine the outcome of the election…

[…]

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ADL Slams Beck for ‘Offensive’ Comments About Soros

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday criticized as “completely inappropriate and offensive” remarks by Glenn Beck on his radio and television programs, in which he drew a link between the behavior of US Jewish billionaire investor George Soros as a young boy and the actions of others in sending Jews to death camps during the Holocaust.

On his October 10 radio show, Beck described how Soros, who was born in Hungary to Orthodox Jewish parents, “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Al-Qaeda’s ‘Sword of Justice’ And the Coming War of Attrition With the West

His name could be Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi or Ibrahim al-Madani and some people used to call him Omar al-Somali. The Federal Bureau of Investigations, which wants him for murder and conspiracy to kill, says he’s dark-eyed, olive-skinned and was born in 1960. Or perhaps it was 1963.

Bar his vainglorious pseudonym Saif al-Adel — which means ‘the sword of justice’ — there is little public-domain knowledge about the man Osama bin-Laden has picked as al-Qaeda’s new chief for operations targeting the West. We know this much, though: he’s among the most skilled and dangerous operatives al-Qaeda has ever had.

Al-Adel wants to conduct a prolonged war of attrition against the West, built around low-cost, low-risk operations, like the bombs planted on cargo flights out of Yemen. He hopes this will push Western governments to retreat from Afghanistan, and to back away from brewing conflicts in north Africa, the middle-east and central Asia.

If the plan works, it will open the way for al-Qaeda to wield power in an Islamist-run state, like Afghanistan was before 9/11 . Al-Adel opposed those attacks on the reasonable grounds that it would provoke US retaliation, strip al-Qaeda of a safe base, and thus inflict long-term damage on the jihadist movement.

Parts of al-Adel’s thinking can be pieced together from a memoir he wrote in 2005. In 1987, the memoir records, al-Adel was a colonel in Egypt’s special forces. He was arrested that year on charges of aiding the Egyptian terror group al-Jihad. Prosecutors said he had planned to drive a bomb-laden truck into Egypt’s parliament, and to crash an aircraft into the building — tactics that al-Qaeda would later use to effect.

But al-Adel was less than impressed by his al-Jihad brothers-in-arms, holding them guilty of “over-enthusiasm that resulted in hasty action.”

For reasons that remain unclear, al-Adel was let out of prison and travelled to Peshawar in Pakistan.

In 1991-1992, he trained al-Qaeda jihadists at camp near Khost, in Afghanistan. Later, he travelled to Khartoum, providing explosives training at bin-Laden’s Damazine Farm base. Mohammed Odeh, a jihadist jailed in the US, recalls al-Adel telling him that as the fighting in Afghanistan was winding down, it was time to “move the jihad to other parts of the world.”

For the next several years, al-Adel hopped between al-Qaeda training facilities in Asia and Africa. He negotiated an alliance with jihadists in Iraq, and plotted to assassinate Australian mining magnate and orthodox Rabbi Joseph ‘Diamond Joe’ Gutnick

Like other top al-Qaeda operatives, al-Adel was involved in planning the 9/11 attacks. In July, 2001, however, al-Qaeda leaders were told the operation did not have the support of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s supreme leader. The US’s official investigation of the 9/11 strikes, records Mullah Omar’s dissent was endorsed by al-Adel and his associates Mahfouz al-Walid and Mustafa Uthman.

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001, al-Adel left for Iran. US intelligence believes he masterminded several attacks on US targets while based there. In response to US pressure, Iran later detained al-Qaeda leaders operating from its soil. Al-Adel lived under house arrest near Tehran with his wife and children until April, when he was released in return for a kidnapped Iranian diplomat.

There are two big reasons why the world needs to be paying special attention to al-Adel’s new project.

First, as the Australian counter-terrorism analyst Leah Farrall has been pointing out, the top al-Qaeda leadership holed out in the war-torn Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands is still key to the global jihadist project.

US intelligence officials had been claiming to have degraded al-Qaeda to the point of no-return, but that’s starting to sound suspiciously like a declaration of victory intended to hide a precipitate retreat. “Like a snake backed into a corner,” the terrorism expert Peter Bergen pointed in areview of al-Qaeda’s capabilities, “a weakened al-Qaeda isn’t necessarily less dangerous.”

That means the West needs to prepare itself to deal with the war of attrition al-Adel is planning — which, like all wars of attrition, will be messy and unpopular.

Second, a resurgent al-Qaeda could tip the balance of power in an ongoing struggle between a battered Taliban leadership open to talking peace and a new generation of radicals.

In November, 2009, Mullah Omar, issued a statement assuring “all countries that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as a responsible force, will not extend its hand to cause jeopardy to others.” That statement is the foundation of hopes for a dialogue that could lead to peace.

But Afghanistan analyst Anand Gopal recently noted that a new generation of Taleban commanders were increasingly bucking their leadership, and raised the prospect that the organisation’s top leadership in Pakistan may not be able “to enforce decisions on its rank-and-file.”

Even an the end of war witwww.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/101112h the Taliban, this suggests, might not mean the beginning of peace.

In a 1939 essay, Abul Ala Mawdudi, the ideological patriarch of the global jihadist movement, argued that the pursuit of power, rather than what he called a “hotchpotch of beliefs, prayers and rituals”, constituted the essence of Islam. The religion, he wrote in Jihad Fi’Sabilillah [Jihad in the Way of God], was in fact “a revolutionary ideology which seeks to alter the social order of the entire world.” This made it imperative, in Mawdudi’s view, for Islamists to “seize the authority of state”.

Al-Adel is working to that end. The world must decide on the price it’s willing to pay to stop him.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Authorities on Lookout for 2 Men Seen Videotaping D.C. Subway Station

WASHINGTON — Metro has circulated an internal memo asking employees to be on the lookout for two men seen videotaping the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station.

An internal memo says the individuals were “attempting to videotape inconspicuously, by holding the camera at their side, between their chest and waist.” Metro was alerted by a rider who took a picture of the men last week while they were sitting on the train.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Gaffney: Protecting Our Troops From Policy Makers

Today on Frank Gaffney’s Secure Freedom Radio, Frank pays tribute to the troops and the equally incredible sacrifice of their families. Sadly and unsurprisingly, both the Defense Budget and our Military culture face threats from distant ideologues on the left and right. Defense spending is a unique priority in the U.S. Constitution and should not be treated with parity to domestic spending when the politicians pull out their knives. There is no line item function for the Congress or the President to cut the waste that does exist in the Pentagon. In reality, cuts made for political purposes traditionally hurt modernization, weapons programs, and research and development which constitute material threats to the U.S. Military’s ability to protect our country. What will the coming Congress add to the President’s request for the Defense Department to cut $100 Billion on its own?

Add to that the coming change to the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. U.S. Military culture to date has achieved superior professionalism and combat effectiveness. Many, leaders in our armed forces are concerned about the impact of a change in policy that must ignore myriad practical questions in order to take place. Frank’s take on these issues will, indeed, give you insights found no where else.

[Listen to the program at the URL above]

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It’s “Otb” Time: One-Term Barack

(Sabato says, “Warning> Entering Irony Zone”)

The wreckage of the Democratic Party is strewn just about everywhere. President Obama’s carefully constructed 2008 Electoral College breakthrough is now just broken, a long-ago memory of what might have been a lasting shift in partisan alignment.

We have just entered the 2012 presidential election cycle, and the news is grim for the incumbent. While at least one recent poll gives Obama the lead against Sarah Palin, he is trailing in hypothetical match-ups against former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Even worse, only 38% in another recent poll said they believed Obama “deserves re-election.”

Take a look at this categorization of states that is based on the best estimate we can make of President Obama’s pre-election job approval level in each state. The Democratic states are those where Obama is still above 50%; the swing states have Obama between 47% and 50%; and the Republican states measure Obama’s job approval below 47%. Keep in mind that the president’s numbers are probably even worse now; they often drop after a devastating defeat such as the one Democrats suffered on November 2.

[Chart at website]

Obama may be able to count on the 200 electoral votes in the Democratic states, but if his reelection had been scheduled last week, he might well have lost every swing state—all of which he won in 2008…

[…]

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Lt. Col. Allen West Gets it: Islam is the Enemy

President Obama this week once again called Islam “a great religion” which has been “distorted” by a small number of “extremists” to justify committing acts of violence against the West.

But the Qur’an itself, the holy book of Islam, contains over 100 verses calling for violence against Christians and Jews. To give just one example, Sura 9:5 says, “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them.”

During a panel discussion sponsored by the Hudson Institute last January, retired Army Lt. Colonel Allen West, who did combat duty in Iraq, responded to a Marine who asked the question, how do you answer people who say that terrorists are following a “warped” version of Islam?

The panel consisted of a number of former military personnel, who fumbled around trying to answer the question. Col. West finally stepped forward and answered the question directly and truthfully. Listen to the words of a former military man who understands the nature of the enemy we face:

Notice again Col. West’s straightforward assessment: “This is not a perversion. They are doing exactly what this book (i.e., the Qur’an) says.”

In other words, Islamism is not our problem; radical Islam is not our problem; extremist Islam is not our problem. Our problem is Islam itself.

And Col. West understands that unless we get past this blithering nonsense that Islam is a religion of peace we will continue to pursue policies that make us less safe every day:

Said West, “Until you get principled leadership in the United States of America that is willing to say that, we will continue to chase our tail, because we will never clearly define who this enemy is, and then understand their goals and objectives — which (are) on any jihadist website — and then come up with the right (and) proper objectives to not only secure our Republic but secure Western civilization.”

President Obama doesn’t get it. President Bush didn’t get it. They have both peddled the errant idiocy that we have nothing to fear from Islam itself. Col. West, however, does get it.

And the people of Oklahoma get it as well, voting last week by an overwhelming 70% to amend their state constitution to prevent any Oklahoma court from considering Islamic law in its decisions. They have been directed by the people through this constitutional provision to consider American law and American law only. Period.

An activist federal judge, U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange, of course, has already been found who is once again eager, as all tyrants are, to thwart the expressed will of the people and do her best to impose Shariah law on an unwilling populace. Judge LaGrange doesn’t get it either.

The left, including this sorry excuse of a judge, hate democracy. They hate the concept of self-government. They see themselves as the elite who are so much smarter than those whom Katie Couric calls the “great unwashed” that they feel free to set aside any democratically enacted legislation they don’t happen to like. That’s not democracy, that’s not constitutional government, that’s tyranny.

Col. West, by the way, was elected last week to Congress, to represent Florida’s 22nd congressional district. He will be the first African-American Republican congressman to represent Florida since 1870.

Col. West was bounced out of the military for the aggressive 2003 interrogation of a civilian Iraqi police officer who was suspected of having information about an ambush on American soldiers. When the officer wouldn’t cough up information that would protect American lives, Col. West fired his pistol past the detainee’s head into a clearing barrel. It did not harm the detainee in any way, but frightened him into giving Col. West information about the planned attack.

Not only did this information enable the military to thwart this particular ambush, there were no further ambushes on U.S. forces in this area until Col. West was relieved of his leadership post.

Col. West was asked at his hearing if he would do it again. “If it’s about the lives of my men and their safety, I’d go through hell with a gasoline can.”

In other words, Col. West is a genuine American hero. He should have received another medal for his actions instead of being driven from the U.S. military. He is exactly the kind of officer I want protecting the lives of my wife and children.

Col. West was a highly decorated officer at the time of this incident, having earned the Bronze Star and the Meritorious Service Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters) in addition to numerous other awards and decorations.

So on this Veteran’s Day, be sure to thank every uniformed soldier you see. And give a special shout-out to Lt. Col. Allen West, who knows exactly who our enemy is and is willing to publicly identify the enemy with honesty, directness, and candor. May his tribe increase.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Native American Tribes Seek Trade Ties With Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Native American tribal leaders and businessmen are seeking trade ties with Turkish companies by offering them tax incentives in their territories in the United States.

Turkish Coalition of America president Lincoln McCurdy said Thursday the Native American tribes belong to sovereign nations that can strike their own trade deals and offer special tax incentives. The coalition organized the trip.

The delegation, representing 17 tribes from at least 10 U.S. states, has been welcomed by the Turkish government, which wants to bolster trade ties with the United States.

Chairman John Berrey of the Quapaw Tribe in Oklahoma says it’s a new day for opportunities for Turkey and for Native Americans. Berrey says Native Americans can provide Turkish companies a foothold in the United States.

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Obama: Center of the Soros System?

So do not be deceived. Barack Obama merely operates one crane with one wrecking ball … there is much to bring down, and much more to the Soros System. It has a multitude of layers and much redundancy within those layers. It must be the mission of every freedom loving person to defeat this man and his plans at every level and in detail. But first, I shall attempt to motivate you about this man and his organizations. The malevolence will astound you.

George Soros has made it his mission to destroy the “evil” USA and transform it into a fairer society … does this sound familiar? Soros lets nothing stand in his way; what he can’t buy or subvert, he destroys. Who he cannot convert, he silences. I’m quite certain that Glenn Beck knows what danger he is in. I may not always agree with Beck’s philosophy, but he is a one of the few Patriots in media fighting bravely for America’s survival. Soros, in contrast, might as well be the alien from the film “Independence Day.” He and his allies have the same plans for the USA and the World. Learn and know who and what we must defeat in order to save, to keep and finally to restore, our Constitutional Republic. We are under siege. Is resistance futile? I think not.

Look at the man, George Soros, who funds agitation and Progressivism in this country. He has ruined First, Second, and Third World economies, re-making them in his own vision and has bragged about it. He is a most despicable man: a probable Nazi collaborator who participated in the confiscation of property from his own Jewish people in World War II Hungary. Soros even has a news media front MediaMatters.com that defends his every actions then and now. He attacks the right with move-on.org to distract attention from his seamy past. He uses organs like the Left-fascist Huffington Post to forward his positions and argumentation. He gives money to NPR to hire reporters. [Is it a coincidence thereafter that NPR fired honest, Liberal Analyst and Reporter Juan Williams.] Soros would have you believe that he was merely an innocent Jewish boy of 14, caught up in unfortunate circumstances, trying to evade the death camps. Bull! An interview with CBS’s Steve Kroft in 1998 states otherwise:

[…]

George Soros’ Open Society Institute [OSI] has funneled and continues to funnel big-time money into Leftist organizations, Big Labor, the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], the Progressive Legislative Action Network [PLAN], and Gun Control organizations.”A strong supporter of anti-war and environmentalist organizations, OSI is a member of the Peace and Security Funders Group. It is also a member of the International Human Rights Funders Group, a network of more than six-dozen grant-makers dedicated to bankrolling leftist organizations and causes.” His network is vast, yet somehow the George Soros’ OSI has managed to receive over $30 Million in US Government funding! Huh?

This man Soros means business: $5 Trillion of new US debt in 4 years courtesy Obama-Pelosi-Reid is just the beginning. Soros fingerprints are all over everything. Investigate. Follow the money. Soros is now gleefully predicting economic collapse of the United States in the near future. This is near perfect for him. Hyperinflation, cross-leveling of economics [redistribution], massive societal engineering, loss of national sovereignty, re-ordered “rights [for everyone but him],” abolition of private property [except his people of course], abolition of firearm ownership [except for his people of course] … need I go on?

[…]

Folks, I have barely scratched the surface. If you think it cannot happen here, then you had better reflect on just how far Obama-Pelosi-Reid took us toward full Socialism in just twenty—three months.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Pruden: Obama’s Grim Pursuit of Muslim Romance

Unrequited love is a sad thing to watch, whether it’s a callow teenager mooning over a photograph of that cute girl in algebra class, Scarlett O’Hara pining for the elusive Ashley — or Barack Obama in relentless pursuit of the affections of uninterested Muslims.

The president seems to have left his heart in Jakarta, where he lived as a child in the late ‘60s. “Let me begin with a simple statement,” he told his Indonesian hosts, “Indonesia is part of me.” A nice sentiment, and visitors are expected to indulge in polite exaggeration in thanking their hosts. Mr. Obama continued with the usual diplomatic lies that diplomats count on nobody taking seriously, praising his hosts’ “diversity, democracy and tolerance,” citing Indonesia as a model for other countries. There was no need to go into the nation’s brutal and bloody history; the ethnic cleansing that killed up to 1 million men, women and children; the suppression of those warm and friendly folk by corrupt and oppressive regimes.

The president just can’t help himself when he gets amongst Muslims, many of whom take his treacly sentiments as telling evidence of weakness in the face of peril and provocation, proof of the “resolve” of the sappy West. He even indulged a ritual insult of the first lady, saying nothing when the Indonesian minister of communications shook Michelle’s hand at a formal reception and then apologized for the sin and shame of having touched her: “I tried to prevent it with my two hands, but Mrs. Michelle [sic] moved her hands too close to me; then we touched.” Actually, video footage shows the minister reaching eagerly for Mrs. Obama’s outstretched hand, calculating that he could get the cheap thrill of touching the forbidden female flesh that sets Muslim imaginations ablaze. Muslim men have been accused of many things, but kindness and gallantry toward women are not among them.

The next day, Michelle even put on a dowdy “Friday-go-to-meeting” dress for a Wednesday visit to the biggest mosque in Indonesia, testing whether a dowdy dress could make her look dowdy. (The dress failed.)

The president obviously has warm memories of his boyhood in Indonesia, and only a churl would deny his indulging a little nostalgia in recalling a golden boyhood. He took pains to remind his hosts that he is a believing Christian, but he passed up another opportunity to speak bluntly (as a Dutch uncle, you might say) to the Muslim world that mutual respect must be earned.

He could have said something like the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI, who Thursday condemned violence “in the name of God” and told Muslims they must respect freedom of worship even in their own countries. Conversations between Christians and Muslims are all to the good, the pontiff said, but this “dialogue” must be accompanied by “the freedom to practice one’s religion in private and in public.” He urged heads of state across the Middle East to “guarantee to all the freedom of conscience and religion, and of being able to bear public witness to their own faith.” (Saudi newspapers, please copy.)

Such a message from President Obama would have been the needed slap across the face to those who need it most. At the moment, Islam doesn’t appear to most of us in the West to be the “religion of peace” that presidents and prime ministers keep telling us it is; some of that “honest dialogue” they invariably prescribe might clear the air. It might even persuade some of the president’s fiercest critics that he isn’t really a Muslim at heart.

The president should remember the old American adage, “If they’ll hang you for stealing a goat, you might as well take a sheep.” Mr. Obama’s continued pursuit of romance with the Islamic world, little short of abasing both himself and his country, isn’t winning him a lot of points from Muslims at home. The Muslim response to his Jakarta speech, similar in tint and tone to his contrite apology last year in Cairo, has been “That’s nice, and so what?”

The special pleaders are clear about the price they exact for returning Mr. Obama’s respect and attempts at affection. They define “progress” as withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay at once, “protecting” the civil rights of Muslim Americans, and compelling the Israelis to commit suicide. Do all that, Mr. President, and we’ll love you — maybe for a whole day. But eventually you’ll probably have to put Michelle in a burqa.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Some Muslims Attending Capitol Hill Prayer Group Have Terror Ties, Probe Reveals

An Al Qaeda leader, the head of a designated terror organization and a confessed jihadist-in-training are among a “Who’s Who” of controversial figures who have participated in weekly prayer sessions on Capitol Hill since the 2001 terror attacks, an investigation by FoxNews.com reveals.

The Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA) has held weekly Friday Jummah prayers for more than a decade, and guest preachers are often invited to lead the service. The group held prayers informally for about eight years before gaining official status in 2006 under the sponsorship of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of two Muslims currently serving in Congress. The second Muslim congressman, Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., joined as co-sponsor after he was elected in 2008.

Among those who FoxNews.com determined have attended the prayer services during the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations are:

— Anwar al-Awlaki, the notorious Al Qaeda cleric believed to be hiding in Yemen and the lone American on the U.S. government’s capture or kill list, who conducted a prayer service on Capitol Hill shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

— Randall “Ismail” Royer, a former communications associate for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who confessed in 2004 to receiving jihadist training in Pakistan. He is serving a 20-year prison term.

— Anwar Hajjaj, former president of Taibah International Aid Association, which was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and U.N. in 2004.

— Esam Omeish, the former president of the Muslim American Society, who was forced to resign from the Virginia Commission on Immigration in 2007 after calling for “the jihad way,” among other remarks.

— Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who was forced to step down from a national terrorism committee post in 1999 for pro-terrorist comments.

— Nihad Awad, CAIR executive director, who attended a Hamas meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 that was wiretapped by the FBI.

— Johari Abdul Malik, Dar al-Hijrah imam, who made statements in support of convicted and suspected terrorists who attended his mosque.

— Tariq Ramadan, a Muslim scholar banned from the U.S. for six years beginning in 2004 for his alleged ties and donations to terror groups. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lifted Ramadan’s ban in January.

— Abdulaziz Othman Al-Twaijri, the head of a division of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, considered a foreign agent by the U.S.

[.]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Some in-Fighting for the Republican National Committe Chairmanship.

Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan GOP who unsuccessfully ran for RNC chair in 2009, has decided to challenge Michael Steele for the post once again.

While trying to maintain a respectful tone toward Steele, Anuzis was sure to highlight many of the problems that have plagued the RNC with Steele at the helm.

“Chairman Steele’s record speaks for itself,” Anuzis wrote. “He has his way of doing things. I have mine.”

He went on to sat that to win in 2012, the RNC needs solid fundraising and a chairman who “steps out of the limelight and allows our elected officials and presidential candidates to be the face, voice, and agenda setter for Republicans.”

Anuzis said he would not “strive to be the voice or the face of our party” and vowed to “run a tight ship and be a conscientious steward of our donor’s money.”

[…]

[Can you say “ABS”? Anyone But Steele]

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The Fragile Family Effect

By Kay S. Hymowitz

It’s instability, not poverty, that does the greater damage to children

Poverty is on the rise, according to census data, and now affects 14.3% of the population, up from 13.2% in 2008…

[…]

But those who think that poor urban families’ problems have an economic fix would do well to pick up the fall issue of the Future of Children, a journal jointly published by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Brookings Institution…The articles in the issue are based on findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which has followed 5,000 children and their urban, primarily minority parents since the kids were born in the late 1990s…

One of the study’s most surprising initial findings was that the large majority — 80% — of poor, unmarried couples were romantically involved at the time of their child’s birth. In fact, 50% of the couples were living together. Fathers almost always visited the mothers and children in the hospital and usually provided financial support. Even better, most of these new parents said that there was a 50-50 chance that they would eventually marry each other. They spoke highly of their partners’ commitment to their children and of their supportiveness.

But within five years, a tiny 15% of the unmarried couples had taken wedding vows, while a whopping 60% had split up. At the five-year mark, only 36% of the children lived with their fathers, and half of the other 64% hadn’t seen their dads in the last month. One-half to two-thirds of the absent fathers provided little or no financial support.

[…]

A parental breakup is hard enough on kids, but the prevalence of what experts call “multipartner fertility” is salt in their wounds. By the time the children were 5, 20% of their mothers had a child by a different man; 27% of the kids were living with their mother’s new live-in partner. These relationships tended to reduce father involvement…

[…]

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Denmark: Money Transfers Lifeline for Families of Foreigners

Many immigrants send money back home each month

Most of the foreigners in Denmark work for low wages and they send most of their salary every month to their relatives back home, shows a new study from MoneyGram.

The study was conducted among 272 foreigners from the Philippines, Africa and the Middle East currently living in Denmark.

Amongst those who transfer money, 67 percent do so every month. The typical amounts are in the range of 1,000—2,500 kroner per month. Out of those who participated in the study, approximately 33 percent earn less than 5,000 kroner per month before taxes, while 7 out of 10 make less than 20,000 kroner per month before taxes.

“Most of our customers typically come to our stores every month around payday to transfer money to their home countries,” said Joakim Husted, the regional manager of FOREX Bank handling all of MoneyGram’s money transfers in Denmark.

In particular many of the company’s customers from the Philippines and from African countries such as Cameroon, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria choose to send home smaller amounts of money on a frequent basis rather than transfer a larger sum only once or twice a year because their families depend on the monthly remittances.

Many foreigners, Filipinos and Africans in particular, choose to work temporarily in Western countries in order to be able to transfer money back home to their families.

A large portion of the immigrants from Africa, the Philippines, and the Middle East staying in Denmark temporarily in order to support their relatives back home slog away in jobs such as cleaning, sales or within the restaurant business. Filipino women typically work as au pairs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU to Grab Even More Power Without Vote

MINISTERS will be able to hand MORE power to Brussels without holding a promised referendum, it emerged yesterday.

The coalition had agreed no powers should be transferred without a public vote, a key Tory demand. But a new EU Bill says a minister can simply state the transfer of power is NOT SIGNIFICANT enough to merit a public vote in some cases.

Tory eurosceptics erupted in fury at the Bill last night. MP Douglas Carswell called it a “hollow promise of smoke and mirrors”. He added: “Since the coalition there have been five further transfers of powers.

“I take with a pinch of salt the idea that a minister can decide what constitutes a significant change.” Robert Oulds, director of the eurosceptic Bruges Group think-tank, said: “Every single Conservative MP was elected on the promise that they would take back powers from Brussels.

“Yet since coming to office in May, the Government has actually given the EU more control over this country.”

Labour dismissed the Bill as a “dog’s dinner” which would end in costly legal wrangling The Foreign Office argues the exemption will ensure the Government does not have to hold referendums on minor changes. Europe minister David Lidington said the Bill would give people more control over EU decisions.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



France Wants to Delay Schengen Accession for Bulgaria and Romania

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — France wants to delay a decision on allowing Romania and Bulgaria to join Europe’s border-free Schengen zone at least until summer 2011 and is pressing for more results in the fight against corruption and a better surveillance of the border with Moldova.

“We have to be very vigilent” about enlarging the border-free area to Bulgaria and Romania “who hope to join in March,” EU affairs minister Pierre Lellouche said Wednesday in the French parliament, as quoted by AFP.

He warned against an “automatic enlargement” and said that the technical evaluations, which so far have all been positive, are not enough. Naming the Netherlands as its other ally, the French minister said his country was pressing “to delay this decision at least until summer 2011,” when the European Commission is set to present its annual report on the fight against corruption and organised crime in the two countries.

Mr Lellouche’s comments will deal a blow to efforts by Bulgarian and Romanian officials to separate Schengen accession from the commission’s continued monitoring of their justice reform and anti-corruption efforts.

When the two countries joined the EU, in 2007, persistent corruption and insufficient reforms of their jutice systems determined the set-up of an unprecedented monitoring mechanism, which so far led to the freezing of some €500 million in Bulgaria due to fraud associated with EU funds.

Mr Lellouche said the latest reports of the commission were “worrying”, as they noted too little progress in the two countries.

Adding to the overall situation, the French minister also said he was concerned about the Romanian-Moldovan border “because of the distribution of Romanian passports outside their border” and the separatist conflict in Moldova’s eastern region, Transnistria, a “black hole” as he described it, in reference to the organised crime gangs and trafficking in weapons, drugs and people eluding the Moldovan or Ukrainian state authority.

The level of corruption in neighbouring Ukraine is also a matter of concern to France.

These arguments are new, considering that so far, Paris had rather pressed for Romania and Bulgaria to “properly integrate” their Roma communities before joining Schengen, as the French authorities unleashed an unprecedented crack-down on Roma camps, linking them to a rise in criminality.

In a press briefing with foreign journalists in Sofia, Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov on Tuesday vowed to tackle “organised migration of Roma into EU countries.”

Meanwhile, his Romanian counterpart, Constantin Igas, briefed a German-speaking audience in Brussels about the efforts undertaken by his government, despite the austerity measures, to boost security at the borders and meet all the standards for Schengen accession.

“After our EU membership in 2007, Schengen accession has become our number one priority,” he said, adding that the government paid some €540,000, despite budget cuts, to improve the quality of border checks. EU funds amounting to some €500,000 were also used for the purpose.

Mr Igas admitted that Romania had “one of the longest and most difficult EU borders”, over 2,000 km long, but insisted that all Schengen standards will be met by March next year.

As to corruption amongst border guards, he said the phenomenon was decreasing, as attested by the commission’s reports.

EU officials familiar with the Schengen enlargement process say that if the remaining technical tests in November and December turn out positive, it will be “very hard” and even “unfair” not to let the two countries in.

A delay of a few months is possible, however, in order to signal that the process is not “automatic” and to put more pressure on the two capitals to clamp down on corruption and organised crime.

The decision has to be taken by unanimity of member states in the EU Council of Ministers, even though not all countries are part of the Schengen area, with Ireland, Great Britain and Cyprus being outside the zone.

Eastern diplomats point to the fact that new member states who joined the Schengen area in 2007 — ranging from the Baltic states to Hungary and Slovenia, “are more prepared” than some of the old member states. Greece for example, recently asked the EU to send some 200 guards to help with surveillance of its land border with Turkey, the point where most irregular migrants cross into the EU.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Births Hit Record Low

The number of children born in Germany hit a record low in 2009, official statistics showed on Friday, with Europe’s largest country facing a demographic crisis as its birth rate continues to plunge.

There were 665,126 babies born in Germany last year, by far the lowest since records began in 1946, Germany’s statistics office said. Twice as many babies were born in 1964, at the height of the baby boom.

Births per woman also dropped in 2009 to 1.36, down from 1.38 in 2008. The statistics office said one of the reasons was that women of child-bearing age (between 15 and 49) had declined.

Germany’s population of just over 80 million is shrinking rapidly, figures show. Last year, statistics showed it could be home to as many as 17 million fewer people in 50 years time.

Like other advanced economies, Germany is facing a snowballing population crisis, leaving the country short of workers and adding to the strain on already stretched public coffers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is childless, has introduced a raft of measures aimed at boosting the birth rate, including generous parental leave allowances and increasing the number of kindergarten place.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Ireland: Reds Lose the Head After Zoo Pairs Them Up With Orang-utans

PERPETUATING STEREOTYPES about redheads may not have been the intention but Dublin Zoo’s latest campaign to attract visitors has ruffled more than a few feathers.

The zoo is offering free entry to all red-haired children this weekend to highlight the endangered status of orang-utans in the wild. The offer is also open to any child who arrives dressed as an orang-utan or who wears a red wig.

Marian Purdy, co-founder of the website redheadandproud.com, which seeks to counter discrimination against redheads, said she couldn’t see much harm in the campaign but some children would “inevitably” use the association between redheads and orang-utans to taunt others.

The move caused some controversy on Twitter yesterday, with many users claiming the promotion was insensitive and stigmatised red-haired children, with one user remarking “Apes and Redheads? Connection?” In 2008, Adelaide zoo in Australia was forced to drop a similar ad campaign which offered free visits to all “rangas” — a derogatory term for redheads — after the zoo received hundreds of complaints.

Ciarán McMahon, the primate keeper at the zoo, defended the campaign, saying it was intended as a “fun and quirky” way of raising awareness. “The real point is raising awareness about these endangered animals that may be extinct in 10 years,” he said.

Orang-utans are a species of great ape found on the southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Despite conservation efforts, continued destruction of their natural habitat has seen numbers dwindle to dangerously low levels.

While some redheads may take umbrage at being lumped together with orang-utans, their affinity with the great forest apes may run deeper than just hair colour.

Some scientists believe redheads may soon be extinct themselves, theorising that the recessive gene for the rarest natural hair colour will eventually die out or fall dormant due to global intermingling.

The hair type currently constitutes about 4 per cent of the European population. Scotland boasts the highest constituency with 13 per cent, ahead of Ireland’s 10 per cent. Last month, British Labour Party deputy leader Harriet Harman caused a furore after she branded Scottish Lib Dem MP Danny Alexander a “ginger rodent” in a speech, in Scotland of all places.

           — Hat tip: McR [Return to headlines]



Italy’s Scandal Magnet

Morals Won’t Bring Down Berlusconi

By Alexander Smoltczyk

Pious Christians regard him as sick but many ordinary Italians are cheering him on. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may grope his way from one scandal to the next, but issues of morality are not likely to cause his downfall.

Should 74-year-olds be hosting group sex parties? Absolutely. And should they also be in charge of the government affairs of a core European Union country? Silvio Berlusconi would answer this question enthusiastically in the affirmative. “No one can convince me to change my lifestyle,” the Italian prime minister has said. “I’m proud of it.”

Once again, Berlusconi finds himself at the center of a scandal that involves underage women, prostitution and the abuse of power. And, once again, there are those who are predicting his political demise.

Gianfranco Fini, president of the lower house of the Italian parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, who has announced that his center-right party no longer wants to cooperate with Berlusconi, is demanding that the prime minister take “a step back.” Last week three members of the Chamber switched party allegiances to join the former foreign minister’s camp.

And all of this happened because of Karima el-Marough, the young woman who has just turned 18 and calls herself “Ruby Rubacuori,” or “Ruby the Stealer of Hearts?” When she was just 12 years old her Moroccan father, who lives in Sicily, allegedly tried to marry her off to a much older man. Ruby fled and since then reportedly survived by stealing and working as a prostitute. Her dream was to join the world of showgirls, the world of Silvio Berlusconi.

An Evening with the Prime Minister

In May Ruby, still a minor at the time and without papers, was charged with stealing jewelry and cash. The Milan police were surprised to receive urgent calls from the office of the prime minister. Berlusconi’s aides told the police that the girl was a relative of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and was to be released immediately. The prime minister himself reportedly spoke to the police, as well. “If I can help people in trouble, then I will,” Berlusconi said, commenting on the matter.

The public prosecutor’s office has stated that the release was legal. Nevertheless, it is still investigating a modeling agent suspected of having seduced minors into prostitution. Ruby allegedly told the authorities that she received €7,000 ($9,730) and other gifts for one evening.

An evening with the prime minister.

She also mentioned the name of a game that was allegedly played during parties: “Bunga-Bunga,” an expression Berlusconi allegedly borrowed from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. But the girl stresses that she never had sex with the premier.

Rome has long been full of rumors about sex parties at the prime minister’s house, Villa Arcore near Milan, lavish affairs complete with half-naked young women and lap dancers, wine, drugs and seafood, Neapolitan songs performed by the master of the house, repeated hymn-like invocations (“Thank God for Silvio”), and all of it surrounding a golden throne that would suggest a liturgy dreamed up by Fellini. But the real Bunga-Bunga, reserved for the inner circle, allegedly took place afterwards, in Berlusconi’s private rooms.

The Catholic weekly newspaper Famiglia Cristiani may describe Berlusconi as “sick and of unsound mind.” Some may poke fun at “Burlesque-oni.” But the prime minister applies the categorical imperative of the populist: Say nothing unless you can assume that the majority of voters secretly agree with you. This explains why it doesn’t hurt Berlusconi to say: “It’s better to like pretty girls than to be gay.” After all, many Italian mothers would say the same thing.

Berlusconi Wasn’t Elected for His Morals

Berlusconi talks the way patrons do in the “Bar dello Sport,” the Italian version of the neighborhood bar. He lives a demonstrative and uninhibited life. His ideology is that everyone should be apolitical and think of himself first.

Many Italians are indeed ashamed of their prime minister. Nevertheless, as the psychoanalyst Sergio Benvenuto asks in the cultural magazine Lettre International, “isn’t there a little Berlusconi tucked away in the corners of every Italian’s respectability, even if he feels nothing but revulsion for Berlusconi?”

Meanwhile, the opposition doesn’t exactly occupy a moral high ground. Berlusconi’s publications reported with relish on how former Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s spokesman was photographed conversing with a transvestite back in 2007. And the center-left coalition lost control of the Lazio region when its president was caught being driven in his official car to a rendezvous with a Brazilian transvestite.

Morality will not be Berlusconi’s downfall. After all, he wasn’t elected because of his morals. He may be brought down over the promises he hasn’t kept or over the newly growing piles of garbage in Naples. Obsessed with his own problems with the courts, caught in a cocoon of sycophants, this powerful man seems incapable of achieving reforms. The fact that Italy survived the credit crisis more effectively than Greece, Portugal and Ireland is solely the achievement of Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti and the Italian economic system, which is still very traditional.

Many now hope that Gianfranco Fini will play the role of Brutus — and not, as he has until now, that of Fabius Maximus, the Roman general known as the Delayer for his dithering ways.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Pamela Anderson Asked Obama to ‘Legalise All Drugs’

Rome, 11 Nov. (AKI) — Canadian-American sex symbol Pamela Anderson during an Italian talk show said she has called on US president Barack Obama to legalize drugs.

“I sent a letter to Obama, who I think is a great president, to liberalise all drugs,” she said during the taping of “Chiambretti Night” on one of Italy’s billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s three network television channels.

“I think people would use fewer drugs if they were legal,” Anderson said.

The 43-year-old who gained international fame playing a Los Angeles beach lifeguard in television show “Bay Watch,” is due in January to appear on the cover Playboy magazine for the 11th time in 22 years.

In the January issue she will pay homeage to Federico Fellini’s 1960 film classic “La Dolce Vita” by splashing naked in a pool, evoking Swedish movie star and sex symbol Anita Ekberg’s indelible scene in Rome, Italy’s Trevi Fountain with Marcello Mastroianni.

On the show set air Friday at midnight, Anderson says she doesn’t feel nostalgic enough to look at her old Playboy photos, but she has no regrets.

“I had fun,” she said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Police Nab Unsafe Toys Valued at 2 Million Euros

Rome, 10 Nov.(AKI) — Italian police in Rome over the last 15 days have seized almost 400,000 counterfeit children’s Christmas toys and decorations valued at 2 million euros. The potentially hazardous items, many of which were made with haven’t passed European Union safety standards, were destined to reach consumers during the busy Christmas season.

According to the police, the items recently arrived in Italy from China via three separate import export business registered to three Chinese nationals. Charges were brought against all allegedly importing and selling unsafe counterfeit products

In all, the raid uncovered 370,000 toys and Christmas decorations made with uncertified parts as well as 30,000 counterfeit Rubix cubes. The items were nabbed as they were being transported to warehouses in Rome’s periphery in advance of their delivery to stores.

Italy has an on-going counterfeit problem with unauthorized goods bearing internationally known Italian brand names produced in China. Italian companies and their brands face growing competition from cheap imitations produced by manufacturers in China and other countries.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Berlusconi Rejects ‘Quit’ Call

Fini ‘will have to vote me out in parliament’

(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday rejected a call from House Speaker Gianfranco Fini for him to stand down, sources in his People of Freedom (PdL) party told reporters.

The sources said the premier, who is at a G20 summit in Seoul, told them Fini would have to “come out into the open and vote me out in parliament” if he wanted Berlusconi to go.

The Speaker, who holds the balance of power in the House after being thrown out of the PdL in July and forming his own party, insisted Thursday that Berlusconi should resign with a view to broadening the coalition, possibly under a different leader, and revamping its programme.

Berlusconi’s key ally the Northern League, whose leader Umberto Bossi is mediating with Fini in a bid to avoid a formal government crisis, in turn rejected the Speaker’s call to invite the centrist UDC party into government.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Pope Asks Muslim World to Reciprocate Religious Tolerance

Pontiff also tells G20 to push for social justice

(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 11 — Pope Benedict XVI called on Islamic countries to reciprocate the religious freedom Muslims usually enjoy in predominantly Christian countries in a document published Thursday.

Several Islamic states in the Middle East have laws limiting or prohibiting Christian minorities from openly practising their faith.

In the document, the pontiff stressed that the Catholic Church has “esteem” for Muslims, while stating that inter-faith dialogue will be fruitless unless it is based on “the ability of all to freely practise their religion in private and in public”.

The call was made in an “apostolic exhortation” containing the pope’s reflections on a synod of bishops that met in the Vatican in 2008 on the theme the ‘Word of God’.

The Vatican is deeply concerned about the plight of Christians in the Middle East, with non-Muslim minorities fleeing the region in numbers amid growing hostility.

Their concerns have been heightened by a recent wave of violence, including a suicide attack on a church in the Iraqi capital last month which killed 52.

“Religion can never justify intolerance or war,” the pope said in the document. “One cannot use violence in the name of God”.

He commented that “every religion should encourage the proper use of reason and promote ethical values that build civil co-existence”.

The pope also made a separate call for the world’s leading economies to push for greater social justice at the two-day G20 summit in Seoul, which started Thursday.

He asked G20 leaders to strive for “lasting, sustainable and just solutions” by acknowledging the “deeper reasons” for the recent economic and financial crisis and the “primary and central value of human dignity’ in a letter to the summit’s host, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

The term “human dignity” is an apparent reference to the widespread poverty and hunger than affects big sections of the global population, above all in the developing world.

“The G20 will respond to the expectations placed in it and grant real success to future generations, if taking into consideration the various and sometimes contrasting problems afflicting the peoples of the earth, it is able to set out the characteristics of the universal common good and demonstrate its willingness to cooperate in order to attain it,” added the letter, which was published on the Vatican website Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Containers Proposed as Student Housing Solution

Officials in Stockholm have come up with a novel solution to address the student housing shortage afflicting university towns across the country: converting cargo containers into student residences.

The city of Stockholm intends to undertake two projects to create about 220 student apartments by stacking nine storeys of containers togeher, as well as building more floors on top of existing student residences at Gärdet in eastern Stockholm, newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Friday.

The proposal calls for building the first 50 homes near the Royal Institute of Technology’s (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, KTH) on Drottning Kristinas väg.

If all goes to according to plan, students could move into the dwellings as early as next autumn, DN reported.

Each container occupies 25 square metres and includes a bathroom and kitchenette. The building would also include a greenhouse on the roof.

At Gärdet’s Studentbacken, one idea is to build another two to three floors on the three eight-storey buildings that the Stockholm Student Housing Foundation (Stiftelsen Stockholms studentbostäder, SSSB) currently runs.

The proposed 220 new student apartments barely scratch the surface in terms of addressing the acute housing shortage for students in Stockholm. The average time students spend on SSSB’s wait list is 15 months.

“The situation has deteriorated drastically and the queuing time has gone through the roof. A few years ago, it was three months,” SSSB communications director Anders Cronqvist told DN.

Attempts by The Local to reach SSSB were unsuccessful.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden Helps World’s Poor Most: Study

Sweden has topped the rankings of a study evaluating the countries with the world’s best policies that benefit the developing world for the second straight year.

Nordic neighbours Denmark, Norway and Finland came in second, fourth and sixth respectively in the 2010 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), an annual ranking compiled by the Washington, DC-based Center for Global Development (CGD) think tank released last week ahead of the ongoing G20 summit in Seoul.

The CDI measures national efforts in seven policy areas that are important to developing countries: aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security and technology.

Sweden earned a 7, an improvement from last year. Its score has risen by 0.9 points from 2003 to 2010. The country scored particularly highly in the aid, migration, trade and environment categories.

However, the organisation emphasised that the world’s richest countries still have a long way to go despite making modest progress in improving policies that support development.

“At the Seoul Summit, development will be a key part of the agenda for the first time since the steering group for the global economy was expanded from the G8 to the G20 during the 2008 financial crisis,” CGD President Nancy Birdsall said in a statement.

“There are many connections between industrialised countries and developing ones, not just aid but also trade, investment, environmental policy and other linkages. The failure to use these channels to their full potential is a blow to the goal of shared global prosperity,” she added.

The CDI shows most wealthy nations have altered their policies since 2005 to be more supportive of sustained growth and poverty reduction in the developing world. However, the CDI found overall improvement has been slight and the seven major industrialised countries in particular can do much more.

Only three of them, Canada, the US and Germany, made the CDI’s top 15. The United Kingdom, which recently announced plans to boost development aid amid a government austerity campaign, ranked 16th, pulled down by a poor showing on the index security component due to arms sales to undemocratic regimes.

At their Toronto summit in June, leaders of the G20 established a working group to propose a development agenda and multi-year action plan for approval in Seoul.

In Toronto, the G20 said narrowing the gap in development between rich and poor countries and reducing poverty was integral to achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth and ensuring a robust and resilient global economy for all.

G20 leaders are expected to adopt a development action plan at the summit in South Korea.

The CDI ranks 22 of the world’s richest nations based on their dedication to development policies that benefit poor nations. In 2010, the average score for all nations on the index was 5.3, up from 5.1 in 2005, and 18 countries improved their scores over that period.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden: ‘Alcolocks’ For All New Cars: Social Democrats

The Social Democrats have proposed that all new cars sold in Sweden be equipped with ignition locks to prevent a vehicle from starting if the driver is intoxicated.

The proposal, presented in the Riksdag on Friday, also calls for buses and trucks to come with the devices as well. According to the party, one in four traffic fatalities could be prevented with mandatory ignition locks.

The party’s traffic committee chairman Anders Ygeman is in favour of the government’s proposal on ignition locks as an alternative to revoking driving privileges for drunk driving offenses.

However, the Social Democrats want to go one step further with even more stringent legislation, including seeking an exemption from the EU that would allow Sweden to introduce ignition locks in all new cars.

“Every fourth traffic fatality could be prevented if we introduced mandatory ignition locks. Additionally, it would save society about 6 billion kronor ($877 million),” said Ygeman.

Ygeman quoted figures from data compiled from a Social Democratic report in 2004.

When asked how much it would cost the automobile industry, Ygeman said, “I think there will be rather minimal costs attached. When one begins mass production, it will become relatively inexpensive.”

Stockholm public transport operator SL announced in September that it will install ignition locks on all of its buses within the next two years, ensuring drivers who have been drinking cannot start their vehicles.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Switzerland: Retail Scene Changes as Coop Overtakes Migros

Switzerland’s supermarket landscape is shifting, with Coop nudging ahead of its only rival Migros for the first time. But what does this mean for consumers?

Retail experts discuss the main challenges for Swiss supermarkets expanding abroad and explain not only why Swiss consumers have to pay more than their neighbours but also why the “thrifty is nifty” mentality in Germany hasn’t taken off in Switzerland.

Last week Coop, which together with Migros accounts for about 70 per cent of the market share for food and drinks in Switzerland, announced it had bought out transGourmet, a European wholesaler, for an undisclosed sum.

As a result, the Coop Group’s turnover jumped some SFr8 billion ($8.25 billion) to just under SFr27 billion, almost SFr2 billion more than Migros (see box).

“People eat everywhere!” said Coop CEO Hansueli Loosli, eying the rapidly growing purchasing power of eastern Europe, where transGourmet is active.

Loosli, who stands down in the spring to become head of telecoms provider Swisscom, said there was a pent-up demand in the eastern bloc states which promised high growth.

Wholesale expansion

But stepping into foreign markets also contains risks. Migros tried it in the 1990s and got burnt, losing SFr300 million in Austria.

“The important thing to bear in mind is that neither Coop nor Migros wants to expand abroad as supermarkets,” Damian Künzi, an analyst at Credit Suisse, told swissinfo.ch.

“The transGourmet deal is a wholesale expansion. Migros has a few branches just the other side of the border but it has no intention of expanding — it would much rather push the export of products from its industrial plants, such as coffee capsules.”

For his part, Migros boss Herbert Bolliger said last week they were following “a different, successful growth strategy”.

“Is it in the interest of consumers and members of the cooperative that we make huge acquisitions in the food sector that tie up a massive amount of capital?” he wondered.

Challenging conditions

Künzi said there were two main challenges for retailers thinking of expanding abroad.

“First, you have to know the local market and consumers very well and you obviously need the corresponding experience. It’s not enough to simply move a tried-and-tested concept from the domestic market to a foreign one,” he said.

“Second, foreign markets are also saturated — an exception being those in eastern Europe — and seriously competitive.”

He said the saturation of the Swiss food market was “certainly the most important reason why local providers want to get involved in foreign markets”.

But despite this saturation, Swiss retailing withstood the toughest recession since the 1970s well.

According to a survey by Swiss bank UBS, two main factors boosted the sector in 2009. After a round of generous pay rises, coupled with price deflation, the purchasing power of many households increased. Also, with net immigration rising again by some 70,000 people, the potential customer base for retail traders continued to expand.

Is the price right?

That said, food in Switzerland remains around 45 per cent more expensive than the average in the rest of western Europe, according to the UBS survey.

Künzi points out that this disparity is less eye-watering when one compares Switzerland with its four neighbours: prices are on average 11 per cent higher in the Swiss retail trade as a whole and 19 per cent higher for food than in Germany, France, Italy and Austria, he said.

The main reason for this is not a lack of competition — “this increased significantly following the arrival of the German discounters” — but the small size of the market (lower purchasing volumes), market foreclosure for agricultural products (customs duty and quotas) and technical barriers to trade (declaration requirements).

Discounters

The arrival of the German budget retailers Aldi and Lidl — in 2005 and 2009 respectively — “shook up” the Swiss food business, as Künzi put it.

“Even the announcement that they would be coming had a big effect. Coop and Migros reacted by introducing cheap and premium lines and carried out spectacular acquisitions: Denner for Migros and the Carrefour premises for Coop,” he said.

“There was a greater focus than before on prices. The price gap between Swiss and foreign food prices has actually been tightening thanks to competition from the discounters.”

Dimitri Wittwer, a marketing expert at Bern University, agreed. “There was certainly a strong effect on local retailers such as Coop and Migros and an even stronger one on smaller retailers,” he told swissinfo.ch.

“But in fact Migros and Coop didn’t have to lower their prices — instead they introduced these cheaper brands, which were then in direct competition with Aldi and Lidl.”

Another interesting aspect for Wittwer is that the German mentality of “stinginess is cool” (Geiz ist geil) — the slogan for a 2003 campaign by a German electronics chain that captured the national zeitgeist — doesn’t work as well in Switzerland.

“Consumer behaviour in Switzerland is different from that in Germany,” he said. “People here will happily pay a bit more for bio-labels or for better quality.”

Thomas Stephens, swissinfo.ch

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



UK: Chinese Vase Found in London Home Sells for $83 Million

A vase that sat, little-noticed, in a modest suburban home has become one of the most expensive Asian artworks ever sold — and underlined the rapid rise of the Chinese art market.

The 18th-century Chinese vase fetched 51.6 million pounds ($83 million) at a sale by a small auction house near London.

It was sold by a woman clearing out her late sister’s house, and had been valued at 1.2 million pounds. But after fierce competition, it was bought Thursday by a Chinese bidder for many times more.

[Return to headlines]



UK: Jailed Hate Preacher Abu Hamza’s Home Has a £40,000 Makeover… Paid by Taxpayers

Hate preacher Abu Hamza’s family home is having a £40,000 makeover paid for by tax­payers, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Workmen from at least three construction firms have already spent two months doing up the £700,000, five-bedroom council property in an exclusive West London street.

Astonishingly, it is the second time in only five years that council bosses have approved expensive renovations on the property where the hook-handed cleric’s wife and eight children live supported by benefits worth nearly £700 a week.

Officially, the latest work is to underpin the property’s foundations after an engineer warned of subsidence.

But as this photograph, taken last week, shows, the property has also had an extensive makeover.

The front has been painted an elegant cream and white to match neighbouring properties and parts of the interior have also been touched up.

Workmen have cleared the drainpipes, cleaned windows, restored the window fittings and installed loft insulation.

Builders have injected concrete to the foundations and mended cracks in the walls to secure the property.

Hamza’s family live in the only council property in the street in Shepherd’s Bush, an area popular with bankers and City lawyers.

Former Cabinet Minister John Hutton lived next door to the cleric’s family before putting his property on the market for £1million in June 2007.

The full cost of the work on Hamza’s house has yet to be calculated, but the bill for underpinning homes of that size can be £30,000. The extra work adds around £10,000.

It follows a taxpayer-funded £25,000 refurbishment of the home in 2005 which included a new bathroom and kitchen.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: ­’People who abuse the system shouldn’t be able to keep their benefits. If you’ve been ­convicted of crimes, you shouldn’t be subsidised by hard-working people.’

Hamza, 52, never officially lived in the home, which his Moroccan-born wife Najat Chaffe, 49, moved into in 1995 after claiming they had separated.

But neighbours said he was often seen at the house until his arrest, in August 2004, for incitement to murder and racial hatred. In 2006 he was jailed for seven years.

Hamza is currently in Belmarsh Prison and faces U.S. attempts to extradite him over allegations he tried to set up a jihadi training camp in Oregon.

On his release, the cleric cannot be deported to his country of birth, Egypt, after a court last week allowed him to keep his British passport, to protect his human rights.

If he also wins his fight against extra­dition, which is due at the European Court of Human Rights in months, ministers will have no choice but to allow him to live in Britain.

All the Hamza children are British-born, meaning they are entitled to support from the state, which would continue even if Hamza is extradited.

At one time, the family received a weekly income of £351 in dependant children’s allowance, £97 child benefit, £56 lone parent allowance and a £16 family premium.

The rent of £120 per week and council tax of £42 per week were also paid by the taxpayer.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council said last night: ‘We are housing this family only because they are estranged from Abu Hamza.

‘He has never been a tenant at this address and if he were ever to move in it would be grounds for eviction of the family.

‘The house is one of a scarce supply of large family homes and we, of course, have to do repairs and look after the property for future tenants.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: MCB Organises Successful Inset Day for Primary School Teachers

On Monday the 1st of November, over thirty staff — both teaching and non teaching- from Marlborough Primary School attended an inset day organised by the Muslim Council of Britain. With over 50% of the school’s pupils coming from Muslim families, the staff were keen to learn more about Islam — particularly how it can be taught appropriately and creatively to children from reception class to year six. After a morning session of exploring the basic practices and beliefs of Islam, the Islamic festivals and common areas of confusion — such as fasting, dress and prayer for children, the group were warmly welcomed by the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, where they were given a tour of the facilities, observed the afternoon prayer and took part in a question and answer session.

Headteacher, Jessica Finer, said — “The day was both interesting and informative. The school based session was very useful, staff were able to ask questions about issues that they face regularly in school which gave a personalised element to the training. The visit to the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in the afternoon added a different dimension to the day and gave everyone a unique learning experience, including our Muslim staff! Feedback on the day, from staff, was very positive. Everyone said they had learnt things they did not know and the visit to the Centre gave us all a window into the lives of many of our children and families. The facilitators were excellent and I would highly recommend this training to all schools.”

The Muslim Council of Britain is delighted to have provided this service and is happy to provide similar experiences for schools where possible.

[JP note: I’ll bet the MCB is delighted at these continuing opportunities to peddle their pernicious brand of child abuse, hilariously called an ‘inset day.’]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Right-Winger Charged With Assault at Muslim Poppy-Burning Protest

Confrontation: Muslim protesters burned a model of a poppy yesterday

The leader of the extreme Right-wing English Defence League was charged today with assaulting a police officer after clashes with Islamic protesters.

Stephen Lennon, 27, of Luton, was arrested during a clash with members of Muslims Against Crusades who burned poppies during the two-minute silence in Kensington yesterday.

The father of two, also known as Yaxley-Lennon and Tommy Robinson, was one of six EDL members arrested. He will appear at West London magistrates’ court on November 22.

Four men, aged 41, 42, 19 and 18, were held for affray and another for possession of Class A drugs. Two Muslims, aged 30 and 25, were arrested for public order offences.

Members of Muslims Against Crusaders set fire to a large poppy as the clock struck 11am yesterday and chanted “British soldiers burn in hell” during their protest in Exhibition Road near the Royal Albert Hall.

A policeman was taken to hospital with a head injury as he tried to keep separate about 50 men linked to EDL and the Muslims.

Demonstrator Abu Rayah, from east London, said yesterday: “We’re here because people talk about all this patriotism but people in Afghanistan want Sharia and the soldiers keep dropping cluster bombs on our people and it’s like they just want us dead. We want British and American troops out of Afghanistan now.”

All those arrested were bailed pending further inquiries until a date in December.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: Riot Rabble Who Targeted Tory HQ: Unmasked, The Hardcore Leaders of the Student Mob

There was an expat grandfather, a university tutor, a teenage schoolboy, a recent law graduate and a wealthy foreign student whose education was part-funded by the British taxpayer.

What they all had in common yesterday was an apparent central role in the riot which saw Tory Party HQ in Millbank Tower trashed by a howling mob.

As 50 people were released on police bail pending the examination of photograph and video footage of the mayhem, a picture began to emerge yesterday of the disparate nature of those involved.

The shock felt by many present contrasted with the glee expressed by a hardcore.

A large number of middle-class students who travelled to Central London to take part peacefully in their first demonstration had found themselves inadvertently propelled into the frontline.

But it also became clear that the violence, which left 14 injured and caused thousands of pounds of damage, was orchestrated and inflamed by a number of far-Left groups.

Last night Luke Cooper, a tutor in international relations at the University of Sussex and a member the pressure group Revolution, confirmed the event was carefully organised.

He said: ‘There has always been a plan for Revolution and the International Coalition Against Fees and Cuts to take direct action after the National Union of Students demo.

‘There are a number of different Government buildings in that part of London and all of them would have been legitimate targets for protest and occupation.’

Revolution’s website states: ‘We are a group of young activists who are fed up with unemployment, war, poverty, cuts and capitalism. We want to bring down Cam and Clegg’s millionaire coalition and replace it with socialism.’

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: The Boy Brimming With Pride, The Fanatics Burning With Hate… Two Faces of Armistice Day

He was 3ft tall in his shiny black shoes and he wore his great-uncle’s medals with pride as he stood to attention in the rain.

Jonny Osborne, seven, symbolised the face of a new generation yesterday as he marched shoulder to shoulder with servicemen and women to honour those killed by war.

But three miles across London from the Armistice Day ceremony at the Cenotaph, another face of Britain was on display. It was contorted with hatred, poisoned by politics, and fuelled by flames from a giant, burning poppy.

These were the Muslim extremists who brought shame to the memory of the dead yesterday by breaking the traditional two-minute silence with chants of ‘British soldiers burn in hell’.

Ironically, it was the freedom for which thousands fought that allowed them to stage their demonstration at the stroke of 11am — the exact moment the nation came to a halt at the Cenotaph, across the country, and after parallel services at British bases in Afghanistan.

The protesters were even given a police escort to their protest venue near the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington, thankfully the closest they were allowed to the focal point of Britain’s remembrance tribute yesterday.

War, inevitably, linked the two events, yet they could hardly have been more different. At one, violence and venom. At the other, dignity and deference.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Coptic Christian Woman Unwittingly Becomes Focal Point of Islamic Clash With Christianity

(AINA) — A Coptic Christian woman in Egypt named Camelia Shehata has unwittingly become the focal point in the clash of Islam with Christianity. The Al-Qaeda group operating in Iraq, which calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), stormed Our Lady of Deliverance Assyrian Catholic church in Baghdad on Sunday, October 31, and killed 58 Christians before being killed and blowing themselves up. In the phone call they made to Iraqi authorities ISI members demanded the release of Camelia Shehata, among others, whom they believe has converted to Islam but is being held against her will in a monastery by the Coptic church of Egypt.

Camelia Shehata, wife of Father Tedaos Samaan, a priest in Deir Mawas, Egypt, disappeared on July 19, resulting in Coptic demonstrations against State Security for refusing to help her husband find her. According to the official version by State Security, Camelia had a row with her husband and left home, staying with one of her relatives in Cairo; security found her five days later and handed her back to her family. Not wishing to go back to her husband, she stayed with her 18-month-old son in a house for women belonging to the church.

A few days later a rumor spread by a fundamentalist shaikh claimed that Camelia had converted to Islam and as they were on their way to Al-Azhar to authenticate her conversion, Camelia was taken by State Security (AINA 9-18-2010). Muslim TV satellite channels were calling for her return to Islam and demonstrations went out in front of mosques calling for her freedom from her “captivity” and accusing the Coptic church and Pope Shenouda for holding her hostage. She appeared on a video confirming that she was a Christian and never thought of converting to Islam. Al-Azhar also denied she ever came there but the demonstrations continued (AINA 10-10-2010).

Hamdi Zakzouk, Minister of Endowment, during a lecture at Cairo University on November 2, asserted that Camelia never converted to Islam or went to Al-Azhar. He also heavily criticized the weekly Friday fundamentalist demonstrations which called for the return of “our Muslim sister.”

But that did not stop the Muslim fundamentalists, and the rumor of her conversion metastasized. Fourteen demonstration have been held by Muslim radicals in Egypt, each always beginning on a Friday afternoon, after the end of prayers at the Mosque.

For ISI, Camelia was worth killing for. For ISI, it does not matter that she is Egyptian and they, the ISI, are in Iraq (and that they are not even Iraqis). The ISI sees Muslims as one transnational nation. It is the nation — umma — of Islam. In its fight against the non-Muslim world, Al-Qaeda knows no boundaries or nations. The Assyrians of Iraq, as well as all non-Muslims, are fair and legitimate targets.

According to several Coptic sources, Egyptian State Security has ordered that no one should see Camelia, and it was State Security who arranged for a video of her to be taken and distributed two months ago. When Muslims said it was not her on the video, state security issued a statement and ordered national TV stations to air it to confirm it was Camelia.

The Egyptian Minister of Endowment, who controls mosques and imams, has criticized the demonstrations to “free” Camelia and said they were the cause behind the Iraqi church massacre and Al Qaida threats.

Coptic Pope Shenouda described the Baghdad church massacre as “something that logic and conscience cannot accept.”

Coptic organizations have accused the demonstrators of being Al-Qaeda members. Fearing that they will be rounded up by state security, the Muslim radicals have announced an end to these demonstrations. The last demonstration occurred on Friday, November 5, and had a fraction of the previous attendance. Egytpian State Security was heavily present. The demonstrators called for the release of Camelia and threatened and insulted the Coptic Pope (video).

According to Magdi Khalil, a Coptic activist, “the similarity between the statement issued by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and those issued by the fundamentalist organizations in Egypt on the subject of Camelia Shehata, as well as the threats shouted during the weekly demonstrations in the mosques of Cairo and Alexandria, suggests that there us a highly coordinated campaign to empty the Middle East of its Christians.”

Meanwhile, the Coptic Church is under pressure from its own members to release Camelia from the monastery where she is residing, to place her on national television to definitively lay to rest all rumors and speculations regarding her case, so that Islamists cannot exploit her alleged conversion and captivity to incite violence against Christians, be they in Iraq or in Egypt. A leading Egyptian journalist has offered to arrange with state security for her security and transportation to the television studio.

Mary Abdelmassih contributed to this report.

           — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Caroline Glick: Addressing Our Homegrown Enemies

This week we learned that Nazareth is an al-Qaida hub. Sheikh Nazem Abu Salim Sahfe, the Israeli imam of the Shihab al-Din mosque in the city, was indicted on Sunday for promoting and recruiting for global jihad and calling on his followers to harm non-Muslims.

Among the other plots born of Sahfe’s sermons was the murder of cab driver Yefim Weinstein last November. Sahfe’s followers also plotted to assassinate Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to Israel last year. They torched Christian tour buses. They abducted and stabbed a pizza delivery man. Two of his disciples were arrested in Kenya en route to joining al-Qaida forces in Somalia.

With his indictment, Sahfe joins a growing list of jihadists born and bred in Israel and in free societies around the world who have rejected their societies and embraced the cause of Islamic global domination. The most prominent member of this group today is the American-born al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]



Obama’s Israel Squeeze: Worse Than You Know

Demands Jewish state retreat from territory vital for survival

NEW YORK — A U.S. proposal for a deal with the Palestinian Authority did not include an Israeli lease for part of the strategic Jordan Valley as widely reported, according to a senior PA official speaking to WND.

The PA official said the proposed deal from the Obama administration instead gave most of that territory entirely to Palestinian control.

The official was referring to a report from Israel’s Army Radio US which claimed the Obama administration proposed that Israel relinquish the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians and that the Jewish state would lease back parts of the valley from the Palestinians for a up to seven years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Hate Cleric Bakri Sentenced to Life

HATE cleric Omar Bakri has been sentenced to life in prison in Lebanon for al-Qaeda fundraising, it was reported today.

Bakri is believed to be on the run in the country after getting the boot from Britain.

He said today he and 25 of his “brothers” had been given 16 days to surrender to authorities in Lebanon.

The fanatic hate preacher added: “It’s purely because we are Sunni Muslims … we never carry weapons, we never fight against anybody.

“It seems to me the military court did not even contact us.”

Bakri, who was born in Syria in the 1950s, came to Britain in the 1980s and formed the al Muhajiroun organisation which recruited radical Muslims at mosques in the UK.

He was particularly reviled in Britain after he blamed the July 7 bombings in London in 2005 on the government and the British public.

He refused to condemn Osama Bin Laden who was thought to have inspired the attacks, saying: “Why would I condemn Osama Bin Laden? I condemn Tony Blair.

“I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama Bin Laden or any Muslims.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Hate Preacher Omar Bakri is Sentenced to Life in Jail for Training and Funding Al Qaeda Members

Hate cleric Omar Bakri has been sentenced to life in prison by a military court in Lebanon for allegedly helping to train members of Al Qaeda at a terror camp in Tripoli.

The Syrian-born preacher, who was not in court when the punishment was handed out, was also accused of fund raising for Osama Bin Laden’s fanatics in the middle eastern country.

Bakri, who became known as the ‘Tottenham Ayatollah’ during his time in Britain has previously issued rants blaming the British public and Government for the 7/7 London bombings and calling for Christmas to be ‘completely forbidden’.

Today he described the charges as ‘absurd’ and said they were politically motivated after the Lebanese government came under pressure from Britain and the US.

Bakri said: ‘It was a military court and the judge was General Mizar Khalil who is a Shia Muslim, whereas I am a Sunni scholar.

‘They say I have been training people in weapons in Tripoli. I have never held a weapon in my life. There were 54 brothers’ names read out in court, and I was one of them.

‘They gave 25 of us, including me, a life sentence, which is the maximum because we were absent. It was simply because we are Sunni Muslims. The whole thing is absurd. I did not even receive a summons. The first I knew about it was from media reports.

‘I rang the court this morning and they said I have 15 days to challenge the decision. But I am not going to court. It is against my religion. I do not believe in any man made laws be they in the UK or the Lebanon.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Yemen: Al-Qaeda ‘Leaders’ Take Refuge

Sana’a 11 Nov.(AKI) — Three alleged top Al-Qaeda leaders have fled from Iran to Yemen and are in contact with the Somali Al-Shabab jihaist group, Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas said on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. The men allegedly include former Kuwait citizen, Abu Gheith.

Gheith and fellow Al-Qaeda Saad Bin Laden were among the alleged Al-Qaeda leaders who had been detained in Iran since 2002.

Al-Qabas cites an unnamed source close to terrorist group Al-Shabab , which has ties to Al-Qaeda, who claimed the top leaders had chosen Yemen for its similarity to post-Soviet Afghanistan.

Yemen is fighting Shia al-Houthi rebels seeking more autonomy and rights in the north and a militant Islamist insurgency driven by Al-Qaeda in its south. Evidence is emerging that the country is becoming an Al-Qaeda stronghold.

The device used in the botched 25 December bombing of an American-bound flight by a Nigerian was built in Yemen and the would-be bomber was trained there, according to intelligence reports.

Geith had his Kuwaiti citizenship revoked in 1991 after the attacks against the US on 11 Sept. 2001. He and other Kuwaiti and Saudi militants are on the region’s most-wanted list.

Recent intelligence reports from the Gulf region claim Al-Qaeda-associated Al-Shabab rebels are channeling arms and militiamen to Al-Qaeda, which are being transported by Somali pirates.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Far East


Chinese Turning to Mental Wards to Break Activists

“The police know that to arbitrarily detain someone is illegal,” but mental wards are a different story.

LOUHE, China — Xu Lindong, a poor village farmer with close-cropped hair and a fourth-grade education, knew nothing but decades of backbreaking labor. Even at age 50, the rope of muscles on his arms bespoke a lifetime of hard plowing and harvesting in the fields of his native Henan Province.

But after four years locked up in Zhumadian Psychiatric Hospital, he was barely recognizable to his siblings. Emaciated, barefoot, clad in tattered striped pajamas, Mr. Xu spoke haltingly. His face was etched with exhaustion.

“I was so heartbroken when I saw him I cannot describe it,” said his elder brother, Xu Linfu, recalling his first visit there, in 2007. “My brother was a strong as a bull. Now he looked like a hospital patient.”

Xu Lindong’s confinement in a locked mental ward was all the more notable, his brother says, for one extraordinary fact: he was not the least bit deranged. Angered by a dispute over land, he had merely filed a series of complaints against the local government. The government’s response was to draw up an order to commit him to a mental hospital — and then to forge his brother’s name on the signature line.

[…]

No one knows how often cases like Mr. Xu’s occur. But human rights activists say confinements in mental hospitals appear to be on the rise because the local authorities are under intense pressure to nip social unrest in the bud, but at the same time are less free than they once were to jail people they consider troublemakers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Latin America


Brazil Paper Must Pay ‘Moral Damages’

I wrote recently about worrying threats to press freedom in Brazil. Here’s another example. A paper is facing closure after being ordered by a court to pay $353,000 (£220,000) for “moral damages” to an former mayor.

The Jornal de Londrina, in Paraná state, has petitioned the supreme court to suspend the ruling.

In 1994, the paper published reports accusing the then mayor of Sertanópolis of improper administration. The mayor was later convicted on several counts.

Even so, a Paraná state court has ruled that the newspaper must pay “moral damages” because its reports were “published prematurely.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Almost 2 Million More Foreign Citizens Living in UK Than 10 Years Ago

The number of foreign citizens living in the UK has almost doubled in 10 years, according to Government figures.

More than 4 million people — representing one in 15 UK residents — have travelled to Britain from their own countries to live, analysis from the Office for National Statistics found.

This latest figure, for 2008, was a sharp rise from 10 years previously, when 2.2 million foreign citizens were living in the UK, representing one in every 26 residents.

The population figures also showed that net migration had a greater impact on increasing Britain’s population than the number of babies born to those already living here.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]



Austria: Chase Foreigners Off if You Don’t Want Them, Says Turkish Ambassador

The Turkish ambassador in Vienna has risked a serious thrift between Austria and Turkey with statements made in an exceptional interview.

Speaking to Austrian newspaper Die Presse, Kadri Ecvet Tezcan claimed Turks in Vienna knew they were not welcome in Austria. He also revealed having been told that the Austrian foreign minister does not welcome ambassadors for meetings — and revealed he would relocate the United Nations (UN) from Vienna were he leader of the international organisation.

Asked why immigrants from Croatia seem to do better at school than most people from Turkey, Tezcan said: “Croats are Christians and therefore welcome in the society, while Turks aren’t. They are constantly being pushed to the corners of the society.”

A survey by the Austrian Society for European Politics (ÖGfE) showed earlier this week that just 17 per cent of Austrians want Turkey to join the European Union (EU), while 68 per cent of Austrians speak out in favour of Croatia becoming a member .

The ambassador however also stressed he registered many “stories of success”. He said: “There are more than 3,500 Turkish businessmen and 110 Turkish doctors in Austria. (…) Why doesn’t the Austrian concentrate more on that?”

Tezcan emphasised he has been advising Turks living in Austria to learn German and respect the country’s rules. He explained: “The Turks (in Austria) don’t want anything from you. They are happy, they just don’t want to be treated like a virus. (Austrian) Society should help them integrate — and then it would benefit from them.

“You don’t have to get more immigrants — you have got them here. But you have to believe in them, and they have to believe in you,” the diplomat added.

Referring to the Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) success in last month’s Vienna city parliament ballot, Tezcan said: “Almost 30 per cent support a far-right party in a city which regards itself as the cultural centre of Europe. I would not stay here as head of the UN, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) or the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).”

The Turkish ambassador said: “If you don’t want any foreigners, why don’t you chase them away? There are many countries in the world where immigrants are welcome. You have to learn how to live together with others. What kind of problem does Austria have?”

Tezcan claimed: “The Turks in Vienna are helping each other. They don’t feel welcome here. (…) I have been here for a year now. (…) There’s a big difference between Vienna and the rest of Austria. People are more hospitable when I leave Vienna.”

The 61-year-old attacked Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger by revealing the minister rejected to meet him. He said: “I was told that the foreign minister doesn’t welcome ambassadors when I asked for a meeting. Can you believe that? I’m the ambassador for 250,000 people in this country. What kind of dialogue are we talking about here?”

Tezcan, who was the Turkish ambassador to Poland between 2005 and 2008, also criticised Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn by saying: “I met the cardinal, who is a wonderful person. He said to me he hasn’t got any problems with Turks. I told him: ‘That’s not enough, you have to do more, you have to write that in your newspaper column. You should say that the Islam is worth as much as Catholicism.”

Schönborn has been attacked by some NGOs and politicians for writing a weekly column for the Kronen Zeitung. The bestselling daily has campaigned against foreigners and linked soaring crime with “organised gangs from Eastern Europe” for years.

Asked how to reduce the number of Turkish children in special needs schools due to poor language skills, Tezcan suggested there should be more support for them learning Turkish properly. The ambassador claimed such a measure would help them in learning German.

The diplomat also said attending kindergarten should be mandatory for Turkish children aged three or four to improve the integration process. “Parents, teenagers, children — they all should be able to speak German,” he told Die Presse.

Tezcan revealed he met FPÖ boss Heinz-Christian Strache to discuss problems of the coexistence of Austrians and Turks. “We agreed to disagree about everything regarding integration,” he said about the conversation with the right-winger. The Turkish ambassador accused Strache of “having no idea how the world develops.”

He also criticised the Austrian Social Democrats for failing to stand up against the FPÖ’s agitation.

Tezcan rejected calls to ban headscarves. Politicians of all Austrian parties suggested Muslim women should not be allowed to wear them amid concerns they were enforced by their husbands to do so.

“Does wearing headscarves break the law? No. You haven’t got the right to tell anybody what to do regarding this issue. If you are allowed to bath naked, you should be allowed to wear headscarves,” he said.

The interview comes shortly after the Vienna city parliament vote campaign which has been dominated by immigration issues. All parties but the FPÖ — which claimed many Muslims are unwilling to integrate — suffered bitter losses in the 10 October ballot.

The ruling Social Democrats (SPÖ) admitted mistakes handling immigration policies, but expressed a desire to keep a dialogue going. The party lost its absolute majority in seats and is expected to form a coalition with the Greens.

Analysts said the ÖVP did badly too for failing to attract new voter groups with its hardliner campaign which could have tempted many former ÖVP supporters to back the FPÖ — which has always spoken out against “criminal foreigners” — instead.

Polls suggest that the FPÖ would have the chance to gain second place on federal level if the SPÖ-ÖVP coalition breaks up early. The next general election is due in three years, but the climate between the coalition partners has worsened dramatically over the past months.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Danish MP: Breasts Best Defence Against Extremism

Right-wing politician would follow Dutch model to highlight country’s open-mindedness

Can’t bear bare breasts? Then Denmark might not be the place for you, according to Peter Skaarup, foreign policy spokesman of the Danish People’s party.

According to Skaarup, a documentary film about Denmark, which forms part of the immigration test for foreigners, lacks breasts. He claims that showing topless women in the film will help promote Danish open-mindedness and may even prevent extremists from coming to the country.

“A similar documentary in Holland shows bare breasts, and I think we should follow their example, Skaarup told Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

“It is of course a bit tongue-in-cheek, but there is an element of seriousness to it too: by including topless bathing in a documentary about Denmark, we can highlight our open-mindedness and our rights to dress — or undress — as we please.”

This, he said, is particularly relevant for immigrants coming from fundamental societies where women are oppressed and aren’t allowed to display their sexuality, pointing out that he wasn’t trying to provoke with his statement.

He added that although topless bathing isn’t as common on Danish beaches today as it used to be, it would still provide an accurate reflection of Denmark’s liberal attitudes.

“Topless bathing probably isn’t a common sight on Pakistani beaches, but in Denmark it is still considered quite normal. I honestly believe that by including a couple of bare breasts in the movie, extremists may have to think twice before deciding to come to Denmark.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Michelle Malkin: Why Are We Giving Illegal Immigrants No-Hassle Pilot Lessons and Licenses?

Chalk up another Code Red Elmo moment for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While Islamic terrorists groom suicide bombers starting in kindergarten, the grownups in charge of protecting America can’t seem to reach an elementary level of competence.

The “good” news: Hindsight-driven bureaucrats at DHS moved to ban high-risk cargo from Yemen and Somalia this week after a global air scare involving makeshift printer/toner cartridge-bombs.

The bad news: More than nine years after the 9/11 jihadist attacks, untold numbers of high-risk flyers have been able to board, ride and pilot American planes — some with Transportation Security Administration approval to boot.

Outside Boston, one shady flight school provided single-engine pilot lessons to at least 33 illegal immigrants from Brazil. But clear counter-terror rules ban illegal immigrants from enrolling in U.S. flight schools.

Clear counter-terror regulations require TSA to run foreign flight students’ names against a plethora of terrorism, criminal and immigration databases.

Head-scratching airport security officials were at a loss last week to explain how dozens of these illegal immigrant students eluded their radar screen when the agency “performs a thorough background check on each applicant at the time of application” and checks “for available disqualifying immigration information”…

[…]

[Return to headlines]



Study: 100,000 Hispanics Left Arizona After SB1070

A new study suggests there may be 100,000 fewer Hispanics in Arizona than there were before the debate over the state’s tough new immigration law earlier this year.

BBVA Bancomer Research, which did the study, worked with figures from the U.S. Current Population Survey. The study says the decline could be due to the law known as SB1070, which partly entered into effect in July, or to Arizona’s difficult economic situation.

The study released Wednesday also cites Mexican government figures as saying that 23,380 Mexicans returned from Arizona to Mexico between June and September.

U.S. census figures from 2008 say about 30 percent of people living in Arizona are Hispanic, or about 1.9 million.

[…]

[Not to worry, though. Just Google this search string: “States accepting Mexican papers for work”]

[Return to headlines]



Sweden: Lack of Interpreters Threat to Asylum Process

Sweden’s lack of qualified interpreters with specialized skills in legal terminology poses a threat for those seeking asylum in the country, warns the head of the Swedish Bar Association (Advokatsamfundet).

“The risk is that asylum seekers won’t be understood and that, as a result, an asylum seeker won’t be able to put forward the arguments that serve as the basis for their case in an effective way. And therefore there is a risk that they will be rejected, and we think that’s very serious,” Anne Ramberg, director general of the Swedish Bar Association, told Sveriges Radio.

Only one sixth of the 6,000 interpreters in Sweden are licenced by Sweden’s Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (Kammarkollegiet), and even fewer have specialized competence in legal terminology.

Of the 200,000 interpreter hours needed annually by the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket), only 6 percent are carried out by licenced court interpreters, SR reports.

And Sweden’s 1,000 licenced interpreters are only qualified in 36 languages, while the Migration Board receives cases in well over 100 languages.

As a result, most of Sweden’s 30,000 annual asylum seekers who require an interpreter are reliant on services from interpreters who haven’t gained accreditation.

And a recent study carried out by the Swedish Courts Administration (Domstolsverket) showed that licenced interpreters are of markedly better quality than unlicenced ones.

“You can see that the translations don’t flow in the way you’re used to with a qualified interpreter,” said the Courts Administration Ulla Pålsson, who led the investigation, to SR.

She added that poor quality translations can lead to misunderstandings and mistakes which Pålsson said the agency “cannot accept” within the Swedish judicial system.

In order to address the situation, the government needs to launch an inquiry into how to train more interpreters, argued Pålsson.

In addition, she thinks that rules governing how interpreter services are supervised should be reviewed, something which was first proposed following a previous government inquiry six years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Video: School Tells Student to Remove Flag From His Bicycle

Via JWF, this will probably be the outrageous outrage of the day. A 13-year-old boy has flown the flag on the back of his bike to and from his middle school for a couple of months, in part to honor the military service of his grandfather. This week, according to the family, the school told Cody Alicea to remove the flag … just in time for Veterans Day. The reason? Other students complained about the American flag.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


The Race for Private Space Stations: It’s U.S. Versus Russia

A new space race is beginning, but this time between private companies, not nations. Businesses in the United States and Russia are vying to be the first to launch a private space station.

One project, an inflatable space habitat, already has six clients waiting for it, according to the company, Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas.

“We’re just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg with commercial opportunities and pent-up demand,” Mike Gold, Bigelow Aerospace’s director of Washington, D.C. operations and business growth, told SPACE.com.

The other venture, led by two companies in Russia, is called the Commercial Space Station and aims to be a combination laboratory and hotel. Both the CSS and the Bigelow station are looking to launch in the next five years or so.

The Russian project has received support from the official Russian space program.

“We consider the Commercial Space Station a very interesting project, encouraging private participation,” said Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency. “It will attract private investment for the Russian space industry.”

To date, space stations have been a national or international affair. Russia achieved early success with its Salyut and Mir stations, and NASA brought the United States into the game first with Skylab in 1973. The U.S. and Russia have since teamed up with 13 other countries to build the $100 billion International Space Station, which celebrated a decade of continuous manned operations this month.

But private space stations like those promised by Bigelow Aerospace and the Moscow-based Orbital Technologies, which is backing the Commercial Space Station, hold the promise of catering to a wider clientele — a customer base that includes scientists and governments, as well as materials manufactures and thrill-seeking space tourists.

An expandable station

The inflatable design developed by Bigelow Aerospace is based on discontinued research by NASA under the Transhab project on modules made with Kevlar-like composites that expand in space. These offer far more room than comparable modules on the International Space Station, while providing as much or more protection against radiation and impacts from debris, Bigelow officials said.

“When traditional metallic structures in space are struck by solar flares, they get a secondary radiation effect called scattering that can be deadly,” Gold explained. “Our structures are nonmetallic, substantially reducing that problem and offering enhanced protection against radiation.”

When it comes to impacts from micrometeoroids and the like, the Bigelow modules’ skins can not only absorb and disperse the energy from strikes, but can retain their shape as well. “Expandable structures hold their integrity longer than physical structures, which can collapse,” Gold said. “The additional volume our structures have buys additional time to fix them as well.”

The first Bigelow station will consist of four components in low-Earth orbit. First is the Sundancer module, which has 6,356 cubic feet (180 cubic meters) of usable space and can support a crew of three. Next is a node-bus combination that adds docking capability, and then a second Sundancer. Last comes a BA330 module, which provides 11,653 cubic feet (330 cubic meters) of space and can hold up to six crewmembers.

“That’s a crew capacity of 12, double that of the International Space Station,” Gold said.

The BA330 boasts four large windows coated with a film that protects against ultraviolet rays, and contains an environment control and life-support system, including lavatory and hygiene facilities. The station will be powered by solar arrays and batteries, similar to the International Space Station.

The Bigelow station will be geared toward astronautics and commercial and scientific microgravity research, Gold said, not tourism.

“First and foremost, we are not a space hotel,” he stressed in an interview.

Bigelow Aerospace already has six customers lined up, in the form of memoranda of understanding with space agencies and government departments in Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The cost for customers to use the station remains uncertain, “as that’s largely driven by the issue of transportation there and back,” Gold said. “Once we know what transportation vehicle we’ll use and where we’ll launch from, we’ll have a better idea on costs.”

Their station could launch by 2015 or so, Gold said, using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket or SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. They are partnered with Boeing to produce a crew capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) initiative.

“Customers and companies that have access to space will be the economic giants of the future. We hope it happens here, and hope that all of humanity can enjoy its benefits,” Gold said…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



When it Comes to Women, The UN Flogs Its Own Integrity

Growing up in Richmond, B.C., I, like more than a few Canadian children, dreamed of becoming secretary general of the United Nations. The ideal of engaged global citizenship enraptured me, a political refugee from Idi Amin’s Uganda.

The storied service of secretaries-general from faraway lands — Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden, U Thant of Burma — shaped my belief that, whatever our origins, the UN is a crucible of common decency. I even remember telling high-school pals that my future career must involve human-rights activism. Without quite knowing what that meant, I knew the source of my inspiration.

So I have to thank the UN for making me such an enthusiast of human dignity that I can no longer defend much of its work. This week’s drama was only the latest self-imposed lashing of its integrity.

Iran’s government, among the world’s most hostile to women, almost made it onto the executive board of UN Women — a new, extra-powerful agency mandated to advance women’s equality. The nomination would have allowed Iran to slip into its seat without the glare of an election.

On Tuesday, that plan blew up. As news leaked that Iran might help call the shots at UN Women, and as human-rights groups began crying foul, polite diplomats got twitchy. East Timor jumped into the race. Dedicated arm-twisting by the United States, Canada, Australia and European countries paid off. On Wednesday, Iran lost the showdown.

But has human dignity emerged victorious? Saudi Arabia, at least as much an abuser of women as Iran, automatically bagged its position on UN Women’s board by being a donor. According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudis essentially “bought” their seat. Now their representative can fly home and tell Saudi women’s rights advocates about the kingdom’s heightened legitimacy. Yep, that’ll give everyone confidence that the stonings and floggings are coming to an end.

Having human-rights violators at the table might change them faster than isolation will. But experience suggests they’re actually egged on.

In June of 2009, David Littman of the Association for World Education went before the UN Human Rights Council. He proposed that the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar University, the Harvard of Sunni Islam, issue a fatwa against the stoning of women to death. Whereupon the Egyptian representative interjected, “I will not see Islam crucified on this council!” Crucified? By resorting to an Islamic solution?

This story illustrates deeper corruption among power players at the UN. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is a union of 57 Muslim-majority countries. For several years, it has pushed through a resolution called “Combatting Defamation of Religions.” Armed with its logic and emotion, the UN Human Rights Council censors interventions not only about stoning but also about girls as young as 9 being married off.

Never mind that the crimes themselves defame Allah by cloaking man-made culture as divine edict. Never mind that this inhumane power play is being humoured by, of all things, a human-rights council. Never mind that its Godforsaken game offends plenty of Muslims who won’t have our say in the culturally circumspect corridors of the UN.

In its defence, the OIC objects that “new trends” are “threatening the multicultural fabric of many of our societies.” Trends, for example, plotted by Danish cartoon editors. But “new” trends don’t explain why Pakistan presented the first anti-defamation measure to the UN in 1999 — long before the 2006 Prophet Mohammed cartoon fiasco, or 9/11, or George W. Bush.

As of Wednesday, Pakistan also sits on the executive board of UN Women.

For all the hypocrisy, absurdity and indignity, I refuse to become cynical. Michelle Bachelet, the no-nonsense former president of Chile, heads UN Women. That’s one reason for hope. I trust she’ll be an ally to Human Rights Watch, which vows to crank up the heat on Saudi Arabia as it takes its place under the feminist sun.

It’s even possible that this week’s shenanigans have awakened sedate diplomats. Next week, the UN General Assembly will vote on Iran’s human-rights record. Lobbying has intensified because of the showdown at UN Women — for better or for worse.

I still love what the UN stands for. But none of us should abide what it’s fallen for.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101111

Financial Crisis
» Bickering Likely to Lame G-20 Summit
» Germany Blamed for Irish Debt Soar
» Irish Contagion Hits Wider Eurozone
» Obama’s Debt Commission Recommendations Include $961 Billion in Tax Hikes
» UK: Handing Millions of Jobs to Foreigners While Benefits Bill Soared Was a ‘Sin’, Declares Smith
 
USA
» Almost Half of US Could be Obese by 2050
» Islamic Extremism Expert Speaks to ROTC Students, Civilians
» Jewish, Muslim Interfaith Group Dying Out
» Muslim Students’ Female-Only Swim at GWU Makes Waves
» NASA’s Next Big Space Telescope to Cost an Extra $1.5 Billion
» New York Meeting Builds Movement Against Grand Jury, FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria: Ambassador an ‘Arrogant Turkish Nationalist’
» Italy: More Misery in Italy After Fresh Wave of Bad Weather
» Italy: Photos of Premier’s ‘Bunga Bunga’ Parties Exist Claims Paparazzo
» Italy: Berlusconi Eyes ‘Deal’ In Bid to Keep Government Alive
» Opinion: The Brilliantly Honest Pat Condell About ‘Free Speech’ In Europe
» Sweden: Men Locked in Mosque During Terror Raid
» Trial of Dutch Anti-Islam MP to Resume Soon
» Turkey Sets Five Priorities for Council of Europe
» UK is Cocaine Capital of the Western World as Number of Young Britons Using the Drug Shoots Up by 50 Per Cent
» UK: ‘Honour Killing’ Pair Convicted
» UK: Afghanistan Military Secrets Sold for £18.87 on Ebay After Army Officer Dumped Laptop in a Skip
» UK: Halal Meat is Being Served in Schools, Hospitals and Pubs — Even Though Vets Say Islamic Slaughter is Cruelthe Mail Went Undercover at an Abattoir to Find the Truth
» UK: Hague: This Government Will Not Give Any More UK Rights to the European Union
» UK: Lutfur Rahman Puts Fundamentalist Sympathiser in Charge of the Money
» UK: Muslims Cut Bodies for Faith
» UK: Muslims Against Crusaders Protest Group Bares Al-Muhajiroun Hallmarks
» UK: Operation Muslim Vote: Phil Woolas, The Labour Party and Muslim Bloc Voting [Reader Comment]
» UK: Poppy-Burning Muslim Protesters Mar Armistice Day Commemorations as Millions Fall Silent to Remember War Dead
» UK: Tory Councillor Arrested Over Twitter Stoning Post
» UK: Thugs Who Hurled Fire Extinguisher Off Roof on to Police During Student Demo May be Charged With Attempted Murder
 
Balkans
» EU: No More Visas From Albania and Bosnia, Council’s OK
» Serbia: Israeli Interested in Agricultural, Metal Industries
 
North Africa
» Israel Tells Its Citizens to Leave Egypt, Citing Kidnap Plot
» Libya: Magazine and Agency Shut Down,30 Journalists Arrested
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Gaza Aid Team Trapped on Greek Boatsix British Volunteers and Mavi Marmara Survivors Israeli Commandos Intercept the Mavi Marmara in May. Two of Those on Board Are Also on the Boat Surrounded by Libyan Warships. Photograph: Kate Geraghty/Getty Images
» Israeli Settlers Burn Church in Jerusalem
» Palestinian Authority Seizes Atheist After He Criticizes Islam on Facebook and Blog
 
Middle East
» Italy: Saudi Arabia: Female Military Personnel Enter Customs Service
» Shipping: Turkey’s Town Becomes Demolition Center of Europe
 
South Asia
» Obama ‘Glad’ To Meet Indian Communists
» Obama’s Latest Muslim Outreach Effort Fails to Echo Beyond the Land of His Childhood
» Pakistani Christian Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy: A Campaign Like for Sakineh
» Pakistan: Bomb Levels Building in Largest City
» Pakistani Taliban Claims Responsibility for Karachi Attack
 
Far East
» Asian Students Suffering for Success
» China Stakes Its Claim as U.S. Rival in Innovation
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Boer Farmers Head for New Home in Georgia
 
Immigration
» Canadians Want to Mix Up
» Canadian Immigration: Push for Demographic Morbid Obesity
» Mexican Transgender Asylum Seeker Allowed to Stay in U.S.
» Nancy Pelosi Wants Dream Act Vote
 
Culture Wars
» Anti-Racism Website Bizarre, Offensive to ‘Real’ Edmontonians
» The ‘American Dream’ Is Actually Swedish: Study
» The NGO Army of George Soros & Maurice Strong
» UK: ‘Christmas Cancelled’: Head Tells Older Pupils ‘No Nativity This Year… You Need to Concentrate on Your Studies’
» UK: Fancy Dress Students Told: You’re Not Coming in University Bar… Your Zombie Make-Up is Racist
 
General
» Chocolate Could Become as Rare as Caviar, Experts Warn
» Official Climate Science Ignores Essential and Critical Details Right at the Surface
» Study Reveals Physics of How Cats Drink

Financial Crisis


Bickering Likely to Lame G-20 Summit

The days of close cooperation among the world’s big 20 economic powers may have ended. With the economic recovery, displays of envy and egotism have reared up at this year’s G-20 summit in Seoul. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on a confrontation course with Washington over trade policy.

The plan concocted by South Korean organizers of the G-20 summit is cunning. Anything negotiators fail to agree on before the start of the actual G-20 summit on Thursday night in Seoul will be left off the table when the world leaders assemble. Anything! But please don’t be upset. This summit, after all, is the first of its kind in an Asian country, and from a South Korean perspective it needs to be a major success.

For now, though, success looks very far off.

The global leaders are expected to finally pave the way for new equity capital rules for banks through the Basel III proposal and the reform of the International Monetary Fund. But the progress in the financial market regulations and the staged harmony won’t be able to cover over the fact that a shadow is hanging over this summit.

At the height of the financial crisis, this club of the most powerful industrialized nations presented itself as a body that would close ranks and react swiftly to distortions in world markets. Now that the economy has recovered in many areas, though, the pressure to cooperate is sinking and egoism seems on the rise. Instead of unity and resolve, the order of the day is distrust and bickering. Disputes over issues like global disparities in trade balances, or alleged currency manipulation, or unfair competitive advantages have marked this year’s summit, and at the heart of the conflict are the United States, China and Germany.

Palpable attempts at verbal disarmament — which US President Barack Obama put in writing, again, in a letter to his summit colleagues — have not amounted to much. Washington has accused governments with large trade surpluses of seeking growth in their own economies at the expense of other nations. The criticism has been directed largely at China and Germany — two nations upon which the US would like to impose export limits and oblige Beijing and Berlin to spur domestic consumption.

Tone from Washington Rubs Merkel Wrong Way

The harsh tone used by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently in making the American case has led to resentment in Berlin and Beijing. For German Chancellor Angela Merkel, such an aggressive negotiating style is a non-starter. She realizes that anyone who declares lofty goals in such a vigorous manner can quickly wind up the loser.

World leaders looking for a fight, though, may find one with Merkel. She dispatched her finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, and economics minister, Rainer Brüderle, to argue against the Americans’ demands. Then she personally made clear that Germany would not be yoked to any sort of export quotas at the G-20 summit. Speaking at the Business Summit, a meeting of top executives held on the sidelines of the G-20, Merkel said fixed upper limits for trade surpluses or deficits would be “neither economically justified nor politically appropriate.” Moreover, she said, they “would be irreconcilable with the goal of free global trade.”

Indeed, the summit’s final resolution paper will include no concrete numbers to shape a firm framework to resolve imbalances in world trade. Negotiations over the final formulations are scheduled for Thursday, and the understanding around Seoul is that they’ll be very tough.

Notably, Merkel left Germany with well-rehearsed words of praise for the Chinese. They’ve shown exemplary engagement with Europe, she said, and they’ve proven to be a “good companion for our budgetary policy.” Of course, Berlin would rather stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington. But the unspoken message was clear: Drive us into a corner, and we’ll find other powerful allies.

So in Seoul, the Americans appear to be on trial. They haven’t yet brought their economy into line and they still sit on a gigantic state deficit of $1.3 trillion (just under €1 trillion). Washington is a long way from halving its deficit — although that was the goal it announced at last year’s G-20 summit. Last but not least, of course, the US Federal Reserve announced Friday that it would take the controversial step of buying up to $600 billion in American treasury notes. These massive purchases of its own government’s sovereign debt amount to a policy, by the Fed, of printing money.

The Germans were not alone in complaining that Washington wants to artificially depress the value of the dollar with this glut of new cash (in order to grab an unfair advantage in the world export market). And Washington pursued this course right after criticizing Beijing for holding the yuan artificially low…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany Blamed for Irish Debt Soar

Concerns Ireland will require an International Monetary Fund-EU bail-out helped push yields on 10-year Irish Government bonds up to around 9pc, a record, as investors demanded higher returns to shoulder the risk.

Markets worry whether Ireland will be able to pay its debts, given its costly bank bail-out, weak growth and a huge budget deficit of 14.4pc of GDP, the eurozone’s highest.

British taxpayers took a hit as shares in Royal Bank of Scotland fell 2.7pc to 41.02p on fears over the state-backed bank’s exposure to the Irish market through an estimated £50bn of loans. One source said some traders were using the bank as a proxy to short Ireland.

Brian Lenihan, Ireland’s finance minister said the spike in borrowing costs was partly driven by “unintended” German comments proposing bondholders be forced to take losses or “haircuts” if sovereign debt is restructured.

The market nerves pushed the spread between Irish 10-year bond yields and German yields to well over 6 percentage points, a new record. The cost of insuring Irish debt against default also hit a fresh high.

“The bond spreads are very serious and there is international concern throughout the eurozone about that,” said Mr Lenihan, adding he would look for clarification of the German plans. He also tried to reassure that comments from Ireland’s central bank governor — that IMF austerity plans for Ireland would not differ greatly from Dublin’s — were not laying the ground for aid.

Germany has indicated the proposals would not apply to existing debt, but fears over potential losses are high after France said on Wednesday that investors must share in the cost of safeguarding debt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel argued on Thursday that taxpayers could not keep being told they “have to be on the hook for certain risks, rather than those who make a lot of money taking those risks.”

Although the Irish government is fully funded into the middle of next year, analysts warned politicians’ talk of haircuts risked creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that Ireland and other debt-laden nations will have to restructure.

Irish yields are now well above the levels Greece faced just before it saved from defaulting through a €110bn (£93bn) loan in the spring, according to Capital Economics.

“The most likely outcome now is that Ireland will need to receive assistance from the EU/IMF,” said Gary Jenkins at Evolution, who estimated a funding requirement of around €43bn over two years.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Obama’s Debt Commission Recommendations Include $961 Billion in Tax Hikes

SURPRISE!

Obama’s debt commission recommends $961 billion in tax hikes.

MRC.org reported: Nearly $1 trillion. Certainly that’s a big enough tax hike to warrant prominent mention in a broadcast evening news show — especially after an election fueled by anger against government overspending and potential tax hikes.

Yet, only one of the three broadcast evening shows mentioned that number in its report about the debt commission’s preliminary recommendations that shook Washington on Nov. 10. The preliminary report called for tax cuts, tax increases, a rise in the retirement age, some spending cuts, and changes to Social Security and Medicare.

That night, CBS’s Chip Reid was the only reporter to point out that “overall taxes would increase because many popular tax breaks would be slashed.” One of the tax breaks in jeopardy: the home mortgage interest deduction. Reid cited the $961 billion cost estimate (over 10 years) from Americans for Tax Reform in his “Evening News” report.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Handing Millions of Jobs to Foreigners While Benefits Bill Soared Was a ‘Sin’, Declares Smith

Iain Duncan Smith branded worklessness a ‘sin’ yesterday as he unveiled sweeping proposals to combat a benefits culture that is now a ‘national crisis’.

He published long-awaited plans to strip benefits from the workshy for up to three years but ensure that those who take a job will keep at least 35p in every extra pound they earn.

The Work and Pensions Secretary’s plans for a Universal Credit, which will replace dozens of other benefits, is designed to ensure that 700,000 of Britain’s poorest claimants will be better off from 2013.

Mr Duncan Smith announced that the historic change to the welfare state will lift 500,000 adults and 350,000 children out of poverty by 2017 and reduce the number of workless households by 300,000.

The tough measures mean that those who ‘serially and deliberately’ refuse work, decline interviews or turn up drunk or unprepared will lose their benefits, first for a week or two and then for months at a time.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


Almost Half of US Could be Obese by 2050

IN 40 years 40 per cent of the US population will be obese, according to a new prediction based on American trends.

Alison Hill’s team at Harvard University developed a statistical model to predict the spread of behaviours through a social network of friends, family and neighbours, together with those behaviours that spontaneously arise without social influence.

The researchers applied their model to data taken over the last 40 years on the spread of obesity in 7500 people living in Boston.

Two per cent of the population became obese each year, with a person’s chance of becoming obese increasing by 0.5 per cent for each contact they had with an obese person. Taking into account recovery rates from obesity and extrapolating to the wider population, Hill’s model predicts obesity levels will plateau in about 40 years, at which time 42 per cent of Americans will be obese.

The prevalence of obesity in the Boston group has historically tracked closely with US levels, so the findings could indeed be valid nationwide, says Hill (PLoS Computational Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000968).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Islamic Extremism Expert Speaks to ROTC Students, Civilians

Michael Knapp feels he has a firm understanding behind Islamic extremist’s attitudes toward the West.

The expert on Muslim extremism gave a presentation titled “Understanding Islam and Its Extremes” to about 130 at Charles V. Park Library Wednesday, which included a mix between ROTC members and civilians.

Knapp graduated from CMU in 1978 and has been in intelligence analysis his entire career. He was brought back as a presenter for the Nolde Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the Military Science and Leadership Department.

“I felt for the type of things we’re trying to accomplish, it is perfect because it covers a broad range of topics,” said Military Science Professor Lt. Col. Aaron Kalloch. “There was a mixture of cadets and regular students, and that is exactly what I wanted to see.”

Knapp began by giving a synopsis of the history of the Islamic faith and a breakdown of the basic sects — Sunnis and Shiites. He also explained sub-sects and their beliefs.

“Islam is still a big part of many of the news stories we are confronted with today,” Knapp said, “it’s very important for Americans to understand other cultures.”

Knapp delved into many aspects of Islam and explained the origins of the ideologies of the extremists, including “the case against the West”.

He also outlined many of the stresses from the outside world on Islamic countries.

“Jihadists, even though they carry out violent attacks, are a small minority of the Muslim population,” Knapp said. “And Jihad does not mean ‘holy war’. It means the struggle in God’s cause, but the radicals have changed the meaning of that.”

Knapp said Muslim and Arab culture are very past-oriented because of their nervousness about the ambiguity of the future and since violence is a recurring theme in Islamic history, radical ideas still resonate with some Muslims.

“I thought it was very interesting to hear the differences between the Sunnis and the Shiites and their religions,” said Allen Park sophomore and ROTC cadet Dominic Monte.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Jewish, Muslim Interfaith Group Dying Out

A New York Jewish-Islamic interfaith group has become all but derailed due to Jewish suspicions of the intentions of the Muslim group, members said.

The national effort on the part of rabbis and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which operates in cooperation with the Islamic Society of North America, to forge better relations between the two religions’ clergy is going by the wayside because Jewish community members view the interfaith “twinnings” as a deception on the part of radical Muslims, the Buffalo News reported Thursday.

In western New York, two rabbis who participated in a local twinning weekend in 2009 have detached themselves from the effort.

The Muslim group is a controversial national organization that federal prosecutors have linked to an international group accused of fostering Islamic fundamentalism.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Muslim Students’ Female-Only Swim at GWU Makes Waves

Colleges strive to create welcoming, inclusive communities for students from every background. But a new effort at George Washington University has scores of critics and supporters abuzz with heated comments that continue to pour in on various blogs and news articles. At the request of the university’s Muslim Students’ Association, George Washington began offering a once-weekly, female-only swim hour in March. But it only recently turned into an online debate over issues of religious and sexual discrimination and — though not always explicitly — racism, spurred by an article in the student newspaper, The GW Hatchet…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



NASA’s Next Big Space Telescope to Cost an Extra $1.5 Billion

WASHINGTON — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to cost at least $1.5 billion more than current estimates and its launch will be delayed a minimum of 15 months, according to an independent review panel tapped to investigate escalating costs and management issues with the next-generation flagship astronomy mission.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) called for the independent review in June to identify the root causes of cost growth and schedule delays on the JWST.

“The Webb telescope will now cost $6.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than the estimate included in NASA’s February 2010 budget request, Mikulski wrote in a Nov. 10 letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden after reading the Oct. 29 report. “Its launch will be delayed by over a year, from June 2014 to September 2015.”

Led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the James Webb Space Telescope is an infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter foldable mirror and a deployable sunshield the size of a tennis court. Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems of Redondo Beach, Calif., is prime contractor. An Ariane 5 rocket provided by the European Space Agency is slated to launch the observatory to the second Lagrange point — a gravitationally stable spot 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. [Future of Giant Space Telescopes]

In her letter, Mikulski said NASA must have a sense of urgency and frugality in correcting the JWST’s management problems and present Congress with a realistic budget for the program.

“We cannot afford to continue with business as usual in this stark fiscal situation,” she wrote.

The panel, led by John Casani, special assistant to the director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., attributed the cost growth and schedule delays to “budgeting and program management, not technical performance,” according to the report, which characterized the JWST’s technical progress as “commendable and often excellent.”

However, the report notes that “there may be a number of low probability threats whose occurrence could cause an additional year delay in launch and a correspondingly higher cost.”

The panel recommends restructuring the JWST project office at Goddard to emphasize cost and schedule ceilings. “The flawed practice by the Project of not adequately accounting for threats in the budgeting process needs immediate correction,” the report states.

However, the report also found that “the JWST Project has invested funds wisely in advancing the necessary technologies and reducing technical risk such that the funds invested to date have not been wasted,” according to the executive summary. “The management approach, however, needs to change to focus on overall life cycle cost and a well-defined launch date.”

Bolden, in a Nov. 10 statement, said he agrees with the panel’s findings and that NASA would overhaul the program’s management structure.

“No one is more concerned about the situation we find ourselves in than I am, and that is why I am reorganizing the JWST Project at Headquarters and the Goddard Space Flight Center, and assigning a new senior manager at Headquarters to lead this important effort,” Bolden said in the statement.

The NASA chief said he is encouraged by the panel’s finding that the JWST is technically sound and that the project continues to meet its milestones.

“However, I am disappointed we have not maintained the level of cost control we strive to achieve — something the American taxpayer deserves in all of our projects,” he said. “NASA is committed to finding a sustainable path forward for the program based on realistic cost and schedule assessments.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



New York Meeting Builds Movement Against Grand Jury, FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists

New York, NY — More than 150 movement leaders and concerned individuals packed a standing room-only hall at Saint Mark’s Church in the Bowery on Nov. 6 for the first national meeting of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

The national committee was formed after 14 anti-war, international solidarity and labor activists were served subpoenas in late September to appear before a federal grand jury. Many of the activists’ homes were raided, as were the offices of the Anti-War Committee in the Twin Cities. According to a statement made by the targeted activists, “The subpoenas claim that the grand jury is investigating violations of the 1996 law on the issue of ‘material support’ of ‘designated foreign terrorist organizations.’“ (www.stopfbi.net/about/statement-on-the-grand-juries)

The first national meeting was held as activists around the country prepare to mobilize for the anticipated reactivation of three subpoenas for Minneapolis anti-war organizers. The room resolved to hold emergency protests the day after it’s known activists have been called to appear before the Grand Jury and to call for a day of action for the subpoena court dates. The committee will also organize another call-in day to U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s offices.

At the meeting, Bruce Nestor of the National Lawyers Guild explained that the material support laws which are the basis of the investigation against the activists are “an attempt to repress U.S. activists’ involvement in solidarity with liberation struggles” in places like Colombia and Palestine. Nestor said the material support laws prohibit providing any resources to groups unilaterally declared a terrorist organization by the Secretary of State, a designation virtually impossible to challenge.

Several of the targeted activists have participated in solidarity delegations to Colombia and Palestine. The governments of Colombia and Israel are among the top recipients of U.S. foreign and military aid and brutally repress those struggling for their rights and freedom under their rule.

Nestor also explained that the June 2010 Supreme Court decision on Holder vs. Humanitarian Aid was “a test case in which the court said that providing any service to a group designated as a terrorist organization, including training on nonviolent methods of conflict resolution” constitutes material support as it would “free up resources that could be spent by the organization on violent activity.”

First amendment activity such as participating in international solidarity delegations, Nestor explained, can now serve as ‘probable cause’ for investigation by the U.S. government under the definition of ‘material support’ which was broadened by the Supreme Court’s decision. As there “is no effective legal restraint on the government to go after international solidarity work,” Nestor emphasized, “the only effective restraint is political.”

The three activists in Minnesota expected to be re-subpoenaed will likely face the choice of testifying against other activists and the wider movement or detention for contempt of court. Whether the term of civil contempt will be shorter rather than longer, Nestor explained, “will be determined by the strength of the political pushback.”

Chicago activist Hatem Abudayyeh — whose home was raided by a federal task force which confiscated “anything that had ‘Palestine’ written on it” — placed the raids and grand jury proceedings in the context of the decades of “systematic attacks on Palestine solidarity work in the U.S.” These attacks began with the wave of Palestinian immigration to the U.S. following Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and has spiked sharply since Sept. 11 2001.

“The government is trying to criminalize our movement’s work to support legitimate struggles for freedom across the world,” Abudayyeh said.

Noor Elashi, daughter of Holy Land Foundation cofounder Ghassan Elashi, spoke at the meeting, describing how “U.S. government prosecutors said that the foundation’s humanitarian aid donations to the Zakat or charitable committees in Palestine constituted material support.” The Holy Land Foundation’s offices were raided in December 2001 and less than three years later, Ghassan Elashi and four others involved with the foundation were arrested. After a short trial that resulted in a deadlocked jury, another jury was convened which gave guilty verdicts and decades-long sentences were issued. “With these material support laws,” Elashi said, “it is possible to prosecute anybody and everybody, and everybody is at risk.”

However, it was clear at the meeting that the government is up against a powerful movement that has organized demonstrations against the raids in more than 62 cities. Thousands have called in to Obama and Holder’s offices, as well as U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and an online petition has resulted in more than 200,000 letters to elected officials (http://www.iacenter.org/stopfbi/).

Anti-War Committee founder and targeted activist Jess Sundin reported on a successful effort in Minnesota to circulate a ‘dear colleague’ letter to Obama through the state legislature. Additionally, representatives Keith Ellison (D-MN) have given a commitment to circulate such a letter calling on the president to end the grand jury proceedings, investigate the FBI and reexamine the material support laws in the U.S. House of Representatives..

Tom Burke of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said that in addition to these efforts there is now a speakers bureau and groups are encouraged to invite targeted activists to speak to their community. Furthermore, 120 solidarity statements have been posted on stopfbi.net and activists are encouraged to create and pass resolutions against the raids and grand jury proceedings in their various organizations. There has also been a lot of significant activity in the labor sector, faith organizations have issued a letter with a sign-on statement against the raids and civil rights organizations have held know-your-rights educational events. A student activist from California also reported that Students for a Democratic Society is coordinating an effort to reach out to prominent academics to sign on to a letter condemning the raids.

The room also passed a proposal for the formation of a national coordination committee that will meet via telephone conference every two weeks or as needed. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is also setting up offices in the Twin Cities that will take on some of the day-to-day organizing work against the grand jury proceedings.

Sara Flounders, of the International Action Center, reminded the room that serious efforts to raise funds need to be undertaken. Individuals and groups from across the country pledged $5000 during the meeting. Flounders also emphasized that the targeted activists’ immediate response to the raids and subpoenas was a call for the movement as a whole to stand up. “This is our movement’s only protection and defense,” she said.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Austria: Ambassador an ‘Arrogant Turkish Nationalist’

The Turkish ambassador in Vienna has been branded an “arrogant nationalist” for claiming Austrians were only interested in other cultures when on holiday.

Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache said today (Thurs) Kadri Ecvet Tezcan should be dismissed from his post after he gave interview to Viennese newspaper Die Presse which made headlines across Europe.

Strache, whose party garnered 25.8 per cent in the recent Vienna city parliament election (2005: 14.8 per cent), said Tezcan “seems to be a Turkish nationalist with an arrogant attitude”.

The diplomat, who has been Turkish ambassador in Vienna for around one year, infuriated Strache as well as the government coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the People’s Party (ÖVP) by suggesting Austria should “chase away” all foreigners if the country did not want them to live here.

“The Turks (in Austria) don’t want anything from you. They aren’t happy. They don’t want to be treated like a virus,” Tezcan said yesterday.

The ambassador caused outrage among ÖVP leaders by appealing to the party’s Interior Minister Maria Fekter to “stop interfering” in the integration process. Tezcan claimed it was no surprise there were just “police solutions” to the issue as long as the interior ministry was in charge. The former ambassador in Azerbaijan suggested that the social affairs ministry should take over handling immigration issues which have dominated the political debate over the past few months.

ÖVP General Secretary Fritz Kaltenegger said Tezcan had no right to criticise Fekter. “Ministers like Maria Fekter represent Austria abroad, and are therefore also responsible for the country’s excellent reputation in the world,” he said.

SPÖ Chancellor Werner Faymann labelled Tezcan’s statements as “unprofessional and unacceptable”.

Josef Bucher, head of the opposition Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), appealed to European Union (EU) leaders to stop the ongoing accession talks with Turkey.

ÖVP whip Karlheinz Kopf decided to write to Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission (EC), because of the interview. Kopf told Barroso he expected a “clear reply” to the claims made by Tezcan.

Most Austrian political leaders have maintained a hesitant approach to the question of whether Turkey should become a member of the EU at some stage. While ÖVP Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger stressed that the negotiations were “open-ended”, polls have shown that just one out of five Austrians want Turkey to join the EU.

Strache claimed today Tezcan’s “vulgar remarks” confirmed that Turkey was “not ready for Europe”. The right-winger, whose party claimed 17.5 per cent in the 2008 general ballot, said Turkey “lacks Western values”. He added that the EU must stop discussing a possible accession of the country immediately.

The FPÖ boss said: “Austria is not a Turkish colony. If the ambassador has any decency, he will apologise to Austrians and resign.”

Before the 10 October Vienna vote Strache controversially claimed that many immigrants were unwilling to integrate. The right-winger warned of a “growing ‘Islamisation’“ of Europe, and stressed he was considering starting an anti-minaret referendum to ensure no further mosques featuring minarets will be built in Austria. Around 500,000 people living in the country are Muslims, but there are just four mosques with distinctive minarets in Austria.

The FPÖ boss has previously also suggested that more and more foreigners were responsible for crimes, while the bestselling Kronen Zeitung newspaper has been campaigning against “organised crime gangs from Eastern Europe” for years.

The ruling Viennese SPÖ branch has been attacked by the FPÖ for allegedly doing too little for “honest, hard-working Austrians” while excessively subsidising foreigners at the same time.

These claims were made after Statistik Austria research showed that foreigners living in Austria have a higher unemployment rate than Austrians. The agency announced last month that 10.2 per cent (48,300) of foreigners living in the country were out of work, while only 4.1 per cent (156,100) of Austrians were jobless.

Its figures also showed that Turks have the highest unemployment rate among ethnic minorities in Austria with 20 per cent, followed by people who came to Austria from former Yugoslavia (10.5 per cent).

Around 895,000 foreigners are living in Austria which has an overall population of 8.5 million. Most of them are Germans (213,000), while people from Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro are the second-biggest group with 207,000. Turks come third with 183,000, while the Bosnian community has 130,000 members.

The Turkish community in Austria consists of 247,000 people if children born to Turkish families in Austria are also considered. Around one out of two Turks living in Austria are residents of the federal capital Vienna.

Tezcan claimed yesterday that Vienna’s Turks “don’t feel welcome here”.

Asked why immigrants from Croatia seem to do better at school than most Turkish kids, the ambassador said: “Croats are Christians and therefore welcome in the society, while Turks aren’t. They are constantly being pushed to the corners of society.”

Tezcan refused to make any further statements towards Austrian press following the stir his interview caused. Turkish media, however, quote him as saying that he hoped his words would have positive effects after all. The diplomat pointed out that he did not want to insult or accuse anyone, according to Turkish press.

Some Austrian commentators have suggested Tezcan deliberately criticised official Austria and its people over a lack of support for his country’s bid to join the EU. Others, however, ruled out that he agreed with Turkish leaders about attacking the Austrian government amid fears that EU decision-makers call off the accession talks which were started five years ago.

The 61-year-old Turkish diplomat was not just criticised by politicians over his claims.

Rapid Vienna star Yasin Pehlivan stressed his statements were “counter productive”. The 21-year-old Austrian national football team ace, who was born to a Turkish family in Vienna, said: “It’s not a good idea to add fuel to the fire after a Vienna city parliament election campaign which has been full of hatred.”

Pehlivan claimed the coexistence between Austrians and immigrants was “generally functioning well”.

           — Hat tip: AMT [Return to headlines]



Italy: More Misery in Italy After Fresh Wave of Bad Weather

Govt allocates 300 million euros to flood-ravaged Veneto

(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — The southern province of Salerno was hit hardest as more bad weather brought fresh misery to Italy on Wednesday, when Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced aid for Veneto after it was devastated by flooding last week.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes following heavy rain in the night that caused several rivers to burst their banks and widespread flooding in the Salerno area.

Fire fighters and police went out in rescue boats and dinghies to save people and pets stranded by the deluge, including three people found clinging to a tree trunk near the town of Capaccio.

The weather also caused the breakdown of an aqueduct, leaving 14 municipalities without water supplies, including parts of the city of Salerno itself. The damage is massive, above all to the province’s agriculture sector, with whole crops ruined. Farm animals could be seen roaming in some areas after their shelters were washed out.

An invasion of water and mud onto roads blocked several highways and many trees were knocked down by powerful gusts, causing traffic chaos. Thankfully Veneto was spared the worst of the new bout of torrential rain. After visiting the region on Tuesday, Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced Wednesday that the government had allocated 300 million euros to help Veneto recover from the battering it had taken.

“With this allocation of funding we are following up on the promises we made yesterday when we said there would be an immediate intervention,” Berlusconi told a press conference, adding that more money would be forthcoming soon. According to the Coldiretti farmers union, thousands of hectares of Veneto farmland remains under water and there are great problems getting feed to the farm animals which survived the floods.

Coldiretti said over 150,000 livestock drowned in the floods there while entire crops of tobacco, fruit and vegetables were destroyed, along with numerous greenhouses and mushroom fields.

Berlusconi added that the mortgage payments of people hit by the emergency will be suspended thanks to an agreement with the Italian Banking Association (ABI), which will also help the area with 700 million euros in loans to families and businesses.

“There is also the possibility of tapping into the EU’s so-called structural funds, which amount to around 450 million euros for the period from 2007 to 2013,” the premier said during his visit Tuesday.

“The people of Veneto are truly a great people and here I have seen their immediate, vigorous and able response”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Photos of Premier’s ‘Bunga Bunga’ Parties Exist Claims Paparazzo

Milan, 11 Nov. (AKI) — Photographs exist of the alleged sex parties held by flamboyant Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi at his residence in Arcore near Milan, according to a controversial Italian photo agent. One of the sex games played at the alleged parties was called ‘bunga bunga’ according to a teenage Moroccan bellydancer and reported guest of Berlusconi’s known as Ruby.

“The photographs exist,” said Fabrizio Corona, the former business partner of prominent showbusiness agent Lele Mora, who is among several people currently being probed by prosecutors for abetting prostitution.

“But there’s no newspaper or magazine that would publish them and no agency would offer them,” he said in Milan on Thursday.

Corona was attending his appeal against the three year and eight month prison sentence he received in December 2009 for blackmailing Italian motorcyclist Marco Melandri and champion Brazilian striker Adriano.

“Right now, I couldn’t care less about Mora,” Corona stated.

“I couldn’t care less about Ruby either,” he added, whose alleged relationship with Berlusconi has intensified calls for his resignation.

Opposition politicians called for Berlusconi to step down for alleged ‘abuse of office’ after evidence emerged that he ordered police in Milan to release Ruby, who was then aged 17, from custody. She was detained on suspicion of stealing several thousand euros and jewellery from an acquaintance.

The girl, who uses her stage name, Ruby Rubacuori (Ruby the Heartbreaker), claimed in newspaper reports that she was a guest at the Arcore villa, where after-dinner sex games were played, including ‘bunga bunga’. She also said he gave her cash, a car, jewellery and clothes, according to Italian media reports.

Ruby denies she had sex with Berluconi, who has been embroiled in several previous scandals involving a teenage Naples underwear model as well as prostitutes who claim to have slept with the 74-year-old premier at his residences.

Berlusconi denies having ‘improper’ relations with any woman or ever having paid for sex. He claims he helped Ruby solely out of kindness.

Corona, a photographer, owned a photo agency and was dubbed ‘the king of paparazzi’ for snapping VIPs including Serie A soccer players and other personalities, including Fiat heir and playboy Lapo Elkann.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Berlusconi Eyes ‘Deal’ In Bid to Keep Government Alive

Rome, 11 Nov. (AKI) — Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will offer to change the national election law if political rival and former ally Gianfranco Fini agrees to keep the government in office with his parliamentary support, newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Thursday.

A revised election law would allow voters to cast ballots in favour of a single person rather than a bloc of candidates from a single party, the newspaper said. Electors currently must cast one vote for a party list. These lists are closed, so no individual candidates can be chosen.

Italians voted in the last national election in 2008 with the same electoral system used in 2006, based on party-list representation. This electoral systems allow parties to formally define coalitions.

The coalition with the largest number of votes nationwide then obtains an absolute majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. In the upper house or Senate, absolute majorities of seats are awarded regionally.

Fini, who over the weekend launched his own party, was expected to meet Thursday with governing coalition partner Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, who will ask Fini to keep supporting Berlusconi.

Berlusconi is attending the G-20 summit in Seoul which opened on Thursday.

Fabrizio Cicchito, lower house of parliament leader for the ruling People of Freedom party, on Thursday said any deal must allow Berlusconi to continue serving as prime minister.

“After this it is an open discussion,” he said.

Fini on Sunday said he would bring the government down if Berlusconi didn’t resign and unveil a new programme to boost economic growth in Italy’s poorer southern regions, curbing unemployment, and electoral reform.

Top Berlusconi aide Gianni Letta on Wednesday expressed his doubt that the government would serve out its full five-year mandate, which expires in 2013.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Opinion: The Brilliantly Honest Pat Condell About ‘Free Speech’ In Europe

While most readers know about the recent free-speech trial involving Geert Wilders, another such trial is coming up in Austria on November 23. Pat Condell speaks about it in his latest video, forcefully defending free speech in contemporary Europe.

While the trial of Dutch MP and Islam-critic Geert Wilders has been creating a furor in the press, another high-profile trial of a critic of Islam in Austria — Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff — has been largely overlooked even though both trials have much in common.

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, an Austrian citizen who has lived in Iran, Iraq, Libya and Kuwait, will stand trial on November 23 in Vienna, the country’s capital. Similar to Geert Wilders, Mrs Sabaditsch-Wolff is accused of ‘incitement to religious hatred’ during a seminar she gave in 2009.

The interesting fact about the seminar alleged to have been filled with hate-speech is that she mainly quoted verbatim from the Koran (Al Qur’an). However, it is not the text itself that is on trial, though it is filled with hate speech, misogyny and discrimination, but the woman who quoted the text in order to educate and enlighten her audience.

While her detractors accuse her of being a self-declared expert on Islam, she has claimed no such status. However, having lived — as a woman and mother — in four Islamic countries and having read all relevant scripture (Koran, Hadith, Sunnah), she clearly knows what she’s talking about.

A lengthy interview with her about the past accusations and the future trial can be found at Europe News. It is in German but does have English sub-titles.

Patrick Condell (November 23, 1949) is an Irishman and became first known as a comedian. Meanwhile, however, he is appreciated worldwide for the variously sharp and satirical monologues he delivers on sites such as LiveLeak and YouTube. As of October 2010, Condell’s YouTube channel alone had over 134,000 subscribers and over 27 million views.

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, has said that

“Pat Condell is unique. Nobody can match his extraordinary blend

of suavity and savagery. With his articulate intelligence he

runs rings around the religious wingnuts that are the targets of

his merciless humour. Thank goodness he is on our side.”

On his own website, called Godless Comedy, Condell greets the faithful visitor with the following words:

Hi, I’m Pat Condell. I don’t respect your beliefs and I don’t

care if you’re offended. Cheers. Now that we’ve got the

formalities out of the way, welcome to my website.

A version of this video without the Dutch subtitles can be found on watch it on YouTube.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Men Locked in Mosque During Terror Raid

The Gothenburg police are facing more criticism following revelations that they locked eight men in a mosque when responding to a terror threat on October 30th.

The eight men were reportedly locked in a mosque located at the Römosse school in Gothenburg’s Gårdsten neighbourhood where they were forced to wait for three hours without being given any information, the Göteborgs-Posten (GP) newspaper reports.

One of the men forced to stay in the mosque was elderly and begged police to be allowed to leave because he lacked certain medication, but his request was refused.

Police raided the mosque because one of the four men they planned to arrest had attended the mosque for morning prayers.

Those who were locked in the mosque by the police had no other connection to the terror accusations other than that they happened to be in the mosque when police arrived.

Detective Bertil Claesson, who heads the northeast Gothenburg police unit, regretted the incident.

Ahmed Al-Mofty, chair of the Islamic Information Society (Islamiska informationsföreningen), met recently with Ingemar Johansson, head of the county police in Gothenburg.

During the meeting, Al-Mofty complained about the police’s actions at the mosque.

“The police surely wouldn’t have behaved that way if they were entering a church or a synagogue. What happened is totally insane,” he said.

However, the men who were locked in the mosque have no plans to pursue the matter further.

“No, not for the moment. We’ve received a sincere and acceptable apology from Ingemar Johansson. But the police need to learn more about Muslims and mosques, that’s obvious,” said Al-Mofty.

Speaking about a week after the incident, head prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand explained that there was a bomb threat in Gothenburg at the time of the mosque raid and police were justified in acting quickly. Unfortunately, added Lindstrand, people were arrested who had nothing to do with the threat.

Police conducted their raids against a number of people in connection with the bomb threat in central Gothenburg based on information from witnesses, Lindstrand wrote in a statement on the website of Swedish Prosecution Authority (Åklagarmyndigheten).

According to the witness information, that up to 100 people could die in an attack on a certain part of central Gothenburg on Saturday, October 30th.

Based on the threat, Lindstrand, together with Swedish security service Säpo and the Västra Götaland County police, decided to conduct a quick series of raids which included making arrests and searching properties.

“That the actions affected people whom were quickly revealed to be free of suspicion by the investigation is clearly regrettable,” wrote Lindstrand.

He still believes, however, that the information on which the decision to conduct the raids was based was credible.

The information was also connected with “certain surveillance observations”.

According to Lindstrand, there is still a conceivable threat in connection with suspected terror crime preparations.

Lindstrand is the head of the Public Prosecution Office for Security Cases (Åklagarkammaren för säkerhetsmål). His actions and those of the police are now being reviewed by prosecutor Björn Ericson with the Swedish National Police Crimes Unit (Riksenheten för polismål).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Trial of Dutch Anti-Islam MP to Resume Soon

The trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders for inciting hatred will resume shortly in Amsterdam with new judges, judicial authorities have said.

Mr Wilders is on trial charged with inciting hatred and discriminating against Muslims. The trial was suspended when the defendant’s lawyer raised objections against the judges. The impartiality of one of the judges was questioned when it turned out he had had a private conversation about the case with a defence witness prior to the trial.

Although the witness in question, Islamologist Hans Jansen, was present in the courtroom when the allegations were made, the court denied Mr Wilders’ attorney Bram Moszkowicz the right to question him about the private meeting with Judge Tom Schalken.

The objections made by the defence were upheld, and the judges have been replaced.

Mr Wilders rejects the charges of hatemongering against Muslims and claims that he is speaking the truth in calling Islam an aggressive ideology which promotes terrorism.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Turkey Sets Five Priorities for Council of Europe

As Turkey takes the reins of one of Europe’s top institutions, the Council of Europe, for a six-month term, representatives outline five main focus areas for their work: reform, reducing workloads, fighting discrimination, empowering institutions and facilitating the EU’s decision to join the European Convention on Human Rights

On taking the chairmanship of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe for six months, Turkey said it has set five priorities to make the 61-year-old European body more visible and more active.

“Turkey’s chairmanship will make every effort to put the Council of Europe back on the international scene as an innovative, more flexible and feasible organization so that it can adapt itself to the changing political landscape,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said during Wednesday’s handover ceremony.

At the ceremony the outgoing Macedonian chair transferred the six-month tenure to Davutoglu at the Palais de Conceil de l’Europe. Turkey last chaired the council in 1992. The passing of the torch to Turkey occurs as another Turk, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, serves as head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, placing two prominent Turkish politicians at the top of one of the oldest international organizations working for European integration.

“The expectations from Turkey are quite high. Turkey is seen as an important actor and that’s why its chairmanship of the council is noteworthy,” Daryal Batibay, Turkey’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe, told a group of visiting Turkish journalists Wednesday. “We are ready to do our best.”

According to diplomats, Turkey’s six-month tenure will be important because it could guide ongoing efforts to diminish anti-discriminatory policies across the continent.

Among Turkey’s priorities are: continuing reforms at the council; actively contributing to reforming the European Court of Human Rights to reduce its burden [that condemned Ankara more than 2,000 times — source HLN]; assisting in a report to the Committee of Ministers next May in Istanbul that will recommend ways to fight growing discrimination, racism and Islamophobia; empowering independent inspection institutions and facilitating an adequate environment for the completion of ongoing negotiations between the EU and the council for the former’s decision to join the European Convention on Human Rights, one of the most fundamental documents of the Strasbourg-based council.

“We are aware this is an ambitious program for the chairmanship,” Davutoglu said. “At a time when the Council of Europe is at a crossroads, we did not have another option.”

“It’s the first time the EU will be answerable to another institution. Our initial plan is to finish talks before our chairmanship expires,” Batibay said. After the EU signs the convention it will be possible for the citizens of 47 countries to file complaints against Brussels on several issues including the Schengen visa regime. “There are so many sovereignty issues that the EU members have transferred to Brussels. One of the most important is the visa regime. In the future, in the case of unfair treatment the citizens of council countries will be able to go to the court,” Batibay said.

Visibility important

For Daniel Holtgen, the council’s director of communications, Turkey’s chairmanship is very important: “I think this chairmanship provides an opportunity for Turkey to strengthen its European profile in European arenas. On the one hand it will help Turkey further align with the EU, while on the other it will help us learn more about contemporary discussions in Turkey.”

Holtgen also said Turkey’s chairmanship would also boost the council’s visibility on the international platform thanks to its experienced and outspoken politicians.

Çavusoglu-Davutoglu duo

“The lack of harmony between the PACE and the Committee of Ministers is no secret in Strasbourg,” an anonymous senior Council of Europe official told a group of Turkish journalists Tuesday. He said two Turks administering the institutions could help push the bodies toward better cooperation. “But Turkey’s influence will be limited because the problem is much more structural.”

“We are going to work together with Foreign Minister Davutoglu,” Çavusoglu told a group of visiting journalists Wednesday. “But I’m more content with how both the Committee of Ministers’ and PACE’s priorities overlap.”

Çavusoglu and Davutoglu will together attend the Steering Committee meetings Thursday in Antalya, where the Turkish foreign minister will inform PACE members on Turkey’s priorities.

Landmark events

During Turkey’s chairmanship the most important event will take place in Istanbul on May 11, when the ministers of the council’s 47 member countries will meet. Another important meeting will take place in Izmir in April when the European court’s reform process will be discussed in detail. Another important meeting will take place in late November, with the participation of justice ministers from member countries.

           — Hat tip: VH [Return to headlines]



UK is Cocaine Capital of the Western World as Number of Young Britons Using the Drug Shoots Up by 50 Per Cent

British youngsters have become the greatest consumers of cocaine in the developed world, according to a major international study.

It found that numbers of young people using the drug in this country have shot up by 50 per cent over five years.

This means Britain has left other countries which face major cocaine problems — in particular the U.S. and Spain — far behind in the league table of those worst-affected.

Cocaine use among teenagers and young adults has rocketed since the 1990s as the popularity of other drugs has fallen off and prices have dropped to the point where a line of coke can be bought for just £2.

But the study by the European Union drugs monitoring agency said that consumption of cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamine in Britain still remain the highest or close to the highest in Europe.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Honour Killing’ Pair Convicted

Two cousins who became the first suspects ever extradited to Britain from Iraq have been jailed for life for the “honour killing” of a 20-year-old woman.

Mohammed Ali and Omar Hussain were found guilty of murdering Banaz Mahmod in January 2006 after she fell in love with a man disapproved of by her family.

Banaz, of Mitcham, Surrey, was subjected to an horrific assault, strangled, and stuffed in a suitcase found buried under a Birmingham patio three months later.

Ali was told he must serve at least 22 years behind bars and Hussain was given a minimum term of 21 years.

In a letter handed to police weeks before she died, Banaz had named Hussain and Ali as men “ready and willing to do the job of killing me”.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, told them: “This was a barbaric and callous crime.”

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Afghanistan Military Secrets Sold for £18.87 on Ebay After Army Officer Dumped Laptop in a Skip

An Oxford-educated army officer’s laptop containing military secrets was sold on the internet for £18.87 after he threw it in a skip.

Captain Robert Sugden, 29, was today being investigated by MoD chiefs after the security breach which risked the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan veteran’s scavenged computer, sold on eBay for ‘spares or repair’, could have been used to deadly effect by the Taliban.

Files — none of which required passwords — included troop numbers, patrol details, ammunition stock lists and locations of every police command post in a Helmand town.

The shocked buyer, who handed the laptop to the MoD, also found it contained hundreds of photos, along with names and other details, of locals risking their lives by joined the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army.

Also stored on the Toshiba Satellite A30 laptop was a copy of the Afghan National Police’s tactical handbook, giving details of every aspect of how to take on and defeat the enemy, including how to identify IED roadside bombs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Halal Meat is Being Served in Schools, Hospitals and Pubs — Even Though Vets Say Islamic Slaughter is Cruelthe Mail Went Undercover at an Abattoir to Find the Truth

A few hours before dawn, and even through the inky blackness it is clear this is no ­ordinary warehouse. Outside the building, gusts of wind send hay and straw flying, and the air is thick with the acrid sent of manure.

Despite the darkness, I can see blood trickling down the gutters and a group of men clutching knives. Every so often, the eerie scene is ­punctured by the sound of lambs bleating.

I am standing outside one of Britain’s abattoirs. To the casual observer, it is no different to any other slaughterhouse, though it’s strange to find one so close to a city centre that it’s within ­walking distance of Birmingham’s branch of ­Harvey Nichols.

I have visited several abattoirs for research purposes over the years, and by their very nature they’re noisy and messy places, with vats of blood and entrails.

The main difference here, though, is that this abattoir produces halal meat, in accordance with strict Islamic guidelines. Put simply, this means the animals killed here are not stunned with an electrical current — as they are at ­conventional slaughterhouses — to render them unconscious before they are dispatched.

Instead, they are fully conscious as their throats are slit by a slaughterman as he utters prayers to Allah to ‘bless’ the animal. The ­creature then bleeds to death in a process that can take more than 30 seconds.

Killing an animal by cutting its throat without stunning is, in fact, ­illegal in this country. ­However, there is a legal loophole allowing this if it is being done for religious reasons — in other words, for the production of halal or kosher meat.

But this is an exemption that the British ­Veterinary Association and the Government’s advisers, the Farm ­Animal Welfare Council, are objecting to, saying this form of slaughter causes ‘intolerable cruelty’. They have repeatedly demanded that it be banned.

Yet recent reports have suggested that it is not just devout Muslims who are consuming halal meat. Two months ago, it was revealed that supermarkets such as Waitrose and Tesco, fast food chains including McDonald’s, schools, ­hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues such as Ascot and Wembley are serving up halal meat to unwitting customers.

So where does halal meat come from, and what is the truth behind its ­burgeoning use?

According to the World Halal Forum, which ­promotes halal and is holding its European ­conference in London, there are two million ­consumers in Britain.

Until now, it has been difficult to ascertain facts. Halal meat producers have ­consistently rejected requests to show journalists around their British ­abattoirs and factories.

When I applied to be shown around a number of halal slaughterhouses, calls went unreturned and messages unanswered for weeks.

So I decided to go undercover, ­posing as a potential buyer of halal meat for a fictional chain of high-quality ‘bespoke meats’. After four weeks, I finally ­managed to find an abattoir willing to show me the entire production ­process — from ‘squeals to meals’.

Once I had outlined my fictional ­business proposal, a Birmingham-based company called Mr Meats agreed to show me around its abattoir. The owner, Masti Khan, was unfailingly polite and eager to please.

Mr Meats slaughters around 1,000 animals a night, mostly sheep and goats, but occasionally cattle, too.

When I step inside, the first thing that hits me is the overpowering stench — a nasty, fatty smell that sticks in the throat.

And then there’s the noise of ­machinery, interspersed with bleating animals and the slaughtermen ­uttering prayers.

Hundreds of sheep and lambs are penned up in tiny stalls. From time to time, one tries — and fails — to escape by leaping over the bars of its pen. But then the same would be true of any abattoir.

It is only when it comes to the actual slaughter that the differences become apparent. I watch — and secretly film — as the animals are herded onto a ­conveyor belt that leads them to the slaughterman, who is wearing a blue hairnet over his hair and beard in ­accordance with hygiene requirements.

Grabbing one lamb at a time, he pulls back its head and slits the throat with a swift movement from his razor-sharp knife.

Blood gushes everywhere as he recites the Islamic Bismillah prayer in Arabic: ‘In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.’

One of the supervisors, who oversees the firm’s 50 or so largely Muslim employees, explains to me the ­religious principle behind this process.

‘Animals that are stunned are not halal. An animal that is unconscious is not going to listen to the prayer.

‘In the Holy Book, it says that the animal should listen to the prayers of Allah. If it’s unconscious, then it won’t be able to do that.’

Lamb after lamb has its throat sliced open while fully conscious. They make pitiful bleating and gurgling sounds as they choke on their own blood. It’s a chilling sound that, once heard, stays with you for days Though the deep incision to the neck cuts through the animal’s windpipe and main arteries, the creatures are still able to cry out.

During my two-hour visit, I watch as lamb after lamb has its throat sliced open while fully conscious. They make pitiful bleating and gurgling sounds as they choke on their own blood. It’s a chilling sound that, once heard, stays with you for days afterwards.

And then there’s the fact that the animals can witness each other being killed as they travel along the ­conveyor belt. Their hooves twitch wildly as they try to break fee.

One lamb cries out for more than 20 seconds before it flops off the end of the conveyor belt and on to a rotating table. From there, it is shackled by its hind legs and hauled up to the ceiling on a hook, where it is left with a dozen others to ‘bleed out’ — another ­important part of the halal process.

Of course, no slaughter of an animal is easy to watch. But it is hard to remain dispassionate as I watch ­dozens of still-conscious animals bleeding to death, the floor covered by an inch of warm, frothy blood.

I find myself siding with the British Veterinary Association in its claim that the process is more inhumane than conventional stunned slaughter. Surely it would cause less suffering for the animals to be stunned first.

That is not to say that conventional abattoirs operate without fault. ­Earlier this year, I investigated an organic slaughterhouse, certified by the Soil Association, that had been secretly filmed by the welfare group Animal Aid.

Inside, the staff were caught beating animals and failing to stun them before cutting their throats.

Steve McGrath, chief executive of the Meat Hygiene Service, later said: ‘I have watched the film and have seen abject cruelty by the slaughtermen to the animals being killed; ­ineffective stunning; animals having their necks dislocated and heads decapitated before being fully bled; pigs being kicked; and shackling before stunning.’

Similar problems were found in every one of the seven slaughterhouses that Animal Aid secretly filmed, despite the presence of ­Government appointed vets. At least in this halal abattoir, I do not witness any deliberate mistreatment.

It is impossible to find out how many animals are killed in halal abattoirs. The last Labour administration ordered the Meat Hygiene Service to stop keeping records.

It was ostensibly a cost-cutting measure, but animal welfare groups fear it was to help disguise the rapid growth of the halal meat industry.

However, the last available figures, from 2004, suggest that 114 million halal animals and 2.1 million kosher ones are killed annually.

However, some halal producers — aware of the controversy that ritual slaughter can provoke — do stun their animals first, causing huge tensions within the Muslim community over the interpretation of what is, and isn’t, halal meat.

Some organisations, such as the Halal Monitoring Committee, post inspectors inside abattoirs, including Mr Meats, to ensure that animals are not stunned before their throats are cut.

Other organisations, however, say that stunning is acceptable. Nizar Boga, an Islamic scholar and former adviser on dietary issues at the ­London Central Mosque, says: ‘The Prophet told us about the need to care for animals, especially during slaughter. It’s absolutely forbidden in Islam for an animal to be aware of death during slaughter.

‘Organisations like the Halal ­Monitoring Committee are frightening decent Muslims for their own ends. They are making money from this.

‘Their interpretation of Islam on this issue is simply wrong. All of the top Muslim scholars around the world agree on this. Muslims have to respect animals.’

Either way, keeping track of what meat has or hasn’t come from stunned animals is hard to monitor, causing huge difficulties for British consumers of all faiths who would prefer to buy meat from animals that have been killed using the more humane method of slaughter.

This is increasingly important now that most leading supermarkets, including Tesco and Asda, sell halal meat. Tesco, for example, launched a halal barbecue range this summer and reported strong sales. So which method of slaughter do the supermarket giants use?

A spokesman for Tesco says: ­’Pre-stunned meat produced to halal standards conforms to all our stringent hygiene and animal ­welfare standards.’

For their part, Morrisons says that ‘all of our fresh meat is 100 per cent British and non-halal. Only our ­frozen New Zealand lamb is halal.’

As for Asda, the supermarket says its policy is ‘that all animals used for Asda brand products, halal or non-halal, are stunned’.

But it turns out that is not quite the full story. I decided to visit five Asda stores in London that have specialist in store butcher’s shops, run as ­independent ­concessions operating under the name Haji Baba.

The stores in Hounslow, Colindale, Walthamstow, Beckton and the Isle of Dogs confirmed to me that the meat they sold was ‘authentically halal’.

‘The animals were not stunned,’ they said.

Though the store workers did not know the precise source of the meat, Masti Khan, the owner of Mr Meats, told me that he has ­supplied lamb to the five Asda stores I visited.

Confronted with my findings, Asda told me: ‘Haji Baba is an independent company. The method of slaughter is a matter for Haji Baba and their customers.

‘All Asda brand products are stunned. The abattoir that the Daily Mail filmed inside is not used for Asda branded products.’

The key point is that wherever the meat comes from, consumers should have a clearly labelled choice.

Yet given that there is no legal requirement to label whether meat comes from stunned or unstunned animals, the chances are you’ve already eaten halal killed in the way I witnessed — or soon will do.

In Europe, pressure is building to standardise slaughtering practices to ensure that the majority of all ­animals are killed without stunning.

In France, for example, 80 per cent of all sheep are killed without ­stunning, and almost all animals in Belgium are bled to death while fully conscious.

And this process is beginning to accelerate in Britain, too. Consumer and animal welfare groups claim this is illegal because the exemption from animal welfare laws granted to Muslims and Jews is being extended across the whole meat industry, purely to cut costs.

‘This is no longer about religion,’ says Peter Stevenson of Compassion In World Farming.

‘The exemption in the law was not granted to the food industry to streamline its production processes and make life easier for itself — but that is what it has become.

‘We are not opposed to halal as long as the animals are stunned before they are killed.’

In June, the European Parliament decided to try to force the food industry to label halal and kosher meat as coming from ‘unstunned animals’.

The legislation faces an uphill struggle, as all EU member states will have to approve the ­legislation before it can become law.

James Paice, minister of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, says that, in principle, the Government ­supports labelling.

Last week, he told the House of Commons: ‘This is a highly emotive issue, and I understand the demand for labelling.

‘The Government would like all animals to be properly stunned before they are bled to slaughter. There is a discussion at European level about food information ­regulations, but we do not believe that is the right vehicle.

‘Next year, we will consult on implementation of the European animal welfare regulations, and the labelling issue will certainly be examined as part of that.’

Whatever your beliefs on the rights and wrongs of religious slaughter, surely we should all welcome the choice over whether we buy such meat.

But unless labelling laws are tightened, we may soon lose that choice, just as they have in many European countries.

Support for clear labelling of unstunned halal meat also comes from an unlikely source.

When I confronted Masti Khan, owner of Mr Meats slaughterhouse, after my visit, he said: ‘Consumers should be given the choice. I have nothing to hide.

‘This is a multi-racial country, and people have different religions. It’s wrong for supermarkets not to clearly label meat as coming from animals that have not been pre-stunned.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Hague: This Government Will Not Give Any More UK Rights to the European Union

British sovereignty and Parliament’s power over Brussels could be underlined by a new bill introduced to the Commons by William Hague.

The foreign secretary is listed as the sponsor of the European Union Bill 2010-2011 which commits the Government to holding a referendum on any future European treaty.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg had angered Conservative ministers by suggesting the repatriation of powers from Brussels would be akin to ‘going backwards’ but the new bill should satisfy the most ardent Eurosceptics in the coalition Government.

[…]

Introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday, the bill provides that ‘in future, a referendum would be held before the UK could agree to an amendment of the Treaty on the European Union… or of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union… or before the UK could agree to certain decisions already provided for by TEU and TFEU… if these would transfer power’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Lutfur Rahman Puts Fundamentalist Sympathiser in Charge of the Money

Lutfur Rahman, the fundamentalist-backed mayor of Tower Hamlets, held the first meeting of his new cabinet today — and it was rather a thin affair. Three weeks on from his election, despite waving around a great deal of money in “special responsibility allowances,” Lutfur has still not been able to persuade anyone of substance on the council to serve with him. It emerged today that he has only been able to fill half the cabinet’s eight slots, plus the deputy mayor’s position (which he announced two weeks ago would go to his supporter Ohid Ahmed.) Only three of a potential 10 cabinet members, including Lutfur himself, attended the meeting today. There were a lot of empty seats around the table.

The four posts Lutfur has filled are all from the ranks of the councillors who defected from Labour to him before the election. They include Alibor Choudhury, a man with even closer links than Lutfur to the Muslim supremacist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe. Alibor has, incredibly, been given the key post of cabinet member for resources — that is, he will be in charge of the money.

Alibor was previously manager of one of the IFE’s front organisations, a drugs project called Nafas. In a tape-recorded interview with my colleague Ted Jeory, the IFE’s own president at the time, Muhammad Habibur Rahman, admitted that Alibor had “associations with” the IFE. Alibor also has a deeply unsavoury past. In 2006, he stood trial in connection with a gang attack. The trial was halted at the committal stage. Alibor says this was because of “abuse of process,” though he has always refused to discuss with me what the “abuse” actually was. Others say it was halted because key witnesses refused to give evidence. More about Alibor on this blog in the days ahead.

The other three members of the cabinet are Oliur Rahman, for children’s services; Rania Khan, for regeneration; and Rabina Khan, for housing. At least one of these also has connections to the IFE — more about them soon, too. Peter Golds, leader of the Tory group, called the new cabinet “some of the weakest councillors in the chamber.” He would say that, of course — but others privately share his opinion.

The cabinet does not only lack experience and competence, but fails to reflect the communities which make up the borough. Like Lutfur’s group of councillors, it is 100 per cent Bangladeshi, though Tower Hamlets is only around 35-40 per cent Bangladeshi. In that respect, it mirrors Lutfur’s first proposed cabinet in his former incarnation (2008- May 2010) as council leader — also entirely Bangladeshi, though on that occasion he was dissuaded from proceeding with a mono-ethnic lineup.

This time Lutfur desperately wants some people from outside the ranks of his supporters in his cabinet. But so far absolutely nobody has taken the bait, not even his main non-Bangladeshi ally under his previous leadership, Marc Francis, who was expected to defect today. Maybe he has left the slots vacant in the hope of future defections. Interestingly, however, Mr Francis’ main specialism, housing, has already been filled.

So far, therefore, it does appear that the decision by the other parties to treat Lutfur as a leper is holding. Here’s a reminder of why that might be.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslims Cut Bodies for Faith

ISLAMIC fanatics are mutilating themselves at a British mosque in a bloody ceremony carried out only yards from a busy high street.

Shia Muslims use a five-bladed chain called a Zanjeer to whip their own backs and make cuts in their foreheads with razor blades in homage to their faith.

Bare-chested men were left bleeding heavily during the ritual known as Matam — self-flagellation — which a witness described as being “like a scene from a horror film”.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslims Against Crusaders Protest Group Bares Al-Muhajiroun Hallmarks

It is a group that appears to be using the same language and pursuing the same agenda as the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun and its off-shoot Islam4UK.

Anjem Choudary, one of the former leaders of al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK, confirmed that the men behind Muslims Against Crusaders were his “students.”

Like another website shut down last week, Muslims Against Crusaders also praises the action of the woman who was jailed for life for stabbing MP Stephen Timms.

In a video posted on their website, a preacher called “Abu Ubaidah” says Roshonara Choudhry is “our sister” and adds: “She understands the ummah [Muslim nation] is suffering under the hand of the kuffar [heathen].”

Like al-Muhajiroun, Ubaidah criticises the values of democracy, secularism and liberalism in a six minute video that had to be cut more than a dozen times as he stumbled over his lecture.

Sitting in front of a black flag and pointing his finger, he also attacks the presence of a “Zionist crusader alliance” in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen — all hotbeds of al-Qaeda activity.

In the video he also claims that British troops are “serial killers” who are “killing, torturing and raping Muslims.”

Islam4UK, which was banned in January after threatening protests around soldiers’ funerals at Wootton Bassett, was characterised by protests against British troops in Luton and elsewhere and that role now seems to be filled by this new group which has already protested in Barking, East London, in June this year.

Al-Muhajiroun was founded in 1983 by Omar Bakri Mohammed and included the Crawley fertiliser bombers among its followers as well as Asif Hanif who carried out a suicide bombing in Israel.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Operation Muslim Vote: Phil Woolas, The Labour Party and Muslim Bloc Voting [Reader Comment]

[Post at Harry’s Place — Livingstone, Lutfur, Again!]

[JP note: Reader comment by mettaculture on 11 November 2010 at 12:31 am]

Lucy

What worries me about all this is that the Labour party not only needs to discipline Livingstone but recognise the depth of Islamist communalist activism in inner city politics of which Tower Hamlets and Lutfur Rahman is just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t think the Labour party recognises this at all. Any anger seems to be directed at the local situation and Ken rather than the systemic issue.

As evidence for this consider the reaction to the Woolas verdict. This is taken as universally to be an issue of racism and immigration. The issue before the court was whether Woolas misrepresented facts pertaining to the character of watkins. The electoral court made no ruling on racism (this was merely counsel for Watkins case) there has been a unanimity of opinion that Woolas is either a racist or panders to working class racism. The take home message for Labour seems to be that it is all about immigration and the difficulty the Labour party has in dealing with working class racism.

While I am not about to defend the elements of the campaign that were beyond the pale it is pretty clear that the election was one that was highly polarised by the involvement of MPACUK and a clear communalist Islamist campaign to influence the ‘Muslim vote’ seen as a bloc. MPACUK supported the Lib-dem candidate as part of a campaign to mobilise the Muslim vote on anti-Iraq war anti-israeli ticket and to vote against Labour candidates who were seen as pro-Zionist and Islamophobic. Woolas’ defence that he was campaigning against Islamist extremists who sought to further communalise the vote in an increasingly segregated city has not even been given the time of day.

There seems to be no realisation that a far left/Islamist alliance is operating within and against the Labour party that is strategically supporting independent or Lib-Dem candidates with the aim of deselecting, and defeating Labour politicians who do not toe the ‘stopper/islamist/anti-Zionist/anti-Imperialist’ radical agenda for the Labour party that this post socialist ‘militant tendency’ support. We know that Islamism and its apologists and supporters have advanced politically through exploiting and perverting the anti-racist social consensus that has been established by a broad political progressivism.

In a real sense anti-racism is both the great legacy of the Labour party and one of the core principles that has united Old and new Labour. As such it is rather an article of faith that can be ritually chanted even by those who, like Ken Livingstone, are engaged in an Orwellian support for its Islamist antithesis. The fact that the response to Woolas (most particularly in the party leadership) has been an immediate ‘Jade Goody’ response rather than a ‘his campaign was unacceptable but we should read his letter of September and recognise what he was up against in terms of a well organised Islamist political faction’ does not fill me with optimism that the Ken Livingstone/Lutfur Rahman nexus is seen in the broader light of ‘tendency activism’ that is required.

I recognise why Labour will not be supporting Woolas’ defence and accept this but it kind of shows how incapable Labour seems to be in opposing a strategic alliance between the far left, Livingstonites and inner city Islamist communalists. I remember some time ago we debated what the long term political consequence of the Stop the war coalition/Respect/Islamist alliance would be once the coalition predictably fell apart.

My view was that it had set free an Islamist political faction that would hawk a Muslim communalist bloc vote around all major political parties. I think it has and Muslim communalist politics is a real feature of the local and national political landscape. However I did not realise the extent to which Labour’s defeat, together with the wipe out of the far left/stopper/Respect as a party political presence would encourage both entryism into the Labour party and a resurgence of the ‘militant tendency’/Socialist Action/GLC/Livingstone party within a party organising effect.

It seems that Operation Muslim votes real effects ere delayed. By itself Operation Muslim Vote, despite MPACUK’s hopes, will not be an independent political force that can easily or coherently be wielded to deliver a reliable bloc vote (at least not by any one Activist group such as MPACUK, and certainly not respect) but it reflects a powerful new idea together with the emergence of a new Muslim community identity. This Muslim revivalist identity is not a stable formula or homogenous entity that will give a standard or entirely predictable shape .

However what it has achieved is a decoupling of the ‘Muslim vote’ from its long assumed and taken for granted association with the Labour party. The Labour party, then, is most vulnerable electorally to its new manifestation and manipulation by political actors both within and without the party. Machiavellian operators like Livingstone and his hench creatures now have a new constituency to deploy for their own ends, ends which largely, though never exclusively, involve trying to manipulate the party by establishing an independent base nominally within the party but always with the threat of extra party mobilisation.

There is nothing new in Livingstones behaviour he is merely continuing his modus operandi established in his GLC days with his Socialist Action personal guard. Lutfur Rahman, Tower Hamlets and by extension the ‘Muslim voting community’ have merely presented themselves, following the eclipse of Galloway, as ideal ammunition for his long time cause, himself.

Livingstone has always been a smarter operator than Galloway, apparently more of a team player he has always been able to command far more loyalty within (and outside) the Labour party. I am not so sure Livingstone will be so easily defeated and he poses a far greater danger to Labour than that of his own person. He wishes to cement an Islamist faction permanently inside the party machine. Judging by how far beneath the radar this communalist danger lies, so far he stands a reasonable chance of success.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Poppy-Burning Muslim Protesters Mar Armistice Day Commemorations as Millions Fall Silent to Remember War Dead

Islamic protesters sparked fury today after they burned a model of a poppy and deliberately broke the silence at Armistice Day commemorations in central London.

As millions of Britons fell silent to remember those who have died in war, members of a group called Muslims Against Crusades clashed with police during an ‘emergency demonstration’ in Kensington, west London.

As the clock struck 11am, the Islamic protesters burned a model of a poppy and chanted ‘British soldiers burn in hell’.

They held banners which read ‘Islam will dominate’ and ‘Our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell’.

The Muslims Against Crusades website includes graphic images of children wounded in warfare and the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib.

The protest, in Exhibition Road, near Hyde Park, involved about 50 people while about another 50 counter-demonstrators had to be kept apart from the group by a line of police.

Three men were arrested at the scene — two for public order offences and one for assaulting a police officer.

Asad Ullah, of Muslims Against Crusades, said: ‘We are demonstrating because this day is a day of remembrance to remember every single fallen soldier, including those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘We find it disgusting that innocent people, innocent children, have been killed in an illegal and unjust war and we are demonstrating against that.

‘We want the Government to pull the troops out from these countries and to stop interfering in our affairs.’

Mr Ullah added: ‘We would like to have a protest closer to the memorial but it is difficult to get access. We want to break the silence and say, “What about the silence for others that have died?’“

Earlier this year, members of the group were involved in violent clashes with far-Right groups during a troop march in Barking, east London.

A series of incendiary comments were posted on a social networking website linked to the English Defence League.

Some members pledged to attend while others showered the Islamic group with abuse and criticised police for allowing the demonstration to take place.

English Defence League protester Clive Donnellan, 49, a construction manager said: ‘The MAC could have chosen a more sensitive day to protest. They are preaching hate and although it’s great to have free speech this shouldn’t be happening today. They can come down any other day and say what they think.’

It is understood the event took place in Kensington because it is outside a protected zone around Parliament where spontaneous protests are banned.

Police were questioning people they suspected were preparing to travel to Kensington after arriving at Victoria Station.

It is thought Muslims Against Crusades is a splinter group of Islam4UK, founded by Anjem Choudary.

Elsewhere as the clock struck 11am, the nation paused to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day, when peace returned to Europe at the end of the First World War.

Wearing their poppies with pride, people joined in the two-minute silence as various commemoration services and events were held around the country.

The agreement between Germany and the Allies after four years of fighting took effect at the ‘eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’ of 1918.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams joined war heroes, service personnel, veterans, military associations and schoolchildren for a service of remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, central London.

The road was closed and crowds lined the street for the poignant ceremony and wreath-laying.

Amid grey skies and damp conditions, there was applause as Victoria and George Cross holders took their places around the monument.

David Cameron marked Remembrance Day by laying a wreath at the site of the British Army’s bloodiest battle since the end of the Second World War.

The 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, were cut off and surrounded by vastly superior Chinese Communist forces during the Battle of the Imjin River from April 22 to 25, 1951, in the Korean War.

Running short of water and ammunition, the ‘Glorious Glosters’ held their hilltop position through a full day and a night, repelling waves of Chinese attackers.

Some 59 men died in the defence of the hill and 526 were taken prisoner — 180 of them wounded. Another 34 men died in captivity.

But their heroic stand delayed the advance of the Communist troops, preventing them from outflanking the forces of the Republic of Korea and the United Nations.

As a result, the Allied forces were able to take up positions at a defensible line further south and prevent a direct assault on capital Seoul.

Two Victoria Crosses were awarded for valour, including to the Glosters’ commander Lieutenant-Colonel James Carne, who was one of those taken prisoner.

Sombrely dressed in dark coat and tie and sporting a red poppy on his lapel, the Prime Minister was joined by the defence attache at the UK’s Seoul embassy, Brigadier David Greenwood, to lay a wreath of poppies at a memorial to the Glosters.

Mr Cameron — who is in South Korea for a summit of the G20 group of major economies — spent a few moments in silent contemplation at the memorial in what is now known by grateful Koreans as Gloster Valley.

The 29th Brigade, of which the Glosters formed part, suffered 1,091 casualties, dead, wounded or missing during the Imjin River offensive, while the Chinese casualties are thought to have reached around 10,000.

A total of 1,078 UK troops died and 2,674 were wounded during the Korean War from 1950-53.

Mr Cameron later participated in a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Korean National War Memorial in Seoul.

Along with his Canadian and Australian counterparts Stephen Harper and Julia Gillard and French finance minister Christine Lagarde, the Prime Minister laid a wreath at the memorial to United Nations troops who died in the Korean War.

Mr Cameron met around 40 British veterans of the war who had come on a trip organised by the Korean Veterans Association and subsidised by the Seoul government.

Bob Huyton, 79, of Telford, Shropshire, was a 19-year-old on National Service when he served in Korea with the Royal Army Ordnance, helping transport the wounded back from the front line to Seoul.

‘It was a tough war’, he said. ‘We were caught up in two ambushes and I lost one of my best friends. I’m hoping to find his grave in the Pusan war cemetery before I go back.

‘I’ve been meaning to come back for a long time, and it’s been very emotional. You’d hardly recognise it was the same country, it’s changed so much, but all the memories come flooding back.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Tory Councillor Arrested Over Twitter Stoning Post

A Conservative Birmingham City councillor has been arrested over allegations he called on Twitter for a female writer to be stoned to death.

Erdington councillor Gareth Compton made the remark about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on his Twitter page.

Police said he had been arrested under the Communications Act 2003 and bailed. He has since apologised.

Ms Alibhai-Brown said she found his attitude “loathsome” and that a “flippant apology” was not enough.

She had appeared on Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show on Wednesday discussing human rights in China.

Afterwards, Mr Compton allegedly tweeted: “Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.”

Later, he wrote on Twitter that he had not called for the stoning of anybody.

He said: “I made an ill-conceived attempt at humour in response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Radio 5. I [apologise] for any offence caused, it was wholly unintentional.”

The Conservative Party has said his membership has been suspended indefinitely pending further investigation.

Ms Alibhai-Brown said she had been upset that somebody felt it “was OK” to say such things.

She said she had not known until the early hours, when she received a call, that anything had been written about her.

“My daughter had seen it earlier and not told me so I realised why she had been upset before she went to bed,” she said.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: “Do you think stoning women is ever a joke?”

“If I, as a Muslim woman, had said about him what he said about me then I would be arrested in these times of the war against terror,” she said.

“He does not have more of a right to say these things about me that I do about him and I think words matter when you are in public life.”

Roger McKenzie, Unison’s West Midlands regional secretary, said he had been inundated with complaints from city council workers outraged at Mr Compton’s comments and he called on Mr Compton to resign from the council.

He said: “Birmingham is a multicultural city and the council’s workforce reflect this.

“It is clear that Councillor Compton is out-of-touch with both his city and the council staff.

“It is wholly unacceptable for a public official to make such racist comments. Councillor Compton must resign his seat immediately.”

A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: “Any complaints that are formally received about the conduct of a city councillor are considered by the Standards Committee to determine if there is any case to answer.”

The Leader of the Commons, Sir George Young, told MPs the comments were unacceptable.

“Stoning to death is a barbarous form of punishment which the government and I am sure every honourable member of this house deplores, and I hope that no elected person will threaten any member of our society with that sort of punishment,” he said.

           — Hat tip: GB [Return to headlines]



UK: Thugs Who Hurled Fire Extinguisher Off Roof on to Police During Student Demo May be Charged With Attempted Murder

Thugs who hijacked the tuition fees protest narrowly avoided seriously injuring or even killing police when they threw a fire extinguisher off the seventh floor roof of the Tory HQ, it emerged today.

The dramatic moment was captured on video footage, showing the extinguisher crashing to the ground just inches from a group of officers desperately battling to regain control in Millbank.

A youth was seen on pictures clutching the missile on top of the building and the film showed it being launched over the edge and falling at speed.

It glanced off the helmet of one territorial support group officer and grazes the knees of another. Had it properly hit any of the thousands of people below, it would almost certainly have left fatal injuries.

Police are tonight urgently trying to identify the suspect and Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the man ought to be charged with attempted murder.

He said: ‘Clearly that is a very serious offence and we are attempting to bring the person who did that to justice.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Balkans


EU: No More Visas From Albania and Bosnia, Council’s OK

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 8 — Albanians and Bosnians will be allowed to enter EU countries without visas. The decision was reached unanimously by the European Interior Ministers. Citizens from Albania and Bosnia Herzegovina will, however, need to be in possession of biometric passports. The European Commission, has formally committed itself to monitoring the migratory patterns from the two Balkan countries towards the EU. In case of anomalies, restrictive measures can be requested from the governments of Albania and Bosnia Herzegovina. The liberalisation measure should be in force by the end of December.

The opportunity to enter the Schengen area without visas will be allowed for stays of up to three months.

The decision by the Council of European Interior Ministers was officially taken unanimously yet, it has emerged that some countries, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, expressed doubts on the capabilities of Albania and Bosnia in terms of border control, the safety of biometric passports (documents containing electronic figure that in theory cannot be forged) and the fight against people-trafficking.

In December 2009, a liberalisation of visas similar to that bestowed upon Albania and Bosnia was decided in favour of the citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. In the following months, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands all faced a high influx of migrants from Albanian-language speakers and ethnic Roma asking for political asylum.

In order to prevent a repeat of the phenomenon, the European Commission has promised to monitor migratory patterns, and results could herald a return for Albania and Bosnia on to the so-called “negative list”, the list of countries whose citizens must obtain a visa in order to gain access to the Schengen area.

In light of the discovery of parcel bombs destined for the United States that have been intercepted over the last few days in Great Britain and in Dubai, the agenda of the Council of European Interior Ministers also includes discussions on security measures to be taken over cargo flights coming from Yemen and Greece. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Serbia: Israeli Interested in Agricultural, Metal Industries

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 8 — Israeli Ambassador in Belgrade Arthur Koll said in Uzice, central Serbia, that Israeli companies are interested in investing in Serbian agricultural, metal and military industries, reports Tanjug news agency.

Noting the historically close relations between the Serbian and the Jewish peoples, Ambassador Koll said that the recent mutual abolishment of visas will further advance cooperation and contribute to the tourism industry of both countries.

At a reception organized in the ambassador’s honor, Uzice Mayor Jovan Markovic said it is good that Israeli businesses have recognized investment opportunities not only in Belgrade, but in other parts of Serbia as well. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Israel Tells Its Citizens to Leave Egypt, Citing Kidnap Plot

Israel’s National Security Council on Thursday warned Israelis visiting Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to leave at once as it believed they could be targets of an Islamist militant kidnap plot.

Citing what it called “updated and credible” information, the council said members of the Army of Islam, a group that espouses an Al-Qaeda-like ideology, were in Sinai at present and planning to snatch Israeli tourists.

In a statement published on its website, the council called on “all Israelis present in Sinai to leave immediately and return home. The families of Israelis in Sinai are requested to contact them and update them regarding this travel warning.”

The statement said that the Israeli army’s killing in Gaza last week of Mohammed Jamil al-Nemnem, 27, a senior commander with the Army of Islam, was linked to the intended Sinai attack.

Nemnem was killed last Wednesday when his car exploded outside the Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City.

The Israeli military announced afterwards that he had been targeted in a joint operation along with the Shin Bet internal security service, and a spokeswoman described him as “a ticking bomb” who was planning a major attack on Israeli civilians.

Sinai, which is cheap and close to home, is a popular destination for visitors from neighbouring Israel.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Libya: Magazine and Agency Shut Down,30 Journalists Arrested

(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI — NOVEMBER 8 — According to the Al Jazeera television channel, in Libya the weekly magazine Oea and the press agency Libya Press have been shut down and about 30 journalists arrested. Both are part of the Al Ghad (“Tomorrow”) publishing group under Seif Al Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son. Another media group, Qurina, reported the news with confirmation coming from a number of Al Ghad journalists contacted by ANSA, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Oea, which a few months ago had seen its frequency reduced to once a week, was shut down on Wednesday and only its online site will remain operative, though in a reduced form. Yesterday the site carried a statement by its director requesting an immediate release of Oea journalists. According to non-official local sources the reason for the closing was an article which had appeared on Wednesday in Oea which was interpreted as a harsh attack on the government of Prime Minister Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, and an inquiry set in motion by Libya Press into a high-ranking official from the Revolutionary Committees. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Gaza Aid Team Trapped on Greek Boatsix British Volunteers and Mavi Marmara Survivors Israeli Commandos Intercept the Mavi Marmara in May. Two of Those on Board Are Also on the Boat Surrounded by Libyan Warships. Photograph: Kate Geraghty/Getty Images

At least six British members of an aid convoy to Gaza are reportedly trapped aboard a Greek cargo vessel in the Mediterranean which is being pursued by Libyan warships.

The volunteers from the Road to Hope group, a humanitarian group attempting to deliver supplies to Palestinians, are understood to have become caught up in a dispute over money.

British Foreign Office diplomats are liaising with the Libyan and Greek authorities, and have called for a “safe” end to the situation.

The origins of the row are not clear but the Greek ship, the Strofades IV, apparently left the port of Derna, in eastern Libya, abruptly this morning. Ellie Merton, the London liaison for the convoy, said: “As far as I know the boat owner became really aggressive over a payment for something, tried to shut the back end of the boat and moved away from the pier really fast.

“The [vessel] was still attached to the quayside and as he drove he yanked the ropes off, there were bits of concrete flying everywhere. We have lost telephone contact with those who are still on the ship against their will — without any paperwork, passports or authority to leave Libya, possessions or, when we last heard, food or water. We’re extremely concerned.”

Most of the vans in the aid convoy were left behind on the quay at Derna. The Road to Hope group said the ship had headed into international waters before being chased by Libyan navy ships and reportedly overflown by jets and helicopters.

As well as the British volunteers, two Irish, one Algerian and three Libyan officials are on the ship. Among them is Ken O’Keefe, a former US marine, who is a survivor of the Isaeli attack on the Mavi Marmara off Gaza in May this year.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are aware of the incident at Derna port in Libya and have been in close contact with the convoy organisers.

“Our embassy in Tripoli has been urging the Libyan authorities to resolve the situation rapidly and ensure that those caught on the ship are returned to safety. We are in close contact with the Greek authorities. Our priority remains that there should be a safe resolution of this incident.”

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Israeli Settlers Burn Church in Jerusalem

author by Saed Bannoura — IMEMC News Report post

The damage to the church was substantial, with burn damage throughout the first floor of the building.

The church was built in Jerusalem in 1897, and housed the Palestinian Bible College until 1947, when parishioners were pushed out by Jewish armed gangs during the violence accompanying the creation of the state of Israel.

Christians make up 2% of the population of both Israel and the Palestinian Territories — the number used to be around 15%, but many Christians from the Holy Land have emigrated due to the harsh conditions of the Israeli occupation, and discrimination against them by the Israeli state.

This is not the first time that Israeli right-wingers have destroyed churches and church property — a number of Chrisitan churches were destroyed during the second initfada (uprising) that began in 2000, and many more were destroyed by Israeli forces during the 1948 and 67 wars.

In 2006, an Israeli couple tried to firebomb an ancient church in Nazareth, the city where Chrisitans believe that Jesus Christ lived 2000 years ago. An Israeli court which tried the case failed to convict the couple of any charges.

A leader in the church attacked on Friday, Zachariah al-Mashriqi, told reporters that the attack on the church was a clear attempt to provoke Palestinians to respond in anger. He urged Palestinian Christians to respond to the attack with virtue and patience.

Al-Mashriqi urged the Israeli government to act responsibly and condemn the attack, and work on investigating the attack to find out who was involved and actually file charges in the case. He asked the Israeli government to protect holy sites in the city of Jerusalem, as these sites come under increasing attack by Israeli settlers.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]



Palestinian Authority Seizes Atheist After He Criticizes Islam on Facebook and Blog

A mysterious blogger who set off an uproar in the Arab world by claiming he was God and hurling insults at the Prophet Muhammad is now behind bars — caught in a sting that used Facebook to track him down.

The case of the unlikely apostate, a shy barber from this backwater West Bank town, is highlighting the limits of tolerance in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority — and illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.

Residents of Qalqiliya say they had no idea that Walid Husayin — the 26-year-old son of a Muslim scholar — was leading a double life.

Known as a quiet man who prayed with his family each Friday and spent his evenings working in his father’s barbershop, Husayin was secretly posting anti-religion rants on the Internet during his free time.

Now, he faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for “insulting the divine essence.” Many in this conservative Muslim town say he should be killed for renouncing Islam, and even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

“He should be burned to death,” said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqiliya resident. The execution should take place in public “to be an example to others,” he added.

Over several years, Husayin is suspected of posting arguments in favour of atheism on English and Arabic blogs, where he described the God of Islam as having the attributes of a “primitive Bedouin.” He called Islam a “blind faith that grows and takes over people’s minds where there is irrationality and ignorance.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Italy: Saudi Arabia: Female Military Personnel Enter Customs Service

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 5 — For the first time in Saudi Arabia, thirty women will work as military personnel for the customs service. The new soldiers will start service — according to Saudi daily Al Riad — on the borders of the south east of the country and more precisely on the borders with Bahrain and Qatar.

The Saudi General Office of Passports has in the past employed other women but they have been exclusively used for civil service for passenger passport control. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Shipping: Turkey’s Town Becomes Demolition Center of Europe

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 5 — An Aegean town of Turkey has become the “ship demolition center” of Europe, as Anatolia news agency reports. Izmir’s Aliaga town, which is known as Turkey’s one and only ship breaking yard, have been attracting numerous European firms since last year with its modern ship demolition facilities, officials said on Friday.

A total of 127 ships, mostly coming from European countries, were demolished at the ship breaking yard in Aliaga in 2009 while 187 vessels have been disposed in the region in the first 10 months of 2010, officials said. Adem Simsek, chairman of Ship Recyclers’ Association of Turkey (GEMISANDER), said that ship demolition facilities in Aliaga had been modernized, remarkable activities had been carried out regarding health and safety conditions at work and a 10 million USD investment had been made for protection against pollution. Simsek said European maritime firms preferred Aliaga ship breaking yard thanks to the Aegean town’s environment- friendly facilities. The chairman noted that nearly 1,800 people were employed at Aliaga ship breaking yard, adding 152,757 tons of ships had been demolished in the region in 2008 while such figure had risen to 297,881 tons in 2009. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Obama ‘Glad’ To Meet Indian Communists

At the table with Obama was Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, India’s minister for external affairs.

The Times of India reports Obama asked Mukherjee about the entry of communists in India into the parliamentary system.

Mukherjee reportedly pointed out that Indian communists were part of the mainstream in the country’s political arena, like social democrats.

At the state dinner, Obama also reportedly shook hands with Sitaram Yechury, senior member of the Communist Party of India, or CPI.

According to India’s Economic Times, Obama told Yechury he was “glad” to have met an Indian communist.

[Return to headlines]



Obama’s Latest Muslim Outreach Effort Fails to Echo Beyond the Land of His Childhood

His predecessor’s robust defense of waterboarding as an interrogation tool for Muslim terrorist suspects was hardly the kindest segue into President Barack Obama’s latest effort to persuade the Islamic world that the United States is friend rather than foe.

Neither was Israel’s announcement of plans to build more than 2,000 homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, seen as sacrosanct territories by Palestinians in their quest for their own state.

But when Obama addressed Indonesian students at the University of Jakarta on November 10, it was on his own sentiments and record — rather than those of George W. Bush or Binyamin Netanyahu — that he was inviting judgment.

As the president acknowledged, he had vowed to repair the United States’ badly torn relations with a distrusting Muslim world by promising a “new start” in a keynote speech in Cairo in June 2009. Revisiting the issue in Jakarta, Obama implicitly conceded that things hadn’t quite measured up “17 months” after the speech, allowing that “we have much more work to do.”

“Innocent civilians in America and Indonesia and across the world are still targeted by violent extremists. I have made it clear that America is not and never will be at war with Islam.” Obama noted.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Pakistani Christian Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy: A Campaign Like for Sakineh

The Muslim scholar Asghar Ali Engineer accuses the blasphemy law of being un-Islamic and proposes an international campaign. He points his finger at the Pakistani government’s silence and that of many governments around the world. The All Indian Christian Council calls on New Delhi to submit the case to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Among the messages: “Silence is a second death sentence” for Asia Bibi.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) — “We need to save Asia Bibi’s life”, the Pakistani Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy and this is why “it is urgent to launch a campaign sustained by human rights leaders and governments … We must not remain silent “: this is the appeal that Prof. Asghar Ali Engineer, an Indian Muslim scholar launches through AsiaNews. Other messages sent to AsiaNews demand action by the international community to save Asia Bibi with a campaign similar to that launched to save the live of Sakineh, the Iranian woman who is on death row, convicted of adultery.

Asia was sentenced to death last Nov. 7 by a court in Punjab. She was arrested for blasphemy in June 2009, after an argument with some of her colleagues in which she defended her religion. The other women, who are agricultural workers like Asia and her two daughters, were pushing her to renounce Christianity and embrace Islam. Asia Bibi replied by speaking about how Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind, and asked other women what Muhammad had done for them. The women then beat her and her daughters and egged on by the local imam and a group of men they accused her of blasphemy. The police took her into custody, saving her from a ferocious crowd. But after more than a year in prison she has been sentenced to death.

“In Pakistan, says the Prof. Asghar, it is becoming increasingly evident, as in the case of Aisa that blasphemy laws have become convenient instruments in the hands of anyone who chooses to target minorities. The Blasphemy Law, is un-Islamic and was introduced to legitimise dictator Gen Ziaul-Haq’s regime, and it makes little effort to ascribe to the evidentiary or doctrinal standards of classical Islamic law”.

“This shameful law — said the Muslim scholar, director of the Centre for Society and Secularism — are used with impunity against minority religious communities by those motivated by personal enmity, by those motivated by monetary material or political gain or even land grabbing Even indirect inferences are drawn and the accused is arrested under Blasphemy Law….there is nothing religious about”.

Asghar Ali Engineer’s plea comes almost simultaneously with the condemnation of the ruling by the All India Christian Council (AICC). In a statement released yesterday by the Secretary-General, the Catholic John Dayal, AICC The Council asked the Indian government to raise the mater with the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Pakistani Government and with other international for a to save the life of the woman”.

Prof. Asghar points his finger at the government: “The government of Pakistan — he tells AsiaNews — is responsible for ensuring the protection of minorities. We can only condemn these cruel acts against humanity. It must be said with sadness when the governments of many respectable nations remain silent, we can only condemn these acts. For this reason it is essential to start an international campaign to stop this. “

Among the several messages that have arrived at AsiaNews there is one that says: “It is only natural to wonder where all those people are who until the other day claimed to be scandalized and offended by the shameful situation of Sakineh , and who now ignore (or pretend to ignore) yet another case of persecution and injustice to a person of Christian faith … The silence and indifference of the world, including many Christians (now accustomed to the persecution of Christians in the world), is a second death sentence”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Bomb Levels Building in Largest City

KARACHI, Pakistan — Militants attacked a police compound in the heart of Pakistan’s largest city on Thursday with a hail of gunfire and a massive car bomb, leveling the building and killing at least 15 people, authorities and witnesses said.

The gang of around six gunmen managed to penetrate a high-security area of Karachi that is home to the U.S Consulate, two luxury hotels and the offices of regional leaders. While no stranger to extremist violence, Karachi has not witnessed this kind of organized assault in recent years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Pakistani Taliban Claims Responsibility for Karachi Attack

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying they attacked an anti-terrorism police headquarters in revenge for offensives against militants in the north-west of the country Eyewitnesses said the Crime Investigation Department (CID) building was demolished by a blast that left a 10ft wide crater.

The attackers struck in the heavily protected heart of Karachi, close to five-star hotels frequented by Westerners, the US consulate and government offices.

The police compound is used regularly to hold Taliban suspects detained in the city.

Police said five gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons and hand grenades to penetrate a security corden.

“There was an exchange of fire between police and militants. Then it was followed by a truck loaded with explosives,” said Salahuddin Babar Khattak, police chief of Sindh province.

“We don’t know how many people were there, but the exchange of fire lasted for some time.” Karachi, a sprawling port city of 18m people, had so far been spared the worst of this year’s terror attacks.

Members of the Quetta Shura, comprising the leadership of the Afghan Taliban, are believed to regularly travel in and out of the city, a crucial hub for fund-raising and money laundering.

Karachi has huge strategic importance, representing the heart of Pakistan’s fragile economy and a key link in the supply chain serving Nato-led forces in Afghanistan.

Azam Tariq, a Pakistan Taliban spokesman, telephoned news organisations to claim responsibility.

“We will continue such attacks as long as military operations continue against us,” he said.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Far East


Asian Students Suffering for Success

Long admired for raising academic superstars, parents of Asian background are coming under fire from their own community for pushing their children into university programs for which many have no real interest or talent and often quit in distress.

At a recent conference hosted by and for the GTA’s Asian community, Chinese-Canadian educators and professionals warned some 300 parents in Mandarin, Cantonese and English to stop giving their children no other choice than professional courses such as engineering, medicine, accounting or pharmacy — programs for which some are so ill-equipped and uninterested they drop out, fail, get suspended for cheating or suffer depression and acute anxiety.

And this growing Asian presence on campus is sparking concerns about the cultural balance within Canada’s ivory tower, according to a report in Maclean’s magazine’s latest university rankings, released Wednesday.

“There is such extreme pressure from immigrant parents on children, especially east Asian, that many of them collapse under the pressure — it’s shocking,” said conference co-chair Maria Yau, research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board, who moved to Canada in 1995 from Hong Kong. Her son is bucking the trend by studying liberal arts at Niagara College in hopes of becoming a kindergarten teacher.

“The east Asian community needs a wake-up call that we know won’t be popular,” said Yau. “Even though our children always seem to have high enough marks to get into university, the hidden truth is that they don’t always have the independence or social skills to survive once they’re there.”

With a staggering 72 per cent of Toronto’s Chinese-Canadian students applying to university compared to 42 per cent of those born in Canada, some are starting to ask if Canadian universities are becoming “too Asian,” according to the article in Maclean’s 20th annual university guide, on newsstands Thursday.

While acknowledging the topic may seem racist, Maclean’s suggests the growing profile of students of Asian heritage on many campuses is fuelling resentment among some non-Asian students and even concerns among some university administrators about the demographic make-up of their student bodies.

“An ‘Asian’ school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun,” the article says, quoting non-Asian high school students who say they wouldn’t choose the University of Toronto because it’s largely Asian.

U of T provost Cheryl Misak told the Star she finds such comments “rather alarming, and I am heartened they have not surfaced in any substantial way at the U of T.”

The article quotes non-Asian undergraduates complaining their Chinese and Korean classmates don’t mingle with others — a charge conference co-chair Nicole Wong reluctantly admits rings true…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



China Stakes Its Claim as U.S. Rival in Innovation

China’s breathless pursuit of science, technology and innovation can leave other countries looking a bit flat-footed. The world’s second-largest economy became the second most prolific publisher of articles in international science journals a year ago, and it is expected to pass Japan and the United States in the number of patent filings by 2011…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Boer Farmers Head for New Home in Georgia

Facing the threat of land reform, white South Africans are looking to pastures new

South Africa and Georgia have little in common aside from a tradition of wine-making and a turbulent recent history. But a group of white South African farmers say starting a new life in the former Soviet state could be the solution to their troubles at home.

South Africa’s 40,000 white farmers, mainly Boers — descendants from Dutch settlers — say they fear that South Africa’s government is threatening their livelihoods with land-reform policies. When they first came to Africa, the Boer Voortrekkers, or pioneers, left coastal colonies to forge a path to the interior of the country in search of fertile land. Now some of their descendants believe the answer to their problems might lie thousands of miles away in the Caucasus.

In what would be an extraordinary migration, the Georgian government has invited South Africa’s farmers to buy up land in the country for next to nothing in exchange for bringing their expertise and knowledge of modern farming methods.

Papuna Davitaya, Georgia’s State Minister for Diaspora, said: “We are looking for investors in our agricultural sphere, because Georgia historically always used to be an agricultural country but in Soviet times we lost these traditions.”

He welcomed a delegation of South African farmers to the country recently and gave them guarantees about what they could expect if they made the move. “Boers are some of the best farmers in the world,” Mr Davitaya said.

Last week, dozens of farmers attended a union meeting in Pretoria about a potential move to Georgia. A committee from the union plans to lay the groundwork in the coming months, and then co-ordinate a larger migration.

Hendrik Mills, a Boer farmer, told ABN television: “I think there are great prospects for farmers out there. It would be much better to invest money in Georgia than in Africa.”

For many of the Boer farmers, whose ancestors settled in southern Africa 200 years ago, it would be tough to leave their ancestral homeland. But they say their lives are getting harder every month, citing fears of crime, violence, labour costs and land reform.

Piet Kemp, who is keen to emigrate, said: “We will start with 10 or 20 farmers, but I think there could be more than 1,000 farmers who could make a good life in Georgia.”

Georgia’s government hopes that importing farming expertise will boost the country’s agricultural and wine sectors. Georgia has produced wine for centuries, but most of it is semi-sweet and not very popular in Europe. Georgian wines were well-liked in Russia but a political dispute between the two countries led to Moscow banning all imports. Georgians will perhaps be hoping that if the scheme works, they will also benefit from some of the success South African wines enjoy.

But adjusting to Georgia might prove tricky for Boer farmers. The Georgian language is hard to learn. And there are no direct flights to Africa from the country. Not only that, but the climates in the two countries are completely different, as are farming methods.

Yet Mr Kemp insisted that he and others were ready to try it. “I don’t want to come and make a new South Africa in Georgia,” he said. “If I am going, I will be a Georgian.”

The idea has its critics in both countries. Georgian opposition politicians claim that the new arrivals are being sold the best land at knock-down prices while Georgian farmers are neglected. In South Africa, there is also unease at the idea of letting some of the country’s best farmers leave.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Canadians Want to Mix Up

OTTAWA — Forget changing whether we take more family immigrants or skilled workers, a new poll shows Canadians want to shake up the selection of countries from which we select immigrants.

A Leger Marking poll of 1,503 Canadians found that 40% of Canadians say the government should limit immigrants from certain countries in order to change the mix of immigrants coming to Canada.

“Quebec and Ontario are really looking for a different mix,” said Dave Scholz, vice-president of Leger.

Quebecers were most likely to agree with the statement that “Canada should limit immigrants from certain countries to provide a more balanced mix of new immigrants to Canada,” with 35%.

Just 25% of Albertans felt the same way.

In Ontario, 29% agreed with limiting immigrants from some countries in order to balance the mix but Ontarians were most likely to say that “Canada should ban immigrants from some countries that are over-represented in our country to allow other immigrants from other countries a chance to have more access,” with 14% agreeing with the statement.

The most popular option nationally ­ at 39% — was that an immigrant’s country of origin should have no bearing on whether they should be allowed to come to Canada.

Albertans were most likely to agree with this, at 46%, while Quebecers were the least likely to agree, at 33%.

In 2009, close to one-third of all new immigrants to Canada came from just three countries — China (29,049), Phillipines (27,277) and India (26,122).

The fourth-place country was the United States, with just 9,723 people crossing the 49th parallel.

Leger did the polling online from Nov. 1-4, 2010. The company polled 1,503 Canadians 18 or older. A telephone poll of this size would have a margin of error of +/- 2.6%.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Canadian Immigration: Push for Demographic Morbid Obesity

In this compelling interview, you will enjoy Canada’s foremost environmental and immigration voice: Tim Murray. He questions his country’s race toward demographic obesity.

“This “bubble” illustration, done by Sheila Newman, can be my book cover illustration,” said Murray. “We are holding the needle. Somehow we must jab the Growth Lobby in its most vulnerable spot. When their propaganda bubble bursts, the truth about the true cost of growth will break out.”

The Public Voice Is Unheard In the Great Rush to Grow!

There is an unrelenting media campaign to tell Canadians that we must grow our population. We need more babies and more immigrants or very bad things will happen. But there are voices that question this assumption. They are heard on the streets, in the pubs and at the dining room table. But they are seldom heard in the media. Especially not on the airways of the CBC, that vehicle of ‘growthist’ PC propaganda which all taxpayers are forced to endow.

“It has been quite the year,” said Murray. “First the host of CBC radio’s “The Sunday Edition”, Michael Enright, declared on his June 7th program that Canada needs immigration-driven population growth in order to “prosper”. Many of us, like Brishen Hoff, wanted to know what Enright meant by “prosper”. As Hoff then asked, “Does Enright think that prospering means converting hundreds of thousands of hectares of Canadian land from bio-diverse ecosystems into new roads, subdivisions, clear-cuts, malls, parking lots, and open-pit mines to accommodate about 250,000 additional immigrants every year? Does that make life better for the average Canadian? Has real wealth per Canadian increased?”

“Then a week later the print media gave the University of Toronto’s Irvin Studin, editor-in-chief of “Global Brief” a platform to promote his vision of a Canada of 100 million people — the Superpower of the century. No submissions for op-eds of equivalent space that would contest his arguments were permitted. Not one! Not in any major media outlet. Nor were any one of several known letters-to-the-editor critical of his stance published.

[…]

“The obvious question is, “At what point in history will the mainstream Canadian media consider the possibility that Canada already has enough people on its hands?” said Murray. “That there is neither law nor reason why any country should feel obligated to “replace” its unsustainable population level? That a ‘youth quake’ of immigrants or newborns will not arrest the aging of our population nor pay for their pension or medical benefits? That the infrastructure costs of servicing a growing population exceed their economic contributions? That great majority of immigrants will lack the skills to pay the kind of taxes it takes to subsidize the provision of the government services they demand? That a country without a population plan that is not properly debated with all options on the table is like a blindfolded man walking toward a cliff?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Mexican Transgender Asylum Seeker Allowed to Stay in U.S.

When Alexandra Reyes’ father caught her wearing her sister’s shoes and clothes, he tied her up and beat her with spiked pieces of a tree.

“It was so horrible, I would scream,” Reyes said in Spanish. “He told me he had a son, not a daughter, and he did not accept me.”

Reyes, 32, was born a boy named Carlos but began living life as a girl at age 8, infuriating her traditional Mayan family in Cenotillo, Mexico. One night, an aunt walked into Reyes’ bedroom and tried to kill her with a machete because she didn’t want Reyes in the family.

The Mexican police wouldn’t arrest Reyes’ abusers. So 10 years ago, she paid a smuggler to get her across the border. She walked four days and four nights through the desert into the U.S. and made it to Colorado, where a friend told her she would be safe.

Now, she gets to stay here.

Last week, an immigration judge granted Reyes a form of asylum that allows her to stay in the U.S. based on the persecution she suffered as a transgender woman in Mexico.

The Board of Immigration Appeals withheld her removal from the U.S. after determining the Mexican government would not protect her from abuse if she was deported.

“It would be physically dangerous for her to walk down the street,” said her attorney, Bryon Large. “She could be sexually assaulted.”

As a condition of her asylum, Reyes must obey the law and can’t leave the U.S. for any reason if she hopes to be allowed back in.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services does not keep statistics on the numbers of transgender immigrants granted asylum. But Large said the relief Reyes got is rare for a Mexican national because some immigration judges think there is tolerance for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Mexico…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Nancy Pelosi Wants Dream Act Vote

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to push for a vote during the lame-duck session on a bill that would legalize young, undocumented immigrants if they attend college or serve in the military, according to Democratic sources familiar with a leadership conference call Wednesday.

A vote on the bill, known as the DREAM Act, could come as early as next week, the sources said. Pelosi asked Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) to assess the mood of the caucus, according to one source.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Anti-Racism Website Bizarre, Offensive to ‘Real’ Edmontonians

Obsession with ‘white privilege’ patronizing, exclusionary

EDMONTON — “What can you do to stop racism?”

That’s the provocative question posed by the City of Edmonton’s new anti-discrimination campaign, Racism-Free Edmonton. It’s a good question, and an important one.

Oh, we sometimes like to think of Canada as a racism-free country, of Edmonton as a post-racial, multicultural utopia.

Those are nice goals to aspire to. But we’re not there yet. Racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and various and sundry prejudices and social inequalities of all sorts are alive and well in this city. If we want to build a strong, prosperous, and just community, we have to recognize those inequities and tensions — and address them together.

And those are the operative words:

We. Together.

Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell that to the folks who created the Racism-Free Edmonton website.

Sadly, the authors of the site have a remarkably narrow definition of the word “You” — and a remarkably exclusionary, even racist, vision of what it means to be a “real” Edmontonian.

What can you do to stop racism? “Acknowledge your white privilege,” is the website’s answer.

“White privilege refers to all the benefits we get just for being white,” the site continues.

“Most of us have little awareness of our white privilege. We’re so used to having the benefits that come with being white that we don’t even realize we have them.”

“Racial ‘whiteness’ is many things,” the piece continues, “but one of its consistent qualities is power. As people granted unearned privileges by our own whiteness, and as people who have likely harmed non-white people with our own whiteness, it’s our moral and ethical duty to find ways to combat racism.”

The site parrots an 1989 essay by a prominent white American Women’s Studies professor, Peggy McIntosh, who caused a flurry of controversy more than 20 years ago with her theories around white and male privilege.

But do we really need to import the dated diction of America’s 1980s culture wars to understand our uniquely Canadian, uniquely Edmontonian form of multiculturalism? Transposing America’s black/white race rhetoric to a 21st century western Canadian context ignores our very different social history.

But the more bizarre and offensive part of this campaign isn’t its assumption that all “whites” — and only whites — are inherently racist. It’s the explicit assumption that “real” Edmontonians are all white.

Look at the wording here — “you,” “we,” “us” — all used to refer exclusively and specifically to white people, as though they were the only Edmontonians. It is unbelievably patronizing, exclusionary and ahistorical.

It’s true that “white” North Americans have historically been more culpable for the systemic inequities in our society. But racism isn’t something that well-meaning white people can “fix” for people of colour. The site reads as though “racialized groups” are passive victims who must sit back, uncomplainingly, waiting for “whites” to see the light. The site doesn’t empower “people of colour.” It infantilizes them. It mutes their voices, ignores their experience and their efforts.

Racism, says the Racism Free Edmonton website, is “often committed UNCONSCIOUSLY by people WITH GOOD INTENTIONS.”

Exactly. I’m sure there was no malice behind the creation of these web pages, nothing but an honest desire to make this city a better place. But alienating people, pitting them against each other on the basis of skin colour, is no way to fight racism.

Lewis Cardinal is a member of the Racism-Free Edmonton board, and a member of the board of Aboriginal Commission on Human Rights and Justice. He says he can’t understand how the “white privilege” message ended up as the main point of the website. He’d been told McIntosh’s essay would be one of a number of pieces of background material on the site, not its key message.

“I think that it was a huge mistake,” says Cardinal. “I have no idea why they launched it with that sitting on the front page. Obviously, I didn’t approve that. I don’t know how it slipped by, but it definitely didn’t get us off on the right foot.”

“The website,” he says “is going to be changed, right away, absolutely.”

           — Hat tip: Cyrus [Return to headlines]



The ‘American Dream’ Is Actually Swedish: Study

While US voters shunned the Democratic Party’s traditionally redistributive policies in Tuesday’s mid-term elections, most Americans actually prefer a wealth distribution model similar to Sweden’s, writes the AFP’s Andrew Beatty.

Forget the socialist-bashing rhetoric and reverence for the filthy rich, when it comes to wealth distribution, Americans — even Republicans — would really rather live somewhere like Sweden.

According to a soon-to-be published study by researchers at Harvard and Duke universities, Americans believe US society is much more equal than it really is, and want it to be even fairer.

Business school professors Michael Norton and Dan Ariely asked 5,522 Americans about US wealth distribution and how it should look if things could be changed.

“Respondents vastly underestimated the actual level of wealth inequality in the United States, believing that the wealthiest quintile (20 percent) held about 59 percent of the wealth when the actual number is closer to 84 percent.”

Studies show current US wealth inequality is near record highs, with the top one percent of Americans estimated to hold around 50 percent of the nation’s wealth.

According to Norton and Ariely this tops “even the levels seen just before the Great Depression in the 1920s.”

But when asked how they would like the United States to look, respondents picked “wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution.”

In a blind test, about 92 percent of respondents said they preferred a model closer to Sweden’s wealth distribution to that seen in the United States.

The study’s authors also reported a “surprising level of consensus” among different groups, with 92 percent of Republican voters backing the Swedish model versus 93.5 percent of Democratic voters, with the richest and poorest also voting along similar lines.

“All demographic groups — even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy — desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo.”

On average the top 20 percent of earners were seen as holding just 32 percent of wealth, less than the 84 percent in reality.

But anyone hoping this augurs well for a revolution will be disappointed.

Even if Americans become more aware of the wealth gap that exists, Norton and Ariely suggest they may misplaced faith in the “American Dream” to correct it.

“Just as people have erroneous beliefs about the actual level of wealth inequality, they may also hold overly optimistic beliefs about opportunities for social mobility in the United States — beliefs which in turn may drive support for unequal distributions of wealth.”

Disagreements about the causes of inequality may also drown out the consensus.

The authors also suggest there is a gap between what people would like to see and the policies they are willing to support to get there.

The study is to be published in the journal “Perspectives on Psychological Science”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The NGO Army of George Soros & Maurice Strong

“Be Prepared” must be the two most commonsense words known to humanity.

And in times like these, being prepared is survival.

The NGOs (non-government organizations) already unleashed in France, Germany, England and Greece will soon be taking to the streets in America, [which] George Soros-described as “the biggest obstacle to One World Government”.

NGOs, long fomenting for revolution, and on the payrolls of the One World Order deadly duo George Soros and Maurice Strong, are not the good guys. The political, strategic spawn of Soros and Strong, they are the paid agents of change, looking to Barack Obama to get the job done.

It was Strong who long ago came up with the blueprint for coupling the money from “philanthropists” and business with the objectives of government.

The thousands of private Non-Government Organizations that have attached themselves to the United Nations like leeches are well funded and right on target.

No one describes the NGOs better than Phyllis Schlafly who has watched them for decades: “The NGOs are energetic lobbyists for dramatic changes in the mission and structure of the UN to achieve global governance. Most NGOs are also members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which originated many of the global environmental polices set forth in the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Climate Change, and Agenda 21. The most prominent NGOs are the radical environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the feminist and population-control groups such as Planned Parenthood.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Christmas Cancelled’: Head Tells Older Pupils ‘No Nativity This Year… You Need to Concentrate on Your Studies’

Parents have accused a headteacher of ‘cancelling Christmas’ after he banned pupils aged between seven and 11 from taking part in the school nativity.

Head Andy Howe has said that older students at Rochford Primary School in Essex will have to concentrate instead on their studies.

But some parents have branded the decision ‘ridiculous’ and one of them has gone as far as starting a petition against the plan at the 245-pupil school.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Fancy Dress Students Told: You’re Not Coming in University Bar… Your Zombie Make-Up is Racist

Students in fancy dress were turned away from a university bar by bouncers after being told their zombie make-up was racist.

Members of the University of Sheffield Physics Society turned up with face paint on for the zombie-themed pub crawl.

But bouncers at the Population bar told one group they would not be allowed in to the union club because their face paint could be racist, even though others had already been allowed in with their make-up on.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


Chocolate Could Become as Rare as Caviar, Experts Warn

Forget those soaring gold prices, because a looming chocolate shortage could spark panic in the streets and bring about the fall of civilization. OK, maybe not. But the notion of peak chocolate looks very real, as farmers abandon their cocoa crops and more of the world gets a taste for delicious chocolate products. That difference between supply and demand has helped double cocoa prices in six years to an all-time high for the past three decades.

African farmers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast get very little money for growing cocoa crops, and so they have been giving up in droves. Their growing techniques have also exhausted much of the soil, industry experts told The Independent. Cocoa is also grown in South America, the Caribbean and Asia, but not in enough quantities to support a global lust for chocolate. Experts foresee chocolate becoming an increasingly expensive treat that could become as rare and out of reach for average people as caviar — all within just 20 years…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Official Climate Science Ignores Essential and Critical Details Right at the Surface

Few people know that skin is an organ; even fewer know it’s the largest organ of the body. It is the contact, called an interface, between two completely different environments; the body and the world. It controls movement of gases, liquids and solids in both directions all the time. The surface of the Earth is similar as the interface between the atmosphere and the underlying surfaces. Accurate measurement and understanding of processes are critical to what is happening in the atmosphere, under ground and in the oceans. Unless we understand the dynamics across the interface we will not know what is going on above and below the surface.

Science divides the world and its atmosphere into layers depending on what they are studying. For example, geophysicists start in the centre of the Earth with the Solid Inner Core extending through the Liquid Outer Core, the Mantle and the crust. Climate science identifies layers (Figure 1) but even at this point we begin seeing the limitations. The layers are based on energy from the Sun. They ignore volumes of geothermal energy that move through the crust, especially under the oceans where the crust is thinner and more perforated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Study Reveals Physics of How Cats Drink

Cats are better physicists than dogs, according to a new study — at least when it comes to drinking.

A cat lapping milk strikes a delicate balance between gravity and inertia, the research finds. Unlike dogs, which use their tongues to scoop water into their mouths, a cat uses the tip of its tongue to pull water upward, closing its jaws before gravity pulls the column of liquid back toward earth.

The method requires cats to lap at just the right speed to balance the inertial force that keeps the water moving upward with the gravitational force pulling the water back down.

“Perhaps the most intriguing part of what we found was that the cats seemed to know just exactly how rapidly or how fast they should lap,” study researcher Roman Stocker, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told LiveScience. “By lapping at the right time, [cats] take optimal advantage of this balance between inertia and gravity.”

Balancing act

The study started one morning with Stocker’s cat, Cutta Cutta, a rescue from a Boston animal shelter. Stocker was eating breakfast and watching the cat drink when he suddenly wondered, “How does he do that?”

“It occurred to me that there were some interesting biophysics behind that process,” Stocker said.

So he borrowed a high-speed video camera from his lab and taped Cutta Cutta drinking. With several other curious researchers along for the ride, Stocker analyzed those videos, along with video collected from Zoo New England and YouTube.com videos of lions, tigers and other big cats drinking.

“It seems to be that this is the first study in Science that uses YouTube as part of the research,” Stocker said.

The first thing the researchers noticed is that cats and dogs drink very differently. Both animals extend their tongues and curl them back toward their chins as they approach water. But dogs use their bent tongues as a ladle, spooning water into their mouths. The scoop of sorts created by the cats’ tongues stayed empty. Instead, cats touched only the top surface of their tongue to the water.

Once a cats’ tongue touches the surface, it draws it back at a rate of almost four laps per second. The inertia of the movement draws the water upward (think “objects in motion tend to stay in motion”). At the same time, gravity fights to pull the water back down. As these forces lengthen and stretch the water column, the cat snaps its jaws shut at just the right moment, catching a mouthful of liquid before it falls…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101110

Financial Crisis
» Auditors Criticise EU Spending for 16th Year in a Row
» EU Accounts Are Rejected for the Sixteenth Year in a Row
» Recession Shadows America’s Middle Class
 
USA
» Alert for Terror Suspect at Border
» Bloomberg Cuomo New York’s Disgrace
» Cargo Plane Bomb Found in Britain Was Primed to Blow Up Over US
» Ethnic Friction Marks Session on Field, Land
» Leftist Icon Calls for Violent Socialist War Against Tea Partiers …Update: Ted Rall Writes in — Lashes Out at Conservatives
» Missile Launch Off Los Angeles
» Muslim Leader Recruits Americans for Jihad
 
Europe and the EU
» Books: Ban on Usury in All Three Monotheistic Religions
» Danish News Channel in Arabic Proposed
» EU President Issues Stark Warning Against Nationalism
» Europe Looking Towards Billionaire Halal Market
» Foiled at the 11th Hour, ‘Islamic Terrorist’ Plot to Assassinate France’s Leading Muslim Cleric
» France: Sarkozy Draws Ire Over Media Spying Claims
» Iraq: Three Christians Killed and 26 Wounded. Appeal of Al Maliki
» Italy: Amanda Knox Indicted for Slandering Police
» Italy: Culture Minister to Report on Pompeii Wednesday
» Italy: Marriage Annulled After Wife ‘Thought of Straying’
» Italy: Berlusconi Promises Flood Aid to Veneto
» Italy Rejects EU Patent ‘Blackmail’
» Minister Guttenberg Says Economy is Part of National Security
» Nation States Are Dead: EU Chief Says the Belief That Countries Can Stand Alone is a ‘Lie and an Illusion’
» Netherlands: Rapper Aquitted of Threatening Wilders
» Prominent Saudi Preacher: Europe Will Become an Islamic Continent
» Sweden: Multicultural Football Team Unites Malmö
» Turkish Ambassador in Vienna Sparks Diplomatic Row
» UK: ‘Perverse’ Defence Cuts Leave Oil-Rich Falkland Islands Open to Attack, Ex-Admirals Warn
» UK: Arrest Over Website That Encouraged Muslim to Attack MPs
» UK: Lutfur Rahman Will Not be Readmitted to Labour
» UK: Mother-of-Two Lives in Britain’s Most Expensive Council House (Valued at £2.5m) For Two Years… Rent Free
» UK: Student Tuition Fee Protest Turns Violent as Tory Headquarters Evacuated
» UK: Violence at Tory HQ Overshadows Student Fees Protest
» Van Rompuy: More Dangerous Than He Looks
 
Balkans
» Serbia: US Defense Department Donates Equipment to MMA
 
Mediterranean Union
» Library for N. African Children in Mazara Del Vallo
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Warns of ‘People’s Wrath’ if Polls Rigged
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Obama Enhancing Palestinian Positions Worldwide
 
Middle East
» Baghdad Christian Attacks: ‘Strategically Defeated’ Al-Qaida Return
» Bombs Kill Six Baghdad Christians, Sow Panic
» Iraq’s Christians Terrorized by New Wave of Bombings
» Turkey to Set Up Trade Zone With Syria, Lebanon, Jordan
» Vatican Appeals to Iraqi Govt to Protect Christians
» Why Do Christians Remain Silent About the Persecution of Christians in Muslim-Majority Societies?
 
South Asia
» A Smiling Obama Returns to Bloody Jakarta
» Indonesia: First Lady’s Handshake Uncovers Muslim Male Chauvinist
» Muslim Minister Claims He Was ‘Forced’ To Shake Hands With Michelle Obama on Indonesian Visit
» Obama Hails Indonesia as Example for World
» Obama Vows to End ‘Years of Mistrust’ Between West and Muslim World as He Impresses Indonesians With Local Language
» Singapore Airlines is Forced to Change Rolls-Royce Engines on Three Superjumbos
» Tajikistan Recalls Students From Cairo, Fearing Fundamentalist Influence
» ‘Touching’ Event for First Lady
 
Australia — Pacific
» New Retreat From Global Warming Data by Australian Gov Bureau
» Teen in Coma After Bridge Plunge Attack
 
Immigration
» UK: £1,500 Bribes to Send Foreign Inmates Home: Tories Adopt Policy They Called ‘Outrageous’
» UK: Foreign Criminals to be Paid £1,500 to Go Home
 
Culture Wars
» UN Facilitates Christian Persecution Worldwide
 
General
» Cricket Balls: Tiny Insect Named as Animal With the World’s Biggest Testicles
» Is Being a Goody Two-Shoes in Your Genes?

Financial Crisis


Auditors Criticise EU Spending for 16th Year in a Row

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — The EU’s cohesion policy, accounting for one third of the total budget, continues to be the most prone to errors and fraud, although the situation is improving in comparison to previous years, the European Court of Auditors has said.

Over a third of the €35.5 billion allocated by the EU in 2009 for regional infrastructure projects were affected by errors, either unintentional, as EU funding rules are often too complex for regional authorities and small contractors to cope with, or as a sign of fraud, the annual report of the Court of Auditors says.

EU money spent on regional projects is often misused (Photo: Marfis75)

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The blame goes mostly to governments and local administrations, who are in charge of the projects and fail to double-check that all invoices and claims submitted to the European Commission are genuine.

“The Court estimates that almost a third of the errors found on the interim and final payments tested could have been detected and corrected by member states before certifying expenditure to the commission, as the audit shows they had the information to do so,” EU chief auditor Vitor Caldeira told MEPs on Tuesday (9 November).

In a rush to “absorb EU funds” by all means, member states often allow other fake or erroneous bills to replace those detected as “ineligible,” he added.

This is the 16th year in a row when the Court of Auditors, based on sample checks in all EU expenditure and revenue areas, is not able to give a clean bill of health to the overall budget.

However, the rate of errors has decreased in the regional policy field, falling from 54 percent in 2007 to 36 percent last year. According to the Court’s rules, errors need to be below three percent to get a clean bill of health.

“We have to ask ourselves if we can continue to allocate more and more money to the EU commission, if year after year it is uncapable of managing the funds efficiently,” said German Liberal MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, responsible with drafting the Parliament position on this report.

The report is likely to fuel discussions about a planned increase in next year’s EU budget, as well as the future of regional policy from 2013 on.

Poland is the main beneficiary of cohesion funding — a policy aimed at helping more backward regions catch up with the economic leaders of the bloc, mostly capital regions — and is pressing for it to be maintained at least at current levels.

But net payers to the EU budget, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, which are also under pressure at home to cut national budgets — are now increasingly wary of the efficiency of this policy. Even recession-hit Spain, a long-time beneficiary of cohesion policy, is in favour of less national money flowing to the EU coffers in 2011.

Spain, Greece, Italy and the UK were also the four countries who had to pay the most money back in 2009, for erroneusly allocated funds.

But Poland has come under criticism as well, apparently for having misused EU regional funds to the tune of €10 million to have British tea producer Twinings shift its production site to Poland.

Twinings denied the accusations, claiming that its business decision was “not based on receiving any external funding.” “We applied to the Polish ministry for a grant. The Polish authorities are satisfied we meet the eligibility criteria and have approved the grant,” a spokesperson for the tea company was quoted as saying by Warsaw Business Journal.

In EU new member state Romania, journalists have uncovered that two cross-border centres funded with over €840,000 are actually being used by regional authorities for private parties and weddings.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU Accounts Are Rejected for the Sixteenth Year in a Row

Billions of pounds of EU funds were spent wrongly, they concluded, such as farmers being paid for crops that were never grown, or sheep being double counted to get extra grants.

Details of the scandalous waste emerged only weeks after David Cameron pledged to restrict the increase in the EU budget next year.

And it coincides with a rebellion on the Tory backbenches, expected tonight, over controversial changes to the Lisbon Treaty — signed up to by Mr Cameron.

The European Court of Auditors yesterday challenged the EU to get a grip on its spending after finding ‘material errors’ in last year’s £88billion budget.

Its president, Vitor Manuel da Silva Caldeira, said about 5 per cent of the budget — some £4billion — was spent wrongly.

The biggest examples of waste were in agriculture, development aid and fisheries.

Auditors found that EU farm subsidies had been handed over to subsidise crops without any proof they were being grown. They visited farmland and found no evidence of cultivation at all.

Stephen Booth, analyst at the Open Europe think tank, said: ‘This is a hugely embarrassing annual tradition and it remains absolutely unacceptable.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Recession Shadows America’s Middle Class

American society is breaking apart. Millions of people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty. Among them, for the first time, are many middle-class families. Meet Pam Brown from New York, whose life changed overnight.

The crisis caught her unprepared. “It was horrible,” Pam Brown remembers. “Overnight I found myself on the wrong side of the fence. It never occurred to me that something like this could happen to me. I got very depressed.”

Brown sits in a cheap diner on West 14th Street in Manhattan, stirring her $1.35 coffee. That’s all she orders — it’s too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.

She also needs to save money. Until early 2009, Brown worked as an executive assistant on Wall Street, earning more than $80,000 a year, living in a six-bedroom house with her three sons. Today, she’s long-term unemployed and has to make do with a tiny one-bedroom in the Bronx. It’s only luck that she’s not homeless outright.

“One thing came after another — boom, boom, boom,” Brown recalls. “I kept getting up and dusting myself off, but I could never get ahead again. I spiraled further and further into the abyss.” Her voice is trembling now. “I’ve done everything America told me to do. I went to school. I’ve never been to jail. I’ve kept my nose clean. My kids are great kids.”

She laughs a sarcastic laugh. “And now?”

Wall Street Up, Incomes Down

Pam Brown is one of millions of Americans who, during the recession, tumbled from their idyllic middle-class existence to near-poverty — or beyond. For many, like Brown, the downfall is a Kafkaesque odyssey, a humiliation hard to comprehend. Help is not in sight: their government and their society have abandoned them.

Wall Street is preoccupied with chasing new profits again. Yet for large sections of the nation, that old myth of working your way up, of bootstrap success and its ultimate prize, homeownership, has evaporated. The middle class, the America’s backbone, is crumbling. The American Dream has turned into a nightmare.

Last year the US poverty rate reached 14.3 percent, 1.1 percent higher than in 2008. Almost five million Americans skidded below the poverty line ($22,050 annual income for a family of four), many from hitherto sheltered circles, where poverty was a foreign word. The number of long-term unemployed keeps rising. Worst off are families with children. Every fifth child in the US lives in poverty today.

“The situation was bad before, don’t get me wrong,” Bich Ha Pham, research director with the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), a welfare organization in New York City, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “But this time, it could happen to anybody.”

And nobody seems to care. Poverty wasn’t an issue during the midterm elections — and it won’t be an issue now that the spendthrift deficit hawks of the Republican Party have reclaimed the House of Representatives.

“Nothing’s going to happen,” Curtis Skinner, head of Family Economic Security at the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The political swing to the right, Skinner fears, is “extremely hurtful” and “absolutely disastrous” to the interest of the weakest. Indeed, what Washington is debating now is not more help for the poor — but extending the former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich.

It wasn’t long ago that Pam Brown, too, rarely worried about those who fell through the social safety net — or even feared that fate for herself. “I wish I had been more engaged,” she says now. “Wall Street gives you such a comfort with its bonuses. In didn’t understand the stringency of your life not being your own anymore, of losing control like that.”

How this could have happened is a cautionary tale about the dark side of the affluent society. That’s where Brown lived happily for a long time — until the floor fell out from under her feet…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA


Alert for Terror Suspect at Border

A be-on-the-lookout alert has been issued by the Department of Homeland Security to Border Patrol agents for a Muslim convert and U.S. military deserter who landed in Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct. 18 and is expected to attempt entry into the U.S.

The alert was sent Monday afternoon about Masood Kahn, also known as Masood Ahmad Kahn Mohammad or Ahmad Mohammad.

Kahn, 29, was reportedly born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen and carries a U.S. passport.

The alert says he was asking how to damage armored vehicles before he deserted the military.

The FBI has requested assistance from the Border Patrol in its search for Kahn.

The report is a reminder of the continuing terrorist threat posed by the unsecured border with Mexico.

A 2006 congressional report on border threats, titled “A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border” and prepared by the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, indicated that 1.2 million illegal aliens were apprehended in 2005 alone, and 165,000 of those were from countries other than Mexico. Approximately 650 were from “special interest countries,” or nations the Border Patrol defines as “designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Bloomberg Cuomo New York’s Disgrace

Mayor Bloomberg you are an elitist disgrace and sicken me with your arrogant ways. Above all you are a liar. On the steps of the Winter Garden after months of me and my men repairing the damage that was done to it after the 911 attacks we all listened to you Pataki and Guliani all talk about building the Twin Towers back to her former glory even more glorious than before. Well almost a decade has passed and we still have nothing but the sparce foundations in the pit of death yet you and your cronies celebrate each others achievments for planting a couple of trees down there as a forensic team discovers more and more DNA samples every day.

It’s amazing how the media doesn’t even report about it. Maybe because it brings back the true horrors of that awful day. Especially now as we are embroiled in this bitter Ground Zero debate over the building of a Victory Mosque. How hurtful it was to hear Former disgrace Bill Clinton tell a audience in Cairo, Egypt that the Ground Zero Mosque should be dedicated to the 60 Muslims who perished in the attacks. How sweet. I wonder did that include the hijackers? How very wonderful it must be for you Mayor to have Andrew Cuomo as your Governor. Here is a man that is business partners with Andrew L.Farkas. An owner of financial institutions in Dubai that does business with Al Qeda and Bin Laden himself! Yes this is true. He also made millions with Farkas through his Sharia financing deals. By intriducing Sharia into our system of finance you have opened up a house of horrors that threatens the very fabric of our most cherished freedoms.

Hopefully the media will call these Super-Megalomaniacs to explain their actions and share with us how they can go to sleep at night knowing that they are doing business with the very forces that have spilled the blood of innocents and continue to murder our brave soldiers today. May God have mercy on your wretched souls.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Cargo Plane Bomb Found in Britain Was Primed to Blow Up Over US

The shocking reality of the terrorist printer bomb plot emerged today when Scotland Yard revealed that the device taken from a plane in Britain was timed to explode in mid-air over the eastern United States.

The bomb was found by police on board a cargo plane at East Midlands airport last month after detailed information was passed through intelligence channels to the UK and US from Saudi Arabia.

The Guardian understands that an alarm clock on a mobile phone attached to the printer bomb was set to go off at 10.30am BST. Tests revealed that if the cargo plane’s journey had gone to schedule, the device — in a package addressed to a synagogue in Chicago — would have gone off in midair over the eastern seaboard of the US.

The device found in the UK was one of two discovered after a Saudi tip off. The other was at Dubai airport. Both were capable of bringing down an aircraft.

The bombs are believed by western intelligence to have been sent by the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and sparked fears that a new vulnerability in aviation security has been discovered by the terrorists.

Both bombs contained at least 300 grammes of the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN. The device found in Dubai had travelled on two passenger planes without being detected.

The bomb found on board a UPS plane at East Midlands was so sophisticated that it was initially cleared by military and police explosives experts. When the plane landed at 2.13am after arriving from Cologne, police were waiting for it. Saudi intelligence told them which package to look for and it was taken off the plane.

At 4.20am the plane was allowed to continue on its journey as examination of a large device containing a printer cartridge continued. It emerged yesterday that the bomb was made safe inadvertently by bomb experts. At 7.40am they had not determined that the package was a bomb and stopped it from exploding by removing the “printer cartridge from the printer”, police said. The bomb was due to explode just three hours later.

By mid-morning safety cordons at East Midlands were taken down, but when UK authorities were alerted about the Dubai bomb, experts reexamined the East Midlands device. A senior counter terrorism official told The Guardian the device was “one of the most sophisticated we’ve seen. The naked eye won’t pick it up, experienced bomb officers did not see it, x-ray screening is highly unlikely to catch it.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Ethnic Friction Marks Session on Field, Land

The naming of a city-owned soccer field 35 years ago and a continuing dispute between a mosque and a Baptist church over which should be allowed to purchase a vacant, city-owned South Street parcel led to ethnic dissension among neighbors during Monday’s meeting of the Lackawanna City Council.

The recriminations started when Franklin Street resident John E. Ingram questioned the propriety of the “Yemen Soccer Field” sign posted inside a cityowned soccer field at 150 Lehigh Ave. that also serves as home field for the Lackawanna Yemen Soccer Club program.

“When I asked about the sign, it was not to disparage the soccer team, which I think is a good program,” Ingram said, “. . . but the sign is inappropriate.”

Angelo J. Iafallo, city recreation director, responded that the site was converted into a soccer field 35 years ago to accommodate the popularity of the sport among the city’s then-growing Yemeni community and was appropriately named.

“The decision was that many of our new residents were Yemenites and their national pastime was soccer and they wanted to play their sport,” Iafallo said, “. . . and I think they wanted to, . . in memory of their country, put a sign up, which no one was opposed to.”

Abdul K. Noman, who is both councilman for the 1st Ward and the longtime director of the Lackawanna Yemen Soccer Club, noted that the soccer club program and the field that it uses are open to all.

However, Ingram, who is black, insisted that it was inappropriate for a cityowned park to be named in honor of one ethnic group in the city.

“Surge” Ahmed, who identified himself as a Lackawanna resident and U. S. military veteran, said he was offended by the call to remove the sign. “I, as an Arab- American, am offended, because there are too many other things going on this community that need to be addressed other than a sign,” Ahmed said.

Meanwhile, other Yemeni-Americans called on city lawmakers to approve the sale of a vacant city-owned South Street property to the Lackawanna Islamic Mosque, at 154 Wilkesbarre St.

The property also is being pursued by First Baptist Church on Ingham Avenue.

           — Hat tip: KS [Return to headlines]



Leftist Icon Calls for Violent Socialist War Against Tea Partiers …Update: Ted Rall Writes in — Lashes Out at Conservatives

Leftist hero, Kennedy Award Winner and Pulitzer finalist Ted Rall is calling for a violent socialist revolution in America. The far left hero wants leftists to take up arms and kill tea partiers.

Verum Serum has video from his appearance on MSNBC last night and posted this from his book calling for violent leftist revolution.

“We are here because the U.S. is going to end soon. There’s going to be an intense, violent, probably haphazard struggle for control. It’s going to come down to us versus them. The question is: What are you going to do about it?…

“A war is coming. At stake: our lives, the planet, freedom, living. The government, the corporations, and the extreme right are prepared to coalesce into an Axis of Evil. Are you going to fight back? Will you do whatever it takes, including taking up arms?…”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Missile Launch Off Los Angeles

As news of the event began to appear in the media, I contacted several well placed and trusted intelligence and military sources in an effort to determine the truth about the incident. These sources, as I was reminded by one during our conversation, are risking their careers to talk to me. And they talk to me not because of my charm or influence, both of which I admittedly lack, but because they care about the current status and future of our great country. And there is no better reason. I was less than reassured from what I learned today. “There was an air of deep concern among the officials”

According to one source within the Pentagon, many of the top brass were in unscheduled, high level meetings throughout the day. Although he was not privy to the information imparted during these meetings, he told me that “there was an air of deep concern among the officials,” and all participants had a DAWT policy (don’t ask because I won’t tell) policy. Surreal was just one of the adjectives amply used by my Pentagon source.

At the very least, according to this source, it was a missile. As to whether it was ours or theirs, he does not know. But he said “they do,” a reference to the brass. The rumors circulating “within the [Pentagon] rings” suggest that it was a deliberate launch of a missile from “Chinese property at sea” intended as a warning to the U.S. Although it was odd that he would not clarify the nature of the “Chinese property,” I can only assume that it did not originate from Catalina Island or U.S. military ships in the area, as we still own those, at least to my knowledge.

A domestic intelligence source speaking to me off the record acknowledged the event by his assurances that it was indeed “some type of large missile” and not an illusion or model rocket. This, according to information from his superiors, who are deeply rooted inside the beltway. He provided a lot of technical speak that amounted simply to this: the air traffic controllers were taken by surprise and clueless, there were no prior warnings of any scheduled military tests issued, and no one from the military has confided to his agency that “the missile” was ours and launched by mistake. In other words, it was not ours and it was no mistake.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Muslim Leader Recruits Americans for Jihad

CNN’s Spitzer to Choudary: ‘You should be arrested, jailed’

In an extraordinary interview, a British Muslim leader admitted on CNN that he is soliciting American Muslims via the Internet to carry out violence against the U.S. — a confession which prompted the anchor interviewing him to call on authorities to arrest him as a “heinous terrorist.”

Anjem Choudary, a radical Muslim activist in London, also contended that Western Muslims — including Muslims in America — secretly want to impose Shariah law, the Islamic legal code that administers cruel and unusual punishments such as stonings, amputations and honor killings.

The 43-year-old Choudary is a vocal critic of Britain’s involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and has praised the 7-7 terrorists who bombed the London subway. He also has praised the 9-11 terrorists as “magnificent martyrs.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Books: Ban on Usury in All Three Monotheistic Religions

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 8 — Why has the Islamic world never felt the need to set aside the prohibition on usury to foster widespread mercantile and commercial development in the Muslim community? Are there analogies on the issue of a prohibition on usury in the three religions of the Book? Attempting to respond to these questions is “Usury in the Religious ‘Word’ “ (DATANEWS, pp. 240, 18 euros) by Chiara Scattone, now in bookshops. Taking as her starting point an analysis of the holy works, the Old and New Testaments and the Koran, and going back over the doctrinal elaborations of the Church Fathers as well as Islamic theologians and jurists from a historical and critical point of view, the author tries to shed light on the connecting thread which binds, unites and creates distance between the three religions, believers’ actions and the varying lifestyles taken on by them within our modern day society. There are, reads the introduction to the book — “clear and unequivocal similarities” between the Christianity, Judaism and Islam: similarities, however, that over the years have grown ever weaker.

It is a prohibition, continued Scattone, which must always be put in direct correlation with the economic development of a country. And so, in order to foster commercial development of the most disadvantaged sections of the populace, the Mounts of Piety were created in Italy in the XV century. This then led to a definitive setting aside of the prohibition on usury in the European world — Catholic, Jewish and Protestant. In its Islamic counterpart, on the other hand, the retaining of the prohibition to the modern day is seen in different types and developments, which have led the entire economic system to an atypical evolution according to European conceptions, which has Christian-Jewish roots. The prohibition on usury, noted the author, was created and sanctioned within the Koran from the VII century to today without any exceptions or limitations.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Danish News Channel in Arabic Proposed

News in foreign languages would strengthen democracy, say Social Liberals

The Social Liberals have proposed creating a news channel reporting Danish news in Arabic, aimed directly at immigrants who do not speak Danish.

Party leader Margrethe Vestager does not think the language barrier should prevent immigrants from orienting themselves about current affairs in Denmark.

“We would like [public broadcaster] DR, as part of its public service commitments, to increase its efforts to report Danish news in some of the main foreign languages such as Arabic, Turkish and English,” she told Politiken newspaper.

The proposal is a reaction to the Danish People’s party initiative to ban satellite dishes in immigrant housing areas in an effort to prevent immigrants from receiving all their news from Arabic news channels.

According to Vestager, such a ban would not prevent parallel societies from emerging. “If we want to improve integration, we need to provide more information, not less, she said.”

She is convinced DR is capable of producing interesting news that can supplement the worldview that immigrants get from news channels such as al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya.

The Liberal Party said DR already provided a similar service with its foreign language news services.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



EU President Issues Stark Warning Against Nationalism

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has issued a stark warning against growing nationalism, populism and anti-democratic forces across the EU, suggesting that the threat to peace in Europe remains a key issue.

“We have together to fight the danger of a new euro-scepticism,” he said in a speech in Berlin on Tuesday night (9 November).

“This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries. In every member state, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world,” he continued.

“It is more than an illusion: it is a lie!”

The president was speaking in the German capital on the Schicksalstag, or ‘fateful day,’ the anniversary of five pivotal events in the nation’s history: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of the monarchy in 1918, but also the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938 and the execution of a leader of the 1848 revolutions in the German states.

Quoting wartime US president Franklin Roosevelt, he said that the “biggest enemy of Europe today is fear,” and that this ultimately could lead to war.

“Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war,” he said. “Today’s nationalism is often not a positive feeling of pride of one’s own identity, but a negative feeling of apprehension of the others. Fear of ‘enemies’ within our borders and beyond our borders.”

“It is a feeling all over Europe, not of a majority, but everywhere present.”

In a wide-ranging speech, alighting on a range of aspects of the current state of the European Union, he cheered the day when the nations of the former Yugoslavia will join.

“To those who say that war is so far away in our past that peace cannot be a key issue in Europe anymore, that it does not appeal to the younger generations, I answer: just go out there [to the western Balkans] and ask the people there! And ask the young ones too!”

Beyond the EU’s economic and political structures, he said that Europe needed to look to its heritage, in particular, the values and virtues of Ancient Greece.

“To keep such European virtues alive, to transmit their age-old qualities to our children and grandchildren, that will be one of the great challenges for the future,” he said. “We have to be a union of values but also a union of civic virtues.”

He also touched on the current economic crisis, cheering the recent decision of European leaders to move towards common economic governance.

“One cannot maintain a monetary unity without an economic union,” he said, and went on to salute the “courage” of EU leaders in imposing austerity measures over the top of popular opposition.

“I, for one, have really been impressed over the last year by the political courage of our governments. All are taking deeply unpopular measures to reform the economy and their budgets, moreover, at a time of rising populism.

“Some heads of government do this while being confronted with opposition in parliament, with protest in the streets, with strikes on the workplace — or all of this together — and fully knowing they run a big risk of electoral defeat.

“And yet they push ahead. If this is not political courage, what is?”

He also went on to criticise the European Commission’s proposals for EU taxes. In October, the EU executive proposed a list of potential EU fund-raising mechanisms in an attempt to reduce the direct contributions national governments make to fund the workings of the bloc.

“I do not think that redesigning the way the EU get its revenue is a top priority,” he said, adding that the imposition of EU taxation would fall on some countries harder than others and that this would be unfair.

“The current system reflects as a rule the member states’ capacity to pay. Contributions are based on the gross national income and thus seen as fair … I am personally open to new ideas, but since most alternative sources of income would risk to hit member states unequally, this would weaken the fairness of the current system, its built-in solidarity.”

He did not however close the door completely on the idea. “So let’s be prudent, but let’s discuss it,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Europe Looking Towards Billionaire Halal Market

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 9 — From Malaysia to the United Kingdom, there is great attention to the world of halal, a global market worth 634 billion dollars and an annual rate of growth of 15%. These numbers have drawn in operators, businesses and government agencies, which are attracted by a potentially vast market that is strongly rising. Halal products (goods that correspond to Islamic precepts) do not only attract followers of Islam, but also non-Muslims, and the interest is spreading from the more traditional areas to the heart of Europe. The second edition of the World Halal Forum Europe gets underway in London today, a two-day event focussing on the opportunities offered by the sector, not only in the food industry, but also in cosmetics and tourism, with analysis of newly available products and of appropriate European legislation. Large-scale distribution chains have been aware for some time that halal is an important new trend in the food trade, but fast-food multinationals have also been alive to the fact, as shown by recent initiatives by two giants of the sector, Quick and KFC.

The aim is to meet the needs of consumers who, according to some estimates, are set to grow by 20-25% in the next decade. There are a number of factors behind these results, including the increase in spending power within Europe’s Muslim communities, which is due to “the increase in the level of education and of living standards,” according to Datuk Hussein Haniff, the Malaysian ambassador to the EU, who recently spoke to the International Conference on Halal Food in Brussels.

The “healthy” image enjoyed by halal products also attracts consumers from the traditional circuit, regardless of religious beliefs. Despite this potential, the market is still young and needs a structure if it is to develop fully. A few months ago, an English venture capital company launched plans for the first industrial area reserved exclusively for halal products. Its creators say that the Super Halal Industrial Park (SHIP) in South Wales will offer a number of services, from the selection of meat to the packaging and storing of the product, as well as research and development. The initiative, however, will not be up and running for at least 3-5 years, and will cost 150 million pounds.

With 1.5 million Muslims and a turnover of 5 billion euros, Italy is also making efforts to adapt to new market conditions, by offering an appropriate regulation system. To this end, with support from the Health, Foreign Affairs and Economic Development and Agricultural Policy Ministries, last June saw the creation of “Halal Italia”, the official organ for the certification of halal products. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Foiled at the 11th Hour, ‘Islamic Terrorist’ Plot to Assassinate France’s Leading Muslim Cleric

Five alleged Islamic terrorists arrested in Paris this week were planning to assassinate the city’s leading Muslim cleric, it emerged today.

All of the men, who are French passport holders, are believed to have returned from fighting British and American troops alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The murder plot against Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the French capital’s main mosque, was only foiled at the eleventh hour thanks to a tip-off.

Secret intelligence officers were able to move in on two Frenchmen of Algerian descent as they arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday night from Egypt.

Armed police arrested three other men from similar backgrounds in flats in the Paris suburbs on Tuesday morning.

‘These were five major arrests,’ said Bernard Squarcini, director of France’s Internal Intelligence agency, the DCRI.

‘All were linked to a major inquiry into jihadists returning from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and threatening to assassinate the rector of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubaker.’

Mr Boubaker has been under armed guard since last month after radicals issued threats following the introduction of a burka ban in France — a measure which many see as overtly anti-Muslim.

Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind atrocities including the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001, also released a recorded video message calling for French people to be killed unless the country withdraw its troops from the war in Afghanistan.

Security has also been stepped up around leading public figures in France, including Carla Bruni, who is seen as an assassination target.

Intelligence chief Mr Squarcini said the five men were seen as important figures in the current ‘global threat’ against France.

All are thought to have been part of a jihad network based in the tribal areas of Pakistan which regularly heads into Afghanistan to fight coalition forces.

Mr Boubaker welcomed the arrests saying : ‘Unfortunately men of peace are threatened all too often.

‘Thanks to our system we can protect freedom of thought and freedom of expression and have the freedom to live together in this dangerous world.’

The foiled plot illustrates the growing rift between Islamic moderates and those prepared to kill and maim in the name of their religion, said Mr Boubaker.

France has been on heightened terrorist alert since the summer, when there were bomb scares at major tourist attractions including the Eiffel Tower.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



France: Sarkozy Draws Ire Over Media Spying Claims

French President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly ordered France’s domestic intelligence agency to spy on journalists who annoyed him. The opposition is now demanding an investigation. Is French democracy in jeopardy?

Edwy Plenel has been a journalist for over 30 years. He was editor-in-chief of Le Monde , France’s leading daily, he uncovered many scandals during the presidency of François Mitterrand, and he was spied on by the Elysée Palace in the 1980s, but it was always relatively bearable. Plenel, a former Trotskyite, has never found it easy to be a journalist in France. But now he finds it intolerable.

“Our democracy is in serious danger,” says Plenel, who founded the independent news website Mediapart three years ago. “Our republic, its laws and its principles are disintegrating into a big ash heap right in front of our eyes.” Plenel is convinced that French freedom — and, most of all, the freedom of the press — is in serious jeopardy.

A Thorn in Sarkozy’s Side

According to Plenel, the Mediapart journalists who first unearthed the scandal surrounding the billionaire L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt — with its allegations of illegal political contributions and tax evasion — have for months been under surveillance in an operation controlled by the Elysée Palace. Likewise, he claims, agents from France’s domestic intelligence service (DCRI) have even analyzed the mobile-phone records of two of his journalists so as to precisely map out their network of contacts. The service also reportedly put together movement profiles of the two journalists, tracking their whereabouts by using GPS coordinates provided by their mobile phones.

Then, of course, there was the break-in at Mediapart’s editorial offices located on a small Parisian side street in the 12th arrondissement, just behind the Bastille. Plenel refuses to believe it was a random burglary and, instead, attributes it to an operation ordered by Elysée Chief of Staff Claude Guéant.

“You aren’t protecting me at all,” Sarkozy reportedly complained last summer to Frédéric Péchenard, a childhood friend who directs the national police, and Bernard Squarcini, the head of the DCRI. At the time, in mid-July, with their daily expose’s on the Bettencourt affair, Mediapart and Le Monde were a major thorn in Sarkozy’s side. Since then, it has become clear that Péchenard and Squarcini apparently took his laments to heart.

Last spring, at the president’s request, the DCRI looked into a private matter for Sarkozy. He wanted intelligence agents to figure out who had spread rumors about he and his wife, Carla Bruni, having extramarital affairs. The Interior Ministry sought to justify the operation by claiming that there was a suspected foreign plot to discredit the French president in the runup to the G-20 summit. Bruni was also allegedly given access to the police and intelligence reports.

Meanwhile, intelligence chief Squarcini, a Corsican counterterrorism expert whose skills Sarkozy had come to appreciate during his tenure as interior minister, has reportedly also set up a unit tasked with keeping tabs on journalists. The president himself specifies the individuals the group focuses its surveillance activities on, according to a claim made last Wednesday by Claude Angeli, editor-in-chief of the satirical weekly newspaper Le Canard enchaîné, one of France’s few politically and financially independent papers. Angeli says his claims are based on “very reliable informants” within DCRI headquarters.

The story promptly triggered a barrage of denials. It was all “completely fabricated,” according to officials at the Elysée Palace. The intelligence service “is not the Stasi or the KGB,” Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux declared. “I don’t get my orders from Sarko,” Squarcini shot back, “but from my superior, the police chief.”

But Angeli disagrees. “We are convinced that the president is personally involved in everything,” he counters. “Nothing escapes Sarkozy.”

Even in a country like France, this degree of personal intervention by the country’s most powerful politician is unprecedented.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Iraq: Three Christians Killed and 26 Wounded. Appeal of Al Maliki

A series of attacks this morning with mortars and homemade bombs. The prime minister pays a visit to the Syrian Catholic Church attacked by al-Qaeda and calls on Christians not to leave the country. Meanwhile the first survivors arrive in France, for receive special treatment.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — Three dead and 26 injuries is the provisional death toll from a series of attacks against Christian homes this morning in different districts of Baghdad. Between 6 and 8 this morning, two mortar shells and dozens of homemade bombs exploded in front of the homes of the faithful.

Last night in the capital three other Christian houses were hit by bombs, without causing any victims. Despite this, the Prime Minister al Maliki is urging Christians not to abandon the country.

The latest attacks come only 10 days after the October 31 attack on the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation, and after threats from Al Qaeda to eliminate Christians from the Middle East. The attack on the parish killed 44 faithful, two priests and seven security guards. About 90 people were injured. Of these, the first group (37, to be followed by those remaining) arrived in France on Nov. 8 to receive treatment offered by the European nation, the only one to propose such support.

Yesterday, Prime Minister al-Maliki visited the church of Our Lady of Salvation and urged his fellow Christians not to leave the country. Praising the “noble” gesture of France, al-Maliki said that “it must not be an incentive to emigrate.” He recalled that in his meeting with Benedict XVI, in 2008, had asked the Pope “not to allow the East be emptied of Christians, nor the West of Muslims”.

“We ask — he said — for an end to the emigration of Christians, that the phenomenon does not return, and we will do everything possible so that the array of flowers of Iraq’s communities remain complete and united”.

Al-Maliki also offered his condolences to the families of the victims: “The equality of Christians and other Iraqis — he said — is a sacred duty.”

Eric Besson, the French Minister of Immigration has made it clear that Christians survivors of the attack in Baghdad will benefit political asylum. “This message of support — he added — does not mean that France and Europe, are inviting the Christians of the East and Iraq to leave their countries. Rather it is our responsibility and desire to help them live in security in their countries of origin. “

On 8 November two other believers were killed in front of their homes in the Iraqi capital.

Before the U.S. invasion in 2003, the Christian community in Iraq counted almost a million faithful, that number has now dropped below 500 thousand.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Amanda Knox Indicted for Slandering Police

Trial will start May 17

(ANSA) — Perugia, November 8 — American student Amanda Knox was indicted Monday on charges of slandering police during her trial for the 2007 murder of British flatmate Meredith Kercher.

The new trial will start on May 17 in Perugia.

Knox appeared visibly disappointed when the ruling was read out.

The US student, who has been in jail for three years and was sentenced to 26 years for murder in December, said during her murder trial that seven police officers and an interpreter hit her.

In a statement on Monday, Knox said: “I didn’t mean to offend or slander anybody. I reiterate, I was only trying to defend myself. I was exercising a right”.

The prosecution argued that Knox had “deliberately” described “in a false manner” the conduct of seven policemen and a translator, who she claimed hit her on the head during questioning after Kercher was found dead on November 2, 2007. Knox’s lawyer said “Amanda is very sad and worried” but “ready” for the appeal on the Kercher murder which opens on November 24.

Seattle-born Knox, whose good looks led to her frequently being called ‘foxy Knoxy’ in the British media, was wearing a dark pullover and black pants.

It was her third court appearance since she was sentenced last year to 26 years in jail for Kercher’s murder, along with her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was given a 25-year sentence.

Knox was given a year more than Sollecito for having falsely accused a Perugia pub owner, Congo native Patrick Lumumba, of the killing in the early stages of the investigation.

Knox, 23, and Sollecito, 26, both deny murder and are appealing against the jail terms, as is a third convicted murderer, Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede, who was tried in a separate fast-track procedure and is bidding to overturn a 16-year sentence.

DNA evidence that was already hotly contested in Knox’s and Sollecito’s first trial is expected to again be the focus of the appeals.

Knox is continuing her university studies while in jail and is said to have rekindled affections with Sollecito, who is being held in another prison.

Knox recently published a partly ghost-written book about her experience in jail.

Two films about the Perugia murder are in the works, one a made-for-TV US film with rising star Hayden Panettiere as Knox and the other a British movie by Michael Winterbottom with Colin Firth as an investigative reporter.

MURDER NOVEMBER 2, 2007.

Leeds University exchange student Kercher, 21, was found with her throat cut on November 2, 2007 in the house she shared with Knox in the central Italian town.

According to the prosecution, Sollecito and Guede held Kercher down as Guede tried to have sex with her and Knox threatened her with a knife, before delivering a fatal blow.

The knife was later found with Knox’s DNA on the handle, though the defence argued the traces were too small to be significant.

They also said the knife was too big to have inflicted the wounds found on Kercher.

No DNA from Knox was found at the crime scene but Guede’s was found there, as well as on the body.

Sollecito’s DNA was only found on the clasp of Kercher’s bra, which had been cut in half, although defence lawyers claimed the crime scene had been contaminated.

Under Italian law convicted criminals are entitled to two appeals.

The verdict against Knox caused a strong reaction in the United States where ‘pro-Amanda’ groups have rallied to support her appeal.

One of the United States’ top lawyers, Ted Simon, president of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers, will flank her Italian defence team.

Guede, now 23, had his sentence commuted from 30 to 16 years in his first appeal and Italy’s Supreme Court will start hearing his final appeal on December 16.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Culture Minister to Report on Pompeii Wednesday

‘I will explain what happened and what is needed,’ Bondi says

(ANSA) — Rome, November 8 — Italian Culture Minister Sandro Bondi will report to parliament on Pompeii Wednesday after Saturday’s collapse of the famous gladiators’ school there earned headlines worldwide and rekindled claims the 2,000-year-old site is not being properly protected.

In a statement, Bondi said he would “explain what happened in Pompeii and what is necessary to do in the future”.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday called the incident a “disgrace” for Italy. In the wake of the collapse, there have been appeals from institutions and art experts worldwide who fear the conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage site is not being adequately funded.

On Monday British author Robert Harris, author of the 2003 global bestseller ‘Pompeii’, published a plea in Rome daily La Repubblica asking for more to be done.

Harris said he was “not surprised” at the collapse and argued that the right of visitors to see the site’s wonders should be balanced with conservation needs, highlighting “the imperative of passing it down to future generations”.

“We are faced with a paradox: the more people visit Pompeii, the more Pompeii is destroyed”.

Bondi has said that water infiltration from recent heavy rains dealt a killer blow to the gladiators’ school, which was precarious because a 1950 restoration “wrongly” put reinforced concrete on the roof, making it “inevitable” that it would buckle under the weight.

The minister also voiced confidence that famous frescoes giving insights into gladiators’ lives may have survived the crash.

Polemics about looting, stray dogs and structural decay have dogged Pompeii in recent years and the government appointed a special commissioner who has been credited with solving some of these problems.

According to conservation groups, Pompeii earns enough from its huge takings to be able to maintain itself but they claim this cash is being misused.

Several groups have appealed to the government, despite the current mood of austerity, to set up a special fund for the unique site.

The centre-left opposition has said the school’s collapse has highlighted an “unacceptable” level of alleged “incompetence” and has even suggested that the upkeep of the site should be taken out of the government’s hands and entrusted fully to international bodies. Every year over two million people visit Pompeii, which was smothered in lava and ash by the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Marriage Annulled After Wife ‘Thought of Straying’

‘No evidence of woman frequenting other men,’ high court says

(ANSA) — Rome, November 8 — Italy’s highest appeals court on Monday confirmed the annulment of a marriage on the grounds that the wife thought of having an affair but never in fact had one.

“We fully support the lower court’s findings even though there was no evidence of the woman frequenting other men,” the Cassation Court said in its ruling, which sets a precedent.

The woman, who was not named, was trying to have the ruling overturned to benefit from no-blame financial arrangements including alimony.

After the high court’s apparently draconian verdict she will be left to look out for herself.

According to judicial sources, both the husband and wife told judges that she had often “theorised” the freethinking idea that a marriage does not necessarily have to be based on sexual fidelity, but “never put the idea into practice”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Berlusconi Promises Flood Aid to Veneto

Premier tours northeast region

(ANSA) — Rome, November 9 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday toured the flood-stricken northeast region of Veneto and promised “substantial and immediate” aid.

“Aid from the state for the flooded areas of Veneto will be immediately placed in the budget,” the premier said while visiting the town of Monteforte d’Alpone, near Verona.

“I did not come before now because I did not want to get in the way of rescue efforts,” the premier told local government officials. “We have already moved to get aid from the European Union and I have spoken several times with the European Commission and on Friday Commissioner (Antonio) Tajani will be here to see for himself what has happened,” he added.

Tajani is Italy’s representative in the EU executive and is responsible for industry and business.

“We are drawing up a detailed list of the damage which has been done and, as you know, the EU is ready to pay for a percentage of the damage,” Berlusconi said. “There is also the possibility of tapping into the EU’s so-called structural funds, which amount to around 450 million euros for the period from 2007 to 2013,” the premier added.

In regard to the State’s response, Berlusconi said “tomorrow in Rome there will be a meeting between civil protection department officials, (Economy) Minister (Giulio) Tremonti and Governor (Luca) Zaia”.

“Here you have already put everything back in place. The people of Veneto are truly a great people and here I have seen their immediate, vigorous and able response,” Berlusconi said.

According to the Coldiretti farmers union, thousands of hectares of farmland remains under water and there are great problems getting feed to the farm animals which survived the floods.

Coldiretti said over 150,000 livestock drowned in the floods while entire crops of tobacco, fruits and vegetables were destroyed, along with numerous greenhouses and mushroom fields.

After visiting Monteforte d’Alpone, Berlusconi moved on to visit Cresole Caldonio, in the province of Vicenza, and from there will go to Padua where he will hold a press conference.

Accompanying the premier on his tour are Reform Minister and Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, Zaia and Piedmont Governor Roberto Cota.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy Rejects EU Patent ‘Blackmail’

‘You don’t talk with a gun on the table’, Ronchi says

(ANSA) — Brussels, November 10 — Italy on Wednesday said it would not accept alleged “blackmail” on the contested issue of a single European Union-wide patent.

Italy “is not here to agree to blackmail”, EU Minister Andrea Ronchi said as he arrived at a meeting of ministers in Brussels to discuss the question.

“You don’t negotiate with a gun on the table,” Ronchi said after Britain, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and Ireland wrote to the European Commission Tuesday asking it to consider whether a “willing coalition” of states could agree on a restricted version of the patent if Wednesday’s meeting failed to break a 10-year deadlock on the issue.

Italy has repeatedly threatened to use its veto because patents would be registered in only three languages — English, French and German — and not Italian.

“At the risk of standing alone on this question we must say no to this proposal because it would create a Europe which does not want competition and discriminates against Italian goods by not recognising Italian as an official language,” Ronchi said last month.

In September, the minister warned that Italy would veto the measure because it was “unacceptable” and “offensive to Italian history and culture”.

At the time Ronchi said that firms which had trouble with the three proposed languages would be penalised “in terms of competition” while “the efficiency of European Union procedures would also suffer”.

“The regulation in question has to be approved unanimously and we will never give our approval to a proposal that discriminates against our language,” he added.

When Ronchi first threatened to use Italy’s veto powers in July, the European Commission responded by saying that only the patent would be in the three main languages, while applications to use it could be made in all 23 of the EU’s official languages, including Italian.

As for the decision to have the patent itself only in the three languages, the EC pointed out that Italy itself had recently backed a move to “bring down EU administrative costs”.

Successful applicants who pay for translating patents will be able to have those costs reimbursed, the Commission said.

Italy has fought repeatedly to get the EU to use Italian more than it does.

In April it protested about the alleged absence of Italian as one of the three mandatory languages in new European Union staff selection procedures.

In November 2008 the European Court of Justice overturned a decision by the European Commission to publish certain job adverts in English, German and French but not in Italian.

While English, German and French are the three most widely spoken languages in the EU (whether as mother tongue or second languages), Italian comes a close fourth with 16% of the EU population able to use it.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Minister Guttenberg Says Economy is Part of National Security

Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg says that Germany should be prepared to use its military to defend the country’s economic interests. Similar comments cost German President Horst Köhler his job earlier this year. And once again, the opposition in Berlin is up in arms.

Earlier this year, then German President Horst Köhler provoked a storm of controversy when he said that military deployments were necessary to protect German economic interests. His remarks, made during a trip to Afghanistan, triggered consternation and sharp criticism in the media. Ultimately, he resigned as a result.

Now German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has echoed those sentiments.

Speaking at a security conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Guttenberg said that Germany should be prepared to use its military to secure trade routes, for example against piracy. “We in our country must really do something to articulate the relationship between regional security and economic interests without coming to deadlock,” Guttenberg said. Commenting on Köhler’s decision to step down in May, the minister said: “I ask myself to this day what was so audacious about his comments.”

Piracy around the Horn of Africa has posed a threat to the commercial interests of many nations, including Germany. Guttenberg described this as “not just a side note, but a serious challenge to our economic performance, one to be taken seriously.”

Opposition Response

He also referred to the competing demands for raw materials of emerging nations and the industrialized world, which could raise questions of strategic importance for German security. “The securing of trade routes and sources of raw materials have without a doubt to be considered from military and global strategic viewpoints,” he told the conference, which continues on Wednesday. Germany’s export-driven economy is heavily dependent on raw materials from abroad. However, the country is extremely sensitive about the role of the military in the light of Germany’s Nazi past.

Opposition parties were predictably quick to hit out at the defense minister’s statements. “We warn Guttenberg against reinterpreting the Bundeswehr’s defensive mandate as an offensive intervention mandate for implementing German economic interests,” Thomas Opperman of the center-left Social Democrats, told Die Tageszeitung newspaper. “A look at the constitution makes it easier to arrive at the correct interpretation of defense policy: The constitution does not allow economic wars.”

The Green party’s defense expert Omid Nouripour criticized the defense minister’s comments as “absurd,” saying that Guttenberg had to examine “if his focus as defense minister does justice to the responsibilities of his office.” Nouripour added: “Stability cannot be allowed to become a vehicle for economic interests.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Nation States Are Dead: EU Chief Says the Belief That Countries Can Stand Alone is a ‘Lie and an Illusion’

The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a ‘lie’, the EU president believes.

In one of the most open proclamations of the goal of a European superstate since the heyday of Jacques Delors, Herman Van Rompuy went on to denounce Eurosceptism as the greatest threat to peace.

Tory backbenchers condemned the inflammatory comments in the speech made by Mr Van Rompuy to mark the 21st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

They said it proved that David Cameron would have a battle on his hands if he is to prevent extra powers being handed to Brussels.

Last night 23 Conservative MPs, including former leadership contender David Davis, rebelled in the Commons by demanding a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is amended — even if ministers argue the changes do not affect the UK. Their call was defeated.

Mr Van Rompuy’s speech in the German capital told his audience that ‘the time of the homogenous nation state is over’.

He added that the ‘danger’ of Euroscepticism was spreading beyond the confines of countries such as Britain and was becoming a stronger force across the whole continent.

‘We have together to fight the danger of a new Euroscepticism,’ he declared. ‘This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries.

‘In every member state, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion — it is a lie.’

[Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Rapper Aquitted of Threatening Wilders

THE HAGUE, 11/11/10 — The appeal court in The Hague yesterday acquitted a rapper of threatening Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders because it did not consider the text of his song constituted an offence.

The rapper, who calls himself Mosheb, was prosecuted for the track ‘Who is next?’. He sings: Pim Fotuyn talked about Muslims, was shot. Theo van Gogh, talked about Muslims, was shot. Who is next…? (…) Am planning to make an attack on Geert Wilders. And that in WORDS. I find you a creep. You will be strangled. (…) Everyone who talks about Muslims gets killed.”

In the number, the rapper constantly alternates threats with mitigating words. “Geert you would be better to jump off the roof, or would you rather have bullets in your body? I am no terrorist, am an innocent rapper. This is a warning!! Do you want to stay alive? Then you must take back all your statements (…) Listen Geert, this is no joke, last night I dreamed that I had cut off your head.”

Wilders launched proceedings against the song in 2007, after he had heard and seen the clip on the Internet. A lower court convicted Mosheb, but the appeal court arrived at acquittal yesterday.

According to the appeal court, the text is not in itself a punishable offence. The track is punishable however in the way it was to be seen on Internet site YouTube. There, gunshots were also heard.

These shots cannot however be heard on the rapper’s original CD version. The appeal court concludes that it cannot be established whether the shots were added by the rapper or by someone else.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Prominent Saudi Preacher: Europe Will Become an Islamic Continent

Prominent Saudi Preacher: Europe Will Become an Islamic

Continent

In a recent interview posted on www.onislam.net, prominent Saudi preacher Dr. Aidh Al-Qarni said that 9/11, though a horrific event, was no more horrific than scores of other massacres that take place around the world every year, for instance in Africa, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The only difference, he explained, is that 9/11 has been exploited to promote “the so-called War on Terror.” He therefore recommended using incidents of what he termed Islamophobia — such as the Swiss minaret ban and the French ban on the veil — to promote Islam in the West. He also assessed that Europe is on its way to becoming an Islamic continent.

Following are excerpts from the article:[1]

“Looking at the Events [of 9/11] Objectively, [We Realize that] Humanity Witnesses Scores of Such Grim Events Every Year”

“Looking at the events [of 9/11] objectively, [we realize that] humanity witnesses scores of such grim events every year, for instance in the African Great Lakes region, where millions have been killed in the last decade; in Iraq, where millions have been killed [as well]; and in Afghanistan, where similar things occurred during the Soviet invasion and now under the American occupation, to name but a few examples…

“But 9/11 took place in America, and when America is stung, it is considered a disaster for mankind at large. We do not mean to make light of this matter, with all its ramifications and effects, or to accept or justify it. Not at all! We are saying that this event was exploited to serve an agenda that was waiting for a pretext and a justification. Thus, the whole world was driven into crises and difficulties under [the slogan of] the so-called ‘War on Terror’…

“These movements of political Islam have played a major role in defeating colonialism and in liberating many Islamic countries that were occupied… Even now we find that [while] many Arab governments and secular movements have abandoned the Palestinian cause and sold it cheaply, it is the Islamists [in Gaza] that defend [this cause] and protect its sanctities despite the international siege…

“In this context, we must make a distinction between jihadi liberation movements that are judicious and follow the right path, such as Hamas in Palestine, and violent movements that are based on takfir [accusing other Muslims of heresy]. The latter [movements] use their weapons against Muslims and against countries that, though not Muslim, should not be attacked…”

“Handled Correctly, Examples of Islamophobia… [Can] Have the Opposite Results of What Their Pro-Zionist Perpetrators Intended”

“Handled correctly, examples of Islamophobia — such as the [Swiss] ban on minarets, the banning of the veil [in France], and the burning of the Koran — [can] have the opposite results of what their pro-Zionist perpetrators intended. Today, Westerners are confused people who have unlimited freedom of thought. When people of this kind — who are confused on the one hand and have unlimited freedom of thought on the other — encounter the truths of Islam, which addresses their natural inclinations, [these truths] enter their minds [almost] without their being aware of it. Hence, it is possible to take advantage of those events in order to introduce Islam to people and make them aware of it.”

Dr. Aidh Al-Qarni concluded his interview with the following: “I expect, like many perceptive people living in Europe, that, Allah willing, the European continent will become an Islamic continent.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Multicultural Football Team Unites Malmö

With Malmö’s football club poised to win Sweden’s top-flight Allsvenskan football league, The Local’s Peter Vinthagen Simpson looks at how the team’s multicultural make up has united a city that is so often cited as a negative example of the challenge of integration.

A recent spate of apparently random shootings directed at people with a non-traditionally Swedish appearance, has raised concerns about growing racism in Malmö and across Sweden as a whole.

The shootings, which police continue to investigate, have often been discussed in the context of the difficulties of integration and have tarnished multicultural Malmö’s reputation.

Sporting success this weekend will go some way to shifting that negative focus and highlighting one of Malmö’s most shining examples of the successes of multiculturalism: the city’s only professional football club, Malmö FF.

Malmö FF’s 2010 squad includes players from nine different nations. It also includes a number of key players who represent the myriad of cultures that make up Sweden’s most culturally mixed city, where around 36 percent of the population is registered as having a foreign background.

“It is the team’s success that unites people. One goes along and watches the matches and the team consists of a group of individuals, it is those players that you cheer on,” Marie Holmberg at the city’s tourism office, Malmö Tourism, tells The Local.

“On the pitch (their background) doesn’t mean anything, they are individuals.”

They are all local men with roots in a slew of various countries and cultures, and on Sunday the likes of Agon Mehmeti, Dardan Rexhepi and Guillermo Molins, will line up alongside talismanic captain Daniel Andersson and goalkeeping stalwart Johan Dahlin, united in their goal of bringing Sweden’s Allsvenskan title back to the football-mad city for a record 16th time.

“Malmö has always been a football town, other sports have never meant that much to us. The entire town town revolves around the team, and we have only one where other Swedish cities have numerous,” says loyal Malmö FF supporter Martin Palmer.

Malmö FF leads Sweden’s Allsvenskan, on goal difference ahead of local Skåne rivals Helsingborg. A win on Sunday will secure the “gold” for MFF for a record 16th time (barring a massive win for Helsingborg).

It will also give a welcome boost to the city, which has been in something of a state of shock after the shootings were classified by the police as a having an apparently racist motive.

The tourist office’s Holmberg explains that the success of the women’s football team in winning the national title a fortnight ago, followed by the prospect of a title win for the men’s team on Sunday, is of great benefit to the city, and its image.

“It is naturally very positive for the city for the women to have won the championship and now if the men can bring home the ‘gold’,” she says, adding that football is a unifiying factor for the city.

Martin Palmer agrees that Malmö’s footballing success has helped local people focus on the positive aspects of integration.

“I think the team’s success has definitely helped. There are so many people with different backgrounds within this town. Everyone likes MFF, and everyone likes Zlatan (Ibrahimovic),” he says, referring to the Malmö native son who stars for both Sweden’s national side as well as storied Italian football club AC Milan.

The election of the Sweden Democrats to Sweden’s Riksdag on a platform to dramatically cut immigration and challenge the multicultural society, has been cited by some observers as a causal factor behind the shootings, having allowed anti-immigrant sentiment to be aired more freely.

Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson is a keen supporter of Mjällby FF, Malmö’s opposition on Sunday. Åkesson, who was born in Skåne, has previously described Sweden’s captain Zlatan Ibrahomivic, as a “bought in” player, and has furthermore questioned his “unSwedish” footballing style, despite the Milan star being born and bred in the country.

When Ibrahimovic broke into Sweden’s national team back in 2001, he was surrounded by established names such as Larsson, Andersson, Svensson and Allbäck. He was seen as little more than a joker in a pack of Swedish organization and did not establish himself in the team until the summer of 2004, the same year he signed for Italian giants Juventus.

Ibrahimovic’s success story from the gravel pitches of one of Malmö’s toughest suburbs Rosengård, to the riches of Milan’s San Siro, serves as an inspiration for Malmö youth seeking to get ahead and better themselves.

Malmö FF midfielder and playmaker Guillermo Molins, who arrived in Sweden as a one-year-old with his parents from Uruguay, coined the phrase “Zlatan effect” when talking to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily this week.

“Of course there is a Zlatan effect. His achievements have ensured that we all get a chance,” Molins told DN.

“There is a cockiness among players with foreign roots, another belief in themselves. One should believe in yourself and not listen to much to what others say.”

Palmer, who will take his normal seat alongside a packed house at the Swedbank Stadium in central Malmö on Sunday, says that the players’ backgrounds matter little to the average MFF football fan.

“They are very much seen as Malmö players first, immigrants second. Of course there is the foreign element. But there is such a broad variety of backgrounds. In the end people don’t care, they are so fanatical about the football,” he says.

Malmö’s multicultural players have all been schooled in the Swedish footballing system, with a focus on solid technique, teamwork and organisation. Swedish clubs tend to look to Brazil and Latin American countries when seeking to bring a little flair to their teams, and Malmö’s purchase of Wilton Figueiredo is a case in point.

But the rapid globalisation of football in recent decades, and the changing face of Malmö’s diverse population has had its impact on how the proud residents of the city view their “Himmelsblått” (Sky Blues) and, with half of the national side now made up of “new Swedes”, how the nation views its footballing future.

“It works because it has to work, people are working for the same objective, together. It is a lesson for the city as a whole,” Palmer says.

Malmö FF entertain Mjällby FF at the Swedbank Stadium in Malmö on Sunday, while Helsingborg host Kalmar FF. Both games kick off at 4.30pm.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Turkish Ambassador in Vienna Sparks Diplomatic Row

Diplomatic tensions have flared up between Austria and Turkey after the Turkish ambassador in Vienna publically criticized Austria’s stance towards integrating Muslims. The Austrian chancellor is said to be “outraged.”

Austria has protested to Turkey after the Turkish ambassador suggested Turks living in Austria were treated “like a virus” and were denied the chance to integrate.

Ambassdor Kadri Ecved Tezcan also told Die Presse daily newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that Austrian politicians were not doing enough to counter the rise of the far-right movement.

The row erupted in the wake of elections in the Austrian capital Vienna in October, when the far-right Freedom Party won 26 percent of the vote on a xenophobic and anti-Muslim platform.

The remarks have sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries. Austria’s foreign ministry summoned Tezcan over his comments, whilst the foreign minister Michael Spindelegger called his Turkish counterpart to complain about Tezcan’s remarks.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a statement that he was outraged by Tezcan’s “unacceptable and unprofessional” comments.

Integration issues

Tezcan claimed in the interview that Austrians were only interested in other cultures when they went on holiday. He said they should do more to integrate the Muslim community in Austria, which is largely made up of Turks.

“Turkish people… just don’t want to be treated like a virus,” Tezcan told Die Presse. “Society should integrate them and profit from them.”

In the interview, Tezcan said it was “incredible” that the Austrian Interior Ministry was responsible for integration, and that they should concentrate on visas and security.

He also criticized the hard-line immigration policies of interior minister, Maria Fekter, saying she was “in the wrong party” because she did not represent the values of her center-right party.

“Unacceptable” for a diplomat

A spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry said they did not think that Tezcan represented Ankara’s views.

“[Tezcan] crossed many red lines,” said spokesman Alexander Schallenberg. “His remarks were unacceptable.”

Schallenberg said Austria wanted to keep up good bilateral relations with Turkey.

The Turkish community numbers some 180,000 people in Austria. It is the third largest migrant community after Serbs and Germans.

Austria is one of several EU countries, including Germany, which are skeptical about the prospect of Turkey joining the European Union.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Perverse’ Defence Cuts Leave Oil-Rich Falkland Islands Open to Attack, Ex-Admirals Warn

A group of former Royal Navy chiefs have urged the Government to reverse its decision to scrap the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the fleet of Harrier jets.

The commanders said the recently-announced defence cuts would leave the oil-rich Falkland Islands open to a fresh Argentinian attack ‘from which British prestige…might never recover’.

In a strongly worded letter to the Times signatories including former Navy boss Lord West, insisted the David Cameron was badly advised before agreeing to the measures.

‘I am not convinced he had a full and proper briefing about the implications,’ Lord West told the newspaper.

[…]

They said: ‘In respect of the newly valuable Falklands and their oilfields, because of these and other cuts, for the next 10 years at least, Argentina is practically invited to attempt to inflict on us a national humiliation on the scale of the loss of Singapore.

‘One from which British prestige, let alone the administration in power at the time, might never recover.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Arrest Over Website That Encouraged Muslim to Attack MPs

The individual is thought to be involved with a website that praised the stabbing of the MP Stephen Timms and published a list of other MPs who voted for the war in Iraq, along with details of where to buy a knife.

West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit arrested the man at 9.30am on Wednesday and conducted a search of his home in the Dunstall area of Wolverhampton. Officers seized computer and electronic equipment, police said.

The man was being questioned under section one of the Terrorism Act 2006 on suspicion of encouraging an act of terrorism.

Detective Chief Inspector John Denley said: “We are treating the contents and implications of this blog very seriously, and have taken action this morning to progress our investigation.”

The website, Revolution Muslim, was hosted in Bellevue, Washington, and was taken down by the Americans at the request of the Home Office.

The website praised Roshonara Choudhry, who tried to stab Mr Timms to death during a constituency surgery in Beckton, East London.

Choudhry, 21, who was jailed for life last week, is thought to have radicalised herself over the internet.

She told police she had visited the Revolution Muslim website and watched videos on Youtube by Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular.

“We ask Allah to keep her safe and secure, to hasten her release and to reward this heroine immensely,” it said.

“We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of jihad against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote.”

The statement added: “If you want to track an MP, you can find out their personal website after typing their name in this website.

“In their personal website, you can usually find the time and location of their surgeries where you can encounter them in person.”

The site then listed the 139 Conservative MPs that voted for the war and the 244 Labour MPs.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Lutfur Rahman Will Not be Readmitted to Labour

There is “no chance” that the extremist-backed mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, will be readmitted to the Labour Party, sources close to the London regional party have said. A move by Ken Livingstone to propose Lutfur’s readmission at the 30 November meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee has also been blocked, the sources said. Livingstone, radical Islam’s single most important supporter in British politics, has been pressing for Lutfur’s rehabilitation after he openly campaigned for him during his election, against the official Labour candidate.

“The message has been passed to Ken very clearly from Ed Miliband that Lutfur will not be allowed back in to the party,” a senior Labour source said. “He has been told to shut up.” Livingstone himself was indeed notably back-peddling in today’s Evening Standard, now saying merely that “there is a lot to be said for letting all this calm down and seeing how Lutfur performs.” Livingstone also said he could not “put a timescale” on Lutfur’s readmission.

Two Labour councillors in Tower Hamlets, Shahed Ali and Kabir Ahmed, tonight pledged their “support for working with” Lutfur Rahman, though it’s not quite clear what this actually means. Mr Ali sent an email about 30 minutes ago to Labour members insisting that he has “not resigned from either the Labour Group [on the council], or the Labour Party.” I think that if you take a job with Lutfur, that’s exactly what you have done, Shahed!

I can quite understand why Mr Ali is a little confused by the matter of party allegiance. Like several of Lutfur’s other councillor defectors, this will be the third party identity he has enjoyed in less than four years. He was first elected for Respect, then defected to Labour (around the time that Lutfur became leader if my memory serves me right) and has now re-defected to the Independent camp around Lutfur. Party allegiances in Tower Hamlets are delightfully fluid — a year or two ago, one councillor defected straight from Respect to the Tories!

Over the last two weeks, Lutfur’s been waving around job offers to literally everyone in sight (even the Lib Dems and the Tories). The opportunity to receive lucrative special responsibility payments, er sorry the opportunity to bring all communities together in One Tower Hamlets, was bound in the end to net a few — though tonight’s two are not especially credible catches. As Winston Churchill said, you can rat, but you can’t re-rat.

More interesting are the strong rumours that Marc Francis, Lutfur’s closest supporter in the Labour group, may also announce his defection to Lutfur tomorrow. Mr Francis was a cabinet member and would break the, so far, 100 per cent Bangladeshi make-up of Lutfur’s ruling cabal. Let’s just hope he reads the first two paragraphs of this blog before he makes his decision, shall we?

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Mother-of-Two Lives in Britain’s Most Expensive Council House (Valued at £2.5m) For Two Years… Rent Free

Taxpayer-funded: Ruth Ben-Adir leaves her £2.5m council house in North London, where she has been living rent-free

With its fine gothic architecture and prime location, it is no surprise the charming Victorian lodge is valued at well over £2million.

Grade II-listed, it nestles on the edge of a 29-acre estate and boasts its own statue of Hercules. Neighbours include George Michael and Sting.

But it is, in fact, a council house — the most expensive in Britain — and a single mother has been living there rent-free for two years.

Ruth Ben-Adir, 46, moved into the three-bedroom property with her son Kingsley, 24, after town hall officials decided that the refurbishment of a sports centre next to their home in Kentish Town, north London, would disturb them.

The work finished three months ago, but the family is still living in The Lodge in Waterlow Park, in the Highgate village area in the north of the capital.

Property experts estimate it could fetch up to £2,000 a week if rented out — meaning their stay would have cost £208,000 if they had had to pay.

Council sources have also confirmed that the family has not been asked to pay rent on their original home.

Yesterday Tory councillor Andrew Mennear said: ‘This was a bizarre form of temporary accommodation and it has to come to an end. Did they just forget about them?’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Student Tuition Fee Protest Turns Violent as Tory Headquarters Evacuated

A demonstration against tuition fees by tens of thousands of students and lecturers descended into violence today when a group of protesters smashed their way into the headquarters of the Conservative party.

A number of police officers were injured after they came under attack from youths, some wearing scarves to hide their faces, amid scenes of chaos.

Eight people were taken to hospital with injuries after the violence flared at Millbank Tower, next to the River Thames in central London.

Hundreds of protesters stormed the building after smashing through the windows chanting “die Tory scum”.

Rocks, wooden banners, eggs, rotten fruit and shards of glass were thrown at police officers trying to beat back the crowd with metal batons and riot shields.

Inside the building, windows were kicked in, desks and chairs were overturned and the walls were daubed with anarchist graffiti.

Protesters set off fire extinguishers, overturned filing cabinets and threw office paperwork and business cards from the smashed windows.

Dozens swarmed onto the roof where they hurled fire extinguishers, burning banners, bottles and cans into the crowd.

Several people were knocked unconscious and some were seen with their faces streaming blood after being hit by missiles thrown by protesters

Placards and banners were being burnt, to cheers from the crowd, while protesters inside the building used chairs as they smashed and kicked their way through more of the glass frontage, effectively opening up the whole atrium to the crowd.

A confetti of torn newspaper rained down on the hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Millbank atrium after students gained access to the upper floors of the building.

Water also poured down on them, seemingly from a broken sprinkler system above.

A red flare was let off as the atmosphere within the crowd became increasingly volatile.

The crowd responded to the heavy police presence with loud booing, screaming and chanting.

Students who had got inside the building’s atrium tried to pull down the few remaining huge sheets of glass.

Others hurled stuffed pillows while the chants of “Tory scum” increased in volume.

A Conservative Party spokesman said that all its staff were “safe” but could not confirm whether or not they had been evacuated from the building.

he demonstration, organised by the National Union of Students and the University and College Union, had started peacefully, with up to 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters, marching from Whitehall past Downing Street and Parliament.

NUS president Aaron Porter said a small minority of protesters had “hijacked” the march, describing the violence as “despicable”.

He said the violence was not part of the organisers’ plans, blaming the trouble on a “small minority” he believed had arranged it beforehand.

“We talked about the need to prevent anything like this and how important it was to act in a responsible way. Unfortunately a minority have undermined us.”

An NUS spokesman said: “The trouble makers have let down students.”

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “The actions of a minority should not distract from today’s message. The overwhelming majority of staff and students on the march came here to to send a clear and peaceful message to the politicians. The actions of a minority, out of 50,000 people, is regrettable.”

[Return to headlines]



UK: Violence at Tory HQ Overshadows Student Fees Protest

There have been violent scenes as tens of thousands of people protested against plans to treble tuition fees and cut university funding in England.

Demonstrators stormed a building in Westminster housing the Conservative Party head quarters, smashed windows and got on to the roof.

Outside, a crowd of thousands surged as placards and banners were set on fire and missiles were thrown.

Student leaders condemned the violence as “despicable”.

They say about 50,000 people took part in a march through Westminster earlier.

A stand-off is still taking place between about two dozen demonstrators and the police, with 32 people having been arrested so far.

According to Scotland Yard, 14 people have been injured, including seven police officers. No-one was seriously hurt.

The vast majority of demonstrators had been peaceful, a statement said, but “a small minority” had damaged property.

At one point, a fire extinguisher was reported to have been thrown from the roof.

Embarrassment The police have faced accusations that they did not have enough officers on duty when the clashes erupted.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said the force should have anticipated the level of violence “better”.

“It’s not acceptable. It’s an embarrassment for London and for us,” he said.

“I am determined to have a thorough investigation into this matter,” he added.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “I am appalled that a small minority have today shamefully abused their right to protest.

“This is intolerable and all those involved will be pursued and they will face the full force of the law.

“The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has assured me that there will be a vigorous post-incident investigation.”

BBC News correspondent Mike Sergeant, who is at the scene, said protesters on the roof had thrown liquids down and a female police officer had been injured.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Van Rompuy: More Dangerous Than He Looks

Shabby and secret dealings between member states last year made Herman Van Rompuy president of the European Council. At the time, he was mocked in Britain largely because he was unknown, mouse-like and, well, Belgian.

But last night in Berlin, Van Rompuy showed what he really is. And that is, a dangerous, cynical man who intends that all of Europe should be turned into a vast version of Belgium, an invented country called Europe where the loyal feelings and patriotism of the ancient nations are suppressed — all replaced with a European nationalism.

Last night Van Rompuy gave a speech in which he condemned ‘the danger of a new Euro-scepticism. This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries. In every member state, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion. It is a lie!’ [Note, I can’t think of any state in the world outside Burma and North Korea that imagines it can survive alone. What Van R is attacking is any country and any people who imagine they are equipped to run their own state without an undemocratic superstate being in control. Damn shocking, those Swiss.]

‘The biggest enemy of Europe today is fear. Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism and nationalism leads to war.’

‘Today’s nationalism is often not a positive feeling of pride in one’s own identity, but a negative feeling of apprehension of others.’

Tripe. And I have to call it tripe, because in Brussels, ‘nationalism’ is not nationalism as we understand it. The word is used instead to mean any expression of rational self-interest by one country. It is used to mean any preference by any citizen for their own homeland or culture or political system over others.

Remember, the European Commission is the institution in which its employees are trained never to mention their own home countries if the word can possible be avoided — British eurocrats are trained not to say Britain but to say only ‘the country I know best.’ This is why the EU has rigged up the idea of dividing Europe into ‘regions’ which ignore, indeed, erase, national boundaries. This is why, under law, we are all called ‘citizens of the EU’ now. It’s not just a gesture, it’s a fact, and cynical creatures such as Van Rompuy means we should all become ‘citizens of the EU’ in every sense.

WE can’t say we weren’t warned. The day after Van Rompuy was appointed, Paul Belien, a Flemish historian and lawyer, warned readers of the Mail that the newly powerful president of the council was a man ‘devoid of patriotism and contemptuous of democracy.’

Belien has known and observed Van Rompuy since the mid-1980s. He called Van Rompuy ‘a shrewd manipulator, he will do all in his power to further EU integration.’

‘Van Rompuy is a product of the debased, corrupt political life of Belgium. Like the EU, it is an artificial construction, the result of political compromise and experiment.’

‘Because of this lack of real nationhood, Belgians despise their own state. But this unpatriotic attitude is precisely the reason why Belgian politicians have been so enthusiastic about the EU, in which they see the mirror image of their own fraudulent, unprincipled country.’

Which is to say, Van Rompuy is precisely the man to lead the Belgianisation of Europe. Make no mistake, the EU is an empire with global ambitions. It was no mere gesture that in his acceptance speech as president of the council, Van Rompuy extolled ‘global governance.’ Pay the man the compliment of believing he means what he says. And then be prepared to treat him as the dangerous, cynical anti-patriot he is.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]

Balkans


Serbia: US Defense Department Donates Equipment to MMA

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 8 — The US Department of Defense will donate 155,000 dollars in equipment for fighting pandemics to the Military Medical Academy (MMA) in Belgrade, the US Embassy in Belgrade announced, reports Tanjug news agency.

The donation protocol was signed at the Serbian Defense Ministry by Military Health Department Chief Jovan Maksic and head of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the US Embassy in Belgrade Lt Col Ryan Fayrweather.

The donation, another form of aid from the US Department of Defense to the MMA, is made up of personal protective equipment specially designed to combat and control pandemics, the Embassy said in the release.

The protective gear will be distributed across Serbia in line with the action plan for pandemic influenza.

“The partnership will boost the Serbian Armed Forces’ capability to handle biological emergencies and offer assistance in natural disasters in the region,” adds the statement.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Mediterranean Union


Library for N. African Children in Mazara Del Vallo

(ANSAmed) — MAZARA DEL VALLO (TRAPANI), NOVEMBER 8 — A multi-cultural library, with books in Italian and Arabic, has opened in the last few days in Mazara del Vallo, which is home to the largest Tunisian community in Italy. The library is destined for local and North African children up to the age of 10, who will be able to listen to fairy tales or read adventure and science books. The initiative is courtesy of a seminary of bishops and is called “L’isola che non c’e”‘ (The Island that doesn’t exist).

The library, which is currently on the first floor of the bishops’ seminary, features a bank of 400 books in Italian and around a hundred in Arabic, part of which were purchased by the seminary of Mazara, with the remainder the result of private donations.

For smaller children, up to the age of 5, there is a “cradle of hugs”, a kind of tent symbolising integration and dialogue between religions in which children can listen to fairy tales in Italian and Arabic thanks to volunteers of mixed nationality. “It is a literary cafe” for North African and Mazarese children,” says the director of the library, Maria Cristina Gallo, where the smaller children are stimulated to enjoy reading and mutual understanding. “L’isola che non c’e”‘ is also a space in which to socialise — over the Christmas period, we hope to organise a puppet theatre in Arabic and Italian”. “L’isola che non c’e”‘ is inspired by the national “Born to read” project, which is promoted by the association of the same name, by the Cultural Association of Pediatricians, the Italian Association of Libraries and the Children’s Health Centre. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Warns of ‘People’s Wrath’ if Polls Rigged

The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Opposition movement, on Tuesday warned the government of the “people’s wrath” if this month’s parliamentary elections were rigged, but ruled out violence by his group.

In a posting at the group’s website, Mohammed Badie said that the time had come to rally all efforts and forces to “safeguard the national ship before the (ruling) National Democratic Party sinks it.”

The Brotherhood is expected to contest 134 of the 508 seats up for grab, with its candidates running as independents to get around a ban on religious parties.

The group, which controls 20 per cent of the seats in the current Parliament, has accused the government of arresting dozens of its members since it announced it would run for election.

Dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has urged Opposition parties to boycott the vote but so far none has responded to his call.

Meanwhile, the Forum of Independent Human Rights Organizations, a coalition of Egyptian rights groups, charged that violations in the poll, “started early for these elections,” and warned that a government crackdown on Opposition candidates would seriously dent the credibility of the parliamentary elections.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Obama Enhancing Palestinian Positions Worldwide

White House ready to blame Jewish construction for failure of talks

The White House is working with the Palestinians to enhance their diplomatic stature in the U.S. and in European countries as a step toward the possible unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, a senior Palestinian Authority official told WND.

The official also said the White House is considering issuing a declaration in the coming weeks that will largely blame Israel for stalled talks to create a Palestinian state.

The statement, to be issued if talks don’t quickly jumpstart, will declare Israel’s Jewish communities in the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem to be a main impediment to an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Baghdad Christian Attacks: ‘Strategically Defeated’ Al-Qaida Return

Just over two years ago, the US intelligence community declared al-Qaida in Iraq a spent force. The words “strategically defeated” were invoked by generals and politicians to describe a foe that had the US on the run throughout five years of war. “Now they’re back,” says the head of Iraq’s interior ministry intelligence division, General Hussein Kamal. “It’s like 2004 again.”

As Iraq slides back towards sectarianism, al-Qaida has become a looming beast no one wants to speak of, while blaming everyone else for the rising bloodshed. A chilling picture of the group is taking shape — crystallised by the attacks on Baghdad’s Christians. Four weeks of interviews with the Guardian reveal an organisation that has emerged from a pounding from all sides — and a severe shortage of funds — to once again pose a lethal threat to almost anyone in Iraq. “They are capable and committed now,” said Kamal. “They are pure al-Qaida, not a mixture of groups like before.”

Throughout 2007, the Sunni insurgency was crippled by three factors. First, al-Qaida overplayed its hand in an area that had welcomed its members as guests and was taken on by its hosts, or forced out of town. Operations to clamp down on border crossings also started to work, coinciding with a decision by militant leaders to send jihadis elsewhere, especially Afghanistan and Yemen. The third factor was the US troop surge, which led to the deaths of thousands of al-Qaida loyalists and the detention of tens of thousands more.

Al-Qaida’s resurrection was rooted in its demise. “They used their time in prison to plot, appoint ranks, train and regroup for the mayhem they were always going to cause when they were freed,” said General Ahmed Saadi, commander of the Iraqi army 6th division. “Almost 80% of our arrests now are veterans of Bucca [the defunct US prison camp].” Since July, the group has launched brazen attacks on Iraq’s central bank, Baghdad’s military head-quarters and the city’s largest Catholic cathedral. It has also launched devastating days of bombings, at all points of the country in August and all around Baghdad’s Shia neighbourhoods one week ago.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Bombs Kill Six Baghdad Christians, Sow Panic

A string of anti-Christian bombings has cost six more lives in the wake of the Baghdad church bloodbath, sowing panic in Iraq’s 2,000-year-old minority on Wednesday, many of whom now want to flee.

“Since Tuesday evening, there have been 13 bombs and two mortar attacks on homes and shops of Christians in which a total of six people were killed and 33 injured,” a defence ministry official said. “A church was also damaged.”

An interior ministry official earlier gave a casualty toll of three dead in 12 of the attacks across the Iraqi capital early on Wednesday.

The attacks come less than two weeks after 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security personnel died in the seizure of a Baghdad cathedral by Islamist gunmen and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops.

On November 3, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the cathedral hostage-taking and warned it would step up attacks on Christians.

As Christian converged on their churches on Wednesday to seek counsel from their religious leaders, a Syriac Catholic archbishop made an emotional appeal for Western countries to come to their rescue.

“It would be criminal on the part of the international community not to take care of the security of the Christians,” Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka said inside the church targeted on October 31 where he tried to console his flock.

“Everybody is scared,” he said. “People are asking who is going to protect them, how are they going to stay on in Iraq. We are trying to encourage them to stay patient.”

The scarred church in the central district of Karrada became a focus of the fears of Christian families.

“For the past two years now my wife has been trying to persuade me to leave the country, but I didn’t agree,” said 42-year-old labourer Raed Wissam from the Dora district of southern Baghdad.

“Today, I feel sure she’s right because I don’t want to feel guilty if something bad happens to one of my children.”

Wissam said he was woken up at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) by an explosion. “I ran up to the roof to see what was going on and I heard three more blasts, with three Christian homes targeted. My two children wept.”

Emmanuel Karim, a 27-year-old IT worker, was about to go to work from his home in Camp Sara, central Baghdad, when a bomb exploded. The apparent target was the car of his uncle, who was among those killed on October 31.

“Fifteen minutes later, a second bomb exploded, killing a neighbour who was trying to put out the fire in the car … He was a Muslim. He was my friend,” said Karim, fighting back the tears.

He said devotees were gathering at churches to try to join the Christian exodus which has been picking up pace since the US-led invasion of 2003 of now violence-plagued Iraq, where their community’s roots date back two millennia…

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Iraq’s Christians Terrorized by New Wave of Bombings

BAGHDAD — Suspected Sunni militants took aim again at Baghdad’s dwindling Christian community, setting off a dozen roadside bombs Wednesday and sending terrified families into hiding behind a church where walls are still stained from blood from an attack nearly two weeks ago.

Five people were killed and 20 were wounded in the bombings and mortar attacks that targeted Christians across the city, police and hospital officials said. Iraqi Christians are already reeling after the earlier attack on a Sunday Mass service left 68 people dead, and many are now wondering whether it’s time to leave their homeland.

At a house on the grounds of Our Lady of Salvation Church, Karim Patros Thomas was under no illusion that the community is under siege.

On Oct. 31, Thomas’ brother-in-law bled to death on the church floor after militants stormed the building, shot congregants in the first row, held others hostage and then set off bombs when Iraqi forces came to the rescue. Then Wednesday morning, two bombs went off in quick succession outside his home.

“We are terrified,” Thomas said, who sought refuge with his family Wednesday at the church. “I cannot go back to my house. They will attack again. They want to kill us.”

A priest at the church, Moukhlis Shash, said four families arrived Wednesday, and he expects more in the coming days. He said some of the families found on their doorsteps a bullet wrapped in paper that read: “Your blood is legitimate for us.”

Security was beefed up around churches in Baghdad after the church massacre, possibly pushing the militants to target the homes as easier targets.

Several police vehicles, equipped with machine-guns, surrounded the church Wednesday. The building’s outside walls were still riddled with bullets. Pictures of two priests, killed in the siege, hung above the main entrance. Pieces of black cloth, each adored with a white crucifix, were tied to the metal fence surrounding the church.

Police said at least 11 roadside bombs went off within an hour Wednesday in three predominantly Christian areas of central Baghdad. Two mortar rounds also struck Christian enclaves of the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Dora in south Baghdad. Two bombs planted in deserted Christian homes in western Baghdad destroyed two houses.

The night before, a series of bombs hit three empty houses belonging to Christians but no one was hurt.

“It’s not worth staying in a country where the government is not able to protect you even when you are sitting in your house,” said Juliet Hana, a 33-year-old Christian who lives in one of the neighbourhoods targeted Wednesday. She was having breakfast with her daughter when she heard the bombs go off, and said she plans to leave soon for either Syria or Jordan.

Catholic officials estimate that more than 1 million Christians have fled Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Many went to Syria, which in recent days has seen a greater number of arriving Iraqis than usual.

Sargon Dawod, director of the Assyrian General Conference in Damascus said eight families — 30 people — have immigrated to Syria over the past 10 days. He expects that number to increase.

Fadel Mikha Sam’an, 66, said he went to Syria four days ago after losing three relatives in the church attack.

“The terrorists are killing Christians. They want to empty Iraq of Christians,” he said.

           — Hat tip: CB3 [Return to headlines]



Turkey to Set Up Trade Zone With Syria, Lebanon, Jordan

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 8 — Turkey and its regional friends Syria, Lebanon and Jordan are planning to formally create a free trade zone in January, and some analysts say in the future it could transform into a pact with political elements. The four countries in June agreed to launch the free trade zone to boost economic cooperation. On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York in late September, foreign ministers of the four nations met again to confirm their objective to create the trade area. Under current plans, as daily Hurriyet reports, the free trade zone will officially be created in early 2011, most probably in January, when leaders of the quartet meet for a summit in Istanbul.

Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Vatican Appeals to Iraqi Govt to Protect Christians

Six dead, dozens hurt in Baghdad attacks

(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 10 — The Vatican appealed to the Iraqi government to protect Christians after fresh attacks in Baghdad Wednesday left at least six dead and dozens hurt. The bombings of Christians’ homes came after an October 31 suicide bomb attack on a Baghdad church in which 52 people died.

“Iraqi authorities should take into serious consideration” new moves to protect Christians, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state.

He said the Vatican was concerned about recent attacks in Iraq and a growing exodus of Christians from Middle Eastern countries.

Bertone also cited attacks on Christians in other parts of the world, like Pakistan.

ITALY CONDEMNS ATTACKS.

Italy condemned the attacks and said it would urge the European Union to take up the issue.

The Italian foreign ministry “strongly condemns the attacks against Christians in Iraq,” said spokesman Maurizio Massari.

He voiced “strong concern over the situation for Christians in Iraq and more generally over the treatment of Christian minorities in the Middle Eastern area”.

Massari said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had requested the issue be discussed at the next European Union foreign ministers’ meeting.

He added that Italy was “in close bilateral liaison” with Iraqi authorities. photo: a bombed-out home in Baghdad

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Why Do Christians Remain Silent About the Persecution of Christians in Muslim-Majority Societies?

By Barry Rubin

Christians in Iraq have been, and not for the first time, deliberately targeted in a major terrorist attack. Indeed, from Indonesia to Pakistan to Iraq, from the Gaza Strip to Egypt to Sudan to Nigeria, Christians are being assaulted, intimidated, and murdered by militant Muslims.

Yet virtually never do Christians in any of these countries-perhaps with some occasional exceptions in India—attack Muslims. In the West, there have been no armed terrorist attacks on Muslims or the deliberate killing of Muslims. There does not exist a single group advocating such behavior.

Have you seen any of this in the Western mass media? Have any Christian church groups-some of which find ample time to criticize Israel-even mentioned this systematic assault? Indeed, on the rare occasions that the emigration of Christians is mentioned, somehow it is blamed on Israel, as one American network news show did recently.

I’m not writing this to complain about double standards, since one takes this problem for granted, but out of sheer puzzlement. Presumably, much of the Western media and intelligentsia-along with a lot of the church leadership, assumes that it is impossible for a non-Western, “non-white” group to ever be prejudiced. There is also a belief that if one dares report the news about pogroms carried about by Muslims against Christians it will trigger pogroms by Christians against Muslims.

The Catholic Church is quiet because it fears that complaints will increase persecution. Indeed, at a recent high-level Synod for the Middle East, leading Catholic clerics from the region blasted Israel and talked about how wonderfully Christians are treated in Muslim-majority countries. Iraq was singled out as a country where there were no problems in Muslim-Christian relations. Apparently, though, appeasement isn’t working.

The al-Qaida terrorists said that all Iraqi Christians would be “exterminated” if two “Muslim women” in Egypt were not freed. Apparently, these were two young women, both married to Coptic Christian priests, unlikely candidates for conversion to Islam. They were in fact kidnapped and forcibly converted.

Thus, aggression against Christians is turned into a rationale to persecute Christians, a pattern we have often seen used elsewhere by Islamists…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

South Asia


A Smiling Obama Returns to Bloody Jakarta

Indonesian genocide in East Timor

[WARNING: Graphic content]

The media narrative is that Barack Hussein Obama is returning to the place where he grew up as part of a diplomatic tour. The truth is that Obama is visiting a genocidal country and paying homage to its regime, even while many of the atrocities continue.

While Obama found time to blast Israel for building housing in Jerusalem, he made no mention of the Indonesian genocide in East Timor. No word about the Indonesian mass murder of between 100,000 to 200,000 people in a country whose population totaled little more than half a million. Shortly after Obama left Jakarta, the Indonesian regime began an occupation that lasted until 1999. An occupation armed and aided by successive US administrations.

But there is a reason you won’t hear about the meat hooks where Indonesian backed militias hung their victims, before mutilating and killing them. You won’t hear about the fields of the dead where the corpses of men, women and children were piled into mass graves. You won’t hear of the machete squads who hacked people to death in full public view and on video. You certainly won’t hear about the ethnic cleansing, the mass deportations, the gang rapes or even the murder of Western reporters. And there’s a simple reason for all that.

Indonesia is a Muslim country. Their victims in East Timor were Christians.

To understand the significance of Obama’s biography — imagine that an American President who grew up in Nazi Germany on the eve of war, wrote only about his idyllic childhood running around the streets of Berlin and learning to read Mein Kampf, and then returned decades later, with no concession that a genocide had occurred here.

[…]

You must be raped because you are Chinese and non-Muslim

The Kopassus special forces, Indonesia’s answer to the German SS, are still out and about. In 1998, Kopassus thugs gang raped hundreds of Chinese women in Jakarta. Some were burnt alive. The victims were as young as 10 years old and some were thrown into burning buildings afterward. The attackers proclaimed to their victims, “You must be raped because you are Chinese and non-Muslim.”

And because of that, because the perpetrators were Muslim and the victims non-Muslim, the whole thing was quickly swept under the rug.

This is the real Jakarta, the city of Barack Hussein Obama’s nostalgia. It’s the ugly truth lurking behind his “exotic” biography. During his remarks with the Indonesian President, Obama got laughs when he mentioned how much Jakarta had changed since he was there. Of course one of the reasons for those changes is that the 1998 riots torched many non-Muslim businesses. The ‘joke’ was akin to mentioning how different Berlin looks since Kristalnacht.

[…]

Ended a longstanding ban on US cooperation with the Kopassus forces

In July, Robert Gates visited Jakarta, and ended a longstanding ban on US cooperation with the Kopassus forces. This was obviously not done on his own initiative. Such a radical departure from established US policy would have come from the top down. And the top is the self-proclaimed Jakarta street kid, full of nostalgia for his former adopted country. Barack Hussein Obama.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: First Lady’s Handshake Uncovers Muslim Male Chauvinist

There was a recent major culture shock as the First Lady Michelle Obama shook hands with Indonesia’s information minister Tifatul Sembiring. Apparently any touching of women who aren’t family members is strictly forbidden according to Sembiring’s dogmatic male chauvinistic interpretation of Islam.

Now he’s stating that the First Lady made him do it, but that is not indicated in the video of the event. He shook hands with President Obama, no biggie on that one, and then shook hands with Michelle. What was he supposed to do, give her the snub right in front of her husband?

Some people are blaming the First Lady for not being aware of Sembiring’s culture. I don’t believe that this is fair. She is going through a whole line of people shaking their hands. How is she supposed to know which people, if any, are going to get all bent out of shape about it?

This demonstrates an enormous culture and values difference between equal rights-loving America and some religious leaders who are oppressive toward women. Should American’s have tolerance of any man who can’t shake the hand of a woman without feeling ashamed and complaining that she made him do it afterwards? What would John Wayne have said? Well, Prophet Muhammad said: “Women are the twin halves of men.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Muslim Minister Claims He Was ‘Forced’ To Shake Hands With Michelle Obama on Indonesian Visit

An Indonesian politician has come under attack for shaking hands with Michelle Obama, swiftly resorting to Twitter to announce it as forced contact.

Tifatul Sembiring, the country’s information minister, flaunts his conservatism, and as a Muslim he claims to avoid touching women who aren’t related to him.

Indonesia — which has the world’s largest Islamic population, the vast majority moderate — had been debating how to handle encounters between the First Lady and observant Muslim officials far in advance of the Obamas’ arrival in the country.

Sembiring sought to deflect criticism by claiming that Tuesday’s skin-to-skin contact was all Michelle Obama’s fault.

‘I tried to prevent [being touched] with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me [so] we touched,’ Sembiring tweeted.

Footage on YouTube shows otherwise, sparking a debate that has lit up Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the blogosphere.

The minister was among the dignitaries in a receiving line that greeted President Barack Obama and his wife as they arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday — a homecoming of sorts for the president who spent part of his childhood here.

Indonesians gathered around television sets across the country to watch the American president touch down. Children at the school he attended practised a song dedicated to him just in case he visited.

In footage of the official welcome, Sembiring appeared to share his countrymen’s enthusiasm. He smiled broadly as he shook the president’s hand and then reached with both hands to grasp Michelle Obama’s. But later he said she forced their contact.

His denial was in a response to tweets from Indonesians who noted the handshake and questioned his long-standing claims that, as a good Muslim, he restricts his contact with women.

Many posts had a ‘gotchya’ quality to them.

One female journalist — who said the minister had refused to shake her hand — gleefully noted that now he would no longer be able to wriggle out of it.

Sembiring has often tweeted controversial comments, including blaming natural disasters on a lack of morality and joking about Aids.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Obama Hails Indonesia as Example for World

US President Barack Obama has held up Indonesia as an example of how a developing nation can embrace democracy and diversity.

He was speaking in Jakarta on a visit to the world’s largest Muslim nation.

Mr Obama said innocent people across the world were still targeted by militants but emphasised that the US was not at war with Islam.

Analysts say it is his biggest attempt to engage the Islamic world since a speech in Cairo last year.

Mr Obama was speaking at the University of Indonesia, before an audience of 6,000 people. ‘Shared values’

In his address, he touched on the four years he spent in the country as a child and emphasised the importance of Indonesia’s example as a growing economy and a majority-Muslim nation that is largely tolerant of other religions.

“Today, I return to Indonesia as a friend, but also as a president who seeks a deep and enduring partnership between our two countries,” he said.

“Because as vast and diverse countries; as neighbours on either side of the Pacific; and above all as democracies — the United States and Indonesia are bound together by shared interests and shared values.”

He also highlighted the role religion had played in Indonesia’s development, praising the country’s spirituality and “rich diversity”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Obama Vows to End ‘Years of Mistrust’ Between West and Muslim World as He Impresses Indonesians With Local Language

  • Obama describes Indonesia as shining example of tolerance and democracy to other Muslim countries
  • President speaks in Indonesian, telling students ‘I’ve come home to the village’ after returning to country he lived in as a boy
  • He and wife fit in visit to mosque and university before fears Air Force One will be grounded by volcanic ash force them him to fly to South Korea early
  • Former neighbours reveal he was known as ‘chubby Barry’, the naughty ‘boy who runs like a duck’

U.S. President Barack Obama today vowed to try and repair relations between the West and the Muslim world in a bid to end the ‘years of mistrust’.

Mr Obama, who is visiting Indonesia, also said the world’s most populous Muslim country — where he lived as a boy — was a shining example to others.

In a speech peppered with Indonesian phrases, he said: ‘Your achievements demonstrate that democracy and development reinforce one another.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Singapore Airlines is Forced to Change Rolls-Royce Engines on Three Superjumbos

Singapore Airlines is to replace British-built Rolls-Royce engines on three Airbus A380 planes it was announced today.

A superjumbo was flown back to Singapore without passengers after oil was reportedly spotted on one of the giant turbines while at Heathrow airport.

Engines on this airliner and two others in Australia will be replaced with new versions of the same model which exploded on a Qantas jet last week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Tajikistan Recalls Students From Cairo, Fearing Fundamentalist Influence

Tajik authorities demand the return of more than a thousand students attending the prestigious al-Azhar University. Egypt so far has repatriated 134 students because they did not have a residency permit. Tajikistan fears extremist groups might recruit students. For months, the Tajik military has been fighting armed groups on the border with Afghanistan.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Tajikistan is recalling all its students attending Al-Azhar University, considered by most as the greatest place of learning in the Islamic world. For months, Tajik authorities have been trying to get Tajik students to come home fearing they might joint Islamic terror groups.

“On Monday . . . Tajik Airlines returned about 134 young Tajiks to the country from Egypt, where they were studying,” a spokesman for the Tajik Ministry of Religious Affairs said.

About a thousand Tajiks are studying at al-Azhar, and Tajik authorities want all them to come home. However, Egypt has only repatriated those who had entered the country illegally, and had no valid residency permit.

In August, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon went on television to urge families to stop sending their children to foreign religious schools (pictured madrassah), fearing they might be recruited by Islamic terror groups.

On 4 September, dozens of students and professors on an Iranian plane waiting on the tarmac of Dushanbe International Airport were forced to disembark because they failed to provide the Ministry of Religious Affairs with adequate information about the reasons for their trip to Iran.

Funded by Saudi Arabia, Al-Azhar has tried to distance itself from Islamic fundamentalists. In 2001, it branded the perpetrators of the attacks on the World Trade Centre as heretics. But its alumni include many militants, such as Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is currently serving a life sentence in the United States for his role in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings; Hassan al Banna, one of the founders of the banned Egyptian group, the Muslim Brotherhood; and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, one of the founders of the Palestinian Hamas.

Tajikistan is the poorest of former Soviet republics. It faces a terrorist threat, the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which claimed responsibility for an ambush on a military convoy in September that killed 28 troops. Tajik authorities also blame terror groups for a suicide car bombing the same month.

Since September, Tajik forces have been engaged in a sweep operation against militants in the Rasht Valley on the border with Afghanistan.

The two countries share a border of about 1,300 kilometres that Tajik troops are unable to fully control.

A civil war in the early 1990s is still fresh in people’s memories. At the time, supporters of President Rakhmon defeated Muslim extremists but at the price of tens of thousands of dead.

An Islamic university and about 20 official madrassah exist in the country. However, thousands of students travel to Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other countries for an education. Unofficially, at least 4,000 students attend religious schools in Pakistan alone.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



‘Touching’ Event for First Lady

WASHINGTON — Who made the first move?

A conservative Muslim government minister in Indonesia admits he shook hands with First Lady Michelle Obama, but claims it wasn’t his choice.

The minister, Tifatul Sembiring — who avoids physical contact with women outside of his family — said he tried to avoid shaking the first lady’s hand on an official receiving line when the Obamas arrived in Jakarta, but it happened anyway.

“I tried to prevent [being touched] with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me [so] we touched,” Tifatul wrote on his Twitter account after the incident. TABOO-BOO! Minister Tifatul Sembiring insists Mrs. Obama made the first move in a forbidden handshake in Jakarta, where she and the president arrived yesterday. Reuters TABOO-BOO! Minister Tifatul Sembiring insists Mrs. Obama made the first move in a forbidden handshake in Jakarta, where she and the president arrived yesterday.

But footage of the handshake on YouTube tells another story: The awestruck minister can be seen eagerly reaching out both of his hands to grasp the first lady’s hand while flashing a huge smile.

That sight prompted a wave of sarcastic comments in the blogosphere from critics who were shocked by the unexpected glad-handing in the euphoria over the Obamas’ visit.

One female journalist who said Tifatul had refused to shake her hand wrote that he would no longer be able to wiggle out of it in the future.

Tifatul, who is married with seven children and has a degree in computer engineering, has attracted attention before for some of his tweets, including one where he made a joke about AIDS.

In a land that has suffered from tsunamis and volcanoes, he has also blamed natural disasters on a lack of morality.

Once active in numerous Islamic organizations, Tifatul has proposed screening the Internet for “negative” content, but his proposal was shelved in early 2010 in the face of widespread opposition. His plan would have created a blacklist of offensive material to be monitored by a special task force.

The minister previously quoted Adolf Hitler on his Twitter page, posting “the union between two children, when both of them complete each other, this is magic — Adolf Hitler.”

The arrival of the first couple is big news on the island nation, the world’s fourth most populous country, which also has the largest population of Muslims.

At a state dinner yesterday, Michelle Obama wore a brown and black designer dress.

But her most vibrant display of the trip occurred while visiting Mumbai, when first lady joined in a festive dance during a Diwali celebration with Indian children, waving her arms and dancing.

She also played hopscotch and joined a drum and tambourine circle with kids.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


New Retreat From Global Warming Data by Australian Gov Bureau

Global warmers is in full retreat as Aussie experts admit growing doubts about their own methods as a new study shows one third of temperatures are not reliable.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) admits it was wrong about urban heating effects as a professional statistical analysis by Andrew Barnham exposes a BOM claim that “since 1960 the mean temperature in Australia has increased by about 0.7°C; the BOM assertion has no empirical scientific basis.

Barnham, who spent 8 years working in emerging South Asian economies building high volume transaction processing systems, applied a high-tech statistical technique very different from an earlier well-publicized probe by fellow Aussie, Ken Stewart on his blog, Ken’s Kingdom.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Teen in Coma After Bridge Plunge Attack

A teenager is in a coma after being thrown off a bridge and beaten by a gang in Sydney’s west.

The 18-year-old man suffered head injuries after plunging into a creek at about 8.20pm (AEDT) on Wednesday.

Police say he had been walking across a bridge from Mawson Street to Cabramatta Avenue at Miller with a 19-year-old friend, when he was approached by a group of five males.

There was an argument and a fight broke out before the victim was thrown over the bridge.

He made his way back up onto the bridge where he was then punched and kicked.

The group of five then fled the area on foot.

The victim was taken to Liverpool Hospital with swelling to his brain and fluid on his lungs.

He was placed in a coma and is in a serious condition.

His friend was not injured.

Police from Green Valley Local Area Command have launched an investigation.

They are attempting to identify and locate the five males, who are described as being of Pacific Islander appearance and aged in their early 20s.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Green Valley Police via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Immigration


UK: £1,500 Bribes to Send Foreign Inmates Home: Tories Adopt Policy They Called ‘Outrageous’

Foreign rapists and muggers are being offered £1,500 each in cash if they agree to go home part of the way through their sentences.

When they leave they receive a cash card loaded with £500.

A further £1,000 of British taxpayers’ cash will be payable within the first three months of their arrival home.

The card will be programmed to work in ATM machines around the world.

Details of the controversial ‘bribes’ emerged after David Cameron promised to get foreign convicts go home rather than clog Britain’s jails.

The payment is three times the amount of cash that was offered by Labour, which had a similar scheme to send foreign convicts home.

The offer is even available to criminals who have served their entire sentence in Britain — at a cost of £45,000 a year.

They will get a cash payment of £750.

In opposition, the Tories said the scheme was ‘simply outrageous’. Dominic Grieve, then Conservative justice spokesman, said: ‘The lesson is clear: under Labour, crime pays and the taxpayer foots the bill.’

Now the Coalition says the scheme will save money, because it is cheaper than forcibly removing foreign criminals or leaving them in jail.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Foreign Criminals to be Paid £1,500 to Go Home

Foreign murderers, rapists and other criminals are being offered cash bribes of up to £1,500 to return home after serving their sentences.

The Coalition has trebled the amount of money offered to prisoners who go back to their country of origin voluntarily Photo: ALAMY

The Coalition, which wants to ease the pressure on overcrowded jails, has trebled the amount of money offered to prisoners who go back to their country of origin voluntarily.

Those who agree to return with up to nine months left to serve will receive a bigger payout than those who go at the end of their sentence, in an attempt to create more space in prisons.

Hundreds of criminals who have no right to remain in the country are likely to take advantage of the offer each year, costing the taxpayer millions of pounds.

Critics attacked the payouts as “obscene” when law-abiding families and victims were facing higher living costs, falling wages and widespread austerity measures.

The incentives, first offered by the Labour government in 2006 in an attempt to avoid drawn-out deportation battles, were criticised by the Tories when in opposition.

Under Labour, most of the support was made up of benefits in kind to ease resettlement, such as help with setting up a business or obtaining training or education.

The most the criminals were offered in cash was £500. The money is put on a prepaid card which means the criminals can go straight to a bank and withdraw the funds.

They are given £500 as they leave the country and another £1,000 within a month of arriving in their home country.

All they have to do is explain to the International Organisation for Migration, the body which runs the scheme overseas for the Home Office, how they intend to use the cash.

The handout is meant to help freed prisoners pay for such things as accommodation, setting up a business or medical treatment but officials were unable to say if any checks were carried out to see how the money was spent.

Foreign criminals could squander the cash and try to sneak back in to Britain.

The payouts have been tied in to an early release scheme under which foreign prisoners can have up to nine months cut from their jail term if they agree to return home.

Those who go early will be eligible for the full £1,500, while those who go at the end of their sentence will be eligible for £750.

British prisoners are given a £46 grant when they leave jail.

Last year, almost one in three — or 1,660 — of the 5,535 foreign criminals removed from Britain went voluntarily after accepting a handout, including a Malaysian migrant, Agnes Wong, who killed a 17-month-old baby.

If a similar number goes next year the bill for the taxpayer will be almost £2.5 million.

In opposition, Dominic Grieve, now the Attorney General, labelled the scheme “simply outrageous” and meant “crime pays and the taxpayer foots the bill”. Damian Green, who is now the immigration minister, said the then government had abandoned any attempt at removing foreign criminals and was instead “paying them to leave”.

On Tuesday, he said: “Every day that a foreign national is held in prison costs the taxpayer money, that is why I want to see them removed from the UK at the earliest opportunity.

“The Facilitated Returns Scheme is a practical solution that not only saves the taxpayer money in the long run, but also means foreign criminals are removed as soon as possible, denying them the opportunity to reoffend or drag out the removal process with frivolous appeals.”

The Home Office said the move would save money because the overall value of the package had been cut. Under the old system, packages were worth up to £5,000 but the majority was assistance “in kind” which is no longer available.

Lin Homer, the chief executive of the UK Border Agency, told the Commons home affairs select committee the change was “due to the current economic situation”.

Philip Davies, a Conservative backbencher, said: “People say crime does not pay but obviously it does if you are a foreign criminal. It seems quite obscene that criminals are basically being given £1,500 bribes for abusing our hospitality and committing a crime.”

On Tuesday it emerged that just a third of the 1,013 foreign prisoners wrongly released without being considered for deportation have been removed from the country since 2006.

More than 400 have been told they can stay, 121 are still facing deportation, 22 are serving new sentences and 70 are still missing.

           — Hat tip: MarmedukeF [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


UN Facilitates Christian Persecution Worldwide

As if the United Nations’ failure to address the persecution of Christians weren’t bad enough, that international body’s resolution called “Defamation of Religions” will lay the legal ground work for a country to legalize persecution of their citizens if they believe in a different religion than the state. Such a resolution would be of great assistance to Muslim, communist and socialist nations who view the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible impediments to their political or theological goals.

Few should be surprised that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), an inter-governmental organization of 57 states with majority or significant Muslim populations, has been working for several years through the United Nations system to justify and advance the Defamation of Religions Resolution. The Resolution, introduced in the UN, seeks to criminalize words or actions that are deemed to be against a particular religion, especially against Islam.

Although proponents justify the “defamation of religion” concept as protecting religious practice and promoting tolerance, opponents say it really promotes intolerance and human rights violations of religious freedom and freedom of speech for religious minorities in these countries.

The Defamation of Religions Resolution has the effect of providing international legitimacy for national laws that punish blasphemy or otherwise ban criticism of a religion.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


Cricket Balls: Tiny Insect Named as Animal With the World’s Biggest Testicles

It may only be half the size of a human finger, but this cricket is hiding a big secret: it has the largest testicles in relation to its body weight in the world.

Scientists have discovered that the male Tuberous Bushcricket has testes which are 14 per cent of its whole body mass.

To put this into perspective, a man with the same proportions would have to carry testicles weighing as much as five bags of sugar each.

This beats a species of fruit fly (Drosophila bifurca), thought to be the previous record holder for the biggest testes as a percentage of male body mass, at 10.6 per cent.

But despite this, the bushcricket does not necessarily produce the largest amount of sperm — contrary to traditional thinking — according to the study.

The research, led by biologists at the University of Derby, is published today in Royal Society Journal Biology Letters.

Lead researcher Dr Karim Vahed, Reader in Behavioural Ecology at the university, said: ‘We couldn’t believe the size of these organs; they seemed to fill the entire abdomen.

‘We are also interested in the reason why they are so large.

‘An almost universal evolutionary rule appears to be that such variation in relative testes size is linked to female mating behaviour.

‘Testes tend to be larger in species where females are more promiscuous, as has been demonstrated in various species in fish, birds, insects and mammals.

‘But at least two hypotheses could account for this pattern — sperm competition on the one hand and male mating rate on the other.

‘Yet our study appears to be the first study to show that, in the case of the Tuberous Bushcricket, bigger testes don’t necessarily produce more sperm per ejaculate.’

In the study Dr Vahed, Derby biology graduate Darren Parker, and Dr James Gilbert from the University of Cambridge compared relative testes size across 21 species of bushcricket.

They found testes were proportionately larger in species where females mated with more males — female Tuberous bushcrickets mate with up to 23 different males in their two-month adult life.

But they also found the bushcricket did not produce more sperm — in fact they produced less ejaculate.

They said a traditional assumption was that larger testes produce more sperm per ejaculate, giving males an advantage in sperm competition.

That competition is most intense when a female of a species mates with many males, so the male who produces the most sperm is often assumed to have an advantage, leading to development of larger testes in such species.

But more promiscuous females also increase the number of mating opportunities available for the male.

So it is possible larger testes have evolved in species that mate with more than one partner, allowing more ejaculate to be produced so they can have more successive matings, the scientists said.

‘Traditionally it has been pretty safe to assume that when females are promiscuous, males use monstrously sized testicles to deliver huge numbers of sperm to swamp the competition — even in primates,’ Dr Gilbert said.

‘Our study shows that we have to rethink this assumption.

‘It looks as though the testes may be that big simply to allow males to mate repeatedly without their sperm reserves being exhausted.’

Dr Vahed added: ‘This strongly suggests that extra large testes in bushcrickets allow males to transfer relatively small ejaculates to a greater number of females.

‘Males don’t put all their eggs (or rather sperm!) in one basket.’

The scientists said their findings could give insight into links between endowment, promiscuity and reproduction within insects in the biological world.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Is Being a Goody Two-Shoes in Your Genes?

How likely are you to part with your hard earned cash for the benefit of those who are less well off? As with so many things these days, the answer to that question could be partly down to your genes — at least according to numerous news stories this week.

The reports come from research at the University of Bonn, Germany, led by psychologist Martin Reuter, which suggests that people with a certain variant of a gene called COMPT gave twice as much money to a good cause than those without the variant.

Previous research looking at a genetic basis of altruism has pointed to links between certain genes and altruistic behaviour, but the research relied on self-reported data — in other words, asking respondents how likely they would be to behave altruistically.

To get around this problem, Reuter’s team gave 101 people the opportunity to donate money they won in a computer based task to charity, or keep it for themselves. Participants thought that how much they donated was a secret, but Reuter reports in a press release that the researchers knew how much money was in the cash box beforehand and could therefore calculate the amount donated:…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101109

Financial Crisis
» Global Fed Bashing Casts Shadow Over G-20
 
USA
» Frank Gaffney: Politicizing the Pentagon
» Missile Shot Off Los Angeles Still a Mystery for Pentagon Officials
» Mystery Missile Launch Seen Off Calif. Coast
» Somali Gangs Trafficked Girls for Sex
» Soros Group Wants Obama to Rule by Executive Order
» U.S. Says it Will Tackle Discrimination, Prisons
 
Europe and the EU
» Brussels’ Archbishop Gets a Pie in the Face While the Choir Sings on
» French Export Drive Threatens to Crush Europe’s Eels
» Italy: Police Act to Bust ‘Gypsy-Mafia’ Drug Ring
» Italy: Police Arrest 16 Naples Terror Suspects
» Large Cardinals: Maths Shaken by the ‘Unprovable’
» Making Muslim Integration Work
» Netherlands: Wilders Trial ‘A Bit of a Farce’, Say Plaintiffs’ Lawyer
» Spiegel Interview With Geert Wilders: ‘Merkel is Afraid’
» Sweden: Malmö Shooter Suspect Remanded in Custody
» The Iceman’s Last Stand
» UK: Faith Healer ‘Died Under Torture’
» UK: Get Used to Cattle Class: MPs Warn Rail Commuters Face ‘Intolerable’ Overcrowding by 2014
» UK: Lutfur Rahman Council Promotes Extremist Preacher Who Supports Wife-Beating
» UK: My 13-Year-Old Pupil Swung His Fist at Me and Yelled ‘I’M Gonna Break Your Jaw’: One Teacher Exposes the Wilful Anarchy in Britain’s Wild West Classrooms
» UK: Measures to Prevent Violent Extremism Come Under Review
» UK: Scandal of Lambs to Eid Slaughter
» ‘Wilders is a Fascist’
 
Balkans
» EU Scraps Visa Requirements for Albania and Bosnia
» Europe Eyes Security Threat in Balkan Weapons
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» It’s Come to This: Muslim Website Selling “Virginity Capsule”…
» Obama Raps Israeli Plans for 1,300 Jewish Settler Homes
 
Middle East
» Carla Bruni Labelled Adulteress by Iranian State Newspaper in Stinging Attack on Sarkozys
» Lebanon on Verge of Collapse
» Making Sure it Won’t be Us
» Out of the Mouth of Al-Qaeda
» Pakistan: Safety Fears Cause Haider to Quit
» Radical Yemeni Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki Calls for Killing of Americans
» Sinhalese Muslim Teenager Sentenced to Death in Saudi Arabia. Appeal of Catholics
 
Russia
» Ukraine: Yulia’s Breath of Stale Air
 
South Asia
» India: Bedspreads, Ganeshas, Toys… Michelle Can’t Stop Buying at Crafts Museum
» Pakistan: Punjab: Christian Woman Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy
» Tajikistan Calls Students Home From Egypt in Bid to Prevent Radicalisation
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Caroline Glick: Out of South Africa
 
Immigration
» 1 in 4 Children Born in Nevada to Non-Citizen Moms
» ‘Arizona Style’ Immigration Law Proposed in Texas
» Illegals Made Democrat Governor in Connecticut?
» Immigration Minister ‘Weak’ Over Albanian Visas, Says Wilders
» Switzerland: The New Justice Minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, Wants to See Integration Measures for Immigrants Made Mandatory.
» UK: Labour MPs ‘Mutiny’ Against Leadership in Support of Phil Woolas
» UK: Sales Tag on Bride’s Dress? The Marriage is a Fake, Church Wardens Warned After Diocese is Targeted
 
Culture Wars
» Church of England ‘Is Like Failing Coffee Chain’ Says Bishop
» Family Minister Schröder Locked in Blazing Feminism Row
» German Family Minister Slammed for Comments on Feminism
» MSNBC’s New Lineup Includes Avowed Marxist
» Netherlands: PVV Biggest Party Among Homosexuals
 
General
» Margaret Mead’s War Theory Kicks Butt of Neo-Darwinian and Malthusian Models
» Thor Heyerdahl and Hyperdiffusionism
» Under New Plan, Satellites to Beam Solar Power Down From Space

Financial Crisis


Global Fed Bashing Casts Shadow Over G-20

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Growing criticism of U.S. Federal Reserve policy is fueling global tensions as leaders of the world’s largest economies prepare to meet in South Korea Wednesday.

Last week the Fed announced it would pump another $600 billion into the U.S. economy through the purchase of long-term Treasuries, a move known as quantitative easing, or “QE2,” since it is the second round of such purchases.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


Frank Gaffney: Politicizing the Pentagon

It’s bad enough that precious Pentagon resources are being expended supporting and securing President Obama’s pasha-like excursion to India and other Asian nations this month. After all, such expenditures come at a time when the defense budget is being dramatically cut — even as wartime operations continue in two countries.

Team Obama is simultaneously undertaking what is, arguably, an even more egregious assault on the armed forces: politicizing them in the interest of advancing a rank partisan purpose — appeasing homosexual activists who seek to make major progress on their broader political agenda by obtaining repeal of the 1993 law that prohibits them from serving in the military.

President Obama and his allies insist that that law — which is incessantly and incorrectly called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the nickname for a Clinton-era Defense Department regulation that was intended to undermine the statute by allowing gays to serve as long as they kept their sexual preferences a secret — is a throw-back to an by-gone era. In a way they are right…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]



Missile Shot Off Los Angeles Still a Mystery for Pentagon Officials

A video that appears to show a missile launch off the coast of California is so far “unexplained” by anyone in the military, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters Tuesday morning

Col. Dave Lapan said he is not able to concur with an official from North American Aerospace Defense Command/U.S. Northern Command who told Fox News earlier that there was “no threat to the homeland.”

Lapan said the military doesn’t know exactly what the so-called mystery missile was so can’t say it’s harmless.

A local CBS affiliate in Los Angeles on Monday evening captured on video the image of the “spectacular” projectile flying about 35 miles out to sea, west of Los Angeles and north of Catalina Island.

The Missile Defense Agency told Fox News it did not launch any test missile Monday night that could explain the dramatic images. The Navy and the Air Force were also unable to offer an explanation.

Lapan said it does not appear that whatever was flying was part of a “regularly scheduled missile test.” He noted that before a missile test, notifications are sent to mariners and airmen. This does not appear to be the case here.

At this point, the military is working only with video taken from the local news camera, and NORAD and Northcom apparently were not able to detect the contrail on their own.

It appears from the video, Lapan said, the object was launched from the water and not U.S. soil, though at this point there is no way to be certain.

If a test missile or an accidental missile was launched in the region it would have either come from Naval Air Station Point Mugu or Vandenberg Air Force Base. At sea it could have come from a U.S. submarine or a surface ship. But so far, it all remains a mystery.

           — Hat tip: Wally Ballou [Return to headlines]



Mystery Missile Launch Seen Off Calif. Coast

Military Mum on Nature of “Big Missile” Rising Out of Pacific

(CBS) A mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS’s cameras Monday night, and officials are staying tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.

CBS station KFMB put in calls to the Navy and Air Force Monday night about the striking launch off the coast of Los Angeles, which was easily visible from the coast, but the military has said nothing about the launch.

KFMB showed video of the apparent missile to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Ellsworth, who is also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, to get his thoughts.

Scroll down for KFMB video showing the launch.

“It’s spectacular… It takes people’s breath away,” said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, “a big missile”.

Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.

A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn’t their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening.

On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then.

Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.

When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia.

“It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that,” speculated Ellsworth.

Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America’s power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn’t believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.

Officially, at least, the projectile remains a mystery missile.

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]



Somali Gangs Trafficked Girls for Sex

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Twenty-nine people have been indicted in a sex trafficking ring in which Somali gangs in Minneapolis and St. Paul allegedly forced girls under age 14 into prostitution in Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

The 24-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, said one of the gangs’ goals was recruiting females under age 18, including some under age 14, and forcing them into prostitution so the defendants could get money, marijuana or liquor.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Soros Group Wants Obama to Rule by Executive Order

Organization cites mid-terms, claims progressives registered victory

NEW YORK — It was progressives who won the mid-term elections, particularly incumbents in a socialist-founded congressional caucus that emerged from last week’s ballots virtually unscathed, boasted an article published by the George Soros-funded Institute for Policy Studies, a Marxist-oriented think-tank in Washington, D.C.

The article recommends that President Obama govern from executive order to push through a progressive agenda.

“Progressives won in the 2010 mid-term elections,” wrote Karen Dolan, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, or IPS, and director of the Cities for Progress and Cities for Peace projects based at the radical organization.

“The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in the House Democratic Caucus at over 80 members, emerged virtually unscathed, losing only three members,” she wrote, in the piece published on the IPS website.

[…]

She went on to recommend that progressives “throw our support unabashedly behind the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and let’s push Obama to finally do the right thing through as many Executive Orders as we can present to him.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



U.S. Says it Will Tackle Discrimination, Prisons

(Reuters) — The United States promised on Tuesday to tackle racial discrimination and treat prisoners humanely in its jails at home and abroad, in line with recommendations by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

A U.S. delegation, responding to 228 recommendations made by other countries during a U.N. debate last Friday, said that the Obama administration was working to close its detention center for foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and would not tolerate torture anywhere.

But it rejected as “political provocations” recommendations about some judicial cases handled by U.S. courts. These had been raised by ideological foes including Cuba, which called for the release of five Cuban agents convicted of spying.

“While we are humbled by the work that remains, the United States is proud of our record of accomplishments, determined to extend it, and committed to continuing this dialogue,” Harold Hongju Koh, State Department legal adviser, told the council.

The Obama administration will give its formal response to the council at its March session, after U.S. agencies make a full review of the recommendations, he said.

The Geneva forum is gradually reviewing the human rights record of all 192 U.N. members over a four-year period to 2011.

The United States defended itself against criticism of its performance from friend and foe alike last Friday at the council. It joined the body last year, ending a boycott by the administration of Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.

“No Stone Unturned”

Many countries and human rights groups criticized the U.S. justice system as disproportionately jailing racial and ethnic minorities. Prison conditions are often inhumane, they said.

“We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to eliminate racial profiling in law enforcement, to ensure that juveniles in our justice system are treated with respect and to guarantee humane treatment in detention,” Koh said on Tuesday.

The United States was also committed to ensure all qualified voters could participate in elections and would enforce laws to ensure equal access to housing, credit, jobs and education.

“At a time when the U.S. has its first African-American President and Attorney General, a female Secretary of State, our first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and an Arab-American and two Asian-American cabinet members, we see visible progress in our national quest for equality and fair treatment,” said Koh, an American lawyer of Korean origin.

The United States, in its armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and against al Qaeda militants, abides by all applicable law, including those upholding humane treatment, detention and use of force, he said.

“The United States defends the legality under the laws of war of using detention to remove adversaries from the conflict, but does not — and will not — countenance torture or inhumane treatment of detainees in its custody, wherever they are held,” he added.

Jamil Dakwar of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement that the Justice Department should expand its criminal investigation of torture to include not just the interrogators who mistreated captives, “but the senior Bush administration officials who authorized and facilitated it.”

Bush said in his memoir “Decision Points” which hit bookstores on Tuesday that he approved a tough interrogation technique known as waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning condemned by human rights activists as torture, to try to extract information from al Qaeda operatives. He strongly defended it as critical to efforts to prevent a repeat of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Brussels’ Archbishop Gets a Pie in the Face While the Choir Sings on

[…]

The outspoken conservative prelate has been under fire from his brother bishops, Catholic publications and politicians for weeks for mishandling the Church’s sexual abuse crisis, [for] calling AIDS a kind of punishment for sexual freedom and [for] urging leniency for retired priests accused of sexually abusing minors in the past.

His spokesman quit last Tuesday, saying he could no longer work for a man he compared to someone who drives down a highway against the traffic and believes all the other drivers are wrong.

The series of misfortunes has now reached new heights — or lows — with the news that he got a pie in the face during an All Saints Day service last Monday in the cathedral in Brussels. A young person dressed in black ran up and “pied” him as he stood at a lectern while the choir sang a hymn.

[…]

NOTE: There is a video at the URL. The French word for this ritual pie-in-face is “Entarté”, or in this atory, making the rounds on French and Belgain websites, “ENTARTÉ!!!”

[Return to headlines]



French Export Drive Threatens to Crush Europe’s Eels

Tiny, slimy — and pricey. This is the glass eel, the baby of the critically endangered European eel. As market prices hit a record $2800 per kilogramme, France has blocked an agreement to stop European exports, crippling efforts to restock Europe’s increasingly eel-less rivers.

Eel numbers have fallen 99 per cent since 1980 because of pollution, overfishing and dams that stop elvers migrating up rivers.

Despite this, wildlife group Traffic reported last week that between 1998 and 2008, Europe exported 2 billion glass eels to stock Chinese eel-fattening farms, and caught a further 2 billion for its own farms.

Last year, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) said trade in eels should be controlled, and government scientists who advise the European Commission on CITES called for zero exports this year. But at a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, last week, France — Europe’s leading exporter — disagreed. As a result, no export quota was set.

This winter, France may resume exporting glass eels — elvers at the stage of leaving the sea, when they are translucent — says Vicki Crook of Traffic. If that happens, the record prices mean not enough eels will be left to restock European rivers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: Police Act to Bust ‘Gypsy-Mafia’ Drug Ring

Catanzaro, 9 Nov. (AKI) — Italian police early Tuesday sought to arrest dozens of members of the Roma Gypsy community in the southern Italy city of Catanzaro in an effort to break up what investigators say is a Gypsy-mafia drug ring.

On the orders of investigators, police conducted raids throughout the city located in the Calabria region. Many of the 70 targets of the pre-dawn operation were women allegedly involved in selling large quantities of cocaine and heroin.

Anti-mafia investigators say their probe has shed light on connections between some members of the Gypsy community and the ‘Ndrangheta, the name for the organised crime web in the Calabria region.

Tens of thousands of Roma Gypsies have entered Italy in the past few years since Slovakia and Romania joined the EU, and are being blamed by many Italians for much of the recent rise in crime rates.

The ‘Ndrangheta is considered the strongest of Italy’s top mafia crime networks that include Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and the Camorra from the Naples area.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Police Arrest 16 Naples Terror Suspects

Rome, 9 Nov. (AKI) — Police in the southern Italian city of Naples on Tuesday arrested 16 people, mainly North Africans, who are suspected of having links to a terrorist cell. Two Italians were among the suspects, sources told Adnkronos. The suspects allegedly provided logistical support to terrorism by abetting illegal immigration, forging and trafficking false documents and counterfeiting bank notes.

“The organised forging documents that abetted illegal immigration made it highly likely that the suspects helped subversive elements,” the source said.

One of the two Italians arrested was ‘specialised’ in forgery, police said. Most of the arrested North Africans were Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans, according to police.

The arrests were made during a counter-terrorism operation, code named ‘Matmata, carried out by paramilitary Carabinieri police. Police recovered forged driving licences, identity cards and official stamps during raids on dozens of properties.

‘Matmata’ followed an earlier investigation, ‘Full Moon’, which uncovered an a Salafite cell with operatives in Italy’s northern Lombardy and Veneto regions.

‘Full Moon’ led to the arrest of three Algerians and their conviction for terrorist offences.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Large Cardinals: Maths Shaken by the ‘Unprovable’

In the esoteric world of mathematical logic, a dramatic discovery has been made. Previously unnoticed gaps have been found at the very heart of maths. What is more, the only way to repair these holes is with monstrous, mysterious infinities.

To understand them, we must understand what makes mathematics different from other sciences. The difference is proof.

Other scientists spend their time gathering evidence from the physical world and testing hypotheses against it. Pure maths is built using pure deduction.

But proofs have to start somewhere. For all its sophistication, mathematics is not alchemy: we cannot conjure facts from thin air. Every proof must be based on some underlying assumptions, or axioms.

And there we reach a thorny question. Even today, we do not fully understand the ordinary whole numbers 1,2,3,4,5… or the age-old ways to combine them: addition and multiplication.

Over the centuries, mathematicians have arrived at basic axioms which numbers must obey. Mostly these are simple, such as “a+b=b+a for any two numbers a and b”. But when the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel turned his mind to this in 1931, he revealed a hole at the heart of our conception of numbers. His “incompleteness theorems” showed that arithmetic can never have truly solid foundations. Whatever axioms are used, there will always be gaps. There will always be facts about numbers which cannot be deduced from our chosen axioms.

Gödel’s theorems showed that maths meant that mathematicians could not hope to prove every true statement: there would always be “unprovable theorems”, which cannot be deduced from the usual axioms. Most known examples, it’s true, will not change how you add up your shopping bill. For practical purposes, the laws of arithmetic seemed good enough.

However, as revealed in his forthcoming book, Boolean Relation Theory and Concrete Incompleteness, Harvey Friedman has discovered facts about numbers which are far more unsettling. Like Gödel’s unprovable statements, they fall through the gaps between axioms. The difference is that these are no longer artificial curiosities. Friedman’s theorems are “concrete”, meaning they contain genuinely interesting information concerning patterns among the numbers, which must always appear once certain conditions are met. Yet, Friedman has shown, the fact that such patterns always appear does not follow from the usual laws of arithmetic.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Making Muslim Integration Work

Right now, virtually anywhere in Europe, elections can turn on debates over immigration and integration. In Sweden, extreme anti-immigration parties have gained a foothold in parliament for the first time. In Holland, the anti-immigrant and Islamaphobic Party for Freedom is now the third-largest, ahead of the traditional conservative Christian Democrats. In France and Belgium, debate rages over state bans of the veil, and Italy may be next.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said that multiculturalism had failed. In the United Kingdom, immigration was a key issue in the last election. Even in Switzerland, voters last year approved a referendum banning minarets, to the surprise of practically the whole European intellectual and political elite.

This is a big and growing issue, and it cannot be understood simply in terms of cultural questions about immigration.

In Pakistan last year, terrorism killed around 3,300 people—more than in Afghanistan. Such violence scars many other countries, including Iraq, Somalia, Yemen and more. In the conflict in Mindanao, in the Philippines, 150,000 have been killed. This violence is bound up with all sorts of political and regional disputes, but it feeds into the European alarm that immigration, terrorism, religious faith and ethnicity are all dimensions of the same problem.

The danger, certainly in Europe, is very clear. Especially in tough economic times, this issue can inject division, sectarianism and even racism into societies based on equality. Traditional political parties get trapped. Either they pander, but of course they can never pander enough; or they seem in a state of denial and condemn themselves to the position of out-of-touch elites. The backlash grows. The center ground becomes diminished.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Wilders Trial ‘A Bit of a Farce’, Say Plaintiffs’ Lawyer

The trial of MP Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination took a new twist on Monday when a senior court official wrote a weblog entry saying the legal proceedings should not have been suspended.

A special panel at Amsterdam district court halted the trial last month and ordered it start again with new judges because the chief judge had acted in a way which could be prejudicial.

But writing in his own name on the legal blog njblog.nl, high court advocate general Diederik Aben said the case against Wilders should not have been suspended pending the appointment of new judges.

Judge’s request

According to the Telegraaf, he wrote the item at the request of Amsterdam judge Jan Moors, who was at the centre of the controversy.

Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkovicz said it was ‘incomprehensible’ that a high court advocate general had made such a statement and said the trial had become a ‘farce’

Gerard Spong, a lawyer representing some of the people taking legal action against Wilders, said Aben was exercising his right to freedom of speech.

Nevertheless, the trial had become ‘a bit of a farce’, Spong said.

Re-start

The trial should be removed from the Amsterdam court and continued elsewhere with new officials, he said.

The public prosecution department, which itself had been forced to take the case by the appeal court, asked for all charges against Wilders to be dismissed.

It is not clear when the trial will now take place.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Spiegel Interview With Geert Wilders: ‘Merkel is Afraid’

In a SPIEGEL interview, Dutch Islam-opponent Geert Wilders discusses his fight for a Koran ban, why German Chancellor Angela Merkel is running scared on the immigration issue and his belief that the Netherlands’ debate over Muslims has now crossed the border into Germany.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Wilders, you are said to be the strong man behind the new Dutch government because the minority cabinet depends on your support in parliament. Why is your party, 65 years after the Holocaust, relying on outdated approaches — on religious and racial exclusion?

Wilders: We do not support religious exclusion — and certainly not racial exclusion. We have no problems with other skin colors, nor with Muslims — our problem is with Islam. Indeed, we are expressing exactly what many of our compatriots feel. We became the third strongest party during the elections in June and are now, according to the most recent opinion polls, already the second strongest party in Holland.

SPIEGEL: What do you have against Islam?

Wilders: Europe’s greatest problem — not just today, but already for decades now — is cultural relativism. This has led to a situation today where Europeans no longer know what they should be proud of and who they really are — because a so-called liberal and leftist-imposed concept says that all cultures are the same.

SPIEGEL: The same or equal?

Wilders: It has to do with what is described by the wonderful German word Leitkultur, which means “dominant” or “guiding” culture. I think that we should be proud that our culture is better than Islamic culture, for instance. Anyone who says this is not a racist, Nazi or xenophobe. Those are labels that have been put on many people in the Netherlands, Germany and England — just because we believe that Islam is a totalitarian and violent ideology. More of an ideology than a religion, comparable to communism and fascism. Islam threatens our freedom.

SPIEGEL: You maintain that Dutch culture is better than the culture of Islamic countries. Why do you consciously seize upon comparisons that degrade other religions?

Wilders: Anyone who compares the traditions of Judaism, Christianity and humanism with those of Islam doesn’t have to be an Einstein to see the difference. Do you know of a country in the Middle East where Islamic culture prevails and where there is a genuine constitutional state and independent journalism? Where non-believers, women and gays can do what they want? In the West people have given their lives for the freedoms that we enjoy today.

SPIEGEL: You do not acknowledge that cultures and religions can be changed by people. Isn’t that exactly how it was with the Catholic Church?

Wilders: Yes, but how long did it take? I am not saying that I want to ban Islam. I want less Islam in Europe — because it doesn’t allow any room for debate. By contrast, take Judaism and the life in the yeshivas: That is where they debate how the Talmud should be interpreted. With the Koran, however, anyone who does not believe every word is an infidel. And the punishment for that is well known: death.

SPIEGEL: You live around-the-clock with bodyguards and sleep in a heavily guarded residential complex owned by the government. When do you actually meet the people whose interests you claim to advocate?

Wilders: I take part in election campaigns. I show myself on the streets. That is nevertheless, admittedly, a strange sight: There are more police officers around me than you can count.

SPIEGEL: A costly burden for Dutch taxpayers.

Wilders: True. But the alternative would be that a democratically elected politician like myself, who has never threatened anyone with death, can no longer appear in public. In the struggle for the freedom of the Dutch people, I have lost my own freedom. I know that there can be no normal life for me, neither today nor tomorrow. But that is the price that has to be paid.

‘What We Have Witnessed Here Is Now Occurring in Your Country’

SPIEGEL: You are one of the most despised politicians in Europe. But in reality you love it when your arguments create a stir.

Wilders: People love or hate me; there is no gray area. My party and I are a threat to the political elite in many countries. But they will not stop us. Take a look at German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is now trying to create a copy.

SPIEGEL: A copy of your policies as you have just maintained, in all seriousness?

Wilders: Merkel is afraid — because there are opinion polls which show that a charismatic figure, if one were to emerge in Germany as I have done in the Netherlands, could count on 20 percent of the vote. I mean a figure without a far right-wing background — in other words, not from the Republikaner (REP) or the National Democratic Party (NPD). This represents a threat to the mainstream political parties, which is why they are now trying to copy us: Merkel has declared that the multicultural society has failed.

SPIEGEL: She also said that Islam belongs to Germany — and that we need additional immigration.

Wilders: Yes, but I have never heard her say before that the multicultural society has failed. And the majority of Germans reject the statement by German President Christian Wulff that Islam is part of Germany. This means that what we have already witnessed here in Holland is now occurring in your country as well — the political elite is in turmoil.

SPIEGEL: Who are you thinking of in particular?

Wilders: The head of Germany’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), Horst Seehofer, not only says that the multicultural society is dead, but also that he wants no more Turkish and Arab immigrants. If I said the same thing in Holland, I would be taken to court. When I appeared in Berlin in October, nearly half of the German cabinet voiced their objections — isn’t that a sign that the elite there are rattled?

SPIEGEL: You compare the Koran with Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Have you read “Mein Kampf”?

Wilders: Yes, but not in its entirety. The Koran has, in any case, more anti-Jewish passages. In principle, these are concoctions with a totalitarian approach, which allows no room for other opinions. Fascism, communism and Islam adhere to the same principle.

SPIEGEL: Your own principle is apparently this: The more drastic the comparison, the more headlines it generates.

Wilders: I don’t need headlines. For me, it’s the truth that matters.

SPIEGEL: The truth is that you are dividing Dutch society: Here in The Hague, nearly half of the residents come from immigrant families, and many of them are Muslims. And you are calling for the Koran to be banned?…

[Return to headlines]



Sweden: Malmö Shooter Suspect Remanded in Custody

The 38-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with the shootings in Malmö was formally remanded into custody by the city’s district court on Tuesday.

The man, named as Peter Mangs by the Expressen daily on Tuesday, is suspected of murder and five cases of attempted murder. He denied all charges in the hearing at lunchtime on Tuesday.

There was massive interest in the case at the court, with up to 70 people attending the hearing which was held in the court’s security chamber, including journalists from Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Mangs was driven by car to the hearing with a street behind the court cordoned off and a large number of police officers in attendance.

The prosecutor asked for non-disclosure, which is a more stringent restriction than confidentiality of investigations and meaning that details of court proceedings may not be revealed.

The court ruled that Mangs should be remanded into custody on probable cause — the highest level of suspicion under Swedish police guidelines.

According to Expressen, police have concluded after tests that at least one of the weapons licensed to Mangs matches bullet fragments found at one or more of the shootings of which he is suspected.

Skåne police spokesperson, Ewa-Gun Westford, declined to confirm the report.

Prosecutor Solveig Wollstad confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that suspicions against the man had strengthened and that he remains suspected for a further two attempted murders which were not addressed in the remand hearing.

Wollstad added that she was required to bring charges before November 23rd, but added that this would not happen and that an extension of the remand ruling would be sought.

Peter Mangs was arrested on Saturday after a tip from a member of the public. Police have confirmed only his age, that he “has a Swedish background” and that he does not have any previous criminal convictions.

A possible motive for the attacks has not been released by the police, but Mangs’ father was quoted by the Aftonbladet daily on Monday as saying that his son “lived in fear of immigrants taking over Swedish society.”

Police are working on up to 20 unsolved shootings that they believe may have been deliberately targeting people with immigrant backgrounds in the city. The suspect has been remanded in connection with six of the cases.

The murder occurred on October 10th 2009, when 20-year-old Trez Persson. The five attempted murders occurred, according to court documents, from October 10th 2009 to August 2010.

Malmö police have issued calls to the public to assist with information pertaining to the case.

The announcement spread panic in the city and a connection was quickly established with the case of an immigrant-shooting sniper in Stockholm in the early 1990s nicknamed “Laser Man.”

“Laser Man” was the nickname given to John Ausonius, who shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, around Stockholm from August 1991 to January 1992.

Ausonius, who got his nickname by initially using a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was sentenced to life behind bars in 1994 and remains in prison.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Iceman’s Last Stand

The story of a famous corpse gets a surprising twist

It is one of the most evocative ancient corpses ever discovered: a 46-year-old man with an arrow wound in his left shoulder, whose body and belongings came to rest in a high mountain pass some 5,000 years ago. Ever since hikers first spotted the remains of Ötzi the Iceman, as he is known, emerging from the melting ice in the Ötztal Alps near the Austrian-Italian border in 1991, scientists have been working to determine how he died and what he was doing in such a remote spot. The leading theory holds that he had fled there and froze to death after being shot with a bow and arrow during a skirmish with members of a rival tribe. A new study challenges this disaster scenario and suggests instead that the Iceman died in a fight in the valley below and was later transported to the lofty locale for a grand ceremonial send-off.

A team of Italian and American researchers reached this conclusion after analyzing the distribution of the Iceman’s personal effects, which include a backpack and other items traditionally construed as mountaineering equipment. They reasoned that if he died in or near the place where he was found and had been carrying his possessions when he died, then the melting and freezing cycles should have distributed the artifacts in a random pattern all around his body. In fact, the distribution pattern they found showed two distinct clusters of artifacts, one near some stone slabs, which they interpret as the remnants of a burial platform, and another in the nearby depression where the hikers found the Iceman’s body. The study suggests that his body and bulky accoutrements were deposited precisely on the small stone platform and later borne by flowing water to the depression. Furthermore, the unfinished weapons and grass mat that accompanied the Iceman are better explained as grave goods and a funeral shroud than as mountaineering gear. Earlier pollen analyses also indicated a delay between the time of death and burial. Taking this evidence together, the investigators propose that the Iceman passed away at low altitude in the spring and that his clansmen packed his body in ice until late summer, when they carried him up the mountain for a final farewell. Luca Bondioli of the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnology in Rome and his colleagues described the results of their study in the journal Antiquity.

Not everyone is so sure about these conclusions. Klaus Oeggl of the University of Innsbruck in Austria notes that the team has not supplied convincing evidence that the stone slabs represent a burial platform and that subsequent pollen tests have failed to uphold the original signal indicating a late summer burial. He agrees that a ritual of some kind would explain the presence of unfinished artifacts at the site but maintains that the disaster theory remains the best explanation. Still, he remarks, the new study is stimulating because it is the first to discuss the burial hypothesis extensively.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Faith Healer ‘Died Under Torture’

A faith healer found dead in Bedfordshire had been stabbed and beaten and salt rubbed in his wounds, a jury has heard.

The body of Alfusaine Jabbi, 22, was found in Luton’s Leagrave park in 2006.

Rubina Maroof, 30, who lived in Pembroke Avenue, Luton, at the time of Mr Jabbi’s death, denies murder and conspiracy to imprison Mr Jabbi.

Prosecutors have told Luton Crown Court he was tortured to make him repay money he had charged Ms Maroof.

Pathologist Nicholas Hunt said Mr Jabbi died from a loss of blood and internal bleeding caused by a combination of beatings and a stab wound.

“He had lost about half the blood circulating in the body, it was a very significant blood loss.”

‘Severe pain’

The court heard bruising to the back of his thighs would have required the kind of force similar to a road crash or a fall from a considerable height.

There was also bruising to his shins and other parts of his body, and evidence that his wrists had been bound.

Dr Hunt said salt was also found at the injury sites.

“The blows to the front of the shins were delivered deliberately to cause severe pain and the stab wound was to a very sensitive area of the body.

“I would expect the assault to have been very painful,” he said.

He told the court he could not give an exact time on how long it would have taken Mr Jabbi to die, but he “would not expect it to be rapid”.

The jury has heard from prosecutor Frances Oldham QC, who said Mr Jabbi was able to persuade vulnerable clients to part with large sums of money in return for his services.

She said these included promising to sacrifice camels in the Gambia and rituals involving wrapping sums of cash in clean underwear.

“We say that Rubina Maroof had given him a lot of money as a client and that money was needed back,” he said.

The trial continues.

           — Hat tip: GB [Return to headlines]



UK: Get Used to Cattle Class: MPs Warn Rail Commuters Face ‘Intolerable’ Overcrowding by 2014

Rail passengers face years of worsening ‘cattle-truck’ conditions despite soaring fares, a parliamentary watchdog warned today.

MPs say available space on trains could fall by up to a third, forcing rush-hour commuters to endure even worse levels of overcrowding.

They will face more ‘standing room only’ journeys, despite ticket prices increasing above the rate of inflation, warns a report by the all-party Public Accounts Committee.

MPs say the Office of Rail Regulation has failed to take control of the problem over the past decade.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Lutfur Rahman Council Promotes Extremist Preacher Who Supports Wife-Beating

Two weeks after the extremist-backed politician, Lutfur Rahman, became mayor of Tower Hamlets, his council has placed CDs of sermons by an extremist Islamic preacher in its Town Hall.

The preacher, Abdur Raheem Green, has stated that “Islam is not compatible with democracy.” He also says that a husband has the right to administer “some type of physical force… a very light beating” to his wife, to prevent her from committing “evil.” There is, of course, a considerable irony here. You may remember that Lutfur won the mayoralty with the help of smear literature falsely claiming that his Labour opponent was… a wife-beater.

The CDs are being handed out to council workers and visitors as part of an official council-sanctioned display mounted in the Town Hall reception area from last week by an organisation called One Reason. Two councillors have been given them and have passed them to me.

One Reason’s website includes a link allowing you to order the Green CD and a clip of one of Green’s sermons. The YouTube link from One Reason’s homepage connects to the YouTube channel of an organisation called iERA, whose advisers include

  • Green;
  • Bilal Philips, described by the US an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center;
  • Zakir Naik, banned from the UK for saying that “every Muslim should be a terrorist;”
  • Haitham al-Haddad, who believes that music is a “prohibited and fake message of love and peace;” and
  • Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, another man with extremist connections.

Several of these people have also preached at the hardline East London Mosque, the chaps whose backing for Lutfur has proved so important in his political career.

As I showed in August, iERA successfully duped the Guardian newspaper into reporting, on the basis of its research, that 75% of people believed Muslims had made a negative contribution to British society (the actual figure was less than half that.) iERA’s agenda, there as elsewhere, is to foster distrust, division and suspicion between communities in much the same way as the BNP.

In a piece I think even he may come to be embarrassed by, another Guardian writer, Dave Hill, today continues his inexplicable one-man effort to whitewash Rahman. Lutfur will, we learn, “reach out to every community” and “lead by example.” He is, we’re told, a “first-class chap” and a “good person.” If only Dave had taken the trouble to look around him when he was waiting in reception for his PR chat, he might have seen just who Lutfur’s council is in fact “reaching out” to.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: My 13-Year-Old Pupil Swung His Fist at Me and Yelled ‘I’M Gonna Break Your Jaw’: One Teacher Exposes the Wilful Anarchy in Britain’s Wild West Classrooms

To my everlasting shame, I left a teaching job because I was scared of a child. Although he was only 13, Ralph was a well-built boy who was known for taking an irrational dislike to new teachers. Unfortunately, he displayed a greater antagonism towards me than to any of the other five supply teachers at his West Yorkshire school.

Retreating to the back of the class during lessons, he’d proclaim my failings to the other pupils — ‘Mr Carroll stinks of s***’; ‘Sir’s a virgin’; ‘Don’t listen to him. He’s only a supply teacher — he don’t know nothing.’

If I told him to be quiet, he spoke louder; if I ignored him, he laughed. I wished I could send him out, but the head had made it clear that once the pupils were in a classroom, we had to do our best to keep them there.

[…]

And I’d been shocked to discover that almost half of all England’s newly qualified teachers are now leaving the profession within five years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Measures to Prevent Violent Extremism Come Under Review

A review of policies to prevent extremism will look at prisons, universities and mosques, the Home Secretary has announced.

Theresa May said Lord Carlile, the outgoing terror laws watchdog, would look at the policies launched in the wake of the 7/7 London attacks.

Ministers say a review is needed as the policies are not working as well as they could.

Mrs May also named David Anderson QC as the new reviewer of terrorism laws.

Lord Carlile’s last task as the outgoing watchdog would be to look at the arrests and subsequent release of six men under terrorism laws during the Pope’s visit to the UK.

The government’s policy to prevent violent extremism, commonly known as Prevent, is a key plank of the wider counter-terrorism strategy.

Announcing the review, Mrs May said in a written ministerial statement that there was no question that the UK needed to take steps to deal with the causes as well as the symptoms of terrorism.

But she added: “We want to avoid the mistakes of the previous government. The new Prevent strategy will follow the principles of our counter-terrorism legislation.

“It will be proportionate to the specific challenge we face; it will only do what is necessary to achieve its specific aims; and it will be more effective.”

The review is expected to focus on a number of key areas including work in prisons, universities and how best to enlist Muslim community organisations, such as mosques. It will also look at the role of the police and other bodies.

Lord Carlile will also be asked to look at how domestic Prevent strategies can be joined up with counter-terrorism work overseas.

Mrs May also said that the government’s revised Prevent programmes would be separated from work on community cohesion and integration undertaken by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

‘Stigmatising’ claims In a report last March, the cross-party Communities and Local Government Committee attacked the former government’s approach, saying Prevent had stigmatised and alienated Muslims.

The MPs said that the politices had tainted many local projects that would have been otherwise seen as playing an important role in strengthening communities.

In her first speech on counter-terrorism last week, Mrs May echoed that concern when she pledged that the coalition government would not “securitise our integration strategy”, adding there had to be a new dialogue and relationship between government and Muslim communities.

At the same time, there has been a growing debate in higher education over how to prevent extremists grooming potential recruits on university campuses — although the exact nature of the threat has so far proved difficult to quantify.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Scandal of Lambs to Eid Slaughter

Recent news reports reveal that there has been a surge in the trade of live Irish lambs to the Middle East in the past few weeks as the last of the Muslim festivals, Eid al-Adha, approaches.

Live exporters have drastically increased activity and have been sourcing and purchasing large numbers of lambs over the last two weeks.

Does nobody care?

How can it be morally acceptable to transport large numbers of lambs on journeys of several days simply to satisfy a religious custom of ritual slaughter? Are there no ethical standards in the Irish farming industry at all?

It’s bad enough exporting calves and cattle to European countries but young lambs to the Middle East, where their throats will be slit while fully conscious?

How can this be justified? One treads on delicate ground when questioning any aspect of Muslim culture, but it’s impossible to remain silent when thousands of Irish lambs are subjected to such an appalling fate.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



‘Wilders is a Fascist’

Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party is a fascist movement. That’s according to Dutch philosopher Rob Riemen in an essay sent to all members of parliament. He says he cannot understand why people are afraid to call a spade a spade.

Up until the 1990s, World War II and the catastrophe of fascism and Nazism were the ultimate moral benchmark in Dutch politics. However, since the debate about immigration and the rise of Geert Wilders, it has become taboo to mention this. Any comparison of Wilders’ anti-Islamic party with fascism was regarded as muddying the waters.

Nonsense, says Rob Riemen, Wilders is simply a fascist.

“I don’t mean that as a term of abuse, it’s an objective historical judgment. There are numerous parallels between fascism then and now. History is there to learn from and, if we don’t, we will make the same mistakes.”

Crisis

Rob Riemen is the founder of the prestigious Nexus Institute which organises symposia each year at which leading thinkers like Jürgen Habermass and Francis Fukoyama examine the major issues of our time. His essay is entitled The Eternal Recurrence of Fascism.

According to Riemen fascism is not a genuine ideology with a vision of how society should be organised. It’s a political technique, a way of dealing with certain symptoms of crisis in society. It is characterised by appeals to feelings of unease — fear, loathing and hatred. It always identifies a scapegoat — Jews, blacks, Muslims — who are them blamed for everything. There is always a charismatic leader too and the movement is anti-democratic and anti-elitist.

Geert Wilders, he says, meets all these criteria.

“What you can clearly see with Wilders is the cultivation fo feelings of unease and fear in society. Societal unease is blamed on a single scapegoat, Muslims. He is also an authoritarian, charismatic leader who has little time for democracy. As with the fascists in the 1930s, the Freedom Party is more a movement than a party and Wilders avoids all debate with his opponents outside of parliament.”…

[Return to headlines]

Balkans


EU Scraps Visa Requirements for Albania and Bosnia

Albania and Bosnia are soon to join other Balkan countries in enjoying visa-free travel to the European Union, EU interior ministers announced Monday. The ministers also discussed plans to tighten air cargo security.

Interior ministers of the European Union’s 27 member states unanimously agreed on Monday to eliminate visa requirements for citizens of Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Under the agreement, Albanians and Bosnians with biometric passports would be able to travel to the 25 EU nations in the border-free Schengen zone, which excludes Ireland and the United Kingdom, for up to three months.

The decision came after France, Germany and the Netherlands expressed concerns that there could be an increase in unfounded asylum claims from the two countries.

The EU got rid of visa requirements for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia late last year, apparently leading to an influx of asylum seekers from Serbia and Macedonia.

European Commission could roll back decision

The ministers stipulated that the European Commission could “propose the suspension of visa-free travel” if it felt that citizens of the two countries were abusing the system.

“It is of the utmost importance that Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina continue to intensify their information campaign with the aim to properly explain to their citizens the meaning of short-term visa-free travel,” Cecilia Malmstrom, EU commissioner for home affairs, said in a statement. “A visa-free regime also comes with responsibilities.”

Malmstrom said the European Parliament and the bloc’s member states must still approve the proposal, and that it could enter into force as early as mid-December.

It would leave Kosovo, whose independence is not recognized by all EU states, as the only Balkan country without visa-free travel in the EU.

Both Bosnia and Albania hope to join the EU, but face years of tough democratic reforms before they will likely be able to do so…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Europe Eyes Security Threat in Balkan Weapons

BELGRADE/SARAJEVO: Security experts concerned that the next militant attack in Europe could be a Mumbai-style commando raid are looking at the Balkans as a likely place for them to find weapons quietly and efficiently.

Western governments and intelligence sources have stepped up warnings recently of preparations for attacks in Europe and the United States, and said the attackers might emulate the 2008 assault on Mumbai’s financial district in which 166 were killed.

Experts have said strict gun controls, heavy surveillance of miltant groups and police penetration of crime gangs are deterrents to buying weapons in most of Europe, but noted that a gap remains — in the Balkans.

“The smallest problem for terrorists is to get weapons and ammunition here,” Adem Huskic, a member of Bosnia’s central parliament commission for security and defence, told Reuters.

Millions of pieces of small arms and ammunition remain unaccounted for since the collapse of the former communist Yugoslav army and a decade of wars in the 1990s.

“Between 1991 and 1999, almost everyone in war zones had a weapon, issued with little or no control,” said a Belgrade-based businessman and a former weapons trader with the now-defunct state-run ZINVOJ military industrial conglomerate.

In addition, thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance and millions of landmines remain on former frontlines or are held by individuals in the Balkans after successive 20th-century wars.

The region’s gun culture and its many organised crime gangs also help to make it a potential source of arms for militants.

“I’m sure the Balkans could be a good source of assault rifles, as indeed they have been for all sorts of other weaponry over the years,” Peter Clarke, former head of the London Metropolitan Police’s Anti-Terrorism Branch, told Reuters.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


It’s Come to This: Muslim Website Selling “Virginity Capsule”…

It’s a vaginal suppository capsule full of red dye that simulates blood, it’s sad but something so simple can save a woman’s life in the Islamic world…

[…]

According to Elaph.com (Arabic), a capsule is being sold in Arab communities in the Middle East — including in Israel — that is inserted vaginally before the wedding night. It then explodes, giving off a red dye that resembles blood, thus potentially saving the woman’s life, as well as her reputation.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Obama Raps Israeli Plans for 1,300 Jewish Settler Homes

US President Barack Obama has criticised Israeli plans to build some 1,300 settler homes in East Jerusalem.

Speaking in Indonesia, he said neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were making the extra effort needed for a breakthrough in stalled peace talks.

The chief Palestinian negotiator has urged the international community to recognise a Palestinian state in response to Israel’s latest plans.

The row over settlements has caused the re-launched peace talks to break down.

The Palestinians are refusing to go back to the negotiations without a stop to settlement building on the territory they want as their future state.

Constructing settlements on occupied Palestinian land is illegal under international law, but Israel disputes this.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has previously floated the idea of going to the United Nations to declare statehood as one option if peace talks collapse, but only after seeking support from Washington.

‘Not helpful’ Speaking in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, President Obama said Israeli settlement building was “never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations”.

“I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough that could finally create a framework for a secure Israel living side by side in peace with a sovereign Palestine,” he added.

The Palestinians meanwhile, said the world must recognise Palestinian statehood in response to Israel’s decision to build the 1,300 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlements of Har Homa and Ramot.

“This latest unilateral Israeli act necessitates dramatic international action for immediate recognition of the Palestinian state [based] on the 4 June 1967 borders,” chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.

Also on Tuesday, reports said a further 800 units were planned in the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Carla Bruni Labelled Adulteress by Iranian State Newspaper in Stinging Attack on Sarkozys

Iran has launched a second scathing barrage of insults at French First Lady Carla Bruni — branding her an adulteress with a ‘vastly immoral lifestyle’.

The hardline newspaper Kayhan — the mouthpiece of the extremist Islamic regime — also claimed President Nicolas Sarkozy had said he would be ‘happy if his wife died’.

The verbal onslaught comes after both Sarkozy and Bruni had pleaded with Iran not to stone to death 43-year-old mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, accused of cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him.

Bruni signed a petition in August calling for Sakineh’s release, and saying: ‘I just can’t see what good could come out of this macabre ceremony, whatever the judicial reasons put forward to justify it.’

Her stance prompted the Kayhan newspaper to label her a prostitute and a hypocrite for her own ‘marital infidelities’.

Earlier this month President Sarkozy warned Iran that diplomatic relations will be frozen if the death sentence on Sakineh is carried out.

Kayhan has now retorted with a further tirade of vitriol aimed at Bruni and Sarkozy.

It wrote in an editorial this week: ‘Sarkozy speaks up to defend an murderous and unfaithful woman in Iran while it emerges he is apparently very unhappy with his own third wife Carla Bruni, because of her infidelity and vastly immoral lifestyle.

‘It’s for this reason that he says that even if Bruni dies, not only would this not sadden him, it would actually make him happy.

‘Sarkozy, after having cheated on and divorced his first two wives, then married the Italian Bruni who has surpassed even him in the area of infidelity.’

Kayhan aims to ‘defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution’ and is directly under the supervision of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Lebanon on Verge of Collapse

Nation’s pro-Western chief could be replaced

The pro-Western government of Lebanese Prime Minister Raad Hariri is on the verge of collapse, according to warnings from sources close to the issues at hand, says a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Those sources close to Hezbollah as well as a close armed ally, the National Syrian Socialist Party, have told the G2Bulletin that Hariri could be forced to resign within three weeks, although the resignation would not be through military force.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Making Sure it Won’t be Us

One of the happiest consequences of last week’s Republican tsunami is that Long Island’s Rep. Peter King is set to regain the chairmanship of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

This will make America safer — by restoring to a critical Capitol Hill post a man who fully comprehends the threat to the nation posed by radical Islam.

Someone, in other words, who gets it when US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — linked to the Fort Hood massacre and the failed Christmas and Times Square bombings — declares, as he did last weekend, that Muslims should not hesitate to kill Americans because “it is either them or us.”

And who, as his past record shows, refuses to be intimidated.

(The notorious Council on American-Islamic Relations has publicly blasted King as “bigoted” — a mark of honor in our book.)

Certainly, the Democrats who’ve run the Homeland Security Committee for the past four years never got it.

As King wrote on these pages yesterday, the committee held no hearings on the Fort Hood massacre or on Gitmo detainees — focusing instead on Hurricane Katrina, workplace diversity at the Department of Homeland Security and other non-terrorism issues.

It held no hearings on how Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, who was known to US intelligence and Army brass as a self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist, was allowed the freedom to open fire on US troops last year, killing 13 of them.

It held no hearings on why Gen. George Case, the Army chief of staff, could only talk about what a “shame” it would be “if our diversity became a casualty” of Fort Hood — even as his soldiers were still wiping up the blood from the floor.

King, happily, vows to change that.

He promises to hold hearings on Fort Hood — including “al Qaeda’s tactic of recruiting and radicalizing individuals residing in America.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Out of the Mouth of Al-Qaeda

Samir Khan who came to America at the age of seven, referred to himself as “A typical American Kid”, according to a NY Times article by Michael Moss October 15, 2007.

How does one go from being “a typical American kid” to becoming the al-Qaeda English spokesman and web designer?

Following his time-line and the groups he associated with can not only help us understand the road to terror, but can also give us some insight on the organizations that are operating freely in this country that take people down that road.

Samir Khan was born in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, when he was 7 his family moved to New York City and settled into the Queens neighborhood of Maspeth.

In August 2001 at the age of15, he went for one week to summer camp at a mosque in Queens, which was sponsored by the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA).

According to the ‘background’ tab in the IONA website, the organization now known as Islamic Organization of North America started as the Markazi Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Qur’an Lahore (Society of the Servants of Al-Qur’an) which was established in 1972.

The Tanzeem-e-Islami (Islamic Organization) was then founded in 1975, and Tahreek-e-Khilafat Pakistan (Khilafah Movement) was launched in 1991 out of the Tanzeem-e-Islami Pakistan. In 1993, Tanzeem-e-Islami North America, or T.I.N.A. was established.

In 2003 T.I.N.A. became independent from Tanzeem-e-Islami Pakistan. It is now known as the Islamic Organization of North America (Al-Tanzeem Al-Islami Amrika Al-Shamaliah) or IONA.

So, basically in simple terms, the IONA grew out of Tanzeem-e-Islami Pakistan.

The ‘Objective’ tab on their website is pure Sharia (Islamic law), here is the page in full,

The obligations of a Muslim as ordained by the Qur’an and Sunnah, can be understood as having four levels:

A Muslim is required to develop real faith and conviction (iman) in one’s heart

A Muslim is required to live a life of complete submission to the will of Allah (SWT)

A Muslim is required to propagate and disseminate the message of Islam to the entire humanity

A Muslim is required to try his utmost in establishing the Just Islamic Order

The fundamental objective of establishing IONA is to assist the Muslims in North America to uphold and implement these obligations first on themselves, next on their families, inform their friends and then to invite the non-Muslims to Islam. The ultimate goal is to seek Allah (SWT)’s pleasure and salvation in the Hereafter.

Required to live a life of complete submission to the will of Allah and required to try his utmost in establishing the Just Islamic Order?

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Safety Fears Cause Haider to Quit

Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider today retired from international cricket after admitting he feared for his safety and that of his family.

Haider yesterday left the Pakistan team hotel in Dubai just hours before the fifth and final one-day international against South Africa and flew to London after receiving death threats following his part in Pakistan’s victory in the fourth ODI, in which he made 19 not out and hit the winning runs.

He said he did not want to “sell out the dignity and respect of my motherland” by agreeing to throw matches and that and the threats of violence prompted today’s decision.

The 24-year-old told Geo News: “I have decided it is best for me to retire from international cricket since my family and I are constantly getting threats.

“It is best for me to step down because I can’t play in these circumstances.

“But I would like to continue to play domestic cricket.

“I received death threats to lose the fourth and fifth one-day internationals against South Africa, but I could not compromise the dignity of my country.

“I would rather flee away than sell out the dignity and respect of my motherland.

“I can assure you that I am safe and sound. I’m not under arrest but I cannot say where I am hiding for the sake of protection of my life.”

Haider revealed his problems started when he was approached by an unknown individual prior to the fourth game in the United Arab Emirates.

“When I went out of the hotel to eat dinner once, he came up,” he said.

“He was alone but I felt there were two to three people behind him.

“I can describe him. He spoke Urdu but I cannot describe the accent accurately.

“He said you will make lots of money if you join us and help us.

“If not, then staying in the team could be difficult and we can make things difficult for you.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Radical Yemeni Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki Calls for Killing of Americans

A US-born radical Yemeni cleric has called for the killing of Americans in a new video message posted on radical web sites on Monday.

Anwar al-Awlaki said Americans are from the “party of devils” and so don’t require any special religious permission to kill.

In the 23-minute Arabic language message entitled “Make it known and clear to mankind,” al-Awlaki said it was “either them or us”. He also called all Arab and Yemeni leaders “corrupt” and said it was time for religious scholars to take charge.

“Kings, emirs, and presidents are not now qualified to lead the nation, or even a flock of sheep,” he said. “If the leaders are corrupt, the scholars have the responsibility to lead the nation.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Sinhalese Muslim Teenager Sentenced to Death in Saudi Arabia. Appeal of Catholics

Fr. George Sigamony, director of Caritas Sri Lanka, calls on all Catholics to pray after the verdict that decrees the death sentence for Rizana, just 17 years old, in prison on false charges of murder. The Asian Human Rights Commission: “Do not let Rizana Nafeek become a victim of the infamous practice of Saudi Arabia to sentence juvenile offenders to death.”

Colombo (AsiaNews) — It’s official: the young girl Rizana Nafeek only 17 years of age, in prison since 2005 on false charges of murder, has been sentenced to death. Fr. George Sigamony, national director of Caritas Sri Lanka, speaks out on his case, and together with AsiaNews launches and appeal for her, and for all migrant workers whose situation has become unsustainable, “Now that, unfortunately, the verdict has been issued, the only thing we can do is continue to pray for her and her situation”. The girl’s death sentence was upheld on appeal in late October. Rizana, a minor at the time, was sent to Saudi Arabia — on a false passport — to work as a waitress. When the child of her employer died while she was serving, she was accused of murder and sentenced to death in a sham trial based on a signed confession, the content of which she did not know, because it was written in another language. After obtaining legal protection and a translator, she retracted the confession, explaining that the tragic death was simply an accident. But nothing has helped.

Fr. Sigamony has been campaigning for Rizana’s release since 2007. He tells AsiaNews: “We have carried out many campaigns in Sri Lanka, and collected thousands of signatures that we sent to the competent authorities in Saudi Arabia. In addition, we have attracted international attention, thanks to the Caritas network, but without success. “ The director of Caritas also underlines another aspect of the situation: “The culprit who sent Rizana to Saudi Arabia illegally [the girl was underage when she started to work] is still alive, free, working and enjoying all his rights : is also to blame. We wish to express our opposition, and urge the Government to implement a policy that protects migrant workers”.

Meanwhile, the Asian Human Rights Commission (Ahcr) has released a statement: “Do not let Rizana Nafeek become a victim of the infamous practice of Saudi Arabia to sentence juvenile offenders to death.” It states that there is need for constant pressure to be brought to bear on the highest authorities, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and the interior minister, to grant a pardon, and ask forgiveness to the family of the child.

According to the Ahcr, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest rates of executions in the world. According to Amnesty International statistics on death sentences, at least 69 were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2009, 102 in 2008. In late 2009, Amnesty International denounced the presence of at least 141 people on death row in Saudi Arabia, including 104 foreign nationals. Migrant workers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are the main victims.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Russia


Ukraine: Yulia’s Breath of Stale Air

by Srdja Trifkovic

Chronicles Online, November 8th, 2010

According to a seasoned observer of Moscow’s political scene, the Russian political class cringed last Wednesday morning on learning that Obama had suffered a humiliating political defeat. The Russian leaders don’t think much of Obama personally, but they are worried over what the Republican control of the House might mean for the fledgling “reset” in US-Russian relations—the solitary foreign policy success of the Obama administration.

“One vulnerable target for the Republicans is the new START treaty which the Obama administration hopes to get ratified during the lame-duck session of the sitting Senate,” our source says. “Another likely victim of the Republican congressional victory could be Obama’s measured and cautious policy in the post-Soviet space, with clear signs of respect for Russia’s legitimate, if not privileged, interests in the region. Republican control of the House and its Foreign Affairs Committee means that they would be in a position to pass provocative legislation … or provide financial support and even military assistance to Georgia”—enough to disrupt and perhaps destroy the “reset.”

Moscow’s fears over the future of the “reset” may well be justified. The neoconservatives, atavistically Russophobic and unhappy with the limited “engagement” of America around the world over the past two years, hope to use the Republican majority in the House to advocate a fresh round of bear baiting. Their agenda is apparent from the prominence the neoconservative flaghship, The Wall Street Journal, gave to ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s plea (“Save Ukraine’s Democracy,” October 29) for renewed Western meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs.

Having failed to interest anyone influential the West in her ill-founded claims of foul play following the presidential election last winter, Ms. Tymoshenko has rehashed the same talking points in connection with last Sunday’s elections of regional councils and city mayors in Ukraine. “They are not just a local affair,” she warned, “[t]hey warrant international scrutiny due to mounting evidence suggesting that they will neither be free nor fair. The European Union should be wary of a neighboring country that controls the flow of gas to millions of EU households sliding into authoritarianism”:…

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]

South Asia


India: Bedspreads, Ganeshas, Toys… Michelle Can’t Stop Buying at Crafts Museum

New Delhi, Nov 8 — Indian textiles and handicrafts charmed their way into Michelle Obama’s shopping bag Monday as the US first lady almost ran out of money, picking up bedspreads, Ganeshas and wooden toys which, she said, would make for ideal Christmas gifts!

Michelle went on a shopping spree after arriving at the National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum in Pragati Maidan complex at 10.45 a.m. She was in the museum for nearly two hours, shooting well past her one-hour scheduled programme.

Museum director Ruchira Ghosh walked Michelle through the galleries devoted to the traditional textiles, rural handicrafts and art of India.

‘Michelle was so impressed with the Indian handicrafts on display that she did not want to leave the museum. She went on a shopping binge, buying almost everything that she came across,’ said Ghosh.

Michelle said she would have bought more had she been left with more money, those at the museum said.

The US first lady exhausted her shopping budget at the crafts museum and said the Indian craft items were ideal gifts of Christmas, barely one-and-a-half months away!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Punjab: Christian Woman Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy

For the first time, a woman is sentenced to death in Pakistan for this kind of “offence”. The blasphemy law was introduced in 1986 by then Pakistani dictator Zia-ul Haq and since then it has become a tool for discrimination and violence. Part of the Pakistan Penal Code, the law imposes life in prison for defiling the Qur’an and death for insulting Muhammad.

Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Pakistan has “crossed a line” in sentencing a Christian woman to death for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old farm worker mother of two, was convicted of committing blasphemy before her fellow workers during a heated discussion about religion in the village of Ittanwali in June last year.

Some of the women workers had reportedly been pressuring Bibi to renounce her Christian faith and accept Islam. During one discussion, Bibi responded by speaking of how Jesus had died on the cross for the sins of humanity and asking the Muslim women what Muhammad had done for them.

The Muslim women took offence and began beating Bibi. Afterwards she was locked in a room. According to Release International, a mob reportedly formed and “violently abused” her and her children.

The charity, which supports persecuted Christians, said that blasphemy charges were brought against Bibi because of pressure from local Muslim leaders.

Release International’s chief executive, Andy Dipper, expressed his shock at Sunday’s ruling.

“Pakistan has crossed a line in passing the death sentence on a woman for blasphemy,” he said.

In addition to the death sentence, Bibi was also fined the equivalent for an unskilled worker of two and a half years’ wages.

Another Christian woman, Martha Bibi (no relation to Asia), is also on trial in Lahore for blasphemy.

According to the National Commission on Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Church, between 1986 and August 2009, at least 974 people have been charged for defiling the Qur’an or insulting the Prophet Muhammad. They include 479 Muslims, 340 Ahmadis, 119 Christians, 14 Hindus and 10 from other religions.

The blasphemy law has often been used as a pretext for personal attacks or vendettas as well as extra-judicial murders. Overall, 33 people have died this way at the hands of individuals or crazed mobs.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Tajikistan Calls Students Home From Egypt in Bid to Prevent Radicalisation

The students, who had been studying illegally at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the world’s highest seat of Islamic learning, were rounded up by Egyptian authorities on Monday at the request of the Tajik government.

“On Monday … Tajik Airlines returned about 134 young Tajiks to the country from Egypt, where they were studying,” said a spokesman for the Tajik Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Tajikistan is pushing for the return of almost all of the 1,000 Tajiks presently studying at Al Azhar, all but a handful of whom are there without government permission.

The repatriated students had travelled via Russia and other countries to reach Egypt, the spokesman said.

Emomali Rakhmon, Tajikistan’s president, announced earlier this year that Tajik parents should stop sending children to study abroad at foreign madrassas, or religious schools, saying they risked being recruited as terrorists.

The al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) claimed responsibility for an ambush on a military convoy in September that killed 28 troops, and Tajik authorities blames terror groups for a suicide car bombing the same month.

Since September, Tajik forces have been engaged in a sweep operation against militants in the Rasht valley on the border with Afghanistan.

Tajikistan, the poorest country of the former Soviet Union, has an 800-mile border with Afghanistan that is almost impossible to police. It suffered a brutal civil war in the early 1990s, which pitted Mr Rakhmon’s supporters against the Islamic opposition, and left tens of thousands dead.

Al-Azhar has tried to distance itself from Islamic fundamentalists, in 2001 branding the perpetrators of the attacks on the World Trade Centre as heretics. But its alumni include many militants, including Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is currently serving a life sentence in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings; Hassan al Banna, one of the founders of the banned Egyptian group, the Muslim Brotherhood; and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, one of the founders of Hamas.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Caroline Glick: Out of South Africa

Last month I was invited to South Africa by the South African Zionist Federation. The visit, my first to the country, opened my eyes to the daunting challenges facing the country and its dwindling Jewish community of 70,000 16 years after the end of the apartheid regime.

South Africa is a country of paradoxes. On the one hand, it is exhilarating to see the blacks now in charge after their long struggle. On the other, the ruling African National Congress’ record of governance is at best a mixed bag.

On the positive side, in 2008 it peacefully and democratically replaced the failed former president Thabo Mbeki with his opponent, President Jacob Zuma.

But the negatives are glaring. Corruption is endemic. Rather than punishing officials for criminal behavior, the ANC is going after the messenger. South Africa’s ruling party intends to pass a draconian media law to bar journalists from reporting on governmental corruption. The ANC has dismissed opposition to the bill as racist, accusing opponents of attempting to advance a “white agenda.”…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]

Immigration


1 in 4 Children Born in Nevada to Non-Citizen Moms

Roughly one-in-four children born in Nevada in 2008 were to mothers who were not U.S. citizens, according to a new report.

The Census Bureau said 26.3 percent of children born in Nevada that year were to non-citizen mothers, second only to California, which had a rate of 29.1 percent, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported Monday. The report did not distinguish whether the mothers were legal or illegal immigrants.

The findings were part of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, taken every year.

Education and health care officials were not surprised by the report.

In Washoe County, the school district has 11,243 students in English language programs, and 75 percent of them were born in the United States, said Mary Ann Robinson, district coordinator for the English Language Learner department.

Robinson said many schools have bilingual clerks and parent facilitators who are bilingual. There are bilingual aides in classrooms, and the school can hire translators if needed so staff can talk with parents.

“We do everything we can to communicate with parents to make sure that they know where their children are academically and what support we’re providing for them,” Robinson said.

Health care representatives said non-citizen patients often lack health insurance, which puts a financial strain on providers.

Bill Welch, president of the Nevada Hospital Association, said in the past 18 months, four southern Nevada hospitals have closed their obstetrics wards.

“We have other hospitals evaluating their OB services at this time based on the number of uninsured and underinsured patients presenting to deliver babies,” Welch told the newspaper.

“OB already tends to be a loss leader for most hospitals,” Welch said. “What is collected in payments for services is typically less than what it costs to operate that department.”

Bob Fulkerson, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, cautioned against blaming non-citizens for problems in the health field.

“This is a prime example of why Congress needs to pass immigration reform, so that non-citizens can become citizens,” Fulkerson said. “It shows the failure to act nationally is having a profound effect at the community level.”

He said non-citizens also contribute to local economies.

“They pay their sales taxes when they buy everything else here,” he said. “They pay property tax through their landlord or through the homes they own. They are paying into the system.

“Let’s not blame them for national immigration problems,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



‘Arizona Style’ Immigration Law Proposed in Texas

Less than an hour after the period began for filing bills for consideration in the 2011 Legislative session, State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball), a leader of the newly muscular conservatives in the Legislature, filed an ‘Arizona style’ measure that would crack down on illegal immigration, 1200 WOAI news reports.

Riddle says her measure is a response to what she says is the escalating violence caused by Mexican and Latin American gangs in Texas.

“It is absolutely out of control with the gang related crime, which is going through the roof, so, yes, we are addressing this, and quite frankly, I am not worried about political correctness,” Riddle told 1200 WOAI news.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Illegals Made Democrat Governor in Connecticut?

‘Sanctuary city’ issued thousands of IDs accepted for voter registration

Connecticut’s lame-duck attorney general and new senator-elect, Richard Blumenthal, is obligated to investigate credible accusations of voter fraud that linger in the state’s gubernatorial election — including possible illegal alien voting — despite Republican candidate Tom Foley’s concession yesterday to Democratic opponent Dannel Malloy, charges the GOP’s attorney general candidate in last Tuesday’s election, Martha Dean

Dean, who is considering further legal action challenging the eligibility of her victorious Democratic opponent, argued Blumenthal is sworn to uphold the federal and state constitutions, making it his obligation to investigate voter fraud “without regard to whether it has been requested or approved by the secretary of state.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Immigration Minister ‘Weak’ Over Albanian Visas, Says Wilders

Immigration minister Gerd Leers put in an ‘ultimately weak performance’ when EU ministers approved the ending of visas for people from Bosnia and Albania, Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam party PVV says in Tuesday’s Volkskrant. Leers, attending his first EU meeting in Brussels, said he had little choice but to vote in favour because the decision had effectively already been taken. ‘Our resistence would have been voted down,’ the paper quoted him as saying.

However, ministers did agree visas could to be reintroduced if large numbers of Bosnians and Albanians move to the Netherlands or other countries, EU news websites said.

Dialogue

Leers said after the meeting it is important to build a dialogue with Europe.

‘The Netherlands must not be seen as a pariah. I am not going to come up with all sorts of extreme proposals which will die a death because we are isolated, he said.

The new minority government’s policy on immigration, which was partly drawn up by the PVV, includes a number of measures which involve changes in EU legislation.

Wilders said Leers should have voted against. ‘The result is very poor; the borders are open, which the Netherlands does not want,’ Wilders said. ‘Nor do I understand what he means by ‘pariah’ and ‘extreme proposals’.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Switzerland: The New Justice Minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, Wants to See Integration Measures for Immigrants Made Mandatory.

In an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper, the recently-elected cabinet minister from the centre-left Social Democratic Party said the approval or extension of residency permits should be closely linked to the efforts immigrants make to integrate themselves.

“Compulsory schooling must be respected. Children should attend all courses and exceptions made on religious or other grounds, for example in swimming classes, should no longer be possible,” Sommaruga told the SonntagsZeitung.

“The approval or extension of residency permits or the withdrawal of this right for anyone in violation of the integration rules is not only a way to apply pressure but is also in the interest of one and all,” the justice minister said. “Everyone living here should be able to stand on their own two feet.”

Sommaruga said it would be possible to implement the stricter requirements as part of a proposal the government has put forward to counter a plan by rightwing parties to automatically deport foreigners convicted of crimes. The issue comes to a nationwide vote on November 28.

Her support of the counter proposal, which restricts deportation to cases involving the most serious crimes, has put her at odds with her own party.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



UK: Labour MPs ‘Mutiny’ Against Leadership in Support of Phil Woolas

Over the weekend, Ms Harman said she would bar the former minister from contesting his seat in a by-election triggered by a court ruling that he had lied during the General Election campaign.

The former MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth was thrown out of Parliament as a result of the case but has launched an appeal.

He is trying to capitalise on a groundswell of support from fellow Labour MPs to fund his legal challenge.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair’s wife Cherie are among those said to be supporting his bid to overturn the election court ruling at a judicial review, for which he must raise £50,000 by the end of the week.

It is not known whether they are among a number of Labour MPs who have agreed to contribute to his legal fund.

At a heated meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party earlier this week, Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, was called a “disgrace” for publicly ruling out a return to national politics for the former immigration minister, saying that he had “no place” in the party.

Accusing her of “pre-judging” Mr Woolas’ judicial review, one unnamed ex-minister is said to have called on Miss Harman to “consider her position” as acting leader — tantamount to demanding her resignation.

Mr Woolas is in Westminster this week and has been seen canvassing fellow MPs for financial support for his legal challenge.

He told his local paper: “I’ve been overwhelmed. There has been backing from political allies and opponents. They realise the damage this decision could do to democracy.

“Mr Brown has said he does not believe I am a dishonest man while Cherie has given her support.”

A spokesman for Mrs Blair said that she was close friends with Mr Woolas’s wife Tracey and added that she “felt sorry for the family”.

In an interview with the Oldham Evening Chronicle, Mr Woolas vowed to clear his name.

He said: “A lot of MPs are absolutely outraged that someone who has been in the Labour Party for 30 years and has given his life to it should be treated like this.

“The public of Oldham has elected me four times and I think it is not fair they are not allowed to have a choice.

“If people think I have cheated and lied the people of Oldham should be allowed to judge that. No-one knows other than me whether I believe what I say is true and I have never lied.”

Standing in for Ed Miliband, the party leader, who is on paternity leave, Miss Harman said on Sunday that there is no way back for Mr Woolas because he had been found to have lied about his election opponent.

In the first case of its kind for 99 years, the election court found on Friday that Mr Woolas produced leaflets about his Liberal Democrat opponent which knowingly contained untruths.

He also sought to stir up racial tensions in the town by claiming that Muslim extremists had threatened him.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Sales Tag on Bride’s Dress? The Marriage is a Fake, Church Wardens Warned After Diocese is Targeted

As three more people involved in bogus marriages in the Lancashire town of Accrington face jail, church officials have vowed to step up the fight against the Nigerian and East-European immigration gangs.

Last month a special police unit was set up to tackle the problem in Accrington, already identifying around 40 sham ceremonies in the small town — with mainly Nigerian grooms paying up to £10,000 to marry cash-strapped East-European women legally living here.

Detectives in the newly formed Lancashire Immigration Crime Team believe crime gangs have targeted Accrington because its clergy ‘are not as alive to this kind of abuse’.

Now the Blackburn Diocese has put it’s priests on red alert for telltale signs such as: ‘no intimacy between the couple’, ‘not speaking the same language’, ‘cultural and religious differences’ and other indicators such as ‘tags still in suits and wedding dresses’ — as the crooks intend to return them to the store the next day.

The diocese said: ‘The 14 area Deans in the diocese have been additionally alerted to keep a watching brief in their areas through their contacts with local clergy.

‘The Diocese is continuing to monitor the situation, with a view to producing further advice and updated information, as this may be needed and felt appropriate.

‘Church wardens there have been made aware of the situation and warned about any further marriage applications that may appear suspicious.’

Clergy have been forced to become ultra vigilant after three more people involved in bogus marriages in the same Accrington church, St Peters, are now facing jail.

Nigerian Olarotimi Ojugbele, 41, of London, and East-European mother-of-two Nadezda Mirgova, 26, of Longsight, Manchester, are the latest couple to be brought before the courts.

They have admitted taking part in a bogus wedding with the aim of allowing Ojugbele to be allowed to stay in this country.

In a separate case, Anna Gabcova, 32, of Wavertree, Liverpool, admitted assisting unlawful immigration to a member state and bigamy.

Despite all three people being from either Merseyside, Manchester or London, they all appeared to target the small St Peter’s church in Lancashire.

All three defendants’ cases were adjourned until December 10, for pre-sentence reports.

Ojugbele was remanded in custody and his pregnant co-defendant was bailed. She must live at her home address and report to the police station.

Judge Beverley Lunt warned Ojugbele and Gabcova: ‘You must both understand quite clearly that the most likely outcome will be a sentence of immediate imprisonment.’

In September Czech woman Monika Slepcikova, 23, and Nigerian Unchenna Peter Ezimorah, 36, were each jailed after undertaking a sham marriage at St Peter’s Church, on June 2009.

As the legal citizen, Slepcikova was paid £2,000 to go through with the ceremony so that Ezimorah, who paid a third party £3,000 for ‘administration’, could apply to the Home Office for permanent UK residency.

Then last month Czech ‘bride’ Natasa Lakatosova, 38, of Liverpool, was given a six month suspended sentence at Burnley Crown Court for taking part in a fake marriage — again at St Peter’s.

Lakatosova was offered £2,000 to stage the fake ceremony to help a Nigerian national try to cheat UK immigration rules, despite the fact she has been married herself since 1992.

Lancashire Police’s Inspector Dave Magrath offered his own explanation why Accrington was being targeted, saying: ‘It is certainly the case that the vicars in metropolitan areas with bigger demographics are more alive to this kind of abuse.

‘You can take the reverse from that as to why churches in Accrington are being used.

‘We are particularly active in the metropolitan areas with enforcement so it is reasonable to assume they head to a more remote region with less chance of being apprehended.

‘We are now educating them on how to spot sham marriages and they are alive to this kind of thing now in East Lancashire.

‘We are making excellent headway. Immigration rules have been beefed up around asylum, so now these people are testing other avenues to achieve the ultimate goal — that is to stay in the UK.’

Insp Magrath said there was no suggestion of any priests being complicit in the scam, as happened with East Sussex Rev Alex Brown, who was jailed earlier this month for carrying out 360 sham ceremonies.

In September, a seven-strong gang of foreign nationals who ran a fake wedding scam were jailed for a total of 14 years and 10 months and will be booted out of the UK.

The Eastern European-organised crime group headed by Vladimir Murko, 37, staged 15 bogus marriages involving illegal Nigerian, Pakistani and Syrian immigrants across the North-West of England from October 2006.

The immigrants jetted into Britain and handed over £1,500 each to wed — securing their stay as they could then obtain a National Insurance number and either work or claim benefits.

The defendants — six Czechs and one Slovak — had the right to live in the UK as European citizens but abused it by organising dozens of sham ceremonies, Manchester Crown Court heard.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Church of England ‘Is Like Failing Coffee Chain’ Says Bishop

A bishop who is converting to Rome has likened the Church of England to a ‘coffee chain going out of business’.

The Right Reverend Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, said there were signs the Church was losing a sense of where it came from.

He said: ‘If Costa Coffee, every time you went to a branch, did something different and you didn’t know what the product was, they would go out of business.

‘We have got to the stage now in the Church of England where there are so many different products that you don’t know what you’re going to get.’

Mr Burnham’s comments came as the Church of England appeared to have beaten off the threat of a mass desertion to Rome by bishops, priests and congregations yesterday.

Just five junior bishops announced that they were quitting the Anglicans over the CofE’s intention to allow the consecration of women as bishops.

But the flight of disaffected Anglo-Catholic opponents of women included none of the Church of England’s 53 senior-rank diocesan bishops.

And only 500 of the Church of England’s 800,000 regular Sunday churchgoers have indicated their intention of moving over to the Roman Catholic Church, under an offer from Pope Benedict to convert to Rome while keeping Anglican traditions.

As well as the Rt Rev Burnham, the other four junior bishops were the Rt Revs John Broadhurst, Keith Newton, Edwin Barnes and David Silk.

Mr Newton, Bishop of Richborough, said his difficulties with the CofE went further than the ordination of women.

‘There has been a more lax attitude towards moral issues.

‘The whole question of blessing gay marriage — there is a lot of pressure for that to happen in the Church of England — abortion, and life and death issues.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Family Minister Schröder Locked in Blazing Feminism Row

A blazing row over feminism erupted Tuesday between Family Minister Kristina Schröder and Germany’s leading women’s rights campaigner, Alice Schwarzer, following an interview by the minister that had other women politicians bristling too.

Schwarzer, the 67-year-old leading feminist and founder of the women’s journal EMMA, blasted Schröder in an open letter as a “hopeless case” and “simply unqualified.”

Schröder, 33, is the youngest woman ever to sit in Germany’s cabinet. In an interview this week with Der Spiegel magazine, the conservative Christian Democrat took issue with some of Schwarzer’s assertions in the latter’s famous feminist book, Der kleine Unterschied und seine großen Folgen, or “The Small Difference and its Great Consequences.”

The minister questioned Schwarzer’s purported view that “heterosexual sex was hardly possible without the subjugation of the woman.”

“It is absurd when something that is essential to the survival of humanity is defined as subjugation. That would mean that without the subjugation of woman society could not continue.”

Schröder also said: “I don’t find it convincing that homosexuality should be the solution to the disadvantage of women.”

The radical feminist tendency to reject relationships between men and women was not a solution for equal rights, she said.

“I believe that early feminism at least partially overlooked that partnership and children bring happiness,” she told the magazine.

The minister also rejected the idea of quotas to improve women’s standing in the workplace, calling it a “political capitulation.” She blamed some women’s own choices for the fact that they earned less than men.

“The truth is this: Many women prefer to study German philology and humanities, while men study electric engineering — and that has consequences when it comes to wages. We can’t forbid companies from paying electric engineers more than a philologist.”

Schröder told Der Spiegel that a new part of her policy would be providing more support to boys, who are falling behind girls in schools. Government policies have neglected boys and men, she said.

The Family Minister’s comments were not appreciated by feminist leader Schwarzer, who made a brutal retort in an open letter to Schröder, also published by Der Spiegel.

“I consider you to be a hopeless case. Simply unqualified,” Schwarzer wrote.

“Whatever the motive of the chancellor might have been in appointing you of all people — it cannot have been competence and empathy for women.”

Schwarzer accused Schröder of using “cheap clichés” about “the most momentous social movement of the 20th century,” which Schröder, among many other young women, could thank for their personal success in their careers.

She went on to blast Schröder for employing “populist wisdom” and “outrageous nonsense” about Schwarzer’s book.

She said she had waited for the past year for deeds and action from Schröder, but “in vain.”

“The only exciting news from your office was your change of name from Köhler to Schröder,” she said, referring to the minister’s name change after she got married in February.

Meanwhile Green party parliamentary group leader and candidate for Berlin mayor Renate Künast said she was “dumbfounded” by the Family Minister’s comments, calling them “crude and antiquated.”

Another opposition politician, Social Democrat deputy leader and Minister of Social Affairs and Health in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, called the interview “nonsense.”

“Mrs. Schröder has absolutely no understanding of the historic meaning of feminism,” she told Der Spiegel, adding that she was also uninformed about the modern problems of women.

The deputy leader of the socialist Left party, Katja Kipping, weighed in on the debate with equal vigour, questioning Schröder’s knowledge of the movement, saying it had “never been about man-hating, but about fighting the patriarchy — that is, structures that discriminate against women.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



German Family Minister Slammed for Comments on Feminism

In an interview with SPEIGEL published on Monday, German Family Minister Kristina Schröder challenged several central beliefs of feminists. Politicians and leading feminists are not impressed. Leading women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer says she is unqualified for her job.

There is little doubt that Germany is not the easiest place to live and work if you are a woman. According to statistics released earlier this year, women earned an average of 23.2 percent less than men in 2008 — a number that has been going up in recent years. There is also an extreme paucity of female executives at leading German companies.

Indeed, the situation is such that European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding saw fit to censure Germany in March. “In economic terms,” she said, “Germany is one of the most developed countries. As such, it should be a good role model rather than a straggler. I expect more ambition and more drive.”

Given such a background, the biting criticism of German Family Minister Kristina Schröder, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, this week is perhaps unsurprising. In an interview with SPIEGEL published on Monday, Schröder, 33, expressed opposition to the idea of legally mandating a certain percentage of women in executive positions. She also gave short shrift to concerns over unequal pay.

“The reality looks like this: Many women like to study German and humanities; men, on the other hand, electrical engineering — and that has consequences when it comes to salaries,” she said.

‘Crude and Antiquated’

Schröder also dismissed feminists by saying “I don’t agree with a core statement by most feminists, the statement by Simone de Beauvoir: ‘One is not born a woman, one becomes one.’ Even as a schoolgirl I wasn’t convinced by the claim that gender has nothing to do with biology and is only shaped by one’s environment.”

Her comments have not been universally well received. Renate Künast, co-floor leader of the Green Party in parliament, said she was “flabbergasted” by Schröder’s interview and said her comments on feminism were “crude and antiquated.” She accused Schröder of having a “split personality — another word for schizophrenic.”

Manuela Schwesig, deputy head of the center-left Social Democrats, also blasted Schröder. “I haven’t read so much nonsense in connection with women’s issues in a long time,” she said. “Ms. Schröder has absolutely no understanding of the historical significance of feminism.” She also accused Schröder of having “no idea” about the very real problems facing women today.

Perhaps the fiercest broadside, though, came from Alice Schwarzer, Germany’s leading feminist voice and the editor of the influential women’s magazine Emma.

In her interview, Schröder took direct aim at Schwarzer, saying “I have read a lot of her work — first ‘The Little Difference,’ later ‘The Big Difference’ and ‘The Answer.’ I found all these book very well argued and worth reading. But I found that many of her theories went too far. For example that heterosexual intercourse was barely possible without the submission of the woman. I can only say to that: Sorry, that’s wrong.”…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



MSNBC’s New Lineup Includes Avowed Marxist

Anchor Lawrence O’Donnell reveals: ‘I am a socialist’

During an angry tirade over Democrat election losses, the host of the new MSNBC political show, “The Last Word,” blurted out that he’s a “socialist,” while blasting colleagues for hiding behind less radical labels such as “liberal” or “progressive.”

“I am a socialist,” declared MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell. “I live to the extreme left of you liberals.”

O’Donnell, who got his start in TV as creator of the NBC series “The West Wing,” made the remarks while appearing Friday as a guest on a live broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He got into a heated exchange with Salon.com contributor Glenn Greenwald during a debate among panelists on the program about why Democrats lost so many seats during the midterm congressional election.

[…]

During his testy exchange, O’Donnell also revealed his agenda to “ban all guns in America.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: PVV Biggest Party Among Homosexuals

THE HAGUE, 10/11/10 — The Party for Freedom (PVV) has come out as by far the biggest party in a half-yearly poll by gay periodical Gay Krant.

In the run-up to the 9 June elections, Geert Wilders’ PVV attracted the vote of 16.6 percent of the readers of Gay Krant. This is now 22.3 percent. In fact, the PVV scored even higher in 2009 (nearly 24 percent).

Labour (PvdA) in particular has fallen out of favour with the gay voters, it emerges from the poll among 1,024 Gay Krant readers. Since May, support for the PvdA had dropped from 18.2 percent to 13.0 percent. The conservatives (VVD) also lost a lot of ground, from 20.1 to 16.6 percent.

Centre-left D66 is now the second party among gay voters, with a following of slightly over 18 percent. The leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) and Socialist Party (SP) rose slightly in the poll. The Christian democrats (CDA) scored less than 4 percent and Christian parties ChristenUnie and SGP and the Party for Animals (PvdD) did not even achieve a single percent of support.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

General


Margaret Mead’s War Theory Kicks Butt of Neo-Darwinian and Malthusian Models

Why war? Darwinian explanations, such as the popular “demonic males” theory of Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham, are clearly insufficient. They can’t explain why war emerged relatively recently in human prehistory—less than 15,000 years ago, according to the archaeological record—or why since then it has erupted only in certain times and places.

Many scholars solve this problem by combining Darwin with gloomy old Thomas Malthus. “No matter where we happen to live on Earth, we eventually outstrip the environment,” the Harvard archaeologist Steven LeBlanc asserts in Constant Battles: Why We Fight (Saint Martin’s Griffin, 2004). “This has always led to competition as a means of survival, and warfare has been the inevitable consequence of our ecological-demographic propensities.” Note the words “always” and “inevitable.”

LeBlanc is as wrong as Wrangham. Analyses of more than 300 societies in the Human Relations Area Files, an ethnographic database at Yale University, have turned up no clear-cut correlations between warfare and chronic resource scarcity. Similarly, the anthropologist Lawrence Keeley notes in War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford University Press, 1997) that the correlation between population pressure and warfare “is either very complex or very weak or both.”

Two tribal societies—the Semai of Malaysia and the Waorani of the Ecuadorian Amazon—represent especially striking exceptions to the Malthusian model. According to the anthropologists Clayton and Carole Robarchek (pdf), who lived among both societies, the Semai population is 60 times denser than the Waorani, and they have much less food, because their soil less fertile and game less plentiful. And yet the Semai, the Robarcheks pointed out, “are among the most peaceful people” known to anthropology (even though some Semai helped British colonialists fight communist insurgents in the 1950s). The Waorani, however, are one of the most violent known societies, with casualties from warfare claiming as much as 60 percent of the population.

War is both underdetermined and overdetermined. That is, many conditions are sufficient for war to occur, but none are necessary. Some societies remain peaceful even when significant risk factors are present, such as high population density, resource scarcity, and economic and ethnic divisions between people. Conversely, other societies fight in the absence of these conditions. What theory can account for this complex pattern of social behavior?

The best answer I’ve found comes from Margaret Mead, who as I mentioned in a recent post is often disparaged by genophilic researchers such as Wrangham. Mead proposed her theory of war in her 1940 essay “Warfare Is Only an Invention—Not a Biological Necessity.” She dismissed the notion that war is the inevitable consequence of our “basic, competitive, aggressive, warring human nature.” This theory is contradicted, she noted, by the simple fact that not all societies wage war. War has never been observed among a Himalayan people called the Lepchas or among the Eskimos. In fact, neither of these groups, when questioned by early ethnographers, was even aware of the concept of war.

In discussing the Eskimos Mead distinguished between individual and group violence. Eskimos were “not a mild and meek people,” she noted. They engaged in “fights, theft of wives, murder, cannibalism,” often provoked by fear of starvation. “The personality necessary for war, the circumstances necessary to goad men to desperation are present, but there is no war.”

Mead next addressed the claim that war springs from “the development of the state, the struggle for land and natural resources of class societies springing, not from the nature of man, but from the nature of history.” Here Mead seems to invoke Marx as well as Malthus. Just as the biological theory is contradicted by simple societies that don’t fight, Mead wrote, so the theory of “sociological inevitability” is contradicted by simple societies that do fight. Hunter—gatherers on the Andaman Islands “represent an exceedingly low level of society,” but they have been observed waging wars, in which “tiny army met tiny army in open battle.”…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Thor Heyerdahl and Hyperdiffusionism

Lately I’ve been thinking and giving some talks about Scandinavian pseudoarchaeological writers, that is, people who publish books on the past with unsubstantiated claims to scientific credibility. The beyond all comparison most famous of them is the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002).

Heyerdahl is mostly known not as an archaeologist, but as a great navigator, being the organiser of numerous projects where he would have a reconstruction built of some ancient boat and make an ocean voyage with it. Most famously, he travelled by balsa raft from Peru westwards to Tuamotu in 1947 (with my countryman Bengt Danielsson on board). What may not be apparent to everyone is that almost everything Heyerdahl did throughout his professional life was motivated by one overarching archaeological hypothesis: hyperdiffusionism.

Diffusionism is the view that ideas (such as tech inventions) travel. If I invent something good or interesting, then people who see it may pick up the idea and run with it, and the idea will propagate across the world like rings on a pond do when you drop a prosthetic silver nose into it…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Under New Plan, Satellites to Beam Solar Power Down From Space

In a step toward solving the global energy crisis, a new plan aims to harvest the sun’s energy from space with satellites then beam it down to Earth.

The initiative, announced Nov. 4, is spearheaded by former president of India A.P.J. Kalam and the National Space Society, a nonprofit dedicated to making humanity a spacefaring civilization.

Space-based solar power has the potential to turn Earth into a “clean planet, a prosperous planet, and a happy planet,” Kalam said during a Thursday press conference announcing the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative.

The initiative’s plan is to launch a satellite containing a large array of solar panels that would collect energy from the sun, then convert this energy into a microwave beam that could be directed back down to Earth. A special receiving antenna on the ground — called a rectenna — would then turn the microwave energy back into electricity, which would be fed into the power grid.

Earth’s energy crisis

Global energy needs are expected to grow by 87 percent by the year 2035. Traditional renewable energy sources will only be able to meet part of that demand, proponents of the space plan said.

Space-based solar power could be directed to multiple locations in the world, and wouldn’t suffer from outages during nighttime or bad weather, as solar panels on the ground do, said Mark Hopkins, chair of the National Space Society’s executive committee.

The technology offers the potential to deliver a tremendous amount of energy without harming the environment, he said.

“It produces virtually no carbon dioxide, therefore it’s a very clean, renewable energy source,” Hopkins said.

However, the full technology to achieve such a vision is not yet developed.

“One of the critical things to keep in mind regarding this capability is that it has enormous promise to deliver power globally — power that would be very green — but also that we’re not quite ready to do it yet,” said John Mankins, president of the Space Power Association. “It has some remaining technical challenges.”

Leaders of the plan agreed the idea will take some work, but added that’s why it’s important to get the project started now.

“I personally believe it is a project of about 15 years,” Kalam said, adding that it would take the support of more countries than the United States and India to make space solar power a reality. He proposed approaching the governments of G8 and G13 countries to eventually join the initiative.

International solar initiative

NASA does not currently have an official space solar power program, though it has funded research into the field in the past. Work to send a solar energy-beaming experiment to the International Space Station was canceled in 2008.

The U.S. military has also experimented with solar energy beaming, as it may present a way to deliver power to remote areas of the globe.

Ultimately, such a partnership between the U.S. and India could have ramifications not just for the energy crisis, but for international politics, the initiative’s leaders said.

“India is rapidly rising and this is in the interest of both nations,” Hopkins said. “Neither of our nations wishes to contain China — however, a prosperous India increases the chances the rise of China will be peaceful.”

Under the Kalam-NSS plan, the United States would contribute technology, while India could take care of much of the low-cost manufacturing.

“The potential of combining those two could generate a large amount of jobs in both countries,” Hopkins said.

India could also potentially launch the power-gathering satellite aboard one of the nation’s rockets.

“It is known that such a proposal can become reality only if the cost of launching satellites into outer space is made economical,” said T.K. Alex, director of the Indian Space Research Organization Satellite Centre, which launches spacecraft for both communications and science.

The ISRO has ramped up its space activities in recent years, notably with the launch of India’s first moon satellite, Chandrayaan-1, in 2008, with a second mission under development.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101108

Financial Crisis
» EU Asks Greece to Repay 347.5 Mln
» Interview With German Finance Minister Schäuble
» Lame Duck Pork-Laden Omnibus
» Solar Company Faces Dark Days Ahead
» Taxed Enough Already!
» UK: Archbishop Blasts Tory Crackdown on the Workshy as Jobseekers Are Ordered to Do Unpaid Work
» Voters Own the Choices They Make
 
USA
» Audio: CAIR’s Shariah Defender Dodges Questions on Terror Ties
» Communist Party Covers Up Support for Obama
» Court Grants Temporary Order to Block Oklahoma From Shariah Amendment
» Cutting Hair Without a License: Florida Barbershops Raided
» Indictment: Somali Gangs Trafficked Girls for Sex
» Islamaphobia is Really Islam-Awareness
» Jury in Conn. Home Invasion Murders Recommends Death Sentence
» Obama Empowers U.N. Tyrants to Prosecute Bush
» Oklahoma Shariah Ban is Blocked
» Pentagon Openings Give Obama New Options
» The Insanity Virus
» The Obama Administration Bows Before the UN Human Rights Star Chamber
» Who is Really Distorting Islam?
 
Europe and the EU
» Brussels: Senior Eurocrats Caught Fighting or Running Brothels Keep Their Jobs
» ‘Doomsday Vault’ Gets New, Large Shipment of Rice
» Eurabia Watch: November 8, 2010
» George W Bush: ‘Waterboarding’ Saved British Lives
» Germany: Jewish WWI Soldiers Remembered at Frankfurt Ceremony
» Italy: Film: Waked Offered Only Bad Guy Roles After Syriana
» Italy’s Biggest Union Elects First Woman Leader
» Italy to Import 600,000 MW Per Year From Tunisia
» Italy: FLI Threat to Leave Government if PM Refuses to Resign
» Sweden: Police Call for Tips on Malmö Shootings
» Turkey: Danny the Red and Davutoglu
» UK: ‘Terror’ Tube Driver With Al Qaeda Links Walks Free
» UK: Freed Islamic Terrorists Face New Controls as 46 Prepare for Prison Release
» UK: Islamic TV Channel Rapped for Advocating Marital Rape
» Vatican: Church Warns Bishops About ‘Angels and Demons’ Sect
 
North Africa
» Egypt Gripped by Rising Muslim-Christian Tensions
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Talks: Livni Against Netanyahu, Extend Moratorium
» UNRWA and the Code of Silence
 
Middle East
» Iraq: More Attacks on Christians in Baghdad a Week After Massacre
» Radical Yemeni Cleric Awlaki Calls for Killing of Americans
» The Arabs’ Worst Enemy: Themselves
» Yemen Muslim Cleric Al-Awlaki in US Death Threat Video
 
Russia
» Reporter in Artificial Coma After Ambush
 
South Asia
» Afghan Soldier Turns Weapon on American Troops, Kills 2
» Hardline Group Plans Widespread Indonesian Protests Over Obama Visit
» Indonesia: Islamists Plans to Intensify Anti-Obama Protests
» Indonesia: Police Seize Thousands of Porn DVDs in Capital
» Muslim Leaders Approve Obama’s ‘Jihad’ Remarks
» SAS Parachute Dogs of War Into Taliban Bases
» The World Powers Court Central Asia
 
Far East
» China Unveils First Moon Photos From New Lunar Orbiter
 
Latin America
» 20 Killed Over Weekend in Mexican Border City
 
Immigration
» Italy: Government Approves New Security Package
» Ketzaleh: Tel Aviv Jews Will Flee to Yesha From ‘African Flood’
» UK: Roma Rights Campaigner Jailed for £2.9m Benefits Scam Lavinia Olmazu Admitted a Fraud Charge in July a Woman Who Helped More Than 170 Romanians Illegally Claim £2.9m in Benefits Has Been Jailed for Two Years and Three Months.
 
Culture Wars
» UK: Shop Assistant Banned From Wearing a Poppy Because ‘It is Not Part of the Uniform’
 
General
» Former ‘Tenth Planet’ May be Smaller Than Pluto
» IPCC Climate Science is Fundamentally Wrong: Carbon Footprint is All Wet

Financial Crisis


EU Asks Greece to Repay 347.5 Mln

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 5 — Athens has been given rude awakening by the EU: Greece will have to repay the European Commission 347.5 million euros that were “wrongfully spent”, against the rules of the common agricultural policy. The announcement came today from Brussels, which asked 19 states to repay the EU a total of 578.5 million euros. Athens is paying the highest price, since they have a long list of unfulfilled obligations. The sum includes 210.9 million euros for deficiencies in the identification system for agricultural parcels and the geographic information system as well as onsite inspections for the 2006 questions regarding spending for aid received for land, including rural development measures associated with land. Another 54.7 million euros involve raisin production, due to shortcomings associated with reducing the minimum yields, the specialisation of lands, management of the vineyard register and the integrated management and control system for the 2003-2007 fiscal years. Another 50.16 million euros will be reimbursed for not having reduced the aid distributed for not adhering to requirements associated with keeping records for sheep, a lack of onsite and administrative inspections and the absence of specific risk criteria regarding inspections for supplementary bonuses for disadvantaged areas. Another 19.76 million euros will be repaid due to tobacco deliveries after preset limits, a lack of payment of the primary processors and the transferral of cultivation contracts. The entire amount to be paid back totals 347.5 million euros. “We are working to carefully control agricultural spending and to guarantee that the taxpayers’ money is being well-spent,” said EU Agricultural Commissioner Dacian Ciolos. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Interview With German Finance Minister Schäuble

‘The US Has Lived on Borrowed Money for Too Long’

In an interview with SPIEGEL, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, 68, criticizes US calls for Germany to reduce exports, outlines his plans for an insolvency framework for indebted European nations and the emphasizes the significance of the German-French axis for Europe.

SPIEGEL: Minister Schäuble, how well do you get along with your American counterpart, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner?

Schäuble: Mr. Geithner is an excellent minister. We have a good personal relationship.

SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, he constantly criticizes government officials in countries that are achieving high export surpluses and not doing enough to stimulate their domestic economies. He’s referring to you, isn’t he?

Schäuble: It would appear that way. That’s why I tell him again and again that I think his point of view is incorrect in this regard.

SPIEGEL: All the same, the value of goods Germany sold to the United States exceeded imports from that country by almost €14 billion ($19.8 billion) last year. Can’t you understand that the American treasury secretary is concerned about this?

Schäuble: No, because since we introduced the euro in Europe, the determining factor is no longer US trade with Germany, but US trade with the totality of countries in the euro zone. And in that respect the balance of trade tends to be even. So what’s the problem? After all, we don’t complain about the export successes of individual American states.

SPIEGEL: But the German economy benefits from the fact that German industry has focused primarily on foreign markets and wages have hardly gone up in years. The Americans see this as unfair.

Schäuble: The German export successes are not the result of some sort of currency manipulation, but of the increased competitiveness of companies. The American growth model, on the other hand, is in a deep crisis. The United States lived on borrowed money for too long, inflating its financial sector unnecessarily and neglecting its small and mid-sized industrial companies. There are many reasons for America’s problems, but they don’t include German export surpluses.

SPIEGEL: The US government sees it differently. It wants to see German exports to the United States curtailed in the future once they reach a certain threshold. Will you give in to the pressure?…

Interview conducted by Michael Sauga and Peter Müller

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Lame Duck Pork-Laden Omnibus

If the rumors coming out of the House and the Senate are true do not expect any spending cuts this year. An Omnibus Bill which will fund the federal government until the end of next September has been in the works for several months now and has to be passed before Christmas Recess. This bill which is projected to be $1 trillion will give the Democrats and some Republicans a last chance for major earmarks before the house control changes over to the Republicans. Once this happens they will have to start keeping their promises of smaller government and lower spending.

Reports are circulating on Capitol Hill: Senate Republicans are teaming up with the Democrats to craft a pork laden omnibus bill. Jim DeMint (R-SC), John McCain(R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) will be fighting to limit what could be a huge bill. In the House both Cantor(R-VA) and Boehner(R-OH) are said to be pushing for an extension on the House earmark moratorium. The couple weeks in November preceding the Christmas recess will be their last chance to cut the size of this legislation.

This bill will be passed but the million dollar question (or trillion dollar question) will be how much pork will be added. If the Republicans are smart they will make good on their promises now and try to hold up this legislation in the Senate until January and force the Dems to pass another stop gap measure to keep the Government running through February. When the new session begins next year the Republicans in the House can put together a reasonable spending bill that will take us through to September. This would show the public that the GOP does get it and will set them up for the battles that they will face in 2011.

[…]

[Note: Big IF about those Republicans…]

[Return to headlines]



Solar Company Faces Dark Days Ahead

Inquiring Minds Are Looking at Northern California and an Article by the Always Great Katy Grimes. In Her Latest Piece Ms. Grimes Seems to Expose the Dirty Little Secret of How the California Citizens Got Taken by Solar Company Solyndra Inc.:

The day after the election, the Los Angeles Times reported that Solyndra Inc., a solar power system manufacturing company in the San Francisco Bay area, is closing one of its factories, laying off 40 employees and letting the contracts for more than 150 temporary workers expire.

It’s hard not to question the timing of this information.

Even with substantial government subsidies, credits and loan guarantees, many are wondering if Solyndra enticed by the Schwarzenegger administration and/or opponents of Prop 23 to keep the news of the downsize quiet until after Tuesday’s election, in order to guarantee failure of the proposition. It certainly appears so.

Solyndra was visited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Vice President joe Biden and President Barack Obama. The company has reportedly received “a $535-million federal loan guarantee, more than $1 billion in private equity funds and supportive visits from dignitaries such as .” And of course, the company has friends in high places:…

           — Hat tip: Bobbo [Return to headlines]



Taxed Enough Already!

Now that we have new representatives, it’s time to advance immediately on them and address the issue that can both rebuild our economy and relieve us of government oppression: tax reform.

As I began to point out in last week’s column, Congress’ plan to subsidize all its outrageous borrowing and spending will demand far more than the tax man just collecting on expired Bush tax cuts. There is a host of other levies coming down the turnpike from Washington as well.

Who isn’t already completely fed up with the feds’ utter waste of our tax monies? Just a week ago, war analysts and government auditors reported that only 10 percent of U.S. taxpayers’ money being poured into Afghanistan is actually being used to stabilize the country, with as much as $1 billion in aid ending up in the hands of the Taliban and other insurgency groups!

And how about that all the frivolous spending like the incredible $192 million splurge fest in taxpayer money to plaster every possible highway with signs (covert election propaganda) touting how stimulus cash is “Putting America to Work” with infrastructure projects?

[…]

And then there are the inevitable taxes that are coming due to the feds’ massive and compounding deficits and debts. Even if all the Bush tax cuts were repealed, the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, concludes that the deficit will still be nearly $1.1 trillion in 2011. The cumulative deficit from 2010 to 2019 under President Obama’s proposals will total $9.3 trillion. And the 2020 end-of-decade national debt will top $24.5 trillion, even exceeding the Gross Domestic Product projection for 2019 of $22.8 trillion. And here’s the kicker! By 2020, half of all income tax revenues will go toward paying interest on that $24 trillion national debt.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Archbishop Blasts Tory Crackdown on the Workshy as Jobseekers Are Ordered to Do Unpaid Work

Benefits reforms which would force the unemployed to undertake unpaid manual labour will send claimants into a ‘downward spiral of despair’, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

He spoke as Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith prepared to reveal his controversial scheme.

Under it, job seekers would be expected to undertake 30 hours a week of litter picking or gardening for four weeks.

For this, they would receive no extra money but anyone who refused to comply could have their £65-a-week Jobseeker’s Allowance stopped for at least three months.

Mr Duncan Smith’s argument is that it is only by breaking the vicious cycle of benefits dependency that those without work will seek to better themselves.

But Archbishop Rowan Williams said Coalition plans to crack down on Britain’s bloated welfare system were ‘unfair’.

He said the five million on out-of-work benefits were not ‘wicked, stupid or lazy’ and should not be penalised to simply save money.

‘People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are I think driven further into a sort of downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair when the pressure’s on in that way,’ he said.

‘And quite often it can make people start feeling vulnerable — even more vulnerable as time goes on — and that’s the kind of unfairness that I feel.’

The row comes as a new report found cuts to housing benefit will make large swaths of southern England off limits to poorer families, forcing a mass migration to the north.

The Chartered Institute of Housing report shows that in just ten years most two-bedroom homes in the south will become out of reach to those claiming local housing allowance.

Dr Williams’s comments provoked anger within the Coalition, with one senior Tory saying it was time for the Archbishop to ‘pipe down’.

A Government source said Dr Williams did not appear to understand the Government’s plans.

The source said: ‘We don’t want to get into a public slanging match with the Archbishop about this, but he is wrong.

‘There is nothing noble about trapping people in unemployment and condemning them to a life on benefits. This is about helping people out of a downward spiral by giving them experience of work.

‘Many people who have been on benefits for years have self-esteem problems. We want to give them the experience and practical help they need to get back into work.’

Tory MEP Roger Helmer said: ‘The Archbishop of Canterbury clearly knows nothing about either economics or welfare: he should pipe down.’

Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander denied claims that ministers wanted to see the unemployed join ‘chain gangs’. But he admitted the new placements would be used as a ‘sanction’ against benefit claimants who did not try to get a job.

The scheme is targeted at layabouts who choose a life of benefits rather than going out to work.

It is also designed to tackle people who sign on for benefits while working in the black economy.

It is part of a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to reforming the £192billion welfare system, which will also see the unemployed offered a new guarantee that they will always be better off in work than on benefits.

Labour’s work and pensions spokesman, Douglas Alexander, said the biggest problem with the Government’s drive to get people back to work was that there are too few jobs.

He added: ‘The real flaw in the Coalition’s plan is that without work it won’t work.’

The Archbishop also attacked plans to cap housing benefit payments, saying these could lead to ‘social zoning’ in Britain’s cities, with poorer families forced out of affluent areas.

Dr Williams said: ‘My worry there is that people’s housing is part of their sense of stability, part of their sense of having a secure future, and I’m also a bit worried about the way in which this could lead to a kind of social zoning, where middle class areas get more solidly middle class and other people are pushed out to the edge.’

The Archbishop’s intervention is not the first time he has courted controversy.

In 2008 he was criticised for claiming that the adoption of aspects of sharia law in the UK was ‘unavoidable’. He was also an outspoken critic of the invasion of Iraq.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Voters Own the Choices They Make

No federal bailouts for irresponsible state governments, New York and California both stand on the edge of fiscal insolvency.

Despite massive rejection of the progressive agenda throughout the nation last Tuesday, two states, New York and California, remained virtually immune to the groundswell. Voters in both states elected or re-elected liberal Democrats by healthy margins. Unlike my liberal counterparts, who characterize voters as “remarkably insightful” when they embrace the progressive agenda and “fearful and uninformed” when they reject it, I will not question the wisdom of the electorate.

On the other hand, one idea has to remain inarguable: people must take responsibility for their choices.

New York and California both stand on the edge of fiscal insolvency, due in large part to their embrace of progressive policies: bloated public sector payrolls, high taxes, illegal alien-protecting “sanctuary cities” and massive amounts of deficit spending. Voters in both states, exactly like the rest of America, had a chance to rid themselves of the Democrat politicians overwhelmingly responsible for creating the mess. They chose not to do so.

So what’s the problem? Nothing—as long as what happens in New York and California stays in New York and California. What I mean by that is simple: no federal bailouts for irresponsible state governments heading for bankruptcy. None whatsoever.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


Audio: CAIR’s Shariah Defender Dodges Questions on Terror Ties

Fights against voter will in Oklahoma, but silent on national agenda

The leader of Oklahoma’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations got into a feisty exchange on air in which he defended the use of Islamic law in state courts while refusing to answer questions about his organization’s national agenda.

CAIR-OK Executive Director Muneer Awad was interviewed today by WND senior reporter Aaron Klein on New York City’s WABC 770 AM.

At one point, Awad grew so heated he accused Klein of lying and asked the blusterous question, “Do you condemn the KKK?”

The discussion began with questions about CAIR’s legal challenge to a ballot initiative passed by Oklahoma voters that bans judges from using Islamic law — known as Shariah — in court decisions.

Awad argued that the voter-passed constitutional amendment is a violation of Muslims’ First Amendment rights, and that “Shariah law has never been used in Oklahoma before this amendment came about.”

Klein pointed out, however, that the amendment was intended to be preventative.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Communist Party Covers Up Support for Obama

Radical group previously mapped out strategy for president’s 1st term in office.

The Communist Party USA has scrubbed its website of references that stated it “actively supported” President Obama’s election.

An article posted on the party’s official website on Dec. 30, 2007, previously stated, “Our Party actively supported Obama during the primary election.”

The article was referring to Obama’s 2004 election to the Senate. It detailed how the African-American community and trade unionists played key roles in defeating the “ultra right.”

“This was also reflected in the historic election of Barack Obama. Our Party actively supported Obama during the primary election,” stated the article, a screen shot of which was captured by the New Zeal blog.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Court Grants Temporary Order to Block Oklahoma From Shariah Amendment

OKLAHOMA CITY — “A temporary restraining order has been issued to block a state constitutional amendment that prohibits state courts from considering international or Islamic law when deciding cases. U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange handed down the ruling Monday morning in Oklahoma City following a brief hearing. The order will remain in effect until a Nov. 22 hearing on a requested preliminary injunction. It prevents the state election board from certifying the results of Tuesday’s general election in which the amendment was approved by 70 percent of the voters.”

The order was sought in a lawsuit by Oklahoma Muslim Muneer Awad. Awad is executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma and said during the hearing that the law stigmatizes his religion.

A Clinton appointment

Vicki Miles-LaGrange (born 1953) is the Chief U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma. She was the first African American woman to be sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. She was also the first African American female elected to the Oklahoma Senate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Cutting Hair Without a License: Florida Barbershops Raided

By Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel

As many as 14 armed Orange County deputies, including narcotics agents, stormed Strictly Skillz barbershop during business hours on a Saturday in August, handcuffing barbers in front of customers during a busy back-to-school weekend.

It was just one of a series of unprecedented raid-style inspections the Orange County Sheriff’s Office recently conducted with a state regulating agency, targeting several predominantly black- and Hispanic-owned barbershops in the Pine Hills area.

In “sweeps” on Aug. 21 and Sept. 17 targeting at least nine shops, deputies arrested 37 people — the majority charged with “barbering without a license,” a misdemeanor that state records show only three other people have been jailed in Florida in the past 10 years.

The operations were conducted without warrants, under the authority of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation inspectors, who can enter salons at will. Deputies said they found evidence of illegal activity, including guns, drugs and gambling. However, records show that during the two sweeps, and a smaller one in October, just three people were charged with anything other than a licensing violation.

[…]

Barbers and witnesses at several shops told the Orlando Sentinel that deputies shouted and cursed during the raids, demanding the location of illegal drugs, which they searched for extensively. They never found more than misdemeanor amounts of marijuana at eight of the nine shops they raided.

[…]

Harris-Perry, author of “Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought,” called the idea of deputies invading shops during both a recession and an election year “pretty horrifying.”

She said by violating the barbershop’s role as a “safe place” in the black community, deputies may have placed the community’s trust in local law enforcement at risk. “It’s exactly counterproductive,” she said, adding that targeting minority barbershops sends a message about “which communities deserve to be disrupted and which don’t.”

[…]

[Return to headlines]



Indictment: Somali Gangs Trafficked Girls for Sex

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Twenty-nine people have been indicted in a sex trafficking ring in which Somali gangs in Minneapolis and St. Paul allegedly forced girls under age 14 into prostitution in Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

The 24-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, said one of the gangs’ goals was recruiting females under age 18, including some under age 14, and forcing them into prostitution so the defendants could get money, marijuana or liquor.

The indictment details several instances in which young Somali or African American girls were taken from place to place and forced to engage in sex acts with multiple people. One girl was under 13 when she was first prostituted. Another girl was 18 when she was raped by multiple men in a hotel room, the indictment said.

John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the case is significant because the girls were repeatedly victimized over several years and transported to many places. The indictment lists incidents involving four victims, but says “other minor children” were involved. It’s not clear how many victims there were in all.

“Human traffickers abuse innocent people, undermine our public safety, and often use their illicit proceeds to fund sophisticated criminal organizations,” Morton said. “ICE is committed to bringing these criminals to justice and rescuing their victims from a life in the shadows.”

Van Vincent, the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, wouldn’t comment on the status of the girls, other than to say they were safe.

The indictment claims the ring involved three Minneapolis-based gangs _ the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws _ and that all three gangs are connected. The men and women charged were either gang members or associates of the gangs, the indictment said. They range in age from 19 to 38.

The indictment says the sex trafficking ring operated for 10 years, with the defendants recruiting young girls to engage in sex acts.

One girl was just 13 when, in 2005, she was taken from the Minneapolis area to an apartment in Nashville to engage in prostitution, it said. The girl was also taken to Columbus, Ohio, and other locations for prostitution.

In another case, a girl was under age 13 when she was first forced to engage in sex acts in November 2006. Two defendants had sex with her the next month at an apartment in St. Paul, and then other males arrived and were charged money to do the same, the indictment said. That scenario happened on many occasions.

The indictment refers to the girl as Jane Doe Two. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sex crimes.

“Jane Doe Two was informed … that selling Jane Doe Two for sex would be called a ‘Mission.’ It was a rule that members of the (gangs) would not be charged for sex with Jane Doe Two as they were fellow gang members,” the indictment said.

One defendant, Haji Osman Salad, nicknamed “Hollywood,” later made Jane Doe Two “his girl,” picking her up from school, engaging in sex acts with her, and then instructing her to engage in sex acts with other men, the indictment said…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Islamaphobia is Really Islam-Awareness

On November 5, a memorial to the twelve soldiers and one civilian killed by U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan was unveiled at Fort Hood, Texas, one year to the day when they were murdered while Hasan in full combat uniform shouted ‘Allahu Akbar!”, Arabic for “God is great!”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist and American-born Muslim, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. An Article 32 hearing is scheduled to determine if there is enough evidence to send him to trial. The wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow.

The latest assault on humanity and civilization by Islamofascists is the news that al Qaeda’s Yemen branch is taking credit for having blown up a UPS air cargo plane a while back and that packages containing bombs were thankfully intercepted before they killed people on commercial airlines.

In the week of November 1 through 5, eleven children were among 67 worshippers at a mosque in Pakistan by a suicide bomber yelling—guess what?—”Allahu Akbar!” The same day in Afghanistan, nine people at a bazaar were blown to bits by a teenage suicide bomber; seven worshippers in Peshawar, Pakistan were killed when terrorists threw grenades into a mosque; a young boy was killed by rockets fired into Khyber, Pakistan; two people were killed in Yemen by al Qaeda bombers; and two civilians were killed by a Taliban attack in Helmand, Afghanistan. (Source: thereligionofpeace.com)

Ever since September 11, 2001, Americans have had a heightened sense of fear regarding Muslims, but it would appear that it is Muslims who have even more reason to fear other Muslims than Americans. This is not to say that some aren’t planning to kill Americans as this is being written.

The worst of this is President Obama’s continual efforts to whitewash a threat to the West and civilization in general as he has done again on his trip to India when he claimed that Islam is “distorted” by a few extremists. The problem, of course, is that there are more than a billion people worldwide who regard themselves as Muslims and the vast majority of whom who have remained conspicuously silent about Islamic terrorism.

What I don’t understand is the charge of “Islamaphobia” that is dragged out by various spokespersons for the Muslim community in America as if it is some sort of deranged response to the fact that Americans and everyone else in the world are at risk from those who get their kicks yelling “Allahu Akbar!” before killing either fellow Muslims or infidels, i.e. unbelievers, who do not want to embrace the religion of peace.

I would argue that Islamaphobia is just Islam-awareness that, at the street level, means keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior, cars parked in Times Square with smoke coming from their trunk, packages or backpacks left unattended in subways, and all the other nasty greetings from Allah’s most dedicated believers.

I’d like to say at this point that I have complete confidence in the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies charged with keeping us from being blown to hell, but I do not.

This is based largely on the glassy-eyed comments of Secretary Janet Napolitano who probably needs help selecting something from a menu or reminders what day it is. She is the very definition of clueless and this is why, I suspect, she was selected for the post by Barack Hussein Obama.

How Islamaphobic can Americans be when they elected the son of a Muslim father, a man who spent his boyhood in Indonesia with a Muslim step-father, and who just came within a hair’s breath of endorsing the building a mosque near Ground Zero after having been seen bowing to the kind of Saudi Arabia?

The greatest tribune I can pay Americans is that they have not gone on a rampage dragging native-born Muslims from their beds and slaughtering them. We are so attendant to their feelings that some judges want to incorporate Sharia law into their decisions concerning homicidal behavior, schools are now adding Islamic holy days to their calendars, and various other efforts to avoid hurting their feelings are widely found.

I do not care if Muslim’s feelings are hurt. I am still angry about having the Twin Towers destroyed and the Pentagon attacked with the loss of just under 3,000 American lives. I am increasingly unhappy about the billions being spent in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, along with the cost of the lives of our military personnel. I have pretty much concluded that we have wasted too much blood and treasure in these places where Islam resists precepts of democracy, tolerance, and moral, moderate behavior.

The Americans for whom I have real sympathy are Arab-Americans and here’s why. Two thirds (63%) of Arab-Americans derive from Christian minorities in the Middle East. These are people whose families have suffered at the hands of extremist groups in their former home countries. More than half of all Arab-Americans are Maronite Christians from Lebanon who fled Syrian Baathists, Palestinian terrorists, and the Shiite Hezbollah.

So do not talk to me about Islamaphobia. A phobia is an irrational fear of something. It is just common sense to fear members of a so-called religion more devoted to death than life; a religion that authorizes, sanctions, and demands that unbelievers be killed in the name of Allah.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Jury in Conn. Home Invasion Murders Recommends Death Sentence

A jury in Connecticut voted on Monday to impose the death penalty for a long-time criminal convicted for his role in a home invasion in Cheshire, Conn., that left a mother and her two daughters dead. The panel had deliberated just more than three full days.

[Return to headlines]



Obama Empowers U.N. Tyrants to Prosecute Bush

One of the most irritating features of the Obama presidency is his penchant for apologizing for his country while twisting its history.

Bowing repeatedly to foreign leaders (the emperor of Japan seemed mildly amused, the king of Saudi Arabia looked like he expected Obama’s deference), denying the U.S. is a Christian nation in a speech in Turkey, denouncing “American exceptionalism” in Greece — Obama has too often acted like a leftist foreign critic of America rather than its president.

Now Obama’s bowing to a gaggle of tyrannical governments gathered at the U.N. under the Orwellian title “U.N. Human Rights Council.” The council was formed at the U.N. in March 2007 as a vehicle to attack President Bush based on allegations of “torture” of terrorists.

Forty-seven countries are members of this council, including such human-rights champions as Cuba, China, Nigeria, Uganda, Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Bush ignored the council; Obama bows to it. The U.N. council had targeted the U.S. as the first nation to receive an “assessment” of its human-rights record. Bush wouldn’t cooperate. Now, an American administration will allow the council to “assess the U.S. record on human rights.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Oklahoma Shariah Ban is Blocked

A federal judge blocked Oklahoma officials Monday from implementing a voter-approved referendum that singles out Islamic religious law, or Shariah, as a threat to the state.

Chief Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange, of U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, set a Nov. 22 hearing to consider whether the Save Our State Amendment violates the U.S. Constitution. Until then, she issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state Election Board from certifying State Question 755, which passed by 70% on Nov. 2.

The measure directs state courts to ignore “legal precepts of other nations or cultures” and specifically forbids consideration of “international law or Sharia Law.”

A Muslim activist in Oklahoma City, Muneer Awad, filed suit last week, alleging the measure violated the First Amendment, which forbids government from promoting an “establishment of religion” or interfering with “free exercise” of religion.

The measure “would enshrine disapproval of Islam in the state constitution,” said Mr. Awad, 27 years old, in an interview. He is executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In addition, he said, the provision could invalidate his will, which refers to Islamic teachings on the distribution of property.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Pentagon Openings Give Obama New Options

President’s choices could have lasting consequences for national security agenda.

WASHINGTON — With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon’s leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.

It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama’s first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The Insanity Virus

Schizophrenia has long been blamed on bad genes or even bad parents. Wrong, says a growing group of psychiatrists. The real culprit, they claim, is a virus that lives entwined in every person’s DNA.

Steven and David Elmore were born identical twins, but their first days in this world could not have been more different. David came home from the hospital after a week. Steven, born four minutes later, stayed behind in the ICU. For a month he hovered near death in an incubator, wracked with fever from what doctors called a dangerous viral infection. Even after Steven recovered, he lagged behind his twin. He lay awake but rarely cried. When his mother smiled at him, he stared back with blank eyes rather than mirroring her smiles as David did. And for several years after the boys began walking, it was Steven who often lost his balance, falling against tables or smashing his lip.

Those early differences might have faded into distant memory, but they gained new significance in light of the twins’ subsequent lives. By the time Steven entered grade school, it appeared that he had hit his stride. The twins seemed to have equalized into the genetic carbon copies that they were: They wore the same shoulder-length, sandy-blond hair. They were both B+ students. They played basketball with the same friends. Steven Elmore had seemingly overcome his rough start. But then, at the age of 17, he began hearing voices.

The voices called from passing cars as Steven drove to work. They ridiculed his failure to find a girlfriend. Rolling up the car windows and blasting the radio did nothing to silence them. Other voices pursued Steven at home. Three voices called through the windows of his house: two angry men and one woman who begged the men to stop arguing. Another voice thrummed out of the stereo speakers, giving a running commentary on the songs of Steely Dan or Led Zeppelin, which Steven played at night after work. His nerves frayed and he broke down. Within weeks his outbursts landed him in a psychiatric hospital, where doctors determined he had schizophrenia.

The story of Steven and his twin reflects a long-standing mystery in schizophrenia, one of the most common mental diseases on earth, affecting about 1 percent of humanity. For a long time schizophrenia was commonly blamed on cold mothers. More recently it has been attributed to bad genes. Yet many key facts seem to contradict both interpretations.

Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 25, but the person who becomes schizophrenic is sometimes recalled to have been different as a child or a toddler—more forgetful or shy or clumsy. Studies of family videos confirm this. Even more puzzling is the so-called birth-month effect: People born in winter or early spring are more likely than others to become schizophrenic later in life. It is a small increase, just 5 to 8 percent, but it is remarkably consistent, showing up in 250 studies. That same pattern is seen in people with bipolar disorder or multiple sclerosis.

“The birth-month effect is one of the most clearly established facts about schizophrenia,” says Fuller Torrey, director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland. “It’s difficult to explain by genes, and it’s certainly difficult to explain by bad mothers.”

The facts of schizophrenia are so peculiar, in fact, that they have led Torrey and a growing number of other scientists to abandon the traditional explanations of the disease and embrace a startling alternative. Schizophrenia, they say, does not begin as a psychological disease. Schizophrenia begins with an infection.

The idea has sparked skepticism, but after decades of hunting, Torrey and his colleagues think they have finally found the infectious agent. You might call it an insanity virus. If Torrey is right, the culprit that triggers a lifetime of hallucinations—that tore apart the lives of writer Jack Kerouac, mathematician John Nash, and millions of others—is a virus that all of us carry in our bodies. “Some people laugh about the infection hypothesis,” says Urs Meyer, a neuroimmunologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. “But the impact that it has on researchers is much, much, much more than it was five years ago. And my prediction would be that it will gain even more impact in the future.”

The implications are enormous. Torrey, Meyer, and others hold out hope that they can address the root cause of schizophrenia, perhaps even decades before the delusions begin. The first clinical trials of drug treatments are already under way. The results could lead to meaningful new treatments not only for schizophrenia but also for bipolar disorder and multiple sclerosis. Beyond that, the insanity virus (if such it proves) may challenge our basic views of human evolution, blurring the line between “us” and “them,” between pathogen and host…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Obama Administration Bows Before the UN Human Rights Star Chamber

Once the Obama administration decided last year to join the circus known as the United Nations Human Rights Council, it would only be a matter of time before the U.S. faced judgment day on its own human rights record before this dysfunctional UN body.

Our turn came on November 5, 2010. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Esther Brimmer told the Council on the occasion of its examination of the United States’ human rights record that “it is an honor to be in this chamber.” Star chamber would be a more fitting description.

The “honor” that Brimmer was referring to was the Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) hearing dissecting America’s human rights record. The UPR is a rotating periodic examination of all UN member states’ human rights records by the Human Rights Council. The Council includes, among its own proud roster of members, such countries as China, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia. These serial human rights abusers exploit the UPR process to heap praise on each other and whitewash their own abysmal records, while scoring propaganda points against Western democracies for falling short of perfection.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental monitoring the Human Rights Council, captured perfectly the absurdity of America in the dock when he said that the “U.N. system failed today by allowing non-democracies to hijack the session for political propaganda and to drum up anti-American sentiment worldwide.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Who is Really Distorting Islam?

But while liberals assail Judaism and Christianity, condemn America and Israel, their choirs of academics and politicians sing the praises of Islam.

“All of us recognize that this great religion (Islam), in the hands of a few extremists, has been distorted.” —Barack Hussein Obama

“Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!”—Ayatollah Khomeini

While we now know that a young Obama rebelled against his mother and attended Koran classes, he clearly didn’t attend nearly enough of them. Or the Harvard genius is back to playing dumb.

According to Obama, and so much of the political establishment, the Koran is being distorted by a “few extremists” somewhere who are trying to convince the billion peaceful Muslims, that it actually promotes violence. But first a few obvious questions.

How many exactly is a “few”? Are we talking about a few dozen, a few thousand, a few million? Naturally Obama and the Islam apologists never really address that question. Because it is a rather inconvenient question. Since Muslims are defined by religious streams and mosque attendance, it should be easy enough to come up with a realistic figure.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Brussels: Senior Eurocrats Caught Fighting or Running Brothels Keep Their Jobs

Senior Eurocrats caught fighting or running brothels have been allowed to keep their jobs

SENIOR Eurocrats caught fighting or running brothels have been allowed to keep their jobs.

European Commission records show an official who got a suspended jail sentence for “keeping a brothel” was demoted instead of being sacked.

Officers who assaulted colleagues just had their promotions delayed, while a retired man had his pension cut after being convicted of paedophile offences. Two others were sacked only after being absent from work for several years.

Tory MEP Roger Helmer, who obtained the files from the EC’s Investigation and Disciplinary Office, said the treatment was absurdly lenient.

He compared them to the case of Ukip MEP Marta Andreasen, who was sacked as the EC’s chief accountant in 2004 for highlighting concerns that the EU’s budget was open to abuse.

He said: “If you do almost anything, no matter how outrageous, you get a slap on the wrist — unless you criticise the European project.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



‘Doomsday Vault’ Gets New, Large Shipment of Rice

In hopes of bolstering our defenses in the event of a major food crisis, researchers sent tens of thousands of seeds from different types of rice last week to a “doomsday vault” in the archipelago Svalbard.

Contained in black boxes, the 42,627 samples of rice seeds traveled to the mountains of the Norwegian archipelago, about 746 miles (1,200 kilometers) from the North Pole. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is buried deep inside the icy mountains, where it protects all of the world’s important crop seeds in case of a man-made or natural disaster.

The rice collection was sent from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), whose first deposit to the doomsday vault included 70,180 rice-seed samples sent in 2008. If ideal temperature and storage conditions remain inside the vault, seeds can be stored for hundreds of years, scientists say.

Polar bear protection

The giant icebox of sorts, which was officially opened on Feb. 26, 2008, is designed to protect the world’s crop diversity from natural or man-made disasters.

The vault, which officially opened on Feb. 26, 2008, is dug into the Platåberget mountain (“plateau mountain”) located near the village of Longyearbyen, Svalbard — a group of islands north of mainland Norway. The arctic permafrost offers natural freezing for the seeds, while additional cooling brings the temperatures down to minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius).

And if the mountain of snow enshrouding the storage rooms wasn’t enough protection, what better bodyguard than one of nature’s biggest beasts.

“The region on Svalbard surrounding the seed vault is remote, severe, and inhabited by polar bears,” according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which helps to support the vault’s operations.

The preciousness of such seeds is reflected in the inaccessible nature of the vault. “Anyone seeking access to the seeds themselves will have to pass through four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door approximately 115 meters down the tunnel and finally the two keyed air-locked doors,” the Trust writes. “Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the facility. Not all keys unlock all doors.”

Fail-safe backup

Like all seeds coming to the vault, the new ones are duplicates of those from other collections — in this case, duplicates are from those kept by IRRI’s International Rice Genebank in Los Baños, in the Philippines.

So if seeds are lost due to natural disasters, war, or lack of resources, the seed collections can be reestablished from Svalbard.

The vault can hold 4.5 million seed samples — and since each sample contains about 500 seeds, a maximum of 2.25 billion seeds will fit into the vault. That means all the unique seed samples conserved today by the 1,400 or so genebanks located across the globe could have duplicates in the seed vault.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Eurabia Watch: November 8, 2010

This is the start of an ongoing series, where we will bring you news of what is happening in relation to Islam, Islamism and political correctness in Europe. In Europe, the indigenous cultures have lost their sense of identity, replacing this with bland leftism and PC dogma. In this weakened state, Europe has allowed the uncompromising ideology of Islamism to take root.

The term Eurabia derives from the title of a book by Bat Ye’or, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. In this book, Ye’or described a growing relationship between the progressives and leftists of Europe and intolerant Islamists whose ideologies and funding sources mostly came from the Arab world. Similar demographic and political changes are taking place in Canada and the USA. If we learn from the lessons of Europe, we may be able to stop North America going the same way.

Carcassonne, France: Christian Congregation Attacked with Rocks

As reported on Thursday in Midi Libre, Chrétienté.info and TF1 News, the congregation of a church in Carcassonne, south central France, was attacked by two youths who threw stones at worshippers. The incident took place in the quarter of the historic town known as Viguier, whose population is predominantly made of migrants from North Africa and their offspring. Translation from Midi Libre:

The faithful who attended the memorial service for the dead late Tuesday afternoon in a church in a sensitive area of Carcassonne, were the victims of two teenagers who, after entering the building threw stones and pine cones at them. One person was hit. In addition, a statue of the Virgin, target of the young desecrators, was damaged.

Two audience members who left the service to eject the two young intruders, gave chase but to no avail. The youths blended into the neighborhood, after copiously insulting their pursuers. The priest, Bruno Garrouste, described the youths throwing projectiles as large as a fist, being 13/14. He complained to the police.

Carcassonne attorney Francis Battut Carcassonne has ordered an investigation to identify the adolescents. “We take this very seriously,” he said. The facts date back Tuesday but the details were not disclosed until Thursday. The motives of these young people are unknown. Abdallah Zekri, regional delegate of the French Muslim Council, condemned an “attitude of thuggery.” The desecration of the church Saint-Jacques and the stoning of the faithful in a packed church — the first instance of its kind in a difficult area — sparked a big stir within the Christian community.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



George W Bush: ‘Waterboarding’ Saved British Lives

In an interview publicising his new book “Decision Points”, Mr Bush vigorously defended waterboarding, a kind of simulated drowning that was known as an “enhanced interrogation technique” by the Bush administration but regarded as “torture” by many opponents, some allies and a few internal dissenters.

“Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives,” said Mr Bush, who denied that the practice amounted to torture. When asked if he authorised of waterboarding to gain information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the captured al-Qaeda leader, he responded: “Damn right!”

In his book, Mr Bush writes: “Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.”

He writes that although the procedure was “tough”, it was legal.

The British government has long viewed waterboarding as torture. Last month, Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, said in a speech that Britain had “nothing whatsoever” to do with torture. Mr Bush was being interviewed by The Times, which is serialising the book. He hailed Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, as a modern-day Winston Churchill but was dismissive of the significance of British public opinion during the run-up to the Iraq war and subsequently.

Mr Bush recalled that when Mr Blair faced a possible Parliamentary vote of no confidence in on the eve of the Iraq invasion he gave him the chance to decide not to send British troops to Iraq because “rather than lose the Government, I would much rather have Tony and his wisdom and his strategic thinking as the prime minister of a strong and important ally”.

According to Mr Bush, Mr Blair responded: “I’m in. If it costs the Government, fine.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Germany: Jewish WWI Soldiers Remembered at Frankfurt Ceremony

German officials attended a wreath-laying ceremony in Frankfurt on Sunday to honour thousands of Jewish soldiers who gave their lives for Germany during the First World War.

The memorial was held at the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt. Gideon Römer-Hillebrecht, deputy chairman of the German Association of Jewish Soldiers (RjF), said it was the first time that representatives of the German government, as well as the German Bundeswehr and other national militaries, took part in the ceremony.

Bundeswehr parliamentary liaison Hellmut Königshaus was in attendance, as well as Defence Ministry parliamentary liaison Christian Schmidt, and Frankfurt Jewish Community Chairman Salomon Korn. Representatives from Israel, Austria and the United States were also present at the ceremony.

Schmidt said the deaths of the estimated 12,000 Jewish soldiers who fought for Germany during World War I have been rarely acknowledged — and that remembering their sacrifice was a duty.

He added that many Jews entered the war out of patriotic conviction but were denounced as “scapegoats” after WWI ended in 1918.

Following the wreath-laying ceremony, the names of the 50 Jewish soldiers buried at the cemetery were read aloud. According to the German Association for Jewish Soldiers, some 467 Jewish men in uniform from Frankfurt were killed during World War I.

The RjF’s Römer-Hillebrecht said the ceremony should not only pay tribute to the lives of fallen Jewish soldiers, but also honour their relatives and comrades killed during the Holocaust. The Nazi regime murdered six million European Jews during World War II.

“Because of the Shoah, there are few relatives still here today who can honour the dead with us,” he said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Film: Waked Offered Only Bad Guy Roles After Syriana

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 1 — “Films serve to break down barriers and not to create new ones. Even actors exchange experiences and learn a lot about each other’s cultures,” said the Egyptian actor Amr Waked, in Rome for the fifth edition of the Rome International Film Festival.

Waked has been harshly criticised for his professional choices and his ideas by the entertainment world of Arab countries, such as when in 2008 he agreed to act in “House of Saddam” (coproduction between BBC Television and HBO) alongside Igal Naor (who played the role of the Iraqi dictator). Waked said that “in the beginning I had no idea that the lead actor was Israeli, and even I thought it was an ill-advised choice.

However, I was already involved and shooting had got underway, and later I thought to myself: but I like this actor. He’s a colleague of mine, and good at what he does. And I am not ashamed to say that we are good friends, even if he is Jewish.

What is the problem?”.

Due to this choice of his, the Egyptian actors’ union covered him in insults and even now the public remembers it. However, the 38-year-old with a degree from the American University of Cairo seems to have that something extra which the Arab film world overall needs to get out of its current stagnation.

With over ten years of working in the theatre to his name, Waked set out on his film career in 1997. In Europe, however, it was with the role of a recruiter for suicide attackers in “Syriana” that he became famous. Could it be that to break into the world of Western films an Arab must necessarily take on the role of the bad guy and terrorist? “In part perhaps this is the case,” he admitted. “However, I agreed to play that role in Syriana since I thought the screenplay was well-done, and because the one who wrote it proved that he knew the Middle East and US foreign policy in that part of the world very well. Later I turned down 18 screenplays in which I was supposed to play the role of suicide bomber.” As concerns the film market in Arab countries, he said that “even now Egypt has no rivals, though Egyptian films are going through a very deep crisis.” He noted that the quality is not keeping up with the quantity. “Many films are produced in Egypt every year but they are addressed to an uncultured, naive public which is interested in mediocre stories. We need to focus on a new generation of actors and directors and look towards the future,” he said. And he himself has chosen to shift to the other side of a film camera and, under age 40, already has his own production house. “Along with the director Ahmad Maher,” he revealed,” between April and May we will begin to shoot a film which deals with the story of an Egyptian who has been living in Italy for 20 years.” It is an educational film, he added, “which helps to make others understand that to emigrate preparation is needed. Because if you aren’t ready for it, if you don’t know what you’ll be going up against, you will end up living a nightmare.” (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy’s Biggest Union Elects First Woman Leader

Susanna Camusso new CGIL secretary general

(ANSA) — Rome, November 3 — Susanna Camusso on Wednesday became the first woman to head one of Italy’s leading trade unions.

CGIL, Italy’s biggest union, elected the 55-year-old Camusso to be its new national secretary general in a vote which saw her receive 79.1% of the votes cast by the union’s executive assembly.

“My task will be a difficult one not only because of the attacks which have been made on CGIL, but also because of the state Italy finds itself in,” Camusso said after her election.

“I hope I can be a reference point for all”.

Camusso, who replaces Guglielmo Epifani, has never worked in a factory but has had a long career in the union movement. She earned a reputation as a tough negotiator when she worked for 22 years for FIOM, the auto and metal workers division at CGIL, where she became its first woman leader.

In congratulating the new CGIL leader, who was his hand-picked successor, Epifani said Camusso “has the ability and the experience to do well, along with the qualities needed to lead this great organization: brains and a heart”.

Among the first politicians to congratulate Camusso was Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna who said her election represented “an historic watershed”.

“For the first time a woman is at the helm of Italy’s biggest trade union. This is an historic watershed which as minister for equal opportunities and as a woman fills me with pride.” Carfagna said.

“With Camusso’s election, which follows that of Emma Marcegaglia as head of (industrial employers association) Confindustria, another small tabu has been broken. Women are now, without a doubt, achieving a primary role also in the economy,” the minister said.

Speaking last week, when it was clear Camusso would be elected, Marcegaglia said “I have a very positive opinion of her. She knows how companies operate and I hope she will do well and is able to control the more conservative elements of her union”.

“We face an enormous challenge in which either we all win or we all lose. I hope we can all work together to ensure this country has higher growth, productivity and competitiveness,” Marcegaglia added.

One of Camusso’s first challenges will be dealing with FIOM’s staunch opposition to Fiat’s push for individual factory contracts, which would override the national collective contract.

Fiat maintains these contracts are needed in order to boost productivity at its plants enough to justify implementing a 20-billion-euro investment plan for Italy.

Camusso will also face the task of patching up relations with Italy’s two other leading unions, the CISL and UIL, which have been more open to accepting government attempts to revise labor relations and meeting the demands imposed by Fiat.

UIL leader Luigi Angeletti on Wednesday sent his “sincere” congratulations to Camusso and added “we have different opinions on contract bargaining and this will be a testing ground to see whether our relations will evolve in a positive way. And on this I am confident”. CISL leader Raffaele Bonanni expressed his hope that “it will be easier to find common ground” with Camusso than with her predecessor.

“We will see whether this is possible in the coming days.

In any case, unions can always overcome their divisions. What is important is that we understand what is the final goal,” he added. Also sending Camusso her congratulations was Renata Polverini, who before her election this year as the governor of the central region of Lazio led the smaller UGL union, which is considered right-wing while the CGIL is traditionally left-wing.

“As a woman and as a former national union leader I wish her the best of luck in her new, difficult task. I am sure she will tackle this as she has the others: alongside the workers to protect their rights and interests,” Polverini said. Although she is known to be very determined in contract negotiations, unafraid to resort to strikes and other labor actions to achieve results, Camusso is recognised by both her peers and management for being open to suggestion and able to produce results.

Camusso left FIOM in 1997 after 22 years reportedly because then-leader, Claudio Sabattini, considered her to be too ‘moderate’. She moved to the regional Lombardy branch of the CGIL and worked her way up to the national governing committee in 2008.

At least in the beginning Camusso is expected to follow the reformist polices Epifani adopted at the last CGIL congress, which included finding other means aside from strikes to achieve union goals.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy to Import 600,000 MW Per Year From Tunisia

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 29 — Italy will start importing 600,000 megawatt (Mw) of power per year from Tunisia in 2018, after the completion of the production area and the indispensible connections. The announcement was made by Italian Undersecretary for Industry, Stefano Saglia, during an international conference in Tunis on the Tunisian solar energy plan. The production area will have a daily capacity of 1,200 Mw, of which 800 Mw will be transferred to Italy through undersea cables with a capacity of 1,000 Mw. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: FLI Threat to Leave Government if PM Refuses to Resign

Fini says: “We are not against Berlusconi. We are beyond the PDL and Berlusconi. Legislature pact only with new agenda”

MILAN — Beyond the People of Freedom (PDL) and beyond Berlusconi. The PDL is a turned page. That was the message from Future and Liberty (FLI) leader Gianfranco Fini in his eagerly awaited speech at Bastia Umbra. Mr Fini pointed out that a new pact for the legislature was possible but only with a new political agenda. First, the PM must resign and trigger a crisis. If he does not resign, FLI is ready to leave the government.

PRELUDE — Actor and FLI parliamentarian Luca Barbareschi read the party value manifesto to introduce the closing speech of the new Centre-right movement’s conference. Shortly before, Mr Barbareschi had accepted the pledge of the two FLI ministers Ronchi and Urso, who announced they were returning their mandate to Mr Fini. “With our friends Antonio Bonfiglio and Roberto Menia, with whom we have shared a government commitment that you granted to us, we place our appointments in government in your hands and those of Gianfranco Fini. Our interest is not in positions but in the mission for change in Italy”, said deputy minister Adolfo Urso, announcing that he was returning his mandate to Mr Fini along with the three junior ministers.

IDENTITY OF NEW PARTY — “Men pass and ideas remain”, said Mr Fini, opening his speech. “This is not personal resentment. Our challenge springs from a courageous shouldering of responsibility”. As phrase followed phrase, Mr Fini did not mention Silvio Berlusconi by name but in effect he was referring to the criticisms of FLI by the PDL leader, replying to them one by one and defending his actions as “someone who will never ask you to sing ‘Thank Goodness for Fini’“. “There was a longing in Italy for a different politics, clean and done in the name of values and ideals. Thank you to those who made possible this little big miracle”, added Mr Fini, who quoted the poetry of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of the Little Prince. “Some rather presumptuously wrote us off too quickly as a small group, as if our adventure made no political sense. From Mirabello, today we are in this splendid setting with an event that has few precedents. We are not just politically pivotal for the fate of the government. We are also crucial for the destiny of the country”, Mr Fini pointed out. “FLI will not be a pocket version of National Alliance but neither will it be a sort of raft of the Medusa picking up sundry shipwreck survivors. Our doors are open to all, except deal-makers and self-promoters”, said Mr Fini. “How sad it was to read the news that went all round the world” he said, referring to the collapse of the House of the Gladiators at Pompeii. Things like that, he went on, project an image of Italy that is certainly not the one Italians deserve.

ATTACK ON PDL — Mr Fini then turned his fire on the PDL and Northern League, starting with immigration and the family. “Nowhere in Europe, and I say this after due consideration, is there a political movement like the PDL, which on civil rights is so culturally backward and in thrall, as in other things, to the worst Northern League culture. Our manifesto of values features respect for the human person and safeguards the civil rights of every human being, without distinction or discrimination. Respect for the person means not discriminating between black and white, Christians and Muslims or Jews, heterosexuals and homosexuals or Italian citizens and foreigners. The person is at the heart of any political culture that strives to lay the foundations of harmony. And legality is the essential precondition of freedom”.

PAGE TURNED ON PDL — “We are not against Berlusconi. We are beyond the PDL and beyond Berlusconi. Our project goes beyond. We have turned the page on the PDL and Berlusconi. That page has been turned, or is turning, because it was unable to put flesh on aspirations and projects. The great liberal revolution was implemented only in very small measure. Italy is not the Pinocchio-esque Toy Country Berlusconi makes it out to be. This government has not got its finger on Italy’s pulse. It has no idea what Italians worry about. The government is adrift. It plugs the leaks but it has lost its bearings. It has no project to build the Italy of tomorrow. It’s a government that lives from day to day. The government has failed to take on board that there are four or five issues that must be faced, priorities on Italy’s agenda, which do not include bills on electronic eavesdropping. Policies for recovery need to be put in place. You can’t just dismiss it all by talking about ridiculous plots or saying that the government of doing is in power. I get the impression that this government of doing is the government of kidding on everything is all right and taking no account of society’s problems. What’s needed is another kind of politics that goes beyond side-taking. It is just not possible that every time you seek shared ground this is labelled as the worst sort of stitch-up or pulling wool over voters’ eyes. Bipolarism is a value but when the election campaign is over, the other coalition cannot remain an enemy to be fought with propaganda overkill and a policy shortfall”.

ECONOMIC QUESTION — “We disagree with Mr Tremonti’s policy of across-the-board cuts”, said Mr Fini, who believes the approach is “the best way not to choose where to cut back and where to invest”. Mr Fini did, however, acknowledge the “merit” of the economy minister “for the spending curb policy”. Nevertheless, Mr Fini thinks “the middle class is getting poorer and struggles to get through the month. There is an advancing conflict of generations. Many young people realise that when they no longer have their family, it will be a serious problem for them. This conflict is alarming”, said Mr Fini.

MORAL ISSUE — “There is a sort of moral decadence. These are slippery issues. In my view, moralism is one of the worst attitudes of the many whited sepulchres ever ready to preach but never to look inside themselves”, said Mr Fini, in an indirect reference to the Ruby case. “I believe this decadence is a consequence of the loss of decorum and rigour in the behaviour of those who are called to be examples, because as a public figure you have a duty to set an example”.

NEW PACT FOR LEGISLATURE — “A legislature pact is possible only if there is a new political agenda and a government pact from now until 2013. That pact, without offence to Mr Berlusconi, cannot be a five-point test that Parliament’s schoolchildren have to tick or be accused of lèse-majesté. The agenda also needs two or three reforms to modernise our system of institutions. First of all, we need to eliminate an electoral law that is merely an embarrassment”, said Mr Fini.

PREMIER’S RESIGNATION — “Mr Berlusconi should hand in his resignation and precipitate a government crisis. If he does not resign, we will leave the government. If Mr Berlusconi fails to make a move and listens to his bad counsellors, then obviously Ronchi, Urso, Menia and Bonfiglio will not stay in the government for one minute longer. The problem for us is not passing the lighted match or pulling the plug. It’s clear that if we carry on playing these smart-alecky tactical games, the plug will be pulled by Italians fed up with a government that doesn’t govern”, concluded Mr Fini.

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

08 novembre 2010

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Police Call for Tips on Malmö Shootings

Malmö police have declared that the investigation into spate of racist shootings in the city is “far from solved” despite the arrest of a 38-year-old man suspect on Saturday.

“It is a long way from being concluded,” deputy chief constable Åsa Palmqvist said in a Monday morning press conference.

Palmqvist told reporters that the investigation is ongoing and called on the public for more information.

“We want to continually get in more tips. We need that,” she said.

It has been confirmed that the 38-year-old has been arrested on “probable cause”, the highest level of a three grade suspicion scale used in Sweden.

The man is suspected of one murder in October 2009 and seven attempted murders between then and October 2010.

Police remained on guard at the man’s home on Sunday night after several gangs of curious youths found their way to the location.

“It is all part of the security-building measures we have taken. So that the residents can feel safe,” said the county officer in charge of Skåne and Blekinge police on Sunday night.

The prosecutor and police have been cautious in their public statements over the weekend regarding details of the case. The arrested suspect’s name has not been revealed and police have refrained from officially linking him to what the Swedish press have dubbed “the new laser man”, who may be behind a series of immigrant shootings.

According to media reports on Monday the man is confirmed to be an “ethnic Swede” and the man’s father told the Aftonbladet daily that his son “lived in fear of immigrants taking over Swedish society”.

It has also been confirmed that the 38-year-old, described as a “loner” by neighbours, possessed a licence for two weapons, which police seized during their search.

The search of the man’s apartment on Sunday resulted in a strengthening of the suspicions against the man.

The chief prosecutor Solveig Wollstad has confirmed that the man denies all involvement in the shootings and that a decision over whether to charge him will be taken on Tuesday.

The arrest comes after a massive Malmö police investigation was launched on October 22nd into whether a lone shooter with racist motives was behind some 15 attacks, killing one person and injuring many others.

Dozens of regional police officers have been dispatched to Malmö to help in the hunt as of late October.

Of the 50 to 60 shootings that have taken place in Malmö over the past year, police consider about 15 of them as “unaccounted for”.

Police have furthermore indicated that the shooter may even have committed unsolved murders dating as far back as 2003.

Authorities said at the time it might take weeks or months to find the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attacks.

At Sunday’s press conference, Skåne county criminal investigation department superintendent Börje Sjöholm, described the arrest as the result of traditional police work.

“We were interested in him following information obtained from the population,” he said of the suspect.

The October announcement spread panic in the city and a link was quickly made with a spate of racist attacks carried out with a chilling similarity by an immigrant-shooting sniper in Stockholm in the early 1990s dubbed “Laser Man”.

“Laser Man” was the nickname given to John Ausonius, who shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, around Stockholm from August 1991 to January

1992.

Ausonius, who got his nickname by initially using a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was sentenced to life behind bars in 1994 and remains in prison.

Unlike Ausonius, the Malmö shooter does not appear to use a laser sight rifle, but police say the same gun has been used for several of the shootings, including the attack on the only known ethnic Swedish victim.

Trez Persson, 20, was killed last October when someone fired numerous shots into the car she was sitting in with a friend, a man of immigrant origin, who was seriously injured in the attack.

In October alone, numerous shootings appear linked to the case, including two men shot in the back, a week apart, as they waited alone in the dark at separate, isolated bus stops.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Turkey: Danny the Red and Davutoglu

Representatives of the Greens in the European Parliament have paid a visit to Istanbul, after six years.

I remember two stars of the show six years ago at the Greens general convention were the co-chairman of the Greens, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, and the German foreign minister at the time, Joscha Fischer.

This time, Cohn-Bendit had the stage to himself.

Cohn-Bandit controlled the agenda by his remarks during meetings. In the meantime, he managed to have a short press briefing with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Frankly, I am curious about a meeting between the pious-conservative Davutoglu and this madcap politician who transformed into “Danny the Green” after earning reputation as “Danny the Red” for his involvement in anarchism in the incidents of 1968.

Cohn-Bendit came to the breakfast much earlier than Davutoglu, who had just returned home from a visit to China.

As we were shooting the breeze, the subject was the future of the Greens Party in Turkey.

The 10 percent obstacle in the Greens Party

The Greens in Turkey was formed in 2008. Co-chairman of Greens in the EP rightfully said that it cannot stand any chance if the 10 percent national election threshold is not lowered.

“If the Greens take action, I will vote for them,” this is what I hear from more people everyday who are in search of a political party suits to them.

However, it is too much optimism to expect the party to speak up until the elections next June.

As for the Cohn-Bendit and Davutoglu meeting, “Danny the Red” acted faster than the reporters and posed the first question to Davutoglu.

He asked what Davutoglu did for Sakine, who is awaiting execution in Iran.

Davutoglu said the Turkish Foreign Ministry had requested her release from Tehran several times.

The minister shared his views, from the Mavi Marmara raid to Turkey’s European Union bid, after saying that he doesn’t believe sanctions against Iran could work and that Iranians will be most harmed by the sanctions.

China European as well

I want to underline Davutoglu’s remarks on the EU.

“As you go to China, you realize your European identity. Nothing has changed in Turkey’s European vision. If Europe cannot learn to live together with the Turks, how will the Unites States and the world, for instance, learn to live with the Chinese?”

That is to say, the issue has become multiculturalism, which is the hottest issue in Europe.

It started when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “We have utterly failed with our Multikulti policy.”

At this point Cohn-Bendit passed the ball to Davutoglu’s court and asked:

“Turkey, too, deals with multiculturalism problems. Are the right of Alevis, Christians and atheists being protected?”

Then he touched upon Islam. “We have to accept Islam as the second religion in Europe,” however he said Islam scares away some people and needs to be changed to be secularized like other religions.

Let me recall here, France, where Cohn-Bandit lives, has become a stage for the fiercest debates over the secularization of Islam.

As far as I follow the French press, Muslim intellectuals living in France have been involved in similar philosophical or religious discussions.

And Turkey stands far away from all of them.

I don’t know if Davutoglu took note of Cohn-Bandit’s remarks.

However, I noted when the minister said: “I like the Greens’ vision. It is more impressive than that of the other parties in Europe. They have much more innovative and creative ideas. I have a lot to learn from them.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Terror’ Tube Driver With Al Qaeda Links Walks Free

A Tube driver on the Bakerloo line was this afternoon cleared of plotting terror attacks despite writing a farewell letter to his wife and admitting he knew an al Qaeda terrorist.

The verdict at Snaresbrook crown court puts pressure on London Underground to order a comprehensive overhaul of its vetting policy.

Amir Ali, 28, a qualified LU train driver earning £41,000 a year, is said to have bought survival equipment and booked flights to Pakistan intent on committing “violent jihad” in Afghanistan.

The married father of two from Ilford wrote a letter to his wife Miriam and his children proclaiming “Allah came first,” the court heard.

Ali admitted he knew Anthony Garcia, who was jailed over an al Qaeda plot to blow up the Bluewater shopping mall and other targets with massive fertiliser bombs.

He was also said to be associated with Garcia’s brothers, Lamine Adam and Ibrahim Adam, who are still on the run after going missing while subject to control orders.

During the Bluewater trial it emerged that Lamine Adam, a former Tube driver, had been asked by terrorism leaders in Pakistan to launch a suicide attack on the Tube network.

Ali was today found not guilty of preparation for acts of terrorism between April 2006 and March last year after claiming he was framed by the British security services after he refused to become an MI5 mole.

During the trial Ali was asked whether Muslims were obliged to carry out jihad. He replied: “I think it’s the obligation of a Muslim to follow the Koran.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Freed Islamic Terrorists Face New Controls as 46 Prepare for Prison Release

Dozens of Islamic terrorists who have finished their prison sentences are so dangerous that a secret list of restrictions has been drawn up to limit their freedom, it has been disclosed.

The curbs have been introduced by ministers who are concerned about the release or impending release of a ‘significant’ number of extremists.

Restrictions are understood to include a ban on using computers, visiting certain mosques, associating with imams who are not approved by the Government and not associating with known criminals.

Ministers will apply the curbs to at least 20 convicted terrorists who have been freed from jail this year as well as 26 eligible for release within the next two years.

One of those recently eligible to be freed is Abu Bakr Mansha, who was jailed for plotting to kill a British soldier.

Probation officers have been given a catalogue of restrictions that can apply to terrorists freed on licence.

The restricted document, has been drafted by the Ministry of Justice and is entitled, The Management of Critical Public Protection Cases and Terrorist or Terrorist Related Offenders.

It states: ‘There is now a small but significant number of terrorists being held in custody or managed on licence.

‘This instruction ensures that processes to manage offenders who pose a risk of harm to the public or whose cases pose complex management issues are effectively configured to meet the challenges of managing terrorist offenders.’

Some estimates show there are more than 100 convicted Islamic terrorists in the UK prison system.

But according to the Royal United Services Institute, 800 Muslims have been radicalised while in prison and could present a danger to the public when they are released.

Among those eligible to be freed over the past two years was Khalid Khaliq, who associated with the 7/7 bombers and was jailed for possessing documents useful for terrorism.

The document also expresses concern that released terrorists may try to seek work which puts them in contact with people who may be vulnerable to their ideas.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Islamic TV Channel Rapped for Advocating Marital Rape

In one programme on the Islam Channel, which broadcasts on Sky and Freesat, the presenter of a discussion of sex within marriage said that “it shouldn’t be such a big problem where the man feels he has to force himself upon the woman”.

During another programme, a woman phoned in to ask if she had the right to hit a violent husband back. The presenter responded: “In Islam we have no right to hit the woman in a way that damages her eye or damages her tooth or damages her face or makes her ugly. Maximum what you can do, you can see the pen over here, in my hand, this kind of a stick can be used just to make her feel that you are not happy with her.”

In March this year, the channel was the subject of a report by the Quilliam Foundation, a London-based organisation that describes itself as “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank”.

Ofcom subsequently launched an investigation into the channel’s programmes, under its rules relating to harm and offence.

In its decision, the regulator acknowledged that some TV channels “will broadcast programming that will derive from a particular religious or spiritual viewpoint” and that “such advice might cause offence to different sections of the audience”.

However Ofcom went on to say that “the advocacy of any form of violence (however limited)… is not acceptable” and that “it was highly likely that any advocacy and support at all of forced sexual relations would be offensive”, and found the Islam Channel in breach of the Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom said that it would not impose a fine, but that the Islam Channel would be requested to attend a meeting with the regulator to discuss its procedures for ensuring compliance with the Code.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Vatican: Church Warns Bishops About ‘Angels and Demons’ Sect

Vatican City, 5 Nov.(AKI) — The Vatican has instructed Catholic bishops to closely monitor a sect that prays to angels to offer encouragement in their battle against demons and believes that women who have undergone abortions are possessed by the devil.

Dozens of priests and nuns are part of the group, Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, and some of their actions are “disturbing the ecclesiastical community,” the Vatican warned in a letter published Thursday in Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano.

Opus Sanctorum Angelorum (OA), which means “the work of angels” in Latin, was founded in 1949 by an Austrian housewife Gabriele Bitterlich who died in 1978, according to the OA’s English-language website.

The organisation operates primarily in Germany, Austria and Brazil.

The Vatican published regulatory decrees for OA in 1983 and officially recognized it in 1992 provided members followed church law and agreed not to base any activities on information provided in the housewife’s “alleged revelations.”

A number of the sect’s followers “have not accepted the norms dictated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and seek to restore what, according to them, would be the ‘authentic Opus Angelorum’“, the letter signed by Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect William Cardinal Levada admonished.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the Vatican office responsible for safeguarding the doctrine on faith and morals — was headed from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI.

“The Congregation has learned that very discreet propaganda in favour of this wayward movement, which is outside of any ecclesiastical control, is taking place, aimed at presenting it as if it were in full communion with the Catholic Church,” the letter said.

The Church faith practices watchdog warned that some members of the “wayward members” were conducting “activities that disturb the ecclesiastical community.”

“In particular, [its] members were not to make use of the ‘names’ of angels derived from the alleged private revelations attributed to Mrs Gabriele Bitterlich and they were not to teach, spread or make use of the theories originating from these alleged revelations,” Levada said in the letter.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt Gripped by Rising Muslim-Christian Tensions

Around 200 men flooded out of the al-Qa’id Ibrahim mosque into the midday sunlight following the Friday afternoon prayers in Alexandria. They held up banners before the hundreds of black-clad riot police who were there to greet them, and immediately began to chant. “Shenouda is the enemy of God,” they yelled, referring to Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Church, Egypt’s largest religious minority. “Shenouda is an infidel … State security, where is your Islam? Why did you leave the criminals alone?”

Much of the rage expressed by the members of the hard-line Salafi sect of Islam stems from one woman. Not much is known about Camilia Shehata, a priest’s wife from Upper Egypt, whose story (or lack thereof) has gripped the Middle East’s most populous nation since the summer, sparking waves of angry protests and emotional editorials. Shehata disappeared from her home for several days in July after having reportedly converted to Islam — some say in an effort to get a divorce, which is not permitted by the Coptic Church. At first, the Christians protested — accusing Muslims of kidnapping a Christian and forcing her to convert. When she re-emerged, it was the Muslims’ turn. Many now believe Shehata was forcibly returned to her home and the Coptic Church by state authorities, only to become sequestered against her will within the confines of a monastery. (See TIME’s video on brutality in Egypt.)

“We do not know anything except that she was married to a priest and she ran away from that marriage. Everything else is just rumors, and that is the problem,” says Amr Khafagy, the editor in chief of the independent al-Shorouq newspaper, which has run four stories and an editorial about Shehata. “The government never said the absolute truth and the church never said the absolute truth. And the media blew these rumors out of proportion.”

It’s not the first time a Christian has converted to Islam, but conversion has long been a sensitive issue in a state where Copts worry about rising Muslim religiosity and Muslims increasingly see Copts as existing outside the law. It is also one of the first times the state has interfered in an individual’s conversion, claims Rafiq Habib, a Coptic intellectual. If they hadn’t, he says, this never would have gotten so out of hand. “From the public perspective, it was a sign that the role of the church and the position of the Copts has changed in the last years — that they have become allies of the state and allies of the President.”

Wafaa Constantine, who was also the wife of a priest, reportedly converted to Islam in 2004 and wound up in a monastery as well. Neither woman has appeared in public since their returns to the church, and the Salafi protests of late have invoked both names. “Today we hold a standoff to free our sister hostages from the church,” explained one of the protesters, Atef Wael. “Whenever a sister converts to Islam, they keep her in the church and they torture her to make her appear before the media saying that she is a Christian, not a Muslim.” Other protesters outside the mosque on Friday and in recent weeks have displayed pictures of women they allege are Shehata, Constantine and others held captive by the church. Some sobbed as they chanted slogans comparing their struggle to the Crusades.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Talks: Livni Against Netanyahu, Extend Moratorium

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 5 — A harsh attack against the refusal of Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud, right-wing) to accept an extension to the building project moratorium in the West Bank settlements asked for by Washington to resume stalled negotiations with the Palestinians was launched today by Kadima (centre, opposition) and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The controversy comes two days before Netanyahu’s departure for a fragile visit to the U.S. in which more pressure will come from the Americans and over which shadows are thickening regarding the scandal denounced today in Haaretz on the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, where extreme right-wing Israeli groups were favoured in bids for building projects. Speaking to a crowd of businessmen, Livni said that digging one’s heels in over a few months of an extension is not worth a dispute in the “strategic relations” between Israel and the United States. She also accused Netanyahu of refusing a proposal for a new alliance in the government with Kadima, which would have lightened the burden of the extreme right-wing’s control, allowing him to “make the right choices for the country, both in foreign and domestic policy”. Netanyahu is expected in the U.S. starting on Sunday for meetings with Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Barak Obama will be abroad) during which more requests for Israel to relaunch the peace process are foreseeable. Chief Palestinian National Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat was recently in Washington, and he assured that PNA President Mahmoud Abbas is ready to give the Americans another two weeks before meeting with the Arab leaders on the fate of negotiations. But he reiterated that the PNA will not return to the negotiating table without a renewal of the settlement moratorium. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



UNRWA and the Code of Silence

Never, ever tell Palestinians the truth that they’re not going back to their ancestors’ homes.

One of the first rules of being an UNRWA official is omerta. Above all the code of silence means refusing to tell two truths. First is the truth about UNRWA. It is a key mechanism that keeps Palestinians “refugees” over 60 years after their ancestors’ flight during the Arab war against the creation of the State of Israel. It is internationally funded, to the tune of $1.23 billion for 2010-2011, but since it is run by Palestinians, it is a tool for reproducing their sense of grievance against Israel and the West, and a unique culture of dependence and entitlement with respect to the world.

The second thing UNRWA officials need to learn is to never, ever tell Palestinians the truth that they are not going back to their ancestors’ homes in what is now Israel. That pipe dream underlies the entire Palestinian sense of grievance and perhaps of self.

Recently, for perhaps only the third time in UNRWA history, a high official let the truth slip. In a speech to an Arab-American group, Andrew Whitley, outgoing head of UNRWA’s New York office, stated the obvious, “We recognize, as I think most do, although it’s not a position that we publicly articulate, that the right of return is unlikely to be exercised to the territory of Israel to any significant or meaningful extent… It’s not a politically palatable issue, it’s not one that UNRWA publicly advocates, but nevertheless it’s a known contour to the issue.”

UNRWA’s reaction was swift…

[…]

           — Hat tip: DonVito [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Iraq: More Attacks on Christians in Baghdad a Week After Massacre

Two faithful shot dead in Baghdad. Muslim Imams in Kirkuk condemn the violence against the Church and ask “Iraq’s mosaic” be preserved. Agreement on a new government after eight months of political deadlock. Yesterday, the first Mass in the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation after 31 October massacre.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — Another attack against Christians in Iraq, a week after the massacre in the Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. Two worshipers were killed yesterday, November 7: Louay Daniel Yacoub, 49, was in front of his apartment when strangers shot him dead. Another Christian was killed the same day, but his identity is not yet known. The shootings were referred by local AsiaNews sources, anonymous for security reasons.

The Muslim community has expressed its solidarity and closeness to Christians under attack in Iraq. On 5 November, during Friday prayers, all the mosques in Kirkuk condemned the “barbaric attack” against the church in the capital. The mayor and the sheikh of the Arab, Kurds and Turkmen tribes, have expressed condolences and solidarity with the Chaldean archbishop of the city. The next day, the Sunni and Shiite imams of the northern Iraqi city also strongly condemned, alongside Archbishop Louis Sako, the carnage that killed over 50 people in Baghdad on Oct. 31. The Muslim religious leaders have been clamouring for the preservation of “the Iraqi mosaic” of ethnic groups and religions.

The same imam called for Muslims to protect Christians, who are a model of loyalty, “and launched an appeal for all the Iraqis do not succumb to fear and do not leave their country.

The violence in Iraq has accelerated the formation of a new Iraqi government, stalled eight months after the elections. According to government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh, an agreement for an executive of national unity is pending. It seems the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been reconfirmed, after gaining the support of the Sunni-Shiite secular Iraqiya Party led by rival former prime minister Iyad Allawi, and winner at the polls in March. The latter will “lead Parliament”, as Speaker, while Jalal Talabani, of the Kurdish Alliance, will remain head of state. The U.S. has not yet confirmed the news, but is urging the Iraqi authorities to form a “inclusive” government.

Christians in Baghdad yesterday held the first mass in the Syro-Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation after the massacre of 31 October. The interior was without any pews, down the length of the aisle hundreds of candles were laid on the ground, forming a large cross in the middle of which were placed the names of 46 victims of the massacre of the faithful on Sunday. “Today we pray for those who have attacked, who attacked our church and killed our priests fathers Wassim and Thaher,” said Father Mukhlas Habash in his homily, citing the names of two priests of 32 and 27 years of age killed seven days ago. Their smiling faces are displayed in posters on the blackened and bullet riddled walls of the cathedral.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Radical Yemeni Cleric Awlaki Calls for Killing of Americans

US-born radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al Awlaki has called for the killing of Americans in a new video message posted yesterday on Islamist websites.

Awlaki said Americans are from the “party of devils” and that no special religious permissions are needed to kill them, the Associated Press reported.

In the 23-minute, Arabic-language message, Awlaki said it was “either them or us.”

Speaking in Arabic, Awlaki appears sitting behind a desk with a sheathed dagger in his belt.

The cleric, who was charged last Tuesday in Yemen over alleged ties to al-Qaeda and incitement to kill foreigners, is also wanted in the US on terrorism charges.

Washington linked the young imam and son of a former Yemeni government minister to a shooting rampage last November at a US army base and to the botched Christmas Day 2009 attack on a US airliner.

Prosecutors told a Yemeni court specialising in terrorism cases that Awlaki corresponded with Hisham Mohammed Assem, a Yemeni accused of shooting dead French energy contractor Jacques Spagnolo near Sanaa in October, for months and encouraged him to kill foreigners.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Usama bin Laden and headquarters of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was coming under increasing pressure from Washington to hunt down the cleric.

“M. Awlaki is a problem,” US Homeland Security and Counterrorism Adviser John Brennan said in January.

“He’s clearly a part of al-Qaeda in [the] Arabian Peninsula. He’s not just a cleric. He is in fact trying to instigate terrorism.”

Mr Brennan directly accused Awlaki of having links with Major Nidal Hasan, who is suspected of shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas, and said Awlaki also likely had contact with Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to blow up the Christmas Day plane.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



The Arabs’ Worst Enemy: Themselves

News reports that Iraq is increasingly turning away from Washington and toward Iran for advice on forming a new government are disheartening. They tend to confirm earlier warnings that Tehran would be the major beneficiary after the US invasion of Iraq.

Couple that with a Brookings Institution poll showing that Arab optimism about US policy in the Middle East has dropped from 51 percent to only 16 percent, and it reminds us that the first decade of the 21st century has been a pretty sorry one for American interests in the region.

One might have at least expected some applause and gratitude from the Arab street after President Obama ordered an end to US combat operations in Muslim Iraq.

Instead, it was met with sullen silence. An Arab journalist friend explained, “Arabs are always angry. They always look for the bad and then harp on it.”

Misperceptions and mental rigidity

Much of the responsibility for what has gone wrong in the past decade lies as much with misperceptions and mental rigidity on the Arab street as with US policy failings.

A small vignette is illustrative. First recall the Muslim world’s early infatuation with Barack Obama. After all, his middle name is Hussein, the same as the prophet Muhammad’s grandson.

Recently a group of Arab journalists was at the White House when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was speaking. The US president had a tiny, wireless receiver in his ear, giving Obama an instant, simultaneous translation of Mr. Mubarak’s remarks. The Arab journalists became quite excited, mistakenly believing Obama really understood Arabic because he was nodding his head. They wanted to believe he was one of them.

In a small way, the incident illustrates how unrealistic are Arab perceptions of the world, and of the United States and its president.

When educated Arabs grasp at such flimsy straws, we should recognize a cultural mind-set that helps explain why the US effort to democratize, reshape, and modernize the Arab Middle East by occupying and nation-building in Iraq faltered miserably.

Eight months after elections in Iraq, politicians in Baghdad still haven’t formed a government, as rival sectarian groups fear losing power. Prominent Iraqi Arabs have proved themselves little more than dithering and incompetent complainers, neither proactive nor positive even when it is in their own interest.

Bernard Lewis, the renowned Princeton scholar of Islam, has called attention to the Arab tendency to play “the blame game.”

He notes Arabs traditionally blamed the Mongols, the Ottoman Turks, the colonial powers, and now the Jews and the Americans for everything that has gone awry in their once proud and accomplished history.

When I question Arabs about this, I find they generally hide behind the mantra, “If only we were better Muslims and followed the Quran, we would do better.” But that becomes a self-set mental trap, excusing any original thought about the need to determine their own destiny.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Yemen Muslim Cleric Al-Awlaki in US Death Threat Video

A radical US-born Yemeni Islamist cleric has called for the killing of Americans in a new video message posted on radical web sites.

Anwar al-Awlaki said no permission was needed to kill Americans as they are from the “party of devils”.

It comes shortly after authorities intercepted air cargo bombs sent from Yemen to the US in a plot linked to Mr Awlaki.

The US has named Mr Awlaki a “specially designated global terrorist”.

Investigators have linked Mr Awlaki to the US army base killings in Fort Hood, Texas, last year’s Christmas airline bomb attempt, and the failed Times Square bombing in New York.

US officials say he is a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of the militant network based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

‘Leaders are corrupt’ In the 23-minute message posted on Monday, Mr Awlaki called all Arab and Yemeni leaders “corrupt”.

“Kings, emirs, and presidents are not now qualified to lead the nation, or even a flock of sheep,” he said.

“If the leaders are corrupt, the scholars have the responsibility to lead the nation.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Russia


Reporter in Artificial Coma After Ambush

Oleg Kashin’s appparent transgression was to report on a controversial highway project outside Moscow. The brutal attack on the Russian journalist has outraged many in and outside the country. Still, official organizations had campaigned against the reporter and the case highlights continuing persecution of the free press in Russia.

There was no warning. There were no threats either, the wife of the reporter Oleg Kashin, 30, a reporter with the respected Russian daily Kommersant, said. Except of course for the usual online diatribes, along the lines of how he was a “traitor to the Russian people” who now “needed to be punished.”

Now Kashin is lying in hospital with a double jaw fracture, broken legs and cranial trauma. Doctors have had to put him into a medically induced coma. The journalist’s colleagues believe Kashin was targeted because of his critical reporting. For his part, Kommersant Editor in Chief Mikhail Mikhailin spoke of “demonstrative brutality.” The manager of Kashin’s apartment building, meanwhile, said that, “they didn’t beat him with their fists but with some sort of objects.”

According to another neighbor, two men lay in wait for the journalist on Saturday night. Kashin was on his way home and the men waited at the gate until after midnight with a bouquet of flowers, as though they were waiting for a date. Then they attacked.

A Warning to Russian Journalists

The beating is also a general warning to journalists writing critical stories in Russia. Since 2009, Kashin had been writing mainly about extra-parliamentary opposition for Kommersant. It was for this reason that Molodaya Gvardiya, or the Young Guard, the youth wing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, had made inflammatory comments against Kashin. They said that he belonged to a “fascist-journalistic underground center.” And, on their website, they said that the “journalist-traitor” needed to be punished.

The pro-Kremlin activists had been angered by Kashin’s recent reporting about a conflict just outside of the city of Moscow. Northwest of Moscow, in the city of Khimki, an eight-lane highway is slated to be built through a section of local forest — environmentalists have been protesting the building plans for years and, this summer, the conflict had escalated. First groups of masked thugs had attacked the environmentalists’ tents, then hundreds of anarchists and activists belonging to the “Anti-Fascist Movement” hurled stones and smoke bombs at the Khimki town hall, also firing on the building with gas pistols. Afterwards, Kashin published an anonymous interview with one of the organizers of the latter attack that read:

“If they cut down the forest, wood chips will fly.”

“Who are these ‘wood chips’?”

“The cops.”

Debate Rather Than Violence?

Following the the ambush, Young Guard officials were quick to condemn the “barbaric crime.” “Those who attacked journalist Oleg Kashin must be punished to the full extent of the law,” said a statement on the organization’s website. The group said it preferred the means of “political debate.”

When it comes to political debate, the Young Guard certainly doesn’t hold back. In the minds of the pro-Kremlin youth, journalists like Kashin bring such extremism upon themselves, even just by writing reports. The youth groups greet human rights activists, critical journalists and opposition politicians with the same hateful tirades, declaring them all “enemies of the Russian people” and, thus, outlaws.

Another pro-Kremlin youth group known as Nashi is known for disparaging its opponents as being the stooges of fascism. They dress up dolls that are supposed to look like members of the opposition and human rights activists in German Wehrmacht uniforms from WWII. But of course, they only do this after their international guests and any reporters have left the grounds…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghan Soldier Turns Weapon on American Troops, Kills 2

KABUL, Afghanistan — A soldier from the U.S.-trained Afghan army apparently turned his weapon on American troops in volatile southern Afghanistan, killing at least two U.S. soldiers, NATO officials said Saturday.

The incident is the latest that calls into question the allegiances of at least some members of the Afghan security forces, which the Obama administration hopes will be the key to an eventual withdrawal of roughly 100,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation, said the shootings took place late Thursday in southern Helmand province. The area has been the site of intense fighting between the Taliban-led insurgency and thousands of additional troops President Barack Obama sent to Afghanistan this year.

Few other details of the clash were immediately available. CNN quoted a Taliban statement from a militant website as saying the Afghan soldier shot the U.S. troops on an American base in Helmand’s Sangin district.

Just last week, a squad of Afghanistan’s national police in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, were reported to have crossed sides to the Taliban, although the details of precisely what occurred are murky.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Hardline Group Plans Widespread Indonesian Protests Over Obama Visit

Jakarta. One of the country’s most conservative hard-line Islamic groups has lashed out against the upcoming visit by the “cruel” US President Barack Obama, despite most commentators viewing it as an embrace of the Muslim world.

On Saturday and Sunday, there were rallies organized by Hizbut Tahrir in Jakarta, Mataram in East Nusa Tenggara, and Makassar in South Sulawesi.

A spokesman for the group estimated that across the three cities 20,000 took part, while independent estimates put the Jakarta protest at about 2,000.

Ismail Yusanto, a spokesman for the group, called Obama “a cruel president, no different from [George W.] Bush, with blood on his hands, and without [showing] the slightest compassion.”

He lashed out against the role he said the US played in the “destruction of Muslim countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan and the killing of the people there.”

“Obama may be a guest, but there are two kinds of guests: the good kind and the problematic kind,” Ismail said, adding that Obama fell in the latter category.

The hostile reaction in the run-up to the landmark visit comes amid reconciliatory moves by the White House toward Muslims following Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech.

Then, he said he was seeking “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.”

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, previously said a planned visit to Istiqlal Mosque, Indonesia’s largest, would “underscore the themes that he’s made in terms of outreach to [Muslims] around the world.”

He said the president would also “be able to speak to Indonesia’s rise as a democracy, Indonesia’s rise as an emerging economy, and the pluralism that its story represents.”

Similarly, Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, said Obama’s visit would strengthen ties between the United States and the Islamic world, and condemned the small groups of extremists opposed to it.

On Friday, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and chief executive of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and leader of the Al-Farah Mosque in New York, said at the State Palace in Central Jakarta that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s meeting with Obama presented an opportunity to promote cooperation and change negative perceptions of Islam.

“You will have the opportunity to discuss with my president in the next few days … how we can work together and cooperate together to create this kind of momentum — global momentum,” he said.

However, Hizbut Tahrir’s Ismail said the group was determined to greet Obama with protests.

“We’ll certainly be back on Monday, but Tuesday’s protests will depend on whether Obama’s arrival is confirmed,” Ismail said.

“Given the current circumstances, I think he might cancel.”

Tuesday’s demonstrations will take place in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Solo, Padang in West Sumatra and Pekanbaru in Riau province.

Ismail said Sunday’s protest in Jakarta also raised Rp 58 million ($6,500) in donations for victims of the tsunami in the Mentawai Islands off West Sumatra and Mount Merapi eruptions in Central Java.

Meanwhile, in Mataram on Saturday, around 1,000 Hizbut Tahrir demonstrators protested against “US imperialism in Indonesia.”

Protesters were seen holding banners that said “Obama is a Jew” — a far cry from accusations he faces at home of being a Muslim — and said Obama’s visit will be an attempt to soften up the Indonesian authorities and boost US economic and political interests in the country and the region.

“We must remember that Obama leads a country that is an enemy to Muslims,” Ismail said in Mataram.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: Islamists Plans to Intensify Anti-Obama Protests

Jakarta, 8 Nov. (AKI) — A coalition of radical Islamic groups pledged to intensify their protests against the upcoming visit by Barack Obama accusing the US president of being “cruel and equal to Bush,” referring to his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Obama is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday as part of a 10-day visit to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. He spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

Led by Hizbut Tahir Indonesia, or Party of Liberation, Muslims over the weekend participated in rallies across Indonesia to protest Obama’s visit. During the two-day visit, Obama is expected to discuss bilateral agreements with the world’s most populous Muslim nation and visit a mosque.

He cancelled two previously scheduled visits because of the health care debate in Congress and the Gulf oil spill.

Hizbut Tahir Indonesia and other Islamist groups accuse Obama of not bringing true change to America’s foreign policy and of “increasing Indonesia’s subjugation by America.”

Hizbut Tahir Indonesia said around 20,000 people attended anti-Obama rallies across the country over the weekend.

Hizbut Tahir’s goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state, or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: Police Seize Thousands of Porn DVDs in Capital

Jakarta, 8 Nov. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Police said Monday they confiscated more than 13,500 pornographic DVDs and arrested nine people who allegedly produced and distributed them,.

“Three of the suspects produced the DVDs, while the rest distributed them. We also confiscated DVD duplicators from three different locations, namely Karawaci [Tangerang], Sereal [West Jakarta] and Teluk Naga [Tangerang],” Jakarta police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said at the police special crimes bureau on Monday.

Amar added that these rackets had been operating for the last two years.

“They could produce up to 300 DVDs per day. The films were sold for 5,000 Indonesian rupiahs apiece,” he said.

“This could be categorised as a home industry. They used simple equipment that are very effective and efficient at duplicating DVDs,” he said.

According to Amar, the duplicators used by the suspects could produce around one DVD per minute.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Muslim Leaders Approve Obama’s ‘Jihad’ Remarks

They sought to draw a line between the real meaning of ‘jihad’ and the current spell of violence targeting the innocent.

In their opinion Obama’s comments on jihad at Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College earlier in the day was a clear attempt at separating the violent campaign from the basic concept of jihad.

“Jihad can in no way assume the form of violence against the innocent and those who are perpetrating such violent acts have done great disservice to Islam,” said Kamal Farooqi, a prominent member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. “To that extent President Obama is correct,” he said.

Farooqi agreed with Obama that certain elements had distorted the image of Islam by resorting to violence in the name of faith.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind leader Maulana Masood Madani said that Obama ‘correctly’ understood that wrong impressions about jihad had been created in the wake of distortions of the concept by certain elements. “It’s true that jihad has been wrongly interpreted by some people; however, I don’t know by what yardsticks the US brands someone a jihadi or non-jihadi,” said Madani, a Rajya Sabha member.

The same view was shared by Congress MP Rashid Alvi who forcefully argued that Islam could in no way be judged by the activity of terrorist organisations like al-Qaida or Lashkar-e-Taiba.

“He is right — jihad originally meant struggle against injustice, it does not mean killing the innocent,” Alvi said.

He said that the current crisis facing Islam had been set off by the activity of a small group. “There is nothing wrong with the religion, Obama is right,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



SAS Parachute Dogs of War Into Taliban Bases

British special forces in Afghanistan are parachuting German shepherd dogs equipped with video cameras into Taliban strongholds to search buildings for insurgents.

The dogs are strapped to the chest of their handlers for parachute drops. Cameras attached to their heads feed back images of buildings and surrounding areas to special forces.

The tactics have been adapted from US special forces, according to the Times. The Ministry of Defence said it could not comment on SAS operations but did not deny the report.

The dogs are reportedly trained to attack armed people. Eight have been killed during operations —”But that would be eight SAS men,” a source told the Times .

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



The World Powers Court Central Asia

The world’s great powers are all vying for influence and access in Central Asian countries, which are important supply hubs in the Afghanistan war and could become pivotal in reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas. Despite the interest, the countries in the region still haven’t come up with a vision for a common future.

The politician with the round cheeks and unpronounceable name is the greatest son of his country, of Central Asia and perhaps even the entire world — at least if one is to believe a book published in May, called “The Grandson Fulfills the Grandfather’s Dream.”

In the work, which was distributed to schools and universities, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, 53, the president of Turkmenistan since December 2006, is described as follows: “His authority comes from God. No problem is too much for him. He is not only a doctor who treats the sick, but a great person who assumes full responsibility for the fate of his people — a unique combination that astounds everyone. The successes under the leadership of our revered president are turning the world’s attention to our country.”

His capital is called Ashgabat, or “City of Love.” But there is nothing lovely or graceful about the buildings that make up the city’s skyline, from tasteless apartment towers to cold glass palaces, and from the gleaming white parliament to gilded monuments. Turkmenistan’s capital combines the bland grayness of Soviet architecture with the hideousness of Western wannabe avant-garde, an ostentatious past with a gaudy present. It is a fitting combination for the capital of a country that often looks like a Stalinist Disneyland and is led by a supposedly infallible president.

Berdymukhammedov is actually an improvement. He has toned down the cult of personality nurtured by his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, the country’s first president, a Soviet-era ruler who called himself “Turkmenbashi,” or “Father of all Turkmen.” Dozens of monuments still celebrate the man. When he was in office, citizens couldn’t even get a driver’s license without quoting his wise sayings. The current president keeps a slightly lower profile, as evidenced by the smaller number of posters showing his likeness.

Turkmenistan is in the lower half of the United Nations Human Development Index, and it ranks 171st out of 183 nations on the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. It is ironic that President Berdymukhammedov, a dentist and former health minister, heads a country whose healthcare system the organization Doctors Without Borders holds in such low regard. Amnesty International is critical of Turkmenistan for its persecution of members of the political opposition.

Not surprisingly, many find Ashgabat and its authoritarian leadership disconcerting. But anyone who concludes that Turkmenistan, larger than Germany by a third but with a population of barely more than 5 million, is a banana republic and thus of no interest to Europe is mistaken. Berdymukhammedov’s bizarre realm is floating on a bubble of natural gas. Turkmenistan is estimated to have the world’s fourth-largest reserves and is one of the top exporters of the precious natural resource.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Far East


China Unveils First Moon Photos From New Lunar Orbiter

China’s space program has released the first moon photos taken by the country’s second lunar probe Chang’e 2, an unmanned spacecraft scouting out potential sites for a planned robotic lunar landing mission in 2013.

The pictures were taken by Chang’e 2 at the end of October, according to the AFP news agency. They show an area in the moon’s northern hemisphere known as Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows), revealing it to be relatively flat area with craters and rocks of various sizes, according to media reports. [New moon photo from Chang’e 2]

China released the pictures with much fanfare today (Nov. 8) and posted five of new Chang’e 2 moon photos on the China Lunar Exploration Program website. Premier Wen Jiabao officially unveiled them at a ceremony in Beijiing, and Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang read out a statement, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.

“The success of Chang’e 2 in accomplishing its mission marks another great achievement after the country successfully launched its first lunar probe,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Zhang as saying. “The Chinese people will unswervingly develop technologies for the exploration of deep space and the peaceful use of outer space.”

Chang’e 2 launched Oct. 1 and arrived in lunar orbit five days later. The probe is the second step in China’s three-phase moon exploration program, which includes a series of unmanned missions to explore the lunar surface.

The Chang’e 2 orbiter is scouting for possible landing sites for the Chang’e 3 spacecraft, which is scheduled to land on the moon in 2013, Xinhua reported. The Chang’e spacecraft are named after the nation’s mythical moon goddess.

According to media reports, the Chang’e 2 mission costs an estimated $134 million.

Chang’e 2 will eventually swoop down to an orbit just 9 miles (15 km) above the lunar surface to take high-resolution pictures of landing areas for Chang’e 3, Xinhua has reported.

The Chang’e 1 probe launched in October 2007 and conducted a 16-month moon observation mission, after which it crash-landed on the lunar surface by design, in March 2009.

The Chang’e missions are just one prong of China’s burgeoning space program, which has seen three successful manned spaceflights, including the nation’s first spacewalk on the most recent mission, the Shenzhou 7 flight of 2008.

China hopes to return a moon rock to Earth by 2017 and launch a manned lunar mission by 2020, the AFP reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Latin America


20 Killed Over Weekend in Mexican Border City

Seven of the dead were found outside of one house

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — At least 20 people were killed in drug-gang violence over the weekend in this northern Mexican border city, including seven found dead outside one house.

The seven men were believed to have been at a family party when they were gunned down Saturday night, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located. Five were found dead in a car, and the other two were shot at the entrance of the home.

There have been several such massacres in Ciudad Juarez, a city held hostage by a nearly three-year turf battle between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels.

Few residents now venture out to bars and restaurants. And like those attacked on Saturday, others have discovered that they aren’t even safe in their own homes: Last month, gunmen stormed two neighboring houses and massacred more than a dozen young people attending a party for a 15-year-old boy.

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the world’s deadliest cities in the time that the two cartels have been fighting. More than 6,500 people have been killed since the start of 2008.

But the violence doesn’t stop there. In the southern city of Oaxaca, police found a human head in a gift-wrapped box left Saturday night on the side of a cliff popular for its view of the picturesque colonial center…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Italy: Government Approves New Security Package

Measures envisage expulsion of foreign prostitutes, hooligans

(ANSA) — Rome, November 5 — The government on Friday approved a new security package which envisages the expulsion of foreign prostitutes and certain European Union nationals, including the homeless and soccer hooligans.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the government had included the anti-prostitution measure in the package because a parliamentary bill on the issue had been stalled for months.

Under the measure, police will be able to expel streetwalkers, currently only subject to stiff fines by local authorities.

EU residents who stay in the country for longer than 90 days but do not have a job, an income or a house and ignore orders to leave will be expelled, said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, stressing that this was in line with EU directives.

EU legislation dating to 2004 requires that residents living outside their native countries in the 27-nation bloc must “fulfill certain requirements, including holding a job, income and a proper house,” he said.

“If our invitation to leave is ignored, they can be expelled,” said Maroni, adding that the government had “forwarded the measure to the European Commission to see whether it agrees”.

But he recalled that in the past the EC had never “censured Italy on any of its immigration policies”.

The minister said the package contained measures to crack down on soccer hooliganism, allowing police to expel fans up to 48 hours after screening video footage of incidents.

Berlusconi and his key ally, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, won the 2008 general elections on the promise their government would approve legislation to stem criminality and illegal immigration. According to Maroni, petty criminality has decreased by 12% in the last two years while bank holdups are down by 50%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Ketzaleh: Tel Aviv Jews Will Flee to Yesha From ‘African Flood’

National Union chairman Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz warned a Knesset committee Monday that 100,000 African immigrants will flood Tel Aviv in the next few years.

MK Katz heads a committee on foreign workers and has previously sounded the alarm bells on the flood of refugees that threatens the character of the Jewish state. Most of the refugees previously settled in southern cities, where they began to dominate smaller towns and cities, such as Arad, and are a significant percentage of the population and the crime statistics.

Their movement to Tel Aviv will make Tel Aviv look like an African city, MK Katz told the committee. He added that the city’s Jews, many of whom consider themselves tolerant pacifists but oppose a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, ironically will flee to the hills of Samaria to “escape the flood.”

Rabbi Menashe Zlicha of Pardes Katz, part of metropolitan Tel Aviv, said this week that thousands of Sudanese have fled the industrial hub, where they felt unwanted, and have moved into the suburb.

Last July, Interior Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch informed the Cabinet that two and a half million Africans on Egyptian soil are waiting for a chance to cross the border illegally into Israel. He said that approximately 155,000 illegal foreign workers are in Israel and that 1,200 enter illegally every month,

Journalist Yisrael Eichler and former hareidi religious legislator told the government last year that “bleeding hearts” are making Israel a refuge for non-Jews and criminals.

Many European countries are closing their doors to immigrants from Asian and African countries, and the United States regularly deports illegal immigrants.

Israeli mainstream media and secular groups have tried to prevent the deportation of children of illegal immigrants, deflecting a campaign led by MK Katz against the growing infiltration from Africa.

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]



UK: Roma Rights Campaigner Jailed for £2.9m Benefits Scam Lavinia Olmazu Admitted a Fraud Charge in July a Woman Who Helped More Than 170 Romanians Illegally Claim £2.9m in Benefits Has Been Jailed for Two Years and Three Months.

Lavinia Olmazu, a leading campaigner for the rights of Roma (Gypsies), helped mastermind the scam involving 172 members of the Romanian community.

Olmazu, of north-east London, gained access to them through her work with Haringey and Waltham Forest councils.

The 31-year-old admitted a fraud charge at Southwark Crown Court in July.

As well as working as an outreach worker with the councils, the university graduate was involved with the Big Issue.

She set up companies with her boyfriend to help facilitate the frauds they carried out as part of a gang.

Sentencing her, Judge Deborah Taylor told Olmazu, of Woodford Green, her role in the fraud was “made easier” by her involvement with the local authorities and charities which granted her access to people within the Roma community.

She added: “You identified individuals who wished to be involved in this scheme and in doing so, abused your position with a number of charities.

“You were a previously well-respected woman working in human rights. You have now lost your reputation by involving yourself in this fraud.”

Immigrants from Romania are not entitled to a National Insurance number, and therefore a number of benefits, unless they can prove to the authorities they have been employed.

The court heard Olmazu and her partner, unemployed Alin Enachi, would offer false documents for money to the migrants purporting to be from their employers, and also provided them with fake references.

Migrants would pay in cash for help with their applications before going on to receive benefits, such as child tax credits, working tax credits and child benefit, if their applications were successful.

Olmazu, who has an 11-year-old son, admitted one count of conspiracy to supply articles for use in fraud between November 2007 and August 2009.

Enachi, 30, also of Woodford Green, was jailed for two years and eight months after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to supply articles for use in fraud between November 2007 and August 2009.

Olmazu and Enachi were part of a gang of eight, all of whom have now been sentenced for their part in the fraud.

A police spokesman said even though £2.9m had been claimed illegally, the scam would have defrauded the UK of more than £10m if the authorities had not intervened.

A confiscation hearing will be held at a later date, but the court heard £40,000 had passed through Enachi’s account.

Det Con Melanie Groves, from the Metropolitan Police, said: “This is a clear case of Roma families who wished to improve their lives but were prevented from doing so by being exploited by their own people.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


UK: Shop Assistant Banned From Wearing a Poppy Because ‘It is Not Part of the Uniform’

A top fashion store banned a shop assistant from wearing a poppy at work — because it was ‘not part of her uniform’.

Harriet Phipps, 18, pinned the poppy to her clothes as a mark of respect to the countless servicemen and women who have been killed or injured fighting for their country.

But bosses at Hollister, which is part of the trendy Abercrombie & Fitch chain, ordered the teenager to remove the tribute.

Miss Phipps works as a ‘model’ at the store in Southampton, Hampshire, wearing the shop’s latest fashion items to give customers an idea of how the clothes look on.

But when she wore a Remembrance Day poppy managers told her to remove it.

Furious Miss Phipps said: ‘I think it’s disgusting, I think it’s awful. ‘I feel it’s very important, it is only for two weeks so it’s not permanent.

‘It is a personal issue and I feel very strongly about it — I have a friend who is serving in Afghanistan and another friend, a girl, who is going out to fight there, as well as my granddad who fought in the war.

‘They said that because it’s not uniform or company policy, I am not allowed to wear it.

‘I’m what is known as a model, we have to wear a uniform key look — we get a selection of clothes which we have to buy and wear to work.

‘We provide an image of what the clothes would look like for the customers and because the poppy is not uniform I was told I should not wear it.’

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

General


Former ‘Tenth Planet’ May be Smaller Than Pluto

The bragging rights in the outer solar system may have shifted over the weekend. If the early results hold up, this time it’s the dwarf planet Eris’s turn to be demoted, and Pluto might have just regained its status as the largest object in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune.

The scene for this drama is high in the Chilean Andes, where on Saturday three teams of astronomers caught Eris in the act of passing directly in front of a star. Astronomers had known about this occultation well in advance, but the predicted path had shifted up and down along South America, leaving astronomers unsure who — if anyone — might see the event.

Well, the news from Chile is that three observing teams, all using relatively modest telescopes, saw the star blink out. Emmanuël Jehin of the University of Liège, Belgium, tracked the event with the 60-cm TRAPPIST telescope at La Silla Observatory, and says the occultation lasted about 27 seconds.

Then word came that the occultation had been witnessed by two more telescopes some 740 km to the north. Sebastian Saravia, Alain Maury, and Caisey Harlingten saw the star disappear for 76 seconds through Harlingten’s 50-cm PlaneWave telescope at the San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations Observatory. The outage was also recorded by a remotely operated 40-cm telescope in another dome at the SPACE site, under the control of Jose-Luis Ortiz of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain.

Tricky measurements

Any positive result would be cause enough to celebrate — never before has an occultation involved an object so far away. But successful observations from widely separated sites create two chords across Eris’s shadow that yields a unique solution for its diameter (assuming that the object is spherical).

That number, according to Bruno Sicardy of the Paris Observatory, is hard to pin down exactly because timings derived from the three telescopes’ light curves have some uncertainty. Even so, Sicardy notes in an email, “Almost certainly Eris has a radius smaller than 1170 km.” That would make it ever-so-slightly smaller than Pluto, whose radius is thought to be 1172 (+ or — 10) km. Don’t be surprised if the final value gets pushed another 50 or 60 km lower…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



IPCC Climate Science is Fundamentally Wrong: Carbon Footprint is All Wet

It was corruption of science to support a political agenda.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) science deliberately kept public focus on warmer temperatures and blamed it all on radiative forcing due to CO2. They virtually ignore water in all its forms, partly because terms of reference directed them to only human causes and because any consideration of the role of water destroys the CO2 hypothesis.

Water explains many elements of weather as reflected in the response of plants and animals, but they even perverted that evidence.

Michael Mann’s ‘hockey stick’ deliberately rewrote history to eliminate the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) because it contradicted the false claim the world was the warmest ever. It was corruption of science to support a political agenda. Lost in the furor was the false assumption that tree growth was only about temperature. In reality, the most important growth factor is precipitation and available moisture. If Mann and others involved with the climate science debacle knew anything about climate, or were doing honest science, they would know this.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101107

Financial Crisis
» Bankruptcy of U.S. Is ‘Mathematical Certainty, ‘ Says Former CEO of Nation’s 10th Largest Bank
» Germany Attacks US Economic Policy
» QE2 — the Day After: Entire World Blasts Deranged Madman’s Uncheckable Insanity
 
USA
» CIA Traitor Set to Become the First Man Convicted of Betraying America Twice
» Clintonite: Obama Needs OKC Bombing to “Reconnect With the American People”
» GOP Rep. West to Join Congressional Black Caucus
» Judge Ruled Prosecutors Should Not Have Publicly Released Holy Land Unindicted Co-Conspirators List
» Liberal Mass. State Senator Jamie Eldridge Working With & Raising Money From Muslim Coalition Tied to Pro-Terrorism, Jihad, Anti-Semitism
» Mother Convicted of ‘Cooking’ Her Month-Old Baby to Death in a Microwave Oven Has Ruling Overturned
» The Irony: Former Weather Underground Leader Worries About ‘Armed’ Tea Parties
» US Senator Sees ‘Confrontation’ With China, War With Iran
» We Won — Now What?
» White House: Obama Conducting Reign of Terror
 
Europe and the EU
» A Farewell to Arms?
» Border-Workers Are Like Rats, Revolt Against the Swiss Campaign
» Islamic Forum Head: Islamophobia Like 1930s Anti-Semitism
» Italy: Poll Puts Berlusconi’s Party on Top
» Italy: Trash crisis: Berlusconi urges Neapolitans to get recycling
» Political Centre Moves to the Right
» Swedes Arrest Man Suspected of Shooting Immigrants
» Swedes in Shock at King Carl Gustaf Sex Scandal
» UK: Did Union Go Too Far With Islam Debate?
» UK: Five Britons Sue Over ‘Fatal Fault in Heart Implant’
» UK: The Solar Panel Gold Rush That Threatens to Ruin Our Countryside…and Make Millions for the Germans and Chinese
» Wilders Accuses Merkel of Copying His Politics
 
North Africa
» Libya Orders U.S. Diplomat to Leave: Reports
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Arab Villagers Declare ‘Jews Out!’
» Zahar: Jews Will Soon be Expelled From Palestine
 
Middle East
» Alevis Set to Rally Against Turkish Education Council’s Decisions
» Civil War That Islam Will Have to Settle
» Commission for Education Proposes Mandatory Islamic Values in Turkish Schools
» Ehud Barak: Iran is Trying to Deceive the World
» Saudi Arabia: Prince in Spain for Weapons Contract
» Syrian Government to Step Up Internet Censorship
» Turkey Has Only Itself to Blame if it is Shunned by the EU
» UAE: F1 Arrives at Amusement Park With ‘Ferrari World’
» Understanding the Middle East: One Day’s Survey
» Yemen: Authorities Plan to Prosecute Militant Cleric
 
Caucasus
» Nuclear Bomb Material Found for Sale on Georgia Black Market
 
South Asia
» 13 Year Old Christian Girl Raped by Young Pakistani Muslim
» Burmese Defector Reveals Truth About Junta’s Nuclear Ambitions
» India: Not Everyone’s Going Gaga Over the Obamas in Mumbai
» Indonesian Muslims Protest Obama’s Planned Visit
» ‘Not Again!’: Hero Superjumbo Pilot and His Crew Among Passengers as a Second Qantas Engine ‘Explodes’
» Pakistan: Kashmir Students Trained to Wage Jihad on India
» US Officials Worry Indonesian Militants Are Regrouping, Eyeing Western Targets in the Country
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Somali Pirates Receive Record Ransom
 
Latin America
» Brazil: Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button in Machine-Gun Ambush
 
Immigration
» Dutch Government Says Immigrants Must Pay for ‘Integration’
» How Sarrazin’ s Immigration Views Touched a German Nerve
» Migrants Must Pay for Integration — Dutch Govt
» Time to Sound the Alarm on Canada’s Immigration Policy
 
Culture Wars
» Public Debate: Multiculturalism at Its Limits?
» Refugees Flee the Tyranny of Social Workers
 
General
» Al Qaeda’s Chief Bomb Maker Ibrahim Hassan Al-Asiri is Understood to be Planting Explosives in Gifts Bound for Britain, Europe and the US. They Would be Timed to Explode Once the Toys Are in Stores.
» The West is Turning Against Big Government — But What Comes Next?
» Why Do Western Leaders Support Muslim Brotherhood?

Financial Crisis


Bankruptcy of U.S. Is ‘Mathematical Certainty, ‘ Says Former CEO of Nation’s 10th Largest Bank

John Allison, who for two decades served as chairman and CEO of BB&T, the nation’s 10th largest bank, told CNSNews.com it is a “mathematical certainty” that the United States government will go bankrupt unless it dramatically changes its fiscal direction.

Allison likened what he sees as the predictable future bankruptcy of the United States to the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose insolvency he also said was foreseeable to those who studied their business practices and financial situation.

“I think the first thing we have to realize is where we’re going and to face it objectively,” Allison told CNSNews.com, when asked about the trillion-dollar-plus deficits the federal government has run for three straight years, the more than $13 trillion in federal debt, and the $61.9 trillion long-term shortfall the government faces (according to the analysis of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation) if the government is to pay all the benefits it has promised through entitlement programs.

“If you run the numbers, on all those numbers that you just talked about, which I think are accurate, very accurate, in 20 or 25 years, the United States goes bankrupt,” said Allison. “It’s a mathematical certainty.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Germany Attacks US Economic Policy

Germany has put itself on a collision course with the US over the global economy, after its finance minister launched an extraordinary attack on policies being pursued in Washington.

Wolfgang Schäuble accused the US of undermining its policymaking credibility, increasing global economic uncertainty and of hypocrisy over exchange rates. The US economic growth model was in a “deep crisis,” he also warned over the weekend.

His comments set the stage for acrimonious talks at the G20 summit in Seoul starting on Thursday. Germany has been irritated at US proposals that it should make more effort to reduce its current account surplus. But Berlin policymakers were also alarmed by last week’s US Federal Reserve decision to pump an extra $600bn into financial markets in an attempt to revive US economic prospects through “quantitative easing”.

On Friday, Mr Schäuble described US policy as “clueless”. In a Der Spiegel magazine interview, to be published on Monday, he expanded his criticism further, saying decisions taken by the Fed “increase the insecurity in the world economy”.

“ They make a reasonable balance between industrial and developing countries more difficult and they undermine the credibility of the US in finance policymaking.”

Mr Schäuble added: “It is not consistent when the Americans accuse the Chinese of exchange rate manipulation and then steer the dollar exchange rate artificially lower with the help of their [central bank’s] printing press.”

Germany’s export success, he argued, was not based on “exchange rate tricks” but on increased competitiveness. “In contrast, the American growth model is in a deep crisis. The Americans have lived for too long on credit, overblown their financial sector and neglected their industrial base. There are lots of reasons for the US problems — German export surpluses are not part of them.”

There was also “considerable doubt” as to whether pumping endless money into markets made sense, Mr Schäuble argued. “The US economy is not lacking liquidity.”

On the future of the eurozone, Mr Schäuble confirmed in the same interview that Berlin will push for a greater private investor involvement in future bail-outs. To ensure German taxpayers faced the smallest possible burden it was important to have the possibility of an orderly debt restructuring with the participation of private creditors, he said.

Germany’s proposals for a planned new rescue mechanism have run into resistance from the European Central Bank, which fears they will add to investor uncertainty at a crucial time for Europe’s 12-year old monetary union. Mr Schäuble said the new mechanism would apply only to new eurozone debt but argued the European Union “was not founded to enrich financial investors”.

Mr Schäuble envisaged a two-stage process in a future crisis. The EU would put in place the same sort of saving and rescue programme as imposed this year on Greece. In a first stage, the term structure of government debt could be extended. If that did not work, then in a second stage, private creditors would have to take a discount on their holdings. In return, the value of the remainder would be guaranteed, Mr Schäuble said.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



QE2 — the Day After: Entire World Blasts Deranged Madman’s Uncheckable Insanity

Yesterday’s Ben Bernanke penned an Op-Ed in which he essentially said: “I am doing whatever I interpret my mandate to be, which right now means only thing: Dow 36,000. I am only accountable to the private bank that is the Federal Reserve, a few Wall Street CEOs, and no one else. Congress has no power over me. Try to stop me.” And while the stock market is so far in love with this exhibition of outright hubris which promises record bonuses even as a record number of Americans subsist on foodstamps and real, not BLS, unemployment is over 20%, putting the Chairman in a long-overdue strait jacket will ultimately require an outright clash between those who still believe in that piece paper called the constitution and the kleptocratic cartel to whom the trade-off between a senior bond impairment and their first born is never all that clear. And while more and more try to educate a hypnotized, strategically defaulting US society what QE2 means to their future, the rest of the world is already rising in a tidal wave of disapproval aimed at the Federal Reserve. As the FT reports, Brazil, China, German, and Thailand, and soon everyone else, have already voiced thighest criticism and their condemnation of this escalation in FX wars.

China, Brazil and Germany on Thursday criticised the Fed’s action a day earlier, and a string of east Asian central banks said they were preparing measures to defend their economies against large capital inflows.

Guido Mantega, the Brazilian finance minister who was the first to warn of a “currency war”, said: “Everybody wants the US economy to recover, but it does no good at all to just throw dollars from a helicopter.”

Mr Mantega added: “You have to combine that with fiscal policy. You have to stimulate consumption.” Germany also expressed concern.

An adviser to the Chinese central bank called unbridled printing of dollars the biggest risk to the global economy and said China should use currency policy and capital controls to cushion itself from external shocks.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


CIA Traitor Set to Become the First Man Convicted of Betraying America Twice

A CIA double agent could become the first person ever convicted of betraying his country twice.

Jim Nicholson, 59, will plead guilty to a federal indictment accusing him of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and laundering money, it has been revealed.

The government accused Nicholson of orchestrating a plot to use his son to sneak messages from a federal prison in Oregon to Russian intelligence officials and collect a ‘pension’ for his illicit service to Russia in the 1990s.

Nicknamed ‘Batman’ early in his 16-year career with the CIA, Nicholson has been kept in a lockdown unit known to inmates as the ‘hole’.

He is the highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Clintonite: Obama Needs OKC Bombing to “Reconnect With the American People”

Former Clintonite and Democrat operative Mark Penn says Obama needs an OKC bombing to regain his popularity.

“Remember, President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma, right?” said Penn on Chris Matthews’ Hardball show on Thursday. “And the president right now seems removed. It wasn’t until that speech [after the bombing] that [Clinton] really clicked with the American public. Obama needs a similar” defining moment, according to Penn.

[Return to headlines]



GOP Rep. West to Join Congressional Black Caucus

Congressman-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) said he plans to join the Congressional Black Caucus next year.

West, one of two black Republicans elected to Congress in Tuesday’s election, said he plans to join the Democratic-dominated bloc, to challenge, in West words, the CBC’s “monolithic voice.”

“I plan on joining, I’m not gonna ask for permission or whatever, I’m gonna find out when they meet and I will be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and I think I meet all of the criteria and it’s so important that we break down this ‘monolithic voice’ that continues to talk about victimization and dependency in the black community,” West said on WOR radio.

[Return to headlines]



Judge Ruled Prosecutors Should Not Have Publicly Released Holy Land Unindicted Co-Conspirators List

One of the most widely circulated documents from Dallas’ Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case should never have been released publicly and violated the Fifth Amendment due process rights of a prominent Islamic organization, according to a federal judge’s ruling recently ordered unsealed by an appeals court.

The finding by U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis is a bittersweet victory for the North American Islamic Trust.

The trust, along with the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America, have for years said that their inclusion among Holy Land’s unindicted co-conspirators — a list of 246 individuals and groups — amounts to guilt by association.

Despite the Fifth Amendment violation, Solis denied NAIT’s request to have its name taken off the government’s list, finding “ample evidence” linking it to Holy Land.

He also ordered the list sealed, although, in the three years since it was released by prosecutors, untold copies have circulated on the Internet, particularly on conservative counterterrorism sites that often cite it to link individuals and groups to alleged extremism.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Liberal Mass. State Senator Jamie Eldridge Working With & Raising Money From Muslim Coalition Tied to Pro-Terrorism, Jihad, Anti-Semitism

Group brags about meeting with Senator on Internet posts

Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge, who is currently running for re-election, has been meeting with and is soliciting donations (and volunteer help) from a Muslim group with a long history of support of terrorism, jihad, and anti-Semitism. Its Massachusetts chapter is run by the well-known Muslim leader Tahir Ali, who has been working personally with Eldridge…

[Return to headlines]



Mother Convicted of ‘Cooking’ Her Month-Old Baby to Death in a Microwave Oven Has Ruling Overturned

An Ohio woman who was convicted of ‘cooking’ her month old baby to death in a microwave had the ruling dramatically reversed today.

China Arnold, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2008 for killing 28-day-old Paris Talley in August 2005.

But the 2nd District Ohio Court of Appeals in Dayton ruled that the woman should be freed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The Irony: Former Weather Underground Leader Worries About ‘Armed’ Tea Parties

A former leader of a ‘70s protest group responsible for bombing the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, police stations and other targets is worried that “racist, armed, hostile, crazy-making” tea parties pose an “unspeakable” threat to America.

Bernardine Dohrn, who with her husband William Ayers were leaders of the communist revolutionary Weather Underground, had been tied to so many acts of protest violence in the ‘70s that she was placed on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List and was described by J. Edgar Hoover as the “most dangerous woman in America.”

Her association with Barack Obama notably led to Sarah Palin’s famous comment during the 2008 presidential campaign that Obama had been “palling around with terrorists.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



US Senator Sees ‘Confrontation’ With China, War With Iran

The United States faces a possible war with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions and a “period of confrontation” with China over its currency, a top US lawmaker warned Saturday.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said his fellow conservative, fresh from their historic elections romp this week, support “bold” action to deal with Iran.

If President Barack Obama “decides to be tough with Iran beyond sanctions, I think he is going to feel a lot of Republican support for the idea that we cannot let Iran develop a nuclear weapon,” he told the Halifax International Security Forum.

“The last thing America wants is another military conflict, but the last thing the world needs is a nuclear-armed Iran… Containment is off the table.”

The South Carolina Republican saw the United States going to war with the Islamic republic “not to just neutralize their nuclear program, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime.” [emphasis added]

[Finally, a whiff of sanity is coming from Capitol Hill. This time around, follow the Army’s motto of “we break things” as in; break the bad boys’ toys and get out! No more nation building in Islamic countries. Not ever. That crap is over with once and for all time. — Z]

He spoke just days before expected nuclear talks will see US and Iranian officials sitting at the same table for discussions on Tehran’s nuclear drive. The two countries have lacked diplomatic ties since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

World powers led by Washington suspect Iran’s uranium enrichment program is aimed at making nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

US Democratic Senator Mark Udall, who joined Graham during a panel discussion at the forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, urged continued sanctions against Iran. But he also noted that “every option is on the table,” a thinly veiled reference to possible military action.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said negotiations were still at “the stage of diplomacy and sanctions.”

“It’s not clear if this will work at the end,” he cautioned.

“Iran is a major threat to any conceivable world order.”

[Ya think?!? — Z]

The electoral defeat of four Democrats who sat on the powerful US House Armed Services Committee bolsters the Republican’s position.

But Democrats may gain surprise support for continued diplomacy from some ultra-conservative Tea Party newcomers to Washington who diverge on foreign policy matters with their Republican brethren.

Various UN resolutions and sanctions have sought to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, so far having little effect.

Graham also warned of a forthcoming “period of confrontation” with China over its “cheating” currency manipulation.

[Some more refreshingly plain language, especially in dealing with the snot-nosed Chinese. Using the work “cheating” ought to put a twist in their knickers. — Z]

US and European lawmakers have called for a stronger Chinese currency as their economies struggle to recover from the global financial crisis. US lawmakers claim the yuan is grossly undervalued and causes global trade imbalances.

Several countries ranging from Japan to Colombia have intervened in recent weeks to make their currencies cheaper in the hope of exporting their way out of the downturn, fueling fears of a global currency war.

Currency tensions boiled over at the recent annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, with China rejecting calls for a quick revaluation.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



We Won — Now What?

The Republican win on Tuesday was far larger than the historic takeback of 1994, the stunning rebuke of Bill Clinton that subsequently forced a chastised president to enact welfare reform (a flying-pig moment). On Tsunami Tuesday, the Republicans won more seats in the House than at any time since 1948 — 65 seats, the biggest swing by either party in the 62 years since then, along with another six seats in the Senate. We changed the world at the state level, completely flipping 18 state legislatures, including North Carolina, which hasn’t seen a Republican majority since 1870. The Republicans gained over 500 legislative seats. Republicans picked up at least 10 governorships, giving them more than 30. Think about that.

Even the sparse wins the subversive left managed to pull out on Tuesday were riddled with chicanery, cheating, union payoffs, and the buying of votes with “free lunches.” Harry Reid’s systemic corruption garnered a win funded by millions of dollars from public-sector unions. It was all in the game. Same for California — a state from which decent, hardworking Americans (aka Republicans) have been fleeing, a state destroyed by a union chokehold.

The stakes could not have been higher or more serious in the triumph of the rational on Tuesday. But despite the voter fraud, the SEIU/ACORN thugocracy, and the illegitimate tactics, the people spoke, and the people won. Now what? We are done with big government. We are done with recklessly stealing huge private sector wealth. We are done being taxed half to death, our future leveraged and our competitive edge destroyed.

Obama still doesn’t get it. Obama’s tone at his press conference on Wednesday was still contemptuous of the American people and shocking in terms of simple math. He had the audacity to say this: “We should be able to agree now that it makes no sense for China to have better rail systems than us, and Singapore having better airports than us. And we just learned that China now has the fastest supercomputer on Earth. That used to be us. They’re making investments, because they know those investments will pay off over the long term.”

Singapore and China are free market economies — laissez faire capitalism (though China is politically repressed, which is why they will ultimately fail). So here we have Obama whining about more successful countries that are successful because of capitalism, while driving America to the failed European model of socialism, Marxism, and serfdom.

In Obama’s big government America, the conditions in which free men produce, invent, and prosper quickly deteriorate due to government taxation and regulation. Big government has been encroaching on our lives for decades now, and with Obama, the bottom falls out.

Higher taxes imposed on the rich (and the semi-rich) come out of their investment capital (i.e., their savings). These taxes mean less investment, i.e., less production, fewer jobs, higher prices, etc. By the time the “rich” lower their standard of living, those who work in their companies or subcontract with them will be gone, along with their savings and their spouses’ jobs — and no power in the world (no economic power) will be able to revive the dead industries: there will be no such power left. (In this I am paraphrasing Ayn Rand’s words from decades ago.)

The Concorde was going to be the future of air travel, in which we’d bop from place to place in half the time. Now the Concorde is defunct. Kaput. Much like the environment for producers and businessmen, who are the “villains” of Democrats, statists, collectivists, moochers and looters.

This is the price of force. This is the price of coercion. This is the price of statism. This is the price of big government. The very idea of America has been subsumed by an enslavement mentality.

Every dollar the government robs from business, from the individual people, is a dollar that won’t be invested in the private sector. Wealth won’t be created, jobs won’t be created, entrepreneurs and businessmen will be deprived of capital, etc. The United States was founded on the principle of individual rights — government was designed to be small. The objective of the government was defense — protection of individual rights.

What has the government done with the untold wealth they looted from the American people, other than sucking much-needed capital out of our free society to pay off their thugs, crooks, and corrupt organizations, and get-out-the-vote community organizations?

Government is not the answer — it destroys everything it touches. We must take back the culture, because politics is merely a reflection of the culture. The left has the culture in a chokehold. They demonize the successful and hardworking and exalt failures, moochers and looters — an inverted moral priority.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



White House: Obama Conducting Reign of Terror

President Obama was urged by the few White House insiders from whom he still takes advice to leave the country on his ten-day Asian trip, his longest trip abroad since becoming president, in order to not inflict any more damage to the Democratic Party in the wake of one of the worst electoral defeats for the party of an incumbent president in recent history. According to sources close to the White House, who put themselves in great danger by even talking to members of the media, the plans to have Obama leave for a visit to India, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan are an attempt to get Obama out of the country while top Democrats can sort through the political disaster created for the party by Obama’s increasingly detached-from-reality presidency.

Virtual political guerrilla warfare has broken out between Obama’s inner circle on one hand and senior Democratic officials, including outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Party strategist James Carville, former Demcratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, and, behind-the-scenes, Vice President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton, on the other.

Top Democrats are still reeling from Obama’s bizarre behavior at a $7500-a-plate fundraiser at a stately mansion at Brown University in Rhode Island on October 25.

[…]

Some staffers have said on deep background that the revelations by the ex-White House official to “Ulsterman” are not even half of the story about what is actually occurring in the White House.

However, Biden and other Democratic and adminstration do believe that if Obama were to display some of the same reckless behavior publicly as many White House personnel have witnessed privately, there may be wide support for enactment of the provisions of the 25th Amendment.

Such a public display by Obama that could trigger succession action might involve a public outburst, including the use of foul language or a statement that Obama believes there is a conspiracy against him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


A Farewell to Arms?

The crisis is forcing European states to make unprecedented cuts in their defence budgets, leaving their armed forces short on men and means — and eventually eroding their technological edge.

Andrea Bonanni

After having served for centuries as the world’s barracks, its premier military hegemon and then as its battlefield, “soft-power” Europe, especially now in the grip of the crisis, is succumbing to the disarming charms of a farewell to arms. It is cutting defence budgets right and left, disbanding glorious regiments, dismantling ships and aircraft carriers, and retiring tanks and planes.

As always, the alert came from the other side of the Atlantic. In the run-up to November’s NATO summit in Lisbon, which is to proclaim the Alliance’s “new strategic concept”, the US is alarmed by Europe’s dwindling defence budgets.

Europe has never spent less on its armed forces

This time around, however, those in charge of the Old Continent’s defence share that concern. “While the US keeps putting massive resources into defence, there’s no doubt that European spending won’t reach the 2% of GDP target,” admits Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, current Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, which is now looking to contain the impact of a disarmament race.

Here’s the paradox: Europe has never spent less on its armed forces — at a time when it is more committed on the ground than ever before in postwar history, with tens of thousands of soldiers in Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Balkans, and on various missions in Africa. These missions have taken a heavy toll on human life, but on the economy as well. Now the financial crisis, followed by the public debt crisis, has forced Europe to retrench defence spending radically.

Back in 2002, all the Alliance members had targeted spending “at least” 2% of GDP every year on defence. But in 2009 only Greece (3.1%), Albania (2.0%), France (2.1%), Great Britain (2.7%) and the United States (4.0%) made good on that pledge. Italy and Germany spent 1.4%, Spain 1.2%. Next year, in all likelihood, the US will be the only one still over the 2% mark.

Cameron leads the cutbacks

The first austerity measures came in the wake of the Wall Street meltdown. And now, British PM David Cameron has just announced 8% in cutbacks on military spending for the next four years. London is going to do without its sole aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, whilst waiting for two new ones currently being built, and drastically pare down its purchase orders for the new American-made Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) planes. It will keep its nuclear programme going on the Trident submarines, while downsizing the Royal Navy. The defence sector will shed 42,000 employees by 2015.

France, on the other hand, has confirmed its budgetary commitments for this year, but military experts expect the axe to fall next year. France and Britain have already drafted deals to manage their nuclear arsenal jointly, and share the expense — likewise for the new fleet of A400 Airbus military transport planes. Germany, which is now switching from a conscript army to a professional army, smaller in size but more costly to run, is likewise bracing to chip away at defence spending.

And over in the Netherlands, the new government has already said it won’t be buying any JSFs. Italy is tightening its belt too: after opting out of NATO’s Strategic Airlift Capabilities (SAC) programme, which involves buying and sharing C130 military transport craft, it is now going to order 25 fewer Eurofighter planes than planned.

Disarmament has not compromised our security yet

All the analysts concur that, despite the cuts, not a single country has reduced the pay for men in uniform in Afghanistan or anywhere else — but they are feeling the pinch there, too. And Europe’s shilly-shallying on the American request to send 10,000 more men to Kabul last year was not only caused by political indecisiveness, but by financial shortfalls as well.

For the time being, at least, European disarmament has not compromised our security yet, although Europeans would have a hard time mounting another major military operation in the event of a crisis. The idea of sending a peacekeeping force to Somalia was shelved partly for political reasons, but partly owing to financial straits. And sending in a buffer force in the event of a Middle East peace deal would not be possible without revising the defence budgets. Admiral Di Paola points out that “major arms development projects are under way in other parts of the world.

We might lose our technological edge very soon. Our qualitative superiority needs to be maintained at all costs, even if it means quantitative sacrifices.” So once again the cuts will impact the economy and the competitiveness of the “European system” more than our security. Still, Europe may be shooting itself in the foot at the very moment it is struggling to get its economies up and running again.

Translated from the Italian by Eric Rosencrantz

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Border-Workers Are Like Rats, Revolt Against the Swiss Campaign

The controversial advertisement against border-workers. Two politicians are asking authorities to intervene to protect the workers, who have long been at the heart of controversies and tension.

The advertisement against border-workers has become a government matter. Already two politicians have raised the issue; one is the Mayor-MP for Verbania, Marco Zacchera, and the other is the Senator for Como, Alessio Butti, both of the “Popolo della Libertà”. The two MPs are asking for action to protect the Italian workers in the Swiss Canton Ticino, who are the subject of a nasty advertising campaign, on the Internet, and on roadside billboards, depicting them as rats taking from a round of cheese, or rather, from the coffers of Switzerland. The group “Bala i ratt” (this is the name of the website and of the campaign) has more than 540 friends on Facebook (only last Monday, there were few more than 100), and it has attracted the attention of the Italian and Swiss media.

The creators of this bright idea are still unknown, although a few names did emerge yesterday; like that of Pierre Rusconi, the leader of the UDC party in Canton Ticino (this party has very different positions from those of the Italian UDC), and of the company Ferrise Comunicazioni in Locarno (which is already known to the Italian press because of another controversial advertisement), but other people are also involved.

“We know the people responsible for this ‘pleasant’ provocation, whose purpose is to raise a few of the issues that are most important to the people.” This is what appeared on the website of Il Mattino, which is close to the Ticino League. “What are the names? Is it a political party? We’ll tell you tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re sending it to everyone that was immediately offended, to make it clear that employment and reduced salaries are topics that are important to most of the people from Canton Ticino.

“Of course,” the article continues, “we are not seeking to condemn or criminalise border-workers (as the Socialists are trying to make out), we are highlighting objective data. We haven’t just invented the number of 45,000 border-workers! And the fathers of families in Canton Ticino, including foreign residents who live, work and pay taxes in this country, know perfectly well what we’re talking about! This is not racism, but a pure and simple description of the situation!” However, the Ticino State Council issued an official note yesterday saying that there is nothing “pleasant” about this story, that its contents are “offensive”, and reiterated the importance of border-workers to the local economy. The Ticino trade unions agree, including the OCST, who defined the message as “disconcerting”, as do the Italian trade unions, who have spoken of a wretched attack against honest workers.

For a long time, harsh judgements have been made by some political forces in Canton Ticino against border-workers. The worst moment was reached a few months ago, when the tax shield came into force, when the border-workers found themselves in a situation that was confusing with respect to the Italian inland revenue, that culminated with a protest in Lugano, and subsequently resolved, albeit with “retaliation” threatened by the Ticino League.

Maria Carla Cebrellimaria

Translated by Prof. Rolf Cook

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Islamic Forum Head: Islamophobia Like 1930s Anti-Semitism

Growing Islamophobia echoes the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s with US leaders resisting it but Europeans abetting the trend for political gain, the head of the world’s largest Islamic group said.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, said xenophobia directed at Muslim immigrants was taking hold, especially in Europe. Vote-seeking politicians were advancing extremist groups behind the anti-Muslim sentiment.

“This issue has become a political agenda item,” the Turkish head of the 58-member OIC told AFP in an interview, while stressing that Islam was also a European religion. “What worries me is that political authorities or political parties, instead of stopping this, or fighting this, some of them are using this for their political ends, to gain more popular support in elections,” he said.

“I’m afraid that we are going through a process like the beginning of the ‘30s of the last century, when an anti-Semitic agenda became politically a big issue [together with] the rise of fascism and Nazism ….. I think now we are in the first stages of such a thing.”

A “pandemic of Islam vilification” is rising steadily, he warned, as documented by the OIC’s newly-established office to monitor Islamophobia around the globe.

Ihsanoglu pointed to the protests in the United States against the “Ground Zero” Islamic centre in New York City, to the anti-burqa movement in Europe, to physical attacks on Muslims on both sides of the Atlantic.

The problem which most concerned him was the institutionalization of anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, citing Switzerland’s ban on minarets atop mosques and the movement to ban Muslim women’s “burqa” full-face covers.

“This burqa business is really a sad story, it’s only a few people who are doing this [wearing the burqa]. … It’s just part of old habits of certain tribes in certain countries, it’s not at all to do with Islam.”

Yet countries like France, Spain and Holland were reacting with legislation. The OIC chief from secular Turkey predicted that time would take care of problem issues such as the burqa, as Muslims from less-developed cultures reach “a modern way of life.”

But focusing on assimilation was the wrong approach. “Why assimilation? If Europe and the West are advocating the rights of minorities all over the world, why then when it comes to Europe do we speak about assimilation? Again, that shows the double standard.”

“Europe has to understand the reality of Islam today, and the reality that Islam is not an alien religion of Europe. Islam is a European religion, and Europe has to come to terms with Islam.”

Mustachioed, with the erudite bearing of a scholarly British diplomat, Ihsanoglu is an expert in Islamic cultural history and the history of science, with a long career as a professor and department head at Istanbul University.

Born in Cairo in 1943, he has led the Jeddah-based OIC since 2005 through a period when the Islamic world has been mired in cultural wars with itself and with the West. Ihsanoglu spoke to AFP before the massacre of more than 50 Christians by al-Qaeda Islamists in a Baghdad church on Oct. 31. In an official statement, he has vehemently condemned the killings as a “criminal and terrorist act.”

While such violent attacks feed anti-Islamic hate, he argued Islamophobia arised separately from them. “I think we have to keep extremism out of this discussion, which is a different topic.” The real issue, he insisted, was how anti-Muslim sentiment was included in high-level policy debate in some European countries.

In the United States, he said, Islamophobia was not as virulent. One reason was that Muslim immigrants to the U.S. were better-educated and fitted in more easily. A key difference was how Washington had consistently resisted admitting anti-Islamic emotions into public policy.

“For instance, this marginal pastor who wanted to burn Korans. The [U.S.] government took responsibility and talked to him and convinced him not to do that.”

While he advocates cultural compromise, Ihsanoglu draws the line at certain things, like the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that sparked outrage among Muslims worldwide after they first appeared in 2005.

“Asking us to accept the cartoons is asking to accept insults as a norm. How can people ask us to accept the cartoons? This is indecent,” he said, adding a warning that radicals on both sides should not be allowed to set the agenda. “We are getting held hostage by the marginal groups on the European side and on the Muslim side,” he said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Poll Puts Berlusconi’s Party on Top

Rome, 3 Nov. (AKI) — Embattled Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative People of Liberty Party (PDL) is still Italy’s most popular political party, according to a new poll published Wednesday by financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

The PDL would win 29.5 percent of votes if elections were held at the time of the survey. The Democratic Party (PD), the next most popular party, would get 24 percent of the votes, according to the Ipsos Srl survey, held between 10 October and 28 October.

Last week Berlusconi came under fire for his murky relationship with teenage Moroccan runaway and belly dancer, Karima Keyek, known by her stage name ‘Ruby’.

The 74-year-old premier is accused of abuse of power for allegedly intervening to obtain Keyek’s release from police custody when she was arrested in May on suspicion of stealing cash and valuables from a female acquaintance in Milan.

Keyek, who was then 17, claims to have been a guest at his villa in Arcore near Milan, where sex games were played, and to have received thousands of euros in cash, jewellery and a car from the premier, according to reports in several Italian dailies.

Berlusconi said on Tuesday that his government will complete its 5-year mandate which expires in 2013.

No margin of error was given for the Ipsos poll of 8,500 adults.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Trash crisis: Berlusconi urges Neapolitans to get recycling

Government plans will work with local help, says premier

(ANSA) — Rome, November 5 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi urged Neapolitans to start recycling to help solve their city’s trash crisis Friday and said government plans for Naples refuse problems will work if local authorities do their bit.

Last week Berlusconi said it would take just three days to clear thousands of tonnes of uncollected refuse, but trash is still piled up on the southern city’s streets. The efforts have been hampered by violent protests by demonstrators opposed to dumps situated on the outskirts of Naples and in the surrounding area.

“According to our studies, only 15% of rubbish in Naples is separated for recycling,” Berlusconi told a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

“The public must make an effort to increase this to reduce the amount of rubbish taken to dumps”.

He said local authorities in the area were to blame if the problem had returned after his administration ended a similar crisis in 2008.

“The opposition has found an opportunity to say our plan was not effective, but that plan works and it will work if the local institutions do their duty and proceed with the opening of new landfill sites and the construction of new incinerators,” Berlusconi said.

The Premier added that a decree on the creation of new incinerators, including some in the Naples area, will be presented at the next cabinet meeting.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Political Centre Moves to the Right

Rightwing parties across Europe have claimed the high ground, stirring fears of Islamicisation and demanding the deportation of foreign criminals.

Austrian political scientist Reinhold Gärtner tells swissinfo.ch that Switzerland, which has already voted to ban new minarets and is expected to demand tougher measures against foreigners committing serious offences, is no different to the rest of continent.

Last November, the Swiss decided unexpectedly that minarets did not have a place on the skyline, a proposal backed by the rightwing People’s Party. The same party is now pushing for automatic deportation of foreigners committing serious crimes, an issue that goes to a nationwide vote in a few weeks’ time.

Reinhold Gärtner: I think you can put it like that. Switzerland is an example for many people in Europe. Here in Austria there are also initiatives demanding that new minarets be banned. That has already been pushed through in the provinces of Carinthia and Vorarlberg. And in Cologne, Germany, there was massive opposition to a planned mosque.

Other countries are also discussing deporting foreign residents who have committed crimes. In Switzerland, that means up to 350,000 people could be potentially affected. In Austria, there are 120,000 people born here but who don’t have an Austrian passport. So what do we do with them? Deportation doesn’t seem to be the right way to go about this.

R.G.: It’s true that the centre is shifting to the right. It’s happened in France with Sarkozy and with the Austrian People’s Party. But it’s wrong for them to think they can seize the high ground from the rightwing parties by moving even further to the right.

The centre-right needs instead to clearly state its position and differentiate itself from all this agitation and smear campaigns. That is our approach. The centre-right would be much stronger than if it keeps on veering to the right.

R.G.: In every society there are — objectively speaking — real problems that are considered subjectively as either not having been resolved or only partially resolved. For a long time, political structures remained frozen. This is no longer the case: voters are more mobile, and a large number of them respond to the seemingly simple solutions proposed by rightwing parties.

These parties use fear, negative emotions, to get their message through. They have realised that voters respond to that, especially those who harbour their own subjective fears.

A lot of those people are in fact afraid of losing something. These fears are stoked and help make these parties successful. We live in a time of globalisation. Many people suffer because of this, because they fear for their jobs and are afraid they will not be able to maintain their standard of living.

The economic crisis could also bolster social conflicts and help boost the stocks of rightwing parties.

Reinhold Gärtner believes rightwing parties have not peaked yet (zVg)

R.G.: I would say so. There have always been bogeymen and scapegoats. And right now, especially after the September 11 attacks, Muslims or Islam have taken on this role.

Islam is being equated with crime and terrorism, foreigners with Turks and Muslims. Islam is seen as a monolithic religion, a simplification that is as untrue for Islam as for other religious groups.

The truth is Islam is a fact of life in many European countries. In Austria, it was recognised in 1912 and is probably the second-biggest religious group in Europe. There are even Muslim states in Europe, such as Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

R.G.: It’s hard to say. If you look at the most successful parties, such as the Swiss People’s Party, with 29 per cent of votes at the last federal elections, more gains seem possible. But it won’t go on climbing forever, because there are other political opinions and our society is heterogeneous. These parties will eventually peak, but I cannot say when.

R.G.: Switzerland’s power-sharing government is based on a different political culture [to most other countries’]. In Austria, the Freedom Party failed as a cabinet partner. In Italy, the Lega Nord is still in the coalition. There is no recipe. But it is difficult for rightwing parties to push through their programme in a coalition government. Because the simple answers they preach don’t exist.

Gabriele Ochsenbein, swissinfo.ch

(Adapted from German by Scott Capper)

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Swedes Arrest Man Suspected of Shooting Immigrants

MALMO, Sweden — Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting randomly at immigrants in a yearlong rampage that terrorized Sweden’s third-largest city as tensions over immigration rose across the Nordic nation.

The suspect, a 38-year-old Swede with a gun license and no criminal record, has denied the allegations, investigators said Sunday.

He was taken into custody at his home Saturday in the southern city of Malmo, questioned then arrested on suspicion of one murder and seven attempted murders, police spokesman Borje Sjoholm told reporters.

“The reason we became interested in this man was tip-offs from the public,” he said in Malmo, adding that two weapons were also seized. He would not confirm whether either weapon was used in the shootings.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Swedes in Shock at King Carl Gustaf Sex Scandal

Five months ago, the Swedish royal family was the toast of Europe. All eyes were trained on Stockholm as the glamorous Crown Princess Victoria wed her long-time boyfriend in a fairy-tale ceremony, and the world’s press clamoured for a glimpse of the elegant Swedish royals and their regal guests.

Now the international media is again camped outside the gates of Stockholm’s Drottningholm Palace — but this time for far less congratulatory reason.

Revelations last week that the King of Sweden once enjoyed romps in seedy nightclubs owned by shadowy underworld figures have eclipsed the sparkle of July’s wedding. King Carl XVI Gustaf, the stern-looking, bespectacled monarch who is honorary chairman of the World Scout Foundation, has found himself thrust uncomfortably in the spotlight following the publication of an unflinching book, Carl XVI Gustaf — Den motvillige monarken(Carl XVI Gustaf — The reluctant monarch) which catalogues his past predilection for wild, alcohol-fuelled orgies and naked jacuzzi parties with models.

The book has caused uproar and dominated the country’s media, leading to nationwide soul-searching about the 64-year-old King’s role, reputation and right to privacy.

“Strip clubs, illegal clubs, rented ladies who are naked under their fur coats. Women were simply desserts, used as sweets to be served with the coffee,” wrote Katrine Kielos in the daily Aftonbladet newspaper.

“The royal family has always been viewed as an august, fabulous family. But these allegations are so grave that our trust in them is seriously damaged,” said Jenny Madestam, a political analyst. “The King is not even denying it.”

Indeed, the King’s bizarre press conference on Thursday — held in a forest after an elk hunt — only served to fan the flames of interest.

“I have spoken with my family and the Queen and we choose to turn the page and move forward because, as I understand, these are things that happened a long time ago,” he said — standing in a field, still dressed in his wax jacket and hunting clothes, among a sea of camera crews and reporters.

His handling of the book’s publication has shocked some observers.

“Now is the time for the King to be quiet and give no comments. Instead, he says yes to a press conference in the middle of the forest where anything can happen. It is like playing Russian roulette,” said Paul Ronge, a PR expert, in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

“His statement can be interpreted as a confession. It is beneath his dignity to even comment a gossip book about his private life. Now the plug is gone and the papers can print page after page with material from the book.

“For the royal court to handle the issue like kindergarten behaviour, without responsibility is very serious”.

Indeed, the allegations that the king frequented Mafia-run clubs and used the state police to hide the evidence are extremely serious.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Did Union Go Too Far With Islam Debate?

As the oldest student society in the world, the Cambridge Union debating society has a long history of courting controversy.

Debates on issues as diverse as prostitution, abortion, gay rights, the media, asylum seekers, Iraq, pornography and tuition fees have all taken place over the last few years.

Since it was founded in 1815, it has welcomed speakers from across the globe, and leading figures appearing just this term include comedienne Jo Brand, BBC journalist Andrew Marr and former Scotland rugby union international Gavin Hastings.

But the society has come under fire over an ill-tempered debate on Thursday on the motion: “This house believes Islam is a threat to the West”.

The union has been accused of giving the debate an inflammatory motion title to stir up controversy, and speaker Stephen Gash — from pressure group Stop the Islamification of Europe — was described by the society as considering “the ideology of religious Islam hateful and incompatible with freedom and democracy”.

He was heckled by members of the audience, and stormed out before the end of the debate.

The other speakers were Stephen Green, director of conservative Christian pressure group Christian Voice, writer Idris Tawfiq, who converted to Islam after being a Roman Catholic priest, and Muhammad Abdul Bari, chairman of the East London Mosque, and former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Madeleine Fresko, a Cambridge student who attended the debate, said some Muslim students had been “very scared” by its title.

She said: “It’s an inappropriate title to be put forward. Only one of the speakers, Stephen Gash, spoke for the motion — the other two actually argued that all religions are a threat to the west, or that it is political Islam which is a threat.

“At one point Gash said to one of the other speakers: ‘You’re acting like a typical Muslim’.

“He was heckled quite a bit during the debate. He had someone shouting: ‘Get him out, he’s a racist’ at one point. He just walked out half-way through the last speech.

“It was the sensationalism of the title I have a problem with, it was designed to get people in the door, and in that respect it worked.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Five Britons Sue Over ‘Fatal Fault in Heart Implant’

A heart implant used by almost 7,000 UK patients has been linked to a fault that can trigger electric shocks and cause fatal cardiac arrests.

The Sprint Fidelis defibrillator device has been blamed for 13 deaths.

Now five patients have launched a multi-million-pound legal claim through UK courts after a £165 million compensation payout in the US.

One of those suing, company director Chris Pitt, says he was temporarily paralysed by 35 electric shocks to his heart in a single day.

The defibrillators are implanted under the skin near the shoulder and provide shocks to the heart to try to stop potentially deadly rhythm disruptions.

They are different from pacemakers, which provide lower-voltage stimulation to maintain proper heart rhythm.

The problem appears to lie with the extra-thin metal lead which connects the device to the heart.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: The Solar Panel Gold Rush That Threatens to Ruin Our Countryside…and Make Millions for the Germans and Chinese

Farmers are being offered up to £50,000 a year to fill fields with solar panels under a Government-backed green initiative that threatens to change the face of the British countryside.

More than 100 planning applications have been submitted and work on a large-scale installation in Wiltshire is due to begin later this month.

But with a 30-acre farm able to accommodate up to 18,000 of the 2ft-high panels, campaigners fear some rural areas could be submerged by a sea of black silicon slabs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Wilders Accuses Merkel of Copying His Politics

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is copying his politics. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, the anti-Islam MP said Chancellor Merkel is scared that a charismatic figure able to attract 20 percent of the vote, will emerge in Germany.

He said traditional parties feel threatened by his movement and that is why they are copying him. He pointed out that Merkel recently declared the multicultural society a failure and CSU leader Horst Seehofer said he does not want any more Turkish or Arabic immigrants.

The controversial politician criticises a pattern he also sees in the Netherlands; he thinks the political elite is in disarray.

In October, Mr Wilders accused Chancellor Merkel of taking the leadership in anti-Islam criticism. She retorted that her criticism was not directed at a religion but at individuals that had failed to integrate.

Chancellor Merkel said earlier that she regretted that the Dutch government could not be formed without the support of an anti-Islamic party, when the new Dutch minority conservative VVD-Christian Democrat coalition took office.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Libya Orders U.S. Diplomat to Leave: Reports

Libya has ordered a diplomat at the United States embassy in Tripoli to leave the country within 24 hours for breaching diplomatic rules, two Libyan newspapers reported on Sunday.

The Libyan authorities gave no confirmation of the reports while a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, contacted by Reuters, said he had no comment. In Washington, the State Department said it had no immediate comment.

“The Libyan authorities asked the Political Affairs Secretary at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli to leave Libya within 24 hours,” the Internet edition of the Oea newspaper reported.

Citing what it called informed sources, the newspaper said the expulsion followed the diplomat’s visit to the city of Ifrane, 130 km (80 miles) south-west of the capital.

The was “considered by the Libyan authorities to be contrary to the rules and norms of diplomacy,” the newspaper said, without giving any more details.

A second Libyan newspaper, Quryna, also reported that a U.S. diplomat had been ordered to leave the country.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Arab Villagers Declare ‘Jews Out!’

Kochav Segal HaLevi, a Jewish security guard, legally bought a house in the mixed Muslim-Christian Arab village of Ibillin in northern Israel, east of Haifa. Upon moving in, however, he discovered that the locals are unwilling to let Jews live there.

It is a well known fact in Israel that Jews who try to live in Arab villages risk their lives, while Arabs live freely in Jewish neighborhoods. While leftist journalists and politicians, inside Israel and out, portray Israeli Jews as racist for fighting Arab invasions of their cities, stories like this one — which show Arabs’ zero tolerance for Jews in their neighborhoods — appear almost exclusively on Arutz Sheva.

[…]

           — Hat tip: Vito [Return to headlines]



Zahar: Jews Will Soon be Expelled From Palestine

The Jews will soon be expelled from Palestine that same way they were kicked out by France, Britain, Belgium, Russia and Germany, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said over the weekend.

“The only nation that received the Jews after they were expelled was the Islamic nation, which protected them and looked after them,” Zahar said in a speech in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Alevis Set to Rally Against Turkish Education Council’s Decisions

An Alevi organization will stage a sit-in Saturday in Istanbul to protest continuing mandatory religion classes, as well as a recent National Education Council decision to ignore the community’s demands to eliminate compulsory religious courses.

“On one hand the government has launched the Alevi initiative to solve the Alevi community’s problems, but on the other, the council headed by the education minister has rejected a proposal voiced by Alevis. They are not sincere,” Fevzi Gümüs, head of the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association, a leading Alevi organization, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Friday.

“We will organize a sit-in to protest the move from the council and the mandatory religion classes on Saturday in Kadiköy at 11:30 a.m. with the participation of Alevi organizations from all around Turkey,” Gümüs said. “The decisions taken in the council are not independent of the government’s will.”

Adopting the most controversial proposals of the government-affiliated education union Egitim Bir-Sen, the council made controversial decisions at the end of its final day of discussions Thursday, including a move to change the current system of eight years of uninterrupted primary education to 13 compulsory years that will be divided into four tears.

The formula “1 plus 4, plus 4, plus 4” will consist of one year of pre-school education, four years of primary education, four years of orientation and four years of preparation for secondary education.

Despite the Alevi community’s continuing objections to compulsory religious education at schools, a proposal reflecting their demand to make mandatory religious courses optional was rejected.

In addition to compulsory classes in schools, parents who wish can enroll their children in additional, elective religious classes under a proposal from Egitim Bir-Sen.

The council also determined that religious education should be provided more efficiently in education institutions.

The council decisions are not binding and are seen merely as recommendations to the Education Ministry. Decisions need the approval of the Education Ministry to take affect but the ministry may implement all or some of them.

“The move in council is the reflection of the government’s assimilative and two-faced policy. It simply applies the Turk-Islam Synthesis by ignoring Alevis and their demands,” Gümüs said.

‘We weren’t invited to council’

“The decisions didn’t surprise us. A majority of the participants were representatives affiliated to the ruling party,” Gümüs said.

Citing the EU Human Rights Court decision in 2007 in which the court ruled against mandatory religion classes, Gümüs said the government was pursuing an illegal policy.

Ali Balkiz, chairman of the Alevi-Bektasi Federation, said President Abdullah Gül invited their federation to Oct. 29 Republican Day receptions for the past two years and added that the US Embassy also invited them to Parliament when U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech there in 2009.

“But the Education Minister didn’t invite us to the council, Balkiz said. “We didn’t expect a government that has this sort of mentality to make the compulsory religious classes optional. It is a council where even a proposal to separate schools for girls and boys was discussed,” he said, adding that even the minister tasked with handling the Alevi initiative said mosques should be constructed in Alevi towns.

“Look at other decisions. Religion is simply politicized in line with the ruling party’s ideology,” he said.

Tiered education also controversial

There are also contrasting views on the council’s decision to recommend tiered education from union leaders.

“The decisions are a project to convert every school into a Quran course. Once primary education is converted into a four-stage tiered system, then it will be easy for younger students to have a religious education after the fourth grade,” said Yüksel Adibelli, chairman of the Education and Science Employee Union, or Egitim Is.

“It is also a move to reopen the secondary education of the religious Imam Hatip schools and a revenge for the Feb. 28, 1997, unarmed military intervention process, which brought an uninterrupted eight-year system, which led to the closure of secondary education at Imam Hatips.”

Adibelli also said the meeting’s results could lead to religious courses beginning in preschool and during the first three years of primary school.

Ahmet Gündogdu, head of Egitim Bir-Sen, defended the tiered system, saying they proposed it so as to orient younger students toward vocational training earlier.

“Otherwise, the students weren’t given an opportunity until they turned 15 to make their choice without completing their eight-year uninterrupted education. This system gives them an opportunity to make their choice and direct them to the discipline they desire, including religion, at earlier ages,” he said.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Civil War That Islam Will Have to Settle

IT’S been a bad week for Islam. It’s a religion that has plenty of bad weeks, but last week was a corker.

And it goes to show we were almost certainly reckless to have invaded Iraq as a partner in the Coalition of the Willing.

The then prime minister John Howard was willing; his successor, Kevin Rudd, less so. Rudd brought the troops home and I hope it wasn’t just because they couldn’t find any weapons of mass destruction.

That’s not our fault; neither could anyone else. And they had a good scout around.

The irony, I suppose, is that the weapons of nuclear mass destruction are being constructed in Iran with the almost certain goal of trying to, or threatening to, destroy Israel, our ally.

Iraq may never have been a real front of the War on Terror. Iran is the front.

But complicating any simple assessment of the situation is the civil war that has been going on in Islam since 632 — that’s the year 632. Not much more than half a millennium after Christ tried to sort things out in the region.

Many Muslims will tell you that the various branches of their faith can cohabit peacefully.

They are the people who can’t explain to you why an al-Qaida-backed group — in support of the Sunni population, who are in a minority in Iraq — launched a string of attacks in Baghdad’s Shi’ite districts that claimed 91 lives the other day.

Those Sunnis are grumpy with Christians too, and killed dozens of them at a Baghdad church days earlier.

A few weeks back, Sunnis in Iran launched double suicide bombing attacks against a Shi’ite mosque, and 27 died.

The delusional Iranian Government said the Sunni group received backing from the US. Actually, it said the Great Satan, but we got the point.

But why would American Satans, of any stature, help the Sunni Muslims who brought down the Twin Towers? Saddam Hussein was a Sunni and long before the genocidal maniac’s countrymen rearranged his neckwear, he’d dropped off any Western Christmas card lists.

We need to try to subdue the threat of Muslim supremacists, wherever they may live, especially the homegrown variety. But last week proved that we are best to remove our troops from the dangerous crossfire of an internal war Islam must sort out.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Commission for Education Proposes Mandatory Islamic Values in Turkish Schools

The unions are opposed to the proposal that will be debated by the National Board of Education, the majority of which is linked to the government, because it will lead to the legitimization and spread of Islamic education in the early grades.

Ankara (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The values taught in Turkish schools should be based on “faith in God” and delivered using the terminology of Islam, said a committee of the Board of Education, creating concern among educators in the country. Several committees within the Council have announced proposals for reform that would affect the length of compulsory education, and the fact that classes are or are not mixed. Although the proposals must then be adopted by the General Council, many fear the tendency to impose an Islamic ideology on the national education system.

Among the various proposals under discussion is one to change the current system (eight years of uninterrupted primary education) into one divided into two parts, to allow younger students to attend religious vocational school (iman-hatin).

The current system of eight years of uninterrupted compulsory education is a consequence of the unarmed military intervention, 28 February 1997, which led to the closure of schools for religious vocations. If this proposal passes the General Assembly of the Council for national education and is approved by the Ministry of Education it will return the situation to its former structure, breaking it in two the periods of compulsory education. Ministry officials have defended the proposal, saying it could solve the problem of having of a very different age students in the same class. But critics argue that by breaking it in two the period of compulsory education, it will be possible to argue in future that in reality only the first five years will be obligatory”.

The representatives of the teachers union have left the Council in protest because the time given to trade unions to submit their views was too short, and because they claim that the reforms will lead to a greater spread of the ideology and legitimisation of Islamic education. The unions also complain that the Council is dominated by representatives of the ruling party. “We left because the Council did not meet in a democratic, participatory and democratic manner,” said one trade unionist. On the division between male and female he added: “The suggestion to create schools and classes divided according to sex are made by people close to the ruling party.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Ehud Barak: Iran is Trying to Deceive the World

Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed little optimism on Saturday about a proposed round of talks between global powers and Iran, which is under pressure over its nuclear ambitions.

Iran says it will not discuss its nuclear program at the next set of negotiations with the P5+1 group, which comprises the permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany.

[…]

“Based on experience and looking at the example which they (the Iranians) are using, which is probably the North Korean example, you can easily see … the objective is to defy, decei(ve) and deter the whole world,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: Prince in Spain for Weapons Contract

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 1 — The deputy Saudi minister of Defence, prince Khaled bin Sultan, arrived in Madrid on an official visit to negotiate, according to a recent report by El Pais, the sale of more than 200 “Leopard 2E” combat tanks worth approximately 3 billion dollars. Afp reported that the finalisation of this deal would mark the largest order ever placed by the Spanish military industry. The “Leopard 2E” is a variation of the German “Leopard 2” combat tank which has been adapted to the needs of the Spanish army and which is manufactured in Spain by the General Dynamics-Santa Barbara group. During his visit the Saudi prince will meet King Juan Carlos and prime minister Jose Louis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The preparation of the contract was determined in 2008 during the visit of the Spanish King in Saudi Arabia. Should the contract meet with success, the first 50 tanks should be delivered by the end of 2011. In any event the signing of the agreement will be conditioned by the approval of German groups Kraus-Maffei and Rheinmetall, which hold the patent rights of the Leopard. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Syrian Government to Step Up Internet Censorship

This is the first law regulating online activities and enables the police access to editorial offices of Internet sites and to arrest journalists who violate censorship rules. One of the main sources of information in the nation it has so far enjoyed a limited freedom with respect to newspapers and television stations that instead undergo a strict state control.

Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) — In Syria, a law to regulate the web will allow police to penetrate Internet sites and to arrest journalists who violate the rules of censorship. Journalists say that it was approved by the government last week and is awaiting Parliamentary approval. They argue that the law could seriously limit the means of online media which today enjoy greater freedom of press. Although the Internet is often slow and access to websites often blocked for certain periods of time, previously there had been no existing law regulating online activities.

In recent years, the Internet has made great progress in Syria, becoming one of the main sources of information more so than newspapers and television stations which instead undergo a strict state control. News and reports on sensitive issues such as the prohibition in Syrian universities of wearing the niqab or veil, have had extensive coverage on the Internet, but were not touched on at all by print media. “The approval of the new law is “ very serious, “says Ayman Abdel Nour, director of all4syria.org, a web site with editorial offices in Dubai, but with numerous collaborators in Syria. “It makes it possible for the police to enter editorial offices — he says -, arrest journalists and seized their computers. Those arrested can be dragged before a criminal court. “ Although the law has yet to be approved by parliament, Abdel Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights (Sldhr), says that online censorship is worsening. For some time the government has targeted the websites of opposition parties, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Kurdish minority and human rights groups, but also regarded as politically hostile other websites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. To date, about 240 sites have been closed by the authorities. Last July, the Association for Press Freedom, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called Syria one of the most repressive countries in terms of Internet censorship.

RSF cited the case of Karim Arbaji, a blogger arrested in 2007 by the Syrian secret services, who was sentenced to three years in prison for publishing information against the national morale. by military intelligence agents in July 2007 and held in custody before being sentenced to three years in prison in September 2009 for “ publishing mendacious information liable to weaken the nation’s morale”. Arbaji was released in January 2010 only after the intervention of the Syrian Catholic Church, which sent a request to President Bashar al-Assad.

Instead in 2008, police arrested Firas Saad for writing articles critical of the government.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Turkey Has Only Itself to Blame if it is Shunned by the EU

Martin Kettle’s claim that Turkey is “held hostage by the atavistic parochialism of a Greek Cypriot statelet of fewer than one million people and with a declining GDP of $23bn” is far from the truth.

Kettle concerns himself with “the big issues” facing Europe such as its shrinking population and integration as well as energy and security. But it is frequently stated that Europe is a community of values, and on this basis the Cyprus question must be seen as a principle issue.

Kettle mentions that Europe and Turkey have common interests, agreements worth making and promises to keep. However, it is precisely because Turkey has reneged on its commitment in July 2005 to extend the customs union to the Republic of Cyprus that the European Council in December 2006 decided to block the opening of eight negotiating chapters.

In 1965 Turkey ratified the Hague convention of 1954 for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, but nevertheless after its intervention and subsequent occupation of Cyprus in 1974 it has been responsible for the devastation, vandalism and looting of the island’s cultural heritage on a scale unworthy of any civilised nation, let alone a prospective member of the EU.

Despite UN security council resolutions calling on Turkey to withdraw its forces from northern Cyprus — and that of the European parliament in February this year — Turkey has stubbornly refused to do so. In fact, Turkey has declared on more than one occasion that if it has to make a choice between its accession to the EU and Cyprus, it will choose Cyprus. So far, this intransigence has been rewarded, for example, with a seat on the UN security council as a non-permanent member and both the US and Europe are prepared to turn a blind eye to Turkey’s depredations. The security issue looms large for many European politicians, and the fear is that Europe will do to Cyprus what it did to the Sudetenland in 1938.

Turkey’s justification for retaining control is legally indefensible, as it constantly refers to the treaty of guarantee from 1960, which gave it the right to take unilateral action after the Greek junta’s coup against Archbishop Makarios in 1974. However, the exercise of this right is limited by the aim of re-establishing the state of affairs created by the treaty — that is, to recognise and guarantee the independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Cyprus. This Turkey has manifestly failed to do but has instead created a Turkish state in northern Cyprus not only to the detriment of the Greek Cypriots, whose property was confiscated by the self-styled “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, but also the Turkish Cypriots, who have suffered under Turkish rule.

In violation of Article 49.6 of the Geneva convention of 1949, which stipulates that the occupying power shall not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, Turkey has transferred several hundred thousand settlers from Anatolia to northern Cyprus. The 90,000 or so Turkish Cypriots who remain are, according to Mehmet Cakici, chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Social Democracy party (TDP), “facing the danger of being annihilated, both with their demographic structure and their culture and social structure”.

For example, the Turkish Cypriot primary school and secondary school teachers’ unions (KTOS and KTOES) have protested against the imposition of Sunni Islam and Qur’an classes, which reflect the ideology of the current Turkish government. There is also the fact that over the past years more mosques than schools have been constructed in northern Cyprus (there are 162 schools and 181 mosques). The crime rate has soared because of the uncontrolled immigration from Turkey and education and health services are overburdened.

Northern Cyprus is de facto Turkey’s 82nd province, and the TRNC is regarded by the European court of human rights as “a subordinate local administration” under Turkish jurisdiction. The TRNC’s economy is also underpinned by Turkey and in a once fertile area 80% of the need for fruits and vegetables is met by Turkey. As a Turkish commentator put it last year: “[Northern] Cyprus is like a water mill that cannot run without hand-carried water.”

This is why Turkey is desperate to open direct trade with northern Cyprus, both to relieve its financial burden and as one step towards international recognition of the separatist state. Turkey perennial self-justification for maintaining its presence on the island is to consolidate the security of the Muslim Turkish community but this excuse is wearing thin.

The most convincing reason has been advanced by the architect of Turkey’s multi-dimensional foreign policy, the present foreign minister, Professor Ahmet Davutoglu, in his book Strategic Depth from 2001. Here Davutoglu states clearly: “Even if there was not one single Muslim Turk over there, Turkey would have to maintain a Cyprus question. No country could possibly be indifferent to an island like this, placed in the heart of its vital space.”

This is why reunification talks are getting nowhere, however hard Dimitris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot president, tries. The new Turkish Cypriot leader, Dervis Eroglu, unlike the former leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, is simply not interested that they should go anywhere, and takes his orders directly from Ankara. As Martin Kettle writes about the prospect of Turkey’s EU membership: “the failure is predictable, disgraceful and incredibly shortsighted”. And it’s Turkey’s fault.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UAE: F1 Arrives at Amusement Park With ‘Ferrari World’

(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 21 — Formula One will provide fun for all under the Ferrari banner. On October 28 in the UAE, the new ‘Ferrari World’ theme park will open, the first amusement park of its kind. According to reports today in UAE daily Al Bayan, it is also the largest entirely covered theme park of its kind. The architectural design of the park, which is located on the island of Yas in Abu Dhabi, mimics the design of a Ferrari automobile. The covered part of the theme park, whose construction was completed in November 2009, extends over an area of 200,000 square-metres and has an enormous Ferrari symbol at its centre. In addition to the interactive sites, the park will offer more than 20 attractions to the public, including the fastest roller coaster in the world, which is capable of reaching speeds of 240km per hour, allowing passengers to experience the sensation of riding a Formula One racer. Another attraction will be the challenge against gravity with the “G Force” vehicle, in which the visitor will be “strapped into” the seat of a Ferrari and will make a 62-metre-high jump, be suspended in midair and descend back to the point of departure. Several restaurants will offer traditional Italian cuisine. Visitors will be able to take a trip into the “heart” of a Ferrari engine, in a gigantic reconstruction, or to the most beautiful places in Italy, which have been reconstructed inside of the park. Ferrari World’s opening will represent, according to Mohammed Al Mubarek, the President of Farah Company, which manages the park, “a great increase in quality” in the theme park sector in the region. “The park,” continued Al Mubarket, “is proof of the ability of Abu Dhabi to become a top notch tourist attraction.” The advanced attractions will mainly be based on speed. Ferrari World will also provide a virtual visit to the factory in Maranello for visitors, where, although they will be in Abu Dhabi, visitors will be able to get a close look at all of the phases of production of a Ferrari. Furthermore, visitors will have a chance to take a virtual flight to Italy’s most well-known tourist sites, from Portofino to the Amalfi Coast, the Monza Autodrome, the Colosseum and Venice. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Understanding the Middle East: One Day’s Survey

By Barry Rubin

—The UN annual Human Development Report for 2010 ranks Israel at number 15 of 169 countries in the world in terms of the health, education, freedom, and income of its citizens.

—Well worth reading, Steven J. Rosen, “The Arab Lobby: The European Component.” Despite the title, it also includes new information on the history of U.S.-Israel relations and on Arab lobbies in the United States.

—Danny Seaman, director of the Foreign Press Office, discusses the Western media and Israel in a long interview. But the article also includes what might be the best succinct statement I’ve ever seen on the development of Israeli worldview and perceptions:

“There were certain ‘truths’ that we were told: That if we adopt UN resolutions, there’ll be peace. If we recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination, there’ll be peace. If we remove settlements, there’ll be peace. And over the past 25 years, there’s been a progression in the Israeli position: Israel recognized the PLO as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people; relinquished territory; removed settlements.Regarding Lebanon, Israel fulfilled all the UN resolutions.

“Yet the end result was not the peace that we were promised. In no way am I criticizing the efforts for peace. Peace is a strategic necessity for the State of Israel. But here, in this case, these ‘truths’ that we were promised never came about. On the contrary, it only increased violence, increased extremism. Yet there was a failure by a lot of the media to be intellectually honest, to say ‘maybe we need to reevaluate….’“

—Speaking of intellectually honesty, here’s the New York Times’ evaluation of the U.S. elections. It begins:

“The Democrats’ loss of control of the House of Representatives and their reduced majority in the Senate have left many outsiders pondering whether the open hand of the newly inaugurated president-extended to Iran, Russia and the Middle East in 2009-will close, replaced by an introspective and distracted White House….”

The article’s main theme is that people abroad are worried that President Barack Obama’s wonderful policies will be limited or sidetracked by his defeat in mid-term elections. There is no mention whatsoever about the widespread concerns that Obama’s weak policies and focus on conciliation with enemies have upset many leaders throughout the world. This information is being largely kept from the American public.

Fully 30 percent of the article is devoted to Israel and how Obama’s defeat may be “enabling Israel’s right-wing government to continue to resist pressure to freeze the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.” This is a measure of how that issue is ridiculously overblown, being treated as if it is the most important question in the world. by the left-wing elements in the mass media and by this U.S. government itself.

In fact, Israel’s government is a left/right coalition based on a national consensus (see Seaman’s quote above). Moreover, even if Israel did adapt a two-month freeze—an issue on which the mid-term U.S. elections will have no effect—that isn’t going to change anything.

There is no hint of how Obama’s policies have themselves sabotaged the possibility of negotiations by making the freeze the centerpiece of his strategy, nor of how his policy has strengthened Hamas. There is not a word about the deep-seated concerns of relatively moderate Arab forces about the president’s actions: too slow in countering Iran, too eager to engage Syria, downplaying the need to battle against revolutionary Islamist groups…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



Yemen: Authorities Plan to Prosecute Militant Cleric

Sanaa, 2 Nov. (AKI) — Yemen intends to prosecute cleric Anwar al-Awlaki for fomenting violence aimed at foreigners, according to news reports.

An unnamed Yemeni official in Washington told CNN that authorities request to put the cleric on trial “will be hopefully officially issued” on Tuesday.

Yemen forces are reportedly intensifying their hunt for Al-Awlaki, who is allegedly a high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch.

In the United States, American-born al-Awlaki has been linked to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan and the man accused in the Christmas Day bomb attempt.

US authorities have linked al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni cleric, to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan and the man accused in the Christmas Day bomb attempt.

American officials also accuse al-Qaeda of plotting to ship bombs to the US from Yemen aboard airplanes.

The discovery of the packages prompted Yemen to tighten security at all of its airports, the country’s National Civil Aviation Security Committee said Monday.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Caucasus


Nuclear Bomb Material Found for Sale on Georgia Black Market

High enriched uranium which could be used to make a nuclear bomb is on sale on the black market along the fringes of the former Soviet Union, according to evidence emerging from a secret trial in Georgia.

At the centre of the case are two Armenians, a businessman called Sumbat Tonoyan and a physicist, Hrant Ohanyan. Both have pleaded guilty to smuggling highly enriched uranium (HEU) into Georgia in March, stashing it in a lead-lined package on a train from Yerevan to Tbilisi.

Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili informed other heads of state of the sting operation at a nuclear summit in Washington in April, but no details about the case have been made public until now. The trial has been conducted behind closed doors, Georgian officials say, to protect the operational secrecy of the country’s counter-proliferation unit.

But investigators have given the Guardian an exclusive first-hand account of the case.

It reveals that the critical ingredient for making a nuclear warhead is available on the black market and is reasonably easy to smuggle past a ring of expensive US-funded radiation sensors along the borders of the former Soviet Union. What is not clear is how much nuclear material is in circulation and whether any has already been bought by extremist groups.

The US has made the prevention of nuclear terrorism its national security priority. To that end, Barack Obama persuaded 50 world leaders at the April summit to pledge to secure all vulnerable nuclear material within four years.

Billions of dollars have been spent upgrading security at nuclear sites around the globe, particularly in Russia, which has an estimated 700 tons of HEU in hundreds of facilities. But it is unclear how much has already been stolen.

“The question is: Of what iceberg are seeing the tip?” said Matthew Bunn, a Harvard expert and former White House science adviser, who compiles an annual assessment of the nuclear terrorism threat titled Securing the Bomb.

The sample that Tonoyan and Ohanyan were peddling is thought to have been stolen several years ago. US nuclear laboratories have confirmed it is 89.4% enriched, usable in a nuclear warhead. The amount the Armenians had was small, 18 grams, but they had been told by their supplier in Armenia that much more would be available if they made a sale.

They smuggled it into Georgia by train, stuffing into a cigarette box lined with lead strips to fool radiation sensors at the border. Tonoyan, a 63-year-old who once ran a successful dairy business but gambled away his fortune, and Ohanyan, a 59-year-old scientist at the Yerevan Institute of Physics, had arranged to meet their buyer in a hotel room in the Georgian capital on 11 March. They were under the impression they were selling their 18g sample to a representative of an Islamic jihadist group as a precursor to a bigger consignment. But the buyer was a Georgian undercover police officer.

The sting operation marks the third time in seven years that HEU has been intercepted on Georgia soil. Altogether, there have been 21 seizures or attempted thefts of weapons grade material, uranium or plutonium, in the region since the Soviet Union collapsed.

In every case where such material has been seized, its absence had not previously been noticed. And subsequent investigations found that in almost every case, the theft was carried out by an insider.

“There has never been a good physical inventory. Accounting rules in the Soviet Union were not designed with an internal threat in mind,” said Elena Sokolova, a non-proliferation expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

“No one registered that this material was missing and we still don’t know whether other material went missing.”

In the three Georgian cases, there is some evidence linking the stolen HEU to a nuclear fuel plant in Novosibirsk, Siberia. An investigation by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) found that Garik Dadayan, the smuggler involved in the first case in 2003, had gone to Novosibirsk, before trying to smuggle about 200g of HEU into Georgia.

In the second case, the smuggler, Oleg Khintsagov initially told investigators he acquired his HEU from business acquaintances in Novosibirsk although he later changed his account. Onhanyan and Tonoyan say they got their sample from Dadayan, who was released from prison in Armenia in 2005.

The tense state of Georgian-Russian relations since the two states fought a short war in 2008, has meant it is impossible to trace the material to its source.

“Most likely, the materials were stolen in the mid- or early 90s when a big amount of material disappeared. It’s hidden somewhere and from time to time, someone is trying to find new buyers,” said Archil Pavlenishvili, the head of Georgia’s radioactive materials investigation team.

“We think that the game is not over. There will be more attempts.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

South Asia


13 Year Old Christian Girl Raped by Young Pakistani Muslim

It has been revealed that a 13 year old Christian girl became pregnant after being raped by a young Muslim in Pakistan.

This revelation is contained in a statement by Catholic News Service (CNS) (http://www.catholicnews.com) published on their website adding that Christian girls have become targets for violence in the country.

It noted that the Christian community in Pakistan is shocked at the increasing violence and abuse targeted at young Christian girls and that two Christian girls were abducted, raped and murdered by a group of Muslims.

“Violent abuse is “part of daily life” in Pakistan. There are increasing numbers of violent abuse incidents against Christian and Hindu girls. Christians are targeted because they are considered on a lower social level, and often abductions of young girls involve intent to force marriage and religious conversion or to trap them into prostitution rings,” it said.

It added that the latest tragic abuse is part of a larger phenomenon of violence against women in Pakistan, which often meets with indifference and impunity. There were 1,198 kidnappings, 352 rapes and 1,052 murders of women in 2009 alone.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Burmese Defector Reveals Truth About Junta’s Nuclear Ambitions

In his extraordinary first interview, on the eve of elections, a former major in the secretive regime tells of chaos at the core of the state’s weapons programme

Sai Thein Win’s revelations since he left the country have been described by a former International Atomic Energy Agency head as “truly extraordinary information”. Burma’s army is closed to the outside world and Sai Thein Win is the main source, and in some cases the only source, for a case with major political implications. Can he be trusted?

International observers fear that the junta has tried to obtain nuclear weaponry as part of its strategy to retain power. But evidence from Sai Thein Win suggests that the programme is so mired in incompetence, corruption and delays that it would take years to develop a nuclear programme.

[Return to headlines]



India: Not Everyone’s Going Gaga Over the Obamas in Mumbai

Much of South Mumbai wore the look of a forced curfew as American president Barack Obama arrived in the city on Saturday afternoon. Parts of Colaba, where the Taj Mahal hotel — the venue of the 26/11 memorial function and the president’s night halt — is situated was virtually shut down.

The roads towards Taj were blocked and even pedestrians walking to Colaba market had to take a detour to reach their homes.

Several foreigners, who were visiting India, got disappointed as popular tourist spots like the Gateway of India was off limits. “I had planned my India visit much in advance and may not be able to wait for three more days to get a look at the Gateway. I think I am going to miss my Gateway visit,” Francis Turen, a German tourist said.

[…]

One irritated man vented his anger on journalists who asked him for a reaction. “What do you want me to say? We waited for half-an-hour for a bus that never came. Taxis have been stopped from coming to this area. We had to get out of our offices from the rear door. Is this democracy?” he asked.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Indonesian Muslims Protest Obama’s Planned Visit

Muslims staged rallies across Indonesia on Sunday to protest U.S. President Barack Obama’s planned visit to the southeast Asian nation this week.

The protests — organized by Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir — included women and children.

“We don’t see the differences between Obama and Bush, they both oppress Muslims, they both have blood on their hands,” said Ismail Yusanto, a spokesman for the Muslim group in Indonesia.

“That’s why we reject Obama and we don’t believe that he’s reaching out to Muslims.”

The spokesman said about 20,000 people attended the rallies.

With about 205 million Muslims, Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C.

More than one in 10 of the world’s Muslims live there.

Although it has a reputation for being home to a relatively tolerant and easy-going brand of Islam, a Pew Forum analysis rates it as having high levels of legal restrictions on religion and religious social tension.

Government restrictions on religion are tighter in Indonesia than in Russia or Turkey, and social tensions are higher than in Nigeria or Egypt, the think tank says.

Obama is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday as part of a 10-day visit to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

He is expected to finalize a comprehensive partnership with Indonesia.

Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

On Wednesday, the president will visit Istiqlal mosque. He will also address the biggest Muslim nation from an undetermined location.

However, Muslims in Indonesia remain pessimistic.

“Obama can talk all he wants in Cairo and in Jakarta, the fact is that he still has his troops in war with Muslims,” Yusanto said. “It’s all lip service.”

Protesters chanted “No Obama” and held up posters that said “Stop oppressor.”

Obama’s visit to Asia started Saturday with a three-day visit to India.

His visit to India — the third largest economy and one of the world’s few growth markets — also includes meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and addressing the nation’s parliament.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



‘Not Again!’: Hero Superjumbo Pilot and His Crew Among Passengers as a Second Qantas Engine ‘Explodes’

The hero pilot and cabin crew involved in a dramatic jet failure this week were forced to return to Singapore again yesterday after a second Qantas flight was hit by engine trouble.

Passengers screamed and air crew shouted for them to adopt the crash position after flames or sparks were seen coming from the engine of a Qantas flight leaving Singapore airport with 431 passengers and crew onboard.

After calmly landing an A380 superjet that experienced a dramatic mid-air explosion earlier this week, Captain Richard de Crespigny again failed to travel to Sydney yesterday, as he and his cabin crew witnessed a second Qantas explosion, this time as passengers.

[Comments from JD: Quantas aircraft engine maintenance used to be done in Australia.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Kashmir Students Trained to Wage Jihad on India

Islamabad, 4 Nov.(AKI) — Hundreds of university students are being trained in militant camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to wage jihad, or holy war, against India, according a report by the BBC’s Urdu-language service.

A 25-year old engineering student from Lahore told the BBC that training is taking place in the Kashmir capitol of Muzaffarabad.

“A large number of young Pakistani and foreign university students are receiving training Pakistan occupied Kashmir, under supervision of a group that conducts jihad against India,” the student said, underlining that most of the students in the camps come from Punjab while 20 percent come from Kashmir, with the remaining ten percent foreigners.

The student’s statements contradict recent statements by Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik who denied reports about the existence of such camps.

Pakistan-administered Kashmir is claimed by India. The countries in 1947 fought a war over the area, which is referred to as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir by India.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



US Officials Worry Indonesian Militants Are Regrouping, Eyeing Western Targets in the Country

The discovery of a militant training camp in Indonesia, along with persistent terrorist attacks there, have increased U.S. concerns that extremists are regrouping and eyeing Western targets in a country long viewed as a counterterrorism success story.

With President Barack Obama set to begin a visit Tuesday to the world’s most populous Muslim country, there is renewed attention on terrorists in Indonesia who in the past year appeared to be banding together into a new al-Qaida-influenced insurgency.

Recent Pentagon moves to renew a training program with Indonesia’s special forces and bolster military assistance show that the Obama administration believes the country needs more help tracking and rooting out insurgents, particularly those who rejoin the fight once they are released from jail.

The U.S. has praised Indonesia’s efforts to crack down on terrorists. Government police and military authorities have captured or killed more than 100 terrorists over the past year.

U.S. defence officials, however, worry about the overall threat. They’re watching for any signs of movement or increased communications between Indonesian extremists and al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Obama’s long-promised visit to the nation where he lived from age 6 to 10 comes as U.S. defence officials said Indonesia has exhibited both the will and the ability to pursue extremists.

That includes developing an aggressive rehabilitation program, as well as a consistent string of arrests, these officials said. Several U.S. defence and counterterrorism officials spoke about the threats on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence information.

But they also are concerned that some jailed militants have returned to the fight after their release. That raises questions about how effective the rehabilitation program is and how well authorities are tracking militants once they are free.

“There is a hard core that are not reformable,” agreed Sidney Jones, an expert on the region and analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

The discovery of a terrorist training camp in Aceh Province this year heightened U.S. fears that there may be other emerging threats in the country’s remote regions that Indonesia has failed to ferret out.

According to Indonesian authorities, the Aceh group was plotting assassinations or attacks similar to the one in Mumbai, India, in 2008. While recent attacks in Indonesia have focused on government and law enforcement, several high profile strikes in the past eight years have targeted Western interests.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Somali Pirates Receive Record Ransom

Somali pirates are reported to have received a total of $12.3m (£7.6m) in ransom money to release two ships.

They are believed to have been paid a record $9.5m (£5.8m) for Samho Dream, a South Korean oil tanker, and nearly $2.8m (£1.7m) for the Golden Blessing, a Singaporean flagged ship.

“We are now counting our cash,” a pirate who gave his name as Hussein told Reuters news agency. “Soon we shall get down from the ship.”

All crew are believed to be unharmed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Latin America


Brazil: Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button in Machine-Gun Ambush

The driver credited his driver for speeding away from six men who had trained their weapons on his car after he left the Interlagos track, scene of today’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

Button, 30, was on his way back to his luxury hotel after leaving the Interlagos track in San Paulo when his bullet-proof Mercedes was attacked in a shanty town.

His driver — an armed Brazilian policeman — sped away hitting a number of cars during the dramatic escape.

Button, who was travelling with his father John, manager Richard Goddard and trainer Mike Collier said: ‘My driver was a legend.

‘He bounced off about five cars. We were driving over the top of them. It was very scary.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Dutch Government Says Immigrants Must Pay for ‘Integration’

Moroccan-born Rahmouna Lakdhari was still living as an outsider after 13 years in her adopted home, the Netherlands, prevented by language and cultural barriers from working and making new friends.

But last year, the life of the 33-year-old who followed her husband to the land of windmills, bicycles and tulips changed dramatically thanks to a state-sponsored integration course — a privilege the new, rightist government plans to take away.

“Only now am I learning what one needs to know about the Netherlands,” Lakdhari told Agence France-Presse in halting Dutch at the school where she spends 10 hours a week on lessons in language and socialization — how government works, how to befriend neighbours, open a bank account and register a birth.

The Netherlands was long seen as a land of multi-cultural tolerance. But the Dutch, like their neighbours in Germany, have shifted towards promoting greater social integration as European Union states rethink their response to continued waves of immigrants.

The country introduced integration courses in 2007, obliging all non-European adult immigrants — workers and their family members — to attend classes and pass an exam. Those who fail to do so do not qualify for permanent residence and cannot claim social benefits.

As Lakdhari arrived before 2007, her course was not compulsory but she took it voluntarily at the government’s expense. About 40,000 people successfully completed the course last year, according to the Dutch Center for Foreigners, or NCB.

“I can now go to the doctor and explain what is wrong with me. I no longer need my husband, my child or a neighbour to help me,” Lakdhari said proudly as her classmates — mostly women in headscarves from Turkey and Morocco — nodded in agreement as they copied grammar from a black board.

“I can look for work, I can talk to people, I can help my children with homework.”

The new minority coalition, which took over in October backed by a controversial anti-Islam party, is bent on halting rising public debt and aiding long-term recovery after the global economic crisis.

One target is slashing the integration budget of about half-a-billion euros in incremental amounts, to culminate in an annual savings of more than 300 million euros as of 2014.

The plan must still be put to parliament, where a coalition of the Christian Democratic Action, CDA, and conservative liberal VVD, backed by the Party for Freedom of anti-Islam deputy Geert Wilders, hold a joint majority.

“Immigrants and asylum seekers are responsible for their own integration in our country,” states a policy document of the CDA-VVD coalition.

It wants newcomers to foot the bill for the compulsory course, which training centres told AFP costs up to 5,000 euros ($7,000) for up to 18 months of lessons.

‘We teach people how to live together’

Under the plan, those who fail the exam will lose their temporary residence permit — meaning they must leave the country.

Today, about 3.4 million of the Netherlands’ 16.6 million inhabitants are of immigrant origin — 1.8 million from “non-Western” countries.

“We cannot continue to allow so many people without prospects to come to the Netherlands,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after last month’s inauguration.

NCB director Ilhan Akel, for one, opposes making immigrants pay for the course, calling it “short-sighted” and indicative of a “broad shift to the right”.

“It is imperative that as many people as possible complete these courses,” he said.

“With our ageing workforce, we need more young people to work in the care and production sectors. But if they have no language skills and sit on the margins of society, they will cost us money instead of contributing to the economy.”

Ahmet Azdural, director of the non-governmental organisation Turkish Participation in the Netherlands (IOT), argued that most immigrants “don’t have this kind of money”.

“Most people who move to a new country do so exactly because things are not great where they come from,” he said.

People like Azdural fear the harsher measures will break up families — forcing people moving to the Netherlands for work to live apart from loved ones who cannot afford the integration.

Others fear the changes will drive a deeper wedge between people in a country where Wilders’ anti-immigrant rhetoric has found increasingly fertile soil.

“We teach people how to speak to each other and live together,” said integration teacher Corine Kobes. “Without it, I fear that attitudes on both sides will harden; there will be less understanding for each other.”

For Geert de Vries, a sociologist at the Free University of Amsterdam, “the message is clear: the government only wants highly skilled immigrants with money in their wallets.”

“Immigrants will be made to feel more and more unwelcome,” he said. “This can only add to the tension.”

Lakdhari said she was grateful to have taken the course.

“I am sorry for those people who will not have the same opportunity. It’s a pity.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



How Sarrazin’ s Immigration Views Touched a German Nerve

Thilo Sarrazin is not charismatic but he has become a man of influence. He has changed the debate over immigration in Germany. In his view “suppressing emotion is even more dangerous” than broaching subjects that were recently largely off limits. Others, like analyst Prof Klaus Kocks, have issued a note of caution. “As a German,” he told me, “you have to be more careful than others. You have to accept our history.” I met Thilo Sarrazin at his old school in Recklinghausen. He was there to promote his book Germany Does Away With Itself. He is both reviled and admired for its controversial thesis. Outside the school were a handful of protesters. One banner accused Mr Sarrazin of acting like the Nazis. There were many more, however, who had bought tickets to hear him. His book has sold close to a million copies.

His essential message is that Muslims are either “unwilling or unable to integrate” into Western society. “If the majority of migrants from non-Muslim countries don’t have any obvious problem integrating,” he told a packed hall, “then the failure to integrate on behalf of migrants from Muslim countries can’t be due to a fault on behalf of us — because all are treated equally. It has to be because of a characteristic of Muslims themselves.”

He is not a great speaker. He deals in statistics. He recognises that some Muslims have integrated but he believes that Germany has gone too far in trying to accommodate them. “People who obey laws are welcome to live here,” he told me but he wants to end Muslim immigration.

For those already in Germany, welfare payments would be dependent on learning German and acquiring language skills. Parents who do not send their children to school (for religious reasons) should be fined. Forced marriages should be forbidden. His message is that Muslim migrants must accept German laws, the constitution and the values of their new society.

His comments have set off a huge debate. “We have a very serious shift in discussion,” Prof Kocks told me. What makes his book sales even the more extraordinary is that Thilo Sarrazin said, as part of the publicity for the book, that Jews had a certain gene. He was condemned by mainstream politicians and the remark led to his resignation from the board of the Bundesbank. Even so, the public made his book a best-seller.

Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel said multiculturalism had “failed utterly”. What she meant was that some immigrants and others who had lived in Germany for some years were not integrating. Last week at a regional conference for her party in Essen she said: “Of course integration has changed our society but not at the expense of our core values… We are Christians and this informs everything we do… We are for diversity but we will not abandon our basic beliefs.”

What seems to be changing is what is expected from immigrants. The past idea of multiculturalism was that migrants could live in their new societies much as they had done previously in their home countries. Now the emphasis is on them adapting. The fear is that otherwise there will be separate, parallel communities.

So mainstream politicians are speaking out. Joachim Herrmann is the interior minister in Bavaria. His party, the conservative CSU, is in coalition with that of Angela Merkel. He told us in an interview: “You have to accept our laws… Just because you come from a different culture where a man can treat his wife differently, you can’t do that here. There can be no compromise.”

The premier in Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, has called for an end to immigration from “Turkey and other Arab countries”.

Muslims are fearful of where this new tone is heading. Nurhan Solkan is general secretary of the Council of Muslims. She says that the views of the far right have now entered the political mainstream. She points out that many immigrants have integrated well. Many will tell you how when they first came to Germany, no one wanted them to integrate. They were guest-workers. They were barred from citizenship. Nurhan Solkan said more and more people of Turkish origin were moving back to Turkey.

Dr Kocks told me: “I don’t want to go back to nationalism again.” He does not think that is happening. There is no growth in far-right parties. But he says there is a deep anger in society over stories, for instance, that some female teachers have been shown disrespect by Muslim boys.

Prof Jurgen Habermas, writing in the New York Times last week, said Germany was being roiled by “waves of political turmoil over integration, multiculturalism and the role of the ‘Leitkultur’, or guiding national culture.” He said it was reinforcing trends towards xenophobia. He sees clear dangers in getting immigrants to assimilate “the values of the majority culture and to adopt its customs”.

But that is the new mood and, judging by the success of Thilo Sarrazin’s book, it seems that many Germans want minorities to positively embrace being German.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Migrants Must Pay for Integration — Dutch Govt

The Netherlands — Moroccan-born Rahmouna Lakdhari was still living as an outsider after 13 years in her adoptive Netherlands, prevented by language and cultural barriers from working and making new friends.

But last year, the life of the 33-year-old who followed her husband to the land of windmills, bicycles, and tulips changed dramatically thanks to a state-sponsored integration course, a privilege the new, rightist government plans to take away.

“Only now am I learning what one needs to know about the Netherlands,” Lakdhari told AFP in halting Dutch at the school where she spends 10 hours a week on lessons in language and socialization—how government works, how to befriend neighbors, open a bank account, and register a birth.

The Netherlands was long seen as a land of multi-cultural tolerance. But the Dutch, like their neighbors in Germany, have shifted toward promoting greater social integration as European Union states rethink their response to continued waves of immigrants.

The country introduced integration courses in 2007, obliging all non-European adult immigrants—workers and their family members—to attend classes and pass an exam. Those who fail to do so do not qualify for permanent residence and cannot claim social benefits.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Time to Sound the Alarm on Canada’s Immigration Policy

While Cordoba House might not be an appropriate name for the Muslim cultural centre and mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, “Mayday! Mayday!” is the perfect name for Lowell Green’s new book.

As most people know, Mayday is an international emergency distress signal used in radio communications. It comes from the French and in translation means “come to my help.” It is always given three times.

When we hear that Sweden has been divided over “xenophobes,” that neither of the two main parties managed to get a majority, and that the Sweden Democrats—the anti-immigration party—won enough seats to get into Parliament, one starts to wonder what is happening. In fact, the Swedish author of a study on the Swedish Democrats defines the party as a populist party with a xenophobic worldview, very similar to other “parties of discontent” across Europe.

There are opposing views about immigration. The Conference Board of Canada study released last week stated that this country falls behind most industrialized countries when it comes to innovation. Diana MacKay, the Conference Board’s director for education and health stated: “Immigrants tend to be motivated individuals willing to take risks in search of greater opportunities, which should predispose them to be innovative.”

The Centre for Immigration Policy Reform, which has some very influential people as directors and friends, believes that while immigration “is having a major impact on the lives of Canadians, there is a serious lack of accurate information about its benefits and liabilities.” The Centre believes that immigration is not a practical means of “providing enough workers to pay the taxes needed to support our aging population.”

And Lowell Green bravely steps into the fray with his new book, whose full name is “Mayday! Mayday! Curb immigration, stop multiculturalism, or it’s the end of the Canada we know.”

Green is onside with the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform when it comes to disagreeing with the belief that immigration is the answer to our low fertility rate and aging workforce. He states that in 2008, during the worst recession since the “Dirty Thirties” when we had “more than two million Canadians unemployed, we still opened our borders to more than 250,000 immigrants, 257,000 temporary workers, 79,000 foreign students, and approximately 35,000 refugees.”

The book describes what Green calls the New Canada in which, since 1945, this country has received about 10 million immigrants of diverse origins. He states that there is “a strange absence of national political or public debate on the subject…” especially when Canada is “evolving into a global suburb” for people whose roots are in another country.

For example Te, the owner of the hair salon I go to, is from Egypt. His wife and children lived here long enough to get Canadian passports, but now live in Egypt for the most part and only come to Canada to keep their Canadian citizenship alive.

According to Statistics Canada, by 2031, 63 percent of Toronto’s population will be visible minorities while in Vancouver the ratio will be 59 per cent. Lowell wants us to think about low productivity and mass immigration. And according to the Centre for Immigration Policy Reform, we no longer have “a centrally coordinated national immigration policy.” There is an urgent need for reform.

Perhaps it is time to say Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Public Debate: Multiculturalism at Its Limits?

“Multiculturalism undermines the very opportunity that diversity offers: to enter into a dialogue about citizenship.” In the fifth debate in Eurozine’s series “Europe talks to Europe”, Kenan Malik and Fero Sebej discussed an issue back at the top of the European political agenda.

Multiculturalism, up to now the default strategy in western Europe to manage cultural diversity, is increasingly under attack both from the anti-immigrant Right as well as the pro-Enlightenment Left. In the fifth debate in the series “Europe talks to Europe”, held in Bratislava on 30 September, British writer and broadcaster Kenan Malik met Slovak journalist and politician Fero Sebej to discuss whether multiculturalism has reached its limits. The event was co-hosted by Eurozine, the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts and the journal Kritika & Kontext, in cooperation with the ERSTE Foundation.

A distinction needs to be made between multiculturalism as “lived experience” of diversity and multiculturalism as a political programme, began Malik. He defined multiculturalism as the “institutionalization of ethnic and cultural difference”, or “policy predicted on the ethnic box to which one belongs”. The opportunity to break out of these cultural and ethnic boxes and to enter into a dialogue about citizenship is precisely why diversity is to be welcomed, yet it is also the very thing that multiculturalism undermines. How did it end up this way?

The notion of multiculturalism is irrational, continued Malik: it posits a society in which cultures relate to one another externally, and where diversity ends at the edges of minority communities. Yet the idea that communities are internally homogenous is absurd. This is a fairly new development: being “black” in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s was a political rather than an ethnic-cultural identity. Back then there was no such thing as a “Muslim community”, which is a creation of multicultural policies.

Slovak society is not multicultural but multi-ethnic, said Fero Sebej: in terms of cultural patterns, religious faith or attitudes towards authority, nothing separates the ethnic Hungarian minority from the Slovak majority. Still, racism does exist, above all towards the Roma. The Roma, he said, must be encouraged to believe that the Slovak state is their state; Slovaks need to treat the Roma as “one of us”. Malik saw the problem being not so much that the Roma feel excluded from Slovak society, but that majority society sees them as a distinct group. Rather than giving them rights based on group affiliation, Roma should be treated as individual citizens.

The debate then moved to the question as to how far the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has thrown the multiculturalist approach into question. Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction to political corruption in Islamic nations, said Sebej: modernizing movements failed to provide their citizens with the fruits of modernity and instead developed into authoritarian-style regimes. The only place for resistance and opposition has been the mosque. Nevertheless, the decision to oppose modernity in the form of the West is a sign of weakness.

The fact that Islamic extremists cite the Koran in justification of their violent actions tells us nothing either about the Koran or about fundamentalists’ real motivations, added Malik. Fundamentalism tends to be seen as a “traditional” form of religion when in fact it breaks with tradition. Literalist interpretations of the scriptures — here Malik was talking as much about Christian fundamentalism as its Islamic counterpart — is a result of the fragmentation of religion and its institutions’ loss of authority. Meanwhile, global scandals like that over the Mohammed cartoons confers upon fundamentalists a spurious moral authority.

The dangers of free speech are exaggerated, he continued: the real threat is not Islamism, but the idea that it is morally wrong to give offence. The argument has become almost axiomatic that in a plural society we need a greater restraint of free speech in order to minimize friction and encourage respect. But it is because we live in plural society that we need the most robust defence of free speech possible. A ban on giving offence is wrong in principle: free speech becomes important only at the point at which it includes the right to express bigoted opinions. A ban is also wrong in practice: legislating against causing offence only forces hate speech underground. Racism and bigotry need to be out in the open in order to be confronted.

On the other hand, no law is necessary that would make threats to free speech illegal. Arguments in favour of “tolerating” the Swiss minaret ban are nonsense, according to Malik: if we stand up for freedom, we also stand up for the freedom of everybody, including the freedom of worship. Censorship always serves those in power, he reminded the audience, while it is the powerless that benefit from free speech.

Among the questions from the audience was one that referred to the recent Swedish election results, which saw the far-right Sweden Democrats enter parliament for the first time. The situation has brought to light the failure of “respectable” party politics to respond to xenophobic movements: they are either beyond the pale or incorporated — or both at once. Again, Malik located the crux of the problem in the discourse of multiculturalism itself, which turns racism into another form of diversity: the identity-oriented language of the far-Right is borrowed from multiculturalism. The Left is to blame for having developed a particularist approach, where certain values are seen to be more suitable for some than for others. We must regain the universalist aspirations of an Enlightenment-style public sphere, he concluded.

A full text based on the discussion will appear in Eurozine soon.

           — Hat tip: ESW [Return to headlines]



Refugees Flee the Tyranny of Social Workers

Cyprus has proved a haven for a family fleeing forced adoption, reports Christopher Booker.

There was a time when Britain took pride in offering a safe haven to the victims of tyrannies in other countries. Today we see this in reverse, with scores of families each year fleeing this country as the only way to escape a vicious system bent on seizing their newborn children for no good reason. Last week I heard two more such horror stories and this week I will relate the first, in which I am legally compelled to disguise the names.

Roger and Carol lived happily in Doncaster with their five-year-old daughter. One day last November they had a marital disagreement, involving no more than raised voices. They were overheard by a neighbour who called the police. The couple were arrested and held for nine hours before being released without charge. But the police had summoned the social workers to remove the child, who had not been harmed in any way other than hearing her parents having a row — as countless children do every day.

The social workers obtained an interim care order, on the grounds that the child was “at risk of emotional harm”, and gave her to Roger’s parents, both of whom have worked for the police. Relations were amicable, but the grandparents insisted on working closely with the social workers. The parents were only allowed contact with their daughter in a filthy little “contact room” in the local social services office. As is usual, the parents were told that if they showed any emotion their contact would be stopped. In February, under this strain, Carol had a miscarriage.

Last June, puzzled at why the interim care order had not been renewed as the law requires, Carol called the court. She was told that the order had lapsed three months earlier. When her husband confirmed this by a second call to the court, Carol drove to her in-laws’ home to explain that there was no longer any legal reason why her daughter could not be returned to her. Her mother-in-law protested, but the child was so overjoyed to go home that she ran to get into her mother’s car. The mother-in-law stood in front of the car but Carol reversed and drove off.

When her daughter said she was hungry, they stopped at a motorway service station. The grandmother had alerted the police, the car number was picked up by a camera and before long Carol (who was pregnant again) was arrested, handcuffed and pushed into a police van. At the police station, she collapsed and was taken to hospital. Next day she was driven back to Doncaster and interviewed four times. The police confirmed there was no care order in place but, to her astonishment, Carol was told she would be charged with assaulting her mother-in-law, although there had been no physical contact between them. She was released after midnight.

When the social workers applied for a new care order, the judge reproved their “slipshod work” but granted the order on the grounds that Carol had taken back her child “without thought”.

Before the next hearing, the parents’ solicitors advised them to undergo psychological assessments. The psychologist found nothing wrong with Carol, but Roger had “narcissistic personality traits”. They then underwent a second assessment, based on “true or false” responses to 170 statements (such as: “Last week I flew the Atlantic eight times”). This time, Roger was normal, but Carol showed “high probability of being a borderline alcoholic” — though she hardly ever drinks.

Eventually, the court ruled they could have no further contact with their child. In September, Carol was in court to face the assault charges. The magistrates found, by two to one, that though there was no direct evidence she had assaulted her mother-in-law, she had been “emotional” in court which indicated the “possibility” that she might have been similarly emotional during the confrontation. They therefore found her guilty, ordering her to return for sentencing in October.

Two days later, it transpired that the hospital she had visited for ante-natal tests had told the social workers she was pregnant. Her daughter’s guardian told her that, when the baby was born, the social workers would seize it. At this point, Carol decided she could take no more. “I had already lost one child,” she says. “I had suffered a miscarriage of justice. After all I had been through, there was no way I was going to lose another child.”

She did her homework on the internet, not least through the Forced Adoption website run by Ian Josephs, a businessman living in the south of France, where she read many stories similar to her own. She discovered that a possible escape route was Northern Cyprus, which has no extradition agreement with the UK.

Without telling her husband, she sold one of her cars to raise money for the journey, and travelled overnight in a coach down the motorway, passing the place where her daughter’s last sight of her mother had been of her being bundled into a police van. At Heathrow she waited hours for her plane, terrified she might be arrested. After 24 hours she arrived in Cyprus in the middle of the night, alone in an unknown land. But she had made it. The next day, being a resourceful woman, she began to find her feet, amazed at how friendly and helpful everyone was, including the authorities. Two days later, her husband flew out to join her.

Now, after a month, set up in a spacious villa, surrounded with friends, they cannot believe their good fortune. A scan in the efficient local hospital confirms that they can expect the birth of a healthy son. As they begin to build a new life, Carol told me last week: “We feel we have escaped from hell into heaven. The only thing that matters to us is that we have managed to protect our baby and future children from an outrageous, heartless business, built around treating children as a commodity. Any other family in our situation really needs to take heed and get out. I don’t feel proud to be a British citizen any more because of what happened to us.”

Meanwhile, back in Britain, The Sun and ITV’s This Morning were celebrating National Adoption Week by advertising a row of available children, complete with names and winsome pictures. What neither would be allowed to do, though, is to report how those children came to be parted from their parents. In some cases it may genuinely have been in the child’s interests. But in too many others the reality of how cruelly children in Britain can be snatched from loving parents might make The Sun’s readers very angry indeed.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

General


Al Qaeda’s Chief Bomb Maker Ibrahim Hassan Al-Asiri is Understood to be Planting Explosives in Gifts Bound for Britain, Europe and the US. They Would be Timed to Explode Once the Toys Are in Stores.

Intelligence chiefs believe Al Qaeda warlords in Yemen plan to smuggle in their deadly cargo aboard freight ships after airport security was tightened following the failed ink cartridge bomb attacks 10 days ago.

British surveillance experts in Afghanistan and their American colleagues uncovered the latest threat last week.

They intercepted conversations between terrorists from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group responsible for the ink bombs, revealing they were planning a spectacular hit for the festive season. Its leader, American- born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and his right-hand man al-Asiri are aiming to use sea ports because they believe security there is more relaxed.

With so much Christmas stock arriving in the UK, they are confident their toy bombs can remain undetected.

An MI5 officer told the Sunday Express: “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula see the festive season as their ideal time to strike because of its importance in the Christian calendar.

“The bombs found at East Midlands Airport and Dubai escaped scrutiny until the last moment. It would be much easier to plant a similar bomb inside a Christmas toy.”

The Metropolitan Police have plans to deal with terror attacks but a spokesman said yesterday: “We never discuss matters of security.”

Al Qaeda is rumoured to have control of at least 23 ships, nicknamed “Osama bin Laden’s navy”, registered in the names of companies that support the terror group. MI5 and MI6 agents fear the vessels could be used to ferry toys filled with the same powerful explosive used in the ink bombs and last year’s failed Christmas Day underpants bomb plot on an airliner.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]



The West is Turning Against Big Government — But What Comes Next?

The struggle to curtail the social democratic state could have ugly consequences, says Janet Daley.

There seems to be only one political argument of interest left in the Western democracies: how “big” should the state be, and what are the proper limits of its responsibilities? Abstract as it may sound, this question has had a quite startling impact on the everyday experience — and voting habits — of people in the most advanced countries of the world.

In the United States, the electorate’s considered answer to it has humiliated a president and swept an extraordinary number of neophytes — whose primary attraction was their loathing of government power — into the most powerful legislature in history. In Britain, it has become the dominant theme (in fact, the raison d’être) of a coalition between a Left-of-centre party and a Right-of-centre one, which has managed to achieve a remarkable degree of agreement on the need to reduce — or, at least, to examine rigorously — the role of government intervention in all areas of social life…

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Why Do Western Leaders Support Muslim Brotherhood?

The reign of terror of the Muslim brotherhood can only be described as a malignant cancer that threatens every corner of the globe. As most know, the MB evolved in Egypt in 1928. The chronology below details the growth and far reaching impact of the MB.

Today the MB is an outlawed radical sect in Egypt. The Mubarak Regime has over the last 29 years attempted to control and regulate this terror organization. In 2005, the Mubarak regime took their eye off the ball, and the MB infiltrated parliament under the guise of independents, gaining 88 seats. Here we are in 2010, and the Mubarak regime is working tirelessly to round up the MB.

Again we have elections on November 28, 2010, and the MB are again attempting to circumvent laws by running as independents. The MB is an identified terror organization that has sprouted many radical off shots all over the world. Their off spring include some of the most radical and fundamental Islamic terror groups in the world. More alarming is their affiliate branches in over 70 countries, that pose as moderate organizations, such as CAIR.

The irony been, whilst Mubarak is attempting to eradicate the “nucleus” of the MB, western leaders are working directly against him by accepting these organizations and repeating the same mistake Egypt initially made when dealing with the MB. It is true Mubarak has the benefit of understanding the mindset of the MB, and understands the MB can NOT be negotiated with. The MB are banned and outlawed in Egypt for this very reason.

The naive western leaders are pussy footing around with a volatile time bomb they know very little about. All western countries need to stop working against the Mubarak regime, The support of any group directly, indirectly, affiliated with the MB is undermining the Mubarak effort. The affiliates of the MB provide tremendous financial support to the MB in Egypt and guarantee their survival.

Western leaders that engage in any rhetoric with any associate of a terror organization MB, are betraying their own. The world needs Politicians such as Geert Wilders, Sarah Palin, Pamela Geller and Hosni Mubarak. These people have the fortitude, conviction, courage, determination and good will to pursue righteousness and oppose any off spring or affiliate associate with MB or any other Islamic sects.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101106

Financial Crisis
» Fed’s “War on Wealth” And the Risk of Default
 
USA
» Organized Crime’s Involvement in Government Health Care
» Personal Genomics Tests Prompt Lifestyle Changes
 
Europe and the EU
» Al-Qaeda Leader’s Tour of Britain ‘Radicalised a Generation of Young Muslims’
» France: I’ve Got a New Girlfriend, Mum. She’s Eight Years Older Than You… Her Name’s Madonna
» Germany: Psychedelic Berlin Art Show Hosts Live Reindeer, Canaries and Mice
» Italy: “I’ve Insulted Her, But I Didn’t Beat Her”
» Italy: Berlusconi ‘Worried Country Needs Him’
» Italy: Varese is Home to the First 3-D Porn Star
» Italy’s Influence on Pre-Raphaelites Charted
» Italy: Boar-Hunt Infiltrators Let Down by Accents
» Netherlands: Jewish Lobby: Palestine Lobby Hijacks Holocaust Memorial
» Scandinavia: US Embassy Under Suspicion
» Swedish Justice Minister Confirms US Surveillance
» UK: Ofsted Praises Islamic Schools Which Oppose Western Lifestyle
» UK: Top Charities Give £200,000 to Group Which Supported Al-Qaeda Cleric
 
Middle East
» Christians ‘On Verge of Extinction’ In Iraq, Muslim Leader Warns
» Iraq: Disgusting Silence on Church Bloodbath
 
Russia
» Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses Refuse Blood Transfusions: 18 People Die
 
South Asia
» India: Bomb-Proof Tunnel With Air Conditioning: Obama’s Security Go to Extraordinary Measures for His Tour of the Gandhi Museum
» Murderous Tactics Are Fueling Terrorist Propaganda
» Obama to Use Teleprompter for Hindi Speech
» Swedish Aid Agency Boosts Afghanistan Funds
» Women in Fear: Rape Cases Soar Across Pakistan
 
Immigration
» Swedish Minister ‘Tired’ of Refugees From Greece
 
Culture Wars
» Blacks Struggle With 72 Percent Unwed Mothers Rate
 
General
» Human Origins: It Began in Africa
» Lost Art of Critical Thinking

Financial Crisis


Fed’s “War on Wealth” And the Risk of Default

Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners, tells Accuracy in Media in an exclusive interview that the Federal Reserve plan to buy $600 billion of U.S. Government securities “borders on the criminal” because the impact will be the devaluation of the dollar by 20 percent and the destruction of $10 trillion of household net worth.

“Any potential benefit to GDP and incomes [from the Fed’s action] pales in comparison to the wealth loss (in real terms) and to the damage done to foreign investor confidence,” Ortel says.

Ortel, who has been critical of U.S. economic and monetary policy under President Obama, fears that “investors will run faster from the dollar and we may soon experience the sizeable pain that comes when foreign capital rushes for the door.

Ortel has publicly warned that the Obama Administration has been pursuing what amounts to “destructive” policies that endanger the American capitalist system through rising levels of government debt and spending. On CNBC, he first warned in May 2009 that the administration seems to be waging a “war on capitalism.” In February of this year he warned that there is a very real risk of a U.S. default on a total debt of over $50 trillion.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


Organized Crime’s Involvement in Government Health Care

During the intense debate regarding passage of ObamaCare by Democrat lawmakers, very little if any mention was made of the potential for organized crime to infiltrate the medical services industry and those companies involved with hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other enterprises ripe for crime groups to milk.

Even when the topic of health care fraud is addressed, most examples given are fraud and abuse cases perpetrated by individual health care workers, patients or government employees. Yet, for a number of years law enforcement officials experienced an upsurge in medical fraud cases involving crime syndicates.

For example, 73 suspects, including a number of alleged members and associates of an Armenian-American organized crime enterprise, were charged in indictments Wednesday in five judicial districts with various health care fraud-related crimes involving more than $163 million in fraudulent billing, according to a report obtained by the Organized Crime Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

In this national, multi-agency investigation, 52 suspects were nabbed by FBI agents in the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise. The suspects were immediately charged by the Department of Justice.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Personal Genomics Tests Prompt Lifestyle Changes

Could a small dose of genetic information cure complacency about weight loss and exercise? That’s the suggestion made by a new study of how information from “personal genomics” companies has influenced their customers.

David Kaufman of the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC quizzed 1048 customers who had ordered genome scans from Decode Genetics of Reykjavik, Iceland, 23andMe of Mountain View, California, or Navigenics, based in Foster City, California.

Asked about changes in their behaviour between two and six months after receiving the results, 34 per cent of respondents said they were being more careful about their diet, 14 per cent said they were doing more exercise, and 16 per cent had changed their medications or dietary supplements.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Al-Qaeda Leader’s Tour of Britain ‘Radicalised a Generation of Young Muslims’

Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that launched the recent parcel bomb attacks last week, had reportedly radicalised a generation of young Muslims during a “grand tour” of Britain.

According to the Telegraph, al-Awlaki was invited to speak to a number of groups across the country despite being a suspect in the September 11 attacks.

Security sources are concerned that Awlaki’s teachings became so widely acceptable that there are a number of Muslim disciples prepared to follow his advice and launch attacks in Britain.

Awlaki reportedly lectured for the Muslim Association of Britain, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), and the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE) based at East London Mosque.

He began a “grand tour” of Britain from London to Aberdeen as part of a campaign by the Muslim Association of Britain, in which one lecture was held in conjunction with the London School of Economics, Imperial College, King’s College and the School of Oriental and African Studies, all part of the University of London, the paper said.

Al-Awlaki was also a keynote speaker at the “ExpoIslamia” event held by the Islamic Forum Europe and appeared at an event at East London Mosque called “Stop Police Terror” in which he told his audience: “A Muslim is a brother of a Muslim, he does not oppress him, he does not betray him and he does not hand him over… You don’t hand over a Muslim to the enemies.”

During his stay in Britain, Awlaki was also reportedly working on ‘Constants in the Path of Jihad’, which he produced in 2005, a few months after being banned from the country.

Roshonara Choudhry, who was jailed for 15 years this week after trying to stab the MP Stephen Timms to death for his support of the Iraq war, had earlier admitted Awlaki’s preaching on YouTube influenced her to take such a step.

The paper quoted Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, an expert on Awlaki at the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College in London, as saying: “It would be no exaggeration to say that his reception was unprecedented — to this day almost no other foreign-based preacher has compared.”

He also said: “the official line, from many prominent individuals and organisations, was that Awlaki’s radicalisation had been an insidious process that had caught them unawares,” and added his views on violent jihad “would have been obvious to any regular consumer of his output.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



France: I’ve Got a New Girlfriend, Mum. She’s Eight Years Older Than You… Her Name’s Madonna

Frenchwoman Patricia Vidal said she received a phone call from her 24-year-old son Brahim Zaibat, a dancer working in New York.

‘I’ve got a new girlfriend,’ he said.

The mother of four was unperturbed when he mentioned an age gap of eight years.

‘You’ve always been mature for your age — it will be good to spend some time with a girl who’s a bit older than you,’ she said.

‘No,’ Zaibat replied. ‘She’s eight years older than you, Mum — and her name is Madonna.’

‘My mouth fell open when I realised that my son was Madonna’s new boyfriend,’ said 44-year-old Miss Vidal at her ninth-floor flat on a dingy council estate in Lyon. ‘It’s something I’m still trying to come to terms with.

‘Madonna was already a big star when I was a schoolgirl, let alone when Brahim was growing up. The whole situation is very strange indeed — surreal even.’

Zaibat met 52-year-old Madonna in September when he was dancing at the launch of her new line of clothes at Macy’s department store in New York. She invited him out and observers say it was love at first sight.

They have become regulars at the Sullivan Room, a dance club where they sit in the VIP area sharing bottles of Fiji mineral water. On a recent trip to London they were seen kissing and cuddling in a nightclub.

However the relationship is not without its obstacles. Zaibat’s English is far from fluent while Madonna does not speak a word of French. And, like his mother, Zaibat does not even like Madonna’s music very much.

Most importantly, he is a devout Muslim who — according to his mother — prays to Allah a number of times a day and shuns alcohol and cigarettes.

Those religious views contrast sharply with the hedonistic lifestyle personified by the Material Girl. Moreover, Madonna is a high-profile follower of Kabbalah, a variation of Judaism.

Miss Vidal — whose Algerian husband left her and their four children when Zaibat was still a young boy — explained: ‘This is certainly not the kind of thing Brahim was brought up to involve himself with.

‘Things didn’t work out between me and my husband, but Brahim was raised as a good Muslim. Brahim’s faith is hugely important to him, and has got him through some very difficult times.’

She continued: ‘I certainly wouldn’t say we’re overjoyed by Brahim’s relationship with a non-Muslim, and the fact that she’s Madonna doesn’t make things any easier.

‘The only other thing I’m prepared to say about all this is that I think it was Madonna who moved in on Brahim rather than the other way round. I think she’s very well known for this kind of thing.’

Madonna’s initial topic of conversation with Zaibat was apparently that she is a Leo — born in August 1958 — while he — born in September 1986 — is a Virgo. She said the two star signs were naturally suited.

He is said to get on well with Madonna’s precocious daughter, Lourdes, who at 13 is already a regular on the celebrity circuit. Zaibat is already calling her Lola — the nickname she prefers.

Miss Vidal said: ‘Brahim has younger siblings so he feels very happy in the company of younger people, including kids. I’m sure Madonna will appreciate this if Brahim is spending time with her children.’

Before Zaibat, Madonna dated another 24-year-old — Brazilian Jesus Luz.

Zaibat is aware of the relative financial security Luz gained from his relationship with Madonna, propelling himself from an impoverished wannabe to a £20,000-a-night DJ and Dolce & Gabbana model.

However he has told friends and family he has no interest in exploiting his relationship with the star.

He says his ultimate aim in life is to help children from similar underprivileged backgrounds. ‘I just want to get on with my life — for everything to be normal,’ he told the Daily Mail.

The phone calls home have continued despite his high-profile romance. Zaibat even spent a night back at the Lyon flat late last month.

‘He hadn’t changed a bit,’ his mother said, pointing proudly to the fact that Brahim slept in his childhood bed and watched TV with everybody, as he always did as a boy.

‘Nothing has changed him at all — as far as he is concerned he’s just got a new girlfriend and wants to enjoy himself.

‘He’s always been very shy when he’s not dancing, and will definitely not try to take advantage of his new status.

‘On the contrary, Brahim will do everything he can to keep a low profile, and to carry on working hard.’

It seems he is not planning to bring his new girlfriend home to meet his family in the near future.

‘No, I can’t see Madonna arriving here any time soon,’ added Miss Vidal. ‘She has given us quite a few surprises recently, but that really would be one too far.’

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]



Germany: Psychedelic Berlin Art Show Hosts Live Reindeer, Canaries and Mice

A fantastical exhibition by renowned artist Carsten Höller featuring live reindeer, canaries, mice and flies opened Friday at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum. “Soma” also offers the chance for a limited number of guests to overnight in a bed suspended above the animals for €1,000.

Höller’s exhibition directs the real-life quest to rediscover the ingredient of a mythical drink into the realm of art, the museum says.

The artist was inspired by a verse in the ancient Hindu text, the Rigveda, which reads: “We have drunk of the soma; we have become immortal, we have seen the light; we have found the Gods.”

In the 20th century, philologists, ethnologists and botanists have tried to identify the main ingredient of the enlightening beverage, the ingredients of which were lost over the years, the museum said in a statement.

But in 1968, American banker and hobby mycologist Gordon R. Wasson made the highly-disputed suggestion that the red and white poisonous fly Amanita mushroom may have been the ingredient, and that it may have been absorbed through the urine of reindeer, which eat the plant as part of their natural diet.

With this in mind, Belgian-born Höller, who studied agricultural sciences, has created a massive dual-sided “experiment.” Here 12 reindeer and other animals exist in two halves of the museum’s large hall — one side reflective of the “normal world,” and the other a scene from the psychedelic “realm of soma.”

“It’s about pondering,” he said on Wednesday.

The reindeer, brought to Berlin from Brandenburg’s Uckermark region, are reportedly relaxed and accustomed to human contact.

Other parts of the exhibition include mushroom sculptures and the limited possibility for visitors to spend the night alone in the museum with the live animals. Almost all of the available nights have already been purchased, the museum reported.

Each week the museum will hold a lottery drawing for one free overnight stay, though.

Stockholm-based Höller was born in 1961 in Brussels. He is best known for his 2006 work “Test Site” at London’s Tate Modern.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: “I’ve Insulted Her, But I Didn’t Beat Her”

A man has been charged with aggression against a thirteen-year-old girl at Dante Alighieri middle school. He has admitted having offended her for the colour of her skin, but he has denied slapping her and answers back: she kicked me in the groin.

“Can you see me? I’m a big guy, aren’t I?” The man stands up to show the way he looks. “Can you see these hands, they are big, aren’t they? I agree, they must belong to a hard worker.

“The report says that the young girl has got no days of recovery, doesn’t it? If I had slapped her for real, consequences would have been different, wouldn’t they?” Well, I don’t know. “It’s like I say, I haven’t beaten that girl.”

This is the beginning of the story told by Mr. Antonio, 45, the man who has been accused of beating a thirteen-year-old girl at the exit of Dante Alighieri middle school last Thursday. The man has been tracked down, the police headquarters have notified him of a warning, and the proceedings are in progress. He has agreed to tell his story to VareseNews.

Short biography of Mr. Antonio. He is 45, he was born in Enna but he has lived in Varese since he was 4, he is a truck driver, he wakes up every morning at 3 and he goes to work. A small complaint about threatening was lodged against him, but he swears he does not know anything about it. Three months ago, he bought a grey Kia Sportage, a really nice car that is not put in his name, though. Everything starts from there, from that car.

What happened that day?

“I arrived to school at 1:45pm, I parked the car in Via Morselli (in a no parking spot) facing the exit. Later on, four guys arrived and they stopped in front of me. They were kissing and cuddling in couples and they were scratching their backpacks on the bonnet of my car, the 30-thousand-euro car that I bought only three months ago. My wife told the guys to move from there.”

And then what?

“My daughter came out and I started the car. They heard me, they looked at me, but they wouldn’t get out of the way. Only later they moved on the side and the girl stood on our right side.”

Did you run her over or not?

“Well, I was a few inches from her. If I had run her over, she would have fallen down, but she was standing.”

You touched her with the bonnet though…

“I don’t know whether I touched her or not.”

Did the girl react?

“Yes, she told my wife ‘what the hell do you want?’.”

Well, she is a young girl, isn’t she?

“I got out of the car and I told her ‘would you move out of the way?’ and she kicked me in the b…”

Are you sure?

“Of course I am, she kicked me, at that point I pushed her, but with mychest, I had my hands in my pockets, I swear, she insulted me and she told me ‘f… old man, bastard’. Then I told her ‘f… nigger, go back to where you came from’.”

Why did you do it, Mr. Antonio. She is just a young girl, she is weaker, and then, why did you tell her those words?

“I don’t know how harmless a young girl can be…but I said those words because that is what I think. I can’t bear immigrants, even though I’m from the south. You can’t even imagine how many times I was told to leave. But, at least, I am Italian and I stay in my country, I don’t even go to Switzerland or to Germany.”

What do you mean? Not even for vacation?

“No, not even for vacation. It’s better to stay in our country where we have nice places.”

Why do you have it in for foreign people?

“Because they are ruining Italy. In my job, the foreign drivers are paid half of a regular wage, they sleep in the trucks and I earn 1300 euros instead of 2500 because of them.”

Are you racist?

“No, why would I be racist? I work with Pakistani and Senegalese people, too; we get along, as long as we keep a certain distance.”

All right, let’s forget about racism. You must agree with the fact that an adult that hits a little girl is not normal, right?

“I acted that way because of the big pain I felt between my legs after the kick.”

You said that your daughter was sitting in the car during the argument; don’t you think that you could have embarrassed her?

(He stops, he silently thinks over it) “I think so…”

Even if you did not slap her and you did not make her fall, as you affirm, don’t you think that probably you exaggerated a bit?

“Yeah, and what if they ruined my car?”

Maybe what happened is more serious, don’t you think?

“I don’t know. Anyway, I tell the truth, I always tell things the way they are.”

What did your wife say about it?

“She said that I was wrong, but she wasn’t kicked in the b…”

Translated by Federica Corio (Reviewed by Prof. Rob Clarke)info@ssml.va.it

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Berlusconi ‘Worried Country Needs Him’

Rome, 1 Nov. (AKI) — Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is worried Italy would suffer should he retire from from politics, according to interviews in a new book due to be published on Friday.

“It would cause serious harm to the centre-right and the whole country,” Berlusconi said in the book by Bruno Vespa, the host of Italy’s most-watched political talk show, ‘Porta Porta’.

“I am making a huge sacrifice, sometimes the effort this requires is inhuman… but I’m here out of a sense of responsibility,” he said.

“But I believe that if I were to retire now, I’d not be doing my duty and I would lose the esteem of the many Italians who trusted me,” the book quotes Berlusconi as saying.

Many opposition politicians has called for Berlusconi’s resignation over his links to a 17-year-old Moroccan girl and suspected thief whose release from police custody he personally ordered in May.

The girl, who is now 18, is due to be questioned by prosecutors in Milan who are probing a possible prostitution racket. Berlusconi’s relationship with the girl is unclear.

She was cited by several Italian newspapers as claiming she attended parties at Berlusconi’s villa in Arcore near Milan and took part in a sex game he called ‘Bunga Bunga’.

Last month, Berlusconi vowed to run in any snap election as his ruling coalition has come under mounting pressure from a series of scandals surrounding him and other politicians in his party. The coalition has also been weakened by Berlusconi’s split with a key political ally in July, the votes of whose faction he needs to command a parliamentary majority.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy: Varese is Home to the First 3-D Porn Star

Interview with Fiamma Monti, the 19-year-old star in the first Avatar-like hardcore film, coming out next winter. As a result of her decision, she had to leave the convent school where she was studying.

“I do porn, because I like it, and because I’ve chosen to do it.” Fiamma Monti is 19 years old, and she is from Varese; she refuses to say what her real name is, she prefers to use her stage name, for the time being. “This is an interview for a film, my private life is something else, it involves other people too.” The film in question is Casino 45, it is her first test as an actress; it is a hardcore porn film, the first 3-D porn film in Italy. Her performance has led to her being expelled from the convent school, where she was studying.

But let’s start at the beginning. The film is being produced by Pink’o, a well-established production company, one of the biggest in Europe in the porn sector, which supplies most of the specialised satellite channels. Casino 45 is a porn film with a historical setting, it is expensive, particularly because of the 3-D filming, like Avatar, for which a film camera that can cost as much as €20,000 an hour to hire. And Fiamma Monti, the new recent infatuation of Vittorio Sgarbi, is the leading actress, alongside Vittoria Risi.

Fiamma came to the editorial office for the interview, dressed entirely in dark colours, nothing exposed. “I always go around like this, there’s no need to show off,” she says, determined, but also somewhat bewildered. “I’m doing lots of interviews, everything has changed since the summer. This film has turned my life upside down.”

How did you get the leading role in Casino 45?

“I was talking to my boyfriend, last June, and we decided that I would have a go in this business. I produced a book, and then I sent it to a number of Internet sites, until one of them put me in contact with Pink’o. The filming was done in the summer. It’s now in the preparation stage, and should be ready in the winter.”

Did you expect to end up immediately in a large porn production?

“I didn’t want to make any front-room, amateur films. I was lucky. But no one told me what would happen, if I would be good. We were all surprised by the reaction; we didn’t think this film would be the atomic bomb it’s turning out to be. They’re talking about it everywhere, and the 6-minute trailer we presented in Berlin was a success.”

Because of this choice, you’ve been expelled from school …

“They didn’t expel me. The headmistress received an anonymous phone call, and then she called me into her office. She asked me if I was Fiamma Monti, and I said I was. They sent me away because of the ‘school’s moral ethics’. There was no fight over it, I respect the rules. If going around dressed in green is forbidden, so be it. I knew it would happen, it was a Catholic school, after all.”

Have you put an end to your studies?

“No, I’m studying privately. I want to get my high school diploma and then go to university.”

In which field?

“I don’t know yet. But maybe I’ll go after a break. I also want to work.”

In porn?

“Yes, this is my business now. I’ve already got an exclusive contract with Pink’o.”

But why does a 19-year-old girl choose to be a porn actress?

“The question is not why, but what I wanted to do. A lot of people my age have got no idea. But I had, I’d thought about it. I wanted to do this because it’s an area in which I can really be myself. Everyone’s got their talent, I wanted to be a porn actress. I didn’t try something else and then not succeed; I didn’t want to be a model or a cinema actress. This isn’t my second choice. I repeat, it’s what I wanted.”

Since when?

“Not since I was a little girl, I’m not crazy. I was curious. I now feel good in this role.”

What does it take to be a porn actress?

“You don’t have to be a size 38, or have a D cup. You need character. What you have to look forward to out there is a world of doubts. They want to see you break down at any time. If you’re convinced of what you’re doing and you like it, go ahead; that’s what I’m doing.”

Have you had any criticisms?

“Lots, but I’m not interested.”

Do your parents know about this work?

“There’ve been problems at home, they think this is a world of prostitutes, drugs and alcohol, but it’s not. And I’m proving it to them; I don’t take drugs, and I don’t have orgies. There’s that too, but just as there is in lots of other areas of work. What’s important is being able to separate, knowing where to stop.”

How does this situation make you feel?

“I don’t like it. My parents are the same as all the others. They let themselves be influenced. But I’ll always keep up a dialogue with them, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’ll wait for them, that’s all. I hope they’ll understand.”

And what about your friends?

“My real friends are still around. There are to girls and one boy who are really close friends; they don’t say, they do. They help me in everything and they support me without any fuss. And I’m very grateful to them for this.”

Was Casino 45 the first time you had sex in front of a film camera?

“Yes. But it was my first time in front of a film camera.”

What was it like?

“I didn’t have any experience of life on the set. There was a lot of anxiety; they explained to me that it was also because of the 3-D, no one had ever done it before. Then, when you do a sex scene, you don’t think about the camera or about the people around you.”

Were you embarrassed?

“I’m usually more embarrassed talking about the scene than doing it.”

Have you seen yourself again since the filming?

“I still haven’t seen the film, I only saw the trailer in Berlin. I was very embarrassed before seeing it, but when I did, I thought I was very beautiful. It’s not vulgar; even though it’s fiction, it looks very natural.”

What do you expect now?

“I didn’t even expect what’s happened over these months. I haven’t got any particular dreams, I just wanted to be a porn star. Now I’ve got hundreds of invitations to evening events, but I still haven’t answered any, I don’t want to burn out.”

Before leaving, Fiamma asks when the article will be published, she is curious. And she is determined to put her profile on Facebook again. “They’ve already closed it down twice because they received reports. But I’m hardly going to put porn pictures up. There’s just me in a bra and pants, like so many other girls on Facebook.”

3Manuel Sgarellamanuel.sgarella@varesenews.it

Translated by Prof. Rolf Cookinfo@ssml.va.it

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy’s Influence on Pre-Raphaelites Charted

Ruskin, Rossetti, Hunt, Burne-Jones in Oxford show

(ANSA) — Oxford, November 1 — The impact of Italy, its culture and history on Britain’s influential 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite movement is explored in a new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in the English city of Oxford. ‘The Pre-Raphaelites and Italy’, on display in the museum’s brand-new exhibition centre, brings together 140 artworks by John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and Edward Burne-Jones among others. Developed in collaboration with the Ravenna Art Museum, the exhibition seeks to cast light on how the movement’s leading artists were inspired by Italy.

The Mediterranean country’s art, landscape, architecture and history all played a critical role in their efforts to encourage British painting in a more personal and emotional direction.

Perhaps surprisingly, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the son of an Italian scholar, never visited the country, despite his family background. He grew up speaking Italian however, and was particularly inspired by Dante’s writings, for which he completed a series of exquisite watercolours and paintings illustrating key episodes of the Divine Comedy.

For Rossetti, Italy remained a fantastical land, evoked through the words of Dante and the art of giants such as Giotto, Fra Angelico and Giorgione with whom he was fascinated. Edward Burne-Jones was another leading light in the movement, who never visited Italy but who was entranced by its history, particularly the struggle between Florence’s Guelph and Ghibelline factions, and created an intricately detailed representation of the wedding that sparked the conflict. John Ruskin, on the other hand, was a regular and committed visitor to the country. Shocked by the number of monuments and buildings falling into decay there, he encouraged his followers to catalogue Italy’s artistic beauties in as much detail as possible before they vanished permanently. Founded in the second half of the 1800s, the Pre-Raphaelites sought to break with the artistic convention of their day, urging a revival of spontaneity and passion for nature, which they believed had been lost during the Mannerist revolution sparked by High Renaissance artists like Raphael and Michelangelo.

The Pre-Raphaelites were fascinated by the brilliant colours, attention to natural detail, extreme simplicity and intensity of expression in Italian medieval art.

During its early years, the movement focused on medieval and pre-Renaissance styles but by the end of the 1850s, Pre-Raphaelite interest had expanded to include 15th-century paintings, particularly the work of Venetian artists.

The exhibition, which arrives in Oxford after a successful run in Ravenna, includes a number of the movement’s most popular works.

Among these are Rossetti’s idealization of female beauty in Monna Vanna (1866) on loan from the Tate, Burne-Jones’s richly coloured Music (1877), part of the Ashmolean’s own collection, and Holman Hunt’s almost magical depiction of Florence’s Ponte Vecchio bridge (1867), on loan from the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Pre-Raphaelites And Italy runs at the Ashmolean until December 5.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Boar-Hunt Infiltrators Let Down by Accents

Northerners in Tuscany betrayed by ‘weird’ speech

(ANSA) — Trento, October 27 — Hunters from the German-speaking region of Trentino were betrayed by their heavily accented Italian after two years of illegally shooting boar in Tuscany, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

The 48 hunters were each fined 2,000 euros for breaking a law that limits hunting to the region of residence, the Il Trentino daily said.

The northerners had been joining hunting parties in the Maremma game parks of southern Tuscany since 2008 when local hunters finally noticed their “weird” accents, the daily said.

The Tuscans reported the intruders to the Maremma wildlife rangers who examined their licences and brought them to book.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Jewish Lobby: Palestine Lobby Hijacks Holocaust Memorial

AMSTERDAM, 06/11/10 — The Central Jewish Consulting body (CJO) is revolting against Nederland Bekent Kleur (Netherlands admits colour). This ‘anti-racist organisation’ has hijacked the Holocaust theme to show off dubious political ideas and an anti-Israel lobby, CJO suggests.

Nederland Bekent Kleur regularly organises meetings and demonstrations of leftwing activists. They say they fight against racism, but are seen by some as a pro-Palestinian lobby with anti-Semitic inclinations. During demonstrations of Nederland Bekent Kleur, slogans like “Hamas, gas the Jews” can regularly be heard and sometimes Israeli flags are burned.

Ironically, Nederland Bekent Kleur also holds an annual memorial of Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938, when the Nazis vandalised Jewish shops and more or less started the Holocaust. The CJO says it can no longer accept “the Jewish persecution being misused by organisations and persons for their own political agenda.”

CJO will from next year itself commemorate Kristallnacht annually in Amsterdam, in order to offer a counterbalance to the commemorations that Nederland Bekent Kleur has held since 1992. Up to now, the CJO has only held a commemoration once every five years.

According to CJO, the commemoration of Nederland Bekent Kleur is “politicised to a high degree.” For example, on the website of the International Socialists, an affiliated organisation, an announcement of the commemoration is next to a poster calling on a boycott of Israel.

Nederland Bekent Kleur is led by Rene Danen. He is also a member of the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks). Party leader Femke Halsema last week indicated that she would not be sorry if he would resign from the party.

Halsema also suggested she wanted to get rid of Danen’s fellow-activist Mohamed Rabbae. He resigned from the party himself on Thursday. Rabbae, who is chairman of the National Council of Moroccans, was a GroenLinks MP and co-leader of the party in the 1990s.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Scandinavia: US Embassy Under Suspicion

A US memo shows that American embassies must monitor suspicious people in the vicinity of their properties.

Justice Minister Lars Barfod has been called into Parliamentary Council following reports that a secret American data collection unit has been collating information on suspicious people in Norway, with fears that the same activity may be taking place in Denmark.

The Security Incident Management Analysis System (SIMAS) calls for extensive intelligence gathering on local human and vehicle activities in the vicinity of American properties abroad in order to counter possible or potential threats.

While a State Department official in Washington says that the activity has taken place with the full knowledge of local authorities, that does not appear to be the case in Norway. Both the former and current justice ministers in Norway have said they have been unaware that a 15-20 person Surveillance Detection Unit has been monitoring for SIMAS in the Norwegian capital for a decade.

It remains unclear whether the Norwegian Intelligence Service has been aware of the activity, although two previous heads of security, dating up to 2009, have said they were ‘surprised’ at the disclosures and had been unaware of what was going on.

Following the disclosures in Norway, Danish legal experts tell Politiken that a similar activity in Denmark would be illegal, although it remains unclear as to whether Danish consent has been sought and received and by whom.

“If something like this has taken place at an embassy in Denmark, that would be illegal intelligence activity,” says Criminal Law Professor Jørn Vestergaard, adding that the activity would be a breach of diplomatic rules.

Another legal expert, Professor Jens Vedsted, a former member of the Intelligence and Security Commissions, agrees; “If this has taken place without the consent of the Danish authorities, it is illegal.”

Former Head of the Danish Intelligence and Security Service (PET) Jørgen Bonnichsen says he is amazed.

“I have never heard of SIMAS. And if it’s true then it is clearly illegal intelligence activity in Denmark. PET, and only PET is allowed to operate on Danish soil,” Bonnichsen says.

The current head of PET Jakob Scharf has not wanted to comment on the issue but says in an e-mail that on principle his service does not comment on foreign embassy activities in Denmark, but: “If PET discovers illegal activities, we would of course take action”.

The Justice Ministry has not yet been able to disclose whether the US Embassy has been given permission to register Danish nationals in Denmark. The US Embassy has not wished to comment on the issue.

           — Hat tip: Esther [Return to headlines]



Swedish Justice Minister Confirms US Surveillance

Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told a press conference in Stockholm on Saturday that the US Embassy in Sweden has undertaken similar surveillance measures such as those that have taken place in Norway in the last 10 years.

“We accept that countries with a higher security risk undertake their own measures to reduce the risk of attacks,” said Ask.

She noted that this type of monitoring, such as photographing, has occurred in Norway and Sweden. However, she did not know whether this kind of surveillance was illegal under Swedish law, saying that it is something that must be examined by prosecutors.

“I assume that the US authorities will provide assistance about the activities that were carried out,” said Ask.

She added that Sweden’s Department of Justice was not previously aware of the surveillance and that she did not know the extent of it, adding that she has not been in contact with the US embassy because the issue is out of her jurisdction.

“This is a question for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to manage,” she said.

For the past 10 years, the US has monitored Norwegian residents from Norwegian soil. The Surveillance Detection Unit (SDU) group operated from secret premises. Several of those employed to spy on Norwegian residents were former Norwegian security police.

Suspicious individuals were registered and photographed and the data was forwarded to the US embassy in Oslo, which analysed and added them its SIMAS (Security Incident Management Analysis System) database.

According to a news report by Norway’s TV2 on Thursday, hundreds of Norwegians are registered in the database. The report also alleged that there are SDU units containing similar data at all American embassies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Ofsted Praises Islamic Schools Which Oppose Western Lifestyle

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has established that the education watchdog has published positive reports praising Muslim schools for their contribution to community cohesion — even in the case of a school which openly states that Muslims “oppose the lifestyle of the West”.

The Ofsted inspector responsible for many of the reports, Michele Messaoudi, has been accused of having links to radical Islamist organisations.

This newspaper can reveal that another recent Ofsted inspector, Akram Khan-Cheema, is the chief executive of a radical Muslim educational foundation, IBERR.

Its website describes Islamic schools as “one of the most important factors which protect Muslim children from the onslaught of Euro-centrism, homosexuality, racism, and secular traditions”.

Ofsted has also passed the inspection of dozens of Muslim schools to a new private “faith schools watchdog”, the Bridge Schools Inspectorate, which is co-controlled by Islamic schools’ own lobbying and trade body, the Association of Muslim Schools.

The Bridge Schools Inspectorate allows Muslim head teachers to inspect each other’s schools.

Among the schools directly inspected by Ofsted was the Madani Girls’ School, a private Islamic school in London’s East End.

Its Ofsted report, written by Mrs Messaoudi, said it made pupils “aware of their future role as proactive young British Muslim women” and left them “well-prepared for life in a multicultural society”.

However, the Madani Girls’ School’s own website openly states: “If we oppose the lifestyle of the West, then it does not seem sensible that the teachers and the system which represents that lifestyle should educate our children.”

It says that under western education “our children will distance themselves from Islam until there is nothing left but their beautiful names”.

Last month, this newspaper revealed how girls at the school were being forced to wear the Islamic veil, a fact that was not mentioned in its 2008 Ofsted report. The Madani School declined to comment last night.

Ofsted also inspected the Tawhid Boys’ School in Hackney, north London. Its Ofsted report, written by Mrs Messaoudi, said the curriculum was “good … broad and balanced in Key Stages 2 and 3”.

However, the school’s prospectus says that the curriculum is kept strictly “within the bounds of Sharia [Islamic law].” Its art syllabus bans pupils from drawing human beings, animals and objects that Islam deems “unlawful”. The school did not return calls.

Mrs Messaoudi also wrote the Ofsted report cited by Ed Balls, the then schools secretary, as “clearing” schools run by supporters of the racist, extremist sect Hizb ut Tahrir.

The schools, the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation establishments in Haringey, north London, and Slough, Berks, received more than £113,000 of public funding and became the subject of national controversy after being exposed inThe Sunday Telegraph.

One of the Foundation’s trustees, Farah Ahmed, who is also headmistress of the Slough school, wrote a chapter in a Hizb ut Tahrir pamphlet attacking the National Curriculum for its “systematic indoctrination” of Muslim children “to build model British citizens”.

She criticised “attempts to integrate Muslim children” into British society as an effort “to produce new generations that reject Islam”.

She described English as “one of the most damaging subjects” a school can teach and attacked fairy tales, saying that these “reflect secular and immoral beliefs that contradict the viewpoint of Islam”.

She also attacked the “obvious dangers” of Shakespeare, including “Romeo and Juliet, which advocates disobeying parents and premarital relations”.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Top Charities Give £200,000 to Group Which Supported Al-Qaeda Cleric

Cageprisoners, a self-styled human rights organisation, has a long association with Anwar al-Awlaki, who was last week accused of being one of the figures behind the terrorist plot to blow up cargo planes which saw a powerful device defused at East Midlands Airport.

The Islamic preacher, based in Yemen, was inThe group has now told its backers that it no longer supports the cleric and that it “disagreed” with him over “the killing of civilians”.

But an examination of the Cageprisoners website last week suggested that its support for the cleric was as strong as ever.

Cageprisoners was set up to lobby on behalf of terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and those monitored under control orders in the UK.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that it is being funded by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, a Quaker-run fund set up by the chocolate-maker and philanthropist a century ago, and The Roddick Foundation, a charity set up by the family of Anita Roddick, the Body Shop founder, after her death three years ago.

The Joseph Rowntree Trust is giving Cageprisoners £170,000 in donations over three years — with the latest payment due this month — and The Roddick Foundation another £25,000.

In its website, recently re-branded with some of the charities’ cash, Cageprisoners carries more than 20 articles about al-Awlaki, describing him as an ‘inspiration’ and casting doubt on the evidence he is involved in terrorism.

Awlaki is believed by Western intelligence services to be an ideological figurehead of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group blamed for the cargo bombs. Last year he praised the Muslim US soldier who killed 13 colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas.

Yet despite the heads of both MI5 and MI6 saying Awlaki uses the internet to foment terrorism, the Cageprisoners website also contains video messages from the American-born radical.

Cageprisoners — a not for profit company — is headed by Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, and also employs Feroz Ali Abbasi, another detainee freed from the controversial US base.

As recently as last month its website highlighted claims by Yemeni politicians that they had “never been given evidence against [Awlaki]”.

Earlier in the year one leading activist wrote: “Anwar al-Awlaki’s contribution to Cageprisoners has always been positive, particularly when invited to our events he has only spoken from his experiences as a former prisoner.”

Mr Begg, born in Birmingham, was detained by the Americans for nearly three years after being arrested in Pakistan and accused of being an al-Qaeda terrorist.

He has interviewed al-Awlaki, and earlier this year he wrote that it “was evident that he commanded a large following and great respect amongst many Muslims”.

But Mr Begg added that, after Awlaki’s alleged torture while held in Yemen in 2006, “I am told, Anwar’s position on issues pertaining to the US foreign policy had started to become more hostile…

“I wonder if it was terribly surprising if … after suffering abuse I know only too well US agents to be capable of, [he] now allegedly lauds the Fort Hood shootings as deeds of heroism.”

Other articles on the Cageprisoners website raise further questions.

One, on the death of Faraj Hassan, a former control order detainee, said he had died with a smile on his face “similar to the smiles we are used to seeing in videos of those martyred in the way of Allah while fighting in foreign war zones”.

Hassan, a Libyan who was accused of an attempted church bombing in Italy, was killed in a road crash in August. The Cageprisoners article added: ‘His death … may serve as the fertilizer that serves to revive the spirit of jihad in the Muslims of Britain.”

Despite the group’s views, it is still being provided with money by the Joseph Rowntree charity, to help with its “core costs”, and by the Roddick Foundation, which is run by the late businesswoman’s widower Gordon and other members of her family.

Cageprisoners has also received the backing of Amnesty International, which last year faced a public row when one of its staff was forced to quit after calling Amnesty’s links to Cageprisoners “a gross error of judgement”.

Cageprisoners also received a further £131,000 in donations last year from other undisclosed sources. It has used the money to pay for a rapid expansion of its work.

It now has three full-time and one part-time staff members who are paid a total of £64,000 a year.

The group has recently moved to a new office in Camden, north London, which is, it says, “important for our clients who now have a safe place to come in order to feel safe and speak about their problems”.

Last night Stephen Pittman, Secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Trust, defended his charity’s funding of the group. He said: “I’ve recently spoken to Cageprisoners and I have had a commitment that they are completely opposed to any form of the use of terrorism aimed at civilians.

“They are completely committed to the upholding of human rights standards … [and] have distanced themselves from this man [al-Awlaki].

“Cageprisoners has now stated that it is not supportive of anything al-Awlaki is saying relating to the use of violence.

“We have got a Muslim community in Britain which feels highly alienated and the people who in our view are able to build bridges and make links to those young Muslims are people like Moazzam Begg and Cageprisoners.”

The Roddick Foundation could not be contacted for comment.

Last week, Mr Begg said: “Our position is that we campaigned for him when he was a detainee and we now campaign against him being targeted for extra judicial killing — assassination — by the Americans. But we are also strongly against his calls for the targeting of civilians.”

It has also become clear that Awlaki has enjoyed the backing of another prominent British Muslim leader.

As recently as last month, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the former head of the Muslim Council of Britain, defended a decision to host Awlaki at the East London Mosque, of which he is chairman, as an act of “fairness and justice.”

In a letter obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Bari said that claims made about Awlaki at the time had been “misleading,” unsubstantiated and had been “categorically refuted” by the radical preacher.

Awlaki spoke at the mosque — Britain’s largest, which presents itself as a beacon of moderation and tolerance — last year.

The event, a video address and live telephone question-and-answer session, was advertised with a poster showing New York under bombardment.

The mosque claimed at the time that “none of the speakers involved [were] banned from entering the UK or convicted of any hate crimes”.

It later insisted that “there was no credible evidence at the time of the event that Awlaki might be an extremist”.

In fact, Awlaki was reportedly banned from the UK for his extremist links as early as 2006. In October 2008, more than two months before the event at the East London Mosque, Awlaki was described by Charles Allen, the US under-secretary for intelligence, as the “spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers”, an “al-Qaeda supporter” and “an example of al-Qaeda reach into the [US] homeland”.

Dr Bari’s latest comments on Awlaki come in a letter last month to Paul Goodman, the former Conservative MP.

Describing the event, Dr Bari says in his letter that “back then, we were faced with claims from a newspaper that it could not substantiate; categorical refutations from the subject of their attack; and just a few days to consider an external booking of our facilities.”

He says: “Instead of over-reacting and taking the easy way out [cancelling the meeting], we acted out of fairness and justice — British values that the Conservative Party has recently put back on the agenda.”

Dr Bari says that he has now condemned Awlaki after “more evidence of his extremism emerged”. He insists that his mosque firmly bars extremist speakers.

However, his spokesman continued to defend the Awlaki booking this week, saying that some of what has been reported about Awlaki was “not correct.”

Mr Goodman said last night: “Dr Bari’s conduct in this affair is extremely curious. Any reasonable person will conclude that the East London Mosque is either unwilling, or unable, to tackle extremism rigorously.”

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that British counter-terrorism chiefs believe AQAP will launch another attack against the UK within six months.

The Government has been told that the most likely avenue of attack will be the targeting of airlines from groups based abroad, but a home-grown plot has not be ruled out.

Intelligence sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that AQAP is “vying” to become the most prominent al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group following the foiled attack nine days ago.

Sources have also revealed that Britain would be prepared to send special forces to assist the Yemeni government to hunt down members of the Islamist organisation if requested to do so.

Britain already has a small detachment of military counter-terrorism specialists involved in training members of the Yemeni Army but they are under orders not to get involved in military operations against terrorist groups. vited to address two Cageprisoners’ fundraising dinners via video link, one last year and one in 2008.

[DF — The Joseph Rowntree Foundation giving money to terrorist sympathisers, unbelievable!]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Christians ‘On Verge of Extinction’ In Iraq, Muslim Leader Warns

A Muslim leader is calling on the Iraqi government and US-led forces to step up their efforts to protect the Christian minority in Iraq from extinction.

Navaid Hamid, Secretary of the South Asian Council for Minorities (SACM) and a Muslim, said the deadly attack last weekend on a church in Baghdad was a heinous crime that should be strongly condemned by the international community.

“With the murderous attack, the safety of Iraq’s Christian minority has become critical and it is the prime responsibility not only of the regime in Baghdad but also that of the allied forces led by [the] US to restore confidence and provide safety because never in the history of Iraq, minorities were so vulnerable [sic],” he said.

Around 58 people are believed to have died when al-Qaeda linked militants stormed the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad and opened fire on the congregation.

Hamid said Christians in Iraq were “paying a high price” for their faith and living in fear because of the “unprecedented” levels of violence against them.

“It is a fact that they are on the verge of extinction in Iraq,” he said.

An estimated 400,000 Christians have left Iraq and sought asylum in the US and Europe because of the persecution they face in Iraq.

The biggest victims of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Hamid said, were its minorities.

“[They] have become easy target [sic] for terrorist attacks in their own country,” he said.

Earlier this week, Christian and Muslim leaders issued a joint statement condemning the attack on the church in Baghdad. Signatories of the letter included Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan and representatives of the World Council of Churches.

They said the attack was an “inhumane” act that “contradicts all religious teachings and Middle Eastern culture that enabled people to coexist for many centuries”.

They called on the UN Security Council and Iraqi officials to put an end to terrorist attacks “aimed at degrading Iraqi people … and defiling Christian and Islamic sacred places”.

The Islamic State of Iraq, the group which claimed responsibility for the attack, has threatened to continue targeting Christians. It says it attacked the church in retaliation for the supposed detention of two women converts to Islam by the Coptic Church in Egypt.

According to the Associated Press, the Church’s head, Pope Shenouda III, said God had turned the attack to good by creating sympathy for his church.

Christians who turned up to St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo for Wednesday’s service were made to pass through metal detectors before being allowed in. news.oneindia.in/2010/11/06/alqaeda-leaders-tour-of-britain-radicalised-ageneration.html Addressing the congregation, Shenouda said: “God either prevents evil or turns it to good. Affirming that everything turns to good, the message that reached us brought sympathy for us from the Noble Al-Azhar [a revered institution of higher learning in Egypt] and from many writers and journalists and the interior ministry and police.”

In Iraq, armed security guards have been placed outside some churches after last Sunday’s attack.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Iraq: Disgusting Silence on Church Bloodbath

The non-Muslim world is increasingly not surprised and unmoved by the depravity of Muslim jihadis committing outrage, one after another without end in sight, and what can only be explained, unsatisfactorily, as a pathological wish to cause pain to the living by random acts of terrorist violence.

The murderous attack on the church in central Baghdad last Sunday by Muslim terrorists, if we go with the news reports, was merely another not unusual blood-soaked event in the daily cycle of news from Muslim countries.

But if such an atrocity was not just another criminal event in a “normal” day across the Arab-Muslim world, then we should have heard of a special meeting being called at the UN, or in one of the capitals of member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to express outrage against those who killed innocent worshippers inside Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad.

We then should have heard of Muslim political and religious leaders expressing their grief over the dead and wounded — there were some 120 Iraqi Christians in attendance at the Sunday evening mass when Muslim terrorists attacked the church and left 58 dead with only a dozen escaping unhurt.

Instead, we have deathly silence of the Muslim leadership as non-Muslim minorities inside the Arab-Muslim world are routinely abused, their homes and places of worship under daily duress, and their hearts filled with fear of violent death in the hands of Muslim jihadis.

The silence signifies the abdication of any responsibility by governments of the Arab-Muslim world to protect non-Muslims in their countries, and severely punish those who target them.

Then there is the ignoble silence of Muslims here in Canada, and across the West, over the repeated atrocities committed against non-Muslim minorities in places like Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, or Sudan.

This silence of Muslim minorities in the West is even more despicable than that of Arab-Muslim governments. It reveals how little they understand, or respect, the political culture of societies where they have made their homes.

On the contrary, there is shrill denunciation by Muslim governments, and organizations representing Muslim minorities in the West, of the manufactured problem of “Islamophobia.”

Earlier this year the UN human rights council passed a resolution on “combating defamation of religions” with particular reference to Islam.

The resolution, pushed by the OIC members, denounced anti-Muslim discrimination in the West following 9/11. It also expressed deep concerns in respect to Islam “frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violation and terrorism.”

The gap between the resolution lobbied for by the OIC and the silence of its members over atrocities committed against non-Muslim minorities inside the House of Islam (dar al-Islam) illustrate the perversity of Muslim political-religious leaders.

Similar is the perversity of Muslim organizations in Canada and the West remaining silent in the face of outrageous crimes and defamation of religions by jihadis, while condemning Islamophobia where it is more or less non-existent.

The simple truth is Muslims are among the worst perpetrators of crimes against non-Muslims, and penalties based on obsolete jurisprudence of Shariah implemented in Muslim states violate the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights, to which they are signatories.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Russia


Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses Refuse Blood Transfusions: 18 People Die

A Russian newspaper reports that the community opposition to blood transfusions has killed 18 people, including eight children. Two investigations opened in Kogalym and Moscow.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — The refusal of blood transfusions by Jehovah’s Witnesses has killed 18 people, including eight children. This is the accusation against the religious community, for years the object of persecution and discrimination in Russia, that appeared on the pages of Komsomolskaya Pravda. The newspaper, the most widely read in the Federation, tells the story of of these deaths. According to the newspaper, the authorities have already opened investigations into the death of two children: one in Kogalym the other in Moscow.

The mother of the boy who died in Kogalym has declared her innocence. “I just wanted to better care for my son! — she told the Russian newspaper — I told the doctors that blood is not a drug that people get infected by blood. “

The woman could face at most one year in prison, but more likely will be punished by a fine.

After opening the case to Kogalym, the prosecutor’s office has ordered a search of the local community of Jehovah’s Witnesses, during which banned books were confiscated: the organization is accused of being an “extremist sect “having” having an unfriendly attitude towards other churches, “of refusing military service”, although the Constitution allows the alternative civilian service.

For years, Jehovah’s Witnesses report being subject to persecution similar to that of Stalin. Several Russian courts have banned many of their publications and outlawed their activities (See AsiaNews.it, 17/09/2009, “Court in Rostov bans Jehovah’s Witnesses for being religious extremists” and 05/10/2009, “Altai court condemns Jehovah’s Witnesses for “extremism”). Assaults and vandalism against the community are becoming more frequent. The organization is also accused of “the violation of the rights of non-believers” through “attempts to enter their homes to preach and perform intrusive activities of evangelization.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

South Asia


India: Bomb-Proof Tunnel With Air Conditioning: Obama’s Security Go to Extraordinary Measures for His Tour of the Gandhi Museum

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle arrived in India’s commercial hub of Mumbai on Saturday, days after voters punished his Democrats in mid-term elections.

Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.

While lesser mortals — the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and so on — are usually happy to let their hosts handle most of the security and transport arrangements when they venture beyond their home shores, the United States creates a mini-America on the move to ensure that nothing is left to chance.

Obama arrives in India at the start of a ten-day tour of Asia. At the heart of the White House caravan is ‘The Beast’, a gigantic, ‘pimped-up’ General Motors Cadillac which security experts say is, short of an actual battle tank, probably the safest road vehicle on the planet.

But an outlandish car is only the start. Mr Obama will fly, of course, on Air Force One, the presidential private jumbo jet, which, boasting double beds and suites, is fitted out more like a luxury yacht. Some reports suggest it costs around $50,000 (£31,000) an hour to operate.

Of course threats can come from any direction, so a squadron of U.S. naval ships will patrol offshore. Some reports have claimed that 34 ships, including two aircraft carriers, will be involved (not far off the size of the Royal Navy’s entire Surface Fleet) but the White House has denied this.

On land, as well as The Beast, Mr Obama’s entourage will travel in a fleet of 45 U.S.-built armoured limousines, half of which will be decoys. He will also travel with 30 elite sniffer dogs, mostly German Shepherds.

The White House has, according to some reports, booked the entire Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, the city’s most luxurious. It is not uncommon for the grander heads of state to reserve a floor or two, but a whole hotel is unprecedented. This hotel was the main target of the 2008 attacks by Pakistani militants which left 166 dead.

As to the cost of all this, the White House will not reveal details — which has allowed Mr Obama’s political foes to bandy about sums including a widely-quoted $200million (£123million) a day. Whatever the figure, it makes the costs associated with the Royal Train and the late Royal Yacht Britannia seem like small change.

It is also reported that a bomb-proof tunnel will be erected for Mr Obama ahead of his visit to Mani Bhavan — the Gandhi museum — on Saturday.

According to Daily News & Analysis, U.S. secret service agents visited the museum on Monday to plan Mr Obama’s security during his tour.

They were accompanied by Mumbai Police officers and civic officials of the D ward where Mani Bhavan is located.

While they were inspecting the route and the buildings lining the path to the museum, U.S. security officers noticed a nearby skyscraper in the highly populated area that could pose a threat.

To the amazement of the Indians accompanying the U.S. agents, it was apparently decided to erect a bomb-proof over-ground tunnel, which will be installed by U.S. military engineers in just an hour.

The kilometre-long tunnel will measure 12ft by 12ft and will have air-conditioning, close-circuit television cameras, and will be heavily guarded at every point.

It’s being built so it is large enough for Mr Obama’s cavalcade to pass through and will be manned at its entry and exit points.

The material that the tunnel would be made of has not been released but officials said that the structure would be dismantled immediately after Mr Obama and his party leaves the area.

Meanwhile the furore over reports that his Asia trip is going to cost taxpayers $200million a day has been dismissed by the Obama administration who called the figure ‘wildly inflated’.

Last week an Indian government source told the NDTV channel: ‘The huge amount of around $200million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit.’

The claim was immediately seized upon by talk show hosts and rights wing politicians who relished the opportunity to rub salt into Mr Obama’s wounds saying the trip was a waste of government funds during the country’s recession.

But the White House have refused to reveal the true cost of the three-day trip to Mumbai and Delhi.

‘The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality’, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

He added: ‘Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it’s safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated’.

The White House have said these claims are exaggerated but with any presidential trip, Mr Obama travels with a large number of staff and security detail includes his own aircraft and fleet of secure vehicles.

There will also be tens of thousands of Indian police and members of the military protecting the US delegation.

Secret Service agents travelled to India last week to address security concerns at locations the president is likely to visit.

Mr Obama will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China as part of a 10-day state tour of Asia.

The trip has sparked some criticism in the U.S., which is battling high unemployment and stagnant economic growth.

Mr Obama will spend three days in India, and will also visit New Delhi.

The White House will be hoping to secure more than $10 billion in new business for American firms in what is the biggest trade mission in US history.

Mr Obama is bringing 250 U.S. executives including GE chief Jeffrey Immelt and Honeywell’s David Cote, which the U.S. India Business Council says is the largest such delegation to ever accompany a president on a foreign visit.

The presidents of six universities, including Georgetown and Duke, are also set to come.

Last fiscal year, India’s $11 billion worth of investments in the U.S. matched U.S. investments in India for the first time ever, according to the U.S. India Business Council.

Bilateral trade, on track to hit $50 billion this fiscal year ending March, has more than doubled since 2004.

But sentiment has frayed since the two countries signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008.

Then-President George W. Bush pushed through that deal, which allowed nuclear trade with India despite its weapons programme and seemed to herald a new era of cross-continental commerce.

It hasn’t been that simple.

The job creating power of India’s big, fast-growing market is hampered by its restrictions on foreign access to key sectors like retail, finance, education and insurance.

Multinationals are wary of the shape-shifting rules that seem to govern things like taxes and environmental permits in India.

And the large defence contracts that headline the wish list of deals for Obama’s visit come burdened with offsets and foreign investment caps.

Preparations: A billboard welcoming Mr Obama is seen in Mumbai. The U.S. President will hope to cement improving relations with India during his three-day visit

The Americans who accepted outsourcing of IT and back office functions in boom times as a way to free up capital for job creation at home seem less certain of the strategy’s benefits during a bust.

With U.S. unemployment at 9.6 pe rcent, India’s putative role as a driver of job insecurity has leaked into campaign rhetoric — Barbara Boxer’s attacks on Carly Fiorina for sending Hewlett-Packard jobs to India and China helped her win the California Senate race — and popular culture alike.

NBC’s new sitcom, ‘Outsourced’, tells the story of a Kansas City company that sends most of its jobs to India.

Indian companies keep insisting, quietly, that they’re not really the problem: If you don’t like jobs getting sent overseas, better to direct your anger at major U.S. corporations whose race for low cost competitiveness drives India’s $50 billion software services sector.

‘We strongly believe the global delivery model is beneficial to customers,’ said Infosys chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan.

‘It increases their competitiveness. It reduces costs. It gives them access to a scalable high quality

talent pool and to emerging markets. That’s why it’s growing.’

The U.S. Congress seemed to disagree, hiking visa fees for Indian outsourcing companies by about $2000 per worker in August, provoking howls of discontent here.

‘It’s tens of millions of dollars,’ said Tata Consultancy Services chief executive N. Chandrasekaran.

The law pinches Indian outsourcers where it hurts, at the heart of the industry’s hopes for future growth in its most important global market.

The companies have been trying to diversify into health care and government work and move up the delivery chain to higher value areas like consulting. All require workers, with visas or U.S. passports, in the United States.

Many here fear the backlash will get worse by the 2012 elections, barring a turnaround in the U.S. labour market.

Indian outsourcers — and their clients in corporate America — are happy to move jobs to the U.S. as long as it doesn’t disrupt their low-cost business model.

That translates into very few jobs.

Lobby group Nasscom says India’s software services exporters have created 35,000 high-paying U.S. jobs in the last five years.

Industry leader Tata Consultancy Services is looking to hire 1,000 Americans this fiscal year. Less than one per cent of its global work force are American, according to company data.

Infosys is also looking to hire 1,000 Americans. Its 1,600 permanent U.S. employees — not counting an additional 600 or so who work for two U.S. subsidiaries — make up 1.3 per cent of the company’s global work force.

‘We can’t replace all the people from here with people from the United States and have the same value proposition,’ said Chandrasekaran.

From the U.S. side, perhaps most disillusioning is a law passed by India’s parliament that extends liability to the suppliers of nuclear plants, making it difficult for private companies to compete against their state owned French and Russian peers in India’s multibillion dollar nuclear reactor build-out.

‘There has been a reality check,’said Stephen Cohen, a South Asia security expert at the Brookings Institution.

Backers of the civil nuclear deal in Washington, he said, ‘made believe India was a true ally and would never let us down’.

U.S. India Business Council president Ron Somers said India’s signing last week of an International Atomic Energy Agency convention on liability is a step forward and will require Indian laws to conform to international norms, which do not make private companies liable unless there is malfeasance.

Even India’s purchase of 10 Boeing C-17 transport aircraft, expected to be finalised during Obama’s visit, will probably be worth less than the anticipated $5.8 billion because of fewer add-ons, said Guy Anderson, lead analyst at Jane’s Defence Industry.

India is second only to China in ramping up military procurement, making it an attractive market for U.S. defense companies.

But the bureaucracy is so inefficient the government doesn’t manage to spend the money earmarked for military procurement each year, and Russia still dominates sales in a country where some, especially in the older generation, continue to regard U.S. intentions with skepticism.

Somers says naysayers are too impatient and points out that from 2007 to 2009, the U.S. sold India $4.3 billion worth of defense equipment — a huge jump from the $342 million sold from 2001 to 2006.

‘We’ve come a long way,’ he said.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]



Murderous Tactics Are Fueling Terrorist Propaganda

Even among the ranks of al-Qaida and other Islamic terror groups, leaders frequently debate how useful it is to kill unarmed Muslim civilians, as their fighters so often do.

For them, “it simply does not look good to systematically and deliberately target Muslim civilians,” said Risa Brooks, a political scientist at Marquette University who specializes in this issue. But the military documents WikiLeaks just made public showed that at least 66,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since the war began, most of them at the hands of Muslim militants.

A few years ago, the U.S. military seized documents from an Iraqi al-Qaida base and found a 13-page letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian who is Osama bin Laden’s deputy commander. In it, Zawahiri advises his compatriots to stop killing Muslim civilians because all of the deaths are “being displayed in the news media, and the Muslim people do not understand the reasons for excessive violence seen in the media,” according to a U.S. military translation.

Of course, al-Qaida in Iraq paid no attention. The slaughter continued.

Well, in Pakistan right now, the Taliban are carrying out a raging campaign of carnage, killing thousands of unarmed civilians, seemingly heedless of what anyone thinks. After a brief pause because of the devastating floods that struck Pakistan this fall, bombings and attacks have picked up again. Two recent bombings killed seven civilians and wounded 92 others. A study by a private group, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, estimates that “2,300 civilians were killed in terror attacks alone with many more injured” in the last year.

In Iraq, killing thousands of civilians had an obvious aim: to stoke sectarian violence that, the militants hoped, would drive out the American troops and bring down the Iraqi government. But what do the Pakistani Taliban hope to accomplish?

They are blaming the United States, their hated enemy, for their own murderous acts, and these claims are widely believed. For the Taliban, that is a marvelous achievement. Last summer, for example, Taliban killers perpetrated one of their most heinous attacks: They stormed into a hospital in Lahore, where they shot and killed 12 people, including at least eight badly wounded patients lying in their beds. These people were survivors (barely) of earlier villainous attacks on worshipers in two mosques that killed 93 people. How on earth could the Taliban explain that?

Oh, they were ready. Taliban spokesmen blamed Blackwater, the former name for the American private security firm that got into so much trouble for heedlessly killing civilians in Iraq. In the Islamic world, Blackwater has become the moniker for American evil, which is why the company recently changed its name, to Xe Services.

For months the Taliban have been putting out stories of a roving band of armed Western mercenaries, secret employees of Blackwater, who are killing people so that the peace-loving Taliban would take the blame.

They first took up this tactic last year, when Taliban militants attacked a Pakistani Army base and a cricket match — then blamed Blackwater. Since then the story has taken off, now fervently believed by millions of Pakistanis, which leaves Taliban leaders smiling.

The problem has grown so acute that Tasneem Qureshi, Pakistan’s interior minister, asked for an audience before a parliamentary committee last month, where he “categorically rejected the existence of Blackwater” in Pakistan, despite reports of “armed foreigners traveling in tinted-glass vehicles,” the Pakistan Business Recorder newspaper reported.

But a week later, Mufti Kifayatullah, leader of a fundamentalist Islamic political party, was still blaming Blackwater for the state’s endemic violence, saying its aim is to defame the Taliban, who, he averred, “are patriotic; they are not fighting against the country.”

The trouble is, in Pakistan nefarious rumors tend to spread even faster than wildfires and are too easily believed — particularly when they reflect poorly on the United States.

America is supplying billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan and its people — including $1.7 billion for flood victims this fall. Still, in a recent national public-opinion poll, only about 17 percent of Pakistanis said they held a favorable view of the U.S. Almost as many viewed the Taliban favorably. The survey, by the Pew Research Center, showed that al-Qaida is slightly more popular than the U.S.

So, despite Zawahiri’s admonition, the Taliban have found that killing thousands of their own people is proving to be quite useful. But I can’t think of a more contemptible, misanthropic strategy in use anywhere else in the world.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



Obama to Use Teleprompter for Hindi Speech

Namaste India! In all likelihood that will be silver-tongued Barack Obama’s opening line when he addresses the Indian parliament next week. But to help him pronounce Hindi words correctly will be a teleprompter which the US president uses ever so often for his hypnotising speeches.

According to parliament sources, a technical team from the US has helped the Lok Sabha secretariat install textbook-sized panes of glass around the podium that will give cues to Obama on his prepared remarks to 780 Indian MPs on the evening of Nov 8.

It will be a 20-minute speech at Parliament House’s Central Hall that has been witness to some historic events, including first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s “tryst with destiny” speech when India became independent.

Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls.

Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.

“We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact,” an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.

Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.

Teleprompters, also called autocue or telescript, are mostly used by TV anchors to read out texts scrolling on a screen and attached to a camera in front of them.

Parliament officials have had a busy week preparing for a red carpet welcome for Obama and his wife Michelle. Parliament House these days looks fresh with a new coat of paint, new carpeting and new green plants in mud vases decorating the corridors.

Sources said the Obamas will pose for a photograph with Indian leaders at one of the three well laid-out courtyards that have lush green lawns and fountains.

On the dais in the Central Hall will be Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The sources said the event will be an hour-long affair and will start with Ansari’s welcome address and end with a vote of thanks by Meira Kumar after the US president’s address.

The Obamas would sign the Golden Book, the visitor’s diary in parliament, before leaving the eight-decade old building.

“Thank god they won’t eat anything or have tea or coffee from our canteen. We would have to go through a tough security drill otherwise,” quipped an employee.

Security managers in parliament also had a tough job for the high profile visit even as the house is already highly protected following a terrorist attack in 2001.

A team of US security officials, including from the CIA, were in the Indian capital and visited the complex to review security measures to be taken during the parliament event.

Parliament security officials have decided that barring special invitees and former MPs, no visitor would be allowed inside when Obama addresses the MPs.

Only journalists who have permanent radio-frequency passes would be allowed inside the Central Hall to cover the event.

[Return to headlines]



Swedish Aid Agency Boosts Afghanistan Funds

A Swedish aid agency will invest 90 million kronor ($13.65 million) in a project to support Afghanistan’s efforts to reduce poverty by establishing self-governing village councils.

The programme is focused on getting women to participate in decision making.

“Through the village councils, local people will have the opportunity to discuss and decide on important investments that can improve their living conditions,” wrote Eva Johansson, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency’s (Styrelsen för Internationaellt Utvecklingssamarbete, Sida) Afghanistan director, in a statement.

Sweden has supported the project since 2006 and contributed to the establishment of 23,000 village councils.

The programme is coordinated by the Ministry of Rural Development and covers all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. To date, the programme has initiated 42,000 projects.

“They have dealt with improved roads, wells and school buildings,” wrote Johansson.

The programme has gradually increased its focus on female participation in the decision-making processes at the local and national levels. Part of the aid money will be earmarked to projects that prioritise appointing women on village councils.

This announcement follows the disclosure last month that Sida would contribute 80 million kronor for private sector development in northern Afghanistan, as well as 12 million to the Indian charity Hand in Hand’s work in the region.

Hand in Hand was founded by Swedish business executive Percy Barnevik, who remains a major donor to the organisation. The charity has engaged in work in Afghanistan since 2006 following an invitation from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The contribution represents the first investments that Sweden has granted for private sector development in the country, which is a new area of cooperation strategy for Afghanistan and was adopted in summer 2009.

The program will cover the whole country, but Sida’s aid will mainly go to the northern provinces, where Sweden is responsible for security under the UN’s mandate.

The investment is in line with the Afghan government’s first programme for the private sector and will be managed by the World Bank’s development fund for the country.

Sweden’s aid to Afghanistan last year amounted to 588 million kronor. The main focus of the aid was on education, democracy, human rights and equality, but also included humanitarian aid. Private sector development and the northern provinces were also priority areas in the new country strategies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Women in Fear: Rape Cases Soar Across Pakistan

Every morning when I leave for work, I feel uncomfortable. The constant nagging of recent (and increasing) news items of rapes in Pakistan makes me feel insecure. I fear for the vulnerability of my sisters in different parts of the city, attending lectures in college halls, making rounds in hospital wards, traveling in school vans, waiting at the bus stop or spending an evening with an aunt or uncle.

And my fear is not just confined to my sisters. It expands its ugly claws for every woman, all over the country. It takes the shape of a pitying monster whenever I wonder about the fate of the victims and the consequences that they will have to live with, and in most cases, die for.

Though the annual number of women raped in Pakistan is far greater than the statistics given in different survey reports by various organizations, the settings in which these rapes have started taking place is frightening. The old notion that perpetrators are only found in certain sections of society and that they are far away from our day to day lives, no longer holds true. It seems as if they are everywhere, plotting to get their target, as and when they wish.

Women are therefore safe nowhere. Whether in hospital wards or girls’ colleges, there are abductions or gang-rapes in the name of ‘honour.’ It is a wild, wild world out there, pregnant with silence and dampened with indifference.

Sadly, those who are responsible for providing safety to citizens are themselves involved in this heinous act. The recent confession of Constable Javed Bhatti in Lahore for having rapped a handicapped woman by taking her three children hostage is just one example of the larger picture. A similar fate was met by an 18-year old resident of Bahawal Nagar, who was raped in police custody. Another mother of a three-year old was held hostage for two days while she was repeatedly gang-raped in police custody. Once considered safe, even homes are no longer so for women in the country today. The rise in reported cases of incest which is still believed to be far less than the real number, is alarming.

Rape is a grossly unreported and legally distorted human rights issue in Pakistan and given the nature of our social structure, combined with the status of women in society, the above examples should not be very astonishing. What should concern us more is the ugly culture of silence and shame that confronts us.

Women are assaulted in the name of ‘honour’, often paying the prize for disgrace brought about by male member(s) of the family; a punishment mostly inflicted by panchayats or through brutal force. Yet, our very own ministers take pride in the ‘cultural norm’ or make insensitive statements. Take for example, former President Pervez Musharraf’s statement:

“A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”

Even more shocking are reports of recorded videos of the victims, used to blackmail the victim’s parents either in a bid to discourage the woman’s family from prosecution or to earn extra money by posting it on the internet.

And the injustice just does not end here. The future of these ill-fated women hangs in the balance. They become social outcasts by none other than their own families, judged, thrown out and most often, domestically abused, for bringing a “bad name” to the family/biradari. This patriarchal mind set, which has ruled our society since time immemorial, castigates women into further oppression, from where they never seem to return. In Sindh alone, more than 100,000 students, who make up over 70 per cent of the total number of female students, have stopped attending schools, colleges and coaching centres across five districts this year, following a shocking gang-rape incident in Khipro town, in which a student of class XI was allegedly drugged, criminally assaulted and filmed, whose video was shared online.

Where does the solution lie? Does it come with speedy justice or the quick implementation of law? If yes, who decides which law is correct? Unfortunately, the issue of women rights in Pakistan has often been underestimated and not given its due importance. Ours is a nation where the concept and understanding of sexuality is highly distorted, which combined with weaker status of woman strengthens false beliefs and claims.

This situation worsened thanks to Zia’s Hudood Ordinance, which required a woman alleging rape to provide four adult male witnesses of good standing to prove that she has been a victim. In case she failed, she was liable to be prosecuted for adultery, for which the maximum punishment is stoning to death. However, contrary to the morals of Islam, the Hudood Ordinance further deteriorated the status of women in society, where most of the victims were routinely jailed for adultery on flimsy evidence. It led to thousands of women being imprisoned without being proven guilty. According to a report by the Pakistan National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) “an estimated 80 per cent of women” in jail in 2003 were there because “they had failed to prove rape charges and were consequently convicted of adultery.”

Though the Hudood Ordinance was revised with the Women’s Protection Bill in 2006, the fate of the implementation of the law loiters in the cobwebs of our deeply divided society. It has become a source of contention between politicians, human rights activists and Islamic scholars. Each has their own version, which fails to go beyond a single point of view. Deeply entrenched in the Shariah law vs. civil law debate, the status of the reforms is not very encouraging.

While the developed world today is engaged in a highly controversial debate about legalising prostitution to ensure the well-being of sex workers, the eradication of STDs, controlling human trafficking and bringing brothels under the umbrella of taxation, we are still faced with a dilemma based on our distorted beliefs and ugly prejudice. We need to come to terms with the concept of basic human rights and the protection of our women in our society.

And while we continue chanting slogans against Dr Aafia’s sentence, ashamed for not being able to protect our ‘Muslim sister’ from the clutches of the ‘evil west’, the humiliation that our women have to face at the hands of our own people is nothing short of barbaric. While I cannot comprehend the pain that assaulted women have to live with, I wonder why dignity in Pakistan is confined to one gender only. I am reminded more of it every evening as I return from work, where on the bus stop I pray for every wish to be a horse to keep me away from preening vultures.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Swedish Minister ‘Tired’ of Refugees From Greece

Swedish Migration Minister Tobias Billström is ‘tired’ of Greece and its problems in dealing with asylum seekers.

He finds it remarkable that the Greeks cannot even control its border with “hereditary enemy” Turkey.

“The conditions in Greece are very alarming,” said Billström after a consultation with the Swedish parliament Riksdag’s EU committee ahead of next week’s EU ministerial meetings.

Billström asserted that Greece has for many years ignored the problems and failed to ask for help from the rest of Europe.

As a consequence, a number of EU countries, including Sweden, are ignoring the European Union’s much-criticised Dublin II regulation, under which illegal immigrants must be sent back to the country where they entered the EU.

In addition, the EU has been forced to activate its special border guard corps for the first time.

This week, the EU’s border control agency Frontex sent helicopters, police cars and special vehicles with night vision, plus 175 officials from 26 countries, to a border section between Greece and Turkey that had been entirely unmonitored.

The question also plagues Swedish European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström, who once again rushed to Greece for inspections and meetings on Friday.

In Sweden, the immigration courts have long held different opinions about whether asylum seekers who entered the EU in Greece should be sent back. EU rules say that the asylum seeker’s grounds for a residence permit should be considered in the EU country where they first set foot.

As a result, the Swedish National Migration Board (Migrationsverket) had demanded the Migration Supreme Court set a precedent. However, the agency decided on Tuesday to no longer wait any longer for a court verdict and will not send asylum seekers back to Greece for the time being.

Instead, the asylum seekers may be sent to countries that they passed through on their way from Greece to Sweden, according to Billström.

“The people who cannot be sent back to Greece will perhaps be sent to other EU states if they admit that they have come from these countries to Sweden,” he said.

“We will not stop the asylum process. What is needed now is a discussion on whether these cases should be tried in Sweden or not. It is a process the Migration Board has ahead of it,” he added.

He also said the Greeks are to a large degree responsible for the current developments in the situation.

“They do not even have a minister who handles these issues,” said Billström.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Blacks Struggle With 72 Percent Unwed Mothers Rate

HOUSTON (AP) — One recent day at Dr. Natalie Carroll’s OB-GYN practice, located inside a low-income apartment complex tucked between a gas station and a freeway, 12 pregnant black women come for consultations. Some bring their children or their mothers. Only one brings a husband.

Things move slowly here. Women sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the narrow waiting room, sometimes for more than an hour. Carroll does not rush her mothers in and out. She wants her babies born as healthy as possible, so Carroll spends time talking to the mothers about how they should care for themselves, what she expects them to do—and why they need to get married.

Seventy-two percent of black babies are born to unmarried mothers today, according to government statistics. This number is inseparable from the work of Carroll, an obstetrician who has dedicated her 40-year career to helping black women.

“The girls don’t think they have to get married. I tell them children deserve a mama and a daddy. They really do,” Carroll says from behind the desk of her office, which has cushioned pink-and-green armchairs, bars on the windows, and a wooden “LOVE” carving between two African figurines. Diamonds circle Carroll’s ring finger.

As the issue of black unwed parenthood inches into public discourse, Carroll is among the few speaking boldly about it. And as a black woman who has brought thousands of babies into the world, who has sacrificed income to serve Houston’s poor, Carroll is among the few whom black women will actually listen to.

“A mama can’t give it all. And neither can a daddy, not by themselves,” Carroll says. “Part of the reason is because you can only give that which you have. A mother cannot give all that a man can give. A truly involved father figure offers more fullness to a child’s life.”

Statistics show just what that fullness means. Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults, and have their own children out of wedlock.

The black community’s 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.

This issue entered the public consciousness in 1965, when a now famous government report by future senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan described a “tangle of pathology” among blacks that fed a 24 percent black “illegitimacy” rate. The white rate then was 4 percent.

Many accused Moynihan, who was white, of “blaming the victim:” of saying that black behavior, not racism, was the main cause of black problems. That dynamic persists. Most talk about the 72 percent has come from conservative circles; when influential blacks like Bill Cosby have spoken out about it, they have been all but shouted down by liberals saying that a lack of equal education and opportunity are the true root of the problem.

Even in black churches, “nobody talks about it,” Carroll says. “It’s like some big secret.” But there are signs of change, of discussion and debate within and outside the black community on how to address the growing problem.

Research has increased into links between behavior and poverty, scholars say. Historically black Hampton University recently launched a National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting. There is a Marry Your Baby Daddy Day, founded by a black woman who was left at the altar, and a Black Marriage Day, which aims “to make healthy marriages the norm rather than the exception.”

In September, Princeton University and the liberal Brookings Institution released a collection of “Fragile Families” reports on unwed parents. And an online movement called “No Wedding No Womb” ignited a fierce debate that included strong opposition from many black women.

“There are a lot of sides to this,” Carroll says. “Part of our community has lost its way.”

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

General


Human Origins: It Began in Africa

A mountain of evidence has accumulated showing that our ancestors emerged in Africa. What is less clear-cut is what spurred their evolution. The answer lies in the environments in which our predecessors lived, and the influence of technology, which hugely expanded their ecological niche. Hominids are frustratingly rare in the fossil record, but at some time around 2.6 million years ago they began to leave calling cards, in the form of stone artefacts.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Lost Art of Critical Thinking

Part 4, PC Peace Bait

Having lived in the Middle East, and having traveled to a number of countries with sizable Muslim communities—e.g., Bahrain, China, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates—I am intrigued by the study of Islam, and have been since 1971.

For this reason, recent comments by a self-described liberal Christian piqued my interest. By all accounts, this woman is both brilliant and churched; and I was curious to know what she had to say about a book I’d recently read— namely, How Islam plans to Change the World by Dr. William Wagner.[1]

Her take on Islam didn’t necessarily surprise, but it did unnerve me. “This particular book,” she complains, “breeds continued lack of acceptance of other religions and exacerbates a sense of Christianity by hate.” To hate is to dislike somebody or something so intensely as to evoke feelings of anger, hostility, or animosity. Hatred is synonymous with abhorrence, detestation, odium, revulsion, loathing, and the like.

These are uncharacteristically strong words for author Dr. Wagner, a mild-mannered, highly reasoned man who has devoted decades of his life to missions. I’m honored to have met him personally. For a bright, accomplished Christian woman to associate him with “Christianity by hate” inspired a closer look.

My intent isn’t to promote a book or its author, nor is it to disparage their critic. Rather, it’s to explore by this example the essentials of critical thinking without which we miss the mark, often with grave consequences following.[2]

[…]

A Critical Thinker Differentiates between Western Mentality and Eastern Thought

Perhaps unknown to our critic, the Qur’an to which she alludes was actually written in two cities on two separate occasions. 92 surahs (sections) written in Mecca advocate non-harm to “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians), but 24 sections written in Medina do not.

A Westerner might conclude that the vote’s in: non-harm, 92; harm, 24. The majority wins out. But not so fast, there’s no Arabic word for “democracy,” nor is there any functioning democracy in the Islamic world. Your vote and mine don’t count.

Instead, under dar-al-Islam, majority rule bows to the Islamic Doctrine of Abrogation, which elevates later doctrine (specifically, the Medina sections) over earlier ones (Mecca sections). That is to say, “harm” to non-Muslims trumps “non-harm.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20101105

Financial Crisis
» Germany Accuses US of Breaking Promise on Monetary Policy
» Results of Fed Stimulus Could be ‘Horrendous’
» US Has Lost Its Way, Schäuble Thunders
 
USA
» Greens Can’t Stop Their Scare Tactics
» Progressives Increase Their Power Over Obama
» Saudi Arms Sale Prompts Questions From U.S. House Panel Leaders
» Speaker Nancy Pelosi Will Seek to Remain Head of the House Democratic Caucus, Aides Say
» The Course & Future of Islamic Feminism
» The U.S. Elections and the Middle East: How Many Barack Obamas Do You Need to Change a Light Bulb?
» U.N. Human Rights Council to Take Aim at New Target: United States
» U.S.-Based Website: Stab Politicians to Death
» Watchdog: ACORN Bankruptcy a ‘Hoax’
» Wind Turbines Jammin’ Jet Radar Signals
 
Europe and the EU
» Alarm in Spanish Press Over 10-Year-Old Mum
» Belgium: BDW: “As if I Was a Mental Case”
» Belgian Officer Who Criticised ‘Flemish-isation’ Reinstated
» Belgium: Female Circumcision: A Growing Threat Here
» Biggest Number of Asylum Seekers in EU in Cyprus
» ‘Completely Genuine and Sincere’: The Shadowy Organisation That Wants to Give the UK Billions for NOTHING
» Denmark: Bomb Threat Called Off
» Europe Under Islam by 2050
» Europe Rights Court Criticises France for Police Brutality
» France: Saudi Royalty Buys Paris’ Crillon Hotel: Source
» France: Woman Sentenced for Attacking Muslim Veil-Wearer
» French Politician Rachida Dati’s Brother Detained for Drugs
» Geneva Study Shows How Light Affects the Brain
» Germany: Police Arrest Islamist Bomb Threat Suspect
» Italy: ‘Mud-Slinging Won’t Stop Me’ Says Berlusconi
» Italy: Government Purchases 22 Finmeccanica Helicopters
» Lego Ready for Blastoff
» Neo-Nazi Takes Seat in Local Swedish Council
» Nightmare Scenario of Dutch Referendum Returns to Haunt EU
» Protesters Rally Against Pope’s Visit to Spain
» Saudis Discuss Buying Tanks From Spain, No Deal Signed
» Spain: Fifa Investigates Pact With Qatar for World Cup
» Spain: Controversy Grows Around 10-Year-Old Mother
» Sweden: King Won’t Sue Publisher Over Tell-All Book
» Switzerland Ups Counter Cyber Terrorism Measures
» The Fear Peddlers Hobbling Europe
» Ticket Fraud in Copenhagen
» UK: ‘Sexual Predators’: Gang of Asian Men Weep as They Are Jailed for 32 Years for Grooming Girls as Young as 13
» UK: “Radicalisation Via Youtube”? It’s Not So Simple
» UK: BAE ‘Held a Gun’ To Prime Minister’s Head Over Aircraft Carrier That Will Never Carry an Aircraft
» UK: By-Election Ordered as Lying Former Labour Minister is Barred From the Commons for Three Years
» UK: Couple Left With a £200,000 Court Bill as Lying Maid Loses Her £750,000 Claim She Was ‘Trafficking’ Victim Kept as Slave
» UK: Muslim Student Leaders Say Changes to Tuition Fees in England Could Breach Islamic Rules on Finance, Which Do Not Permit Interest Charges.
» UK: Sex Convictions: Girls Thought Abuse Was Normal
» UK: Special Report: The ‘DIY Jihadists’ Paid for by Us… Roshonara Choudhry Supporters Are Living on Benefits
» UK: Sex Convictions: 32-and-a-Half Years Jail for “Sexual Predators”
» UK: Why Lambert and Githens-Mazer Are Wrong on Radicalisation
» UK: We Didn’t Win Liberties in Order to Bestow Them on Our Enemies
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Italy Main Supplier of Sunglasses
» Morocco Alarmed Over Rise in Cocaine Smuggling
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: We Are Not for Sale
» Israel Suspends Strategic Dialogue With UK
 
Middle East
» Iranian Schools to Encourage “Culture of Martyrdom”
» Islamic Fundamentalists Preventing the Construction of a Church in Kuwait
» Italy’s Deputy Minister, Need to Open to Islamic Finance
» Saudi Arabia: Millionaire Seeks Husband, Company for Love
» Saudi Arabia: Suspect Claimed Stealing Under Spell
 
Caucasus
» Azerbaijan: Baptist Christians in Prison for Having Gathered to Pray
 
Immigration
» OECD Says Germany Needs More Immigration
» Romanian Band Plays Gypsy Rock Against Sarkozy
» UK: Abu Hamza Keeps British Citizenship
» UK: DJs, Kabaddi Players, Comedians and Models Beat Government’s Migrant Cap
» UK: Hate Preacher Abu Hamza Wins Human Rights Bid to Keep UK Passport
» UK: One in, One Out, For Radical Muslim Clerics
 
Culture Wars
» Germany: Women’s Equality Stronger in Former East, Study Finds
» Tasmania: Rape, Abortion in Church ‘Haunted House’
 
General
» Beer Lubricated the Rise of Civilization, Study Suggests
» Web’s Undersea Cables Need Revamp to Prevent Catastrophe

Financial Crisis


Germany Accuses US of Breaking Promise on Monetary Policy

Schauble: ‘We will speak critically about this in bilateral talks’ (Photo: Wolfgang Staudt )

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Germany has accused the US of breaking a promise made at the G20 summit in Toronto in June by injecting a further $600 billion into its economy to stimulate growth.

Speaking on national TV on Thursday (4 November), German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said that participants at the meeting had agreed to tighten their belts: “That was the common policy, that all developed countries, including the US, at the G20 summit in Toronto … explicitly obliged to undertake.”

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“We will speak critically about this in bilateral talks with our American friends, but also at the G20 summit in South Korea in the coming weeks.”

The US decision, announced on Wednesday, is to see the US Federal Reserve buy US Treasury bonds in a financial procedure called quantitative easing, which is also known as “printing money” by its critics as the extra liquidity is not necessarily withdrawn.

The US move gave a fillip to stock markets around the world.

But it also caused the value of the dollar to drop sharply against the euro, making EU exports less competitive on world markets..

Germany’s Mr Schauble argued that the US should tackle the underlying economic problems causing unemployment instead. A chorus of German politicians echoed his cries, including economy minister Rainer Bruderle and Liberal party member of parliament Frank Schaeffler.

“Printing money again will trigger a tsunami across the world economy,” Mr Schaeffler said.

The world’s second most powerful central banker, the European Central Bank’s Jean-Claude Trichet, bit his tongue during his regular monthly press conference on Thursday, however.

“No further comments on what is done by other central banks, who have their own responsibility, their own environment,” he said, according to newswires. “I never comment on moves on the market on a day-to-day basis. I have no indication that would change my trust in the fact that the Fed reserve chairman is not playing the strategy and the tactics of the weak dollar.”

“I have no reason not to trust them,” he added.

The ECB has committed itself to a strategy of gradually dismantling the EU stimulus plans put in place in response to the global economic crisis.

But Mr Trichet hinted on Thursday that the bank may have resumed its purchases of euro-zone government bonds in an attempt to reduce tensions in the European debt markets.

Noting that figures out on Monday showed no new bond purchases by the ECB for the third week running, he said: “You have always information that are not real-time. They are addressing what has happened a number of working days before… you will see that the program exists.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Results of Fed Stimulus Could be ‘Horrendous’

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has sharply criticized the US Federal Reserve’s decision to pump a further $600 billion into the country’s ailing economy. He says the move could create problems for the global economy. Others have joined in the condemnation.

Germany is not impressed. One day after the United States Federal Reserve announced that it would pump $600 billion (€423 billion) into America’s banking system over the next eight months, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble sharply criticized the decision.

“I don’t think they are going to solve their problems that way,” Schäuble told German public broadcaster ZDF in a Thursday evening interview. “They have already pumped an endless amount of money into the economy via taking on extremely high public debt and through a Fed policy that has already pumped a lot of money into the economy. The results are horrendous.”

In a separate interview on public broadcaster ARD, Schäuble said that the move by Fed Chair Ben Bernanke would “create additional problems for the world.” He promised to bring up the issue in talks with the US and said that, by following such a monetary path, the US was violating a pledge that all industrialized countries agreed to at the last G-20 summit in Toronto in June.

The Fed’s plan envisions the purchase of US government bonds in an effort to lower long-term interest rates as a way to stimulate borrowing and investment. In a contribution to the Washington Post, Bernanke emphasized that the move was designed to help strengthen the US job market and reduce an unemployment level that has stagnated at 10 percent. “This approach eased financial conditions in the past and, so far, looks to be effective again,” Bernanke wrote, referring to rising stocks and dropping interest rates this week.

Very Few Tools Left

Bernanke acted just a day after the Democrats of President Barack Obama took a beating in Tuesday’s mid-term elections — a vote which cost the party its majority in the House of Representatives. One of the Republicans’ main complaints during the campaign focused on high deficits as a result of Obama’s economic stimulus program. Despite recent hints from the White House that further stimulus measures might be in the offing, Tuesday’s likely eliminates the possibility that Obama can push through further legislation to stimulate the economy.

The Fed, for its part, has very few levers left to stimulate investment and growth. Short-term interest rates have long been close to zero, eliminating that favored monetary policy tool. Buying government bonds, while controversial, appears to be the only route remaining to stimulate demand.

In his Thursday essay, Bernanke emphasized that “the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy’s problems on its own. That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators and the private sector.”

German Economics Minister Rainer Brüderle, of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners, is likewise skeptical that the Fed’s path is the correct one. “I view the move with concern,” he told reporters in Berlin on Thursday, adding that he doesn’t think that a more liberal monetary policy will necessarily boost the economy. “It isn’t enough to set out the water. The horses have to drink too.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



US Has Lost Its Way, Schäuble Thunders

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble removed his diplomatic gloves on Friday, blasting the United States’ decision to go ahead with a massive economic stimulus measure that could harm Germany.

Using unusually strong language, Schäuble said that the Federal Reserve Bank’s attempt to stimulate the US economy with a €600 billion cash injection did not make sense.

“With all due respect, my impression is that the United States are at a loss,” he said at a BMW foundation event in Berlin. “To now say, ‘we’re now going to have another $600 billion,’ will not solve the problem.”

The move is expected to push down the value of the already weak dollar, which will make German goods more expensive in the US — one of the key markets for Germany’s export-driven economy. While the Fed hopes it will spur demand and keep interest rates low in the US, it is also likely to hit countries that sell to the US, including Germany and China — which has also expressed anger over the move.

The Fed is using what economists call “quantitative easing” — buying up US government bonds to inject cash, or “liquidity,” into the markets — in an effort to give its spluttering economy a kick start.

But Schäuble said the move did not make sense because the country’s problems did not stem from a lack of liquidity. Europe had good reason to worry about the Fed’s intervention into the US economy, he added.

No other European country has criticised the action in such strong terms. Schäuble began his assault on Thursday night, when he told broadcaster ZDF that the Fed had already pumped “an endless amount of money” into the US economy with “horrendous” results.

In a separate interview with broadcaster ARD, he said the Fed’s move could “create additional problems for the world” and vowed to take the issue up with the US at a G20 meeting in South Korea next week.

His remarks also follow repeated criticism from Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle in recent days of the US policy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA


Greens Can’t Stop Their Scare Tactics

Last year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared CO2 a pollutant and set about banning such emissions to save the planet. Real scientists tried to point out that nature needs CO2 to thrive. OK, so the Greens kind of heard that logic and quickly sought ways to subvert it into a new Frankenstein-style horror story. The result, headlines in The Washington Post (August 31, 2010) that rising CO2 levels are… wait for it… causing poison ivy to grow more prolifically.

Said the Post article, “According to a report in the journal ‘Environmental Health Prospectives’ last year, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has grown by 22 percent since 1960, which may not be good for humans but is great for poison ivy and other vines.” The fact is, rising CO2 levels are good for all plants (and offer no danger to humans) and there is evidence of plant life responding across the boards. But the Greens don’t tell you that. Instead, they pick the one plant that is dangerous to humans and make a big deal out of it growing like, well, like a weed.

The article went on to quote an obligatory scientific “expert,” Jacqueline Mohan, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia’s Odium School of Ecology, who has been studying poison Ivy since 1998. She, of course, used a computer model to look into the future and found that “Tree seedlings grew 8 — 12 percent more (under the increased CO2). But, “Poison Ivy grew 149 percent more.” Breathlessly she pointed out, “Poison Ivy is getting bigger, faster and nastier.” Of course any botanist could attest to the fact that weeds always grow faster than any other plants, especially trees. That’s why gardeners and lawn care experts hate them.

That’s how the whole green propaganda machine has operated for decades, in particular blowing the global warming issue (later abbreviated to just climate change) all out of proportion, predicting global Armageddon unless man changed his ways.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Progressives Increase Their Power Over Obama

While the Democratic Party suffered a bloodbath on November 2, the progressives who basically run the party and control President Obama came out of the elections stronger than ever. They will keep the political pressure on Obama to pursue a far-left agenda, with the implied threat that if he doesn’t comply, he will have a 2012 presidential primary election challenger. The progressives know Obama’s secrets, having backed him since he joined with them in the Chicago New Party, a means by which they moved the Democratic Party to the left.

Glenn Beck on Fox News says that a few progressives managed to survive somehow. In fact, Karen Dolan of the far-left Institute for Policy Studies proudly notes that “the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in the House Democratic Caucus at over 80 members, emerged virtually unscathed, losing only three members”—Reps. Alan Grayson (Fla.), John Hall (N.Y.) and Phil Hare (Ill.). By contrast, as noted by Jim Dean of Democracy of America, only 47 percent of the so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats won their races.

All of this means that the Democratic Party has moved further to the left, which is exactly where Obama wants it to go. The electoral “shellacking” he talks about came mostly at the expense of the moderate and conservative elements of the party. He never cared about them.

The progressive victories virtually guarantee that Obama, despite his conciliatory talk at his news conference on Wednesday, will not compromise with the House Republican majority. He will instead count on his base and their media allies to put pressure on the GOP to compromise with their leftist agenda or else be branded as obstructionists.

The lesson is not just that the Democratic Party in the House has become more “liberal,” as media pundits like to say, but more “progressive” in a far-left sense. The new head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is expected to be Rep. Keith Ellison, the leftist Muslim Democrat from Minnesota. He has already sent a letter appealing for the post.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arms Sale Prompts Questions From U.S. House Panel Leaders

The Obama administration’s decision to sell as much as $60 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia has prompted concerns from the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to a letter being circulated for lawmakers’ signatures.

California Democrat Howard Berman and Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen are seeking support from other members of the U.S. House of Representatives for a letter outlining concerns and questions to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The letter stops short of opposing the sale, which would be the largest in U.S. history if all purchases are made. The package includes Boeing Co. F-15 fighter jets, attack helicopters and satellite-guided bombs. It also contains helicopters made by United Technologies Corp. and advanced radar from Raytheon Co.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Speaker Nancy Pelosi Will Seek to Remain Head of the House Democratic Caucus, Aides Say

Despite steep losses for her party in Tuesday’s elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said on Friday that she would run to remain the leader of the House Democrats, even as some of her colleagues urged her to step down.

In a letter to her caucus, Ms. Pelosi, who engineered the Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 but became a favorite target of Republicans, said that many of the remaining House Democrats had encouraged her to try to stay on as the leader after the new Republican majority replaces her as Speaker — an unusual move in light of the rebuke her party received at the polls.

“Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social Security and Medicare, I have decided to run,” Ms. Pelosi wrote in her letter.

[Return to headlines]



The Course & Future of Islamic Feminism

Wednesday: 13 October 2010

Margot Badran in conversation with Yoginder Sikand

Margot Badran is one of the most widely-known scholars of Islamic feminism. A historian by training, she has authored many books including: Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences (Oneworld Press, Oxford, 2009). She is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC and a Senior Fellow at the Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand she speaks about the trajectory of Islamic feminism some two decades after it surfaced as a named phenomenon and where she sees it now headed.

From Ahl-AlQuran

Q: One way to understand Islamic feminism is to know how it differs from secular Muslim feminism about which you have written quite extensively. Can you elaborate on these differences?

A: When secular feminism first emerged in sevral Muslim communities early in the 20th century it articulated women’s rights and gender equality in a composite discourse interweaving of nationalist, Islamic modernist, and humanitarian arguments, and later drew upon human rights and democracy arguments. Islamic feminism, which appeared in the late 20th century, grounded the idea of gender equality and gender justice in the Qur’an and other religious sources. Secular feminisms erupted on the scene as nation-based social movementsin Muslim contexts whereas Islamic feminism surfaced in the form of a discourse in the global arena. It was not long before secular feminists accessed Islamic feminist arguments to strengthen their long-fought and exceedingly frustrating campaigns to reform Muslim personal status codes and in making demands in other areas when Islam was given as a pretext for withholding rights. Women activists in Morocco, for example, mobilized a combination of Islamic and secular feminism in pushing for the reform of the Muslim Family Law or Mudawwana. They did this with great success as we witnessed in the 2004 revision, replacing the patriarchal model of the family with an egalitarian model. It is the only instance of a religiously-backed egalitarian Muslim family law in existence and a shining example of what can be achieved by concerted feminist action. However, we must not forget that political will from on high was a necessary ingredient in translating sound arguments into positive law.

Q: Do you agree with the overall secular feminist critique of the notion of the complementarity of sex roles underlying general Muslim understandings? Might there not be some merit in this notion of gender complimentarity which Western and Western-influenced secular Muslim feminists in general do not acknowledge because of their particular way of conceiving gender equality or sameness?

A: Actually it was Islamic feminists who advanced a stringent critique of the notion of complementary gender roles in the family in favor of an egalitarian model of the family backed by strong arguments grounded in their re-readings of the Qur’an. Earlier, Muslim secular feminists—as was then common among feminists in the West—had argued for gender equality in society but accepted the idea of complimentary or unequal gender roles in the family. Muslim secular feminists were influenced by Islamic modernist thinking of the period around the turn of the 20th century which accepted a patriarchal model of the family, using Islamic modernist arguments to call simply for reforms within this model. Secular feminists, for example, demanded that legal controls to be put on men’s exercise of their power and privileges and insisted that men be legally bound to fulfill their end of the bargain and meet their responsibilities. They also demanded an extension of women’s rights in the context of family, especially in the area of divorce and child custody, and demanded controls on men’s practice of polygamy. It was the new interpretive work of the Islamic feminists that produced the idea of full gender equality within the context of the family—a gender equality that accounted for gender difference—as in keeping with Islam.

Q: Much of the focus of Islamic feminism today centers on promoting gender-just personal status or family laws. Given that Muslim personal status laws weight heavily against women this is, of course, understandable. But do you feel that this intensive focus on these laws is somewhat narrow and restrictive and tantamount to depoliticizing Islamic feminism as a potential project for holistic emancipation?…

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The U.S. Elections and the Middle East: How Many Barack Obamas Do You Need to Change a Light Bulb?

By Barry Rubin

What effect will the congressional elections have on U.S. foreign policy generally and Middle East policy in particular?

It isn’t a matter of the individual candidates, since nobody lost or won who will have some big influence on U.S. policy in the next couple of years. The important factor is to what extent the White House hears the message being delivered by the electorate, which of course is largely concerned with domestic issues. Even, by itself, will a Republican majority in the House of Representatives force any shift since the White House really does control foreign policy?

And so this brings us to the central issue not only for U.S. policy but also for the world today: Is President Barack Obama both pragmatic and a politician, or is he an ideologue who has no grasp of the real world? After almost two years we are still asking this question because very little is really known about this man.

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



U.N. Human Rights Council to Take Aim at New Target: United States

When the United Nations Human Rights Council, a conclave of 47 nations that includes such notorious human rights violators as China, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia, meets in Geneva on Friday, its attentions will be focused on the human rights failings of a country called the United States.

It will hear, among other things, that the U.S. discriminates against Muslims, that its police are barbaric and that it has been holding political prisoners behind bars for years.

Those allegations, and many more, will come from Americans themselves — especially from a stridently critical network of U.S. organizations whose input dominates the U.N. digest of submissions from “civil society” that are part of the council’s background reading.

Will the occasion be a teachable moment, or an anti-American circus?

[…]

But according to the U.S. State Department, which is leading a delegation of high-level American diplomats and government officials to Geneva, the Periodic Review is a major opportunity for Washington to lead the rest of the world by example.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



U.S.-Based Website: Stab Politicians to Death

Islamic group targets British lawmakers who voted for war in Iraq

A U.S.-based website encouraging followers to stab members of British parliament has published a list of U.K. lawmakers who voted for war in Iraq and even giving instructions on where to purchase a knife.

RevolutionMuslim.com last April infamously warned the creators of “South Park” to be “afraid for their lives” after the cartoon depicted the Islamic figure Muhammad.

Now the Washington-based site is praising a British woman, Roshonara Choudhry, who tried to stab a parliamentarian to death in May for voting for the Iraq war.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Watchdog: ACORN Bankruptcy a ‘Hoax’

Analyst says radical group plans to come back under a new name

WASHINGTON — ACORN’s self-reported death has been greatly exaggerated, according to a political analyst who’s been studying the radical community activist group for two years.

CEO Bertha Lewis announced on Election Day that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is declaring bankruptcy, but ACORN is already planning to reorganize under a new name, says analyst Matthew Vadum.

“This is a public relations head fake,” Vadum told WND. “This is a hoax. ACORN did not die and will not die at the conclusion of the bankruptcy proceeding. ACORN thinks Americans are stupid.”

[…]

He asserted that sources within ACORN have confirmed that the organization is not really planning to dissolve.

[…]

But ACORN is not a benign social welfare organization, in Vadum’s view.

“The group is all about corruption and about promoting big government by any means possible, in accordance with the teachings of the late Saul Alinsky,” said Vadum.

[…]

“These are dangerous radical people who don’t believe in the American system,” Vadum asserted.

“ACORN is a shell corporation that runs hundreds of nonprofit affiliates,” Vadum told WND. “It is going bankrupt, but it’s not going away, it is simply changing into a new legal form. ACORN is altering its organizational structure because the ACORN brand has been destroyed.”

ACORN suffered two recent public relations disasters that crippled fundraising efforts, according to Vadum.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Wind Turbines Jammin’ Jet Radar Signals

‘Stealth’ technology adapted to keep defenders from losing airliners in sky

BOSTON — The U.S. military has noticed a problem with the wind turbines environmentalists are fond of installing across the nation’s landscape: they jam military radar and create the possibility that an airplane could be hidden in the sky because of the bounce from those waving blades.

The solution, however, may be soon to arrive. A proposal from Vestas Technologies is offering hope.

Blades on current turbines now tend to bounce radar, causing havoc in military circles. Now Ian Chatting, an official with Vestas, says the material is being modified.

“What we’ve done is modify some of the glass fiber using a process that is confidential to Vestas and we spent quite a lot of research and time creating. So we modified the materials that are actually in the blade and used in the blade in normal circumstances,” Chatting said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Alarm in Spanish Press Over 10-Year-Old Mum

Spain’s press reacted with alarm Wednesday to news that a 10-year-old girl had given birth.

Newspapers expressed shock at the delighted reaction of the mother of the girl, who reportedly moved from Romania to the small southern Spanish town of Lebrija three weeks earlier.

Photographed smiling outside their modest apartment block, the baby’s grandmother, identified only as Olimpia, was quoted telling reporters that she and her only daughter were “very happy” after the birth.

The father of the 2.9-kilo (6.4-pound) baby was 13 years old and had remained in Romania, she said, describing him as her daughter’s former boyfriend.

The young mother “is very well, very well, like the daughter who is very well and very pretty,” Olimpia was quoted as saying.

The 10-year-old, discharged after three days at a hospital in nearby Jerez where she gave birth, “is very happy with her daughter. This is a great joy. It is not a drama,” she reportedly said.

Olimpia could not understand the fuss because “this is the age we get married in Romania,” said the Andalucia daily Diario de Jerez, which broke the story.

National daily El Pais said the number of births to girls aged under 15 in Spain had climbed to 178 births in 2008 from 80 in 1997.

It also cited 2008 national statistics showing 386 abortions performed on 14-year-old girls. In the same year, there was also one abortion for a 10-year-old girl and one for a nine-year-old girl.

According to the paper, experts disagreed on the physiological risks from giving birth so early.

If the mother had not yet completed her development or was malnourished, she could face serious risks, and her own development could even be interrupted, gynaecologist Manuel Alonso was quoted as saying.

Another expert, Javier Martinez Salmean, head of gynaecology at the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganes, central Spain, said everything depended on the girl’s development.

“If she has completed her development and the minor has been cared for there is no reason that there should be a complication,” he said.

Giving birth at such a young age presented serious psychological and social risks, El Pais said. “The body of a minor may be ready for a baby but a girl is not ready to be a mother,” child psychologist Carolina Fernandez said.

The daily El Publico quoted legal sources as saying Spain could not take action if the baby was conceived in Romania, outside of Spanish jurisdiction. If the father was only 13, he would not in any case have criminal responsibility for sexual relations with a minor, it said.

Local authorities are considering whether social services should take responsibility of the girl and her baby, or whether they can remain with their family.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Belgium: BDW: “As if I Was a Mental Case”

The leader of the Flemish nationalist party, Bart De Wever, is filing a complaint against a Walloon psychiatrist who analysed the N-VA leader’s personality in an article in the daily La Dernière Heure.

The complaint is being filed with the Order of Physicians, the body that is legally responsible for this profession. The psychiatrist had described Mr De Wever as a “child king”, an ego centric personality who seeks supreme power.

The psychiatrist alleged that Mr De Wever wants to be hated by Francophones, a characteristic that also points to his enormous urge to amass power. The doctor added that the Flemish will discover how difficult it is to discuss matters with such a dominant personality.

Mr De Wever feels that these pronouncements are beyond the pale: “The guy concerned has never seen me, never examined me, but he did feel the need to splash his diagnosis in the whole media as if I was a mental case. I routinely get a hard time in the Francophone press. I can take that. I’m not narrow-minded. But there are certain limits which I believe should not be exceeded. Labelling political opponents as “mad” smacks of Soviet practices and I do ask myself the question, when people read this, what do they think.”

As far as the latest political developments are concerned Mr De Wever says that he will not be making any pronouncements that will make the job of mediator Johan Vande Lanotte (Flemish socialist) more difficult. He is pleased that people are once again talking, but does not believe that a breakthrough is guaranteed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Belgian Officer Who Criticised ‘Flemish-isation’ Reinstated

A French-speaking colonel in the Belgian army, who was relieved of his command after having denounced a “Flemish-isation” of Belgium’s army, was reinstated on Tuesday by a top administrative court.

Luc Gennart, who was prevented from taking part in a military ceremony last week and ordered to relinquish his post four weeks early on November 3, was told he was free to return to his command, Belga news agency reported.

Gennart fanned the flames of longstanding linguistic differences between Belgium’s French-speaking Walloons and Flemings by suggesting that Dutch-speakers controlled the Belgian army.

“The Flemings decide everything,” Gennart told RTBF public television station in unusually blunt remarks for the military, with the French-speakers “shunted aside,” he said, either sent “to schools or overseas.”

His remarks come amid an ongoing political crisis in Belgium, which remains without a new government four months after elections.

Last week, King Albert II tasked a Flemish socialist senator to mediate between French speaking parties and breakaway-minded Flemish hardliners.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Belgium: Female Circumcision: A Growing Threat Here

Some 8,000 women have been circumcised in Belgium or are in danger of becoming a victim of this practice. The figure is an estimate by researchers at the Tropical Medicine Institute in Antwerp.

The largest number of victims live in Brussels and Antwerp.

Female circumcision is a form of mutilation of the female genitalia. The practice is most prevalent in tropical Africa, especially in countries with an Islamic background.

Few reliable figures are available. Belgian research dating from 2003 came to the conclusion that 3,000 women had undergone female circumcision in this country, though the figure did not take account of women who had acquired Belgian nationality and asylum seekers.

The latest research does and also includes the daughters of women who have been circumcised born during the past twelve years. This is because they are at risk of undergoing this form of mutilation.

Researchers have identified 1,190 girls under five years of age who are at risk as well as 1,690 girls in the 15 to 20 age category who are in danger of undergoing the practice during a holiday in their mother’s country of origin.

An estimated 5,000 women are believed to have actually undergone female circumcision in Belgium.

The research at the Tropical Medicine Institute was commissioned by the Belgian Health Ministry.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Biggest Number of Asylum Seekers in EU in Cyprus

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, NOVEMBER 1 — Belgian State Secretary for Migration and Asylum Policy Melchior Wathelet has said that Cyprus has the biggest number of asylum seekers in the EU, in relation to its population. Speaking after talks with Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis, as daily Famagusta Gazette reports, Wathelet said that Cyprus, since it joined the EU in May 2004, has to deal with much bigger challenges than in the past.

He thanked Nicosia for its support of a common asylum system by 2012 and for backing the relevant EU law, adding that these matters are priority issues for the six monthly EU rotating presidency which Belgium now holds. Cyprus, he said speaking through an interpreter, has undertaken many responsibilities and adopted measures to accelerate the asylum procedures for different categories of asylum seekers. The Belgian official also said that he expects that the forthcoming EU ministerial justice and home affairs council will discuss solidarity among member states and distribution of burdens on asylum issues.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



‘Completely Genuine and Sincere’: The Shadowy Organisation That Wants to Give the UK Billions for NOTHING

A mysterious organisation called Foundation X has offered the British Government £5billion and wants nothing in return, according to a Tory peer.

The old saying tells us that there’s no such thing as a free lunch and in these testing economic times, an offer of no-strings cash seems far too good to believe.

Yet Lord James of Blackheath told the House of Lords he had been in discussions with the group and had urged coalition ministers to take accept the multi-billion cash injection.

Scroll down to see video

Though the alleged offer seems more suited to the type of advance-fee fraud found in the spam folders of email addresses across the globe, Lord James claims Foundation X is ‘completely genuine and sincere’.

Lord James, made a Conservative peer by former Tory leader Michael Howard following the 2005 general election, suggested prime minister David Cameron or high-ranking Cabinet ministers such as George Osborne or Liam Fox should contact Foundation X to claim an initial booty of £5bn, with a purported £12bn to follow before the end of the year.

Speaking in the Lords, 72-year-old James said the British government would receive an immediate £5bn and a total of £17bn by Christmas if Foundation X were ‘contacted by someone equal to head of state status or someone with an international security rating equal to the top six people in the world’.

‘There will be no interest charge and if the Government would like it as well, it will put up money for funding hospitals, schools and the building of Crossrail,’ he said.

‘These things can be done but a senior member of the Government has to accept the invitation to a phone call to the chairman of Foundation x.’

Ending his 15-minute address on Monday, Lord James remarked: ‘This is too big an issue. I am just an ageing, obsessive old peer and I am easily dispensable, but getting to the truth is not.

‘We need to know what really is happening here. We must find out the truth of this situation.’

[Return to headlines]



Denmark: Bomb Threat Called Off

Bomb squad called out to German Embassy after suspicious package found

Emergency services immediately gathered at the embassy (Photo:Scanpix)

The German embassy in Copenhagen was evacuated this morning and police sent for the bomb squad after finding a suspicious-looking package.

“It seemed suspicious that the embassy would receive such a package, and with what happened in Athens and the letter to Angela Merkel we are a bit cautious” a police spokesman told Berlingske Tidene newspaper.

The package was reportedly no bigger than a book and contained metal objects.

The scare comes only a few days after Greece stopped all its air freight after authorities intercepted several letter bombs addressed to the European Court of Justice, Europol, German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as the Russian and Swiss embassies in Athens.

Police set up barricades around the embassy, which is situated on Stockholmsgade. Ambulances, fire engines and military vehicles were all at the scene.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Europe Under Islam by 2050

Already, religion has ‘intimidated’ and ‘frightened’ free world

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A senior fellow of the International Strategic Studies Association is warning that political Islam could be in control of Europe by as early as 2050, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The comments come from Assad Homayoun, a senior fellow with the Washington-based association.

“Political Islam, resorting to asymmetrical warfare and terrorism,” he said, “has already intimidated a tired and perplexed Europe and has frightened the U.S.

“It seems that the U.S. and the democratic West do not have a sound strategy to deal with political Islam,” he added. “The West appears to have no strategy or will to prevent a shifting of power, or to guard Western culture, civilization and democracy.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Europe Rights Court Criticises France for Police Brutality

Europe’s rights court on Thursday criticised France for being too soft on police brutality in a case involving a teenager who suffered physical abuse at a police station.

Yassine Darraj, who was 16 at the time of the incident in 2001, sustained serious injuries including a fractured testicle after being taken to a police station outside Paris for an identity check.

A domestic court in 2004 sentenced two police officers to suspended terms of four and eight months for assault, but their responsibility was mitigated in an appeal to a lesser offence of involuntary wounding and they were fined 800 euros (1,120 dollars).

The applicant’s subsequent request for legal aid was rejected due to lack of any serious ground to appeal.

In its ruling, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said that Darraj had been treated in such a way as to arouse feelings of fear, anguish and inferiority capable of humiliating and debasing him and possibly breaking his physical and moral resistance.

“Such treatment had thus been unhuman and degrading,” the court said.

The court described the punishment meted out to the two officers as minimal and with little deterrent effect.

The court “had to intervene in cases of manifest disproportion between the seriousness of the act and the punishment in question,” the ruling said.

France was ordered to pay Darraj 15,000 euros in damages and 4,000 euros in expenses.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



France: Saudi Royalty Buys Paris’ Crillon Hotel: Source

The luxury Crillon hotel, a top name in Paris tourism, has been sold to Saudi Arabian investors close to the royal family for about 250 million euros (355 million dollars), sources close to the sale told AFP on Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



France: Woman Sentenced for Attacking Muslim Veil-Wearer

A French court Thursday slapped a one-month suspended jail sentence on a retired female teacher who attacked a woman in a shop for wearing a face-covering Islamic veil.

The Paris court heard that the defendant, who had worked in several Arab countries, set upon a 26-year-old Emirati woman in a shop, first trying to tug off her niqab veil and then slapping, scratching and biting her on the hand.

“I knew that I was going to crack one day. This burqa business was beginning to annoy me,” the defendant told police, saying she was fighting for women’s rights, according to evidence heard in court.

France last month passed a law to ban the wearing of the niqab and other face-coverings in public places, a controversial move in a country with Europe’s biggest Muslim population, estimated at nearly six million.

The court ruled Thursday the defendant’s “violent behaviour reveals an intolerance of others that defies explanation and denies cohabitation and dialogue between people who have different ways of life or opposing beliefs.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



French Politician Rachida Dati’s Brother Detained for Drugs

Jamal Dati, brother of European Parliament member and former French justice minister Rachida Dati, was arrested by Belgian police after being caught at the border carrying drugs, judicial sources said Thursday.

Dati was arrested on Wednesday afternoon when driving across the border from Maastricht in The Netherlands with 30 grammes of heroin and five grammes of marijuana.

The 38-year-old, who was placed behind bars in Liege, is facing charges of “importing drugs”.

The former minister’s younger brother, Jamal was given a one-year sentence in France in August 2007 for drug dealing……

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Geneva Study Shows How Light Affects the Brain

University of Geneva scientists, working with others from England and Belgium, participate in a study that shows how the brain affects emotions in response to different kinds of light. Sophie Schwartz, from the university’s centre for neuroscience, tells Swisster about the significance of the research, which further explains seasonal affective disorder and why bright days can lift our spirits.

With winter drawing on and days getting shorter, many people who usually have normal mental health suffer from depression due to lack of sunlight, particularly in places where grey skies predominate at this time of year.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a well-known phenomenon, one that disappears on bright days when the sunshine returns, thanks to changes in the brain that have not been well understood — until now.

Researchers at the University of Geneva have concluded a study that shows how the brain responds to blue light, a part of the light spectrum that is often in short supply in the winter, particularly in northern Europe.

The research found that “blue light found in daylight has an immediate effect on the way our brain affects our emotions,” Sophie Shwartz, a neuroscientist from the university, told Swisster.

Such ambient blue light “activates a visual pathway in the brain that is not actually used for vision but for synchronizing all sorts of biological functions such as hormonal secretions and sleep-wake cycles”, Schwartz said.

“This is like a first step in the neural basis for understanding the effect of light on the brain,” she said.

Schwartz, who is trained as both a biologist and a psychologist, works for the university’s Geneva Neuroscience Centre and the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences.

She was among the lead scientists involved in the “light-brain” multi-disciplinary research, which was conducted in conjunction with the Sleep Research Centre of England’s University of Surrey and the Cyclotron Research Centre at the University of Liege in Belgium.

“It was really a collaboration,” Schwartz said.

Data was gathered at the University of Liege from monitoring healthy volunteers whose brains were analysed as they were exposed to blue light and green light.

Brain activity was recorded while the they listened to “angry voices” and “neutral voices”.

“The idea was to test the response of the brain to these emotional stimuli,” Schwartz said.

The findings showed that blue light increased responses to the stimuli in the “voice area” of the brain and in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is important for memory processes.

This light also led to a tighter interaction between a part of the brain that regulates emotions and the hypothalamus, which responds to light to regulate biological rhythms.

Under blue light, the brain “reacts appropriately to emotions and activates a network of regions that do not function well in people who are depressed,” Schwartz said.

The same reaction was not found among subjects placed under the green light, which is known for not lifting moods.

The results of the study were published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an American scientific journal.

Among the next steps in the research is to find out if there is any scientific basis for believing that blue lights and the use of “light therapy” can keep people who suffer from winter depression in a good mood.

Schwartz noted that lighting in homes, offices and workplaces normally does not have the blue light believed to have a beneficial affect.

Full-spectrum lights are available, but she did not know whether their cost would be prohibitive for workplaces or homes.

SAD was first formally identified less than 30 years ago by scientists at the US National Institute of Mental Health.

Initially, it was a disputed disorder but further studies have buttressed the belief that light can have a significant impact on mental health.

The research conducted by the University of Geneva and its collaborators highlights the need to pay “more attention to our light environment at home and in the work place,” the authors say.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Police Arrest Islamist Bomb Threat Suspect

German police arrested a man on Friday over videos published on the Internet threatening bomb attacks unless an Islamist jailed earlier this year is released, authorities said.

The man, who has not been named, was arrested in Neunkirchen in western Germany. Police were due to release more details at a news conference at around 4:00 pm.

Last month, three videos appeared on the Internet calling for Daniel Schneider to be released or sent to Afghanistan by the end of November. If not, the videos warned of bomb attacks in Germany.

A German convert to Islam, Schneider was one of four members of the so-called Sauerland cell jailed in March for a thwarted plot to attack US soldiers and civilians in Germany.

Schneider, who was jailed for 12 years, released a statement through his lawyer distancing himself from the videos and saying he did not know who was behind them.

News of the arrest came as two people went on trial in Berlin for allegedly disseminating Islamic extremist propaganda on the Internet and raising funds for banned groups.

One of those on trial was Filiz Gelowicz, 29, the wife of another member of the Sauerland cell, Fritz Gelowicz. She appeared in court wearing an Islamic dress covering everything except her eyes.

The other defendant was named only as Alican T., 21. The two were charged in August.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy: ‘Mud-Slinging Won’t Stop Me’ Says Berlusconi

Premier offers Fini’s party ‘pact’ to see out term

(ANSA) — Rome, November 4 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi vowed to press on despite mud-slinging he said was whipped up by opponents thanks to allegedly leftist prosecutors, referring to allegations about his private life.

“I want them to know that the campaigns of mud founded on lies won’t stop me,” Berlusconi told the executive of his People of Freedom (PdL) party.

The government’s critics “keep repeating like a rhyme that the government isn’t doing anything and forgetting the country’s interests,” he claimed, but “we have never failed to do our duty,” he said, claiming Italy had “become a protagonist once more”.

Berlusconi cited trade diplomacy, peace-keeping missions and his own performances at international summits, where he has wooed leaders with a less stuffy approach.

Insisting that he would “stay as long as Italians give me their backing,” Berlusconi reiterated the PdL’s rejection of a possible alternative short-term government to take the country to elections with a new electoral law, as mooted by the centre left.

“Italy doesn’t need just any government but one that that is in the fullness of its powers, not a so-called ‘technical’ government that would overturn the popular will.

“To the gentlemen of the left I say: If you want to shelve Berlusconi you’ll have to ask the people, you can’t do it with a palace plot, the Italians wouldn’t allow that”.

The premier said he was ready to forge a pact to see out his term until 2013 with a breakaway group under House Speaker Gianfranco Fini, challenging Fini’s fledgling Future and Freedom (FLI) party to “pull out the plug” if it wanted a snap election.

The term pact would be based on a revamped five-point platform the PdL and FLI backed in September along with his key ally the Northern League, Berlusconi said.

One of the points would be justice reform, where he denied any intention of bringing judges and prosecutors to heel, under the executive.

Keeping an independent judiciary has consistently been one of the issues Fini has held up as a deal-breaker.

Earlier, Berlusconi and Fini were seen to chat in public for the first time in months, and the premier was overheard telling his former heir-apparent that the media storm over a teenage runaway belly dancer and claims of parties with prostitutes was “incredible”.

In other points, Berlusconi promised to open up the PdL to more internal democracy with regular meetings at the local and national level.

One of Fini’s other bugbears, before he was ejected from the PdL in July, was that the premier ran the party “like a barracks”.

Berlusconi again denied this, saying “there is so much democracy in our movement that on no fewer than seven occasions, and I counted them, I went along with decisions taken by the majority on the executive despite not agreeing with them”.

The PdL leader vowed to turn what has sometimes been characterised as a ‘plastic’ or ‘virtual’ party into one with one million paid-up members.

In early reactions, a leading FLI MP, Fabio Granata, called the speech “disappointing” and said his party’s founding convention in Perugia this weekend would open a “new page in Italian politics”.

Analysts said this could mean, the FLI, which has 37 MPs that hold the balance in the House, might have decided to bring the government down.

Or it might just mean they were going to formally pull out of the government while backing it “from outside”, a traditional ploy in the old-school jockeying for position that marked Italian politics before Berlusconi filled the vacuum left by the Tangentopoli (Bribesville) scandals of the early 1990s.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Government Purchases 22 Finmeccanica Helicopters

Rome, 2 Nov. (AKI) — Italy will spend 1.2 billion euros to purchase 22 military helicopters produced by Finmeccanica’s Agusta Westland unit, Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Tuesday.

The order will be partly financed by the Italian industry ministry and consists of 10 AW 139 and 12 AW 101 helicopters, the report said.

The purchase was approved by a senate defence committee on 13 Oct.

Finmeccanica is Italy’s biggest military contractor.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Lego Ready for Blastoff

Danish toymaker will provide a symbolic link between Earth and space

One of Lego’s iconic figurines will be on board the space shuttle discovery when it blasts off in its final mission from Cape Canaveral next year.

The event marks the signing of a three-year partnership between the Billund-based toymaker and Nasa aimed at inspiring children into science, technology, engineering and math.

The company has invested many years of cooperation and research with educators and child development specialists,” said president of Lego Education Jacob Kragh. “The Lego Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. Our partnership with Nasa will help us in this mission,” he added.

In February 2011 more than a dozen Lego activities will be flown to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts will build Lego models, complete educational activities, and record the results.

“These projects not only foster creativity but also instill in the young builders a real sense of the engineering and design principles that NASA uses every day,” said Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for Education. “Fun learning activities like these can help inspire kids to become the next generation of explorers.”

Activities will include the exploration of daily life on the ISS and the effect of microgravity on various simple machines.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Neo-Nazi Takes Seat in Local Swedish Council

A newly elected municipal council representative from a neo-Nazi nationalist party started his first day as an elected official in western Sweden with a lesson on the ABCs of democracy.

Before the lesson, Daniel Höglund, who is also the leader of the Party of Swedes (Svenskarnas parti, SVP), appeared pleased to take part in the class.

“Good,” he said before the lesson on Thursday.

“This is totally new for me.”

In the 2010 general elections, the SVP won 102 votes, or 2.8 percent, in the Grästorp municipal elections in western Sweden’s Västra Götaland county, giving the party its sole seat in any elected office in Sweden.

The Party of Swedes is typically described as a neo-Nazi party and its sees “the current chaos” as a result of democracy. It wants to replace democracy with another governmental system.

In the meantime, Höglund intends to follow all political rules that apply to an elected city council member.

“We have ambitions in the long run,” said Höglund.

The party is formerly known as the People’s Front (Folkfronten) and was founded by members of the former National Socialist Front (Nationalsocialistisk front, NSF), of which Höglund was also one of the two leaders, in November 2008.

At the time it dissolved, NSF was the largest neo-Nazi political party in Sweden. It became a political party on April 20th 1999, the 110th birthday of Adolf Hitler.

The Party of Swedes’ win is its first-ever in party history. The last time an extreme-right white nationalist party held elected office in Sweden was nearly 70 years ago during the Second World War.

In addition to the Party of Swedes, the Sweden Democrats also won a seat in the last election, but its seat remained empty at Thursday’s meeting after the party’s representative resigned.

An extremely discreet level of security was discernable outside the concert hall where the meeting was held, but no protesters were present. The meeting covered only the election. The budget and other decisions will be tabled on November 25th.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Nightmare Scenario of Dutch Referendum Returns to Haunt EU

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — The nightmare scenario of another referendum on a change to the EU treaty in the Netherlands, five years after the country rejected the bloc’s proposed constitution, could return to haunt European leaders, with the hard-right Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders on Tuesday (2 November) announcing it is considering proposing just such a vote.

The announcement comes days after the opposition Socialist Party also called for a referendum. The SP was one of the leaders of the successful No campaign in 2005 that defeated the EU constitution in the country.

MP Louis Bontes of the anti-immigrant PVV, which is part of the governing coalition pact, said his faction in the parliament may push for a referendum if the penalties for countries in breach of new EU fiscal rules are not strict enough.

According to the deputy, the PVV is to propose a specific treaty change itself and not wait for EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy to come back to the European Council in December with fresh proposals for changes, as he was tasked to do by EU premiers and presidents last Friday.

The party has yet to outline what changes it will suggest, but they could include specific provisions for tough penalties for spendthrift EU member states going beyond what EU leaders had been willing to countenance.

If the party’s proposals are not accepted, then will then consider pushing for a referendum on the matter.

“Then we will ask the citizens whether they are prepared to impose an obligation for countries like Greece and Spain in return for financial help,” he said, according to Dutch press reports.

The left-wing Socialist Party, one of the leaders of the No campaign in 2005 against the EU constitution, claiming that the dud EU charter had favoured the interests of businesses over citizens, has already endorsed the idea that another referendum should be called.

On Friday, MP Harry Van Bommel, the party’s spokesman for EU affairs and the deputy chair of the parliament’s standing committee on the same subject, said that if a treaty change is approved by the European Council, it will call for a referendum.

“We are very happy to have the support of the PVV in our push for a referendum,” he told EUobserver, “and that they are willing to look into the issue as well.”

Mr Van Bommel was keen to stress that his party’s opposition to the treaty change was for different reasons to that of the PVV.

“They are more concerned that we not pay out to poorer countries whereas we are more worried that the proposed changes limit a nation’s policy space in the social arena,” he explained.

He said that with the two parties backing the idea, the passage of a referendum proposal in parliament hinged on the support of the largest opposition group, the Labour Party, which sits in opposition with the further left SP, both of which have yet to pronounce on the issue.

“It all depends on the Labour party,” Mr Van Bommel said. “If the Labour Party backs us, then we have a parliamentary majority. If they don’t, it’s the opposite.”

He said he does not expect the Labour Party to offer any firm commitment before President Van Rompuy reports back in December.

The governing conservative liberals of the VVD and the centre-right Christian Democrats have rejected the referendum idea.

Under the proposed new EU rules, Brussels will watch over the spending decisions of all EU states to make sure they are “competitive.” Eurozone governments that get into debt too deeply will have stiff punishments meted out to them.

Leaders were petrified that any major change to the EU treaties would set off a chain of referendums in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and possibly elsewhere, which they are convinced they would lose, as voters have their say on how leaders should have handled the economic crisis.

The Dutch prime minister and the other leaders last Friday signed off on a treaty amendment only so long as the change envisaged was “small, small, small — the smallest possible,” according to a Danish diplomat, “in order to ensure there is no possibility of referendums.”

EU President Herman Van Rompuy has been tasked to go away and come up with a “surgical” — perhaps just two-line — incision to the EU treaty by December.

One national diplomat described to this website the unwritten anti-referendum pact reached at the EU summit: “The move was specifically formulated to ensure that there is no possibility whatsoever that there can be any referendums. Whether this will work or not, I don’t know.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Protesters Rally Against Pope’s Visit to Spain

Thousands of activists rallied Thursday in Barcelona against a weekend visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Spain, attacking the Church on multiple fronts including child sexual abuse by priests.

“Jo no t’espero” (“I’m not waiting for you” in Catalan) declared banners carried by a crowd of more than 2,000 people in the Sant-Jaume Square in the historic part of this Mediterranean port city.

“Children welcome, priests flee,” said one placard carried by a child, referring to the child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide but largely spared Spain.

“I am here because this is a secular state and I want to defend it,” said one activist, Nuria Barrachina, a 34-year-old office worker who was there with her husband.

“I don’t like priests,” added 62-year-old Sebastian Carbajal.

“Once and for all the Spanish government should separate Church and state,” he said. Carbajal called on the government to end an option on income tax forms that lets taxpayers give 0.7 percent of their taxes to the Church.

Gloria Lopez, a 35-year-old teacher, said she believed half of the taxes paid in Spain went to the Roman Catholic Church. “There is Catholic propoganda everywhere because they have got the money we give them.”

The pontiff travels to Santiago de Compostela, one of Catholicism’s holiest sites, on Saturday before continuing to Barcelona to consecrate Antonio Gaudi’s iconic unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia church.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Saudis Discuss Buying Tanks From Spain, No Deal Signed

A senior Saudi Arabian official discussed buying Spain’s Leopard 2E tanks here Tuesday but no deal was signed for a contract reportedly worth up to three billion euros, a Spanish government official said.

Visiting Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the Saudi assistant defence minister, discussed the possible contract in a meeting with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the official told AFP.

Saudi Arabia “showed interest in the acquisition of battle tanks and Spain believes it has the tanks Saudi Arabia needs in terms of quality and competitive price,” the official said.

No decision on the contract would be taken during this visit, however, the official said.

“We hope that the Spanish military industry can meet Saudi Arabia’s needs but other countries are interested (in the Saudi contract),” the official added.

Spain was working to conclude a deal and negotiations could last weeks or months, the source said, adding that another Saudi delegation would visit to assess the tanks’ technical specifications.

Prince Khaled arrived in Spain Monday and met with King Juan Carlos before seeing the Spanish prime minister Tuesday. He is making the trip in place of his father, Saudi Defence Minister and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz, who diplomats say is unwell.

The daily El Pais said last week that the talks could lead to Spain’s biggest-ever military export deal.

El Pais underlined however that signing the contract would be conditional on approval from Germany’s Kraus-Maffei and Rheinmetall group, which holds the patents for the Leopard.

A defence industry union official told AFP last week there was a possibility of a deal on the tanks but nothing concrete yet.

Raul Alvarez, who is in charge of the defence industry sector of the major union Comisiones Obreras, said any sale could involve around 200 of the 2E combat tanks, a variant of Germany’s Leopard adapted by the Spanish army and built in Spain by General Dynamics-Santa Barbara.

The Saudis signed a military cooperation agreement with Spain in 2008, which up to now has mainly been limited to training Saudi pilots on the Eurofighter at its southern air base of Moron.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Spain: Fifa Investigates Pact With Qatar for World Cup

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 28 — The general director of the committee for Spain and Portugal’s bid to host the 2018 Football World Cup, Miguel Angel Lopez, acknowledged that Fifa opened a preliminary investigation to ascertain whether there was a pact with the candidature of Qatar, which is hoping to host the 2022 Word Cup, for a trade of votes, as reported today by daily newspaper Marca.

In statement to the Efe agency, Lopez guaranteed full cooperation to Fifa during the investigation and stated that he fully believed that the investigation “will end in a puff of smoke because there was no wrongdoing, nor any agreement with other candidatures”.

The director of the Spanish/Portuguese candidature minimised the importance of the investigation, which in his opinion does not influence the chances of the two countries of hosting the 2018 World Cup event: “What is important is that we did our work with top level stadiums, communications and transport which are already available and unquestionable organisation skills”. Fifa’s executive Committee, which met today and will finish work tomorrow in the Zurich offices, will decide on December 2 what countries will be awarded the 2018 World Cup. The list of countries also includes England, Russia, and Holland/Belgium.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Spain: Controversy Grows Around 10-Year-Old Mother

The Public Prosecutor’s office in Seville has opened an investigation into case of the 10-year-old Rumanian girl, who gave birth on October 26th in a hospital in Jerez de la Frontera.

The family has so far avoided all contact with the social services, but now the authorities want to know exactly how long the girl has been in Spain, whether she has been attending school since she has been here and whether she received the proper medical care during the latter stages of her pregnancy.

José Chamizo, the public defender for Andalusia, with special responsibility for children, said it was important to “inform and advise those of gypsy or Rumanian origin” living in Spain of the risks of a pregnancy at such a young age, which could have been life-threatening to the mother.

Chamizo also believes that the girl will need support from a psychologist to come to terms with the “difficulties” of becoming a mother at such a young age, and said it was important for the social services to remain in close contact with the girl, without separating her from her child.

The Rumanian embassy in Spain has expressed its indignation at claims by the girl’s mother this week that her daughter’s pregnancy was “nothing to get excited about” and that child pregnancies were “normal” in her country. Sources within the embassy confirm that the comments have left them “upset and surprised by the image of Rumania being portrayed” by this family.

On behalf of the Rumanian community in Spain, the embassy spokesperson has explained that the news of a 10-year-old giving birth “has caused as much surprise in Rumania as it has here” in Spain and that it is certainly “not a normal occurrence”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Sweden: King Won’t Sue Publisher Over Tell-All Book

Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and the Royal Court have decided not to sue Lind & Co, the publisher of the book filled filled with previously unpublished details about the King’s private life.

Swedes flocked to bookstores Thursday when the unofficial, tell-all biography “Carl XVI Gustaf — the reluctant monarch” (“Carl XVI Gustaf — Den motvillige monarken”) — the first of its kind in Sweden — went on sale on Thursday, providing details of wild parties and affairs with young women.

“We will not continue to pursue this,” Royal Court press director Nina Eldh told Aftonbladet on Friday.

She added that it was the King’s own choice to address the assembled press corp in Hunneberg outside Trollhättan on Thursday following the end of the elk hunt. In addition, he prepared what he would say by himself.

“The king is a wise man. They were his own words and what he wanted to say about this matter,” said Eldh.

According to Eldh, the court will not open legal proceedings against the authors, adding she believed it was important for the king to speak up about it.

“It shows his strength that he is going about ‘business as usual.’ He held the press conference despite the fact that 58 journalists showed up instead of five. I think it is admirable,” she said.

When asked whether it would have been possible for a member of the King’s large staff to read the book before he spoke, Eldh noted that he only received the book on Wednesday and that he will likely not comment further on the book.

Shelves were empty in a number of bookstores across Stockholm and the publisher reportedly decided to print an additional batch of 20,000 copies.

“We had ordered in 100 copies, but they ran out in an hour or two. “It’s quite unusual to sell so many books in such a short period of time,” Nicklas Björkholm, the head of the Hedengrens Book Store in the heart of the Swedish capital, told AFP.

The three authors of the book, journalists Thomas Sjöberg, Deanne Rauscher and Tove Meyer, claim to provide a picture of what the king “is like as a person and how he is perceived by the people in his entourage.”

They detail his youth and accession to the throne at the age of 27, but a large portion of the book’s 338 pages are dedicated to describing the king and his friends’ constant partying and playing around with young women.

It was “girls à la carte for the king gang,” the authors write, relying largely on anonymous sources to describe numerous indiscretions, including with Army of Lovers lead singer Camilla Henemark, who they say had a year-long affair with the monarch at the end of the 1990s.

“She knew Queen Silvia knew, but also that there was a risk that it wouldn’t stop there. She was afraid she would become Sweden’s most hated woman if her affair with the country’s monarch became publicly known,” the book says of Henemark.

The book also describes how Sweden’s head of state put himself in danger by partying at dubious clubs, one of them in Stockholm owned by an ex-con, reportedly one of the main sources for the book.

Anticipation ahead of the release had been building for weeks in Sweden, with rumours of the book’s scandalous content circulating, but few actual details leaking out in advance.

The authors have hinted to media they withheld the juiciest details from the public eye —- for now.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Switzerland Ups Counter Cyber Terrorism Measures

The federal Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance (MELANI) employs a new tool to vet .ch websites used or infiltrated by hackers or foreign governments seeking to steal data for criminal, financial or political gain. A report issued this week by Bern says that MELANI has uncovered 145 infected sites since April, which have since been blocked.

With no respect for frontiers and about as easy as an invisible sniper to pinpoint, cyber espionage has reached a level of sophistication and intrigue that would make John Le Carré’s head spin.

The trend might also be challenging the author’s vocabulary. As hacking continues to rise, so does the lexicon of weapons used to infiltrate computers all over the world.

“Blasters”, “sassers”, “slammers”, “dialers”, “buzus” and “phishing” are just some of the tools used to cripple IT networks, or help themselves to credit card numbers, passwords, business secrets, email accounts, mobile phone numbers, not to mention cash.

In an effort to tackle the growing trend in cyber espionage, Switzerland’s Reporting and Analysis Centre for Information Assurance (MELANI) has quietly been vetting .ch sites for signs of hacking.

A “new tool” — similar to anti-virus software, which searches for suspect code fragments — is used to uncover bogus sites or those that have been compromised.

Officials said earlier this week: “A first analysis of the months June to August 2010 shows that MELANI was able to identify 145 infected cases in over 237,000 websites checked.”

“We don’t think that it’s a serious issue for Switzerland overall, but we know that some small companies have problems with their IT security. Sometimes when these websites are hacked, the webmaster doesn’t even know they’ve been hacked,” MELANI deputy head, Max Klaus, told Swisster.

Of the infected sites: “In most of the cases it was a java script that was implemented and if you surf these sites then you might get a Trojan on your machine. ‘Drive by infections’, we call them,” he said.

Suspicion that a Swiss Internet address is being misused to obtain sensitive data or disseminate malicious software allows MELANI the option of blocking the Internet address through SWITCH, the registrar for .ch domains.

Tracking down the perpetrators however, is far more difficult. “Sometimes we are able to find out where the server is, but it doesn’t mean that the hacker is in the same country. It’s one of the major problems that we face,” said Klaus.

MELANI also referred to the increasing concerns of cyber warfare. “Data is often obtained unlawfully for purely financial and criminal interests, but also as part of government-condoned espionage,” the centre said.

And while Klaus declined to reveal which foreign countries were involved, international IT security training company Spy-Ops estimated last year that “some 140 countries and more than 50 terrorist and criminal/extremist groups were developing cyber weapons and espionage capabilities”.

“Business enterprises and public authorities are at special risk,” the centre added, or as one IT security expert working in LA colourfully put it: “We have unsecured companies that are the equivalent of 14-year-olds driving cars.”

Fortunately major companies or state administration in Switzerland appear to have avoided infection in this regard, according to MELANI.

In meantime, prevention remains the best method to protect your individual or business site. Klaus advises that “a serious webmaster has to check his source code frequently and of course you need a well-designed website. Badly designed searching fields for instance, mean that it’s easier for hackers to infiltrate malicious code.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Fear Peddlers Hobbling Europe

The new far right not only exerts a growing influence on national governments, it is also organising at a European level and could soon weigh heavily on the very workings of the EU, warns French columnist Bernard Guetta.

It should have made the headlines, but it didn’t. Meeting on 23 October in Vienna, representatives of five of Europe’s new far-right parties [the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, the Danish People’s Party, the Italian Northern League, the Slovak National Party and the Sweden Democrats] decided to campaign for a referendum on Turkish accession to the EU.

For the moment they have simply announced their intention, and the task they have set themselves will not be easy. Under the terms for citizens’ initiatives in the Lisbon Treaty, the campaign for a referendum has to meet a number of conditions, some of which are very vague. One key requirement is the presentation of a petition with one million signatures from a “substantial number of member countries,” and these signatures have yet to be collected. But if a referendum were to take place now, there is no doubt that a majority of the citizens of the EU would vote “no” to Turkish accession.

The prospect of this initiative will be a comfort to national governments who do not want Turkey to join, and act as an additional brake to enlargement. Negotiations with Turkey, which are almost at a complete standstill, will be further compromised, because at a time when Islam-baiting has become an easy vote-winner, no one wants the extreme right to instrumentalise European direct democracy and hog the limelight on a theme that will garner support from voters across the political spectrum. Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders have broken the mould.

The plan for referendum has not made the headlines, but it should for two reasons. First and foremost, the time has come to evaluate the danger posed by this new nationalist and Islamophobic threat that is gaining ground everywhere in Europe, and which has little in common with the small-time crypto-facists of yesteryear. In some European countries, the extreme right has close to 25% of the vote, and where it has yet to reach this level, it already posts double-digit scores.

Buoyed by a wave of social discontent that has swept across the continent, it is in the process of mounting a platform that brings together the defence of the welfare state, an aspiration for protectionism, and an attachment to liberal values that are supposedly threatened by Muslims. Represented by pleasantly urbane leaders, who appear wholly contemporary, it has attracted a hefty swathe of the working-class and urban youth vote.

It has also demonstrated a significant tactical ability that is no longer confined to brass-knuckle politics: to wit, the clever manoeuvres in Sweden and Italy, the stereotypical moulds broken by Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, and its appropriation of the procedural innovation offered by Lisbon, which it is the first to use.

In other words, the new extreme right is only just beginning to upset the balance of power in the EU’s 27 member states, and that is not all. The second problem is that it will also seriously complicate how the EU works: in Parliament where it continues to win more seats, and in the Council and the Commission where its increased influence on national governments, which now depend on it to sustain their majorities, will soon be apparent. Not only will it undermine the compromises between left and right, which are essential to the running of the Union, but it will also fight to block any advance towards European federalism, which it wants ditched with a restoration of national borders and the paradise lost of strong protective nation states.

We too can petition to create a European democracy

The plan for the referendum has not made the headlines, but it should, because it will add to a climate of mistrust that could ultimately stymie the development of Europe. Fear of Islam could deprive us of a historic opportunity to build bridges with Turkey, and in so doing demonstrate our support for democracy and secular government in the world’s most dynamic and Muslim country. If it prevails, it will limit our access to an important developing market, and more importantly undermine the credibility of a positive model for Middle Eastern countries, which are increasingly drawn to political Islamism.

Fear which identifies the post-war social compromise with the borders of nation-states is now the main obstacle to the construction of a federal union that will be needed if we are to exert any influence in a century where the mid-sized powers of the past will now be ignored.

Fear has prevented us from recognising that we too can petition Europe’s institutions to create a European democracy where the Commission would be controlled by a parliamentary majority. In so doing, we could re-establish a public power that has the capacity to put an end to the dominance of capital over labour, and transform the eurozone into a political entity that will ensure the continued enlargement of the union. But we are blinded and paralysed by fear, and therefore it comes as no surprise that the parties who have made fear their core business are fast gaining ground.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]



Ticket Fraud in Copenhagen

Six people arrested and six kiosk owners charged with fraud

Police have unveiled a potentially huge case involving counterfeit tickets for use on buses and trains in greater Copenhagen.

Three people have been arrested in the Turkish city of Izmir, where a printing house is said to have specialised in printing fake Danish two-zone ‘klippekort’ tickets.

“We can’t comment on the magnitude of the case yet, but it looks serious,” police spokesman Flemming Poulsen told public broadcaster DR.

In September, Danish tax officials intercepted a packet sent from Turkey containing 9,600 counterfeit klippekort valued at a total of 1.3 million kroner.

Police have so far raided seven kiosks in Copenhagen and the fake tickets in six of them. The owners of all six kiosks have now been charged with fraud.

Detectives have also arrested one person in Frederiksværk and one in Copenhagen suspected of masterminding the fraud plan. Both reportedly have family ties to Turkey.

The fake cards can be identified by the missing halo above the letter ‘å’ in the word ‘på’ on the back of the card — presumably due to the Turkish printing house having difficulties printing Danish letters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Sexual Predators’: Gang of Asian Men Weep as They Are Jailed for 32 Years for Grooming Girls as Young as 13

A gang of Asian ‘sexual predators’ were jailed yesterday for abusing white girls as young as 12.

The five men preyed on their victims over several months and threatened them with violence if they refused their advances.

One of the men branded his victim a ‘white bitch’ when she resisted, while a second smirked: ‘I’ve used you and abused you’.

The men, all British-born Pakistanis, attacked the four girls in play areas, parks and in the back of their cars, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

They gave them gifts and introduced them to their friends. The girls were abused so frequently that after many months it ‘became a way of life’.

The girls, who were being monitored by social services, were eventually rescued by police and removed from their homes amid growing concerns for their safety.

Two of the men wept in the dock yesterday as they were jailed.

Judge Peter Kelson QC told them: ‘I’ve listened to the backdrop of some of you sobbing — I have to say your weeping cuts no ice with me at all.

‘You had what you regarded as your fun, now you will take your punishment.’

The five, Umar Razaq, 24, Razwan Razaq, 30, Zafran Ramzan, 21, Adil Hussain, 20, and Mohsin Khan, 21, were found guilty of a string of sexually related offences against the girls, one aged 12, two aged 13 and one aged 16.

Ramzan was found guilty of raping the 16-year-old girl in her own home, and the other four were found guilty of sexual activity with a child.

Umar Razaq was jailed for four and a half years, while the judge gave Razwan Razaq 11 years.

Ramzan was jailed for nine years, and Hussain and Khan both received four years. All five were placed on the sex offenders register. Three further men were cleared.

The attacks took place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, during 2008, the court was told. Khan, a mortgage adviser who owned a BMW, described his victim as a ‘little stick’ who looked as if she had not reached puberty.

Despite this he told her he loved her and would spoil her like a ‘princess’.

During the seven-week trial the jury were told how the men drove around the streets looking for girls. The teenagers believed they were in relationships with the much older men.

On one occasion Umar Razaq tried to pull the clothes off one of the 13-year-olds.

When she resisted he pulled her hair and called her a ‘white bitch’.

On another occasion Umar

introduced the girl to his brother Razwan who had sex with her in his car.

Afterwards he told her: ‘I’ve used you and abused you.’ When Ramzan was asked by police what age he was attracted to he later replied: ‘As long as they are not too young and they’re legal, that’s it.’

The authorities were alerted

after some changes were noted in the behaviour of the victims and they were removed from their homes.

Joyce Thacker, director of Rotherham’s children and young people’s services, said the girls were under child protection plans following family breakdowns or other issues with their behaviour.

‘When we pieced together a map of what was happening we stepped in very quickly to move these girls to a place of safety outside Rotherham,’ she said.

‘It started off as a grooming exercise by the men who became friendly with the girls, gave them gifts and introduced them to their friends.

‘When they got used to being abused it just became a normal way of life for the girls. It is akin to self-harm.

‘It was very dangerous. The girls could have faced death if the men weren’t getting what they wanted.’

She said the girls’ parents bore some of the responsibility but they were in a difficult position and at a loss to do something about their children’s ‘alternative’ lifestyle.

Detective Sergeant Dave Walker, who led the inquiry, said: ‘One was only 12 when she met one of the men and started smoking cannabis and drinking and coming in late at night.

‘As it escalated the defendants were becoming more aggressive to the girls.

‘We basically have a group of young men who think it is all right to abuse young girls and they just groomed them and isolated them from their families.’

All four girls are now back in mainstream education. The three youngest are taking GCSEs and the eldest is at college.

Mr Walker added: ‘We don’t know what the future holds for them but it will be a lot better than it was.’

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: “Radicalisation Via Youtube”? It’s Not So Simple

by Jonathan Githens-Mazer

There are real lessons to take from the Roshonara Choudhry case — but we’re in danger of missing them

The revelations over the stabbing of Stephen Timms MP are shocking. This was a horrific criminal act that must be unequivocally condemned. In its wake, we are left to try to make sense of what it says about “radicalisation”. According to the transcripts published in the Guardian, Roshonara Choudhry carried out the stabbing because she held Timms personally accountable for voting in favour of the Iraq war. Her concern over the war drove her to seek out a website such as RevolutionMuslim and to subsequently download the Anwar al-Awlaki lectures.

Segments of the media and thinktank land have proclaimed that this was ‘radicalisation through the internet’, that Choudhry acted because radical preaching on the internet told her to. This is an oversimplified explanation that offers more populist hot air than meaningful insight. To claim that the lectures ‘radicalised’ her into committing violence makes no sense. She was going down this path to begin with — at most we can say that these resources “buttressed her resolve”, enabled her to continue to thinking along these disastrous lines. If the lectures alone have the power to radicalise, why is it that more people aren’t committing violence after listening to them?

I am not arguing that Awlaki’s lectures should not have been taken down from YouTube — it’s just that this is the kind of political sop meant to make people feel better, rather than an action that actually addresses the problem. There’s a growth industry in “experts” who pontificate about “internet radicalisation” — and fingers will point to this case, along with others such as Nicky Reilly and the Exeter bombing — but this superficial analysis really doesn’t properly capture what’s going on here.

So what are the substantial lessons from this case?

First, we can definitively put to rest Tony Blair’s claims that foreign policy isn’t linked to terrorism at home. We can’t say that Blair’s analysis caused Timms to be stabbed, but we can say that this wishful thinking has been proven inaccurate.

Second, the transcripts elucidate the dangers of internalised political-religious outlooks. It is quite telling that Choudhry said that she only prayed at home, and talked to no one about what she was thinking or planning. For groups that I work with in my research into this area, this is the No 1 danger sign — being political but not participating in politics; not attending large scale gatherings of Muslims with groups that may (or may not) be Islamically inspired in character, but withdrawing from all forms of political engagement. This contradicts many of the claims of those who brand organisations like the MCB and mosques such as East London and North London Central Mosque as dangerous. It is exactly these entities which have been proven to help to channel anger about foreign policy away from this internalised, isolating and potentially dangerous way of thinking about issues into heated, heartfelt, and challenging but ultimately constructive wider political debates. If you cut off these constructive release valves, these problems will only get worse. This was exactly the kind of thinking that sat at the heart of Prevent thinking and the Home Office Channel project when they were first conceived. At the start, Prevent wasn’t about surreptitious traffic cameras in Muslim neighbourhoods. The precursors to Prevent, in activities such as the Muslim Contact Unit, were about empowering, through shared agendas and partnership, Muslim communities to address and tackle exactly these kinds of isolated individuals. Yet many in Muslim communities now doubt the government’s commitment to real and equal partnership. Potential partners are also under the threat of political harassment from those who put about unproven and emotional ideas ahead of realities such as those outlined above.

Lastly, because these individuals are so isolated, it is almost impossible to predict and prevent this kind of incident from happening. Let’s be honest, if it wasn’t Awlaki’s YouTube lectures, it would have been something else. Ultimately, blaming one set of lectures, or modelling from one specific experience, misses the wider question — how do we understand the context in which someone feels that this heinous crime is the right course of action? Unless this point is actually addressed, we can expect occasional lone wolf attacks like this in the future. To this extent, claims of “radicalisation via video” offer little insight but merely act as an easy crutch for those who don’t really deal with the issues at hand.

[From the readers comments section]

Questorade 4 November 2010 6:49pm

Jonathan

Your academic centre at Exeter University, the European Muslim Research Centre, is funded by two bodies.

One is Islam Expo. The other is the Cordoba Foundation

Islam Expo was founded by two men, both of whom were on the Shura Council of the Muslim Association of Britain, a Muslim Brotherhood aligned body. One of those men was named by Panorama as a founder member of Hamas.

The Cordoba Foundation is run by another man who was also on the Shura Council, and who father runs the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq.

Do you think that this might have any bearing on the message that you peddle with every article: namely that the Government ought to work more closely Islamist groups?

[JP note: Here follow some of the pages from his European Muslim Research Centre at Exeter University which he co-directs with Robert Lambert. Also note a quote in the Times, 4 November 2010, by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz, which appears to suggest he has funded this centre:

“But my family are very much embedded in the system here, we feel very at home with your traditions, cooked breakfasts, teas, we go on trips to museums, we are going to Windsor Castle. I don’t wear tweed or a kilt, but I have been to Scotland, I have funded two major Islamic centres in Edinburgh and Cambridge and another small centre in Exeter.”

European Muslim Research Centre [About Us]

http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/emrc/about.php

Our core value is that a growing European Muslim population makes significant and valuable contributions to the safety and cohesion of European communities and countries and to the well being of Europe as a whole.

We reject, as fundamentally flawed, the position currently held by too many commentators: that European Muslims, Islam and strict adherence to Islam poses a threat to the safety, cohesion and well being of communities and countries in Europe.. The research undertaken and sponsored by the EMRC builds upon this value — seeking to highlight and constructively engage with communities, practitioners and policy makers where these contributions seem especially relevant and valuable to the development of 21st century Europe. This means that research conducted by the EMRC is ‘action’ oriented — seeking not only to make methodologically rigorous academic contributions to understandings of the roles that Muslim communities play in European society, but also engaging with practitioners and policy makers to translate this work into practice. The EMRC research agenda is posited on the belief that overly negative or non-constructive analyses of the contribution of Muslim communities to European society, if left unchallenged, may create the conditions necessary by which these pernicious ideas become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We therefore aim to share with European citizens a far more optimistic and we would argue far better informed analysis of the roles played by their Muslim neighbours. We will do so by contributing research findings that are based on in-depth engagement with Muslims themselves, so that Muslim voices can be heard on their own terms, not relegated or obscured by outside and top-down commentators. We will therefore be joining a small but important body of academics who have been working tirelessly to the same end for a number of years. We acknowledge their influence and have every intention of building partnerships with them and of highlighting the results of research projects they have undertaken.

However, in addition, we have an original contribution to make. EMRC’s core guiding principles derive from the findings of close engagement with Muslim communities in the UK’s capital city over a long period and to a lesser extent with Muslim communities in other UK and European towns and cities. In contemporary London we assess that the overwhelming majority of Muslims who interpret Islam as directing and informing their public political behaviour as well as their personal and private behaviour do so to the benefit of the City and their fellow Londoners. These benefits, in our experience, extend across many fields of civic conduct but most especially in regard to security and social cohesion, in London and beyond. We therefore admit to being ‘London-centric’ and although this is a valuable perspective it is one we aim to expand in the future, not least by working with key partners in other UK and European towns and cities.

As a Centre, we share communities’ concerns with agendas that only view Muslims through lenses of ‘security’ or ‘cohesion’ — agendas which, unchecked, can serve to stigmatise, alienate and isolate inhabitants of the state who happen to be Muslim. The EMRC is particularly concerned about the use of the “War on Terror” and/or counter-insurgency paradigms, as well as the blasé regard to the use of torture and the infringement of civil liberties as blunt and counter-productive tools for tackling terrorist threats. Moreover, we do not accept that Islamically inspired political thought or politics pose inherent threats to the West. In our experience radical Muslim leaders have often played valuable and undervalued roles in support of the values shared by fellow citizens of different faiths and no faith. Just as radical Christians interpret the New Testament as providing a positive framework for their public, political activity so too do many contemporary Muslims regard Islam as a basis for positive political engagement with national and local political institutions. Nor do we insist that all Muslims should feel this way about their religion — merely that there be space for those who do to be politically active.

For these reasons and more, we launch our first research report in January 2010: Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: a London case study . Both the content and the methodology chosen for the report illustrate our central purpose: to produce high quality, long-term empirical research on the experience of Muslims in European towns and cities. We have chosen the topic of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime for our first report because it has become a serious problem in many European towns and cities. In our assessment this topic require the same kind of urgent and thorough attention policy makers, public servants and researchers have afforded to the problems of racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia in recent years. Our starting point is London but we aim to compare and contrast experience here with experience in key towns and cities in the UK and across Europe throughout the new decade.

[Staff]

http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/emrc/staff.php

Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Co-Director

Jonathan first learned about the need for academics and public servants to support underprivileged minority communities from his parents and grandparents when growing up in Baltimore — like London a city with much wealth and more poverty and violence. He lived in a household where a sense of civic duty towards poor, victimised and less well educated neighbours was second nature. If it was his black neighbours who suffered most when Jonathan was growing up his grandparents came from Irish and Jewish immigrant families who had stories to tell themselves about their own experiences of oppression and disadvantage in Europe. For example, when still young Jonathan recalls how when watching a news report concerning Margaret Thatcher’s unyielding response to Bobby Sands’ hunger strike his grandmother was prompted to recount how in her youth she had heard stories from her own parents who vividly recounted being beaten by riding crops, wielded by Anglo-Irish landowners in Ireland who had utter distain for the local Irish population. That family story would give rise to Jonathan’s first research interest which culminated in a PhD awarded at the London School of Economics (LSE), subsequently published as Myths and Memories of the Easter Rising: Cultural and Political Nationalism in Ireland.

Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Co-Director

At the beginning of 2010 Robert was awarded a PhD for The London Partnerships: an Insider’s Analysis of Legitimacy and Effectiveness a dissertation which deals with partnerships between Muslim community groups and the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU), a police initiative in London. Until December 2007 Robert was a London police officer and the MCU was an initiative which he and a colleague conceived and undertook in the aftermath of 9/11. They described it as an antidote to the war on terror because it was a bottom-up grass roots project that ran counter to the global top-down military led ‘with us or against us’ approach adopted by George Bush and Tony Blair. Robert first learned about the benefits of police officers providing support for victimised minority communities from his grandfather who served in London’s Metropolitan Police from 1899 to 1924. Just as his grandfather saw Jewish and Irish Londoners unfairly stigmatised because they were wrongly conflated with terrorists so too did his father, a London printer and a British soldier, witness the outcome of sustained vilification of minorities when he entered the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to help rescue Jewish survivors at the end of the Second World War. Like many soldiers returning home to London from the horrors of the holocaust Robert’s father was a staunch supporter of a post war reforming Labour government that set great store by social justice and support for the underprivileged.

[Advisory Board]

http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/emrc/board.php

Anas Altikriti

Anas Altikriti is the Chief Executive of The Cordoba Foundation. Born in Iraq in 1968 to devout Muslim parents, he settled and was raised in the United Kingdom since the age of 2, offering him a unique perspective of a second generation Muslim with an insight into the challenges of being a British Muslim of Arab heritage. He lectured at Post-Graduate Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies for 12 years at Leeds University and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Political Studies at Westminster University in London. Anas Altikriti is a leading figure of the British Anti-War movement and was President of the Muslim Association of Britain in 2004, standing down to fight the European Parliamentary Elections. He succeeded in negotiating the release of three Christian Western hostages in Iraq in 2006, including Briton Norman Kember, and is active in mobilising young British Muslims towards more interaction and engagement with politics, media and social work as an effective means of countering extremism and fanaticism. On the international front, Anas Altikriti advises a number of Arab and Western governments and NGOs on various matters pertaining to dialogue and inter-relation issues, including conflict resolution, hostage negotiation, and general West-East relations. Anas Altikriti often comments in the mainstream and satellite media (both Arabic and English) and presents shows on Islam Channel and Al-Hiwar TV. He also contributes with articles in The Guardian’s Comment is Free, has a column on IslamOnLine.net and writes for a number of other blogs.

Dr Abdul Muhammed Bari MBE

Dr Abdul Bari is Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Dr Bari is an educationalist with a PhD and PGCE from King’s College London and a Management degree from the Open University. He has worked as an Air Force Officer, Researcher in Physics, Science Teacher and SEN specialist in London. He is former President of Islamic Forum Europe and is Chair of the East London Mosque Trust that includes London Muslim Centre. He is a trustee of Muslim Aid, a patron of the National Youth Agency and Ramphal Centre and a board member of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) Ltd. Dr Bari runs parenting courses and occasionally writes in newspapers, journals and community publications. He has authored several books on family and parenting and issues of youth and identity. These include: ‘Building Muslim Families’, ‘A Guide to Parenting’, and ‘Race, Religion and Muslim Identity in Britain’.

Rachel Briggs

Rachel Briggs is a Senior Research Fellow in the National Security and Resilience Department at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI). She is a researcher, writer and policy advisor working on radicalisation, preventing extremism, community tensions, community cohesion and human security. She is also an Associate of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and a Senior Honorary Research Associate at UCL. Part-time she is Director of the charity, Hostage UK, which is chaired by Terry Waite.

Rachel was formerly Head of International Strategy and Head of the Identity Programme at Demos, after having run the Risk and Security Programme at The Foreign Policy Centre. She writes regularly in the press, and has advised a number of companies and Government departments over the past 10 years. She is on the editorial board of the journal Renewal and RUSI Monitor, is a member of the Advisory Board of Wilton Park (an executive agency of the FCO), is on the Council of the Risk and Security Management Forum and is a member of the Advisory Board of STREET.

Professor Stuart Croft

Professor Stuart Croft joined Warwick University in January 2007 as Professor of International Security. Prior to that, he had been at the University of Birmingham for 18 years, latterly as Professor of International Relations, and he also served for three years as the Head of the School of Social Sciences. His work is in the field of security studies, and his latest book is Culture, Crisis and America’s War on Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2006). He is interested in constructivist and cultural accounts of security, as can be seen in the December 2006 special issue of the journal International Relations, which he guest edited; he also edited the special issue of Government and Opposition in the summer of 2007 on security and terrorism. From 2003, he was Director of the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) New Security Challenges Programme, a £4.5 million, five-year programme that supported 38 research projects based at a variety of UK universities. The latest stage of that work is a follow-on three year, £2.4 million programme of work examining concepts and practices of radicalization, funded by the ESRC, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the UK Foreign Office, that supports 9 distinct projects. Before that, he worked on a project funded by the ESRC on media representations of the war in Iraq, and with colleagues on an ESRC-funded project on the future of NATO. He has also had a NATO research grant, and grants from Nuffield, the Cadbury Trust and the British Academy. From January 2009, he became Chair of the British International Studies Association. He has been elected as an Academician in the UK Academy of Social Sciences, and as a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts.

Professor John Esposito

John L. Esposito is University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Professor of Islamic Studies and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Esposito specializes in Islam, political Islam from North Africa to Southeast Asia, and Religion and International Affairs. He is editor-in-chief of the four-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam and The Islamic World: Past and Present. His more than thirty five books include The Future of Islam, Who Speaks for Islam, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, Islam and Politics, Political Islam: Radicalism, Revolution or Reform?, Islam and democracy (with J. Voll). Many have been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Bahasa Indonesia, Urdu, European languages, Japanese and Chinese. A former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies and member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, he is ambassador for the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, member of the European Commission’s Network of Experts on Radicalization President of the Executive Scientific Committee for Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” (UNIOR)

“The Mediterranean, Europe and Islam: Actors in Dialogue.” Esposito is a recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s 2005 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion and of Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State and to governments, corporations, universities, and the media. In 2003 he received the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Esposito is widely interviewed or quoted in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and network news stations, NPR, BBC, and in media throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Andy Hull

Andy has worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research since June 2008. He ran the Secretariat for ippr’s independent, all-party Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. He leads the work on national and international security within ippr’s Global Change programme. Prior to joining ippr, he worked as a policy officer on community engagement and counter-terrorism for the Metropolitan Police Authority. Before this, he worked for the Metropolitan Police Service, managing an award-winning multi-agency project to reduce truancy, exclusion and youth crime in the London Borough of Southwark. As a regular media commentator, Andy has been interviewed on Channel 4 News, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme and BBC World Service and has written for The Guardian and The Times. Andy is currently on a short-term secondment to the Ministry of Justice, where he is coordinating the department’s ‘Security and the Legal Domain’ project on the role of legitimacy in national security strategy.

Fatima Khan

Fatima Khan is freelance consultant who has a wide range of experience of engaging with communities on issues of community safety and crime reduction. She has over 10 years of community development and working in the voluntary sector. Fatima is also the Vice Chair of the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF) a charity focusing on issues of security and safety affecting the Muslim community; she also co-leads the MSF’s Islamophobia work strand.

Dr Basheer M. Nafir

Basheer M. Nafi taught Islamic history and Islamic Studies at the Muslim College, London, and Birkbeck College, University of London, and is a senior research fellow at al-Jazeera Centre for Studies. A father of four, he lives with his family in Oxfordshire, U.K. He wrote the text for, and has supervised the making of a major documentary series on political Islam.

Dr Nafi has written extensively (in Arabic and English) on the history of Arab nationalism and the Palestinian Question, as well as modern Islam and Islamic intellectual history, including the history of Salafiyya, in various academic journals, including Islamic Studies, The Muslim World, Journal of Islamic Studies, Middle East Affairs Journal, The Arab Studies Quarterly, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Die Welt de Islams, Islamic Law and Society and Journal of Qur’anic Studies. He is also a contributor to the UNESCO World History project. His books include, Arabism, Islamism and the Palestine Question: 1908-1941 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998); The Rise and Decline of the Arab-Islamic Reform Movement (London: ICIT, 2000); Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century, co-editor, with S. Taji-Farouki (London: I B Tauris, 2005); Iraq: Contexts of Unity and Disintegration, in Arabic (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 2006); The Islamists, in Arabic (Beirut: al-Dar al-’Arabiyya, 2010).

Professor Tim Niblock

Professor Niblock is Emeritus Professor of Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, having been Professor of Arab Gulf Studies from 1999 to 2008 and Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) from 1999 to 2005. Prior to this he was Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Durham. His research interests cover a wide range of areas related to the politics, economics and international relations of the Arab and Islamic worlds. Of central concern have been the political economy of the states of the Arab world, the international relations of the Middle Eastern region, Islam and the state, and issues relating to civil society and democratisation in Arab and Islamic states. Most of his teaching in recent years has been at the postgraduate level, and the bulk of this has taken the form of PhD supervision. Geographically, his interests were strongest in North-East Africa at the start of his career, with a strong interest also in Iraq and Libya, but in recent years this has shifted towards the Arabian peninsula. His most recent books are The Political Economy of Saudi Arabia (Routledge, 2007), and Saudi Arabia: Power, Legitimacy and Survival (Routledge, 2006).

Oliver McTernan

Oliver McTernan is the co-founder and director of Forward Thinking, an organisation which empowers individuals and grassroots communities across the UK and to promote an inclusive peace process in the Middle East. Oliver has an established background in conflict resolution and interfaith relationships. He was a Visiting Fellow of the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs at Harvard University 2000 -2003. He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the UK Defence Academy. He was responsible for initiating the first post-conflict talks between NATO and the former Yugoslav government. His book Violence in God’s Name explores the role of religion in an age of conflict. He broadcasts regularly on the BBC.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: BAE ‘Held a Gun’ To Prime Minister’s Head Over Aircraft Carrier That Will Never Carry an Aircraft

Britain’s leading defence company ‘held a gun’ to David Cameron’s head to force him into buying a white elephant aircraft carrier,according to a damning letter released tonight.

BAE Systems threatened to close three shipyards, axe 5,000 jobs and warned that the UK would never build another major warship if the government axed plans for two new carriers.

A bombshell letter published yesterday revealed how the company held the government to ransom during the recent defence review.

The Prime Minister gave the green light to both carriers but one will be permanently mothballed or sold and the other will not carry strike aircraft for a decade.

Instead the Royal Navy will rely on the French for carrier strike capability until 2020 and will share resources after that.

The letter reveals that Mr Cameron was left with little choice because it would have cost more to axe the second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, than to build them both.

BAE boss Ian King told the Prime Minister that both carriers would cost £5.2 billion, but buying just one would be £4.8 billion, plus an extra £690 million of ‘rationalisation costs’, bringing the total to around £5.5 billion.

The letter says: ‘The cancellation of Prince of Wales would mean that production in all BAE Systems shipyards would cease at the end of 2012.

‘This means that the business would be unsustainable, and all three yards would have to close by early 2013, with the loss of more than 5,000 jobs in BAE Systems and many more across the UK in hundreds of companies in the supply chain.

‘In practice that means the end of the UK’s capability in complex warships.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: By-Election Ordered as Lying Former Labour Minister is Barred From the Commons for Three Years

Former immigration minister Phil Woolas lost his seat as an MP today after an election court ruled that he knowingly made false statements about an opponent in May’s general election.

The Labour MP is to be barred from the Commons for three years and the election contest for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat re-run.

A potentially awkward by-election now looms for the coalition which will need to decide if both the Lib Dems and Tories will field candidates in the re-run.

The specially convened election court had heard that the Labour MP stirred up racial tensions in a desperate bid to retain his seat.

His campaign team was said to have set out to ‘make the white folk angry’ by depicting an alleged campaign by Muslims to ‘take Phil out’.

But Mr Woolas said he would fight the ruling — the first of its kind in 99 years — and was seeking a judicial review.

Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins mounted the rare legal challenge over the statements made in a pamphlet and two mock newspapers distributed in the final stages of the election.

Mr Woolas won on May 6 by just 103 votes. After today’s ruling, his solicitor, Gerald Shamash, said on his behalf that he was instructing his legal team to seek a judicial review.

‘This election petition raised fundamental issues about the freedom to question and criticise politicians,’ he said.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Couple Left With a £200,000 Court Bill as Lying Maid Loses Her £750,000 Claim She Was ‘Trafficking’ Victim Kept as Slave

A maid who claimed she was kept as a slave could face prosecution for perjury after an employment tribunal ruled she made up her tale of appalling abuse, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Yoyoh Binti Salim Udin lost her £750,000 compensation claim after the panel concluded she was treated kindly by her employers and told ‘wicked lies’ to the hearing.

Last night the couple who she lived with said the Indonesian had made up the stories to be allowed to stay in the country.

The 40-year-old claimed she was slapped, strip-searched, made to sleep on the floor and locked up and had her passport confiscated by London-based millionaires Lina and Firas Chamsi-Pasha.

She said that she drank acid in an attempt to kill herself so she could escape 17-hour days as the Syrian couple’s slave.

But an employment tribunal rejected her claim for race discrimination and constructive dismissal and concluded she made up the story because of the ‘shame’ of being caught stealing from her employers.

Yesterday employment law expert Lawrence Davies, of the Equal Justice firm, said: ‘Tribunals are under a duty to report crimes, including perjury, to the police. In the light of their findings that the claimant gave grossly untruthful evidence on oath, that would appear to be the situation in this case.’

It can also be revealed that:

  • Salim Udin is thought to have cost the taxpayer nearly £1million in NHS bills, legal aid, tribunal costs, policing costs, free housing and other hand-outs.
  • As a supposed ‘trafficking victim’, she was given money and housing from a Government-funded project to help such people.
  • Her former employer, Mrs Chamsi-Pasha, remains on bail 18 months after being arrested at her home on suspicion of unlawful imprisonment, assault and threats to kill.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslim Student Leaders Say Changes to Tuition Fees in England Could Breach Islamic Rules on Finance, Which Do Not Permit Interest Charges.

The coalition government’s plans to raise tuition fees to up to £9,000 also include higher interest rates for repayments of loans.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies says this will make loans unusable for many Muslim students.

A government spokesman said these were “not commercial loans”.

As well as raising tuition fees, the proposals for university funding include changes to loan repayments — with some students set to pay more than at present.

Interest charges

Repayments will be structured so that higher-earning graduates are paying higher levels of interest rates, up to 3% above inflation.

Only those who earn below £21,000 will remain paying an effective zero rate of interest.

There are concerns that such interest charges are against Muslim teaching on finance and will prevent young Muslims from getting the finance needed to go to university.

“Many Muslim students are averse to interest due to teachings in the Islamic faith — such interest derails accessibility to higher education,” says Nabil Ahmed, president of the FOSIS student group.

According to FOSIS, changes to interest rates on loans “ignore the sensitivities of many Muslim students and greatly restrict their accessibility to higher education”.

There are different opinions within the Muslim community about whether such loans are acceptable under their faith — but Mr Ahmed says a “significant number” would be opposed.

‘Unethical’

A spokesman for the Business, Innovation and Skills department said student loans were not a form of commercial lending.

“The government heavily subsidises the student support system and will continue to do so — it does not, and will not in the future, make a profit from student support,” said the spokesman.

Mr Ahmed says there is a wider principle about the raising of interest rates and increasing debt for students, which he describes as “unethical”.

“People are already drowning in debt,” he says. “We don’t want people to be priced out of university.”

Under the government’s proposals, the loans to pay for the increased cost of university will be paid off over 30 years.

Mr Ahmed highlighted how this debt would stretch across generations.

Many students will be in their fifties when they finish paying for their degree courses — at which point they might then be expected to support their own children at university.

The government’s plans for university finance, presented to the House of Commons on Wednesday, prompted an occupation by students at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Student union leaders have warned of further protests, particularly against Liberal Democrat MPs accused of failing to keep promises that they would oppose any increase in fees.

But the government has defended the plans as “progressive” — arguing that it will make universities more affordable to poorer students.

Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said: “Our reforms will give our universities financial stability and the resources to provide a world-class education in an increasingly global market.

“Graduates will pay less each month than they do now. Part-time students will no longer be faced with unfair, upfront fees. And the poorest graduates will pay considerably less than they do today.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Sex Convictions: Girls Thought Abuse Was Normal

BEING at the receiving end of horrific abuse became “a way of life” for the three young Rotherham girls, according to a senior council officer.

Joyce Thacker, strategic director of Children and Young People’s Services at Rotherham Council, told The Star the three teenagers — two aged 13 and one aged 16 at the time — were “groomed” into believing they were in normal relationships.

Ms Thacker said: “The girls were led to believe it’s normal behaviour. It becomes a way of life and it’s really difficult for us to break that. When it becomes more serious, more aggressive, they can’t get out.”

Ms Thacker warned that, if police had not intervened, one of the girls could have been killed.

In late November 2008, when the abuse had been going on for months, one victim became scared after Umar Razaq punched her and pulled her hair. She told her social worker and the police acted fast, moving the girls out of Rotherham.

Detective Sergeant David Walker, of South Yorkshire Police, said: “We had been aware something was going on since the late summer.

“All these girls were subject to child protection plans, for other reasons, and other girls had named them as being involved with older men. But until we moved them out of Rotherham, they just denied it all. “The mentality was, ‘I won’t talk about my boyfriend’. That’s all part of the grooming process.”

The victims are now all in care in other areas, and have started taking their studies seriously.

But Ms Thacker said their experiences would stay with them forever.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Special Report: The ‘DIY Jihadists’ Paid for by Us… Roshonara Choudhry Supporters Are Living on Benefits

They refuse to apologise for their vile rant at the Old Bailey that made a mockery of our justice system.

Nor are they repentant over supporting the radical Muslim woman on trial there for trying to kill an MP in a knife attack.

As 21-year-old London University student Roshonara Choudhry was sentenced to life on Wednesday, they cursed the judge from the public gallery and hurled abuse at a terrified female juror wearing a Muslim headscarf, screaming ‘Shame on you, sister’.

The three agitators were then bundled out of court where, incredibly, were allowed to continue their poisonous rant. With faces twisted in fury, they waved banners saying ‘Islam will dominate the World’, yelled ‘British soldiers must die’, and screamed that the knifed Labour MP, Stephen Timms, should be killed.

Until now, they have been unidentified. But the Mail can reveal their names and that they operate at the centre of a dangerous organisation intent on bringing hard-line Islamic sharia law to Britain and flying the flag of Islam over Downing Street.

They warned me that Choudhry is only one of hundreds of home-grown ‘DIY jihadists’ — many female and some recently converted to Islam — prepared to die as martyrs.

I met two of the protesters in a coffee bar in Ilford, East London, after receiving a call from an intermediary within the fanatical group Islam4uk. I found that both are living on benefits, one claiming to suffer from chronic fatigue disorder, while they orchestrate an Islamic backlash against Britain.

Although both use Islamic pseudonyms — Abu Saalihah and Abu Abdullah — their birth names are Mohammed Shamsuddin and Mohammed Haroon Saleem. As Shamsuddin, 34, told me: ‘The majority of Muslims sympathise with our Sister Roshonara. They view her as their heroine now.

‘The Islamic websites and forums are full of messages of support for her and anger at the Old Bailey judge. Men and women are inflamed by the harshness of the sentence she was given.’

Shamsuddin and Saleem, along with a third radical, East London office administrator Abu Yahya, 27, (who refused to give his birth name) escaped scot free after the Old Bailey outrage despite some MPs’ demands for their arrest for contempt of court.

‘We were told by a police officer outside the court that the judge had sent us a message to say, “Don’t do this again and you’ll be all right”. I would have gone to prison for a week and was surprised I wasn’t sent there. I would happily have done so,’ said Shamsuddin, with a smile playing on his bearded face.

Saleem, 29, added: ‘It is going to happen again, I promise you.

‘We won’t stop. There are plenty of young Muslims who are angry and frustrated. They think they are treated as second-class citizens.

‘They want to take their fight on to the streets of Britain. It isgoing to get worse after this.’

[…]

The white working class are ‘riff raff’, they say, and non-Muslim women flaunt themselves as sex objects by putting on make up in the morning to attract men. As for the moderate Muslim Council of Britain, that is the puppet of Government ministers.

So why, I ask, did they shout abuse in a British court room at a woman juror from their own community? ‘It is unacceptable for one Muslim sister to condemn another,’ says Shamsuddin.

They may speak in moderate tones, but it is what they say that shocks.

These two radicals have never, so they say, trained at terror camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

They wouldn’t know how to put a bomb together (although they assure me plenty do and it is only a matter of time before one ‘gets through’).

Yet as they walk the streets of Britain with State money in their pockets and time to preach a divisive creed, it is hard not to conclude they are every bit as dangerous.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Sex Convictions: 32-and-a-Half Years Jail for “Sexual Predators”

FIVE Rotherham men who groomed three young girls for sex in car parks, cars and alleyways were today jailed for a total of 32-and-a-half years and branded “sexual predators” by a judge. The men — two brothers, their cousin and two other men — also had sex with the young girls — aged between 12 and 16 — in their homes. They were jailed at Sheffield Crown Court this morning.

Razwan Razaq, aged 30, of Oxford Street, Clifton, was jailed for 11 years after he was found guilty of having sex with two 13-year-old girls.

His younger brother Umar, 24, also of Oxford Street, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he was found guilty of engaging in sexual activity with a 13-year-old.

Their cousin — Mohammed Ramzan, 21, of Broom Grove, Broom — was sentenced to nine years for raping a 16-year-old girl and two counts of having sex with a 13-year-old.

Adil Hussain, 20, of Nelson Street, Clifton, Rotherham and Mohsin Khan, 21, of Haworth Crescent, Moorgate, were both jailed for four years for sexual activity with a 13-year-old.

Judge Peter Kelson QC branded them sexual predators and said he had no sympathy for them when some of them began weeping.

He said: “Your weeping cuts no ice with me. A few years ago you had what you regarded as your fun and now you are taking your punishment. “All five of you have been convicted of having sexual activity with a child.”

“The clue is in the title — this legislation concerns itself with child protection, perhaps to some extent protection from themselves but particularly from sexual predators like I find all five of you to be.”

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: Why Lambert and Githens-Mazer Are Wrong on Radicalisation

It seems increasingly trendy to believe that ‘non violent’ Islamists can be a bulwark against al-Qaeda in preventing terrorism in the west. Chief proponent of this thesis is Robert Lambert, director of the European Research Muslim Centre (ERMC). Along with Jonathan Githens-Mazer, his co-director at the EMRC, Lambert believes that Salafi and Ikhwani ‘street’ legitimacy and religious knowledge work as a safety valve in reducing the threat.

This is convenient, considering the ERMC receives all of its funding from Ikhwani-sympathetic organisations. The Cordoba Foundation, described by the Prime Minister in March 2008 as a ‘front for the Muslim Brotherhood’, donated £50,000 to the ERMC for the year 2009/10; and Islam Expo, whose registered directors and companies secretaries have a variety of links to the Brotherhood, another £50,000.

Director General of the OSCT, Charles Farr, appears to have bought into ‘Lambertism’. There is little other explanation for Farr’s attempt to reverse the government’s decision to ban foreign advocate of terrorism Zakir Naik coming into the UK (it is also significant that helping him come to this decision was another individual of dubious merits, Inayat Bunglawala, owner of the website domain Muslims4UK).

Yet once Lambert and Githens-Mazer’s ideas are held up to any proper scrutiny, their thesis quickly falls apart — for example, see their recent article for International Affairs titled ‘Why conventional wisdom on radicalization fails’. In an attempt to prove that ‘conventional wisdom’ (defined as either ‘a lack of integration, a lack of secularism, the existential threat posed by Islam to the West, or external influences from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East’ being the root causes) on radicalism has failed, Lambert and Githens-Mazer use a case study of three ideologically extreme brothers — Lamine, Ibrahim and Rahman Adam (aka Anthony Garcia).

According to Lambert and Githens-Mazer, ‘there was little doubt that Lamine Adam was the leader of the three, with Rahman and younger brother Ibrahim tagging along’. Compared to the highly ideological Lamine, who regularly proselytized jihadist rhetoric, the only notable thing about Rahman ‘was his silence…Rahman was far less vocal’. Yet it was Rahman who was sentenced to life for his role in the ‘fertiliser bomb’ cell, which discussed attacking a variety of targets, including shopping centres and nightclubs. Lambert and Githens-Mazer ask:

[W]hy should it have been someone [Rahman]…who was directly implicated in a terrorist plot, rather than his overtly ideological sibling?

It appears that Lamine posed the greatest threat; yet it wasn’t Lamine who would go on to commit a terrorist attack…Lamine could be drawn into lengthy discussions about Islamic practice and belief, whereas Rahman was drawn instead to “doing”, not “talking” or “thinking”…If conventional wisdom cannot properly explain the differences between the Adam brothers, then what explanatory value does conventional wisdom have in understanding terrorist violence?

Clearly then, they regard Lamine Adam as proof that ideology does not cause terrorism. Yet there is a slight problem with all this.

Both Lamine and Ibrahim Adam were placed under control orders in February 2006 because the Security Service assessed that ‘there were reasonable grounds to suspect that they were intending to engage in terrorism-related activities [that] involve assisting in fighting against western forces in Iraq or Afghanistan or training for such fighting’. Both men escaped their control order in May 2007, and neither has been re-captured.

It gets worse. Lamine actually introduced Rahman to Omar Khyam — head of the ‘fertiliser’ cell — and was repeatedly mentioned as an associate of those convicted during the trial. Al-Qaeda supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar testified that Khyam gave Lamine bomb-making instructions, and that:

[Lamine] said he wanted the formula because he wanted to do an operation himself in the UK. He didn’t know how to make a bomb. He said he wanted to do something with someone else as far as making a bomb and hitting a nightclub. [source available from the author]

Babar also said that Lamine shipped camping equipment to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003.

So Lambert and Githens-Mazer’s poster-boy turns out to be a suspected terrorist on the run from the authorities, who has been identified by a member of al-Qaeda as connected to one of the largest terrorism plots the UK has ever faced. As far as disclaimers go, these seem like awfully big ones to miss out.

Ibrahim, meanwhile, has turned up again recently — though not in a way that Lambert and Githens-Mazer may hope. He was recently identified by the Security Services as part of a significant terrorist network, and is currently in Pakistan attempting to obtain a false passport to return to the UK. Passport photographs of Ibrahim were discovered in an Oslo flat, following the arrest of an alleged terrorist cell in Norway. Security sources told the Daily Telegraph that they ‘have been aware of his involvement in terrorist circles’ and ‘there are concerns about his desire to return to Britain and engage in terrorist activity’.

Lambert and Githens-Mazer are quick to get excited when others apparently fail to offer ‘no evidence base’ for the argument that ideology may just have something to do with terrorism. But they have a pretty significant ‘evidence base’ problem here themselves. If ‘Lambertism’ is OSCT’s answer to the terrorist threat, it is hard to fathom what the question was.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: We Didn’t Win Liberties in Order to Bestow Them on Our Enemies

The Liberal Democrat manifesto at the last general election said: “The best way to combat terrorism is to prosecute terrorists, not give away any hard-won freedoms.” It sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? But a prosecution can only take place — obviously — once a crime has been committed. First, the would-be terrorist has to be persuaded to do the deed.

Roshonara Choudhry, who was convicted this week of the attempted murder of Stephen Timms MP, was a 21-year-old student at King’s College London. According to the transcripts of her police interviews, she decided to attack Mr Timms because of what she had seen on the internet. Last November, she started to listen to the online sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based, American-raised cleric. Al-Awlaki also seems to have inspired the “underpants bomber” (himself a London university student) and the alleged murderer of US soldiers at Fort Hood, and is in league with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the folk who probably brought you the recent cargo bombs.

“I was surprised,” said Choudhry, “how little I knew about my religion.” She regarded al-Awlaki as an “Islamic scholar”. She also studied a US-based website called ReligionMuslim. The result of all this Islamic scholarship was that she decided to go and kill Mr Timms “because I’m a Muslim and all Muslims are brothers and sisters. So if he attacked them [by which she meant that he had supported the Iraq war], then he’s likely to attack me.” She bought a couple of cheap knives and stabbed Mr Timms in his constituency surgery.

After Choudhry’s conviction, I had a look at ReligionMuslim. It has put up a list of all MPs who voted against the Iraq war, details of their surgeries and even a link to a supermarket website where you can buy knives. I watched its video, in which a young man praised Choudhry for “taking the matter into her own hands”, and attacked Muslims who collaborate with the infidel. A similar-looking young man featured in press pictures of demonstrators outside the Old Bailey. In court, after the verdict, his comrades hurled insults at a Muslim female juror. That woman was bravely upholding what the Liberal Democrat manifesto calls “our hard-won freedoms”. The strong suggestion of the website is that she should be made to pay for doing so.

Also on ReligionMuslim appears a sermon by al-Awlaki, illustrated with scholarly scenes of bombs going off and veiled, armed horsemen galloping under the flag of Islam. The video is called “The Final Battle is Coming”. Be a martyr, says al-Awlaki. The martyrs are blessed — “their skulls towers of honour”. According to al-Awlaki, “jihad” does not mean, as is sometimes argued, struggling for good, but “fighting only, fighting with the sword”. He has produced a super-scholarly video collecting all his useful tips, called “44 Ways to Support Jihad”. All over the website is a huge “DISCLAIMER”, saying that the organisers of the site are not advocating violence.

So one can trace — by Choudhry’s own admission — the genealogy of her terrorist act. This young woman was corrupted by the preaching of evil ideas. She was schooled in the belief that her deed was heroically virtuous.

It is surely not an attack on our “hard-won liberties” to say that it is wrong that such material should be published and right that the people who publish it should be punished. It is difficult in the modern world to achieve this, and one should err on the side of permitting people to say nasty things, but my point stands.

[…]

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Italy Main Supplier of Sunglasses

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 2 — Italy is the main supplier of sunglasses to the Egyptian market with exports totalling 3.6 million USD in 2009. According to a survey carried out by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Cairo on Italian exports to Egypt between 2007 and 2009, imports by the North African country have risen by 52%, with China and the US taking second and third place. Italy is also leading in “frames for glasses”, with an export worth 2.1 million USD and a 20% market share, followed by China (1.6 million USD) and France (390,000 USD). The Egyptian market is the most important in the region for frames and sunglasses, followed by the Tunisian and Moroccan market.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Morocco Alarmed Over Rise in Cocaine Smuggling

Morocco is alarmed by the rise in the amount of cocaine being smuggled from South America to Europe though its territory, Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri said Wednesday in Spain.

“Today it is not soft drugs that are being trafficked between Africa and Europe. Today we are extremely worried by this flow of hard drugs like cocaine which come essentially from South America,” he told a news conference.

International drug trafficking gangs ship the cocaine from South America by air or sea first to West Africa from where it is then transported to Morocco, the minister said. It is then flown from Morocco to Spain.

“There are planes which regularly come to take cocaine from Morocco and take it to southern Europe, especially Spain,” Fihri told a joint news conference in Madrid with his Spanish counterpart Trinidad Jimenez.

The minister urged Spain and Morocco to boost their cooperation to combat this drug smuggling just as the two nations have stepped up their joint effort against illegal immigration.

“I draw your attention to the danger posed by cocaine not just for the market and consumers but because of the destabilizing factor which it can have in various nations,” he said.

Last month Moroccan authorities announced they had dismantled a drug ring which they said had ties to Al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate as well as Latin American drug cartels and which brought cocaine and marijuana from Colombia and Venezuela to Mali and on to Morocco and Europe.

Moroccan Interior Minister Taieb Cherqaoui said 34 people were arrested as part of the operation, including a Spaniard who led the group from Morocco.

Last week Spanish and French police announced they had smashed a group that smuggled cocaine and hashish from Morocco to southern Spain by helicopter with the arrest of six French citizens.

Morocco has long been a major source of the cannabis which is consumed in the European Union. Most of the cannabis plants, from which hashish is produced, are grown in the country’s rugged and isolated Rif mountains by farmers to stave off grinding poverty.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Caroline Glick: We Are Not for Sale

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is playing with fire. And Israel is getting burned.

Over the past week, it has been widely reported that the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government are conducting secret negotiations regarding future Israeli land surrenders to the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem. According to the reports, the Obama administration has presented Netanyahu with a plan whereby Israel will cede its rights to eastern Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians and then lease the areas from the Palestinians for a limited period.

The reports on the length of the lease vary. Some claim that the White House is offering a seven year rental. Others claim the Americans are offering Israel to lease Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley for several decades before relinquishing them completely.

Netanyahu has reportedly accepted Obama’s proposal in principle. The only remaining dispute is the length of the lease. Netanyahu is demanding that Israel be permitted to lease Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley from the Palestinians for somewhere between forty and ninety-nine years. The Americans foresee a shorter timeframe…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]



Israel Suspends Strategic Dialogue With UK

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — NOVEMBER 3 — Israel has suspended strategic dialogue with Great Britain, reports Israeli state radio while today in Jerusalem the official visit by British Foreign Minister William Hague begins. The latter will be received by Head of State Shimon Peres, Premier Benyamin Netanyahu and the Ministers Avigdor Lieberman (Foreign) and Ehud Barak (Defence). According to the broadcaster, the suspension of dialogue is an gesture of discontent against the British government which has not yet modified the law allowing it to arrest foreign leaders and politicians, including Israelis, for “war crimes”. Once more over the past few days Deputy Premier Dan Meridor (Likud) was forced to call off his visit to London after having learnt that once in Great Britain he may have been served an arrest warrant. Hague will instead be trying to convince Israeli leaders to freeze Jewish settlement building in the West Bank in order to foster a resumption of direct peace talks with Palestinians. In Israel, according to the press, Hague will also take stock of international efforts to prevent Iran from getting hold of nuclear weapons. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Iranian Schools to Encourage “Culture of Martyrdom”

The decision was announced by the head of the Basij paramilitary group and was taken in concert with the Ministry of Education which announces ten thousand Quran schools. The Basij also want more involvement in scholastic formation.

Teheran (AsiaNews) — The expansion of the culture of martyrdom is the “decision” of General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, head of the Basij paramilitary group — which operates under the command of the Revolutionary Guard and has distinguished itself in the violent repression of opposition demonstrations — taken together with the Ministry of Education.

The general added that he was pursuing the goal adding “values of divine defence of the Iranian nation” into the classrooms and books. The “Divine defense” (defae moghadas) is a term coined to refer to the 8-year war Iran had with Iraq for most of the 1980s, when tens of thousands of children and young people, used as the first wave of attacks, lost their lives.

The “demand” made by Naghdi, reports Rooz, the voice of Iranian exiles, is to confront what he called the “soft war” and promote “the expansion of the culture of selflessness and martyrdom”. Moreover, he expects this in educational programs, particularly from the “research and educational planning organization.”

Previously, the education minister had spoken of the intention to add “selflessness and martyrdom” as a topic in school books and had mentioned the creation of “ten thousand Quran schools, termed “autobahns for martyrdom and humanity “ ..

Naghdi General has also expressed the intention of the Basij to have a “more direct involvement” in the publishing of scholastic texts. Ideological changes in the textbooks entered the program of the Ministry of Education since Ahmadinejad became president, particularly since the start of his second term.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Islamic Fundamentalists Preventing the Construction of a Church in Kuwait

The government and the emir have approved the project but the Kuwait City Municipal Council refuses to issue building permits or explain its reasons for doing so. About 460,000 Christians share four official churches, two Catholic, one Evangelical and one Anglican. A Coptic church is under construction.

Kuwait City (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A group of Christians has complained that Kuwait City’s Municipal Council is preventing them from getting land to build a church. “The Municipal Council is the big problem preventing us from getting land; not all of the members, just the Islamic fundamentalists,” said Archimandrite Boutros Gharib, head of the local Greek Catholic Church.

Recently the municipal council blocked an attempt by the Greek Catholic Church to acquire land in Mahboula, an area in the Ahmadi governorate south of Kuwait City. The request has been pending for several years.

A new church would reduce over-crowdedness in a villa currently used for worshiping, Fr Gharib said.

According to the Greek Catholic clergyman, both the government and the country’s leader, Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, have given their approval and blessing to the Church to have its property built. However, the Council has not followed suit. What is more, “The council did not give us any reason,” he added.

“We found the higher levels of government say yes and the lower levels of government say no,” said Rev Andrew Thompson, the Anglican chaplain to Kuwait, who stressed that religious fundamentalists controlled the municipality.

The church said the government had proposed an area of 7,500 m2 with land for buildings and parking.

Greek Catholic Church board member Elian Farah said the government suggested parishioners use the parking facilities of two schools under construction nearby on the weekends and the evenings in addition to their dedicated parking area.

Fr Gharib noted that his church is paying US$ 6,944 a month for a villa that is also shared by two other congregations. If they did not find land soon, the church would have to close, he said. “It’s all excuses. It’s all lies,” he said. “Every time they promise, but all their promises are for nothing.”

The one success the Christian community has had in the past 40 years came when Egyptian Copts secured land for their church, but even they have had trouble getting a building permit.

The Greek Catholic community in Kuwait includes about 650 families, and they are not the only Christian group struggling to find space to worship in the country.

Around 460,000 Christians have to share four official churches—two Catholic, an Evangelical and an Anglican—plus the Coptic church under construction.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Italy’s Deputy Minister, Need to Open to Islamic Finance

(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 3 — Italy should open itself up to Islamic finance by modifying its regulatory system, said Deputy Development Minister Adolfo Urso at the end of his speech at the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade in Rome where the report “Italia Multinazionale 2010” was presented this morning.

“Arab countries,” said the Deputy Minister, “are interested in investing in Italy and we should be more welcoming to them.” Urso said that legislative reform was needed.

“Islamic finance is nothing other than ethical finance.” The Arab world is an area of high interest for Italian companies, continued the deputy minister, and noted that the next Italian mission would be in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. In the United Arab Emirates, Urso said, “we will be holding a seminar to show our partners the potential of our market.” (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: Millionaire Seeks Husband, Company for Love

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 3 — A woman who also happens to be a millionaire seeks an affectionate husband: this is the ad published by a Saudi businesswoman who offers “an exciting job” in exchange for “tranquility and stability”, since “money is not everything in life”. The ad, reports thee UAE daily Emirates Business, appeared in the Saudi paper Al Hiyad. The candidate for the “job” must be between 50 and 60 years old and must prove that he does not want to marry the woman for her money. He doesn’t necessarily have to be rich, only “educated, mature and respectful”. She will hand over the reins of her two companies so long as she feels “loved and safe”, and says that she will give “a life of love and comfort”.

The woman, who will reveal her identity only to the candidate she selects, ensured that she is “rich and beautiful”, and added that she had already had been married twice before, a rather negative feature in the ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia. She was first married at age ten but after her four children grew up she got a divorce, while the second time round she married a younger man interested in her money but not in her company. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: Suspect Claimed Stealing Under Spell

A recent case in which a judge claimed stealing 100 million while under a spell stirred controversy among lawyers and jurists over the possibility of accepting magic as a legal defense argument and the means to verify the involvement of a jinni in a crime.

A heated debate over committing crimes while under magical influence ensued during the proceedings of a corruption trial that involved several employees in the Medina Court including one of the judges.

A statement by a man who claimed to have performed a roqia (Islamic exorcism) on the suspected judge ignited the controversy. The ‘exorcist’ told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that the judge was possessed by a jinni and was under his influence while taking bribes to cover up for illegal possession of land and real estate.

For legal advisor Saleh al-Khedr, being possessed by a jinni or an evil spirit does not absolve the culprit of blame.

“Human beings are responsible for their actions,” he told AlArabiya.net. “Claiming to be possessed is just an excuse to evade punishment.”

Khedr called upon judges not to include magic in the proceedings of the case even if the suspect insisted or the ‘exorcists’ testified that the suspect was possessed.

“Even if several scholars testified to attending the exorcism, the judge should not make magic a legal argument.”

The exorcist who allegedly forced the evil spirit out of the judge’s body said the process was carried out in the presence of members of the Medina branch of Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Lawyer Mohamed al-Aseeb argued that possession by evil spirits cannot be considered an excuse since it is not mentioned in the sharia (Islamic law) upon which the Saudi law is founded.

“Islamic law only acknowledges tangible proof,” he told AlArabiya.net. “When the judge claims the jinnis made him commit the crime and that he has witnesses, can he or they prove it?”

Aseeb added that the judge was not the only one involved in the corruption case, which shows it is an organized crime and makes the argument of magic very unlikely.

“It is an entire network of people and there might be other parties that are still unknown. The judge only wanted to get away with his crime through inventing an excuse that some might accept.”

Possible, yet hard to prove

Meanwhile, several jurists argue that it is possible that an evil spirits makes people unable to control their actions, yet it is hard to prove.

Dr. Ibrahim al-Balawi, a lawyer, stated that the judge should consider this possibility if the culprit admitted to being under a spell while committing the crime.

“However, it is very hard to prove that and the court only acknowledges clear and tangible evidence,” he told AlArabiya.net. “But the judge should not ignore it and further investigations have to be carried out.”

Balawi added that there are specialists who are capable of detecting if a person is possessed and they can be consulted in these cases to verify the defendant’s allegations.

Lawyer Badr al-Basees agreed with Balawi and stressed that magic and its effect on people are mentioned in the Quran.

“There is no doubt that magic exists,” he told AlArabiya.net. “It is only proving it that is a challenge.”

The defendant, Basees added, should come up with evidence like the testimony of several trustworthy witnesses who give a detailed account of how the crime was committed under the influence of magic.

“If this is proved, then the defendant should be penalized like drunkards and drug addicts who are also unable to control their actions.”

Basees explained that the case is new to the Saudi society and that is why there are no fixed rules for dealing with it.

“As far as I know, this case is unprecedented and that is why it has been the subject of heated debate.”

False allegations

Lawyer Abdullah Ragab recounted the story of a similar case which proved that allegations of falling under a spell are usually false.

“I had a personal experience with a man who claimed he was robbed by magic then his allegations proved to be false,” he told AlArabiya.net.

Ragab said that a client claimed that someone stole 2.4 million riyals from him by magic and demanded that he gets back the money with interest. Investigations revealed that the client voluntarily gave his money to that man who promised him tempting profit.

“I believe that if somebody has magical powers, he would obtain what he wants without manipulation.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Caucasus


Azerbaijan: Baptist Christians in Prison for Having Gathered to Pray

The police raided a private home, a photographer present, cutting electricity and gas. 4 Baptists detained, taken to court and convicted the same night. In the country persecution of Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses frequent, to combat “extremism.”

Baku (AsiaNews/F18) — Police burst into a private home and arrested 4 of Baptist Christians “guilty” of praying together, in the northern Qusar. Ilgar Mamedov owner of the house and three other Christians (Zalib Ibrahimov, Rauf Gurbanov and Akif Babaev) , were arrested by police on Oct. 31, and immediately brought before the local tribunal, which sentenced them to five days in jail, in a swift hearing held behind closed doors, without access to a defense.

Forum 18 news agency reports that on November 1, another Christian, went to the police to ask for news of the four arrested the night before, he knew the trial had already taken place. The nature of the offense is not clear, while faithful report that the police threatened them with even harsher penalties.

There were about 80 Baptists gathered in the house for Sunday celebrations. Before leaving, the police also cut gas and electricity to the apartment, to prevent them from preparing a festive lunch. Police took the names of the faithful gathered in the house, photographing and filming those present.

Police say it was a “normal” operation against illegal meetings. In this country religious groups must register and seek authorization for any activity, even to get together to pray. Many groups of Baptist Churches refuse to ask for registration, to avoid state interference. However, others say they have applied for recognition but their applications have been blocked for bureaucratic reasons.

Ilya Zenchenko, head of Azerbaijan’s Baptist community, told Radio Free Europe that the Qusar police frequently arrest and charge members of religious groups, saying they must fight “extremism.”

In the country are frequent condemnations of Baptist Christians. In May 2008, the pastor Zauer Balaev was sentenced to two years in prison for a crime based on evidence denounced as false. He ‘was released in March 2008 following a formal protest by the World Baptist Alliance and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov was arrested in 2009 on charges of having weapons found by police during a search, although those who know him guarantees that he never had them.

In another case, the court of Baku sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to a hefty fine for offering religious publications to passers-by on the street.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]

Immigration


OECD Says Germany Needs More Immigration

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that Germany is facing a drastic labor shortage. The country is dead last among industrialized countries in the ratio of those entering the job market versus those leaving it. Immigration, the OECD says, might be the only hope.

Germany, says Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer, doesn’t need more immigration. The head of the influential Christian Social Union (CSU) — the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats — argued in October that the country should instead focus on reintegrating the country’s long-term jobless back into the labor market. In particular, he said, immigration from “alien cultures” should be stopped.

There are many in Germany who would disagree. And now, they have a powerful new ally: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD has found that in just 10 years, the number of people leaving the labor market in Germany will be up to 75 percent higher than the number entering the labor market. Among the 28 industrialized countries surveyed, Germany wound up dead last.

The reasons listed by the OECD are simple. On the one hand, German society is aging quickly. Its birth rate is nowhere near high enough to replace the number of people entering retirement age. On the other, immigration to Germany has stagnated, with the country having experienced a net population loss in recent years as a result of emigration.

According to the OECD, it is not a trend that will be easy to reverse. The organization says that raising the retirement age and reducing unemployment will not be enough. Instead, the group says, increasing immigration — from both within and outside of the European Union — might be the only solution.

28,000 Unfilled Jobs

Already, there are indications that the German labor market is short of highly qualified workers. As the economy rapidly recovers from the economic crisis — the country’s economy is forecast to grow by 3.4 percent this year — several branches have been complaining of difficulties in finding qualified applicants for job vacancies. According to the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, Germany’s leading high-tech industry organization, some 28,000 jobs in the tech field are currently unfilled.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Romanian Band Plays Gypsy Rock Against Sarkozy

Romania’s famous rock band Vama, accompanied by ethnic Roma musicians, released Thursday a single in English criticising French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s crackdown on the Gypsies.

The song “Sarkozy versus Gypsy” — featured on the YouTube website — aims to denounce “with humour” what Vama calls “the absurd solution found by the French president to resolve the Roma issue,” the band’s lead singer Tudor Chirila told AFP.

Chirila is a star in Romania and the former Liberal candidate for the presidency, Crin Antonescu, named him as his model last year.

France has faced an international uproar since Sarkozy’s July clampdown against illegal traveller camps and the expulsion of thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian Romas back to their country of origin.

The UN human rights chief warned that France’s new policies can only exacerbate the stigmatisation of the Roma.

“We’re looking for the better way, but you decide we cannot stay”, Vama and French slammer Ralflo sing in the name of the Roma before asking the French president: “Hey, hey, Sarkozy why don’t you like the Gypsies?”.

“The world belongs to all the people. Gypsy people is not people?”, the singer goes on, surrounded by gorgeous Gypsy dancers and Roma musicians.

“We also want to show that it is dangerous to generalise when talking about certain groups of people,” Chirila added.

The French linked the crackdown on Gypsies to rising crime figures.

“If all the Gypsies were to steal, the Tour Eiffel would disappear,” Vama sings with irony before underlining the links between France and the Roma: “Gypsy groove and French chanson. We all play l’accordeon”.

Chirila acknowledges that the Roma issue is “complex” but he pleads for a massive effort to improve education among Roma children “from all European countries not only the countries of origin”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



UK: Abu Hamza Keeps British Citizenship

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that Hamza could not be made stateless and if he also succeeds in blocking his extradition to the US, he will be freed to live in Britain next October.

David Cameron was said to be “disappointed” with the decision but a Downing Street spokesman said it would not affect the extradition proceedings. The Home Office said they would consider it closely and added: “British nationality is a privilege and the Home Secretary has the ability to remove it from dual nationals when she believes it to be in the public good.”

The Special Immigration and Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruled that Hamza could not be stripped of his citizenship because the Egyptians had got there first.

The commission was told that Egypt acted after finding out that Britain wanted to take away Hamza’s passport in 2003, after passing a new law.

While the British case dragged on through the courts, the Egyptian authorities issued a decree behind closed doors.

An article appeared in an official Egyptian newspaper in May 2004 saying Hamza was no longer an Egyptian national but no government documents were produced for the commission and the Egyptian authorities refused to appear.

The case hinged on a sphinx-like response from the Egyptian authorities when asked by the British embassy in Cairo for confirmation that Hamza retained his Egyptian nationality.

They told the diplomats “I have the honour to inform you that the relevant Egyptian authorities have advised that no conclusion was reached which could be provided to you on this matter”.

A former Egyptian official called General Afify told the commission the response had “no colour or taste or smell” but added that it meant Hamza’s nationality had been stripped.

The commission concluded that the general “has a very well-informed understanding of how the Egyptian Government works in immigration and nationality matters and has open to him channels of communication to serving officials to help inform his opinion.”

It said that “on balance of probabilities” a decree had been issued to deprive Hamza of his Egyptian nationality.

Hamza is currently serving a seven year sentence for incitement to murder, stirring up racial hatred and possessing a document useful for terrorism.

The preacher is wanted in the US in connection with a plot to kidnap western tourists in Yemen, helping recruits travel to Afghanistan, and set up a training camp in the US.

The European Court has ruled that if he faces life in jail without parole it will breach his human rights and is currently considering further submissions.

Hamza, real name Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, arrived in Britain in 1979 at the age of 21 on a six month Egyptian passport.

He bigamously married his first wife the following year, despite the fact she was already pregnant by another man and was still married to the man she had met when she was 16.

He was granted citizenship in May 1986, when he was studying civil engineering at Brighton polytechnic, on the basis that he had lived in Britain for more than five years.

SIAC heard that he successfully applied for an Egyptian passport in 1988 before he was involved with radical Islam, but that position had changed by 2004.

           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]



UK: DJs, Kabaddi Players, Comedians and Models Beat Government’s Migrant Cap

Magicians, disc jockeys, waitresses, comedians and models have all benefited from a route into the UK excluded from the Government’s immigration cap.

The revelations intensified the row over the Coalition’s decision to exempt intra-company transfers from the annual cap on non-EU economic immigrants.

As the furore continues, Home Secretary Theresa May will today make her first major immigration speech.

She will announce a crackdown on foreign students and a new salary limit for economic migrants.

On Wednesday it emerged that Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable had successfully argued that intra-company transfer of ‘skilled workers’ from abroad was crucial to the competitiveness of British business.

But internal government figures show the route has been exploited by companies seeking to bring in entertainers or — in some cases — traditionally low-paid staff.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Hate Preacher Abu Hamza Wins Human Rights Bid to Keep UK Passport

Hate preacher Abu Hamza has won his appeal against the Government’s attempts to strip him of his British passport, a special tribunal ruled today.

The radical cleric argued that such a move would render him ‘stateless’ as he had already been stripped of his Egyptian citizenship.

Delivering its 12-page ruling today, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) allowed his appeal.

The hook-handed cleric, who acquired a British passport through marriage, is serving seven years in maximum security Belmarsh Prison after being convicted for inciting murder and racial hatred in 2006.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: One in, One Out, For Radical Muslim Clerics

Today the UK courts have made two decisions in relation to radical Muslim clerics. The score card reads: Abu Hamza can keep his passport and stay (for now), but Dr Zakir Naik, an Indian preacher who was excluded from the UK by the Home Secretary in June, will remain unwelcome.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission has ruled that Abu Hamza can keep his UK passport as if a deprivation order were made, he would be made stateless, as he claimed he had already been stripped of his Egyptian citizenship. By section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981, the Secretary of State cannot make a person stateless. The UK is trying to deport him altogether, but his claim is being heard at the European Court of Human Rights (see our post).

Meanwhile, the High Court has ruled that the exclusion of Dr Zakir Naik, an Indian television preacher and president of the Islamic Research Foundation, was lawful and was a proportionate interference with his freedom of expression rights. He was blocked by the Home Secretary from giving a lecture in June as a result of his alleged support for Islamist terrorism, Osama Bin Ladin as well as his comment that Jews are the “staunchest enemy” of Islam. He denies that he supports terrorism.

In any event, the High Court rejected his challenge to the exclusion on legitimate expectation, procedural fairness and freedom of expression grounds. The substance of the decision is from paragraph 60. The judgment is wide-ranging and interesting. In respect of the Article 10 argument, the judge held that Dr Naik was himself excluded from protections under the Human Rights Act for territorial reasons, but that his supporters, who would have come to hear him speak, were not (para 79). His supporters’ rights to receive information, a lesser spotted aspect of Article 10, was engaged. The interference with that right was, however, justified. Mr Justice Cranston concluded:

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           — Hat tip: DF [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Germany: Women’s Equality Stronger in Former East, Study Finds

People in the former East German states have more progressive views of working mothers than their counterparts in the west, and eastern women are more likely to juggle work and family successfully, a study has found.

Row over Sachsenhausen concentration camp work resolved — National (11 Oct 10)

Twenty years after reunification, the differences in attitudes to “career women” between the former communist east and democratic west remain stark. A study presented this week in the eastern city of Leipzig found that mixing work, marriage and children was considered a much more natural life to women in the former east than the west.

Women in the east were more likely to have husbands who supported them in their choice to work and did not want a “housewife” as a partner once children arrived, the study found.

The report, “The Full Life! Women’s Careers in Germany,” was compiled by the Interior Ministry on the request of Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière. The data came from online surveys of 655 men in eastern and western Germany as well as figures drawn from previous studies.

Every second working woman in eastern Germany (53 percent) whose youngest child was under the age of 15 worked full-time in 2008. That was more than double the rate in the western states, where 22 percent worked full-time.

“The view in the study makes clear: the great majority of women in the eastern German states have made a new start without great fuss and despite structural problems,” de Maizière said.

Better child care in the east was an important factor, the study concluded, but different ideas about the role of women were also significant. Just 16 percent of east German women aged between 17 and 29 were ready to give up work for their children, compared with 37 percent in western Germany.

In the communist German Democratic Republic, family planning polices, child care and notional equality meant that working women and mothers became more common than was the case in the west.

The share of households in which each partner contributes roughly the same amount to the household income is nearly twice as high in the east as the west — 44.5 percent compared with 27.9 percent.

Equal partnerships between men and women are considered normal in the east, the study concluded. By comparison, nearly a quarter of young men in the west cling on to a conservative image of themselves as the “family breadwinner” and the woman as the “housewife” — twice the proportion of men in the east.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tasmania: Rape, Abortion in Church ‘Haunted House’

A Tasmanian church group has been slammed for luring members of the public into a Halloween “haunted house” depicting abortion, rape and murder.

The 45-minute performance also included scenes of suicide and drug use, and ended with a pastor telling the audience that “the devil’s children” needed to give their lives to God to be saved from Hell.

Ads for the RIOT Theatre’s Haunted House event indicated the performance was MA-rated but did not include mention of religious content or the Pentecostal church Potter’s House, whose members staged the show.

Childcare worker Emma Pennington attended the show on Sunday night with her sister-in-law and mother-in-law, who had dressed as witch.

“We just saw it in the paper and it said that it was a haunted house and that all proceeds would go to the City Mission,” Ms Pennington said.

“It was nothing like what we thought.”

Ms Pennington entered the “haunted house” with about 25 other people.

In one scene, a woman was pushed on the ground in a simulated rape while the show’s narrator encouraged the activity by shouting: “If you’re not going to offer it then don’t put it on sale”.

In a later scene, a drunken doctor was depicted as laughing while performing an abortion on a woman without painkillers.

The show ended in a room filled with white curtains, where church members pressured the tour group to partake in prayer.

Ms Pennington immediately left the haunted house to warn the next group of patrons, but was too late to stop them going in…

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

General


Beer Lubricated the Rise of Civilization, Study Suggests

May beer have helped lead to the rise of civilization? It’s a possibility, some archaeologists say.

Their argument is that Stone Age farmers were domesticating cereals not so much to fill their stomachs but to lighten their heads, by turning the grains into beer. That has been their take for more than 50 years, and now one archaeologist says the evidence is getting stronger.

Signs that people went to great lengths to obtain grains despite the hard work needed to make them edible, plus the knowledge that feasts were important community-building gatherings, support the idea that cereal grains were being turned into beer, said archaeologist Brian Hayden at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

Ads by GoogleSodom and GomorrahFound, the Infamous Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ! www.accuracyingenesis.comIs Jesus Really God?Scholars Examine the Facts About Jesus’ Claims to be God www.Y-Jesus.com/JesusGod”Beer is sacred stuff in most traditional societies,” said Hayden, who is planning to submit research on the origins of beer to the journal Current Anthropology.

The advent of agriculture began in the Neolithic Period of the Stone Age about 11,500 years ago. Once-nomadic groups of people had settled down and were coming into contact with each other more often, spurring the establishment of more complex social customs that set the foundation of more-intricate communities.

The Neolithic peoples living in the large area of Southwest Asia called the Levant developed from the Natufian culture, pioneers in the use of wild cereals, which would evolve into true farming and more settled behavior. The most obvious explanation for such cultivation is that it was done in order to eat.

Archaeological evidence suggests that until the Neolithic, cereals such as barley and rice constituted only a minor element of diets, most likely because they require so much labor to get anything edible from them — one typically has to gather, winnow, husk and grind them, all very time-consuming tasks.

Hayden told LiveScience he has seen that hard work for himself. “In traditional Mayan villages where I’ve worked, maize is used for tortillas and for chicha, the beer made there. Women spend five hours a day just grinding up the kernels.”

However, sites in Syria suggest that people nevertheless went to unusual lengths at times just to procure cereal grains — up to 40 to 60 miles (60 to 100 km). One might speculate, Hayden said, that the labor associated with grains could have made them attractive in feasts in which guests would be offered foods that were difficult or expensive to prepare, and beer could have been a key reason to procure the grains used to make them.

“It’s not that drinking and brewing by itself helped start cultivation, it’s this context of feasts that links beer and the emergence of complex societies,” Hayden said.

Feasts would have been more than simple get-togethers — such ceremonies have held vital social significance for millennia, from the Last Supper to the first Thanksgiving.

“Feasts are essential in traditional societies for creating debts, for creating factions, for creating bonds between people, for creating political power, for creating support networks, and all of this is essential for developing more complex kinds of societies,” Hayden explained. “Feasts are reciprocal — if I invite you to my feast, you have the obligation to invite me to yours. If I give you something like a pig or a pot of beer, you’re obligated to do the same for me or even more.”

“In traditional feasts throughout the world, there are three ingredients that are almost universally present,” he said. “One is meat. The second is some kind of cereal grain, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, in the form of breads or porridge or the like. The third is alcohol, and because you need surplus grain to put into it, as well as time and effort, it’s produced almost only in traditional societies for special occasions to impress guests, make them happy, and alter their attitudes favorably toward hosts.”

The brewing of alcohol seems to have been a very early development linked with initial domestication, seen during Neolithic times in China, the Sudan, the first pottery in Greece and possibly with the first use of maize. Hayden said circumstantial evidence for brewing has been seen in the Natufian, in that all the technology needed to make it is there — cultivated yeast, grindstones, vessels for brewing and fire-cracked rocks as signs of the heating needed to prepare the mash.

“We still don’t have the smoking gun for brewing in the Natufian, with beer residues in the bottom of stone cups or anything like that,” Hayden said. “But hopefully people will start looking for that — people haven’t yet.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Web’s Undersea Cables Need Revamp to Prevent Catastrophe

The massive set of undersea cables that makes up the infrastructure of the Internet needs to be revamped to ensure security during a crisis, according to a top security expert.

“At the national level, it’s been implemented — the most important communications get through. But other countries don’t have the capability to communicate across borders” in an emergency, explained Karl Rauscher, a Distinguished Fellow at the EastWest Institute, who was instrumental in forming the U.S. strategy for communications-infrastructure protection following the calamity of Sept. 11.

This bottlenecking comes partly as result of the spectacular — and speedily growing — amount of bandwidth consumed throughout the world every day, Rauscher told SecurityNewsDaily.

While it’s common to think of the Internet as an amorphous entity that’s always available, Rauscher said there are actual “geographical choke points” — physical locations where the undersea cables that make up the global Internet infrastructure receive such heavy volumes of information that Web traffic literally gets backed up or stopped, like a freeway that narrows to a single lane.

Rauscher identified three major choke points as the Luzon Strait near Taiwan, the Strait of Malacca and the Red Sea. If any of those sets of cables were compromised by either natural disaster or malicious attack, worldwide Internet and phone communication would be highly jeopardized, he said.

To decrease the competition for a “limited amount of bandwidth” and to make these chokepoints less attractive targets for attack, Rauscher strongly advocates diversifying: building more undersea networks throughout the world to “avoid single points of failure.”

Rauscher detailed these points in the Reliability of Global Undersea Communications Cable Infrastructure study he led for the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), of which he is a member.

“Nearly 100 percent of the world’s inter-continental electronic communications traffic is carried by the undersea cable infrastructure,” the ROGUCCI report stated. “The probability of a global or regional failure is very low; however, it is not zero. The impact of such a failure on international security and economic stability could be devastating.”

Rauscher wrote about the need to be prepared for a “hostile maritime crisis” that, through physical damage to the undersea cables, could compromise the Internet on a worldwide scale.

Global policy surrounding the Internet infrastructure needs to be revamped before such an emergency, Rauscher told SecurityNewsDaily. Top-priority communications — police, fire, emergency networks — need to be able to travel across the Web from one country to another, a practice inhibited by current policy.

Other factors affecting the unseen cables powering the Internet are deep-sea mining, aquaculture development, and the increasing numbers and sizes of ships. Vessel anchors are significant causes of cable faults, Rauscher explained.

All the issues need to be addressed in order to ensure an Internet infrastructure that is, as Rauscher put it in the ROGUCCI report, “highly available, highly reliable, highly robust, highly resilient and highly secure.”

Currently, Rauscher is working on an International Priority Communications Policy, which would allow for critical Internet and phone communication to get across the world in the event of an emergency.

He is scheduled to present his findings in London Nov. 16, as a pre-presentation to the Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit to be held June 1-2.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]