In France, President Sarkozy says that the Islamization of Europe is inevitable. In Switzerland, the Senate has rejected a proposed referendum on banning minarets in the country. In Italy, Prime Minister Berlusconi referred to Milan as an “African city”.
In non-jihad news, the Lutheran Church in Sweden has appointed its first lesbian bishop.
Thanks to Aeneas, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, Nilk, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Alabama County Shut Down
Alabama’s most populous county is preparing to stop road maintenance, close courthouses and shutter services for the elderly after a court struck down taxes that pay for about 35 percent of its budget.
Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, released a plan to cut $52 million from its budget as it appeals the ruling against its business and occupational taxes to the Alabama Supreme Court. Without that revenue, the county has said it is at risk of running out of money as soon as this month.
The loss of the tax money was another blow to a county that has been struggling to avoid bankruptcy since last year, when Wall Street’s financial crisis caused its interest bills to soar on more than $3 billion of bonds. The challenged taxes provided about $75 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 to the county, which is forced to balance its budget under state law.
[…]
The proposed cuts, outlined in a series of proposed resolutions released today by Collins, would slash deeply into the government’s services and include closing a nursing home for the indigent, declaring a moratorium on enforcing zoning and littering laws, and scrapping local development contracts. They would also bring a halt to the enforcement of building codes, close the county’s laundry, and shut down the agency that assists senior citizens…
NOTE: Blogger MISH (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/08/jefferson-county-alabama-considering.html) has been following this story since at least April 2008:
“A brief synopsis is that Jefferson County officials entered into an illadvised interest rate swap arrangement when they financed a $3.2 billion sewer cleanup. To say the arrangement blew up is a massive understatement…”
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Dollar Crisis Looming — Don’t Short the Market: Jim Rogers
A currency crisis is imminent, so investors should avoid shorting the market, said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings.
“I’m afraid they’re printing so much money that stocks could go to 20,000 or 30,000,” Rogers said. “Of course it would be in worthless money, but it could happen and you could lose a lot of money being short.”
Rogers typically holds both long and short positions, but his perception of global currencies’ instability has led him to pull out all his shorts, he said. The last time he can remember doing so was before the market fiasco in 1987.
Rogers called the US dollar a “terribly flawed currency,” adding that it could be the starting point for the next currency crisis.
“I would suspect that somewhere along the line…someone’s going to say, ‘I’m going to start selling mine before everybody else does,’“ Rogers said. “That’s when you have a currency crisis.”
But instead of pouring money into stocks, Rogers said investors should turn toward commodities. This sector will lead the recovery if the global economy improves, and if it doesn’t, they’ll still be the best place because of inflation, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
War Supplemental Put on Hold
Democrats have had to put the war supplemental to fund the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on hold because they lack the votes to pass the modified bill that came out of conference. The Democrat leadership has reduced the amount of the supplemental for the troops and tacked on $108 billion in bailout funding for foreign governments through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There is a large contingent of far left Democrats who always vote against funding our troops. Given the billions now included for the IMF global bailout, the Republicans are refusing to support the bill.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) led the charge to fight the addition of these bailout funds on this “must pass” funding for our troops.
“Clearly the Democratic leadership is having a tough time getting their members to support flawed legislation that reduces funding for our troops from the level originally passed by the House and funds a bailout for foreign nations,” Hensarling said. “I have led a group of House Republicans urging Democratic leadership to remove this $108 billion foreign bailout paid for by U.S. taxpayers. As we have done time after time, Republicans are eager to support our troops; but we will not stand by and let Democrats wrap pork barrel spending and a global bailout in the American flag.”
But Republicans had more problems with the pork and the IMF global bailout than just the vehicle the Democrats chose. The final conference report not only cut $5 billion from troop funding in order to send the bailout funds to the IMF but the funding would have no restrictions. Any IMF member could apply for the loans including Iran, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Burma.
That finally seemed to rankle some Democrats. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in a letter to colleagues yesterday said, “We face the very real possibility that some of the world’s worst regimes will benefit from the additional resources provided to the IMF, World Bank and other international institutions, unless the U.S. works vigilantly to deny this assistance.”
As if that weren’t enough to oppose the funding, the New York Times reported on May 27 that Hezbollah is in talks with the IMF about continuing loans to Lebanon should they win the election.
But the crème de la crème: in order to loan the IMF $108 billion, the U.S. will have to borrow the money from other countries, like China.
Republican Whip Eric Cantor spoke about the absurdity of the Democrat plan yesterday.
“Borrowing money from China for a global bailout of the IMF makes no sense, particularly when China itself has not made the same commitment. … The possibility that tax dollars reserved for our military could fall into the hands of terrorists or their supporters is an affront to our troops. The truth is that Democrats currently don’t have the support needed to pass this bill, which is why it has been delayed.”
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Cheney and Pelosi Have Poor Ratings in Common
Pelosi’s ratings down, while Cheney’s improved from record low
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Dick Cheney have little in common politically, but they receive almost identical image ratings from the American public. According to a May 29-31 Gallup Poll, 37% of Americans have a favorable view of Cheney and 34% have a favorable view of Pelosi. Both Cheney and Pelosi are viewed unfavorably by at least half of Americans.
[…]
As a result of the changes, both Cheney and Pelosi are now positioned as highly polarizing figures on the political landscape; both are viewed favorably by the large majority of their own party members, and unfavorably by most members of the opposing party.
To the extent either one influences voters’ views about the two major political parties, particularly looking ahead to the 2010 midterm elections, Cheney may be less problematic for his party than Pelosi might be for hers. He currently has a slight edge in intra-party popularity: 70% of Republicans view him favorably compared with 62% of Democrats viewing Pelosi favorably. Also, more independents view Cheney favorably than view Pelosi favorably: 37% vs. 25%.
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Control Your Government, or it Will Control You!
Few people know that there is currently legislation pending in Congress that, if enacted, would allow President Obama to run for a third term. House Joint Resolution 5 would repeal the 22nd Amendment, which limits the president to two terms in office. This is not new legislation. Rep. Jose Serrano, a Democrat who represents New York City, has introduced similar legislation in every Congress since 1997. No one has paid much attention — until now.
This legislation would require approval by two-thirds of both houses, and ratification by 38 states within seven years to become law. This is a very high hurdle for Obama worshipers to jump. They have launched a website to help persuade people to get busy now so Obama can be re-elected in 2016.
Never happen? Perhaps. But one year ago, who could have imagined that President Obama could fire the CEO of General Motors and put 31-year-old Brian Deese, a campaign adviser with no auto industry experience, in charge of reorganizing the corporation. Who would have believed, one year ago, that President Obama would plunge the nation into debt to the tune of nearly $9 trillion — during his first 100 days? Who could have imagined that the U.S. Congress would even consider taxing and rationing energy, as prescribed by The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES, H.R. 2454)? Who would have believed, a year ago that the nation today would be at the brink of accepting socialized health care? No one thought that the nation could move from moderate, center-right political policies to left-wing command-and-control policies in a matter of months.
No one dares scoff at H.J. Res. 5. With a strong Democrat majority in both houses of Congress and a fawning national and international media singing his praises, the president can impose all manner of evil on the nation.
There was a time when the term “social engineering” was a political obscenity. It applied to any government meddling into the market place, or into the decisions that free people might make in the pursuit of their own happiness.
Social engineering is now the primary function of the Obama administration, cheered on by a Democratically controlled Congress. This administration intends to force Americans to drive toy-car-death-traps, or travel by government-subsidized rail, or ride bicycles, or walk. This administration intends to tax the use of fossil fuel energy so heavily that it makes solar and wind appear to be a bargain. This administration has abandoned the free market and is spitting in the face of individual freedom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-U.S. State Official, Wife Face Cuba Spy Charges
A former U.S. State Department official and his wife have been arrested for spying for the Cuban government for nearly 30 years, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Walter Kendall Myers, 72, aided by his wife Gwendolyn Myers, 71, used his Top Secret security clearance to pass on classified information to the Cuban government and at one point met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, according to court documents.
The two were charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and to communicate classified information to Cuba, the Justice Department said. They were also charged with wire fraud and acting as illegal agents.
They face up to 35 years in prison. The two pleaded not guilty and will be held until a detention hearing on Wednesday, a Justice Department official said.
[…]
According to court documents, the two were recruited in 1979 by a Cuban official who directed Kendall Myers to pursue a job at either the State Department or the CIA.
[…]
Gwendolyn Myers worked at a bank. The two received messages from the Cuban government via shortwave radio and hand-passed messages, and typically passed their responses to handlers by hand.
Gwendolyn Myers said her favorite way to pass information was by swapping carts at a grocery story, according to the affidavit filed by an FBI agent.
A Justice Department official said they were motivated by a desire to help the Cuban government, not money. They traveled occasionally to Cuba and other locations across Latin America to meet with their handlers, and met Castro in 1995.
Kendall Myers told an undercover FBI source posing as a Cuban intelligence officer he had received “lots of medals” from the Cuban government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FAA Could Close 20 Weather Offices
By Steve Vogel and Ed O’Keefe
The federal government yesterday moved forward with a controversial proposal that would close weather offices at 20 regional air traffic control centers around the country and instead provide controllers with forecasts from two central units in Maryland and Missouri.
The consolidation plan came under immediate fire from unions representing National Weather Service employees and air traffic controllers, which charged that the change will endanger aviation safety.
[…]
“This is a foolish plan that puts cost savings ahead of safety,” said Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “Quite frankly, we cannot believe such a reckless idea has gotten this far.” But the Federal Aviation Administration, which sought the changes, says advances in technology make face-to-face contact between controllers and forecasters unnecessarily expensive. No weather service employees will lose jobs under the proposed consolidation, according to federal officials, though job locations would change.
[..]
The FAA’s Takemoto said the current arrangement is based on the technology that was available in the 1970s and needs to be updated. Every regional air traffic control center now “has up-to-the-minute weather from a variety of sources,” he said, including Doppler radar and surveillance radar.
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Newsweek Editor Evan Thomas: Obama is “Sort of God”
[Comments from JD: They probably call him “Dear Leader” too.]
Newsweek editor Evan Thomas said President Obama is “sort of God” in a way that’s “standing above the country.” Transcript below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NY Car Ticketed Repeatedly With Dead Body Inside
Police made a gruesome discovery earlier this week while getting ready to tow a heavily-ticketed van — a decomposed body in the back seat.
It was that of a missing man, and now his family wants to know to how officers could ticket the vehicle numerous times — and never notice what was inside.
[…]
Morales’ daughter said her father left their apartment in Washington Heights on May 5 in a van owned by a friend. George Morales was headed for Long Island, but he just vanished.
His daughter suspects George Morales, who suffered from diabetes and heart problems, may have felt ill, and pulled off the road for a nap. A window was cracked. The odor became overpowering. After the car was ticketed each Monday for a month, a marshal, about to tow the van, noticed a body in the back seat.
[…]
The NYC Medical Examiner’s office has told the family it appears George Morales died of a heart attack. There was no word from police as to why tickets were repeatedly issued without taking a look inside.
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Outrageous: Brokaw Wonders What Israel Can ‘Learn’ From Buchenwald and ‘their Treatment of Palestinians’
[Comment from JD: Video at URL above.]
The folks at Powerline realized the implications of an outrageous news clip featuring NBC’s Tom Brokaw conducting an interview with the Obammessiah. Apparently, this hard news journalist thought he’d get deep and ask a pertinent question about Israel, the Palestinians, and just what it might be that the Jews can learn from Obama’s visit to Buchenwald and how they should treat Palestinians and stuff about Nazis or something.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sonia Sotomayor Found Friends in Elite Group
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor last year accepted an invitation to join the Belizean Grove, an elite but little-known women’s-only group.
Founded nearly 10 years ago as the female answer to the Bohemian Grove — a secretive all-male club whose members have included former U.S. presidents and top business leaders — the Belizean Grove has about 125 members, including Army generals, Wall Street executives and former ambassadors.
Sotomayor’s membership in the New York-based group became public Thursday afternoon in a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Since then, the group has been deluged with press calls, said its founder, Susan Stautberg, who explained that “we like to be under the radar screen.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Age of Middle East Atonement
Therapeutic efforts to disguise the truth never really work.
President Obama made an earnest effort — as is his way in matters of discord — to split the difference with the Islamic world. His speech essentially amounted to: “We did that, you did this, tit-for-tat, now we’re even, and can’t we all just get along?” He should be congratulated for expressing a desire for peace and for gently reminding the Muslim world of the way to reform, even if he did so while inflating Western sins.
But the problem with such moral equivalence is that it equates things that are, well, not equal — and therefore ends up not being moral at all.
To pull it off, one must distort both the past and the present for the presumed higher good of getting along. In the 1930s, British intellectuals performed feats of intellectual gymnastics in trying to contextualize Hitler’s complaints against the Versailles Treaty, assignment of guilt for the First World War, and French bellicosity — straining to overlook the intrinsic dangers of National Socialism for the higher good of avoiding another Somme. Over the short term, such revisionism worked; over the longer term, it ensured a highly destructive war.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anxius Moments for EU Leaders as Sceptic Irish and Czechs Vote
Ireland and the Czech Republic, the two biggest obstacles to reform of the EU’s Lisbon treaty, went to the polls today on the second day of the four-day election marathon for the European parliament.
With Václav Klaus, the Czech president, climate change denier and Europhobe, urging Czechs to cast a vote against Brussels, European leaders were anxiously watching to see if either of the two countries would copy the anti-EU triumph in the Netherlands of Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration populist.
Wilders’ Freedom party shook the Dutch political establishment in the first of the 27 elections for the European parliament yesterday by coming second with 17% of the ballot, almost tripling his vote from Dutch general elections in 2006.
“A breakthrough,” he called it today, attacking the traditional parties for trying to erect what he called a “cordon sanitaire” around him.
Turnout in the Netherlands was a poor 36%, lower than in 2004, confirming overall predictions of the lowest turnout since voting for the parliament started 30 years ago. An even lower turnout was expected in the Czech Republic where the vote continues tomorrow.
But Ireland was set to buck the trend with the highest turnout in the EU, estimated at about two-thirds of voters. They were expected to hammer the governing Fianna Fáil of the prime minister, Brian Cowen, amid a desperate financial and economic crisis.
But it was unclear if Declan Ganley, the businessman who led a successful referendum campaign to defeat the Lisbon treaty last year and whose Libertas outfit is running on a Eurosceptic ticket across the EU, would win a seat.
Fianna Fáil is tipped to lose a third of its vote but only one of its four seats in the parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. The main opposition, Fine Gael, is predicted to take four of Ireland’s 12 seats in the 236-seat parliament.
Today’s two elections brought to four the number of polls held, with the climax on Sunday when 18 of the EU’s 27 countries stage elections.
The results in the Netherlands have upset the mainstream political elites and point to two key factors that could be replicated across Europe: the rise of anti-immigrant mavericks and extremists and the slump of the centre-left amid recession and rising unemployment.
In the Netherlands the big loser was the Dutch Labour party, junior coalition government partner of the Christian Democrats and led by Wouter Bos, the finance minister. It took only 13% of the vote and for the first time failed to lead the pack in any of the four biggest cities.
Support for the Freedom party was concentrated in the heavily populated western coastal belt that includes the main cities. Wilders came first in Rotterdam and The Hague. The other big winner were the pro-European liberal democrats of D66 who took three seats with 11% of the vote after scoring just 2% in the last general election.
Wilders was applauded today by other far-right leaders confident of making gains and hoping to form a new transnational alliance of extreme nationalists in the parliament. The Freedom party leader is, however, unlikely to join them since he is contemptuous of Flemish nationalist separatists, Italian neo-fascists and Austria’s far right.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi: Putin Invented the Peek-a-Boo, Not Me
(AGI) — Rome, 4 June — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been heavily criticized for the practical joke he played on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Today Berlusconi was eager to explain the whole peek-a-boo situation. “I did not invent the peek-a-boo” the Prime Minister explained, during Italian morning show Mattino Cinque, “Putin played the joke on me one, in St. Petersburg, and I played it on Merkel”. Berlusconi insisted in defending the climate of “pleasantness, cordiality and friendship” that he is able to establish with foreign leaders “which helps us to find an agreement on everything”. On the other hand, he added, speaking about the opposition leaders, “these stake old folks of politics” who “have never done anything before and don’t know anything about the difficulties of those that invest, risk, fight in the trenches of work, they don’t know that there could be other ways to establish a connection between people”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi to Sue on Villa Photos
Premier will take Spanish daily to court
(ANSA) — Milan, June 5 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is to sue a Spanish daily which published paparazzi photos of guests at his Sardinian villa.
Berlusconi’s lawyer Niccolo’ Ghedini told ANSA on the phone that he and his client had instructed a Spanish lawyer to sue leading Spanish daily El Pais for breach of privacy.
The premier told Italian radio the pictures — which included snaps of topless women showering and a naked man about to jump into a pool — were “innocent”.
“I’m not afraid, they’re innocent photos,” Berlusconi said after the photos appeared in the print and online editions of El Pais under the caption The Snaps Berlusconi Doesn’t Want Italy To See. “The photos show people bathing in a Jacuzzi inside a private house used by guests,” he stressed.
Asked why the women were topless, Berlusconi asked his interviewer: “Why, do you have showers in your clothes?” The premier said it was “scandalous” that the photos had been taken while he was hosting a Czech delegation in another part of the sprawling villa.
“The right to privacy must be upheld, especially in the presence of prestigious guests,” he said.
Last weekend the premier successfully obtained a court order to have the photos seized in Italy to prevent their publication.
Berlusconi also said he was sure the photos would not hurt his chances with the Catholic vote in this weekend’s European Parliament elections, where all polls show he has a big lead over his centre-left opponents.
“If there has been any government close to Catholics it has been this one,” said the premier, whose image as upholder of family values has also been hit by insinuations about a friendship with an 18-year-old aspiring model over which his wife has asked for a divorce. Berlusconi added that an unidentified Vatican official “described relations between the government and the Holy See as better than with previous governments”.
Berlusconi, 72, has been dragged into a media storm over his private life ahead of this weekend’s European Parliament elections.
‘WOULD QUIT IF PROVED A LIAR’.
On Friday the premier reiterated that there was nothing unseemly in his friendship with the 18-year-old girl and said he would step down if proved to have lied.
In the radio interview, he repeated that there had been “nothing spicy” with Noemi Letizia, who was reportedly 17 and therefore considered a minor when they met.
“I swore on my children. If anyone were to show the premier committed perjury under oath the premier would have to quit the next minute and go and hide,” Berlusconi said.
The premier also repeated claims that Neapolitan student Letizia had been the target of a muck-raking campaign.
“Don’t believe what you hear. She’s an 18-year-old who goes to school, a simple and natural young woman”.
Berlusconi repeated his version of why he attended Letizia’s 18th birthday party, saying it had been a spur-of-the-moment decision taken because he was in Naples on political business and had received a phone call from the girl’s father, a Naples municipal clerk.
Media reports have contested this version, claiming Berlusconi’s visit was planned and saying Letizia had previously attended parties given by Berlusconi.
In a related issue, the premier again denied claims he had used state plane flights to take guests to his villa.
His lawyer Ghedini, who is also a member of his centre-right People of Freedom Party, said Berlusconi would sue Italian leftwing daily l’Unita’ over a report based on those allegations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Security Officials Warn of Terror Before Poll
Security officials are warning of an increased likelihood of al-Qaida terrorist attacks against German nationals before the country’s general election in September, news magazine Der Spiegel reported.
The magazine said the planned attacks were meant to avenge the German army’s military involvement in Afghanistan and to press the army to withdraw from the country.
The report said the assessment was based on a new warning by the US government that the al-Qaida leadership in the dangerous Afghanistan-Pakistan border area had taken a decision to target Germans. The operation is to be carried out by the North African arm of the terrorist group, the al-Qaida in the Maghreb.
Citing the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Police Agency (BKA), the report said German companies in Algerian and German nationals in North Africa are particularly at risk.
Der Spiegel said the BfV had begun to warn German companies, who have branches in the Maghreb, of possible terrorist strikes. They are also reportedly alerting German businessmen to the risk of kidnappings by al-Qaida activists. The report pointed to the case of a Darmstadt-based German woman who was held hostage in North Africa for several months and released in April after the government in Mali said it was prepared to release a prisoner affiliated to al-Qaida.
Germany has seen a spate of videos and warnings in recent months, criticising the government’s involvement in Afghanistan. On Friday, a new video by German Islamist Eric Breininger turned up on the Internet, threatening to fight “infidels” in Afghanistan.
In early 2008, Germany’s BKA announced that Eric Breininger along with Houssain al-M., both from Neunkirchen in the German state of Saarland, had travelled to Afghanistan at the end of 2007, where they are thought to have prepared for a suicide bombing there.
Both are suspected of having ties to suspected terrorists arrested in the Sauerland region in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2007 that belonged to a group known as the Islamic Jihad Union.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Magazine Says Kurras Reported Stasi Defectors to East Germany
Heinz Kurras, the recently exposed Stasi spy and former West German police officer, provided explosive information on defectors and prisoners to his East German masters, according to news magazine Der Spiegel.
The magazine reported that new files showed that Kurras worked for the East German secret police, the Stasi from 1955 to 1967. In that time, Kurras delivered sensitive information in hundreds of cases, including 24 arrested Stasi spies as well as least five cases of “deserters from the East German ministry for state security.”
The report said that in January 1967, Kurras betrayed 22-year-old West Berliner Bernd Ohnesorge who spied for the Stasi under the codename “Urban” but later revealed himself to British intelligence.
Kurras reported the defector to the Stasi and led the investigation into Ohnesorge. The magazine said that when Ohnesorge was arrested in Bulgaria for spying for the CIA, the Bulgarians received information from the Stasi on Ohnesorge based on Kurras’ investigations. That led to Ohnesorge being sentenced to 12 years in a labour camp by a secret Bulgarian military tribunal.
Ohnesorge died in a Bulgarian prison in 1987. According to the Bulgarian authorities, he set himself on fire.
Last month, new files showed that Kurras, the former West Berlin police officer who shot the young student protester Benno Ohnesorg in 1967 in Berlin, was actually a spy working for East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi.
The shooting took place during a violent anti-Iran demonstration in front of the German Opera House in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district. The killing made Ohnesorg a leftist martyr and fuelled explosive student protests against what they saw as a repressive West German state in the following years.
For years, Kurras deceived his colleagues in the West Berlin police service and the German public.
Kurras, now 81 and living in Berlin’s Spandau district, has been twice acquitted of negligent homicide in Ohnesorg’s death, once soon after the shooting in 1967 and again in 1970.
Kurras’ case has sparked a renewed debate in Germany about how far the Stasi infiltrated West German institutions..
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Minaret Ban Rebuffed by the Senate
A proposal by rightwing groups to ban new minarets in Switzerland has been overwhelmingly dismissed in parliament.
The Senate on Friday decided 36-3 to recommend rejection of the controversial initiative that will come to a nationwide vote at a later date.
Most speakers pointed out that the proposal went against international law and constitutional principles. They also said it was damaging for Switzerland’s international reputation and its trade relations with Muslim countries.
“It is appalling to have a discussion in Switzerland about a minaret ban for ideological motives. Certain values are simply not negotiable,” said Radical Party Senator Dick Marty.
However, a People’s Party senator, Maximilian Reimann, said he would vote for the minaret ban to protest “discrimination of the Christian religion in Muslim countries”.
A large part of the debate focused on a proposal to declare the initiative invalid because it infringes on basic human rights.
The Senate decided with a margin of eight votes to put the proposal to a nationwide vote.
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said she was convinced voters would reject the initiative and she called on campaigners to refrain from unfair debates.
“It will be our task as politicians to lead hard and no doubt also not always pleasant debates and show the citizens what the consequences of the approval of a ban would be,” Widmer-Schlumpf said.
The other parliamentary chamber, the House of Representatives, had rebuffed the initiative with a 129-50 vote during in a highly emotional debate in March.
The Swiss People’s Party and an ultraconservative religious party handed in 113,000 votes collected among citizens for a nationwide ballot.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy: “The Islamization of Europe is Inevitable”
Villiers Speaks Out
There is nothing new here. We knew what Sarkozy’s vision of the future was: an “Islam of France”, “métissage” between races and ethnic groups, dissolution of nationalist, regional, and ethnic identities, subjugation to Brussels, openness to socialism, and a Turkey as closely aligned with Europe as possible, etc…
But it’s always sobering to hear it again, from one who knows Sarkozy personally. Philippe de Villiers was interviewed by the weekly Famille Chrétienne. Le Salon Beige relates part of the interview:
– Why are you so focused on the theme of Turkey and Islamization?
– Quite simply because we will see the first transformations of churches into mosques in the coming three years. At any rate, that is what Nicolas Sarkozy told me.
– When?
– I had an in depth discussion with him at Elysée at the end of last year. He said to me: “You have intuition, I have the figures. And your intuition is confirmed by my figures. The Islamization of Europe is inevitable.” Careful: it’s a process that will not occur overnight, but will take decades.
– Why does this issue appear to be of central importance to you?
– Most politicians have a comforting ignorance of what Islam is and propose transforming Europe into a supermarket of competing religions. Unaware that Islam is not only a religion since, by melding the temporal and the spiritual, it imposes a law. But behind this comforting ignorance of politicians, there are those who know. (…) The reality is that we are headed for a criss-cross (chassé-croisé) with, on one side, Europe and its en masse abortions, its promotion of gay marriage, and on the other, immigration en masse (…)
Note: “Chassé-croisé” is virtually impossible to translate. Originally a choreographic term, it usually refers to a crowded movement in one direction that passes but never encounters a crowded movement in another direction. Sometimes it is just kept as is in English…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Appoints Lesbian Bishop
The Church of Sweden has appointed a lesbian as the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm.
Eva Brunne, who is in a registered partnership, is believed to be the world’s first lesbian bishop.
She won the post by 413 votes against 365 votes and will succeed Bishop Caroline Krook, who is to retire in November.
Brunne, 55, has a three-year-old son with her partner Gunilla Linden, who is a priest.
She has been praised for her natural authority, enthusiasm and sense of humour, telling one reporter who asked about her hobbies: “I read crime fiction. And I carve. The things you do to conform to Jesus, huh?”
Following her appointment, Brunne said: “I am happy and very proud to be part of a church that encourages people to make their own decisions.” She added: “Diversity is a big wealth.”
A gender-neutral marriage law in Sweden came into force on May 1st, meaning gay couples can now marry in the country in religious or civil ceremonies.
However, they cannot yet get married in church ceremonies.
The Lutheran Church, which was the state church until 2000, has said that while it supports the new law, it will not formally decide whether to perform gay marriage ceremonies until October.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Blair: The Darkness in Gordon’s Heart Will Bring Him Down
Tony Blair believes Gordon Brown’s political future is doomed because of ‘the darkness in his heart’ and his ‘lies’ — and feels Mr Brown has no one to blame but himself.
The former Prime Minister’s devastating verdict on his successor is a blow to Mr Brown’s hopes of surviving further moves to topple him, expected this week.
Publicly, Mr Blair has kept out of the row. However, The Mail on Sunday can disclose that privately he shares the view held by Labour rebels that Mr Brown will lead the Party to a disastrous defeat at the next Election.
In a damning verdict on Mr Brown’s character, Mr Blair said of the Prime Minister recently: ‘The darkness in his heart and the lies will be his downfall.’
Friends of Mr Blair say he has been ‘saddened’ by Mr Brown’s performance and believes that he has failed to show the necessary leadership or policies.
‘Gordon’s performance has confirmed Tony’s reservations about his suitability to be PM,’ said one source.
‘He hoped he would be a success and has tried to support him and offered what advice he can. But he always feared Gordon may not have the right temperament or character to do the job and that’s how it has turned out.’
Another source close to Mr Blair claimed Mr Brown’s wounds were ‘self-inflicted’. He added: ‘Tony’s view is that Gordon has brought this all on himself. He spent years plotting against Tony and is in no position to complain now that it is happening to him.
‘The people trying to get him out learned how to do it from Gordon’s people. It takes a moment to inject the poison, but years to drain it.’
Cabinet rebels, led by former Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell — a close friend and ally of Mr Blair — have strenuously denied that the former Prime Minister is involved in the attempted coup against Mr Brown.
But the revelation that he has expressed such a withering assessment of Mr Brown’s personal and political prospects will be seized upon by the Prime Minister’s allies as evidence of disloyalty by Mr Blair.
The bitter remark about Mr Brown’s ‘lies’ stems from a series of rows the pair had during the Blair years. Mr Blair repeatedly claimed in private that Mr Brown did not always tell him the truth.
It is not the first time Mr Blair has been accused of undermining his successor. The Mail on Sunday disclosed last year how he attacked Mr Brown in a secret memo, accusing him of a ‘lamentable’ and ‘vacuous’ performance.
In it, Mr Blair said that before he quit Downing Street in 2007, Tory leader David Cameron was ‘in trouble’ but that he was now on course to win power as a result of Mr Brown’s ‘fatal’ blunders.
The memo denounced Mr Brown for ‘dissing our own record’ and claiming he would replace Labour ‘spin’ with a more ‘honest’ style.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Afghan Gang Smuggled in Compatriots to Live and Work in Pizza Takeaways
The leaders of an Afghan criminal network which smuggled in hundreds of compatriots to work in pizza takeaways were jailed today for terms ranging between seven and 12 years.
Abdul Hameed Sakhizada, 32, and his brother Ahmed Shah Sakhizada, 23, both of Northampton, and Abdul Wakil Niazi, 35, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, ran what police believe to be one of the most lucrative smuggling networks uncovered in Britain.
The gang is known to be responsible for smuggling 230 Afghans into Europe; around half to the UK. The network operated for at least three years and detectives recorded Abdul Sakhizada claiming he smuggled at least 1,800 people into Europe in just over two months.
Sakhizada, who was jailed for nine years at Kingston crown court, south-west London for conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration, was told by Judge Welchman: “You, as you boasted, were the smuggler of Europe.”
Niazi and Ahmed Sakhizada were also convicted of facilitating illegal immigration as well as conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime. They were sentenced to 12 years and seven years.
The gang used agents to smuggle Afghans across Iran and Turkey, by sea to Greece and then, hidden in the backs of freight lorries, across Europe to Britain. Many paid off debts to their smugglers by working in a chain of 16 pizza takeaways in which the gang were involved. These included branches of well-known franchises Tops Pizza, GoGo Pizza and Perfect Pizza across southern England.
The smuggled Afghans often lived above the shops sleeping on rugs and fed on pizza until their debts were cleared by baking and delivering pizzas.. They earned as little as £150 a week, while their typical debt to the ring was £5,000.
Abdul Sakhizada specialised in smuggling Afghans by sea from Turkey to the Greek islands, while Niazi operated the network of smugglers across Europe. The court heard that some of the smuggled Afghans were in debt bondage to Niazi. Ahmed Sakhizada provided false documents and transferred funds overseas.
The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which led the investigation, estimated the gang earned between £200,000 and £300,000 from 2005 to 2008 when they were arrested.
On one occasion Sakhizada spoke of 10 people having arrived and taking $30,000 to $40,000. In a later conversation he discussed taking $38,700 to smuggle 43 people from Iran to Turkey, and $27,000 to move 34 from Turkey to Greece. He chased money transfers, hired ship captains and even fielded complaints from disgruntled relatives of passengers.
Before establishing their operation, Niazi and Abdul Sakhizada were themselves smuggled into the country. Niazi travelled from Parwan province in northern Afghanistan to Britain in the back of a lorry in 1999 and Sakhizada was smuggled from Mazir-el-Sharif but was deported from the UK once in 2003. He returned in a lorry in 2007. Immigration authorities granted them indefinite leave to remain.
Soca investigators uncovered evidence of 175 Afghans who worked in takeaways which provided guaranteed labour to ensure they would repay debts. During raids they discovered lists and notes relating to the men, their debts and earnings.
Sakhizada boasted that other vessels would sink with loss of life but his never did. He also offered to send clients across again without charge if they were caught and police recorded him saying he sent 20 people from his home town for free.
Keith Hadrill, defending Abdul Sakhizada, said: “He felt he was undertaking humanitarian aid to assist others to overcome the harshness of reality in their home country.”
A 27-year-old Afghan man now working under new management at Tops Pizza in Tunbridge Wells, which used to be run by Niazi, said: “Niazi was a good person. They charged him as a people smuggler, but it was nothing like that. He would take people to the doctor and give work to people.”
The raids in January uncovered 52 illegal workers, 42 of whom were claiming asylum, awaiting removal or had been allowed to remain. Ten who were unknown to the authorities are in custody.
Ali Yazdi, director of Topps Pizza, said his company had no idea Niazi was operating from their outlet in Tunbridge Wells.
Shar Shah, manager of Pizza Go Go head office, said: “We have no involvement in any of these wrong doings.”
Perfect Pizza declined to comment.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two for One Deal in Brussels. Not That You Have a Choice.
Watch the revolving door. Brown will soon go out, and Blair will soon come in.
In other words, if you thought it was within the power of the British electorate to rid themselves of the last vestiges of Blair, Brown and the rest of discredited New Labour at sometime in the coming months, you clearly haven’t been reading the European Constitution, now called the Lisbon Treaty.
No wonder Blair was willing to ignore his party’s election manifesto commitment to hold a referendum. The Lisbon Treaty gives him the opportunity to be long-term president (no more of this six-months rotating presidency stuff) of the new European state — including that cluster of European ‘regions’ which were once known as a sovereign United Kingdom — without ever having to face the British electorate again.
It all comes down to Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission. If any of you have been wondering just what the Portuguese politician Barroso has been doing for nearly all these last five years of his first term, it is this: manoeuvring to be chosen for a second five year term. It looks certain he has now clinched it.
You ought to wonder how such an ineffectual leader could have managed it. His only ‘big idea’ at the start of his term was a ‘bonfire of the regulations.’ He burnt about four minor regulations then gave up. Other than that, he hasn’t done much.
Yet the re-election of Barroso as president of the Commission now looks a sure thing. Although the leftwing members of the new European Parliament will for sure try to pretend they can drop a different candidate into office, the centre-right parties will have enough weight to ensure Barroso’s second term.
And the reason is this: Barroso, although a former Maoist, is now rated as a Christian Democrat. That means centre-right. So the European parliamentary centre-right will back him.
More, if he were forced out as president of the Commission, and a leftwinger dropped in, would mean for sure that the new long-term president of the European Council — the new post of ‘president of Europe’ that the Lisbon Treaty creates and which Tony Blair wants — will have to be filled with someone from the centre-right. (That is not part of the treaty law, but Brussels politics says that is the way it must be.)
Barroso has been pushing Blair as the man for the new presidency on the grounds that he is ‘socialist.’ Which might come as a surprise to many in the British Labour party, but as former head of one of Europe’s labour parties, he technically is socialist. Yet he is still the least-socialist socialist that Europe can produce. That pleases the centre-right European leaders such as Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy, who have therefore backed Barroso on the grounds that they want him to succeed in his manoeuvrings to parachute an unsocialist socialist into the European presidency.
How Barroso has locked it up and neutralised resistance from national leaders who are socialists is this: Gordon Brown, also rated a ‘socialist’ has backed Barroso because he comes in a Blair package. Ditto the Blairite socialist Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain.
I’ve just asked an old Brussels hand, a leftie, about this: ‘It is inevitable,’ he said. And he was disgusted as he said it.
If he’s disgusted, just wait until the British realise that they neglected to drive a stake into Blair’s heart when they forced him out of Number 10. Forget God Save the Queen. When our next Head of State walks in, it is going to be Hail to Tony the Chief, in 23 languages.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Watching the Eurosceptics
Opponents of the Lisbon Treaty, anti-capitalists, far-right extremists — dissenting parties may well be the major winners in the European elections, but what weight will they carry in the future parliament? wonders the European press.
Analysis of polls and results of the vote in the Netherlands suggest that Eurosceptics will be more numerous in the next parliament. As Polish daily Dziennik reports, the prospective alliance between British Conservatives, the Polish Law and Justice party and the Czech ODS has supporters of the Lisbon Treaty breaking out in a cold sweat, especially since this group may become the second largest force in Parliament, with the added anxiety that it will possibly benefit from the support of a extreme-right group led by Jean-Marie Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders. If the Eurosceptics win enough votes, worries Dziennik, the European Union will have to postpone projects for common diplomatic initiatives, and plans to appoint a President of the European Union and a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Not all Eurosceptics are extremists, however, though extremists may be well be major winners in the current elections. German weekly Die Zeit reports that at least 12 extreme-right parties are expected to send representatives to Brussels and Strasbourg. “The extreme-right has now established a powerful network in Europe,” it claims, and traditional parties have been unable to devise a strategy to oppose them. “All too often, democratic parties avoid taking these groups to task in constructive debate, but simply tolerate them with a condescending smile,” says political analyst Britta Schellenberg. They tend “to respond on a strictly local level instead of reasoning in terms of Europe.”
The Right does not have a monopoly on Euroscepticism, however, points out Le Figaro, which reports that in France, the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) and the Front for the Left are “rejecting a federal Europe,” which they believe is too free-market oriented. There are many other players that could be “broadly defined as sovereigntist” — latest estimates indicate 180 MEPs from a total of 736, but this is a very heterogeneous group, and it is likely to remain so after the elections. In countries like Poland, the conservative French daily remarks, it’s not easy to see what Lech Walesa and the League of Polish Families, which are both represented on the Libertas list, have in common. Nor do the “No voters” of the French Socialist Party have much by way of a shared platform with the Scandinavian June Movement groups, who are campaigning for the withdrawal of Denmark and Sweden from the European Union. “Apart from their rejection of the EU, or the call to build a new Europe, these parties are unable to construct a coherent movement that could present positive proposals,” Le Figaro concludes.
Then why are they proving so successful? In a far-reaching paper for Spiked magazine, sociologist Frank Furedi explains that by focussing on the extreme-right the political class hides it lack of “popular legitimacy”. Unable to win a positive endorsement of a European project that “lacks content”, it seeks to panic people by alluding “to the economic instability of the 30’s” and “the emergence of fascism.” Inflating the threat of marginal groups, and enlarging the meaning of “extremist” to include Eurosceptics not necessarily anti-Europe, is a ploy that stifles serious discussion. Although it might forge “a measure of unity around a disconnected EU elite” this reliance on “negative morality (…) is likely to confirm people’s cynicism towards political life”.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: ‘Most Peaceful African Country After Botswana’
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 5 — Tunisia, after Botswana, is “the most peaceful country on the African continent,” it is claimed in a report compiled by the Global Peace Index together with the Economist magazine. Tunisia is listed as in 44th place out of a total of 144 countries. The report was compiled on the basis of 24 parameters including the threat of terrorism, the number of violent crimes and conflict involvement. Most peaceful at world level is New Zealand followed by Denmark and Norway while Iraq is listed as the least peaceful country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel and the Fence, or “Conflict Management”
(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV/ROME, JUNE 3 — “The conflict may yet last for years, but it can be well controlled and managed”, said Major Mike Vroman, spokesman of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), just a few metres from a section of the 760km-security fence which divides Israel and the West Bank to stop terrorist attackers crossing the border. The place is geographically significant as it is close to the Palestinian city of Qalqiliya, where there has been an upsurge in violence between Hamas and Fatah in recent days, including a bloody clash between PNA police and hiding militias. On the other side of the barrier — which is mostly comprised of two nets running parallel along the border, and a wall only at the most dangerous points — is the densely populated area around Tel Aviv, housing some 3.5 million people. Despite the fact that officially the Israeli government says it is ready to restart the peace process at any time, “managing the conflict” seems to be the best expression right now to describe Israel’s approach to the Palestinian question, which has seen decades of failed mediation, hundreds of Israelis die due to suicide bombings (peaking between 2002 and 2003) and 1,400 Palestinians be killed on the latest Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Recently the former Chief of Staff and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon (Likud) excluded the possibility “in the near future of discussing solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” other than “managing the crisis” from positions of strength. Vroman is not a full-time officer and in his car hang the civilian fatigues that he dons to fulfil his role as the representative of a private Swiss bank in Tel Aviv. And he looks at the security barrier — or “defensive obstacle” — with secular and pragmatic realism. We need to guarantee “a secure and peaceful coexistence” with the Palestinian community, he says, and so the main supervisory role is entrusted to video cameras and satellite technology, rather than armed military patrols whose presence would aggravate tensions amongst the population. True surveillance is carried out elsewhere, in command stations like the one nearby where a group of women soldiers do not take their eyes from the monitors, which show any movement around the fence, even for a minute. In a recorded sequence shown to journalists one sees two men climb over the barrier and run away. A young woman officer explains that they were immediately apprehended and that they were only looking for a job on the other side of the barrier — now a difficult task also in Israel, as the authorities try to stop undercover labour enter the country. However, potentially alarming episodes are seen every day, Vroman underlines. Whilst Israel’s rigid surveillance, very parsimonious with handing out of permits to cross the fence even if trying not to affect economic and business activity — only aggravates the Palestinians, who feel that they are victims of apartheid and lament the difficulty of action and finding work. “But we encourage patrols from the Palestinian Authority”, stresses the IDF spokesman, “because they too are keen to keep Hamas at a distance”. Further, Vroman observes that foreign media focus too much on the wall, which is “only 5% of the total fence and is constructed in such a way as to be possible to dismantle it in a matter of hours”. Plus, he says, outside the screen of tv programmes which focus on the wall, there “are millions of people who try to coexist peacefully”. Of course, there are the hundred or so Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank too, to defend the settlements but there, just like at the barrier, “we try to adhere to international rules as much as possible”, Vroman continues, and abuses are looked at by the magistrates. And, exactly because it is difficult to keep one’s nerve in such a situation, “we try to avoid the use of soldiers that are too young”, preferring to deploy women and more mature soldiers. Certainly, “we are a foreign presence”, concludes Vroman, “and we cannot expect to be kissing each other in the short-term”. So, the road to take cannot but be other than that of damage-reduction. Dalia Fadila, deputy principal of the Al Qasemi Academy in Baqa-El-Gharbia, an Arab-Israeli college sees it differently, though. “In their attempt to protect themselves, the Israelis seem incapable of understanding that safety does not come from barriers, but from the shared conviction that we can live together. Tensions will only be avoided by overcoming the enormous development gap, moving from a situation in which one fears the other to one in which both parties can find benefits.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
PNA Premier Fayyad at Oslo Donors’ Meeting Monday
(ANSAmed) — OSLO, JUNE 4 — According to official Norwegian sources, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Salam Fayyad, will attend a meeting of donors in Oslo on Monday, charged with taking stock of international aid for which the PNA stands in urgent need. The meeting of the Ad-hoc Liason Committee of donors in favour of the Palestinians (AHLC), which is expected to be attended by Tony Blair in his capacity as special envoy for the Middle East Quartet (the USA, Russia, the EU and the UN), is also intended to prepare for a ministerial-level donors’ meeting to take place later this year, said a spokesperson for Norway’s foreign ministry. Also in Oslo on Monday, a report is expected from the World Bank demonstrating that the Palestinian economy was weakened last year by Israeli restrictions in the West Bank. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Frattini on Obama Mideast Visit
No clash between cultures but within Islam, FM says
(ANSA) — Bologna, June 4 — The visit to the Middle East by President Barack Obama has demonstrated how a sharp division exists between the moderate Islamic world and Muslim extremists, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Thursday.
Obama’s meeting with the heads of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Frattini observed, “has clearly demonstrated that there does not exist a clash between two cultures, the West and the Muslim world, but one within Islam” between moderates and extremists.
“At the same time the president of the United States is being received by the King of Saudi Arabia and the president of Egypt, leaders of two of the most moderate Arab-Muslim countries, we hear proclamations by Osama bin Laden which demonstrated the clear division which exists in the Islamic world,” Frattini said.
“On the one hand we have the Islamic extremists who support terrorism, while on the other we have the moderates who represent a true talking partner,” the foreign minister added.
OBAMA OPENS TO MUSLIM WORLD.
In a landmark speech in Cairo on Thursday, Obama called for a new era of relations and dialogue between the West and the Muslim world, one no longer marked by hostility and distrust but based on mutual respect and interest.
He also reiterated his support for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and called for Palestinians to end their violence against Israelis and for Israel to end its settlement policy in the Occupied Territories.
While America’s support of Israel was “unbreakable”, Obama said, the conditions Palestinians were forced to live in were “intolerable”. In regard to Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said that the US was there only because of the presence of extremist forces and was ready to leave as soon as this risk no longer existed.
Turning his attention to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Obama said Tehran had a right to take advantage of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes but in order to do so had to adhere to the nonproliferation pact.
In his address, Obama recalled his own Islamic roots, notign that his father was a Muslim from Kenya, and the period he lived in an Islamic country, Indonesia, and repeatedly quoted from the holy books of the three monotheistic religions — the Koran (Islam), Talmud (Judaism) and Bible (Christianity).
The president stressed the need for religious freedom and tolerance and placed these on the same level as the need to respect human rights and sexual equality.
Speaking after Obama’s address, Italian Foreign Undersecretary Margherita Boniver said “we knew he would give a very high profile speech. But his address was discourse for peace, dialogue and cooperation and stood out above all for his deep understanding of the many problems which afflict the Middle East”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
IAEA: New Uranium Traces Found in Syria
The UN nuclear agency on Friday reported its second unexplained find of uranium particles at a Syrian nuclear site, in a probe sparked by suspicions that a remote desert site hit by Israeli warplanes in September 2007 was a nearly finished plutonium producing reactor.
In a separate report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program despite three sets of UN Security Council sanctions meant to pressure Tehran into freezing such activities.
On Syria, the agency said the newest traces of uranium were found after months of analysis in environmental samples taken last year of a small experimental reactor in Damascus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Cleric: U.S. Must Stop Support of Israel to Improve Ties
The United States must change its policies toward Israel to improve ties with Iran, a senior Iranian ayatollah said Friday.
“Whatever the U.S. president says about forgetting the past and starting a new phase of relations with Iran the first condition should be a policy change toward Israel,” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said at Friday prayers in Tehran.
The ayatollah was referring to U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech to the Muslim world Thursday in Cairo, in which he said instead of remaining trapped in the past, the United States was prepared to move forward in its relations with the Islamic republic.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Press, Six Al Qaeda Cells Exposed
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JUNE 5 — Lebanese army intelligence services exposed six al Qaeda cells early 2009. The cells were active in an area from the south of the country to Afghanistan, reported the Beirut newspaper an Nahar today. Important Lebanese military sources quoted by the daily said that the cells included “Arab and non-Arab” members, who have confessed that they have developed plans to “destabilise Lebanon, including the area where the UNIFIL forces under command of the Italian general Claudio Graziano are active. “The confessions have also revealed plans regarding Afghanistan”, said the same sources without saying how many alleged al Qaeda members have been arrested. “These cells are not important because of the number of their members, but due to their level of training and their high rang in al Qaeda” the forces added. Some members of the uncovered cells, an Nahar continued, were based in Lebanon, while others used the country as “transit zone and foothold for operations”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanese Christians — Kingmakers in Vote
There is a new joke in Beirut — Lebanon’s heated election campaign, it goes, has given birth to two new religious sects… Shia and Sunni Christians.
In Lebanon, people have always voted along sectarian lines. As the country prepares for a crucial parliamentary vote, in many districts, the result is already a foregone conclusion.
The Shias are expected to vote for the opposition, backed by Iran and Syria and led by the Shia militant group Hezbollah. The Sunnis will back the pro-Western, Sunni-led alliance.
But Christians are the kingmakers of the vote.
Lebanon’s Christian neighbourhoods are divided between the two main groups — it is this Christian choice that will sway the vote.
Western focus
For Naila Tweini, the 26-year-old daughter of famous journalist and politician, Gibran Tweini, the choice is clear.
In 2005, Gibran Tweini became one of the first victims in a series of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian politicians.
Tens of thousands attended the funeral, during which Neila Tweini gave an emotional address. In a shaking, grief-stricken voice, she vowed to keep her father’s memory alive by taking up his cause.
Four years on, a more mature, glamorous and determined Neila Tweini looks down from huge billboards across Achrafiyeh, one of the Christian neighbourhoods of Beirut.
She is running for her father’s old seat in parliament.
Throughout her rigorous campaign, she has rallied supporters to vote with the pro-Western alliance, to make sure that Syria does not dominate Lebanon again.
“Syria and Iran have no future in Lebanon, our future is with the West,” one of her supporters shouted over loud music at a pre-election rally.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Women Drivers in Oil City
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, JUNE 3 — Saudi Arabian law forbids women from driving but at least 3000 Saudi and non-Saudi women drive regularly in the vast Aramco complex in Dahran, in the east of the oil-rich kingdom, the Saudi Gazette reported. As many as 11,000 people, locals and foreigners, live in the Saudi company’s citadel, the largest of its kind in the world, travelling by car daily to take their children to school, to go shopping or to go to hospital in emergencies. Dahran Camp, as the oil oasis city is called, even has a driving instructor for women — Suad Abdulahi, a woman who always wears a veil and the traditional Saudi abaya gown, has given lessons to more than 200 women but cautions that to obtain a legally-valid driving licence women have to go to neighbouring Bahrain. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: 20 More Detained in Ergenekon Operation, Cnnturk
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 4 — Twenty people, including 10 army officers on active duty and three female civil servants working in a military institution, were detained today in simultaneous operations conducted in five Turkish provinces as part of the latest wave of the country’s controversial Ergenekon operation, broadcaster CNNTurk reported. The detainees were taken in for questioning in relation to an investigation into a weapons cache found in Istanbul’s Poyrazkoy neighborhood in April. Ten army officers on active duty were among the 20 detained in five provinces, including Ankara and the Aegean city of Izmir, CNNTurk said. More than 200 people have been charged as part of the Ergenekon case, launched in 2007, of forming an illegal organization to provoke a series of events that would pave the way to a military coup. The controversial case, however, has divided Turkey, as many believe it has turned into a witch hunt targeting government critics. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Catholic Chef Arrested for Possession of Alcohol
In reality the manager of the prestigious restaurant in the capital wanted to fire the cook to give his job to a relative. Human rights activists ask for justice and promise legal assistance.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — The chef of an exclusive Dhaka restaurant has been in prison for the past 10 days charged with “illegally possessing alcohol”. Sapon D Costa, a catholic and head chef at the Castel Inn, was arrested on the night of May 24th. Police confirm that they have opened up an inquiry into the case. The chef’s family accuses the new manager of the restaurant — located in the upmarket Baridhara area of Dhaka — of being the architect of a conspiracy to have him fired.
The plight of Sapon D Costa (see photo) is explained by his wife Onima Corraya, nurse and mother of their 23 month old son (Blaze), who tells of receiving “threats from the restaurant owner” against her “seeking justice in the courts”. “Usually — the woman says — my husband returned home in the evenings between 11 and 11.30. On the night of the 24th when he still was not home by midnight I called him on the mobile phone. He told me not to worry and he would be home soon. A few minutes later he called again to tell me that the police had raided the hotel and he was under arrest”.
Onima says she “prayed all night to Our Lady” and the next day she made her way to the police station, accompanied by her uncle Sojon Hembron. Police officers told her that no-one had been arrested the night before. Onima then had to hunt down where her husband was being kept, amid fears that the police could have “tortured or even killed” her husband. After many fruitless attempts she eventually located him in Badda police station: “When I saw my husband behind bars — she says — I could not hold back my tears”. Sapon D Costa was arrested on charges of illegally possessing alcohol” which officers apparently found in the restaurant. His wife says its part of a plot orchestrated by the new manager of the Castel Inn, Mohammed Kamal, with whom her husband has had a series of disagreements in the past. The manager apparently has tried to have him fired to give his job over to relatives.
The Catholic community close to the family is demanding justice. Fr. Edmond Cruz who has known “Sapon D Costa for many years” pledges that he is “a fervent Catholic and honest man”. Catholic and human rights activist and coordinator of a local legal aid office, Faustina Pereira, has promised to everything in her power to come to the aid of the family and says she will seek “conditional release on bail”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Catholic Leaders Come Out Against the Taliban and the Imposition of the Jizya
Tax on non-Muslims is a threat that violates basic human rights. In tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan more than 700 non-Muslim families are persecuted and forced to pay. Federal Religious Minorities minister strongly condemns the tax, pledges help for the victims.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) has condemned the imposition of the Jizya, the poll tax for non-Muslims, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan because of its discriminatory nature and because it constitutes a direct threat to basic human rights.
Mgr John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore, and Peter Jacob, NCJP executive secretary, have urged the federal and provincial governments in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to do something to alleviate the plight of non-Muslim families forced to “hand over their hard earned bread and butter to the extremists.”
Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant Islamist organisation based in Bara, about 10 kilometres south-west of Peshawar, is responsible for applying the tax.
Local sources said that more than 700 non-Muslim families have had to pay the tax.
NCJP leaders have complained about the lack of security among religious minorities in Orkazai and Khyber agency areas and that they are victims of harassment, religious taxation and expulsion.
The tax also is a threat to the country’s “democratic credentials and political system”. For this reason the government “should make it clear that Pakistan is a democratic country that cannot allow religious minorities to be subjected to such discrimination and economic injustice because they are equal citizens and not a conquered people.” These principles, the NCJP statement said, “are still part of the Constitution and the political system.”
Religious Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti reacted to the appeals of Catholic leaders by strongly condemning the demand on non-Muslims to pay the jizya.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the minister, who is Catholic, said that the tax “is illegal, unethical and against the Constitution of Pakistan.”
Moreover, in condemning those who perpetrate violence in the name of religion, he insisted that the protection of non-Muslims “is our constitutional obligation and moral duty”. The government, he reiterated, “will not let the Taliban threat and harm the minorities.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines Captures ‘Rebel Base’
Troops in the Philippines have seized a separatist camp and killed 30 rebels on Mindanao island, the military says.
The army said its soldiers found large caches of weapons and ammunition when they entered the base at the end of days of fighting.
However, the rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are reported to have denied the military’s claims.
Hundreds have died and many thousands have been displaced on Mindanao since peace talks foundered in August 2008.
The military spokesman, Lt Gen Jonathan Ponce, said bodies were found inside concrete bunkers near the town of Guindulungan which he described as a “bomb factory”.
“Based on our initial report, our troops have accounted for 30 killed rebels on the ground,” Lt Gen Ponce told the Reuters news agency. Twenty other fighters were injured, he said.
“We bombed their positions. We fired rockets until early this morning before soldiers entered the rebel encampment, which could accommodate about 200 rebels.”
The camp was ringed by four outposts with a big hall in the centre, he said, with foxholes linked to each other by trenches.
However, a rebel spokesman told the Associated Press news agency that the area was not a MILF base, but was in fact a local Muslim village.
Eid Kabalu also denied the government’s casualty claims, saying just nine fighters were injured in the battle.
Ongoing conflict
Fighting between the military and the rebels has intensified over the past six weeks, and displaced 50,000 people.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Bikie Gang War Explodes as Ibrahim Brother Shot
SYDNEY’s gang war escalated to new heights yesterday with the younger brother of Kings Cross figure John Ibrahim shot five times outside his home.
Police believe the attack on Fadi Ibrahim in his car outside his Castle Cove home on Sydney’s North Shore late on Friday night will spark a chain of revenge shootings between warring bikie gangs.
Silencer used in shooting attack
Ibrahim, an associate of the Notorious bikie gang, was seated in his black Lamborghini with his 23-year-old girlfriend when a lone gunman, who had been waiting on the golf course across the road, walked over and shot him five times in the stomach, chest and arm through the car window.
His girlfriend, Shayda, was shot in her leg. Yesterday, two police officers guarded the door of the Intensive Care Unit at Royal North Shore Hospital where Ibrahim was fighting for his life after “hours” of surgery.
Former NSW assistant police commissioner Clive Small warned there would be retribution for the shooting. He said: “It would be a very brave or stupid decision to shoot a member of the Ibrahim family in this way. If Fadi survives, he will no doubt identify his attackers.
“And I’m sure that he would know who was behind it.”
At least 40 bikie associates and friends of the Ibrahim brothers gathered in support of Fadi at the hospital yesterday.
They were aggressive and hostile when approached by The Sunday Telegraph.
But a family friend said: “With all this s*** happening there’s going to be a big hurt coming up.”
John Ibrahim, 38, a Kings Cross nightclub promoter, is the most high-profile member of the Ibrahim family.
In the past, he has been the subject of hundreds of police intelligence reports. Ibrahim has consistently denied the allegation put to him during the Wood royal commission in 1996 that he was the “lifeblood of the drugs industry of Kings Cross”.
John Ibrahim has never been convicted of a criminal offence.
His three brothers, Hassan (Sam), 43, Fadi, 35, and Michael, 30, are said to have amassed “many powerful enemies”. Sam Ibrahim is a former branch president of the Nomads motorcycle club, which splintered in 2007 to form a new club, Notorious.
He denies any link to Notorious or to drugs.
Underworld sources believe the attack may have been designed to send a message to Fadi’s older brother, John.
They warned that John may be the next target. Police sources told of how John Ibrahim remained calm as he was delivered the news by officers shortly after the attack.
The attack is understood to have been carried out with a calm, cold precision, with witnesses telling police the gunman turned around and walked away, without running, after he finished discharging the gun.
It is believed a silencer was used in the attack. The gunman calmly walked out of the golf course when Fadi pulled up in his car just before 11.30pm on Friday night and unloaded the weapon. Officers said yesterday investigators were aware of who carried out the attack and were likely to arrest the assailant in the imminent future.
Police sources, meanwhile, claim that Fadi has also been listed in police intelligence files.
John, however, has strongly maintained he has no dealings with the criminal world and all his earnings are completely legitimate. For his part, Fadi has described himself as a construction developer.
Mr Small said the Ibrahim power-base was now under threat. He added: “If there are no reprisals, it simply sends a message to others who might have a disagreement or dispute that the Ibrahims are now vulnerable to attack.”
A 17-year-old resident heard the young woman crying out in pain and immediately called an ambulance, potentially saving Mr Ibrahim’s life. A police officer from the North Shore Local Area Command arrived at the scene and performed CPR in a bid to revive him.
North Shore Acting Superintendent Peter Yeomans said all possible steps were being taken to minimise further violence.
“At the moment we’re asking for assistance from the public in relation to this brutal and violent crime. Police are always mindful of reprisal attacks in relation to victims such as these,” he said.
Officers speculate it is the third in a series of attacks that has already left two other men, former Nomads bikie Todd O’Connor and Bandidos associate Milad Sande, dead.
Fadi is known to maintain one of the lowest profiles among the Ibrahim brothers.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Air France Flight 447 ‘May Have Stalled at 35,000ft’
The Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic killing 228 may have stalled after pilots slowed down too much as they encountered turbulence, new information suggests.
Airbus is to send advice on flying in storms to operators of its A330 jets, Le Monde reported today. It would remind crews of the need to maintain adequate thrust from the engines and the correct attitude, or angle of flight, when entering heavy turbulence.
Pilots slow down aircraft when entering stormy zones of the type encountered by Air France Flight 447 early on Monday as it was flying from Rio to Paris.
The fact that the manufacturer of the aircraft is issuing new advice indicates that investigators have evidence that the aircraft slowed down too much, causing a high-altitude aerodynamic stall. This would explain why the aircraft apparently broke up at altitude over the Atlantic.
[…]
Although the flight recorders lie about 12,000ft below the ocean surface, the BEA has data on the last four minutes of Flight 447, transmitted automatically by satellite to Air France’s base at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela Chavez Says “Comrade” Obama More Left-Wing
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.
During one of Chavez’s customary lectures on the “curse” of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM’s bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.
“Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right,” Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cypriot and Syrian Experts to Discuss Illegal Immigration
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JUNE 5 — Cypriot and Syrian experts will meet soon to discuss practical measures to prevent illegal immigration to Cyprus, CNA reports. Many illegal immigrants are filtered via Syria to Cyprus’ Turkish occupied areas and subsequently to southern government-controlled areas of the Republic, Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou has said. Kyprianou said that the issue of the illegal sea routes between Latakia and the occupied port of Famagusta, which are not continuous, is an issue that is always on the agenda of his contacts with Syrian government officials. He added that the Syrian government stresses that there is no change in its position regarding the non-recognition of the illegal Turkish Cypriot regime in occupied Cyprus. Damascus, the Minister said, recognises only the Republic of Cyprus and abides by the resolutions of the Security Council. “But this sea route, apart from creating political problems, which we raise before the Syrian government, is a source of illegal immigration” he said. The Syrian government, he noted, has expressed full readiness to cooperate with Nicosia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PM Calls Milan an “African” City
Milan, 5 June (AKI) — Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has sought to play down the racial impact of a controversial comment in which he described the northern city of Milan as “an African city”. In a radio interview broadcast by Radio Anch’io on Friday, Berlusconi said Italians were “open” to integrating immigrants who come to work in Italy.
“I only spoke of a walk in Milan were 60 percent of the people I met were foreign,” he said on the state-run broadcaster on Friday. “I asked myself if this is the Italy that Italians want.
“No, we want to have a majority of Italian citizens, even if we are open to integrating those immigrants who come here to work.”
Berlusconi was seeking to clarify controversial remarks he made in Milan on Thursday at a function to conclude his People of Freedom party’s campaign for local and European Union elections.
“Walking through the streets in the centre of a city like Milan, and I do, it does not seem to be an Italian or European city with the number of non-Italians, but an African city,” he told his supporters on Thursday.
“This is not something we can accept, we have to take action to fight it.”
Berlusconi’s comments provoked a strong reaction from political and religious leaders in Milan.
The Archbishop of Milan Dionigi Tettamanzi said the church was happy with the number of immigrants and would continue to welcome them.
“The presence of foreigners is a great privilege and advantage for the future. We do not have to be afraid of them.”
Berlusconi recently rejected criticism directed at his government by the Catholic Church and the United Nations over its hardline immigration policies.
These policies have included turning back boatloads of migrants to North Africa before they enter Italian coastal waters.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malta Immigration Woes
Over white wine and the rather lovely local fizzy drink made of bitter oranges, the conversation between five women is growing heated. “These people don’t want to be here. Send them on their way!” “Where? Nobody wants them!” “Why bring them in here? They are costing us lots of money.” “Because they are in danger. They are dying.” “It’s not my problem.” “Someone once said to me ‘Don’t let them touch land, give them water and push them out’. I said ‘Would you have the guts to do it?’ I would, I would give them food, make sure they have no illness and send them off.”
I had been trying to get a discussion going between a group of women, old school friends meeting for their monthly reunion, but was now quite surplus to requirements as they went at it hammer and tongs. Malta is consumed by the debate over immigration and the role of the European Union.
It is the one country I have been to in the last few weeks where the EU and its policies are central to the European elections. The deregulation of buses and the state of the road are issues. The ban on shooting migrating birds looms large. But it is the fate of human migrants that dominates all else.
It’s true that migration has driven much of human history but it is difficult to credit that Europe seems such a Shangri-La that thousands of people travel for thousands of miles and risk death and appalling hardship to reach our shores. But they do, and when they get into trouble on the high seas the EU’s smallest country is in charge of coordinating rescues across 250,000 sq km of sea.
The line is thin indeed: 236 men and women with nine boats between them make up the Maltese Maritime Division. They have help from the EU’s frontier patrol agency, Frontex, aircraft from Luxembourg and boats from Germany. EU money will buy them new boats. They’re needed.
“If you’ve seen Apocalypse Now those are the boats going up and down the Mekong Delta.” One of the officers from the Maltese equivalent of the navy points out one of their Vietnam-era craft in their main base in Valletta.
Chopping through the deep blue seas in baking sunshine, the boat we go to sea on was made by East Germany, when there was such a country. Their vessels may not be the most modern, but their mission is both very contemporary and very complex..
Not a job for those who love the smell of burning napalm in the morning, it is a combination of gentle police action and search-and-rescue, as politicians seek to satisfy the conflicting demands of voters who expect humanity, but are wary of illegal immigration.Malta coastguards
Malta is not only the smallest of the EU countries, it is also the most southern lying south of both Tunis and Tangiers. Size and geography combine to make illegal immigration such an acute problem.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Visa Changes Leave Swansea Ballet Company Short of Dancers
STRICT new visa controls have left a ballet company facing closure.
The Ballet Russe has for the past 10 years had Bolshoi- trained dancers working from Swansea.
But it is now facing closure after months of expensive negotiations trying to get work permits for its dancers.
At one point the UK Border Agency even suggested they use locals instead.
Director Celia Kirkby said: “We are made up of all Russian dancers and have been at the Grand Theatre for 10 years.
“The dancers go home every summer to visit their families and this year we could not get them back because of changes to immigration rules. Six of our dancers we need to get back. So the company just isn’t performing. It’s a tragedy.”
She added: “The UK Border Agency were not interested in any aspects of the case. Their starting position was: ‘If you want dancers use the local labour force.’
“But there are very few dancers in the world trained in the Russian style, let alone in the UK, Wales or Swansea.
“They said we should advertise in the local and national newspapers.”
The visa controls are part of the Government’s new points- based immigration system. The rules for touring artists came into effect last November. Artists must show they have £800 savings and require monitoring by a ‘sponsor’ to make sure they do not abscond.
A report by anti-red tape campaigners The Manifesto Club, titled UK Arts and Culture: Cancelled by Order of the Home Office, found more than 20 major events had been cancelled or badly affected by the new rules.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: “We are determined to deliver a system of border security which is among the most secure in the world. It combines more than 80 pre- existing work and study routes into the United Kingdom into five tiers.
“Any organisation which used to bring entertainers into the UK under the old work permit system is welcome to apply to the UK Border Agency to become a sponsor — allowing them to employ foreign workers under the new points-based system. If an organisation does not apply to become a sponsor, it will be unable to employ skilled migrant workers through the points-based system.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Court to Government: OK to Diss Catholics
San Francisco officials say calling church ‘hateful,’ ‘callous’ serves ‘secular’ purpose
Authorities in San Francisco who called the beliefs of the Catholic Church “hateful,” “callous,” and an “insult,” — and urged members to disobey them — have been given the go-ahead by a panel of judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to express such hate because it serves a “secular” purpose.
“It is not a stretch to compare the San Francisco Board’s actions to that of the Nazi Germany policy of ‘Gleichschaltung:’ vilifying Jews as an auxiliary to and laying the groundwork for more repressive policies, including the final solution of extermination,” said Richard Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which represented the Catholic League and several individuals in the church in their complaint against the city.
“The policy of San Francisco is one of totalitarian intolerance of Christians of all denominations who oppose homosexual conduct,” Thompson continued. “My concern is that if this ruling is allowed to stand, it will further embolden anti-Christian attacks.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Graduating Students Defy ACLU
Seniors stand and recite Lord’s Prayer
Members of the graduating class of 2009 at Florida’s Pace High School have expressed their objections to ACLU restrictions on statements of religious faith at their school by rising up en masse at their ceremony and reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
The incident happened just days ago, but has been virtually ignored by media outlets throughout the region, according to officials with Liberty Counsel, a legal team representing Principal Frank Lay and teacher Michelle Winkler in their battle with the ACLU, which had complained that faculty and teachers were talking about their beliefs.
Nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace, a Santa Rosa County school, stood up at their graduation, according to Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel.
Parents, family and friends joined in the recitation, and applauded the students when they were finished, Staver told WND.
“Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith,” the organization reported.
“Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate,” said Staver, who also is dean of Liberty University School of Law. “The students at Pace High School refused to remain silent and were not about to be bullied by the ACLU.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homosexual in Charge of School ‘Safety’ Draws Opposition
Groups challenge Obama administration to remove Jennings
A coalition of Christian organizations has launched an effort to have Kevin Jennings, the founder of the pro-homosexual GLSEN organization who has been appointed in president Obama’s administration to oversee the nation’s “safe schools” program, booted from office.
“The American Family Association of Pennsylvania is repulsed by the idea that Jennings, who has a twisted idea of safety, will help make official policy for our nation’s school children,” the organization said. “Parents should be VERY concerned with Kevin Jennings’ appointment.”
WND reported earlier when it became known that Jennings, who founded the activist group that promotes homosexual clubs in high schools, middle schools and grade schools and is the driving force behind the annual “Day of Silence” celebration of homosexuality in many districts, was handed a federal appointment where he will be responsible for overseeing “safety” in the nation’s public schools.
At the time, Linda Harvey of Mission America, which educates people on anti-Christian trends in the nation, said it is nothing more than a “tragedy” for an open homosexual who has “had an enormously detrimental impact on the climate in our schools” to be in such a position.
The appointment of Kevin Jennings was posted — with little fanfare — on a government list of federal jobs recently. He was named by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to be the Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Office of Safe Schools.
He previously worked to raise money for the presidential campaign for President Obama.
In the new post, he’ll be working on “safe schools” programs for educational institutions nationwide, said Harvey.
According to the AFA of Pennsylvania, Jennings supervised his organization during a time when it sponsored events featuring pornographic material at Brookline High School in Massachusetts in 2005, taught a session to school children on how to engaged in homosexual acts — a conference that became known as “Fistgate,” and has used school children for political efforts during the group’s “Day of Silence.”
“Since Jennings was one of President Obama’s fundraisers during his campaign, apparently this is payback time by giving Jennings access to America’s impressionable children to further indoctrinate them that ‘gay is okay,’“ said Diane Gramley, president of the organization.
“Our schools are being used in a great social experiment and it’s the children who are the guinea pigs,” Gramley said.
Peter LaBarbera, of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, said the appointment actually endangers youth, and urged Duncan to pull the nomination, “due to Jennings’ vicious anti-religious bigotry and his role with an extremist homosexual group that has recklessly endangered youth.”
It was the 2000 “Fistgate” scandal in which homosexual adults at a GLSEN-sponsored youth workshop “guided young teenagers on how to engage in perversions including the horrifying ‘gay’ fetish known as ‘fisting,” that convinced him Jennings is a danger, LaBarbera said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Next Frontier? Polygamists Demand Multi-Sex Marriage
Activists: New Hampshire plan embeds bigotry into state law
A polygamy advocacy organization says the New Hampshire law that is intended to assure “equal access to marriage” for all instead specifically embeds in state statutes bigotry against polygamists.
[…]
The fact that polygamists, and indeed those with other sexual proclivities, would use the same “civil rights” and “equality” arguments forwarded by homosexuals seeking “marriage” rights has been predicted for years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dupes — Jamie Glazov Exposes the Left’s Long History of Cozying Up to Political Murderers.
The long romance of Western leftists with some of the bloodiest regimes and political movements in history is a story not told often enough, and Jamie Glazov’s United in Hate tells it particularly well. Glazov, managing editor of FrontPage, holds a Ph.D. in U.S., Russian, and Canadian foreign policy. He also is an immigrant from the Soviet Union, where his parents were active in the dissident movement. Both intellectually and personally, he’s well qualified to document and expose the Left’s destructive behavior.
United in Hate begins with a brief survey of the many leftists who since 9/11 have rationalized jihadist terrorism and blamed the United States for the attacks: “From Noam Chomsky to Norman Mailer,” Glazov writes, “from Eric Foner to Susan Sontag, the Left used 9/11 to castigate America,” seeing the 3,000 dead in Manhattan as “merely collateral victims of the world’s well-founded rebellion against the evil American empire.” But similar attitudes are also found in the Democratic Party itself. From Jimmy Carter’s courtship of Hamas to the Democratic congressional leadership’s eagerness to declare the Iraq War a failure—even as millions of Iraqis voted in free elections—the presumably “moderate” Democratic leadership has regularly created obstacles to defeating a murderous jihadist ideology that opposes every ideal the liberal Left supposedly embraces.
Before returning to the subject of Islam and the Left in greater detail, Glazov surveys the long history of the Left’s “useful idiocy.” Western political pilgrims to post-revolutionary Russia gushed like schoolgirls over Lenin and Stalin, even as torture, terror, and famine were inflicted on the Russian people. New York Times reporter Walter Duranty stands as perhaps the quintessential fellow-traveler, killing news reports of famine and writing that Ukrainians were “healthier and more cheerful” than he had expected, and that markets were overflowing with food—this at the height of Stalin’s slaughter of the kulaks. Today’s Times continues to list Duranty among the paper’s Pulitzer Prize winners. Other abettors of terror and famine, both famous and obscure, make their appearance in Glazov’s hall of dishonor. They include George Bernard Shaw and Bertholt Brecht, who, he writes, “excused and promoted Stalin’s crimes at every turn,” and American sociologist Jerome Davis, who said of Stalin, “everything he does reflects the desires and hopes of the masses.” The same delusions clouded the vision of Western fans of China’s Mao Tse-tung, whose butcher’s bill of dead, tortured, starved, and imprisoned eclipses Hitler’s and Stalin’s combined.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tell that to Geert Wilders
Inevitable thing is civil war in Europe