The news feed just keeps getting longer and longer. Tonight there are more than eighty articles listed here.
In order to reduce the headline list to a somewhat manageable length, I clustered the articles as much as I could and eliminated some of the linked headlines in closely related groups. So if you want to read all the articles about, say, the UK or the Estonian spy scandal, when you see a headline for it and click the link, keep scrolling to make sure you see all the related articles.
It’s the best I can do until I can figure out a method of culling some of these articles — one that doesn’t take more of my time than simply posting them all.
Thanks to AA, C. Cantoni, Gaia, Holger Danske, Insubria, JD, KGS, Steen, TB, Tuan Jim, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Electoral College Scam: Where Dead People Vote
Lawyer challenging eligibility seeks investigation of process
A lawyer playing a major part in a California lawsuit urging officials to prevent the state’s 55 Electoral College votes from being recorded for Barack Obama until questions about his citizenship are resolved has written to county clerks around the state, seeking an investigation into a process that has allowed a dead woman to be listed as an official elector.
According to Gary Kreep, executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, the clerks have been advised about the “irregularity” in the list of electors provided by the Democratic Party in California.
“In the 28th Congressional District (Congressman Howard Berman), situated in Los Angeles County, Ilene Huber is listed as the presidential elector designated in that district. However, as shown in the attached certified statement of Dean C. Logan, registrar-recorder/county clerk of the county of Los Angeles, state of California, there is no Ilene Huber listed as a registered voter in the County of Los Angeles. A statewide search of public records has revealed only one Ilene Huber in the state of California, and she is deceased-a copy of her certificate of death is attached hereto as well,” the advisory said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jewish Activist Thrown Down Elevator Shaft?
San Francisco doctor in fatal plunge after attending Arabic class
But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one of the Bay Area’s foremost pro-Israel activists, stepped into an open elevator shaft by accident last week and died.
[…]
He had been taking Arabic language courses in the Sharon Building for three years and was last seen, investigators said, on the night of Nov. 25, when he went there to attend a class on the seventh floor.
Police Inspector Matt Krimsky said Kliman apparently fell through an open elevator door on the seventh floor, although the building’s manager insists the door must have been secured.
The elevator in that shaft was out of order at the time, building manager Brad Bernheim said. By design, doors to a malfunctioning elevator are clamped shut and can be opened only by a mechanic, said Erika Monterroza, spokeswoman for Cal/OSHA.
The details of how Kliman wound up in the shaft are being investigated by police and Cal/OSHA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Fomenting a Constitutional Crisis
Constitutional Lawyer Discusses Ramifications Of Controversy
Controversy continues to surround President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, and a case involving his birth certificate waits for its day before the U.S. Supreme Court. A constitutional lawyer said were it to be discovered that Mr. Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, it would have grave consequences for the nation.
According to the Constitution, a president must be a natural born citizen of the U.S. Mr. Obama’s critics have failed to force him legally to produce his original birth certificate, and Mr. Obama has resisted any attempt to make him do so. Currently, only Hawaii Department of Health officials have access to Mr. Obama’s original records.
Some of Mr. Obama’s critics have said he was born in Kenya and have claimed he is a citizen of Kenya, Indonesia, or even a British subject.
Edwin Vieira, a constitutional lawyer who has practiced for 30 years and holds four degrees from Harvard, said if it were to be discovered Mr. Obama were not eligible for the presidency, it would cause many problems. They would be compounded if his ineligibility were discovered after he had been in office for a period of time.
“Let’s assume he wasn’t born in the U.S.,” Mr. Vieira told The Bulletin. “What’s the consequence? He will not be eligible. That means he cannot be elected validly. The people and the Electoral College cannot overcome this and the House of Representatives can’t make him president. So what’s the next step? He takes the oath of office, and assuming he’s aware he’s not a citizen, then it’s a perjured oath.”
Any appointments made by an ineligible president would have to be recalled, and their decisions would be invalidated.
“He may have nominated people to different positions; he may have nominated people to the judicial branch, who may have been confirmed, they may have gone out on xecutive duty and done various things,” said Mr. Vieira. “The people that he’s put into the judicial branch may have decided cases, and all of that needs to be unzipped.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Surname Gets Man Out of Speeding Ticket
These are good times to be called Obama, as Nicanor Obama discovered recently when he was stopped for speeding in downtown Washington and let off because of his surname.
The police officer looked at his driving licence and smiled: “Well, I’m going to let you go because you have the Obama name.”
Since the Nov 4 election, the 28-year-old political science student at the University of the District of Columbia has also been waved into a Washington nightclub for nothing and been treated like a celebrity during a hospital visit to his cousin Josephina.
“They said, ‘Obama?’ Is she one of the Obamas? Are they here?’“ Nicanor told the Washington Post. “They treated us like celebrities.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Obama to Appoint Anti-Israel Adviser
Possible Mideast envoy seen as one of Jewish state’s biggest foes in Washington
JERUSALEM — President-elect Barack Obama is considering appointing his top Mideast adviser, Daniel Kurtzer, as U.S. envoy to the Middle East, a senior Israeli diplomatic source told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, long has been seen in Jerusalem as one of the Jewish state’s greatest foes in Washington. He has been identified by Jewish and Israeli leaders, including prime ministers, as biased against Israel and is notorious for urging extreme concessions from the Jewish state.
The Haaretz report follows WND articles quoting officials in Jerusalem who stated Kurtzer was likely to become Obama’s envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Kurtzer came under fire last summer when he traveled to Damascus where he reportedly urged Syrian officials to fast-track negotiations with Israel aiming at an Israeli withdrawal from the strategic Golan Heights. Kurtzer at the time stressed he was not in Damascus as part of Obama’s campaign but instead visiting as a private expert attending an international lawyers conference.
Obama’s transition team did not immediately return a WND e-mail and phone message seeking comment on Kurtzer’s possible appointment. Haaretz noted Obama’s purported decision to appoint a special envoy to the Mideast reporting to him directly, rather than to the secretary of state, indicates the president-elect attaches special importance to the region.
Kurtzer long has been identified by Israeli leaders speaking on the record as one of Israel’s greatest foes in Washington, and his appointment as a primary Mideast adviser to Obama first raised some eyebrows in the pro-Israel Jewish community.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Attack on U.S. in Next 5 Years [Possible]
‘Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing’
CBNNews.com — A new report by a bi-partisan commission says the U.S. can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or biological weapons before the year 2013.
The report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, headed by Sens. Bob Graham and Jim Talent, suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.
“Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing,” states the report.
It seems biological weapons are much more likely to be made and used before nuclear weapons. That’s because nuclear facilities tend to be more carefully guarded than civilian labs with potentially deadly viruses.
Most terrorist groups still lack the scientific and technical ability to make biological or nuclear weapons, the report says.
However, it warns the gap can be easily overcome if terrorists find scientists willing to share or sell their know-how.
“The United States should be less concerned that terrorists will become biologists and far more concerned that biologists will become terrorists,” the report states.
The report also says the terror threat out of Pakistan is especially dangerous.
“Were one to map terrorism and weapons of mass destruction today, all roads would intersect in Pakistan,” the report states.
“We think time is not our ally. The (United States) needs to move with a sense of urgency,” Gaham said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Muslims’ Complaint Against Extremists Rejected
Brno — The complaint by Czech Muslims against the far-right National Party (NS) and its head Petra Edelmannova was rejected because the NS’s statements were not against law, a Brno police spokesman said.
The complaint was filed by the Libertas Independent Agency associating Brno-based Muslims and the friends of Muslim nations.
The criticism of Muslims appeared on the National Party’s website after the recent terrorist attack in Pakistan in which Czech ambassador Ivo Zdarek was killed.
The party’s leadership even visited the Brno mosque where they handed Edelmannova’s letter criticising Islamists to its representatives.
The party demanded that Muslims apologise for Zdarek’s death. The Muslims have rejected the demand, pointing out that they had nothing to do with the attack.
However, the Brno Muslims expressed their regret over Zdarek’s death and distanced themselves from any expressions of terror still before the National Party representatives visited the mosque.
The Muslims believe that the appeals such as “Let’s destroy mosques, ban Islam and imprison Islamists for life only for their belonging to Islam!” or “War should be declared on Islamism. Zero tolerance. Let’s drive them out of the country and punish without mercy!” are unacceptable.
They also consider some of Edelmannova’s statements concerning Islam believers insulting.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Frederik in Secret Afghan Visit
Crown Prince Frederik and Defence Minister Søren Gade have been on a secret, three-day visit to Danish troops in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan.
The Crown Prince and Defence Minister arrived at Forward Operating Base Armadillo on Monday where they stayed overnight before moving on to FOB Price for one night and finally to Camp Bastion.
The visit included meetings with the District Governor of Gereshk Abdul Ahad Khan and Gereshk’s Mayor Said Dur Ali Shar.
Denmark currently has some 690 troops serving with the NATO ISAF force in afghanistan, most of whom are stationed in and around Gereshk.
The Crown Prince and the Defence Minister are now on their way back to Denmark. Denmark’s Crown Prince has extensive military training.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Der Spiegel: Danish PM, Defence Minister NATO Candidates
Denmark reportedly has two candidates in the running to head the alliance
After denying two weeks ago that he was in line for an international post, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has now been pegged by German weekly Der Spiegel as being one of the top candidates to become Nato’s next secretary general.
In addition, the magazine puts the defence minister, Søren Gade, in the pool of leading candidates to replace current secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Nato foreign ministers are meeting this week to discuss the candidates and a final decision will be announced at the alliance’s double summit in Baden-Baden and Strasbourg in April.
Neither Rasmussen nor Gade has commented on Der Spiegel’s information.
Other leading candidates for secretary general, according to Der Spiegel, are former UK Defence Minister Desmond Brown and former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Government: Ultra-Extreme Mosque is Charity Group
THE HAGUE, 03/12/08 — The As-Soennah mosque in The Hague is viewed by the tax service as a good cause. The ultra-extreme mosque thereby enjoys tax benefits, De Telegraaf revealed yesterday.
The tax service categorises the mosque as a ‘an institution of social relevance’ (ANBI), meaning a charity group, which gives it all kinds of tax benefits. For example, donations to the As-Soennah foundation are tax-deductible. The mosque is also exempted from death duties on legacies.
As-Soennah is headed by Imam Fawaz Jneid. The Syrian national, who also has a Dutch passport, apparently called for the terrorist murder of Islam critic Theo van Gogh, which was carried out on 2 November 2004 by Mohammed Bouyeri, an Amsterdam-born Moroccan.
A few weeks before Van Gogh’s murder, Jneid said in a sermon: “O Allah, give Van Gogh a sickness that all the inhabitants of the earth will not be able to cure. Let him crave in vain for death.”
The AIVD intelligince service sees this mosque in The Hague as a bulwark of Salafism, an ultra-orthodox and violent movement within Islam. Mosques in the Netherlands cannot however be closed down because of freedom of religion, according to the government.
Former Integration Minister Rita Verdonk did try to deport Jneid, but this was impossible because he has Dutch citizenship. The Imam incidentally speaks practically no Dutch.
In the Lower House, the Party for Freedom (PVV) is demanding an explanation of the tax benefits enjoyed by the controversial mosque. PVV MP Hero Brinkman also wants “all civil servants that have cooperated with this nonsense to be fired on the spot.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Estonian Spy Scandal Shakes NATO and EU
For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU — and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels.
Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear’s world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia Cyberwar: One Year Later
One year ago, the Estonian government moved a war memorial honoring Russian-Estonians who died fighting the Nazis, a move that may have triggered what some believe is the first instance of a sustained, international cyberwar.
Now, Gadi Evron, a former Israeli Government CERT manager who was in Estonia at the time of the attacks, has revisited the events with an article in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and reprinted here online (PDF).
Evron said what could be described as a “flash mob” created the disturbances in the Estonian Internet during May 2007. “Not only did the cyber riot start almost simultaneously with the actual riots, fresh posts in the Russian-language blogosphere continuously appeared with new targets and instructions. These details suggest that the cyberattackers reacted to Estonian defenses,” he wrote.
On the subject of who was orchestrating the events, Evron doesn’t blame Russia, but he doesn’t shy away from mentioning the country either. He writes: “Once bloggers started reporting their small-scale attacks, more experienced players became involved. Before long, botnets were being used. The involvement of the Russian government in the affair cannot be confirmed. What raised speculation, however, is the failure—or unwillingness—of the Russian authorities to stop the cyber riot against Estonia for over three weeks after the initial attack.”
The events in Estonia began on April 27, 2007, when Estonian officials relocated the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet-era war memorial, to a park outside the nation’s capital. The decision provoked rioting by ethnic Russians, who took to the streets of the capital, Tallinn, in protest. The pro-Russia protesters blockaded the Estonian Embassy in Moscow. And in a rather unique way, a few even took their ire to the Internet.
Evron previously recounted his experience at last summer’s Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
Not everyone is buying Evron’s account. Viktor Larionov, posting on Bugtraq from Tallinn, Estonia, takes issue with Evron’s story, not just the political but the technical side of it, calling it one big bluff. “In general,” Larionov writes, “a lot of IT experts around here are concerned that no ‘cyberwar’ has never happened (and) maybe 10 to 20 DDoS attacks which took place” simply caught some sleeping admins off-duty. He adds, “Tell me, how many attacks or…attack attempts does your corporate network suffer during the day?”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia Spy: MI5 to Unravel Spy’s Treachery
MI5 has been called in to examine whether a spy suspected of being one of Russia’s top agents sold highly classified British secrets to Moscow.
Officers from MI5’s counter-espionage section are investigating possible damage caused to Britain and the West by Herman Simm, a high-ranking Estonian security official who has confessed to spying for Russia.
In an operation worthy of a 1960s spy novel, Simm is reported to have used an antiquated radio transmitter to send classified information to Russia.
He is accused of betraying Nato plans for Kosovo’s independence; the position of the alliance on last summer’s war between Russia and Georgia; and secrets from the American missile shield in Europe…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
EU Says Asylum Seekers Should Have More Rights
Governments should offer more rights and improve the living conditions of people seeking asylum in the 27-nation European Union, the EU’s justice chief said Wednesday.
EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said EU standards are too lax in offering asylum seekers a fair hearing, housing, medical care and employment. He said EU rules must be upgraded amid complaints from the United Nations, the European Parliament and aid groups that refugee rights are not being respected.
Many EU countries have been loath to allow more refugees in recent years, citing the high costs. The EU was temporary home to 1.5 million refugees last year, and 222,170 applications for asylum were filed. Most refugees seeking protection in Europe come from Iraq, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, Somalia, Iran and Serbia. […]
Barrot suggested member states allow refugee claimants a regular cash allowance while their application is processed, and offer extra aid to applicants that have been tortured, raped or persecuted. Barrot said he will also propose in March to set up a special EU agency to ensure faster processing of asylum claims. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Mayor Jussi Pajunen Concerned About Growth in Immigration
In the view of Helsinki’s Mayor, Jussi Pajunen (National Coalition Party), measures need to be taken swiftly over the growth in numbers of asylum-seekers.
Pajunen commented in his blog on Monday that he was very concerned about the matter.
“The City of Helsinki has set as one of its aims to turn immigration into a resource and a source of vitality. At the current rate, quite the opposite is happening”, writes Pajunen.
According to Pajunen, the population increase of the capital in the current decade is attributable practically in its entirety to the growth in the population of immigrant backgrounds.
Their share of the population has risen from the couple of per cent noted at the beginning of the 1990s to the point where the 10% mark is soon to be broken.
“At the current rate of progress, by 2025, one in four Helsinki residents will be of immigrant background”, estimates Pajunen.
Employing the newcomers, even under the present circumstances, is a huge challenge for Helsinki, in Pajunen’s opinion.
The unemployment rate for immigrants is 2.5 times that of the local Finnish population. At the same time, the share of immigrants in the overall workforce is lower than in the Finnish population.
The number of asylum-seekers must in Pajunen’s view first be brought under control to a point where it corresponds to the ability to absorb them. “Rather than acting as chuckers-in, we have to return to the role of gate-keeper”, he writes.
In the second instance, Pajunen believes that action must be taken right away to see through a provisional agreement worked out between the state and the Greater Helsinki area on the speeding up of moves to find employment for immigrants.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Irish PM in Pre-Summit Talks on Stalled EU Treaty
Ireland’s Prime Minister Brian Cowen headed Wednesday for talks with key EU leaders on the European Union’s stalled reform treaty, ahead of a crunch EU summit next week.
Cowen is mulling whether to hold a second vote after Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a June referendum, plunging the 27-nation bloc into institutional limbo and putting plans for structural reform on hold. The embattled Irish premier will hold talks with the leaders of Luxembourg, Germany, Britain and France over the next two days, seeking to agree a strategy in time for an EU summit in Brussels on December 11-12.
Foreign Minister Micheal Martin warned Tuesday that talks on what to do about the Lisbon Treaty will go “down to the wire” at the summit..
Cowen is thought to be considering whether Irish voters would back the treaty in a new poll if guarantees were given on key concerns including abortion, tax and the republic’s cherished military neutrality.
Those issues, as well as opposition to losing a permanent Irish EU commissioner in Brussels, were found by researchers to be behind the June 12 referendum rejection by 53 percent of voters.
And an opinion poll last month suggested that, with guarantees on those issues, the result could be reversed: 43 percent would vote “yes” in a new referendum while 39 percent would vote “no,” according to the Irish Times/mrbi poll. […]
“The Taoiseach’s (prime minister’s) discussions with his European Council counterparts will focus on the situation in relation to the Lisbon Treaty ahead of next week’s European Council,” his office said. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Al-Qaeda Website Users Urge Terror Suspects’ Release
Dubai, 3 Dec. (AKI) — Users of an an Al-Qaeda website have called for the release of the two Moroccans accused of planning terror attacks in the northern Italian city of Milan. “We are asking Allah to free his prisoners,” said one user called Abu Sami, said on the ‘al-Shura’ website.
Ilhami Rachid and Abdelkader Ghaffir are alleged to have been planning attacks on several sites in the northern Italian city of Milan, including the city’s famous Duomo cathedral.
They were arrested late Tuesday and police released details of telephone taps during which they planned the alleged attacks.
“Based on Italian law, the two can remain under arrest for an entire year before being formally charged,” said an al-Shura user who called himself Abu Ahmad.
“A source close to the investigation believes the two detainees were not at the point of carrying out the attack but were only planning it,” Abu Ahmad added.
News of the two arrests received little coverage in the Arab press.
London-based daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, was the only Arab language newspaper that reported the arrests.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Group Had ‘No Contact’ With Terror Suspects
Milan, 3 Dec. (AKI) — Italy’s largest Muslim group, the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy (UCOII) says it has no relationship with the two Moroccans suspected of planning terror attacks in the northern city of Milan. UCOII released a statement on Wednesday after the arrest of Ilhami Rachid and Abdelkader Ghaffir, alleged to have been planning attacks on sites including the city’s famous Duomo cathedral.
The organisation, led by Nour Dachan, said it had “no kind of contact or relations” with the two Moroccans. It also reaffirmed its opposition to any type of terrorist act, saying it was opposed to Islam.
“In particular we reaffirm: the incompatibility of terrorism with Islamic doctrine, law and culture. The total and indisputable condemnation of actions that lead to the massacre of innocent people or attempts to destabilise society and the subsequent social and civil disorder,” the statement said.
Recorded telephone conversations published in the Italian media suggest that Rachid, 31, and Ghaffir, 42, were planning a terror attack on the city’s famous cathedral, the Duomo, during this year’s forthcoming Christmas festivities.
Tapped conversations allegedly show they also planned attacks on a supermarket, a bar, night club car park, and two police stations, as well as the immigration office at police headquarters in Milan.
The two men do not belong to any terrorist organisation, but closely followed jihadist websites, especially statements by the Al-Qaeda terror network, according to investigators.
Rachid had ‘indoctrinated’ his two-year-old son, teaching him to recognise photos of Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden and to call him ‘Uncle Osama’, investigators said. He also named a younger child ‘Osma’, according to investigators.
Phone taps revealed he and Ghaffir had initially planned to use a van packed with explosives but then decided to use oxygen cylinders after searching and downloading the bomb-making information from the Internet.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy ‘Is a Terrorist Target’
Frattini warns country no longer just a logistical base
(ANSA) — Rome, December 3 — Italy can no longer be regarded only as a ‘‘logistical base’’ for terrorists but must be considered a target, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday. Speaking a day after two Moroccans were arrested by anti-terrorist police on charges of planning attacks on targets in Milan and towns in the Lombardy region, Frattini said it was necessary to heighten the level of alert in the country. ‘‘There are terrorists ready to make attacks on Italy. Until now, Italy was thought of only as a logistical base,’’ he said. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni described the situation as ‘‘new and worrying’’.
‘‘We are verifying whether this relates to an extended network or an isolated case,’’ he added.
Maroni congratulated police on their operation to prevent the attacks.
‘‘We managed to avert the worse thanks to intelligence and to the exchange of information,’’ he said.
Maroni said he will travel to the United States next week for talks on strengthening collaboration in the fight against international terrorism, which he said ‘‘risks becoming a planetary emergency’’ after the attacks in Mumbai last week.
NEW FACE OF TERRORISM.
Italy’s top terrorism expert Stefano Dambruoso said the arrests in Italy were a sign of the changing face of terrorism, which now included ‘‘self-taught’’ cells and groups who were not part of a larger organisation but who learnt about jihad via the internet.
Dambruoso said while these cells were less dangerous in some ways, they were harder for police to monitor.
‘‘In Italy what happened in Mumbai would not be possible, but that does not exclude the possibility that some fanatic is capable of carrying out an attack,’’ he added.
Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Gafir Abdelkader, 42, were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of planning attacks on an immigration office and a police barracks in Milan as well as police stations, a supermarket and a night club carpark in smaller towns in the Lombardy region.
Police believe they turned their attention to Italian targets after failing to make the ‘‘necessary contacts’’ to be sent abroad as jihad fighters.
Seven other Moroccans are also under investigation for their part in the plot.
Arrests of suspected terrorists in Italy in the past have largely been connected with the recruitment of suicide bombers to be sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. Others have been arrested on charges of providing financial and logistical support to terrorists operating in Tunisia and Algeria.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Terrorists Wanted to Blow the Cathedral in Milan
[Translated from the Dutch by VH]
The two Moroccan terrorists who were arrested in Italy planned an attack this Christmas. They wanted to blow up the Duomo di Milano and cause as many victims as possible.
This became apparent from telephone taps, newspaper la Repubblica reported Wednesday.
Terrorist
The terrorists were arrested Tuesday and belong to an Islamic terrorist network that had been tracked for months by the Italian police. The police intervened when it became clear that the Muslim extremists where taking information for making bombs from the Internet.
The Duomo di Milano is one of the largest Gothic churches of Europe and has the greatest wealth of marble statues in the world.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Non-Citizens in Latvia: Congress Urges Voting Rights at Local Level
Strasbourg, 02.12.2008 — In a recommendation to the Council of Europe Committee or Ministers, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities urged Latvia’s authorities to grant non-citizens the right to vote at local level.
The recommendation was adopted following the debate held in the Chamber of Local Authorities on 2 December, chaired by Dubravka Suica (Croatia, EPP/CD), with the participation of Oskars Kastens, Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration of Latvia.
“Some 16 % of the population in Latvia, or 370,000 people, have the so-called ‘non-citizen’ status. Apart from this title which implies their exclusion, they do not possess de facto the same political rights as Latvian citizens,” stressed Congress Vice-President Jean-Claude Frécon (France, SOC), presenting his report on the participation of non-citizens at local level in Latvia.
The report pointed out that the vast majority of non-citizens are long-term residents, often born in the country and largely integrated within the society, but nevertheless excluded from electing representatives in their municipalities of residence. “We believe that not allowing these Latvian residents to participate in the local life undermines the spirit of the European Charter of Local Self-Government which Latvia signed and ratified in 1996,” stated Vice-President Frécon. Although the Latvian government undertakes serious efforts to further integrate non-citizens, it has not granted non-citizens voting rights at local level, he added.
He stressed that naturalisation was regarded by the Latvian government as a sufficient way to obtain voting rights, while many non-citizens for various reasons (in particular related to the history of the country) do not wish to go through the naturalization procedure. “We believe that the solution to the integration of non-citizens into Latvian society is different from the one envisaged by the government. We believe that giving them the right to vote in local elections will make them feel more involved in a society to which they already belong, and will turn them towards naturalization. Not the other way round,” concluded the Vice-President.
The Congress took into consideration the need to separate the question of political rights from that of naturalisation, and to grant political rights at local level to all non-citizens, which will foster their integration into Latvian society. It called on local authorities to grant non-citizens voting rights at local level, and to think about the possibility of granting automatic naturalisation to the elderly and those born in Latvia. The Congress also recommended that Latvia sign and ratify the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Otto Jespersen Reported for Offense Against Jews
Kurt Valner, who lost nine family relations in concentration camps during the Second World War, has reported Otto Jespersen for anti-semitic statements on the programme, Torsdagsklubben (Thursday Club) on TV 2.
Otto Jespersen is in trouble again — this time for defamatory statements about Jews. (Foto: Scanpix) Publisert 29.11.2008 11:54 — Oppdatert 29.11.2008 11:54 Aftenbladet.no
On Friday, Valner submitted a report to the police in Bærum, because he views Jespersen’ monologue on the TV 2-programme last Thursday to have gone way too far, writes Dagsavisen.
“I would also like to take the opportunity to remember all the billions of fleas and lice that lost their lives in German gas chambers, without having done anything wrong other than settling on persons of Jewish background,” said Jespersen in the programme.
“ Jespersen’s statements are offensive and defamatory,” says Valner, who lost his father and eight other family members in German concentration camps during the war.
He thinks he sees signs that anti-Semitism is spreading in Norwegian society.
Information director, Marianne Røiseland of TV 2 is postponing comment until the police report is official, writes Dagsavisen.
At the same time, she thinks it is sad that someone finds Otto Jespersen’s satire to be offensive, but emphasizes that one should see the quote in connection with the context, which was poking fun at the media.
Dagbladet has been informed by TV 2 that Otto Jespersen does not wish to comment on the matter.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Woman’s Benefits Withdrawn Due to Large Breasts
A Swedish woman injured in a car accident has had her disability benefits withdrawn after the country’s social insurance agency determined her large bust was to blame for the pain.
“My breasts have been large since I got them. But I didn’t have any problems with pain before the car accident,” Jessica Andersson told the Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) newspaper.
Andersson learned last week that the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) was cancelling disability payments for whiplash injuries she suffered in a car accident six years ago.
While driving to work, she was hit from behind and has had problems with pain in her neck and shoulders ever since.
But in November, the agency ruled that Andersson’s injuries could no longer be considered work related, resulting in the cancellation of her monthly work-related disability payments of 7,700 kronor ($934).
The agency’s decision comes following an assessment from a doctor suggesting that Andersson could return to work if she had breast reduction surgery.
“I’m 99.9 percent sure that it wouldn’t make a difference if I had surgery on by breasts. It’s not ideal to have neck injuries and at the same time have heavy breasts, I understand that. But the injury would still be there after an operation,” said Andersson.
The same doctor had previously diagnosed Andersson as having psychiatric problems, a diagnosis which she successfully appealed.
Andersson is currently considering an appeal of the ruling to have her payments withdrawn.
“I had understood authorities to be impartial, but I don’t feel that way any longer. I see this as more of a political judgment than a medical one,” she said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Bullet Hole’ in SAS Plane From Thailand
A suspected bullet hole has been discovered in a SAS airplane which recently returned to Sweden from the Thai city of Phuket.
The plane, an Airbus 340, landed on Tuesday at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport.
As maintenance crews were examining the plane, they discovered a hole six millimetres in diameter on one of the plane’s wings.
“What I can say now is that there are suspicions of there being a bullet hole,” said SAS spokesperson Anders Lindström to the Aftonbladet newspaper.
“But it could be from natural causes. Unfortunately, I can’t say any more.”
Local police have been called in to examine the hole in greater detail.
“The hole is in an aileron on the wing. We don’t yet know what caused it. Our technicians are on the way to investigate,” said Yvonne Lindholm of the Arlanda police.
Lindström said the airline takes the incident “extremely seriously” and that the plane will remain out of service until the investigation is completed and the plane has been deemed safe to fly.
He tells the Svenksa Dagbladet newspaper that plane’s passengers were never in danger and that the pilots didn’t notice any problems with the plane.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Threats Against Danish Targets
[pdf file at the above link]
Calls for carrying out terrorist attacks against Danish targets, following news of a book with caricature drawings of the Prophet Muhammad to be published in December 2008
[…]
In his post, Abu Salem requests that all who love the Prophet Muhammad help spread the news of the upcoming publication and notify religious leaders of what “these pigs” are attempting to do. One forum visitor responded to the post, suggesting that Bin Laden attack Copenhagen, repeating the call: “Bin Laden, Copenhagen!” several times. Another forum visitor wrote: “Our blood… our souls… our children… our money… all that we have… the entire world… anything so that a single hair of your distinguished head [i.e. Muhammad] is not harmed.”
Abu Salem’s call provoked a significant response by internet users, also appearing in discussions on several of the main Jihadi online forums. On November 13, the “Al-Hesbah” forum quoted a report by the Jihad Press6 titled “Due to the silence of the Muslims, Denmark is preparing for a new crime against the Muslims — a book offending Islam.”7 The report describes the intended publication of Hedegaard’s book and reminds readers that in June 2008 al-Qaeda carried out a “successful” attack on the Danish embassy in Pakistan in retaliation for the publication of caricatures in September 2005. In addition, the report claims that Bin Laden had threatened to attack Danish targets even before news of the publication of the new book.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Free Mobile Phones to Illegal Immigrants — Courtesy of the British Taxpayer
Hundreds of illegal immigrants and foreign prisoners facing deportation are being handed free mobile phones while they are locked up, the Home Office as officially confirmed.
More than 200 illegal immigrants and former foreign prisoners at the Campsfield Removal Centre outside Oxford are being given free mobile phones so they can contact their families or lawyers.
According to the Home Office website, other facilities put on for the foreign lawbreakers at Campsfield include:
* A well equipped library where detainees have access to an array of books, papers and other reading material.
* Internet access
* PlayStation/games room
* Pool/table tennis room
* Sports hall and also a gymnasium where equipment is provided for use.
* Multi-purpose room which caters for different venues including: drama workshops, arcade games, and also features a large drop down screen to enable en masse viewing of movies and sports events.
* Outside activities include cricket, football and volleyball. There is also a small garden area which is well tended by the detainees.
* Chapel, Muslim prayer room and multi faith room.
* Education — English, arts and crafts and IT.
* A variety of classes that may interest the detainees including art, written and oral English and drama.
* 24 hour medical care is provided on site, local GP visits daily Mon- Fri and has an on-call service. There is no hospital care available which means the facilities do not cater for severe medical cases, referral is therefore required (to the duty manager) of any special needs criteria before allocating at Campsfield.
* There are paid work opportunities available. Posts include: kitchen assistants, dining room assistants, library assistants, classroom assistants, buddies, cleaners, painters etc.
Pay up, Brit taxpayer, you have scroungers from all over the world to support.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Halal Meat Industry to Import Another 5,000 Pakistani Butchers
Over 5,000 butchers from Pakistan will be offered employment in the halal meat industry in Britain, it has been announced.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between National Halal Foods Group (NHFG) in Britain and the Overseas Employment Cooperation of Pakistan, signed at the Pakistan High Commission in London on Friday, has cemented the deal.
The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), which advises the government on how to avoid cruelty to livestock, says the way halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals and should be banned. The Muslim religion demands that slaughter is carried out with a single cut to the throat, rather than the more widespread method of stunning with a bolt into the head before slaughter.
Peter Jinman, president of the British Veterinary Association, is on record as urging Muslims to be respectful of animals. “We’re looking at what is acceptable in the moral and ethical society we live in,” he said.
The FAWC said it wanted an end to the exemption currently allowed for halal meat from the legal requirement to stun animals first. It says cattle can take up to two minutes to bleed to death — amounting to an abuse of the animals. “This is a major incision into the animal and to say that it doesn’t suffer is quite ridiculous,” said FAWC chairwoman, Dr Judy MacArthur Clark.
Compassion in World Farming backed the call, saying: “We believe that the law must be changed to require all animals to be stunned before slaughter.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Primary School Cancels Nativity Play Because it Interferes With Muslim Festival of Eid
A primary school infuriated parents after cancelling the traditional Christmas nativity play to make way for the Muslim festival of Eid.
Parents at the Nottingham school were told that the planned performance had to be pulled because some of the pupils wanted to celebrate Eid at home with their families. In a letter, sent by the staff at Greenwood Junior School, mothers and fathers were told: ‘It is with much regret that we have had to cancel this year’s Christmas performances. ‘This is due to the Eid celebrations that take place next week and its effect on our performers.’
However, following a barrage of complaints, a second letter was issued saying the show had ‘not been cancelled outright’ but has been postponed until the New Year. The follow-up letter, sent by headteacher Amber Latif and chair of governors Yvonne Wright, apologised for the ‘misunderstanding’ caused by the first correspondence.
It read: ‘We are a very inclusive school and fully respect the cultures and religions of all the children.
‘We are upset to know that some of our parents/carers have been offended by the letter.
‘The Christmas performance has not been cancelled outright but has been postponed until the New Year.’
Muslims praying during the festival of Eid (File picture)
Mum Janette Lynch, whose seven-year-old son Keanu attends the school, said she was angered that the performance had been moved until after Christmas. She said: ‘The head has a whole year to plan for Eid and so she should be able to plan for both religious festivals.
‘I have never heard of this at a school. It is the first year my son has been there and a lot of the mums like me were really looking forward to seeing the children in the nativity.
‘I think it’s wrong it has been moved to after Christmas.’
The school has also sent out a timetable of events to mark Eid ul-Adha, or ‘greater Eid’, which is the second of the two Eid festivals. It lasts for two or three days and starts on Monday or Tuesday next week. Muslim children will be off school for the religious holiday.
Sajad Hussain, 35, of who has two children at the school said: ‘My children will be off for the two days next week to see their family.
‘It’s not that complicated; they could have one event on one day and another on another day, they should have both celebrations at the school.
‘If you do not have both it becomes a racist thing and that’s why you have to be careful if an issue is made out of it it could become nasty.’
Yesterday, a statement issued by the school said: ‘We would like to apologise for any confusion caused as a result of [the original] letter we sent out and would like to reassure parents and the community that Christmas has not been cancelled at Greenwood Junior School.
‘As a multi-faith school, like many schools in Nottingham City, we represent a wide variety of faiths and due respect is given to each one appropriately.
‘For very practical reasons we have taken the difficult decision to re-arrange some significant events on the school calendar to ensure maximum pupil and staff attendance.’
The next two weeks are brimming with festivities for both Eid and Christmas that the children are really looking forward to.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pro-Labour Supporter Arrested for Attack on BNP Member’s House
In an incident linked by police to the leaked BNP membership list, a pro-Labour supporter has been arrested following an abortive attack on a BNP member’s house in Leeds.
The arrest — the first of many being planned by police — took place during the early hours of the morning of 28 November. The individual in question, whose name is known to BNP News, has been charged with causing criminal damage and will be appearing before Leeds Magistrates Court on 5th December.
“He will be pleading guilty as charged,” said Peter Hollings, Leeds organiser. “The really interesting bit about his statement is that he has admitted to having been given our member’s details via a ‘friend’ who in turn had obtained our member’s details directly from the leaked membership list.
“It is my view that there should be further charges to answer here so far as certain militant left-wing organisations are concerned, especially when you consider that at least one of these organisations has stated that the publication of the membership list was not intended to incite violence ‘and nor would it’,” Mr Hollings said. “Clearly the events have proven that incitement to violence has occurred.”
Mr Hollings said the arrest was good news for the BNP members who had been subjected to harassment over the past week or so, in that police were acting against the thugs responsible for the attempted intimidation.
In his response to the arrest, BNP leader Nick Griffin said he was happy that police were doing their duty up and down the country to root out those attempting to criminally harass BNP supporters. “Several other premises are under observation elsewhere in the country, which are not linked to the Leeds incident,” Mr Griffin said. “We are confident that further arrests will follow as the evidence is processed in due course.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Commons Must Reclaim Its Sovereignty
Brush aside the glittering dusting of pageantry that attends today’s State Opening by the Queen and you will find a Parliament that is in serious trouble. The Damian Green case has raised profound questions about the kind of country we are and the way we are governed. The penny has finally dropped for the Metropolitan Police, whose heavy-handed investigation of Home Office leaks to the Tory frontbencher triggered this constitutional drama. In calling in Ian Johnston, the chief constable of the British Transport Police, to investigate, the force is at least acknowledging the political and public disquiet (though asking another policeman, and a former Met officer at that, to do the digging will reassure no one).
But it is of Parliament that the bigger questions are being asked. The police raided an MP’s office because they felt they could. Yes, they were given permission to do so, by whom it is still not clear, though the Speaker must bear ultimate responsibility. But, in years gone by, they would not even have dared ask, such was the unchallengeable authority of the highest court in the land and its elected members. That mystique has been systematically undermined by an executive that has proved dangerously careless of its constitutional responsibilities. For the Labour Government, Parliament has proved an irritant, to be circumvented whenever possible. This erosion of the sovereignty of the legislature coincided, in 2000, with the election of Michael Martin as Speaker. Mr Martin’s elevation to the position of first commoner in the land was a shamelessly partisan affair; the Commons convention that the major parties take turn about to fill the Speaker’s Chair was trampled over by Labour. Parliament has subsequently paid a high price, with one of the most undistinguished Speakerships in memory.
The Tories will, understandably, be baying for blood over the Stasi-like treatment of Mr Green. Yesterday’s ill-advised meeting of ministers convened by Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House, apparently to orchestrate a government operation to get Mr Martin off the hook, has further inflamed their sense of grievance. But the Tories should tread carefully. If they overplay a strong hand with too many parliamentary theatrics, they risk losing the moral ascendancy. As for Speaker Martin, can he confound his critics (many of whom are on the Labour benches) and rise to the occasion? The decision to allow the police to seize the correspondence and computers of an MP who has not been charged with any offence was unforgivable. Mr Martin must explain how it happened and convince the Commons that it will never happen again. If he cannot, then he must go.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
US Soldier Seeks Political Asylum in Germany
André Shepherd is the first American GI to have applied for political asylum in Germany. Shepherd, who deserted to avoid going back to fight in Iraq, argues that the war there is in violation of international law.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Václav Klaus: Notes for the Ing Forum
ING EMEA Investment Forum, Prague, Marriott Hotel, December 1, 2008
[…]
I would also like to be very explicit — because there are some misunderstandings — that for us the EU membership has no alternative. Some recent, rather insensitive reactions, when we dared to express some of our views about the Lisbon Treaty, reactions coming from the old EU countries reminded us of our non-democratic past. No one is the owner of the EU, not to speak of Europe.
As I said, our active participation in the European integration process has no alternative but the forms and methods of the EU arrangements have many alternatives. To take one as sacrosanct, as the only permitted and politically correct one, is unacceptable. The right of people to say yes or no to the European Constitution or to the Lisbon Treaty or to any other similar document should be guaranteed. This guarantee represents the — for us — untouchable substance (or meaning) of Europe, everything else can be put into question. The attacks on those who dare to say no to the attempts to accelerate the deepening of the EU, which is the essence and aim of the Lisbon Treaty, are attacks against the true nature of Europe…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: NATO Soldiers Raid Karadzic Family Home
Sarajevo, 2 Dec. (AKI) — NATO soldiers searched the family home of wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in Bosnia on Tuesday for evidence linking the family to fugitive and former commander Ratko Mladic (Photo). Karadzic’s home is located in the town of Pale, near the capital, Sarajevo. According to NATO’s office in Sarajevo, Karadzic’s family may be linked to a network of people engaged in hiding Mladic.
“The point of this action was retrieving the proof for those claims”, said a statement by the NATO office.
Mladic, Karadzic’s wartime military chief, was indicted with the political leader for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo.
Although Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade in July after 13 years in hiding, Mladic remains a fugitive and is believed to be hiding in Serbia.
He is charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia with genocide, crimes against humanity, and numerous war crimes.
According to Karadzic’s daughter, Sonja, American and Italian soldiers came to the house at around 3 a.m. and remained there for three hours.
“This time, soldiers did not take anything from the house, but they have interrogated my mother, my brother and me about our alleged relations with Mladic,” Sonja Karadzic said.
Radovan’s wife, Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic is the only tenant of the house, Sonja Karadzic said.
She also complained about the operation which she claimed was to pressure the family in a bid to disrupt Karadzic’s defence in The Hague tribunal.
Serbia extradited Karadzic to The Hague to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was arrested in Belgrade after thirteen years in hiding.
An official investigation in 2006 concluded that Mladic had been hidden in the past by former colleagues from the security services. International prosecutors insist that Mladic continues to enjoy the protection of the Serbian military.
Mladic and the former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, Goran Hadzic, are the only two indicted war crimes suspects still at large.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Failed Spy Mission in Kosovo
The ineptitude of three agents in Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has endangered one of the organization’s most important operations: building up its secret network of informants in Kosovo. It has also strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands in Kosovo Protest EU Mission
SARAJEVO: Several thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, on Tuesday to protest the planned deployment of a European Union judicial mission that many ethnic Albanians fear will partition the new country.
The protesters marched through the city center holding banners saying “No Partition” and “Kosovo Is Ours,” witnesses said. Some chanted “Thaci is a traitor,” referring to Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaci.
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership declared independence from Serbia in February after nine years of being administered by the United Nations..
At issue now is who will control the country. Under a six-point plan agreed to last week by the United Nations Security Council — and backed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Belgrade and the European Union — the 2,000-strong EU mission would be deployed under a UN mandate and would take a neutral position regarding Kosovo’s independence.
Pristina has rejected that element of the plan, arguing that it is an infringement on its sovereignty and insisting that the independence of Kosovo be respected. But Thaci has nevertheless agreed to cooperate fully with the mission, on the grounds that it will help preserve peace and stability across the territory.
Albin Kurti, one of the organizers of the protest Tuesday, said that accepting the deployment of the EU mission was unacceptable because it would undermine Kosovo’s hard-earned sovereignty. Opponents of the six-point plan say they are concerned that it calls for the creation of separate chains of command for Serbian and Albanian police forces operating in Kosovo; the police in the ethnic Albanian areas would report to the EU while Serb police officers in the Serb-dominated northern part of the country would report to the United Nations.
Critics say that such an arrangement would entrench a de facto partition of the country by splitting it along ethnic lines. Pristina also worries that Belgrade would use the plan as a pretext to expand its authority over Kosovo. Since Kosovo declared independence, Belgrade has sought to broaden its influence in northern Kosovo by holding elections and by entrenching its sway over policies like education and health care.
A small explosive device was thrown last month at the International Civilian Office that housed the EU’s special representative. The police initially believed the attack could have been motivated by discontent with the deployment of the new EU mission. But they then arrested three Germans, thought to be intelligence operatives, in connection with the explosion.
The three men — who media outlets in Germany describe as members of the German foreign intelligence agency, the BND — were later released by a UN panel of judges for lack of evidence.
Germany was one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Kosovo. Berlin has said that suggestions that it was involved in attacks in Kosovo were absurd.
Separately, Serbia indicated Tuesday that it was seeking changes to an agreement with NATO — signed on June 9, 1999 — that ended the Kosovo war. It called for the abolition of a no-flight buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo created by NATO after Serbia’s armed forces agreed to withdraw from the region.
The Serbian general Zdravko Ponos said the accord, which prevents Serbian military flights over the zone and requires Serbian troops to get special approval from NATO to enter the territory, was outdated because NATO and Serbia were now military partners. NATO said that it was aware of the proposal but that no decision had been made. Pristina rejected it.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Med: De Michelis, ‘Rule of Law’ as Integration Process
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 1 — The preliminary common acceptance of the “rule of law” as the basis of the relationship between societies is the correct path to take in order to make the diffusion of human rights in democratisation processes come to the surface in the Mediterranean region. This conviction, expressed by Gianni De Michelis, a member of the European parliament and president of Institte for the relations between Italy and the African countries (IPALMO), as he opened talks, was the starting point for discussions by various speakers this morning during the international conference titled ‘Best practices in the promotion of rule of law in the Mediterranean area’, promoted by IPALMO. The economic direction of the Mediterranean Union, added De Michelis, “also implies moving closer politically, culturally, and in terms of values. This would allow greater integration and understanding” in the area. The welcoming speech by Chiara Moroni, the PDL delegate, was on the same lines. The Mediterranean Union, an important initiative by the European Union, to which Italy has been and is completely committed, stated Moroni, “does not just contribute to the economic development of the region but above all it creates a tight fabric of shared rules”. Indeed, the EU, he added, “does not shirk its responsibilities” regarding the problems in the Mediterranean area, which are in the first instance linked to immigration flows, and to deal with these it uses its tools which are “dialogue and the rule of law”. The rule of law, explained for his part Diego Brasioli, from the foreign ministry’s head office for multilateral political cooperation and human rights, will be at the heart of the Italian presidency of the G8, the themes of which will be “The preservation of peace, the fight against organised crime, terrorism, illegal immigration and human trafficking”. Italy, continued Brasioli, will support a specific declaration on terrorism from the members of the G8 and, he said, “our country has become an active promoter of the solemn declaration of the fight against terrorism being compensated with the necessity of respecting human rights and the rule of law”. On the actual application of the rule of law practices in the Mediterranean, a case was described by Stefano Azzali, the secretary general of the national and international arbitration board in Milan. The arbitration board, he said, “has favoured the creation of a shared space for commercial justice with the Mediterranean Project, a project that is able to allow the definition of the ADR standard (Alternative resolution to commercial disputes) in order to overcome the barriers of ordinary justice”. “In this way”, observed Azzali, “intercultural dialogue and the reinforcement of the rule of law is favoured”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Snatch Trial Frozen Till March
Berlusconi, Prodi accused of obstructing justice
(ANSA) — Milan, December 3 — A landmark Italian trial into the 2003 CIA abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr was put on hold Wednesday until the Constitutional Court rules on conflicting state-secrecy pleas next year.
The Milan court will reconvene on March 18, ten days after the supreme court meets to assess the secrecy pleas from the Italian government and from Milan prosecutors.
Before Wednesday’s adjournment, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro accused Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his predecessor Romano Prodi of using national security norms to ‘‘obstruct justice’’ and ‘‘prevent the truth emerging’’.
Berlusconi’s lawyer and member of his political party the People of Freedom, Niccolo’ Ghedini, called the prosecutor’s argument ‘‘intolerable’’ and said Spataro should be disciplined.
Successive Italian governments have argued that the prosecutors’ investigation of 26 CIA agents and several top Italian spies has compromised relations with foreign security agencies and made Italy less safe.
The so-called ‘rendition’ of Nasr — also known as Abu Omar — has claimed headlines worldwide and stoked discussion of the controversial policy of ‘extraordinary rendition’, which has now been discontinued.
It has been condemned by European human rights bodies.
Italy’s former top military spy, Niccolo’ Pollari, made a statement before Wednesday’s adjournment stressing that state secrecy powers ultimately resided with the Italian premier, to whom he had always been loyal.
Pollari is the former head of Italian military intelligence SISMI, which recently changed its name to AISE.
He said he would obey orders even though these allegedly prevented him from clearing SISMI of involvement in the abduction.
Spataro, the prosecutor, has highlighted the importance of the trial, which is the keenly awaited first judicial examination of the rendition policy.
On Wednesday he said the Italian premiers’ alleged obstruction of justice had been cited in reports by the Council of Europe — Europe’s top human rights body — and the European Parliament.
The Council of Europe has called Nasr’s case a ‘‘perfect example of rendition’’.
Nine Italians including Pollari are on trial with the 26 CIA agents for Nasr’s abduction.
Nasr, the former head of Milan’s main mosque, disappeared from the northern Italian city on February 17, 2003.
Prosecutors say he was snatched by a team of CIA operatives with SISMI’s help and whisked off to a NATO base in Ramstein, Germany.
From there, he was allegedly taken to Egypt to be interrogated under duress.
Nasr, who was under investigation in Italy on suspicion of helping terrorists, was released early last year from an Egyptian jail where he says he was tortured and threatened with rape.
He has demanded millions of euros in compensation from the Italian government.
Berlusconi, who was in power at the time of the events, has been called to testify.
Romano Prodi, his predecessor and successor, has also been admitted as a witness.
Judge Oscar Magi has also given the green light to calling ex-defense ministers.
A request that the government officials testify was presented by Pollari’s lawyers to support their claim that he had nothing to do with the abduction of Nasr.
In particular, they will be asked to confirm whether or not details on Nasr’s kidnapping were to be considered state secrets.
The trial resumed in April, after two lengthy suspensions, when Magi decided he didn’t need to wait for the high court ruling on the clash between state powers.
At the time he said waiting for that verdict would violate Italy’s Constitutional requirement for a ‘‘reasonable’’ trial length.
TRIAL PITS GOVT AGAINST PROSECUTORS, EP.
In the case, the government contends the prosecutors overstepped their Constitutional bounds, needlessly exposing agents and straining US-Italian security ties.
The prosecutors say the government acted illegitimately in trying to cover up actions which subverted Italy’s Constitution.
The trial opened in June 2007 but was adjourned two weeks later pending a Constitutional Court ruling.
Last year the European Parliament (EP) rapped three countries including Italy for allowing the US to fly terror suspects to foreign locations where they are believed to have been tortured.
The Italian rapporteur in that EP inquiry, MEP Claudio Fava, lobbied for the trial to proceed.
He presented a petition from 300 people including European magistrates and Italian civil rights leaders accusing the government of obstructing justice.
The 300 claimed state secrecy ‘‘has been brandished too many times by too many governments with the sole aim of depriving this country of its right to the truth’’.
The 26 CIA agents, including ex-Rome chief Robert Seldon Lady and ex-Milan chief Jeff Castelli, were put on trial in absentia.
Pollari is on trial along with his former deputy Marco Mancini.
The prosecution has called more than 100 witnesses, including Dick Marty, head of a Council of Europe (COE) probe which concluded that 100 persons had been kidnapped by the CIA in Europe and rendered to a country where they might be tortured.
The report from Europe’s top human rights body claims the US made a secret deal with NATO in October 2001 to permit the CIA flights and also supply aid to countries threatened by terrorism.
The COE claims the CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2002 to 2005 with the knowledge of the two countries’ presidents.
Prosecutors in several other European countries are now probing CIA flights.
The US admits renditions but denies torture — although the legal status of admitted techniques such as waterboarding is controversial.
The US State Department described the EP report as ‘‘unfair, inaccurate and distorted’’.
The CIA was first granted permission to use rendition in a presidential directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and the practice grew sharply after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The US recently said it had suspended its rendition programme but some news media have claimed it has been farmed out to other countries, especially in the Horn of Africa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Against Women: Tunisia; Many Calls to Call-Centre
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 28 — “Several calls” have been received at the free call number opened by the government of Tunisia on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, according to one of the operators. The free call number was opened by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Family and Elderly, in the context of, as announced by the Ministry, “a national strategy of prevention of violent behaviour”. The strategy includes stricter laws and the guarantee of their application. The first centre for women victims of violence was opened in 1990 on initiative of the Tunisian Association for democratic women; at present there are several associations active in this field. Official figures say that 20% of Tunisian women fall victim to violence, but this percentage is considered an approximation by defect. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fayyad Asks EU Not to Upgrade Ties With Israel
Palestinian prime minister asks diplomats not to improve EU-Israel relations as long as latter expands West Bank settlements
The European Union should not upgrade ties with Israel as long as the latter expands West Bank settlements, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in a meeting with EU diplomats on Monday.
Fayyad called together all EU heads of mission today ahead of the European Council meeting on December 8 and the plenary session of the European Parliament on December 4 at which the EU is expected to make a decision about whether to upgrade its relations with Israel.
Palestinian Information Minister Riad Malki said Fayyad gave the diplomats a letter that refers to the dangers of an upgrade of EU-Israel relations as long as settlement construction continues.
In a press statement, Luisa Morgantini, the Vice President of the European Parliament, said Fayyad began by thanking the EU for the position it has taken since January on the illegality of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, commending the United Kingdom in particular to take concrete measures in line with this position.
‘Defining moment’
Morgantini quoted Fayyad as saying that the decision of an EU-Israel upgrade is “also a defining moment for (the Palestinians’) relationship with the EU…Nothing at this stage matters more than a principled position by the EU on the matter of the upgrade when considered in the context of Israel’s non-compliance with international law and the Road Map.” […]
In a statement on Palestinian objectives, the Palestinian PM said that “no Palestinian leadership will ever accept a state without East Jerusalem as the capital — not now, not 100 years from now.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Jerusalem Martyr’s Widow Receives Keys of Her New Home
YUBLA/IRBID — The widow of Jordanian soldier Mahmoud Obeidat, who died while defending Jerusalem 41 years ago, on Tuesday received the key to her new house built upon His Majesty King Abdullah’s directives.
Early in May, the King visited the family of Obeidat, whose military unit was sent to Palestine to take part in fighting against the invading Israeli army in the 1967 war.
Sharifa Dhiab, who said she was overwhelmed to receive the fully furnished house, recalled the time when her husband departed.
“He was asking for martyrdom,” she noted.
“I asked the King for a house of my own when he visited me and he issued instructions to have a home built for me. I am thankful for that… it is also a tribute to my husband,” she told The Jordan Times yesterday…
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
‘Peace Partner’ Attempted Tel Aviv Bombing
But Israeli government, media blames another group
TEL AVIV, Israel — Members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization were involved in planning a foiled attack targeting Tel Aviv’s central bus station yesterday, terrorist sources told WND.
Information obtained also indicates specific Fatah terrorists granted amnesty in recent months by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plotted the attack. That detail is significant because, according to Palestinian sources speaking to WND, Olmert is slated to announce the pardon of dozens more Fatah terrorists ahead of a Muslim holiday this weekend.
Yesterday, Israeli police, acting on specific intelligence, thwarted what they said would have been a large-scale terrorist bombing of Tel Aviv’s bus station. Security forces here arrested a Palestinian resident of the West Bank city of Jenin who had infiltrated Israel. He was captured along with three other people at a house just outside Tel Aviv.
Following the Palestinian’s arrest yesterday, the would-be bomber led police to a nearby city where he had hidden a bag filled with explosives reportedly meant to be detonated at the bus station.
Sources in Fatah’s declared military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told WND yesterday their group planned the bombing alongside the Islamic Jihad terror organization in Jenin. Fatah is Israel’s declared peace partner. The group is considered moderate by U.S. policy.
Nevertheless, the Israeli media and official Israeli government spokesmen, declared the thwarted bombing was an Islamic Jihad operation with no mention of Fatah and its Brigades.
WND has learned the original intelligence alerting security forces here to yesterday’s planned bombing came with the arrest, just hours before the plot was halted, of Ahmed Amire, a Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade member in Jenin who had been pardoned by Olmert last June.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Agreement for Withdrawal of United States Forces From Iraq
[pdf file]
Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq…
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In the “New” Iraq, a Strategy to Eliminate Christians
Joseph Yacoub, an export on Christianity in the Middle East, denounces “discriminatory policies” of the Baghdad government, incapable of guaranteeing “unity and security” in a land that is “divided and selfish”. The withdrawal of the American troops is a “superficial” change, while Christians continue to suffer persecution.
Lyon (AsiaNews) — He does not hide his deep concern for Iraq and the future of the Christian community there, Joseph Yacoub, an Iraqi Chaldean and professor of political science at the Catholic University of Lyon. An expert in Christianity in the Middle East with a profound knowledge of the Iraqi reality, he criticises the idea of a Christian enclave on the Nineveh plain and warns of a “political strategy that aims to eliminate Christians” which can only be halted if “the logic of divisions and self-interest is overcome”.
He is also critical of the American troop withdrawal pact, judging it a “superficial change” which will not restore full “national sovereignty” to Iraq. He is also against the electoral law, describing it as a “discriminatory measure” against Christians, who must impute the “government of Baghdad” that has failed to guarantee “unity and security in the country”. Finally, he is worried by the climate of “distrust and fear” within the Christian community, since time immemorial the guarantor of “pluralistic and rich multi-culture” in Iraq, today abandoned to its own destiny.
Below we publish the interview given by Joseph Yacoub (see photo) to AsiaNews:
Professor Yacoub, what is your opinion of the accord on American troop withdrawal by 2011, signed by the government and approved by the Iraqi parliament?
I would criticise the move, because its is merely a superficial change. For the next three years US troops will remain on Iraqi soil, and so the country will in all effects, be occupied. This situation has been ongoing for over five years now and failed to bring about substantial change in terms of security. Now we still have to see how the Barak Obama administration will move following his investiture. There is after all, a clause within the accord that provides for the possibility of to anticipate or even postpone the withdrawal…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Designs Stealth Aircraft
Iran has announced it has designed a radar-evading, or ‘stealth’, aircraft capable of taking out high-value targets without being detected by hostile radar systems, Press TV reports.
Chief Air Force Commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi is quoted as saying the “stealth’ aircraft was designed by Iranian aerospace experts, and military researchers are now working on building a small prototype.. He believes the research will be finished by March next year and then production will begin. […]
The announcement comes amidst Iran’s persistent tensions with the West over the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear programme. Tehran insists its nuclear industry is for energy production rather than the manufacture of atomic weapons.
Washington has labeled Iran a rogue state and claims it is developing nuclear weapons. The U.S., UN and EU have all imposed sanctions on Iran.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Minister Invites Universities to Fight Extremism
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 28 — A strong invitation from the Saudi Interior Minister to teachers and students to “eradicate extremism’ and to spread a moderate teaching of Islam promoting tolerance. Turning to those who study and work in the Islamic university in Medina, Prince Naif — as the missionary agency AsiaNews reports — affirmed that those who follow the eternal divine message have the duty to bring peace, justice and stability to the world. “I spoke at the King Saud and Imam Muhammad bin Saud universities — the Minister said, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency — as to how some Saudis came to terrorism and how we can resolve this problem”. Prince Naif has also started an internet channel with videos for the universities aimed at combating deviant ideas and opinions. The Minister’s objective is that of highlighting the role of Muslims in the spreading of Islam’s message in a convincing way. “Islam is a system of living in line with human nature. It is adapted to all ages and all places”. Teachers and students must give their contributions to resolve the problems and crises that face humanity. Saudi Arabia, one of the primary objectives for fundamentalist Islam, is strongly committed to ending internal terrorism. In addition to hundreds of arrests, the government has launched a program to reclaim those that have been involved in fundamentalism and, in July, Grand Muftì Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al Sheikh invited Saudis and foreigners “to not offer refuge and protection to terrorists”, because this is a “grave sin”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Art of the End of War
by Michael Yon
…Al Qaeda was handed a vicious defeat in Iraq, and it can be said with great certainty that most Iraqis hate al Qaeda even more than Americans do. Al Qaeda can continue to murder Iraqis for now, but al Qaeda will be hard pressed to ever plant their flag in another Iraqi city. The Iraqi army and police have become far too strong and organized, and the Iraqis will eventually strangle al Qaeda to death.
I still find people in America, Nepal, Thailand, UAE and other countries who believe al Qaeda propaganda that they attack us because we support Israel or occupy Muslim holy land. This would not explain the decapitated Iraqi children I photographed when locals told me al Qaeda did it. This would not explain the Iraqi children al Qaeda has blown up, or the Afghans and Pakistanis killed by al Qaeda, or the Africans who are murdered by the same cult of serial killers. Did those decapitated children in the Iraqi village even know where America or Israel are? What about the Shia mosques they destroyed in Iraq? Were they occupying Saudi Arabia or supporting Israel?
The streets that I was this day patrolling with Iraqi National Police and soldiers from 10th Mountain Division, were once controlled by al Qaeda. Al Qaeda had intentionally stoked the fires of civil war in Iraq.
What’s next? If you are in this same neighborhood next week (now last week), please go to the art Iraqi Art show that people were talking about…
For the first time in a generation, an art and culture show will be hosted in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad, Nov. 26.
Twenty renowned Iraqi artists, many of them professors at the Baghdad Art Institute, have agreed to participate in the Doura Art and Culture Show, “New Life, New Culture.”
[…]
A civil society is one that admires artists, and has time to admire and critique and argue about their creations. An advanced society is one that can generate and support an Army that promotes the art of a former enemy, to find peace. The Iraqi artists have the opportunity and social obligation to promote healing.
Yes, the war is over. And it will be a great day when the last American division leaves Iraq, and Americans and Iraqis never fire another shot at each other, and we can honestly call each other “friends.”
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Turkey: First Kurdish TV Channel on Air After Years Long Ban
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 20 — The State-run Turkish Radio Television and Corporation (Trt) will start broadcasting in Kurdish in 2009 after having banned the language following the military coup of 12 September 1980, daily Today’s Zaman writes. The ban was lifted in 1991 and Trt will dedicate one of its five channels to full-time broadcasts in Kurdish and other languages. Broadcasting in Kurdish will commence on 1 January 2009. Trt will assign a channel to full-time broadcasting in Kurdish, with preparations almost complete. The station will later add Arabic and Persian to its list of broadcasting languages and is expected to begin broadcasting in these languages some time next year. Tarik Ziya Ekinci, a prominent Kurdish intellectual, stressed how “broadcasting in Kurdish will significantly contribute to the establishment of social peace in Turkey; this is a very important step, and I believe it will help stop bloodshed and silence guns”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Kurds, Banned Book Written by Ocalan
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 20 — The imprisoned leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Pkk), Abdullah Ocalan, has written a book and secretly sent it to his publisher in Diyarbakir, as daily Referans reported. Ocalan wrote the book titled “The Revolution of Culture and Art” at Imrali island where he is serving his lifelong prison sentence. The Turkish government became aware of the book only when the publisher, Aram Publishing House, applied to the Culture Ministry for an official label a few weeks ago. Officials did not believe Ocalan had written the book and suspected a name similarity. When they asked for detailed information from the ministry’s office in Diyarbakir, they learned that the author is indeed the Pkk leader and promptly notified Culture Minister, Ertugrul Gunay. The Culture Ministry is obliged by law to grant the label in 10 days but the detained persons need the Justice Ministry’s permission for publishing. The Gun printing house in Istanbul, however, already printed the book, leading Gunay to bring the issue at a cabinet meeting. Ankaràs prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the book and has decided to ban and collect all copies, while Ocalan and his attorneys were under close surveillance. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turks, Kurds Threaten Assyrian Monastery in Turkey
Kurdish leaders from the villages of Yayvantepe, Eglence and Candarli, in cooperation with influential members of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), are continuing their so-called “lawful means” campaign to confiscate the land of the Assyrian monastery of St. Gabriel, founded in 397 A.D. (AINA 9-16-2008).
During the Ottoman Empire the monastery received the status of a Foundation for the Syrian Orthodox Church and is still legally regarded as such. Over the last three decades it has developed into a major religious and community center that attracts tens of thousands visitors from Turkey and abroad. The entire region has benefited from this development, though for some fanatic Kurdish village heads, it seems to be a problem.
As their initial efforts did not materialize and court hearings and trials have been postponed, the Kurdish leaders of the villages increased pressure by harassing the monastery with the following false accusations:
- The monastery has been established illegally while a wall has been built around it
The Church is doing missionary work among youth
The teaching in the monastery violates Turkish laws
National Unity is destroyed
The church is a historic museum and should be not misused for praying
The monastery does not pay taxes
Meanwhile, Bishop Samuel Aktas of St. Gabriel has issued a detailed report titled The Imminent Problems Facing the Syriac monastery of Mor Gabriel in Midyat, Turkey, while summarizing what he calls “alarming concerns” the monastery is facing. The report is also replying in detail to the false criminal accusation filed as lawsuits; in fact, the latter are a means to harass the monastery and its inhabitants. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
High-Ranking Russian Anti-Drugs Agency Official Still in Jail
Security Services Behind-the-Scenes Squabbling
A Moscow court refused to release on bail General Alexander Bulbov, a senior Russian federal anti-drugs officer, until December 15 pending his trial on charges of illegal wiretapping, bribery and running a protection racket, news agencies are reporting. Bulbov is a key figure in what is seen as a behind-the-scenes struggle for influence between feuding clans linked to Russia’s powerful security services.
Bulbov has repeatedly claimed he is being targeted by officials from Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, to conceal evidence he unearthed of their purported complicity in the case of Tri Kita, a Moscow furniture store accused of smuggling Chinese goods and evading import duties totalling millions of dollars.
The ruling, political analysts said, represents a victory for a hawkish clan led by Igor Sechin, Putin’s deputy who is in charge of Russia’s energy industry, over a second clan headed by Bulbov’s former boss, Viktor Cherkesov, the man who was once responsible for the Federal Drug Control Service. Political analysts said Putin, towards the end of his presidency, was playing a delicate balancing act, trying to prevent a single clan from becoming too powerful by making strategic government appointments and enigmatic public gestures to keep top security officials from becoming too comfortable. But what had been a largely secretive feud seeped into the public sphere following Bulbov’s arrest in October 2007, which prompted Cherkesov, a longtime associate of Putin’s, to publish an article in the respected daily Kommersant warning that a turf war between Russia’s security services could undermine the stability of the government and the country at large. Cherkesov did not cite any names in the article, but he suggested his anti-drugs officers had been arrested because of evidence they discovered in the investigation of the furniture company.
“These actions are caused by feelings of revenge and fear before the subsequent exposures of the high-ranking officials of FSB of the Russian Federation, among them, first of all, Lieutenant-General Kupryazhkin A.N., chief of the Internal Security (9th directorate of the FSB of the Russian Federation), the chief of 6-th service of the Internal Security Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation Feoktistov O.V. and his deputy Kharitonov S.N., as well as some others whom its is premature now to speak about “, Bulbov’s statement said following his arrest.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Super-Warship May Fight Pirates After Caribbean Drills
The nuclear rocket cruiser Peter the Great may join a group of ships fighting piracy off the Somali coast. The super-ship has just completed joint drills with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean.
The Russian ships arrived in Venezuela last week in an operation widely seen as the Kremlin’s response to the U.S. decision to deliver aid to Georgia aboard warships following the country’s conflict with Russia. However, President Hugo Chavez insists the naval exercises weren’t meant as a provocation to the United States or any other nation. Chavez has praised Russia for raising its profile in the Americas, while saying the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet, which has been recently re-activated, poses a threat to Venezuela. […]
The Russian squadron captained a Venezuelan frigate, while Venezuelan Admiral Luis Morales acted as captain of the Peter the Great. The exercise involved 1600 Russian navy personnel. […]
Soviet ships and planes regularly visited Cuba during the Cold War, but Russian troops have been absent in the region since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Three Churches in One Day — Amazing Building Plan Revealed!
Three new churches are to be built simultaneously and in one day in the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian capitals. The remarkable project in Moscow, Kiev and Minsk marks one thousand and twenty years since the arrival of Christianity in Russia.
Construction teams will use modern technologies, which make the building process faster and cheaper. The churches will be built from special wooden blocks and the cost of each is estimated to be three or four times lower than that of its traditional counterpart.
According to Vladimir Mikov, of the Russian Orthodox Philanthropist Club sponsoring the event, the Moscow part of the project will cost little more than 40 thousand euros. “In times of financial crisis we do not think about porcelain iconostasis, rather our project wants to make good the deficit of churches in remote districts,” he said.
The churches are to be built in areas of the cities where there are no churches. It’s hoped it will help satisfy the spiritual hunger many Russians still feel after years of Soviet atheism.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Ilgar Ibrahimoglu: “I See a Potential for Euro-Islam in Azerbaijan”
Wearing European clothes instead of a turban and robe and being a human rights activist and newspaper editor in addition to an imam, one would not immediately associate Ilgar Ibrahimoglu with the cliché of a Shiite cleric. As such, he represents certain trends in Azerbaijan’s post-Soviet society and religious landscape. 34-year old Ibragimoglu used to be the imam of the Juma mosque in Baku’s old centre until the authorities closed it in mid-2004, officially for restoration but apparently because of Ibrahimoglu’s critical stances towards the governement and official clergy. The Juma mosque was recently reopened for worship but under a different leadership. Ibrahimoglu continues his activities from premises in Baku’s business quarter.
Certain international analysts and region watchers consider you and your community to represent so-called ‘alternative Islam’ in Azerbaijan. What does this means? Do you consider yourself that way?
I hope that we represent exactly real Islam, or at least we are trying to. It all depends on definitions, really. Islam is Islam. If by ‘alternative’ they mean some esoteric cult, then we are not alternative because that’s not what we are. But if they mean that we represent an independent Islam that is not linked to third countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia or not part of the official clergy, then they are right. Unlike the state clergy, we are no apparatchiks from the Soviet period who are used by the state to legitimize a corrupt and increasingly authoritarian regime and make a parody of Islam. They preach conformism and resignation. We stand for social justice, which is what Islam is about. We and others are trying to do that through our human rights work and social work. Of course, some in the government see that as a threat for their mercantile interests. That’s why they like to label us ‘extremists’.
[…]
How would you describe the evolution of Islam in Azerbaijan today?
There are interesting developments taking place. The number of practicing Muslims, whether Shiite or Sunni, is very limited — maybe five or six percent. In Europe, for example, I’ve met more practising Muslims than in my own country. […]
During Soviet atheism, the cliché was imposed that religion is something for the poor and illiterate in the villages. But poor people are mainly concerned with basic needs, not with religion. It is those who are upwardly mobile and literate who think about questions of identity. I see that here in Baku and among the people who come to our community. Urbanization and communication create a space for religion. The more people are confronted with globalization, the more people try to define who they are and where they belong spiritually. We have young Azerbaijani Muslims who became more religious while studying in the West, in Europe, after they were confronted with Islamophobia and with the less positive aspects of Western life and culture there.
Tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis are migrant or seasonal workers in Russia. Do you see a similar process of religious self-identification among them?
Less so. Most of the people who go to Russia are from the provinces. Also, in Russia there is not as much ideological Islamophobia as in Europe. The problem there is more ethnic xenophobia that targets Muslims from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan as well as Georgians and Armenians who are Christian. It’s a different thing. But labour migration to Russia will affect religious consciousness sooner or later. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in the future, but Russia has no interest in getting into a confrontation with the Islamic world. In Russia, people do have access to different kinds of Islamic media even more so than in Azerbaijan or other majority former Muslim Soviet republics.
I think that the future of Islam and the Muslims in Azerbaijan is not to be found in Russia but in Europe. I have been in Europe half a dozen of times already and we observe thinkers like Tariq Ramadan and the evolution of Islam in Bosnia and among Muslim immigrants in the West with great interest. Europe not only borders the Islamic world, it is also demographically intertwined with it. There are large immigrant communities in the process of redefining their identity just like the Muslims in Azerbaijan are. I see potential for the development of moral and intellectual Islam in Azerbaijan, such as the process that we are observing in Europe today.
[…]
After several conversations at the grassroots level as well as with opinion leaders and academics in Baku and in provincial Azerbaijan, it seems to me that ‘the West’ has been heavily discredited for several years, as is the case in many other formerly Soviet as well as Islamic countries. Is that also your opinion?
I would not put it so categorically. It depends who you deal with. The regime will cynically try to obtain from the West what it can, as it economically and diplomatically suits it. Certain groups and individuals in the West do not want any change for the better in Azerbaijan because there is a lot of Anglo-American capital in the oil and gas industry and because the opposition is not very developed or credible. For the rest, I think that the grassroots level has little associations with the West but more with Russia. The people are too preoccupied with daily life to have any consistent opinions about it. The socially mobile categories and the intelligentsia, however, are increasingly anti-Western, or at least disappointed about the hypocrisy and the double standards of the West. There’s a feeling that democracy in Azerbaijan has been sacrificed for the sake of oil interests. There’s also a sentiment that the US and Europe tacitly support the Armenians in Karakbakh. And of course, the war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib and the Danish cartoons had some impact too.
Azerbaijan changes rapidly: oil income, rapid urbanization, social contrasts, labour migration and also increasing authoritarianism. Some draw similarities with the situation in neighboring Iran on the eve of the Islamic revolution. This has led certain analysts and journalists to express concerns about a repetition of such a scenario in majority Shiite Azerbaijan. You did part of your studies in Iran and know the country well. How do you estimate that?
What happens in Iran several years ago is the reverse coin of the neoconservative policies of the US towards Iran and the Islamic world in general.. The Iranian population will not accept or support change imposed or manipulated from the outside. These are interesting times. Much will depend on the behavior of the new US administration towards Iran. Other than that, it is nonsense to speak of a potential Islamic revolution here in Azerbaijan modeled on that of Iran. First, Iran had a much a more active clergy as well as important religious and intellectual centres. Second, there was a higher percentage of practicing Muslims among the Iranian population even during the Westernizing policies of the Shah. And third, Iran had an active and influential Marxist revolutionary movement which participated in the overthrow of the monarchy. None of these are present in Azerbaijan today. Look, it’s fashionable to speak about change now. We live in the twenty-first century and change will come, even to Azerbaijan. People look for their indentity, dignity and for social justice in a world in full motion. Nobody can stop that. It’ time to push for change but not for confrontation or more conflict. We are optimistic in this regard.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
India: Govt Urges Pakistan to Hand Over 20 ‘Most Wanted’
New Delhi, 2 Dec. (AKI) — India has asked Pakistan to hand over 20 top fugitives amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations following last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Pakistan said it would “frame a formal response” once it received the list of names. It was unclear what links the fugitives had to the Mumbai attacks, which left at least 188 dead and injured many hundreds more.
India’s demand was contained in a protest note handed to Pakistan’s High Commissioner, Shahid Malik in New Delhi, on Monday, Indian Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told journalists.
Indian media reported the ‘most wanted’ list included Dawood Ibrahim, a Mumbai underworld leader, and Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani Muslim cleric. Azhar, the founder of militant Kashmiri separatist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, was freed from jail in India in exchange for the passengers on a hijacked plane.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that his country has offered to form a joint team to help India probe the Mumbai attacks.
Leading campaign group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday condemned the Mumbai attack and urged the Indian and Pakistani governments to cooperate in a “prompt and thorough” investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
HRW invited the Indian government to take a series of measures to prevent such attacks in future including better coordinate of intelligence gathering. The group called on the Pakistan army and intelligence services to cooperate with the Indian investigation “wherever the evidence leads.”
But HRW urged the India “to only use lawful means” to probe the Mumbai attacks. “After previous terror incidents, there have been widespread allegations that Indian security forces have committed arbitrary arrests and torture. Muslims have often been targeted,” the group said.
Indian officials have repeatedly stated in recent days there is evidence that the militants behind the Mumbai attacks had Pakistani links.
Attention has focused since the attacks on the lone gunman who survived three days of running battles with Indian comandos at two luxury hotels in Mumbai, the Taj Mahal (photo) and the Oberoi among other mainly tourist targets.
Named in media reports as Azam Amir Qasab, the 21-year-old gunman reportedly told his Indian interrogators he is from Pakistan and trained for the Mumbai attacks with the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group, Lashkar-i-Toiba.
Lashkar-i-Toiba has denied responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, which were claimed by a previously unknown group, the Deccan Mujahadeen.
It is claimed that Jaish-e-Mohammed operates with the support of the Pakistan’s spy agency ISI and the country’s military dominated oligarchy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Nightspots to Shut for Idul Adha
The city administration on Tuesday instructed entertainment spots in the capital to close their businesses one day prior to and on the Muslim holiday of Idul Adha, which this year falls on Monday, an official said.
A letter issued by the city’s tourism agency ordered the following venues to remain closed for two days as a sign of respect to Muslims on the Day of Sacrifice: nightclubs, discotheques, massage parlors, saunas, bars, karaoke venues, live music bars, and pool bars. “If owners of those entertainment spots do not obey the decree, we will punish them,” said Arie Budhiman, head of the city’s tourism agency. He added that violators would face three months in jail and a fine of up to Rp 5 million ($415).
According to the latest data from the Indonesian Association of Entertainment Center Owners, there are some 1,074 entertainment venues across the city, employing at least 1.5 million workers.
Idul Adha is a religious feast celebrated by Muslims in commemoration of the willingness of Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. About 88 percent of Indonesia’s 222 million people are Muslims.
The circular, which is based on Gubernatorial Decree No. 98/2004 on the tourism industry in Jakarta, also states that businesses in the sector are not allowed to publish or broadcast erotic ads, show pornographic films and performances, create noise in a neighborhood, provide gifts, or create an opportunity for people to engage in gambling or sell and use drugs. It also instructs employers to ensure their workers wear suitable clothing.
According to Arie, the city administration would cooperate with the Jakarta Police, the National Police, the public order agency and other concerned institutions in Jakarta to ensure that the industry complied with the regulation and to maintain peace and order during the celebration.
He said the closure of entertainment venues was also aimed at preventing gambling, which he said had been showing a steady increase over the past few months. […]
Muslims will perform Idul Adha prayers in mosques and open spaces on Monday morning, slaughtering goats or cattle afterward.
The meat will then be distributed to the needy.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Political Uncertainty and Corruption Favor Greater Role for Sultans
Opposition leader Anwar is seeking their support, promising to restore their old privileges. In the face of government excess and weakness, the public role of the royals is increasing.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is seeking the support of the sultans, in order to overthrow the government. Scandals and political uncertainty favor a gradual recovery of power by the royals.
Wan Azizah, Anwar’s wife and the president of his Keadilan Party (in the photo, next to her husband), has told them that “we are willing to return royal immunity and power to veto laws in the spirit of constitutional monarchy.”
The proposal comes just one day after Tunku Naquiyuddin, the regent of Negri Sembilan, presented the government with the request to restore royal powers. The government’s response was tepid: justice minister Nazri Aziz responded only that such proposals must come from the Conference of Rulers, a body that represents all nine sultans.
Veto power was taken away from the sultans in 1984 by prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, through a constitutional reform, making the government the highest authority in the country. In 1993, royal immunity was eliminated. The sultan nevertheless has the discretionary power to convene and dissolve parliament and to appoint the chief minister, judges, and other public officials.
Wan’s initiative has ignited debate, because part of society is in favor of giving more power back to the royals. Provided that — as constitutional law expert Shad Saleem Faruqi comments — there is a strict code of conduct that would prevent the abuse of power.
For some time, the royals have been taking on a more active role in the country’s politics: for example, against the decision of the national council for the fatwa (highest religious authority) to prohibit Muslims from practicing yoga, as well as against widespread judicial corruption.
Political expert Ramon Navaratnam tells the South China Morning Post that “the royals have an expanding role as a check on government excesses. We should not reject their suggestion outright, but examine it carefully.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mumbai Attacks: Terrorists Took Cocaine to Stay Awake During Assault
Terrorists who battled Indian commandos for 60-hours last week relied on cocaine and other stimulants to stay awake for the duration of the fight.
Officials said drug paraphernalia, including syringes, was recovered from the scene of the attacks, which killed almost 200 people.
The heavily built men, who had undergone training at a special marine camp established by the Lashkar-e-Taibat (LeT) terrorist group in Pakistan, had also used steroids to build a tougher physique.
“We found injections containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists and later found drugs in their blood,” said one official.
“There was also evidence of steroids, which isn’t uncommon in terrorists.
“These men were all toned, suggesting they had been doing some heavy training for the attacks. This explains why they managed to battle the commandos for over 50 hours with no food or sleep.”
One terrorist used the drugs to keep on fighting despite suffering a life-threatening injury.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Fourth Day of Ethnic Fighting in Karachi, Dozens Dead
Armed conflict, fires and destruction between the Urdu majority and the Pashtun minority. The police have been ordered to shoot the agitators on sight, and say that today there is less fighting. It is a rift that goes back for decades, because of ethnic and economic reasons.
Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Fighting between rival groups has killed another four people today in Karachi. The police say that the violence is diminishing, and that there have been no major clashes after more than 40 people have died in four days, and hundreds have been injured. But the people continue to flee from the city (in the photo).
For months, in the city of 15 million inhabitants, the largest commercial center in the country, tension has been rising between the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) — which represents the ethnic Urdu majority, many of them descendants of people who left India after the partition in 1947 — and the Awami National Party (AWP) of the Pashtun minority, who have come from the northwestern part of the country and from to Afghanistan in search of work. Some leaders of the MQM have accused the Taliban militants — most of them Pashtun — of wanting to control the city. The AWP replies that there is “a conspiracy” against the Pashtuns in the city. In recent weeks, activists believed to be members of the MQM have forced the closure of dozens of tea shops and stores operated by Pashtuns in Urdu majority areas. The violence exploded on November 29, after the killing of the Pashtun owner of a tea shop. Groups of Pashtuns reacted by taking control of various points of entry into the city.
There have been armed conflicts between the rival groups, with shops and cars burned, and homes attacked. Gunmen in cars and on motorcycles have gone around the city shooting indiscriminately at pedestrians and vehicles. The fighting continued and escalated until yesterday, raising fears of a return to the systematic violence that broke out in the early 1990’s. Appeals to calm by the two parties and by the Pakistan People’s Party of president Asif Ali Zardari had no effect. In order to control the city, the police have been ordered to shoot on sight those who create disorder, and motorcycles have been prohibited. Today, the schools have remained closed and vehicle traffic is at a minimum, but the banks have continued to work normally.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Lullaby of Mumbai
Don Feder highlights media’s failure to use the ‘I’ word when describing terrorists
Come on along and listen to the Lullaby of Mumbai, the hip hooray and politically correct coverage, and never say the “I” word. That doesn’t rhyme, does it?
In its coverage of a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai last week that left 172 dead, The New York Times — America’s newspaper that sounds like a broken record — scrupulously avoided any suggestion of possible sectarian motivation for the atrocities. The perpetrators were variously referred to as “terrorists,” “gunmen,” “militants” and “assailants.”
The only time “Islam,” “Muslims” or similar expressions were used was in reporting on statements of the terrorists themselves — as when they railed against the alleged mistreatment of Muslims in Kashmir and India or demanded that “mujahedeen” prisoners be released. Sky News reported that the terrorists called on the Indian government “to return stolen Muslim lands” — which, in the wide world of Islam, is all of India.
[…]
Let’s see: In the past 30 years, the overwhelming majority of acts of terrorism were committed by Muslims. Most terrorist groups have names like jihad-this and Islamic-that. Terrorists regularly quote the Koran’s kill-the-infidels verses. (“O True Believers, when you encounter the unbeliever, strike off their heads!”) Al-Qaeda and company tell us that their goal is to advance the global jihad . Those inciting inter-religious violence have titles like sheikh, imam and mullah. But linking Islam to terrorism is “misleading”?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Official: India Attack May Have Pakistani Roots
Washington had warned that terrorists appeared to be plotting assault on Mumbai
WASHINGTON (AP) — Evidence suggests that a group partly based in Pakistan carried out last week’s attack in India, U.S. officials said Tuesday, and they also revealed the U.S. had warned the Indian government that terrorists appeared to be plotting an assault on Mumbai.
Also, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that U.S. and British citizens were the targets of the violent siege, although most of those killed in the city, the nation’s financial capital, were Indians.
The brutal, prolonged attack had some roots in Pakistan, a senior State Department official said. That’s the closest the U.S. has come to placing blame for the coordinated assaults, although the official was careful to say that not all the evidence is in. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Masses Naval-Air-Marine Might in Arabian Sea Opposite India, Pakistan, Iran
Three US aircraft carriers with strike groups, task forces and nuclear submarines have piled up in the waters of the Arabian Sea opposite the shores of India, Pakistan and Iran, and in the Persian Gulf.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the US began massing this formidable array of floating firepower at the outset of the Islamist terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last Wednesday, Nov. 26.
Tehran responded typically with a threat of retaliation should the Americans decide to use the Mumbai terrorist attack to hit Iran. It is more likely, according to our military sources, that the Americans are on the ready in case the rising tensions between India and Pakistan over the New Delhi’s charge of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai atrocity explodes into an armed clash on their border.
This is indicated by the units now deployed:
1. the USS John C. Stennis, which carries 80 fighter-bombers and 3,200 sailors and airmen and leads a strike group..
This carrier joins two already there, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which patrols the northern Arabian Sea, part of whose strike group cruises opposite Iran’s southern coast; and the USS Iwo Jima, which carries a large marine contingent on board.
2. New to these waters, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, is the Destroyer Squadron 50/CTF 55, which has two task forces: Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) for strikes against warships and the rapid deployment of marines to flashpoint arenas; and Mine Countermeasures Division 31, which stands ready to prevent New Delhi or Islamabad from mining the Arabian Sea routes connecting their ports. Those routes are vital waterways for US marine traffic supporting the war in Afghanistan.
3. To manage this armada, the command and control vessel, USS Mount Whitney, has been brought over from the Mediterranean.
4. Four nuclear submarines.
The arrival of the southwest Asian marine patrol carrier Stennis and the Mount Whitney to the Arabian Sea opposite Iran’s shores set alarm bells ringing in Tehran. Our Iranian sources note that the Islamic republic’s rulers remember that after al Qaeda’s attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the Americans did not only invade Afghanistan, but also Iraq and they fear a similar sideswipe.
The Iranian chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Ataoallah Salehi sounded a warning when he stated Sunday, Nov. 30: The “heavy weight” of enemy warships provides the Iranian side with an ideal opportunity for launching successful counter-attacks.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Six-to-One Advantage Over the US
By Spengler
America outspends China on defense by a margin of more than six to one, the Pentagon estimates. [1] In another strategic dimension, though, China already holds a six-to-one advantage over the United States. Thirty-six million Chinese children study piano today, compared to only 6 million in the United States.[2] The numbers understate the difference, for musical study in China is more demanding.
It must be a conspiracy. Chinese parents are selling plasma-screen TVs to America, and saving their wages to buy their kids pianos — making American kids stupider and Chinese kids smarter. Watch out, Americans — a generation from now, your kid is going to fetch coffee for a Chinese boss. That is a bit of an exaggeration, of course — some of the bosses will be Indian. Americans really, really don’t have a clue what is coming down the pike. The present shift in intellectual capital in favor of the East has no precedent in world history.
“Chinese parents urge their children to excel at instrumental music with the same ferocity that American parents [urge] theirs to perform well in soccer or Little League,” wrote Jennifer Lin in the Philadelphia Inquirer June 8 in an article entitled China’s ‘piano fever’.
The world’s largest country is well along the way to forming an intellectual elite on a scale that the world has never seen, and against which nothing in today’s world — surely not the inbred products of the Ivy League puppy mills — can compete. Few of its piano students will earn a living at the keyboard, to be sure, but many of the 36 million will become much better scientists, engineers, physicians, businessmen and military officers…
| — Hat tip: AA | [Return to headlines] |
Algerians Massively Seek to Migrate
ALGIERS, Algeria: Nearly half of Algeria’s young men want to migrate illegally to Europe, a poll published Wednesday suggests, illustrating the social unease of this North African nation.
The poll, published by the independent daily Liberte, showed that 49.5 percent of Algerian men aged 15 to 34 wanted to immigrate illegally in countries such as Britain.
Half of these said they were “certain” they’d try to leave. The second half said it was “likely” they would attempt to reach Europe, despite the risks linked to crossing the Mediterranean Sea in a flimsy boat.
More than 80 percent of those wanting out cited “fleeing the country” and “building a future” as their motive to migrate, the newspaper said. It reported that four out of five Algerians knew of someone who had already left without the required passports or visas, or was soon planning to do so. University graduates were more likely to want to leave than those lacking education, the poll found…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Barge Sighted South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), DECEMBER 2 — A barge with around 150 migrants, according to an initial estimation, has been sighted by a fishing boat 15 miles to the south of Lampedusa. A navy ship and two coastguard patrol boats are heading towards the area. The rescue operations are being coordinated by the coastguard operations centre at the Palermo harbour office. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Boat in Trouble South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), DECEMBER 3 — A boat with 150 migrants on board off the coast of Lampedusa has launched an Sos with a satellite phone due to poor weather conditions. In the zone, 18 miles south of Lampedusa, Danaide, an Italian Navy corvette, a Coast Guard motorboat, and a motor trawler are directed towards the area. The aid operations are being coordinated by the operation headquarters of the Harbour Office. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Leros Leads Action to Help Illegal Migrants
Authorities on Leros are working with aid organizations to make life easier for illegal immigrants arriving on the Dodecanese island, even though the number of undocumented visitors has increased more than threefold this year.
The number of migrants arriving on Leros illegally from neighboring Turkey has increased to 3,500 this year from 975 last year, authorities say. Local authorities have set aside a hotel as temporary accommodation for the migrants. Meanwhile, local citizens and aid organizations provide the migrants with food and medical attention.
“Locals here are sensitized to human pain due to the island’s history,” Tina Staikou, a local aid worker, told Kathimerini yesterday.
The island’s mayor, Timotheos Kottakis, said he and other regional mayors intend to take this service a step forward. “The municipalities of the Dodecanese have decided to donate 5 percent of our income to aid for the migrants’ countries of origin,” he said.
Back in Athens, in the central district of Aghios Panteleimonas, illegal immigrants are not so welcome. Many spend all day on the streets and in squares before being given shelter for the evening by longer-established local immigrants or representatives of aid organizations. Some are not so lucky. One heavily pregnant Afghan woman with labor pains was transferred to a local hospital by an aid worker just in time. She has since been given shelter in a tiny apartment with another six Afghans.
The importance of shelter for the migrants is becoming increasingly crucial as winter sets in. A 3-year-old boy died of exposure on Aghios Panteleimonas Square a few days ago. Aid workers fear similar incidents may occur over the next weeks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece; Leros, 10 Times More Arrivals Than 2006
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 2 — More than 3,500 illegal immigrants have arrived so far this year in Leros (in the Aegean sea) from nearby Turkey. The news was reported Kathimerini, an Athens-based daily newspaper, clarifying that in 2006 just 291 illegal immigrants arrived on the island, whilst in the number had risen to 975. Local authorities have rented out a hotel to provide temporary accommodation for the immigrants, whilst citizens and humanitarian organisations are providing food and medical supplies. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Libya-Malta Meeting on 5/12 Cancelled
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 2 — The meeting between the Italian (Franco Frattini), Libyan (Abdurrahaman Mohamed Shalgam) and Maltese (Tonio Borg) foreign ministers, which was to be held in Malta on Friday 5 December to discuss illegal immigration in the Mediterranean, has been cancelled. The appointment is no longer scheduled for Friday, it has been learned, “because of agenda issues” of the Libyan head of diplomacy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan; Conference on Conditions of Expatriates
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, DECEMBER 2 — Jordan hosts today an international gathering to discuss conditions of expatriates around the world and means to improve their working environment, a union leader said today. Participants will look into legislations governing the import of workers from around the world as well as their conditions in relation to international conventions and human rights, said Mazen Mayta, president of Jordan’s labour union. “Jordan has been selected to host the event because it is one of the countries that imports and exports workers from Asia and to the gulf, therefore we need to project our view on worker’s rights,” said Mayta. Experts from worldwide labour unions and countries from the Asian continent will take part in the event, said Mayta. Officials will also look into conditions of workers in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Iraq as well as child labour. Jordan is home to nearly half a million expatriates, the majority come from Egypt and Syria. There is also nearly 70,000 domestic workers from Asian countries including Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Human rights groups have often criticized Jordanian authorities for not taking tough stance against abuse of workers, who are often subjected to prolonged working hours, physical and physiological abuse and lack of payment.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Landings in Sicily, in Linosa and Licata
(ANSAmed) — AGRIGENTO, DECEMBER 2 — More landings during the night in Agrigento, Sicily. Thirteen illegal immigrants were surprised by police on the cliffs at Linosa; they were all soaked, and after being stopped and warmed up were transferred by patrol boat to the Lampedusa reception centre. Another eighteen migrants, including a five year-old child, landed at the port of Licata. Soldiers from the coastguard stopped them as they landed and accompanied them to the city’s reception centre. They said that they had escaped from Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Subsaharans and Algerians Dream of Europe
(by Laura De Santi) (ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, DECEMBER 2 — While thousands of migrants from the sub-sahara, around 300,000 according to some estimates, live in Algeria waiting to continue their journey to Europe, the Harraga, ‘‘those who want to burn down the borders’ in Algerian, are meeting along the beaches at sunrise ready to challenge the sea and reach the coasts of Italy and Spain. The phenomenon is growing all over North Africa and particularly in Algeria, where the authorities are having trouble finding an adequate solution. ‘‘They have simply approved a bill which makes emigration illegal’’ said sociologist Zine Ed dine Zemmour, director of the Anthropological Research Centre in Oran (CRASC) to ANSAmed. The new legislation which was adopted by the Council of Ministers in September provides up to ten years in prison for smugglers and up to six months for trying to leave Algerian territory illegally. ‘‘But emigration is the anomaly of a profoundly sick society, and it is pointless trying to solve this kind of phenomenon with prison and controls. The whole country wants to leave: there are thousands of Algerians who leave illegally, risking their lives in the sea. But do middle-upper class families not dream of a life and job abroad too? The difference is that they leave with a visa on an aeroplane.’’ All have the same objective: Europe. But if the African migrants arriving, according to the Italian NGO CISP (Committee for the Development of Population) mainly from Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Congo, Liberia, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, are often driven by extreme situations such as conflict or famine, for Algerian migrants it is the need for ‘‘peace and freedom’’ and ‘‘better opportunities for the future’’. ‘‘I am young and I can’t take any more of my country, I want to live in peace’’ says Samir in the documentary ‘Harragui Harragui’ filmed in Annaba by Meriem Boukkaz. ‘‘I cannot live here as I would like, life gives you nothing. There is no tenderness’’ says another harraga. In Annaba, 600 km east of Algiers ‘‘just get of the bus or walk along the streets of the city to meet recruiters suggesting a lift to Sardinia. The price varies according to how you look’’ explains journalist on the Algerian daily El Watan, Mohamed Gaidi -; ‘‘a young boy could spend a few hundred euros: the traffickers, who make small boats themselves or have agreements with the fishermen have to have a full boat. According to official figures, more than 12,000 irregular migrants of African origin, entering Algeria through the southern border, were arrested and expelled in 2007. In the same year, around 1,500 migrants were stopped off the Algerian coast. It is impossible to have definite figures on those missing at sea and on those who have realised their dream and arrived in Europe. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists, Criminal Aliens Exchange Vows With Americans
Marriage most common path to U.S. citizenship, residency for foreign nationals
Seminara reveals criminals and terrorists have caught on to marriage fraud schemes. He referenced Janice Kephart’s 2005 report titled “Immigration and Terrorism” where she outlined how terrorists, including members of al-Qaida, have participated in marriage schemes to remain in the U.S.
“Once in the United States, 16 of 23 terrorists became legal permanent residents, often by marrying an American,” Kephart wrote. “Marrying a U.S. citizen is one of the easiest ways to stay in the United States once within the country’s borders.”
Kephart revealed in a recorded conversation in 2000 between radical Islamists Abdulsalam Ali Ali Abdulrahman and Es Sayed talked about marrying American women while discussing jihad:
S: God is great and Mohammed is his prophet. They are dogs’ sons.
A: They are. Let me go to Germany and we’ll see: there are beautiful and brave women there, we have Jamal Fekri Jamal Sami. We marry the Americans, so that they study the faith and the Quran.
S: I know many brothers who want to get married, the American woman must learn the Quran.
A: They think they are lions but they are traitors, they perceive themselves as the world power but we’ll deal with them. I know brothers who entered the US with the scam of the wedding publications, claiming they were Egyptians and not revealing their true identity and they were already married.
S: You must be an actor, if they catch you it’s serious.
Also, Spanish authorities taped a second conversation on May 26, 2004, in which Rabei Osman described the theory “by which the ‘end justifies the means’ for the cause of jihad”:
Everything is permitted including marrying with Christian women, because we need [immigration] papers. We have to be everywhere, in Germany, in Holland, in London. We are dominating Europe with our presence. The women serve to obtain documents, because we are in favor of the cause of God.
Kephart’s report provides an extensive list of foreign terrorists who fraudulently married Americans to remain in the U.S.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UNHCR, 20 People Drowned in Gulf of Aden
(ANSAmed) — GENEVA, DECEMBER 2 — At least 20 people died after drowning in the Gulf of Aden, off the Yemen coast, after having been forced to throw themselves into the water from a boat run by human traffickers. Another two people are missing, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) in Geneva. On board the boat, which left from the Horn of Africa and arrived yesterday in Yemen were about 115 migrants, mostly Ethiopians. Of these, at least 93 were able to reach the coast safely. The survivors reported that there is another boat with 55 people on board, which arrived in Yemen without registering victims. Since the beginning of the year, more than 43,500 people, the majority of which are Somali, have arrived in Yemen on board 850 boats, specified the Unhcr. At least 380 people have died and about 360 are missing. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gay-Awareness Promoted in Area Schools
Editor’s Note: This is the first part of an ongoing series on homosexuality in school curriculums.
An organization dedicated to promoting diversity in schools has taken its first steps to include gay and lesbian topics in the classroom.
On Nov. 18, the Multicultural Resource Center (MCRC) hosted a showing of the documentary “It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School,” at The Baldwin School. Founded in 1990 and housed at Baldwin, the MCRC had its foundations in racial issues for most of its existence. MCRC Director Karen DeGregorio told The Bulletin that times have changed, and the MCRC and its member schools are at a crossroads.
“It’s so interesting, because over the years the very definition of multiculturalism has changed,” said Ms. DeGregorio, who splits her time between a teaching position at Episcopal Academy and MCRC. “In the early ‘90s, it was a very different ballgame than what we’re talking about in 2008. And of course, now that we’ve just elected our first African-American president, as well. I think that not that the work doesn’t need to be done, but that a lot of the focus of it will change.”
“It’s Elementary” is a 1996 documentary about what select schools and teachers were doing to talk to students about gay and lesbian issues. The film, shown in its shorter “teacher training” format, outlined programs from essay assignments for upper school students to gay pride celebrations for entire schools, to reading books that portray children with same sex parents for children in first and second grades.
[…]
Ms. DeGregorio made a connection between gay-inclusive curriculum and the MCRC’s ongoing work to promote other forms of diversity. In 2007 the MCRC hosted Tim Wise, an author and lecturer who emphasizes the idea of “white-privilege” in institutions. Last year Ms. De Gregorio engaged a speaker named Eboo Patel to come and speak about pluralism and religion.
[…]
The documentary showed a scene where school faculty were expressing reluctance to teach children that homosexual behavior is good, contrary to the beliefs of the parents. Another teacher said that the curriculum needs teachers to teach that such behavior is good.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New ‘Bible’: Heterosexuality is Sin
‘There are many different versions; I don’t see why we can’t have one’
A filmmaker who recently released an independent project about a formula that turns all heterosexuals into “gays” now has announced he’s working on “The Princess Diana Bible” in which “God” ordains homosexuality as the better lifestyle.
“There are many different versions of the Bible; I don’t see why we can’t have one,” stated Max Mitchell in a statement on a website for his new project.
The “gay Bible,” produced by the New Mexico-based Revision Studios, states God instructs “it is better to be gay than straight.”
Mitchell said he developed the idea for the “Bible” from his new movie project, called “Horror in the Wind,” in which an airborne substance “reverses the world’s sexual orientation.”
He said it’s named “The Princess Diana Bible” because of Diana’s “many good works.”
The website offers a preview of the project, which is forecast to be available in 2009.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video Exposé Shows Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Hiding Statutory Rape
Charlotte, NC (LifeNews.com) — A new video appears to show staff at a Planned Parenthood abortion center in North Carolina covering up an incident of statutory rape. Students for Life of America released the video that includes a college student pretending to be an underage girl who is a sexual assault victim.
[…]
In June, a college student talked with staff at the Charlotte Planned Parenthood center posing as a 15 year-old girl who had unprotected sex with her 30-year-old mother’s live-in boyfriend. The student tells Planned Parenthood officials the boyfriend suggested she go there to obtain the morning after pill.
SFLA tells LifeNews.com that that information alone is enough to trigger North Carolina statutory rape reporting laws, obligating any person who learned of this story to report the crime to authorities.
Planned Parenthood staffers acknowledged the girl was a victim of statutory rape and admitted they were required to report the incident.
“Well legally though, it’s illegal. It’s statutory rape,” a Planned Parenthood official tells the student.
Officials at the abortion business never follow up on the statutory rape question when the girl says her ride is leaving and needs to make an appointment. They then remind the girl that her mother’s boyfriend can purchase the Plan B drug at a local drug store since she is under 18.
[…]
Kristan Hawkins, the executive director of the pro-life student group, tells LifeNews.com that the video of the conversation is “shocking.”
“That Planned Parenthood staffers acknowledged the girl was being raped and then did not report the crime is horrific,” she said. “They were willing to allow this girl to go home to her rapist and even confirmed that the predator could get the morning after pill for her to cover up his crime.”
“This proves that what went on in Ohio is happening in Planned Parenthoods across America,” Hawkins contends.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Extremist Ideology Links Mumbai Attackers and Hamas Says Livni
Brussels, 2 Dec. (AKI) — The gunmen who carried out last week’s deadly attacks in the Indian financial capital, Mumbai, and the militant Islamist Palestinian group Hamas share an extremist ideology that form “a challenge that we must face together,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
“The goal of the international community, is to fight these kinds of extremists,” she said, noting that funerals took place on Tuesday for six Israelis killed by terrorists in the Mumbai attacks.
Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and wife Rivka were among those who died last week when militants stormed an ultra-orthodox Jewish centre and later fought a gun battle with Indian commandos.
The Mumbai attacks left at least 188 dead and injured many hundreds more. A previously unknown militant group, the Deccan Mujahadeen, claimed the attacks which mainly targeted foreigners.
Hamas represented an extreme ideology that “deprives us of our rights, an ideology that does not recognise international laws”, and this makes the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians more complicated, Livni argued.
She warned against too much external intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty. “The eagerness of the international community can only lead to failure, a failure that nobody can afford,” Livni said.
Livni said she was keen to see the EU’s relationship with Israel upgraded, describing this as “a very important step for us.”
Answering a complaint from MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit that it takes Palestinian children 90 minutes to get through an Israeli checkpoint when the journey to school should take them 10 minutes, Livni said: “Our vision is not to control the Palestinians or to ignore international law.”
Responding to MEPs’ concerns that the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank was still continuing, Livni denied that this or land confiscation was still official policy.
“These were policies of the past that don’t represent the opinions of the vast majority of Israelis today,” she stated.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Google Generation Has No Need for Rote Learning
Memorising facts and figures is a waste of time for most schoolchildren because such information is readily available a mere mouse click away, a leading commentator has said.
The existence of Google, Wikipedia and online libraries means that there is no useful place in school for old-fashioned rote learning, according to Don Tapscott, author of the bestselling book Wikinomics and a champion of the “net generation.”
A far better approach would be to teach children to think creatively so that they could learn to interpret and apply the knowledge available online. “Teachers are no longer the fountain of knowledge; the internet is,” Tapscott said. “Kids should learn about history to understand the world and why things are the way they are. But they don’t need to know all the dates. It is enough that they know about the Battle of Hastings, without having to memorise that it was in 1066. They can look that up and position it in history with a click on Google,” he said.
Tapscott denies that his approach is anti-learning. He argues that the ability to learn new things is more important than ever “in a world where you have to process new information at lightning speed.” He said: “Children are going to have to reinvent their knowledge base multiple times. So for them memorising facts and figures is a waste of time.”
[…]
His views are unlikely to be universally welcomed. Ofsted has reported that pupils’ knowledge and understanding of key historical facts is not good enough to enable them to “form overviews and demonstrate strong conceptual understanding.”
Richard Cairns, Headmaster of Brighton College, one of the country’s top-performing independent schools, said that a core level of knowledge was essential: “It’s important that children learn facts. If you have no store of knowledge in your head to draw from, you cannot easily engage in discussions or make informed decisions.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Lewinski’ Reference an Offence
Italians can’t compare women to Clinton intern, court say
(ANSA) — Rome, December 2 — Italians cannot compare women to Monica Lewinsky, the country’s highest court ruled Tuesday.
The Cassation Court, whose rulings set legal precedents, said any comparison of a woman to the intern who rocked Bill Clinton’s White House in the late ‘90s was strictly off-limits.
In its ruling, the court ordered a retrial in the case of a southern Italian lawyer who was sued for accusing a Puglia woman of having a ‘‘Lewinskian nature’’.
Gennarina M. was angry that a lower court let the lawyer get away with the jibe, ruling that being compared to Lewisnky was not libellous.
She demanded a new trial and ‘‘considerable’’ damages.
The relationship, if any, between Gennarina and the lawyer did not emerge during the trial and appeal.
Officials only disclosed that Gennarina sued the lawyer after seeing the derogatory description — which also accused her of ‘‘uterine ramblings’’ — in a legal document.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
OIC: Islam, the Religion of Peace, Tolerance and Compassion
With the multiplicity of terrorist attacks perpetrated recently by deviant and fanatic individuals, the General Secretariat of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has noticed a tendency of a section of the media, to interpose the word “Islam” in reporting these incidences.
Islam, the religion of peace, tolerance and compassion, that sanctifies the human soul, and whose universal message is one of mutual peaceful coexistence among all the peoples of the world, regardless of their ethnicities, race, religions or languages, and which calls for kind reasoning and dialogue with all their fellow human beings, abhors and despises all such criminal acts and had enacted the utmost severe punishment for their perpetrators.
It is frustrating to see some circles, still, maliciously trying to establish conceptual link between such evil and wicked practices and Islam, the religion that condemns, scorns and outlaws them.
It is on the premise of this irrefutable fact that we, in the OIC, call upon all well-intentioned peoples of the world, not to give to these criminals any right to present Islam, a right that Islam itself denies them. Those who refer to the perpetrators, as acting on behalf of Islam, help them by offering them justification, anchor and premise that they don’t have or deserve. On the other hand, the generalization of the guilt of a few aberrant misguided individuals, to engulf the adherents of a religion of 1.5 billion followers is an outrageous judgment and amounts to an illegal collective punishment on a global scale. Moreover, any attempt to implicate all Muslims in such a wicked and wanton acts goes contrary to the well established principles of international law.
It is therefore hoped that media will avoid resorting to any reference to Islam when narrating such events in order not to disseminate erroneous information that might jeopardize the basic human rights of Muslims, the world over.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Pirate Court Proposal Goes to UN
The Danish proposal for the introduction of an international court for pirates will come before the UN Security Council
The Danish proposal for an international pirate court of justice will be presented to the UN Security Council, according to Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller.
The foreign minister met Monday with his American counterpart Condoleezza Rice during a Nato summit in Brussels, where she assured him she would bring the Danish proposal before the Security Council this month.
Both the foreign minister and Defense Minister Søren Gade have pushed the EU and Nato to introduce the initiative that would set up an international court to try cases against pirates — the most prominent of whom are terrorising the waters off Somalia’s coast.
Earlier this year, the Danish warship Absalon, patrolling the waters as part of an international fleet, was forced to release 10 captured pirates because of the uncertainty surrounding where they should be tried.
It was announced today that a fleet of EU ships and reconnaissance aircraft will be sent to the area next week to begin anti-piracy patrols.
So far this year, there have been 82 incidents involving pirate attacks, and up to 40 ships have been seized in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world leading to the Suez Canal.
There are currently at least 10 ships with 200 crew members being detained by pirates in the region.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
One quick note: regarding the article titled “High-Ranking Russian Anti-Drugs Agency Official Still in Jail” – the reason I actually submitted it was an article at the very bottom of the long document that the article is part of – regarding the Estonian spy story.
Baron:
“The Danish proposal for an international pirate court of justice will be presented to the UN Security Council, according to Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller.”
Oh, FFS!
Is there ANY form of government that Europeans are NOT infatiated with?
Look, Farmer-Jan, the sea is NOT your “back 40”. You landlubbers have ABSOLUTELY NO STANDING to judge a sea pirate.
You need not concern yourself with your pretty little statist “international court” fantasy.
Just get the f*ck out of our way, and allow us to arm ourselves.
WE know who is attacking us…YOU do not.
WE know how to defend our floating homes…YOU do not.
WE will deal with OTHER seamen who attack us in our own way, and according to our OWN traditions.
Not those of some weenie in Brussels who pukes seasick in his own bathtub.
Some Danes may wish to keep their balls locked away in some bureaucrat’s filing cabinet, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to.