News Feed 20100630

USA
» Ex-DOJ Lawyer: Holder Won’t Prosecute Blacks
» Frank Gaffney: A Shrine to Shariah?
» McChrystal’s Brilliance
» Myrick Suspects Terrorists Crossing U.S.-Mexico Border
» New Episode: Stakelbeck on Terror Show
» Reject Elena Kagan
 
Europe and the EU
» Dutch Teenagers Most Negative on Immigrants
» Europe: Rail Deregulation Sparks High-Speed Rows
» Italy: Harry’s Bar Cuts Prices to Combat Crisis
» Italy: Police Bust Chinese Money Laundering Ring
» Italy: Priest Removed After Confessing to Child Abuse
» Italy: Bluesman Zucchero Appears on Off-Shore Account List
» Italy: Two Arrested Over Illegal ‘Immigrant Hostel’ In North
» Italy: Women Flock to Attend Self-Defence Course
» Italy: Court Asked to Overturn Crucifix Ban
» Leftists Harass Immigrants for Supporting Germany
» Offshore Embarrassment: Shoddy Parts Trip Up Major North Sea Wind Farm
» Study: Archimedes Set Roman Ships Afire With Cannons
» UK: Abu Hamza’s Son Yasser Kamel Jailed for Attacking Police at London Demonstration
» UK: Crimes of Untouchable Diplomats Accused of Sex Assaults, Human Trafficking and £36million in Unpaid Fines
» UK: Innocent Couple Killed After Their House Was Fire-Bombed in ‘Bungled Honour Killing’
» UK: Prosecutor in Almost £1m Debt Used His Position to Stop a Court Case for £20,000, Jury Told
» UK: Sanity Fights Back
» UK: Violent Inner-City Crime, The Figures, And a Question of Race
 
North Africa
» After Failed Attempt of Forced Islamization Egyptian Christian Family Under Siege
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Alternatives to Surrender
 
Middle East
» Muslims Plan to Land a Scientific Lab on Moon in 2013
» Turkey: PM Said Israel Must Apologise for Gaza Blockade
» Turkey’s Cycle of Violence
 
Caucasus
» Chechen Police Shoot Paintballs at Women With Uncovered Hair
 
South Asia
» Indonesia: Politicians Debate Ban on Islamist Group
» Indonesia: Government ‘Shuns UN Torture Convention’
» Indonesia: Obama Pledges to Boost Education
» Movie Based on US President’s Childhood Debuts in Indonesia
» Pakistan: Google Site to be Monitored for ‘Blasphemy’
 
Far East
» Hong Kong: Govt Less and Less Sincere With the People, Card Zen Says
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Zimbabwe: ‘Terrorist’ Suspects Arrested En Route to South Africa
 
Immigration
» Germany’s Immigration Debate
» U.S. Grants Asylum to Born-Again ‘Son of Hamas’
 
General
» Why Criminals Are Less Intelligent Than Non-Criminals

USA


Ex-DOJ Lawyer: Holder Won’t Prosecute Blacks

‘Particularly in voting, that will be the case for the next few years, no doubt about it’

A leading Department of Justice attorney who quit his job after over the Obama administration’s refusal to prosecute Black Panthers who intimidated voters outside polls during the 2008 election claims the administration has ordered the DOJ not to pursue voting rights cases against black people.

In an interview today, J. Christian Adams, former DOJ attorney and now a contributor at Pajamas Media, told Fox News, “There is a pervasive hostility within the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department toward these sorts of cases.”

Asked whether there is a specific Justice Department policy against pursuing cases where the defendant is black and the victim is white, Adams replied, “Particularly in voting, that will be the case for the next few years. No doubt about it. If you had all the attorneys who worked on this case here, I am quite sure that they would say the exact same thing.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Frank Gaffney: A Shrine to Shariah?

The supremacist program authoritative Islam calls Shariah is big on symbols. Arguably, none is more effective than its practice of building mosques on its conquests’ most sacred sites.

In Jerusalem, triumphant Muslims built the Al-Aqsa mosque on top of the Jews’ revered Temple Mount. They transformed what had been for a thousand years the largest cathedral in Christendom, Constantinople’s magnificent St. Sophia basilica, into a sprawling mosque complex. And the Moorish Ummayad dynasty in Spain, made the city of Cordoba its capital, and installed an immense mosque on the site of an ancient Christian church there.

Now, an imam in New York, who has suddenly come into $100 million from undisclosed sources, wants to build a 13-story Islamic Cultural Center adjacent to the site of Shariah’s greatest triumph to date in America: Ground Zero, the place where the World Trade Center’s twin towers proudly stood until they were destroyed by Shariah-adherent jihadists on September 11, 2001. It is not a coincidence that the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, has called his project “the Cordoba House.”…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]



McChrystal’s Brilliance

Gen. McChrystal knew there were important things that had to be impressed upon the American people. The war, he felt, could not be won Obama’s way, a way showing less grasp of military reality than the normal Chicago gang fight. You can get away with “playing” part war and part non-war when you’re politicking to increasingly ignorant masses of Americans — but you can’t do that in a war. What if McChrystal had merely resigned, held a press conference or gave an interview to National Review and Fox News and laid out his warnings forthrightly? Not bad. Good story; lots of coverage, but like dropping a honeysuckle down the Grand Canyon and waiting for an echo, compared to what the general ultimately did.

Invite a publication so far to the left it belongs in a zoo and speak clearly into the tape recorder. Now we’re talking “legs,” day after day of coverage that corkscrews the argument into the central nervous system of the American public. To save his troops, those of our NATO allies and Western civilization against a Taliban victory that would unleash the inventory of hell itself into our faces and our futures (remember bin Laden’s “weak-horse, strong-horse”?), the general knew he had to outpoint the oil spill, the World Cup and even the anniversary of the death of Michael Jackson at the water cooler. Thank you, Rolling Stone. The best “useful idiots” are the ones with the stupid smiles on their faces who walk away saying, “Wow! Look at the gold mine that fell into our laps!”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Myrick Suspects Terrorists Crossing U.S.-Mexico Border

Congresswoman believes Hezbollah is in Mexico, wants task force to investigate.

WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick has asked Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano to step up investigations of terrorists who might be operating on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Myrick, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, wants Napolitano to convene a task force on the presence of Hezbollah in Mexico.

“I believe Hezbollah and the drug cartels may be operating as partners on our border,” Myrick wrote to Napolitano, who is secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in a letter last week. “I believe we need to do more intelligence gathering on Hezbollah’s presence on our border.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



New Episode: Stakelbeck on Terror Show

The latest episode of my new 30 minute show, Stakelbeck on Terror, aired Monday night.

  • We kick off the show with my recent investigative report about a large Muslim store selling recordings by Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awalaki—just minutes from the White House..
  • We then go one-on-one with Michigan Congressman Peter Hoekstra— a leading voice on Capitol Hill on national security and intelligence issues (5:33 into the show).
  • In a hard-hitting interview, Hoekstra told Stakelbeck on Terror the White House is “weakening our national security and making us more vulnerable.” He added that, “The president has been undercutting the leadership in Israel on a regular basis” and “emboldening radical jihadists: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinians.”
  • Our “War Council” roundtable examines whether Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities (14:47 into the show). We then head to Jerusalem for our Inside Israel segment with CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell, to get his take on Israel and Iran from on the ground (19:33 in).
  • My “Stak Attack” commentary segment features shocking footage of a prominent Arab leader in Dearborn, Mich., telling me Hamas and Hezbollah are “freedom fighters” and denying that they are terrorist groups. We also examine what makes a Muslim “moderate.” (24:38 in)
  • This week’s “Sharia Flaw” segment exposes an upcoming radical Islamic conference being held outside Chicago. The event will be hosted by Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a terror-liked Islamic group that is banned in parts of Europe and the Middle East, but welcome right here in the United States (23:14 in)

Watch it at the above link.

[Return to headlines]



Reject Elena Kagan

Phyllis Schlafly: Nominee is ‘a clear and present danger to the Constitution’

Barack Obama revealed his goal for the Supreme Court when he complained on Chicago radio station WBEZ-FM in 2001 that the Earl Warren Court wasn’t “radical” enough because “it didn’t break free from the essential constraints placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution” in order to allow “redistribution of wealth.” Now that Obama is president, he has the power to nominate Supreme Court justices who will “break free” from the Constitution and join him in “fundamentally transforming” America.

That’s the essence of his choice of Elena Kagan as his second Supreme Court nominee. She never was a judge, and her paper trail is short — but it’s long enough to prove that she is a clear and present danger to the Constitution.

When Kagan was dean of Harvard Law School, she presented a guest speaker who is known as the most activist judge in the world: Judge Aharon Barak, formerly president of the Israeli Supreme Court. The polar opposite of the U.S. Constitution, which states that “all legislative powers” are vested in the elected legislative body, Barak has written that a judge should “make” and “create” law, assume “a role in the legislative process,” and give statutes “new meaning that suits new social needs.”

Barak wrote that a judge “is subject to no authority” except himself, and he “must sometimes depart the confines of his legal system and channel into it fundamental values not yet found in it.” Channel? Does he mean he channel in a trance, as Hillary Clinton supposedly channeled discourse with the long-deceased Eleanor Roosevelt?

Despite Barak’s weirdo writings, or maybe because of them, Kagan called him her “judicial hero.” Judge Robert Bork, a man careful with his words, says that Kagan’s praise of Barak is “disqualifying in and of itself.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Dutch Teenagers Most Negative on Immigrants

ROTTERDAM, 30/06/10 — Dutch schoolchildren have less knowledge of the political system compared with their European peers. They are also most negative towards migrants, NRC Handelsblad reports.

The newspaper based its report on the International Civics and Citizenship Education Study published yesterday, for which 140,000 secondary schoolchildren from 40 countries were surveyed on their ‘citizenship competencies’. Of the pupils surveyed, only 24 percent in the Netherlands had a good understanding of the Dutch political system. In countries like Finland and Denmark, the figures were respectively 55 and 60 percent.

The lack of knowledge leads to less interest in politics, but not to a negative assessment of the political system. Among the Dutch pupils, 70 percent trust the national government, compared with 61 percent in all countries surveyed.

Political parties enjoy the confidence of 53 percent of the Dutch schoolchildren. This is slightly above the international average. Of all societal institutions, the media inspires the least confidence among the Dutch youngsters: only 48 percent trust newspapers, radio, TV and Internet.

In the area of tolerance in relation to minorities, the Netherlands along with the Belgian region of Flanders has the lowest score in Europe. Nowhere else were reactions so often negative regarding statements like ‘the children of immigrants should have the same opportunities for education as other children in the country’ and ‘immigrants who have already been living for some years in a country should have the opportunity to vote in elections’.

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



Europe: Rail Deregulation Sparks High-Speed Rows

“After six months of liberalisation in Europe, battle lines have been drawn in the rail sector”: Le Monde explains that since the beginning of 2010, when “the deregulation of rail services became a legal reality,” relations between Europe’s three principal rail operators, France’s SNCF, Italy’s Trenitalia and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB), have become increasingly hostile. Each of the three has established alliances with the others’ main competitors and accusations of protectionism can be heard on every front. SNCF, which has purchased a stake in NTV, Trenitalia’s main competitor, is planning to build a high-speed network that will serve nine cities in Italy. Trenitalia has responded by forming an alliance with SNCF’s principal rival Veolia Transport, which aims to establish Europe’s first private high-speed rail service between Milan, Turin and Paris by 2011. And relations between French and German operators are equally acrimonious. According to the Paris daily, “SNCF and DB, which used to be allied by a shared desire to defend a model of public service threatened by British-style deregulation, are now fighting over a number of markets.” Tensions have been raised by the German operator’s bid to “break the monopoly enjoyed by the Franco-British Eurostar consortium with a high-speed link to London to open in time for the Olympic games in 2012.”

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



Italy: Harry’s Bar Cuts Prices to Combat Crisis

Venice, 29 June (AKI) — Harry’s Bar, the Venetian landmark once frequented by Orson Wells and Truman Capote, has been hard hit by the economic crisis. The 79-year-old bar and restaurant has cut prices by 10 percent in the hope of attracting hungry and thirsty tourists.

That means you will pay only 42 euros for the privilege of enjoying a hamburger and ice cream at the same watering hole favoured by American writer Ernest Hemingway during his jaunts in the lagoon city.

“Venice is hurt by the economic crisis more than other cities and people are spending less because they have less money, said Arrigo Cipriani, son of founder Guisseppe, in an interview Tuesday with Venice daily, Il Gazzettino.

Arrigo Cipriani is the major shareholder of the chain with seven restaurants around the world operating under the Harry’s Bar and Cipriani names.

Harry’s Bar and Cipriani restaurants are located in locations, including New York, Miami and Hong Kong.

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



Italy: Police Bust Chinese Money Laundering Ring

Rome, 28 June (AKI/Bloomberg) — Italian finance police arrested 24 people across Italy on Monday in an operation against an alleged 2.7 billion euro money-laundering ring run by the Chinese mafia. The ring was involved in counterfeiting, tax evasion, human trafficking and prostitution, according to investigators.

Police arrested 17 Chinese nationals and seven Italians for alleged mafia association for laundering profits made through counterfeiting, tax evasion, human trafficking and prostitution since 2006, the finance police said in a statement.

The police seized assets worth “tens of” millions of euros in eight regions including Tuscany and Lombardy, according to the statement.

The gang was allegely run by a Chinese family based in Milan. They partnered with Italians who owned a money transfer company in Bologna, police said.

The gang took part in criminal activities, mainly counterfeiting in the central Italian provinces of Florence and Prato, home to one of Italy’s biggest Chinese communities.

Police seized more than 780,000 counterfeit goods produced in the area or shipped from China.

A total of 134 people are under investigation. The ring exploited illegal Chinese immigrants in textile factories, who were living in “dirty and unhealthy” conditions, according to the police statement.

Italy’s finance police discovered 22 billion euros in undeclared income in the first five months of 2010.

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



Italy: Priest Removed After Confessing to Child Abuse

Bolzano, 28 June (AKI) — A 74-year-old priest has been removed from his position in northern Italy after confessing he sexually abused minors. Alois Kranebitter, parish priest in the Alto Adige region’s Bolzano-Brixen diocese, will no longer be allowed to celebrate mass in public and will be obliged to live in a place where he has no contact with children, the diocese said in a statement.

“These cases of abuse date back 20 years. The victims and the priest have been carefully questioned by an ecclesiastical judge and by the bishop,” the statement said.

“The suspect priest deplores his own behaviour. He wants to live out the rest of his old age in penance.”

Bolzano-Brixen’s bishop Karl Golser said he wanted “clarification” about the Kranebitter case and to help the victims.

“We can’t put the clock back but we want to do all we can to alleviate the pain of the victims. We also owe the faithful an explanation,” Golser said.

The office of Bolzano’s chief prosecutor Guido Rispoli made no immediate comment but earlier in June he met Golser to discuss possible cases of paedophilia among members of the Catholic church in Alto Adige.

Bishop Golser said any priest accused of child sexual abuse must be reported to the Vatican body responsible for disciplining the clergy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“The worst offenders may be defrocked,” he said. He also stressed there was a “zero tolerance” approach to the sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic Church.

Golser said canon law has a longer statute of limitations than Italian law, an advantage for victims of paedophile priests who often only manage to bring the alleged abuse to light decades after it took place.

Italy is one of several European countries where there has been a surge of child abuse allegations against members of the Catholic church.

The United States and Brazil have also been hit by similar scandals.

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



Italy: Bluesman Zucchero Appears on Off-Shore Account List

Rome, 26 June (AKI) — The name of blues and rock performer Adelmo Fornaciari, more commonly known as Zucchero, appears on a list of around 1,200 suspected Italian tax dodgers with secret bank accounts in the landlocked Republic of San Marino.

Italy is cracking down on tax evaders and has been going after offshore bank accounts in countries like Switzerland and San Marino. Cheats at the end of 2009 and beginning of this year were also recently granted an amnesty from prosecution and allowed to pay up with significantly lower tax rates in return for registering undeclared income.

The country every year loses about 120 billion in tax revenue to evasion and in an effort to cut debt has demanded that civil servants in the enormous public administration that runs Italy accept temporary pay cuts.

The country’s tax police and other agencies last year uncovered almost 7 billion euros of tax-evaded income stemming from 2,676 cases, according to newspaper La Repubblica. Thirty-five percent of the tax dodgers came from Italy’s industrial north and were responsible for 3.9 billion euros of the evaded funds.

Zucchero, whose biggest hit is “Senza una donna,” or”Without a Woman,” has collaborated with Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker. In Italy he often performs at events linked to Italy’s left wing politics, such as the annual Labour Day concert help every 1 May in Rome.

San Marino’s government on 15 June said Italy’s offensive against off-shore accounts has resulted in about 5 billion euros, or roughly a third of total deposits, in withdrawals from the republic’s secretive banking system.

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



Italy: Two Arrested Over Illegal ‘Immigrant Hostel’ In North

Milan, 25 June (AKI) — Police in the northern Italian city of Brescia on Friday arrest two people after they uncovered an illegal Romanian-run ‘hostel’ offering immigrants a bed for 5 euros a night . The ‘hostel’ contained twelve beds and was located in an apartment rented by a 52-year-old Romanian woman.

The unnamed Romanian woman was arrested on suspicion of harbouring illegal immigrants.

Police identified four immigrants from outside the European Union staying at the apartment, of whom three were in Italy illegally.

Police identified 12 other immigrants in raids on two other apartments. One had defied an expulsion order and four others were reported for “breaching immigration laws”.

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



Italy: Women Flock to Attend Self-Defence Course

Milan, 25 June (AKI) — Some 300 women in Italy’s northern city of Milan have signed up for a free self-defence course being run by the city council. The course aims to help women protect themselves from attack in Milan, one of Italy’s most violent cities.

The women will receive training in martial arts and will learn to defend themselves and control an attacker rather than to attack him using brute force, city councillor and deputy mayor Riccardo De Corato told journalists.

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



Italy: Court Asked to Overturn Crucifix Ban

Strasbourg, 30 June (AKI) — The Italian government on Wednesday launched an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights to overturn a ban on crucifixes in the classrooms of public schools. The case against crucifixes was brought by Soile Lautsi, an Italian mother, who believes her children have a right to a secular education under Italy’s Constitution.

In November last year, the Strasbourg court endorsed the woman’s claim, saying parents should be able to raise their children as they wish.

The court said placing crucifixes in the classroom violated parents rights and was counter to right to freedom of religion.

The court ruled: “The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by the public authorities … restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions.”

Lautsi’s victory provoked uproar from the Vatican and political leaders in Italy which is a predominantly Catholic country.

The Vatican said it was shocked by the ruling and one politician calling the move “shameful”.

The government defended the presence of crucifixes in public schools as a traditional “symbol” that extended beyond the country’s Christian roots.

In 2001-2002 Lautsis’ children, aged 11 and 13, attended the local state school, the Istituto comprensivo statale Vittorino da Feltre, where the family lives in Abano Terme in northern Italy.

According to court documents, all of the classrooms had a crucifix on the wall, including those where Lautsi children had lessons.

She and her husband asked the school to remove the crucifixes.

But in May 2002 the school’s governors decided to leave the crucifixes in the classrooms and the move was supported by the ministry of education.

While Catholicism is the dominant faith in Italy, the 1948 Constitution specifies that there is no state religion.

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



Leftists Harass Immigrants for Supporting Germany

Leftist anarchists in Berlin have reportedly been harassing immigrants showing their support for the German football team during the World Cup, tearing down national flags and even setting one on fire.

The leftists have been particularly aggressive in the city’s Neukölln district, home to many residents of Turkish and Arabic heritage, daily Der Tagesspiegel reported on Monday.

Here they have made a point of destroying and removing Germany flags hanging outside shops and vehicles because they believe the proud patriotism hearkens back to the ugly nationalism of the Third Reich, the paper said.

A group calling itself “Kommando Kevin-Prince Boateng” posted a notice on the website Indymedia calling on leftists to “capture” all Germany flags across the country. The name refers to the Berlin-born footballer, who is playing for Ghana at the world cup and knocked German team captain Michael Ballack out of the tournament with a brutal foul in the FA Cup final in May.

One Arab-German family has sparked their ire by hanging a giant Germany flag on their Sonnenallee building in support of the football team during the World Cup.

Ibrahim Bassal, who owns a mobile phone shop in the district, told daily Berliner Morgenpost on Saturday that since he and his cousin hoisted the flag they have had several uncomfortable encounters with the local leftists.

“During the day people from the left-wing scene come by and insult us,” Bassal said. “Am I not allowed to be proud of Germany?”

Bassal and his cousin Badr Mohammed, a well-known conservative Christian Democratic Berlin politician who lives in the same building, worked together to get the 20-metre-long flag, which cost them €500.

In recent days the situation has escalated, with the anarchists attempting to remove the flag four times and even setting it on fire, the paper reported. On one occasion a group managed to gain access to the roof of the building and cut the flag down.

Last Friday evening some 16 people dressed in typical black anarchist garb confronted Bassal in his shop, and the mood was tense, the paper said.

After Germany’s World Cup victory over Ghana last week Bassal reportedly stayed up to look after his shop until 4 am.

“They see us as immigrants,” he said. “They don’t understand that Germans who aren’t from Germany would defend Germany.”

Both Bassal and Mohammed told Berliner Morgenpost that they are incredulous they have to defend hanging a German flag to native Germans.

Though the store owner’s entire family have been citizens for many years, the leftists believe immigrants must remain foreigners, he added.

Meanwhile many of the residents of Arab or Turkish descent who live in the multicultural district are defending the huge flag and continuing to show their support, the paper reported.

The family has organised nighttime surveillance of the flag with neighbours to prevent further attacks, they said.

“We won’t let our pride be taken away,” Bassal and Mohammed said.

But according to Der Tagesspiegel, Bassal has decided to remove the flag and hoist it only on days when there is a Germany match. Meanwhile other residents told the paper they were taking special care not to leave their flags unattended.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Offshore Embarrassment: Shoddy Parts Trip Up Major North Sea Wind Farm

Unforeseen problems at the Alpha Ventus wind farm have lukewarm investors reevaluating the billions of euros they have invested in offshore wind energy.

Germany’s first offshore wind park was dealt a blow with the failure of two turbines due to inferior materials. The rough patch has energy executives scurrying to reassure Berlin and banks scrutinizing their billions in offshore wind energy investments.

Less than two months after celebrating its opening, the Alpha Ventus test wind park in the North Sea is already running into problems. Intended to be the initial thrust in a plan that foresees dozens of new offshore wind parks off the German coast, shoddy building materials have caused two turbines to overheat and fail. An additional four turbines will need to be replaced.

Each of the struggling turbines was manufactured by the French firm Areva, which is responsible for half of the 12 turbines in the four-square-kilometer park (1.5 square miles), located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the island of Borkum.

Areva said Friday that overheating was unforeseen and “not sufficiently considered” from the outset. As a result, the company will invest in a facility in Bremerhaven to test its turbines under full-load capacity before sending them out to sea.

The turbines, which had only been in operation for eight months, will be replaced by late summer, according to Areva.

Major Players Concerned

The wind park’s operators, European energy giants E.on, EWE and Vattenfall, played down the incident in a hurriedly called crisis meeting at the Environment Ministry in Berlin. Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen, for his part, is an enthusiastic supporter of the wind park and described the opening of Alpha Ventus as the “best day” of his tenure.

Still, the problems encountered by the €250 million park have instilled further doubts from its already lukewarm investors. As a result of the Alpha Ventus embarrassment, they are reviewing the billions of euros they have pledged for the development of other offshore wind parks.

The wind energy industry, however, doesn’t appear fazed by the Alpha Ventus mishap. The park is a sort of laboratory in which defects and shortcomings of offshore wind parks are to be identified and corrected. Moreover, the park’s problems may be a limited one: The other six turbines, which were manufactured by Hamburg-based Repower, have so far worked without a hitch.

High Expectations

The German wind energy industry is banking on Repower’s early results to parlay into future success. The industry believes that a quarter of Germany’s energy demands can be met with wind power by the end of the decade and that as much as 27 percent of energy consumption in the EU can come from wind by 2030.

The German industry still has a long way to go. So far, only 15 wind turbines have been installed off the German coast. But a further 1,600 are planned, the most among European countries.

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



Study: Archimedes Set Roman Ships Afire With Cannons

Greek inventor Archimedes is said to have used mirrors to burn ships of an attacking Roman fleet. But new research suggests he may have used steam cannons and fiery cannonballs instead.

A legend begun in the Medieval Ages tells of how Archimedes used mirrors to concentrate sunlight as a defensive weapon during the siege of Syracuse, then a Greek colony on the island of Sicily, from 214 to 212 B.C. No contemporary Roman or Greek accounts tell of such a mirror device, however.

Both engineering calculations and historical evidence support use of steam cannons as “much more reasonable than the use of burning mirrors,” said Cesare Rossi, a mechanical engineer at the University of Naples “Federico II,” in Naples, Italy, who along with colleagues analyzed evidence of both potential weapons.

The steam cannons could have fired hollow balls made of clay and filled with something similar to an incendiary chemical mixture known as Greek fire in order to set Roman ships ablaze. A heated cannon barrel would have converted barely more than a tenth of a cup of water (30 grams) into enough steam to hurl the projectiles.

Channeling steam power

Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci sketched a steam cannon in the late 15th century, which he credited to Archimedes, and several other historical accounts mention the device in connection with Archimedes.

Indirect evidence for the steam cannon also comes from the Greek-Roman historian Plutarch, who tells of a pole-shaped device that forced besieging Roman soldiers to flee at one point from the walls of Syracuse.

The Greek-Roman physician and philosopher Galen similarly mentioned a burning device used against the Roman ships, but used words that Rossi said cannot translate into “burning mirror.”

Rossi calculated that such cannons could have fired a cannonball weighing roughly 13 pounds (6 kilograms) at speeds of roughly 134 miles per hour (60 meters per second). That allowed the cannons to possibly target troops or ships at distances of approximately 492 feet (150 m) while firing at a fairly flat trajectory to make aiming easier.

“As far as I know, it is the first paper about that use of a steam cannon by Archimedes,” Rossi told LiveScience.

Past investigations by Greek engineer Joannis Stakas and Evanghelos Stamatis, a historian, showed that a parabolic mirror can set small, stationary wooden ships on fire. MIT researchers carried out a similar demonstration more than three decades later in 2005.

But whether mirrors could have maintained a constantly changing curvature to keep the right burning focus on moving ships seems doubtful, Rossi noted. He added that ancient sailors could have easily put out any fires that started from a slow-burning mirror.

By contrast, Greek fire emerged in many historical accounts as a deadly threat for ancient warships. The unknown chemical mixture reportedly burned underwater, and saw most use by the Byzantine Empire that dominated the Eastern Mediterranean starting in A.D. 330. Other records mention earlier versions of the burning mixture.

Recreating the past

The steam cannons only represent the latest historical investigation by Rossi. He previously coauthored the book “Ancient Engineers’ Inventions: Precursors of the Present” (Springer, 2009), along with military historians Flavio Russo and Ferruccio Russo.

The trio plan to meet up with other historians in the future and possibly reconstruct versions of the ancient weapons. Flavio previously built several working reconstructions of ancient Roman artillery weapons, and Ferruccio specializes in 3-D virtual reconstructions of mechanical devices.

Some of Rossi’s other work looked at ancient motors that may have moved siege towers used by the Greeks and Romans. The likeliest motors may have relied on counterweights, and emerged in records as the invention of Heron of Alexandria in the first century.

Such devices could have been placed inside the protection of the towers themselves, Rossi noted. He pointed to an account by the Roman general Julius Caesar, who told of using such towers against a town defended by Gallic tribes in modern-day France. The sight of towers appearing to move by themselves frightened the defenders into negotiating for surrender.

A research paper on the siege towers was presented alongside Rossi’s recent work entitled “Archimedes’ Cannons against the Roman Fleet?” at the International World Conference held in Syracuse, Italy from June 8-10. The conference proceedings appear in a book titled “The Genius of Archimedes — 23 Centuries of Influence on Mathematics, Science and Engineering” (Springer, 2010).

In the end, the engineering talents of Archimedes did not save him from death when the Romans finally stormed Syracuse. But at least a love of history among Rossi and his colleagues may lead to the resurrection of some of his ancient devices.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: Abu Hamza’s Son Yasser Kamel Jailed for Attacking Police at London Demonstration

Yasser Kamel, 20, was caught on camera lobbing sticks at police and wielding a stolen police riot shield during a demonstration against Gaza sanctions.

The son of hate preacher Abu Hamza has been locked up for attacking police during anti-Israel riots in London.

Yasser Kamel, 20, was caught on camera lobbing sticks at police and wielding a stolen police riot shield during a demonstration against Gaza sanctions outside the Israeli embassy.

Wearing a scarf to disguise his face, the student was at the frontline when hundreds of protesters caused £50,000 of damage to shops and cafes last year.

Then 18, he was seen throwing four missiles at police before changing his clothing to evade detection, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Crimes of Untouchable Diplomats Accused of Sex Assaults, Human Trafficking and £36million in Unpaid Fines

Figures released by ministers have revealed an extraordinary crime spree carried out by embassy workers under the cloak of diplomatic immunity.

In the last five years, the diplomats carried out a total of 78 serious crimes — including 54 driving offences.

In the most worrying cases, envoys from Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone were accused of human trafficking, while a Pakistani diplomat was alleged to have made a threat to kill.

A Saudi Arabian envoy allegedly committed sexual assault while another of his colleagues was accused of domestic violence.

Diplomats from Nigeria and Jordan were linked to two cases of actual bodily harm.

Under the 1961 Vienna Convention, foreign officials and their families and staff are protected from prosecution in their host country — effectively putting them above the law.

Unless their home country agrees to waive their immunity from prosecution, there is nothing the British government can do except risk a diplomatic incident by ordering their expulsion.

Some 25,000 people are entitled to diplomatic-immunity in the UK. Serious crimes are defined as offences which would carry a 12-month jail sentence.

According to the list published by the Foreign Office, the most common offence was drink-driving with 48 diplomats accused.

In 2009, a total of 18 alleged offences were committed. There were also ten carried out in 2008, 20 in 2007, 15 in 2006 and 15 in 2005.

Last night there were calls for change. Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones said: ‘It’s time for the Foreign Office to renegotiate the terms of diplomatic immunity.

‘It seems ludicrous that so many people get away with so many crimes.’

A Victim Support spokesman said: ‘Victims and witnesses want justice to be done and to be seen to be done.

‘If a decision is made not to prosecute someone, the reasons need to be made clear to the victim.’

Diplomatic missions also owe £36million in unpaid London congestion charge fines, £526,300 in parking and traffic violations, and more than £480,000 in unpaid rates.

The U.S., which is in a long-running dispute over payment of the congestion charge, has an unpaid bill of £3.8million.

One of eight nations which owe more than £1million, the U.S. is followed by Russia (£3.2million), Japan (£2.8million) and Germany (£2.6million).

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Innocent Couple Killed After Their House Was Fire-Bombed in ‘Bungled Honour Killing’

An innocent married couple were killed after three men fire-bombed a house in an bungled ‘honour’ killing, a court heard.

The men had been ‘put up to’ killing a boyfriend who had an affair with a married woman and ‘damaged the family’s honour’.

But in October last year, the three men poured petrol through the wrong letter box and started a fire which killed a mother and father of three.

[Return to headlines]



UK: Prosecutor in Almost £1m Debt Used His Position to Stop a Court Case for £20,000, Jury Told

A corrupt senior Crown prosecutor — who pocketed cash to use his position to discontinue a court case — had spiralling debts of almost £1million, a jury heard today.

Sarfraz Ibrahim, 51, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, South Wales, admitted corruption and related charges yesterday on the eve of his trial.

As Gwent Crown Prosecution Service trials unit chief he had the power to stop a case in its tracks by recommending no further action.

He admitted charges of corruption, attempting to pervert the course of justice and misconduct in public office today.

His pleas mean that he has admitted pocketing £20,000 to ensure the case of a man he believed to be guilty was discontinued.

Co-defendant Saifur Rahman Khan, 37, of Penlan, Cardiff, went on trial at Swansea Crown Court today claiming police manipulated him into helping Ibrahim.

Trial judge Mr Justice Treacy had previously imposed a restriction on the media reporting Ibrahim’s pleas.

That was lifted today when the prosecution in the Khan trial elected to tell the jury of Ibrahim’s admissions.

Khan denies a charge of corruption, in that he aided and abetted Ibrahim, together with aiding and abetting misconduct in public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Both men were caught in an elaborate undercover sting operation put together by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) in March last year.

It had been triggered by anxiety over Ibrahim and Khan, who were spotted meeting at Bridgend M4 motorway services with two cocaine dealers in the summer of 2008.

Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, told the jury today that Ibrahim was struggling under the weight of debts amounting to £927,000.

He owed debts on credit cards and had outstanding loans and mortgages on a number of properties.

Police investigations of his finances showed that ‘he had been living beyond his means’.

‘Perhaps that amount of money played its part in why he behaved the way he did,’ Mr Laidlaw said.

Both Ibrahim and Khan, who ran his own Kingston Residential Property Letting agency in Cardiff, were targeted by Soca.

They contrived an operation designed ‘to test whether he was prepared to act corruptly and whether Khan was ready to assist in such a venture’.

The operation started in March last year when an undercover officer posing as a businessman named Tariq approached Khan.

He claimed to be looking for rented rooms for an employee named Nick Baker, another false identity for an undercover officer.

Baker, who posed as Tariq’s driver and right-hand-man, was then set up in rented rooms.

Several months later Soca officers carried out a closely choreographed arrest, smashing down Baker’s door and arresting him for assault.

It culminated in a bogus case file being created, which in turn allowed Tariq to re-approach Khan and comment on the trouble the arrest of his driver had caused.

The undercover officer posing as Tariq gave evidence in court today from behind a screen to protect his anonymity.

He said that his conversations and meetings with Khan, during which he claimed a friend had the power to get cases dropped, were recorded.

Khan and Ibrahim eventually arranged to meet Baker at the Mermaid Quay, in Cardiff Bay’s maritime quarter, in June 2009.

‘Ibrahim told Nick “the case is going nowhere”,’ Mr Laidlaw told the jury today.

Ibrahim went on to explain that he would not normally be responsible for reviewing such cases but that he could ‘manoeuvre it’.

He went on to instruct Baker to write in complaining at the slowness with which his case was proceeding.

This allowed Ibrahim to approach the police officer responsible for the file, who was aware of the undercover operation, and ask for it.

On July 21 last year the bogus file containing Baker’s case was delivered to Ibrahim while he was at Cardiff Crown Court.

He later recommend no further action (NFA) should be taken, telling the officer in charge of the case: ‘Because of evidential difficulties the file was marked NFA.’

Mr Laidlaw said that Khan and Nick Baker later met at the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff and discussed how Ibrahim should be rewarded.

It was suggested that he should be paid between £15,000 and £20,000 and the larger of the two sums was eventually handed over in cash.

At the time Khan claimed that none of the money would go to him but after his arrest it was found that he had retained half.

The businessman initially claimed that he had withdrawn the cash from his bank to pay staff at his company.

Mr Laidlaw said Khan would now claim in his defence that he had been ‘manipulated to act in a manner other than he would normally’, by the police.

But the prosecutor said that — even if it had been a case of entrapment, and it was not — that would not afford Khan a defence.

The case continues.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Sanity Fights Back

by Melanie Phillips

I am in a state of shock. The President of the Supreme Court, Lord Phillips, has said something sensible! The Court has ruled that that British troops are not protected by human rights law on the battlefield.

The Court had been asked to decide if British military personnel, who are already covered by the Human Rights Act while on bases abroad, were also protected when they set foot outside the camp gates. Two lower courts had decided they were thus protected, a mad decision which would have all but paralysed the conduct of warfare.

But now by a six to three majority the highest levels of the judiciary, which hitherto have wielded ‘human rights’ as a judicial battering ram against western civilisation, have for once upheld the latter against the former.

Is this a mirage?

Maybe not, since there have been other recent signs that the judges may be emerging from their civilisational trance. The (always sensible) Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge has suggested that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is threatening to ‘assume an unspoken priority over common law’ and called upon English judges to rely on English common law precedents instead of always looking to Europe for guidance.

The Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger has warned foreign judges to show a ‘more acute appreciation’ of the independence of Britain’s legal systems. And even the very radical former Law Lord, Lord Hoffmann, has accused the Strasbourg court of seeking to impose uniform laws across all Europe.

Have the wigs finally twigged that they have been helping to shove the UK over the cliff?

Meanwhile folk who, unlike the higher English judiciary, can generally be relied upon to have their feet firmly on the ground have been continuing to shore up the defences. The influential Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home has an extremely sharply worded and astute piece in the Times today, warning of the potentially dire consequences for the Tories of their Faustian pact with the LibDems. Since the Times now charges for on-line access, you can read Tim’s own summary of his arguments here (including a paragraph that was cut from

           — Hat tip: JP2 [Return to headlines]



UK: Violent Inner-City Crime, The Figures, And a Question of Race

The reality of violent inner-city crime is indicated today by statistics obtained by The Sunday Telegraph.

The official figures, which examine the ethnicity of those accused of violent offences in London, suggest the majority of men held responsible by police for gun crimes, robberies and street crimes are black.

Black men are also disproportionately the victims of violent crime in the capital.

The statistics, released by the Metropolitan Police, permit an informed debate on a sensitive subject for the first time.

One prominent black politician said that the black community needed to face up to major challenges.

Shaun Bailey, a Tory election candidate in London and a charity worker, said: “The black community has to look at itself and say that, at the end of the day, these figures suggest we are heavily — not casually — involved in violent crime. We are also involved in crime against ourselves — and we regularly attack each other.”

The data provide a breakdown of the ethnicity of the 18,091 men and boys who police took action against for a range of violent and sexual offences in London in 2009-10.

They show that among those proceeded against for street crimes, 54 per cent were black; for robbery, 59 per cent; and for gun crimes, 67 per cent. Street crimes include muggings, assault with intent to rob and snatching property.

Just over 12 per cent of London’s 7.5 million population is black, including those of mixed black and white parentage, while 69 per cent is white, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The police figures also show that black men are twice as likely to be victims. They made up 29 per cent of the male victims of gun crime and 24 per cent of the male victims of knife crime.

The Met declined to comment on the statistics. However, some officers will see them as a justification for Operation Trident, a unit targeting black-on-black murder and violent crime.

Others will see it as justification for targeting a disproportionate number of black men under stop and search powers. Figures released annually have shown black people are at least six times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts.

On sex offences, black men made up 32 per cent of male suspects proceeded against, and white men 49 per cent. The statistics also suggest that black women are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime committed by females.

Richard Garside, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London, said: “Given Britain’s long history of racism and imperialism it should not greatly surprise us that black and minority ethnic groups are disproportionately members of social classes that have tended to experience greater victimisation and to be the subject of police attention.

“Just because the police treat black men as more criminal than white men, it does not mean that they are.” Simon Woolley, speaking as the director of the Operation Black Vote pressure group, but who is also a commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Although the charge rates for some criminal acts amongst black men are high, black people are more than twice as likely to have their cases dismissed, suggesting unfairness in the system.”

The Sunday Telegraph obtained the figures via a Freedom of Information request after Rod Liddle, the writer, caused controversy last year when he claimed in an online blog published on The Spectator website that “the overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community”.

The comments led to claims that Mr Liddle was racist, However, Mr Liddle said: “I cannot think of anything more vile than racism. The issue here is not racism, it is one of multiculturalism.”

The statistics suggest that Mr Liddle was largely right on some of his claims — notably those on gun crimes, robberies and street crimes.

The figures suggest, however, that he was probably wrong on his claims about knife crimes and violent sex crimes.

The figures relate to those “proceeded against”.

This includes those prosecuted in court, whether convicted or acquitted; those issued with a caution, warning or penalty notice; those the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge; and those whose crimes were “taken into consideration” after a further offence.

Unsolved crimes are not included.

The figures do not take into account that any one perpetrator may have committed numerous offences .

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

North Africa


After Failed Attempt of Forced Islamization Egyptian Christian Family Under Siege

By Mary Abdelmassih

One of the most explosive issues in the relations between Christians and Muslims of Egypt is the abduction of Christian Coptic minor girls, to force them to embraced Islam, after humiliating and demeaning them psychologically and morally.

This dangerous phenomenon which appeared in the 1970s and which has become a lucrative business for all Muslim participants including the Egyptian State Security has been steadily on the rise, with reports surfacing weekly of several disappearances without trace of Coptic girls. Those fortunate enough to return home has talked of their ordeal.

Zeenahom (Suzan) Nady Adly, known as , 19-years old, is one of the fortunate girls who was able to return home, after being drugged and abducted by Muslims to force her conversion to Islam. She comes from “Ezbet Fanous,” a small hamlet, near the town of Samalut (250 km from Cairo), inhabited by a Coptic majority of twenty families to six Muslim ones and a Muslim mayor.

According to her story, as she went out at night on Saturday June 12 to buy soft drinks for some visitors at home, she was stopped by two Muslim men, who sprayed a substance in her face, making her lose consciousness. “When I regained consciousness nearly two hours later, I found myself in the building of the Islamic Sharia Association in Minia, facing a shaikh who tried to intimidate and force me to convert to Islam,” reported Freecopts advocacy in a taped interview with Zeenahom. “He tried to convince me that I would be safer marrying a Muslim, and leaving the area.”

However, the shaikh contacted State Security to tell them that he wanted her to convert, but he was told to let her go as her family was not keeping quiet.

Meanwhile her father, Nady Adly, had sent telegrams to all authorities and her family demonstrated in front of Samalut police headquarters asking for her return, which forced the security authorities to intervene.

However, her ordeal continued at the police station where she was taken the next day. Zeenahom accused the village mayor Khalaf Ebdelmageed of masterminding her abduction at the hands of Muslim Sayed Khalaf and another named Taha El-Hinnawi, in exchange for money. “While I was at the police station, the village mayor told me that I was too good to be a Christian. He asked me to say in the police report that I will convert to Islam, but I refused.”

Zeenahom said that she refused to tell the police the names of her abductors, especially Sayed Khalaf, for fear of retribution. She is staying presently with her aunt.

Magdy Attia, one of the Coptic witnesses who demonstrated in front of the police station until Zeenahom was handed over to her father said that nearly two hundred Muslims, together with Sayed Khalaf’s family were there with weapons intimidating them. “We were told that they will take Zeenahom by force to convert and marry her main abductor Sayed Khalaf, a driver by occupation, who has divorced his Muslim wife recently ,” he said. “We were told Zeenahom will be Sayed’s second wife.”

The victim’s father said that the village mayor has beaten him when he said that he wanted to talk to his abducted daughter on the phone. He filed a police accusing the mayor of being an accomplice. Later he was threatened by the mayor demanding that his daughter retracts any accusations she made to Copts United advocacy of his involvement in her abduction and forced Islamization attempt. Talking of his siege he said: “I could not leave my home, as all roads were blocked. I had to phone the police to come and let me out of the area.”

A few days later the police and one of the members of the local council in Samalout “Magdi Malek”, forced on them, the so-called “reconciliation meeting” in which it was decided that the whole Coptic family should be deported from the village, reported Copts United.

Commenting on this case, Coptic attorney Mamdouh Nakhla, Director of “Al-Kalema” human rights centre said: “Forcing the girl and her family out of the village and leaving their home, for whatever reason, is a crime of forced displacement, which is a crime against humanity, punishable by the International Criminal Court.” Nakhla views the reconciliation meeting which was held in Ezbet Fanous as a “meeting for submission, and imposing the will of the strong upon the weak.” He intends to head a fact-finding commission to the area next week to document what happened to the girl’s family and interview witnesses.

Although her father has filed a report naming the abductors of his daughter, no action was taken against them.

“I am pleading for protection from the family of Sayed Khalaf.. I am afraid to leave my home. I need to go to work to earn money to feed my family. Sayed told me he will be after us until we all convert to Islam,” the father told Freecopts. “Sayed’s family is strong, they are numerous and have weapons… but I am only a poor man.”

           — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Caroline Glick: Alternatives to Surrender

To the roaring cheers of the local media, on Sunday the Schalit family embarked on a cross-country march to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s residence. They set out two days after the fourth anniversary of IDF Sgt. Gilad Schalit’s captivity.

Outside their home in the North on Sunday, Gilad’s father Noam Schalit pledged not to return home without his son. The Schalit family intends to camp out outside of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s home until the government reunites them with Gilad.

For weeks the local media — and especially Ma’ariv and Yediot Ahronot — have portrayed the Schalit family’s trek to Netanyahu as a reenactment of Moses’ journey to Pharaoh. Like Pharaoh, the media insinuates that Netanyahu is evil because he refuses to free Gilad from bondage.

The only drawback to this dramatic, newspaper-selling story is that it is wrong. Gilad Schalit is not a hostage in Jerusalem. He is a hostage in Gaza. His captor is not Netanyahu. His captor is Hamas.

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Muslims Plan to Land a Scientific Lab on Moon in 2013

The Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) will be honoured with a laboratory on the moon by 2013, a scientist said

Manama: Muslims are planning to land a scientific lab called Mohammad I on the moon by 2013, a scientist said.

“The station will be called Mohammad after the Prophet [PBUH] and it is our scientific response for the negative stereotyping against the prophet [PBUH],” Radhouane Fakir, a Canadian scientist of Moroccan descent, was reported as saying on Saturday.

“We will launch Mohammad II in 2015 in order to boost the scientific work of Mohammad I. We wanted a scientific reaction to all the offences against the Prophet [PBUH] so that we are closer to his values than to those of the people who offended him. The scientific labs will serve to remind the world of the importance of Prophet Mohammad [PBUH],” the Qatari daily Al Arab quoted him as saying.

Fakir said that the first lab would cost around $100 million and the second lab to reach the moon, in 2015, would cost around $1 billion. It would be funded by the Islamic world.

Fakir said he made his announcement at the Fanar Islamic Centre because of the tolerance between religions and cultures that it promoted.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Turkey: PM Said Israel Must Apologise for Gaza Blockade

New York, 29 June (AKI) — Israel must apologize for its blockade of the Gaza Strip, as well as compensate the people of Gaza, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during an interview on an American talk show.

The Turkish prime minister late Monday on The Charlie Rose Show also said that an apology would be a precondition for his country to continue its role in mediating any future peace talks.

Israeli commandos on 31 May stormed an aid flotilla aiming to break Israel’s three-year-old embargo of Gaza. Nine activists on a ship flying the Turkish flag were killed during the raid. Eight of the dead were Turkish citizens.

On Monday Turkey closed its airspace to several Israeli military flights in response to the the raid.

“Israel should issue an apology because of what has happened with the more recent events and compensate for the people and Gaza, which is like an open-air prison, must not remain so, and the blockades must be lifted. As long as these happen, this takes place, then we are ready for any sort of responsibility that we are asked to take upon ourselves,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said he thought Israel’s government impeded Middle East peace attempts, saying that “at the moment, the problem in Israel is the coalition government. The coalition government is the biggest barrier to peace.”

“Israel hasn’t really accepted a two-state solution,” the he added, saying that while Israel’s governments spoke about it, they in fact did nothing to advance it. On the other hand, Erdogan said, Turkey has “worked for the security and we worked for the security of the Israeli people and we have worked to convince Hamas, as well,” saying that Ankara had “convinced [Hamas] up to a certain extent.”

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



Turkey’s Cycle of Violence

Monday’s bombing of a military bus in Istanbul was the latest flashpoint in an escalating cycle of violence between Kurdish fighters and the Turkish military.

The location was unusual — fighting usually occurs in rural parts of southeastern Turkey — but scores of people have been killed in more than a dozen attacks over the last three months.

It’s a stark reversal from last summer, when Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — the main anti-government group — was talking about a “road map” for peace talks with the Turkish government.

Ankara responded with a few conciliatory gestures: State-run television launched a Kurdish-language channel, and the government promised economic reforms and greater civil rights for Turkey’s estimated 14 million ethnic Kurds, who have suffered systematic discrimination for decades.

One year later, those political changes have stalled, and the ceasefire has very much ended. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, vowed earlier this week that Kurdish fighters will “drown in their own blood”, and explicitly ruled out peace talks with Ocalan or the PKK.

And the PKK said earlier this month that it would scrap a year-old ceasefire and resume fighting.

Criticism from the right

Both sides blame the other for the truce’s collapse.

The Turkish military says the PKK has stepped up its attacks this spring, planting remote-controlled bombs and staging ambushes.

PKK leaders say they have been targeted by large-scale military operations [one of which even crossed the border into Kurdish parts of northern Iraq last month].

Erdogan’s political overtures suffered a major blow in December, when Turkey’s Constitutional Court outlawed the Democratic Society Party because of its alleged links to the PKK.

The party’s 21 members of parliament resigned after the ruling, which sparked violent clashes in several cities — most notably in Diyarbakir, where more than 5,000 people took to the streets.

Other much-touted initiatives have fizzled out as well.

Thirty-four Kurds, including several former members of the PKK, returned to Turkey last year from years of exile in northern Iraq. The government hailed their return as the first step towards repatriating thousands of Turkish Kurds living in northern Iraq.

But those plans have been put on hold — and all 34 returnees, except for four children, have now been charged with speaking in support of a terrorist organisation.

The attacks have taken on a political dimension for Erdogan, whose ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) faces difficult elections next year.

Erdogan’s overtures have helped the AKP win some Kurdish support, but they have also exposed the party to criticism from the rightist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the MHP, recently called Erdogan’s opening “a project of treason”.

The People’s Republican Party (CHP), the main opposition party, also blamed Erdogan’s policies for the renewed violence, though his criticism was more measured.

“I expressed my concerns over the policies followed [on terrorism] to the President. I explained my concerns over intelligence gathering and economic policies which lead to terrorism,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the CHP, said after a meeting with Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president.

Erdogan has promised not to abandon his overtures to the Kurds. But with violence quickly rising, he will face mounting pressure to crack down — hard — on Kurdish fighters.

Decades of fighting have not ended the conflict — and yet another round seems increasingly unavoidable.

           — Hat tip: Henrik [Return to headlines]

Caucasus


Chechen Police Shoot Paintballs at Women With Uncovered Hair

by Sarah Menkedick

Police officers in Chechnya have been firing paintballs at Chechen women with uncovered hair; the policemen drive by in cars with tinted windows and shoot the women in the face and neck as they’re walking down the street.

Following the initial attacks last week, fliers from the shooters appeared in the Chechen city of Gudermes warning that if women didn’t cover themselves the paintballers would resort to “tougher measures.” The fliers also admonished, “Isn’t it nasty for you, while dressed defiantly, with your head uncovered, to hear various obscene ‘compliments’ and proposals? Think again!”

This infuriating and degrading development — shooting women with paint?! — is one result of Russia’s cold bargain with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen rebel-turned-Kremlin-loyalist. Trying to maintain control over Chechnya and quash any separatist uprisings, Russia has essentially allowed Kadryov to run the Chechen republic according to his version of Islamic law.

Russia has turned the other cheek as Kadryov gathers thousands of men into a personal militia to enforce bans on alcohol and mandatory headscarves for women. This method of enforcement via paintballing is particularly abhorrent — both violent and humiliating, a form of subtle terror aimed at forcing women into subjugation.

Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva told Reuters, “this paintballing is an obvious Kadyrov rule just used to strengthen and tighten his grip over his tiny republic.” Shooting women with paint in the face on the street and filming it on mobile phones, then, is apparently this man’s idea of strengthening power. This is an alarming sign of the increasing oppression of women in Chechnya that the international community needs to speak out about immediately, chastising both Kadyrov and the government in Moscow for violent violations of women’s rights and dignity

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Indonesia: Politicians Debate Ban on Islamist Group

Jakarta, 29 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) — A political debate has erupted in Indonesia about whether to ban the extremist Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said that there was no need to ban the Islamist vigilante group despite its controversial methods.

“Let the law handle the [FPI]. As long as the police are firm on them, there is no need for them to become an illegal organisation,” PKS senior politician Agus Purnomo told reporters over the phone Tuesday.

Agus said that FPI’s brutality often came as a result of the police’s ignorance.

Indonesian lawmakers on Monday demanded the government crack down on the group which has threatened “war” against Christians in Jakarta and urged mosques to set up militia forces.

Parliamentarians from various parties held a media conference to demand the government outlaw the FPI — a private militia with a self-appointed mission to protect “Islamic” values in the secular country.

“The only way to stop the FPI from creating anarchy is to ban it. The FPI is not registered as an official group,” lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said.

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



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Indonesia: Government ‘Shuns UN Torture Convention’

Jakarta, 30 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Indonesia has failed to apply United Nations anti-torture regulations ratified by the country in 1998, according to a research report.

Indonesia is obliged to conduct effective legislative, administrative and judicial initiatives to prevent torture, including establishing regulations to criminalise it, according to Febi Yonesta, a researcher with the Partnership for Governance Reform (Kemitraan) which compiled the report.

“However, we still find many regulations that allow or tolerate the use of torture and other inhumane punishments,” he said at the launch of the report on Tuesday in Jakarta.

The report is entitled “The Level of Indonesia’s Obedience to the United Nations Convention against Torture”

He cited several regulations contradictory to the convention, at national and regional levels, including ones sanctioning the death penalty, and an Aceh provincial regulation on whipping.

“Indonesia’s Criminal Code doesn’t define torture as a crime. The code only rules cruel treatment [in article 335-551] and extortion of confession [article 422] as criminal actions,” he told journalists.

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



Indonesia: Obama Pledges to Boost Education

Toronto, 28 June (AKI/Antara) — US President Barack Obama has pledged greater co-operation with Indonesia on education and climate change in a bid to expand strategic cooperation between the two countries. Obama met his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Toronto on Sunday.

“Together we will discuss climate change issues to help develop study on that issue in Indonesia and to make it beneficial not only to Indonesia but also to the global region,” Obama said.

Obama also offered greater cooperation with Indonesia on education pledging to spend a total budget of 160 million dollars.

“The meeting this morning is possible because the friendship between Indonesia and the United States is strong and that we want to make it even stronger,” Obama said.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia and the US wanted to develop comprehensive cooperation to face the challenges in the 21st century.

“The challenges are among others global economic development and climate change,” Yudhoyono said.

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



Movie Based on US President’s Childhood Debuts in Indonesia

A film about U.S. President Barack Obama’s childhood days in Indonesia made its debut in Jakarta on Wednesday, promising a very different perspective on the man in the White House.

“Obama Anak Menteng” or “Obama the Menteng Kid” is set in the upscale Jakarta neighborhood of Menteng, where Obama lived from 1967 to 1971 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.

Co-director Damien Dematra said it showed the U.S. president in a light that Americans might find strange.

“Viewers, especially Westerners, will see a different world. They’ll see Obama eating chicken satay, not hamburgers. They’ll see his neighbors and friends wearing checkered sarongs and Muslim caps,” he told AFP.

Even so, producers skirted controversy surrounding the extent that Islam influenced Obama’s early years in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

A scene showing Obama, who is a Christian, praying like a Muslim was dropped as it was deemed “too political”, Dematra said.

“He was just imitating other kids when they were praying but it didn’t mean he wanted to be Muslim. That scene wasn’t even shot because I didn’t want people to take it out of context and use it against him,” he said.

Based on his interviews with Obama’s surviving neighbors and friends in the Indonesian capital, Dematra claims the film is “60 percent fact and 40 percent fiction.”

Midwife Fitriah Sari, who was in the audience at the film’s debut, said Obama was portrayed favorably.

“He showed that sometimes saying sorry is actually more effective than using the fist in solving conflict,” Sari said.

Another who saw the film, Asmul Khairi, said: “This film was interesting.

“Obama is shown to be able to get along with anyone, regardless of race, religion or skin color. He showed cultural or physical differences are no barrier to forging meaningful friendships.”

The film features a cast of little-known Indonesian actors and was filmed in just over a month in the West Java city of Bandung — which retains some of the sleepy charm of 1960s Menteng.

Its budget was a million dollars, Dematra said.

Twelve-year-old American Hasan Faruq Ali plays Obama, or Barry as the president was known to his schoolmates.

Like Obama, Ali — who had no prior acting experience — is the son of a mixed-race couple and moved from the United States to Indonesia as a toddler.

He speaks Indonesian and English, just as Obama switched between his mother-tongue with his parents and Indonesian with his friends.

Clips available on the internet show “little Barry” learning to box with his stepfather after getting into a schoolyard fight, but ultimately learning to resolve conflicts through means other than violence.

“You’re from the West, but black. You’ve got weird hair and a big nose,” a neighborhood boy replies when Obama introduces himself as Barry.

“We have to stick together to achieve our goals and resolve our problems and fights,” Barry later tells his friends.

Dematra said: “When Obama first arrived, local kids rejected him as he didn’t look like them. There was a scene where Obama was bullied and he had to fight. He fought and he won and then they accepted him”.

Dematra said he did not want the film to be political, but to give viewers a sense of how Indonesia’s cultural diversity — mostly Muslim but with significant Hindu, Christian and other minorities — might have influenced “this pluralist and inspiring figure.”

The 100-minute film, produced by local company Multivision Plus Pictures, was due to debut earlier in June to coincide with a visit by Obama to his old hometown.

But the trip, like another scheduled for March, was postponed due to pressing issues in the United States. Obama is now expected in November.

“I was disappointed about the delays. If Obama sees the film, I’m sure he’ll have a couple of minutes of reflection about his past. It will be a sweet memory for him,” Dematra said.

The makers are hoping to release the film internationally in September..

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Google Site to be Monitored for ‘Blasphemy’

Islamabad, 26 June (AKI) — Pakistan on Friday said it would monitor Google, Yahoo, and other popular websites to to weed out what the government considers material that could be offensive to Islam.

The country in May blocked access to Facebook for two weeks following a “blasphemous” contest by some users to draw the prophet. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet as offensive and anti-Islam.

Telecoms official Khurram Mehran said links would be blocked without disturbing the main website.

Facebook is not on the list of monitored websites. Some of YouTube links will be blocked but the main site itself will be left alone.

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

Far East


Hong Kong: Govt Less and Less Sincere With the People, Card Zen Says

For Hong Kong’s bishop emeritus, the government’s decision to adopt a revised package of constitutional reforms without a public debate “changes everything”. It proves the government does not respect the people.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — “Sincerity and respect for the people of Hong Kong are being lost,” Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, told AsiaNews. He was speaking about the government’s decision to adopt a revised constitutional reform package, only two days before it goes to the territory’s Legislative Council (LegCo).

Today the government has rejected calls to postpone the debate to give the public time to discuss the Democratic Party’s proposal to allow the people to elect five new District and functional constituency representatives. This effectively gives the government the 40 votes it needs to move the package forward. The LegCo debate on the “Package of proposals for the methods of selecting chief executive and for forming Legislative Council in 2010” will start tomorrow.

Cardinal Zen said discussions with the Chinese government have caused a “rift among pan-democrats in Hong Kong”. Even though the central government’s acceptance of the democrats’ proposal is “a breakthrough” on political reform issue, which has gone unresolved for years, some politicians can only see the benefits in front of them.

Timing is “a serious problem” and the Democratic Party should not accept the revised proposal for approval tomorrow. “The object of deliberation is something new, with many elements clamouring for clarification,” such as how to abolish functional constituencies in future, the cardinal noted.

For the cardinal, it may be “overly optimistic” to believe that it is “an easy way to a real one-person-two-votes system”.

“The people of Hong Kong have had no chance to express their opinion in this regard,” he added. Therefore, “To push for a quick vote on the proposal is an act of contempt towards the people of Hong Kong”.

Lina Chan Li-na, executive secretary of the diocese’s Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), told AsiaNews that functional constituencies must be abolished and universal suffrage implemented in the elections for the LegCo and the office of chief executive if Hong Kong is to achieve true democracy.

The JPC and seven other Catholic and Protestant groups held a prayer Tuesday evening, staging the “Stations of the Cross for Democracy” outside the LegCo building, a day before the legislative body beings a debate on the constitutional reform package.

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

Sub-Saharan Africa


Zimbabwe: ‘Terrorist’ Suspects Arrested En Route to South Africa

Harare, 26 June (AKI) — Zimbabwe police on Friday announced the detention of two Pakistani men heading to World Cup host South Africa. The country’s media said one of the detainees was arrested under an international arrest warrant for terrorism.

“We have two Pakistani men in our custody and through Interpol we have established that there is a warrant for one of them,” police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena was cited as saying in a news report.

The state-owned Herald newspaper said the two men flew from Saudi Arabia to Tanzania where they fraudulently acquired Kenyan passports before travelling to Zimbabwe by road last weekend.

The Herald quoted unnamed security officials as saying the wanted terrorism suspect was based in the Chilean capital Santiago

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

Immigration


Germany’s Immigration Debate

Politician Demands IQ Tests for Would-Be Immigrants

Many in Germany have long been skeptical of immigration. Now, a conservative Berlin politician has proposed requiring immigrants to take an intelligence test before being allowed in. His idea has not been well received.

Germany’s conservatives have never been terribly coherent when it comes to immigration. Despite a stubbornly low birth rate and what many consider to be a developing need for skilled foreign labor, members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have long been unwilling to roll out the welcome mat.

On Monday, the party once again made a less-than-fortunate foray into the immigration debate. Peter Trapp, a domestic policy expert with the CDU in Berlin, demanded in an interview with the mass-circulation tabloid Bild that would-be immigrants to Germany be given intelligence tests before they are allowed in.

“We have to establish criteria for immigration that really benefit our country,” Trapp said. “In addition to adequate education and job qualifications, one benchmark should be intelligence. I am in favor of intelligence tests for immigrants. We cannot continue to make this issue taboo.”

Trapp received support from Markus Ferber, a member of the European Parliament for the Christian Social Union, the CDU’s Bavarian sister party. Ferber said: “We need a unified policy for Europe. Canada is much further along on the issue and requires that children of immigrants have a higher IQ than those born in Canada.”

Divided on Immigration

Their comments come just a month after numbers were released suggesting that Germany is not the first choice among those searching for a new home. In 2009, more people emigrated from Germany than arrived, marking the second year in a row that the country has shown a net loss, following a quarter century of net gains from immigration.

Ferber’s contribution to the debate is also not strictly accurate. Canada has a points system for would-be immigrants. Those with high language ability, extensive job training and financial wherewithal are preferred, though there is no intelligence test component to the Canadian immigration procedure.

Germany has long been divided when it comes to immigration. Whereas the country saw millions of “guest workers” arrive in the country during the “Economic Miracle” in the 1960s and 1970s, many in Germany had trouble embracing immigration as a solution to the country’s labor needs. Changing demographics have kept the debate alive, with many suggesting that Germany will have to open the gates to immigrants should it hope to keep its generous cradle-to-grave welfare system.

But previous efforts to increase immigration or even encourage highly qualified immigrants have proven controversial, particularly among Germany’s conservatives. In the early 2000s, the government of then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder — from the center-left Social Democrats — launched a program known as the German green card, which was meant to attract IT experts to Germany to counter a lack of domestically trained experts. The CDU was adamantly opposed to the plan, with Jürgen Rüttgers, then involved in campaigning for the governorship of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, coining the unfortunate slogan “Kinder statt Inder!” — “children instead of Indians” — meant to indicate his preference for education over immigration.

‘Absurd’

CDU heavyweight Roland Koch found himself involved in a similar pre-election debate in his home state of Hesse in late 2007 when he demanded harsher penalties to control “criminal young foreigners.” His comments contributed to his disappointing results in that election.

The CDU on Monday was at pains to play down the comments made by Trapp and Ferber. Given Berlin’s focus on improving the integration of the country’s immigrant population, Maria Böhmer, who has been tasked by Merkel with improving integration, rejected the call for intelligence tests.

Such comments do not promote “a culture of welcoming, which would do our country good,” Böhmer said. “The demand for an IQ test for immigrants is absurd and does not demonstrate much intelligence.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



U.S. Grants Asylum to Born-Again ‘Son of Hamas’

Homeland Security wanted to deport ex-Muslim who spied for Israel

An immigration judge in San Diego ruled today the son of a Hamas founder who converted to Christianity and spied for Israel will be granted political asylum after the Department of Homeland Security dropped its objections.

As WND reported, Mosab Hassan Yousef had been denied his February 2009 request for asylum because the DHS interpreted his work as a counterterror agent with Israel’s Shin Bet security agency as engagement in terrorist activity, making him a threat to U.S. security.

Judge Rico Bartolomei ruled Yousef will be granted political asylum Aug. 26 after he is fingerprinted and passes a routine background check.

Yousef’s attorney, Steven Seick, argued in a court filing, “For 10 years, he fought terrorism in secret, hiding what he was doing and who he was. He deserves a safe place away from violence and fear.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


Why Criminals Are Less Intelligent Than Non-Criminals

Murder is natural, the police are unnatural

Criminologists have long known that criminals on average have lower intelligence than the general population, but they do not know why. The Hypothesis may be able to shed new light on this question.

From the perspective of the Hypothesis, there are two important points to note. First, much of what we call interpersonal crime today, such as murder, assault, robbery, and theft, were probably routine means of intrasexual male competition in the ancestral environment. This is how men likely competed for resources and mating opportunities for much of human evolutionary history. They beat up and killed each other, and they stole from each other if they could get away with it.

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We may infer this from the fact that behavior that would be classified as criminal if engaged in by humans, like murder, rape, assault, and theft, are quite common among other species. The criminologist Lee Ellis documented many instances of these “criminal behavior” among different species with photographs in 1998. The primatologist Frans de Waal and his colleagues have documented brutal murders, assaults, and other interpersonal violence among chimpanzees, bonobos, and capuchin monkeys.

Second, the technologies and institutions that control, detect, and punish criminal behavior in society today — CCTV cameras, DNA fingerprinting, the police, the courts, the prisons — are all evolutionarily novel. There was very little formal third-party enforcement of norms in the ancestral environment, only second-party enforcement (retaliation from vigilance by victims and their kin and allies) or informal third-party enforcement (ostracism).

It therefore makes sense from the perspective of the Hypothesis that men with low intelligence may be more likely to resort to evolutionarily familiar means of competition for resources (theft rather than full-time employment) and mating opportunities (rape rather than computer dating), and not to comprehend fully the consequences of criminal behavior imposed by evolutionarily novel entities of law enforcement.

Men with lower intelligence are less likely truly to comprehend evolutionarily novel entities. Some of these evolutionarily novel entities are alternative means to resource acquisition and accumulation they could pursue instead of evolutionarily familiar means which are now classified as criminal in civilized societies. Other evolutionarily novel entities they are less likely truly to comprehend are means that law enforcement agencies employ to detect and capture criminals. The Hypothesis therefore offers one possible explanation for the negative association between intelligence and criminality.

At the same time, the Hypothesis also offers a novel hypothesis with regard to intelligence and criminality. As I mention above, while formal third-party enforcement of norms is evolutionarily novel, second-party enforcement and informal third-party enforcement are evolutionarily familiar. Thus the Hypothesis would predict that the difference in intelligence between criminals and noncriminals will disappear in situations where formal third-party enforcement of norms is weak or absent, and criminal behavior is controlled largely via second-party enforcement, such as situations of prolonged anarchy and statelessness, in fact, any situation that resembles the ancestral environment. Paradoxically, the Hypothesis would predict that less intelligent men will commit fewer crimes if the police disappeared, although more intelligent men may commit more crimes then.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100627

Financial Crisis
» G20 Leaders Agree to Disagree
» Islamic Banks Are Here to Stay
» Paul Krugman Now Laughingstock on Two Continents
» UK: NHS Suffering Devastating Cuts to Jobs and Services
» UK: Unemployed to be Told ‘Move to Parts of the Country Where There Are Jobs’
» You Say “Sovereign” I Say “Maybe Not”
 
USA
» A Left-Wing Journalistic Plant in the Conservative Movement
» Closing Guantánamo Fades as a Priority
» Dozens of Americans Believed to Have Joined Terrorists
» How Much Costs Detroit’s Re-Prairiezation?
» Illinois Police Revoke 1st Muslim Chaplain’s Post
» Islamic Center Works to Open Hearts, Minds in Murfreesboro
» Islam: Dispelling the Myths
» Muslim-Turned-Preacher Out as Baptist School Dean
» Obama Internet Kill Switch Plan Approved by US Senate
» So What if McChrystal Lost His Job?
» The Appeal of Repeal: Efforts to Undo Obama’s Economy Wrecking Socialist Health Reforms Intensifying
» The Ground Zero Mosque and Media Conquest of Islam
» The Manchurian President: White House Scholar Funded Ayers Group
» The Things He Carried
» Video: Biden Calls Manager Who Told Him to Lower Taxes a “Smartass”
» White House Preparing National Online ID Plan
 
Canada
» Despite the Mayhem, Today’s G20 Protest a Big Flop
» Police: Over 400 Arrested in G-20 Summit Rioting
 
Europe and the EU
» French G8/G20 Summits Will Cost ‘10 Times Less’ Than Canada’s: Sarkozy
» Gender Quotas for German Business?
» UK: Return of Real School Sports: Tories to Bring Back Competitive Games in Bid to Turn Nation Back Into Sporting Champions
» UK: Shopkeepers’ Fury as They Are Told All Food Must be Weighed and Sold by the Kilo
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Anti-Trafficking Agency to Prosecute Yerima Over Child Bride
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» The Western Way of War
» US-Israeli Relations Suffer ‘Tectonic Rift’
» White House Announcement on Gaza Shows the Missing Element: Strategic Rationality
 
Middle East
» Awareness on Export Credit and Investment Insurance Rising in OIC Countries
» Prostitution Racket Busted in UAE
» Saudi Arabia: Zakat Dept to be Made Independent
» Stakelbeck Exclusive: Israeli Deputy PM Moshe Yaalon on Turkey, Iran, U.S.
» Turkey: No Non-Muslims in EU-Bond
» U.S., Israel Differ on Iran Nuke Intel
 
Russia
» Cameron Raised Ex-Spy’s Death With Medvedev: Official
» Russia Alarmed by CIA View of Iran’s Weapons
 
South Asia
» 15 Insurgents Killed by Their Own Bombs in Afghan Mosque
» Fewer Than 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan: CIA Chief
» Headmaster Beheaded, Schools Torched in Afghanistan
» In Pakistan, Islamic Schools for Women Thrive
» Indian Held After Hindu Leader’s Murder in Nepal (Lead)
» Indonesia: Call to Arms Against Spread of Christianity
» Pakistan: Anti-Terror Court Convicts 5 Americans
» US Has Not Had Good Intelligence on Osama Bin Laden in Years
 
Far East
» China Bans Military From Blogging
» N Korea Seeks $75 Trillion in Compensation
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australia Shouldn’t Have a Big Population: Gillard
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Are Beards Obligatory for Devout Muslim Men?
» Sudanese Paper Publishes First Part of Investigative Report on Islamist Groups
 
Immigration
» Britain’s Non-EU Immigration Cap May Face Hiccups
» Growing Foreign-Born Population to Forge ‘New Canada’
» Muslim Cleric Leaves Australia for Good
» Open Borders, Open Pit
» The U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor
» UK Set to Limit Migrant Workers
» UK: Tories ‘Back Down’ Over Immigrants’ English Test
 
Culture Wars
» Biggest Obstacle for China’s Gays: Social Pressure for Marriage
» Inclusiveness Programs Benefit Companies and Workers Alike
 
General
» A Grand Design Made to Order, Part 3
» Equality is Never Equal

Financial Crisis


G20 Leaders Agree to Disagree

Summit sets aggressive deficit-cutting targets and leaves bank tax choice to individual nations

TORONTO: Agreeing to disagree and abandoning the endeavor to have a common approach, leaders of the G20 nations agreed to have a “differentiated response” to the economic and financial crisis the world is facing today.

Accepting a compromise on post-recession economic policy, the G20 leaders agreed to aggressive deficit-cutting targets, yet allowed the respective countries to pursue their own approach in meeting their national objectives.

This was an apparent trade-off between US President Barack Obama, who favored continued economic stimulus spending to head off a double-dip recession, and the European leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who wanted G20 countries to move swiftly to reduce debts run up during the 2008-09 economic slowdowns.

“Advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016,” read the G20 communiqué. This was a compromise between the two positions as Obama had publicly expressed his concern that cutting stimulus spending too quickly could hurt the global recovery. The leaders also agreed to support economic growth policies and recognized that some countries will start cutting their budget deficits later than others.

“We are committed to taking concerted actions to sustain the recovery, create jobs and to achieve stronger, more sustainable and more balanced growth,” the communiqué said. “These (actions) will be differentiated and tailored to national circumstances.”

The G20 has also concluded it will be left up to individual countries to decide whether they want to impose a bank tax or establish some kind of a rainy day fund to offset another financial collapse that sparked the worldwide recession.

The final communiqué, while commenting on the issue of energy subsidies, emphasized the need to phase them out over time “based on national circumstances” and “taking into account vulnerable groups and their development needs.”

The leaders also called on the world’s emerging economies to allow their currencies to float more freely, so as to balance world trade.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, seated next to Obama, was seen in intense discussion with world leaders. With heads of state and government from 20 developed and developing nations gathered around a large round table at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, the summit’s host, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, early on Sunday laid out the challenge that confronted them, urging them to take decisive action on mounting national debts and warning that failure to act could derail a fragile recovery. He underlined the need to strike a proper balance between sustaining economic growth and pulling back fiscal deficits.

“The recent skittishness of markets is telling us they are awaiting our actions, actions that must be decisive but also coordinated and balanced,” Harper said. “Here is the tightrope that we must walk, to sustain recovery it is imperative that we follow through on our existing stimulus plans,” he added.

“But at the same time, advanced countries must send a clear message that as our stimulus plans expire, we will focus on getting our fiscal houses in order,” he underlined.

As the leaders debated key issues at the convention center, outside police arrested more than 500 people in a major crackdown in two areas. About 70 people were arrested at a University of Toronto building near Russell Street and Spadina Avenue for wielding “street-type weaponry,” police said. Officers seized black clothing, bricks, bats, sharpened sticks and bottles. Raids were carried out at the Bancroft Building, the Earth Science Center and the Graduate Students Center. Police also arrested four people after witnesses saw them emerge from a manhole near the G20 summit security zone early Sunday morning. A spokeswoman for the Integrated Security Unit said the safety of international leaders at the summit was never at risk.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Islamic Banks Are Here to Stay

LONDON: The headline in The Times of London a few days ago could not have been more explicit: “Shariah-compliant banking products a ‘huge flop’ in Britain.” It is a pity that the writer was not more discerning or informed about Islamic banking in Britain.

The two so-called industry insiders on whose views the story is based are neither experts in Islamic finance nor bankers. In fact, they are bit players. The one a self-styled ‘Baron’ Junaid Bhatti who goes around claiming that he was one of the team who established Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB), which erroneously claims that it is the first Shariah-compliant bank to be approved by the UK.

The other a well-meaning individual Mohammed Qayyum, Director General of the Institute of Islamic Banking & Insurance, an institution which has spectacularly failed to make any impact since its establishment by its founder, the late Muazzam Ali, because of serious organisational and corporate governance deficiencies.

The UK, as the Bank of England and the erstwhile Financial Services Authority (FSA) will confirm, does not authorise Shariah-compliant or Islamic banks, for neither the words ‘Shariah-compliant’ nor ‘Islamic’ appear in the UK Banking Act. In fact they could only appear through the passing of primary legislation.

The five so-called Islamic banks in the UK — IBB, European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB), Bank of London & the Middle East (BLME), European Finance House (EFH) and Gatehouse Bank — are all authorised under the above Act, but their internal operations are conducted under Islamic banking principles and satisfy the provisions of the Act.

In fact, the first bank to operate under the above process was Al Baraka International Bank in the early 1990s, but unfortunately in the aftermath of the BBCI and INGs Baring banking collapses, Al Baraka was forced to surrender its licence because it could not satisfy the Bank of England on various new provisions that came into force especially relating to diffused ownership rules and new corporate governance and compliance regulations.

The assumptions in The Times article are fundamentally flawed. Islamic finance has been traditionally driven in the UK not by the demand of its 2 million or so Muslim population and those others who are interested in ethical or socially responsible finance and investment, but by high net worth Muslim investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey, who were starting to demand from their private bankers in London, Geneva and New York, financial products that were consistent with Shariah principles.

At the same time, multinational companies in the early 1980s were starting to access millions of dollars of short-term liquidity requirements using Commodity Murabaha products based on underlying transactions on the London Metals Exchange (LME).

Of the five authorized banks operating under Islamic financial principles in the UK, only one is a commercial bank. The rest are all investment banks. As such, to expect a single commercial ‘Islamic’ bank to make any impact even after six years, a very short gestation period for any bank, is simply ill-informed. It is financially illiterate to talk about IBB in the same way as the other four ‘Islamic’ banks in the UK, because they have different product profiles and client constituencies.

IBB in fact is woefully under-capitalized. As such, its scope is limited. Its senior management were inexperienced and its business plan was flawed from the start. Michael Hanlon, the first CEO of IBB, in an interview with this writer publicly stated that he knew nothing about Islamic banking and therefore he was ‘learning on the job’.

Some of the founder members made small fortunes from the initial appreciation of IBB private placements, albeit the partial listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) was a major disappointment, because British Muslims were simply not interested in investing in such a high risk venture. IBB shares since then have failed to make any investment impact, with many small investors simply holding on to the shares either because of notions of Muslim solidarity or in the hope that the shares would eventually rally and perhaps they can recover some of the value of their initial investment.

IBB’s initial product profile was wholly inadequate, concentrating on current accounts based on the Wadiah concept and the odd savings products, usually based on the Commodity Murabaha transactions. In the first three years, the Bank was simply not interested in launching Islamic home financing and small ticket leasing (Ijara) products. This is largely due to its low capital base which would directly impact on its risk weighting (the money banks have to set aside under FSA rulings to cover any mortgage lending or financing). In the end, IBB was forced to white label the Alburaq Islamic Home Financing Scheme based on Diminishing Musharaka developed by ABC International Bank and Bristol & West, which is part of the Bank of Ireland Group.

Similarly, the Muslim business and small-and-medium-enterprise (SME) hardly featured.

At the same time, to headquarter the bank in Birmingham because it got a good real estate deal from the local Council was short-sighted, because London is the financial center of the UK if not the world and the Islamic finance hub of Europe. Endless commuting to London whether to meet regulators at the FSA, other allied services, shareholder meetings and customers simply bloated operating expenses.

For the above shortcomings, the FSA and the founding shareholders of IBB bear some of the responsibility. If IBB was well capitalised with an experienced Islamic banker at the helm and with a well-thought out business and product plan, then its position may have been much different. Perhaps the ideal would have been to establish a joint venture with an existing high street brand with a tailor-made distribution network.

The expectations that UK high street players such as HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays inadvertently raised were simply not realized. The community banking model under the UK’s financial inclusion policy, which is what IBB effectively is, was simply not attractive to the likes of the above three.

HSBC Amanah is spectacularly successful in its consumer banking operations in the GCC, Malaysia, Brunei and others, yet its similar operations have failed in the UK and the US. A few years ago it stopped its Islamic home financing offerings in the US market and in the UK they have failed to take off.

The mainstream banks are simply not prepared to allocate enough marketing resources to promote their Islamic finance products, which perhaps indicates that their commitment at least in the Western markets are half-hearted. These may be for political reasons or simply because that the development costs are too high to justify a profitable return horizon that is at best medium-term. In reality, HSBC Amanah and Lloyds give the impression that they are living in denial about their Islamic financial offerings in the UK.

Very often their customer advisers have very little clue about their Islamic finance product offerings, which hardly inspires any confidence or loyalty from potential clients. Indeed HSBC would struggle to live up to any pretensions of being ‘the world’s local Islamic bank’.

HSBC Amanah like others has reviewed its growth plans following the global financial crisis. “The growth aspirations are still there but there’s a greater sense of caution and prudence in managing future growth strategies. We would like to think that Islamic finance is here to stay in the UK, but it will not be a quick win,” stressed Amjid Ali, Senior Manager, HSBC Amanah and UK Head, in a recent interview.

With the world coming out of economic recession and on the path to recovery, it remains to be seen how the likes of HSBC Amanah deal with the above aspirations especially in community banking markets such as the UK. Perhaps here lies the fundamental flaw in the approach of the mainstream banks. In the core GCC and south east Asian markets Islamic banking is seen as mainstream activity, but in non-core markets such as the UK, US and perhaps the EU it is seen as a niche community banking activity. The one constant, however, that does not change is the cost of product development and the likely return on investment.

The universal challenges facing Islamic banking is not confined to the UK market — the lack of human capital and talented professionals; the poor level of product knowledge by customers of Islamic banking; and the lack of standardization.

The UK government, as the facilitator of Islamic finance in the UK, has played an admirable role. In fact, the UK has more Islamic finance product enabling legislation in place than most Muslim countries. The latest, Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities)

(Amendment) Order 2010: Alternative Finance Investment Bonds, was adopted in February this year.

Of course the new Cameron Government can be more proactive especially in accessing Islamic finance products such as Sukuk as off balance sheet financing in its debt reduction plans. Indeed that could be the biggest boost Islamic finance needs in an aspiring market such as the UK.

It was encouraging to hear David Bailey, Manager, Financial Services Authority (UK) reiterating at the IFSB Sukuk Seminar in London earlier this month that Sukuk have an important role for Islamic institutions and that the UK remains committed to provide a level playing field for Islamic finance. “Changes will continue to be made, where necessary, to achieve this policy goal,” he added.

Sukuk are important to meet the lack of availability of short term, liquid money market instruments (international issue). In fact, the FSA expanded the liquidity regime to incorporate Islamic Development Bank Sukuk. The UK approach is to provide a level playing field for issuance of Sukuk with comparable conventional products and to achieve the goal of facilitating Islamic finance within the UK without compromising regulatory standards.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Paul Krugman Now Laughingstock on Two Continents

Of late, Krugman has had his Irish up at Europeans who are resisting the Obama Administration’s plan to continue spending hundreds of billions on financial stimulus. (Not that he agrees with the administration, which Krugman has been arguing for the last 18 months should be spending trillions, not mere billions, on stimulus.)

And in the case of Bundesbank president Axel Weber — whom Krugman called out recently in the daily Handelsblatt for trying to shore up the falling euro at the expense of government job creation — it’s created a backlash. The Wall Street Journal reports that Krugman’s criticism has turned him into the anti-Hasselhoff and boosted Weber’s popularity as he pursues the top job at the European Central Bank…

[…]

Europeans have lost their appetite for digging deeper holes of debt for the same reason Americans have: because they don’t have a choice. As Margaret Thatcher predicted would happen, we have all run out of other people’s money. That reality explains a lot more than airy references to Germans’ anti-inflationary mass psychology.

We’re at the tail end of the largest economic intervention since World War II, and even on its own narrow, nebulous terms, it has been a colossal failure. The failure is obvious to working people. It’s obvious to unemployed people. It’s obvious to kindergarteners, to dogs and cats. Only Paul Krugman persists in thinking good things will happen if we just throw more money on the barbecue.

[Return to headlines]



UK: NHS Suffering Devastating Cuts to Jobs and Services

Thousands of doctors and nurses face being made redundant or not replaced if they leave, while many hospitals have cut treatments, the British Medical Association has found.

Despite ministers’ assurances that the health service would not face the same cuts as other departments, many hospitals are feeling the strain, according to the BMA

[…]

A survey for the BMA asked 361 doctors, who between them represent committees at all of Britain’s hospital trusts and some larger primary care trusts, how the NHS was being affected by the demand to make £20billion of cuts.

It comes as the Coalition faces political pressure to reverse its pledge to ring-fence health spending.

The BMA found that 43 per cent of those who responded said there was a freeze on recruiting doctors and nurses at their trust. Almost as many, 40 per cent, said that patient treatments, including varicose vein operations and blood tests, were being rationed.

GPs in Bedfordshire said they had been told not to refer patients with certain conditions, such as skin lesions and cysts, to hospitals except in exceptional circumstances.

Nearly a quarter of those who responded said that their trust was planning to make workers redundant. Although the majority of these would not affect frontline staff, the union warned that cuts to administrative workers could force doctors and nurses to spend more time on these duties and less time with patients.

The poll — to which 92 doctors responded — represents the first real evidence of how the NHS has been hit by the cuts. It found trusts were trying to make annual savings of six per cent on average. The Government has promised to guarantee NHS spending growth in real terms but the BMA says this will be “minimal”. The association called the cuts potentially “devastating”.

The Royal College of Nursing said earlier this year that about 5,600 jobs were under threat across 26 hospital trusts. In a “worst case scenario”, the true figure could be as high as 30,000, it said.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “Alongside all the public services, the NHS will need to deliver significant savings over the coming years…

[Return to headlines]



UK: Unemployed to be Told ‘Move to Parts of the Country Where There Are Jobs’

The coalition Government is drawing up controversial plans to relocate the unemployed to areas of the country where there are jobs, it has emerged.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said he would be bringing forward proposals to make the workforce “more mobile”.

The comments, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, echo the words of then-Tory minister Norman Tebbit in 1981 when he suggested the unemployed should “get on your bike” and look for work.

Mr Duncan Smith, the MP for Lord Tebbit’s former parliamentary seat of Chingford, said ministers wanted to encourage jobless people living in council houses to move out of unemployment blackspots to homes in other areas, perhaps hundreds of miles away.

He insisted millions of people were “trapped in estates where there is no work” and could not move because they would lose their accommodation.

The proposed scheme would allow them to go to the top of the housing list in another area rather than giving up their right to a home.

‘We have over the years, not us personally but successive governments, created one of the most static workforces in the western world,’ Mr Duncan Smith said.

‘In Britain now we have workforces that are locked to areas and the result of that is we have over five and a half million people of working age who simply don’t [work]…

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You Say “Sovereign” I Say “Maybe Not”

Because my career was banking, I have written much about the attack on America’s independent banks by a federal regime that apparently seeks global governance.

Attacks? How else do you explain that as of June 30, 2009, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said there were 6,898 commercial banks in the United States — but as of June 30, 1984, there were 14,369 commercial banks? In 1994, that number was pared down to 10,623. Now we have less than 6,898.

How do we stop the ever-growing power of the Federal Reserve System? Why are financial experts talking about a world run by central banks? There are answers but they must be implemented before the power to make changes at the State level is removed.

The capacity to control monetary policy at the State rather than federal level and a State currency distribution system are powerful tools.

When people hear the words “State Bank,” they may think it means “State-chartered bank.” A State Bank is quite different from a State-chartered bank. The 90-year old Bank of North Dakota is the only State-owned bank in America.

Think of a State Bank as a mini-Federal Reserve — only it’s State-owned rather than a Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve System, a privately-owned corporation that is not part of the federal government, has Member Banks — nationally-chartered (they usually have the word “national” in their name). The Bank of North Dakota has “Member Banks” — State-chartered banks. The Bank of North Dakota, for example, provides its own State deposit insurance coverage — like a mini-FDIC (call it NDDIC).

Nationally-chartered banks (those licensed by the federal rather than State government) can do business in states that have a State Banking system, but cannot be members because of their national Charters. The authority that Charters a bank determines whether it will be a Member of the Federal Reserve System or of a State Bank.

A State Bank (exemplified by Bank of North Dakota) is the official depository institution for all State collections and fees. It’s very beneficial to local economies. Such a controlled source of funds is called a ‘captive deposit base’. The State Bank pays the State Treasurer a competitive rate of deposit interest that can be used to reduce local tax burdens. In states that are part of the federal system, funds collected by the State leave the State. When a State owns a State Bank, loan policies are determined by the State, not the federal government or the banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve System.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA


A Left-Wing Journalistic Plant in the Conservative Movement

A writer masquerading as a conservative who was supposed to be covering the conservative movement has quit his job under fire at the Washington Post. The writer, David Weigel, left after it came to light that he had made disparaging remarks about conservative personalities on a private email list of liberal journalists. The scandal involves The Washington Post, Reason magazine, and a network of “independent” on-line publications with funding from billionaire George Soros and multi-millionaire gay mogul Tim Gill.

In a major understatement, the Post ombudsman, or consumer advocate, says the scandal will affect the paper’s standing among conservatives. But the Post never had any standing among conservatives. This is why it is called the Compost.

Filled with profanity, emails from Weigel were leaked and publicized showing that he said Matt Drudge of Drudge Report fame ought to set himself on fire, ridiculed the first-rate reporting of Byron York of the Washington Examiner, called conservatives racist, suggested Tea Party members were stupid, and expressed the hope that Rush Limbaugh would die from heart problems.

Weigel was just the latest version of a Washington Post liberal hatchet man. He was supposed to have “conservative” credentials, which turned out to be based on his association with a group of Reason magazine libertarians committed to abortion, gay rights, marijuana and pornography. We are now learning that Weigel voted for Obama.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Closing Guantánamo Fades as a Priority

When the White House acknowledged last year that it would miss Mr. Obama’s initial January 2010 deadline for shutting the prison, it also declared that the detainees would eventually be moved to one in Illinois. But impediments to that plan have mounted in Congress, and the administration is doing little to overcome them.

[…]

The White House insists it is still determined to shutter the prison. The administration argues that Guantánamo is a symbol in the Muslim world of past detainee abuses, citing military views that its continued operation helps terrorists.

[…]

The politics of closing the prison have clearly soured following the attempted bombings on a plane on Dec. 25 and in Times Square in May, as well as Republican criticism that imprisoning detainees in the United States would endanger Americans. When Mr. Obama took office a slight majority supported closing it. By a March 2010 poll, 60 percent wanted it to stay open.

[Return to headlines]



Dozens of Americans Believed to Have Joined Terrorists

“There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us,” said John O. Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Brennan said he would not talk about lists of targeted American terrorists. However, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been tracking down U.S. nationals and U.S. passport holders who pose security threats, like the Yemen-based al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, he said.

“They are concerning to us, not just because of the passport they hold, but because they understand our operational environment here, they bring with them certain skills, whether it be language skills or familiarity with potential targets, and they are very worrisome, and we are determined to take away their ability to assist with terrorist attacks,” Mr. Brennan said.

The remarks came in response to questions about procedures used by the president to order lethal strikes on U.S. citizens who have joined al Qaeda or other terrorist groups…

[Return to headlines]



How Much Costs Detroit’s Re-Prairiezation?

I am still obsessing about Detroit’s abandonment and regression to prairie. It is a large American city completely equipped with all the infrastructure, built up in three centuries, that has been given up by its owners and inhabitants. How many billions are being lost by destroying Detroit and returning it to “Nature”?

I know that in Israel, each new dwelling is charged about 50,000 dollars for municipal development. It includes pavement, and water and sewage connections. But this is not the real cost — the Municipalities calculate their “agrat pituach” (development tax) according to what the market will bear. Moreover, most of the infrastructure is built by the central government, such as the water supply system, water purification plants, the wastewater treatment plants, the connecting roads. Telephone, electricity, gas, etc. are built by private companies. The planning of the infrastructure costs about 8% of the total costs. All in all, I think you could not have the infrastructure of city like Detroit for less than 200,000 dollars per dwelling.

This sum does not include the cost of urban infrastructure such as schools, libraries, parks, cult buildings, theaters, markets, and other public buildings, which in Israel is about 15% of the surface and the total cost. Then it is the cost of the dwellings themselves, which in urban areas (at least in Israel) is equally divided between the cost of the land, and the cost of the building. I presume that the land’s worth — of undeveloped prairieland — is less than 1000 dollars per hectare, although it is obvious that a block of real estate in Detroit Downtown in its peak must have been worth many millions.

Presuming that Detroit has/had 400,000 dwellings, and the sunken cost of each one is 500,000 dollars, the prairiezation of Detroit destroys 200 Billion dollars. It is not a terrible loss for a rich country like the USA, which reminds me Edward Teller’s dictum that nuclear wars are thinkable and fightible, since the worth of the infrastructure is equivalent of only ten years GNP, so in less than a generation, the country could rebuild itself. Germany post WWII is a good example, by 1955 it was prospering. Of course Germany was not totally destroyed, far from it.

My calculation takes into account the sunk cost of Detroit, and not the commercial value of a working, inhabited, prosperous city. A large office building in Manhattan can easily fetch 100 million dollars, and Detroit in the fifties may have been no less valuable, but I am considering only the physical infrastructure. So please have in mind that I am talking about the cost of the building, irrespective if it is in Manhattan or central Ougadougou.

My conclusion is that the abandonment of Detroit means the loss of an investment of about 200 billion dollars. This loss is the consequence of the collapse of the original owners and inhabitants’s faith in their right to own and inhabit the city. Like wars, Detroit was lost because of moral collapse — that of the natives’s inner convincement that they were living in their city by right and they had the moral right to defend it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Illinois Police Revoke 1st Muslim Chaplain’s Post

The Illinois State Police has revoked the appointment of the agency’s first Muslim chaplain, citing only information revealed during a background check. A national Muslim advocacy group Wednesday blamed the move on Islamophobia.

Kifah Mustapha, a Chicago-area imam, was appointed the agency’s first Muslim chaplain in December. Community groups had praised Mustapha’s appointment as a nod to the growing diversity among the agency’s nearly 2,000 officers.

But within days, the appointment came under criticism from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a Washington-based think tank.

The group alleged that Mustapha was linked to the Palestine Committee of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, a popular movement in the Muslim world that advocates the formation of Islamic governments in the Middle East. It also alleged he raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, a now-defunct Islamic charity whose founders were sentenced last year for funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The group cited internal documents and a list of unindicted co-conspirators.

[..]

“Due to information revealed during the background investigation, Sheikh Kifah Mustapha’s appointment as a volunteer ISP Chaplain has been denied,” ISP spokesman Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega said in an e-mail. “Specific details of background investigations are confidential and cannot be discussed.”

Ahmed Rehab, CAIR’s executive director in Chicago, called it discrimination against Muslims, especially since Mustapha hasn’t been formally accused of wrongdoing.

“The ISP is kowtowing to the run-of-the-mill fear-mongering that Islamophobes have devoted their careers in order to avoid a public relations controversy,” he said.

Steve Emerson, executive directr of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, on Wednesday defended the group’s original report, saying it merely published content linking Mustapha to fundraising for terrorists.

He said his group was prompted to investigate after news of the appointment was published on the website of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, one of the Chicago area’s oldest and largest mosques. Mustapha is an imam and director there.

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Islamic Center Works to Open Hearts, Minds in Murfreesboro

Ten-year-old Zaid Abu-Zahra made sure visitors attending the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s open house Saturday knew why his congregation needs something bigger.

“Sometimes we have to pray outside the mosque,” Zaid said while taking a brief break in helping his father direct visitors to parking spaces. “This center is very, very small for us. We’ve had the center for many years.”

Zaid wore a yellow vest as he directed cars and proudly showed off a blue metal button on his shirt with the white words: “Freedom of Religion For Everyone ICMTN.ORG.”

More than 100 people stopped by the existing 2,250-square-foot center on Middle Tennessee Boulevard about a block west of South Church Street for an open house, held to quell fears about intentions for a new mosque and answer questions about Islam.

After taking off their shoes before stepping on the carpet at the mosque, visitors greeted many of the 250 congregation families. Center members made sure their guests enjoyed food offered on long display tables, including hummus and pita bread.

“We’ve had an excellent turnout,” center spokeswoman Camie Ayash said.

The goal for the open house was to show the community why the Islamic Center plans to build a community center with a mosque on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike southeast of Murfreeboro. The Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission approved site plans for the 52,960-square-foot community center last month. Less than 10,000 square feet will be dedicated to the mosque area for prayer, Imam Ossama Bahloul said.

The remaining areas will include a pool, gym, administrative offices and classrooms not for a private school but more comparable to church Sunday school rooms.

The congregation, though, has faced fierce opposition. Many residents packed all three floors at the County Courthouse, and around 20 people told the County Commission that they opposed what they called a “training center” or a compound to teach Sharia Law at a June 17 meeting. A few mentioned Sept. 11 and terrorism threats.

We are not building a training center,” Bahloul said. “We are building a community center where kids can play and bring their friends.”

The congregation has also dealt with recent vandalism to a sign on the site of the proposed center.

“The stereotyping is wrong,” Bahloul added. “I don’t think it’s proper to stereotype any group. The KKK did not represent Christianity.”

Extremist groups exist in all religions, he added.

“Why can’t we all work together?” Bahloul asked. “We want to be a good neighbor. We have nothing in our heart but love toward everyone. If they get to know us, we’ll become good friends.”

The mosque, he said, will not cause major traffic problems. The congregation holds its main service between 1:10 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Fridays.

The congregation will adhere to all county, state and federal regulations for all of its plans, including the cemetery, he added.

“We don’t want to bring any harm to anyone,” Bahloul said. “We have reasonable people here.”

The center has existed at its Middle Tennessee Boulevard location since 1998. One of its members has lived in the community since 1981, and many others have settled here since then.

Among the visitors to the center Saturday was La Vergne resident Dan Smith, who is a friend with a family at the mosque.

“They are good, wonderful people I’ve known since 1997,” Smith said. “If people took a few minutes to study the Islamic religion, they will see it has good ideas to support the community. Muslims live peacefully and very prosperously in the United States.”

At least one critic of the proposed center did show up. George Erdel, a “tea party Democrat” running for the 6th District congressional seat now held by U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, attended the open house.

Erdel recently told county commissioners that planning officials were “duped” into approving a site plan for a religious institution because he contends Islam is a political system to enforce Sharia Law and not a religion.

Islamic Center member Saleh Sbenaty, an 18-year professor with tenure at MTSU who teaches courses in electronics and computers in the engineering technology department, said that’s “total nonsense.”

“This is not the mission of this Islamic Center or any Islamic Center anywhere,” said Sbenaty, noting that he grew up with Christian friends in Damascus, Syria, before becoming an American citizen who’s lived in Tennessee since 1982.

Erdel during a phone interview after the open house said he stands by his position.

“There’s nothing I saw tonight that would change my mind,” said Erdel, noting that he’s been studying Islam for more than 11 years. “They don’t say anything about the political side of Islam or the military side of Islam or the judicial side of Islam, which is Sharia Law.”

Erdel said he’s a Christian who attends Heartland Independent Baptist Church in the Walter Hill community north of Murfreesboro.

“Everybody (at the Islamic Center) has a soul created by God, and I care for their souls,” he said. “I have no problem being respectful to them, but I will never agree or embrace the military, political or judicial parts of Islam because they are contrary to what the Constitution of the United States stands for.”

Erdel plans to appear before the county commission at 9 a.m. Monday to invite the elected officials to attend an Act for America lecture about Islam from Dr. Bill Warner starting at 6:30 p.m. July 1 at Heartland Independent Baptist Church at 307 E. Jefferson Pike.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Islam: Dispelling the Myths

Part of Islamic teachings is mutual respect and acceptance, according to Hussam Ayloush, a speaker at the Islam in America symposium in Bozeman in February and a Muslim-American from Anaheim, Calif.

Some Muslims disagree with American policies, Ayloush said, but that doesn’t mean they hate Americans. “There are lines by the thousands in Muslim countries for visas to come to America,” he said. “People are proud to visit here. There’s no shame — it’s the opposite.”

MSU Adjunct Professor Thomas Goltz has spent years traveling in Muslim countries. “I have never, not once, felt uncomfortable going around the Muslim world because they were Muslim,” he said.

Professor of Islamic Civilization Mehrdad Kia said the Muslims on campus at the University of Montana have been nothing but grateful to America.

“One thing I can generalize is overwhelmingly they love this town and this university,” he said. “This is the means through which they start a new life in their country.”

The root of the word Islam is the Semitic “slm,” meaning submission to a higher power.

Ayloush explained that al-Qaida is so unwanted in Muslim countries the terrorist organization must hide. “Eight out of 10 victims (of al-Qaida) are Muslim,” he said. “Every political leader has spoken out against (them).”

Terrorists are perceived unfavorably by the majority of Muslims, MSU graduate Raima Amin said.

“It’s a common misconception that Muslims condone terrorism, but in reality the majority of Muslims are peace-loving citizens who hate such acts, especially when they are wrongfully associated with Islam,” she said.

A recent Gallup poll, which surveyed 50,000 Muslims in 35 countries, showed that only 7 percent supported the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“What was more surprising to many, was that among this 7 percent ‘extremist’ population, the majority cited their hatred of the U.S. on disagreement with political ideologies, U.S. foreign policies towards Israel, etc.,” Amin said. “They did not cite Quranic verses or Islamic teachings in their support of such terrorist acts. This further proves that Islam can in no way rightfully be associated with violence, terrorism or other harmful actions.”

Amin said most Islamic scholars agree the hijab — a scarf covering the woman’s hair — is mandated by Islamic law but not forced, while the burqa — which covers everything but the woman’s eyes — is a step above that.

“We believe God asked us to dress modestly to force others to judge us not by our bodies, but by our hearts and minds.”

The oppression of women in some countries that is widely criticized and associated with Islam, she added, actually has nothing to do with their Islamic-influenced dress and everything to do with the culture they were born into and the misguided members of society who may claim to do things in accordance with Islam, while their actions have no base in Islamic teachings.

Muslims worship Allah, which is the standard Arabic word for God.

It is against the Muslim religion to worship Muhammad, Ayloush said.

One of the Five Pillars of Islam is repeating the shahada, which can be translated as: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God.”

“Jihad” is a term used to describe “inner struggle” and striving for the sake of God, according to Ayloush. It is “not holy war,” Ayloush stresses.

The inner struggle means controlling one’s passions and avoiding vices.

Arabic has no word for “holy war,” and the phrase was developed as a way to translate the word “crusade,” a Latin word and Christian idea.

The Quran surfaced about 1,400 years ago, Kia said, and there are no verses about the United States because the country did not yet exist.

The United States has gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq because of those countries’ policies, not religion. They just happen to have a majority Muslim population, according to Kia.

The Sept. 11 attacks were committed by a minority group of extremist Muslims affiliated with the terrorist organization al-Qaida, which has small networks all over the world.

Christians have committed acts of terror both present-day and throughout history.

“The irony is that Christianity fought its holy war against Islam in the middle ages,” Kia said. “There was a Christian ‘holy war,’ there was a Christian ‘jihad.’“

There are terrorist organizations throughout the world. A full list of designated groups can be viewed at http://www.state.gov/s/ct/list/, and a list by country at http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/terrorist-groups.cfm.

The country with the largest Muslim population is Indonesia.

In a March 2009 Gallup Poll, 35 percent of Muslims in the United States were found to be African-American.

Kia said Muslim students at UM hail from Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia and parts of Central Asia.

Less than 20 percent of the 1.6 billion Muslims (according to a Pew study in 2009) in the world are Arab, Ayloush said. “It’s a religion,” he said. “Not an ethnicity.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Muslim-Turned-Preacher Out as Baptist School Dean

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — A Baptist minister who toured the country to talk about his conversion from Islam to Christianity is no longer the dean of Liberty University’s theological seminary following allegations he fabricated or embellished facts about his past, the school said Friday.

The university founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell said that a board of trustees committee concluded Ergun Caner made contradictory statements. Although it didn’t find evidence that he was not a Muslim who converted as a teenager, it did discover problems with dates, names and places he says he lived, a statement said.

Caner will remain on the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary faculty, but won’t be dean when his term expires on June 30.

“Caner has cooperated with the board committee and has apologized for the discrepancies and misstatements that led to this review,” the school said.

A phone number listed for Caner in Lynchburg, where Liberty is located, was not in service.

An unlikely coalition of Muslim and Christian bloggers, pastors and apologists led the charge to investigate the preacher with video and audio clips they claim show Caner making contradictory statements.

Caner has been a celebrity in evangelical Christianity since 2001, when he and his brother began appearing on news shows and other venues to discuss Islam in the aftermath of 9/11.

The author and charismatic speaker became dean of the seminary at Liberty in 2005. Since then, enrollment has roughly tripled to around 4,000 students.

He told The Associated Press in 2002 that he was born in Sweden to a Turkish father and Swedish mother, who brought the family to Ohio in 1969, when he was about 3 years old. He said he accepted Christ as a teenager at a Baptist church in Columbus, and then pursued ministry, getting a degree from Criswell College, a Baptist school in Dallas.

Since questions arose about contradictory, he changed the biographical information on his website and asked friendly organizations to remove damning clips from their websites. But the questions didn’t go away, leading to the Liberty investigation.

While few doubt that Caner was raised as a Muslim, they question changing biographical details in his speeches and whether he was a believer to the extent he told audiences.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Obama Internet Kill Switch Plan Approved by US Senate

President could get power to turn off Internet

A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.

Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet “kill switch.” Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause “the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication” in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.

[…]

One critic said Thursday that the bill will hurt the nation’s security, not help it. Security products operate in a competitive market that works best without heavy government intervention, said Wayne Crews, vice president for policy and director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an anti-regulation think tank.

“Policymakers should reject such proposals to centralize cyber security risk management,” Crews said in an e-mail. “The Internet that will evolve if government can resort to a ‘kill switch’ will be vastly different from, and inferior to, the safer one that will emerge otherwise.”

[…]

On Wednesday, 24 privacy and civil liberties groups sent a letter raising concerns about the legislation to the sponsors…”Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests,” the letter added.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



So What if McChrystal Lost His Job?

..Even McChrystal’s most egregious “insubordination,” as media ecstatically called it, came down to secondhand descriptions of the general’s distress over the time it took for Obama to approve McChrystal’s “surge” of 30,000 troops (not 40,000 as requested), and Obama’s apparent unfamiliarity with the Stanley McChrystal Story (“He [Obama] clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was” said an aide describing Obama’s and McChrystal’s first face-to-face meeting. “The boss was pretty disappointed”).

[…]

More significant is the fact that the article revealed no policy difference where it counts between McChrystal, a self-declared Obama voter and zealous adherent of counterinsurgency doctrine (COIN) — the nation-building, hearts-and-minds strategy Obama inherited from President Bush and, after review, approved and intensified — and Obama himself.

In other words, this was all so trivial. No life and death issues here; no philosophical divide. It was just a collision between vanity and coarse indiscretion. And with or without McChrystal, with or without his mouthy staff, the COIN nightmare continues.

[Return to headlines]



The Appeal of Repeal: Efforts to Undo Obama’s Economy Wrecking Socialist Health Reforms Intensifying

“THE longer you look at it, the worse it smells.” That is how Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, recently described America’s new health-reform law to an audience in Washington, DC. His opinion matters, and not just because he is a likely Republican contender for the presidential race in 2012. His words threw petrol on a bonfire, since a growing chorus of conservatives is now clamouring for the outright repeal of Obamacare.

Of course, Republican leaders in Congress have long detested the new law. Since its passage in March various bills—including a new one this month from Utah’s Senator Orrin Hatch, the American Liberty Restoration Act— have been introduced in both chambers with the aim of overturning the legislation. More than 20 states have also joined lawsuits that challenge the law’s “individual mandate”, the requirement that everyone should buy health insurance, as unconstitutional.

Grass-roots opposition to health reform has been strong too. The tea-party movement has been pushing conservative candidates to sign up to its goal of repealing the president’s bill. Heritage Action For America, a lobbying group allied with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, wants to foment similar unrest at the “grass tops” level of politics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The Ground Zero Mosque and Media Conquest of Islam

Two faced indeed! The Imam, who is behind the controversial mosque at Ground Zero, dreams of Islamizing the United States. And, that very dream is exposed in his book, written on 9/11.

Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf’s 2004 book had two different titles — one in English and the second in Arabic. In the U.S., his book was called, ‘What’s right with America is what’s right with Islam.”

The same book, published in Arabic, bore the name, “The Call from the WTC Rubble: Islamic Da’wah from the Heart of America Post-9/11.”

Here we see the two faced Imam, who actually is assigned to “spread Islam right from the WTC rubble”.

Now, let us have a look at the funders and backers of this mosque project. According to information, a scholar and charity head appointed to President Obama’s White House Fellowships Commission is closely tied to the Muslim leaders behind this proposed controversial Islamic cultural center to be built near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House fellow, Vartan Gregorian, is president of Carnegie Corp. of New York.

Gregorian also serves on the board of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. The museum is reportedly working with the American Society for Muslim Advancement, whose leaders are behind the mosque, to ensure the future museum will represent the voices of American Muslims.

[…]

While Imam Faisal is gradually moving ahead with his master plan of constructing the Mecca of Islam in NYC, unknown patrons are continuing to put huge amounts of cash to gradually have a strong Islamist grip over world media.

In the United Kingdom, newspapers like Islamic Times, The Muslim News, The Muslim Weekly, or radio stations like Radio Apni Awaz, Radio Dawn or TV channels like Islam Channel, Muslim TV are only few examples. According to information, Muslim ‘entrepreneurs’ are gradually buying shares in several news outlets in the UK with money received from unknown sources. Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into such projects with the ultimate goal of virtually waging Islamic Jihad over global media.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The Manchurian President: White House Scholar Funded Ayers Group

Obama served as chairman of organization that promoted radical causes

TEL AVIV — A scholar and charity head appointed to President Obama’s White House Fellowships Commission served as a point man in granting $49.2 million in startup capital to an education reform project founded by Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers and chaired by Obama.

Documentation shows the White House fellow, Vartan Gregorian, was central in Ayers’ recruitment of Obama to serve as the first chairman of the project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, or CAC — a job in which Obama worked closely on a regular basis with Ayers.

Obama also later touted his job at the CAC as qualifying him to run for public office, as WND previously reported.

Autographed! Get the real lowdown on Obama in the best-selling book by Aaron Klein, “The Manchurian President”

Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corp. charitable foundation, was appointed by Obama last year as a White House fellow. Born in Tabriz, Iran, Gregorian served for eight years as president of the New York Public Library and was also president of Brown University.

In his role as Brown president, Gregorian served on the selection committee of the Annenberg Foundation, which funded Ayers’ CAC with a $49.2 million, 2-to-1 matching challenge grant over five years. Ayers was one of five founding members of the CAC who wrote to the Annenberg Foundation for the initial funding.

Steve Diamond, a political science and law professor and a blogger who has posted on Obama, previously posted a letter from Nov. 18, 1994, in which Gregorian, serving as the point man on Annenberg’s selection committee, asked Ayers to “compose the governing board” of the CAC’s collaborative project with “people who reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Chicago.”

Ayers and other founding CAC members then recruited Obama to serve as the CAC chairman.

WND was first to expose that Obama and Ayers used the CAC grant money to fund organizations run by radicals tied to Ayers, including Mike Klonsky, a former top communist activist who was a senior leader in the Students for a Democratic Society group, a major leftist student organization in the 1960s from which the Weathermen terror group later splintered.

National Review Online writer Stanley Kurtz examined the CAC archives housed at the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago, finding Obama and Ayers worked closely at the CAC.

The documents obtained by Kurtz showed Ayers served as an ex-officio member of the board that Obama chaired through the CAC’s first year. Ayers also served on the board’s governance committee with Obama and worked with him to craft CAC bylaws, according to the documents.

Ayers made presentations to board meetings chaired by Obama. Ayers also spoke for the Chicago School Reform Collaborative before Obama’s board, while Obama periodically spoke for the board at meetings of the collaborative, the CAC documents reviewed by Kurtz show.

WND reported Obama and Ayers also served together on the board of the Wood’s Fund, a liberal Chicago nonprofit that granted money to far-left causes.

One of the groups funded by the Woods Fund was the Midwest Academy, an activist organization modeled after Marxist community organizer Saul Alinsky and described as teaching tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation.

WND recently reported Jackie Kendall, executive director of the Midwest Academy, was on the team that developed and delivered the first Camp Obama training for volunteers aiding Obama’s campaign through the 2008 Iowa Caucuses.

Camp Obama was a two-to-four day intensive course run in conjunction with Obama’s campaign aimed at training volunteers to become activists to help Obama win the presidential election.

Obama scholar linked to ‘Ground Zero’ imam

Meanwhile, WND reported Gregorian is closely tied to the Muslim leaders behind a proposed controversial Islamic cultural center to be built near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Gregorian also serves on the board of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. The museum is reportedly working with the American Society for Muslim Advancement, whose leaders are behind the mosque, to ensure the future museum will represent the voices of American Muslims.

“[The Sept. 11 museum will represent the] voices of American Muslims in particular, and it will honor members of other communities who came together in support and collaboration with the Muslim community on September 11 and its aftermath,” stated Daisy Khan, executive director of the society.

The future Sept. 11 museum’s oral historian, Jenny Pachucki, is collaborating with the society to ensure the perspective of American Muslims is woven into the overall experience of the museum, according to the museum’s blog.

Khan’s husband, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is the founder of the society as well as chairman of Cordoba Initiative, which is behind the proposed mosque to be built about two blocks from the area referred to as Ground Zero.

With Gregorian at its helm, Carnegie Corp. is at the top of the list of society supporters on the Islamic group’s website.

Carnegie is also listed as a funder of both of the society’s partner organizations, Search for Common Ground and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Gregorian was a participant in the U.N. body’s first forum, as was Rauf.

Rauf is vice chairman on the board of the Interfaith Center of New York, which honored Gregorian at an awards dinner in 2008.

World domination

Gregorian is the author of “Islam: A Mosaic, Not A Monolith.” According to a book review by the Middle East Forum, his book “establishes the Islamist goal of world domination.”

A chapter of the book, “Islamism: Liberation Politics,” quotes Ayatollah Khomeini: “Islam does not conquer. Islam wants all countries to become Muslim, of themselves.” Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is quoted stating it “is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”

Gregorian himself recommends for Muslims a system he calls “theo-democracy,” which he defines as “a divine democratic government” that, according to the book review, “would have a limited popular sovereignty under the suzerainty of Allah.”

Rauf, meanwhile, has caused a stir with his proposed $100 million, 13-story Islamic cultural center and mosque near the corner of Park Place and West Broadway — about two blocks from Ground Zero.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



The Things He Carried

Airport security in America is a sham—”security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.

If I were a terrorist, and I’m not, but if I were a terrorist—a frosty, tough-like-Chuck-Norris terrorist, say a C-title jihadist with Hezbollah or, more likely, a donkey-work operative with the Judean People’s Front—I would not do what I did in the bathroom of the Minneapolis—St. Paul International Airport, which was to place myself in front of a sink in open view of the male American flying public and ostentatiously rip up a sheaf of counterfeit boarding passes that had been created for me by a frenetic and acerbic security expert named Bruce Schneier. He had made these boarding passes in his sophisticated underground forgery works, which consists of a Sony Vaio laptop and an HP LaserJet printer, in order to prove that the Transportation Security Administration, which is meant to protect American aviation from al-Qaeda, represents an egregious waste of tax dollars, dollars that could otherwise be used to catch terrorists before they arrive at the Minneapolis—St. Paul International Airport, by which time it is, generally speaking, too late.

I could have ripped up these counterfeit boarding passes in the privacy of a toilet stall, but I chose not to, partly because this was the renowned Senator Larry Craig Memorial Wide-Stance Bathroom, and since the commencement of the Global War on Terror this particular bathroom has been patrolled by security officials trying to protect it from gay sex, and partly because I wanted to see whether my fellow passengers would report me to the TSA for acting suspiciously in a public bathroom. No one did, thus thwarting, yet again, my plans to get arrested, or at least be the recipient of a thorough sweating by the FBI, for dubious behavior in a large American airport. Suspicious that the measures put in place after the attacks of September 11 to prevent further such attacks are almost entirely for show—security theater is the term of art—I have for some time now been testing, in modest ways, their effectiveness. Because the TSA’s security regimen seems to be mainly thing-based—most of its 44,500 airport officers are assigned to truffle through carry-on bags for things like guns, bombs, three-ounce tubes of anthrax, Crest toothpaste, nail clippers, Snapple, and so on—I focused my efforts on bringing bad things through security in many different airports, primarily my home airport, Washington’s Reagan National, the one situated approximately 17 feet from the Pentagon, but also in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, and at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (which is where I came closest to arousing at least a modest level of suspicion, receiving a symbolic pat-down—all frisks that avoid the sensitive regions are by definition symbolic—and one question about the presence of a Leatherman Multi-Tool in my pocket; said Leatherman was confiscated and is now, I hope, living with the loving family of a TSA employee). And because I have a fair amount of experience reporting on terrorists, and because terrorist groups produce large quantities of branded knickknacks, I’ve amassed an inspiring collection of al-Qaeda T-shirts, Islamic Jihad flags, Hezbollah videotapes, and inflatable Yasir Arafat dolls (really). All these things I’ve carried with me through airports across the country. I’ve also carried, at various times: pocketknives, matches from hotels in Beirut and Peshawar, dust masks, lengths of rope, cigarette lighters, nail clippers, eight-ounce tubes of toothpaste (in my front pocket), bottles of Fiji Water (which is foreign), and, of course, box cutters. I was selected for secondary screening four times—out of dozens of passages through security checkpoints—during this extended experiment. At one screening, I was relieved of a pair of nail clippers; during another, a can of shaving cream…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Video: Biden Calls Manager Who Told Him to Lower Taxes a “Smartass”

Joe Biden calls a custard store manager a “smartass” after he asks the Vice President to lower taxes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



White House Preparing National Online ID Plan

The proposed system for authenticating people, organizations and infrastructure on the web at the transactional level will require an identity ecosystem.

The Obama administration is set to propose a new system for authenticating people, organizations and infrastructure on the Web. The online authentication and identity management system would be targeted at the transactional level — for example, when someone logs into their banking website or completes an online e-commerce purchase.

Making such a system effective, however, will require creating an “identity ecosystem,” backed by extensive public/private cooperation, said White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, delivering the opening keynote speech at the Symantec Government Symposium 2010 in Washington on Tuesday.

“This strategy cannot exist in isolation,” he said. “It’s going to take all of us working together.” Furthermore, “we should not have to dramatically change the way we do business — this should be a natural path forward,” he said.

That path forward will hinge on a new draft of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, due to be released Friday for the first time to the public, for a three-week comment period. Formerly known as the National Strategy for Secure Online Transactions, the report offers specific strategy and implementation recommendations, and may also recommend more sweeping policy and privacy changes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Canada


Despite the Mayhem, Today’s G20 Protest a Big Flop

My first notes were written in my office at York and Adelaide in the heart of the downtown core… and it did not seem premature to pronounce today’s big demo as a big flop.

I left my apartment and headed over to Gerrard and University to watch the big demonstration march by… I’ve seen many larger ones, even in Toronto. My estimate was 11,000 all told; the police think it was 10,000 and even Sid Ryan apparently described it as only 10,000. We had more protestors out for the G-7 back in 1988 and had 50,000 for the ‘Days of Rage’ against Premier Harris. The big protest has been a flop.

The parade held no surprises. Dozens of causes were endorsed, although I note that the Tibetan Freedom and Vietnamese Anti-Communist marchers were given a wide berth by the other marchers. I saw many familiar old faces of people I have seen marching for one thing or another over 25 years. OPSEU and CUPE passed a lot of their flags out, mostly to students who don’t seem to be union members; Greenpeace hauled in a number of children, but there were aging Hippies a-plenty strewn through the march. Iranian Communists, some honest-to-god Maoists and plenty of other political fossils were shuffling along under banners of Marx and Engels.

The Black Bloc anarchists seemed younger than usual and furtive, but bike helmets, hoods and face masks were common and many seemed to be carrying backpacks. There were five or six hundred all told.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Police: Over 400 Arrested in G-20 Summit Rioting

Militant Protesters Spark Violence Near Site of Toronto Economic Conference; Police Cars Torched, Windows Smashed

(CBS/AP) The streets of downtown Toronto were quiet early Sunday morning just hours after rioting by militant protesters threw the city’s core into chaos.

Police securing the G-20 leaders’ summit now say they’ve arrested 412 people in connection with yesterday’s violence.

Const. Michelle Murphy said there are also people who have camped overnight outside the prisoner processing center to protest the arrests.

She said police are still dealing with the aftermath of yesterday’s activity which lasted till about 3 a.m.

On Saturday black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters and torched police vehicles and smashed windows with baseball bats and hammers.

Police used shields, clubs, tear gas and pepper spray to push back the rogue protesters who tried to head south towards the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the Group of 20 summit site.

Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.

“These criminals attach themselves to legitimate protests for the sole purpose of engaging in acts of violence and destruction,” Toronto Police Chief William Blair said.

“They deliberately provoke violent confrontation to draw the naive and the curious into their mob mentality,” Blair told reporters.

The roving band wearing black balaclavas shattered shop windows for blocks, including at police headquarters, then shed some of their black clothes, revealing other garments, and continued to rampage through downtown Toronto.

Protesters torched at least three police vehicles in different parts of the city, including one in the heart of the city’s financial district.

One protester jumped on the roof of one before dropping a Molotov cocktail into the smashed windshield.

Blair said the goal of the militant protesters was to draw police away from the security perimeter of the summit so that fellow protesters could attempt to disrupt the meeting.

Blair apologized for the destruction and added that police were aware of the identities of many members of the groups taking part.

“Over the past several days we have apprehended many of their leaders,” he said, but added that many suspects remained at large.

Blair said officers had been struck by rocks and bottles and had been assaulted, but none were injured badly enough to stop working.

A stream of police cars headed to Toronto to reinforce security there after the smaller Group of Eight summit ended in Huntsville, Ontario, about 140 miles away.

Security was being provided by an estimated 19,000 law enforcement officers drawn from across Canada, and security costs are estimated at more than US$900 million.

Surveying the damage, many local residents spoke of their shock at witnessing the destruction.

“Well, this is pretty crazy, it’s… I’ve never seen anything like this in Toronto before,” one man said, saying it was more the kind of thing you would expect in places like Afghanistan.

The vandalism occurred just blocks from where U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders were meeting and staying.

Police in riot gear and riding bikes formed a blockade, keeping protesters from approaching the security fence a few blocks south of the march route.

Police closed a stretch of Toronto’s subway system along the protest route and the largest shopping mall downtown closed after the protest took a turn for the worse.

Dozens of police officers later boxed in a number of protesters from both sides of a street in a shopping district. The protesters encouraged the media to film it and they sang “O Canada,” Canada’s national anthem, before being allowed to disperse.

At another location at the provincial legislature police also boxed in demonstrators before tackling some and making arrests.

Saturday’s protest march, sponsored by labor unions and dubbed “family friendly,” was the largest demonstration planned during the weekend summits.

Its organizers had hoped to draw a crowd of 10,000, but only about half that number turned out on a rainy day.

Toronto’s downtown resembles a fortress, with a big steel and concrete fence protecting the summit site.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters moved through Toronto’s streets, but police in riot gear intercepted them, preventing them from getting near the summit security zone downtown.

Previous major world summits also have attracted massive, raucous and sometimes destructive protests by anti-globalization forces.

In 1999, 50,000 protesters shut down World Trade Organization sessions in Seattle as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

There were some 600 arrests and $3 million in property damage.

One man died after clashes with police at a G-20 meeting held in London in April 2009.

At the September G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke and rubber bullets at marchers.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


French G8/G20 Summits Will Cost ‘10 Times Less’ Than Canada’s: Sarkozy

France will slash the cost of staging the G8 and G20 meetings next year after Canada’s 2010 bill shot up to almost $1 billion for the two summits, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday.

In March, Canada allocated $179 million for security costs at the summits, but the government then shocked lawmakers by revealing the overall cost would total many hundreds of millions of dollars more.

Asked to comment on the 800 million euro cost of the Canadian summits, Sarkozy looked to sidestep a diplomatic minefield by saying he had not seen anything overly “opulent or luxurious” at the Canadian summits.

“With regard the French G8/G20, even if I can’t confirm the figures that you are talking about in Canada, I can say that in France they will be 10 times less,” Sarkozy told reporters at his closing news conference at the Group of Eight summit of rich nations in Huntsville, Ontario, north of Toronto.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Gender Quotas for German Business?

Justice Ministers Want More Female Managers

Justice misters met on Wedensday in Hamburg to discuss whether to draft laws to help more female managers advance to the top in German companies.

Germany’s Justice Minister has called on companies to increase the number of women in top positions. On Wednesday, however, the 16 states’ justice ministers proposed going further. They want to impose specific quotas for female managers.

The German chancellor may be a woman but in the German business world it is still extremely difficult for women to rise to the top. In companies listed on the German stock exchange, or DAX, women are still trailing their male co-workers on the career path.

This is not a new problem for Germany. In 2001, the Justice Ministry established a governmental commission to develop a Corporate Governance Codex. Many big companies such as Adidas, Deutsche Bank and Siemens now subscribe to the document, which was recently amended to explicitly call on companies to increase the number of female managers in the future.

But while German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), has faith in the newly strengthened codex, her counterparts in Germany’s 16 states are skeptical. On Wednesday, they announced the creation of a study group to examine the possibility of forcing businesses to advance women’s careers by implementing quotas.

Bavaria’s Justice Minister Beate Merk, whose Christian Social Union (CSU) is one of three coalition parties governing at the federal level in Berlin, proposed measures that would require a gradual increase of female board of director and governor members from 15 to 40 percent over several years.

Lack of progress

“In spite of the commitment companies made nine years ago, significant progress has not been made,” Merk told reporters on Wednesday. Small family-run businesses, as well as companies operating in industrial sectors that don’t employ a great number of women, would be exempt.

However, these considerations are not enough to ease the fears of critics. “The framework in Germany is just not conducive for women to make it to the top,” Anne Zimmermann, who deals with social policies for the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. While her organization also believes measures have to be taken to improve women’s career prospects, Zimmerman argues that Germany should make it easier for women to combine family life and a career first, before thinking about making new laws.

In a speech Minister Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger gave to members of the Corporate Governance Commission on June 16, she stressed that amending the codex to explicitly include opening up opportunities to female employees at all levels of the economy may very well be the last chance businesses have to solve the problem on their own before the government takes action.

‘Utilize potentials better’

“A better participation of women in leadership positions of companies is more than pure family-friendly politics. The goal has to be to utilize potential better and be economically more successful,” Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told her audience.

Last month, Family Minister Kristina SchrÃder argued that companies could be forced to adhere to quotas and report on how they implement them. She told business daily Handelsblatt that while companies could decide for themselves how high the number of woman in leadership positions should be, their success or lack thereof would become public knowledge and make them receptive to public pressure.

Some companies in Germany such as Deutsche Telekom back in March and energy giant E.on this week, have recognized that incorporating more woman into their hierarchies is beneficial to their organization as a whole. Deutsche Telekom was the first DAX company to pledge to raise the percentage of women at mid to high level management to 30 percent. E.on followed suit, with Regine Stachelhaus, the company’s new personnel director, telling Handelsblatt that she wanted to boost the number of women managers from the currently low level of 12 percent.

But the state justice ministers are still not convinced that the amended codex will achieve what the previous one failed to or that companies can be relied upon to voluntarily add more women to the top managerial level. In their eyes, improving career chances for women in high-level positions in big DAX companies will require legislative action.

At the moment, only 21 members of the board of directors and governors at German companies registered on the stock exchange are women. This means that only 3 percent of top level managers are female. Proponents of the law implementing quotas are hoping the new study group will arm them with the necessary material to convince the federal minister in Berlin.

“We hope that reasonable arguments and suggestions will prevail — even in politics,” Stefan Heilman, spokesman at the Bavarian Justice Ministry told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: Return of Real School Sports: Tories to Bring Back Competitive Games in Bid to Turn Nation Back Into Sporting Champions

Competitive games are to be revived in schools in a bid to turn Britain back into a nation of sporting champions.

As the country holds its breath over the World Cup and Wimbledon, ministers want their new ‘School Olympics’ programme to end the culture of ‘prizes for all’.

The sports championships are intended to give every child experience of hard-fought competition.

They will reverse a decline in competitive sport brought about by Left-wing councils that scorned it as ‘elitist’ and insisted on politically correct activities with no winners or losers.

The competitions will involve a wide range of sports including football, rugby, netball, golf, cricket, tennis, athletics, judo, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, cycling and volleyball.

Schools will be able to nominate any sport in any age group as long as they can find opponents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Shopkeepers’ Fury as They Are Told All Food Must be Weighed and Sold by the Kilo

For the first time, eggs and other products such as oranges and bread rolls will be sold by weight instead of by the number contained in a packet.

Until now, Britain has been exempt from EU regulations that forbid the selling of goods by number. But last week MEPs voted to end Britain’s deal despite objections from UK members.

The new rules will mean that instead of packaging telling shoppers a box contains six eggs, it will show the weight in grams of the eggs inside, for example 372g.

Or that a bag of white rolls has 322g inside instead of half a dozen. The rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed.

Last night, Britain’s Food Standards Agency said it was opposed to the move, putting the UK on a potential collision course with Brussels.

It could be the first test of David Cameron’s pre-Election promise to stand up for Britain’s interests in the EU.

The move could cost retailers millions of pounds because of changes they will have to make to packaging and labelling, as well as the extra burden of weighing each box of food before it is put on sale.

[…]

food industry experts said the EU plan was ‘bonkers’ and ‘absolute madness’.

Federation of Bakers director Gordon Polson warned that it may be too late to change the rules, even though they will be debated further in the European Parliament.

He revealed that lobbyists had already tried to rectify the regulations, discovered in the 174 pages of amendments to the initial 75-page proposal, but there was not enough time to convince MEPs before the crucial vote.

The British Retail Consortium, which represents 90 per cent of UK shops, will ask Government Ministers to press for the decision to be reversed.

Andrew Opie, the consortium’s food director, said: ‘This is a bad proposal — we need to help consumers, not confuse them. We’ll be talking to the Government to encourage them to make sure these plans don’t come into force.’

[Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Anti-Trafficking Agency to Prosecute Yerima Over Child Bride

In order to cover his tracks, Ahmed Sani Yerima, a senator from Zamfara State, took elaborate schemes to ensure that his marriage to a 14-year-old minor would not be detected by law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and Egypt, a preliminary investigation report by the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other related crimes (NAPTIP) has revealed.

The report, which was submitted to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, at the end of last week, detailed a number of steps taken by the controversial former state governor in a bid to evade legal scrutiny over the marriage.

Mr. Yerima, according to NAPTIP, was fully aware that the Egyptian law prevents union with minors as well as marriage between persons with more than 25 years age difference. Hence, he moved the venue of the marriage ceremony to Nigeria, where the enforcement of child rights regulation is seemingly lax.

The father of the minor, who found himself a rich man overnight, no thanks to the generous $100,000 dowry given to him by the Nigerian senator, was also faced with the dilemma of convincing immigration officials that he was wealthy enough to transport himself, his daughter, as well as a horde of 32 friends and relatives into Nigeria with the abysmal pay of a ‘workman’, as indicated in his international passport, number A01086511, issued in 2009.

“Taking into cognizance the issue of dowry of $100,000, which draws inference of debt bondage and inducement to have unlawful carnal knowledge of the victim, the necessity to change the profession of the father from that of an ordinary workman to an influential business mogul became not only imperative but also desirable, so as to conceal the real intent of the marriage to the underage victim,” the NAPTIP investigation report, exclusively obtained by NEXT, said.

Maged Saleh Mohammed Eladly, the father of the child bride, Marim, promptly obtained another passport, number A01403462, this time indicating his profession as an ‘Import and Export Office Owner’. It is not clear whether the Nigerian senator was aware of, or involved in, this elaborate scheme by his soon-to-be father-in-law. But NAPTIP officials are already roping him into the scheme.

“The Senator not only held our law with disdain, but encouraged foreigners to break same,” the report says.

Getting married

On March 15, 2010, Mr. Elady bundled his 14-year-old daughter onto an Egypt Air, flight MS 877, en route Abuja. On board the flight were his 32 guests. The Nigerian lawmaker, Mr. Yerima, according to NAPTIP, sponsored the flight. On the 17th of March, 2010, barely two months after her 14th birthday, Marim was dressed up for the marriage. Her groom, the 49-year-old father of 26 children, later wedded her according to Islamic jurisprudence in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The marriage was conducted at the Abuja Central Mosque by the Chief Imam of the mosque, in the presence of Mr. Yerima’s guardian, Moktar Ahmed Anka, and the bride’s guardian, Maged Saleh Mohammed.

Indicting the Senator

Mr. Yerima, who was granted bail on grounds of self-recognisance in the sum of N5 million, following his arrest by NAPTIP officials, may find himself no longer at ease, as the agency has now recommended to the Attorney General’s office and the Nigerian Police that the senator be prosecuted.

The lawmaker has been found to have violated Sections 21, 22 (1&2) and 23 (a-d) of the Child Rights Act 2003, which is operational in the FCT and Sections 12(a&b), 13(1&2), 14 (1) and 17(a&b) of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act 2003.

“It is worthy of note that the behaviour of Senator Ahmed Yerima is a clear negation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989 and that of African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (CRCW) 1990. Nigeria ratified these instruments in 1990 and 1991 respectively,” the NAPTIP report stated.

Furthermore, for withholding information from the NAPTIP officials, the agency has declared the senator unwilling to cooperate with the law enforcement agency.

“Senator Ahmed Rufai Yerima violates the above mentioned provisions both in Egypt and Nigeria. A senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whose responsibility and allegiance is to the federation and the constitution, should not fragrantly abuse same. He should be made accountable for his misdeeds,” the agency said of Mr. Yerima, who has continued to justify his actions as being in accordance with the tenets of the Sharia code.

The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Roland Ewubare, said his agency would support the recommendations made by NAPTIP.

“I am aware that NAPTIP has conducted an extensive and rigorous investigation of the Yerima child bride matter. I am also aware that the investigation was done with the active support of the Egyptian authorities,” he said.

“If NAPTIP has now made a recommendation, one way or the other, then at a minimum, such a recommendation must be given maximum deference and implemented fully. Anything short of this will be tantamount to a cover up and non-adherence to the principle of equality of all Nigerians (senators and non-senators) before the law.”

Senator’s woes

At the time of this report, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Adoke said he was yet to go through the report, which had just been brought to his table and, therefore, cannot make any comments on the next move.

Mr. Yerima’s woes is likely to continue outside the shores of this country, as NEXT gathered that even the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) has written to the National Assembly to take a strong chance against such a practice.

The IPU is an international organisation of parliaments of sovereign states, which works for the peace of cooperation amongst people. IPU is also committed to responding to, promoting, and implementing international human rights instruments and standards, particularly in regards to the protection of children.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


The Western Way of War

Caroline Glilck

In recent months Obama and his advisers have repeatedly attacked Afghan President Hamid Karzai for his problematic positions on the Taliban. But their criticism is unfair. They cannot expect loyalty from a man America is set to abandon in a year. It is up to Karzai and his fellow Afghans to cut deals with the Taliban while they still have something to bargain with.

By all accounts, until he was fired Wednesday, McChrystal had a better relationship with Karzai than anyone else in the US government. And this is not surprising. As White House and State Department officials signaled their willingness to cut deals with the Taliban, McChrystal and his forces have fought the Taliban.

[…]

SINCE OBAMA is commander in chief, it is reasonable for criticism of this losing strategy to be directed towards him. But the truth is that for the better part of the last several decades, with occasional important exceptions, this sort of “half pregnant” strategy for war fighting has been the template for Western armies.

[…]

The important story this week was not about a US general with abysmal judgment about the media. Rather, the story is that in Afghanistan, the US is repeating a sorry pattern of Western nations of not understanding — or perhaps not caring — that if you are not willing to fight a war to victory, you will lose it.

The stakes in Afghanistan are clear. NATO forces can defeat the Taliban, or the Taliban can defeat them. To win, all the Taliban needs to do is survive. Once NATO is gone, like Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, the Taliban will be crowned the victors and from their failed state, they will be able to again attack the US and its allies.

There were only two instances in the last 10 years where Western forces fought to victory.

Israel defeated the Palestinians when, in the wake of Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, it retained security control over Judea and Samaria. The US defeated Al-Qaida and Muqtada el-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 by taking and retaining security control over Iraq. Both countries’ victories have been eroded in recent years as they have removed their forces from population centers and restricted them to more static positions. In both cases, the erosion of the Israeli and American achievements is due to waning political will to maintain military control.

[…]

… the truth remains that by effectively committing career suicide, McChrystal has posed a challenge to his country — and to the Western world as a whole. Now that you know the truth, what is it going to be? Are you willing to lose this war? Are you willing to see the Taliban restored to power in Afghanistan?

[…]

McChrystal’s final act as US commander in Afghanistan was to show us where this leads. But it also reminds us that there is another choice that can be made. The Western way of war needn’t remain the path of defeat. That, still, is for the people of the West to decide.

[Return to headlines]



US-Israeli Relations Suffer ‘Tectonic Rift’

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, told foreign ministry colleagues at a private briefing in Jerusalem that they were facing a long and potentially irrevocable estrangement.

Sources said Mr Oren told the meeting: “There is no crisis in Israel-US relations because in a crisis there are ups and downs. [Instead] relations are in a state of tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart.”

Mr Oren’s privately-voiced pessimism stands in stark contrast to public declarations in both Jerusalem and Washington that differences between the two states amount to nothing more than “disagreements” between allies.

[…]

Unlike his previous encounter with Mr Obama in March, when he was given a stern dressing-down and denied permission to hold a joint press conference, Mr Netanyahu’s visit to the White House next Tuesday is likely to be cloaked in civility.

The Israeli prime minister is being promised photo opportunities with his host in the White House Rose Garden and perhaps even an invitation to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

But the show of unity is being seen as a sop to members of Mr Obama’s party who afraid of angering Jewish American voters ahead of November’s midterm elections than as a sign of genuine rapprochement…

[Return to headlines]



White House Announcement on Gaza Shows the Missing Element: Strategic Rationality

by Barry Rubin

“As a general rule, you should assume that the more unlikely the action I lay upon this stage for you, the more likely it is that I have evidence of its having happened.” —Clive Barker, Galilee.

Everyone will probably view the just-released official document, “White House on Israel’s Announcement on Gaza,” as purely routine government rhetoric that means nothing. But that just shows how much people have become used to taking for granted the lack of any strategic sense in this U.S. government.

The June 20 White House statement opens thusly:

“The President has described the situation in Gaza as unsustainable and has made clear that it demands fundamental change.”

One would expect that a rational policy would use the words “unsustainable” and “demands fundamental change” to mean that the president demands the overthrow of Hamas. In fact, it signifies the exact opposite: he demands the stabilization of that regime.

The statement continues:

“On June 9, [Obama] announced that the United States was moving forward with $400 million in initiatives and commitments for the West Bank and Gaza. The President described these projects as a down payment on the U.S. commitment to the people of Gaza, who deserve a chance to take part in building a viable, independent state of Palestine, together with those who live in the West Bank.”

Just think of the calm insanity of that paragraph. The United States is going to pump money into Gaza. That money is a “down payment on the U.S. commitment,” that is, it is not an act of generosity for which the United States deserves to get something in return. No, the phrasing makes it seem that the United States owes them the money.

Moreover, giving this money does not really advance the cause of building a Palestinian state but retards it by shoring up a Hamas government which is against the Palestinian Authority, against peace with Israel, and against a two-state solution.

Note, too, that Hamas is put on an equal plane with the Palestinian Authority.

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Awareness on Export Credit and Investment Insurance Rising in OIC Countries

LONDON: One of the unintended consequences of the global financial crisis is the increasing awareness of risk and how to manage risk in business, trade and investment.

One risk management option is export credit and political risk insurance, and exporters, importers and the banks that finance them, in the developing countries are now increasingly discovering these products. However, the export credit and investment insurance culture in the 56 member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), has traditionally been at best under-developed although there are signs that this has started to change. The prime mover behind this industry in the OIC countries is the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a standalone member of the IDB Group. Here Dr. Abdel Rahman Taha, CEO of ICIEC, who has been at the helm of the organization since its establishment 16 years ago, discusses with Arab News, the credit and political risk challenge for the IDB member countries; why this industry has assumed an even greater importance in a post-financial crisis era; the latest developments at ICIEC and the IDB Group; and the potential for credit and political risk insurance going forward.

What sort of year has 2009 been for ICIEC?

2009 did a lot of damage to the credit and political risk investor. The big three — EuroHermes, Coface, and Traders were badly affected and sustained huge losses.

We paid about $1.6 million in claims which is a minor part of our business, but we recovered some of the money. At the time when the loss ratio (the percentage of premium income used to pay claims) for the industry was over 80 percent, ICIEC’s loss ratio was only 15 percent.

ICIEC’s volume of insured business in 2009 was reduced substantially by 29 percent. The actual implementation of credit limits we approved (declared shipments or implemented projects) declined from $1.4 billion in 2008 to $1.03 billion in 2009. However, the new approvals increased from $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion for the same period, thus suggesting that our customers had the intention to do new business and applied for credit limits which we approved.

In your medium term business is there a bias towards certain countries not because of design but because of market conditions and strengths?

Normally short term business accounts for 75 percent of our business. But in 2009, medium term business increased substantially to account for 40 percent of our total underwriting business. It is a demand-driven business. The biggest demand for project business and long term investment insurance is in countries like Sudan. We are also supporting a new breed of companies from our member countries which I call ‘Third World Multinationals’ such as SABIC, Saudi Aramco, Etisalat, Orascom, and others such as the Egyptian Suweidi Electric Group.

ICIEC contributed to Suweidi and others’ transformation into a multinational company because by using our political and investment risk insurance they were able to enter countries and markets which otherwise they would not have been able to do business in and therefore enabling them to investment and trade in countries which otherwise are perceived as high risk countries.

Is there a greater awareness of the need for export credit and investment insurance in your member countries?

Yes it has improved, but awareness and utilisation of these products are still very low. One of the unintended benefits of the financial crisis is raising the awareness of risk and how to manage the risk. A good way of managing risk is through export credit insurance. In 2008, the fifty major ECAs of the world who are members of the Berne Union did $1.3 trillion of export credit and political risk insurance. In contrast, in our member countries — the 56 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), have only about twenty ECAs. All of us — ICIEC, Turkish Eximbank, MECIB in Malaysia and the members of Aman Union (the union of Arab and Muslim ECAS) — together we have only $14 billion of export credit and political risk insurance.

So is this heightened awareness reflected in your figures for First Quarter 2010?

The new commitments for the first quarter 2010 compared with the same period in 2009 have increased by 50 percent from $474 million to $710 million. The actual business insured increased by 77 percent from $228 million to $403 million. Previously we had a lot of trouble convincing banks in our member countries to accept our policies as security and collateral for their credit. Now the banks are starting to come on board because they are realizing that export credit and political risk insurance works, and it does enable them to expand their business, This process was also helped by the fact that ICIEC was rated last year AA3 by Moody’s Investors Service, which was re-affirmed in November after the impact of the crisis.

With this increased volume of business, are you planning an increase in your capital to support your new underwriting?

That is a very good question, because if the business continues expanding at this rate we are predicting that by the end of 2010 we are going to exhaust our capacity. Our subscribed capital is $250 million. This gave us a capacity of about $2 billion. We also use reinsurance so on average we cede about 40 percent to the international reinsurance industry especially to Lloyds and others.

You have to strike a balance between the money you cede and the risk-sharing you gain. Up to now we feel that the 40 percent ceding of our income is the right balance and we do not want to increase this, because if we do we just become a market agent for the reinsurers.

In addition to the increased results for the First Quarter 2010 we have a huge pipeline of new business. The size of some of the projects is amazing. They have increased from $20 million a few years ago to projects of more than $300 million.

We are working on some new products such as launching a Letters of Credit (LC) Insurance Fund and a Sukuk Guarantee Fund. Sukuk by its very nature cannot be guaranteed by the issuers, but can be guaranteed by a third party. This puts ICIEC in an ideal position to be able to provide political and credit enhancement risk insurance.

We have estimated that once the market returns to normality, Sukuk issuance will top $30 billion. If we assume that a third would actually go to the market we are talking about $10 billion of issuances. Even if you leverage your insurance fund 10 times, you need at least a $1 billion fund.

Takaful policies are effectively receivables especially since the LCs are related to trade. Is it possible to securitize these Takaful policies?

Yes, theoretically it is possible to do so. In the last 10 years we have underwritten over $10 billion of insurance business. Of this we have facilitated $8 billion of trade finance backed by our insurance. We paid $24m million of claims. We recovered half of that. The unrecovered claims are only $12 million, which is nothing when you compare it with $8b billion The trick is to have the capability to manage the risk.

Do you foresee a bigger connect between ICIEC and the rest of the IDB Group?

The IDB Group has been undergoing a reform process which is aimed at developing the IDB into a world-class institution. One of the elements of this process is to develop synergies between the various parts of the Group. In 2009, a task force was formed at the IDB, which I chair.

The mandate of this task force is to promote synergies between the Group entities. We are now implementing the proposals in this respect especially between ICIEC, Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD).

We are also embarking on a Member Country Partnership Strategy (MCPS) within the Group where the IDB engages with a member country and discusses at the very highest level what the IDB strategy would be to help that country. We also cooperate closely with ITFC because ITFC increasingly is financing ‘clean financing’ which is without bank guarantees. For unsecured business you need some sort of security and credit insurance is an obvious option. We have issued a specially-designed insurance policy for the ITFC which is already in use.

With the ICD again they never develop a project by themselves. They always work with some private sector partner. In certain countries, these partners may require credit risk insurance.

How many member countries have acceded to ICIEC membership?

We have 39 member countries. The latest country is Albania, which becomes the first European country to join ICIEC. All the Arab countries except Iraq are members.

You have also liberalized your underwriting regime.

The way it was envisaged in the IDB Articles of Memorandum was to insure intra-trade between member states, which is very little. For insurance business this pool is very small. Whether a member country exports to another member country or to the US, the economic benefit is the same. Some of the changes also enabled us to insure the political risk of investment coming into our member countries irrespective of their source.

We are also keen to insure imports from member countries to member countries of strategic goods machine tools, development of infrastructure, for food security of the country etc.

We are also looking to insure part of the domestic sales of our policy holders such as Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), which is one of our customers. Currently we only insure the exports of SABIC for sales outside Saudi Arabia. SABIC also sells in the Kingdom on credit. My customer would ideally like to cover his entire portfolio.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Prostitution Racket Busted in UAE

Abu Dhabi, June 27 : At least 10 people have been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for allegedly forcing 17 women into prostitution and filming pornographic videos.

The 10 suspects detained in Abu Dhabi have been charged with human trafficking, forced prostitution and physical and psychological torture of the victims. They were also charged with making pornographic videos as well as running a fake commercial enterprise as a cover for their involvement in prostitution.

The suspects promised the victims jobs as beauticians and masseuses. However, they confiscated the victims’ passports once they entered the UAE and forced them into prostitution, a prosecutor at the Abu Dhabi criminal court said.

The accused used a restaurant and an antiques and gift shop to disguise their real business, he said, adding that the victims’ passports as well as a huge number of pornographic movies were found there.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: Zakat Dept to be Made Independent

RIYADH : The Shoura Council unanimously approved a motion to allow the Department of Zakat and Income Tax to function as a separate authority, at the council’s 37th session presided over by its Chairman Abdullah Al-Asheikh in Riyadh on Sunday.

Secretary-General Dr. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi told reporters on Sunday the decision was taken following discussions after the annual report of the Department of Zakat and Income Tax was presented. At present the department functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance.

Al-Ghamdi said that the members felt that such a body should function independently which would help it carry out its functions without bureaucratic delays. The council also suggested that those private sector companies that deal with a capital of more than SR500,000 should be compelled to maintain their book of accounts to show their income and pay their zakat accordingly.

The council requested the Ministry of Water and Electricity to form a separate body to oversee the functions of the bottled-water plants, ice-manufacturing factories and the scheme of distribution of water to individual and corporate clients. “The ministry should ensure that all these plants and factories maintain the required standards of operation and obtain licenses from the government,” the members said, pointing out that severe penalties should be imposed on companies that operate without licenses.

The council also suggested that the efforts to develop sports in the Kingdom should be further intensified with coordinated efforts between the Ministry of Education and the General Presidency For Youth Welfare. While encouraging sports among school students, the members also suggested that a mechanism should be devised to spot students with extraordinary sports skills in different fields. The council also said that such students should be identified and given all assistance to improve their skills for the greater good of the country.

In the morning Al-Asheikh received Faisal Muallah, Abdullah Al Al-Sheikh, Turki Al-Madi and Abdurrahman Aba Nami, the Saudi ambassadors-designate to Sudan, the Czech Republic, Argentina and Venezuela respectively. During the meeting, he urged them to work in their respective stations to promote bilateral relations and to uphold the image of the Kingdom.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Stakelbeck Exclusive: Israeli Deputy PM Moshe Yaalon on Turkey, Iran, U.S.

I just returned from the 2010 Epicenter conference in Philadelphia, where Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister, Moshe Yaalon, made some newsworthy comments yesterday during a nearly one hour speech and 30 minute Q and A session afterwards. Some highlights:

  • In one of the strongest comments yet from an Israeli leader on Turkey, Yaalon said “in the last eight years, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey…gradually moved Turkey from being a secular democracy to—in a way—even an Islamic republic.”
  • On the Israel/U.S. relationship, Yaalon said: “Divided we are weak, and our enemies can take advantage of us. Only through unity can we defeat the forces of radical Islam.”
  • Yaalon said there is “hope to believe” that the upcoming meeting between President Obama and PM Netanyahu on July 6th in D.C. will send a “message of closing the gaps” between the two sides.
  • Yaalon said that Iran is “mocking the West” with its nuclear program, and that “any American hopes of attracting Syria, Lebanon or Turkey away from Iran would effectively be dead” if Iran acquires the bomb.
  • Yaalon said he believes Iran’s regime is “not sure that there is a will” on the part of the United States to exercise the military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Read more at my blog.

[Return to headlines]



Turkey: No Non-Muslims in EU-Bond

Seeking to update the government’s terminology for the 21st century, Turkey’s chief negotiator for European Union affairs has announced a decision to use the term “different belief groups” instead of “gayrimüslim” (non-Muslim) in official EU correspondence.

Egemen BaðýÅŸ said the decision was taken after he received a letter from the vice patriarch of the Ancient Syriac Orthodox Church, Yusuf Çetin, daily Hürriyet reported Sunday.

According to Çetin, “Muslim” means “believer” in Aramaic, a northwest Semitic language used in ancient times as the everyday speech of Syria. As such, the term “gayrimüslim,” which has been the preferred term for non-Muslims in Turkey, implied “nonbelievers.”

“We were directed by the patriarch to make such a change,” BaðýÅŸ told daily Hürriyet, referring to his meeting with Çetin in 2009.

He also said Çetin explained to him how the Syriacs used the word “Muslim” to refer to believers in their language and that “gayrimüslim” thus mean entailed “infidel” in Aramaic.

“We noticed that we were making a mistake after such a linguistic explanation,” said BaðýÅŸ.

The government has already begun implementing the decision to use the term “different belief groups” instead of “non-Muslim,” BaðýÅŸ said, adding that he shared the vice patriarch’s remarks with other officials and they responded positively.

“We have discontinued using the term ‘gayrimüslim’ in correspondence with the EU General Secretariat,” he said.

Meanwhile, the weekly Şalom reported that BaðýÅŸ recently met with representatives of Ä°zmir’s Jewish community.

According to the newspaper, BaðýÅŸ said during the meeting that he did not like the usage of the terms “minority” and “gayrimüslim” and that there needed to be research to define which population has the oldest roots in the country.

By doing so, people would then better discuss who was a minority and who was a majority, he said.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



U.S., Israel Differ on Iran Nuke Intel

CIA Director Leon Panetta, in an EXCLUSIVE “This Week” interview, alluded to the differences between American and Israeli perceptions of Iran’s nuclear intentions. “I think they feel more strongly that Iran has already made the decision to proceed with the bomb,” he said. When asked the likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities within the next two years, Panetta said, Israel was willing to give the US time for diplomacy. “I think they know that sanctions will have an impact, they know that if we continue to push Iran from a diplomatic point of view, that we can have some impact, and I think they’re willing to give us the room to be able to try to change Iran diplomatically and culturally and politically as opposed to changing them militarily.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Russia


Cameron Raised Ex-Spy’s Death With Medvedev: Official

TORONTO (AFP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron raised the highly controversial death of a former KGB spy in London in his first meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Downing Street said on Saturday.

“The prime minister made clear that there were still points of disagreement between the UK and Russia and he specifically raised the death of Alexander Litvinenko,” Downing Street said in a statement.

The 2006 poisoning death of Kremlin critic Litvinenko in London triggered the worst dispute between the two countries in recent years.

Russia has declined to extradite the chief suspect, lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi.

But after their first face-to-face talks Friday, Medvedev called for “more productive and more intense links” between the two countries.

Cameron also said there was a “real opportunity” to put ties on a new footing after years of frosty relations.

“This was a constructive meeting which represented the first step towards a renewed relationship between UK and Russia,” a Downing Street statement said of the 45-minute discussion.

Cameron also stressed “that the UK and Russia should work more closely together to build a better relationship focused around the economy, climate change and academic co-operation,” the statement added.

The two met on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Huntsville, Canada, ahead of a G20 summit in Toronto starting Saturday.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Russia Alarmed by CIA View of Iran’s Weapons

TORONTO (Reuters) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday he was alarmed by U.S. assertions that Iran may have enough fuel for two nuclear weapons and warned that if confirmed the Islamic Republic may face new measures.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta told ABC’s “This Week” television program that the agency thinks Iran has enough low-enriched uranium now for two weapons, but that Tehran would have to further enrich the material first.

“As to this information — it needs to be checked,” Medvedev told reporters in Toronto, where he was attending the Group of 20 summit of rich and emerging nations.

“In any case, such information is always alarming because today the international community does not recognize the Iranian nuclear program as transparent,” Medvedev said.

Russian leaders rarely comment on CIA statements and Medvedev’s sharp comments indicate the gulf that has grown between Moscow and Tehran over recent months.

The Kremlin and Tehran had a public row last month after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admonished the Kremlin for bowing to what he said was U.S. pressure to agree further sanctions.

Urged on by the Obama administration, the U.N. Security Council — which includes Russia — this month passed a resolution to impose new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear development.

“If it is shown that what the American special services say is true then it will of course make the situation more tense, and I do not exclude that this question would have to be looked at additionally,” Medvedev said.

The United States, key European Union powers and Israel say Iran is trying to use its civilian nuclear program to hide an attempt to create an atomic bomb, an assertion Tehran denies.

Russia has repeatedly called on Iran to remove the doubts that the international community have and earlier this year one of Russia’s top security officials said that Western concerns were valid.

The CIA said that for Iran to have enough nuclear material for bombs, it would have to enrich its low-enriched uranium.

“We would estimate that if they made that decision, it would probably take a year to get there, probably another year to develop the kind of weapons delivery system in order to make that viable,” CIA chief Panetta said.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

South Asia


15 Insurgents Killed by Their Own Bombs in Afghan Mosque

Kabul, June 27 : Eight Arab, five Pakistani and two Afghan militants were killed when bombs they were making exploded prematurely inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said Sunday.

The insurgents were assembling bombs in Desi Mosque of Yousifkhela district in the south-eastern province of Paktika Friday, the ministry said.

Pakika borders the Pakistani town of Wana, where Taliban militants are said to have training bases. Afghan officials have repeatedly blamed Islamabad for not doing enough to clamp down on cross-border infiltration by insurgents.

In the northern province of Kunduz, several Taliban fighters including a foreign insurgent commander were killed Saturday by a NATO airstrike in Chardarah district, NATO said Sunday.

“After verifying insurgent activity and conducting careful planning to avoid civilian casualties and mitigate collateral damage, coalition aircraft were called in for the precision airstrike,” it said.

The targeted commander coordinated logistical support and operations “with the Taliban’s Pakistan foreign fighter cell leadership”, it said.

NATO also confirmed the death of one of its soldiers in a roadside explosion in southern Afghanistan Saturday. The alliance had already reported the deaths of five more troops killed in separate attacks in the country Saturday.

Saturday’s deaths brought the total of foreign soldiers killed in the war this year to 309, compared with the 157 deaths registered between January and June of 2009, according to iCasualties.org.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Fewer Than 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan: CIA Chief

The CIA chief has estimated the Taliban’s numbers have shrunk dramatically in Afghanistan. (AFP: Banaras Khan, file photo)

Related Story: British army chief backs talks with Taliban Related Story: UK troops to leave Afghanistan within 5 years Related Story: G8 sets 5-year Afghan security target CIA director Leon Panetta has estimated there are only 50 to 100 Al Qaeda militants operating inside Afghanistan, as US forces work to “flush out” mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Mr Panetta said US forces had killed or captured at least half the Al Qaeda leadership, making the terrorist group the weakest it has been since the 9/11 attacks.

“We continue to disrupt them. We continue to impact on their command and control,” he said.

“We continue to impact on their ability to plan attacks in this country.”

The spy chief estimated Al Qaeda’s numbers have shrunk dramatically in Afghanistan.

“[Al Qaeda] is probably at its weakest point since 9/11 and their escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan,” he said.

“I think at most, we’re looking at maybe 50 to 100, maybe less.

“There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in the tribal areas of Pakistan. If we keep that pressure on, we think ultimately we can flush out bin Laden.”

Mr Panetta said bin Laden remained “in very deep hiding” in a tribal area in Pakistan surrounded by tremendous security and that the Taliban is “engaged in greater violence right now”.

“They’re doing more on IED’s (improvised explosive devices),” he said.

“They’re going after our troops. There’s no question about that.”

Mr Panetta admitted the war in Afghanistan was taking much longer and was much harder than anyone anticipated.

At the end of the deadliest month in Afghanistan for allied forces, Mr Panetta said progress was being made but there are still serious problems with governance and corruption.

“The key to success or failure is whether the Afghans accept responsibility and are able to deploy an effective army and police force to maintain stability,” he said.

– AFP

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Headmaster Beheaded, Schools Torched in Afghanistan

Kabul, June 27: Suspected Taliban militants beheaded a headmaster and torched two schools in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

Sakandar Shah Mohammadi, head of Al Berooni School in Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province was beheaded Saturday, the education ministry said in a statement.

On the same day, dozens of militants, riding on motorbikes, came to Zardalo area of the district and torched two elementary schools, Muhibullah Khepilwak, district governor, said. One of the schools was a girls’ school and the other for boys.

The Taliban, which was driven from power in late 2001 in a military invasion led by the US, have yet to comment on the incidents.

During its 1996-2001 reign, the Taliban banned all girls schools in the country. Women were not allowed to be seen in public, unless covered from head to toe by veil and accompanied by male members of their families.

The Afghan government and NATO blames the Taliban for the destruction of dozens of schools and the death of students and teachers since the invasion.

Taliban spokesmen say the group’s leadership has, in a recent guideline, instructed its militants to refrain from attacking educational institutions and harming civilians.

Saturday’s attacks came two days after police in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan found 11 beheaded men in Khan Uruzgan district of the province. Although the provincial authorities blamed Taliban for the killings, officials in the interior ministry said they were still investigating.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



In Pakistan, Islamic Schools for Women Thrive

ISLAMABAD (AP) — To its detractors, the Al-Huda chain of Islamic schools across Pakistan is a driver of conservative Islam, especially among the secular elite. But to the thousands who attend its classes across the country, it is a blessing.

Take Mariam Afzal, who says she was once so selfish she would take up two spots in a parking lot without a second thought. Back then, she knew little about Islam beyond the basic rituals. A decade later, the 30-year-old credits Al-Huda with turning her into the veil-wearing Quran teacher she is today.

“It has really helped me become a better person,” she says.

Al-Huda’s popularity and rapid growth — and the criticism of it as a promoter of intolerance and gender segregation — is a sign of Pakistan’s swing away from the moderate, Sufi Islam-influenced sphere of South Asia toward the more conservative, Saudi-influenced Middle East.

That swing comes as religious observance is on the rise in many other Muslim countries, such as Egypt and Indonesia, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. put a magnifying glass on Islam and its adherents.

The appeal of conservative Islam to the Pakistani elite — the same elite that gave Pakistan a female prime minister, Benazir Bhutto — has been brought into focus following the attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square on May 1. The would-be bomber and most of a dozen others held were from educated, wealthier segments of the mostly impoverished country…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Indian Held After Hindu Leader’s Murder in Nepal (Lead)

By Sudeshna Sarkar, Kathmandu, June 27 : As Birgunj town, Nepal’s main hub for trade with India, simmered with tension Sunday after the murder of the chief of a newly formed militant Hindu organisation that had become involved in anti-Moist vigilante activities, police arrested an Indian during the hunt for the killers.

Kashinath Tiwari, the 45-year-old chief of Hindu Yuva Sangh, a militant group seeking the restoration of a Hindu kingdom in Nepal, was shot dead Saturday evening while he was visiting a Hindu monastery to inspect the construction of a dharamshala.

Police said four people borne on motorcycles fired at Tiwari and fled. No one had claimed responsibility for the killing till Sunday evening.

As a hunt began for the killers, police said they have arrested four suspicious people, including 18-year-old Arvind Singh from East Champaran in India’s Bihar state.

Tiwari came into prominence last month when he led an attack on a Maoist camp in the town.

In May, the former Maoist guerrillas had called an indefinite shutdown nationwide in a bid to topple the communist-led government.

As public protests began against the closure, Tiwari and his group attacked a camp set up for Maoist cadre, vandalising vehicles, smashing tables and utensils and carting away gas cylinders.

The Hindu group also attacked the Maoist cadre in the camp, injuring over two dozen, including two members of parliament.

Maoist MP Prabhu Shah, who was severely wounded in the May attack, issued a denial soon after Adhikari’s death, saying his party was not involved in the murder.

Since Tiwari was also a real estate dealer, police said business rivalry could not be ruled out as the motive.

Only last week, a businessman and his wife were shot dead in southern Nepal while dozens have been abducted.

The Hindu Yuva Sangh has called an indefinite general strike in Birgunj from Sunday to protest against the murder. Shops and markets remained closed while public transport was scarce.

Nepal’s only openly royalist party in parliament alleged religious reasons behind the murder.

Former home minister Kamal Thapa, whose Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal is seeking the restoration of monarchy as well as Hinduism as the state religion, said in a statement that the pre-planned murder was committed by people who did not want to see Nepal become a Hindu state again.

Till 2006, Nepal had been the only Hindu kingdom in the world. Though conversions were punishable, the tiny South Asian kingdom enjoyed harmony among its various religious communities.

After it became a secular republic, there are however growing reports of religious attacks.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: Call to Arms Against Spread of Christianity

05:55 AM Jun 28, 2010BEKASI — A group of religious organisations has called on mosques on the outskirts of Jakarta to form militia units to brace themselves against the recent spread of Christianity in Bekasi, the Jakarta Globe reported yesterday.

The call was made during an Islamic Congress in Bekasi yesterday as a response to what was perceived to be the Christianisation of the city on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Mr Murhali Barda, head of the Bekasi chapter of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front, told the Jakarta Globe that they were planning to invite Christians to a dialogue over attempts to convert locals to the faith.

“If talks fail, this might mean war,” he warned, as quoted by the Globe. Congress secretary Saleh Mangara Sitompul, a member of the Bekasi branch of the country’s second largest Muslim organisation Muhammadiyah, suggested that every mosque in Bekasi form their own paramilitary units, the Globe reported.

The congress also demanded that the local administration implement Sharia law in the city to respond to the increasing numbers of religious blasphemy cases, the Jakarta Post reported. The comments came a day after another church in Bekasi was closed by the government due to pressure from hardline groups, and three days after the administration pulled down the “Tiga Mojang”, or Three Girls statue, which they deemed offensive to conservatives.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Anti-Terror Court Convicts 5 Americans

Five American men were convicted Thursday on terror charges by a Pakistani court and sentenced to 10 years in prison in a case that heightened concerns about Westerners traveling to Pakistan to contact al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups.

[…]

The judge handed down two prison terms for each man, one for 10 years and the other for five. A copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press said the terms were to be served concurrently…

[Return to headlines]



US Has Not Had Good Intelligence on Osama Bin Laden in Years

The United States has not had good intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, in years, Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, admitted on Sunday.

Of greatest concern, he said, was al-Qaeda’s reliance on operatives without previous records or those living in the US.

Mr Panetta said the al-Qaeda leadership was at its weakest point since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, but admitted that he had not had reliable intelligence on the location of the group’s leader since “the early 2000s”.

“Since then, it’s been very difficult to get any intelligence on his exact location,” he said. “He is, as is obvious, in very deep hiding … He’s in an area of the tribal areas of Pakistan.”

Denying the world’s most wanted man safe haven on the lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan border has been an aim of Western policy since the Sept 11 attacks, when the Taliban in effect spurned a US demand to hand over the al-Qaeda chief.

[..]

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst in the nine-year war, with the Taliban stepping up their campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations, particularly in their Kandahar heartland.

Some 80 foreign troops have been killed so far in June, making it the deadliest month for international forces since the war began in late 2001. More than 300 troops have been killed this year compared with about 520 for all of 2009.

[Return to headlines]

Far East


China Bans Military From Blogging

BEIJING (AFP) — China has issued regulations banning its 2.3 million soldiers from creating web sites or writing web blogs, adding to the nation’s existing Internet curbs, state press said Saturday.

“Soldiers cannot open blogs on the Internet no matter (whether) he or she does it in the capacity of a soldier or not,” Xinhua news agency quoted Wan Long, a political commissar of the People’s Liberation Army, as saying.

“The Internet is complicated and we should guard against online traps,” it said, citing concerns about military “confidentiality”.

The new rules are laid out in revised PLA Internal Administration Regulations and went into effect on June 15, the report said. They ban soldiers of the PLA, the world’s largest standing army, from creating homepages, web sites or blogging.

China operates a vast system of web censorship, sometimes referred to as the “Great Firewall,” that blocks access to or censors content deemed unacceptable, ranging from pornography to political dissent.

Earlier this month, the government cited state security as it defended its right to censor the Internet and warned other nations to respect how it polices the world’s largest online population of 400 million web users.

At the same time, the government insisted it “guarantees the citizen’s freedom of speech on the Internet as well as the public’s right to know, to participate, to be heard and to oversee”.

The latest moves come after a very public row with Google over web freedoms earlier this year that prompted the US Internet giant to shut its Chinese search engine.

The spat over censorship and cyberattacks touched off a war of words with the United States, at a time when ties were already suffering due to US arms sales to Taiwan and trade and currency issues.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



N Korea Seeks $75 Trillion in Compensation

Related Story: Super drink creates brain cells, prevents wrinkles Cash-strapped North Korea has demanded the United States pay almost $US65 trillion ($75 trillion) in compensation for six decades of hostility.

The official North Korean news agency, KCNA, says the cost of the damage done by the US since the peninsula was divided in 1945 is estimated at $US64.96 trillion.

The compensation call comes on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

KCNA said the figure includes $US26.1 trillion arising from US “atrocities” which left more than 5 million North Koreans dead, wounded, kidnapped or missing.

The agency also claims 60 years of US sanctions have caused a loss of $US13.7 trillion by 2005, while property losses were estimated at $US16.7 trillion.

The agency said North Koreans have “the justifiable right” to receive the compensation for their blood.

It said the committee’s calculation did not include the damage North Korea had suffered from sanctions after its first nuclear test in 2006.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


Australia Shouldn’t Have a Big Population: Gillard

Melbourne, June 27 : In an apparent policy shift on Australia’s ever-growing population, mainly due to immigration, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she does not believe in a “big Australia”, but supports the idea of controlled immigration for a population the country can support.

Breaking away from the policies of the Kevin Rudd administration, Gillard said the nation should not “hurtle down the track towards a big population”.

“We will still have an approach about getting the migration settings right, about meeting our needs for skilled labour, but I also want to see us do it sustainably,” the prime minister said.

Australia’s population was predicted to rise from about 22 million at present to 35.9 million in 2050, if current trends in overseas migration and fertility continued. Immigration was the biggest contributor to Australia’s burgeoning population, according to the treasury’s inter-generational report, published earlier this year.

“I don’t support the idea of a big Australia with arbitrary targets of, say, a 40 million-strong Australia or a 36 million-strong Australia. We need to stop, take a breath and develop policies for a sustainable Australia,” Gillard was quoted as saying by the Age.

“I support a population that our environment, our water, our soil, our roads and freeways, our buses, our trains and our services can sustain,” the Australian prime minister said.

Gillard suggested the government could pursue different immigration policies for different parts of the country.

“Australia has this very difficult problem — parts of Australia are desperate for workers, but other parts are desperate for jobs. Having a smart and sustainable population, coupled with the right skills strategy, will help improve this imbalance,” she said.

“If you spoke to the people of Western Sydney, for example, about a big Australia, they would laugh at you and ask you a very simple question: Where will these 40 million people go?” she said.

Melbourne was predicted to be populated by seven million people, and Sydney would grow to more than 7.5 million.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd had earlier said he favoured a “big Australia”, but later backed away from his comment by appointing Tony Burke as population minister to develop a strategy to contain it.

Gillard said Burke’s job description would now change to “send a very clear message about this new direction”, and he would now be known as the minister for sustainable population.

Even though Gillard said the population growth should be limited, she stressed that it was “not about bringing down the shutters on immigration”.

In 2009, migration added around 300,000 people to the Australian population, which has been growing faster than many developing countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Are Beards Obligatory for Devout Muslim Men?

Hizbul-Islam militants in Somalia ordered men in Mogadishu this week to grow their beards and trim their moustaches.

“Anyone found violating this law will face the consequences,” a Hizbul-Islam militant said, announcing the edict.

But is growing a beard obligatory under Islam?

Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem, of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, says “this is not the only view expressed by Muslim scholars.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Sudanese Paper Publishes First Part of Investigative Report on Islamist Groups

Jun 27, 2010 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) — The short white jalabiyah [flowing men’s robe], the thick beard, and the shaved head represent the typical image of the Salafis as they are known among the Sudanese. They have not changed since the Salafi advocacy was launched in the last century.

The advocacy started with one trend, namely Ansar al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyah. Nearly 93 years after the appearance of Salafi ideology, there are now six groups that are active under the Salafi banners the last of which was the Aqum group [which said recently it has applied to form the first Salafi political party]. Some of these groups broke away from Ansar al-Sunnah and the others appeared in the 1990s, after the emergence of what has become known as the Salafi jihadi ideology.

The Salafi advocacy started from West Sudan in the first decade of the last century. Moroccan merchant Abd-al-Rahman Bin Hajar took it upon himself to promote it in bazaars after marrying and settling down there. He taught pioneer Salafists. But the government of the bilateral [British-Egyptian] rule deported him to Egypt. One of his disciples, Ahmad Hasan, the godfather of Ansar al-Sunna, established in 1917 a forum for the advocacy in the town of Al-Nuhud which is considered the first bastion of Salafi ideology. The group’s pioneers included Yusuf Abu-Abd-al-Baqi and Yusuf Al-Ni’ma who taught Muhammad Hashim al-Hidiyyah. After the mid 1940s the group was officially registered with the government under the name of Jama’at Ansar al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyyah, after the group which goes by the same name in Egypt. They had established contact with it through Al-Hady al-Nabawi magazine which they read regularly. The first head of the registered group was Muhammad Fadil al-Taqlawi. Other leaders who succeeded him were Abdallah Hamad, Abd-al-Baqi Yusuf al-Ni’ma, and Abdallah al-Fishawi. This was followed by the leadership of Muhammad Hashim al-Hidiyyah which represented a turning point in the group’s history.

Al-Hidiyyah was a Post Office employee who belonged to a family from the Khatmi sect but who joined the group. In 1957, he established the first mosque in the area of Al-Sajanah, in the place where the group’s general headquarters is now located. In 1960, Abu-Zayd Muhammad Hamzah joined the group after he came from Egypt, where he used to be close to Muhammed Hamid since he was 17 and continued to be close to him since the 1920s. He received his religious training at his hands and learned the principles of Salafi jurisprudence. He was originally transferred from Egypt to the region of Wadi Halfa to work as a teacher and launched his advocacy there. But he did not remain in Halfa more than six months and was transferred to Omdurman, where he established a mosque in the First Alley of Al-Thawra District and launched his advocacy. There is also Mustafa Ahmad Naji who appeared in the 1950s in Port Sudan. He had received his religious training at the hands of the shaykhs coming from Al-Hijaz [Saudi Arabia] and founded Jama’at al-Da’wa lil Tawhid. These three groups were the centres of Salafism which spread in Sudan.

Tariq al-Maghribi, a researcher on Salafi groups, told Al-Ra’y al-Amm that in 1960 there used to be activity in the garden adjacent to the mosque of Shaykh Abu-Zayd in the First Alley and he met there for the first time with Shaykh Al-Hidiyyah. He subsequently became an active member of the group. After the mid 1960s, the group’s relationship with Saudi Arabia began through Shaykh Al-Ubaykan, the Saudi Ambassador in Khartoum. According to Tariq’s account, Al-Ubaykan had gone by coincidence to the group’s mosque in Al-Sajanah to perform Friday’s prayers and heard the calls for purifying the faith in line with the Salafi principles. He became acquainted with the group and enthusiastic for it. Its official relationship with Saudi Arabia subsequently began. He facilitated matters for the group and opened doors for it with Muhammed Ibrahim Al Al-Shaykh, the general Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and after him the Mufti Bin Baz.

The group started by confining its task to advocacy, according to Yusuf al-Kudah, the head of the Islamic Al-Wasat Party, in addition to some learning seminars in mosques. Then it developed to form a bigger organization with various secretariats during the era of Shaykh Al-Hidiyyah after the graduation of cadres sent outside the country to receive their education. The group shifted to promoting its ideologies from bazaars to universities and began to attract students. It had an educational role through its ownership of various religious institutes and also had a role in voluntary and relief activities which it used to promote its message.

All this pronounced activity appeared in the 1980s. Was this the cause for the group’s entry into politics or what?

We shall continue.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Britain’s Non-EU Immigration Cap May Face Hiccups

By Venkata Vemuri, London, June 27 : Britain’s proposed cap on non-EU immigration to avoid a last-ditch influx into the country may run into rough weather as it is not applicable to non-EU migrants granted refugee status here or their dependents.

Labour has accused the coalition government of diluting the new immigration rules, including the compulsory English testing for non-EU migrant spouses, to get the Liberal Democrats to support them.

Home Secretary Theresa May is to announce Monday that just 24,100 workers from outside Europe will be allowed into the country before April. She will simultaneously launch a consultation process for deciding the level of the permanent cap.

Conservatives like London Mayor Boris Johnson have urged the government to rethink. His spokesperson said: “A crude cap could be very detrimental to the free movement of the talented, creative and enterprising people who have enabled London to be such a dominant global force.”

According to the Press Association, Education Secretary Michael Gove and Universities Minister David Willetts were both said to have expressed doubts about the immigration cap in cabinet discussions earlier in the week.

Former immigration minister Phil Woolas said rules relating to both the immigration cap as well as the compulsory English test for spouses wanting to marry British citizens had been diluted by exempting non-EU migrants with asylum status in Britain and their dependents.

He said the dilution was the Tory idea of getting support of the Liberal Democrats for the immigration cap and told The Daily Mail: “This means a British man who marries, say, a Brazilian girl who can’t speak English will not be able to bring her into this country. But an Afghan who gets here on the back of a lorry and successfully claims asylum can bring his Afghan wife, children and grandparents in — even if they don’t speak English.”

Labour MP and chairman of the home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, retorted: “It was Mr. Woolas who started all this. So, why is he saying all this now? It’s a continuation of what the Labour government started. Even the Liberal Democrats are against the immigration proposals. We still don’t really know what the exact proposals are.”

Vaz said the cap could affect relations with countries like India.

“An arbitrary cap is not the way. It will devastate university overseas students admissions and have a severe effect on some very important areas of businesses, which will have a direct impact on Britain’s effectiveness. Since spouses of settled people are the third largest recipient of visas, it may mean that the state will be deciding who people should marry, which is hardly libertarian”.

“The entry clearance posts will be overwhelmed by the number of applications and no thought appears to be given to providing them with extra resources. This will also damage relations with countries like India at a time when the government has pledged to enhance them.

Meanwhile, IANS has found that in a written reply to an MP’s question, Immigration Minister Damien Green did say that the two rules do not apply to non-EU people staying in Britain as refugees.

According to a transcript of the written questions and answers from the archives of the House of Commons June 22, 2010, Green said: “The new language requirement will not apply to dependants of refugees and people granted humanitarian protection in the UK…

“The annual limit will apply only to non-EU economic migrants admitted into the UK to live and work. There are no plans to apply the limit to dependants of refugees and people granted humanitarian protection in the UK applying for family reunion…,” Green responded to another question.

The exemptions came because the rules go against the “right to family life” under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. A refugee could possibly argue that as they cannot return to their country, they can gain their “right to family life’ only by having it allowed in Britain — whether or not they speak English.

A Home Office spokesman said: “In compelling circumstances where a refusal of leave would amount to a breach of Article 8, we will consider granting discretionary leave outside the immigration rules.”

(Venkata Vemuri can be contacted at venkata.v@ians.in)

— IANS

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Growing Foreign-Born Population to Forge ‘New Canada’

By 2031, at least one in four people in this country will have been born elsewhere, new population projections from Statistics Canada suggest, and just half the working-age population will belong to families that have lived in Canada for at least three generations.

Photograph by: Photos.com, canada.comThere is a “new Canada” just over the horizon — home to a diversity of skin tones, birth countries, languages and religious faiths unprecedented in the nation’s history.

By 2031, at least one in four people in this country will have been born elsewhere, new population projections from Statistics Canada suggest, and just half the working-age population will belong to families that have lived in Canada for at least three generations.

“You look at the statistics and you can see it: who’s the bulk of the new population, who’s going to be our future,” says Henry Yu, an associate history professor at the University of British Columbia. “This is the strongest indication yet — obviously, it’s been developing for decades — that there is a new Canada.”

The federal agency says the foreign-born population in that new Canada is expected to grow four times faster than those who are Canadian-born over the next 20 years, which is projected to create the most diverse population since Confederation.

With the vast majority of newcomers settling in large cities, the country’s future and prosperity lie in its urban areas, says Yu.

And the “new Canada” is a Pacific Canada, he says, with its strongest ties and biggest portion of newcomers not coming from the European countries of old, but from our Asian and Latin American neighbours with whom we share a Pacific coast, and with Caribbean nations.

It’s expected that almost one in three newcomers will follow a non-Christian religion two decades from now, Statistics Canada says, and more than three-quarters will have a mother tongue that’s neither French nor English. But rather than embracing this linguistic diversity and the edge it offers in a competitive global economy, Canada has been “very pointedly obliterating the language skills of the children of immigrants,” Yu says.

They learn one of the country’s two official languages relatively easily as children, he says, but then they’re effectively rendered monolingual by years of English- or French-only schooling and the encouragement to leave their mother tongue behind.

“We have an incredible global human capital from this new Canada,” Yu says. “We need to think of ways to build upon it rather than being scared and saying, ‘Oh my God, we need to make them all into carbon copies of English migrants who came 200 years ago.”

Richard Day, a professor of sociology and global development studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., objects to using the “basically racist” term “visible minorities” to label a diverse group of people who are on the verge of becoming the majority in Toronto and Vancouver. It’s as though there’s a white, Christian “unmentioned normal person” that such diversity is being compared to, he says, but one that simply no longer reflects the face of Canada.

“If it were to go beyond the restaurant, to go beyond ‘Oh, nice spices you put on your food!’ — if it were to go to the level of values and how we treat each other and take on some of the really pro-community aspects of other cultures — that would be cool and I think it’s going to happen,” Day says.

Islam will be the fastest-growing religion in the next two decades, Statistics Canada says, with its numbers expected to triple and encompass about seven per cent of the Canadian population by 2031.

Other non-Christian religions such as Judaism, Buddhism and Sikhism will double their numbers, while the proportion following Christian religions is expected to slip from about 75 per cent of Canada’s population to 65 per cent, with the proportion reporting no religion will rise to 21 per cent from 17 per cent.

There’s still too much that goes unsaid when it comes to racial and cultural tensions in Canada, says Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Reports tiptoe around the large and growing Muslim population, accompanied by a misinformed anxiety rather than a push to ensure Muslims are successfully integrated into Canadian society, he says.

And, Tarek adds, there’s no acknowledgment of the prejudice that exists between different visible minority populations.

“People want honesty, they are thirsting for frank language,” he says. “We need to abandon the notion of political correctness and abandon the fear of speaking.”

The Baitunnur Mosque in Calgary — one of the largest in North America — will be on the forefront of Canada’s growing Muslim population in the years to come.

Sultan Mahmood, an executive member of the mosque, says it’s a central tenet of his Ahmadiyya denomination of Islam that Muslims connect with and serve their community — meaning their doors are always open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Mahmood points to the example of an artists’ group that has been using the brand-new mosque’s facilities while waiting for their own to be built, adding that other community groups drop in to use the gym and they regularly host inter-faith conferences throughout Alberta.

At the end of the day, Mahmood returns home to engage in a time-honoured ritual that knows no national boundaries: gossiping with the neighbours and sharing food in the yard.

“This is enriching our society,” says Mahmood, who moved to Calgary from Pakistan in 1992. “We’re getting good people and all the good things from all over the world, and I think this diversity has made Canada one of the best countries in the world, and I think Canada will remain one of the best countries in the world because of this diversity.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Muslim Cleric Leaves Australia for Good

A leading Muslim cleric, ordered to leave the country by immigration officials, says his spirit will remain in Australia forever.

Sheikh Mansour Leghaei has lived in Australia for 16 years and is the force behind an Islamic centre in suburban Sydney.

Dr Leghaei was ordered to leave the country by Sunday night, following two adverse security declarations from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

With his wife and their 14-year-old Australian-born daughter Fatima, he will fly out of Sydney to Iran about two hours before his bridging visa expires at midnight.

“My body will depart Australia but definitely my soul and my spirit will remain here forever,” Dr Leghaei told ABC TV.

He said he had no firm plans for his life, beyond a reunion with his parents.

Fatima Leghaei also doesn’t want to leave.

“I feel sad because my friends, my brothers and school and everything is all here,” she said.

Dr Leghaei’s three sons — all in their 20s — are staying in Sydney, and one, Sadegh is convinced his family will return.

“They will come back, rest assured they will come back,” he said.

“When? (That) is in God’s hands. If? It’s not even a question.”

An immigration spokesman said Dr Leghaei was leaving Australia voluntarily but admitted he otherwise risked being put in detention and forcibly deported.

“Sheikh Mansour Leghaei has been given an adverse security assessment and as such he doesn’t meet the character requirement for a permanent residency visa, so he is required to leave the country,” he told AAP.

“Anyone who has an adverse security assessment against their name is not eligible for a visa to Australia.”

One of Dr Leghaei’s supporters, Anglican Priest Dave Smith, said the sheikh was very emotional about his impending departure.

Father David accused the Mujahideen of being behind Dr Leghaei’s adverse security assessments.

“I think there has been a variety of spurious accusations that have been levelled at him by certain members of the Mujahideen,” he told AAP, while heading to the airport to farewell the sheikh personally.

“Most of which are outrageous, they are almost laughable.”

Father David said Dr Leghaei played a peaceful role in the community, but that message had fallen on deaf ears.

“Certainly the work he’s done in the community just pastorally, and in terms of trying to build bridges between the faith communities and different ethnic communities, I think that’s well known,” he said.

Politicians including Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese even wrote him glowing references while in opposition.

Father Dave said they’d since turned their backs.

“We are deeply disappointed that our so-called elected representatives haven’t listen to us,” he said.

“The action taken certainly isn’t in the interests of the community.

“It’s a deeply disillusioning experience at that level.”

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]



Open Borders, Open Pit

It’s not exactly a big secret that the are two reasons we have open borders. The first reason is the Democratic party’s reliance on importing dependent minority groups to build a voting base. The second reason is that the Republican party spends too much time answering to corporations who want open borders. The Chamber of Commerce is a big proponent of open borders, which makes Bloomberg’s collection of CEOs from Disney (does the Mouse really need migrant workers?), Marriott, Hewlett Packard, Boeing, American Express, Morgan Stanley and the New York Times (migrants could probably do a better and cheaper job of writing their articles) and Rupert Murdoch of Newscorp.

[…]

I’m all for importing millions of bright and intelligent people, though perhaps not during a major recession. But that’s not what either Democrats or Republican big business advocates want. What they want are cheap and easy people, who can be exploited on the job and at the voting booth. That’s why immigration quotas look the way they do. That’s why it’s much easier for people from the Third World to move here than for Europeans. Immigration “reform” has become a euphemism for open borders with Mexico

Immigration “reform” has become a euphemism for open borders with Mexico. And you only need one look at some of what’s going on in Mexico and now in border states to see why that’s a bad idea. This doesn’t bother CEOs who live in gated communities, get driven to work in limousines and think they’re immune from the problem. Whose exposure to Mexico is through high end resorts and servile waiting staffs who are happy to have a job. And that’s exactly the culture they think they’re bringing to America. Cheap labor catering to their whims. They have no idea what reality is, and they don’t care.

Bloomberg more cynically makes the case that companies are outsourcing because of immigration restrictions

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor

by Michelle Malkin

President Obama’s Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers.

…this longtime open-borders sympathizer has always had a rather radical definition of “American.” At a Latino voter registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted to thunderous applause, “We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not.”

[…]

While in Congress, she opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien benefits (including driver’s licenses and in-state tuition discounts), embraced sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass amnesty.

[…]

…in the aftermath of the BP oil spill..Solis signaled that her department was going out of its way to shield illegal immigrant laborers involved in cleanup efforts.

[Return to headlines]



UK Set to Limit Migrant Workers

A temporary limit on the number of migrant workers from outside the EU allowed into the UK is to be introduced ahead of a planned permanent cap.

Home Secretary Theresa May will limit the number of workers to 24,100 — down around 5% — between now and April 2011.

The Conservatives’ election pledge to curb immigration survived the coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats.

Labour said that the introduction of an arbitary immigration cap “is fraught with difficulty”.

The temporary cap is aimed at preventing a rush of applications before a permanent cap is set next April…

[Return to headlines]



UK: Tories ‘Back Down’ Over Immigrants’ English Test

The promise was a central part of David Cameron’s Election campaign. But it has now been disclosed that the families of asylum seekers allowed to settle in the UK will be exempt from the ban.

Labour MPs said the Conservatives had been forced to drop their hardline stance by their Liberal Democrat ­Coalition partners who support uncontrolled immigration.

The move came on the eve of the launch of Britain’s first-ever cap on immigration.

Mrs May will tomorrow disclose how a strict limit will be imposed on non-EU work permits.

Former Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: ‘This ruling means that a British man who marries, say, a ­Brazilian girl who can’t speak English will not be able to bring her into this ­country.

‘But an Afghan who gets here on the back of a lorry and successfully claims asylum can bring his Afghan wife, children and grandparents in — even if they don’t speak English.

‘The Tories gave the impression that the English speaking test would apply to all immigrants.

‘It is now clear that is not the case. It is absolutely essential that all immigrants speak English if they are to integrate with the rest of society. This is clear evidence that the Lib Dem tail is wagging the Conser­vative dog in this Coalition.’

When Mr Cameron and Nick Clegg formed the Coalition, the Lib Dem leader agreed to drop his commitment to grant an amnesty to illegal immigrants.

However, a little-noticed Commons written reply last week said: ‘The new language requirement will not apply to dependants of refugees and people granted humanitarian pro­tection in the UK.’

The Government granted the exemption after being warned that forcing refugees’ dependants to learn English breaks Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everyone ‘the right to a family life’.

Lawyers say a refugee could argue that as they cannot return to their country, they can gain their ‘right to family life’ only by having it allowed in the UK — whether or not they speak English. Britons whose foreign spouses cannot speak English could get their right by emigrating.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘In compelling circumstances where a refusal of leave would amount to a breach of Article 8, we will consider granting discretionary leave outside the immigration rules.’

About 20,000 people a year apply for asylum in Britain.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Biggest Obstacle for China’s Gays: Social Pressure for Marriage

SHANGHAI — They had what they thought was the perfect solution, but it turned out that the men are just too picky.

They think that Yu Xiaofei, with her cropped black hair and dark-rimmed glasses, looks too much like a tomboy, and they think that Jiang Yifei’s distaste for children is suspicious.

So what are these young Chinese women to do? They’re 24, out of college, employed, living at home — and they’re in love with each other and desperate to find a way to stay together.

“The most important thing is that we cannot hurt out parents,” Yu said. “They put a lot on us.”

That means finding two men in a similar predicament. Their plan is simple. Yu and Jiang will find a gay male couple, arrange a living situation and lay down some ground rules. Then, they’ll pair off with the men and get married, just as their parents expect them to do.

They still have time, and they’re using it to take in every last kiss and touch before these gestures become even more complicated than they already are. Still, their proposed arrangement is no grand tragedy for the pair — it’s practical.

Beneath it all are the Confucian family values that still underpin Chinese society: As a son or daughter, it’s your duty to maintain and carry on the family line by having children.

“We have to — that’s tradition,” said Jiang, who sports long caramel-colored hair and clinking bangle bracelets. “That’s what (our parents) think we should do.”…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Inclusiveness Programs Benefit Companies and Workers Alike

In 2008, Michael Figueiredo told State Street Corp.’s human resources department that he wanted to start coming to work as a woman.

“I was very nervous,” said Figueiredo, 39.

To Figurado’s surprise, the HR representative said, “OK, we support this,” and started planning how to tell co-workers and clients.

“From their very first reaction… I have felt so empowered,” said Figuerado, who now goes by Michelle and is a member of State Street Pride, which has 150 members.

State Street is one of a growing number of companies that have employee programs to support different ethnicities, ages, religions, sexual orientations, and physical abilities — both in and out of the office. The programs not only help to retain talented workers of diverse backgrounds, but also can boost the bottom line.

“The more diverse an organization, the more potential for being creative,” said Mauricio Valesquez, president of the Diversity Training Group, a consulting business based outside Washington, D.C.

People of color made up 16 percent of the labor force in the state last year, according to the US Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey — up from about 10 percent in 1990; nationwide, the number is 32 percent.

This disparity, in part, reflects that Massachusetts is less ethnically diverse than the country as a whole. Minorities make up 34 percent of the national population, according to 2008 estimates from the US Census Bureau, but only 21 percent of the state’s.

The makeup of the state’s labor force needs improvement, according to the Commonwealth Compact, a project formed by business and civic leaders to promote diversity in Boston.

Commonwealth Compact’s 2009 report, based on data from 111 organizations that have signed the compact, found that nearly half weren’t satisfied with the diversity of their leadership team.

Gisele Michel, executive director of the Boston Center for Community and Justice, said many companies maintain diversity programs to buffer themselves from discrimination claims, but “there are very few places that actually incorporate it as a core business practice.”

Some firms are moving in that direction, though. State Street’s Global Inclusion program, which has 39 networking groups for everyone from military personnel to disabled workers, last month was honored at the Arnold Z. Rosoff Awards, an annual program by the Ad Club of Boston trade group that recognizes companies that achieve diversity.

One of the State Street groups, the 200-member Muslim Professional Network, put on an interfaith panel on fasting last year, open to all employees. The group also lobbied the company to turn eight empty offices and “quiet rooms” into prayer rooms for Muslims, who pray five times a day, and other faith-based groups.

“It helps people within the company who don’t practice Islam have a better understanding of minorities of faith,” said Shatha Al-Aswad, 32, who is Syrian. “It’s the reason why many of us stay at State Street.”

That kind of loyalty is one of the goals of diversity programs. Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.’s diversity initiative includes pairing new employees with a more senior “buddy” with a similar background to help new hires feel more comfortable.

Maggie Louie, 31, who works in finance, and Christina Khoo, 44, a research scientist, talk more about their children than about their shared Chinese heritage, but they have dis cussed where to find Chinese markets and the challenges of being a working mother in traditional Chinese culture.

“It has helped me feel more comfortable having a friendly face that I can smile or wave to,” Khoo said.

Sometimes, a company’s diversity program can help everyone — not just those with diverse backgrounds — feel more comfortable in the workplace.

In five years, Deloitte’s local Hispanic business networking group has grown from 4 to 35 members, who help recruit new workers and hold lunchtime events with Latin food and trivia. And as the firm’s awareness of Hispanic culture has grown, so has its understanding of cultural differences. At first, the partners at Deloitte didn’t know what to make of Andrew Rodriguez’s physically affectionate ways, which he said are more common among Hispanics. Now, he said, “it’s more visible and more accepted in the firm.”

Companies also know a diverse workforce can boost the bottom line. The law firm Goodwin Procter, for example, has had an increasing number of potential clients ask if female lawyers or lawyers of color will be working on their cases.

“Our clients care about diversity because they understand that diverse teams of lawyers solve their problems more effectively,” said Scott Westfahl, director of professional development.

Of the 440 lawyers in Goodwin Procter’s Boston office, 172 are women or people of color. In fact, the firm’s chairwoman and managing partner, Regina Pisa, was the first woman to head up a top US law firm.

Lawyers on Goodwin Procter’s Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, which is open to anyone and has 16 members in Boston, do pro bono work for immigrants becoming citizens — as well as catch the occasional Red Sox game together.

“It shows that the firm is supportive in recognizing that there may be unique issues or circumstances that diverse lawyers are facing in a predominantly white environment,” said senior associate Damian Wilmot, who is president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association.

CVS Caremark also knows about the economic benefits of programs geared toward retaining a diverse workforce.

In 2004, the Woonsocket, R.I., company instituted a “snowbird” program that allows employees, many of them older, to work in different locations throughout the year. Because stores in warm states are busier during the winter, the company has to add staff anyway, said Stephen Wing, director of workforce initiatives, and moving in seasoned employees makes more sense than training new ones.

“Even younger people will come to an older person to ask them for advice,” said Wing, who noted that CVS has 38 employees in their 90s.

CVS clerk Howard Yeaton, 75, from Portland, Maine, is working at a store in Ocala, Fla., where two of his eight daughters and five of his 50 grandchildren live, until the end of June. “I’ll do it as long as I can count the money right,” he said.

Likewise, Michelle Figueiredo plans to keep working at State Street for a long time. Figueiredo, who recently urged the state to follow her company’s example at a judicial hearing about transgender employment protections, said she’ll never forget the first day she came to work dressed as a woman. “I walked through the door and had goosebumps when my black pumps clicked on the lobby floor,” she said.

Now, Figueiredo, who manages a resolution desk in investment services, is scheduled to have a sex-change operation on Jan. 31, the day before her 40th birthday.

“It would not have been possible without State Street’s buy-in,” she said. “It’s made me just blossom.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

General


A Grand Design Made to Order, Part 3

Ta-ta Ta’a (Obedience to Islam)

By definition globalism is a collectivist one-world state that rejects the biblical worldview and ethic for enlightened group think distinguished by relative (as opposed to absolute) truth. Global citizens pledge allegiance to the world community, not to any specific nation-state.

In many respects, the Islamic Grand Design for world dominance fits the globalist model. Already, Islam is the world’s second largest religion after Christianity. While Pakistan is the only state explicitly established in the name of Islam, the Islamic impact on world culture is indisputable.

Its three-fold strategy of missions, presence, and force has left an indelible mark. Already, Muslims make up a majority in some seventy of 188 nations, and Islam has become the fastest growing religion in Europe.

Harmonization

To the globalist, harmonization is the elimination of state and national boundaries. Director of the London Muslim Institute, Dr. Kalim Siddique makes it abundantly clear that the objective of the modern Muslim movement is “to eliminate all authority other than Allah and his prophet; to eliminate nationalism in all its shapes and forms, in particular, the nation-state.”[1]

According to Islam expert Dr. William Wagner, ever since Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in AD 622, Muslims have instigated what he calls the Four “C’s” of engagement — all of which serve this purpose.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Equality is Never Equal

Equality is a sacred word in the modern American lexicon. It’s the politically correct positive to the negative of discrimination. There’s a philosophy known as Egalitarianism based upon a belief in human equality in all social, political, and economic affairs. This philosophy advocates the removal of all inequalities among people. Egalitarianism is one of the foundational principles of the Progressives currently controlling the government of the United States.

There’s one major flaw with this philosophy. It doesn’t reflect reality. No matter what anyone wants to believe, hopes to encourage or pretends to see people are not equal. There are the physical differences of size, shape, appearance, intelligence and temperament. There are also differences in family environment, economic situation, education, and location. There’s no natural way to eradicate these inherent differences. This is where the progressive philosophy kings seek to insert the coercive actions of government to level the playing field creating what they believe is a perfect environment for human activity. However, perfect equality is impossible to create, for in the artificial hothouse of government enforced equality there are still those who decide what equal is, and as the privileged commissars of the USSR taught us everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.

[…]

Political and social philosophy cannot change human nature, and no matter how people wish for another reality all we have is the real one. It’s time people admit that once government acts to equalize the lives of all it must act unequally towards some. Equality of opportunity is based upon the idea of treating everyone the same. Equality of outcome is based upon the idea of redistribution. To prevent economic inequality take from those who produce and give to those who don’t. To prevent racial inequality make judgments based on race using racial quotas. In this drive to create an unreal reality the Progressives have manufactured an endless supply of special classes of people, giving some extra rights and privileges while encumbering others with added burdens and barriers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100626

USA
» A Terrorist’s World View Signals What Our World View Should be
» It’s Time to Open Impeachment File
 
Canada
» G20 Protesters Tried to Interrupt Ceremony for Fallen Soldier
» Man With Astonishing Array of Weapons Including Crossbow and Chainsaw is Arrested Near G20 Summit in Toronto
 
Europe and the EU
» Scientific Academies: In the Best Company
» UK: KFC Forced to Ditch Halal-Only Menus After Disappointing Sales
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel Informant Risks Deportation
 
Middle East
» Iran Cancels Plan to Send Ship to Gaza
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Exclusive: Anatomy of a Taliban Ambush
» Headless Bodies, Believed to be Killed by Taliban, Found in Afghanistan During War’s Deadliest Month
 
Immigration
» N.Y. Mayor Pushes Immigration Bill
» UK: Defying Opposition From Within the Coalition, Tories to Shut the Open Door for Migrants
» UK: Iraqi Asylum Cheat Who Got £700,000 in Benefits, Three Houses and Private School for Her Son
 
Culture Wars
» Book Review: Mainstream Media’s Plan to Squash Christianity
» German Court: Ending Life Support Not Criminal
» God, Socialism, And the Lowest Common Denominator
» Sweden: State ‘Child-Napping’ Escalates to International Court
 
General
» The Leftist ‘Purification’ Movement

USA


A Terrorist’s World View Signals What Our World View Should be

by Barry Rubin

A dozen words spoken at his trial by Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square would-be bomber, are worth studying very carefully. When asked why he targeted American civilians in the streets of New York, Shahzad replied:

“Well, the [American] people select the government. We consider them all the same.”

On one level, this is a standard terrorist position, used against countries from India to Israel and beyond. Significantly, it can only be applied only against democratic countries. Everyone is a legitimate target precisely because the country is a free one. Of course, the terrorist is attacking on the basis of a totalitarian ideology which he wants to impose everywhere possible. In this case, in the statement, “We consider them all the same,” the word “all” refers to the people.

But that’s not the main point I want to make.

The word “all” also refers to the governments they elect. In this case, the government the American people elected is that of Barack Hussain Obama, a president determined to prove to Muslims that he is their friend no matter what that costs.

No doubt, some are so convinced. According to public opinion polls, however, the change in the views of those in Muslim-majority countries has been—despite his efforts—pretty small…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



It’s Time to Open Impeachment File

Exclusive: Tom Tancredo sees need for probe into bribery, possibly treason

Yes, yes, I know. An impeachment investigation will never be started while Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House. The good news is that this obstacle to impeachment will likely be removed by January.

It goes without saying that the impeachment process should never be a political weapon used to pursue partisan political advantage. But neither should an impeachment investigation be obstructed for political reasons.

Impeachment is a constitutional remedy to be used for serious offenses identified in the Constitution. So, we must ask this question: Has Barack Obama crossed the line that separates political differences from the serious offenses that warrant impeachment?

[…]

I believe there is a growing body of evidence of impeachable offenses sufficient to warrant a formal impeachment resolution in the House, followed by a trial in the Senate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Canada


G20 Protesters Tried to Interrupt Ceremony for Fallen Soldier

Yesterday, the usual collection of Trotskyites and Anarchists with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and all their new chums from out of town massed at the Allan Gardens between Gerrard and Carleton, east of Jarvis. OCAP have engaged in serious goonery before over the last 20 years and attracts those who like the ‘cutting edge’ of protest. Well, actually, the heavy stick of protest is more their style — all for ‘the People’ of course, whoever they are.

The Coroner’s office is in my neighbourhood of the last nine years, and I attend almost all the repatriations. Waiting for the motorcade yesterday, I noticed a few unusual types with bikes and cellphones skinning by as the police prepared for the final arrival of Sgt Macneil, but didn’t think the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty would sink so low as to try to disrupt the repatriation of one of our war dead.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Man With Astonishing Array of Weapons Including Crossbow and Chainsaw is Arrested Near G20 Summit in Toronto

This is the chilling array of weapons that were found in a car just a block from where David Cameron is meeting with world leaders including Barack Obama at tomorrow’s G20 summit in Toronto.

The car was loaded down with dangerous tools ranging from a chainsaw, crossbow, baseball bat, petrol containers, a sledgehammer and a hatchet.

A pet dog was also found in the battered silver sedan.

Its owner, a 53-year-old man, was arrested last night. Police said he had ‘no reasonable explanation for the weapons that we observed were in physical plain view’.

However — despite him being pulled over just a block from where tall steel fences have been erected to protect Mr Cameron and the other leaders — it was later decided that the incident did not present a danger to the summit.

‘We do not believe it is G20-related,’ G8/G20 spokeswoman Catherine Martin said last night.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Scientific Academies: In the Best Company

The grandfather of scientific national academies is staging major celebrations this week for its 350th birthday. But, like similar elite groups around the world, Britain’s Royal Society has had to work hard to stay relevant and influential, reports Colin Macilwain.

One thing that scientists have learned since the seventeenth century is how to throw a party. This week, the Queen is set to celebrate with hundreds of Britain’s most brilliant minds, kicking off a summer of festivities to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge.

The public will be invited to partake in a carnival of celebrity lectures, debates, live TV shows and exhibits to showcase science and the Royal Society’s role in it. The choice of the South Bank — London’s main arts centre and a major tourist bazaar — for the ten-day extravaganza signals the society’s hunger to be seen as up to date, inclusive and important, not exclusive and aloof.

National academies of science in more than 100 nations are aiming for the same goal, with varying success. Many were born in an era when a few select individuals practiced science, and those groups evolved to offer behind-the-scenes advice to governments. Now, the academies represent much more diverse communities, and they must take their messages not only to governments but also directly to the public.

The Royal Society and its kindred academies have had to evolve in their own unique ways to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. They try to offer sober advice on some of the most divisive issues — such as climate change, reproductive biology and genetically modified food — without offending their patrons or members. They must be seen to be independent of government, despite considerable reliance on public funding. And they need to reflect the growing ethnic and gender diversity of the scientific community, while still selecting members on the basis of their scientific reputations.

Ever more nations are establishing academies of their own. They range from the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences in Addis Ababa, which opened for business two months ago, to the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington DC, which employs 1,100 full-time staff members to turn out 200 reports each year for the government.

“The academy’s function is to provide the consensus view of the scientific community,” says Bruce Alberts, former president of the NAS. Given the range of topics that it handles and the diversity of views within that community, he says, “it is very difficult to do”.

The Royal Society and the NAS are two of the largest independent scientific academies in the world (see ‘Two elites’), and illustrate two principal models of operation. The Royal Society is a self-constituted club with no formal, official role in government; the NAS is chartered to provide advice at the behest of the US Congress. (A different type of academy, of which the Chinese Academy of Sciences is an example, is effectively part of the state and runs many of the government science programmes in several communist and formerly communist countries.)…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK: KFC Forced to Ditch Halal-Only Menus After Disappointing Sales

KFC has scrapped its policy of serving halal food only in some of its takeaways, following customer protests.

One hundred of the fast food chain’s restaurants removed non-halal items from their menus last year in an attempt to attract Muslim customers.

But thousands of regular customers complained, including Alan Phillips, who was furious when the Burton-on-Trent branch refused to serve him his favourite Big Daddy chicken burger with bacon and cheese topping.

He was told it was forbidden to keep bacon on the same premises as halal meat and he would have to travel five miles to the nearest non-halal restaurant.

Now KFC has admitted five of its outlets — including Burton — are reverting to standard menus following poor sales.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Israel Informant Risks Deportation

Shin Bet agent breaks cover to implore U.S. not to deport Hamas spy

WASHINGTON — The Israeli handler of a Palestinian informant revealed his identity Wednesday night to plead for US authorities not to deport the former spy on Hamas.

Gonen Ben-Itzhak, a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) agent who for 10 years worked with Mosab Hassan Yousef, appeared before cameras for the first time at a dinner honoring Yousef and other recipients of the Endowment for Middle East Truth’s Rays of Light in the Darkness award.

Ben-Itzhak, who was previously referred to by the media only as “G” and had his face obscured on camera, said he traveled to America to testify on Yousef’s behalf at an immigration hearing scheduled for the end of the month in San Diego.

Yousef, son of Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, is credited by Israel with helping thwart countless terror attacks. He is now being threatened with deportation after the US turned down his request for asylum, since statements in his autobiography about working for Hamas are being interpreted as providing material support to the US-designated terrorist organization, despite his explanation that they were intended to undermine the group.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Iran Cancels Plan to Send Ship to Gaza

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will not be sending a blockade-busting ship to Gaza in defiance of Israeli warnings, an Iranian lawmaker said Saturday, citing Israeli “restrictions.”

Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that instead of sending a ship, an Iranian delegation of lawmakers would travel to Lebanon and sail on one of the aid ships expected to head to Gaza from there.

The Iranian ship called “Infants of Gaza” had been expected to sail Sunday for Gaza carrying 1,100 tons of relief supplies and 10 pro-Palestinian activists but plans were canceled “due to restrictions imposed by the occupying Zionist regime,” Bighash said.

Iran made the announcement Tuesday prompting Israel to warn its archenemy to drop the plan.

Israel considers Iran a threat because of its suspect nuclear program, its long-range missiles and its support for Lebanese and Gaza militants.

Israeli security officials said the prospect of an Iranian boat headed for Gaza had Israel deeply worried, and that naval commandos were training for the possibility of taking on a vessel with a suicide bomber on board.

After an international outcry over the killing of nine Turkish activists in a May 31 raid on another aid ship, Israel eased its land blockade of Gaza but insisted on maintaining a naval blockade it says is necessary to keep weapons shipments out of the hands of Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas overran the Palestinian territory in June 2007.

In Lebanon, organizers of the ship, “Julia,” said they plan to sail in the next few days but said they had nothing to with Iran. A second ship will only be transporting women, while a third ship will include parliamentarians from the Middle East and Europe. It is not clear when that ship will sail.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghanistan: Exclusive: Anatomy of a Taliban Ambush

Terrorists exploit rules of engagement to attack Marine patrol returning to base

In Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province this morning, a Marine squad headed into one of the Marja district’s many villages looking to make friends. Taliban opens fire while Miguel Marquez was on patrol with troops in Afghanistan

“With us out here, it lets the locals know we are on their side,” said Sgt. Travis Dawson, squad leader of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines. “We can help them.”

But on the streets, they were met with an icy reception. As Dawson spoke to ABC News, a villager slammed a door shut and loudly bolted the lock. Another told the Marines that everyone was at work, and then he rushed off.

Locals that did accept help from the Americans seemed fearful. Children hesitantly took stuffed animals that were handed to them, and an old man rolled away a blanket that was given to him, afraid to accept anything.

The Marines noticed a man down the road watching them, and two residents quietly and almost secretively indicated that the Taliban were watching.

[…]

In a counterinsurgency fight, the rules of engagement for Marines are restrictive, and the Taliban knows it.

“They have to shoot at us first,” Dawson said as he walked.

Just a few steps later, shots rang out.

“Where’s that coming from?” shouted a Marine. “Is that direct north or northeast?”

“Oh s**t. F***,” said another. “Looks like it’s coming from both sides.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Headless Bodies, Believed to be Killed by Taliban, Found in Afghanistan During War’s Deadliest Month

The U.S. military command isn’t the only thing in Afghanistan undergoing turmoil.

The war has taken an increasingly violent turn: 11 bodies, some headless, have been found littered in the southern part of the country.

Mohammed Khan, deputy police chief in the Uruzgan Province, said a villager found the bodies in a field and called police.

“They were killed because the Taliban said they were spying for the government, working for the government,” Khan said.

Khudia Rahim, the acting Uruzgan governor, said five or six of the 11 victims were beheaded.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Immigration


N.Y. Mayor Pushes Immigration Bill

NEW YORK | Chief executives of several major corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Disney and News Corp., on Thursday joined New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to form a coalition advocating for immigration reform — including a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The group includes several other big-city mayors and calls itself the Partnership for a New American Economy. Amid signs an immigration overhaul bill faces a steep climb in Congress, the group seeks to reframe immigration reform as the solution to repairing and stimulating the economy.

Mr. Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp., appeared together Thursday on Fox News network to discuss the effort.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Defying Opposition From Within the Coalition, Tories to Shut the Open Door for Migrants

Theresa May will unveil the country’s first ever cap on migrant workers on Monday — finally ending Labour’s open door immigration policy.

Despite opposition within the coalition Cabinet, the Home Secretary will impose a strict limit on the number of non-EU work permits that can be handed out.

Eventually, it is expected to lead to a sharp reduction in the more than 100,000 migrants and their family members who are told they can work here each year.

The cap is being forced through despite protests from some Tory Cabinet ministers, who claim it could stifle UK business and universities.

But Mrs May has ruled the Government must implement her party’s popular election policy.

The level of the final cap, due to be introduced next April, will be hammered out in talks with business leaders and economic advisers.

However, an immediate interim cap — lasting nine months — will be introduced to stop workers flocking here while the limit is being finalised in a bid to beat the crackdown.

A Whitehall source said: ‘We want to make sure there cannot be a rush in applications by people wanting to get in.’

No legislation is needed and the move can be implemented immediately. Initially, it will cut the number of work permits given to skilled workers by around 5 per cent, or 1,300. However, in the long-term, far more dramatic cuts are expected.

That is because the interim cap does not apply to migrants already here, or so-called inter-company transfers where big companies send staff from overseas for a fixed period. The final measures will include these categories.

Insiders say the interim cap shows how serious they are about delivering on David Cameron’s promise to reduce net migration — currently 176,000 — to the low tens of thousands.

It is also considered crucial to get British workers off benefits and into work, given the dire state of the nation’s finances. Under Labour, half of all new jobs went to workers who required permits.

Education Secretary Michael Gove and higher education minister David Willetts are understood to have argued the cap could be harmful.

During a meeting of a Cabinet committee — chaired by LibDem leader Nick Clegg, whose party supports uncontrolled immigration — they argued that too low a ceiling could hurt British businesses and universities by stopping the entry of talented foreigners.

But Mrs May is unwavering in her view that immigration — one of the public’s two top concerns, alongside the economy — must be brought firmly under control.

She recently said immigration ‘was out of control under Labour’ and that Gordon Brown’s ‘British Jobs for British workers’ campaign had been ‘dishonest’.

Labour stubbornly refused to introduce a cap despite huge public concern over the record levels of migrants entering the UK.

The last Government insisted the supposedly ‘tough’ points-based system would be sufficient to bring the number of economic migrants under control. However, analysis of the points system reveals it actually led to huge increases in the number of foreign workers and students cleared to live here.

The number of non-EU migrants given work permits, or permission to carry on working in Britain, rose by 20 per cent, from 159,535 in 2007 — the year before points were introduced — to 190,640 last year. The total includes dependents.

The number of student approvals increased by 31 per cent, from 208,800 to 273,445 a year later.

More than 1.1million jobs — half the total created under Labour — were taken by non-EU immigrants requiring work permits.

The total outstripped the number of new jobs gained by British workers by two to one, according to the independent House of Commons Library.

In October 1997, British-born workers made up 92.5 per cent of the workforce. By the same period in 2009, this had fallen to 87.1 per cent. Meanwhile, the proportion of jobs held by foreign-born workers rocketed from 7.5 per cent to 12.9 per cent, almost one in seven.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Iraqi Asylum Cheat Who Got £700,000 in Benefits, Three Houses and Private School for Her Son

An asylum seeker bought three homes and sent her son to a fee-paying school by illegally claiming more than £700,000 in benefits, a court heard.

Mahira Rustam Al-Azawi, 49, used a series of false identities to milk Britain’s lax benefit system over eight years.

Although she never worked, she was able to purchase three properties — two of which she rented out — worth in excess of £1million.

Her 18-year-old son was educated at Colfe’s School, in South-East London, where fees are currently £4,164 a term.

The fraud was uncovered only when Al-Azawi, from Iraq, successfully applied for a student loan to study civil engineering at Greenwich University.

When police raided her £800,000 detached home in Bromley, they found an ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of false documents, including a selection of passports, identity papers and driving licences.

She had converted the garage into an office and described herself to neighbours as an ‘internet entrepreneur’.

During her trial at Croydon Crown Court, it emerged that she had claimed for income support, housing and council tax benefits in her own name, as well as those of her cousin and mother.

She also obtained two mortgages by claiming she was a self-employed businesswoman.

Judge Stephen Waller jailed Al-Azawi for three years after she was found guilty of 13 offences of benefit fraud, forgery and theft.

Critics say the case highlights the welfare profligacy that grew unchecked under Labour. The new Government has promised to crack down on Britain’s ‘out of control’ benefits bill.

During last week’s emergency Budget, George Osborne announced that he would be taking tough decisions on welfare spending in an effort to save £4billion a year.

The court heard that Al-Azawi first came to Britain as a student, and went back to Iraq once she graduated.

She later returned to Britain to claim asylum, and was given income support and housed by Lambeth council in south London.

She travelled to Ireland for a brief period and claimed asylum under a different name, and was also given Irish nationality, as was her son.

In 1999, while still living in her Lambeth council home, she bought a property in Bromley.

Four years later, she purchased her council residence under the right-to-buy scheme, and in 2005 she added another Bromley home to her growing portfolio.

She was arrested in 2008 following a joint investigation between Bromley and Lambeth councils, the Metropolitan Police and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Sentencing Al-Azawi, Judge Waller said: ‘These offences were committed over a period of eight years between 1999 and 2008 and were carried out in a sophisticated manner using different names and addresses, and false letters were used to support dishonest claims.

‘It enabled you to become the owner of three properties and to send your son to a private school.’

Councillor Lydia Buttinger, vice-chairman of Bromley’s Audit Committee, said: ‘We feel that the jail sentence is appropriate given the scale of this fraud. We have to protect the taxpayer by stamping out benefit fraud.’

The Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, said: ‘At the root of this fraud was the disguise of a series of assets, alongside the use of duplicate identities.

‘Our goal of reconfiguring and simplifying the welfare system will help to make this kind of deception more difficult.’

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Book Review: Mainstream Media’s Plan to Squash Christianity

Any title that explores media views on religion has to be an absorbing read. But little did we know what a good job writer S.E. Cupp would do in “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity.”

Cupp has presented a searing look at the liberal media that is woven into the very fabric of our nation, the ingrained bias that jettisons any type of journalistic ethics.

And the superb research and writing is only the tip of the iceberg, for Cupp … is a self-proclaimed atheist!

That’s right. Atheist. No hidden agenda here. She isn’t promoting a religion, jumping on a conspiracy theory or trying to convert anyone. She is out for the truth. That’s the beauty of her book. She has simply thrown down the gauntlet and proclaimed to the 78 percent of Americans who profess faith that it’s time to wake up before the mainstream media has us wondering why we can’t say the word God in public, except to take his name in vain.

This same majority of people are being told what to think, who to vote for, what to buy, who to like and how to be stylish and intelligent through sound bites that don’t resemble reporting. They are promoting. Promoting through creating, not covering stories. Cupp shines a light on advocacy journalism at its “best” (which means worst).

[…]

Cupp explains the media’s choice to “target Christian America is not a response to changing social mores. Rather it is a deliberate effort to change them.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



German Court: Ending Life Support Not Criminal

BERLIN — Germany’s top criminal court issued a landmark ruling Friday legalizing assisted suicide in cases where it is carried out based on a patient’s prior request.

The ruling came as the court overturned the conviction of a lawyer who had counseled his client in 2007 to stop tube feeding her mother, who had been in a non-responsive coma for five years. A lower court had convicted attorney Wolfgang Putz of attempted manslaughter and given him a nine-month suspended sentence.

The Federal Court of Justice said the 71-year-old woman had said in 2002 that she did not want to be kept alive under such circumstances before falling into the coma.

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger welcomed the ruling as a major step toward respecting an individual’s wishes. “There can’t be forced treatment against a person’s will,” she said in a statement. “This is about the right of self-determination and therefore a question of a life in human dignity until the end.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



God, Socialism, And the Lowest Common Denominator

“Faith-based initiatives”, once anathema to the political left when promoted by President Bush in 2003, are now highly popular with the Obama administration. Not only do they embrace the once-reviled church-state relationship, Obama’s forces are now co-opting religious groups for the purpose of furthering their political and ideological goals. Former vociferous critics of this apparent infringement of church and state separation are amazingly silent. As TheocracyWatch.org stated in 2004, “Under the Bush administration, our country is experiencing a major transformation from a secular to a religious government.”

Now, Nancy Pelosi implores Catholic clergy to promote illegal immigrant amnesty from the pulpits and the EPA offers ministers “access to financing” for preaching the gospel of global warming.

Why are critics on the left silent? Because they understand that it is not Obama’s intention to transform “from a secular to a religious government”. It is to transform religion into a secular arm of the State to promote the tenets of socialism under the banner of “social justice”.

The radicalization of Islam is a prime example of the successful transformation of a religion into a government-controlled nightmare of evil. Could this happen to Christianity or Judaism? Absolutely, it has happened before. The Spanish Inquisition comes to mind. But are religious organizations and socialism natural partners? Is God a socialist? In a word, the answer is a resounding “NO”.

[Return to headlines]



Sweden: State ‘Child-Napping’ Escalates to International Court

Parents have been fighting 1 year for custody of son

The state-sponsored “child-napping” of a Swedish boy because his parents were homeschooling him is being escalated to the European Court of Human Rights, which is being asked to hear the case of Domenic Johansson.

The application has been filed by the Alliance Defense Fund and the Home School Legal Defense Association, international organizations monitoring the case in which Johansson was taken into custody by police one year ago on the orders of local social services agents.

“We are gravely concerned about this case because of the threat it represents to other homeschooling families,” said Mike Donnelly, staff attorney for HSLDA and one of nearly 1,700 attorneys in the ADF alliance. “In response to our inquiries, Swedish authorities have cited the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child to explain and defend their actions. If the U.S. were to ever ratify this treaty, as the White House and some members of Congress desire, then this sort of thing could occur here.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


The Leftist ‘Purification’ Movement

To the contemporary conservative, progressive ideology is often murky and incomprehensible. It is very difficult for some on the right to understand the apparently illogical and unrealistic machinations of the radical leftist mindset. Their political objectives, if achieved, inevitably lead to further demands for concessions toward an ever-greater ideological purity.

Something even darker and more malevolent is happening, however. The various radical leftist factions and special interest groups are rapidly coalescing into a global movement.

A comprehensive and enlightening treatise on this topic was recently published in Orbis, the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s journal of world affairs, written by University of Buffalo professor Ernest Sternberg. The article is titled, “Purifying the World: What the New Radical Ideology Stands For”. It will open your eyes and scare you to death.

[…]

The purificationist dream is a world without borders, governed by a global network of NGO’s. Almost all current activist organizations containing the words “green”, “justice”, “peace”, or “solidarity” would find a position in the ruling structure. These NGO’s would gravitate toward forming a totalitarian regime since, as Steinberg points out, they are “unaccountable to an electorate and escape political checks and balances…”

Even more disturbing is the increasing coalition between progressivism and radical Islam. Steinberg’s piece includes a quote from George Galloway, a progressive British parliamentarian, when asked if Muslims and progressives could unite in a common cause:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100625

Financial Crisis
» U.S. Isolated on Spending at G-20
 
USA
» A Lefty Litmus Test
» Democrats: Free Speech for Me, Not for Thee
» Factbox — Key U.S. Shale Natural Gas and Oil Deals Since 2009
» House Democrats Vote to Illegally Silence Everyone But Unions
» Illinois Police Rescind Chaplain Offer to Muslim Cleric With Holy Land Ties
» In 2010, Conservatives Still Outnumber Moderates, Liberals
» Is Big Oil Turning Against BP?
» Kellogg Recalling 28 Million Boxes of Cereal
» President Obama Rewards the Hamas Lobby
» Top Dem Asks Wilson Center to Rescind Award for Turkish Foreign Minister
 
Europe and the EU
» Hungary: Fidesz Sweep Means Moment of Truth for American Policymakers
» Hungary’s Far-Right Backed by ‘Rolling Moscow Roubles’
» Jamaat Links to UK War Crimes Meeting
» The Fall of the Belgian Church
» UK: Welfare Cuts Put Added Health Strain on Population
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» UN Chief Says East Jerusalem Demolition Plan ‘Illegal’
 
Middle East
» Jonah’s Burial Place Bombed
 
South Asia
» Caroline Glick: The Western Way of War
» India: Marriage With Stepmom is Rape: Deoband
» India: Campaigners Dismiss Bhopal Compensation as Insufficient
» Nepal: DeLisi in Mosque
» Pakistan to Monitor Google and Yahoo for ‘Blasphemy’
» UK Court Rejects Halt to Afghan Prisoner Transfers
 
Far East
» China Says Terror Bust Underscores Enduring Threat
» Japan to Start Nuclear Power Talks With India
» The Chinese Are Desperate to Live Abroad, Just Not in England if Possible
 
Australia — Pacific
» Gillard Reassures Obama on Afghanistan
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Norwegians With Congo Death Sentence Seek Clemency
» Sudan: JEM Rebel Group Says No Darfur Peace Without it
 
Culture Wars
» Germany: Assisted Suicide OK if Patient Consents
» The Organization Final Exit Network is Putting Up Billboards to Let You Know That You Have the “Right to Die.”
 
General
» Africa’s Water Most Precarious, Iceland Best — Study
» Details of Cold War Intelligence Pact Published
» The DNA of Abraham’s Children

Financial Crisis


U.S. Isolated on Spending at G-20

…huge gaps have emerged between the Obama administration and allies in Europe.

Germany, France and Great Britain have all launched austerity campaigns designed to reduce public debt. They’re motivated in part by the Greek debt crisis, which continues to scare countries across Europe.

“In the run-up to the summit, a clear plurality of G-20 countries has come up on the side of fiscal consolidation and not stimulus spending,” said Dan Price, a senior partner at Sidley Austin and former President George W. Bush’s “sherpa” for G-20 summits.

Japan has also introduced a strategy to reduce its budget deficit, while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is hosting the summit in Toronto, has challenged G-20 members to cut their deficits in half.

The motivation for the Obama administration is different. In less than five months, voters will elect a new House and Senate, and Democrats are in danger of losing their majority in the House…

[Return to headlines]

USA


A Lefty Litmus Test

By hiring General Petraeus, Barack Obama has taken just one more step toward President Bush’s approach to fighting the war on terror — along with okaying the Patriot Act, drone attacks, intercepts, military tribunals, rendition and more.

More than anything, this is turning out to be a moment of truth for the left. Will they continue to stand by Obama, suggesting that their opposition to “Bush’s war” was just an unprincipled cover for their hatred for a socially conservative, Republican President? Or are their convictions about (not) fighting terrorism strong enough to compel them to speak out even against a President they once idolized?

It will be interesting to see. The fact that MoveOn.org has scrubbed their site of the attack ad they took out on Petraeus back when he was a Bush nominee isn’t encouraging for those who believe in the left’s purity.

[Return to headlines]



Democrats: Free Speech for Me, Not for Thee

In March, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision struck down campaign finance limits on political expression by individuals working through corporations and unions as a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. A cry ensued among liberal Democrats predicting doom if they and their special interest allies were required to follow the Constitution. Big Labor’s bosses promised to spend millions to protect the Democratic majority if it would speedily pass legislation to circumvent the decision (and thus the Constitution), but restore limits on their corporate foes.

The resulting DISCLOSE Act, according to its backers, will ensure transparency in campaign ad funding. Thursday, the House of Representatives approved the bill 219-206, with 36 Democrats and 170 Republicans in opposition to the measure, which was written by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who led the Senate Democrats’ campaign panel in 2008.

The bill is full of draconian restrictions on individual political speech expressed via corporations, but gives privileged status to the Democrats’ union masters. A provision pushed by Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Bob Brady, for example, allows unions to transfer unlimited funds among affiliated groups to pay for political ads with no disclosure whatever. That makes campaign funding more transparent?

Then there’s the ban on advocacy for or against a candidate by any company that received Troubled Asset Relief Program funds. That silences General Motors’ white-collar workers, but not the United Auto Workers union, which, oh by the way, got, among other things, $6.5 billion in preferred GM stock, paying a government-guaranteed 9 percent cash dividend. Could the fact the UAW gave more than $2 million to Democrats in 2008 explain why Democratic leaders pushed a proposal that so blatantly favors the union?

[Return to headlines]



Factbox — Key U.S. Shale Natural Gas and Oil Deals Since 2009

REUTERS — Companies eager to capitalize on the U.S. shale gas revolution are buying up firms which have deeds to land with access to reserves.

Despite rumblings of environmental concerns, cheap and plentiful gas from shale is increasingly becoming a larger part of U.S. domestic energy production.

Below are major shale gas sector acquisitions since 2009:

JUNE 2010:

– India’s largest listed company Reliance Industries will invest $1.36 billion in the U.S. shale gas assets of Pioneer Natural Resources.

APRIL 2010:

– British gas producer BG Group said it would pay $950 million to buy a 50 percent interest in shale gas assets in Appalachia from EXCO Resources.

FEBRUARY 2010:

– Canada’s Progress Energy Resources Corp agreed to buy certain northeast British Columbia Foothills assets for about C$390 million ($366.2 million) from Suncor Energy.

DECEMBER 2009:

– Exxon Mobil Corp announced its plan to buy XTO Energy Inc for about $30 billion in stock. XTO’s resource base is the equivalent of 45 trillion cubic feet of gas and includes shale gas, tight gas, coal bed methane and shale oil.

– Ultra Petroleum Corp said it would pay about $400 million to an unnamed private company to buy 80,000 net acres in the burgeoning U.S. Marcellus Shale region, giving it about 250,000 net acres and a potential for 1,800 net drilling sites.

NOVEMBER 2009:

– Denbury Resources Inc said it would buy Encore Acquisition Co for $3.2 billion, creating a company with 426 million barrels of oil equivalent in proved reserves.

The acquisition would allow Denbury to leverage its enhanced-oil-recovery business into Encore’s properties in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, and would give it a large stake in the Bakken shale on the U.S.-Canada border.

JUNE 2009:

– British gas producer BG Group paid Dallas-based Exco Resources Inc $1.3 billion for an interest in shale gas resources in Texas and Louisiana.

The companies said each would own 50 percent of a venture to which EXCO is contributing 120,000 acres of land in the Haynesville shale gas area and associated gas infrastructure.

MAY 2009:

– Talon Oil & Gas LLC bought 60 percent of Denbury Resources Inc’s natural gas assets for $270 million.

– Independent oil and gas company Quicksilver Resources Inc agreed a joint venture with Italian energy giant Eni to develop its Barnett shale properties in Texas.

As part of the deal, Eni agreed to buy a 27.5 percent stake in Quicksilver’s Alliance leasehold interests in the Fort Worth basin for $280 million.

MARCH 2009:

– Independent Canadian oil exploration firm TriStar Oil & Gas and Crescent Point Energy Trust agreed to buy Talisman Energy Inc’s lands in the prolific Bakken shale region of Saskatchewan and Montana for C$720 million ($567 million).

TriStar was later acquired by Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd, which combined its own conventional oil assets with TriStar to create a new company called PetroBakken Energy Ltd.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



House Democrats Vote to Illegally Silence Everyone But Unions

In a stunning act of treason against the Constitution, Democrats voted 219-206 Thursday to defy the Supreme Court and murder the 1st Amendment rights of everyone other than major Democrat campaign donors, through the DISCLOSE Act.

This tyrannical attack on free speech violates everything the left pretends to stand for (civil liberties, fairness, equality, etc.), protecting only unions from extreme “transparency” measures and exploding the influence of lobbyists…and they even know that it will once again be struck down by the Supreme Court, but not before it silences everyone but Democrats for Election 2010.

Conservatives have warned from the beginning that tolerating unconstitutional nanny state intrusions and interferences in the free market for temporary relief from this government-created economic crisis would come with strings attached, and now here we sit, watching TARP recipients like GM get banned from the electoral process, while the unions that ran it into the ground get full access.

Take a good look. This is what tyranny looks like in its early stages, when citizens still have a chance to rise up and stop it.

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]



Illinois Police Rescind Chaplain Offer to Muslim Cleric With Holy Land Ties

Read more at: www.investigativeproject.org/2024/illinois-police-rescind-chaplain-offer-to-hlf

The Illinois State Police have revoked the appointment of a Muslim cleric to become a chaplain with the agency after learning about his documented ties to terrorist financiers.

In January, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) reported that Kifah Mustapha had completed a training program and was poised to become the agency’s first certified Muslim chaplain. The story pointed to court records in which Mustapha acknowledged working as a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was shut down by the U.S. government in 2001 due to its connections to the Hamas terrorist group.

Mustapha was included on a list of unindicted co-conspirators during the Holy Land Foundation’s subsequent prosecution for providing material support to terrorists. The case ended in November 2008 with convictions on 108 counts.

Mustapha was listed among members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. Prosecutors described the Brotherhood as “an international Islamic fundamentalist organization” that is “committed to the globalization of Islam through social engineering and violent jihad.”

Internal records entered into evidence in the case showed that the Palestine Committee was created to support Hamas “with what it needs of media, money, men and all of that.”

Mustapha not only was a fundraiser for HLF, he was on their payroll. In testimony, FBI case agent Lara Burns said Mustapha sang in a band that performed at fundraisers. She pointed to internal HLF records to confirm Mustapha was a paid employee from 1996 through 2000.

In addition to persuading 12 jurors, the evidence convinced the presiding judge of the defendants’ guilt. “The purpose of creating the Holy Land Foundation was as a fundraising arm for Hamas,” Judge Jorge Solis said just before sentencing the defendants a year ago.

Mustapha was not charged with a crime. In March, however, the Illinois State Police acknowledged that they were reviewing Mustapha’s appointment. On Friday, officials told him he would not be accepted into the program.

During a news conference in Chicago Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that it would help Mustapha file a discrimination complaint against the state police. It will allege that he was treated differently from chaplains of other faiths, said Christina Abraham, CAIR-Chicago’s civil rights director…

[Return to headlines]



In 2010, Conservatives Still Outnumber Moderates, Liberals

Conservatives have maintained their leading position among U.S. ideological groups in the first half of 2010. Gallup finds 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or conservative. This is up slightly from the 40% seen for all of 2009 and contrasts with the 20% calling themselves liberal or very liberal.

…The 42% identifying as conservative represents a continuation of the slight but statistically significant edge conservatives achieved over moderates in 2009. Should that figure hold for all of 2010, it would represent the highest annual percentage identifying as conservative in Gallup’s history of measuring ideology with this wording, dating to 1992.

The recent rise in conservatism’s fortunes follows a decline seen after 2003; liberalism has experienced the opposite pattern. From 1993 to 2002, the ideological trend had been fairly stable, with roughly 40% identifying as moderate, 38% as conservative, and 19% as liberal. Before that, the presidential bid of independent candidate Ross Perot may have contributed to a heightened proportion of Americans (43%) calling themselves moderate in 1992.

[…]

Independents today are slightly more likely to say they are moderate than conservative, with fewer than 20% identifying as liberal. While this is similar to 2009, it represents an increase in conservatism among this group since 2008.

[Return to headlines]



Is Big Oil Turning Against BP?

CBS News has learned that some oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico are considering litigation against BP for lost revenue due to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the environmental disaster it has caused. The administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling is said to have hurt revenues industry-wide.

But one legal expert says a lawsuit by an oil and gas company against BP for ruining the industry would be a tough fight in court.

“There is no cause of action for bad apples,” said complex litigation expert Georgene Vairo of Loyola Law School Los Angeles. “Countrywide was a bad apple. Should we sue them?”

Vairo said the oil companies would have to find something in a federal statute that would allow them a private right to sue because there is no contractual duty between BP and their fellow oil and gas companies.

James Noe, general counsel for Hercules Offshore says that while his company is not suing he understands why others are weighing litigation.

“If you are pushed against the wall you explore all options and you ask, ‘Who is responsible for this?’“ he said.

Noe says industry losses extend beyond deepwater drillers who had to heed the moratorium, saying, “Make no mistake — there is a de facto moratorium on shallow water drilling.” Noe says while the Interior Department used to approve 10 to 15 new shallow drilling permits each week, there have been no approvals in a month.

A spokesperson for the Interior Department says permits will be issued as soon as the shallow water drillers prove that they have complied with new safety measures.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his office would work to reinstate the deepwater drilling moratorium overturned by a judge on Tuesday. New Orleans federal judge Martin L.C. Feldman struck down the moratorium saying it was causing “irreparable harm” to the industry and other affected businesses in the Gulf.

Exxon Mobil would not comment on any possible participation in a lawsuit against BP.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Kellogg Recalling 28 Million Boxes of Cereal

Breakfast-cereal giant Kellogg (K: 52.44, -0.4, -0.76%) said it will be voluntarily recalling 28 million boxes of cereal due to an “uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell coming from the liner in the package.”

The cereal brands being recalled include Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops, and Honey Smacks. The cereals being recalled have the letters “KN” next to the “Better if Used Before Data” are included in the recall, Kellogg said.

Kellogg said there was low potential for serious health problems related to the consumption of the cereal, but eating it may result in temporary nausea and diarrhea.

“We apologize to our consumers and our customers and are working diligently to ensure that the affected products are rapidly removed from the marketplace,” said David Mackay, president and chief executive officer of Kellogg, in a statement.

Consumers with questions or who want to inquire about a replacement may contact Kellogg at (888) 801-4163 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

Shares of Kellogg were down 0.3% on Friday at $52.69 a share.

           — Hat tip: AP [Return to headlines]



President Obama Rewards the Hamas Lobby

by Steve Emerson

A ship packed with violent, radical activists tries to run a blockade aimed at preventing terrorists from receiving illicit material. Video shows them beating commandos with clubs as they land on the ship, pelting them with slingshots and carrying knives.

What is America’s response? To demand that the nation whose soldiers were attacked conduct an investigation to “find out the facts.”

It is clear Israel sought to peacefully secure the Mavi Marmara on May 31 as it approached Gaza. But the hardened activists, who openly discussed their desire for martyrdom, weren’t going to let that happen. Fighting for their lives, the Israeli soldiers opened fire with their sidearms, killing nine people on the ship.

But that does not make the Obama administration’s demand for an investigation from an ally any more sensible. It was the first such demand made by the U.S. of another country, let alone an ally, in recent memory. There was no call for a probe on Russia’s treatment of Chechnyans, for Egypt’s persecution of the Christian Copts or for the murderous rampages against the Ahmadiyan Muslim sect in Pakistan.

Just Israel made the history books. Israel, however, has proof of what really happened. It released at least five videos on YouTube showing Israeli soldiers being attacked as they landed.

Moreover, details emerged about IHH—the Turkish charity instigating the attack—and its long history of abetting Islamic terrorist attacks and Islamic terrorist organizations. Reports produced by MEMRI showed the violent attack at sea was planned by radicals vowing to go to their “martyrdom.” By June 3 more YouTube videos appeared showing the efforts by the Turkish flotilla extremists to battle with the Israelis.

But that wasn’t enough for President Obama. Appearing on CNN’s Larry King show on June 3, he repeated his demand for an Israeli investigation. But this time, Obama revealed his own biased predisposition when he told King, “You’ve got loss of life that was unnecessary.”

Unnecessary? According to whom? For Turkey’s radical Islamist regime, it was not only unnecessary, but evidence of a premeditated “bloody massacre.” But to the Israeli soldiers who would have been murdered had they not used their sidearms, the deaths on the ship—as tragic as any death is—were anything but unnecessary.

And then the president blurted out his real agenda, when he criticized the Israelis for their blockade of Gaza: “you’ve got a blockade up that is preventing people in Palestinian Gaza from having job opportunities and being able to create businesses and engage in trade and have opportunity for the future.” Here, he joined the world Hamas lobby—Islamic and European countries—in piling on Israel for creating such a humanitarian mess in Gaza, which in reality does not exist.

Stores are full of food. Pharmacies are stocked with medicines. Fancy restaurants on the coast flourish. There is no hunger. Every week Israel sends in hundreds of Israeli truckloads with food and other essentials.

The embargo exists because Hamas has proven it is more interested in arming itself and attacking Israel than in helping create a better life for its people. What country would ignore these provocations and terrorist attacks? In the past, Israel intercepted two international vessels destined for Gaza containing vast arsenals of weapons, explosives, rockets and missiles. Does Israel have an obligation to help a terrorist government bent on its destruction?

After falling for the agenda of the Free Gaza flotilla, whose membership included more than 100 known Islamic militants and terrorists, the president blurted out in the CNN interview something that was truly incredulous. He said, “…and I think Turkey can have a positive voice in this whole process once we’ve worked through this tragedy.” Turkey? The country that sponsored the would-be killers on the Mavi Marmara?

Turkey has allowed IHH to operate freely. IHH’s accomplishments include assisting the Millennium bomber, supporting Hamas and smuggling weapons to mujahedeen. Arab language newspapers have reported that the leaders on board the Mavi Marmara planned to “martyr” themselves by attacking Israeli troops that might come on board. These newspapers also reported that the Turkish leaders armed themselves with knives and slingshots before boarding the Turkish ship.

Instead of rewarding Turkey, the president should have demanded that an international investigation be conducted of its role in inciting and arming the terrorists aboard its ship. He should have ordered Treasury to list IHH as a terrorist entity and ordered the Justice Department to investigate the activities of the Free Gaza Movement in the U.S. and its predecessor the International Solidarity Movement for materially supporting Hamas.

Israel alone was the recipient of the demands for an investigation.

Faced with the pressure from the president, Israel created a committee to investigate the flotilla incident. Moreover, Israel also capitulated to U.S. and international pressure this past weekend and loosened the blockade that will surely help to prop up the declining popularity of the Hamas regime in Gaza. It only goes to prove that terrorism pays.

[Return to headlines]



Top Dem Asks Wilson Center to Rescind Award for Turkish Foreign Minister

A top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee urged the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to rescind a planned award for Turkey’s foreign minister.

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) wrote Lee Hamilton, the director of the Smithsonian-based memorial institute, to criticize a planned public service award for Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister.

The award, Ackerman said in a letter, “is absolutely inconsistent … with the mission of the WWC and the ideals that animated President Wilson’s administration and foreign policy.”

Ackerman expressed dismay over the award given Turkey’s longstanding dispute with Armenia in recognizing a historic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide. Ackerman also criticized Turkey’s role in sponsoring a recent flotilla to deliver supplies to Israel, an attempt that led to the deaths of nine in an incident Davutoglu had likened to 9/11.

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Hungary: Fidesz Sweep Means Moment of Truth for American Policymakers

[Editor’s Note: The following is an op-ed piece by Frank Koszorus, Jr., a Washington, D.C. Attorney who currently serves as President of the American Hungarian Federation, was previously chair of the steering committee of the NATO Enlargement Working Group, and is a regular commentator and university lecturer on foreign policy, public diplomacy, human rights and minority rights issues. Politics.hu welcomes submissions for op-ed pieces pertaining to Hungary.]

President Obama has sought to reassure leaders from Central and Eastern Europe feeling neglected by the United States and fearful of growing Russian influence in the region. He used the occasion of the signing of the START Treaty in Prague this spring to meet with Washington’s new European allies who had previously been dominated by the Soviet Union.

While this dinner meeting was an encouraging and promising step, it is too early to tell whether these newer NATO members will be assuaged. Much will depend on the Obama administration’s approach toward the region, especially as it pursues its reset policies with Russia in the coming months.

The President’s ability to connect with the people of Central and Eastern Europe will also help determine whether he will succeed or fail in shoring up NATO. An early indicator will be how Washington reacts to the new government in Hungary, following the landslide victory of Viktor Orbán and his center-right party, Fidesz, in the recent parliamentary elections.

Hungarian and other Central European sympathy toward the United States and its foreign policy goals stood in marked contrast to West European ambivalence about U.S. global leadership after the end of the Cold War. Central European identification with the U.S. extended beyond elite opinion and was rooted strongly in the popular imagination. This reservoir of popular support was a precious commodity that gave U.S. foreign policy a competitive advantage in the region during the Cold War and the years that have followed.

This instinctive popular support has been at risk in Hungary in recent years, mainly due to the perception of official U.S. bias favoring the Hungarian reform Communists, now known as the Socialist Party. In 2002, for instance, then-Prime Minister Orbán was not welcome at the Bush White House. One administration official commented that while he realized that Fidesz may be viewed as patriotic from a Hungarian perspective, the Socialists are “easier to deal with.” The snubbing by previous administrations of Fidesz when it was in opposition or governing Hungary has contributed to the ongoing perception that there is a lack of even-handedness when it comes to U.S. policy towards Hungary.

The potential for disillusionment by Hungarians with the United States has not been fully appreciated or recognized by Washington, or even by some Hungarian American spokesmen. This disillusionment could have been avoided and can still be remedied.

It is imperative, however, that the U.S. now seek specific ways to address those democratic-minded Hungarians who overwhelmingly voted against radicals and Socialists, supported the center-right and remain bewildered by what they perceive as a series of snubs in the past. Many of these voters helped topple the Communist system at considerable cost and risk to themselves when the outcome of the late 1980s was far from certain. The democratic center, center-right’s victory this spring demonstrates that their supporters represent more than half of the nation today and are in the ascendancy. This strength will enable them to easily oppose and defeat radical programs proposed by extremists.

But more than Hungarian domestic politics are at issue now. Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, many of these voters were steadfast supporters of a Washington-led NATO, in contrast to former enemies of that alliance. There is a chance, however, that if the U.S. fails to dispel perceptions of favoritism, these disappointed long-time friends of America may adopt more cynical attitudes and thus weaken the alliance. Such a development would damage U.S. interests, as it is beyond dispute that a successful war against international terrorism requires steadfast and genuine friends.

The Obama administration must decisively move to dispel the notion of favoritism and move to reassure the new government of Hungary that the United States stands firmly with them. Specifically, the American embassy in Budapest as well as in Washington should take highly visible and concrete steps, on a sustained basis, to restore a balanced and even-handed policy and become better acquainted with the actual views of the democratic center, center-right, as opposed to what had been reported about them in the mass media by political opponents. If this is done skillfully and combined with policies that demonstrate continued and robust engagement with Central and Eastern Europe, the dinner in Prague will prove to have been a success for American diplomacy and security policy and a success for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as well.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Hungary’s Far-Right Backed by ‘Rolling Moscow Roubles’

Hungary’s Jobbik party, the shrillest among Central and Eastern Europe’s far right parties, has been exposed as having received secret financial support from Russia as a quid pro quo for its anti-European Union and anti-Nato bluster.

The issue of “rolling Russian gold roubles”, and alleged “Iranian cash gifts” helping sustain a virulently anti-Roma and anti-semitic party that flaunts its hostility to Western liberal democracy is troubling Hungarian public opinion.

The proto-fascist party’s xenophobia and strong-arm actions against what it calls “the criminal Roma” have secured it a measure of popularity — and, because of its anti-Western stance, Russian interest is not surprising.

Moscow’s alleged influence with this extreme right-wing party has been raised in Hungary’s Parliament and investigated by the National Security Commission (NSC).

Jozsef Gulyas, an independent MP in the last parliament, who brought the troubling issue to the attention of the Parliamentary National Security Committee, said that “though the ‘rolling Russian gold’ was discussed by the NSC in a closed session, officials would not give an unambiguous denial whether this was true”.

Jobbik’s Russian nexus began in 2008, when party leader Gabor Vona attended an “intellectual conference” on Russian-European links in Moscow, though he refused to name it. In an interview with the Budapest weekly paper HVG he said: “After a secret session of the Commission, neither the secret services minister nor the Commission chairman could give me a reassuring reply.”

Jobbik, formed in 2003, won 47 seats in the Hungarian Parliament in last April’s General Election and has three MEPs in Strasbourg — a swift rise considering it had failed to get a single MP elected in the previous parliament.

Its failure to publish its budget in the first five years of its existence, although obliged by law to make public

its income and expenditure every year, has heightened concerns about its sources of income. It is now being investigated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Yielding to public pressure, it has now published its accounts from 2004 to 2008. Its income, solely from private donors, hovered between 2.6 million and three million forints (about £7700-£8800), with expenditure in three out of four years slightly less than that.

So, the party’s annual budget is allegedly smaller than the smallest of Budapest family businesses — yet it is running a well-oiled nationwide party machine, supports 47 MPs and three MEPs, and, it is claimed, spent more than 30 million forints (£100,000) in the April election campaign. The size of its expenditure, coupled with the irregularities of its declared income, have reinforced public concerns.

Who, then, is bankrolling Jobbik, the scourge of Hungary’s gypsies and a thorn in the side of Viktor Orban’s new centre-right Fidesz government?

The belief that Russia is using its roubles to manipulate public figures and finance parties useful in opposing liberal Western policies dates back to between the war years, when the Moscow-based Comintern — the Communist International’s executive — used “rolling Russian gold” to further Soviet interests and subvert Europe.

At first glance, the Russian connection is questionable, if only because of Jobbik’s erstwhile anti-Russian rants. But it quickly abandoned its Russian-bashing stance, changed its platform, exploited the “Roma crime issue” and latent antisemitism and focused on countering “decadent Western liberalism”.

The latter strand has found a positive echo in certain nationalist quarters in Moscow. According to informed Budapest sources, Russian money is reaching the party via key individuals. Sources close to investigators of the Public Prosecutor’s Office fingered Bela Kovacs, Jobbik’s foreign policy adviser, as one of Moscow’s channels.

Jobbik’s Russian nexus began late in 2008, when party leader Gabor Vona attended an “intellectual conference” on Russian-European links in Moscow, though he refused to name it.

Vona’s invitation was arranged by Kovacs, who attended as the party’s foreign policy adviser. At the conference they met several high-ranking Kremlin officials. Afterwards a pro-Russian and anti-Western trend became discernible in Jobbik’s public posture, with high praise for Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian, “managed democracy” and rejection of the EU’s liberal values.

The sources point out that Kovacs’s Russian links go back to communist times, when he worked there on the legal side of inter-state foreign trade. In 2003, he qualified as an investment lawyer at the Russian State Academy’s law faculty. His Russian business links have since been ongoing.

Party finances specialists say that, if Jobbik is being financed from abroad, the money could only reach it covertly, through private entrepreneurs. Kovacs, they claim, fits the bill and is involved.

Reports that Jobbik is also receiving Iranian money focus on the fact that Tehran’s gold is intended to reward pro-Iranian and anti-Western attitudes. Krisztina Morvay, a Jobbik MEP, is known in Brussels for her pro-Iran views. Recently she attended President Ahmedinejad’s “Human Rights Conference” in Tehran as her party’s official representative and also privately met several influential Iranian politicians. Jobbik’s pro-Russian and pro-Iranian posturings appear to be rewarding.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Jamaat Links to UK War Crimes Meeting

by David Bergman

London, June 23 ( bdnews24.com) — A United Kingdom human rights parliamentary committee has admitted that a high-profile seminar it is hosting at the House of Lords on Bangladesh’s 1971 war crimes trials has been organised with the assistance of a group accused of having links to the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Members of the Jamaat and its then student organisation Islami Chhatra Sangha are alleged to have committed crimes during the nation’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The seminar discussing the compatibility of the International War Crime (Tribunals) Act 1973 with international legal standards is hosted by Lord Avebury and includes speakers from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Bar Association.

In March 2010, the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association, an independent legal body, sent the Bangladesh government a legal opinion outlining changes that it considered should be made to the 1973 Act that would help ensure that the trials would be compatible with international legal standards.

Its detailed advice reflected the concerns previously set out by the international human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, in a letter it sent to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina in July 2009.

Even though the Bangladesh government has consistently stated in public that its trials will meet international standards, it has however yet to engage with these arguments in any level of detail…

[Return to headlines]



The Fall of the Belgian Church

by Alexandra Colen

In Belgium, today, police searched the residence of the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and the crypt of the Archbishop’s cathedral in Mechelen. They were looking for evidence of cover-ups in the ongoing investigation into widespread pedophilia practices within the Belgian church in the decades during which Cardinal Godfried Danneels was Archbishop. Danneels retired in January of this year.

Police also confiscated 450 files containing reports of pedophile offences by members of the clergy, that had been submitted to an investigation committee which was established within the church to deal with pedophilia cases.

Since the revelation in April that Cardinal Danneels’s close friend and collaborator, Mgr Roger Vangheluwe, the Bishop of Bruges, had been a practicing pedophile throughout, and even before, his career as a bishop, victims have gained confidence that they will be taken seriously, and complaints have been pouring in, both to the courts and to the extra-judicial investigation committee of the archdiocese. The new archbishop Mgr. André-Joseph Léonard, has urged victims to take their case to the courts.

His predecessor, the liberal Cardinal Danneels, who was very popular with the press in Belgium and abroad, was Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and Primate of Belgium from 1979 until 2010. The sympathy for pedophile attitudes and arguments among the Belgian bishops during this period was no secret, especially since 1997 when the fierce controversy about the catechism textbook Roeach made the headlines. The editors of Roeach were Prof. Jef Bulckens of the Catholic University of Leuven and Prof. Frans Lefevre of the Seminary of Bruges…

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]



UK: Welfare Cuts Put Added Health Strain on Population

Analysis of European data showed that a £70 reduction in welfare spending per person is associated with a 2.8% rise in alcohol-related deaths and 1.2% rise in deaths from heart disease.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the UK research team said ordinary people may be paying the ultimate price for budget cuts.

One expert added that social support was vital for health.

The study comes after the government announced sweeping budget cuts, including reductions in tax credits for families, housing benefit and maternity grants.

To pick out the effects of welfare funding on health, researchers looked at government spending in 15 European countries, including the UK, from 1980 to 2005.

Continue reading the main story If we want to promote a sustainable recovery in Britain, we must first ensure that we have taken care of people’s most basic health needs

Generally the trends showed that when social spending — including support for families and the unemployed — was high, death rates fell, but when they were low, rates rose substantially.

In fact, for every £70 drop in spending per person there was a 1.19% rise in overall deaths.

The biggest effect was seen in illnesses linked to social circumstances, such as heart disease.

And a more in-depth look showed that this link was specific to social welfare spending and independent of healthcare spending.

The analysis also showed that reducing other forms of government spending, such as on the military or prisons, had no such negative impact on the public’s health.

There are currently around 200,000 heart disease deaths each year in the UK and around 9,000 deaths from alcohol.

Ringfenced budgets

Study leader Dr David Stuckler, a lecturer at the University of Oxford, said that although governments may feel they are protecting population health by safeguarding the healthcare budgets, welfare spending may actually be more important.

In addition, he warned that the added burden of poor health linked to welfare cuts could place more strain on the NHS.

“So far the discussions around budget cuts have largely focused on economics.

“But social circumstances are crucial to people’s health and our study shows there could be quite significant harms.

“If we want to promote a sustainable recovery in Britain, we must first ensure that we have taken care of people’s most basic health needs.”

Professor Alan Maryon-Davies, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: “Health is much wider than the health service and social support is crucially important.

“It would be tragic if we find ourselves in this recession dismantling the welfare state.”

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We are committed to reforming the welfare system to make work pay.

“We know that work itself is the best way out of poverty.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


UN Chief Says East Jerusalem Demolition Plan ‘Illegal’

The demolition plans are strongly opposed by the Palestinians UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said the plan to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to make way for a tourist park is illegal and unhelpful.

On Monday Jerusalem City Council approved the plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in Silwan — part of a major redevelopment of the area.

The move has drawn criticism both at home and from the Obama administration.

Mr Ban said the plan was “contrary to international law” and “unhelpful” to efforts to restart peace negotiations.

The scheme is still in an initial stage.

Settlement activity

“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the decision by the Jerusalem municipality to advance planning for house demolitions and further settlement activity in the area of Silwan,” Mr Ban’s office said in a statement.

Israel’s government had a “responsibility to ensure provocative steps [were] not taken” that would heighten tensions in the city, he said.

On Tuesday, the US State Department criticised the move, saying it undermined trust and increased the risk of violence.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also criticised Jerusalem’s municipality for “bad timing” and poor “common sense”.

Under the plan, 22 Palestinian homes would be demolished to make room for an Israeli archaeological park. Another 66 buildings constructed without Israeli permission would be legalised.

Israel has come under international pressure over its settlement plans in East Jerusalem, including the construction of 1,600 housing units in a Jewish neighbourhood there.

Under international law the area is occupied territory. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Jonah’s Burial Place Bombed

MOSUL (Iraq) — A BOMB on Friday damaged the perimeter wall of the Nabi Yunes mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, revered by Christians as the burial place of the Biblical prophet Jonah, police said.

The explosion caused no casualties and the mosque itself was untouched, police said.

The large mosque, built on the site of an earlier church, sits on a hill that marks one of the two main settlement mounds of ancient Nineveh, in the eastern part of modern Mosul.

It lies not far from the surviving walls and gates of the great Assyrian city constructed at the turn of the 7th century BC.

The mosque’s current prayer leader, Sheikh Mohammed Abdul-Wahab Shammaa, is a follower of the mystic Sufi tradition of the Muslim faith which is anathema to hardline Islamists. — AFP

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Caroline Glick: The Western Way of War

General Stanley McChrystal has paid a huge price for his decision to give Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings free access to himself and his staff. But he performed a great service for the rest of us. US President Barack Obama fired McChrystal — his hand-picked choice to command NATO forces in Afghanistan — for the things that he and his aides told Hastings about the problematic nature of the US-led war effort in Afghanistan. But by acting as he did, McChrystal forced the rest of us to contend with the unpleasant truth not only about the US-led campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He told us the unpleasant truth about the problematic nature of the Western way of war at the outset of the 21st century.

Hastings’ now famous article, “The Runaway General,” told the story of an argument. On the one hand, there are people who want to fight to win in Afghanistan. On the other hand, there are people who are not interested in fighting to win in Afghanistan. Obama — and McChrystal as his general — occupy the untenable middle ground. There they try to split the difference between the two irreconcilable camps. The inevitable end is preordained…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]



India: Marriage With Stepmom is Rape: Deoband

LUCKNOW, India: With an eight-year older step-mother, Husna Beghum, as his love interest, things had never been smooth for Ronak Ali, 25, an unskilled labourer. Eldest among five, Ronak stunned his family and the little hamlet of Gunnor in Baghpat last Tuesday when he surfaced with Beghum — both had been missing since June 13 — by his side, this time, as his one-day-old bride.

Hounded by family, friends and relatives, the couple has gone into hiding again after the Islamic seminary of Darul Uloom, Deoband, has denounced the union as null and void. The terse edict delivered by the fatwa department on Wednesday, maintains that relationship with a mother, even if she is a step-mother, is sacrosanct. Therefore, the union will be deemed to be rape and the violators of the Shari’ah will evoke the stringent punishment as per the tenets of Islam.

Confirming the fatwa, deputy vice-chancellor of the seminary, Maulana Abdul Khalique Madrasi said: “The episode was extremely unfortunate and shows perversion of the worst order. Such a ‘nikah’ can never be permissible under the Shari’ah.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



India: Campaigners Dismiss Bhopal Compensation as Insufficient

Thousands of people were affected by the gas leak in December 1984 A $280m compensation package announced by the Indian government for victims of the Bhopal gas disaster has been denounced by campaigners.

The compensation announced late on Thursday is the latest is a series of pay-offs made by the authorities to victims of the disaster.

The money will go into cleaning up the polluted factory site and improving medical treatment of surviving victims.

Some 3,500 people died within days and more than 15,000 in the years since.

The move follows public outrage after seven former managers at the plant were given two-year jail sentences.

The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant — considered to be the world’s worst industrial accident.

Campaigners say that the $280m compensation package is based on outdated numbers of the dead and the maimed. They say that 525,000 people have died or been disabled by the toxic gas during the leak and its aftermath.

Campaigners also want the government to treat the bulk of victims as “permanently injured”, instead of “temporarily injured”, since they have to visit hospitals regularly for treatment. They also want them to receive more compensation.

It has taken more than two decades for the government to announce this package, but clearly it will not mark the closure of the tragedy in any way.

The government says Thursday’s announcement will double the payout to families of the dead to $22,000, and increase payments for those with health defects.

It paid “interim compensation” of 3.6bn rupees ($78m) to victims in 1990.

And 20 years ago Union Carbide paid $470m (£282m) in compensation to the Indian government.

Amid rising public and media pressure the government appointed a group of senior ministers to look again at issues such as increased compensation for those affected, and what to do about continued pollution at the now abandoned plant.

Campaigners and groups working for the gas victims are meeting in the capital, Delhi, on Friday to protest against what they call the failure of the government to give “enhanced compensation” for the victims.

‘Severely affected’

“We are not satisfied with the compensation, we are not satisfied with the rehabilitation [plan for victims] and we are not satisfied about the approach to corporate liability [in the new compensation package],” Rachna Dhingra told the BBC.

BHOPAL’S DEATH TOLL

Continue reading the main story Initial deaths (3-6 December): more than 3,000 — official toll

Unofficial initial toll: 7,000-8,000

Total deaths to date: over 15,000

Number affected: Nearly 600,000

Compensation: Union Carbide pays $470m in 1989

Source: Indian Supreme Court, Madhya Pradesh government, Indian Council of Medical Research

Bhopal voices: ‘Justice denied’

‘Travesty’: Indian papers react

Information Minister Minister Ambika Soni said the government would also gather new evidence against Warren Anderson [the then chairman of the US-based Union Carbide parent group] and “thereafter press the request for [his] extradition”.

Mr Anderson is retired and lives in the US.

“More than 45,000 victims who were affected most severely by the tragedy will receive additional ex gratia payments,” Ms Soni was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The funds will be also used to upgrade local medical facilities and set up a research centre in Bhopal.

They will be used to clean up the polluted factory site which will be dismantled by 2012, Ms Soni said.

Dow Chemicals, which bought the company in 1999, says this settlement resolved all existing and future claims against the company.

But campaigners like Satinath Sarangi, who heads a group of survivors, said that the government must take “strong action” against Dow Chemicals.

“The government has failed to understand the scale of damage,” Mr Sarangi said ahead of Thursday’s announcement.

“There is no mention of the second and third generation victims and the constant medical complications being caused by the contamination,” he added.

Correspondents say the fact that the Bhopal tragedy is back in the news at the same time as the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has added to the sense that victims of the 1984 disaster have been terribly let down.

An extradition treaty does exist between India and the United States — but so far all requests by India for Warren Anderson’s extradition have been turned down by the American government.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Nepal: DeLisi in Mosque

KATHMANDU: US Ambassador to Nepal Scott H DeLisi said his country was committed to further engagement with the Muslim community in Nepal for cementing mutual relations and interests.

Addressing a special event organised by Madrasa Islamiya School in Ghantaghar today, DeLisi said, “I am delighted that we have begun to build this relationship and I look forward to expanding our outreach programme in the months and years ahead.”

Earlier, the US Embassy had organised the outreach programme for the country’s Muslim community in December 2009, reaching more than 3,000 individuals in 19 areas. Stating that such contact between Nepali and US communities was a must to better know each other, DeLisi said he had served in Pakistan with a predominantly Muslim population.

“I have seen the strengths and challenges of Muslim communities first hand. Through our outreach, I hope to learn more and expand mutual understanding and partnership with the Muslim community in Nepal,” he mentioned.

The outreach campaign was organised in collaboration with the Teacher Educators’ Society, Nepal (TESON) to support dialogue with local Muslim communities, with whom the US Embassy historically had limited contact.

The US envoy said, “Our goal is not only to tell you about the United States but also hear from you about your challenges here. We know that we should understand your concerns and your hopes if we are going to be effective partners.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Pakistan to Monitor Google and Yahoo for ‘Blasphemy’

Pakistan says the main website will be unaffected Pakistan will start monitoring seven major websites, including Google and Yahoo, for content it deems offensive to Muslims.

YouTube, Amazon, MSN, Hotmail and Bing will also come under scrutiny, while 17 less well-known sites will be blocked.

Officials will monitor the sites and block links deemed inappropriate.

In May, Pakistan banned access to Facebook after the social network hosted a “blasphemous” competition to draw the prophet Muhammad.

The new action will see Pakistani authorities monitor content published on the seven sites, blocking individual pages if content is judged to be offensive.

Telecoms official Khurram Mehran said links would be blocked without disturbing the main website.

Cartoon controversy

The ban on Facebook was lifted after about two weeks, when the site blocked access to the page, called Everybody Draw Muhammad.

The Draw Muhammad page on Facebook sparked protests in Pakistan Facebook itself is not on the new list of websites to be monitored. A number of links from YouTube will be blocked but not the main site itself.

Many Muslims regard depictions of Muhammad, even favourable ones, as blasphemous.

In 2007, the government banned YouTube, allegedly to block material offensive to the government of Pervez Musharraf.

The action led to widespread disruption of access to the site for several hours. The ban was later lifted.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK Court Rejects Halt to Afghan Prisoner Transfers

LONDON — A British court said Friday that suspected Taliban captives face the risk of mistreatment in a Kabul jail, but rejected an attempt to ban British troops from handing them over to Afghan security forces.

Anti-war activist Maya Evans asked the High Court to forbid British troops from transferring detainees to Afghanistan’s National Directorate for Security. Her lawyers said prisoners had suffered abuse including beatings, electrocution and sleep deprivation.

Judges Stephen Richards and Ross Cranston rejected Evans’ suit, but said an existing ban on sending prisoners to the directorate’s Kabul facility should continue because “there is a real risk that detainees transferred to NDS Kabul will be subjected to torture or serious mistreatment.”

They said prisoners could be sent to Afghan-run prisons in Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan as long as conditions were monitored.

The judges said isolated examples of abuse at those facilities “are possible, but the operation of the monitoring system — including observance of the specified conditions — will be sufficient to guard against abuse on such a scale as to give rise to a real risk of torture or serious mistreatment.”

The judges called the ruling “a partial victory” for Evans, who said she was pleased with the outcome.

“Transfers to Kabul have stopped as a result of this case and transfers to Kandahar and Lashkar Gah are now subject to conditions,” she said.

The British government also said it was satisfied.

“I am pleased that today’s High Court judgment rules that U.K. forces can lawfully continue to transfer U.K.-captured insurgents to sovereign Afghan authorities,” said Defense Secretary Liam Fox.

He said safeguards against abuse of detainees “will be reinforced in line with the court’s recommendations.”

The court challenge was the latest example of concerns expressed by activists around the world about how captured militants have been treated at prisons such as Abu Graib in Iraq and secretive holding tanks at the U.S. Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Far East


China Says Terror Bust Underscores Enduring Threat

.BEIJING — China said Thursday its uncovering of a “terrorist” cell linked to a banned separatist movement in the country’s far west underscored the enduring threat of attacks, a year after deadly ethnic riots rocked the traditionally Muslim Xinjiang region.

The gang had gathered pipe bombs, molotov cocktails, knives and other weapons to carry out attacks in southern Xinjiang cities between July and October 2009, Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping told a media briefing. After the plot was revealed, gang members scattered to different parts of China and overseas, and authorities have arrested 10 suspects, he said.

Wu claimed the group was linked to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, a banned organization advocating independence for Xinjiang. China says the group is allied with al-Qaida.

Wu left the briefing without taking questions from reporters and his assertions could not be independently verified. He did not say when the plot was uncovered or when the arrests were made.

The announcement came days before the anniversary of last year’s violence, in which long-simmering tensions between Turkic Muslim Uighurs and majority Han Chinese migrants turned deadly in the regional capital, Urumqi, on July 5.

According to the official count, nearly 200 people died in the violence, which Beijing claims was plotted by overseas Uighur activists. The gang’s planned attacks were apparently aimed at further inflaming tensions.

“The uncovering of this major terrorist group again proves that the ETIM and other terrorist organizations constitute the gravest terrorist threat that our nation faces at this present time and in the future,” Wu told the briefing.

The claims were immediately questioned by overseas activists seeking to draw attention to Beijing’s heavy-handed controls on religious practices and policies they say that favor Han Chinese migrants, fueling resentment among many Uighurs.

“China associates all Uighur causes with the ETIM, although no one seems to know what this group is or where they are located,” said Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress which advocates a nonviolent approach.

Though Wu did not identify what countries the suspects fled to, he said three were among a group deported to China in December. That same month, Cambodia repatriated 20 Uighurs it said had illegally entered the country, touching off an international outcry.

The Rev. Marcus Ramsey, director of the Macau Interfaith Network that collaborated with other missionary groups to help the Uighurs escape to Cambodia, said greater transparency was needed to give the accusations credibility.

“There is no press freedom, there is no independent verification of these things so I think they have the luxury of being able to make these claims,” Ramsey said in a phone interview.

Slides shown at Wu’s briefing showed knives and what appeared to be pipe bombs made from black powder and ball bearings. Another showed a minivan and a four-wheel drive vehicle allegedly used by the gang, while a third showed a kitchen-like room described as a bomb factory in Xinjiang.

Wu said the group was behind a pair of deadly attacks aimed at disrupting the 2008 Beijing Olympics that reportedly killed 29 people, including 10 attackers. It swung into action again following last July’s rioting, the worst communal violence to hit Xinjiang in more than a decade, he said.

The riots, and the harsh crackdown that followed, inspired a new generation of terrorist cells with only rudimentary skills but a strong desire to carry out attacks, said Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna.

“China faces an enduring medium to low-level threat from terror and extremism and that threat increased after the riots,” Gunaratna said in a telephone interview.

The relatively unsophisticated nature of such operations reflects the immense pressure militants face from powerful, well-funded security forces. Unlike in Pakistan and Afghanistan, militants in China face difficulties in communicating and organize effectively and have no apparent access to firearms and military-grade explosives.

Liu Shanying, a security analyst at the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called the gang’s defeat a “major breakthrough in counterterrorism.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Japan to Start Nuclear Power Talks With India

TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan will start talks with India over a civil nuclear energy deal, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said on Friday, a move that would give Japanese firms access to the rapidly growing market amid rising global competition.

Firms from countries such as the United States, France and Russia have scrambled for a foothold in energy-starved India’s civilian nuclear market, worth about $150 billion, after a 2008 U.S. nuclear accord opened up global access to it.

India, Asia’s third-biggest economy, aims to double the share of nuclear power on its grid to more than 8 percent over two decades. Nuclear energy is also being touted as a way for the world’s fourth-biggest emitter to curb fossil fuel emissions.

Major Japanese firms have partnered with companies abroad and engage in joint development for nuclear reactors, such as Hitachi Ltd’s cooperation with General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with France’s Areva.

But Japanese companies currently cannot access the Indian market due to a lack of legal framework.

“There are projects that suppliers of other countries are involved in (in India) that require Japanese technologies. That is a point of consideration,” Okada told a news conference.

A deal between Japan and India would allow Japan to conduct nuclear trade with India, the foreign ministry official said, adding that the United States and France have big expectations for a pact.

The 2008 civil nuclear accord between the United States and India ended the nuclear isolation India had experienced since its 1974 atomic test and gave it access to U.S. technology and fuel, while also opening up the global market to India.

Japan, the world’s only country to suffer atomic attacks, had been cautious about negotiating a nuclear pact with India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

But Okada said Japan cannot go against the international trend, referring to a 2008 decision by a group of major nuclear suppliers to lift a ban on nuclear trade with India.

The first round of negotiations will be held in Tokyo on June 28-29. It is unclear how long it will be until an agreement is reached, an official at the ministry said.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



The Chinese Are Desperate to Live Abroad, Just Not in England if Possible

Given China’s turbulent modern history and the fact it continues to be largely a poor country, there have always been lots of people happy to trade in their Chinese citizenship for a life elsewhere.

Traditionally, the United States has been the destination of choice and has benefited enormously from the legions of smart Chinese immigrants it has welcomed. By some accounts, as many as 70 per cent of the Chinese who study in the US end up living there.

In recent years, Canada has also emerged as a popular destination, and a poll in the Canadian Globe & Mail newspaper shows that 77 per cent of Chinese, when given the choice, would choose to move to Canada over staying in China.

(Over half the Brits they polled also said they would be keen to jump ship)

But is the UK seen as an attractive destination too? We did a very informal poll among some young Chinese living in Shanghai and it seems the answer is a resounding no. Indeed one respondent even studied in the UK but decided to flee, and leave her boyfriend behind too.

Minna, a 34-year-old PR executive said that she had discussed emigration with her husband as recently as yesterday, but had decided to stick to China. Her opinion about the UK? Taxes are too high and the standard of living is just too low.

“A couple that are friends with my husband are living in the UK. The husband teaches at a university and the wife works in a school library. You would think they have a middle-class life, but when they came to Shanghai on holiday they said their financial position was very awkward,” she said.

“They live on the outskirts of London because they cannot afford to buy in the city. I guess they make around £5,000 a month between them, but they have to pay huge taxes. They only get £3,000 a month in total. Any middle class family in Shanghai earns more than that! After paying their mortgage and sending some money to their parents, they have nothing left. And now they have a baby girl but cannot even afford a nanny! They drive a car, but cannot go downtown because the parking costs too much.”

Most of the other Chinese we quizzed expressed similar complaints. “The UK is really expensive, for food and everything,” said Ting Ting, a 24-year-old sales person. “The US is much cheaper, has more business opportunities and is much better. Japan is also quiet and has a good living environment.”…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


Gillard Reassures Obama on Afghanistan

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has spoken with US President Barack Obama to assure him of her full support for the military campaign in Afghanistan.

In a 20-minute phone conversation with Mr Obama on Friday morning, Ms Gillard said the government’s commitment to Afghanistan would continue under her watch.

“I fully support the current deployment,” Ms Gillard said in a press conference in parliament house after the phone call.

Australia has 1550 soldiers in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. The recent deaths of five diggers have sparked calls for the troops to come home.

Ms Gillard, a member of Labor’s left faction, went beyond the Afghanistan issue to say that the US alliance was the foundation stone of Australia’s security policy, and she hoped to strengthen it as leader.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was due to meet Mr Obama at a G20 meeting in Canada this weekend. Newly-anointed Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan will represent Australia at the meeting.

Ms Gillard said she apologised to Mr Obama for not attending herself — and invited him to make a visit Down Under.

Mr Obama has cancelled two trips to Australia this year, and is expected to come early next year.

“He would be very, very welcome indeed,” Ms Gillard said, adding that Mr Obama had told her he had fond memories of visiting Sydney as an eight-year-old.

US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich said the president was “not at all concerned” that the new prime minister hails from Labor’s left, which tends to place a lesser emphasis on the US alliance.

“It was a very, very positive conversation, in which both of them reaffirmed the importance and the strength of the US-Australia alliance,” Mr Bleich told reporters in Canberra of the phone call.

“The president and prime minister Gillard, they have very similar views, values, strengths. I think they’re going to get along famously.”

Mr Bleich called on Ms Gillard in her parliamentary office, where the pair chatted about AFL as well as more serious issues. Ms Gillard is a Western Bulldogs fan.

The ambassador said the two leaders would meet “as soon as they can, they are very anxious to meet with one another”.

But Mr Rudd has not been forgotten. Mr Bleich said Mr Rudd and Mr Obama would stay friends and retain contacts in public life.

Ms Gillard, whose dramatic rise to the top job on Thursday surprised the nation, is hitting the phone to world leaders on Friday to introduce herself.

She will be speaking to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has already spoken with Ms Gillard; she apologised that she would not be able to address the NZ parliament next week, as Mr Rudd had been scheduled to do.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Norwegians With Congo Death Sentence Seek Clemency

OSLO, Norway — A lawyer for two Norwegians sentenced to death for spying in Congo says his clients are requesting clemency from the country’s president.

Morten Furuholmen says the two signed a letter Friday asking that Congolese President Joseph Kabila grant them a full pardon or commute their death sentences.

Furuholmen says his clients deny any wrongdoing in the letter, to be delivered to Kabila next week.

A Kisangani court on June 10 convicted Tjostolv Moland and Joshua French, who is also a British citizen, of espionage and the 2009 murder of a local driver.

Furuholmen says the men will not appeal because they have “no faith” in receiving a fair trial.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Sudan: JEM Rebel Group Says No Darfur Peace Without it

DOHA (AFP) — The head of Darfur’s largest rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, said peace talks that began on Wednesday between the Sudanese government and another rebel group will be fruitless without his movement.

“Peace is impossible without the JEM,” Khalil Ibrahim told Al-Jazeera television when asked about the negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha between Khartoum and the Liberty and Justice Movement.

“What is going on in Doha is a falsification of what our people want” and “what comes out of it will not be peace,” Ibrahim added. “The Doha process has gone off course, and represents nothing more than what the Sudanese government wants.”

Without naming names, he said “they fabricate movements to negotiate with, and these movements obey everything from the Sudanese intelligence services.”

The Liberty and Justice Movement began talks in Qatar with the Sudanese government on Wednesday aimed at reaching a peace deal by mid-July.

The two sides, which signed a framework accord in March establishing a ceasefire, will hold direct negotiations through five committees, said a statement from Qatari Foreign Minister Ahmed Abdullah al-Mahmud and Jibril Bassole, a mediator for the United Nations and the African Union.

They began indirect talks on June 7, but without JEM participation.

That group signed a framework accord in February in Doha, but JEM-Khartoum talks later ran into problems, and a deadline set under the accord for completing the peace deal passed on March 15 without agreement.

Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Germany: Assisted Suicide OK if Patient Consents

BERLIN — Germany’s top criminal court issued a landmark ruling Friday legalizing assisted suicide in cases where it is carried out based on a patient’s prior request.

The ruling came as the court overturned the conviction of a lawyer who had counseled his client in 2007 to stop tube feeding her mother, who had been in a non-responsive coma for five years. A lower court had convicted attorney Wolfgang Putz of attempted manslaughter and given him a nine-month suspended sentence.

The Federal Court of Justice said the 71-year-old woman had said in 2002 that she did not want to be kept alive under such circumstances before falling into the coma.

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger welcomed the ruling as a major step toward respecting an individual’s wishes. “There cannot be forced treatment against a person’s will,” she said in a statement. “This is about the right of self-determination and therefore a question of a life in human dignity until the end.”

Germany took political steps to clarify the legal situation surrounding assisted suicide late last year.

Parliament passed a law that made people’s declarations on whether they wanted treatment to prolong their life following an accident or when terminally ill binding for doctors.

But the court ruling now makes it legal to end a person’s life by halting medical treatment, if it is their wish.

In the case considered, the 71-year-old woman fell into a coma after a cerebral hemorrhage in October 2002. Confined to a nursing home, she was fed through a tube for five years.

“An improvement of her health situation was not to be expected anymore,” the court said.

But the nursing home refused to let the woman die.

The woman’s daughter eventually cut the feeding tube on her lawyer’s advice, with her brother and the attorney present. The nursing home reinstalled a new tube shortly thereafter, but the woman died two weeks later “of natural causes,” the court said.

A state court in Fulda acquitted the woman’s daughter as she was acting on the advice of her lawyer, a specialist in medical law. The attorney, however, was convicted in April 2009 and then appealed to the high court.

The court did not release the names of the 71-year-old patient or her daughter.

Across Europe, authorities are struggling to find an answer to the morally charged question of how to end a terminally ill patient’s life in dignity and in accordance with the law.

Switzerland has one of the most liberal laws that allows assisted suicide, even though they are coming under increasing public scrutiny as scores of foreigners every year travel to Switzerland to take their lives.

The Swiss government last year proposed restricting so-called “suicide tourism,” and a law is due to be sent to parliament later this year.

The Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2002, requiring the agreement of several doctors that a patient is suffering greatly with no hope of recovery, and has asked to die. Similar regulation is in place in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

But assisted suicide is illegal in Finland, Spain, France and in Italy, where the influence of the Vatican is still strongly felt.

Following a controversial case in which a family ended the life of a girl who had been in a vegetative status for 17 years, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government last year introduced legislation banning caregivers from taking such action.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



The Organization Final Exit Network is Putting Up Billboards to Let You Know That You Have the “Right to Die.”

“Final Exit” Network Sponsors Euthanasia Billboards

The controversial non-profit announced plans to put up billboards along highways in California, New Jersey and Florida, promoting what president Jerry Dincin calls “the last civil right of the 21st Century” — the right for a person to determine his or her own death in certain medical situations.

The billboards, which will feature the slogan “My Life, My Death, My Choice”, are reportedly funded in part by volunteer donations to FEN. According to FEN’s website, the group hopes to offer support and information for those who are ill and wrestling with the idea of ending their lives, rather than change any existing legislation. FEN operates on the central belief that all “mentally competent adults have the basic human right to end their lives when they suffer from a fatal or irreversible illness or intractable pain, when their quality of life is personally unacceptable.”

While FEN isn’t the only organization to support the right to die, they do provide counseling to those with illnesses that other groups might turn away, such as Alzheimer’s, emphysema and congestive heart failure.

Four members of the group, including former medical director, Dr.Lawrence Egbert, are currently awaiting trial in Georgia on charges of assisting suicide, à la Jack Kevorkian. Physician-assisted suicide is currently only legal in three states: Montana, Oregon and Washington.

[Return to headlines]

General


Africa’s Water Most Precarious, Iceland Best — Study

.ATHENS (Reuters) — African nations led by Somalia, Mauritania and Sudan have the most precarious water supplies in the world while Iceland has the best, according to a survey on Thursday that aims to alert companies to investment risks.

The ranking, compiled by British-based risk consultancy Maplecroft, said climate change and a rising world population meant that stresses on supplies would be of increasing concern in coming decades for uses from farming to industry.

A “water security risk index” of 165 nations found African and Asian nations had the most vulnerable supplies, judged by factors including access to drinking water, per capita demand and dependence on rivers that first flow through other nations.

Somalia, where just 30 percent of the population has clean drinking water, topped the list above Mauritania, Sudan, Niger, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkmenistan and Syria.

GLACIERS, MONSOONS

At the other end of the scale, rain-soaked Iceland had the most secure supplies, slightly better than Norway and New Zealand.

“With climate change there is going to be a greater strain on limited water resources in many nations,” Anna Moss, author of the study, told Reuters.

Shifts in monsoon rains and melting of glaciers, for instance, could disrupt supplies with the potential to cause cross-border conflicts. Construction of hydropower dams or more irrigation, for instance, can disrupt supplies downriver.

The study said irrigation accounted for 70 percent of freshwater consumption across the globe. Industry uses another 22 percent.

It said that companies including Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Marks & Spencer, Coca-Cola or Devon Energy were among those seeking to reduce water use.

Water stress was not only a problem in poor nations. Nations such as the United States and Australia have regions that are at risk.

“Countries in Europe, such as Bulgaria, Belgium and Spain, have issues with water stress,” Moss said. Bulgaria ranked 47 on the list, Belgium 50, Spain 68, Australia 95 and the United States 104.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Details of Cold War Intelligence Pact Published

LONDON — Details of the sweeping intelligence sharing pact struck between the United States and Britain at the dawn of the Cold War were made public for the first time Friday, laying bare the details of an unprecedented espionage arrangement.

The 1946 UKUSA agreement — a secret deal to not to spy on one another and to share nearly every single piece of radio intercept material — was a keystone of the United States’ global intelligence-gathering apparatus, allowing it to pool its resources with Britain and other countries.

Canada, Australia, and New Zealand signed on to the pact in later years.

At the heart of the agreement was a pledge that “each party shall make available to the other without request and as a matter of routine, and shall furnish as requested, all communication intelligence produced by its operating agencies.”

Both the U.S. and Britain agreed not to tell any third party about the agreement. And while the existence of the UKUSA became common knowledge well before then, Britain’s communications espionage agency, GCHQ, did not officially acknowledge it until 2006.

With the Soviet Union beginning to flex its muscles on the world stage, the agreement was an attempt to systematize the ad hoc intelligence sharing that already existed as the U.S. and Britain confronted the Nazis during World War II, according to Ed Hampshire, the principal records specialist at Britain’s National Archives, which declassified the material Friday.

“As the threat posed by Nazi Germany was replaced by a new one in the east, the agreement formed the basis for intelligence co-operation during the Cold War,” he said.

___

Online:

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukusa

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



The DNA of Abraham’s Children

Analysis of Jewish genomes refutes the Khazar claim. [Excerpts]

Jews have historically considered themselves “people of the book” (am hasefer in Hebrew), referring to sacred tomes, but the phrase is turning out to have an equally powerful, if unintended, meaning: scientists are able to read Jewish genomes like a history book. The latest DNA volume weighs in on the controversial, centuries-old (and now revived in a 2008 book) claim that European Jews are all the descendants of Khazars, a Turkic group of the north Caucasus who converted to Judaism in the late eighth and early ninth century. The DNA has spoken: no.

In the wake of studies in the 1990s that supported biblically based notions of a priestly caste descended from Aaron, brother of Moses, an ambitious new project to analyze genomes collected from Jewish volunteers has yielded its first discoveries. In a paper with the kind of catchy title you rarely see in science journals-”Abraham’s Children in the Genome Era”-scientists report that the Jews of the Diaspora share a set of telltale genetic markers, supporting the traditional belief that Jews scattered around the world have a common ancestry. But various Diaspora populations have their own distinct genetic signatures, shedding light on their origins and history. In addition to the age-old question of whether Jews are simply people who share a religion or are a distinct population, the scientific verdict is settling on the latter.

Although the origin of the Jews has been traced, archeologically, to the Middle East in the second millennium B.C.E., what happened next has been more opaque. To sort it out, researchers collected DNA from Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Ashkenazi Jews around New York City; Turkish Sephardic Jews in Seattle; Greek Sephardic Jews in Thessaloniki and Athens; and Italian Jews in Rome as part of the Jewish HapMap Project. (All four grandparents of each participant had to have come from the same community.) As the scientists will report in the next issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the analysis shows that “each of the Jewish populations formed its own distinctive cluster, indicating the shared ancestry and relative genetic isolation of the members of each of those groups.”

Jewish populations, that is, have retained their genetic coherence just as they have retained their cultural and religious traditions, despite migrations from the Middle East into Europe, North Africa, and beyond over the centuries, says geneticist Harry Ostrer of NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the study. Each Diaspora group has distinctive genetic features “representative of each group’s genetic history,” he says, but each also “shares a set of common genetic threads” dating back to their common origin in the Middle East. “Each of the Jewish populations formed its own distinctive cluster, indicating the shared ancestry and relative genetic isolation of the members of each of those groups.”

The various Jewish groups were more related to each other than to non-Jews, as well. Within every Jewish group, individuals shared as much of their genome as two fourth or fifth cousins, with Italian, Syrian, Iranian, and Iraqi Jews the most inbred, in the sense that they married within the small, close-knit community. In general, the genetic similarity of any two groups was larger the closer they lived to one another, but there was an exception: Turkish and Italian Jews were most closely related genetically, but are quite separated geographically.

The DNA analysis undermines the claim that most of today’s Jews, particularly the Ashkenazi, are the direct lineal descendants of converted Khazars-which has angered many in the Jewish community as an implicit attack on the Jews’ claim to the land of Israel, since it implies that today’s Jews have no blood ties to the original Jews of the Middle East. Instead, find the scientists, at most there was “limited admixture with local populations, including Khazars and Slavs … during the 1,000-year (second millennium) history of the European Jews.”

Analysis of Jewish genomes has been yielding fascinating findings for more than a decade. A pioneer in this field, Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona, made the first big splash when he discovered that genetics supports the biblical account of a priestly family, the Cohanim, descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses: one specific genetic marker on the Y chromosome (which is passed on from father to son, as membership in the priestly family would be) is found in 98.5 percent of people who self-identify as Cohanim, he and colleagues reported in a 1997 paper in Nature (the PBS science series Nova did a nice segment on that work, summarized here). The Cohanim DNA has been found in both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, evidence that it predates the time when the two groups diverged, about 1,000 years ago. DNA can also be used to infer when particular genetic markers appeared, and suggests that the Cohanim emerged about 106 generations ago, making it fall during what is thought to be the period of the exodus from Egypt, and thus Aaron’s lifetime.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100624

Financial Crisis
» Davos 2010: George Soros Warns Gold is Now the ‘Ultimate Bubble’
» Finance Bill’s Devilish Details
» Pension Reforms Bring on Strikes in France
» Soros Tells Germany to Step Up to Its Responsibilities, Or Leave EMU
» UK Budget Cuts as a Lesson
 
USA
» Almost Half of Voters See Government as a Threat to Individual Rights
» BP to Drill in Alaska
» California Welfare Cards Can be Used in Many Casino ATMs
» Chatigny: Devastating Take-Down of an Obscure Nomination
» Dallas: Fastest Growing U.S. City
» Democrats Attack the First Amendment With the Disclose Act
» D-FW Ranks 6th in Troubled Commercial Properties, Report Says
» Editorial: The Golfer-in-Chief
» Federal Gov’t Halts Sand Berm Dredging
» Homeland Security to Use Drones Along Border
» Imam Terror Error: Ground Zero Mosque Leader Hedges on Hamas
» I’ve Been Thinking About the Way the President Takes Care of America
» Kent State and the Perfect Coup
» Majority of Federal Mine Inspectors Did Not Undergo Required Training
» National Security Agencies Do Not Share Information
» One Asian Carp Found Beyond Great Lakes Barriers
» Runaway Census Cost is Frightening Preview of True Obamacare Price Tag
» The Deplorable Response to the BP Spill is Not Louisiana’s Fault
» The Problem Isn’t McChrystal’s Bite But That McChrystal (On Administration, Not Afghanistan) Is Right
» U.S. Paid More Than $60,000 in Grant to Study Hookah-Smoking Jordanian College Students
 
Europe and the EU
» A Runoff in Polish Presidential Election
» Blindness Reversed Using Adult Stem Cell Therapies
» Denmark: Archaeologists Uncover Harald Bluetooth’s Royal Palace
» Germany: Standardised Tests Reveal Huge Learning Gaps
» Germany: Children’s Stone Attack on Jews Sparks Outrage
» Jewish Dance Group Stoned in Hanover, Germany
» Modern Swedes Face Up to the Monarchy Paradox
» Paris Hosts Cyber-Shelter for Battered Bloggers
» Sharia-Compliant Banking Products a ‘Huge Flop’ In Britain
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Bedouins Strike Back After Egypt Crackdown on Gaza Smuggling
» Noam Shalit in Rome: Europe’s Voice Weak
 
Middle East
» Kurdish Fighters Back With ‘High-Quality’ Attacks
» Turkey’s Military Seeks More Israeli Drones
 
South Asia
» Mannequins in Tehran Have No Breasts — What Next?
» Pro-Troop Group Urges General McChrystal to Come Clean on Obama Admin Negligence
 
Far East
» China: Tomb Raiders Unearth New Marketplace
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australian Prime Minister Rudd Ditched in Favor of Left-Wing Deputy
 
Immigration
» Mexico Drug Gang Threatens Arizona Police
» Mexico Files Court Brief Against Arizona Immigration Law
» Napolitano: State and Local Police May Deploy to Border
» UK: Immigrant Baby Boom Sees British Population Soar by Double Rate of Previous Decade
 
Culture Wars
» Abortion ‘Triples Breast Cancer Risk’: Fourth Study Finds Terminations Linked to Disease
» Boy Scouts Win “Gay Battle” In Court
» Children’s Workshops ‘In Midst of Loud and Boisterous Homosexual Activities’
» ‘Gay’-Pride Parade Features 10-Year-Old Grand Marshal
» The Central Fallacy of Public Schooling
 
General
» Climate Change: The IPCC in the Age of Speculation
» Maurice Strong Advises Folk to Ignore Glenn Beck
» Veiled Truths: The Rise of Political Islam in the West

Financial Crisis


Davos 2010: George Soros Warns Gold is Now the ‘Ultimate Bubble’

Gold is now “the ultimate bubble”, billionaire investor George Soros has declared, sparking fears that prices for the precious metal may soon suffer a tumble.

Mr Soros, arguably the most famous hedge fund manager in history, warned that with interest rates low around the world, policymakers were risking generating new bubbles which could cause crashes in the future. In comments delivered on the fringe of the World Economic Forum, Mr Soros said: “When interest rates are low we have conditions for asset bubbles to develop, and they are developing at the moment. The ultimate asset bubble is gold.”

Gold prices last month reached a record level of just over $1,225 per ounce, having risen around 40pc last year. Investors are piling into the metal amid fears both of potential inflation and fading faith about the stability of previously-assumed safe assets such as government debt. However, the chairman of Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest producer, Peter Munk, said he expected the metal’s upward march to continue.

Mr Soros added that by proposing imminent “exit strategies” from the unprecedented support handed out to troubled banks and consumers, governments around the world could be in danger of triggering a double-dip in the global economy. In comments which will reinforce Labour’s plan to fight the next election on promises not to start raising taxes or cutting spending too soon, he said that it was still too early to slash budget deficits.

He said: “I think that since the adjustment process to the recession is incomplete, there is a need for additional stimulus. Some countries, like the US and European countries, have plenty of room to increase their deficits. The political resistance to doing so increases the chances of a double dip in the economy in 2011 and after that.”

The Conservatives have pledged to start cutting public spending almost immediately after this year’s election, but their promise was weakened earlier this week by an International Monetary Fund report warning that it may still be too early to begin this process. Mr Soros also came out in favour of Barack Obama’s plan to split up large US banks, but said that proposals to tax the banking system could also endanger the recovery.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Finance Bill’s Devilish Details

Subprime Scandal: Much of the 2,000-page draft of the Democrats’ finance reform bill could have been written by Acorn, and probably was. It has more to do with “civil rights” than consumer protection.

The devil is in the details of the monstrous new regulatory package, which Democrats hope to pass early next month. They reveal plans to reallocate credit and capital to the Democrats’ political base, while empowering race racketeers like Acorn with slush funds and advisory board seats.

The “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010” is, in fact, a massive redistribution scheme camouflaged as reform. Far from reforming easy-credit practices, the bill encourages more of the same reckless, politically mandated lending that brought down the entire financial system in the name of “affordable housing.”

Yes, the bill gives Treasury the power to liquidate banks that pose a threat to financial stability. But it essentially exempts minority-owned banks and those approved by Acorn-style urban organizers.

“The orderly liquidation plan shall take into account actions to avoid or mitigate potential adverse effects on low- income, minority or underserved communities affected by the failure of the covered financial company,” it says.

In other words, zombie banks laden with subprime and near-prime loans may be too PC to fail. Democrats call such immunity from reform “impact protections,” but Republicans aren’t buying it.

Sen. Richard Shelby and other GOP conferees moved to strike the language, arguing that making an exception for minority neighborhoods defeats the whole purpose of reform, which is to protect all consumers against systemic risk.

But Sen. Chris Dodd, who’s running the conference committee with his fellow Democrat, Rep. Barney Frank, shot them down by suggesting that they wanted to deny minorities access to credit.

“The same arguments were made against the Community Reinvestment Act,” Dodd bellowed.

Unfortunately, they weren’t made forcefully enough. Studies show that CRA home loans have much higher failure rates. Such politically mandated lending regardless of creditworthiness is the whole reason we’re in this mess.

Another section of the bill requires the proposed Financial Stability Oversight Council (headed by the Treasury secretary) to consider a zombie institution’s “importance as a source of credit for low-income, minority or underserved communities” before winding it down. So prudent lending is important in the bank exam — unless it conflicts with Democrats’ social goals.

It gets worse. The bill mandates placement of a diversity czar in each federal financial agency — including the Fed and its 12 regional banks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Pension Reforms Bring on Strikes in France

A mass strike against the French government’s plan to raise the retirement age disrupted transport and shut down schools on Thursday, with unions saying two million protesters took to the streets.

The government last week unveiled proposals to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018, increasing the number of working years required for a state pension, as part of efforts to cut France’s big budget deficit.

Nearly one in five civil servants and school staff stayed away from work in protest at the plans which unions says place an unfair burden on workers, forcing schools to close.

[Return to headlines]



Soros Tells Germany to Step Up to Its Responsibilities, Or Leave EMU

Legendary investor George Soros has called on Germany to leave the euro unless it is willing to embrace a growth strategy, describing Berlin’s austerity doctrine as a threat to democracy and political stability in Europe.

“German policy is becoming a danger that could destroy the European Project. A collapse of the euro cannot be excluded,” he told the German weekly Die Zeit.

“Unless Germany changes policy, its withdrawal from the currency union would be helpful for the rest of Europe. At the moment Germany is pushing its neighbours into deflation: this threatens a long phase of stagnation, leading to nationalism, social unrest, and zenophobia. It endangers democracy,” he said.

Mr Soros saw the political effects of wage cuts first-hand during the Great Depression, and narrowly survived the Holocaust as a Jewish boy in Nazi-controlled Budapest. He has since dedicated much of his wealth to philanthropic works promoting freedom and pluralism across the globe, mostly through Open Society institutes.

His comments reflect growing alarm in influential circles on both sides of the Atlantic over the 1930s-style policies of wage cuts and debt-deflation being imposed up the Club Med bloc, Ireland, and parts of Eastern Europe by the EU authorities, at the behest of Berlin.

President Barack Obama clearly had Germany in mind when he wrote a letter to fellow leaders before the G20 summit in Canada this week that surplus countries should do more to shore up global demand. “Our highest priority must be to safeguard and strengthen the recovery: we cannot let it falter or lose strength now. Should confidence in the strength of our recoveries diminish, we should be prepared to respond again as quickly and as forcefully as needed,” he wrote.

China has deflected G20 criticism by starting to free the yuan, leaving Germany facing the full wrath of Washington. While the German economy is not in itself large enough to shape global events, US officials fear that Berlin’s dominant influence over the European Central Bank and the fiscal machinery of monetary union is dragging most of Europe into an economic swamp. Germany has raised the bar for every eurozone country by announcing €80bn of belt-tightening from next year.

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman told the German press earlier this week that the country was committing the same error as the United States in 1936-1937, or Japan in the 1990s, by withdrawing stimulus before recovery has taken root.

“I don’t have a problem with trying to balance the budget in five or 10 years. The question is whether one should start when the economy is at 7 or 8 percent below its normal capacity and interest rates are at zero. Now is not the time to be worried about deficits.”

Professor Krugman said there was a risk of a “domino effect” reaching Spain and Italy if Bundesbank chief Axel Weber takes over as head of the ECB and fails to offer enough monetary stimulus to keep these countries afloat.

One analyst said that Mr Weber faces an impossible task. “Either they do more QE (quantitative easing), in which case it will set off inflation in Germany and cause Germany to leave EMU: or they don’t do more QE, in which case it will lead to deflation in Southern Europe and force them out of EMU,” he said.

Mr Soros said Germany was treating the deeply-flawed Maastricht Treaty as it were a “sacred text”, warning that monetary union cannot endure for long as a narrow construct based on debt and deficit ceilings. He said wage rises in Germany are imperative to help lift the whole eurozone, allowing peripheral economies to claw their way out of trouble without fighting the extra headwinds of deflation.

“The truth is that what we have in Europe is not a currency or sovereign debt crisis as many people think, but a banking crisis,” he said. Mr Soros argued that the weaker states cannot easily fund their deficits any longer because somebanks are purchasing fewer bonds as a result of damaged balance-sheets.

Investors are likely to pay close attention to the views of Mr Soros, whose Quantum fund played a key role in the crisis of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. He famously pounced on sterling and the Italian lira after a top Bundesbank official described both currencies as over-valued, an invitation for a speculative attack.

The crisis proved a blessing in disguise for Britain, which was liberated early from a destructive policy of job wastage. Mr Soros yet to receive a a knighthood for his services.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



UK Budget Cuts as a Lesson

The UK Coalition government has announced its emergency budget today, just a few days before the parliamentary recess kicks off and MPs head home for their summer break. The members of Parliament will head home into the face of special interest decrying the new UK budget. Those who are members of the governing coalition party will be dreading their summer constituency mail-bag.

Those looking for fiscal prudence, like the UK tea party http://bit.ly/bOamx6 rallying near Parliament today, will have much to be pleased about. Although raising VAT to 20% from the previous 17.4% will hurt everyone very hard, there are tax and spending cuts galore. http://bit.ly/aLW0q7

Its hard to believe that the US President and Congress would even suggest freezing government employee wages for the next two years, but the Coalition has done just that. They have announced 25% budget cuts for all government departments which will shock many in government. http://bit.ly/cMg2wo

[Return to headlines]

USA


Almost Half of Voters See Government as a Threat to Individual Rights

Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults see the government today as a threat to rights. Thirty-seven percent (37%) hold the opposite view. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

Most Republicans (74%) and unaffiliateds (51%) consider the government to be a threat to individual rights. Most Democrats (64%) regard the government as a protector of rights.

Additionally, most Americans (52%) say it is more important for the government to protect individual rights than to promote economic growth. Just 31% say promoting economic growth is more important. But again a sizable number (17%) of Adults aren’t sure which is more important…

[Return to headlines]



BP to Drill in Alaska

“…about three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.” (New York Times, Wednesday. Link at URL)

Is oil the new tobacco?

[Return to headlines]



California Welfare Cards Can be Used in Many Casino ATMs

California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found.

The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms…

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who learned of the issue when asked to comment for this story, promised to take immediate action.

“We have instructed our vendors to prohibit these cards from being accepted at ATMs located in casinos and card rooms,” Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said Wednesday. “It is reprehensible that anyone would use taxpayer money for anything other than its intended purpose.”

Administration officials said the social services agency contracts with a private ATM network to handle the electronic transfer of benefits to people on welfare, and hadn’t noticed that the taxpayer money was being withdrawn at gambling establishments…

[Return to headlines]



Chatigny: Devastating Take-Down of an Obscure Nomination

…setting aside the political angle, the biggest problem with Chatigny’s nomination is not the odd extremes to which he went to in order to protect a serial killer from a legally imposed death sentence, nor even his willingness to give light sentences for child pornography offenses and strike down Connecticut’s version of Megan’s Law.

The biggest problem is that Chatigny presided over the Ross serial killer case despite having previously worked for Ross as a lawyer, without making anyone else aware of that fact. In 1992, Chatigny had been asked to request leave to file a motion on Ross’s behalf. He never actually filed the motion, but he reviewed a motion written by another lawyer and “saw to it that it was filed” (his words). It wasn’t a great deal of involvement, but Chatigny himself admits that it was enough that he would have recused himself had he remembered his involvement.

But it’s quite difficult to believe that Chatigny would forget doing anything related to the most infamous case in Connecticut in at least half a century, and the only capital case there in the previous forty years. Moreover, consider his bold remarks on the case. Ross, Chatigny said at one point, should “never have been convicted. Or if convicted, he never should have been sentenced to death.”

Does that sound like someone who has forgotten he ever worked on the case? It is therefore also difficult to believe that Chatigny was honest with the committee in saying he had forgotten.

Despite the best efforts by Media Matters but Truth Doesn’t to limit the damage, Senate Democrats in tough re-elect fights are not going to be falling all over themselves to vote for this guy.

[Return to headlines]



Dallas: Fastest Growing U.S. City

The booming Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area added more residents during the past decade than any other city in the United States, according to CNNMoney.com.

According to the latest Census Bureau figures released Tuesday:

The population of the sprawling Texas metro area grew by about 1.3 million people, or 25 percent, between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2009.

The population is now estimated at 6.5 million residents, but an exact count won’t be available until the 2010 census is complete.

Dallas’s attractions include a very favorable business climate, according to Mayor Tom Leppert. There’s no corporate income tax, building costs are relatively reasonable and regulations are minimal.

“It’s a great place to do business,” he said, “especially for companies from high-tax states.”

Helping to drive growth is the area’s main airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International, the third busiest in the nation. Its location is far enough south to ensure good weather yet central enough to make it easy to fly to the Northeast, the Midwest and the Pacific Coast. It is also well positioned for air traffic with Latin American markets.

“Dallas has no port,” said Leppert. “The airport became a 21st century port.”

[Return to headlines]



Democrats Attack the First Amendment With the Disclose Act

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has lately taken to saying that the failure to pass the Cap-and-Trade Act would be “immoral.”

I suggest that the White House and the Democrat congressional leadership and members haven’t a clue when it comes to determining the morality of anything. They are so politically corrupt that they are oblivious to what everyone sees in their behavior. Only such people could pass the Healthcare Act in the face of massive opposition by the American people.

[…]

On Thursday, June 24, the “Disclose Act” (H.R. 5175) is likely to be voted upon despite the fact that it is manifestly unconstitutional on its face. Its purpose is to undo the Supreme Court’s decision in January, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that made it clear that corporations, unions, and non-profits like the Tea Party groups, free market advocates, and conservative groups are free to use their funds to express themselves in the run-up to the November elections.

It’s called freedom of speech!

The intent is to saddle groups likely to oppose Democrat Party candidates and issues with so much paperwork that it in effect silences them and deprives them of their First Amendment rights.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



D-FW Ranks 6th in Troubled Commercial Properties, Report Says

Almost $2 billion worth of commercial properties in Dallas-Fort Worth are in distress.

The D-FW area ranks sixth in the country among major metropolitan areas with troubled commercial real estate deals, according to the midyear report released Thursday by analyst Delta Associates.

“The number of distressed properties in the Dallas area continues to rise,” the report says, with office buildings accounting for the largest percentage of struggling real estate deals.

In many cases, the buildings are in financial difficulty because loans are maturing and the owners can’t arrange new debt.

Almost $167 billion in U.S. commercial properties, including offices, shopping centers, hotels and industrial buildings, are considered distressed and facing possible default, the analysts estimate. That’s down about 11 percent from the first quarter.

“We believe that the declining growth of distressed real estate reflects the fact that in many markets commercial property values are no longer falling,” the report said. Lenders are also working harder to refinance projects.

New York City, with more than $14 billion in troubled real estate, tops the country, followed by the Los Angeles area, southern Florida and the Washington, D.C., area.

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Editorial: The Golfer-in-Chief

Mr. Obama is well on his way to being the golfingest president in recent memory. He is hitting the links at three times the rate of his predecessor during the first years of his presidency. President George W. Bush gave up golf in 2003 on principle because it would be unseemly for the commander in chief to spend so much time enjoying himself while American troops are fighting and dying overseas. Give W an extra mulligan for being classy.

Marathon golf sessions often with high-roller partners are only one aspect of Mr. Obama’s growing image problem. While America suffers, Mr. Obama is hosting gala events at the White House, hanging out with rock stars, making pro-forma photo ops and then returning to Washington to “clear his mind.” We’re surprised to hear that his mind is cluttered with anything, but he does have a busy travel schedule. Last week, for example, Mr. Obama spent between $500,000 and $1 million of taxpayer money to fly to Ohio to deliver a 10-minute speech touting his purported achievements. Because of the presidential presence, the work site Mr. Obama visited was closed for the day, taking work hours away from the working man. “That’s $200 we are missing out on,” said construction worker George Harrison. “Everybody needs to eat, right?” Eat cake, George.

Vice President Joe Biden took an all-expense-paid trip to South Africa to watch World Cup soccer after kicking off a public-relations campaign called “recovery summer,” which seeks to convince Americans that the Democrats’ almost trillion-dollar stimulus program is solving everyone’s problems. One such project is the “President Barack Obama Parkway” in Orlando, a particularly shameless tribute to a sitting president that’s more befitting an authoritarian regime in some banana republic than our once-serious nation. For comparison, the Ronald Reagan highway in Ohio was named in honor of the former president nine years after he left office; the interstate highway system was named after Dwight D. Eisenhower 21 years after Ike passed away. And, of course, those Republicans were successful presidents — especially compared to the imploding O Force.

Polls show that most Americans aren’t buying the Obama administration’s happy talk. A Pew research center poll from the first week of June showed that only 13 percent of Americans agree with the president that the economy is entering recovery this summer. According to another Pew poll, 60 percent of Americans believe the stimulus has not helped the job situation, and other polls show Mr. Obama’s approval rating on the economy at or below 50 percent. The most recent Gallup daily tracking poll shows that 56 percent of Americans think the economy is getting worse.

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Federal Gov’t Halts Sand Berm Dredging

Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue

The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.

Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.

“Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil,” Nungesser wrote to Obama. “Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work…

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Homeland Security to Use Drones Along Border

The Homeland Security Department will use unmanned surveillance aircraft and other technological upgrades in its ongoing effort to protect the southern border of the United States.

The department said Wednesday it has obtained Federal Aviation Administration permission to operate unmanned planes along the Texas border and throughout the Gulf Coast region. Customs and Border Protection will base a surveillance drone at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas.

Homeland Security also said it is working with the Office of National Drug Control Policy on “Project Roadrunner,” a license plate recognition system designed to seek out possible drug traffickers.

And the department is collaborating with the Justice Department to improve information sharing between state, local and federal law enforcement agencies…

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Imam Terror Error: Ground Zero Mosque Leader Hedges on Hamas

By Tom Topousis

The imam behind plans to build a controversial Ground Zero mosque yesterday refused to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization.

According to the State Department’s assessment, “Hamas terrorists, especially those in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have conducted many attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings, against Israeli civilian and military targets.”

Asked if he agreed with the State Department’s assessment, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf told WABC radio, “Look, I’m not a politician.

“The issue of terrorism is a very complex question,” he told interviewer Aaron Klein. “There was an attempt in the ‘90s to have the UN define what terrorism is and say who was a terrorist. There was no ability to get agreement on that.”

Asked again for his opinion on Hamas, an exasperated Rauf wouldn’t budge.

“I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy,” Rauf said, insisting that he wants to see peace in Israel between Jews and Arabs.

Rauf also would not answer a question about Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. “I have nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood. My father was never a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said, disputing a rumor.

Rauf’s position has come under a microscope as he leads an effort to build a $100 million mosque and community center at 45 Park Place, near Ground Zero.

Meanwhile, a pastor on Staten Island who signed off on a controversial plan to sell a former convent to the Muslim American Society has changed his mind.

St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church Pastor Keith Fennessy sent a letter to Archbishop Timothy Dolan saying that, “after careful reflection,” he has withdrawn his support for the convent sale.

But New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling told the Web site SI Live, “The contract was signed, and [Fennessy’s withdrawal of support] does not cancel that.”…

           — Hat tip: ACT! For America [Return to headlines]



I’ve Been Thinking About the Way the President Takes Care of America

On Hannity the other evening, my colleague Erik Rush nailed it while discussing his new book titled Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal — America’s Racial Obsession. The Democrat Party purposefully misleads people of color by reinforcing their fears, Erik pointed out. And certain pastors in the black community do the same, he noted. Within too many of the sanctuaries of black churches, the congregants are made to feel that the world is against them. From the pulpit, these same pastors will look to government, rather than to God’s instruction for taking personal responsibility. In John 10:10, Christ says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The apostle John writes, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2).

We were told throughout Obama’s campaign that if it were possible, he would bring racially-diverse Americans closer together than ever before. I viewed this promise as empty rhetoric because, like my friend Erik, I do not believe for one moment that America is deeply embedded in racial problems. We moved forward a long time ago. Americans intermarry and raise wonderful children together. And anyone can be whatever he or she chooses to be when they are willing to put their mind and effort to it. This is 2010, and we’re not gawking at the color of each others’ skin.

However, ever since the Obamas moved into the White House, we’ve heard — with incessant racial-mindedness — something much different. Americans of all nationalities and ethnicities on the conservative side are not going to tolerate or embrace the progressives’ downtrodden, race-baiting lies being tossed out in the public arena. We’re in touch with the heart of America. The radical liberals are not. Have you seen the recent polls?

Bigotry masquerading as religion

When Rev. Jeremiah Wright first stepped onto the political scene, he opened the door to unabashed bigotry. For the very first time, most Americans were shocked to learn about Black Liberation theology. It had nothing to do with biblical Christianity whatsoever. It was about hatred of others who happened to be of European white descent. Liberation theology also has to do with being anti-Semitic.

There in an ungodly mix is a theology that demands a payback of sorts. It’s about what some white and black people did during the very distant past days of slavery. And sadly, in the minds of some, it does not matter what was accomplished during the Civil War. It does not matter what Martin Luther King, Jr., accomplished in the 60’s as Americans came together for heart-felt healing.

Today, we actually do have open bigotry. Let’s call it out where it exists. It emanates from those who want to continually live off the bygone past. There are race baiters within the worlds of politics, media, and faith. The number of such radicals serving with the president is staggering. We should be more outraged. We need to ask why other politicians continue to give this president and his corrupt cabinet any respect, much less the time of day.

Marxists posing as Christians

Pastors of many denominations are in close contact with Rev. Jim Wallis, an openly avowed socialist/Marxist who is a member of President Obama’s “Faith Council” and is described as a spiritual adviser to the president. These pastors are behind the scenes busily helping the president. They’re defiantly cheering Obama on as he becomes more unbending and aloof in his thoughts. Yes, he is a master at working out a very successful strategy of redistribution of wealth, or what is cleverly called “social justice.” If anyone of importance says one word against the president or his big-government policies, they are demonized.

Americans need to understand the destructive role that churches and pastors of once-conservative denominations are playing. They have allowed progressives into their fold and given them high offices within their churches. They stand ready to help re-elect Obama. They will gladly help him pass his green agenda — Cap and Trade. These denominations are no longer America’s friend. The United Council of Churches consists of little more than progressive ideologues. They neither love their country nor respect the Word of God. They are on the side of tyranny. Any denomination that mirrors their teachings should be viewed with suspicion. “While I pray that God will have mercy on their souls, we must show them no mercy politically. They are but another well-organized group of traitors to this nation” — Erik Rush.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Kent State and the Perfect Coup

In May 1970, news was made at Ohio’s Kent State University when campus police and the National Guard attempted to wrest control from out-of-control students. The collective temper-tantrum ignited a full-blown coup that had been some 30 years in the making.

Today, we know a lot more about Kent State than the cult event celebrated in song lyrics, anti-war heroes and angst-filled photos. Nonetheless, recently declassified and previously unpublished reports about Kent State are surprising only to those who ignored the testimonies of whistleblowers already available at the time. Recently declassified accounts point to meticulous pre-planning (three days’ worth, to be exact) that was too sophisticated to have been the work of mere collegiates. It involved “a roving mob of earnest anti-war activists, hard-core radicals … and others [who] smashed bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.” At the time, nothing much was published about the injuries sustained by officers — or about a “pre-dawn conversation … between two men overheard inside a campus lounge later [that night, who exulted]: ‘We did it! We got the riot started.’ “

Nor was anything reported concerning a certain ROTC cadet’s interview with FBI agents, during which he gave a “precise first-hand account” with a “credibility not easily dismissed.” Taken together, the heavily redacted FBI documents indicate that the now-infamous shootings by National Guardsmen were not simply “unprovoked attacks.” In fact, they were the natural consequence and outgrowth of a cultural milieu suffused and enamored with revolutionary radicalism.

[…]

The violence at Kent State and the turmoil throughout the nation in the 1960s and early 1970s was an outgrowth of the propaganda spread through the nation’s schools and universities over the previous three decades. This might have been more clearly revealed in the aftermath of the violence, but much was held back and kept under wraps. Just why documents like the FBI investigations from Kent State were held back, and why key passages were overlooked or classified when the media was disseminating the impression that campus violence was spontaneous, impulsive and unprovoked, is unknown. Perhaps the FBI assumed the media was already infiltrated — many employees from the once-highly secretive “psychological warfare branch” of the War Department (G-2) and the Office of War Information (OWI) had already become liberal-socialist media executives once the war was over (among them CBS’ William Paley, Time/Life’s C. D. Jackson, and the editors of high-value publications like Holiday, Look, Fortune, Coronet, Parade, the Saturday Review and Viking Press). Handing over damning material to a “closed club” like that might have been deemed counterproductive.

Yet, not doing so provided a window of opportunity for now-infamous “community activist” groups like ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), founded in the same year as the Kent State incident, and the ever-present ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), formally established in 1920 but by 1970 wreaking havoc. These organizations — mimicking the writings of Marcuse, Counts, and Neill — portrayed themselves as defenders of the helpless, while simultaneously hastening the death of the American Dream.

[…]

Still, at least one publication attempted to get to the bottom of things. Just four years after the Kent State incident, a revealing article by Alan Stang — television writer, producer, best-selling author, consultant and former business editor for Prentice-Hall, Inc. — wrote a piece for American Opinion magazine (the forerunner of The New American) entitled “Proof to Save the Guardsmen.” In it, Stang alluded to much of what has recently been revealed. “Today the phony ‘revolution’ which is trying to destroy America deliberately arranges for its own martyrs by conning victims into serving as cannon fodder,” Stang wrote in the article. He wrote similarly of the “1968 Democrat National Convention, where students got their skulls fractured when their leaders attacked the police.”

Notice he said “their leaders,” not the students themselves. Even from fuzzy 1968 media footage, one could tell that many among the perpetrators were not young college students, but adults. Many were later exposed as a semi-trained mix of foreign radicals and professional agitators.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Majority of Federal Mine Inspectors Did Not Undergo Required Training

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) which falls under the Labor Department, “did not ensure” that all its coal mine inspectors received retraining in the 2006-07 training cycle, according to an audit by the agency’s inspector general. As a result, a majority of inspectors did not undergo their required retraining.

In addition, the MSHA cancelled all retraining of its mine inspectors for 2008, according to the agency’s spokesperson.

In its March 30 report, entitled Journeyman Mine Inspectors Do Not Receive Required Periodic Retraining, the inspector general’s office states: “Specifically, 56 percent of the 102 journeyman inspectors we sampled had not completed this retraining during the FY 2006—2007 training cycle, and three of these journeyman inspectors had not received retraining since the inception of MSHA’s training policy in 1998.”

The periodic retraining is required by the MSHA. The audit noted that the MSHA “lacked controls to track and assure completion of required periodic retraining by journeyman inspectors, and there were no consequences for not attending retraining courses.”

The report was published just a few days before the April 5 explosion at West Virginia Upper Big Branch coal mine, which left 29 men dead, making it the worst mining accident in the United States in 40 years…

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National Security Agencies Do Not Share Information

President Obama’s national security agencies “do not always share relevant information with their national security partners,” according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The report shows that more than eight years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, federal agencies were still failing to “connect the dots” on intelligence pointing to security threats to the United States.

The GAO findings come approximately six months after President Obama acknowledged that the intelligence community failed to share information that could have properly identified the attempted Christmas Day bomber as a dangerous extremist, adding he would “insist on accountability at every level” for such a failure.

The June 19 report, prepared for the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations, revealed that “the timely dissemination of information is critical for maintaining national security.”

John Pendleton, director of defense capabilities and management at the GAO and author of the report, said interagency collaboration challenges abound when it comes to national security.

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One Asian Carp Found Beyond Great Lakes Barriers

A single Asian carp has been found for the first time beyond the electric barriers constructed to keep the dreaded invasive species out of the Great Lakes, state and federal officials announced Wednesday.

Commercial fishermen found the 3-foot-long, 20-pound carp in Lake Calumet on Chicago’s South Side, about 6 miles downstream of Lake Michigan, according to the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee.

While officials said they’re concerned about the find, they say they need more information before deciding how significant it is.

“The threat to the Great Lakes depends on how many (carp) have access to the lakes, which depends on how many are in the Chicago waterway right now,” said John Rogner, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Scientists and fishermen fear that if the carp become established in the Great Lakes, they could starve out popular sport fish and ruin the region’s $7 billion fishing industry. Carp can grow to 100 pounds and 4 feet.

[…]

The carp is the first to be found in a Chicago waterway above the Army Corps of Engineers’ electric barrier system.

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Runaway Census Cost is Frightening Preview of True Obamacare Price Tag

Counting heads is a relatively simple procedure. So if the costs of a relatively simple administrative procedure like taking the decennial census have a history of spiraling wildly out of control, what is the graph of runaway ObamaCare costs going to look like? Imagine the price tag of having the government in charge of keeping Americans healthy — compared to just counting their noses, says playwright Gregg Opelka.

According to Jason Gauthier’s 2002 study entitled “Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses from 1790 to 2000,” the cost to perform the census has risen over the decades at a rate staggeringly higher than the rate of the growth of the population itself. What does this mean?

Simply put, that bureaucracy is obese, says Opelka.

For example:

The census cost was a little more than 60 cents per person in 1950 ($91.4 million).

It is projected to cost nearly $47 per person in 2010 ($14.5 billion), a whopping 7,822 percent increase in cost per person.

During the same time, the population rose by 100 percent (i.e., doubled) from 150 million to over 300 million. But the overall cost of counting it (the census) rose by 15,800 percent.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was used by the Obama administration to lend [its] imprimatur to…incredible claims of lowered health care costs in order to hoodwink legislators into passing and the public into accepting this massive entitlement. If you think ObamaCare looks expensive now, just massage the CBO’s risibly unrealistic projections with a little reality from the census’s actual costs over the decades.

The census cost spiral demonstrates that in no time at all ObamaCare will grow so obese it’ll have to be pushed around in a wheelchair…

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The Deplorable Response to the BP Spill is Not Louisiana’s Fault

For the last two months Louisiana has had to deal with the federal government’s deplorable management of BP’s oil spill, with various federal agencies actively hindering local efforts to protect and clean our shores and to keep our economy going. To add insult to injury, we now have a suggestion from Froma Harrop that we need a federal takeover, making the state of Louisiana a U.S. protectorate.

Considering that the spill is occurring in federal waters, on a site the federal government leased to a company operating under federal permits, federal inspections and which recently received a safety award from the federal government,..It’s also worth mentioning that for decades Louisiana has been denied the same level of federal royalties for offshore drilling that other states enjoy, so drilling here is a real moneymaker for the federal government.

[…]

The economy destroying oil moratorium — which was decidedly not supported by the experts as Obama’s Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar initially claimed — has been temporarily stopped by a judge who suggested the federal government find better reasons than because I said so and noted that it failed to give any consideration to less draconian measures until the President’s commission finally meets in mid-July, three months after the Deepwater Horizon explosion…

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The Problem Isn’t McChrystal’s Bite But That McChrystal (On Administration, Not Afghanistan) Is Right

by Barry Rubin

There are two ways of looking at General Stanley McChrystal’s interviews with Rolling Stone magazine: one is to focus on whether he should have said such things, the other is to analyze the important truths he unveiled. Here, I’m going to look at the latter and, following my usual practice, I’ve actually read the article and will base myself on the text.

But first, think about it: the general pointed out the near-disastrous situation with American leadership today. An increasing number of people know that he’s correct in his assessment. Isn’t that what’s really important?

Incidentally, the Obama Administration has been pretty tight about leaks, so there has been less news about infighting and incompetence than usual, not to mention that much of the media has protected it from exposures and criticisms. So McChrystal hasn’t just given us some blunt-worded reactions but a peek into what’s really happening.

On its cover, Rolling Stone called him, “The Runaway General,” saying he is carefully watching “the wimps in the White House.” Coming from Rolling Stone, this phrase is presumably intended to mock the general. To anyone who cares about U.S. security, however, it rings true, a warning rather than a whining.

Thus, Michael Hastings has written an article important not for back-biting gossip about who doesn’t like who but because it tells a lot about the looming tragedy on the ground in Afghanistan and the loony situation in the government in Washington.

Let me digress for a moment. At a conference in Europe, I heard a pompous Washington type who knew nothing about the military or Afghanistan give a wordy speech about how great things were going there and how the idea of democratizing and stabilizing that country was just a grand idea.

After he finished his boring oration, an Afghan friend of mine, a veteran of the U.S. military and years of analyzing that country for the U.S. government, stood up and tore him apart, citing corruption, incompetence, the reality of warlord rule, and lots more in the greatest detail. My friend certainly wanted to see his country become a modern democratic state with stability and high living standards. But he had no illusions that this was going to happen, especially under American auspices.

One of the most devastating points in Hastings’ article is one whose huge significance the author himself doesn’t seem to notice. In passing, he mocks the Afghan war effort as “the exclusive property of the United States” because all of its allies have opted out. Yet doesn’t this mean that President Barack Obama’s apparent popularity with Europe is meaningless? After all, Obama has made this his war and if he cannot get any ally to support the campaign that is a devastating outcome.

At the other extreme, the most noticed point in the article was Hastings’ quote from one of the general’s top aides saying that in meeting with the generals, Obama seemed ill-prepared and disengaged. Does this surprise you? Do you doubt that it is true? What, then, is the proper reaction, to feel that McChrystal and his staff have big mouths or to be worried about the tininess of the president’s experience, knowledge, interest, focus, and decisiveness?

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



U.S. Paid More Than $60,000 in Grant to Study Hookah-Smoking Jordanian College Students

Since 2008, U.S. taxpayers have contributed more than $60,000 for research to study the prevalence of water pipe, or “hookah,” smoking is among college students in Jordan.

The research was paid for by the Fogarty International Center and the National Cancer Institute, both of which are elements of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In 2009, NCI awarded a $48,402 grant to Virginia Commonwealth University researcher Thomas Eissenberg, and in 2008, the Fogarty International Center paid him $12,401 for the research, according to NIH records.

The aims of the research, as stated in the NIH grant abstract, were to study, over three years, “changes in waterpipe tobacco smoking prevalence, knowledge and beliefs among Jordanian university students; 2) examine relationships among waterpipe users’ dependence, smoking behavior, and CO (carbon monoxide) exposure; and 3) enhance local and regional tobacco-related research capacity.”…

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Europe and the EU


A Runoff in Polish Presidential Election

A somber election season in Poland was prolonged by two weeks Sunday when a first round of voting produced no immediate successor to Lech Kaczynski, the president killed more than two months ago in a plane crash.

Results show the interim president and parliament speaker, Bronislaw Komorowski, is leading Kaczynski’s identical twin, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. But Komorowski appeared to fall short of the 50 percent needed for outright victory.

The two leaders must now go head-to-head in a runoff vote on July 4, without eight other candidates who ran Sunday.

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Blindness Reversed Using Adult Stem Cell Therapies

Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells—a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

“This is a roaring success,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study—the longest and largest of its kind.

Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.

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Denmark: Archaeologists Uncover Harald Bluetooth’s Royal Palace

In what they describe as a ‘sensational’ discovery, archaeologists from Århus find the remains of 10th century king’s royal residence

After speculating for centuries about its location, the royal residence of Harald Bluetooth has finally been discovered close to the ancient Jellinge complex with its famous runic stones in southern Jutland.

The remains of the ancient wooden buildings were uncovered in the north-eastern corner of the Jellinge complex which consists of royal burial mounds, standing stones in the form of a ship and runic stones.

Harald ruled Denmark between 940 and 985 AD and is reputed to have conquered Norway and converted the country to Christianity. The Bluetooth interface developed by Ericsson for wireless connections — with a logo consisting of the runic letters H and B — is named after him.

Mads Dengsø Jessen, the archaeologist from Århus University who led the dig said four buildings from Harald’s time had been discovered at the site. The buildings are characteristic of those built at round fortresses known as Trelleborg.

‘This tells us that we have uncovered a large complex, and the strict geometrical construction is a typical example of Harald’s work,’ Jessen said.

Archaeologists have yet to identify the remains of Harald’s royal hall, but Jessen believes they can be found under the existing Jellinge Church, where the remains of a large wooden building were discovered on a previous dig.

Archaeologists had speculated that the wooden building was a church but because of its location in relation to the newly uncovered longhouses, Dengsø Jessen thinks that it is almost certainly Harald Bluetooth’s royal hall.

Jellinge is revered as the cradle of the Danish kingdom, and the larger of the two runic stones which is often described as the baptismal certificate of the Danish nation directly refers to Harald Bluetooth and his conversion of the country to Christianity.

The second Jellinge stone includes the first written reference to Denmark in the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Standardised Tests Reveal Huge Learning Gaps

Southern German students have come out on top of the country’s first nationwide standardised language tests, according to results presented this week by state education ministers.

Ninth-graders from 1,500 schools across the nation were tested for their English and German skills, and the clear leaders were the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. They were followed by Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate, while the worst performer was the city-state of Bremen.

The tests taken by some 41,000 students were the first measure of new nationwide educational standards set in place after the country’s embarrassing show in the European standardised PISA test performance in 2000.

As with the PISA tests, the Germany-specific assessment conducted by IQB institute for educational development showed a massive difference between northern and southern states.

Bavarian students were on average a whole school year ahead of their peers in Bremen when it came to reading comprehension — considered the most important subject for overall learning. On listening comprehension, they were nearly one-and-a-half years ahead.

The standardised tests mirrored PISA results that showed a strong connection between social background and educational success. An upper-class child with the same intelligence as a child born to skilled labourers has 4.5 times the likelihood of attending a college-preparatory high school, results showed.

Interestingly, on a state level this social difference was greatest in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the states with the highest test scores. There, children of university-educated parents were respectively 6.6 and 6.5 times more likely to attend an upper-level high school, called a Gymnasium. The state with the most social equality among its students was found to be Berlin, where upper class students were only 1.7 times more likely to attend a Gymnasium.

The IQB tests also measured what proportion of students are from an immigration background, registering a nationwide average of 18 percent. The highest concentration of these students were in the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. The tests showed an enormous difference in the academic capabilities between these students and native Germans, with Turks, the country’s largest immigrant population, performing the worst. Students from Poland and the former Soviet states showed far better results, signalling large differences among individual immigrant groups, the IQB found.

The head of the German teachers’ association (DL) Josef Kraus praised the tests on Thursday as a better way to measure student performance than the PISA tests.

“The new school study is more strongly related to German lesson plans and educational standards than the PISA tests,” he told daily Passauer Neue Presse, adding that looking at both sets of results allowed comparisons on both an international and state level.

“One can see that states like Bavaria are closer to exemplary countries like Finland,” he told the paper. “Other states like Bremen — to put it bluntly — are closer to the level of Brazil or Mexico.”

The success of the southern states comes from longer school hours, Kraus said.

“Within the first eight school years there are easily 300 to 400 more hours of class,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Children’s Stone Attack on Jews Sparks Outrage

Germany’s Jewish community has reacted with shock to a stone-throwing attack by Muslim children as young as 10 on a Jewish dance troupe performing at a Hannover festival, media reported Thursday.

About 30 children and youths, largely of Lebanese, Palestinian and Iranian descent, threw stones at the dancers on Sunday, shouting “Jews out!” daily Berliner Morgenpost reported.

The youths were aged from 10 to 15, the paper reported.

The dance troupe, named Chaverim — Hebrew for “friends” — broke off their performance after one of their members was hit in the leg by a stone and lightly injured.

Lower Saxony Integration Minister Aygül Özkan said through a spokesman she was “deeply shocked” by the incident.

Charlotte Knoblauch, president of the German Jewish Council, said the incident showed “a new social provocation, which already in the past weeks is clearly visible as it hasn’t been before.”

Anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic feelings were evidently simmering among Muslim youths living in Germany, she said, adding that this case “saddens me especially because these anti-Semitic attitudes are encountered already in children and youths with this vehemence.”

The incident follows the recent attack by the Israeli military on an aid flotilla that was attempting to break the Jewish state’s blockade of Gaza, in which nine Turkish members of the flotilla were killed, earning Israel widespread international condemnation.

Hannover Mayor Stephan Weil branded the incident “unacceptable.” The city was meanwhile pursuing charges of incitement and attempted assault. He said at a press conference Wednesday there was “no evidence that the crime was prepared by an organisation or in advance.”

The chairman of the Jewish community in Lower Saxony, Michael Fürst, said however that “the children acted at least with the approval, if not even the direction of their parents.”

According to police, this was the first violent anti-Semitic crime in the Hannover area this year that was not committed by neo-Nazis, though there had been anti-Israeli demonstrations outside of the far-right movement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Jewish Dance Group Stoned in Hanover, Germany

German police are investigating the stoning of a Jewish dance group trying to perform on the street in the city of Hanover.

Youths reportedly shouted “Juden Raus” (Jews Out) as they attacked the dancers of the Chaverim (“Friends” in Hebrew) dance troupe last weekend.

Police said several Muslim immigrant youths were among the attackers and two youths were being questioned.

A German Jewish leader said she feared growing anti-Israeli sentiment.

‘So awful’

The group was trying to perform in Hanover’s Sahlkamp district, which has a large immigrant community.

One of the dancers was injured in the leg and the troupe cancelled the performance after the attack.

Police said one German suspect aged 14 and a 19-year-old of North African origin were being questioned.

Alla Volodarska, of the Progressive Jewish community of Hanover, told Associated Press news agency she had spoken to the dancers involved.

“What happened is just so awful. The teenagers started throwing stones the moment our dance group was announced, even before they started dancing.”

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the Die Welt newspaper that anti-Semitic feelings were widespread in both far-right and Muslim communities in the country.

“It particularly saddens me that those anti-Semitic views can already be seen with such vehemence among children and youths,” she said.

           — Hat tip: CRM [Return to headlines]



Modern Swedes Face Up to the Monarchy Paradox

As republicans sharpen their rhetorical weapons, Peter Vinthagen Simpson ponders why the self-proclaimed most modern country in the world is suffering a bout of introspection over its royal family, long accepted as just part of the national furniture

In a popular Sveriges Television series first broadcast in 2006, charismatic comic and linguist Fredrik Lindström prompted a period of national introspection when he posed the question — Is Sweden the most modern country in the world? — while arguing that Swedes bestride a split mentality of complacency and insecurity.

The Swedish monarchy has long been beyond the pale of criticism in Sweden, at least for foreigners. It is up there with the Systembolaget state monopoly liquour stores and Swedish strawberries — you just don’t go there.

When the engagement of Crown Princess Victoria and commoner Daniel Westling was announced last year it was widely predicted to provide a timely boost for the royal family. But as the world’s press descends on Stockholm for the wedding several polls indicate a waning support for the institution of the monarchy. Could the paradox outlined in Lindström’s programme provide a clue as to why?

While the machinations of the Swedish royals play out on the society pages; while the young, photogenic royal offspring pursue worthy deeds spruced up with a few modest foreign holidays; and while folk-dress clad princesses beam at largely-ignored national day celebrations, the existence of a constitutional monarchy remains just part of the furniture and uncontroversial, and it remains a national affair.

But when foreign eyes turn to Sweden, as they have done this week, the insecurity identified by Lindström is brutally exposed, and what has been regarded by many as “The World’s Most Modern Monarchy”, becomes just another undemocratic anachronism.

In short “The World’s Most Modern Country” cares what supposedly less modern countries think.

New evidence of this emerged only this week with the widespread reporting of a New York Times article proclaiming that “Swedish Fathers Can Have it All”. Sweden is rightly proud of its family policy record, but like anyone else it is always nice to hear outsiders confirm what has always been known.

Many Stockholmers have meanwhile been trying to cash in on the wedding by renting out their apartments for the week of the royal wedding. There is no doubt a purely financial motive for this, but for many this is chance to aloofly announce their departure — a display of disdain for the pomp, the ceremony, and the displays of inherited wealth and title that a royal wedding by definition displays.

The citizens of “The World’s Most Modern Country” might be both equally complacent and insecure, Lindström argued, but we are also wedded to rationalism.

As the media hype reaches its exalted crescendo, Swedes are being forced to take a stand on the issue and many it seems are finding that when pushed they can’t stand up for the decidedly unmodern values that all monarchies, constitutional or otherwise, represent; as well as the decidedly irrational arguments used to defend them.

There are of course several rational arguments for defending a constitutional monarchy — the relative cost of a president, foreign trade, PR and so on — but when the Bernadotte dynasty is displayed, albeit fleetingly, as an ostentatious symbol of national pride and celebration, “The World’s Most Modern People” start to shift uncomfortably in their seats.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Paris Hosts Cyber-Shelter for Battered Bloggers

Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Thursday launched a virtual “anti-censorship shelter” to protect bloggers around the world from repressive authorities.

The group (RSF) unveiled a room in its Paris headquarters set aside for fugitive journalists or bloggers from abroad to drop in and blog with secure Internet connections using software that masks their online identity.

The project also offers to provide carefully selected bloggers in other countries with free access to secure, anonymous online connections to make it harder for authorities to pursue them for their work.

“This will allow them to connect to the Internet securely, to help them continue their work as bloggers,” the secretary general of RSF Jean-Francois Julliard told AFP at the launch of what he called the “virtual shelter.”

He admitted that determined governments could find ways round the masked Internet addresses, but said the project could still help responsible bloggers avoid arrest — a trend which RSF says is on the rise.

“If the CIA or other government agencies like that want to get round it they can, but this will make things much more difficult,” Julliard said.

RSF estimates that about 120 people are in jail throughout the world as punishment for blogging and other forms of online journalism, singling out countries such as China, Vietnam and Iran…

[Return to headlines]



Sharia-Compliant Banking Products a ‘Huge Flop’ In Britain

Junaid Bhatti, part of the team that set up Islamic Bank of Britain, the first Sharia-compliant bank approved by the Financial Services Authority, says that the sector has been a big disappointment.

“As we now approach the sixth anniversary of IBB’s launch, I’m sad to finally have to admit that Islamic finance in the UK has been a huge flop,” he said. “IBB may still be limping on as probably the last bastion of the cause, but it’s difficult to imagine it holding out for much longer…

[Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Bedouins Strike Back After Egypt Crackdown on Gaza Smuggling

[…]

On June 21, Bedouin gunmen opened fire on a convoy of seven trucks in eastern Sinai. The sources said the convoy was on its way to deliver supplies to Israel.

The sources said the Bedouin attack on the Israel-bound convoy consisted of at least 30 gunmen. They said two people were injured in the convoy.

Hours earlier, Egyptian police raided Bedouin homes in eastern Sinai. The sources said police and security forces have been searching for fugitives among the Bedouins as well as Palestinians who infiltrated from Gaza.

In wake of the attack, the sources said, hundreds of Bedouins have fled their homes for the mountains to avoid an Egyptian arrest campaign. They said the Bedouins have urged authorities to agree to an outside mediator to enable the fugitives to return home.

Bedouin smugglers were said to have expanded their cooperation with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. The sources said the Bedouins have also been trained by Hamas and other Palestinian elements in operations against Egyptian security forces…

[Return to headlines]



Noam Shalit in Rome: Europe’s Voice Weak

Father of abducted IDF soldier held by Hamas meets Italian foreign minister, Rome mayor; says Israel gave in to EU pressure

Noam Shalit, father of abducted IDF soldier Gilad, said to Ynet on Thursday that Europe’s call for the release of his son is not enough. “Here and there they make calls like that, feebly and not clearly or unequivocally enough,” he said.

Shalit, currently in Rome, met with Mayor Gianni Alemanno and later with Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. He said he had thanked the mayor for the event in aid of Gilad, for whom the lights of the Colosseum will be turned off Thursday night at the same exact time as the lights on the Old City walls in Jerusalem will be turned off.

“This is a beautiful and moving gesture,” he said. Rome has granted Gilad honorary citizenship.

Shalit also said his hosts wanted to know what was happening with the deal that would lead to Gilad’s release.

“I said things have changed for the worse after Israel gave up the main leverage point it had for securing his release — the civilian blockade (on the Gaza Strip),” he said.

During his meeting with Frattini, Shalit asked the EU to pressure Hamas in the same way it had pressured Israel to lift the blockade after the flotilla affair.

“Israel gave in to international pressure,” he said. “I expect the Europeans to apply the same pressure on Hamas to release Gilad, both directly and indirectly.”

“The Europeans say they have no direct contact with Hamas, but Europe is a central player in the Middle East and it has the ability to apply indirect pressure if it chooses,” Shalit said.

The event in Rome will mark four years since Gilad was abducted.

“This will remind the Italians that keeping Gilad four years in Hamas captivity without seeing his family or Red Cross representatives is a war crime,” Gilad’s father asserted.

On Friday, four years will have passed since Gilad Shalit was abducted.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Kurdish Fighters Back With ‘High-Quality’ Attacks

Officials said the PKK has been conducting the largest operations in more than a decade along the Turkish border with Iraq. They said the PKK was deploying hundreds of fighters in assaults on Turkish military and security outposts.

“The attacks are much more sophisticated and their methods considerably advanced,” an official said. “The question is how did they get this good so fast?”

[…]

Several officials said the PKK skills reflected advanced training from foreign elements. Some of them said the training could have come from elements in Iraq or Israel…

[Return to headlines]



Turkey’s Military Seeks More Israeli Drones

A Turkish military delegation has arrived in Israel to test four Heron UAVs, manufactured by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. The delegation arrived in Israel amid threats by the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to suspend Turkish military cooperation with the Jewish state.

“We have been using Herons in northern Iraq over the last 10 days,” Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug said.

[Return to headlines]

South Asia


Mannequins in Tehran Have No Breasts — What Next?

Dangerous serial killers and sex criminals roam the Western world. In the not-too-distant past, such remorseless killers, such as Jack The Ripper, Ted Bundy, and the Green River Killer, targeted mainly vulnerable women, including prostituted women, whom they kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered. Often, breasts and genitalia were savagely mutilated.

Today, these horrific, individual acts pale in comparison to the barbarism of the Islamist world where similar, but legally approved and publicly shared acts of woman-hatred are carried out by national presidents, religious leaders, Vice and Virtue police—and by mobs inflamed by Friday sermons. In 2001, egged on by their imam, hundreds of men in Hassi Messaoud, Algeria physically and sexually attacked any woman they could find, murdering some, sexually mutilating others. Also in Algeria, religious paramilitary troops kidnapped young girls off the streets, forced them into domestic and sexual slavery, then murdered and beheaded them when they became pregnant. In 2006, one thousand men in Cairo, Egypt, went on a post-mosque “wilding” in which they attacked every unveiled, then every veiled, woman in sight.

[…]

The Khomeini- Algerian- and Taliban-era’s hot hatred of women, including Muslim women, and of disobedient Muslim girls and women, got heartbreakingly hotter.

Khomeini began by re-veiling the formerly modern and educated women of Tehran. The 1980s Iranian mullahcracy escalated matters; they stoned women to death—but raped them first so that the rape victim would not be able to enter Paradise. The mullahs also forced women into prostitution, then penalized them (not the Johns or the pimps) for it, all the while restricting womens’ rights at home, on the streets, and on the job.

Afghanistan (which didn’t need much in the way of encouragement) went “native” and adopted some of the worst Arab customs. They also went “Persian,” and came into their medieval own. Thus, the Afghan Taliban also stoned women to death but they did so publicly, in large stadiums, with large, blood-thirsty, cheering male crowds. The Afghan Taliban, and after them, the warlords, refused to allow women to work, even when they were war widows and the mothers of dependent children. This forced women into prostitution for which they were jailed. Girls were prevented from going to school, women could not even run beauty parlors or wear makeup, polygamy flourished as did the sale and forced marriage of female children…

[Return to headlines]



Pro-Troop Group Urges General McChrystal to Come Clean on Obama Admin Negligence

Sacramento, Calif — Move America Forward the nation’s largest grassroots pro-troop organization, is calling on discharged General McChrystal, formerly in command of the American forces in Afghanistan, to come public with the true extent of the Obama Administration’s disengagement with the war in Afghanistan.

As the Obama administration fumes over General Stanley McChrystal’s comments in the upcoming Rolling Stone article “Runaway General,” the pro-troop group organization is expressing shock that the President of the United States can be disinterested and uninformed on the war against Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Far East


China: Tomb Raiders Unearth New Marketplace

ANYANG, China — The old warlord, infamous for backstabbing and bloodletting, can hardly complain. When Chinese state television broadcast a live excavation this month of the tomb of General Cao Cao, the destruction found inside confirmed that tomb robbers had beaten archaeologists to the underground site.

Back in the third century, Cao Cao organized his soldiers into a treasure-hunting, tomb-raiding division. These days, the Chinese government threatens the death penalty for stealing cultural relics, yet this history-obsessed country still struggles to protect its rich historical legacy from a surge in an ancient trade: tomb raiding.

As China grows more prosperous, more Chinese are taking up antique collecting, and the growing demand is often met by fakes or tomb robbing, says antiques expert Wu Shu, 60.

Tomb raiding is “the worst in 20 years, when the antique collection market started” in China, he says. Government figures suggest that from 200,000 to 300,000 ancient tombs have been raided in the past two decades, “but the reality far exceeds that number,” says Wu, who agrees with a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimate that tomb robbers number more than 100,000. “When I speak to the leaders of archaeological teams, they tell me, ‘Of 10 tombs, nine are empty,’ “ Wu says.

Aboveboard antiquing

From 2,000-year-old porridge pots to 3,000-year-old wine jars, farmer Long Zhenshan knows well what history lurks beneath the dusty soil of Yuyang village, close to the site of Cao’s tomb.

Since he dug up some old pottery when planting trees in 1974, the farmer, now an antiques enthusiast, has collected more than 3,000 pieces from the fields, but never from a tomb, he says.

“These pieces show that people have been living here continuously for 6,000 years,” he says.

Long’s pride in his collection is clear. So is his frustration at the government’s response to tomb raiding. In 2003, he says, he alerted officials to robberies at a tomb that he guessed — correctly, as it turned out — was Cao’s. Long says it was raided several times before police responded four years later.

The state Administration of Cultural Heritage says crackdowns are hampered sometimes by a lack of local cooperation.

Since 2007, five gangs have targeted the tomb, and the region’s poverty is the main driver, Long says. His yearly earnings from wheat and maize fields rarely top 5,000 yuan — a little more than $700.

“Peaceful Harvest” is the translation of Anfeng township, the area that includes Cao’s tomb. Some villages there, such as Muchangtun, have a reputation for harvesting more than just wheat and other crops.

Wheat farmer Li Haichao, 30, says several villagers were arrested last year in raids to recover items stolen from Cao’s tomb.

“There are many people with money here, but they don’t dare show it as it came from tombs and they fear being fined,” Li says.

‘New currency of bribery’

Raiders are growing bolder. In January, a gang used bulldozers to smash into more than 10 ancient tombs in Jiangsu province.

“Ancient-tomb robbery is rampant in China,” Xu Weihong, excavation team leader at Xian’s famous Teracotta Army, told the Global Times newspaper. “Sometimes our archaeologists’ job is like that of a firefighter. We rush here and there to rescue robbed, ancient tombs.”

In May, a court in Hunan province dealt death penalties to four men dressed as soldiers who used explosives and earth movers to raid a dozen tombs, finding treasures that included a 2,000-year-old royal seal, the Legal Weekend newspaper reported.

Robbers combine techniques old and new, analyst Wu Shu says. To find tomb sites, they are guided by traditional divination and feng shui beliefs about how tombs and other things should be situated for spiritual balance. They use modern prospecting equipment, classic archaeological spades and a knowledge of explosives to gain access, usually in a single night’s work…

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


Australian Prime Minister Rudd Ditched in Favor of Left-Wing Deputy

In a stunning collapse for a once-popular leader, an emotional Kevin Rudd resigned as prime minister of Australia on Thursday, after losing the support of party leaders who are anxious to avoid defeat in upcoming elections.

[…]

The gathered MPs and Senators then quickly elected Gillard, a politician from the party’s left-wing who becomes the country’s first woman prime minister. Wayne Swan, the Australian Treasurer and a Gillard loyalist, was elected as deputy prime minister.

[…]

Rudd, a committed Christian with conservative social views, makes way for a politician who confesses no religious faith and is a member of Emily’s List, an organization with similar goals to its namesake in the United States — to elect “pro-choice women” to office.

Gillard’s past includes a leadership position in a left-wing organization, the Socialist Forum, which campaigned among other things for an end to Australia’s defense treaty with the U.S.

[Return to headlines]

Immigration


Mexico Drug Gang Threatens Arizona Police

PHOENIX (Reuters) — Police in an Arizona border city are on heightened alert after receiving a warning from a Mexican drug cartel that officers may be targeted if they carry out off-duty drug busts, authorities said on Tuesday.

Nogales Police Chief Jeff Kirkham said the department received the threat through an informant after two off-duty policemen seized 400 pounds (182 kg) of marijuana while horseback riding outside the city in early June.

“The warning was … that the officers, if they are off duty, are to look the other way and ignore any drug trafficking loads that are coming across the border, otherwise they will be targeted,” Kirkham told Reuters.

Arizona straddles a major corridor for Mexican smugglers who haul illegal immigrants and drugs north to the United States in a illicit trade worth billions of dollars a year.

Cartel turf wars and attacks on police have killed more than 25,000 people across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on drug gangs in late 2006.

In recent years, U.S. authorities have become increasingly concerned about drug violence spilling over the border and taking hold in the United States.

Kirkham said he took the threats against Nogales police “very seriously.” He said he had asked the Border Patrol for additional support, and had ordered officers to carry communications equipment and guns at all times.

In late April, Arizona passed a tough state law in an effort to stop the state serving as a key corridor for smuggling.

The law, which comes into effect next month, requires state and local police officers to investigate the immigration status of people they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally during a lawful stop.

Critics, including top officials in President Barack

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Mexico Files Court Brief Against Arizona Immigration Law

(CNN) — Mexico on Tuesday filed a brief in federal court in Arizona supporting a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a tough new immigration law, Mexico’s foreign ministry said.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn SB 1070, a recently passed law due to go into effect late next month, which stipulates that police can ask the residency status of people being investigated for a crime.

“The government of Mexico has requested the court that SB 1070 be declared unconstitutional and that it does not enter into force,” the foreign ministry said in a written statement.

The Mexican government gave its support to the lawsuit filed by a group of civil rights organizations, including the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, the National Immigration Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In its brief, Mexico “underscored that it is fundamental and imperative that the human and civil rights of its citizens are duly respected while present in Arizona or in any other state of the United States,” the foreign ministry said.

In filing the brief, Mexico said it was upholding its duty to protect its nationals in the United States and ensure that they are not discriminated against based on their ethnicity.

The case is Friendly House, et al v. Michael B. Whiting, et al.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Napolitano: State and Local Police May Deploy to Border

[…]

In a major policy speech in which she took aim at what she called “bumper sticker” slogans and said the Obama administration has made huge strides on security, Miss Napolitano said the border can be made still more secure and said administration officials are in the middle of “surging” more boots on the ground.

“We are not satisfied. There is more work to do,” said Miss Napolitano, a former Arizona governor.

The remarks signal a change in tone for the secretary, who late last year said she believed enough had been done on the border that Congress could turn its attention to legalizing illegal immigrants already in the U.S. The remarks come as President Obama is trying to apply moderate pressure to Congress to pass such an immigration bill this year.

Nearly a month ago, Mr. Obama announced he would deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the southwest border and would request $500 million from Congress to boost law enforcement personnel and infrastructure there, too.

But as of this week, no plan for the Guard deployment has been submitted and it wasn’t until Tuesday that the president actually sent details of his $500 million request to Congress…

[Return to headlines]



UK: Immigrant Baby Boom Sees British Population Soar by Double Rate of Previous Decade

Britain’s fast-rising population is now close to 62million, the latest count showed yesterday.

Numbers of people in the country went up by 394,000 to reach 61,792,000 by the middle of last year, the Office for National Statistics said.

The increase of 0.6 per cent on the previous year means the population has been rising at the same rapid rate since the Millennium, mainly driven by high levels of immigration.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Abortion ‘Triples Breast Cancer Risk’: Fourth Study Finds Terminations Linked to Disease

An abortion can triple a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer in later life, researchers say.

A team of scientists made the claim while carrying out research into how breastfeeding can protect women from developing the killer disease.

While concluding that breastfeeding offered significant protection from cancer, they also noted that the highest reported risk factor in developing the disease was abortion.

Other factors included the onset of the menopause and smoking.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, are the latest research to show a link between abortion and breast cancer.

The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

It is the fourth epidemiological study to report such a link in the past 14 months, with research in China, Turkey and the U.S. showing similar conclusions.

But Cancer Research UK questioned the accuracy of the figures and said women should not be unduly worried.

Dr Kat Arney, the charity’s science information manager, said: ‘This is a very small study of only 300 women, so there are likely to be statistical errors in a sample of this size.

‘Much larger studies involving tens of thousands of women have shown no significant links.’

But the findings prompted accusations that women in Britain are not being properly informed of the dangers of abortion.

Professor Jack Scarisbrick, the chairman of Life, a pregnancy counselling charity, said: ‘This is devastating new evidence of the abortion-breast cancer link.

‘We have encountered from the pro-abortion lobby manipulation of the evidence on a truly disgraceful scale. This study is further evidence that has been gathering from all around the world that abortion is a major risk factor for breast cancer.

‘When will the (medical) establishment face up to this fact and pull its head out of the sand?

‘It is betraying women by failing to warn that what they are doing to their bodies — the quick fix of abortion — can do grave harm.’

Although the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has acknowledged the possibility of an abortion-breast cancer link, most medical professionals in Britain remain unconvinced.

This is because an international study led by Oxford University concluded in 2004 that having an abortion does not heighten a woman’s risk.

Some scientists say, however, that the Oxford research was flawed because many of the women studied were too young to have developed the disease.

Those who believe there is a link say breast cancer is caused by high levels of oestradiol, a hormone that stimulates breast growth during pregnancy.

Its effects are minimised in women who take pregnancy to full term but it remains at dangerous levels in those who have abortions.

There has been an 80 per cent increase in the rate of breast cancer since 1971, when in the wake of the Abortion Act, the number of abortions rose from 18,000 to nearly 200,000 a year.

Earlier this year, Dr Louise Brinton, a senior researcher with the U.S. National Cancer Institute who did not accept the link, reversed her position to say she was now convinced abortion increased the risk of breast cancer by about 40 per cent.

[Return to headlines]



Boy Scouts Win “Gay Battle” In Court

Philadelphia jury has ruled in favor of the Boy Scouts, meaning they will not be evicted from their home or forced to pay rent, at least for now.

Outside the courthouse, a lawyer for the Boy Scouts, Jason Gosselin, told Fox News the Scouts won on the most important issue, that of First Amendment rights. The jury found the city posed an unconstitutional condition on the organization by asking it to pay $200,000 annual rent on property it was leasing for a dollar a year, in a building the Scouts built and paid for themselves, all because the city felt the Scouts were in violation of Philadelphia’s anti-discrimination laws.

“What we really want is to sit down with the city and resolve this matter once and for all” Gosselin says.

Philadelphia’s response: “We are disappointed that the jury did not appreciate the City’s obligation to deploy municipal resources in a manner that protects the rights of all of Philadelphia’s citizens. While the good work of the Boy Scouts cannot be disputed, the City remains steadfast in its commitment to prevent its facilities from being used to disadvantage certain groups. In the meantime, we will review the trial record to determine our legal options.”

[Return to headlines]



Children’s Workshops ‘In Midst of Loud and Boisterous Homosexual Activities’

Is Home Depot seeking to introduce children to the homosexual lifestyle?

The home-improvement giant has sponsored yet another “gay” pride event and provided children’s craft workshops “in the midst of loud and boisterous gay activities” at the 2010 Southern Maine Pride Festival in Portland, Maine, according to the American Family Association.

“The worst offense is that Home Depot has set up kids’ workshops at these gay pride festivals,” explains AFA’s director of special projects. “These are events that have loud, boisterous homosexual activists making their voices heard — and Home Depot is putting money behind setting up kids’ booths at these kinds of events.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



‘Gay’-Pride Parade Features 10-Year-Old Grand Marshal

A 10-year-old boy has been named grand marshal for a gay pride parade this weekend — prompting a family advocacy group to call the decision “child abuse” and urge the local mayor to withdraw city support for the event.

The American Family Association spoke out against Will Phillips’ scheduled participation Saturday in the Northwest Arkansas Pride parade in Fayetteville, Ark.

“It’s shameful that adults would abuse a brain-washed child in this way,” AFA President Tim Wildmon wrote in a press release. “He’s obviously just parroting the nonsense he’s been told by manipulative adults. For gay activists to trot out this child and make him the poster child for promoting unnatural sexual expression is a form of child abuse.”

[…]

The boy made headlines in 2009 when the fifth-grader publicly refused to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag until gays and lesbian have “equal” rights and are allowed to marry.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The Central Fallacy of Public Schooling

[…]

Proponents of public schooling argue against the complete privatization of schooling on the grounds that the poor would not be able to afford tuition and that some parents would not provide schooling for their children, leaving them “uneducated.” However, the rampant levels of ignorance, subliteracy, and hostility to learning that characterize tax-funded schools argue that the present system is itself not serving the best interests of students.

Instead it is clear whose interests are being advanced. Fifty-four years ago the writer in Young America was moved to emphasize in italics that era’s apparently high tax rates. Since then the average tax burden has doubled. Yet, as one of my acquaintances has commented, “Americans today are in a stupor.” In other words, the tax-supported school system has triumphed. Americans are behaving exactly the way those who govern desire them to behave.

Children who are turned over to the state become molded by the state. Most parents cannot conceive of a totally privatized alternative because they themselves have been indoctrinated by public schooling to believe in its alleged necessity. However, it is fallacious for parents to think that children can escape government schooling without having their traditions and beliefs subverted. “Free” schooling is seductively attractive in the short run, but it has long-term costs. The dismantling of tax-funded schooling will not be accomplished until more and more parents say, “My child does not belong to the state.”

[Return to headlines]

General


Climate Change: The IPCC in the Age of Speculation

Judge Lance Ito lost control of the O. J. Simpson trial when he allowed speculation without a shred of evidence. Defense counsel Johnny Cochrane was able to sow seeds of doubt by his speculations and it found fertile ground in the jury’s mind. The entire Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) structure and work was designed to convince the public either with no facts or falsely created ones. Once these were established the speculation of impending doom could begin.

Structure of the IPCC begins with Working Group I outlining an unproven speculation that academics call a hypothesis, which is defined as, “a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.” In this case they proposed that CO2 is a gas that causes global temperature to rise and it will continue to increase in volume in the atmosphere because human activity, particularly energy production, will continue to expand.

As evidence accumulated it showed the hypothesis was not proven. Indeed, nobody has produced a record that shows a CO2 increase preceding a temperature increase.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Maurice Strong Advises Folk to Ignore Glenn Beck

Interesting that Maurice Strong would send FoxNews’ Glenn Beck a message today via Britain’s guardian.co.uk.

Maurice Strong: Ignore Glenn Beck—I don’t want to rule the world was Chairman Mo’s message in newspaper headlines.

[…]

In his own words, Strong told hundreds of thousands at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, “The concept of national sovereignty has been immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful.”

[…]

Nor did Strong show much sympathy for the middle class while addressing the Rio Earth Summit: “Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class—involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, air conditioning and suburban housing—are not sustainable. A shift is necessary which will require a vast strengthening of the multilateral system, including the United Nations.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Veiled Truths: The Rise of Political Islam in the West

by Marc Lynch

This spring, Tariq Ramadan arrived in the United States nearly six years after being denied a visa by the Bush administration. The U.S. government had previously refused Ramadan entry on the grounds that he had donated to a French charity with ties to Hamas. Then, last January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that Ramadan was welcome. His appearance in the United States seemed to manifest the White House’s changing rhetoric about the Muslim world. In June 2009, President Barack Obama spoke in Cairo of reaching out to Muslims with “mutual interest and mutual respect.” Figures such as Ramadan — symbols of a nonviolent Islamism long shunned as enablers of extremism — may now represent a bridge across previously intractable divides.

Paul Berman will have none of this. His book The Flight of the Intellectuals, based on a 28,000-word essay published three years ago in The New Republic, mounts a furious counterattack from the bygone days of the Bush administration. Too many in the United States and Europe, Berman argues, are confronting the wrong enemy. Violent Islamists do not pose the greatest danger; instead, it is their so-called moderate cousins, who are able to draw well-meaning liberals into a poisonous embrace. Their rejection of violence is both partial — not extending to Israel or to U.S. troops in Iraq — and misleading. In Berman’s telling, the Islamist project of societal transformation from below does profound violence to the individual Muslims who are forced to live in an increasingly constricted milieu. The only defensible response is to repel the stealth Islamism of putative moderates with a morally pure vision of liberalism.

But such a polemic, in fact, poorly serves those concerned about the rise of political Islam in the West. Berman does flag important debates about Islam’s impact on Europe and the world, but he is an exceedingly poor guide to navigating them. His reading of Islamism, based on a narrow selection of sources read in translation and only a sliver of the vast scholarship on the subject, fails to grasp its political and intellectual context. He is blind to the dramatic variation and competition across and within groups — above all, to the fierce war between the Salafi purists who call for a literalistic Islam insulated from modernity and the modernizing pragmatists who seek to adapt Islam to the modern world. This blindness feeds the worst instincts of those hard-liners who are fomenting an avoidable clash between Islam and the West. His obsession with Nazism is distracting, and his dissection of Ramadan approaches the pathological. His caustic rhetoric toward writers such as Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash does not suggest the liberal or tolerant ethos to which he claims allegiance.

….

The most helpful strategic victory in the struggle against Islamist radicalism would be to undermine the narrative that the West is at war with Islam. There should be no tolerance for Islamist extremists who threaten writers, intimidate women, or support al Qaeda’s terrorism. But defending Hirsi Ali from death threats should not necessarily mean embracing her diagnosis of Islam. Berman’s culture war would marginalize the pragmatists and empower the extremists. Muslim communities are more likely to reject such extremists when they do not feel that their faith is being attacked as fascist or that they can only be accepted if they embrace Israel and the policy preferences of American conservatives.

The Muslims in the West are not going away. It is therefore imperative to find a way for these communities to become full partners in the security and prosperity offered by Western societies. If democracy has any meaning, it must be able to allow Muslims to peacefully pursue their interests and advance their ideas — even as the liberals who defend the right of Muslims to do so are also free to oppose them. Ramadan may not present the only path to such an end — but he does present one. And that is why his liberal proponents in the West, who so infuriate Berman for promoting Ramadan, emerge as more compelling guides to a productive future.

[JP note: Lynch’s pro-Muslim Brotherhood advocacy would appear to have significant traction in the places where it matters: the Whitehouse, Whitehall, etc. Unfortunately for all concerned Lynch’s bridge is more likely to disappoint than otherwise, and it should, therefore, more correctly be designated a pier.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100623

Financial Crisis
» Greece: Left Preparing for Early Elections
» Greece: Strikes Against Austerity Plan Resumed
» New Sharia Standards Are Adopted
 
USA
» Another Crisis Not Wasted
» Book on ‘Most Dangerous President in History’
» Bork Hits Kagan Over Israeli Judge
» Col. Jack Jacobs: Most in Military Will Say McChrystal ‘Was Right’
» Do We Need “Alternative Energy” Because of the Oil Spill?
» Extreme DIY: Building a Homemade Nuclear Reactor in NYC
» He’s Obama! He’s Black! So, Shut Up!
» Incoming D-Day Memorial Chief Stands by Stalin Bust
» Mexican Gangs Maintain Permanent Lookout Bases in Hills of Arizona
» Mexican Drug Cartel Warns Police Officers in Arizona Border Town to ‘Look the Other Way’
» Murfreesboro Mosque Uses the Muslim Brotherhood Reading List
» New Drilling Moratorium in Works, Salazar Says
» Obama’s ‘Party List’ For McChrystal
» Obama Vows to End Homelessness in 10 Years
» Obama Democrats Have Declared War on the States
» Obama Scholar Linked to ‘Ground Zero’ Imam
 
Canada
» 5.0 Val-Des-Bois Quake Rattles Ottawa, Eastern North America
» Canada ‘Furious’ Over U.S.-Backed Women’s Rights Super Agency
 
Europe and the EU
» Council of Europe Urges End to Swiss Minaret Ban
» EU Democracy Instrument Continues to Cause Headaches
» Female Pope Film Sparks Vatican Row
» Germany: Armed Forces Personnel Could be Cut by 100,000
» How European Tolerance Islamized Turkey
» Italy: Watchdog Sounds Alarm Over Corruption
» Italy: Rome to Get Second Baby Hatch
» Italy: Oldest Paintings of Apostles Found
» Italy: No More Nets in Bagnara, Fishermen Hand Them Back
» Italy: Police ‘Uncover’ €22 Bln in Unpaid Taxes
» Sweden: Moderates Are Largest Party: Poll
» Swedish Dockers Launch Israeli Goods Blockade
» The Future of Islam in Europe
» UK: ‘Greedy, Manipulative and Cunning’: Judge’s Verdict on NHS Manager Who Fraudulently Claimed £15,000 in Benefits
» UK: Girls of Nine Lured by Gang Culture of Drugs, Sex and Violence Sweeping Britain
» What the Butler Heard — L’Oreal Heiress Tax Scandal Hits Minister
 
North Africa
» Spain-Morocco: Ceuta, ‘Occupied City’ Signs Removed
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Essay Contest With $100 Prize: Why the Kurds Don’t Deserve an Independent State
» Gilad Shalit is Not the Only Hostage
» Israel and the Surrender of the West
» Jerusalem: Solution Found for Silwan, Netanyahu
» Sentence of Some Ultra-Orthodox Mothers Revoked
» UNRWA Questions Worth of Vow to Ease Gaza Grip
» US Praises New Gaza Measures, Netanyahu Visit Soon
 
Middle East
» Arab Women Urge Support for Al-Jazeera Reporters
» Russia Promises Not to Deliver Air Defense System to Iran
» Union Warns Al-Jazeera “Not to Discriminate”
» United States — Iran: US Military Pressure Increasing in the Persian Gulf
 
Russia
» 5 Year-Old Ukranian Boy Slaughtered Like a Goat by Radical Islamist
» Russia, Italy to Begin Building Joint Helicopter Assembly Facility
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Top US Commander Recalled Over News Article
» Afghanistan: Taliban ‘Plotted to Kill US Envoy’
» India: Islamist ‘Militant Leader’ Killed in Gunbattle
» Indonesia: Police Charge Rock Star Over ‘Porn Video’
» Indonesia: Bekasi: Islamic Extremists Destroy an “Immoral and Blasphemous” Sculpture
» Pakistan: Islamabad “Uses Terrorism Against Minorities”.
» Pakistani PM Warns He’ll Defy US Sanctions
» Pakistani Province Funds Terrorism-Linked Charity
» Verdicts on Five Americans Arrested in Pakistan Could Come Thursday
 
Far East
» China: Another Suicide at Foxconn, After Boss’s Visit and Publicity
» China: Work-Related Suicides Due to Indifference, Hong Kong Trade Union Leader Says
 
Australia — Pacific
» Game Over for Kevin Rudd
 
Immigration
» Mexico Asks Court to Reject Arizona Immigration Law
» Senators Warn Obama: ‘No Amnesty by Presidential Fiat’
» Video: Obama Urges Illegals: Rat Out Your Bosses!
 
Culture Wars
» UK: ‘What’s God Got to Do With it?’ Atheist Mayor Bans Traditional Christian Prayers Before Council Meetings
» UK: Grieving Families Left Distraught After Council Rules That Wooden Crosses Are ‘Too Dangerous’ For Cemeteries
» UK: Man Who Had Sex Change Wins Right to Receive Pension Five Years Early at Women’s Retirement
» Video: America, 2010: Christians Hauled to Jail for Preaching Jesus
 
General
» Botox Limits Ability to Feel Emotions
» Personality Predicted by Size of Different Brain Regions

Financial Crisis


Greece: Left Preparing for Early Elections

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Greek’s political left is “ready” for early elections, which it considers “likely”, facing the strong social opposition against the austerity plan of the socialist government of Giorgio Papandreou. The leader of the far-left coalition (Syriza), Alexis Tsipras, today told Radio Skai that “the government will not go far” and that “we are ready for an (early) return to the ballot box to change the politics” of this country. Also in the eyes of the leader of the communist party (Kke), Aleka Papariga, early elections are “likely” and the political and social forces should get ready. The idea of early elections in November, at the same time as the local elections, has been expressed by the opposition for some time, but the government denied the idea once again yesterday. Meanwhile the government has decided, under pressure of the opposition and union, according to the press, to change the decree on a change of the labour market into a parliamentary bill. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Greece: Strikes Against Austerity Plan Resumed

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 21 — Local and general strikes have been resumed in Greece against the austerity plans and against the pension reform which will be discussed this week in Parliament. The communist union Pame has called a 24-hour national strike for this Wednesday and union leader Aleka Papariga has even turned to the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, to try and stop the pension reform and the presidential decrees on a labour reform. The strike will partially paralyse transport. On June 29 there will be a general strike of the two large unions, Adedy of the public sector and GSEE of the private sector. There will be demonstrations in the main cities of Greece and Pame may join in. These protests are likely to paralyse the entire country. As of tomorrow employees of the Railways (OSE) will interrupt their work until Thursday, with serious consequences for the national lines. Employees of the underground who today interrupted their fourth day of strike, waiting for tomorrow’s talks with the government on the dismissal of 285 workers, may resume their protest if no agreement is reached in the coming days. Workers in the port of Piraeus will hold a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to protest against the coastal trade reform. Cargo and passenger transport will be totally blocked, in the middle of the tourist season. Lawyers will take turns in several days of 24-hour strikes against the tax raise and the reform of the welfare system. The pension reform that has been agreed with experts of the EU and the IMF includes freezes, cuts and a raise of the retirement age to 65 years with 40 years of contribution payments for all, starting in 2015. According to the rightwing press, the socialist government party, Pasok, is divided on the issue, and the Premier has issued a warning that if the bill is not passed, early elections will be organised. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



New Sharia Standards Are Adopted

MANAMA: The Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has adopted three new Sharia standards.

This includes a ruling on standards for the disposal of rights, bankruptcy and the management of liquidity, collection and use.

“The adoption of these three standards, together with those adopted in previous years, are an important addition to our standards, both in terms of kind and number,” said AAOIFI secretary general Mohamad Nedal Alchaar.

“The number of new standards adopted since the beginning of last year is 14 so far, bringing the total number of existing standards to more than 84. This is a significant achievement for AAOIFI,” he said.

“There is a need for formulating such standards because of the increased complexity seen by the Islamic financial services industry in its different products and transactions, as well as the steadily increasing growth of the Islamic finance industry.

“The aftermath of the global financial crisis affirmed the need for AAOIFI to keep pace with the changes arising from such crisis.”

==============================================

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidGN_21062010_220618/Global%20real%20estate%20exchange%20aims%20to%20bring%20market%20security

Global real estate exchange aims to bring market security

Dubai The founders of a global real estate security exchange, Saudi Arabian IREX Group and Canadian egX World, believe they would bring liquidity and transparency to the market.

“Willing buyers and sellers will be able to trade in one harmonised environment, which will mitigate the misuse of investment in real estate. At the moment, real estate is the right place for money laundering, it’s the truth,” said Safar Al Harthi, Executive Chairman of IREX Group.

Whilst an investor in shares of a project listed on the exchange can rest assured that it will have passed the exchange’s test, there’s no guarantee that all developments will bring money.

“We can’t guarantee a project won’t fail, but there’s the security of a regulated environment and legal rights. Shares will go up and down but at least the real estate market won’t be dependent on the stock exchange fluctuations any more,” said Leo Chamberland, President and CEO of IREX Group.

Projects listed on the exchange will be extensively vetted before listing and constantly monitored to maximise transparency. A project would have to disclose annual reports and provide reports by three legally independent consultants on a quarterly basis.

For projects under construction a live feed of activity on the site with a barometer measuring progress by year, month and day would be available on the exchange’s site.

“If a project slows down the developer has to disclose and explain why. This looks picky maybe but it’s what investors need and will enhance transparency,” Al Harthi added.

Developers or owners could list land, real estate projects of all sizes and in all sectors in the planning, ready assets and mortgage pools, traded as securities ranging from common shares, debt securities to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Sharia compliant products.

“The mortgage pool is particularly interesting. A lack of transparency and disclosure in the US and then across the world, as loans were traded over value, resulted in the global crisis. If we can open that door to transparency, investor confidence will come back to the open market and liquidity comes from that participation,” said Chamberland.

Land banking is another huge business, up to now reserved for the wealthy. Owning shares in real estate allows those who want to but can’t afford a whole asset to participate,” he added.

“Via shares, anyone can buy a piece of promising land and there are many out there who want a piece of the real estate market but don’t want the headache of owning property.”

With banks still reticent to lend, once would expect developers to be only too eager to list and raise finance via the exchange, but will they be willing to disclose all details of their project?

Chamberland believes they would, comparing a developer with a project to an owner of a fast car offered a new road he can’t drive as fast on as he would like to.”

If a project is to be listed, an application must be made. Following an initial security check, the project will then undergo an IPO (initial public offering) and, once listed, trading will begin. The development of the project then commences. All details are disclosed throughout the process and once the project is settled, shares tend to go up and investors get paid.

Just like the regular stock exchange, investors can buy shares of a real estate project or ready assets and dispose of them when necessary.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

USA


Another Crisis Not Wasted

Following the Rahm Emanuel playbook, President Barack Obama is losing no time in taking full advantage of the Gulf oil spill crisis to further his far left agenda. When he was addressing the nation from the oval office last week, his tone and demeanor were combative, as his speech was filled with words and phrases that alluded to warfare.

“Make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes,” the President intoned. “Tonight I’d like to lay out for you what our battle plan is going forward,” and then proceeded to use words and phrases like “mobilization,” “siege,” and a “determination to fight for the America we want for our children.” And as is standard operating procedure in exploiting any crisis, Mr. Obama reminded his audience that there was a “sense of urgency that this challenge requires.” Lies, Untruths, Half truths, Innuendo

Of course, he also added his usual share of half-truths, untruths and innuendo to give a strong emotional context to his words and he chose to begin at the beginning:

“First, the cleanup. From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our nation’s history — an effort led by Admiral Thad Allen, who has almost 40 years of experience responding to disasters. We now have nearly 30,000 personnel who are working across four states to contain and clean up the oil. Thousands of ships and other vessels are responding in the Gulf. And I’ve authorized the deployment of over 17,000 National Guard members along the coast. These servicemen and women are ready to help stop the oil from coming ashore, they’re ready to help clean the beaches, train response workers, or even help with processing claims — and I urge the governors in the affected states to activate these troops as soon as possible.”

Truth of the matter is that Admiral Allen wasn’t appointed at “the very beginning,” but 10 days after the very beginning and the federal government at that time was clueless as to the actual extent of the disaster. It was the government of Sweden and the Netherlands that recognized the severity of the problem almost immediately, offering to send ships with oil-skimming booms three days after the initial explosion. According to Dutch Consul General for the Netherlands, Geert Visser, the US government refused to accept help in “a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.”

[…]

The Big Lie, The Money Shot

Then the money shot, better known as the big lie: “The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight. Countries like China are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that should be right here in America.” Really? If that’s the case, then why is China in the process of building some 80 coal-fired electricity generation facilities over the next few years?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Book on ‘Most Dangerous President in History’

‘When Obama speaks, he expects the world to obey’

President Obama has taken over car companies, Wall Street interests, the nation’s health care, student loans and a long list of other pieces of America, telling people it’s the best for the country, so what’s with this new label as “The most dangerous president in history?”

It’s because he’s taken over car companies, Wall Street interests, the nations’ health care, student loans and a long list of other pieces of America, telling people it’s the best for the country. And now his agenda is fully revealed in “The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists” by Aaron Klein and Brenda Elliott, which is tops among best-sellers at the WND SuperStore this week.

Henry Lamb, the auther of “The Rise of Global Governance” and chairman of Sovereignty International, has penned a column on Obama.

“Obama believes in the rule of law — his law. No other law is relevant. No other law matters. When Obama speaks, he expects the world to obey,” he writes. Lamb cited Obama’s most recent exercise of authority, when he announced he would “inform” BP that the company would set aside “whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business” affected by the Gulf oil spill.

“Where does Barack Hussein Obama get the authority to issue orders to the CEO of a private corporation? There is no such authority in the Constitution,” Lamb writes. “There is no law that empowers the president to ‘inform’ the CEO of any corporation how he will spend the corporation’s money.”

The columnist said, “In 18 months, the man has demonstrated that he cares nothing about the system of government created by our founders and enshrined in the Constitution. He has demonstrated that he fully intends to ‘fundamentally transform’ the United States of America — as he promised in his campaign. Now we are beginning to get a picture of the nation he intends to build. The picture is frightening.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Bork Hits Kagan Over Israeli Judge

Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork has joined Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, to oppose Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Court, pointing to Kagan’s admiration for Aharon Barak — the former chief justice of Israel’s supreme court, whom conservatives regard as an activist judge.

In a conference call with reporters, Bork said Kagan’s public praise for Barak is evidence that her judicial philosophy has not yet matured. He called Barak “the worst judge on the planet,” who has repeatedly demonstrated — and touted — his reputation as an activist judge in the Israeli legal system.

“I think it’s disqualifying in and of itself,” Bork said of Kagan’s opinion of Barak.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Col. Jack Jacobs: Most in Military Will Say McChrystal ‘Was Right’

Contessa Brewer got a lot more than she was likely looking for when she interviewed Col. Jack Jacobs [ret.] this afternoon about the McChrystal situation. The MSNBC host wanted to focus on the impropriety of McChrystal publicly airing his criticisms of Pres. Obama and others in the chain of command.

But while the Medal of Honor recipient readily agreed that McChrystal was out of line, and would probably pay with his job, Jacobs also went out of his way— twice—to add an inconvenient truth: that when it comes to the substance of the criticism, most in the military think McChrystal “was right.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Do We Need “Alternative Energy” Because of the Oil Spill?

As crude oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, the politicians are waving the “green energy” shirt again. The logical chain goes as such: (1) crude oil is messy and dirty, especially when it is spilled into water; (2) “green” fuels and energy methods are clean and don’t result in oil spills; (3) therefore, the government should force us to use “green energy.”

[…]

In reality, government intervention played an important role in the spill’s happening in the first place. As Judge Andrew Napolitano points out, BP originally sought to drill in 500 feet of water, a plan approved by the state of Louisiana but then nixed by the federal government, which demanded the company drill in 5,000 feet depths instead.

[…]

Furthermore, the federal government has stymied efforts by local and state governments, along with private individuals, to deal with the spill, and has turned away offers from well-trained and well-equipped outfits from foreign countries because of the Jones Act, which protects American maritime unions.

Is this merely incompetence and protection of special interests? Or is more going on: namely, an opportunity to grease the skids to the less-efficient and much more costly energy “alternatives,” such as windmills and corn-based ethanol, both of which are highly inefficient and kept alive only by massive government subsidies. In a free market consumers would reject these costly sources, but thanks to the magic of political “investing,” they continue to destroy wealth…

[Return to headlines]



Extreme DIY: Building a Homemade Nuclear Reactor in NYC

Many might be alarmed to learn of a homemade nuclear reactor being built next door. But what if this form of extreme DIY could help solve the world’s energy crisis?

By day, Mark Suppes is a web developer for fashion giant Gucci. By night, he cycles to a New York warehouse and tinkers with his own nuclear fusion reactor.

The warehouse is a non-descript building on a tree-lined Brooklyn street, across the road from blocks of apartments, with a grocery store on one corner. But in reality, it is a lab.

In a hired workshop on the third floor, a high-pitched buzz emanates from a corner dotted with metal scraps and ominous-looking machinery, as Mr Suppes fires up his device and searches for the answer to a question that has eluded some of the finest scientific minds on the planet.

In nuclear fusion, atoms are forcibly joined, releasing energy. It is, say scientists, the “holy grail” of energy production — completely clean and cheap.

The problem is, no-one has found a way of making fusion reactors produce more energy than they consume to run.

Mr Suppes, 32, is part of a growing community of “fusioneers” — amateur science junkies who are building homemade fusion reactors, for fun and with an eye to being part of the solution to that problem.

He is the 38th independent amateur physicist in the world to achieve nuclear fusion from a homemade reactor, according to community site Fusor.net. Others on the list include a 15-year-old from Michigan and a doctoral student in Ohio.

Mr Suppes has spent the last two years perfecting his reactor “I was inspired because I believed I was looking at a technology that could actually work to solve our energy problems, and I believed it was something that I could at least begin to build,” Mr Suppes told the BBC.

While they might un-nerve the neighbours, fusion reactors of this kind are perfectly legal in the US…

           — Hat tip: M. Simon [Return to headlines]



He’s Obama! He’s Black! So, Shut Up!

I received this message on Twitter from a black female, “Lloyd Marcus “F — — you!”, in response to my opposition to Obama. This woman is obviously a non thinking racist who refuses to take an honest look at her black idol president. She has chosen to ignore Obama’s long list of offenses of shredding the Constitution, governing against the will of the American people and using Chicago thug tactics. All this black woman knows is Obama is the chosen one and he is black. So shut up! Whites who dare to criticize or question Obama are racist and blacks who “don’t get it” are Uncle Tom traitors to their race.

One would think such small minded racist thinking would be limited to the uneducated, non achievers and welfare entitlement junkies. Unfortunately, I personally know highly educated and successful fellow blacks who feel the same about Obama as the knucklehead who sent me the “F — — you!” note.

Frustrated, I keep fighting the urge to confront my usually rational, wise and intelligent black associates, “What is the matter with you? Have you become brain dead?”

Then, reality hits me. No amount of truth about Obama will change the minds of these poor racist souls who have become disciples of their Grand Holy One, His Obamaness. Next they will sell all they own, shave their heads, dress in black tunics and wait for the mother ship to arrive and fly them all to a utopia known as “The Black Planet.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Incoming D-Day Memorial Chief Stands by Stalin Bust

Robin Reed, slated to become the next president of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation on Monday, is standing by his predecessor’s decision to install a bust of dictator Josef Stalin at the memorial in Bedford, Va.

“At this point in time I certainly am not going to re-evaluate that,” he said in an interview Tuesday with The Washington Times.

While Mr. Reed said he can “appreciate the concern” of locals who have voiced their opposition to the bust, he said the bust can serve as a teaching tool to make visitors recognize the importance of Stalin as one of the leaders in World War II.

To those who argue that Stalin’s force weren’t present on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 and had nothing to do with the D-Day invasion, Mr. Reed said Stalin still deserves credit as someone who contributed to the success of the war.

Many groups and locals have voiced their opposition to a monument to the dictator responsible for the deaths of about 20 million in the town of Bedford, which lost more men per capita than any other U.S. city during World War II. Men from Bedford were in the front attacking lines on D-Day, and 21 of them lost their lives.

Mr. Reed said the foundation’s board of directors will seriously consider any petition that comes before them, such as the one in the works by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

As of Monday, the petition had more than 600 confirmed signatures from 45 states and 20 countries. Mr. Reed said William McIntosh, the outgoing president of the foundation, had been very responsible, and that he intended to pick up where Mr. McIntosh left off.

“It is our job now to take the memorial to the next level,” Mr. Reed said.

[Return to headlines]



Mexican Gangs Maintain Permanent Lookout Bases in Hills of Arizona

Mexican drug cartels have set up shop on American soil, maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona from which their scouts can monitor every move made by law enforcement officials, federal agents tell Fox News.

The scouts are supplied by drivers who bring them food, water, batteries for radios — all the items they need to stay in the wilderness for a long time.

Click here for more on this story from Adam Housley.

“To say that this area is out of control is an understatement,” said an agent who patrols the area and asked not to be named. “We (federal border agents), as well as the Pima County Sheriff Office and the Bureau of Land Management, can attest to that.”

Much of the drug traffic originates in the Menagers Dam area, the Vekol Valley, Stanfield and around the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. It even follows a natural gas pipeline that runs from Mexico into Arizona.

In these areas, which are south and west of Tucson, sources said there are “cartel scouts galore” watching the movements of federal, state and local law enforcement, from the border all the way up to Interstate 8.

“Every night we’re getting beaten like a pinata at a birthday party by drug, alien smugglers,” a second federal agent told Fox News by e-mail. “The danger is out there, with all the weapons being found coming northbound…. someone needs to know about this!”

The agents blame part of their plight on new policies from Washington, claiming it has put a majority of the U.S. agents on the border itself. One agent compared it to a short-yardage defense in football, explaining that once the smugglers and drug-runners break through the front line, they’re home free.

“We are unable to work any traffic, because they have us forward deployed,” the agent said. “We are unable to work the traffic coming out of the mountains. That traffic usually carries weapons and dope, too, again always using stolen vehicles.”

The Department of Homeland Security denies it has ordered any major change in operations or any sort of change in forward deployment.

“The Department of Homeland Security has dedicated unprecedented manpower, technology and infrastructure resources to the Southwest border over the course of the past 16 months,” DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said. “Deployment of CBP/Border Patrol and ICE personnel to various locations throughout the Southwest border is based on actionable intelligence and operational need, not which elected official can yell the loudest.”

While agents in the area agree that southwest Arizona has been a trouble spot for more than a decade, many believe Washington and politicians “who come here for one-day visit” aren’t seeing the big picture.

They say the area has never been controlled and has suddenly gotten worse, with the cartels maintaining a strong presence on U.S. soil. More than ever, agents on the front lines are wearing tactical gear, including helmets, to protect themselves.

“More than 4,000 of these agents are deployed in Arizona,” Chandler says. “The strategy to secure our nation’s borders is based on a ‘defense in depth’ philosophy, including the use of interior checkpoints, like the one on FR 85 outside Ajo, to interdict threats attempting to move from the border into the interior of our nation.”

Without placing direct fault on anyone, multiple agents told Fox that the situation is more dangerous for them than ever now that the cartels have such a strong position on the American side of the border.

They say morale is down among many who patrol the desolate area, and they worry that the situation won’t change until an agent gets killed.

           — Hat tip: Paul Green [Return to headlines]



Mexican Drug Cartel Warns Police Officers in Arizona Border Town to ‘Look the Other Way’

Police officers in a small Arizona border city are on heightened alert following a tip that a Mexican drug cartel will put them in its crosshairs if they conduct off-duty busts.

The threat stems from a marijuana seizure made this month by two off-duty police officers riding on horseback in an unincorporated area east of Nogales, a city of roughly 20,000, Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham told FoxNews.com.

“The word was that these particular officers would be targeted if they were ever in that area again and were not on duty and intercepted any drug trafficking,” Kirkham said. “It said they should look the other way.”

The unidentified officers were able to confiscate roughly 400 pounds of marijuana during the seizure in early June at a known smuggling corridor along the U.S.-Mexican border where there is “relatively no fencing,” Kirkham said. No arrests were made, and the smugglers were able to retreat into Mexico.

Kirkham said his department, which employs 62 officers, learned about the threat through informants and has been unable to determine which Mexican drug cartel is behind it. Kirkham noted that two drug trafficking organizations — the Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel — are currently trying to gain a foothold in the Nogales area.

“Which one, we can’t establish,” he said. “They’re not ones to advertise who’s behind this. It’s difficult to establish.”

In response to the threat, Kirkham said everyone in the department was advised to be armed while off-duty. Officials at the Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also were notified, he said.

“We let them know that if they are to go out there, they are to be armed,” Kirkham said.

George Grayson, a professor at The College of William & Mary who specializes in Mexican politics and international affairs, said the threat likely came from the Sinaloa Cartel, which is headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-Loera, who is being sought by American and Mexican authorities. The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.

“This is quite credible that the cartels would threaten police officers, on-duty or off-duty,” Grayson told FoxNews.com. “They, in fact, are more likely to threaten local police than to go after the [Drug Enforcement Agency] or FBI, which really raises hackles in Washington when you have your federal law enforcement agents threatened.”

The Los Zetas criminal organization — a rival of the Sinaloa Cartel — had previously operated in the Nogales area, Grayson said, but the area is now probably controlled by “El Chapo,” which is Spanish for “shorty.” Grayson said Sinaloa is believed to be one of the biggest suppliers of cocaine to the United States, and its members are known to be well-trained and well-armed.

“These officers should get medals for bravery, either on- or off-duty, because I doubt they have the firepower these cartels have,” he said. “It’s logical that as there are episodes involving U.S. law enforcement [with Mexican cartels], that the threats against American police officers at various levels will also increase.”

           — Hat tip: Paul Green [Return to headlines]



Murfreesboro Mosque Uses the Muslim Brotherhood Reading List

According to the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report (GMBDR), “Reading List Ties Sponsor Of Proposed Large Tennessee Islamic Facility To Global Muslim Brotherhood.”[http://www.globalmbreport.org/?p=3213] That should make for very interesting conversations during a Q+A at an open house that the ICM is sponsoring this coming Saturday, June 26th at their existing worship center in Murfreesboro. Perhaps concerned citizens of Rutherford County should attend the ICM open house and pick up copies of the Muslim Brotherhood literature…

[Return to headlines]



New Drilling Moratorium in Works, Salazar Says

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Obama administration plans to declare a new moratorium on deepwater drilling in the next few days, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday night, according to media reports. Salazar’s announcement came hours after U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman overturned the administration’s first six-month moratorium on exploration in deep waters. “We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP’s well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling,” Salazar said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. The new moratorium would contain more specific justification for the drilling ban, Salazar said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Obama’s ‘Party List’ For McChrystal

General awaits fate in front of massive group of administrtation officials

NEW YORK — Gen. Stanley McChrystal will await his fate in front of a massive group of Obama administration officials later today.

Twenty-two senior U.S. officials have been summoned to the White House situation room for a “private” meeting slated to begin in late morning and to run slightly pass 1:15 this afternoon.

The White House schedule does not show any “private” time between the president and McChrystal before the group meeting in the situation room.

A copy of the White House “invitation” list was obtained by WND.

Among the “expected attendees” are:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Obama Vows to End Homelessness in 10 Years

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan that aspires to end homelessness among some of society’s most vulnerable groups within the next decade.

“Opening Doors,” a “Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness,” calls for ending child and family homelessness in 10 years while wiping out chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans in five years.

According to the 74-page plan, “Stable housing is the foundation upon which people build their lives — absent a safe, decent, affordable place to live, it is next to impossible to achieve good health, positive educational outcomes or reach one’s economic potential.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Obama Democrats Have Declared War on the States

Obama and all who stand with him today — have openly declared war on the states and the American people and Obama & Co. plan to win that ideological war before the average American figures out that they are indeed at war with their federal government for the future of freedom.

The Tenth Amendment under full frontal Assault

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The term “enumerated powers” is no longer part of the legislative lexicon in Washington DC. The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government openly attack Tenth Amendment rights on a daily basis. No “theories” are required as the daily assault on the states is now happening in broad daylight.

  • Arizona — is under federal assault for attempting to uphold existing immigration laws within their sovereign state. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put Arizona on notice during a TV interview in Ecuador, announcing on foreign soil that Obama Democrats intend to stop Arizona from exercising its Tenth Amendment right to pass laws which protect and serve the citizens of Arizona. In addition, Obama has now ceded US land to Mexican drug lords. The same story is playing out in California and other places across the nation.
  • New York — is under federal assault for attempting to avoid state bankruptcy by passing an emergency state budget that included the furlough of 100,000 state employees that New York can no longer afford. A federal judge stepped in to block the state passed and signed emergency budget effort. The reason stated by the judge was “the labor unions did not agree to the furloughs,” placing both the Fed and labor unions above the state’s right to balance its own budget and control its own financial condition.
  • Federal Health Care bill — is a direct violation of Tenth Amendment rights and numerous states (20 at present) have joined a federal suit challenging Obama’s “enumerated power” to force national health care upon the states and the people. Obama Democrats are trying to force the court to drop the health care overhaul suit.
  • Federal Agencies — tell the states that they have NO power against the Fed. According to Obama Democrats, federal laws trump state laws and even the US Constitution. Their criminal and civil “rules of procedure” trump everything. On this basis, federal agencies repeatedly notify states that they have no states rights and that the Fed is not in any way limited to “enumerated powers.”
  • The Gulf States — are dying from federal mishandling of the BP oil spill and they are being told that they are powerless and must rely solely upon Obama Democrats to save the gulf and protect their citizens. Arizona already knows how well that turns out…

[…]

Obama Democrats have not only declared war on the states — they have declared war on the vast majority of American citizens as well.

  • The right to peacefully assemble is being prosecuted as a “riot” today.
  • The right of peaceful redress is being denied on the basis of “no legal standing.”
  • Second Amendment rights are being denied by federal laws and the BATF.
  • A fundamental right to Life and Liberty is being denied on the basis of a single case precedent.
  • The judiciary is creating laws and the legislature is failing in its fundamental duties.
  • The White House is functioning like an absolute dictatorship at odds with more than 70% of the people.
  • Citizens are being accused of “domestic terrorism” for demanding a return to constitutional government.
  • Numerous judges have advised citizens that they have NO standing to question any of it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Obama Scholar Linked to ‘Ground Zero’ Imam

Book espouses Islamic goal of world dominion

JERUSALEM — A scholar and charity head appointed to President Obama’s White House Fellowships Commission is closely tied to the Muslim leaders behind a proposed controversial Islamic cultural center to be built near the site of the 9/11 attacks.

The White House fellow, Vartan Gregorian, is president of Carnegie Corp. of New York.

Gregorian also serves on the board of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The museum is reportedly working with the American Society for Muslim Advancement, or ASMA, whose leaders are behind the mosque, to ensure the future museum will represent the voices of American Muslims.

“[The 9/11 museum will represent the] voices of American Muslims in particular, and it will honor members of other communities who came together in support and collaboration with the Muslim community on September 11 and its aftermath,” stated Daisy Khan, executive director of the ASMA.

The future 9/11 museum’s oral historian, Jenny Pachucki, is collaborating with ASMA to ensure the perspective of American Muslims is woven into the overall experience of the museum, according to the museum’s blog.

Khan’s husband, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is the founder of ASMA as well as chairman of Cordoba Initiative, which is behind the proposed mosque to be built about two blocks from the area referred to as Ground Zero.

With Gregorian at its helm, Carnegie Corp. is at the top of the list of ASMA supporters on the Islamic group’s website.

Carnegie is also listed as a funder of both of ASMA’s partner organizations, Search for Common Ground and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Gregorian was a participant in the U.N. body’s first forum, as was Rauf.

Rauf is vice-chairman on the board of the Interfaith Center of New York, which honored Gregorian at an awards dinner in 2008.

World domination

Gregorian, born in Tabriz, Iran, served for eight years as a president of the New York Public Library and was also president of Brown University. He is the author of “Islam: A Mosaic, Not A Monolith.”

According to a book review by the Middle East Forum, Gregorian’s book “establishes the Islamist goal of world domination.”

A chapter of the book, “Islamism: Liberation Politics,” quotes Ayatollah Khomenei: “Islam does not conquer. Islam wants all countries to become Muslim, of themselves.” Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is quoting stating it “is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”

Gregorian himself recommends for Muslims a system he calls “theo-democracy,” which he defines as “a divine democratic government” that, according to the book review, “would have a limited popular sovereignty under the suzerainty of Allah.”

Rauf, meanwhile, has caused a stir with his proposed $100 million, 13-story Islamic cultural center and mosque near the corner of Park Place and West Broadway — about two blocks from Ground Zero.

Just last week, WND reported Rauf refused during a live radio interview to condemn violent jihad groups as terrorists. Rauf repeatedly refused on-air to affirm the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization or call the Muslim Brotherhood extremists.

The Brotherhood openly seeks to spread Islam around the world, while Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.

During that interview, Rauf was also asked who he believes was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

“There’s no doubt,” stated Rauf. “The general perception all over the world was it was created by people who were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. Whether they were part of the killer group or not, these are details that need to be left to the law-enforcement experts.”

Rauf has been on record several times as blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been quoted refusing to admit Muslims carried out the attacks.

Referring to the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf told CNN, “U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We (the U.S.) have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.”

Madeline Brooks, a reporter who attended a sermon this year by Rauf, quoted the Islamic leader as stating “some people say it was Muslims who attacked on 9/11.”

Rauf’s 2004 book had two different titles — one in English and the second in Arabic. In the U.S., his book was called, ‘What’s right with America is what’s right with Islam.”

The same book, published in Arabic, bore the name, “The Call from the WTC Rubble: Islamic Da’wah from the Heart of America Post 9/11.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Canada


5.0 Val-Des-Bois Quake Rattles Ottawa, Eastern North America

OTTAWA — A strong earthquake centred in Val-des-Bois, Que., shook Eastern North America on Wednesday afternoon.

The quake was initially listed as a magnitude of 5.7 before being downgraded to 5.0, according to the United States Geological Survey. The quake struck at 1:41 p.m. and lasted between 20 and 30 seconds. A quake of that magnitude is considered “moderate” according to the agency’s website.

Municipal employees in Val-des-Bois said they were experiencing aftershocks every five minutes for more than 50 minutes after the earthquake.

Marlene Nontell, a secretary at the municipality, said Hwy. 307 was closed north of the town of 900 people because of a partial bridge collapse near Bowman. Nontell said rocks had fallen onto the highway from a nearby cliff.

“The two first quakes were like an explosion — I flew out the door,” Nontell said. “We still have power and there is no damage, but the telephones are down. Almost all our employees are volunteer firefighters who are on the radio responding to questions.”

At Carleton University, earthquake expert Brian Cousens knew after a of couple of seconds that this was an earthquake. He ducked for cover.

“I lived in California for four years and this one made me go for the doorway. In an earthquake you want to be in a door frame because it’s framed and it’s the most rigid part,” he said. “You don’t want to be in my office with cases of rocks and books to fall on you.

“This is the first time since I’ve been here, since 1990, that anything has sent me to a door frame. This seemed to last 15 or 20 seconds. Half a minute maybe.”

He knew it went on too long to be an explosion or construction noise from the building next door.

Carleton’s David Lau, who teaches engineering and specializes in designing buildings and bridges to resist earthquakes, said this quake was not quite big enough to do major damage. Some buildings that look solid could still have “minor cracking” he said.

We can expect some aftershocks, but they should be much smaller than the first shock, he said, similar to the feel and noise of a heavy truck driving past. “It blends into the normal urban activities.”

How the main quake felt would vary a lot by where people were, he said.

A building on solid rock would be the least shaky spot, Lau said. But a building on soft soil or sand, far above the bedrock, would find the shaking magnified by the soil.

“It’s like shaking a bowl of Jell-O,” he said. “If you shake the bowl, the top of the Jell-O experiences more noticeable movement, right? And that would cause more damage to the structure.”

As well, he said top floors of tall buildings shake more than lower floors.

Lau thought at first that a crane had dropped construction equipment outside. “Then I realized it was an earthquake.”

He didn’t run for cover.

Reports flooded into the Citizen newsroom from people who’d felt the quake as far away as Boston, Cincinnatti, Flint, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, Albany, New York, and Chicago.

In downtown Ottawa, just 50 km from the quake’s epicenter, many downtown offices and apartment buildings were evacuated and people flooded into the street. At Laurier Avenue and Bank Street the Jackson Building was ordered completely evacuated.

People who milled in the street talked about what the earthquake had just interrupted in their lives. One person said it felt like a big truck rumbling past.

A window was reported broken on the eighth floor at 180 Kent St. and the Parliamentary Precinct was evacuated, as was the city’s office on Constellation Crescent, where it was reported that the nine-storey building could be felt to be swaying.

Heather Bradley, spokeswoman for the Speaker’s office, said that to her knowledge there had been no damage to the buildings on Parliament Hill.

Public Works was conducting air-quality and other tests in Centre Block, East Block and West Block on Wednesday night, she said. Public Works said inspections were underway, but offered no further details.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Canada ‘Furious’ Over U.S.-Backed Women’s Rights Super Agency

Canada is “furious” at the United States over Washington’s role in creating a new $1-billion super agency at the United Nations for women’s rights, Canwest News Service has learned.

In a dispute that could spill over into the G20 and G8 summits in Canada this week, the U.S. has broken ranks with other western countries and proposed a board for the new agency that largely gives in to demands by Cuba, Egypt and other developing countries seeking maximum possible control of it.

Critics claim the makeup risks rendering the new agency as dysfunctional as the UN Human Rights Council, where states with poor human-rights records control much of the agenda and provide “cover” for one another.

Canada is “furious” at the United States over Washington’s role in creating a new $1-billion super agency at the United Nations for women’s rights, Canwest News Service has learned.

In a dispute that could spill over into the G20 and G8 summits in Canada this week, the U.S. has broken ranks with other western countries and proposed a board for the new agency that largely gives in to demands by Cuba, Egypt and other developing countries seeking maximum possible control of it.

Critics claim the makeup risks rendering the new agency as dysfunctional as the UN Human Rights Council, where states with poor human-rights records control much of the agenda and provide “cover” for one another…

           — Hat tip: Sheikh Yermami [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Council of Europe Urges End to Swiss Minaret Ban

Council of Europe parliamentarians have called for the Swiss ban on building minarets to be repealed on the basis that it discriminates against Muslims in Switzerland.

The recommendation was made by the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly on Wednesday during a debate on Islam and Islamophobia in Europe. It urges Switzerland to adopt a moratorium on the ban and reverse it as soon as possible.

“The construction of minarets should be possible, under the same status as is given to church towers, in accordance with public safety and town planning regulations,” said the recommendation.

Swiss voters approved a ban on future minaret construction in the country in November. The initiative was brought to a referendum by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party.

Subsequent complaints of discrimination were lodged with the European Court of Human Rights, which has yet to decide on the issue.

           — Hat tip: DL [Return to headlines]



EU Democracy Instrument Continues to Cause Headaches

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — It is meant to be the most clear democratising feature of the EU’s new rulebook, the Lisbon Treaty, but implementation of the “citizen’s initiative” is a political minefield and is prompting much discussion about the danger of the tool turning into a mockery of democracy.

EU politicians are keen to talk up the European citizens’ Initiative (ECI), a clause in the EU treaty obliging the European Commission to consider legislating on any idea supported by 1 million European citizens.

Institutional affairs commissioner Maros Sefcovic calls it a “real step forward in the democratic life of Europe.” Parliament vice-president Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a German liberal, invokes Confucius and Rousseau, the Chinese and French philosophers, to explain its importance.

But seven months after the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, Brussels institutions are struggling to get the right tone and the balance for the direct democracy law — partly because it is not clear to what extent and how citizens will use it…

           — Hat tip: Henrik [Return to headlines]



Female Pope Film Sparks Vatican Row

Pope Joan, which depicts a female pontiff rumoured to have existed in the ninth century, has been criticised by the Roman Catholic Church for its ‘extremely limited vision’

Blockbuster Hollywood films such as The Da Vinci Code, and its prequel, Angels and Demons, have often fallen foul of the Vatican in recent years. Now a new movie looks set to spark anger in the Holy See due to its depiction of a female pontiff.

Pope Joan, based on American novelist Donna Woolfolk Cross’s book of the same name, stars German actor Johanna Wokalek as the titular character, with Lord of the Rings’ David Wenham as the lover who supposedly brought her to Rome, and US actor John Goodman as Pope Sergius. The film is based on persistent rumours — denied by the Roman Catholic Church and, to be fair, the majority of historians — that a female pope existed in the ninth century. She was said to have disguised herself as a man and risen to the favour of the previous pope due to her great learning and intellect. But after a reign of several years, she gave birth to a baby during a papal procession and was torn apart by an angry mob.

Pope Joan, directed by the German film-maker Sönke Wortmann, is currently riding high at the Italian box office, sitting in the top 10 behind Sex and the City 2 and Robin Hood. It has already premiered in Germany, and there are plans for a UK release later this year.

L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, last week dismissed Pope Joan as “a hoax” and a film of “extremely limited vision”. However, L’Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, which previously attacked The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, has not yet spoken out on the matter.

The legend of Pope Joan first appeared in the 13th century, and subsequently spread across Europe, though historians now believe the story became popular through later, anti-Catholic propaganda. There are, however, a number of factors that are advanced by proponents of the story to suggest that a female pope really did exist. Firstly, they point to the existence of a wooden chair with a hole in the base, the sella stercoraria, which it is claimed was used during papal investiture ceremonies to ensure potential pontiffs were male. The chair is now kept in the Vatican museum. Secondly, the route between the Basilica of St John Lateran and St Peter’s in Rome, where Joan was supposedly unmasked, was traditionally avoided by popes from the 13th century onwards, possibly in deference to the legend.

The story of the female pontiff was previously examined in the little-known 1972 film Pope Joan, featuring Ingmar Bergman muse Liv Ullmann. That film was revived and re-edited, using previously unseen footage, into a different feature, She … Who Would Be Pope, last year.

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



Germany: Armed Forces Personnel Could be Cut by 100,000

Germany’s military reportedly faces cuts that are even deeper than previously feared under provisional plans that could see defence personnel slashed by 100,000.

Bundeswehr Chief of Staff Volker Wieker has had plans drawn up that would reduce the armed forces’ personnel from 250,000 to 150,000 to meet the tough savings demands being made by the Finance Ministry, daily Die Welt reported on Tuesday.

However, Wieker is also having alternative plans drawn up that would mean lighter cuts, the paper reported.

All three branches of the military — the army, airforce and navy — as well as support and medical staff would be severely affected by the cutbacks.

The army would bear the brunt, being reduced to 47,000 soldiers from its present strength of 94,188. The airforce would drop to 19,000 staff compared with its present 42,212 personnel, while the navy would fall to 9,000 staff from its current strength of 17,476. The support staff would be cut by two thirds from its present 72,685 to about 26,000 while medical staff would be cut from 23,775 to 11,000.

There would also be reserve personnel, however.

Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has in recent weeks ordered the Bundeswehr’s top commanders to start doing their sums on how and where cuts could be made. Wieker has been asked to present his alternatives for making the cuts by the end of July.

The modelling is based on the expectation that the Finance Ministry needs to cut €4.3 billion from defence spending in the next four years.

Military affairs spokesman for the centre-left Social Democrats accused Guttenberg of conducting “security policy according to the budgetary position.”

The 150,000-staff model was a “radical surgery” that was “not politically justified,” he said.

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



How European Tolerance Islamized Turkey

But while Turkey modernized, the Muslim nations of the Middle East instead followed a completely different paradigm. And they succeeded for two reasons. Oil. And the willingness of First and Second World powers to pander to them. Where Turkey had to learn to do things the hard way, to separate mosque from state and try to build modern institutions, a bunch of backward desert sheiks were lucky enough to take control of barren regions where infidel geologists found oil. Those sheiks were also lucky enough to stumble into a perfect era of infidel infighting that allowed them to play Americans against the Europeans against the Russians. Not long after the sheiks had more money than they could count, which meant that they didn’t need to modernize, instead they could buy all the American and European technology they wanted, and even import actual Americans and Europeans to do the work for them.

[…]

European tolerance for Islam eliminated any real reason for Turkey not to become Islamist. As Erdogan has demonstrated, it is possible to run a country that continues to deny genocide, oppresses minorities and has jails filled with political prisoners. That openly supports terrorism and Islamism—and yet is on track for membership in the European Union. Erdogan does not need to dig up Ataturk and turn him upside down—the Great Tolerators of Europe were already doing it for him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Italy: Watchdog Sounds Alarm Over Corruption

Honest businesses risk being forced out of public works market

(ANSA) — Rome, June 22 — Corruption and contempt for the law are commonplace among businesses awarded public works contracts, the sector’s watchdog warned on Tuesday. Unveiling the annual report of the Authority for Safeguarding Public Contracts, the body’s president Luigi Giampaolino told parliament the problem infected all stages of the process. “Serious incidents of corruption and illegality are occurring within the public administration,” he said. “A lack of respect for the rules combined with deep-rooted and widespread corruption is having a profound and unfair effect on market competitiveness.

“This is helping destroy honest businesses by forcing them out of the public works market”. One of the most widespread forms of rule dodging was the use of emergency measures, said the watchdog, describing the practice as “systematic and alarming”.

It said the special powers allowing a suspension of the strict rules governing public works were particularly common when organizing major events, such as the celebrations for 150 years of Italian unification or the world swimming championships.

The report also warned that some contractors were waiting up to 22 months after completing a project in order to get paid, which was further narrowing the field of those able to compete in the sector. “This is a particularly serious problem for small and medium-sized enterprises given the current economic crisis and greater difficulties in accessing credit”. According to the watchdog, the Italian administration currently owes around 37 billion euros — nearly 2.4% of the country’s GDP — for public works. The report comes as prosecutors continue a series of high-profile probes into public works corruption. News of the first investigation broke in February when prosecutors ordered the arrest of the head of the state public works office, Angelo Balducci, the Tuscany region’s public works contractor Fabio De Santis, and state official Mauro Della Giovampaola.

Prosecutors believe they masterminded a web of corruption and kickbacks among constructors, architects and civil servants who managed tens of millions of euros of public works contracts.

Meanwhile, Italy’s industry minister Claudio Scajola resigned last month after being linked to a probe into a shady real estate deal involving Rome businessman Diego Anemone. Anemone has also been connected to Civil Protection Chief Guido Bertolaso, whom prosecutors say may have taken bribes and struck sex-for-favours arrangements after the businessman won a tender for the restructuring of the original venue of the G8 in the Sardinian island of La Maddalena.

Scajola is not under investigation and has denied any wrongdoing, while Bertolaso, who has offered to step down, recently told a news conference he had “never lied to Italians” and had “a clear conscience”.

A top Italian cardinal, Naples Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe, and former infrastructures minister Pietro Lunardi are also being probed by prosecutors investigating alleged corruption involving public works contracts, including the construction of venues for last year’s G8 summit.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Rome to Get Second Baby Hatch

Modern version of medieval ‘foundling wheel’ due September

(ANSA) — Rome, June 22 — Rome is to get its second baby hatch, the modern equivalent of the medieval ‘foundling wheel’, which allows desperate mothers to abandon newborns safely and anonymously, it was announced on Tuesday. Rome Social Policies Councillor Sveva Belviso said the 15,000-euro hatch would start operating in October, connected to a pharmacy. Modern baby hatches are a far cry from the wooden wheels once built into the doors of convents to allow desperate young women to abandon newborn babies anonymously.

The new system is a heated crib that resembles an incubator inside a small structure attached to the pharmacy. Upon entering the structure, mothers can place their baby in the crib by passing it through a hatch and then leave without being seen. “There are no video cameras outside in order to ensure the woman’s privacy and the service will be operative 24 hours a day,” explained Belviso.

The weight in the crib will set off an alarm inside the pharmacy, alerting staff to the new arrival. Sensors will immediately calculate the weight and body temperature of the baby to assess whether or not the case is an emergency.

The member of staff on duty will then alert local emergency services and transport the baby to the nearest hospital where it can be cared for.

Like Rome’s first baby hatch, at the Policlinico Casilino hospital, the new ‘foundling wheel’ will be located in one of the city’s poorer neighbourhoods, home to many immigrants. The majority of the 400 or so babies abandoned each year in Rome have foreign mothers. This may be because they are poorer than Italian mothers or lack a family support network to help them cope. Some mothers may fear the stigma still attached to babies born out of wedlock among certain immigrant communities, while others are worried they will be reported to the police if they are living in Italy without papers. By law any woman has the right to give birth anonymously in all Italian hospitals but Rome health officials say many women are still unaware of this. On average, of the 400 babies abandoned in the Italian capital every year, nearly 15% are still left in churches, religious institutions, on the streets or in trash cans. According to Grazia Passeri, an Italian civil rights campaigner who has been battling rubbish bin abandonments the number of babies disposed of in this way is probably ten times the number of those that are found. More than 30 baby hatches have opened across Italy since 1995, when the first modern ‘foundling wheel’ started operating in the Piedmont town of Casale Monferrato. The station at Rome’s Policlinico Casilino Hospital opened in 2006 and has welcomed just one baby during this time, a three-month-old boy named Stefano after the doctor who first treated him. Belviso believes that part of the problem is that just as mothers are not aware they may give birth anonymously, many have no idea about the ‘foundling wheels’.

As a result, she has decided to launch an advertising drive to ensure the information reaches those most in need. “A publicity campaign will get under way in September, with adverts appearing both on the side of municipal skips and in the capital’s buses, to let people know about the baby hatches,” she said. She also voiced the hope that “all Rome hospitals will eventually have a baby hatch”, to guarantee the survival of as many newborns as possible. Until the early 20th century, it was common for a desperate mother to lay an unwanted child on the horizontal wooden wheels which were half inside convents and half outside.

A nun on the inside would turn the wheel, bringing the baby inside where it could be cared for while the mother could slip away unseen. Although the system was dropped in the early 20th century, it has enjoyed a major revival around the world in recent years.

Germany, Pakistan, Austria, Japan and the Czech Republic are among the many countries to adopt the system.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Oldest Paintings of Apostles Found

Icons of Saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, John in Rome catacombs

(ANSA) — Rome, June 22 — Archaeologists and restorers working at the Roman catacombs of Saint Tecla announced on Tuesday they had found the world’s oldest paintings of the apostles Peter, Paul, Andrew and John.

“They’re the oldest images of the apostles and are datable to the latter half of the fourth century AD,” said Fabrizio Bisconti, superintendent of archeology at the catacombs, which are owned and maintained by the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology.

They were found on the ceiling of the burial chamber of an ancient Roman noblewoman who commissioned painters to decorate it with scenes from the Bible, probably after her conversion to Christianity.

The Vatican had anticipated news of the discovery last June, saying that archaeologists carrying out routine restoration work had uncovered the oldest known icon of the Apostle Paul.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the Vatican team said Paul’s image was part of ceiling painting that also included the full-face icons of the other three apostles.

“The paintings of Andrew and John are undoubtedly the oldest ever. Some showing Peter have been found that date to the middle of the fourth century although this is the first time that the apostle is not shown in a group but singly, in an icon,” Bisconti told reporters.

“The discovery is evidence that the devotion to the apostles began in early Christianity,” said Barbara Mazzei, chief restorer at the site. The catacombs of Saint Tecla are some 500 meters away from the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, where the saint is buried.

They were discovered by chance in the 1950s during excavations for the construction of an office building. Mazzei said restorers had been able to uncover the images thanks to a new and sophisticated laser technology which peeled off the thick calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the colours underneath.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: No More Nets in Bagnara, Fishermen Hand Them Back

(ANSAmed) — BAGNARA CALABRA (REGGIO CALABRIA), JUNE 22 — Fishermen in Bagnara Calabra, near Reggio Calabria, have decided to stop using swordfish nets. Next Friday, the nets will be handed over by representatives of the fishermen cooperatives to the port’s harbour office during a press conference to be held in the town hall of Bagnara. “We want to respect the environment,” one of the fishermen said, “and so we have decided to accept the invitation extended mainly by environmental groups to stop using the nets”. After the press conference, the nets will be taken to a special centre where they will be destroyed. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Police ‘Uncover’ €22 Bln in Unpaid Taxes

Rome, 22 June (AKI) — Italian finance police say they uncovered 22 billion euros in undeclared earnings in the first five months of 2010 as prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government pledged to crack down on tax evasion. Police also discovered 3.1 billion euros in unpaid value-added tax and other forms of tax evasion.

The finance police, known at the Guardia di Finanza, say they pinpointed 3,790 tax evaders in the first five months of the year, according to a statement released in Rome on Tuesday.

Berlusconi pledged to pursue Italians who evade tax and authorities have stepped up action to target offshore bank accounts in neighbouring Switzerland.

Critics like political opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani have attacked Berlusconi for awarding tax evasion by declaring amnesties that allow Italians to pay past taxes at a rate significantly lower than official levels with no legal penalties.

The government has gone after Italians hiding funds in offshore bank accounts, primarily in neighbouring Switzerland. The initiative has resulted in diplomatic rows between Rome and Bern, as well as San Marino, an independent landlocked republic near Italy’s eastern Adriatic coast.

Finance police also said that they identified 12,927 cases of “irregular” workers of which 8,937 were paid without officially registered with the government.

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



Sweden: Moderates Are Largest Party: Poll

The Moderates are currently the largest parliamentary party with the support of 29.9 percent of the electorate, according to a new United Minds poll while the Sweden Democrats on 5.6 percent threaten the Alliance coalition’s hope of a majority.

Fredrik Reinfeldt’s Moderates claimed top spot for the first time in a United Minds/Aftonbladet poll ahead of the Social Democrats on 28.8 for the Social Democrats.

“The closer the election the more importance afforded to questions about the economy, growth and the ability to manage state finances. In these issues the ruling Alliance has the upper hand,” said Carl Melin, Survey Manager at United Minds.

But the four-party government coalition’s continued grip on power after the September 19th election is threatened by the far-right Sweden Democrats who polled 5.6 percent in the June voter survey, sufficient to claim seats in parliament.

If the poll was an indicator of the election result then the Sweden Democrats would hold the balance of power, although both the centre-right and centre-left blocs have categorically ruled out cooperating with the party.

The centre-right coalition polled a total of 46.4 percent, nudging ahead of the centre-left on 45.5.

United Minds poll results, June 2010 (changes since May 2010 in parentheses)

Government

Moderate Party 29.9 (+0.1)

Centre Party 4.8 (-0.1)

Liberal Party 6.8 (+1.1)

Christian Democrats 4.9 (+0.2)

Total: 46.4 (Election 2006: 48.2)

Opposition

Social Democrats 28.8 (-2.2)

Left Party 6.6 (+0.1)

Green Party 10.3 (+0.3)

Total: 45.5 (Election 2006: 46.1)

Sweden Democrats 5.6 (+0.1)

Others 2.5 (+0.5)

United Minds, in cooperation with Cint, interviewed 1238 people from May 24th-June 20th and asked the question: How would you vote if a general election were held today?

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



Swedish Dockers Launch Israeli Goods Blockade

The Swedish Dock Workers Union (Hamnarbetarförbundet) on Wednesday launched a blockade of Israeli cargo in protest against the deadly raid on the Gaza-bound freedom flotilla last month, union representatives have confirmed.

The blockade, which also applies to Israeli ships, was launched “because of

the assault on the Ship to Gaza (flotilla), that we supported before they took

off … and the blockade of the Gaza strip, which affects the civilian population,” union spokesman Rolf Axelsson said.

The dock workers’ protest is set to take place in all unionised Swedish ports, and is scheduled to and ends at midnight on June 29th.

Union chairman Björn A. Borg added the union called for an international investigation into the May 31st raid that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.

He told AFP the dock workers believed Israel’s easing of its Gaza blockade, announced on Sunday, was insufficient.

Eleven Swedes, including crime writer Henning Mankell, took part in the flotilla and were briefly taken into Israeli custody.

The Swedish Dock Workers Union original announced their intended blockade on June 2nd to take place from June 15th-24th but later announced an amendment to the dates in a statement dated June 11th.

representative told AFP.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



The Future of Islam in Europe

While Western Islamophobia is a reality to contend with, Muslims based in the West often don’t help matters, writes Khalil El-Anani*

The current Western obsession with the niqab, or full- face veil, often seems part of a subconscious plot to restrict anything Arab and Islamic, symbolic as that may be. The niqab is not really Islamic garb, this I am sure something that Western politicians know. And yet it is becoming a target of hate because it is seen as a cultural symbol that is extraneous, and indeed dangerous, to European societies.

Sometimes I wonder, what if it were Indian women, or Sikhs and Buddhists for that matter, who wore the niqab ? Would European parliaments still spend entire sessions discussing the niqab ?

Theological debate on niqab aside, Western outrage against the niqab seems to be a by-product of Islamophobia, a phenomenon that is raging like wildfire across Europe, asserting itself sometimes as mosque- phobia and at other times as minaret-phobia. Should this trend continue, the day may come when European parliaments ban men from wearing their beards long and shaving their moustaches. I wonder what kind of phobia we’ll name that one!

There is a real crisis of conscience in the West. When it comes to Islam, Europe seems to be negating its past of freedom and equality, the very essence of what it claims to be defending today. What damage is done to 65 million in France, 22 million in Australia, and 10 million in Belgium, and a similar number in the Netherlands from hundreds, or even thousands of niqab -clad women? Whether the niqab is an expression of faith or habit, I fail to see the damage it is being blamed for.

Meanwhile, the Western intelligentsia seem silent on the matter. For all their loud defence of homosexual rights and of gay and lesbian marriages, the European intelligentsia remain sympathetic to anyone who criticises Islam and Muslims. Criticism of Islam is seen as part and parcel of Europe’s freedom of expression.

The French parliament has voted to ban the niqab, calling it a threat to the secularism of the French state. But secularism is innocent from this kind of thinking. The ban on the niqab — and an earlier ban on the hijab — has nothing to do with secularism. As a doctrine, secularism was supposed to defend the rights of everyone, especially minorities. Secularism was supposed to protect the rights of all to religious freedom and identity. It was supposed to be a statement of pluralism and religious tolerance.

I have three words I wish to add to the famous motto of the French state, that of liberty, equality, and freedom. I wish to add the phrase, “for non-Muslims only”.

The ban on the niqab is a moral scandal as well as an insult to the Western tradition. For one thing, the anti- niqab crowd assume that any woman wearing the niqab (and perhaps any man wearing robes and a beard) is a time bomb that must be defused. The anti- niqab crowd make no distinction between extremists and moderates. It is bigotry such as theirs that inspired the murder of an innocent Egyptian woman, Marwa El-Sherbini, in Germany a year ago.

There is no real evidence of a connection between the niqab and terror. All the terrorist operations that took place in Europe — from London to Madrid — were mounted by men baring their faces. The attacks mounted by masked men and women across the Arab and Islamic world are rare compared to those mounted by individuals showing their faces. Terrorists like to be seen and recognised. That’s how they are.

I find it ironic that the admirable work of the great intellectual and philosophical brains of the European Enlightenment, of men like John Locke and Montesquieu and Kant, is being reversed by their grandchildren. I find it appalling that in a multi-ethnic country such a Britain, a country known for its religious pluralism and human tolerance, more than 30 Muslim tombs in Leeds have been desecrated. Shops owned by British citizens of Muslim origin were attacked in Birmingham a month ago.

Equally disturbing is the fact that religious fervour and identity-related obsession are spreading across Muslim communities in Europe. Muslim minorities in Europe seem to think that the future of Islam hinges on such outward matters as wearing the niqab, growing a beard, or attaching a minaret to a place of worship. Some members of the Islamic community, especially those of Asian origins, deal with Western societies as if they were still back in Peshawar or Islamabad. Their actions only fuel the Islamophobia of those at the other end of the spectrum.

Islam may be the fastest growing religion in Europe, but its true power is not in outward appearances, but in the spiritual appeal of its message, a message that attracts those wishing to break free from materialism.

The tendency of Muslim communities in Europe to place their “universal” connections above their local loyalties is perilous. There is a tendency for Europe’s Muslims to worry more about Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan than about the more immediate tasks of women’s rights, communal ties and political affiliation. They confuse one’s country with one’s citizenry. In their minds, their countries are not where they live, as in Britain or France, but where they came from. But this doesn’t make sense, for it is in Europe that they ask for their rights as citizens. It is in Europe that they demand equality and religious freedom.

The schizophrenia of European Muslims is triggered by a mistaken loyalty to Salafi, or fundamentalist trends. As many know, Salafi movements oppose integration and are loath to constructive coexistence. The Salafis both fuel the current Islamophobia and thrive on it.

Some of the Muslims who live in Europe have turned into an impediment to Islam. Some actively obstruct the spread of its message of tolerance. Some are distracting non-Muslims from the values of Islam, because of their ignorance and their obsession with appearances.

It is my opinion that mistaken religious concepts are being propagated among the Muslim minorities of Europe. These concepts are bound to hinder their integration into their new societies. A few days ago, I heard that some Muslim men in London branded as haram, or religiously banned, the participation of British Muslims in the general elections of last month. This is crazy. Even worse, the fanatical utterances were made by recent British converts to Islam.

New converts to Islam tend to subscribe to Salafi views as being pure and therefore perfect. In doing so, they turn their back on tolerant views and the progressive opinions that are required for coexistence. This narrow-minded view of Islam makes much of appearances, such as garments and minarets, and of the literary interpretation of religious texts. It also tends to confuse freedom of worship with respect for the public sphere. It is necessary for European Muslims to stop viewing the cultural legacy of European countries as a threat to their religious freedom.

Western countries defend and allow the practice of religious freedoms without hindrance. But they also want to maintain their cultural legacy and protect it from perceived threats, especially when these threats — like the niqab — are matters of contention within the Islamic world, not just in Europe.

The Salafi interpretation of Islam may not be dominant among European Muslims, but it is the most vocal in Europe’s public sphere. As such, it creates a wall between Europe’s Muslims and non-Muslims. It also inspires some of Europe’s most racist laws. The Salafi currents are giving Europe’s rightwing groups reason to claim that a Muslim takeover is imminent unless action is promptly taken.

A polarisation of identity is taking place inside two groups, each obsessed with the other, and each reassured of its own superiority. Should this continue, the next decade will just be as bad as the last.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Greedy, Manipulative and Cunning’: Judge’s Verdict on NHS Manager Who Fraudulently Claimed £15,000 in Benefits

An NHS management consultant who charges more than £300 per hour has been jailed for fraudulently claiming thousands of pounds in benefits.

Zahid Ali claimed a total of about £15,000 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance — even though he owns properties in Dubai and lives in a £1milion Surrey mansion.

The 47-year-old father-of-three failed to declare earnings of £212,000 between 2004 and 2008, which he made through his management consultancy company Coulsdon Limited.

Meanwhile, he drew benefits from Sutton Council, Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Girls of Nine Lured by Gang Culture of Drugs, Sex and Violence Sweeping Britain

Girls as young as nine are being caught up in a burgeoning gang culture, even though they know they are risking their lives, the Government’s three most senior crime inspectors have warned.

Youngsters in many areas see membership of a gang as ‘inevitable’ just for protection, their report says.

Girls are treated as ‘trophies’ by male gang members and subjected to sexual attacks which are filmed on mobile phones and circulated among other members.

By the age of 13 some children have become ‘steeped in gang culture and ideology’, according to the inspectors.

Their report paints a picture of an ‘insidious’ gang culture gripping parts of England and Wales and criticises the police, probation service and young offender institutes for not doing enough to protect children.

One alarming paragraph says: ‘Young men generally described their “gang” associations in terms of friendships or family ties. For some young people there was a sense of inevitability in gang membership, linked to living in particular localities. Some saw this as necessary for their protection. There was an acceptance of the risk of having a short lifespan, especially among those who had been on the receiving end of gang violence.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



What the Butler Heard — L’Oreal Heiress Tax Scandal Hits Minister

France’s richest woman, tapes secretly recorded by a butler, lavish gifts to a society photographer totalling a billion euros, alleged tax evasion and the role of a government minister’s wife: all the ingredients for a scandal at the top.

A scandal involving allegations that France’s richest woman plotted to evade taxes has threatened to engulf French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Labour Minister Eric Woerth.

Woerth’s wife Florence managed the financial affairs of billionaire Liliane Bettencourt (pictured), who is head of the L’Oreal cosmetics empire, until her resignation was announced on Monday.

Her role has come under scrutiny after secretly taped recordings reportedly revealed that the 87-year-old Bettencourt had tried to evade paying taxes.

The conversations, recorded by Bettencourt’s butler, allegedly show that the billionaire hid money in Swiss bank accounts while making large donations to friends in the governing UMP party.

The tapes have brought a new twist to a legal saga between Bettencourt and her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, who believes her mother is no longer fit to manage the family fortune.

The makeup heiress ranks 17th on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, with a fortune estimated at 16 billion euros.

Lavish gifts totalling a billion euros

The scandal over the butler’s tapes erupted just two weeks before a society photographer is to go on trial to answer charges from Bettencourt’s daughter that he took advantage of her elderly mother when he accepted lavish gifts from her.

The photographer, Francois-Marie Banier, received masterpiece paintings, cash and insurance policies worth nearly one billion euros from Bettencourt.

The scandal comes at a delicate time for the French government as it tries to push through an overhaul of the pensions system in the face of opposition from the unions who have called for nationwide strikes.

Socialist opposition member Arnaud Montebourg called on Woerth, formerly the budget minister, to step down to allow the “truth to be known” about Bettencourt’s financial dealings.

“It seems to me that it would be extremely difficult for Eric Woerth to stay at his post in a government that has made dismantling tax havens a priority,” Montebourg told AFP.

“We had a budget minister who was also a treasurer for the UMP and whose wife worked to help Mrs Bettencourt with her tax fraud,” he said.

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

North Africa


Spain-Morocco: Ceuta, ‘Occupied City’ Signs Removed

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 22 — Morocco’s authorities ordered the removal of signs saying ‘Occupied Ceuta’ that had been placed next to the border of the Spanish enclave in Morocco by the self-named Moroccan liberation committee. The signs, according to police sources reported by Efe agency, were removed after reports by Morocco’s police authorities. They had been attached to many traffic signs on the road that leads to the border with the independent Spanish city. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Essay Contest With $100 Prize: Why the Kurds Don’t Deserve an Independent State

David P. Goldman

Here’s an essay contest, for which I personally will offer a $100 prize. Write 1,000 words on the subject, “Why the Palestinians Deserve an Independent State and the Kurds Do Not.”

Explain why the Kurds should not have an independent state, despite these facts:

1) There are 35 million Kurds, as opposed to perhaps six million Palestinian Arabs by the broadest definition;

2) The Kurds are an ethnic group distinct from Turks, Arabs, or Persians;

3) Perhaps 40,000 Kurdish militants have died at the hands of Turkish security forces during the past twenty years battling against Turkey for an independent Kurdish state;

4) The Kurds speak a distinct language and have a distinct culture;

5) Saddam Hussein killed up to 300,000 Iraqi Kurds, including by poison gas attacks on civilians;

6) The Iraqi Kurds have governed themselves successfully in northern Iraq since Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the American-led coalition in 2003.

Few peoples have suffered more than the Kurds, fought harder to preserve their culture (written Kurdish was outlawed in Turkey for most of the 20th century), showed more tenacity in pursuit of national self-determination, or shown themselves more capable of managing a modern country.

For special credit, answer the following questions:

Why is the human rights establishment so upset about Gaza—whose Hamas-controlled government uses the strip as a terrorist base against Israel—that it is willing to accept Turkish patronage to break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade?

And why has the human rights establishment accepted the patronage of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who vowed that Kurdish rebels will “drown in their own blood.” As noted, the Turkish army has killed up to 40,000 Kurdish rebels (and countless civilians) during the past two decades. Journalists in Turkey are jailed for filing reports on Kurdish militant organizations that would be considered run-of-the-mill reportage in any civilized country.

Satirical essays will not be considered: the case must be made in earnest that Kurds do not deserve an independent state while the Palestinians do. Residents of Circle 8, Bolgia 6 are encouraged to submit essays but will not be eligible for the $100 prize as Charon does not accept checks.

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



Gilad Shalit is Not the Only Hostage

Thursday night, members of Chicago’s Jewish community will stand in vigil, focused on the fate of Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli held hostage by Hamas. Our concern for him is just the tip of the iceberg.

Shalit is now entering his fifth year of captivity at the hands of Gaza’s terrorist rulers. A then-19-year-old soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, Shalit was abducted from inside Israel by a Hamas terror squad on June 25, 2006. Contrary to international law and all standards of decency, the kidnapped soldier has been held virtually incommunicado, with no right of visitation by any humanitarian body.

To those genuinely concerned about the fate of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents, the emphasis on the fate of one Israeli might seem distorted. But the circumstances under which Shalit was abducted, and two of his fellow soldiers were killed, cut to the root cause of suffering of all Israelis and Palestinians.

Shalit was attacked while guarding a place called Kerem Shalom (Vineyard of Peace), one of half a dozen border crossings that enable commerce between Israel and Gaza. For years, facilities like Kerem Shalom have been attacked repeatedly by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terror groups precisely because they foster exchanges between Israelis and Palestinians.

Hamas and other radicals have perpetrated such attacks not because they desire peace or a better life for the people they rule. They do so because they violently oppose any activity that might lead to a peaceful end of conflict-something they consistently reject in word and deed on religious grounds. Earlier this month, a Hamas preacher said on the group’s Al-Aqsa TV that “[The Jews’] annihilation and the destruction of their state will only be achieved through Islam, by those who bow before Allah.”

Why have none of those involved in the recent, so-called humanitarian efforts to aid the residents of Gaza raised their voices — on behalf of Shalit or about the deep and vexing issues he symbolizes? Why did the organizers of the recent flotilla refuse to deliver a letter to Shalit from his family? Why, I wonder, were their voices of condemnation and outrage not heard when Hamas forced the closure of the border crossings by launching countless terror attacks and thousands of rockets at Israeli border towns like Sderot, where I experienced such a barrage in 2007?

Why were they not raised when Hamas began firing Iranian Grad missiles on major Israeli cities like Ashkelon and Beersheva? It was that development that triggered the intensification of Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and its 2008 offensive, which finally restored some semblance of normal life to southern Israel.

Hamas, which has long used Palestinians as human shields to attack Israelis, persistently has aspired not to “free” Gaza — as Israel tried to do with its total withdrawal in 2005 before the Hamas takeover. Rather Hamas has always worked to force a blockade, in order to try to create a humanitarian crisis (or at least the image of one).

For example, after a dozen or so civilians and police died in terrorist attacks, in 2004 Israel closed the Erez industrial zone on the Gaza-Israel border, a facility that for 30 years had employed 5,000 Gazans. The zone had been hailed by both Israelis and Palestinians as an example of cooperation.

It is Hamas, not Israel, that has spared no effort to use Gazans as pawns in a global game of jihad and de-legitimization of Israel, a game orchestrated by Iran that also employs Hezbollah and now — ominously — elements within Turkey.

Gilad Shalit isn’t the only prisoner of Hamas. Captive with him are all Israelis and Palestinians who desire an end to the cynical, escalating assault being perpetrated in the name of human rights. All who are genuinely concerned about peace should raise their voices on behalf of all who are held hostage.

Steven B. Nasatir is president of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Israel and the Surrender of the West

by Shelby Steele

The most interesting voice in all the fallout surrounding the Gaza flotilla incident is that sanctimonious and meddling voice known as “world opinion.” At every turn “world opinion,” like a school marm, takes offense and condemns Israel for yet another infraction of the world’s moral sensibility. And this voice has achieved an international political legitimacy so that even the silliest condemnation of Israel is an opportunity for self-congratulation.

[…]

This is something new in the world, this almost complete segregation of Israel in the community of nations. And if Helen Thomas’s remarks were pathetic and ugly, didn’t they also point to the end game of this isolation effort: the nullification of Israel’s legitimacy as a nation? There is a chilling familiarity in all this. One of the world’s oldest stories is playing out before our eyes: The Jews are being scapegoated again.

…it projects onto Israel the same sin that made apartheid South Africa so untouchable: white supremacy. Somehow “world opinion” has moved away from the old 20th century view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a complicated territorial dispute between two long-suffering peoples. Today the world puts its thumb on the scale for the Palestinians by demonizing the stronger and whiter Israel as essentially a colonial power committed to the “occupation” of a beleaguered Third World people.

This is now—figuratively in some quarters and literally in others—the moral template through which Israel is seen. It doesn’t matter that much of the world may actually know better…

[Return to headlines]



Jerusalem: Solution Found for Silwan, Netanyahu

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JUNE 22 — Following yesterday’s go-ahead announced by a municipal committee in charge of city planning, a war of words has broken out over the controversial plans for an archaeological park, the so-called ‘King’s Garden’, whose construction would involve demolishing twenty-two illegally-built houses in the Palestinian area of Silwan, in East Jerusalem. Faced with an immediate barrage of protest from the Palestine National Authority, (with fears over the future of talks with Israel) and from the United States, Benyamin Netanyahu has stated that construction time-lines stretch way into the future. In the meantime, the Premier’s office has made it known that it will be necessary “to find a solution in agreement with the residents and in line with the law”. The city council’s plans include paying compensation to the owners of any demolished buildings as well as the formal registration of a further sixty buildings in Silwan which have been considered illegal to date. But local area leaders are opposing these plans. According to Israeli military radio, Netanyahu is now putting pressure on Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas Party) in order to “bogging down” the planned ‘King’s Garden’ project. Criticism has also come from Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who is currently on a visit to the United States. According to him, whoever authorised the demolitions in Silwan has demonstrated a lack of “good sense and timing”. For his part, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat launched an appeal to the international community to defuse “the dangerous steps” being taken by Israel in this affair. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Sentence of Some Ultra-Orthodox Mothers Revoked

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JUNE 22 — Today, the Israeli High Court of Justice revoked the two-week prison term of some of the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi mothers, who together with their husbands, in abidance with a decision by their rabbis, refused to obey a ruling of the court, which forced parents to allow their daughters to study together with Sephardic Jews in the same non-state run schools in the West Bank settlement of Emanuel. Last week the court sentenced 68 parents to two weeks in jail, but only some of them turned themselves in to police to serve their time. Ultra-orthodox rabbis of the Ashkenazi community have stated that they are against mixed classrooms, saying that Sephardic girls’ customs are more liberal, also religiously, and therefore create a negative influence. In today’s decision — for which the explanations have not been published — the court ruled that 13 of the 22 mothers be excused from prison, while the other 9 will serve their sentence after their husbands. Last week, the prison sentence enraged the ultra-Orthodox community and tens of thousands protested in Jerusalem and other cities in disapproval of the court’s decision and to show solidarity with the parents. The events are part of a broader context of problematic relations in Israel between secular and religious people and between the state and the ultra-Orthodox community, which prefers to isolate itself and favours the decisions of its rabbis over those of the state courts. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



UNRWA Questions Worth of Vow to Ease Gaza Grip

The head of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said on Wednesday the fine print of Israel’s pledge to ease its Gaza blockade raised questions about how effective it would prove to be, Reuters reported.

Under international pressure over an Israeli commando raid on a relief aid flotilla bound for Gaza that killed nine people, Israel last week announced it would relax its grip on Gaza.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 to try to weaken the Islamist Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel and which seized control of the Gaza Strip that year, and prevent it from acquiring more and heavier weapons.

Israel’s rules banned any import into Gaza that was not explicitly permitted. Israel now says it will let in all goods except those on a list that could be used for military purposes, including cement and steel rods.

Filippo Grandi, commissioner-general of UNRWA, called the blockade “absurd, counterproductive and illegal” and cited elements in Israel’s easing plan that left unclear how it would be fully implemented.

“They’re talking about items that will be allowed for certain times and not other times, depending on who the consignee is. So it’s still very complicated,” he told reporters in Beirut.. “We have seen some broad statements of how they will do it but the devil is in the detail. We have to see how this will be done and we haven’t seen it yet.

“We’ve seen many times declarations and statements,” Grandi added. “But now we want to see facts… Believe me, it’s very urgent, because the conditions are very bad on the ground.”

Human rights groups and other critics see the blockade as collective punishment of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians.

Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as Palestinians, UNRWA officials and rights advocates maintain.

Critics have said Israel’s new rules could still make it hard to import building materials to rebuild the coastal enclave, whose tattered infrastructure suffered severe damage in a war between Israel and Hamas in early 2009.

Grandi called for Gaza’s land crossings to be opened.

UNRWA has said Israel must reopen the Karni cargo terminal on Gaza’s northeast boundary that is large enough to allow industrial-scale shipments of cement, building materials and aid. Instead, trucks are now routed to a narrower crossing.

War crimes

A group of Palestinians filed a war crimes complaint in a Belgian court Wednesday against 14 top Israeli officials including Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Agence France-Presse reported from Brussels citing the plaintiffs’ lawyer.

The complaint, presented to the Belgian federal prosecutor, seeks charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in January 2009, said attorney Georges-Henri Beauthier.

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who headed the government at the time, and his foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, are also named in the document along with high-ranking military and intelligence officials.

The prosecutor should decide on the merit of the case by the end of August under Belgium’s law of universal jurisdiction, which allows Belgians to file such complaints, Beauthier said.

One of the 14 plaintiffs has Belgian citizenship.

Anouar El Okka, a Belgian doctor of Palestinian origin, claims that his olive grove in Gaza was bombarded and then set on fire with phosphorous by Israeli forces, the attorney said.

The complaint also cites the bombing of the Ibrahim Al Maqadna Mosque, near the refugee camp of Jabaliya, in which 16 civilians including children were killed.

The Belgian lawyers also represent 13 Palestinians who were wounded or lost a relative in the attack, which had been aimed at Hamas fighters.

The 70-page complaint also refers to the conclusions of a UN-commissioned report which accused Israel and Palestinian fighters of war crimes in Gaza.

It is not the first time such legal action has been taken in Belgium.

In 2001, a complaint was filed against former prime minister Ariel Sharon over massacres at refugee camps two decades earlier, but the case went nowhere.

That legal move caused a diplomatic spat between Israel and Belgium and led Brussels to change its universal jurisdiction law, allowing it to apply only in cases that involved Belgian nationals.

The Israeli assault on Gaza, which was launched in response to Palestinian rocket attacks, left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead over 22 days between December 2008 and January 2009.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



US Praises New Gaza Measures, Netanyahu Visit Soon

(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON, JUNE 21 — The United States has welcomed Israel’s decision to lighten the embargo on Gaza and announced that the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu will meet President Barack Obama on July 6 at the White House. The meeting between Obama and Netanyahu had been scheduled for June 1 but the bloody Israeli attack on the pro-Palestinian flotilla heading for Gaza, in which nine people were killed, forced the Prime Minister to rush home from a state visit to Canada. The White House yesterday expressed its satisfaction at Israel’s decision to allow all products of civilian use into the Gaza Strip, though the naval blockade remains in force. “We believe that the implementation of the measures announced today by the Israeli government will improve the lives of the people of Gaza, while blocking the entry of weapons,” a White House statement said. “But there is still a lot more to be done and President Obama will be happy to discuss these new measures and further steps forward during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on July 6,” the statement said. In the meantime, the United States “will work with all sides” to “explore other ways to improve the situation in Gaza, including greater freedom of movement and transport of commercial goods between Gaza and the West Bank”. The White House also announced a meeting on June 29 at the White House between Obama and the Saudi King Abdullah, for talks “that will focus on bilateral issues, but also security in the Gulf and peace in the Middle East”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Arab Women Urge Support for Al-Jazeera Reporters

Milan, 22 June (AKI) — Arab women living in Italy have expressed their support for five female journalists who resigned from the Arab TV network, Al-Jazeera, after the network criticised their clothing. Dounia Ettaib, president of the Arab Women’s Association in Italy, told Adnkronos International (AKI) she also wanted the Doha-based network to guarantee journalists’ rights in the Middle East.

“We express our solidarity for the five Al-Jazeera journalists forced to resign over their clothing and we ask the Qatari TV network not to discriminate against women who work there,” she told AKI on Tuesday.

Five female newscasters left their Al-Jazeera anchor positions after the company criticised them for their “clothes and decency”.

The fracas allegedly occurred after the women repeatedly appeared on television wearing make-up and without covering their hair. Al-Jazeera claims they have the right to enforce a dress code that reflects its principles.

The women also said that deputy editor-in-chief Ayman Jaballah made offensive remarks about them and their choice of dress.

The journalists are Joumana Nammour, Lina Zahr al-Din, Jullinar Mousa, Luna al-Shibl and Nawfar Afli and all are reportedly well-respected in the region.

Established in 1996, Al-Jazeera has attempted to stray from the government-dictated media of the region.

“We are expecting clarifications from the Qatari network regarding their work future and detailed explanations on the whole episide,” Ettaib said.

“We wish the journalists well, especially considering that since they resigned they have not released any public statement.”

Three of the women come from Lebanon, the other two from Syria and Tunisia respectively — decided to quit after a lengthy dispute.

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



Russia Promises Not to Deliver Air Defense System to Iran

Russian officials have assured their U.S. counterparts this month that they would not complete the sale of a powerful air defense system known as the S-300 to Iran.

Speaking Tuesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, William Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the Russians had made assurances they would not complete the sale.

“Russia, for example, has confirmed to us that it will not deliver the S-300 system in accordance with the U.N. sanctions,” Mr. Burns said.

The new U.N. Security Council resolution 1923, which sanctions Iran for its nuclear program, includes a loophole that would allow the Russians to sell the air defense system…

[Return to headlines]



Union Warns Al-Jazeera “Not to Discriminate”

Rome, 22 June (AKI) — The International Federation of Journalists has appealed to the Arab television network, Al-Jazeera, to clarify the reasons that led to the resignation of five female presenters at the end of May. A spokesman for the Brussels-based union told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the resignations had provoked major concern.

“Al-Jazeera must explain the circumstances that led to the resignation of the five journalists,” a spokesman told AKI. “They should not suffer discrimination.”

The IFJ is the largest federation of journalists’ trade unions in the world and aims to protect and the rights and working conditions of journalists.

At the end of May the union also expressed concern about the “absence of freedom” in the organisation.

The five female newscasters left their Al-Jazeera anchor positions after the company criticised them for their “clothes and decency”.

The dispute allegedly occurred after the women repeatedly appeared on television wearing make-up and without covering their hair. Al-Jazeera has claimed it has the right to enforce a dress code that reflects its principles.

The women also said that deputy editor-in-chief Ayman Jaballah made offensive remarks about them and their choice of dress.

The journalists are Joumana Nammour, Lina Zahr al-Din, Jullinar Mousa, Luna al-Shibl and Nawfar Afli and all are reportedly well-respected in the region.

Established in 1996, Al-Jazeera has attempted to stray from the government-dictated media of the region.

Three of the women come from Lebanon, the other two from Syria and Tunisia respectively — decided to quit after a lengthy dispute.

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



United States — Iran: US Military Pressure Increasing in the Persian Gulf

Some 12 US warships transited through the Suez Canal a few days ago. Three naval squadrons are currently in the region. Forces appear to be in position for a possible attack against Iran’s nuclear sites. Late July and early August could provide a window of opportunity for action. Iran threatens chaos in Saudi Arabia if it is attacked. Economic factors are determining the timing of the crisis.

Milan (AsiaNews) — After 387 bunker buster bombs were shipped to the US base in Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, whose great potential AsiaNews had already revealed last April (see Maurizio d’Orlando, “Winds of war and economic crisis behind the attacks on the Pope,” in AsiaNews, 14 April 2010), 12 US warships, as well as one Israeli corvette, have crossed the Suez Canal, this according to Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds-al-Arabi, confirmed by the newspapers Jerusalem Post and Haaretz.

The Debka online news agency, usually well connected with Israel’s secret services Mossad, also confirmed increased activity in the Persian Gulf. According to Debka, three Israeli nuclear-armed subs are believed to be currently operating off the coast of Iran. The German-built submarines are considered technologically top of their class.

Coming from the Mediterranean, the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier also transited through the Suez Canal, this according to an article published in Zerohedge (Tyler Durden, “12 American Warships, Including One Aircraft Carrier, And One Israeli Corvette, Cross Suez Canal On Way To Red Sea And Beyond,” in Zerohedge, 19 June 2010).

Thus, three naval squadrons with fighter planes are in position in the region, plus planes deployed at the US airbase at Diego Garcia. Preparations thus are complete for a possible attack against sites where, according to the United States and Israel, Iran is building its first nuclear bomb. If war does break out, the best period would be the end of July and early August.

Iran has always claimed that its uranium enrichment installations are for the civilian production of energy. Over the years, Tehran has allowed inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations to visit those installations to verify that they are not being used for military purposes.

Recently, on 16 May, Iran agreed to a plan put forward by Brazil and Turkey (see “Tehran accepts an agreement on enriched uranium with Turkey and Brazil,” in AsiaNews, 17 May 2010) for uranium to be enriched outside Iran, in Turkey, to guarantee that the material would not be used for military purpose, a move not welcomed by Israel.

Every threat leads to a counter threat

For its part, Iran’s PressTV news network published an article in English that quotes from a letter written by a member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (see “Prince warns S. Arabia of apocalypse,” in PressTV, 9 June 2010), that was published by Cairo-based Arabic-language Wagze news agency.

The prince, who has lived in Egypt for years after falling out with Saudi Arabia’s reining family, warns the dynasty and its members that they are at risk because they are hated by the population. A coup could remove them from power, putting their lives in great danger. He urges them to leave and, in a somewhat dramatic tone, find refuge abroad before people “cut off our heads in streets.”

Most people living in the kingdom’s oil-rich regions are Shia, like in Iran. Shia Islam and the Wahhabi-oriented Sunni Islam backed by the Saudi dynasty are not exactly on friendly terms.

The publication of the story based on the prince’s letter shows what strategy Iran might adopt in case of an attack. It suggests that Tehran might try to cause havoc in its neighbour, Saudi Arabia, and thus put at risk the latter’s oil exports. In that case, the effects on oil prices would be huge since the desert kingdom is the world’s largest oil producer. Even so, it is still unclear how serious Iran’s threat to the Saudi royal family really is.

However, the letter also contains another element. “Do not fool yourself by relying on the United States or Britain or Israel,” the prince tells his family, “because they will not survive the loss”. What this actually means is unclear. Does he mean economic loss, military loss? Perhaps this obscure passage is a warning the Iranian network attributes to the prince in order to hint that Tehran might call for a ‘Jihad’, a holy war to urge the masses to rise up in Muslim countries and for Islamist cells to launch terrorist attacks.

Here too it is unclear how a hypothetical Iranian appeal to Islamic solidarity might unfold in the case of an attack and a terrorist counterattack.

Based on our evaluation of the threats and counter threats, the danger of a conflict is likely to be at its highest in late July and early August and this for various reasons.

First, the deployment of the US-Israeli military forces will be done by that time.

Second, leaders at the G8-G20 summits in late June in Toronto will have a venue where they conduct high-level consultations, a necessary preliminary step before any political-military action is taken.

For its part, Iran has to wait for the necessary provocation that can raise tensions, i.e. the arrival of a flotilla to break the naval blockade of Gaza to bring “humanitarian” aid.

The weight of US debt

The main factors behind the timing of this political-military crisis are economic in nature.

The first one is that US budget estimates for 2010 should be released in mid-September. Usually, rumours about them already abound by August. This year, this will not be necessary because it is already clear that Obama’s “economic stimulus”, as advised by Keynesian economists like Paul Krugman, has not only failed to increase employment, but that it has, through higher government spending, punched a huge hole in the US federal deficit, certainly more than 10 per cent of the GDP.

In order to hide the economic and social fiasco (with real unemployment at 22 per cent of the active workforce), a foreign threat and a military and political emergency are needed, but they must come before tax and employment data are released in order to achieve a minimum degree of credibility and be picked up by big information media.

A second factor that is often left out of the equation is that the United States (and others) not only has a huge public debt crisis but that it also has a huge private debt, affecting families and companies.

US private debt stands at US$ 50 trillion or 330 per cent the US GDP. On the long run, this cannot be sustained; it has to come down in real terms through deflation or hyperinflation.

Financial leverage must be cut and properties bought wholly or partially on debt must be liquidated. We might expect a repeat of the subprime crisis of September 2007. The difference this time will be that, instead of insolvent subprime debtors, the crisis is more likely to hit the more solvent private debt holders.

Mid-September will also see a mass of commercial mortgages and quality debts come due, but quite a few holders will have a hard time getting them renewed. A foreign threat will come in handy if it occurs right before the collapse in the real value of property, stocks and bonds, which would otherwise pose a threat to the traditional two-party system of the United States.

Iran’s governing regime also needs an external threat to hold onto power. Increasingly, a new generation of Iranians is putting pressure on the system, unable and unwilling to tolerate the regime’s corruption and technological backwardness. The inability to find a job and the isolation from the rest of the world are particularly heavy burdens to bear.

Unlike their parents, young Iranians did not participate in the Islamic revolution against the Shah, an event remembered also and perhaps especially as an uprising against US economic and cultural imperialism. They do not really know what anti-Americanism is and thus view the struggle against the “Great Satan” as tired old rhetoric used for domestic consumption. For the regime, it therefore becomes imperative not to lower its guard, but rather keep the threat level high through concrete steps.

Indeed, both sides appear to follow the rationale that led to the Falklands War when Argentinian generals were in charge of a country on the brink of economic bankruptcy and the British establishment was still facing tough domestic choices in order to restructure the country’s economy in the wake of Britain’s long movement away from empire.

A foreign threat or a war overseas are one of the oldest and most tested political tools to close ranks at home. However, today’s social, political and economic instability are global in scope. It is hard to imagine how an intervention could be surgically limited to a specific context, especially if that context is the Persian Gulf. Lighting a match and throwing it in to start a fire could quickly get out of hand and blow up the world’s powder keg.

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

Russia


5 Year-Old Ukranian Boy Slaughtered Like a Goat by Radical Islamist

The 5 year-old was playing in a sandbox with his little sister and a friend when the radical Islamist screaming “Allahu Akbar” slit his throat like a goat.

FOX News reported:

A 5-year-old Ukrainian boy was slaughtered by an alleged religious fanatic as he played in a sandpit with his friends, Pravda reported Tuesday.

The stranger strolled up to little Viktor Shemyakin before pointing to a tree and saying: “Look, there is a bird up there.” When the youngster glanced upward the maniac plunged a knife into his throat, Pravda said.

The June 18 killing has threatened to ignite tension in the town of Dneprovka, in Ukraine’s Crimea region, after it emerged that the 27-year-old knifeman was a suspected Muslim fanatic, the Russian online newspaper reported.

The victim’s three-year-old sister Lena Shemyakina and her five-year-old friend were among a group of young children who witnessed the horrifying attack.

Viktor’s mother, named only as Angelina, heard their screams and ran out of the house to find her child lying in a pool of blood.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Russia, Italy to Begin Building Joint Helicopter Assembly Facility

The construction of a Russian-Italian joint helicopter assembly facility will begin on Tuesday in the town of Tomilino outside Moscow, Russian Helicopters has said.

Russia’s Oboronprom Corporation and Italy’s AgustaWestland signed an agreement to set up a joint venture to assemble AW139 helicopters in Russia in July 2008. The first helicopters are expected to roll off the production line in 2012.

The Russian corporation earlier said the helicopters produced in Russia would be sold primarily in Russia and the CIS, although they would be marketed worldwide through AgustaWestland’s international network.

AgustaWestland previously said the joint venture would meet growing demand and consolidate the company’s foothold in the CIS market.

Oboronprom, a subsidiary of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-run arms exporter, has said Russian helicopter manufacturers would gain access to new production technology and maintenance standards.

The AW139 is a medium twin-engine helicopter with a takeoff weight of 6.4 metric tons. It can carry up to 15 passengers and be used as a corporate or VIP vehicle, as well as in offshore, emergency, rescue and firefighting operations.

AgustaWestland, part of Finmeccanica Group, is one of the world’s largest helicopter manufacturers with production centers in Italy, Britain and the United States.

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

South Asia


Afghanistan: Top US Commander Recalled Over News Article

Washington, 22 June (AKI) — America’s top commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington after a magazine article in which he criticises diplomats and senior officials in the Obama administration. General Stanley McChrystal has already apologised for the article which appears in this week’s issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

McChrystal is reportedly quoted saying he feels betrayed by US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry.

In the profile entitled, ‘The Runaway General’, McChrystal questions the judgement of administration officials in dealing with the Afghan war and an anonymous McChrystal aide is quoted calling national security adviser, James Jones, a “clown”.

The general’s aides also make fun of vice-president Joe Biden and say he is “disappointed” with Obama.

Referring to Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s senior envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, one McChrystal aide is quoted saying: “The boss says he’s like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumours that he’s going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous.”

The magazine profile of McChrystal written by a journalist who was given access to the commander and his staff and is due to be released on Friday.

A spokesman for the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the admiral had spoken by telephone to McChrystal to express his “deep disappointment”.

A White House official said McChrystal had “been directed to attend [Wednesday’s] monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person” rather than by teleconference, according to news reports.

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



Afghanistan: Taliban ‘Plotted to Kill US Envoy’

Kabul, 22 June (AKI) — The Taliban plotted to blow up US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke during his visit to southern Helmand province on Tuesday, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Daud Ahmadi, told Pajhwok Afghan news agency.

The Taliban sent three suicide bombers to a square in the lawless Marja district of Helmand, where Holbrooke was due to meet US troops on Tuesday, Ahmadi said.

One of the trio detonated his explosives as he apparently became frustrated when the envoy and other foreign and local officials changed plans and decided not to visit the square.

He killed himself and his two fellow bombers, the official said.

Holbrooke also escaped a rocket attack on his helicopter when he was leaving, the official said.

The Taliban did not immediate issue a comment.

They were driven out of the volatile district during a major military offensive of Afghan and NATO forces in February.

Holbrooke met US troops during his visit and discussed the security situation, Pajhwok said.

The envoy also held a meeting with tribal elders and listened to their concerns about the security in the district.

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



India: Islamist ‘Militant Leader’ Killed in Gunbattle

Srinigar, 22 June (AKI/DAWN) — Indian security forces on Tuesday said they had killed a senior local commander from the Islamist Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant group in Indian-administered Kashmir. The militant was killed during a gunbattle in which a police officer was also killed.

The gunbattle erupted on Monday in the northern town of Sopore, about 50 kilometres north of Srinagar, and ended early Tuesday with the killing of Abu Zubair, senior police officer Altaf Ahmed said.

“The fighting erupted when soldiers and police raided a hideout,” he said. One later died in hospital of his injuries.

Police said Zubair was a Pakistani commander of the militant group in Sopore and was responsible for masterminding attacks against security forces.

The Pakistan-based LeT has been blamed by India for the Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people in November 2008. It has denied any role in the attacks.

Kashmir has seen a wave of violence recently. At least one person was killed and scores of others were injured after clashes between Indian security forces and demonstrators in Indian-administered Kashmir at the weekend.

Paramilitary police fired on the demonstrators who tried to torch a paramilitary bunker on Sunday, police said.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Srinagar to protest against the death of a 25-year-old whom protesters alleged had died after being beaten by soldiers in a demonstration on 12 June.

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



Indonesia: Police Charge Rock Star Over ‘Porn Video’

Jakarta, 22 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Indonesian police on Tuesday charged popular rock star Nazriel Irham over a sex video scandal. Indonesian rock star turned himself into police on Tuesday after two videos emerged allegedly showing him having sex with one of the country’s most famous models and a television presenter.

Police questioned Nazriel Irham, known as Ariel, and the two women who were allegedly in the videos, Luna Maya and Cut Tari, in an investigation into the scandal.

The scandal has shocked Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation where many people have conservative views ab out sex.

Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis Zainuri said police had named Ariel a suspect and charged him under the 2008 Pornography Law that carries a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison.

Ariel arrived at the national police headquarters in South Jakarta late Monday.

The term “Ariel Peterporn” is a play on his name, band and the sex tapes. The term hovered at the top of Twitter’s topics, following the release of the videos on the Internet.

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



Indonesia: Bekasi: Islamic Extremists Destroy an “Immoral and Blasphemous” Sculpture

It was the “Three young women” sculpture, by a famous Bali artist to welcome those coming into the district. For the fundamentalists it was “immoral”, referring to the “Christian Trinity “ and aims to convert. Artist: act stupid and misleading”.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Islamic fundamentalists in the district of Bekasi, 30 km east of Jakarta, have obtained the destruction of a statue of “Three young women,” because it was deemed blasphemous. The bare chest and symbols related to the number “three” — the Trinity of Christian nature — make the work of art “obscene” and “desecrate” the religion of Mohammed. The sculptor has expressed disappointment and disbelief at the destruction, ordered last June 19 by the local authorities, describing the act “stupid and misleading.” The Bekasi district thus registers as a new episode of religious extremism after attacks on churches and Christian buildings. Theatre of a rapid urbanization, the area not far from the Indonesian capital has not been able to harmonise economic development and peaceful coexistence, especially between Christians and Muslims.

Recently, the Islamic Defence Front (FPI) pointed the finger at the statue of the “Three young women” (Tiga Mojana in local language), a work by the sculptor Nyoman Nuart, a native of Bali who is famous worldwide. The extremists have branded the work as “obscene and blasphemous” and have had it destroyed. The artist notes that the sculpture has nothing offensive to the religion of Mohammed, adding that “while being topless,” the 17 meters high work of art has no sexual significance and does not intend to offend Islamic morality, also because the young women wear clothes typical of the region of West Java.

An even more “ridiculous” accusation is that the image seeks to convert people to Christianity: the three women, according to the extremists, recall the “trinity”, and therefore had to be demolished. In fact, there are three women because there are three directions leading to the roundabout where the statue was erected. And each woman, according to the intentions of the author, was to symbolise a “welcome” to those who entered the district.

Following the wave of protests, the district chief imposed the statute’s destruction. A decision, taken by the authorities, also opposed by the moderate fringe of Muslims, according to which “the work of one of the most respected artists in the area, has now gone with the wind.” A local witness, under conditions of anonymity, told AsiaNews that every work of the art should be appreciated, as long as “there is nothing blasphemous or contrary to any religion.”

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



Pakistan: Islamabad “Uses Terrorism Against Minorities”.

Peter Jacob, secretary general of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace Pakistan, visiting Europe tells AsiaNews, “Under the guise of Islamic identity and the war on terror, the government keeps in force the laws of religious discrimination.”

Rome (AsiaNews) — The war on terrorism and the identity of Pakistan “are two powerful excuses with which the government of the country opposes the repeal of blasphemy laws and other regulations that discriminate against non-Muslims. But the pronouncements of the European Union and those in Washington on the subject make us realize that we are not alone in our struggle”. Says Peter Jacob, secretary general of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace Pakistan, visiting Europe, in an interview with AsiaNews.

The laws mentioned are the blasphemy law, which punishes with death anyone who desecrates Muhammad and the Koran, and the Hudood Ordinances, a set of rules that require certain behaviour in line with religious teachings. The blasphemy law is actually the worst instrument of religious repression in Pakistan. According to the figures of Justice and Peace from 1986 to August 2009 at least 964 people were indicted for having defiled the Koran or defaming the Prophet Muhammad. Among these, 479 were Muslims, 119 Christians, 340 Ahmadis, 14 Hindu and 10 other members of other religions. It also provides a pretext for attacks, personal vendettas or extra-judicial killings: 33 in all, made by individuals or angry crowds.

Dr. Jacob, what is the purpose of this visit in Europe?

We just returned from Geneva, where we attended the Pakistan Support Group: This is a network of international groups operating under the aegis of the United Nations. We meet once a year to discuss problems facing our country: this time, the main points were the laws of religious discrimination and the problem of education, increasingly interconnected extremism. The new School Act is essentially identical to the old, and discriminates against non-Muslims, putting wrong and dangerous messages in lessons and in textbooks.

With regard to religious laws, are there any changes from the government?

Ours is a parliamentary democracy, and Prime Minister Gilani attends these matters. Parliamentarians are very frightened by the religious question, and the extremist lobby is pushing working very hard to uphold these laws. I do not think much can change in a short time, these are laws that require time to be changed.

But Pakistan has, on paper, a secular Constitution. What can the international community do to help?

Recent resolutions expressed by the European Union and several statements by the U.S. administration make us realize that the world follows the issue of discriminatory laws very closely. But putting pressure on our government to do something concrete is not very easy, because Islamabad has a series of excuses to maintain its position. On the one hand, the fight against terrorism, which requires the country to maintain a state of emergency and, therefore, do nothing. On the other hand there is the question of identity in Pakistan: although we have a secular constitution and laws, the political parties are pushing to keep the situation as it stands in the name of Islam.

What is the Catholic Church doing in this battle?

We strive to make our voice heard in every way, especially in the international arena. Fortunately, this battle against discrimination is shared by many sectors of civil society in Pakistan. We hope that sooner or later the day will come when even the government understands the futility and cruelty of these laws, and do something to improve the situation.

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



Pakistani PM Warns He’ll Defy US Sanctions

Islambad, 22 June (AKI/DAWN) — Pakistan will go ahead with a plan to import natural gas from Iran even if the US levies additional sanctions on the country, prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

Gilani’s comments on Tuesday come two days after the US special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, cautioned Pakistan not to “over commit” itself to the deal because it could run afoul of new sanctions against Iran.

The deal has been a constant source of tension between the two countries, with Pakistan arguing that it is vital to its ability to cope with an energy crisis and the US stressing that it would undercut international pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.

Gilani said Pakistan would reconsider the deal if it violated UN sanctions, but the country was “not bound to follow” unilateral US measures. He said media reports that quoted him as saying that Pakistan would heed Holbrooke’s warning were incorrect.

The UN has levied four sets of sanctions against Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear weapon. The latest set of UN sanctions was approved earlier this month.

The US has also applied a number of unilateral sanctions against Iran, and Congress is currently finalising a new set largely aimed at the country’s petroleum industry. Both houses have passed versions of the sanctions and are working to reconcile their differences.

Pakistan and Iran finalised the gas deal earlier this month. Under the contract, Iran will export 760 million cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan through a new pipeline beginning in 2014. The construction of the pipeline is estimated to cost some 7 billion dollars.

While US officials have expressed opposition to the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline deal, the issue is complicated by Washington’s reliance on Pakistan’s cooperation to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The US also acknowledges that Pakistan faces a severe energy crisis and has made aid to the energy sector one of its top development priorities. Electricity shortages in Pakistan cause rolling blackouts that affect businesses and intensify suffering during the hot summer months.

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



Pakistani Province Funds Terrorism-Linked Charity

Group cited in 2008 Mumbai attacks

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province has given more than $1 million to institutions run by an Islamic charity that is on a U.N. terrorism blacklist and affiliated with a group the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist organization.

Budget documents presented in the Punjab assembly last week revealed this financial assistance to a mosque, a hospital and schools (known as madrassas) operated by Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD), the charity wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The U.S. and India say LeT was behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed, and the State Department has designated LeT a foreign terrorist group.

Pakistani officials deny any money has been given to JuD.

A Pakistani official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said his government has taken control of educational institutions run by JuD and integrated them into the mainstream.

“There is a misperception, that the government is giving money to Jamaat ud Dawa. The curriculum at these institutions is now in the hands of the government of Punjab,” the official said, adding that the decision had been made by the federal government in Islamabad.

However, Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani analyst at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said, “The reality is that Jamaat ud Dawa is still running their own show.”

While the government of Punjab claimed to have taken over some JuD madrassas after the Mumbai attacks, Ms. Siddiqa said the curriculum at those institutions essentially remained the same.

“The religious curriculum being taught at JuD-run madrassas represents the Wahhabi extremist ideology … that did not change. Adding English to the curriculum doesn’t make it secular,” she said. “This was nothing more than an eyewash.”

JuD’s headquarters at Muridke, located outside Punjab province’s capital of Lahore, continue to provide militant training to students, including women, according to Ms. Siddiqa, who said she has met students who were trained there.

JuD was put on the U.N. terrorism blacklist in December 2008 and is considered a front for LeT.

However, JuD, which is led by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a founder of LeT, denies it has links to the terrorist group.

“It’s hard to imagine a more dangerous problem than the Punjab government, the Sharif brothers’ government, now providing direct assistance to Lashkar-e-Taiba to run its school system,” said Bruce Riedel, who headed President Obama’s review of U.S. policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It is very likely the Sharifs will be back at the national level in Pakistan’s next election: Shahbaz Sharif is currently chief minister of Punjab, and his brother, Nawaz Sharif, is a powerful former prime minister.

Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institution said the Pakistani government has restricted its handling of radical madrassas to “sporadic and limited actions during crisis moments … when strong pressure on the government has prevented it from turning a blind eye.”

She added that, since the 1980s, Pakistani governments have relied on religious parties sponsoring and affiliated with the madrassas for political support.

“Many of the madrassas go unregistered and unmonitored; nor have promises to the madrassas to deliver aid for reform and beef up the curriculum been upheld,” she said.

Some madrassas in Pakistan continue to provide recruits for militant groups fighting and killing Pakistani troops and even U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Ms. Felbab-Brown said while particular madrassas are “feeders for specific militant groups, others simply produce radicalized individuals.”

Rep. Nita M. Lowey, New York Democrat and a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, said at a panel discussion Wednesday that the public education system in Pakistan fuels support for militancy.

“Expanding access to education can help reduce the risk of all conflict,” she said. “The violence and extremism that embroils parts of Pakistan has far-reaching regional and international security implications.”

This week, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, admitted trying to detonate a bomb in New York’s Times Square. Shahzad said he received training and financial assistance from the Pakistani Taliban.

Madrassas are not the only institutions that produce potential terrorists, as many well-known terrorists have had a college education.

“There’s nothing peculiar about that to Islam. College students have often been the leading force in revolutionary, terrorist or communist groups and movements around the world,” Ms. Felbab-Brown said.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said insurgent activity would be taking place even if madrassas didn’t exist. “But if there’s a connection between the two, it would most likely be found in the tribal areas where the government doesn’t exercise much control,” the official said.

Rebecca Winthrop, who has co-written a new report on madrassas in Pakistan for the Brookings Institution, said at the discussion Wednesday that while some madrassas do contribute to increasing militancy in Pakistan, their numbers are small.

“There is no steep rise in madrassa enrollment … this is not a growth industry,” Ms. Winthrop said. “We do need to take the militant madrassas issue very seriously … in all likelihood they should probably be shut down.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Verdicts on Five Americans Arrested in Pakistan Could Come Thursday

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — A Pakistani court is expected to announce its verdict Thursday on five Americans who were arrested on terror charges, the public prosecutor told CNN.

Nadeem Akram Cheema, public prosecutor for the Anti Terrorism Court in Sargodha, said all the allegations against the five suspects, have been proved and Thursday they will be punished with maximum sentencing.

Cheema said strong evidence such as incriminating e-mails and the suspects’ own confessions should be enough for them to get the maximum punishment.

“We have all the evidence against the accused and I hope they will be sentenced with life imprisonment,” said Cheema.

The suspects, who have been dubbed the “D.C. Five,” have been charged with several terrorism-related counts, including criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism and waging war against Pakistan and its allies, including the United States.

The five Americans — Ahmed Abdullah Minni, Umar Farooq, Aman Hassan Yemer, Waqar Hussain Khan and Ramy Zamzam — used to worship together at a mosque in Alexandria, Virginia, until they went missing in November and turned up in Pakistan. They were arrested in December in Sargodha, about 120 miles south of Islamabad, after their parents in the United States reported them missing.

Pakistani authorities have described the men as college students, intent on waging holy war against “infidels for the atrocities committed by them against Muslims around the world.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Far East


China: Another Suicide at Foxconn, After Boss’s Visit and Publicity

10 deaths in one year, all young people in their twenties. High stress levels in the company that makes iPhone and iPad. There are swimming pools and entertainment, but the workers have no time to attend. The responsibilities of local government and trade unions, who defend employers.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — Another young worker committed suicide at Foxconn in Shenzhen, just hours after the owner of the company, Terry Guo, had brought 200 journalists to visit the companies workplace and recreational facilities. In one year there have been 10 suicides in the firm, three this week. Unconfirmed reports talk of a suicide attempt by a girl this morning. The factory — in a small town that also houses dormitories, canteens and sports facilities — employs more than 400 000 people and serves well-known brands like Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. It is here that the famous Apple iPhone and iPad are produced.

The families of the young suicide victims — all young people around 20 — hold working conditions in the factory responsible: long working hours, compulsory overtime, nearly obligatory silence among colleagues a military-like control of production.

To stem criticism — which is also having economic consequences — Guo, a Taiwanese billionaire, brought 200 journalists on a visit of the plant in Longhua (Shenzhen), demonstrating the working rooms, the Olympic swimming pools, recreation facilities. But the workers claim that the overly long working hours and intense pressure means nobody has time to go for a swim. Furthermore, young people who work there, try to earn as much as possible to send money to their families accepting a pay of 900 Yuan per month (around 90 Euros), the minimum rate set by the Shenzhen authorities.

Speaking to reporters, Guo pointed out that the root causes of suicide are social problems in China coupled with some personal problems. He has launched a “hotline”, an anti-stress centre , employed psychiatrists and Buddhist monks and set up a security nets around buildings to deter people from committing suicide. He also promised to withdraw a letter of agreement that employees must sign in which they accept to kill tyhemselves outside of factory grounds and allow the company to have those who shows signs of instability interned in residential (psychiatric) care.

Chang Ping, a journalist from Guangdong, noted that workers possible mental disorders are linked to the fact that “the civil rights of a class [migrant workers-ed] have been forgotten by our society and they do not know where go to express their problems when they arise”.

Indeed, the Foxconn situation does not seem any worse than other Chinese companies. The problem is the work system in factories in China, which exploits immigrants — without giving them residence in the city — and forces them to work long hours for a minimum wage. In addition, state unions often come to the employers defence in workers issues. The public authorities also prefer to turn a blind eye to the exploitation, eager to increase the wealth of the city. According to data published by local newspapers, Foxconn pays Shenzhen Treasury at least 10 billion Yuan (1.1 billion Euro) each year in.

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



China: Work-Related Suicides Due to Indifference, Hong Kong Trade Union Leader Says

According to Lee Cheuk Yan, a trade union leader and a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, the wave of suicides at Foxconn is due to “the repression and oppression the Chinese government imposes on its workers”, but also to “the indifference of the world community that wants cheap products”.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — Behind the recent spate of suicides at the Foxconn plant stands “the indifference and exploitation of the Chinese government and the international community, both of whom want cheap labour and social stability in Guangdong. However, sooner or later, Beijing will have to allow trade unions into its territory and improve conditions for workers, especially migrant workers. Otherwise, society could explode,” Lee Cheuk Yan told AsiaNews.

Mr Lee, 52, is the general secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Like most people in the former British colony, he helped protesters in Beijing at the time of the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement. Before the bloody crackdown on 4 June, he was able to bring money raised in Hong Kong to buy tents, fax machines and food.

Taken into custody when troops began their crackdown, he was released a few days later and expelled to Hong Kong. Since then, he has been one of the few people banned from travelling to mainland China, not only for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square movement, but especially for his work on behalf of workers in Hong Kong and China.

In his view, the 14 suicides at the Foxconn plant making i-Pads and i-Phones “are the outcome of a blind and oppressive company policy. Workers, especially migrant workers, are in a terrible situation. They are treated like animals even though they had to leave family and home in search of a job. Deprived of family support, they have to face incredible pressures without help from others. They choose the most extreme way out because they have no alternatives. Here in Hong Kong, we don’t come under mainland laws, and we can put pressure to make sure that companies treat their workers in a humane fashion. There is no other way to avoid suicides.”

The responsibility for the situation “certainly lies with the Chinese government. However, the international community is not blameless either because it is always looking for cheap labour unconcerned by the working conditions in which people labour. This is why we must raise awareness about the situation. We must fight, together, to guarantee workers’ rights. But this, as I said, is of little interest to the rest of the world. The crisis is pushing everyone to go after for the cheapest products.”

The Foxconn case and the media coverage around it raised the possibility of a ‘boycott’ against the company, which manufactures for consumer electronics giant Apple (but also Dell and Hewlett Packard). However, for Lee, “it has nothing to do with it. I think interest was raised when an employee published the terrible contract that required he not commit suicide. And this is even sadder. The problems workers face in China are seen as something quaint, good for a laugh.”

The future, at least on the short run, will have few surprises in store. “China must understand that, to improve itself and the population, it must allow free trade unions on its territory. Right now, this is quite unthinkable. All you have to do is look at how the government treats freedom of expression to realise that Beijing will not let it happen any time soon. Yet, strikes in big plants, like the one at Honda, are a sign of hope for the future. Sooner or later, Chinese politicians must realise that, without workers’ protection, they could be confronted with an unprecedented social crisis.”

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

Australia — Pacific


Game Over for Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd is finished as PM. Julia Gillard will surely take his place after tonight’s drama, breaking two records in the one coup.

She will be the nation’s first female prime minister. And Rudd will be the first Labor prime minister to be dumped by his party before he could complete a term in office.

Labor party polling showed that voters had lost faith in Rudd. His backflip on emission trading in mid April left the public wondering what he stood for.

In Rudd’s home state of Queensland, party polling showed the government risked losing a brace of seats.

Labor is gambling that the public doesn’t want to change governments.

The opposition are themselves on their third leader.

While Tony Abbott’s elevation last December has stablised the Coalition vote, the national polls still have Labor in front after preferences.

Whichever way the story goes from here, Australia has witnessed a special kind of madness in this term

Rudd, the most popular leader in Newspoll history, saw off four Liberal heavyweights: former prime minister John Howard, former treasurer Peter Costello, and opposition leaders Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull.

But he let Abbott get under skin. There is no other explanation for Rudd’s extended public panic attack this year.

He entered the election year with a number of policies still to deliver, on health, tax, and broadband.

He muddled through on health, with the seven Labor states signing up for his reform plan in April. This week he got Telstra on side to deliver a national broadband network. And Labor’s landmark paid parental leave scheme also passed through the parliament.

But his shrill fight with the miners over the resource rent tax, and his inability to stay on one topic for any more than day left the electorate bewildered. Voters judged him, in the end, to be all doorstop and no delivery.

Rudd wore out his government well before he wore out of his welcome with the Australian people. He had no one to cover his back when the rumblings started against his leadership.

When the dust settles, his legacy will show two substantial achievements: the apology to the stolen generations and the initial handling of the global financial crisis.

The big question now is the manner of his departure. Does he fall on his sword, or fight, risking even more pain for his government in the polls?

When he goes, as key party figures expect he will, how quickly will voters move on? Will they see Labor’s turmoil as a reason to change governments. Or is Gillard the one the public have been waiting for?

           — Hat tip: Anne-Kit [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Mexico Asks Court to Reject Arizona Immigration Law

Lawyers for Mexico on Tuesday submitted a legal brief in support of one of five lawsuits challenging the law. The law will take effect June 29 unless implementation is blocked by a court.

The law generally requires police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there’s a “reasonable suspicion” they’re in the country illegally. It also makes being in Arizona illegally a misdemeanor, and it prohibits seeking day-labor work along the state’s streets.

Citing “grave concerns,” Mexico said its interest in having predictable, consistent relations with the United States shouldn’t be frustrated by one U.S. state.

Mexico also said it had a legitimate interest in defending its citizens’ rights and that the law would lead to racial profiling, hinder trade and tourism and strain the countries’ work on combating drug trafficking and related violence.

“Mexican citizens will be afraid to visit Arizona for work or pleasure out of concern that they will be subject to unlawful police scrutiny and detention,” the brief said.

It will be up to a U.S. District Court judge to decide whether to accept the brief, along with similar ones submitted by various U.S. organizations.

A spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer did not immediately return a call for comment on Mexico’s brief. Brewer, who signed the law on April 23 and changes to it on April 30, has lawyers defending it in court.

[Return to headlines]



Senators Warn Obama: ‘No Amnesty by Presidential Fiat’

White House rumored to be planning stay of deportation for millions of illegals

Amid buzz that President Obama may be seeking to parole or “defer action” on millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., eight Republican senators are warning the president not to advance any such plan.

“There’s a lot we can agree on when it comes to dealing with the immigration problems in the United States, but this appears to be amnesty in disguise, and is simply an attempt to circumvent Congress,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement.

Grassley and Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; David Vitter, R-La.; Jim Bunning, R-Ky.; James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Thad Cochran, R-Miss.; and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., signed a letter to the president dated June 21.

“We understand that there’s a push for your administration to develop a plan to unilaterally extend either deferred action or parole to millions of illegal aliens in the United States,” they wrote in their letter. “We understand that the administration may include aliens who have willfully overstayed their visas or filed for benefits knowing that they will not be eligible for a status for years to come.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Video: Obama Urges Illegals: Rat Out Your Bosses!

‘Every worker in America has a right to be paid fairly — documented or not’

The Obama administration is encouraging illegal aliens to call its new hotline and rat out U.S. employers because they “work hard and have the right to be paid fairly.”

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is personally asking illegals to snitch on bosses if their paychecks aren’t large enough.

The Department of Labor issued the following “We Can Help” public service announcement in Spanish and English that opens with photos of construction workers, manicurists, cooks, farm workers and workers in the service industry:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


UK: ‘What’s God Got to Do With it?’ Atheist Mayor Bans Traditional Christian Prayers Before Council Meetings

An atheist lord mayor has ended the tradition of Christian prayers before council meetings less than a month after he took up the chains of office.

Labour councillor Colin Hall was condemned by the local diocese as well as Christian groups after boasting of his ‘delight’ at being able to end the tradition as mayor of his home city.

Announcing the decision in a secularist group’s monthly newsletter, Mr Hall said prayers were ‘outdated, unnecessary and intrusive’ and added they would no longer be said before meetings at Leicester Town Hall.

The ban comes days after he refused to attend a service at Leicester Cathedral welcoming him to his role as the city’s new lord mayor.

He later told his 123 followers on the Twitter networking site that he was mayor for ‘all the people of Leicester and not just those from the Church of England’.

The East Midlands city is regarded as the most multi-faith and multi-ethnic outside London, with 36 per cent of residents from ethnic minorities, according to the 2001 census.

Writing in the Leicester Secularist Society’s publication, the mayor said: ‘I am delighted to confirm that I will be exercising my discretion as lord mayor to abolish this outdated, unnecessary and intrusive practice. Colin Hall

‘I consider that religion, in whatever shape or form, has no role to play at all in the conduct of council business.

‘This particularly applies in Leicester, where the majority of council members, myself included, do not regularly attend any particular faith service.’

Mr Hall was yesterday unavailable to discuss his decision to scrap the prayers, which have been said before meetings since 1997.

But Christian Voice director Stephen Green said he was appalled to hear of the ban.

He added: ‘This is just another example of Christian traditions and values being eroded.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Grieving Families Left Distraught After Council Rules That Wooden Crosses Are ‘Too Dangerous’ For Cemeteries

A council is under fire for banning crosses from one of its cemeteries — over health and safety fears.

Families have been left distraught after North Somerset Council started to remove wooden crosses from its graveyards.

One woman has told how her mother-in-law’s grave was targeted after she died of cancer in May.

Liz Maggs placed a 26-inch high wooden cross bearing a personal inscription on Rosemary Maggs’ burial plot at the Ebdon Road cemetery in Weston-super-Mare, while the family waited for a headstone to be made.

But when Mrs Maggs, 43, returned to visit the grave with her husband Charles and daughters Zoe, 16, and Danielle, 14, just a few days later she found the cross had disappeared.

She reported it stolen to cemetery staff but they told her it had been removed because it did not meet council regulations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Man Who Had Sex Change Wins Right to Receive Pension Five Years Early at Women’s Retirement

A transsexual has won a legal fight to be officially treated as female despite still being married to a woman.

The ruling means that the former Christopher Timbrell — now Christine — can claim a pension from the age of 60 like other women.

The 68-year-old church-goer had been entitled to claim a pension only from 65 because the Government would not recognise that she was a woman while the couple continued to be married.

But yesterday judges at the Civil Appeal Court ruled the decision not to pay out from 60 breached European laws on equality.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Video: America, 2010: Christians Hauled to Jail for Preaching Jesus

‘Apparently the Constitution carries little weight in Dearborn’

One of the nation’s top legal teams regarding civil and religious rights has stepped into a dispute stemming from last weekend’s Arab Festival in Dearborn, Mich., where police are accused of enforcing Islamic law.

“Officers arrested four Christian missionaries and illegally confiscated their video cameras which were recording the events surrounding their arrests,” said a statement today from the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Officials in the police department with the city of Dearborn declined to comment to WND.

But the law center announcement said the incident has been described as “police enforcement of Shariah law.” The organization said it would represent the Christians.

“These Christian missionaries were exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but apparently the Constitution carries little weight in Dearborn, where the Muslim population seems to dominate the political apparatus,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center.

[…]

The Arab event was June 18 in Dearborn, where an estimated 30,000 of the city’s 98,000 residents are Muslim.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


Botox Limits Ability to Feel Emotions

A well-known side effect of Botox is the inability to fully express emotions. Now research reveals another side effect: the inability to fully feel emotions.

Botox, a popular cosmetic injection used to fight facial wrinkles, is made of an extremely toxic protein called Botulinum toxin. Botox works by temporarily paralyzing muscles that cause wrinkles.

That means no unsightly wrinkles, but also no moving those muscles at all — which could have more significant consequences than simply looking frozen, the researchers found.

Scientists think that facial expressions themselves may influence emotional experiences, so a person with a limited ability to make facial expressions may also have a limited ability to feel

“With Botox, a person can respond otherwise normally to an emotional event, [such as] a sad movie scene, but will have less movement in the facial muscles that have been injected, and therefore less feedback to the brain about such facial expressivity,” said researcher Joshua Davis, a psychologist at Barnard College in New York. “It thus allows for a test of whether facial expressions and the sensory feedback from them to the brain can influence our emotions.”

Davis and his Barnard colleague Ann Senghas led a team of researchers who showed people emotionally charged videos both before and after they were injected with either Botox, or Restylane — a substance injected into lips or facial wrinkles that fills out sagging skin. Restylane was used as a control because it simply adds filler but doesn’t limit the movement of muscles.

Compared with the control group, the Botox participants “exhibited an overall significant decrease in the strength of emotional experience,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the June issue of the journal Emotion. In particular, the Botox group responded less strongly to mildly positive clips after they had the injections than before the Botox.

The findings tie into an idea suggested more than a century ago that feedback from facial expressions to the brain can influence the experience of emotions, the researchers said. The simple act of smiling, for example, can help make you feel happy, while frowning can bring down your mood.

“In a bigger picture sense, the work fits with common beliefs, such as ‘fake it till you make it,’“ Davis said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Personality Predicted by Size of Different Brain Regions

In a social situation, it’s easy to tell the difference between a wallflower and the life of the party, but a new study suggests we can also spot differences in their brains.

The results show the size of certain brain regions is related to people’s personalities. For instance, highly altruistic people had a bigger posterior cingulated cortex, a brain region thought to be involved in the understanding of others’ beliefs. Bigger regions are assumed to be more powerful.

“One of the things that this shows is we can start to develop theories about how personality is produced by the brain,” said study researcher Colin DeYoung, of the University of Minnesota.

While people’s personalities are likely shaped by both genetic and environmental factors, the findings might help explain the differences in people’s actions and demeanors from moment to moment, he said, or “what produces the patterns of behavior and emotion and thought that we describe as personality.”

The big five

There are many ways to describe someone’s character — from talkative to anxious to hardworking and organized. Psychologists have found that many traits often go together and have grouped these traits into five overarching categories — extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness/intellect.

Psychologists can get a pretty good picture of someone’s personality by determining to what degree they express each of these traits.

Scientists have only recently begun to link up personality research with neuroscience to try to figure out the underlying brain mechanisms responsible for personality differences.

DeYoung and his colleagues imaged the brains of 116 participants who had previously completed a questionnaire designed to assess their personality in terms of the “big five.”

Next, they matched up all the brain images. Since everyone’s brain is different, the images won’t line up perfectly right off the bat. So the researchers picked one image — from a participant who scored about average for all five traits — to serve as a “reference brain.”

A computer program was then used to squish and stretch the images so that they all lined up with the reference brain. This allowed the researchers to compare all the subjects’ brains, and see how large or small certain brain regions were relative to one another.

Personality in the brain

A connection between brain region size and personality was found for four out of the five traits (all except openness/intellect).

Those who scored high on neuroticism — which indicates a tendency to experience negative emotions, including anxiety and self-consciousness — was associated with a larger mid-cingulate cortex, a region thought to be involved in the detection of errors and response to emotional and physical pain. Neurotics also had a smaller dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in the regulation of emotions.

Extroverts, those who are sociable, outgoing and assertive, had a larger medial orbitofrontal cortex, a region involved in processing rewards. This goes along with the idea that extroverts are sensitive to rewards, which in our society often involve social interactions and status.

Conscientious people, who tend to be orderly, industrious and self-disciplined, had a larger middle frontal gyrus, a region involved in memory and planning.

The researchers note however, that a bigger brain region does not necessarily mean the region has better functioning, although extensive evidence supports this assumption.

The results do not indicate, that people are doomed to embody one personality or another for their whole lives. Though it’s not necessarily easy, personalities can, and do change.

“Our experience can change the brain,” DeYoung said. “And as the brain changes, personality can change,” he said.

The results were published online April 30 in the journal Psychological Science.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100622

Financial Crisis
» Germany Urges U.S. To Focus on Debt Cuts
» New York Raises Cigarette Tax Again
» Regulators Adopt Plan to Curb Bank Exec Pay Abuses
» Switzerland: Manager-Employee Salary Gap Still Growing
 
USA
» 8 of 15 Experts Consulted by Obama Administration on Offshore Drilling Were Not Informed of Moratorium — And Now Oppose it
» ‘Allahu Akbar!’ Shouted as Christians Cuffed
» Chinese Breaking Into Classified Network
» Dear Mr. President … From Jon Voight
» Fiat Faces Challenge With Jeep
» General McChrystal Summoned to White House Over Magazine Interview
» How the Ultimate BP Gulf Disaster Could Kill Millions
» Jimmy Carter Worries Supreme Court Could Affect His Interaction With Terrorists
» Judge Blocks Obama’s Moratorium on Deep-Water Oil Drilling, A.P. Reports
» McChrystal Accuses Obama Buddy of Covering ‘His Flank’
» Opposition Grows to Stalin Bust at D-Day Memorial
» Time to Consider Secession?
» Woman Who Has Sex With Boy Honored as ‘Person of Month’
 
Europe and the EU
» 75-Year-Old Nun Hired for a Top Financial Job in Italy
» Austrian Favourite Croatia Tops European Road Death Toll
» Belgium: Jews Deserting Antwerp
» Czech: Military Presents Pandurs Vehicles to Public at Show
» Dutch Police Use ‘Decoy Jews’ To Stop Anti-Semitic Attacks
» EU: Inspectors Sent to Investigate Blue Mozzarella
» France: Tons of Bushmeat in Paris, Study Finds
» French Minister Furious About L’Oreal Stink
» Germany: Secret Mixa File Details Alcohol and Sexual Abuse
» Holland: Confused and Divided
» Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia in Europe
» Italy: €97 Bln in Offshore Funds ‘Reported’
» Italy: Four Arrested Over ‘Toxic’ Chinese Goods
» Italy: Mayor Invites Mel Gibson to Buy Castle
» Netherlands: ‘Radical Moroccans Orchestrated PvdA Coup in Amsterdam’
» Pace Warns of Rising Islamophobia in Europe
» Spain: Tensions Rising at Borders of Ceuta and Melilla
» UK: Shamed Police Chief Ali Dizaei Loses Bid to Appeal Against His Four-Year Jail Term
» UK: Schoolboys Throw Acid in Stranger’s Face in ‘Horrific’ Random Attack After He Refuses to Give Them Cigarette
 
Balkans
» Bosnia: Shelling of Sarajevo ‘Worse Than Beirut and Vietnam’
 
North Africa
» Algeria: Court Blocks ArcelorMittal Factory Strike
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: The High Price of Coalition Stability
» What’s Really Happening in Gaza; What’s Really Not Happening in the West Bank
 
Middle East
» As EU Suffers: Turkish Trade Focuses on East
» Christians in the Middle East. Who’s Coming, Who’s Going
» Danger Signs in Turkey’s Strategic Depth
» Israel Gas Discoveries Set Off Lebanon Row
» Lebanon: More Security Near Sidon After Christians Threatened
» Turkish Troops Hunt Down Kurdish Rebels
» Turks: Serbs and Arabs…
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: US Military ‘Payments’ Reach Taliban
» Pakistan Police Arrest German Man in Burka
» Top US General in Afghanistan Apologizes for Remarks Criticizing Obama
» Uzbekistan: Uzbek Authorities Force Christians, Including Jehovah’s Witnesses, To Go Underground
 
Immigration
» Nebraska Town Restricts Illegal Immigration

Financial Crisis


Germany Urges U.S. To Focus on Debt Cuts

The congressional battle over adding more government stimulus spending versus deficit reduction spilled overseas Monday as the German government publicly rebuked the Obama administration over its red ink and said countries now must focus on controlling debt.

It’s the same sort of pushback President Obama has been getting from critics at home as he calls for a second round of stimulus spending, which he argues is needed to spur private job creation at a time when unemployment hovers near 10 percent nationwide.

But he’s increasingly being opposed by Republicans and some Democrats at home, and German officials’ comments signal a looming fight over deficits as the world’s leaders gather in Toronto next week for a summit of the leaders of the world’s biggest economies, with the Group of Eight summit of industrial powers kicking off Friday in Canada.

[…]

“It’s urgently necessary for monetary stability that public budgets return to balance,” German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said at a press conference Monday, according to Bloomberg News. “This is something we should also tell our American friends.”

His comments were echoed at a separate press briefing Monday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, who said national debt levels must be brought under control to reassure nervous global financial markets…

[Return to headlines]



New York Raises Cigarette Tax Again

The new law, part of an emergency budget measure to keep the government running, adds another $1.60 in state taxes to every cigarette pack sold starting on July 1, pushing the average price of a pack to about $9.20.

The average price in New York City, which imposes its own cigarette taxes, will be even higher, nearly $11 a pack.

[…]

…starting on Sept. 1, the state will begin collecting — or try to collect — [again] taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations to off-reservation visitors, an issue that led to violent protests during the early 1990s.

One Indian chief has said that trying to collect taxes would be considered an act of war…

[Return to headlines]



Regulators Adopt Plan to Curb Bank Exec Pay Abuses

[…]

Many banks’ practices have been found wanting for failing to curb risk taking based on an in-depth analysis by regulators, the Fed said. It has directed individual banks — which weren’t identified — to take steps to fix their policies.

[…]

The regulators won’t actually set compensation. Instead, they would review — and could veto — pay policies that could spark too much risk taking by executives, traders or loan officers.

As part of that process, the regulators will be conducting additional reviews of bank-compensation practices and making sure that they address shortcomings.

[Return to headlines]



Switzerland: Manager-Employee Salary Gap Still Growing

The gap between the salaries of managers and employees is widening despite the economic crisis, according to the employees’ association, Travail.Suisse.

In a study published on Monday, the organisation said the difference in salaries had widened by 18 per cent in 2009, and by 70 per cent since 2002.

“The constant rise in managers’ pay puts at risk the Swiss model of economic success, which is based on trust, decency and a functioning social partnership,” says the study, which looked at 27 companies.

The economic crisis had only a passing effect in closing the gap, the study says. The difference in pay decreased in a few companies which were affected by the crisis, but the gap continued to widen in areas like pharmaceuticals, where the crisis was not felt at all, or in banks, where it is no longer acute.

“No lessons have been learned,” the study claims.

It calls for “fundamental changes”, in particular that the staff should be represented on the board. Other demands are that bonuses should be limited and taxed above SFr1 million ($877,000), and that other special payments should be banned.

The current study on the subject is the sixth to have been conducted by Travail Suisse, the umbrella organisation for 170,000 employees.

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

USA


8 of 15 Experts Consulted by Obama Administration on Offshore Drilling Were Not Informed of Moratorium — And Now Oppose it

Eight of the 15 experts consulted by the Interior Department for a report about oil drilling safety on the Outer Continental Shelf — a report commissioned by President Barack Obama — said they disagreed with the report’s call for a six-month halt on current deepwater offshore drilling operations. The recommendation to halt deepwater drilling was added to the text of the report without their knowledge only after they had reviewed the text.

[…]

“There is an implication that we have somehow agreed to or ‘peer reviewed’ the main recommendation of that report,” the eight experts wrote. “This is not the case.”

They added that “the scope of the moratorium on drilling which is in the executive summary differs in important ways from the recommendation in the draft which we reviewed.”

[Return to headlines]



‘Allahu Akbar!’ Shouted as Christians Cuffed

Four Christians were arrested and thrown out of a public Arab festival in Michigan — and at least two people claim a crowd cheered “Allahu Akbar!” while the Christians were led away in handcuffs for doing nothing more than engaging in peaceful dialogue and videotaping the event.

Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla and 18-year-old Negeen Mayel attended the 15th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival on June 18 in Dearborn, Mich., where an estimated 30,000 of the city’s 98,000 residents are Muslim.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce announced the event was expected to draw “over 300,000 people from across the country, Canada and the Middle East.” The festival covers 14 blocks and is free and open to the public.

Qureshi and Mayal are former Muslims who are now Christians. Mayal’s parents emigrated from Afghanistan. Wood is a former atheist. All are from a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics.

In the following video after the arrest, Qureshi said his group took “extra precautions” to prevent disruptions by not handing out pamphlets and to speak only to people “who first approached us”:

[article includes must-watch embedded videos — Z]

“This was to limit accusations of instigation and disruption,” he explained. “We knew people have a tendency to accuse us of being disruptive, of inciting and instigating. So we wanted to make sure we did absolutely nothing of the sort.”

Qureshi said people at the festival recognized his group from its visit in 2009. Last year, the Acts 17 Apologetics team was escorted from the grounds while being allegedly assaulted by security personnel and several attendees. The following is the group’s footage of the incident:

This year, Qureshi said some attendees who recognized them “would come up to us, accusing us, threatening us, saying we were racists, saying they were going to hurt us and yelling curses and insults at us.”

However, he said his group was able to engage in civil conversations with many people who initiated discussion. But then the group was arrested by local police. Each of the four are now free on bond.

“Paul, David, Negeen, and I went to the festival to see and comment on the situation,” Qureshi wrote on his blog. “Thankfully, we recorded every second of our activity at the festival.”

According to his post, the video footage was confiscated by police. Versions posted online had been removed at the time of this report.

“[W]e will post footage when the police give us back our cameras,” he wrote.

Qureshi recounted his experience:

At one point, we came across a festival volunteer who seemed to take issue with us simply being at the festival. We could tell he had a problem with us, and so we asked “What are we doing wrong?” He said, “Put the camera and microphone down, and I’ll tell you.” (By the way, there was more to this conversation, but when you see the footage, I think you’ll see I’m being fair in my summary.) So I obliged, handing the microphone to David and asking him to not record the man. I then approached him and said, “No camera, no mic, tell me what we’re doing wrong.” He said “Get away from me!” (or something to that effect). Again, I obliged, and walked away.

About 20 minutes later, to shouts and cheers of “Allahu Akbar!” we were all being led away from the festival in handcuffs. From the brief description we were given by the police of why we were being arrested, it sounds like the festival volunteer said we surrounded him and didn’t give him an opportunity to leave, thereby “breaching the peace.” This is as blatantly false as an accusation can get.

Wood told Atlas Shrugs’ Pamela Geller, “We followed the rules, and still got thrown in jail. They flat out lied about us. We can prove they lied with the video footage (just like last year), but the police took our cameras and won’t let us have the footage. There’s major oppression of anyone who criticizes Islam.”

Qureshi told Geller, “[W]e repeatedly affirmed our love for all Muslims. Whenever I was asked, ‘Why would you love me?’ I said ‘Because Jesus loves you, and he told me to love you.’ No hating, no disturbing, no harassing. It remains only to be concluded that we were arrested simply for being Christian preachers at the Arab Festival in Dearborn.”

One witness named Steven Atkins, a resident of Toronto, Canada, said, “I never thought I would see this in America.”

“When Dr. Quereshi was arrested I heard people clapping and applauding, and some said ‘Allahu Akbar,’“ he said. “It was an intense discussion, but it was not unruly. … There was no threat of violence.”

Atkins added, “It’s becoming more restrictive here than in Canada.”

Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad, an officer who was recently appointed to serve on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, told the Detroit Free Press the four Christians were arrested for disorderly conduct.

“We did make four arrests for disorderly conduct,” Haddad said. “They did cause a stir.”

Haddad told the paper he’s not taking sides, but he said officers must keep the peace at the event that draws 300,000 people over three days.

“Everyone’s space should be respected,” he said. “It’s Father’s Day weekend. … People are here to have a good time, and it’s our job to ensure security.”

However, a blog called the Facts About Islam, dedicated to “clearing up falsehoods leveled at Islam,” argued that the group had planned to get attention and stir up trouble prior to attending the festival.

“A lot of people may not know David Wood was planning this for a while. He was looking for trouble,” the blogger said in a video reaction to the arrests. “His intention was to go there with his video camera, incite, provoke Muslims into inflammatory behavior so he could have his propaganda crew of video footage of Muslims behaving badly so he could feature this on his blog and get views. That’s all he wanted. He got his sensational video footage. It’s not the type of video footage he was after. Nevertheless, it’s sensational.”

He accused them of being “insincere” and “not looking to preach the gospel.”

“He did this under the guise of preaching the gospel,” the blogger said. “He was looking for trouble. He got his trouble.”

He said before the 2010 event, Wood declared, “Muslims have threatened us with death if we return to the festival, so now we definitely have to show up,” and, “We hope the dialogues at the Arab festival are peaceful, but we need cameras in case Muslims decide to kick our heads in.”

The man said Wood and his crew were “causing trouble” at the 2009 festival and were “choked out.”

“So this time, they top it by getting arrested,” he said.

He added, “Christians need to wise up and stop allowing people — insincere people — to exploit their naivety and innocence.”

In a separate case WND reported earlier, a federal appeals court granted an emergency motion allowing another Christian, Pastor George Saieg, to hand out information about his faith at the same festival.

A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the motion requested by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Saieg, a Sudanese Christian.

According to the law center, Judge Paul Borman had affirmed the city’s ban on handing out Christian material near the festival. It was last year when Dearborn police threatened Saieg with arrest if he handed out information on Christianity near the event.

At that time, the Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the restriction. Saieg and his volunteers for many years had passed out literature in Dearborn without incident before the crackdown in recent years.

“It’s ironic that while Americans recently applauded the free speech exercised by hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the streets of Iran, the city of Dearborn was restricting the free-speech rights of Christians on the city’s public streets and sidewalks,” said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the center.

The appellate judges, in their announcement, stated, “The loss of a First Amendment right, ‘for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.’“

“This factor weights in favor of injunctive relief for Saieg,” the ruling said.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Chinese Breaking Into Classified Network

Invaders could be reviewing U.S. operational plans

The Chinese may have been able to develop computer algorithms that will penetrate military computers at the secret level, according to alerts about a “Spear Phishing attack” issued recently to users of a military system, says a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

In one case, users of military computers at the secret, or collateral, level told of a false report of an outbreak of war in Asia beaming across military networks.

“So, it appears they’re into our systems at least at the collateral level,” one military computer user said of the Chinese.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Dear Mr. President … From Jon Voight

An open letter from actor Jon Voight to President Obama:

June 22, 2010

Dear President Obama:

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone’s enemy — and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm’s way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.

You have brought this to a people who have given the world the Ten Commandments and most laws we live by today. The Jewish people have given the world our greatest scientist and philosophers, and the cures for many diseases, and now you play a very dangerous game so you can look like a true martyr to what you see and say are the underdogs. But the underdogs you defend are murderers and criminals and want Israel eradicated.

You have brought to Arizona a civil war, once again defending the criminals and illegals, creating a meltdown for good, loyal, law-abiding citizens. Your destruction of this country may never be remedied, and we may never recover. I pray to God you stop, and I hope the people in this great country realize your agenda is not for the betterment of mankind, but for the betterment of your politics.

With heartfelt and deep concern for America and Israel,

Jon Voight

[Return to headlines]



Fiat Faces Challenge With Jeep

Auburn Hills, 21 June (AKI/Bloomberg) — With its new Jeep Grand Cherokee, Fiat faces a challenge that has bedevilled all of Jeep’s previous corporate masters: how to appeal to mainstream drivers without alienating off-road enthusiasts.

Fiat, which acquired Jeep after taking a controlling stake in Chrysler last year, wants to make the brand sufficiently middle-of-the-road to sell 800,000 vehicles a year worldwide by 2014, up 61 percent from 2008.

The 2011 Grand Cherokee, which began shipping yesterday, features luxury touches — leather seats, interior wood trim — and can drive in 20 inches of water without stalling.

“The Grand Cherokee is a sign we’re moving toward a broader appeal,” Mike Manley, head of the Jeep brand and Chrysler’s international operations, said in an interview.

The redesigned Jeep is the first major new model Chrysler has introduced since Fiat took control and is crucial to the company’s turnaround plans.

“Jeep is arguably one of the most important brands for the company because of its global appeal, and Grand Cherokee is the Jeep that makes them the most money,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, in the US state of Massachusetts.

“This is a company that is coming out of a major surgery and every setback is a threat to survival. This is really, really important that they get it right.”

Frustrated

The new Grand Cherokee has 4 inches of extra leg room in the rear and 17 percent more cargo space than the previous version, which was last redesigned for the 2005 model year. The vehicle has onboard television and converts into a Wi-Fi hot spot. It starts at 30,995 dollars (25,010 euros), about 500 dollars cheaper than its predecessor. The priciest version costs 42,995 dollars.

Jeep has frustrated a string of owners since its 1941 debut as an all-purpose vehicle for the U.S. Army — something Richard Truesdell, a self-styled Jeep historian and editorial director of the Automotive Traveler website, calls the “Jeep jinx.”

From inventor Willys-Overland Motors through Kaiser Jeep, American Motors, Renault, Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler, Cerberus Capital Management and now Fiat, each new landlord tried, with varying degrees of success, to break out of the rut dug by the original military model.

Over the years, Jeep’s stewards churned out convertibles, pickups, work trucks, delivery models and about 20 precursors to the Grand Cherokee, starting with a 1946 wagon.

‘People Complain’

“Anytime Jeep tries to move away from its roots, people complain,” said Patrick Foster, who wrote the 1998 book “The Story of Jeep.” “People didn’t complain that Toyota moved away from its car roots when it made SUVs.”

Jeep sales peaked in the US at 554,466 in 1999, a year after Daimler acquired Chrysler and released a new Grand Cherokee. Last year, sales fell to 231,710 as Chrysler went through the 12.5 billion dollars, US -backed bankruptcy that left Fiat in control. Jeep sold about 300,000 Grand Cherokees in 1999 and 50,328 in 2009, according to forecaster IHS Global Insight.

Jeep’s previous owners failed to anticipate the stampede to carlike SUVs such as Honda Motor’s Pilot and Ford’s Escape, said Dennis Pietrowski, managing director of RDA Group, a market researcher.

Jeep defectors cite low fuel economy and rough ride and handling when explaining their decision to move on, he said.

Quality Woes

Quality also hurts Jeep’s ability to compete with luxury models from Toyota’s Lexus or Honda’s Acura, Pietrowski said. Jeep placed 27th out of 33 brands in J.D. Power and Associates’ ranking of initial quality released last week.

The challenge is to make sure the latest iteration stands out in a group of rival SUVs that now includes about 20 models, Jeep chief Manley said.

Chrysler wants to make Jeep the “No. 1 SUV brand again,” Manley said, and is determined not to let the Grand Cherokee become a “niche” vehicle.

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



General McChrystal Summoned to White House Over Magazine Interview

THE top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has been ordered to the White House to explain his criticism of the President and his senior advisers in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine.

“McChrystal has been directed to attend (Wednesday’s) monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person to explain to the Pentagon and the commander in chief his quotes in the piece about his colleagues,” a White House official said.

In a profile in Rolling Stone, General McChrystal critcised Vice President Joe Biden, who has been sceptical of the general’s war strategy, and imagined ways of “dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner.”

McChrystal also told the magazine that he felt “betrayed” by the US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, in a White House debate over war strategy last year…

[Return to headlines]



How the Ultimate BP Gulf Disaster Could Kill Millions

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

The same methane that makes coal mining operations hazardous and leads to horrendous mining accidents deep under the earth also can present a high level of danger to certain oil exploration ventures.

Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized

More than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane.

Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit.

None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oil fires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas—compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)—could be released by BP’s drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit.

Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.

By some geologists’ estimates the methane could be a massive 15 to 20 mile toxic and explosive bubble trapped for eons under the Gulf sea floor. In their opinion, the explosive destruction of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead was an accident just waiting to happen.

Yet the disaster that followed the loss of the rig pales by comparison to the apocalyptic disaster that may come.

A cascading catastrophe

According to worried geologists, the first signs that the methane may burst its way through the bottom of the ocean would be fissures or cracks appearing on the ocean floor near the damaged well head.

Evidence of fissures opening up on the seabed have been captured by the robotic submersibles working to repair and contain the ruptured well. Smaller, independent plumes have also appeared outside the nearby radius of the bore hole itself.

According to some geological experts, BP’s operations set into motion a series of events that may be irreversible.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Jimmy Carter Worries Supreme Court Could Affect His Interaction With Terrorists

Former President Jimmy Carter has voiced concern that Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on “material support” to terrorist groups may criminalize his “work to promote peace and freedom.” Arguing that there can be no peace in the region without those groups’ participation, Carter has reached out to Hamas and Hezbollah, rejecting criticism that doing so could be viewed as legitimizing their violent activities.

[Return to headlines]



Judge Blocks Obama’s Moratorium on Deep-Water Oil Drilling, A.P. Reports

A federal judge in New Orleans issued an injunction against a six-month moratorium on new deep-water oil and gas drilling projects that was imposed by the Obama administration after an explosion on a drilling rig led to a vast oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Associated Press reported.

The White House said the administration would appeal the ruling.

Ruling in favor of oilfield services companies whose business suffered under the moratorium, District Judge Martin Feldman said that the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning for the moratorium, and instead merely seemed to assume that one rig failure meant all deep-water drilling posed an imminent danger.

[Return to headlines]



McChrystal Accuses Obama Buddy of Covering ‘His Flank’

Commander levels unprecedented criticism over handling of war on terrorists

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has leveled an open and unprecedented attack on the current U.S. ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, whom he accuses of betraying him by firing off cables to Washington critical of the U.S. war strategy.

Eikenberry, a former Army lieutenant general, sent two cables last November, apparently without McChrystal’s knowledge.

Not only did the cables criticize McChrystal’s recommendation of a proposed troop buildup out of concern that it would make the Karzai government too dependent on the U.S., but they complained about Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government and the state of its military.

[…]

Critics complained that Eikenberry, while at the Pentagon, undermined a very well-defined policy toward limiting certain militarily critical technologies to China at a time when the Clinton administration sought to liberalize those controls to improve commercial trade for major contributors.

Eikenberry translated that policy approach of pushing for the liberalization of export controls in so-called special mission areas that defined U.S. strategic concerns over China then and now.

The special mission areas for which technologies were to be limited included anti-submarine and electronic warfare, nuclear weapons and their delivery system, aerospace and power projection.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Opposition Grows to Stalin Bust at D-Day Memorial

Opponents of the recently installed bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., are not backing down and have started a worldwide petition.

The petition, which was started last week, calls on the officers and board of directors at the National D-Day Memorial Foundation to remove the bust. It had received 616 confirmed signatures as of Monday afternoon, with confirmation pending on more than 200 other signatures.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, with assistance from the Joint Baltic American National Committee, intends to marshal public opinion against the board’s decision, said Karl Altau, the committee’s managing director. Mr. Altau said that while no goal has been specified, 10,000 signatures would be “terrific.”

[…]

Mr. Altau said he has seen a strong response, especially from the countries hardest hit by Stalin’s dictatorship, such as Hungary, Poland and such former Soviet republics as Estonia, Latvia and Georgia…

[…]

Bedford lost the most men per capita of any U.S. community during World War II. The town’s National Guard unit was in the front of the first wave of the D-Day attack on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, and 21 Bedford men were killed — about two-thirds of the men the town of 3,200 people sent overseas to fight the war.

[Note: Petition is here; http://stalinstatue.com/]

[Return to headlines]



Time to Consider Secession?

By Terrence Aym

These are turbulent times. However, rarely in human history has there ever been a period when times have not been turbulent.

Times of uncertainty can be fraught with danger, yet that very danger brings with it the seeds of great opportunities. As Americans we have had a certain familiarity with this lesson of history for it was specifically at such a time that the United States of America was founded. Despite that uncertainty, or perhaps because of it, during the ensuing centuries the United States became the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.

This year American citizens will celebrate the 234th birthday of the Founding. Unfortunately, too many Americans alive today have forgotten the knowledge our founders acquired through their sweat, blood and sacrifices. Yet that knowledge still exists for all to see. It is embedded within the principles upon which our nation was built—principles we as a people forget or ignore only at our own great peril.

Over the years numerous pundits have defined America as many things, yet at its root America is an idea and the embodiment of a philosophy. And yes, it is a dream. It’s a dream that all in their personal way strive to attain. The seed of this dream is nourished by individual liberty. This dream embraces a dynamic vision that ever expands, ever grows, ever evolves as we too must evolve or surely perish from the face of this Earth.

The patriots of the TEA Parties today seek to reclaim that dream, embrace it, nurture it and set it before ourselves again.

This moment we share together in American history is a great moment. Our time reverberates with echoes from the past. We strive to reassert our liberty, reclaim our heritage and reinvigorate our inalienable rights as a free people.

In the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united States of America the first patriots proclaimed:

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”

My fellow patriots, we recognize the long train of abuses against individual liberty that, in some cases, stretches back almost one hundred years. Our Constitution was crafted to protect us from abuse. It is really nothing more than a compact with our government—a government instituted to serve at our pleasure; we do not serve it.

That sacred compact has been violated by the men and women we entrusted to govern for us, violated in the most egregious way through their apathy, ignorance, political ambition, misplaced altruism and a wanton disregard for individual rights and property rights.

Therefore, we seek no Constitutional redress from that government. The time for redress has passed. The government has become terribly corrupted. Its very existence now corrupts. It has mutated into a Frankensteinian antithesis of our Founding Fathers’ vision.

We have not abandoned our government; it has abandoned us.

Ironically, we find ourselves in the same position as that of our country’s founders. We are fighting against despotism—not as a colony against a repressive England, but as Americans against a government our forefathers instituted with the best of intentions. It is a government that has, sadly, gone terribly astray.

My fellow patriots, it is our right and our duty to throw off such a government and in its place reconstitute the individual above the State. We must divest ourselves of the collectivist shackles the State at all levels. It has sought to bind us with creeping tyranny. We must replace the poisoned political well with the clear sweet waters of respect for the individual and the sanctity of our God given rights. To do less means we are all lesser men and women.

I argue that all thinking and God fearing Americans stand for these principals and have already joined the cause for liberty. Our cause is just: the freedom of the individual and the eventual return of an American government to the limited powers and authority granted by the people as defined in our compact, the Constitution of the United States of America.

We the people consent to be governed only by a government that stays its heavy hand and limits itself to that authority which has already been explicitly defined. All other powers are reserved to the people and the sovereign states. Until that can once again be implemented and enforced, I invite all free people of like minds to consider initiating grass roots political movements in the several states towards the goal of secession.

Let this idea sweep across our land like a prairie fire.

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Woman Who Has Sex With Boy Honored as ‘Person of Month’

City celebrating rapist teacher to sheer horror of some locals

An Alabama city is coming under heavy fire from some local residents for celebrating a convicted sex offender — a female teacher who admitted to raping a 15-year-old male student — as its “Person of the Month.”

The controversy involves Pelham, Ala., a city of approximately 21,000 people, which is honoring Emily Morris for promoting a fundraiser at the city’s high school to help battle cancer.

But just five years ago, when she was a resident of Pelham, Morris was arrested on a variety of charges for allegedly having intercourse with a teen boy at Leeds High School where she taught. The state of Alabama has listed her as a sex offender.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


75-Year-Old Nun Hired for a Top Financial Job in Italy

A 75-year-old Italian nun snared a key job in Italian finance today when she was named vice-president of a foundation that is the biggest shareholder in one of Italy’s largest banks.

Sister Giuliana Galli was voted “by a large majority” into the position at Turin-based Compagnia di San Paolo, according to a statement from the foundation, which has a 10 per cent stake in banking group Intesa Sanpaolo.

As vice-president, she will bear considerable influence along with other shareholder foundations on steering the bank’s strategy.

Sister Galli, who has a degree in sociology and a Masters in behavioural sciences from the University of Miami, took her vows at the age of 23 and in 2001 set up a charity offering psychological assistance to migrants.

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Austrian Favourite Croatia Tops European Road Death Toll

Austrians’ favourite summer holiday destination Croatia has been revealed as the most dangerous country when it comes to fatal traffic accidents.

Traffic Club Austria (VCÖ) said today (Mon) 150 in one million residents died on roads in the country last year. The body added Poland had the second-highest death rate with 143 motorists in one million citizens killed, while Bulgaria comes third with 139.

Austria — where 633 people died in traffic crashes in 2009 — reached a midfield position in European comparison with 76 death cases in one million residents.

The Netherlands (41), Sweden (43), Great Britain (43) and Switzerland (45) have been found the safest European countries in this regard.

Around 18 per cent of Austrians planning to take the car on holiday are expected to drive to Croatia this summer season, according to research by Austrian motorists union Arbö. The body said this makes the country the most popular destination neck-and-neck with Italy.

VCÖ also announced Austria has the second-highest rate of traffic accidents injuries in Europe. The body said the ranking is topped by Slovenia where 4,510 crashes per one million residents injuring motorists occurred in 2009. Austria is second with 4,455 cases, followed by Belgium (3,916), Germany (3,791) and Croatia (3,671).

The lowest number of accidents in which people were injured was registered in Denmark with 757 incidents per one million residents. Bulgaria (1,058) and France (1,193) also did well in the European comparison.

Austrian Times

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



Belgium: Jews Deserting Antwerp

De Standaard, 21 June 2010

‘Jews are deserting Antwerp’, headlines De Standaard. The Belgian newspaper predicts that in fifty years there will be no more Jews living in the city. Due to an increase of Anti-Semitism, many young Jews are leaving the city to study in London, New York or Israel, where “working with a skullcap (kippah) isn’t a problem”, and they never return. Furthermore, it has become more difficult for them to start a career in Antwerp since the Jewish community has lost its dominant position in the diamond trade and hasn’t found a new economic alternative yet. De Standaard comments: ‘Only the poor Hasidic Jews stay and they refuse to adapt.’

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



Czech: Military Presents Pandurs Vehicles to Public at Show

Strasice, West Bohemia, June 19 (CTK) — The Czech military has presented to the public the Pandur armoured personnel carriers (APCs) at the army day Bahna for the first time Saturday, the event’s organiser Stefan Kaleta said.

He said the military wants to show people both its most modern and historical combat equipment.

The Pandurs have been used by Czech military since 2009.

Some 40,000 to 50,000 people arrived at the Brdy military grounds for the army day.

Some 60 persons have been prepared the event from December. About 1150 soldiers, including troops from Austria, Britain, Poland and the United States, and 500 pieces of military equipment participated in the programme.

The five-hour programme started with Gripen fighters, Alca subsonic fighters and helicopters flying overhead.

Apart from Pandurs, Dingo and Iveco armoured vehicles could be seen, special military Land Rovers, T 72 tanks, the Arthur radar.

The military day, organised in cooperation with the Military Museum in Rokycany, west Bohemia, culminated with the presentation of an operation of the rapid reaction unit.

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



Dutch Police Use ‘Decoy Jews’ To Stop Anti-Semitic Attacks

Dutch police are to use “decoy Jews”, by dressing law enforcers in Jewish religious dress such as skullcaps, in an effort to catch anti-Semitic attackers.

Lodewijk Asscher, Amsterdam’s mayor, has ordered the new decoy strategy to cut the number of verbal and physical attacks on Jews, amid fears that anti-Semitic “hate crime” is on the rise.

“Jews in at least six Amsterdam neighbourhoods often cannot cross the street wearing a skullcap without being insulted, spat at or even attacked,” according to local reports.

Amsterdam police already disguise officers as “decoy prostitutes, decoy gays and decoy grannies” in operations to deter street muggings and attacks on homosexuals or the city’s red light district.

Police in the Dutch city of Gouda have claimed the use of officers disguised as apparently frail old age pensioners has helped cut street crime.

“If we receive several reports of street robbery in a certain location, we send out the granny. That soon quietens things down,” said a spokesman.

Secret television recordings by the Jewish broadcasting company, Joodse Omroep, broadcast at the weekend, have shocked Amsterdam, a city which prides itself on liberalism and which is home to the Anne Frank museum.

The footage showed young men, often of immigrant origin, shouting and making Nazi salutes at a rabbi when he visited different areas of the Dutch capital.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



EU: Inspectors Sent to Investigate Blue Mozzarella

Brussels, 21 June (AKI) — The European Union has sent food inspectors to Germany to look into why thousands of mozzarella balls produced for the Italian market turned blue after being exposed to air. “The situation is under control,” said Frederic Vincent, spokesman for John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy.

“Everything is under control and the (European) Commission will do its best to resolve the situation,” Vincent said.

Italian police on Saturday seized around 70,000 balls of mozzarella in the northern city of Turin after consumers noticed the white cheese turned blue when the package was opened. Italian agriculture minister Giancarlo Galan ordered a scientific investigation to be conducted by his ministry’s laboratories to investigate the contamination.

Coldiretti, an agricultural body which represents Italian farmers and cheese producers, said half the mozzarella sold in Italy is made with foreign milk and it was important for the health of Italian consumers to be protected from any potential risks.

State broadcaster RAI said on Saturday that a customer had contacted police after noticing the mozzarella, made in Germany for an Italian company, turned blue after contact with air.

Many merchants in Turin received similar complaints about the cheese.

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



France: Tons of Bushmeat in Paris, Study Finds

PARIS — The traders sell an array of bushmeat: monkey carcasses, smoked anteater, even preserved porcupine.

But this isn’t a roadside market in Africa — it’s the heart of Paris, where a new study has found more than five tons of bushmeat slips through the city’s main airport each week.

Experts suspect similar amounts are arriving in other European hubs as well — an illegal trade that is raising concerns about diseases ranging from monkeypox to Ebola, and is another twist in the continent’s struggle to integrate a growing African immigrant population.

The research, the first time experts have documented how much bushmeat is smuggled into any European city, was published Friday in the journal Conservation Letters.

“Anecdotally we know it does happen … But it is quite surprising the volumes that are coming through,” said Marcus Rowcliffe, a research fellow of the Zoological Society of London and one of the study’s authors.

In the Chateau Rouge neighborhood in central Paris, bushmeat is on the menu — at least for those in the know.

Madame Toukine, an African woman in her 50s, said she receives special deliveries of crocodile and other bushmeat each weekend at her green and yellow shop off the Rue des Poissonieres market. She wouldn’t give her full name for fear of being arrested.

“Everyone knows bushmeat is sold in the area and they even know where to buy it,” said Hassan Kaouti, a local butcher. “But they won’t say it’s illegal.”

For the study, European experts checked 29 Air France flights from Central and West Africa that landed at Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport over a 17-day period in June 2008.

Of 134 people searched, nine had bushmeat and 83 had livestock or fish.

The people with bushmeat had the largest amounts: One passenger had 112 pounds (51 kilos) of bushmeat — and no other luggage. Most of the bushmeat was smoked and arrived as dried carcasses. Some animals were identifiable, though scientists boiled the remains of others and reassembled the skeletons to determine the species.

Experts found 11 types of bushmeat including monkeys, large rats, crocodiles, small antelopes and pangolins, or anteaters. Almost 40 percent were listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Based on what officials seized — 414 pounds (188 kilos) of bushmeat — the researchers estimated that about five tons of bushmeat gets into Paris each week.

They also noted that penalties for importing illegal meats are light and rarely imposed. Under French law, the maximum penalty is confiscation of the goods and a $556 (450 euro) fine. Of the passengers searched in the study, only one person with bushmeat actually was fined.

Bushmeat is widely eaten and sold in Central and West Africa, with Central African Republic, Cameroon and Republic of Congo being the main sources. It varies whether it is legal. It is typically allowed where people are permitted to hunt, as long as their prey aren’t endangered and they can prove the animals were killed in the wild.

A bushmeat ban is enforced in Kenya, but it is legal in most parts of the Republic of Congo, where hunters may stalk wildlife parks that aren’t heavily guarded. Even after several outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus linked to eating bushmeat, the practice remains widespread.

Scientists warned eating bushmeat was a potential health hazard.

“If you have intimate contact with a wild animal — and eating is pretty intimate contact — then you could be exposed to all kinds of diseases,” warned Malcolm Bennett, of Britain’s National Centre for Zoonosis Research at the University of Liverpool, who was not linked to the study.

Bennett said bushmeat had a higher risk of bacteria like salmonella and might also be carrying new diseases. The virus that causes AIDS originated in monkeys, and the global 2003 SARS outbreak was traced to a virus in bats and civets.

Nina Marano, chief of the quarantine unit at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said similar underground markets for bushmeat exist across America.

“We have to be culturally sensitive and recognize this is important for some African communities,” she said. “But there are no regulations for the preparation of meat from wildlife to render it safe.”

The scale of Europe’s illicit bushmeat trade suggests the emergence of a luxury market. Prices can be as high as $18 per pound (30 euros per kilo), double what more mundane supermarket meats cost.

“It’s like buying the best cut of organically grown beef,” Rowcliffe said, adding that bushmeat like giant rats and porcupine, which he has tasted, has a strong, gamey flavor.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]



French Minister Furious About L’Oreal Stink

A French minister lashed out Monday at “charlatan” critics who accuse his wife of turning a blind eye to tax evasion as she helped manage the 16-billion-euro fortune of France’s richest woman.

“They are charlatans, because it is false!” said Labour Minister Eric Woerth, a high-flyer in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing government who in a previous post led a major crackdown on tax evasion.

He was repeating his vehement denial of any wrong-doing by his wife after the French opposition demanded he be investigated for his ties to L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who was taped allegedly plotting tax evasion.

“I have nothing to be ashamed of. My wife has nothing to be ashamed of,” an indignant Woerth told France 3 television, adding that the accusations were “vile and disgraceful.”

“The role of my wife was to invest the L’Oreal dividends paid each year to Mrs Bettencourt… in a fully transparent and fully legal manner,” said Woerth, who has already threatened to sue two of his most outspoken critics.

Woerth, a star in Sarkozy’s government who was known as “Mr Clean,” on Monday announced that his wife, Florence Woerth, would quit her job at the firm handling the 87-year-old billionaire’s financial affairs.

Bettencourt has been at the centre of a political storm since last week when secret tapes revealed she had allegedly conspired to hide money in Swiss bank accounts while making donations to friends in Sarkozy’s UMP party.

Transcripts of tapes published on the Mediapart news website suggest Bettencourt funnelled 80 million euros into Swiss bank accounts and planned to move the funds to Singapore after France signed a tax deal with Switzerland.

Bettencourt’s butler secretly recorded the conversations between the cosmetics billionaire and her financial adviser in her villa in the posh Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine between May 2009 and May 2010.

The butler’s tapes are the latest twist in a long-running family feud between the billionaire and her daughter, who claims Bettencourt is mentally unfit after she gave more than a billion euros to a photographer friend.

The photographer, Francois-Marie Banier, is to stand trial in two weeks to answer charges, pressed by Bettencourt’s daughter, that he took advantage of the ageing heiress but judges may delay the hearings to examine the tapes.

Socialist deputy Arnaud Montebourg declared that the link between Woerth, his wife and Bettencourt created “the impression of a revolting type of collusion.”

Woerth “was in charge of scrutinising the most important taxpayers in France … of fighting tax evasion,” said Montebourg, “and at the same time he had a personal interest in one of France’s biggest fortunes.”

“This is a criminal offence,” he said. “There should be an investigation.”

Woerth has also come under fire from European parliament deputy Eva Joly, a former investigating judge famous for uncovering corruption, who charged that the minister was in an “unbelievable” conflict of interest.

The minister, who is currently tasked with leading the government’s delicate pension reform, has threatened to sue both Montebourg and Joly, who he has called “professional slanderers.”

The French Communist party on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Francois Fillon to suspend Woerth until he can “prove his innocence.”

But Fillon told parliament that his labour minister was an “honest man who has done no wrong” and who continued to have his “full confidence.”

Bettencourt on Monday announced that she would declare all of her foreign assets to comply with French tax laws.

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



Germany: Secret Mixa File Details Alcohol and Sexual Abuse

Secret documents contain serious allegations of alcoholism and sexual abuse against controversial former Augsburg bishop Walter Mixa, media reports said on Monday.

The Catholic Church file, which describes alcohol abuse and sexual assaults on young priests, was seen by Pope Benedict XVI before he accepted Mixa’s resignation in early May, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

The resignation followed accusations that he beat children at a Catholic orphanage in the 1970s and 1980s and later misused Church money.

In the file, witnesses from the Bavarian bishop’s inner circle described him as a “severely alcoholic man” who had to drink throughout the day. Other witnesses described sexual attacks on young priests during his time as a parish priest, when he would “go to confession the next morning before he celebrated mass,” daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Sunday.

The new allegations come to light following Mixa’s demands last week that the Vatican review his case. He has also returned to his quarters bishop’s palace in Augsburg in defiance and accused other high ranking officials of the Church, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, as well as the country’s top Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, of not behaving a “brotherly” manner and pressuring him to resign over the case.

Meanwhile Mixa’s lawyer Gerhard Decker told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the press would not be likely to see the file available to the Vatican.

“It was such with the abuse reports against my client that led to proceedings: One calls on the other as a witness and in the end it was all a misunderstanding,” he told the paper.

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



Holland: Confused and Divided

By Joost LagendIjk

Ten days ago, national elections were held in the Netherlands. The result that got by far the most attention in Turkey and all over the world was the success of the extreme right Freedom Party, headed by populist politician Geert Wilders. Against the hopes and expectations of many observers, including your columnist, the party did better than the polls indicated and got 15 percent of the votes, more than doubling their result in the last elections.

Almost 1.5 million Dutch citizens felt attracted by a party that is known for its strong anti-Islamism, its nationalist and anti-European rhetoric and its populist opposition to all established parties. Since last week, the soul-searching in the Netherlands has moved to a higher gear. The key questions are: How is it possible that so many people voted for this party and how to deal now with this reality? Should they be given a chance in government or can the Netherlands, in the middle of an economic crisis, not afford to have a party in power that many consider to be undemocratic and that will damage the country’s image abroad?

First a few remarks on the election results. Since the elections of 2002, we know that there is a part of the electorate of around 20 percent that is extremely unhappy with all the main parties and that is willing to vote for a populist party that positions itself outside the system. In 2002 it was the party of the charismatic Pim Fortuyn, killed just before the elections, that managed to attract these votes. Four years later, after the Fortuyn party made a mess out of it, most of these floating votes went to a left populist party and to the Wilders party that had just started.

This time around, the Freedom Party was the only alternative for those voters who wanted to cast a protest vote. In other words, we are confronted with a phenomenon that has been there for some time and that will, most probably, not disappear soon. These are citizens that are basically angry with the world. They do not feel represented by the political elite, they feel insecure amidst the global economic turmoil and they blame the presence of Muslim migrants for the changes in their neighborhood they do not like. They are afraid of what might happen next and long back for a past that was mono-cultural and that could be protected against outside forces by a strong national government. This is not a specific Dutch situation. We can see this combination of fear and anger being expressed at the ballot box in other parts of Western Europe as well. It happened in France with Le Pen, in Austria with Haider, in Belgium with the strong performance of Flemish nationalists and in Denmark where an anti-migration party has been supporting a minority government for years now.

How to deal with these parties? Many different strategies have been tried. In Belgium all other parties refused to cooperate in government with them and, looking at the election results of last weekend, this strategy was successful because the extremists lost out to a more moderate version of Flemish nationalism. In Austria they tried the opposite by taking them on board, hoping that would strongly diminish their populist appeal. It worked in the short run to get Haider out, but today we are faced with two extreme right parties that got almost 25 percent of the votes.

After one week of coalition negotiations in the Netherlands, it seems there is no big appetite to have the Wilders’ party in power. Most probably we will have either a combination of the three classic center parties or a four party coalition including the progressive liberals and the Greens. Whatever the outcome, Mr. Wilders will remain a powerful reminder that Dutch society is confused and divided about its future.

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



Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia in Europe

Intolerance towards Islam and Muslims has been increasing in recent years alongside “Islamism”, a religiously disguised form of political extremism. The Council of Europe should serve as the pan-European forum for discussing common strategies for strengthening democratic stability faced with Islamism and Islamophobia.

Social exclusion and cultural discrimination of Muslims must not be tolerated. Islamism cannot be combated by banning symbols of extremism and gender inequality. Inter-religious education should be supported by member states. Institutions of higher education and research in Europe should provide Islamic studies. Contacts between Muslim and non-Muslim Europeans and Muslims in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia should be facilitated, in particular among young people, students and teachers.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Italy: €97 Bln in Offshore Funds ‘Reported’

Rome, 21 June (AKI) — Italians who stashed funds in off-shore bank accounts declared 97 billion euros under a tax-evasion amnesty between September 2009 and April of this year, the Bank of Italy said in a statement published Monday on its website.

According to the Bank of Italy (photo), 11.4 billion euros were declared during the period from January to April this year, when the amnesty was extended.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s tax amnesty aims to shore up the country’s finances. Critics accuse the government of encouraging tax dodging because tax evaders are granted low tax rates on the their funds and are not prosecuted.

A total of 66.79 billion euros were held in Swiss bank accounts, of which 27.74 billion euros was sent back to Italy, the Bank of Italy said in the statement.

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



Italy: Four Arrested Over ‘Toxic’ Chinese Goods

Rome, 22 June (AKI) — Italian police on Tuesday seized around 10,000 tonnes of imported Chinese footwear and garments allegedly made with highly toxic materials. Police seized the goods from a vast warehouse in Casal Morena south of the capital, Rome.

Four people were arrested and another was reported to police over the seized items, which laboratory tests found to contain highly toxic materials, investigators said.

Italian companies and their brands face growing competition from cheap, health-endangering imitations produced by manufacturers in China and other countries.

In March, Italian tax police seized over a million counterfeit designer garments and 80,000 rolls of fabric from Chinese importers outside the city of Florence.

The Chinese-run business based in the city of Prato, north of the city, is alleged to have imported poor quality fabrics and used cheap labour to make fake designer clothes, bags and other items.

In April 2008, the luxury fashion brand, Gucci, and the Turin-based chocolate company, Ferrero Rocher, won landmark court cases against Chinese competitors that were producing fake copies of their goods.

A Chinese court ordered the shoemaker Senda to pay the French-owned Gucci 180,000 yuan (16,000 euros) in damages for copyright infringement.

Ferrero Rocher was awarded 70,000 euros in damages after winning a case against Chinese firm Montresor for producing fake chocolates.

China’s Supreme Court ordered a Chinese firm to stop producing its ‘identical’ “Tresor Dore” chocolates.

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



Italy: Mayor Invites Mel Gibson to Buy Castle

San Lorenzo del Vallo, 22 June (AKI) — The mayor of the small Italian town of San Lorenzo del Vallo is encouraging Hollywood star Mel Gibson to purchase an ancient home there. The director of “The Passion of the Christ” could enjoy the privacy of a large 600 year-old castle, according to mayor Luciano Marranghello.

“It’s a building from the 1500’s with Spanish architecture because it was built following the marriage of the Spanish Mendoza and noble woman Lucrezia della Valle, who came from the town,” Marranghello told Adnkronos in an interview.

Gibson became enchanted with southern Italy after filming “The Passion of the Christ” in a medieval town in the southern Basilicata region.

The star is looking to buy a house in the region of Calabria, in Italy’s deep south, Italian gossip web site Gossipitaliano.it reported on 16 June.

The castle has 13 thousand square metres of land surrounding it guaranteeing privacy, said Marranghello.

San Lorenzo del Vallo is further south in the Calabria region, has 3,500 inhabitants and is close to the Tirenno sea.

“And we guarantee an incredible welcome with our traditional local cooking,” lobbied Marranghello.

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



Netherlands: ‘Radical Moroccans Orchestrated PvdA Coup in Amsterdam’

AMSTERDAM, 22/06/10 — Conservative Muslims have press-ganged aggressive young Moroccans into seizing power via intimidation in Amsterdam’s Nieuw West district, according to De Volkskrant newspaper.

In the district elections on 7 December 2009, Ahmed Marcouch was put forward by the national Labour (PvdA) leadership as candidate PvdA leader of Nieuw West. Although he is Moroccan, many other Moroccans considered him too liberal. They put forward their own Moroccan candidate, Achmed Ba’adoud, who indeed defeated him.

The Osdorp, Slotervaart and Geuzenveld/Slotermeer districts in Amsterdam were merged to form the Nieuw-West borough in May. The three branches of the PvdA merged in June 2009 ahead of the three districts’ merger. Ba’adoud began his campaign of intimidation at that time, according to De Volkskrant.

Ba’adoud supporters looked over the shoulders of Marcouch voters, according to a number of bystanders. “I saw youths that are not politically active, or to put it more strongly, who loathe politics. They were plucked off the street to intimidate (voters). They were hostile and said that they hate Marcouch. Three people put me under pressure to vote for Ba’ adoud,” one source said.

The newspaper says Ba’adoud was supported by “the multicultural events industry”, subsidised job-finders and ethnic welfare workers. Youngsters were told that Marcouch was a homosexual, that he collaborates with white unbelievers and is pro-Israel, according to a member of the Moroccan community.

A PvdA committee headed by former Amsterdam PvdA leader Walter Etty is investigating the irregularities, De Volkskrant added. He is to report his findings this month.

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



Pace Warns of Rising Islamophobia in Europe

Europe’s largest intergovernmental human rights watchdog has warned that intolerance toward Islam and Muslims in Europe has been increasing in recent years and urged immediate action to stem violence against Muslims.

In a report titled “Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia in Europe”, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) noted with deep concern that in many of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states, Muslims feel socially excluded, stigmatized and discriminated against, stressing that they become victims of stereotypes, social marginalization and political extremism because of their different religious and cultural traditions.

PACE made recommendations to the Council of Europe saying, “Discrimination against Muslims must not be tolerated in Europe, as it violates the European Convention on Human Rights.” “Freedom of religion of Muslims must be fully guaranteed, but this freedom must not be used to deny other fundamental freedoms and human rights, in particular the right to life by non-Muslims, the right to non-discrimination by women or minorities, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion by non-Muslims,” it also added.

The report lambasted some member states where far right-wing parties have changed their traditional hostile campaign against immigration and foreigners and now exploit the public fear of Islam. The PACE report underlined: “Their political campaigns encourage anti-Muslim sentiments and the amalgamation of Muslims with religious extremists. They advocate the fear of Europe being swamped by Muslims.” It listed political parties such as the French National Front, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Belgian Vlaams Belang and the Swiss People’s Party, which have been very successful in running campaigns against Islam and largely contributed to the stigmatization of Muslims.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Spain: Tensions Rising at Borders of Ceuta and Melilla

(ANSAmed) — MADRID — Tensions are rising at the borders of the Spanish enclaves in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla. Since last weekend a committee that claims the “liberation” of the enclaves started putting up banners reading “Occupied cities”. According to El Pais, posters with “occupied” written on it in Spanish, French or Arabic appeared last weekend on the access roads to Findeq, a few kilometres from the border of Ceuta, after in April similar banners were spotted at the Moroccan customs house at the border of Melilla. Spanish diplomatic protests to remove the banners have failed. The first to follow the example of the Melilla customs house was the mayor of Beni Enzar, a town with 25,000 inhabitants close to the enclave’s border, who has decided that all the Municipality’s documents must include the statement “occupied city”. He has also tried, so far in vain, to get other Moroccan municipalities to follow his example. At the border of Beni Enzar, the main access road to the city of Melilla, a few dozen Moroccan citizens demonstrated last Friday against the visit by the President of the People’s Party, Mariano Rajoy, to a regional conference of his party in the Spanish enclave. The border had to be closed for more than two hours due to the protest. The spokesman of the city of Melilla, Daniel Conesa, has asked the Spanish central government to take diplomatic steps to ask the Moroccan authorities to ban demonstrations that lead to the closing of the border. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



UK: Shamed Police Chief Ali Dizaei Loses Bid to Appeal Against His Four-Year Jail Term

DISGRACED police chief Ali Dizaei has been refused permission to appeal against his conviction and sentence, it can revealed today.

When the Iranian-born Scotland Yard Commander was jailed for four years earlier this year for fitting up an innocent man, his lawyers immediately announced plans to appeal.

However the Daily Mail can disclose that a senior judge has now ruled that Dizaei has no grounds to launch an appeal against the verdict or punishment.

The decision — confirmed by the Crown Prosecution Service — is a huge to blow to Dizaei who, according to prison sources, remains in denial about his crimes.

Legal sources said the reasons put forward for Dizaei’s appeal last week were ‘weak in the extreme’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Schoolboys Throw Acid in Stranger’s Face in ‘Horrific’ Random Attack After He Refuses to Give Them Cigarette

Three schoolboys were being hunted by police today after acid was hurled into a man’s face when he refused to give them a cigarette.

The victim suffered burns in the ‘horrific random attack’ which took place at around 3.30pm yesterday.

He told police he had seen three young men wearing school uniform walk past him before they threw the substance at his face.

Shortly afterwards, the 45-year-old felt something ‘eating away’ at his skin and drove himself to Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital

The man, who had been walking back to his car at the time of the attack after a business visit, suffered burns and scarring to the left side of his face.

Staff are still considering whether he should be transferred to a specialist burns unit in Bristol.

He is likely to need months of treatment.

Police today appealed for witnesses and said that ‘some sort of acid’ had been used in the assault.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Balkans


Bosnia: Shelling of Sarajevo ‘Worse Than Beirut and Vietnam’

The Hague, 21 June (AKI) — The shelling of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by Serb forces during the 1992-1995 war was worse than relentless shellings in Beirut and Vietnam, a prosecution witness at wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic’s trial said Monday in the Hague.

Up to 12,000 people were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in the 44-month siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia’s bloody war.

Karadzic has been charged with masterminding the siege.

“Sarajevo was at that time exposed to continued artillery fire and sniper attacks,” said prosecution witness and Australian general John Wilson, who served in Vietnam and in Lebanon.

“Vietnam, southern Lebanon and Beirut weren’t anywhere to near Sarajevo, comparing the intensity of fire.”

Wilson was a UN military observer in Sarajevo from March to June 1992, said Bosnian Serb forces shelled Sarajevo “unselectively, disproportionally and at random”.

Karadzic has been indicted on eleven counts genocide, war crimes and crimes of humanity allegedly committed by Bosnian Serb forces under his command. He was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 and denied the charges against him.

Cross-examined by Karadzic, who is defending himself, Wilson conceded that Muslim forces were making provocations by firing at Serb positions from the city, but he said Serbs responded disproportionally.

Asked by Karadzic whether he knew that Serbs were also allegedly persecuted and ethnically cleansed in Bosnia, Wilson said he had heard about the ethnic cleansing of Muslims, but wasn’t aware that it was happening to Serbs as well.

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

North Africa


Algeria: Court Blocks ArcelorMittal Factory Strike

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 22 — The court of El Hadjar has ordered the suspension of an all-out strike called by unions yesterday morning at the ArcelorMittal steelworks in Annaba, east of Algiers. The announcement was made by the company’s head of communications, Mohamed Guedha. The strike began yesterday morning at 05:00 after weeks of pay negotiations. The union had requested the application of an agreement reached by the Federation of mechanical workers with the state company Translob, which owns 30% of the steel plant, which would have benefited the 6,200 workers. ArcelorMittal produces 715,000 tonnes of steel every year. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Caroline Glick: The High Price of Coalition Stability

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his colleagues are doing their best to put a pretty face on an ugly situation. After nearly three weeks of deliberations, Netanyahu and his government caved in to massive US pressure to ease, if not end, Israel’s blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

On Sunday the government announced that all economic sanctions on Gaza will be immediately lifted. Henceforth, Hamas-controlled Gaza will have an effectively open economic border with Israel. Israel will only prohibit the transfer of military material. Even dual-use items, like cement, will be allowed in if international officials claim that they are to be used in their humanitarian projects.

Netanyahu and his colleagues argue that these new concessions have now given Israel the international legitimacy it needs to maintain its naval blockade of the Gaza coast. But this is untrue. Even as he welcomed Netanyahu’s latest capitulation, US President Barack Obama made clear that he expects Israel to continue making unreciprocated concessions to Hamas…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]



What’s Really Happening in Gaza; What’s Really Not Happening in the West Bank

1. A Bit More on the Gaza Strip Diplomacy

2. I’m Looking and I Don’t See Any Palestinian State-Building Going On

A Bit More on the Gaza Strip Diplomacy

By Barry Rubin

Elsewhere, I have explained in great detail the changes in Israeli policy as well as the implications of Western policy in the Gaza Strip: economic normalization meaning also normalization of the existence of a Gaza Hamas-ruled statelet.

Israel, seeing that there is not going to be any “rollback” to remove Hamas from power has basically accepted a containment startegy of limited the military weaponry and capability of Hamas. Thus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained:

“The cabinet decision is the best one for Israel because it eliminates Hamas’ main propaganda claim and allows us and our international allies to face our real concerns in the realm of security.”

This is true as far as it goes except now Hamas merely switches to other supply matters—the quantity of goods, defining certain things as having no military value, demanding export rights—and even more important it forces Israel to drop its goal of bringing down the regime. As I noted earlier, this is not really a concession because, sadly, it was already clear that this was impossible given Western protection of the Hamas government.

But these countries are not finished yet in trying to improve the population’s situation while actually helping Hamas…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

Middle East


As EU Suffers: Turkish Trade Focuses on East

An assessment of Turkey’s trade relations has displayed that the Turkish economy is gradually moving its focus toward the east. While the non-EU trade volume trend of Turkey is gradually rising, the trade volume with the European Union is declining, according to a study carried out by the European Parliament Directorate-General for External policies of the Union. The study was published on April.

The report, presenting an overview of the current state of the economic and trade relations between the EU and Turkey, evaluated the trade openness of Turkey, asking the question of “Is Turkey more open to the East or West?”

The top trading partners of Turkey in the EU are Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Spain while the non-EU top trading partners are Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Iran. The non-EU five has taken over the lead in 2008, according to the study.

“Trade between Turkey and Middle Eastern countries is also rising but still at very moderate levels,” the study said. “Historically, trade with these countries was neglected, and Turkey had its face turned to the West, not East. The trade with the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Syria has increased.”

A slight downturn in trade with the EU-15 seems to be offset by trade with Near and Middle Eastern countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. But the trade volume with these countries is no match for EU trade levels.

Trade with members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, is also rising. “We may predict the trade openness with the OIC is not that great compared to that of the EU-27 trade of Turkey,” the study said. “The figures indicate that while trade with OIC countries is rising, trade with the EU-27 has shown a slight downward trend in the recent years.”

Reintegration with neighbors

The study suggested Turkey should continue to reach out to neighboring countries and its region as new export destinations. “Complementarities with the EU should be studied better and target destinations should be evaluated accordingly,” it said.

The study welcomed Turkey’s neighborhood policy and its reintegration with its neighbors. “The individualized approach of the EU together with the membership perspective has motivated Turkey recently to pursue economic reforms, a ‘zero-problem foreign policy’ and finally, opening up and reintegrating with neighbors,” it said. “However, the EU has to play a difficult political game so as not to discourage the slowest progressing tendencies and so they remain attached to European values and do not revert to periods of instability.”

Prof. Dr Hasan Selçuk from the University of Marmara’s Faculty of Economics noted the abundance of new bilateral agreements signed between Turkey and the Eastern countries. “As long as you open the borders, as long as you lift or stretch out visa regimes, trade will naturally increase with these countries,” he told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Friday.

“I do not think the rise in trade with Eastern countries means a shift in the axis of Turkey,” Selçuk said. “Sure, political preferences of the government have had an influence on the rise of trade with the East. But also, the demands of Turkey’s neighbors have increased and Turkey took the necessary steps to grab the trade opportunity. If there is more demand for trade from the EU countries, Turkey would surely be eager to respond,” he said, referring to lingering economic problems within the European Union.

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



Christians in the Middle East. Who’s Coming, Who’s Going

The old communities are becoming few and far between. But from Asia and Africa millions of new faithful are coming, mainly, to the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. Where, however, religious freedom is still a myth

ROME, June 21, 2010 — Few have noticed it. But amongst the 10 thousand faithful, that is practically the total number of Catholics in Cyprus, who participated at the mass celebrated by Benedict XVI on June 6th at Nicosia, most of them were not Cypriots, but Asians, Africans, and South Americans.

The Pope himself, in his homily, addressed a particular salute to the immigrants coming from the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

As a matter of fact, together with the Indians they represent half of the 30 thousand immigrants on the island, 60 thousand if you also count the illegal ones.

A good number are Catholics. They crowd the small churches. They baptize their children. They are the new and less known image of the Church’s presence not only in Cyprus, but in some areas of the Holy Land and of the Middle East.

Cyprus which is part of the European Union is one of their much sought after destinations. Once arrived in Turkey, the immigrants get off and move on without any difficulty to the Northern part of the island occupied by the Turks. From there, they easily cross the boundary to the Republic of Cyprus, which is considered a part of the journey towards our European countries.

Extending our perspective to the entire area, it occurs that while the Pope calls a Synod and invokes Christians of the Middle East — descendents of the ancient Churches of the area between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf — to not abandon their lands because of hostile pressures, like many are doing in the regions where new Catholics are arriving from far away countries.

This immigration flow is so vast, that often the newcomers are more numerous than the local Christians. However, unexpectedly the draft of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, held in Rome in October, barely considers this phenomenon, in paragraphs 49 and 50.

Turkey is a case of its own, but still enlightening. Here in the last century the Christian presence has been wiped out. Only the bishops and priests coming from Italy are able to assure the survival of very small Catholic communities. The names of the last martyrs speak for themselves: the priest Andrea Santoro and the bishop Luigi Padovese who was killed just before the Pope’s visit to Cyprus.

The bishop of Smyrna and of Anatolia, Ruggero Franceschini, in succeeding to Padovese, called on voluntaries and priests to leave Italy on a “mission” to Turkey, in order to assure and maintain the Catholic presence in the country.

But concerning the more general phenomenon of new Christian immigrants in the Middle East, what is most surprising is that it is actually happening where Islam first started, that is Saudi Arabia , where there are 2 million Catholics, and in the Gulf countries.

Regarding the Arabian Peninsula, here is an up to date analysis of the changed religious scenery. The author is a major expert of the field: Giuseppe Caffulli, director of the reviews and website of the Custody of the Holy Land and author of “Fratelli dimenticati. Viaggio tra i cristiani del Medio Oriente”, Àncora, Milan, 2007.

This analysis was published on the last number of “Vita e Pensiero”, the review of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

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THE ARABIAN PENINSULA. CHRISTIANS ON THE MOVE

by Giuseppe Caffulli

Paradoxes of our time. It is at least three decades that the land which gave birth to Islam and the Prophet is top on the chart of the areas in the world where Christianity is at its maximum increase. However, it is not an increase due to conversions. In these lands the possibility to embrace the Christian faith still continues to be illegal. The increase finds its origins in a massive migration flow which concerns all the countries of the Gulf.

In Saudi Arabia, on an overall population of 27 million and half of inhabitants, the estimate of immigrants is of 8 million. If you extend your perspective to the Arab Emirates (UAE, a federation of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Al-Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah e Umm al-Qaiwain, found along the central-east coast of the Arabian peninsula), the picture is even more impressive: of nearly 6 million inhabitants, the local population does not cover more than12-14%.

Parts of these immigrants, above all coming from the Far East, are Christians belonging to the entire confessional range. Today, according to the numbers Catholics are the majority of Christians present in the Arabian Peninsula.

Immigration in Saudi Arabia and in the countries of the Gulf (other than Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, the phenomenon concerns Bahrain, Oman e Qatar) is due to the oil boom. From the sixties, the forever growing demand of crude oil and the need to exploit in an ongoing massive manner the oil wells, necessarily required the employment of manpower coming from abroad. The first foreign workers employed in this new economic miracle mainly come from nearby Yemen, a country that with its 23 million, is still considered today the real demographic giant of the region.

YEMEN, A SPECIAL CASE

Until the eighties, the Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia are over a million. The remittances of these immigrants represent an important part the Yemeni Balance of State. The scenario radically changes with the first Gulf War. The Yemeni government sides with Saddam Hussein (who invades Kuwait) and suddenly Riyadh and Sana’a become enemies. In 1991 at least 800 thousand Yemeni workers are expelled because considered a threat to national security. Since then no Yemeni worker can obtain a work permit from Saudi Arabia. Embittered and unemployed, the expelled Yemeni workers become victims of another Saudi policy: the exportation of the Islamic Sunni Wahhabi doctrine. In Yemen with the multiplication of Koranic Wahhabi schools (wanted and financed exactly by Saudi Arabia) there is a significant growth of the involvement of the young Yemeni in the Jihadi organizations, with a sinister relapse on International Islamic terrorism. A third of the prisoners of the American base of Guantanamo are Yemeni. The family of Osama Bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda is Yemeni.

Huge flaws open up in the Saudi Arabian economic system (and likewise in the other countries of the Gulf, equally lined up in foreign policy with the West) due to the expulsion of the Yemeni workers. From the early nineties the government of Riyadh is obliged, in order to guarantee the production level of crude oil (today oil still represents 88% of the revenues of the State and 90% of the exportations), to encourage the immigration of a forever growing number of foreign workers coming from countries of the Far East, above all India, the Philippines, Pakistan.

The acceleration of the economy of the Gulf countries (in 2008 the Emirates have had a increase of the Gross domestic product of 6,8%;Saudi Arabia of 4,2%) makes the Arabian peninsula one of the areas with strongest levels of immigration on the planet, with planning of large infrastructures and with an imposing growth of the real estate business sector.

THE LARGEST VICARIATE OF THE WORLD

The Arabian Peninsula is under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia, the largest ecclesiastical district of the world: six nations that cover over 3 million square kilometers (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar e Yemen), with a population of over 60 million people. Held since 2005 by Paul Hinder, a Swiss Capuchin, who succeeded his brother an Italian Bernardo Gremoli, the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia is more than a hundred years old (the office of Aden dates back to 1888).

The current office is at Abu Dhabi, modern capital of the Emirates and can count on sixty one priests and on one hundred nuns coming from six different religious orders. As well as pastoral assistance, the Church runs 8 schools (for a total number of 16 thousand students, 60% of which are Muslims), orphanages and homes for the disabled. Until a few decades ago, the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia mainly dealt with the pastoral assistance of a few thousand foreigners working in the peninsula: embassy personnel, employees and officers of foreign firms.

From the nineties, with the arrival of foreign workers, everything changes. There are no official numbers, but the estimates of the Vicariate of Abu Dhabi (according to the approximate data supplied by the embassies), indicate at least 1 million 400 thousand Filipinos only in Saudi Arabian territory, 85% of which are Catholics. The exact number of Indians is unknown. But it is likely that the number of Catholics in the Saudi kingdom may be nearly 2 million.

According to the latest data, the inhabitants of the Arab Emirates are about 6 million, of which 5 are foreign workers. The overwhelming majority of immigrants professes the Muslim faith (about 3 million 200 thousand), but Christians would be over 1 million and half, of which 580 thousand Catholics. A good number is Arab mother tongue (over 100 thousand, 12 thousand only at Abu Dhabi) and they come from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Irak. There are tens of thousands of Eastern-Rite Catholics: Maronites, Melechites, Armenians, Syrians, Syro-Malabars, Syro -Malankarans… The celebrations are held, other than in English and Arab, in Malayalam, Konkani, Tagalog, French, Italian, German, Sinhalese and Tamil.

In Bahrain, on a population of about one million inhabitants, 65 thousand are Catholics. In Oman, on a population of 3 million 200 thousand inhabitants, 120 thousand are Catholics. In Qatar, where in 2008 the first Catholic church was consecrated, on a population one million 200 thousand inhabitants, 110 thousand are Catholics. It is difficult to supply reliable data on the entire phenomenon. According to journalistic sources, in the United Arab Emirates there would be about 750 thousand workers coming from India, 250 thousand from Pakistan, 500 thousand from Bangladesh. One million immigrants are made up of Iranians, Afghans, Malaysians, Indonesians, Chinese and Japanese. Half a million would be Filipinos. Another half million would be formed by Africans and South Americans. It is not easy even for the local Christian churches to supply reliable data because of great mobility of the Catholic population (some workers have very brief work permits). Many Catholics work at times in areas that are very far from the local parish or from the Christian community, or live in work camps that prevent free movement.

WORKING CONDITIONS

The working condition of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia is not rosy. In Saudi Arabia, one of the most repressive regimes of the world , everyday Christian workers have to put up with — that is, besides the economic crisis which has marked a decrease in numbers of job offers and decrease in remuneration — with the religious police (mutawwa), that does not tolerate public manifestations of faith. A situation which is constantly denounced by international organizations that promote human rights and religious freedom. It often happens that false accusations concerning Christians involved in keeping the faith in their communities are brought to the attention of the police (as was the case of Brian Savio O’Connor, sent to prison in 2004 because found in possession of Bibles and religious books).

Unlike other contexts, foreign workers in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf countries do not integrate themselves. They are in these territories with the intention to, sooner or later, go back home or immigrate to the USA, Canada or Australia. There is also a law that prevents the renewal of residence permits for workers over the age of 60. As a result, the Church of Arabia does not have a stable nucleus. It is formed by a majority of young faithful that in best cases stay for five, ten, maximum twenty years.

There are also serious situations of social disparity. Few between Christians are wealthy, a great number are poor and have no social security. The lower class workers have very little tutelage, even if the UAE, at the beginning of 2009, signed an agreement with Manila’s government in order to offer more guarantees to Filipino workers. There is even a real traffic of workforce, workers that are illegally brought into the Gulf by criminal organizations. Then there is also women’s trade for prostitution, especially coming from the Philippines and East Europe. Most of them are deceived by a job offer and find themselves slaves. Those who are able to escape often find refuge in Catholic charitable organizations, that supply psychological and legal aid for those who wish to go back to their own countries.

However, the crisis is concerning the Arabian peninsula, slowing down the economy. After years of 1% inflation rate, in 2008 in Saudi Arabia there was an incredible increase in prices which determined an over 11% inflation rate. Riyadh’s government is trying to resolve this crisis with a “Saudization” project. In the future they would like to limit the entrance of new immigrant workers (so as to favor in other words also the expulsion of the illegal workers) in order to replace them with local ones. Forced by the crisis, many Saudis are going back to jobs that until a short time ago were considered unworthy and too tiring and therefore left to foreign workers. This “Saudization” has also a religious implication that is to limit the entrance of Muslim Shiite immigrants, the Muslim current that has always been in contrast with the Sunni one which is majorly practiced in the Arabian Peninsula.

LITTLE OR NO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

In Saudi Arabia, religious freedom is a sore spot. According to the yearly report on religious freedom published in 2009 by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Saudi Arabia can be considered amongst those countries that stir “particular concern,” along with Myanmar, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Irak, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Regarding Saudi Arabia, the report does recognize some limited reform and some shy attempt towards inter-religious dialogue. However, the government still to this day forbids any form of public religious expression that is not part of the Sunni Muslim doctrine and that does not observe the particular Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Furthermore, the Commission accuses the Saudi authorities of internationally supporting groups that promote “an extremist ideology which contemplates, in some cases, violence against the non-Muslims and against Muslims of a different current.”

In the Emirates and in other countries of the Gulf, the scenario is slightly different. There is a substantial situation of religious tolerance, even in a picture of well defined rules. Witnesses of this opening are the parishes that the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia has founded in the area: a parish in Bahrain, one in Qatar and seven in the Emirates: more precisely two at Abu Dhabi, two at Dubai, one at Sharjah, one at Al-Fujairah and one at Ras al-Khaimah. There are four parishes in Oman, two of which at Muscat. Then there are four communities in Yemen, a country that has made some progress but where you can still recall the episodes of violence against Christians (like the murder of three nuns of Mother Teresa on July 27, 1998).

Every Emir is substantially free to decide his own religious policy and Christians find themselves living in different conditions according to the political reality in which they are working. Religious freedom and tolerance of worship cannot be compared with the West: everything is concentrated within the parish areas, without the possibility to expose symbols outside and without the possibility to carry out any public activity. But the Arabian church, that by word of its Bishop defines itself as “pilgrim”, that operates in the Emirates and in the Gulf countries has a relatively privileged situation. Vice versa, in Saudi Arabia pastoral assistance is practically impossible to get. The millions of faithful that live on the other side of the iron curtain are sometimes reached, in some incredible manner, by a priest in disguise who assures the consecration of the Eucharistic bread which will then be distributed by the lay of the various communities.

SCATTERED COMUNITIES

The main emergency of the Arabian church on a pastoral level is connected to the lack of structures. There are parishes with 40 thousand and even 100 thousand faithful. Often it is impossible to welcome all the faithful who wish to assist the celebrations or ask for pastoral assistance. It is difficult to manage the interests and sensitivities of the diverse ethnic groups — at least 90 — without provoking tensions or misunderstandings. The number of priests is limited and it is really difficult to snatch new visas for them to increase. It is not even easy to find priests suitable for a mission in such an area: one of the fundamental requirements is the knowledge of various languages. Moreover faithful live scattered, far from parishes; most work in villages located in the middle of the desert, or on oil platforms, in areas where it is impossible to get to. Most of them do not have means of transport or are not able to buy a ticket or do not get permission to leave from their employers. It is a crucial point — as Paul Hinder often notes — to protect these faithful from the temptation of being taken in by Islam. Something which actually happens: if you are a Muslim you find a better job and a better salary, conversion therefore is looked upon as the easy way towards social promotion.

What fate will these Christian workers have in the next years? Difficult to say. In the meantime their numbers depend on the difficult political and economical situation which is concerning the area. The world in which they live in — one must not forget — is totally based on Islam. To such an extent that it is difficult to imagine an opening towards human rights and religious freedom, even though the huge amount of non Muslim workers in the Arabian Peninsula is a fact that cannot be ignored or denied. Sooner or later someone will have to consider not only the economic needs of these Christians on the move.

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



Danger Signs in Turkey’s Strategic Depth

By Ergin Yildizoglu

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu believe that a new, independent and self-confident Turkey is emerging whose destiny under their leadership is to become a regional superpower, reclaiming the historical and cultural heritage of its Ottoman and Muslim roots. This, they believe, will provide their nation with a “strategic depth” in the Greater Middle East.

Erdogan has recently become extremely popular in the Arab world as a result of foreign policy moves stemming from the doctrine of “strategic depth”, the idea that Turkey must use its unique geography and history to its foreign policy advantage, which was first formulated for Turkey by Davutoglu in his opus magnum of the same title. But not everybody is convinced that Erdogan’s newly found esteem has the substance to be translated into sustainable geopolitical gains or even a regional leadership capable of speaking for the Muslims and the Arab world.

It is very difficult to know whether the “strategic depth” base of Turkey’s foreign policy is a foundation for building something new and better, conducive to greater stability and peace in the region, or whether it is simply pulling Turkey into the vortex of time-worn and extremely complex conflicts and problems of the Middle East with which it is not properly equipped to deal. To put it another way, it is not yet possible to see with any certainty if Erdogan and Davutoglu are waving triumphantly in a sea of “strategic depth” or gradually drowning in it.

From Davos to Jerusalem via Gaza

A closer look at the dynamics behind the Erdogan’s recent popularity in the Arab world on the one hand and, on the other the growing concerns of many foreign policy analysts in the West about Turkey’s turning away from its tradition allies and national-secular modernization, and moving towards the Muslim Middle East, reveals two distinct trajectories.

One trajectory is to lend support to Iran’s diplomatic struggle to defend its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. The other is lending support for the Palestinian cause, but particularly to Hamas in the context of Israel’s blockade of Gaza by deploying increasingly vitriolic verbal attacks, bordering on anti-Semitism, against the Israel’s foreign policy.

Early concerns about the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) new foreign policy orientations had emerged when Erdogan invited Hamas officials for talks in 2006 to Ankara despite the objections of Turkey’s close allies, US and Israel administrations. But many observers believe that the real turning point came at Davos in 2009, when Erdogan practically called President Shimon Peres a murderer and stormed out of a panel discussion in the World Economic Forum. This instantly made him a hero in the Arab world.

Joint military exercises between Israel and Turkey that had been held for many years were later canceled by Turkey. Later, Turkey cooperated with Brazil to strike a uranium-swap deal with Iran and then, to the dismay of US and European Union, joined Brazil in the United Nations Security Council to vote against stepping up sanctions on Iran. In between these two developments, came the tragic incident where nine civilians, including Turkish nationals, were killed by Israeli commandos boarding the Mavi Marmara, which was carrying humanitarian aid destined for Gaza. Turkey’s attempt to break Israel’s Gaza blockade further enhanced Erdogan’s popularity in the Arab world.

As for Erdogan, not only has he increased the intensity of his verbal attacks against Israel but also extended them to include US by suggesting that those who lend support to Israel were also responsible for its crimes. Forgetting that he had once during the Iraq war declared himself as the joint chief of the Greater Middle East Project, he asked “what America is doing in Iraq… in Afghanistan”. Furthermore, it seems that he is now unleashing his anger against domestic opponents by fueling anti-American and Israeli sentiment. Recklessly, he has begun to accuse his critics of being the propaganda tool of international media controlled by the Israeli lobby.

Davutoglu was also busy in promoting Turkey as the champion of the Palestinian cause. He reportedly promised during a closed session of The Turkish Arab Business forum In Istanbul last week that “Jerusalem is going to be the capital [of Palestine] very soon. And we are going to pray there together.”

Now what?

Many experts argue that the AKP has moved so far away from the West in general and from the US and Israel in particular that it is already on a course to join with the Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas axis. Voices in the US Congress are being raised about punishing Turkey. Neo-conservative political analysts who had introduced Erdogan to the world and supported him enthusiastically during the first Bush administration, have gone beyond having second thoughts about him. They are fuming with disappointment and anger. Some have even suggested that Turkey should be expelled from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Arguments and concerns, though containing some elements of truth, are gross exaggerations, some verging on the hysterical. The real situation is more likely that Erdogan and Davutoglu wanted to increase their domestic political capital through foreign policy success in the region.

At the beginning they counted on US support and prestige in the region. But they quickly realized that amid waning US prestige and power to influence developments in the region, and an emerging power vacuum with the absence of Saddam Hussein’s regime, that Iran was rising as a major force capable of shaping developments in the Muslim world. Erdogan and Davutoglu then began to rely on their own devices; the doctrine of “strategic depth” and the guaranteed support of people on Arab streets for any one confronting Israel in the region.

However, the more they relied on these devices, the more they entered uncharted waters. First, Erdogan and Davutoglu watched with great disappointment the recent Hamas declaration stating that Egypt was the only acceptable intermediary between Palestinian factions. This declaration made clear that the Arab world was not going to let Turkey interfere in its internal affaires and may be linked to emerging concerns among the Arab leaders.

Arab leaders reportedly perceive recent developments in the region as manifestations of hegemonic rivalry between Turkey and Iran. They are also not happy that competition between Turkey and Iran progressively has exposed their own political impotence in opposing Israel’s policies and also undermined their regimes’ legitimacy in the eyes of their own people.

To make a bad situation worse, Tehran decided to up the ante, in order not to lose its Hezbollah and Hamas portfolio to Turkey, by threatening to send its own blockade-breaking flotilla to Gaza. The Iran flotilla would certainly exacerbate the political and diplomatic crises between Israel and Turkey and increase the risk unfolding a military confrontation.

Erdogan and Davutoglu seem to have destabilized Turkish foreign policy in more than one way. The traditional links with the Western allies have noticeably weakened. The political elite in the Arab world are becoming less and less receptive to the idea of Turkish leadership in the Middle Eastern affairs. Erdogan and Davutoglu may be realizing, with horror, that they are about to join a game of “Chicken” with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who appears forever ready to go one step further than Turkey in confronting Israel.

Turkish foreign policy ship under the helmsmanship of Erdogan and Davutoglu is now sinking in “strategic depth”. The vessel is still salvageable, and the voyagers can be rescued. But the capacity of the captains to manage the required operations is increasingly coming under scrutiny.

Dr Ergin Yildizoglu is a university lecturer at Ankara University.

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



Israel Gas Discoveries Set Off Lebanon Row

Israeli companies have announced two important natural gas finds in the past 18 months that may hold 24 trillion cubic feet of gas, but the offshore discoveries are a potential source of friction between Israel, Lebanon and Greek Cyprus. Lebanese officials say the gas may extend into their waters, urging their own prospecting

Natural gas discoveries off Israel have sparked a debate with Lebanon over potential resources in the eastern Mediterranean and prompted Greek Cyprus to seek clarification on maritime boundaries.

Noble Energy and Israeli companies controlled by billionaire Isaac Tshuva have announced two finds in the past 18 months that may hold 24 trillion cubic feet of gas, more than twice the U.K.’s gas reserves. Greek Cyprus is seeking clarification on water borders as Lebanon officials have said the gas may extend into its waters and urged its own prospecting.

“We’re engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Cyprus in order to reach an agreement based on international practice and good neighborly relations,” said Yigal Palmor, a spokesman at Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “As for Lebanon, they don’t even acknowledge that they should talk directly with us, so their claims are not based on good faith.”

The dispute adds to tension for Israel, already criticized for the raid on a ship carrying aid to the Gaza strip. Israel and Lebanon are technically at war and have no diplomatic relations. Israel, which is seeking to wean itself off oil and coal imports from as far away as Mexico and Norway and has bought gas from Egypt in the past decade, has said the finds may allow it to start exporting gas.

“We will not allow Israel or any company working for Israeli interests to take any amount of our gas that is falling in our zone,” Lebanon Energy Minister Gebran Bassil said by telephone on June 17, adding that it warned Noble not to work close to its economic zone. “It’s the responsibility on the one hand of the Israeli government and on the other hand of Noble.”

Bassil said the government and lawmakers “should move quickly on starting the exploration of offshore gas.”

No legal framework:

“We’re in touch with Israel regarding the demarcation of the exclusive economic zone,” a Greek Cyprus Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be named, said by telephone. “There has been no agreement so far as there is no appropriate legal framework in Israel.”

The finds, Leviathan and Tamar, lie about 130 kilometers (81 miles) and 90 kilometers, respectively, off Israel, according to Israel’s National Infrastructure Ministry. Delek Drilling-LP, one of the fields’ partners, said on June 15, in response to reports, that the licenses are in waters where Israel has authority.

The Leviathan prospect is owned 39.7 percent by Noble, 15 percent by Ratio Oil Exploration 1992 LP, 22.7 percent by Delek Drilling-LP and 22.7 percent by Avner Oil & Gas Ltd.

A coastal state is entitled to explore for oil and gas in its economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers), according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. A halfway point is used when the distance between countries is less than 400 nautical miles. Haifa, in northern Israel, is about 148 nautical miles from Cyprus, which is located north of Leviathan.

Lebanon’s claim may be complex because its border with Israel is indented, making it harder to establish where Israel’s sea boundary ends and Lebanese waters begin, said Robbie Sable, a professor of international law at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Cyprus is “a more straightforward case” since the licenses are closer to Israel, there’s very “little to dispute” between the two countries, he said.

Legal disputes between states over the maritime zones where gas is located usually begin with negotiations, said Norman Martinez, a lecturer at the International Maritime Law Institute. When negotiations fail, the parties may agree to other means of settlement such as arbitration, he said. Most end up in the international court of justice, he said.

Israel has a signed agreement with Jordan on the border in the Gulf of Eilat, and has unwritten agreements with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. There’s no such agreement with Lebanon. In cases of dispute, it is usual practice to hand the decision to arbitrators, which are listed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982. Israel is not a signatory to the convention.

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



Lebanon: More Security Near Sidon After Christians Threatened

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JUNE 22 — Lebanese police have stepped up security measures, increasing patrols around the city of Sidon, south of Beirut, where leaflets threatening Christians have been handed out, inviting them to leave their homes within the next week. The threat, that the local Sunni religious authorities have denounced and that the Shia movement Hezbollah has termed “stupid”, features in leaflets that appeared in a number of Christian villages east of Sidon, which urge Christians “to save their lives, evacuating the area within a week, or otherwise suffering the consequences”. Security sources told the newspaper An Nahar that the leaflets are “amateurish and infantile”, because the Muslim slogans that feature in them are full of grammatical mistakes and errors in Islamic terminology. The head of Hezbollah’s political office, Mahmoud Qomati, spoke after a visit to the Christian religious authorities in Sidon, saying that the threat was “stupid”, while the Sunni Grand Mufti, sheikh Rashid Qabbani, said in a statement that “co-existence between Muslims and Christians will remain an example to follow”. However, the head of internal security forces for southern Lebanon, General Mounzer al-Ayubi, has said that patrols east of Sidon will be strengthened. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Turkish Troops Hunt Down Kurdish Rebels

Elite commando units rappelled down from helicopters, and mechanized infantry units blocked escape routes of Kurdish rebels in a major operation along the Iraqi border on Monday. Turkey’s military chief did not rule out a cross-border offensive against rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.

“It is our duty to find and eliminate terrorists wherever they are,” said Gen. Ilker Basbug, head of the military, in response to a question about the possibility of a major incursion. He said the military has been using drones, bought from Israel, over northern Iraq to monitor rebel positions over the past 10 days.

Turkish warplanes often have bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts there, and troops have crossed the border to hunt down the rebels. The last major ground incursion into Iraq was in February 2008, but the rebels made a comeback after the troops withdrew.

[Return to headlines]



Turks: Serbs and Arabs…

While chatting with a Serbian colleague before attending a press conference by the Gazprom CEO, I told her that I found many similarities between Serbs and Turks. We tend to avoid seeing the mistakes we commit and instead put the blame on the outside world. I was surprised when she told me that a Turkish TV series broadcasted by Fox TV in Serbia, which is owned by a Greek company, has become a big success in the country. “Serbs watch it and say ‘look how Turks are like us,” she said. At one stage another Turkish series was also a hit in Greece. Can you imagine? Turkish series, made specifically for Turkish audiences, can appeal both to those living in the Middle East and the Balkans. That in itself shows the cultural diversity of Turkey.

Yet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vision seems to be limited solely to the Arab world. “A Turk cannot do without an Arab,” Erdogan said, adding that “We are like meat and bones with the Arabs.” While talking about the improving relations with the Arab world, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek asked, “Why should we not go back to our roots?” I did not know that Turks’ roots lay in the Arab world.

I can understand up to a certain point criticisms voiced by the current Justice and Development Party, or AKP, of the previous government’s indifference to the Arab world. Yes, at one stage we turned our back to the Middle East. But the examples given by the Prime Minister to show what he thinks of Turkish “disdain” of the Arabs goes beyond rational thinking. He criticized Turks for naming their dogs “Arab.”

The dog in the garden owned by my neighbors in my previous house was named “Arab” for the simple reason that he was black. My uncle, who is in his mid 80’s, and who has been living in the United States for more than half of his life, uses old Turkish. He used to call African-Americans “Arabs.” That there is a misconception that equates “black” with “Arab” should change — and is in fact changing — can’t be contested. I am not an expert on languages. But I do not believe that equating “Arab” with “black” stems from a negative connotation about Arabs in general.

My cat’s name is Bekir. It’s a common male name. According to the rationale of the prime minister, I must hate all people carrying the name Bekir. But most people have pets because they love animals. Why would someone name something it likes with a name that supposedly carries a negative connotation?

The only explanation I have for the Prime Minister’s comment is that for certain sects in Islam, dogs are not liked. And this again proves that the prime minister’s main reference in life is “religion.”

The AKP circles’ main explanation of its engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the human tragedy suffered by the Palestinian people. If it was the case, then the government would not have remained indifferent to human suffering in Kyrgyzstan. Is it because Uzbeks and Kyrgyz do not pray five times a day?

I believe Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu disclosed the real reason behind the government’s policy by saying, “Jerusalem will one day become a capital, and we shall all one day pray in Mescid-i Aksa.”

The AKP is no longer talking about the Palestinian problem, but about the problem in Gaza. While advocating the rights of Hamas, no one is talking about the Palestinian Authority, or PA. Is it due to the secular nature of the PA? Is Hamas’ radicalism more appealing to the AKP?

If the main reference of the AKP is not religion, but a genuine desire to see the Palestinian suffering end, then it is high time to see Israel as not the sole cause of the problem. The government should tell the PA that the days when the actions of its leadership were not questioned are over. They should end the corruption that has cost them the trust of their people. The government should then turn to Hamas and say: “Look I have even dared to come to a point of breaking my ties with Israel. It is high time for you to curb your radicalism and accept the existence of Israel.” And it should direct at least one-fifth of the criticisms that it voiced against Israel to the disunified Arab world. Even if it is the case that the AKP has lost all hope about the Arab world and the PA, it just can’t solve the Palestinian problem with waging a war with Israel and supporting Hamas.

One last word on the Arab world. The reaction among the Arab societies towards the AKP should be carefully examined. If crowds are going to the streets to praise Turkey’s stands, it is not so much they are thrilled with the idea that Turkey will lead the Arab world to solve the Palestinian problem. They are doing it to show their reaction to the hypocrisy of their government. They can’t go to the streets of Cairo, chanting slogans against Mubarek. They know well that the answer will be violent oppression of protests. But they all know well that Mubarek can’t order his security forces to act against those changing slogans for Erdogan.

Some radicals within Arab society might genuinely applaud Erdogan, as they might see in him a real brother in arms. But I believe there are others who do so because it is a way to show their reaction to their rulers. What makes me say that is the popularity of Turkish TV series in Arab societies. Those series are not reflecting Turkey dominated by radical tendencies. They reflect a society that has a lifestyle that keeps religion in the private domain and avoids putting religion as a main reference of life.

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

South Asia


Afghanistan: US Military ‘Payments’ Reach Taliban

Washington, 22 June (AKI) — Investigators say the US military has been giving tens of millions of dollars to Afghan security firms who are channelling the money to warlords, including members of the Taliban.

Trucks transporting supplies to US troops allegedly pay the firms to ensure their safe passage in dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

If extortion payments are not made the convoys will be attacked, according to allegations contained in a US congressional document, that follows a six-month probe.

The convoys are attacked if payments are not made, according to allegations in the report released late Monday.

Trucks making deliveries of water, food, fuel and ammunition may be paying firms 4 million dollars every week (3.24 million euros), according to the report.

The congressional subcommittee that conducted the investigation says that payments are made to the Taliban and every governor, police chief and local military commander whose territory the convoys pass through.

One of the security companies in question is alleged to be owned by two cousins of the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

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



Pakistan Police Arrest German Man in Burka

A German man wearing a burka and carrying a pistol was arrested in northwest Pakistan Monday after travelling from an area known as a hub for Al-Qaeda-linked militants, police said.

“A German man, wearing a burka, was intercepted at a checkpoint in Bannu while coming from Miranshah with a six-year-old girl,” local police station chief Farid Khan told AFP.

Two tribesmen travelling with him in the vehicle were also detained, he said.

Miranshah is the main town of lawless North Waziristan tribal district, a known hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants.

Most women in the area wear a burka, which covers the body from head to toe, if they are out in public.

A pistol was also recovered from the man and he was handed over to an intelligence agency for further investigation, Khan said.

An American construction worker armed with a pistol and sword was arrested last week further north in the mountains of Chitral who purportedly told police he was on a mission to hunt down and kill Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and adjoining northwestern districts are out of bounds for foreigners and they require special permission to visit these restive areas.

Washington has branded Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and officials say it is home to Islamist extremists who plan attacks on US-led troops in Afghanistan and on cities abroad.

Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he went there for bomb training.

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



Top US General in Afghanistan Apologizes for Remarks Criticizing Obama

The leading U.S. commander in Afghanistan apologized for a magazine profile that quotes him denouncing a top diplomat while his aides dismiss President Barack Obama and mock his deputies.

Tensions between General Stanley McChrystal and the White House are on full display in the unflattering article in Rolling Stone, although the general said in a statement late Monday that it was all a mistake.

“I extend my sincerest apology for this profile,” McChrystal said in a statement issued hours after the article entitled “The Runaway General” was released Monday.

“It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened.”

McChrystal, a former special operations chief, usually speaks cautiously in public and has enjoyed mostly sympathetic U.S. media coverage since he took over the NATO-led force last year.

But the Rolling Stone article appeared to catch him and his staff in unguarded moments.

In the profile, McChrystal jokes sarcastically about preparing to answer a question referring to Vice President Joe Biden, known as a skeptic of the commander’s war strategy and imagined ways of “dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner.”

“‘Are you asking about Vice President Biden?’ McChrystal says with a laugh. ‘Who’s that?’“ the article quotes him as saying.

“‘Biden?’ suggests a top adviser.’Did you say: Bite Me?’“

An unnamed adviser to McChrystal also says in the article that the general came away unimpressed after meeting with Obama in the Oval Office a year ago.

“It was a 10-minute photo op,” the general’s adviser says.

“Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was… he didn’t seem very engaged.

“The boss was pretty disappointed,” says the adviser.

McChrystal tells the magazine that he felt “betrayed” by the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, in a White House debate over war strategy last year.

Referring to a leaked internal memo from Eikenberry that questioned McChrystal’s request for more troops, the commander suggested the ambassador had tried to protect himself for history’s sake.

“Here’s one that covers his flank for the history books,” McChrystal tells Rolling Stone.

“Now if we fail, they can say, ‘I told you so.’“

Eikenberry, himself a former commander in Afghanistan, had written to the White House saying Afghan President Hamid Karzai was an unreliable partner and that a surge of troops could draw the United States into an open-ended quagmire.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, through a spokesman, backed McChrystal.

“The Rolling Stone article is rather unfortunate, but it is just an article,” Rasmussen’s spokesman said in a statement.

“We are in the middle of a very real conflict, and the Secretary General has full confidence in General McChrystal as the NATO commander, and in his strategy.”

Tensions over strategy

The article seemed likely to exacerbate tensions between the U.S. command in Afghanistan and the White House.

McChrystal already received a dressing down from Obama after giving a speech last summer in which he appeared to criticize Biden’s argument in favor of fewer troops in Afghanistan.

As an Afghanistan strategy review was beginning, McChrystal had requested tens of thousands of reinforcements and although Obama in the end granted most of what he had asked for, the strategy review was a difficult time, the general told the magazine.

“I found that time painful,” McChrystal says. “I was selling an unsellable position.”

The profile argued that McChrystal has pushed through his vision of how to fight the war, sidelining White House and State Department heavyweights along the way.

His aides are portrayed as intensely loyal to McChrystal while dismissive of the White House and those who question their commander’s approach.

One aide calls the national security adviser, Jim Jones, a retired general, a “clown” who is “stuck in 1985.”

McChrystal also complains about a dinner with an unnamed French minister during a visit to France in April.

In a hotel room in Paris getting ready for a dinner with the French official, McChrystal says: “How’d I get screwed into going to this dinner?”

He also derides the hard-charging top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke.

“Oh, not another email from Holbrooke,” McChrystal says, looking at his messages on a mobile phone. “I don’t even want to open it.”

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



Uzbekistan: Uzbek Authorities Force Christians, Including Jehovah’s Witnesses, To Go Underground

Church members and religious groups complain that the state does not authorise them to operate on the basis of pretexts or by silently ignoring them. Without a permit, even meeting to pray can be punished. After many years, the Central Protestant Church is still fighting for its rights.

Tashkent (AsiaNews/F18) — “For more than a year our Church has been trying to establish” that the decision to strip us of our permit was illegal; however, “All the courts either say it is not within their competence or remain silent” on the matter, a member of Samarkand’s Central Protestant Church told the Forum 18 news agency. This illustrates how Uzbek authorities pursue a systematic strategy to deny religious groups the permit they need to exist, and then use it as a pretext to crack down on believers.

Under Uzbek law, religious groups are required to register and obtain a permit to legally operate and organise. Without a registration, religious activity is strictly forbidden, even in the privacy of the home. Anyone caught engaged in illegal religious activity can expect hefty fines or even prison.

Local sources told Forum18 that on 27 March 2009, the Central Protestant Church in Samarkand was stripped of its permit on the pretext that where they met for years was a residential property, unfit to serve as a church.

Since then, the Church has been entangled in a legal battle for its survival. One member said that the judges, including those of the Supreme Court, refuse to hear the case, claiming that it is not within their jurisdiction, or simply keep silent on the matter.

In fact, the Church had applied years ago to have the residential property reclassified as a place of worship without getting a response from the authorities in question.

According to Forum18, this is the seventh Protestant Church to lose its permit in four years at the hands of the Regional Justice Department in Samarkand. The others are the Samarkand Church, the Miral Church, the Seventh Day Adventist Congregation, the Esther Church, Grace Church and Namdemun Church.

Usually, new applications for registration have not been approved—a situation that has forced many groups to go underground. Case in point: the Samarkand’s Greater Grace Church applied for registration in 2000, a request that is still pending. Since then, Church members have been intermittently harassed and fined.

Even registered Churches are concerned that the authorities might strip them of their permit on any pretext. On 16 May, police raided the Protestant Church of Christ in Tashkent and arrested six members, who were held in custody for 15 days. Now, Church members fear they might lose their permit to operate.

Forum18 has called on Uzbek authorities to explain the situation, but has not received an answer yet, other than suggestions that the news agency address its questions to some other office.

The situation for Jehovah’s Witnesses is even worse. Of 30 communities that exist in the country, only one has been officially recognised, in the city of Chirchik, near Tashkent.

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

Immigration


Nebraska Town Restricts Illegal Immigration

Nebraska city of Fremont has joined Arizona at the center of a national debate about illegal immigration after voters approve a ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants. The measure is likely to face a long and costly court battle, with the American Civil Liberties Union saying it will try to block it before it even goes into effect

Voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont on Monday approved a ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants, the latest proposal in a series of immigration regulations taken up by communities around America.

About 57 percent of voters in Fremont supported the proposal, according to unofficial results that still must be certified by the election commissioner. The measure is likely to face a long and costly court battle, with the American Civil Liberties Union saying it will try to block it before it even goes into effect.

The town of about 25,000 people has watched as its Hispanic population surged in the past two decades, largely due to the jobs available at the nearby Fremont Beef and Hormel meatpacking plants. The city also has an enviably low unemployment rate that matches the Nebraska rate of 4.9 percent.

Nonetheless, residents worry that jobs are going to illegal immigrants who they fear could drain community resources. Proponents of the ballot measure collected enough signatures and fought in the Nebraska Supreme Court to put the question to a public vote.

Supporters say the measure is needed to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement. Opponents say it could fuel discrimination. Trevor McClurg said the measure is fair because it’s aimed at people who aren’t legally in the U.S. “I don’t think it’s right to be able to rent to them or hire them,” McClurg said. “They shouldn’t be here in the first place.”

Clint Walraven, 51, who has lived in Fremont all his life, said the jobs should go to legal residents who are unemployed — something he believes the ordinance would help fix. Discussions on the issue can get heated, he said, particularly if racism is mentioned. “It has nothing to do with being racist,” said. “We all have to play by the same rules. … If you want to stay here, get legal.”

Rachel Fleming said she voted against the measure, noting that the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. “This country has been founded on waves of immigration,” Fleming said. “I just think it’s (the ordinance) contrary to the spirit of the country.”

From about 165 Hispanics — both legal and illegal — living in Fremont in 1990, the total surged to 1,085 in 2000, according to census expert David Drozd at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He said an estimated 2,060 Hispanics lived there last year.

The measure will require potential renters to apply for a license to rent. The application process will force Fremont officials to check if the renters are in the country legally. If they are found to be illegal, they will not be issued a license allowing them to rent. The ordinance also requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees are allowed to work.

Communities that have passed such laws have faced costly legal bills and struggled to enforce them because of legal challenges. Hazleton, Pennsylvania, passed an ordinance in 2006 to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny permits to businesses hiring them. The Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch also has tried for years to enforce a ban on landlords renting to illegal immigrants. Federal judges struck down both ordinances, but both are on appeal.

Even before the Fremont measure passed, the ACLU of Nebraska had said it would sue. “Our goal would be to bring an action to ensure that there is not even one day that the law can go into effect,” said Amy Miller, legal director for the ACLU of Nebraska.

Fremont City Councilman Scott Getzschman said he wasn’t sure when the ordinance would take effect if it’s not blocked by a judge. Once the Dodge County election commissioner certifies it, the City Council must accept the vote.

Getzschman didn’t support the measure but said he expects city leaders will respect the outcome of the election and defend the ordinance in court. The vote is the latest chapter in the tumult over illegal immigration across the country, including a recently passed Arizona law that will require police investigating another incident or crime to ask people about their immigration status if there’s a “reasonable suspicion” they’re in the country illegally.

Kansas City, Missouri-based attorney Kris Kobach, who helped write the Arizona law, has been working on the ordinance in Fremont. He is also running for secretary of state in Kansas.

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

News Feed 20100621

Financial Crisis
» Jordan: Opposition Protests Price Hike
» Squatters Take Over Homes, Causing 2nd Housing Crisis
» Tax Breaks Americans Savor Are Costing Uncle Sam Big
 
USA
» Audio: ‘Ground Zero’ Imam Makes Stunning Terror Comments
» Barack Obama’s Surrogate Father
» Billions for Green Energy Will Mean Millions of New Jobs… In China
» Faisal Shahzad Pleads Guilty in Times Square Bomb Plot
» Frank Gaffney: Courting Shariah
» NYC Car Bomb Suspect Pleads Guilty, Calls it ‘War’
» Radicals, Islamists and Longshoremen Blockade Israeli Ship in Oakland
» Supreme Court Upholds Law Banning Support of Terror-Linked Groups
» Times Square Suspect to Appear in Court
 
Europe and the EU
» Dutch Writer Geert Mak Blames Provincialism for the Election Results in the Netherlands
» France: The Mosques and Bank Robbers of Paris
» Israelis Flock ‘Back’ To Germany
» Italy: Workers Strike at Fiat’s Sicilian Plant Over ‘Slur’
» Italy: No Toxins Found in ‘Blue’ Mozzarella
» Italy: Archbishop of Naples Denies Wrongdoing
» Italy: Education to Fight Fundamentalism, Cardinal Scola
» Necla Kelek Presents a New Study Which Links Religious Belief in Young Muslims With a Reluctance to Integrate
» Pope Receives Dossier on Contracts and Favours — Vatican-Owned Houses to be Monitored More Closely
» Prospect of Joining Euro Next Year Raises Hopes and Fears in Estonia
» Sweden: Oil Firm War Crimes Probe Could Draw in Bildt
» The Slovak Elections, Says Michael Hvorecky, Were a Triumph Against Populism
» UK: Father Leaps Into Pool to Rescue Drowning Son While Lifeguards ‘Stand and Watch’
» UK: Police Attacked During Anti-Racist March
» UK: The ‘Conservative Muslim Forum’ Has Some Explaining to Do
» UK: Theresa May Bans Zakir Naik
» UK: Taxpayers Millions Funding Britons Abroad Who Are ‘Too Sick to Work’
» UK: Wind Farm Owners Get Fee to Switch Off Turbines in Heavy Winds
» UK: Zakir Naik Exclusion Order a Serious Error of Judgement
» Vatican Cardinal Faces Corruption Inquiry Over Rome Property Deals
 
Mediterranean Union
» Italy: Rai Med News: Arab Current Affairs Shows From Tomorrow
 
North Africa
» Mixed Feelings Define Mubarak’s Children in Egypt
» Morocco: Security Forces Uncover Jihadist Terror Cell
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel and the Surrender of the West
» Italy: Thursday Colosseum Lights Out for Shalit Release
 
Middle East
» Gaza: Departure Iranian Ship Postponed to Later Date
» Iran: Dwindling Public Support for the Regime
» Syria: Italian Hospital in Damascus for Refugees and Elite
» Turkey Still Uses Israeli-Made Drones, Haaretz Reports
» Turkey Not Blameless Over Flotilla, Says Fini
» US Ready to Offer Turkey More Help to Fight PKK
 
Caucasus
» Armenia: Azerbaijan Clashes Kill at Least Four
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Death Toll Reaches 300 for English Military
» Indonesia: Iranians Country’s Biggest Drug Smugglers
 
Immigration
» Terrorists Crossing AZ Border Into U.S.?

Financial Crisis


Jordan: Opposition Protests Price Hike

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, JUNE 21 — Leaders of the opposition in Jordan held a demonstration today against a government decision to hike taxation to trim the budget deficit saying citizens are made to pay for ill-fated economic policies. The protest was held at the headquarters of the professional association in Amman and included leaders of top opposition figures including the Islamic Acton Front (IAF) the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and leftist parties. Protestors held banners that condemn governments economic policy which they said caused massive burdens on the limited income citizens. Ali Abul Sukkar, president of the IAF shura council said the government managed to pass its taxation in the absence of the parliament and without any regard to well being of citizens. The government has marginalized the parliament and other political institutions to cover for corruption of politicians over the past decades, he told ANSA on the sideline of the protest. No security forces were visible in the area, as demonstrators ended the event chanting anti-government slogans. The government raised taxation on a number of key items including fuel and raised price of water in an attempt to reduce budget deficit to 6.3 percent of the GDP. Jordan’s economy, which depends heavily on foreign aid, has been suffering greatly in light of the world wide economic meltdown. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Squatters Take Over Homes, Causing 2nd Housing Crisis

Happening across country through abuse of centuries-old ‘adverse-possession’ law

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Imagine going to a house or condo you own and finding a stranger living there who claims the property no longer belongs to you.

It’s happening across Florida and other parts of the country through what authorities say is abuse of a centuries-old concept known as adverse possession.

Dating back to Renaissance England, adverse possession allowed people to take over abandoned cottages and farmland, provided they were willing to live there and pay the taxes. These days, officials say, the legal doctrine is being misused by squatters, trespassers and swindlers to claim ownership of vacant or foreclosed homes.

In Broward and Palm Beach counties alone, adverse possession claims have been filed on some 200 homes in recent months. Three of the four people behind the claims have been arrested, and police are investigating the fourth man, who along with his father, a convicted mobster, tried to take over properties in Hollywood.

“We look at this as another con job, another get-rich-quick scheme,” said Don TenBrook, a Broward state prosecutor of economic crimes. “You’re starting to see them pop up all over the place. It’s been spawned by the real estate crisis.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Tax Breaks Americans Savor Are Costing Uncle Sam Big

By Dave Michaels

Dallas physician Steven Davidoff doesn’t fit the stereotype of someone who needs a housing subsidy: raised in Plano, educated at Tulane University Medical School, working as a pulmonary critical care physician.

But Davidoff, 35, is like tens of millions of other Americans who benefit from tax policies that reduce the cost of buying a home. Most of them are like him — affluent enough to buy a home without help, but happy to use a tax deduction for mortgage interest, even though it will cost the federal treasury about $103 billion in lost revenue this year.

“I honestly view it as a bonus, not something that I [considered] when we were looking at homes,” said Davidoff, who works at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano. “The larger the home, the larger your deduction can be. That certainly is an added benefit.”

Almost all lawmakers support the mortgage interest deduction, which has been called “America’s favorite tax shelter,” and homebuilders and real estate agents say it’s critical for promoting homeownership. But widespread concern about the federal indebtedness has focused attention on tax breaks that cost so much that some critics question whether America can afford them.

The mortgage interest deduction is the third-most- expensive tax break, estimated to cost only slightly less than the tax treatment of employer-sponsored health care ($110 billion) and 401(k) retirement plans ($106 billion), according to figures from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Added together, the more than 200 tax breaks will cost the federal government about $1.1 trillion this year — about $200 billion less than the budget deficit. They are also known as tax expenditures, because they work just like other government expenditures.

Congress has created tax breaks to encourage health coverage and retirement plans, boost the incomes of lower-income families and subsidize an ever-growing list of domestic industries. But for many Americans, their primary experience with tax breaks comes with homeownership.

“This country needs to come to grips with the reality that we have limited resources,” said Edward D. Kleinbard, a former chief of staff to the Joint Committee on Taxation, which computes the cost of tax legislation for Congress.

“We have to make hard choices, and tax expenditures are getting close to a free pass compared to explicit spending,” Kleinbard said.

Yet tax expenditures are rarely mentioned when Congress discusses the path to fiscal discipline. Lawmakers from both parties regularly refer to tax expenditures as “tax relief,” meaning attempts to repeal or change them can be painted as a tax increase.

Spending cuts are most likely to be front and center as lawmakers consider ways to shrink record budget deficits and curb U.S. borrowing. But experts who scrutinize the federal budget insist that Congress can’t solve the problem with spending cuts alone — not when the $1.1 trillion in tax expenditures is double what the government will spend on Medicare in 2010.

“If you exclude half of your expenditures from review, you are unlikely to get that debt under control,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

How it all began

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]

USA


Audio: ‘Ground Zero’ Imam Makes Stunning Terror Comments

Claims to support peace but refuses to condemn violent jihad groups

NEW YORK — The imam behind a proposal to build a 13-story Islamic cultural center near the site of the 9-11 attacks refuses to condemn violent jihad groups as terrorists.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, head of the Cordoba Initiative, which seeks to construct the massive center, repeatedly refused on-air to affirm the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization or call the Muslim Brotherhood extremists.

The Brotherhood openly seeks to spread Islam around the world, while Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.

Rauf was speaking in a live interview with WND senior reporter Aaron Klein, who hosts a show on New York’s WABC Radio.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Barack Obama’s Surrogate Father

In a Father’s Day column attacking Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, Colbert King of the Washington Post presents President Obama as a good family man who has been married to one woman and whose mother raised him to believe in “hard work and education.” Since King has brought up the topic of Obama’s upbringing, it is important to set the record straight. Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis was a sex pervert who mentored Obama during his growing-up years in Hawaii and became his substitute father.

[…]

Trevor Loudon, who exposed Van Jones before Glenn Beck picked up the story, has been busy breaking all kinds of stories about the influence of Marxists over Obama. These are stories, of course, that are routinely ignored by the liberal media.

In addition to his New Zeal blog, Loudon recently unveiled a new project and website called KeyWiki, offering this critical information to those who are interested.

Here’s the link to Frank Marshall Davis. It will give you everything you need to know about Davis and Obama that our major media have done their best to carefully conceal. It is a sad commentary on the state of the U.S. media that a blogger in New Zealand has to take the lead in breaking stories about the Marxist background and political agenda of a U.S. president.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Billions for Green Energy Will Mean Millions of New Jobs… In China

When will Democrats ever learn? You just can’t throw billions of dollars at green technology and expect to produce any new self-sustaining jobs, well at least not in America.

A couple of weeks ago the Labor Department asked the public for assistance in defining the term “green jobs”. In my opinion it should be defined as the employment created in China as a direct result of stupid American politicians wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on “green energy”.

In order for Congress to hand out money to green businesses, they must first take it from successful, job creating ones. Already burdened by some of the highest tax rates in the world, American businesses become even less internationally competitive for every dollar politicians take from them to waste on green technology.

In addition, President Obama’s plan to burden an already struggling nation with across the board energy costs that must “necessarily skyrocket” in an absurd attempt to save a world from global warming that does not exist, will also serve to damage the American economy.

A Harvard University study of Obama’s global warming legislation estimates it will cause the price of gas will increase to $7-a-gallon.

Because of higher energy costs, whatever is left of our manufacturing sector will be transferred to China where energy is cheaper and they aren’t so concerned about carbon emissions.

The folly of a green energy economy can be fully appreciated by considering Spain.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Faisal Shahzad Pleads Guilty in Times Square Bomb Plot

MYFOXNY.COM/AP — Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen from Connecticut, has pleaded guilty to the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in the failed Times Square bomb plot, the AP reported.

Shahzad told the federal judge during his arraignment in court in Manhattan that he intended to “plead guilty and 100 times more” to all charges, the AP reported. He also warned that unless the U.S. leaves Muslim lands, “We will be attacking U.S.”

A federal grand jury had indicted him on 10 charges in connection with the May 1 plot. He has admitted to federal agents the he drove a gasoline-and-propane bomb-laden SUV into the heart of Times Square.

The bomb failed to detonate, and Shahzad was arrested two days later. A relative has called Shahzad’s arrest “a conspiracy.”

Authorities said he cooperated with investigators for two weeks before requesting a lawyer.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the Pakistani Taliban helped train and facilitate Shahzad’s mission.

“The facts alleged in this indictment show that the Pakistani Taliban facilitated Faisal Shahzad’s attempted attack on American soil,” said Holder said last week. “Our nation averted serious loss of life in this attempted bombing, but it is a reminder that we face an evolving threat that we must continue to fight with every tool available to the government.”

Shahzad, 30, received explosives training in Waziristan, Pakistan, from explosive trainers affiliated with Tehrik-e-Taliban, a militant extremist group based in Pakistan, according to the indictment and criminal complaint. He also received money at least twice from people in Paksitan, prosecutors alleged, but it is not clear if he had direct accomplices in the United States.

Federal and NYPD authorities are continuing their investigation into the failed bombing. Authorities detained several men in the Unites States who apparently had contact with Shahzad.

[Return to headlines]



Frank Gaffney: Courting Shariah

Hats off to Senator Jeff Sessions! The top Republican on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee has opened up an important new front in the debate over Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s fitness to serve on the Supreme Court: Her attitude towards the repressive legal code authoritative Islam calls Shariah and her enabling of efforts to insinuate it into this country.

By so doing, the Alabama legislator has given his colleagues and the country an opportunity not only to flesh out and evaluate the thin public record of President Obama’s second nominee to a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court. The Senator has also afforded us all what Mr. Obama might call a “teachable moment.”

Specifically, this Supreme Court nomination offers a prism for examining the concerted and ominous campaign underway to bring Shariah to America, thanks to the troubling role Ms. Kagan played during her tenure as dean of Harvard’s Law School. In a speech on the Senate floor on June 16, Sen. Sessions reflected on that role in noting a seemingly astonishing inconsistency in the nominee’s much-touted support of homosexual rights…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]



NYC Car Bomb Suspect Pleads Guilty, Calls it ‘War’

[Can it be any more clear? — Z]

NEW YORK -Calling himself a Muslim soldier, a defiant Pakistan-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty Monday to carrying out the failed Times Square car bombing and left a sinister warning that unless the U.S. leaves Muslim lands alone, “we will be attacking U.S.”

Wearing a white skull cap, prison smocks and a dark beard, Faisal Shahzad entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of which carried mandatory life prison sentences. He pleaded guilty to them all.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum challenged Shahzad repeatedly with questions such as whether he had worried about killing children in Times Square.

“One has to understand where I’m coming from,” Shahzad calmly replied. “I consider myself … a Muslim soldier.”

The 30-year-old described his effort to set off a bomb in an SUV he parked in Times Square on May 1, saying he chose the warm Saturday night because it would be crowded with people he could injure or kill. He said he conspired with the Pakistan Taliban, which provided more than $15,000 to fund his operation.

He explained that he packed his vehicle with three separate bomb components, hoping to set off a fertilizer-fueled bomb packed in a gun cabinet, a set of propane tanks and gas canisters rigged with fireworks to explode into a fireball. He also revealed he was carrying a folding assault rifle for “self-defense.”

Shahzad said he lit a fuse and waited 2 1/2 to five minutes for the bomb to erupt.

“I was waiting to hear a sound but I didn’t hear a sound. … So I walked to Grand Central and went home,” he said.

Shahzad dismissed the judge’s question about the children by saying the U.S. didn’t care when children were killed in Muslim countries.

“It’s a war. I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people,” he said. “On behalf of that, I’m revenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their people, but they don’t care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.”

Cedarbaum also asked Shahzad if he understood that the people in Times Square might not have anything to do with what happened overseas.

“The people select the government. We consider them all the same,” Shahzad said during the hour-long hearing.

Shahzad made the plea and an accompanying statement as Cedarbaum began asking him a lengthy series of questions to ensure he understood his rights.

She asked him if he understood some charges carried mandatory life sentences and that he might spend the rest of his life in prison. He said he did.

At one point, she asked him if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty.

He said he wanted “to plead guilty and 100 times more” to let the U.S. know that if it did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, halt drone attacks and stop meddling in Muslim lands, “we will be attacking U.S.”

Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 5.

The Bridgeport, Conn., resident was arrested trying to leave the country May 3, two days after the bomb failed to ignite near a Broadway theater.

Authorities said Shahzad immediately cooperated, delaying his initial court appearance for two weeks as he spilled details of a plot meant to sow terror in the world-famous Times Square on a warm Saturday night when it was packed with thousands of potential victims.

The bomb apparently sputtered, emitting smoke that attracted the attention of an alert street vendor, who notified police, setting in motion a rapid evacuation of blocks of a city still healing from the shock of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

According to the indictment issued last week, Shahzad received a total of $12,000 prior to the attack from the Pakistani Taliban through cash drop-offs in Massachusetts and Long Island.

Attorney General Eric Holder said after the plea: “Faisal Shahzad plotted and launched an attack that could have led to serious loss of life, and today the American criminal justice system ensured that he will pay the price for his actions.” [emphasis added]

[In other late breaking news, medics were rushed to the scene of Attorney General Holder’s news conference when he began to choke violently during an unsuccessful attempt to pronounce the words “Radical Islam”. A Heimlich maneuver was performed on his skull but only succeeded in getting him to spit out accusations of racism and terrorist activity against tea party members. — Z]

FBI New York Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos called the plea “right on the mark” and praised the work of “ordinary citizens who alerted law enforcement of suspicious activity.”

Shahzad was accused in the indictment of receiving explosives training in Waziristan, Pakistan, during a five-week trip to that country. He returned to the United States in February.

The indictment said he received $5,000 in cash on Feb. 25 from a co-conspirator in Pakistan and $7,000 more on April 10, allegedly sent at the co-conspirator’s direction. Shahzad said in court Monday that the Pakistan Taliban gave him more than $4,000 when he left training camp.

Shahzad, born in Pakistan, moved to the United States when he was 18.

Pakistan has arrested at least 11 people since the attempted attack. An intelligence official has alleged two of them played a role in the plot. No one has been charged.

Three men in Massachusetts and Maine suspected of supplying money to Shahzad have been detained on immigration charges; one was recently transferred to New York.

Federal authorities have said they believe money was channeled through an underground money transfer network known as “hawala,” but they have said they doubt anyone in the U.S. who provided money knew what it was for.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Radicals, Islamists and Longshoremen Blockade Israeli Ship in Oakland

An Israeli cargo ship arriving in Oakland today was forced to sit idle and not offload its containers when longshoremen joined forces with a coalition of communist and Islamist groups who picketed the port in protest against the recent violent incident off the coast of Gaza.

The ship, owned by Zim Lines, was not carrying any controversial cargo, nor is Zim involved in politics in any way; it was targeted simply because the shipping company is based in Israel.

The planned protest and blockade were organized by The Free Palestine Movement (one of the same groups which organized the Gaza “flotilla” in the first place) as well as a rogues’ gallery of nearly every communist, anti-Israel and radical Islamist group in the Bay Area:…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Supreme Court Upholds Law Banning Support of Terror-Linked Groups

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal law that bars “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.

The 6-3 ruling said that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.

[Return to headlines]



Times Square Suspect to Appear in Court

New York, 21 July (AKI/DAWN) — A Pakistan-born US citizen faces arraignment in New York on terrorism charges accusing him of using money and training from the Pakistani Taliban to plot the failed bombing in New York’s Times Square on 1 May.

Faisal Shahzad was on Monday due to enter a plea to a 10-count indictment including conspiring with the Pakistani Taliban. He is accused of attempting to detonate a home-made bomb hidden inside a sports utility vehicle parked near a Broadway theatre.

The former budget analyst was arrested two days later. Authorities say he cooperated with investigators for two weeks before requesting a lawyer.

A federal Grand Jury indicted Shahzad last week in a Manhattan federal court. The most serious counts against the 30-year-old carry mandatory penalties of life in prison.

Shahzad’s father’s cousin calls his arrest “a conspiracy.”

Pakistani-born Shahzad faces life in prison if convicted and has been cooperating with authorities since he was arrested, officials said.

Several people have been arrested in Pakistan in the case and US authorities carried out raids in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine, detaining several people on immigration charges.

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

Europe and the EU


Dutch Writer Geert Mak Blames Provincialism for the Election Results in the Netherlands

Frankfurter Rundschau 16.06.2010

In an interview, writer Geert Mak tells Michael Hess that the Dutch election results stem less from a swing to the right than from an increase in provincialism. “Our problems and their solutions are European, but our democratic theatre is still very national. Democracy still has a national dimension for the voters. It has not found its way onto the European stage. A public European debate is still not underway. We all pay a high price for this because it means debates are getting more provincial all the time. Frustration about Europe forces people to take refuge in provincialism because they feel unable to make themselves heard on a European level. And yet our opportunities and hopes lie in Europe.”

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



France: The Mosques and Bank Robbers of Paris

While Jews are fleeing Paris due to Muslim violence and harassment, Robert Haroush, an Israeli businessman, decided to fund the reconstruction of a mosque in order to build a “bridge of peace”. The shortage of mosques in Paris, is of course almost as grave as the surplus of intact cars that need burning. And the City of Lights needs more dark mosques, the way Baghdad needs more IED’s.

[…]

Robert isn’t the first gullible infidel to try and build bridges of peace. But the problem is that when you build a bridge, you had better have a good idea of what you will find on the other side. Building bridges with people whose sole use for bridges is to cross them in order to kill you, is nothing but an elaborate form of suicide.

Turkey’s Thug in Chief, Erdogan, was quite explicit about the role of the mosque in Islam, saying; “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” At the time the poem landed Erdogan in a Turkish prison. But time and enough faithful mustered from the barracks of mosques helped propel him to power. Where he has wasted little time pushing an Islamist agenda, which includes the persecution of non-Muslims and the growing escalation of hostilities with Israel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Israelis Flock ‘Back’ To Germany

Decades after World War II and with a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors, the scars are slowly healing and Germany is becoming an attractive place to live for many Israelis. ‘More and more Israelis are coming in order to escape the constant threat of violence in the Middle East,’ says one of the Jews who moved from Israel

For Jewish people, Germany is not the “Land der Taeter” (country of the perpetrators) anymore; now, the country is becoming “a haven of peace” for many Jews who are moving from Israel decades after World War II.

“My grandmother was three when she had to escape Nazi Germany with her family,” says Shiri Rosen, one of thousands of Israelis to have moved “back” to Germany in recent years. “My great-grandfather was a lawyer, his office was right near here,” the 24-year-old said in a cafe in central Berlin, pointing over her shoulder to a parallel street. “When I was a kid, in Israel, she (her grandmother) bounced me on her knee, singing a song in German … They were the only words in German I ever heard from her.”

Before Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, Berlin had a thriving Jewish population numbering around 170,000, many of them professionals such as doctors and lawyers, or intellectuals and artists. But this vibrant community was decimated in the 12 years of terror that followed as the Nazis murdered six million men, women and children across Europe in their attempt to destroy the Jewish race.

Unsurprisingly, once World War II was over and the Israel founded in 1948, the few Jews who had miraculously survived were loath to stay in Germany, in the “Land der Taeter” (“country of the perpetrators.”) But today, decades later, with an ever-dwindling number of Holocaust survivors still around, the scars are slowly healing and Germany is becoming an attractive place to live for many Israelis.

A steady trickle has been returning to make use of a law allowing descendants to claim German citizenship. “Germany today is a haven of peace for the descendants of those who, one day, fled the country because they were in danger,” says Ilan Weiss, who moved from Israel 20 years ago. “The fact that Jews are coming here again constitutes for Germany a certificate that it is acceptable again.”

In 2008, the last year for which figures are available, almost 2,000 Israelis became naturalised German citizens. Two years earlier, more than 4,300 did so. According to the Israeli embassy, around 13,000 Israelis now live in Berlin alone.

Mostly, they are the descendants of German Jews stripped of their citizenship as the Nazis sought to “Aryanise” the Third Reich, and who now have the right to obtain German nationality.

Sitting in his well-worn Berlin apartment, Weiss, who is in his 60s, said he has noticed in recent years more and more Israelis coming in order, he believes, to escape the constant threat of violence in the Middle East.

And it is particularly the young who are doing so, attracted not only by a feeling of going back to their roots, but also by the vibrant, modern metropolis that the German capital is today. Many come to make the most of Berlin’s nightlife and its bohemian lifestyle, attending techno nights in disused industrial warehouses or sampling the gay scene, where “Meshuga nights” with only Israeli music are big crowd-pullers. “In Tel Aviv all people talk about is Berlin. It is very much the city en vogue,” says Shiri Rosen enthusiastically.

Avi Efroni-Levi, who has launched a website for the Israeli community in Germany offering tips on everything from apartments to exhibitions, very much agrees. “The planes from Tel Aviv to Berlin are packed. For Israelis, the city offers so many possibilities because it’s so international and life is quite cheap,” the 53-year-old said.

Weiss said that for many young Israelis, coming to Germany is much easier than for their parents’ generation. “Very few of them are influenced by the Holocaust,” he says. “Obviously most of them studied it at school but it’s something very remote for them.”

“You can’t concentrate on the violence all the time, it’s negative,” says Avi Efroni-Levi. “I’ve got other things to think about than the past. I want to achieve something here. The wounds of the past are still there. They never go away,” he said. “But we have to heal them.”

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



Italy: Workers Strike at Fiat’s Sicilian Plant Over ‘Slur’

(AKI) — Workers at Italian car giant Fiat’s doomed plant in the southern city of Palermo on Monday went on strike for an hour to protest comments by Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne (photo) that they timed a strike last week to be able to watch the Italy-Paraguay World Cup clash.

“Marchionne only just stopped short of calling us idlers and that is unacceptable,” an official from the FIOM-CGIL union, Roberto Mastrosimone, told Adnkronos.

“Perhaps he has forgotten that he is the person who has said our plant will close.

“We want to work but Fiat is not giving us that option,” he added.

“More than 2,200 people are going to be left on the scrapheap, causing the economic ruin of thousands of families.”

Fiat has announced it plans to close the Termini Imerese plant outside Palermo, which is losing money.

The plant manufactures Lancia’s Ypsilon brand.

Although cars cost 1,000 euros more to make at the plant than at factories on the Italian mainland, political and union leaders want it to remain open, given its importance to the under-developed Sicilian economy.

Unions at have held a series of strikes at Termini Imerese to protest Fiat’s plans to close the Sicilian plant.

Fiat plans to close Termini Imerese in 2011 but expand output at Pomigliano D’Arco near Naples by transferring production of the Panda model from Poland.

Fiat car workers at the Pomigliano plant are due to vote in a ballot on Tuesday on management proposals for dramatic changes in work practices and labour rights in what is widely considered to be a test case for Italian industrial relations.

The workers are are under intense pressure to back the management’s plans, FIOM, the largest metalworkers union, refused to sign the deal or back the employee ballot.

Four car unions have endorsed Fiat’s proposals — a precondition for investing 700 million euros in the Pomigliano plant.

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



Italy: No Toxins Found in ‘Blue’ Mozzarella

Probes opened in Italy and EU on German-made cheese

(ANSA) — Trento, June 21 — Clinical tests on ‘blue’ mozzarella imported from Germany which shocked Italian consumers have not revealed any toxic substances or harmful bacteria, the prosecutor’s office here said on Monday.

The ‘blue’ mozzarella was first discovered last week by a housewife in Turin who bought the German-made product at a supermarket.

Within minutes after being opened the cheese turned an unsightly color blue.

The discovery led to an order from health officials to seize some 70,000 similar packages of the German version of the famed Italian cheese, made by Milchwerk Jaeger GmbH and distributed by two discount chains.

A probe was opened here in Trento after another batch of ‘blue’ mozzarella was discovered over the weekend.

On Monday the European Union, working in conjunction with Italian and Germany authorities, also opened an investigation.

“The situation is under control. We are following developments very closely and will soon decide on whether to send a health inspector to Germany to verify the origin of the contamination and under stand how this happened,” a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU executive, said.

‘Blue’ mozzarella has also been found in Slovenia, the spokesman added.

According to the tests carried out here in northeast Italy, the phenomenon appears to be caused by pseudomonas, a natural, non-toxic bacteria which was found in the water used to preserve the cheese.

Separate tests in Bologna and Padua have produced similar results. “We can exclude the presence of any toxins, even if we cannot say for sure whether the cheese is edible. But then this is not a problem because no one would eat a blue-tinted mozzarella,” Trento chief Prosecutor said.

“This latest food incident, underscores the importance of food security and the growing and constant need for a political and institutional commitment to protecting Italy’s food heritage,” Copari, a federation of Italian food producers, said on Monday.

“Once again a falsified, foreign product has arrived on Italian tables presenting a potentially serious health risk which will certainly hurt the national economy,” Copagri added.

Hermann Jaeger, the owner of Milchwerk Jaeger GmbH, admitted to the German press agency DPA on Monday that there had been a ‘blue’ mozzarella problem but that it had been resolved “three weeks ago”.

Jaeger confirmed that it had been caused by the pseudomonas bacteria and said that the water used for packaging may have been contaminated by a factory near one of his plants. He also said that the proper authorities had been informed of this.

According to microbiologist Michele La Placa, pseudomonas bacteria is a problem for hospitals because it can multiply in the stagnant water where flowers brought to patients sit.

It poses the greatest threat to the elderly who had respiratory problems or weak immune systems, La Placa added.

The bacteria was first identified in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War when injured soldiers began turning blue after their wounds were washed with stagnant water.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Archbishop of Naples Denies Wrongdoing

Cardinal Sepe says he has Vatican support over corruption probe

(ANSA) — Rome, June 21 — A top Italian cardinal whom prosecutors have linked to a corruption probe that has already hit the government denied any wrongdoing on Monday and said he had the support of the Vatican.

“I did everything with the upmost transparency,” said Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the archbishop of Naples, referring to his work as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, a department that finances the work of missions abroad.

Sepe and Pietro Lunardi, former infrastructure minister in the previous Silvio Berlusconi-led government, are being probed by prosecutors in Perugia who are investigating a net of alleged corruption involving public works contracts, including the construction of venues for last year’s G8 summit.

The cardinal, who ran the department until he was sent to head the Naples diocese in 2006, is under investigation for alleged corruption with Lunardi over a real estate deal.

Judicial sources have told the media that Lunardi bought a building in central Rome — in Via dei Prefetti, a stone’s throw from parliament — from Sepe’s department in 2004 at a price four times lower than the estimated market value.

In an alleged swap for favours, the following year Lunardi allocated state funds for the restoration of historic church buildings, including the 16th century Congregation headquarters facing the Spanish Steps.

Speaking at a news conference in Naples, Sepe said he had always “acted with a clear conscience, my only aim being the good of the Church”.

His lawyer, Bruno Von Arx, said the Via dei Prefetti building bought by Lunardi was “crumbling” and the department decided to sell it as it would have been far too expensive to restore it.

The cardinal rejected the idea of a swap deal with Lunardi, saying that experts had ascertained that the Congregation’s building in Piazza di Spagna had suffered structural damage “due to the underground infiltration of water and continuous vibrations from the passage of the nearby subway”.

“It was decided that it was the Italian state’s responsibility, and restructuring and renovation costs were in part funded by the public administration”.

Sepe said the department’s budget had always been vetted and approved by the appropriate Vatican authorities.

He stressed that at the end of his mandata the Vatican had sent him a formal letter of thanks and appreciation for his work.

The prelate said that in 2006 Pope Benedict XVI had urged him to stay on, saying he still had work to do at the Roman Curia.

Sepe said he was willing to cooperate with prosecutors but Vatican press spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Sunday that prosecutors would have to take account of “procedural and jurisdictional aspects implicit in proper relations between the Holy See and Italy”.

Lombardy also voiced “solidarity and esteem” for Sepe.

The prelate told reporters he felt the strong support of the Vatican and had received scores of phone calls and messages from the Italian church hierarchy and from “bishops and cardinals from all over the world”.

Judicial sources in Perugia said on Monday that prosecutors would seek rogatory procedures to be able to investigate the activity of the Congregation from 2004 to 2006. But their request will have to be approved by Italian authorities before it is can be forwarded to the Vatican for consideration.

Reporting on the news conference, Vatican radio said the cardinal had rebutted all the allegations “accurately and in detail”.

News of the probe broke in February when prosecutors ordered the arrest of the head of the state public works office, Angelo Balducci, 54; the Tuscany region’s public works contractor Fabio De Santis, 61; and state official Mauro Della Giovampaola, 44 and Rome businessman Diego Anemone . They are suspected of masterminding a web of corruption and kickbacks among constructors, architects and civil servants who managed tens of millions of euros of public works contracts.

Anemone has also been named in a probe into a shady Rome real estate deal over which industry minister Claudio Scajola resigned last month.

Media reports have claimed Anemone paid most of the price, off the books, of the ex-minister’s Rome flat overlooking the Colosseum.

Scajola, who is not under investigation, has also denied wrongdoing. Anemone is also linked to Civil Protection Chief Guido Bertolaso, whom prosecutors suspect may have taken bribes and struck sex-for-favours arrangements after the businessman won a tender for the restructuring of the original venue of the G8 in the Sardinian island of La Maddalena.

Bertolaso, who has offered to step down, told a news conference last month he had “never lied to Italians” and had “a clear conscience”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Education to Fight Fundamentalism, Cardinal Scola

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 21 — “Here in Beirut today we have listened to Moslems and Christians speaking of education as a decisive medium- and long-term factor in the fight against fundamentalism. And it is education indeed that teaches the essential balance between truth and freedom of thought,” which is what religious extremism, on the other hand, denies. Speaking on the telephone from Beirut, the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinale Angelo Scola, is in the Lebanese capital for a meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Oasis Foundation: an organization promoted by him as a meeting between Christians and Moslems. To speak of this subject in Lebanon, he continued, comes as “an extraordinary opportunity for Oasis, because this is a country that has chosen to place its own fate in the hands of its educators”. In a country which boasts a number of Christian communities and a variety, too, in its various Moslem creeds, a university such as La Sagesse, which is linked to the Law Faculty of Rome’s Lateranense University, has up to 80% of Moslem graduates. “It is in the schools that cultural cross-linking turns into effective integration. And education is the main instrument for overcoming extremism, in which political ideology utilises fear to exploit religion as its instrument. But in order to attain this objective,” the Cardinal concluded, “patient progress on a long road is required”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Necla Kelek Presents a New Study Which Links Religious Belief in Young Muslims With a Reluctance to Integrate

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 14.06.2010

The sociologist Necla Kelek presents a study (pdf document in German) carried out under the supervision of criminologist Christian Pfeiffer on the readiness of young Muslims to integrate. The results show a correlation between strength of religious belief and a refusal to integrate. Kelek blames the Imams primarily, or rather the organisations which bring in conservative Imams from Muslim countries. The state should intervene and educate, Kelek says. More importantly: “Instead of promoting religious group identities and the interests of organisations, attention must be focussed on strengthening individual personalities, particularly among children. If Imams want to be part of German civil society, they will have to learn to reflect on religion and daily life with critical reasoning and to participate in public debate about civil rights.”

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



Pope Receives Dossier on Contracts and Favours — Vatican-Owned Houses to be Monitored More Closely

Vatican secretary of state Bertone steps in. Leadership change looms at Propaganda Fide

VATICAN CITY — The storm that has engulfed Propaganda Fide and its property portfolio can’t be said to have taken the Vatican hierarchy by surprise. Serenity is the order of the day with invitations for “civil justice to run its course”. Obviously, “you read a lot of things that are not true” said several sources on the day when the newspapers carried Guido Bertolaso’s statement to magistrates in Perugia. That the head of the civil protection agency was a guest in the Via Giulia apartment while no one paid rent to the congregation for the evangelisation of peoples “should be ruled out”, say Vatican sources. “Someone must have been paying”. Yet it was clear that something was going wrong well before phone taps and investigations uncovered the unsavoury business of property sales and allocations to favoured insiders. The harsh term being bandied about the Vatican is: “Removal”. Four years ago in 2006, the then prefect of Propaganda Fide, Crescenzio Sepe, was removed by Benedict XVI at the end of his five-year term. This was “unusual”, say sources, since his predecessor had remained in office for 16 years and other 20th-century prefects had served well beyond their first term, except for one who died prematurely. It is equally odd for the head of a congregation, no less than the influential “red pope” in charge of Propaganda Fide, to move to a diocese, even a prestigious one like Naples. Generally, the reverse is the case.

“LESS THAN IMPECCABLE MANAGEMENT” — No, something was not quite right. “Management was less than impeccable” is the ecclesiastical euphemism used. A low-key reform of the Curia initiated by Benedict XVI in 2005 — gradual, unflustered — had already started to remedy the situation and in recent months, papal interest has quite understandably grown. It has already been decided to strike the name of “consultor” and “Gentleman of the Holy See” Angelo Balducci from the 2011 Pontifical Yearbook. The Vatican secretary of state’s office has acquired all relevant documentation on the affair and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has conferred with Benedict XVI “as [he would] on any issue”. New developments are now expected. Vatican sources deny that a special commissioner will be appointed for the congregation, despite rumours to the contrary.

IMMENSE PORTFOLIO — Things look set to change. Propaganda Fide’s assets, a huge portfolio estimated to be worth nine billion euros, comprise property and donations acquired over the centuries by the congregation in complete autonomy. Their purpose is to support missionary work abroad, especially Africa and Asia, which is why the prefect is known as the red pope, and the portfolio is run independently of APSA, the body chaired by Cardinal Attilio Nicora that administers the Holy See’s assets. The problem is that this division is too strict, in the sense that the two managements operate without liaising in any way. Sources at the secretary of state’s office say that is why it is to be hoped that “better co-ordination and greater vigilance” over the congregation’s operations can be achieved. It is not a question of transferring competences or property but of “ensuring more internal transparency”, if only to stop the Holy See, apart from members of the congregation, from being left in the dark about deeds and sales of property, as happened under the former regime.

TRANSPARENCY — The present prefect of Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Ivan Dias, was appointed in 2006 specifically to “set up more transparent management”. A very spiritual Indian and former archbishop of Bombay, he was to, and does, guarantee a serene arm’s length distance from groups of friends in Rome. According to Vatican sources, Cardinal Dias has applied to Benedict XVI to be relieved of the post. It has been know for some time that the cardinal has health problems, although the intention is believed to be to keep him in the post until the end of his term in spring 2011. Whatever the decision, it is a problem that must be faced in the next few months. Cardinal Dias’ successor will be a very high-level prelate trusted by Benedict XVI and Cardinal Bertone. One name going the rounds is that of Archbishop Fernando Filoni, a skilled diplomat and substitute for general affairs. In this case, the problem will be finding someone else to step into his shoes in the upper echelons of the secretary of state’s office, where he is the number two, in tandem with Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

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



Prospect of Joining Euro Next Year Raises Hopes and Fears in Estonia

Five-euro banknotes will become available at Estonian cash machines in January, when Estonia moves over to the common European currency, the euro. Portugal is the only other country where such small denominations can be withdrawn from ATMs.

The largest banks in the country, SEB, Swedbank, Nordea Eesti and Sampo, made the announcement after the EU summit had decided to endorse Estonia as a new euro country.

A final decision on accepting Estonia into the euro zone, and the rate at which the present Estonian currency, the kroon, will be exchanged for the euro, will be decided on July 13th by Ecofin, the meeting of EU ministers of finance.

The kroon was introduced soon after Estonian independence in 1992.

The availability of fivers at bank ATMs can be seen as the result of public pressure.

On the Internet, more than 3,000 members quickly joined the Facebook group “I want to withdraw five euros from a bank machine”.

The press also lent its voice to the demands.

At present, the smallest denomination that can be taken out of an Estonian ATM is a 25-kroon banknote, which is worth EUR 1.6. The largest denomination is 500 kroon, worth 32 euros.

Estonians expect that the euro will bring greater demand for coin purses.

One reason for this is that the minimum wage in Estonia is among the smallest in the EU — EUR 278 a month. Average monthly gross earnings are EUR 787.

In Tallinn, and in Narva on the Russian border, the euro is already unofficially in use, especially in tourist centres, even though the kroon is still Estonia’s only legal tender for cash transactions.

About a third of tourists are offering euros as payment, estimates Geete Heikkinen, who works at a restaurant in Tallinn’s Old Town.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said in Brussels on Thursday that Estonia’s acceptance of the euro will significantly ease the lives of Finnish and Estonian companies, and those of private citizens.

Finnish tourists gathered spontaneously in the Old Town of Tallinn on Thursday to discuss the implications of the emergence of the euro in Estonia. The greatest concern involved the effect on prices.

“All small purchases between 10 and 20 euros will become more expensive”, predicted Veijo Kiviniemi.

“I don’t think that they can afford very large price increases”, countered Pirjo Ziprus from Valkeakoski.

The Estonian government hopes to prevent price gouging by requiring that prices be rounded down when the euro is introduced.

Estonia does not have a mint of its own. The country’s euro coins will be minted in Finland.

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



Sweden: Oil Firm War Crimes Probe Could Draw in Bildt

[Comment: One of Europe’s major critics of Israel, Swedish FM Carl Bildt has been linked to War Crimes in the Sudan. — FF]

Sweden’s international prosecutor has said it will investigate Lundin Oil over whether it had any role in war crimes committed in Sudan. The probe threatens to draw in Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was on the board of the company during the period that the alleged war crimes took place.

The preliminary investigation will involve the years 1997 to 2003 regarding crimes against humanitarian law in Sudan, the office of international prosector Magnus Elving said in a statement.

“There is reason to believe that crimes have been committed and that there may be a Swedish connection with those crimes,” said Elving, adding that these types of investigation are extensive and usually take a long time.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who started his role in 2006, was on Lundin’s board at the time.

During the time period the investigation will cover, 10,000 people were killed and nearly 200,000 fled to southern Sudan.

Sweden’s national police will assist with the investigation into allegations made in a recent report — “Unpaid Debt” — by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), an umbrella group of European organisationsm, including about 50 NGOs “working for peace and justice in Sudan.”

The report, published this month, claimed Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum, previously Lundin Oil, and its partners Petronas Carigali Overseas of Malaysia and OMV Exploration from Austria “may have been complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Sudan.

Sudanese troops, in collaboration with militias, attacked and displaced civilians so that Lundin Petroleum, now Lundin Oil, in consortium with Petronas and OMV, could extract oil, the report alleged.

By launching oil exploration in such an unstable region, the consortium set the wheels in motion for a power struggle that had led to numerous crimes, including widespread “killing of civilians, rape of women, abduction of children, torture and forced displacements,” the report claimed.

The Swedish prosecutor’s office said “the aim with the preliminary investigation is to examine whether there are individuals with links to Sweden who can be suspected of involvement in crimes.”

Although not mentioned in the prosecutor’s statement, Foreign Minister Bildt will likely be drawn into the inquiry.

Bildt refused through spokeswoman Irena Busic to comment on Monday regarding the launch of the investigation.

Following the publication of the ECOS report, he defended Lundin in an interview with Swedish public radio, insisting the company’s actions in Sudan had “opened the way for a peace deal” in the area.

On June 11th, Bildt said that he did not see anything new in the ECOS report. He also refused to comment on the prosecutor’s plans for a possible criminal investigation.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt commented on the prosecutor’s investigation to Lundin Petroleum during a visit to Västerås on Monday.

“It is important to always let the justice system do its work so that we can see what it leads to before we comment,” said Reinfeldt.

Former Justice Minister Thomas Bodström demanded in a statement that Bildt take “time out.” However, the foreign minister will not resign, according to the Social Democrats’ spokesman.

“Since the rule of law should also apply to a minister, it is reasonable that Carl Bildt need not resign until further notice,” said Bodström.

“However, it is obvious he cannot continue to represent Sweden in matters with other countries given the current situation, when he himself was on the board of a company that is now being investigated for crimes under international law.”

           — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter [Return to headlines]



The Slovak Elections, Says Michael Hvorecky, Were a Triumph Against Populism

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 15.06.2010

In the Slovak elections, the left-wing populist incumbent Prime Minister Robert Fico and the extreme right were dealt devastating blows by the electorate, and younger voters in particular, author Michael Hvorecky comments gleefully: “Twenty years after the end of communism, Slovakia just might see a woman in charge at last. As the leader of the conservative democrats, sociologist Iveta Radiova plans to continue the cost-cutting and stability programme. She won with her plan for sustainable restructuring of the ramshackle state budget and effective steps to combat corruption. And two new, liberal-leaning parties have made it into the National Assembly with a sensational slew of votes. Bela Bugar’s ‘Most-Hid’ (bridge) party is focussed on multicultural co-existence and is popular with Slovaks who are sick to the teeth of the pseudo conflicts with neighbouring states.”

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



UK: Father Leaps Into Pool to Rescue Drowning Son While Lifeguards ‘Stand and Watch’

A father saved his drowning son by leaping into a public swimming pool from the spectator gallery as lifeguards watched cluelessly from the side.

Gary Jowett jumped fully clothed into the deep end when he realised no one was taking action to save four-year-old Daniel, who was struggling and going under water during a swimming lesson.

The boy’s instructor set off an emergency alarm when he realised Daniel was in serious trouble, but the two lifeguards failed to jump in to save him. Seconds later Mr Jowett climbed over a balcony and dropped eight feet to the poolside before diving into the water to grab his son.

Daniel was taken to hospital, where he was treated for shock and discharged.

Two members of staff at Spenborough pool near Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, have been suspended. The instructor tried to help Daniel with a pole and threw him a float, but did not get in the water, the boy’s parents said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Police Attacked During Anti-Racist March

A man was being questioned today after gangs of youths attacked police officers following an anti-racist march, Scotland Yard said.

Cordons were set up to stop people going up Whitechapel Road, in east London, because officers feared random attacks on members of the public.

The scenes followed a rally, organised by Unite Against Fascism, that attracted several thousand people.

It was organised in response to another rally planned by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) which was called off earlier this week.

A police spokesman said yesterday’s UAF rally was “well organised and well stewarded” but a group of young men gathered outside the nearby East London Mosque in response to rumours the EDL were planning a protest.

He said: “The group numbered up to 300, who were very volatile. Despite continued excellent attempts by stewards and representatives from the East London Mosque to control the crowds, even placing themselves in danger, there was the risk of serious disorder.

“Police officers were attacked by the crowd at points throughout the afternoon. One member of the public was attacked at random by members of the crowd as those gathered surged up and down the Whitechapel Road.

“In order to prevent injuries to the public and officers, and serious disorder, police withdrew from the immediate area and a series of filter cordons were put in place. The cordons were used to prevent access to parts of Whitechapel Road due to concerted efforts by the crowd to attack people at random.”

The cordon was in place for two hours.

One person was arrested for assault and was being held for questioning.

A spokesman for Unite Against Fascism said around 5,000 took part in the march from Stepney to Whitechapel.

He said: “I heard there were a few nasty scuffles between local youths and police but certainly the demo was very positive and a really good vibe.”

           — Hat tip: bewick [Return to headlines]



UK: The ‘Conservative Muslim Forum’ Has Some Explaining to Do

This week Theresa May announced that she was keeping extremist cleric Zakir Naik out of Britain. But something interesting has come to my attention. One of the charities which was planning to host Naik at a “peace convention” is Al-Khair. They were hosting it with Peace TV and IQRA TV. Interestingly, here is a photo of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, the Conservative party’s Muslim group, at an event last year where they handed over a cheque for £5,000 to Al-Khair and praised the foundation’s work. They did this at the launch of IQRA TV, another of the hosts of the now-banned Naik.

So, do the Conservative Muslim Forum approve of the decision of the Home Secretary? Or do they think the invitation to this now-banned extremist from a charity they praised and financed should have gone ahead? If there is to be agreement within the Conservative Party I think we should probably be told. And isn’t this yet another reminder that groups like the Conservative Muslim Forum within political parties are not merely an embarassment, but a liability?

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Theresa May Bans Zakir Naik

The government has banned Dr Zakir Naik, an Indian Muslim preacher, from entering the UK where has was due to arrive today to begin a lecture tour that would see him appear at the Sheffield Arena, London’s Wembley Arena and Birmingham’s LG Arena in the NEC.

>From the Telegraph:

‘The Home Secretary can exclude or deport an individual if she thinks that their presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.

‘There had been speculation that Dr Naik would be allowed into the UK. However Mrs May said she was excluding him because of the “numerous comments” he made were evidence of his “unacceptable behaviour”.

‘This behaviour applies to anyone who writes or publishes material which can “foment justify or glorify terrorist violence” or “seek to provoke others to terrorist acts”.

‘Mrs May told The Daily Telegraph: “I have excluded Dr Naik from the UK. Numerous comments made by Dr Naik are evidence to me of his unacceptable behaviour.

‘“Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right and I am not wiling to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK.

‘“Exclusion powers are very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate on issues.”

‘Home Office sources said Dr Naik had been filmed on a website making inflammatory comments such as “every Muslim should be a terrorist”.

‘He said: “When a robber sees a policeman he’s terrified. So for a robber, a policeman is a terrorist. So in this context, every Muslim should be a terrorist to the robber.”‘

Dr Zakir Naik, considered among the top 100 most powerful men in India and the latest individual who has been excluded by the UK government from entering Britain, is yet another example of the creeping assault on freedom of expression and the effectiveness of malevolent campaigning run by lobbyists and sections of the media.

At the end of last month, numerous newspapers ran sensationalist headlines:

The Times: ‘Muslim preacher of hate is let into Britain’

The Daily Mail: ‘Allowed into UK, the preacher who backs Bin Laden’

The Daily Express: ‘Terror backer’ can enter UK…despite Tories’ ban pledge

The Daily Star: ‘Islamic extremist Zakir Naik to start tour preaching hate’

For his part, Zakir Naik has issued a press release in which he emphasises that his comments about Bin Laden were made in 1996, and that he ‘unequivocally condemns acts of violence including 9/11, 7/7 and 7/11 (Serial train bombing in Mumbai) which are completely and absolutely unjustifiable on any basis.’

Readers will recall that when an arrest warrant was issued for Tzipi Livni, the Jewish Leadership Council reportedly ‘warned the government that an inability to invite Israeli leaders to Britain was probably discriminatory against the Jewish community.’ Does it not follow that it is discriminatory against the Muslim community to ban Zakir Naik?

The issue of excluding speakers also raises the question of how arbitrarily we assess the good versus bad statements made by speakers. If we are to extend the same gesture to others who allegedly incite violence and are not conducive to the public good, then surely, the government should also be scrutinising whether Benny Morris (who described the Arab world as ‘barbarian‘ and Palestinians as wild animals who had to be locked up in ‘a cage‘), Avigdor Lieberman (who called for the execution of Arab Israeli Knesset members who were in contact with Hamas or marked the Nakba) and Geert Wilders, best known for his strident attacks on Islam, should gain entry into the UK.

Arguably, though we may not agree with speakers’ views, they should be able to visit the UK. If they are then thought to have broken any of our laws then a prosecution should be brought forth.

You can write to your local MP to press the home secretary, Theresa May, on why the government has selectively enforced its denial of entry into the UK:

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Taxpayers Millions Funding Britons Abroad Who Are ‘Too Sick to Work’

Taxpayers are paying millions of pounds to Britons living abroad who claim they are too sick to work.

Expats living in countries including Spain, France, Cyprus and Portugal are claiming incapacity benefits of nearly £46million a year.

Incredibly many of the 10,000 claimants have been receiving the payments for more than five years without having their cases reviewed.

A loophole allows them to simply send in a doctor’s note to keep the money flooding in.

Figures show almost £46million was paid to 9,660 claimants living abroad last year with a quarter from Spain alone.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Wind Farm Owners Get Fee to Switch Off Turbines in Heavy Winds

Owners of wind farms will be paid to switch off their turbines and stop generating electricity if it gets too windy.

National Grid says the payments are essential to prevent the supply of electricity from overloading the network.

In a test run last month, Scottish Power was paid £13,000 for shutting down one wind farm for an hour and cutting the output of another.

Critics of wind farms described the payments — which are passed on to customers’ bills — as bizarre and said they highlighted the problems of relying on intermittent wind power.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Zakir Naik Exclusion Order a Serious Error of Judgement

The Muslim Council of Britain deplores Home Secretary Theresa May’s uncharacteristically intemperate move to ban the renowned Indian mainstream Islamic scholar Dr. Zakir Abdul-Karim Naik, from a speakers’ tour in the UK, reported in the media (Daily Telegraph, 18th June 2010), apparently because of his “unacceptable behaviour” and that his visit “would not be conducive to the public good”.

The Home Secretary’s action serves to demonise the very voices within the world ready for debate and discussion. The tour would have been a golden opportunity for young Muslims who are eager to hear the true messages of Islam which promote understanding between communities.

It appears that Government has responded to a recent campaign of vilification against the scholar, ignoring what Dr Naik stated on 11th June 2010: “the purpose of this statement is in response to the recent press reports about my intended tour to the UK in June 2010, including the things I am supposed to have previously said including their context and my views about terrorism and violent extremism in the light of the beautiful faith of Islam…as a student of comparative religion my work has involved engaging in constructive discussion with people of other major faiths, promoting similarities and converging values for a common platform of Peace using the commonalities that bind us all together….”

Expressing his grave concern at the decision, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said today “this exclusion order demonstrates the double standards practised by the government concerning freedom of speech. While preachers of hate such as Geert Wilders are free to promote their bigotry in this country, respected Muslim scholars such as Dr Naik are refused entry to the UK under false pretences. It is deeply regrettable this is likely to cause serious damage to community cohesion in our country.”

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Vatican Cardinal Faces Corruption Inquiry Over Rome Property Deals

Catholic church dragged into public works scandal that has sent shockwaves through Italian government

A senior Vatican cardinal is under investigation for corruption, dragging the Catholic church into a public works scandal that has sent shockwaves through the Italian government.

Italian media reported today that Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, the archbishop of Naples, was suspected of striking cosy deals while head of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Vatican congregation that uses proceeds from a property empire including 2,000 Rome apartments to fund missionary efforts.

Sepe allegedly oversaw the sale in 2004 of a building in Rome to the then transport minister, Pietro Lunardi, for the suspiciously low price of €4.16m, newspapers reported, adding that magistrates wanted to know why Lunardi then freed up €2.5m in state funding the following year for the congregation to create a museum in its headquarters, and why that museum never opened.

Lunardi, who is also under investigation, said he would contact the magistrates looking into the deal “as soon as possible… to clear everything up”.

Sepe gave a fiery homily today in Naples, asking his congregation: “How many martyrs are there, even today, who in the name of the truth… are tortured, humiliated and disrespected?”

Magistrates are reportedly looking into Sepe’s links to builder Diego Anemone and former public works official Angelo Balducci, both suspected of being at the centre of a web of alleged kickbacks and corrupt state construction contracting.

Italy’s industry minister, Claudio Scajola, has already resigned after claims that Anemone paid €900,000 to subsidise the purchase of his luxury Rome flat.

Newspapers said magistrates suspected Sepe and Anemone were involved in furnishing accommodation on Rome’s Via Giulia to Guido Bertolaso, Italy’s powerful civil protection chief.

The case has shed light on the links between Roman politics and the Vatican.

Balducci was a papal usher but was dismissed when the corruption inquiry brought to light his suspected involvement with a Vatican chorister in a male prostitution ring. The Vatican said it hoped the investigation could be wrapped up fast “to eliminate any shadows, be they on the person [Sepe] or church institutions”.

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

Mediterranean Union


Italy: Rai Med News: Arab Current Affairs Shows From Tomorrow

(ANSAmed) — ROME JUNE 21 — For the first time, seven different Arab television current affairs programmes and two short films — “Others’ Opinions” — are to be broadcast by Rai Med in Italian and in Arab. The project has been rendered possible by collaboration between EuroMed News, whose partners are the international television bodies: ASBU, COPEAM and UER as well as eight national public TV broadcasters: EPTV (Algeria), ERTU (Egypt), France Télévisions (France), JRTV (Jordan), LJB (Libya), ORTAS(Syria), SNRT (Morocco) and Téléliban (Lebanon). The current affairs programmes under the “Mediterraneo” editorship from Palermo and run under the Testata Giornalistica Regionale, will be on air up until June 28 (at 9pm in Italian and at 11pm in Arab language on Rai Med and networked on Rai.tv) as part of the Rai Med News specials offered by Giancarlo Licata. They deal with a variety of subjects: modernisation, rights, health-care, finance, exchanges between international broadcasters. This cycle of broadcasts will involve the participation of Jordanian, Algerian and Syrian television channels. The Euromed News project is financed by the European Commission — EuropeAid as part of the EU’s neighbourhood policy programmes. It supports the production and distribution of documentaries, current affairs and news programmes on Arab television networks on southern shores of the Mediterranean. Rai Med is broadcast as part of the free-to-air bouquet of satellite Rai and on Channel 804 on Sky. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Mixed Feelings Define Mubarak’s Children in Egypt

To the millions of Egyptians who have known no other president, Hosni Mubarak is the “Father of the Nation.” But as with many fathers, they also have deeply mixed feelings toward him.

Nearly half of Egypt’s population of 78 million were born or raised under Mubarak’s nearly 30-year authoritarian rule, and they have been hit hardest by the country’s growing poverty and corruption and faltering education system.

Yet, many cannot imagine any other viable leader, and they’re deeply worried about what could happen if he passes from the scene.

That possibility was thrown into sharp relief when the 82-year-old Mubarak underwent gall bladder surgery in Germany in March and was gone for three weeks, then spent weeks out of the public eye after returning home.

“I was terrified when he was in Germany. I was thinking ‘who will take charge of the country if he dies?’ Even with him around, you feel that we are a hair’s breadth away from chaos,” said 28-year-old Noha al-Shahed.

Al-Shahed is, in theory anyway, one of those who have benefited from the changes Mubarak has brought. She works as a stock trader in Cairo — a field that hardly existed in Egypt until the regime’s opening of the market economy over the past decade. Still, she’s embittered by what she says is the Mubarak government’s constant denial of democracy.

She fears, however, the unknown could be worse. “High rates of poverty and criminality already are with us, but with Mubarak gone there will be looting and killing on the streets,” she said.

Fear of the unknown is a safeguard the government has intentionally cultivated. Mubarak has long prevented any political figure from gaining enough prominence to stand as an alternative and has rejected calls to name a vice president who could be seen as a successor.

Moreover, his ruling party often pushes warnings that without Mubarak, the way is open to power for the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist movement that is the strongest opposition force but is deeply mistrusted by many Egyptians.

Mubarak told reporters during a visit to Italy in mid-May that “only God knows who will be my successor,” raising criticism at home from some who saw it as a rather flip dismissal of the idea that democracy would determine who comes after him.

Since his surgery, Mubarak has not said whether he will run for a new, six-year term in presidential elections due next year — but top party officials said in late May that they want him to, making it very likely he will run.

Under Mubarak’s rule

The generation raised under Mubarak has had a tough time even entering the economy. Overall unemployment has hovered around nine percent in past years, but among those aged 20-25 it has been as high as 40 percent, according to official figures. Among college graduates, unemployment has risen from 12 percent in 1995 to 17 percent in 2005.

At the same time, democratic practices and freedoms have regressed. Opposition parties are little more than figureheads set up by the regime, elections are routinely rigged or fraught with irregularities and police brutality is common. Security agencies hold wide powers under the emergency law in place since Mubarak came to office and also have considerable political influence.

The result is a generation that is deeply frustrated, and while many will grumble about Mubarak, at the same time he is the only one they can turn to.

In recent months, a “popular” judgment of the regime has sprung up on the sidewalks outside parliament and the prime minister’s office in central Cairo, with hundreds of protesters camping out to press demands for better pay and jobs or to air personal grievances.

Among them on a recent day was 32-year-old Alaa Moharam, who was camping out along with dozens of fellow workers from a telephone equipment factory whose privatization in 2000, they claim, is placing their jobs in jeopardy.

“Mubarak is the only one who can save us from this predicament,” said 32-year-old Moharam. Then he added, “But he is isolated from the people. Honestly, maybe he can no longer make a difference.”

Isolation from their leaders is something Egyptians have complained more and more of in recent years. Mubarak never ruled by charisma. Instead, his image has been that of a Spartan military man and a paternal “common man” who wants the best for his children.

That image never won him Egyptians’ enthusiasm but it won him their reliance.

“Egyptians see in Mubarak a true ‘ibn balad’ who is all for the poor and the needy,” said analyst Amr Hamzawy, using the Arabic phrase for a man who knows the ins and outs of his country and its people.

Even if the reality doesn’t reflect it, “it remains a source of his legitimacy and a degree of popular support for his leadership,” said Hamzawy, head of Middle East research at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank.

But the growing sense of a government out of touch with people’s problems is eroding that image.

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



Morocco: Security Forces Uncover Jihadist Terror Cell

Rabata, 21 June (AKI) — Morocco’s security forces have smashed an Islamist terror cell that was planning attacks in the country, the official news agency MAP said on Monday. The jihadist cell was led by a Palestinian and had 11 members, MAP said, citing a statement from Morocco’s interior ministry.

Prosecutors in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, will send the 11 suspects for trial, according to the report.

The report did not name the suspects, nor did it state where they were arrested or the cell’s planned targets.

Authorities in Morocco stepped up security in 2003 after a spate of deadly suicide bomb attacks in Casablanca killed 45 people and injured hundreds in the economic capital Casablanca.

The security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells since then and arrested thousands of suspected Islamist militants.

Many of the militants are held in Moroccan jails after trials slated by defence lawyers and judicial reform campaigners as unfair and based on flimsy evidence.

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

Israel and the Palestinians


Israel and the Surrender of the West

One of the world’s oldest stories is playing out before our eyes: The Jews are being scapegoated again.

By Shelby Steele

The most interesting voice in all the fallout surrounding the Gaza flotilla incident is that sanctimonious and meddling voice known as “world opinion.” At every turn “world opinion,” like a school marm, takes offense and condemns Israel for yet another infraction of the world’s moral sensibility. And this voice has achieved an international political legitimacy so that even the silliest condemnation of Israel is an opportunity for self-congratulation.

Rock bands now find moral imprimatur in canceling their summer tour stops in Israel (Elvis Costello, the Pixies, the Gorillaz, the Klaxons). A demonstrator at an anti-Israel rally in New York carries a sign depicting the skull and crossbones drawn over the word “Israel.” White House correspondent Helen Thomas, in one of the ugliest incarnations of this voice, calls on Jews to move back to Poland. And of course the United Nations and other international organizations smugly pass one condemnatory resolution after another against Israel while the Obama administration either joins in or demurs with a wink.

This is something new in the world, this almost complete segregation of Israel in the community of nations. And if Helen Thomas’s remarks were pathetic and ugly, didn’t they also point to the end game of this isolation effort: the nullification of Israel’s legitimacy as a nation? There is a chilling familiarity in all this. One of the world’s oldest stories is playing out before our eyes: The Jews are being scapegoated again…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Italy: Thursday Colosseum Lights Out for Shalit Release

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 21 — This Thursday at midnight Israeli time — 11.00pm in Italy — the lights of the Colosseum will be turned off in an appeal for the immediate release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held by Hamas since being kidnapped on June 25 2006. The announcement was made by the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, and the chairman of Rome’s Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici. The protest, which will be attended by the father of Gilad Shalit, is supported by the youth associations Bnei Brit Giovani and UGEI (Union of Young Italian Jews). “All citizens are invited to the event,” Alemanno and Pacifici explained. “The aim is to join forces and mobilise public opinion to bring Gilad home, as well as to revive the peace process in the Middle East”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Gaza: Departure Iranian Ship Postponed to Later Date

(ANSAmed) — TEHRAN, JUNE 21 — The departure of the first Iranian ship that will carry humanitarian aid to Gaza, defying the Israeli blockade, has been postponed to an unspecified date, the head of the juvenile organisation of the Iranian Red Crescent, Javad Jafarian, told press agency ISNA. Early in June, after the bloody Israeli raid on an international flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip, in which nine people were killed, the Iranian Red Crescent announced that it was ready to send two ship to the Palestinian territory. One ship with basic needs and one with volunteers, and the organisation also announced to send a hospital ship at some point in the future. On Monday last week, Iran said that this week one of its ships would weigh anchor, and that the country would send more aid to Turkey, to load it in Istanbul. The departure of the ship, according to Jafarian, has been postponed by “problems with international coordination and a change of the cargo to send” to Gaza. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Iran: Dwindling Public Support for the Regime

Die Welt 15.06.2010

A year after the disputed elections in Iran and the regime has imprisoned more bloggers and journalists than almost any other country in the world, Oliver M. Piecha reports. He also comments on the dwindling public support for the regime. “The pro-government media obviously felt obliged to report that millions of Iranians had taken to the streets in protest against Israel following events off the coast of Gaza, but they wisely refrained from featuring photographs.”

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



Syria: Italian Hospital in Damascus for Refugees and Elite

(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, JUNE 21 — Beds and medicine are free for Palestinian, Iraqi and Sudanese refugees, while those who can afford it pay the equivalent of 50 euros a night. The Italian Hopsital of Damascus, set up in 1913, provides excellence for all, and bears its almost 100 years very well, not least thanks to donations from the Italian Cooperation. A large part of its success is also down to the passionate management of Doctor Joseph Fares, a Syrian surgeon and, as of a little over a month ago, an honourary Italian citizen. The hospital, founded and managed by the National Association for Assistance to Italian Missionaries (ANSMI) is private and non-profit, though Damascus’ Finance Ministry is now asking the hospital to pay taxes on property and activities. This is a “luxury” that the hospital cannot afford, says Dr. Fares, who has also put the problem to the undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Stefania Craxi, who arrived in the city yesterday. “We look to be subsidised by those with the most money so that we can help those who have none” is the ethos of the director, who proudly displays x-ray machines, operating theatres and advanced analysis laboratories. “The Italian Hospital means that people of any religion or nationality can come in and be treated,” says 76-year old Sister Elda, from Treviso, who has been in Damascus for 22 years after stints in Australia, the Philippines and Samoa. Sister Giovanna, 81, says that Asma, Syria’s First Lady and wife of President Assad, has also come here for treatment. She is speaking in the room visited a few months ago by President Giorgio Napolitano on his visit to Syria, and welcomes guests along with the other seventeen Salesian nuns (of whom six are Italian) who help carry the hospital forwards. Open-heart surgery, dialysis and ophthalmology are among the areas of excellence of the hospital, which is 3,200 square metres and has 55 beds. The building has been restructured and extended a number of times, with new wings in contrast to the oldest part of the building, which still has the white and grey brick flooring of 1913. However, there is no space left, and Dr. Fares says that “we hope soon to have the school opposite, which once was ours, to add studies and rooms and help us to do more”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Turkey Still Uses Israeli-Made Drones, Haaretz Reports

The Turkish military is continuing to use Israeli-made drones despite the recent political tensions between the two countries, daily Haaretz reported Sunday, citing unidentified “official Turkish sources.”

The army is using the drones in its fight against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq in spite of reports that the government is weighing whether to cut defense ties with Israel, the paper said.

According to Haaretz, no decision has been made to formally freeze deals with Israel and a government committee that discussed the issue last week has decided to let the Turkish defense industry determine if it wants to limit or cut ties.

Many of these defense companies are either government-owned or co-owned with private firms, the paper added.

Turkey has an agreement with Israel to buy 10 medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles known as “Herons.”

After delays of more than two years, an Israeli partnership of Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit managed to formally deliver six Heron vehicles to the Turkish military in April. Four more are expected later this month or in July.

“Turkey does not want to lose what it gained on the international front from the flotilla incident,” Haaretz quoted an unnamed source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry as saying in reference to Israel’s deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla carrying many Turkish passengers.

“But it is important to remember that the prime minister is operating on the basis of internal political considerations, not only a cool analysis of Turkish interests on the international level,” the source reportedly said.

The Turkish military meanwhile pushed into northern Iraq on Sunday, hitting back at the hideouts of PKK members who killed 12 soldiers this week in the deadliest attacks in two years.

Iraq’s foreign minister criticized the Turkish strike Sunday, calling it “a violation of Iraqi independence, sovereignty and good neighborly relations,” Agence France-Presse reported.

“No country should resort to unilateral action. Unfortunately this has not been observed,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.

By morning, the troops had advanced 10 kilometers into Iraqi territory in the Kandil Mountains where the PKK maintains a network of rear bases in its 26-year-old armed campaign, AFP reported, citing an Iraqi Kurdish security official.

Turkish troops were operating in the mountains north of the town of Sidikan in Arbil province, the official said.

Sunday’s cross-border operation was only the second since 2008 but it went far deeper than the previous one Wednesday when troops advanced just a few kilometers into Iraq before withdrawing.

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



Turkey Not Blameless Over Flotilla, Says Fini

House speaker says checks should have been ‘more meticulous’

(ANSA) — Tel Aviv, June 21 — Turkey is not totally blameless for the bloodshed of last month’s raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza aid flotilla, Italian Lower House Speaker Gianfranco Fini was quoted as saying Monday.

Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed when Israeli forces boarded a Turkish ship that was carrying supplies for Gaza in an attempt to breach a blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

Israel claimed its soldiers acted in self-defence in firing on activists armed with knives and bars, while activists said the commandoes attacked without provocation.

“The provocative characteristics of the flotilla should have led the Turkish authorities to carry out more meticulous checks,” Fini told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronot during a three-day visit of Israel and the Occupied Territories. “(On the ship there were) pacifists in the true sense of the word and those who had an aggressive, hostile attitude towards Israel and a positive attitude towards terrorist organisations,” added Fini, Italy’s third highest institutional figure after President Giorgio Napolitano and Senate Speaker Renato Schifani.

Israel has run a blockage of Gaza for three years after anti-Israel militant group Hamas took control of the area following their election victory.

The May 31 raid, which took place in international waters, caused a major international outcry and a crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey, the state that had been its strongest ally in the Muslim world.

Last week Israel bowed to pressure to ease the blockade, which non-governmental organizations say has caused considerable hardship for the Strip’s 1.5 million inhabitants, to allow a greater number of goods through.

Israel also decided to set up a special commission to investigate the incident. It will be headed by former Israeli supreme court judge Jacob Turkel, while two foreign observers have been invited to participate: Nobel Peace Prize laureate David Trimble of Northern Ireland and Ken Watkin, an ex-judge advocate general for Canada’s armed forces.

Fini added that Italy continued to support the “long difficult” process that Turkey hopes will enable it to join the European Union, despite the doubts of some member states.

“Europe should think ten times before closing the door on Turkey,” he said. CRAXI RUNS INTO SYRIAN PESSIMISM The Israeli raid was also one of the topics of talks in Damascus between Italian Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Stefania Craxi and Syria’s Assistant Foreign Minister Abdel Fattah Ammoura.

Craxi said after the meeting that the raid had made Syria more pessimistic about peace prospects in the Middle East, while stressing there were “differing sensibilities” within the administration.

She added that, according to Ammoura, “the peace process is going nowhere and Israel’s latest action has created a difficult climate”.

Craxi said Italy did not agree with the bleak view of one of the states most hostile to Israel.

“It is possible to reach agreement on certain points,” she said. “Far-sighted, responsible, courageous policy is needed to give young people a future of peace. The time is now”. photo: Italian Lower House Speaker Gianfranco Fini.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



US Ready to Offer Turkey More Help to Fight PKK

The United States is ready to offer more assistance to Turkey in the fight against terrorism, an embassy spokeswoman said Sunday, denying allegations of a drop in actionable intelligence in response to Turkey’s stance on Iran.

“We stand ready to review urgently any new request from the Turkish military or government,” Deborah Guido, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Ankara told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Sunday.

Allegations that Washington has slowed its sharing of actionable intelligence with the Turkish military following Turkey’s U.N. Security Council vote against new sanctions on Iran were brought back to the country’s agenda with the weekend’s deadly attacks, which killed a total of 12 Turkish soldiers.

The Turkish press had speculated that the attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were carried out by a group of around 250 terrorists whose crossing of the border would surely have been noted by American intelligence. Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug corrected the news reports Sunday, saying the attacks were committed by 57 terrorists.

Guido made clear there has been no change in the level of intelligence sharing with Turkey, and noted that American troops have been facing similar attacks. “Despite our best intelligence efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan in support of our forces there, we experienced similar attacks conducted against Turkish forces [Saturday],” she said, adding that the U.S. shares Turkey’s grief over the deaths.

Foreign Ministry sources told the Daily News on Sunday that they had not seen “any signal of a breakdown with the U.S. either in political or military terms.” Military officials publicly confirmed Friday that the cooperation with the United States remained the same.

A tripartite mechanism between Turkey, the U.S. and Iraq has been established in recent years with the aim of addressing the security issues in northern Iraq. A joint command center in the northern Iraqi province of Arbil was also formed to facilitate intelligence sharing for operational purposes against the PKK.

Diplomatic sources drew attention to the problems experienced in this sharing process, saying Turkish officials had complained several times to their American counterparts about long delays in delivering real-time intelligence regarding movements in the region and had requested more assistance.

Retired Gen. Necati Özgen said the recent tension with Israel and the U.S. could have played a part in the latest terrorist attacks. “Did the U.S. provide intelligence on this incident? No. It did not give the intelligence about this big group of terrorists,” the former corps commander said Saturday in an interview with NTV.

Security summit today

A security summit is expected to be convened in Ankara on Monday following the weekend’s bloody attacks. Under the chairmanship of President Abdullah Gül and with the participation of top civil and military officials, the summit will focus on ways to prevent such acts of terror in the country.

The fight against terror will also be on the agenda of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is expected to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G-20 summit June 26 and 27.

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

Caucasus


Armenia: Azerbaijan Clashes Kill at Least Four

Armenian and Azerbaijani troops have clashed in the heaviest fighting in months over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, leaving at least four Armenian soldiers dead, officials said Saturday.

With tensions rising between the rival nations, Armenia’s defense ministry said in a statement that four soldiers had been killed and four wounded after Azerbaijani forces attacked late Friday. The ministry also claimed an Azerbaijani soldier had been killed.

Azerbaijani defense ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu confirmed the fighting had taken place but blamed Armenian forces for the attack and said Yerevan was understating its losses. “Armenian armed forces breached the cease-fire. They have lost even more soldiers than they admit,” he said, refusing to comment on casualties among Azerbaijani soldiers.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian condemned the incident as a “cowardly provocation,” noting that it occurred almost immediately after he met Thursday with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for talks in St. Petersburg mediated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“Provocations are unacceptable, and the recent cowardly provocation is even more unacceptable as it came just hours after the meeting held under Russia’s mediation,” Sarkisian said in a statement.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian control since the end of a six-year conflict that left some 30,000 people dead and displaced approximately 1 million prior to a 1994 truce. The territory’s unilateral independence is not recognized by the international community.

International mediators have been pushing since 2007 for the two sides to agree to the Madrid principles, a deal that would see Armenian forces withdraw from areas surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, international peacekeepers deployed in the region, refugees granted the right to return and an eventual vote on the region’s status.

Aliyev earlier this month threatened to withdraw from foreign-backed peace talks after he accused Armenia of stalling the negotiations.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry accused Armenia of provoking the recent violence by delaying negotiations. “There is a fairly simple way to avoid armed conflict. It is to sit down at the negotiating table and continue working on the basis of the updated Madrid principles,” Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said.

“Azerbaijan will never reconcile itself with the occupation of its territories,” Polukhov added. “The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is not frozen, as the Armenian side would like to think.”

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

South Asia


Afghanistan: Death Toll Reaches 300 for English Military

London, 21 June (AKI) — The number of English soldiers killed as a result of fighting in Afghanistan since 2001 reached 300 after a man succumbed to his wounds on Sunday.

The marine died in an English hospital after he was wounded in a blast in Helmand province on 12 June.

The death prompted England’s prime minister David Cameron to lament the pain of families during wartime.

The marine’s death was “desperately sad news” and another family was suffering “grief, pain and loss”.

“Of course, the 300th death is no more or less tragic than the 299 that came before,” he said.

“But it’s a moment for the whole country to reflect on the incredible service and sacrifice and dedication that the armed forces give on our behalf.”

About 10,000 English soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan as part of a 45-nation Nato-led force that currently numbers over 125,000 troops.

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



Indonesia: Iranians Country’s Biggest Drug Smugglers

Jakarta, 21 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The Indonesian government has said that Iranian nationals are the main smugglers of class-A drugs into the country as of January this year.

Malaysians were the next-highest group, with eight suspects arrested so far this year, followed by India with six suspects.

Indonesia’s Customs and Excise Office at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, has arrested 15 Iranian nationals this year linked to 22 cases.

It has also seized a total 115 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (known locally as shabu-shabu), ketamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

“All of the evidence (drugs seized) together is worth 30.5 million dollars at market value,” the office’s head Baduri Wijayanta said late on Sunday.

All of the arrested Iranian smugglers were believed to be part of an Iran-based international drug mafia syndicate, he added.

The office’s head of prosecutions Gatot Sugeng Wibowo said the Iran-based drug syndicate might not have been aware that Indonesia enforced the death penalty for drug smuggling.

The 2009 Narcotics Law carries the death penalty and fines of up to 1.5 million dollars for anyone in possession of more than 5 grammes of drugs.

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

Immigration


Terrorists Crossing AZ Border Into U.S.?

PINAL COUNTY, AZ — On a single day in April, in a special cell block deep inside the Pinal County Jail, nearly 400 inmates sat awaiting trial or extradition after being detained trying to cross the Arizona border from Mexico.

Only about half of them were actually from Mexico.

The cell block, owned by Pinal County, but contracted with the Department of Homeland Security, is a way station in the immigration process, where inmates are held after they are detained by the Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But it’s where the inmates are from that causes concern for some critics and lawmakers.

On that one day in April, according to records obtained by ABC 15, Homeland Security officials were holding inmates from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Sudan.

“They’re coming from all over,” Arizona Senator Jon Kyl said. “And one wonders whether some of them are coming in here to commit acts of terror.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100620

Financial Crisis
» Cr, Italy Against Introduction of New Bank Tax in EU
» IMF: Spain’s Debt Level Better Than Germany’s
» Madrid is Not Athens (Yet)
» Merkel Refutes Obama on G20 Fiscal Policy
» Spain: Default of Financial System Grows, 5.49% in April
 
USA
» Kroger Pulls Weekly ‘Rutherford Reader’ Over ‘Hate Rhetoric’
» Napolitano: Internet Monitoring Needed to Fight Homegrown Terrorism
» SI Residents Fight Conversion of Convent to Mosque
 
Europe and the EU
» Are Dutch Police Going Undercover as Haredi Jews?
» Bluefin Tuna: Brussels Stops 2010 Fishing Campaign
» Denmark: Safer Vehicles for Afghan Force?
» EU: Big Rail Lines in Med Northern Shore by 2025
» Flemish-Nationalists Want Belgium to “Evaporate” Into EU
» France: Montmartre Cemetery at Risk
» France: Anti-Violence Chinese Protest in Paris Ends in Tear Gassing
» Italy: Ex-Priest Charged With Sex Abuse
» Italy: War Hero Remembered by Frattini
» Netherlands: Lower Achievements at Mixed Schools
» Netherlands: VVD Does Not Want ‘Purple Plus’ Cabinet
» Slovenia: Training on EU Standards Next Week
» UK: HMV Forced to Take Down ‘Anyone But England’ World Cup Display After Racism Complaints
» UK: Inside the Muslim Eton: 20 Hour Days Starting at 3.45am With the Aim of Producing Muslim Elite of Leaders
 
Balkans
» Croatia: Council of Europe, Resolve Post-Conflict Issues
» Kosovo: Patriarch Calls for Harmony With Serbs
 
North Africa
» Libya PM Liberated, Country’s Deficit Attains 50 Billion USD
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Did Obama Deal Blackmail Israel?
» Flash: Israel Revises Gaza Policy; World Gets What it Wants: Terrorist, Genocidal, Antisemitic, Revolutionary Islamist Statelet on the Mediterranean
» Orthodox Against High Court, 22 Mothers Escape
 
Middle East
» Emirates Orders 32 Airbus A380s for USD 11.5 Bln
» Food: Algida Ice-Cream Celebrates 20th Year in Turkey
» Iraqi Son Kills Father Who Translated for U.S.
» Mustafa Ismail Under Trial in a Military Court in Syria
» Turkey: Marriages Dropped and Divorces Rose in 2009
» US, Israel Warships in Suez May be Prelude to Faceoff With Iran
» Yemen: Several Killed in Rebel Attack in Aden
» Yemen: Eleven Killed as ‘Al Qaeda Gunmen Stage Daring Prison Break’
 
Russia
» Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ At G-8
» Russia-France: Leaders to Endorse New Oil and Gas Accords
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Troops Foil Plot to Murder Children
» India: Some Muslim Practices Cause Poverty, Muslim Religious Leader Says
» The Plight of the Ahmadi Community in Islamic Republic of Pakistan
 
Far East
» Uighurs Flee China After Riots
 
Immigration
» EU: Italy Among Countries to Grant Most Asylum
» Finland: Foreign-Born Residents to Set Up “Immigrant Parliament”
» Harvard Student Won’t be Deported
 
Culture Wars
» Berlin Celebrates Gay Pride Parade

Financial Crisis


Cr, Italy Against Introduction of New Bank Tax in EU

Brussels, June 17 (CTK) — The Czech Republic and Italy took a stance against the introduction of a new bank tax in the EU at a summit in Brussels Thursday, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer told journalists Thursday.

Other EU states want to introduce it, although its form has not been specified yet.

The Czech Republic reserved the right not to introduce such an instrument given the circumstances, Fischer said.

Fischer said the Czech Republic obtained exemption as there were many questions which remained unanswered. He said banks’ reaction is not certain and the tax may affect prices for clients. It is also not clear if it is going to be a tax or rather a special fee. Its timing also not known, nor its impacts.

In the European Commission (EC)’s view, the levied tax should be used for banks’ rescue.

However, the negative stance of the Czech and Italian governments does not mean the proposal is blocked at an all EU level as the text is not legally binding yet.

Contrary to the original proposal, according to which the entire EU-27 would have to adopt the tax, it is now clear that the Czech Republic will be able to decide whether to introduce it or not.

Most European leaders want to introduce new fees for financial institutions in order to avoid the situation which occurred during the financial crisis when they had to save banks from taxpayers’ money. Many (leaders) believe citizens should not be responsible for costs of the crisis they had not caused.

A decision on the bank tax has been taken. This will lead towards a fair sharing of the costs of the financial crisis and towards a bigger stability of the financial system, EU president Herman Van Rompuy told journalists at the end of the EU summit Thursday.

The EC has not yet set up the specific amount of the tax to be levied but its height can be estimated on the basis of similar systems which are already in place in some EU member states, such as in Sweden, where all bank loans are taxed at 0.036 percent.

In the entire EU adopts the same tax, it would receive around EUR15bn (around Kc390bn) every year into a reserve fund to bail-out banks.

However, economists say the existence of such a fund could mean that states will not longer let a bank fail.

This could also mean that banks will not be forced to do business cautiously and differences between banks in terms of their trustworthiness and quality will disappear.

Banks say a similar solution can cut their revenues notably.

“It sounds like a simple idea, but in practice it would be horrendously expensive and complex to implement. For example, what type of bureaucracy would be necessary to manage it? Who would determine whether the fund is an adequate amount? Given the scale of the last financial crisis, what would be an adequate amount?,” Rob McIvor, spokesman for the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, told the Financial Times earlier.

According to the Czech Banking Association (CBA), similar restrictive measures act against the economic recovery and will slow economic growth.

“If only some countries adopt the tax, they will put their markets at an advantage over others, and this is especially valid for the EU and other financial markets,” Jan Matousek of the CBA said.

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



IMF: Spain’s Debt Level Better Than Germany’s

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 18 — “There are countries with an average debt coefficient like Germany and France, and others with a very good ratio, like Spain. This observation was made by IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn after his meeting with Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. In fact he suggested that Spain’s public debt ratio is better than the German rate. The chairman of the IMF pointed out however that all European countries must reduce their deficit and that the Spanish deficit is one of the highest in Europe. He underlined that the Germany and France have a higher tax margin. The deficit of public accounts in Spain in 2009 reached 11.2% of GDP, while the German deficit was 3.3% and the French deficit 7.5%. Comparing the public debt coefficients: in 2009 it reached 53.2% of GDP in Spain, 77.6% in France and 73.2% in Germany. Regarding the situation of the Greek and Portuguese economy, Strauss-Kahn said that “they cannot be compared” to the situation in Spain, where “the level of the public debt and the private debt is much lower”. He underlined that “Europe’s growth will become stronger” only if all countries “balance their public accounts”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Madrid is Not Athens (Yet)

Rumours has been spreading all week: Spain might soon ask its partners for a helping hand in fighting its debt and fighting off speculators. The government is doing everything possible to dispel doubts, but the pressure is still mounting.

Carlos Segovia

When it first started sliding down the slippery slope in December 2009, the risk premium for investing in Greece — i.e. the spread between Greek and German bonds — hit 226 basis points. The markets grew increasingly wary of the Greek economy as its sovereign credit rating underwent one downgrade after another.

Now, six months later, that risk premium has been outstripped by the spread on Spain’s sovereign debt [233 points on 17 June], which has hit record levels these past few days. The Spanish government’s response is deemed insufficient to keep public accounts on an even keel and ensure a vigorous recovery from the recession. So “speculators”, as [vice-president] María Teresa Fernández de la Vega labelled them yesterday, are betting on a rehash of the Greek scenario in Spain: that Zapatero will end up asking for a bailout and agreeing to fall back on the European Stabilisation Fund set up by eurozone leaders along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to guarantee debt repayments. De la Vega and economy minister Elena Salgado denied any such prospect yesterday and assured the markets that Spain is “doing its homework”.

‘Homework’ complete

This is how the Spanish president himself terms the austerity package he’s bringing to the European summit today. It entails an accelerated reduction of the budget deficit, involving civil service pay cuts and a pension freeze; a labour market reform which, though considered “light” by employers and markets, puts the [socialist] president in a serious ideological spot; and an overhaul of the pension system. To add the finishing touch to those efforts, Spanish central bank director Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez gave the final remaining signal yesterday, just in time for the summit: that the Bank of Spain deems the financial restructuring complete. In addition — in line with the script Zapatero had already laid out on Thursday — he confirmed that the so-called “stress tests” would bear that out.

All that “homework” would have been unthinkable only six weeks ago, but the markets didn’t trust any of Zapatero’s tactics, such as his decision to legislate the labour reform [approved by the council of ministers on 16 June]. Nor did the eurozone leaders, for that matter. The European Commission itself — which would like nothing better than to throw flowers at the government’s feet to get the markets to back off from Spain (and the euro) — was compelled to keep the pressure on Zapatero, demanding additional economic adjustments.

Meanwhile, some bankers are wondering whether they wouldn’t be better off requesting a bailout of their own accord, however harsh the changes exacted in return, in order to get the markets to open back up. And IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn himself is flying into Madrid tomorrow on a “business call” to find out atfirst-hand what the government has in mind. Spain is not Greece, to be sure, but the pressure is mounting to keep it that way.

Opinion

Is Germany out to undermine Spain?

“The paralysis is back,” observes Xavier Vidal-Folch in El País, and “the credit crunch is spreading from the banks to businesses”. “The international markets are closed for most Spanish businesses and institutions,” the editorialist quotes the president of BBVA [Spain’s second-biggest bank] as saying. “Where are the serious newspapers?”, wonders Vidal-Folch in the wake of “rumours” spread by the Financial Times Deutschland and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about a hypothetical financial bailout of Spain by the European Stabilisation Fund — just the sort of buzz that undermines Spain. But it isn’t just the papers: “The Deutsche Bank is managing €500 million in bear speculations against five Spanish companies,” accuses the editorialist. But Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann is opposed to publishing the results of solvency tests for European banks on the pretext that that would be “very dangerous”. Meanwhile, however, Bank of Spain governor Miguel Angel Fernández Ordóñez announced on 16 June that the stress tests for Spanish banks will be disclosed so as to demonstrate their solvency [on 17 June the German government agreed to have the German banks’ test results published as well]. For Xavier Vidal-Folch, “the assessment of Spanish bank assets will be one of the most rigorous in Europe because it is to be carried out by the issuing bank, while the assessments in countries like Germany are done by the banks themselves.”

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



Merkel Refutes Obama on G20 Fiscal Policy

German Chancellor Angela Merkel directly contradicted US President Barack Obama on Saturday, saying spending cutbacks were now needed following the spate of throwing money at the global economic crisis.

Referring to the G20 summit in Canada next weekend, Merkel said in a videotaped message that “we are going to discuss when to quit the phase of short-term measures and go on to lasting budget consolidation.”

Such a move was “urgently necessary, in the view of the Europeans and particularly of Germany,” she said.

Obama urged the world’s leading economies Friday to avoid scaling back government spending too quickly or risk derailing the global recovery.

“We worked exceptionally hard to restore growth; we cannot falter or lose strength now,” Obama said in a letter to G20 leaders ahead of a June 26-27 summit in Toronto.

“Our highest priority in Toronto must be to safeguard and strengthen the recovery,” Obama said in the letter dated June 16, but released Friday amid concerns about the pace of the global recovery.

The warning — a clear shot at European governments reining in budget deficits — comes after months of worry about the health of the eurozone, fuelled by huge public debts in Greece and Spain.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is working on a multi-billion-euro package of spending cuts worth designed to bolster government finances and recoup market confidence.

But those moves have led to US concerns that the global recovery — from the worst slowdown in decades — might be stopped in its tracks by withdrawing

government stimulus.

Obama also expressed concern about “weak private sector demand and continued heavy reliance on exports” by some nations within the G20, in a clear reference to Germany.

Merkel retorted Saturday, “We know of course that the European Union must make its contribution to ensure lasting world economic growth,” but added, “We believe we have put the stresses on the right spot.”

“Europe will make its point of view clear at the G20,” she warned.

She also said that the European Union would “pledge at the G20 to develop a worldwide tax on financial transactions,” even though there were doubts about

its feasibility.

“There will certainly be controversy,” she added.

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



Spain: Default of Financial System Grows, 5.49% in April

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 18 — The rate of default of the Spanish financial system reached 5.49% in April, compared to 5.33% the previous month and 4.5% in April 2009, according to figures circulated today by Spain’s central bank. The volume of credits of uncertain solvency in the entire financial sector in April was around the 100 billion euro mark, compared to 83.644 billion the previous year. The financial institutions registering the greatest struggles are the savings banks, with a rate of default credits of 5.51%, half a point above the figure for April 2009. Credits of uncertain collection for savings banks hit 48.105 billion euros, only 3.5 billion more than in April last year. For banks, default was at 5.4%, with 42.760 billion in problematic credits, a figure significantly higher than the 3.81!ì% registered in April 2009, when there was 30.777 billion in credits at risk of insolvency. The situation is less gloomy for agricultural banks, with a default rate of 4.08% in April, compared to the 3.78% figure posted last year. For financial companies, however, default rate shot up to 10.7%. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA


Kroger Pulls Weekly ‘Rutherford Reader’ Over ‘Hate Rhetoric’

Anthony Mijares is a retired international cargo expediter and the kind of man who worked so hard that he sometimes brought a sleeping bag to the office.

So, the most political thing he has had time to do is vote. But in April, all that changed.

Complaints Mijares and others made about the content of The Rutherford Reader — a free Murfreesboro-based weekly distributed at grocery stores, restaurants and other locations in and around Rutherford County — led Kroger officials to launch a five-week review of the publication, according to the company.

By May, Kroger and the company that manages its free publication racks found what they consider a pattern of “hate rhetoric” in the paper. Kroger barred The Rutherford Reader from its eight Rutherford County stores. A Smyrna Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce did the same.

The Rutherford Reader‘s owners say the paper is not a venue for hate speech.

Now, two months after Mijares lodged his complaint, he and The Rutherford Reader are at the center of a debate about the meaning of free speech, censorship and responsible journalism.

Mijares, who lives in Smyrna, fears that what the paper has written about him since May makes him a marked man. He even called Murfreesboro police but was told to call Smyrna police if he wished to report physical harm, a clear threat or property damage.

Pete Doughtie, The Rutherford Reader‘s co-owner and publisher, says he isn’t trying to intimidate anyone. His business has been the victim of corporate censorship, Doughtie said.

Mijares has read The Rutherford Reader off and on for five years. In the paper’s pages, opinions and facts have always been commingled in a not-so-clear fashion, he said.

Over the past two years, the paper has become more extreme, Mijares said. Just after the federal health-care bill passed in March, he saw a story indicating Muslims are exempt from the law’s health insurance mandates.

“It started with a question: ‘Do you know that Muslims can now do something that Christians can’t?’ “ Mijares said

The law does not exempt any specific religious group. Matt Lehrich, a White House spokesman, says it does allow religious groups to apply to be exempt.

“Just like Medicare and Social Security, the Affordable Care Act includes a process by which groups may apply for an exemption on the basis of their religious beliefs,” Lehrich said.

Islam condemned

In April, Mijares walked into a Smyrna Kroger and saw something in The Rutherford Reader that really troubled him. The paper ran a column that said, “Islam is evil” and a “defiling” and “dehumanizing” religion. It also said “Muslim immigration should be halted.”

Mijares brought the paper’s content to the store manager’s attention.

“When The Rutherford Reader publishes the statement that Islam is evil, defiling and dehumanizing, all you have to do is substitute the word Judaism (in place of Islam) and you know what that kind of commentary is without question.

“People would get it immediately. That is hate speech.”

The Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce and the manager of Lowry Street Kentucky Fried Chicken did not respond to requests for comment. But Kroger did.

“We saw a consistent pattern of what we believed to be hate rhetoric,” said Melissa Eads, a Kroger spokeswoman. “We can’t and don’t promote hate speech against anyone.”

Store’s move defended

Legally, Kroger was well within its rights to remove the paper from its racks, said Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center. The center is a nonpartisan nonprofit that educates the public about the First Amendment.

Real censorship involves government efforts to prevent ideas or information from being made public, Policinski said. Kroger’s decision is really no different from Wal-Mart’s choice not to sell CDs that require parental warning labels, he said.

“In terms of the spirit of the First Amendment though, I think it is true that more voices are always better than fewer voices,” Policinski said.

The Rutherford Reader is a 10,000 print circulation weekly with no staff reporters and almost 45,000 online subscribers, Doughtie said. Until mid-May, the paper generally placed about 1,000 copies at Kroger stores. Doughtie said he has found new distribution points that together move about that many papers.

Questions asked

The Rutherford Reader generates content with the help of unpaid columnists who have approached the paper and a small group of paid freelance reporters not identified by name.

“We just ask the questions that the big corporate-owned papers aren’t going to ask but (that) need to be asked,” Doughtie said.

“We’re American patriots. Don’t you think someone needs to ask what may be going on here when this country is at war with Islamic fascists?”

Last week, The Rutherford Reader included a story outlining how the paper got booted from Kroger stores. It also details Mijares’ role.

There also was a story about Rutherford County planners approving a new Islamic center and what the paper saw as insufficient notice given to the public.

“Is Sharia (Islamic religious) law going to replace common law in civil cases between Muslims or is it already accepted by our judicial system?” Doughtie wrote in a column.

“Will polygamous marriages for Muslims be OK? Will Muslim men be allowed to receive welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses?”

Questions not answered

That’s the problem with The Rutherford Reader, said Abdou Kattih, a pharmacist who is vice president of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. The paper raises questions it doesn’t try to answer.

If the paper had contacted the mosque or a religion expert, the paper would have learned that Islam calls on Muslims to abide by the law of the land in which they live, Kattih said.

Failing to answer these questions foments suspicion, he said. The mosque gets four to five calls a week from people concerned about The Rutherford Reader, he said.

“Still, you know, I don’t support the idea of removing The Rutherford Reader from Kroger stores,” Kattih said. “I tell our members, in a free society people have the right to criticize you. And, this is where we live.

Not everyone objects to the paper’s stance..

Mike Wilson is a mechanic who lives in Murfreesboro. He typically picks up a copy of the Reader at a restaurant where he eats lunch. He likes the ads and the content. “It kind of gives you something to think about every time you pick it up,” Wilson said.

“For instance, I didn’t know anything about that mosque until I read about it in there.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Napolitano: Internet Monitoring Needed to Fight Homegrown Terrorism

WASHINGTON — Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation’s homeland security chief said Friday.

As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans’ civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



SI Residents Fight Conversion of Convent to Mosque

[Video report]

The battle is heating up on Staten Island as residents in Midland Beach fight to keep a a mosque from coming to their neighborhood. On Sunday, they took their emotional plea to the streets.

It was a heated protest under the hot summer sun on Staten Island.

“We just want to leave our neighborhood the way it is — Christian, Catholic,” one resident said.

About 150 people were standing strong outside an abandoned convent in Midland Beach, trying to prevent the sale of the building to a Muslim group that plans to turn it into a mosque.

“Mosques breed terrorism, I’m sorry,” said one resident.

“The community is just up in arms,” another resident said.. “It was done so underhandedly.”

The pastor from St. Margaret Mary Church who negotiated selling the convent to the Muslim American Society has since written a letter to Archbishop Timothy Dolan withdrawing his support for the deal. The archdiocese, though, says four other parish board trustees must weigh in before a decision is made.

Residents are hoping to have an influence.

“The city has had enough terrorism and everything else,” resident Debbie Benson said. “We just don’t want to take the chance, and they can’t prove to us otherwise.”

Members of the Muslim American Society did not show up to counter the protest Sunday, but they continue to reach out to the Catholic community to go through with the sale of the convent.

“The community of Midland Beach has been hijacked by Islamaphobes,” the Muslim American Society’s Ayman Hammous said.

Residents, though, say it isn’t just a religious issue.

“To put a mosque in this area, on this corner? It’s just not big enough,” resident Robert Dennis said.

“It is a tremendous parking issue,” another resident said.

“Why is a mosque coming here? [Are there] that many Muslims?” resident Ed Ruriane said. “It’s just everything, and to unravel it, gee wiz, it’s gonna take a miracle.”

CBS 2 reached out to the Muslim American Society on Sunday, but they did not return calls for comment.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Are Dutch Police Going Undercover as Haredi Jews?

Initiative for undercover cops to dress as ultra-Orthodox comes in wake of frequent attacks against Jews by Moroccan immigrants.

By Cnaan Liphshiz Tags: Israel news Jewish world

Dutch police may employ undercover agents disguised as religious Jews to expose and arrest violent anti-Semites, a police spokesperson said last week.

The initiative was first proposed by a Dutch Muslim legislator in response to reports of frequent attacks against Jews by Moroccan immigrants. Prominent figures from the country’s Jewish community said they supported the plan.

Over the past few years, Dutch politicians have been debating the use of undercover police officers posing as gay couples as a means to draw out serial perpetrators of attacks against gays, from the Muslim community and from the general population.

In a radio interview on Wednesday for Radio BNR, Ahmed Marcouch — a Moroccan-born member of Labor who immigrated to Holland when he was 10 — said: “I say send fake Jews to arrest the attackers. Everything must be done to keep this phenomenon from growing. It seems like small incidents, but this is serious.”

The Center for Information and Documentation Israel, an influential nongovernmental watchdog on anti-Semitism, announced on Thursday that it supported the initiative. “It has become common for Jews to hide their skull-caps on the street,” said Ronny Naftaniel, who heads the center, known in Holland by its initials, CIDI. He added that Marchouch’s “liberal views have cost him in the past the support of voters from the Moroccan community.”

During the first month of 2009, the center documented 98 anti-Semitic incidents, which almost equaled the total of such attacks in 2008. Holland’s chief rabbi, Binyamin Jacobs, told Haaretz he recently witnessed unidentified persons who tried to disrupt a memorial service for Jews murdered in the Holocaust by shouting Nazi slogans.

“The new initiative is the expression of desperation about the failure of Dutch police to make progress with regard to the widespread and aggressive anti-Semitism among Muslims in Amsterdam — a heritage left behind by Amsterdam’s former mayor, Job Cohen,” said Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a Dutch-Israeli researcher of anti-Semitism and chairman of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Marcouch entered parliament as candidate 15 on Labor’s list under the party’s chairman, Job Cohen. Marcouch told Haaretz that he believed the best way to fight anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants was by putting greater emphasis on Holocaust studies in schools with many immigrant pupils.

“Hate and anti-Semitism is sometimes can be addressed together through education,” explained Marcouch, a leading member in the Jewish-Moroccan Network of Amsterdam — a forum which CIDI and Cohen helped create in 2006 to promote dialog between the two communities.

“It is in the family that one needs to be alert, and to eliminate anti-Semitism,” Marcouch added. “And the way to do this is through education about what hatred of the other can lead to. Strong police intervention is important because no one must suffer violence, but in parallel we need to inform children so they don’t harbor anti-Semitic feelings.”

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



Bluefin Tuna: Brussels Stops 2010 Fishing Campaign

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki today decided to impose an early stop of the catch on bluefin tuna by large fishing boats, in order to respect the European fishing quotas that were established within the framework of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). The measure regards France, Greece and Spain. Italy decided to stop fishing bluefin tuna by large ships for one year in February of this year. In fact Italy has “frozen” more than 70% of its 2010 fishing quotas, around 1,500 tonnes, which had been assigned to ring net fishing, the system with the highest environmental impact. Traditional bluefin fishing can still continue. The bluefin tuna fishing campaign in the EU, which started on May 15, was scheduled to end on June 15 in France, Spain and Greece. Based on the data collected by ANSA, in these weeks French trawlers caught — from May 15 to today — 1,699 tonnes of bluefin tuna, Spain caught 803.9 tonnes and Greece 60 tonnes. The European Commission, which has decided to implement a “zero-tolerance” policy regarding bluefin fishing, stated today that “the early closing of fishing is needed to protect the fragile stock of this species. It is part of the recovery plan developed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)”.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Denmark: Safer Vehicles for Afghan Force?

Politicians waiting for military on personnel carriers issue.

Danish politicians agree that if the armed forces believe the aging Danish personnel carriers in Afghanistan need changing to a safer model, the swap should be carried out, but within current budgetary schedules.

The discussion about the current model comes following the death of another Danish soldier last Sunday as a result of a roadside bomb.

According to Ekstra Bladet, both the military and politicians have been aware of the fact that the chassis armour of the current armoured personnel carriers is not good enough, but politicians say moves to change the vehicles should come from the military.

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, although better armoured, are also susceptible to roadside bombs. Here ammunition is being unloaded from an upturned MRAP in August 2009. Archive.

“This is not a question of political delays. We leave it to the defence forces to determine whether the vehicles are good enough. I they aren’t, then the military should come back and tell us. Safety comes first,” says Social Democratic Defence Spokesman John Dyrby Poulsen.

But Copenhagen University Military Expert Peter Viggo Jakobsen says that politicians have been turning a blind eye to the problem.

“This is an issue that is with the politicians. They’ve known for a long time that the chassis armour is not good enough. The fact that they will not take responsibility for changing the priorities of the armed forces budget to provide better safety for the soldiers, is a result of political delays,” Jakobsen tells Ekstra Bladet.

Dyrby says that the most recent political Defence Agreement appropriated DKK 100 million each year in efforts to increase safety for soldiers. The funds can be used for better vehicles, and if the defence force needs more money, then it must realign its priorities.

Defence Minister Gitte Lillelund Bech (Lib) says that it is up to the military to determine whether vehicle armour is good enough.

The Danish military’s materiel service is investigating whether it can buy or borrow Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles from the US.

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



EU: Big Rail Lines in Med Northern Shore by 2025

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JUNE 17 — Europe is investing in large railway routes that will allow easy access between Berlin and Palermo, or between Lyon and Ljubljana. The numerous works currently ongoing concern Spain and Portugal in particular, with the aim of connecting the Iberian peninsula to the rest of Europe. The deadline for all works is 2020, with the exception of the Lyon-Trieste-Ljubljana-Budapest-Ukrainian border stretch, the deadline for which is 2025. Updates on the projects come in the latest EU report on trans-European networks, co-financed by Brussels, which are not only due to link urban areas, but also increase the transport capacity of goods, carrying by rail loads that currently travel by road, especially in mountainous regions. The most expensive of all planned lines is the one that goes from Lyon to the Ukrainian border, which will see over 55 million euros invested, almost 10 million of which were spent before 2009. The 1,638-kilometren line will pass through France, Italy, Slovenia and Hungary but progress is currently slow, both because of difficulties in agreements on the route through Italy and because the final costs, which are to be divided between participating countries, cannot be accurately calculated as a result. France has already completed two of its three explorative tunnels. On the Turin-Lyon line, the first exploratory digs only began in early 2010, but time is of the essence: the European Commission has allocated 672 million euros for study and work on the basic tunnel with a deadline of 2013. An agreement was struck in February between Italy and Slovenia over the northern stretch, following earlier environmental obstacles. Meanwhile, in the internal areas, the stretch between Venice and Trieste is still lagging behind. The Berlin-Verona/Milan-Bologna-Naples-Messina-Palermo route, on the other hand, costs more than 51 million euros, of which 27 million were invested before 2009. The construction of the 2,386-kilometre line is progressing well, with over half of the route established, though the plan is now “in a crucial phase”, particularly for the section between Munich and Verona. Works on the main tunnel were due to begin in January 2010, in line with the financial decision of the EU Commission, but national discussions on financing mean that the start has been delayed. Another huge project is the railway line for south-western Europe, divided between three lines at a cost of more than 45 million euros, that will link Portugal, Spain and France. Works are going well in Spain, while important decisions on how to proceed have been taken in Portugal and France. In general, there are some delays on borders and greater coordination is hoped for between member states. Madrid and Lisbon also share plans for a “multimodal line”, including railways, road links between cities, ports and airports, with an investment of almost 41 million euros. The big works also include the construction of a new airport in the Portuguese capital, which should open in 2017, though debate is still ongoing as to its location. Another railway line will connect the ports of Algeciras, in Spain, and Sines, in Portugal, with Madrid and then France, for a total investment of 8.69 million euros. On the other side of the Mediterranean, Greece’s Ionic-Adriatic axis project, which has a predicted cost of 4.33 million euros, would see easier exchanges at sea and by rail, connecting the country’s major ports to one another. Total financing, however, appears to be difficult. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Flemish-Nationalists Want Belgium to “Evaporate” Into EU

by Paul Belien

Since the Lisbon Treaty came into force last December, the European Union (EU) has the status of a genuine state. This new state now threatens the existence of multinational states such as Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain. Peoples such as the Flemings in Belgium, the Scots in the UK, the Catalans in Spain, would rather be provinces of the federal EU than of the federal or devolved states to which they currently belong.

That is the main lesson to be drawn from Belgium’s general elections on June 13. The Belgian elections showed an unprecedented 44% of the electorate in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, voting for Flemish independence. The Flemings expressed their support for the two Flemish-nationalist parties. 31.7% of the Flemings voted for the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (New Flemish Alliance, N-VA) and 12.3% for Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest, VB).

The Flemings constitute a 60% majority in Belgium, a country which since its establishment in 1830 has been dominated by its French-speaking minority. Belgium is a state with two different peoples under one roof. The country has two separate sets of political parties: one set for the Dutch-speaking Flemings, the other for the French-speaking Walloons in the south of the country. The Walloons vote predominantly socialist because they favor an expansion of the welfare state; the Flemings are more conservative and favor a limited state with fewer taxes.

[Return to headlines]



France: Montmartre Cemetery at Risk

((ANSAmed) — PARIS — The famous Montmartre cemetery in Paris where celebrities such as writer Emile Zola, singer Dalida, composer Hector Berlioz, painters Edgar Degas and Gustave Moreau, director Francois Truffaut are buried is at risk. Various tombs and family chapels, now rather old, are falling to pieces in a state of abandon. The warning was raised by the councillor for the Environment of the XVIII arrondissement, Pascal Julien, who is worried that the “exceptional funerary assets comprising 20,000 concessions could disappear from this historic site established in 1825”. The maintenance of the tombs lies in the hands of the descendants of the deceased, who however are often hard to trace, as is the case for a 19th Century chapel that has been closed to the public because in very poor conditions, with a repair bill that amounts to approximately 10,000 euros. Julien commented that “It will probably be demolished”, but he believes that what is really being lost is the very soul of the cemetery. “It is always a dilemma to tear down these chapels that embody the funerary art of the 19th Century”, stated Pascal-Herve’ Daniel, the person in charge of Paris’ funerary services, explaining that however it may be inevitable. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



France: Anti-Violence Chinese Protest in Paris Ends in Tear Gassing

PARIS — Paris police tear-gassed demonstrators from the city’s Chinese community Sunday when a march to protest a spate of violent robberies descended into scuffles after a demonstrator’s bag was stolen.

Police said some 8,500 demonstrators turned out onto the streets of city’s eastern Belleville district, where they called for “coordinated and concerted” action by the authorities against the growing number of attacks.

Trouble broke out as the demonstration was breaking up with scuffles erupting between a group of around a dozen youths and 50 young demonstrators, police sources told AFP.

According to multiple witnesses, the trouble started when a bag belonging to one of the demonstrators was stolen. Police were forced to intervene and three people were arrested, said the police source.

Police tear-gassed the crowd after objects were thrown at them, prompting demonstrators to overturn cars and block traffic in the area for several hours.

Belleville is an ethnically diverse district of the French capital that has seen an influx of Asian immigrants in the last 10 years.

According to organisers from French-Chinese organisations, who distributed 5,000 T-shirts and stickers saying “Security For All”, it was the largest demonstration by the Chinese community on record in France.

“French-Asian associations are marching for the first time against the lack of security,” said the president of the organisers, Chan Sing Mo. “If the problem continues, we’ll come out again in larger numbers.”

In the last few months, Chinese in the French capital have been subjected to attacks and violent robberies by youths in Belleville and other parts of eastern Paris, and many feel at a disadvantage as immigrants.

“Those who can’t speak French or don’t have proper papers are not able to complain,” a florist in Belleville told AFP.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]



Italy: Ex-Priest Charged With Sex Abuse

Rome, 19 June (AKI) — A former priest has been indicted in Italy on charges he sexually abused 12 young men who were being treated a drug rehabilitation centre he founded. Pierino Gelmini, 85, has denied the charges and left the priesthood two years ago to defend himself.

The investigation into Gelmini was one of the first to make headlines in Italy.

While more cases have emerged during the recent abuse scandal, Italy still has seen fewer cases than other European countries or the United States.

The Comunita Incontro, which he founded, now has drug rehabilitation centres worldwide and has enjoyed the support of powerful figures in Italian politics.

In 2005, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi gave the organisation 6 million dollars according to media reports.

The Gelmini case is particularly explosive because he was one of Italy’s most recognised and well-connected priests when the accusations were made against him in 2007.

Nine men said he had sexually abused them while they were residents at his Comunita Incontro centre based in the central Umbrian town of Amelia. The number of accusers now stands at 12.

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



Italy: War Hero Remembered by Frattini

Rome, 19 June (AKI) — Italian foreign affairs minister Franco Frattini has paid tribute to one of the country’s military heroes who died this week at the age of 101. Amedeo Guillet, was a decorated officer of the Iralian army who once commanded cavalry in war.

Guillet was nicknamed ‘Devil Commander’ and distinguished himself as a courageous leader during Italy’s war in Ethiopia in 1942.

“They called him the Italian Lawrence of Arabia, a well-deserved definition which recognises his many adventures and experiences,” Frattini said.

“He was untamed by the military or his noble heritage.”

Guillet was born in Piacenza and came from a noble family from Piedmont.

He graduated from the Academy of Infantry and Cavalry of Modena in 1930 and began a distinguished career in the Italian army. After the war he had a diplomatic career in the Middle East and served as ambassador in Jordon, Morocco and India.

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



Netherlands: Lower Achievements at Mixed Schools

For years and years, the ‘perfect school’ was defined by having the right ratio of black to white, native to migrant and rich to poor. However, recent Dutch research has exposed this myth. Children at mixed schools consistently score lower grades than their peers at predominantly white or black schools.

Dutch sociology professor Jaap Dronkers has carried out research into the pros and cons of ethnic diversity in secondary education. He compared student achievement in language, math and physics of 15-year-old children in 15 Western countries. Much to his surprise, students’ grades were inversely proportional to ethnic diversity.

“I interpret lower student achievement at ethnically diverse schools to mean that a great deal of energy is spent on bridging the various cultural gaps between students. As a result, teachers are unable to focus on teaching. They keep hopping from one culture to the next. It uses up time and energy not spent on teaching.”

Comparable

No data were available for the Netherlands, but Professor Dronkers believes his findings are also applicable to this country as education in surrounding countries like Denmark, Belgium and Germany is in his opinion comparable to the Netherlands.

The ethnic make-up of Dutch schools is a highly sensitive issue. The existence of separate ‘black’ and ‘white’ schools is generally regarded as undesirable. However, as long as the segregation leads to a homogenous student body, the effects are not necessarily negative. On the contrary, a ‘black’ school where 80 percent of the children were of Turkish descent outperformed a school of much greater ethnic diversity.

Islamic

Another noteworthy finding from his research are the generally below-average achievements of students with an Islamic background.

“This cannot be explained by their socio-economic backgrounds or the characteristics of schools or educational systems. So what is the reason? It is very well possible that they are being discriminated against, but this also holds true for non-Islamic children. People will say: they are the children of migrant workers, but so were the Italians. The remaining factor is religion.”

Poor families

Not everybody agrees with Professor Dronkers’ conclusions. Dutch writer and educational expert Anja Vink says the professor places too much emphasis on culture and religion. She argues that socio-economical circumstances are widely accepted as determining factors for the educational achievement of children.

“We are focussing on colour, culture and religion, but what is being left out is that these children are from poor families. This could also apply to poor native children. If you attend a ‘white trash school’ you would get the same results. You will see this in the provinces of Friesland, Groningen en Limburg.”

Highly educated parents

Ms Vink, who wrote a book on black schools in the Netherlands, says that the conclusion that Islamic students are falling behind also merits further explanation.

“This may be true of Moroccan and Turkish children, but children of Afghan, Iranian and Iraqi descent often do better in school than even some native children. The explanation lies in the fact that they are children of highly-educated parents.”

Professor Dronkers agrees that ethnic diversity can have a positive effect on children of highly educated parents. “In that case there is an added value.” The scientist says that migrant children from non-Islamic countries like China, South Korea and India are also a positive exception to the rule.

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



Netherlands: VVD Does Not Want ‘Purple Plus’ Cabinet

THE HAGUE, 19/06/10 — Labour (PvdA), centre-left D66 and the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) want to form a cabinet together with the conservatives (VVD). But the VVD does not want to join the three leftwing parties.

Uri Rosenthal, who is leading the cabinet formation negotiations as ‘informateur’, received the leaders of five parties on Friday. On the basis of these talks, he decided that the next stage is to investigate the feasibility of a ‘Purple Plus’ cabinet.

PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks on Friday expressed their preference for Purple Plus (a coalition of VVD, PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks). But it remains for them to persuade VVD leader Mark Rutte, who is unenthusiastic about a partnership with three leftwing parties — as are his voters.

VVD leader Mark Rutte asked Rosenthal to investigate a broad coalition of VVD, PvdA and CDA. The VVD leader told the informateur Friday that he sees big if not insurmountable obstacles to the formation of a Purple Plus cabinet.

Following the 9 June general elections, Rosenthal, given the task of forming a stable majority coalition, began with an investigation of the feasibility of a coalition of VVD, Party for Freedom (PVV) and the Christian democrats (CDA). Rosenthal concluded on Thursday that this coalition was “impossible” because CDA would not negotiate.

As a result, there are now two remaining options: Purple Plus, and a broad centrist coalition of VVD, PVV and CDA. If both fail, insiders believe a minority coalition of VVD and CDA with the support of PVV from the opposition could enter the picture.

PvdA party leader Job Cohen is going with “full force” for Purple Plus. Following his meeting with Rosenthan on Friday, he was clear about the possibility of a coalition of VVD, PvdA and CDA: “ I do not want it.”

D66 and GroenLinks are even more enthusiastic on Purple Plus. During the election campaign, D66 leader Alexander Pechtold was already regularly going around in a purple shirt or tie to indicate his ambitions. For GroenLinks, Purple Plus offers the opportunity to make its debut in a government.

Under Purple Plus, in the socio-economic area it is particularly PvdA that will have to adapt itself to VVD, D66 and GroenLinks, who are much more prepared to carry out reforms. The VVD would have to let up on its rightwing agenda in areas such as restricting immigration and crime-fighting.

Cohen acknowledges that the differences with the VVD are extremely substantial, but considers them solvable. “Otherwise, I would not have advised Purple Plus.”

But Rutte was very pessimistic. He repeated Friday that he had a preference for a coalition with PVV and CDA. A VVD-PvdA-CDA coalition would be his second choice. Rutte noted he would be willing to consider VVD-PvdA-CDA plus D66 as well. But Purple Plus is very unlikely, in his view.

As well as Rutte, Cohen, Pechtold and the leader of GroenLinks, Femke Halsema, Rosenthal also met with CDA parliamentary leader Maxime Verhagen on Friday. Again individually, Rosenthal will meet again with all of them except Verhagen on Monday to find out if Purple Plus is worth exploring.

In VVD circles, polls show the preference is for Geert Wilders’ PVV. When the negotiations with the PVV were still underway, 57 percent of the VVD voters were in favour of this coalition, while 21 percent preferred Purple Plus and 18 percent a coalition with PvdA and CDA, according to TV programme EenVandaag.

Rutte is positive on the role that the PVV has played in recent days. “Geert Wilders is not, absolutely not to blame. The PVV has been constructive. On the basis of the election programmes, we have concluded that VVD and PVV could quickly reach agreement on the points of immigration, a kilometre levy (road pricing), mortgage interest deductibility, security and heavier sentences. And we have concluded that there were sufficient points in common to talk further.”

CDA’s Verhagen still does not want to express any preference as to how to proceed further with the cabinet formation. He declined to comment on questions as to whether the CDA is prepared to sit in a cabinet with VVD and PvdA. “I am not ruling anything out.”

According to Verhagen, the ball is in the VVD’s court. “Being the biggest party on the evening of the elections is not just nice but also brings responsibilities with it,” he said Friday after his meeting with Rosenthal.

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



Slovenia: Training on EU Standards Next Week

(ANSAmed) — BRUXELLES, 18 GIU — A training session on “Citizenship and prevention of statelessness: international and european standards” will take place between 22 and 24 June in the slovenian capital, Ljubljana. The three days, according to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), is organized by the Eu funded Euromed Migration II project and will provide an overview on the concept of european citizenship. The seminar will facilitate experience exchange on policies and practices of the countries of trainees, enabling trainees to identify best practices in this field. The workshop will also develop awareness on current trends and methods regarding dual or multiple nationality and on the importance of enacting gender-neutral legislation. The project Euromed Migration II aims at strengthening cooperation in the management of migration in the Euromed area, to provide an effective, targeted and comprehensive solution to the various forms of migration. The project, from 2008 to 2011 with a budget of 5 million euros, involves the Eu partner in the Mediterranean region: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



UK: HMV Forced to Take Down ‘Anyone But England’ World Cup Display After Racism Complaints

HMV have withdrawn ‘Anyone But England’ banners from its Scottish stores after complaints to police that they were inciting racial hatred.

The high street chain put up large window displays and stocked T-shirts featuring the slogan ‘ABE’ in the run-up to the World Cup.

However, they were besieged by calls from angry members of the public and the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) made a complaint to police in Fife that the company were inciting racial hatred.

An officer from Fife Constabulary visited an HMV store in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s constituency of Kirkcaldy earlier this week and bosses quickly agreed to remove the banners from all their stores north of the border.

Yesterday, HMV said they were no longer ‘actively promoting’ the ‘ABE’ stock through banners and displays but said it would continue to sell a limited number of T-shirts.

Stuart Parr, a National Council member for the CEP, said: ‘The Campaign for an English Parliament will challenge any company that incites racial hatred towards the English.

‘Racism is unacceptable no matter who it is directed against, including English people.

Mr Parr said HMV’s decision to stock the ABE shirts and make window displays during the World Cup was ‘criminally irresponsible’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Inside the Muslim Eton: 20 Hour Days Starting at 3.45am With the Aim of Producing Muslim Elite of Leaders

The clock strikes 11am and boys spill out of classrooms into the corridor to move on to their next lesson.

There is no noise and no jostling. Instead they walk in an orderly manner, heads bowed respectfully and eyes downcast to avoid my gaze. The boys, all aged between 13 and 19, are dressed in ankle-length white salwar kameez and white skullcaps.

Their feet are bare. For this is no ordinary school. This is Darul Uloom, a Muslim madrassa or religious school, set in the pretty Kent village of Chislehurst. It is one of 166 Muslim schools in Britain today.

Of those, 26 are Darul Ulooms, religious seminaries rooted in the Islamic orthodoxy of sharia. According to an ICM poll, almost half of British Muslims wish to send their children to Muslim-only schools.

‘Our parents represent the cross-section of British Muslim society,’ the mufti — an Islamic scholar — of one leading school in northern England told me. These parents include teachers, doctors and shopkeepers.

Secretive and protective, Darul Uloom schools have been operating in Britain for 25 years. But since 9/11 they have faced closer scrutiny by police who fear they may be academies of radicalism — something the headmasters deny.

Now, for the first time, a Darul Uloom has opened its doors to a British newspaper and allowed The Mail on Sunday exclusive access. Most Britons may have never heard of such schools. But their significance in the Islamic world is paramount and it is shaping young Muslims in Britain today.

Islamic experts regard Darul Uloom as the second most important Islamic academic institution in the world after Cairo’s Al Azhar university. The schools aim to create new leaders of the Islamic world.

In terms of its significance, Darul Uloom is no less than the Eton of Islam. The first Darul Uloom or ‘House of Knowledge’ was set up in Deoband, northern India, in 1866.

[…]

In 2009, think-tank Civitas conducted the first major analysis of Islamic schools in Britain. Report author Dr Denis MacEoin said that younger British Muslims were more hardline than their elders, partly because such schools encouraged a separatist mentality.

‘These schools are about producing more imams, more muftis. Their teaching is based on a 17th Century system. Very few secular subjects are taught and the aim is to prepare them not for life in the wider world, but to give them an existence inside the Muslim world.’

His research showed many of the Darul Uloom schools in Britain resisted cultural integration. Instead, sharia values on issues such as women’s rights, homosexuality, segregation of men and women, and capital punishment were being inculcated in children from a young age.

‘It means no child attending a Muslim school of this kind will ever visit a gallery, attend a concert of classical or non-classical music, pass an evening mesmerised by Romeo and Juliet performed by the National Ballet. No Muslim girl will become a ballerina,’ wrote Dr MacEoin.

I looked up a couple of the Darul Uloom alumni to see where they have ended up. One of Chislehurst’s finest scholars now runs a website called MuftiSays.com, which he describes as ‘one of the fruits of Darul Uloom’. Darul Uloom teachers are cited on the site for their support.

The advice given is far from the tolerant ethos espoused by Mufti Mustafa. One Muslim asked if it would be acceptable to attend a wedding in a church, synagogue or temple. ‘Such places are the gathering places of devils,’ was the answer.

In another exchange, a student of aeronautical engineering asked if it would be OK to work for a Western defence company to ‘gain knowledge that would be useful for the defence needs of the Ummah’.

The answer from MuftiSays was: ‘This is permissible.’

These are not the most extreme views given by Deobandi alumni. The leading voice in Britain is Riyadh ul Haq, a graduate of the Darul Uloom school in Bury. Aged 36, ul Haq is seen as the dominant influence on Deobandi mosques in Britain, which account for 600 of Britain’s 1,400 mosques.

His sermons are often inflammatory. On Jews, he has said: ‘They’re all the same. They’ve monopolised everything: the Holocaust, God, money, interest, usury, the world economy, the media, political institutions . . . they monopolised tyranny and oppression as well. And injustice.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Balkans


Croatia: Council of Europe, Resolve Post-Conflict Issues

(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, JUNE 17 — It is time for Croatia to resolve all the issues that are still pending that were generated by the 1991-1995 conflict. This is what the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, has urged the Croatian authorities to do in his report on the Balkan country, which has been published today. Croatia has made a great deal of progress since it became an independent state. However, greater determination is required to resolve the serious situations caused by the war concerning the respect of human rights, said Hammarberg. In the report, based on a visit conducted in April, the Commissioner concentrated in particular on three issues: the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers, trials for war crimes, and finally the situation of the Roma community. Amongst the recommendations that Hammarberg has made to Croatia is to immediately and quickly carry out mine clearing in large agricultural and forested areas. This is one of the steps that is required in order to guarantee a safe return for the people who fled and to give them the chance to work. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Kosovo: Patriarch Calls for Harmony With Serbs

Belgrade, 19 June (AKI) — The patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Irinej has called on Kosovo Albanians and Serbs to live in harmony, Serbian media reported on Saturday. Irinej was elected in April as a spiritual leader of some 10 million Serbs worldwide, replacing the late patriarch Pavle.

On his first visit to Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia two years ago, Irinej said he was glad to step on the “holy Serbian land” again, but saddened that much of Serbia’s religious and cultural heritage had been destroyed.

Irinej visited Pec patriarchate, the medieval seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is now being guarded by Italian soldiers, stationed in Kosovo with the NATO contingent (KFOR).

“Serbs and Albanians have lived here for centuries, side by side,” Irinej said. Recalling that he had served for 28 years in Kosovo, Irinej said he looked back with nostalgia to those years.

“I remember that period and wish that the two peoples may live in harmony and love, a life acceptable to both, today, tomorrow and always,” Irinej said.

Serbia opposes Kosovo independence, declared by majority ethnic Albanians and recognised by 70 countries, including the United States and 22 members of the European Union.

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

North Africa


Libya PM Liberated, Country’s Deficit Attains 50 Billion USD

June 7 — A few hours after revealing the arrest of Libyan prime minister, Mr. Baghdadi al Mahmoudi , and two of his subordinates three days ago, our sources in Tripoli informed Shaffaf that the PM has been liberated but is still being investigated.

According to the same sources, the government of Mr. Mahmoudi has spent the astronomous sum of 140 billion USD on corruption tainted infrastructure projects. “Libya is now a bankrupt country, with a huge current deficit of 50 billion USD”, according to one source.

*

Libya’s Prime Minister behind bars

Shaffaf Exclusive

The Prime Minister of Libya, Mr. Baghdadi Al Mahmoudi was arrested in Tripoli two days ago.His arrest was kept secret by the Libyan authorities. Have also arrested the governor of the Libyan central bank, Mr. Farhat Ben Qdara and number 2 of the Ministry of Planning, Mr. Ashour Tribil.

Mr. Baghdadi Al Mahmoudi and his accomplices are accused of abuse of public property and mishandling of public funds.

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

Israel and the Palestinians


Did Obama Deal Blackmail Israel?

Concessions extracted amid fears Iranian weapons headed for Gaza

NEW YORK — The U.S. extracted concessions from Israel in exchange for American opposition to the establishment of a United Nations commission to investigate Israel’s commando raid of a flotilla earlier this month that resulted in the deaths of nine violent activists, WND has learned.

Separately, an official from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told WND the Obama administration pressed hard on Israel to ease a blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Israel says the blockade is intended to stop the shipment of weapons into Gaza.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Flash: Israel Revises Gaza Policy; World Gets What it Wants: Terrorist, Genocidal, Antisemitic, Revolutionary Islamist Statelet on the Mediterranean

by Barry Rubin

Israel has looked for a policy that preserves its security to the maximum extent, undermines Hamas as much as possible, and reduces international criticism, in that order of priority. Thus, the cabinet has approved an altered strategy on the Gaza Strip.

The main principle can be summarized as placing the emphasis on anything that can be used for military purposes against Israel but easing up on the destabilizing effort. This makes sense since the international community’s protection of the Hamas regime—despite the fact that it is a revolutionary Islamist, terrorist, genocide-intending, anti-Western client of Iran that will fight Israel and subvert Egypt in future—makes its overthrow impossible any way.

The June 20 cabinet decision states:

“Israel’s policy is to protect its citizens against terror, rocket and other attacks from Gaza. In seeking to keep weapons and war materiel out of Gaza while liberalizing the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza….”

Thus, the first principle is:

1. Publish a list of items not permitted into Gaza that is limited to weapons and war materiel, including problematic dual-use items. All items not on this list will be permitted to enter Gaza.

This is a great contraction of previous lists. A range of construction materials—cement, which can also be used for military bunkers; pipes that can be used for making rockets—must be watched closely. Hence, point 2:

2. Enable and expand the inflow of dual-use construction materials for approved PA-authorized projects (schools, health facilities, water, sanitation, etc.) that are under international supervision and for housing projects such as the U.N. housing development being completed at Khan Yunis. Israel intends to accelerate the approval of such projects in accordance with accepted mechanisms and procedures.

The theory is that international agencies will make sure the materiels are used for building nice things, not pillboxes and reinforced bunkers. No doubt Israel will report on whether this promise is kept (though reports to the contrary will probably be ignored)

The land crossings will be expanded to admit more materials at a faster rate for sending into the Gaza Strip, and procedures for letting people leave to get medical treatment or other purposes will be streamlined..

What does Israel get in exchange?…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



Orthodox Against High Court, 22 Mothers Escape

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JUNE 18 — No punches are being pulled in the continuing feud between orthodox Jews and Israel’s secular institutions, which began after an end was requested to the segregation of students of different ethnic origin in a girl’s school in the West Bank settlement of Emmanuel. Yesterday, over 100,000 orthodox Jews began a mass demonstration in support of the dozens of parents condemned to two weeks in prison for ignoring the injunction by the Supreme Court putting an end to the discrimination. 35 orthodox Jews, fathers of Ashkenazi students (of European descent) at the school in Emmanuel, have been held since last night in a prison just outside Tel Aviv, where they have been able to recreate a religious environment. The authorities have allowed them to take study books and food prepared according to strict orthodox traditions. However, authorities noticed last night that 22 women and 3 men who were also supposed to have been arrested were missing. According to the orthodox press, the women decided to escape arrest, partly so that they could protect their numerous families. As a result, the women fled to other orthodox locations. One of these women, the press says, gave birth to her twelfth child this morning. Her husband, who is also being pursued by the police, was by her side during the birth in a secret location. The police now find themselves disorientated by such a situation. The Supreme Court has announced that the issue of the women’s arrest can wait until Sunday. In the mean time, many sides are seeking an end to the crisis, and are hoping for the arrests of the fathers to be cancelled. An appeal to this end was launched today by an association of Sephardi Jews (of Arab extraction), which was the first to bring to light the case of the “segregated” school in Emmanuel. According to the daily newspaper Haaretz, the chief prosecutor, Yehuda Weinstein, now intends to demand the release of the Orthodox prisoners, believing that the move is not helping to resolve the crisis. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Emirates Orders 32 Airbus A380s for USD 11.5 Bln

(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, JUNE 8 — The Dubai-based airline, Emirates, has ordered 32 A380 superjumbo aircraft from Airbus, for a value of 11.5 billion dollars (around 9.6 billion euros at the current rate of exchange). The announcement was made in Berlin today by the chief executive of the holding company FADS, Tom Enders, during a press conference marking the first day of the international aeronautical show(ILA). The European aeronautical group has therefore been given the first order for a new passenger aircraft in around a year, with a deal signed today at the ILA by Enders and sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum. The German chancellor Angela Merkel also attended. The 32 new superjumbos follow the 58 A380 already ordered by the Emirati company and provide further proof of “Emirates’ strategy to become a world leading carrier and to further strengthen Dubai’s role as a world air traffic hub,” said sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum. (ANSAmed).

2010-06-08 19:17

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Food: Algida Ice-Cream Celebrates 20th Year in Turkey

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 18 — Algida ice-cream of Unilever Food Marketing is celebrating its 20th year in Turkey, as Anatolia news agency reports. Mustafa Seckin from Unilever Food Marketing held a press conference in Istanbul on Thursday and said that Turkey’s ice-cream consumption per capita was 0.3 liters in 1990s, adding that this rate increased to 2.8 liters today, however, Algida’s target was to double this figure within the next five years. Noting that Unilever’s ice-cream had an annual turnover more than five billion Euro all over the world, Seckin said that today, they reached millions of people in 115 countries of the world. He added that Unilever sold 2.3 billion liters of ice-cream in the whole world today. Seckin said that Algida entered Turkish market by opening Corlu Factory in 1990. Noting that the factory had 10 million liters of production capacity in 1990, Seckin said that its capacity increased to 200 million liters today, adding that the factory became Europe’s second and world’s sixth biggest one. Seckin said that they provided employment for 3,200 people in Turkey. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Iraqi Son Kills Father Who Translated for U.S.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An al Qaeda-linked insurgent shot and killed his own father as he slept in his bed Friday for refusing to quit his job as an Iraqi interpreter for the U.S. military, police said, a rare deadly attack on a close family member over allegations of collaborating with the enemy.

The attack happened on a particularly bloody day in Iraq, with at least 27 people killed nationwide in bombings and ambushes largely targeting the houses of government officials, Iraqi security forces and those seen as allied with them.

Hameed al-Daraji, 50, worked as a contractor and translator for the U.S. military for seven years since shortly after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

He was shot in the chest about 3 a.m. while sleeping in his house in Samarra, a former insurgent stronghold 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police Lt. Emad Muhsin said.

Authorities arrested the son and his cousin, saying the young men apparently were trying to prove their loyalty after rejoining the insurgency. Police were also looking for another son who allegedly took part in the attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Mustafa Ismail Under Trial in a Military Court in Syria

Mutafa Ismael covered turkish affairs for Middle East Transparent. A summary of his case

The Second Military Prosecutor in Military Court in Aleppo has charged Mustafa Ismail of making plans and actions aimed at offending Syrian relationships with foreign countries and being member of an illegal organization aiming to divide Syria and join a new country. The case is number 394-2010, 13 may 2010

As a result of this decision Ismail will stand trial in the Military Court in Aleppo. The charges could be punished with one to five years in prison.

The Second Military Prosecutor in Military Court had rejected all the bail request submitted by Ismail’s lawyers.

Ismail was summoned for interrogation on 10 December already by the air force department of the Syrian secret service in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani (Arab: Ain al-Arab). He was then told to report to the head-office of the same security department in the north Syrian city of Aleppo. He followed this directive, but did not return. Where the Syrian security forces are holding the Kurdish human right worker at present is unknown.

On 16 November Mustafa Ismail informed the STP (Society for Threatened Peoples) that the State Security Service had interrogated him two days previously in Aleppo. This was for him the third interrogation within one year after 13 March and 3 October. Every time he was accused of making public statements on the situation of the Kurds in Syria. But he was neither tortured nor treated badly.

Mustafa Ismail was first arrested by Syrian Political Intelligence in 2000. Because he was participated in a TV program on Kurdish channel ‘‘MedyaTV’’ and he was jailed for weeks in Aleppo. As he was called many times by Syrian intelligence, in October 2009 he was called by Military Intelligent Department and called by State Intelligent Department. Ismail now in Central Aleppo Prison after resulting disappeared for three months during which he is believed to have been in the hands of Syrian intelligence.

Ismail lives and works in the town of Ain al-Arab, 440 km from Damascus in the north of Syria. In his capacity as lawyer he represents many Kurds and Arabs who have been arrested on account of their activities of political opposition.

Mustafa Ismail was born in 1973 in Kobani (Ain Al-Arab), is married and father of three children. He is well known journalist, intellectual, poem, lawyer and human defender. Ismail has dozens of political articles and research and legal studies. Also he translated a lot of research and articles from and into Arabic. So many Kurdish and Arabic websites, newspapers and magazines published him articles and research which is characterized by political criticism, human rights violations in Syria and is interested in public affairs. Mustafa Ismail participated as guest in one of documentary films dealing with the social situation in the Syrian Kurdish countryside. Also Ismail was participated in many TV programs as reviewer political analyst and human rights on several Kurdish satellite channels, Mustafa Ismail, served as a correspondent for Kurdish newspaper “Azadiya Welat” that is published in Diyarbakir City the largest Kurdish city southeast Turkey. Ismail served as correspondent for Radio “Sydney 2000” Australia.

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



Turkey: Marriages Dropped and Divorces Rose in 2009

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 18 — Over 591,000 marriages were registered and more than 114,000 divorces were granted in Turkey in 2009, according to figures released today by the Turkish statistics authority, TurkStat, an quoted by Anatolia news agency. Registered marriages had been 641,973 in 2008 and they dropped to 591,742 in 2009 while the number of divorces rose from 99,663 in 2008 to 114,162 in 2009. In 2009, the median age for first-time marriage was 26.3 years for men and 23 years for women. Turkey’s Aegean region had the highest crude divorce rate (divorces per 1,000 people) with 2.27 while the lowest crude divorce rate was in northeast Anatolia with 0.58 in 2009. In 2009, 40% of divorces were granted in the first five years of marriage. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



US, Israel Warships in Suez May be Prelude to Faceoff With Iran

Egypt allowed at least one Israeli and 11 American warships to pass through the Suez Canal as an Iranian flotilla approaches Gaza. Egypt closed the canal to protect the ships with thousands of soldiers, according to the British-based Arabic language newspaper Al Quds al-Arabi.

One day prior to the report on Saturday, Voice of Israel government radio reported that the Egyptian government denied an Israeli request not to allow the Iranian flotilla to use the Suez Canal to reach Gaza, in violation of the Israeli sea embargo on the Hamas-controlled area.

International agreements require Egypt to keep the Suez open even for warships, but the armada, led by the USS Truman with 5,000 sailors and marines, was the largest in years. Egypt closed the canal to fishing and other boats as the armada moved through the strategic passageway that connects the Red and Mediterranean Seas.

Despite Egypt’s reported refusal to block the canal to Iranian boats, the clearance for the American-Israeli fleet may be a warning to Iran it may face military opposition if the Iranian Red Crescent ship continues on course to Gaza.

The warships may exercise the right to inspect the Iranian boat for the illegal transport or weapons. Newsweek reported that Egyptian authorities could stop the ship for weeks, using technicalities such as requiring that any official documents be translated from Farsi into Arabic.

The magazine’s website also reported that the Iranian navy is the weakest part of its armed forces. Tehran has already backed down from announced intentions to escort the Iranian ships with “volunteer marines” from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

The Iranian news site Hamsayeh.net reported, “The move might be in connection to U.S. self-inflicted embargo against Iran aimed at inspecting Iran bound ships for suspected goods related to the country’s nuclear program.”

Another battle on the high seas may involve one, and possibly two, Lebanese vessels that are aimed at challenging Israel’s sovereignty over the Gaza coastal waters. Hizbullah, gearing up for a reaction to a possible clash between the Israeli Navy (pictured) and the Lebanese boats, has delayed rocket units near Lebanese ports, according to unofficial military sources.

Israel has warned U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Israel will use force, if necessary, to stop the boats, one of which is carrying approximately 70 women passengers and crew organized by Hizbullah support Samar al-Hajj. Her husband is one of several jailed suspects involved in the assassination for former Lebanese anti-Syrian Prime Rafik Hariri.

Hizbullah has denied it is connected with the Lebanese flotilla, but it has been reported that Al Hajj met with Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah last month.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Yemen: Several Killed in Rebel Attack in Aden

Aden, 19 June (AKI) — A group of armed men attacked a building housing Yemen’s intelligence services in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, provoking a violent clash with security forces in which 12 people were reported to have been killed.

Security officials said heavily armed men entered the facility after attacking the building’s guards.

At least two members of the security forces have been killed. Unconfirmed reports said another 10 people, including six security personnel, were also dead.

The gunman, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, exchanged fire with the guards at the intelligence headquarters in the Tawahi District, officials said.

The attackers were reported to have freed a number of people detained at the facility.

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



Yemen: Eleven Killed as ‘Al Qaeda Gunmen Stage Daring Prison Break’

At least 11 people were killed today when heavily-armed militants dressed in military uniforms stormed the Yemeni intelligence service’s headquarters, security officials confirmed.

Seven security men, three women and a seven-year old child were killed in the exchange of fire.

Yemeni security officials said nine others were injured, while hospital officials said at least 15 wounded people had been brought to the local hospital.

Though no group has claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, Yemen’s government said it bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, according to the initial investigation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Russia


Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ At G-8

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.”

“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it.”

The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,” was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G-8 delegations, Medvedev said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Russia-France: Leaders to Endorse New Oil and Gas Accords

St. Petersburg, 19 June (AKI) — Russia and France on Saturday were due to endorse a number of accords on cooperation in oil and gas, aerospace and transport industries. The signing was to take place after talks between Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Both leaders were to attend the ceremony after an agreement between Italian energy giant Eni and Russian gas company Gazprom on Friday enabled utility Electricite de France to be involved in a joint project to send Russian gas to Europe.

The deal was signed in the Russian city of St. Petersburg and will allow Electricite de France to buy a stake in the South Stream venture, which is building pipeline infrastructure across the Black Sea.

“In the presence of the leaders of Russia and France several bilateral documents are to be signed, including a memorandum between Gazprom, ENI, and EDF on the joint development of the offshore stretch of the South Stream gas pipeline project, “ a Kremlin source told news agency, Itar-Tass.

He also said the presidents were going to “discuss the prospects of relations between Russia and France, especially those in the sphere of trading and economic relations and partnership for the sake of modernisation.”

Russian aerospace agency Roscosmos planned to sign a contract with ArianSpace to buy an additional consignment of Soyuz booster rockets for the space centre in Guyana.

Eni said on Friday that it had signed a memorandum, clearing EDF to enter the South Stream project and that the agreement would be signed on Saturday.

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

South Asia


Afghanistan: Troops Foil Plot to Murder Children

BRITISH troops have foiled a sick Taliban plot to kill dozens of innocent Afghan children on their first day at school.

They found bombs which had been planted in the school by insurgents who knew eager kids would soon be flocking into its grounds to begin a new learning year.

The bombers hatched their plan after a tribal elder used the village mosque’s ­public address system to announce the school would re-open for the first time in three years after Taliban threats forced it to close.

As it opened, a six-year-old boy ran into the schoolyard and trod on a mine which blew off his right leg below the knee.

The mine was linked to a much larger bomb which would have killed every child and teacher in the school had it gone off. That’s when the gunners from II ­Squadron of the RAF Regiment swung into action.

Sqn Ldr Matt Carter said: “We mounted a squadron-level operation to clear the rest of the village, make the school safe and reassure the villagers.”

His men teamed up with locals to guard the school for three days until bomb ­disposal experts could arrive to scour the grounds for more devices. They soon found another mine which they defused.

Then RAF Regiment gunners patrolled the village for the next few days — and now the people of Molla Abdullah Kariz have turned against the Taliban.

Sqn Ldr Carter said: “The villagers saw immediately that the insurgents had ­targeted the future of the village by ­attacking the school and the next ­generation.

“This was a turning point. As a result, the vast ­majority of the locals now openly support the Afghan government and ­coalition forces.”

The change of mood has seen locals ­volunteering for a registration and ­identity card scheme. Other villages ­nearby are also clamouring for ID cards.

Sqn Ldr Carter explained: “ID cards help greatly because they give the insurgents fewer places to hide among a population moving towards acceptance of the Afghan government.”

Village leader Janaan (many Afghans use only one name) told the Daily Star Sunday: “The boy who was injured is now doing well and is back at the school.

“After that, the people here now hate the Taliban. We are happy that the British have helped us.”

It’s a clear victory for the RAF Regiment, the troops responsible for keeping ­Kandahar airbase secure.

Their men live and work outside the base, spending 15 days at a time among the Afghans.

They patrol the area with Jackal, Coyote, ­Panther and Vixen vehicles to stop rocket and mortar attacks on the base.

They recently caught a three-man ­bombing team who had a rocket with them and were trying to plant an improvised ­explosive device (IED).

A US helicopter crew spotted the gang and II Squadron raced in to arrest one man as the other two fled on a motorbike.

The gunners are also parachute-trained and have already launched helicopter ­patrols so the Taliban do not know where or when to expect them next.

The Daily Star Sunday was at Kandahar airbase when they halted a major ­Taliban attack, calling in helicopter gunships to lay down a barrage of fire before ­boarding their own choppers to chase down and capture the fleeing insurgents.

But they have suffered losses.

Senior Aircraftsman Luke Southgate, 20, was killed while on patrol in February when an IED blew up the ­machine ­gunner’s WMIK Land Rover.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



India: Some Muslim Practices Cause Poverty, Muslim Religious Leader Says

For Ibrahim Musliyar Bekal, the dowry system, the ban on married women working, and frequent desertion by husbands explain indigence in Muslim communities.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) — For Ibrahim Musliyar Bekal, a Muslim religious leader in Karnataka’s Udupi District, the Muslim community is largely to blame for its poverty. After visiting ten families living in abject poverty, he said that some Muslim practices explain widespread underdevelopment.

Bekal, who is Qazi (Kadi, religious judge) in Udupi, said that it “is very important to eradicate the dowry system and other such evils prevailing in the Muslim community”, which undermine “its overall development”.

The dowry system forces families to pay millions of rupees to the groom’s family in order to take in their daughters in marriage. Even though the practice is illegal since the adoption of the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, it still shapes people’s mindset and culture.

Another evil that burdens Muslims is the status of women who, after marriage, are not allowed to work. To illustrate his point, Qazi Ibrahim Musliyar Bekal mentioned the moving case of a family who had two female members become mentally ill after they were deserted by their husbands many years ago. Sadly, he said there are many instances of various forms of abuse that are inflicted upon unfortunate women who end up languishing at home without support.

According to Indian government figures, some 251 people lived below the poverty line in 2005. Of these, 31 per cent was Muslim even though Muslims represent only 13.4 per cent of the population.

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



The Plight of the Ahmadi Community in Islamic Republic of Pakistan

by Amir Mir

LAHORE: “I am an Ahmadi, My name is Khan. There are four million of me in Pakistan. This Islamic Republic is the only state in the world which has officially declared me to be a non-Muslim. Why? It’s simple. I am an Ahmadi,” so writes Wajahat S. Khan, a Pakistani television journalist at his word press blog, hardly 24 hours after the appalling massacre of 95 Ahmadis on May 27, 2010 while they were offering Friday prayers in mosques located in two different localities of Lahore, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Thousands of worshippers, including women and children, were at Friday prayers when the fidayeen style terror raids at the two mosques began. It was surreal to see the images unfolding on our television screens when the terrorists went inside the two houses of prayer and unleashed their terror on the innocent worshippers. Numerous explosions were heard at the crime scenes in Model Town and Garhi Shahu and gunfire continued for hours, with images of at least two gunmen firing at police from the roof of one of the mosques. The gunmen opened during Friday prayers and threw grenades at mosques in residential neighbourhoods in Lahore. Of the two mosques targeted by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists, Baitul Noor is located in the upscale neighbourhood of Model Town while Darul Zikr is located in the heavily congested walled city area of Garhi Shahu.

At least one dozen heavily armed fidayeen attackers carrying hand grenades and automatic weapons, some of them wearing suicide jackets, stormed the mosques in two separate groups of seven and five respectively, hurling grenades and firing at worshippers. At the Garhi Shahu mosque, the attackers took hostage many of the Ahmadi worshipers and assumed control of the building. One of the attackers climbed atop the minaret of the mosque, started firing with an assault rifle and throwing hand grenades. The police force took almost three hours to kill the hostage takers and regain control of the mosque. As a result, 23 people were killed in Model Town and 72 in Garhi Shahu. The dead bodies were buried separately on Saturday after the Ahmadiya community cancelled a mass funeral because they were not satisfied with the security arrangements.

The Ahmadis had been shoved into quarters of isolation a long time ago by the Pakistani religio-political clergy. As Wajahat Khan puts it in his blog, “Ordinances have been passed against me. Acts and Constitutional Amendments have been drafted around me. Shortly after the heart and soul of our nation was ripped into two, a country reeling to define and defend its own identity unleashed itself upon me. In 1974, a parliament I had voted for adopted a law that outlawed me. You might have noted the affects of that today. As my attackers unleashed their wrath, television networks I watch and love got the location of the bloodshed all wrong. What I call a mosque, they called a “place of worship”. That’s alright though. It’s not their fault. I’m used to the special treatment. After all, I am an Ahmadi. But I wish things were different. I wish I was like you. I wish I was a Sunni, a Shia, a Punjabi, a Pakhtoon, a Baloch, a Sindhi, a Memon, a Gujrati, a Siraiki, or a Makrani. If I was any of those, or even anyone else, I would have been called a martyr or “shaheed” in the papers today.”

Interestingly, the heart wrenching blog did fetch a lot of comments from fellow bloggers but each one of them began by clarifying, “I am not an Ahmadi.” Naziha commented, “The Friday attack, the hatred, the growing extremism and palpable fear has become too much. Too much even for those who have always put Pakistan first, no matter what the threat; those who have always opted to contribute, no matter how severe the injustice, who have always considered themselves Pakistani, no matter how painful the identity.” Similarly, Sahar wrote, “I’m a Sunni. But today, we are all Ahmadis. We all grieve. And in our grief, we must all stand up as one and say no to this violence, and we must demand that the anti-Ahmadis laws be repealed immediately!”

The Ahmadis are a Muslim sect which was founded in Qadian, Punjab, in the 19th century. Its founder was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a Muslim who claimed prophetic status as the Mahdi or Messiah, in succession to Krishna, Jesus Christ and Mohammed. Many Muslims of the mainstream Sunni sect are opposed to the Ahmadis as they believe that the group recognizes a successor to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which contravenes conventional Islamic belief. However, the Ahmadi sect was formally declared non-Muslim in the Pakistani Constitution in 1974, by the then government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the face of a strong agitation launched by the country’s religio-political parties.

Since then, the Ahmadi sect has experienced state-sanctioned discrimination and occasional attacks by extremist Sunnis. Its four million-odd members have seen their religious rights in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan curtailed by law with every passing day. Ahmadis have been barred from holding their religious meetings even in Rabwah (also called Chanab Nagar), a town in Punjab that is the headquarters of the Ahmadi sect. Almost 95 percent of the population of this town is Ahmadi. However, the entire population of the town was forbidden to elect or even vote for their local government councilors. They were told that they could vote only as non-Muslims, which was unacceptable to them. Consequently, a local council was imposed on Rabwah, which did not represent 95% of its population.

With four million Ahmadis in Pakistan, persecution of Ahmadis has been quite systematic in this country whose founder had envisioned a liberal and secular state of Pakistan. But Pakistan is the only state to have officially declared the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. The Ahmadis of Pakistan are prohibited by law from self-identifying as Muslims, and their freedom of religion has been curtailed by a series of ordinances, acts and constitutional amendments. As a result, persecution and hate-related incidents are constantly reported from different parts of the country, and Ahmadis have been the target of many attacks led by various religious groups, mainly belonging to the sunni deobandi sectarian groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

It is not for the first time that the sunni deobandi Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has targeted some minority sect in the country. But in the past, Shias used to be the prime target of the Hakeemullah Mehsud-led terror outfit. As far as the Friday’s bloody episode is concerned, many in the security agencies believe that the TTP actually decided to target the Ahmadis with the hope that it may win the sympathies of those in the Pakistani society who consider it a right to kill them (wajib-ul-qatal). The fact, however, is that the ant-Shia TTP unleashed terror on the worshipers of a minority that is not even allowed to call their place of worship a mosque and is forbidden under the Constitution and the law not to pronounce themselves Muslim or call their kalma as kalma.

In the aftermath of the May 27, 2010 terror attacks, many here believe that Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan has become an intolerant nation where religious and sectarian minorities live in fear, they remain vulnerable and are awarded little or no protection by the state. This mindset is no more confined to the Pakistani Taliban who are in the habit of killing in the name of religion. Today, there is no shortage of sectarian and other militant outfits in Pakistan that feel justified in murdering Ahmadis, Shias, and Christians — or indeed anyone who doesn’t share their views.

In the words of Imtiaz Alam, the secretary general of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), we don’t have the right to protest against the transgression of a misguided cartoonist against our faith if we do not allow the same right to our minorities to protest the agony of not being allowed to practice what they believe. “Since the first anti-Ahmadiya movement, passage of the 4th Amendment and promulgation of the Qadiyani Ordinance by General Ziaul Haq, a witch-hunt of the Ahmadis continues unabated. If certain westerners are not sensitive to our feelings, and we rightly protest, we too are insensitive towards our minorities or those we do not agree with us and we do not even allow them the right to challenge the injustice done to them”.

Asma Jahangir, the chairperson of the human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) believed that the politics of fanning religious frenzy on the basis of sectarianism, blasphemy and fighting infidels is intrinsically linked to creating an environment for breeding nurseries of terrorism and promoting vigilantism. “It creates a culture of intolerance that is inimical to all democratic values. It is not a matter of an ideological battle between the liberals and the rightists; it is a matter of keeping democratic values above all considerations. If the scourge of terrorism is to be eliminated, it can only be done by defeating their fascist ideology and subscribing to undiluted democratic and civilised values”, she added.

Pakistan’s terror-stricken Ahmadi community says the gory attack on its two worship places has made them more vulnerable. “The religious hardliners want us to leave Pakistan,” Qamar Suleman, a Jammat-e-Ahamdiya Pakistan office-bearer said. “All Pakistani extremist religious organisations are against Ahmadis and their negative propaganda had paved the way for such attacks. “Some groups even endorse the idea to kill Ahmadis terming them infidels as a license to go to heaven. Since no government has ever come hard on the elements instigating violence, it cannot be absolved of Friday’s tragedy. After this attack, we are very scared. Some of us are thinking to leave the country for the safety of our lives. Unless the government eliminates such elements such incidents can never be stopped,” he added.

English daily The News said in an editorial after the attack that Pakistan’s Ahmadi community has been under attack since the 1950s. “With the decades that have passed since then, the severity of their persecution has increased, and has been enshrined in law. In the mid-1970s they were declared non-Muslim. A decade later a bar was placed on them preaching or professing their faith. Violence of all kinds against them — murder, kidnappings, and forced conversions — has taken place. The latest attack is a continuation of this. It fits too with the more organised terrorism we have been seeing recently”, it added.

English daily Dawn said in one such editorial that the gruesome attacks on the Ahmadi worshippers were a tragic reminder of the growing intolerance that is threatening to destroy our social fabric. “Bigotry in this country has been decades in the making and is expressed in a variety of ways. Violence by individuals or groups against those who hold divergent views may be the most despicable manifestation of such prejudice but it is by no means the only one. Religious minorities in Pakistan have not only been shunted to the margins of society but also face outright persecution on a regular basis”, it added.

But a Daily Times editorial was quite critical of the Punjab government being run by the Pakistan Msulim League (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif. “We have seen the Punjab government’s top minister hobnobbing with the leaders of banned terrorist groups, case in point being Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah mollycoddling a Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan leader in the Jhang district for electoral purposes. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif recently begging mercy from the Taliban to spare Punjab is another grim reminder that our leaders are playing a very dangerous game. It seems the PML-N is playing the role of a fifth column in this war against terrorism. Instead of owning up to the fact that there are terrorists in Punjab, the provincial government has shifted the blame to an obscure ‘foreign hand’. The provincial government should not try to fool the public with red herrings. The people of this country want answers and not flimsy excuses. The Friday attacks were not just an assault on the Ahmadis but an assault on every citizen of Pakistan”, the editorial concluded.

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

Far East


Uighurs Flee China After Riots

By GILLIAN WONG

BEIJING (AP) — Police came looking for Vali days after bloody ethnic riots broke out in the far west last year, saying they had video footage of him among fleeing protesters and later shouting at an officer.

The 22-year-old man was not home, and his father called to tell him to stay away. Vali hid for weeks before escaping to the Netherlands to join an estimated 150 other Uighurs — a Muslim minority group from China’s Xinjiang region — seeking refugee status.

“Once I got off the plane, I told the police that I need political asylum,” Vali said in a phone interview. “I told them everything that I had been through and said I can no longer live in China. If I have to go back I am 100 percent sure that I will be dead.”

Nearly a year after the worst riots in China’s far west in more than a decade, his story and that of another asylum seeker interviewed by The Associated Press are among the few accounts to emerge of how some Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs) got out amid a government crackdown.

At least 300 Uighurs are thought to have fled China since the July unrest, according to the World Uyghur Congress. Some slipped illegally into neighboring countries in Central Asia, which regularly extradite Uighurs back to China. Others with more money, such as Vali, paid thousands of dollars to criminal gangs and smugglers for plane tickets and visas.

China says some Uighurs are terrorists or criminals who pose a threat to the region’s safety, and has previously insisted that Uighur refugees be extradited back. Foreign governments weary of immigrants and wary of offending China are often unwelcoming or play down the presence of Uighurs.

Cambodia sent back 20 Uighur refugees to China in December despite international protests. Turkey, which has strong ethnic and linguistic ties to the group, has eased entry requirements, but its government is reluctant to talk about the influx of dozens of Uighurs.

The Netherlands is home to what is believed to be largest group in Europe, because many international flights pass through Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

The two Uighurs in Holland told the AP of the fear of being ensnared by a crackdown that has detained hundreds, often unaccounted for months later. Chinese media reports say at least 25 people, mostly Uighurs, have been tried and sentenced to death for crimes related to the riots.

The Uighurs told their stories on condition that only their last names be used, citing fears of retaliation against their families. Now they wait to see if they will be granted asylum — or sent home…

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Immigration


EU: Italy Among Countries to Grant Most Asylum

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — Italy is part of the group of European countries that in 2009 granted more asylum permits: this was announced by EU statistics office Eurostat. According to the data released today, in 2009 a total of 78,800 asylum permits were granted in the 27 EU countries, on 260,000 requests that were presented. Of these, most were granted by the UK (12,500), followed by Germany (12,100), France (10,400), Sweden (9,100), Italy (8,600) and the Netherlands (8,100). These countries together are responsible for three quarter of all permits that were granted in Europe. In 2009 most citizens who obtained the refugee status came from Somalia (13,400, 17% of the total), Iraq (13,100) and Afghanistan (7,100). Italy accepted 2,400 Somali, Sweden 4,000 and the Netherlands 3,600. Italy also welcomed 1,305 Eritrean citizens. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Finland: Foreign-Born Residents to Set Up “Immigrant Parliament”

Immigrants in Finland will soon be entitled to choose 50 representatives for a planned “Immigrant Parliament of Finland”. The first elections for the body will coincide with next year’s elections of the Finnish Parliament.

Founders of the Immigrant Parliament say that the planned body will be the first in the world. It has no official status in Finland, but organisers hope that it could influence public opinion.

The aim of the body is to give a voice to immigrants in the Finnish immigration debate.

The father of the idea, Alexis Kouros, sees the parliament as a politically and religiously independent body.

“So far, the debate has been a monologue of the dominant population. The Parliament will turn it into a dialogue. It is harder to bypass its opinion than that of an individual immigrant”, Kouros explains.

Those eligible to vote in the election of the Immigrant Parliament will be foreigners who have lived in Finland for at least two years, foreign-born Finnish citizens, and the adult children of immigrants.

Candidates for the body must also meet the same requirements.

If each group of immigrants were to vote for their own citizens, the largest national groups in the body would be the Russians and the Estonians. Other large groups include Somalis, Chinese, Iraqis, Thai, and Germans, numbering between 5,000 and 7,000 each.

Those behind the project believe, however, that matters other than ethnic background will affect how people vote.

“We don’t want the Immigrant Parliament to be a place where people only talk about female circumcision. The same things are important to us that are important to others, but we have new points of view”, says Professor Jeremy Gould, one of the founders of the idea.

The aim is not to set up a parallel system to the Finnish Parliament. The goal is to make it easier for immigrants to adapt to Finnish society.

“Immigrants are frustrated. The Parliament eases this frustration by offering a way to affect their own position”, Kouros says.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Harvard Student Won’t be Deported

BOSTON — An undocumented Harvard University student is no longer facing deportation to Mexico after being detained nearly two weeks ago by immigration authorities at a Texas airport, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said late Friday that they would not pursue the deportation of Eric Balderas. The 19-year-old was detained in June after he tried to use a university ID card to board a plane from San Antonio to Boston.

[…]

According to a Facebook page set up to highlight his case, Balderas was brought to the U.S. from Mexico by his family at age 4. He said he doesn’t remember living in Mexico.

He’s studying molecular and cellular biology at Harvard and hopes to become a cancer researcher. He said he qualified for Harvard’s privately funded scholarship package.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Berlin Celebrates Gay Pride Parade

Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade drew thousands of people in Berlin on Saturday, as around 50 trucks and marchers round their way around the city to end up for the first time at the Brandenburg Gate.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is openly gay, cut the ribbon to start the parade, which is overtly political as well as musical and with an emphasis on outrageous costumes.

The march takes its name from a street in New York where homosexuals first offered organised resistance to official repression after a gay bar was violently raided by police in 1969.

The message in Berlin is that gay people still face discrimination and violent attacks even in such nominally liberal countries as Germany.

“There is still daily discrimination against, and attacks upon, homosexuals,” said Wowereit. “We have to fight for equal rights for as long as that remains the case.”

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

News Feed 20100619

Financial Crisis
» Syria: Economic Intelligence Unit Improves Rating
 
USA
» Global Poll Shows Muslims Leery of US and Obama
» Obama’s Oil Spill
 
Europe and the EU
» EU: Nearly 80:000 Asylum Seekers Welcomed in 2009
» France: Gen. Bigeard Dies, Protagonist Battle of Algiers
» Franco-Spanish School of Fashion in Madrid
» Iceland Turns Away From EU
» Italian Natuzzi to Open 8 New Shops in Turkey
» Italy: Cooperation: Commercial Bridge Sicily-Syria Launched
» Med: Negotiations Continue on Exceptions
» One-Third of Germans Allowed to Watch World Cup at Work
» Report From the Kiev Conference
» Sweden Approves New Nuclear Reactors
» UK: ‘Against Fascism in All Its Colours’ — Statement From Tower Hamlets Activists
» UK: ‘Wicked’ Woman Saw Four Innocent Men Arrested After Slashing Her Own Face and Crying Rape
» UK: Prince Charles Promotes Islam
» UK: Sowing the Seeds of Division
» UK: Sectarian Idiots Attempt to Undermine Anti-Fascist Unity in Tower Hamlets
 
Balkans
» Albania: Racing Towards Europe, But Past is Not Forgotten
» Albania: Challenge to Enter EU Starts With Infrastructure
» World Cup: Serbian Fans Celebrate Win Over Germany
 
Mediterranean Union
» Greece-Libya: New Submarine Fibre Optic Cable by End of 2011
 
North Africa
» Hitler’s ‘Number One Anti-Semite’ Converted to Islam, Worked for Nasser and Nazi Underground
» Morocco: World Bank Loan for Education, Roads and Water
» Tunisia: Aquaculture Increasing
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israeli Deputy FM Thanks Italy for Supporting Israel’s Right to Self-Defense
 
Middle East
» Erdogan Fans Anti-Israeli, Anti-American Sentiments for Political Gain
» Iran is Capable of Firing Hundreds of Missiles at Europe, Warns U.S.
» Iran’s New Revolutionary Politics
» Turkey: Eight Soldiers Killed by ‘Kurdish Rebels’
» Two New Blunders by U.S. Government in Middle East
 
Russia
» Medvedev Pushes Ruble Reserve Currency to Cut Dollar Dominance
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Spain Confirms Troop Withdrawal in Summer 2011
» Pakistan: Drone Attack Kills Militants in Border Region
» Pakistan: Militants Free Accomplices in Karachi Court
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» The Dreaded Vuvuzela Claims Its First Victim: Woman Bursts Her Windpipe ‘By Blowing Too Hard’
» World Cup: Website Offers Tips for Muslim Fans
 
General
» A Grand Design: Made to Order
» Understanding Muslims’ Mindset

Financial Crisis


Syria: Economic Intelligence Unit Improves Rating

(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, JUNE 18 — The economic think tank, Economic Intelligence Unit, has reviewed its rating of Syria’s sovereign debt in an upwards direction, raising it from “CCC” to “B”. According to the Italian Foreign Trade Commission in Damascus, the promotion is due to an improvement in the economic climate and a relatively modest trade deficit as well as a better state of the country’s finances. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA


Global Poll Shows Muslims Leery of US and Obama

Muslims around the globe remain uneasy about the U.S. and are increasingly disenchanted with President Barack Obama, according to a poll that suggests his drive to improve relations with the Muslim world has had little impact.

Even so, the U.S. image is holding strong in many other countries and continues to be far better than it was during much of George W. Bush’s presidency, according to the survey.

There is one glaring exception: Mexico, where 62 percent expressed favorable views of the U.S. just days before an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigrants was signed in April, but only 44 percent did so afterward.

The findings by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted in April and May in the United States and 21 other countries by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, come amid a global economic downturn and U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The poll has been measuring the views of people around the world since 2002.

Among the seven countries surveyed with substantial Muslim populations, the U.S. was seen favorably by just 17 percent in Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan and 21 percent in Jordan. The U.S.’s positive rating was 52 percent in Lebanon, 59 percent in Indonesia and 81 percent in Nigeria, where Muslims comprise about half the population.

None of those figures was an improvement from last year. There were slight dips in Jordan and in Indonesia, where Obama spent several years growing up. Egypt saw a 10-point drop, even though Obama gave a widely promoted June 2009 speech in Cairo aimed at reaching out to the Muslim world.

In all seven of those countries, the percentage of Muslims expressing confidence in Obama has also dropped since last year. Only in Nigeria and Indonesia do majorities of Muslims voice confidence in him; in Obama’s worst showing, just 8 percent in Pakistan do.

The survey found that majorities of the public in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon and Pakistan say the U.S. could someday be a military threat to their country.

“You get a sense of Muslim disappointment with Barack Obama,” said Andy Kohut, the Pew president, who attributed it to discontent with U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to expectations raised by Obama’s Cairo speech.

The surveys were taken before Israel’s deadly May 31 clash with a flotilla of boats trying to break the blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, which sparked widespread condemnation of Israel.

In the rest of the world, the U.S. and Obama generally fare better.

The 6 in 10 in Germany and Spain who view the U.S. favorably has doubled from the lows reached under Bush. The U.S. image is also significantly better than it was under Bush in Russia, China, France, Argentina, South Korea and Japan. Obama is broadly supported, but the percentages expressing confidence in him have ebbed in 14 countries polled.

In only five countries do majorities think the U.S. considers other nations when setting its foreign policy. Support for U.S. anti-terrorism efforts and Obama’s handling of economic problems is generally strong, but there is significant opposition to American involvement in Afghanistan and little faith that a stable government will emerge in Iraq.

The poll also found that:

-In the seven Muslim nations polled, the portion of Muslims saying suicide attacks are sometimes justified ranged from 39 percent in Lebanon to 5 percent in Turkey. Nowhere did Muslims give majority support to Osama bin Laden or his al-Qaida terrorist group.

-In every nation but Poland, China and Brazil, most are unhappy with how things are going in their country, though dissatisfaction has grown in only three countries in the past year. Attitudes about each country’s economic situation are similarly negative, though a bit brighter than a year ago.

-Nine in 10 Chinese are happy with their country’s economy, by far the highest mark of any nation polled. China is seen more positively than negatively in 15 countries, and in eight countries China is viewed as the world’s leading economic power — up from two who said so last year.

-Only in Pakistan does a majority favor Iran having nuclear weapons. In most countries, economic sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program get higher support than military action. But significant numbers are prepared for a showdown: In 16 countries, more people who oppose Iran’s nuclear program consider stopping Tehran from getting such weapons more important than avoiding a military conflict.

-More people in every country except Egypt and Jordan said the environment should be a priority, even at the cost of economic growth and jobs. But only in nine countries are half or more willing to pay higher prices to address global warming.

-Three-fourths of Brazilians say their team will win this year’s World Cup soccer tournament, easily the most confident showing of the countries polled. Just 13 percent of Americans picked the U.S.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project was conducted by the Pew Research Center in 22 countries from April 7 through May 8, though the exact dates varied by country. Interviews were mostly conducted face-to-face, though telephone interviews were used in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Japan.

Sample sizes ranged from 700 people in Japan to 3,262 in China. National samples were used in all countries except China, India and Pakistan, where those interviewed were disproportionately urban. The margin of sampling error ranged from plus or minus 2.5 percentage points in China to 5 points in Germany.

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



Obama’s Oil Spill

Most Americans don’t know that three days after the Deepwater Horizon platform sank to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, along with any evidence of what caused the underwater pipeline explosion below the safety cutoff valves, the Dutch government called Obama and offered to loan BP ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and a plan to quickly build sand barriers to protect the marshlands that everyone knew would be affected worst if the seepage was left uncontained and the oil reached the Louisiana coastline. The Heritage Foundation reported that, according to one Dutch newspaper, the European oil companies that offered to help BP said that left to do the job alone they would have contained the oil and completely cleaned all of the oil scum from the Gulf of Mexico in four months. With the help of the US government, the report said, the cleanup would have be complete in three months or less. According to estimates from US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen and BP, the cleanup would take an estimated nine months—after they got the leak plugged.

Again, what the American people don’t know is that 13 different countries offered to help clean the oil sludge from the Gulf. And, finally, what the American people don’t know is that the Obama Administration turned all of them down. Obama had a crisis in the making and as Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel so aptly told the media during the housing and credit disasters that led to the piling on of over $3 trillion in new taxes on generations of Americans in February, 2009, you “…never let a crisis go to waste.”

[…]

But what should worry the American people most is the new life Obama’s oil crisis has pumped into the failed Cap & Trade legislation. Remember Cap & Trade? The Carbon Fuel tax? Cap & Trade or, if you prefer, Cap & Tax, didn’t die during the December, 2009 blizzard that greeted the environmental bureaucrats flying into Copenhagen, Denmark to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (which was initially called the UN Framework Convention on Global Warming) until climate skeptics hacked hundreds of computer files and private emails exchanges between the world’s leading global warming “experts,” and released the data to the media in Europe on Nov. 9, 2009, less than a month before the Copenhagen Conference. Obama intended, on the last day of the conference, to back door Cap & Trade into the United States by signing what was known as the Copenhagen Protocol. Preparing for the Conference, the House enacted their version of Cap & Trade, the Waxman-Markey Bill (be sure you remember both Henry Waxman [D-CA] and Edward Markey [D-MA] on election day.) That legislation will ultimately bankrupt every American, and control the settings on the thermostat in your house, summer and winter alike. (That is, if you still have a home after Cap & Trade destroys the company you work for and you no longer have a job.)

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


EU: Nearly 80:000 Asylum Seekers Welcomed in 2009

Brussels, 18 June (AKI) — Members of the European Union granted asylum to 78,800 people in 2009 — nearly 4,000 more than the previous year. According to Eurostat, the EU’s official statistics agency, 75,100 people were given asylum in 2008.

In 2009, the highest number of people were granted protection in the United Kingdom (12,500) followed by Germany (12,100), France (10,400), and Sweden (3,600).

Italy granted asylum protection to 8,600 people.

Somalis were the single largest group granted protection from the 27-member EU. Of the 13,400 Somalis granted asylum, 2,385 were given asylum in Italy.

“The rate of recognition varies considerably among member states, which is partly due to the differing citizenships of applicants in each member state,” Eurostat said in a statement.

Of the the 260,000 asylum applicants in 2009, nearly one quarter of them were minors.

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



France: Gen. Bigeard Dies, Protagonist Battle of Algiers

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 18 — One of the main protagonists of the colonial wars in Indo-China and Algeria, one of France’s most decorated officers, General Marcel Bigeard, died this morning at the age of 94, on the day of the 70th anniversary of the Appeal launched from London by General De Gaulle. A hero of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, he fought until May 7 1954 and returned to France after spending time in prison. He is also one of the most controversial protagonists of the Algerian war, though he was against the putsch of the generals in Algiers in 1961. He has been accused of ordering paratroopers of the third regiment to torture militants of the FLN (National Liberation Front). In 1957 Bigeard, colonel at the time, commanded this regiment. Electric charges on the genitals were the least of the horrors the French colonists were guilty of, according the many victims. The general did not like to discuss this sinister aspect of the independence war, but at the end of the ‘90s, when his tenth book was published, he admitted that some officers used the method of torture. “Was it easy to do nothing when you saw women and children with severed limbs after an explosion?”, he said. A few months later he said that torture “was a necessary evil”, “a mission ordered by political power”. He denied any direct involvement in the practice however. In the years after, Bigeard and General Jacques Massu, under whose authority he fell and who often disagreed, accused each other of torturing. A survivor of the battle of Algiers, fighter for national independence Louisette Ighilahriz revealed in 2000 that she had been tortured by French troops on orders of Bigeard, and accused both officials of being “the instigators of dirty work”. General Bigeard , who by the end of the ‘80s called himself “an old glorious bastard”, continued to deny the accusations, saying that he is the victim of a plot. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Franco-Spanish School of Fashion in Madrid

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 18 — A new Franco-Spanish school of fashion, creation and management, is to open in Madrid in October this year thanks to an agreement between the French fashion network Mod’Art International and Spain’s International Institute of Art and Fashion, a private body. It is to be called Mod’Art Madrid, on the model of Mod’Art Paris and will train fashion specialists in three-year courses. This is a very active sector in Spain, which boasts such popular brands as Zara and Mango, or Desigual, which is about to open a boutique in Paris’ Opera Quarter. The school is to be located within the premises of the French Institute in Madrid, which celebrates its centenary this year. As the promoter of the project, the Cultural Councillor at the French Embassy, Antonin Baudry, pointed out, Spain’s fashion sector employs 145,000 people and has an annual turnover of eleven billion euros. The project aims at strengthening cooperation between the two nations. The Mod’Art International network already has branches in Paris, Budapest, Belgrade, Lima, Shanghai, Delhi, Bombay and Ho Chi Minh City. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Iceland Turns Away From EU

Meeting at the 17 June European Council summit in Brussels, the EU’s 27 member states have decided to open accession negotiations with Iceland. However, Le Figaro notes that “solid support for Reyjavik in Europe is not matched by a consensus on the EU in Iceland.” In late 2008 at the height of the crisis which brought their economy to its knees, EU membership was viewed as a lifeline by the citizens of Iceland. But now the Parisian daily reports that the situation has changed: “More than 60% of Icelanders, who are concerned about the ongoing Icesave bank dispute with London and the Hague, would vote against EU membership. Worse still,” continues Le Figaro, “a recent poll has found that 57% of the population are in favour of withdrawing the application to join the EU, and a multi-party group of MPs has recently brought a motion before parliament to scrap any further negotiations. For two thirds of the population, the 990 million krónur (€6.2 million/ £5 million) devoted to the accession budget would be better spent elsewhere…”

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



Italian Natuzzi to Open 8 New Shops in Turkey

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 7 — Italian furniture company Natuzzi will open 8 new shops in Turkey, as Anatolia news agency reports quoting Mino Federico, Natuzzi’s representative for Middle East, as saying. Federico said that they decided to invest in Turkey due furniture sector’s remarkable share in economy and conscious consumer profile, adding that Turkish economy was stable and powerful according to several reports by international finance organizations. Federico said Natuzzi already had two shops in Etiler and Florya in Istanbul and opened its first shop in the capital of Ankara at ANSE shopping mall last week. He said they wanted to open 8 others in Antalya, Izmir, Bursa, Mersin and Gaziantep provinces. Natuzzi Group was founded in 1959 by Pasquale Natuzzi, current Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Group Stylist. It designs, produces and markets sofas, armchairs and living room accessories. Natuzzi is the largest Italian furniture company with 2009 turnover of 515.4 million euro, and is the world leader in leather upholstery. In 1993, Natuzzi Group became the only foreign furniture company to list on Wall Street. 90% of the Group’s turnover is generated outside Italy in 123 countries and holds its major market shares in Europe (61%) and Americas (31%). (ANSAmed).

2010-06-07 09:24

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Cooperation: Commercial Bridge Sicily-Syria Launched

(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, JUNE 3 — A commercial bridge to facilitate business collaboration between the Syrian and Sicilian economic systems: this is the goal of ‘Desk Syria 2010, Cooperation in Action’, a project of the Chamber of Commerce of Palermo in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Agrigento, Catania, Messina and Trapani. The project will start on Sunday in Damascus, where a delegation of the Chambers will represent Sicily. This is the first time that commercial talks are started with Syria, and the first time that a Chamber of Commerce has direct access to European funds for this kind of initiative. ‘Desk Syria 2010’, funded with the Po-Fesr 2007/2013, includes three important moments of contact between Sicilian and Syrian institutions and enterprises. The first will take place from June 6 to 10 with the Marketing Conference, the first institutional meeting. There will be four sessions on environment and fisheries, restoration, cultural goods, culture and craftsmanship, food and tourism, the sectors in which Sicily wants to start trade with Syria. Two important strategic steps will follow the first stage: a second mission to Syria with Sicilian entrepreneurs who will meet their Syrian colleagues, and an incoming mission, in which Syrian entrepreneurs and businessmen will be welcomed in Palermo. The project will be concluded in June 2011. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Med: Negotiations Continue on Exceptions

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JUNE 8 — The new European regulation on sustainable fishing in the Mediterranean is currently a dead letter. “No country in southern Europe, including Italy, is in line with the rules of application concerning their operators who fish in Mediterranean waters,” said Oliver Drewes, spokesman for the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki. Talks are continuing in Brussels over exceptions requested by member states of southern Europe, while the Commissioner has launched a new appeal. “Sustainable fishing can not be postponed,” she said. “I will ensure that the ruling for the Mediterranean is rigorously enforced. The transition period is over, and as a result I ask member states to act”. According to EU scientists, 54% of Mediterranean fish stocks studied are subjected to excessive exploitation. Italy aside, the other countries concerned by the new ruling are France, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus. In Italy’s case, the spokesman said, “authorities have submitted 18 regional plans, but these plans were not complete, and there were some technical details to be cleared up”. As of June 1, the ruling on new fishing techniques in the Mediterranean is in force, except for the areas still under discussion. Brussels hopes that “everything is resolved as soon as possible”. Damanaki did not hide her “disappointment” at the accumulated delays, saying that “member states have had over three years to conform to the laws that they should have adopted themselves in 2006. The situation of the numerous Mediterranean fish stocks is alarming, and fishermen are seeing their catches decrease year on year. This worrying trend has to be reversed, all sides concerned must assume their responsibility and respect the rules that have been established”. The “Mediterranean” regulation integrates environmental concerns into fishing policy with the creation of a network of protected areas, in which fishing activities are limited to protect growth areas, reproduction areas and marine ecosystems. Technical laws have also been established on the fishing methods allowed and on the distances from the coast. As Brussels admits, “it is not reasonable to think that the ruling or the European Union can alone ensure the management of fishing in the Mediterranean. The involvement of all Mediterranean-facing countries is fundamental and the EU is working hard with the multilateral organisations, including the General Commission for Fishing in the Mediterranean, and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, in order to improve scientific knowledge and guarantee equal conditions, with the aim pf promoting stability”. (ANSAmed).

2010-06-08 19:31

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



One-Third of Germans Allowed to Watch World Cup at Work

The German football team’s second World Cup match takes place during working hours on Friday, but according to a new poll, not all of the country’s employers will allow workers to watch the game on the job.

The Germany-Serbia game takes place from 1:30 pm to 3:15 pm — but according to the survey conducted for Manager Magazin, 59 percent of the country’s workers are unlikely to gain permission to watch.

About 1,000 personnel managers told Munich based pollster Ifo-Institut that work time rules, shift work, regular customer contact and production goals made doing their employees such a kindness too difficult.

The one-third of bosses that will likely allow their workers to support their team mainly belong to larger companies with more than 250 employees, the poll found. But the time away from desks isn’t a freebie — 88 percent of managers who allow the game break expect their employees to make up the time later.

Just 12 percent of companies said they would keep their employees on the clock during the football game, the magazine reported. The largest portion of these (23 percent) worked in commercial enterprises or had fewer than 50 employees (18 percent).

The Ifo poll results were included in the company’s quarterly “Flexindex” survey, which measures employers’ flexibility in the workplace.

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



Report From the Kiev Conference

[Scroll down for photo gallery and video file]

Panel Discussion, Quest for “Greater Romania”? Traian Basescu’s Agenda for Moldova and Pridnestrovie, and the Stakes for Ukraine (11:00, Thursday, June 17, 2010)

On Thursday, July 17th the American Institute in Ukraine (AIU) hosted an Experts’ ROUNDTABLE featuring Ukrainian and international experts including: Dr. Srdja Trifkovic (Center for International Affairs, Rockford Institute, and the Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies) and James George Jatras (Deputy Director, AIU) on the subject of:

Quest for “Greater Romania”? Traian Basescu’s Agenda for Moldova and Pridnestrovie, and the Stakes for Ukraine.

In recent weeks Romania’s president Traian Basescu has stepped up what may be seen as a campaign for restoration of Bucharest’s dominance over all areas that were part of Romania prior to World War II, or merely claimed as Romanian at Versailles in 1919 by the ideologues of Romania Mare. (See map) This would include, first of all, the former Soviet Republic of Moldova and the quasi-independent republic of Pridnestrovie. In addition, eastern Serbia (Banat, Homolje), north-eastern Bulgaria (Dobruja) and Ukraine (parts of Odessa oblast’ including Izmail and Chernivtsi) are all potentially affected by the new spirit of irredentism emanating from Bucharest. At the same time, some circles in the West, notably in the United States, warn ominously of a supposed “secret protocol” between Moscow and Kiev to establish their control in Moldova and Pridnestrovie.

American Institute in Ukraine was try to give answers to the following questions:…

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]



Sweden Approves New Nuclear Reactors

Sweden’s parliament on Thursday narrowly passed a landmark government proposal allowing the replacement of nuclear reactors at the end of their life span.

The centre-right government announced in February 2009 that it was reversing a decision to phase out nuclear power as part of an ambitious new climate programme.

The country had voted in a 1980 non-binding referendum to phase out its 12 reactors by 2010, a target which was later abandoned by officials.

Since 1999, two of the reactors have been closed. The 10 remaining reactors, at three power stations, account for about half of Sweden’s electricity production.

The measure was backed by the four parties in the coalition government, including the Centre Party which traditionally has been opposed to nuclear power

However, there was heated debate in the house ahead of the vote and at least two Centre Party members of parliament have said they would” follow the voice of conscience” and vote against the measure.

The three main left-leaning opposition parties were set to vote against the proposal, with Green Party spokeswoman Maria Wetterstrand scolding the Centre Party for siding with its coalition partners.

Voting in favour of the proposal, she said, “could mean Sweden will be making itself dependent on nuclear power for 100 more years and there will be 100,000 years of consequences for future generations who will have to take care of the waste,” she said during the parliamentary debate.

Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren, of the Centre Party, meanwhile defended the government’s energy proposal.

“It is a myth that nuclear power is forcing out renewable energies. (Renewables) have won the game. Why then exclude nuclear from the plan?” he asked.

Carlgren also stressed voters would be able to express themselves on the new energy plan, which is set to take effect at the beginning of next year, in the upcoming September 19 elections.

The government’s climate programme stipulates that by 2020 renewable energy should comprise 50 percent of all energy produced, for the Swedish car fleet to be independent of fossil fuels 10 years later and for the country to be carbon neutral by 2050.

In addition to the replacement of aging nuclear reactors, parliament was also debating a new regulation handing reactor owners unlimited damage liability in case of an accident.

The parliamentary vote came as prosecutor Magnus Berggren asked a court in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, to sentence most of the 29 activists arrested Monday for breaking into the Forsmark nuclear power plant to fines and suspended prison sentences.

The activists, dressed up as brightly coloured renewable energy sources wind, water and sun, were part of a Greenpeace demonstration calling on parliamentarians to vote against the nuclear proposal.

Berggren however said there was no need to hold the 28 foreign activists, including 13 Germans, in custody.

However, he called for the court to sentence the lone Swede in the group, who had a record of similar protests across Europe, to a short prison sentence, the TT news agency reported.

More Greenpeace activists stood outside the Swedish parliament Thursdayholding up a banner imploring parliamentarians to “vote no.”

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



UK: ‘Against Fascism in All Its Colours’ — Statement From Tower Hamlets Activists

Nurul Islam and others

The entry of the English Defence League (EDL) into Tower Hamlets to protest against a meeting organized under the auspices of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) is a direct provocation to stir up racial tensions, foment dissent among faiths and attempt to bring disunity amongst the communities of the borough.

We condemn the fascist EDL whose sole objective is to act as storm troopers for the British National Party (BNP) and pick up the pieces for them after their miserable rout in the local and national elections in neighbouring Barking and Dagenham Council. Under the guise of being non-political and upholding “English” values they are propagating a virulent form of naked Islamophobia which is rejected by the communities of Tower Hamlets. We will do everything in our power to defend the peace in the borough, protect the lives of Muslims and ensure that the unity amongst all is maintained.

This borough has a rich tradition of successful challenge to fascist forces of the Blackshirts and the National Front. The Battle of Cable Street in the 30,s and the Struggle for Brick Lane following Altab Ali’s murder in the 70’s and the move to oust Derek Beackon in the 90’s is part of our common history. The values of universalism, anti-racism and no compromise with fascism inform our thinking and has become part of our existence. We will build on this rich tradition as we face Oswald Mosley’s grandchildren. As we confront the fascist thugs of EDL we in the Bengali and the Muslim community are being asked to stand side by side with Islamic Forum in Europe (IFE). This we refuse to do. The IFE does not represent the Muslim community in Tower Hamlets. They do not uphold the glorious tradition of Cable Street, Altab Ali and the anti racist movement. Under the patronage of an exclusivist Islam emanating from Saudi Arabia they are attempting to impose it amongst the Bengalis in this borough.

Just as the EDL takes the guise of being ordinary English citizen to hide their true identity of fronting the fascist BNP so do IFE act as the sole representatives of ordinary Muslims but are in fact operating under the direction of their parent organisation Jamaat-e- Islami in Bangladesh. It is Jamaat that was party to the massacre of innocent Bangladeshis in the 1971 war of independence that establish the independent state of Bangladesh. A war Tribunal has been established in Bangladesh to try leaders of Jaamat-e- Islam who are IFE’s real ideological and organisational gurus. In other words IFE represent a virulent form of political Islam that is fascistic in nature like Jaamat Islam and verges on the anti-Semitic and is very exclusivist and undemocratic.

In defending the people of Tower Hamlets and especially the ordinary Muslims we do not have to defend IFE. EDL is attacking the Muslims of this borough and we must protect them. IFE must not be allowed to use this occasion to propagate their very reactionary version of political Islam.

We must also alert the entire community about the opportunist and divisive politics of IFE. Using this latest EDL threat to the local community, it is clear to us that the IFE brigade is trying to terrify the most vulnerable in our community — the Bangladeshi women and children into joining their ranks under the banner of ‘defending the Ummah’. It has come to our knowledge that IFE and its operatives have sent out mass e-mails, text messages and visited members of the community including young children in primary schools ask them to join forces and defend Muslims and East London Mosque from imminent threat of destruction. All progressive forces must realize that the gut reaction to EDL is to defend everybody including IFE because they might be accused of being Islamophobic. But we boldly proclaim that it is not Islamophobic to have no trucks with the heirs of Fascist Jaamat. It is not Islamophobic to denounce the anti democratic credentials of IFE and their Saudi patrons. It is not Islamophobic to show solidarity with the Muslims of Tower Hamlets and their diverse representative organisations without marching under the leadership of IFE. We cannot be consistent in fighting the fascist EDL if we elect the “fascist” IFE as our Imam. In line with the best in the Islamic and Bengali tradition we reject the siren calls of IFE as we prepare to organise against EDL.

On behalf of:

Harmuz Ali (Bangladesh Welfare Association — BWA), Sajjadur Rahman (Brick Lane Mosque), Shamsuddin Shams (Altab Ali Memorial Foundation), Badrul Islam (Centre for Citizenship and Development (CCD), Akikur Rahman (Bangladesh Youth Association), Rajonuddin Jalal (London Bangladeshi Association), Ansar Ahmed Ullah (Nirmul Committee), Mahmoud Rauf (Brick Lane Business Association), Abdus Subhan Gedu (Banglatown Restaurant Association), Ethnic Minority Enterprise Project (EMEP), Abdul Ali Rauf (Chicksand Citizen’s Forum), Collective of Bangladeshi School Governors, Tower Hamlets Parents Centre, Tower Hamlets Parents Association, APASENTH, BYM, Nurul Islam (Kendrio Shaheed Minar Committee), Sundar Miah (Tarling Tenants & Residents Association), Nooruddin Ahmed (Bangladesh Youth League), Ruhul Amin (Progressive Youth Organisation), Taimus Ali (Bangladesh Youth Front), Shahab Uddin Ahmed Belal (Human Rights Secretary, Awami League), Cathy Forrester, Claire Murphy, Phil Maxwell, Terry Fitzpatrick (Blair Peach Project), Syed Sad Ahmed, Fanu Miah (Golden Moon Youth Project), Julie Begum (Swadhinata Trust), Amina Ali (international Forum for Secular Bangladesh), Sujit Sen (Liberation), Gita Sahgal, Subir Sinha, Alice Sielle (St. Barnabas church Bethnal Green), Imtiar Shamim (Muktangon: Nirman Blog), Rayhan Rashid (War Crimes Strategy Forum), Saikat Acharjee (WCSF), Nowrin Tamanna (University of Reading), Anisur Rahman Anis ( Bangladesh Human Rights Council UK), James Swapan Peris ( Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council- European committee), Whitechapel Anarchist Group, Ansarul Haque, Tower Hamlets Muslim Council & Jim Fitzpatrick MP Poplar and Limehouse. Contact for further details:

Mr. Nurul Islam — 07984 610199 / 07836 332262

On behalf of UNITY PLATFORM AGAINST RACISM AND FASCISM

C/O Bangladesh Welfare Association, 39 Fournier Street, London E1 6QL

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: ‘Wicked’ Woman Saw Four Innocent Men Arrested After Slashing Her Own Face and Crying Rape

A woman who sparked a £150,000 police investigation by ripping her clothes and giving herself a black eye, then lying about a violent sex attack, has been told she will be jailed.

Four students spent nearly three days behind bars as a result of the convincing injuries Leyla Ibrahim inflicted on herself, with one of the suspects attempting to kill himself.

But detectives became suspicious of the 22-year-old’s story and the men were released without charge.

It emerged Ibrahim invented the attack after a row with a male friend when he refused to lend her the money for a taxi home after a night out.

Deciding she ‘wanted to teach people a lesson’, a court heard she cut and tore the blue frilly dress she was wearing as well as her black leggings and bra, leaving her breasts partially exposed.

She also hacked off clumps of her own hair, gave herself a black eye and a suspected broken cheekbone, scratched her breasts and legs and finally left one of her shoes at the scene of the supposed attack.

Last night, however, the former children’s holiday rep was behind bars after being convicted of perverting the course of justice.

She wept as the judge denied her bail, telling her a prison term ‘of some length’ was inevitable for ‘wickedly fabricating a grave crime’ which had caused ‘countless anguish’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Prince Charles Promotes Islam

Click here for the story.

Following in the tradition of the traitorous British aristocrats who backed Nazi Germany, the craven Prince Charles is supporting fascistic, fundamentalist Islam.

Did Charles secretly convert to Islam?

Click here for the tantalizing evidence.

[Comments from JD: Do follow the link to the tantalizing evidence. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Sowing the Seeds of Division

Media Statement by Islamic Forum of Europe 17 June 2010

The divisive and misleading press release by the so called Unity Platform Against Racism & Fascism is a disgraceful attempt to undermine the united stand against the EDL.It begins with words that are immediately contradicted by what follows: “We will do everything in our power to defend the peace in the borough, protect the lives of Muslims and ensure that the unity amongst all is maintained.”

They then go on to destroy that unity by attacking the very target of the EDL.”The IFE does not represent the Muslim community in Tower Hamlets.” Neither IFE, nor ELM for that matter, has ever claimed to represent the Muslim community.

“Under the patronage of an exclusivist Islam emanating from Saudi Arabia they are attempting to impose it amongst the Bengalis in this borough.” The IFE has no links whatsoever with Saudi Arabia or any country outside Europe, nor has it sought to impose anything on anyone in Tower Hamlets or elsewhere.

“IFE acts as the sole representatives of ordinary Muslims but are in fact operating under the direction of their parent organization Jamaat Islam in Bangladesh.” IFE has never claimed to be “the sole representative of ordinary Muslims”. IFE does not have a parent organisation, so does not answer to Jamaat-e-Islami or any other organisation in the UK, Bangladesh or elsewhere.

“It is Jamaat that was party to the massacre of innocent Bangladeshis in the 1971 war of independence that establish the independent state of Bangladesh. A war Tribunal has been established in Bangladesh to try leaders of Jaamat Islam who are IFE’s real ideological and organizational gurus. In other words IFE represent a virulent form of political Islam that is fascistic in nature like Jaamat Islam and verges on the anti-Semitic and is very exclusivist and undemocratic.”

IFE was established in the UK in 1988, most of its members were either children or not even born back in 1971. It has no ties at all with Bangladeshi political or religious parties, unlike the authors of the divisive press release who are linked to a hardline faction of the Awami League in London. The truth is that these people display an unrelenting hatred that seems to stem from the civil war almost 40 years ago, and they are still fighting it here in the UK. IFE, and indeed the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre, work tirelessly in our own communities. IFE do not take part at all in Bangladeshi politics, nor do we want to get dragged into it as it is a huge distraction from the real needs of our community and the many people who have no ties with such politics other than their parents or grandparents came from Bangladesh.

“In defending the people of Tower Hamlets and especially the ordinary Muslims we do not have to defend IFE. EDL is attacking the Muslims of this borough and we must protect them.” It is clear that these people would be content if the EDL limited their attacks to the IFE and ELM. Hardly surprising, as many of them were conspirators in Gilligan’s discredited Dispatches programme, which the EDL give pride of place on the front page of their website.

“Using this latest EDL threat to the local community, it is clear to us that the IFE brigade is trying to terrify the most vulnerable in our community — the Bangladeshi women and children into joining their ranks under the banner of ‘defending the Ummah’. It has come to our knowledge that IFE and its operatives have sent out mass e-mails, text messages and visited members of the community including young children in primary schools ask them to join forces and defend Muslims and East London Mosque from imminent threat of destruction.” These accusations are lies. Of course, they give not a shred of evidence to support their outrageous claims. And we openly challenge them to bring any kind of creditable proof. We know they cannot, their slander will just add to the alarm and disunity they are trying to generate.

Some of the signatories have no knowledge of the statement. A Bangladeshi Youth Movement official said: “We are appalled our good name is linked to this divisive statement, we do not share these views, rather we support the cohesive work initiated by United East End”.

APASENTH also distanced themselves from the statement, saying they were not even consulted on the content of the statement.

Some signatories are paper-based organizations with no following in the community.Their shameful statement undermines all the hard work of the many organisations that have come together to form the United East End. Our partners in the recent efforts to stand against the EDL will know that we have not sought to lead the coalition, or used it to promote any other agenda.

We call on all those who strive to maintain a unified and strong coalition against the EDL to reject the divisive calls of the so-called ‘Unity Platform Against Racism and Fascism’.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Sectarian Idiots Attempt to Undermine Anti-Fascist Unity in Tower Hamlets

“As we confront the fascist thugs of EDL we in the Bengali and the Muslim community are being asked to stand side by side with Islamic Forum in Europe (IFE). This we refuse to do.” As Tower Hamlets gears up for a united protest against the English Defence League, a motley collection of malicious, sectarian idiots has chosen this moment to mount a public attack on the IFE and the East London Mosque, bracketing them along with the EDL as fascists.

Note that many of the signatories to this ill-written diatribe aren’t even part of the Bengali and Muslim community anyway. They include the drunken thug Terry Fitzpatrick, currently on bail facing a charge of racially aggravated harassment following a complaint to the police by Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote. Then there is Gita Sahgal, who broke with Amnesty over its connections with Cageprisoners, and has headed a right-wing campaign against her former employers while promoting crackpot conspiracy theories to justify her participation in the witch-hunt.

And where would a statement like this be without the support of the contemptible Jim Fitzpatrick MP? This is the man who insulted the couple who invited him to their (gender-segregated) wedding at the London Muslim Centre by denouncing them to the press and whose most recent contribution to community harmony has been to condemn the organisers of Sunday’s protest for “stirring up fear and anger”.

True, this disgraceful statement has been signed by some members of the Bengali community in East London — indeed, it was organised on behalf of the laughably misnamed Unity Platform Against Racism and Fascism from the Bangladesh Welfare Association off Brick Lane.

One such signatory is Ansar Ahmed Ullah, who worked with Andrew Gilligan on “Britain’s Islamic Republic”, the Channel 4 documentary that provoked the EDL’s threat to demonstrate in the East End in the first place. And, after the programme was condemned in a letter to the Guardian by a wide range of progressive figures, Ullah collected signatures for a letter defending Gilligan’s witch-hunt. Last year he collaborated with Observer journalist Nick Cohen in another attack on the East London Mosque, complaining bitterly about the government’s willingness to consult its leading figures. “They never want to talk to people like me,” he whinged. Well, perhaps that’s because the East London Mosque is attended by some 10,000 people a week and represents serious forces within the community — whereas Ullah represents, shall we say, rather less.

Other signatories are associated with the Awami League, currently the governing party in Bangladesh. As the statement makes clear, their primary interest is in settling scores over disputes within Bangladeshi politics, going back to the liberation war nearly four decades ago, without any concern for the impact their actions have on politics in East London today.

This is not only unprincipled but monumentally stupid. By breaking the united front against the far Right, these self-proclaimed “secular” forces within the Bangladeshi community are playing with fire. The Brick Lane Mosque, with which the Bangladesh Welfare Association is connected, has itself been witch-hunted by Islamophobes over its recently-built “minaret”. What will they do if the EDL turns its attention to them? Blinded by their hatred of Jamaat-e-Islami, they fail to see — or do not care — that their sectarian actions will stoke the fires of Islamophobia and that, whatever short-term advantages they may gain over their rivals in the IFE, in the long term all sections of the Bengali Muslim community will pay the price.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Balkans


Albania: Racing Towards Europe, But Past is Not Forgotten

(ANSAmed) — VLORA (ALBANIA) — The tears come at the end of a conversation held in front of a microphone and a video camera. Just a few words, choked by emotion: “Italy was our window onto hope.” Laureta Petoshati is an Albanian journalist who has returned to work in Vlora after spending ten years in New York. It is Laureta who points out how Italy and its information were something that made Albanians living under one of the harshest and most obtuse communist dictatorships understand that there was a world beyond their sea. Or else behind their mountains, which are still beautiful despite the general building frenzy everywhere, which often defies even the most elementary safety rules, let alone the rules of aesthetics. Albania in 2010 is a country which, despite it all, is unable to erase the past, to set aside the fears of a regime that laid siege to their minds, even before their bodies, as the generations that make the decisions in the country are the children of communism who have a disjointed and indirect knowledge The coast and the countryside are still marred by the hundreds of bunkers that were built, often in places that were entirely devoid of logic, lying in wait for an enemy that never came. And as dismantling these monuments of idiocy would cost a fortune, these small, horrendous constructions remain where they are, perhaps right next to a charming house that has been built with the remittances of an emigrant. In Vlora, which stands by a sea that could be its Eldorado, no-one has forgotten, no-one over the age of 30 can sweep away the constant, suffocating fear that broke up families, that set up each one against the other. The omnipotent Sigurimi watched over everything. The Sigurimi, the secret police of the dictator Enver Hoxha, weaved an extremely tight system of controls around the Albanian people’s lives (with over 800,000 people on the payroll, it employed a quarter of the population). It took hold within families, where anyone who had a radio and who managed to tune in to Italian broadcasters had to do so when they were home alone. The prefect of Vlora, Halili, bitterly points out, that to end up in prison, all it took was for a child of just a few years to say at nursery school or whilst playing with his friends that Grandma and Grandpa or their big brother had been listening to programmes in a language they didn’t understand. And, when television arrived and people worked out that all that was necessary to make an aerial was a piece of electrical wire in order to receive “grainy” images, but which were however still images, the kids of the era, remembers Rinald Bezhani, director of the Pavarsia University board, took huge risks, for example, to watch the San Remo music festival. Law 55 punished these things as if they were subversive acts. And the sentences were heavy, with up to eight years in prison and the certainty that the sentence would also be served by family members, in terms of harassment, threats and hardships. Albania is therefore still paying the extremely heavy toll of its past dictatorship because even today it is a topic that hovers over everything: politics, the economy, social relations, culture. Now the country seems to struck by a bulimia of knowledge: it hungers for contacts and experience. It wants to have a dialogue, to enter Europe — not as an accepted party but to enter it with full dignity. The country is focussing above all on its young people, says the Minister for Innovation and Information Communication Technology, Genc Pollo, who does not hide his great ambitions and projects that are based on the awareness that his people are ready to set goals and who are in fact already on the road to achieving them. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Albania: Challenge to Enter EU Starts With Infrastructure

(ANSAmed) — VLORE, JUNE 9 — The path to bring Albania to Europe is still long, but many steps have been taken, and others will follow in the short-term, so that in a few years, Tirana can enter the EU through the front door. “Albania is acting with diligence and determination,” said Minister for Technological Innovation and Information Genc Pollo, one of the men who Premier Sali Berisha is relying on to bring the country towards the standards necessary to enter the EU, “to create the conditions for EU membership. Not the minimum conditions, but standards that are even better. We are working hard and we know that we will be able to succeed”. Minister Pollo acknowledged Italy’s important role in this process, “because our two countries have always been close to each other,” almost underscoring that they also had a close relationship under the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, when Albania had almost no external contact. The conditions are also associated with a strong push by the Albanian government for reforms, especially in the field of innovation technology, where they are making great progress. There are not many countries in Europe that have adopted the biometric passport, while in Albania it has been used for some time. Similarly to drivers’ licenses, which are all the size of a credit card — which is nothing new — but which also contain a microchip, which act as a memory of the owner and which are constantly updated and which accompany any official record. Certainly, these developments are not sufficient to assert that the standards of daily life in Albania are such that the country is ready to become part of the EU, but the passion, enthusiasm and energy present in these efforts are evident. There is still much to be done, mainly in the field of infrastructural works, after the communist regime, which left a legacy of a shoddy network of roads and a need for large-scale infrastructural projects. This is also reflected in the transportation system, which relies almost exclusively on private initiatives. An example of this is the immense fleet of vans and buses — many of which are outdated — which connect the many towns of Albania mainly on two-lane roads where every manoeuvre to overtake another vehicle is a gamble and a challenge to properly measure out a driver’s courage and prudence. Suddenly, upon arrival to what could be considered a motorway, one might see people cheerfully pedalling away with their bicycles on the roadside, against the traffic of course. Roads are also a problem in the country’s largest cities such as Tirana and Vlore. The traffic in the capital — according to the drivers themselves — is absolutely chaotic, where horns are used not only as a warning via sound, but as an instrument to provides a double-effect, forcing the car ahead to speed up, resulting in a constant racket. Vlore also has its own problems. The streets in the city centre are well kept and traffic flows, but in the less-travelled areas, according to what the locals say, the roads are similar to those in Kandahar. Shpetin Gjika, the outgoing Mayor of Vlore (he is finishing his second term and is running for a third), knows that this is a challenge that needs to be dealt with. We are doing everything we can, he said in his office, noting that roads are a problem, but not the only challenge for a city that looks to Europe like it looked to Italy ten years ago.(ANSAmed).

2010-06-08 13:55

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



World Cup: Serbian Fans Celebrate Win Over Germany

Belgrade, 19 June (AKI) — Serbians took to the streets in their thousands to celebrate the national team’s World Cup victory over Germany in South Africa. Thousands of people danced in the streets and motorcades drove through several cities waving Serbian flags into the early hours of Saturday.

Considered a World Cup underdog, Serbia pulled a surprise victory over Germany 1-0 in Port Elizabeth on Friday, regaining a solid chance to proceed to the second round of the football World Cup competition.

Serbia earlier lost to Ghana 1-0 and the victory over Germany was the first in 37 years.

The win has given the team and its reputed international coach Radomir Antic new confidence.

People celebrated in Belgrade and other cities late Friday, but Serbs celebrated also in Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and other European countries with sizable Serbian communities.

Animosity against Germany runs high in Serbia, among those who remember World War II occupation, but many others also blame Germany for the break up of the former Yugoslavia.

Serbian newspapers ran front page headlines such as “Serbian blitzkrieg” and “Serbia’s historic victory”.

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

Mediterranean Union


Greece-Libya: New Submarine Fibre Optic Cable by End of 2011

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 8 — The new submarine fibre optic cable that will start in mid 2011, which will connect Libya and Greece, is called ‘Silphium’. So announced the Libya International Telecommunication Company (LITC) and Oteglobe, a subsidiary of the Greek telephony company Ote. The new cable, the cost of which could reach 25 million euros, will connect the two Mediterranean countries, passing via the stations of Derna and Chania. The entire investment will be financed by the LITC. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Hitler’s ‘Number One Anti-Semite’ Converted to Islam, Worked for Nasser and Nazi Underground

Joel Fishman’s brilliant 2007 essay on the media war against Israel is must reading. The excerpt below deals with “Hitler’s Number One Anti-Semite,” Johann von Leers, alias Omar Amin.

Fishman writes:

Because issues of historical continuity and particularly the transfer of ideas and are a matter of importance, special mention should be made of Prof. Dr. Johann von Leers (1902- 1965). He was one of the most important ideologues of the Third Reich and later served in the Egyptian Information Department.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Morocco: World Bank Loan for Education, Roads and Water

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JUNE 18 — The World Bank today agreed to grant Morocco a loan for a total of 211.5 million USD. The country will use this sum for its reforms of the education system, for the construction of rural roads and for water projects in the Oum Errabii basin. The first tranche of 60 million dollars will be used for the 2009-2012 education reform, a priority of the Moroccan government which has to deal with a 44% illiteracy rate in rural areas. The second tranche, 81.5 million USD, will be used to expand the road network in rural areas and the third, 70 million, to modernise irrigation plants in the Oum Errabii basin, concerning 22,000 hectares and 8,000 farmers. The agreements have been signed by the representative of the World Bank in Morocco, Francoise Clottes, and Economy and Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Tunisia: Aquaculture Increasing

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 7 — There are positive figures and forecasts for the increase in the sector of aquaculture, with the production of 4,470 tonnes of fish last year against 1,400 in 2000. The news was announced by the Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Abdessalem Mansour, speaking at a seminar in Monastir. He also said that in 2009, production was 1,125 tonnes in fresh water and 3,345 tonnes in seawater. With this data, Mansour underlined that the upcoming aims were to bring production to 12,500 tonnes in 2014 and to 15,300 tonnes in 2016. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Israeli Deputy FM Thanks Italy for Supporting Israel’s Right to Self-Defense

ROME (EJP)—-Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, on an official visit to Italy on Wednesday, thanked the Italians for supporting Israel’s right to self-defense in the case of the recent Israeli army raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Ayalon met with the President of the Italian Parliament Gianfranco Fini, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Stefania Craxi and opposition leader Enrico Letta.

They also discussed the latest round of sanctions on Iran, the security situation in the Middle East, and bilateral relations.

According to Ayalon’s office, the Italian officials expressed their support for the Israeli investigation into the events surrounding the flotilla and expressed understanding of Israel’s position vis-à-vis the legal blockade of Gaza.

Regarding Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip, in place since July 2006, Ayalon said: “Unfortunately, Hamas has established a blockade on the Palestinian people in Gaza. The future of the blockade depends solely on Hamas. The moment that they adhere to the three principles that the international community established, the blockade will end.”

On Thursday, Israel announced that it will “liberalize” the system under which humanitarian goods are transferred into the Gaza Strip, after a meeting of the security cabinet.

The Deputy Foreign Minister said that attention should not be diverted from the issue of Iran. “Everything negative in the region emanates from Iran and they remain the true threat to the all the people in the region, including the Lebanese and Palestinian people.”

He called on Italy and the European Parliament to implement further sanctions on Iran. “We should take advantage of the latest United Nations Security Council Resolution and provide a secondary layer of sanctions through the European Parliament and national parliaments, like Italy,” Ayalon told his Italian interlocutors.

“We would also like to see more countries follow the lead of the Dutch Parliament and the U.S. Congress by designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity.”

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

Middle East


Erdogan Fans Anti-Israeli, Anti-American Sentiments for Political Gain

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears set to milk the popularity he gained in the streets of Turkey and the Middle East after the Marmara crisis in which nine Turks were killed by Israeli forces in a seriously botched up military operation.

It is almost as if he was waiting for a new crisis with Israel to be able to work the streets in order to regain some of the political ground his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has been loosing over bread and butter issues at home.

He and his party executives are clearly worried that the reinvigorated Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, may make headway given the successful manner in which its new leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, has been hitting at the government over topics that really matter for the average man on the street. He is also concerned that the Saadet (Felicity) Party, the other Islamist party, may steal votes from the AKP given the rising dissatisfaction among the public.

Turks are fickle though, and easily swayed emotionally even if this means that the bread and butter issues of vital importance to them are pushed to the background. It is clear that there is great public animosity towards Israel today. As for the almost endemic anti-Americanism among Turks, this is also adding grist to Erdogan’s populist mill.

So we see him increasingly turning up the volume of his demagoguery, and hitting at Israel and the United States at every opportunity that presents itself. No doubt he is keeping a close eye on the “political rating meter” as he sends his crowds to paroxysms of delirious applause with his remarks, some of which smack openly of anti-Semitism and reflect a growing anti-Western tendency.

After the Marmara incident he was not only quick to use the harshest and most insulting adjectives when referring to Israel, but also had thinly veiled warnings to Washington, suggesting openly that those who stood behind Israel were also culpable in the crimes committed by that country.

Over the weekend he went further and openly named the U.S. this time, thus revealing what lies in his heart-of-hearts. This is what he had to say while addressing an adoring crowd in Rize, on the Black Sea coast, where people are not only religious but also ultra-nationalist.

“They are asking us what Turkey is doing in the Middle East, in Palestine. Why is Turkey bothered about Gaza? But could they not be asked in return what America is doing in Iraq? What is it doing in Palestine? Could it not be asked what is it doing in Afghanistan? What are France, Britain, and Holland, and so on, doing in these places?”

Erdogan went on threateningly to say, “I am calling on the Israeli supported international media and their subcontractors at home: Turkey is not like other countries.” His only tribute to sophistication during this show of demagoguery was his reference to “the Israeli supported international media.”

Previously he had made references to the “Jewish controlled international media” but must have been warned by his advisors that this was too overtly “anti-Semitic,” and thus politically incorrect. This no doubt forced him to make a slight modification in his nevertheless anti-Semitic reference to the international media.

What is worse, however, is that Erdogan is set to raise the volume of his bellicosity in coming weeks and months, given that Turkey will, for all intents and purposes, be moving into “election mode.” We had an opportunity to talk to Hikmet Cetin, a highly respected veteran politician and former Foreign Minister, the other day.

He too expressed serious concerns that Erdogan and the AKP would make anti-Israeli and anti-American rhetoric the centerpiece of his political campaign in the lead-up to the elections in 2011. Mr. Cetin is right to be concerned of course.

Erdogan is, after all, utilizing the least sophisticated of political tools to increase support for the AKP at home, and totally disregarding what harm he may be doing to Turkey’s well established links with the West in general and the U.S. in particular — regardless of the periodic turbulence in these ties over specific issues.

There are those who say that he is in fact doing all of this intentionally, because he is trying to turn Turkey’s direction from the West to the Islamic East. We personally believe that whatever his ultimate aim and intentions may be in this respect, Mr. Erdogan will find that it is much harder to turn Turkey’s direction than he thinks.

But it can not be denied that he and his government are providing material for those in the West who feel Turkey is in fact “drifting away.” There is truth, of course, in the contention being also put forward by some in the West today that certain countries and leaders in Europe have made it easier for the AKP to hit at the West. This is highly apparent from Erdogan’s lambasting Europe while also pursuing his populist line of demagoguery.

Some in Europe have been clinging to Mr. Erdogan and his party as the only viable reformist force in Turkey and providing him with a benefit of the doubt way beyond what is justified (even as he feeds the anti-western undercurrents in this country.) Less admiration and more attention on their part to what he is actually saying and doing at this stage should provide a wake-up call, as his latest actions and remarks appear to have done in Washington.

The bottom line is that while some may be worrying that Mr. Erdogan and the AKP are changing Turkey’s course, the truth is that it is not clear what they are trying to do, or if they even have a viable master plan for a modern Westward looking Turkey at this stage. As matters stand it appears that Mr. Erdogan is simply riding the crest of a populist conservative and Islamist wave — with nationalist overtones — which enables him to fog some seminal questions about where he is taking the country.

As for the great strides his party made over the past eight years, this may be true to an extent but it must not be forgotten that the road had already been laid for the AKP government to move on in terms of much of what they achieved over these years.

For example Turkey’s EU orientation — which Mr. Erdogan never referred to in a positive light while in the opposition -is something that was well underway. He simply went along with it continuing a reform process that had been started under the previous Ecevit government.

The much touted “zero problems with neighbors” policy, on the other hand, was always there but was called “a policy of good neighborliness.” As for the much lauded “opening up to the Middle East” this was the pet project of a host of former Turkish politicians ranging from Suleyman Demirel to Bulent Ecevit and Erdal Inonu, and not exclusive to the AKP.

It may appear to some that nothing was achieved in this country prior to the AKP. Mr. Erdogan and his party executives are working overtime to spread that impression, of course. But it is wrong and misrepresents the facts. Mr. Erdogan’s vitriolic and bellicose attitude both in domestic and in foreign policy should help open many eyes on this score too in the coming period.

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



Iran is Capable of Firing Hundreds of Missiles at Europe, Warns U.S.

Iran could shower Europe with ‘scores or even hundreds’ of missiles in a single attack, America’s defence secretary warned today.

Robert Gates said U.S. intelligence units have reported a growing threat in Iran’s ballistic missile capability.

Today, Mr Gates said: ‘One of the elements of the intelligence that contributed to the decision on the phased adaptive array (approach) was the realisation that if Iran were actually to launch a missile attack on Europe, it wouldn’t be just one or two missiles, or a handful.

‘It would more likely be a salvo kind of attack, where you would be dealing potentially with scores or even hundreds of missiles.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Iran’s New Revolutionary Politics

By Chris Zambelis

Brazil’s decision, along with fellow non-permanent United Nations Security Council member Turkey, to vote against the latest United States-led efforts to impose harsher sanctions against Iran on June 9 aimed at stymieing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, reflects a sea-change in global geopolitics characterized by a decline in US power and the return of multi-polarity.

Brazil’s refusal to support UN Security Council Resolution 1929 came on the heels of a successful joint Brazilian-Turkish attempt to win Iranian agreement on May 17 to enter into a uranium exchange pact designed to allay concerns about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and to avert a more serious escalation of regional tensions.

Brazil’s bold drive to inject itself into the center of one of the most contentious issues in international affairs, coupled with its move to join Turkey in overtly challenging the dominant US-led diplomatic paradigm when it comes to dealing with Iran, are emblematic of Brasilia’s aspirations of achieving a great-power status commensurate with what it perceives to be its true diplomatic, economic and military strength.

Brazil’s venture into Middle East diplomacy should therefore be considered in the context of its steady ascent to international prominence. Brazil’s diplomatic defense of Iran, however, also highlights the significance of Tehran’s bond with the South American powerhouse.

While many observers continue to marvel at Brazil’s emerging stature as a player in Middle East diplomacy, another significant, albeit far less understood, geopolitical trend with major implications occurring in the US’s backyard in the Western hemisphere has grabbed headlines in recent years.

Iran has undertaken its own ambitious mission in recent years to expand its influence across Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where it has traditionally maintained little or no meaningful diplomatic, economic or military presence until fairly recently. The expanding Iranian-Brazilian interface, as well as Iran’s growing multifaceted contacts with Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Guyana, among a host of other nations in the Americas, reflect Iran’s commitment to assert itself as a player in its own right in the Americas.

Reports of Tehran’s ties to Islamist militants allegedly operating in the region and their sympathizers within the region’s Middle East diaspora and local Muslim communities continue to dominate the treatment of Iran’s inroads into the Americas in media and foreign policy circles.

Not surprisingly, many followers of Middle East and Latin American and Caribbean affairs continue to view Iran’s foray into the Americas through a security prism. Iran’s track record of exporting its revolutionary Islamism throughout the greater Middle East in the 1980s and 1990s, argue many observers, including its support for Islamist militants opposed to the US-led status quo in the region, and Iran’s support in Lebanon of Hezbollah, which is implicated in attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina in the 1990s, should to serve as the template on which to assess Tehran’s intentions in the Americas.

The fact that Iran has reached out to vocal opponents of the United States in the region, namely Venezuela, Cuba, among others, along with traditionally close allies of Washington, has also raised alarm bells. Based on this view, Iran’s expanding presence in the Americas constitutes a direct threat to US and regional security, a recurring theme in official US policy circles.

United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced concern over what he described as Iran’s “subversive activity” in the region during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 27, 2009. Prior to embarking on her February 28 to March 5, 2010, tour of regional capitals, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opined before the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Sub-committee that Iran would be “at the top” of her agenda during her trip.

An April 2010 report by the US Department of Defense also stated that members of the Quds Force (Jerusalem), an elite special operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), are also present in the Americas, especially in Venezuela.

The argument that Iran’s growing presence in the Americas constitutes a security threat, however, fails to acknowledge the pragmatism guiding Iran’s activities in the region, not to mention the open arms in which Tehran is being received.

The flurry of high-level bilateral meetings between Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his counterparts in places such as Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia in recent years, with reciprocal visits by regional leaders to Tehran that culminated in a range of political, economic, energy, cultural, military and scientific agreements, are a case in point.

In addition, diplomatic exchanges and growing business contacts between Iran and partners in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico, coupled with the opening of new Iranian embassies, also illustrate the rapid development of the Islamic Republic’s relations with the region.

Data issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2009 and analyzed by the Latin Business Chronicle concluded that the volume of trade between Iran and the wider region topped an estimated US$2.9 billion, approximately triple the trade volume between 2007 and 2008; Brazilian trade with Iran came in at $1.3 billion during the same period, a dramatic 88% increase from 2007.

Brazil is Iran’s largest source of exports from Latin America. The Iranian Red Crescent Society also dispatched tons of disaster relief aid and a team of doctors following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12 this year. Iran has also promised hundreds of millions in economic aid and low-interest loans to Nicaragua, Bolivia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Forward defense diplomacy

Myriad factors drive Iran’s strategy in the Americas. As a country that continues to be subject to a sustained US-led campaign to isolate it in the international arena, Iran has made it a strategic priority to cultivate a wide network of bilateral relations to undermine attempts to box it in.

Iran has also worked diligently to shore up its diplomatic clout in the face of threats of attack by the United States and, in particular, Israel, over its nuclear program. In this context, Iran’s strategy to expand its ties to the Americas serves two main purposes: first, it allows Iran to better insulate itself and critical sectors of its society — especially its economy — from an increasingly rigid sanctions regime, thereby allowing it to weather US pressure to change its behavior; second, by cultivating a diverse network of relationships, including relations predicated on lucrative business dealings and delicate diplomacy with governments that have fallen out of favor with Washington, Iran works to ensure that as many of countries as possible have a vested interest in continued dealings with Iran.

This aspect of Iran’s strategy enables it to count on the support of countries that would previously have had no direct stake in whether Iran is placed under sanctions. A policy of diplomatic diversification, in essence, guides Iran’s approach to the Americas.

The heavy US military presence in the greater Middle East has also profoundly shaped Tehran’s strategic calculus when it comes to its strategy toward the Americas. The existence of a US-led alliance network composed of a nuclear-armed Israel and pro-US Arab regimes has left Iran, for all intents and purposes, hemmed in and potentially vulnerable to attack.

Iran’s eastern and western frontiers, for instance, are flanked by tens of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively, as well as a growing US military footprint in neighboring Pakistan.

The regional landscape is also dotted by US military bases and a robust deployment of naval forces in the Gulf. United States security guarantees for Iran’s neighbors add another level of anxiety in Tehran. United States strategy toward Iran is designed to contain and ultimately undermine Iranian influence through a policy of strategic encirclement.

With this in mind, Iran’s inroads into the Americas represent a form of forward defense diplomacy, essentially a means through which the Islamic Republic can counter the United States by effectively employing soft power in a region considered by Washington to be in its own exclusive sphere of influence.

Return of revolution

Iran’s push into the Americas would have never have materialized without the active encouragement of eager partners in the region. Yet how did the Islamic Republic manage to win so much goodwill from the Caribbean to the Southern Cone?

Iran’s diplomatic achievements cannot be understood without taking into account the tectonic shift to the left that saw an eclectic mix of leftist populists of various stripes take over the reins of power throughout the hemisphere beginning in the late 1990s. United in their skepticism toward US foreign policy and eagerness to charter independent paths for their countries away from the neo-liberal economic orthodoxies preached by Washington, the rise of a new revolutionary politics determined to defy the US-led status quo in the region has provided Iran with a receptive audience for its overtures and an ample supply of friends.

A new form of revolutionary politics in the Americas imbued with an anti-imperialist discourse directed toward the United States has meshed well with Iranian foreign policy. Despite the Shi’ite Islamist character of the clerical regime, Tehran has adopted a realistic approach in its diplomacy toward the Americas that emphasizes anti-imperialism, popular struggle, social justice and the preservation of national independence and sovereignty through South-South solidarity.

Iran has also effectively used institutions such as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to make inroads among NAM members in Latin America. The overlap between the revolutionary discourse out of Tehran and regional capitals such as Brasilia, Caracas, La Paz, Havana, Managua and Quito, for instance, is remarkable, thus providing Iran with valuable diplomatic cover on a range of issues, especially its nuclear program.

Iran has honed its skills as a source of resistance in the Middle East, where it is joined by Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas in Gaza (and occasionally Turkey and Qatar) in a front of resistance against US allies Israel and the bloc of pro-US Arab regimes led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran is comfortable in this role.

The overextension of US forces and diplomatic resources to the greater Middle East and East Asia and the emphasis on counter-terrorism in recent years has also relegated Latin America to the proverbial sidelines in terms of foreign policy and security priorities in Washington, thus providing Iran, along with other players such as China and Russia, with ample room to maneuver. This confluence of circumstances is sure to encourage greater contacts between Iran and Latin America in the coming years.

Chris Zambelis is an author and researcher with Helios Global, Inc, a risk management group based in the Washington, DC area. He specializes in Middle East politics. The views expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Helios Global, Inc.

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



Turkey: Eight Soldiers Killed by ‘Kurdish Rebels’

Ankara, 19 June (AKI) — Eight Turkish soldiers have been killed overnight in an attack by Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey, near the Iraqi border, the army said on Saturday. Fourteen soldiers were also wounded in the attack blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) at a military post near the city of Semdinli.

The military responded with helicopters and reportedly killed 12 militants in later clashes, the army statement added.

Fighter jets then launched a bombing raid targeting PKK rebel positions in northern Iraq where the separatists have rear bases, the military said.

On Friday the Turkish military announced that at least 130 members of the PKK had been killed inside Turkey since violence flared in March. The military has lost 43 personnel.

The military also said it expected the PKK to further intensify and spread its attacks.

The mounting violence in recent months has clouded the government’s bid to seek a peaceful end to the 26-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels seeking a separate homeland in the country’s southeast.

The PKK has been fighting for a separate Kurdish homeland within Turkey since 1984. The organisation is branded a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

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



Two New Blunders by U.S. Government in Middle East

1. Scoop: White House Undercutting Congress’s Sanctions on Iran and Building in Loopholes to Avoid Confronting Violators

2. A Telling Detail: The Turkish Leader’s Personal Quarrel with Barack Obama

Scoop: White House Undercutting Congress’s Sanctions on Iran and Building in Loopholes to Avoid Confronting Violators

By Barry Rubin

What’s the next big story the mass media hasn’t yet discovered about sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program? It’s this: The Obama Administration is pressing Congress to reduce the sanctions it is proposing. As you might remember, while the White House was backing a weak sanctions resolution through the UN Security Council, the U.S. Congress passed a strong bill that would really damage Iran’s economy and undercut its oil sales.

During the several months that the bills were wending their way through the House of Representatives and Senate, the White House refused requests for guidance by the congressional leadership on what the president wanted. Now, with Congress determined to have a single joint bill ready for passage before the summer adjournment, the White House is telling them to ease up on Iran.

Aside from the terms of the new sanctions, the White House has proposed a novel, and somewhat amusing, idea. Countries like Russia and China would be classified as “cooperating countries” because they voted for the sanctions’ resolution. (Since Brazil and Turkey, which voted against it, have said they will observe the sanctions does that make them also cooperating countries?)

The great thing about being a “cooperating country” is that even if you don’t try to implement the sanctions strongly, or at all, you will be immune to punishment. Let’s say that a Russian company breaks the U.S. or UN sanctions on Iran. It won’t be put on a list of violators or suffer any U.S. government penalties. Perhaps the U.S. government will ask the host country to do something but if it doesn’t act that would be the end of the matter.

In other words, this is a typical operation of seeking empty “support” without substantive backing and will subvert U.S. sanctions…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

Russia


Medvedev Pushes Ruble Reserve Currency to Cut Dollar Dominance

June 19 (Bloomberg) — Russia wants the ruble to be one of the world’s reserve currencies as President Dmitry Medvedev renews his push to reduce the dollar’s dominance and make Moscow a global financial hub.

“Only three, five years ago it seemed like a fantasy” to create a new reserve currency, Medvedev said yesterday in a speech in St. Petersburg, Russia. “Now we are seriously discussing it.”

Medvedev, who has repeatedly called for a supranational currency to match the dollar, said discussions with China are continuing on broadening the global options. Russia sold U.S. Treasuries for a fifth consecutive month in April, the U.S. Treasury Department said June 15. The world may need as many as six reserve currencies, Medvedev said.

“It’s something that’s obviously needed,” he said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “Developing a financial center in Moscow will considerably help to strengthen the ruble’s position as one of the reserve currencies.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghanistan: Spain Confirms Troop Withdrawal in Summer 2011

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 18 — Spain “confirms its timetable” which provides for the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011. The news was confirmed today by the Minister of Defence, Carme Chacon, in statements to Gtelecinco. In November, the transfers of the powers of the international community to the Afghan authorities will begin, which is a prelude to the withdrawal of the troops. Chacon said that, in the latest Nato meeting, Stanley Mc Chrystal, commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, had provided “positive data” which allows the timetable to be respected, on the basis of which the international troops present in the country will start to be reduced in the summer of 2011, above all in the provinces, such as Badghis, which is currently controlled by the Spanish troops. Carme Chacon praised the “great work” done by the 1,500 soldiers deployed from Spain in Afghanistan and thanked them. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Drone Attack Kills Militants in Border Region

Islamabad, 19 June (AKI) — At least 12 people have been killed in a suspected US missile strike in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, local officials say. The missile, apparently fired from an unmanned drone, struck a house in Haider Khel village near the town of Mir Ali , about 25km east of the main town of Miran Shah.

The identities of the dead are not yet known. The officials said militants were believed to have been inside.

The lawless region is considered a haven for militants aligned with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, has been repeatedly targeted by US drones.

Last month, Al-Qaeda number three and Afghan operations chief Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said al-Masri, was believed to have been killed in such a strike in North Waziristan.

Some 70 drone strikes have killed more than 200 people in North and South Waziristan since the start of 2010, according to local estimates.

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



Pakistan: Militants Free Accomplices in Karachi Court

Karachi, 19 June (AKI/DAWN) — A Pakistani police officer was killed in Karachi on Saturday when unknown gunmen opened fire near the city’s courts. The gunmen opened fire at a group of police officers who were escorting a number of prisoners to the courts and threw a hang grenade amid the crowd.

One police officer was killed as a result of the attack and four prisoners were able to flee along with the gunmen.

Security officials followed one of the gunmen, who fled to nearby Jodia Bazaar and killed himself.

One hand grenade was recovered from his possession, while search teams have been sent to other areas to locate the remaining gunmen.

Officials said the militants were associated with an outlawed Islamist militant organisation, Jundallah.

Jundallah is accused of carrying out a number of terrorist attacks in the country including a recent attack on a procession earlier this year in Karachi, killing 76 people.

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

Sub-Saharan Africa


The Dreaded Vuvuzela Claims Its First Victim: Woman Bursts Her Windpipe ‘By Blowing Too Hard’

Insurance saleswoman Yvonne Mayer, 29, was unable to speak or eat for two days after ripping her windpipe when she blew the three foot horn during a street party in Cape Town.

The next day shocked doctors diagnosed her with a ruptured throat and ordered her to rest it completely to allow it to heal.

The bizarre injury is the first known vuvuzela-related accident since the World Cup kicked off last week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



World Cup: Website Offers Tips for Muslim Fans

Johannesburg, 18 June (AKI) — Muslim tourists attending the World Cup in South Africa can access a website for tips to help them enjoy their stay. The website offers information on mosques and prayer halls near various football stadiums, as well as hotels, restaurants, halal food stores, Islamic organisations and schools as well as tourist attractions.

The website — www.samuslims2010.net — also provides information on items allowed into football stadiums, on road and air travel, and emergency telephone numbers in South Africa, where only 1.5 percent of the population is Muslim.

Many Muslims were expected in the southern coastal city of Cape Town on Friday for the England-Algeria match.

In the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood, where most of the city’s Muslim community lives, a local museum recounts the history of Islam in South Africa.

The World Cup 2010 is taking place from 11 June until 12 July in stadiums in 11 cities across South Africa, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth.

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

General


A Grand Design: Made to Order

Without doubt Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the world. It’s believed that some fifteen percent of the world’s in excess of a billion Muslims sympathize with extremism. A spokesperson for the military wing of HAMAS in Gaza admits: “Our people love death.” Furthermore, he adds, “our goal is to die for the sake of God; and if we live, we want to humiliate Jews and trample on their necks.”[3]

So much for a kinder, gentler Islam.

Be sure, when Muslims are in the majority, and their enemy is judged to be weak, the Medina Approach endorses war-mongering to impose the non-democratic cultural imperialism of an Islamic republic. Accordingly, threat of global terrorism has drastically changed America’s structure of government to include a Department of Homeland Security, and formerly free-as-the-wind-blows Americans willingly surrender rights and comforts once taken for granted. Frequent flyers attest to it.

[…]

Perhaps surprisingly, Muslim readers are free to interpret the Qur’an as they wish. To them, falsehoods are not lies—just differing perspectives. Speaking of which, political correctness—i.e., viewpoint discrimination—requires acknowledgement that Islam is a kind religion, one of peace and charity, even though some eighty percent of all Imams (spiritual leaders) in the United State sanction the Wahabi movement.[5]

Yet no Christmas carols, prayers, or Bible reading are allowed, but as part of their seventh-grade curriculum, Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, California, ran a three-week course in which students assumed Islamic names, recited Muslim prayers, and memorized Surras (verses) from the Qur’an.

Forget Lent, but require kids to fast for a day during the ninth month of the Muslim lunar year (Ramadan)? C’mon, folks. Get a grip.

[…]

Muslims speak of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in terms of a three-camel caravan by which Judaism goes just so far in truth, then camps. Christianity picks up from there by introducing greater truth, but Islam alone reaches the final destination. Here’s the bottom line: The Islamic Doctrine of Abrogation elevates revelation given later over and above earlier revelation. Hence, Islam’s revelatory truth naturally exceeds that of its predecessors.

Keep in mind that Qu’ran verses were written in two different cities at two different periods of time. Whereas the first ninety-two (written in Mecca) advocated non-harm to People of the Book, the last twenty-four (written in Medina) sanction harm to non-Muslims. In accordance with the Doctrine of Abrogation, this latter revelation effectively abrogates the earlier conciliatory one in favor of non-harm.[6]

[…]

From AD 33 to Y2K fully nine million Christians have been murdered by Muslims. Since 1979, a hundred thousand men, women, and children were executed in Iran—all in the name of Allah. Two million Christians were killed in the Sudan genocide alone. Add to that the same number of Armenians in Turkey, and we’re talking lots of bloodshed. Today, about 160,000 Christians die yearly for their convictions.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Understanding Muslims’ Mindset

By: Amil Imani

Diffusing the present dangerous confrontation between Islam and the West demands rational impartial and cool heads to untangle facts from myth, understand the Muslims’ mindset, and redress any grievances on either side…

           — Hat tip: Amil Imani [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100618

Financial Crisis
» ADB: Morocco Standing Up to International Shock
» Believing World War III is Only Four Years Away, Ultra-Rich Europeans Are Investing in Oil and Gold
» Bishop Palermo: Strong Movements From South
» Greece: Unions Protesting Against Pension Reform
» Greece: Left Urges ‘War’ On Austerity
» Guess Who Holds Patent for Carbon Trading Plan
» Italy: Property Slump Affects $2.6 Bln Milan Project
» Pensions: Paris Towards Increase in Civil Servants’ Taxes
 
USA
» 2-Inch-Tall Army Soldiers Gets School Kid Reprimanded
» BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal’s Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard
» Court: Christian Tracts Allowed at Arab-Fest
» Disclose Act — We Must Defeat This Bill!
» Exclusive: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force Base
» FCC Seeks More Internet Regulation
» Hatch Introduces Legislation Repealing Portions of [Obamacare]
» Kennedy Says Obama Did ‘Excellent Job’ Over Oil Spill
» Mohegan Sun Casino Owners Received $54 Million in Stimulus Money
» Obama Nominee Defended Saudi Terrorist
» Radical Islamist Group is Returning to Chicago for Major Recruitment Drive
» Souter Happy to Shape Our Constitution
» The Alien in the White House
» US: Times Square Botched Bombing Suspect Charged
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria: New Catholic Priests Figures in Decline
» Austria Shamed by EU-Wide Pension Age List
» Italy: Rubbish Burning Spreads to Sicilian Coast
» Italy: Saramago: Goodbye to Portuguese Militant Nobel Prize Winner
» Less Turks Seek Asylum in Europe
» Netherlands:Conductor Banned From Wearing Crucifix Necklace
» UK: Communities Come Together to Promote Interfaith Understanding Through Education
» UK: Charles, Prince of Piffle
» UK: MCB Annual General Meeting to Elect New Leadership
» UK: MCB’s Book for Schools
» UK: MCB Congratulates British Muslims Named in Queen’s Honours List
» UK: May Bans Radical Preacher From Entering UK for Saying ‘Every Muslim Should be a Terrorist’
» UK: The MCB’s Wonderland Election
» Vatican: Church ‘Exorcist’ Urges Action to Fight Devil
 
Balkans
» Kosovo: Ethnic Albanian Arrested on Terror Charges
» Serbia: Golden Lady to Open Third Production Facility
 
North Africa
» Morocco: Over 170,000 Children Work, Law Examined
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Weathering the Approaching Storm
» What Will the Western Strategy Toward Gaza Produce? A “Normal” Revolutionary, Terrorist, Genocidal Regime There
 
Middle East
» Lebanon: Patriarch Sfeir Tells Sarkozy, Christian Emigration From the Middle East Should be Stopped
» Netherlands Sells Army Vehicles to Jordan
» Turkey to Urgently Buy Nine Extra Attack Helicopters
» Turkey and Syria Agree to Build a New Border Crossing
» Turkey: Sultan Abdulhamid’s Heirs Demand Seized Property
 
Russia
» Moscow Prepares Controversial Integration Handbook
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Roadside Bomb Targets Italian Soliders in West
» Red Cross: Kyrgyzstan, Scene of an “Immense Crisis”

Financial Crisis


ADB: Morocco Standing Up to International Shock

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JUNE 15 — The fundamental values of Morocco’s economy remained steady despite a problematic international context and proved themselves resistant to external shocks, according to an assessment made by the African Development Bank (ADB) in its outlook report on the economies of the continent. The ADB report disseminated today in Rabat states that “Despite the economic crisis in 2009, thre results of Morocco’s economy remained positive with a 5% growth rate; the instability of financial markets, growing oil prices, and Morocco’s struggling major trade partners made us fear the worst. Nonetheless the fundamental values of Morocco’s economy remained steady, also because of the use of public resources and development assistance”. The AND report believes that a key element was the government’s decision to tackle the crisis by doubling efforts “to modernise the public sector, raise major infrastructures, promote the public sector and protect the environment”. However the ADB also emphasised a few weaknesses of the national economy given by lower revenues from tourism and lower remittances from emigrants, deeming that growth will slump in 2010, staying below 4.3% according to the estimates made by the ADB in cooperation with the OECD and The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Believing World War III is Only Four Years Away, Ultra-Rich Europeans Are Investing in Oil and Gold

The evidence is anecdotal but compelling.

Incredibly rich European investors—individuals with institutional resources—are increasingly betting on oil and gold.

They are driven by fear—of a third world war—which many mega-rich see as a certainty and most likely to begin in the Middle East within a few years as Iran acquires atomic arms. 2014 is especially feared in this context because it is the year that will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, which ravaged and reshaped Europe and set the stage for World War II.

Expecting the price of oil to rise to well over $200 a barrel and the price of gold to soar above $5,000 an ounce, these European prophets of doom are investing in both commodities and equities, including crude oil futures and physical oil—they can afford the storage—gold bullion and shares in listed, gold producing companies, and, even, in some cases, actual gold mines. At least one investor group is known to be actively pursuing privately held gold mines in Peru, for example.

The forecasts are frightening but not surprising, given the times in which we live. That said, the fact that many sophisticated people with so much money—and access to the best advice that money can buy—are apparently acting on the expectations is both telling and terrifying.

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Bishop Palermo: Strong Movements From South

(ANSAmed) — VALDERICE (TRAPANI), JUNE 17 — “Emigration (from the south) to the north of the country has massively taken off again. In Sicily alone, 60,000 people are said to have left for other cities in search of work. They are mostly young temporary employees”. These are the comments of Monsignor Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo, who was speaking at a meeting organised by the Italian Caritas on immigration in the Mediterranean. The bishop said that the situation in southern regions was very serious, adding that “there is a gap that is difficult to bridge, and our politicians are not up to the task, partly as a result of past events”. According to Monsignor Romeo, nurses, doctors and metal workers are among the new migrants heading north because they are unable to find work and have been in temporary employment for years. “We see them every day,” he said, “parents come and say that their children are leaving. There is no future in our area. Just around Palermo, for example, Fiat and Italtel have closed, and it is obvious that those specialised in metal works will struggle to find alternatives. Fiat has given in not because production is expensive but because the infrastructure is not in place, and this has been the case for twenty years”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Greece: Unions Protesting Against Pension Reform

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Greeks are once more protesting in the streets today in demonstrations called by all the unions against the pension reform that the government is negotiating with the EU-IMF mission before presenting it in Parliament. The Athens underground will also be closed today for 24 hours, while tomorrow all urban transport will stop for 5 hours. Lawyers are also protesting, after yesterday evening’s demonstration by doctors against the stop to supplies heading for public hospitals by industry due to large-scale back debt. The government has announced new proposals to resolve the crisis. A demonstration has been called for this evening by the two main union federations, the private sector Gsee and the public sector Adedy, alongside the protests called by the Communist union Pame and organisations with links to the radical left. Workers representatives have denounced the “barbaric anti-worker measures” which weigh most heavily on those with the least money. The demonstration coincides with the presence in Athens of a new EU and IMF mission to take stock of the implementation of the austerity plan and agree on the pension reform calling for freezes and reductions as well as a rise in retirement age. Unions are preparing another general strike, the fifth against the austerity plan, during the presentation in Parliament of the draft law on pensions, expected by the end of the month. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Greece: Left Urges ‘War’ On Austerity

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 18 — The Greek left, led by the communists, has urged citizens “not to recognise the debts” incurred by the country and to “proclaim war” on the “savage classist attack” by George Papandreou’s government with the EU and IMF. Whilst protests continue, with the underground system of Athens today paralysed for a third consecutive day, and the announcement of another general strike against the pension reform which is about to arrive in Parliament, the leader of the Communist Party (KKE), Aleka Papariga, and the leader of the radical left, Alexis Tsipra, have asked the President, Karolos Papoulias, to intervene. Papariga urged Premier George Papandreou to “explain to the hundreds of thousands of working-class families what they should do when they will soon be unable to pay their electricity and phone bills and their taxes, and will not even be able to buy basic foodstuffs.” Papariga urged all workers to form “a united front” and to “declare war on the war that the socialist government, the plutocrats and the EU-IMF continue to wage and escalate” against Greek society. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Guess Who Holds Patent for Carbon Trading Plan

Disgraced Fannie Mae CEO set to cash in for millions

Former Clinton and Obama budget adviser Franklin Raines owns a key carbon-emissions patent he developed as CEO of the government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae, positioning him and his partners to make millions of dollars if it is used in any carbon-capping scheme implemented by the Obama administration.

Raines and his associates led Fannie Mae and Congress to believe Fannie Mae owned the patent, despite public records to the contrary.

Raines and his partners carried out their plan by quietly filing for and receiving a second nearly identical carbon-emissions patent that superseded the first patent, according to government records. The second patent was never assigned to Fannie Mae or any other party.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Italy: Property Slump Affects $2.6 Bln Milan Project

Milan, 17 June (AKI/Bloomberg) — A 2.6 billion dollar real estate project that includes the tallest building in Italy is struggling to attract buyers for luxury apartments amid a slump in the country’s property market. CityLife, billed as the biggest urban development in Milan, has sold 90 of an initial 390 upscale apartments and penthouses in the 431,000 square-metre site at the city’s former fairgrounds.

The plan’s biggest investors are insurers Allianz SE of Germany and Assicurazioni Generali in Italy.

“They’re flooding the market with such a large number of high-range properties that it can’t possibly absorb, especially in a period of economic slowdown,” said Rolando Mastrodonato, who leads a residents’ group which opposes the project.

The worst financial crisis in six decades caused Italy’s residential and commercial property market to stagnate during 2008 and 2009.

Real estate prices are expected to fall this year.

CityLife asked Milan’s building regulators last month for permission to scale back the office and retail space for as much as 30 percent of the total because of the bearish outlook for the office market.

According to the initial plan, as much as 45 percent of the area had been set aside for commercial buildings.

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



Pensions: Paris Towards Increase in Civil Servants’ Taxes

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 8 — The French government is preparing to raise taxes to be paid on civil servants as part of pension reforms, so said government sources. The raising of income tax — which is currently at 7.85% against 10.55% in the private sector — should bring the state coffers to 3 billion euros. Amongst other preventive measures, there is also a special and temporary tax for the higher income brackets. Paris also forecasts an establishing on a yearly basis on 12 months, instead of on the current 13, of company taxes, a measure which could bring the state some 2 billion euros. COR, the French government pension advisor, which brings together unions, businesspeople and experts, but also MPs and representatives of the state, believes that the raising of taxes by one point for the pension of civil servants will result in 720 million euros. According to the latest official figures, which relate to 2008, the French civil service, which employs 5.2 million people, has 3.173 million pensioners. Nicolas Sarkozy’s government will announce the pension reform between June 15 and 20. The reform are set to respond to the needs to refinance the system, expected this year to be 30 billion euros. (ANSAmed).

2010-06-08 16:16

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA


2-Inch-Tall Army Soldiers Gets School Kid Reprimanded

A policy of no tolerance for weapons got an 8-year-old boy in trouble at his Rhode Island grade school this week. The boy brought in nearly a dozen M-14 Army rifles to his Tiogue School in Coventry, R.I. grade school and was chastised by the principal for the outrage.

How did he get all those assault rifles into the school you might ask? Why he did it by gluing seven or so of his 2-inch-tall green army soldier toys to his camo colored ball cap for “make a crazy hat” day at school. That’s right, a few green army man toys were enough to trip the poor child up in this foolish school’s “no weapons” policy. (Photo credit, WPRI.com)

Seriously. No weapons includes 2-inch-tall army soldier toys holding teeny, tiny representations of army rifles. 2-inch-tall army soldier toys are enough to get a kid sent in shame to the principal’s office and threatened with sterner action.

This is the sort of stupidity that makes adults look like utter morons and Kenneth DiPietro, superintendent of Coventry Public Schools, made himself look like a prime time ##### by attacking this kid over a school project to “make a crazy hat.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal’s Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard

Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state’s oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor’s wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.

“It’s the most frustrating thing,” the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. “Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges.”

Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP’s oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

“These barges work. You’ve seen them work. You’ve seen them suck oil out of the water,” said Jindal.

[…]

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Court: Christian Tracts Allowed at Arab-Fest

City police had threatened arrest for handing out information

An emergency motion has been granted by a federal appeals court in order for a Christian to hand out information about his faith at the annual Arab Festival in Dearborn, Mich., this weekend without being arrested.

A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals today granted the motion requested by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Pastor George Saieg, a Sudanese Christian who has been trying to get permission to distribute literature and talk about his Christianity to Muslims at the festival.

The event is Friday through Sunday in Dearborn, where an estimated 30,000 of the city’s 98,000 residents are Muslim.

According to the law center, Judge Paul Borman just a week ago had affirmed the city’s ban on handing out Christian material near the festival. It was last year when Dearborn police threatened Saieg with arrest if he handed out information on Christianity near the festival.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Disclose Act — We Must Defeat This Bill!

On April 29, 2010, Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced H.R. 5175, the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act. The bill is a direct response to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (McCain- Feingold) — a First Amendment victory in which the Supreme Court overturned the prohibition on corporations and unions using treasury funds for independent expenditures supporting or opposing political candidates at any time of the year. Simply put, the DISCLOSE Act will limit the political speech that was protected and encouraged by Citizens United.

Speaker Pelosi and the House Majority Leadership are making it a priority to pass this bill. This bill is designed to take away the influence of Tea Party and other conservative groups in the upcoming November election. We feel like this bill will be successfully challenged in the courts, but the ruling will not come before the November election.

An exemption has been carved out for the Labor Unions and other leftist advocacy groups. The NRA was also exempted so they would not oppose it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Exclusive: Alert Issued for 17 Afghan Military Members AWOL From U.S. Air Force Base

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned.

The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, “Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.],” issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com.

The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S.

“I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute,” said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland AFB. “They disappeared over the course of the last two years, and none in the last three months.”

Each Afghan was issued a Department of Defense Common Access Card, an identification card used to gain access to secure military installations, with which they “could attempt to enter DOD installations,” according to the bulletin. Base security officers were encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to their personnel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



FCC Seeks More Internet Regulation

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday began a push for greater regulation of the Internet.

The agency’s commissioners voted 3-2 to open for public comment three proposals for how to regulate broadband transmissions and connections. It’s the first step in a process that could result in new rules by fall.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski favors an option that would allow for more regulation in some areas but not others.

It’s a change that broadband service providers such as Dallas-based AT&T Inc. oppose and say could slow the pace of their investments in new technologies.

But software and Internet companies such as Google Inc. favor the changes, saying the regulations will prevent providers from limiting access to online services they don’t like.

The debate stems from a 2007 attempt by Comcast Corp. to slow the Internet connection speeds of its customers who were using a file-sharing technology called Bit Torrent, which is often used to swap pirated movies and music.

In 2008, the FCC ruled that Comcast violated federal policy, and the dispute between the FCC and Comcast went to court. But a federal appeals court ruled this year that broadband providers could not be censured by the FCC for activities such as throttling access speeds.

The FCC doesn’t have that authority because, in 2002, the FCC formally defined broadband as a Title I “information service” rather than a Title II “telecommunications service.” Classifying broadband as Title II would have put much greater regulatory duties on broadband providers.

One of the three proposals being weighed by the agency is to enforce the Title II FCC regulation. A second option is to maintain the current framework.

Genachowski has acknowledged that bringing the full weight of Title II duties to bear would hamper innovation. So he has proposed his “third way” plan, which essentially combines Title I and Title II into a third classification for broadband.

But that approach hasn’t been tried, and there is no explicit authority for the FCC to implement it.

Nor are there established limits for the regulatory duties of broadband providers under a “third way” approach, which would require providers to not interfere with how customers access the Internet.

So AT&T, Verizon and other providers are concerned that, even if the intent is not to heavily regulate now, future commissioners could rewrite the regulatory requirements any way they wish.

“A better and more proper approach is for the FCC to defer the question of its legal authority to the U.S. Congress,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president of legislative affairs, said in a prepared statement Thursday. “AT&T continues to feel congressional action is far preferable, and far less risky to jobs and investment, than the FCC’s current path.”

Verizon Communications Inc. and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association also want Congress to specify exactly what the FCC is allowed to regulate.

But the FCC says it can’t wait for Congress to act.

“The FCC has an obligation to move forward with an open, constructive public-comment process to ask hard questions, to find a solution and resolve the uncertainty that has been created,” Genachowski said in his statement after Thursday’s vote. “The congressional and FCC processes are complementary.”

AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson has said heavier regulation could cause his company to stop building its U-verse broadband and TV service.

“If this Title 2 regulation looks imminent, we have to re-evaluate whether we put shovels in the ground,” Stephenson told The Wall Street Journal this week.

U-verse is available to 24 million homes, and AT&T plans to push that number to 30 million by the end of 2011.

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Hatch Introduces Legislation Repealing Portions of [Obamacare]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced two pieces of legislation today striking at the heart of the $2.5 trillion health care law. The first, the American Liberty Restoration Act (S. 3502), would repeal the individual mandate that Hatch has repeatedly called unconstitutional and has prompted lawsuits by over 20 states. The second, the American Job Protection Act (S.3501), would repeal the job-killing employer mandate that Hatch says would force more layoffs and increase taxes on businesses at a time of near 10 percent unemployment.

“It’s an indisputable fact that this $2.5 trillion health care law is bad for our nation. Its central tenets threaten our basic liberty and our ability to recover from this severe economic downturn. By repealing both the unconstitutional individual mandate and the job-killing employer mandate, the most egregious elements of this devastating health law will be eliminated. This would be a huge leap in the right direction for hard-working families and small businesses.”

REPEALING THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL INDIVIDUAL MANDATE WITH THE AMERICAN LIBERTY RESTORATION ACT (S. 3502):

The American Liberty Restoration Act would strike provisions in the health law requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. Never before has the federal government forced the American people to purchase something they may not want.

“Congress overstepped its authority by telling Americans that they have to buy health insurance or else,” Hatch said. “The Constitution empowers Congress to regulate interstate commerce, but does not tell Americans what they must buy. It’s time to repeal this unconstitutional Washington mandate that encroaches on the principle of federalism and Utahns’ personal liberty.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Kennedy Says Obama Did ‘Excellent Job’ Over Oil Spill

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed Barack Obama has done an “excellent job” in reacting to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The environmental law expert said at a business event in Vienna last night (Weds): “I’m convinced Obama will succeed with his plans of stepping on new ground in energy and climate issues. He did an excellent job overall so far.”

Kennedy — son of assassinated Democratic Senator Robert F. Kennedy — also accused “some American media” of unfairly treating the US president over his decision-making.

“Obama is trying to free America from the chains of depending on oil,” Kennedy said, adding that his predecessor George W. Bush was to blame for the current drama.

He claimed: “(George W.) Bush’s administration was the worst in the history of the United States.”

Kennedy’s accusations come days after former head of the US Democratic Party Howard Dean told Austrian magazine profil: “The truth is that the president (Obama) can’t do much about it (the oil spill). George W. Bush’s people allowed this drilling platform to be built. If Obama made a mistake then it was his failure to fire these people sooner. But you are being made responsible of all kinds of issues when you’re in office.”

Kennedy further explained China realised those investing in renewable energy today will massively benefit from such efforts in the future.

The book author said China — regarded as having all chances to become the most powerful economic force in the world in the near future — has started to focus on setting up solar and wind energy plants to reduce its carbon emission index.

Kennedy said the USA were “not ready yet” for such a change in environmental policies. “All Republicans and many Democrats in states with a strong coal and oil industry are in the clutches of these firms,” he claimed.

He criticised many people would regard a withdrawal from fossil energy trade as a “job killer” instead of stressing such a move’s chances.

Austrian Greens boss Eva Glawischnig meanwhile appealed on the government coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the People’s Party (ÖVP) to stop all business-making with the oil industry as a consequence of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Frank Stronach, founder of Canadian-Austrian car parts maker Magna, hit the headlines recently by announcing he was ready to invest around 65 million Euros (78 million US dollars) into the development of an own E-Car model.

Dean claimed the Austrian province of Styria had chances to become the “electric cars capital in the world”.

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



Mohegan Sun Casino Owners Received $54 Million in Stimulus Money

Indian Tribe That Runs Connecticut Casino Earning $1 Billion-Plus Per Year Got Government Check

With the support of Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., the federal government has awarded $54 million to Connecticut’s politically well-connected Mohegan Indian tribe, which operates one of the highest grossing casinos in the U.S.

The tribe runs the sprawling Mohegan Sun casino, halfway between New York City and Boston, which earned more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009. Each tribe member receives a cut of the profits, a number a tribal official said was “less than $30,000” per capita per year. The stimulus money is a loan from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program that is meant to help communities of less than 20,000 people that have been “unable to obtain other credit at reasonable rates and terms and are unable to finance the proposed project from their own resources.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Obama Nominee Defended Saudi Terrorist

President Barack Obama’s nominee for the number two spot at the U.S. Justice Department served as a lawyer for the Saudi royals who helped finance the 9-11 terrorist attacks and raked in millions of dollars to “monitor” a collapsed insurance company that got a massive government bailout, according to a Washington, DC watchdog group.

According to public-interest group Judicial Watch, the president’s choice— James Cole—to be Deputy Attorney General believes that the Middle Eastern terrorists, who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, are simply domestic criminals who commit crimes such as rape and murder.

This should concern Americans since, as a ranking official at the Justice Department, Cole would play a lead role in decision-making involving terrorism arrests and prosecutions.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Radical Islamist Group is Returning to Chicago for Major Recruitment Drive

They’re back. A radical Islamist group critics say has links to Al Qaeda is gearing up to host its second annual U.S. recruiting event.

The group, Hizb ut-Tahrir America, which is committed to establishing a caliphate, or international Islamic empire, kicked up controversy in Chicago last year with its first U.S. conference, “Fall of Capitalism & Rise of Islam.”

Speakers at the conference blamed capitalism for everything from two World Wars to Michael Jackson’s decision “to shed his black skin.” It drew more than 500 attendees, dozens of protesters and a heavy police presence.

Now the group is coming back to the Windy City with its second conference, “Emerging World Order: How the Khilafah Will Shape the World,” scheduled to begin July 11 at the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook. According to a video promoting the event, the goal is to persuade attendees to “answer the call” to “join the campaign” for a Khilafah, or global Islamic empire.

Despite the charged message, the group insists that it advocates change only through nonviolent means.

Terrorism “is not in our dictionary,” spokesman Mohammad Malkawi told reporters last year. “We condemn it by all means … From our perspective, our records are clean on this issue.”

But some experts say the group’s rhetoric masks its true role: preparing the infantry for groups like Al Qaeda by indoctrinating young jihadists.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Souter Happy to Shape Our Constitution

Our perennial national debate over how to interpret the Constitution will soon be renewed, as the Senate considers the Supreme Court nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

In fact, former Justice David Souter set the discussion in motion last month in a Harvard commencement address— arguing that seeking to resolve difficult constitutional questions based on an honest effort to construe that document’s words (whether broadly or narrowly) “has only a tenuous connection to reality” and leads to bad decisions.

Souter’s candor is commendable but also genuinely troubling — the practical equivalent of a retired cardinal announcing that religion is an opiate for the masses. Even judges who quietly believe that the Constitution is an irredeemably reactionary document, which they must pull and push into the 21st century, are not generally so bold, preferring instead to cloak their innovations with references to the Constitution’s text.

Souter, however, argues that the Constitution is too full of ambiguous language and competing imperatives to sustain a textual approach to its interpretation. Like the people it serves — who throughout their history have demanded security and liberty, liberty and equality — the Constitution tries to have it both ways and is too often irreconcilable.

It is, therefore, the courts (and the Supreme Court especially), that Souter believes must “decide which of our approved desires has the better claim,” and this cannot be done simply by reading the Constitution’s words. Put differently, we all must trust in the judges to find our way through the morass, to make the right choices between competing constitutional imperatives, and we cannot accuse them of making up the law when they make choices we do not like. It is their job, not ours.

It would be difficult to articulate a decision-making model more antithetical to American democracy and the Constitution’s own design. It is often said — by the Supreme Court among others — that we have a “government of laws and not of men.” Judges are people, not the living embodiment of the law. When a judge makes the choices Souter suggests, without regard to the Constitution’s words and their original meaning, it is the judges who rule and not the law.

The Constitution’s drafters understood this very well and, whatever mistakes they made along the way, they manifestly did not empower the courts to choose freestyle among constitutional values. Their judiciary was to be, as Alexander Hamilton explained at the time, the “weakest” branch of government that could exercise only “judgment,” not the awesome congressional power of the purse or the president’s control over the military.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



The Alien in the White House

The distance between the president and the people is beginning to be revealed.

By Dorothy Rabinowitz

The deepening notes of disenchantment with Barack Obama now issuing from commentators across the political spectrum were predictable. So, too, were the charges from some of the president’s earliest enthusiasts about his failure to reflect a powerful sense of urgency about the oil spill.

There should have been nothing puzzling about his response to anyone who has paid even modest critical attention to Mr. Obama’s pronouncements. For it was clear from the first that this president—single-minded, ever-visible, confident in his program for a reformed America saved from darkness by his arrival—was wanting in certain qualities citizens have until now taken for granted in their presidents. Namely, a tone and presence that said: This is the Americans’ leader, a man of them, for them, the nation’s voice and champion. Mr. Obama wasn’t lacking in concern about the oil spill. What he lacked was that voice—and for good reason.

Those qualities to be expected in a president were never about rhetoric; Mr. Obama had proved himself a dab hand at that on the campaign trail. They were a matter of identification with the nation and to all that binds its people together in pride and allegiance. These are feelings held deep in American hearts, unvoiced mostly, but unmistakably there and not only on the Fourth of July.

A great part of America now understands that this president’s sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class. He is the alien in the White House, a matter having nothing to do with delusions about his birthplace cherished by the demented fringe.

One of his first reforms was to rid the White House of the bust of Winston Churchill—a gift from Tony Blair—by packing it back off to 10 Downing Street. A cloudlet of mystery has surrounded the subject ever since, but the central fact stands clear. The new administration had apparently found no place in our national house of many rooms for the British leader who lives on so vividly in the American mind. Churchill, face of our shared wartime struggle, dauntless rallier of his nation who continues, so remarkably, to speak to ours. For a president to whom such associations are alien, ridding the White House of Churchill would, of course, have raised no second thoughts.

Far greater strangeness has since flowed steadily from Washington. The president’s appointees, transmitters of policy, go forth with singular passion week after week, delivering the latest inversion of reality. Their work is not easy, focused as it is on a current prime preoccupation of this White House—that is, finding ways to avoid any public mention of the indisputable Islamist identity of the enemy at war with us. No small trick that, but their efforts go forward in public spectacles matchless in their absurdity—unnerving in what they confirm about our current guardians of law and national security…

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



US: Times Square Botched Bombing Suspect Charged

New York, 18 June (AKI) — A US federal grand jury late on Thursday indicted a Pakistani-American suspected of trying to detonate a car bomb last month in New York’s central Times Square with multiple terrorism-related offences.

The grand jury in New York indicted Faisal Shahzad, who became a US citizen last year with 10 charges over the botched bombing (photo) of the city’s bustling Times Square theatre district on 1 May.

Pakistani-born Shahzad faces life in prison if convicted and has been cooperating with authorities since he was arrested, officials said.

The charges included attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted terrorism across national borders.

“(The) 10-count indictment returned in the Southern District of New York charges Faisal Shahzad with conspiring with the Pakistani Taliban to wreak death and destruction in Times Square,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Among the new details in the indictment is a charge that in December 2009, Shahzad received explosives training in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of Waziristan, from handlers affiliated to the Pakistani Taliban.

Shahzad’s lawyer, Philip Weinstein, declined to comment on the indictment.

Shahzad, 30, is accused of parking a vehicle containing a crude car bomb in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. He was arrested aboard a Dubai-bound flight two days later minutes before it was due to take off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The indictment detailed how in February-March this year, Shahzad received 7,500 dollars from a co-conspirator in Pakistan whom Shahzad understood worked for the Pakistani Taliban.

Shahzad, who was unemployed at the time, then purchased a weapon, material to make the car bomb and a used Nissan Pathfinder vehicle to plant it in, according to the indictment.

The Pakistani Taliban, called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing.

Several people have been arrested in Pakistan in the case and US authorities carried out raids in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine, detaining several people on immigration charges.

Shahzad, who remains in custody, is expected to be arraigned on the new charges on Monday before Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Shahzad did not enter a plea during his first court appearance on 18 May.

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

Europe and the EU


Austria: New Catholic Priests Figures in Decline

Fewer Austrians decided to become Catholic priests in the first half of this year than in 2009 as the church’s crisis continues.

Church officials said today (Thurs) 24 men will be consecrated priests in 2010 by the end of this month. They said 33 consecrations took place in the first six months of last year.

The Austrian Roman Catholic Church’s reputation suffered dramatically over the past few months as around 700 people came forward to report violent and sexual abuse at its institutions.

The Church reacted by setting up a special commission to deal with the cases and provide victims with financial compensation and therapy.

Critics however appealed to people to consult independent help lines as they accused former Styrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Governor Waltraud Klasnic who is heading the commission of having too close ties to the church.

Researchers from Kepler University in Linz rocked Church leaders by revealing that 59 per cent of Catholic priests they interviewed wanted mandatory celibacy to be abolished.

More than 30,000 Austrians left the Church in the first three months of this year, up by 42 per cent compared to the same time span of 2009 when more people than ever cancelled their membership. Fears are increasing that up to 80,000 Austrians will leave the Church throughout this year.

Last year’s 53,216 people quitting their membership meant an all-time record high.

Austrian Times

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



Austria Shamed by EU-Wide Pension Age List

Austria has made the top three in a humiliating European Union (EU) retirement age ranking.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures presented today (Weds) reveal that Belgium and France were the only other EU member states with a comparably low average pensioning age as Austria where men retire on average at 59 and women at 58.

The EU average is two years higher for each, the OECD said. International comparisons meanwhile exposed in the US that Americans work five years longer than Austrians, while Japanese workers and employees beat Austria by a stunning ten years.

These figures are expected to put pressure on the government and its plans to react to the soaring costs in healthcare and the social system also caused by a steady ageing of the society.

Researchers have appealed to political leaders to consider their concepts to stop the cycle of rising expenses due to the increasing life expectancy with a comparably low age of retirement.

The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) have been pointed out as a haven of privileges for staff as statistics reveal that ÖBB workers retired at an average age of 52.

Christian Kern remained tight-lipped over how he planned to tackle the problem since he took over as new boss of the firm earlier this month.

Social Democratic (SPÖ) Traffic Minister meanwhile Doris Bures said she wanted to increase the age of retirement by at least one year annually from 2011.

Reinhold Lopatka, financial affairs state secretary of the SPÖ’s coalition partner the People’s Party’s (ÖVP), however claimed such a move would not be courageous enough to get the indebted company — which is close to the state — back on track.

Austrian Times

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



Italy: Rubbish Burning Spreads to Sicilian Coast

Palermo, 17 June (AKI) — Furious residents in Italy’s southern Sicily region overnight set piles of garbage alight in Palermo and locations along the coast as the worsening rubbish crisis in the province of Palermo continued.

Firemen were called to put out blazes in 10 locations in Palermo and the surrounding province, especially around the coastal towns of Carini and Cinisi.

Residents say rotting rubbish is not being collected or is being collected too slowly, creating an unbearable stench as well as a health hazard.

The province of Palermo has for months been been in the grip of the refuse emergency and the situation has been exacerbated by recent hot summer weather.

As recently as Tuesday, Italian firefighters were called to extinguish burning piles of garbage in Palermo.

Desperate locals regularly burn bins and improvised dumps full of uncollected rubbish, further increasing the health risks posed by the chronic mismanagement of waste disposal in the region.

One metric tonne of waste burned by local residents leaves up to 1,000 microgrammes of cancer-inducing dioxins in the atmosphere, according to Italian opposition MP and environmental campaigner Ermete Realacci.

Realacci last month urged the central government to take rapid action to end the garbage crisis in the Palermo area.

According to Realacci, Sicily is bringing up the rear in waste disposal, recycling less than 7 percent of its garbage, far below the rates Italy’s regions are legally required to achieve.

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



Italy: Saramago: Goodbye to Portuguese Militant Nobel Prize Winner

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 18 — José Saramago has represented modern Portuguese literature which he, thanks to the Nobel Prize he received in 1998, made the focus of international attention, paving the way for other writers as well: from Lobo Antunes to Cardoso Pires. In Italy, Saramago has received two honorary degrees, in Rome and in Siena. His clashes with the Vatican have caused a great deal of comment. His works ‘Memorial’ and ‘The second life of Francesco d’Assisì (in which the saint continues to preach in a world in which nobody listens to him anymore) have given him the name of ‘die-hard communist’. “I have great respect for the faithful” he said, “but I have no respect at all for the Vatican, which is an administrator of faith”. This remark is in line with his idea that “intellectuals, the more they are in the limelight, the more they have the duty to protest against and denounce injustice”. A communist since an early age and opponent of Salazar, he abandoned his studies for financial reasons. He had various jobs before he became a journalist for the literary supplement of the ‘Diario de Lisboa’. After the Carnation Revolution in ‘74 and after becoming vice-editor of the ‘Diario de noticias’ in ‘75, he left the profession and became a full-time writer. He published poetry, a theatre play and reports on current events. In 1980 he published ‘Risen from the Ground’, a traditional rural saga in which real stories slowly emerge next to fiction. He was a supporter of Iberian Federalism, the movement for the unification of Spain and Portugal, to which he also dedicated his novel ‘The Stone Raft’. His ideas on the Middle East conflict have led to accusations of anti-Semitism. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Less Turks Seek Asylum in Europe

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 18 — Less Turkish citizens sought asylum in European Union member states last year when compared to 2008, Anatolia news agency reports quoting a Eurostat report published today. Turkey ranked 9th in asylum applications to EU countries in 2008, however, it went down to 12th place in 2009, according to Eurostat data. In 2008, 7,330 Turks applied for asylum in 27 EU countries. It dropped 5.5% after a year and stood at 6,930. Turkish people asked for protection mostly from France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Sweden. EU member states granted protection to 78,800 asylum seekers in 2009 compared with 75,100 in 2008. The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status were citizens of Somalia (13,400), Iraq (13,100) and Afghanistan (7,100). (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Netherlands:Conductor Banned From Wearing Crucifix Necklace

An Amsterdam appeal court has ruled that the Amsterdam public transport service is within its rights to ban its conductors from visibly wearing a necklace bearing a crucifix.

The verdict backs an earlier ruling at the end of last year. Egyptian-born tram conductor Ezzaz Aziz appealed against the decision after the transport service suspended him for refusing to take off or conceal his necklace during working hours.

Mr Aziz objected to the fact that he was forbidden to wear his religious symbol, while Muslim women were allowed to wear headscarves. Mr Aziz claimed he was a victim of discrimination because headscarves are also an expression of religious belief.

“The judge didn’t consider the equal treatment of two religions within one company — only whether the company rules applied. But that wasn’t my intention. In the company we have two religions, and one religion is allowed to do what it likes and the other isn’t allowed to do anything. That’s why I appealed against the ruling.”

Dress code

The court ruled that the public transport service wasn’t guilty of discrimination because the rule wasn’t against wearing religious symbols, but simply against visibly wearing necklaces. For security reasons the service’s dress code bans employees from wearing any necklace outside the uniform.

The dress code allows the wearing of headscarves, as long as they bear the company logo. And the transport service points out that if Mr Aziz wants to express his religious belief, he’s welcome to wear a ring or an earring with a crucifix.

Nevertheless, Mr Aziz says he’s disappointed in Dutch justice. As a member of the Coptic Church, in Egypt he was barely able to express his religion. He expected things to be different in the Netherlands.

“The Netherlands is a democratic country. I think it’s nonsense that you can express one religion but not another. I feel a fire burning inside me because I don’t live in a democratic country, but in a third world country.”

Mr Aziz now plans to try and win support for his case in parliament. Meanwhile he’s opting to wear his crucifix under his sweater, because he doesn’t expect he would be able to find another job. “I’m an old man. I’m 57, I don’t know what else I could do.”

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



UK: Communities Come Together to Promote Interfaith Understanding Through Education

The Muslim Council of Britain’s “Books for Schools” project will be launched in Bristol at the Andalusia Academy, Old School Building, St. Matthias Park, St. Phillips, Bristol BS2 0BA at 4pm on Tuesday 8th June 2010. Following a national launch in 2004 and several other regional launches, this initiative aims to deliver Islamic resources to primary schools in Bristol, promoting a better understanding of Islam alongside other world religions.

Muslim Aid, one of the UK’s largest Muslim international relief and development charities, has sponsored 100 mini packs for primary schools in Bristol as part of its UK Development Programme.

Muslim Aid Chairman, Sir Iqbal Sacranie said “One of the key purposes of the National Framework for Religious Education is to increase public understanding and confidence in the way Religious Education is delivered in schools. This is a great opportunity for government and community bodies to join together to discuss how this can most effectively be implemented. Promoting understanding is essential in broadening our appreciation of different faiths.”

Ms Katy Staples, Schools Adviser, Diocese of Bristol said: “The importance of Religious Education being taught in schools is well recognised, being seen as a tool for developing appreciation & respect between different sections of our society. We are grateful that these new teaching resources will allow children to learn more about Islam, increasing their understanding in an ever changing world.”

Dr Ghassan Nounu of Bristol Islamic Schools Trust added: “I very much welcome this joint initiative in Bristol schools. There is a great deal of ignorance about major faiths, resulting in dangerous and destructive myths. The use of the new materials will help develop understanding and encourage community cohesion throughout Bristol.”

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “We believe education is the key to creating a vibrant and considerate society. These resources, developed by our team of educationalists, aim to overcome the barriers to the teaching of Islam experienced by so many of our teachers, by making available creative, engaging and child-friendly resources on Islam and Muslims. We want to ensure that every school child has access to high quality Islamic resources through their schools.”

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: Charles, Prince of Piffle

By Christopher Hitchens

This is what you get when you found a political system on the family values of Henry VIII. At a point in the not-too-remote future, the stout heart of Queen Elizabeth II will cease to beat. At that precise moment, her firstborn son will become head of state, head of the armed forces, and head of the Church of England. In strict constitutional terms, this ought not to matter much. The English monarchy, as has been said, reigns but does not rule. From the aesthetic point of view it will matter a bit, because the prospect of a morose bat-eared and chinless man, prematurely aged, and with the most abysmal taste in royal consorts, is a distinctly lowering one. And a king does have the ability to alter the atmosphere and to affect the ways in which important matters are discussed. (The queen herself proved that in subtle ways, by letting it be known that there were aspects of Margaret Thatcher’s foreign policy that she did not view with unmixed delight.)

So the speech made by Prince Charles at Oxford last week might bear a little scrutiny. Discussing one of his favorite topics, the “environment,” he announced that the main problem arose from a “deep, inner crisis of the soul” and that the “de-souling” of humanity probably went back as far as Galileo. In his view, materialism and consumerism represented an imbalance, “where mechanistic thinking is so predominant,” and which “goes back at least to Galileo’s assertion that there is nothing in nature but quantity and motion.” He described the scientific worldview as an affront to all the world’s “sacred traditions.” Then for the climax:

“As a result, Nature has been completely objectified—She has become an it—and we are persuaded to concentrate on the material aspect of reality that fits within Galileo’s scheme.”

We have known for a long time that Prince Charles’ empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way. But this latest departure promotes him from an advocate of harmless nonsense to positively sinister nonsense.

We owe a huge debt to Galileo for emancipating us all from the stupid belief in an Earth-centered or man-centered (let alone God-centered) system. He quite literally taught us our place and allowed us to go on to make extraordinary advances in knowledge. None of these liberating undertakings have required any sort of assumption about a soul. That belief is at best optional.. (Incidentally, nature is no more or less “objectified” whether we give it a gender name or a neuter one. Merely calling it Mummy will not, alas, alter this salient fact.)

In the controversy that followed the prince’s remarks, his most staunch defender was Professor John Taylor, a scholar whose work I had last noticed when he gave good reviews to the psychokinetic (or whatever) capacities of the Israeli conjuror and fraud Uri Geller. The heir to the throne seems to possess the ability to surround himself—perhaps by some mysterious ultramagnetic force?—with every moon-faced spoon-bender, shrub-flatterer, and water-diviner within range.

None of this might matter very much, until you notice the venue at which Charles delivered his farrago of nonsense. It was unleashed upon an audience at the Center for Islamic Studies at Oxford University, an institution of which he is the patron. Nor is this his only foray into Islamophilia. Together with the Saudi royal family, he supported the mosque in North London that acted as host and incubator to Richard “Shoe Bomber” Reid, the hook-handed Abu Hamza al-Masri, and several other unsavory customers. The prince’s official job description as king will be “defender of the faith,” which currently means the state-financed absurdity of the Anglican Church, but he has more than once said publicly that he wants to be anointed as defender of all faiths—another indication of the amazing conceit he has developed in six decades of performing the only job allowed him by the hereditary principle: that of waiting for his mother to expire.

A hereditary head of state, as Thomas Paine so crisply phrased it, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary physician or a hereditary astronomer. To this innate absurdity, Prince Charles manages to bring fatuities that are entirely his own. And, as he paged his way through his dreary wad of babble, there must have been some wolfish smiles among his Muslim audience. I quote from a recent document published by the Islamic Forum of Europe, a group dedicated to the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate and the imposition of sharia, which has been very active in London mosques and in the infiltration of local political parties. “The primary work” in the establishment of a future Muslim empire, it announces, “is in Europe, because it is this continent, despite all the furore about its achievements, which has a moral and spiritual vacuum.”

So this is where all the vapid talk about the “soul” of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been discredited, the world will not pass into the hands of credulous herbivores who keep crystals by their sides and swoon over the poems of Khalil Gibran. The “vacuum” will be invaded instead by determined fundamentalists of every stripe who already know the truth by means of revelation and who actually seek real and serious power in the here and now. One thinks of the painstaking, cloud-dispelling labor of British scientists from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to Charles Darwin to Ernest Rutherford to Alan Turing and Francis Crick, much of it built upon the shoulders of Galileo and Copernicus, only to see it casually slandered by a moral and intellectual weakling from the usurping House of Hanover. An awful embarrassment awaits the British if they do not declare for a republic based on verifiable laws and principles, both political and scientific.

[JP note: Prince Charles — the UK’s most dangerous Islamophile]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: MCB Annual General Meeting to Elect New Leadership

The Muslim Council of Britain is to hold its 13th Annual General Meeting this Sunday 20 June 2010 at the London Muslim Centre, Whitechapel, London. Delegates representing the range of Muslim civil society — mosques, ulama bodies, and professional associations — are assembling from across Britain, including Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to elect a new Central Working Committee, and also office-bearers for the 2010-2012 term.

The occasion will mark the conclusion of Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari’s tenure as Secretary General, having served the maximum of two terms permitted by the MCB’s Constitution. He has been an unassuming, dedicated and tireless worker for the interests of Muslims in Britain, and the MCB will continue to value his wise counsel.

The AGM will also include a panel discussion on ‘How Should Muslims Engage in the New Politics’ chaired by radio producer Hasan Patel and conclude with an evening reception attended by interfaith leaders, Muslim MPs and diplomats and other MCB well-wishers.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: MCB’s Book for Schools

The Books For Schools project aims to provide mainstream schools with high-quality Islamic resources (including books, custom made teacher notes, pupil activities, worksheets, CDs, DVDs, videos and accompanying teaching aids) in order to promote harmony and respect amongst Britain’s diverse communities. Our resources are designed to facilitate the teaching of Islam within the Schools Curriculum as outlined by QCA guidelines.

Here, you will find all the information you need to know about the project. A detailed list of resources that are available in the books packs as well as some more detailed information about the history of the project, the core team and why this initiative was sought.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the concept behind Books For Schools?

2. How can this resource facilitate the teaching of Islam in RE?

3. What does a resource pack contain?

4. For what age groups are the Books For Schools resources?

5. How much does a pack cost and from where can I order it?

1. What is the concept behind Books For Schools?

2. How can this resource facilitate the teaching of Islam in RE?

Our resource has been designed by educationalists and teachers with reference to the RE Non Statutory Framework (QCA). It covers both Key Stages 1 and 2 and aims to enhance children’s experience of diversity in all areas of the curriculum, including the hidden, through enjoyable, cross-curricular based work. This self-contained resource pack provides teachers with all the materials needed to teach about basic Muslim beliefs, pillars and practices through four original, engaging and interactive class/small group projects.

3. What does a resource pack contain?

A resource pack consists of:

  • Four user friendly, child orientated projects
  • Six objects/artefacts in common use by Muslim children in various parts of the world
  • Two audio visual items (CD and a Video)
  • Seventeen children’s books and booklets
  • Two card model kits
  • Four posters

The projects are:

  • Folder 1: Introducing the Qur’an
  • Folder 2: Id-ul-Adha and the Hajj
  • Folder 3: Prayer, Fasting and Id-ul-Fitr
  • Folder 4: Islam Through the Arts

The objects/artefacts are:

  • Compass (used to locate the direction of Makkah for Prayers)
  • Hijab (head scarf worn by girls and women)
  • Ihram (two pieces of white cloth worn by men during the Hajj pilgrimage)
  • Prayer cap (often worn by boys and men when offering Prayers)
  • Prayer mat (often used when offering daily prayers).
  • Rehal (wooden Qur’an stand)

The audio visual items are:

  • Expressions of Faith (CD)
  • Wafa’s Eid (DVD with accompanying booklet and poster)

The books and booklets are:

  • A Caring Neighbour
  • A Gift of Friendship
  • Colouring Book 2: The Arts of the Muslim World
  • Dawud Wharnsby Ali
  • Dear Diary
  • English Translation of Holy Quran
  • Islam: Beliefs and Teachings
  • Muslim Child
  • My Id-ul-Fitr
  • Ramadan
  • Seeing Things More Clearly
  • Stories from the Muslim World
  • Tell Me About Hajj
  • Tell Me About Muhammad
  • The Colour of Home
  • The Greatest Stories from the Quran

The posters are:

  • 5 Basic Duties of Islam
  • Sacred Places
  • Prophets of Allah
  • How to make Wudu and Salah

4. For what age groups are the Books For Schools resources?

These resource packs are designed for mainstream primary schools to facilitate RE teachers when teaching Islam.

5. How much does a pack cost and from where can I order it?

Materials have been designed to be reusable / photocopiable. We recommend one resource pack per primary school; these are priced at only £250/pack. Resource packs will be ready for distribution in January 2005 and can be ordered from MCBDirect, The Muslim Council of Britain,P O BOX 57330,LONDON E1 2WJ. To order a pack or for further details please email booksforschools@mcb.org.uk.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: MCB Congratulates British Muslims Named in Queen’s Honours List

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, today congratulated those who were named in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List. He said: “These honours recognise those who have made valuable contributions to our country. I congratulate all those who have been named, including those British Muslims whose contribution to our country and to our community has been recognised by the Queen. They are role models for our community.”

Those honoured include Judge Khurshid Drabu, election commissioner and advisor to the Muslim Council of Britain. He was conferred a CBE. While Jehangir Malik, of MCB affiliate Islamic Relief, was honoured with an OBE.

Full list of British Muslims honoured:

Mrs Naila ZAFFAR CBE

Headteacher, Copthorne Primary School, Bradford. For services to local and national Education. (Bradford, West Yorkshire)

Judge Khurshid Drabu CBE

For services to Community Relations. (Winchester, Hampshire)

Dr Husna AHMAD OBE

Chief Executive Officer, Faith Regeneration Foundation. For services to Disadvantaged People.

Maqsood AHMAD OBE

Lately Head of Police Equality and Diversity

Policy, Home Office.

Mockbul ALI OBE

Islamic Issues Adviser, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dalwardin BABU OBE

Chief Superintendent, Metropolitan Police Service. For services to the Police. (London, N10)

Dr Maha Taysir BARAKAT

Co-Founder, Imperial College Diabetes Centre, Abu Dhabi. For services to medical research, training and public health in the United Arab Emirates

Mashuq HUSSAIN OBE

For services to Young People and to Community Relations in Burnley and Pendle, Lancashire.

(Nelson, Lancashire)

Taha Mohammad IDRIS OBE

Chief Executive, Swansea Bay Race Equality Council. For services to Community Relations.

Jehangir MALIK OBE

For services to Islamic Relief.

Mohammad NAZIR OBE

Chairman, West Midlands Ethnic Minority Business Forum. For services to Business.

Ms Saima AFZAL MBE

For services to the Police and to Community Relations in Lancashire.

Zaheer AHMAD MBE

Constable, British Transport Police. For services to the Police. (London, E17)

Basheer AHMED MBE

Honorary Life Vice-President, Race Equality Council of Lincolnshire. For services to Community Relations. (Lincoln, Lincolnshire)

Ms Shanaz AHMED MBE

For services to the Asian community in the East End of London. (London, E1)

Dr Mahvash HUSSAIN-GAMBLES MBE

Founder and Chief Executive, Saaf International Ltd. For services to the Beauty Industry and to International Trade. (Leeds, West Yorkshire)

Bakhtiar Ahmad GILANI MBE

For services to the community in Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester)

Ms Hanan Ally IBRAHIM MBE

Founder, Somali Family Support Group. For services to Black and Minority Ethnic People. (Middlesex)

Mrs Abida IQBAL MBE

For services to the community in London Borough of Redbridge. (Ilford, Essex)

Mrs Marzia SAYANI MBE

Executive Officer, Jobcentre Plus, Department for Work and Pensions. (Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire)

Dr Salah EL-SHARKAWI MBE

Consultant Clinical Oncologist, South West Wales Cancer Centre, Swansea. For services to Medicine.(Swansea, West Glamorgan)

Mrs Souad TALSI MBE

For services to the British Moroccan community in London. (Surrey)

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: May Bans Radical Preacher From Entering UK for Saying ‘Every Muslim Should be a Terrorist’

Home Secretary Theresa May said Zakir Naik would not be allowed to enter the country under laws that can exclude anyone who writes or publishes material that can ‘foment justify or glorify terrorist violence’.

Indian television preacher Dr Naik, 44, was due to give a series lectures at arenas in Wembley and Sheffield.

Mrs May said the doctor was being excluded because repeated comments attributed to him was evidence of his ‘unacceptable behaviour’.

She said: ‘Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right, and I am not willing to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter the UK.’

Home Office sources told The Daily Telegraph that website footage had shown the preacher making the claim that every Muslim should embrace terrorism.

Website footage is considered published material.

Dr Naik said Muslims should beware of people saying Osama bin Laden was right or wrong, adding: ‘If you ask my view, if given the truth, if he is fighting the enmies of Islam, I am for him.

‘If he is terrorising the terrorists, if he is terrorising America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, every Muslim should be a terrorist.’

He is also reported as saying that western women make themselves ‘ more susceptible to rape’ by wearing revealing clothing.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: The MCB’s Wonderland Election

The vote for a new leader of the Muslim Council of Britain points up worrying fissures

Imagine an election with only one declared candidate running … and he is not going to win. It may sound like a form of democracy better devised in Alice’s Wonderland, but unfortunately it’s home grown: this is how the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is due to decide on its next leader this Sunday.

Over the past few years, the MCB has been repeatedly lambasted in the media; its sins range from tolerating hate preachers, officers who embroil the organisation in the complex politics of the Middle East, failing to educate its affiliate mosques in the rules of inter-faith relations and an intermittent refusal to attend Holocaust Memorial Day. Under this barrage, the MCB has been relegated to the sidelines of British public life. The Labour government, after initial enthusiastic patronage, pointedly turned its back and cut all links until it could get its house in order.

Meanwhile, the other side of the story are the deep divisions that exist within the MCB. The tiny team in the Tower Hamlets office walk a tightrope, placating their 500-odd membership who are as reluctant to pay their dues as they are demanding of the MCB to stem what they see as a rising tide of Islamophobia. The resulting combination of high expectations and precarious finances does much to explain the kind of caution and nervousness that seems to weigh down the MCB officials. They have that appearance of hunkering down, always fearful of the next storm that could shipwreck the whole outfit.

While some parts of the media seem to see the MCB as an Islamist front, part of a powerful network on the march for Europe-wide domination, the reality is rather more prosaic, struggling to pay for tea bags and the telephone bill, and in constant danger of disintegration.

And what this Wonderland election indicates is that none of this is going to change. Barring an extraordinary upset, Mohammed Amin, the only person who has offered himself for election, is not going to win. Most are predicting that at the central working committee of 70 members on Sunday, an informal alliance known as the Islamic Movement will nominate a candidate, Farooq Murad, on whom they agreed several months ago.

The choice between Amin and Murad could not be more stark and illustrates just how fractured — economically, ethnically as well as theologically — the Muslim community is. Amin is a success story of the British Muslim community; a former partner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, he wants change and fast. For a start, he wanted an open election rather than the kind of secret deals on which the MCB is prone to operate. He’d like to see the MCB taking a robust stand on inflammatory rhetoric in mosques and tackle Islamophobia by promoting a positive image of the community.

These characteristics are precisely why he won’t win. He could upset too many fragile accommodations, and prompt an exodus in membership. The priority for the MCB in recent years has been to keep its membership on board — even if that means sacrificing access to government. Murad, the current treasurer, is a much liked, cautious character, and is clearly the status quo candidate.

Meanwhile, Amin’s likely failure prompts increasing anxiety in a generation who have worked for change within Muslim organisations.

Those now reaching middle age envisaged a very different future for the Muslim community — one of much greater self-confidence and participation in mainstream British life. But entrenched conservatism stubbornly persists in the local mosques and dominates the MCB membership, while a younger contingent continues to fall prey to radicalisation. One of the few issues which binds both those generations together is the rallying cry of Islamophobia — but it’s a preoccupation which digs the community even deeper into isolationism and suspicion.

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



Vatican: Church ‘Exorcist’ Urges Action to Fight Devil

Vatican City, 17 June (AKI) — The Catholic Church’s most famous exorcist says more should be done to fight the devil. Father Gabriele Amorth has conducted 70,000 exorcisms for the church during his lengthy career.

In an interview with Italian daily, Corriere Della Sera, the 85-year-old priest said it would be worth extending the practice of exorcism.

“It would not be a bad idea,” he told the daily. “In Italy moral decay is evident. Families are often breaking down.

“Do you know what I would do if I was the Pope for a moment?” he asked. “I would provide every opportunity for exorcisms. Like the Orthodox Church. There you do not need the permission of a bishop.”

Amorth recounted his battles against the devil in a dozen books, translated into 28 languages. The latest, Memories of an Exorcist, recounts his experiences with a number of victims with which he worked.

He said when people are possessed by the devil they often speak in incomprehensible languages as well as Greek, Latin and Aramaic.

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

Balkans


Kosovo: Ethnic Albanian Arrested on Terror Charges

Pristina, 18 June (AKI) — Kosovo police have arrested an ethnic Albanian, Bajram Aslani, on charges of planning terrorist acts in Kosovo and abroad, local media reported on Friday. Aslani, 29, was arrested on Thursday in the northern city of Mitrovica, with the assistance of European Union police (EULEX) and agents from the FBI, the US investigation agency.

Aslani is alleged to have connections with an Islamist extremist group in North Carolina, headed by Daniel Patrick Boyd, an American who converted to Islam.

Boyd, his two sons and five others were arrested and charged with terrorism charges by a US court in July 2009.

They were charged with plotting to wage “violent jihad” outside the United States.

Boyd was accused of recruiting six men, including two of his sons, to take part in a conspiracy “to advance violent jihad, including supporting and participating in terrorist activities abroad and committing acts of murder, kidnapping or maiming persons abroad.”

Aslani, also known as Abu Hatab, was recruited to join the group by another ethnic Albanian, Hisen Serifi, when Serifi visited Pristina in 2008.

According to the US indictment, Aslani was planning to set up a base of militant jihad in Kosovo for recruiting men and to build an arms and ammunition depot.

Aslani was sentenced in absentia in 2009 by a Serbian court to eight years in jail for planning terrorist acts, but he was outside the jurisdiction of Serbian authorities.

Kosovo was placed under United Nations control in 1999 and declared independence two years ago.

The US has asked for Aslani’s extradition to stand trial in North Carolina. If convicted, he could face up to 40 years in jail.

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



Serbia: Golden Lady to Open Third Production Facility

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JUNE 17 — The Serbian Vice Premier and Economy Minister, Mladjan Dinkic, the owner of clothing company Golden Lady, Nerino Grassi, and the mayor of Loznica, Vidoje Petrovic, have today signed an agreement for the construction in Loznica of another production facility, which will be the Italian company’s third. The Tanjug press agency reports that Minister Dinkic underlined how Golden Lady, together with Fiat, is one of the biggest investors in Serbia, having allocated 100 million euros to the two production facilities, in Valjevo and Loznica, providing a total of 2,000 jobs. Dinkic pointed out that five years ago Golden Lady was the first company to build a production facility in the industrial zone of Loznica, an example of how new jobs can be created by investing in production sectors in expansion. The Minister observed that Golden Lady holds 15% of the EU market and also exports to Russia.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Morocco: Over 170,000 Children Work, Law Examined

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JUNE 14 — There are over 150,000 working children between the ages of 7 and 15 in Morocco. This is the estimate of the High Commission of Planning (HCP), which says that most of them, more than 150,000, work in the countryside. The research figures were published to coincide with the world day against working children, set up in 2002 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). According to the HCP, the number of working children has decreased significantly since 1999 when the figure stood at 518,000, some 9.7% of children in the country. At the time, there were between 60,000 and 80,000 “little servants” working in Moroccan cities. To put an end to this situation, the Moroccan government is examining a law bill that would forbid children from working. According to the Minister for Families, Nouzha Skalli, those who employ children below the age of 15 will risk prison sentences and significant fines. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Caroline Glick: Weathering the Approaching Storm

Israel is endangered today as it has never been before. The Turkish-Hamas flotilla two weeks ago precipitated a number of dangerous developments. Rather than attend to all of them, Israel’s leadership is devoting itself almost exclusively to contending with the least dangerous among them while ignoring the emerging threats with the potential to lead us to great calamities.

Since the Navy’s lethal takeover of the Mavi Marmara, Israel has been stood before an international diplomatic firing squad led by the UN and Europe and supported by the Obama administration. Firmly backed by European and largely unopposed by Washington, the UN is moving swiftly towards setting up a new Goldstone-style anti-Israel kangaroo court. That canned tribunal will rule that Israel has no right to defend itself and attempt to force Israel to end its lawful naval blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Fearing this outcome, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bowed to US President Barack Obama’s demand that Israel set up an Israeli inquest of the Mavi Marmara takeover and permit foreigners to oversee its proceedings. Netanyahu also agreed to scale-back Israel’s blockade significantly, and allow international bodies to have a role in its far more lax enforcement. Netanyahu has made these concessions with the full knowledge that they will strengthen Hamas in the hopes that they would weaken the international onslaught against Israel…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]



What Will the Western Strategy Toward Gaza Produce? A “Normal” Revolutionary, Terrorist, Genocidal Regime There

by Barry Rubin

A reader asks: What is the West’s strategy regarding the Gaza Strip. Good question.

The strategy is to relieve the alleged “humanitarian” issue as soon as possible and quiet everything down. Without thinking through the consequences, the idea is to return the Gaza Strip to as normal a situation as possible in economic and social terms. There is broad recognition of Israel’s right to keep out arms and military equipment but doubts about extending the sanctions much beyond that.

To put it bluntly, Western countries are not becoming consciously favorable toward Hamas. They will continue to isolate it politically and deny it arms. The problem is that they do not understand how their policy will: strengthen it, ensure decades of totalitarian rule for Gaza and suffering of the people there under a repressive dictatorship; make future wars unavoidable; make an Israel-Palestinian peace impossible; and subvert Egypt, too.

Essentially, this is not an issue about Israel but one about Hamas, the revolutionary Islamist movement, and the Iranian regime’s ambition to dominate the Middle East.

The arguments here are so obvious that the only way to prevent people understanding them is to keep them largely out of the mainstream media.

If you give money to Gaza, even to non-Hamas recipients, it will benefit the regime. If you let in non-weapons’ equipment in many categories, the regime will take a large portion. If you let in luxury goods, the regime will use it to buy support.

There is no strategic dimension in Western thinking, no sense of what the West wants to happen in the Gaza Strip. Does it want Hamas to survive? Does it understand the implications of that?

There is no recognition of the following points:…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Lebanon: Patriarch Sfeir Tells Sarkozy, Christian Emigration From the Middle East Should be Stopped

The cardinal is visiting France and meeting major government and political leaders. The issues discussed include Hizbollah’s weapons, which most Lebanese would like to see gone, and relations with Syria, which “have not always been the way they ought to be.”

Beirut (AsiaNews) — The number of Christians in Lebanon and the Middle East is declining rapidly because of conflict, regional tensions as well as a persistent economic crisis that drives many to seek the future elsewhere. The issue is one of great concern for the Catholic Church, as Benedict XVI has said on several occasions, the latest during his visit to Cyprus, and an issue that Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir raised during his meetings yesterday in France.

Cardinal Sfeir raised the matter during his meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who shares the view that the presence of Christians in the Middle East is a guarantee against intolerance.

“The emigration of young Lebanese must be stopped,” the patriarch said later during a press briefing with reporters. “They cannot be blamed for leaving in search of work. But whilst those who go to Arab countries can come back, it is harder for those who go to Australia or Canada.”

Lebanon’s domestic situation was another important topic Card Sfeir discussed during his Paris visit. He stressed the importance of security, this, a day before (i.e. today) a discussion on national defence is set to start in Beirut.

Indeed, Hizbollah is armed, and has “its own strategy and interests”. If the parties in the ruling coalition government (14 March movement) want to see only one armed force on Lebanon’s soil, Hizbollah claims that it needs its own weapons in case of potential Israeli attacks.

However, “Most Lebanese are not in favour of two armies within the same state,” the patriarch said.

Relations with Syria were the last major issue discussed. During a meeting with members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly, the cardinal said that Lebanon wants good relations with all its neighbours, especially its closest, Syria. “However, relations have not always been the way they ought to be.”

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



Netherlands Sells Army Vehicles to Jordan

THE HAGUE, 18/06/10 — The Netherlands is selling 1,100 army vehicles to Jordan, including a large number of armoured vehicles and freight trucks. The equipment will be delivered to the country through to end-2013, Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop has announced in a letter to parliament.

The contract with Jordan was concluded in May. It includes the sale of 441 armoured caterpillar vehicles (YPR-765 and YPR-806), 69 armoured caterpillar commando vehicles (M-577), 467 of various types of trucks, 121 howitzers (M-109) and six loading and aiming systems for the howitzers plus ammunition. The minister has informed parliament in confidence of the selling price.

The House still has to give its approval for the deal. Before the contract was concluded, the foreign ministry had looked at it and ruled that it meets the criteria of EU weapons export policy, according to Van Middelkoop.

The minister explained that the supplying of the vehicles “will not disturb regional stability, because Jordan’s neighbouring countries have substantially more equipment available and no threat stems from the purchase of the equipment by Jordan.” The transfer of the equipment will also have no effect on the human rights situation in Jordan, according to the minister.

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



Turkey to Urgently Buy Nine Extra Attack Helicopters

Turkey urgently will launch talks to buy nine additional T129 attack helicopters being built by a group led by the Italian-British manufacturer AgustaWestland. The helicopters are expected to be used against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, operating in an area near the country’s borders with Iraq and Iran, a key official announced late Tuesday.

“In an effort to meet the urgent needs of the Turkish Land Forces Command and as part of the ongoing attack helicopter program, negotiations for the procurement of an additional nine attack helicopters will be launched with TUSAS,” National Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül told reporters after a meeting of the Defense Industry Executive Committee, Turkey’s highest decision-making body on procurement.

The PKK is considered as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

TUSAS is the Turkish name for the Turkish Aerospace Industries, the prime contractor in Ankara’s ongoing program to jointly manufacture 50 other attack helicopters with the Italian-led AgustaWestland.

The nine helicopters will come in addition to those 50 choppers. The additional nine gunships to be procured also will be the T129s, the planned Turkish version of the A129 Mangusta International. The additional contract is expected to be worth a few hundred million dollars.

The Defense Industry Executive Committee’s members include Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Gönül, Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug and the head of Turkey’s procurement agency, Murad Bayar.

Faster production

TUSAS and AgustaWestland officials are expected to meet as early as next week to discuss the production timetable for the nine additional gunships urgently needed by the Army.

The planned target would be the delivery of the first of these nine gunships within two years, one industry source said.

Bayar’s office, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, and AgustaWestland signed a multibillion-dollar contract in 2008 for joint production of 50 T129s. The first of these helicopters are planned to be delivered in 2014.

The PKK has stepped up attacks on Turkish targets this spring.

The Turkish Army presently operates about six U.S.-made AH-1W Super Cobras and more than 20 earlier model Cobra helicopters, and military officials in recent years have voiced an urgent need for additional gunships to improve the fight against the PKK.

The T129s of the original 2008 contract should become operational as of 2014, and the latest announcement for additional gunships means a stopgap solution until that time.

On another helicopter business, the Defense Industry Executive Committee’s Tuesday meeting did not produce a much expected decision on the selection of the Turkish military’s next utility — or general purpose — helicopter.

AgustaWestland and the U.S. Sikorsky Aircraft are vying for the multibillion-dollar contract to jointly manufacture with Turkish partners hundreds of utility helicopters. The first batch includes 109 platforms.

Gönül said the committee is expected to reach a final utility helicopter decision soon, but did not elaborate. The committee’s next meeting is expected in the fall, probably in October.

In a related development, Gönül said Turkey had decided to sign a foreign military sales agreement with the United States for the purchase of several heavy-lift helicopters for the Army and the Special Forces.

The U.S. Congress in December formally allowed for the sale to the Turkish military of 14 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and related equipment, worth up to $1.2 billion.

Turkey’s Special Forces will buy four of the CH-47s, and the rest will go to the Army. Boeing manufactures these platforms. The 14 CH-47F Chinooks will be the first heavy-lift helicopters in the Turkish military’s inventory.

Asked to comment on whether recent Turkish-Israeli tensions would lead to curbs in defense industry relations with the country, Gönül said Turkey presently had no state-to-state agreement with Israel on arms purchases. He said the ongoing deals were private contracts between Turkish and Israeli companies and they would not be affected.

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



Turkey and Syria Agree to Build a New Border Crossing

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 14 — Turkey and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding to build a new border crossing through the method of build-operate-transfer, as Anatolia news agency reports. Turkish State Minister Hayati Yazici and Syrian Finance Minister Muhammad al-Husayn signed the memorandum of understanding in Istanbul. Yazici said at the signing ceremony, “we have seven border crossings with Syria. We decided to carry out the joint border crossing project in Nusaybin-Kamisli region. A ground-breaking ceremony will take place in the coming months. Then, building of the border crossing will be completed within 7-10 months.” Al-Husayn said on his part that the new border crossing would be used mainly in transportation of goods. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Turkey: Sultan Abdulhamid’s Heirs Demand Seized Property

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 17 — The heirs of Sultan Abdulhamid II, the last Ottoman sultan to rule with absolute power, have filed a complaint for damages amounting up to USD 18 billion regarding 4,200 properties that were once owned by the Ottoman dynasty members and later seized by the state. The first hearing of the case, as daily Hurriyet reports, was held last week, and the second hearing is scheduled for September 30. Scattered around the world, the members of the family will reportedly reunite in Istanbul to attend the hearing. The 48 plaintiffs are even planning to carry the case to the European Court of Human Rights if they lose. Orhan Osmanoglu, one of the plaintiffs and a third generation grandson of Sultan Abdulhamid, defined the case as the “lawsuit of the century,” adding that, “If we win the case, then we are ready to settle for a reasonable amount.” (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Russia


Moscow Prepares Controversial Integration Handbook

Moscow authorities are preparing an etiquette handbook for foreigners that advises them to speak in Russian, not to walk around the city in national attire and to avoid slaughtering sheep in the courtyard of their apartment building.

The City Hall is collaborating with diasporas and scientists to create the “Muscovite’s Code,” a list of nonbinding behavior guidelines to be presented to every foreigner who moves to Moscow, The Moscow Times reported Thursday.

“There are unwritten rules that residents of our city are obliged to follow, such as not slaughtering sheep in the backyard, not grilling shashliks on the balcony, not walking around the city in national attire and speaking in Russian,” Mikhail Solomentsev, head of City Hall’s committee for interregional cooperation and national policy, told Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

“Now we want to develop a code to speed up the integration of migrants who take up permanent residency in Moscow,” Solomentsev said in an interview published Wednesday.

“We have asked Moscow diasporas themselves to draft the rules. We’ll study their suggestions and consult with scientists to create the “Muscovite’s Code,” so to speak. When a person moves to Moscow, he will receive a book from his countrymen to tell him what is acceptable here and what is not,” he said.

Solomentsev first announced plans for the “Muscovite’s Code” in 2008, but the idea was put on the back burner.

It is a rare sight to see foreigners walking around Moscow in national costume, and sheep slaughtering is unheard of, except at special locations during Islamic holidays.

Yulia Vaidakova, a spokeswoman for Solomentsev, said Wednesday that she could not disclose any additional details at the moment.

But Ekho Moskvy radio reported Wednesday that the code might be completed by early next year.

Immigrants’ rights

Representatives of diasporas contacted by The Moscow Times were cautiously optimistic about the project, which they said may help new migrants integrate, but they warned that it must not infringe on their rights to follow their traditions.

Gavkhar Dzhurayeva, head of the Migration and Law Center, praised the call for dialogue but said “the absurdization” of the discussion might result in serious matters, such as the proper treatment of migrants, being dropped in favor of more controversial issues.

“The idea of a common code for everyone is great, but it must not be reduced to a false intrigue such as dress style, eating habits and behavior patterns,” said Dzhurayeva, who is the former head of the Tajikistan Foundation.

Eldar Guliyev, executive director of the All-Russian Azeri Congress, said people who move to a big city from a village — which includes Russian citizens as well as foreigners — really require help integrating, but the new norms should be “delicate.”

“Rules are needed, but they must not be something the officials can use against a person’s rights,” he said.

Solomentsev said the handbook would preserve Moscow’s way of life.

“Moscow’s lifestyle is based on Russian culture and centuries-old traditions, and everyone moving to the city must reckon with this,” Solomentsev said.

But he added that Muscovites are “a community that is bigger than a nationality because it is a tangle of various cultures.”

Solomentsev also said the city has more migrant workers than it needs.

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

South Asia


Afghanistan: Roadside Bomb Targets Italian Soliders in West

Shindand, 18 June (AKI) — Five Italian soldiers escaped injury on Friday when a roadside bomb targeted their armoured vehicle on an isolated road in southern Afghanistan. The attack took place 12 kilometres from the town of Shindand, in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat.

The five soldiers were inside one of six armoured NATO Lynx vehicles travelling in a convoy. Their vehicle was slightly damaged in the bombing.

Reinforcement’s from NATO’s Regional Command West rescued the soldiers and the damaged Lynx vehicle.

A team of bomb experts was sent to the scene of the blast to investigate the type of explosive device used in the attack.

The other five vehicles in the convoy continued their patrol. Its destination was the village of Masyan, where a meeting between members of the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan and local tribal leaders was due to take place.

The meeting was part of an initiative to get local people more involved in the security of their communities.

The Afghan interior ministry said on Wednesday only around 3.5 per cent of the country was safe, despite efforts to boost Afghan security forces and a record 125,000 international troops stationed there.

In May, the deaths of two Italian soldiers and the serious injury of two other in a bomb attack in western Afghanistan provoked renewed debate about the Italy’s military commitment in the war-wracked nation.

Italy has one of the largest contingents in the NATO-led international force, numbering around 3,500 troops.

Over 200 NATO troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year alone.

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



Red Cross: Kyrgyzstan, Scene of an “Immense Crisis”

Food is in short supply. Army is monitoring the limited sale of basic foodstuffs like vegetables, bread and butter. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes; many set on fire. Others are living without shelter or food, sleeping on the road. Violence could reignite at any moment.

Bishkek (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Kyrgyzstan is the scene of an “immense crisis”, the Red Cross (ICRC) said. Refugees are short of basic supplies such as food, water and shelter. People live in great uncertainty, fearful of violence that could break out at any moment.

The number of displaced people ranges “from several hundred to several thousand in number,” the ICRC’s Severine Chappaz said. Many families also have no news about missing members.

The Kyrgyz army has retaken control of the city of Osh with troops patrolling the streets. An uneasy calm has descended upon the area and a sense of foreboding hangs in the air.

A truce has allowed the ICRC to reach the riot-affected area, which had been cut off from the outside world for several days.

Officially, at least 200,000 people fled their homes, an estimate deemed low. Some 75,000 ethnic Uzbeks have fled across the border into Uzbekistan. Many are housed in temporary shelters, but the fate of many others is still unknown.

Other refugees are stuck at the border after Uzbek authorities ordered it closed. They lack food and shelter, and entire families, children included, are sleeping on the road, in the open air. Some have had their home torched. Everyone is afraid that violence might flare up again; no one wants to go back.

The situation in Osh is also very serious. The authorities have begun cleaning up the streets, hauling away the burnt-out shells of cars. However, food remains in short supply. Some basic foodstuff, such as vegetables, butter and bread, are sold from trucks amid a massive military presence.

With the full impact of the humanitarian crisis becoming clear, Robert Blake, the top United States diplomat for the region, was to visit the Uzbek capital Tashkent and then the Fergana Valley on the Kyrgyz border. He will then travel to Bishkek for talks with Kyrgyzstan’s interim government.

In the meantime, the authorities of the shattered country announced three days of national mourning for the nearly 180 people killed in the violence that erupted last week.

China has evacuated a first group of 1,300 of its citizens, and plans to do the same with all others.

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

News Feed 20100617

Financial Crisis
» Bank of England to Cap Mortgages
» Greece: Not Even Ouzo Spared by Austerity
» Greece: Communist Union Calls New Strike
» Spain: Solbes Doubts That Job Market Reform is Sufficient
» Zapatero Defends Spanish Economy at EU Summit
 
USA
» Arrogance and the National Security Strategy
» As Apple Pie; America’s Mosques
» Beware of Jihad, Ex-Prosecutor Says
» BP Aware of Cracks in Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion
» Casualty of War: US Army Dumps Velcro for Buttons
» Disgruntled Obama-Loving Killer Prof is Charged With Gunning Down Her Brother in 1986
» Engulfing the Internet
» Imam Pleads Guilty to Molestation at Tampa Mosque
» Imam Accused of Molestation to be Deported
» Murfreesboro Mosque Plan Ignites Backlash
» Pastor’s Change of Heart May Not Kill Midland Beach Mosque Plan
» Pastor of Midland Beach Church Withdraws Support of Mosque Plan
» San Francisco Introduces Bill Condemning Israel for Hamas Flotilla Attack
» Slouching Towards Jihad
» Southwest Finds Shipment of Heads on a Plane
» Staten Island Church Reconsiders Deal to Sell Vacant Convent for Use as a Mosque
» What’s the ‘Overton Window’ And Why Should You Care?
» Will Obama be the ‘Jimmy Carter of the 21st Century’?
 
Europe and the EU
» Financial Scandals: The Hidden Wealth of the Catholic Church
» France: Govt and Muslims Against Racism
» Germany: Mixa Wants His Case Reviewed by Vatican
» How Gadaffi Blackmails Europe
» Italy: Defence Giant Rejects Bribe Claims
» Rumours of Pope’s ‘Secret Meal’
» SFr1.5 Million Paid for Swiss Hostage Release
» The Great Wind Farm Disaster
» Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World
» UK: A Quarter of British Children Have Been Victims of Crime, Study Reveals
» UK: Brave Cancer Victim Clung to Life to See Brutal Attacker Who Battered Her Jailed… And Died Six Days Later
» UK: Birmingham Stops Camera Surveillance in Muslim Areas
» UK: I Admit it: I Was Wrong to Have Supported Barack Obama
» UK: Man With Agonising Skin Condition Leapt to His Death After Motorists Yelled ‘Jump’
» UK: Royal Marine and His Father Stabbed ‘Protecting Sister From Gang Attack’
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Personal Freedom? An Alien Concept in Egyptian Society
» Morocco: Tangier and Free Zones, The Numbers of Success
» World Cup: Liberation’s Editor Apologises to Algeria
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Interview: ‘We’ll be Back — With Bigger Flotillas’
» Israeli Supermarkets Boycott Turkish Products
» Tens of Thousands of Fundamentalist Jews Protest
» The Noose Around Israel’s Neck
 
Middle East
» Bahrain: Italian Rizzani in Consortium for ‘Manama Passage’
» Obama’s Policies Hardening Allies Against U.S.
» Turkey Welcomes EU Parliament Resolution Condemning Israel
» Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria Eye Deeper Cooperation
 
South Asia
» ‘Kyrgyzstan is on the Brink of Collapse’
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» UK: Three Kenyan Politicians Arrested Over ‘Hate Speech’
 
Immigration
» Why Felipe Calderon Hates Arizona’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Law
 
Culture Wars
» Changing Attitudes to Homosexuality in Poland
» ‘Gay’ Judge Decides Future of Homosexual ‘Marriage’
 
General
» UN Petitioned Over West’s “Islamophobia”
» Western Liberals Are to Blame for Dismantling Universal Human Rights

Financial Crisis


Bank of England to Cap Mortgages

House buyers could be refused mortgages under new Bank of England powers to be unveiled by George Osborne.

The Chancellor will announce that he will hand a host of new controls to the Bank to prevent another financial crisis.

The powers will mean that, for the first time in the modern era, the Bank could impose restrictions on the amount banks can lend.

The reforms, to be sketched out in the Chancellor’s first Mansion House speech in the City of London, represent a revolution for the City, since in the past banks have always had freedom to decide to whom they can lend.

The Bank and its Governor, Mervyn King, would be able to prevent banks from lending too much, or to over-extended customers, if they judge that this would destabilise the economy.

The precise details of the controls the Bank is to be given will be detailed fully at a later date.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Greece: Not Even Ouzo Spared by Austerity

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 17 — Not even Greece’s most popular alcoholic drink, Ouzo has been spared by the economic crisis in the country. A 30% drop in consumption has been reported by the federation of distillers (SEAOP), which points out that over 2,000 people work in the industry and another 100,000 indirectly contribute to its activity. The collapse in consumption has been put down to repeated rises in duty on alcohol, as part of plans to tackle the financial crisis. SEAOP says that duty has more than doubled since 2009. Ouzo, a strong distillate made from grapes and enriched with aniseed and other herbs, represents almost 70% of exports of Greek drinks. The main destination is Germany, which has doubled its consumption in the last few years, taking it up to 17.3 million litres per year. “The new taxes have turned a healthy export into a sector full of problems,” said Nikos Kaloyannis, chairman of SEAOP, in a press conference. He added that the fall in consumption means that predicted government income will be lower than expected.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Greece: Communist Union Calls New Strike

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 17 — The communist union PAME has called another strike on June 23 against the pension reform, whilst other unions are preparing for a general strike, the date of which has however not yet been fixed. The PAME union has called for a demonstration today and announced a strike for next week against the pension reform, which provides for freezes, reductions and the raising of retirement age and which is currently being negotiated by the government with a EU-IMF delegation, before being presented in Parliament by the end of the month. The other two large-scale confederations, GSE (private sector) and ADEDY (civil servants) demonstrated yesterday and announced a general strike — the fifth since the start of the crisis — when the pension reform reaches Parliament.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Spain: Solbes Doubts That Job Market Reform is Sufficient

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — Former Economy and Finance Minister Pedro Solbes doubts that the job market reforms approved yesterday by the Spanish government “are sufficient” and does not consider the idea of postponing the reforms for several months to be a good idea, referring to the intentions of the government to convert the reform into a bill. While speaking today at a public event, Solbes, cited by the online edition of El Economista, while speaking about labour reform, said that “there are satisfying elements that are a step in the right direction, but there are still doubts on whether or not it will be sufficient”. He also said that it is “inevitable” that the reform must be passed as soon as possible. According to the former minister, any reform to the job market must strive to prevent costs of sacking workers from being a “deterrent” to downsize and to allow for collective agreements “to not be an obstacle” to restructure businesses. The reform approved yesterday by the Spanish government, “improves the current situation, but does not conceptually change things,” in Solbes’ view. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Zapatero Defends Spanish Economy at EU Summit

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — At the request of the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, at the EU summit Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will today present the balance sheet of the six-month Spanish presidency of the EU, together with the definition of the new European economic strategy for the period 2010-2020. According to government sources, the 27 heads of state and government are set to fix the priorities and the economic reforms negotiated during the six-month period. In his letter of invitation, released today, Van Rompuy underlines that Zapatero will open the debate on the economy and he will report on “the results achieved during the Spanish presidency in the development of the Europe 2020 strategy since the meeting in March.” The Spanish Premier intends to take advantage of the bilateral meeting to convey to European partners a message of confidence in the Spanish economy, after rumours in recent days of an alleged European rescue plan, repeatedly denied by the government and by the EU.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA


Arrogance and the National Security Strategy

It seems I have been writing a lot about the internationalists and the New World Order since our new administration has taken office. Now with the release of the May, 2010 National Security Strategy I find I am going to be doing it again. The one thing we can say about our current administration — they sure provide us with a lot to write about.

[…]

No longer are politicians hiding behind veiled language, secret memos concerning an emerging New World Order; Mr. Obama states “Finally, our efforts to shape an international order that promotes a just peace must facilitate cooperation capable of addressing the problems of our time. This international order will support our interests, but it is also an end that we seek in its own right. New challenges hold out the prospect of opportunity, but only if the international community breaks down the old habits of suspicion to build upon common interests.” Let there no longer be any doubt in the minds of American’s that this president’s goal is a New World Order and that that goal is “an end we seek in its own right.”

[…]

Nearly every page of this document calls for an international/global order or lays out the things necessary to achieve such. As a student of the Constitution, the founders and their writings I am led to believe those that built this nation would find the current concepts of this administration abhorrent. Individual self government and liberty has given way to not only more oppressive government but a government with an eye toward global governance in that same vein.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



As Apple Pie; America’s Mosques

It was just over a year ago when the small Borough of Rockaway, New Jersey was the scene of a much heated and polarized debate whether to allow an Islamic center occupy a vacant office building. Pundits from all sides collided to demonstrate the benefits or the harm caused to the quality of life and America’s basic values should the town allow the mosque plans to proceed. Thankfully, the mosque is now a legally functioning institution-and none of the opponents’ fears have materialized.

Opposition to building mosques in the US seems to be a growing industry. Their Islamophobic devotees while small in number enjoy a growing political and monetary support from right wing elected and public officials and extremist organizations. Their spewing of insidiously filled behavior is a constant reminder that some Americans are willing to forsake the constitutional right of fellow citizens to practice their chosen faith in a place and in the manner of their choosing.

I wonder if the anti-mosque folks find it objectionable if say for example a church was to be built directly from across the Oklahoma Federal Building which was so savagely destroyed in a 1995 bomb by Christian Timothy McVeigh. Is it acceptable for non-Christians to accuse the church of being insensitive, of attempting to make a political statement or declaring its supremacy over other faiths? Will all of Christendom have to atone from the acts of one of its faithful?

In New Jersey, there are several mosques being planned to meet the growing needs of the community and all are faced with seemingly organized and nationally inspired and funded campaign that views such a development as an existential threat to America’s values. A most notable anti-mosque movement has targeted plans for a mosque in New York City, two blocks from the now demolished World Trade Center. The same thread of perceived threats or misconceptions permeate the doubly hypocritical activities of those who view with much disdain the so-called “insensitivity” of Muslims wishing to make a political statement by their insistence on being so close to Ground Zero. Opponents want us to believe that it is Osama Bin Laden who is building the mosque and that he is readying to raise his flag over its peaks!

There is everything wrong and hypocritical with the rhetoric of the opponents of mosque building in the US.

American Muslims cannot be blamed for the acts or utterances of Muslims living or operating in foreign countries. It seems that Muslim-haters lack a clear understanding of the world map. Why is it when a Muslim blows up school or a mosque in Karachi, Muslims in NJ are somehow held liable for such a crime? We are expected to denounce and condemn such behavior and explain how our faith advocates peaceful coexistence.

Let it be known that, compared to population ranking in the US, more innocent Muslims were the victims of 911 than Christians and Jews combined. Over a hundred Arabs and Muslims were forsaken by the terrorists who blew up the WTC in 2001. Worldwide, more Muslims have been the direct victims of terrorism than any other religious or ethnic group. The great majority of Muslims are with you, fellow Christian and Jew, in the forefront to delegitimize, isolate and defeat the curse of terrorism. Avail yourself to visiting our homes, places of business or worship. You might, just might, see a fellow human being with the same hopes and travails; raising their children to become future leaders or worrying about their property tax.

Conversely, why is it when a Christian or Jew kills, any the past is full of example of such atrocities, few demand that Christians or Jews rise up to condemn such attacks or risk becoming easy targets of bigoted and slanderous treatment.

Yes, and admittedly, Muslims are not all peaceful and loving citizens of this world. But, American Muslims are your fellow taxpaying citizens, patriotic, productive, family-committed and law-abiding just as the majority who call this land their home. Thank God, our US constitution, entitles them to the same rights you take for granted such as freedom of religion and the unhindered pursuit of liberty and justice. Objecting to building a mosque whether in Rockaway or in the heart of Manhattan is nothing short of unmasked bigotry, unabashed discrimination against fellow citizens. Religious intolerance is the extremist form of un-Americanism.

Math and the law, however, have been on the side American Muslim citizens. Except for very random cases, every plan to build a mosque has reached fruition even after sustaining unabashedly selfish opposition by a small, but loud, socially and politically xenophobic.

For those deeply engulfed in intellectual and moral duplicity about the inevitability of a more inclusive cultural and spiritual American mosaic, your siege mentality will assure only your eventual eclipse from even the periphery of America’s discourse. America is undergoing a transformative period best expressed by the call to expand the limiting Judeo-Christian tradition with the more inclusive Abrahamic tradition because such an attribute aptly- and completely-encompasses both the essence and hopes of our beloved country.

Islam and its adherents (slaves, and freemen) have been a part of America’s past for over 400 years. Islam is as American as apple pie. It will still be there till the end of time. Islam and the 7-10 millions who call it their faith, are not simply about to wither away simply because mosques are detested or disallowed. Muslims pray anywhere and everywhere and if they chose an appropriate place in which to connect with God, no one has the right, political, moral or legal to prevent them from their choosing.

It is a known fact that in areas where a new mosque is built, real-estate values increase, business blossoms, crime decreases and neighbors, once aloof and estranged, suddenly become the best of friends. Contrary to all misplaced allegations, the Rockaway mosque has proved to be a center of interfaith gatherings not a feared traffic jam, an inviting place for volunteered activism such as blood drives and soup kitchens and not a haven for criminals or outcasts.

I was in the forefront for building the mosque in Rockaway and the Daily Record has chronicled my views. I am also an ardent supporter of the lower Manhattan mosque-just as I would stand for a proposed church or synagogue. One of the most gratifying if not most spiritually and morally satisfying expression of interfaith brotherhood has been the support received from fellow citizens of the Christian and Jewish faiths. To some, of course, history is but a bitter reminder of shameful incidents when African-American churches in the 1950’s were burnt or in the 1800’s when Catholic churches were ravaged or throughout the last century, synagogues or Jewish symbols desecrated or vandalized. To many, it has been a question of their moral compass commanding them to not let a besieged and cocooned community be the scapegoat of xenophobic extremism.

These are the true heroes who see in a pluralistic and tolerant America a crowning and a precious inheritance for all of its citizens.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Beware of Jihad, Ex-Prosecutor Says

Book outlines Islamist intentions to Muslimize the West

Andrew C. McCarthy, a decorated former federal prosecutor who won convictions in the 1995 World Trade Center bombings, has issued a warning to America: Beware of the Islamist intent to Muslimize the Western world through jihad.

Mr. McCarthy says he wants to alert the public about the Islamist challenge to Americans’ freedom in his book “The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.” The book was released last month.

“While Islamists carefully execute their plans to impose Allah’s law, which directly contradicts the bedrock principles of American society, President Obama and the Left are not only asleep at the wheel, but complicit in the effort. Simply put, the prognosis for liberty could not be more dire,” he writes.

The alliance between Mr. Obama’s hard-left followers and radical political Islam, also known as Islamism, has its roots in a relationship that has been around since at least the last century, Mr. McCarthy said.

He said that people are now afraid to say anything negative against Muslims or Muslim groups because they think they would be perceived as racist.

A contributing editor at the National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, Mr. McCarthy, 51, is no stranger when it comes to dealing with the threat of Islamist terror. He was the lead prosecutor in the trial of “Blind Sheik” Omar Abdel-Rahman and 10 other Muslim terrorists who were convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York for 18 years. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s command post near ground zero, and in 2004 he worked at the Pentagon as a special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense. Mr. McCarthy also received several commendations, including the Justice Department’s highest honors.

Mr. McCarthy said that his goal in writing “The Grand Jihad” is to help Americans see that while the ideology of those on the hard left and those of the Islamist party do not overlap, they conveniently align on several important issues. Both Islamism and the hard left are centered on authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies, Mr. McCarthy said, which is, each party wants to impose regulation on its people.

Even more important to the current threat is their rejection of capitalism as a corrupt and corrupting system, Mr. McCarthy said. Because of this, they share a common enemy and find an anti-America alliance convenient.

“They both need to eradicate the freedom culture [of America],” he said.

This shared need has meant a growing support for Islam among the hard left in the U.S., Mr. McCarthy said.

Working with Islamists, Mr. McCarthy said, are two kinds of people: progressivists, who fear that acknowledging the link between Islamist doctrine and terrorism will start a war, and the hard left, which finds a strategic advantage in denying the real threat and attributing the root cause of terrorism to those policies and political parties it dislikes.

Mr. McCarthy said the truth of Islamist doctrine will not start the war that progressivists fear, but is necessary in the fight against the spread of jihad in the U.S.

“I think people like me need to do a better job of convincing people the sky won’t fall” if we state the truth, he said. Jihad properly defined, he said, is “always and everywhere the mission to implement and defend Shariah,” which is necessary groundwork for Islamization.

Mr. McCarthy isn’t alone in his thinking.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born former Muslim who has publicly denounced Islam as a dangerous ideology, stated a similar message in her book “Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations.” In it, she writes about her experience with Islam and why she thinks it is a dangerous system that must be fought with strong competing ideas.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



BP Aware of Cracks in Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion

BP was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.

The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.

The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.

[Return to headlines]



Casualty of War: US Army Dumps Velcro for Buttons

The US army has decided to ditch Velcro from its uniforms in Afghanistan, opting to use buttons to keep pockets closed instead.

The space-age fabric became a casualty of war because it got easily clogged with dirt and sand in the Afghan desert, rendering it useless. An army spokesman told USA Today that soldiers had complained that Velcro no longer suited their needs.

The army will begin issuing new trousers, fitted with buttons, to soldiers heading to Afghanistan in August. “When concerns surfaced in surveys that the hook-and-pile tape was not holding under the weight of full pocket loads, the Army evaluated several solutions,” Debi Dawson said. Velcro has been part of the latest Army combat uniform since it was introduced in 2004.

Soldiers had been advised to use a small weapons cleaning brush to dislodge dust and dirt in the Velcro, but the process was time consuming. Sgt. Kenny Hatten, writing on an army website, said: “Get rid of the pocket flap Velcro and give us back our buttons,” Hatten wrote. “Buttons are silent, easy to replace in the field, work just fine in the mud, do not clog up with dirt and do not fray and disintegrate with repeated laundering.”

A survey of soldiers found that 60 per cent preferred buttons and just 11 per cent wanted to keep Velcro.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



Disgruntled Obama-Loving Killer Prof is Charged With Gunning Down Her Brother in 1986

A biology professor charged with killing three of her colleagues at an Alabama university has been indicted in the 1986 shooting death of her brother in Massachusetts, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Authorities had originally ruled that the shooting of Amy Bishop’s brother was an accident, but they reopened the case after Bishop was charged in February with gunning down six of her colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, killing three.

[…]

Amy Bishop shot and killed Gopi K. Podila, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson, all professors in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus, [on a] Friday after a meeting on tenure. Bishop, a socialist, also shot and killed her 18 year-old brother during an argument in 1986 at point blank range. She shot at him 3 times then robbed an auto shop with a shotgun. Police released Bishop in 1986 after they received a call from district attorney William Delahunt, now Rep. William Delahunt.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Engulfing the Internet

Washington Prowler

Despite opposition by a House of Representatives majority and a bipartisan group of Senators, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday is expected to proceed with plans to impose federal government regulation of the Internet, which would essentially treat broadband networks — and the companies that invested more than $200 billion in private capital to deploy them — as utilities.

The commission’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, and his staff have insisted that imposing federal regulations originally written in the 1930s for the telephone is the only way the Obama Administration can gain the “kind of oversight and control that we need,” says an FCC staffer with ties to another Democrat commissioner. “Look at the Gulf oil spill, that’s what happens when we let corporations just do their own thing without any accountability. We can’t allow that to happen with the Internet. We won’t allow it.”

The vote to continue the review and comment process at the FCC is expected to be a party-line vote, with the two Republican commissioners voting against the proposed regulatory scheme.

Under the Obama Administration’s plan, the FCC would be able to enforce so-called “net neutrality” rules, allowing the federal government to set how broadband and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) manage the networks. By bringing broadband and the Internet under FCC regulatory oversight, the FCC would also be able to impose policies related to speech or online business models.

“The American public really has no idea how devastating these policies are going to have on free speech and the Internet,” says a Republican Senate staffer. “If they are able to impose these regulations, they would be able to impose a host of different regulations that would limit free speech online and essentially give the left the upper hand. First the auto industry, then health care and the financial services industry, now this.”

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]



Imam Pleads Guilty to Molestation at Tampa Mosque

An imam pleaded guilty to molesting a teenage boy at a Gulf coast mosque.

A judge put Yasser Mohamed Shahade on probation for 10 years and designated him a sexual offender Thursday. He will be deported to Egypt.

He faced 15 years in prison if convicted of the initial charge, sexual battery on a minor. His attorney confirmed that he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of lewd and lascivious molestation.

He was arrested in May 2009 after a boy who stayed overnight at the Masjid Omar Al Mukhtar mosque said he had been assaulted.

Shahade’s attorney Charles Traina says his client entered the plea in his best interest to the reduced charge and anticipates being deported back to his home country of Egypt.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Imam Accused of Molestation to be Deported

TAMPA — A Muslim imam accused of molesting a boy at a Tampa mosque pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and will be deported.

Yasser Mohamed Shahade, 35, pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation.

He was initially charged with sexual battery on a 13-year-old boy.

Prosecutors said the incident took place last year during an overnight stay at the mosque. At the time, police released few details about the boy’s condition. They said the boy’s family called the police after the boy spent the night at the mosque.

Thursday, the judge sentenced Shahade to ten years of probation, and labeled him a sex offender.

Shahade is in the United States on a visa, and is now set to be deported back to Egypt.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Murfreesboro Mosque Plan Ignites Backlash

Rutherford residents fight approval by planning commission

MURFREESBORO -For the second time in two months, a Middle Tennessee mosque is facing opposition from residents who don’t want the religious house constructed in an area zoned for it.

With a growing Muslim community in Rutherford County, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro wants to build on Veals Road. The project done in phases could take years to finish: a 52,000-square-foot mosque, with a community center and athletic fields.

Tonight, residents will appear in front of the board of commissioners to express their frustration with the Rutherford County Planning Commission’s May 24 approval of the site plan. The meeting is slated for 6 p.m. at 1 South Public Square, Suite 200.

“I believe this has been approved and run through without public notice,” resident Kevin Fisher said. “Why have a mosque nine times the size of Nashville’s in the middle of a farming, residential community?”

Last month, plans for a separate mosque in Brentwood were soundly defeated when residents who were against rezoning the land mounted a campaign that raised suspicions about the mosque and its leaders. Opponents encouraged residents to write letters to the city commission, and stirred more controversy by questioning links to terrorist groups.

Fisher and other opponents say prejudice is not at the root of their opposition in Rutherford County.

“I’m African-American,” he said. “It’s not an issue of diversity, race or religious freedom. I would say the same thing if it was a Christian church.”

The Muslim community is confused over the opposition. They have been good neighbors and residents in Rutherford County, they said. Shortly after the devastating 2009 tornado, Muslim families delivered 2,500 meals to those affected. They volunteered to help the community. They invited Christian and Jews alike to take part on their holidays.

When they announced their plans to build their dream facility, they also invited residents. They didn’t expect a backlash.

Now they are answering to rumors of polygamy, Islamic doctrine and whether they will adhere to the U.S. Constitution, said Essam Fathy, a physical therapist who has lived in Murfreesboro since the 1980s.

“We have nothing to hide,” Fathy said. “We do not have a hidden agenda. We’re not affiliated with anyone. Where is the tolerance?”

Muslims need room

Fathy said the Muslim community, with 250 families, has outgrown its digs at 862 Middle Tennessee Blvd.

It’s not uncommon for houses of worship to face opposition. Some opponents use traffic, zoning and any legal loophole as a smoke screen for their prejudices, said Eric Rassbach, director of litigation for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group. “No one really comes out to speak against people, using traffic, which is malleable, to manipulate to the detriment of those applying for the property,” he said.

Delbert Ketner, a retired resident who opposes the mosque, questions the goals of those who practice Islam.

“If their goal is to advance Islam, advance their culture, then there is no real affection for our Constitution and the precepts we were founded on,” Ketner said, adding that Rutherford County also opposed a Bible theme park.

Imam Ossama Bahloul wants to dispel any worries, and said any disagreements should be worked out. He had to answer tough questions from his own as well. A child asked, “Why do they hate us?”

“I said it’s just a misunderstanding, miscommunication,” Bahloul said. “I told him to love the people because one day they can love you, too.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Pastor’s Change of Heart May Not Kill Midland Beach Mosque Plan

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The controversial sale of a former Midland Beach convent to the Muslim American Society for use as a community center and mosque was dealt a blow today when the pastor who signed the contract announced he’s had a change of heart and doesn’t believe the sale would be in the best interests of the parish.

St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church Pastor Rev. Keith Fennessy sent a letter to Archbishop Timothy Dolan, announcing that, “after careful reflection,” he has changed his position, withdrawn his support for the convent sale, and asked the Archdiocese to stop the deal from going forward.

The contents of the letter were conveyed to the parish trustees and a MAS attorney today, according to Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

“I have concluded that the contemplated sale would not serve the needs of the parish,” Father Fennessy wrote. “As a result, as Pastor of Saint Margaret Mary Parish, I wish to formally withdraw my support for the sale, and request that it not take place.”

Zwilling said he believes that in his role as pastor, and a church trustee, Father Fennessy’s change of mind is “significant to everyone involved,” but “he does not have the ability to simply veto and say the deal is off,” Zwilling said. The sale is not final until requisite approvals are met, including an OK from the parish’s trustees, of whom Father Fennessy is one. Approval would also be needed from the state Supreme Court, Zwilling said.

“The contract was signed, and this does not cancel that,” Zwilling said. “The next step is to see what the response is from the MAS, and I can’t predict that.”

“It is our hope that there can be a way the parish and the MAS can meet and reach an amicable solution,” Zwilling said.

“Father Fennessy has taken some time to reconsider the planned sale, and has considered the impact it will have on his parish and parishioners,” Zwilling said. Though Father Fennessy offered his resignation at the height of the controversy, he is still pastor, and it is unknown when or if a new pastor will be appointed by the Archbishop, Zwilling said.

Indicative of the poor communication between both sides throughout the ordeal, when reached by the Advance for comment on Father Fennessy’s change of heart, MAS member Mohamed Sadeia said he had not yet heard about the change, though Zwilling’s statement was posted on the Archdiocese website. Sadeia said he would withhold comment until MAS had discussed the matter.

The Archdiocese “just handled it wrong from the start,” said Midland Beach Civic Association President Yasmin Ammirato, who said she believes Father Fennessy’s change of heart was an attempt to “save face.”

“I guess they didn’t think that the community would come out the way that it did,” she said of the church.

Word about the sale was painful to residents, she said, because the neighborhood wasn’t told until the contract was signed, and parishioners who have supported the church for years felt blindsided.

The vacant convent building, which once housed 10 nuns, was built with donations from the parish community. The parents and grandparents of residents in the neighborhood took out loans and made monthly payments to help support the construction, Ms. Ammirato said.

“The blood and guts of the community built that building. At least they should have been sensitive enough to speak to the community, and they didn’t… That’s why people were so hurt and angry.”

Should MAS not go ahead with the mosque plan, some community members hope a builder will put up several homes instead, Ms. Ammirato said.

“We wouldn’t want to see it sit there vacant for the rest of our lives,” she said, but any proposed community facilities would be too much for the neighborhood’s narrow streets and limited parking.

At its best, the fallout from the controversial sale showed the community’s resolve, as neighbors pulled together to ask questions about MAS, its background, and its intentions for the property, and wrote countless letters and emails to the Archdiocese in opposition to the plan. At its worst, it exposed bias, cultural misunderstandings, and that the wounds of 9/11 are still very deeply felt nearly a decade later.

“It’s put a microscope on much deeper and complex issues,” said City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn).

“If this issue is resolved, and I’m not sure if it is… it’s highlighted probably a much bigger problem than one specific convent in one specific community,” Oddo said. “That one’s not as easily resolved, and that runs deep, and it’s something that we’re all going to have to work on going forward.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Pastor of Midland Beach Church Withdraws Support of Mosque Plan

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The embattled pastor of the Midland Beach church considering the sale of a former convent to the Muslim American Society has withdrawn his support, and asked Archbishop Timothy Dolan to stop the sale from going forward.

In a letter to Archbishop Dolan, St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church Pastor Rev. Keith Fennessy wrote “I have concluded that the contemplated sale would not serve the needs of the parish. As a result, as Pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish, I wish to formally withdraw my support for the sale, and request that it not take place.”

Father Fennessy had signed a contract to sell the property to the MAS, which proposed opening a mosque in the old convent building.

Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said in light of Father Fennessy’s letter, it is hoped that “an amicable solution” can be found between the parish and the MAS.

Further information will be posted as it becomes available.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



San Francisco Introduces Bill Condemning Israel for Hamas Flotilla Attack

Tensions soared at City Hall on Tuesday over a nonbinding resolution calling for the condemnation of the Israeli military’s deadly raid on a flotilla headed for Gaza.

At least nine people were killed by Israeli naval commandos during the May 31 raid on ships carrying aid for the isolated Gaza region, which is under an Israeli blockade.

The legislation, sponsored by Supervisors John Avalos and Sophie Maxwell, has more than two dozen “whereas” clauses.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Slouching Towards Jihad

In Federalist #2, Founder John Jay addressed the dangers of foreign force and influence. In the course of the essay, he celebrated, “With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs.” Jay understood that perhaps America’s greatest protection against the threat of foreign manipulation was our overriding sense of unity as a people.

That’s why Jay and the other Founders insisted that immigrants be willing to embrace and adopt our values and principles. George Washington wrote, “By an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendents, get assimilated to our customs, measures, laws: in a word soon become one people.”

Unfortunately, in the name of political correctness, we are trampling this very notion of unity in deference to the sacred cow of “diversity.” No clearer can this tragic reality be witnessed than in our developing societal embrace of Islam.

Unlike other religions, Islam is simultaneously a religious and a political order. It seeks a state-imposed caliphate…a theocratic regime that orders allegiance to Islamic law. Those are the expectations of anyone who follows the Koran.

When Dr. Daniel Shayesteh (the former co-founder of the Islamic terror group Hezbollah) appeared on my radio program, I asked him whether true adherents to Islam could peacefully assimilate into American culture and embrace constitutional law and order. He responded, “It is impossible for a person who follows Mohammed and says, ‘I am a Muslim’ and follows the instruction of the Koran to align himself with other laws and cultural values. That’s impossible, because everything other than Islamic culture and principle is evil.”

That chilling admission should set off warning bells. Yet, despite this plainly stated position, Americans continue to suffer the foolishness of political correctness that tells us we should celebrate the growth of Islam here in America. Let me ask a hypothetical question: would you vote for someone who ran on the platform of obliterating U.S. sovereignty, discarding the U.S. Constitution, subjugating women, and executing homosexuals and all non-adherents to an established national religion?

Of course not. Then why do we consider it a feather in our cap as a people, and hail our virtuous diversity when practicing Muslims are elected to office? Because either professing Muslims like Andre Carson (D-IN) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) — both of whom serve in Congress — believe in those aforementioned principles, or they are not true adherents to Islam.

Don’t believe me? Omar Ahmed, chairman of the supposedly moderate Council on American-Islamic Relations, reportedly told a group of California Muslims in 1998, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran…should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”

I know that addressing all this makes many people so uncomfortable that they choose not to pay attention. Perhaps that stems from our fear of violence if we do (see Comedy Central’s recent capitulation to “Revolution Muslim”). But more likely it comes from our mounting cultural indoctrination in political correctness — the same garbage that infected Europe decades ago. What have been its fruits there? Entire regions of many modern European countries are now completely under the authority of local Muslim leaders who ignore national laws and impose their own Sharia law instead.

And here? The American Academy of Pediatrics has recently taken the side of Muslims who seek to uphold their cultural practice of female genital mutilation. Islam holds that women should not receive the same sexual pleasure that men do, and therefore many Muslims in the United States send their young daughters overseas to have those sensitive areas removed. Rather than stand against this barbaric act, the AAP has begun advocating for the U.S. to change its laws to allow this practice to occur here legally. We must be open-minded, you know.

And though the construction of Islamic mosques have historically been to signify dominance over conquered foes, the New York community board and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg are okaying plans to construct not one, but two mosques at the site of the World Trade Center attacks. Another triumph for diversity! (See related story)

This is a matter of self-preservation. The more we loosen our grip on our Founders’ insistence on assimilation and unity for those who make America their home, the quicker we hasten our march towards cultural oblivion…or the jihadists’ paradise.

“The mainstream Americans, especially on the liberal side of things, seemed to think [jihad] is a problem Europeans have, this is not a problem that we [Americans] have,” Ms. Hirsi Ali said in a June 2 speech at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. “I noticed a naivete that I had seen in Europe years ago in America about the presence of radical Islam.”

The West is reluctant to embrace anything that might make it appear to reject Islam, Mr. McCarthy said. He said the uneasy desire not to offend Muslims is a clear symptom of the problem.

Mr. McCarthy said he sees moderate Islam as another possible contending force, put forth by those who claim Islam is a peaceful religion and that the violence comes from radical Islamist factions. He said he hopes the moderates can contend with their radical counterparts, but that Islamists have made a case rooted in the Koran for their position.

“The moderates are not going to win until they can come up with a cogent, compelling, rooted-in-the-scriptures moderate Islam,” Mr. McCarthy said.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Southwest Finds Shipment of Heads on a Plane

Southwest Airlines employee finds human heads on their way to Fort Worth

A Southwest Airlines employee called police after finding human heads in a package set to be transported to a Fort Worth medical research company, the airline said.

“It wasn’t labeled or packaged properly,” said Ashley Rogers, a Southwest spokeswoman. “They called the local authorities.”

The incident happened in Little Rock, Ark., last Wednesday, she said.

Little Rock police turned the package over to the county coroner, who questions where they came from and if they were properly obtained.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason,” said Pulaski County coroner Garland Camper. “We just want to make sure these specimens here aren’t a part of that black market and underground trade.”

The heads were being transported to the Fort Worth office of Medtronic, a leading medical research and technology company based in Minnesota.

Medtronic spokesman Brian Henry said it is common to ship body parts for medical education and research, but he said it is rare for a shipment to be seized.

“We expect our suppliers to follow proper procedures,” he said.

Camper described the items as 40 to 60 human heads.

But Henry said they were “four full cranial specimens and 40 pairs of temporal bone ear blocks.”

He identified the supplier as JLS Consulting of Wynne, Ark.

JLS’s business license was revoked in December, according to the Arkansas Secretary of State’s online database.

Company founder Janice Hepler did not return phone calls Wednesday. Her voice mail indicated it was full and no longer accepting messages.

But in an earlier interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she blamed the problem on the private courier she had hired to transport the body parts.

“Nothing is wrong,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. “We’re providing the documentation.”

But the coroner said the paperwork has “discrepancies.”

Federal law generally prohibits the sale of human body parts, although suppliers can be reimbursed for expenses in cases of legitimate medical education or research.

“It is a lucrative business. There is money to be made,” Camper said. “We’re hoping that this isn’t the case.”

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



Staten Island Church Reconsiders Deal to Sell Vacant Convent for Use as a Mosque

A plan to sell a Roman Catholic convent on Staten Island to a Muslim group for use as a mosque is faltering in the face of community opposition.

In a letter sent on Thursday to Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, the Rev. Keith Fennessy, the pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church, which owns the convent in the Midland Beach neighborhood, said he had given the deal a second look and “concluded that the contemplated sale would not serve the needs of the parish.”

Many members of the parish joined other community residents last week in loudly expressing disapproval of the sale at a heated public meeting that drew about 400 people. Many of them expressed distrust of Muslims and fears that the mosque would harbor terrorists.

Though Father Fennessy signed a contract last month to sell the vacant convent to the Muslim American Society for $750,000, he wrote in his letter, “I wish to formally withdraw my support for the sale and request that it not take place.”

The sale of any parish property must be approved by that parish’s board of trustees, which includes the pastor, two lay members of his congregation, the archdiocese’s vicar general and the archbishop.

Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, said that Archbishop Dolan had taken no position on the proposed sale beyond what he wrote last week on his blog. In that post, the archbishop referred to the vehement opposition to the proposed mosque and one planned near ground zero.

“Legitimate and understandable concerns about these two endeavors have arisen, and it is good these are being aired and discussed,” he wrote, adding, “It is acceptable to ask questions about security, safety, the background and history of the groups hoping to build and buy.”

“What is not acceptable,” he concluded, “is to prejudge any group, or to let fear and bias trump the towering American (and for us Catholics, the religious) virtues of hospitality, welcome, and religious freedom.”

The Muslim American Society, a Washington-based nonprofit group that helps plant new mosques in communities throughout the country, planned to use the convent only on Fridays, as a prayer hall and a community center.

Ayman Hammous, president of the society’s Staten Island branch, said he was disappointed by the pastor’s change of heart.

“But at this point, as far as I am concerned, we still have a deal,” he said. “We are not backing off.”

Mahdi Bray, the society’s national executive director, blamed the setback more on the “meddling” of what he called anti-Muslim Web sites than on opposition of the church or its members.

“There is a lot of hostility being whipped up,” he said, referring to sites that have published unsubstantiated claims of the society’s ties to terrorism.

“But we are optimistic that the majority of Catholics uphold the rights of everyone to worship in this country,” he said.

Yasmin Ammirato, president of the Midland Beach Civic Association, which organized last week’s meeting and was officially neutral, said she was relieved that the sale now seemed to have been blocked.

Though she never agreed with opponents who said that the Muslim American Society had ties to terrorist organizations — claims never made by government authorities — she said she was worried about how the mosque would affect parking in the neighborhood on Fridays. “It would have been a nightmare.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



What’s the ‘Overton Window’ And Why Should You Care?

If you aren’t the least bit concerned about the health of America’s freedoms, you are either a) in a multiyear-long drug induced coma, B) Sean Penn, or C) dead. And you’ve definitely never heard of Overton’s Window.

The Overton Window is a political theory developed by the late Joseph Overton, a brilliant public policy strategist and ardent free-marketer. Overton observed that “when public policies in a given area (education, health care) are arranged from freest to least free, only a relatively narrow window of options will be considered politically acceptable.”

The theory says the window will gradually move over time based on a variety of factors, including truth, facts, arguments, big events and misinformation, to name a few.

The window of what’s becoming “acceptable” debate in America today has changed quite a bit from even just a few decades ago. In March 1950, Newsweek declared “socialism is on its last legs,” and it was right. When your favorite political model routinely ends in societal collapse, it tends to dampen the mood. Fast forward through nearly six decades of socialists chipping away at capitalism, and in February 2009 Newsweek proudly declared “we’re all socialists now.”

How’d we get here? Let’s take a look at the theory in practice.

When Teddy Roosevelt first attempted to pass a bill on national health insurance, the American Medical Association ridiculed the attempt to “evolve a plan of socialized medicine” and even called supporters of the bill “un-American.” President Harry Truman’s administration was called “followers of the Moscow party line” for trying to pass similar legislation. In March 2010, of course, President Barack Obama signed pretty much the exact same bill into law.

Could you have imagined our government doing this five years ago? How about two years ago? Our government is growing by the minute, and it’s about to repeat the mistakes of the past — but don’t worry, there’s good news. (Yes, Mr. Doom has good news.)

While the president has the media on his side, he clearly does not have the will of the people — 58 percent of the country want to repeal the health care bill; 60 percent of Americans are in favor of the Arizona immigration law that his administration calls hateful.

If Obama continues to push, he’ll experience what’s called Overton’s revenge. It happened during America’s banning of alcohol through prohibition in the 1920s. People like to drink, and they especially liked to drink during the Great Depression. Prohibition was finally overturned in 1933. Government overshot the window, and the people responded.

Did Obama overshoot the Overton Window with health care? With cap and trade? With bailouts? Only time will tell.

While you’re waiting for that answer, let me leave you with this: The Overton Window model also says that when society unites behind sound principles, its political servants will, too.

Part of the reason I wrote the fiction thriller “The Overton Window” is because I believe I know how this story we are currently living ends.

Yeah, our government may be getting bigger and more powerful by the second — but I know who Americans are at heart, and they are not big government people. Americans would rather learn from our failures than get a bailout. We don’t need participation trophies. We can handle the red pen on our kids’ papers. We’re good, decent and charitable — without being forced to give. We don’t need handouts. We just need politicians to get the heck out of the way.

It’s time to show the big government Europe wannabes what it means to be American — and move that window back where it belongs.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Will Obama be the ‘Jimmy Carter of the 21st Century’?

Can US President Barack Obama lead America away from fossil fuel dependency? German commentators don’t think so. Some say he is in danger of turning into an idealistic, one-term president like Jimmy Carter.

US President Barack Obama’s address from the Oval Office on Tuesday was supposed to be a moment of leadership during the worst environmental disaster in American history. But critics from across the political spectrum wondered afterwards whether he’d shown leadership at all. The geyser of oil in the Gulf of Mexico seems, technologically, to lie beyond anything either BP or the US government was prepared for, and Obama failed to mention any specific new ideas.

“The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean-energy future is now,” he declared, without offering policy details. Of course, it wasn’t a policy speech. But the fact that Obama failed to outline a clear path toward this clean-energy future seems to have disappointed a lot of people. “He didn’t boldly push an agenda,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, to Politico, the Washington-based news website. “I think a lot of people took that to mean lukewarm support for anything big.”

One immediate result of White House talks with the American arm of BP, though, was a series of concessions on Wednesday. BP Plc agreed to set aside $20 billion (€16.1 billion) in escrow to cover damage claims by shrimpers, restauranteurs and other Gulf-Coast residents hurt by the spill. The energy giant also said it would suspend shareholder dividends until 2011, when it expects to have a clearer notion of the catastrophe’s costs. Another $100 million (€80.8 million) will be set aside for compensation to BP workers hurt by the spill.

These gestures from the energy giant are the most tangible form of good news local residents have heard in the two months since the spill began. German commentators on Thursday think BP’s concessions are genuine as well as worthwhile — but they warn that Obama will need to paddle harder to realize the shining future he promised in his speech on Tuesday.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“Obama wants to lead the US out of its dependence on oil. Absolutely right. In fact it’s the very thing people have been wanting to hear from Obama for weeks.”

“But how cautious he seems, and how vague his suggestions. In 1961 President Kennedy declared a national mission to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Obama has chosen not to name concrete goals. No numbers, no time frame. He doesn’t dare mention how things will have to change to favor the climate. Professor Obama waits for new ideas and looks forward to a public debate. He doesn’t dare push the Senate to settle on a climate-change bill. This president won’t lead America out of a crisis this way — and he certainly won’t usher in a new era.”

The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung argues:

“International markets have started to take environmental problems seriously. BP stock has fallen by almost 50 percent since the start of the oil catastrophe. Ratings agencies have downgraded its creditworthiness to near-junk status. And banks have stopped sealing long-term contracts with BP.”

“This situation is new. When oil companies in the past soiled the Niger Delta or the Amazon, markets tended to reward them — because corporations that skimped on security also increased their profits, to the detriment of the environment and the public interest. Now the costs of environmental damage have started to weigh on the balance sheet, with consequences extending to the possible bankruptcy of a multinational.”

“This new environmental sensibility has been possible not through a sudden display of reason on the markets, but through political decision-making. President Barack Obama made it clear (in early June) that BP won’t be exempt from criminal investigation. He’s also maintained a moratorium on new oil exploration on the deep-ocean floor, and looks determined to end corruption in federal oil agencies.”

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“The oil company could be prosecuted by shareholders for paying billions upon billions into a fund for damages without being legally required to do so … It’s therefore a good thing that the US government has not asked for a blank check to cover damages. With the high sum (of $20 billion), the government can now offer quick and unbureaucratic First Aid (to people living near the Gulf).”

“But the firm can’t just run free now that an arbitrary sum has been set. What the final cost for damages might be, and which mistakes were made by whom, have yet to be determined. Civil and criminal complaints against BP have to remain an open possibility. This fund is just a first step toward stopping the holes that the oil catastrophe has ripped in the finances of many affected people.”

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

“When Obama surprised people by lifting his opposition to offshore drilling, just before the current oil crisis, he meant it as one part of a package deal: Citizens who worried primarily about high fuel prices were meant to be placated by expanded domestic oil production — as a gambit to win more acceptance for the core of his new-energy agenda. This strategy is marked by a typical American pragmatism, unlike Europe’s forces of climate protection. The emphasis rests on incentives to save energy, on building more nuclear-energy plants and on developing new ideas in renewable energy.”

“This is the right way to make America independent of problematic nations. Going forward, the mix will also have to include exploitation of (America’s) domestic energy resources, even if it also means heavier regulation to avoid a new disaster. But if this oil shock accelerates America’s shift to new energies, and moves the West away from a dangerous dependency on fossil fuels, then the catastrophe will have at least one positive outcome.”

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

“If Barack Obama isn’t careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the 21st century.”

“In his speech, Obama tried to make a virtue of an emergency. He said a shift to new energy sources was now a ‘national mission.’ Just as the nation once mobilized its powers for World War II, now it needs to conquer its devilish dependence on fossil fuels … If Obama wins this debate, and achieves a true shift in energy dependence, then his name will perhaps be mentioned again in the same breath with great American presidents.”

“Politically, though, it’s fraught with risk. His opponents have already charged Obama with using the Gulf catastrophe to advance his climate agenda in Congress. Republicans rely on the tendency of Americans to prefer cheap fuel and big cars with a certain level of power. Over 30 years ago, after all, another president called for smarter American energy policies in a televised speech from the Oval Office. He wanted to know, ‘Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?’ That president’s name was Jimmy Carter.”

— Michael Scott Moore

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

Europe and the EU


Financial Scandals: The Hidden Wealth of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church in Germany, already struggling to cope with the sex abuse scandal, has been hit by revelations of theft, opaque accounting and extravagance. While the grassroots faithful are being forced to make cutbacks, some bishops enjoy the trappings of the church’s considerable hidden wealth.

Shortly before Pentecost, Pastor S. received an unexpected early morning visit, not from the Holy Ghost, but from the police.

For the authorities, the words of the Gospel of Luke came true on that morning: He who seeks finds. More than €131,000 ($158,000) were hidden in various places in the rooms of the Catholic priest, tucked in between his laundry or attached to the bottom of drawers. The reverend was arrested on the spot. After several weeks in custody, Hans S., 76, is now back at the monastery, waiting for his trial.

And lo and behold, the proliferation of cash may have been even more miraculous than initially assumed. The public prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Würzburg now estimates that S. may have embezzled up to €1.5 million from collections and other church funds. The members of his flock in a wine-growing village in the northern Bavarian region of Franconia are stunned. They had blindly trusted their shepherd, who always seemed so humble and modest.

The Catholic Church is currently being shaken by a number of financial scandals, not only in Franconia but also in Augsburg, another Bavarian city, where Bishop Walter Mixa’s dip into funds from a foundation that runs children’s homes recently made headlines.

More than €40 million have gone missing in the Diocese of Magdeburg in eastern Germany, €5 million have disappeared in Limburg near Frankfurt, and it was recently discovered that a senior priest in the Diocese of Münster had 30 secret bank accounts. And while parishes throughout Germany are cutting jobs and funds for community work, many bishops are still living on the high horse. A brand-new residence? An ostentatious home for their retirement? Restoration of a Marian column to the tune of €120,000? None of these expenditures presents a problem to high-ranking church officials from Trier in the west to Passau in the southeastern corner of Bavaria, whose coffers are brimming with cash.

In many places, this blatant disparity, along with reports of mismanagement, misappropriation and pomposity have prompted the faithful to challenge church officials. They are accusing many bishops of just covering up the problem, as they did in the sex abuse scandal. They are determined not to allow anyone to see behind the curtain into their parallel world of bulging bank accounts and hidden assets, which, in some cases, have buttressed their power for centuries. The only aspect of church finances that is public is the diocesan budget, which derives its funding from the church tax — but the church’s true assets remain in the shadows.

Growing Questions About Church Funding

Now all of this wealth is becoming a political issue, however. The unemployed, recipients of housing assistance, families, communities, businesses, the military — in the coming years, the federal government plans to deprive them all of billions of euros. But the church, of all things, is being spared, and hardly anyone questions the generous support it receives from the government.

Financially speaking, Germany’s dioceses are in excellent shape. “The Catholic Church claims that it’s poor, but the truth is that it hides its wealth,” says Carsten Frerk, a Berlin political scientist who, after years of research, is publishing “Violettbuch Kirchenfinanzen” (The Violet Book of Church Finances) this fall. Frerk estimates the cash assets of the church’s legal entities at about €50 billion. The Catholics, who are not releasing their own figures, accuse Frerk of being a prejudiced, atheistic critic of the church.

The assets, accumulated over the centuries, are invested in many areas, including real estate, church-owned banks, academies, breweries, vineyards, media companies and hospitals. The church also derives income from stock holdings, foundations and bequests. As a rule, all of this money flows into the accounts of the so-called bishop’s see. Only a bishop and his closest associates are familiar with this shadow budget, which tax authorities are not required to review. The public budgets of dioceses consist of far less than their total finances.

This complicated web is handled with such secrecy that not even the financial department heads of all dioceses openly discuss their finances with one another. Seemingly baroque structures make these finances even more difficult to fathom. Depending on the diocese, the administrators of the church’s funds can be members of a church tax council, a diocesan tax panel, a financial board or an administrative board. Sometimes assets are also spun off into foundations.

Of Germany’s 27 Catholic dioceses, 25 refused to provide information in response to a SPIEGEL survey, noting that this information “is not made public.” Only two dioceses, Magdeburg and the Archdiocese of Berlin, which was on the verge of bankruptcy a few years ago, were somewhat more accommodating, probably because they have so few assets to hide in the first place.

Secret Assets

The vicar general of a well-heeled diocese, on the other hand, said: “Yes, the assets in the bishop’s see are secret. But perhaps it would be better if you wrote: confidential.” When asked to explain this secretiveness, a spokeswoman of the Diocese of Limburg responded: “That’s just the way it is.” Finally, a representative of the German Bishops’ Conference said: “I don’t want to talk to you about this.”…

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



France: Govt and Muslims Against Racism

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 17 — An agreement “to do a better job of monitoring” racist or hostile acts against Muslims in France was signed today by the Ministry of the Interior and the group that represents Muslims in France, the French Council of the Muslim Faith. Minister Brice Hortefeux and Council President Mohammed Moussaoui plan to implement a system in which there will be detailed monitoring of any hostile acts perpetrated against Muslims similar to what the state has done for the Jewish community. In 2009, 314 acts against Muslims (a group that amounts to between 5 and 6 million in total in France) were reviewed, while there were 1,026 episodes of racial violence, a number that includes 806 threats, said the minister after signing the agreement. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Germany: Mixa Wants His Case Reviewed by Vatican

Controversial former Augsburg bishop Walter Mixa, who resigned over allegations of child abuse and misusing Catholic Church funds, said Wednesday he was forced out and plans to have his case investigated by the Vatican.

Taking his case to Rome is a “very good idea which I am considering and weighing very well,” the 69-year-old told daily Die Welt.

Should he do so, he would appeal to Church laws which make certain actions invalid if they occurred due to outside pressure, something Mixa said he suffered. The pressure to resign was “like purgatory,” he told the paper.

Mixa accused the head of Bavaria’s Catholic bishops, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, as well as the country’s top Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of rushing to the Pope with a “so-called abuse case based on what amounts to no more than eight handwritten sentences on a highly dubious scribbled note.”

Instead the two should have been “more brotherly,” Mixa said.

Despite his resignation in April following accusations that he beat children at a Catholic orphanage in the 1970s and 1980s and later misused Church money, Mixa made headlines again this week by returning to his quarters at the bishop’s palace in Augsburg because apparently had nowhere else to stay.

The move is reportedly causing a stir among Church officials, who view it as an act of defiance, a high-ranking diocese figure told local paper Augsburger Zeitung on Monday. As a retired bishop he no longer has the right to occupy his old apartment and must first apply for permission from the diocese administrator. It remains unclear whether he has done this, the paper said.

Mixa said he plans to speak personally with Pope Benedict XVI in July, he told Die Welt.

“He invited me for a conversation,” he said. “Above all I want to discuss how the situation should further develop.”

Mixa also said he plans to continue working as a priest.

Meanwhile the lay group Wir sind Kirche said that while the wish was understandable, it was unthinkable in Mixa’s former diocese. Spokesperson Christian Weisner told news agency DPA that Mixa should not to become a liability for the entire German Church.

His behaviour gives the impression that the former bishop is taking bad advice, he said, adding that he should remember that his diocese is more important than his personal ambitions.

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



How Gadaffi Blackmails Europe

Libya, the nerve centre of migration towards southern Europe, blows hot and cold with Europe. Now that Europeans are asking for his help in curbing immigration, the Libyan leader is dictating his terms and, as Rue89 puts it, “toying with their nerves”.

Eric L’Helgoualc’h

On 9 June the representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were expelled from Libya for engaging in “illegal activities”. At the same time, however, a new round of negotiations got under way with a view to establishing a partnership between Libya and the European Union. It is hard to believe that was a coincidence: for several years, Europe has been counting on Tripoli’s help in checking migratory flows to countries along the Mediterranean. And Gaddafi has already shown he will not hesitate to raise the stakes.

Libya, a hub of migration across the Mediterranean

Libya is nowadays the main point of transit for tens of thousands of Africans who dream of making it to Europe. According to estimates by local authorities, there are currently between one and two million foreigners sojourning on Libyan soil. A great many of them have come in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. In 2008, most of the 37,000 immigrants who reached the southern tip of the peninsula in makeshift boats had set off from Libyan shores.

To put an end to this phenomenon, which his allies from the Northern League call an invasion, Silvio Berlusconi concluded a “treaty of friendship” with Muammar Gaddafi, part of which is aimed at combating migration. When the treaty took effect in the spring of 2009, some 850 immigrants were turned away and sent back to Libya, in violation of international law: the Geneva Convention prohibits returning potential refugees to a country where their lives might be at risk.

According to eye-witness accounts gathered by Human Rights Watch, migrants sent back to Libya are generally thrown in prison — if not repatriated to their country of origin, where a fate even less desirable awaits those who tried to escape from persecution. Ignoring accusations levelled by international associations and organisations, the Italian government points to the effectiveness of this collaboration with the Libyan authorities: by the end of 2009, the number of illegal arrivals in Sicily and Lampedusa had plunged by nearly 90%.

EU-Libyan treaty in limbo over refugee issue

Far from condemning this practice, the other EU member countries — first and foremost, France — took advantage of the Italian initiative to seek the rapid conclusion of a partnership deal with Libya to handle the migration issue.

The seventh round of talks, which began on 8 June, between the European Commission and Libyan diplomats, partly revolves around this burning question.

Last summer, the EU was planning to set up “reception centres” in Libya where refugees could apply for asylum without having to risk the perilous crossing. At the time, EU asylum and immigration commissioner Jacques Barrot actually flew down to assess the prospects for such an arrangement first hand.

But the High Commissioner for Refugees, who was also on the spot, expressed serious reservations in view of the “appalling conditions for reception” in Libya. And with good reason: the country has not signed the Geneva Convention governing international refugee law. For Cecila Malmström, who succeeded Barrot this February, no agreement on migration can be concluded until it signs the convention.

Against this backdrop, the decision to close the UNHCR office and expel its 26 employees seems a hard blow for the Europeans — but also for the 9,000-odd refugees who were in its charge. According to one Western diplomat, Libya made that move to check the influx of refugees into the country.

But Gaddafi knows perfectly well that Europe needs an agreement whose migration provisions are formally in line with refugee law in order to be acceptable. So closing the UNHCR office looks like a bluff designed to put pressure on the European negotiators.

Gaddafi demands €5bn p.a.

Ever since he caught on to the Europeans’ heightened sensitivity to the illegal immigration issue, Gaddafi has relished toying with their nerves. Countries like Italy that are directly exposed are now bending over backwards to appease the dictator for fear that he will reopen the “floodgates” of migration.

The latest case in point was the spat between Switzerland and Libya over the arbitrary imprisonment of a Swiss national — who was finally released on 10 June after four months’ detention. This rather preposterous dispute was triggered by the arrest of the dictator’s son by the Swiss police, and came to a head this February when Libya moved to stop issuing visas to European visitors. Italy sided with Gaddafi, accusing Bern of “taking the Schengen Area countries hostage”.

Tripoli’s object is plain: if Europe wants to get Libya to cooperate, it will have to pay the price. Libya is demanding that the EU finance the securing of its own borders with Niger and Chad. The Commission is willing to put €20 million on the table: Gaddafi wants €5 billion.

Until fairly recently, Muammar Gaddafi still ranked high on Western countries’ blacklists of wanted terrorists. Now he is in the Europeans’ good graces — and is turning into an increasingly adept blackmailer. Though he may have become a putatively “respectable” partner, the man remains a fearsome figure.

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



Italy: Defence Giant Rejects Bribe Claims

Rome, 28 May (AKI) — Finmeccanica, Italy’s largest defence and aerospace company, has denied allegations it used foreign bank accounts to bribe officials in order to win contracts worth billions of euros. Rome prosecutors have launched a probe into a number of offshore bank accounts in tax havens such as Hong Kong, Singapore as well as Europe, Italian daily Corriere della Sera said on Friday.

The company immediately rejected the allegations.

“Finmeccanica categorically declares that it is involved in the establishment of hidden accounts,” the company said on Friday.

The Rome-based company said that it received “no notice of legal proceedings related to the purported investigations.”

The probe was established earlier this year after investigators allegedly heard conversations regarding Finmeccanica is a separate case involving Italian Internet company Fastweb and Telecom Italia’s Sparkle unit.

At the end of April, police searched Finmeccanica’s headquarters and seized a number of documents.

The investigation also involves Finmeccanica unit Selex Galileo business.

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



Rumours of Pope’s ‘Secret Meal’

Vatican denies claims of Benedict’s ‘restaurant outing’

(ANSA) — Vatican City, June 16 — Media speculation over whether Pope Benedict XVI snuck out of the Vatican for a late evening snack at a local restaurant this week continued on Wednesday. The rumour was started by a gossip columnist on Tuesday, who claimed the pontiff had been spotted dining on fish the previous night at a restaurant some 200 metres outside the Vatican walls. The alleged visit took place as Italy played its first World Cup soccer match against Paraguay, leading the columnist to suggest the pope had timed his unofficial outing to take advantage of Rome’s empty streets and escape undetected. The restaurant, Al Passetto di Borgo, was one of Benedict’s favourite dining spots before his ascent to the papacy, claimed the columnist in the centre-right daily Il Foglio. Well-placed sources inside the Vatican denied the suggestion, telling ANSA it was “entirely untrue”. But another daily on Wednesday reported that a waiter at the restaurant had strongly hinted that Benedict had indeed dined there Monday night, when the establishment is normally closed. The restaurant’s owner then weighed in, insisting the claims were not true, while Vatican sources suggested the allegations were just gossip, perhaps fuelled by visits in the past. Benedict XVI, in his former incarnation as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, lived in a flat near the Vatican and was apparently a regular client at several local restaurants. He often visited Al Passetto di Borgo with other members of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the office he headed before becoming pope.

However, rather than eating sole, as suggested by the columnist, he apparently had a weakness for German dishes and the restaurant’s spaghetti alla carbonara, the owner said. Vatican sources stressed there were no rules preventing the pope embarking on outings of the kind but said he simply had not done so since taking office. They said Benedict was much more reserved than his predecessor John Paul II, whose love of nature regularly led him to “escape” the Vatican for walks in the countryside around Rome.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



SFr1.5 Million Paid for Swiss Hostage Release

Switzerland has paid SFr1.5 million ($1.33 million) to a German bank account for the release of Swiss hostage Max Göldi.

The Swiss businessman, who had been caught in the middle of a row between Switzerland and Libya, arrived in Switzerland on Monday morning after being detained for almost two years in Libya.

The Swiss foreign ministry on Wednesday evening confirmed a Swiss radio report and said the money would be transferred to Tripoli if the person responsible for publishing in a Geneva newspaper police photos of Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, is not found and brought to justice.

No compensation has yet been paid to the Gaddafi family, said foreign ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel in a statement, denying earlier reports from Tripoli.

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said on Sunday that the Swiss justice authorities had decided that the family should receive nearly €1.5 million (SFr2 million) in compensation and that this had already been paid.

Knuchel’s statement said that to free Göldi “trust-building measures were necessary” and that both sides had agreed SFr1.5 million was a befitting amount.

On Thursday canton Geneva ruled out making any contribution to the SFr1.5 miilion payment.

The president of the cantonal government said he didn’t see why Geneva should compensate Hannibal.

“We will not contribute to this strange payment,” Francois Longchamp told Le Temps newspaper.

The brief detention in July 2008 of Hannibal and his wife, on suspicion of mistreating two of their servants, triggered the Swiss-Libyan crisis which included the four-month imprisonment of Göldi.

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



The Great Wind Farm Disaster

Here’s further cause for gloom from the excellent German blogger P Gosselin, whose reports on what’s happening in Germany gives us an idea of the disasters coming our way soon.

Originally estimated to cost €189 million, the Alpha Ventus park has been plagued by cost overruns and delays. In late summer and autumn of 2008, bad weather made installation of the first 6 turbines impossible. Then the equipment to install the monster turbines was not available. Next there were major problems with the transformer facilities.

A few weeks ago the temperature of the bearings in the turbine made by Areva Multibrid was too high and thus they had to be taken out of operation. Now the turbines have to be removed from their 500+ ft. high towers and the bearings have to be replaced. Repair works will take weeks and extend into late summer. It’s still unclear if the other four of the Multibrid turbines have a problem. The remaining 6 turbines are made by Repower and are reported to be running smoothly. There are no reports on how high the costs for the troublesome dismantling and repair works will run.

And if that weren’t bad enough, the construction works on the massive Bard Offshore 1 commercial windparks have been delayed as a 300-foot foundation column crashed onto the construction ship Wind Lift 1 three weeks ago. Now other turbines have to be thoroughly inspected. The Bard project foresees the installation of 320 five-megawatt class turbines over the coming years. The cost for the first 80 Bard turbines alone is climbing far beyond original estimates. First they were estimated to cost over €500 million. Now it’s estimated costs will exceed a billion euros. German online newspaper projects the costs will even reach €1.2 billion.

The promoters of the offshore projects cannot say they weren’t warned of the risks of installing windparks in the North Sea’s harsh conditions. The Nysted offshore windpark and Horns Rev park in Denmark are examples, and have struggled with big problems. For example in 2007 a transformer malfunction occurred at Nysted just 4 years after being commissioned, causing a months-long shutdown. At the Horns Rev windpark there were problems with the turbines only 2 years after they had gone into operation. World leading turbine manufacturer Vestas had to remove all 80 turbines, haul them onshore and perform extensive repairs. Luckily these turbines were only of the smaller 2 to 2.3-MW class, and so much easier to do repair works. Repairs and maintenance on the 5-MW monsters will be much tougher and expensive.

But as long as windpark companies continue to have the full backing of wasteful governments, costs won’t matter.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World

by Guy Deutscher

Did Ancient Greeks really lack a sense of colour, asks Alex Bellos

This tale begins with a Liberal leader and his innovative exploration of the colour blue. Not Nick Clegg and the Tories, but William Gladstone and his concern about Homer’s use of colour in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Gladstone was the first prominent intellectual to notice something awry with the Greek poet’s sense of colour. Homer never described the sky as blue. In fact, Homer barely used colour terms at all and when he did they were just peculiar. The sea was “wine-looking”. Oxen were also “wine-looking”. And, to Gladstone, the sea and oxen were never of the same colour. His explanation was that the Ancient Greeks had not developed a colour sense, and instead saw the world in terms of black and white with only a dash of red.

Guy Deutscher’s interest in the Homeric eye is less about evolution or optics than it is linguistic. Can we see something for which we have no word? Yes. The Greeks were able to distinguish shades of blue just as vividly as we can now, despite lacking a specific vocabulary for them. Yet, writes Deutscher, even though Gladstone was wrong about the Greeks’ sense of perception, his hunch about the emergence of colour words was “so sharp and far-sighted that much of what he wrote . . . can hardly be bettered today”.

It turned out that it wasn’t just the Ancient Greeks who never said the sky was blue. None of the ancient languages had a proper word for blue. What we now call blue was once subsumed by older words for black or for green. (In fact, this is why in Japan green lights are actually a bluer shade of green than in the rest of the world. The word used for the green of traffic lights is ao, which used to mean “green and blue” but now means blue. Rather than change the word, they changed the colour.)

Deutscher has a lot of fun relating the discovery that colour words emerge in all languages in a predictable order. Black and white come first, then red, then yellow, then green and finally blue. (Although sometimes green is before yellow.) Red is probably first because it is the colour of blood and of the easiest dyes to make in the wild. Green and yellow are the colours of vegetation. And blue is last because — with the exception of the sky — few naturally occurring things are blue and blue dyes are very difficult to make.

It takes Deutscher half his book to tell the story of blue, and fascinating and well written though it is, the discussion is a diversion from the point he really wants to make, which is that language can affect how we perceive the world. Is it possible that two people may think about the world differently purely by dint of the language they speak? Deutscher believes that this is the case, and he provides three examples: Guugu Yimithirr is an indigenous Australian language — it gave us the word kangaroo — that does not have words for “left” and “right”. Instead, all directions are given in terms of where the speaker is standing in relation to the points of the compass. Experiments have shown that Guugu Yimithirr speakers have “perfect-pitch for directions”: regardless of visibility conditions, or whether they are stationary or moving, they know where north is. This is the most striking example, says Deutscher, of how speech habits can have “far-reaching consequences beyond speaking, as they affect orientation skills and even patterns of memory”.

Secondly, he argues that gender systems can “exert a powerful hold on speakers’ associations”. Spanish and German speakers were asked to memorise, in English, two dozen objects by associating a person’s name with that object. Results showed that they were better at remembering the object when the name tallied with the gender of the word in their mother tongue. So a Spaniard found it easier to remember an apple if it was named Patricia (la manzana is feminine), and a German if the apple was Patrick (der Apfel is masculine). The third example returns to the blues. Russian has a word for light blue — goluboy — and a word for dark blue — siniy. In some tests Russian speakers were faster at distinguishing certain shades of blue than English speakers. Deutscher’s conclusion is that “speakers of different languages may perceive colours slightly differently after all”.

Of these three examples, only the first felt significant. The ability to know which way is north at all times, even in the dark, is an extraordinary skill that has useful applications. The other two examples showed, if anything, that language barely has an effect on perception since the experiments seemed overly contrived and the results slight.

In his introduction, Deutscher writes that most respectable psychologists and linguists think that the influence our mother tongue has on the way we think is negligible, or trivial. His book is an attempt to show that they are wrong. But apart from the Guugu Yimithirr, whose way of life is so different from ours anyway, Deutscher hasn’t really convinced me that language does have much of an effect on perception, at least not in any unexpected or, as he claims, “striking” ways. Still, his scholarly and eloquent prose made the book an enjoyable read and I learnt lots of great anecdotes along the way.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]



UK: A Quarter of British Children Have Been Victims of Crime, Study Reveals

Almost one in four children aged 10 to 15 has been a victim of crime in the past year, it was revealed today.

A total of 2,153,000 crimes of theft and violence took place against under 16s in 2009, the Home Office said.

A pilot extension of the British Crime Survey to include younger people found 24 per cent were victims of crime.

The snapshot findings unveil the potential extent of crime against young people for the first time.

A report found children are more at risk of personal crimes, such as robbery, assault and theft, than adults.

But they are far less likely to report their experiences, with just over one in 10 (11 per cent) going to police, compared with 37 per cent of adults.

Researchers said if all the crimes were added to annual figures, the total level of crime in England and Wales would soar by more than a fifth (22 per cent).

But they warned the figures may overstate the level of crime among young people because many incidents may not be classified as crimes by ordinary people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Brave Cancer Victim Clung to Life to See Brutal Attacker Who Battered Her Jailed… And Died Six Days Later

[Comments from JD: WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS AND CONTENT.]

A brave grandmother suffering from terminal cancer vowed to stay alive long enough to see a thug who brutally attacked her with an iron bar brought to justice.

Mair Corbett, 78, was determined to cling on to life to see violent neighbour Damien Lightwood, 28, jailed for the assault.

The widow passed away peacefully at home just six days later, safe in the knowledge that the drug addict had been sentenced to 10 years.

Mair’s grandaughter, Shirley Jones, 30, said: ‘My grandma clung to life because she wanted to die in peace.

‘She didn’t want to die before she knew what sentence her attacker had been given.

‘As he was led away, she held my hand and said: “It won’t be long love”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Birmingham Stops Camera Surveillance in Muslim Areas

Project halted after Guardian exposed use of 200-plus cameras in predominantly Muslim areas for counterterrorism

A project to spy on two Muslim areas in Birmingham using more than 200 CCTV cameras has been dramatically halted after an investigation by the Guardian revealed it was a counterterrorism initiative.

Bags are being placed over the cameras, recently installed in the neighbourhoods of Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook, to reassure the community their movements are not being monitored while a “full and in-depth consultation” takes place.

In a joint statement last night, West Midlands police and Birmingham city council announced the cameras would not be turned on. They apologised for not being “more explicit” about the funding arrangements of the project, which stipulated they should be used to combat terrorism, a mistake they conceded may have “undermined public confidence”.

But officials insisted the £3m project would go ahead following a retrospective public consultation, arguing the cameras would help reduce crime.

Under the initiative, Project Champion, two suburbs were to be monitored by a network of 169 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras — three times more than in the entire city centre. The cameras, which include covert cameras secretly installed in the street, form “rings of steel”, meaning residents cannot enter or leave the areas without their cars being tracked. Data was to be stored for two years.

There was no formal consultation over the scheme, which includes an additional 49 CCTV cameras. The few local councillors who were briefed about the cameras appearing in their constituencies said they were “misled” into believing they were designed to tackle antisocial behaviour, drug dealing and vehicle crime.

There were angry public meetings in the city last week, after the Guardian disclosed the cameras were paid for by the Terrorism and Allied Matters (Tam) fund, administered by the Association of Chief Police Officers. Its grants are for projects that “deter or prevent terrorism or help to prosecute those responsible”.

Senior officials involved in the Safer Birmingham Partnership (SBP), a partnership between the police and council tasked with overseeing the project, were unaware of the counterterrorism link until just two months ago.

The partnership said in a statement: “We completely accept that earlier consultation with councillors from Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath — the main focus of the project — should also have included elected representatives from all other areas affected.

“We also accept that we should have been more explicit about the role of the counterterrorism unit in the initial project management of Champion.

“Although the counterterrorism unit was responsible for identifying and securing central government funds, and have overseen the technical aspects of the installation, the camera sites were chosen on the basis of general crime data — not just counterterrorism intelligence.

“Day to day management of the network was always intended to become the responsibility of local police. We apologise for these mistakes, which regrettably may have undermined public confidence in the police and the council.”

Testing of cameras had already begun, and officials had planned to go live in early August.

However, the plans were placed in jeopardy after a public outcry over the scheme. Human rights lawyers have pledged to seek a judicial review of the scheme.

Parliament has been asked to denounce Project Champion as a “grave infringement of civil liberties” in an early day motion tabled this week by the Labour MP for Birmingham’s Hall Green constituency, Roger Godsiff.

Police sources said the initiative was the first of its kind in the UK that sought to monitor a population seen as being “at risk” of extremism.

           — Hat tip: Holger Danske [Return to headlines]



UK: I Admit it: I Was Wrong to Have Supported Barack Obama

(Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He speaks French and Spanish and loves Europe, but believes that the EU is making its constituent nations poorer, less democratic and less free. He is the winner of the Bastiat Award for online journalism.)

…the [US] federal government is 30 per cent larger than it was two years ago.

This is not entirely Obama’s fault, of course. The credit crunch occurred during the dying days of the Bush administration, and it was the 43rd president who began the baleful policy of bail-outs and pork-barrel stimulus packages. But it was Obama who massively extended that policy against united Republican opposition. It was he who chose, in defiance of public opinion, to establish a state-run healthcare system. It was he who presumed to tell private sector employees what they could earn, he who adopted the asinine cap-and-trade rules, and he who re-federalised social security, thereby reversing the single most beneficial reform of the Clinton years.

These errors are not random. They amount to a comprehensive strategy of Europeanisation: Euro-carbon taxes, Euro-disarmament, Euro-healthcare, Euro-welfare, Euro-spending levels, Euro-tax levels and, inevitably, Euro-unemployment levels. Any American reader who wants to know where Obamification will lead should spend a week with me in the European Parliament. I’m working in your future and, believe me, you won’t like it.

Unsurprisingly, given his enthusiasm for corporatism at home, Obama is an unqualified supporter of the EU. “In my view there’s no Old Europe or New Europe,” he announced at his very first overseas summit, silkily repudiating Donald Rumsfelt’s distinction. “There is a united Europe. I believe in a strong Europe, and a strong European Union, and my administration is committed to doing everything we can to support you.”

His fondness for the EU is matched by his disdain for the United Kingdom.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Man With Agonising Skin Condition Leapt to His Death After Motorists Yelled ‘Jump’

[Comments from JD: WARNING: Disturbing Content]

A suicidal man who suffered from an agonising skin condition leapt to his death from a bridge after motorists shouted ‘jump’, an inquest heard.

Paul Cowling, 59, told officers he wanted to kill himself because of the horrendous skin condition which he claimed health services refused to treat.

For seven hours emergency services spoke to him as he clung to the edge of Avonmouth Bridge, Bristol, on bank holiday weekend last August.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Royal Marine and His Father Stabbed ‘Protecting Sister From Gang Attack’

A Royal Marine and his father were stabbed on their doorstep as they tried to stop a gang attacking a female family member.

Matthew Stevenson-Webber, 24, was knifed in the back on Tuesday night in Mitcham, south London, as he protected his sister from the attack.

His father, Craig Joseph-Webber, 45, was stabbed in the head.

He is said to be in a critical condition in hospital, while Stevenson-Webber is said to be stable.

The marine is believed to have heard his sister screaming outside their home and raced with his father to her rescue.

They were then attacked by a knife-wielding gang.

A 17-year-old from Birmingham has been charged and is due to appear at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court today.

The youth, who cannot be named, is charged with causing grievous bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

A third man, aged, 30 was stabbed in the shoulder and is also stable in hospital.

Four other teenagers, aged between 17 and 19, were questioned over the attack have been bailed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt: Personal Freedom? An Alien Concept in Egyptian Society

The subordination of individual liberties to ‘the common good’ has turned Egypt into a nation of scolds and hypocrites

Alexandria’s beautiful Corniche by the Mediterranean is one of the most romantic places for a young couple in love to take a stroll. However, there is a sinister side to this picturesque scene that few talk about. At any given time, the coast is crawling with the policemen and plainclothes thugs of the morality police, searching for (unmarried) couples cuddling in a secluded area to terrify and blackmail.

Their dirty tactics are well known, yet few see anything wrong with them. No one sees this as a violation of these couples’ individual liberties, since they deserve what happens to them, and more, for behaving in such an immoral fashion. Even more distressing is that the couples themselves believe they are doing something wrong and accept being judged by society as a natural consequence. They don’t feel that their personal freedom has been trampled upon by the police. It would be more accurate to say that the concept of personal freedom is unknown to them.

Sadly, much of Egyptian society operates this way. The entire concept of having the “personal freedom” to do what you wish, provided you don’t harm others, is nonexistent. Even those who claim to be proponents of individual liberty misunderstand the concept. It’s about time that a debate on individual liberties started, for we live in a society where social repression and hypocrisy have risen to sickening levels.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Morocco: Tangier and Free Zones, The Numbers of Success

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JUNE 17 — Ten years on from the creation of its free-trade zones, Tangier can draw some very flattering conclusions. Five hubs are stretched out over thousands of hectares: Tangiers Med, Tangiers Free Zone (TZF), Meloussa 1, Meloussa 2 and the offshore hub still being built in Tetouan. There are 522 foreign companies operating in the TFZ, with 45,000 employees and they are growing at a rate of four a month. The main condition for production in the TFZ is that over 85% of goods are exported. In exchange, Morocco offers the total exemption from VAT and 15 years worth of exemption from local tax. On top of this, all dividends can be taken home without taxes, there is no tax on the company for five years, with 8.75% every 20 years (Moroccan companies pay 30%) starting from the sixth year. The textile industry is growing in significance and the sector’s associations are asking for a specialised free-trade zone to be created. There are 300 companies in the region, employing 60,000 staff, a third of sector employees ion the whole of Morocco, with exports reaching 588 million euros, a share of 22% of total exports. Between 2005 and 2009, investments in the region increased massively, rising from 806 million to 3.9 billion, with the figure expected to reach 10.8 billion euros by 2012. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



World Cup: Liberation’s Editor Apologises to Algeria

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 17 — The editor in chief of the French daily Liberation has officially apologised to Algeria and the Algerian supporters, after an article in this Monday’s edition on the defeat of the “Fennecs” by Slovenia, in which the players were mocked. A “rate” article, a real mistake, admitted Laurent Joffrin to the microphones of France-Info, adding that the article has “hurt the Algerians, through a crescendo of poor humour; we have made a mistake. Humour is good but nobody should be hurt”. In fact the article “Heavy defeat for Algeria” is not very tasteful. It gives a note to all players and uses gratuitous adjectives, which have nothing to do with the game of football and which have provoked protests from the Algerian press and on some websites. Some examples: “If a leader must set an example, then Ziani should start by avoiding this nauseating haircut (shaved around, brown at the roots, yellow on top) and he should wear real shorts instead of ‘pantacourt’, and only after that the former Marseille player can start thinking of playing”. The goalkeeper Chaouchi “also does strange things with his hair and has margarine on his gloves”. Regarding Bougherra, according to the reporter, “he has breasts, a belly and looks good, in short the perfect target of a bouncer at a nightclub”. Coach Rabah Saadane, with his “coat, cap and moustache, looks like a peasant”. Zinedine Zidane, the idol of the bleues, has not commented the issue yet. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Interview: ‘We’ll be Back — With Bigger Flotillas’

By Mel Frykberg

RAMALLAH — In an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service, Huwaida Arraf, the chairwoman of the Free Gaza (FG) movement that tried to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza, explains what happened on the night of May 31 when Israeli commandos raided the FG humanitarian flotilla, shooting nine people dead and injuring dozens more.

Controversy surrounds the events following the deadly commando raid with survivors from among the 700 activists on board the flotilla giving a very different version of events from that of the Israeli government.

Inter Press Service: Critics have accused FG of deliberately provoking a confrontation with the Israelis and argued that the attempt to break the siege was political and not just a humanitarian relief operation.

Huwaida Arraf: They are correct to say that FG’s aim was more than just bringing humanitarian relief. We are deeply disturbed by Israel’s deliberate and calculated creation of a humanitarian crisis in the coastal territory and we intended to draw international attention to this.

We are not interested in simply perpetuating the siege and the humanitarian crisis by bringing in aid alone. Gazans are not interested in being aid dependent either. Eighty percent of Gaza’s population is dependent on food aid. This is not the result of a natural disaster but a deliberate and cruel Israeli policy. We are concerned that the human rights of Gazans be respected and they are allowed to live a normal life as human beings.

IPS: Did the activists provoke the Israeli commandos into using deadly force?

HA: This is nonsense. We went out of our way to inform the Israelis that we were an unarmed civilian boat delivering aid, that we presented no threat to them and there was no need to board our vessels. We explained repeatedly who we were and what our mission was. Our boats were checked by different security at the various ports of departure and we also hired independent security personnel to verify that we were arms-free…

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



Israeli Supermarkets Boycott Turkish Products

As the rift between Turkey and Israel widens in the aftermath of the deadly Israeli assault that killed eight Turks and one Turkish American, several supermarket chains in Israel decide to boycott Turkish goods. The ‘Mega’ and ‘Rami Levy’ supermarkets announce they will stop using Turkish products in goods that bear their own private label

Several local supermarket chains in Israel have decided to boycott Turkish goods.

Several local supermarket chains in Israel have decided to boycott Turkish goods due to the growing rift between the two countries. The Blue Square firm, which operates the “Mega” supermarket chain in Israel, and Rami Levy, who owns an eponymous chain of stores, have decided to look elsewhere for pasta and flour products among others, reported Israel daily Haaretz on Monday.

The boycott comes after Israeli forces attacked a Turkish aid flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip, killing eight Turkish activists, another who was a U.S. citizen of Turkish decent and injuring dozens on May 31. Tens of thousands of Turkish citizens took to the streets to protest Israel, and government officials, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have accused Israel of state-sponsored terrorism.

“For reasons of ideology and conscience, it would be unacceptable for us to do anything when the Turkish people behave this way. This is the minimum that we can do,” Rami Levy was quoted by Haaretz.

May cost nearly $100 million

The decision to boycott Turkish goods is predicted to cost Turkish companies $93 million in sales, according to a report by Channel 10 news in Israel.

“When I see Turkey’s behavior toward Israel this makes me oppose them. I want to give them a taste of their own medicine,” Levy was quoted as saying by Arutz Sheva news.

Supersol, currently the largest retail chain in Israel, said on Sunday that it is also evaluating its relationship with Turkish firms.

Blue Square said its business relationships with Turkish companies have been suffering for over a month. Both Blue Square and Rami Levy have said they would stop using Turkish products in goods they sell that bear their own private label.

“The Mega chain is heeding the voice of the public and has decided to stop importing pasta and flour products from Turkey under its own label and will seek alternative sources for its products,” Blue Square announced.

However some Turkish products that are under their own brand name will remain on the shelves. This has drawn criticism from other supermarket chains.

“Rami Levy has many products on his shelves that are made in Turkey, under different brands. If he really is boycotting Turkish items, he should not only remove products from Turkey under his private label,” Rafi Sheffer, the chief executive of Brand For You, a competitor of Levy, told Haaretz.

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



Tens of Thousands of Fundamentalist Jews Protest

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JUNE 17 — Tens of thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews demonstrate today in Israel in two separate protests — in Jerusalem and in Bnei-Brak, near Tel Aviv — against a recent verdict of the Supreme Court and against the taxes that are imposed, according to them, by the secular State bodies. The demonstrations, among the most important in the conflict between faith and secularity in Israel, took place amid serious tensions and a massive use of police forces. The ultra-orthodox protest against the verdict in which the forced separation of Askhenazi Jewish students (the more radical orthodox branch) and Sephardi Jews at a school in the Jewish Immanuel settlement in the West Bank (Palestinian Territories) is declared illegal. Members of this community have already declared that they will not accept this verdict, because it goes against the precepts of their rabbis and their traditions. They have made it clear that they are ready to go to prison, against the background of the two solidarity protests. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Noose Around Israel’s Neck

Israel is being hanged on a public gallows erected on the grounds of the United Nations with yards of rope gleefully supplied by the Muslim world. But the hangmen are mostly Westerners who still think that the Muslim lynch mob at their doorstep can be pacified with the death of a single victim.

There are three things you can do when you are about to be hanged. You can walk proudly, recite a glorious line or two to embed your martyrdom in historical memory, and then allow yourself to be hanged. Jews have an extensive body of experience with that brand of martyrdom.

[…]

For seventeen years Israel has been walking toward the gallows. Its leaders have led it there by the nose ring of international assurances. Its people have been led there by refusing to see what is waiting ahead for them, even while the blood was being cleaned off the streets. Every attempt to reach a peaceful solution, every concession and show of good faith, has only tightened the bonds around its hands and the noose around its neck.

That is because every concession Israel has made, has further restricted not only its ability to defend itself, but even its ability to do basic things such as build residential housing in the capital of its own nation. Every gesture and agreement Israel has signed has bound it to ever more restrictive terms. And none of them have brought any peace. All they have ever done is set the bar higher for the next round of concessions demanded by the enemy and its aiders and abettors in the next phase of negotiations.

This is not a peace process, and it has never been one. It is a public lynching. It is the lynching of a country whose only real crime is that its existence offends the religious fanaticism and prejudices of a billion Muslims, who control much of the world’s oil, and whose followers are willing to riot and kill in the streets of nearly every major city in the world at the slightest offense.

[…]

The world will always condemn Israel regardless of its intentions. But like any form of namecalling, those condemnations only gain power when Israel allows its actions to be dictated by them. Israel is not condemned because of what Israel does. It is condemned because of a diseased pattern of Islamic bigotry, left wing radicalism and international dhimmism converging in one place. This is a pattern of hate that cannot be undone. It can only be ignored.

When you listen to the threats and taunts of those who hate you, you give them power over yourself. If you try to accommodate your behavior to gain their favor, their outpouring of hate for you will only grow. For it is not your behavior they hate, it is you. By showing weakness, you invite attack. By giving your enemies power over you, all that you accomplish is to drive them into a feeding frenzy at your vulnerability. If you go on this way, you will either be a slave or a corpse. A slave if they have any use for you alive. A corpse if they don’t. Either way you have put your head into the noose they made for you.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Bahrain: Italian Rizzani in Consortium for ‘Manama Passage’

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 17 — The Italian group Rizzani de Eccher, together with the Belgian company Besix and the Bahraini Haji Hassan Group, are to build the ‘North Manama Passage’ in Bahrain. The project involves the construction of two parallel viaducts of 2.4 kilometres each, one in each direction. The building of two large intersections at staggered levels to connect the viaducts to the road network is also planned. The project will allow the capital Manama to be linked to Bahrain Bay, a development area full of offices and residential property. The works will last three years and will employ around 600 workers. The contract has a total value of 211 million euros. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Obama’s Policies Hardening Allies Against U.S.

‘Only if you’re tough with America’ will the White House pay you

NEW YORK — The governments of Egypt and Jordan are considering hardening their positions against the U.S., believing the Obama administration awards concessions to anti-Western regimes, according to Middle East officials.

A Jordanian intelligence official told WND in a telephone interview his country and Egypt have been dismayed at the lengths to which the Obama administration has gone to “appease” Syria and to engage Iran and Turkey.

“No matter what the Syrians do, how they declare all the time they are allied with Iran, the U.S. is trying harder and harder to attract Syria and offer them more,” said the Jordanian official.

[…]

The Jordanian official claimed the Obama administration “sold out the Christians and Druze in Lebanon, sold out the Kurds in Iraq and abandoned the Hariri probe.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Turkey Welcomes EU Parliament Resolution Condemning Israel

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 17 — A senior official of the Turkish government welcomed European Parliament’s resolution that passed today and condemned Israel over its raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla, saying, “it is a decision of wisdom, common sense and conscience.” Turkish State Minister & Chief EU Negotiator Egemen Bagis said that it was highly important that the parliament described the attack as “a breach of international law” and asked for a “prompt and impartial international inquiry” into the raid, as Anatolia news agency reports. Earlier in the day, the European Parliament debated and voted a resolution which condemns Israel over its raid on the flotilla heading for Gaza and calls for an immediate end to blockade on that territory. The resolution condemns Israel for its military operation on Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid. Israeli commandos shot dead eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin on board Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on May 31. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria Eye Deeper Cooperation

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 17 — Gross domestic product figures at purchasing power parity of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are expected to total 1.13 trillion US dollars in 2010 according to IMF estimates as the four countries have pledge to intensify cooperation in trade and commerce. The four countries, as Anatolia news agency reports, signed last week a declaration on the sidelines of a Turkish-Arab business forum meeting in Istanbul, expressing determination to boost their strategic partnership with an eye to achieve economic integration. The declaration vows to establish a high level cooperation council and to set up a free trade and free movement zone. According to IMF data, Turkey is the biggest in economic terms among the four countries with an expected GDP of 932.2 billion USD for 2010, and the estimations put the country to stand as the 16th largest economy in the world. Syria follows Turkey as the 66th biggest economy with an estimated GDP of 105.2 billion USD, as Lebanon and Jordan would have estimated GDP of 58.5 billion USD and 35.2 billion USD, respectively, in 2010. According to figures of the TurkStat, Turkey’s statistics authority, Turkey runs trade surplus against the other three countries. The trade volume between Turkey and Syria in 2009 was 1.75 billion USD as Turkish exports to Syria totalled 1.42 billion USD. The trade volume between Turkey and Lebanon last year was 795.25 million USD with Turkish exports to the country was around 686.54 million USD. The trade volume between Turkey and Jordan in 2009 was 476.28 million USD as Turkish exports to Jordan totalled 455.92 million USD. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

South Asia


‘Kyrgyzstan is on the Brink of Collapse’

With hundreds dead and tens of thousands of refugees, ethnic violence has brought chaos to Kyrgyzstan. Central Asia policy expert Andrea Schmitz told SPIEGEL ONLINE about the history behind the attacks on the Uzbek minority and the wobbly transitional government.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The news from Kyrgyzstan is deeply disturbing. Officially, 170 people have been killed during the angry unrest over the last week and other sources put the death toll above 700. What is the current situation?

Schmitz: Official figures probably understate the number of dead, which is likely to be considerably higher. I do not have the exact numbers. The situation at present is so chaotic no one can reliably count the dead.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Reports say almost all the dead belong to the Uzbek minority.

Schmitz: That appears to be correct. However, it’s also said that those behind the unrest have tried to turn Kyrgyz and Uzbeks against each other. But the violence has clearly focused on the Uzbek minority.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


UK: Three Kenyan Politicians Arrested Over ‘Hate Speech’

Three top Kenyan politicians have been arrested for a hate speech they allegedly made during rallies against a draft constitution, days after a separate rally turned deadly when grenade attacks killed six people.

Authorities arrested an assistant government minister and two members of parliament who police say made hate speech as they campaigned separately against the draft constitution in rallies across the country.

Assistant Minister for Roads Wilfred Michage and lawmakers Fred Kapondi and Joshua Kutuny were arrested Tuesday morning. Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said the three may be charged in court Wednesday.

Commissioner Iteere did not say what the men said or at which rallies they made the comments. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission, which gave their names to police, told local media they started their investigations last week, before Sunday’s blast.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Immigration


Why Felipe Calderon Hates Arizona’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Law

$50 billion per year in illegal drug smuggling

Having spent a fair bit of time in Mexico in the past, I am surprised that the Mexican government would show so much concern for the rights of its citizens abroad. Given that the Mexican government in general does not appear to be overly concerned about anyone’s rights, it’s curious that Mexican politicians would be crying crocodile tears about Mexicans living in the US. Or could it be that there is another reason? How about $50 billion per year in illegal drug smuggling?

That’s what currently passes across the border between the US and Mexico every single year and of late evidence has come to light that this is being done with the express approval of the Mexican government.

[…]

The recent trial in El Paso of one of the Sinaloa cartel’s top capos revealed that both the Mexican army as well as the Mexican police were actually assisting the Sinaloa cartel in its efforts to defeat the Juarez cartel. In testimony given by Jesus Manuel Fierro-Mendez, a former Mexican police captain sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2008, he told the court that he took control of a unit of the Mexican army in order to defeat the Juarez cartel so that the Sinaloa cartel could take complete control. Fierro-Mendez explained that by reducing the number of cartels in Mexico it would enable the Mexican government to eliminate them once and for all.

But a recent joint investigation by American and Canadian journalists has determined that there are elements within the Mexican government that have absolutely no intention of stopping the cartels. And with $50 billion in annual revenue at stake it’s a small wonder.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Changing Attitudes to Homosexuality in Poland

Die Tageszeitung 11.06.2010

Pawel Leszkowicz, curator of “Ars Homo Erotica” a large exhibition in the Warsaw Museum, talks about the Polish attitude to homosexuality, homo eroticism in antiquity and the hate mail he has recieved: “Much has changed in Poland in the last ten years. In 2000, when I and thirty gay and lesbian couples were photographed holding hands we were all, my partner and myself included, hit with a wave of hatred. We were genuinely scared. People hurled stones at the Good As You paraders. In Krakow, people even threw acid at them. But now, a decade later, things have changed. I do not intend the exhibition as a provocation. And I don’t think that Polish society today will regard it as such.”

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



‘Gay’ Judge Decides Future of Homosexual ‘Marriage’

Ruling may impact matrimony laws in as many as 45 other states

SACRAMENTO — A San Francisco district court judge who is reportedly homosexual will decide soon whether to overturn the will of California voters and strike down Proposition 8 — the state’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman — in a landmark trial that many say is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorneys for both sides presented closing arguments today in the trial Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a lawsuit seeking to declare the proposition violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

[…]

While Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrat Attorney General Jerry Brown are listed as defendants in the lawsuit, both have opposed Proposition 8 and refused to defend it in court — forcing the private attorneys to defend the law.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General


UN Petitioned Over West’s “Islamophobia”

GENEVA — Muslim states said on Wednesday that what they call “islamophobia”“is sweeping the West and its media and demanded that the United Nations take tougher action against it. Delegates from Islamic countries, including Pakistan and Egypt, told the United Nations Human Rights Council that treatment of Muslims in Western countries amounted to racism and discrimination and must be fought.

“People of Arab origin face new forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance and experience discrimination and marginalization,” an Egyptian delegate said, according to a U.N. summary.

And Pakistan, speaking for the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said the council’s special investigator into religious freedom should look into such racism “especially in Western societies”.

Acting for the OIC, Pakistan has tabled a resolution at the council instructing its special investigator on religious freedom “to work closely with mass media organizations to ensure that they create and promote an atmosphere of respect and tolerance for religious and cultural diversity”.

The OIC — and its allies in the 47-nation council including Russia, China and Cuba — dub criticism of Muslim practices and linking of terrorism waged under the proclaimed banner of Islamism as “islamophobia”“that pillories all Muslims.

Bound to Pass

Diplomats say the resolution, which also tells the investigator to make recommendations to the Human Rights Council on how its strictures might be implemented, is bound to pass given the majority the OIC and its allies have in the body (…)

           — Hat tip: Holger Danske [Return to headlines]



Western Liberals Are to Blame for Dismantling Universal Human Rights

Perlentaucher 09.06.2010

The idea of universal human rights has become ever more obsolete writes Caroline Fourest for Perlentaucher, and, ironically, Western liberals have been a key force in its dismantling. “At the United Nations, the states cite ‘national circumstances’ as grounds for making exceptions to the application of the universal declaration of human rights. In the name of anti-imperialism left-wing activists denigrate universalism as neo-colonialism.”

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

News Feed 20100616

Financial Crisis
» France: Toward Record Deficit in Welfare System 2010
» France: Government to Sell 1,700 Properties
» Spain: Unemployed With Children, Profile of the New Poor
» Syria: In 2010 GDP to Exceed USD 60 Bln, IMF Says
» The Fed’s Purchase of US Sovereign Debt
 
USA
» AT&T Suspends iPhone 4 Pre-Orders
» Facts and Myths About Obama’s Preventive Detention Proposal
 
Europe and the EU
» An Algerian Flag on a French Town Hall
» France: Survey Slams Attitudes Towards Muslims
» Italy: Alleged Anthem Snub Sparks Call for Law Change
» Netherlands: Wilders and the US Israel Lobby
» Netherlands: CDA to Ask Members About a Coalition With Anti-Islam Party
» OSCE Urges Italy to Rethink Wiretap Bill
» Slovenia-Italy: Mantica, Debate on Minorities
» The Scramble for Timbuktu: Scenes From the Race for Influence Over Africa’s Ancient Written Culture
» UK: Anwar Al-Awlaki: MI5 Warns of the Al-Qaeda Preacher Targeting Britain
 
Balkans
» EU-Serbia: Press, Belgium, Holland, Germany Against Candidacy
» Serbia: Israeli Company to Open Spice Factory
 
North Africa
» 2 Out of 3 Tunisians Not Interested in the Environment
» Congress Looking Into Crackdown on Christians in Morocco
» Morocco: Violence on Women, Parliament Examines Issue
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Italy: Azoulay to Continue Battle for Peace
» Some Semi-Sanity From Europe: EU Foreign Ministers Make Partial Sense on Gaza, Iran
» Turkish Flotilla Organisers to Send More Gaza Ships
 
Middle East
» Lebanon: Christian-Moslem Rift Re-Emerges Over Palestinians
 
South Asia
» Turkmenistan: Ashgabat: No Amnesty for Jehovah’s Witnesses
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Kenyans Fear a Repeat of 2007 Bloodshed
» UN World Food Program — Money Goes to Islamists
 
Culture Wars
» Taxpayers Spend $967 Million on Abortion Providers

Financial Crisis


France: Toward Record Deficit in Welfare System 2010

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 9 — The deficit of the French social security and health care system (Securité sociale) for employees in the private sector has reached a new record. According to sources close to the French Audit board, quoted by France Presse, the welfare deficit has reached more than 26.8 billion euros in 2010, much more than last year’s 20.3 billion. The deficit in the pension sector is particularly high: around 10 billion euros in 2010 in the private sector alone. The board’s official report will be presented tomorrow to the French government, in the context of the State budget cut projects in line with the European stability pact.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



France: Government to Sell 1,700 Properties

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 9 — The French State will sell 1,700 properties and terrains between now and 2013, to rationalise its properties and reduce costs. The news was announced today by the French Budget Ministry, which specified that the list of properties for sale will be published on internet “to inform potential buyers”. The sale includes disused barracks, old lodges and cantonal houses, but also several luxury buildings, like the small castle on Lake Leman, on the Swiss border, and a ‘hotel particulier’ in the heart of Paris. The goods will be sold “at market price”, the Ministry added, without making an estimate of the expected revenues from the sale.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Spain: Unemployed With Children, Profile of the New Poor

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 16 — The profile of the new poor with the highest risk of social exclusion in Spain includes young, working-age people, with at least one dependent child. This finding was contained in the annual report on vulnerability presented today by the Spanish Red Cross, which was drafted based on 22,899 social-related questionnaires. In 2009, the organisation assisted 1,435,000 people, 600,000 more than in the previous year. This mainly took place as part of programmes intended to help the elderly, immigrants and to fight against poverty. Over half of these people turned to the Red Cross for reasons “directly connected to the economic crisis,” and many of these individuals were unemployed. Over half a million of the beneficiaries of the programmes received food aid. According to the report, the majority of the 600,000 new poor are Spanish, “and belong to families whose members have all lost their jobs and who have found themselves without revenue and in debt”. They have been forced to ask for help in order to pay their rent or bills, according to the coordinator of the study, Graciela Malgesini, speaking to the press. Men were the majority in the programmes intended for immigrants (53.7%) and the fight against poverty (60.3%), confirming a tendency already identified back in 2006, when the percentage of women receiving assistance from the Spanish Red Cross dropped from 60% in 2006 to 48% in 2008. “Women are doing a better job of keeping their employment, although unstable. They are more adaptable when it comes to finding alternative jobs,” observed Malgesini. The majority of men that requested assistance from the Red Cross were of working age, between 25 and 49-years-old, and unemployed in 77% of the cases. They have an average of two dependent children; in 30% of the cases, they had three children, and one-fourth of the men had completed secondary school. Fifty-two percent were Spanish nationals. In terms of immigrants, the average age of those receiving assistance was between 25 and 30, with beneficiaries mainly coming from Latin America, North Africa and Eastern Europe, with one or two dependent children. According to the report, half of these men had finished secondary school and 76% were unemployed. Of the elderly people assisted by the Red Cross, 99% were Spanishnationals and 77.2% were women with an average age of 77. Over half of the women were widows and receive a pension, while 71.5% of the men are retirees. They represent the group that is at the highest poverty risk, even though, of the four profiles outlined in the report, foreigners without income and housing were identified as being a group with “extreme and multi-dimensional risks for social exclusion”.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Syria: In 2010 GDP to Exceed USD 60 Bln, IMF Says

(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, JUNE 8 — The International Monetary Fund has forecast that in 2010 Syria’s nominal GDP should exceed 60 billion dollars and the economy should continue to grow, while inflation should stay under control. Syria’s GDP should reach 60 billon dollars this year and 66.2 billion dollars next year. The fiscal deficit should drop from 5.5% of the GDP (2009 data) to 4.5% in 2010 and 3.5% in 2011. The public debt should continue to decrease, as it has in the last five years, amounting to 28% of the GDP in 2010 and 26% in 2011. Exports and imports should continue to increase, in line with the liberalisation of foreign trade. Exports should increase, amounting to 18.7 billion dollars in 2010 and 20.4 billion dollars in 2011. On the other hand, imports should amount to 21.4 billion dollars this year and 23.1 billion next year. (ANSAmed).

2010-06-08 16:27

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Fed’s Purchase of US Sovereign Debt

Were it not for the Federal Reserves purchase of Treasury and Agency bonds the US would already be unable to raise funds to service debt and issue new debt, and it would already have descended into national bankruptcy. It is no wonder the Fed does not want to be audited. Through various artifices the Fed has been purchasing US treasury paper. No one knows how much, because when asked the Fed says it is a state secret. That is what all Americans love. A country run in secrecy. A privately owned corporation operating under the cover of secrecy, and protected by a Treasury Department, that is under the control of the Fed’s owners. How is that for an incestuous relationship?

Government is desperately searching for more revenue to cover its massive deficit spending and to service existing mandatory programs. Taxes are being increased; some 19 new taxes, in the recently passed medical reform legislation. Unfortunately this isn’t enough. Of course, there is never enough.

As a result, as we pointed out recently, government has been eying retirement plans as a source of funding. The arm-twisting has been going on for some six months to make managers of retirement funds to purchase US Treasuries and Agency bonds. This is to provide a delaying action as the dollar begins to play second fiddle to gold as the only real currency. In addition, foreign central governments, which own well over $3 trillion of these debt instruments, hope that the US is serious about protecting the functioning of government. Accessing retirement plans will be an integral part of extending solvency to buy more time for Wall Street, banking and government. Of course there is nothing our purchased Congress won’t pass to stay in office.

[Return to headlines]

USA


AT&T Suspends iPhone 4 Pre-Orders

To paraphrase Darth Vader, AT&T’s failure is now complete.

It looks like the pre-order system is now completely offline at ATT.com.

And if you read the litany of horror stories at Gizmodo (apparently not only are people being logged into other AT&T users’ accounts, but some people are reporting that even when they logged in to their own accounts, the shipping addresses shown were for someone else. some people apparently didn’t notice the mismatched shipping addresses, so it looks like some people are getting pre-order confirmations for iPhones they never ordered, while other people are being billed for iPhones they’ll never receive) I think this is going to be a gigantic legal nightmare for AT&T.

I’ll be checking with the no-doubt harried public relations folks at AT&T and trying to get some clarity.

UPDATE: AT&T confirms the suspension of the pre-order program, but doesn’t address all the security issues that have popped up.

From the company’s just-released statement:

iPhone 4 pre-order sales yesterday were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3G S last year. Consumers are clearly excited about iPhone 4, AT&T’s more affordable data plans and our early upgrade pricing.

Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we’re suspending pre-ordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received.

The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking pre-orders.

In addition to unprecedented pre-order sales, yesterday there were more than 13 million visits to AT&T’s website where customers can check to see if they are eligible to upgrade to a new phone; that number is about 3-times higher than the previous record for eligibility upgrade checks in one day.

We are working hard to bring iPhone 4 to as many of our customers as soon as possible.

And even if you could pre-order, the launch-day iPhones are already sold out, and it looks like the next shipment won’t go out until July.

           — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Facts and Myths About Obama’s Preventive Detention Proposal

By Glenn Greenwald

In the wake of Obama’s speech yesterday, there are vast numbers of new converts who now support indefinite “preventive detention.” It thus seems constructive to have as dispassionate and fact-based discussion as possible of the implications of “preventive detention” and Obama’s related detention proposals (military commissions). I’ll have a podcast discussion on this topic a little bit later today with the ACLU’s Ben Wizner, which I’ll add below, but until then, here are some facts and other points worth noting:

(1) What does “preventive detention” allow?

It’s important to be clear about what “preventive detention” authorizes. It does not merely allow the U.S. Government to imprison people alleged to have committed Terrorist acts yet who are unable to be convicted in a civilian court proceeding. That class is merely a subset, perhaps a small subset, of who the Government can detain. Far more significant, “preventive detention” allows indefinite imprisonment not based on proven crimes or past violations of law, but of those deemed generally “dangerous” by the Government for various reasons (such as, as Obama put it yesterday, they “expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden” or “otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans”). That’s what “preventive” means: imprisoning people because the Government claims they are likely to engage in violent acts in the future because they are alleged to be “combatants.”

Once known, the details of the proposal could — and likely will — make this even more extreme by extending the “preventive detention” power beyond a handful of Guantanamo detainees to anyone, anywhere in the world, alleged to be a “combatant.” After all, once you accept the rationale on which this proposal is based — namely, that the U.S. Government must, in order to keep us safe, preventively detain “dangerous” people even when they can’t prove they violated any laws — there’s no coherent reason whatsoever to limit that power to people already at Guantanamo, as opposed to indefinitely imprisoning with no trials all allegedly “dangerous” combatants, whether located in Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Western countries and even the U.S.

(2) Are defenders of Obama’s proposals being consistent?

During the Bush years, it was common for Democrats to try to convince conservatives to oppose Bush’s executive power expansions by asking them: “Do you really want these powers to be exercised by Hillary Clinton or some liberal President?”

Following that logic, for any Democrat/progressive/liberal/Obama supporter who wants to defend Obama’s proposal of “preventive detention,” shouldn’t you first ask yourself three simple questions:

(a) what would I have said if George Bush and Dick Cheney advocated a law vesting them with the power to preventively imprison people indefinitely and with no charges?;

(b) when Bush and Cheney did preventively imprison large numbers of people, was I in favor of that or did I oppose it, and when right-wing groups such as Heritage Foundation were alone in urging a preventive detention law in 2004, did I support them?; and

(c) even if I’m comfortable with Obama having this new power because I trust him not to abuse it, am I comfortable with future Presidents — including Republicans — having the power of indefinite “preventive detention”?

(3) Questions for defenders of Obama’s proposal:

There are many claims being made by defenders of Obama’s proposals which seem quite contradictory and/or without any apparent basis, and I’ve been searching for a defender of those proposals to address these questions:

Bush supporters have long claimed — and many Obama supporters are now insisting as well — that there are hard-core terrorists who cannot be convicted in our civilian courts. For anyone making that claim, what is the basis for believing that? In the Bush era, the Government has repeatedly been able to convict alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban members in civilian courts, including several (Ali al-Marri, Jose Padilla, John Walker Lindh) who were tortured and others (Zacharais Moussaoui, Padilla) where evidence against them was obtained by extreme coercion. What convinced you to believe that genuine terrorists can’t be convicted in our justice system?

For those asserting that there are dangerous people who have not yet been given any trial and who Obama can’t possibly release, how do you know they are “dangerous” if they haven’t been tried? Is the Government’s accusation enough for you to assume it’s true?

Above all: for those justifying Obama’s use of military commissions by arguing that some terrorists can’t be convicted in civilian courts because the evidence against them is “tainted” because it was obtained by Bush’s torture, Obama himself claimed just yesterday that his military commissions also won’t allow such evidence (“We will no longer permit the use of evidence — as evidence statements that have been obtained using cruel, inhuman, or degrading interrogation methods”). How does our civilian court’s refusal to consider evidence obtained by torture demonstrate the need for Obama’s military commissions if, as Obama himself claims, Obama’s military commissions also won’t consider evidence obtained by torture?

Finally, don’t virtually all progressives and Democrats argue that torture produces unreliable evidence? If it’s really true (as Obama defenders claim) that the evidence we have against these detainees was obtained by torture and is therefore inadmissible in real courts, do you really think such unreliable evidence — evidence we obtained by torture — should be the basis for concluding that someone is so “dangerous” that they belong in prison indefinitely with no trial? If you don’t trust evidence obtained by torture, why do you trust it to justify holding someone forever, with no trial, as “dangerous”?

(4) Do other countries have indefinite preventive detention?…

           — Hat tip: Apollon Zamp [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


An Algerian Flag on a French Town Hall

The French flag hanging on the front of the town hall of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val de Marne) was burnt in the night from Sunday to Monday and replaced by an Algerian flag, police said.

The facts were discovered Monday morning at the opening of the hall. The council said he had immediately lodged a complaint. On Sunday, Slovenia has defeated Algeria in the World Cup football match (1-0) in his first match in Group C.

In early June, Justice Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, seized the State Council of a draft decree punishing a fine of 1500 euros the contempt of the French flag. The draft decree provides for a contravention of the fifth degree, punishable by a fine of 1500 euros, which will punish on the one hand the fact of degrading or indecent use of the tricolor flag in a public place or open to the public, and, secondly, to disseminate by any means the representation of these facts’ stated Arthur Dreyfuss, deputy spokesman of the Ministry of Justice. ‘The element of intent will be included in the decree in question’ to be taken into account in the sanction, he added.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



France: Survey Slams Attitudes Towards Muslims

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JUNE 11 — Moroccans are voting first for France (30%), then for Italy (13%) and then choosing the USA (10%). Saudi Arabians opt for Spain (18%), France (17%) and Italy (9%), and the United Arab Emirates are most drawn to Spain (15%) with France and Italy a close joint second with 13%. These are the findings of an Ifop survey conducted for France’s Catholic newspaper, La Croix, exploring the perceptions these three countries have of France. Invited to choose which six western countries they like the most, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates put the USA (5% for the UAE), the United Kingdom (6% for Morocco), the USA and Germany with 8% for the Saudis, at the bottom of the class. Generally, France enjoys the most popularity, especially among women, Moroccans and Saudis, and the young. However, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Morocco find great fault with France in the way it behaves towards Moslems: 46% of Moroccans, 42% of Emiratis and 38% of Saudis criticised its policies. But then 58% of Moroccans found that Paris is on good terms with the Arab world, while only 27% of Saudis and 21% of Emiratis shared their opinion. Just as only 16% of the citizens of the Gulf states thought that France was on good terms with their own country, compared to 75% of Moroccans. Overall, the Moroccans, Saudis and Emiratis interviewed thought that France’s policies were independent of those of the USA regarding: Afghanistan (Moroccans 54%, Saudis 61%, Emiratis 52%), the Arab-Israeli conflict (64%, 59%, 47%) and Iraq (65%, 60%, 52%). Also of note is that in the UAE, 48% of the population hold opposite opinions regarding Afghanistan and Iraq. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Alleged Anthem Snub Sparks Call for Law Change

Row rages after ceremony attended by Northern League governor

(ANSA) — Rome, June 14 — A Northern League governor’s alleged snub of the Italian national anthem led to calls on Monday for a new law regulating when it should be played.

The row started Sunday when Giuseppe Verdi’s opera piece Va pensiero was played instead of the anthem at a ceremony at a primary school attended by Luca Zaia, the Northern League’s governor of Veneto. Va pensiero, which is sometimes known in English as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, has been adopted by the Northern League as its anthem for Padania, its power base in and above the Po Valley.

Initial reports said Zaia’s representatives asked the piece to be played on his arrival at the start of the ceremony instead of the Italian anthem, which was played later with few officials around to hear it.

But the governor insists this is not the case.

“It’s a giant lie. If it were true it would be impeachment material,” Zaia told Monday’s edition of newspaper La Repubblica, adding that the Italian anthem had possibly been played late because of a “logistical” problem. Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa of the People of Freedom (PdL) party, the League’s ally in the centre-right governing coalition, said he believed Zaia had not wanted to snub the anthem but argued the affair highlighted the need for new legislation.

“I will present a bill to make the national anthem obligatory in certain circumstances,” La Russa said of the rousing L’Inno di Mameli (Mameli’s Hymn), named after its author Goffredo Mameli.

“In that way we’ll have a legislative reference point, as already exists for showing the flag, and eliminate an ulterior opportunity to argue”.

Italo Bocchino, a PdL MP like La Russa, was less charitable with former agriculture minister Zaia. “Zaia must apologise,” Bocchino said. “These things must not happen and a strong, courageous word is needed from (Premier) Silvio Berlusconi, given that Zaia was one of his ministers, he chose him (to stand for) Veneto governor and he is the head of the coalition the Northern League belongs to”. The formerly separatist Northern League has mellowed over the years and now only demands greater regional autonomy, although occasionally its members dig back up the fiery rhetoric of its early days, with famous slogans such as ‘Roma Ladrona’ (Thieving Rome).

Zaia swept to victory in Veneto in the March 28-29 regional elections. photo: Veneto governor Luca Zaia.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Wilders and the US Israel Lobby

As a one-man party, the PVV is cut out of much government funding. But Geert Wilders has good contacts in Israel and the US and that is where much of his financial support comes from, writes Giles Scott-Smith of TheHollandBureau.com

In the last televised debate before the Dutch elections on 9 June, the party leaders were asked which country they would fly to if there was a plane ready to go.

Several said Brussels, Femke Halsema of GroenLinks said Washington (huh? Oh, to discuss the state of the world with Obama), Emile Roemers of the SP said Berlin (by train, of course). Geert Wilders, as ever setting out his own path, said Israel, because it was a country that deserved support. In the context of the recent mayhem surrounding the Gaza convoys, this answer stood out.

But Wilders has good contacts in Israel who support his political movement. Likewise in the United States.

As of this morning, the chances for a Right-wing cabinet in the Netherlands seem to rest with the Christian Democrats. Wilders appears to be genuine in his wish to govern:

VVD+PVV+CDA could “become something really fantastic,” as he put it. For such a cabinet to be stable, it would need alongside its majority in the Second Chamber (where it would hold 76 of 150 seats) also a dominant presence in the First Chamber — where so far Wilders has opted out.

No problem — the PVV will participate in First Chamber elections next March, presumably covering that gap. The fact that Wilders is facing a court case in October concerning accusations of promoting hatred and discrimination has been declared to be no obstacle to his entering a cabinet.

It looks like his jibe against the Socialist party — that they are always condemned to the opposition and therefore not worth voting for — was more than electioneering. He wants in.

A crucial detail about Wilders’ party, the PVV, is that it only has two official members: himself, and the Friends of the PVV Foundation which he formed as a finance-gathering apparatus.

Dutch law states that every party with a membership of 100,000 or more can receive state subsidy. Wilders’ decision to keep his party in his own hands therefore also has severe financial consequences.

Someone else aside from the Dutch state has to provide the money. Much of it comes from the US, where Wilders travels regularly. According to the Volkskrant, in 2008 Wilders even changed the statutes of the Foundation to ensure that it could be used to accept donations for legal cases — the grounds of which remain unspecified in the document — that he might be faced with.

The Dutch press has tracked down several of the principal financial sources for the PVV in the US. Two figures stand out: David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes. Horowitz runs the online FrontPage Magazine and the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which with an annual budget of around 5 million dollars is an important financier of outlets such as Jihad Watch and Islam critic Robert Spencer.

According to the NRC, it was Horowitz who introduced the Dutchman to leading conservative activists Senator Jim DeMint and Dick Cheney´s daughter Liz last year, and brought Wilders into contact with one of his own financiers who is not named.

Pipes is founder of the pro-Israeli Middle East Forum and has long been in favour of a pre-emptive strike against Iran. Pipes also formed the Legal Project in 2007 to raise and distribute funds for researchers, journalists, and authors who face legal battles based on their critical statements about Islam — ‘jihad by court’, as they say.

Wilders is of course an ideal recipient. In 2009 Pipes managed to round up “an amount in six figures” for Wilders in the USA. Interesting detail is that both Horowitz and Pipes belong to the Right of the Republicans but see Wilders mainly as a useful extension of their pro-Israeli agitating.

Horowitz literally said in this article that he couldn’t make the same anti-Islamic comments as Wilders in the US because it would be too dangerous. Then there is the American Freedom Alliance, who honoured Wilders with a reception in the Reagan Library in October 2009. Officially the AFA doesn’t do fund-raising for the PVV. But of course, gatherings such as this are ideal for opening up private channels.

So what of Israel? Vrij Nederland covered that angle in an article last year. Interesting part of the narrative was the trail behind Wilders’ film Fitna, which appeared in many scenes to be a very close (if not identical) copy to the earlier 80-minute documentary Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West, which Horowitz promoted in the US.

Financial supporters for the film (which is meant to have cost $400,000) came from the obscure Clarion Fund and the orthodox Jewish religious/cultural organisation Aish HaTorah, based in Jerusalem opposite the Wailing Wall and closely linked to the West Bank settler movement.

In December 2008 Wilders spoke at the Facing Jihad conference in Jerusalem, where he also showed Fitna in Israel for the first time. There were few Europeans present, but several US neocons like Pipes and his blog-groupie Pamela Geller.

The conference was organised by Arieh Eldad, former Israeli army officer and leader of the extreme right Hatikva party tht places itself on the no-compromise right of Benjamin Netanyahu. For these groups the West Bank should be emptied of Palestinians, who can leave to neighbouring Arab states, to ensure a secure Jewish nation — a crucial part of the global struggle against the Islamic threat.

Financial support for the conference came from the Ariel Center for Policy Research, a base for the anti Peace Process hawks in Israeli politics, who propagate their views via the publication Nativ.

Theselinks are all the more remarkable because during his time as a member of the VVD (prior to 2004) Wilders followed the line of that party — sympathy for Israel but critical of any moves that would disrupt chances for lasting peace.

Wilders even spoke out against the West Bank wall and the continuing expansion of settlements. But his designs for the PVV as his vehicle to political power demanded a regular sizeable income, and that meant cozying up to the radical anti-Islamic Right. Again according to the Vrij Nederland, showings of Fitna in the US last year came with a $2500 price tag for those wanting to join GW at the top table.

The picture that emerges from these US-Israeli connections is quite revealing because they are not so much on the Right-wing but on the Right-wing of the Right-wing. The Vrij Nederland ended its article (from October 2009): “With Wilders’ PVV in the government the Netherlands will place itself far outside the mainstream internationally. And that for a country that at the moment still so wants to work with the Big Boys.”

The Big Boys of course means the US. The potential consequences for Dutch foreign policy and the Dutch role and image in the world are mind-boggling.

           — Hat tip: Holger Danske [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: CDA to Ask Members About a Coalition With Anti-Islam Party

The Christian Democrats are to organise an congress to decide if the party should join a coalition government with the VVD Liberals and anti-Islam PVV, acting party chairman Henk Bleker said on Wednesday.

There is great unease within the party about joining a new coalition government, partly because of the CDA’s poor performance in last week’s general election, but partly because of the PVV’s policies.

The CDA’s vote almost halved.

‘The party wants to be involved with this sort of decision and members want to be able to say yes or no at crucial moments,’ Bleker is quoted as saying by the Telegraaf.

This is the first time the CDA will have asked members to vote on such an important issue, the Telegraaf says in its coverage of the news.

In the meantime, the CDA’s parliamentary leader Maxime Verhagen has been given the green light to join the talks, currently ongoing between the PVV and VVD.

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



OSCE Urges Italy to Rethink Wiretap Bill

Measure must be amended to guarantee press freedom

(ANSA) — Vienna, June 15 — The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) urged Italy on Tuesday to drop or amend a contested bill aimed at restricting the use of wiretaps and their publication before trials.

The OSCE called on the government to withdraw the current measure and modify it to bring it into line with international standards guaranteeing freedom of the press.

The bill, which was approved by the Senate on a confidence vote last week, is now at the Lower House for a third and final reading. OSCE’s Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, said in a statement she was “concerned that the Senate approved a bill that could seriously hinder investigative journalism in Italy despite several warnings from my Office.

“It marks a trend towards criminalizing journalistic work,” said Mijatovic.

“Journalists must be free to report on all cases of public interest and must be able to choose how they conduct a responsible investigation. The draft law in its current form contradicts OSCE commitments, especially as it prohibits the use of some confidential sources and materials which may be necessary for meaningful investigative journalism in the service of democracy,” Mijatovic said.

The largest centre-left opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD), did not take part in the Senate vote last Thursday while the second-biggest, Italy of Values (IdV) voted against it after vainly trying to stop the ballot with an all-night sit-in.

The opposition says the measure is undemocratic and will ‘gag’ the press and hurt probes but the Senate whip for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, Maurizio Gasparri, said the government was “proud” of it.

Gasparri argued that wiretaps should only be a “last resort” in investigations while “today there is constant use, and some probes start with wiretaps”.

He also argued that the measure will put an end to “trial by the media”.

Gasparri accused left-leaning papers of using wiretaps against Berlusconi “to try to overturn the will of the people”.

The measure has sparked protests not only from the opposition but also from prosecutors and the media.

Some Italian dailies on Friday came out with special editions protesting the bill.

Left-leaning daily La Repubblica, a frequent critic of Berlusconi and his government, ran an empty front page containing only a sticker in the middle saying “The gag law denies citizens the right to be informed”.

La Repubblica, which has often been sued by Berlusconi over its coverage of scandals, has in recent weeks been flagging all of the articles with similar stickers saying “under the gag law you wouldn’t be able to read this article”.

Il Fatto Quotidiano, a small openly anti-Berlusconi daily, put a black mourning band on top of its masthead.

The liberal daily La Stampa blanked out two regular columns and the leftwing L’Unita’ ran a stark front page with a huge three-line banner headline saying Gag Law Approved, against a black background.

Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest newspaper, did not join the announced ‘mourning’ move but ran an editorial saying the passage of the bill from the Senate to the House was “a dark page for lawmaking on justice issues”. The draft measure would make it harder to obtain authorisation for wiretaps, restrict their duration, and slap stiff fines on newspaper publishers and journalists who publish wiretaps before investigations reach trial, a process that can take years in Italy’s slow justice system.

The Italian journalists union has announced a full-scale news blackout on July 9 when the bill is expected to complete its final reading in the House.

Terrorism and mafia probes are excluded from the measure but prosecutors say many mafia cases stem from the investigation of lesser crimes.

The government says the measure will bring Italy into line with other Western countries and prevent the publication of wiretaps that invade privacy but have no bearing on probes.

The European Commission on Friday said it would be “very vigilant” on the issue of press freedom.

“The European Commission does not comment on drafts of measures which are still being discussed by parliament but it is clear that we are very vigilant on any situation that might create problems,” an EC spokesperson said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Slovenia-Italy: Mantica, Debate on Minorities

(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, JUNE 9 — There will be more coordination and debate between Italy and Slovenia in reference to their respective minorities. Foreign affairs undersecretary Alfredo Mantica made the announcement at the end of a meeting in Ljubljana today with Slovenian foreign minister Bostjan Zeks: a very positive meeting because it was the first between to equal-ranking government officials, said Mantica, who added that they decided to add the minorities issue to the agenda of the Italian-Slovenian board of ministers that is held every year. Mantica then stated that Italy and Slovenia are busy setting up within the EU the Adriatic/Ionian macro-region, so “we need to start debating minorities inside the European union”. The Foreign affairs undersecretary made the comment this morning while meeting representatives in Ljubljana of the Italian minority in the COuntry. The Slovenian minister also had a positive opinion of the meeting, and admitted the “complexity” of the issue concerning finances for minorities, hoping for a “clearer vision” between Italy and Slovenia before the summer’s end. In particular, as regards financing for Italian minorities in Slovenia, Mantica emphasised “difficulties” in maintaining the size of 2009 funds, pointing out that the next financial bill provides a wage freeze for public employees, major cuts to the ministries and increased pension ages. Mantica then announced that he and his Slovenian colleague will visit the minorities of their respective Countries, to prove that debate on the matter is ongoing.(ANSAmed).

2010-06-09 20:17

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Scramble for Timbuktu: Scenes From the Race for Influence Over Africa’s Ancient Written Culture

By Charlotte Wiedemann

The evening light throws pink feathers across the sky. A herd of goats sends dust spiralling into the air and as it settles, a sand-coloured twilight descends on the sand-coloured city. In front of the mud construction of the Sankore mosque, men lie chatting in the sand. It absorbs their voices. Timbuktu sinks murmuring into an early night.

Somewhat incongruously, we arrive by plane. Timbuktu, in the east of Mali, on the southernmost edge of the Sahara, the eternal European metaphor for the back of beyond, for the unreachable. Not far from here, the paths that head for another form of unreachable begin, the paths of migration to Europe, through the deadly reaches of the desert. It all depends on which part of the world you chose to construct your myths from: this is Timbuktu’s story.

One thing it certainly is not is the end of the world. For centuries, Timbuktu was a centre of the southern hemisphere, a stronghold of trade, an Islamic university city. Where the Niger Delta met the desert, the paths of ages crossed: from the North came the caravans, over the river came gold from West Africa. And after the merchants came scholars; Timbuktu was a cosmopolitan city. Our men murmuring into the evening are lying in the exact spot where West Africa’s Quartier Latin lay in the 15th century, or to be more precise, a Quartier Arabe with 25,000 students. Almost the population of Timbuktu today.

Deceptive, this sand-coloured silence, the sense of being lost to the world. With a stoic pride the inhabitants of Timbuktu register the recent flurry of interest in something that has always been theirs: the oldest library south of the Sahara. Its Arab manuscripts dating back to the 13th century have brought state presidents, scholars, representatives of major foundations traipsing awkwardly through Timbuktu’s sand to see them. Over 100,000 manuscripts on Islamic law, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, on termite-eaten parchment, on gazelle hide even.

There is no room for all this erudition in today’s image of Africa. Which is why, opposite the Sankore mosque, in the light of a single, precious floodlight, stands a fancy new research centre, beamed as if by magic into the sparse historical settings. Elegant, air-conditioned, mud hut meets modernism. A gift from South Africa, a gift from rich to poor Africa — so that the continent can look back on its history with pride.

Timbuktu as a site of African renaissance, where the continent can reflect on its culture and its strengths — this was Thabo Mbeki’s idea, as president of South Africa. On a state visit to Timbuktu he visited the Ahmed Baba Instititute, where 30,000 manuscripts are stored under state supervision. The institute bears the name of Timbuktu’s most famous philosopher, but what a meagre place, how ill-suited to the restoration of so precious a heritage! Mbeki pledged his support; it was crucial to “raise Africa’s profile, not only in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of Africans themselves.” Back in South Africa, he mobilised private capital and within a fortnight, the first experts from the Cape had landed in Mali. The Malians were bowled over by this display of efficiency.

Mbeki was replaced long ago, entire football stadiums have been erected in South Africa since then, and in Mali, where everything happens at a slower pace, the new Ahmed Baba Institute is finally ready for occupancy. Beautiful and alien it stands in the centre of Timbuktu, in the exact spot where the philosopher Ahmed Baba once lived; the South Africans insisted on the location, forcing the Malians to knock down their Gendarmerie. Now they are concerned that the gift will consume more energy that everything else in Timbuktu combined. An African-African partnership, two different worlds.

Africa as a continent without history — this image was corrected by the German explorer and scholar Heinrich Barth, after he studied the African chronicles in Timbuktu in 1853/54. And yet, a hundred years later, still very little was known about the African written history. Priceless manuscripts, stolen by France during its colonial rule in Mali, lay unstudied in the National Library in Paris. The British Africanist John Hunwick began his manuscript research in 1965 — without any idea of the wealth of texts that would emerge.

The majority of these are privately owned; the families in Timbuktu are only gradually starting to open the old chests in which they have stored and hidden the yellowed and gilded calligraphies for generations. The media hype created a new myth: Timbuktu was having its last secret wrested from its hands, “desert scrolls” on which the hidden history of the continent was chronicled. Indeed it is the libraries more than anything that prove “that Africa has shared in Islamic knowledge for almost a thousand years”, according to the German Islam scholar Albrecht Hofheinz, who is overseeing a project for the digitalisation of the manuscripts at Oslo University. Some of them stem from Andalusia, North Africa and the Middle East, others were written by African writers in Timbuktu. African languages were also transcibed in the Arabic script for diplomatic correspondence and contracts.

Arabic played a similar role in parts of Africa that Latin played in Medieval Europe, it was the written language of the elites for centuries. Until the arrival of the French. The imposition of the French language was “devastating” for the scholarly tradition of the region, John Hunwick noted. Young Africans today often have no idea that a tradition of reading and writing even existed prior to the colonial era. In South Africa the ministry of education ordered a reappraisal of school books and curricula. The conclusion was that Africa’s place in the world was related from a “overwhelmingly Eurocentric” perspective. For Shamil Jeepi, a historian at Cape Town University, Timbuktu is exactly the right place to disempower once and for all “the European colonial project” of historical denial. The university is helping with the evaluation and preservation of the documents.

There are also plenty of Malians who know nothing of their cultural history. In a mud hut, far away from Timbuktu, the farmers glance at one another in embarrassment when asked about the manuscripts. Hurriedly they send for a boy who has spent the most years in school; he stares shamefaced at the floor.

It is easy to lock a poor country in a smothering embrace. Gaddafi declared Timbuktu his home, and lavished it with gifts. A vast construction site on the outskirts of the city: another centre for manuscripts. No one needs it, but the “Gaddafi Center” must be more impressive that the South African building. A race for influence over the continent, played out on a small stage of sand and parchment.

At the end of Ramadan, Libyans drove through the night to Timbuktu in trucks and threw food parcels in front of the inhabitants’ houses. “The Libyans have no manners”, the recipients of these gifts said quietly. Then came Gaddafi’s appearance, on the birthday of the Prophet. He was invited to eat a mechoui with Mali’s president, the traditional festive desert meal. A chicken is stuffed with an egg, then a sheep with the chicken — but Gaddafi never turned up. He left the other guests sitting there, with their mutton, chicken and egg, and roared off to Timbuktu, to glory in the crowds alone.

All this fuss has created a stubborn new confidence in the owners of the manuscripts. No one embodies this more than Abelkader Haidara, whose father left him a library containing 9000 manuscripts, which he tends with profound erudition and love. Once upon a time, the charming, rotund Haidara convinced family upon family to hand over their manuscripts to the state; now the 45-year old preaches the opposite. “Hold on to your intellectual property!” He was the first to open a family library to the public; now Timbuktu has 32 private libraries.

When Haidara first sought foreign financial support a decade and a half ago, no one was willing to believe his story about an African library. The turning point came in the form of a black American: Henry Louis Gates. The head of African American Studies at Harvard was electrified when he saw the manuscripts and brought the Ford Foundation on board as a financial partner. Haidara giggles: “It’s strange to think that this Gates became famous for a completely different reason.” He was the man who was arrested on his own doorstep for supposedly trying to break in, and ended up drinking an anti-racist beer with Obama.

Haidara is about to bring out a CD of exemplary translations of his ancient manuscripts: “On conflict management and good governance. The Westerners all come over here thinking they invented everything.”

Timbuktu tells of relations, perspectives. This was the way things used to be, when globalisation still rode on a camel’s back. And this is how it is today, when Facebook users call themselves “Tim Buktu” with no idea that blogs and Facebook have been there for years. In the three-way relationship between Africa, the West and Islam, how do the sides perceive one another?

Since its founding in the 12th century, Timbuktu was Islamic. As an academic centre, the city came to embody the Islamisation of Africa — and the Africanisation of Islam. Every second African today is Muslim — a fact which is often overlooked. There is an inscription in Mali’s National Museum which contains these remarkable words on the subject: With the creation of an indigenous class of Muslim scholars “Islam ceased to be the religion of a white foreigner and became an African religion.”

The Arab “as white foreigner” — this does not refer only to the arrival of Islam. No one in Timbuktu has forgotten how the Moroccans conquered the city, plundered the libraries and dragged off the best scholars to Fes. Ahmed Baba, the philosopher, in chains! This is a source of embarrassment in Morocco today but the stolen manuscripts have yet to be returned to Timbuktu.

“We were also colonised by the Arabs,” says Mohamed Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute. “It was an intellectual, cultural colonisation and it is still at work today in the notion that everything good about Islam came from the Arabs. It is like during the French colonial era when school children were taught only French writers.” Soon, for the first time, texts in Arabic by native Mali authors will be appearing in textbooks, he says. His institute also receives money from Saudi Arabia, but Dicko plays that down, he prefers the South African partners. Amazingly the guardian of the manuscripts talks no Arabic: rumour has it that this was a deliberate political decision.

Is is possible to strengthen the Arabic heritage without allowing more Arab influence in the country? Saudi Wahabists have been trying for a long time to establish a “cleansed” de-Africanised Islam in Mali. They have had no success in Timbuktu so far; even the religious students still wear fetishes.

If you talk to Abdramane Ben Essayouti, Timbuktu’s leading imam, about the Wahabists, he straightens his bright blue robe, the bubu, and relates a famous anecdote: When in 1324 the Malian King Kankou Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, his caravan was loaded with so much gold that while he was on the road, the value of gold in Cairo plummeted. “Saudi Arabia,” say the Imam with a subtle smile, “was just a sandpit in those days”. When the King returned he brought an architect with him who set to work building Timbuktu’s cultural heritage for the future. The Djingareyber mosque is still standing 700 years later and Ben Essayouti is its imam. “The Wahabists will not be able to do anything about a tradition as strong as ours.”

Ben Essayouti owns 8,000 ancient manuscripts and an internet cafe. The 14th century is in the vitrines, the 21st in is the basement — no distance at all for the man in the blue bubu. “I was the first to get an email address” : imamtombouctou. He took his children out of the French-speaking state school and sent them to an Arabic-French lyceum, a day’s travel away. So that one day they will be able to accept their inheritance appropriately informed. Recently a European tourist offered him a handsome sum for a manuscript of astronomical calculations.

The Imam smiles subtly. Of course it was not for sale.

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



UK: Anwar Al-Awlaki: MI5 Warns of the Al-Qaeda Preacher Targeting Britain

Young British Muslims are being groomed to carry out terrorist attacks in this country by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical al-Qaeda preacher based in the Middle East, it can be disclosed.

The security services fear that a new generation of British extremists is being radicalised by Awlaki, who recruited the Detroit plane bomber. They are concerned that Awlaki’s followers could unleash a wave of easily planned guerrilla-style terrorist attacks, similar to the massacre in Mumbai. Such small-scale attacks could be carried out cheaply by individuals with little terrorist training and without the need for the support of a large organisation.

The British security services have become so worried about Awlaki’s rising influence that they have alerted ministers to their fears. He is now regarded as one of the world’s most wanted terrorists. A briefing paper, seen by The Daily Telegraph, has been circulated within government, warning that Awlaki has now “cemented his position as one of the leading English-speaking jihadi ideologues”. His growing influence was one of the factors that led to a raised terrorism alert level in Britain earlier this year.

Awlaki, who was born in America, but is of Yemeni descent, is in hiding in Yemen, where he also spent his teenage years. He has become the foremost influence on young radical Muslims across the world through his English language sermons delivered over the internet.

He said in a statement in March: “Isn’t it ironic that the two capitals of the war against Islam, Washington DC and London, have also become among the centres of Western Jihad [holy war]. Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea.” His growing influence has also attracted young Britons to Yemen seeking to train as suicide bombers. It can be disclosed that at least one British Muslim has volunteered to be a suicide bomber in recent months after contacting Awlaki. MI5 and the police fear there could be more. Authorities have rounded up Westerners studying at Arabic colleges in Sana’a, the capital, including at least two Britons who were later released.

Awlaki built up a base of extremist followers while living in London for two years until 2004, giving lectures at mosques, universities and closed study circles across the country, sources say. He developed a following among terrorists and terrorist groomers, including the July 7 and July 21 bombers and the leader of the transatlantic airline bombers, it can also be disclosed. CDs of his sermons were found in the Iqra bookshop in Leeds — where the July 7 bombers held meetings — when it was raided in July 2005.

Mohammed Hamid, the recruiter of the failed July 21 bombers, attended his sermons, sources have told The Daily Telegraph.

His lectures were also found among the material seized from Aabid Hussain Khan, an international terrorist recruiter, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, in June 2006. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the leader of the trans-Atlantic airline bombers arrested in August 2006, spoke of his admiration for Awlaki during his trial. Meanwhile, Rizwan Ditta, who sold terrorist texts in Halifax, West Yorkshire, had material from Awlaki on a computer at his home when he was arrested in December 2006.

Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in November, had asked for Awlaki’s advice in emails about a suicide attack. Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, the failed Detroit bomber, contacted Awlaki over the internet. Awlaki put him in touch with al-Qaeda in Yemen, investigators say. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square, New York, last month, has told investigators he was also influenced by the preacher.

Awlaki has become such a significant threat that the SAS has been deployed to Yemen in a bid to hunt him down. President Obama has also signed orders allowing drone attacks and special forces ground attacks in pursuit of Awlaki, who holds US citizenship. In the past few weeks al-Qaeda has released a 45-minute interview with him which has become a hit on YouTube. In the interview Awlaki appeared to admit involvement in 14 plots in the US, Canada and Britain.

A government analysis of YouTube last year found that Awlaki had 1,910 videos on the site, one of which had been viewed 164,420 times.

[JP comment: tiny minority of extremists alert]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Balkans


EU-Serbia: Press, Belgium, Holland, Germany Against Candidacy

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JUNE 16 — According to reports in Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti today, three EU countries are against Serbia’s candidate status to enter the European Union: Belgium, Holland and Germany. In a meeting on Monday in Luxembourg, during which the EU Foreign Ministers ratified the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia, 24 of the 27 member-states were in favour of approving Belgrade’s presentation to the European Commission of its request to be granted candidate status. However, Belgium, Holland and Germany were against the request. Today, Vecernje Novosti reported that despite all of the attempts to convince the representatives of the three countries to support the proposal in favour of Serbia, the three Foreign Ministers — especially Dutch Minister Maxime Verhagen — remained staunchly opposed. The daily did not provide reasons as to why the countries were opposed, although, in the past Holland has made its approval contingent upon the capture of Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic. The daily underlined that despite the situation, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that the problem of Serbia’s candidacy will already be discussed at the next meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in July.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Serbia: Israeli Company to Open Spice Factory

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JUNE 7 — The Israeli Green Only company, which specializes in producing spices, will be opening a factory in Serbia, reports radio B92. Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic and Israeli ambassador Arthur Koll will be at the ceremony in the central town of Svilajnac (central Serbia). The equipment and factory itself is worth EUR850,000 and will be geared toward spice production. Since most of the work will be done manually, it is expected that Green Only will be employing more workers as it expands its capacities to 100 hectares of land. This will make Svilajnac the center for production of spices and vegetables in Serbia.(ANSAmed).

2010-06-07 19:45

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


2 Out of 3 Tunisians Not Interested in the Environment

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 7 — The result of a study carried out in Tunisia by the Green party in collaboration with a specialised study have caused perplexity: two out of three Tunisians are absolutely indifferent to the problems that affect the environment. And they have no intention of getting involved in safeguarding it. The study, carried out on a sample of 1,000 people, put the residents of the south of the country in first place of the most disinterested. The results of the study were announced on the occasion of the celebration of the world day for the environment. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Congress Looking Into Crackdown on Christians in Morocco

Hearing to focus on Morocco’s mass deportations

The mass deportation of Christians ordered by authorities in Morocco in recent weeks now is getting attention in Washington.

Counsel Roger Kiska of the Alliance Defense Fund said a hearing is scheduled Thursday before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

Testifying will be staff members of Village of Hope, an orphanage whose staff members were targeted during one of the deportation purges.

“Christians shouldn’t be targeted for deportation simply because of their beliefs,” Kiska stated. “None of the preconditions for lawful deportation under Moroccan law was met by the government officials in this case.

“It is vital that no precedent be set that will lead to more human rights violations of this sort, where Christian volunteers can be mass expelled simply because they are Christian,” he said.

[Return to headlines]



Morocco: Violence on Women, Parliament Examines Issue

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JUNE 10 — In Rabat the socialist group of the Chamber of Deputies set up a day to examine the law against violence on women that was joined by members of parliament, representatives various of ministries and women’s associations and human rights associations. Zoubida Bouayad, president of the socialist group, stated that “this phenomenon keeps getting worse and has different forms in our society” and pointed out that the aim of the meeting is to examine measures capable of countering the ulcer of violence against women on the social, institutional and human rights level. Minister for relations with Parliament Driss Lachgar evoked major changes in Morocco’s society in terms of human rights and especially women’s rights, which had a positive impact on the social level through the creation of shelters for female victims of violence, and the creation of special offices in tribunals and hospitals. Health Minister Yasmina Baddou emphasised how her department pays special attention to assisting the victims of violence through special units in public hospitals across the country. In Badou’s opinion the fight against this phenomenon requires a rigorous and global legal framework to define the various categories of women (e.g. married women, home sitters and emigrants) and consider the various forms of physical and mental violence. A report by Morocco’s observatory on violence against women stated that 3,547 women fell victim to violence in 2008, a 38% increase compared to 2007. Even though it has not been established whether this is an increase in violence or if women are growing bolder in reporting such events.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Italy: Azoulay to Continue Battle for Peace

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 16 — Giving up and opting not to continuing fighting to achieve a fair peace between Israelis and Palestinians is impossible — even when, day after day, the list of failures and lost opportunities grows longer. Even when this long-sought peace seems ever more a mirage. After almost fifty years spent fighting for reconciliation in the Middle East, André Azoulay, advisor to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, has no intention of throwing in the towel and cancelling out work in favour of dialogue between Jews and Arabs which began in the 1970s, when he founded the organisation “Identity and Dialogue”, one of four forums created to request talks between Israelis and Palestinians. A highly-respected economist in Europe, since age 19 at the side of the Alawite monarchy, sole Jewish advisor to hold such a high post in the entire Muslim world, over the past few days the president of the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures Anna Lindh received the 2010 Mediterranean Peace Prize. He told ANSAmed over the phone that he had “always fought to find a way to give Palestinians freedom, identity, dignity and — most of all — a state, and to give Israel security and peace.” It is a “fight” which has lasted over fifty years, and which shows no sign of abating today, despite the quick-fire succession of tension and crises between the countries facing off against each other on the Middle Eastern playing field. He admitted that it was true that “the Mediterranean is still bereft of a deeply-rooted peace”. And inevitably it is to be assumed that, without a solution to the dramatic situation Palestinians find themselves in and without ensuring security for the State of Israel, there will never be stability in the entire area. He went on to say that “today there can still be virtuous convergences between the vision expressed by US president Obama during his Cairo speech, the Union for the Mediterranean and the peace proposal by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference countries.” And so not all seems lost to the president of the Anna Lindh Foundation. A high-ranking figure in the political sphere of the Alawite Kingdom, due to his being a Jew Azoulay represents an exception in the entire panorama of the Arab Muslim world. He defines his experience as “unable to be cloned”, though he does not hide a touch of optimism when he says that “it is an exception full of hope for the future of the Arab world.” He has been harshly criticised both by Jews (many times having been accused of being pro-Palestinian) and by Arabs (for being pro-Jewish). Azoulay said that “those criticising my position forget the wealth and traditions of my country. It is a country in which Jews and Muslims have been living side by side for millennium.” Then, with a bit of a challenge aimed at those criticizing him, he said that “I live my role as advisor to the king as a true privilege. In the end, I belong to a very exclusive club, and therefore a very snobbish one. I am, in fact, the only one to belong to it. Moroccan Judaism has been a part of the Moroccan cultural reality for over 2000 years. Generation after generation, Moroccan Jews have been able top enrich themselves within this Berber and Arab-Muslim culture.” And Morocco? The glass seems more than half full for the advisor to Mohammed VI. “Over the past two decades,” he said, “Morocco has put its foot on the accelerator towards democratisation and the structural reforms necessary not only to strengthen the economy, but also the political and social geography of the country.” The country, he concluded, has never stopped and things will only go forward. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Some Semi-Sanity From Europe: EU Foreign Ministers Make Partial Sense on Gaza, Iran

by Barry Rubin

Remember what I told you: if you want to know what policy is going to be, watch the governments, not the media. While the results of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg were far from perfect, they also show the difference between decision-makers and opinion-makers on the Middle East.

First, the foreign ministers proposed new sanctions going beyond the ones just voted in the UN against Iran’s nuclear program to prohibit new investment and transfer of technology, equipment and services.

The British representative, William Hague, told the EU to take a “strong lead” on this issue. Sweden’s opposition was overcome. We must wait to see the details but clearly this is a step in the right direction. Incidentally, I believe the main European states were willing to do this nine months ago but were forestalled by the go-slow U.S. policy.

Second, regarding the Gaza issue, the EU foreign ministers refused to condemn Israel and adopted a mixed package of proposals. They called for a “credible, independent” investigation of the incident with the Gaza flotilla, which leaves the door open for Israel’s approach of an independent commission with two foreign observers rather than a UN-led (and inevitably wildly biased) process.

They also called for the release by Hamas of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and that the Red Cross be allowed to visit him, while recognizing Israel’s “legitimate security concerns, including the need to cease all violence and arms smuggling into Gaza.”

On the other side, they wanted a narrowing of the embargo on Gaza but did not define precisely how this should be done. And Tony Blair, the Quartet’s Middle East said sympathetically that he expected Israel to ease the blockade soon.

The EU position also offered to help in arrangements for the crossings along the lines of its 2005 arrangements, which proved to be useless in practice though they made the EU feel good about doing something.

This is a position that Israel can live with by modifying the embargo. It is generally not realized that restrictions are constantly being revised any way. For example, Israel has agreed in connection with UNRWA to let in construction equipment and concrete for specific, supervised construction projects to ensure that this materiel isn’t used for Hamas military projects.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction:…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



Turkish Flotilla Organisers to Send More Gaza Ships

BRUSSELS, June 16 (Reuters) — A Turkish pro-Palestinian group said on Wednesday it will send another aid flotilla to Gaza next month, again trying to break an Israeli blockade after its last convoy was the target of a deadly Israeli raid in May.

The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid (IHH) told members of the European Parliament it had assembled six ships for the next flotilla and put out an appeal for others to join.

Its last flotilla was intercepted off the coast of Gaza on May 31. Clashes broke out on one of the ships as Israeli commandos boarded it to enforce a blockade, and in fighting that followed Israeli forces shot dead nine Turkish men.

The next flotilla is due to sail in the second half of July, IHH said. The group invited the international media to inspect all goods on board before the convoy sails to “demonstrate their commitment to total transparency”.

Israel says the IHH has links to Muslim militants, which the group denies.

Richard Howitt, a British member of the European Parliament who organised IHH’s press conference at the parliament in Strasbourg, said the European Union had an obligation to ensure respect for humanitarian law and access for the next flotilla…

           — Hat tip: Holger Danske [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Lebanon: Christian-Moslem Rift Re-Emerges Over Palestinians

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JUNE 16 — As they were prior to the 1975-90 civil war, Christian and Moslem members of Lebanon’s parliament are divided again over whether to give the circa 400,000 mainly-Moslem Palestinian refugees living in the country basic civil rights or not. Heated debate erupted Wednesday at the half-Christian, half-Moslem 128-member assembly when Druze deputy Walid Jumblat forwarded a law proposal to give these Palestinians the right to retirement indemnity, work risk security and limited property ownership. The proposal provoked uproar among the Christian deputies who feared that such a law would lead to the naturalization of the predominantly Sunni Palestinian refugees and, consequently, disrupting the confessional balance on which Lebanon’s political system is based. The division revealed the fragility of the alliances Moslem and Christian political parties have forged among themselves over the past five years and revived the old confessional split. “This divide reminds of the civil war,” lamented the leftist As-Safir daily, while the center-right An-Nahar questioned Jumblat’s “sudden rush” to give the Palestinian refugees civil rights. Lebanon’s civil war started when rightwing Christian militias took up arms to fight Yasser Arafat’s PLO that grew influential in the country with the backing of local Moslem and leftist parties and militias, including Jumblat’s Progressist Socialist Party (PSP). Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and destroyed the PLO. Syria crushed the Christians in 1990. But the country still denies civil rights to the Palestinian refugees, who have been living in 12 squalid camps along with their descendents since the creation of Israel in 1948. “All right parties in the world are stupid but I have not seen more stupid than the Lebanese right,” said Jumblat —a descendent of a feudal family with the noble title of “Bek” and who, in 1977, inherited from his father the uncontested leadership of the PSP that drove the Christians out of Mount Lebanon in the civil war. In an attempt to defuse tension, House Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite, referred Jumblat’s proposal to the parliament’s Justice Committee for further discussion and promised to bring the issue again at a general meeting of the unicameral chamber in a month time. For the Druze leader, Berri’s decision “is just to postpone the explosion of the ticking bomb.” Sunni Premier Saad Hariri was more explicit. “If we do not give the Palestinians their civil rights, we will be investing in the biggest project to produce terrorism,” warned Hariri.(ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Turkmenistan: Ashgabat: No Amnesty for Jehovah’s Witnesses

Turkmen president issued an amnesty this month, but did include those who refuse compulsory military service on grounds of conscientious objection, like Jehovah’s Witnesses. The latter got two years of hard labour and had their Bible seized.

Ashgabat (AsiaNews/F18) — Refusing to perform compulsory military service on grounds of conscientious objection is so serious a crime in Turkmenistan that offenders do not deserve amnesty. Currently, five Jehovah’s Witnesses are languishing in jail and this for several months, because of their refusal to wear a uniform—four of them have even earned a month of solitary confinement.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov issued a general amnesty on 9 May to commemorate the end of World War 2. A number of Jehovah’s Witnesses, sentenced last December to two years in prison, were not included among those who benefitted from the measure, friends told the Forum 18 news agency.

F18 said that the five Jehovah’s Witness prisoners of conscience are in a hard labour camp near the eastern town of Seydi

In November and December of last year, four of them—Shadurdi Ushotov, Akmurat Egendurdiev and two brothers, Sakhetmurad and Mukhammedmurad Annamamedov—were visited by unidentified officials who asked them some questions. Immediately afterwards, they were sent to punishment cells for three days.

Whilst relatives can visit them, they had their Bibles and all other religious text seized by police.

Two other Witnesses, Zafar Abullaev and Dovrai Kushmanov, were given a two-year suspended sentence for conscientious objection, which limits their activities and movements. They too did not benefit from the amnesty.

Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse military service because their faith rejects war. However, they are willing to perform a non-military service.

Turkmenistan has always rejected calls for an alternative to the draft, which is compulsory for all young men.

Article 219 of the existing Criminal Code punishes refusal to perform peacetime military service with up to two years in jail.

On 10 May, the Turkmen parliament (Mejlis) approved a number of changes to the Criminal Code, but left Article 219 untouched.

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

Sub-Saharan Africa


Kenyans Fear a Repeat of 2007 Bloodshed

The grenade attack in Kenya does not bode well for the forthcoming referendum on the country’s constitution

The two grenades that detonated in Nairobi in the late hours of Sunday left at least six people dead and scores more injured, and immediately set off a blame game from both sides, those who are backing the proposed constitution (now dubbed the Greens) and those opposed to it (the Reds).

Who could have been behind the attack? A shocked country is searching for the answer. This is not the first time the country has experienced killer explosions — recall the August 1998 bomb blast in the US embassy in Nairobi — but it was the first serious attack at a referendum or election campaign.

In the last two months, Kenyans have been gripped by what is now being called referendum fever. The proposed constitution has polarised the country in much the same way it did in 2005, when the first serious attempt at a new constitution was made and defeated.

Just as in 2005, President Mwai Kibaki is supporting the proposed constitution. But he has found an unlikely ally in his prime minister, Raila Odinga, who was on the opposing side in 2005. Both are having to ride a fierce tide of opposition from some of their cabinet ministers led by higher education minister William Ruto, an erstwhile ally of Raila Odinga’s and the Christian community.

The Reds have been traversing the country to drum up opposition to the document. Likewise, the Greens have been ratcheting up their yes campaign. But nobody thought that things could turn bloody until the grenade thrower struck on Sunday.

There are many unsubstantiated theories about who could have been behind it or what the motive could have been. Both sides have come out with strong reactions, with the Reds blaming the Greens and the Greens defending themselves. But it is generally agreed that such an attack would serve no side in any way. The Greens know that the last thing that they need is to be labelled violent. It is imperative for them to keep in check the intolerant elements among their ranks. The Reds know that nothing would serve them better than the perception that the Greens are intolerant. On the basis of public pity, they could hope to pick up a few followers here and there. But they also know that security for their followers is key to success of their future rallies. And if, in any event, Sunday’s attack was the work of religious extremists, both sides know that this are not the kind of people to help their cause in any way.

Be that as it may, the Sunday incident buttressed calls from those opposed to the referendum that it be put aside until there was agreement on both sides. This is probably what those who planned the attack aimed to achieve.

Whatever the motive of the attack, Kenyans are, once again, fearing the worst: that this referendum, slated for 4 August, might lead to the kind of bloodshed witnessed after the 2007 general election. The government, which today offered a reward of Sh500,000 (about £4,200) for any information that could lead to the arrest of the attackers, will have a tough job reassuring the country that the forthcoming referendum will end well.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UN World Food Program — Money Goes to Islamists

The UN WFP (World Food Program) receives most of its funding from USAID.

The WFP is corrupt to its core, as evidenced by a leaked UN document about Somalia which exposed that most of the aid goes to UN workers, Islamic militants and contractors.(6) Another example is in Ethiopia where only 12% of the food aid was delivered to the intended poverty stricken area. Additionally, there are more examples of corruption with shipping and trucking fees inflated up to 300% over cost. Of course, NGOs are deeply complicit in this international scheme of theft and incompetence with zero accountability.

[Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Taxpayers Spend $967 Million on Abortion Providers

GAO audit exposes use of federal funds to support family-planning groups

WASHINGTON — Anti-abortion lawmakers in Congress have determined that federal taxpayers poured at least $967 million into family planning organizations such as Planned Parenthood over the last eight years — money they said potentially freed the health-service enterprises to use other donations to perform abortions.

Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, who led an effort by 31 Republican lawmakers to obtain the audit by Congress’ watchdog Government Accountability Office, said he hopes to use the findings to generate momentum for his proposed legislation to require states and the federal government to provide annual public reports on taxpayer funds that are appropriated to “abortion providers.”

“It is disturbing to learn that these organizations spent nearly $1 billion in taxes over eight years,” Olson said. “That this tax money is spent by organizations and practices that offend the majority of Americans only further justifies the need for this alarming report.”

[Return to headlines]

News Feed 20100615

Financial Crisis
» Nightmare Vision for Europe as EU Chief Warns ‘Democracy Could Disappear’ In Greece, Spain and Portugal
 
USA
» Egypt Official: U.S. President Claims to be Muslim
» Gen. David H. Petraeus Falls Ill During Senate Testimony
» Paypal Reverses Jihad Against Muslim-Watch Sites
» Resolution to Keep EPA From Regulating GHGs Denied
» Stakelbeck on Terror Show Debuts
 
Canada
» Guilty Plea in Aqsa Parvez Honour Killing
 
Europe and the EU
» Barcelona Bans Burqas, Balaclavas and Helmets
» Deconstructing Belgium
» Denmark: Officers Draw Batons in Court
» Dutch Disgrace, Geert Wilders Aims for Power
» Is Europe Awaking?
» Italy: Moroccan Immigrant in Fast-Track Trial for Daughter’s Murder
» Netherlands: VVD, PVV and CDA Most Popular Coalition
» Spain: Religious Freedom Law to Limit Use of Burqa
» Spain: National Alarm Over Rise in Latin Gangs
» Stockholm: Why We Rioted
» UK: Muslim Community Leader Who Lied About BNP Kidnap is Illegal Immigrant and Suspected Benefits Cheat
» UK: Muslim Protesters Brand War Heroes ‘Murderers’ As Homecoming Parade Turns Violent
» UK: Spot the Difference: How Today’s Airbrushing PC Censors Decided Churchill Could Do Without His Cigar
» UK: Tories Would Maintain Islamic Finance Focus
» UK: Woman Fined for Erratic Driving Caused by Niqab Headscarf Impairing Her Vision
 
Balkans
» EU-Serbia: Frattini, A.S.A. OK, But Germany Blocking Accession
 
North Africa
» 108 Al Qaeda Members Identified in Sahel
» Al-Qaeda’s North African Chief ‘Backs Bin Laden’
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Hamas Rises in the West
» Israel Nabs Bosnian Muslim, Albanians on Terror Ship
 
Middle East
» Fethullah Gulen’s Cave of Wonders
» Ofra Bengio / Turkey’s Strategic U-Turn, Israel’s Tactical Mistakes
» Saudis Open Skies for Israeli Hit on Iran
» Turkey to Host One Million Arab Tourists in 2010
» Who Killed Khaled Sultan Al-Abed?
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan — India: Appeal for Afghan Christians, Sentenced to Death for Their Faith
 
Immigration
» Ariz. Lawmaker Takes Aim at Automatic Citizenship
» ‘Immigrants Are Making Germany Dumber’
» Nepal Becomes New Transit Point for Migrants on Their Way to Arab Countries
 
Culture Wars
» Frank Gaffney: The “Bring Back the Draft” Act
» Hallmark Pulls Card After Complaints of Racial Slur
» Iowa Republican: Obama Favors Blacks Over Whites
 
General
» Al-Qaeda’s Ranks Diversify

Financial Crisis


Nightmare Vision for Europe as EU Chief Warns ‘Democracy Could Disappear’ In Greece, Spain and Portugal

Democracy could ‘collapse’ in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned.

In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs last week, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso set out an ‘apocalyptic’ vision in which crisis-hit countries in southern Europe could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings as interest rates soar and public services collapse because their governments run out of money.

The stark warning came as it emerged that EU chiefs have begun work on an emergency bailout package for Spain which is likely to run into hundreds of billions of pounds.

A £650 billion bailout for Greece has already been agreed.

John Monks, former head of the TUC, said he had been ‘shocked’ by the severity of the warning from Mr Barroso, who is a former prime minister of Portugal.

Mr Monks, now head of the European TUC, said: ‘I had a discussion with Barroso last Friday about what can be done for Greece, Spain, Portugal and the rest and his message was blunt: “Look, if they do not carry out these austerity packages, these countries could virtually disappear in the way that we know them as democracies. They’ve got no choice, this is it.”

JOHN HUMPHRYS: Have the sceptics been proved right about Europe?

‘He’s very, very worried. He shocked us with an apocalyptic vision of democracies in Europe collapsing because of the state of indebtedness.’

Greece, Spain and Portugal, which only became democracies in the 1970s, are all facing dire problems with their public finances. All three countries have a history of military coups.

Greece has been rocked by a series of national strikes and riots this year following the announcement of swingeing cuts to public spending designed to curb Britain’s deficit.

Spain and Portugal have also announced austerity measures in recent weeks amid growing signs that the international markets are increasingly worried they could default on their debts.

Other EU countries seeing public protests over austerity plans include Hungary, Italy and Romania, where public sector pay is to be slashed by 25 per cent.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who visited Madrid last week, said the situation in Spain should serve as a warning to Britain of the perils of failing to tackle the deficit quickly.

He said the collapse of confidence in Spain had seen interest rates soar, adding: ‘As the nation with the highest deficit in Europe in 2010, we simply cannot afford to let that happen to us too.’

Mr Barroso’s warning lays bare the concern at the highest level in Brussels that the economic crisis could lead to the collapse of not only the beleaguered euro, but the EU itself, along with a string of fragile democracies.

DICTATORSHIPSGREECE: Georgios Papadopoulos was dictator from 1967 to 1974.

The Colonel led the military coup d’etat in 1967 against King Constantine II amid political instability. He was leader of the junta which ruled until 1974.

Papadopoulos was overthrown by Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis in 1973. Democracy was restored in 1975.

SPAIN: General Francisco Franco led Spain from 1936 until his death in 1975. At the end of the Spanish Civil War he dissolved the Spanish Parliament and established a right-wing authoritarian regime that lasted until 1978. After his death Spain gradually began its transition to democracy.

PORTUGAL: Antonio de Oliveira Salazar’s regime and its secret police ruled the country from 1932 to 1968. He founded and led the Estado Novo, the authoriatan, right-wing government that controlled Portugal from 1932 to 1974. After Salazar’s death in 1970, his regime persisted until it eventually fell after the Carnation Revolution.

But it risks infuriating governments in southern Europe which are already struggling to contain public anger as they drive through tax rises and spending cuts in a bid to avoid disaster.

Mr Monks yesterday warned that the new austerity measures themselves could take the continent ‘back to the 1930s’.

In an interview with the Brussels-based magazine EU Observer he said: ‘This is extremely dangerous.

‘This is 1931, we’re heading back to the 1930s, with the Great Depression and we ended up with militarist dictatorship.

‘I’m not saying we’re there yet, but it’s potentially very serious, not just economically, but politically as well.’

Mr Monks said union barons across Europe were planning a co-ordinated ‘day of action’ against the cuts on 29 September, involving national strikes and protests.

David Cameron will travel to Brussels on Thursday for his first summit of EU leaders since the election.

Leaders are expected to thrash out a rescue package for Spain’s teetering economy. Spain is expected to ask for an initial guarantee of at least £100 billion, although this figure could rise sharply if the crisis deepens.

News of the behind-the-scenes scramble in Brussels spells bad news for the British economy as many of our major banks have loaned Spain vast sums of money in recent years.

Germany’s authoritative Frankfurter Allgemeine Newspaper reported that Spain is poised to ask for multi-billion pound credits.

Mr Barroso and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank are united on the need for a rescue plan.

The looming bankruptcy of Spain, one of the foremost economies in Europe, poses far more of a threat to European unity and the euro project than Greece.

Greece contributes 2.5 percent of GDP to Europe, Spain nearly 12 percent.

Yesterday’s report quoted German government sources saying: ‘We will lead discussions this week in Brussels concerning the crisis. It has intensified to the point that the states do not want to wait until the EU summit on Thursday in Brussels.”‘

At the end of last month the credit rating agency Fitch downgraded Spain, triggering sharp falls on stock markets.

On Friday the administration in Madrid continued to insist no rescue package was necessary. But Greece said the same thing before it came close to disaster.

Yesterday the European Commission and the statistics authority Eurostat met to consider Spain’s plight as many EU countries consider the austerity package proposed by the Madrid administration insufficient to deal with the country’s problems.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

USA


Egypt Official: U.S. President Claims to be Muslim

An Egyptian foreign service official’s comment about President Obama is turning into a sensation among bloggers for its claim that the American leader claims to be Muslim.

Obama’s religiosity has been the subject of discussion since before he was elected and his Chicago-area pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, delivered a “God d—- America” sermon that was caught on video.

Obama later claimed to be a Muslim in a television interview where the interviewer corrected his “misstatement” and he has referenced the Muslim heritage in America’s past several times.

Now the heat on the issue is being turned up because of a weeks-old report in Israel Today.

In the report, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying during an appearance on Nile TV that, “The American president told me in confidence that he is a Muslim.”

The White House remained silent on the comment, declining to respond to a WND request for comment.

But blogger Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs wrote, “This is akin to an SS officer getting elected president during WW II. Every country in the free world must be cognizant of such a catastrophic sea change in the leadership of the free world (as witnessed by events over the past year). This changes everything. He took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and yet he has gone around the world promoting Islam, the Shariah (Islamic law).”

She suggested that the exchange could have happened early in 2010 when Gheit was in Washington, D.C., to address “Mideast peace talks.”

[Return to headlines]



Gen. David H. Petraeus Falls Ill During Senate Testimony

The commander of American forces in the Middle East, Gen. David H. Petraeus, appeared to swoon or faint briefly during an intense period of questioning by senators Tuesday on whether the military can fulfill President Obama’s orders to begin pulling troops from Afghanistan in July of next year.

General Petraeus, a long-distance runner, pitched forward toward the microphone where he was seated, and was escorted from the Senate hearing room as the session was adjourned by Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Senator Levin announced a few minutes later that General Petraeus appeared to be feeling better, and was eating and drinking water.

[Return to headlines]



Paypal Reverses Jihad Against Muslim-Watch Sites

Company had cut off Atlas Shrugs for ‘hate speech’

The Internet money-exchange PayPal has reportedly reversed an earlier decision to cut services to a trio of websites that track and resist the spreading influence of Islam in America.

Popular activist, author and blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, who has also been involved in founding the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America, received intimidating letters from PayPal that claimed the websites “promote hate” and “racial intolerance.”

“The little money that Atlas generates (I have no large donors) is about to be cut off. Apparently the jihad is hard at work trying to kill free speech, preventing the truth from making its way to those in pursuit of it,” Geller reported on Atlas Shrugs. “Truth is the new hate speech.”

[Return to headlines]



Resolution to Keep EPA From Regulating GHGs Denied

The U.S. Senate voted to allow the EPA to continue regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, but some groups are not happy with the decision.

Senators voted 53-47 to kill a disapproval resolution writted by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. The resolution sought to overturn the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment” finding that said GHGs endanger public health and welfare. That finding paved the way for EPA to regulate car and light-duty truck emissions and triggered subsequent regulation of GHGs from other commercial and industrial sources, including power plants.

At least six Democrats and a group of 24 trade associations all supported the resolution, saying the cost of doing business and energy costs will increase significantly.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Stakelbeck on Terror Show Debuts

My new show, Stakelbeck on Terror, debuted last night on cbnnews.com.

The 30-minute show breaks down the latest national security, terrorism and Middle East-related news in a politically incorrect, cutting edge style.

There was no program devoted entirely to these hot button issues until now.

You can watch the inaugural episode at the above link.

We kick off the show with my exclusive recent “Sitdown” with Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren.

We then take a look at the much overlooked working relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda (7:25 in)…

And move on to my interview with Great Britain’s most hated man, Islamist leader Anjem Choudary (8:43 in).

My roundtable “War Council” debates the Obama administration’s refusal to use terms like “jihadist and “radical Islam” (12:50 in)

We then go Inside Israel for an on-the-ground look at Palestinian Authority incitement against Israeli civilians (20:18 in).

You’ve heard of Sharia Law? Then be sure not to miss this week’s Sharia Flaw, in which a Muslim college student publicly supports genocide against Jews on an American college campus (23:33 in).

And don’t miss my Stak Attack commentary, in which I examine Al Qaeda’s new strategy for the West (25:12 in).

Hope you enjoy it.

[Return to headlines]

Canada


Guilty Plea in Aqsa Parvez Honour Killing

The father and brother of Aqsa Parvez have pleaded guilty to murdering the rebellious 16-year-old in an abhorrent honour killing.

Muhammad Parvez, 60, and his son, Waqas, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday in the Dec. 10 2007 strangulation of Aqsa and they face an automatic term of life in prison .

At the time of her shocking murder, which Peel Police have described as a “planned and deliberate act,” the Grade 11 Mississauga student was estranged from her Muslim family because she was bristling at their restrictions. She had moved in with a friend’s family and no longer wore a hijab in her Applewood high school in Mississauga.

In an agreed statement of facts read by Sandra Caponecchia, court heard Aqsa, who had already been promised by her family in an arranged marriage, ran away from home twice because of her lack of freedom. With assistance from her school counselor, she stayed at a shelter the first time and with a friend the next. Despite her father allowing her to wear Western clothes and begging her to return, she refused to come back.

She had told her friends that her dad had sworn on the Koran that he would kill her if she ran away again.

On Dec. 10, her brother Waqsa confronted her at the school bus stop and she was taken away in the Parvez van at about 7:20 am. Just over 30 minutes later, her father called 911 and said he “killed his daughter” using his hands.

Police found her fully clothed in her basement bedroom, lying face up and with no vital signs. An autopsy determined she’d died from “neck compressions. “

Her mother Anwar Jan told police that she questioned her husband about why he’d killed her.

“He said this is my insult. My community will say you have not been able to control your daughter. This is my insult. She is making me naked.”

When asked if she disagreed with what he’d done, Aqsa’s mother refused to protest his actions. “I cannot say anything. Whatever he thinks, he knows about it. “

Waqsa, a tow truck driver, told a co-worker that he intended to kill his sister and his father would take the blame. “Waqas explained …that his sister was causing the family embarrassment and he had to do it.”

He later told the friend that the guilt was killing him. “He admitted choking her until she died and said that there was no evidence against him,” the Crown said in the agreed statement. “Waqas also explained how what happened was partly Aqsa’s own fault because he had tried twice to talk to her and he even offered to get her own apartment and pay for it so she didn’t have to work and she rejected his offers. “

Her mother, dressed in a white hijab and black cloak, looked on and wiped away tears as Justice Bruce Durno said the two killers face at least 10 years in prison before being eligible for parole. The father, dressed in a blue sweatshirt, and his son, his hair slicked back in a ponytail, showed little emotion as they listened to the lengthy recounting of the heinous family murder.

The elder Parvez came to Canada as a refugee from Pakistan in 1999 and eventually brought his wife and eight children. Aqsa was the youngest and just 11 when she arrived here.

All but three of the siblings were wed in arranged marriages to cousins in Pakistan who later joined them in Canada.

Their guilty pleas follow the conclusion of another Peel honour killing case last week in which Kamikar Singh Dhillon was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the second degree murder of his daughter-in-law.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Barcelona Bans Burqas, Balaclavas and Helmets

(ANSAmed) — Madrid, JUNE 14 — Barcelona City Council has also resolved to impose a ban on the wearing of burqas or the niqab in public offices and state schools, in a measure that also bans the wearing of any other garment that hides the face, such as balaclavas and full-face helmets. The decision, which should be approved today, was announced by Mayor Jordi Hereu following a meeting of the municipal Immigration Committee, which assessed the findings of a judicial report. In May this year, Spain’s Popular Party presented a motion to ban the wearing of the Moslem veil in municipal offices. The ban would affect municipal areas used by the public, kindergartens, schools, conservatories and libraries, social services and markets, in fact just about all public spaces under municipal authorisation. The decree should name the date on which the ban is to come into effect. Hereu defended the move as a measure to promote collective security and as an “expression of plain common sense”. The socialist party governing Barcelona, the ICV-EUiA, to which Hereu belongs, has come out against imposing regulations on the wearing of the burqa or niquab, while the main opposition party, the CiU, has announced that it will also place a ban on the wearing of the full-face veil in the streets should it win in this autumn’s elections. For its part, the Popular Party has presented a motion to the Senate proposing a ban on the wearing of the full-face veil anywhere on Spanish territory. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Deconstructing Belgium

Given the Flemish support for independence, devolution might be the country’s best hope for survival.

‘Do we still want to live together?” wondered Belgium’s francophone Finance Minister Didier Reynders shortly before yesterday’s elections. The answer, at least from the country’s Dutch-speakers, was “not really.” The separatist New Flemish Alliance, or N-VA, which advocates Belgium’s gradual dissolution, garnered 29% of the Flemish vote, making it the country’s largest party according to preliminary results. Combine that with the votes for the far-right Vlaams Belang, and an unprecedented 40% of the Flemings back independence.

“We do not want a revolution,” N-VA leader Bart De Wever said last week. “We do not want to declare Flanders independent overnight. But we do believe in gradual evolution.” He favors a peaceful breakup of Belgium by democratically shifting the last remaining federal powers, specifically justice, health and social security, to Flanders and Wallonia.

With Dutch-speakers accounting for 60% of the population and an even larger share of gross domestic product, Flemish federalists have for the past 36 years jealously claimed the position of prime minister. But since Mr. De Wever wants to see Belgium “slowly but surely, very gently disappear,” he has little interest in governing the country. He is even open to a francophone to become premier—provided Flanders gets greater autonomy.

The problem is that the leading French-speaker for the top job would be Socialist Elio Di Rupo, whose “solidarity” slogan is merely the French way of demanding continued Flemish subsidies for Wallonia. And although Belgium’s public debt just reached parity with the country’s GDP, Mr. Di Rupo wants to further hike spending on health and pensions.

So while the rest of Europe argues about how to cut the deficit, Belgians will argue about if and how to cut federal powers. Dividing the budgetary powers, as Mr. De Winter proposes, and thus curtailing Flemish transfer payments to Wallonia could help cut the overall public deficit and, perhaps, leave Flemings less committed to full independence and Walloons less opposed to it. With the nation already paralyzed by the fear of separatism, as Belgium’s Le Soir put it recently, devolution may be Belgium’s best hope for survival.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]



Denmark: Officers Draw Batons in Court

Police had to draw batons to restore calm after gang verdict.

Copenhagen police had to go into action at the Frederiksberg Court to stop unrest following the verdict on seven young gang members who were sentenced to between one and three years in prison.

Five of the defendants were sentenced for forcing a 16-year-old to carry out an armed bank robbery. Two others tried to make him carry out a repeat robbery. The 16-year-old was sentenced to 18 months in August 2009, with much of the sentence suspended.

Family members to the seven were up in arms, and court officials had to hold back the main defendant, who had been ordered deported from Denmark.

Large numbers of police were sent to the courtroom after officers on the spot said there was trouble.

The main defendant is a 22-year-old Moroccan national who was sentenced to three years in prison and subsequent deportation, despite the fact that he has lived in Denmark since he was a child.

After the verdict, the young man jumped onto the defence attorney’s table, which collapsed as he shouted he was innocent.

Calm is reported to have returned to the courthouse

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Dutch Disgrace, Geert Wilders Aims for Power

The extreme right-wing, anti-Muslim Dutch party, Party for Freedom, made shocking gains in this week’s Holland general elections. This fascist party, headed by the notorious Geert Wilders, has openly campaigned against Muslims calling for the banning of the Holy Quran and building new mosques. On the eve of the election, he alone supported Israel’s murderous actions on the humanitarian aid convoy. Even though Wilders goes on trial in the Netherlands in October on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims, his party’s strong showing could result in him being offered a cabinet post.

We urge the Dutch Muslims to lobby the 2 main parties, the Liberal VVD Party and the Labour (Pvda) Party, urging them to keep the extremist Geert Wilders out of government — it’s not too late.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]



Is Europe Awaking?

Wilders Is Ascendant

By Srdja Trifkovic

The impressive electoral breakthrough of the anti-Jihadist Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands is sending predictable shock waves through Europe. Its leader, Geert Wilders, wants a stake in government after his party came third with 24 seats, more than doubling its share in the 150 member national assembly. “Nobody in The Hague can bypass the PVV anymore,” he said. “The impossible has happened,” he went on, “the Netherlands chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam.”

“Less Islam” is the key. Forget the currency crisis, social policy, welfare payments, and other nitty-gritty elements of most European elections. The biggest loser is Holland’s soon-to-be former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, and his demise is long overdue. Six years ago, in a display of idiocy be expected from a supine Euro-Socialist, he rushed to declare — in the immediate aftermath of the Jihadist murder of Theo van Gogh in an Amsterdam street — that “nothing is known about the motive” of the killer, and called on the nation “not to jump to far-reaching conclusions.” Balkenende also referred to van Gogh’s “outspoken opinions” — hinting that he had it coming — and added that it was “unacceptable if a difference of opinion led to this brutal murder.” Mijnheer Balkenende seemed to be implying that “this brutal murder” would have been deemed less “unacceptable” had it been caused not by “a difference of opinion” but by some more profound reason — by the sense of pain and grievance in the Muslim community, perhaps, caused by the late filmmaker’s insensitive and inappropriate actions.

Balkenende’s defeat was also due to a host of other issues, but his undissenting dhimmitude is the key. His Islamophile inanities are no longer acceptable to a growing segment of Holland’s electorate. The Old Continent is waking up, slowly, to the possibility that by 2050, Muslims will account for over a quarter of its young residents west of the Trieste-Stettin line. Millions of them already live in a parallel universe that has very little to do with the host country, toward which they have a disdainful and hostile attitude.

Today’s “United Europe,” epitomized by Balkenende and his fellow-bien-pensants in Brussels and most national chancelleries, does not create social and civilizational commonalities except on the basis of wholesale denial of old mores and disdain for inherited values. It creates the dreary sameness of multicultural “tolerance.” Their decrepitude breeds contempt and haughty arrogance on the other side: Tariq Ramadan thus calmly insists that Muslims in the West should conduct themselves as though they were already living in a Muslim-majority society and were exempt on that account from having to make concessions to the faith of the host-society. Muslims in Europe should feel entitled to live on their own terms, Ramadan says, while, “under the terms of Western liberal tolerance,” society as a whole should be “obliged to respect that choice.”

If such “respect” continues to be enforced by the elite class, by the end of this century there will be no “Europeans” as members of ethnic groups that share the same language, culture, history, and ancestors, and inhabit lands associated with their names.

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]



Italy: Moroccan Immigrant in Fast-Track Trial for Daughter’s Murder

Pordenone, 14 June (AKI) — The fast-track trial of a Moroccan immigrant accused of stabbing his 18-year-old daughter to death last year in an ‘honour’ killing opened in the northeastern Italian town of Pordenone on Monday.

El Ketaoui Dafani, a cook, allegedly became enraged after discovering his daughter Sanaa had a love affair with a 32-year-old Italian man.

Sanaa Dafani was stabbed in the throat in September with a large kitchen knife while she was sitting in a car with her 31-year-old boyfriend in the small town of Montereale Valcellina, northwest of Trieste.

El Ketaoui Dafani is accused of his daughter’s murder and of seriously injuring her boyfriend, Massimo De Biasio, during the attack.

De Biasio is forming the plaintiff in the trial, together with Italy’s equal opportunities ministry, the Association of Moroccan Women in Italy, the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, and the Province of Pordenone.

Dafani’s trial is being conducted behind closed doors.

The Association of Moroccan Women in Italy, Souad Sbai, who is also an MP for the ruling conservative People of Freedom Party, said she hopes Dafani will be given “the maximum sentence”.

“Sanaa was decapitated, massacred by her own father. Enough of fundamentalist extremism,” Sbai told reporters as she entered the courthouse on Monday to attend the trial.

“The Italian state must intervene in this community. Cultural and religious reasons cannot be used to justify this behaviour.”

Dafani, a devout Muslim, objected to his daughter’s boyfriend not being a Muslim and to their plans to live together, according to Italian media reports.

The issue of the cultural integration of Muslim immigrants in Italy has been brought into stark relief after several ‘honour’ killings in recent years.

In 2006 a 20-year-old Pakistani girl, Hina Saleem, died after her throat was slit by male relatives in the northern town of Brescia. Hina’s father Mohammed Saleem, and two male relatives were sentenced to 30 years in jail for her murder.

Her ‘crime’ was to wear jeans, work in a pizzeria and go to live with her Italian boyfriend.

After the case, Italy’s previous centre-left Italian government issued a ‘charter of values’ for immigrants.

There have also been several cases of Muslim immigrants mistreating and threatening their daughters for being “too westernised” and trying force them into arranged marriages.

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



Netherlands: VVD, PVV and CDA Most Popular Coalition

THE HAGUE, 15/06/10 — Although no coalition whatever can count on broad support among the population, an alliance of conservatives (VVD), Party for Freedom (PVV) and Christian democrats (CDA) is the most popular, according to pollster Maurice de Hond.

Following the elections on 9 June, there are three possibilities for a government. These are a centre right combination of VVD, PVV and CDA, a broad centrist coalition with VVD, Labour (PvdA) and CDA and the ‘Purple Plus’ combination in which VVD, PvdA, the centre-left D66 and the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) would team up.

De Hond had his panel give their preferences among these three options. VVD, PVV and CDA came out as the most favoured with 35 percent, followed by Purple Plus (33 percent). Only 10 percent opted for a combination of VVD, PvdA and CDA.

Noteworthy is that 62 percent of the VVD voters have a preference for the coalition with PVV and CDA. Only 12 percent prefer Purple Plus and 14 percent a broad centrist coalition with CDA and PvdA.

Among CDA voters the variant with PVV is also the most favoured (45 percent), followed by the broad centrist coalition with VVD and PvdA (26 percent). Purple Plus, which would put the CDA in the opposition, is only supported by 10 percent of the CDA voters.

If all voters are asked for an assessment of each of the three coalitions separately, over half (52 percent) are negative on VVD-PVV-CDA, 36 percent positive and the rest neutral. Reactions to Purple Plus are positive among 42 percent and negative among 43 percent.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Spain: Religious Freedom Law to Limit Use of Burqa

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 15 — The future law on religious freedom which the Spanish government wants to pass after the summer will limit the use of the burqa in public places, as some municipalities in Catalonia, including Barcelona, have already decided. The news was announced today by Justice Minister Francisco Caamano, during the presentation of the 2009 report of the Foundation for pluralism and cohabitation, a public institute that funds projects of religious minorities. Caamano explained that the parliament has to take the final decision on the ban to wear the burqa in public places, but he added that “the government is in favour of some limitations”. According to the Minister, garments like the full veil “are hardly compatible with the dignity of human beings and particularly with essential elements in public places, like identification”. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Spain: National Alarm Over Rise in Latin Gangs

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 15 — They are between 13 and 20 years old, they mark their territory and impose their dominion through violence and intolerance. Mara 18 and Mara 13 are the names of two new Latin gangs, at war with each other. They are responsible for bloody brawls and score-settlings, which are increasing rapidly in some municipalities of Catalonia, from Hospitalet to Cornell via Barcelona and Girona. But the alarm issued by the police about the worrying increase of the phenomenon of Latin gangs concerns all Spain. It is described in a report drafted by the national police, quoted today by the media. The report denounces a “significant increase in quantity and quality”. At least six gangs have their roots in 11 Provinces, from north to south: Madrid, Balearic Islands, Barcelona, Alicante, Asturias, Burgos, Jaen, Logrono, Murcia, Valladolid and Seville. They guarantee their members respect, imposed by violence, access to parties and sex, after a blood oath which cannot be cancelled. According to the report, the phenomenon has been on the rise since the year 2000. In that year the first organised juvenile gangs were seen in Spain, and the leader of the Sagrada Tribù, Ataualpa Spain, of the Latin Kings, was arrested. The report, drafted on request of the Organisation of American States, reveals mostly “thefts with violence or intimidation; attacks on police agents; drugs trafficking; breach of the peace; aggression and bodily harm; possession of cold steel and fire arms and murder attempts”. The most notorious gangs are the Latin Kings and their main opponents, the Netas, and the Dominican Dont Play, of which the police arrested 40 members of 5 nationalities in a large-scale operation in November. Less well-known but not less dangerous are the Trinitarios, the Black Panthers and the Stin Kings. The State Secretary for Security of the Interior Ministry launched a 5-year plan on January 6 2006 to coordinate police action in an attempt to stem the violence of these groups. The plan will expire in December 2011. In a report, ordered by State Secretary for Security Antonio Camacho, a far-reaching prevention programme is proposed. The sharp growths of the new gangs Mara 18 and Mara 13 in Catalonia in the past two years was noticed thanks to the exchange of information between the South American countries of origin and the Regions. According to the report, Mara 18 is divided in groups, called “clicas”, which control the territory. Each member has to pay 3 euros per week to maintain the organisation. Members who break the rules are punished, a decision taken by the leader, called “el mero”. This punishment consists of a beating by part of the gang members. Mara 13 has its roots in the Raval district in Barcelona. According to the report, its members include several different ethnic groups: Moroccans, Rumanians and even adolescents from Bangladesh. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Stockholm: Why We Rioted

The riots and fires in Rinkeby had just one purpose: to entice the police to the area.

“We want revenge. We are at war with the police,” says Badr, 25, one of the 50 youth who participated in the riots Tuesday night…

[Return to headlines]



UK: Muslim Community Leader Who Lied About BNP Kidnap is Illegal Immigrant and Suspected Benefits Cheat

A Muslim community leader who falsely claimed he had been kidnapped by members of the British National Party was exposed last night as a suspected benefits cheat who was in this country illegally.

Noor Ramjanally, 36, told police that racist thugs had abducted him at knifepoint and threatened him with violence.

But his account was exposed as a lie by cameras fitted secretly outside his flat after earlier claims that he had received racist hate mail and that the family’s home had been firebombed.

Footage revealed that on the day of the alleged kidnapping Ramjanally had left home by himself, and police established that he wandered around a branch of Homebase before dialling 999.

Yesterday he was given a two-year jail term after being convicted of perverting the course of justice.

However he was not in court — he had fled back to his native Mauritius after admitting he was in this country illegally, staying on after his tourist visa expired.

Before his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, he sent police a taunting email from the Indian Ocean island, telling them: ‘I am enjoying the sun.’

The authorities will now decide whether to seek his extradition to Britain to serve his sentence.

It also emerged that both Ramjanally and his wife, Soulma Nusrally, are being investigated on suspicion of benefit fraud.

The court heard that Ramjanally ran Muslim prayer sessions at a hall in Loughton, Essex, at a time when the BNP was targeting the area with leaflets, increasing local tensions.

In July and August last year he claimed to have received racist hate mail warning him to stop hosting the group and to have suffered an arson attack at the home where he lived with his wife and son.

Unknown to Ramjanally, police installed two covert CCTV cameras outside his block of flats.

On August 24 he rang 999 claiming he had been abducted, later saying two BNP supporters had seized him at knifepoint and bundled him into the back of a vehicle.

He said they told him: ‘We don’t want Loughton Islamic Group in Loughton’ before releasing him on the edge of Epping Forest.

However camera footage showed him getting into a taxi at the time of the alleged kidnap.

He had also been caught on camera at the local Homebase, and he was arrested.

Ramjanally was bailed to await his trial and in February he fled to Mauritius, from where he originally came to Britain on a six-month tourist visa in 1999.

When officials from the UK Border Agency raided his flat they discovered fake passports and other ID documents.

Passing sentence, Judge Karen Walden-Smith said it was impossible to say whether Ramjanally concocted his story to increase tension in the community, for his own vanity, or a bit of both.

Last night it emerged that Ramjanally is being investigated for falsely claiming benefits and allegedly stealing money from a mosque.

His wife is also being investigated for allegedly stating that she was a single mother to claim benefits including income support and housing benefit.

           — Hat tip: Reinhard [Return to headlines]



UK: Muslim Protesters Brand War Heroes ‘Murderers’ As Homecoming Parade Turns Violent

A group of extremist Muslims prompted violent clashes at a homecoming parade for British troops today after they heckled soldiers and called them ‘murderers.’

Members of the Muslim Against the Crusade group clashed with far right protesters as they shouted ‘murderers, murderers, murderers’ and ‘British troops go to hell’ as members of the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment paraded down the streets of Barking, Essex.

The chants were drowned out by a large mob on the opposite side of the street who retaliated with jeers of ‘Traitors’ to the Muslim protesters.

The hour-long parade had been delayed due to growing tensions between the two sides, with anti-Mac protestors singing God Save the Queen and drinkers at a nearby pub hurling frozen pork sausages at the Muslims.

Moments after the soldiers passed through tensions reached boiling point and the anti-Mac campaigners broke through the barricades, charged across the road and traded punches with the Muslim throng.

Police quickly separated the mob, with one man wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and led away while the police made a ring surrounding the Muslim group.

They then had to hold back the anti-Muslim group as the Mac protesters made their way to a tube station.

Two men were arrested after the violence, for public order offences.

Local woman Dee McEvoy, 50, stood in front of the Muslims protesters, waving her two union Jack flags as the soldiers passed.

She said: ‘I’m here for the army and the British forces. The protesters are entitled to their opinion but they are taking it out on the wrong people. They should be taking it out on the Government.

‘This is not the reception these boys and girls deserve. But it is democracy in action.’ Earlier the Muslim group was attacked by a barrage of eggs.

One member of the Mac group used a megaphone to shout: ‘This is a protest against parading in a Muslim area. We love death the way you love life.’

He branded British soldiers as ‘butchers’ and ‘despots’.

The Muslim protesters chanted ‘Democracy’ as they had an uneasy stand-off against a mob, some waving St George’s Crosses, Union flags and an English Defence League flag.

Anti-Mac protesters sang ‘I’ll be English ‘till my dying day,’ and jeered ‘We pay your benefits’.

Further down the street onlookers, who had arrived simply to pay their respects to the soldiers, were disgusted by the scenes.

The girlfriend of a Royal Anglian soldier killed in Afghanistan said the extremists should have been banned from attending the parade.

Lance Corporal Scott Hardy, 26, from Chelmsford in Essex, was killed in an explosion near Musa Qala on Tuesday March 16, just weeks before he was due to return home.

Lance Corporal Hardy’s partner Charlene Byrne, 24, said: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting. I know this kind of thing has happened before in Luton but I don’t understand how it has been allowed to happened again.

‘It’s terrible that this group has got away with it. Obviously not everyone supports what’s happening in Afghanistan, there are people who are very angry about it, but they shouldn’t take it out on the soldiers.’

Emily Penson-Clark, who took the day off work to support the soldiers with her young daughter and parents said: ‘I think the protesters are filth. I’m here to support our troops. They put their lives on the line for us. I’ve got three words: Help for Heroes.’

The soldiers remained undaunted by the abuse, and marched through the town centre with fixed bayonets, accompanied by the Minden Band, a Colour Party and two guards of 70 officers and non-commisioned officers.

The Freedom parade stopped briefly in Barking Town Square where the Mayor, Councillor Nirmal Singh Gill, General Sir John McColl and the Queen’s deputy Lieutenant Major Anthony O’Hagan took a salute and inspected the troops.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Spot the Difference: How Today’s Airbrushing PC Censors Decided Churchill Could Do Without His Cigar

But are these actually the same photograph of Sir Winston Churchill?

In the original photograph the war leader has his cigar gripped firmly in the corner of his mouth.

But in the other image — currently greeting visitors to a London museum — his favourite smoke has been digitally extinguished.

It seems the man who steered Britain through the most dangerous period of its recent history may have fallen victim to the modern curse of political correctness.

Last night the question of who removed the cigar and when was something of a mystery.

The Winston Churchill’s Britain At War Experience, in South-East London, confessed to being astonished to discover that the image may have been doctored.

Which is a little embarrassing for the staff at the charitable trust, because the photograph features on a giant poster hanging above the museum’s main door.

So just who did pinch the great man’s Havana?

It wasn’t the anti-smoking lobby, which has had no known contact with the museum; it certainly wasn’t Churchill’s family — his grandson Nicholas Soames said ‘it doesn’t matter one way or the other’; and it wasn’t the museum itself — in fact it’s got wartime posters advertising cigarettes on the walls.

But intriguingly the museum, which gives all profits to charity, declined to name who put together the display and, crucially, who enlarged the image for the poster.

Museum manager John Welsh was astonished to be told the image was missing one vital ingredient.

‘We’ve got all sorts of images in the museum, some with cigars and some without,’ he said. ‘We’ve even got war-time adverts for cigarettes in the lift down to the air raid shelter, so we wouldn’t have asked for there to be no cigar.’

Museum owner Don Robinson, who handed the museum to a charitable trust 20 years ago, was equally surprised.

‘If we’d known we would have said “no it stays as it is”. Everything we do we try to do accurately and the cigar symbolises Churchill.’

Mr Robinson insisted the person who designed the posters would not have removed the cigar and said he would like to get to the bottom of the mystery too.

The original picture was taken in 1948 when Churchill was opening the new HQ of 615 County of Surrey Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force of which he was commodore.

The altered image was spotted by museum visitor David McAdam.

He said: ‘I pointed out this crude alteration to a museum steward who said she hadn’t noticed the change before, nor had anyone else pointed it out.

‘Viewing the now disfigured image reveals just how unhinged the vociferous anti-smoking lobby has become. So much for the notion that only communist tyrants airbrushed history.’

Allen Packwood, of Churchill Archives Centre, said he had never known of the leader’s cigar being airbrushed out before.

‘The cigar is part of what makes Churchill an iconic figure and of course it was very much part of his image as war leader — it went hand in hand with his victory salute and the uniforms he wore.

‘What’s politically correct for 2010 was not politically correct for 1940.’

Churchill is not the first figure to fall foul of such meddling.

A much-reproduced photograph of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel posing against the backdrop of the huge launching chains of his ship the SS Great Eastern in 1857 shows him smoking a cigar.

However, in a copy which has been used on the front of a school textbook, the cigar was airbrushed out to avoid ‘offence’.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



UK: Tories Would Maintain Islamic Finance Focus

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) — The UK Conservative Party would foster the development of Islamic finance as much as the Labour government, if it comes to power after next year’s general election, an Islamic finance expert linked to the Party said. Mohammed Amin, partner and head of the UK Islamic Finance practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL] (PwC), said at a conference on Wednesday: “All the ways (in which) Labour has supported Islamic finance would be every bit as valuable under David Cameron (Conservative Party leader) as prime minister.

“The next conservative government would be very supportive of Islamic finance,” he told delegates of the Islamic Finance News Roadshow 2009 conference in London.

Amin said he was speaking as vice-chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, an affiliate of Cameron’s party working to encourage support from the Muslim community.

The UK has undergone a series of tax and law changes in the last few years to allow the launch of retail Islamic-compliant services such as mortgages, bank accounts and insurance.

In April the budget 2009 changed the tax regime to facilitate Islamic-debt issuance and encourage the growth of London as an Islamic finance hub.

Rules were changed to remove fiscal penalties to UK companies willing to issue sukuks, or Islamic bonds, effectively ending a regime which would have double-taxed the transactions needed to set up a sukuk.

The government however shelved its plans to launch a sovereign sukuk last November, citing the troubled market conditions in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse.

Amin said the Conservative party had been quiet about the Islamic finance field because there was “no political mileage” in highlighting the achievements of the Labour government.

The Conservative Party is widely tipped to be the winner of the next general election next year. The party did not return Reuters’ requests for comment. (Reporting by Cecilia Valente; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



UK: Woman Fined for Erratic Driving Caused by Niqab Headscarf Impairing Her Vision

A motorist has been fined for erratic driving caused by her Islamic headscarf, just weeks after a similar incident sparked a major political row.

Police in Vaucluse in southern France stopped the woman after she was spotted driving her vehicle carelessly on the road.

It was then officers noticed the driver was wearing a niqab, a veil that leaves only the eyes exposed, and that her sight was impaired, according to commanding officer Charles Bourillon.

‘[The headscarf] was bothering the driver in her manoeuvres … It was obvious she could not see a thing,’ he said.

Police gave the driver a ticket for 22 euros (£18) for driving with a reduced field of vision.

Officers then suggested that the woman remove her niqab to improve her sight, which she did.

[Return to headlines]

Balkans


EU-Serbia: Frattini, A.S.A. OK, But Germany Blocking Accession

(ANSAmed) — LUXEMBURG, JUNE 14 — Italy’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, has expressed his satisfaction with the unblocking of the process to ratify the Association and Stabilisation Agreement with Serbia, but indicated that it had not been possible today to resolve the question of the country’s progress towards accession to the EU because of an obstacle imposed by Germany. “Any decision concerning the enlargement dossier first requires a formal decision by the Bundestag,” Frattini pointed out. “The overwhelming majority of member states, however, believe that Serbia’s application for membership should be examined as soon a possible”. As for any tie between Serbia’s application and Belgrade’s position over Kosovo, Frattini said that should such a thing be done “it would represent an extremely dangerous precedent”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


108 Al Qaeda Members Identified in Sahel

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 15 — There are 108 Al Qaeda members in the Sahel, from different nationalities, the Algerian daily Al Khobar writes today, quoting security services. The black list includes 21 Algerian nationals, 34 from Mauritania, 14 from Nigeria, 18 from Mali, 7 from Chad, 6 from Libya, 5 from Morocco and 3 Tunisians. For the first time there are two people on the list who were at first only know as traffickers. Their presence confirms the new links between terrorists and people who smuggle weapons, drugs and human beings. The identification of the 108 is seen as a success that results from the collaboration between the police and secret services, a decision taken by all Sahel countries last year in a formal agreement. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Al-Qaeda’s North African Chief ‘Backs Bin Laden’

Algiers, 14 June (AKI) — The head of Al-Qaeda’s North African branch, Abdel Malik Droukedel reaffirmed his allegiance to the terror network’s leader, Osama Bin Laden in a 10-minute audio message posted to jihadist websites.

“We inform you, O Emir Osama Bin Laden, that we are still faithful to you and are fighting with all our force,” said the message purportedly recorded by Droukedel.

He is also known as Abu Musab Abdel Wudud.

Droukedel also paid tribute to Al-Qaeda’s late leader in Afghanistan, Egyptian-born Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, as well as late Al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, Abu Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.

“Mujadadeen brothers, wherever you are, victory is close at hand.

“The deaths of our leaders has strengthened us on our path and with their blood they have watered the tree of Islam,” said the audio message.

Al-Yazid al-Baghdadi and al-Muhajir were alll killed this year.

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

Israel and the Palestinians


Caroline Glick: Hamas Rises in the West

Since the navy’s May 31 takeover of the Turkish-Hamas flotilla, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his advisors have deliberated around the clock about how to contend with the US-led international stampede against Israel. But their ultimate decision to form an investigatory committee led by a retired Supreme Court justice and overseen by foreign observers indicates that they failed to recognize the nature of the international campaign facing Israel today.

Led by US President Barack Obama, the West has cast its lot with Hamas against Israel.

It is not surprising that Obama is siding with Hamas. His close associates are leading members of the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit. Obama’s friends, former Weatherman Underground terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayres participated in a Free Gaza trip to Egypt in January. Their aim was to force the Egyptians to allow them into Gaza with 1,300 fellow Hamas supporters. Their mission was led by Code Pink leader and Obama fundraiser Jodie Evans. Another leading member of Free Gaza is former US senator from South Dakota James Abourezk.

All of these people have open lines of communication not only to the Obama White House, but to Obama himself…

[Return to headlines]



Israel Nabs Bosnian Muslim, Albanians on Terror Ship

During the raid on the Muslim terror ship, Israeli commandos have arrested a Bosnian Muslim national. His name is Yasser Mohamad Sabbagh and he is of the Syrian origin and he is pictured on the left.

Four additional Balkan Muslims were nabbed by the Israelis and presumably all of them are ethnic Albanian Muslims. One is from Kosovo and the 3 others are from Macedonia where Wahhabism is rampant among the Albanian Muslims.

The Kosovo Albanian arrested by Israel is Ramiqi Fuad President of Muslim Forum of Kosova and he said to Sabbagh:

“I was at this time stated the common suffering that we went during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Kosovo war. Knowing what the situation in Palestine, at least we can contribute is that they carry a part of faith in the freedom that we achieved after long years, and will also one day have.

Sabbagh wrote in his last e-mail sent by the Organization of MFS in BiH saying that “Because of this mission has only one representative from Kosovo and a representative from Bosnia and Herzegovina, pleases you to more Bosnia. the media involved in monitoring these activities”.

Earlier this year, Israel warned via Macedonia’s PM that local Balkan Muslims are deep into world’s Islamic Jihad.

After the arrest of bunch of Jihadists on this Turkish ship, Israel now extends its warning by saying that “Dozens of passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship are suspected of having connections with Global Jihad-affiliated terrorist organizations” while the Israeli defense ministry says that there are “growing concerns that Turkey will dispatch Navy warships to accompany a future flotilla to the Gaza Strip.”

Turkey has been rattling against Jews for some time now, and after Turkey wrapped up bunch of diplomatic deals with Serbia, they got Belgrade to support UN investigation of the raid on the terror ship.

Anyway, foreign born Muslims came to Bosnia in the 1990s so they can kill non-Muslims and most of them have been awarded Bosnian citizenship by the Bosnian Muslim government. Most world’s terrorists are graduates of the Bosnian Muslim Jihad.

Sabbagh is currently held in the prison at Ela near Bar Sheva.

Bosnia’s Foreign Minister, Sven Alkalaj, issued a directive to his Ambassador in Israel, Ivana Levi, to extend consular help to this Syrian-born Bosnian Muslim. Alkalaj orderd Levi to visit Sabbagh as soon as possible and report back to him. Sabbagh’s son, Amar, demands that the Bosnian Muslim government seek relief for his father via Israel and/or Turkey.

Dzenana Sabic, Bosnian Muslim member of the International Solidarity Forum — EMMAUS, says that Sabbagh was carrying an alleged “humanitarian” help collected among Bosnian Muslims for the Palestinians.

Since most Islamic so-called charities are terror-funding enterprises, a link can already be established between the Solidarity Forum, the terror-funding Islamic Relief and the official Bosnian Muslim religious body.

Specifically, last year, the official Bosnian Muslim religious body called Rijaset of the Islamic Community, donated 100,000 Euros to Gaza that it collected via its mosques in Bosnia but, the money that the official Bosnian Muslim religious body raised was given to the Islamic Relief.

In 2003, Islamic Relief is has been designated as a terror funding organization under the Executive Order 13224.

So in essence, Sabbagh is a delivery-boy of the terror money that the official Bosnian Muslim religious body raised across the Bosnian Muslim mosques.

In other words, the official Bosnian Muslim religious body went around collecting Euros in order to ship it via terror-funding Islamic charity with Sabbagh as a delivery-boy.

The Rijaset is also very loose on portraying Jews as evil and have issued many official hutbas or religious teachings telling the Bosnian Muslim faithful that Jews are “cowards and plotters which are constantly turning to the right path and make a mess on Earth” calling Moses (Musa) as the first of the “Jew deceivers” and that Jews “rush to sin and cause Allah… into anger.”

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Fethullah Gulen’s Cave of Wonders

By Spengler

We’ve been had, boys and girls: the international community, the world press, Israeli intelligence, the United Nations, the lot of us. The existential drama off the Gaza coast turns out to be a Turkish farce, the kind of low comedy that in 1782 Wolfgang Mozart set to music in the opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan playing the buffo-villain Osmin and Turkish self-exiled preacher and author Fethullah Gulen as the wise Pasha Selim.

In the post-American world, where every wannabe and used-to-be power makes momentary deals with other powers it plans to kill later, one makes inferences with caution. But I’ve seen this opera before.

Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania in the United States, was silent as a jinn in a bottle about politics until last Friday, when he told the Wall Street Journal that the Free Gaza flotilla’s attempt to run the Israeli blockage of Gaza “is a sign of defying authority, and will not lead to fruitful matters”.

Erdogan’s Islamists have run a two-year campaign of judicial activism against secular politicians, journalists and army officers, and secular critics long have alleged that Gulen is the clerical power behind the prime minister.

For the secretive Gulen to criticize the Turkish government in the midst of its public rage against Israel is an imam-bites-dog story. Gulen appears to have positioned himself as a mediator with Israel. Turkey does not want to end its longstanding relationship with Israel; it wants Israel to become a Turkish vassal-state in emulation of the old Ottoman model.

The killing last week by Israeli commandos of nine activists on board the Mavi Marmara served numerous goals, and Gulen’s grand return to Turkish politics appears to be one of them. The question that every commentator in the Turkish press asked over the weekend, in one form or other, was: When will this voice of Muslim moderation re-emerge as an open force in the ruling Islamist party?

There is every indication that the Turkish government dispatched the Gaza flotilla in order to stage a violent confrontation. The Erdogan government announced that it had carefully vetted the passenger list on the Mavi Marmara, which is to say that it knew that many of the passengers boarded with the intention of achieving “martyrdom” in a clash with the Israelis. They must have known this, for both the Turkish as well as the Palestinian press ran interviews with family members of some of the nine dead passengers explaining this intent.

The passengers’ plans for martyrdom have been celebrated in the Arab press, and translated on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute. The Turkish government also knew that the Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Islamic charity behind the Gaza flotilla, had ties to Hamas, for it had banned the IHH from charitable activity in Turkey a decade ago due to its connection to an organization that the previous secular government regarded as terrorist.

What explains Israel’s apparent intelligence failure? Israel fields a small service tasked with operations in Iran, southern Lebanon, Gaza and Syria among other prospective enemies. The Mossad probably relied on counterparts in Turkish intelligence — with whom it has a long history of collaboration — to cover the passenger list on the Mavi Marmara. The often-unreliable Debka claims that “Turkish intelligence duped Israel”, which in this case is likely. By stealth or by sloth, Israel was roped into the comedy.

The star of the comedy, at least for the Turkish media, is Gulen. The 78-year-old imam has lived in self-imposed exile for two decades, due to charges by Turkish prosecutors that he led a conspiracy to subvert the secular state. He presides over Turkey’s largest religious movement, commanding the loyalty of two-thirds of the Turkish police, according to some reports. His movement — a transnational civic society movement inspired by Gulen’s teachings — also controls a network of elite schools that educate a tenth of the high school students in the Turkic world from Baku to Kyrgyzstan. And it reportedly controls businesses with tens of billions of dollars in assets.

His movement has been expelled from the Russian Federation and his followers arrested in Uzbekistan by local authorities who believe his goal is a pan-Turkic union from the Bosporus to China’s western Xinjiang province (“East Turkestan” to Gulen’s movement).

In Mozart’s Abduction, Belmonte and Pedrillo descend into the pasha’s harem to rescue Kostanze; in last week’s version, Israeli commandos descended onto the Mavi Marmara. And there is the stock villain of Viennese comedy, the Turk Osmin, played by Erdogan. The predictable occurs, and the prospective Shahidi become actual corpses. And Erdogan threatens Israel with terrible things, in emulation of Mozart’s Osmin, who sings:

“First you’ll be beheaded!

Then hanged!

Then spitted on hot stakes!

Then bound, and burned, and drowned, and finally skinned!”

This, one supposes, is supposed to frighten the children in the audience, who then will smile and clap when the Wise Old Man enters to urge moderation, caution and respect for authority, in the person of Gulen.

The Islamic shift in Turkey has been underway for years. As Rachel Sharon-Krespin wrote in the Middle East Quarterly (Winter 2009):

As Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP) begins its seventh year in leadership, Turkey is no longer the secular and democratic country that it was when the party took over. The AKP has conquered the bureaucracy and changed Turkey’s fundamental identity. Prior to the AKP’s rise, Ankara oriented itself toward the United States and Europe. Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Prime Minister Erdogan has turned Turkey away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and re-oriented Turkish policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria.

We are now in a post-American world, at least where the Barack Obama administration is concerned, and Turkey like its neighbors is scrambling for position. What does Turkey want in a post-American world?

The question itself seems stupid, for the obvious answer is: “Whatever it can get.” It wants to become the dominant regional power rather than Iran, casting a wolfish glance at Iran’s Azeri population, who speak Turkish rather than Persian. It wants to “mediate” the Israeli-Palestinian issue and is not squeamish about its prospective partners. It wants Palestine to be an Ottoman province once again. It wants to be the energy hub for the Middle East and the outlet for Russian and Azerbaijani pipelines.

But it is a bit more complex than that. Modern Turkey is an artificial construct, rather than a nation-state in the Western sense. Since the Turks completed the conquest of Byzantine Anatolia in the middle of the 14th century, a relatively thin crust of ethnic Turks has ruled over subject peoples. The Ottoman Empire at various points in its history had a Christian majority; its civil service at different points was more Venetian, Armenian and Jewish then Turkish; its self-understanding was global and religious, that is, as the caliphate of Islam, rather than as a national entity.

When World War I reduced Turkey to an Anatolian rump, Kemal Ataturk attempted to impose “Turkishness” as a secular, national ideology on the European model. To make the country “Turkish”, several million Orthodox Christians were estimated to have been killed. The hollowness of Ataturk’s secular construct, modeled on the nastier European national movements, made it vulnerable from the beginning. The army was the only institution that could hold Turkish society together.

What will replace Ataturk’s secularism? I wrote two years ago:

If political Islam prevails in Turkey, what will emerge is not the same country in different coloration, but a changeling, an entirely different nation. In a 1997 speech that earned him a prison term, Erdogan warned of two fundamentally different camps, the secularists who followed Kemal, and Muslims who followed sharia. These are not simply different camps, however, but different configurations of Turkish society at the molecular level. Like a hologram, Turkey offers two radically different images when viewed from different angles. Turkish Islam, the ordering of the Anatolian villages and the Istanbul slums, represents a nation radically different than the secularism of the army, the civil service, the universities and the Western-leaning elite of Istanbul. If the Islamic side of Turkey rises, the result will be unrecognizable. Turkey in the throes of Islamic revolution? Asia Times Online, July 22, 2008.

Gulen’s pan-Turkic mysticism views Turkey as the center of a new caliphate uniting the Muslim world. He preaches a “Turkish renaissance” with a modern spin “to ensure that religion and science go together and that science penetrates not only individual lives, but also social life”. His schools educate the elite of the Turkic world across Asia. Gulen’s interest, to be sure, focuses on the Turkish state, whose bureaucracy is now filled with his acolytes. But unlike Ataturk’s secular nationalism, which tried to redefine Turkey on a European model, Gulen’s Islamism is inherently expansionist.

What Gulen means by science is of an entirely different order than the Western understanding. This “imam from rural Anatolia”, as his website describes him, inhabits the magical world of jinns and sorcery. Science is just a powerful form of magic of which Turks should avail themselves to enhance their power, as he writes in his 2005 book, The Essentials of the Islamic Faith:

Jinn are conscious beings charged with divine obligations. Recent discoveries in biology make it clear that God created beings particular to each realm. They were created before Adam and Eve, and were responsible for cultivating and improving the world. Although God superseded them with us, he did not exempt them from religious obligations.

As nothing is difficult for God almighty, he has provided human beings, angels and jinns with the strength appropriate for their functions and duties. As he uses angels to supervise the movements of celestial bodies, he allows to humans to rule the Earth, dominate matter, build civilizations and produce technology.

Power and strength are not limited to the physical world, nor are they proportional to bodily size … Our eyes can travel long distances in an instant. Our imagination can transcend time and space all at once … winds can uproot trees and demolish large buildings. A young, thin plant shoot can split rocks and reach the sunlight. The power of energy, whose existence is known through its effect, is apparent to everybody. All of this shows that something’s power is not proportional to its physical size; rather the immaterial world dominates the physical world, and immaterial entities are far more powerful than material ones.

He goes on to warn about sorcery and the danger of spells; he allows that it is meritorious to break spells (for evil witches are everywhere casting spells), although a good Muslim should not make a profession of this, for then he might be mistaken for a sorcerer himself. The notion that “wind” and “energy” are “immaterial” forces exudes the magical world view of an Anatolian peasant; the miracles of technology are the secret actions of jinn, just as the planetary movements are the actions of angels. When Gulen talks about the union of religion and science, what he means quite concretely is that the magical view of jinns in the Koran aids the believer in enlisting these “immaterial” forces to enhance the power of Islam. Science for Gulen means the management of jinn.

Gulen, in short, is a shaman, a relic of pre-history preserved in the cultural amber of eastern Anatolia. Kemalism was sterile, brutal, secular and rational; the “moderate Islam” of Gulen is magical, a mystic’s vision of Ottoman restoration and a pan-Turkic caliphate.

The Erdogan government crafted the Mavi Marmara affair as a piece of theater, preparing the deus ex machina (god from the machine) entrance of Gulen himself, more Pagliaccio than Apollo, to be sure. The trouble is that the Turkish Islamists live in a world of magical realism in which theater and reality, human and jinn, desire and achievement blend into a mystical blur. Gulen explains in his The Essentials of the Islamic Faith that Allah created the jinn out of fire. And that is what the apologists for Turkish Islamism are playing with.

Spengler is channeled by David P Goldman

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



Ofra Bengio / Turkey’s Strategic U-Turn, Israel’s Tactical Mistakes

[A fairly clear-minded assessment of the current tensions between Turkey and Israel. Even if it ignores the intrinsically offensive nature of Turkey’s increasing Islamism in which Israel has, up to now, played no substantial role. — Z]

While it is Turkey that has been changing its strategy vis-à-vis Israel by tilting toward the Arab and Muslim worlds, Israel has helped push it in that direction with a number of egregious tactical mistakes.

The Turkish-Israeli crisis touched off by the Gaza flotilla episode encapsulates the evolution of the two countries’ bilateral relations in recent years. Though it is the Turkish government that has slowly been changing its strategy vis-à-vis Israel by tilting more and more toward the Arab and Muslim worlds, Israel has helped push it in that direction with a number of egregious tactical mistakes.

Ankara’s strategic shift began some years ago, when it aligned itself with Israel’s two implacable enemies, Hamas and Iran. These new alliances could not be explained away as a mere humanitarian gesture toward the Palestinians or an attempt to contain Iran through engagement. Given Iran’s and Hamas’ unflinching opposition to Israel’s existence, Turkey’s support for them cancels out, in effect, its alignment with Israel.

Oddly, neither ordinary Turkish citizens nor members of the intelligentsia seem to grasp the impact on Israel of Ankara’s shift. To illustrate the point, one can imagine the reaction in Turkey were Israel to declare its support for Armenia against Turkey (to be sure, the parallel with Iran breaks down over the fact that Armenia possesses no nuclear weapons and has not declared its opposition to Turkey’s right to exist). Similarly, one may ask, how would Turkey have responded to an Israeli invitation to Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdish PKK opposition (the AKP government of Prime Minster Tayyip Recep Erdogan has hosted Hamas leader Khalid Mashal), or if Israel had organized a flotilla to provide aid to the country’s Kurds?

From a historical perspective, this was not the first time that Turkey had tilted toward the Arab world at Israel’s expense. Nonetheless, the current case differs from earlier ones in a number of important respects. In previous instances, Turkey’s attempt to curry favor with Arab countries was in response to a concern over possible Arab moves that could directly harm Turkish interests, for example, the Arab threat not to sell oil to Turkey after the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war. In the latest incident, by contrast, Turkey’s actions were proactive, taken at its own initiative. Furthermore, although Turkish leaders in the past occasionally employed harsh words against Israel, never has Turkish rhetoric been as intense, inflammatory or sustained as that employed by Erdogan, beginning with last year’s confrontation with Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos.

Erdogan’s actions mark the first time that a Turkish prime minister has taken the lead in posing as the savior of Palestinians facing Israeli oppression. Similarly, while in the past Turkey’s moves toward Israel were motivated by considerations of realpolitik, Erdogan appears to be guided by a quasi-messianic approach that eerily resembles the actions of Egypt’s Gamal Abd al-Nasser during the 1950s and ‘60s Lastly, although the sympathy of the Turkish people with the Palestinians is of long standing, it has never appeared as deep-rooted and all-encompassing as in the aftermath of the flotilla crisis.

The reasons underpinning Turkey’s altered posture are manifold. One important explanation is the quiet revolution transpiring under the AKP government in both the domestic and foreign policy spheres. Paradoxically, its new Islamic ideological and political orientation turns the state into a friendly competitor with Iran over the leadership role of the Islamist, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli stance. This, together with the AKP government’s success in cutting the Turkish military’s influence down to size, enabled the government to deliver a severe blow to the strategic alignment with Israel. Moreover, sacrificing this alignment for the sake of close relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds was perceived as producing considerable dividends for Turkey in general, and for the premier in particular. With his recent moves, Erdogan has assumed the role of an Islamic and Palestinian hero, while the Turkish state has catapulted itself onto center stage as the rising tiger of the Middle East. Such achievements can be expected to encourage even more assertive moves in the same direction.

Israel’s own flagrant errors played into the hands of the Turkish government, while also feeding the Turkish street’s antipathy toward Israel. The deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations began gathering force during the winter 2008-2009 Gaza conflict, when Israel failed to notify Ankara of its intent to attack, though it had do so with Egypt. Without entering here into Israel’s considerations, Turkey’s rivalry with Egypt, Ankara’s pro-Palestinian sentiments and Erdogan’s allegedly injured honor went a long way to explain the open negative shift demonstrated at the Davos meeting that January. Other Israeli “contributions” to the decline of the relationship included declarations by some Israeli officials of their opposition to any mediating role by Turkey between Syria and Israel. Especially insulting, and ultimately embarrassing for Israel, was the demonstratively humiliating way in which Turkey’s ambassador to Israel was treated by Israel’s deputy foreign minister, this past January.

Hence, the ground was well prepared for a crisis, which the flotilla affair provided in spades. Israel knew beforehand that the AKP was in one way or another linked to the IHH organization (Insani Yardim Vakfi), headed by Bulent Yildirim, which was the moving spirit behind the flotilla.. Israel’s mistake was that it chose the greater of two evils. By confronting the Marmara and causing the death of nine Turks it inflamed both the Turkish public and the ruling elite against Jerusalem. Huge street demonstrations encouraged Erdogan to further sharpen his extreme stance on Israel, which in turn further incited the public.

Up until that point, Turkey and Israel had no real problems on the level of bilateral relations. Their disputes had to do with other issues, particularly their differing outlooks on the Palestinian issue. Now, with the death of Turkish citizens, people-to-people relations between Turkey and Israel have been dealt a severe blow. Governments come and go but the enmity that is developing between the two nations will be very difficult to heal if a more sober and level-headed approach is not adopted by the two countries.

Because of the inherently asymmetrical nature of Turkish-Israeli relations, Israel appears to be the main loser from their deterioration. Still, Turkey too stands to lose from the new situation. As it increasingly assumes a more Iranian-like radical stance, Ankara’s credibility as a stability-promoting power in the region is likely to be damaged. Second it has diminished its chances for playing the role of a mediator between Syria and Israel, a task that is strongly coveted by the architects of its newly activist foreign policy. Lastly, the surge in popularity of the AKP government, exemplified by the huge anti-Israeli demonstrations that Erdogan’s inflammatory speeches helped unleash, may boomerang against him in the long run. Even now, concurrently with the anti-Israeli demonstrations, similarly large ones have been taking place against the AKP, organized by Kurds. Ultimately, Israel will not be able to serve indefinitely as a diversion from the Turkish government’s domestic and external problems.

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Saudis Open Skies for Israeli Hit on Iran

Saudi Arabia is giving Israel a free pass through its airspace for a bombing run on Iranian nuclear sites, reports the Times of London, citing defense sources in the Gulf. The move puts four key sites within range of Israeli bombers, and the Saudis have tested lowering their air defenses to allow the Israelis through. While there’s no love lost between the two, “I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity,” says one official.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” a US defense source tells the Times. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the State Department.”

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Turkey to Host One Million Arab Tourists in 2010

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 14 — Turkish tourism officials expect nearly one million Arab tourists to visit Turkey until the end of 2010, as Anatolia news agency reports. Speaking to reporters in the Mediterranean province of Antalya on Monday, Turgut Gur, the head of Turkish Tourism Investors’ Association (TYD), said that Turkey’s lifting visa procedures with several Arab countries boosted the country’s tourism. Noting he expected numerous Arab visitors in Turkey’s southern provinces, Gur said, ““I expect a million Arab tourists until the end of this year. There is a remarkable interest in Turkey”. Gur said the number of Arab tourists visiting Turkey increased by 37% in March 2010 and by 44% in April 2010. Upon a question on whether there had been a pause in the flow of Israeli tourists to Turkey after Israel’s recent deadly attack on aid ships, Gur said there had been a certain decrease in the number of Israeli visitors, stating nearly 50,000 bookings had been cancelled until the end of this season. Gur said Turkey might have lost numerous Israeli tourists, but it expected a million Arab visitors and estimated a rise in its tourism incomes. “We expect a total of 30 million tourists to visit Turkey this year. We also estimate a tourism income of almost 23 billion USD,” he noted. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Who Killed Khaled Sultan Al-Abed?

by Jonathan Spyer

Once viewed as perhaps the most locked-down and policed city in the Middle East, the Syrian capital of Damascus has been the scene of a number of bombings and assassinations in the last few years. Most famously, of course, Hizbullah master-operative Imad Mughniyeh was killed by a car bomb in February 2008.

Last year, in a much messier affair, a number of Iranian pilgrims were killed in a bus bombing which the Syrian authorities did their clumsy best to conceal.

In the last month, an additional item must be added to the list of curious and unexplained acts of lethal violence to have taken place in the Syrian capital.

On May 16, Khaled Sultan al-Abed, a businessman and a senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, was shot dead outside his home in the same smart Damascus neighborhood in which Mughniyeh met his end. Mezzeh, which is also home to a number of foreign embassies, is one of the most closely watched as well as one of the most fashionable districts of Damascus.

Abed was the official head in Syria of Iran Khodro, a car franchise established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. He had been resident in Damascus for 10 years, owned a 25 percent stake in the company, and had reportedly succeeded in forging close ties with prominent figures in the Syrian business community.

However, according to a report by veteran journalist Georges Malbrunot in Le Figaro this week, this position and Abed’s additional extensive business activities in Syria were intended to serve as a cover for his other duties — those of a liaison officer between the Iranian regime and Hizbullah.

The Syrian authorities are clearly deeply embarrassed at this latest breach of the daily tranquility of their capital. The murder was not reported by official news sources, and Syrian officials have made no comment upon it. An investigation into the killing of Abed has reportedly been launched.

WHO MIGHT have carried it out?…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghanistan — India: Appeal for Afghan Christians, Sentenced to Death for Their Faith

A group of Afghan Christian refugees, who escaped to India to save their lives, describe the hardships they face in their homeland, where Muslim converts to Christianity are put to death. They call on the international community to put pressure on the Afghan government to spare those sentenced to death.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) — VijayKumar Singh, from the India Bible Publishers and the Delhi Bible Fellowship, has launched an appeal to the Christians of India and the world to pray and express their support for Afghan Muslim converts to Christianity who were convicted on conversion charges and sentenced to death on 31 May. Speaking to AsiaNews, Sing said, “We need Christians’ help all over the world to stop the Afghan government from arresting Dari-speaking Afghan Christians and condemning them to death by public execution.”

Afghans consider their country to be 100 per cent Muslim. A local TV station, Noorin TV, recently broadcast a documentary showing photos and videos of secret “Afghan Christian Converts”, which revealed names and showed the faces of alleged Afghan Christian converts.

This was enough to spark riots and demonstrations throughout Afghanistan with protesters demanding strong action to enforce the Afghan constitution, based on Sharia, arrest the culprits, and execute anyone who renege his or her religion in favour of another.

A number of prominent public figures also spoke out on the matter, calling for immediate action. One lawmaker even said that killing a Muslim who converts to Christianity was “not a crime”.

Waheed Omar, the spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, told reporters that the president was “personally” taking an interest in this case, and had ordered his interior minister and the head of the country’s spy agency to carry out a full investigation and “take immediate and serious action to prevent this phenomenon.”

Reports from inside Afghanistan already tell of many arrests in recent days, as well as allegations of torture of those under arrest in an effort to extract forcibly the names of other Afghan Christian converts.

Singh also slams the “perplexing media silence” and demands a strong stance from Christians around the world.

In a letter, Obaid S. Christ, a member of a small group of about 150 Afghan Christian refugees and asylum seekers in India, writes that he and other Afghan Christians “are currently living in exile from their beloved homeland [. . .] forced to flee their country in order to save their life and the lives of their families, due to orders of execution issued against them by the Afghan government for choosing to convert to Christianity.”

Recently, he writes, “The Afghan Home Minister and the Chairman of Afghan Intelligence told the Afghan Parliament that four Afghan Christians and one family had been arrested and that they were under investigation,” and that “13 NGOs are recognized and suspended,” and that the “names of Afghan Christians are listed and the Afghan Intelligence agency wants to arrest them.” He adds, “Our houses are checked by police and intelligence people in Afghanistan, our families and parents (even though they are Muslim) are under investigation and even arrested, and all Afghan believers are missing”.

For this reason, the Afghan Christian community is calling on every Christian “not to be silent or close his or her eyes whilst thousands of fellow believers are persecuted”.

Afghan Christians are asking their fellow Christians to pray for them, “make their voice heard and get the international community to put pressure on the Afghan government to stop killing, persecuting and executing Afghan Christians,” and give us instead “freedom of religion as well as respect and accept us as Afghan Christians.”

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

Immigration


Ariz. Lawmaker Takes Aim at Automatic Citizenship

[Wave goodbye to the anchor baby. — Z]

PHOENIX -Emboldened by passage of the nation’s toughest law against illegal immigration, the Arizona politician who sponsored the measure now wants to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to undocumented parents.

Legal scholars laugh out loud at Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce’s proposal and warn that it would be blatantly unconstitutional, since the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.

But Pearce brushes aside such concerns. And given the charged political atmosphere in Arizona, and public anger over what many regard as a failure by the federal government to secure the border, some politicians think the idea has a chance of passage.

“I think the time is right,” said state Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican from suburban Phoenix who is chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. “Federal inaction is unacceptable, so the states have to start the process.”

Earlier this year, the Legislature set off a storm of protests around the country when it passed a law that directs police to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. The law also makes it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant. The measure, which takes effect July 29 unless blocked in court, has inflamed the national debate over immigration and led to boycotts against the state.

An estimated 10.8 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. as of January 2009, according to the Homeland Security Department. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that as of 2008, there were 3.8 million illegal immigrants in this country whose children are U.S. citizens.

Pearce, who has yet to draft the legislation, proposes that the state of Arizona no longer issue birth certificates unless at least one parent can prove legal status. He contends that the practice of granting citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. encourages illegal immigrants to come to this country to give birth and secure full rights for their children.

“We create the greatest inducement for breaking our laws,” he said.

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” But Pearce argues that the amendment was meant to protect black people.

“It’s been hijacked and abused,” he said. “There is no provision in the 14th Amendment for the declaration of citizenship to children born here to illegal aliens.”

John McGinnis, a conservative law professor at Northwestern University, said Pearce’s interpretation is “just completely wrong.” The “plain meaning” of the amendment is clear, he said.

Senate candidate Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and darling of the tea party movement, made headlines last month after he told a Russian TV station that he favors denying citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

A similar bill was introduced at the federal level in 2009 by former Rep. Nathan Deal, a Georgia Republican, but it has gone nowhere.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, based in Washington, said Pearce’s idea would stop immigrants from traveling to the U.S. to give birth.

“Essentially we are talking about people who have absolutely no connection whatever with this country,” spokesman Ira Mehlman said. “The whole idea of citizenship means that you have some connection other than mere happenstance that you were born on U.S. soil.”

Citizenship as a birthright is rare elsewhere in the world. Many countries require at least one parent to be a citizen or legal resident.

Adopting such a practice in the U.S. would be not only unconstitutional but also impractical and expensive, said Michele Waslin, a policy analyst with the pro-immigrant Immigration Policy Center in Washington.

“Every single parent who has a child would have to go through this bureaucratic process of proving their own citizenship and therefore proving their child’s citizenship,” she said. [emphasis added]

[And what, exactly, is the big problem with that? Prospective parents already have to go through other tests and documentation prior to having a child. What’s so bad about having to show a driver’s license, passport and birth certificate? — Z]

Araceli Viveros, 27, and her husband, Saul, 34, are illegal immigrants from the Mexican state of Guerrero. He has been in Phoenix for 20 years, she for 10, and their 2- and 9-year-old children are U.S. citizens.

“I am so proud my children were born here. They can learn English and keep studying,” Viveros said in Spanish.

She said her husband has been working hard in Phoenix as a landscaper, and their children deserve to be citizens. The lawmaker’s proposal “is very bad,” she said. “It’s changing the Constitution, and some children won’t have the same rights as other children.”

[One is obliged to ask, “I this what the Founding Fathers really had in mind?” There are certain things that these great minds simply could not have anticipated; like Muslims agitating for shari’a law despite its seditious nature and Nazi groups being sheltered by free speech protections even though they support genocide. So much of the judiciary feels free to interpret our Constitution that it’s long overdue for the American people to begin making sure this document reflects the will of actual citizens and not the desires of criminals who have no right to be here in the first place. — Z]

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



‘Immigrants Are Making Germany Dumber’

Immigrants are making Germany ‘dumber’, according to a board member of the country’s central bank. Thilo Sarrazin claimed the ‘limited education’ of immigrants — coupled with their high birth rate — meant Germans ‘are becoming dumber in a simple way’. He said: ‘There’s a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.’ It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year. In October he described Muslim children as ‘underclass’ citizens. ‘I don’t have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn’t properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,’ Mr Sarrazin said. ‘That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.’ He added that they were not fit for much other than ‘fruit and vegetable selling’.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Nepal Becomes New Transit Point for Migrants on Their Way to Arab Countries

Nepalis’ good reputation as workers in Arab countries sees Indians and Bangladeshis forced to change their identity after falling into the hands of human traffickers. Some 1,200 Bangladeshis are stopped trying to emigrate to Arab countries on fake Nepali passports costing to US$ 5,000.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Human traffickers are taking advantage of Nepal’s political instability in order to use the mountain nation as a new transit point for migrant workers and refugees. Kathmandu police recently stopped more than 1,200 Bangladesh nationals trying to use Nepal in order to travel to Arab countries on fake Nepali passports. Local sources said that traffickers demanded US$ 4,000 to 5,000 per document. Everything came to light when racket kingpin Mohhamad Saibuddin was caught by police with a group of migrants hiding in a Kathmandu house.

Nepalis are considered good workers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Local companies often facilitate their immigration. For human traffickers, this means forcing migrant workers from India and Bangladesh to accept a fake Nepali passport before going to Arab countries.

“When I refused to accept a fake Nepali passport, they assaulted me, beat me up,” Anwar Hussain, a worker from Bangladesh, told AsiaNews.

As the traffickers prepared the fake papers, he and others were kept hidden in a Kathmandu home, taught Nepali and told to say they were from Nepal if they were ever discovered.

“This international racket has become a threat because of our political instability,” Nepal’s Home Affairs Minister Bhim Rawal said. “However, we will bring them to justice with the help of the international community.”

In 2008, Nepal became a democratic republic following ten years of civil war between the military and Maoist rebels, which led to the abolition of the centuries-old monarchy.

Elections that year were won by the Maoists led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda. He resigned however in May 2009 because of the military’s failure to incorporate Maoist fighters into its ranks.

The standoff between the two has not abated; instead, it has brought the country to the brink of another crisis. The political situation has negatively affected the economy, pushing a rising number of Nepalis to leave, and this has favour illegal activities.

On 28 May, parliament approved an additional delay before approving the country’s new constitution as a result of continued strikes by the Maoists and tensions within the ruling coalition government.

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

Culture Wars


Frank Gaffney: The “Bring Back the Draft” Act

As early as this week, the United States Senate may turn to the annual legislation known as “The National Defense Authorization Act” (NDAA) that is supposed to provide the Pentagon what it needs to defend our nation. Unfortunately, thanks to an amendment added in the Senate Armed Services Committee that would impose the radical homosexual agenda on the U.S. military, a more appropriate title for this bill would be “The Bring Back the Draft Act.”

Mind you, none of the bill’s sponsors would want it given such a descriptor. Nor are they likely to own up to the reality that their effort to repeal the present statutory prohibition on avowed homosexuals serving in uniform (popularly, though incorrectly, known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) will have the effect of destroying the highly successful All Volunteer Force.

Yet, that is, nonetheless, the professional judgment of over 1160 retired senior military officers who joined together earlier this year to warn President Obama and the Congress of this danger…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]



Hallmark Pulls Card After Complaints of Racial Slur

Hallmark has pulled one of its graduation cards off the shelves after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People complained that it used racial stereotypes and contained an abusive slur aimed at black women..

The card’s micro speaker has two Hallmark characters, Hoops and Yoyo, bantering about how the graduate is going to dominate the universe. They tell the planets to “watch your back” and issue a stern warning to “ominous” black holes.

That’s where the NAACP got angry.

They say that the audio sounds more like “black whores,” and that card is implying that black women are not as capable or as powerful as their white counterparts.

[Sure thing, you monster raving loons. Hallmark Cards built their CENTURY-OLD COMPANY on sentimental missives containing racial slurs, so this perceived slight has got to be part of a bigger pattern. After all, greeting cards mentioning “black ho’s” are just so commonplace today. JERKS! — Z]

“It’s passive intent aggressively stated in a way that makes African-Americans feel insulted,” Olivia Verrett, president of the Carson-Torrance branch of the NAACP in California told local news site The Daily Breeze.

The card is saying that “I (as a black woman) am below class, and feel as though I can run the universe, but I’m not going to run the universe because I have to watch my back,” Verrett said.

Hallmark has acted swiftly. They told all their franchises to pull the card from their shelves, and destroyed their inventory of the card.

Still, the greeting-card company denies that there is any kind of racial subtext to the card, which has been on sale for three years. Spokesman Steve Doyal insisted that it is simply a light-hearted message about graduates feeling so powerful they can dominate the universe — even matter-devouring black holes. [emphasis added]

[So, it only took the race baiters some THREE YEARS to latch onto this one, eh? — Z]

“The intent here is to say that this graduate is not afraid of anything,” Doyal told a local ABC affiliate.

The NAACP disagrees. It’s calling for a formal apology.

“I think Hallmark owes an apology,” Carson City Councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes, a member of the NAACP, told The Daily Breeze. “People are outraged.”

[It’s an outrage that morons like Lula Davis-Holmes manage even to get elected, much less be taken seriously about their cry-baby pissing and moaning over such supposedly overt racism-lurking-around-every-corner-and-greeting-card-store. — Z]

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



Iowa Republican: Obama Favors Blacks Over Whites

[A BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious) — Z]

WASHINGTON -Democrats on Tuesday denounced an Iowa Republican congressman who says President Barack Obama favors blacks over whites, and a GOP candidate from Colorado canceled a fundraiser the Iowan was to keynote.

Rep. Steve King, known for sometimes incendiary remarks about immigration, Abu Ghraib and other issues, criticized Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, who also is black, in an interview Monday on G. Gordon Liddy’s nationally syndicated radio talk show.

“I’m offended by Eric Holder and the president also, their posture,” said King, 61. “It looks like Eric Holder said that white people in America are cowards when it comes to race.”

King continued: “The president has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race on the side that favors the black person in the case of professor Gates and officer Crowley.”

He was alluding to last year’s incident in which Obama commented on a white police officer’s arrest of a black professor from Harvard University.

As news of King’s remarks spread, GOP House candidate Cory Gardner of Colorado canceled a planned $100 per-plate fundraiser where King was to speak. King’s appearance was also canceled at a Colorado tea party gathering where he was scheduled to appear.

“His comments do not represent the tea party,” said Owen Loftus, a spokesman for Republican Ken Buck, who is running for Senate in Colorado.

Andy Stone, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized Gardner for having scheduled King. “This is just the kind of over-the-top extremism that Colorado voters have rejected again and again,” Stone said.

King, a four-term lawmaker, made similar remarks about Obama in a speech last month.

“When he had an Irish cop and a black professor, who’d he side with?” King said. “He jumped to a conclusion without having heard the facts. And he ended up having to have a beer summit. The president of the United States has got to articulate a mission. And instead, he’s playing race-bait games to undermine the law enforcement in the state of Arizona and across the country.” [emphasis added]

[Just as with race baiting wanna-be warlord poverty pimps like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. — Z]

Holder, in a 2009 speech, did not suggest that whites are more cowardly than blacks when discussing race, as King indicated in the radio interview.

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot,” Holder said, “in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

When asked Tuesday night in a telephone interview whether he regretted his comments, King said: “In no way do I. It’s the White House that needs to answer questions, not me. It is absolutely right and I will continue to make the point.”

King, a former construction company owner, drew earlier criticism for comments about the Iraq war. He said the news media exaggerated the story of abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and dismissed it as hazing.

And after compiling what he called an accurate civilian violent death rate for Iraq, he said living there was safer than in some U.S. cities, including New Orleans and Detroit.

Christopher Reed, an Iowa conservative activist, defended King.

“He is one of those few politicians who really says what he thinks,” Reed said. “One man’s controversial is another man’s truth.”

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]

General


Al-Qaeda’s Ranks Diversify

Rome, 14 June (AKI) — The number of women being recruited to Al-Qaeda is growing exponentially and European and American converts to Islam are swelling their ranks. These so-called “mothers of terror” are taking up the armed struggle to prove their devotion to their new-found faith, according to a report due to be presented in Rome on Monday to Italy’s interior minister, Roberto Maroni.

The women believe they are fighting “Crusaders and Zionists” but actually, most of the victims of Al-Qaeda’s attacks are Muslims.

Besides the “mothers of terror”, the numbers of “Jihad nomads” is growing and Al-Qaeda’s organisation is becoming looser-knit. There are armed groups which are still affiliated with the terror network while others are simply inspired by it and there are also autonomous cells operating.

Al-Qaeda has however retained ideological leadership and control over propaganda, while attacks are carried out by “hybrid groups”, according to the new report, entitled Al-Qaeda 2010’, which was prepared by the ICSA Foundation.

Diplomats and security experts and researchers contribted to the report.

The report describes how “Jihad nomads” have often grown up in the West but have Asian or Middle Eastern origins. Today they’re in New York, the following month they’re in Oslo and then they’ll turn up in Peshawar.

The indoctrinate themselves with radical Islamist ideology, often gleaned from the Internet, and feel they don’t belong. They feel isolated from the world or rejected by it.

New-Mexico born imam Al Awlaki of Yemeni descent is an example of the kind of lone radical preacher the “nomads” look up to.

The female jihadist converts follow a similar path to the nomads, whether they are Europeans and Americans or from Muslim families from Asia and the Middle East.

Groups carrying out attacks have a local agenda, such as opposition to a regime or separatism. They most carry out local attacks, but also seek international action when possible.

The attacks can be led by a well-trained command as in India’s deadly Mumbai attacks in 2008. Or they may be carried out by a sole attacker, as in the case of the attempted airliner bombing above Detroit last December.

Sometimes the attacker has material help as did the Libyan would-be bomber Mohammed Game when he tried to attack a military barracks in the northern city of Milan in 2008.

Other times, the individual bomber has a network of individuals helping him. This can be small and even be made up of family members. The suspected attacker in New York’s recent Times Square bombing, Pakistan-born Faisal Shahzad, appears to be in this category.

And then there are the individuals who want to wage Jihad in the war zones of Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan’s tribal areas. Dozens of such jihadists, many of them German and American, have gone to fight in these countries.

Some of these jihadist ‘hotheads’ have achieved martyrdom and been killed in action. Others have been been sent back to their home countries by their recruiters and told to await further orders, according to the report.

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