Since Liberia has a relatively small (20%) Muslim population, chances are that neither the victim nor the perps in this story are Muslims.

The most egregious forms of cultural enrichment are not exclusively Muslim, and some of the practices that have been preserved intact by Islam in other parts of the world are still the norm in sub-Saharan Africa.

Take, for example, this case involving Liberian refugees in Arizona:

Family Disowns Arizona Girl, 8, After Alleged Gang Sex Assault

PHOENIX — The family of an eight-year-old girl who was allegedly gang-sexually assaulted will not take her back into their home, declaring that the girl has dishonored them.

Charges have been filed against four boys, ages nine to 14, suspected of sexually assaulting the girl in Phoenix, Arizona, last week, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

County attorney Andrew Thomas has requested the oldest boy be tried as an adult.

The boys are accused of luring the girl with chewing gum to a shed by a vacant apartment unit, then restraining her and taking turns sexually assaulting her, according to Phoenix police.

The boys and the victim were resettled Liberian refugees.

– – – – – – – – –

The girl was turned over to state Child Protective Services after her family disowned her, Phoenix Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said Wednesday. The girl’s parents blamed her for being victimized and bringing shame to the family, he said.

Thomas filed a criminal complaint against the 14-year-old suspect Wednesday, accusing him of two counts of sexual assault and one of kidnapping in the July 16 incident. He is being held without bond, which state law requires due to the nature of the crime.

The other three boys, aged nine, 10 and 13, will be prosecuted in juvenile court. The youngest faces a count of sexual assault, while the 10- and 13-year-old boys each face multiple counts of sexual assault and one of kidnapping, county attorney Andrew Thomas said in a news release.

The county attorney’s office has 15 days to determine whether to petition the court to transfer any of the remaining cases.

Ali Keita, a Liberian who immigrated to the United States in 1997, said the crime was “horrible” and “serious.”

As president of the Arizona Mandingo Association, Keita works with Liberian refugees to ease their integration into American society. Keita said many refugees he has worked with lived amidst rampant rape and brutal violence in Liberia, commonplace during the country’s recent civil war.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

The following essay is one of Zenster’s occasional contributions. What he has to say about a commodity more precious than oil is sure to give you pause for thought. We have a few readers and donors who work in this area. They lurk but don’t comment, and I’m hoping Zenster’s post will bring them out.

At any rate, we have something to ponder here. California is having its own water issues and the drought map of the U.S. shows other problem areas. Australia has had more than its share of drought. Thus, it’s an issue many of us have considered at a local level. Zenster goes global.

Blood for Water
by Zenster

From MEMRI:

Editor of a Leading Pakistani Paper: ‘If, in Order to Resolve Our [Water and Other] Problems, We Have to Wage Nuclear War with India, We Will’ – Water Disputes Between India and Pakistan – A Potential Casus Belli

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While conflict over our world’s oil supplies dominated the closing decades of this last century, this new millennium will be greeted with far more pressing and volatile disputes about the increasing global needs for water. Some of the most hostile cultures and unstable political regions on earth are also home to severe Water Poverty.

By the year 2050 world population is predicted to have increased by fifty per cent. Rapidly expanding Muslim Middle East populations already require their governments to divert agricultural irrigation supplies over into municipal reservoirs. This has forced the MME to become increasingly dependent on imported food. Dwindling aquifers and diminished annual water flows in major rivers exacerbate this situation. A majority of the significant global population increases are taking place in those areas most affected by Water Poverty.

One equation calculates the annual depletion of global aquifers at 160 billion cubic meters (or 160 billion tons).Generally, it takes one thousand tons of water to produce one ton of grain. This 160-billion-ton water deficit is equal to 160 million tons of grain (or one half of the entire U.S. grain harvest). Per capita world grain consumption hovers at about three hundred kilograms – one third of a ton – per year.

The foregoing aquifer depletion rate demonstrates the irrigation needed for 160 million tons of grain, an amount that would feed some 480 million people. Currently, almost half a billion humans, or nearly ten percent of the globe’s population, subsist on unsustainable water supplies. The world’s entire water supply contains only some 2.5 percent fresh water, of which less than 0.007% is available from surface sources such as lakes and rivers.

Oceans cover more than seventy per cent of the earth’s surface but their content is not an optimal source of potable water. Current methods of desalination are not yet viable methods for extracting drinking supplies. At the moment, desalination represents the most expensive source of fresh water. Besides costing up to five times more than conventional sources and requiring ten times the energy to extract, there are also environmental issues to be considered.

A huge portion of the ocean’s food chain exists at the microbial and microscopic level. The uptake pipes of a desalination plant cannot discern the contents of what they ingest. This means that large shoreline areas of vital ocean-borne nutrients are borne away. It was for this reason that NOAA banned krill harvesting along America’s Pacific coast.

Krill (near microscopic shrimp-like crustaceans) are a crucial link in the oceanic food chain. They are a vital source of nutrition for vertebrate species, including whales, seabirds and salmon. This preventive measure by NOAA aims to protect baseline nutritional sources upon which the entire global food chain depends. One assessment of Southern Ocean life forms estimates that krill, along with their eggs and larvae, constitute over sixty percent of the average total zooplankton biomass.

While a seemingly “green” technology, desalination processes have a dark side. The saline sludge left after purification is a nightmare of toxic wastes which present intractable disposal problems. Boron, algal residue (e.g., “red tide”) and endocrine disruptors are present in ocean water and remain in the sludge. Further, nuclear energy is one of the few viable methods of providing sufficient electricity for desalination. Nuclear power plants themselves require large-scale supplies of cooling water; their thermal outtake plumes can alter coastal ecospheres in a significant manner.

Estimates for nuclear power plants’ problems cite that their intakes “kill at least 3.4 billion fish and other marine organisms annually”. One billion ocean-going microbes can fit into a single teaspoon, thus giving some perspective about the changes which would follow a catastrophic global collapse of the maritime food chain. There are no simple solutions.

Throughout history human populations and their agriculture have remained dependent on adequate water resources. While the per capita grain consumption of largely vegetarian countries like India may dip as low as two hundred kilograms per annum, a Western diet rich in livestock, dairy and eggs can require up to the equivalent of 800 kilograms of grain. This is not about “typical Western overconsumption”: North America, with about eight per cent of the world’s population, possesses sixteen per cent of the global water supplies. Europe’s situation is almost reversed: its percentage of the world’s population is now thirteen per cent yet it has access to only eight per cent of the water.

Asia contains sixty per cent of the world’s people, with a meager thirty-six per cent of the water. This hard fact sets the stage for some truly ominous prospects. India and China have already begun massive hydroelectric projects which could disrupt the health of ecologies and populations in a large number of downstream locations.

The Mekong River

China is constructing a series of dams along the upper reaches of the Mekong River. The Xiaowan dam is already operational. As the world’s tallest dam it is forcing neighbor countries to question the likely impact of the Xiaowan dam, in addition to several other proposed projects. [large image of dam sites is available here]

The Mekong River is one of the world’s largest watercourses. Whoever controls it has a strong lever which can be used on countries in the Lower Mekong Basin. Over sixty million people rely upon the Mekong River for food, water and transportation.
– – – – – – – – –
Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam all depend upon the Mekong River to varying degrees. Overall flow control could serve to mitigate rising monsoon flood waters and redistribute those retained supplies during droughts. However, if the Chinese have control of the spigot there are the prospects of untimely releases (which could wash away entire cities), or a withholding of flow (collapsing whole ecosystems).

For example, Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap (Cambodian for “Large Fresh Water River”) is the largest lake in Southeast Asia. It is also one of the most productive inland fisheries in the entire world. The Tonlé Sap exhibits a unusual property: it changes the direction of its flow. This feature allows the lake bed to serve as a safety valve during flood seasons while it can also accumulate nutrient-rich sediments carried by the Mekong River.

This aquatic region supports over three million people, provides seventy-five per cent of Cambodia’s inland fish catch and sixty per cent of Cambodians’ protein intake. Such figures demonstrate the singular role of just this one feature along the Mekong River. Outflow from this massive inland lake accounts for about fifty per cent of the Mekong Delta’s capacity as its runs through South Vietnam. China’s construction of dams on the upper Mekong threatens the strength and volume of reverse flow into the Tonlé Sap and thereby places Cambodia and Vietnam at potentially severe risk.

History has taught smaller nations that the goodwill of larger neighboring countries is not reliable when it comes to vital resources. China’s overall track record does not inspire confidence for those along the Mekong River. While the smaller surrounding nations are reluctant to antagonize China they remain deeply concerned about the fate of their own economies as control of the Mekong River ends up in China’s hands.

Pakistan and India

A more imminently explosive situation is gathering steam in the Karakoram Range above Pakistan and India. There are elements within Pakistan prepared to launch a nuclear war over the issue of water rights shared by both nations. Although regulated by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty which provides for India’s use of the Rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, Pakistan may choose this conflict as an excuse to create an international crisis over water use.

Once again, hostile and aggressive nations often generate intense discord using access to water as the catalyst for war. In the case of Pakistan, water poverty is self-inflicted. Monsoon rains and snowmelt provide an almost unlimited water supply. Each year the Indus River runs with about 170 MAF or Million Acre Feet (one acre foot of water equals 325,851 gallons). In comparison, that amount is ten times that of America’s Colorado River and three times that of The Nile.

Between 1858 and 1947 the British Raj oversaw construction of the river link canal system in what would become post-partition Pakistan. However, early military adventures in Afghanistan and Kashmir were allowed to overshadow water management issues and the end result has been an ongoing annual shortfall of ten million acre feet.

Rather than take responsibility for its negligence, Pakistan blames India (which has a much more proactive water management program). The blame game allows Pakistan to appeal to the global community, asking it to apply pressure on India, knowing that India has a much larger economy and thus is more easily subject to coercion. Using the threat of war, Pakistan inspires insecurity and fear. At the same time it diverts attention away from its own incompetence and lack of stewardship.

Belligerent blackmail of the sort used by Pakistan is an increasingly common tool for failed nation states as they try to cover their tracks regarding disproportionate military spending and consequent neglect of their internal economies. Iran is a good example of this neglect-aggression tactic. Its near-total economic collapse can be traced back to massive over-investment in the nascent nuclear weapons program. This tunnel vision operates to the detriment of maintaining its petroleum extraction industry and its domestic food production. Iran recently eclipsed Japan as the world’s largest importer of wheat.

Middle East North Africa

Overall, the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region is the world’s fastest growing importer of foreign-grown wheat. The water required to irrigate domestic grain and other foodstuffs would equal the entire annual flow of the River Nile. Thus, for regions experiencing Water Poverty, importing wheat is the equivalent of importing water. There also exists the issue of how water is utilized. For example, in the case of India, using 1,000 tons of water to raise one ton of wheat brings an Indian farmer only around $200. But that same amount of water can be used to expand industrial capacity by $10,000 or fifty times as much value.

But this doesn’t address the profound internal security issue of any nation’s ability to become self-supporting domestic food producers. As Water Poverty spreads, an adequate water supply, and thus food security, will begin to overshadow energy security as a prime concern for individual governments. While the vast majority of water-poor nations are not in a position to wage war upon their water-richer neighbors, the discrepancies are sure to spark unrest and conflict. Five previous decades have seen 1,831 disputes over water rights. While it is encouraging that 1,228 of these disagreements did not result in armed conflict, it is very telling that 18 of the 21 situations requiring military resolution occurred between Israel and her Arab neighbors.

All of this lends even greater urgency to the necessity for dealing robustly with hostile and aggressive Islamic regimes in the MME. Proliferation of atomic weapons proceeds unabated, bringing with it the distinct possibility that future MME water conflicts may be resolved by resorting to nuclear war. Since some of the world’s largest aquifers straddle national borders, conflict is inevitable.

Water, Water Everywhere

A UN study cites some 23.4 million cubic kilometers sequestered in underground aquifers. This amounts to five hundred forty seven times more water than all of the earth’s rivers combined. For instance, the Guarani aquifer in South America could furnish our planet’s current population with almost 100 liters of water per day for the next 200 years. The Nubian Sandstone aquifer in Northern Africa holds 500,000 times the River Nile’s annual flow. Unfortunately, it is not replenished by the scant rainfall in the region. More over, the energy needed to transport this aquifer’s water around the world far exceeds the value.

Aquifers are also rather delicate constructions. The water in many of these underground reservoirs is over one million years old; their natural replenishment can be a very slow process. The Nubian Sandstone aquifer, since it is not replenished, becomes a one-time source of supply. Overdrafting, or overpumping, of aquifers can produce dramatic disturbances in local geologies. Known as “ground subsidence”, the shifts in geophysical stability when aquifers are accessed can manifest as compaction, or an actual lowering of the land surface.

Although such surface effects occur gradually, they cause significant alterations in topography. They can appear as changes in the slope or elevation of streams or canals, cause damage to bridges, roads or railways and even compromise buildings or other large structures. These surface effects are not limited to localized damage. One extraordinary fissure in central Arizona is over ten miles long. Low-lying coastal regions can undergo subsidence in low-lying coastal regions can cause them to be inundated during high tides. Overdrafting of coastal aquifers can also result in saline intrusion of ocean water into normally potable supplies.

Palestine

Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have experienced this problem. The population density, approximately 3,500 people per square kilometer, has resulted in overpumping the Coastal Aquifer at a rate of 68-90 MCM (Million Cubic Meters) per year. This excessive use has increased the rate of saline intrusion from Mediterranean seawater. It has also inhibited the dilution of anthropogenic (human origin) waste water entering the aquifer. The result has been brackish drinking water with elevated concentrations of salt, pesticides and human waste, making it hazardous for human consumption.

In the self-defeating tradition of so many hostile and aggressive nations, the Palestinians (and their democratically elected terrorist Hamas government) intentionally diverted donations of metal piping destined for sewage management and waste water control over to the construction of rockets which have been used to bombard Israel for many years. Even Mahmoud Abbas described the rockets that are being launched as the “pipes” that provided Israel with an excuse to carry out military operations in the Gaza Strip. “Our people don’t deserve these tragedies,” he said. “If these pipes provide an excuse, it’s time to stop using them.” Yet the rocket attacks upon Israel were kept up and diversion of this municipal resource continued until it resulted in the breaching of several sand-diked effluent ponds that created a sewage tsunami (warning: graphic images in this video show huge sloughs of despond), drowning five Palestinians in Um An Nasir in Northern Gaza.

It is these same hostile and aggressive nations which continue to exacerbate their own Water Poverty by not adopting modern methods and technologies that conserve use. Too often, these countries are riddled with corruption that just as frequently sees substandard civil engineering or a total absence of the infrastructure needed to alleviate Water Poverty. It is these same hostile and aggressive nations that will most quickly resort to military force in order to solve the problems they created in the first place.

Continued high birth rates in these regions of Water Poverty may eventually overwhelm the ability of grain-producing countries to meet their needs. The expanding demand of population giants like China and India could simply outstrip the production of grain exporting countries like The United States, Canada and Australia. The repercussions of such supply-side defaults could be tremendous. A country that lapses into hydrological poverty will find it a local form of poverty which offers little chance of escape.

It should be remembered that while a person can go without food for weeks, it is difficult to survive without water for more than several days. Humanity survived without gasoline for almost a million years, but we now find ourselves expending thousands of lives and trillions of dollars to protect the West’s access to oil. Giving up personal automobiles might seem onerous but imagine what would happen if the water taps ran dry. How much more fierce will be the battles fought over water?

Finally, Islam’s continued hostility towards the West may eventually bring water wars to an unimaginable level of confrontation. If the number of terrorist atrocities escalated in the West, we could see a complete halt of wheat exports to the MME by grain-producing countries. The United States, Canada and Australia continue as targets for Muslim hostility. Should they band together for protection and unanimously halt deliveries of grain to the MME, mass starvation could set in within less than a month. Being net food importers, the triangulating actions of China and Russia would be unable to lend anything but brief assistance to terrorist states.

Western nations do not have the luxury of sitting back and allowing Muslim majority countries to discover on their own just how misguided and incompetent their antagonizing of non-Islamic nations has been. Proliferation of nuclear weapons within the MME specifically and the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction in general will not permit any sort of “wait-and-see” attitude.

All of this militates towards some unpleasant outcomes. It is now recognized that the World War II nuclear attacks upon Japan ended up saving a tremendous number of lives, Allied and Japanese alike. Would there ever come the time when a Western leader refuses to retaliate against the MME by imposing starvation and instead views nuclear strikes as more humane? If, accompanied by economic implosion, some unforeseen drastic shortfall in domestic grain supplies due to drought or crop failure were to occur it could come to such Hobbesian choices.

Even as it stabs at the West, the MME is itself perched upon a razor’s edge of survival. Islam continues to justify terrorist atrocities against the very countries that feed it. This hostility is short-sighted; it could well result in the erosion of tolerance for monumental ingratitude. Those Islamic leaders who have driven their respective populations into this existential box canyon may end their final moments as Mussolini did.

It looks like there’s been another honor killing in Kingston, Ontario — or maybe not; the article says foul play is not suspected. Once again, a Muslim woman and several girls have drowned, this time in a hotel swimming pool. Neither the mother nor her two daughters knew how to swim.

In other news, after almost 180 years, the Dutch have returned the head of King Badu Bonsu II to Ghana.

Thanks to AA, Diana West, Gaia, Insubria, Sean O’Brian, TB, TV, Vlad Tepes, Zonka, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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	Financial Crisis
	EU: Youth Unemployment, Spain Holds Q1 Record
	USA
	Barack Obama Discovers Socialist Projects at Home and a Pro-Marxist Foreign Policy Are Making Him Unpopular
	Diana West: Cronkite’s Offensive History
	Jew-Hate at Jewish Film Festival
	Canada
	Mother, 2 Daughters Drown in Hotel Pool
	Europe and the EU
	Enjoy Your Holidays, But Keep EU Law 2009/299/JHA in Mind
	EU: Neighbouring Country Projects, 70 Mln Euros Set Aside
	Germany: Kurdish-Lebanese Criminal Clans
	German Judgement is a Call to Action Against the EU’s Democratic Deficit
	Iceland ‘Unwilling to Share Fishing Resources’ In EU
	Ireland: I Have the Right Not Merely to Offend People, But to Intend to
	Ireland: US Soldiers ‘Did Not Gatecrash Wedding’
	Netherlands: Society is Not a Commercial Enterprise
	‘Record Rise’ In UK Anti-Semitism
	Sweden: Stockholm Reported for Using Too Much English
	The Awkward Squad
	UK: One of Queen’s Guards is an Illegal Immigrant
	UK: Three Ethiopian Exchange Students ‘Vanish’ During Trip to Houses of Parliament
	Who Do You Think You Are Kidding…?
	Balkans
	Croatia: Foreign Debt Falls, 39.1 Bln in March
	Serbia: Italy Gives 30 Mln Euro Credit Towards Smes
	Israel and the Palestinians
	Haganah Veteran Against Anti-Nakba Law
	Islam: An Arab College for a ‘Critical’ Approach
	Middle East
	Deadly Clashes Hit Southern Yemen
	Escaping Saudi Arabia’s Gilded Cage
	Iranian Leader ‘Orders Dismissal’
	Riyadh to Host Conference on Islam as Religion of Mercy
	UAE: Residence Visa Seekers to be Fingerprinted
	Russia
	Russia Acts Against ‘False’ History
	South Asia
	Indonesia ‘Tortured’ Balibo Five
	Malaysia Questions Ethnic Preferences
	Far East
	North Korea ‘Executes Christians’
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	Dutch Return Head of Ghana King
	Immigration
	Barrot Looking Into Italy’s Security Package
	Denmark: Massive Jump in Minor Asylum Applicants
	Emigration: Over a Million Tunisians Living Abroad
	Maroni: Enough Reprimands, EU Must be Strong
	Culture Wars
	Obama Czar Pick: ‘Raving Animal Rights Nut’
	General
	Bin Laden Naked — Laughing at Extremism

EU: Youth Unemployment, Spain Holds Q1 Record

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JULY 23 — The rate of unemployment for persons between the ages 15 and 24 has reached record numbers in Spain, where it arrived at 33.6% (789,000). This the highest level across the entire EU, with a 10% increase from the previous year. According to data published by Eurostat, which considered all Mediterranean countries, Italy sits in second place with 24.9% (456,000) during the same period. Greece follows close behind with 24.4% (86,000) and then France, with 22.3% (693,000). The demographers registered better numbers in Portugal, reaching 19.6% (96,000), though they still fell above the EU average (19.1%). The countries which fall below the average are Malta (13.4%, 4,000), Slovenia (12%, 12,000) and Cyprus (11%, 4,000). During the first quarter of 2008, the same study saw Greece ahead with 22%, followed by Spain (20.7%), Italy (20.4%), France (17.6%), Portugal (15.9%), Malta (11.7%), Slovenia (11%) and Cyprus (9.1%). The average for the EU 27 had been 14.6%. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Barack Obama Discovers Socialist Projects at Home and a Pro-Marxist Foreign Policy Are Making Him Unpopular

Are the people rejecting their saviour? Barack Obama’s approval rating has slipped to below that of George “Dubya” Bush at the same stage in his presidency and this is causing some concern among right-thinking (by which, of course, I mean left-thinking) people. This is by no means the death of the dream that began in January — approval ratings slide up and down erratically — but it is at least an early intimation of mortality.

For this is no ordinary presidency, this is the reign on earth of The One: his approval rating was intended to break the mould by rising inexorably to 100 per cent and beyond. The problem about a mega-hype like the Obama scam is that when it goes pear-shaped it will crash and burn like nothing we have seen since that other hot-air powered marvel, the Hindenburg. Here we are, six months into the great adventure and already our hero is in deep doo-doo.

How is it with the economic rescue package? Terrific — if you are a Wall Street banker. But if you happen to belong to that uncovenanted majority of the population, the lumpen salariat, you may be coming to the conclusion that crossing FDR’s depression-prolonging New Deal with LBJ’s Great Society is not the answer to your problems. This one will run and run; and so, eventually, will its instigators if they want to stay ahead of the mob with tar and feathers.

Health care? Hillary must be laughing into her handbag: she was burning her fingers on this red-hot brick when Barack was still at law school. It is no longer Republicans who are the problem about getting this package through Congress: it is Democrats. Even the American left balks at a socialist scheme for health care that would have had Nye Bevan shouting “Hold on a moment!” Your brainchild, Barack — enjoy.

Meanwhile, in the wider world, American foreign policy is beginning very satisfactorily to fill the vacuum left by the Soviet Union. The Obama administration has set itself the objective of establishing Marxist regimes in the remaining democratic states of Latin America. Fidel has had his thunder stolen by Barack. The current project, being enthusiastically pursued by the White House, is to reinstate the Marxist fruitcake Manuel Zelaya, client of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, as president of Honduras.

[Return to headlines]

Diana West: Cronkite’s Offensive History

It’s time for a post-Cronkite post-mortem, but not on the late “icon” himself — the “most trusted man in America,” the “voice of God,” “the gold standard,” the “proxy for a nation,” or, in plainer English, the lush-lived celebrity “anchor” who died this month at age 92. No, the Cronkite post-mortem that’s needed is for the zombies who conjured up the hollow rapture and the living dead who fell for it.

Harsh words? You bet. But I don’t know how else to begin to assess a nation that sees fit to celebrate, crown, even worship a man who said his “proudest moment” was when he declared on CBS, having misinterpreted the 1968 Tet offensive as a victory for North Vietnam, that the Vietnam war was unwinnable for the United States. “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America,” almost every Cronkite obituary approvingly quoted President Lyndon B. Johnson as having said in response — never mind that Cronkite was flat-out wrong in his reporting.

This was the infamous “stalemate” broadcast in which Cronkite editorialized in unprecedented manner: “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who … did the best they could.” Despite his obit-omnipotence, Cronkite alone wasn’t responsible for LBJ’s offer again to negotiate with Hanoi, his decision not to run for re-election, the ultimate flagging of America’s commitment to South Vietnam, or one million-plus boat people who fled the communist regime, but the famed broadcaster was without doubt a key influence in persuading the nation, particularly its elites, to accept, if not court, American defeat in Vietnam.

So, to use his own words, was Walter Cronkite an honorable journalist who did the best he could?

No. What may — may — have resulted from forgivable misimpressions due to the “fog of war” long ago crystallized into obdurate lies. Cronkite never clarified the record, never admitted that the Tet offensive — the Vietcong’s surprise holiday attack on cities across South Vietnam — resulted in a military and political fiasco for North Vietnam.

This was becoming apparent even before the dust had settled in 1968

— Hat tip: Diana West

[Return to headlines]

Jew-Hate at Jewish Film Festival

By Jamie Glazov

Why is a Jewish film festival giving a platform to a documentary and to an individual that serve the cause of anti-Jewish hate?

This Saturday, July 25, organizers of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival plan to show “Rachel,” an anti-Israel propaganda film. The documentary is based on the life and death of Rachel Corrie, an anti-Israel, anti-American activist who was killed in Gaza in 2003 when she deliberately ran in front of an Israeli bulldozer to protect a home that was sheltering terrorists. And not just content with showing the propaganda film, the organizers have invited Rachel’s mother, Cindy Corrie, also an Israel-basher, to speak at the screening and to participate in a question-and-answer session after the viewing.

A closer look at who Rachel Corrie was — and what she represented — demonstrates why this event is such an outrage:

A native of Olympia, Washington, Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a viciously anti-Israel organization that calls and works for the destruction of the Jewish state. The radical organization recruits activists to travel to the Palestinian territories to obstruct Israeli security operations. The activists intentionally put themselves in harm’s way to hamper Israeli soldiers in their efforts to fight Palestinian terrorists.

That is precisely how Corrie met her death. The twenty-three year old activist was fatally crushed in March 2003 when she tried to obstruct the path of an Israeli bulldozer that was preparing to demolish the house in Rafah where she was lodging.

Like her ISM colleagues, Corrie was knowingly abetting terrorists. A few months earlier, for instance, when Palestinian militants seized the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, it was ISMers who smuggled food to them.

[Return to headlines]

Mother, 2 Daughters Drown in Hotel Pool

A Toronto man and surviving family members are mourning the drowning deaths of his wife and two daughters in a hotel swimming pool.

Naila Yasmin, 43, was found floating face down in the deep end of the unsupervised pool at a Best Western hotel Sunday morning and her 11- and 14-year-old daughters were found floating in the pool’s shallow end.

The mother was declared dead at Kingston General Hospital that day, while the 14-year-old died Monday, followed by her 11-year-old sister Tuesday, the Toronto Star reported Wednesday.

Autopsies on the first two victims concluded death by drowning, and an autopsy was scheduled for the youngest child, Ontario Provincial Police said.

The OPP said none of the victims knew how to swim and foul play was not suspected.

The unidentified husband and father was having breakfast with his two sons in the hotel restaurant when the drownings occurred, the Star said.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

[Return to headlines]

Enjoy Your Holidays, But Keep EU Law 2009/299/JHA in Mind

Andrew Symeou, the UK citizen accused of causing the death of Jonathan Hiles while on holiday in Greece is to be extradited to the country today after losing a legal fight against extradition.

This is possible under the controversial European Arrest Warrant.

The shocking details of this story — including allegations of misconduct by the Greek police in obtaining evidence — can be found here and here. In this case, the UK could still have refused to extradite Symeo, but the Law Lords refused to hear the case. Had the UK blocked extradition, a trial in absentia would have been conducted in Greece, where, if convicted, a new request to extradite him would have been issued.

In the past, the UK would have been able to refuse this request, but not anymore. As of 26 February 2009, and the implementation of an EU Framework Decision on the “application of the principle of mutual recognition to decisions rendered in the absence of the person concerned at the trial”, member states must recognise judgements rendered in the absence of the convicted, and these apply under the terms of the European Arrest Warrant.

Some member states have still not implemented it. But, as the UK is one of the sponsors of the proposal, they haven’t asked to postpone it to 2014.

Last year, we looked at the idea of trials in absentia in briefing paper, where we found that the proposal would make it much more difficult to resist extraditions to countries which have been criticised by international human rights group for their justice systems.

The rules mean you could potentially be extradited to a country where you’ve never even set foot, especially in the age of internet.

For instance, in 2005, Austrian artist Gerhard Haderer was convicted to a six month sentence, again in Greece, after depicting Christ as a binge-drinking friend of Jimi Hendrix, surfing naked while high on cannabis (see picture). The artist didn’t even know that his book, The Life of Jesus, had been published in Greece until he received a summons to appear in court in Athens.

The judgement was rendered in absentia and in similar cases in the future Austria will lose the ability to refuse extradition of its citizens to fellow EU member states…

We’re not trying to put you off your holiday in Greece. We’re just trying to highlight the dangers of our own politicians sacrificing hard-fought civil rights to an EU security state.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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EU: Neighbouring Country Projects, 70 Mln Euros Set Aside

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JULY 21 — The fund for investing in countries bordering the European Union during 2009 will contain 70 million euros — twenty million more than last year. The announcement was made by the EU’s Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero Waldner, who was keen to stress the satisfactory results attained in the fund’s first year of activity. “Fifteen projects have been approved”, Ms Ferrero Waldner said, “aiming at developing fundamental infrastructure of sanitary systems, transportation and water supply”. In the countries where it was possible to do so, investment in environmental protection was also made. Officially launched in May 2008, the fund was created by Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner and has a budget of 700 million euros at its disposal for the period 2007-2013. To date, 170 million has been ear-marked, 50 in 2007 and 2008 and 70 allotted to the budget for 2009. Among the countries benefitting from the fund are Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestinian Territories. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Germany: Kurdish-Lebanese Criminal Clans

They despise everything which doesn’t belong to their cultural sphere: in Berlin, Bremen and Essen, Kurdish-Lebanese clans dominate entire streets — and even threaten the police.

When Hussein E was shot to death on Jan. 30, 2009, it was a murder with a message.

A few weeks before his death, the Lebanese sought help: he felt massively threatened and afraid, a victim of an upcoming act of revenge. And in fact, his murderer ambushed him in the Bremen suburb of Schwanewede. Hussein E. (43) died at the scene of bullet wounds, his wife was seriously injured. The murder on the street was the first conclusion to a typical bloody confrontation between the Kurdish-Lebanese clans in Bremen.

The feud began on Good Friday 2006, when Hussein E. together with six other men stormed into a pub to settle a score with members of enemy clans. An 18 year old was killed in the attack, three other people were seriously injured.

It was probably about stolen drugs, in 35 days of trial the Bremen court could not clear up the exact background.

The four main perpetrators were deported to Lebanon, where they were freed on bail. Three other attackers were given prison sentences in 2007 — including Hussein E., who knew that once he was released, he would be the target of a blood vendetta.

This is because the clans administer their own justice.

— Hat tip: AA

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German Judgement is a Call to Action Against the EU’s Democratic Deficit

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT — The German Constitutional Court issued a remarkable verdict on 30 June. It was described in the press as the Court’s approval of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

However, careful reading of the judgement shows that it is a fundamental rejection of the core constitutional content of the Treaty.

The Court judgement modifies the most important principle of the primacy of European law. Member States are said to be the “masters of the Treaties.” In the Court’s view the EU institutions have no powers of their own. They can only administer delegated competences in prescribed areas. European law is stated to be ultimately based on and limited by the accession law of each Member State.

The German Court implicitly invites any citizen, political party or business firm in Germany to take court cases before the German Constitutional Court if they find that a piece of proposed EU law is outside those delegated competences. Then it is the German Court that will decide — not the EU Court.

This is a rejection of Art. 344 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which provides that Member States undertake not to submit a dispute concerning the interpretation or application of the Treaties to any method of settlement other than the European Court of Justice.

The Karlsruhe Court also insists that there must be important areas of law-making and decision-taking left to the EU Member States. This is an invitation to politicians everywhere to ask their governments what competences are left with the Member States after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.

I have offered a bottle of top class wine to anyone who can give me just one example of a national law which cannot be touched in some way by the Lisbon Treaty. Legal specialists have tried to find examples; yet they cannot!

If EU governments cannot find room for the exercise of meaningful national parliamentary democracy within the ambit of the EU, then the Lisbon Treaty is unconstitutional, according to the German Court.

The Court does not accept that the European Parliament is a body which can give adequate democratic legitimacy to European Union law. The Court also sets limits to the importance of the new “additional” Union citizenship and states that this can only be supplementary to national citizenship.

The Court insists on national parliamentary participation in all areas where Member States would lose their right of veto.

[…]

The Karlsruhe Court effectively finds that the Lisbon Treaty would increase the EU’s widely acknowledged democratic deficit if its ratification is not linked to the adoption of internal procedures at Member State level such as to safeguard the involvement of the National Parliaments and voters in each Member State.

The verdict applies only to Germany, of course. But it has significant implications for all Member States, including those which have already approved and ratified the Lisbon Treaty.

With this Court judgement in hand, political parties and groups of citizens in each Member State are implicitly invited to go to their National Parliaments and insist on similar guarantees being given in order to ensure the involvement of elected representatives and voters in EU decision-making in each one…

If Germany’s ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is found to be illegal and in contravention of basic democratic principles in the absence of such parliamentary controls, should not the same principle apply in all other Member States that claim to be democracies?

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Iceland ‘Unwilling to Share Fishing Resources’ In EU

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — Iceland is hoping to become a member of the EU within three years but will not give up its fishing resources as part of a deal, its foreign minister Ossur Skarpheoinsson said Thursday (23 July) after handing in the country’s formal membership application.

Mr Skarpheoinsson, himself a former fisherman, said that fisheries would be the toughest area of negotiation with Brussels as the sparsely populated island “has its sustenance mainly from fisheries.”

He pointed out that Iceland could teach the EU how to manage fishing resources noting that of the two cods stocks in the world that are on the increase, one is in Iceland.

The EU’s 26 year old Common Fisheries Policy, maligned by environmentalists for being unsustainable, sees EU waters as a shared resources open to any member state and managed by quotas.

But the policy has decimated resources and each year results in millions of tonnes of fish thrown back into the sea on quota grounds — failures acknowledged in a damning paper by the EU fisheries commissioner earlier this year ahead of a planned 2012 overhaul of the policy.

Mr Skarpheoinsson said that Icelanders, for whom the issue is “emotional” and not just about economics, would be “quite angry” if they got a “rotten deal” on fish.

The minister noted that while there is an increasing tendency to think that sovereignty can only be protected if it is shared “that does not mean that […] I am willing to share my fishing resources with anyone else.”

But he said he trusted the ingenuity of the EU to “adapt existing rules without making lasting exemptions” noting that Iceland was particularly in favour of devolving decisions on fishing to the local level.

In marked contrast to more diffident applicant countries such as those from the Western Balkans, Iceland is keen to point out what its membership can bring to the EU, such as “experience and knowledge” in managing natural resources and using renewable energy.

Some 80 percent of the country’s energy needs are met by renewable resources.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Ireland: I Have the Right Not Merely to Offend People, But to Intend to

By Kevin Myers

The Defamation Bill 2006 and the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 became law yesterday. They are driven by two differing requirements.

One is some strange impulse in Dermot Ahern’s brain, which apparently obliges him to plant law where he sees a constitutional gap, and the other is the abject failure of both the law and of lawyers to keep pace with the mutating nature of crime.

The Ahern law on blasphemy must be the first law ever whose instigator is desperately hoping that it will never be invoked. Its potency depends not upon any legal definition on what blasphemy actually consists of, but solely on the “outrage” that the remark in question might intentionally cause.

Well, we have seen in other jurisdictions that outrage is a negotiable commodity, largely dependent on the agendas of rabble-rousers.

Baptists and Presbyterians, Methodists and Catholics, Jews and Buddhists do not call for blasphemy laws these days. Only Muslims do…

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Ireland: US Soldiers ‘Did Not Gatecrash Wedding’

THE father of a bride has rubbished claims that his daughter’s wedding was “gate-crashed” by US troops in battle gear.

When Amelia Walsh and Sean O’Neill tied the knot in Co Clare last week they caused a stir after wedding guests complained that the troops had wandered “uninvited” into the reception.

But yesterday Eamon Walsh from Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, said the happy couple were “proud” to have the soldiers at their function. He said the newlyweds had actually invited the troops to attend having posed for photographs with them earlier in the day.

Almost 300 troops were booked in to the Clare Inn, near Newmarket-on-Fergus, after their Iraq-bound aircraft was grounded at Shannon Airport by technical problems.

Amelia’s father Eamon said the men were “invited in” by the bride and groom who wanted them to experience an Irish wedding. “They behaved in an exemplary manner at all times and if our troops behaved in the same way when they are on peacekeeping duties, I would be very proud,” said Mr Walsh.

Several guests had claimed the men “gatecrashed” the wedding. One guest said: “It wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t in uniform but there were some people who were taken aback.”

Mingle

Joe O’Neill, the groom’s uncle, stated on his internet blog: “As the soldiers began to mingle into the private banquet area, they were told by their commanding officer that the area was a private party and off limits. Common decency and Irish hospitality, however, overruled political opinions and the groom informed them they were welcome to join the party.”

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Netherlands: Society is Not a Commercial Enterprise

That the PVV Has Requested a Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Presence of Non-Western Immigrants in the Netherlands is Hardly Surprising.

EDITORIAL

Geert Wilders’Party for Freedom (PVV) is after all also in favour of an immigration stop for Turks and Moroccans, quota for asylum seekers and a ban on additional Islamic schools and mosques.

The PVV also wants to enshrine the ‘dominance’ of Christian/Judaic/humanist culture in the Dutch constitution. In parliament, the party has often shown hostility towards non-Western immigrants whom it constantly qualifies as profiteers and a nuisance. In that respect, the PVV is not much different from the Front National or the Vlaams Belang in Belgium, anti-immigrant parties of which there are many in Europe.

At most, the astonishing series of detailed questions the PVV has addressed to the various ministries reinforces the impression that the party wants to stigmatise entire population groups solely on the basis of their ethnic origins. This is a result not of the questions themselves, nor of the information that might result from them. Much is known already about the relative overrepresentation of Dutch immigrants in social poverty, among school drop-outs, in unemployment, crime and health care. The information is important and it belongs in the public domain. It is important for future polices…

— Hat tip: TV

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‘Record Rise’ In UK Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitic attacks in the UK doubled in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2008, according to new figures.

The Jewish Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism, says it recorded 609 incidents between January and June — up from 276 last year.

Most incidents were abusive behaviour, but there were also 77 violent acts.

The trust said the rise had been driven by anger over Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

That conflict, between December 2008 and January 2009, was followed by an almost immediate rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK.

According to the CST, the total number of incidents for the first six months of this year was worse than the previous record of 598 incidents for the whole of 2006.

Some 286 incidents occurred in January alone — but the security body said that a disproportionately higher monthly number of attacks and abuse continued into the spring.

The attacks recorded so far include 77 acts of physical violence and two life-threatening assaults, one of which was an attempt to run somebody over with a car.

The CST says there have also been 400 incidents of general abuse, including hate mail to synagogues, along with 62 attacks on property that can be clearly defined as having a religious role.

The CST uses definitions of violence which are broadly in line with the way police record incidents elsewhere in society. It stresses that it has also discounted more than 200 reports where it could not work out if the incident was anti-Semitic or anti-Israel.

Mark Gardner, of the CST, said: “British Jews are facing ever higher levels of racist attack and intimidation that threaten the wellbeing of our otherwise happy and successful Jewish community.

“There is no excuse for anti-Semitism, racism and bias, and it is totally unacceptable that overseas conflicts should be impacting here in this way.”

Earlier this year, Muslim leaders issued a joint statement denouncing anti-Semitism, amid fears that violent elements from within their own communities were responsible for the increase in attacks.

Cohesion minister Shahid Malik, one of two Muslims in government, said: “This rise in anti-Semitism is not just concerning for the British Jewish communities but for all those who see themselves as decent human beings.

“The fight against anti-Semitism is a fight that should engage us all. This country will not tolerate those who seek to direct hatred towards any part of our community.

“It may be legitimate for individuals to criticise or be angry at the actions of the Israel government but we must never allow this anger to be used to justify anti-Semitism.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Sweden: Stockholm Reported for Using Too Much English

Stockholm city council has been reported to the Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsman — JO) for its widespread use of the English language.

“Stockholm — The Capital of Scandinavia” is the recently adopted name for the Swedish capital and greets visitors on all transport links heading into the city. The slogan, adopted to promote Stockholm internationally, has been controversial with some Danes and Norwegians, who dispute the claim.

There are also voices of dissent from within Sweden and now Nätverket Språkförsvaret (‘The Language Defence Network’) has reported the council to the Parliamentary Ombudsman for falling foul of the new language law (språklagen) that came into force on July 1st 2009.

The network has also reported the Stockholm Visitors Board, Stockholm Business Region and Stockholm Entertainment District for their use of English.

According to the network, the widespread use of English by the Stockholm bodies is an attempt to appear modern.

“It undermines Swedish as it signals that English has a higher value, that it has status, while Swedish is a language for out in the wilds,” Per-Åke Lindblom, a spokesperson for the network, said in an interview with Sveriges Radio on Tuesday.

The new language 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 network, which describes itself as “a grassroots movement to defend the Swedish language” wants JO to force the names to be changed to Swedish.

Per-Åke Lindblom also told SR that he would like to see the Stockholm Visitors Board develop its foreign language material, pointing out that most visitors to the capital do not come from the UK or the USA.

The group has previously reported the Swedish government to JO for its use of English email addresses.

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

Aside from establishing Sweden as the country’s main language of communication, it also classified five other languages — Finnish, all Sami dialects, Torne Valley Finnish (Meänkieli), Romani, and Yiddish — as official national minority languages.

— Hat tip: TB

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The Awkward Squad

AFTER being subject to commissars in Moscow, some east Europeans are twitchy about commissioners in Brussels. But that only partly explains the reluctance of two presidents, Poland’s Lech Kaczynski and the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Klaus, to sign the European Union’s Lisbon treaty, which both countries’ parliaments have ratified.

Both men are famously prickly and prone to nit-picking. Both frame their objections in the language of national sovereignty. Both hate to see Ireland bullied—it is being asked to vote again on Lisbon on October 2nd. Mr Kaczynski similarly disliked the sanctions briefly imposed by the EU on Austria when the right-wing Freedom Party was in government. Mr Klaus says the EU elite cannot accept dissenting views (when visiting European parliamentarians attacked his Euroscepticism he compared them to communist-style thought police).

But the differences are bigger than the similarities. Mr Kaczynski’s opposition to Lisbon is about posturing not principle. He says publicly that he is merely waiting for the second Irish referendum before signing. Given that he helped to negotiate the treaty on Poland’s behalf, it would be hard for him to demonise it as Mr Klaus does. Indeed, Mr Kaczynski, who worries about waxing Russian influence and a waning American presence, has described the EU as “a great thing”.

The real reason for the Polish president’s delay is a desire to annoy the government led by Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party. Mr Tusk defeated the government led by Law and Justice, headed by the president’s twin, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, in 2007… Mr Tusk’s emollient, pro-EU stance contrasts sharply with the Kaczynskis’ abrasive style. A delay over Lisbon also allows the president to grandstand on the EU’s “moral relativism” (meaning the incompatibility of its views of human rights with Polish social mores on homosexuality and the like).

Mr Klaus says he will get around to Lisbon only once everyone else has endorsed it… He will probably sign, but through gritted teeth. He would like a loose free-trade zone instead of what he sees as a nascent superstate. Unlike Mr Kaczynski, he is no Atlanticist; he gets on quite well with Russia. Also unlike Mr Kaczynski, he has the excuse that, though Lisbon passed the Czech parliament in May, it faces a court challenge by politicians from the Civic Democratic party that Mr Klaus once led.

Euroscepticism has only limited appeal in eastern Europe. The EU is widely seen as a guarantor of stability and progress: generous in paying for modernisation of public services and infrastructure and the best hope for fighting corruption. Lisbon is widely backed not on its merits but because its failure would risk pushing the EU into yet another interminable internal debate.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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UK: One of Queen’s Guards is an Illegal Immigrant

One of the Queen’s guards at Windsor Castle has been arrested for being an illegal immigrant.

The soldier concerned had even taken part in the Trooping of the Colour in front of the Royal family last month before his true identity emerged by chance, following a car crash.

Originally from an African country belonging to the Commonwealth, he is believed to have joined the Army using a false name.

Once accepted in the 1st Battalion Irish Guards he was trained as a marksman and given lessons in grenade throwing, use of a rocket launcher, and using the Army radio system.

A senior military officer said: ‘This is a blunder of unparalleled proportions. For an illegal immigrant to gain membership of any Army regiment is unbelievable when you consider the potential damage an enemy could do there.

‘But to be accepted into a Guards regiment, and therefore to have such close proximity to the monarch, is nothing short of a scandal.’

Buckingham Palace officials are understood to be ‘extremely unhappy’ about the security blunder.

A source said: ‘There have been Royal security breaches in the past but to find out the problem came from within the Queen’s personal guard is astonishing.’

The soldier, who has been named only as Guardsman Kapinga, signed up last November, and went through rigorous training at Catterick in North Yorkshire before joining the guards this summer.

Wearing the famous red tunic and busby of the guards, he then carried out sentry duties at Windsor Castle.

Kapinga is understood to have been living in Britain under forged documents when he was recruited, although no problems were spotted at that stage.

Following a car accident on Monday, however, he was arrested by Hampshire police and found to have a number of aliases.

A military source said: ‘This is incredibly embarrassing. Clearly the vetting procedure was not as thorough as it should have been.’

— Hat tip: Gaia

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UK: Three Ethiopian Exchange Students ‘Vanish’ During Trip to Houses of Parliament

Three African exchange students have vanished during a trip to the Houses of Parliament.

The three Ethiopian men were among a group of nine visitors who were staying with families in Hartlepool as part of a three-month visit to the UK.

But at the end of a day’s tour in the Houses of Commons and Lords, the trio failed to turn up and organisers Global Xchange were forced to report them missing.

Police and Home Office chiefs are now investigating their disappearance.

Organisers say their main concern is for the safety of the men, who have been named as Zerihun Weldeyohans, 24, Habtamu Debela, 27, and 21-year-old Muluneh Tilahun Abera.

They had left the rest of the group to buy telephone calling cards at around 6pm, but did not rejoin their group or return to their London hotel.

Concerns grew when they failed to turn up for the 11am journey to Hartlepool the following morning.

All have valid visas which run until September 9. The Global Xchange programme involves 18 volunteers, nine from the UK and nine from Ethiopia, living in Hartlepool while working for community organisations.

Zerihun is based at Cafe 177 and Headline Futures, Habtamu at the West View Project, while Muluneh has been working at Hartlepool United’s study support centre.

A statement released by the organisers said the men went missing on July 15.

It read: ‘All three are male and aged between 21 and 24. The group had been on a trip to London to visit the Houses of Parliament.

‘After the visit some of the group were socialising at the South Bank Centre but the three young men went their separate ways to purchase some telephone calling cards.’

It continued: ‘The young men have not made any contact with British Council, VSO or their project supervisors in Hartlepool and the primary concern is for their safety as they were on their first visit to London.

‘The police have been informed and are treating this as a missing persons case. The police have undertaken standard inquiries to establish the location and safety of the young men.

‘The programme is due to run until August 31, and the young people had not indicated that they intended to resign from the group. All three are in possession of valid visas and return flights.’

A spokesman for the Home Office said they would become involved if the men stayed in the country longer than their visa allowed.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Who Do You Think You Are Kidding…?

On the trail of the BNP as it makes its first, shambolic appearance at the European Parliament in Strasbourg

It is a humid July day in Strasbourg, and inside the Louise Weiss Building it feels like the start of school term. Journalists and politicians, assembled for the opening session of the European Parliament, are greeting each other like old friends outside the main debating chamber, known in a typical piece of EU jargon as the Hemicycle. Here, in the glass and pine atrium of this imposing cylindrical edifice — Britain’s signature contribution to which is a garish floral carpet in the staff bar that bears more than a hint of cross-Channel ferry — you might spot Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the ex-revolutionary French Green and the closest thing the EU has to a pop star, strolling around with his entourage of admirers. Or Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), as he lambasts the rise of “the European military superpower” in front of assembled TV cameras. The atmosphere here, compared to Westminster, is open and collegiate.

Hidden away, however, at the end of a winding corridor on the top floor of an adjoining administrative block, a strange meeting is taking place. Convened by Andreas Mölzer of Austria’s immigrant-hating Freedom Party, it is a meeting of the non-inscrits, the “non-attached” MEPs, from parties that have failed to make it into one of the mainstream coalitions. Aside from a few mavericks, such as Diane Dodds of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, this means the far right — including two of Britain’s new crop of MEPs: Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons of the British National Party. Although the BNP is not a traditional fascist party or Nazi organisation, its constitution commits it to “restoring . . . the overwhelmingly white make-up of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948”.

Earlier in the day, having travelled across France by car, Brons and Griffin had ­commanded the attention of the British press corps when they made their first, tentative appearance at the Hemicycle. Now they are due at a more furtive gathering. I remove my bright yellow press badge, slip it into my pocket, and watch an in­ternational assembly of bigots file into the conference room: Krisztina Morvai of Jobbik, the gypsy-hating Hungarian party with its own private, uniformed militia; the French Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National, along with his daughter Marine; assorted podgy members of Belgium’s Flemish Interest and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom, both of which are anti-Islam.

Then, ambling down the corridor, come Griffin and Brons, accompanied by Simon Darby, the BNP’s press officer, Jackie Griffin (wife of Nick) and a large minder in an ill-fitting suit. Outside the conference chamber stand a few men and women wearing tourist passes and speaking in French. One of them, barely out of his teens, clutches copies of a magazine titled Identitaires. This is the in-house magazine of the French sect Bloc Identitaire, which runs a Europe-wide “news” agency called Novopress that distributes far-right propaganda. Griffin walks up and shakes his hand. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” he says. They make slightly awkward conversation, the young man explaining that his group has “a good relationship” with the Front National. Griffin makes a vague offer to help get the magazine translated into English — “for those of us who are interested in identity”, he says, sighing. They then follow the remaining members into the conference room.

The collection of oddballs on the other side of the door is the dirty secret of the European Parliament…

— Hat tip: TV

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Croatia: Foreign Debt Falls, 39.1 Bln in March

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, JULY 21 — The reduction in Croatia’s foreign debt is continuing. In March it was at 39.1 billion euros. The drop in the debt (59.6 million euros on a monthly basis), reports the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Zagreb, has been attributed to a reduction in State debt towards foreign creditors and direct foreign investments. The latter fell by 49 million euros, taking it to 5.2 billion. In the same period, the statement continues, banks’ foreign debt increased by 0.4% and hit 10 billion euros. The total debt of other sectors, chiefly regarding local firms, saw an increase of 11%. In the first quarter of 2009, foreign debt represented a share of the GDP equal to 83.2%. Experts claim that this is due to a drastic drop in the Croatian GDP which in the first quarter of this year registered a -6.7%. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Serbia: Italy Gives 30 Mln Euro Credit Towards Smes

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JULY 23 — The Italian government has issued thirty million euros for Serbia’s small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as “local public utilities”. The ceremony for the signing of documents was held in the Serbian government Palace in Belgrade today. The contract was signed by Italy’s ambassador to Belgrade, Armando Varricchio, and Serbia’s finance minister Diana Dragutinovic. The Serbian minister noted that loans totalling 38.5 million euros have been issued thus far, to benefit 98 Serbian companies who, thanks to financing by the Italian government, have created 527 new jobs. Diana Dragutinovic emphasized that the success of the credit lines is testimony to excellent economic relations between Italy and Serbia. There are more than 200 Italian companies currently active within the Eastern European nation, providing more than 20,000 jobs. With FDI of more than 200 million euros since the year 2000, Italy is amongst the top investors in Serbia. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Haganah Veteran Against Anti-Nakba Law

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 23 — Celebrated Israeli author and veteran of the 1948 war of independence, Yoram Kaniuk has written an attack against a new law enacted by Benyamin Netanyahu’s government. The piece has been published in an on-line edition of Tel Aviv’s moderate newspaper Yediot Ahronot, and refers to the government’s new ban of any in-school reference to the Nakba: the Arab word ‘catastrophe’ which refers to the creation of an Israeli state and the subsequent exile of many Palestinians. The law was approved by the Knesset (the Parliament in Jerusalem), in a version which has tamed some of the penal consequences the initial bill had sought. The bill has no less been referred to as a form of “negationism” and bullying by the parliament’s Israeli-Arab minority. The law requires that the word ‘Nakba’ be removed from any scholastic and historic text, and includes the creation of a patriotic kit containing flags and compact disks with the Israeli national anthem to be distributed mandatorily to Israeli and Arab students alike. Yoram Kaniuk has stated that cancelling the word ‘Nakba’ from books would mean “cancelling something which has existed”. “I remember the Nakba. I saw it with my own eyes. The minister for education (Gideon Saar, member of the Likud and supporter of the new law, ndr) has probably only heard it spoken of”. Kaniuk evoked the war of ‘48, in which he served the Haganah Zionist army, as “a difficult campaign, without pity, which saw young soldiers spilling their blood against a determined enemy they were able to defeat”. The enemy, though, “did exist” and deserves a right to his heritage . Legislators, according to Kaniuk, do not have the right to negate this historical memory. Kaniuk writes that during the war, “I was wounded, but I believe it is right that the minister of education must allow that we teach our children that some were also defeated”. The defeated are those who “no longer govern a country that was theirs, but no minister bears the right to cancel a powerful memory they call their own”. Kaniuk continued, “Those who fought in the Nakba existed, and they fought valiantly, even if we were the eventual victors”. The author said he hoped to “live to see the day when a real Hebrew state will exist, instead of a country populated by a mass of zealots who call themselves Jews”. A state that might be able to live in peace, “neighbouring an Arab state”, sharing “Jerusalem, also calling it Al-Quds”, a common capitol. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Islam: An Arab College for a ‘Critical’ Approach

(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME — The place is Baka el-Gharbia, an Arab/Israeli town a short distance from the West Bank and the barrier which Israel erected in the name of its own security. But the Al Qasemi Academy — established in 1989 by a Sufi group for Islamic studies and the ‘fatwa’ — accepted a challenge a few years ago to help overcome conflicts thanks to scientific and pedagogic efforts in the context of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, and to promote cohabitation between Arabs and Israelis in the spirit of “equality, mutual respect and appreciation of the identity and culture of the other”, as reported in the college’s covenant. Al Qasemi deputy president Dalia Fadila explained that one of the paths to achieve this objective is that of “our unique approach to Islamic studies and teacher training programs”, which aims to strike a balance between “the Islamic cultural heritage on the one hand and the universal value of human rights on the other”: in other words, a “humane” and “critical” approach to Islam, “one that respects cultural diversity and promotes the value of human rights and female empowerment”. Dalia Fadila, who holds a Phd in Arab/American literature, dresses in western fashion and walks the corridors of the college without covering her hair when students wear veils. The college delivers classes for English language and literature, mathematics, IT and pedagogy, and recently won the first place in the Yitzhal Rabin 2009 National Award for Qualitu and Excellence in the Public Sector. “Al Qasemi’s vision is for our students to become proud Muslim Arabs and citizens of the 21st century. Islam’s image in recent decades has been seriously distorted”, she told ANSAmed, and consequently the task of Al Qasemi is to disseminate its critical approach to Islam not only through teaching, but also through a series of conferences and workgroups (including abroad), which last April culminated in an international conference on Islam and multiculturalism, with speakers coming from the USA, Switzerland, Turkey, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. “Unfortunately, most of the programmes for the study of Islam offered by Muslim academic institutions are inspired by dogmatic positions which lost sense in past centuries”, she noted. If these institutions do not come to terms with the present day and fail to accept diversity and the respect of rights of humans and women, “the human resources included in the society will not be able to evolve”. As for Muslim women, “they must shoulder the complete responsibility for advancing their status” and portraying a different image of themselves to the outside world. In other words, the must “stop blaming the patriarchal norms of their society and the politics of the Western world”, and start to think for themselves, in terms of “equal human beings and cultural partners”, instead of “silently” accepting “their inferior role in social, political and family hierarchies”. She admits that these beliefs are sometimes opposed by the Arab community, where many parents choose Al Qasemi in the belief that they will guarantee a traditional Islamic education to their children. But Dalia Fadila also stated that Arab Israelis can perform an important role because of their very peculiar position in Israel’s society: that of forming “a bridge between Israel and the Muslim and Arab worlds”, and beinig “active partners in economic and cultural exchange programmes”. But if Israel truly wants to strengthen “its inner immunity”, it should make an investment to minimize as much as possible” any gaps in education and living standards that separate Arabs from other Israelis, through a just distribution of resources, education investments, and the guarantee of i’i’equal opportunities for economic prosperities”. Al Qasemi’s deputy president did not spare a few words on the defensive wall built next to the border with the West Bank, pointing out that “Israel forgets that real security derives from the belief that people can live together”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Deadly Clashes Hit Southern Yemen

At least 12 people have been killed in clashes between armed separatists and government forces in southern Yemen, medics and witnesses say.

The protesters in the town of Zinjibar, in Abyan province, were demanding the release of detainees held during earlier disturbances.

Eyewitnesses said the security forces opened fire to disperse the crowds.

Many in southern Yemen complain of discrimination, while officials accuse the protesters of seeking secession.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency the demonstration was called by Tarek al-Fadhli, a local figure who supports independence for south Yemen from the north.

Analysts say there has been rising tension throughout the south in the past two years, as the southern independence movement gains strength.

It began two years ago when former southern military officials, forced into compulsory retirement, demanded higher pension payments.

The protesters have been accusing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of corruption and openly calling for independence from his government in the northern mountain capital, Sanaa.

Mr Fadhli — a prominent ally of President Saleh and a veteran of the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan — switched sides and joined the southern independence movement in April.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Escaping Saudi Arabia’s Gilded Cage

The life of a princess in the House of Saud comes with an unlimited bank account — and no basic freedoms

by Ali al-Ahmed

The British court was right when it granted asylum to a female member of the Al Saud ruling family and protected her identity. The woman fled Saudi Arabia in fear for her life after having a baby with a non-Muslim British man, whose identity is also kept secret.

This young woman was married to a disabled prince in his 70s who has other wives and children older than her. The unknown princess is brave for giving up the status, the luxury, and power that comes with belonging to Al Saud, the largest ruling family in human history who are running the largest absolute monarchy in the world today.

Many dream to live a princess’s life with loads of money. But that life is a golden cage, and Saudi princesses — who have access to unlimited bank accounts — lack the basic freedoms enjoyed by most women around the world. They cannot marry anyone who is not a prince. The Al Saud are “wife takers, not wife givers”, Madawi Al-Rasheed, a Saudi scholar at King’s College London explained. Saudi princesses live under guard for most of their lives with limited movement inside posh palaces or hotel penthouses. They are expected to marry cousins who usually have other wives and see them once a week — if the princess is lucky.

In fact, Saudi law instituted by the king forbids the marriage of Al Saud princesses to males who are not from Al Saud, unless prior permission from the royal court is received. This law is un-Islamic, in addition to being illogical. In Islam, family lineage does not matter when it comes to marriage. The Prophet Mohammed married his cousin Zainab off to a former slave. The Al Saud must cancel this medieval law and allow their daughters to marry whoever they wish — including commoners.

A few years ago, I met the assistant of a princess who was married to one of the most powerful princes in the country. The wife was 18 when she married her 75-year-old suitor. For most of the year, the young princess was stuck inside the palace surrounded by dozens of maids and servants catering to her wishes. The young princess then found a way to the outside world by chatting with boys on her laptop inside the bedroom. Her famous husband paid her a two-hour visit every Saturday in that same bedroom.

The story of this princess reflects how the Saudi ruling family treats its own women and the women of the country in general. Confining women in gilded cages doesn’t make the confinement easier or acceptable. Human beings, even princesses, need freedom to be happy and to feel normal. Confinement destroys their humanity and turns their lives into a miserable and empty existence.

This brave princess chose to give up wealth and power either for love or freedom in the face of tremendous danger to her life. She had to trust that the British government would not hand her back to her family who would have killed her.

The British government must also be encouraged to grant asylum to dozens of Saudis who have applied in the past few years. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s leading violators of human rights, and Saudis who seek asylum tend to be real victims of torture, imprisonment and severe violations. The United Kingdom has shown itself as the leading haven for people who are seeking shelter, even more so than the United States. This British tradition of providing protection to oppressed people should not be subjected to political considerations.

The west, especially the United States, is partially responsible for the dismal status of women and the harsh conditions of human rights in Saudi Arabia. US officials have turned a blind eye to the ruling family’s policies of oppressing human rights, religious freedom and women for the past six decades. In his confirmation hearing last Wednesday, Obama’s nominee for US ambassador to Riyadh, General James Smith, praised King Abdullah as a reformer. Describing an absolute monarch, and dictator, as a reformer is an affront.

Let us protect this princess from the fate that in 1978 befell Princess Mashael Fahd Bin Mohamed Bin Abdul Aziz who was executed for a love affair with a young Saudi man. Her story was captured by English journalist Antony Thomas in his documentary, Death of a Princess.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Iranian Leader ‘Orders Dismissal’

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss his choice to serve as vice-president, state TV says.

Appointing Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie was “against your interest and the interests of the government”, the ayatollah wrote to Mr Ahmadinejad.

His remarks came after another leading cleric also demanded the dismissal.

Mr Mashaie had caused controversy in 2008 when he said Iranians were friends with the Israelis.

According to Iranian state TV, Ayatollah Khamenei sent Mr Ahmadinejad a clear message.

“It is necessary to announce the cancellation of this appointment,” he told the president.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who is known for his own outspoken views against Israel, has previously defended Mr Mashaie, calling him modest and loyal to Iran’s Islamic system.

The row over Israel broke out last year when Mr Mashaei, then minister in charge of tourism, was quoted as saying that Iranians were friends with the Israeli people, despite the conflict between their governments.

“Today, Iran is friends with the American and Israeli people,” he said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. “No nation in the world is our enemy.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Riyadh to Host Conference on Islam as Religion of Mercy

(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, JULY 23 — Riyadh will host a major international conference aimed at removing the misconceptions about Islam and its Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). According to Gulf news online, Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz issued an order directing the Saudi Society for Sunnah (Tradition of the Prophet) and its Sciences to organise the International Conference on ‘Prophet of Mercy’ on May 9-10 next year. The conference will highlight the salient features of Islam as a religion of mercy and tolerance as well as its denunciation of all forms of extremism and terrorism. International figures, including prominent scholars, thinkers, intellectuals and writers, will be invited to the two-day event. The conference is to be organised as part of the serious efforts being made by Saudi Arabia to highlight the important aspects in the life of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), which will contribute to strengthening adherence of Muslims to the religion of Islam. It also aims at removing misconceptions about the Prophet and defending Islam against unfounded allegations. The Society has called for the submission of research studies and working papers by October 20 this year. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UAE: Residence Visa Seekers to be Fingerprinted

(ANSAmed) — ABU DHABI, JULY 23 — Residency departments across the UAE will manage a fingerprint identification system and database for all residents in the country, a senior official said. “Starting next month, applicants for residence visa will be fingerprinted under a tighter biometric system to provide more secure identification and prevent fraud,” Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Minhali, Acting Director-General of the Federal Naturalisation and Residency Department told Gulf News. He said fresh applicants for residence visas will get their fingerprints taken before the medical check-up to ensure they have no criminal record. “Those found to be with criminal records will be denied visa and handed over to the police for further legal action.” Al Minhali said a number of residents who had their fingerprints taken for obtaining identification cards were found to have a criminal record. He added residents living in the country will be fingerprinted when they apply for renewal of their visa. “The move will eventually cover all residents in the country, including workers sponsored by their employers, investors, domestic workers and parents of residents,” he said. Al Minhali did not specify the fees, but said they will be nominal. Many residents questioned the move and asked if there was any point in being fingerprinted for the ID card and then again for the residence visa. But Al Minhali said the National Identity Authority examines whether an applicant has a criminal record or not, but the database that will be set up at the Naturalisation and Residency departments across the country will act as a source of information to ensure only those with certificate of “good conduct” or “lack of a criminal record” will be granted residence visa. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Russia Acts Against ‘False’ History

What is worrying Russia? Why is the country convinced that it is the victim of a campaign to make it look bad?

President Dmitry Medvedev recently announced the setting up of a commission to counter the falsification of history. He said this was becoming increasingly “severe, evil, and aggressive”.

“This is absolute poppycock,” says Robert Service, professor of Russian History at Oxford University. “History is all about argument. There is no absolute historical truth about anything big in history.”

Mr Service dismisses the Russian leader’s suggestion that his country is facing some kind of academic aggression.

Instead, he sees a desire to dominate, worthy of the most repressive totalitarian regimes of fiction.

“President Medvedev, following in the path of his predecessor President [Vladimir] Putin, wants to control history,” he says.

“And he wants to control history as a means of controlling the present. This is the classic George Orwell scenario.”

‘Hysterical reaction’

Many Russians, though, agree with their president.

Natalia Narochnitskaya, a former deputy in the Russian parliament and now a member of the new Historical Truth Commission, says that she is surprised by what she terms the “almost hysterical reaction” in the West.

“In the Western media especially, there is a certain prejudice against Russia and Russian history,” she says.

“They always feel that Russia since, you know, Ivan the Terrible, is a certain country which is off the European civilisation.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Indonesia ‘Tortured’ Balibo Five

East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta has said five foreign journalists who died in Indonesia’s 1975 invasion were tortured and shot by the military.

He made the allegation at the Melbourne launch of the film Balibo, which depicts their deaths as Indonesia’s army crossed into East Timor.

Jakarta has always said that they were killed in crossfire with rebels, which Australian governments have accepted.

The film shows them being shot on the orders of Indonesian army officers.

Mr Ramos Horta was a rebel commander at the time and is a central figure in the film. He said he had looked into the deaths of the “Balibo Five” soon after they were killed in the border town of Balibo.

At the Melbourne premiere, he claimed the film was largely accurate, but that its makers were unable to convey the full horror of the killings because it would be too shocking for cinema audiences.

He said the journalists were not just killed by the Indonesian military but, as he put it, “brutally tortured”.

Their bodies were burned to dispose of the evidence of their killings, he said.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Malaysia Questions Ethnic Preferences

Malaysia’s New Economic Policy is not new, it has been around for almost 40 years.

But in his first 100 days in office, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak has been forced to tackle the government’s most controversial policy — one that gives special treatment to the majority Malays.

It was meant to help people like Azban. He is 37, with a wife and two young children. He works in a ticket office at a train station.

I met him as we waited for the lift at the government-built tower block where he lives, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

The estate is rundown, with water pouring down from a spill higher up.

But it is better than the wooden house he used to live in before he left his village for the capital city.

For decades the NEP has ensured preferential treatment for people like Azban: special access to jobs, housing, education and loans — all because they are Malay.

Malaysia is made up of three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians.

The Malays make up the majority — just. The Chinese and Indians have been in this country for centuries but some Malays still regard them as foreigners…

Patronage politics

The NEP was born out of race riots in 1969.

The aim of the policy was to tackle an imbalance between rich businessmen, mostly Chinese, and the poor, who were mostly Malay.

At the time government figures claimed that Malays controlled less than 3% of the economy.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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North Korea ‘Executes Christians’

Human rights groups in South Korea say North Korea has stepped up executions of Christians, some of them in public.

The communist country, the world’s most closed society, views religion as a major threat.

Only the founder of the country, Kim Il-sung, and his son, Kim Jong-il, may be worshipped, in mass public displays of fervour.

Despite the persecutions, it is thought up to 30,000 North Koreans may practise Christianity secretly in their homes.

A report by a number of South Korean groups highlights one particular case of a woman allegedly executed in public last month, in a northern town close to the Chinese border.

She was accused of distributing Bibles, spying for South Korea and the United States and helping to organise dissidents…

Her parents, husband, and children were sent to a prison camp.

Such reports are hard to verify, but North Korea is known to be intolerant of religion — it views any form of alternative social organisation as a competitor for its own, religion-like ideology.

The US government says just owning a Bible in North Korea may be a cause for torture and disappearance.

Pyongyang’s position appears to have hardened on everything from human rights to defence policy and international relations in the last year or so.

It is thought this may be a way to shore up the government through Mr Kim’s illness and the process of anointing his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as North Korea’s next leader.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Dutch Return Head of Ghana King

Dutch officials have handed back to Ghana the head of a king who was executed by colonists in the 1830s.

Tribal elders led a ceremony in The Hague to hand over the head of Badu Bonsu II, stored in a Dutch museum for 170 years.

The king, who was leader of the Ahanta group, is believed to have been decapitated in retaliation for the killing of two Dutch emissaries.

Some believe the king would not be at rest unless his head was returned.

Several Ghanaian traditional leaders — including a descendant of the king — held an emotional ritual during the handover at the Dutch foreign ministry.

AFP news agency reported that they poured alcohol on the floor of the conference room while invoking the chief’s spirit.

“It is because of the injustice meted out to our people that our great king, who was fighting for his people, was murdered,” said Nana Kwekwe Darko III, who led the ceremony.

The Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement that King Bonsu had killed two Dutch officials in 1838 and was “handed over by his own nation” to colonialists.

‘Hunted in the afterlife’

Arthur Japin, a Dutch author who researched King Bonsu, says the head was brought to the Netherlands, possibly by mistake, shortly after the king was killed.

A Dutch general had been asked to bring back “heads” from Ghana to be studied by a famous phrenologist — a scientist who believes the character of a person can be determined by the shape of the skull.

“He probably meant just some drawings of different types of people but the general took this literally and he took the head and put it in formaldehyde and put it on the ship,” Mr Japin told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

During the voyage home the general died, and his body was also preserved.

On the expedition’s return, King Bonsu’s head was given to the Leiden University Medical Centre, where it has been ever since.

After hearing of the head’s location in 2008, Ghana filed a request for its return, saying if it remained unburied, the king would be incomplete and therefore “hunted in the afterlife”.

The traditional leaders are due to return to Ghana with the head on Friday.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Barrot Looking Into Italy’s Security Package

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JULY 23 — The EU Commission is closely examining the security package recently approved in Italy, and during the EU Interior ministers meeting in Stockholm last week the European Commission vice president asked Interior Minister Roberto Maroni for an explanation concerning the registration of children born to irregular immigrants. Jacques Barrot himself was the one to give this news in a lengthy hearing before the Civil Liberties Commission of the European Parliament, in which Italian EU representatives on opposing parties faced off. The EU Commission vice president said that he had written a letter to the chairman of the parliamentary commission, Fernando Lopez Aguilar, in which he noted that he had asked Italy for additional explanations as concerns the forced return of migrants to Libya. The central issue in juridical and factual terms — which Barrot called complex in the letter — lies in the principle of no forced returns, which is part of the code for Schengen-zone borders. Barrot may be going to Libya at the beginning of autumn to see whether a mechanism could be set up to allow those who want to submit a request for asylum can do so there, instead of risking their lives with human traffickers to cross the Mediterranean and doing it in an EU country.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Denmark: Massive Jump in Minor Asylum Applicants

Teenage boys make up the majority of unaccompanied Afghan children claiming asylum in Denmark

The number of unaccompanied Afghan children seeking asylum in Denmark has more than quadrupled in the last two years.

In 2007, the Immigration Service recorded 39 Afghan children under the age of 18 applying for asylum.

By 2008 that figure had increased to 168 and within the first four months of this year alone, 97 Afghan minors had arrived in Denmark as refugees.

According to the Immigration Service, the majority of the minors are male teenagers between 15 and 18 years of age, who have often travelled for months via Iran, Turkey, Greece and Germany before claiming asylum when they are caught crossing the German-Danish border.

Neither the Immigration Service nor the police have been able to offer a reason for the sudden jump in young asylum numbers, but there are indications that Denmark is seen as a transit country for those on their way to Norway or Sweden.

Figures show that two thirds of the applicants leave the country within a few weeks of applying for asylum.

Comparatively, there have been 812 asylum applications from Afghan minors in Norway in the first six months this year, 233 more than the total number from 2008.

Jørgen Chemnitz, head of the Danish Red Cross asylum department, said that Norway is under serious pressure to house all the applicants.

‘We are also hard pressed, but we can handle the situation with some sound and sensible solutions, even if there are more [applicants] on the way,’ said Chemnitz.

To house the large number of minor applicants, the Immigration Service rented buildings from the Defence Ministry in the spring and established a temporary children’s asylum reception centre in North Zealand.

— Hat tip: Zonka

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Emigration: Over a Million Tunisians Living Abroad

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 22 — More than a million Tunisian citizens — a tenth of the country’s population — were living abroad by the end of 2008, with 140,000 in Italy. The figures, which obviously refer to legal emigrants who have received a residence permit in their country of residence, is from statistics released by the Tunisian foreign ministry based on consular registers. The data confirm that France plays host to the largest number of Tunisians with 577,998, followed by Italy (141,907), Libya (83,633) and Germany (82,635). Of the 141,907 Tunisians living in Italy legally as of December 31 2008, 96,566 were men and 45,341 were women. France was the country chosen by 360,663 men and 217,335 women, Germany by 50,285 men and 32,346 women and Libya by 65,210 and 18,423, respectively. Looking at Europe as a whole, the statistics underline that the increase in Tunisian citizens living in Italy, Germany and Switzerland is higher than the European average (mainly due to immigration), with an annual growth rate of 14% in Italy, 6% in Germany and 6.6% in Switzerland. The lowest number of Tunisian citizens is found in Kenya (3, all women). Another peculiarity regards Kuwait, where more Tunisian women (1,173) are living than Tunisian men (904). The European country which hosts the lowest number of Tunisian nationals is Serbia (16 men, 3 women). The Tunisian foreign ministry statistics also show that by the end of 2008 there were 873,947 Tunisian nationals living in Europe, 153,256 in Arab countries and 754 in African countries (plus 45 in ‘other countries’), 28,291 in America and Australia, and 1,246 in Asia (with 624 in Japan). (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Maroni: Enough Reprimands, EU Must be Strong

(ANSAmed) — ORVIETO (TERNI), JULY 24 — “Enough with the reprimands” of Italy from the EU on immigration: “Instead of criticising, EU countries should apply the principles of solidarity for the reception set out by the EU itself.” Roberto Maroni was speaking at a meeting organised by the Nuova Italia association. “The regulations state that a refugee,” explained the Interior minister, “must stay in the country where he obtains the status of refugee. It is clear that many more people come to Italy by sea from Africa than arrive in Berlin by air.” Maroni pointed out that last year Italy accepted and looked after 20 thousand refugees. This figure reaches 100 thousand if all the non-EU citizens who live in this condition in Italy are counted. “Unfortunately,” said Maroni, “they often do not work and we have to provide them with food and lodging. When I took part in the EU roundtable, I asked that the model of solidarity on immigration reception between member states be applied. At least in terms of assistance due to refugees that lasts for their lifetime, it is the EU who should take on this burden.” “The reply from EU countries,” concluded Maroni, “was no, thank you. They come to Italy and you can keep them. In reality the principle of sharing the burden is not be applied by the EU and confirmation comes from the fact that no European country has taken on the burden except Malta, Greece, Spain and Italy.”(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Obama Czar Pick: ‘Raving Animal Rights Nut’

Nominee advocated hunting ban, giving creatures right to file lawsuits

President Obama’s friend and nominee for “regulatory czar” is a “raving animal rights nut” who has a secret agenda, according to one consumer group.

David Martosko, director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, told Fox News’ Glenn Beck that Cass Sunstein, the Harvard Law professor nominated by the president to become the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is a “raving animal rights nut” and devout disciple of Peter Singer.

Singer, a bioethics professor at Princeton University, is a leader in the animal rights movement. He has also argued that abortion should be permissible because unborn babies as old as 18 weeks cannot feel pain or satisfaction.

Singer once explained his belief that, “killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living.”

In 1993, Singer said infants lack “rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness.”

“Infants lack these characteristics,” he said. “Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious beings.”

Martosko told Beck, “When you embrace this whole utilitarian idea, guess what else comes in the back door? Some animals, according to Singer, are worth more than some humans. A smart border collie, he says, is worth more, inherently, than a retarded child. … Cass Sunstein has embraced the whole enchilada. … He believes that animals should have some of the same rights as humans, in fact, greater rights than some people — including the right to follow lawsuits.”

Sunstein has also supported outlawing sport hunting, giving animals the legal right to file lawsuits and using government regulations to phase out meat consumption.

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Bin Laden Naked — Laughing at Extremism

Bin Laden Naked is a comic book that illustrates the humorous contradictions of religious extremism. The graphic work provides insight into the religious extremism that is spreading in some Islamic countries, particularly after the rise of al-Qaeda and Bin Laden. Radio Netherlands Worldwide was given an exclusive pre-publication look.

A report by Abdelai Ragad

Algerian born Mohammed Sifaoui, a specialist in European Islam and the political Islamic groups, is the book’s author. Bin Laden Naked will be published by a Parisian publishing house on 11 September. Mr Sifaoui says it was no small feat creating Bin Laden Naked: “I had to exert a lot of effort in the few past months in order to make the book available for readers by September. It’s the comic side of those who use Islam for political ends”.

Cartoon characters

The idea of resorting to cartoons when writing about al-Qaeda and Bin Laden came to Mr Sifaoui in 2003. “It was an idea that came to me while studying in Pakistan and Afghanistan, preparing to produce a documentary film and a book, both entitled The Search for Bin Laden. The extremists I met during my trips were, I believe, like cartoon characters. My book consists of real incidents and not merely jokes about al-Qaeda and Bin Laden”.

Sifaoui, who is an opponent of armed political Islamic groups, adds: “Those dark-minded people prove in every word and deed that they are comic and a source of amusement. It is this essential aspect that makes it easy for me to present the story of Islamic extremists and al-Qaeda in cartoons and pictures”.

Prophet Mohammed cartoons

Mohammed Sifaoui began his work after the civil war in Algeria in the 1990s. He then fled to Paris, where he has been living for five years under the protection of the French police because of death threats. Mr Sifaoui says the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed and the subsequent reactions from radical Islamists inspired him to write the story of al-Qaeda and Bin Laden in comic form. The author believes that despite the serious and fearful face of the al-Qaeda and religious extremism issue, there is a comic byproduct of the contradictions and lack of logical reasoning seen in Islamic extremists. He also believes Bin Laden Naked is the first book of its kind.

The veil and mobile phone

Mr Sifaoui sees the Islamic veil, ‘hijab,’ as one of the most important and sensitive issues in the fundamentalist Islamic thinking. He says: “The attitude of the extremists towards women is psychologically deformed, because, on the one hand, they deny her very existence, hide her behind the burque or the garment, deny her independence and deal with her as a material object, but on the other hand they marry four women. Bin Laden himself has four wives.”

And the writer believes that one of the most important sources of irony is that the extremist leaders never risk their own lives. This leads to the cynical throught: Will the suicide attackers be ushered into paradise while Bin Laden and his sons will be deprived of this enjoyment?

With this book, the author wants to send a message to Muslim youths, especially in Europe, that extremism can never co-exist with modernism. He says his book is a new and unique way to understand the nature of what he calls Islamism. It is “a text that helps us laugh at those who want to terrorize us”.

Model of “Radical Islam”

What is a typical radical Islamist according to Mr Sifaoui? “I’m talking about the satanic groups, which call themselves sometimes Wahabies and other times Muslim Brothers and those who believe they obey God when they kill people”. In his book he states: “Radical Islamists give us, during our day to day lives, the impression that they have come from another world or another century. Even in their way of dressing they differ very much with the normal styles of dress. They don’t use neckties, but they use mobile phones, the Internet and prefer luxurious cars. This shows a schizophrenic relationship with modernism”. For Mr Sifaoui presenting this behaviour in the form of cartoons is not difficult, because the comic details can easily be portrayed.

Bin Laden Naked will be published by the Parisian “Baiz 12” Publishing House on 11 September and will be available in several languages…

— Hat tip: TB

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“The authorities have failed.”

Our Danish correspondent TB has compiled a report on Hells Angels based on recent articles and posts appearing in the Danish media. He begins with this translation from Monday’s Politiken:

We are the brown rockers

The conflict is not about race, say two members of HA, who are originally from Pakistan and Iran.

HA member Nico (to the left) and Payman in front of the HA residence on Amager. They both are of foreign background and dismiss the notion that the ongoing gang war is about race. They will not say much about the conflict and its casualties. “I try not to paint a picture that shows that everything is just great, but in the real world there are conflicts, and casualties happen”, Payman says.

On June 30 TV2 had an unusual guest on their morning program.

Between weather forecasts and tips about delicious food, the HA “rocker” Jønke suddenly appeared as some sort of crusader who wanted to defend Denmark and all Danes against the others.

Later that same day the others acquired a name: The Jackals. It happened when the webmaster of Hells Angels homepage publicized the so-called Jackal Manifesto on the club’s website.

Politicians: Racist perspective in the gang war

With his description of the Jackals as “human garbage” and “typical Arabs”, the manifesto caused every political party beside the Danish People’s Party to state that the gang war now had a racist perspective.

Since then HA’s homepage has received many emails from people who want to express their support for HA in the conflict with the jackals. One of them said:

“Just want to say thanks to Jønke for one of the greatest literary works ever composed on Danish soil… get those s***ty jackals out… such a f***ed up and mentally disturbed culture have never been seen before… YEAH.”

There is a smell of men and motorcycles in the HA residence on Amager.

HA members from Iran and Pakistan

But out there, in HA’s strongholds, sit about 10 hardcore members of HA who themselves have an ethnic origin other than Danish. And they deny that the gang war is about race. And they say that they will always retaliate when someone steps on their toes because the politicians, the police and the society have lost it.

Politiken met two Hells Angels “rockers” who were born in Iran and Pakistan. After trying for several months, the “rockers” have now agreed to an interview and invite us inside their residence on Lindgreens Allé on Amager [an island just to the east of Copenhagen].

40-year-old Nico is one of the members of the branch on Amager. He has been a member of HA since 2000 and lives his life as an HA member while being the father of a family with three kids, a wife, and a job as an independent in the real estate service sector.

Payman (34) came to Denmark from Iran as a 10-year-old, and has been a member of HA in Århus since 2003. Today he makes a living selling cars and doing entrepreneur jobs. Payman has served a prison term for violence, while Nico has no criminal record.

HA member “Horn” also participates in the interview. He has been a member since the 80s. He keeps himself in the background and does not want to be photographed.

Rock, wood, and iron dominate the rooms

– – – – – – – – –

Inside the rockers’ stronghold many HA members hang around in the rooms, which have obviously been designed by men who ignore recent interior design trends.

Everything is made out of solid materials such as granite, wood and iron. The cozy corners have been furnished with black leather sofas and huge flat screens — one for movies and one for surveillance.

In the bar you can buy spirits, soda water, cigarettes, and chips, and in a small corridor all members keep sleeping clothes so that they can stay overnight.

Solid materials such as rocks, wood, and iron define HA’s stronghold on Amager. The cozy corners have been furnished with black leather sofas and huge flat screens — one for movies and one for surveillance.

On the upper floor in a workshop stand the Harley Davidson motorcycles which are an inseparable part of Hells Angels. These days they do not ride them much, though. It is too dangerous to ride through the city on a Harley with an HA logo on your back.

The article needs final read-through

“Remember our agreement. We need to read the article before it is printed,” Horn states when we have been seated at a table on the first floor, in which only a small amount of daylight comes in through the windows.

“Yeah, and there are certain things that we cannot talk about. We cannot talk about the conflict,” Nico says.

We accept. The rockers may, as do other sources, read through the final article to be able to correct misunderstandings. On the other hand we will not publish the article if they want to change the text so much that we cannot vouch for it. And we insist that we will ask all the questions that we have brought with us — also those about the gang war — and then the three HA members can answer or not.

Payman: It is not racism

Why do you say yes to this interview?

“In the wake of the publication of the manifesto there were a lot of misunderstandings. The newspapers take small sentences and use them out of their original context and there are many who think that we are of the perception that jackals are Arabs and Arabs are jackals. So now we would like to tell our story and present to you that this has nothing to do with racism,” Payman says, who with his dark skin and black hair is a wise choice as a representative when having to refute the charges of racism.

He came to Denmark when his mother and her three kids fled the Muslim regime in Iran in 1985. The family themselves are not Muslims. They ended up in a city in Jutland in which Payman still lives. He does not want to reveal the name of the city.

Why is it such a sensitive question to ask where you are from?

“Among other things it is because of my family. There is no need to put them in harm’s way.”

Do you think a lot about that?

“Of course I do. By nature I am a person who thinks a lot about my family and those I care about. Of course I cannot take care of the whole world, but those I love, I want to take care of.”

15 % Muslim

According to the rockers themselves their families have accepted that they have joined the Hells Angels. As for Nico, even though his parents and seven older siblings are Muslims and all — as opposed to Nico — have chosen to marry a Pakistani, Nico calls himself “15 % Muslim”.

The motorcycles are not on the street that much these days. It is too dangerous because of the gang war.

Nico grew up in a Pakistani family of guest workers in Høje Taastrup [suburb of Copenhagen]. He knows a lot about those young men he today calls jackals, and who are now members of some of the immigrant gangs. Many of them he knows personally. Or maybe he knows their fathers from his childhood on Vestegnen [western part of Copenhagen]. And he greets most of them if he meets them on the street.

As a child Nico looked for Danish friends who played soccer and things like that.

“My friends were mainly Danes. It just felt most natural for me,” he says.

“Perker”-mentality

[“Perker” is a term of abuse. It is a word combined from two other words: Perser and Tyrker, meaning Persian and Turk. — translator]

Both Nico and Payman found their way into the HA by knowing someone who was already a member. And in the club they have been able to make other members aware that not all foreigners are “jackals”.

“For sure there are people in our organization who had another perception of foreigners before they met me and Payman. But they are not racists,” Nico says.

But many people have started to talk about you again as being an extreme right-wing organization after you published The Jackal Manifesto, which many interpret as being racist?

“But that is exactly why we want to underline, that this has nothing to do with racism. It is about mentality. You do not have to be a foreigner to be a jackal,” says Payman and explains:

“I usually try to distinguish between ‘foreigner-mentality’ and ‘perker-mentality’. By perker-mentality I mean those who run around Århus hunting people down on their scooters just to steal their Canadian Goose jackets. Hell, that boy has probably worked in the local supermarket for half a year to earn money enough to buy himself such a piece of cloth. Who are they to think that they can just take it from him? They should go find a job themselves so they could buy one with their own money. That’s the kind of mentality that I cannot accept and that is the way the jackals behave.”

The jackals are a small group

[Well, the translator does not agree on this one….sorry! — translator]

“We emphasize that people should not believe that every person with dark hair they see is a jackal. They are not. It is a small group of foreigners in Denmark that we talk about. And yes, we are of the perception that the Arabs are over-represented in this group” Horn says.

But you write that jackals are typically Arabs and you call them “human garbage”. Is that not racist?

“No,” Payman says.

“We write they can typically be Arabs, and that everyone who has that mentality is garbage. People who walk around calling Danish girls ‘whores’ and Denmark a ‘whore country’ are human garbage. You cannot deny that.”

The Harleys take up a lot of space on the first floor where the workshop is.

We do not shout after Mrs. Jensen

[Typical Danish surname used as a reference to an ordinary citizen; Mr. and Mrs. Jensen = ordinary citizens of Denmark, like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. — translator]

As afternoon becomes night more and more members join the stronghold.

“Is that the new Jønke?” one of the brothers shouts when he sees Pakistani Nico together with the journalist and the photographer. He refers to Jørn Jønke Nielsen who has for years been the HA media spokesman.

“Yeah. The brown Jønke,” Nico laughs back.

Seen through the eyes of the average Dane it looks like you are doing the same things as those you refer to as jackals. You are organized in a group which has been connected with different kind of crimes, and many of you have served prison terms. Can you explain the difference between you and the jackals?

“Well, we do not stand six people to the corner and shout towards Mrs. Jensen every time she passes by,” Nico says.

“It is correct that some in our organization have done prison time. They have taken their punishment and it is for sure well-deserved. But we do not come along and harass everybody we can get close to. That must be the biggest difference. If you see six of them they will stand and shout towards anything that goes by while we would just look the other way. We just want to mind our own business.”

“So it is the attitude that makes the difference?

The difference lies in the mentality

Horn answers:

“It is the mentality. And as we have said from day one; those who step on our toes must expect that we step back. And that’s actually what has happened. So it is not that strange that this is a cultural conflict.”

How did they step on your toes?

“That we cannot comment on,” Horn says.

And what is it that you do when you step back?

“That we cannot comment on either.”

The authorities have failed

Here in Denmark it is the custom that you call the police, the municipality, the social authorities, or other institutions, and let them take care of the problems. You do not — Why?

“It is not our responsibility to solve society’s problems. We just react when something bad happens to our friends or families” Horn says. Nico continues:

“Haven’t they given up? The municipality and the police and all the other authorities have had plenty of opportunities to solve the problems before this conflict erupted and before those youngster came to where they are now. It is just like they haven’t really succeeded.”

But many — especially people from Copenhagen — would probably say that life has become more insecure since you started to do something about the problems. Is that not an inappropriate side effect of your methods?

“No, I think that people have felt just as insecure as before. Now it is just reported through the papers and the TV. I think that Mrs. Jensen on Rantzausgade [local street in Nørrebro, Copenhagen] have felt insecure for a long time. Even before these shootings became routine” Nico says.

Rejects that the war is about drugs

But while Hells Angels keep identifying the problem as being the behavior of the jackals, the police repeatedly say that the conflict is about criminal businesses; among other things the market for drugs. The rockers cannot accept this. On the contrary, the police have their own motives Payman thinks:

“The police have to state that this is all about something that people can get offended about and which is in the interest of the politicians. If they do not they will not get the means that they need. And it is working — they get more and more money all the time.”

Nico continues:

“It is easy for the police to make it look like that this is about drugs because some of our brothers are doing time for exactly that. And at the same time they can hide the fact that integration has failed completely. The last 10-15 years the situation has escalated to what we are now seeing, and for sure the jackals have been cut way too much slack.”

It cost lives to stand by your opinions

What do you think about the fact that this conflict costs lives?

“Well of course that is terrible, but unfortunately that is the potential price when standing up for what you believe in. I do not try to make a sweet-looking picture of the conditions, but in the real world there are conflicts, and casualties happen. That is how it always will be when there is a conflict,” Payman says.

Inside the rockers’ stronghold bulletproof vest are spread around as a sign of the present danger the rockers believe they find themselves in. The more HA members arrive, the more vests pile up on the sofa. Some Coca Cola Zeroes are being consumed, and a few of the members take a little ride down the street on their Harleys. They return quickly, though, after observing the police.

Nico and Payman also use bulletproof vests when they ride around on their bikes. But they are not afraid, they say.

“Of course one pays a little more attention than three years ago. When I get out of my car I look around and when I arrive home I look for cars that I do not recognize. All these small things,” Nico explains.

The shootings will not stop in the near future

When will the shootings stop?

“Well we need a change of mentality and that is not going to happen over night. The problem is that the mentality is paid forward from one generation to the next. The young punks look at the older ones and follows their lead,” Payman says.

How would you like the Danes to look at you?

“I do not mind what Mr. and Mrs. Jensen think about me. If they have a wrong idea about me, then peace be upon them. People have had a wrong idea about me ever since I was born. As long as those I care about and I myself know what kind of person I am, everything will be all right. You cannot be friends with the whole world,” Payman says.

Just to spice everything up, TB includes this comment from an Iranian on HA’s homepage. It is a reaction to the Jackal Manifesto:

Nima

July 20, 2009 17:45:40

Ha, I laugh every time I read the Jackal Manifesto… It is as precise as can possibly be…fits the Arabs perfectly….We, the Iranians, have called Arabs Jackals and Hyenas for the last 1400 years. I am so sick and tired of those Arabs ruining everything for everybody else! F*** ARABS. And I really mean it. F*** THEM…trust me Arabs hate Danes and the rest of the world! Arabs are racists… I am a 28-year-old Iranian who has lived in DK for the last 20 years…and I live in DK because the Arabs have ruined MY COUNTRY…and now it is happening again…I love Denmark from the bottom of my heart…but I do not look like a Dane…so I actually run the risk of being shot down by an AK81 because of my appearance…that is hard to think about.

In an article on Wednesday, further developments concerning the Hells Angels “movement” are revealed:

Jønke: Hells Angels expanding

Spokesman for Hells Angels tells about new stronghold in central Copenhagen

Jønke confirms to Ekstra Bladet that the Hells Angels are planning to open a new subdivision — a so-called chapter — in Copenhagen. It will be located in Østerbro and will open in the near future.

HA have been able to recruit many new members after the club began the gang war a year ago against criminal groups in the country’s biggest cities [Now this is a way to formulate it that I have never seen before. Coincidence? Mistake? — translator]. The police have no comments.

“We are following the situation closely but for now we have no comments to the expansion of Hells Angels,” says Kim Kliver from NEC [National Investigation Center of Denmark]

In Copenhagen, Hells Angels already have strongholds on Svanevej and on Lindgreens Allé in Amager. Apart from that they have their young apprentices organized in AK81.

From Lawrence Auster’s blog today comes this analysis, in response to a piece by Richard Lynn:

The main factor preventing the cessation of non-European immigration is not fear of nonwhite unrest and reaction, but whites’ own positive belief in non-European immigration, their deeply held view that it is morally wrong to exclude or discriminate against people on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, culture, and most of all race. If the still large white majorities of the West decided that they didn’t want non-European immigration to continue, it would stop. So our prospects are not as desperate as Lynn imagines. It is not true that no remedy is possible. Rather, no remedy is possible within our present belief system, our modern liberal belief system which requires us to commit national suicide. That’s why our existence as peoples and societies depends on replacing that belief system with one that upholds the validity of our historic nations and cultures and the necessity of preserving them. Not that such a change is going to be easy either, of course. Given the current entrenched power of liberalism over our societies, and over the mind of virtually every individual in those societies, our situation is indeed grim. But it is not hopeless. I think it is entirely possible that the demographic and ideological trends that are currently leading to civilizational suicide, and that now seem so irreversible, will be reversed. And the first step of that reversal is the total rejection — within each one of us — of modern liberalism. As the number of non-liberals in Western society increases, and as the hideous problems caused by liberalism also increase, a change in overall political direction will become possible.

Hat tip: Fjordman.

[Nothing follows]

When this unpleasant story first surfaced, I wasn’t certain that it was an example of cultural enrichment. Since all the reports came from the Swedish media, they were at pains to make sure that the reader had no clue as to the ethnicity of the participants.

However, since then the facts have emerged, and now the father is on trial. This is the most significant sentence in The Local article:

“Despite the fact that the children are born in Sweden, two of them needed interpreters in court.”

These boys are 17 and 18 years old, and were born in Sweden. But they don’t speak Swedish. Their older sister, however, has grit: despite never having gone to school, she was determined to learn Swedish, and she did.

The father is blaming everything on the mother, which means that he must be desperate, because it is shameful and humiliating for any Muslim man to acknowledge that his wife controls the household. He can expect to be an object of ridicule among his fellow Muslim prison inmates.

Thus does Sweden reap the rich harvest of Multiculturalism, more than two decades after the seeds were sown:

Children Tell of ‘Hell’ Under Abusive Father

Three children of a father accused of abusing and imprisoning his family spoke out on Thursday as the trial of the 58-year-old kicked off in Uppsala in eastern Sweden.

Despite the fact that the children are born in Sweden, two of them needed interpreters in court. They testified about abuse, fear and never having attended school.

The father warned of the dangers of Swedish society, telling his children they would be raped and lobotomized and that all Swedes were racists.

“If all the children in Sweden were lobotomized, why are they so happy?” recalled one of the daughters, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

– – – – – – – – –

Between September 2003 and March 2004, the children were confined to the family’s apartment, never leaving the dwelling once, according to public prosecutor Johan Strömbäck.

Three of the children have sought compensation totaling 148,000 kronor ($20,000) for deprivation of liberty (frihetsberövande), including missing out on their education.

During a morning court hearing, three of the man’s four children testified about their experience while confined by their dominating father, who is a native of Iran.

The 17-year-old son related how he peered out of the bathroom window and watched other children play, thinking that “we want to go to school, we want to live like other children.”

“It was hell, it’s impossible to describe. If I think about it, my entire soul quakes,” he said.

His brother, who is a year older, described how he spent long periods crying and crying, and talked about his desire to go and play football with other children.

But he wasn’t allowed to go outside, or to have any friends.

“We always got to play the quiet game,” explained one of the sons, according to the Upsala Nya Tidning (UNT) newspaper.

“I remember one time when I was horsing around loudly and he took me to another room and forced a glass jar filled with pepper in my mouth.”

Both brothers needed the assistance of an interpreter, but their 22-year-old sister testified in clear Swedish.

She said that she had to fight to learn the language, despite the fact that she was born in Sweden, just like her brothers.

She explained that she clearly remembered how smug her father was when he learned that children who were not residing in Sweden were exempt from compulsory school attendance.

“He has deprived us of our rights as Swedish citizens,” the daughter said.

“I’ve never attended school, either in Iran or in Sweden. Not one single minute.”

The children’s mother also testified during the emotionally charged hearing.

“They don’t know what the inside of a school, or a classroom, or a bank looks like,” she said.

“I sometimes felt like he had control our breathing.”

Shortly after her husband’s arrest on June 27th, the woman filed for divorce, citing that the man had abused her and the children for 20 some years. She has also requested that she be given sole custody of the two children who are still under 18.

The youngest child, a 16-year-old daughter was treated differently than the others, and doesn’t believe she was deprived of her freedom.

Prosecutors were delayed in bringing charges against the man after uncertainties arose regarding his identify.

According to the original indictment, the father is listed as being 68-years-old, but according to Strömbäck he is actually a decade younger.

“He says himself that a mistake was made in the translation of his original documents,” the lawyer said.

When the 58-year-old man took the stand in the afternoon, he denied all the accusations against him, claiming his wife and children were lying.

He said his children had made up their stories out of fear of their mother.

“She’s taken over the whole family and controls their lives, not me,” he said.

He claimed that his wife was a “fundamentalist” and wanted to send the children to schools in Iran run by mullahs.

The father also refuted accusations that he had beaten his children.

“I’m against violence, it’s the mother who is violent,” he said.

“She does what she wants in the name of Islam.”

He said his children did in fact attend school in Iran and that there are diplomas to prove it at the country’s education ministry.

However, the 58-year-old was unable to produce any diplomas in court.

According to him, the children’s mother forbade them from attending school in Sweden.

“They want to make me look like a monster,” he said.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: TB.

Well-meaning officials in the Dutch government thought they had it all figured out: to stop “radicalism” in the country’s mosques, well-educated Dutch-speaking imams were needed. To address the perceived need, a state-funded program was created to do just that, and turned out a cohort of imams ready to go to work eliminating violent fundamentalism from Dutch Muslim society.

But — surprise! — they’re not wanted by Dutch Muslims. Not only are they too expensive, but the congregations in the mosques like Islamic radicalism just fine, thank you very much. They want no truck with these fancy-pants Dutch-speaking “polder imams”.

So not only did the state pay for the training of the new imams, it will now have to provide them with unemployment benefits. Another little joke on the Dutch taxpayer.

According to NIS:

Mosques Refuse Dutch ‘State Imams’

THE HAGUE, 24/07/09 — Not a single mosque in the Netherlands has to date been prepared to take on an Imam trained in the special government courses. “Mosques have no money and no confidence in the ‘polder Imam,” reported Trouw newspaper yesterday.

– – – – – – – – –

The Free University Amsterdam, the University of Leiden and Hogeschool InHolland college have developed Imam training courses, at the initiative of the cabinet. It wants to put a stop to the ‘import’ of Imams from Morocco or Turkey. These are said to be conservative, get in the way of integration of Muslims and sometimes incite to radicalisation.

The universities and college courses supply Imams that speak Dutch and understand Dutch society. But the Imams trained in the Netherlands should not count on a job for now. “Poor mosques have no money for expensive, qualified Imams. Additionally, the older generation of mosque-goers, who pay contributions and therefore decide what happens there, do not want a Dutch-speaking Imam at all,” says Trouw.

Hat tip: TB.

I’ll let Mark Steyn do tonight’s summary of the latest enrichment news from Canada:

Watery Graves

Police say 14-year-old Kinza Kaianad died Monday evening at Kingston General Hospital as a result of injuries she sustained Saturday in a hotel pool in Gananoque, roughly 30 kilometres east of Kingston.

Her mother, 43-year-old Naila Yasmin, died in hospital on Sunday.

Yasmin, Kaianad and another daughter, age 11, were found unconscious in the indoor hotel pool just before 9 a.m. Saturday.

There would seem to be a statistically improbable number of multiple drownings of female members of Muslim families in Kingston this summer. If you’re a young female Muslim, and you have any say in the matter, you might want to vacation elsewhere.

In other news, one of Osama bin Laden’s sons has been reported killed in Pakistan by a Predator drone. Also, a man in Saudi Arabia was arrested after bragging about his sexual exploits on television.

Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, KGS, Lexington, Sean O’Brian, Steen, TB, The Lurker from Tulsa, Tuan Jim, VH, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	Financial Crisis
	Chianti Classico to Cut Sales
	Obama’s Insidious War on the Middle Class
	USA
	Change You Never Expected: Health Care for Illegals
	HWB — Home While Black
	Imam at Windy City Islamist Confab: We’ll Fight Til ‘Islam Becomes Victorious or We Die in the Attempt’
	Islamist Asault on the U.S. Constitution
	Obamacare for Old Folks: Just ‘Cut Your Life Short’
	Rationing for Dummies
	The Doctor Will Kill You Now
	Video: Schwarzenegger, Knife Star on Twitter
	Canada
	An Honour Killing?
	Europe and the EU
	Denmark: Terror Suspect Deported
	France: Terrorists on the Moon
	Islam: Ramadan, Rome Initiative for Inter-Religious Dialogue
	Italy, PD: Beppe Grillo Becomes a Member of ‘Luther King’ Association
	Italy, PD: Grillo Calls it a Fatwa, Cites Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’
	Kissinger Never Wanted to Dial Europe
	UK: ‘Harsh Islamic Punishments Will Make Britain Safer’
	UK: Big Brother State Wants Even More Spy Powers
	UK: Muslims Could Get Own Police
	UK: Police Powers for 2012 Olympics Alarm Critics
	UK: Sharia Penal Codes Would Benefit Britain Says Muslim Sheikh Suhaib Hasan
	Balkans
	Kosovo Let Down by Failing Judiciary
	Serbia: Gay Pride March in Belgrade on September 20
	Serbia: Media Report Competition on EU Integration Announced
	Mediterranean Union
	A Fading Mediterranean Dream
	Italy: Berlusconi Urges More Trade With Mediterranean Countries
	Italy: Northern Region Looks to Expand Trade With Libya
	North Africa
	Fisheries: 2 Mazara Del Vallo Fishing Boats Seized in Libya
	Israel and the Palestinians
	Bomb Explodes at Fatah Wedding Party
	Breaking the Rules
	Civil Fights: Listen to the Left
	FM Invokes Hitler in Shepherd Spat
	Gaza: Bomb at Wedding Gives Rise to Fatah-Hamas Tension
	Illegal Outpost Dismantled in the West Bank
	Netanyahu Denies Removal of Barrier
	Vatican Teaching Hezbollah How to Kill Jews, Says Pamphlet for IDF Troops
	Middle East
	Analysis: Shi’ite Missiles, Zionist Cows and the Lebanese Army
	Israel Sees Brazil Help With Iran
	Jordan: Activists Protest Against Violence in China
	Turkey: Women Drivers Double Over Past Ten Years, Official
	TV Sex Boast Lands Saudi Man in Jail: Report
	Caucasus
	EU Mulls Including US in Georgia Mission
	South Asia
	Afghanistan: Italian Defence Minister Rules Out Troop Withdrawal
	Afghanistan: Minister Vows to Ensure Security for Italian Troops
	Bin Laden Son Reported Killed in US Drone Strike
	Jakarta Mastermind’s ‘Wife’ Held
	Far East
	China’s Economic Colonisation of Africa
	Life for China’s Tens of Millions of Homosexuals Has Improved Markedly
	Immigration
	Asylum Seeker Figures Soar in Finland
	Germany: Berlin Accepts Highest Concentration of Immigrants
	Inmates Deported Under New Oklahoma Law
	Italy, Fini: Shortsighted Libyan Policy; Tripoli Reacts
	More People Are Leaving Germany Than Arriving
	Netherlands: What Do Immigrants Cost Society? Asks PVV
	Wilders: Calculate Cost of Immigrants
	Culture Wars
	Catholic Nurse Ordered to Help With Abortion
	General
	Vinland Map of America No Forgery, Expert Says

Chianti Classico to Cut Sales

Reduction in market supply aimed at stabilising prices

(ANSA) — Florence, July 23 — The consortium of Chianti Classico producers has decided to put less of the famous wine on the market in order to stabilise prices.

Similar initiatives have recently been adopted by producers of other prestigious wines including those making Champagne in France.

Prices for upscale wines have been falling due to a drop in demand linked to the current global recession.

“The economic downturn, together with a strong euro over the dollar, has hurt us and forced us to adopt measures to counter the decline in prices,” explained Chianti Classico consortium chief Marco Pallanti.

“We are fortunate that in our favor we have been producing excellent vintages over the past five years and all indications are that this year will be the same,” he added.

“For this reason we have decided not to cut production but to store more wine for the future and put less on the market,” Pallanti said. The Chianti Classico consortium decided to limit the amount of its wine it will bottle for sale for a period of up to two years. Chianti Classico is an upmarket version of the famed Tuscan blended wine and by definition can only come from a 7,000-hectare area between Florence and Siena.

In 2005, the two leading consortiums which produce quality Chianti Classico wine, Vino Chianti Classico and Marchio Storico-Gallo Nero, merged into a single body to better produce, promote and protect their product.

The new, single consortium was called Gallo Nero (Black Cock) and oversees the production of quality registered wines in the area of Chianti.

At the time of the merger it was decided that all bottles of ‘real’ Chianti Classico would have the Gallo Nero trademark, which underwent a restyling to modernise the rooster logo originally drawn in 1924, when the first consortium was founded.

The new trademark also has the date of 1716, the year that the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III established Chianti’s borders, in what was the first document in history to define a specific winegrowing area.

The merger actually returned the situation to how it was before 1987, when for technical and legal reasons the Chianti Classico consortium was divided into two, with Marchio Storico responsible for promotion and marketing, while the other handled production.

The Chianti Classico Gallo Nero consortium counts some 600 members with an annual turnover estimated at 500 million euros and an average production of 260,000 hectoliters, equal to around 35 million bottles of wine.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Obama’s Insidious War on the Middle Class

While Obama rides his luxury 747 around the globe, glad handing with other world leaders discussing “healing the planet” and other grandiose plans, the average American is struggling to find work. As Michelle Obama totes around a $6,000 Italian alligator-skin clutch, the only thing most Americans are “clutching” is their wallets, trying to figure out how to get by this month. Obama is out of touch with Middle America. However, even worse than his overt elitism is the damaging effect his agenda is having on middle class taxpayers.

Obama came to office promising an economic stimulus to help get people back to work and ward off an impending economic disaster. Instead, he pushed through Congress a grab bag of pork projects for his cronies. Obama is using government largesse to try and win votes by making people dependent on his generosity. A recent USA Today analysis revealed counties voting for Obama received twice times the stimulus money per capita as those voting for McCain. This suspiciously looks like payback, not an economic stimulus program.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Change You Never Expected: Health Care for Illegals

Barack Obama, the first non-citizen of the United States to become president, promised change for all American citizens.

While he conceals his birth origin, Obama and Congress practice “Obfuscation-101.” Obama and democratic House leaders conceal the fact that their health care bill covers unlawful immigrants.

Last week, our intrepid albeit dishonest U.S. House of Representatives unveiled their health care reform legislation entitled, “America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009.” They might have added, “America’s Affordable Health Care for 20 million unlawful Mexicans Act.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, www.fairus.org, said, “Despite the language in section 246 of the bill that states: “nothing—shall allow Federal payments [for] individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States,” the bill actually raises more questions than it resolves with respect to whether the bill will burden American taxpayers by giving health care benefits to legal and illegal aliens.

“The draft House bill — consisting of 1,018 pages — was introduced by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) and cosponsored by the chairmen of the three House committees of jurisdiction: Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee; Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairmen of the Energy & Commerce Committee; and Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the Education & Labor Committee.”

With great irony, Waxman and Miller representatives from the overrun State of California by unlawful immigrants—lead the charge to give away your dollars. Their former muscle man governor runs a $26 billion state deficit while hosting five million illegals. Schwarzenegger handed out $56 million in IOUs to pay his bills this month, but didn’t touch the “sacred cow” of billions in payments to criminal aliens.

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HWB — Home While Black

Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, retained a lawyer. Why? He claims cops in Cambridge, Mass., racially profiled him.

Here’s what happened.

The Chronicle writes: “A witness had called police when she saw a black man, apparently Gates, wedging his shoulder into the door, trying to gain entry, according to the arrest report….

“In the arrest report, police said Gates initially refused to step onto his porch when approached by (Cambridge Police Sgt. James) Crowley. He then allegedly opened his door and shouted, ‘Why, because I’m a black man in America?’

“As Crowley continued to question Gates, the Harvard professor allegedly told him, ‘You don’t know who you’re messing with.’ When Crowley asked to speak with him outside, Gates allegedly said, ‘Ya, I’ll speak with your momma outside.’“

Crowley says he responded to a call of a possible break-in by a woman on the sidewalk, who said she’d seen a black male “wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.” Crowley reported he “could see an older black male standing in the foyer.” He continued: “As I stood in plain view of this man, later identified as Gates, I asked if he would step out onto the porch and speak with me. He replied ‘no, I will not.’ He then demanded to know who I was. I told him that I was ‘Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police’ and that I was ‘investigating a report of a break in progress’ at the residence. While I was making this statement, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed ‘why, because I’m a black man in America?’ I then asked Gates if there was anyone else in the residence. While yelling, he told me that it was none of my business and accused me of being a racist police officer.”

Crowley’s report, as well as that of another responding officer, describe Gates yelling repeated accusations of racism while asserting that the officer “had no idea who (he) was ‘messing’ with” and that the officer “had not heard the last of it.”

After initially refusing to produce any identification confirming his residence, Gates finally supplied a Harvard ID. By that time, a crowd of officers and passers-by was outside. In front of the house and “in view of the public,” Crowley states he twice warned Gates that he was becoming disorderly. But Gates’ yelling and “tumultuous behavior” continued, causing “surprise and alarm” in the citizenry outside. Crowley then placed Gates under arrest.

— Hat tip: JD

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Imam at Windy City Islamist Confab: We’ll Fight Til ‘Islam Becomes Victorious or We Die in the Attempt’

Shariah Must Take Precedence over U.S. Constitution

LAWN, Illinois — Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the international movement to re-establish an international Islamic state, or Caliphate, kicked off a new campaign to win American recruits Sunday afternoon in this Chicago suburb.

[…]

Later, the following dialogue ensued between the imam and a member of the audience over whether Shariah or the Constitution should be the supreme law of the land in the United States:

Audience member: “Would you get rid of the Constitution for Shariah, yes or no?”

Imam: “Over the Muslim world? Yes, it would be gone.”

Audience Member: And so if the United States was a Muslim world, the Constitution would be gone?”

Imam: “If the United States was in the Muslim world, the Muslims who are here would be calling and happy to see the Shariah applied, yes we would.”

Audience Member: “And the Constitution gone. That’s all.”

Imam: “Yes, as Muslims they would be long gone.”

While Hizb ut-Tahrir’s controversial message attracted demonstrators and some media attention, the group at least is open about its ambitions. It not only is determined to destroy capitalism — it would shred the United States Constitution as well in favor of Shariah law.

— Hat tip: JD

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Islamist Asault on the U.S. Constitution

The U.S. Constitution.This past weekend, a fanatical Islamist group, Hizb ut Tahrir, which calls itself a “Global Islamic Political Party,” convened at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago in order to rally the jihadi troups to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and to impose Islamic sharia law, with all its oppression, brutality and censorship.

In the first place, the double standard held by hotels lately is blatant: The conference featuring Islam critic and Dutch politician Geert Wilders in Florida was cancelled at the last minute after the Delray Beach Marriott hotel refused to hold it. We know the culprits behind that piece of censorship. Now, however, we find individuals essentially attempting to conquer the U.S. given free rein at another hotel.

If these individuals calling for the destruction of the U.S. Constitution are American citizens, they have basically committed treason and should be charged with that crime. If they are not American citizens, they should be deported as soon as possible. How long would such anti-government rabblerousers have lasted in Saudi Arabia or Iran, calling for the destruction of the constitutions there?

Free Speech is Sacred

Secondly, availing themselves of the First Amendment these anti-American fanatics in Chicago were evidently carrying signs declaring, “Freedom of Speech is an Attack on Islam.” Many people outside of the Muslim world hold free speech as a sacred tenet; hence, the censorial commentary itself represents an attack on their religion. These same individuals cherish the U.S. Constitution as a truly sacred scripture.

Regarding this gathering, American Atheists president Ed Buckner remarked…

— Hat tip: TB

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Obamacare for Old Folks: Just ‘Cut Your Life Short’

Health plan provision demands ‘end-of-life’ counseling

The version of President Obama’s universal health care plan pending in the U.S. House would require “end-of-life” counseling for senior citizens, and the former lieutenant governor for the state of New York is warning people to “protect their parents” from the measure.

At issue is section 1233 of the legislative proposal that deals with a government requirement for an “Advance Care Planning Consultation.”

Betsy McCaughey, the former New York state officer, told former president candidate Fred Thompson during an interview on his radio program the “consultation” is no more or less than an attempt to convince seniors to die.

“One of the most shocking things is page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory absolutely that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session,” she said. “They will tell [them] how to end their life sooner.”

The proposal specifically calls for the consultation to recommend “palliative care and hospice” for seniors in their mandatory counseling sessions. Palliative care and hospice generally focus only on pain relief until death..

— Hat tip: JD

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Rationing for Dummies

It’s beginning to sink in that Obama’s nationalized healthcare will lead directly to rationing, which Americans desire about as much as a case of salmonella.

The president told five governors last month to avoid the term “rationing,” since it might give away the game. But the word keeps popping up, so it was time for a more aggressive approach — embracing it!

Out came one of the Left’s big guns, Princeton ethicist Peter Singer, to fire away in the July 19 New York Times Magazine with a long article, “Why We Must Ration Health Care.”

Singer — known for such gems as, “The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval,” and “An animal experiment cannot be justifiable unless the experiment is so important that the use of a brain-damaged human would be justifiable” — says rationing is already here in different forms. Hence, we have nothing to fear from men in white coats directed by government bureaucrats.

Written to allay our fears, the article instead provides plenty of insight into the rationality of rationing and why Americans might want to drop what they’re doing, grab pitchforks and torches, and descend upon Washington to slay this Frankenstein monster.

— Hat tip: JD

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The Doctor Will Kill You Now

I have commented before that the purpose of socialized medicine is not health care, but rather government-run death care. The choker bill presently being rammed down America’s throat in the Congress is no exception. In light of the recent history where hospitals have forcibly dehydrated people to death, everyone should pay attention to their gag reflex.

On page 430 of the 2009 Death Care Act we find:

(B) The level of treatment…may range from an indication for full treatment to an indication to limit some or all or specified interventions… (iv) the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.

What “level of treatment”? Huh?

Buried in the arcane Death Care Act’s 1,000 pages of detail is this little description of how the government will dictate to you, educate you and control your very survival with an “order regarding life sustaining treatment.”

See, you might give “indications” that the “specified interventions” known as “nutrition and hydration” need to be taken away from you. The vigilant government must be hyper-attentive to starve and dehydrate [useless people] to death, at any time.

You may not be surprised to find out that “you” don’t need to give consent to your own murder. Only a theoretical “you” is really required. That’s one of the “options” Uncle Barack is going to supplement you with.

— Hat tip: JD

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Video: Schwarzenegger, Knife Star on Twitter

Ever the entertainer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has posted a Twitter video related to the state’s budget crisis in which he picks up an oversized knife and jokes about autographing state vehicles that will be auctioned to raise cash. (July 23)

— Hat tip: VH

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An Honour Killing?

Kingston Police have arrested at least three people in connection with the mysterious deaths of four Montreal women found in a submerged car in Kingston Mills on June 30.

Police sources confirmed the dramatic development in the case yesterday, 22 days after a black Nissan Sentra was found in roughly three metres of water near one of the four locks.

Three teenage sisters were found dead in the car, Zainab Shafi, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with a 50-year-old woman, Rona Amir Mohammed.

La Presse newspaper in Montreal said three people who were heading to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport were arrested yesterday morning.

Initially, police said the case was suspicious but that they had not found evidence of foul play.

It’s not clear what charges are being laid, but the Whig-Standard learned that Kingston Police have been investigating, for at least two weeks, the allegation that the deaths were an honour killing.

“We are convinced that this is a crime of honour,” Diba Masoomi told Kingston Police, in an e-mail sent to the police chief’s office roughly two weeks ago.

The newspaper obtained a copy of the e-mail from Masoomi, who lives in Niort, France. She claims she is the sister of Rona Amir Mohammed and she also offered the stunning allegation that the dead woman was the first wife of Mohammed Shafi, the father of the three dead girls.

She provided photos that she claims show Shafi and Mohammed at their wedding in Afghanistan 30 years ago. The couple never divorced.

Masoomi said the marriage has been hidden since the family moved to Canada two years ago.

In interviews after the deaths, Shafi and the woman he presented as his only wife, Tooba Mohammed Yhaya, said Rona Mohammed was a cousin.

Ali Shafi, a 15-year-old brother of the dead girls, told the Whig-Standard in an interview July 8 that Rona Mohammed was his aunt.

“For some time, my sister, as well as the Shaficouple’s oldest daughter, Zainab, had been receiving death threats for social, cultural and family reasons,” Masoomi’s e-mail to Kingston Police states.

In an interview through translation, Masoomi, who does not speak English or French, explained that Rona Mohammed has stayed in regular contact with relatives in Europe, and has told them she feared for her life.

“She was really afraid,” Masoomi told the Whig-Standard, through her daughter, Elaha Masoomi. “There were death threats.”

Diba Masoomi said that Rona Mohammed married Shafiin Kabul, Afghanistan. When she could not have children, he took a second wife, a practice that is not uncommon in Afghani culture.

Shafiand his second wife had seven children.

Masoomi said her sister remained with the family and raised the children, even when they moved to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, 17 years ago.

TheWhig-Standardreached another relative of Rona Mohammed, sister Homa Kahoush, who lives in Sweden. She also does not speak English or French.

In an interview translated by her son, Naveed Mohammed, she also said that Rona Mohammed was Shafi’s first wife, a fact that was hidden by the family in Canada.

Kingston Police have refused to comment on any of the information.

“Nothing will be released until tomorrow,” Const. Mike Menor said late last night.

Police have scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. today.

“Police investigators are announcing a change in the status of this ongoing investigation,” police said in a release yesterday.

In interviews four days after the car was found underwater at Kingston Mills, Mohammed Shafiand Tooba Mohammed Yhaya surmised that the car ended up in the water as the result of a joyride.

They said their eldest daughter, Zainab, had taken the car without permission in the past, even though she did not have a licence. She was trying to learn to drive.

“My big daughter, she sometimes wants to try” to drive, Yhaya told theToronto Star.

The family said they were returning to Montreal from a family trip to Niagara Falls on June 29 when they decided to stop in Kingston because they were fatigued.

They had driven in two cars, a Lexus SUV and the Nissan.

They stopped at a motel for the night at about 1 a. m., they said.

The four women who were later found dead slept together in one of two motel rooms the family rented.

Yhaya said some time later, Zainab came to her room and asked for the keys to the family’s Nissan so she could get some clothes from the car.

The next morning, when she awoke, the mother said the Nissan was missing along with her three daughters and Rona Mohammed. The family could not reach anyone by cellphone. They filed a missing-persons report with police and drove on to Montreal, believing the other group had left without them.

Ali Shafi, who was on the trip to Niagara Falls, told the newspaper he could not remember at which motel the family stayed.

A longtime tenant at the Lord Nelson Motel on Hwy. 15, Bob Asselstine, told theWhig-Standard that he recalled seeing a large family, driving in two cars, silver and black, who arrived at the motel one evening a day or two before Canada Day.

He said he believed they arrived around 9 or 9:30 p.m.

The motel’s guest receipts for that night did not show that anyone by the name Shafi stayed at the motel, which is roughly two kilometres from Kingston Mills. It is the first motel visible to a traveller on Hwy. 401 who turns south onto Hwy. 15.

In the past weeks, Kingston Police have been collecting video surveillance footage from gas bars and other retail operations along the highway.

A Kingston woman, Shirley Gibson-Langille, told the newspaper that she’s certain she saw the four women who were later found in the car at Kingston Mills in the early evening of June 29, walking around the property.

Kingston Police said previously that information was incorrect.

Police were at the Shafi family home in Montreal on Tuesday evening for roughly three hours, according to a neighbour.

Mario Carpanzano has been a neighbour since the Shafis moved into the multiplex directly across from his home on Rue Bonnivet.

On Tuesday night, Montreal police officers parked in front of his house at about 6 p. m., accompanied by an unmarked car, he said.

“The police car came and parked in front of my gate. Then another car from Kingston arrived. It was people dressed in suits,” Carpanzano, 65, told the Whig-Standard yesterday.

“It had an Ontario licence plate,” he said when asked how he knew it was Kingston Police.

All of the officers went into the Shafi home. He saw camera flashes through the windows. Three hours later, at about 9 or 9:30 p.m., the officers left.

Carpanzano said the family remained at the house, including the father, mother and brother.

“I was on my neighbour’s balcony talking,” he said. “They waved at us and we waved back.”

Later, he noticed members of the Shafifamily leave in a van. He went to bed, so he didn’t know if or when they returned that evening. When he left his house at 5 a. m. Wednesday, he didn’t notice anything suspicious.

Rue Bonnivet is a tree-lined street in the middle of a predominantly Italian neighbourhood in the east-end Montreal suburb of St. Leonard. All of the houses in the district are four-plexes. The Shafifamily rented the middle and lower floors at 8644 Bonnivet.

The homes all have balconies where residents closely watch their neighbours’ comings and goings. Carpanzano said that over the past two years, many Moroccan and Algerian families and people of middle eastern origins have been moving into the area.

Since the deaths, Carpanzano said, the father, Mohammed Shafi, “always had his eyes red like a person who was crying.”

He said Rona Amir Mohammed “was presented to us as a cousin of the man.”

Carpanzano said the family members seemed to be close, but he did notice that Rona “was very often alone” when she went for walks.

“They were very private people. It seemed they didn’t have a lot of friends or relatives in Canada or Montreal. They were so close to each other in the family,” he said. “We didn’t notice anything different. The kids, they used to play with her.”

The only turmoil the family displayed, according to Carpanzano, occurred about a month before the deaths at Kingston Mills when the oldest brother told him that his sister, 19-year-old Zainab, had left home suddenly.

“The older brother said, ‘We called the police because my sister, she ran away,’ “ recounted Carpanzano. “From what we heard, it seemed she was going out with somebody the parents didn’t want and she ran away, defying her parents’ authority.”

He said the brother didn’t mention anything about her possibly having married.

“The only thing I know is he said she was seeing a guy, but the family did not agree with that. The family didn’t say why,” said Carpanzano.

Kingston Police have described the incident as perplexing from the start, noting that a car would have had to negotiate many obstacles to make it into the water at that spot in Kingston Mills.

There was no damage to any of the lock equipment, tables or other objects around the edge where the car is presumed to have plunged into the water.

The submerged car was first spotted by a lock worker who was preparing to move the first boats through the canal that day just after 8:30 a.m.

The car was resting on its wheels, its front end up against the lock wall, as if the vehicle plunged in backwards.

Police have never released any information about what was learned when autopsies were done on the victims.

– — –

TIMELINE FOR DEATH

What allegedly happened, according to statements from family and police.

June 30

* 1 a. m.: Shafifamily arrives at east-end motel driving a black 2004 Nissan Sentra and a silver Lexus SUV, they say.

* 1:30 a. m. or later: Zainab Shafi, 19, enters her parents’ room and asks for keys to Nissan to get clothes out of car.

* 7:30 a. m.: Tooba Mohammed Yhaya and her husband, Mohammed Shafi, awake to find Nissan missing. They go into police headquarters that morning to file a missing person’s report before heading back to Montreal.

* 8:30 a. m.: First boats head into locks at Kingston Mills. Parks Canada workers notice oil plume on water and then see a submerged car at the northeast corner of the upper lock gates. A police dive team is called in and the car and bodies are removed in the afternoon.

July 2

* Autopsies performed on the four women found in the car — Zainab, her sisters Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13 and their relative Rona Amir Mohammed, 50, described by family as their aunt.

July 3

* Police send two-man survey crew to plot the terrain around the lock station. There are very few hints of a car coming through the area and tire tracks don’t appear to be conclusive.

July 5

* Shafifamily buries the four dead women at an Islamic cemetery in Laval, Que. Further services are held in the coming days.

July 1 -10

* Kingston Police visit area businesses along Hwy. 15 to check security video and hotel logs.

July 22

* Police arrest three people but remain mum about further details. An afternoon news release announces a 2 p. m. news conference today to announce “a change in the status of this ongoing investigation.”

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Denmark: Terror Suspect Deported

A man considered dangerous to national security has been deported at the request of the national intelligence agency

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) has deported a suspected terrorist after he was arrested in Iraq.

Politiken newspaper learned from an internal source that the man, who has been a permanent Danish resident since 2002, was subject to the secret administrative deportation order and remains in an Iraqi prison. The administrative deportation means that even though the man was in Iraq during the hearing, he will never be allowed to return to Denmark.

The 37-year-old known as Aslan is one of ten foreign-born people that have had their residency revoked in recent years and deported because PET believes they present a serious risk to state security.

The law allowing these kinds of deportations was introduced seven years ago and they have been plagued with controversy as PET does not have to make their evidence public as to why they want the residency revoked and the suspect deported.

Aslan originally came to Denmark from Iraq in 1997 and received his residency in 2002. According to his family, he returned to Iraq in 2005 for marriage but was later arrested by the US military there on suspicion of terrorism.

According to PET telephone transcripts seen by the newspaper, Aslan had numerous contact with other men suspected of planning terror attacks in Denmark.

The records show that Aslan was in regular contact with some of the young men who were later found guilty in one of Denmark’s first terror cases back in 2005. In one phone conversation, the suspect complained to Aslan that there was no one in Denmark who would take action against the cartoonists behind the Mohammed drawings.

The man then passed on greetings to Aslan from the Turkish Dane Abdulkadir Cesur who was then arrested the next week in Bosnia. When arrested he was found to be in possession of 20 kilos of explosives and a suicide belt.

Aslan was also close friends with Mohamad Hamid, who is currently living in a Danish asylum centre with a tolerated stay permit after his residency was revoked. Hamid has previously admitted to having contacting with several terrorist organisations in Syria and said that Aslan may also have had contact with such organisations in Iraq.

‘But just because he possibly talked with these people does not make him a terrorist,’ said Hamid.

— Hat tip: TB

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France: Terrorists on the Moon

[see link for photo]

Seen yesterday on the front of Paris’ Institute du Monde Arabe was this coat-tail jumping load of revisionism. The very idea of putting contemporary Arab society, one of the most under-achieving, self-destructive, and violent in the context of the 40th anniversary of the US landing a man on the moon is, like so many other products of France’s pandering “cultural governance” types, simply absurd and vile.

The fallback position in all of these meme-constructing exercises, is to simply call it shabby street art, but for a class of people touting their advancement and sophistication at every turn in that area, there seems to be a awful lot of it. This class of French person, the government funded types who are rapidly becoming humanity’s circus people

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Islam: Ramadan, Rome Initiative for Inter-Religious Dialogue

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 21 — Four events have been arranged on the theme of inter-religious dialogue to be held during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, to reinforce relations between different religious followers in Rome and develop dynamics to encourage peaceful and harmonious coexistence. The events are being organised once weekly by the Islamic Cultural Centre of Italy and the Rome City Council starting August 22 when Ramadan begins. “Rome has the ambition and the vocation to be the city of dialogue thanks to the presence of the Vatican, the oldest Jewish community in Europe, and the biggest mosque of the Old Continent,” said Abdellah Redouane, secretary general of the Islamic Centre. Rome can really become a model of coexistence and religious dialogue “where each community, including the last one to arrive — the Muslim one — can really feel itself to be an integral part.” A city where relations with the First citizen are considered excellent, as Redouane recalled, both during the election campaign and after, as shown by the visit by mayor Gianni Alemanno during the holy month after his entering office. The secretary general conceded there are still some issues. “What is lacking is a person at the mayor’s office who deals with religious matters and there are numerous dossiers still open — male circumcision and cemeteries for followers of Islam, for example.” The area dedicated for the deceased of Muslim faith at Prima Porta is full, said the secretary general. “We want local authorities starting with the Regional Council to allocate a building where we can circumcise our little ones in full safety.” Other issues are linked to wider immigration issues. “We ask the city council to resolve problems linked to social services, public services and education,” said Redouane, “in schools our requests are the same as those of other religions that is that there be more scope to teaching religions other than Catholicism.”(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy, PD: Beppe Grillo Becomes a Member of ‘Luther King’ Association

(AGI) — Avellino, 17 July — Beppe Grillo is the card-carrying member number 40 of the Martin Luther King political club in Paternopoli. The enrolment was authorized by the secretary of the local association, Andrea Forgione, who wanted to launch ‘‘a strong provocation’’ to the national leadership of the party: ‘‘The Grillo affair constitutes a very serious precedent,” Forgione said. “In fact, no one should have the power to decide who can become a member and who can’t. Beppe Grillo is not a member of any other party and has no criminal record, so why should we membership to him? We don’t want the Democratic Party to become a bureaucratic party”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy, PD: Grillo Calls it a Fatwa, Cites Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’

(AGI) — Rome, 15 July — “The PD watchdog commission has issued a fatwa against me,” was Beppe Grillo’s comments on his being refused party membership. “In a single sentence,” he said, referring to the ‘hostile movement’ which has kept him from becoming a member, “they admitted that 1. there is a people’s political movement 2. this movement is ‘hostile’ to PD and 3.

whether or not a citizen can become a PD (in which the D stands for Democratic) member is decided on by a shady watchdog commission, not the party’s statute. The ‘Hostile Political Movement’ is hostile perhaps because its programme is the opposite of the PDL? While that of the PD is the same as the PDL? The Hostile Political Movement is the exact opposite of the PD in terms of programme, if you can actually say that there is a PD programme and not just tactical choices of a group of people looking for employment. I remember, for example, that Fassino and his wife have racked up a total of 13 legislatures. How many millions of euros have they cost and with what results for citizens? The Hostile Political Movement is hostile to a small group of people who, like the pigs in ‘Animal Farm’, are animals that are more equal than others and exploit the good faith and lack of alternatives of millions of citizens, it is hostile to those who put the thief Bottino Craxi in his own little private Pantheon.”

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Kissinger Never Wanted to Dial Europe

Whenever European leaders want to justify the drive for ever-closer union in foreign policy, they quote Henry Kissinger’s famous remark — “Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”. The comment is meant to epitomise Europe’s failure to get its act together on the world stage. The hope in Brussels is that if the Lisbon Treaty goes through, the Americans will finally get that single number to dial; it will be the new EU foreign secretary for Hillary Clinton, and new EU president for Obama.

The Kissinger “who do I call” remark was trotted out at almost every seminar I ever went to Brussels. So I’m delighted to add it to the list of “famous sayings that were never said”…

Reginald Dale of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington (and before that of The Financial Times) has written to me to say: “Kissinger never made the famous remark about Europe’s telephone number. According to the late Peter Rodman, who knew him well, the saying is apocryphal, and in fact Kissinger’s concern was the precise opposite — he was fed up with having to deal with a Dane whom he regarded as incompetent and ineffective, who was trying to represent the whole of the EU as President of the Council. Kissinger himself has disowned the remark, and it seems that he was actually seeking to divide and rule in Europe, rather than be restricted to a single voice on the telephone.”

Any more myths need puncturing?

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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UK: ‘Harsh Islamic Punishments Will Make Britain Safer’

London, July 22 (ANI): The Founder of Britain’s oldest Sharia court has said that harsh Islamic punishments, such as the amputation of limbs, will make Britain a safer place.

The Daily Times quoted Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, secretary of the Islamic Sharia Council, as saying that the enforcement of Sharia lawas “something to bring you more peace and security”.

Hasan, president of an East London Sharia court, admitted that that he doesn’t expect Britain to implement Islamic criminal laws as it is not a Muslim country.

He, however, added that problems such as ‘knife crimes’ would be resolved if harsher punishments were meted out because they worked as a deterrent.

Acknowledging the controversy surrounding any notion of support for hardline Islamic law in Britain, he said he was merely expressing his point of view as a devout Muslim. (ANI)

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: Big Brother State Wants Even More Spy Powers

Ministers were attacked by their own surveillance watchdog last night for wanting to make it easier for public bodies to spy on the public.

Sir Christopher Rose, Chief Surveillance Commissioner, also revealed Government organisations were using tracking devices and private investigators to snoop on residents.

And he warned that councils are still using covert tactics to check on suspected minor offenders, despite being banned by law from doing so.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Muslims Could Get Own Police

By Katherine Fenech MUSLIM crime victims could gain the right to have their cases overseen by police from their own religion, it emerged last night.

Police in London already give victims the right to ask for a Sikh officer to be involved in an investigation but the scheme could be introduced for other religions elsewhere.

Chief Supt Joanna Young, from the Met’s Criminal Justice Policy Unit, said: “If it’s a success, I would encourage the other (police) associations to do likewise.”

The project is intended to help investigate “honour” killings and forced marriages but Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said: “We’re stretched thin enough already. Are Sikh officers going to have their rotas changed so there’s always one on duty?

“It’s political correctness gone mad. We talking about the creation of a separate force within a force.”

But Palbinder Singh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association, said: “I don’t believe a white officer is ever going to be fully conversant with a Sikh.”

— Hat tip: Lexington

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UK: Police Powers for 2012 Olympics Alarm Critics

The government was accused tonight of giving itself draconian powers to clamp down on protests at the 2012 Olympics. Critics said the powers were so broad they would potentially give private contractors the right to forcibly enter people’s homes and seize materials.

Opposition parties and civil liberties groups criticised the powers as top security officials announced plans concerned with keeping the games, to be held mostly in London, safe from terrorist attack and from “domestic extremists” and public order problems like disruptive protests.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Sharia Penal Codes Would Benefit Britain Says Muslim Sheikh Suhaib Hasan

Hardline Islamic penal codes, such as the amputation of limbs as punishment for theft, would make Britain a safer and better place, the founder of the country’s oldest sharia court has told The Times.

Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, the secretary of the Islamic Sharia Council, said that the enforcement of such laws was “something to bring you more peace and security”.

Dr Hasan, who presides over a sharia court in East London that rules on civil matters such as divorce, emphasised that he neither sought nor expected the implementation of the criminal penal code in Britain because it was not a Muslim country.

He said, howe ver, that problems such as knife crime would be better resolved if harsher punishments were meted out because they worked as a deterrent.

Acknowledging the controversy surrounding any notion of support for hardline Islamic law in Britain, he said that he was merely expressing his point of view as a devout Muslim.

Dr Hasan, who was born in Pakistan and studied sharia in Saudi Arabia, was responsible for the introduction of the Islamic court system to the United Kingdom in 1982.

The Islamic Sharia Council began ruling on divorce cases for Muslims in Birmingham, and its remit has since spread to Leyton in East London, Manchester, Rotherham and Bradford.

Dr Hasan told The Times that such courts were a necessity for British Muslims dealing with personal matters such as marriage and inheritance: “This is a service we are providing to the community that can’t be provided within the British legal system.

“We don’t want to be in conflict with the British legal system at all; we are not interfering with it. We are only concerned here with the religious aspect, no more than that,” he added.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Kosovo Let Down by Failing Judiciary

Watching Francesco Florit in action, it is hard not to be impressed.

For a start, this judge from the north-east of Italy is speaking Albanian, apparently with some fluency.

He has been learning the language for less than a year, but more impressive still is the task he faces.

Mr Florit volunteered to work for Eulex, the European Union’s justice mission in Kosovo.

At the central criminal court in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, he trains and mentors local judges, trying to help them operate more efficiently, and also more fairly.

It is a challenging environment.

“Witnesses come before the court, but very often they are reluctant to speak the truth, because they are threatened,” he says.

“And they have a loyalty to their clan which is stronger than what they feel towards society in general.”

Intimidation

One of the Kosovan judges whom Mr Florit is mentoring acknowledges this problem.

But Hamdi Ibrahimi makes it clear that witnesses are not the only ones who face intimidation.

“We judges are dealing with organised crime, war crimes, and cases of ethnic conflict,” Mr Ibrahimi says.

“In most of these cases, local judges cannot take part, because of the lack of security. It’s a fact that we — judges and prosecutors — we are not safe here in Kosovo.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Serbia: Gay Pride March in Belgrade on September 20

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JULY 21 — Pride Parade 2009’s organizational committee says that it will hold a gay pride march in Belgrade on September 20, radio B92 reported. The organizers say that they will do everything necessary to avoid incidents like those that marred a similar march in 2001, when extremists attacked participants. According to a statement, LGBTs, their friends, relatives and colleagues in the struggle for equality and freedom will say: “Enough of the discrimination, it’s time for equality.” The date was chosen on the basis of a study conducted by a team of security experts, says Marija Savic from Pride Parade 2009. “The actual security study stated that the rally would be possible, and, although the rally is high risk, the study didn’t reveal anything groundbreaking. I must say that our goal was in some sense to receive signposts as to what steps to take, and to fit that in with our future work, which is cooperation with the police,” she says. The organizational committee states that the Constitution, which guarantees the right to diversity and the freedom of assembly, has made it possible to hold a gay pride parade for the first time in Belgrade. “Pride Parade 2009 will not, I should stress, be any act of provocation, nor any kind of parading. Pride Parade will be a political protest where we will say ‘no’ to discrimination, invisibility and hiding, ‘no’ to human rights violations, and say ‘yes’ to a fundamentally free society,” says Dragana Vuckovic of the organizational committee. The holding of Pride Parade 2009 has so far received support from the Ombudsman’s office, the Human and Minority Rights Ministry and over 60 NGOs, while cooperation has also been established with the Interior Ministry. (ANSAmed))

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Serbia: Media Report Competition on EU Integration Announced

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JULY 21 — Representatives of the European Commission, the Serbian government as well as Erste Bank presented a competition for the best media report on the European integration process for 2009, reports BETA news agency. The award will be given to contributions in five categories: television report, radio report, newspaper report, local media report and report in the field of small to medium-sized enterprises. The competition is open until Nov. 1, 2009. The award comprises an educational visit to Brussels where the winners will have the opportunity to meet with European Commission and European Parliament officials. Milica Delevic, the director of the government’s European Integration Office, said at a press conference that the themes of the competition were: “European integration, Serbia’s EU stabilization and association process, and above all its effect on the everyday life of citizens.” Delevic announced that “the process of European integration loses its meaning if the citizens of Serbia do not understand why it is good to be a part of the European Union” and especially underlined the role of the media. European Commission Delegation in Serbia chief Josep Lloveras said that the tender documentation for a new media support project within the framework of IPA 2008, in which the European Commission will invest EUR3.3 million, was currently being prepared.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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A Fading Mediterranean Dream

The Barcelona Process was scrapped without thought for its strengths or weaknesses. The result is a replacement that is worse.

The Union for the Mediterranean was born a year ago on 12-13 July, amid great fanfare in Paris. A year later, it has failed to justify its existence or the transformation of its forerunner, the Barcelona Process.

Nicolas Sarkozy — then a candidate for the French presidency — initiated what was undoubtedly an overdue debate on the state of Euro-Mediterranean relations when, in 2007, he suggested the creation of some kind of Mediterran-ean union. That debate was, however, soon overshadowed by the Franco-German row over Sarkozy’s unilateral and unco-ordinated approach, as well as his plans to exclude most EU member states. As a consequence, the compro-mise reached was not the result of a collective analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Barcelona Process, but was the product of bluster and horse-trading. The new union’s framework became the lowest common denomi-nator upon which the EU27 could agree.

Another problem is the size of the Union for the Mediterranean. The decision in favour of an all-inclusive and Europeanised union certainly had its benefits; for one, it prevented the duplication of Euro-Mediterranean co-operation frameworks. But French insistence on the inclusion of all Mediterranean riparian states and even the 22-member Arab League increased the number of actors with the power to block decisions. A lack of foreign-policy interests shared by its EU and non-EU members — or, at least, the absence of some shared standards — has stymied the union’s development.

Sarkozy also underestimated the dynamics that a bloated framework of 43 members with such different political, economic and socio-cultural backgrounds would generate. The result is that discussions have revolved around the statutes and the funding of the union’s future secretariat, the nationality and the powers of both the secretariat’s secretary-general and his deputies, and whether the European Commission should be allowed a role.

Consider also how the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays out in the Union for the Mediterranean. The conflict poisoned the Barcelona Process from its inception: it prevented any Euro-Mediterranean political and security co-operation, and resulted in the occasional boycott by Arab partners. But the Barcelona Process always maintained at least some momentum. That is not the case with the Union for the Mediterranean. Indeed, since the Gaza war in December 2008, France, in its capacity as co-president and self-proclaimed leader of the union, has allowed the Arab group to kidnap the entire union.

That deadlock was broken only on 7 July, when ambassadorial meetings resumed. But the prospects that the union will work in the long term, that it will be sustainable or that it will prove better than the widely criticised Barcelona Process are extremely bleak, a view shared informally even by some French diplomats. Why?

First, it is only a matter of time until a period of volatility in the Middle East prompts the union’s Arab members to flex their muscles again, throwing Euro-Mediterranean relations into yet another crisis.

Second, the enlarged membership of the union and creation of new organs will ensure decision-making is complex and time-consuming.

Third, the union’s preoccupation with project-based co-operation means that vital issues such as democracy, political reform and the strengthening of human rights and civil society will receive even less attention than before.

Fourth, there is the decision of the EU’s Swedish presidency to allow France to continue to co-chair all high-level meetings of the Union for the Mediterranean on the EU’s behalf, a situation that puts it at odds with the EU’s system of representation on foreign policy and with stipulations in the Lisbon treaty. This increases the risks of poor management and empty promises.

Eighteen months ago, non-Mediterranean EU member states, led by Germany, opposed Sarkozy allegedly in the interests of preserving a genuine, albeit flawed, Euro-Mediterranean partnership. Today, Berlin and other capitals are very passive. Perhaps that is no coincidence. But as the French say: Honi soit qui mal y pense…

Tobias Schumacher is a senior research fellow in political science at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology at the Lisbon University Institute.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Italy: Berlusconi Urges More Trade With Mediterranean Countries

Milan, 20 July (AKI) — Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday called for more trade between European and southern Mediterranean countries. He launched the appeal during a speech at the opening of the Mediterranean Economic and Financial Forum taking place in Italy’s northern city of Milan, the country’s business capital. Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak and France’s finance minister Christine Lagarde also addressed the meeting.

“Italy is the Mediterranean countries’ number one partner. One-quarter of their trade is with Europe and we want to see this proportion increase to one-third,” Berlusconi said in an opening address to the meeting.

Mubarak said the current economic crisis represented a “new challenge for us and for the world”. Poor countries risked “paying a high price” by losing competitiveness and becoming less attractive for foreign direct investment, he warned in his inaugural speech to the forum.

Wealthy European countries in the Mediterranean region should move to manage the recession “so that corrections do not negatively impact on developing countries,” Mubarak stated.

He urged greater dialogue between rich and poor nations and more cooperation among Mediterranean countries.

More than 230 environmental projects and projects to boost research and development and help small and medium sized firms in the Mediterranean are already underway as part of French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union initiative, he noted.

“The Mediterranean Union is alive and well,” agreed Lagarde in her address. The initiative is aimed at boosting trade and security cooperation between European and the southern Mediterranean countries and developing projects to help small and medium sized firms.

France will invest six billion euros via its development agency over the next five years, she noted.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Northern Region Looks to Expand Trade With Libya

Milan, 2 July (AKI) — The northern Italian region of Lombardy is seeking to expand trade with Libya, following a recent visit to Italy by controversial Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Business leaders from the regional capital and financial centre, Milan, intend to expand business links on a visit later this year.

“In October, we will organise a key business visit to Libya, in order to develop new ways to collaborate in the business sector,” said Claudio Rotti, deputy president of Milan’s special agency of the Chamber of Commerce for International Activities, also known as PROMOS, on Thursday.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a conference entitled “Developing economic ties between Libya and Italy-Lombardy.”

Data provided by PROMOS said that Lombardy accounted for 20 percent of total bilateral trade between Italy and Libya, worth over 20 billion euros.

“In the light of improving political and commercial links between Libya and Italy, Lombardy, being the engine of the Italian economy….has the task of playing a key role,” Rotti said.

Gaddafi visited the Italian capital Rome in June to boost political and economic ties (photo). In a speech to corporate leaders in Rome, he pledged to give greater priority to Italian companies doing business in his country.

Libya has earmarked spending of 11.8 billion euros to attract foreign investment to the North African country.

But Gaddafi — also the current chairman of the 53-state African Union — also warned that any company which took advantage of the Libyan people would be forced to leave his country.

In regard to Italy’s energy needs, Libya also said Italy would have preferential treatment.

During Gaddafi’s visit, Italy’s farmers’ association, Coldiretti, reported that the export of Italian agricultural products to Libya rose by 51 percent to a record 105 million euros in 2008.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Fisheries: 2 Mazara Del Vallo Fishing Boats Seized in Libya

(ANSAmed) — MAZARA DEL VALLO (TRAPANI), JULY 22 — Two Mazara del Vallo fishing boats, the Tulipano and the Monastir, were intercepted at sea this morning by a Libyan patrol boat which took them to the North African country. The incident occurred at approximately 6.40am, when the two fishing boats were in the waters north of Libya. Overall, 14 crew members were onboard the boats including 6 Tunisian nationals.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Bomb Explodes at Fatah Wedding Party

Gaza, 22 July (AKI) — Dozens of people were injured in the southern Gaza strip when a bomb exploded late on Tuesday at a wedding party for the nephew of former Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan. The attack took place at the wedding of Mahmoud Dahlan in the refugee camp of Khan Younis.

Police from the ruling Hamas faction arrived at the scene shortly after the bomb had exploded and found another unexploded bomb, reports said. The police said the bomb appeared to be a homemade device and that fireworks set off at the party could have worsened the impact of the blast.

Witnesses said that the explosions occurred while members of the Dahlan family were celebrating the marriage of their relative. The bomb exploded under a street stage set up for the marriage of Dahlan’s nephew Mahmoud,Palestinian medics said.

Reports on the exact number of casualties varied from 40 to 60 people, who included women and children. Palestinian news agency Maan reported that some 25 people were taken to Gaza City’s Nasser Hospital and at least four were in a critical condition.

Anther 30 were taken to the hospital in Khan Younis and at least ten of those injured were in critical condition, reports said. The groom was slightly injured in the explosion, while his father was in a critical condition, reports said.

Mohammed Dahlan himself was not present at the festivities.

The hated one-time chief of Gaza’s powerful preventative security force fled the coastal strip in June 2007 after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there.

He is currently a Fatah deputy and lives in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Palestinian territories’ administrative capital.

Local sources have said that they believe that there is a link between Tuesday’s bomb and previous bombs that detonated in several music stores, Internet cafes, and hair salons in recent years, allegedly carried out by Islamist extremists linked to Hamas.

Hamas has denied this claim and said their investigation of the scene had uncovered evidence that proved their innocence.

Since the death of the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat in 2004, the various political factions in the Palestinian territories have been seriously divided. The most dramatic and often violent differences have emerged between the ruling secular-nationalist Fatah party and Hamas, but divisions have also emerged within the Fatah party.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Breaking the Rules

It is clear from its latest report that the goal of Breaking the Silence is not to bring offending soldiers to justice or even to encourage reforms in IDF policy. If these were its goals, it would include names, ranks, facts, place names and dates; it would have released a detailed report to the authorities to encourage an investigation. Without this information, it is impossible to probe the veracity of the claims.

The organization’s efforts to defame Israel in the international arena are successful. Despite the precedent of previous claims made against the IDF being disproved, and without waiting for an investigation into the allegations, supposedly reputable media organizations such as the BBC choose to report them as fact. Defamation of Israel is the order of the day.

Breaking the Silence is misleading in its name and its aim. There is no silence to break. Israel is an open and democratic society that regularly criticizes its own actions, but this one-sided and shoddy report fails to stress the context of the war — a battle against Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians and it omits names, ranks and facts about soldiers and their stories.

THE REPORT writers are keen to thank their funders, which shamefully include the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, Christian Aid and OXFAM, two charities which have in the past launched vitriolic anti-Israel campaigns, as well as the European Union which gave them $75,000 to “contribute to an atmosphere of human rights respect and values” and “to promote prospects for peace talks and initiatives.” The EU is deceiving taxpayers if it is telling them that their money paying for this shoddy report is helping to promote peace.

If members of Breaking the Silence were sincere, they would be presenting accurate facts about terrorism, the goals expressed in the charter of Hamas, the deadly rocket fire coming from Gaza, the anti-Israel incitement and the ways the Palestinians have contributed to perpetuating the conflict and to harming the lives of ordinary Palestinian civilians. If they were sincere, they would be raising awareness about the moral dilemmas the IDF faces. But this vital context is missing from their account.

In response to this report, our organization set about filming testimonials and uploading them to a Web site called Soldiers Speak Out — a platform for Israeli soldiers to share their personal combat experiences with the world. The site, created by soldiers to share their personal experiences of serving in the IDF, contains testimonials from soldiers which contrast sharply with the reports of alleged IDF misconduct made by Breaking the Silence.

Breaking the Silence is breaking the rules for any kind of serious reporting. Its report is compiled from anonymous “testimony” from up to 30 people. In contrast, the soldiers who feature on our Web site give testimony on camera without their face blurred out and speak from their own personal experience.

The IDF has more than 700,000 citizen soldiers and reservists — thousands of whom served in Gaza in the campaign against Hamas — who try to live up to its high ethical standards. Attempting to slander an IDF campaign on the basis of the anonymous reports is ridiculous.

It is unlikely that the international media will give the Soldiers Speak Out site the kind of publicity they are currently lavishing upon Breaking the Silence. When it comes to Israel, good news is no news, but, as in previous occasions and despite those who exist to defame the IDF, the truth will out.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Civil Fights: Listen to the Left

Too many articles lambasting the continued Jewish support for US President Barack Obama have overlooked a crucial point: Many American Jews agree with his positions on Israel. Like him, they think Israel should completely freeze the settlements, withdraw to the 1967 lines and divide Jerusalem, and that peace would break out if only it did so. None of these views are shared by a majority of Israelis. But as long as American Jews hold them, expecting them to echo mainstream Israeli concerns over these policies is delusional.

What is genuinely puzzling, however, is why Obama supporters appear equally deaf to the anguished cries of Israel’s left, which has long advocated precisely these policies. When the editorial staff of Haaretz, a bastion of Israel’s hard left, pens three opinion pieces criticizing Obama in the space of 10 days, it ought to be clear even to left-of-center American Jews that Obama has an Israel problem.

THE FIRST, by veteran diplomatic correspondent and columnist Aluf Benn, appeared on July 10. Titled “The left went to the beach,” it sought to explain why Israeli leftists, who vocally supported previous American demands for a settlement freeze, have not rallied behind Obama’s. Not only have there been no demonstrations, but at a Knesset debate in early July, he noted, not a single MK urged compliance with Obama’s demand.

One reason, Benn posited, is that Obama never tried “to communicate with the Israeli public.” He “spoke to Arabs and Muslims, but not Israelis. His neglect increased Israelis’ fears that we do not have a friend in the White House.”

This impression was bolstered by “the administration’s pathetic attempt to deny the existence of understandings on settlement construction” between Obama’s predecessor and Israel: “It was possible to accuse Israel of violating its promises, or to say that the policy had changed and explain why, but not to lie.”

Additionally, “Obama obtained nothing from the Palestinians and the Arab states in exchange, and his insistence on a settlement freeze only encouraged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in his refusal to negotiate with [Binyamin] Netanyahu. Under these circumstances, it is hard for the Israeli left to blame the government for ruining the chances for peace.”

Finally, “the more time passes, the more it appears that the demand to freeze settlement construction was meant to demonstrate a distancing from Israel.” Obama has turned a settlement freeze “into a matter of honor,” and “when the argument is about who is stronger instead of the real issue, anyone who urges Netanyahu to give in to Obama will be accused of being unpatriotic. And the Israeli left does not want to be backed into that corner.”

Thus after six months in office, Obama has made even Israeli leftists, who enthusiastically supported his election, doubt his friendship with Israel, rendering them unable to support his policies without appearing unpatriotic.

And, equally grave, he has actually undermined the peace process by encouraging Abbas’s refusal to negotiate.

A week later, Haaretz devoted its editorial to the Obama problem. Titled “Speak to us, too,” it began by slamming Netanyahu for “entering into an unnecessary and harmful conflict” with Obama’s administration and “rejecting Obama’s essential desire” to bring peace. Obama’s presidency, it asserted, has created “a unique opportunity” for peacemaking that “it would be a shame to miss.”

But then came the punch line: “Now, the US administration must convince the Israeli public that it has a friend in the White House, and that the administration’s positions correspond with Israel’s national interests. After talking to the Arabs, Muslims and Iranians, in speeches and on television, it is only right that Obama also address the Israeli public.”

Again, the message was clear: Even Israel’s left wants convincing that Obama will not sacrifice Israel’s interests.

THEN, LAST Friday, star columnist Yoel Marcus chimed in. For all Obama’s goodwill, he wrote, “there is something naive, not to say infuriating, about his policy of dialogue and about the whistle stops he has chosen in his travels regarding our issue. He spoke in Turkey, he spoke in Egypt, he appeared before students in Saudi Arabia, Paris, England, Ghana and Australia.

Even there the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was mentioned… The only place he hasn’t been is Israel. He has spoken about us, but not to us.”

Moreover, Obama “is behaving as though everything starts and ends with the question of whether Israel will or will not freeze construction in the settlements,” completely ignoring such crucial details as that the Oslo Accords resulted in waves of suicide bombers and the Gaza pullout in daily rocket attacks. His “obscuring of the fact that the Palestinians have not managed to overcome their passions and be worthy partners for a peace agreement” is “upsetting.”

Finally, while “Obama assumed he did a great thing when he spoke in Cairo about the Jewish people’s suffering in the Holocaust,” the “implied distortion: that we deserve a state because of the Holocaust” is “infuriating.”

“As a leader who aspires to solve the problems of the world through dialogue,” Marcus concluded, “we expect him to come to Israel and declare here courageously, before the entire world, that our connection to this land began long before the Israeli-Arab conflict and the Holocaust, and that 4,000 years ago, Jews already stood on the ground where he now stands.”

In short, Obama is placing the onus entirely on Israel, thus absolving the Palestinians of any need to amend their behavior.

Moreover, by basing Israel’s claim to statehood on the Holocaust rather than the Jews’ historic connection to this land, he has fed the Arab fantasy that Jews are colonialist interlopers with no right to be here, and that the Palestinians are being sacrificed to atone for European misdeeds — thereby fostering Arab intransigence and unwillingness to end the conflict.

When even the hard-core leftists of Haaretz’s editorial board feel that a) Obama seems hostile to Israel and b) his policies actually undermine the peace process, his American Jewish supporters ought to take note.

Because no matter how sincerely Obama wants peace, a president who has lost even Israel’s hard left has no chance of delivering it.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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FM Invokes Hitler in Shepherd Spat

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s directive this week to circulate a 1941 picture of Hitler sitting with Jerusalem mufti Amin al-Husseini represents an effort to put international reports about the Shepherd Hotel controversy into perspective, after plans to build apartments at the site were portrayed by some abroad as another Israeli attempt to usurp what belonged historically to the Palestinians, government officials said Thursday.

The idea is to show who the original owner was, a spokesman for Lieberman said, to put the issue into some kind of context. “We thought the world should have all the facts,” he said.

The building was built in the 1930s for Husseini, an extremist Arab leader in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, and one of the heads of the three waves of violent Arab riots during this period.

After he was deported by the British, the building became a British military outpost and later, under the Jordanians, became the Shepherd’s Hotel. It became an Israeli district courthouse after the Six Day War, and was purchased by US businessman Irwin Moskowitz in 1985.

Some inside the Foreign Ministry objected to Lieberman’s directive to circulate the picture, saying the photo was irrelevant to the issue at hand.

“This is counterproductive,” a ministry source said. “If we want to argue that we have the right to build anywhere in the city because we are the sovereign there, that is one thing. But bringing in the mufti’s connection with Hitler just diverts the argument.

“This doesn’t win points, but will merely cause people to say that when the Jews can’t win an argument, they invoke Hitler.”

Another source deeply involved in hasbara work said that putting the focus on the mufti’s connection to Hitler when arguing for the legitimacy of the Shepherd’s Hotel project was simply ludicrous.

“This is providing a history lesson,” the source said. “But people don’t care about what happened in 1941, they want to know why we are taking certain actions now. They want to know what Israel is doing in the Shepherd’s Hotel in 2009.

But some experts saw value to the move.

Yariv Ben-Eliezer, a professor at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said that there was something to be said for taking an offensive public diplomacy position, rather then a defensive one.

“Jerusalem was never the capital of any Arab entity,” said Ben-Eliezer, who categorizes himself as center-left.

“It was always the capital of Israel, but the world doesn’t recognize it as such. It is our right to say to them, ‘Guys, look who are the friends of those who claim right to Jerusalem. This is called guilt by association’.”

Ben-Eliezer said that the Foreign Ministry is peopled by diplomats who “are used to talking in a politically correct manner and in cocktail party conversations. That is good, and maybe it helps develop person-to-person relationships.

“But if you are talking about propaganda it has to be for the masses, and not only politically correct. I want the whole world to know that they cooperated with the Nazis to kill Jews, and we need to defend ourselves not only in Jerusalem but everywhere else.”

Whether this approach is effective, he said, will depend on the results.

So far, however, the results seem underwhelming. Following condemnations from a number of European countries earlier this week calling on Israel to cease all construction in east Jerusalem, the French Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s Ambassador to France Danny Shek in for a meeting to discuss the matter.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said the ministry’s political director told Shek that France opposes any construction in the settlements.

According to Chevallier, “An immediate freeze in settlements, including in east Jerusalem, is indispensable for preserving the two-state solution and allowing the resumption of negotiations.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor responded by saying “a solution to the question of the settlements can only be solved through the achievement of a permanent peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The French know that very well, and that if they want to make a contribution to peace they should convince the Palestinians to resume peace talks with Israel immediately, rather than automatically repeating slogans.”

Government officials said that the French, in an effort to increase their visibility in the region, were jumping on the anti-settlement bandwagon triggered by US President Barack Obama’s position on the settlement issue.

The Shepherd’s Hotel controversy made the news on Sunday a few days after the State Department discussed the matter with Michael Oren, Israel’s new ambassador in Washington.

— Hat tip: TB

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Gaza: Bomb at Wedding Gives Rise to Fatah-Hamas Tension

(ANSAmed) — GAZA — Tension is running high in Khan Younis (Gaza) after dozens of people were injured when a bomb exploded during the wedding of a relative of Mohammed Dahlan, a Fatah leader forced to flee the Gaza Strip after Hamas took power in June 2007. Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan played down the importance of the event which originated, in the version he told ANSA, from a clash between rival families. He said that the explosion had been caused by a bomb which deafened those in the near vicinity, and that three suspects had already been arrested. From what has been reported, the explosive device had been placed underneath the stage. The explosion happened around midnight and severely injured the groom, Mahmud Dhalan, his father Mohammed and a boy who was standing next to the stage. The Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, former hardliner in the Gaza Strip and still working as an advisor to PNA president Mahmoud Abbas, is one of the groom’s uncles. Medical sources reported a few dozen casualties, estimating the figure at between 35 and 50. Palestinian press agency WAFA reports that 30 minutes before the explosion Hamas police had phoned the wedding’s organizers and asked them to immediately call it off. Immediately after the explosion, Dahlan family members then threw stones at the first Hamas police squads that reached the location and a protest was held at the site of the incident in which anti-Hamas slogans could be heard. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Illegal Outpost Dismantled in the West Bank

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 20 — The Israeli army has today taken steps to dismantle the illegal Jewish outpost of Adei-Ad, in the area of Ramallah in the West Bank. The news was broadcast by the settlers-run Channel 7 radio station. Twenty-five families working in agriculture currently live in this outpost, added the broadcast. As far as is known, the dismantling was carried out without incident. The news was confirmed by military radio, according to which the servicemen were preparing to dismantle a second outpost nearby. The Obama administration has been forcefully urging the Israeli government to remove dozens of illegal outposts in the West Bank over recent weeks. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Netanyahu Denies Removal of Barrier

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JULY 22 — The state of Israel has no intention of dismantling the barrier that separates its borders from the Palestinian territories in the West Bank. So said Premier Benyamin Netanyahu, who today claimed the wall was the primary cause of current peace and freedom from continued terrorism. “I have recently spoken to some who believe it would be possible to dismantle the security barrier because the situation in the West Bank has remained calm, but it is in fact because of that very barrier — as well as improved performance by the security forces of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) — that a state of calm has been maintained”. Netanyahu finished, dryly stating: “The barrier will thus stay in its place”. Netanyahu’s words represent an immediate answer to reports from the Maariv newspaper which reported the PNA had requested the American president Barack Obama to pressure Israel for the removal of walls and fences which restrict Palestinian territory. The line of defence — called the “security barrier” in Israel — is seen by a large number of Palestinians as a collective punishment, and an enduring sign of “apartheid”. The wall is 709 kilometres long — 85% of it through Palestinian territory, only 15% in Israeli. The barrier was erected under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, who had called a red alarm for Israeli civilians who had suffered frequent terrorist attacks from the West Bank. In 2004 the wall was ruled “contrary to international rights” by the European Union’s Court of Justice. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Vatican Teaching Hezbollah How to Kill Jews, Says Pamphlet for IDF Troops

The Pope and the cardinals of the Vatican help organize tours of Auschwitz for Hezbollah members to teach them how to wipe out Jews, according to a booklet being distributed to Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

Officials encouraging the booklet’s distribution include senior officers, such as Lt. Col. Tamir Shalom, the commander of the Nahshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade.

The booklet was published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, in cooperation with the chief rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, and has been distributed for the past few months. The booklet, titled “On Either Side of the Border,” purports to be the testimony of “a Hezbollah officer who spied for Israel.”

“The book is distributed regularly and everyone reads it and believes it,” said one soldier. “It’s filled with made-up details but is presented as a true story. A whole company of soldiers, adults, told me: ‘Read this and you’ll understand who the Arabs are.’“

The copy obtained by Haaretz included a Pesach greeting from Shalom, “in the name of the Nahshon Brigade.”

The story is narrated by a man named Avi, who says he changed his name from Ibrahim after he left Hezbollah and converted to Judaism. Avi says he was once close to Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, and describes Hezbollah’s purported close relationships with the Vatican and European leaders.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office said in a statement: “The book was received as a donation and distributed in good faith to the soldiers. After we were alerted to the sensitivity of its content, distribution was immediately halted.”

According to the book, Nasrallah was invited to join a delegation to tour France, Poland and Italy, including the Vatican. Nasrallah could not refuse an invitation from the Vatican, Avi explained: “We knew [the Pope] identified with Hezbollah’s struggle.”

The book describes the alleged visit of Hezbollah officials to Auschwitz, led by the Vatican: “We came to the camps. We saw the trains, the platforms, the piles of eyeglasses and clothes… We came to learn… Our escort spoke as he was taught. We quickly explained to him: Every real Arab, deep inside, is kind of a fan of the Nazis.”

The booklet also describes how European politicians and journalists ostensibly work against Israel.

“Our escort introduced us to important figures who identify with our causes. Rich people, people with authority… They allocate big budgets to all sorts of Israeli organizations that erode the standing of the IDF… We have a special budget for encouraging politicians and journalists who serve our purposes. Every opinion piece that conforms to our position is rewarded generously.”

Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, the son of former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliahu, is known for his extremist views, and was once charged with incitement to racism after calling for the expulsion of all Arab students from Safed College after a terror attack in the area.

The younger Eliahu was also behind an online video in which he described the “miracle of our matriarch Rachel,” whom he claims appeared before Israeli soldiers in Gaza to warn them of booby-trapped buildings during Operation Cast Lead.

“In some of the places we went in Gaza there was a woman who warned them… ‘Did they tell you who I am,’ she said, ‘I am the matriarch Rachel,” Eliahu says in the video. He claims his father confirmed the veracity of the story, and told him that he had prayed to Rachel: “I told her: Rachel, there’s a war… Go to God, Blessed Be He, pray over the soldiers who sacrifice themselves for the People of Israel, so that they will strike and not be struck.”

David Menahemov, an aide to Eliahu, claims the book is not fiction. “Avi is a real person and everything in the book is absolutely true,” insists Menahemov. “It’s a totally true story, I know the guy personaly. He’s an Arab, who even though he converted still acts like an Arab. We helped him to write and to translate it. We changed a few details to protect him and his family.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Analysis: Shi’ite Missiles, Zionist Cows and the Lebanese Army

By Jonathan Spyer

The explosions in a Hizbullah arms storage facility in the south Lebanese village of Khirbat a-Silm on Tuesday are testimony to the successful efforts of this organization to rebuild its strength south of the Litani River.

This success has come although UN Security Council Resolution 1701 expressly forbids a Hizbullah armed presence south of the Litani, and despite the presence of two military forces in the area supposedly committed to ensuring the implementation of the resolution — UNIFIL, and a contingent of the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Following the explosion, the Lebanese army maintained that it took place at a facility dating from before July 2006.

Hizbullah, for its part, initially tried to claim that the explosions were of Israeli cluster bombs scattered in the area during the 2006 war. The organization is now keeping silent on the matter.

According to the Lebanese media, Hizbullah members deployed in the area following the blast, preventing civilians from entering, as the army and security services began their “investigation.”

The explosion came as the Lebanese army was busy focusing on a different threat to national security — namely, violations of Lebanese sovereignty by Israeli forces close to the international border (the “Blue Line”).

According to Lebanese media reports, a clash between Lebanese and Israeli forces was narrowly avoided earlier this week…

— Hat tip: Barry Rubin

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Israel Sees Brazil Help With Iran

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Brazil perhaps “more than other countries” can help convince Iran to suspend its nuclear programme.

Mr Lieberman is on a 10-day visit to Latin American partly to promote trade but also to try to counter the influence of Iran in the region.

He said Brazil traditionally had strong ties with Arab countries and Israel and could be a “good negotiator”.

Mr Lieberman is also due to visit Colombia, Peru and Argentina.

Mr Lieberman is in Brazil, where he held what were described as “constructive talks” with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the capital, Brasilia.

Israeli diplomats had acknowledged that unease about Iranian influence in Latin America would be a major issue on this trip, and that Mr Lieberman would be keen to raise those concerns.

However while Israel appears uncomfortable with Brazil’s cordial relations with Iran, its foreign minister suggested this might also offer an opportunity.

“I think that Brazil more than other countries can try to convince Iranians to stop their nuclear programme and, of course, to convince the Palestinians to start direct talks,” Mr Lieberman said.

However Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim indicated support for Iran’s goal of nuclear development for “exclusively non-military purposes” and within a “verifiable framework”.

In what could be seen as a message for Israel he also spoke of the desire to see a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

No detail was given about any potential role Brazil might play but there could soon be a chance to test the idea.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly cancelled a visit to Brazil earlier this year, but is said to have promised it will be his first overseas trip after he is sworn in for a second term of office.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Jordan: Activists Protest Against Violence in China

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, JULY 22 — Dozens of protesters gathered today in front of the Chinese embassy in Amman to protest against violent incidents that lead to the death of hundreds of Muslims in China. Protesters chanted anti-Chinese slogans and called for an end to the violence, which claimed around 197 people died and more than 1,600 were wounded. They also held signs that read: “Stop the killing,” “Your blood is our blood and your religion is ours.” This is the first time that activists in Jordan move to condemn the killing of fellow Muslims in China, as public protests are not allowed without government approval. Riot police was visible in the vicinity of the embassy, but they did not interfere and the protest, which was organized by university students and activists from the Islamist movement ended peacefully. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Turkey: Women Drivers Double Over Past Ten Years, Official

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 21 — The number of women drivers in Turkey almost doubled over the past ten years, daily Sabah reports quoting officials. The number of Turkish women holding a driver’s licence reached 3.22 million this year, up from 1.66 million in 1999, according to statistics posted in the internet site of Directorate General of Security. There are 19.37 million drivers in Turkey and 83.4% of them are men. Rise in the number of men drivers was 34% over the past ten years, but the number of women drivers almost doubled with 93% increase since 1999. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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TV Sex Boast Lands Saudi Man in Jail: Report

A Saudi man has been arrested for bragging about his sexual exploits on a television program devoted to controversial topics, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

Jeddah resident Mazen Abdul Jawad was arrested after he appeared last week on the popular program Red Line on Lebanon-based LBC, the English-language daily Arab News said.

The 32-year-old bragged about havin sex with a neighbor at age 14, essentially admitting to premarital sex, which is illegal according to the kingdom’s sharia-based Islamic legal system.

He also gave a recipe for an aphrodisiac and explained how he picks up women in the segregated society where unmarried men and women are forbidden from mixing.

“It all starts with turning my Bluetooth on while cruising around in my car,” he explained to the camera as he was shown getting into his car.

The paper reported that about 100 people filed complaints to local officials, leading to his arrest.

“The program presents anomalies and deviancy in society that are unacceptable and immoral and should be punished according to sharia,” Ahmad Qasim al-Ghamdi, Mecca head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the religious police, said.

Jawad told another Saudi daily that he planned to sue LBC, claiming the show’s producers took his comments out of context.

The Saudi Airlines employee could face charges for vice and admitting he engaged in pre-marital sex, and if convicted he could be jailed and flogged, the paper said.

— Hat tip: TB

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EU Mulls Including US in Georgia Mission

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — EU states have started tentative internal talks on expanding the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) to include personnel from other countries, such as the US or Turkey.

The UK, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic at a meeting of EU diplomats in Brussels on Wednesday (22 July) spoke out in favour of opening up EU missions to third parties in principle.

The UK is at the same time exploring potential French and German backing for a Georgian request to invite US monitors to join the EUMM.

Some member states fear that a US presence would make the EU mission a target for attacks by Georgian separatist forces, however. EU officials also worry that the move could damage ongoing peace talks between Russia and Georgia in Geneva.

The discussion comes after Russia earlier this year pulled the plug on UN and OSCE observers in Georgia.

The withdrawals will leave the EUMM’s 313 unarmed officers and administrative staff as the only international entity in the post-conflict theatre.

“There should be an interest from all sides in building bridges with the US or other parties to make sure there is a wider presence, both institutionally and on the ground,” Georgia’s EU ambassador, Salome Samadashvili, told EUobserver.

US vice president Joe Biden on a visit to Tbilisi on Wednesday ducked press questions on prospects for US deployment. But a US official told this website that the US is “consulting with the EU and Georgia on the best way forward.”

“We believe a robust international monitoring presence is critical to conflict resolution,” the contact said…

Georgia has indicated that Turkey would also be a welcome addition to the EU team, with Turkey on Wednesday sounding a positive note on the idea.

“That would fit in quite nicely with our general support for any and all efforts to improve stability and well-being in Georgia,” Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said.

EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday are expected to extend the EUMM’s mandate for a further 12 months until 14 September 2010.

The EUMM can be enlarged to include other countries at any time following a unanimous decision by EU states. But a formal discussion on enlargement is not foreseen before September, when EU institutions resume full activities after the summer recess.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Afghanistan: Italian Defence Minister Rules Out Troop Withdrawal

Abu Dhabi, 21 July (AKI) — Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa has said that Italy will not withdraw its soldiers from Afghanistan despite calls from some leftwing politicians for it to do so amid rising international troop casualties. He made the remarks in the aftermath of the death of an Italian soldier last week.

“I have tried to respect as much as possible points of view that are not represented in parliament — those calling for the withdrawal to troops which are in my view mistaken,” La Russa said late on Monday.

He was speaking to journalists on his way to the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, before on Tuesday heading to Afghanistan to visit Italian troops stationed there.

La Russa was due to visit Italian troops stationed at a base located in the western Afghan city of Herat. The surrounding province of Herat and the other three western provinces of Farah, Ghor and Baghdis are under Italian command.

La Russa was then due to visit the town of Farah in southwestern Farah province, where more Italian troops are stationed.

On 14 July, Lance Corporal Alessandro Di Lisio, 25, was killed and three other Italian paratroopers injured while on patrol some 50 kilometres from Farah.

Italy currently has 3,250 troops in Afghanistan, the sixth largest deployment after the United States, Britain, Canada and Germany. It recently deployed 500 troops to the conflict-wracked country to boost security ahead of presidential elections due in August.

“One of the objectives of my visit to to verify the actual security conditions on the ground, that is to say our capacity and the possibility of increasing this,” La Russa told journalists.

There are currently some 58,000 international troops from 42 nations stationed in Afghanistan. The United States has approved sending 68,000 troops to Afghanistan by the end of 2009, including 21,000 that were added this spring.

The US troop surge is aimed at curbing the increasingly violent insurgency being fought by an emboldened Taliban, and the US would like other nations to contribute more troops.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Afghanistan: Minister Vows to Ensure Security for Italian Troops

Herat, 22 July (AKI) — Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa has assured troops in Afghanistan that security will be boosted in the aftermath of last week’s attack in western Afghanistan that killed one Italian soldier and wounded three others.

He made the remarks while visiting troops in the western Afghan city of Herat and the southwestern town of Farah on Tuesday.

“We must supply them with top security conditions so that they can carry out their work as well as possible,” said La Russa.

Italy also wants to increase the number of unmanned Predator drones deployed in Afghanistan to boost the troops’ security.

“I think this increase is overdue and necessary. I am here to understand your needs and see how we can increase the level of security,” he said.

He praised Italian troops for keeping up their morale, despite the attack last week against an Italian patrol in the western province of Farah that killed one and injured three others.

“I found them highly motivated. They are convinced of the importance of the duty they are carrying out,” La Russa told Adnkronos International (AKI) while at Italy’s Regional Command West base in Herat, western Afghanistan.

On 14 July, Lance Corporal Alessandro Di Lisio, 25, was killed and three other Italian paratroopers injured while on patrol some 50 kilometres from the Afghan town of Farah, located in the southern part of the western region where international ISAF forces are under Italian command.

Italy has 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.

There are currently some 58,000 international troops from 42 nations stationed in Afghanistan. The United States has approved sending 68,000 troops to Afghanistan by the end of 2009, including 21,000 that were added this spring.

The US troop surge is aimed at curbing the increasingly violent insurgency being fought by an emboldened Taliban, and the US would like other nations to contribute more troops.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Bin Laden Son Reported Killed in US Drone Strike

Osama bin Laden’s son Saad was likely killed by an American missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year, U.S. National Public Radio reported late Wednesday, citing U.S. intelligence officials.

Saad bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader’s third-oldest son, is “believed” to have been killed by Hellfire missiles fired from a U.S. Predator drone “sometime this year,” the broadcaster reported on its website.

The United States has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Qaeda. The U.S. military and the Central Intelligence Agency are the only forces that deploy drones to the region.

American spy agencies are “80 to 85 percent” sure that Saad bin Laden is dead, a senior counterterrorism official told NPR, while acknowledging that it was difficult to be completely sure without a body on which DNA tests could be conducted.

Officials at the CIA could not be reaached for confirmation and the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, told Al Arabiya they had heard the same report but coud not confirm it since they were waiting to find out more information.

Saad bin Laden, believed to be in his late 20s, was active in Qaeda but not a major player, the official told NPR, adding that he was not important enough to have been targeted personally.

Saad was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the official. “We make a big deal out of him because of his last name.”

Qaeda-Iran link

Former National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell confirmed reports by U.S. intelligence officials in January that Saad, a prominent figure in the murky relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda, was believed to have gone to Pakistan after spending a number of years under house arrest in Iran.

Also in January, in the last days of President George W. Bush’s administration, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Saad bin Laden and three other Qaeda operatives.

According to the Treasury, Saad bin Laden, who is believed to be in his 20s, was part of a small group of Qaeda operatives who helped manage the organization from Iran, where he was arrested in 2003.

He also allegedly helped facilitate communication between Qaeda’s number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, following an Qaeda attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen in 2008.

NPR said it was unknown whether Saad bin Laden was close to the location of his father, who is believed to be hiding in the rugged mountainous tribal belt along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, when he died.

American forces have stepped up their drone attacks in Pakistan since last September, targeting Taliban and Qaeda-linked militants in areas bordering Afghanistan like the Swat Valley.

The United States has carried out nearly 50 such air strikes since the beginning of last year, killing about 470 people, including many foreign militants as well as civilians, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani intelligence agents, district government officials and residents.

— Hat tip: TB

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Jakarta Mastermind’s ‘Wife’ Held

Indonesian police have arrested a woman believed to be the wife of the man who allegedly masterminded last week’s attacks on two hotels in Jakarta.

The woman, identified as Ariana Rahma, was detained during a raid on an Islamic school in central Java.

Ms Ariana is reported to be married to Noordin Mohammed Top, a wanted militant.

Police earlier released facial images of the two men suspected of carrying out the bomb attacks.

The police sketches of the alleged bombers were based on two heads found in the wreckage at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

The attacks killed nine people and injured scores of others.

It is unclear what charges Ms Ariana might be facing, but in recent raids in Cilacap police say they found bomb-making material at an Islamic boarding school and explosives buried in the garden of a house of Mr Noordin’s father-in-law.

Mr Noordin is wanted for plotting the bombings in Bali in 2002 and 2005, which killed 202 people, and other attacks in Indonesia.

The police say they are looking into similarities between the Bali attacks and the recent bombing in Jakarta.

Mr Noordin was said to be a key financier for the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah, but is now thought to have set up his own splinter group.

Foreign dead

The man whose remains were found in the Ritz-Carlton is dark-skinned with short dark hair. The police said he was aged between 20 and 40.

The second man, found at the Marriott, was lighter skinned and aged just 16 or 17.

Several foreigners were among those who died in Friday’s attack, including New Zealander Timothy Mackay, 62, president director of Holcim Indonesia cement company, and Australians Nathan Verity and Garth McEvoy.

Another of the victims was Craig Senger, the first Australian government official to be killed in a terrorist attack — he worked as a trade commission officer at the embassy in Jakarta.

Officials said 17 foreigners were among the wounded, including eight Americans and citizens of Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and South Korea.

Police say they are investigating similarities to the twin bomb attacks on Bali in 2002, which killed 202 people.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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China’s Economic Colonisation of Africa

Beijing offers African nations a lot of money on easy terms but in exchange wants raw materials and mining concessions, including exclusive contracts for Chinese companies.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China’s financing investments in Africa rose from less than US$ 1 billion a year before 2004 to about US$ 7 billion in 2006 and US$ 4.5 billion in 2007, according to the World Bank. Trade between the People’s Republic and Africa surged from US$ 10.6 billion in 2000 to US$107 billion last year. China now ranks as Africa’s second-largest trading partner behind the United States.

China likes to portray itself as an equal partner (using the 50-50 formula), with a desire to help developing countries. But increasingly voices are being raised in poor countries that all Beijing wants is their natural resources, indifferent of whether benefits are broadly distributed to the population or end up in the pockets of small elites.

Beijing is offering easy loans in exchange of raw materials and natural resources, but this practice is coming under fire for loading down already debt-laden countries with even more debt.

Last year China extended the Congo a US$ 9 billion loan to build railways and dams. Loans will come from China’s export credit agency, Export-Import Bank of China, but the work will be done by state-controlled China Railway Group and Sinohydro Corp.

For the International Monetary Fund the deal is bad because it is driving the Congo’s debts to dangerous levels.

Chinese investments and loans are certainly fuelling Africa’s economies which jumped by 5.8 per cent in 2007. However, not many local manufacturing and service businesses are emerging, which are crucial for medium and long term development.

At the same time there have been widespread reports about workers in mines, smelters and other operations run by the Chinese being poorly treated, underpaid and forced to accept unhealthy and dangerous working conditions.

In many cases in addition to managers and technicians Chinese companies often bring in their own workers. When this happens local economies benefit even less little from the Chinese presence.

To counter such view China has pointed to the advantages of its offers to African nations.

In fact Western governments and companies have been reluctant to invest in politically unstable African countries.

Angola is one example. In 2004 bilateral trade stood at US$ 4.9 billion. That same year Beijing and Luanda agreed to a loan by China’s Exim Bank. Under its terms Angolan government would get Chinese loans on condition that 70 per cent of public tenders for the construction and civil engineering contracts be awarded to Chinese companies. In return, China gained a regular supply of oil from Angola.

Other countries and international agencies have refused to extend credit to Angola without guarantees that the broader population would also benefit from loans and investments rather than have the money remain among its elites.

As of last year Angola is Africa’s biggest trading partner with China at US$ 25 billion; it is also the mainland’s third-largest supplier of crude oil behind Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“Those who oppose Chinese investment…. All they need to do is to equal the help we are getting from China,” the late Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa told a business forum in 2007. “We only turned to the East when you people in the West let us down.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Life for China’s Tens of Millions of Homosexuals Has Improved Markedly

The Economist 19.06.2009 (UK)

A further article reveals that life for China’s tens of millions of homosexuals has improved markedly, especially in big cities. “Gay and lesbian bars, clubs, support groups and websites abound. Chinese gays, who playfully call themselves ‘comrades’, have plenty of scope for networking. One surprising website caters specifically for gays in China’s army and police force.” Which is not to say that large-scale repressions are not still happening regularly.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Asylum Seeker Figures Soar in Finland

The number of asylum seekers to Finland more than doubled in the first half of this year, with many coming from Iraq and Somalia, accordng to the Finnish Immigration Service.

From January to June, some 2,680 people applied for asylum in Finland, compared to 1,030 in the same period of 2008, according to Finnish Immigration Services statistics.

Around half of the asylum seekers came from war-torn Iraq and Somalia, with 850 and 640 refugees respectively. The number of underage asylum seekers is also sharply on the rise.

But the number of applicants from Iraq has begun to slow in recent months. In May, authorities said that due to improved security, those coming from northern or southern Iraq or Baghdad would no longer be granted a residence permit unless they have individual grounds to stay. Individual reasons could include severe illness that cannot be treated in their home country.

Finland also faced soaring asylum seeker numbers last summer. The boost was partly caused by decisions in some European countries, such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Britain and Norway, to send people back to Iraq.

Finnish immigration authorities are struggling to process soaring numbers of applications, which means asylum seekers might have to wait up to two years for a decision on if they can stay.

— Hat tip: KGS

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Germany: Berlin Accepts Highest Concentration of Immigrants

Berlin had the highest concentration of immigrants in 2008, welcoming 13 new people for every 1,000 residents, a report from the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) said on Thursday.

The port city of Hamburg had the second highest concentration of foreign citizens, with 12 new people per 1,000 residents. Nearby Schleswig-Holstein had the lowest density of immigrants, with just five new residents for every 1,000 residents.

With 137,000 immigrants, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had the most new residents overall, ahead of Baden-Württemberg (121,000) and Bavaria (120,000), the report said.

“Compared with the previous year, the number of immigrants remained nearly constant. The years from 2001 to 2006 had seen a steady decrease in immigration,” the statement said.

In total, 682,000 people made Germany their new home in 2008. But the report distinguished between foreign immigrants and ethnic German repatriates, tallying up 574,000 foreigners and 108,000 ethnic Germans. Most of the repatriates came from Poland, the US, Switzerland and Spain, the report said.

The most foreign immigrants came from Poland, Romania, Turkey, Hungary and Bulgaria.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Inmates Deported Under New Oklahoma Law

BOLEY, OK — Nearly two-dozen illegal immigrant inmates in state prison were turned over Thursday morning to federal authorities for deportation.

A group of 22 inmates were transferred Thursday from the John Lilley Correctional Center near Boley to the custody of sU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Twenty of the inmates are from Mexico, one is from Guatemala and one is from El Salvador. They range in age from 20 to 61, and most have been convicted of drug crimes.

The inmates are eligible for transfer under a new state law because they were imprisoned for a nonviolent offense and already have served at least one-third of their prison sentences.

State Representative Randy Terrill of Moore was the author of the Criminal Illegal Alien Rapid Repatriation Act.

Read House Bill 2245.

“For too long, Oklahoma’s working families have paid the price for the federal government’s failure to control our nation’s borders. Now, thanks to the Criminal Illegal Alien Rapid Repatriation Act of 2009, the federal government will have to bear the financial burden created by these criminals who never should have been here in the first place,” said Randy Terrill.

He says the program is being considered by other states around the country and he’s proud Oklahoma is the first one to actually do it.

State prison officials say a total of 181 inmates currently meet the criteria for deportation. So far, 32 have been turned over to customs agents.

The state Oklahoma pays about $20,000 each year to house each inmate. That means deporting them will save the state almost $7 million.

— Hat tip: The Lurker from Tulsa

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Italy, Fini: Shortsighted Libyan Policy; Tripoli Reacts

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 21 — “Inadequate, disappointing and politically short-sighted: this definition represents the facts”. The President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini commented on the reply he received related to the request to set up a mixed commission of Italian and Libyan deputies to visit the centres where immigrants moving towards Europe are held. But Tripoli replied bluntly through Embarak el Shamek, secretary of the people’s general Congress, who stated that these centres represent an “internal affair” for Libya. Fini had made his proposal to the president of the Libyan Parliament after colonel Gaddafi’s visit to Rome. Fini explained that “I had suggested the tangible creating of a mixed delegation of deputies who would visit immigration centres in Libya to check whether human rights and political asylum guarantees were met in such places”. The reply from the Libya’s parliament was soon delivered, and Fini read it out to the press. Tripoli approved the mixed delegation, “but not for the reasons cited” in Fini’s request. Tripoli explained that the reasons were not shared because “there are no political refugees in the centres. As for human rights, Libya has issued the great Green Charter of human rights to protect them”. After expressing his opinion on ht letter, Fini stated that “In relations between Countries, respect of human rights and international conventions must come first”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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More People Are Leaving Germany Than Arriving

The German Federal Statistical Office has issued figures showing that, for the first time since German reunification, there were more emigrants from Germany last year than there were immigrants.

The number of immigrants was almost constant compared to the year before at 682,000, but the number of emigrants rose by 100,000 to 738,000.

Most of the immigrants came from EU countries, with 119,000 Poles forming by far the largest group. Only Turkey, with 26,200 immigrants, remains a substantial source of immigration from outside the EU.

Quite a few (108,000) were Germans coming back, mostly from Poland and the USA.

Big cities were their preferred destinations, with Berlin and Hamburg taking a disproportionately large number.

Meanwhile, the numbers of Germans and foreigners leaving the country continues to rise; altogether 56,000 more people left than arrived. The Statistical Office in Wiesbaden admits that its figures for departures are not perfect this year, because of administrative changes in local registration offices which have led to some people being taken off the registers who should not have been on them in the first place.

But it says that it’s quite clear that, while the number of foreigners arriving is still greater than the number of those leaving (+11,000), the sum for German movements is seriously negative (-66,000).

The Office summarizes: “The emigration of the Germans continues.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Netherlands: What Do Immigrants Cost Society? Asks PVV

Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party PVV has asked a number of government ministers to calculate exactly how much non-western immigrants cost Dutch society, Trouw reports on Wednesday.

The finance, social affairs, health, housing, education, economic affairs and defence ministries have all been asked by PVV MP Sietse Fritsma to calculate how much immigrants cost their departments and how much they contribute in terms of taxes.

‘The core of Fritsma’s questions is: The Hague spends relatively more on non-western immigrants and gets little back,’ Trouw states.

The paper says Fritsma has asked the tax office to calculate how much non-western immigrants pay in taxes compared with the native Dutch. The education ministry has been asked how much it spends on catching ethnic minority truants.

And the health ministry has been asked to say how much more money it spends on non-westerners because they are more likely to visit the doctor.

The party has asked for the calculations to be based on government spending over the past five years with a forecast for the next five.

Trouw says it is unclear if individual ministries will cooperate with the PVV’s requests or whether ministers will prepare a joint statement.

— Hat tip: TB

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Wilders: Calculate Cost of Immigrants

The anti-immigration party of Dutch populist Geert Wilders wants each ministry to make a cost-benefit analysis of the presence of non-Western immigrants and their offspring in the Netherlands.

When Geert Wilders first brought up what he called “the cost of multiculturalism” in the Dutch parliament last year, he got mostly laughs. Wilders claimed non-Western immigration had already cost the Netherlands 100 billion euros and speculated about how that money could have been put to better use. Every elderly person could have had his or her own room in a nursing home, Wilders suggested; we could all have retired at 50, “or we could have given everybody in the Netherlands a free sailboat.”

But now his Party for Freedom (PVV) is taking the matter up again in a more serious manner: PVV member of parliament Sietse Fritsma has requested a cost-benefit analysis of the presence of non-Western immigrants or ‘allochtonen’ (see insert) in the Netherlands from all twelve Dutch ministries.

That may be a difficult question to answer. For instance, Fritsma wants the transport ministry to calculate how much of the department’s expenses are due to immigrants. This would mean calculating, among other things, how many drivers struck in traffic jams throughout the Netherlands are immigrants.

The PVV also wants to know how much taxes immigrants pay, how often they go the doctor’s and what percentage of police interventions is related to immigrants

Fritsma wants every ministry to come up with figures for the current year, the past five years, and prognoses for the coming year and the next five years. It remains to be seen if the ministries will respond to the PVV’s request.

Some research has already been done into the costs and benefits of labour migration. Last year, Wilders quoted from a 2003 study by the economic policy bureau CPB, but that study did not have the 100 million euro figure. It is unclear how Wilders reached that figure.

The CPB study did come to the conclusion that immigrants cost more over a lifetime (in health care, education, pensions and social security) than they contribute in taxes.

The CPB calculated that an immigrant who arrives in the Netherlands at age 25 will cost Dutch taxpayers 43,000 euros over the rest of his lifetime. (The study did not look into second or third generation immigrants.) It concluded that the Dutch economy as a whole does not benefit from large-scale immigration, and that immigrants are not the answer to the ageing of the Dutch population. However, the study did recommend limited immigration of skilled workers for specific jobs that are hard to fill otherwise.

Economist Pieter Lakeman made an attempt at a cost-benefit analysis of immigration in the Netherlands ten years ago. He said he was the first to ever do so. In his book Binnen zonder kloppen (Enter without knocking), he argued that immigrants were a considerable write-off, costing the government 13 billion guilders (5.9 billion euro) a year. Immigrants from Turkey and Morocco alone have cost the Netherlands more than 70 billion guilders (31.8 billion euro) in the twenty years until the year 1999.

“Without anybody noticing, Dutch immigration policy has become one of the most wasteful forms of government aid around,” Lakeman told NRC Handelsblad at the time.

When the Dutch government returns from summer recess in August, ministers will have to decide how to respond to the PVV’s request: individually or collectively. The latter is the more probable. One thing is for sure: the PVV intends to make the cost of immigration the hot potato of the next political season.

— Hat tip: Steen

[Return to headlines]

Catholic Nurse Ordered to Help With Abortion

[Comments from JD: WARNING: Graphic Content.]

Mt. Sinai Hospital sued over baby’s dismemberment

A lawsuit has been filed against Mount Sinai Hospital in New York for requiring a nurse who had a long record of expressing conscientious objections to abortions to help in the dismemberment of a live 22-week-old preborn child.

The case is being brought by the Alliance Defense Fund, which also is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the hospital from retaliating against the nurse, Catherina Lorena Cenzon-DeCarlo.

“Compelling Mrs. DeCarlo to assist in this abortion against her religious beliefs exposed Mrs. DeCarlo to brutal psychological harm,” said the document seeking the injunction.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Vinland Map of America No Forgery, Expert Says

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) — The 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map to show part of America before explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the continent, is almost certainly genuine, a Danish expert said Friday.

Controversy has swirled around the map since it came to light in the 1950s, many scholars suspecting it was a hoax meant to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America — a claim confirmed by a 1960 archaeological find.

Doubts about the map lingered even after the use of carbon dating as a way of establishing the age of an object.

“All the tests that we have done over the past five years — on the materials and other aspects — do not show any signs of forgery,” Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, told Reuters.

He presented his team’s findings at an international cartographers’ conference in the Danish capital Friday.

The map shows both Greenland and a western Atlantic island “Vinilanda Insula,” the Vinland of the Icelandic sagas, now linked by scholars to Newfoundland where Norsemen under Leif Eriksson settled around AD 1000.

Larsen said his team carried out studies of the ink, writing, wormholes and parchment of the map, which is housed at Yale University in the United States.

He said wormholes, caused by wood beetles, were consistent with wormholes in the books with which the map was bound.

He said claims the ink was too recent because it contained a substance called anatase titanium dioxide could be rejected because medieval maps have been found with the same substance, which probably came from sand used to dry wet ink.

American scholars have carbon dated the map to about 1440, about 50 years before Columbus “discovered” the New World in 1492. Scholars believe it was produced for a 1440 church council at Basel, Switzerland.

The Vinland Map is not a “Viking map” and does not alter the historical understanding of who first sailed to North America. But if it is genuine, it shows that the New World was known not only to Norsemen but also to other Europeans at least half a century before Columbus’s voyage.

It was bought from a Swiss dealer by an American after the British Museum turned it down in 1957.

It was subsequently bought for Yale University by a wealthy Yale alumnus, Paul Mellon, and published with fanfare in 1965.

The lack of a provenance has caused much of the controversy. Where the map came from and how it came into the hands of the Swiss dealer after World War Two remain a mystery.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

I’ve written previously about Mullah Krekar, the Terrorist Laureate of Norway — see the links at the bottom of this post for earlier articles about Oslo’s resident Islamic radical.

The Malign Mullah is officially persona non grata in Norway, but he can’t be deported to Iraq because — wait for it — his human rights might be violated in his native country.

The Mullah Krekar circus has been playing now for years, erupting every now and again into newspaper headlines, and then settling down into quiet obscurity while the mullah himself continues to live well at the expense of the Norwegian taxpayer.

Now an episode of the NBC television series “The Wanted” has taken on the issue of Mullah Krekar. Many thanks to Steen for the five-part YouTube version below, in which you can see the reporters ask the tough questions during their expedition to Norway.

For more information, see Tom Shale’s review of the program, and here’s the official response from the Norwegian government.

Steen says, “I think NBC just made Siv Jensen the next Norwegian Prime Minister tonight. No other politicians dared participate in the program on ‘the Islamic Nazi’ — Bin Laden’s friend, Mullah Krekar. She was excellent. There are seven weeks until the election. It could not be any worse for the governing left coalition.”

This is the first part of the video, and the other four are below the jump:

– – – – – – – – –

Previous posts about Mullah Krekar:

2007		Oct		9		The Latest on Mullah Krekar
		Nov		13		Mullah Krekar: “Kill the Aussies!”
				29		More Mau-Mauing from Mullah Krekar
2008		Apr		17		Norway to Mullah Krekar: We Give Up!
		Jul		15		Free Speech in Norway Requires Police Approval
		Aug		5		A Mullah with Chutzpah
		Sep		27		Mullah Krekar Threatens Author With Death

This Democrat-controlled Congress is proving more and more picayune and pettifogging.

Unlike those times when the Republicans were in the majority and played by the rules, these feckless Dems look for new ways to obfuscate and delay, or to rush to pass laws and steamroll their opponents.

But then for the last generation or so the Democrat party has been opportunistic. As an example, they dragged their feet most dishonorably during the legislative battles over the Racial Equality Act of 1964. Once the law passed (through the Herculean efforts of the Party of Lincoln) Dems not only got on the bandwagon, they took over the reins. They did this through fear-mongering, shoving through federal legislation that would prove to infantilize the black minority by “protecting” them against the rich, country club Republicans. By such means they secured the black vote and have owned it ever since. The Republicans never saw it coming.

Up until that point, most self-respecting black people were conservative and Republican. Socially, they’re still conservatives, but they trust the federal government to take care of them and they do not trust local government to be color-blind, even when blacks are the local government. See Detroit and Washington, D.C. for prime examples of how this operates.

Such is my preface for the latest pettiness of the Dems in the 111th Congress. The Republicans have created a most entertaining (and scary) chart of what will happen in this country under ObamaCare. A picture being worth a thousand words from a gasbag, the Republican members of Congress wish to send this informative chart to their constituents, using their franking privileges to do so [click on image for larger .pdf version]

From Roll Call:
– – – – – – – – –

Democrats are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority’s health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate.

House Republicans are crying foul and claiming that the Democrats are using their majority to prevent GOP Members from communicating with their constituents.

The dispute centers on a chart created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan.

At first glance, Brady’s chart resembles a board game: a colorful collection of shapes and images with a web of lines connecting them.

But a closer look at the image reveals a complicated menagerie of government offices and programs that Republicans say will be created if the leading Democratic health care plan becomes law.

In a memo sent Monday to Republicans on the House franking commission, Democrats argue that sending the chart to constituents as official mail would violate House rules because the information is misleading.

[…]

The dispute over Brady’s chart is being reviewed by the franking commission, which must approve any mail before it can be sent. No decision had been made on the matter by press time.

Brady adamantly denied that the chart was misleading and said Democrats are simply threatened by the content of the graphic.

“I think their review was laughable,” Brady said. “It’s … downright false in most of the cases. The chart depicts their health care plan as their committees developed it.”

“The chart reveals how their health care bureaucracy works, and people are frightened by it,” he added. “So this is their effort to try and discredit” the chart.

Republican Members have made 20 requests to mail a version of the chart to their constituents and have been told that the requests are being delayed while the commission reviews allegations that the chart is misleading.

“Hiding the truth about wildly unpopular policies is a Democrat specialty,” said one GOP aide. “I’d like to see the flow chart on how Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi plans on implementing the open and transparent government she keeps promising everyone.”

“We have initiated discussions with the minority to try and resolve current differences and are operating in good faith to achieve that goal,” said Kyle Anderson, a spokesman for House Administration Chairman Robert Brady (D-Pa.). The committee has oversight of the commission.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), ranking member of the committee and a member of the franking commission, said through a spokeswoman that he is also aware of the situation and is working with the members of the franking commission to resolve the differences, but he added that he believed Democrats on the commission were overreaching.

That chart is a transparent illustration of what will become of us under the socialist medical care the Dems have planned for the rest of us. Remember, none of these rules will apply to Congress, who will continue to have the very best medical care and coverage in the country. This one is for us hoi polloi; it will not affect any Congressman’s health benefits.

No wonder they want to shroud the truth in preparation to burying it…and us.

This situation demonstrates a weakness in the Republican Party. The Dems are masters of propaganda, always have been. The Republicans, above all that and not wanting to get their skirts muddied, have been slow to catch on to any technology and use it to their advantage.

You could see this in the elections in 1960. Kennedy’s team had the concept of appearances well in hand, despite the reality of Bobby’s thuggish attacks. You could see it in the last election as McCain proved to be a technophobe.

We can see it in operation in this case: the Republicans have created a wonderful image, a great illustration of the future. And what do they do? Bury it in a .pdf that is hell to scrape out and pass around in emails, or put up on Facebook pages.

Get a clue, you guys in the Republican National Committee. Quit mumbling “me, too” and strike out on your own for a change. Those lines you see when you look in the mirror are the tire tracks of Dem steamrollers.

For a good look at a state Republican who has mastered the medium, see the Pubs’ candidate for governor of Virginia. McDonnell is leading a good race, keeping his opponent on the defensive. For example, he’s a good debater and his voice has that generic Eastern seaboard accent. His opponent, a country boy from the rural southwestern part of the state, is not going to go over well with the urban Democrats in Northern Virginia. When Mr. Deeds opens his mouth and they hear that country twang, northern Virginians will turn off. Thus, Mr. McDonnell has challenged him to ten debates. Mr. Deeds is desperate to limit their face-offs to three.

In fact, McDonnell looks so good that he has attracted the endorsement of Virginia’s only black billionaire, who also happens to be a Democrat. Sheila Johnson is crossing party lines to support Mr. McDonnell.

The deep and wide Democrat coffers will do little good against the likes of Ms. Johnson. Makes you wonder: will Obie show up in Virginia to campaign for Deeds? Should be interesting. One thing is for sure: if he does, it won’t be in rural areas.

Our Danish correspondent TB has translated an article about an enrichment incident in Odense, and the experience of two Swedish journalists who were inadvertently caught up in it. First, here’s what TB had to say about the events:

This story counts as The Cultural Enrichment News Story of the Week here in Denmark. It serves to illustrate many different aspects of ‘The Multiculti Paradise’. Among other things it shows how immigrant areas in Western countries slowly but surely become autonomous no-go zones where police are no longer able to work without military assistance. It is a small scale example of the problems that can now be observed routinely in France.

The incident took place in Odense the other day. At the beginning it is just a normal everyday Enricher vs. Enricher incident. But when Danish police enter the picture the whole setting changes.

The story has a kind of inner beauty to it since the whole sequence was observed by two journalists from Sweden who were in Denmark to cover the so-called “gang war”. Suddenly these representatives of the most pure and morally superior country the world has ever seen find themselves in a war zone, only to discover that there are no evil Danish bikers or gangs involved. On the contrary, they are given a firsthand Enrichment experience.

I cannot wait to see how (or if) they are going to report about it. I must admit that I found it difficult not to laugh my head off when reading about their reactions. Oh my, they probably do not even know that this is an everyday incident in good old safe Sweden.

And the translated article from Fyens Stiftstidende:

Swedish journalists caught in shootout

Journalist and photographer observed how the situation ran out of control Tuesday night in Vollsmose [a district in Odense]

Extremely uncomfortable, they both say

Vollsmose: It was actually meant as quiet talk with two young people from Vollsmose.

One of the last tasks for the Swedish journalist and the press photographer, who have been in Odense for the past couple of days to collect material for articles about the gang war for the big Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

But suddenly the journalist Ann Persson and photographer Anders Hansson found themselves caught in the middle of the shootout in Vollsmose Tuesday evening.

“All of a sudden, when we were sitting quietly and talking, we heard shots in the area,” journalist Ann Persson says.

“We were ‘stupid’ enough to go out to watch was happening and then everything went very fast,” she continues.

Three men in a Mercedes [ahhh yes, this is their favorite tank — translator]

Both experienced the following moments as if they were part of a movie:

– – – – – – – – –

A dark car, probably a Mercedes, comes driving by at high speed, three young men jump out and start running around as if they were looking for somebody.

“One of them has a gun in his hand. That I am 100% sure of,” Anders Hansson says the next day.

“He does not wave it around, but holds it against his leg. At the same time the man who was wounded has hidden in a shed and it looks like the three are looking for him.”

It does not take long before two police cars arrive at the scene and then the situation develops further.

“The three men try to escape the police, but they are stopped and the officers begin to search them. It happens as they stand up, not lying down as other reports have said.

“If they haven’t found the gun on one of them it could be because he succeeded in giving it to some of the many people who gathered in the area. He had the chance to that before he was arrested,” the photographer says.

Two elude the police

Anyway, two of the three manage to escape the police who, at this moment, do not have enough manpower.

One is in handcuffs while the other one is not. They run away to hide in the crowd, many of whom are kids.

“An officer shouts for him to stop or he will shoot, and after that people get very excited and the police have to back out,” assert Ann Persson and Anders Hansson.

Extremely uncomfortable

“It was extremely uncomfortable for us to witness [Guess they will need some psychiatric help when they get back to safe old Sweden — translator]. The atmosphere was very charged, and I have never seen anything like it on our assignments,” Anders Persson emphasizes.

That says a lot because Anders Persson has worked in the West Bank, Gaza, and the Congo, so he has seen a lot.

“But there you know to be on guard all the time because something can happen. Here it happened so fast and was so unpredictable and one did not know who was against whom. It was impossible to read the situation.”

Many kids were watching

Ann Persson also found the whole situation extremely unpleasant and has never seen anything like it before.

“It was very confusing. Because it happened so fast, one had no chance of finding out what was going on. It was strange that so many kids and youngsters were present in the middle of something as dramatic as this, and it was obvious that there was a very hostile attitude towards the police,” she says.

Home again

Wednesday the two representatives of the Swedish press were back in Sweden again, and they plan to have their articles ready to print in the paper during the next few days.

[…]

More photos

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Here’s a report on troublemakers “of an ethnic origin other than Danish” from today’s Jyllands-Posten, as translated by Signe. The translator notes:

It’s a trend. We often hear about this problem with groups of Muslims, who don’t to wash before entering a public swimming pool because they are embarrassed to show… whatever. It is just amazing how their disturbed relationship with nudity and sex and general antisocial behaviour rarely has any particular consequences for them. Political correctness, as usual, prevents management and authorities from taking the only sensible measures: denying the “troublemakers” access — permanently.

And the article itself:

Escorted from swimming pool wearing bathing suit and handcuffs

By LISE BRIX

A 20-year-old male was Tuesday afternoon arrested by the police in the hot water basin of a public swimming pool in Slagelse.

A 20-year-old troublemaker was Tuesday afternoon arrested in Slagelse’s public swimming pool and taken to the police car wearing only bathing trunks and handcuffs.

So reports the regional newspaper Sjællandske.

– – – – – – – – –

Trouble in the swimming pool

According to the newspaper a group of 10-15 youths has for a lengthy period been causing trouble for both staff and guests of the pool. “They break practically all the rules of the facility. They don’t wash, they jump in the water where it is not allowed, they swim where other people jump, they make “cannonballs” close to others, they are three on the diving board at the same time, they throw balls and toys at others, and they yell and make noise in the hot water basin, where it should be quiet”, says pool controller Jimmie Bjørch to Sjællandske.

Arrested in hot water basin

Tuesday, the police were called to stop the 20-year-old. When the officers found him, he was, according to Sjællandske, “partly submerged right under the diving board in the hot water basin.”

After he was arrested and taken to the squad car, the officers came in and collected his clothes. The young man got his clothes back, according to Sjællandske — along with a fine of DKK 500 (EUR 67).

The young troublemakers in the swimming pool are all of an ethnic origin other than Danish, according to Sjællandske.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

There has been another attempted “honor killing” in the UK, but it’s not particularly Islamic. No, not at all. Nothing to do with the Religion of Peace. We are enjoined to keep in mind the fact that all religions engage in the same type of behavior:

“…But this type of horrible crime is not exclusive just to Muslims, there have been cases in other religions.”

Yes, this is essence of what might be called the “Tu Quoque Thesis”. But if you collect reports of all such incidents and tabulate them, how many were actually committed by non-Muslims?

The “hijab martyr” who was murdered recently in a German courtroom received such wide publicity because she was so unusual. If the murderer had been a Muslim, the incident would scarcely have merited a line or two in the back pages of the regional dailies.

Here’s a video from Sky News about the latest incident in East London:

In the BBC version, only the Danish nationality of the victim is mentioned. If you relied on the Beeb, you’d have no idea that this was more than some weird Viking berserker incident:

Two men are due to appear in court charged with trying to kill a man by pouring sulphuric acid down his throat.

The 24-year-old victim, who is believed to be Danish, was also stabbed twice in the back in Leytonstone, east London, on 2 July.

But the The Daily Mail has somewhat more detail:

Cheating Wife Could Face ‘Honour Killing’ After Acid is Poured Down Her Lover’s Throat

A married Muslim woman has been warned by police that she could be murdered after her lover was attacked with sulphuric acid.

The 24-year-old Muslim man had the acid poured down his throat and was stabbed and beaten with bricks by four men.

He is not expected to live after suffering 90 per cent burns in the London attack, which blinded him and left his tongue destroyed.

The Danish victim, who is of Asian origin, is said to have ‘insulted’ her strictly religious relatives, which includes women who wear the hijab.

– – – – – – – – –

Detectives believe the family feared being shamed in the community.

Police are said to be discussing how best to protect the woman.

Her lover was attacked at about 2am on July 2 in Leytonstone close to a room he had rented to be near his married lover. She also lives in East London.

One witness saw the attack from her window. She told the Evening Standard: ‘I saw four men lashing out and kicking him on the ground. I shouted and they ran off, then one went back and started on him again.

‘The poor man got up and ran straight into a tree, then staggered back to his house, tugging at his burning clothes and banging on doors shouting for water.’

Another witness, Kay Dice, 52, added: ‘He was screaming and screaming, but he spoke little English and some people thought he may have just had too much to drink.

‘I thought he had a huge cross on his back, but it was where his skin had peeled away.’

The man had moved into a bedsit nearby a few weeks before but residents said they did not know his name.

Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford where the victim is being treated. He is not expected to live after suffering 90 per cent burns in the attack, which blinded him and left his tongue destroyed

Community leader Imtiaz Qadir, of the Active Change Foundation, said: ‘Honour crime happens a lot in our community, especially the Pakistani community, but we do try to educate the people.

‘It’s a cultural thing from back home. But this type of horrible crime is not exclusive just to Muslims, there have been cases in other religions.’

The man was on life support in Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, today where his condition is thought to have worsened.

Some Muslim women are at risk of honour killings for ‘shaming’ their family’s reputation (file picture)

A teenager and a 25-year-old were due to appear in court today charged with trying to kill him by pouring acid down his throat.

The two suspects, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will face Waltham Forest Magistrates this afternoon after being charged with attempted murder, Scotland Yard said.

Police have arrested seven young men in total in relation to the enquiry. Five have been freed on bail.

Honour killings have been recorded among Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities but occur predominantly in immigrant families from south Asia and the Middle East.

The perceived ‘dishonour’ is normally down to ‘unacceptable’ dress codes or engaging in certain sexual acts or adulterous behaviour.

The killings result from the perception that the defence of honour justifies the death of a person whose behaviour dishonours their clan or family.

A Home Office and police study found thousands more honour crimes including an estimated 400 forced marriages each year.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, the annual worldwide total of honour killing victims may be as high as 5,000.

Notice that the woman has been given an “Osman warning”, the same official notification that Lionheart recently received. In essence, the police tell you that your life is in danger from a specific person or persons, but that they can do nothing to help you. You’re on your own, and for practical purposes your choices are to flee the country as quickly as possible, or to change your appearance via plastic surgery and live under an assumed name.

“Diversity is Strength.”

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tips: Gaia and Vlad Tepes.

I was shocked to learn that Nazism has arrived on the West Coast of the United States along with immigrants from China. It’s hard to believe that the Chinese people who come to this country have become radicalized by the purveyors of neo-fascist ideology.

But it’s true. Check out the photo below of a San Francisco school — an educational institution, mind you! — that is now corrupting the minds of its multicultural students with the hideous doctrines of National Socialism:
– – – – – – – – –

This important photograph was taken by regular Gates of Vienna commenter Jedilson Bonfim, who says:

The attached picture is one I took of a place which can be seen in the Google Maps Street-View feature, at 744 Sacramento St, San Francisco. Although the image resolution on GM is low, the swastikas flanking the entrance to the Chinese school can be seen clearly in the image I’m sending you.

Once you’ve entered “744 Sacramento St, San Francisco” in the Google Maps search box and clicked on Street View, you’ll have to face south to see the school. Though it’s actually located at 755 Sacramento St, the address aforementioned is the one that will display the school.

According to a plaque next to the door, the establishment is the “Nam Kue Chinese School, founded 1919 by the Nam Hoy Fook Yum Benevolent Society — building erected 1925”.

Those WAYCISTS.