Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/29/2009

Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/29/2009Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern confirms that Ireland will resettle two Uzbek Gitmo detainees in the Emerald Isle.

In other news, a Sudanese woman is on trial for “indecency” because she wore trousers in a restaurant. If she is convicted, she faces 40 lashes.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Gaia, Henrik, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JCPA, JD, KGS, Lexington, Sean O’Brian, TB, The Lurker from Tulsa, Tuan Jim, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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USA
Dogs Are Considered Unclean in Islam So a Pony Fills in
New Doubts Revealed in Obama’s Nativity Story
No ‘Kinder, Gentler’ Way
Obama Has Aura But Doesn’t Know How to Legislate
Thomas Sowell: A Post-Racial President?
Tulsa Receives Stimulus Money for More Police
Unveiled! Hawaii’s 1961 Long-Form Birth Certificates
 
Canada
Carleton Stops Diab From Returning to Classroom
Lawyer Says Canal Death Suspect Attacked in Jail
Ottawa University Slammed for Firing Terrorism Suspect
Seals and Visas Threaten EU-Canada Rift
 
Europe and the EU
Czech Rep: Christian Democrats Against New Mosque in Brno
Danish Defence Minister: Headscarves Out
EU Will Defend Canadian Challenge to Seal Product Ban
Finland: Homes Built by Finnish Government for Repatriation Being Used by Bosnians as Second Homes
First NATO Transport Plane Arrives at Hungarian Air Base
French Rapper in Censorship Row
German Birth Rate Continues to Decline
Greece: Theodorakis Backs Police
Greenland: Government Considers Seal Trade Ban Appeal
‘Hate Crime’ At Danish Gay Games
Ireland Agrees to Take Two Gitmo Detainees
Ireland: Ahern Confirms Plan to Resettle Guantanamo Detainees
Italy: City Bans Gatherings of Two People
Mussolini Fans Celebrate His Birth
Netherlands: Verhagen: Too Tough on Serbia, Too Soft on China
Netherlands: Police Deny ‘Taxi War’ In Apeldoorn
Sweden: Government Reported for English Email Use
Sweden: Fire Hatchway Jammed During Fire
Swedish Think-Tank Denounces EU ‘Propaganda’
UK: Binyam Claims ‘Risk to UK Lives’
UK: Most Britons Want National Service to Return
UK: Organic Food Has No Health Benefits, Study Finds
UK: Police Must Record Toilet Breaks
UK: Police Anger Over Ban on Union Flag Badges in Support of British Troops
UK: Scotland Yard Drops Ban on Officers Wearing Union Flag Badges Backing Our Troops
UK: Sir Paul Stephenson Backs Down in Row Over Union Jack Badges
UK:£300,000 Bill to Give Free Laptops to Traveller Children (Whose Parents Use Them to Shop Online)
 
Balkans
Bosnian Police Hunt Ex-Islamist Fighter Who is on the Run
Croatia: Artificial Insemination, New Law After 30 Years
Montenegro: Greeks Outbid Italians for Shares of Epcg
 
North Africa
Hizbullah Cell Faces Hanging in Egypt, Nasrallah Personally Ordered it to Carry Out Attacks
Morocco: 2009-2010 Bumper Cereal Crop
Norway: Embassy Staff Threatened
Royalty: Forbes Sees King of Morocco Among World’s Richest
Television: Tunisia, Confalonieri About Nessma TV
 
Israel and the Palestinians
Hamas Wants Female Lawyers Veiled, Protests
Obama Slammed as ‘Racist’ At Jerusalem Rally
Palestinian Territories, Over 300,000 Settlers
The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem: Why Continued Israeli Control is Vital
West Bank: Army Stops Settlement Attempt
 
Middle East
High Prices of Basic Items Expected During Ramadan
Hizbullah Training Lebanese Army, Report
Jordan Seeks to Join Nuclear Club of Energy Exporters
Khamenei Orders Closure of Jail Holding Protesters; 140 Prisoners Freed
Lebanon: UNIFIL; 30 Years of Italair Celebrated in Naqura
Obama Lifts Ban on Syrian Air Industry
 
South Asia
Afghanistan: Franceschini, Vote to Keep Soldiers Abroad
Afghanistan — Di Pietro: There to Save Face for Silvio
Berlusconi Reaffirms Troops to Stay in Afghanistan
Pakistan: Hindus and Sikhs Threatened by the Taliban and Sharia
Taliban Commander: ‘Swedes Will be Killed’
US Sets Up Task Force to Stem Flow of Foreign Funds to Taliban
 
Far East
China Foils Smuggling of Missile-Use Material to N.Korea
Myanmar: Despite Sanctions, A Growth in Investment. China Has 87% of the Market
The First Protest of Foreigners in China: Nigerians Against the Police in Guangzhou
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
Alarm Over Somalia’s Child Soldiers
Captives Freed in Nigerian City
Sudan ‘Trousers Trial’ Adjourned
Swedish Youth Dead in Somalia
 
Immigration
24 Land in Calabria
African Refugees and Illegal Migrants ‘Terrorize’ Arad
Australia: Reporter Attacked During Migration Scam Probe
Calais Migrant ‘Cried Rape as Revenge Against People Smuggler Who Failed to Get Her Into Britain’
Denmark: Wanted Asylum Seekers Fled Country
Greece: Conflicting Signals for Migrants
Ireland: HSE Sends Emergency Phrase Books to Every Acute Hospital
Spain: Voluntary Re-Entry Plan Flops
Sweden: Afghan Teens in Swedish Asylum Limbo
UK: Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants Here for Handouts, Says Senior Judge
 
Culture Wars
Nurse ‘Forced’ To Help Abort
Stanford University Punishes Dissent When Training Teachers
UN Allows Gay, Lesbian Group to Join Debates

USA


Dogs Are Considered Unclean in Islam So a Pony Fills in

Tiny horse gives US Muslim new life perspective

Mona Ramouni’s fingers fly across the text as she proofreads yet another page of a calculus textbook to be published in Braille — with her guide pony sitting patiently by.

Cali, a pretty brown pony with a soft black mane, is the first guide animal for Ramouni, 28, a devout and blind Muslim whose parents — Jordanian immigrants — would not accept a dog into their home.

Dog saliva is considered unclean in Islamic teaching, although dogs are permitted to be used as work animals, such as guards or shepherds.

“There is a saying of the Prophet Mohammed accepted by most Muslims that the angels do not enter the homes where dogs are,” said Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

While several prominent scholars have determined that guide dogs are acceptable under Islamic rules, it remains a cultural taboo for many Muslims, he explained.

Ramouni says her parents aren’t fond of animals in general, although they did let her have a pet rabbit and are warming to the pony who lives in a small enclosure in the yard of their tidy brick home in Dearborn, Michigan.

And after some initial trepidation about how their daughter would fare with only a miniature horse to watch out for her, they have begun to trust that Ramouni will be okay on her own.

Pony benefits

Cali is just one of a handful of miniature horses in the United States known to be used as guide animals for the blind.

Weighing in at under 100 pounds (45 kilograms), miniature horses are about the same size as a large dog but are much stockier and can help support people with mobility issues.

They also have significantly longer life spans — they can live and work for more than 30 years while guide dogs are usually retired by age 12 — but require much more care and bear a far heftier price tag.

“My whole world and my whole outlook on stuff has changed, because I feel that there are a lot more possibilities,” Ramouni tells a visiting reporter.

“Before Cali, I didn’t feel like I could go places on my own, although theoretically I probably could have.”

Ramouni was taught as a child how to guide herself with a cane, but never really took to it. With six siblings, there was always someone around to take her by the arm.

Straddling hurdles

She began looking into guide horses on a whim, becoming more determined to make it happen every time someone told her she couldn’t — or shouldn’t.

There was the neighbor who tried to get the city council to deny her a permit for Cali’s shed. The nasty e-mails from people attacking her family’s religious beliefs.

And then there was all the work it took to find a trainer, find a horse and learn how to trust and care for Cali.

Ramouni bought the three-year-old former show pony in October 2008 and sent her to a professional trainer who spent seven months teaching Cali to tap her hoof to point out obstacles, get in and out of cars and buses and even pick up misplaced objects.

It generally takes six months to a year for the relationship with a service animal to solidify and Ramouni’s first six weeks with Cali have been intense.

“I’m working with Cali. She’s working with me. We’re sort of figuring each other out,” Ramouni says.

“She is the most awesome little horse. If she can do it, if she thinks she can do it, she will. If she feels that there is a possibility for her to do it, she will try with all her heart.”

Cali is also a show-stopper: they can’t go anywhere without people stopping to ask about her.

And Ramouni, whose sisters used to call her antisocial because she would spend hours alone in her room, has found that she has become “more involved with the world… and more visible to the world” because of Cali.

Domestic animals

“ I just basically want to have a normal life “

RamouniThat is the intention of the Americans with Disability Act, which protects against discrimination and requires that businesses, such as restaurants, hotels and stores allow entry to service animals.

But proposed changes to the act could narrow the definition of service animals to “a dog or other common domestic animal.”

Not only could Cali be turned away from businesses — like the McDonald’s down the street from Ramouni’s office — but the city of Dearborn could also decide to lift the zoning waiver that allows the horse to live in Ramouni’s yard.

If that happens, the city will have to send someone to pry Cali’s bridle from her hands, Ramouni says.

With Cali at her side, Ramouni can do simple things most people take for granted like go the store, sit in the park and listen to people going by, or take the bus to work. She also hopes to get a doctorate in child psychology and open her own practice.

“I just basically want to have a normal life,” she says, before laughing. “Yeah, after this you think I’m going to have an ordinary life? But that’s really what I want.”

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



New Doubts Revealed in Obama’s Nativity Story

School documents show mother left father within weeks of birth

More cracks have appeared in the official story of Barack Obama’s family life, with the revelation in school documentation from the University of Washington that Ann Dunham most likely left her husband, Barack Sr., within weeks of the baby’s birth.

The official story as presented in his autobiography, “Dreams from My Father,” and in various accounts in newspapers and websites supporting Obama conflicts with the results of a careful analysis of the documentary evidence available.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



No ‘Kinder, Gentler’ Way

A dangerous serpent’s head must be severed

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush vowed to apply traditional American values to make the United States “a kinder and gentler nation” — using our strength as “a force for good.” Twenty years later, that strength has been weakened by a faltering economy and the challenges of fighting two wars.

But Mr. Bush recognized that “kinder and gentler” did not always apply, particularly in dealing with Saddam Hussein. Yet, today, in the face of our greatest challenge — Islamic extremism — we choose to take a “kinder and gentler” approach toward fighting a brutal enemy’s ideology. This is underscored by the House Intelligence Committee’s June 17 announcement that it has launched a probe into the CIA’s handling of its al Qaeda leadership assassination program.

The investigation is to focus on whether the agency improperly withheld information from lawmakers.

The secret program — to use assassins to kill or capture senior terrorist leaders — was initiated eight years ago in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks but never got beyond the discussion phase. Upon first learning of the program a month ago, CIA Director Leon Panetta immediately terminated it and briefed Congress.

Almost two decades ago, as I interrogated a senior Iraqi military officer captured during Desert Storm, he made an astute observation about Saddam Hussein. Comparing his brutal leader to a serpent, he said one cannot kill a snake without severing its head — a concept well understood within the Muslim world. It also should be well understood within the Western world in dealing with Islamic extremist leaders.

During the 20th century, the West confronted two kinds of leaders in the conduct of warfare.

There were civilian leaders who, as heads of state, were not involved in war-fighting decisions, which were left to their military. For this reason, leaders such as Japan’s Emperor Hirohito were never personally targeted during hostilities.

But there also were heads of state who, by their personal actions in taking a direct role in planning and implementing military and/or terrorist operations, catapulted themselves onto the battlefield, becoming “fair game.” Such targets have included Adolf Hitler during World War II, Saddam Hussein during Desert Storm and Moammar Gadhafi during his terrorist campaign of the 1980s.

There should be no doubt al Qaeda’s leadership falls into the latter category. Its terrorist leaders represent the head of the snake and, as such, will continue to strike unless the head is severed.

Precisely for this reason, the leadership of both al Qaeda and the Taliban have been targeted for attack by U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere. These attacks, authorized during President George W. Bush’s watch, have been continued on President Obama’s watch because they have killed at least a dozen leaders.

The attacks so unnerved Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud that in May he threatened a devastating attack upon the United States if they continued. Undoubtedly, the fact that a drone, flying thousands of feet high where it cannot be seen or heard by terrorist leaders, can silently strike at any time has caused them some sleepless nights.

But how is a program targeting terrorist leadership for assassination by drone any different from the CIA’s assassination program now targeted by the House for investigation? While Congress undoubtedly was briefed on the terrorist-slaying drone program before implementation, it is doubtful a briefing was done before an effective implementation plan was firmly in place. Similarly, no effective implementation plan has yet been structured for the CIA’s assassination program; therefore, no briefing is yet required.

While it may give politicians a good feeling to launch this congressional probe into the CIA’s program, they need to understand the downside. The 1976 hearings chaired by Democratic Sen. Frank Church of Idaho to investigate domestic surveillance and other illegal activities by U.S. intelligence agencies had a chilling effect on legal intelligence and counterintelligence operations. As such, it eventually impacted upon our ability 25 years later to read the tea leaves in time to be forewarned about the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Though there were some excesses by U.S. intelligence agencies in the 1970s, it is critical that we also recognize that congressional probes, by their very nature, impact on future effectiveness by limiting decisions to undertake legal activities. That probably is why the CIA’s assassination program existed conceptually but not in practice. The link between concept and practice is a plan for implementation. Again, none yet existed for this program; therefore, neither did a duty to advise Congress.

A “kinder and gentler” approach has pampered Islamic extremist prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, too, creating a country-club atmosphere in which they have gained an average 20 pounds each (one in excess of 100 pounds) because of the “good life.”

Hearings were held there recently for Sept. 11 suspects. One, Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, made a mockery of court proceedings by conducting himself inappropriately. This is a suspect to whom the “kinder and gentler” approach has gone to a ridiculous extreme, as his guard carried with him a pillow to place on Hawsawi’s chair for his viewing comfort. As Hawsawi was led back out of the courtroom, his guard followed with pillow in tow.

Our “kinder and gentler” approach toward terrorists is making it difficult for Americans to comprehend that we are a nation at war fighting an enemy whose ultimate goal is our total annihilation.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Obama Has Aura But Doesn’t Know How to Legislate

Aura dazzles, but argument gets things done. Consider the debate on the Democrats’ health care bill and the increasingly negative response to Barack Obama’s performance. Democrats have the numbers to pass a health care bill — 256 votes in the House, 38 more than the 218 majority; 60 votes in the Senate, enough to defeat a filibuster. But they haven’t come up with the arguments, at least yet, to put those numbers on the board. It’s something not many predicted that bright January inauguration morning.

We knew that day that Obama was good at aura, at generating enthusiasm for the prospect of hope and change. His inspiring speeches — the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines, the race speech in Philadelphia, the countless rallies in primary and caucus and target states — helped him capture the Democratic nomination and then win the presidency by the biggest percentage margin in 20 years.

But it turns out that Obama is not so good at argument. Inspiration is one thing, persuasion another. He created the impression on the campaign trail that he was familiar with major issues and readily ticked off his positions on them. But he has not proved so good at legislating.

One reason, perhaps, is that he has had little practice. He served as a legislator for a dozen years before becoming president, but was only rarely an active one. He spent one of his eight years as an Illinois state senator running unsuccessfully for Congress and two of them running successfully for U.S. senator. He spent two of his years in the U.S. Senate running for president. During all of his seven non-campaign years as a legislator, he was in the minority party.

In other words, he’s never done much work putting legislation together — especially legislation that channels vast flows of money and affects the workings of parts of the economy that deeply affect people’s lives. This lack of experience is starting to show. On the major legislation considered this year — the stimulus, cap and trade, health care — the Obama White House has done little or nothing to set down markers, to provide guidance, to establish boundaries and no-go areas.

The administration could have insisted that the stimulus package concentrate spending in the next year. It didn’t. It could have insisted that the cap-and-trade bill generate the revenue that was supposed to underwrite health care. It didn’t. It could have decided either to seek a bipartisan health care bill or to insist that a Democratic bill be budget-neutral. It didn’t — and it still hasn’t made this basic policy choice.

Most of Obama’s top White House staffers are politics operatives, not policy wonks. The one leading policy wonk on health care, Budget Director Peter Orszag, has either missed signals of danger or has failed to communicate their seriousness to his colleagues. On Feb. 25, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, a Democratic appointee, signaled in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee that the CBO would not credit health care bills with the budget savings the administration was promising.

Orszag, as a former CBO director himself, should have realized what this meant, which is that Democrats would have to shape their bills accordingly. They didn’t, and were stunned when the CBO came out in June and this month with estimates of little or no savings.

And someone in the White House should have taken note when 40 Blue Dog Democrats signed a letter dated July 9 warning that they wouldn’t vote for anything like the health care bills being considered in committee. Without those 40 votes, Democrats don’t have a majority in the House. It’s unusual for dissenting members of the majority to set down such a public marker. Predictably, they haven’t backed down so far, despite foot-stomping by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a chat session with Obama.

Obama’s July 22 news conference was intended to rally support for the Democrats’ health care bills. It didn’t. The president eschewed serious arguments and rattled off campaign-type talking points. Those used to be enough to elicit cheers from enthusiastic audiences in Iowa and Virginia.

But aura can only take you so far, particularly when you diminish it by disrespecting the Cambridge police department. Being president means being more than commenter-in-chief. You need to know how to legislate. You need not just aura but argument.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Thomas Sowell: A Post-Racial President?

Many people hoped that the election of a black President of the United States would mark our entering a “post-racial” era, when we could finally put some ugly aspects of our history behind us.

That is quite understandable. But it takes two to tango. Those of us who want to see racism on its way out need to realize that others benefit greatly from crying racism. They benefit politically, financially, and socially.

Barack Obama has been allied with such people for decades. He found it expedient to appeal to a wider electorate as a post-racial candidate, just as he has found it expedient to say a lot of other popular things— about campaign finance, about transparency in government, about not rushing legislation through Congress without having it first posted on the Internet long enough to be studied— all of which turned to be the direct opposite of what he actually did after getting elected.

Those who were shocked at President Obama’s cheap shot at the Cambridge police for being “stupid” in arresting Henry Louis Gates must have been among those who let their wishes prevail over the obvious implications of Obama’s 20 years of association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Anyone who can believe that Obama did not understand what the racist rants of Jeremiah Wright meant can believe anything.

With race— as with campaign finance, transparency and the rest— Barack Obama knows what the public wants to hear and that is what he has said. But his policies as president have been the opposite of his rhetoric, with race as with other issues…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Tulsa Receives Stimulus Money for More Police

TULSA, OK — There’s big money for more cops in Tulsa. The city is getting $3.5 million in federal stimulus money to put 18 more officers on the street.

The stimulus grant will pay the salary and benefits for the officers’ first three years on the force. The city is required to put up the money for the officers’ fourth year.

The Tulsa City Council will have the choice on whether to accept the money.

           — Hat tip: The Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Unveiled! Hawaii’s 1961 Long-Form Birth Certificates

Real documents include name of doctor, hospital

Images of two 1961 Hawaii birth certificates similar to the one President Obama purportedly has on file have now been unveiled.

The Honolulu Advertiser published photostats of the original long-form birth certificates of twin daughters born to Eleanor Nordyke at Kapi’olani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital Aug. 5, 1961, one day after Obama was supposedly born at the same facility.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Canada


Carleton Stops Diab From Returning to Classroom

OTTAWA — Carleton University has stopped Hassan Diab from returning to the classroom following at least one complaint from an outside organization.

B’nai Brith, the influential Jewish group, harshly criticized the university for hiring Diab, who is accused in France of killing four people in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue.

The Toronto-based national office of B’nai Brith issued a statement condemning Carleton’s actions, while an Ottawa-based member of the group telephoned the university directly to complain.

“The university did the right thing,” B’nai Brith executive vice-president Frank Dimant said on Tuesday of Carleton’s about-face in not allowing Mr. Diab to teach.

Mr. Dimant said it was “inconceivable” that Mr. Diab, who’s awaiting an extradition hearing on Jan. 4, 2010, would be allowed to be in direct contact with young people.

On Monday, a Carleton spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Diab had been hired on contract to teach for a few weeks this summer after the instructor originally assigned to the introductory sociology class took “an unforeseen leave.”

However, late on Tuesday afternoon, the university issued a terse statement that a full-time faculty member would “immediately replace the current instructor, Hassan Diab.”

The move was being made in order to provide students “with a stable, productive academic environment that is conducive to learning,” the statement said.

A Carleton media-relations officer did not return calls or emails, and the university’s statement said “no further comment will be made regarding this issue.”

Mr. Diab, 55, was born in Lebanon, but obtained Canadian citizenship in 1993. He is fighting an extradition bid by the French government.

Mr. Diab has been under virtual house arrest since he was arrested late last year. He has been granted bail but under very strict conditions which include the wearing of an electronic monitoring bracelet.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Lawyer Says Canal Death Suspect Attacked in Jail

A lawyer representing Hamed Mohammed Shafia said his client was attacked in a Napanee, Ont., prison, according to a CBC News report.

Shafia, 18, has been charged with four counts of first degree murder in the deaths of his three sisters and his father’s first wife. His father, Mohammed Shafia, 56, and his wife Tooba Mohammed Yahya, 39, face the same charges.

Lawyer Jean-Claude Dube told CBC that his client had been injured in jail and required a visit to the hospital.

Shafia is being held at the Quinte Detention Centre while waiting his bail hearing. A spokesperson for the detention centre would not offer any details of the attack.

A lawyer for the family said earlier they will plead not guilty at a court appearance in Kingston Aug. 6.

Waice Ferdoussi said his clients will petition for a change of venue because the atmosphere in Kingston and Montreal is “poisoned.” Ferdoussi said police have jumped to the conclusion that this is an “honour crime.”

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Ottawa University Slammed for Firing Terrorism Suspect

OTTAWA — Carleton University in Ottawa “cravenly caved to external pressure” when it relieved terrorism suspect Hassan Diab of a summer teaching job, says the executive director of the union that represents university professors.

There were no questions about Diab’s qualifications, and both the provost and the dean signed off on the contract hiring after consulting with the university’s lawyer, said James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents about 65,000 university teachers, librarians and researchers.

The university reversed its decision to hire Diab to fill in for a few weeks in an introductory sociology course and “summarily fired” him after the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith released a statement critical of the hiring, said Turk.

Diab was terminated without consulting with the dean or the departmental chair, he said.

“They did this solely because of external pressure,” said Turk. “It’s an abdication of the responsibility of universities to be insulated from these kinds of pressures.”

Carleton University declined Wednesday to comment on the decision to terminate Diab, pointing to a statement released Tuesday saying the lecturer was being replaced “in the interest of providing its students with a stable, productive academic environment that is conducive to learning.”

The Lebanese-born Diab is accused in France of killing four people and injuring dozens more in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue. He faces an extradition hearing in January and is under virtual house arrest.

Diab must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, must report regularly to the RCMP and can’t own a cellphone.

Turk said the allegations against Diab have not been tested in court and the judge was satisfied that Diab would be out on bail and working.

Meanwhile, the union that represents Diab said it will grieve the decision to terminate him.

“He’s innocent until proven guilty,” said CUPE local 4600 organizer Stuart Ryan.

Ryan said Diab was delivering his fourth lecture in the course Tuesday when a letter was deposited in his mailbox notifying him of his dismissal.

B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice-president, Frank Dimant, said the organization did not approach Carleton University or its administrators about firing Diab.

“‘Cravenly caved to external pressure.’ If that means the sense of morality of Canadians, if this means their sense of outrage at this situation, then I think it’s a good thing for Canada,” said Dimant, who applauded Carleton for its actions.

“When teachers are accused of inappropriate actions whether inside or outside the classroom, the normal action is to take a leave of absence,” said Dimant.

In its statement, B’nai Brith said Canadians “should be concerned that an alleged terrorist, accused of committing such heinous acts, will be teaching our youth at a leading Canadian university.

“We find it deplorable that university officials believe there is nothing wrong with employing Diab. The safety and security of the community as a whole, and of the Carleton University campus in particular, are of great concern to us.”

Turk said the Canadian Association of University Teachers is considering censuring the university, a step that has not taken place in decades although proceedings have been initiated in dozens of cases.

When a university is censured, the Canadian Association of University Teachers urges academics not to work for the university, and advises organizations not to hold conferences there.

“The only acceptable alternative is to apologize and reinstate him. Otherwise the integrity of Carleton will be questioned across the country,” said Turk. “Everyone understands people will be displeased. If you cave in to that, you undermine academic freedom.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Seals and Visas Threaten EU-Canada Rift

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Canada’s decision to impose visas on Czech citizens and the EU’s decision to ban seal products are emerging as major irritants in bilateral relations.

Both issues came up at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday (27 July), the first high level event under the Swedish EU presidency.

The Czech Republic used the opportunity to complain against Ottawa’s unilateral re-imposition of visa requirements due to a surge in Czech asylum applications. The move, in mid-July, comes after two years of visa-free travel.

“For us, this is not an issue between the Czech Republic and Canada but between the EU and Canada,” Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt commented after the EU meeting.

Mr Bildt called the Canadian decision “sad” and said it has caused “deep concern” in the bloc.

But he ruled out any EU reaction before the European Commission in September puts forward a legal analysis of the situation.

The commission will assess Prague’s call on fellow member states to show “reciprocity” — or in other words, to re-introduce visas against Canada. EU states will then have a further three months to consider their reaction.

“As the presidency of the EU, we are in favour of this reciprocity,” Sweden’s migration minister Tobias Billstroem told AFP, despite the Canadian opinion that such a counter-reaction is out of the question.

Germany, France and the UK could face harsh consequences in terms of trade if they retaliate on the Czech Republic’s side.

Canada says 1,720 mostly Roma-origin Czech citizens applied for asylum in the first six months of 2009 compared to half that figure in the whole of 2008. The Czech Roma have complained of discrimination in their home country.

“We need to streamline the system to provide faster protection for real victims of persecution, while showing bogus claimants the door much more quickly,” Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney said on Monday.

“Until we’re able to come up with reforms along those lines, unfortunately, the visa policy becomes our only recourse.”

Seal angst

In another matter set to annoy in Canada, EU ministers on Monday rubber stamped a ban on EU seal product imports “in response to concerns about the animal welfare aspects of seal hunting practices.”

Canada — which culls about 300,000 seals off its east coast each year — has said the EU’s decision is unscientific and plans to challenge the move at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva.

“We are very disappointed with this ruling. We believe strongly this violates the World Trade Organisation guidelines,” Canada’s international trade minister Stockwell Day said, according to the BBC. “It is in our view inappropriate that a trade decision is taken which is not based on science.”

The ban is due to affect the 2010 hunting season and halt annual trade worth a symbolic €4.2 million, according to media reports.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Czech Rep: Christian Democrats Against New Mosque in Brno

Brno, July 27 (CTK) — South Moravian Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) are against the construction of a second mosque in Brno, Stanislav Juranek, chairman of the regional party organisation, said Monday.

He said the Muslims who want to live in the Czech Republic should adapt themselves to the local traditions.

“It would be a great mistake to allow them (traditions) being pushed away by a foreign culture and religion,” he told journalists.

Munib Hasan, from the Brno-based Islamic foundation, who recently announced the plan to build a new mosque, dismissed Juranek’s opinion.

He said Brno Muslims have always rejected any radicalism and oppression.

KDU-CSL deputy chairman David Macek said the Christian Democrats recognise freedom of religious faith, but added he is embarrassed about some demands of Islamists.

He said, for instance, Vladimir Sanka writes in a manual on what is allowed and what is banned in Islam that Muslims need not obey anyone who does not preach Islam.

The manual also sets death penalty for unfaithful women and renegades from Islam, Macek said.

Hasan said the sentences are torn out of context. He added that it is necessary to look at the teaching of the churches as such, not at individuals’ opinions.

“One thing is toleration and another thing is naivety. Such a group should not be accommodated in southern Moravia,” Macek said.

He said the Czech Republic should not repeat the mistakes of western Europe where many Islam followers moved and now their communities clash with the majority society.

Macek also said the minaret that could be part of the planned mosque in Brno would change the city’s cultural relief.

The Muslims, however, say they do not want a regular minaret, but a spire reminiscent of the minaret.

The Muslims now have a mosque in Brno but they say it no longer meets their requirements. It is small and it does not have study and lecture rooms.

Hasan reminded that previously the Brno mosque was opened in Brno 11 years ago as the first Muslim place of prayer in the Czech Republic.

Some 120 Islam followers meet in it and their number is growing.

Hasan said he believes that a new mosque can be built in Brno without provoking the public’s resistance. He said Muslims have coexisted with other Brno inhabitants without any problem to date.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the mosque opening last year, the Muslims handed out 3653 roses as a sign of friendship. One rose was for one day in the ten years.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Danish Defence Minister: Headscarves Out

Denmark’s defence minister says military uniforms and headscarves are incompatible

Denmark’s Defence Minister Søren Gade has told Parliament that Muslim women in the armed forces are not to be allowed to wear headscarves as part of their uniform.

“I find wearing for example a headscarf, to be incompatible with a military uniform. Both in the regular defence forces and the Home Guard,” Gade says in a written answer to a parliamentary question from Unity List MP Per Clausen.

Clausen asked the minister whether Muslim women are to be excluded from the Home Guard if they wear a headscarf.

Uniforms The minister’s response comes following a week of controversy involving a Home Guard soldier Maria Mawla, who was allowed to wear a headscarf under her helmet when in uniform. The Home Guard even went as far as portraying its liberal stance on its website.

But the Danish People’s Party, which is the minority Liberal-Conservative government’s safety net in Parliament, reacted strongly to the disclosure, resulting in the Home Guard text being removed and Mawla being told that she was no longer welcome in the Home Guard if she continued to wear a headscarf.

Safety Gade says military uniforms have a distinct purpose.

“Uniforms for military personnel ensure, among other things, uniformity so that it is possible to recognize members of the armed forces and distinguish them from the civilian population. The uniform is also designed in such a way that it provides the individual soldier with the maximum security possible. That is why it is not possible to show the same flexibility for employees serving in military functions as that proffered to their civilian colleagues,” Gade writes.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



EU Will Defend Canadian Challenge to Seal Product Ban

The EU will “vigorously defend” the values of EU citizens in the face of a challenge to the ban on selling seal products says MEP Arlene McCarthy.

Following a controversial passage through the European parliament, involving McCarthy as chair of the assembly’s internal market committee, EU member states agreed on Monday to back the ban.

Canada immediately announced that it plans to challenge the ban saying the deal “violates WTO guidelines”.

Ottawa’s international trade minister Stockwell Day explained, “It is in our view inappropriate that a trade decision is taken which is not based on the science, and for that reason, we are announcing that we’ll be pursuing an appeal of this vote.”

McCarthy told this website that, “At a time when Canada and the EU are negotiating a free trade deal worth almost €9bn to Canadians, it is discouraging to see Canadian government officials make counterproductive threats of WTO challenge.”

“The ban is WTO compliant, and for Canada to suggest otherwise is misleading. The EU will vigorously defend the values of EU citizens within the WTO and within the free trade negotiations should any challenge be made.”

The regulation covers products derived from all species of seals and includes fur skins, organs, meat, oil and blubber, which can, for instance, be used in cosmetics and medicine.

The new act will come into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The harmonised rules will become effective nine months later, giving the commission and the member states time to put in place the necessary implementing measures.

Products from traditional hunts which are vital for the survival of groups such as the Inuit populations of Greenland and Canada will be exempt from the ban.

However, Andy Lenhart, chairman of the International Fur Trade Federation, claims that the decision would inevitably have a negative impact for these groups.

He said, “This ban only succeeds in punishing Inuit and other remote coastal peoples by ensuring that the market for their goods has collapsed. Apparently it doesn’t matter to the European parliament how seals are hunted, so long as there is no trade in seal by-product”

“It completely ignores all the very serious legal, WTO and welfare concerns of many and is an example of the kind of bad legislation the European parliament claims it tries to avoid.”

Long-time advocate of the seal ban Green MEP Caroline Lucas noted the potential impact of the ban on indigenous communities, saying her party would fight to ensure their way of life was maintained, but generally welcomed the final agreement of the law.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Finland: Homes Built by Finnish Government for Repatriation Being Used by Bosnians as Second Homes

Refugees refusing to leave Finland even if they’re given a free home

The Finnish state is getting fed up with its Bosnian refugees, it appears that its honest, helping hand attempt to repatriate them back to Bosnia has hit a snag, they’ve either refused to return, or have used the property as an opportunity for their own self aggrandizement….and all at the expense of the Finnish tax payer.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]



First NATO Transport Plane Arrives at Hungarian Air Base

The first C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to arrive in Hungary — part of NATO’s Strategic Transportation Fleet — was presented to the media at the Pápa military airfield on Monday.

Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, Defence Minister Imre Szekeres and NATO deputy secretary general Claudio Bisogniero were present.

Bajnai said it is a historic achievement that 12 countries worked together to finance the acquisition and operation of the military air transportation fleet in the Strategic Airlift Capability programme. The group comprises NATO members Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the US, along with Partnership for Peace countries Finland and Sweden.

Hungary’s annual contribution to the project is expected to total Ft 1 billion. Hungary will use the aircraft for missions to Afghanistan, the Sinai Peninsula and Cyprus, Szekeres said, adding that the project has created 300 jobs in the area. The Globemaster III will be joined by two others in the autumn.

Bajnai noted that Hungary has a key role in this, the biggest NATO project in 40 years. US General Richard C. Johnson said this was one of the fastest NATO projects to be implemented, as it was launched in less than three years.

In addition, the Hungarian and Canadian governments have opened negotiations on having four Canadian C-17s use the air base.

Soldiers, combat vehicles and humanitarian aid will be flown on the heavy transport planes, primarily to remote countries, even amid warlike conditions.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



French Rapper in Censorship Row

A 27-year-old rapper from Normandy, nicknamed by some the “French Eminem”, is at the centre of a political storm over censorship in France.

OrelSan has seen 10 of his concerts cancelled recently after the former Socialist presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, and other politicians complained that his lyrics encouraged violence against women.

Ms Royal even threatened to withdraw the public subsidy from one prestigious festival, Les Francofolies in La Rochelle, in her capacity as head of Poitou-Charentes regional council.

The organisers dropped OrelSan, whose real name is Aurelien Cotentin, from the bill shortly afterwards, complaining that Ms Royal had “positioned herself as a master-blackmailer”.

The move led the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) of President Nicolas Sarkozy to accuse Ms Royal of attacking freedom of expression, and of “intolerable” interference.

‘Fiction’

Ms Royal and other critics were particularly outraged over a song by the 26-year-old called Sale Pute, roughly translated as “Dirty Bitch”, which is about a man who wants to break the bones of his unfaithful girlfriend.

“I hate you, I want you to die a slow death. I want you to become pregnant and lose the baby,” he chants in one verse. “You are just a pig who should go straight to the slaughter house.”

But OrelSan says the song, which he no longer performs in public, was never meant to be taken seriously.

“This song tells the story of a man who sees his girlfriend cheating, comes back home, drinks and writes her an e-mail in which he insults her,” he says.

“But it’s a fiction. It’s nothing real. I didn’t write it about my ex-girlfriend or anything so you can’t really take the song personally. I play a role in it, that’s all.”

“It’s like a book or a film about a murderer or a criminal,” he adds.

Historical parallel

OrelSan’s new album, Perdu d’Avance, has been removed from public libraries in Paris because of concern over what feminist and women’s groups say are his sexist, homophobic and violent lyrics.

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



German Birth Rate Continues to Decline

A growing number of women in Germany are opting against having children. The higher the education, the less likely women are to start a family. The trend, however, is less significant in eastern Germany.

New data released by Germany’s federal statistics office indicates the country’s birth rate is on the decline. The trend is particularly strong among women with a university degree and more significant in the western part of Germany than in the former communist east.

The number of women who don’t have children at all is on the rise, and on top of that the actual number of kids by those who do have children is declining. However, this trend is likely to be reversed in the coming years, a spokeswoman of the federal statistics office said.

The data based on a 2008 census shows that 21 percent of women aged between 40 and 44 do not have any kids. With women ten years older, the figure is only 16 percent.

There is however a difference between western and eastern Germany. Of the women aged between 35 and 39, around 28 percent in the west have no children, while in the east it’s only 16 percent.

The study also shows a connection with the level of education. The higher the education, the less likely a woman is to start a family. Germany’s Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the “hesitant policies” of previous decades was largely to blame for this development.

She said that higher education and children were for a long time very difficult to combine. “Women had to choose between career and children. This has to change,” she said, stressing that there was no alternative to her model of more financial incentives and increased flexiblity for paternity leave.

The trend of a falling birth rate, however does not apply to women from Germany’s immigration community, where the number of women without children is significantly lower.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Greece: Theodorakis Backs Police

Composer Mikis Theodorakis yesterday expressed his support for the police, who have become the prime target of domestic terrorists since the December riots, as officers staged a rally in central Athens, marking 40 days since the death of a witness protection officer.

“I am very pleased that the overwhelming majority of the police force has undergone a radical transformation from persecutor to guardian of the rights that people have won through struggle,” the 83-year-old veteran leftist wrote in an open letter. Theodorakis expressed his “total opposition to the demonization of police last December” when riots broke out in protest at an officer’s fatal shooting of a teenager. The composer added that his support for the police depended on officers “distancing yourselves from people and activities that blacken your name.” Officers had gathered in Syntagma Square in memory of Nektarios Savvas, a 41-year-old policeman shot dead last month outside the Athens home of a witness to a trial of terrorist suspects

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



Greenland: Government Considers Seal Trade Ban Appeal

An imminent seal product ban in the European Union is criticised as amoral and a direct attack on the Inuit way of life.

Greenland’s government is considering appealing the decision to ban the trade of seal products in the European Union.

Seal products are due to be banned in all EU countries from next year, following strong lobbying from international animal rights groups.

However, Premier Kuupik Kleist and his government are not sure that the ban is compatible with international trade and human rights legislation, despite special Inuit exemptions allowing for limited trade from hunting communities.

‘It remains the case that the countries against the EU import ban still believe it to be in contradiction of basic international agreements pertaining to global trade,’ said Kleist.

The government is considering lodging an appeal with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). But as Greenland is not an independent member of the WTO, an appeal would need to be made in consultation and agreement with Denmark.

According to a Danish foreign ministry source, that would be highly unusual.

‘If the government of Greenland decides to challenge the EU decision it will be Denmark that lodges the appeal on behalf of Greenland. This would result in Denmark, itself a member of the union, suddenly being in the position of lodging an appeal against itself. It is something we have never experienced before and would be extremely unusual,’ the source said.

Denmark is already facing sharp criticism for its opposition to the seal trade ban, with international human rights organisation International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) accusing the country of putting economic considerations ahead of legitimate concerns for animal welfare.

‘While the EU has upheld its position as the world’s moral leader, both Denmark and Romania have shown through their opposition to the ban that they are willing to risk their otherwise good reputation for the sake of financial profit,’ IFAW’s EU spokesperson Lesley O’Donnell said.

However, there is also international support for the opposition to the ban, with Inuit organisation ICC calling the ban ‘totally amoral’.

‘What the EU is doing is totally incomprehensible,’ ICC’s international chairman Jimmy Stott said. ‘It is a direct attack on indigenous people in the Arctic and the foundation of Inuit culture.’

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



‘Hate Crime’ At Danish Gay Games

A Dane has been charged with committing a hate crime for allegedly throwing fireworks at athletes during a gay sporting event in Copenhagen..

He is accused of throwing fireworks into the Oesterbro stadium where the World Outgames running competitions were being held.

One US athlete suffered a light injury to his hand.

The attack marks the second suspected hate crime at the Outgames after three men were assaulted in the street.

The alleged perpetrator was apprehended by runners from Sparta Athletes club as he attempted to escape.

The 31-year-old suspect told a court he had thrown only one firework against a wall and had not intended to harm the athletes.

Copenhagen Police commissioner Poul B Hansen told the Danish newspaper Politiken it would be surprising if the accused had been unaware the event was for gay people.

“We are certain it was no coincidence that he threw the fireworks where he did — but it is, of course, up to the judge to decide if we are right,” he added.

The suspect was remanded in custody for 13 days.

‘Tolerant city’

On Sunday, three gay men from Sweden, Norway and the UK were treated in hospital following an attack by youths in the street.

The attackers have been charged with hate crimes.

Copenhagen mayor Ritt Bjerregaard denounced the attacks.

“We want to show Copenhagen as a multi-cultural and tolerant city,” she said.

“It is deeply regrettable that people behave like this.”

Some 5,500 participants from 98 countries are in Copenhagen for eight days of sport and culture to promote rights for homosexuals worldwide.

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



Ireland Agrees to Take Two Gitmo Detainees

Ireland said Wednesday it is to accept two detainees from Guantanamo Bay, the latest European country to help U.S. President Barack Obama fulfill his pledge to close the controversial camp.

The two men, reportedly Uzbeks, are expected to travel to Ireland in the “next couple of months,” Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said after informing U.S. ambassador Dan Rooney of the decision.

The move follows a visit by Irish officials to Washington and the Guantanamo camp, on the island nation of Cuba.

“In making this decision I am conscious of the intention of the United States to close the center at Guantanamo Bay, in part by transferring detainees no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries, to other countries willing to accept them,” Ahern said.

He noted that he was the first European Union minister to call for the closure of the facility on Cuba, set up by the former U.S. administration of President George W. Bush.

“The (Irish) government has consistently called for its closure since then,” Ahern added, though he declined to give details of the travel arrangements,

“A definite timetable has yet to be established, (but) the transfer of the two detainees is expected within the next couple of months,” he said.

Media reports have suggested the two are Uzbek nationals, but a justice ministry spokesman declined to comment, and Ahern said the men’s privacy would be respected.

He underlined the difficult conditions in which they had been detained for a number of years, saying they would need to be given time and space to adjust to their new circumstances when they arrive.

Obama pledged to close Guantanamo within a year, as one of his first announcements after taking office in January, but questions have been raised over whether it can be achieved.

On June 15, EU foreign ministers agreed a deal with the United States on transferring Guantanamo detainees, but stressed that the decision to accept any inmate was one for individual European governments.

On the same day Obama announced that Italy had agreed to accept three detainees, while Portugal has since said it was ready to take in two or three, and Hungary has offered to accept one or two.

Four detainees of Uighur origin — from a mostly Muslim minority living in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province — were resettled on the British overseas territory of Bermuda in early June, although it later emerged that Britain had not been consulted.

Other countries which have said they may be willing to accept former detainees include Belgium, Britain, France and Spain, according to officials at the time of the EU-U.S. deal.

The EU-U.S. agreement stops short of insisting that Washington help finance resettlement operations, noting only that “the United States will consider contributing to the costs incurred by EU member states.”

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Ireland: Ahern Confirms Plan to Resettle Guantanamo Detainees

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has confirmed that Ireland will accept two detainees being released from the US internment camp at Guatanamo Bay.

Mr Ahern confirmed the decision at a meeting in Dundalk today with the new US Ambassador to Ireland.

The two detainees are expected to be two Uzbek men who are being freed by the US because they have been found to pose no threat to security.

They are expected to arrive in Ireland in the coming months.

The Obama administration has appealed to its allies around the world to resettle Guantanamo detainees who cannot return to their homelands due to the risk that they will be arrested and tortured.

President Obama had planned to resettle some of them in the US, but the move faced strong congressional opposition, forcing him to look to other countries for help.

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



Italy: City Bans Gatherings of Two People

Fines of up to 500 euros for those flouting rule

(ANSA) — Pordenone, July 28 — The mayor of the northern town of Pordenone has outlawed public gatherings, even if only two people stop on the street, in a crackdown on noisy behaviour and disorderly conduct.

Mayor Sergio Bolzonello’s ordinance bans “gatherings of people, meaning the contemporary presence of two or more people” who disturb the peace by “elevated tones of voice”, offend public decency or limit the use of public streets and squares by other residents.

Those who flout the rules face fines of between 35 and 500 euros under the experimental ordinance, which will be in force until December 31.

The city council drew up the ordinance after families living in squares favoured as meeting places by young people in Pordenone complained that groups remain there day and night, drinking, shouting and annoying passers-by.

The ordinance also bans drinking alcohol in public places except for spaces reserved by licensed bars.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Mussolini Fans Celebrate His Birth

Admirers ignore plea to stay away from dictator’s hometown

(ANSA) — Predappio, July 29 — Admirers of Benito Mussolini flocked to the his tomb Wednesday to celebrate the anniversary of his birth despite a plea from the mayor of the Fascist dictator’s northern hometown for them to stay away.

Mussolini fans came from as far as Naples, Bari and Rome to visit the tomb in Predappio cemetery and leave a message in the visitors’ book, while Fascist memorabilia on sale in the town’s shops was doing a roaring trade.

Early on Wednesday a parish priest held Mass at the crypt in the presence of Mussolini’s daughter-in-law, Monica, the widow of his son Vittorio, among fresh flowers sent by fans from across the country.

Predappio Mayor Giorgio Frassineti, of the centre-left Democratic Party, had appealed to the thousands of people who arrive each year not to come to the town, saying he did not appreciate “blackshirt tourism”.

“Fascism tourists, please, stay at home,” he said Tuesday on the eve of the anniversary.

Frassineti described gatherings of Mussolini sympathisers as a “sad and surreal carnival”.

“These people are the enemies of our future. We are victims of these boorish waves that make Italy’s history vulgar and marginalise us. The demonstrations often happen at the cemetery, a place of sorrow for the town’s residents,” he said.

“The name of our town is inextricably linked with that of Mussolini, but we would like to become a place where history is discussed, not a theatre for these sad demonstrations,” Frassineti added.

Mussolini admirers were resolute on Wednesday, however.

“I don’t give a damn what the mayor says,” said one, echoing the Italian Fascist motto coined by Mussolini.

“I’ve been coming here every year for 30 years,” said Sandro from Orvieto, making it clear that he would continue to do so.

Pierluigi Pompignoli, the owner of a memorabilia shop, stressed that the arrival of Mussolini fans in the town has never resulted “even in a cuff around the ears”.

“If sometimes a young guy goes over the top with bad behaviour we’re the first to take him down a notch,” Pompignoli said.

The head of the Emilia Romagna branch of the tiny right-wing political party Forza Nuova, Gianni Correggiari, also dismissed the mayor’s plea.

“It’s the tens of thousands of people who pay homage to Mussolini each year who are fuelling the economy of the town.

“The mayor’s invitation is stupid, but maybe it’s motivated only by concern that Mussolini has left something at an emotional level,” he said, adding that people did not make pilgrimages to the graves of founding members of Italy’s Communist or Christian Democrat parties.

MEMORABILIA BAN.

In a bid to spruce up the town’s image Predappio banned the display in shops of swastikas, cudgels and merchandise bearing Fascist mottos in April.

The town council approved a 500-euro fine for shops caught displaying items harking back to the Fascist era in their windows or anywhere visible from the street.

But souvenir hunters are still able to freely browse Mussolini memorabilia at one of several Predappio shops with Internet stores.

At one website, shoppers can pick up a ‘Dux Mussolini’ cudgel for five euros, a wide range of swastika-decorated daggers from 30 euros and a selection of beers bearing the faces of Fascist leaders for 2.6 euros each.

Born in Predappio in 1883, Mussolini led Italy from 1922 to 1943.

Using his charisma, control of the media, and violence, he dismantled the country’s democratic government system and created a Fascist state.

In 1940, he made the decision to enter the Second World War in alliance with Hitler. Three years later he was deposed and arrested.

With Nazi help, he set up a Fascist mini state, the Republic of Salo’, at Lake Garda in northern Italy.

As the Allies advanced he tried to flee to Switzerland but was captured and shot by Italian partisans in April 1945.

His body was strung upside down in Milan with that of his mistress, Clara Petacci.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Netherlands: Verhagen: Too Tough on Serbia, Too Soft on China

The Dutch foreign minister has chosen to base his foreign policy on human rights. His indignation is unfortunately too selective, writes Joost Lagendijk.

By Joost Lagendijk

I think many people were surprised when Maxime Verhagen announced soon after his appointment as foreign minister of the Netherlands that the worldwide protection of human rights would be the connecting thread of his government’s foreign policy.

Surprised because in his former political life Verhagen was not known for being a passionate defender of human rights. Surprised also because his predecessors from the Christian democrat party on foreign policy had usually excelled in skilfully attaining a balance between striving towards praiseworthy ideals while defending the interests of the Netherlands abroad. Verhagen opted without reservations for the ideals, and in itself this is deserving of praise.

A long tradition

This choice established Verhagen as part of a long tradition of primarily left-wing foreign policy. The most recent examples of this include Robin Cook, the now deceased UK foreign minister in the first government led by Tony Blair, and Germany’s Joschka Fischer, who was foreign minister in the two left-wing governments of Gerhard Schröder.

Cook announced with much aplomb in 1997 an ethical British foreign policy centred on human rights. Two years later, Fischer was somewhat more cautious: he stressed the link between improving human rights and conflict prevention and strengthening international institutions.

Both however were quickly confronted with the accusation that they were very selective in their defence of human rights. Cook was reproached that while the Blair government was very critical of countries like Indonesia and Pakistan, these same countries were invited to spend a lot of money at large arms fairs on British soil. Fischer also faced criticism when Schröder pushed through the sale of tanks to Turkey at a time when Fischer was harshly criticising the Turkish policy with respect to the Kurds. Both Cook and Fischer were attacked in the media for their much too accommodating attitude towards Putin’s Russia.

Selective indignation

The final verdict on Cook and Fischer was overall positive: a good attempt, but be honest and admit that from time to time you’re going to be inconsistent and that sometimes other interests prevail.

Does Verhagen have any chance of such a positive final verdict? To be honest, that might be rather difficult. Examples of Verhagen’s selective indignation are simply too numerous.

Just like Britain and Germany, the Netherlands too is often accused of being involved — albeit as a transit port — in arms supplies to dubious regimes. And Verhagen too appears not to have found the right tone when it comes to Russia.

Despite flagrant human rights violations in the Caucasus, there has been no criticism and the Netherlands seems to treat Medvedev and Putin with kid gloves. The government’s laxity cannot be seen in isolation from its ambition to become Western Europe’s natural gas gateway with the help of Russian energy giant Gazprom. Harsh criticism of Putin’s Russia could be rather inconvenient under the circumstances.

All talk, no action

Unfortunately, there are many more more examples of such inconsistent behaviour. Human rights policy not only involves calling out others, but also making sacrifices in order to stay credible. Take for example the relocation of former Guantánamo Bay detainees. If the closing of Guantánamo Bay, which the Netherlands too has demanded, will only succeed if other countries agree to take in former detainees, the Dutch refusal to do so is unfortunately an example of all talk, no action.

Honesty compels me to point out that a double standard is, in a certain sense, unavoidable. We have less of a grip on China than on smaller countries, and we are more in need of Chinese cooperation in tackling problems on the global scale, like climate change and the credit crisis. But this double standard can be compensated for, for example by giving the smaller players an extra reward when they achieve progress in the area of human rights- even if it is just to consolidate progress.

However, in the case of Serbia, Verhagen, supported by parliament, has refused to do just that.

If the pro-European democrats were victorious over the nationalists in Belgrade in last year’s election, it was despite, not thanks to The Hague. While the rest of the EU wanted to reward the democrats both before and after the elections, Verhagen personally put a stop to that. The war criminal Ratko Mladic must first be extradited; only then, said the Netherlands, can there be a discussion about rewarding Serbia’s cautious steps towards democracy and EU membership.

Solo effort

That is a very principled position that is successful in The Hague because it combines two ‘good’ causes: capturing a notorious war criminal and strengthening international law. It is easily forgotten however that by sticking so strictly to that one demand, other European policy goals in the Balkans, which are also supported by the Netherlands, are even further out of reach: preventing new conflicts in the Balkans, for instance, or stabilising a region that will eventually become a part of the EU whatever happens.

What Verhagen forgot is that human rights policy cannot be seen as isolated from conflict prevention. When conflicts flare up, human rights are the first victim, also and especially in the Balkans. The opposition within the EU to the Dutch ‘solo effort’ on Serbia makes it clear that the rest of Europe does realise that rewarding and stimulating are often more effective than punishing and isolating.

These are all examples of the snags of a policy that centres on human rights. It is certainly not an argument against such a policy. Verhagen deserves support for his aspirations, but he also deserves to be criticised at times when his policy is spineless, inconsistent or counterproductive.

Joost Lagendijk served in the European Parliament for many years as a member of the Dutch Green party. Since July 1 he is a senior adviser to the Istanbul Policy Centre in Turkey.

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



Netherlands: Police Deny ‘Taxi War’ In Apeldoorn

Three taxis belonging to Taxi Centrale Apeldoorn (TCA) were burned out in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The director of TCA, Jamshed Payam, claims that his company is the victim of a ‘taxi war’ and says that there have been about ten such fires in the past two years. He estimates the cost of damage in the latest one as at least 150,000 euros. One of his drivers was also assaulted, and according to Mr Payam had to spend a week in hospital.

But although Mr Payam claims to have reported each incident, a police spokesperson in Apeldoorn denied that they had received reports of any fires. The assault incident was reported, but the spokesperson rejected Mr Payam’s claim that the victim spent a week in hospital.

According to Mr Payam, there are too many taxis in Apeldoorn, and he blames the fires on competitors. He also claims that out-of-town taxi companies provide additional competition. However, the police spokesperson said that there is no ‘taxi war’ in the town as Mr Payam alleges, but officers will investigate exactly what the problems are.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Government Reported for English Email Use

The Swedish government has been reported to the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsman — JO) for using English email addresses.

The government has incurred the wrath of the former head of the Language Council of Sweden (Språkrådet), Olle Josephson, who has reported the Government Offices (Regeringskansliet) to JO for contravention of the recently adopted language law.

Josephson, who is a professor in the Nordic languages at Stockholm University, considers the use of English in the government’s email addresses as a political problem.

“It is a statement that Sweden can not be governed in Swedish, but in English instead. One should contact the Government Offices in English — a very strong symbolic statement, which is against the law.”

The new language law, the first of its kind in Sweden, came into force on July 1st.

The new law stipulates that Swedish is the main language of Sweden and establishes that public bodies have a particular responsibility to ensure that Swedish is used and developed.

“The purpose of the language law is to preserve a multilingual Sweden with Swedish as the main language, and the purpose of my report to JO is to put to the test just how strong that tool is,” Josephson says.

“If JO does not instruct the government to change this, and if the government does not change this, then we have to pretty much draw the conclusion that it is sham legislation.”

In his report Josephson concedes that there may be grounds to use English language email addresses but at the same time questions why it would be harder to understand socialdepartmentet.se instead of social.ministry.se.

Mari Ternbo, head of information at the Government Offices, explains that when the email addresses were introduced ten years ago it was presumed that they would be used primarily in contact with foreigners.

Within Sweden it was expected that more traditional means of communication would be used.

“Since then the development has shown to have been quite different,” Ternbo concluded, stating that the issue will be reviewed later in the autumn.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Fire Hatchway Jammed During Fire

A fire hatchway was jammed in the Rinkeby apartment house where seven people died of smoke poisoning on Saturday night, Swedish forensic investigators have discovered. As a result, smoke from the first-floor fire became trapped in the stairwell, where the seven family members later died when they tried to escape.

The jammed hatchway was discovered during a fire inspection in the end of May. It was scheduled to be fixed in June, but the repair never occurred.

Tomas Strandman, chief of staff at the Stockholm Fire Department, says that the jammed smoke hatch “made our [firefighting] efforts more difficult.” But he’s not sure if the victims’ fate would have been different if it had been open, according to news service TT.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Swedish Think-Tank Denounces EU ‘Propaganda’

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — A former speech-writer of Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has in a report accused the EU of creating an illegitimate “propaganda machine.”

Maria Rankka, who worked for Mr Bildt in 1999, currently runs the Swedish pro-free markets think-tank Timbro, which in a paper out this week says that Brussels is overstepping its mandate of facilitating cross-border co-operation.

“The EU, at the tax-payers’ expense, actively advocates more European integration and prevents free debate on the future of Europe, extending the limits of what we normally regard as communication,” the study says.

“Sweden, during its presidency of the EU in the autumn of 2009, should highlight the issue and take the first step in reversing this trend.”

Timbro notes that the European Commission each year allocates funds far in excess of its official €213 million communications budget to projects ranging from EU-sponsored radio stations and websites, such as Euranet and EUtube.

It points out that popular broadcaster Euronews benefits from EU assistance to the tune of €10.8 million a year, raising questions over its objectivity.

The Brussels and Maastricht-based European Journalism Centre, which trains future reporters, took a €1 million grant in 2008.

The EU also contributes funds to a number of pro-European “NGOs” in order to substantiate claims that there is civil society support for deeper integration, the think-tank argues.

The list of what Timbra likens to “GONGOs” — Government Organised Non-Governmental Organisations — includes the Centre for European Policy Studies, European Movement, Europe for Citizens and Friends of Europe.

In one striking example, the report notes that schools keen to benefit from Brussels’ €69 million a year free milk scheme must display an A3-format poster outside their canteens showing the EU flag and stating that EU money paid for the drink.

Brussels is currently rolling out a similar-scale free fruit project.

The EU approach to self-promotion “would hardly be acceptable in individual member states” if applied by national governments, the think-tank says.

Swedish politician Margot Wallstrom, in charge of the commission’s communication wing, fired back in a comment for Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, calling the report “incomplete, simplistic and biased.”

“Our task …is to stimulate debate and discussion about various EU topics that relate to all of us. It’s not propaganda — it’s to strengthen democracy,” she said.

“My aim is to make the European Commission more open and responsive to people’s opinion and attitudes. Not to make people love the EU.”

           — Hat tip: Henrik [Return to headlines]



UK: Binyam Claims ‘Risk to UK Lives’

British lives could be endangered if allegations of torture of a former Guantanamo Bay inmate are published, the High Court has been told.

A lawyer for the foreign secretary said an official summary of Binyam Mohamed’s allegations must remain secret.

The US would respond to publication by withholding intelligence, which could endanger British lives, she said.

Mr Mohamed’s lawyers want the High Court to disclose a seven-paragraph briefing on his alleged mistreatment.

Mr Mohamed, a British resident, was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Intelligence officials claimed he was an al-Qaeda-trained bomber heading back to the UK.

Mr Mohamed alleges that over the following two years he was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

In February this year Mr Mohamed was freed and returned to the UK. He is pressing for the release of material which he says shows the UK knew he was being mistreated.

Relations damaged?

The key document is a summary of abuse allegations that US intelligence officers shared with their counterparts in London.

The High Court has previously heard warnings that relations between the British and American intelligence agencies could be harmed if the summary is given to Mr Mohamed and made public.

But on Wednesday, Karen Steyn, for Foreign Secretary David Miliband, went further, saying that relations would be damaged to the point that intelligence would be withheld.

This, the court heard, was a view shared by Mr Miliband and US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

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



UK: Most Britons Want National Service to Return

Most people in Britain would like to see National Service brought back to reduce anti-social behaviour among young people, according to a survey.

Almost three quarters of those questioned said they think compulsory military service — abolished in 1960 — might be the answer to so-called yob culture.

And about three in every 10 people think it should be brought back for criminals in order to create more space in UK jails, the survey by OnePoll said.

The research also said 86 per cent of people questioned are worried about Britain’s youth — 14 per cent said they believe young people get involved in knife crime because there is nothing else for them to do.

The survey, which questioned 3,000 people aged 18 and over, was commissioned by Scottish charity Erskine, which cares for ex-servicemen and women.

Major Jim Panton, who has retired from the Army and is chief executive of the charity, said: “National Service always evokes different opinions but this poll suggests that the majority of Britons would like to see compulsory military service reinstated.

“We thought this was a very interesting finding, and as a result carried out a separate poll of some veterans in our care homes — 88 per cent of veterans felt National Service should be brought back, only slightly higher than the public.

“Our charity cares for over 1,300 veterans of all ages every year, and we are seeing more and more veterans come to us that served their country as national servicemen.

“We rely heavily on the voluntary support of the public to pay for our high standards and hopefully they will continue giving to us, not just for the WWII, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans but also for those who completed National Service.”

A quarter of those asked said they know a child who has an Asbo, electronic tag, carried out a spell of community service or spent time in a young offenders’ institution.

About half said National Service can be an alternative punishment for young offenders instead of sending them to prison.

And the survey said 42 per cent of people believe there is peer pressure to get involved in crime but 87 per cent of people asked said they do not believe young people would do National Service if called up.

About two thirds think National Service should also be open to both men and women, 44 per cent said they would not fight for their country and about a third said they do not feel patriotic for the UK.

“It’s understandable how many of the older generation believe it’s the answer to all the country’s problems as many feel the strict regime would knock the rough edges off many troublesome youngsters,” Mr Panton added.

Conscription for National Service ended on December 31, 1960 and the very last national servicemen left the Army in 1963, according to the Imperial War Museum’s website.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



UK: Organic Food Has No Health Benefits, Study Finds

Organic food gives no health benefits to consumers, according to research for the Food Standards Agency published today.

Shoppers pay more for organic fruit, vegetables, chicken, beef and milk but the food gives no nutritional enhancement to people’s diet.

The watchdog stopped short of advising consumers that buying organic produce was a waste of money but its message was clear: choosing to eat organic food will make no important difference to a person’s overall health. Eating a healthy balanced diet is the only important thing, the report concluded.

The research — the first and biggest study undertaken of scientific papers published in the past 50 years on the health and diet benefits of organic food — will come as a blow to the organic food industry, which is now worth £2.1 billion a year in Britain..

The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also threatens to put the FSA on a collision course with organic champions such as the Soil Association.

The £120,000 year-long study by a team from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical health was headed by Dr Alan Dangour, a public health nutritionist. His team identified some differences between organic and conventionally produced food but concluded that they were not sufficiently important to make any difference to a person’s health or give nutritional benefit.

Dr Dangour said: “There is more phosphorous in organic food. Phosphorous is an important mineral but it is available in everything we eat and is not important for public health. Acidity is also higher in organic produce but acidity is about taste and sensory perception and makes no difference at all for health.

“A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance.

“Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally-produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.”

He made clear, however, that he had not looked at pesticide and herbicide residues in food produced by organic and conventional farming methods. The study also did not seek to compare the taste of the products.

The FSA insisted that it was neither pro nor anti-organic food and it recognised that there were many other reasons why people chose to eat organic — such as concern for the environment and wildlife, higher animal welfare standards and stricter rules on use of antibiotic medicines in animals and pesticides on crops.

Gill Fine, the agency’s director of consumer choice and dietary health, said: “Ensuring people have accurate information is absolutely essential in allowing us all to make informed choices about the food we eat.

“This study does not mean that people should not eat organic food. What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally-produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.”

Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, admitted that he was disappointed by the conclusions but said that he was confident that consumers would make their own minds up.

“The FSA has always sated there was no scientific evidence to show organic food was better for health than conventional food. But it has not stopped the growth of the market. Some 8 per cent of shoppers are regular users of organic food and they do so for a variety of reasons. As far as FSA advice is concerned people tend to use their own common sense.”

He was adamant that five-year research work funded by the European Commission and due to be published next year would show that organic food was beneficial to health.

He also challenged the conclusion by the researchers that the nutritional differences found in organic and conventional foods were not important.

“Consumers will decide for themselves,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



UK: Police Must Record Toilet Breaks

Phone operators at Scotland Yard’s control room have described an order to record their toilet breaks as “offensive and humiliating”.

Staff in the Metropolitan Police’s control room in Lambeth must note lavatory visits as a “code three”.

Employee Paul Drew wrote in a staff magazine: “Everyone I have spoken to about this finds it deeply offensive and humiliating.”

The Met said the rules stop staff from taking unnecessary breaks.

But Mr Drew said: “It would be interesting to know what the public or the Met can possibly gain from making notes of such intimate details.”

Code three toilet breaks are now recorded on a Scotland Yard database.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



UK: Police Anger Over Ban on Union Flag Badges in Support of British Troops

Metropolitan Police officers have defying orders banning them from wearing Union Flag badges on their uniforms in support of British troops, describing the demand as “shameful”.

Scotland Yard chiefs have told officers to remove the emblems, which cost £1 with proceeds going to charity, after a complaint that they were offensive.

However, many junior officers have defied the ban by continuing to wear the one-inch flags, risking disciplinary action, so they can honour British forces serving in Afghanistan.

A petition has been launched on the Downing Street website demanding they be allowed to wear the badges, which are to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and the Help for Heroes charity

The Metropolitan Police Federation has also attacked the ban calling it “completely crass”.

Writing on the MPF’s website, chairman Peter Smyth said: “The decision to forbid police officers from joining the rest of the country in showing support for those who are fighting for their country is nothing less than shameful.”

The row started when 200 officers at Heathrow Airport were barred from wearing the badges last month on the grounds that they were in breach of the Met’s strict dress code.

It has been reported that 70 officers have defied the ban, while Mr Smyth, who represents more than 30,000 rank and file officers, told the Daily Mail that staff in the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Group, CO19 firearms squad and dog units have joined the revolt.

The petition on the Downing Street website has gathered almost 200 supporters.

Mr Smyth said: “As the country mourned the deaths of young soldiers and saluted the heroism of the men and women fighting in Afghanistan, Met officers at the airport were ordered to take off small, one-inch square Union Flag badges because someone had complained they were offensive.

“Many police officers are themselves former Servicemen and women. Some have children and friends currently serving in the armed forces.

“Personnel serving in the armed forces pass through Heathrow, but are being denied any boost to morale they might get from a very modest display of support by the Metropolitan Police.”

He said that on June 27 — Armed Forces Day — Met officers were also ordered the Union Flag from the flagpole above the Heathrow airport police station because was not an “approved” ensign.

He added that the ban on the Union Flag emblems had been issued despite the fact that Met officers who took part in this year’s London Pride march wore “discrete insignia appropriate to the event, such as lanyards and badges, with official tolerance, if not approval”.

Scotland Yard said in a statement: “The Metropolitan Police has a dress code policy to clarify the dress standard expected from all staff whether they are wearing uniform or plain clothes.

“The Met wants to ensure that everyone projects a smart and professional image in support of delivering a quality service.

“The dress code states only the approved corporate badging may be used and only on clothing authorised by the Clothing Board.”

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



UK: Scotland Yard Drops Ban on Officers Wearing Union Flag Badges Backing Our Troops

Scotland Yard today caved in and lifted a ban against officers wearing Union Flag badges in support of British troops.

Met Chiefs had decreed that the tiny emblems — which cost £1 with proceeds going to charity — must be removed after a complaint that they are offensive.

But furious junior officers continued to wear them in defiance of the ban and a petition was launched on the Downing Street website demanding it be lifted.

Today, in a victory for the Daily Mail after we revealed the politically correct move this morning, Met Chief Sir Paul Stephenson stepped in to calm the row.

He ruled officers should be allowed to show their support for soldiers fighting for our country and that the rules should be relaxed.

‘The Met has a dress code policy which states that only approved corporate badging may be used. However, on this occasion, the Commissioner has decided to intervene in terms of officers wearing Union Jack badges,’ a spokesman said.

‘He feels strongly that these are exceptional circumstances and the Met should be openly showing their support for the British troops currently serving abroad.

‘On this occasion it seems entirely appropriate that officers are able to show their support for these brave men and women.’

The badges are sold to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and the Help for Heroes charity.

The row started last month when 200 officers at Heathrow Airport were banned from wearing them because they were in breach of the Met’s strict dress code.

Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, had branded the decision ‘nothing less than shameful’.

He described the climb down as ‘absolutely marvellous’ today.

‘I am very pleased. I don’t think he had much choice really. It was such a no-brainer and it exploded today. People have always worn different badges at different times and no one has ever said anything about it,’ he said.

The initial order is thought to have followed a complaint from a member of public that the Union Jack symbol is ‘offensive’.

But about 70 officers, many of whom have been in the Services or have relatives fighting in Afghanistan, ignored the directive despite warnings of disciplinary action.

Officers at Heathrow were also ordered to take down a Union Flag hoisted on June 27 — Armed Forces Day — because it was not an ‘approved ensign’.

Strict rules are in place about when the Union Flag can be flown at individual police stations.

Mr Smyth said yesterday: ‘These orders from senior officers are legal and must be obeyed. They are, however, also completely crass.

‘Personnel serving in the armed forces pass through Heathrow, but are being denied any boost to morale they might get from a very modest display of support by the Metropolitan Police. It is not even as if the wearing of “unofficial” badges is without precedent.’

Mr Smyth said senior officers routinely turn a blind eye to constables wearing gay pride ribbons when they go on marches.

Strictly speaking, officers are not allowed to wear any type of badge on their uniforms.

Mr Smyth said: ‘From what I can gather, someone may have complained that the Union Flag is offensive. I find that hard to believe. We take the oath to serve the Queen and these badges are for a charitable cause.’

He added that as the row has escalated, hundreds of patriotic officers have expressed an interest in buying the Union Flag badge.

In February, Scotland Yard was hit by another row over political correctness after the Union Flag hanging outside a police station was replaced by a gay rights flag to mark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) history month.

This is despite Met rules stating that only the Union Flag and its own flag can fly from force buildings.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



UK: Sir Paul Stephenson Backs Down in Row Over Union Jack Badges

The Metropolitan Police Service has lifted its ban on officers wearing Union Jack badges in support of British troops after scores of officers openly flouted the ruling.

A group of officers at Heathrow wore the one-inch square badges and dozens of other officers followed suit even though they were told to remove them after a complaint that they were offensive.

The Met reiterated yesterday that the dress code states that “only the approved corporate badges may be used and only on clothing authorised by the Clothing Board”.

However, Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, stepped into the growing row today and said that he was willing to change the rules in this instance because of the “exceptional circumstances”. Officers should be allowed to show their support for Servicemen, he said.

Hundreds of officers had threatened to defy the order as a petition calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to intervene and let officers wear the badges, which cost £1 with the proceeds going to charity, attracted more than 1,500 signatures.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “The Met has a dress code policy which states that only approved corporate badging may be used. However, on this occasion, the Commissioner has decided to intervene in terms of officers wearing Union Jack badges.

“He feels strongly that these are exceptional circumstances and the MPS should be openly showing their support for the British troops currently serving abroad. On this occasion it seems entirely appropriate that officers are able to show their support for these brave men and women.”

The small tie-pins, sold to raise cash for the Help for Heroes charity, fell under a blanket ban on non-regulation clothing.

Peter Smyth, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: “This is absolutely marvellous. I am very pleased. I don’t think he [Sir Paul] had much choice really. It allows our officers to support the brave men and women in the Armed Forces.

“It was such a no-brainer and it exploded today. People have always worn different badges at different times and no one has ever said anything about it.

“I don’t think this opens the floodgates for people wearing whatever they want. People know they have to be sensible.”

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



UK:£300,000 Bill to Give Free Laptops to Traveller Children (Whose Parents Use Them to Shop Online)

More than a thousand gipsy and traveller children have been given laptop computers to help them with their schoolwork.

The free equipment and wireless internet access is estimated to be worth up to £750 per pupil, and is costing the taxpayer £300,000 a year.

Some children are also being handed printers and digital cameras under a controversial Government-backed scheme aimed at encouraging them to stay in education.

Figures have revealed that free IT equipment has been handed to 1,317 pupils from gipsy and traveller families since 2004.

However, ministers have admitted that some of the laptops have been used by parents to buy and sell goods, and book foreign holidays online.

Last night, the Conservatives, who obtained the figures, warned that the scheme risked fuelling resentment among taxpayers. Only days ago it emerged that gipsy and traveller children are being given priority admission to popular state schools.

In addition, gipsy and traveller families are getting priority to see GPs and dentists.

The Electronic Learning and Mobility Programme (E-LAMP) is designed to offer ‘quality distance learning opportunities’ to gipsy and traveller children who regularly change schools and are on the move throughout large parts of the school year.

Under the scheme, being run in 330 schools, the children are given laptops with, for example, 3G wireless internet software, which enables them to study while travelling and keep in touch with their ‘base’ school.

There are an estimated one million children from around 350,000 gipsy and traveller families in the UK, but fewer than 9 per cent obtain five good GCSEs including maths and English.

Studies have shown that children who relocate regularly quickly become demotivated with learning and disengaged with their school friends and school life. In addition, many traveller parents provide little support for their children’s academic learning, with a small number believing that formal education offers little or no value to their children’s futures.

In a written Parliamentary answer, schools minister Jim Knight said 1,317 laptops were issued from 2004 to 2009. He said: ‘The vast majority are still out on loan to the students. There have only been seven incidents of minor accidental damage. One laptop was sold by the family, but recovered quickly as it had been tagged.’

A survey by the National Association of Teachers of Travellers has found adult travellers are using their children’s laptops to book holidays, shop and sell goods online.

It said: ‘Initially the restriction on data transfer allowed, due to shared group tariff packages, caused issues when the students became more confident workers and their parents discovered the joys of Amazon, eBay and booking flights online.’

Tory local government spokesman Bob Neill said: ‘However well-meaning, I am concerned the Government’s policies on travellers threaten to undermine community cohesion and inflame community tensions.

‘The British people believe in fair play — it’s not fair that one small group get privileged access to public services, whilst hard-working families who struggle to pay their bills and taxes are pushed to the back of the queue.’

           — Hat tip: Lexington [Return to headlines]

Balkans


Bosnian Police Hunt Ex-Islamist Fighter Who is on the Run

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AFP)—A Tunisian-born former Islamist fighter has fled prison in Bosnia, triggering a nationwide manhunt by forces concerned about the threat he poses to security, authorities said Wednesday.

Karay Kamel bin Ali, a volunteer in the Muslim army during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war, had failed to return to the jail in the central town of Zenica from authorized leave, prison chief Nihad Spahic said.

“Police and border police were immediately informed that he is on the run,” Spahic told AFP.

Better known in Bosnia by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza, he had been entitled to leave the prison based on good behavior while serving more than half of his sentence. He did not return as due Monday.

Bin Ali was detained in 2007 and sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison for robbery, acts of violence against his family and for making threats against a prosecutor.

Like many Mujahedeen fighters in Bosnia’s war, Bin Ali had obtained the citizenship of the ex-Yugoslav republic by marrying a local woman, but lost the status on the grounds he poses a risk to national security.

Bin Ali was to be deported from Bosnia once he sees out his term, according to a security ministry spokeswoman.

Bosnia came under the spotlight after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the U.S. due to the presence in the country of former fighters from Islamic countries.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Croatia: Artificial Insemination, New Law After 30 Years

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, JULY 17 — Croatia’s parliament has today passed a law on assisted conception, which includes regulations the centre-left opposition and several NGOs believe to be conservative and discriminatory. This is because the measure, among other things, prohibits the preservation of embryos. The opposition, together with a few deputies of the majority, walked out of parliament at the time of voting and accused the government of passing a “mediaeval law”, but failed to undercut the quorum needed for approval. Only one amendment was approved, providing assisted conception to couples who can show that they have lived together for at least three years. The first version of the law guaranteed public health assistance only to married women: this led to a wave of protests. The minister of Health justified the choice by claiming that “those who don’t support marriage don’t support children either”. The law provides that children conceived with the assistance of anonymous donors can discover the identity of their biological parents at the age of 18. The freezing and preservation of embryos has been prohibited, and doctors can refuse to carry out the procedure “for reasons of conscience”. Until today, assisted conception in Croatia had been governed by a law issued in the ‘70s, which did not cater to a whole range of possibilities made available by scientific progress and which said nothing about the preservation and manipulation of embryos. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Montenegro: Greeks Outbid Italians for Shares of Epcg

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JULY 27 — The Greek Golden Energy Public Power Corporation offered a greater price than Italian A2A for the purchase and refinancing for 18.3% of the shares of the Montenegrin Electric company (EPCG), reports BETA news agency. The Montenegrin tender commission opened the offers on July 24 from these two companies, which earlier earned the rights to participate in the final phase of the tender for the privatization and refinancing of EPCG, out of a total of four companies that were interested. The Greek company offered a price of 11.1 euro per share, and the Italians offered 8.4 euro. The state is ready to sell 22.8 million of its shares in the electric company. “The price is one of the main criteria for the final evaluation of the bid,” Montenegrin Deputy Prime Minister Vujica Lazovic said, adding that in the next seven days, the executive evaluation of all documentation will be completed. After this, the final decision will be given on who will be the new investor in EPCG.(ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Hizbullah Cell Faces Hanging in Egypt, Nasrallah Personally Ordered it to Carry Out Attacks

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has personally tasked the head of the Hizbullah cell in Egypt to carry out attacks in the country, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Tuesday.

The newspaper, based on records of investigation, said that Nasrallah ordered the leader of the network, Mohammed Qabalan, who is on the run, to prepare for attacks in Egypt, and the man in his turn tasked Lebanese Mohammed Youssef Mansour to plan for such operations.

The two men agreed that they would carry out an attack while Nasrallah was making a speech on the occasion of Ashoura. The green light, according to al-Hayat, would be given when the Hizbullah chief states the words “armed forces” in his address.

However, the arrest of members of the network thwarted the planned operation, the daily said, citing the Egyptian investigation.

The probe also revealed that Qabalan and Mansour, who is known as Sami Shehab, were pushed by the Hizbullah leadership to organize the network in Egypt. The men were able to recruit members who were divided into small groups that functioned under their orders, al-Hayat said.

The report came as Egyptian lawyer Muntasar al-Zayyat announced that he planned to stop defending the accused in the Hizbullah cell case in protest against Cairo’s decision to try the 26 men at an emergency state security court.

He told al-Mustaqbal daily that he hoped the case would be referred to the criminal court so that the verdict would be appealed. State security courts were set up under Egypt’s emergency laws and have been in place since 1981 and their verdicts are final.

Legal sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that several members of the network could be hanged if convicted by the court. Charges include conspiracy to murder, spying for a foreign organization with the intent of conducting terrorist attacks and weapons possession.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Morocco: 2009-2010 Bumper Cereal Crop

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JULY 27 — Between 2009 and 2010 Morocco is expected to produce up to 10.2 million tonnes of cereal: twice as much as in the previous year’s harvest. ONICL, the national office for cereals and legumes, is the source of this estimate; it explained that the record crop is the result of unexpected rainfall in Morocco between autumn of 2008 and spring 2009. Harvests of the three main cereal crops (bread wheat, durum wheat, and barley) should be 77% greater than the average figure for the past five years. (ANSAmed)

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Norway: Embassy Staff Threatened

Members of the staff at the Norwegian Embassy in Morocco have received serious threats in connecton with a difficult child custody case, in which the father allegedly kidnapped his two children. (Photo: Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere) The man is charged with kidnapping and bringing his two children, aged 13 and 16 from Norway to Rabat in Morocco, where they have been kept for two-and-a-half years.

Ten days ago the children escaped and found their way to the Norwegian Embassy in Rabat, and stayed there for several days.

During this time the father tried to contact the children, and made serious threats against embassy staff members.

The children eventually left the embassy and were met by their mother who managed to bring them back to Norway.

The Norwegian authorities have been working on this extremely difficult child custody case in Morocco for several years. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it has been concerned about the safety of the two children for some time. Norway has been in close contact with the Moroccan authorities involved in the case with a view to finding a solution in cooperation and agreement with the Moroccan authorities.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere comments: “The two children went voluntarily to the Norwegian Embassy after threats to their lives. They were allowed to stay there for three days, which is quite out of the ordinary, and indicates the seriousness of the case. They left the Embassy of their own accord, after which the Norwegian authorities had no contact with them, and consequently were not in any way involved with their leaving Morocco.”

Mr Støre also underlined the need to ensure adequate security for the Norwegian Embassy in Rabat and the embassy staff. Embassy employees have received death threats from the children’s father.

“We are taking the threats received by embassy staff very seriously indeed. We have therefore requested Morocco to take all possible precautions to ensure their safety,” Mr Stoere added.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Royalty: Forbes Sees King of Morocco Among World’s Richest

(ANSAmed) — ROME, 28 JULY — Mohammed VI is one of the richest kings in the world, with a personal estate worth approximately 2.5 billion dollars, which Forbes claims makes him rank seventh among the 15 richest monarchs in 2008. The Forbes chart, quoted by Courrier International, places Mohammed VI ahead of the very rich emirs of Qatar and Kuwait, who have only one sixth of his wealth. Mohammed VI’s estate includes two dozen palaces, thousands of hectares of farmland, the north African Omnium group (mining), a food company, insurance companies and telecom companies, and Forbes also sees the King of Morocco as a business king’ because he managed to increase his wealth five-fold in less than the ten years since he began his reign. In 2000 his wealth was estimated at 500 million dollars). Courrier International stated that Mohammed VI is Morocco’s largest banker, industrialist and insurer, pointing out that the King’s capacity for growing richer is in contrast to conditions in his country, where some 5 million people live on less than one euro a day. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Television: Tunisia, Confalonieri About Nessma TV

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 28 — The Tunisian Nessma TV, in which Mediaset has a 25% stake, active in North Africa since March this year, has a very good outlook according to Mediaset president Fedele Confalonieri. He said this, African Manger reported, during the Mediterranean economic and financial forum. The president of Mediaset underlined that “the largest commercial television network in North Africa has a good growth potential, with a higher income from advertising than the company’s budget.” Nessma TV, which can be received in Italy and France as well, currently has a 12% audience. Confalonieri believes that this figure is likely to rise to 20%. The potential market of Nessma TV is 90 million viewers, 60% younger than 25 years. The advertising market, based on these data, is worth 150 million euros: 100 million in Morocco, 30 in 30 in Algeria, 20 in Tunisia. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Hamas Wants Female Lawyers Veiled, Protests

(ANSAmed) — GAZA, JULY 27 — The first protests have begun against the decision made by the justice system in Hamas-controlled Gaza to impose “modest clothing” on Palestinian female lawyers when they appear in court. “This is discrimination against women and an attack on personal freedom,” stated the PCHR-Gaza civil rights organisation this morning. The incident began in the wake of a provision set forth by a judge, Abdel Rauf al-Halabi, at the Supreme Court in Gaza that states that from September 1, specific “uniforms” for male and female lawyers will have to be worn in court. Male lawyers will have to wear white shirts and black ties under their dark-coloured suits, whilst female lawyers will have to wear a dark dress with a veil (the hijab). PCHR-Gaza maintains that the judicial authorities in Gaza, linked to Hamas, are not authorised to impose any type of “uniform”, which will only widen the gap between Gaza and the West Bank. Gaza residents have also reported that in recent weeks Hamas police have tried to impose “modest behaviour” on those people sunbathing or swimming on beaches. (ANSAmed).

2009-07-27 12:16

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Obama Slammed as ‘Racist’ At Jerusalem Rally

‘This insolence will bring about the downfall of the American leadership’

JERUSALEM — President Obama’s policies against Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank were slammed as “racist” today by participants in a rally drawing about 2,000 Israelis in front of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.

“George Mitchell go home!” yelled protestors in front of the U.S. government building.

Mitchell, Obama’s envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is here discussing the American administration’s call for a halt to all Jewish settlement activity, including natural growth or accommodating the needs of existing Jewish populations in the areas in question.

The protest began in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence. Marchers then made their way to the U.S. consulate about one block away.

“Obama should not be pressing Israel to compromise and freeze building in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem,” protest organizer Yaacov Steinberg told WND.

“All these steps in the past just brought more Palestinian terror and showed Israeli weakness,” said Steinberg, director of a coalition of West Bank Jewish organizations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]



Palestinian Territories, Over 300,000 Settlers

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 27 — In June, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank rose to over 300,000, according to a report issued by the Israeli military in the West Bank and cited by the press. According to the report, the annual demographic increase in settlers in 2008 was 2.3%, three times the Israeli national figure. The figures have been released while Israeli leaders in Jerusalem are involved in talks with US representatives under President Barack Obama, having been tasked with discussing a timeline and modalities of a freeze on Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories with the aim of re-launching peace talks with Palestinians. Today in Israel the US secretary of state, Robert Gates, is expected, after yesterday’s brief visit by Obama’s envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell, while over the next few days also James Jones, national security advisor, will be visiting the country. “Americans are beginning to understand that settlements cannot be halted,” said the Israeli minister for industry, Benyamin Ben Eliezer (Labour). Today a demonstration has been called by the settlers’ movement in Jerusalem against “the diktat from the US”. “Settlements are a reality which cannot simply be done away with,” said one of the movement’s leaders. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem: Why Continued Israeli Control is Vital

by Nadav Shragai

  • The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, that the Palestinians demand to transfer to their control, is the most important Jewish cemetery in the world. The area has constituted a religious and national pantheon for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, containing the tombs of the illustrious dead of the nation over the course of 3,000 years and serving as a site for Jewish gathering and prayer at the time of the ancient Temple and even prior to it.
  • Under Jordanian rule, Jewish access and the continued burial of Jews on the mount was prohibited, despite Jordan’s explicit commitment in the Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Agreement of 1949. During the period of Jordanian rule, the cemetery was destroyed and desecrated, and 38,000 of its tombstones and graves were smashed to smithereens.
  • Since Jerusalem’s reunification, burial ceremonies were renewed at the site and large sections of the cemetery were rehabilitated. Nevertheless, attempts by Palestinians to damage the cemetery have never totally abated, and there have been periodic attacks on Jewish mourners escorting their dead for burial.
  • Previous Israeli governments that consented to discuss arrangements in Jerusalem with the Palestinians rejected their demand to transfer the Mount of Olives to PA sovereignty and control. Nevertheless, those governments were prepared to give their assent to the transfer of neighborhoods that control the access routes to the mount. Should any such agreement be implemented in the future, it could endanger freedom of access to the site and continued Jewish burial there.
  • In any future arrangements, in order to allow continued Jewish burial on the mount, Israel must guarantee freedom of access to the site by controlling the arteries leading to it, as well as the areas adjacent to it. On the previous occasions that Israel transferred areas that included Jewish holy sites to Palestinian control, the Palestinians severely encumbered or refused to allow Jewish access to these places. Sometimes these sites were even severely damaged.

           — Hat tip: JCPA [Return to headlines]



West Bank: Army Stops Settlement Attempt

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JULY 27 — Today the Israeli Army prevented a dozen settlers from establishing a settlement outpost in the West Bank, close to Hebron. Local broadcasts reported that the Israeli soldiers isolated Nezer, the area targeted for the settlement which lies next to the Gush Etzion settlement areas. The settlers behind the failed operation stated that they will try again. The USA is pressurising Israel to cease any settlement in the West Bank. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East


High Prices of Basic Items Expected During Ramadan

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, JULY 28 — As the kingdom prepares for Ramadan, officials from Jordan’s Agriculture ministry anticipated a sudden surge in prices of basic food items during the holy month. Ramadan is known to be as a month of worship and fasting from food from sun rise to sun set, but also known among businessmen as the month where demand on basic items increase by almost a double. An official from the ministry, live stock division, said the price of one kilo of red meet is expected to cross the mark of JD 10 (9 euros), which would be happening for the first time in this cash strapped kingdom. The official, who was quoted by the pro-government daily al Rai, accused a number of big firms of purchasing large among of live animals and stocking them to increase the price when Ramadan arrives next month. Prices of vegetables are also expected to surge during the same period, said the official, who was not named. Every year, the government puts in place stringent measures to keep prices of basic items such as vegetables, serials, milk and meet within reach of ordinary citizens during the fasting month. But as the kingdom continues its open market policy, experts believe it would be hard to reign the soaring prices. (ANSAmed).

2009-07-28 15:00

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Hizbullah Training Lebanese Army, Report

Hizbullah is reportedly “secretly” training senior Lebanese army officers, the Kuwaiti daily Asiyassa has said.

It said Lebanese defense officials believe there is a “clandestine agreement” between Hizbullah and top officers in the Lebanese army.

The report said that a Lebanese army battalion will operate “independently” and will have access to Hizbullah’s arsenal.

It said the 150-strong battalion is being trained on the use of “specific Iranian missiles with average and long-distance ranges.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Jordan Seeks to Join Nuclear Club of Energy Exporters

Jordan is forging ahead with a peaceful nuclear program that would turn the energy-poor kingdom into an exporter of electricity, nuclear chief Khaled Tukan told Agence France Presse (AFP).

“We are moving in great strides in the field of civilian nuclear energy in order to stop being dependent on the import of fuel,” said Tukan, who chairs the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC).

Jordan is the latest Sunni Arab country, among them Egypt and pro-Western Gulf states, to announce plans for nuclear power programs in the face of Shiite Iran’s controversial atomic drive.

“Our goal is transform Jordan from net energy importing to net electricity exporting country by 2030,” added Tukan, whose country imports 95 percent of its energy needs.

Jordan’s 2007 energy bill was 3.2 billion dollars, the equivalent of 24 percent of its total imports and 20 percent of gross domestic product.

The kingdom has six power stations with a total generation capacity of 2,400 megawatts, but it has been forced to buy five percent of its electricity needs from neighboring Arab countries in the face of growing demand.

In the country of nearly six million people, per capita electricity consumption is estimated at 2,000 kilowatts a year.

“In 2030, electricity consumption will double,” added Tukan, noting that “atomic energy is the most logical solution” to meet his country’s growing power needs.

“Four regions in Jordan have been demarcated for exploration of uranium,” which is found in carbonate rocks and in phosphate.

Jordan’s 1.2 billion tons of phosphate reserves are estimated to contain 130,000 tons of uranium, whose enriched form provides fuel for nuclear plants.

But Jordan has given priority to uranium mining, which is faster and less expensive, Tukan said.

“The country has reached nuclear cooperation deals with six countries, France, China, South Korea, Canada, Russia and Britain, and hopes to sign three more agreements with Romania, Spain and Argentina,” he added.

In October 2008, French nuclear giant Areva started exploring for uranium resources in the central region of Jordan, which has 70,000 tons of carbonate rocks.

“The work in this area is the most advanced and in the final stages of exploration,” said Tukan.

In February, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto signed a deal with Jordan to explore for uranium, thorium and zirconium in Wadi Sahab Abiad, close to the border with Saudi Arabia.

China’s National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), meanwhile, is searching for uranium in the northern area of Hamra-Hausha and Wadi Baheyya in the south.

“We are currently trying to delineate the site of a nuclear reactor,” said Tukan, adding that a potential site was in southern Jordan along the Red Sea, which is also bordered by Israel and Egypt.

Jordanian and Israeli experts met in June to discuss environmental issues related to the plan, Tukan said, adding that he would hold talks on the project with Egyptian officials in August.

“At the moment things are going smoothly,” he said.

“The Belgian company Tractebel Suez-GDF is responsible for studies of the site which is currently under scrutiny and an analysis of the safety and environmental impact.”

Tukan said the results of the studies would be shared with Egypt and Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994.

“If everything goes well, the reactor will be built in 2013 with a capacity of 1,000 megawatt, which will cover 25 percent of electricity generated. The exploitation of nuclear power generation is expected in 2017 or 2018,” he said.

Four companies are competing to build the nuclear plant: Areva, South Korea’s Kepco, Atomic Energy of Canada and Russia’s Atomstroyexport.

Jordan, which signed an agreement in December with the United States to prevent the smuggling of radioactive materials from its territory, aims to build more reactors in 2018 and then again in 2020, at the same site, said Tukan.(AFP)

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Khamenei Orders Closure of Jail Holding Protesters; 140 Prisoners Freed

Iran on Tuesday released 140 people detained in Iran’s post-election turmoil and the supreme leader ordered the closure of a prison where human rights groups say jailed protesters were killed, in a nod by authorities to allegations of abuses in the crackdown on protests.

The pro-reform opposition has been contending for weeks that jailed protesters and activists were being held in secret facilities and could be undergoing torture. Authorities appear to be paying greater attention to the complaints after the son of a prominent conservative died in prison — reportedly the same one ordered closed Monday.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi sharply condemned the wave of arrests and deaths, saying the Iranian people “will never forgive them.”

The last official word of the number of people in prison from the crackdown was around 500, announced several weeks ago, and arrests have continued since. The heavy crackdown was launched to put down protests that erupted following the June 12 presidential election, in which hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner but which the opposition says was fraudulent.

Among those detained are young protesters, as well as prominent pro-reform politicians, rights activists and lawyers. At least 20 people were killed, according to police, though rights groups say the number is likely far higher.

A parliament committee investigating prisoners’ conditions visited Tehran’s main prison Evin on Tuesday, and during the visit 140 detainees connected to the protests were released, said Kazem Jalili, a spokesman for the committee, according to the semiofficial ISNA news agency.

Another 150 remain in Evin because weapons were found on them when they were arrested, he said. The names of those released were not immediately known. There was no new word on the current total in prisons around the country.

The head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, promised on Monday that the public prosecutor would review the situation of all the post-election detainees within a week and decide whether to release or bring them to trial, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, ordered the closure of Kahrizak prison, on Tehran’s southern outskirts, Jalali told the Mehr news agency. “It did not possess the required standards to ensure the rights of the detainees,” he said. The closure order was announced Monday in the official IRNA news agency, though the prison was not identified.

Human rights groups have identified at least three protesters they say died after being detained at Kahrizak, though the reports could not be independently confirmed. Kahrizak appeared to have little role as a detention center before the election unrest, but since then many of the detainees are believed to have spent time there.

Authorities’ new attention to the prisoners issue comes after conservative lawmakers and politicians — the camp from which the government draws its support — expressed anger over the death of the son of Abdolhossein Rouhalamini, a prominent conservative. Rouhalamini is a close ally of Mohsen Rezai, the only conservative running against Ahmadinejad in the election.

His son, Mohsen, who was arrested during a July 9 protest, was taken to a hospital after two weeks and died. The opposition news Web site Norooz reported that Mohsen had been held at Kahrizak and that his face was beaten in when his father received the body.

The crackdown was carried out by police, the elite Revolutionary Guards and the pro-government Basij militia. The opposition has warned repeatedly that the detainees are being tortured to force confessions that back the government’s contention that the protests were part of a foreign-backed plot to foment a “soft revolution” against the Islamic Republic.

Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, said that amid the disorder of the crackdown, even the judiciary doesn’t have access to all the prisoners.

“All departments from intelligence to Basij say (those who arrested protesters) were not connected to them. Where are they from? Have they come from Mars?” Mousavi said. “I am sure even the judiciary is not able and has no right to visit many prisons and ask for details.”(AP)

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Lebanon: UNIFIL; 30 Years of Italair Celebrated in Naqura

(ANSAmed) — NAQURA (Southern Lebanon), JULY 27 — A ceremony took place this morning in the coastal base of Naqura, the headquarters of the UN mission to southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the birth of Italair, the Italian helicopter task force under UNIFIL. The ceremony was attended by General Claudio Graziano, the commander of the UN mission, Gabriele Checchia — the Italian Ambassador to Lebanon, the present commander of Italair, Colonel Stefano Silvestrini, some former commanders of the helicopter squadron as it was, the Deputy Commandant of COI, the Italian inter-force operative command and General Tommaso Ferro and Colonel Gerardo Restaino, chiefs of the Italian contingent stationed in Naqura. Having moved up from four to six craft in April 2007, Italair transformed itself into a task force and is presently staffed by 65 personnel from the army’s winged unit, the navy and the air force. Since June 1979, Italair has been providing UNIFIL with a guaranteed flight capability in the skies of southern Lebanon and northern Israel on a 24/7 basis. Up to today, it has completed around 35,000 flight hours, one thousand emergency transports of seriously ill or wounded persons and transported 150,000 passengers, including many leading figures such as Pope John Paul II. During the ceremony, victims of the 1997 incident, the worst to have befallen Italair in southern Lebanon, were remembered. The ceremony was preceded yesterday evening by a concert of music in the Naqura base which included performances by the brass bands of the 11th Regiment of Bersaglieri and the 132nd Ariete brigade, which are presently deployed with UNIFIL. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Obama Lifts Ban on Syrian Air Industry

Middle East regime in open military alliance with Iran

TEL AVIV — The U.S. will seek sanctions waivers to export aircraft and other equipment to Syria, U.S. officials confirmed today.

Syria is in an open military alliance with Iran. It hosts the chiefs of several major Palestinian terrorist organizations. The country is accused of aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Imad Mustafa, the Syrian envoy to the U.S., said the Obama administration had lifted a ban imposed in 2004 on exporting goods to the Syrian Aviation Industry. He said the message was delivered to Syrian President Bashar Assad by George Mitchell, Obama’s envoy to the Middle East.

Today, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed Sen. Mitchell “told President Assad that the U.S. would process all eligible applications for export licenses as quickly as possible.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

South Asia


Afghanistan: Franceschini, Vote to Keep Soldiers Abroad

(AGI) — Cortina d’Ampezzo, 27 July — “Tomorrow morning we will vote on keeping Italian soldiers abroad”. Pd secretary Dario Franceschini made the statement from the stage of Cortina InConTra. “We did what we had to do: withdraw Italian soldiers from Iraq, which was a unilateral war, but the presence in Afghanistan is different, because it was called by the international community”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Afghanistan — Di Pietro: There to Save Face for Silvio

(AGI) — Rome, 27 July — “The truth is that we have a weak leader at a historic moment during which global balances of power are being recast and who, to get his entry ticket to the control room is prepared to put the lives of our soldiers on the line for a handful of sand and with the excuse of respecting treaties”. This is Antonio Di Pietro’s view of the mission in Afghanistan, in a blog guarantee that: “We shall not leave our youngsters on their mission to Afghanistan out of the political consensus — that is for sure. Nonetheless, I don’t like to think of them as a combat force and not a peace force”.

The leader of the IDV party, “Italy of Values”, refers to the “war in Afghanistan” as “a Bush-inspired mess “ revealing that “it’s costing us 28 million euros a day, to which must be added, once the new allocations have been approved, a further 147 million for 2009”, and all this while “there is not enough in the kitty for the social cards, we are seizing the dormant accounts of people who have emigrated abroad or passed away, we’re handing out pardons to mafia bosses and tax evaders while scraping together enough loose change to keep us from finishing up the creek while all along the government is preaching the virtues of a war in the desert”. “I’m no dyed in the wool pacifist, but I’m sure that peace in Afghanistan cannot be won by escalating and provoking military action, “ Di Pietro notes, wondering whether “we’re only there to save face for Silvio Berlusconi, who, after his porno-parties has to return the quid pro quo of Afghanistan?”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Berlusconi Reaffirms Troops to Stay in Afghanistan

Rome, 28 July (AKI) — Italy’s 3,250 troops will remain in Afghanistan, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi stated on Tuesday. “There is no change of policy,” he told journalists in Rome, reaffirming earlier statements made by defence minister Ignazio La Russa and foreign minister Franco Frattini.

Berlusconi dismissed as “hot air” reports of a rift over the issue with the conservative government’s junior coalition partner, the Northern League.

“I understand that newspapers need to fill pages in the summer season, but this supposed rift is hot air,” he stated.

La Russa and Frattini on Monday rejected calls by minister without portfolio and Northern League politician Roberto Calderoli to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

“In Afghanistan, we are working for Italy’s security including that of Calderoli… we are staying,” Frattini said in Brussels, during a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

“We cannot give up the mission in Afghanistan. What our lads are doing out there is crucial,” said La Russa.

The Northern League’s leader, Umberto Bossi, also urged the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan following a recent spate of attacks against Italian soldiers.

But in an apparent climb-down late on Monday, the party’s chief parliamentary whips issued a joint statement saying: “The Northern League has always maintained the commitments it has made to the government and will also do so in this case.”

The Italian parliament last week voted to extend the financing of all of Italy’s 35 missions overseas.

A roadside bomb attack earlier this month killed a 25-year-old Italian soldier Alessandro Di Lisio while on patrol near the western Afghan city of Farah. Two attacks in Afghanistan at the weekend wounded three Italian soldiers and three Italian paratroopers were also injured in the bombing that killed Di Lisio.

Twelve Italian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2004.

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



Pakistan: Hindus and Sikhs Threatened by the Taliban and Sharia

Members of minority groups must either pay ‘jizya’ for protection or leave. All women, even the elderly, cannot go out alone and have to wear a burqa. Men must wear a beard and a head cap. Hundreds of Sikh and Hindu families have already emigrated.

Islamabad (AsiaNews) — The Taliban in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have issued an ultimatum against local Hindus and Sikhs: either you pay “jizya”, an Islamic poll tax for religious minorities that is akin to protection money, or you leave. Many Hindu and Sikh families have already left for Peshawar and neighbouring provinces.

Threats against Sikhs and Hindus are but the latest in a series of warnings against religious minorities in the NWFP, including Christians who have had to pay jizya and submit to Sharia.

“We were living under fear: fear of the Taliban, fear of Lashkar-e-Islam and fear of other armed groups,” a Sikh man told the Daily Times.

Some 400 Sikh and 57 Hindu families have already left the towns of Bara and Tirah. Local Sikhs are employed mostly in trade in cloth, but also run grocer, garment and herbal medicine shops.

“Minorities in Orakzai agency and Khyber were warned by some militant groups to convert or leave the area. This was a real threat,” said the Sikh man, whose name is Singh.

“They’re running a parallel government. Hindu and Sikh families did not feel safe, in Orakzai, in Bara and in Tirah. We preferred to migrate, at least here we can breathe in peace and feel safe,” he added.

In the region of Orakzai, the Taliban have imposed the tax on adult male Sikhs as well as forcibly occupied Sikh-owned shops and houses.

After two months, the tax spread to Khyber Agency, the legendary tribal region on the main supply route to Afghanistan.

Here Lashkar-e-Islam, a group headed by Mangal Bagh, announced that Sikhs and Hindus could be free to live anywhere —as long as they paid jizya.

But threats have made the situation very tense. Hundreds of Sikh and Hindu families have fled to neighbouring areas, especially Peshawar.

Much like the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Islam acts like a morality police, enforcing prayers five times a day and punishing people accused of prostitution and other vices.

Muslim and non-Muslim women are not allowed outside the home without a male relative. In fact all women, even the elderly, have to wear a burqa.

For their part, men have to grow a beard and wear a cap; otherwise Lashkar extremists will beat them or fine them 200 to 500 rupees.

As a result of an agreement between the Taliban and the provincial government (backed by the central government), Sharia was imposed on most parts of the NWFP earlier this year, in Malacan division for instance.

But Pakistani authorities eventually went back on the deal, and launched an offensive against the Taliban.

The NWFP government however still supports enforcing Sharia on the entire population.

On several occasions the Catholic Church has come out against forcing non-Muslims to submit to Sharia because it is a form of violence against minority groups whose rights and liberties are guaranteed by the constitution of Pakistan.

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



Taliban Commander: ‘Swedes Will be Killed’

A regional Taliban commander has warned that Swedes serving in Afghanistan will be the target of reprisals following the killing of three of the guerrilla group’s fighters by Swedish troops last week.

“Revenge will come. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week. But it will come,” the Taliban leader told the TT news agency in an interview published on Wednesday.

“Swedes will be killed.”

Described as a sinewy man in his forties and referred to as Zamir, the man claims to be second in command of Taliban forces fighting in the northern Afghan province of Balkh.

In an interview carried out in a secret location several hours from the provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif, the base of operations for Swedish troops in the area, Zamir emphasized that he and other Taliban supporters have no plans to submit to the wishes of foreign peacekeepers or the current government of Afghanistan.

“Faith burns deep in our hearts and we’ll never resign ourselves to a foreign ceasefire. We’d rather die as martyrs,” he told TT.

He claimed foreign soldiers weren’t interested in helping Afghan citizens, but instead were trying to “poisoning our faith” and create artificial divisions pitting Afghan against Afghan.

According to Zamir, there are around 60 guerrilla fighters in the Char Bolak district, about 40 kilometres west of Mazar-i-Sharif.

They are armed with Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, and mines, and are prepared to employ suicide bombers in an effort to drive out foreign troops and disrupt the upcoming Afghan elections, scheduled for August 20.

Three of his fighters were killed last week in a fire fight with Swedish and Finnish troops who were on patrol 150 kilometres west of Mazar-i-Sharif as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Taliban supporters under Zamir’s command also have contact with other Taliban sympathizers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said.

But the group’s orders originate with Mulla Omar, the leader of the Taliban who served as the de facto head of Afghanistan when the group ruled the country between 1995 and 2001.

Zamir explained that Taliban supporters would only be willing to lay down their weapons once foreign soldiers have left Afghanistan and current president Hamid Karzai agrees to share power with the guerilla group.

When asked what message he had for the Swedish people, Zamir urged them to remove their troops from Afghanistan.

“Take home your soldiers, your young men. You have nothing to gain here, only death,” he said.

He added, however, that Swedes and other foreigners would be welcomed by the Taliban under certain conditions.

“If you come without weapons to rebuild our poor, warn-torn country, you will be welcomed,” he told TT.

“If you are Muslims.”

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



US Sets Up Task Force to Stem Flow of Foreign Funds to Taliban

Insurgency is being fuelled by ‘massive amounts of money’ from supporters outside Afghanistan, says Obama envoy

Barack Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan today announced a new US campaign to try to stem the flow of foreign funds to the Taliban, money believed to be running into hundreds of millions of dollars a year, mainly from the Gulf Arab states.

Richard Holbrooke, the former Balkan peace enforcer appointed by the White House to lead a new US policy on Afghanistan and place greater emphasis on Pakistan, said most of the money fuelling the insurgency came from supporters abroad, including in western Europe, and exceeded the Taliban’s earnings from the opium and heroin trade.

The Taliban were the beneficiaries of “massive amounts of money from outside Afghanistan”, Holbrooke said.

He declined to put a figure on the external funds, but the opium poppy trade and heroin refining operations are estimated to net the Taliban at least $400m (£244m) every year.

Led by officials at the US treasury and including Pentagon, FBI and CIA personnel, a new “task force on drugs and money” will try to weaken the Islamist insurgents, Holbrooke said.

“The money is coming in from sympathisers from all over the world with the bulk of it appearing to come from the Gulf, not any money we know of coming from governments,” Holbrooke said. “Money is probably coming from sympathisers in western Europe as well. This is a huge problem.”

In Brussels to discuss the Afghan campaign and the refugee crisis in Pakistan’s Swat valley with senior EU and Nato officials, Holbrooke added that the Taliban used drug money locally to fund their operations in the “Pashtun belt”, but that the more significant financial support came from abroad.

Holbrooke also complained that the fate of 2 million refugees in Pakistan’s Swat valley was not being taken seriously enough in Europe, judging by the money being offered to deal with the crisis.

“This is more than a humanitarian crisis. This is a strategic issue as well. Those refugees are in the exact area where al-Qaida and the Taliban are, and it’s right up against the Afghan border,” he said.

He had repeatedly demanded of the Europeans that they “step up to the plate” and at least match the $335m the US has made available. The EU contribution so far is around half of that.

“In order to succeed in Afghanistan we have to have some degree of stability and control on the Pakistan side of the border … Right now, refugee relief assistance in Pakistan is the most urgent issue.”

Holbrooke refused to criticise reluctance in Europe to commit more troops to the war in Afghanistan, describing the dispute as “fruitless and unproductive”, but said that the Bush administration had bequeathed “kind of no strategy” on Afghanistan to the Obama White House.

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

Far East


China Foils Smuggling of Missile-Use Material to N.Korea

Chinese customs authorities confiscated 70 kg of vanadium that North Korea tried to smuggle through China. Vanadium has defense and nuclear uses — alloys containing vanadium are used in missile casings — but it was not clear what the stash was to be used for.

Dandong News, a newspaper from the Chinese-North Korean border city of Dandong in Liaoning Province, on Tuesday said the local customs office seized vanadium hidden in six fruit boxes from a truck heading to North Korea last Saturday. The confiscated material was contained in 68 bottles hidden among fruit and is worth 200,000 yuan (W36 million, US$1=W1,238), it said.

Vanadium is resistant to corrosion by sulphuric and hydrochloric acid and strengthens steel. It is alloyed with steel to make jet engines, missile casings and superconducting magnets.

After North Korea carried out its second nuclear test on May 25, the UN Security Council, at the initiative of the U.S., passed tougher sanctions seeking to curb trade in missile-related materials. China, which backed the sanctions, is apparently tightening controls of such materials going to North Korea.

Ironically, the Chinese government prompted a complaint to the WTO from the U.S. and the EU on June 23 about its long-standing export restrictions on rare “strategic” metals, including vanadium, used in production of munitions and development of environment-friendly technologies.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Myanmar: Despite Sanctions, A Growth in Investment. China Has 87% of the Market

In the past fiscal year foreign investment in the former Burma hit almost one billion U.S. dollars. Six times greater than the year 2007 to 2008. The increase due to massive investment by Beijing, which continues to deal with the dictatorship in spite of sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union.

Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Foreign investment in Myanmar has reached one billion dollars in the last fiscal year, six times higher than 2007 to 2008. Underlying this massive increase in investment is China, which has acquired a majority share of the market.

According to the Ministry for National Planning and Development, foreign investment has risen from 172 million U.S. dollars in 2007 — 2008, to the current 984.9 million. The report released yesterday points out that 87% of deals are signed with Chinese businesses or companies. Russia and Vietnam have invested in oil and natural gas, with a turnover amounting to 114 million dollars. Thailand focuses on the tourism and hospitality sector and has invested about 15 million dollars in its neighbour.

The data published by the Burmese Ministry reveal two significant points: first the sanctions imposed by the international community do not affect the ruling military junta in Myanmar. Indeed, it benefits from the foreign capital from countries that do not respect the economic and trade sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union, for the junta’s repeated violations of human rights. Then there is a further confirmation of the Chinese government policy which — in the name of economic growth and the principle of “non-interference” — trades without hesitation with regimes and dictatorships. In addition to Myanmar, there are Iran, Sudan and Venezuela.

The Burmese subsoil is rich in reserves of oil and gas, which together with wood and precious stones are the principal resources of the local economy. Chinese investment focuses in particular on energy and natural resources.

Despite the increase in the volume of business, nearly all of the Burmese people are living in extreme poverty and only the capital Naypydaw — wanted by the generals in a virtually inaccessible area — has electricity and energy supplies. Even the former capital Yangon lacks electricity for several hours of the day.

To meet energy demands the junta has signed a deal for the supply of 300 megawatts of electricity from Ruili, a town near the Chinese border with Myanmar. It — says the Mizzima News website — will serve to supply the industrial area of Mandalay, for the production of cars and trucks.

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



The First Protest of Foreigners in China: Nigerians Against the Police in Guangzhou

In a police chase two Nigerians jump from a second story window. One dies the other is seriously wounded. At least 200 Africans surround the police station. Episode sparked by the problem of visas, cancelled for security reasons before 1 October, 60th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The death of a Nigerian, fleeing from a police check on visas, has given rise to what is thought to be the first protest of foreigners in China. At least 200 Africans have surrounded a police station carrying the body of the dead man, demanding explanations from the police.

After the dead man, Emmanul Egisimba, was taken to the hospital, the African demonstrators blocked the entrance to the police station and the adjacent street. The curious thing is that according to the Africans — mostly Nigerians — their friend is dead, while police claim there was no death.

Eye-witness accounts reported by the South China Morning Post, say that Egisimba and another Nigerian, who were visiting a mall, took flight when the police tried to stop them to check their visas. The police chased them, cornering them on the second floor of the building. In all likelihood Egisimba threw himself from a height of 18 meters to escape capture, instead finding the death as he crashed to the ground. The other Nigerian also jumped, and suffered multiple fractures.

The police declared that the Nigerian “was doing illegal currency exchange”, and sustained a back injury while trying to break a window and climb out of the building. “Another foreigner” — continues the statement — “was seriously injured while jumping from the building”.

The demonstrators complain that as festivities for the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China draw near, their visas are not being renewed on grounds of safety.

According to the Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, there are at least 20 thousand Africans in the city, but there are many more illegal immigrants. They are make a living in trade, buying cheap goods directly from factories in Guangdong.

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

Sub-Saharan Africa


Alarm Over Somalia’s Child Soldiers

For years, warlords have conscripted children to fight in bitter conflicts over money, power and land. The BBC Somali service’s Mohamed Mohamed reveals widespread alarm that the practice is now becoming entrenched in Somalia.

Some are drugged, others brainwashed and some paid $50 (£30) for every month they fight.

Most people are frightened to speak openly, but those who can afford it are sending their children out of the country to safety.

An elderly man who did not want to be named publicly told how his 15-year-old son had vanished.

He said he had looked everywhere for his boy, and even asked the militant Islamist group al-Shabab whether they had seen him.

They said they had not, but he later found out that al-Shabab had convinced the boy to join their jihad so “he would go to heaven if he died”.

[…]

American jihadists

Even Somalis who live overseas are not safe from the child recruitment effort of the Islamists.

In the US state of Minnesota, some young men from the Somali community have been recruited to fight with al-Shabab, and have been killed.

In October last year, at least one of them, Shirwa Mohamed, carried out a suicide attack against security services in Bosasso in north-eastern Somalia.

Omar Jamal, a community leader in Minnesota, blames local jihadists’ influence on young people.

“They were targeting young, vulnerable boys at colleges and universities to indoctrinate them and tell them to join and fight the jihad,” he says.

“Some of them were provided with cash and Somali passports and they were persuaded to join this global jihadist ideology and they fall for it.

“We want this to come to an end and we want the US government to investigate.”

Meanwhile, the FBI is already looking into how and why these Somali youngsters choose to leave a comfortable life in the US for the dangerous conditions in Somalia.

A worker for a children’s rights group in Somalia says that, while using children as soldiers is not new, the scale, number and age of those involved is worrying.

Parents try to stop their children from being recruited — but the lack of schools or other activities as well as, in some cases, peer pressure makes it difficult.

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



Captives Freed in Nigerian City

Nigerian police have freed about 100 women and children being held by a radical Islamist sect in a building in the northern city of Maiduguri.

They told the BBC they had been held six days, living on dates and water.

Heavy fighting continues in Maiduguri where troops are besieging militants of the Boko Haram sect in an enclave.

Boko Haram is blamed for attacks on police stations and government sites in the north this week that led to the deaths of at least 150 people.

Boko Haram says it is fighting against Western education. It believes Nigeria’s government is being corrupted by Western ideas and wants to see Islamic law imposed across Nigeria.

President Umaru Yar’Adua earlier ordered Nigeria’s national security agencies to take all necessary action to contain and repel attacks by the extremists.

‘Foreign involvement’

Boko Haram is led by Mohammed Yusuf, who has his base in Maiduguri, capital of Borno province.

About 1,000 people are inside the Maiduguri enclave, according to the military.

Security forces flooded into Maiduguri and began attacking Mohammed Yusuf’s compound on Tuesday, shelling it with heavy weapons and exchanging gunfire with militants.

Fierce fighting continued through the night and into Wednesday.

The militants are well-armed and have been keeping up a steady stream of fire, the officer commanding the operation, Col Ben Ahanotu, told the BBC.

He said there were at least 250 armed men guarding Mohammed Yusuf’s home, which is also the headquarters of the sect.

Col Ahanotu also said papers and personal items found on the bodies of young men indicated that many had come from neighbouring Chad and Niger.

One Maiduguri resident, Adamu Yari, told Reuters news agency that soldiers and police were combing the whole city, searching house to house for Boko Haram followers.

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



Sudan ‘Trousers Trial’ Adjourned

The trial of a Sudanese woman charged with wearing “indecent” clothing has been adjourned, but will continue after she decided to waive her immunity.

A Khartoum judge told Lubna Ahmed Hussein she could have immunity because she works for the UN.

But Ms Hussein, who claims she was arrested for wearing trousers, said she wanted carry on with the trial because she wanted to get the law changed.

Under Sudanese law she could face 40 lashes if she is found guilty.

“I wish to resign from the UN, I wish this court case to continue,” she told a packed courtroom.

The woman — a journalist who works for the UN mission in Sudan — had invited journalists and observers to the trial.

She was arrested in a restaurant in the capital with other women earlier this month for wearing “indecent” clothing.

‘Unconstitutional law’

She said 10 of the women arrested with her, including non-Muslims, each received 10 lashes and a fine.

Ms Hussein and two other women asked for a lawyer, delaying their trials.

She says she has done nothing wrong under Sharia law, but could fall foul of a paragraph in Sudanese criminal law which forbids indecent clothing.

“I want to change this law, because hitting is not human, and also it does not match with Sharia law,” she told the BBC.

The BBC’s James Copnall in Khartoum says Ms Hussein is determined to generate as much publicity as she can.

Meanwhile another female journalist who wrote an article supporting Ms Hussein has been charged with defaming the police, which can carry a hefty fine.

Amal Habbani wrote an article for Ajrass Al-Horreya newspaper following the arrests entitled “Lubna, a case of subduing a woman’s body”.

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



Swedish Youth Dead in Somalia

Another young Swedish-Somali man has been killed in the conflict in Somalia. According to the Swedish Security Service, he died in the beginning of July after being recruited in Sweden by the militia Al Shabab.

It’s well known in the Somali community that the group, which may have ties to terrorist network Al Qaida, has been recruiting youth in Sweden. Al Shabab has been especially active in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, where a large number of Sweden’s Somali population lives.

Kadafi Hussein, youth leader at a Rinkeby community center, told SR International that he saw four young men recruit Somalis in a public square. “They talked about jihad and what was happening in Somalia. That it was right to go there, and that they’d help you out with a plane ticket if you needed it.”

According to Malena Rembe of the Swedish Security Service, the Swedish-Somali man who died in Somalia had lived in Sweden since he was very young. This type of radicalization may pose a danger for Sweden, she says.

“We fear that that they’ll develop a network, and get experience and training in Somalia that they can then use in Sweden [to plan terrorist attacks] when they come back.”

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]

Immigration


24 Land in Calabria

(ANSAmed) — AFRICO (REGGIO CALABRIA), JULY 27 — Twenty-four Kurdish migrants, including four women and two children, arrived on the Calabrian coastline this morning onboard a motorised fishing boat which ran aground near Bianco, in the Locride area. The 24 migrants are all doing well and have said that they are from Iraq and Iran. The boat they arrived in Calabria with, called ‘Istanbul’, was sailing under a Greek flag. Italian carabinieri, police and Customs police went to the site of the landing and brought in the migrants, who will in the course of the day be transferred to the Isola Capo Rizzuto temporary detention centre near Crotone. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



African Refugees and Illegal Migrants ‘Terrorize’ Arad

(IsraelNN.com) Residents of the northern Negev city of Arad told Knesset Member Uri Ariel (National Union) on Sunday that the dramatically increasing population of legal and illegal refugees in the city was “making their lives miserable.” Illegal immigration to Israel has increased by approximately 1,000 percent in just three years, with over 7,500 people known to have entered Israel illicitly in 2008.

MK Ariel proposed that the newly formed Oz Immigration Authority, which is in the midst of a nationwide crackdown on illegal migrant workers, concentrate its efforts on Arad as well. Some elements of Israeli society, however, oppose the Oz campaign, saying it forces refugees back into the life-threatening situations from which they may have come.

Police figures show that the illegal migrant workers in the nation’s south are primarily from Eritrea, indicating a primarily economic motive, as well as from Somalia and other African states. Legally recognized refugees who have arrived in previous years, on the other hand, include significant numbers of Sudanese who fled the Arab-Muslim genocide of non-Muslims and Muslim Blacks in Darfur. Some of the latter, however, may not be authentic refugees and may even include some perpetrators of the massacres seeking new lives elsewhere.

Both legal and illegal migrants have been a source of increasing crime and violence in Arad, with many veteran residents claiming that it is no longer safe to walk through the center of town at night. The nearly 2,000 Africans have also found themselves in economic competition with local Bedouin tribes in the labor market, which has sometimes spilled into violent clashes between the two groups. Eilat and the Dead Sea area are also faced with the issue of crime by migrants.

One reason the phenomenon is largely confined to the southern region is the Israeli policy of keeping migrants from settling north of Gedera, in the highly populated coastal plain (referred to as the area from “Gedera to Hadera”). An Arad citizen’s group has recently been founded with the aim of pressuring the government to distribute the burden of the African refugees equally. As of 2009, more than 100 children of African refugees have been absorbed into Arad public schools, and the municipality provides their families needed health and welfare services.

The Arad citizens’ advocacy group is in favor of tightening law enforcement initiatives to find and expel illegal migrant workers. The illegals have no health care, no welfare and are often without permanent housing, leading to crime, vandalism, drunkenness and loitering.

Anger over the situation has led growing numbers of Arad residents to consider leaving the city. Two new churches were built in recent years as migrants hooked up with local missionary and Christian groups. This, as one Arad resident told Israel National News, in a city that did not have a single church despite the large percentage of non-Jewish Russian immigrants.

In addition to the economic impact and the increasing crime rate, residents of the south have raised the potential for a security threat stemming from the Muslim migrants. There is a danger of some of them becoming radicalized, as well as the possibility that jihadists have already made their way into Israel under cover of economic or political migration.

In response to the increasing infiltrations from Africa, IDF troops are taking more swift measures to apprehend and immediately expel those found illegally crossing the Israeli frontier with Egypt.

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



Australia: Reporter Attacked During Migration Scam Probe

A young Indian reporter has been attacked after going undercover to reveal migration and education scams for tonight’s Four Corners program. The woman was subjected to threats during the making of the program and was attacked over the weekend. Police have been notified.

The reporter went to two different migration agents posing as someone wanting to pass an English Language Test without having the skills, and said she was willing to buy a fake work certificate. She was able to do both if she paid between $3,000 and $5,000.

It is not suggested the migration agents nor the colleges identified in the Four Corners program are behind either the threats or the attack.

Some Indian students, principally in Melbourne and Sydney, have been subjected to violent attacks which have tainted Australia’s reputation as an education provider.

But tonight’s Four Corners program will reveal more details on how Indian students are being exploited by dodgy colleges and unscrupulous migration and education agents. The allegations on tonight’s program expose a number of cases where students have lost tens of thousands of dollars.

Prabmeet Singh is one of about 70,000 Indian students who come to Australia to study each year. His family spent more than $40,000 on a course at the Sydney flying school, Aerospace Aviation. His mother, Pushpinder Kaur, says the family is now broke and her son still has no pilot’s licence. “It is a fraud. We were shown so many rosy pictures about the school and it is not what it is really, it was just a scam,” she said. “I think the Government should be more alert in these type of matters because it is the career of the children which is at stake.”

[…]

Tonight’s Four Corners program also reveals unscrupulous practices by migration and education agents. Karl Konrad, an education and migration agent based in Sydney, says he has been aware of a black market in dodgy documents for years. “I had many students come to my offices and say, ‘oh I can buy letters for $3,000 at particular restaurants’,” he said. “They didn’t name the restaurants, but I was getting many of these type of stories. [So] we sent that information to the Immigration Department and they in turn thanked us for the information and said they would pass it on to Trades Recognition Australia. “Nothing ever became of that.”

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



Calais Migrant ‘Cried Rape as Revenge Against People Smuggler Who Failed to Get Her Into Britain’

A young woman migrant who claims to have been raped may have made up the attack to get ‘revenge’ on a people smuggler, police say.

The alleged victim, an Iraqi Kurd, described by police as ‘in her 20s and extremely good looking’ is believed to have been negotiating a price for illegal passage to England before claiming she was attacked close to a Calais squatter camp known as ‘The Jungle’.

The woman — who cannot be named for legal reasons — claims she was dragged into a ‘dark place’ before being punched and then raped.

Welcome to the jungle: Asylum seekers in Calais queue for food handouts. France has pledged to raise the camp to the ground — as early as September

When she tried to scream, the man held her mouth and told her to ‘Shut up’, she claimed.

But despite a criminal enquiry being launched, a medical examination of the woman found no signs of physical abuse or DNA evidence.

In another possible example of the increasing desperation of those gathering in northern France as they try to get to England, detectives even suggested she might have made the attack up.

People smugglers charge up to £1,000 cash for the short journey across the Channel, and violence often breaks out over deals.

‘It’s possible that the smuggler did not manage to get her to the United Kingdom after she paid a lot of money, and so she accused him of rape,’ said one police source.

He added: ‘She’s a slight, extremely pretty woman, and not the type who would be able to fight a grown man.’

Jean-Philippe Joubert, Public Prosecutor for nearby Boulogne, said: ‘At the end of last week this young woman presented herself to police in Calais.

‘She spoke through an interpreter and claimed that the attack happened a few days beforehand.

‘That said, it’s necessary to treat this witness statement with a lot of care.

‘She filed a complaint which accused a people smuggler. She was not able to furnish us with much more information.’

Mr Joubert confirmed that the woman had been taken to hospital in Calais, where she was examined by a doctor who found no evidence of an attack.

Tests failed to find any traces of another person’s DNA, although Mr Joubert conceded it may have ‘disappeared’ since the alleged crime.

Judicial Police from Coquelles are investigating.

The attack is said to have taken place early last week in a makeshift tent or thicket in woodland next to the Marcel-Doret industrial estate, a few hundred yards from ‘The Jungle’.

An identity parade has since been organised, with photographs of suspected people smugglers also being shown to the woman.

She has described her attacker as being in his 30s and of Asian appearance.

In a separate incident, last October Sher Hassan Jaabar, in his 20s and an illegal migrant from Pakistan, was charged with the rape of a London journalism student two months before.

Jaabar, who also uses the name Afsnar Navaz, is expected to go on trial later this year.

He denies rape, saying he was just another Calais migrant whose ‘only dream is to settle in Britain.’

Crime is on the increase in and around illegal migrant camps, with Britons arriving in Calais to take the ferry to Dover saying they have been held up at knifepoint.

France has pledged to raze ‘The Jungle’ to the ground by the end of the year, with local officials currently suggesting that it will be destroyed as soon as September 21st.

Although the majority of illegal migrants around Calais are men, the number of women and children has increased in recent months.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]



Denmark: Wanted Asylum Seekers Fled Country

Faced with deportation back to a worn-torn country, many Iraqi asylum seekers have fled Denmark Danish police cannot find 44 of the Iraqi asylum seekers facing forced repatriation to Iraq

Refugee support organisation Asylret says more than half of the missing Iraqi asylum seekers have left the country.

Since the repatriation agreement between Denmark and Iraq was signed in May, Iraqi authorities have accepted 54 Iraqis seeking asylum in Denmark. They have turned down 62 because of discrepancies with their identification.

About 80 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers have since the repatriation agreement was signed have been staying in Brorsons Church in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen. There has been no sign of the 44 being sought by police, who have searched both the Sandholm and Avnstrup asylum camps for them.

The refugees are required to report to asylum authorities twice a week, retrieve their mail every third day and collect a supplementary income check every two weeks. If they break this pattern, they are considered missing by the National Police, who then put out an arrest warrant for them.

Asylret has been working closely with the asylum seekers and checking their cases to see if they warrant further attention. Just last week, they were informed of an attempted suicide by one of the rejected at the Sandholm centre following the deaths of his family in Iraq in a suicide bombing.

‘How long must irresponsible and rotten Danish politicians be allowed to pretend that Iraq is a peaceful country and on the back of that send Iraqi refugees to a country plagued by civil war, terror and chaos,’ an Asylret spokesman said. Three of the missing asylum seekers were detained by German police a couple of weeks ago as they tried to cross the Danish-German border. They are being held in the closed section of the Sandholm camp awaiting repatriation. Six of their compatriots have already been repatriated to Iraq.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Greece: Conflicting Signals for Migrants

As Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlo-poulos heralded a multifaceted program aimed at integrating immigrants into Greek society, reports from Patra revealed that hundreds of migrants evicted from a dismantled makeshift settlement were sleeping rough across the western port city.

Pavlopoulos yesterday announced a program of social integration for migrants, including Greek language and history lessons for migrant mothers and a public awareness campaign aimed at averting a likely racist backlash against a burgeoning migrant population. The minister also revealed that the European Commission has earmarked 26.2 million euros to help Greece deal with migration. Of this, 3.46 million euros is said to have been set aside for this year, Pavlopoulos said. It was unclear what proportion would go toward the social integration program and what toward plans for the creation of new migrant reception centers, of which the government is said to be planning five. One of these centers is slated for construction in Rio, in the Peloponnese, but the project has stalled due to opposition by local residents. The plan had been for a center in Rio to accommodate hundreds of migrants who had been squatting in a makeshift settlement near the port of Patra until earlier this month when police razed the camp. Now more than 200 migrants, mostly Afghans, are said to be sleeping rough, some near the railway station, others on patches of wasteland.

The fate of the migrants in Patra was broached by the Geneva-based Human Rights Watch yesterday. HRW expressed its concern for “several Afghans… now homeless… hiding in abysmal conditions out of fear of being arrested.” It also objected to reports regarding the transfer of a group of migrants from the island of Chios to Evros. “We fear that people are being prevented from seeking asylum… and that migrants are kept in unacceptable detention conditions and possibly even being secretly expelled to Turkey,” said HRW’s Bill Frelick.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Ireland: HSE Sends Emergency Phrase Books to Every Acute Hospital

EMERGENCY PHRASE books have been sent to every acute hospital in the State to help frontline staff communicate with patients who cannot speak English.

The Emergency Multilingual Aid packs, which are intended for use before the services of an interpreter are requested, were produced in response to difficulties reported by staff in dealing with newly arrived immigrants.

They include phrase books in 20 languages, from Arabic to Urdu, language identification cards and a manual containing guidelines for staff on using interpreters.

Alice O’Flynn, the HSE’s assistant national director for social inclusion, described it as a “hands-on toolkit” for staff in emergency and acute settings to help communicate with people with limited English proficiency. The packs have been sent to all acute public hospitals in the past fortnight.

“We have had a lot of interest in the [packs] from our colleagues who deliver healthcare in the community, such as primary care teams — GPs, public health nurses, dentists — mental health and social workers, where they would see many patients and service users who do not speak English as their first language,” Ms O’Flynn said.

“So the potential for them to be adapted and used throughout the entire healthcare system is enormous.”

She added that the HSE had also been contacted by some of its international counterparts who were interested in the initiative.

Last year the HSE published an intercultural strategy to adapt services to cater for the cultural and linguistic diversity of its users.

In the catchment area of one of the major Dublin hospitals, for example, there are 60 ethnic groupings, 25 per cent of AE attendances are patients from minority ethnic backgrounds and staff members come from 42 different countries.

Sioban O’Brien Green of Akidwa, an African women’s network, said immigrants’ lack of knowledge about the health service was often compounded by the language barrier.

“I have just finished facilitating a group down in Cork and about a third of the group did not have English as a first language and had very poor English. We had 22 women in our group with 12 different languages,” she said.

“I can imagine if they had to present for any kind of emergency procedure, it would just be a nightmare . . .

“It certainly comes up very often in our consultations with women — not being familiar with services and not being able to communicate effectively.”

The HSE’s intercultural strategy last year recommended the establishment of a national interpretation service to improve services provided to immigrants across the State.

It suggested that current fragmented services were causing distress to non-English speakers and health workers and there was pressing need for a standardised system.

The new packs contain guidelines for staff on using interpreters. They advise against using other staff members or a patient’s family or friends to interpret.

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



Spain: Voluntary Re-Entry Plan Flops

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 28 — Only 5,458 immigrants took part in the government’s programme to voluntarily return to their country of origin in the first 6 months of 2009. The figures were released by the Ministry for Labour and Immigration, quoted today by the daily newspaper La Vanguardia. The results of the two state programmes show that they have substantially failed: in six years only 8,500 immigrants chose to leave Spain and return home, on the basis of the 2003 voluntary humanitarian plan for the re-entry of refugees, asylum seekers and people unable to integrate in Spain. On the other hand, the voluntary re-entry programme due to unemployment, which provides for the immigrant receiving a one-off state benefit payment, provided that he or she gives up his/her permit to stay and work and that he or she is not allowed to re-enter Spain for three years, has received even scarcer adhesion. In the first six months of the year, only 5,088 immigrants presented applications to return to their countries of origin. Only 3,977 were accepted. A drop in the ocean considering that, when the voluntary re-entry programme due to unemployment was launched in 2008, the government had predicted around 100,000 applications. Even more so when you consider that foreigners in Spain (5.5 million people which is 12% of the population) have been amongst the worst hit in the last year by the economic crisis and the collapse of the job market. Some 221,000 lost their jobs between July 2008 (when 2,151,880 immigrants were registered with social security) and June 2009 (when the number registered had fallen to 1,929,837). The people who are deciding to give up their permits to stay in Spain and return to their country of origin are mainly Bolivians, followed by Argentineans, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Chileans, Brazilians and Uruguayans and, to a lesser extent, Ukrainians and Russians. The people most resistant to leaving Spain are people from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan countries. Some 83% of Moroccans in Spain (estimated to be 729,000) do not trust the plans promoted by the Spanish government. According to the Association of Immigrant Workers in Spain (ATIME), the programme is “financial blackmail and highlights the worsening of immigration policies by the government in Madrid.” People who decide to return to their country of origin due to the financial crisis or because they do not have a job, do it off their own back, in order not to close the door on a potential reintegration into the Spanish job market in the future. “They are returning to Casablanca or Rabat, but without losing sight of Madrid or Barcelona,” explains Kamal Ramuni, president of ATIME. “They simply jump in their cars, head south, get to Algerisas and cross over the strait on the ferry to get to Morocco. So that, whenever they decide to, they are free to return to Spain.” (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Afghan Teens in Swedish Asylum Limbo

[Comment from Tuan Jim: Note the variety of comments on the page — more than I’ve seen for any other Local article.]

A wave of teenage Afghan refugees has arrived in Malmö and other Swedish cities in recent weeks. Many remain in limbo as most Swedish municipalities refuse to accept them.

During the past week a record 64 juveniles have arrived in Sweden, according to Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) figures, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reports.

In the southern Swedish city of Malmö alone, 45 teenagers have arrived and applied for asylum over the past fortnight.

They are among the 250 teenagers and children housed in reception centres around Sweden, 84 of which are in Malmö. Many have been in limbo for several months due to a chronic shortage of available places in other municipalities.

Of Sweden’s 290 municipalities, only 100 have signed agreements with the Migration Board to accept refugees.

The Migration Board’s head Dan Eliasson has joined the migration minister Tobias Billström in calling on municipalities’ local councils to take on a greater share of the burden.

“The situation demands that more municipalities sign agreements to help the most vulnerable. The municipalities claim that they lack expertise. But these kids are not from Mars. Their problems do not differ from those that other teenagers can need help with,” Dan Eliasson said to the newspaper.

The flow of teenage boys, mostly from Afghanistan and Somalia, taking their chances on treacherous journeys to Europe has been increasing recently as conflicts escalate in their home countries.

One recent arrival to Sweden is 13-year-old Mehdi Heidari, who began his journey from Afghanistan seven months ago.

“My father was murdered by the Taliban,” he told DN.

“The Taliban tries to recruit all the boys to their schools. They offer food and shelter. If you don’t accept, things can get violent. They hit my fingers with a hammer.”

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) many of those arriving in European countries have taken up to a year to complete their journeys, living on the fringes of society in the countries they pass en route.

When they arrive at their destinations many do not bother to apply for asylum and continue to live outside of formal society and accurate statistics are therefore difficult to compile.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



UK: Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants Here for Handouts, Says Senior Judge

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants come to Britain just to get welfare benefits, a senior judge declared yesterday.

Judge Ian Trigger said the cost of the handouts has helped to double the national debt.

He spoke out as he gave a two-year jail sentence to a Jamaican drug minder who disappeared from the notice of immigration authorities after claiming asylum.

He told Lucien McClearley, 31, at Liverpool Crown Court: ‘Your case illustrates all too clearly the completely lax immigration policy that exists and has existed over recent years.’

Sentencing McClearley, he added: ‘People like you, and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people like you, come to these shores to avail themselves of the generous welfare benefits that exist here.

‘In the past ten years the national debt of this country has risen to extraordinary heights, largely because central Government has wasted billions of pounds. Much of that has been wasted on welfare payments.

‘For every £1 that the decent citizen, who is hard-working, pays in taxes, nearly 10 per cent goes on servicing that national debt. That is twice the amount it was in 1997 when this Government came to power.’

McClearley arrived legally in Britain in November 2001 on a visitor’s visa.

He was arrested in October 2002 after it ran out but claimed asylum and was released while this was being processed.

He then ‘disappeared from the radar of the authorities’, the court heard. His application was rejected in 2004 but he was only arrested this February after police stopped a car he was driving and noticed it smelled of cannabis.

A search of the house where McClearley was staying in Everton uncovered cannabis worth £7,200, a gram of cocaine and a fake passport.

He admitted taking a vehicle without consent, possessing cannabis and cocaine, possessing a class-B drug with intent and two counts of possessing false identity documents.

Judge Trigger, who is also a part-time immigration judge, told McClearley: ‘The fact that it took nearly two years to process your claim shows how desperate the situation in this country has become.’

The 65-year-old judge said he ‘hoped and trusted’ McClearley would be deported immediately on release.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars


Nurse ‘Forced’ To Help Abort

Faith Objector Sues Mt. Sinai

A Brooklyn nurse claims she was forced to choose between her religious convictions and her job when Mount Sinai Hospital ordered her to assist in a late-term abortion against her will.

The hospital even exaggerated the patient’s condition and claimed the woman could die if the nurse, a devout Catholic, did not follow orders, the nurse alleges in a lawsuit.

“It felt like a horror film unfolding,” said Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, who claims she has had gruesome nightmares and hasn’t been able to sleep since the May 24 incident.

The married mother of a year-old baby was 30 minutes into her early-morning shift when she realized she had been assigned to an abortion. She begged her supervisor to find a replacement nurse for the procedure. The hospital had a six-hour window to find a fill-in, the suit says.

Bosses told the weeping Cenzon-DeCarlo the patient was 22 weeks into her pregnancy and had preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure that can lead to seizures or death if left untreated.

The supervisor “claimed that the mother could die if [Cenzon-DeCarlo] did not assist in the abortion.”

But the nurse, the niece of a Filipino bishop, contends that the patient’s life was not in danger. She argued that the patient was not even on magnesium therapy, a common treatment for preeclampsia, and did not have problems indicating an emergency.

Her pleas were rejected, and instead she was threatened with career-ending charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, according to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

Feeling threatened, Cenzon-DeCarlo assisted in the procedure.

She said she later learned that the hospital’s own records deemed the procedure “Category II,” which is not considered immediately life threatening.

“I felt violated and betrayed,” she recalled. “I couldn’t believe that this could happen.”

A native of the Philippines, Cenzon-DeCarlo moved to New York in 2001 and started at Mount Sinai on the East Side as an operating-room nurse in 2004. During her job interview, an administrator asked Cenzon-DeCarlo whether she’d be willing to participate in abortions. She flatly said no.

The nurse said she put her beliefs in writing.

The day after the procedure, Cenzon-DeCarlo filed a grievance with her union. Later that week, she was cornered by two supervisors who told her if she wanted any more overtime shifts, she would have to sign a statement agreeing to participate in abortions, the suit says.

The next month, Cenzon-DeCarlo was assigned to one overtime shift, rather than the eight or nine she usually received, the suit claims.

Although the Brooklyn resident is still working at Mount Sinai, she’s asking a court to order the hospital to pay unspecified damages, restore her shifts and respect her objections to abortion.

“I emigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred,” Cenzon-DeCarlo said. “Doctors and nurses shouldn’t be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs.”

Providing legal advice for her action is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian group seeking to put a national spotlight on the case. The suit also seeks to force Mount Sinai to give up federal funding it receives, because it failed to uphold a federal rule protecting employees who have moral objections to controversial procedures.

Mount Sinai said it would not comment.

Galen Sherwin, the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Rights Project, said the case centered on whether a medical emergency existed.

“The law provides protections for individuals who object to performing abortions, but at the same time, health-care professionals are not permitted to abandon patients,” Sherwin said.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Stanford University Punishes Dissent When Training Teachers

Michele Kerr has had a harder year than most aspiring math teachers. For her, the math was easy and the teaching was a snap. The problem was the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP).

Once administrators found out she didn’t fully share what she calls the “progressive” teaching philosophy that is pervasive at STEP and education schools nationwide, they tried to thwart her career.

In March 2008, Kerr attended an open house for admitted students and stated her concern about paying big bucks to learn a teaching philosophy that strongly differed from her own. Soon she found herself in the director’s office being told that she should reconsider attending STEP.

A misdirected e-mail revealed that STEP officials were planning to “strategize” with the program’s lawyer, apparently to revoke Kerr’s admission. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), where I direct the defense program, wrote Stanford’s president and received assurance that Kerr would be allowed to start school after all.

Kerr started a blog to record her thoughts and experiences. Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and John Dewey’s “Experiential Education” were among the many targets. The School of Education started investigating.

One day she was reprimanded for mentioning her students — anonymously — and identifying herself as a Stanford student. But nobody else was being investigated, Stanford had no rules about blogging and another blogger extolled by Stanford was revealing far more about his own students. To avoid further trouble, Kerr password-protected her blog and even removed all references to Stanford.

That wasn’t good enough for STEP. An associate dean hounded her for the password so that he could investigate whether she was breaking any rules. He made sure to communicate his concerns to the principal of the school where she had been working.

Kerr really set off a firestorm in November with her Classroom Management Plan, which stated, “My guiding doctrine in forming classroom community can safely be considered a complete rejection of progressive education doctrine.” This likely led the director to start building a case for kicking her out of school.

In a formal letter in December, the director and associate dean made clear that they were following the guidelines titled “Regarding Suitability for the Practice of Teaching.” They were amassing a laundry list of minor infractions that would give them reasons to deny Kerr her degree.

What were the crimes? “Intimidating” her classmates by standing up for herself when she learned that some of them had complained privately about her views.

After FIRE wrote the president again and Kerr filed grievances, senior Stanford administrators intervened and guaranteed her fair treatment. She got new supervisors and graduated successfully June 14.

But the story wasn’t over, for Kerr didn’t have a job. The associate dean may have poisoned the waters at her school. The new principal chose not to hire her despite rosy reviews from the math department.

A few weeks ago, Kerr finally landed a job teaching math and humanities. The school year starts Aug. 18. So far, it seems that her high school has a healthier tolerance for debate than Stanford University’s teaching program. The lesson for aspiring teachers who have doubts about the latest trends in education schools is that you can fight and win, but don’t expect many favors.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



UN Allows Gay, Lesbian Group to Join Debates

GENEVA — The United Nations granted official status to a gay and lesbian organization from Brazil on Monday, allowing it to participate in U.N. meetings ranging from health to human rights.

The victory for the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals marks the third consecutive year the U.N. Economic and Social Council has overturned a decision by a 19-country committee blocking gay groups from participating in the global body’s debates.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

A scholarWe’ve just learned that this blog has actually been mentioned in the dead-tree literature!

It may not be in the most complimentary terms, but as long as he spelled our name right, who cares?

A reader sent us this email tonight:

I just finished reading The Enemy at the Gate by Andrew Wheatcroft.

He takes a slight jab at your website at the end of his book when he tries to have everyone play nice with each other, and downplays the most recent Muslim incursion into Europe.

It’s not a bad book about the history between the Hapsburgs and Ottomans; I have read worse when it comes to apologists for the Islamists.

– – – – – – – –

The best thing is he directed me to check out your site and I enjoyed it immensely, especially the Danish hero.

Maybe this explains some of the Google searches that lead people to our blog.

The book is reviewed here. For some strange reason, the reviewer does not say, “The author fails to give credit to the noted blogger Baron Bodissey for his ground-breaking work in the Counterjihad.”

Perhaps that sentence was cut from the final copy by the Telegraph’s editor…

When You’re in Venice

The following news story has virtually no relevance to Gates of Vienna’s mission, although it does involve Portuguese cultural enrichment in Italy. But I couldn’t resist it, especially the headline.

This post is dedicated to Afonso Henriques (who, as we all know, would never do such a thing himself).

According to ANSA:

Venice Mayor Nabs Canal Peeing Man

Cacciari responds to criticism of city upkeep

(ANSA) — Venice, July 28 — Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari caught a man peeing in a canal Monday night and told him off before calling the police, the mayor said Tuesday.

“I saw a gentleman peeing in a canal and took the liberty of telling him that he probably wouldn’t do so in his living room,” Cacciari told reporters after a series of polemics Monday over the upkeep of the city.

“I then called the city police to clear things up”.

The Portuguese tourist was fined 50 euros.

– – – – – – – –

On Monday the regional governor of Veneto, Giancarlo Galan, and Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta, a Venice native, accused Cacciari of not doing enough to preserve the city.

Brunetta said the mayor had “sold out” to corporations, casinos and tycoons by leasing art sites and allowing huge advertising hoardings while Galan claimed there were too many rats, seagulls, discarded bottles.

The centre-left mayor hit back by accusing the conservative politicians of electioneering ahead of an upcoming vote for city hall.

He noted, for instance, that seagulls were now common in all seaside cities, including New York, but acknowledged that Venice needed more funds to keep up its recent ‘urban decorum’ drives.

Cacciari has launched campaigns to clean monuments, stop tourists snacking in the historic centre, and rid St Mark’s of its pigeons.

But the mayor has long bemoaned a lack of state funds for the upkeep of city monuments and has turned to private sponsors.

Earlier this year there was an outcry when the media reported a deal with Coca Cola to put vending machines around the city.

The contract has since been put out to tender, while authorities have stressed the machines will not be near historic landmarks. Cacciari warned in February that Venice’s monuments and churches risked falling into ruin because too much state aid is allegedly being directed into a controversial project to protect the lagoon city from sinking.



Hat tip: Insubria.

“Defeating Eurabia” Available at Amazon

A brief note from Fjordman:

My book Defeating Eurabia, which is still available online in full at the Gates of Vienna blog with hyperlinks and documentation (the book is basically a long online text printed on paper to make it easier to read), can finally be bought from Amazon. It is not out of print, just ignore that sentence.

I will be grateful if some of those who have read the book also publish a brief review of it. Just a few sentences is quite sufficient.

If somebody feels like it, maybe they could send a copy of this book, as well as Bat Ye’or’s original book about Eurabia, to magazines such as Newsweek and The Economist, since they claim that all talk about Eurabia is nonsense. It is not. It is by now very well documented that European authorities, led by the European Union, are deliberately fostering Muslim mass immigration to Europe in order to create a Euro-Mediterranean economic and cultural entity.

[Post ends here]

Cultural Enrichment in Vancouver

Cultural Enrichment News


This may well be an Enricher vs. Enricher incident. According to The Calgary Sun:

Stabbing suspect bites victim’s breast in altercation

VANCOUVER — A war of words turned violent when a woman stabbed another woman in the ear with a potato peeler during an altercation outside a downtown Vancouver nightclub, police said.

Police say Yurub Mohammed Arte, 25, stabbed a 20-year-old woman in the left ear and gnawed at the victim’s right breast early Monday outside Republic in the 900 block of Granville Street.

Investigators believe the row started inside the club. However, police are still piecing together how Arte produced the shiv.

– – – – – – – –

Nightclub staff held Arte until police arrived.

The victim underwent treatment for her injuries.

A representative from Donnelly Hospitality Management, who operate Republic along with Bar None, The Modern and Pop Opera declined to comment on the incident.

All Donnelly nightclubs are members of Bar Watch.

Arte will appear in court on Aug. 6 to face charges of assault and assault with a weapon.



For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: JH.

The Criminal Vanguard

In response to this morning’s post about the possibility that Hells Angels and football hooligans will act as a vanguard against Islamization, a Danish reader sent us this brief note:

The tale of criminals as the defenders against the Moslem onslaught is not new.

In Dalmatia and Istria, you had the Uskoks acting as anti-Moslem pirates, with occasional raids inland.

In the Slavic mainland Balkans, you had the Hajduks mostly preying on travellers, but joining any anti-Moslem rebellion they could lay their hands on.

In Greece, it was the Klephts — also mostly common robbers — who provided most of the initial manpower in the Greek rebellion in the 1820s.

– – – – – – – –

Arkan’s Serbian goons in Bosnia and Kosovo are a vastly more controversial example.

Given that it is illegal to use targeted violence against anybody, outlaws have a shorter road to travel before they take up arms.

That doesn’t make them nice people. That does make them a vanguard in a lot of historical cases.

This is quite true, and there are other similar cases. An example with a different enemy, but relying on the same principle, was the use of pirates — “privateers” — by the English crown against the Spanish Main in the 17th century. Some of the greatest English naval heroes began as pirates.

Hellish Saviors

The surrender of Vercingetorix to Caesar, 51 B.C.


I’ve been posting quite a bit recently about the “gang wars” in Denmark and the actions taken by the Danish chapter of Hells Angels against the Muslim immigrant gangs.

This is not an easy topic to deal with. The idea that violent, criminal, or marginal people may be the vanguard of the resistance to Islamization — it just doesn’t sit well. Unless our discussion includes a deep-throated and serious disapproval, we risk being labeled “criminals” as well as “racists” and “neo-Nazis”.

But it’s important to discuss the world as it is, and not as we would like it to be.

We would like our political leaders to cease importing of millions of Muslim immigrants. We would like them to show more spine in the face of Islamic intimidation. We would like our fellow voters to educate themselves so that they become aware of what’s happening and elect a new batch of leaders who will take a stand on behalf of their own people.

But in the world as it is, this shows no sign of happening. The existing paradigm — a system of lawfully-constituted democratic governance — has failed us.

If lawfully-constituted national leaders do not act, what happens? Will native Europeans go meekly to their doom?

Or will those who are already lawless act instead?

In the comments on my most recent post about the Danish Hells Angels, Zenster voiced his misgivings:

Hells Angels 5Let’s take a close look at exactly who it is that supposedly stand up to these Jackals.

Notice the skulls, references to Hell and allusions to death in general? Does anyone think that these are the sort of people who will come riding to the rescue of Western civilization in its finest form?

Moreover: It is too dangerous to ride through the city on a Harley with an HA logo on your back.

What does this simple statement tell you about the overall efficacy of Danish Hell’s Angels against the Jackals in general?

– – – – – – – –

[…]

“It is not our responsibility to solve society’s problems. We just react when something bad happens to our friends or families” Horn says.

Pay close attention. None of the above means that these “iron horse crusaders” will come riding to your rescue, Jackals or no.

Much as I might admire Jønke’s open indictment of the Jackals as those who encroach upon the lives of decent Danish people, neither do I look upon the Hell’s Angels as any sort of saviors. They will protect their own and give others the hindmost, much like the Jackals.

Tell me, where’s the advantage in that?

This is a simple question, but it requires a complicated answer.

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Let’s return to the world as it is.

In the eight years since 9-11, there has been no sign that any of the major traditional players in the existing political order “gets it”. George W. Bush fought “terrorism”, and he was the best we could hope for. Most European politicians — whether Left or “Right” — support Multiculturalism and are passive in the face of continued mass immigration. No one who wields power shows the slightest sign of dealing seriously with the coming social and financial catastrophe that the liberal welfare state has brought upon us.

In the world as it is, you can either have the Hells Angels, or you can give up beer and say “La illaha ila Allah, wa Muhammadun rasul Allah!”

It won’t be all that long before those are the only choices for Swedes, or Britons, or the Dutch.

I wrote a few weeks ago about what is likely to happen as the crisis worsens. Under the traditional social contract, in return for maintaining a monopoly on violence, our civil authorities are obligated to protect us from lawlessness and criminal predation. But they have abdicated this duty, and thousands of ordinary citizens are victimized every day as a result. A paralysis brought on by the twin ideologies of Political Correctness and Multiculturalism has immobilized the muscular system of the Western democracies and blocked any response to existential threats, both internal and external.

Or — to switch metaphors — consider cultural Marxism as the HIV of the West. Islam is just a virus of opportunity, a pneumonia that has taken advantage of our immunological deficiencies and ushered in the onset of full-blown AIDS in our culture.

We are trapped in a device of our own making, and there is no way to escape without surrendering the deepest truths and most cherished ideals that have held sway for centuries in Europe and the European diaspora.

But not everybody is stuck in the trap. Millions of ordinary people don’t buy into the PC/MC Weltanschauung. Their opinions are not that different from those of their grandparents and great-grandparents. They don’t agree with what their leaders are doing on their behalf, but they want to get along, to live a quiet life, to keep their jobs and avoid having their kids taken away by the child care authorities.

The average citizen may be angry and deeply resentful of the soft totalitarianism he’s forced to live under, but you can’t expect him to be a hero. He’s got everything to lose.

All that is changing, however. As working-class neighborhoods are overrun by “culturally enriched” crime, as unemployment rises, as governmental fiscal folly erodes the value of what little money people earn, they have less and less to lose. If official paralysis continues, eventually some of them will abandon all those decades of self-restraint and take up violent resistance. At some point people will snap.

And those who go first will be the ones who are already somewhat outside the law and not averse to violence. People who have less to lose, anyway. Roughnecks, misfits, and outsiders of various sorts.

In Denmark that means the Hells Angels.

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Now let’s return to Zenster’s question: Tell me, where’s the advantage in that?

Well, for starters, Hells Angels in Denmark are doing exactly what you recommend: targeting Islamic leaders. In this case the leaders are the young thugs that lead the Muslim gangs, but they are still leaders, and they’re important in the criminal ecosystem of the immigrant underworld in Denmark.

Back in May, during the time I was in Denmark, AK81 — the group associated with Hells Angels — assassinated another immigrant gang leader. I had a discussion with one of the Danes about the situation, and he said, “You know, you can always tell it’s a Dane who does the shooting, because it only takes him one shot. BANG! [pointing to the center of his forehead] and the guy is dead. But when the Muslims shoot somebody, they spray the area with AK-47s and probably don’t even hit the target — just innocent bystanders.”

So even though both groups are criminals, there is a distinction to be made. And the average Dane understands that distinction. Even though he may find the Hells Angels repugnant, he finds the idea that his country might be overrun with immigrant thugs even more repugnant.

This explains the popularity of the Jackal Manifesto, and it explains why there is an explosion in recruitment for Hells Angels. The civil authorities have failed in their responsibilities, and a local alternative is emerging. Everyone would prefer that the police and the courts do their jobs, and that the murderous thugs were hauled into court, given due process of law, and then hanged by the neck until dead.

But that’s not going to happen. There is a void in the officially-sanctioned civil order, and nature abhors a vacuum. Something else is rushing in to fill it.

The process is not going to be the same in every country. The local resistance will take on different forms, based on the politics and culture of the country involved.

In Britain I expect it to be an alliance among various working-class groups, with “football hooligans” playing a prominent role. The stirrings of this development can already be detected, especially in the most “enriched” suburbs of London.

Nobody wants football hooligans as their champions and protectors. But they know how to put the boot in, and the ultra-politically-correct British police don’t. They know how to be culturally inclusive and non-homophobic. They know how to hit people with large fines when they drop fag-ends on the pavement or fail to sort their rubbish for recycling.

But they are unable to protect ordinary citizens from predatory criminals, most of whom are Muslim immigrants.

So what’s the alternative?

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Regular readers are familiar with Zenster’s prescribed solutions, and I generally agree with them:

We need to target the top 2,000 or so radical Islamic leaders and send them to collect their 72 raisins.

We need make sure that the Muslim world feels such an overwhelmingly decisive blow — including glassing and Windexing™ Mecca, Medina, Qom, etc., if necessary — so that they learn what a “strong horse” really is and act accordingly.

We need to prepare the lamp posts, figuratively or literally, for the traitorous Leftists who are leading our countries into this mess.

And so on.

But who are “we”? Who is it that will do these things?

There is no sign, none whatsoever, that any Western leader — not even Geert Wilders, God bless him — will take such actions.

There is no evidence that 9-11 woke anyone up to what needs to be done. And there’s no evidence that a dozen new 9-11s will change the current paradigm.

When the inevitable nuclear or chemical attack against a major Western city occurs, it won’t be enough to incite that kind of response. By then the situation will be so bad that a major terrorist action will simply accelerate the descent into political chaos.

The West is done. You can stick a fork in it.

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But this is no reason to despair. The end of the West is not the end of the world.

There will be an interregnum of uncertain duration, and then something new will form, something built out of leftover pieces of what went before, in the same way Paris, Oxford, and Vienna were built out of the remnants of the Roman Empire.

A lengthy discussion around these ideas has emerged here on a thread that has kept going for the last few days. In the following paragraphs I’ll draw on what was said there, not just by me, but by Conservative Swede, DP111, Chechar, Watching Eagle, Furor Teutonicus, and others.

Conservative Swede often refers to the imminent demise of the reigning paradigm of the liberal West. This belief system could be considered a religious orthodoxy, except that the West has largely abandoned religion in its political systems and public policy. The prevalent Weltanschauung is an article of secular faith, so call it Orthodox Secularism: a set of ideas as rigid and unexamined as anything that a Calvinist could produce.

The liberal paradigm of Western Civilization was a natural outgrowth of Christianity, but once it was fully formed, it abandoned its theological basis. Like the cire perdue in a clay cast, the core of faith melted away, leaving the hollow shell of secular liberalism

But this secular faith is unrestrained by the Christian idea that man is limited and flawed. Under the secular paradigm, humans are inherently good and perfectible, and formerly Christian ethics — unmoored from any limitations — require the secular faithful to create a perfect human society on Earth.

All the murderous totalitarianisms of the 20th century arose from various perversions of this idea. But so did the kinder, gentler socialisms of one form or another that all of us live under now.

All of our societies have created fiscal and social Ponzi schemes which cannot last, which must eventually come crashing down around our ears. Because they have continued for generations, we think they can go on this way forever.

But they can’t. A brief and cold-eyed look at the structure of our political economies shows that they are on their last legs. Even without factoring Islam into the equation, another generation at the most is all we’ll get.

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So, knowing all that, isn’t it possible to take action? Is a collective effort to save Western Civilization even imaginable?

The current paradigm is a psychic structure that prevents our formerly Christian civilization from taking the kind of action that would allow it to save itself. At the moment this paradigm is in the process of slow-motion self-destruction, and the pace may soon accelerate so that the old framework will crumble quite rapidly in the next five years or so. The collapse of the welfare state will be the absolute limiting factor for the liberal paradigm.

That collapse, whether gentle or catastrophic, is unavoidable. In just a few short years we will either discover a different paradigm, or be in the midst of some sort of paradigm-less chaos.

The existing system has an internal logic that prevents it from correcting itself. No politician can get re-elected if he takes the necessary action and begins phasing out the welfare state. No civil servant can take harsh measures to ensure our long-term welfare, because that would be contrary to the deranged altruism of the dominant meme.

The very structure of the system prevents it from correcting itself. This is the Achilles’ heel of liberal social democracy.

We can’t even talk frankly about these issues in any major public forum. This little blog is a haven for cranks and weirdos like us, but there’s no way our voices will ever be heard by a significant number of people — especially those whose hands grasp the levers of political power.

Questioning the sandy foundation on which this immense and ornate castle has been built is simply not done. That’s why all of us here are loners and misfits of one sort or another, and not on government or university payrolls — at least not under the names that are displayed with our posts.

I’m still impelled towards grassroots organizing in an attempt to stave off the worst. I have a family and people I care about, so I have to believe there is still an alternative — I’m not ready to face the War of All Against All.

But if a solution can be found, it is not going to come through government or military means. Those can only come after the change occurs.

And we don’t have much time. In the last three years the polarization has only gotten more extreme. The PC/MC crowd is accelerating the bus towards the precipice. Barack Hussein Obama is at the wheel, and conservatives are hiding under the seats in fear of being labeled “Nazis”. What debate there is among those on the right is more often concerned with doctrinal purity than it is with hammering together a compromise and a coalition that might actually have even a remote chance of making a difference. The infighting will likely continue unabated until the final impact at the foot of the cliff.

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Zenster is right about one thing: the Hells Angels will not be the saviors of Western civilization.

But nothing else is going to save it, either. There’s no alternative: the paradigm has to collapse.

The replacement paradigm — for there must be one; man cannot live without a paradigm — will be something we can’t even imagine now.

Our task is to mitigate as well as we can the period of chaos that lies between now and then. There will be no way to prevent various forms of violence and destruction — you can’t cut off life support to millions of people without lethal results, and there is a distinct possibility of geronticide in our future, whether via Obama’s health care plan or by some other means.

But eventually the chaos will subside, and a new civilization will emerge. As Conservative Swede pointed out, Islam will not survive long after the old paradigm disappears — a reinvigorated immune response in the remnants of Western culture will see to that.

So what will come next?

The current paradigm is based on an antipathy for what preceded it. We are modern; we are smarter and better than those who went before us, and everything prior to 1967 can be safely disregarded.

Part of the modern liberal ideal is the foolish notion that we can simply abolish by fiat millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of culture, and centuries of tradition. Just like that! We wish it all away. We’ll soon find out to our chagrin how mistaken we have been.

These absurd ideas will die with the liberal paradigm, and as a corrective, the successor civilization will reach back into our cultural history to find an alternative to the Enlightenment meme which is about to self-destruct.

The new paradigm and the new civilization will be built out of the fragments of what went before. So what we need to focus on is the construction of a modern version of the monastery at Lindisfarne, a networked sanctuary where what is good and valuable can be stored and kept for use in a future time after the chaos is over.

Grab an ink pot and a quill — we’ve got a lot of books to copy.

Obama’s Driving Us to the Poorhouse

Hey, kid, wanna lollipop? Just climb in the front seat and we’ll go for a little ride.

Of course he’ll drive us there in a environmentally friendly car, one which we’ll all be able to afford once he’s “managed” the health care of the elderly into eternity.

This video is from May of this year. If you’ve seen it already, you know it’s worth a repeat:



Whee! 174 miles an hour! We’re on speed, Unca O! Driving all those bills right through both the Senate and the House!

Ooops…what’s that wall up ahead?? You never said anything about any WALL!!!!
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I wish this guy who does these videos had been my Math teacher in high school. Concrete math, that’s his specialty. Lessons from him would have been even better than hanging out with Dr. Science.

Go to the Political Math website for more videos.

Especially see his version of Obama health care. The Lego guy who loses body parts while waiting to see a doctor in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts is pretty entertaining. But only if you’re convinced that the tripe legislation on health care will go the way of Hillarycare.

Also, you’ll see why they call it “Taxachusetts” and why anyone who can, moves to New Hampshire.

Where we gonna go when ObamaCare covers the land like a pall?

Here’s a suggestion: start practicing your Spanish.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/28/2009

Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/28/2009The “Taliban” offensive in Nigeria is continuing, and emergency security measures have been implemented in four northern states.

In other news, Hizb ut-Tahrir — flush with their recent success in Chicago — are planning two new conferences, one in Ontario and one in Londonistan. The Canadian meeting will be held in a government-owned facility.

Thanks to AA, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, Nilk, Sean O’Brian, TB, The Lurker from Tulsa, Tuan Jim, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Financial Crisis
Italy: Bankitalia; Profits Down, More Jobs Lost in South
 
USA
President Obama Refunds Cash to Kenyan Aunt, Convicted Murderer, Lobbyists
The Alternative Right
Union Members Trying to Save Their Sand Springs Steel Jobs
 
Canada
Hizb ut-Tahrir to Meet This Week in Ontario
Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Supremacist Group to Meet in Govt-Managed Community Center
Liberal Myth-Making
Ottawa Prof Charged in Deadly Bombing to Return to University
 
Europe and the EU
Church of Sweden in Brüno Advert Uproar
Dutch Officials Deny Israeli Complaints Over Funding of Leftist Group
France Trade Union Bombers — Update
Globalisers V. Localisers: A Grim Prediction for 2020
Italy: Minister ‘Screened’ Female Candidates for Berlusconi
Italy: Premier Claims in ‘Sex Tapes’ Ancient Tombs Under His Villa
Italy: Restaurateurs Poor as Pensioners — According to 2008 Tax Returns
Italy: Bravo, Silvio!
Spiegel on Fogh: Mediocrity
Sweden: Rinkeby Fire Claims Seventh Victim
UK: Thousands of a Tiny Minority of Extremists Meet in Londonistan to Demand a Caliphate
UK: Voters Turn Against War in Afghanistan
Ukraine Finds ‘Reporter’s Skull’
 
Balkans
Isolation Fear Grips Kosovo Serbs
What Really Happened in Srebrenica
 
Mediterranean Union
Regina, Forum in Milan Totally Misguided
 
North Africa
Egypt Scholars OK Mosques Built by Showbiz $
Egypt: Nasser vs. Sadat — the Female Version
Terrorism: Morocco, Life Sentence for Terrorist Leader
 
Israel and the Palestinians
Al-Qaeda: ‘We Hit Israel From Lebanon, Again’
Barry Rubin: Israel’s Peace Plan Marks a New Era in the Country’s History
Israel Warns Lebanon About Border Incidents
Palestinian to Sue Cohen for Bruno Film
 
Middle East
Nuclear: Gates to Netanyahu, Same Views on Iran
The Iranian Military Dictatorship
 
South Asia
Abbas Abdolmohamadi Describes How the Shiite Clergy Was Corrupted by the Islamic Revolution
Afghanistan — Spain: Government May Send Reinforcements
Anti-Taliban Fight Could Spill Over Into Tajikistan
Finnish Soldiers Fire First Shots in Anger in Afghanistan
Indonesia: Lesson Today is Hatred as Bashir Cultivates Bombers’ Breeding Ground
Indonesia: What Made Jakarta Suicide Bombers Tick
Pakistan Rescues Boys Trained as Suicide Bombers
Pakistan: India Submarine ‘Threatens Peace’
Tell-All TV Riles India’s Politicians
Turkmenistan: Five Billion Dollars for the Las Vegas of the Caspian Sea
West Java, Protestant Church Demolished by Local Government
 
Far East
Japan Executes 3 Inmates
Unopposed Candidate Elected as Macau’s New Chief Executive
Xinjiang Riots Confound Islamists
 
Australia — Pacific
Kent Pleads Guilty to Terror Charge
The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
African View: Memories of Taylor
Nigeria: Security Boosted in Four Northern States
Nigeria’s ‘Taliban’ Enigma
 
Immigration
Algeria: 19 People Stopped Off Coast of Oran
‘Brothels’ In Libya as Well, Bee Free Says
‘Outsourcing’ Asylum Seekers the Italian Way
 
Culture Wars
Anglican Leader Foresees Two Paths
 
General
Christians Can Save Islam From Cultural Death

Financial Crisis


Italy: Bankitalia; Profits Down, More Jobs Lost in South

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 28 — The crisis will hit profits of businesses in Southern Italy, but the same companies will see more job losses. A strong downturn in investments is also expected. This is what 2009 holds for Italian businesses, a scenario described by the annual Bank of Italy research into businesses in the industry and service sectors. The analysis of the data from 2008 affirmed worries of difficulties in accessing credit. On the employment front, after “2008’s substantial stability” compared to the previous year, “forecasts for 2009 indicate that the number of jobs will decrease by 2.1%” (-3.3% for industry in a strict sense). At the end of the year, businesses in the Southern Italy and the islands will see more job losses, even if compared to the northern and central regions of the country they will see a smaller decrease in earnings. Employment in the south will see a reduction of 2.4% compared to a drop in business volume of 1.9%. In the north and centre job losses will be slightly less at 2%, even if the downturn in earnings is expected to be double at 4%. On average, from the Bank of Italy research, a drop in earnings of 3.8% (-4.5% for industry of which -7% in manufacturing and -3% in services) is expected. “If the particularly negative forecasts for industry indeed occur”, the document reads, “it will be the most negative result from the time that the research began”. Investments will decrease more in the south (-14.5%) than in the centre-north (-11.3%), with an average downturn of 11.7%. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA


President Obama Refunds Cash to Kenyan Aunt, Convicted Murderer, Lobbyists

More than eight months after President Barack Obama won the White House, the remnants of his campaign organization is struggling to deal with some unfinished business: returning about $669,000 in tainted or illegal campaign contributions to a motley assortment of donors, among them a convicted murderer, Washington lobbyists and a number of foreign nationals, including his own aunt.

But the 11 Chicago-based staff members still on the campaign’s payroll are finding it was a lot easier to rake in a record-shattering $750 million than to identify and return donations that ran afoul of federal election laws or Obama’s own strict fundraising standards.

Their intensive effort to refund problem contributions has involved detailed research into lobbying records and passport information, an elaborate accounting system that cancels and reissues stale-dated refund checks and phone calls and letters urging donors to cash their refunds. The effort is unprecedented in modern politics, according to election law compliance experts, and underscores both the logistical challenges of processing so much contribution data and the Obama team’s hypersensitivity to anything that could sully the president’s carefully honed image as a crusader against special interests and a champion of ethics and transparency.

Obama’s oft-repeated commitment to those ideals has been a favorite target for critics. During the campaign, they assailed him for breaking a promise to participate in a government financing program intended to reduce the role of fundraising and for lax screening of prohibited contributions from foreign nationals. Since taking office, he’s come under fire for backtracking on his pledge to keep his administration free of lobbyists, whom he vilified during the campaign, and for lending his fundraising clout to groups that usually don’t adhere to the same strict no-lobbyist-cash standard that he imposed on his campaign and on the Democratic National Committee.

A POLITICO analysis of Obama’s most recent finance report showed that between the beginning of April and the end of June, the campaign sent out more than 800 refunds.

It’s not clear from the report which refunds were successfully processed, nor the motivation for every refund. POLITICO’s analysis identified at least 50 refunds totaling more than $27,000 to lobbyists, 40 refunds totaling nearly $28,000 to foreign donors and at least 13 refunds totaling nearly $115,000 to donors who gave more than the $4,600 maximum. The latter group included Robert Hormats, a Goldman Sachs director whom Obama recently nominated to be an undersecretary of state and who had his $2,300 donation returned because the campaign discovered he had already maxed out on how much he could give.

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



The Alternative Right

It’s 1964. A stranger approaches and tells you two political movements will arise in the near future, the New Left and the New Right. One of these movements will dominate American politics for a good quarter century. Indeed, political scientists will define the entire period in terms of the ascendancy of this group; historians will write books naming this age after the movement’s most successful leader. Politicians, scholars, and activists on right and left will go so far as to call it a “Revolution.”

Imagine then that you could look at the America (such as it is) of November 5, 2008, at the end of this era.

The election of “the most liberal man in the Senate” is a crowning moment for a federal welfare state that’s grown steadily for over 50 years, regardless of which party was in office. Each individual state is merely an administrative unit for a centralized bureaucracy. All important decisions are made by the Supreme Court. On social issues, conservatives have been in abject retreat even as leftists bemoan the rise of “Christian fascism.” The ban on School prayer, enacted in 1962 with Engel vs. Vitale, has about as much chance of being overturned as the ‘64 Civil Right Act. Gay marriage is a reality in several states. Mass immigration from the Third World is not just permitted but hailed as a moral imperative and encouraged by leaders of both political parties. The children of those immigrants receive preferences in education and job placement over Americans whose roots go back to the Founders.

Iconic American corporations such as McDonald’s, General Motors, and Coca-Cola fund far Left groups with hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants each year—even as some struggle to make profits. Universities are filled with “ethnic studies” and “women’s studies” majors who are skilled in organizing protests against Western Civilization, but can’t read the books that define it. News articles habitually reference public schools removing the names of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, to be replaced by some community organizer or another who was successful at stealing taxpayer money.

All of the above—and much more, of course—have occurred during and after the “Reagan Revolution” and the mighty deeds of its heroes that are regularly recounted in story and song at the foundations, think-tanks, and non-profits that occupy Northern Virginia. The cadres of Young Americans for Freedom may have gotten elected to office, but we all live in the world of Students for a Democratic Society. During the Age of Reagan and conservative hegemony, the New Left decisively won the culture wars, by largely abolishing, often through state fiat, the previously existing culture.

The American Right won past electoral victories by appealing to Middle America, posing as its defenders against the left-wing radicals who spat on the society that gave them so much privilege. Beyond lip service though, the conservative movement didn’t actually do anything to conserve that society, never mind roll back the gains of the Left.

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



Union Members Trying to Save Their Sand Springs Steel Jobs

SAND SPRINGS, OK — There’s an ongoing effort to save a steel mill. The Gerdau Ameristeel plant in Sand Springs could be shut down by Labor Day.

Union workers are taking their fight to the state. The Sand Springs mill is the last steel plant operating in Oklahoma. Union representatives say if it goes a large chunk of the local economy goes with it.

Steel worker Troy Zickefoose says it’s been a tumultuous month.

“Just not knowing if, whether we’re going to have a job, and what’s going to happen with the whole city of Sand Springs,” said steel worker Troy Zickefoose.

As he tries to pressure state agencies to help save the mill, they mayor of Sand Springs says it’s an uphill fight.

“We have to keep in mind, they make a product, steel, that’s not really in demand,” said Sand Springs Mayor Bob Walker.

Because of that, Gerdau Ameristeel closed two New Jersey plants in June and said they’re considering closing the Oklahoma mill. That’s a required step given 90 days before a plant’s closure.

“This plant is a staple of this community. And there’s a lot of people depending on it,” said steel worker Troy Zickefoose.

Zickefoose says if the state invests in the mill, Gerdau will reconsider closing shop.

One of the ways the Union is aggressively trying to keep its doors open is by handing out hundreds of petitions to Sand Springs residents. The company is encouraging them to get in touch with their representatives, and find a way to keep the mill running

“Our big issue, at this particular plant, is that the plant is old, and does not conform to EPA standards after next year,” said steel worker Troy Zickefoose.

He wants the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to invest in upgrades like new furnaces and operating systems.

Mayor Walker says it’s an expensive proposal and Gerdau could still decide to cease operations whenever they want.

“The environmental upgrades, that’s one of the real uphill battles of this mill,” said Sand Springs Mayor Bob Walker.

Even Zickefoose says getting state aid in this economy is a long shot, but it’s the best shot to save almost 300 jobs.

It is unclear how much money would be needed to upgrade the plant. The Secretary of Commerce is still working on a proposal. It is expected to be ready in two weeks. After it is released, Gerdau will make a final decision.

           — Hat tip: The Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]

Canada


Hizb ut-Tahrir to Meet This Week in Ontario

From R.E.A.L…

On Friday, July 31, 2009, the Islamic supremacist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir will be holding another public conference, this time in the Ontario, Canada city of Mississauga. Unlike the July 19, 2009 Hizb ut-Tahrir conference which was held at a private facility in Chicago suburb Oak Lawn’s Hilton Hotel, the Canadian Hizb ut-Tahrir meeting will be held at a Canadian government-managed public facility, the Mississauga Valley Community Center.

1. Hizb ut-Tahrir Seeks to Promote Supremacism in Canada

The Islamic supremacist Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Canadian event is publicized on the Hizb ut-Tahrir web site as being sponsored by “Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada” as part of HT’s “2009 Khilafah Campaign,” which included the July 19, 2009 HT event in the Chicago Oak Lawn, IL suburb. HT has advertised this event to be held at the Canadian govt-managed facility in Mississauga for: “Friday, July 31st, 6.30PM to 8.30PM, Frank Bean Lounge — Mississauga Valley Community Center, 1275 Mississauga Valley Blvd, L5A 3R8.” The HT Canada event has also been promoted by a Toronto, Canada website called “TorontoMuslims.com”. (R.E.A.L. contacted this Toronto Muslim website to ask why they were promoting such a supremacist organization’s event, and received no reply.)

The Hizb ut-Tahrir web site promoting the July 31 event in Canada also promotes a also promotes a pamphlet (page 62) that supports killing those individuals who leave Islam as guilty of “treason and a political attack on the Khilafah.”

According to the Canadian Criminal Code Section 318:

“318. (1) Every one who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.”

“(2) In this section, ‘genocide’ means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part any identifiable group, namely,”

“(a) killing members of the group; or”

“(b) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction…”

“(4) In this section, ‘identifiable group’ means any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.”

Researcher Madeleine Gruen believes that U.S. member of HT Mohammad Malkawi may speak at the Canadian conference, because Mohammad Malkawi has previously given speeches in Canada. HT’s Mohammad Malkawi moderated the July 19 HT conference in Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn.

2. Efforts to Alert Canadian Government Agencies to HT Supremacist Meeting at Govt-Managed Facility

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has attempted to contact the Mississauga government to make them aware of the supremacist nature of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization that it has rented use of the Mississauga Valley Community Centre Frank Bean Lounge facility to for their July 31 conference. After speaking to a representative at the Community Centre (905-615-4670), we were re-directed to the Mississauga government agency involved in booking the Frank Bean Lounge facility, the Mississauga government recreation and parks department (905-615-4100, choose “facility booking”).

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm spoke to a manager with the Mississauga recreation and parks department on this, and she stated that they are “looking into this.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]



Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Supremacist Group to Meet in Govt-Managed Community Center

On Friday, July 31, 2009, the Islamic supremacist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir will be holding another public conference, this time in the Ontario, Canada city of Mississauga. Unlike the July 19, 2009 Hizb ut-Tahrir conference which was held at a private facility in Chicago suburb Oak Lawn’s Hilton Hotel, the Canadian Hizb ut-Tahrir meeting will be held at a Canadian government-managed public facility, the Mississauga Valley Community Center.

[Return to headlines]



Liberal Myth-Making

According to Maclean’s magazine’s website, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff told an Irish university audience in 2005 that Canada’s peacekeeping reputation was “entirely bogus.” What’s next, Ignatieff labelling multiculturalism “a complete sham”? Universal health care “an unmitigated disaster”? Bilingualism “an utter farce”?

The notion that Canada is a nation of peacekeepers, not soldiers, is one of those national myths — like health care, multiculturalism and linguistic duality — that the Liberals spent 40 years trying to manufacture. The peaceniks and flower children around Pierre Trudeau calculated that if they could convince the rest of us that Canada was without a warrior tradition, they could decimate our military and go around to international conferences boasting about how their commitment to peace made them morally superior to the Americans.

They also talked themselves into believing that if we had no war-making capacity — that if we were a “soft power” — the belligerents in the world’s worst conflicts would trust Canada as the “honest broker” for their settlements.

Everybody now, put your hands together and sing Give Peace a Chance.

One thing got in the way of the Liberals’ plans, though — the professional resolve of our military.

Even as the Grits under Trudeau and later Jean Chrétien cut our military budgets and our troop strength by half and more, and subjected the men and women wearing Canada’s uniform to such ridiculous experiments as unification — in which all three branches of the military were rolled into one — Canada’s soldiers, sailors and air force personnel slogged on.

For decades without adequate equipment, with little respect and with almost impossible orders, they somehow managed to maintain our nation’s reputation for top-notch soldiering. No one doubted that Canada’s armed forces could do more with less than any military in the world, while at the same time retaining the respect of allies and foes alike.

Peacekeeping may not always have been what our forces thought was the best solution to conflict, but given that that was all their civilian masters were permitting them to do, they made the best of it.

They knew the world had always been a dangerous place — and would always be dangerous, despite the Kumbaya spirit that had infected Ottawa — but if they had to confront that danger only through a peacekeeping filter, then so be it.

In Bosnia in the mid-1990s, for instance, the rules of engagement set for our peacekeepers permitted them to return fire only when rounds fired at them by the warring factions came within a metre.

I can’t imagine having to turn the other cheek, as it were, in the face of an enemy shooting at me within arm’s-length. Still, our peacekeepers bore that obligation with pride and dignity and did their best to protect innocent people caught in the midst of the fighting.

In all, at least 114 Canadians have been killed while on peacekeeping duty around the world in the past half-century. It takes a special kind of bravery and dedication to one’s country to go knowingly into hostile territory with one hand tied behind your back by politicians who only care when you foul up, who respect you very little and who always promise new equipment and resources but seldom follow through.

Having said all that, then, you’d expect I would be furious with Ignatieff over his remarks four years ago at the University of Dublin’s Trinity College, and I am, in a way.

It was not the Canadian legacy of peacekeeping that was “entirely bogus,” it was the Liberal misuse of that legacy that was. What was “disgusting” was the way the Chrétien government and then the Paul Martin government hid behind peacekeeping’s skirts to avoid having to take sides in the world’s hot spots.

It was a Liberal tendency, not a Canadian one, to, as Ignatieff added, rather “bitch about their rich neighbour to the south than actually pay” the price for a military that could intervene where needed to prevent humanitarian disasters.

Ignatieff’s error in Ireland was to claim most Canadians were equally guilty of the irresponsibility and arrogance that were hallmarks of Liberal foreign policy for 40 years.

He should have blamed his own party — not Canadians as a whole — for the timidity whitewashed with moral boastfulness that was Canadian foreign policy from the late 1960s onward. And he should never, ever have said anything that could even remotely have been misconstrued as a slam on our peacekeepers.

The sole bright spot in Canadian foreign affairs during the Liberal era was the competence of our military despite the stresses the Liberals put them under.

Ignatieff also added, “If you are a human rights defender and you want something done to stop [a] massacre, you have to go to the Pentagon, because no one else is serious.”

Iggy’s unpardonable sin was in blaming our peacekeepers, indirectly, rather than placing blame where it belonged, with his own party.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Ottawa Prof Charged in Deadly Bombing to Return to University

OTTAWA — An Ottawa university professor charged in the deadly terrorist bombing of a French synagogue nearly 30 years ago is expected to resume teaching this week.

Hassan Diab, who is charged with murdering four people in the 1980 bombing, will begin teaching a part-time introductory sociology course at Carleton University two days a week until the middle of August.

Diab, whose strict bail conditions prevent him from leaving the house alone, will be required to travel to and from the university with his common-law spouse Rania Tfaily, an Ottawa court heard Monday.

But once at the university, Diab will no longer need an escort.

Diab’s lawyer, Rod Sellar, told an Ottawa court Monday Diab will be at Carleton teaching and meeting with students between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the course may require him to go to the university almost daily.

Lin Moody, a spokeswoman for Carleton University, confirmed Monday that the school has hired Diab to teach for few weeks this summer. He was given a contract, she said, because of “an unforeseen leave” taken by the instructor who had originally been hired to teach the introductory sociology course.

Diab had taught a similar course before at Carleton, Moody said.

The 55-year-old Lebanese native, who became a Canadian citizen in 1993, has been under virtual house arrest since he was arrested late last year. Conditions of his bail require him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, obey a curfew, report to the RCMP regularly and not own a cellphone.

Diab and Tfaily were in court Monday to determine what items seized during RCMP raids of Tfaily’s condominium and her Carleton University office can be sent to French officials as potential evidence in their case against Diab.

Diab and Tfaily intend to argue that the RCMP searches were unlawful and the seized items should not be sent to France.

Federal prosecutors are hoping Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger will grant an order sending some of the items, specifically computer hard drives and USB sticks, to France as soon as possible.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Church of Sweden in Brüno Advert Uproar

The official Church of Sweden newspaper, Kyrkans Tidning, is at the centre of a storm of controversy after advertisers reacted to the depiction of scenes from UK comic Sacha Baron Cohen’s new blockbuster movie Brüno.

The banner advert, which occupies a prominent position at the top of the weekly publication’s home page features a half-naked, lederhosen-clad Cohen in his new role as gay Austrian fashion reporter, Brüno.

“A film for which we could not offer our support,” Victor Poke of the Salvation Army in Sweden (Frälsningsarmén) explained to Christian website Världen idag on Monday.

“We will be in contact with the newspaper to point out that our logo shall in the future be used in a way that is in harmony with our values and beliefs.”

Several other commercial partners of the Swedish Church-owned website have reacted with angry fervour over the advertisements with one describing their publication as a “catastrophe”.

Kyrkans Tidning’s editor Dag Tuvelius is aware of the criticism of the advert but does not consider it to be in breach of established policy.

“We will listen to them and will take it into consideration over future advertising. But we can not be responsible for every advert as it is not editorial material,” he said to Världen Idag.

“We have a policy that means we do not accept adverts for alcohol, tobacco or is offensive. In this case it has been regarded as offensive by some people.”

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Dutch Officials Deny Israeli Complaints Over Funding of Leftist Group

Diplomats from the Netherlands denied reports that they had received complaints from Israel over Dutch funding for a controversial Israeli human rights group. But Israeli officials insisted the complaints were made, as reported on Sunday by Haaretz.

Meanwhile, Holland’s biggest pro-Zionist body said the organization in question, Breaking the Silence, “could deserve funding” from the Dutch government.

The article in Haaretz said that Israel has asked the Netherlands for clarifications about financial aid given to the human rights group Breaking the Silence, which recently released a collection of anonymous accusations of alleged human rights abuses by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The Volkskrant, one of Holland’s largest papers, published a reaction by the Dutch foreign ministry which said no such complaint has been made, and that there was no reason to stop the subsidy.

According to a close colleague of the minister in The Hague, the subsidy is in line with the human rights policy of Maxime Verhagen, the paper reported, adding the Israeli embassy in Hague was made aware of this position.

The Israeli embassy in Hague was not available for a comment, but an Israeli diplomat said the complaint was conveyed as reported. “Maybe the two countries have a different definition of the concept of complaint,” he added.

Haaretz reported that Breaking the Silence received 19,995 euros from the Dutch embassy in Tel Aviv, and that had this figure been higher by five euros, then it would require approval from the foreign ministry in Hague, headed by Verhagen, who is seen as a staunch supporter of Israel.

But the Volkskrant quotes Dutch diplomats as saying the organization received 24,000 euros. Ronny Naftaniel, the head of Holland’s largest pro-Zionist group, says this is a pivotal issue.

“It is not right for the organization to receive funding without the public knowing about it,” he said. But Naftaniel, a long-time supporter of Arab-Israeli coexistence and of the two-state solution, said he had no objection to the Dutch funding of Breaking the Silence as a principle.

“This organization could deserve funding from the Netherlands,” Naftaniel told Haaretz. “Human rights organizations like this and like B’Tselem play an important role in Israeli society and can be of importance in making Israelis think critically about Israel.”

Naftaniel added that Breaking the Silence’s anonymous report rested heavily on hearsay. “The Israeli army behaves much better than most countries in combat conditions, but criticism is needed to prevent this from being taken for granted,” he concluded

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



France Trade Union Bombers — Update

Since it has now worked, will we see this particular negotiating strategy duplicated elsewhere:

Fired workers at a bankrupt French auto-parts supplier won severance pay averaging 28,500 euros ($40,500) after threatening to blow up their factory along with components destined for Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Besides average statutory severance of 17,500 euros, each of the 366 workers at New Fabris will be offered 11,000 euros in “jobseeker aid,” financed through the two carmakers’ purchase of equipment and undelivered components, Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said in a statement today after meeting union members from the plant in Chatellerault in western France.

In what has to be one of the most bizarre quotes from a public official in sometime:

“Resorting to violence is not the solution to a program of job cuts,” the minister said, adding that the lifting of the bomb threat had been “an absolute precondition to this meeting.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Globalisers V. Localisers: A Grim Prediction for 2020

IT IS NOT terribly well-known, but since 2002 the European Union has had its own foreign policy think-tank, the European Union Institute for Security Studies, and its publications are often worth a look. On July 28th, the EUISS launched a hefty book carrying predictions about what EU security and defence policy might look like in 2020. There are chapters by senior officials and politicians, but the one that really caught my attention was by Tomas Ries, a veteran Cold War analyst and expert in Nordic security who is currently director of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. (In the interests of full disclosure, I know Dr Ries slightly—we have met a few times at a series of private conferences on China policy that are held twice a year in Stockholm.)

Dr Ries paints a picture of a world in 2020 in which “explosive tensions” seethe between a rich, globalised group of countries and actors, and poorer, alienated states. His chapter includes a simplified table, setting out a six layered class society. The top three are all ranked as Globalisers, namely:

– Transnational Corporations (TNC), defined as Fortune Global 1,000 companies — The Postmodern Community (PMC), defined as OECD members plus some others — Rapid Transition Societies (RTS), defined as China, Brazil, India +

Then there are three Localisers:

– Struggling Modern States (SMS), defined as “much of the Arab world” — Alienated Modern States (AMS), defined as “North Korea, Burma, Russia?” — Premodern Societies (PMS), defined as “The Bottom Billion”, or put another way, the poorest people from countries accounting for 65% of the world’s population

I have my qualms about the table, which Dr Ries himself says is greatly simplified. I am not sure I wholly buy into the idea that transnational corporations enjoy a unique, autonomous place at the top of the table: some of the biggest companies in 2020 will surely include state-controlled outfits from places like China. And as an ex-China hand I am also not certain that China can confidently be counted a globaliser with no Alienated characteristics. You could quibble and ask where Iran sits in this table (presumably an AMS?).

But I am intrigued, if depressed, by the thought-provoking predictions that follow. According to Dr Ries, by 2020 we can expect EU foreign and security policy to need to perform several tasks. These include offering crisis resolution and peace support assistance to the SMS, and support for state building in PMS. Dr Ries is clearly pretty gloomy about Russia, because under the AMS rubric, he says the EU should be preparing “a capability to support hard power politics, both for Clausewitzian influence and possible direct military confrontation.”

The less developed parts of the world may, he fears, need “barrier operations”, or operations to “shield the global rich from the tensions and problems of the poor.” Growing tensions between the two groups will probably not be solved by curing dysfunctional societies, at least by 2020, he predicts. If technology is turning the world into a global village, it is a “village on the brink of revolution”, for reasons of inequality and competition for ecological resources like water, fuel and usable farmland.

Thus the EU will need to pursue the “morally distasteful, losing strategy” of strengthening our barriers, if it cannot solve the problems of global misery at their roots.

I like his pithy description of the various scenarios facing the richer, less nationalist countries he calls post-modern (borrowing a term from the EU foreign policy sage, Robert Cooper):

“The strategic task of the PMC in the coming decades will be partly to ensure the stable development of globalisation, but also to act as midwife for the new political system that is emerging with the rise of new actors and power relationships. If we do it right the EU can emerge as a major partner in a new globalised political and economic system. If we do it wrong, we risk collapsing into an impoverished and violently multipolar world of conflicting societies. If we do it halfway right we may avoid system collapse but the EU could be left as a very subordinate player—a quaint tourist resort for the global power brokers, surviving on charm but with little influence.”

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



Italy: Minister ‘Screened’ Female Candidates for Berlusconi

Rome, 16 July(AKI) — Italian tourism minister and former beauty contestant, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, screened female political candidates on behalf of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a former politician has said.

Brambilla was asked to look at photos of potential female candidates for the European parliament and select them based on their looks, former PDL member Marcello Vendola told Italian daily La Repubblica.

Vendola, a former MEP and Italian politician made the claims after he failed to be reselected as a PDL candidate.

“She asked us to propose girls as candidates, including their resume and photobook,” said Vendola.

“They had to be well-groomed women. The photograph was needed to assess the attractiveness of the candidates.”

Vendola said he selected the women and forwarded potential candidates to Brambilla (photo), who then passed their photos to Berlusconi.

The women were selected according to their “cultural or entrepreneurial achievements,” according to Vendola. He told La Repubblica he had put forward 44-year-old Maria Gabriella Genisi.

Genisi is the author of a controversial erotic novel entitled, The Goldfish Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, about a supermarket checkout girl and a government minister who meet by chance and have a brief love affair after which she is offered a seat in parliament.

Genisi has said that she wrote the book after being dropped by Berlusconi’s party, as a candidate in last year’s general election. She has claimed that she held discussions about a safe seat, but was quoted as saying the seat was given to a top party official’s lover.

Vendola also claimed to “clearly remember” the names bein g mentioned of controversial escort Patrizia D’Addario and Angela Sozio, a Miss Italy contender and reality show Big Brother contender.

D’Addario, a 42-year-old prostitute recently claimed she was paid to attend a dinner at Palazzo Grazioli in October last year and later spent the night with Berlusconi there in November in a bid to gain political favours.

The prime minister has strenuously denied claims of any sexual impropriety and referred to D’Addario’s allegations as “complete rubbish and falsehoods”.

When Vendola was asked whether he made the comments as a way of taking revenge for not being re-selected as a candidate, he said: “Whoever is in a position of responsibility in the party knows I am telling the truth.”

Vendola said he reached a point where he knew that his career had come to an end despite what he claimed were political promises.

He said he then had a meeting with Berlusconi who he claimed had asked him: “So when will you introduce me to your female friends from Bari?”

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



Italy: Premier Claims in ‘Sex Tapes’ Ancient Tombs Under His Villa

Sardinia, 24 July (AKI) — Italy’s National Archaeologists Association is said to be surprised by claims made by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in secret ‘sex tape’ recordings saying that 30 Phoenician tombs dating back to 300 BC were found in his villa in Sardinia.

If the claims are true, it would mean “extremely significant data for the study of the Phoenician expansion in the island, and particularly for the reconstruction of ancient settlement dynamics in the area of Olbia,” said the National Association of Archaeologists, quoted by left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica.

Under Italian law, discoveries must be reported to archaeological authorities. However, the alleged finds had not been made public until the tapes were released by Berlusconi’s 42-year-old female escort Patrizia D’Addario.

Not having reported such findings to the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage or police in charge of the preserving Italy’s cultural heritage is a crime punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine ranging from 310 to 3,099 euros.

Italy’s opposition has asked Berlusconi and Italy’s minister of cultural heritage Sandro Bondi to address the Italian parliament on the alleged finds and why they were not reported.

However, it is also possible that Berlusconi had invented the story, exaggerated or was confused, said Repubblica.

La Repubblica and its sister weekly L’Espresso this week published on their websites a series of audio recordings and transcripts allegedly containing conversations between Berlusconi and D’Addario and between D’Addario and Gianpaolo Tarantini, the man who allegedly hired her to go Berlusconi’s official residence in Rome last October and November.

D’Addario alleges she slept with Berlusconi on the night of 4-5 November last year. She has handed audio recordings and photos to magistrates which she says secretly took at Palazzo Grazioli and which back up her claims.

La Repubblica and L’Espresso have posted several of the audio tapes and transcripts to their websites.

In one of the latest clips posted on Thursday, D’Addario is heard apparently praising the 72-year-old for his sexual prowess while he in turn gives her advice on her sex life, advising her to masturbate “with a certain regularity”.

Berlusconi’s lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini has disputed the veracity of the tapes, saying they were “without any merit, completely improbable and the fruit of invention.”

Berlusconi on Wednesday tried to make light of the controversy surrounding his private life, acknowledging that he was “no saint”. But he vowed to govern until the end of his mandate in 2013.

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



Italy: Restaurateurs Poor as Pensioners — According to 2008 Tax Returns

Incomes below 15,000 euros. Micro-enterprises have lower incomes than employees

ROME — Restaurateurs declared the same earnings as pensioners struggling to reach the end of the month: from 13,500 to 14,500 euros gross for the year. Retail and wholesale traders declared as much as employees, in other words less than 20,000 euros. And micro-enterprises, the businesses that make up the vast majority of Italy’s industrial fabric, paid tax on incomes of less than 17,000 euros. These are just some of the figures that emerge from Treasury studies on tax returns for 2007. A storm of controversy quickly followed. “Incomes of the self-employed are influenced by a significant proportion of tax avoidance and evasion”, said tax agency sources, and there was confirmation from the general command of the financial police. “Sample inspections often reveal irregularities, sometimes in up to 50-60% of cases”. But retailers stand their ground: “The tax agency’s statistics include thousands of restaurants that are in fact family-run micro-enterprises, bars that serve food and have a genuinely low income. It’s no surprise”, replied the FIPE-Confcommercio retailers’ association. Leaving aside the points scoring, here is the taxman’s snapshot.

AVERAGE INCOME — Two years ago, the average gross income of all Italians, including employees, the self-employed and pensioners, was 16,500 euros while employees earned 19,335 euros. The self-employed declared a much higher income of 37,124 euros, thanks to the earnings of professionals (ranging from 36,000 to 54,000 euros) and doctors (44,000 euros), who pushed up the average. The average income of self-employed taxpayers in the “accommodation and catering” sector, which includes the owners of small hotels, service flats and camp sites as well as the proprietors of restaurants, pizza restaurants and fast food outlets, was 14,597 euros, which dropped to 13,545 euros for the more than 100,000 out of 120,000 entrepreneurs in the sector who opted for a company structure enabling them to use the simplified accounting system. The figure is very close to the income of pensioners, who on average declared 13,448 euros each for the year. For retailers, the average income was 19,795 euros, a figure that plummeted to 11,759 euros for self-employed traders and shot up to 33,032 euros for retailers trading as micro-enterprises.

BUSINESS — Operators in the transport business, including taxi drivers and owner-driver hauliers, and travel agency owners declared an average of 16,837 euros whereas building contractors’ returns averaged 20,317 euros. Despite the generous contracts of the high-earning minority of sports stars and entertainers, average income for the category was just over 24,000 euros, a figure that halved for those who opted for the simplified accounting system. “The most surprising figure is the one for the catering trade”, notes a commentator from the Treasury tax department. But a leading Rome restaurateur stood up in defence of his colleagues: “We’re not all tax dodgers. You can’t tar us all with the same brush. If so many restaurateurs declare a pensioner’s income, it’s because there are too many taxes”, pointed out Fortunato Baldassari, who owns the Fortunato al Pantheon restaurant, a favourite eatery with celebrities and politicians. In his latest returns, Baldassari declared an income of between 300,000 and 400,000 euros. “I feel offended by these reports. The fact is that there is no desire to solve the problem. Is it really so difficult to check how many employees a restaurant has and see if this squares with the figure on the tax return?”

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Italy: Bravo, Silvio!

The Berlusconi Sex Tapes, and the Scandal that isn’t.

There’s something a little odd going on with these sound tapes of Silvio Berlusconi and the “escort” that have been popping up in the Italian media. The oddity being that while the escort herself seems to be incensed with the way she’s been treated by the prime minister (and there are a few others getting suitably irate as well for the usual reasons of sexual politics), the general public appears to be, well, not caring about it all very much at all. So a septagenarian soon to be divorced billionaire, an Italian one at that, has been having sex with a woman who has sex with rich men as a profession? And? seems to be the general reaction.

There’s an element of a (possibly apocryphal) story about Mike Bloomberg to all of this. He was once being interviewed, and it was pointed out that he was known as something of a serial dater, to which the response was, “I’m a single billionaire in Manhattan. What do you expect me to be doing?” An answer that has the merit of simplicity.

These latest stories though would originally strike you as something of a different stripe. Patrizia D’Addario has come forward stating that she is a) a paid professional, an escort girl, b) someone who has had sex with Silvio Berlusconi recently, and c) has audio recordings (from her mobile phone) of some of the time surrounding such an assignation.

All of this would, of course, be enough to sink the career of any American politician, as Elliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford have demonstrated: one with hookers and another simply with somone who was not his wife. Even Bill Clinton wouldn’t have survived having been recorded with a professional lady of the night. However, this just doesn’t seem to be happening with Berlusconi, and I think there’s two reasons for it. The first is that this is Italy, but I don’t think that’s the major point.

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



Spiegel on Fogh: Mediocrity

Looking at the way senior international officials are chosen, Spiegel says NATO’s new Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a mediocre choice.

Denmark’s glee at the choice of former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the new secretary-general of NATO is not shared throughout Europe, at least according to a Der Spiegel study of the way that senior international posts are filled.

The Spiegel article, which says there is a tendency to pick ‘second-best’ and in NATO the ‘lowest common denominator’, studies various global secretary-generalships such as the United Nations, the IAEA and NATO.

“The man who will be applauded next Friday as the new secretary general of the alliance, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, 56, is a conservative politician who promoted an anti-immigration policy in an otherwise liberal country. He was the lowest common denominator that everyone could agree on,” Spiegel says.

And it adds: “No one seems to be troubled by the fact that Rasmussen, an economist, is not a military expert.”

Not true

Dr. Hans Mouritzen PhD of the Danish Institute of International Studies says that Spiegel’s analysis is not only an abusive attack against Fogh Rasmussen, but also wrong.

“Generally you could say that the lowest common denominator is chosen — simply because all member countries have a veto, and that means you have to find someone everyone agrees on,” Mouritzen tells B.T. He does not agree, however, that this was the case with Anders Fogh Rasmussen and says that the lowest common denominator would have been the Canadian candidate — Defence Minister Peter McKay.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen takes over the secretary-generalship of NATO on Saturday of this week.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Sweden: Rinkeby Fire Claims Seventh Victim

The 13-year-old girl that was badly burned in the fire in an apartment in Rinkeby in western Stockholm on Saturday evening has died of her injuries. The fire has now claimed seven victims.

“She died at around lunchtime as a result of her injuries,” said Christer Claesson at Karolinska University Hospital.

The girl therefore brings the death toll to seven after the deaths of her 42-year-old mother and five of her siblings, aged one to 16, on Saturday.

An eighth member of the Somali family has been treated for minor injuries sustained in the fire.

The technical investigation to determine the cause of the fire continued on Tuesday. Technicians from the National Laboratory of Forensic Science (SKL) have spent the day examining the burned out apartment in Rinkeby.

“We hope that their expertise will enable us to establish the cause of the fire or at least to rule out possible causes,” Peter Saarman, a spokesperson for west Stockholm police told news agency TT.

According to the police an analysis of the fire could be completed within a couples of days after the completion of the investigation.

“Then we will hopefully know more about what caused the fire,” Saarman said.

Saarman was asked by TT if the fire was caused by a technical fault.

“Details along those lines have emerged, but that it nothing that I can either confirm nor deny at the moment, as we do not yet know.”

According to the police the girl died as 1.04pm. She had been in the care of the hospital since Saturday night and had been lying unconscious in intensive care.

“Her status has been critical the whole time and she has been swinging between life and death,” Saarman said.

The tragedy is the deadliest in the Scandinavian country since 1998, when a fire in the city of Gothenburg killed 63 people.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



UK: Thousands of a Tiny Minority of Extremists Meet in Londonistan to Demand a Caliphate

Britain has revealed itself as the major Muslim invasion point for Europe with a rally of thousands of militant Muslims under the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir pan-Islamist party in London supporting Jihad and the creation of a caliphate in which non-Muslims will have no rights.

The rally —- largely ignored by the controlled media out of a desire to hide the shocking truth from the British public —- was organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, which is the UK variant of the globalist Islamist party. The conference was provocatively titled “The Struggle for ISLAM and the call for Khilafah.” (Khilafah is the word for caliphate.)

It was opened by Dr Abdul Wahid, Chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain’s Executive Committee, who said, “using the issue of terrorism and extremism, Western governments have embarked on a campaign to prevent the Muslim world establishing an Islamic government, the Caliphate that will free the Muslim world from the terror and hegemony that has been brought upon it by the West.”

Dr Wahid said, “In this critical time, Muslims needed to hold onto Islamic values living in the West, and resist the attempts to reform Islam, and to support the call for the Islamic Khilafah in the Muslim world —- to end decades of oppression, colonisation and dependency.”

“The growing call for Khilafah in the Muslim world is causing increasing anxiety in Western capitals. To thwart this call Western backed puppet rulers are doing everything to stop the political work of Hizb ut Tahrir. Despite all the torture and terror upon Hizb ut Tahrir members, the party’s work continues to grow and its call is now embraced by millions of Muslims all over the world,” the conference was told.

An official Hizb ut Tahrir press release stated: “The conference highlighted how the method to re-establish the Khilafah is based on the Life (Seerah) of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), which clearly laid out a non-violent intellectual and political struggle to bring about change. Hizb ut-Tahrir has continued with this method for over 50 years and calls Muslims all over the world to this path for change.

“The conference concluded by emphasizing the key role the Muslim community in the West plays in terms of supporting the call for Khilafah in the Muslim world and carrying the Message of Islam to the wider non-Muslim society, breaking the stereotypes and presenting Islam with sound argument and good example.”

The London Khilafah conference followed a month-long series of conferences in Lebanon, Kuwait, Gaza, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the US and Australia. It included a landmark gathering in Indonesia of thousands of leading scholars supporting the re-establishment of the Khilafah which was addressed by the global leader, Ameer of Hizb ut Tahrir, Sheikh Ata abu Rashta.

* Hizb ut-Tahrir (English: Party of Liberation) is an international pan-Islamist, Sunni political party whose goal is to combine all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph head of state elected by Muslims.

Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar, founded the organization in 1953 in Jerusalem. Since then Hizb ut-Tahrir has spread to more than 40 countries. Hizb ut-Tahrir is very active in the West, particularly in the United Kingdom, and is also active in several Arab and Central Asian countries, despite being banned in many of them.

Hizb ut-Tahrir believes a caliphate “will provide stability and security to all the people of the region, Muslims and Non-Muslims”. The party promotes “an elaborate and detailed program for instituting an Islamist state” that will “establish the laws of the Islamic Shariah and carry the Da’wah of Islam to the world.”

Article 56 of the draft constitution of the proposed caliphate state describes conscription as a compulsory individual duty, for all citizens. “Every male Muslim, fifteen years and over, is obliged to undergo military training in readiness for jihad.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy as a western system and unIslamic Hizb ut-Tahrir’s official papers say that “The basis of the democratic system is that people possess the right of sovereignty, choice and implementation … it is a Kufr system because it is laid down by man and it is not from the Shari’ah Laws.”

In Hizb ut-Tahrir’s draft constitution for its unified Islamic state, any non-Muslims living in the state may not serve in any of the ruling offices, such as the position of caliph, nor vote for these officials, as these positions require those who fulfil them to believe in the system. Muslims have “the right to participate in the election of the Khaleefah [head of state] and in giving him the pledge (ba’iah). Non-Muslims have no right in this regard.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir claims the rights of Jews and other non-Muslims are enshrined within statuary Islamic Law (Sharia). These were laid down by the prophet Muhammad when he established the first Islamic state in Medina in the seventh century. He said, “Whoever harms a dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen) has harmed me.”

In regards to foreign policy, Article 186 of the draft constitution states: “The State is forbidden to belong to any organisation that is based on something other than Islam or that applies non-Islamic rules.”

Article 7 of its Draft Constitution declares that Muslims who “have by themselves renounced Islam … are guilty of apostasy (murtad) from Islam [and] are to be executed.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir forbids women from ruling positions such as caliph, Chief Justice, provincial governor, or mayor citing prophetic traditions. Article 109 of the party’s draft constitution prescribes segregation of the sexes in public activities such as school, sporting activities, etc. Muslim women would be required to hide “their charms,” i.e. their body with the exception of hands and face, to dress in accordance with khimar and jilbab. Article 114 of the constitution specifies that women should not be allowed to be in private with men other than their husband or members of their immediate family (father, brother, son). Article 116 stipulates that once married a woman is obliged to obey her husband.

And so it goes: the colonisation of Britain and Europe by Islam continues, with the active support of the Tory, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP four-headed single party. Only the British National Party opposes the Islamification of Britain.

           — Hat tip: AA [Return to headlines]



UK: Voters Turn Against War in Afghanistan

A majority of the public believes that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable and British troops should be pulled out immediately, a poll for The Independent has found.

The growing opposition to the military offensive emerged as another two UK soldiers were killed, bringing the number of deaths so far this month to 22. Gordon Brown declared yesterday that Operation Panther’s Claw — the five-week onslaught on Taliban positions in Helmand province — had been a success.

But today’s ComRes survey suggests that the public mood is switching rapidly against the war — and that people do not believe it is worth sending reinforcements to Afghanistan.

More than half of voters (52 per cent) want troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan straight away, with 43 per cent disagreeing. Opposition to the military action is even stronger among women.

By a margin of nearly two-to-one, the public believes that the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily. Fifty-eight per cent view the war as “unwinnable”, with 31 per cent disagreeing.

There is overwhelming agreement — by 75 per cent to 16 per cent — that British troops in Afghanistan lack the equipment they require to perform their role safely.

Despite that, 60 per cent of people do not think more troops and resources should be dispatched to the war zone. Just over one third (35 per cent) are in favour of reinforcements being sent in..

The collapse in confidence in Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan comes after the numbers killed in the action exceeded those who died in Iraq.

Mr Brown yesterday announced the first phase of Panther’s Claw had been a success, clearing out Taliban insurgents from a wide area of Helmand ahead of next month’s Afghanistan elections.

He acknowledged the “tragic human cost” among UK troops who were killed or injured, but insisted it had not been in vain. “What we have actually done is make land secure for about 100,000 people,” the Prime Minister claimed.

“What we’ve done is push back the Taliban — and what we’ve done also is to start to break that chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of Britain.”

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



Ukraine Finds ‘Reporter’s Skull’

Ukrainian investigators say they have found skull fragments believed to be those of the journalist, Georgiy Gongadze, who was decapitated in 2000.

The find came just days after the arrest of a former Ukrainian general suspected of carrying out the murder.

Mr Gongadze was an investigative journalist who had exposed high-level corruption. He was an outspoken critic of former President Leonid Kuchma.

Three policemen were convicted of his murder last year.

Ukrainian investigators said Gen Oleksiy Pukach, a former police officer himself, had confessed to the killing last week when he was arrested, after spending years on the run.

Mr Gongadze’s decapitated body was found in a forest near the capital, Kiev, in September 2000, months after his abduction. He had been beaten and strangled, his body doused in petrol and burned.

Prosecutors allege that Gen Pukach — who was detained near Kiev — organised the abduction and personally strangled Mr Gongadze.

National scandal

Gen Pukach headed the interior ministry’s surveillance department at the time of the killing.

But Mr Gongadze’s family has always claimed someone more senior was behind the killing.

Secret tape recordings released soon after the killing appeared to implicate the then-President, Leonid Kuchma.

In the recordings — made secretly by a member of his personal guard and then released by an opposition politician — Mr Kuchma allegedly discussed ways of removing the journalist with a former interior minister, Yuri Kravchenko.

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

Balkans


Isolation Fear Grips Kosovo Serbs

Nikola shuffles his feet nervously, gazes around at the town where he has lived all his life, and tells me that he wants to leave.

Then he tells me he will not leave. Then he seems to change his mind and say that he will.

We are in Gracanica, a Serb enclave in the middle of Kosovo, surrounded on all sides by the majority Albanian-speaking population.

And Nikola, like most people you meet here, talks as if he is living under siege.

“There are threats from Kosovo Albanians, trying to kidnap people,” he says.

“I don’t feel safe here. My mother has trouble with the neighbour — he’s Albanian. You don’t have the things here you need for a normal life.”

‘Endangered’ community

The tables have certainly turned.

During the late Slobodan Milosevic’s time as president of former Yugoslavia and, later, Serbia, ethnic Serbs in Kosovo were accused first of removing the rights of Kosovo’s Albanian-speaking population, and then of attempting to ethnically cleanse them from the province altogether.

But when Kosovo unilaterally declared independence last year, its Serb population found themselves a minority in the new country. Many, perhaps half, left their homes.

And now they have a new source of anxiety.

The Nato-led Kosovo Force (K-For) deployed to keep the peace in Kosovo has just announced it is reducing troop numbers from 14,000 down to 10,000.

It is a move that the Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, warns will leave Serbs in Kosovo badly exposed.

“Today, in Europe, the Kosovo Serb community is probably among the most endangered,” he says.

“When they move around, they feel they need to be accompanied by international security forces. It would be bad if the numbers were diminished.”

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



What Really Happened in Srebrenica

The Hague Tribunal has stretched the definition of genocide to such extent that the term loses the terrible dignity of describing the most gruesome crimes of extermination of the entire population. In Srebrenica, during the Bosnian war between 1992 and 1995, roughly one fifth of the region’s entire Muslim population perished in fighting or by other means. To claim that an area in which some twenty percent of the allegedly targeted population lost their lives has been subjected to genocide is absurd. To its designers and perpetrators, this accusation serves the legal purpose of denying the legitimacy to the Republika Srpska, and the political and propaganda purpose of demanding its abolition.

Diana Johnstone says that everyone who “retains a capacity for critical thinking should regard the lavish public breast-beating over ‘Srebrenica’ with certain skepticism.” Her warning is apt: there is the regrettable tendency in Western media reporting and analysis to look at events in the eastern Bosnian enclave in isolation from the time continuum.

“What happened in July of 1995 is a matter of record. Srebrenica fell rather unexpectedly to Bosnian Serbian military forces,” explained Dr. Srdja Trifkovic in his interview for CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa.

“A considerable number of Bosnian Muslims of military age, most of them armed, retreated in the direction of Tuzla. Some got through; some were killed while fighting their way; and some were taken prisoner and executed by the Bosnian Serb army. Between seven and eight thousand Bosnian Muslims departed Srebernica in the hope of reaching the town of Tuzla. There is no conclusive research to tell us how many of them survived, how many of them were killed in the fighting while trying to reach Tuzla, and how many were executed by the Bosnian Serb forces after being taken prisoner.”

The much hallowed number of 8.000 still a matter of dispute

In Potocari, the village just outside Srebrenica, where the monument to the victims of the alleged massacre is situated, you can see the names of over 8.000 Muslim men. “That list covers not only Srebrenica, but seven or eight other municipalities in the region,” says Trifkovic.

“The Muslims themselves, when erecting the shrine to the victims of the events of Srebrenica, couldn’t come up with the magic number of Eight Thousand — short of resorting to the inclusion in that total of people from many surrounding municipalities, which had nothing to do with Srebrenica itself and most of them military victims of fighting. This in itself indicates that the myth of mass executions simply does not stand scrutiny.”

What did Muslims do to Serbs?

One cannot understand what happened in Srebrenica in July of 1995 — Trifkovic insists — without looking at the events of previous three years, between late spring of 1992 and summer of 1995. During that period Srebrenica was an armed camp used by the Muslim forces to terrorize the surrounding Serbian communities and kill hundreds of unarmed civilians. That facts are not denied even by the ICTY at The Hague.

The Memorial Centre in Bratunac, the Serbian town not far from Srebrenica, has hundreds of photographs of Serbs killed by the Muslims during that period. All of them were killed by the armed Muslims belonging to Naser Oric’s forces coming out of Srebrenica.

“A particularly gruesome crime happened on Serbian Orthodox Christmas in January 1993 in the villages along the Drina valley, such as Kravice, when children as young as 5 and 6, as well as elderly women of 80, were killed by having their throats split or having clubs smashed into their heads,” explains Trifkovic.

“At the time of the fall of Srebrenica there was considerable bitterness in the Bosnian Serb ranks against the Muslims in the town. On the one hand Srebrenica was the headquarters of the 28th Muslim division and the hotbed of terrorism that was the springboard for offensives against the surrounding Serbian communities in which hundreds of Serb civilians were gruesomely slaughtered. At the same time Srebrenica was supposedly immune from attack because it was a designated UN ‘safe heaven’.”

“The record of Srebrenica as described by the UN Tribunal at The Hague is neither legally nor logically coherent,” according to Trifkovic:

“Srebrenica was proclaimed to be a genocide in the trial of Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic, on the strength of the claim that even the deportation of children, women and elderly men from Srebrenica was an act of genocide. Even though there were no written or oral orders to the effect that a genocidal intent was existent and even though no such orders actually exist.”

Muslims of Srebrenica sacrificed by Izetbegovic and Clinton

In his interview for the Sarajevo newspaper Dani, Hakija Meholjic, president of the SDA (Stranka demokratske akcije) for Srebrenica, declared in June 1998 that Bosnian Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic had told a delegation from Srebrenica something very interesting four years previously: “I was told by Clinton in April 1993 — Izetbegovic said — that if the Chetniks [Bosnian Serb forces] enter Srebrenica and carry out a slaughter of 5,000 Muslims, then there will be a Western military intervention.”

“I wrote an article exploring this same possibility in late July 1995,” says Trifkovic. “It was headlined ‘Is Izetbegovic scarifying a pawn in order to win the game?’ although Miholjic’s account was not yet known at that time.”

“When something so unexpected and apparently illogical happens as the sudden fall of Srebrenica, we should immediately ask the question who gains — cui bono. It is obvious that in case of Srebrenica it was the Muslim side. Miholjici’s account offers the explanation for what is otherwise inexplicable. For over three years Srebrenica has resisted Serbian attacks. It was saved in the nick of time from falling to the Serbs in spring of 1993 when the French General Philippe Morillon rode into Srebrenica in an armed personal carrier. And yet in the summer of 1995 it suddenly falls almost without any fighting.”

The quote by Miholjic is a serious indictment against Izetbegovic, says Trifkovic, but it is not surprising.

“Why should we be surprised that Izetbegovic was prepared to sacrifice Srebrenica if we know, as we do by know, that he staged a number of the so-called massacres in Sarajevo, including the famous ‘breadline massacre’ in the spring of 1992 and the Markale market explosion in February of 1994. These were stage-managed stunts done by Muslims themselves in order to create suitable images of blood and gore that would be presented around the world as a result of Serbian atrocities, and thus contribute to political decisions favourable to the Muslims.”

“Such cynical exploitation of human life for political purposes is the hallmark of the Muslims in general, notably in the West Bank and Gaza, and of the Bosnian Muslim strategy in the 1990s in particular,” says Trifkovic.

“Both NATO and the Bosnian Muslim leadership needed Srebrenica — not only for the bombing of the Bosnian Serbs in August of 1995, not only for the subsequent support to the combined Muslim — Croatian offensive against the Serbs, but also for the continuous claim that the Bosnian Serb Republic [Republika Srpska] is a flawed entity that does not deserve to exist.”

Manipulation of reality

Srebrenica will be used as an anti-Serb trump card for a log time to come, Trifkovic warns:

“In the record of the wars of the Yugoslav disintegration there are several similar myths which need to be debunked, including the so-called Racak massacre in January of 1999. It was cooked up by the KLA Albanian terrorists, aided and abated by the U.S. ‘diplomat’ William Walker. The events in Vukovar in the fall of 1991 are in the same league. These are supposed to atone for, and even eliminate any collective memory of the real genocide committed by the Croatian Ustase against the Serbs during World War Two between 1941 and 1945.”

“Srebernica” is an ongoing brazen manipulation of reality in order to obtain certain short-term political goals. That manipulation is still continuing, 14 years after the event. This only testifies to the lack of ability of the Western media class to think critically and to analyze Balkan events objectively, concluded Trifkovic.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]

Mediterranean Union


Regina, Forum in Milan Totally Misguided

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 23 — “In this country, every so often, there is lobbying for a predetermined cause which does not consider it’s local characteristics”. Planning the economic headquarters for the Union for the Mediterranean in Milan, as proposed by Silvio Berlusconi, “is a bit like building a nautical museum in Courmayeur”. The quip comes from the Chair of Rome’s Industrial entrepreneurs (UIR), Aurelio Regina, speaking during a presentation on investment in the city’s energy sector. Regina emphasized the fact that “Italy frequently lacks a comprehensive industrial policy, and continues to remain entirely without strategies to modernize the South, a territory which is increasingly lags behind. The UIR president continued, saying “It doesn’t seem too much to ask. I just think we could pay closer attention to local characteristics, constructing the best we can in those places where it is possible”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Egypt Scholars OK Mosques Built by Showbiz $

As ever more Egyptian showbiz stars seek to build their own mosques, the issue of whether they are tainted by ill-gotten gains or ambiguously Islamic sources of income has come to the forefront.

Egyptian religious scholars have sought to dispel concerns over the legitimacy of mosques owned by actors and singers after a controversial fatwa (religious ruling) banned Muslims from praying in such mosques.

But scholars are now advising Muslims to pray in any mosque since it is the house of God.

The controversy erupted in the wake of the latest addition to showbiz mosques by comedian Mohamed Saad, who recently built his own mosque worth $0.5 million in a working class district of Cairo.

“If anyone else who’s not a celebrity had built this mosque, it wouldn’t have caused such a fuss,” Saad told Al Arabiya, adding that he did not build the mosque for propaganda purposes.

In February of 2007 al-Azhar University professor Dr. Mohamed al-Mosayyar issued a fatwa prohibiting prayer in mosques built by entertainment stars after singer Saad al-Soghayar came under harsh criticism for constructing a mosque.

Now Saad, the actor, did not want to talk about his newly built mosque for fear of facing the same harsh criticism Soghayar received.

Arabic crooner Soghayar lashed out at the harsh criticism he has been subjected to since he built a mosque.

“I can’t see how people can stand in the face of the good deeds like that,” he told Al Arabiya.

“That is not why I haven’t built the mosque till now,” he told Al Arabiya. “Once I decided to do that, no one can stop me.”

Another singer, Hamada Hilal, reportedly decided not to build a mosque in the Delta governorate of Sharqiya after the Soghayar incident, although he denied he detracted from his decision to build the mosque for fear of facing opposition.

A former Minister of Religious Endowments, Dr. Ahmadi Abul Nour, told Al Arabiya that people were allowed to pray in entertainers’ mosques “as long as this art does not contradict ethics, or include sexual content, or sow sedition amongst viewers,” since the money earned would be considered “legitimate.”

Shocking fatwa

Sheikh Ahmed Abul Hassan said he was surprised by Mosayyar’s fatwa and stressed that even if a mosque was built with illegitimate money, people would still be allowed to pray in it.

“The only case when people are not to pray in a mosque is if it is built on stolen land,” he told Al Arabiya.

Dr. Souad Saleh, professor of Islamic Jurisprudence at al-Azhar University, told Al Arabiya that whether a mosque is built with legitimate or illegitimate money, it is at the end the house of God and people should fill it with prayers.

“Isn’t this better than closing it or turning it into a night club?” she asked.

Saleh added that if the money earned from singing or acting is considered illegitimate, then building the mosque would be a sort of penance.

“God never lets down those who repent.”

Dr. Abdul-Sabour Shahine, a professor at the College of Arts and Sciences, said the legitimacy of the funding was irrelevant since a mosque does not lose its purpose if it is built by a showbiz star.

“A mosque is a place of worship and stays so no matter who builds it,” he told Al Arabiya.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Egypt: Nasser vs. Sadat — the Female Version

Egyptian police raided Tuesday the apartment of Hoda Abdel Nasser — the daughter of former president Gamal Abdel Nasser — with the intention of confiscating property, because she had still not paid damages to the daughter of another former president, Anwar Sadat, for defaming her father.

A Cairo court ruled in 2008 that Hoda Nasser must pay 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,500) to Ruqaya Sadat for defamation, after Nasser had charged in a 2007 magazine interview that Anwar Sadat was responsible for killing her father by drugging his food, rather than a heart attack as doctors had said.

Police were prevented at the last minute from confiscating property during Tuesday’s raid after senior attorneys intervened and postponed the property seizure until Nasser’s daughter acts to obtain the required amount.

Attempts were made simultaneously by senior Egyptian journalists, including the one who arranged the interview with Nasser, to settle the dispute between the two women. Both have signaled their willingness to compromise, although according to a report in al-Quds al-Arabi Sadat’s lawyer has asked her not to come to an agreement.

Anwar Sadat’s son, former Egyptian member of parliament Mohammad Anwar Sadat, expressed sorrow that the difference in opinion had caused such a deep rift between the two families. He said that both families were appreciated by the Egyptian public and that there was no room for such a dispute between them.

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



Terrorism: Morocco, Life Sentence for Terrorist Leader

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JULY 28 — A Moroccan man with Belgian citizenship, Abdelkader Belliraj, accused of leading a terrorist network of 35 militants in Morocco and abroad, has today been sentenced to life imprisonment by the antiterrorism court of Salé, near Rabat. The public prosecutor had requested the death penalty on June 1. 50-year-old Belliraj is suspected of having led a group of Islamic extremists and of having murdered 6 people in Belgium at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. He has always denied the charges. He was arrested in Morocco on February 18 last year together with several other people, in possession of a vast arsenal of firearms. “I did not bring weapons into Morocco and I deny ever considering activities aimed at toppling the regime,” Belliraj repeated on numerous occasions throughout the trial. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Al-Qaeda: ‘We Hit Israel From Lebanon, Again’

(IsraelNN.com) An al-Qaeda branch apparently active in Lebanon claims to have launched attacks on Israel. The group mocks the Iran-backed Hizbullah terrorist organization and calls for a unified front against Israel and the United Nations under the command of Osama Bin-Laden.

The call to jihad was issued in a video recording released this past week by al-Qaeda of al-Sham, a region known as “Greater Syria” encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and parts of Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. The brief video, titled “Penetrating the Fortresses”, includes statements by al-Qaeda senior leaders such as Osama Bin-Laden, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Ayman al-Zawahiri relating to the jihadist front with Israel. The jihadists, they say, will not sit quietly and will even crawl to get to the front and “free Palestine”.

As an example, the video explains and visually demonstrates how a cell from al-Qaeda of al-Sham (AQASH) supposedly bypassed the Lebanese Army, Hizbullah and UNIFIL forces, launched missiles towards Israel, and then retreated undetected. These actions, the video claims, were carried out under the direct command of Bin-Laden, and it calls for more such attacks against the Jewish State.

The AQASH video claim of responsibility for a rocket attack apparently refers to a January 8, 2009 barrage from southern Lebanon that hit the Israeli city of Nahariya. Three Katyusha rockets injured two people and caused significant property damage. At the time, Hizbullah denied involvement in the incident.

The al-Qaeda cell claims to have perpetrated or having tried to perpetrate additional attacks on Israel, as well. “Some were launched and some were foiled,” the video said flatly.

AQASH calls for the Fatah al-Islam jihadist group, which was once a Syrian front group, and other Islamist organizations in Lebanon to join them in their effforts: “Al-Qaeda is already active in [Lebanon and elsewhere in Greater Syria] and the father-leader, Bin-Laden, must be obeyed.”

Regarding Lebanon, AQASH calls for the cancellation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, because it “is only for the benefit of the Israelis.” The video further criticizes Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who “decried the actions of the jihadists who fired the Katyushas towards Israel as collaborators of the Israelis”, even though during the last Israeli operation in Gaza, “he did nothing and even agreed that the Crusader forces (UNIFIL) can base themselves in southern Lebanon.” The AQASH voiceover taunts Nasrallah, “So now who are the collaborators?”

The Lebanon-based al-Qaeda branch declared that “Hizbullah is using the Palestinian cause to fulfill Iran’s orders.”

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



Barry Rubin: Israel’s Peace Plan Marks a New Era in the Country’s History

This could be the most important article I write this year. Israel has entered a new era of thinking and policy in which old categories of left or right, hawk or dove are irrelevant under a national unity government bringing together the two main ruling parties.

How did this new paradigm arise?

Between 1948 and 1992, the Israeli consensus was that the PLO and most Arab states want to destroy Israel. When—or if—the day comes that they’re ready to negotiate seriously we’ll see what happens.

Then came the Oslo agreement and a huge shift. The governing view was that maybe the Palestinians and Arab states learned the cost of their intransigence enough to make peace possible. The left thought a deal could bring real peace; the right thought it was a trick leading to another stage of conflict on terms less favorable to Israel. But both expected a deal to materialize.

The year 2000, the Camp David failure, the Syrian and Palestinian rejection of generous offers, and Second Intifada destroyed illusions in Israel.

Since then, Israel has groped for a new paradigm. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered unilateralism; Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni constantly offered more in exchange for nothing. But the more they did so, the more international abuse Israel received.

Now a new approach has finally emerged capable of reversing this situation. It goes like this: Israel wants peace but doesn’t hesitate to express not only what it wants and needs but also what’s required to create a stable and better situation. To ensure that violence and instability really ceases requires:

—Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Without this step, the aftermath of any “peace” agreement would be additional decades of Arab effort to destroy Israel in all but—temporarily—name.

—Absolute clarity that a peace agreement ends the conflict and all claims on Israel. Otherwise, the Palestinian leadership and much of the Arab world would regard any “peace” agreement as a license for a new stage of battle using Palestine as a base for renewed attacks and demands.

—Strong security arrangements and serious international guarantees for them. Have no doubt; these will be tested by cross-border attacks from Palestine.

—An unmilitarized Palestinian state (a better description than “demilitarized”), with the large security forces they already have: enough for internal security and legitimate defense but not aggression.

—Palestinian refugees resettled in Palestine. The demand for a “Right of Return” is just a rationale for wiping Israel off the map through internal subversion and civil war.

If Israel gets what it requires—and what successful peace requires—it will accept a two-state solution, a Palestinian Arab Muslim state (the Palestinian Authority’s own definition) alongside a Jewish state, living in peace…

           — Hat tip: Barry Rubin [Return to headlines]



Israel Warns Lebanon About Border Incidents

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 28 — Israel has forwarded a peremptory warning to Lebanon via the UN warning that Beirut will be responsible for any future incidents on the border, so reported today the Israeli press. Daily newspaper Hàaretz added that the situation on the border with Lebanon and activities by the Hezbollah militia were discussed yesterday by the Defence minister, Ehud Barak, and the USA Defence Secretary Robert Gates. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Palestinian to Sue Cohen for Bruno Film

I am not a terrorist: Palestinian Abu Aita

“Bruno” said on Tuesday he was not amused at the gay fashionista mockumentary and plans to sue.

Ayman Abu Aita said he intends to take the outrageous British comedian to court after a scene in the movie portrayed him as a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, one of the main armed Palestinian groups.

“I am not a member of Al-Aqsa,” said the 44-year-old Abu Aita, a member of a regional committee of Fatah, the ruling Palestinian party to which the militant group is loosely affiliated.

“It’s a lie, the whole thing was a lie. We were betrayed by this guy when he said that he was a journalist,” said Abu Aita, a Christian.

“We thought he was a foreign journalist and we hoped he would speak about our cause.”

Abu Aita joins a long line of unwitting victims hoodwinked by the comedian, both during the filming of “Bruno” and his previous smash hit “Borat,” which generated scores of lawsuits.

“ We thought: what could people see that they’ve never seen before on film. And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist “

Sacha Baron CohenIn “Bruno,” Cohen poses as a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter who in one scene goes to interview a “terrorist” in his quest for fame.

“We thought: what could people see that they’ve never seen before on film,” Cohen said on the Late Show with David Letterman recently. “And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist.”

During his interview with Abu Aita, Bruno asks to be kidnapped and suggests he and his colleagues shave their beards because “your king Osama looks like some king of dirty wizard or a homeless Santa” referring to Osama Bin Laden.

Asked by Letterman whether he thought Abu Aita and his associates would go see the film, Cohen said: “I hope to God not.”

But Abu Aita said he has seen the full movie: “I didn’t like any of it.”

Neither did the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

A senior official with al-Aqsa told AFP the group has no official stance on the matter. But he did add: “This whole story is bulls**t.”

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Nuclear: Gates to Netanyahu, Same Views on Iran

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JULY 27 — The US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, said to Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu during a meeting today in Jerusalem that the US and Israel “have the same views’ on the Iranian nuclear threat, according to a statement released by the Israeli Premier’s office. Gates explained that the American policy of searching for dialogue with Iran is limited in time. Netanyahu, for his part, stressed the gravity of Israel’s view on the Iranian nuclear programme and insisted on the necessity of acting with all the means possible to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear military capabilities. In Jerusalem, Gates also met with the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, who emphasised in reference to the Iranian nuclear threat that Israel’s line of thinking “does not exclude any option”. Barak also added: “We are not blind, we understand that our actions could have repercussions on our neighbours and beyond. We are trying to keep that in mind”. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



The Iranian Military Dictatorship

The Nation 20.07.2009 (USA)

In his report on Iran, Robert Dreyfuss has abandoned hope for the popular uprising. He sees two alternatives for the country: “At best, Iran will remain embroiled in the stalemate it has faced since 2005, with the economy continuing to unravel. At worst, it could fall into North Korea-like isolation, with fundamentalists and the security establishment preaching that subsistence-level economic privation must be endured for the sake of Islamic purity. At the very least, the clergy-run, quasi-democratic Iranian state has been replaced by something that looks a lot more like a military dictatorship. Since his election in 2005, Ahmadinejad has installed scores of ex-commanders from the IRGC throughout government ministries and as governors and local officials in all thirty provinces. Ahmadinejad’s cronies have created a powerful clique loyal to Khamenei but, at the same time, encircling the office of the Leader.”

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

South Asia


Abbas Abdolmohamadi Describes How the Shiite Clergy Was Corrupted by the Islamic Revolution

Frankfurter Rundschau 22.07.2009

In a background article Abbas Abdolmohamadi, describes how the Shiite clergy was corrupted by the Islamic Revolution, which brought it status and privilege. Until then such things has been the preserve of the state-financed Sunni scholars. “Sunni scholars have always had to, and still have to, accept guidelines stipulated by the state. They were always closely affiliated with the ruling politicians… The Shiite clergy, on the other hand, were financed by their followers and were therefore dependent on their respective ideas. There is little they can do against superstitions or the teaching of distorted religions traditions, for example. They are dependent on their believers and many of these are held in stasis by religious traditions handed down by their fathers. On the other hand the Shiite clerics were always politically engaged and sufficiently motivated to provide asylum for Shiite believers, defending their rights against the ruling powers.”

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



Afghanistan — Spain: Government May Send Reinforcements

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 27 — The Spanish government is ready to consider the option of sending reinforcements to Afghanistan “if the situation demands” although “sufficient” troops are stationed in the country at the moment, said Spain’s Defence Minister Carme Chacon today, as quoted by the EFE press agency. The minister made her remarks during a two-day surprise visit to Spanish troops in Afghanistan, her fourth visit since the start of her mandate. Before her meetings with the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai and with the country’s ministers of defence and interior affairs, Abdun Rahim and Mohamed Hanif, Chacon told the press that “if the security situation demands, I will be the first to ask Parliament for reinforcements.” Spain has sent 450 troops to Afghanistan to guarantee a normal electoral process in the country on August 20. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Anti-Taliban Fight Could Spill Over Into Tajikistan

More and more reports are coming in that Taliban fighters are seeking sanctuary in Tajikistan fleeing offensives in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Official sources have denied such reports but gun battles are increasing along the border with Afghanistan.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Since May Tajik security forces have set up a tight security cordon and engaged in gun battles with armed groups in an area close to the Afghan border. Analysts fear Islamist Taliban fighters fleeing Pakistan and Afghanistan may be slipping into Tajikistan, threatening a fragile peace in the former Soviet state.

Current military actions in the Rasht Valley are part of an annual anti-drug operation to stem the flow of opium and heroin smuggled out of Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer, Tajikistan Drug Control Agency Director General Rustam Nazarov said.

But locals say the government is being very secretive about this operation, and using more force than in the past.

For experts the operation began after the Pakistan launched its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley and after US President Barack Obama sent thousands more US troops to Afghanistan in a bid to defeat Islamic extremists.

Residents at the foot of the Pamir Mountains reported clashes with armed groups.

US military sources are convinced that al-Qai’da is moving its forces out of Pakistan and Afghanistan and into neighbouring countries as a result of recent large-scale offensives.

Tajikistan is the smallest and poorest former Soviet state in Central Asia. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union it went through a civil war as militant groups like the Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) flourished.

After the war ended with a peace deal in 1997 extremist groups were pushed into Afghanistan.

The Tajik-Afghan border region is mountainous and scarcely inhabited, thus hard to control and easy to penetrate.

It has always been a place of refuge for the leaders of armed Islamic rebel groups.

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



Finnish Soldiers Fire First Shots in Anger in Afghanistan

A detachment of Afghan, Finnish and Swedish soldiers and police were attacked and returned fire in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, marking the first time Finnish troops were forced to defend themselves in the country, the Finnish military said.

None of the 76 troops and police, tasked with patrolling polling stations for next month’s presidential election, was killed or wounded, with no confirmation of casualties on the other side.

On Thursday, A handful of Finnish troops were called in as reinforcements when Swedish soldiers were attacked but did not return fire. The day before a Finnish patrol retreated after taking light arms fire.

Under the Finns’ rules of engagement soldiers may use lethal force only in self-defence but not to protect property for example.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ahti Kurvinen, the Finnish commander in Afghanistan, said one should be prepared for further incidents like Saturday’s engagement.

He added that while the troops had been prepared for the engagement he was worried about a ramp-up in insurgent activity in the run-up to the election.

“The difficult areas are very limited and small, but should the insurgents gain a foothold there, there is a chance of escalation,” Lt-Col Kurvinen told the Finnish News Agency (STT).

“Our mission is to support local police and soldiers in order for them to be able to calm situations down before escalation.”

The Finns are serving as part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: Lesson Today is Hatred as Bashir Cultivates Bombers’ Breeding Ground

THE term “formative years” was made very real in Jakarta earlier this month. One of the suicide bombers at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels was only 16 or 17 years of age. Teenage suicide bombers have been common in Iraq and Afghanistan, but until now have not featured in attacks on Australia’s doorstep.

Just as it makes sinister sense to explode bombs from within the walls of hotels, rather than from the outside, it also makes sense to infiltrate the minds of boys and send them to their deaths before they reach an age where they might ask deeper questions of themselves.

The boy, who was accompanied by a 20-year-old on the mission to bomb the Jakarta hotels, was almost certainly a high school student recruited from one of the 14,000 Indonesian Islamic schools known as pesantren.

Abu Bakar Bashir is the man who offers spiritual guidance to the most extremist network of pesantren. His headquarters are the al-Mukmin school in Solo, central Java, from where at least 15 students have graduated to committing acts of terror across region.

Bashir is an ultra-conservative Wahhabist who believes it is permissible to kill infidels. He wanders through Java preaching his anti-Western and anti-Indonesian government hatred. There are 2000 impressionable students at al-Mukmin who routinely receive his counsel, and many thousands more within his pesantren network.

Despite being jailed for inciting terrorism with treasonous statements, Bashir openly continues to endorse terror attacks on kafirs (infidels). Speaking from his school last week, he blamed the CIA and Australia for the July 17 attacks and then, in the same breath, said the two suicide bombers were right to kill kafirs if they had ever entertained thoughts against Islam.

Bashir also endorsed Noordin Mohammad Top, who is still wanted for organising the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2003 Marriott bombing and the 2004 Australian embassy attack.

Some argue whether Bashir still heads Jemaah Islamiah, or has started another group. The distinction matters not to the families of the victims of the latest bombings. Terror has re-emerged after a short hibernation and it is a perverse reflection of Indonesia’s tolerant new democracy that Bashir is permitted to continue preaching violence.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer introduced an AusAid program after the 2002 Bali bombings that aimed to instil moderation into pesantren through modernisation.

Downer says the thinking was that parents were sending their children to the schools, where two to three million students are enrolled at any time, not necessarily because they were religious extremists, but because the schools were so readily available. He says Australia funds religious schools domestically, including Islamic schools, and it might be a way to encourage tolerance.

“The problem with the schools is the curriculum is very narrow,” Downer says. “They focus on religious education and not much else. People come out of those schools being great experts on the Koran, but they don’t have knowledge of arithmetic, geography, language and physics. It’s hard for them to get jobs and they get swept into this world of fundamentalist religion.”

An expert on Indonesian extremism, Holland Taylor, does not quarrel with Australia funding the pesantren, but warns an education can be a dangerous thing. He is the chief executive of the Jakarta-based LibForAll Foundation, which he co-founded with former president, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), to discredit the ideology of religious hatred in Indonesia.

“Modernisation will not produce moderation,” says Taylor. “As a matter of fact, it’s very often Muslims with the most modern educations who have the capability of committing the violent acts. They use the education they have to radicalise their fellow members of society.”

So it was with the engineer Azahari Husin, who studied for four years at the University of Adelaide and went on, under the direction of Top and with the blessing of Bashir, to make and oversee the delivery of the 2002 Bali bombs and the 2003 Marriott bomb, and more.

Taylor says there are three different kinds of pesantren in Indonesia. There is the pluralist, moderate kind which Gus Dur has worked hard to promote through the largest Muslim organisation in the world, Nahdlatul Ulama.

There are also 10,000 pesantren run by the Muhammadiyah, the world’s second-largest Muslim organisation. “The Muhammadiyah are overwhelmingly infiltrated by extremists — not terrorists, but extremists — who anathematise Australia, America and the secular system of Indonesia,” Taylor says. The Muhammadiyah is in the throes of bitter quarrels over its growing hardline membership and he says that Australia must monitor the pesantren closely so the aid it gives does not blow up in its face.

“Then,” says Taylor, “you have a network of pesantren controlled by Bashir and his network of disciples. They are independent, and it is his pesantren that is putting out the terrorists. No money that Australia would give to this network would in any way beneficially impact. You could not possibly moderate them by modernising them.”

Australia has never provided aid, whether direct or indirect, to the al-Mukmin school. The aid program, carried on from Downer’s time, is focused on building 2000 junior secondary schools, 46 of which are completed and operational.

The federal government said yesterday that it had “robust safeguards” to ensure Australian aid money did “not support institutions with radical views of Islam, or support individuals or entities associated with terrorism” and would only support Islamic schools that taught Indonesian, English, maths, science and social sciences as required by the national, secular curriculum.

Bashir’s al-Mukmin school teaches predominantly in Arabic, but it does teach some English, maths and other subjects. Some say this is because the modern terrorist needs modern skills.

While Bashir did prison time for inciting terrorism, Taylor doubts Bashir’s vicious spray following the latest bombings would see him being prosecuted once again.

“Indonesia is somewhat erratic in its laws of enforcement,” he says. “If they were really intent of getting Abu Bakar Bashir, they could probably get him on something, but Indonesia now has one of the most free-speech environments in Asia. What is really perverse is that the government is not identifying and cracking down on ideology.”

Taylor says discussions about the various factions of JI, and supposed splits between Top and Bashir, are just a distraction. “Noordin Top has been involved with every bombing going back 10 years. I am totally convinced Abu Bakar Bashir was involved in the Bali bombing and gave it his blessing and approval.

“He is guilty of those murders just as much as (the actual killers) Amrozi and Mukhlas Sumudra. He got off (murder charges) because of the influence of Islamists in Indonesian society and in the government.

“He is inciting the murder now. He said (last) week that if anyone makes Islam their enemy, even in thought, it’s the duty of all Muslims to kill them. That’s incitement to murder.”

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: What Made Jakarta Suicide Bombers Tick

JAKARTA — Despite skepticism that a business breakfast was always the primary target, there is one indisputable fact about the July 17 attacks on Jakarta’s Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels: not since the 2002 Bali bombing have so many foreigners been killed in such a focused way.

That is clearly no coincidence, given the level of planning that went into the bombings and the premium that Malaysian-born terrorist masterminds Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top have always placed on killing Western businessmen in particular.

An extensive planning blueprint for the second October 2005 Bali bombing, downloaded off Azahari’s laptop after he was killed in a police shootout in East Java a month later, said bluntly: “The deaths of foreign businessmen will have a greater impact than those of young people.”

Noordin, who is widely suspected to be behind the latest attacks, never had an active role in the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, many of them young foreign tourists. Azahari was only brought in at the last minute to help iron out imperfections in the massive bomb that devastated the Sari nightclub on the resort island.

In the October 2003 car-bombing of the Marriott Hotel, in which both Noordin and Azahari were involved, a Dutch banker, a Dane and two Chinese tourists were among the 12 victims. But all 10 killed in the 2004 Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta were Indonesians; if the conspirators had chosen early morning or lunch-time to carry out the attack, Australians no doubt would have died too.

In the second Bali bombing, the blueprint points to a much more concerted effort to kill foreigners, again with Western businessmen perceived to be among tourists targeted at two popular Jimbaran seafood restaurants. Even then, only five foreigners were among the 20 people killed there and at a Kuta cafe some distance away.

It may not be the last time Bali is targeted because of the unusually large percentage of overseas visitors and the headlines the two bombings created around the world. As the 2005 document notes: “A mass attack on the enemy is more possible there than elsewhere in Indonesia.”

An International Crisis Group (ICG) report notes that a statement posted on a radical website after the latest bombings referred to the hotels as the center of “Jewish business activity” in Jakarta and went on to discuss how arousing fear in the enemy is justified in the ongoing war between Muslims and infidels.

A subsequent posting entitled “Why was the Marriott bombed?” picked up on this theme, asserting: “In Palestine Jews suffer and feel they are in hell because every day they are the target of attacks and operations. But Jews never feel worried about Muslim demonstrations in London or Jakarta.”

The ICG’s Jakarta-based terrorism expert, Sidney Jones, believes the bombers returned to a hotel they had already attacked because it was the best way to prove they could still attack — and that any place in the capital was vulnerable. In that, they succeeded, exposing embarrassing holes in the security of what had been touted as one of Jakarta’s safest hotels.

Jones says one key question for the police to answer is how the relatively expensive operation was funded. It is possible the money was raised locally, either through donors or armed robberies, as it was for the 2005 Bali bombing. But there are also suspicions it may have come from South Asia, raising the specter of renewed linkages to al-Qaeda or its affiliates.

Tactical debate There is still a great deal of debate over whether the militants originally planned to bomb the popular breakfast buffet at the Marriott’s expansive Sailendra coffee shop, given the similar location of the other blast in the Ritz Carlton, which lies 50 meters away across the street.

In fact, for the first two or three days, most news reports erroneously pinpointed the coffee shop as the scene of the attack, when it actually took place in a quiet lounge at the other end of the Marriott lobby where American consultant James Castle was hosting a weekly business breakfast for 17 of his clients.

If the restaurant was the original target, then it was probably changed during what may have been weeks of surveillance in which the watchers almost certainly would have noticed the meetings Castle, a long-standing Indonesian resident, held every Friday morning.

One compelling reason may have been to minimize Indonesian casualties, which would have been high in a coffee shop full of Indonesian staff and Indonesian patrons. The lounge was a much more inviting target with its long table full of foreign executives and more confined space.

In the end, the Ritz Carlton bombing merely served to double the impact more than anything else. In fact, the coffee shop was only sparsely populated and while it is too early to draw any solid conclusions, the Dutch couple killed in the blast were probably the only foreigners who presented a convenient target.

One thing the 2005 blueprint does underline is the extraordinary care the militants take over surveillance. The inside man for the latest operation was a florist, who had been delivering flowers to the Marriott and the Ritz Carlton for the past three years and must have had considerable knowledge of the inner workings of the hotels.

As valuable as he may have been, particularly in spiriting the well-dressed Ritz Carlton attacker into the hotel through the employees’ entrance, past practice suggests most of the surveillance was carried out by the two suicide bombers themselves.

“This way they will know the targets, and we don’t need to worry about the fact that most of the team members are police fugitives,” the 2005 planning document said. “There is no escape plan because the perpetrators will become martyrs. They will go to the targets and not return.”

The attention given to finding the best ways to blend in during the lead up to the Bali II bombing was extraordinary. So as not to draw attention, the bombers were directed to identify the exact type of shirts, pants, hats, shoes and bags domestic tourists wore or carried in the area around the target.

One thing seems clear from the dramatic change in modus operandi for the latest attack: by the time the man known as Nurdin Aziz telephoned in a reservation to the J W Marriott on July 10 and then moved into Room 1808 five days later, the militants would have settled on their primary target.

One of the survivors claims he thought he saw the bomber come into the lobby lounge about 20 minutes before the explosion, look around and walk out. If that was him, then he was not deciding where to bomb, but merely following the procedures outlined in the 2005 plan.

“The perpetrators can walk around a few times first to make certain that the target is full of foreigners, without bringing in the bag or bomb-backpack,” it says. “Then they can go back to get the bag or backpack that they’ve stored somewhere else and come back on foot. God willing, it won’t cause suspicion.”

When the bomb did detonate in a blinding flash of light at 7:47am on July 17, one witness claims it punched a hole in the floor clear through to the hotel basement. That indicates high explosive was used, as it was in the first, much more powerful, Marriott bombing, which also left a crater.

Killed in the explosion were three businessmen — a New Zealander and two Australians — a young Australian trade official and at least one hotel employee. Police are apparently waiting for forensic and DNA tests before saying what happened to a missing hotel security man who confronted the bomber as he entered the lounge.

Seven of the injured were flown to hospital in Singapore, including Castle’s critically hurt young Dutch assistant, Max Boon, who lost both legs below the knee in the blast and still has a piece of shrapnel lodged near his heart.

Youthful operatives Some theorists have claimed that a failed third bomb, made up of black powder and bolts and discovered later in Room 1808, was a so-called detractor device — designed to detonate in the room and drive frightened hotel guests into the lobby where they would have been the slaughtered by the much larger bomb.

Experienced investigators, however, feel it was more likely meant either to thin out security in the hotel or to destroy all the evidence in the room, including the hotel’s dismantled television set, which was used as a source of electrical components for the downstairs bomb.

While it has clearly been edited by police, closed circuit television footage shows the teenage bomber, a backpack strapped incongruously to his chest and pulling a large carry-on bag, emerging from the elevators, angling left into the lobby and heading straight for the lounge.

He is clearly not waiting for an expected explosion upstairs. If he was, it would have been easier for him to walk through the main doors and blow himself up among the hundreds of people who later gathered in the evacuation area at the front of the hotel.

One final question is how people who were apparently incapable of flushing the stand-up toilet in Room 1808 had the expertise to assemble a bomb. But explosives experts do not find that particularly surprising. Rural youths may never have seen a Western toilet but may be adept at often complicated electrical repairs.

In any event, the backpack bombs are relatively simple to put together, judging by the four pages of detailed instructions accompanying the 2005 blueprint, which among other things note that the four switches on the device are there to ensure it is not set off accidentally during transport by bus or motorcycle.

Noordin clearly favors two triggers. The instructions say it is also for “safety” — but only in the sense that if the main system fails or the bomber is taken by surprise or accosted in the target area, a back-up delay system he has already activated detonates the device within 30 seconds.

“When the light is green then the agent will activate the delay system,” it says. “On the other hand, if the red lights are showing, the main system is activated. Care must be taken in the final minutes with the agent totally focused, submitting himself to God along with strengthening himself to execute the bombing.”

There is little doubt one or both of the two Malaysians, Noordin and Azahari, wrote the manual. Malay words are sprinkled throughout and the sentence structure is almost English in nature. The entire document serves as another chilling reminder that for these people, killing is simply business.

Writing in Tempo newsweekly, veteran columnist Goenawan Mohamad said it all for most Indonesians: “When shows of savagery that have lost their purpose are confronted with something more worthwhile — a hope, an endeavor for a country that is safe and democratic — we know who will win. We will, Indonesia.”

It certainly seems that way. The day after the bombing, Bali’s Kuta beach was packed with sunbathing tourists. A week later, there wasn’t a seat to be found at the restaurants lining Jimbaran’s sandy shore. In Jakarta, the stock exchange climbed to its highest in nearly a year as incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was officially declared the winner of the July 8 presidential election.

More importantly, with commentators calling on the government to do more to rein in the Islamic hatemongers who poison the minds of naive young men, a popular movement appears to be stirring against extremism in general. His mandate strengthened, Yudhoyono may now be encouraged to do more than follow what he calls the “middle path”, as he has done in the past.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Pakistan Rescues Boys Trained as Suicide Bombers

Pakistani security forces fighting Taliban militants in and around the Swat Valley have rescued nearly a dozen boys brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers, according to officials.

A senior security officer in North West Frontier Province said nine boys were found during raids, while two more had voluntarily surrendered, and a army commander in Swat spoke of more being handed over by their families.

“They have been brainwashed in such a way that they even call their parents infidels,” Bashir Bilour, senior minister in the provincial government, told Reuters.

Bilour said the boys were shown films about oppression of Muslims in the Palestinian Territories and Indian-held Kashmir, and were given purported religious instructions to convince them that they would go to heaven if they killed enemies of Islam.

Suicide attacks

Brigadier Tahir Hameed, an officer leading military operations in Mingora, Swat’s main town, said the Taliban had forced many families to let them take their boys.

He said some had since returned to their parents, who in turn handed them over to the authorities because of their brainwashed state. The government was working out how to rehabilitate the boys, aged between nine and 18.

The Taliban has regularly claimed responsibility for suicide attacks carried out by boys both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistani security forces have shown Western journalists locations where children were said to have been trained, although there was no independent corroboration available.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a security checkpoint 6 km (about 4 miles) north of Miranshah in North Waziristan’s tribal region, killing one paramilitary soldier and wounding two, intelligence officials said.

The military launched an offensive almost three months ago against the Taliban stronghold after the militants crept into the neighboring valley of Buner, just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad.

Around 20,000 troops have been deployed in the Swat operation, and in the last two weeks hundreds of thousands of people who had fled the fighting have begun to go home.

But the guerrillas were still putting up resistance in the north of the Swat Valley, and even the outskirts of Mingora remained insecure.

Casualties

On Tuesday, villagers found the decapitated body of a policeman on the edge of the town. He had gone missing four days earlier.

According to the military, nearly 1,800 militants have been killed during the campaign in Swat, Buner and Lower Dir district, but there is no way of independently verifying casualties.

The army was ordered more than a month ago to conduct another operation further to the southwest, in the Waziristan region, to punish Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.

Action so far has been confined to sealing off his stronghold in the wilds of the South Waziristan tribal region, and hitting Mehsud’s forces with air strikes and medium-range artillery.

Until Swat was secured, any full-blown ground offensive was unlikely in Waziristan, where the militants are far more entrenched and in greater numbers, analysts say.

The military does not want to open multiple fronts or become too thinly stretched at a time when it also needs to station troops on the border opposite the southern Afghan province of Helmand, where U.S. forces launched their own operation against the Taliban earlier this month.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: India Submarine ‘Threatens Peace’

India’s launch of a nuclear-powered submarine is a threat to regional peace and security, Pakistan has said.

“Pakistan will take appropriate steps to safeguard its security without entering an arms race,” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

The submarine, unveiled at a ceremony on Sunday, will be able to launch missiles at targets 700km away.

At Sunday’s launch, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India had no aggressive designs on anyone.

India has become only the sixth country in the world to build its own nuclear-powered submarine — until now only the US, Russia, France, Britain and China had the capability to do so.

‘Jeopardising security’

But the move has prompted concern over the border.

“The continued induction of new lethal weapon systems by India is detrimental to regional peace and stability,” Mr Basit said.

“Pakistan believes the maintenance of strategic balance is essential for peace and security in the region.”

Pakistan navy spokesman, Captain Abid Majeed Butt, told Dawn News television that the launch of the submarine was a “destabilising step”.

He said it would “jeopardise the security paradigm of the entire Indian Ocean region” — and warned of a possible nuclear arms race in the region.

At the launch ceremony Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was necessary to keep pace with technological advancements worldwide.

He added that the sea was becoming increasingly relevant to India’s security concerns.

The 6,000 tonne Arihant submarine will only be deployed after a few years of trials. But it will be able to launch missiles at targets 700km (437 miles) away.

The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says until now India has been able to launch ballistic missiles only from the air and from land.

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



Tell-All TV Riles India’s Politicians

Have you ever had an affair with a married man? Have you ever enjoyed watching a male stripper take off his clothes at a party? Have you ever had surgery to physically enhance your appearance?

These are just some of the questions on a popular TV talk show that have raised the hackles of politicians in India.

They have held animated debates in parliament, arguing whether the Indian version of the hit American show Moment of Truth threatens India’s “moral and cultural values”.

The show, called Sach Ka Saamna (Face the Truth), was first aired two weeks ago, and is already one of the most-watched programmes on Indian television.

Some say it is possibly the most-watched show in the crowded market of reality TV.

But many of India’s politicians are much less enamoured with the show, which goads the participants to answer uncomfortably personal and sometimes embarrassing questions, in return for prize money.

The idea of discussing intimate personal details in public is completely new to Indians. Little surprise then, that the show has become a huge talking point.

Over the last few days, the issue has consistently come up for debate in the national parliament.

The MPs said those taking part in the show were being asked “obscene questions” about their personal lives in front of their families.

Statutory warning

The former deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament, Najma Heptullah, told the BBC that the series must be taken off air at once.

“What purpose are we serving with this programme?” she asks.

“If someone has cheated on his wife, why doesn’t he go and tell his wife? Why does he need to do that in public?

“If a girl decides to become pregnant as a minor, it is her problem! Why should that be said in public?”

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



Turkmenistan: Five Billion Dollars for the Las Vegas of the Caspian Sea

In Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea, oasis of Avaz is being built: four monumental hotel, villas, casinos, an island and an artificial ski resort, an international airport. The project is funded by proceeds from the sale of gas. But the country’s average annual salary is 6,800 dollars and unemployment is at 60%.

Ashgabat (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Four monumental white marble hotels, villas with views of the Caspian Sea, casinos, an island and an artificial ski resort, an international airport. It is the Avaz project (see photo), an oasis in the desert that the government of Turkmenistan is currently realising in Turkmenbashi.

The four hotels, decorated in a cold and monumental style, are ready and were opened last month at the initial public launch of what Murat Kariyev, chairman of the Country’s Electoral Commission defines the “window of Turkmenistan to the world “.

The project costs 5 billion dollars, all from the annual revenue from the sale of gas, estimated at 7 billion. Turkmenistan is the fifth world power in energy reserves. The country is a strategic partner for Russia, China, United States, Europe and Iran, but at the same time is the target of big companies such as Gazprom, which wants to extend its dominion over the region taking a leading position and monopoly in the management of gas.

For supporters of the project, the Avaz oasis is seen as an attempt to open Turkmenistan up to the world rescuing it from the isolation into which, particularly Russia, would like to force it. For detractors, the Las Vegas of the Caspian Sea is further evidence of the despotism of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. Approximately 5 million people live in the country, most of whom live in the rural areas and are employed in the national cotton industry. Some statistics show that the annual salary per head is on average around 6,800 dollars and that 60% of the population is unemployed.

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



West Java, Protestant Church Demolished by Local Government

According to officials, the building did not have construction permits. The community of believers’ claims they repeatedly asked permission, but received no responses. Solidarity for the Christians from the Forum for Interreligious Dialogue.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — A Protestant community from Parung in the regency of Bogor, West Java province, denounces a new case of confessional discrimination in Indonesia. Local authorities have demolished a church because — they say — it has no construction permit. Believers contend that they had sought several times to obtain a permit without any response; they add that they had received the consent of the local Muslim community.

The demolition of the church took place on July 21 last and was motivated by the lack of an Izin Mendirikan Bangunan (IMB), a sort of government concession that must be obtained before the construction of buildings. Without the IMB authorities may demolish buildings, without distinction between churches and private homes.

“We are Indonesian citizens and have the same rights as other religious confessions, before the law,” says Walman Nainggolan, from the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (Hkbp) community, the original indigenous population of the province of North Sumatra. Yesterday, the faithful have reported the incident to the Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas Ham), requesting that their demands be heard and a new place of worship granted.

The decision of the local government is even at odds with the will of the Muslims of the area who were not opposed to the church building. “We received support and solidarity from the forum for interreligious dialogue, but the authorities took no notice” adds Nainggolan. The Human Rights Commission announced an appeal to the Department of Religious Affairs and warns that “the authorities in Bogor must ensure a place to pray for all, instead of tearing down the church” of the Batak faithful.

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

Far East


Japan Executes 3 Inmates

TOKYO — JAPAN on Tuesday hanged three inmates convicted of multiple murders, including a Chinese man and another man who found his victims through an Internet suicide site, officials said.

‘Executions were carried out today on three inmates who had been sentenced to death,’ the justice ministry said in a statement.

It identified the convicts as two Japanese men — Hiroshi Maeue, 40, and Yukio Yamaji, 25 — and Chinese national Chen Detong, 41, who had killed three of his compatriots and wounded three more Chinese people.

Maeue, executed in Osaka, killed three people in 2005 after he got to know them separately through an Internet website where people contemplating suicide go to meet others thinking also of ending their lives.

Maeue arranged to meet them with the idea of a joint suicide, and then choked them to death. He confessed to deriving sexual pleasure by seeing people suffocate.

Yamaji, also executed in Osaka, raped and then stabbed to death two sisters, stole their money and set fire to their apartment in 2005.

Chen, the Chinese national, was executed in Tokyo for killing three of his compatriots and injuring three more in Kawasaki, southwest of Tokyo, in 1999.

Japan is the only major industrial nation other than the United States to apply the death penalty. Japan’s last executions were in January when four convicted murderers were hanged.

The death penalty is overwhelmingly supported by the public in Japan, which has one of the world’s lowest crime rates. But Japan has regularly come under fire from the European Union and campaigners over its use of the death penalty, especially its practice of hanging inmates without any prior warning to them or to their families.

Makoto Teranaka, of Amnesty International’s Japanese chapter, said after the latest executions Tuesday that ‘this is a grave act that cannot be permitted amid international calls to suspend capital punishment’. Despite the criticism, conservative governments have stepped up the pace of executions. Last year Japan hanged 15 death-row inmates, the highest number since 1975, when the country executed 17 people. — AFP

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]



Unopposed Candidate Elected as Macau’s New Chief Executive

Voting for top post is restricted to a 300-member election committee hand-picked by Chinese authorities. A few demonstrators call for democratic reform, but there are no hopes before 2019. Corruption and social needs are the city’s top problems.

Macau (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The unopposed election of Fernando Chui Sai-on as Macau’s chief executive left most residents of this former Portuguese colony indifferent. Many wonder however how he will deal with the city’s main problems, like widespread corruption and residents’ social needs.

The Macau Daily News, the biggest local newspaper, declared Dr Chui’s victory on its front page before the vote began yesterday morning, with the headline—”Breaking News: Chui Sai-on is New Chief Executive”—raising only a few eyebrows.

The vote count was televised and confirmed the candidate’s landslide victory. Only the occasional mention of an unmarked ballot paper stirred a small ripple of interest.

Chui received 282 votes from the 300-member Election Committee, compared with the 286 nominations he garnered last month from the small circle of electors. One of 297 members who showed up to vote at the Macau Dome stadium withheld his ballot in protest against a lack of democracy; the other 14 members cast blank ballots.

In the chief executive poll in 2004, Edmund Ho Hau-wah, the sole candidate, won 296 votes from the 300 Election Committee members.

Under Macau election law a 300-member election committee picks the chief executive. The committee itself is selected by Chinese authorities on the basis of a number of criteria rather than popularly elected.

For most Macau residents there is only indifference towards a process most find unjust because it allows 300 people to decide who governs the city of 500,000 people.

But Chief Executive-elect Chui defended his victory as legitimate. He tried to reassure the 14 voters who cast empty ballots that he intended to gain their confidence and that of the population.

Shortly after the vote, a few scores of people led by pro-democracy legislators Antonio Ng Kuok-cheong and Au Kam-san rallied at the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral, calling for universal suffrage for Macau in 2019.

“To stamp out corruption, we must fight for democracy,” Mr Ng said

Indeed city residents are still reeling after Ao Man-long, a former secretary for transport and public works, was sentenced to 28 and half years in April on 81 counts of bribe taking and other crimes involving hundreds of millions of patacas (hundreds of thousands of dollars)

For many analysts the Ao graft scandal exposed major flaws in the city’s system of government.

Residents want Chui to ensure that the administration will be more transparent and under better supervision. But few expect any major structural change.

On democratic reform Chui’s election platform had only general promises without deadlines.

In the meantime he will be called to deal with important social and economic problems, especially in health care, housing and real estate, issues only superficially addressed in his campaign platform.

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



Xinjiang Riots Confound Islamists

Despite the outbreak of devastating violence affecting the Uyghur Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region, the Muslim world has not shrieked unanimously or decisively in outrage. More Muslims in far-flung parts of the planet protested the denial of democratic rights in Iran in the last few days than the plight of their co-religionists in Xinjiang.

Since the state crackdown after the street battles took hold in Urumqi, Kashgar and other parts in Xinjiang, the protest banner has been languishing in the hands of only a handful of ethnic Uyghur citadels outside China. This is a far cry from millions of angry fellow Muslims moved by solidarity for Uyghur activists demanding self-determination from Chinese rule.

As an issue, Xinjiang has failed to whip up pan-Islamic fervor despite the steady marginalization of the largely Sunni Muslim Uyghurs under Chinese communist control.

Over the years, spleen vented at abuses or humiliation of Muslims and their sacred symbols has been channeled into mass protests from Morocco to Malaysia. The wave of disturbances following the publication of insulting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark in 2005 shook virtually every place on Earth where Muslims resided in sizeable numbers. Death threats, burning of effigies, arson against public utilities, torching of embassies, bomb attacks and related acts resulted at that time in the deaths of over 139 people. The conflagration was so forceful that the media dubbed it the “Cartoon intifada”- a dark pun on the Palestinian uprisings, which usually set fire to the Muslim sensibility, irrespective of nationality.

Earlier in 2005, when Newsweek magazine alleged that some American personnel manning the Guantanamo Bay prison had deliberately flushed copies of the Koran down the toilet, it set off a furor in countries as far apart as Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia. So infuriating was the memory of this act that it inspired one of the Pakistani-origin suicide bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, to bomb the London public transport system in July 2005.

Come July 2009 and the Xinjiang violence, where is the inflamed “Muslim street” and its rabble-rousing leaders? Officially, Turkey was the only country which huffed that “genocide” was being committed by China against the Uyghurs. But Ankara’s harsh language had more to do with ethnic affinity for Uyghurs, who are racially Turkic in origin, than with a general sympathy for “Muslim brothers and sisters”.

Thousands of Uyghur immigrants live in Turkey and remind Turkish nationalists of the dream of an independent “East Turkestan” (the former name of Xinjiang). While most contemporary Turks have mixed blood after mingling with Europeans and Arabs, the Uyghurs isolated themselves from other ethnic groups and are admired by Turks as the closest to their pure-bred ancestors. The survival of the Uyghurs, who face demographic flooding in China, is associated with stirrings of national identity in Turkey.

It is because of such emotional attachment to Uyghurs that the Turkish Industry minister risked economic relations with Beijing by urging a boycott of Chinese imported goods after violence flared up in Urumqi. As many as 107 Turkish lawmakers from a China-Turkey inter-parliamentary group resigned in disgust. Thousands of Turks joined Uyghurs in Istanbul and other Turkish cities after Friday prayers chanting “Murderer China” and “No to ethnic cleansing.”

A Turkish delegation of five MPs, led by the chairman of the Committee on Human Rights, Zafer Uskul, announced that they would travel to Xinjiang to assess the situation on the ground. The very tag “human rights” which these MPs carried raised antlers in Beijing, which unceremoniously squelched the proposed trip without offering a public explanation. More than 12 days since the Turkish delegation expressed intent, it is still waiting for China’s permission.

Turkey’s angst over Xinjiang did not infect or enthuse other Muslim countries, not even in its immediate neighborhood. Many observers noted the irony that a state which many believe has yet to accept its own genocide against Armenia during World War I is casting stones at China with the slogan of genocide against Uyghurs.

The only non-Turkic Muslim country where some noise was drummed up immediately after the Xinjiang mayhem was Indonesia. Islamic organizations in Jakarta gathered before the Chinese embassy, displaying flags and posters and criticizing Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs. They reiterated the pet project of “holy war” against infidels. The timing of these demonstrations could be related to Indonesia’s presidential elections, which were just around the corner as flames broke out around Urumqi.

Apart from this, a shady Algerian outfit known as “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” issued a threat that it would target Chinese people abroad in revenge for “the deaths of Muslims” in Xinjiang. Some strategic consultants aver that “jihadists want to see action against China” for its harsh policies towards Uyghurs, but much of this remains in the realm of speculation.

A key Muslim country, Iran, which has a history of kicking up storms over desecration of Islamic symbols (recall the Salman Rushdie affair) and the sufferings of fellow Muslims (both Shi’ites and Sunnis), has notably remained silent on Xinjiang. There appears to be a verbal pact between Tehran and Beijing that they will not berate each other over internal political challenges. Tehran’s absolute tight-lippedness on the Uyghur question is likely to be payback for Beijing’s recognition of President Mahmud Ahmadinjad’s controversial re-election in June.

The general realization that Iran needs China on its side at the UN Security Council on each occasion when the former’s nuclear program comes under the scanner seems to have also held back the fire-spewing ayatollahs from denouncing the bloodshed in Xinjiang.

Why did Islamic establishments and publics let go of the Xinjiang violence so lightly, with barely a murmur or two? The answer lies in the complicated construction of enemies by Islamists. The “West”, as a category, has been blamed by radical Muslims as the bane which ruined former Islamic political and cultural glory. So, when atrocities or slights are seen to be committed against Islam and its adherents in a European or North American country, they confirm the pre-existing prejudices and hatreds nursed by the Muslim street and its instigators in positions of power.

Sometimes, the “West” is also extended to include countries like Russia, Israel and India — all of whom are viewed by Islamists and their followers to be oppressing Muslims in their respective disputed territories. But China’s image as a staunch rival of Western powers and which does not intervene in the Middle East confuses hardline Muslims, who place it in a nebulous mental space.

China does not fit neatly into the binary jihadist classification of the world into dar-ul-Islam (a land where Islamic laws are followed and the ruler is a Muslim) and dar-ul-Harb (a land ruled by infidels and where Muslims suffer).

That China has so far escaped major jihadist attacks on its soil or its overseas representations in spite of its harshness towards Uyghurs is not a function of its superior counter-terrorism strategies but rather of the label fixation among Islamists. The West, however geographically and politically incongruous a concept, continues to be the favorite dartboard for fiery Muslims.

It is a fixation that absorbs the Islamist heat and allows China a free hand to deal severely with the Uyghurs.

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific


Kent Pleads Guilty to Terror Charge

Melbourne man Shane Kent faces up to 15 years jail after admitting membership of a terrorist group and his involvement in preparing a terrorist act.

Kent, 32, faced a trial last year along with 11 other men accused of being members of a Melbourne terror group that had discussed plans to bomb various landmarks in the city, including the MCG on AFL grand final day.

He made his admissions on Tuesday just before he was to be retried in the Supreme Court after a jury at his original trial last year could not reach a verdict.

Kent, from Campbellfield, pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally being a member of a terrorist organisation between July 2004 and November 2005.

The former forklift driver also pleaded guilty to one count of making a document connected with the preparation of a terrorist act.

The charges respectively attract maximum jail terms of 10 years and 15 years.

Wearing a dark grey shirt and black jacket, he looked down as the charges were read and calmly replied “guilty” to each.

Kent has spent almost three years in custody following his arrest in 2005.

But he was released on bail in October last year on strict conditions after the non-verdict.

The original trial heard he was a member of a terror group led by Melbourne Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who was found guilty of intentionally directing the activities of a terrorist organisation and of being a member of a terrorist group.

Benbrika was sentenced in February to 15 years in jail.

Six other members of the group were also found guilty and sentenced to terms ranging from four years to seven-and-a-half years.

Kent’s lawyer John Champion, SC, described him as a “fragile” person who was depressed and highly anxious.

He said Kent, who is expecting his fourth child with his wife, was undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Mr Champion asked that Kent’s bail be continued so he could spend time with his family.

He said Kent’s bail conditions, secured with a $50,000 surety supplied by his mother, required him to report daily to police.

He also had a night curfew, restrictions on his phone and internet use and travel.

But the crown opposed Kent’s bail being continued, saying there were no exceptional circumstances warranting his release.

Justice David Byrne agreed and remanded Kent into custody, amid sobs from his supporters, including his wife, who were sitting in court.

Kent, who converted to Islam when he was 19, will reappear in court for his pre-sentence hearing on August 17.

His earlier trial heard he trained overseas for around two months in a paramilitary camp. The training included the use of weapons.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]



The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name

THE bodies of slain Australians in Jakarta were not yet back in the country when a new report warned us last week against referring to Islamo-fascists as-dare one say it-Islamo-fascists. If we want to reduce alienation and radicalism among young Muslims we must watch our language, says A Lexicon on Terror, a book compiled by the Victoria Police and the Australian Multicultural Foundation.

Multicultural Foundation head Hass Dellal told The Age that the wholesale branding of Islam with violence and extremism was of great concern.

Speaking at a conference last week Stephen Fontana, the assistant commissioner for counter-terrorism co-ordination, said that “a comment we think is harmless, some communities read as an attack”.

Would someone kindly lock up these language police for crimes against the English language? An attack is what happened in Jakarta when innocent hotel guests were murdered at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. And it is, quite literally, the bleeding obvious to point out that the perpetrators of the carnage are a group of Islamist militants who twist the tenets of Islam to suit their ideological purposes. They seek to bring down democracy in Indonesia and punish Western nations for fighting the Taliban and al-Qa’ida, with the ultimate aim of creating an Islamic caliphate. Yet while these terrorists go to great lengths to promote their Muslim identity and their militant Islamist ideology, it seems we are not allowed to mention that now.

There is nothing wrong with crafting careful language when dealing with terrorism. For years political leaders have used terms such as Islamist terrorist or Islamo-fascist to carefully distinguish militants from the vast majority of peace-loving Muslims. But there is a difference between being careful and being cowardly. The kind of zealous language policing endorsed by the Victoria Police and the Multicultural Foundation encourages us to hide from the truth.

Their new whitewash language is not just daft, it’s dangerous. Clarity of language is a critical tool if we are serious about uncovering and understanding militant Islam. After so many attacks and the murder of so many innocent people, why would we cower from identifying the drivers of their Islamist extremism?

           — Hat tip: Tuan Jim [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


African View: Memories of Taylor

In our series of weekly viewpoints from African journalists, former BBC editor and Ghanaian minister Elizabeth Ohene, relives her unforgettable encounters with Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president currently defending himself against war crimes charges.

Not much had changed. It was the same self-assured, flamboyant performer. I must confess it gave me quite a start to hear that voice on television say: Dr Charles Ghankay Taylor.

The memories came flooding in… The Charles Taylor story is well known, so where do I start with my Charles Taylor story?

Boxing Day, 1989. The day after Christmas Day, Boxing Day is usually a slow day in newsrooms, and the four of us who were at work in the BBC’s Focus on Africa office that Boxing Day were probably cursing our luck that we were at work when most other people were nursing their Christmas hangovers at home.

The phone rang and the voice at the end said he was Charles Taylor, he had launched an invasion into Liberia to throw out the head of state, Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe.

‘No better than a murderer’

I do not remember if there were any arguments among us about whether we should give him the exposure. But that is not the point today and as the old cliche goes, the rest is history.

He was interviewed and the Liberian rebel war was introduced to the world — and with it a certain notoriety for the programme.

As time went by and Focus on Africa continued with what was to become a daily chronicle of the war, the internal arguments and agonising did take place in the office.

But hey, the man made great radio. Gift of the gab — if ever anyone had it, that was Charles Taylor. Probably the most famous of the verbal sparring between editor Robin White and Charles Taylor went something like this…

Robin White: “Mr Taylor, some people think you are not much better than a murderer.”

Charles Taylor: (guffaws) “Robin, Jesus Christ was accused of being a murderer in his time.”

Okay, I know Jesus Christ was accused of many things in his time but I cannot recall him being accused of murder; all the same you get the drift and must concede it made riveting radio. ‘He killed my ma’

Fast-forward to 1997 and I am in Liberia to cover the elections that would eventually make Charles Taylor president.

My abiding memories of that assignment and the face-to-face encounters with Charles Taylor must surely be the chant of his youthful supporters.

There were thousands of them, all clad in yellow Taylor T-shirts and they would run up and down the streets of Monrovia chanting: “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, I’ll vote for him.”

When I interviewed him, he brought up the matter of the chant.

“Have you heard them?” he asked. “They mean it, you know, and they love me.” And indeed they voted for him, and he became president

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



Nigeria: Security Boosted in Four Northern States

Abuja, 28 July (AKI) — Four Nigerian states imposed a security clampdown on Tuesday following two days of Islamist-linked violence in the north of the country that left over one hundred people dead. Soldiers were reported to have set up road blocks and imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews in affected areas in Yobe, Kano, Borno and Plateau states.

Islamist militants staged attacks on police and government offices and there have been reports of youths armed with machetes and guns killing police officers and civilians at random.

Hardline Muslim group Boko Haram attacked a police station in the town of Bauchi, northern Nigeria, early on Sunday. Police repelled the attackers, who were wielding automatic weapons and grenades, but over 40 people were believed to have died and dozens more to have been injured.

The violence then spread to three other towns. Further attacks then took place in Yobe and Borno states overnight.

Boko Haram militants are said to oppose anything western including western-style education. They accuse the Bauchi state government of preventing them from publicly practising their religion or seeking converts. The group recruits young men and wants to impose Islamic Sharia law, across the whole of Nigeria

Roadblocks have been erected and curfews were in the towns worst hit by the clashes.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that police stations had been attacked and civilians pulled from their cars and shot dead.

More than 100 bodies, most of them militants, were reported to have been laid out near the police headquarters in the town worst affected by the violence — Maiduguri in Borno state.

Nigerian police said they have arrested almost 200 fighters.

Islamic Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria but there is no history of Al-Qaeda linked violence in the country. Nigeria’s 140 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians and the two groups generally live peacefully side by side, despite occasional outbreaks of communal violence.

The north has been gradually implementing stricter Islamic law, which has led to trouble with Christian groups. Clashes in Bauchi earlier this year left five people dead and several churches and mosques gutted by fire.

Hundreds of people died last November in the city of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, when local elections degenerated into bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians.

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



Nigeria’s ‘Taliban’ Enigma

They have launched co-ordinated attacks across northern Nigeria, threatening to overthrow the government and impose strict Islamic law — but who exactly are the Nigerian Taliban?

Since the group emerged in 2004 they have become known as “Taliban”, although they appear to have no links to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Some analysts believe they took inspiration from the radical Afghans, others say the name is more a term of ridicule used by people in Maiduguri, the area where they were founded.

The group’s other name, Boko Haram, means “Western education is a sin” and is another title used by local people to refer to the group.

Isa Sanusi, from the BBC’s Hausa service, says the group has no specific name for itself, just many names attributed to it by local people.

If their name is uncertain, however, their mission appears clear enough: to overthrow the Nigerian state, impose an extreme interpretation of Islamic law and abolish what they term “Western-style education”.

Flat-Earth views?

In an interview with the BBC, the group’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf, said such education “spoils the belief in one god”.

“There are prominent Islamic preachers who have seen and understood that the present Western-style education is mixed with issues that run contrary to our beliefs in Islam,” he said.

“Like rain. We believe it is a creation of god rather than an evaporation caused by the sun that condenses and becomes rain.

“Like saying the world is a sphere. If it runs contrary to the teachings of Allah, we reject it. We also reject the theory of Darwinism.”

Mr Yusuf himself is something of an enigma.

He is believed to be in his mid-thirties, and analysts say he is extremely wealthy and highly educated.

“He is graduate educated and very proficient in English,” says Nigerian academic Hussain Zakaria.

“He lives lavishly — people say he drives a Mercedes Benz. And he is very well-educated in a Western context.”

‘We could see it coming’

Despite the secrecy surrounding the group, many in Nigeria say the attacks were far from surprising.

Mannir Dan Ali, a journalist with Abuja-based Trust newspapers, says there was a minor incident in early June which appeared to spark a series of statements from the group threatening reprisals.

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

Immigration


Algeria: 19 People Stopped Off Coast of Oran

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JULY 28 — The Algerian coast guard intercepted a vessel with 19 people aboard trying to leave the country off the coast of Arzew, near Oran, reported the APS agency quoting official sources. The Zodiac boat was intercepted around 5:30 am by a coast guard unit near Cape Carbon: 19 men were found aboard from 19 to 39 years of age. (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



‘Brothels’ In Libya as Well, Bee Free Says

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 28 — In and around Tripoli there are ‘brothels’ in which African women, passing through Libya on their way to Italy, are forced to prostitute themselves. This “illegal” activity shows the “concrete risk of the exploitation of prostitution in our country as well” according to a report presented today in the International women’s house in Rome by Bee Free, the organisation against human trafficking. The report is based on interviews with 111 women (most of them from Nigeria) in the identification and expulsion centre ‘Ponte Galeria’ in Rome. In the centre, Bee Free gives advise and assistance to the women, in collaboration with the Province and the ministry for equal opportunities. The women, interviewed between August 2008 and March 2009, talked of “an illegal” journey to Italy “after staying (up to more than a year) in Libya. On the Libyan coasts they are taken on board to be moved to Lampedusa”. A quarter of the women has told stories of sexual exploitation, many of labour exploitation. Of the Nigerian women who have been sexually exploited 25% were prostituted in Libya, the rest in Italy. The women are usually convinced to become prostitutes by offering them the journey to Italy for free. In the brothels, the women say, the “slave drivers’ “use physical and psychological violence, kidnapping and torture. The girls are not allowed refuse sex with clients, to use contraceptives or to give money to their exploiters. The ones responsible are Libyan traffickers, the heart of the transnational criminal organisation.” (ANSAmed).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



‘Outsourcing’ Asylum Seekers the Italian Way

Italy is intercepting illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean and sending them straight back to Lybia. Human rights organisations, the United Nations and the Vatican are crying foul.

By Mark Schenkel

They thought they had reached the promised land: the 82 African migrants who were intercepted on July 1 off the coast of Lampedusa, an Italian island half-way between the Italian mainland and Libya. International law says people in distress have to be taken to the nearest port. Once on Lampedusa, the Africans, most of whom were from Eritrea, were planning to apply for political asylum in Italy.

Instead, the Italian coastguard put them on board a Libyan patrol boat. According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), which interviewed the Eritreans back in Libya, “a significant number was in need of international protection”. But Libya doesn’t have an asylum procedure, so the 82 Africans were simply detained.

Italy has been sending migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean back to Libya since last May. It is a policy that is as effective as it is controversial. The flow of boat refugees to Italy has been stemmed, but a diverse coalition, from rights groups to the Vatican, has taken Italy to task for what it says is a violation of fundamental human rights. It is feared that Italy’s new approach is part of a trend among European countries to “outsource” their asylum and migration policies to African countries.

Illegal immigration to Italy by sea down by half

In the first six months of 2009, 6,760 illegal immigrants arrived by sea in Sicily and Lampedusa, less than half the 14,800 who arrived last year, according to official figures.

Since May Italy has sent at least 900 illegal immigrants back to Libya, although the UNHCR suspects it might be more.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says many illegal immigrants in Libya have been discouraged from attempting the sea voyage because of Italy’s new policy.

Libya is also cracking down on human traffickers.

The economic downturn has also had an impact as fewer jobs are available for migrants in Europe.

Dealing with Gadaffi

The Italian-Libyan cooperation is part of a deal that prime minister Silvio Berlusconi made last year with the Libyan ruler, colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Rome promised Tripoli 5 billion euro in reparations for Italy’s colonisation of Libya from 1911 until 1941. In exchange, Tripoli agreed to help stem the flow of illegal migrants to Italy.

Nine out of ten illegal immigrants on their way to Italy embark on their voyage in Libya. By sending them back to Libya, Italy keeps the migrants from entering an asylum procedure in Italy, where most of them would have ended up staying, whether legally or illegally. The Libyan patrol boats that take the migrants back were another gift from Rome.

“We are mostly worried about the refugees,” says Dutchman Laurent Jolles, head of the UNHCR in Italy, Malta and Cyprus. Many of the migrants trying to reach Italy via the Mediterranean are economic migrants, but there are also people escaping the violence in countries like Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan. Of the 37,000 boat people who reached Italy last year, three quarters applied for asylum. Half of those were given some kind of protection. “So it is safe to assume that by sending back the migrants you’re also sending back refugees,” says Jolles.

‘Lampedusa resolution’

Migrants have the right to apply for asylum upon reaching European soil, and to appeal against a rejection if necessary. Moreover, migrants cannot be sent back to countries where they might be in danger.

In 2005, the European parliament condemned Italy for its mass deportations of immigrants in violation of international law. Between October 2004 and March 2005, Italy had sent back hundreds of illegal aliens back to Libya, ignoring the right of asylum seekers to individual treatment. The European parliament’s so-called ‘Lampedusa resolution’ made a reference to 106 migrants who allegedly died while in Libyan custody.

By sending the migrants back before they have even set foot on Italian soil, Italy is trying to get around the international conventions. But some experts argue that an Italian ship, even if it is in international waters, constitutes Italian soil. Legal haggling aside, one thing is clear, says Jolles: “Italy is denying refugees their right to seek asylum”.

The UNHCR has called on the Berlusconi government to halt expulsions to Libya immediately and to allow intercepted migrants to enter Italian admission procedures as before. Rome, on its part, says its new migration policy is more humane: if fewer migrants embark on the dangerous voyage to Italy, fewer will drown.

But the UNHCR points out that Italy is sending people back to a country that never even signed the 1951 UN refugees convention.

A little help from Brussels

Libya has a bad reputation when it comes to handling immigrants. For years, human rights organisations have complained about Libya’s mistreatment of immigrants in detention centres and its arbitrary deportations. In 2004, Libya put 75 Eritrean refugees on a plane back to Eritrea. The refugees forced the pilot to land in Sudan, According to the UNHCR, sixty of them qualified for asylum, which they eventually obtained from Sudan.

“For Italy to deport Eritreans back to Libya without any kind of procedure is worrisome,” says Thomas Gammelhoft-Hansen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Gammelhoft-Hansen in May finished a dissertation about what he calls the “outsourcing” of Europe’s asylum and migration policy. More and more, Gammelhoft-Hansen says, Brussels and individual EU countries are encouraging African countries to stop immigrants from trying to reach Europe.

Brussels intervenes directly through its funding of the EU agency Frontex, which is charged with the protection of Europe’s outer borders. Indirectly, countries like Spain, Italy or Malta, which bear the brunt of illegal immigration, have made their own, bilateral agreements with African countries.

Spain, for instance, receives funds from Brussels to patrol the waters off Senegal and Mauritania, from where many migrants take off for the Canary Islands. These countries, with dubious human rights records, also take back intercepted refugees. The Spanish patrols began after 31,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands in 2006; this year that figure was down to 1,500.

The difference between Spain and Italy is that the Canary Islands attract mostly economic refugees, whereas Italy has many more genuine asylum seekers. Gammelhoft-Hansen: “That just makes it all the more serious that Italy is sending people back to Libya.”

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

Culture Wars


Anglican Leader Foresees Two Paths

By Julia Duin

A lengthy essay posted Monday by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams downplayed the U.S. Episcopal Church’s recent decisions to consecrate gay bishops and allow blessings of same-sex unions, drawing criticism from the liberal and conservative wings of American Anglicanism.

While the archbishop said “very serious anxieties” have resulted from the Episcopal Church’s overwhelming votes on both matters at its July meeting in Anaheim, Calif., he refused to censure the 2.1 million-member denomination, one of 38 provinces in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

The archbishop attended the convention for two days and specifically asked delegates not to approve either of the two measures.

Now he is suggesting in “Communion, Covenant and Our Anglican Future,” that the Anglican Communion might move to a two-tiered structure under which certain of its members, including the Episcopal Church, could not participate in certain ecumenical meetings or official gatherings.

And in a nod to breakaway groups such as the roughly 100,000 former Episcopalians who have joined the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), he wrote that if a province — such as the Episcopal Church, though he did not specify in that paragraph — decides not to adhere to Anglican mores, “any elements within it” can sign on instead, he wrote.

He also criticized the Episcopal Church’s decision to nullify the Anglican Communion’s ban on gay bishops.

“Their chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions,” he wrote, “and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”

He also criticized the logic of the church adhering to laws in six states that allow gay marriages, adding that “if society changes its attitudes, that change does not of itself count as a reason for the Church to change its discipline.”…

[Return to headlines]

General


Christians Can Save Islam From Cultural Death

The Islamic tradition could die out fear of modernity which it perceives as anti-religious. For some time all Islamic extremism has been proposing is a return to a mythical past, that of the first four ‘rightly guided’ caliphs, by proposing unchanging and superficial ways of life. Christianity has confronted modernity for centuries and can help Islam achieve a necessary insight into the matter.

Venice (AsiaNews) — More than 70 people from 20 different countries gathered on the Isola San Giorgio in Venice for the annual meeting of the Scientific Committee of Oasis, a journal founded by the Patriarch of Venice Angelo Scola as a way to find “common venues” for dialogue between Christians and Muslims ((www.oasiscenter.eu ).

Held last Monday and Tuesday, the topic of this year’s gathering was Interpreting tradition in the age of Métissage. The term métissage, so dear to Cardinal Scola, looks at the ways cultures and religions engage each other in dialogue, comparing each other, copying one another, integrating and clashing, always changing as a result of their encounter.

This year, which focused on, tradition, put the spot light on the importance of passing on one’s faith and culture in an increasingly multicultural world.

A very important aspect of this process is how migrants (Muslims in the West) and minorities (Christians in the Middle East) are able to pass on their traditions to younger generations.

All those who spoke at the event, including some Muslims from France, Tunisia and the United States, stressed the importance of the school system as a place for passing on and confronting cultural traditions.

The address by Fr Samir Khalil Samir was particularly significant. The Jesuit scholar looked at the difficulties Islam faces today, torn between a fossilised vision of the past (presented as the ‘true’ Islam by Muslim extremists) and modernity with all its problems.

To a certain extent Christians face similar difficulties because modernity brings secularism and rejection of the faith. But unlike Islam Christianity has been involved in a dialogue with the modern world for a long time and for this reason can help it tackle the contemporary society, mitigating the danger of extremism, which only celebrates the ‘interment of Islam’.

Here is Father Samir’s address (translated by AsiaNews):

1. Tradition means continuity, identity and renewal Tradition (Lat. tradere) means passing on one’s precious legacy which will in turn be passed on to others and so on. Thus tradition presumes continuity in the here and now. It does not mean going back but assumes instead finding in one’s roots the inspiration that guarantees continuity, strengthens one’s identity and renews the present; in short, continuity, identity and renewal.

When tradition becomes identified with the past and stops inspiring the present it is dead. Because it no longer exists it is treated as something sacred; by making it sacred it is buried because it is no longer understood.

Increasingly we find ourselves in this situation in our Arab and Muslim societies. No longer do we have a future or a present; we are simply stuck with the past. We go back to the past and turn it into a myth, something sacred, for we have nothing else.

In reality in doing this we reinforce our cultural and spiritual death. The notion of tradition in today’s Muslim world means going back to the way things were in 7th century, an age that becomes sacred. We often focus on outer details like the beard, the veil or niqab, the miswak (a kind of long toothpick from a root that Islam’s prophet used), the long white tunic, etc.

Conversely, Christians (most notably in the West) tend to reject their traditions. Some people think that they must forget or even reject their past to be modern. The danger in that case is of losing one’s roots and authenticity. It is a danger I see in Europe.

This can drive some to become traditionalists, to hang on to some details (for example, the Latin mass, the cassock, etc.). The rise of Mgr Lefevbre and his followers is a mirror image of the rejection of tradition.

The matter at hand is thus not limited to the Muslim world, but in this part of the world it is at its most visible and prominent.

2. Fear of modernity that appears anti-religious An obvious reason for this attitude is a fear of modernity. This is something we can see today in the Arab world. Today modernity rimes with the West whereas in the 9th-11th centuries it rimed with Islam. For many a Muslim the West is scary and repelling because it is estranged from religion and is secularised. All of a sudden, for many Muslims modernity looks like a new Jâhiliyyah (ignorance, the name given in the Qur’an to unbelievers), which the Qur’an and Islam fought vehemently. Modernity for many Muslims is a form of neo-paganism.

Consequently, many Muslims have sought refuge in the past and in religion, which to them appear as safe and lasting values and with a safe repertory of behaviours.

This why today there is a tendency to sacralise the age of the first four caliphs (Muhammad’s successors), known as the ‘rightly guided’ caliphs (al-khulafâ’ al-râshidîn) : Abu Bakr al-Siddîq (the upright ) (632-634 AD), ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattâb (634-644 AD), ‘Uthman Ibn ‘Affân (644-656 AD) and ‘Ali Ibn Abî Tâlib (656-661 AD).

This period, which runs from 632 to 661 AD, is like a Golden Age, a heavenly time, but there is a great danger, because it means that heaven, the model to be followed and recreated, is behind us, not ahead of us, something towards which we can strive.

Lest we forget, except for the first caliph, all of other three were murdered. ‘Umar was killed on 4 November 644, ‘Uthman in 656, and ‘Ali in January 661 by the Kharijites.

If we want to renew Islam we must face the challenges the modern world has thrown at religions, whether Judaism, Christianity, Islam or others.

This is something Christianity faces everyday, especially in the West. If it turned back into its past, it will die. The same is true for Islam. However more often than not, the Muslim world seems to prefer to postpone dealing with the issue, and this will make finding a solution harder.

At the same time, this does not mean that we must uncritically adopt every new thing just because it is new. Insight into the matter is a must as well as a necessary condition for survival.

3. Conclusion

What is needed is a certain harmony between past and future, between traditions (which ought to inspire but not shackle) and modernity (which is not necessarily freedom or liberation).

Islam began finding this towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. It started its own renewal from within by confronting Western civilisation and culture, helped to a great extent by Arab Christians who had begun the same process before them.

Sadly in the middle of the last century, this movement was swept away by new ideologies (nationalism, socialism, pan-Arabism, etc.) and began going backward.

I think that Christianity, which has already faced this situation for several centuries, could help the Muslim world to reach this insight.

Yet only Muslims can carry out this process, looking into their own tradition, criticising what must be criticised and maintaining what is best.

Christians and Muslims (and other believers) face the same challenges. By cooperating, by not opposing anyone, we can all benefit.

Tradition must be a source of life; otherwise it dies, hence the need for a critique and for insight to reach harmony and true liberty.

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

The Audacity of Hope

Here’s an encouraging news story concerning the notorious Henry Louis Gates and his recent encounter with law enforcement in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Maybe we’re more post-racial in this country than I thought. Loyalty within the Cambridge police seems to trump racial solidarity:



The Gates-gate story is playing out in several interesting ways:
– – – – – – – –
I predicted that when Obama’s negatives began to exceed his positives in opinion polls — which they do now, by about 10% — he would play the race card as soon as the opportunity arose. With the economy in ruins and his foreign policy a joke, the Messiah’s only hope for getting his numbers back up would be to leverage that good ol’ white guilt that got him elected in the first place.

But it’s not working. And it’s not just those nasty white WAYCISTS who are turning on him: there are now black Americans who are willing to tell the TV cameras that they no longer support him.

An intelligent well-spoken black policewoman says that she voted for Obama last year, but she won’t vote for him again.

Now that’s change we can believe in.

A Twelve-Year-Old Pusher

Cultural Enrichment News


This kid is being billed as the “the youngest drug dealer in Berlin.” I’m going out on a limb and citing the story as cultural enrichment, because the chances that this urchin is a “person of German background” are less than 0.1%. If anyone finds evidence to the contrary, let me know, and I’ll change the classification of this post.

While you’re at Bild, check out the “related news” for more enrichment. One of the headlines: “Turkish dad stabbed his own 15-year-old daughter to death in the latest honour killing to shock Germany.”

Here’s the Berlin article:

Police Arrest 12-Year-Old Boy for Pushing Heroin

Shocked police arrested a 12-year-old boy for pushing heroin, and described him as the youngest drug dealer in Berlin.

The child was caught in the Kreuzberg area of the German capital selling the deadly drug heroin on Monday evening. He was spotted in a park digging around in a sand pit.

When officers approached they found 150 pellets filled with heroin. Each one is sold for between €10 and €15.

– – – – – – – –

The boy tried to escape but the police caught him and confiscated his money. He was fingerprinted, photographed and has been handed to a custodian.

Kerstin Dettmer from the drug advice centre ‘Fixpunkt’ said that children were often exploited to push drugs.

“They don’t usually deal themselves but are used by adult dealers as pushers because they are under the age of criminal responsibility. The kids will get paid pocket money in return.”

Child drug dealers have also been caught in other parts of Germany. In Bavaria, police arrested an 11-year old boy in March 2008 for a similar crime.



For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: TB.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/27/2009

Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/27/2009I’ve written several times about the Islamic Saudi Academy and its attempts to expand onto a new campus in Fairfax County, Virginia. Now comes word that one of its alumni — a valedictorian, no less — has been sentenced to life in prison for training with Al Qaeda and plotting to kill President Bush.

In other news, non-Muslim female police in southern England are now required to wear veils when they enter mosques while on duty. A special hijab which includes a badge has been designed for them.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Dan Riehl, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, Islam in Action, JCPA, Nilk, Sean O’Brian, TB, The Lurker from Tulsa, TV, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – –

USA
7 NC Men Charged With Plotting ‘Violent Jihad’
A.H. Belo Reports $7.1m Second-Quarter Loss
Foundation Run by Harvard’s Gates is Revising Tax Return After Questions Raised
Frank Gaffney: Judging the Truth
Hungarian-American Protest Closure of Chicago Consulate
Look Here to See What’s in the Health Care Bill: Chilling!
Obama Seeks China’s Help on Iran, North Korea Nuclear Programs
Valedictorian of Virginia Islamic Saudi Academy Gets Life in Bush Plot
 
Europe and the EU
Civil Liberties Campaigners Are Strangely Reluctant to Criticise the EU
Czech President Refers Lisbon Treaty to Court
Economy Drives East Germans to Join Army
EU Booze Law is Tripe, Says Mayor
EU Supports More Anti-Terror Data Sharing With US
Germany Openly Warns of Terror Threat
Italy: Calls for Troop Withdrawal in Afghanistan Causes Cabinet Rift
Italy: Defence Spending Tops 40 Bln Dollars
Swedish Donald Duck Wades Into Pirates’ Waters
The Inflation of Genocide
UK: Very PC Police Force Issues Its WPCs With Muslim Headscarves Complete With Badge for Mosque Visits
 
North Africa
Feltman: U.S. Wants Greater Military Cooperation With Libya
 
Israel and the Palestinians
Hamas Set to Compel Gaza Women to Wear Head Covering
Hamas Threatens to Derail Crucial Fatah Conference
Israel Reports First Death From Swine Flu
The U.S.-Israeli Dispute Over Building in Jerusalem: The Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon Hatzadik Neighborhood
 
Middle East
Ahmedinejad’s Followers Are Middle-Class
Bishop of Baghdad: “Christians, Do Not be Afraid”, But the Fear of a New Exodus Remains
Iran: Ahmadinejad Now Wants Control of Who Uses the Internet
Italy Reaffirms Afghan Pledge
Saudi Arabia: First Swine Flu Death in Kingdom
Syria: US Lifts Aviation and it Industry Sanctions
Syria: President Meets Radical Iraqi Shia Cleric
 
Russia
Russian Patriarch Visits Ukraine
 
South Asia
Afghanistan: Gen. Bertolini, “No Truce But Pull-Out of Rebels”
India: Three Convicted of 2003 Mumbai Blasts
Influential Cleric Arrested in Pakistan
Karzai: Afghans Want Rules for Troops Changed
Pakistan: Italy Signs $100 Mln Agreement for Social Sector Development
Thomas L. Friedman: Islamists Are Losing, But Their Rivals Aren’t Winning
UK: Kabul Must Reconcile With Moderate Taliban
 
Far East
China’s Plans Behind the Xinjiang Tragedy
Growing War Industry in Pacifist Japan
 
Australia — Pacific
Grieving Family Demands Justice
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigerian Islamist Attacks Spread
 
Latin America
Minister Visits Latin America in Bid to Curb Iran’s Influence in Region
 
Immigration
Cardinal Delighted: Belgium Opens the Floodgates
Ireland: Bogus Bid for Asylum by Cricket Team Gets Hit for Six
Ireland: Scamming Cricketers Foil Immigration
Lifting the Lid on Australia’s ‘Visa Factories’
UK: Immigration Staff Vote to Strike

USA


7 NC Men Charged With Plotting ‘Violent Jihad’

RALEIGH, N.C. — A father, his two sons and four other North Carolina men are accused of military-style training at home and plotting “violent jihad” through a series of terror attacks abroad, federal authorities said Monday.

Officials said the group was led by Daniel Patrick Boyd, a married 39-year-old who lived in an unassuming lakeside home in a rural area south of Raleigh, where he and his family walked their dog and operated a drywall business. But two decades ago, Boyd, who is a U.S. citizen, trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and fought against the Soviets for three years before returning to the United States.

An indictment released Monday does not detail any specific terrorist plans or targets overseas, although it claims some of the defendants traveled to Israel in 2007 with the intent of waging “violent jihad” and returned home without success.

“These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow and fester right here at home,” U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said. He would not give details of the alleged plots beyond what was in a news release and indictment.

The seven men made their first court appearances in Raleigh on Monday, charged with providing material support to terrorism. If convicted, they could face life in prison. Court documents charged that Boyd, also known as ‘Saifullah,’ encouraged others to engage in jihad.

Boyd stopped attending worship services at a moderate mosque in the Raleigh area and instead began meeting for Friday prayers in his home, Holding said.

“These people had broken away because their local mosque did not follow their vision of being a good Muslim,” Holding said.

In 1991, Boyd and his brother were convicted of bank robbery in Pakistan — accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam. Each was sentenced to have a foot and a hand cut off for the robbery, but the decision was later overturned.

Their wives told The Associated Press in an interview at the time that the couples had U.S. roots but the United States was a country of “kafirs” — Arabic for heathens.

Jim Stephenson, a neighbor of Daniel Boyd in Willow Spring, said he saw the family walking their dog in the neighborhood and that the indictment shocked the residents.

“We never saw anything to give any clues that something like that could be going on in their family,” Stephenson said.

Two of the suspects are Boyd’s sons: Zakariya Boyd, 20 and Dylan Boyd, 22. The others are Anes Subasic, 33; Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22; and Ziyad Yaghi, 21. Hysen Sherifi, 24, a native of Kosovo and a U.S. legal permanent was also charged in the case. He was the only person arrested who was not a U.S. citizen.

No attorneys for the men were listed in court records.

Reached at her home in Silver Spring, Md., Boyd’s mother said she had not heard of their arrests and knew nothing about the current case.

“It certainly sounds weird to me,” Pat Saddler said. “That’s news to me.”

Hassan’s father declined to comment Monday night while others did not have listed numbers or did not return calls.

It’s unclear how authorities learned of the activities, although court documents indicate that prosecutors will introduce evidence gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

After the unsuccessful attempt at jihad in Israel, the men returned home, officials said. Court papers also say Yaghi went to Jordan to engage in jihad in 2006.

Boyd was also accused of trying to raise money last year to fund others’ travel overseas to fight. One of the men, Sherifi, went to Kosovo to engage in violent jihad, according to the indictment, but it’s unclear if he did any actual fighting.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



A.H. Belo Reports $7.1m Second-Quarter Loss

A.H. Belo Corporation, the publisher of The Dallas Morning News and three other daily newspapers, lost $7.1 million between April and June, as advertising revenue fell, circulation revenue rose and the company paid down most of its debt.

Total revenue in the second quarter amounted to $127.5 million, only slightly less than revenue during the first quarter of 2009 but about 22 percent less than the level in the second quarter last year.

Advertising revenue dropped 30 percent, due to declines in retail, general and classified ad revenue in all of the company’s markets. Circulation revenue rose about 10 percent, due mainly to increased prices for single copy sales and home delivery of The News and The Providence Journal in Rhode Island.

A.H. Belo cut its borrowings to $3.5 million as of June 30, down from $12.7 million as of March 31.

Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — a measure of operating profitability known as EBITDA — was $7.8 million. That was up from negative $9.1 million in the first quarter but down from $10 million in the second quarter of 2008.

A.H. Belo’s total operating expenses in the second quarter fell to $132 million, a 21 percent decrease from the same period last year.

“We successfully managed costs in the second quarter to remain EBITDA positive and significantly pay down the Company’s credit facility,” said Robert W. Decherd, A.H. Belo’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “A.H. Belo continues to experience success with our strategy of providing high quality newspaper subscribers to our advertisers, resulting in increased circulation revenue in 2009.”

Second quarter results included a $1.7 million write-down of a customer value management system at The News, which was partly offset by $1.1 million in insurance-claim proceeds the company received.

Shares of A.H. Belo rose 88 percent between July 6 and July 24, as newspaper companies such as Gannett Co. and The New York Times Co. posted stronger-than-expected results in the second quarter.

In addition to The News and The Providence Journal, A.H. Belo owns The Press-Enterprise, of Riverside, Calif., the Denton Record-Chronicle, and a range of specialty publications.

           — Hat tip: The Lurker from Tulsa [Return to headlines]



Foundation Run by Harvard’s Gates is Revising Tax Return After Questions Raised

A charity headed by star Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is filing an amended 2007 report to the Internal Revenue Service because $11,000 it paid to foundation officers as compensation was mischaracterized as being for research grants.

Questions about Inkwell Foundation emerged over the weekend, part of a tsunami of attention Gates has received since July 16, when he was arrested at his home by a police officer responding to a report about a possible burglary in progress. The incident ignited a national debate over racial profiling, further magnified when President Obama jumped into it.

ProPublica inquired about Inkwell after receiving an e-mail from Joseph Culligan, a private investigator who makes public on his Web site documents about prominent people, from Ann Coulter to Sonia Sotomayor. The e-mail spotlighted a $10,000 grant made to Joanne Kendall, the foundation’s treasurer, pointing out that she is also Gates’ assistant at Harvard.

Gates, a member of ProPublica’s board of directors, said Monday that the award to Kendall was actually payment for doing administrative work for Inkwell and not, as Inkwell’s IRS 990 form states, a research grant.

“It should have been listed as compensation,” he said in a telephone interview. In part, he added, the payment was designed to make sure she wasn’t doing foundation work on Harvard’s dime.

Gates also said $1,000 paid to foundation secretary Abby Wolf was for secretarial work, not research.

Inkwell was started by Gates in 2005 to support programs and research on African and African-American literature, art, history and culture.

It reported no activities until 2007, when it raised $205,543 and spent $27,600, state and federal filings show. The payments to Kendall and Wolf were among the foundation’s largest — only four of 23 Inkwell grants exceeded $500.

As the foundation’s president, Gates signed the report submitted to the IRS, but said he missed the inaccuracies it contained until ProPublica brought it to his attention. The foundation’s accountant, David Schwartz, said he was unsure how the payments ended up being misclassified.

“If I knew why, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said. Schwartz said he expected the amended report to be filed in the next week or so.

As part of maintaining their tax-exempt status, foundations have to file annual reports to the IRS showing where their money goes, separating program expenses from administrative overhead.

Regulators and watchdog groups expect charities to spend more on activities that serve their core missions, but it’s not unusual for administrative costs to eat up more of the budget early on.

By reclassifying the payments to Kendall and Wolf, administrative expenses will constitute almost 40 percent of Inkwell’s 2007 spending instead of less than one percent.

Aside from Kendall and Wolf, others with close ties to the charity or to Gates also have received funds from Inkwell.

Gates volunteered that the foundation’s second-largest grant, for $6,000, went to his fiancée, Angela DeLeon, who was also on Inkwell’s board from 2005 to 2006. Gates said he recused himself from the vote on DeLeon’s grant, which was for a project translating documents from Spanish and Dutch about the slave trade to Mexico.

A grant of $500 also went to Evelyn Higginbotham, chairwoman of Inkwell’s board. Higginbotham is the chairwoman of Harvard’s Department of African and African-American studies and, with Gates, edited the 2004 book “African American Lives.” Gates said that, as per the foundation’s bylaws, she did not vote on the grant.

Inkwell has not yet filed its 990 form for 2008 and Schwartz said it has not yet been prepared.

           — Hat tip: Dan Riehl [Return to headlines]



Frank Gaffney: Judging the Truth

During confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees, Senators always try to draw out the witnesses on their judicial philosophy and views about the constitutional implications of topical issues. Lately, with few exceptions, the would-be justices have deftly deflected the questions, truthfully but opaquely responding in ways that offer little grist for critics’ mills.

Judge Sonya Sotomayor may have provided one of the exceptions. In particular, the totality of what is now known about her views concerning the role of foreign law in American courts suggest both a lack of candor before the Judiciary Committee and a judicial philosophy that is at odds with the Constitution of the United States. These issues should feature prominently as that panel meets Tuesday to vote on her nomination…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]



Hungarian-American Protest Closure of Chicago Consulate

Hungarian-American organisations in the United States Midwest have protested against the closing down of Hungary’s consulate general in Chicago, in an open letter to the public, a copy of which was sent to MTI on Thursday.

The letter was signed by 15 leaders of Hungarian organisations in Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, the Hungarian American Coalition and religious communities.

In their letter, the signatories regretted that the Hungarian government had failed to respond to their earlier appeal against the consulate’s planned closure, which they consider as seriously damaging Hungary’s relations with the United States. They voiced hope that the Hungarian public would support their cause.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Balazs announced in mid-June that Hungary would close down four embassies and eight consulates-general in an effort to save cost amidst the current economic crisis.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Look Here to See What’s in the Health Care Bill: Chilling!

Take a look at what actually is in the Health Care bill. Obama makes disingenuous comments like “You’ll still keep your doctor” or “You’ll keep your existing health care.” He is either lying to us or he has no idea what is in it. Take a peek at the full report, or look at some of the highlights here:

[Return to headlines]



Obama Seeks China’s Help on Iran, North Korea Nuclear Programs

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday called for China to stand with the United States on ending Iran and North Korea’s nuclear drives.

Inaugurating a two-day U.S.-China dialogue on broadening ties, Obama raised the specter of a “nuclear arms race” in East Asia if North Korea’s months of provocations go unchecked.

“Make no mistake: the more nations acquire these weapons, the more likely it is that they will be used,” said Obama, who has made the elimination of nuclear weapons a signature priority.

“Neither America nor China has an interest in a terrorist acquiring a bomb, or a nuclear arms race breaking out in East Asia,” he said.

He said that the United States and China should “make it clear to North Korea that the path to security and respect can be traveled if they meet their obligations.”

Obama said that the two nations “must also be united in preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and urging the Islamic republic to live up to its international obligations.”(AFP)

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Valedictorian of Virginia Islamic Saudi Academy Gets Life in Bush Plot

The same Islamic Saudi Academy that wants to EXPAND in Virginia!!

From AP: American al-Qaida sentenced to life for Bush plot

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A U.S. man who became an al-Qaida terrorist while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotted to assassinate then-President George W. Bush was defiant Monday as he was sentenced to life in prison.

An appeals court had overturned the original 30-year sentence for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 28, who was born in Houston and grew up in the Washington suburb of Falls Church. He was convicted in 2005 of joining al-Qaida while studying in Saudi Arabia in 2002. Abu Ali met with top al-Qaida leaders in Saudi Arabia and discussed establishing a sleeper cell in the United States.

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU


Civil Liberties Campaigners Are Strangely Reluctant to Criticise the EU

Andrew MacKinley is leaving Parliament in protest at MPs’ feebleness over the extradition of Gary McKinnon, the eccentric who hacked into Pentagon computers in search of UFOs. Good for MacKinley: the wretched saga reflects equally badly on the American and British authorities.

(For the argument in full, read Boris Johnson here.)

I’m sure l’affaire McKinnon isn’t the only reason that MacKinley is quitting. Indeed, the wonder is that anyone wants to remain an MP. Still, how heartwarming to see an elected representative making a stand on behalf of someone less powerful than himself.

Why, though, does no one make a similar stand on behalf of Andrew Symeou, a student from Enfield who, earlier this week, was extradited to Greece under the European Arrest Warrant? I have touched on Mr Symeou’s case before. He is accused of having pushed over a man who later died. Fair Trials International says that the case against Mr Symeou is built on conflicting evidence, contested witness statements, flawed procedures and, in all probability, mistaken identity (see here).

Nowadays, though, none of this matters. Under Brussels procedures, there is no need to present any prima facie evidence whatever before a British court. The EU is treated as a single jurisdiction: a warrant served by a Greek judge is as valid in Enfield as in Epirus.

I am utterly at a loss to understand why the Symeou case is not as much of a cause célèbre as the McKinnon. We were outraged at the idea of locking people up for 42 days without charge.

But Mr Symeou now faces months of confinement before his case comes to court. Alright, he has been formally charged; but, from his point of view, the fact of an accusation makes little practical difference.

Where are our civil liberties campaigners? Where are the Guardian’s crusading journalists? Where are the LibDems? Where Michael Mansfield? Where Helena Kennedy? I can’t help wondering whether some Lefties are hanging back because they are reluctant to line up alongside UKIP.

Could it be that their disdain for anything that smacks of Euroscepticism blinds them to the threat which Brussels poses to our freedoms?

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



Czech President Refers Lisbon Treaty to Court

Supported by 17 Czech senators, Mr Klaus, a critic of the treaty, plans to refer the document to his country’s constitutional court at the start of August.

In seeking a ruling on whether the treaty complies with the Czech constitution, Mr Klaus would be able to delay signing the treaty into Czech law until the court had given its verdict.

That could thwart the ambitions of Sweden, current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, to see the Treaty’s provisions pushed through before the end of the year if Ireland votes to approve the treaty in its Oct 2 referendum.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, said recently he wanted to see the EU “move over to the Lisbon Treaty, if possible, late in our presidency”.

He wants an EU heads of state summit in Brussels on 29-30 October to nominate candidates for two influential posts which will be created if, and when, the treaty is ratified. The posts are President of the European Council, for which Tony Blair is expected to be the UK government’s candidate, and a new High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy.

The treaty, which also envisages an EU diplomatic service, is highly controversial because its critics say it will strip member states of many of their powers.

Germany and Poland still have to ratify the treaty. While they are widely expected to do so, any further delay could hold up the appointment of the new European Commission, which is due to take office on Nov 1.

Andrew Duff, the UK Liberal MEP, accused Mr Klaus of procrastinating.

Meanwhile, one of the key figures in the pro-treaty campaign in Ireland has admitted that the “Yes” camp faces a “tough campaign” over the next two months.

The latest opinion polls suggest a “Yes” vote would be possible, but Pat Cox, campaign director of Ireland for Europe, an independent civil society group promoting ratification,

said, “Ireland is a very different place today to what it was a year ago. The financial crisis has rocked our confidence. We are reeling from a series of body blows over the last 12 months. There is no room for complacency.

“There are those on the No side who will seek to exploit our present uncertainty to encourage the Irish people to vote against our own interests and reject the Treaty.

“We do not plan to let them succeed,” Mr Cox, a former Irish MEP and president of the European Parliament, added.

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



Economy Drives East Germans to Join Army

Is economic adversity forcing eastern Germans to become “cannon fodder” for the military?

David Wroe reports on the growing trend to join the Bundeswehr.

In the course of a misspent youth, Stefan, 19, says things could have very nearly gone “the other way” for him.

“I could be in prison today,” he recently told The Local.

The young man, who lives in a town in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, was coy about details but indicated there was a single moment in his past when he made a choice that put him back on the right path. Had he made the alternative choice, his life might’ve been ruined.

He did admit to dabbling in petty crime and the far-right scene before managing to extricate himself from a gang of what he calls “drunken idiots.”

His own father, a factory worker in communist East Germany, died when he was young — in part from alcohol abuse — and his mother, a cleaner, struggled to keep him on track.

Stefan has, in his own words, “grown up” and has started an apprenticeship. But he finds it boring and is instead looking to what he sees as an obvious choice for a young eastern German like him. He wants to join the army.

“It makes sense to me,” he said. “It’s a good career and I want to climb to a high rank.”

If he realises the latter ambition, Stefan will be defying the odds. According to Ministry of Defence figures recently obtained by the Green party, Ossis — or Germans from the formerly communist east — are doing more than their fair share of the grunt work in the armed forces, or Bundeswehr, while enjoying considerably less than their share of promotions.

This has led critics of the government to argue that Ossis have become the military’s “cannon fodder.” Young easterners, they argue, are flooding into the armed forces because, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, they have few other job prospects.

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



EU Booze Law is Tripe, Says Mayor

The mayor of Florence will launch a campaign of civil disobedience this week aimed at defending the Tuscan’s right to a enjoy a tipple with tripe.

For as long as anyone can recall, Florentines have broken off from shopping in the city’s exuberant street markets to enjoy a tripe roll, washed down with a shot of red wine known as a gottino.

But on Wednesday a new law against selling alcohol from street stalls, inspired by Brussels, comes into effect that will make the provision of this simple pleasure a criminal offence.

Almost 200 trippai (tripe-sellers) and other street vendors risk fines of up to €12,000 (about £10,400) if they are caught selling wine. The fines soar to as much as €30,000 for illegal sales after midnight.

“This law is a disgrace and absolutely has to be abolished”, said the newly appointed mayor, Matteo Renzi, 34. “If any of my councillors feel otherwise, let them drink Coca-Cola — and then leave the majority group” on the council.

The new act brought Italy into line with the rest of the European Union to clamp down on hooliganism fuelled by the easy availability of alcohol sold outside football stadiums and elsewhere.

Renzi said he would be going to a trippai to order a tripe roll on Wednesday and intended to down a gottino with it. “I am sure that when I look round I won’t find fines and censors, but lots of friends with a roll and a glass of wine,” he told the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

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



EU Supports More Anti-Terror Data Sharing With US

BRUSSELS — European Union nations on Monday unanimously supported expanding the bloc’s anti-terror cooperation with the United States to stop the transfer of funds supporting terror groups.

EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the 27-nation bloc wants to give anti-terror investigators at the U.S. Treasury access to European operation centers run by the bank transfer consortium SWIFT, expanding an existing 2007 anti-terror banking data sharing deal with Washington. To do so, it needs to negotiate under what conditions U.S. officials would have expanded access to such sensitive banking information.

The consortium set up by member banks, is responsible for the collection and relay of more than 14 million financial transactions daily between banks and other financial institutions worldwide. It operates one of the largest financial transfer systems in the world.

U.S. and EU authorities claim that access to the data has helped stop the transfer of money around the globe that funds terror groups and track down wanted terror suspects.

Barrot hopes to reach an initial temporary accord with American authorities giving them access to SWIFT’s European data banks, which could serve as the basis for a longer lasting pact in coming months.

The U.S. Treasury already has access to SWIFT’s American database, but the banking consortium is setting up a new European office in Switzerland, which would focus on European clients. American investigators now want access to this new database as well.

SWIFT’s other two database centers, in the U.S. state of Virginia and in the Netherlands, handle all the consortium’s transfer orders, including those of European citizens.

“It would be extremely dangerous at this stage to stop the surveillance and the monitoring of information flows,” Barrot said, adding that the current pact, which only covers U.S. operations of SWIFT have been “an important and effective tool to fight terrorism financing and to prevent terrorist attacks.”

SWIFT was forced under a court subpoena after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to give the U.S. Treasury access to its American operations under a secret deal, allowing investigators to go through private financial data held by European citizens.

That arrangement was amended in 2007 after the EU, under pressure from European data protection authorities at home, said it violated European privacy laws because it did not give enough guarantees that the data collected on European citizens were properly protected.

Barrot said Monday any new deal will extend data rights and privacy protections once the U.S. gets access to SWIFT’s new Swiss operations. The EU’s foreign ministers endorsed his plans to negotiate a new agreement on Monday.

However, the existing deal has been met with heavy criticism by privacy groups and EU lawmakers who claim it erodes the rights of Europeans.

SWIFT uses its two hubs to transfer banking transactions. With the new Swiss center, which opens at the end of the year, it will avoid having to store such information in the United States.

U.S. authorities have given the EU assurances the information it collects from

the databases is properly protected and used only in anti-terror probes.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Germany Openly Warns of Terror Threat

A recent routine police operation uncovered a possible terror suspect. The development illustrates just how tense the security situation is in Germany, with the government issuing the clearest warnings yet of a possible attack by Islamist terrorists. How much do the country’s security officials know?

The officers were exceedingly polite, waiting for Ali R. to complete his Friday prayers, pack his things and leave the mosque in the western German city of Essen. Only then did they approach the imam and ask him to come with them. They took him to the Büren Prison near the northwestern city of Paderborn, where detainees are held pending deportation. The action was taken in response to a request by the German foreigners registration authority, which had been seeking Ali R., a medical student, since March, because his German residence permit had expired. The officers were not particularly enthusiastic about their mission, which was just another routine police operation. As a result, their search of Ali R., 29, was perfunctory at best.

AFP

An Islamist threatens Germany in a propaganda video for al-Qaida.

But what the officers found when they searched “Sheikh Ali,” as the imam is known, at the end of June turned a routine operation into an investigation that has captured the attention of the authorities.

The documents that Ali R., a Palestinian who grew up in the Gaza Strip, had stored on a USB storage device included information on the use of bombs and booby traps, bomb-building instructions and a propaganda video. When agents analyzed his mobile phone, they discovered ambiguous text messages in Arabic in which mention was made of a “bride” and a “groom” — terms Islamists have used in the past as code words when planning attacks.

FROM THE MAGAZINE

Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your publication. According to the counterterrorism files in which Germany’s federal and state governments collect information about Islamists, the student had been listed as a “relevant person” since 2005 and was considered part of the jihadist milieu. In one photo, he is shown with a full beard and wearing a white crocheted cap of the type worn by pious Muslims.

Initially detained for the purpose of deportation, Ali R. had suddenly become a terrorism suspect. The federal prosecutor’s office has now taken charge of the case and is now investigating R. on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization. But the key question remains unanswered: Is the medical student merely a windbag who has seen one too many Osama videos, who looked at some pertinent Internet sites and was also thinking about an upcoming wedding? Or did the investigators interrupt the early stages of plans for a terror attack? In other words, did they prevent the kind of event about which Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, a Christian Democrat (CDU), and his top official, August Hanning, have issued repeated warnings in recent weeks?

The arrest of the sheikh from Essen shows how the situation has become more strained and incalculable than ever before. German security authorities, especially the Interior Ministry, have rarely spoken as often and openly about a supposedly imminent attack as they have this summer. They have both a preventive plan — what the authorities intend to do prevent this attack — and an emergency plan that would be implemented if an attack actually does take place.

The government is fluctuating between alarmism and reassurance. It is a double-sided policy that no one can combine in one sentence as skillfully as Hanning: “We must be prepared for the possibility of an attack, but it is my feeling that law enforcement authorities are quite well prepared.”…

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



Italy: Calls for Troop Withdrawal in Afghanistan Causes Cabinet Rift

Rome, 27 July (AKI) — Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini has rejected calls by minister without portfolio Roberto Calderoli to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, saying they are working for Italy and its security and would therefore remain there.

“In Afghanistan, we are working for Italy’s security including that of Calderoli… we are staying,” Frattini stated.

He made the remarks on Monday at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels.

Calderoli is from the conservative Italian government’s junior coalition partner, the anti-immigrant Northern League party. The Northern League’s leader, Umberto Bossi, also called for the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan following a recent spate of attacks against Italian soldiers.

A roadside bomb attack earlier this month killed a 25-year-old Italian soldier Alessandro Di Lisio while on patrol near the western Afghan city of Farah. Two attacks in Afghanistan at the weekend wounded three Italian soldiers and three Italian paratroopers were also injured in the bombing that killed Di Lisio.

Twelve Italian soliders have died in Afghanistan since 2004.

Italy’s deputy minister of infrastructure Roberto Castelli — also from the Northern League — also said he agreed with Bossi and Calderoli that Italy should withdraw its soliders.

Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa echoed Frattini’s comments and reiterated that the troops would stay until the conclusion of the mission.

“We will not give up the mission in Afghanistan,” said La Russa. Last week, he visited the troops in the western Afghan city of Herat and the southwestern town of Farah, after the attack that killed Di Lisio.

La Russa also said signalled on Monday that Italy’s troop contingent in Italy will be reduced and that the government is considering reducing Italy’s contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“The mission in Afghanistan will remain. With regard to Kosovo, a considerable reduction of our presence is already expected, and we are also thinking of reducing our presence in Lebanon in light of the transfer of command from Italy to another country,” said La Russa on Monday.

In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica over the weekend, Calderoli said Italian troops in Lebanon and the Balkans should also be withdrawn.

Italy has around 3,250 troops in Afghanistan, the sixth largest deployment after the United States, Britain, Canada and Germany. It recently deployed 500 troops ahead of Afghanistan’s presidential election due in August.

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



Italy: Defence Spending Tops 40 Bln Dollars

Stockholm, 8 June (AKI) — Italy spent more than 40 billion dollars on defence in 2008 as global military spending rose 4 percent to a record 1,500 billion dollars, according to the Swedish peace institute Sipri. Unlike civilian aerospace and airlines, the defence industry appears to have so far escaped the impact of the global economic downturn.

“The global financial crisis has yet to have an impact on major arms companies’ revenues, profits and order backlogs,” the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

Peace-keeping operations rose 11 percent as missions were launched in troublespots including Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Another record was set, with the total of international peace operation personnel reaching 187,586,” said Sipri.

American producer Boeing, the UK’s BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin were the three top global arms producers in 2008 with sales totalling close to 90 billion dollars between the three of them, while Italy’s Finmeccanica reported sales of 9.9 billion dollars.

As the world’s aerospace and defence industry prepare for next week’s Paris air show, commercial airlines are expecting massive losses in 2009 due to the global economic downturn.

In total, the 100 leading defence manufacturers sold arms worth 347 billion dollars during 2007, the most recent year for which reliable data are available.

The US aerospace and defence giant Boeing remains the world’s largest defence manufacturer, with arms sales of 30.5 billion during 2007. The UK’s BAE Systems ranked a close second, with arms sales of 29.9 billion, while Lockheed Martin was third with 29.4 billion dollars in sales.

The US remains the biggest spender, accounting for 58 percent of the total global spending increase during the decade, though China and Russia have reduced the difference.

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



Swedish Donald Duck Wades Into Pirates’ Waters

The Swedish publishers of Kalle & Anka & Co, a comic featuring the Disney character Donald Duck, have expressed regret over an edition featuring the loveable children’s character engaging in internet ‘piracy’.

“We regret that we did not react to the fact that the Swedish political climate is so heated just at the moment,” Marika Bark for publishers Egmont Kärnan, told news website DN.se.

The edition in question is entitled “Kalle Anka — en laddad affär” (Donald Duck — a loaded business) and features an enterprising Kalle’s plan to burn a hundred copies of Åke Skrål’s latest record and earn a quick buck.

Kalle gets the idea from his nephews — Knatte, Fnatte and Tjatte (Huey, Dewey and Louie) — who have downloaded their idol’s record, but only to listen to it while they save up enough money to pay for an original.

The trio are outraged at their devious uncle’s plan and argue in chorus that it would be dishonest, underlining the importance of copyright legislation and the right of artists to earn a crust.

Big music, in the shape of billionaire tycoon Joakim von Anka (Scrooge McDuck), catches the hapless Kalle red-handed and collars him for royalties owed to his record company.

Kalle Anka’s remorseful plea that he bought the record in the first place narrowly saves his bacon and that of the younger generation of his family who thus escape prosecution for breach of copyright.

The comic has been published in a series of countries but has created intense debate in Sweden after apparently pointing out that original CDs are the only real deal and that music has to be bought, as well as the portrayal of record company benevolence.

Egmont Kärnan now regrets the controversy it has caused and the impression that they had taken a stand on the issue.

Marika Bark denied to DN.se that the comic had been published as a deliberate contribution to the debate around file-sharing, integrity and internet piracy.

           — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]



The Inflation of Genocide

A Lithuanian philosopher rejects political calls for the Soviet Union’s slaughter of Lithuanians to be labelled an act of genocide.

Editor’s note: Was the slaughter of Lithuanians by the Soviet Union an act of genocide? If so, should denial of the term ‘genocide’ be considered criminal? The Lithuanian parliament is set, in the coming months, to consider precisely those questions. In this essay, without downplaying the horrors of Soviet rule, the Lithuanian philosopher Leonidas Donskis argues against application of the term. It would, he contends, be wrong historically, wrong legally, wrong conceptually. It is, rather, an example of our age’s inflation of concepts — one that risks marginalising genocide. The essay also comes against the backdrop of the formulation of a law in Russia that would criminalise those who equate Stalin and Hitler or deny that the Red Army “liberated” eastern Europe from fascism.

We are living in an era of not only monetary inflation, but also of the inflation — hence devaluation — of concepts and values.

Sworn oaths are being debased before our very eyes. It used to be that by breaking an oath a person lost the right to participate in the public square and to be a spokesman for truth and values. He would be stripped of everything except his personal and private life, and would be unable to speak on behalf of his group, his people or his society.

Pledges have also suffered a devaluation. Once upon a time, if you went back on your word you were divested of even the tiniest measure of trust.

Concepts are also being devalued; they are no longer reserved for the explicit task of describing precise instances of human experience. Everything is becoming uniformly important and unimportant. My very existence places me at the centre of the world.

Genocide and its inflation

In my experience, the pinnacle of concept inflation was reached ten years ago, when I came across articles in the American press describing the “holocaust” of turkeys in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday. This was probably not a simple case of a word being used unthinkingly or irresponsibly.

Disrespect for concepts and language only temporarily masks disrespect for others; and this disrespect eventually bubbles to the surface.

In recent decades, the concept of genocide has undergone a perilous devaluation. Here, I would like to stress that the devaluation of this concept has not been underpinned by a concern for humanity as whole or for the condition of contemporary humaneness; just the opposite — it is a symptom of the history of the revaluation of the self as the world’s navel and, concurrently, of an insensitivity towards humanity.

Moreover, the immoderate use of this word threatens to stifle dialogue.

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



UK: Very PC Police Force Issues Its WPCs With Muslim Headscarves Complete With Badge for Mosque Visits

Women police officers are being issued with headscarves to wear when they visit a mosque. They are expected to put the scarfs on shortly before they enter the mosque, in keeping with Islamic custom.

There are two versions — one matches the black of a police officer’s uniform, while another goes with the blue uniforms worn by community support officers.

The headscarves are being given out by Avon and Somerset Police, and have the force’s emblem sewn on.

They have already been given to seven officers, including Assistant Chief Constable Jackie Roberts, and eight community support officers who work with Muslim groups in the area.

Mrs Roberts said: ‘It recognises and respects the cultural and religious practices of our communities. This is a very positive addition to the uniform and one which I’m sure will be a welcome item for many of our officers.’

The force said the scarves, which cost £13, can be used in other religious settings as a mark of respect — for instance to cover the shoulders of a non-uniformed officer in a church.

Islamic custom expects women to cover their head inside a place of worship. During an official visit last year, the Queen wore a headscarf to tour the crypt and caverns of an historic Islamic shrine in Turkey.

Rashad Azami, Imam and director of the Bath Islamic Society, said: ‘It is highly pleasing to see that Avon and Somerset Constabulary is introducing specially designed head coverings for female officers.

‘This will go a long way in encouraging a trustful relationship between the police and the Muslim community. The police have been working closely with the Muslim community for the last few years.

‘We hope this step will further strengthen the mutual relationship.’

Avon and Somerset Police caused a race row two years ago when it rejected 186 white job applicants at the first stage of selection. The force received 800 applications for 180 jobs and ‘deselected’ white males to increase ethnic diversity. Chief Constable Colin Port apologised.

This year, the fire service unveiled full-length skirts, hijab headscarves and long- sleeved shirts for Muslim women recruits to wear in fire stations and for events such as school trips.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

North Africa


Feltman: U.S. Wants Greater Military Cooperation With Libya

The United States would like greater military cooperation with Libya especially in the fight against terrorism, a senior American official said on Sunday.

“We want a strengthened cooperation in the military,” Jeffrey Feltman, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said at a news conference.

“Libya and the United States are aware of the danger posed by Al-Qaida in the Maghreb,” he said, adding that Washington and Tripoli have agreed to cooperate with the aim of preventing possible terror attacks in North Africa.

Feltman welcomed the improvement in relations between the United States and Libya after decades of hostility and said he held talks with Libyan leaders on Sunday about ways of developing trade and investment flows.

More than 1,000 visas have been issued to Libyan citizens since the United States started accepting Libyan applications again in April, 29 years after it suspended the service, he said.

In return, he would like a greater number of Americans to be able to visit Libya.

Feltman said his talks with Libya leaders also covered relations between Sudan and Chad and the development of the Arab Maghreb Union, bringing together Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia.

The United States suspended diplomatic ties with Libya in 1981 because of the country’s alleged links with terrorism. Links did not resume until 2004 after Libya vowed to abandon weapons of mass destruction.

But relations remained limited until the settlement late last year of a dispute between Washington and Tripoli over compensation for victims of terrorism during the 1980s.(AP)

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians


Hamas Set to Compel Gaza Women to Wear Head Covering

Senior Hamas officials had claimed, in the wake of Hamas’ June 2007 Gaza takeover, that the organization did not have any intention to turn the Sharia, Islamic religious law into official state regulations. Two years later, however, it seems that the Hamas government is slowly introducing more and more regulations in the spirit of the Islamic decrees.

The London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reported that the organization’s Gaza government had recently approved a series of laws, a Muslim code of conduct of sorts, meant to guard Muslim religion and morals. These guidelines join an increasing amount of reports from Gaza residents saying that modesty patrols were forcing women to wear head coverings, especially at Gaza’s beaches, and that they were inspecting isolated cars in order to prevent unmarried couples being alone together.

Gaza’s judicial authority, which runs the strip’s courts on behalf of Hamas, had even recently ruled that all female attorneys must wear the traditional Muslim head covering, the hijab, and wear dresses during court appearances. The ruling was condemned by the independent lawyers association.

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Supreme Court chief justice Abdul-Raouf Halabi said Sunday that female lawyers will be required to wear a headscarf and a long, dark colored cloak under their billowing black robes when the court returns from its summer recess in September.

Halabi said his order was designed to ensure that women dress in accordance with Islamic law, which requires women to cover up in public, wearing loose garments and only showing their hands and faces.

Subhiya Juma, a female lawyer, said the judge’s decision would affect only 10 or so lawyers — since the vast majority of the 150 registered female lawyers already cover their hair.

Juma, who does not wear a headscarf, said the point wasn’t the number of

women, but that freedoms were being eroded.

“This is dangerous — it’s a clear violation of the law, it is taking away our personal freedoms — and by whom? The very person who is meant to defend our freedoms,” Juma said.

According to Al-Quds al-Arabi, representatives from several Hamas government ministries, such as the Interior Ministry, Ministry of Religion, Military Advocate’s Office as well as the Police have convened in special workshops and formulated the “General Moral List,” which most likely will be authorized piecemeal.

The list is expected to be published in the strip’s media outlets in the near future. The workshop, which also discussed the preliminary stages of the list’s implementation, was run by Hamas justice minister Mohammed al-Ghoul. Al-Ghoul had said in the introduction to the workshop that the Palestinian society was considered “conservative” and that the Arab and Muslim peoples must protect “religion and morals.”

Sheikh Yusef Farhat, a senior official in Hamas’ Ministry of Religion, told the London newspaper that the list includes clauses meant to protect society’s general moral fiber. Items include the forbidding “improper driving near women,” most likely pertaining to honking and whistling at women, “the prevention of lust-inducing sights in the streets,” which will ban mannequins in storefronts, and “prohibiting crowded events in order to prevent men and women from touching each other.” The Sheikh explained that the implementation of these laws will be based on “instruction and understanding.”

A Hamas official said that the items on the list already exist in the Palestinian legal system, but have only now been collected into one directory. The workshop’s participants emphasized that the regulations were to be introduced in an agreeable and gradual fashion and that a special department will be founded which will make sure that security officials fully understand the different clauses.

Religious decrees calling for women to wear loose clothing have also been accepted in Gaza recently in order to prevent the female form from being exposed in public.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]



Hamas Threatens to Derail Crucial Fatah Conference

Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah on Monday were locked in a new dispute that threatens to derail next week’s Fatah convention, seen as key to rehabilitating the corruption-stained party that has led peace talks with Israel.

Officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Monday they would only allow Fatah delegates to leave the territory and travel to the conference if Fatah’s leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, releases hundreds of Hamas detainees in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is based.

The convention, Fatah’s first in 20 years, is to convene in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. More than 1,500 delegates, nearly one-third of them from Gaza and the rest from the West Bank and the Palestinian Diaspora, are to choose dozens of new leaders and vote for a fresh political program.

Abbas aides were not immediately available for comment on the standoff with Hamas, but a senior Palestinian official said Abbas had asked Syria, Russia and Turkey to intervene and help soften Hamas’ demands. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Nabil Shaath, a Fatah leader, said Monday it appeared unlikely the convention would be held without the Gaza contingent. “There would be a massive boycott of the conference” in such a case, he said in an interview.

Shaath, who has been involved in Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah, said his own movement had mishandled the prisoner issue and that its attempt to get foreign mediators to pressure Hamas on the subject was doomed to failure from the start.

“It won’t work, and I told everyone that,” he said.

Shaath estimated that around 900 Hamas activists are jailed in the West Bank, while more than 200 Fatah supporters in Gaza have to report daily to Hamas offices and spend long hours there in an improvised form of detention, for lack of prison space.

Shaath said he believes many of the West Bank arrests were made without due legal process. He said Hamas in the past had been willing to accept a partial prisoner release, but that as the convention drew closer it upped the ante and now demands freedom for all the detainees.

In Gaza, Hamas lawmaker Ismail Ashqar confirmed the organization’s position.

“If Fatah wants its Gaza members to leave to the West Bank to attend the conference, they must release the leaders and supporters of Hamas in the West Bank,” he said.

The senior Palestinian official involved in the negotiations said Abbas has signaled he is ready to free 200 Hamas prisoners once the Fatah delegates leave Gaza.

At the same time, Abbas’ aides are threatening to detain more Hamas activists, including political leaders, if the standoff is not resolved, said Mahmoud Ramahi, a Hamas legislator in the West Bank.

“We received a clear threat from the Palestinian Authority that if Hamas does not allow Fatah members to leave Gaza, they will take harsh action against Hamas supporters, including the lawmakers,” Ramahi said.(AP)

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Israel Reports First Death From Swine Flu

Israel has confirmed its first death from swine flu, with a 35-year-old man dying at the weekend in the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, the health ministry said.

The man was hospitalized on Friday and died the following day, local media reported.

Autopsy results released on Monday confirmed that he had been infected with the (A)H1N1 virus and health ministry officials said he had likely died from complications, it said.

Army radio reported claims by the man’s family that he had gone to the Yoseftal hospital in Eilat several times but was turned away without treatment.

Hospital managers told the radio station that an external committee would be appointed to investigate the incident.

Last week a senior health ministry official said that one-quarter of the Israeli population, or about 1.85 million people, could catch swine flu in the next few months.

At least 890 people have so far contracted the (A)H1N1 virus in Israel, according to the ministry.

More than 800 deaths have been linked to the virus, according to the World Health Organization.(AFP)

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



The U.S.-Israeli Dispute Over Building in Jerusalem: The Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon Hatzadik Neighborhood

by Nadav Shragai

  • The Sheikh Jarrah-Mt. Scopus area — the focus of a dispute between the Obama administration and Israel over building housing units in the Shepherd Hotel compound — has been a mixed Jewish-Arab area for many years. The Jewish population is currently centered in three places: around the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik (a fourth century BCE high priest), the Israeli government compound in Sheikh Jarrah, and Hadassah Hospital-Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus.
  • During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, 78 doctors, nurses and other Jews were murdered on their way to Hadassah Hospital when their convoy was attacked by Arabs as it passed through Sheikh Jarrah. Mt. Scopus was cut off from western Jerusalem and remained a demilitarized Israeli enclave under UN aegis until it was returned to Israel in 1967. The area discussed here has for decades been a vital corridor to Mt. Scopus.
  • To ensure the continued unity of Jerusalem and to prevent Mt. Scopus from being cut off again, a chain of Israeli neighborhoods were built to link western Jerusalem with Mt. Scopus, and Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital were repaired and enlarged. Today both institutions serve hundreds of thousands of Jewish and Arab residents of the city.
  • Many observers incorrectly assume that Jerusalem is comprised of two ethnically homogenous halves: Jewish western Jerusalem and Arab eastern Jerusalem. Yet in some areas such as Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik, Jerusalem is a mosaic of peoples who are mixed and cannot be separated or divided according to the old 1949 armistice line.
  • In the eastern part of Jerusalem, i.e., north, south and east of the city’s 1967 borders, there are today some 200,000 Jews and 270,000 Arabs living in intertwined neighborhoods. In short, as certain parts of eastern Jerusalem have become ethnically diverse, it has become impossible to characterize it as a wholly Palestinian area that can easily be split off from the rest of Jerusalem.
  • Private Jewish groups are operating in Sheikh Jarrah seeking to regain possession of property once held by Jews, and to purchase new property. Their objective is to facilitate private Jewish residence in the area in addition to the presence of Israeli governmental institutions. The main points of such activity include the Shepherd Hotel compound, the Mufti’s Vineyard, the building of the el-Ma’amuniya school, the Shimon HaTzadik compound, and the Nahlat Shimon neighborhood. In the meantime, foreign investors from Arab states, particularly in the Persian Gulf, are actively seeking to purchase Jerusalem properties on behalf of Palestinian interests…

           — Hat tip: JCPA [Return to headlines]

Middle East


Ahmedinejad’s Followers Are Middle-Class

Al Ahram Weekly 02.07.2009 (Egypt)

The New York literature professor Hamid Dabashi energetically rejects the theory that the demonstrators in Iran were all from the middle classes and Ahmedinejad’s supporters from the poor: “In 1997, some three million high school graduates participated in the Iranian national university entrance examination, of which only 240,000 managed to pass through the Seven Tasks of Rostam and enter a university. So the full capacity of the entire Iranian university system is less than 10 per cent of the total applicants. What happened to that more than 90 per cent? Where did they go? What job, what opportunity, and what education? The answer is frightful. A significant portion of this remaining 90 per cent is absorbed into various layers of the militarised security apparatus, including the Basij and the Pasdaran. If in fact anyone qualified for that dreaded ‘middle class’ status it is precisely this component of the 15-29 year olds who have not made it to the university system and have joined the security apparatus of the regime, for they have a steady job, can marry, form a family, and have a solid investment in the status quo and be considered ‘middle class’.”

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



Bishop of Baghdad: “Christians, Do Not be Afraid”, But the Fear of a New Exodus Remains

Bishop Shlemon Warduni emphasizes the “high participation of the faithful” in Sunday services, which took place without incident, but does not hide the risk of a “new exodus from the country.” The prelate asks the central government for “guarantees of safety” and the Christian community “to pursue the value of unity”.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — The Iraqi Christian community “attended Sunday mass regularly”, despite a “climate of fear for possible new attacks”. “I asked the faithful to have courage”, but the “fear” of a possible “new exodus of Christians from Iraq” remains. Mgr. Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, speaks to AsiaNews one week from attacks — July 12 last — that targeted several churches in the country, in Baghdad and Mosul.

“It went well”, commented Msgr. Warduni. “There was a high level of participation among the faithful, both in the morning and evening masses, which recorded only a slight decline” The prelate urged the Christian community “to come to mass” and the faithful “responded with courage. “

In recent days a feeling of “powerlessness and despair” is spreading among Christians, which could lead to a new mass exodus. To everyday problems, such as unemployment, concerns over restarting businesses after years of war, fear over the recent wave of violence is added. Msgr. Warduni does not hide the danger of “a new exodus of Christians from Iraq” and says that “this feeling of fear, fuelled by deaths, injuries and destruction is normal”. “I asked the faithful to stay — he said — but we must also give them security guarantees, job opportunities, a future. Without these basic prerequisites, what can we say to them?”.

In Mosul, the Christian community condemns the lack of a strong position after the attack on the church of Our Lady of Fatima, 13 July. Maroan Bhnam, a Christian in Mosul approached by the Arabic website Ankawa.com, wonders why “neither of the two Christian representatives in the Council” issued a statement of condemnation. He added that the representatives of other communities in the event of attacks, have “raised their voice: from the Christians nothing”. Aiub Ibrail says he is “surprised” at the absence of the “local tv Moussalia, the first to film the scene of attacks. “ Amer Petros wants “representatives who can be relied on”.

Sources for AsiaNews in Mosul confirmed the deployment of forces around churches; the police has set up several check points to ensure regular Sunday celebrations.

The climate of distrust and general insecurity has led to the re-emergence of the project related to the plain of Nineveh, the establishment of a Christian enclave in the north. It would become a buffer zone between Kurds and Arabs and is opposed, with some distinction, by the majority of Christian leaders. Based on humanitarian grounds and security, it actually hides beneath the surface economic interests and a series of attractive business deals for the construction of housing.

“We must pursue the supreme value of Christian unity — concludes Msgr. Warduni — because it is the only guarantee of salvation for the community in the country”. The prelate calls for the creation of a “strong” Christian leadership, which defends the interests of the people “working in conjunction with the Iraqi central government”.

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



Iran: Ahmadinejad Now Wants Control of Who Uses the Internet

In the power struggle within the Iranian leadership, the President shall implement a law requiring the storage of all that people send or receive on the net. But Khatami calls for a referendum and Mousavi wants the release of all those who have been imprisoned for taking part in demonstrations.

Beirut (AsiaNews) — The Iranian government is trying to put a stop to the internet, monitoring users and the Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei has warned against those who cooperate with the plans of “enemies of the homeland”, but the “reformists” respond: Former President Khatami and his Association of Combatant Clerics want a referendum to restore peoples confidence shaken by the presidential elections and the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has called for the release of those who have been arrested. In a further sign of deepening contrast, the Vice-President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie — whose appointment by Ahmadinejad was criticised by the hardest Conservative wing — has denied that he had given his resignation, which had been announced Sunday.

“The exchanges between the opposition on one side and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his core of hard-line supporters on the other — notes Arab News, a Saudi daily particularly attentive to what happens in Tehran -appeared to be heating up, reflecting how the month-long conflict over Iran’s disputed presidential election is entering a new level — a struggle within the leadership itself”. “The opposition — it continues — has been energized by a show of support last week from former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a key figure within the ruling hierarchy. On Monday, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi made some of his harshest comments yet at hard-liners and, implicitly, Khamenei himself”.

Who is certainly not slow to respond. The announcement by the Government Press TV that the President has ordered Ahmadinajad to “execute” the recently approved law to fight cyber-crime and offer navigators “greater security” appears aimed at the opposition. Taking into account that in the post election period the opposition and demonstrators were able to exchange news and make known what was happening in the country abroad only through the net, the requirements of Article 24 of the Act, for which Internet providers must retain for three months, “all data sent or received by each of their customers”, is particularly significant. For the Attorney General, Qorban-Ali-Najafabad Dorr, quoted by Al Jazeera, the law is to protect the rights of people and help to attack pornography and other “prohibited content”.

Reporters Sans Frontieres said that the Iranian government “recognizing the growing influence of blogs is trying to reduce their space, filtering and trapping sites that host them”.

In this context, Khatami called for the referendum in these terms: “As millions of Iranians have lost confidence in the electoral process, the Association of Combatant Clerics insist on the organisation of a referendum … by independent bodies”. The last sentence is an attack on Khamenei, seen that, according to Iranian law, a referendum can be called only by the Supreme Guide. Khatami added that the Rafsanjani proposal for an agreement between reformists and conservatives to solve the crisis is “the minimum required to exit the current situation.” For his part, Mousavi yesterday asked for the “immediate release” of those who were imprisoned for taking part in the demonstrations in protest against the results of the vote”. (PD)

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



Italy Reaffirms Afghan Pledge

Troops will remain despite dissent from govt ally

(ANSA) — Brussels, July 27 — Italy on Monday said it would stick to its international peace-keeping commitments in Afghanistan despite mutterings from a junior government partner that it was “time to bring everyone home”.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said peace missions were “Italy’s calling card to the world” and that he intended to reiterate the country’s commitment in Afghanistan when he meets the United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, at a private dinner in Brussels on Monday. “I will confirm Italy’s desire to always be a protagonist in the stabilisation of Afghanistan, to work for credible elections there and to contribute to the security strategy for the country,” Frattini said.

The foreign minister said a review of Italy’s mission in Afghanistan would be possible only after the August 20 presidential elections. Until then, Frattini explained, it was “absolutely necessary” for Italian forces to remain to combat “the escalation of violence by the enemies of democracy”. “We want these elections to be credible and to represent the will of the Afghan people, which can only happen if they go to the polls,” he added.

Frattini’s remarks came after several members of a government coalition party, the devolutionist Northern League, said Italy should pull its troops out of Afghanistan, the Balkans and Lebanon. Among them was Northern League leader and Reform Minister Umberto Bossi, who later recognised that the presence of Italian troops abroad was a decision which would have to be made by the government as a whole and that he would respect this decision. However, another Northern League minister, Roberto Calderoli who has a portfolio to simplify and streamline Italian laws, said in a newspaper interview on Monday that it was time “to bring everyone home”. Calderoli told Rome’s La Repubblica that “the vast majority of Italians agree with Bossi” and that “sooner or later the West is going to have to admit that you can’t export or impose democracy”. “I used to be an interventionist myself but I’ve repented. We need to ask ourselves whether our intervention has made things better. Europe and the West need to rethink their strategy because I don’t think we’re going to get the results we wanted,” Calderoli said. Nevertheless, the Northern League House and Senate whips, Roberto Cota and Federico Bricolo, stressed that there was “no disagreement within the majority” and that the League would continue to support the commitments made by the government.

Asked to comment on Calderoli’s observations, Frattini said “we are working in Afghanistan also for Italy’s security and thus Calderoli’s as well”. “Public opinion should be helped and directed, not excited by saying that since being there is dangerous we need to go away. Of course it’s dangerous, but it’s necessary to defend Italy’s security,” he said. Italy has 2,795 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, most in the western area of Herat and in the capital Kabul. An additional contingent of 500 men was recently sent to Afghanistan to help bolster security for the August elections, bringing the total to some 3,200. This meant that Italy now has the fourth-largest contingent there after the United States (28,850 men), Britain (8,300) and Germany (3,380). Fourteen Italian soldiers have been killed since Italy’s mission in Afghanistan began in 2004, the most recent victim a 25-year-old paratrooper who died in a roadside bomb two weeks ago. The ISAF mission is made up of over 61,000 men from 42 countries. It is divided into five theatres of action: Kabul, operated by France; Kandahar in the south, the command of which is rotated between Canada, the Netherlands and Britain; Herat in the west, which Italy commands; Mazari-Sharif in the north, the responsibility of Germany; and Bagram in the east, run by the US.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Saudi Arabia: First Swine Flu Death in Kingdom

RIYADH: The Ministry of Health announced Monday the first swine flu death in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia is now the third country in the region after Egypt and Israel to report a swine flu fatality.

“The victim, a Saudi male, 30, was admitted to Al-Mouwasat Private Hospital in Dammam at 6 p.m. Wednesday with complaints of high fever, continuous coughing and severe throat pain due to advanced bronchitis,” Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Mirghalani said.

He added that on admission, the man was treated with tamiflu and intravenous antibiotics. “Eight hours after admission, the doctors found the patient’s condition worsening and he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital where he was placed in a ventilator.” The patient died Saturday at 5:55 a.m. in the ICU.

His name is being withheld in deference to his family’s wishes..

Al-Mirghalani said that the dead man had contracted the disease from frequently visiting an infected individual. Besides the immediate reasons for admitting the flu victim to the hospital, he said the patient was obese and had severe breathing difficulties. Clinical tests by the ministry confirmed that the deceased was suffering from H1N1, Al-Mirghalani added.

On behalf of ministry officials, Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, who is also the chairman of the National Committee to Combat Swine Flu, sent a message of condolence on Monday to the bereaved family.

Al-Mirghalani said the ministry had alerted all health departments in the Kingdom to take extra precautions. He said the people should follow Health Ministry guidelines, which are in line with those of the World Health Organization. Washing one’s hands before touching one’s eyes and nose and covering the nose and mouth while sneezing or coughing are necessary precautions against the infection.

The ministry called on the public not to panic because of the death. The rate of death from swine flu is still well below that from common flu.

Since May 27, more than 300 patients have been affected by the flu in Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah. More than 95 percent of the flu victims have recovered, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health..

Considering the arrival of pilgrims during Ramadan, the national committee is currently implementing a separate program for Umrah and Haj pilgrims who will visit the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.

A quarantine facility has been set up at airport arrival lounges to separate Haj and Umrah pilgrims, who show swine flu symptoms. The Ministry of Health has stockpiled adequate quantities of tablets and vaccines to treat swine flu patients.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Syria: US Lifts Aviation and it Industry Sanctions

Damascus, 27 July (AKI) — The United States has lifted sanctions imposed on Syria for exporting goods to the Syrian aviation industry, ambassador to the US Imad Mustafa said on national television, quoted by Syria’s state news agency Sana on Monday.

Mustafa also revealed that the US lifted the ban on exporting Information Technology products such as computer software and hardware and that US president Barack Obama was considering lifting more sanctions in the future.

Mustafa was also present at a meeting between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell on Sunday in which Syria welcomed the new US steps toward developing bilateral relations.

The US imposed a series of economic sanctions on Syria in the mid-1980s, accusing Syria of supporting international terrorism, an accusation denied by Damascus.

In 2004, the former US administration led by George W. Bush imposed more sanctions on Syria for allegedly supporting the Lebanese party and militant Shia movement Hezbollah, Gaza’s ruling Islamist Hamas movement, and insurgents in Iraq.

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



Syria: President Meets Radical Iraqi Shia Cleric

Damascus, 20 July (AKI) — Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad on Monday met radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Damascus, Syrian news agency Sana reported. The two men discussed the situation in Iraq since the pullback of US troops from urban areas last month, according to the head of al-Sadr’s delegation to Damascus, Sheikh Raiid al-Kazami.

The pressing need for reconciliation among Iraqis and Syria’s support for this goal as well as the poverty of most Iraqi Shias were also on the agenda during al-Assad and al-Sadr’s meeting, according to Sana.

The meeting “strengthened the ties of brotherhood and friendship binding the Iraqi and Syrian peoples,” said a statement issued after the meeting.

Al-Sadr said he appreciated the support promised by Syria to the Iraqi people and efforts to bring about national reconciliation.

The Baath rhetoric of pan-Arabism has remained highly influential in Syria since the 1960s. Iraq had a Baathist government until former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was ousted from power in 2003 after the US-led invasion and occupation.

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

Russia


Russian Patriarch Visits Ukraine

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has begun a visit to neighbouring Ukraine.

He will meet the country’s President, Viktor Yushchenko, in Kiev, before travelling to the east of the country.

Like Russia, Ukraine is a predominantly Orthodox country, but the Orthodox Church itself in Ukraine is split.

Some Ukrainian Orthodox believers think Patriarch Kirill’s visit is aimed primarily at boosting political Russian influence in their country.

Patriarch Kirill was greeted by hundreds of supporters on arrival at Kiev’s airport. A small number of demonstrators waved placards opposing his presence and scuffled with police.

He will later visit the holiest sites in the capital before travelling to the industrial heartlands of eastern Ukraine.

Divisions

What makes this trip so controversial is Patriarch Kirill’s vision.

He is a relative newcomer to the post, having been elected in February.

He has articulated a vision of Orthodoxy’s future, in which the Russian Orthodox Church holds the dominant, first position among the scattered branches of Orthodoxy. This makes the visit highly sensitive.

It raises questions of spheres of religious and political influence, which often cross what are the region’s relatively new state borders.

After 1991, when Ukraine gained its independence, the Orthodox church there split, with the Moscow patriarchate controlling the larger branch of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

Meanwhile, believers from the smaller Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate think the Russian-backed church does not support Ukrainian independence, culture or language.

Furthermore, there are political divisions inside Ukraine.

In Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill will be seen as the head of one big family. But in western Ukraine, nationalist groups have protested against what they say is his treatment of Ukraine as his own country.

President Yushchenko says he wants unity of the Orthodox churches. Moscow arguably wants Church unity on its terms.

The Russian Orthodox Church, after all, has a powerful role at the heart of Russia, aimed both at strengthening the state, and restoring its influence abroad.

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

South Asia


Afghanistan: Gen. Bertolini, “No Truce But Pull-Out of Rebels”

(AGI) — Kabul, 27 July — The agreement reached by the Afghan government and the Taliban in Bala Murghab, the north-western Afghan province of Badghis, is the product of “a showdown of the Afghan army, carried out with the support of Italian units” which has led to the “withdrawal of the rebels”, said Marco Bertolini, division general and chief of ISAF staff.

“It’s no cease-fire nor a compromise” he continued “but a success for the Afghan government with the withdrawal of the rebels from these areas, which is good for the coming elections”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



India: Three Convicted of 2003 Mumbai Blasts

MUMBAI: A special anti-terrorism court on Monday held three people guilty of planting bombs in two cabs and triggering blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazar in Mumbai in 2003 that left 53 people dead and over 100 injured.

Describing the blasts as the “rarest of rare cases,” the court of M.R. Purnaik said it would announce sentences on Aug. 4 after hearing arguments from the defense and prosecution on the quantum of punishment. The three — Asharaf Ansari, Hanif Syed Anees and his wife Fahmida Syed — were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the trial was conducted in the court especially created to try the accused.

The court said the involvement of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the blasts was clearly established by the prosecution. The convicts remained silent and listened to the judge as he pronounced the verdict.

Two other defendants — Mohammed Ladoowala and Mohammed Hassan Batterywala — were earlier released from detention after a POTA review committee cleared them of any wrongdoing. The main conspirator in the case, Nasir Ahmed, was killed in a police encounter at Shivaji Park in Dadar suburb.

Speaking to the media after the verdict, special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said the prosecution will demand the death sentence for the convicts. Defense lawyer Sushan Kunjuramaran said he was shocked at the ruling and would consider an appeal.

Nikam said Zahid Yusuf Patni, who turned state witness, said in his confession that the LeT hatched the conspiracy in Dubai to trigger the blasts.. The objective behind the blasts, Patni said, was to avenge the deaths of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots that broke out in the wake of the Godhra train burning in February that year. At least 2,000 Muslims were hacked, beaten, shot or burned to death in the attacks, which erupted after 59 Hindus died in the train fire that was at first blamed on a Muslim mob. A subsequent inquiry concluded the fire was accidental.

“This is the first case in (Indian) legal history in which a husband and wife were involved in a criminal conspiracy to explode bombs,” Nikam said.

The prosecutor said he had cross-examined 103 witnesses, one of whom was a taxi driver in whose cab the accused kept a bomb near the Gateway of India.

Ladoowala and Batterywala, he said, were arrested in Mumbra and Kurla suburbs of Mumbai.

Nikam claimed police seized 750 grams of RDX in Batterywala’s shop, while two hand grenades were seized at the residence of Ladoowala. However, the POTA review committee did not accept these pieces of evidence and recommended the release of the two. The Supreme Court concurred with the committee’s report, Nikam added.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Influential Cleric Arrested in Pakistan

Police arrested an influential pro-Taleban cleric yesterday who had brokered a failed peace deal in Pakistan’s troubled Swat Valley, an indication the Government will no longer negotiate with militants.

Authorities accused Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of Swat’s notorious Taleban leader Maulana Fazlullah, of encouraging violence and terrorism.

The peace deal in February imposed sharia law in the valley. But it was seen as handing control of the area to the Taleban.

The deal collapsed in April when the Taleban advanced south out of Swat, triggering a military offensive.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



Karzai: Afghans Want Rules for Troops Changed

KABUL — A confident President Hamid Karzai on Monday offered peace talks to Taliban militants if they renounce violence and called for a new relationship with the West if he wins a second term in next month’s presidential election.

Karzai is considered the favorite in the Aug. 20 vote. But his chances could hinge on his fellow Pashtuns in the turbulent south and east, where U.S. and British forces this month have suffered some of their highest casualties of the eight-year war.

His only serious competition in the 39-candidate field is believed to be former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who could force a runoff if a low turnout among the Pashtuns, the country’s biggest ethnic group and the heart of the Taliban ranks, prevents Karzai from claiming a majority of the votes.

In an interview with The Associated Press in his modest office, Karzai reached out to disaffected Pashtuns, calling for a dialogue with Taliban members who are not affiliated with al-Qaida and who are willing to repudiate violence “and announce that publicly.”

But the president said he was not yet prepared to discuss the key Taliban demand — a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops — because he contends their continued presence is in the national interest.

“The Afghan people still want a fundamentally strong relation with the United States,” Karzai said. “I also know and the Afghan people also know that the presence of international troops in Afghanistan is bringing stability to Afghanistan.”

Nevertheless, Karzai said the U.S. and NATO presence must be based on a partnership where “the partners are not losing their lives, their property, their dignity as a consequence of that partnership.”

During the half-hour interview, Karzai appeared relaxed and confident, even joking about his sometimes shaky relationship with the U.S. and its allies. Karzai was once hailed as the salvation of Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, but over the years his government has been increasingly criticized as weak and corrupt.

“When Hamid Karzai was quiet and there was no trouble between us, Hamid Karzai was a good man,” he quipped. “And now that there is a little trouble, he’s a bad man.”

Karzai’s offer of talks with the Taliban was echoed Monday by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, whose country has lost 22 soldiers this month in Afghanistan. Miliband said in a speech at NATO headquarters that rank-and-file Taliban fighters should be given the opportunity “to leave the path of confrontation with the government.”

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, rejected such talks, saying the militants would not discuss a cease-fire with any government that was a “servant of the foreigners.” He urged Afghans not to take part in next month’s election.

Afghan authorities have long complained that the Taliban exploit public discontent over the issues of civilian casualties and searches of private homes. Discontent runs highest in Pashtun areas that have seen most of the fighting since the hardline Islamic movement rebounded from its ouster from power in the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

The Interior Ministry acknowledges that 10 of the country’s 360 districts are not under government control. One-third of the 360 districts are considered high-risk areas, according to the ministry.

U.S. and NATO authorities have recognized the risk of alienating the civilian population.

Soon after assuming command of NATO and U.S. forces last month, Gen. Stanley McChrystal ordered troops to limit the use of airstrikes to prevent civilian casualties. He also ordered that international troops must be accompanied by Afghan forces before entering homes.

During the interview, Karzai also said he wants operations at the U.S.-run prison at Bagram Air Base, where about 600 Afghans are held, re-evaluated and inmates released unless there is evidence linking them to terrorism. He said arrests are turning ordinary Afghans against U.S. and NATO forces.

Instead, both sides should work toward a relationship in which foreign troops show greater sensitivity to Afghan culture and the Afghans display “better management of governmental affairs,” Karzai said.

Karzai also the Afghan government was “completely against the mushrooming of private security firms” which played a major role in the Iraq war. U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan are considering hiring a private contractor to provide around-the-clock security at dozens of bases and protect vehicle convoys moving throughout the country.

But Karzai said reliance on private contractors “runs counter to the growth and development of our own institutions” and that the money would be better spent training and equipping Afghanistan’s own army and police force.

Karzai has come under criticism for embracing some of Afghanistan’s most notorious warlords, including his vice presidential running mate Mohammad Qasim Fahim, and his defense adviser, Gen. Rashid Dostum, who has been accused of killing hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001 by suffocating them in sealed cargo containers.

Karzai defended those ties, saying many of those now branded as warlords had received “millions and millions of dollars” from the United States for their help in fighting the Taliban in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

           — Hat tip: Islam in Action [Return to headlines]



Pakistan: Italy Signs $100 Mln Agreement for Social Sector Development

Islamabad, 24 July (AKI) — Italy and Pakistan on Friday signed a 100 million dollar agreement to finance projects that fall within the framework of the Pakistan Italian Debt for Development Swap Agreement.

Under the debt swap, the 100 million dollars will be used to finance development projects in Pakistan, mainly in the social sector like health, education and sanitation, Pakistan’s official news agency Associated Press of Pakistan said.

“The Italian government has offered to convert part of their loans into debt swap which could be converted into rupees and utilized in various social sector development projects,” said Farrakh Qayyum, Pakistan’s secretary of economic affairs.

The agreement was signed by Italy’s ambassador to Pakistan Vincenzo Prati, who also said Italy would provide all possible support for the development of social sector projects in the country.

Projects are already underway in northern areas of the country, Prati added.

Italy will also launch a project to preserve the Swat valley’s archaeological heritage on sustainable basis, Prati said.

Qayyum praised Italy, saying the country has been proactive in helping Pakistan develop its social sector.

“In this extremely crucial moment for Pakistan, the Development Swap Agreement is an essential initiative undertaken by the Italian government, which erases debt through the execution of development projects,” he added.

Also, the Italian Government is in the process of finalising a 40 million euro microfinance project and a 20 million euro vocational training project for the regions of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

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



Thomas L. Friedman: Islamists Are Losing, But Their Rivals Aren’t Winning

By Thomas L. Friedman

JALOZAI CAMP, Pakistan — After spending a week traveling the front line of the “war on terrorism” — from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the seas off Iran, to northern Iraq, to Afghanistan and into northwest Pakistan — I can comfortably report the following: The bad guys are losing.

Yes, the dominoes you see falling in the Muslim world today are the extremist Islamist groups and governments. They have failed to convince people by either their arguments or their performances in power that their puritanical versions of Islam are the answer. Having lost the argument, though, the radicals still hang on, thanks to gun barrels and oil barrels — and they can for a while.

Because, while the radicals have failed miserably, our allies — the pro-Americans, the Muslim modernists, the Arab moderates — have not really filled the void with reform and good government of their own. They are winning by default…

           — Hat tip: Zenster [Return to headlines]



UK: Kabul Must Reconcile With Moderate Taliban

BRUSSELS — The Afghan government must exploit the opportunity presented by the allied military surge to reconcile with moderate Taliban guerrillas willing to take part in the political process, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday.

In a wide-ranging speech at NATO headquarters outlining the allied strategy in the war, Miliband also called for greater burden-sharing among nations contributing troops to the war effort.

Miliband said that while hard-line fundamentalist commanders committed to a global jihad must be pursued relentlessly, ordinary rank-and-file Taliban should be given the opportunity “to leave the path of confrontation with the government.”

He said Afghanistan’s government must develop “a political strategy for dealing with the insurgency through reintegration and reconciliation” and an “effective grass-roots initiatives to offer an alternative to fight or flight to the foot soldiers of the insurgency.”

Miliband cited Taliban members who have returned to the fold.

“Former Taliban sit in parliament. And Mullah Salam left the Taliban in late 2007 to become district governor of Musa Qala,” said Miliband. “So there is no reason why members of the current insurgency cannot follow — if they are prepared to be part of a peaceful future and accept the Afghan constitution.”

Twenty British soldiers have died in Afghanistan in July, igniting a debate in Britain about its role in the war and the quality of its military equipment.

The Conservative opposition has lashed out at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labor government for allegedly underfunding Britain’s 9,000-strong contingent and not providing sufficient helicopters or armored vehicles. The government has dismissed those accusations, saying its forces are properly equipped.

Since the start of the war in 2001, 189 British service personnel have died in the conflict. Last week the head of the armed forces warned that British troops faced more combat and more casualties in coming days.

NATO has nearly 60,000 troops in Afghanistan, about half of them American. The United States maintains a separate command numbering about 10,000 soldiers, and nearly 20,000 more are on their way to the war.

The Afghan security forces, which number about 160,000 members, also are being expanded.

In contrast, Taliban guerrillas are said to number just 10,000 to 15,000 fighters.

Theo Farrell, professor of war studies at King’s College, London, said Miliband is urging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to used the reconciliation model with former insurgents that worked for U.S. forces in some areas of Iraq.

But Farrell questioned Karzai’s willingness to do that, saying he would probably demand former militants surrender unconditionally to be readmitted to “society” and bar them from his government.

“The major obstacle to any real reconciliation is Karzai himself,” the analyst said in a telephone interview.

During this speech, Miliband reiterated a call for greater burden-sharing between the allies, some of whose contingents — including those from Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey — are based in the relatively safe north and west of the country. Their governments have refused to allow the troops to be deployed to the much more dangerous southern and eastern provinces.

“People in Britain … want to know that all the members of our alliance are ready to give it the priority it deserves,” Miliband said. “Burden sharing is a founding principal of NATO, and it needs to be honored in practice as well as in theory.”

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Far East


China’s Plans Behind the Xinjiang Tragedy

As Beijing launches a ‘Xinjiang’s charm’ campaign to draw tourists back to the region and its old ‘Silk Road’, the father of China’s pro-democracy movement, currently living in exile, says the killing in Xinjiang earlier this month was planned to turn public opinion away from infighting in the Communist Party and China’s campaign to extend its control over petroleum-producing nations in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Washington (AsiaNews/WJSF) — They all say it is a season of great events in China. Indeed, it is. What has happened in Shaoguan (Guangdong) and Urumqi (Xinjiang) has already resulted in continued condemnation from the international community.

Meanwhile, there is news that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has quarrelled with the Australian government and arrested the China chief of a big Australian company. The Chinese government has neither put him on trial or sentenced him, nor provided detailed information to the Australian government even when the Australian Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister made inquiries. This kind of conduct that violates international conventions will surely generate anger in Australia, and will surely make foreign business people in China more nervous. Who knows whether China’s secrecy laws will apply to them as well? Since the Yan’an period in Mao Zedong’s rule, these secrecy laws have been 100 per cent effective. However, since the Xinjiang issue is more important for the average Chinese, and has had new developments, let us put aside the matter of Australian business involvement with the corrupt CCP.

There are two issues that did not receive enough attention lately. According to a report by BoXun, the most reputable overseas Chinese website, an old party official who retired from the party during the CCP’s 17th Congress revealed that the reason for the explosive situation in Xinjiang was a struggle within the CCP.

From the jailing of Shanghai Mayor Chen LiangYu to last month’s detention of Shenzhen Mayor Xu Zongheng, Hu Jintao joined forces with Wen Jiabao to beat the leading members of the Jiang Zemin faction. Thus the Jiang faction had to find an opportunity to fight back. They did so by fuelling tensions which led to the Shaoguan incident, and by demobilising police during the Urumqi riots, thus enabling Uyghur terrorists to use a peaceful demonstration to murder Han Chinese to the extent that Hu Jintao lost face at the G8 meeting in Italy. Hu had to return to China to secure his own backyard and prevent the situation from getting out of control at his expense.

A lot of information has been recently leaked that proves that the CCP government is guilty of doing nothing, thus allowing thugs to cause large scale murder. This tragedy had nothing to do with the World Uyghur Congress which supported the peaceful demonstration. The CCP Xinjiang government had reliable intelligence and enough power to start police action. But since the Jiang faction controls China’s legal system and courts, they chose the strategy of doing nothing before and during the tragedy. They enabled Uyghur terrorists to do whatever they wanted and allowed the situation to get out of control. Indeed, through skilful cooperation the CCP’s Xinjiang government and Uyghur terrorist group are responsible for such a horrifying tragedy.

Some friends are still not willing to believe that it was the CCP that took the initiative in this tragedy. They do not believe that the CCP was trying to cause hateful ethnic killing in an effort to shift political attention.

If anyone thinks this way, they might want to consider the second piece of news. During a review of the Sino-Russian joint military exercise, the CCP military Chief of General Staff, Admiral Chen Bingde, talked a lot about “anti-terrorism”, pointing the finger at Uyghurs. He claimed that China would cooperate with the four Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and send troops outside of China to attack Uyghur terrorist organisations. He skilfully played on ordinary people’s desire for security whilst increasing their sense of hostility. At the same time he was able to extend China’s military forces to the edges of the Mideast petroleum-producing region in order to thwart Western goal of controlling it. Trying to kill two birds with two stones is no coincidence but a long term strategy.

Some people wonder whether the Xinjiang tragedy was meant to make trouble for Hu Jintao. Why does he have to swallow this bitter fruit? Why did he not try to stop it or even counterattack? They are too anxious. Counterattacking does not have to happen today. “For a gentleman to take his revenge, ten years is not too late” says an old Chinese saying. Not counterattacking today does not mean never counterattacking.

What is more, the plan to cause the tragedy was perfectly executed. The underlying reasons were sufficient; the choice of timing was just right. So Zhou Yongkang, the CCP’s official in charge of security, could say that without the order from Hu Jintao, he could not order his troops to open fire to stop the escalation, which gave the thugs several hours to murder. As for why not letting the military police move into Urumqi, there is the simplest excuse of underestimating the problem which is not enough to condemn anyone to death.

The most important thing is that there is sufficient reason to do something after the tragedy. These conspirators did not just shift people’s attention away from opposition [to the regime], they also might have obtained a frontier base to move west into the petroleum producing areas. What reason could Hu Jintao use to go against this? This is exactly what he wanted to do, but did not dare to do. He had no reason to oppose this even if he has to carry a knife in his back.

This situation is similar to when Hu Jintao murdered the 10th Panchen Lama, something which scared Deng Xiao Ping[2] even though it was one of his goals. In fact Deng wanted to do this but did not dare to do it.

In addition, they dealt with the aftermath skilfully by not allowing Western media to find something to protest against. So Deng happily welcomed this unexpected surprise and saw Hu in a new light.

This time, dealing of the aftermath was more difficult but the outcome was good as well. Even some anti-CCP patriotic youths turned around to help the CCP attack Uyghur opposition forces.

Some Western media, who can’t see the forest for the trees, unwittingly became accomplices in this evil. This goes to show that the CCP conspiracy was successful, something that is bound to increase.

By contrast, we must try instead to clearly distinguish between good from evil so as not to fall for the conspiracy of the Chinese Communist Party.

[1] The author here refers to the arrest of four employees of the British-Australian company Rio Tinto on charges of corrupting Chinese officials in charge of a steel mill before a contract involving an iron mine was signed. One of the four employees holds Australian passport. All four are accused of stealing a “state secret”.

[2] The 10th Panchen Lama died unexpectedly in 1989 after criticising China’s Tibet policy in a speech. For years Beijing had tried to subjugate him by different means, including prison, house arrests and forcing him to marry a Han Chinese woman.

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



Growing War Industry in Pacifist Japan

The Japanese Constitution excludes the possibility that the country enters war or even has an army. For more than 62 years no Japanese has killed or been killed in military actions. But the ban has been overturned and now factories are producing sophisticated weapons technology.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) — The Japanese Constitution states that the country can not have an army or military potential and, by law, the passage of nuclear weapons is even not allowed. But its industry produces, and sells highly technological weapons. And while the country has begun a debate on possible constitutional reform on this issue, one wonders if the Land of the Rising Sun is still “pacifist”.

It all dates back to July 26 1945. when U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek met in the castle in Potsdam, not far from Berlin, to determine the terms of the surrender of Japan. The ultimatum stated that if Japan had not surrendered unconditionally it would meet with “rapid and complete destruction.” The “Potsdam Declaration”, which did not involve the annihilation of the Japanese nation or its government, only its democratization, gave birth to modern Japan.

From 15 August 1945, the day of unconditional surrender to General Douglas Mc Arthur, the “American shogun”, broad powers were given to make this effective. The goal was achieved with a two part program: punishment and renewal. The program punitive had its climax in the so-called “international tribunal in Tokyo”, echoing that of Nuremberg. The program for renewal, which was far more important, had its best expression in the new constitution, proclaimed May 3 1947.

Democracy and peace are it’s pillars, but the latter characterizes it in a highly unique way, so much so it is referred to as the “Peace Constitution”, thanks, especially to Article 9, considered the gem of the entire document. Here is the text: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. 2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized”. In simple terms: Japan forfeit its right to declare war and to have an army! No nation in the world has such a constitution. But there’s more. 62 years after its proclamation, the fundamental charter of the Japanese nation presents itself as a model constitution, because today it seems one can no longer speak of “just war”

Japanese a pacifist people?

However, the illumination of the pacifist Constitution is not without shadows, at least regarding its origin. The text was prepared by American lawyers. Many people do not genuinely believe it to be Japanese. The movement for its replacement or reform is strong and legitimate. But in order not to weaken esteem for it nor its force of law, these three facts should be taken into account: first, it was approved by the Diet (Parliament), with only six abstentions, and secondly, with regards “real pacifism” its effectiveness has been enormous: in the last 62 years no Japanese has been killed or have killed in war; finally, if we limit ourselves to Article 9, popular polls shows that the number of citizens who wish to keep it as it is exceeds the number of those who believe it requires some modifications.

But that said, Japanese pacifism is not transparent, because in Japan there are three powers: one democratic and two more occult; the first is represented by the people, the voters; and hence the guarantee of freedom and openness is good; the other two are in the hands of industry and bureaucracy, where the logic of profit or that of the international balance of power prevails over the ethics of democracy.

The production of arms nourishes the Japanese industry.

Today, wars are not waged with armies but with sophisticated weapons. Responding to this fact and together with the logic of profit, Japan, 60 years after the promulgation of a pacifist constitution, is the fifth largest producer of military weapons for a market value of nearly 5 billion dollars. The industrial facilities that produce them are among the biggest in the nation, such as Mitsubishi, NEC and Kawsaki Heavy Industries.

The United States Government that, through Mc Arthur, presented Japan in 1947 with a constitution that excluded the possession of an army, allowing only for a national police body, just five years later called on the nation to institute a national defense body (Jieitai). The Reason: the beginning of the Cold War. Japan did not hesitate at the request to establish a “National Defense Body” which, in order maintain juridical appearances, it never called an “army”, but which is currently equipped with the most sophisticated modern weapons, with the exception of nuclear weapons.

In 1953, only a year after regaining full power, Japan begun to sell weapons despite export bans. The opening up of the Japanese Government to the international war market became increasingly extensive, to the point of establishing research alliances with the United States on ultra-modern weapons such as BMD missiles (Ballistic Missile Defense), and granting the export of sophisticated technology of that type to the U.S. and Europe. Nippon Keidanren (the Japanese Confederation of Industries) has hailed the government decision as a great step forward .

For the near future Japanese prospects for international cooperation in the military industry are brilliant. Especially in nanotechnology. In the areas of miniaturization, mixers and digital optics Japan offers an excellent service that is highly sought after. We know that the United States in Iraq are using some 12,000 robots that can be equipped with missiles and machine guns. Can still define as “pacifist” a nation involved in the production of ultra-modern weapons only because its fundamental charter prevents it from owning them?

Covert diplomacy of Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ officials

Saku Eisaku (1901-75) was perhaps the most astute and the most brilliant post war prime minister in the mid 60s. In 1967, Japan introduced the legislation of the three anti-nuclear principles: “not to manufacture, possess or introduce (in to Japan) nuclear bombs”. For this and for his activities in favor of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in 1974 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. But a few years ago some U.S. declassified documents revealed that Sato, in the’60s, during a visit to the White House had tacitly agreed that in case of need, the U.S. ships with nuclear warheads could transit in Japanese ports.

Moreover in 2001, after the Law on freedom of information was approved, a former top official of the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, revealed to the newspaper Asahi that a written document on this secret nuclear pact actually existed in the archives of the ministry but recently had been destroyed by bureaucratic order.

The result is that while the department ministers change with relative frequency, senior bureaucrats remain as the real, trusted and of course secret, authority in the field for the Prime Minister.

In terms of international politics that they must be especially competent in judging the balance of power, not in the principles of the pacifist constitution.

But the reasons of the State can not betray democratic trust when it comes to principles as basic as that of world peace. Intellectuals and the population, especially in the big cities, are becoming aware of this.

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

Australia — Pacific


Grieving Family Demands Justice

The doctor at the centre of an investigation into the death of a four-year-old in remote Queensland has had his medical evidence not accepted in two tribunal hearings.

Dr Zulfikar Ali Hudda, who is registered in Queensland and NSW as a doctor based at Tweed Heads, was flown out of Doomadgee on police orders after the death of four-year-old Naylor Walden.

Dr Hudda was relieving for the resident doctor in the community.

Naylor died in her grandmother’s arms on Thursday night after finally being admitted to the Doomadgee Hospital on Wednesday and diagnosed with pneumonia.

Her grandparents say she was turned away from the northwest Queensland hospital several times during the previous week, despite having a temperature and breathing problems.

They claim the girl was not admitted because she was Aboriginal and because of swine flu concerns.

Test results returned on Saturday were negative for both swine flu and normal flu. The cause of death has not yet been determined.

A search of tribunal records by AAP showed that in two hearings in which Dr Hudda has been involved his evidence has not been accepted.

In a 2001 hearing involving a World War II veteran, Dr Hudda said he did not believe the patient, whom he had treated since 1990, had hypertension.

But the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) found it was “difficult to deny” that the patient, who died from a heart attack in March 1995, suffered from that disease when he had above-normal blood pressure readings over “a lengthy period”.

In another AAT case in 1993 the doctor said a WWII veteran’s constant need to take medication and his heavy drinking brought about renal failure and pancreatitis.

But the AAT found: “There is no material before the tribunal to suggest any connection between alcohol and medication intake and renal failure … the tribunal finds (the patient) … did not have chronic pancreatitis and that any pancreatitis he may have had was caused by gallstones blocking the bile duct and not by alcoholism.”

Calls to Dr Hudda’s surgery went unanswered on Monday.

A Medical Board of Queensland spokesman and Queensland Health declined to comment.

Queensland Health declined to comment on the tribunal evidence but Mount Isa health district chief executive Suzanne Sandral said the doctor was well experienced.

“The doctor at Doomadgee was a locum supplied to Queensland Health through Australian Medical Placements, as a senior medical officer,” she said.

“He was born in East Africa and has extensive medical experience in Australia — including in indigenous communities — for more than 20 years.”

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Mason Stevenson said doctors should not be made scapegoats.

“The AMA has major concerns whenever a doctor is hastily put up as a scapegoat for deficiencies within the Queensland Health hospital system,” Dr Stevenson told AAP.

“This case along with most other cases are complex, with multiple factors involved, and usually involve more than one treating health professional working in an underfunded, under-resourced system.”

The girl’s death has been referred to the coroner and Queensland’s Health Quality and Complaints Commission.

Queensland Health is also conducting a review of the girl’s treatment known as a root cause analysis.

Naylor’s grandmother Katrina Walden said she was angry and wanted justice over Naylor’s death.

“The doctor and the nurses that were on call need to be brought to justice,” she told ABC radio.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said Health Minister Paul Lucas would visit the community in coming weeks, at the invitation of the family.

“I would caution against jumping to conclusions, we have yet to see the matter fully investigated and it is currently before the coroner,” Ms Bligh told reporters.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa


Nigerian Islamist Attacks Spread

Dozens of people have been killed after Islamist militants staged three attacks in northern Nigeria, taking the total killed in two days of violence to 150.

A BBC reporter has counted 100 bodies, mostly of militants, near the police headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, where hundreds are fleeing their homes.

Witnesses told the BBC a gun battle raged for hours in Potiskum, Yobe State and a police station was set on fire.

Some of the militants follow a preacher who campaigns against Western schools.

The preacher, Mohammed Yusuf, says Western education is against Islamic teaching.

There has also been an attack in Wudil, some 20km (12 miles) from Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.

A curfew is in force in Bauchi, the scene of Sunday’s violence.

Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence in the country.

Nigeria’s 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians and the two groups generally live peacefully side by side, despite occasional outbreaks of communal violence.

Militants chanting “God is great” attacked the Potiskum police station at about 0215 local time (0115 GMT) — the same time as the raid was launched in Maiduguri.

The police station and neighbouring buildings in Potiskum have been razed to the ground, eyewitnesses say.

Two people have been confirmed dead and the police have made 23 arrests.

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

Latin America


Minister Visits Latin America in Bid to Curb Iran’s Influence in Region

Tel Aviv, 24 July (AKI) — Israel’s hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman is in Argentina on the second part of his tour of Latin America in a bid to thwart Iran’s influence in the region. It is the first trip by any Israeli official to Argentina, which is home to the largest Jewish community in South America.

The first leg of the trip was in Brazil, where Lieberman met his Brazilian counterpart to seek his support for moves to pressure Iran to stop its controversial nuclear programme.

However, during Lieberman’s visit to Argentina, its foreign minister, Jorge Taiana, expressed concern about Israel’s operation in the Gaza strip in December 2008 and January 2009 that killed over 1,400 Palestinians.

Lieberman is also due to visit Peru and Colombia before the end of his South American tour.

The tour comes amid a worldwide public relations campaign to improve Israel’s image abroad. Israel is seeking to shore up support for illegal Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which the US administration opposes.

Also on Friday, reports surfaced that Israeli students have created an application designed to work on the social networking site Facebook in order to improve the image of Israel.

Once installed on a Facebook user’s personal page, Israpedia will add positive facts about Israel to the page on a daily basis. So far around 3,000 Facebook users have downloaded the application, according to Israpedia’s designers.

In addition, Lieberman ordered earlier this week that all Israeli embassies and consulates around the world should circulate a photograph of a Palestinian religious leader meeting with Adolf Hitler.

The photo was taken in 1941 in Berlin with the Nazi leader seated next to the then top Muslim religious leader or Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.

Israel has used the photo, to attempt to sway world opinion in favour of building and development in East Jerusalem, the city Palestinians want as the capital of their future independent state.

“It is not reasonable for us to discriminate against Jews in Jerusalem. Just like no-one thinks of making any remarks about Jerusalem Arabs who buy apartments in Jewish neighbourhoods,” Lieberman commented following the photo’s distribution.

Palestinians believe that Israel’s intention to continue building in East Jerusalem undermines the peace process.

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

Immigration


Cardinal Delighted: Belgium Opens the Floodgates

Last week, the government of Belgium, a small European country of 10 million inhabitants, decided to grant official papers to illegal aliens who can demonstrate that they have “sufficiently integrated” into the country. The illegal immigrants must fulfill a number of conditions, such as having lived in the country for the past five years or having worked in Belgium for at least two-and-a-half years, having learned one of Belgium’s three official languages or having children at school.

The official papers will allow the illegal aliens to stay and work in the country. The Belgian authorities think the measure will apply to a maximum of 25,000 people. Previous estimates say the number of beneficiaries may range from 50,000 to 100,000 people. Belgian government officials, however, insist that the government’s decision is by no means a “mass regularization.”

The Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels welcomed the decision. The Belgian Catholic Church has been actively pushing for a new round of regularizations since the 2000 regularization which allowed 50,000 illegal aliens to become permanent residents of Belgium. By allowing, and sometimes actively encouraging illegal immigrants, who by Belgian law should have been expelled, to settle in churches, Catholic organizations tried to put pressure on the government. Even the Papal Nuncio, the Vatican representative to Belgium, expressed support for the church squatters.

On 20 July, the government of Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, a Christian-Democrat, gave in to the pressure…

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]



Ireland: Bogus Bid for Asylum by Cricket Team Gets Hit for Six

HOWZAT. Bogus asylum seekers posing as cricketers in an attempt to gain entry to the country have been bowled out by the Garda national immigration bureau.

After several successful innings, the bogus batsmen have been hit for six by the immigration officers and left on a sticky wicket.

The authorities have uncovered a trend where members of cricket teams based in the Middle East were being trafficked into the State.

In the past year, several cricket teams have applied to come here from the Middle East, with the majority of the sides comprised of Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals.

According to officials, one or two members of each party on a visit have a good travel history and do not arouse suspicion.

However, after entering the State, many of them later claim asylum or disappear. In one case, 10 team members were caught attempting to use the common travel area to gain entry to the UK and subsequently claimed asylum.

The cricket matches they were due to play went ahead and gardai say they suspect that the cricketers participating in those matches are already resident here. Immigration bureau inquiries are currently focusing on a group based in the United Arab Emirates.

Most of the Pakistani nationals involved in the scam try to get into the country by flying from Lahore to Abu Dhabi and then into Dublin.

The “bogus cricketer” is one of a series of asylum scams discovered by the immigration authorities, in liaison with officials in other countries, in the past year.

A case before the High Court in Dublin heard that a female Nigerian national had arrived here in 2000 and claimed asylum on the grounds that she was being persecuted in her home country. She said she had no passport. The next month she gave birth, withdrew her asylum claim and applied for permission to remain as the mother of an Irish citizen infant.

Her application was accompanied by a passport.

In August 2001, she was granted conditional permission to stay and care for her child.

In August 2006 she was interviewed by a British immigration officer as she tried to travel by sea to the UK from Ireland. She produced two Nigerian passports, which contained a number of visas and were valid for the same period.

Passport

A search of her handbag produced another passport, her fourth, which overlapped with the first document. Both were valid for the time when she claimed she had no passport.

She told the UK officer she spent only a few weeks of every year visiting Ireland and lived mainly in Nigeria, where she ran a hotel with her husband. She was returned by ship to Ireland where she was refused leave to land and then detained.

The lawfulness of her detention was subsequently challenged in the High Court, which found it was lawful. Other scams included:

  • A Nigerian woman living in Kerry with five children was found to be claiming €760 a week in benefits. Her husband was detected in Belfast on his way to visit her and admitted owning a business in Lagos.
  • Last March, immigration officials discovered visa applications had been made by a number of Pakistani nationals with fraudulent documentation.
  • An investigation is under way into a racket where non EU nationals, legally living here, are claiming benefit for a child residing outside the State. Most of the cases uncovered by officials involve Chinese nationals. Between October and April, about 130 cases of benefit abuse, totalling €230,000, were uncovered.

[Return to headlines]



Ireland: Scamming Cricketers Foil Immigration

Immigration officials have been stumped by scamming cricket teams from the Middle East who arrange matches but go on the run rather than play, it emerged today.

The Department of Justice said in the last year two teams, with players mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh, caught out border control after they came to compete but never turned up for the innings.

Justice chiefs warned it has become a growing trafficking trend.

“They were genuine cricket teams and it was a genuine cricket competition they were

travelling over to Ireland for,” a spokesman for the Department said.

“There was a legitimate competition and the teams were let in.

“But when they got into the State they never turned up for the matches … and some of them were then located subsequently in Britain.”

Immigration officials said they believed a trend was developing after several teams applied to enter the State from the Middle East with one or two members of each party having a good travel history.

Once here legally, some players claimed asylum or disappeared.

The Department said on one occasion 10 team members were stopped as they tried to travel on to the UK without having to use a passport as Ireland and Britain share a common travel area.

They later claimed asylum.

Immigration chiefs believe a Pakistani showjumping team also duped border control.

The Department could not give the precise details of the competitions but claimed the teams had been registered to play.

However, Cricket Ireland, the body overseeing the sport across the island, said they had never heard of such attempted immigration scams or vanishing cricket teams.

Spokesman Barry Chambers said: “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

Mr Chambers said cricketers coming over to Ireland to play for Irish clubs have to go through a strict process.

“The only cricketers that come in are from Pakistan and India and they have to go through a pretty rigorous application process.

“They just can’t roll up and start playing cricket.”

Meanwhile, the Department also said there were growing numbers of foreign nationals legally in the State claiming child benefit for kids living outside the country.

The majority of cases involve Chinese people.

Between October 2008 and April 2009 there were 130 incidences costing the taxpayer €230,000.

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



Lifting the Lid on Australia’s ‘Visa Factories’

The numbers are boggling — nearly half a million international students pumping $15 billion a year into the Australian economy.

A decade ago not many people would have predicted that education would morph into an industry and knock off tourism as our third biggest export earner.

They say that in India the slightest thing causes a riot, but earlier this year Australians were shocked to see thousands of Indian students on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney protesting about street violence, racism and slum housing.

The students held their hastily scribbled banners and posters in front of the lenses of TV cameras which beamed the pictures back to India.

It fed sensational media coverage like one memorable report called India Fights Back, which featured Prime Minister Kevin Rudd thanking India for rescuing Australia from a century of British food juxtaposed with a split screen of the protesters at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.

The tone was Bollywood meets The Insiders and I briefly wondered whether the cricket season had kicked off early.

Reports had been circulating for the best part of a year about dodgy private colleges and the visa factories of Sydney and Melbourne.

In one year alone the vocational education sector had grown by over 50 per cent, fuelled by over 70,000 Indian students coming to buy an education.

Egged on by immigration and education agents, many were told that if they enrolled in cooking and hairdressing they could not only get a diploma but they could qualify for permanent residency in Australia.

And indeed they could.

The Government had instituted a deliberate immigration pathway through education, but the trouble was many of the training schools were supplying qualifications that were worthless, and the policing of standards in the colleges was woefully inept.

Four Corners discovered that not only were many of the courses bogus, but other illegal scams were keeping the system afloat.

If a student wants to apply for permanent residency they must pass an English language test. Four Corners has clear evidence that unscrupulous education agents are offering the tests for thousands of dollars.

Similarly with the work experience certificates that students need to acquire as part of their training. These too can be procured through networks of corrupt businesspeople for thousands of dollars.

The question is — how is this being allowed to happen?

Four Corners discovered evidence that students and some education agents have made serious allegations to the relevant government authorities and their complaints have been ignored or worse, they have found themselves under investigation.

For some time, the Government has boasted about the growth in the foreign education sector. But some experts believe the time has come for the Government to stop the corruption.

The question is, does it have the will?

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]



UK: Immigration Staff Vote to Strike

Holidaymakers are facing disruption after the PCS union said immigration officials working for the UK Border Agency have voted for strike action.

Members voted by a large majority to take action over plans to merge the duties of immigration and customs staff, the PCS’s Alex Flynn said. It gives the go-ahead for a possible two-day walkout beginning 5 August. A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said contingency plans would be put into place to minimise disruption.

‘Little effect’

The dispute centres around changes to working practices and shift patterns following the merger of immigration and customs staff after the creation of the UK Border Agency. According to the PCS, the merger means immigration staff would have to carry out custom officers’ duties for which they have not been trained, such as strip searches.

The union also says proposed changes to shift patterns would mean a reduction in take-home pay.

Mr Flynn said the union had been holding talks with management which were due to be discussed by the executive committee of the PCS’s immigration section.

“Obviously we want to avoid inconveniencing the public,” Mr Flynn added.

“But our members want to continue doing the jobs they signed up for.

“Management were trying to introduce changes so that you would have immigration officers doing jobs for which they were not trained.”

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency insisted disruption would be minimal. He added: “If industrial action does take place border controls will be maintained and there will be little effect on the work of the UK Border Agency. “Contingency staffing plans would be in place to ensure the public receive business as usual service.”

The results of the PCS ballot come after unions representing 14,000 cabin crew at British Airways have warned of strikes over management plans for job losses and a wage freeze.

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

Sharia in Action

This video is too disturbing to embed here, and sensitive readers may not want to watch it.

It’s from a Danish TV program about a Pakistani woman who was blinded and hideously disfigured by having hydrochloric acid thrown in her face — all because she wouldn’t marry her deceased husband’s brother.

TB kindly translated the Danish portions, and Vlad Tepes did the English subtitles. Vlad has posted the embedded video along with material about a similar incident.

The complete (English) transcript is below the jump, for those who would rather not watch the video:
– – – – – – – –

00:01   TV 2 News Reporter Ulla Terkelsen (UT): Thank you very much, sir.
00:03   UT: We are visiting a center for disfigured women.
00:08   UT: Most of them are from the Cotton Belt in Punjab.
00:11   (Woman in a green dress starts speaking in English): We are having…eh, most of the cases come from the southern belt, also called the Cotton Belt.
00:16   UT: Hydrochloric acid is cheap and easy to find and is used to clean up cotton seeds down here…
00:23   UT: …and to punish women.
00:25   (Man translating and asking the woman): Are you learning Braille?
00:30   UT: So you are learning to read? [TRANSLATOR’S COMMENT: In the background you can now hear the man translating for the woman before she answers]
00:34   Naziran: Yes I am!
00:36   Naziran: And I have received the educational material.
00:41   UT: And how is that going with her learning to read?
00:45   Naziran: It’s going fine.
00:48   Naziran: Everybody says that it’s going fine.
00:51   Naziran: I have only been doing this for two months…
00:53   Naziran: …and I have also learned to make a sweater…
00:55   Naziran: …but only need to learn how to make a fit…
00:59   Naziran: …and then I can make a sweater.
01:00   UT: Naziran is 23 and from The Cotton Belt…
01:04   UT: …her husband, with whom she had two children, died a year and a half ago…
01:08   UT: …then she was told by his family that she had to marry her deceased husband’s older brother and become his wife number two…
01:16   UT: …so that the land belonging to the two brothers could be merged.
01:22   UT: …but Naziran wouldn’t do it. So one night, when she was sleeping outside with all the others…
01:25   UT: …the family poured acid all over her as a punishment.
01:32   Naziran: Now I feel much better.
01:33   Naziran: Before I was very sad because I was so badly burned and had wounds.
01:38   Naziran: I was so sad because of what they did to me.
01:42   UT: The Center for disfigured women is led by a French feminist. She has this to say about using acid as a way of punishing women:
01:50   The French woman: Not only does it destroy one’s outer appearance…
01:54   The French woman: …but also one’s psychological self-knowledge and one’s social life.
02:00   The French woman: It is a punishment that will mark you psychologically for the rest of your life.
02:02   UT: But, as can often be observed about humans in extreme situations, Naziran is very optimistic about the future…
02:10   UT: …she is learning Braille.
02:13   UT: I wish you good luck.
02:18   Naziran: Same to you.
02:19   Naziran: I am fine and I am happy.

On the Air Again

On the airAndrea Shea King, the Radio Patriot, has invited us once again to appear on her radio show.

Tonight’s topic will be “Global Governance”, as inspired by the words of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Along the way we may touch on the EU and the Mediterranean Union as well as the North American version of transnational sovereignty.

Brussels, Barcelona, Davos, and Turtle Bay — it promises to be an interesting discussion.

I will definitely be there, and Dymphna hopes that she will be well enough to take part.

Tune in at 9:00pm EDT (0200 London, 0300 Copenhagen) to the Andrea Shea King Show. The call-in number is (646) 478-4604, and you can also use skype voice (I think).

I’ll chill the Yuengling for everyone…

[Nothing follows]