Iran’s envoy to the IAEA made a slip of the tongue when he asserted that Iran had a right to obtain nuclear weapons. President Ahmadinejad says that Iran’s elections were “fair”. And Egypt deported four Chechen students.

In other news, Halal salami is now available for Muslims.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, CB, ESW, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, Lexington, Srdja Trifkovic, The Frozen North, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	Financial Crisis
	BRIC Nations Call for Change in the Global Financial System
	Italy: Think Exit Strategies Says Draghi
	Latvia’s Budget Quarrel
	Senate Keeps Car Sales Stimulus in War Bill
	USA
	CAIRing About the Truth
	Democrat Media Opt for Government Control
	Journalist Threatened for Exposing Cover-Ups
	Obama Welcomes Berlusconi — “Great to See You, My Friend”
	The Historically Challenged President
	The Reality of the Sotomayor Nomination
	U.S. Military Teaches ‘Protesters’ Are ‘Low-Level Terrorists’
	Canada
	Canada Proposes New Powers to Police Internet
	Europe and the EU
	Berlusconi: Anthropologically Different From Hateful Leftwing
	Cyprus: Birth Rate Continues to Fall Below Replacement Level
	Czech Presidency Misses the Boat
	Food is Adapting, Halal Salami for Muslims
	Iranian President Allegedly Involved in Vienna Murders
	Italy: New Prison Plan Ready for Approval
	Netherlands Looking to French-Style Crack-Down on Internet Piracy
	New Lisbon Divisions Mar EU Talks
	One in Five Austrians Want a ‘Strong Leader’
	Spain’s History: Catalonia Rules on Opening Mass Graves
	Spain: Govt Vows to Take Guantanamo Detainees
	UK: Doctors Told to Give Priority to Gypsies
	UK: Hunt for Al-Qaida Targets Air France Crash
	UK: Use of Stop and Search “Unacceptable” Says Lord Carlile
	Balkans
	Serbia-Cyprus: Military Cooperation Agreement to be Signed
	Visa-Free Regime Urged for Balkans
	North Africa
	Algeria: More Than a Million Incomplete Homes
	Egypt Deports Chechen Students
	Media: Gaddafi Requests 8 Mln Euro From Moroccan Dailies
	Israel and the Palestinians
	A Jewish View of Netanyahu’s Speech
	Israel: End the Illegal Occupation of Jerusalem
	Netanyahu: PNA Calls for International Pressure
	Two Years of Hamas in Power in Gaza
	Middle East
	Bombshell: Iran Envoy in Nuclear Weapon Slip Up
	EU Envoy Says Turkey Takes “Tactical Step Backwards” on Armenia Thaw
	Iran: Ahmadinejad Says Election Was ‘Fair’
	Russia
	Russia Hopes “Down-to-Earth” Obama Drops Star Wars
	South Asia
	India Does Not Allow Entry to the USA Commision on International Religious Freedom in Orissa and Gua
	Malaysia’s Anwar Seeks to Block Sodomy Charge
	Far East
	Japan Warns That North Korea May Fire Missile at U.S. on Independence Day
	Officials: US Tracking Suspicious Ship From N Korea
	Australia — Pacific
	Soldier’s Death, Guantanamo Detainees Rattle Palau
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	African View: Big Men Do Not Die
	Immigration
	EU Must Help Cyprus Tackle Illegal Immigration, Minister
	Spain: One Dead and One Missing in Shipwreck
	Culture Wars
	Guess Who Fired Miss California
	‘Mom, Dad Better Than Certified Teachers’
	Terrified Teens and Twenties
	General
	Global Warming? Temps on an 8-Year Decline
	Srdja Trifkovic: Barack Hussein Obama’s Happy Muslim Rainbow Tour
	The Immorality of Laws Regulating Technology
	Universal Health Care: Evil in Camouflage

BRIC Nations Call for Change in the Global Financial System

But there is disagreement on immediate measures. Russia wants to replace the dollar as the reserve currency; Beijing prefers a gradual change over. National differences are brought to bear, such as the unresolved border dispute between India and China.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) yesterday ended their historic 1st summit saying the world needs a more diversified international monetary system that is less dependent on the dollar. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who hosted the summit in Yekaterinburg, invited the 4 emerging nations to “create the conditions for a fairer world order”. But experts observe that their differences still outweigh their common interests.

The four BRIC countries account for 40% of the world’s population and 15% of the global economy, for which they claim a greater voice and representation in international financial institutions”. They there was a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified global monetary system and urged support for a more democratic and just “multipolar” world order. There was no explicit mention of the US dollar or the United States in the statement, but the desire to remove it from the role of dominant International currency is evident.

However, a common vision on immediate steps is lacking. Medvedev called for a “more diversified” monetary system yesterday to reduce dependency on the world’s reserve currency. But China has over 2 billion US dollars in its reserve and does not want the American currency to loose its value now. Instead Beijing is in favour of a progressive extension of Yuan value across neighbouring states: yesterday the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, explained in an editorial that the substitution of the dollar with other currencies had already begun through bi- or multilateral agreements between states and that the process will be gradual.

Analysts observe that the differences between BRIC nations far out weigh their common interests. During the summit Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh spoke of the unresolved issue between the two states of the 3500 km long border. On June 15th only hours before the leaders arrival at the summit India moved an estimated 15-30 thousand troops to the border area as well as aircraft. Beijing lays claims to entire regions which India has no intention of ceding.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Think Exit Strategies Says Draghi

Crisis- driven expansionary policies will have to be curbed

(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Leading economies should start thinking about exit strategies from the recession, Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi said Tuesday.

In a speech in Berlin, Draghi said it was too soon to withdraw the monetary and fiscal stimulus pumped into the world’s economy over the last year but plans should still be made so that an exit strategy can be implemented as soon as economies are on the mend. “Even if it is premature to implement these exit strategies now, it is not too soon to begin designing them and to reflect on what conditions will need to be in place for their enactment,” said Draghi, who heads the powerful international Financial Stability Board. Group of Eight finance ministers on Saturday asked the International Monetary Fund to prepare recommendations on how exit strategies should be implemented when recovery is assured. “Exit from overly expansionary fiscal policies to reduce public debts and exit from the current stance of monetary policies to anchor inflation expectations are essential for both price stability and financial stability,’ Draghi said. “And finally, exit from the micro policies supporting banks.’ Only if consensus can be achieved on the cause of the crisis will there be a common view on the lessons to be learned, Draghi said.

He said “serious regulatory flaws” had played a major role in the financial meltdown, citing two examples: the removal in 2004 of the limit on leverage for investment banks; and the possibility for triple-A rated entities to underwrite Credit Default Swaps without posting any collateral.

Next month’s G8 in Italy had hoped to frame ‘golden rules’ proposed by Italy to prevent any recurrence of the present crisis but officials have said it is too early to learn enough lessons from the crisis to firm up such rules.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Latvia’s Budget Quarrel

Latvia’s health minister resigned Wednesday, saying he was unwilling to carry out deep budget cuts, in a sign of the political tensions emerging from the Baltic nation’s attempts to elude bankruptcy and win international aid.

The Latvian parliament on Tuesday passed a bill tightening the 2009 government budget by €700 million ($968 million), including cuts to education, health care, pensions and public-sector wages. Without the cuts, the country’s deficit was expected to balloon, as taxes fell while the Latvian economy contracted an expected 20% this year.

Trade unions plan a demonstration Thursday in the capital, Riga, to protest the budget, and the teachers’ union has called for Education Minister Tatjana Koke to step down.

“The cuts are terrible,” said Ariana Abeltina, spokeswoman for the Latvian Free Confederation of Trade Unions, which is organizing Thursday’s rally. “No one can survive,” she said, referring to plans for 50% wage cuts for teachers, an expected 20% reduction in other government workers’ salaries and a 10% decrease in pension payments.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis accepted the resignation of Health Minister Ivars Eglitis, the prime minister’s office said. Mr. Eglitis was unwilling to carry out deep cuts to Latvian health-care services.

Despite the cuts’ unpopularity, Latvian lawmakers Tuesday agreed to them at the urging of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The new budget is expected to satisfy the EU and IMF enough to win more than €1 billion in the next few weeks, the second tranche of an €7.5 billion emergency loan program established in December. The two institutions in separate statements Tuesday commended Latvia for its “courageous” action.

Tuesday’s budget move increased confidence among market watchers that the aid will stave off national bankruptcy and the abandonment of Latvia’s peg to the euro.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Senate Keeps Car Sales Stimulus in War Bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U..S. Senate rejected on Thursday an attempt to strip a $1 billion program aimed at spurring flagging U.S. car sales from a pending $106 billion war funding bill.

The Senate voted 60-36 to keep the program that would provide vouchers of up to $4,500 for consumers to trade in their less fuel-efficient cars for ones that get better mileage, a program known as “cash for clunkers.”

Republican Senator Judd Gregg had raised an objection to including it in the legislation because it did not include cuts elsewhere to cover the costs. He also complained the program also was not in the original versions of the war funding bills that the Senate and House of Representatives passed.

“There are innumerable places in this government, which is spending trillions of dollars a year, to find $1 billion to pay for this bill if it was a priority,” Gregg said during the floor debate.

The federal deficit is expected to reach $1.8 trillion this fiscal year, but other lawmakers emphasized that the autos program would cut pollution and stem job losses.

“We’ve seen the largest decline in automobile sales in 50 years,” said Democratic Senator Richard Durbin. “Plummeting auto sales have reduced production and it’s had a ripple effect across the economy, forcing dealerships and factories to close.”

A few senators complained that the requirements for improved fuel efficiency in the program were too small, as little as two miles per gallon, and tried unsuccessfully to push a more stringent program.

The overall bill, which is primarily focused on funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, is expected to pass the Senate later on Thursday. The House approved the war funding bill on Tuesday.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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CAIRing About the Truth

If you watch or read a report on Islam or Muslims in the United States, you will probably come across the acronym CAIR, which stands for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is the unofficial voice of Islam in America, mostly because government officials and the media treat it as such.

This leads to the question: Should they? My friend Congressman Frank Wolf says “no,” and he has very good reasons—as he told Congress last Friday.

Wolf’s interest in CAIR was piqued when he learned that the FBI had severed “its once-close ties with” CAIR “amid mounting evidence that it has links to a support network for Hamas.” Since Hamas “is on the current list of U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations,” such an allegation, if proven, wouldn’t only warrant the severing of ties, it would also call CAIR’s credibility into question.

— Hat tip: JD

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Democrat Media Opt for Government Control

Last month, I argued that big media are anything but “mainstream” in their reporting. I suggested they be called what they really are: Democrat media.

Anyone who still doubts that assessment hasn’t seen this June 16, 2009, Drudgereport headline: “ABC Turns Programming Over To Obama; News To Be Anchored From Inside White House.”

That’s right: The federal government’s planned takeover of private doctors, clinics and hospitals will be covered by a “news organization” that has turned its programming over to the federal government. “Questions” will be taken from those physically present in the White House “audience.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Journalist Threatened for Exposing Cover-Ups

A journalist who has uncovered evidence of al-Qaeda involvement in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 has been threatened with a lawsuit by powerful U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

[…]

The Lance book, Triple Cross, originally published in 2006 and now issued in paperback, includes a timeline, also on his website, tracing the history of some of the perpetrators of these terrorist acts going back to 1981. His book goes into substantial detail about the TWA 800 and Oklahoma City bombing cases and how government officials covered up the nature of these crimes. (Timeline website: web.me.com/netgraph1/peterlance.com/Home/Home.html)

[…]

Lance argues that one of the biggest intelligence failures involved the handling of al-Qaeda agent and former Egyptian Army commando Ali Mohamed, whose face appears on the cover of the book and who worked for the CIA, the Army Green Berets, and the FBI, even while he was helping al Qaeda prepare terrorist acts against Americans. He was eventually arrested on terrorism charges, convicted and sentenced to prison.

— Hat tip: JD

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Obama Welcomes Berlusconi — “Great to See You, My Friend”

Italian premier meets US president. Agreement over Guantanamo. Three detainees to be moved to Italy

WASHINGTON — “Great to see you, my friend!” was the welcome awaiting Silvio Berlusconi at the White House from Barack Obama, as the US president put both hands on Mr Berlusconi’s shoulders. The American president and the head of Italy’s government talked for over an hour and a half — longer than scheduled — in the West Wing of the White House.

GUANTANAMO DETAINEES — After the meeting, Mr Obama called Italy a “crucial ally” and announced that the Bel Paese would be taking three detainees from the prison at Guantanamo. Mr Berlusconi’s offer had evidently been accepted by the United States. In the afternoon, sources said that the possibility of taking prisoners would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. In the past, the United States had requested that Italy should take two prisoners of Tunisian origin.

“JUST LIKE WITH BUSH” — Among the topics discussed at the White House was the upcoming G8 meeting at L’Aquila. Mr Berlusconi expressed the hope that the summit would help to overcome the impasse in negotiations for the Doha round, the world trade talks that have been on hold for some time. On the subject of US-Italian relations, Mr Berlusconi said he was “bound by a pledge of gratitude to the United States, which gave Italy back its freedom after the Second World War. I am here to collaborate with President Obama, as was the case before with presidents Clinton and Bush”. He added: “I would be very happy if in the course of our relations we could arrive at a friendship. I would say we have started off well”. For his part, Mr Obama said that “Berlusconi is a great friend” and that ties between the two countries were now “stronger”. “We have made a good start”, said Mr Obama. “I always expect from Prime Minister Berlusconi a frank and honest opinion”. “Apart from the fact that I like Premier Berlusconi personally, our peoples also like each other, have deep ties and share a deep community of values”.

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

— Hat tip: Insubria

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The Historically Challenged President

Barack Obama, as Victor Hanson recently documented, may be our most historically challenged president ever. Some might think that the inaccuracies Hanson identifies are no big deal, but there are several reasons to be troubled by such ignorance.

First there’s the double standard of a mainstream media that for eight years scorned George Bush as a syntactically challenged ignoramus, and now gush over a president touted as an eloquent intellectual. Of course, the media have to ignore the fact that Obama’s eloquence is dependent on the teleprompter, or that he refuses to publicize his college transcripts, not to mention the numerous errors of fact evident both in his campaign and presidential speeches. Their assertions of his brilliance, despite gaffes such as those on display in Cairo, are like their assertions of Bush’s stupidity: wish-fulfilling myths serving partisan ends.

But more important is the danger to our foreign policy that such an ignorance of history represents. Particularly in our fight against radical Islam, history supposedly provides the basis of Muslim grievances against the West, especially the United States. Colonial occupation, imperialist aggression, the Western imposition of Israel on the “Palestinian homeland” in order to atone for the Holocaust——these sins of the West against the House of Islam are constantly put forth as rationalizations and justifications for violence against Western interests.

If history is to provide the foundation of grievance, however, then all of history is on the table, and that history must be factually accurate and judged by consistent standards. If, for example, the enslavement of Africans is an evil for which the West must take responsibility, then all slavery everywhere must be condemned equally. But when do we ever hear about Islamic slavery? In the three-century long heyday of Western slavery, some 10 million slaves crossed the Atlantic. Yet in the 14-century-long existence of Islamic slavery——still going on today in Africa in places such as Sudan——an equal number of black Africans were enslaved by Muslims. We hear all the time about the horrors of the “middle passage” across the Atlantic, but never about the forced marches of Africans across the Sahara desert, where thousands died of disease, exhaustion, and malnutrition. We never hear about the African men who had been castrated to be sold as eunuchs, if they were lucky enough to survive an operation in which not just their testicles, but all their external genitalia were cut off.

And don’t forget that slavery in the West was ended by movements of emancipation backed up by the British navy, movements that have not arisen from within Islam simply because the Koran does not forbid slavery…

— Hat tip: CB

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The Reality of the Sotomayor Nomination

Sotomayor has no more business on the Supreme Court than Daffy Duck, Pluto or Mickey Mouse. At least those three have not had 60% of their decisions overturned on appeal; a good indicator of what Sotomayor knows about the law and what consideration she gives to the rule of law when rendering decisions. And while all three are obvious minorities, they didn’t find it necessary to join radical ethnically-based groups like the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF, sister organization to MALDEF) or La Raza (means “The Race”), a group solidly behind the Reconquista movement—repatriating much of the west and southwest to Mexico.

[…]

Instead of being a melting pot as envisioned by our Founding Fathers, and as this country was for almost 200 years, we are now a pluralistic society, a society of many tribes of people, all identified along ethnic and religious lines. To this end, we have hyphenated Americans: Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Muslim-Americans and so forth, each demanding rights specific to their tribe; rights which are not in the common good and only serve to rend the fabric of the society as a whole.

— Hat tip: JD

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U.S. Military Teaches ‘Protesters’ Are ‘Low-Level Terrorists’

Become ‘dangerous citizen’ by ‘repeating the very phrases Founding Fathers used’

Just weeks after a scandal erupted over a Department of Homeland Security report that described as “right-wing extremists” those who oppose abortion and support secure national borders, another report is revealing that the Department of Defense is teaching that protesters are “low-level terrorists..”

The newest action to define those who disagree with positions adopted by the government or administration of the United States was revealed by blogger Dennis Loo at Salon.com.

— Hat tip: JD

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Canada Proposes New Powers to Police Internet

The Canadian government on Thursday unveiled new legislation to allow police to intercept data sent over the Internet and access web subscriber information in order to fight cybercrimes.

“High tech criminals will be met by high tech police,” said Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.

The proposed Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act would require Internet service providers to add interception capabilities in their networks.

Providers would also be required to provide basic subscriber information to law enforcement agencies and to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, upon request.

— Hat tip: JD

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Berlusconi: Anthropologically Different From Hateful Leftwing

(AGI) — Rome, 17 June — “I hope that next Sunday’s second ballots will represent the continuation of the victory at the European elections and confirm Italy’s preponderance which is not found in the leftwing, which is only full of envy, hate and jealousy”, said Silvio Berlusconi in an interview with the director of the Lunaset-Telenostra-Buongiorno Campania, Franco Genzale group. “The latest developments” Berlusconi continued in yesterday’s interview at Palazzo Grazioli “confirm that the left is focusing on personal attacks, while we are talking about programmes and projects. We are anthropologically different. Who looks at the others, appreciates the work of the others and loves freedom can only vote for the PDL party”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Cyprus: Birth Rate Continues to Fall Below Replacement Level

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JUNE 17 — Population and marriages in Cyprus are on the rise, while divorces and births are on the decline, Cyprus Mail reports quoting statistics released yesterday. The 2007 Demographic Report, published by the Statistical Service showed that the number of births decreased to 8,575 in 2007, compared with 8,731 in 2006. The total fertility rate (mean number of children per woman) was estimated at 1.39 in 2007, continuing to fall below the replacement level of 2.10 since 1995. For the period of 2006-2007, life expectancy at birth was estimated at 78.3 years for males and 81.9 years for females. Compared to 5,127 deaths in 2006, the number of deaths increased to 5,380 in 2007. The number of marriages increased from 12,617 in 2006 to 13,422 in 2007. Church marriages increased from 3,799 in 2006, to 4,444 in 2007, and civil marriages went up from 8,818 in 2006 to 8,978 in 2007. The number of divorces decreased from 1,753 in 2006 to 1,648 in 2008. In the government-controlled areas, the population rose from 778,700 in 2006 to 789,300 at the end of 2007, an increase of 1.4%. This increase was likely due to an increased net migration balance of 7,390 people, and to a smaller extent by a natural increase of 3,195 people. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Czech Presidency Misses the Boat

The Czech Republic’s six month presidency of the EU has been much talked about. For all the wrong reasons, argues political analyst Lukáš Macek in Mladá Fronta DNES.

It was supposed to be the grand finale of the Czech presidency of the EU: this June’s European Council summit, with all the EU heads of state in attendance. Instead, a boring summit is being held today under the presidency of a man [acting Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer] most of the conferees have never met before. And like as not, all they are thinking is: “At least it isn’t Klaus” [the Eurosceptical Czech president].

For all the EU countries but the Czech Republic, this is just another high-level meeting. A summit without any great ambitions in the life of the European institutions, though it might come up with some answers to current European issues. It might formulate some EU commitments to Ireland with regard to the Treaty of Lisbon. It might make some headway on the preparations for the upcoming climate summit, on the regulation of the financial markets, even on the nomination of the European Commission’s next president. But the meatier matters will be tackled under the Swedish presidency [in the second half of the year].

From our point of view, this was an opportunity passed up. It’s sad to see how low the expectations are for this major “Czech” summit. In discussing this Council meeting, the European press broaches all manner of questions, but says virtually nothing about the Czech presidency. And what about the Czech government’s press conference, where the government vaunted their “extraordinary” summit agenda involving “issues of extraordinary importance” and the fact that, “given the extraordinary complexity of the agenda”, the prime minister had paid visits to all his European partners to prepare for it? Regrettably, this relentlessly reiterated word “extraordinary” is extraordinarily at odds with the reality. And the meetings attended by the acting prime minister of this “government of experts” have precious little to do with the political action one might expect a European Council president to take.

Fischer’s government has one saving grace, though: it averted the worst. After the fall of Mirek Topolánek’s government [in March], many people were wondering what would happen if Václav Klaus were to chair the European Council in June. Thanks to Fischer’s government and Klaus’s ultimately conciliatory stance, at least we dodged disgrace and an international crisis. This grey formal situation in which we find ourselves has allowed everyone to save face.

In truth, this scenario reflects the whole trouble with our relationship to the European Union: we always manage to avoid the worst, but far too seldom succeed in making the most of our potential. Leaving aside the “We’ll sweeten Europe” campaign [an ambiguous slogan, also meaning in Czech something like “We’ll give Europe a taste of its own medicine”] and Entropa [a controversial sculpture by Czech artist David Cerny playing on national stereotypes], as well as the bland, passive course of the Czech political helmsmanship, all things considered the machinery of the Topolánek presidency, serviced by competent officials, functioned fairly well.

We are always complaining about being a small nation incapable of asserting itself. And so we do nothing, telling ourselves contentedly: “There you go: as we’ve always said, the French and the Germans call the shots!”

The EU presidency could have given us some self-confidence. It could have shown that we are a European country that knows how to earn the respect of other nations and how to get results. Our response to the “gas crisis” was auspicious. But after that, zilch.

Thanks to the professionalism of our officials in Prague and our diplomats in Brussels, we have scored some points. But absent worthy political representation, their efforts are for all intents and purposes invisible. It is above all our politicians who make — or break — the Czech Republic’s reputation in the European Union and give our country some sway. And they have failed the test of Europe.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Food is Adapting, Halal Salami for Muslims

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 11 — From Halal salami to attract customers amongst the 1.4 million Muslims now living in Italy, to ‘cow pooling’ (buying beef in bulk to save money) and garden products delivered by boat through the Venetian canals. These are only a few of the young entrepreneurs’ ideas to fight the economical crisis that were mentioned during the ‘Oscar Green’, the agricultural innovation awards sponsored by the younger members of the Italian Farmer Federation (Coldiretti), with the patronage of the President of the Republic. Winners received their awards during a ceremony in Palazzo Rospigliosi. With the number of immigrants having doubled over the last 10 years, Halal food is a market on the rise, with a 67 billion USD turnover in Europe. That is why Antonio Fernando Salis (Exporting for the Territory award) from the La Genuina di Ploaghe farm (Sassari) decided to prepare cured meats according to Halal rules (for Muslims) and Kosher rules (for Jewish), with lamb and goat meat. All products are checked and approved by an imam and a rabbi. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iranian President Allegedly Involved in Vienna Murders

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was part of a death squad that killed three Kurds in Austria, it was claimed today (Thurs).

Green party security spokesman Peter Pilz said Ahmadinejad had been involved in the killings in Vienna in 1989 and may have actually shot one of the trio.

Pilz said: “I have no doubt he was involved”, adding he may have pulled the trigger on one of the guns used to kill the men.

Pilz said new eye-witnesses had come forward who had identified Ahmadinejad as being involved in the assassination of Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran chief Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, his deputy Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar and Austria-born Fadel Rasoul on 13 July 1989.

He said a German weapons dealer had told Austrian investigators there had been a meeting in the Iranian embassy in Vienna during the first week of July 1989 at which a certain “Mohamed” who later became president of Iran had been present.

The dealer said the purpose of the embassy meeting had been to discuss illegal arms deliveries.

Pilz claimed there had been two Iranian teams involved in the assassinations — a negotiations team and an execution team. Pilz said Ahmadinejad had been responsible for gathering and preparing the weapons used and had been a member of the execution team.

Pilz said he had passed on documents on the case that had been translated into German to the interior ministry and the state prosecutor’s office.

Former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr has also claimed Ahmadinejad had belonged to the execution team in Vienna, and a number of media reports implicated him in the murder of the three Kurds.

The Iranians suspected of having killed the Kurds took refuge in the Iranian embassy after the murders and were allowed to leave Austria after the Austrian government came under massive pressure from the Iranian government.

The Greens spokesman called for a foreign-policy initiative to support democratic forces in Iran and warned: “A president who has probably engaged in massive election fraud, been responsible for the deaths of many journalists and Kurds in Iran and strongly suspected of murder in Vienna is not someone capable of respecting democracy and human rights.

“The European Union should not consider him credible.”

Meanwhile, more than 700 Iranians demonstrated in Vienna on Tuesday in support of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mussawi.

The demonstrators, who walked from the Heldenplatz to the Iranian Embassy, carried posters with slogans such as “where is my vote, election fraud in Iran, and time for a change” and chanted “freedom, freedom” and “free elections, free people” in Farsi and German.

Police said the gathering had been peaceful and passed without incident.

— Hat tip: ESW

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Italy: New Prison Plan Ready for Approval

Overcrowding to be eased by 2012

(ANSA) — Rome, June 17 — A plan to build new prisons in Italy in order to ease chronic overcrowding will soon be presented to the cabinet for approval, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said on Wednesday.

The minister said a total of 48 new cell blocks would be added to existing penitentiaries, two prisons would be renovated and 24 new county jails would be built by 2012 to create room for 17,891 inmates.

Because of the increase in the number and size of prisons, Alfano added, an “extraordinary recruitment program” would be needed to hire guards and wardens.

According to the head of Italy’s department of prisons, Franco Ionta, overcrowding in the country’s penitentiaries has created a condition of “maximum alert” because the prison population is rapidly reaching the level of “tolerability”.

As of May 31, he said, in Italy’s 206 prisons there were 62,961 inmates while the threshold of tolerability was 63,702 in structures designed to house 43,210.

In order to ease overcrowding, Ionta urged greater recourse to prison alternatives which he said was also more effective to reduce the number of repeat offenders. Unions and associations representing prison wardens, guards and other staff have been warning for months that the situation in Italian prisons has become a “time bomb” ready to explode.

Last week the secretary of the OSAPP guards’ union, Leo Beneduci, warned that “we are at the limits of the respect of human rights”.

“There isn’t a single bed available, only standing room only as we’ve exhausted all the mattresses too,” he said.

His warning came on the heels of a report from AMAPI, an association representing prison doctors, that 22 inmates committed suicide in Italian prisons in the first four months of the year — already half the total number of suicides in 2008.

AMAPI also stressed that record overcrowding had created a “time bomb ready to explode” and that inmates’ human rights were threatened.

Last month, the UIL trade union warned that Italy’s prison system risked “imploding” now that the maximum acceptable level of 63,000 had been surpassed and indications were that the prison population would swell to over 70,000 before the end of the year.

This followed a similar warning from the SAPPE police union which predicted that, at this rate, the prison population would surpass 100,000 within three years.

In order to deal with the current situation, SAPPE urged not only greater recourse to prison alternatives but also reorganising how inmates are housed based on their crimes.

The union also accused Italy’s politicians of failing to take advantage of a 2006 prisoner pardon issued to relieve overcrowding to make structural interventions.

On Wednesday, the Unknown Inmate Association, which is linked to the Radical Party, said that the situation in Italian prisons cannot wait until 2012 and that another pardon was needed to ease overcrowding.

The group said that such an initiative “would be a sign of good government”.

According to AMAPI, there are currently 16,000 drug addicts in Italian prisons, 21,400 non-European inmates, 5,200 suffering form viral hepatitis, 2,500 HIV positive and 6,500 with mental health problems.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Netherlands Looking to French-Style Crack-Down on Internet Piracy

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — In the wake of France’s imposition of its controversial three-strikes legislation aiming to crush internet piracy, the Dutch parliament has called on the government to also deal harshly with offenders.

A cross-party commission investigating the subject of downloading copyright content without permission found that such behaviour is rampant amongst young people.

The commission, bringing together MPs from the ruling Christian Democrats, their Labour Party coalition partners, the conservative VVD and the far-left Socialists, issued a report on Thursday (18 June) that revealed that it has become a kind of sport to download films from the internet before they have even been released in movie theatres.

Currently in the Netherlands, only the uploading of such content to the internet is a punishable offence, but not downloading.

The MPs want the government to bring in new legislation to change that situation and calls on justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin and economy minister Maria van der Hoeven to crack down on internet piracy.

The report argues that parents should be held responsible for the downloading activity of their children.

Campaigners against the French three strikes bill fear that the country is inspiring copycat legislation elsewhere in Europe and attacked the Dutch MPs report.

“Governments must realise that the cost of repression exceeds by far the benefits and most of the time harms civil liberties,” Jeremie Zimmerman of La Quadrature du Net, an internet freedom pressure group, told EUobserver in reaction to the release of the report.

“File-sharing is unstoppable anyway. The real question will be about how to use it to find new ways of funding creation. All conservative and repressive measures are bound to fail.”

The commission’s report also recommended that a new licensing framework be introduced in which music, films and video games could be downloaded for a fee.

The report also calls for the elimination of the levy imposed on CDs and DVDs within three years to reduce consumer prices.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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New Lisbon Divisions Mar EU Talks

EU talks on the Lisbon Treaty have been marred by a rift over demands made by the Republic of Ireland — which rejected the treaty in a 2008 vote.

Irish PM Brian Cowen wants a protocol put into the EU’s founding treaty to safeguard Ireland’s sovereignty over its military, tax and abortion laws.

Some EU countries fear reopening the debate may encourage treaty opponents.

The EU leaders did agree in principle to a new framework of rules to oversee the financial sector.

And they also gave unanimous backing to a motion nominating Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as president of the European Commission.

Second referendum?

The Lisbon Treaty is a complex set of institutional changes aimed at making the enlarged EU more efficient. It replaced the EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Supporters want to avoid any new round of referendums on it, after years of negotiations.

Opponents see the treaty as part of a federalist agenda aimed at weakening national sovereignty.

The treaty has been ratified in most EU countries and the second Irish referendum — expected to be in October — is the biggest remaining hurdle.

“ I just want to make sure it solves their problem without creating problems for anyone else “

Fredrik Reinfeldt Swedish Prime Minister

The Irish government says fears that the EU might be able to override Irish policies on military neutrality, tax and abortion were among factors prompting voters to reject the treaty in a referendum last year.

The EU guarantees — still under discussion — are designed to allay such fears.

“This is necessary if I am to call, and win, a second referendum,” Mr Cowen said in a letter to UK leader Gordon Brown.

Even though it has passed their parliaments, the Eurosceptic Czech and Polish presidents have refused to sign the treaty unless it passes the Irish referendum.

But the British Conservatives’ pledge to hold a referendum, if elected, means pro-treaty governments now face a race against time, says the BBC’s Laurence Peter in Brussels.

Sweden, which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency next month, does not want any further delays over Lisbon.

Referring to the Irish guarantees, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said: “I just want to make sure it solves their problem without creating problems for anyone else.”

Czech PM Jan Fischer, chairing the summit, said there was a “sound basis” for an agreement with Ireland.

“There won’t be any reopening of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The positions are getting closer. The question is how to construe the word ‘protocol’,” he said.

Financial watchdog

EU officials say there is a deal in principle on a new EU-wide system of financial supervision, with even Mr Brown accepting the need for harmonised rules.

But the UK does not want the European Central Bank to have the key supervisory role in a new European Systemic Risk Board, which will look out for any threats to financial stability across the EU.

There are also concerns that new European regulators would be able to overrule a national government, for example by instructing it to bail out a particular firm.

The delegations are now working to establish the new supervisors’ competencies, before the fine details are worked out by the Commission.

Many of the delegations called for Commission proposals on financial regulation before September, EU officials said.

The discussions centre on recommendations by an expert panel headed by Jacques de Larosiere, a former IMF managing director.

The leaders had the easier task of nominating the conservative Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as EU Commission president.

He had no rival — and even had backing from some centre-left leaders.

Sweden’s PM Fredrik Reinfeldt said: “This is not the time to make confusions in the EU leadership… he has broad support.”

The summit will also touch on preparations for the UN conference on climate change, coming up in December.

The Czech Republic, chairing its last summit as EU president, wants the debate to focus on EU support for developing countries, to help them mitigate the effects of climate change.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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One in Five Austrians Want a ‘Strong Leader’

A study reveals that six per cent of Austrians would welcome a military dictatorship.

The analysis, conducted by group of political analyst led by Christian Friesl, also found that half of Austrians are unhappy with democracy.

One in five people interviewed expressed a desire for a “strong leader,” while 50 per cent said they would like foreigners kicked out of the country if the situation in the labour market worsened.

Another result of the research is that general interest in politics has decreased over the past ten years.

— Hat tip: ESW

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Spain’s History: Catalonia Rules on Opening Mass Graves

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — The Catalonian community will be the first in Spain to track down and exhume remains of victims and those who disappeared during Spain’s period of civil war and dictatorship thanks to a law that has been approved today. The bill, which was supported by tripartite PSC-ERC and ICV government and the CIU nationalists, while being opposed by the Popular party, recognises the rights of citizens to obtain information about the fates of disappeared family members. It also recognises their right to be informed about where the remains of family members have been buried and, if necessary, to have them recovered. Requests for exhumation have to be made by family members initially or by institutions or bodies dedicated to recovering historical records; a technical committee will then be charged with authorization after having verified the necessary documentary evidence. The report of the technical committee will then go to the Generalitat for its final decision. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: Govt Vows to Take Guantanamo Detainees

Madrid, 17 June (AKI) — The Spanish government said on Wednesday it would host from three to five Guantanamo detainees to help United States president Barack Obama close the controversial military prison in Cuba. According to Spanish daily El Pais, Obama’s special envoy for the closure of Guantanamo, Daniel Fried, was on Wednesday due to present a list of detainees — of Syrian and Tunisian origin — who have voluntarily chosen to live in Spain.

Apart from the list, the Spanish government said it also wanted all available information on the detainees. This includes confidential information, such as the reason why they were detained and the level of risk for the host country.

Obama has pledged to close the controversial prison by early next year and his administration wants to transfer the detainees to other countries or US communities.

Unlike other European governments, Spain does not require that the detainees have any links with Spain, but instead, only that they chose Spain as their preferred destination and have no criminal record.

El Pais said it was not yet clear who would pay for the costs of the ex-Guantanamo inmates’ stay in Spain or their monitoring and the detainees would not be allowed to leave Spain.

Spain’s decision was revealed as Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi reaffirmed Italy’s commitment to accept three detainees from the US prison.

“We cannot say ‘Close the prison and then not give a hand’,” Berlusconi said in an Italian television interview on Wednesday.

“(Foreign affairs minister Francesco) Frattini convinced other colleagues to agree to accept them. The countries that have agreed to take the prisoners are apart from us Portugal, Spain, France and perhaps Poland. So this is already a good start.”

The European Union has endorsed a deal with Washington to transfer some inmates to Europe.

A joint statement by Brussels and Washington said the EU backed the decision by the United States to close Guantanamo and set out a framework for cooperation under which member states would be able to receive released detainees.

EU officials say member states could accept about 60 former detainees. The issue is controversial because Europe’s Schengen open borders mean a former inmate accepted by one state could travel freely through most of the region.

Last week, the US relocated nine detainees from the camp, transferring three to Saudi Arabia, four to Bermuda, one to Iraq and another to Chad.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: Doctors Told to Give Priority to Gypsies

Gypsies and travellers should be given priority in NHS hospitals and GP surgeries, according to Government guidance.

They should be given longer consultations, and should be seen by GPs when they walk in without an appointment, even if doctors are fully-booked.

The average length of a consultation is five or ten minutes but travellers will be given 20 minutes and allowed to bring relatives into the consulting rooms.

The guidelines have been introduced because, under race laws, gypsies and travellers are defined as minority ethnic groups and the NHS is obliged to consider their special needs and circumstances.

Yet no special treatment is promised for other groups such as those from the Asian sub-continent or Africa, the Daily Mail reported.

The guidance forms part of the Primary Care Service Framework, drawn up by the NHS Primary Care Commissioning — an advisory service for local health trusts — to help all PCTs understand the Department of Health’s policy.

It will go on trial for between three and five years, Although PCTs do not necessarily have to follow the guidelines, they could be breaking human rights law and the Race Relations Act of 2000 if they do not.

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: “No one should get priority treatment in the NHS apart from our Armed Forces, to whom we owe a special debt of gratitude.

“Decisions about who should be treated first should be based on a patient’s medical needs, not their ethnic group.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are aware that gypsies and travellers have experienced tremendous difficulties in accessing primary care.

“Partly as a result, community members experience the worst health inequalities of any disadvantaged group.

“The framework suggests fast-tracking for two reasons. First, as a matter of urgency, inroads need to be made into the health problems of gypsies and travellers.

“Second, if mobile community members are not seen quickly, the opportunity could be lost as they move on or are moved on. This should not be to the detriment of service provision to the settled community.”

— Hat tip: Lexington

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UK: Hunt for Al-Qaida Targets Air France Crash

Suspects thought to be testing ‘rat hole’ into Britain

LONDON — Officers from the British intelligence service MI6 have flown to Buenos Aires to join the investigation of the crash of the ill-fated Air France Airbus A330 that plummeted into the water 700 miles off Brazil’s northeastern coast with a loss of 228 lives because the names of two suspected terrorists are on the passenger list, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The Secret Intelligence Service investigators believe two of the passengers on the May 31 flight were al-Qaida terrorists who had boarded the flight to Paris and could have intended to travel on to London. They are suspected of being test passengers on a so-called “rat hole” into Britain.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Use of Stop and Search “Unacceptable” Says Lord Carlile

The overuse of stop and search powers are damaging the credibility of terrorism laws and are being needlessly used to balance racial statistics, a review of anti-terror laws has shown.

In his annual report on the Terrorism Act 2000 and Part 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC said that police were using stop and search laws against people who were not even suspected of being a terrorist.

He warned that the “poor and unnecessary” use of special powers which gives police the ability to stop individuals without having “reasonable suspicion”, “severely damaged” the credibility of the law.

“I repeat my mantra that terrorism related powers should be used only for terrorism related purposes; otherwise their credibility is severely damaged. The damage to community relations if they are used incorrectly can be considerable,” the report states.

Lord Carlile said that the blanket use of searches under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 failed to show potential to prevent a terror attack and that he could see no reason for the whole of Greater London to be permanently designated for the use of the power.

Also in the report he draws attention to evidence that people are being stopped by police in order to ensure a racial balance for the official statistics.

“I believe that it is totally wrong for any person to be stopped in order to produce a racial balance in the Section 44 statistics. There is ample anecdotal evidence that this is happening,” he said.

While he said he understood that police were anxious to ensure they would not suffer from allegations of prejudice, “self evidently” unmerited searches was a waste of resources.

“It is also an invasion of the civil liberties of the person who has been stopped, simply to ‘balance’ the statistics,” the report said.

Lord Carlile said: “The criteria for section 44 stops should be objectively based, irrespective of racial considerations: if an objective basis happens to produce an ethnic imbalance, that may have to be regarded as a proportional consequence of operational policing.”

He continued “I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorist profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him or her being a terrorist and no other feature to justify the stop.”

“In one situation the basis of the stops being carried out was numerical only, which is almost certainly unlawful and in no way an intelligent use of the procedure.”

Lord Carlile called on chief police officers to always bear in mind that a stop under Section 44 is an invasion of a person’s freedom of movement.

He criticised the Metropolitan Police, which performed 90 per cent of the stops in 2007/08, for not limiting Section 44 use only to parts of London and said the number of searches being carried out by the force was “alarming”.

Recently however the use of stop and search powers have been limited within the capital.

He said: “The intention of the section was not to place London under permanent special search powers.

“The figures, and a little analysis of them, show that section 44 is being used as an instrument to aid non-terrorism policing on some occasions and this is unacceptable.”

A Home Office spokesman defended the use of the powers. He said: “Stop and search under the Terrorism Act 2000 is an important tool in the on-going fight against terrorism.

“As part of a structured anti-terrorist strategy, the powers help to deter terrorist activity by creating a hostile environment for would-be terrorists to operate.

“Countering the terrorist threat and ensuring good community relations are interdependent and we are continuing to work with the police to ensure that the use of stop and search powers strikes the right balance.”

Shadow Security Minister, Baroness Neville-Jones of the Conservative Party, said the report revealed how the misuse of stop and search powers “damage community relations”.

“It is a hallmark of this Government that powers available under terrorism legislation are used for reasons entirely unrelated to those for which they were put on the statute book. Inappropriate use of stop and search power is the surest way to lose public support and damage community relations. Lord Carlile rightly condemns this.

“The Government needs to make absolutely sure that anti-terrorism powers are used proportionately and only for terror-related purposes. But while producing more and more anti-terrorism legislation, we are concerned that the Government has not done enough to improve the capability of our police forces to respond to a Mumbai-style attack or to stop terrorist financing through international charities,” she said.

— Hat tip: The Frozen North

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Serbia-Cyprus: Military Cooperation Agreement to be Signed

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JUNE 16 — The defence ministers of Serbia and Cyprus, Dragan Sutanovac and Costas Papacostas respectively, announced on that an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries would be signed by the end of the year, reports Tanjug news agency. Addressing a joint press conference, Sutanovac said that the document would be initialed during the next visit of the Cypriot defence minister to Belgrade, and that he “expects that the agreement will be signed by the end of the year”. The agreement on cooperation in the field of defence is a document which harmonises joint bilateral activities in a number of fields regarding the defence and military systems of the two countries. In this context, Sutanovac in particular pointed to the capacities of the Military Medial Academy and the Military Academy, which could offer qualitative education. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Visa-Free Regime Urged for Balkans

LUXEMBOURG — European Union foreign ministers issued a fresh recommendation Monday on easing visa requirements for travel in its member-states for citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout.

Ministers have encouraged the European Commission to annul visas by the end of the year, Kohout said on Monday in Luxembourg. The Czech Republic holds the EU presidency until June 30. “The Council encourages the European Commission to present as soon as possible a legislative proposal amending Regulation 539/2001, as it applies to the Member States, in order to achieve a visa free regime ideally by the end of 2009 with those countries that will have met all the benchmarks,” the Macedonian Information Agency quoted the ministers’ statement as saying.

Earlier this month, EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said five Western Balkan nations were on track for visa liberalization.

Barrot said Macedonia had shown “good progress” toward meeting the EU conditions, Serbia and Montenegro had shown “progress,” while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania had shown “some progress” but still had to improve in some areas.

All five countries are keen to join the EU, but their membership talks are at different stages. A continuing obstacle for Macedonia is the dispute with neighboring Greece over its name Ğ and internationally it is still widely described as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Meanwhile, Macedonia said it is confident that its citizens will enjoy visa-free travel to EU countries by next January. The officials in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, said they were also working to meet the EU conditions.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Algeria: More Than a Million Incomplete Homes

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 17 — The law passed by the Algerian Government in July obliging all construction companies and landlords to finish off incomplete building projects looks to have had limited effectiveness. Indeed, there are still 1.17 million incomplete buildings waiting to be completed in the country. The National College of Architects (CNEA) has said that this exorbitant figure needs to be addressed through a country-wide strategy and accompanying measures to enforce the existing laws. The problem is not just to do with “the beauty and harmony of the landscape”, said the experts in a training day on the decree law, but also involves ‘safety” issues. The inability to finance the conclusion of the construction is, according to CNEA, the main reason behind Algeria’s current urban panorama of un-plastered houses and exposed cement — and that’s in the best cases. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egypt Deports Chechen Students

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt on Thursday forcibly deported four Chechen students to Russia, where Amnesty International says they risk being tortured, but a traffic jam prevented police from getting a key warlord’s son to the airport in time to join them.

Four students among dozens rounded up by security services on May 27 were put on a flight to Moscow.

But police transporting Maskhud Abdullaev, whose father Supyan is fighting Russian rule in Chechnya, were caught up in a traffic jam and the youth did not reach the the airport, a friend told AFP.

“A police officer took him to the airport but they were delayed on the way by a traffic jam and the plane had already taken off,” said Ruslan Mussayev.

“He doesn’t want to go to Russia; there’s a problem for him there,” Mussayev said of Abdullaev, who he said is now due to fly on Friday.

The students had been rounded up for suspected links to an alleged Al-Qaeda cell responsible for a February 22 bombing in Cairo’s tourist district which killed a French teenager.

Abdullaev, who had been studying at Cairo’s renowned Al-Azhar Islamic University since 2006, was initially held incommunicado at Egypt’s notorious Tora prison, London-based Amnesty said.

The students all claim to have refugee status in Azerbaijan but the Egyptian authorities insisted they return instead to Russia where they face torture or other ill-treatment, Amnesty said.

It added that four other students arrested at the same time were deported to Russia on June 9, where Russian and Chechen security forces handcuffed them and took them away on arrival.

One of the four has since disappeared and is believed to have been moved to Chechnya.

Amnesty says it regularly receives reports of detainees being tortured in Russia, while in Chechnya detainees are at risk of torture, extrajudicial execution and enforced disappearance.

The predominantly Muslim region fought two wars with Moscow after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but it has achieved a measure of stability in recent years under the rule of strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.

North Caucsus security analyst Andrei Soldatov told AFP that Supyan Abdullaev is “pretty active” and believed to be part of the “inner circle” of Doku Umarov, the leader of Chechnya’s remaining separatist rebels.

Umarov’s fate is currently unknown, with the Russian authorities refusing to confirm a report on Monday that he had been killed in a special operation by Russian security forces.

“This is a very important character,” Soldatov said of Supyan, adding that he is currently believed to be in charge of Chechen rebel finances.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Media: Gaddafi Requests 8 Mln Euro From Moroccan Dailies

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 17 — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has asked three Moroccan daily newspapers for approximately 8 million euros (90 million dirham) as compensation for defamation. According to the Algerian press, which quotes legal sources, Colonel Gaddafi has filed against Arab-language daily newspapers Al Jarida Al Aoula, Al Ahdath Al Maghribia and Al Massae, asking each of them for 30 million dirham in damages His complaint was made through the Libyan Embassy in Morocco. The directors of the three newspapers Ali Anouzla, Mohamed Brini and Rachid Nini respectively, and two journalists, Moktar Labiouzi from Al Ahdath Al Maghribia and Yussef Meskine from El Massae, stand accused by the Libyan leader. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reports that the incident concerns several articles critical of Gaddafi, that were published in the period around the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. “After eliminating the freedom of press in Libya,” ANHRI points out, “he has focussed his attention and experience on persecuting Arab journalists beyond his country’s borders”. In 2007, the High Court in Algiers sentenced a journalist and the director of daily newspaper Echourouk, Ali Fhodil, to six-month suspended sentences for defamation of Gaddafi after they wrote about an alleged project in Libya to create a Tuareg State in the Sahara. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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A Jewish View of Netanyahu’s Speech

I am well aware of the political and rhetorical nature of Netanyahu’s speech. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that the conditions he laid down for the establishment of a Palestinian state will never be accepted by Arabs or Muslims; for unlike Mr. Netanyahu, they believe in a deity in whose name they are willing to sacrifice their lives.

I wonder whether the people of Israel understand the dreadful transgression Netanyahu committed by saying YES to a Palestinian state on Jewish land? Some observers, trained in law, may say that Netanyahu’s YES will not stand the test of international law; I leave this for them to explain. Others have already said that he has violated the coalition agreement that forms the basis of his government. What most disturbs me, however, is his projected violation of Jewish law.

[…]

Leaving this aside, I see in Netanyahu’s speech something overlooked by its author and thus far by commentators. Looking beyond his crafted rhetoric, Mr. Netanyahu, in my opinion, has given the Arab-Islamic world a great victory and has inflicted on the Jewish people a terrible defeat. For by agreeing to a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has given the democratic world to believe that the Arab claim to Judea and Samaria is superior to any put forth by the Jews! Arabs thus have all the more reason to despise the Jews and scorn the God of Israel! They will then have all the more incentive to persist in their territorial demands whose ultimate objective is to wipe Israel off the map of the Middle East.

— Hat tip: JD

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Israel: End the Illegal Occupation of Jerusalem

Aaron Klein Exposes the Truth About Illegal Settlement Activity

I recently met my friend, Helen Freedman, at the U Café. This café on the upper east side is my local watering hole, an oasis, a village well, where I meet people for coffee. Sometimes, when it’s quiet, I just sit there and read, as if I lived in Paris, Rome, Warsaw, Vienna, Tel Aviv, or on the lower east side of NYC—but long ago, when a writer had a favorite cafe where he (or she) read their newspapers, pen articles and books, meet other writers to argue, plan revolutions, initiate love affairs, and to dream.

Freedman had just returned from one of her frequent trips to Israel. This time, what amazed her most were “all the illegal Arab settlements” which had grown exponentially “all over Jerusalem.”

Illegal Arab settlements?

This information is well documented in journalist Aaron Klein’s important new book: The Late, Great State of Israel. How Enemies Within and Without Threaten The Jewish Nation’s Survival. Klein’s book illuminates, infuriates, saddens, and cries out to both heaven and humanity.

[…]

Over the years, Israelis have allowed more than “100,000 Palestinian Arabs to occupy tens of thousands of illegally constructed housing units in eastern and northern Jerusalem.” Criminals, mercenaries, soldiers dressed as civilians, human bombs and their terrorist handlers, may all live among them. This other illegal occupation or settlement activity began long after 1967, when Israel won a third war of self-defense launched against it by the major Arab powers. These Palestinian Arab immigrants were not living in these places before 1948 or before 1967. Indeed, Klein documents that under Jordanian rule, one of these Jerusalem neighborhoods, Shoafat, was actually a forest.

— Hat tip: JD

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Netanyahu: PNA Calls for International Pressure

(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, JUNE 15 — Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, “is trying to eliminate any hopes of peace” and therefore “it is up to the international community to provide an adequate response,” said an advisor to Palestinian Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, in a radio interview today. In the eyes of Abed-Rabbo, secretary of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) executive committee, the Israeli premier did not foreshadow a future Palestinian state in his speech yesterday, he only spoke of “a section of land, a sort of ‘reserve’ under the control of Israeli hegemony, without borders or border crossings”. Abed-Rabbo added that for the Palestinians, it is a serious matter that Netanyahu “disregarded” the road map for peace and the Arab peace initiative, which was praised by USA President Barack Obama in his speech in Cairo in early June. According to the Palestinian official, Netanyahu “rejects peace and intends to continue military occupation and settlements, as well as sabotage Obama’s initiative”. As a result, he concluded, Palestinians are waiting for an appropriate reaction from the United States. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Two Years of Hamas in Power in Gaza

(by Safwat Al-Kahlout) (ANSAmed) — GAZA — Two years after the bloody struggle for power in the Gaza Strip that was won in June 2007 by Hamas, Palestinian observers and political exponents of various origin all agree on one thing: Hamas was able to put a stop to chaos and anarchy in the Strip and to afford the population a relative degree of stability, albeit at a heavy price. Questioned by ANSA, Gaza’s Palestinians traced a balance of pros and cons under the Hamas regime which Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), president of the Palestinian National Authority, says came to power in a coup d’etat. Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesperson for the ministry of security of the de-facto Hamas government (which, with few exceptions, is not recognised by the international community), stated that before Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip there were 12 security services fighting against each other, and their “only purpose was to cause anarchy. Now a force of 14,000 people, approximately a quarter of the troops controlled by Fatah, managed to offer an undeniable degree of security to the population”. Talal Oukal, who teaches journalism in Gaza’s al-Zahar University, replied that this is true, but also added that the rift between Hamas and Fatah (with Gaza under the control of Hamas and the West Bank under the control — approved by Israel — of Fatah and the PNA) “came at great cost for the Palestinian people”. According to Oukal, the two lines of action against Israel, in other words the armed fight supported by Hamas, and dialogue supported by Fatah, have “both failed”. Furthermore, he added that Israel’s tight blockade of the Strip after Hamas took power has drastically worsened living conditions in Gaza, where unemployment and poverty levels are at world record levels. Marwan Khalil, a 35-year-old restaurant owner, reported that the Israeli blockade has made prices shoot up, resulting in the closure of shops. “We feel like we’re living in prison and we are afraid of illnesses because you cannot leave Gaza to seek medical treatment”. Even Khalil Abu Shamal, a human rights activist, accuses Israel and the international community (and not Hamas directly) of the dramatic socio-economic condition across the Strip. Notwithstanding the financial hardships, the blockade, damage caused by the Israeli offensive in January, it is undeniable that in two years Hamas managed to consolidate its hold over Gaza. This belief, expressed by Hamas exponent Ismail Radwan, is also shared by Mukhaimar Abu Saada, a political sciences teacher who stated that “It appears that Israel’s siege policy has failed to deliver the results which the Israelis expected. If anything it has consolidated Hamas’ power, if it hasn’t actually contributed to making Hamas more popular”. Fatah spokesperson Fehmi al-Za’arie blamed Hamas for “repressing personal and collective freedoms and the political rights of opposing forces”. Abu Shamala agrees that “human rights and cultural economic and social conditions have deteriorated”, but lays the blame on the rift between Hamas and Fatah. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Bombshell: Iran Envoy in Nuclear Weapon Slip Up

VIENNA (AFP) — Iran’s envoy to the UN atomic watchdog caused a buzz among journalists on Wednesday when he apparently misspoke and said his country had the right to a nuclear weapon.

After saying as usual that Iran was only pursuing nuclear energy for civilian purposes, Ali Asghar Soltanieh strayed alarmingly from the Islamic republic’s usual line.

“The whole Iranian nation are united… on (the) inalienable right of (having a) nuclear weapon,” the envoy to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said.

He later got back on track, concluding: “We will not deprive our great nation from benefitting from peaceful uses of nuclear energy.”

The UN Security Council has ordered Iran to suspend all enrichment-related activities until the IAEA has been able to verify the exact nature of Tehran’s programme amid fears from Western powers that it wants to build an atomic bomb.

But Tehran has ignored such calls, insisting it wants to produce civilian nuclear energy.

— Hat tip: CB

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EU Envoy Says Turkey Takes “Tactical Step Backwards” on Armenia Thaw

ISTANBUL — Turkey has taken a “tactical step backwards” on normalizing relations with Armenia because of fierce domestic reaction to the move, the EU’s envoy to the region told Reuters in an interview published on Wednesday.

“A step back was taken by the Turkish side … but this is not a U-turn,” EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby said in the interview conducted at the end of a visit to Moscow last week.

“We expect the conversations will continue,” Semneby said.

Ankara and Yerevan agreed in April on a “road map” deal for U.S.-backed talks that could lead to the normalizing of ties and the opening of their border, which Turkey closed in a show of support to Azerbaijan in 1993 after Armenian occupation of Azeri territories in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkish officials, however, have said Turkey will not open its border with Armenia before the neighboring country ends its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, reassuring Azeri leaders that Ankara’s efforts to reconcile with Yerevan would not undermine the country’s interests.

Reconciliation talks with Yerevan, conducted before the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also faced fierce criticism from the opposition parties and a number of political analysts in the country.

Semneby said it was important the “pause” in the peace process between Turkey and Armenia did not last too long because of the risk that impetus would be lost.

“The normalization (with Armenia) became the subject of quite widespread and heated discussion in Turkey,” he added in earlier remarks to a small group of reporters. “It seems to me, this discussion became more heated than was expected,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

“I see this as a Turkish tactical step backwards,” Semneby said. “But fundamentally, the new foreign policy that has been pursued by the Erdogan government, I don’t see that this policy is changing,” he added.

AZERI-ARMENIAN TALKS

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 on Armenian territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts — a frozen conflict legacy of the Soviet Union.

Both countries continue with fruitless peace negotiations. The OSCE Minsk Group, set up in 1992 and co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France, is engaged in efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully.

Semneby, however, believes real progress is being made.

“It is clear that if you look at the negotiating process, it is intensifying,” he told Reuters. “We had in a month two meetings and there will be another relatively soon between the presidents.”

Armed clashes still occur regularly along the lines separating Azeri and Armenian troops. Asked about the risk of conflict, Semneby said it would be foolish to neglect it but he felt both sides understood the enormous costs which would be involved in any large-scale military engagement.

“Even with this very dangerous posturing that we see sometimes and the fact that the forces are not separated and there are incidents all the time, the two sides are by now used to managing incidents,” he said.

“If anything, the Georgia war (last year with Russia), demonstrated the risks of military engagement … it was also a wake-up call to both countries how vulnerable they are.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Iran: Ahmadinejad Says Election Was ‘Fair’

Tehran, 17 June (AKI) — Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reaffirmed that he was returned to office by the will of the people. In a statement published on the Iranian ISNA student news agency site, Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the election was fair.

The incumbent president was officially declared winner of Friday’s election by a margin of two-to-one over his main rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mousavi, a reformist candidate has accused the authorities of rigging the vote and his supporters have taken to the streets of Tehran to protest over the past five days.

But Ahmadinejad said that the result proved he has popular support.

“The fact is that the election was a referendum on the Islamic system in Iran by 40 million people,” he said during a government meeting.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appealed for calm and an end to protests which have left at least eight people dead in the most dramatic upheaval seen in the country since the 1979 revolution.

According to official Iranian media, Ahmadinejad received 62.3 percent of the vote, or 24.5 million votes, compared to Mousavi’s 33.7 percent or 13.2 million votes.

Official election results said a record 85 percent of eligible Iranians turned out to vote. Forty-six million people were eligible to vote in the presidential elections, the 10th since the Islamic revolution in

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Russia Hopes “Down-to-Earth” Obama Drops Star Wars

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia hopes U.S. President Barack Obama will not pursue his predecessor’s plan to deploy weapons in space but Moscow is ready to respond appropriately to any such moves, a senior Russian general said on Wednesday.

Russia, negotiating with the United States a new treaty to curb nuclear arms to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) expiring in December, has argued against the “weaponization of space.”

President Dmitry Medvedev, due to receive Obama next month on his first visit to Moscow, has said Russia’s conditions for new nuclear arms accords include banning arms in space.

“As far as I know, today’s U.S. administration has somewhat different plans — they have become more down-to-earth and more realistic,” one of Russia’s deputy defense ministers Vladimir Popovkin, in charge of weapons, told a news conference.

He said Russia could find a cheap way of dealing with any potential U.S. space defense system.

“There is a more adequate response, and for this there is no need to put weapons in space,” he said. “It is not a big deal to shoot down a space satellite, and the Chinese have proven this by conducting a relevant experiment.”

Popovkin recalled how then U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s attempts to create a space-based anti-missile system had accelerated the Cold War arms race and helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“We were dragged into this escapade called ‘Star Wars’ under (U.S. President Ronald) Reagan, and you know well what the result was — this was one of the causes behind the collapse of the Soviet Union. We squandered a huge amount of money,” he said.

Former President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to start researching new anti-missile systems four years ago as a guard against a launch from North Korea or Iran.

Congress agreed a $5 million study of a possible space-based missile defense last October, a potential baby step toward a “Star Wars” system. The U.S. has spent more than $100 billion developing anti-missile systems on land, at sea, and in the air.

Russia believes the United States is concerned primarily about the safety of its orbital group of satellites which are vital for coordinating U.S.. troops deployed around the globe and in leading wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Popovkin said.

The deputy defense minister also said that Russia expected to successfully finish testing of its much-delayed Bulava strategic nuclear missile this year and make the first flight of its new fifth-generation fighter jet.

“The task is this year we must complete all flight tests of Bulava including from aboard the Yury Dolgoruky (nuclear submarine),” Popovkin said.

“As for the fifth-generation aircraft, it is set to take off this year and we have no reason to postpone this deadline. Its engine will be 4+++ but the plane itself and many of its key elements will be definitely fifth generation.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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India Does Not Allow Entry to the USA Commision on International Religious Freedom in Orissa and Gua

The Commission was to arrive in Delhi on the 12th of June, but they never received the necessary visa. Important Hindu personalities labeled the enquiry as an “interference in India’s internal affairs”. The Obama Administration do not press the issue.

Mumbay (AsiaNews) — The Indian Government did not issue the visas to the representatives of an American commission on International Religious Freedom who wanted to make an enquiry on the incidents that took place on Gujarat and Orissa.

The visit of the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). The two states of Gujarat and Orissa had been in the news recently for communal disorders. In the district of Kandhamal, last year there were wide spread riots, burning of churches, killing of people and displacement of entire villages. In the 2002 riots in Gujarat the Muslims were under attack.

The USCIRF, every year publishes a report pointing out the countries where violations of religious freedom had taken place. Before putting India in this list, the commission wanted to pay a visit, to interview people and to ascertain the facts.

A team of the commission was to arrive in Delhi on June 12 but they did not received the necessary visa. A USCIRF spokesperson said: “They knew we had the tickets for June 12 therefore it is clear that they don’t want us to visit.” The Indian Embassy in Washington, that was supposed to issue the visa, referred all questions to New Delhi while acknowledging that the USCIRF team had applied for visas. Government sources, without acknowledging that the visas had deliberately denied, it said that it was not the right time for such a visit.

Last week in Mumbai an inter-religious meeting was held between Hindu and Catholic representatives, with the participation of Card. Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. In this occasion, the leader of the Hindu delegation, Swami Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, came out strongly against the proposed visit of the US commission team in India, as “an intrusive mechanism of a foreign government which is interfering with the internal affairs of India”, and said the team must not be allowed to enter the country.

The Obama administration did not press the issue given that the US undersecretary of state, William Burns was in New Delhi and its secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, is going to visit India in July.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Malaysia’s Anwar Seeks to Block Sodomy Charge

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has asked a Malaysian court to throw out a sodomy charge against him, two weeks before the start of a trial that he maintains is politically motivated, his lawyer said Thursday.

The government has repeatedly denied Anwar’s claim that the charge was orchestrated to block him from leading a three-party opposition alliance that severely eroded the ruling coalition’s parliamentary majority in the March 2008 election.

Anwar submitted a petition to the High Court on Wednesday that said the case was a conspiracy concocted by his foes in the government, his lawyer Sankara Nair said in a statement.

In his application, Anwar asserted that a medical report dated July 13 last year by a government hospital found no evidence of anal penetration on his accuser.

The charge “is a travesty, a complete farce and has absolutely no basis whatsoever, as there is no case against our client,” Nair said.

The High Court has set June 26 to hear Anwar’s petition, he said.

Anwar, 61, was charged last August with allegedly sodomizing a 23-year-old male former aide. The trial is due to begin July 1. Anwar faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sodomy, a crime in this Muslim-majority country.

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, spent six years in prison after being convicted of corruption and an earlier sodomy charge, following his ouster from the Cabinet in 1998. He maintained his innocence all along and was freed in 2004 when Malaysia’s top court overturned the sodomy conviction.

Anwar revived his political career in last year’s elections when his alliance won more than one-third of the seats in Parliament amid public disenchantment with the National Front governing coalition, which has been in power since 1957.

If the High Court refuses to throw out the charge and the trial does take place, Anwar wants a postponement because his lawyers have not received key documents from the prosecution, Nair said.

The top government prosecutor for the case could not immediately be contacted, and a colleague declined to comment on Anwar’s move.

Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the man who accused Anwar of sodomizing him, wrote on a blog Thursday that “if it is fated for this case to be dropped in a court of this world, it is all right.”

“I accept it because Allah’s court will judge this matter” in the afterlife, he wrote.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Japan Warns That North Korea May Fire Missile at U.S. on Independence Day

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.

Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii’s main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.

Details of the launch came from the Japan’s best-selling newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun.

Both Japanese intelligence and U.S. reconnaissance satellites have collated information pointing to the launch, according to the report.

This is North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile which has a range of 4,000 miles. Intelligence analysts do not believe it would be capable of hitting Hawaii which is 4,500 miles away

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspecting the command of the 7th Infantry Division of the North Korean Peoples Army

It is understood the communist state is likely to fire the missile between July 4 and 8. A launch on July 4 would coincide with Independence Day in the States.It would also be the 15th anniversary of North Korean president Kim Il-Sung’s death.

The Japanese newspaper also noted that North Korea had fired its first Taepodong-2 missile on July 4, 2006.

Officials had initially believed that North Korea might attempt to launch a similar device towards either Japan’s Okinawa island, Guam or Hawaii.

But the ministry concluded launches toward Okinawa or Guam were ‘extremely unlikely’ because the first-stage booster could drop into waters off China, agitating Beijing, or hit western Japanese territory.

If the missile were fired in the direction of Hawaii, the booster could drop in the Sea of Japan.

News of the launch would put ‘enormous military pressure on the United States,’ the Yomiuri said, citing the ministry report.

A missile fired from North Korea would have to travel 4,500 miles before it reached the U.S. state of Hawaii

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service — the country’s main spy agency — said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen markedly since the North, led by Kim Jong-il, conducted two nuclear tests this year in defiance of repeated international warnings

The first rocket, fired in April, was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test. A second launch came on May 25.

U.S. satellite intelligence has shown that a missile launch pad had been erected at Dongchang-ri on North Korea’s north-west coast.

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

The UN Security Council last week authorised member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy goods shipped that violate the sanctions against arms export.

On Saturday, in response to this declaration Pyongyang said it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war.

Growing tensions come as arms-watchdog the International Crisis Group (ICG) claimed North Korea has several thousand tonnes of chemical weapons it could mount on missiles.

The report from the non-government organisation said they believed the North’s army have about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons which include mustard gas, sarin and other deadly nerve agents.

ICG also also warned South Korea may become a target.

‘If there is an escalation of conflict and if military hostilities break out, there is a risk that they could be used. In conventional terms, North Korea is weak and they feel they might have to resort to using those,’ said Daniel Pinkston, the ICG’s representative in Seoul.

The North has been working on chemical weapons for decades and can deliver them through long-range artillery directed on Seoul which is home to about half of South Korea’s 49 million people and via missiles that could hit all of the country.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Officials: US Tracking Suspicious Ship From N Korea

By ANNE GEARAN and PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan And Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writers 1 hr 29 mins ago

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is tracking a ship from North Korea that may be carrying illicit weapons, the first vessel monitored under tougher new United Nations rules meant to rein in and punish the communist government following a nuclear test, officials said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he has ordered additional protections for Hawaii just in case North Korea launches a long-range missile over the Pacific Ocean.

The suspect ship could become a test case for interception of the North’s ships at sea, something the North has said it would consider an act of war.

Officials said the U.S. is monitoring the voyage of the North Korean-flagged Kang Nam, which left port in North Korea on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was traveling in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China, two officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

What the Kang Nam was carrying was not known, but the ship has been involved in weapons proliferation, one of the officials said.

The ship is among a group that is watched regularly but is the only one believed to have cargo that could potentially violate the U.N. resolution, the official said.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen did not specifically confirm that the U.S. was monitoring the ship when he was asked about it at a Pentagon news conference Thursday.

“We intend to vigorously enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 to include options, to include, certainly, hail and query,” Mullen said. “If a vessel like this is queried and doesn’t allow a permissive search,” he noted, it can be directed into port.

The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas “if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo” contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.

If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel “to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities.”

The resolution does not authorize the use of force. But if a country refuses to order a vessel to a port for inspection, it would be in violation of the resolution and the country licensing the vessel would face possible sanctions by the Security Council.

Gates, speaking at the same news conference, said the Pentagon is concerned about the possibility of a North Korean missile launch “in the direction of Hawaii.”

Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he has sent the military’s ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii, and positioned a radar system nearby. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their last stage of flight.

“We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,” Gates said.

A Japanese newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the Fourth of July holiday.

A new missile launch — though not expected to reach U.S. territory — would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.

North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.

The missile now being readied in the North is believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles and would be launched from North Korea’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, the Yomiuri newspaper said. It cited an analysis by Japan’s Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Soldier’s Death, Guantanamo Detainees Rattle Palau

NGARDMAU, Palau — The war in Afghanistan hit too close to home for the tiny village of Ngardmau in this remote, close-knit Pacific nation.

Hundreds throughout Palau, from children to the president, gathered Tuesday in sweltering heat to mourn Jasper Obakrairur, a 26-year-old U.S. Army sergeant and the first Palauan killed in Afghanistan. They wept as if he were one of their own.

And in a way, he is. For this archipelago of some 20,000 where families and acquaintances are deeply intertwined, just one casualty represents a collective tragedy. The young soldier’s death has shocked Palau’s core and left many questioning whether it was sacrificing too much for the U.S.-led effort.

“I’m always telling our leadership, us Palauans, we are very few,” said Queen Bilung Salii, the country’s highest-ranking female traditional leader. “And here we are sending our kids to war.”

As they bid farewell to their native son, Palauans at the funeral expressed anxiety over the expected arrival of 13 men detained as possible terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Their country leapt into headlines recently after agreeing to President Barack Obama’s request to take the group of Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, after other countries turned Washington down.

The Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs), a Turkic people from China’s far western region of Xinjiang, were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year that they were not “enemy combatants.”

Palau’s president, Johnson Toribiong, has described the agreement as a humanitarian gesture, in line with his people’s tradition of welcoming those in need.

Still, the decision does not sit well with Florencia Ebelau, who watched Obakrairur’s state funeral on a TV monitor outside the Capitol rotunda. Flags flew at half-staff, and Toribiong declared Tuesday a national day of mourning.

The proceedings were followed by a Palauan service in Obakrairur’s village in Ngardmau, on the western coast of the biggest island.

Ebelau, 64, worries that the Uighurs will threaten the tranquility and safety of Palau.

“It’s good to be nice to other people, but only as much as you can afford to,” said Ebelau, whose women’s group includes one of the fallen soldier’s relatives. “I don’t mean to be a nasty person, but we cannot afford that kind of thing.”

When asked about the president’s possible motives, she, along with many others, said, “Because the U.S. asked us to.”

Fermin Meriang, editor of the local Island Times newspaper, has been a vocal critic of the Uighur issue in his publication. The public should have been consulted before a final decision, he said.

“Otherwise, you get what’s happening right now — a backlash,” he said.

Palau is one of the world’s smallest countries, totaling 190 square miles (490 square kilometers) of lush tropical landscapes. Its economy depends heavily on tourism and foreign aid, mainly from Washington.

Toribiong has repeatedly denied that his country stands to benefit financially in exchange for accepting the Uighurs. But the arrangement coincides with the start of talks to review the agreement that governs Palau’s relationship with the U.S.

Under the Compact of Free Association, U.S. aid to Palau from 1995 to 2009 is expected to exceed $852 million, according to a report last year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It includes direct funding as well as access to U.S. postal, aviation and weather services.

The compact also allows Palauans to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

The military does not release specific numbers on how many Palauans are currently serving, but it has been a prominent option for young men seeking career, educational and travel opportunities unavailable at home.

Toribiong estimates that about 30 to 40 Palauans join the U.S. armed forces every year. Locals regularly claim that per capita, Palau sends more people to the military than the U.S.

Obakrairur was killed by a roadside bomb on June 1 in Nerkh, Afghanistan. Three other Palauans have been killed while serving in Iraq.

“In the past, a lot of Palauans joined the military, but nothing like this had ever happened,” said Vameline Singeo, who attended elementary school with Obakrairur. “Before it was more of a positive thing. Now that there have been deaths, people are more reserved in sending their kids.”

Obakrairur is his family’s only son. He was posthumously awarded a bronze star and purple heart Tuesday.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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African View: Big Men Do Not Die

In our series of weekly viewpoints from African journalists, Elizabeth Ohene, a former presidential spokesperson in Ghana, considers the delicate issue of announcing a leader’s death as Gabon’s long-time leader Omar Bongo is buried.

I speak with authority when I say African leaders don’t ever get tired, or go on vacation, or need to see a doctor, or indeed ever die.

And I speak not only of our political leaders but of our traditional leaders as well.

Over the past week as the world has watched the government of Gabon struggle to deal with the news of the death of President Omar Bongo, I have been left wondering whether to laugh or to cry.

At the age of 73 and having been president for 42 years during which time it was never acknowledged that he ever took a day off work for ill health, it is not surprising that there was no easy way of announcing that the indestructible great man had died.

The sequence of events was a classical farce. On the 7 May, the Gabonese government announced that President Bongo had temporarily suspended his official duties and taken time off to mourn the death of his wife and rest in Spain.

Curiouser and curiouser

Once upon a time, that would have been that, but modern communications make news management a touch more difficult.

The international media promptly announced that President Bongo was seriously ill and undergoing treatment for cancer in hospital in Barcelona.

The Gabonese government yielded ground a bit and said that the president was in Spain for a few days of rest following the “intense emotional shock” of his wife’s death, and was “undergoing a medical check up”.

The international media then reported the president was being treated for intestinal cancer, which they said had reached “an advanced stage”.

On 7 June, the French media reported that President Bongo had died in Spain. The government of Gabon denied the report.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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EU Must Help Cyprus Tackle Illegal Immigration, Minister

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JUNE 16 — Cyprus Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou has insisted on tougher measures and greater support from the EU in order to combat the island’s escalating illegal immigration problem. CNA reports that Kyprianou has requested a balanced distribution of resources among EU member states to tackle the problem. Speaking at the EU General Affairs Council meeting on Monday in Luxembourg, Kyprianou said that Cyprus, due to its geographical location, receives a large number of illegal immigrants. He requested that new measures be introduced to strengthen current legislation, insisting that the handling of the problem should be based on solidarity among EU member states. Kyprianou said Cyprus was in favour of the adoption of a comprehensive package of measures, and requested that cooperation between EU member states and third countries be enhanced. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: One Dead and One Missing in Shipwreck

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 17 — One Algerian has died and another is missing after a boat containing around ten illegal immigrants shipwrecked yesterday about 30 miles south of the coast of Cabo de Palos in Cartagena (Murcia), informed sources in Spain’s maritime rescue organisation. The 4.5-metre boat was seen at about 7:30PM yesterday by a Norwegian oil tanker, the SKS Trinity, while it was capsizing due to rough sea conditions with 4-metre high waves. The Norwegian vessel threw a life raft into the water in an attempt to save the Algerian passengers and managed to bring onboard nine of them, while a tenth passenger was lost. One of the immigrants died a few minutes after he was brought onboard the ship. A maritime rescue helicopter is still looking for the missing person at sea. The other immigrants, who landed last night at the Port of Santa Lucia de Cartagena, were aided by the Red Cross and transferred to temporary detention centres while awaiting to be repatriated. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Guess Who Fired Miss California

Publicist Roger Neal said the beauty queen refused to work with the pageant to attend scheduled events, so they kicked her out.

But Prejean’s attorney, Charles Limandri, sees it another way.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, he said the head of the Miss California USA pageant is an open homosexual who does not approve of Prejean’s opposition to same-sex marriage — and that is the real reason he terminated her contract.

“He’s a militant gay activist who did a movie promoting same-sex marriage,” Limandri said. “This issue is very near and dear to his heart.”

O’Reilly asked, “Is he gay?”

Limandri responded, “He’s an openly gay man who did actually produce a movie in support of same-sex marriage. Since you’re asking me, I am telling you: He’s an ideologue, and he’s not going to tolerate someone with that viewpoint wearing a crown and sash. That’s what you see happening here.”

He is executive producer of a same-sex marriage movie titled “For the Bible Tells Me So.” In the film, producers attempt to discredit biblical teachings concerning homosexuality.

[…]

Prejean claims Lewis requested that she make numerous inappropriate appearances, including posing for Playboy and attending a homosexual movie premiere against her wishes.

Her attorney added, “When she declined that, he wrote her off.”

— Hat tip: JD

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‘Mom, Dad Better Than Certified Teachers’

Report says it’s ‘myth’ that ‘qualifications’ help

Not only do a long list of studies show that mom and dad can teach their own children as effectively as any “certified” teacher, there are indications that for some subjects, those “qualified” instructors actually deliver a negative impact to the performance of their students, according to a new assessment assembled by the Home School Legal Defense Association.

[…]

He reported, “Educational research does not indicate any positive correlation between teacher qualifications and student performance. Many courts have found teacher qualification requirements on homeschoolers to be too excessive or not appropriate. The trend in state legislatures across the country indicates an abandonment of teacher qualification requirements for homeschool teachers. In fact, Americans, in general, are realizing that the necessity of teacher qualifications is a myth. The teachers’ unions and other members of the educational establishment make up the small minority still lobbying for teacher certification in order to protect their disintegrating monopoly on education.”

[…]

“I have talked,” wrote Klicka, “with hundreds of school officials who cannot understand how a ‘mere mother’ with a high school diploma could possibly teach her own children. These officials literally take offense that parents would try to teach their children and actually think that they will do as well as teachers in the public school who have at least four years and sometimes seven years of higher education.

“Unfortunately, critics in the media have also believed this myth and will question the validity of homeschooling by asking, ‘But are the parents qualified?’ What is so laughable about this belief in teacher qualifications by public school authorities are the statistics which show the appalling decline in competency among certified public school teachers and the failure of the teacher colleges,” he wrote.

The assessment said, “One of the most significant studies in this area was performed by Dr. Eric Hanushek of the University of Rochester, who surveyed the results of 113 studies on the impact of teachers’ qualifications on their students’ academic achievement. Eighty-five percent of the studies found no positive correlation between the educational performance of the students and the teacher’s educational background.

— Hat tip: JD

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Terrified Teens and Twenties

It should be no surprise to those who are informed about the goals and teachings of the social sciences to learn that Teens and Twenties are so terrified about global warming that at least half a million of them would respond to an attempt to solve the “environmental crisis” through politics.

But somehow or another those young people should be told that for more than 150 years the main goal of the social sciences has been to control people by controlling their environment. Auguste Comte, the father of sociology wrote:

“In order then to regulate or to combine mankind, Religion must in the first instance place man under the influence of some external Power, possessed of superiority so irresistible as to leave no sort of uncertainty about it. This great principle of social science is at bottom merely the full development of that primary notion of sound Biology—the necessary subordination of every Organism to the Environment in which it is placed. A sound theory of Biology thus furnishes the Positive theory of Religion with a foundation wholly unassailable; for it proves the general necessity for the constant supremacy of an external Power as a condition of unity for man, even in his individual life.”

The social sciences use students by terrorizing them into becoming social activists for the environment. It was at a National Council for the Social Studies Regional Conference, April 25-27, 1974. that I learned how mean and uncaring social scientists can be. For example, a book called Grokking The Future was recommended to the more than 1000 social studies teachers in attendance. The book advised:…

— Hat tip: JD

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Global Warming? Temps on an 8-Year Decline

The Science & Public Policy Institute has released their monthly CO2 report for the month of May.

The monthly CO2 report is edited by Lord Christopher Monckton, who says the organization takes satellite and scientific data and presents them to the public without any alteration. He says the data collected shows a surprising trend. “Temperatures have now been declining quite rapidly for nearly eight years,” he notes. “And none of the U.N.’s models predicted that.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Srdja Trifkovic: Barack Hussein Obama’s Happy Muslim Rainbow Tour

“As the Holy [sic!] Koran tells us, Be conscious of God and speak always the truth,” President Obama told his audience at the beginning of his much heralded speech in Cairo last week.

It was a remarkable performance: not a single significant statement he made on the nature of Islam, or on America’s relationship with the Muslim world, or on the terrorist threat, complied with the quoted command of the prophet of Islam.

Obama’s two immediate predecessors have done a lot of respectful kowtowing, of course. Bill Clinton declared before the United Nations in September 1998, “There is no inherent clash between Islam and America.” Three years and several thousand American lives later, President Bush said, “there are millions of good Americans who practice the Muslim faith who love their country as much as I love the country.” Four years after 9-11 he continued insisting “the evil” unleashed on that day “is very different from the religion of Islam,” and its proponents “distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus.”

Obama brings a new quality to the continuum, however. He is developing the theme in Islam’s heartland. He is doing it in a manner likely to raise geopolitical expectations that cannot be fulfilled, and certain to cement even further the Muslim myth of blameless victimhood. It is the greatest favor any recruiter for the cause of global jihad could hope for.

Is Obama deluded or mendacious? In view of his middle name and family history, the question is more legitimate than it would have been with Clinton or Bush…

— Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic

[Return to headlines]

The Immorality of Laws Regulating Technology

Wherever technology is used, it is subject to regulation.

Laws govern, constrain or otherwise regulate countless aspects of the consumer technology we use every day. We are so accustomed to this fact that we seldom question it. In many cases, technology is potentially harmful if misused. As a society, we understandably attempt to pre-empt harm to our citizens by setting guidelines for how potentially dangerous items may be used, how they may be kept and how they may be traded.

The problem with laws governing every aspect of commerce in, use of and ownership rights to a given piece of technology — from your cars, to your software, to your guns, to your phone, to your pocketknives, to your Internet service — is that quite often these laws constraining possession and operation of consumer technology are unconstitutional and immoral.

— Hat tip: JD

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Universal Health Care: Evil in Camouflage

When I was a child and young adult, the chief archetype of evil in the world was the Soviet Union. The communist regime controlled every aspect of its citizens’ lives; their rulers had plenty, while workers — to whom they appealed in order to gain control — lived in poverty, suffering from diseases that developed nations had long since eradicated and disinfecting their tap water with bleach to make it potable.

As students, my schoolmates and I saw the photos of bread lines, heard the testimony of escaped dissidents and retreated to the school basement once a month to rehearse being dry-roasted by Soviet ICBMs.

A few asserted that our fear of the USSR was all the result of propaganda; even during the time I was growing up, one could find clusters of people in universities and coffee shops in places like Berkeley and Greenwich Village who argued that Marxism really was the way to go. All of that Russophobia was just rubbish; Russia, Eastern Europe and Cuba really functioned far more equitably and efficiently than the United States, and what America needed was that model of government.

While a lot of those people were very free with their speech on those campuses and in the coffee shops, in the real world they tended to keep to themselves. The reason for this was a very valid concern that failure to do so would result in some of their teeth being knocked down their throats.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Anjem Choudary has made an occasional appearance in this space. He’s an Islamic zealot of the most extremist stripe, and is notorious for his outrageous statements and demands. His followers were on hand in Luton this past March reviling returning British soldiers. He has called for the annexation of the UK to the Caliphate, refers to the 9-11 hijackers as “the magnificent 19”, styles himself the “Judge of the Shari’ah Court of the UK”, maintains that Southall will be the capital of the future Islamic state of Britain, and describes native British children as “prostitutes”.

He’s a piece of work.

His latest escapade involves a debate about Shariah law, which was to be held at a venue in Holborn. The event had to be called off because Mr. Choudary’s organization, Al Muhajiroun, physically prevented men and women from sitting together — and not just the Muslimas and their masters, but infidel men and women as well.

Here’s an account of the proceedings from The Daily Mail:

Scuffles as Extremist Muslim Group Orders Men and Woman to be Segregated at Public Meeting

A public debate organised by banned Islamic sect Al Muhajiroun was cancelled today after an angry confrontation broke out over the segregation of men and women.

Management at the meeting’s venue said ‘fundamentalist thugs’ forced the event to be called off after they physically prevented men and women sitting together.

Giles Enders, Chairman of the South Place Ethical Society, which runs Conway Hall in Holborn, London, said scuffles broke out over the group’s heavy-handed approach.

The meeting came as the group’s new leader, Anjem Choudary, issued a challenge to the Government to ban the group after it emerged it was reforming.

This is the perplexing part — is the idea to ban Al Muhajiroun because it was reforming? Or in spite of its reform?

And does Mr. Choudary mean real reform, or Islamic “reform” — i.e., a return to the timeless and bloodthirsty verities of the Koran?

The article continues:
– – – – – – – – –

Al Muhajiroun has sparked controversy after he said he wanted Sharia law in Britain and called 9/11 terrorists as the ‘Magnificent 19’.

The group was hoping to hold its first public meeting in five years but Mr Enders said the group had broken the terms for its hire of the hall.

Today’s debate, called Sharia Law Versus British Law, was intended to pit Choudary against Douglas Murray, director of right-wing think tank the Centre for Social Cohesion.

Taking to the stage, Mr Enders said: ‘A group of thugs at the door have refused to let women in. I’m cancelling this meeting.’

He was cheered by a small group of women sitting in the balcony but was also heckled by many of the 100 or so men in the main hall.

Mr Choudary, who sat on stage during the scuffles and Mr Enders’ announcement, then grabbed the microphone and after led chants saying: ‘This is a victory for Osama Muslims.’

But Mr Enders took the microphone back from Mr Choudary and ordered everyone in the hall to leave.

Alexander Hitchens, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said his group was invited to the debate with Mr Choudary on the understanding that it would be held on neutral ground with no segregation.

He said he was greeted by members of Al Muhajiroun on the door before being barred from entering.

‘We were led to believe it would be completely neutral,’ he said.

What ever gave him that idea? Hasn’t Anjem Choudary made himself perfectly clear by now? Did Mr. Hitchens and Mr. Enders think that all those incendiary declamations were mere figures of speech?

Outside the hall, Mr Choudary criticised British society as ‘dirty’ and predicted that, within one or two decades, Muslims would be the majority here.

Asked why he was living here, he said: ‘We come here to civilise people, get them to come out of the darkness and injustice into the beauty of Islam.’

Mr Murray, who arrived at the venue with his own security guards, said the platform of tonight’s planned debate was ‘completely unacceptable’.

He said: ‘I’m perfectly willing to debate Anjem Choudary and Al Muhajiroun’s ideas. His ideas are not difficult. They do not stand up.

‘But it’s very clear that this debate is not neutral. This was a segregated event, policed by Al Muhajiroun’s guards.’

He added he had been led to the event under false pretences by a front organisation called Global Issues Society.

Mr Murray confronted Mr Choudary and his supporters in the street and the pair spoke for about 10 minutes.

Here’s where we come to the nitty-gritty of the matter — nothing that Anjem Choudary and his associates do is in any way illegal under current British law:

Mr Choudary said he had not broken any laws and called to Muslims to join his group.

‘We are not a proscribed group and it is not illegal to be a member,’ he said.

‘That’s a challenge to the Government and to the media — we were not doing anything that was terrorist-related in the past.’

In this context, “terrorist-related” means being caught with automatic weapons, semtex, and a detailed floor-plan of the Houses of Parliament. Even then, the evidence would have to be obtained through non-discriminatory means, with an absence of racial profiling, and taking into account the full range of protections offered to the suspects by the legal traditions of Great Britain.

In other words, “terrorism” simply doesn’t exist until the bomb has already detonated and hundreds or thousands of people are dead.

Incitement, treason, and sedition no longer have any meaning. That’s Stone Age thinking, unfit for Cool Britannia.

Nevertheless, Mr. Choudary allows that he will have to mind his manners just a bit:

Accepting that the group would have to pay attention to laws which outlaw the glorification of terrorism, he said: ‘We will have to choose our words a little bit more carefully.’

And the government acknowledges that it is unable to act against Al Muhajiroun:

Opposition leaders called on ministers to act swiftly to implement a ban.

However, the Home Office said a ban could only be implemented if there was evidence that a group was involved with terrorism.

A spokesman said: ‘Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism.

‘Decisions on proscription must be proportionate and based on evidence that a group is concerned in terrorism as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000.

‘Organisations which cause us concern, including those which might change their name to avoid the consequences of proscription, are kept under constant review.

‘As and when new material comes to light, it is considered and the organisation reassessed as part of that process.’

So nothing can be done. These thugs are free to do as they please. The destruction of British culture is not against the law. In effect, there is no rule of law in the United Kingdom.

Except as it applies to wheelie-bins. Better watch out if you misuse one of those.

Hat tip: CB.

I was going to give this to the Baron for the news feed, but Dan Riehl’s report is disturbing enough to have its own post.

What follows below is verbatim but partial. I also didn’t include the links, but you can pick them up at his site.

Not Just Walpin – 3 IG Firings Being Questioned

Another update: A witness to Walpin-gate. The Wash. Times isn’t buying it. It is pretty thin gruel.

(Just a note — Why are we reading about this in the Chicago Tribune? Perhaps his local paper doesn’t have an Oba-worship problem?) Just a thought.

Update: Moe Lane with a little more background.

This is interesting. I looked around and perhaps I missed it on another blog, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it isn’t just Walpin’s firing over which Senator Grassley wants some answers. He’s worried about a pattern, as no fewer than three IG’s have recently been fired, all while investigating so-called sensitive issues. See Michelle for the latest on Walpin.

The dispute comes as Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into the abrupt firings within the last week of two other inspectors general one of whom was fired by the White House and the other by the chair of the International Trade Commission.

Both inspectors general had investigated sensitive subjects at the time of their firings.

– – – – – – – – –

Grassley is now concerned about whether a pattern is emerging in which the independence of the government’s top watchdogs — whose jobs were authorized by Congress to look out for waste, fraud and abuse — is being put at risk.

One of the other IGs is Neil Barofsky, tasked with watching over the financial stimulus spending. The article raises questions as to whether or not the Obama administration is trying to stymie an investigation with dubious claims of attorney-client privilege.

He was appointed with fanfare as the public watchdog over the government’s multi-billion dollar bailout of the nation’s financial system. But now Neil Barofsky is embroiled in a dispute with the Obama administration that delayed one recent inquiry and sparked questions about his ability to freely investigate.

The disagreement stems from a claim by the Treasury Department that Barofsky is not entirely independent of the agency he is assigned to examine – a claim that has prompted a stern letter from a Republican senator warning that agency officials are encroaching on the integrity of an office created to protect taxpayers.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent the letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanding information about a “dispute over certain Treasury documents” that he said were being “withheld” from Barofsky’s office on a “specious claim of attorney-client privilege.”

The third instance involves an acting IG for the International Trade Commission, Judith Gwynne, who has been told her contract would not be renewed amid allegations that an ITC employee forcibly took documents from her possession. Just three hours after Grassley sent along his letter asking questions, she was told she’d be hitting the road in July when her contract is up. Well, well, well…

The rest is at his site.

This has a tainted smell indeed.

Does anyone know how previous administrations handled the divvying up of Inspectors General jobs? Are they simply sinecures? If so, is the appointee usually given notice or simply dumped by the side of the road?

The IG at the Fed is definitely in need of help. Or change. See her interrogation by Representative Grayson. The Congressman keeps his cool, amazingly, as he deals with a woman who is either sand-poundingly stupid or busy stonewalling. Your guess. He is to be congratulated for not jumping across the desk and attempting to shake the answers out of her.

Anyway, all of a sudden, we have Inspectors General on the menu.

What next?

We hardly ever get hate mail, so it tickles me when one of these goobers crawls out from under the bridge and goes through the trouble of assembling all his ammunition so he can ‘prove’ how wicked and evil we are.

Now this new specimen, calling himself “Temoc USA”, can point to the Baron’s boomer status as a further demonstration of our malignity. Ah, the days of respect for one’s elders are obviously long gone with this fellow, if indeed he ever harbored such old-fashioned notions. It’s probably not a part of his culture, though, so we’ll have to overlook his ignorance since he has so much information to share.

Besides, boomers are so numerous that it’s hard to really respect them after their ruination in the ’60s. I make an exception for the Baron, who is so retro you’d think he was from another generation.

Without further ado I present Temoc in all his glory – anti-American, anti-European, anti-elderly, and quite snitful. Have fun reading this one:

It’s great to see you reduced to peddling a begging cup. It’s even better to learn you are ELDERLY!

As you know, the US white population distribution is disproportionately elderly — like you. Over the next 2 decades, as you die off, the US will see a demographic shift of historic proportions.

Fortunately, that prospect is not unwelcome. We have Hispanic, black, and Asian relatives. To make it even more interesting, some of them have several lineages. For example, there is an Asian-African-European cousin, named after my white Irish father, who serves as a police officer in California.

For your sake, I hope you don’t run into him, Temoc.

There are no pockets of “pure” anything, except for some of the inbred Muslims, who have the unfortunate habit of marrying parallel first cousins and bringing forth all sorts of recessive genes. Keeps the money in the tribe, I guess, but what use is that when you have to spend it all on sickly children?

Africans and Hispanics and Europeans and Asians and Dravidians are all here, a lovely hodgepodge of the world’s migration patterns. Yeah, it causes tensions. As Mavis Staples sings, “Blood is Thicker Than Time”. But there are tensions in mono-cultures, too. That’s what makes marriage so interesting: you get to learn conflict resolution or your mating experiment fails.

Temoc gives us some demographic information here, supposedly meant to scare us into…what, an early demise?
– – – – – – – – –

55% of births in California are “Hispanic”, 45% of births in Arizona are “Hispanic”, 55% of births in New Mexico are “Hispanic”, 40% of births in Nevada are “Hispanic”, 30% of births in Colorado are “Hispanic”, 30% of births in Florida are non Mexican “Hispanic”. 25% of births in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island (25% in each state) are non Mexican “Hispanic”.

Well, I’d better tell Fausta. She’s going to like these numbers. I presume the non Mexican Hispanics are Puerto Ricans? Or, as our Supreme Court candidate calls them, Nuyoricans. So now we have lots of people to try out for parts when they resurrect “West Side Story” again.

[When I checked with Fausta on the various non-Mexican Hispanics she listed a few off the top of her head:

“there are millions of non-Mexican Hispanics – at least 5 million Cubans, 4-5 million Puerto Ricans. In NJ also there are Colombians, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans…”

I wonder how many Cubans we really have if Castro would let his people go. Especially the black Cubans, who are horribly treated.]

Temoc has an assertion here that many historians would find questionable. Obviously he’s never been to Tennessee or the Ozarks to see white people deal with their perennial hard times. They are experts. But here’s what he thinks:

These trends may very likely accelerate since the economic collapse may well further depress non “Hispanic” birth rates — especially those of whites and Asians. “Hispanics”, on the other hand, are much better equipped culturally to deal with tough economic times.

The Irish who fled the potato famine to all points of the compass (those who survived, anyway) would also argue the point. I don’t think this whippersnapper reads much history…just government reports it would seem. And we all know how free of political slant census reports are. Especially the new ones being run by ACORN.

Another bald assertion, backed up with truths from Wa Po, which relies on the Census Bureau:

Even as the US economic crash slows down immigration, it may very likely accelerate the “browning of America” since it is slowing down Asian immigration as well — and they have below replacement birth rates as well.

And our very own hate monger finishes us off with a one, two from Wa Po and the Wall Street Journal, articles which show a big dip in the migration of Asian and African immigrants, and a surge in births for the United States Hispanics.

This sounds like our descendants will all be café au lait. Fine by me. Some of my grandchildren already are so we’re good to go.

However, Temoc can’t leave without what he calls his “parting shot”:

I hope I read your obituary soon. Maybe next time I am in DC I can swing through VA and p**s on your grave. Remember, this is America. This is NOT European (whites) land. It never was and it never will be — if you insist otherwise — GO BACK TO EUROPE from whence you came — illegally at that.

Now there’s verve and style for you. The poor man, eaten through with hatred, is reduced to flashing his phallus. Just so we know he has one.

Well, Cuauhtémoc, keep looking for that obituary. It’ll keep you off the streets and out of trouble.

Meanwhile, y que la puerta no te golpee muy duro en las pompis al salir, amigo.

Oh…in case anyone wants to communicate with our troll, here’s he is: temoc.usa@googlemail.com

Be nice, y’all. Don’t say anything that smells bad…

Ann Fishman was another American guest speaker at last Sunday’s Trykkefrihedsselskabet conference in Copenhagen. Many thanks to Steen for the video:

Ann Fishman is a practicing attorney and the founder and president of the Liberty Legal Project, LLC, which provides legal research, analysis, strategy, publications and conference services to organizations which promote human rights, especially free speech and free exercise of religion.

[Nothing follows]

Along with Wafa Sultan and Geert Wilders, Diana West spoke at the Free Press Society conference last Saturday in Copenhagen. Many thanks to Steen for the video:

Thanks to Diana for the full text of her speech, which is below the jump:
– – – – – – – – –

Diana West’s Speech in Copenhagen, June 14, 2009

Americans are proud, and rightly so, of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which, among other things, protects speech from government control. The Amendment says in part: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

Increasingly, however, Americans seem content to regard the First Amendment not as the fundamental working tool of democracy, but as a national heirloom, a kind of antique to admire rather than put to use. I don’t think many of my countrymen perceive how profoundly their attitude toward free speech has changed. But there is a difference between having freedom of speech and exercising freedom of speech, one that has become glaringly and distressingly obvious to me since September 11, 2001. So, while it is true that the US government is not Constitutionally empowered to make laws that censor Americans, it is also true, I believe, that Americans have come to censor themselves. But why?

I speak today in regard to the effect of Islam on speech in America — Islam as it has entered our national discussion and debate —- and, I must add, lack of national discussion and debate — since the heinous Islamic attacks on the US nearly 8 years ago.

You may recall that just days after the attacks, then- President Bush said — and I quote — “This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while.” At that same moment, the Pentagon, just across the river from the White House, was a colossal ruin, there was still carnage and mangled steel in the Pennsylvania woods, and an acrid fire of souls burned at the bottom of Manhattan. But once President Bush uttered that word “crusade” a new fear seemed to grip Washington and the wider world: namely, the fear that the President would “alienate” Muslims, even so-called “moderate Muslims.”

I believe such a fear may be unique in the annals of peoples under assault and bears further consideration. The English word “crusade,” of course, harkens back to the medieval wars between Islam and Christendom, which Islam ultimately won, as we know. In the more than nine centuries since, the word has become a familiar metaphor for any moral fight for right: Long ago in America, Thomas Jefferson spoke of a “crusade” against ignorance; the feminist Susan B. Anthony called for a women’s temperance “crusade”; more recently Colin Powell referred to the “equal rights” crusade. And when Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote his memoir of World War II, he called it “Crusade in Europe.”

But after 9/11 it became instantly clear that there wasn’t going to be a 21st-century-”crusade” against newly expansionist Islam — not even against the most violent manifestations of jihad as exemplified by these bloody attacks on civilians and cities in the United States. Why? Muslims didn’t approve. Non-al Qaeda Muslims, presumably, didn’t approve of a “crusade” against al-Qaeda, and the leader of the Free World deferred. A White House spokesman quickly expressed the president’s “regret” that anyone might have been “upset” by the word “crusade.” After that, the word was effectively struck from the English language.

This may seem like a small thing, no more than a diplomatic nicety, but the significance of excising this rousing and storied word from the vocabulary of Americans at the onset of war can hardly be overstated, and must be understood as an early and decisive psychological victory for Islam over the West. In this early semantic retreat we can see the beginnings of the official American lexicon that now strives to avoid associating Islam and jihad altogether, that no doubt gives mighty encouragement to the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s continuing efforts to outlaw all criticism of Islam.

Let me explain. In acceding to the Islamic interpretation of the word “crusade” as something wrong and indefensible — and, worse, something taboo and also verboten — the president traded away a piece of our history and our language — and our understanding of our history through our language — for the sole sake of appeasing Islam. And truly, this was just the beginning.

Soon, the president was giving up other words, other pieces of our culture. Operation Infinite Justice, the Pentagon name for the assault on the Taliban, for example, was changed after Muslims complained that they believed only Allah dispenses infinite justice. The new name was Operation Enduring Freedom. Presumably, Muslims do not believe Allah dispenses freedom, enduring or otherwise (which is interesting), so that was all right. But in making the change, the US was again deferring to Islamic demands, Islamic understandings. In other words, as a military intelligence officer-friend of mine likes to put it, we were “outsourcing” our judgment to Islam. Indeed, the name “war on terror” itself was a generic sop to Islamic sensibilities, omitting any reference to the Islamic dimension of the struggle, namely the jihad that was and is underway.

In those early days after 9/11, President Bush also made it part of his job to serve as the nation’s head cheerleader for Islam as “the religion of peace.” Confusingly, this immediately put “jihad” in a box as something superfluous to Islam. This is now the conventional wisdom in America, from Left to Right: jihad has nothing to do with Islam. Or: “Jihadism is not Islam,” former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney obediently declared last month. People think Barack Hussein Obama is the first American president to promote Islam. The fact is, President Bush’s incessant declarations that Islam is a peaceable creed that terrorist-traitors had “hijacked” or “twisted” drove Abu Qatada, the notorious imam in Britain linked to Al Qaeda to comment — and I quote —: “I am astonished by President Bush when he claims there is nothing in the Koran that justifies jihad or violence in the name of Islam. Is he some kind of Islamic scholar? Has he ever actually read the Koran?”

It’s fair to say that the answer to both questions is no. It’s also disturbing to realize that in the mainstream conversation, the only questions balking at the president’s depiction of Islam as a hearts-and-flowers ideology came from an Islamic terror-imam — never from our own media or politicians. Last year, George W. Bush’s Department of Homeland Security made it difficult for government officials to talk about anything but “hearts and flowers” Islam by issuing a long memorandum “suggesting” that government officials stop using all such words as “jihad,” “jihadist,” “Islamic terrorist,” “Islamist” “Islamofascist” and the like when discussing, well, Islamic terrorism. “Using the word “Islamic” will sometimes be necessary,” the memorandum said, adding that the department’s Muslim experts were concerned that in such a case —- quote — “we should not concede the terrorists’ claim that they are legitimate adherents of Islam.”

It’s not hard to imagine Abu Qatada cackling over this propaganda, but I regret to say there was scant media coverage of even this outrageous Islamic apologetic via government directive.

This shouldn’t be surprising since the media in the US, as elsewhere in the West, is overwhelmingly predisposed to ignore or deny, as a key point of cultural relativism, all specifically Islamic roots of jihad violence and conquest. This is the philosophical basis of what I call Islam-free analysis. Add to that the fear factor of Islamic violence — as we saw in the Danish cartoon crisis — or fear of Islamic protests or harassment, and the United States of America is happy to comply with a universal gag order on Islam, First Amendment or no First Amendment.

And so, from the so-called war on terror — which is now, even more opaquely known by the Obama administration as an “overseas contingency operation” — to newsrooms across America, Islam as what sociologists call “an underlying cause” is increasingly treated as a forbidden topic. Another example: As a journalist, I attend expert lectures in Washington, DC, on, What happened in Iraq? or, The future of Afghanistan. I can attest that at all the ones I have attended, Islam — its culture, its history, beliefs, supremacism, sharia, jihad, anything — is never even mentioned. In this same mold, Gen. Stanley McChrystal gave one his first interviews as the newly confirmed commander in Afghanistan last week about the challenges facing coalition forces in Afghanistan. Such challenges, apparently, have nothing to do with Islam, Islamic law (sharia), or jihad — none of which he even mentioned.

This same see-no-Islam mindset, to focus on the media for a moment, drives stories such as the Buffalo, New York “businessman” who beheaded his wife this spring after she filed for divorce. Did I mention he was a Muslim? That he had founded a television station to combat negative Islamic stereotyping? Most US media didn’t. Initial reports, such as they were, cited “money woes,” or general “domestic violence” as the trigger, never noting the sacralization of misogyny within Islam, let the unfortunate Koranically inspired propensity toward beheading people. To take another typical story, last month authorities uncovered a terror plot in New York City targeting synagogues and military aircraft. I listened to a 2 minute and 29 second radio report of the story and didn’t get the information that the suspects were jailhouse converts to Islam until the final eight seconds. And that was typical. Another non-story for the Islam-blind: When Harvard University’s Muslim chaplain recently declared support for the traditional Islamic penalty of death for apostasy, there were exactly two newspaper stories: one in Harvard’s student newspaper, and one that I wrote. Some of the most egregious examples of Islam-free reporting came out of the jihadist attacks on Mumbai. Early this year, for example, the Indian government released intercepts of conversations of the jihadists who murdered 163 people last November. The conversations frequently invoked Allah, Islam and the need to spare Muslims in the bloody rampages but world media including the New York Times and the Associated Press, for example, omitted all or very nearly all references to Allah, Islam, and the need to spare Muslims in the bloody rampages.

As a conservative, I would like to say that such silence on all things Islam is a phenomenon of the mainstream media, or the Left in general. But this same silence is also a phenomenon of the Right, the side of the political spectrum where one expects to find some fight. But American conservatives, too, protect Islam by not talking about it — our most famous conservative talk show hosts, for example, barely ever mention it — or by obscuring the subject with the nonsense words that hide the mainstream Islamic roots of terror and supremacism.

Soon after 9/11, I tried some of these same terms out myself — Islamist,” Islamo-fascist, radical fundamentalist, Wahhabist, and the like — but came to find them confusing, and maybe purposefully so. In their amorphous imprecision, they allow us to give a wide berth to a great problem: the gross incompatibility of Islamic ideology with Western liberty. Worse than imprecision, however, is the evident childishness that inspires the lexicon, as though padding “Islam” with extraneous syllables such as “ism” or “ist” is a shield against politically correct censure; or that exempting plain “Islam” by criticizing imaginary “Islamofascism” spares us Muslim rage—which, as per the Danish experience, we know explodes at any critique. Such mongrel terms, however, not only confuse the discussion, but keep our understanding of Islam at bay.

Here is how it works on the Right. In writing about Cartoon Rage 2006, Charles Krauthammer, probably the leading conservative columnist in America, clearly identified why the Western press failed to republish the Danish Mohammed cartoons.

He wrote: “What is at issue is fear. The unspoken reason many newspapers do not want to republish is not sensitivity but simple fear.” Unquote.

This was clear as a bell: but then he wrote:

“They know what happened to Theo van Gogh, who made a film about the Islamic treatment of women and got a knife through the chest with an Islamist manifesto attached.”

To repeat, the columnist wrote that Theo van Gogh made a film about the “Islamic treatment of women” and was killed by a knife “with an Islamist manifesto” attached. Given that both Theo’s film and murder-manifesto were explicitly inspired by the verses of the Koran, what’s Islamic about the treatment of women that’s not also Islamic about the manifesto? The “ist” is a dodge, a semantic wedge between the religion of Islam and the ritual murder of van Gogh. It saves face. But why, why, is it up to an infidel American columnist to save face … when the face is Mohammed’s?

I think the answer is connected to what may have been the real war President Bush began to lead the day he gave up the “crusade.” I’m afraid this effort isn’t against “jihad,” and it isn’t against Islamization. On the contrary, it’s a very strange war for the West: it’s our war against alienating Islam; our war against blaming Islamic ideology for violence and repression in the cause of Islamic conquest. In this Western struggle to protect Islam, denouncing an Islamist” manifesto, for example, leaves Islam itself ideologically blameless. And this constitutes a win in this very weird war.

But the war against alienating Islam is not a war I want to fight — and no adherent of Western liberty could believe it’s the war we want to win. Indeed, this war effort turns out to be the same thing as fighting for Islam. It calls us to self-censorship, self-abnegation, self-extinguishment. It depends on and encourages our submission. This is the behavior of the dhimmi and the culture of dhimmitude as catalogued by the great historian Bat Ye’or. Honestly, I don’t think Americans realize they’re engaged in such a suicidal effort, which has even intensified under President Obama. Nor do I believe most Americans would rally to such a cause — if, that is, they became educated to understand it. But the knowledge gap is as wide as the communications gap. Deep down we may not have lost our will; however, at this terrible point, we have lost our language to mobilize that will. And very few Americans seem to realize it.

A final point: I’ve had the opportunity to observe Geert Wilders speak in the United States this past year, and, as you know, he speaks in robust terms to explain forthrightly the perils of Islamization in the West. His heroic manner and clarity electrify many of the Americans who hear him — which suggests there is a healthy flicker of life out there. But there is often someone in the crowd who will tell Mr. Wilders that while he agrees with the message, Mr. Wilders should soften his words so as not to offend anyone — meaning, of course, Muslims. “Don’t say Judeo-Christian culture is better,” I heard one man say to Mr. Wilders. “Say: ‘we believe in women’s rights.’“ I know I don’t have to worry about Mr. Wilders “moderating” his message, but I worry greatly about all the Americans who ask him to.

On hearing about the Dutch court’s sharia-compliant prosecution of his freedom of speech, an American journalist reacted with genuine horror that such a state of repression could exist in a Western country. At the same time, I could sense his quiet pride in knowing, at the back his mind, that he, as an American, was fully protected by the First Amendment. But I wondered to myself, Did he use it? Did his colleagues use it? If the state of American journalism is any marker, the answer is no. Geert Wilders speaks out as if he is protected by the First Amendment, but US journalists and politicians speak so as not to “give offense,” so as not to raise alarm, so as not to criticize Islam.

Islam, of course, is not our only block on speech. For decades, Americans have been schooling themselves to speak with political correctness. As the country has lurched Left under President Bush and now even further under President Obama, we are now seeing ominous legislation making its way through Congress — so-called “hate crimes” legislation — that bodes ill for free speech and also for equality before the law. We are seeing alarming efforts on the Left to “regulate” — in fact, to censor — radio talk shows, for example, and also the Internet.

I wish I could end on a hopeful note, but my sense is that it will have to get worse in America before it gets better. And how will we know when things are beginning to improve? When Americans, as a people, learn, or re-learn something: that it’s not enough to possess freedoms. We must learn that it’s vital to exercise our freedoms if we want to have any hope of preserving them.

The only thing I take exception to in this video is the idea that voting Republican is enough to fix the problem. There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties. Republicans are spending us into oblivion just a tiny bit slower than the Democrats.

I often say (especially to liberals), “I hate Republicans! The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat!”

What’s necessary is a massive grassroots eruption that would put the politicians’ feet to the fire and force them to change their ways. Alas, I don’t think it will happen in time; the system will probably collapse first.

Hat tip: Zonka.

[Post ends here]

A couple of days ago I posted the video of Wafa Sultan’s June 14 speech in Copenhagen. I mentioned at the time that parts of the audio were hard to understand, and a reader named Kosher Kitty kindly rose to the occasion and transcribed the entire speech for Gates of Vienna:

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for inviting me to attend this conference. I am so honored to be here today.

Two years ago, in the aftermath of the turbulent times related to the Danish cartoon depiction of Muhammad, I traveled to your beautiful country to express my gratitude for your courage, to stand up and protect our valuable Western attribute to include freedom of speech, expression, and freedom of conscience. As you may remember, I insisted that publishing the cartoons was a very initial step to educate Muslims all over the world to acknowledge criticism and listen respectfully to how others view aspects of their religion.

Ever since, I have been closely watching Arabic media, and assure you that publication of those cartoons has played a major role in making a positive change. And if that crisis, Islamic ideology emblazoned in hatred, violence, and intolerance, had not been questioned or challenged by outsiders in such a strong manner, the cartoon episode changed the paradigm and so was a turning point from which there is no way back.

However, Muslims still find it difficult to accept responsibility for their actions, and the question is why. Muslims have been hostages to their belief system for 1400 years. They simply have not been exposed to the world outside their Islamic restricted prison. They follow blindly their dogma and aren’t at all capable of critically reflecting and self-criticizing.

For Muslims, self-evaluating and challenging their religion is a pure taboo. According to Bernard Lewis, and I confirm it, Muslims reject newness. On the other hand, Western political correctness, triggered by fear, under the umbrella of multicultural creed, has played a major supportive role in Muslims on [unintelligible] following their beliefs and behaviors without need to reform.

Islamists interpret Western society’s silence and soft approach as capitulation of their demands are therefore under the impression that they hold the upper hand on their path to submission of all others under Islam and sharia law. I recently read an article entitled “In the Casbah of Rotterdam” by Julio Mittu [or Mutti (sp?)] hopefully, I’m pronouncing his name the right way — an article which shockingly describes how Rotterdam, the second largest city in Holland, is becoming the first Muslim city in Europe.

The newspaper article included a quote made a year ago in form of a letter written by [unintelligible] Ismaili, a Rotterdam city councilman, where Ismaili stated: “Listen, up, crazy freaks, we’re here to stay. You’re the foreigners here. With Allah on my side, I am not afraid of anything. Take my advice. Convert to Islam and you will find peace.”

– – – – – – – – –

It is obvious to me that Mr. Ismaili’s insult would not have been allowed to be printed 15 or even 10 years ago. This is because in the past Muslims like Ismaili felt too weak and outnumbered to publicly make such an appalling statement — or announcement. Now their populations have increased substantially, gaining Islamists power and muscle to openly express their true intention.

The majority in the West have easily taken their freedom for granted. They forget the history of European struggle to advance into the age of Enlightenment, to establish secular liberal democracy. Therefore, the general public is reluctant to protect these treasured values. At the same token [sic], they lack basic understanding of the nature, focus, and underlying principles that drive Muslims.

In Western culture, violence is a last resort. For Muslims, it’s culturally instinctive reaction. As a result, in the face of barbaric acts like honor killings, raping of non-Muslims, and organized vandalism by Muslims in European cities, government officials and law-abiding citizens, liberal academic elite, the liberal media, and the proponents of interfaith dialogue legitimize sharia-approved doctrines by ignoring them, or worse, by approving those doctrines to be woven in Western social fabric, thus creating a harmful, syncretic relationship.

On one hand, young Muslims are taught in mosques, schools, and at home that non-Muslims are kafr, infidels, and not respected, that Muslims must never assimilate into Western society, that death is valued over life, that Jews are pigs and monkeys, and that raping non-Muslim women is not a crime, that it is allowed to beat wives to discipline them, and I could go on and on listing unacceptable Muslim activities permitted by sharia law. At the same time, we hear entirely unreasonable messages of tolerance from many European leaders, including high-level government officials, such as a lawsuit pursued by a Dutch court against Geert Wilders for hate speech.

Hence, instead of defending his right to free speech, Wilders has been punished by [sic] exposing the struggle between Islamization of the West and the need to protect the free world. Instead of protecting Wilders’ rights to prefer true liberal values, he’s silenced and viewed as a racist Islamophobe. I believe that the Dutch case against Wilders is an expression of the powerful influence of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference over European institutions.

As you may know, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, an association of 57 Islamic states, promotes a United Nations resolution to suppress voices of critical dissent against Islam. This initiative is a most destructive and dangerous proposal. I strongly urge its defeat.

Just like in the case of Mr. Wilders, the liberal establishment, cheered by the growing Muslim population, is successfully able to portray anyone who criticizes Islam as warmonger, anti-peace, right-wing extremist, racist, and Islamophobe. By now, this atmosphere of multiculturalism has been strident, consequently, the superficial political correctness tone adopted by the West has failed to recognize the danger of letting weeds creep into the Western garden to eventually destroy its humane beauty.

Fortunately, after September 11, and more specifically after the Danish cartoons riot, some courageous individuals in the West have realized the enormous aspect of the Islamic culture and boldly spoken up against it. Mr. Wilders is with us today. He is among these brave leaders. He is a true hero who has in spite of numerous obstacles risked his well-being to secure us all. By producing the documentary film Fitna, Mr. Wilders allowed the audience to question links between Islamic teachings and Muslims’ manifestations of their texts, letting viewers reach their own conclusion.

As an Arab, I am convinced that as people in the West learn the truth about Islam, many more would follow Geert Wilders’ footsteps. I therefore call upon Western government officials to study Islamic principles from their original Arabic textbooks without distortion or sugarcoating.

One of the principles is a very dangerous Islamic concept called in Arabic al-taqiyya. It allows and even commands Muslims to lie and deceive in order to achieve their defined objective, submitting the world to Islam and the sharia law.

To be sure, Islamists who follow the political ideology of subverting non-Muslims under Islam do use the concept of al-taqiyya. I believe that Muslims’ al-taqiyya and the West’s ignorance about the true intentions of Islamists both violate our right to know the truth, regardless of how evil or unintentional their objective is. The relationship between the two is the recipe for irreversible damage to liberal democracy and values of freedom, the foundation of European Union.

It is obvious that people in the West and especially those in position of leadership who live by Western moral code on which they were nurtured refuse to judge individuals on the basis of their religious affiliation, and that’s their right. But they don’t have the right to be ignorant or to disregard the fact that Islam is not only a religion, it is also a political doctrine that imposes itself by force.

That’s precisely what Mr. Wilders has been trying so hard to convey and that is exactly what the Saudi flag represents. Would you please take a look at the Saudi flag. The writing on the flag translates, No God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. Underneath that religious statement there is the large sword. It represents the superiority of Islam and its desire to impose it by force on the non-Muslim. This statement is the underlying foundation of Islam.

You may be familiar with the saying that it takes an entire village to raise a well adjusted, healthy child. In that spirit, I call anew, as a community of people, countries, and nations, caring to preserve that eternal child, our treasured freedom and liberty, to be bold and fully support Mr. Wilders [unintelligible] to preserve liberal democracy as your highest priority.

I call on you to please keep in mind that they who forget their history are doomed to repeat it, and they who don’t know their enemy will never be able to defeat it. As the wise said, Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or abridging the freedom of speech. There is no freedom without the freedom to criticize and exercise reasonable civil discussion; there is no values [sic] without mutual respect.

The threat of violence is the [unintelligible] of criminals, not civilization. As for you the Danish people, you are well known for your historical record as fighters against evil. I believe the Danish people indeed deserve credit for demolishing [sic] the first break in the Islamic prison wall. By doing that, I am certain, you opened the door and granted a sense of confidence to others in the European Union to get involved in fighting this predicament, which threatens our way of life and our core values. For that, I salute you.

Lastly, the great Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the United States, stated: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, so that my child may live in peace.” So, let’s deal with this trouble now, right now, so our future generation may live in peace.

Thank you so much.

Violent unrest over Iran’s election results continues in Tehran. In Sweden, prosecutors find that they are facing increased harassment and threats. There’s a new mutated strain of the swine flu in Brazil. And a Las Vegas newspaper has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in an attempt to force it to reveal the identities of commenters on one of its online news stories.

In other news, the Obama administration reportedly sent a message to Hamas via Jimmy (“Jimmuh from the Ummah”) Carter.

Thanks to Amil Imani, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, KGS, PatriotUSA, TB, Tuan Jim, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	Financial Crisis
	EU to Fine Banks That Engage in Risky Business
	Obama: New Rules Will Keep ‘Worst Traits in Check’
	Recession a Boon to Spain’s Army
	Time for ‘New World Order’: Brazilian President
	USA
	Byrd: Obama’s Czars Are Unconstitutional
	Liberal Hate Kills Truth
	Vegas Paper Gets Subpoena to ID Online Commenters
	Canada
	Montreal Courthouse Reopens After Bomb Scare
	Nine Arrested in Montreal North Melee
	Europe and the EU
	Austria: Man Convicted of Glorifying Nazi Ideas
	Belfast: Racist Attacks in Send Roma Fleeing Homes
	Does Gaddafi Truly Understand That Africa is Full of Africans?
	G8: Money to Africa is Compensation Not Gift, Gaddafi Says
	Gaddafi: Free-Trade Area for Italian Companies, Marcegaglia
	Greece: 1-Mln-Euro Sanction for Optical Store Regulations
	High-Tech Edge for Poland’s Jewish History
	Hungary to Close, Merge Embassies and Consulates
	Hungary: Demonstration Called Against Sickening Vandalism of Holocaust Memorial
	Hungary: Jobbik to Hold Demonstrations and “Assist Police”
	Italy: No Figure on Guantanamo Detainees
	Italy: Libyan Leader ‘Turns the Page’ on History
	Italy: Premier Blasts ‘Trash’
	Italy Official in Row Over Apparent Fascist Salute
	Netherlands PvdA: Moroccan MP Must Not be Acquitted
	Netherlands: Integration Minister Challenges Wilders
	Sweden: Far-Right Climbs Over Pirates in May Poll
	Swedish Prosecutors Under Increasing Threat: Study
	U.S. Says Undecided on Eastern Europe Missile Plan
	UK: Grieving Son Thrown Out of Cathedral After Being Mistaken for BNP Thug
	UK: Hard to Eradicate Risk Some Allies Use Torture
	UK: No, Madam, It’s You Who Have Offended My Values
	UK: Terror Orders ‘Could be Scrapped’
	UK: Terror Law Used to Stop Thousands ‘Just to Balance Racial Statistics’Watchdog
	UK: U.N. Protocol Used to Regulate Homeschoolers
	Balkans
	Turkish Officials in Bosnia Reopen Historic Ottoman Bridge
	Mediterranean Union
	Craxi: Mediterranean Coastguard to be Set Up
	North Africa
	Tunisia: Arab Women Organization Launches Website
	Israel and the Palestinians
	Israeli Minister in Arab Slur Row
	Netanyahu Opening a ‘Half-Step Forward’, Frattini
	Netanyahu: Egypt, Threat for Arab Future in Israel
	‘Obama Administration Sent Message to Hamas’
	Three Failed Plans to Wipe Israel Off the Map
	Middle East
	Culture: Turkish University Will Open in Dubai
	‘Hamas Helping Iran Crush Dissent’
	Iran Election: The Beginning of the End
	Iran Ups Media Crackdown as Reformers Plan Rally
	Iran’s Senior Ayatollah Slams Election, Confirming Split
	Turkey Stages Cyprus Drills Amid Oil Dispute
	UAE: Thousands of Truck Drivers Stranded in the Desert
	South Asia
	Three Danish Soldiers Killed in Helmand
	Far East
	Beijing’s New and Improved Execution Method, Lethal Injection in Lieu of Bullet in the Head
	Inside North Korea’s Gulag
	North Korea Warns of Retaliation
	US Says it Will Not Accept N Korea as Nuclear State
	Vatican Urged to be Firm on China
	Australia — Pacific
	Australia: Swine Flu Measures Scaled Back as Infection Fears Diminish
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	Quarter of Men in South Africa Admit Rape, Survey Finds
	Latin America
	Brazil Denies Rift With France Over Jet Disaster Probe
	Brazil Finds New Strain of H1N1 Virus
	French: No Conclusions in Flight 447 Probe
	No French Access to Brazil Plane Crash Autopsies

EU to Fine Banks That Engage in Risky Business

Regulators should be able to fine banks that reward staff for excessive risk taking, draft EU plans say, arguing that any impact on attracting talent is a price worth paying for greater market stability.

The draft plans from the EU’s executive European Commission are part of a reform of the bloc’s bank capital requirements rules (CRD) to make markets safer for investors who have been rattled by the credit crunch.

There has been public anger globally at bankers in institutions that needed taxpayer cash to survive the market crisis who then walked away with huge bonuses.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is due to publish the draft law next week. Its outline has already been flagged but banks have been waiting for greater detail.

It will give regulators direct supervisory powers over remuneration for the first time by imposing a “binding obligation” on credit institutions and investment firms to have policies that promote sound risk management and remuneration.

“The purpose of this proposed amendment to the CRD is to ensure that supervisors may also impose financial or non-financial penalties (including fines) against firms that fail to comply with the obligation,” the draft law said.

Other sanctions could include higher capital requirements or order a firm to make changes so that pay policies don’t encourage risky short-term activities that threaten a bank’s long-term survival.

Trade-off

Safer remuneration principles imply a “trade-off that includes long-term benefits… in terms of a more stable and less pro-cyclical financial system,” the draft added.

Supervisors would not set levels of bonuses and firms would remain responsible for pay policies, it said.

The draft law will need to be adopted by EU governments and the European Parliament to take effect in 2011. It will increase the amount of capital banks will have to set aside to cover risky assets held on their trading books.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

Obama: New Rules Will Keep ‘Worst Traits in Check’

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama proposed new “rules of the road” for the nation’s financial system Wednesday, casting the changes as an essential response to the economic crisis and the greatest regulatory transformation since the Great Depression.

Obama blamed the crisis on “a culture of irresponsibility” that he said had taken root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street, and he said regulations crafted to deal with the depression of the 1930s were “overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy.”

The Obama plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and would also create a new consumer protection agency to guard against credit and other abuses that played a big role in the current crisis.

In remarks prepared for delivery later in the day, Obama attributed much of the country’s current problem to “a cascade of mistakes and missed opportunities” that happened over decades.

The Fed’s expanded authority and the rest of the new rules would reach into currently unregulated regions of the financial markets. An 88-page white paper released by the administration detailed an effort to change a regime that Obama’s economic team maintained had become too porous for the innovations and intricacies of today’s financial markets.

Obama said the plan was designed in consultation with lawmakers, regulators and the institutions it seeks to police.

“We seek a careful balance,” Obama said.

The plan would do away with the Office of Thrift Supervision, replacing it with a system aimed at closing gaps in coverage and keeping institutions from shopping for the most lenient bank regulator. The consumer agency would place new restrictions on lenders and mortgage brokers, requiring them to offer simple loans to consumers.

“Mortgage brokers will be held to higher standards, exotic mortgages that hide exploding costs will no longer be the norm, home mortgage disclosures will be reasonable, clearly written, and concise,” Obama said.

— Hat tip: PatriotUSA

[Return to headlines]

Recession a Boon to Spain’s Army

Spain has the worst unemployment rate in the EU, but not everyone is complaining.

One of the main beneficiaries of the crisis has been the armed forces. With youth unemployment standing at 36%, the highest in Europe, the number of army recruits has almost doubled.

Just before 0900, young men line up outside the army recruitment office in the centre of Madrid. Once the doors open, they go through a security check, then file into a spacious office lined with posters of smiling young people in uniform.

They have come to meet representatives of the army, navy and air force, in the hope of finding a new future.

Most of those seeking a military career are driven by Spain’s stark economic realities. “I am here because of the crisis,” says Emilio, 18.

“I need a job and it pays a regular wage. I was a locksmith and labourer but they fired me four months ago. My benefit is coming to an end, so I am here because I need to eat,” he says.

“At the moment there is not much work around so the army is good because it is a stable job,” adds Felipe, also 18. “Everything else I have looked at is temporary, so I am after something more secure.”

Jorge, 20, already has a good job close to home, but he wants to join the paratroopers or the special forces. “In my case,” he says, “it is a vocation, unlike lots of people here who see it as a job.”

Career

It is not just locals who are applying.

Robert, 19, is from Ecuador. He wants to join the army because it is an opportunity to study for free.

Other immigrants see it as a way of acquiring Spanish citizenship. Latin Americans can account for 9% of the Spanish armed forces.

Here in Madrid, applications have surged by a third. Col Juan Carlos Aneiros Gallardo believes the surge is due to recent improvements in the living conditions, professional training and career prospects for young recruits.

“Naturally, we are happy,” he told me, “because this allows the armed forces to make a better selection and raise not just the quantity but also the quality of our soldiers.”

In other parts of Spain, there are four applicants for each vacancy.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

Time for ‘New World Order’: Brazilian President

ASTANA (AFP) — The global financial crisis has reduced the differences between nations and created the opportunity to form a new world order, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday.

Speaking after a meeting with Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Kazakh capital Astana, Lula called on the global community to seize on the crisis to create a fairer world for developing nations.

“I want to say that before the crisis, there were many countries which had greater significance than others, and some countries which had no significance at all,” he said through a translator.

“After the crisis, everyone has become similar. We have the possibility to create a new world order and together we should improve our relations.”

Lula arrived in Kazakhstan Wednesday following the first-ever summit between fellow developing economic powerhouses Russia, India and China — together with Brazil dubbed the BRIC nations — in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Nazarbayev, head of Central Asia’s largest economy, is keen to secure a larger role for his government in world affairs.

Following up on Lula’s call, the pair said in a statement following their meeting that the United Nations should open up the UN Security Council to developing nations in an effort to bolster global security.

They said that opening the organisation, which only has five permanent members, to wider membership was the only way to make the often-criticised body “more legitimate and effective.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

Byrd: Obama’s Czars Are Unconstitutional

Ever since this practice of appointing czars began years ago, it has always been considered possible that they are all unconstitutional. But it never built to a critical mass to elicit a court fight. These czars were few and far between, and rarely did anything that seriously ruffled any feathers. But President Obama has taken this to an unprecedented level, to the point where these appointments are dangerous to our constitutional regime.

This has become too much for the longest-serving senator in U.S. history to stomach. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. Even though Senate rules vest most powers in the Senate majority leader, the president pro tempore is a constitutional officer, and third in line to the U.S. presidency (after the vice president and the Speaker of the House). This office is held by a Democrat, who has been serving in the Senate since before Barack Obama was even born.

Senator Byrd wrote a letter to President Obama in February, criticizing the president’s strategy of creating czars to manage important areas of national policy. Senator Byrd said that these appointments violate both the constitutional system of checks and balances and the constitutional separation of powers, and is a clear attempt to evade congressional oversight. (Didn’t this White House promise unprecedented transparency?)

And Senator Byrd is exactly correct. The Constitution commands that government officers with significant authority (called “principal officers”) are nominated by the president but then are subject to a confirmation vote by the U.S. Senate. And principal officers include not only cabinet-level department heads, but go five levels deep in executive appointments, to include assistant secretaries and deputy undersecretaries.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Liberal Hate Kills Truth

… [F]or some liberals, the state is in fact a substitute for God and a form of political religion as imagined by Rousseau and Robespierre, the fathers of liberal fascism.

~ Jonah Goldberg, “Liberal Fascism” (2007)

Psychiatrists define displacement as “the transfer of an emotion from its original focus to another object, person, or situation.” Displacement is a common defense mechanism used by narcissistic, insecure and deceitful people to obscure or “change” the truth to conform with a new reality more acceptable to their psychological delusions.

In modern times we see this Freudian psychosis of displacement conjoined with the Orwellian government-controlled media during the reporting of three recent murders:

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Vegas Paper Gets Subpoena to ID Online Commenters

A Las Vegas newspaper says it has been served a federal grand jury subpoena seeking information about readers who posted comments on the paper’s Web site.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that its editor, Thomas Mitchell, plans to fight the request, which the newspaper received after reporting on a federal tax fraud case against business owner Robert Kahre.

The subpoena seeks the identities and personal information about people who posted comments on the story. The newspaper said prosecutors told the judge in the case that some comments hinted at acts of violence and the subpoena was issued out of concern for jurors’ safety.

Mitchell said anonymous speech is “a fundamental and historic part of this country.” The newspaper would consider cooperating if specific crimes or real threats were presented, he said.

The newspaper said the subpoena bears the name of U.S. Assistant District Attorney J. Gregory Damm, a lawyer on the Justice Department team that is prosecuting Kahre and others on charges including income tax evasion, fraud and criminal conspiracy.

Grand jury proceedings are secret, and the subpoena is not a public record.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney for Nevada declined to comment.

The newspaper said it received the subpoena June 2, a week after its story describing the government’s case against Kahre, a Las Vegas construction company executive accused of paying contractors with gold and silver U.S.. coins based on the precious metal value of the coins but using the much lower face value of the coins for tax purposes. Kahre and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The story drew nearly 175 online comments by Monday night, most in support of Kahre and critical of the government and jurors and attorneys in the case.

One commentator said: “The sad thing is there are 12 dummies on the jury who will convict him. They should be hung along with the feds.”

Another called Damm a “socialist, fascist Mormon” and a “Nazi moron.”

The comments are written under pseudonyms. Along with the real names of people who posted comments, the subpoena asks the newspaper for the writers’ gender, birth date, physical address, telephone number, Internet service provider, IP address and credit card numbers.

After a 2003 raid on Kahre’s business, Kahre and several of his workers sued Damm, two Internal Revenue Service agents and others who were involved. That civil matter is pending.

In 2007, Kahre sued Damm and agents of the FBI and IRS, alleging criminal behavior. U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra dismissed the complaint in December, and Kahre appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Two years ago, Damm prosecuted a similar tax case against nine defendants, including Kahre. The trial ended with no convictions and four acquittals.

Five defendants were partially acquitted, and two of them were dropped from the indictment that generated the current case.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

Montreal Courthouse Reopens After Bomb Scare

MONTREAL — Montreal police say the suspicious package at the Montreal courthouse has been neutralized and the building is being reopened to the public.

The courthouse was evacuated Wednesday morning after a suspicious package was found in the men’s washroom on the third floor of the Old Montreal building.

The Montreal police bomb squad was called to the courthouse at the corner of St. Laurent and St. Antoine Sts.

A threatening phone call was made to 911 this morning, at about the same time constables found the package with a timer attached to it.

The entire neighbourhood, from Place d’Armes to just east of the courthouse was initially closed off. But the area had reopened to traffic by 12:40 p.m.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

[Return to headlines]

Nine Arrested in Montreal North Melee

MONTREAL — Police arrested nine people on charges of assault with a weapon, trespassing, vandalism and public mischief Tuesday night after dozens of youths gathered in a Montreal North park hurled objects at police and went on a rampage in the neighbourhood, breaking windows and damaging cars.

Those arested are all over the age of 18, police said.

Police went to Carignan Park, at the corner of Rolland Blvd. and Renoir St., around 10 p.m. after getting a call about a fight.

It was the second call of the evening about a fight at the park, Montreal police Constable Daniel Lacoursiere said.

By the time police arrived, the fight had broken up but there were 50-75 youths near the basketball courts, he said.

Police remained on the scene as a preventive measure, Lacoursiere said.

The youths then started to throw rocks and bottles at the officers, and police cleared the park.

Some of the youths took to the streets, vandalizing cars, homes and a school in the area.

One officer was slightly hurt while making an arrest, Lacoursiere said

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

[Return to headlines]

Austria: Man Convicted of Glorifying Nazi Ideas

VIENNA — An Austrian court has convicted a man of glorifying Nazi ideology and sentenced him to two years in prison.

The court in the southern city of Klagenfurt found the 85-year-old man, who was not identified, guilty Wednesday of “re-engaging” in Nazi-era beliefs.

The prosecution had accused him, among other things, of glorifying Adolf Hitler and Nazi beliefs in two books. The Austria Press Agency said the man is a veteran of the SS, which acted as a special police force during Nazi times.

Austrian law bans the glorification of Hitler and the Nazi era, as well as attempts to diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

Belfast: Racist Attacks in Send Roma Fleeing Homes

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Racist thugs armed with bricks and bottles forced more than 100 Romanian Gypsies from their Belfast homes in a wave of attacks that sent them fleeing to the safety of a nearby church.

Community leaders in Belfast on Wednesday condemned the attacks, while Romania’s government urged British authorities to take measures to avoid more racist violence.

The 20 Romanian families, including one with a 5-day-old baby, first fled to a Belfast church Tuesday after gangs hurling bricks and bottles attacked their homes in a working class neighborhood, according to the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, a local community group. Local authorities moved them to the roomier community center Wednesday morning.

There were no reports of injuries.

“Trouble was brewing for a few days,” Malcolm Morgan, the pastor of the City Church, which gave them shelter, told Britain’s GMTV. “There have been stones thrown and windows smashed. It is a small group of racist thugs.”

The Romanians lugged their possessions in suitcases, bags and large bundles as they left a bus outside the community center. One man carried an accordion, while some women covered their heads with jackets and sweaters, too afraid to be photographed.

Racial tensions in Belfast have risen since an international soccer match between Poland and Northern Ireland in March, said Patrick Yu, a spokesman for the minority group. The violence flared again this week when gangs hurling bottles and Nazi salutes attacked an anti-racism rally.

“There were riots before the match broke out, we had hooligans that used the excuse as revenge — for ethnic cleansing against all migrants in the area,” Yu said. “Originally they focus on Polish people, and then go after everyone.”

Belfast City council press officer Mark Ashby said the majority of those targeted were Roma, or Gypsies, from Romania.

Some of the families said they planned to return to Romania following their ordeal.

Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long condemned the attacks and urged local residents to support their neighbors.

“Each and every citizen has the right to live free from fear and intimidation,” Long said. “Belfast, and indeed Northern Ireland as a whole, is changing and we are making great strides towards a bright and shared future. We cannot let a small minority of people detract from that, or allow them to drive people from their homes.”

Romania’s Foreign Ministry said it “firmly condemns any racist or extremist act and makes an appeal to British authorities to take all necessary measures to prevent a repeat of such cases.”

“About 200 Romanian citizens of Roma origin live in the area, from which 115 have left after the recent attacks, some requesting repatriation,” the ministry said in a statement.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Belfast: Racists Threaten to Cut Romanian Baby’s Throat

Racists in Belfast who forced Romanians to flee their homes threatened to cut a baby’s throat, it emerged today.

Over 100 men, women and children were this morning taken to the Ozone complex in Belfast after they spent the night in a church hall following sustained attacks by a racist mob claiming to be from the fascist group Combat 18

The families, who took refuge in a church hall, said they are too frightened to return to their homes in south Belfast, with some just wanting to return to Romania as soon as possible.

More than 100 Romanian people, including a new born baby, were this morning bussed from the City Church hall on University Avenue where they spent the night, to the Ozone complex in Belfast while the city council, police and social services meet to discuss the situation.

The families said they left their homes because they had come under sustained attack for a number of nights. A crowd gathered outside their homes shouting racist slogans, smashing windows and kicking in doors.

“These people came here to Northern Ireland because they want to make a better life but now they have to go. They are very afraid and the only thing to do is go back to Romania,” a friend of the families said.

Couaccu Siluis who spent the night in the church hall with his wife, family, brother and his family said he arrived in the North eight months ago in search of a better life but found it impossible to get work.

In broken English he said that he was too frightened to return to their home at Wellesley Avenue but had no money to return to Romania.

“We are not going back to our house. It is not safe. They made signs like they wanted to cut my brother’s baby’s throat. They said they wanted to kill us,” he said.

“We are very scared. We have young children. We cannot go back. Possibly we could go back to Romania but we have no money. We have to stay here.

“I don’t know what we will do now. We will stay here for a couple more days but I don’t know after that.”

Another victim said: “I am making plans to go back to Romania as soon as I can. We don’t want to go but it is too dangerous for us.”

Trish Morgan whose husband Malcolm is the pastor at City Church said: “We were asked by members of our church who are involved in race relations if we could offer emergency shelter for these people who have nowhere else to go.

“Police had advised that it was too dangerous and so tense and volatile that they had to be evacuated. Fortunately we were having a clean up in our church last night so we were able to ask members about the possibility of providing shelter.

“This morning they are being taken to another shelter, the Ozone Centre, where they will spend the day and the various organisations will go there to meet the community leaders and see about the possibility of re-housing these people because they can’t return to their homes and some of them have said they don’t want to return to their old homes.”

Nobody has been arrested in connection with the racist attacks.

Some residents have accused the police of failing to protect the immigrant families, but the PSNI said it will be stepping up patrols.

Belfast Lord Mayor Naomi Long, who visited the families last night, said said: “These kind of ugly scenes are totally unacceptable.. A small minority of people have sadly taken away from an event which had been organised by the local community to show solidarity for their Romanian neighbours, and to express their abhorrence at their homes being subjected to racist attacks.

“Belfast is growing rich in diversity with people from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds making this city their home, and each and every citizen has the right to live free from fear and intimidation. We cannot let a small minority of people detract from that, or allow them to drive people from their homes.”

Bernie Kelly, of Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, said: “The whole thing escalated very quickly. Working with the police and all the agencies together we are going to have to find a resolution.”

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Does Gaddafi Truly Understand That Africa is Full of Africans?

Brother Muammar Gaddafi has been visiting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

When it comes to mis-speaking, Berlusconi and Gaddafi are way up there with the best politicians in the world.

Berlusconi, in fact, has in the past been quite racist in his remarks.

So it tells you a lot about how far Gaddafi went when, as the Guardian reported, the Libyan strongman said things that unsettled the politically incorrect Berlusconi.

Speaking about the issue of African migrants (the tragic “boat people”) to Italy and other European countries, Gaddafi said at a joint press conference after his talks with Berlusconi, “The Africans do not have problems of political asylum.

People who live in the bush, and often in the desert, don’t have political problems. They don’t have oppositions or majorities or elections.”

People who live in the bush and often in the desert? Okay, you might let that pass. But then Gaddafi, currently the chairman of the African Union, pressed on: “These are things that only people who live in cities know.

[Other Africans] don’t even have an identity.

And I don’t mean a political identity; they don’t even have a personal identity.

They come out of the bush and they say: ‘In the north, there’s money, there’s wealth’ — and so they go to Libya, and from there to Europe..”

The context of Gaddafi’s comments must be taken into account.

There is a widely held view that many of the migrants who come from other countries and cross from Libya are asylum seekers fleeing wars and disorder back home.

Gaddafi doesn’t buy that, so he said; “Please, don’t take seriously this business about political asylum. The idea they are all asylum seekers makes you laugh sometimes.”

Against that background, it seems Gaddafi’s point wasn’t to paint Africans as primitive people who live in trees.

That said, there is an unfortunate streak of Arab condescension towards the so-called sub-Saharan Africa that one often encounters in North Africa.

While Gaddafi claims to be present-day Pan Africanist No. 1, who berates his fellow African leaders for not warming up to his push to have a United States of Africa, he heads a government that routinely rounds up, beats and expels other Africans.

IF GADDAFI CANNOT PUT UP WITH A few thousand African citizens from sub-Saharan Africa, how does he expect to live with another 840 million of them?

But his fellow African leaders never confront Gaddafi with these questions.

There was a time when he would use his petrodollars to pay up the African Union subscriptions of several African countries that had fallen behind and were threatened with expulsion from the organisation.

Gaddafi has also been able to hold many AU meetings, and he was indulged because he would pay attending African officials a per diem.

Some time ago, I was at a private event where the African leader present told us that occasionally some presidents also sent their aides to collect their “envelopes” for them from Gaddafi’s per diem clerk!

The combination of these factors has emboldened Gaddafi to treat other Africans shabbily. It’s a crying shame.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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G8: Money to Africa is Compensation Not Gift, Gaddafi Says

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 11 — “We must put a lot of money into Africa, but this isn’t a gift, it is compensation: the countries which pumped millions of dollars into failed banks should now pump it” into the African continent. Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi, president of the African Union, which is to participate at the next summit of world leaders in L’Aquila, explained that it is necessary “to recognise that resources have been stolen from Africa, with the colonisation of the continent, and that its people was treated in the past like animals. We must apologise for this and never repeat it” added the Colonel, during his speech at the university La Sapienza in Rome. “We will tell the G8 that resources have been stolen, and now it is time to negotiate compensation”, he said. This is the only way to “stop immigration, and tackle the biggest challenge of the current time”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Gaddafi: Free-Trade Area for Italian Companies, Marcegaglia

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 12 — Italian companies wishing to invest and operate in Libya for the country’s benefit may set themselves up in a “free-trade area” which will benefit from “special” economic and fiscal treatment. The treatment includes a 5-year exemption from income tax, as well as discounted electricity and gas costs. The information was announced by the president of Italy’s ‘Confindustria’ industrialists’ association, Emma Marcegaglia, at the end of a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi — emphasizing the fact that it was “an extraordinary opportunity” for Italian companies. “They have assured us the allocation of 11.8 billion in order to attract private foreign investments including the creation of joint ventures. We are counting on the fact that a good amount of that will be directed toward Italian companies since, as stated by Gaddafi, they will be given priority”. The sectors of major common interest and synergy for Italy and Libya range from infrastructure and construction, renewable and standard energies, petrochemistry, and tourism. In order to solidify the project the meeting with Gaddafi was followed by a meeting of heads of Confindustria to discuss the programme with the governor of the Bank of Libya, as well as several government ministers. Marcegaglia underlined the opportunities offered by the “compensation” package negotiated between the Italian and Libyan governments. “There is 5 billion for the creation of infrastructure in Libya which can guarantee a high volume of activity for the next 20 years”. Marcegaglia also denied rumours regarding problems in the construction of a Libyan motorway — symbol of the bilateral agreement. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Greece: 1-Mln-Euro Sanction for Optical Store Regulations

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JUNE 4 — Greece must pay a 1-million-euro sanction for taking 37 months to adopt EU regulations on optical shop ownership, according to a ruling by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The court said that Athens did not adopt all of the measures requested by a 2005 sentence until May of 2008, “substantially damaging the interests of companies and opticians established in another member states that were trying to open a location in Greece”. In the court’s view, “the lack of conformity protracted for a substantial period of time”, also considering “that the adapting to what was requested in the sentence was not especially complicated” and therefore “a serious restriction to the freedom to establish” optical stores persisted. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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High-Tech Edge for Poland’s Jewish History

The creators of Poland’s future Museum of Polish Jews Tuesday in Warsaw launched the Virtual Shtetl website, a portal they hope will build the museum’s collection even before its doors open in 2011.

“This portal has the potential to become the greatest source of information about Jewish life in Poland prior to the war,” project creator and coordinator Albert Stankowski told reporters in Warsaw Tuesday.

So far the site has information on 800 Polish cities and towns that were “shtetls” or Jewish settlements prior to the Holocaust, in which six million European Jews — three million of them from Poland — perished under Nazi German genocide.

The bilingual Polish-English website is built on Web 2.0 technology allowing users to contribute information and eyewitness testimony to the site..

Stankowski hopes the site will open channels of communication on an international scale and bring to light nearly a thousand years of Jewish life in Poland obliterated by the Holocaust.

The website is the virtual arm of the long-awaited Museum of the History of Polish Jews, expected to open its doors in 2011 after more than a decade of preparations.

The English version of the website is on: http://www.sztetl.org.pl/?cid=15&lang=en_GB

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Hungary to Close, Merge Embassies and Consulates

Hungary will streamline its network of diplomatic missions and end up with 102 representations in 80 states as a result, Foreign Minister Peter Balazs told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Mr Balazs said that Hungary would close its embassies in Luxembourg, Venezuela, Chile and Malaysia and as well as its consulates general in Dusseldorf, Lyon, Krakow, Chicago, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Sydney.

Hungary will also integrate its UNESCO mission into the country’s embassy in Paris and combine its WTO and UN delegations in Geneva as well as its OSCE and UN delegations in Vienna.

Mr Balazs said that the closings and consolidations would save HUF 2bn (EUR 7.2m) per year and increase the efficiency of Hungary’s network of diplomatic representation.

The foreign minister said the closings and mergers will eliminate 70 positions, though all those who lose their jobs as a result of the closings and mergers will be transferred to other positions within the foreign ministry.

They will also review Hungary’s membership in international organisations, Mr Balazs said.

Mr Balazs noted that the foreign ministry’s 2009 budget was reduced from the originally stipulated HUF 49bn to HUF 44bn, adding that money stemming from sale of the ministry’s delegations in Vienna.

Mr Balazs said that the closings and consolidations would save HUF 2bn (EUR 7.2m) per year and increase the efficiency of Hungary’s network of diplomatic representation.

The foreign minister said the closings and mergers will eliminate 70 positions, though all those who lose their jobs as a result of the closings and mergers will be transferred to other positions within the foreign ministry.

They will also review Hungary’s membership in international organisations, Mr Balazs said.

Mr Balazs noted that the foreign ministry’s 2009 budget was reduced from the originally stipulated HUF 49bn to HUF 44bn, adding that money stemming from sale of the ministry’s property in the affected locations will be allocated to the central budget.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Hungary: Demonstration Called Against Sickening Vandalism of Holocaust Memorial

A senior Socialist Party official has called for a broad protest against anti-Semitic manifestations after a Holocaust memorial was vandalised in central Budapest early on Monday. On Monday morning, as yet unidentified persons placed pig’s trotters into the cast iron shoes constituting a monument on the embankment of the river Danube near Parliament, commemorating victims of Nazi terror shot into the river in 1944-45.. MP Tamas Suchman called on individuals, political parties, public dignitaries and civil groups to stage a demonstration at the monument on Thursday evening.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Hungary: Jobbik to Hold Demonstrations and “Assist Police”

“The Magyar Gárda and the National Defence Army will hold patrols and stage demonstrations to help the police until the gendarmerie is formed,” Jobbik deputy chairman Csaba Gyüre and spokesman of the self-styled National Defence Army László Bodrog told a joint press briefing in NyÃregyháza on Tuesday.

The pair also announced that Jobbik, the Defence Army and the Magyar Gárda will stage a demonstration in Pusztadobos, north east Hungary.

Bodrog said the groups “want to increase public safety, because while police are put under political pressure and direct control, they cannot do their jobs, for fear of being labelled racist. Legislation is needed to draw public attention to the current state of affairs,” Bodrog argued.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Italy: No Figure on Guantanamo Detainees

Obama said Italy had agreed to accept three Tunisians

(See related item on site).

(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Tuesday there was still no official word from the United States on the exact number of Guantanamo detainees which Italy would be asked to accept.

“I don’t know if they are three or a different number,” Frattini told a news conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome.

Although there has been no official confirmation, reports circulating in Italy said the three slated to be sent to Italy were Tunisians Riadh Nasri, Moez Fezzani and Abdul bin Mohammed bin Ourgy.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi told United States President Barack Obama that Italy would take the three detainees when they met at the White House on Monday.

Speaking after the meeting, Obama said he had thanked Berlusconi “for his support of our policy of closing Guantanamo”.

“This is not just talk. Italy has agreed to accept three specific detainees,” said Obama Frattini also said he also understood concerns voiced by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni but stressed that the final decision “was up to the head of the goverment”.

The minister said Maroni was probably worried about the possibility that the detainees — if not involved in legal procedings in Italy — would be free to travel within the European 25-nation Schengen area, where border controls have been lifted.

But he explained that prior to the detainees’ arrival, Italy would warn Schengen group members and would prevent them from travelling to “any country” that is not ready to receive them.

Obama wants to close down the prison at the US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where suspected terrorists, defined as ‘enemy combatants’, have been held outside the jurisdiction of international law since 2001, when the post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ began.

The American president is convinced the situation at Guantanamo has hurt the international reputation of the US and damaged its image, especially in the Muslim world.

The three reportedly being sent to Italy once resided in Milan and are part of a group which the European Union has agreed to take, while the inmates considered the most dangerous will remain in American hands.

ARREST WARRANTS ISSUED FOR TWO TUNISIANS IN 2007.

Arrest warrants were issued in June 2007 for Nasri and Fezzani for conspiracy to commit a crime, encouraging illegal immigration and a number of crimes linked to terrorism.

They are accused of giving logistical support to a cell in Milan of the Salafi Group Call and Combat (GSPC), which was suspected of recruiting combatants and suicide bombers.

The GSPC was created to overthrow the government in Algeria and set up an Islamic state there. It is now considered to be part of the al Qaeda terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden and has been renamed al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb’.

Ourgy is also suspected of having had links in Milan with people who sought volunteers to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan with Islamic insurgents.

According to US military intelligence, an Islamic cultural center on Milan’s via Jenner street was actually a recruitment center frequented by the detainees and Fezzani had also used the name Bil Ali Lufti.

While at Guantanamo, he admitted using “at least 50 different names” when he was in Italy and that he had some “minor problems” with Italian authorities but denied ever killing anyone.

Fezzani, Nasr and Ourgy were said to have frequented the via Jenner center between 1997 and 2001, when Italy did not have a law against international terrorism on its books.

In 2004, four Tunisian nationals were convicted in Milan for their links with the GSPC. The four were given sentences from six and a half years to four years four months for supporting and financing terrorism, aiding illegal immigration, tax fraud and receiving stolen cars.

Judicial sources said the three Tunisians will be sent to a high security AS2 jail once they arrive in Italy, either in the northern city of Parma or Voghera.

The AS2 acronym stands for Alta Sicurezza, secondo livello (High Security, Level 2), a new detention system designed to host international and domestic terrorists.

Prosecutor Stefano D’Ambruoso, a United Nations advisor on terrorism and coordinator of the justice ministry’s international affairs office, said the European Union had agreed to accept up to 60 Guantanamo detainees at a meeting in Brussels ten days ago.

He said Germany and France had agreed to take some detainees. D’Ambruoso confirmed that since the three Tunisians face charges in Italy they will be placed in preventive custody once they arrive.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Libyan Leader ‘Turns the Page’ on History

Rome, 10 June (AKI) — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said his country and Italy had “turned the page” on their troubled history and begun a new relationship. Gaddafi arrived in the Italian capital Rome on Wednesday for an historic three-day visit and spoke to the media after he met president Giorgio Napoletano.

“I salute this generation of Italians for having resolved the questions of the past, with great courage,” said Gaddafi.

“That courage has brought us to sign an agreement of friendship with Italy,” he said, referring to the bilateral agreement Libya signed with Italy last August in Benghazi.

After the talks, Napolitano said that the meeting with Gaddafi “allowed us to verify a common point of view on what’s needed to resolve the serious crises in Africa, and, in particular, the combined effort that Italy and Libya can make to find a solution for the severe situation in Somalia”.

However, Magdi Cristian Allam, a European MP aligned with the centrist Union of Christian Democrats, criticised the warm official welcome given to Gaddafi.

“It is a shame that we allowed Gaddafi in our country to do what we would never do, from erecting a tent in a public park in Rome, to allowing a dictator to address the senate,” Allam said. “His hands are covered in the blood of thousands of innocent people and he behaves towards Italy as if we were one of his colonies.”

Gaddafi was greeted by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi when he arrived at Ciampino airport.

The current chairman of the 53-state African Union, Gaddafi was due to meet Berlusconi at Palazzo Chigi for talks later on Wednesday.

Gaddafi and Berlusconi were expected to endorse several bilateral accords covering economic and scientific co-operation, visas and scholarships for Libyan students.

On Thursday Gaddafi will address the Italian senate despite protests from opposition parties.

Security will be tight as demonstrations are also expected to be staged by left-wing students and activists opposed to the Berlusconi government’s policy of intercepting and forcing the return to Libya of immigrants who try to reach Italy by sea.

During his three-day visit Gaddafi has pitched his trademark tent in the Villa Doria Pamphili park where he will receive guests, while sleeping in its luxurious 17th-century palace.

Gaddafi’s visit seals a major rapprochement since Italy signed a deal with its former colony last year pledging 3.5 billion euros over the next 25 years as compensation for colonising the north African country from 1911 to 1947.

Gaddafi has been in power since 1969 and is the Arab world’s longest serving leader. African tribal dignitaries bestowed the title of “king of kings” on him in September

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Premier Blasts ‘Trash’

Interview in leading daily sparks Berlusconi’s reaction

(ANSA) — Rome, June 17 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi blasted as “trash” an interview published by leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Thursday which alleged that women were paid to attend parties in his Rome and Sardinian homes.

“Once again, the papers are full of trash and falsehoods. I will not be swayed by these aggressions and will continue to work for the good of the country,” the premier said when asked about the report.

Berlusconi has been at the centre of a media storm since a public divorce spat with his wife Veronica Lario and allegations of links with a teenage girl — Noemi Letizia — which surfaced after his wife accused him of “consorting with minors”.

The premier, 72, has categorically denied any “steamy or more than steamy” involvement with teenagers, explaining there was nothing “spicy” about his attendance at the birthday party of 18-year-old Letizia because he had a long friendship with her family. The report, published by the Milan daily on Thursday, said prosecutors in the southern city of Bari investigating a kick-back scandal had wiretappings of a suspect, who claimed to know the premier, talking about the parties. Judicial sources in Bari have confirmed that prosecutors are investigating brothers Giampaolo and Claudio Tarantini, owners of Technohospital, a hospital supplies firm on possible corruption charges in a probe into the city’s hospitals.

The sources said Giampaolo Tarantini — who alleges he knows Berlusconi in several wiretapped conversations — is also being probed on charges of abetting prostitution.

Tarantini is believed to have paid girls to attend parties at private homes of business associates and friends. The daily carried a long interview with Patrizia D’Addario, who claims she is a friend of Giampaolo Tarantini and alleges to have attended two parties at the premier’s Rome residence last year.

D’Addario claims in the interview that she has taped recordings of Berlusconi’s voice at the parties, which allegedly took place in October and November.

D’Addario told Corriere she was paid 1,000 euros to attend one of these parties and then was also put up as candidate in this month’s municipal elections in Bari in a local party allied with the premier’s People of Freedom (PdL) party. CORRIERE URGES READERS TO WITHHOLD JUDGEMENT.

Corriere said the interview should be read “with the utmost caution”, urging readers to withhold judgement.

Asked for a comment, Berlusconi’s lawyer Niccolo’ Ghedini said the report “seems unconnected to either facts or logic”.

Ghedini added that he and his client would “evaluate the contents of the interview” before deciding on a reaction, stressing that the premier was “busy with more serious things than this matter”.

“We don’t know anything (about the investigations),” said Ghedini. “Certainly it’s not a probe against the premier and whatever hypothesis is tossed up, even if the girl’s (D’Addario’s) statements were true and they’re not — the premier — according to the reconstruction (of events) ….could not be prosecuted penally”.

Government Programs Minister Gianfranco Rotondi rushed to Berlusconi’s defence, saying that he “was humiliated to read such rubbish in the papers”.

PdL spokesman Daniele Capezzone said a number of Italian dailies were presenting “a chorus of voices, leaks from prosecutors’ offices and unclear stories in a bid to place the premier in a distasteful situation”.

“The aim is clear: keep Berlusconi on the defensive and force the government to devote 80% of its energies to reacting against old and new accusations,” said Capezzone, stressing that “Italians are not going to fall into this trap”.

The premier also got a hand from former premier Lamberto Dini, who accused the centre-left opposition of using “private matters to transform them into scandals” in a bid “to weaken the government and step into its place”.

“These attempts by the left are just wishful thinking because the government coalition is very solid,” said Dini, who is a senator with the PdL.

Speaking to a group of businessmen on Saturday the premier said there was “a subversive project” aimed at unseating him from power.

Berlusconi, who swept to power with a huge majority in general elections in April 2008, said he has every intention of staying on to complete the rest of his five-year term as premier, accusing his detractors of casting a “very negative image of the country abroad”.

Former centre-left premier Massimo D’Alema, who on Sunday warned that the premier would face a series of “jolts” in the immediate future, urged Berlusconi to respond to the accusations made by D’Addario.

“I’d advise Berlusconi to do what’s normal in such circumstances. There’s an interview in Corriere della Sera where someone is making accusations: he should answer”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy Official in Row Over Apparent Fascist Salute

ROME — Italy’s tourism minister faced calls for her resignation Wednesday after a video posted by an Italian newspaper apparently showed her making a fascist salute.

Michela Vittoria Brambilla, a former beauty queen and close ally of Premier Silvio Berlusconi who was made tourism minister weeks ago, said she was “astounded” at the accusations.

“I’ve never either done or thought of doing any gesture that is an apology of fascism, something toward which I’ve never showed any indulgence, let alone sympathy,” Brambilla said. “And why should I have made a public display of such a despicable gesture shortly after I’ve been made a minister?”

The video was posted on the Web site of the left-leaning newspaper La Repubblica. It shows Brambilla attending a ceremony in honor of the Carabinieri’s Paramilitary police in the northern city of Lecco earlier this month, according to La Repubblica.

The video shows the 41-year-old Brambilla listening to Italy’s national anthem with her right arm folded on her heart. As the anthem ends, she extends her right arm upward in what appears to be a salute used by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his followers.

Brambilla said she was just greeting the crowd.

Some center-left lawmakers called on Brambilla to step down, arguing that the salute amounts to apology of fascism, which in Italy is a crime.

“That stiff arm shows a dangerous and disturbing cultural and institutional drifting,” said Michele Bordo of the Democratic Party, the main opposition force. “We expect Brambilla’s resignation and a clear condemnation of the minister’s gesture from Premier Berlusconi.”

Berlusconi’s center-right Freedom People’s party includes a formerly neo-fascist party, which has now gone mainstream conservative.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Netherlands PvdA: Moroccan MP Must Not be Acquitted

THE HAGUE, 17/06/09 — Under pressure from Morocco, the Public Prosecutor in the Netherlands has requested acquittal for a member of the Moroccan parliament that misappropriated 130,000 euros in the Netherlands via years of social security fraud, says PvdA MP Hans Spekman. He suspects “class justice.”

The suspect, who holds Dutch as well as Moroccan nationality, received welfare benefit payments from Utrecht city council for 11 consecutive years. Six years ago, the police received a tipoff that he was a council member in Morocco and had a country house and a chicken farm in that country. Due to all his possessions, he had no entitlement to benefit.

The suspect has meanwhile risen to become an MP in Morocco. He is said to have defrauded the council of 130,000 euros. But the public prosecutor in Utrecht has now requested acquittal of the 68 year old man due to a lack of evidence that he had done this deliberately. The prosecutor also considered it was not proven that the man had his main residence in Morocco.

Spekman wants clarification by the cabinet. The PvdA MP was earlier an Alderman in Utrecht. He says the demand for acquittal “reeks of class justice” and suspects the public prosecutor has bowed to years of diplomatic pressure from Morocco. According to Spekman, the MP has meanwhile easily “been able to stash away” all kinds of possessions, such as houses and land in Morocco.

The magistrate will rule on 29 June. Spekman acknowledges that it is not customary for politicians to intervene in ongoing court cases, but finds the case too serious to let it go. He wants a statement from Social Affairs State Secretary Jetta Klijnsma.

— Hat tip: TB

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Netherlands: Integration Minister Challenges Wilders

Integration minister Eberhard van der Laan has sought direct confrontation with anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders for the third time in a week, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

After parliamentary questions on Tuesday, Van der Laan again criticised Wilders’ statement on Danish tv that ‘millions, tens of millions’ of Muslims who commit a crime or ‘start thinking about jihad or sharia’ should be stripped of their Dutch nationality and deported.

Wilders’ claim that there are 50 million Muslims in Europe is wrong, because he is also including Muslims in Russia — which stretches to Japan, the minister said. In total, Europe has 20 million Muslims, the minister said.

Confrontation

The paper points out that the two men have have never crossed in parliament. But Wilders used to regularly attack Van der Laan’s predecessor and fellow Labour party member Ella Vogelaar, and famously called her ‘totally bonkers’.

Labour party stalwarts told the AD they were pleased Van der Laan had ‘finally’ started attacking Wilders.

‘I support his more radical approach,’ said Rotterdam Labour councillor Dominic Schrijer. ‘That moaning about Muslims and the Koran has to stop. It [the debate] should be about the real problems in the locality.’

But Tilburg University political scientist Marcel Boogers said he did not think Van der Laan’s approach would have much affect on voters. ‘He is trying to show that Wilders got the number of Muslims wrong, but I don’t think most people care. You have to offer them perspective.’

— Hat tip: TB

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Sweden: Far-Right Climbs Over Pirates in May Poll

Despite its recent success in the European Parliament elections, the Pirate Party would garner fewer votes than the far-right Sweden Democrats if a general election were held today, according to Statistics Sweden’s biannual party preference survey.

The statistics agency’s poll puts the three-party red-green opposition 3 percentage points ahead of the centre-right governing coalition. Together the Social Democrats, Left Party and Green Party scored 48.3 percent.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s Moderate Party (29.9 percent) has however gained major ground on Sweden’s largest party, the Social Democrats (36.6), since the last Statistics Sweden poll in November. But the Moderates’ coalition partners in the Liberal Party, Centre Party and Christian Democrats have all seen their support wane.

Both the Sweden Democrats and the Pirate Party would fail to obtain the 4 percent support necessary to gain a place in parliament were Swedes to vote in an election this week. The nationalist Sweden Democrats scored 3 percent in the agency’s random poll of 9,211 people registered to vote. The poll was carried out from April 28th to June 1st.

The Pirate Party, which rocked the establishment in the recent EU elections, would fail to make a similar impact in a general election, according to the poll. The party led by internet rights activist Rick Falkvinge would only claim between 2 and 2.5 percent of the vote in a bid for a place in the Riksdag.

May voter preference survey, percent per party (results for November 2008 in parentheses). Source: Statistics Sweden

Moderate Party 29.9 (24.8)

Centre Party 5.5 (5.9)

Liberal Party 5.5 (6.0)

Christian Democrats 4.3 (4.5)

Social Democrats 36.6 (42.3)

Green Party 6.0 (6.1)

Left Party 5.7 (5.7)

Others 6.4 (4.7)

— Hat tip: TB

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Swedish Prosecutors Under Increasing Threat: Study

Prosecutors in Sweden are facing harassment and threats with increasing frequency, according to a new study.

A recent report by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet — Brå) shows that prosecutors face more acts of intimidation designed to affect their work than any other group within the Swedish criminal justice system.

And the incidence of harassment is increasing, according to the crime prevention council, most likely because of prosecutors’ heightened efforts to take on organized crime and because they are doing a better job of reporting the threats.

The increase in harassment has led some prosecutors to avoid certain cases and decisions, or to reconsider their carrier choice, Council for Crime Prevention investigator Johanna Skinnar told Sveriges Radio (SR).

“We see some answers that indicate there is real concern at some workplaces. People need to work very hard to reduce self-censorship there,” she told SR.

In the crime prevention council’s survey, which includes responses from 1,100 judges and prosecutors, nearly one in four — 21 percent — report that they were the victim of threats, harassment, violence, or vandalism in the last 18 months which they believed was meant to disrupt their work.

Four years ago, the corresponding figure was 11 percent.

— Hat tip: TB

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U.S. Says Undecided on Eastern Europe Missile Plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Obama administration said on Tuesday it was undecided about a Bush-era plan to put U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe, which has been fiercely opposed by Russia and strained bilateral ties.

“No final decisions have been made regarding missile defense in Europe,” Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Lynn described a plan initiated by former President George W. Bush to install 10 two-stage interceptor missiles in Poland plus a related radar station in the Czech Republic as only “one option” under review.

He said Washington also was exploring expanded missile-defense cooperation with Russia as a possible means of countering a perceived threat from Iranian ballistic missiles.

“The United States will work to identify new areas where our two countries could advance our missile defense cooperation,” Lynn said. “For example, there are Russian radars near Iran that would provide helpful early warning detection in the case of an Iranian ballistic missile launch.”

The possible use of these radar stations — in southern Russia and Azerbaijan, one of them only about 60 miles from Iran — would be discussed when President Barack Obama travels to Moscow from July 6 to 8, Lynn said.

Obama hopes to build on calls from both capitals to “reset” ties strained over the proposed expansion of U.S. missile defense close to Russia’s borders among other things.

Moscow, smarting from the entry of several former Warsaw Pact allies into NATO, says the plans are a threat to Russian security.

On April 5 President Barack Obama said the United States would go ahead with a missile-defense system that is “cost-effective and proven” as long as a threat from Iran persists.

“If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security, and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe at this time will be removed,” he said in a major speech on the subject in Prague.

REPUBLICAN WARNS AGAINST U.S. HESITATION

Obama, a Democrat, has tried to reach out to Tehran after three decades of hostility but turmoil in Iran after last weekend’s presidential election have raised new questions about Iran’s future and the possibility of U.S..-Iranian talks.

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said U.S. hesitation over the antimissile plan would “undermine the Poles’ and the Czechs’ willingness” to host the installations.

The parliaments of the two countries have not yet ratified the proposed installations on their soil. Poland is due to receive U.S.-built Patriot PAC-3 antimissile batteries as part of the deal.

Marine Corps General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the committee that any U.S. missile-defense partnership with Russia likely would be the most effective way to curb an Iranian threat..

“That would be very powerful,” he said.

Army Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, testified that Iran’s successful February 2 launch of a space vehicle demonstrated “technologies that are directly applicable” to the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the U.S. goal was to work with Russia to develop a system that provides more coverage to Europe..

Baker Spring, a missile-defense expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy and research group, said any Obama administration wavering may erode public support for putting U.S. missile defense facilities in Europe.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: Grieving Son Thrown Out of Cathedral After Being Mistaken for BNP Thug

A grieving son visiting a cathedral to pray for his dead mother was thrown out and then searched by police after staff wrongly staff wrongly thought his shaved head and tattoos meant he was a member of the BNP.

Phillip Cadwallader, 43, was accosted in Blackburn Catherdal and asked to leave.

The former support worker was then approached by police officers who searched his rucksack, which contained his running kit.

The incident occurred just days after the British National Party won two seats in the European Elections and after the far right party scored major successes in the East Lancashire area, in particular Burnley.

Officials at the 19th century Cathedral feared he was about to disrupt a BBC Radio 4 broadcast about Jewish concentration camp victim Anne Frank.

As the Cathedral offered an apology, Mr Cadwallader said: ‘I am very angry and disgusted at the way the cathedral staff treated me. It was a pretty harsh judgement to make of me.

‘The fact is I am starting to go bald so I have my hair cut short to hide that. It’s nothing to do with my political persuasion.’

Mr Cadwallader, who was dressed in a shirt, trousers and brogues, had stopped at Blackburn Cathedral at 8am on Sunday en route to a track and field race in Accrington.

He was initially told he could sit inside quietly while BBC Radio 4 conducted a live programme on concentration camp victim Anne Frank from inside the cathedral. But then moments later he was told he would have to leave.

Mr Cadwallader added: “When I woke up in the morning and the sun was shining I thought it was such a lovely day that I would go and pay a tribute to my mum before I went running.

“The choir was singing in the background and it was lovely as I lit my candle.

“Then the Dean came and asked me to leave, but he wouldn’t tell me why. The cathedral is a house of God and I think the public should be allowed in, even if there is a recording going on.

“As I was sat on a bench outside waiting for them to finish the radio programme a police officer came up to me and said she would need to check my bag. When they told me why I just couldn’t believe it. I am not a BNP member.

“I was quite disgusted by it all. In fact I was really angry and embarrassed by the whole experience.

“The officers told me that someone had thought I was from the BNP because I was tall and have short hair, like a skinhead.”

His mother Phyllis died four years ago from a blood clot after a patient kicked her in the stomach as she worked as a psychiatric nurse.

Lancashire Police said they had been called to the cathedral because a man was believed to be acting suspiciously.

A police spokesman said: “Officers spoke to Mr Cadwallader and had no concerns. The matter is closed.”

Cathedral officials have offered an apology to Mr Cadwallader and said they had asked him to leave because of previous problems during radio broadcasts from the site.

Canon Chris Chivers said: “The last time we did a radio broadcast it was sabotaged when somebody pulled out wires.

“The BNP are known holocaust deniers and it was suggested to us that the programme would be an easy target for their disruption.

“Unfortunately I can see how the sequence of events occurred.

“The gentleman arrived two minutes before the programme went out live and it aroused suspicions, because he had a back pack with him. Obviously those suspicions were unfounded.”

— Hat tip: Gaia

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UK: Hard to Eradicate Risk Some Allies Use Torture

LONDON — Britain has abandoned some attempts to gather intelligence from detainees held overseas for fear they may be abused, the foreign secretary said Tuesday.

But David Miliband also said he could not guarantee that Britain’s allies would refrain from abusing detainees.

Miliband was speaking to parliamentary foreign affairs committee after recent revelations that flights carrying terror suspects have landed in Britain en route to foreign detentions centers. In addition, former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed accused Britain of colluding with the United States in his alleged torture in Pakistan and Morocco.

“We abhor torture. We will not cooperate or collude with it,” Miliband said. But he acknowledged it can be difficult to be completely certain about the actions of partners overseas.

He said some allies have lower legal standards and use practices not allowed in Britain, meaning British officials may face legal and ethical dilemmas when pursuing intelligence from detainees held by foreign governments..

“Operations have been blocked on the grounds that the risk of mistreatment is too high,” he said. “Equally, it is not always possible to eradicate the risk of mistreatment — a judgment has to be made.”

In a letter to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and released after Tuesday’s session, Miliband said: “When detainees are in our custody, we can be sure of how they are treated … when they are not, we cannot have the same degree of assurance.”

Human rights campaigners have criticized the treatment of detainees in countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco. In some cases, British citizens have been involved.

London police are deciding whether there is evidence that British intelligence officials should face criminal charges over allegations that they were complicit in the alleged torture of Mohammed.

Separately, British courts are considering several lawsuits filed by men who claim the U.K. was aware of their mistreatment overseas.

Mohamed — an Ethiopian who moved to Britain as a teenager — was arrested as a suspected terrorist in 2002 in Pakistan. He alleges Britain’s MI5 domestic spy agency was aware he was tortured in Pakistan and in Morocco, before he was transferred to Guantanamo in 2004. He was released from Guantanamo in February.

British officials deny they had knowledge that Mohamed was abused. But Miliband is waging a legal battle to block publication of sections of documents which could reveal whether U.K. officials helped Mohamed’s interrogators by providing questions for him.

Miliband says that disclosing the documents — which relate to discussions with the United States over Mohamed’s case — could jeopardize Britain’s intelligence relationship with America.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that previously secret rules for British spies and soldiers on handling detainees overseas will be made public. He has also ordered the guidelines to be redrafted.

Last year, Miliband was forced to tell lawmakers that Britain had been misled by the previous U.S. administration over the use of Diego Garcia, a British island in the Indian Ocean, as a refueling stop in extraordinary rendition. He said ex-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had belatedly informed him two detainees were aboard rendition flights to Guantanamo Bay and Morocco in 2002 that stopped on the island.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: No, Madam, It’s You Who Have Offended My Values

On a train to London, a young woman wearing a burkha, with only her heavily made-up eyes peeping out, did not have a valid ticket.

Challenged by the guard, the young woman gave a litany of excuses. She had left her bag at her boyfriend’s, he had bought the ticket, she had no money on her…

My friend Jane, who was in the same carriage, noticed how the guard became nervous as the Muslim girl presented herself as an innocent in a society she didn’t understand.

Instead of issuing a penalty fine, the guard backed off, shrugging his helplessness at the other passengers.

So imagine my friend’s surprise when she got off at the same station as burkha girl and saw this ‘penniless innocent’ whip out a credit card from under the folds of her dress with which she promptly bought a Tube ticket.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Terror Orders ‘Could be Scrapped’

It is a major decision about the legality of using secret evidence

The government says some terror suspects could come off control orders because of a ruling on secret evidence.

The Law Lords say the suspects must be given some idea of the evidence against them so they can defend themselves.

But Security minister Lord West told peers the judgement could may mean some of the orders would “have to go”.

He said the Home Office would need to find an alternative measure to monitor the suspects — but not all the control orders were affected by the judgement.

In a major ruling last week, nine Law Lords unanimously found that it was unfair that individuals should be kept in ignorance of the case against them.

Their ruling, which some of the Lords made reluctantly, followed a precedent on secret evidence at the European Court of Human Rights.

The Lords did not quash the three control orders — but sent the cases back to the High Court for fresh hearings.

In practice, this means the Home Office has a choice between putting more intelligence material in the public domain or dropping cases if it does not want to reveal more information.

‘Complex issues’

In the Home Office’s first statement to Parliament on the ruling, security minister Lord West of Spithead said: “We have to have a way of handling some very dangerous people.

A trial procedure can never be considered fair if a party to it is kept in ignorance of the case against him.

Lord Phillips, in control orders ruling

Terror suspects win legal battle

“We are going to have to go through each one on a case-by-case basis. These are highly complex issues.”

He acknowledged that one of the Law Lords had warned that their ruling could spell the end of the orders — but that the alternatives to control orders appeared to be “hugely expensive” and lacking a similar level of monitoring of suspects.

“We will go and look at each one individually it’s quite clear that not all the orders will be adversely affected by this judgement.

“As regards the other ones, if they don’t pass the test, clearly we will follow what the direction is here and those control orders will have to go.

“And what we will have to do is put in place something to ensure the safety of this island because that’s our greatest priority and that will be difficult.”

Lord Lloyd of Berwick, a former Law Lord who reviewed terror legislation in the 1990s, told peers: “This is the second time on which a major piece of government anti-terrorism legislation has come unstuck.

The government should now phase out all existing control orders as soon as possible and come up with some other means of meeting the terrorist threat in a way that is consistent with the defendant’s right to a fair trial..

“In particular the defendant must know, if he is to have a fair trial, the case that he has to meet.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: Terror Law Used to Stop Thousands ‘Just to Balance Racial Statistics’Watchdog

Thousands of people are being stopped and searched by the police under counter-terrorism powers simply to provide a racial balance in official statistics, the government’s official anti-terror law watchdog has revealed.

Lord Carlile said in his annual report that he has got “ample anecdotal evidence”, adding that it was “totally wrong” and an invasion of civil liberties to stop and search people simply to racially balance the statistics..

“I can well understand the concerns of the police that they should be free from allegations of prejudice,” he said. “But it is not a good use of precious resources if they waste them on self-evidently unmerited searches.”

The official reviewer of counter-terrorist legislation said there was little or no evidence that the use of section 44 stop-and-search powers by the police can prevent an act of terrorism.

“Whilst arrests for other crime have followed searches under the section, none of the many thousands of searches has ever resulted in a conviction for a terrorism offence. Its utility has been questioned publicly and privately by senior Metropolitan police staff with wide experience of terrorism policing,” said Carlile.

He added that such searches were stopping between 8,000-10,000 people a month.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the “section 44 stops” allow the police to search anyone in a designated area without suspicion that an offence has occurred. But Carlile is critical of the use of the powers used by the Met police, saying he felt “a sense of frustration” that the force did not limit its section 44 authorisations to some boroughs or parts of boroughs but used them across its entire area.

“I cannot see a justification for the whole of the Greater London area being covered permanently. The intention of the section was not to place London under permanent special search powers.”

None of the many thousands of searches had ever led to a conviction for a terrorist offence, he said. He noted, too, that the damage done to community relations was “undoubtedly considerable”.

Examples of poor, or unnecessary use, of section 44 abounded. “I have evidence of cases where the person stopped is so obviously far from any known terrorism profile that, realistically, there is not the slightest possibility of him/her being a terrorist, and no other feature to justify the stop.”

The Met has announced a review of how it uses section 44 powers. And the home secretary, Alan Johnson, is to issue fresh guidance to the police, warning that counter-terrorism must not be used to stop people taking photographs of on-duty officers.

Carlile uses his annual report to endorse complaints from professional and amateur photographers that counter-terror powers are being used to threaten prosecution if pictures are taken of officers on duty.

He said the power was only intended to cover images likely to be of use to a terrorist: “It is inexcusable for police officers ever to use this provision to interfere with the rights of individuals to take photographs.” The police had to come to terms with the increased scrutiny of their activities by the public, afforded by equipment such as video-enabled mobile phones. “Police officers who use force or threaten force in this context run the real risk of being prosecuted themselves for one or more of several possible criminal and disciplinary offences,” he warned.

He mentioned an incident in which two Austrian tourists were rebuked by officers for photographing Walthamstow bus station, in east London

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: U.N. Protocol Used to Regulate Homeschoolers

New Brit report: Authorities have ‘right to access of the home’

A British plan to allow local authorities “the right of access to the home” and “the right to speak with each child alone” in order to evaluate homeschooling families and make certain they do what the government wants is a warning about what could happen in the United States, according to the world’s largest homeschool advocacy organization.

[…]

“The report makes the case that homeschooling should be extensively regulated in England,” the HSLDA continued. “Aside from registering with the state and mandating reports by homeschoolers, the Badman report makes references to balancing the rights of parents with the rights of children. This idea is expressed in the UNCRC.”

That is the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a document that the HSLDA has been warning about for a number of years already.

It has been adopted in the United Kingdom, and it is on its way toward approval in the United States, lacking mainly the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.

The document, however, grants dozens of “rights” to children, sometimes running roughshod over conflicting parental rights, the organization said.

— Hat tip: JD

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Turkish Officials in Bosnia Reopen Historic Ottoman Bridge

(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, JUNE 16 — Two Turkish cabinet members arrived in Bosnia Herzegovina on Tuesday to attend an inauguration ceremony of a 17th century bridge which has been reconstructed by Turkey’s development agency. State Ministers Faruk Celik and Faruk Nafiz Ozak were set to reopen bridge which was built in 1682 during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet IV over the River Neretva in Bosnia’s Konjic city. The 82-meter bridge was heavily damaged during the Second World War. The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) funded the reconstruction which cost some two million euros, as Anatolia agency reported. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Craxi: Mediterranean Coastguard to be Set Up

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 15 — Stefania Craxi, Italy’s Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and the Mediterranean has been addressing a conference organised by Marevivo, an Italian marine protection group, at Rome’s Auditorium today. “We hope to create a Mediterranean coastguard,” she said, naming this as one of the objectives of the first forum to be held between cities on the Mediterranean coast, to take place in Reggio Calabria from October 19 to 20. Craxi added: “As far as the policy on accepting or repatriating immigrants is concerned, we have invited cities on the Mediterranean coast to come and discuss the issue with us and help us find solutions.” Since, according to Craxi, “The Italian coastguard is both very professional and very compassionate,” it can therefore “play a leading role. This has led to the idea of creating a permanent Mediterranean coastguard.” The coastguard would have a “common vision of soft security, of civil protection regulations and maritime security, for example on how to control illegal immigration and the trafficking of weapons and drugs.” Craxi concluded: “In July, the Euro-Mediterranean Economic Forum will be held in Milan and it will be opened by President Mubarak of Egypt. Erdogan, President of Turkey and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister will also be present “to discuss development and peace.” (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tunisia: Arab Women Organization Launches Website

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 12 — The Arab Women Organization (AWO) has created an official web-site commissioned by its 2009-2011 president, Leila Ben Ali, wife of the President of the Tunisian Republic. On its site — www.awo-presidency.tn — the AWO presents Tunisia’s positions, initiatives and protocol with regards to women in the Arab world. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Israeli Minister in Arab Slur Row

Israel’s internal security minister has apologised after being caught on film using the word “Araboosh” — highly offensive Hebrew slang for Arabs.

While Yitzhak Aharonovitch was on a tour meeting police, one plain clothes officer apologised to him for his scruffy appearance.

“What do you mean dirty? You look like a real Araboosh,” the minister was heard to respond.

He is a member of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s far right party.

Mr Aharonovitch later said he wished to “apologise to anyone who was hurt”.

“This remark does not reflect my positions or world view,” the minister said in a statement.

His far-right party, Yisrael Beiteinu, has been under fire for its policies, which have raised concerns over racism in Israel and around the world.

The party wants to make all Israeli citizens swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, something that most of the fifth of the population who are Israeli-Arabs would find very difficult to do.

It has also pushed for a law to ban commemorations of the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, as Palestinians call the events of 1948, when Israel was created and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what had been British-ruled Palestine.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Netanyahu Opening a ‘Half-Step Forward’, Frattini

(ANSAmed) — LUXEMBOURG, JUNE 15 — The conditional readiness to recognise a Palestinian state by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “a half-step forward’ towards peace, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers, Frattini observed that the address Netanyahu made Sunday “was positive in that he expressed his readiness to negotiate immediately with the Palestinians; worrisome for the kind of pre-condition he set on the status of Jerusalem, which is a topic of discussion; and encouraging for his desire for a regional peace with Arab countries”. “There were certainly steps forward which we must encourage,” Frattini said, adding that on Monday he will attend a meeting of the EU-Israel association council and before that meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. According to Frattini, it was “very positive” that Israel now seeks an overall regional approach to negotiations for peace and stability, with the involvement of Arab nations”. However, he added, there was “cause for concern” over “the sort of pre-condition imposed on the status of Jerusalem”. Turning his attention to the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, Frattini stressed how Netanyahu spoke of “a natural growth for the settlements, not of new settlements”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Netanyahu: Egypt, Threat for Arab Future in Israel

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JUNE 15 — Israel’s point of view, which was presented yesterday by premier Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech on the solution to the Palestinian crisis, “is a threat for the future of arabs residing in Israel, and their presence in this State represents a source of worry for Egypt”. The statement was made by Hossam Zaki, spokesperson for Egypt’s ministry of Foreign Affairs, who added that Cairo will go on working for and supporting US and international peace efforts to set up an independent State of Palestine with Jerusalem as capital city. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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‘Obama Administration Sent Message to Hamas’

Official with terror group says Carter ‘right person’ to serve as middle man

JERUSALEM — Former President Jimmy Carter passed a message to Hamas from the Obama administration, according to senior sources in the Islamist group.

The sources did not disclose the content of the purported message or whether the communication was written or oral. They spoke on condition of anonymity, because they said Hamas had not yet reached a decision on officially releasing the information they were divulging.

[…]

Meanwhile, FoxNews.com reported it learned Carter intends to ask the U.S. to remove Hamas from its official list of terrorist organizations.

— Hat tip: JD

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Three Failed Plans to Wipe Israel Off the Map

by Barry Rubin

There are now no less than three main plans for wiping Israel off the map.

1. Conquest. This is the old PLO strategy and continues to be the Hamas strategy. In addition, it is endorsed less overtly by a large group—arguably a majority—in Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority.

Israel will be militarily defeated, perhaps with some assistance from internal collapse, and replaced by a Palestinian Arab Islamic (Fatah version) or Palestinian Arab Islamist state.

2. Two-Stages. This was officially adopted by the PLO and Fatah. It is an alternative vision that appeals to many in those two groups but is rejected by Hamas.

A Palestinian state will be created on as much territory as possible and then used as a base for conquering the rest . A diplomatic deal can only be made to obtain such a state, however, if its terms do not foreclose the possibility of the second stage being implemented. The demand that virtually all Palestinians who wish to do so can go and live in Israel is a supplement to ensure that phase one turns into phase 2. In 2000, Yasir Arafat either rejected this in preference to Plan Number 1 or at least deemed the terms offered insufficient to make the second stage easy or possible.

3. Binational state (also known as the one-state solution). This is supported by some in PLO and Fatah, partly because it has more appeal to naïve or other Westerners. It is rejected by Hamas.

A binational state will be created…

— Hat tip: Barry Rubin

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Culture: Turkish University Will Open in Dubai

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 12 — Higher Education Board (YOK) of Turkey is taking action to open Turkish universities in Arab countries, daily Yeni Safak reports. Agreements were signed to enable Middle East Technical University (ODTU) and Istanbul Technical University (ITU) to open campuses in Dubai. Paying a visit to the Gulf region together with several university rectors, YOK’s head, Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, signed some agreements regarding cooperation programs and student exchanges. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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‘Hamas Helping Iran Crush Dissent’

Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters told The Jerusalem Post On Tuesday.

They made their allegations as rioting on a scale unseen in Iran for nearly a decade continued in the wake of the elections and the allegations that the results were falsified. The protests have now spread from Teheran to other major cities.

Mousavi insisted on Tuesday that he would “protect” his supporters’ votes “at all cost, even if I am at risk.”

Shouting from a car roof to a roaring crowd of supporters, he declared: “The pillars of the revolution have been shaken… We must not be silent.”

Hamas formally welcomed incumbent Ahmadinejad’s ostensible reelection victory on Saturday. The Palestinian Islamist movement receives arms and funding from Iran, and its members have often received training there, including in terror tactics and weapons manufacture.

Hamas formally welcomed incumbent Ahmadinejad’s ostensible reelection victory on Saturday. The Palestinian Islamist movement receives arms and funding from Iran, and its members have often received training there, including in terror tactics and weapons manufacture.

Despite a massive crackdown on dissent, thousands of protesters rallied again in Teheran on Tuesday night in support of Mousavi, following reports that up to 20 people had been killed by security forces at rallies across Iran against the disputed results of last week’s presidential elections.

Pro-government gunmen, reportedly opening fire on protesters, killed at least seven people on Monday night and others have been wounded.

State radio reports claimed that the victims were trying to loot weapons and to vandalize public property, and were shot by unidentified gunmen.

People claiming to have witnessed the shootings, however, insist that the victims were peaceful demonstrators, including students from Teheran university. “There are so many crimes, beatings and killings that have yet to be reported. When we fight back, it is for our own protection,” said a young man passing out flyers with the names of those he said were murdered Teheran University students.

Among those named were Fatima Brahati, Kasra Sharafi, Kambiz Shahi, Mohsen Emani and Mina Ahtrami. Their bodies are said to have been secretly buried by government loyalists.

Amid the violence, confusion and government restrictions on communication, the accuracy of conflicting accounts is hard to ascertain.

“The most important thing that I believe people outside of Iran should be aware of,” the young man went on, “is the participation of Palestinian forces in these riots.”

Another protester, who spoke as he carried a kitchen knife in one hand and a stone in the other, also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran.

On Monday, he said, “my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people’s money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too.”

It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad “tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel.” His hope, he added, was that Israel would “come to its senses” and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians.

When asked if these militia fighters could have been mistaken for Lebanese Shi’ites, sent by Hizbullah, he rejected the idea. “Ask anyone, they will tell you the same thing. They [Palestinian extremists] are out beating Iranians in the streets… The more we gave this arrogant race, the more they want… [But] we will not let them push us around in our own country.”

Mousavi has said he won Friday’s balloting, and he demanded the government annul Ahmadinejad’s victory and hold a new election.

Iran’s state radio said seven people were killed in clashes at Monday’s protest — the first official confirmation of deaths linked to the street battles following the disputed vote.

It said people were killed during an “unauthorized gathering” at a mass rally after protesters “tried to attack a military location.” Witnesses saw people firing from the roof of a building used by a state-backed militia after Mousavi supporters set fire to the building and tried to storm it.

Mousavi supporters had called for demonstrations on Tuesday, but Mousavi said in a message on his Web site he would not be attending any rally and asked his supporters to “not fall in the trap of street riots,” and to “exercise self-restraint.” Foreign reporters in Iran to cover last week’s elections began leaving the country on Tuesday after officials said they would not extend their visas.

Authorities restricted other journalists, including Iranians working for foreign media, from reporting on the streets, and said they could only work from their offices, conducting telephone interviews and monitoring official sources such as state TV.

At least ten Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election, “and we are very worried about them, we don’t know where they have been detained,” Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders told AP Television News in Paris. He added that some people who took pictures with cellphones were also arrested.

The government imposed rules prevent media outlets, including The Associated Press, from sending independent photos or video of street protests or rallies.

— Hat tip: KGS

[Return to headlines]

Iran Election: The Beginning of the End

By Amil Imani & Dr. Arash Irandoost

Iran’s President Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the Islamic Republic’s repressive Revolutionary Guard, took office on August 3, 2005, after unexpected win in a sham presidential election — there are no democratic elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran. All candidates are prescreened by the Guardian Council before they are allowed to run for office. In practice, a president of Iran is already chosen through a farce process of giving the voters a chance to elect one of the men hand-picked from the regime’s functionaries, as was the case with President Ahmadinejad.

During the previous “election,” only a small percentage of the voters bothered to vote, since voting under the pre-screening and undemocratic system of the mullahs is more like selection than election. The result of staying away from the polls materialized in the person of the fascist Ahmadinejad.

The great majority of the people of Iran are disillusioned and even disgusted by the mediaeval incompetent, oppressive, and corrupt rule of the mullahs, irrespective of which mafia gang is in power. The votes, more than anything else, are protest ballots cast against the entire system, rather than indications of support for the so-called conservative-moderate coalition.

It took less than 4 years for Iranians to realize that boycotting the so-called elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran can only bring to power even a worse bunch of Islamofascists. This time around the people turned out to vote for the lesser of two camps of evil — the mullah dominated gang of conservatives and “moderates.”

After a fiery month long campaign and unprecedented passions and tensions, the mass rallies, polished campaign slogans, savvy Internet outreach and worldwide televised debates, which revealed rampant corruption, ineptitude, and illegal and criminal activities of all four candidates, on June 12, 2009, the Iranian people went to the polls, challenging not only the incumbent president Ahmadinejad, but the entire establishment of the Islamic regime.

Iran’s elections are considered extremely unfair and the Islamist government does not allow international monitors to be present…

— Hat tip: Amil Imani

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Iran Ups Media Crackdown as Reformers Plan Rally

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s opposition stepped up its challenge to the Islamic regime on Wednesday as the authorities intensified a crackdown on the media to try to contain the biggest crisis since the 1979 revolution.

Defeated presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters called for a new round of public demonstrations and laid down the gauntlet over the disputed election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Grappling with the biggest wave of public anger in three decades of Islamic rule, Iran has lashed out at enemy “plots,” hauling in foreign ambassadors and rounding up scores of reformists.

In the latest moves, the authorities threatened legal action against Iranian websites which publish material that “creates tensions” and issued a new warning to the foreign media, already facing restrictions on their work.

World governments voiced increasing alarm about the situation in Iran, but US President Barack Obama, while raising “deep concerns” over the election, said Washington would not meddle in the affairs of its archfoe.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini pledged to consider a partial recount after the opposition staged massive protests over what they charge was blatant vote-rigging in the election that gave Ahmadinejad another four-year term.

Supporters of Mousavi said they have called another rally in Tehran at 1330 GMT, despite a ban on such gatherings, saying it will be held “in silence without slogans.”

Mousavi himself called on his supporters, who have been wearing his trademark green during their demonstrations, to also hold marches and a day of mourning on Thursday for protesters slain in the post-election clashes.

And he repeated his demand for the results of what he branded a “shameful fraud” to be annulled and a new vote called.

At least seven people have been killed and many more wounded in clashes, with protests reported not only in Tehran but also other major cities after an election that has exposed deep divisions in the oil-rich Shiite Muslim nation.

Witnesses said some clashes also erupted late on Tuesday between groups of young men and members of Iran’s volunteer Basij militia.

Ahmadinejad remained defiant, saying his landslide victory in Friday’s vote was proof of the people’s faith in his government of “honesty and service to the people.”

Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said he was asking the election body the Guardians Council and the interior ministry to examine the allegations of vote-rigging.

“If the examination of the problems require recounting of some ballot boxes, it should be definitely done in the presence of the representatives of candidates so that everybody is assured,” he said.

The rights group of Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi called for the authorities to put a halt to the violent crackdown it said was orchestrated by the police and the Basij.

In the latest demonstrations on Tuesday, supporters of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi staged rival rallies, each calling out hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets of Tehran, state media said.

Iranian newspapers published pictures of the demonstrations, which the foreign media were banned from covering under tough new restrictions.

Footage broadcast on the Internet has shown dramatic and chaotic scenes of violence, including one purportedly showing a protestor shot dead and others of riot police beating protestors.

The authorities have warned they would nip in the bud any “velvet revolution” and have rounded up scores of people in Tehran and other cities, including prominent reformists close to former president Mohammad Khatami.

Reformist sources and the press said on Wednesday that several more prominent political activists and journalists had been arrested.

Iran issued a new warning to the foreign media, saying some outlets had become the “mouthpiece of the rioters’ movement” and warning them to their their “approach towards Iranian events.”

The Revolutionary Guards, set up to defend the Islamic republic from “internal and external threats,” also threatened action against the online media it charged were backed by the US and British secret services.

“We warn those who propagate riots and spread rumours that our legal action against them will cost them dearly, especially since some of the youth of this land were killed by the thugs’ action, so we urge them to delete such material from their sites,” a statement said.

Some phone, texting and Internet services have also been disrupted, and protestors have been turning to Twitter to spread word of the dramatic events.

Obama, who has turned his back on the policy of predecessor George W. Bush and called for dialogue with Iran after three decades of severed ties, took a cautious line on Tuesday.

He said he had “deep concerns” about the election but added: “It is not productive, given the history of US-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling — the US president meddling in Iranian elections.”

Obama said Washington would still need to pursue “tough diplomacy” towards Iran over its nuclear drive, saying there appeared to be little difference between the policies of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi.

“Either way we were going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States, that has caused some problems in the neighbourhood and has been pursuing nuclear weapons.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in the strongest remarks so far by a Western leader, said there was election “fraud,” while other European nations have also expressed concern about the vote and the ensuing crackdown.

Hundreds of protesters have also taken to the streets of European cities and in Iran’s neighbours in the Gulf in support of Mousavi, who was premier of Iran in the post-revolution era during its war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Iran has responded to international criticism by summoning EU envoys and lashing out at foreign meddling by its “enemies,” accusing the United States, Britain and Israel in particular of trying to fuel chaos.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Iran’s Senior Ayatollah Slams Election, Confirming Split

TEHRAN, Iran — Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main rival in the disputed presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, massed in competing rallies Tuesday as the country’s most senior Islamic cleric threw his weight behind opposition charges that Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged.

“No one in their right mind can believe” the official results from Friday’s contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi’s charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers “in the worst way possible.”

“A government not respecting people’s vote has no religious or political legitimacy,” he declared in comments on his official Web site. “I ask the police and army personals (personnel) not to ‘sell their religion,’ and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God.”

As many as three more protesters were reported killed in clashes during Tuesday’s opposition demonstration in Vanak Square — adding to eight who were confirmed killed in Monday’s protests.

Foreign news organizations were barred from covering Wednesday’s demonstrations, and the source of the report of the latest deaths was a witness known to McClatchy, who asked that his name not be used for his own security.

Tehran residents, who spoke to a McClatchy reporter on condition that their names not be published, said there was widespread intimidation by thousands of members of the Basij, a hard-line Islamic volunteer militia loyal to the Islamic regime.

Iranian bloggers reported scattered violence after dark by Basij members.

Nor were reports of violence limited to the capital.

In a voicemail to U.S. government-funded Radio Farda, and posted on the Web site of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a woman who identified herself as Zeinab from the city of Shiraz said students gathered in front of university dormitories and protested peacefully.

“The Guard attacked the university and started beating the people. What are the people supposed to do? They are forced to react,” she said, referring to the elite Revolutionary Guard, a parallel military force that’s controlled by Khamenei.

Montazeri’s pointed public comments provided fresh evidence that a serious rift has opened at the top of Iran’s powerful religious hierarchy after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei endorsed the official election results and the harsh crackdown against the opposition.

A leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution who’s often feuded with Khamenei and once vied with him for the supreme leader’s position, Montazeri accused the government of attacking “the children of the people with astonishing violence” and “attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and scientifics.”

“He is questioning the legitimacy of the election and also questioning the legitimacy of (Khamenei’s) leadership, and this is the heart of the political battle in Iran,” said Mehdi Noorbaksh, an associate professor of international affairs at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania. “This is very significant. This is huge support for Mousavi and the demonstrators on the reformists’ side.”

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Turkey Stages Cyprus Drills Amid Oil Dispute

ABOARD THE TCG GEMLIK, — Turkish and Turkish Cypriot warships staged search and rescue drills off the island of Cyprus on Wednesday amid tensions over a disputed search for oil and gas.

The frigate Gemlik and other vessels took part in the maneuvers off the northern town of Famagusta, which included extinguishing fire on a ship, rescuing illegal migrants from a sinking rubber boat and rescuing the crew of a sea plane in distress.

Turkish Cypriot military officials denied the maneuvers were a show of force, but it comes amid a rekindled dispute with Greek Cypriots over who is entitled to the island’s potential offshore oil and gas wealth.

Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of union with Greece. The island has an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north where Turkey maintains 35,000 troops.

Turkey does not recognize European Union-member Cyprus as a sovereign country and strongly objects to a Greek Cypriot search for mineral deposits inside the island’s exclusive economic zone. That area covers 51,000 square kilometers (17,000 sq. miles) of seabed off the island’s southern coast.

Turkey has warned Cyprus against pursuing “adventurist policies” and says Turkish Cypriots should also have a say in how the island’s oil-and-gas rights are used.

Cyprus government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said Tuesday the search for fossil fuels inside the island’s zone remains its sovereign right and it’s protesting the military drills at the U.N. and EU.

But Stefanou said both communities could share in the possible bounty if ongoing reunification talks prove successful.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat restarted stalled peace talks last September, but have yet to reach a breakthrough in the slow-moving process.

“This is an additional motivating factor … to continue negotiations so that we can reach a just, viable and functional settlement, to reunify our homeland,” Stefanou said.

The involvement of a U.S. energy firm Noble Energy, which is set to launch seismic work inside Cyprus’ zone later this year, could further complicate matters for Turkey, a U.S. ally.

Cyprus has licensed Noble to search for fossil fuels near two significant gas discoveries in its Israeli offshore blocks.

U.S. authorities are siding with the Cypriot government, saying “the involvement of U.S. firms in such investment is a business decision, not a political one.”

Cyprus has also signed agreements with Lebanon and Egypt to mark out undersea borders to facilitate future oil and gas exploration, prompting Turkey to urge those two countries to scrap the deals.

Turkey’s stakes in the dispute are higher as Cyprus has threatened to further impede Turkey’s EU accession negotiations because Turkish warships had interfered with an offshore fossil fuel survey last year.

Turkey’s EU membership bid is already hobbled with eight of 35 negotiation chapters frozen over its refusal to open its air and sea ports to Cyprus.

“Turkey’s policy of solving the problem through use of force has not brought any good to its advantage in the international arena,” said Prof. Yuksel Inan at International Relations Department of Bilkent University based in Ankara. “Instead, Turkey should seriously think about taking the issue to the Security Council as a temporary member now.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UAE: Thousands of Truck Drivers Stranded in the Desert

(di Alessandra Antonelli) (ANSAmed) — DUBAI, JUNE 11 — What most worries the thousands of truck drivers stuck in a 30-km jam in the middle of the Rub al Khali desert between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, is not so much the long wait as the temperatures of well over 40 degrees and the concern that water and food supplies may run out before they clear the Saudi border. For weeks now kilometre-long queues of heavy-goods traffic have snaked their way between the Emirate’s Al Ghuwaifat exit point and the entry point to the oil-rich kingdom at Bat’ha. The reason for all these jams — which have reached a length of 32 kilometres over recent days — are new security procedures being imposed by the Saudi authorities, which include the taking of drivers’ fingerprints. A Saudi diplomatic source, quoted by the Dubai press, however, has put the blame for the jams on violations being committed by the truck drivers themselves. “Many of them do not present the necessary documentation for their vehicles or the loads they are transporting. While others,” the source adds, “do not have the right documentation for transiting Saudi Arabia”. The fight against contraband alcohol and drugs are among the other reasons being put forward by the Saudi authorities for the newly stepped-up security procedures and the subsequent delays, as explained by the Director General of the UAE federal customs authorities, Mohammaed Al Muhairy, who also announced an up-coming summit between interested parties. Goods leaving the UAE and bound for other countries in the region are clocking up heavy delays which sometimes affect the quality of the produce transported, and especially on the health of the drivers. Irfan, a truck driver of Indian origins, had brought along two days’ worth of food supplies and water in his cooler. With a line of traffic moving only at an average rate of 2 km every 16 hours, he’s pretty certain that the his supplies will not last out. “The nearest stock-up point to here is over 5 km away,” he says, “under this sun and with these temperatures we can neither get there in our trucks nor on foot. The only hope is to wait for trucks coming from the opposite direction and ask them to give us food and water.” The stretch of road, desolate and exposed to the sun, is also void of any sanitary services. Near to the border, Abu Dhabi police are, however, distributing water and snacks to drivers headed for the Saudi frontier. But at least two drivers have had to be hospitalised for treatment for the effects of heat and dehydration. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Three Danish Soldiers Killed in Helmand

A roadside explosion in Afghanistan has cost the lives of three Danish soldiers.

Three Danish soldiers of the Danish Battle Group in Afghanistan were killed this morning when their vehicle was hit by an explosion on Highway 1, according to a statement from Army Command.

The three were in the front vehicle of a column travelling from Main Operating Base Price to Patrol Base Barakhzai when their vehicle was hit. Although immediately airlifted out of the area by helicopter, the three were declared dead on arrival at the Danish Field Hospital at Camp Bastion.

“We have lost three of our soldiers in southern Afghanistan after their vehicle was hit by an explosion,” says Army Command Major General Niels Henrik Bundsgaard.

“The Helmand force has been affected deeply by the loss of three comrades and colleagues, but we are doing what we can to support them. They still have an important job to do,” the major-general said.

Wednesday’s events bring to 24 the number of Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002

— Hat tip: TB

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Beijing’s New and Improved Execution Method, Lethal Injection in Lieu of Bullet in the Head

Lethal injection is considered more human and modern because “it reduces the criminals’ fear and pain”. Officially 1,700 people were put to death last year, more than 70 per cent of the world’s total. Activists accuse prison authorities of using the bodies of executed prisoners for organ trafficking.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — By the end of this year China will start executing people by lethal injection rather than bullets. Officially this method is described as a new and more humane form of death penalty, raising China to the level of other modern nations.

In Beijing the authorities have built a facility next to a prison outside the city’s limits that houses most of the capital’s death row inmates. It is here that lethal injections will be performed, the China Daily reported.

In the meantime would-be executioners are being trained on how to administer the injections, and medical staff is learning how to supervise the use of drugs, monitor executions and confirm deaths.

Hu Yunteng, head of the Supreme People’s Court’s research bureau, said that lethal injection (legalised in 1997) was a cleaner, safer and more convenient way of executing prisoners than the old-fashioned bullet through the head.

“It is considered more humane as it reduces the criminals’ fear and pain compared with gunshot execution,” Mr Hu said.

Last year some 1,700 people were executed in mainland China. This represents 70 per cent of the total number of executions world-wide.

However, off-the-record Communist Party members have acknowledged that in past years up to 10,000 people have been executed.

In late 2006 the Supreme People’s Court resumed the power to review death sentences. This has led to an apparent drop in the number of executions, but overall figures remain a “state secret”.

At the same time though, human rights activists have accused Chinese prison authorities of involvement in the trafficking of organs taken from executed prisoners as well as of carrying out executions “à la carte” according to organ market demands based on death row inmates’ physical traits.

For this reason some people suspect that execution by lethal injection was adopted in order to better preserve organs for sale.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Inside North Korea’s Gulag

Last week a North Korean court sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years of “reform through labor.” The women, arrested in March along the North’s border with China, were researching the plight of North Korean refugees who flee to China. Their trial was closed, and their crimes — other than the alleged illegal border crossing — were unspecified.

In recent years, I have spent many hours interviewing refugees from North Korea, including some who escaped from re-education camps. Their accounts of prison life accord with a recent assessment by the U.S. State Department. Conditions are brutal and life threatening, according to the February report. “Torture occurred,” the report notes matter-of-factly. Refugees have spoken to me of newborns separated from their mothers and left to die.

North Koreans can end up in re-education camps for such crimes as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, secretly practicing a religion, or crossing the border to China in search of food. Inmates are subjected to forced labor and are required to memorize political tracts. They receive little food, no medical care and sometimes serve multiyear terms wearing the clothes in which they arrived at camp. I interviewed a woman who had been wearing high heels when she was arrested and had to bind her feet in rags when those wore out. Many prisoners die of abuse or malnutrition.

— Hat tip: JD

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North Korea Warns of Retaliation

North Korea has threatened a “thousand-fold” military retaliation against the US and its allies if it is provoked.

The warning, carried by state media, came after US President Barack Obama said that a nuclear-armed North Korea posed a “grave threat” to the world.

At a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Mr Obama said the US would “vigorously” pursue an end to North Korea’s nuclear programme.

North Korea has recently conducted nuclear and missile tests.

“If the US and its followers infringe upon our republic’s sovereignty even a bit, our military and people will launch a one hundred- or one thousand-fold retaliation with merciless military strike,” said a commentary published by state news agency KCNA.

“The nuclear programme is not the monopoly of the US,” it said.

Money withdrawn

The commentary is the latest threat from Pyongyang as tensions in the region have escalated over its 25 May underground nuclear test and recent missile launches.

Japanese and South Korean media reported that there were signs of two long-range missile launch sites being readied — one on the north-west coast and the other on the north-east coast.

It was previously believed a launch might come from the north-west site, not far from the Chinese border.

President Obama: “We have continually insisted that North Korea denuclearize’

North Korea is also withdrawing funds from its bank accounts in the Chinese territory of Macau and elsewhere before they can be frozen by new UN sanctions, according to South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper.

On 12 June the UN Security Council approved tougher sanctions against North Korea, including inspections of ships suspected of taking banned cargo to and from North Korea, a wider ban on arms sales and further measures to cut Pyongyang’s access to international financial services.

Following the resolution, the North said it would start enriching uranium and use all its plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Japan has taken action by banning all trade with North Korea. Pyongyang’s main ally, China, said it would “earnestly implement” the new sanctions..

‘Break cycle’

At a summit in Washington on Tuesday, Mr Obama said that he and his South Korean counterpart had agreed that a new UN resolution designed to halt North Korea’s nuclear ambitions should be fully enforced.

“Under no circumstance are we going to allow North Korea to possess nuclear weapons,” said Mr Lee.

And he pledged to end a cycle of letting North Korea create a crisis in order to be rewarded with concessions from the international community.

“This is a pattern they’ve come to expect,” Mr Obama said.

“We are going to break that pattern.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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US Says it Will Not Accept N Korea as Nuclear State

VIENNA — The U.S. urged North Korea on Wednesday to stop its nuclear saber-rattling and negotiate with the world’s great powers, vowing that Washington would never accept Pyongyang as an atomic weapons state.

Russia, China and other leading world nations lined up behind the United States in a rare demonstration of unity reflecting international concern over the North’s rogue nuclear program and its steadily bellicose rhetoric..

As senior delegates of the U.S. and other countries discussed the situation with the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pyongyang upped the ante, warning of a “thousand-fold” military retaliation against Washington and its allies if provoked.

Pyongyang claims its nuclear bombs are a deterrence against the United States and accuses Washington of plotting with South Korea to topple its secretive regime.

“If the U.S. and its followers infringe upon our republic’s sovereignty even a bit, our military and people will launch a 100- or 1,000-fold retaliation with merciless military strike,” the North’s state-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary.

Attention has been focused on North Korea since it conducted a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of the United Nations. The U.N. Security Council responded by toughening an arms embargo, authorizing ship searches for nuclear and ballistic missile cargo and depriving the regime of the financing used to build its nuclear program.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. It disclosed last week that it also is producing enriched uranium, the other pathway to the production of fissile material for nuclear warheads.

The recent moves by North Korea have effectively brought to a halt the so-called six-party talks aimed at giving North Korea fuel and other benefits in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. The talks involved the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said the U.S. is more than willing to negotiate with North Korea to bring peace on the Korean peninsula. “But belligerent, provocative behavior that threatens neighbors will be met with significant and serious enforcement of sanctions that are in place,” he said.

Sounding the same theme at the Vienna meeting, chief U.S. delegate Geoffrey Pyatt excoriated the North for abandoning the six party negotiations.

“We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state,” Pyatt declared, in comments distributed to reporters. “We believe it is in North Korea’s own best interests to return to serious negotiations.”

Diplomats inside the closed meeting said three of the North’s interlocutors — China, Japan, Russia — also criticized Pyongyang’s nuclear defiance and urged it to return to talks, along with the European Union and Canada.

Except for a brief period that ended earlier this year when the North broke off negotiations and restarted work on its nuclear program, the IAEA has been shut out of North Korea since late 2002, when Pyongyang kicked out nuclear inspectors and subsequently said it was no longer bound by the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Vatican Urged to be Firm on China

The former bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, has said the Vatican should not compromise with China over religious freedoms.

He told the Vatican-linked news agency AsiaNews that the Vatican should not place so much importance on forming diplomatic ties with Beijing.

Cardinal Zen said diplomatic ties could give the false impression that there was religious freedom in China.

China only allows Catholics to belong to a state-sanctioned church.

China cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the Communist Party took power.

“We’ve come to the point where it’s not possible just to accept compromise as we did before,” he said of Pope Benedict XVI’s attempts to improve the Vatican’s often-tense relations with Beijing.

“In these two years there hasn’t been a turn toward clarity. In fact, it seems to me that we’re taking a worrisome slide along a slope of compromise.”

Two years ago the Pope issued a letter to Chinese Catholics urging worshippers in banned “underground” churches to reconcile with followers of the Beijing-approved church.

The cardinal repeated a call for bishops in the official church not to give in to pressure from the government, saying they had to remain firm in their faith and loyalty to the Pope.

Cardinal Zen stepped down as Bishop of Hong Kong in April, after 12 years in the role. He has been a vocal champion of human rights and social justice and has often criticised the governments in both Hong Kong and Beijing.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Australia: Swine Flu Measures Scaled Back as Infection Fears Diminish

THE Federal Government is reducing measures to check the spread of swine flu, releasing estimates showing the disease to be much more infectious but significantly less likely to require hospital admission than ordinary seasonal flu.

Without public health measures, up to four times as many Australians could be infected with swine flu compared with the infection rate for ordinary seasonal flu.

But the estimates prepared for the Government show that the hospital admission and likely death rate is a fraction of that suffered by Australians with seasonal flu, which claims 1000 to 2000 lives every year.

There have yet to be any deaths from swine flu in Australia.

There were 2024 swine flu cases here by late yesterday, with nine people in hospital, three of them in intensive care. The Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, Jim Bishop, said it might be that the arrival of swine flu had led to an easier flu season in Australia this year.

Because of the mitigation measures, no more deaths from swine flu than from seasonal flu were expected.

“We hope we will do better than seasonal flu. We do not know …whether H1N1 09 [swine flu] will replace seasonal flu, but if it does, it will make the management of the disease easier to treat,” Professor Bishop said.

The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, announced yesterday that Australia would move to new flu alert arrangements, scrapping measures including widespread school closures and thermal screening at international airports.

The Government is also relaxing quarantine provisions and tightening distribution of antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu. These would be available from the national stockpiles for those people with moderate or severe disease or with vulnerable conditions.

But Ms Roxon said it was not appropriate to give antivirals to healthy relatives.

Measures will focus on early treatment of vulnerable people such as pregnant women and those with chronic diseases such as asthma and heart disease.

The new regime, officially called “pandemic phase protect”, will begin first in South Australia and Western Australia within days and later in other states. NSW yesterday had 313 recorded cases, compared with Victoria’s 1210.

Ms Roxon said the new phase recognised that swine flu was not as severe as originally envisaged when the health management plan for pandemic influenza was written last year.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Quarter of Men in South Africa Admit Rape, Survey Finds

* Research exposes culture of sexual violence

* Government criticised for ‘woeful’ conviction rate

One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country’s endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country’s Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: “We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It’s rooted in an African ideal of manhood.”

Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.

The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.

Any woman raped by a man over the age of 25 has a one in four chance of her attacker being HIV-positive.

One in 10 men said they had been forced to have sex with another man. Many find it difficult to report such attacks to the police in subcultures where the concept of homosexuality is taboo.

South Africa’s government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to address the crisis. Only 7% of reported rapes are estimated to lead to a conviction. Jewkes said: “There’s been a lot of concern about the way the criminal justice system works, because it’s still woeful.”

Before his election as president, Jacob Zuma stood trial for the rape of a family friend. His supporters demonstrated at the court house, verbally attacked his accuser and sang “burn the bitch, burn the bitch”. Zuma was eventually acquitted.

Jewkes added: “The social space for debating these gender issues is now smaller than it was a few years ago. We need our government to show political leadership in changing attitudes. We need South African men, from the top to the grassroots, to take responsibility.”

Anti-rape campaigners said the shocking figures demonstrated the need for reform. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said: “We need to make sure the criminal justice system is held to account. We have lots of discussion in this country, but not enough action is taken to ensure that perpetrators will face consequences.”

Zuma, a polygamist, was criticised for emphasising his Zulu tribal identity and singing militant songs during this year’s election campaign. He made comments that outraged anti-Aids and gender campaigners.

Peacock added: “We’re at a complicated moment in South African history with revived traditionalism and there’s a danger of gender transformation being lost.

“We hear men saying, ‘If Jacob Zuma can have many wives, I can have many girlfriends.’ The hyper-masculine rhetoric of the Zuma campaign is going to set back our work in challenging the old model of masculinity.”

Carrie Shelver, an activist with People Opposing Women Abuse, said: “Generally there’s a deficit of understanding and commitment to women’s rights by the leadership of this country. It’s simply not on people’s agenda.”

A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

Brazil Denies Rift With France Over Jet Disaster Probe

BRASILIA (AFP) — Brazilian officials on Wednesday denied that French investigators were being barred from examining bodies recovered from an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic, as the search for answers to the disaster continued.

“We have four French investigators accredited to participate in the examinations” of the bodies being carried out in the northeastern city of Recife, a Brazilian police spokesman told AFP.

He was responding to Paul-Louis Arslanian, director of the Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA), the French body in charge of the technical side of the inquiry, who complained earlier Wednesday about access to the 50 bodies fished from the ocean.

Arslanian told reporters in Paris he was “not happy” that a French medical expert sent by the BEA had not been allowed to take part in the postmortem examinations.

“We don’t know where the information came from that the French investigators don’t have access to these examinations,” the Brazilian police spokesman said. “We can guarantee that the French embassy gave the names of the French investigators who can examine the bodies.”

French and Brazilian navy ships, backed by more than a dozen aircraft, were Wednesday continuing to scour waters 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off Brazil’s coast for any more remains from Air France flight AF 447.

Authorities are to evaluate every two days whether to continue the operation.

A French nuclear submarine and two vessels equipped with underwater listening devices are also trying to pick up the homing beacons of the plane’s black boxes.

The Airbus A330 came down on June 1 as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The reason for the disaster is not known.

All 228 people on board are presumed dead, and 50 bodies have so far been recovered, along with the plane’s tail fin and hundreds of other parts and pieces.

Arslanian warned it was “virtually certain that we will not recover the entire aircraft.

“We are doing all we can to recover the flight recorders and bodies, and we cannot say today what we will succeed in doing,” he said.

The goal of the search and investigation “is to understand what happened,” he said, adding: “Considering all the work that has been done and all we have at our disposal, I think we may be getting a bit closer to our goal..”

He declined to detail leads being followed up by his 60-member team of investigators.

He also lashed out at press “speculation,” including suggestions that defective speed probes could have played a role in the disaster.

“For now, we cannot say, and no one can say what happened. It is much too soon to go imagining scenarios in one direction or another,” he insisted.

Theories about the defective probes, called pitots, surfaced after it emerged that a series of data alerts sent automatically by the plane in its final minutes showed they were giving varying and incorrect readings.

Aviation experts say conflicting airspeed data can cause the autopilot to shut down and in extreme cases lead the plane to stall or fly dangerously fast, possibly causing a high-altitude breakup.

Air France itself had initially suggested that lightning could have caused the disaster, though experts later said that was very unlikely.

The BEA, Airbus and Air France have since insisted no link has been proven between the speed monitors and the crash — although Air France upgraded all sensors on its long-haul fleet after protests from pilots.

Asked whether it was an overreaction for airlines to change their speed probes, Arslanian said it was “a legitimate approach for companies who do not want to take any risks.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

Brazil Finds New Strain of H1N1 Virus

Brazilian scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, their institute said Tuesday.

The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 by the Adolfo Lutz Bacteriological Institute, which compared it with samples of the A(H1N1) swine flu from California.

The genetic sequence of the new sub-type of the H1N1 virus was isolated by a virology team lead by one of its researchers, Terezinha Maria de Paiva, the institute said in a statement.

The mutation comprised of alterations in the Hemagglutinin protein which allows the virus to infect new hosts, it said.

It was not yet known whether the new strain was more aggressive than the current A(H1N1) virus which has been declared pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The genetic make-up of the H1N1 virus and its subvariants are important for scientists.

Pharmaceutical companies are working to mass produce a vaccine against the current A(H1N1) flu.

There are fears though that it could mutate into a deadly strain, much in the same way as the 1918 Spanish flu — also an A(H1N1) virus type — did when it killed tens of millions around the planet.

According to the WHO, 36,000 people in 76 countries have been infected with the H1N1 virus, causing 163 deaths.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

French: No Conclusions in Flight 447 Probe

LE BOURGET, France — French investigators say more than 400 pieces of Flight 447 have been recovered in the Atlantic.

Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French air accident investigation agency, says no firm conclusions have been drawn in the probe into the crash.

He said at a news conference outside Paris on Wednesday that more than 400 pieces of debris have been recovered in the international search and are being gathered in a hangar in Recife, Brazil.

He also said Brazilian authorities have not released to the French the autopsy results from the bodies recovered so far, although he expects they will be released.

The Airbus A330 fell ito the ocean on May 31 with 228 people aboard, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

No French Access to Brazil Plane Crash Autopsies

PARIS (Reuters) — France’s chief air disaster investigator said on Wednesday he was unhappy that a French pathologist had not been allowed to take part in autopsies in Brazil of bodies recovered after an Air France plane crash.

Brazilian and French ships are still searching for wreckage and bodies from the plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, killing all 228 people on board.

Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the BEA agency in charge of investigating the crash, cautioned against speculation about the causes but said investigators were getting a little closer to understanding what had happened.

“We are getting a little closer to our goal but don’t ask me what the percentage of hope is,” Arslanian told a news conference, stressing the conditions in a remote area of ocean were among the most challenging in an air crash investigation.

He said a French pathologist sent to Brazil had not been authorized to take part in the autopsies of recovered bodies, and France had not had access to the Brazilian autopsy results.

During his televised news conference he declined to say more on the subject, but afterwards he was pressed by reporters to say if he was dissatisfied with the lack of access given to the French doctor.

“I am not happy. Eventually, I hope I’ll have an explanation. For the time being it is a fact and nothing more. Please don’t try to create problems between France and Brazil,” he said.

PATIENCE

Almost equal numbers of French and Brazilian passengers died in the crash of the Airbus A330, and both countries have been keen to show they are doing their utmost to recover bodies and understand the causes of the disaster.

Arslanian urged the public to show “a lot of patience” and to stick to known facts rather than engage in speculation.

The investigation agency has so far said data transmitted from the plane before it crashed indicated unreliable speed readings from the aircraft’s sensors, but that it was too early to say whether this contributed to the accident.

In order to establish the causes of the crash, the worst in Air France’s history, search teams must recover the plane’s flight data recorders or “black boxes.”

But the seabed where the plane is thought to have crashed is mountainous, meaning the wreckage could be lying at a depth of anything between 1 km (0.6 miles) and 4 km, investigators say.

The “pinger” locator beacons on the flight recorders send an electronic impulse every second for at least 30 days. The signal can be heard up to 2 km away.

“The goal is to understand what happened and for that we need tools and these tools must be facts. The recorders are recorders of facts. If we had them we would have more facts at our disposal,” Arslanian said.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

The federal government — both the executive and legislative branches — has been “fixing” the American economy for decades, since at least 1933.

After seventy-six years of meddling, you’d think they’d have learned by now that government interference in the economy inevitably makes things worse. But no; the Obama administration is poised to expand federal power over the financial sector even further.

According to the Associated Press:

New Obama Initiative Seeks Fix to Finance Regs

WASHINGTON — A new consumer protection agency highlights a financial system overhaul President Barack Obama plans to unveil Wednesday in effort to avert future economic crises like the one still wreaking havoc at home and around the globe.

We’ve seen the same process repeated over and over again: every layer of bureaucratic regulations designed to avert a particular crisis paves the way for an even greater crisis of a different type. It’s the Law of Unintended Consequences at work, and any normal person would learn from experience. But technocrats are unable to resist the temptation to apply their expertise and manage the country’s economic affairs even more thoroughly.

In this case, the improved regimen involves giving more power to — wait for it — the Federal Reserve:
– – – – – – – – –

Obama’s sweeping change of business regulation also embraces new powers for the Federal Reserve and new rules that would reach into currently unregulated regions of the financial markets. An 85-page draft details an effort to change a regime that Obama’s economic team maintained had become too porous for the innovations and intricacies of the today’s financial markets.

With Congress already embroiled in health care legislation, Obama has set an ambitious schedule, pushing lawmakers to adopt a new regulatory regime by year’s end. The consumer agency would ride herd on credit and lending practices that largely went undetected as the economy was sliding into a deep recession.

Given that H.R. 1207, the “Audit the Fed Bill”, has 222 co-sponsors and is ready to move onto the House floor, Mr. Obama’s latest move is a slap in the face for Congress.

Obama said Tuesday he will put forward “a very strong set of regulatory measures that we think can prevent this kind of crisis from happening again.”

“Strong regulatory measures” never prevent crises from occurring. In fact, by inhibiting the normal feedback that would help keep the financial system on an even keel, they tend to exacerbate the crisis when it finally breaks through all the regulatory netting.

Recessions become depressions. Mild crises become major crises. A necessary correction becomes a catastrophic collapse.

Indications are that the government intends to micromanage the financial sector:

Christina Romer, who heads the Council of Economic Advisers, called it an “appropriate balance” and said the administration was “not bulldozing the whole system.” But House Republican Leader John Boehner said that it would have “the federal government deciding what interest ought to be charged on credit cards” and what financial products are available.

“I think it’s just going to be too big of a foot on an industry that already is having financial problems,” Boehner said in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday.

But resistance is building:

The financial sector and lawmakers from both parties concede the need for significant changes in the rules that govern the intricate and interconnected world of banking and investment. But the details of Obama’s proposal already are facing resistance, signaling a tough sell for a president who is spending major political capital on his health care overhaul.

The “too big to fail” principle — which has already been applied to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the major banks, the automakers, and AIG — will be extended to other types of companies:

Under Obama’s plan, the Fed would gain power to supervise holding companies and large financial institutions considered so big that their failure could undermine the nation’s financial system. But even as it gains new powers, the Fed also would lose some banking authority to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

[…]

In conjunction with the Fed’s authority over large financial institutions and the new consumer agency, Obama also will propose:

• Additional protections for investors, including greater disclosure by hedge funds; regulation of credit default swaps and over-the-counter derivatives that previously operated outside of government oversight; and new conditions on brokers and originators of asset-backed securities.
• A system for the orderly disposition of any troubled, interconnected firm whose failure poses a risk to the entire financial system, together with rules that insist that financial institutions hold more capital to avoid over-leveraging.

[…]

The new regulator would have the power to demand that customers have the option of simple financial products, to impose fines and to allow states to pass laws that are stricter than the federal standards. Consumer protections are now spread among various state and federal authorities, including the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and banking regulators.

So rather than let businesses sort out their practices according to what is more profitable, and permit competition and consumer choice to keep them lean and responsive, the government — which knows what’s best for you — will make all the decisions instead.

That will tend to cause businesses to lose money, which means that more of them — since so many are too big to fail — will have to be propped up, bailed out, and subsumed by the government.

Which is probably the whole point in the first place.

Hat tip: heroyalwhyness.

The following story does not seem to be jihad-related, but it’s a reminder that Greece may be descending faster into violent chaos than any other country in Europe.

According to the Associated Press:

Greek Anti-Terror Officer Shot Dead in Attack

ATHENS, Greece — Gunmen shot dead an anti-terrorist police officer guarding a witness in central Athens early Wednesday, in an escalation of domestic terrorist attacks in the country.

Greece’s conservative government denounced the “cowardly attack.” There was no claim of responsibility but police matched bullets from at least one of the weapons used to previous attacks carried out by Greek far-left militant group Sect of Revolutionaries.

Police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis said between 15 and 20 shots were fired at the officer by at least three gunmen at about 6:20 a.m. (0320 GMT) in the residential district of Patisia.

“There was no warning, no telephone calls,” Stathis said. “This was a cold-blooded murder.”

It was the first targeted killing attributed to domestic terrorism in years.

– – – – – – – – –

Greek domestic terrorist groups have stepped up attacks, particularly against police targets, since massive riots in December triggered by the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy. But most have been late-night bombings that have caused no injuries.

[…]

The slain officer was identified as 41-year-old Nektarios Savvas, a father-of-one.

The officer had just taken over the morning shift of guard duty outside the home of a key witness in the trial of the far-left Greek terrorist group Revolutionary Popular Struggle, known by its Greek acronym ELA. Only the officer was targeted in the attack, with no apparent attempt to approach the witness’ home.

Another thing to remember is that Greece has been subject to recurring immigrant riots during recent months. The far Left and Islamic militants often enter into a tactical alliances, and even if there is no direct connection, Leftist violence serves the interests of Islamic violence, and vice versa.

Keep an eye on Greece.

Hat tip: heroyalwhyness.

By now most of our readers have heard of “Islamic finance”, also known as “Shariah finance”, or more fully, “Shariah-compliant finance”.

SCF comprises the body of practices adopted by banks and the financial service industry to accord with the legal dictates of Muslim jurisprudence. Since Western financiers stand to make a lot of money practicing SCF, its use is exploding across the West. Many of the larger banks are adopting it, and not just in their Middle Eastern branches.

A recent example was the National Australia Bank, which announced a few days ago that it was floating an Islamic-finance trial balloon. It plans to test the market by offering “interest-free Muslim loans”:

ONE of Australia’s major banks is planning to introduce “Muslim-friendly” loans that do not charge interest to comply with sharia law.

Wow! Interest-free loans! Why would anybody take out any other kind of loan, when they can borrow Islamic-style money interest-free?

Well… The loan is still going to cost you. They may not call it “interest”, but there’s still a catch:

For example, to get round the Islamic ban on usury — or unfair lending — a Muslim mortgage often works by the bank buying the property, then selling it to the customer at a profit. The customer then repays the sum in instalments.

Shariah-compliant loans tend to be more reliably lucrative for the lender, which is why Western banks are jumping all over them. They can make a good profit and still be doing the will of Allah — how could anyone resist?

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David Yerushalmi specializes in the investigation of Shariah-compliant finance and related legal issues. His law office has put together a presentation to familiarize both legal professionals and the informed layman with the details of SCF. Political correctness and the widespread desire to placate Muslims tend to prevent the kind of critical investigation and oversight that one would normally expect in such a large and profitable financial industry.

In his introduction, Mr. Yerushalmi discusses the murkiness of the Shariah-compliant world:

As Shariah-compliant finance continues apace, professionals and policy specialists continue to ignore a fundamental danger: the lack of disclosure of all the material facts relevant to a post-9/11 investor. This presentation is intended as an in-depth analysis of this critical failure in the current regulatory framework.

The Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C., has prepared this online presentation to assist legal professionals, policy specialists, SEC regulators, Treasury officials, and investors to understand that the Black Box of Shariah compliant finance (SCF) presents a real and present danger not just to our Western financial institutions built on disclosure and transparency, but to our very system of governance and our way of life.

This presentation is entitled: Shariah-compliant Finance: Benign? or Belligerent? It is timely and important for two reasons: first, the interest and investment in Shariah-compliant finance in the West continues to grow, and second, the fragile state of our financial system of late is due to the catastrophic impact of toxic financial products designed as highly sophisticated black box solutions to undisclosed market risk.

– – – – – – – – –

The same black box phenomenon now permeates Shariah-compliant finance. Unfortunately, heretofore, none of the professional literature has examined the risks and problems associated with Shariah-compliant finance in any analytical or critical fashion. Instead, it appears more akin to a cheerleader chorus line singing the praises of this year’s new and improved profit center, much as we heard about sub-prime mortgage securitizations and credit default swaps in their heyday. This presentation is an effort to pry open this new and emerging Black Box.

This presentation is 60 minutes in length and has been organized to be accompanied by source materials available as downloadable PDF files linked below.

This presentation has received encomia from no less than Frank Gaffney, Stephen Coughlin, Andrew McCarthy, and Robert Spencer.

Mr. Yerushalmi’s site has links to further materials. For those of you who are interested in the scholarly details, I recommend an article (pdf format) entitled “Shari’ah’s Black Box” from the Utah Law Review, Vol. 2008, No. 3. The full document is lengthy and comprehensive, and contains extensive footnotes. An excerpt from pp. 1024-1035 (minus the footnotes) is below:

A. What Is SCF?

According to the disclosures and representations of the financial institutions currently promoting SCF, Shari’ah compliance means that a particular investment or financial transaction has been conducted or structured in a way that is considered “legal” or “authorized” pursuant to Islamic law. Compliance with Shari’ah is achieved by having a Shari’ah authority — either an individual or group of individuals possessing authoritative status in matters relating to SCF — approve the particular investment or type of transaction. Most financial institutions retain a Shari’ah advisory board, which typically consists of three or more “Shari’ah scholars” who profess to be recognized as authorities in SCF.

According to most financial institutions, SCF is achieved by the avoidance of interest, risk (typically understood as uncertainty or speculation), and certain types of prohibited industries (relating to activities considered haram or “forbidden,” such as the pork and alcohol-beverage industries, pornography, gambling, and interest-based financing). In addition, SCF also includes a focus on “purification,” which has two separate elements. One is a form of obligatory charitable contribution called zakat, where the act of supporting the less fortunate is considered a spiritual purification; the other is the purification of a Shari’ah-compliant investment or financial transaction that has been tainted with forbidden revenue, whether from interest, illicit speculation, or a forbidden commercial enterprise such as the pork industry. In the latter meaning of purification, the forbidden funds must be disgorged by donating the money to an acceptable charity, but this charitable gift will not count towards a Muslim investor’s zakat requirement.

A rudimentary understanding of Shari’ah is required to grasp the implications of SCF relative to U.S. law. To begin, Shari’ah, or the “proper way,” is considered the divine will of Allah as articulated in two canonical sources. The first is the Qur’an, which is considered the perfect expression of Allah’s will for man. Every word is perfect and unalterable except and unless altered by some subsequent word of Allah. While most of the Qur’an‘s 6,236 verses are not considered legal text, there are 80 to 500 verses considered instructional or sources for normative law. However, the Qur’an is only one source of Allah’s instruction for Shari’ah. The Hadith — stories of Mohammed’s life and behavior — are also considered a legal and binding authority for how a Muslim must live. The Hadith were collected by various authors in the early period after Mohammed’s death. Over time, Islamic legal scholars vetted the authors for trustworthiness and their Hadith for authenticity, and there is now a general consensus across all Sunni schools that there are six canonical Hadith. The legal or instructional portions of the Hadith together make up the Sunna. While the Shari’ah authorities from the Shi’a Muslim world also accept the Hadith as authoritative, they do not accept certain authors’ authority — a belief based mostly upon theological grounds. For all Shari’ah authorities, however, the Qur’an is considered the primary and direct revelation of Allah’s will, while the Sunna is the indirect expression of that will and secondary. Both sources are generally considered absolutely infallible and authoritative.

In order to divine the detailed laws, norms, and customs for a Muslim in all matters of life, the Shari’ah authorities over time developed schools of jurisprudence to guide their interpretations of the Qur’an and Sunna. While there is broad agreement among the schools about the jurisprudential rules, important distinctions between the schools result in different legal interpretations and rulings, albeit typically differences of degree, not of principle. The rules of interpretation and their application to finite factual settings in the form of legal rulings are collectively termed al fiqh (literally “understanding”). Usul al fiqh, or the “sources of the law,” is what is normally referred to as jurisprudence. Technically, Shari’ah is the overarching divine law and fiqh is the way Shari’ah authorities have interpreted that divine law in finite ways. It is important to note, however, that the word Shari’ah appears only once in the Qur’an in this context, yet it has gained currency in the Islamic world by virtue of Shari’ah authorities, over a period of more than a millennium, creating a corpus juris (i.e., al fiqh) based upon their interpretative understandings of the Qur’an and Sunna…

Prior to the twentieth century, there was no discipline termed Shari’ah-compliant financing or even a Shari’ah sub-code regarding commercial transactions. There are rulings by Shari’ah authorities permitting certain contract forms dating back hundreds of years, but as late as the 1900s, there was still some debate among Shari’ah authorities as to whether the prohibition against interest was absolute or just against usurious interest…

The development of these [20th-century legal rulings] and the formalization of SCF have matured over the past three decades so that today there are entire university departments in the Middle East, Asia, and even in Western universities dedicated to the study of SCF. Most observers connect this recent development to the emphasis of Shari’ah in the oil-producing Arab states and their wealth-driven influence throughout the Muslim world and the West.

Effectively, SCF is an attempt to embrace modern interest-based commerce and finance, but developed within a framework of Shari’ah-approved structures. For example, while almost all Shari’ah authorities forbid any transaction or investment which provides for interest income, SCF rules allow for interest in two ways. One way is to rule that a Muslim can invest in a permitted business that earns or pays interest but only if the amount is below a maximum level. Any profit earned by the Muslim from that interest component, however, must be purified by contributing that portion to a Shari’ah-approved charity. A second way to accommodate modern commercial transactions is to structure the forbidden transaction within Shari’ah-approved contract forms. These nominate contracts are based upon contract forms found in the classical rulings of the Shari’ah authorities prior to the advent of contemporary finance. Thus, a loan might be structured as a “cost-plus sale” where the lender buys the property and immediately sells it back to the borrower for a “profit.” This profit is the interest component in the typical loan transaction. The purchase price with the profit component included can be paid over time to resemble an amortized loan repayment schedule. Other forms are available to deal with interest and also with unduly speculative transactions, including sale or lease-back contracts, and partnerships with variations and combinations. For the more complex transactions, these Shari’ah-approved nominate contracts are often pieced together and used in combination to arrive at a Shari’ah-compliant modern commercial deal. [emphasis added]

B. Why Is SCF Important?

As a burgeoning industry, SCF is touted as “[o]ne of the fastest growing” sectors in the global financial markets. Total funds committed to SCF investments are estimated to be $800 billion worldwide, with $200 billion of assets under management in Shari’ah-compliant banks. Annual growth in this sector is estimated at 15 percent, based presumably upon current trends fueled mainly by profits in the Muslim oil- and gas-producing countries and by a worldwide Muslim population reported to be growing faster than the population of any other of the world’s major religions.

Within the SCF market, Shari’ah-compliant bonds, known in Arabic as sukuk, are the most explosive segment driven by huge petrodollar profits creating enormous sovereign wealth and liquidity. There is reportedly “$1.3 trillion looking for high-quality Islamic assets” with only $37.3 billion in Shari’ah– compliant bonds issued in the third quarter — double the amount issued during the same period the previous year. These facts lead one to the conclusion that, despite the increase in the amount of Shari’ah-compliant bonds issued, there is still a much greater demand for them waiting to be quenched

All of this growth, underwritten mostly by the mobile, highly liquid capital flowing out of the GCC states, has generated an industry of financial institutions, law firms, accounting firms, financial advisors, and money managers establishing domestic and international links with the key investment figures in the GCC states in an effort to exploit the opportunity for substantial profits. This enthusiasm has spread to domestic U.S. financial industries, and expresses itself in many forms.

For instance, U.S. companies now seek to invest in Shari’ah-compliant bonds domestically and globally; Dow Jones and Company and Standard & Poor’s have both established Shari’ah-compliant indexes that screen equities based upon software filters meant to eliminate Shari’ah-non-compliant businesses; Shari’ah-compliant, U.S.-based managed equity funds and off-shore hedge funds managed or advised by entities related to U.S. financial institutions have been established and can now peg their performances against these indexes; and U.S. banks have begun to offer Shari’ah-compliant home loans and other credit facilities (with federal banking authorities opining about their legality and at least one state tax authority issuing a ruling on the tax implications of a Shari’ah-compliant transaction).

Notice the absurd and excessively legalistic character of Islamic law. A Sharia-compliant Muslim makes an Orthodox rabbinical authority look casual and slack in comparison.

And the end result is the same: customers pay to borrow money, and the lenders make a good profit. Investors can invest in anything, including pork bellies, as long as they go through the prescribed purifying rigmarole and apply the naughty money to charity. There’s no interest, and everything is pure and moral, yet somehow the non-usurers get just as wealthy as the usurers do.

Funny about that.

And Islamic charity — whether fattened by haram profits, or through the more standard contributions from zakat — applies a Koran-mandated portion of its proceeds to the support of jihad.

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For further information about SCF on an ongoing basis, check in regularly with Shariah Finance Watch.

SCF is not just the camel’s nose under the tent of the Western legal system, with the camel of full Shariah to follow close behind. It’s also a vehicle for the financing of worldwide terrorism.

Whenever a rocket is launched from Gaza into Israel or a suicide bomber blows up a market in India, money from Islamic “charities” provides the necessary operational financing.

And Shariah-compliant finance, aided and abetted by the willing assistance of the Western banking industry, is hard at work making the whole process possible.

There’s lots of chunky, nutty, bloggy richness in tonight’s news feed.

There was a bomb attack at a Red Cross reception center in Finland. Germany is launching an initiative to establish full-fledged censorship of the internet. Turkish and Greek fighter jets have engaged in dogfights over the Aegean. And autopsies on the bodies of the victims has ruled out terrorism as the cause of the crash of Air France 447.

Oh, and a man in the UK had a broken leg for 29 years.

Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, CB, EMET, ESW, GH, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, REP, Steen, TB, The Frozen North, The Religion of Peace, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	Financial Crisis
	Developing World Leaders Show New Power at Summits
	Fed to Get More Power
	Russia, China, Others Urge Diverse Monetary System
	USA
	Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Obama Should Speak Truth to Islam Because Others Can’t
	Guess Who’s Supporting Sotomayor?
	Obama’s Sculpted Face Heads to Mt. Rushmore Park
	Canada
	Ezra Levant: Appetite for Censorship
	Quebec Separatists Want to Silence Anglo Acts
	Two Killed in Rash of Montreal Shootings
	Europe and the EU
	‘Brown Could be EU’s First President’
	Denmark: Al-Qaeda Blasts Rasmussen the Crusader
	Fayed Denied Stake in Oil Millions Below His Own Home
	Finland: Bomb Attack Shocks Residents in Reception Centre in Southwestern Finland
	Finland: Explosion Rocks Red Cross Reception Centre
	Gaddafi: Diverse World, Mullah in Kabul, Catholics in Vatican
	Gaddafi in Rome: Women Are Objects in Arab World, Revolution
	Gaddafi in Rome: Rula Jebreal, Revolution to Start in Libya
	Germany Discloses Data on Farm Subsidies to Avoid EU Penalty
	German Students Launch Week-Long Protests Against Education Reforms
	Greece: Misreading the Situation
	Hungary Recalls Key 1989 Date on Road to Democracy
	Italy: Right- Wing Vigilantes Cause Stir
	Italy Accepts Guantanamo Prisoners
	Norway: Mediators’ Conference Opens in Oslo
	Silvio Berlusconi Against the Italian Press
	Study Finds Half of German Immigrants Feel Like Outsiders
	Sweden: Web Pioneer to be Next US Ambassador
	The Dawning of Internet Censorship in Germany
	Top German Jewish Leader Condemns Obama’s Middle East Policy
	UK: Blind Passenger Hounded Off Bus Because of His Dog
	UK: Bogus Colleges Loophole Left Open by it Delay
	UK: Fear and Hatred on the Streets of Luton
	UK: Man Has Broken Leg for 29 Years
	UK: Minister Shahid Malik Facing New Expenses Inquiry
	UK: More Than One Out of Ten Youths Not in Jobs or School
	UK: NightJack Blogger Richard Horton Gave Tips on Beating the Police
	UK: Ruling on Nightjack Author Richard Horton Kills Blogger Anonymity
	UK: School Bans Bananas Over Teacher Allergy
	Balkans
	EU Council — Visa-Liberalisation Possible in 2009
	Some Balkan Countries May Get EU Visa-Free Travel Within Months
	Israel and the Palestinians
	EU Delays Changing Ties After Netanyahu Speech
	EU Presidency Says Netanyahu in the Right Direction
	Hamas Boasts, Then Denies Foiling Attempt on Carter’s Life
	Israel: ‘U.S. Told US Don’t Take Netanyahu Seriously’
	Male Palestinian Singles? Not at This Beach
	Palestinian Refugees Reject Netanyahu Speech as Worthless
	Time for a New Ally?
	Middle East
	Barry Rubin: Forty-Eight Hours of Reality
	Carter’s Shameless Tears
	Claims of Student Massacre in Tehran Spread
	Defence: US, British Pilots Train Over Turkey
	Iran ‘Ready to Recount Disputed Votes’
	Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Raid University in Isfahan as Protests Spread
	Iran: Lebanon, Hezbollah Congratulates Iran on Epic Elections
	Iran: Italian Team to Help Restore Cyrus the Great’s Tomb
	Iran: Not Quite a Surprise
	Netanyahu: Words Are Against Peace, Syrian Press
	Outlasting the Ayatollahs
	Qatar: Doha, Christians Celebrate Consecration of Marthoma Church
	The Peanut Farmer and the Dictators
	Turkey: Committee Begins Study on Early Marriages
	Turkey Probes ‘New Anti-PM Plot’
	Turkish and Greek Dogfights Cause of Concern in Aegean
	Western Misconceptions Meet Iranian Reality
	Russia
	Officials: GM Executive to Head Russia’s Gaz
	South Asia
	India: Bride Burning: Another Chapter on the Humiliation of the Indian Woman
	Indo/Malaysia: Resurgence of Islam
	Jonathan Kay: Pakistan, the Land of Many Talibans
	Maoist ‘Rampage’ in West Bengal
	Singapore: Mahathir Scoffs at Mm’s [Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew] Visit
	Singapore: Senior JI Detainee Freed
	Sri Lanka: Tigers ‘Reorganise’ Struggle
	Thailand: Teacher Killed in Thai South
	Far East
	Japan: Ban on Exports to N. Korea
	Koreas: Naval Chief’s Comments on Sea Battle
	Koreas: The Lessons of the 2 Yeonpyeong Naval Battles
	N. Korea Admits Uranium Program After 7 Years
	N. Korea’s Disturbing Rationality
	Australia — Pacific
	New Zealand: Editorial: Army’s Role Needs to be Defined
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	Sarkozy Jeered at Bongo’s Funeral
	Latin America
	Air Crash Autopsies Rule Out Terrorism
	Dominican Republic: A Demand for Government to Explain Refidomsa Sale
	Immigration
	Bari: Letters Rogatory, No Response From Libya
	Greece: Calls Grow to Curb Immigration
	Italy: ‘Fascist’ Vigilante Group is Banned
	Police Operation, Arrests in Italy and Europe
	Spain: Immigration; Barrot, Stronger N. European Commitment
	Sweden: ‘Sex Education a Must for Swedish Learners’
	Culture Wars
	‘Sweden Needs an Abortion Register’
	General
	Thomas Sowell: The Character of Nations

Developing World Leaders Show New Power at Summits

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) — Leaders of emerging world powers discussed reducing their reliance on the United States, as well as boosting security and trade at two summits on Tuesday hosted by Russia but excluding the West.

The range of topics on the agenda and the line-up of presidents attending showed the growing economic and political power of the world’s emerging nations, including India and China, and their desire to find new ways of co-operating.

Host president Dmitry Medvedev of Russia hailed the Urals Mountain city of Yekaterinburg as “the epicenter of world politics” in his remarks, adding that the need for major developing world nations to meet in new formats was “obvious.”

The so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China called for reform of international financial institutions, sweeping changes to the United Nations to give a bigger role to Brazil and India and a “stable and predictable” currency system, according to a draft communique.

Iran’s president, re-elected in a disputed vote, fired a salvo at the United States, the leaders of India and Pakistan had their first one-to-one meeting since the Mumbai attacks and the four top emerging market economies held their first summit.

A common thread running through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, and the Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) meeting which followed it, was discussion about a new world order less dependent on the United States.

Medvedev told a news conference that existing reserve currencies, including the U.S. dollar, had not performed their function and said it was time for change.

“We are likely to witness the creation of a supranational reserve currency…which will be used for international settlements,” Medvedev said. “The existing currency system is not ideal.” Countries should use their national currencies more for trade, he added.

The Kremlin’s top economic aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should expand the basket of its Special Drawing Right (an international reserve asset) to including the Chinese yuan, the Russian rouble and gold.

The dollar fell 0.9 percent against a basket of major currencies on world markets after Medvedev’s comments. The slide “underlines the likely sensitivity of the FX market to comments emerging from today’s meeting,” analysts at Barclays wrote.

Between them, the four BRIC nations represent around 40 percent of the world’s population and 15 percent of its GDP. Russia and China lead the SCO, a security and economic co-operation forum which also includes four Central Asian states, plus Iran, Mongolia, India and Pakistan as observers.

“Such a type of coordination will allow us to better explain our positions to each other and work out a novel paths to resolving international financial problems and the reform of international financial relations,” Medvedev said in his comments to BRIC leaders.

Underlining its growing economic influence abroad, Chinese President Hu Jintao offered Central Asian states $10 billion of credit support to help counter the global economic slump, though he did not mention the proposals for diluting dollar dominance.

Beijing, with its massive holdings of U.S. dollars and bonds, has been very cautious about the these ideas.

In another snub to the West, the SCO leaders welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, making his first foreign trip to attend the summit since his disputed re-election.

Ahmedinejad arrived a day late in Yekaterinburg after mass protests against his disputed victory swept Tehran’s streets but Kremlin spokeswoman Natalia Timakova said the SCO presidents had congratulated Ahmedinejad on his victory.

“America is in the grasp of political and economic crisis,” Ahmadinejad told the SCO leaders in a speech which touched on the Palestinian issue and reform of the world order.

“The United States and its allies are unable to deal with the crisis,” he said through a translator. Medvedev listened carefully while Chinese President Hu Jintao made notes.

For the first time, presidents from the four SCO observer states were allowed to take part in a restricted meeting of the Heads of State Council and Medvedev said the organization needed to agree a procedure for admitting new members — a sign that expansion may be planned.

On the sidelines of the summits, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Pakistani leader Asif Ali Zardari for the first time since the Mumbai attacks and asked him to ensure that Islamist militants could not operate from Pakistani territory.

“The territory of Pakistan must not be used for terrorism,” Singh said. His tough words offered little hope for a breakthrough in relations between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Fed to Get More Power

The White House is set to unveil its much-anticipated revamp of the financial regulatory system this Wednesday, reports WSJ. Among the big, new changes: The Federal Reserve is set to get the power to unwind and shut down large institutions as the FDIC currently has for more plain vanilla banks.

— Hat tip: JD

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Russia, China, Others Urge Diverse Monetary System

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Brazil, Russia, India and China say the world needs a more diversified international monetary system.

The four so-called BRIC nations are concluding their first summit with a final statement calling for the reform of global financial institutions to reflect changes in world economy.

They said Tuesday there is a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified global monetary system and urged support for a more democratic and just “multipolar” world order.

There was no explicit mention of the U.S. dollar or the United States in the statement.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Obama Should Speak Truth to Islam Because Others Can’t

IT was not an April Fools’ joke. When President Barack Obama met the Queen of the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace, he gave her an iPod. Last week, I was half expecting the president to show up in the Middle East laden with Kindles.

He could have started with a special reading selection when he met Saudi King Abdullah. The day after, when the President spoke to the Muslim world at Al-Azhar University, I pictured him handing out another Kindle to Muhammed Sayyid Tantawy, the university’s grand sheik. Obama might have had a third Kindle for the ambassador of Iran to Egypt (for this man represents the ayatollah, who is the highest authority for Shia Muslims), who attended the presidential address.

Unlike the Commonwealth, the umma, or Muslim community, has no symbolic leader, let alone a formal one. The king of Saudi Arabia; the grand sheik of Al-Azhar University (the largest, and in the eyes of many Muslim scholars, most prestigious Islamic centre of learning); and the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran all make equal claims to represent the heart and soul of the umma.

They have their differences. The king is the protector of the holy shrine of Islam and a political leader. The grand sheik has no formal political power, but it is not an exaggeration to say his institution is one of the most influential in the Muslim world. And Iran not only claims spiritual power but pursues political and military dominance. The issue of who speaks for Islam is perhaps the worst nightmare for the US; this is not fully appreciated by the crafters of American foreign policy.

This makes a discussion of the relationship between Islam and the West much more problematic than the president’s speechwriters realise.

Like former US presidents, Obama denounced Islamic extremism without once associating Islam with extremism. He firmly stated that America is not at war with Islam and will never be; and he invited the Muslim world to join hands with the US to fight extremism tooth and nail.

However, Islamic extremism can be read in two ways. The first is in its foreign policy implications for the US: that is, in its expansionist or jihadi meaning. Al-Qa’ida-like attacks on American soil against Americans or American interests will be met with force, the President promised. That’s an easy position to take because for the US it’s a position of self-defence. It is not America that is at war with Islam. It is Islam that is at war with America.

The second sense of the word “extremism,” used many times by the President, is as a euphemism for the application of Islamic law, or sharia, in Muslim countries. This the President evidently hopes to counter by wooing the Muslim street.

The courtship articulated in his speech was peppered with false praise (“… it was innovation in Muslim communities that developed … our mastery of pens and printing.”), feigned common principles and made ridiculous promises to fight negative stereotyping of Islam wherever he encounters it.

This is all part of political rhetoric, but it really doesn’t lead to concrete change. This, in my view, is the wrong strategy. Instead of pretending that Muslims invented printing, the President should be confronting them with the key products of the Western printing press. And it’s here that Kindles could be of use.

I imagined him offering the king, the sheik and the ayatollah each a Kindle with Abraham Lincoln’s case against slavery and for equality. Obama reminded the Muslim world that “black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the centre of America’s founding.”

Nowhere in the world is bigotry so rampant as in Muslim countries. No difference is greater between American and Islamic principles than the founding ideals of both. It is on the basis of the founding ideals of Islam that al-Qa’ida and other Muslim puritans insist on the implementation of sharia law, jihad and the eternal subjection of women. It is on the basis of the founding ideals of America that blacks and women fought for — and gained — equal rights and gays and new immigrants continue to do so.

I would include Thomas Jefferson’s improvements on the New Testament. The king, the sheik and the ayatollah have the authority to rule that parts of the Koran no longer apply in the modern world. For instance, the edicts of sharia law that reject scientific inquiry and order all Muslims to spread Islam.

And of course, no reading selection would be complete without a copy of the US Constitution, highlighting (because you can do that in a Kindle) the Eighth Amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment.

And for good measure, I would also add John F.Kennedy’s inaugural address: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. … To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required. … To those nations who would make themselves our adversary … we dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. … Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” Not to mention woman.

Obama promised to launch a fund to support technological development in Muslim majority countries to transfer ideas to the marketplace and create jobs. Does he realise the transfer of ideas creates opportunities for the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia to punish the practice of un-Islamic ideas?

That poor girl in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, who, after seven men raped her, was sentenced to flogging, had succumbed to the novel idea of flirting by mobile phone. In Saudi Arabia, every Friday, cruel and unusual punishment is perpetrated, far worse than anything John Adams saw in his time. The hands of those suspected of stealing — mostly poor, immigrant workers — are amputated.

The more one is dark-skinned in Saudi Arabia, the bleaker his circumstances, not to mention hers. For in Saudi Arabia, black is still considered to be inferior. Men and women convicted of adultery, apostasy, treason and other “offences” are beheaded. Thousands of women are rotting in Saudi jails, waiting to be flogged, or are flogged daily for acts such as mingling with men, improper attire, fornication and virtual relationships on the internet and mobile phones.

Promotion of literacy for girls, which the President wants to help pursue, is a noble cause. But, unless sharia laws are repealed, more girls will find themselves in flogging pens rather than rising up the career ladder.

Obama promised to host a summit of entrepreneurship in Muslim majority countries “to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the US and Muslim countries around the world.”

I wish he would host a reading summit where we truly “say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts that too often are said only behind closed doors”. For too many of us born into Islam, saying those things openly can land us in jail or in the graveyard.

— Hat tip: The Frozen North

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Guess Who’s Supporting Sotomayor?

Guess Who’S Supporting Sotomayor? O’vannity. O’vannor. Gump

Communist Party backs confirmation for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — The way to end “right-wing” terrorism in the U.S. is to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice, boycott Fox News and support Barack Obama’s plan for nationalizing health care, the Communist Party USA said in an editorial in its newspaper, the People’s Weekly World today.

— Hat tip: JD

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Obama’s Sculpted Face Heads to Mt. Rushmore Park

12-ton statue already touring country en route to South Dakota attraction

Mount Rushmore National Memorial’s famous stone carvings of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt are about to receive a sculpted visitor: a massive bust of Barack Obama.

According to Black Hills Today, the statue is made of steel and concrete, tops 20 feet tall and weighs roughly 12 tons.

— Hat tip: JD

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Ezra Levant: Appetite for Censorship

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has given itself another report card. The last one didn’t quite work out as planned: Professor Richard Moon, who was paid $50,000 by the CHRC to write a short review of their conduct, surprised everybody by calling for the repeal of the commission’s censorship powers.

The CHRC immediately garbaged Moon’s report. Their press release accompanying it didn’t even mention his chief recommendation, and announced instead that a do-over review would start immediately. Needless to say, no outsider was trusted to write this one.

It’s not surprising that the CHRC gave itself a glowing review this time. But what is remarkable is that, far from being chastened by the public condemnation its bad behaviour has provoked, the CHRC has called for even more censorship in Canada.

The CHRC already has a 100% conviction rate for censorship prosecutions — no one in 32 years has ever beat the rap. That’s not hard to believe when you learn that truth, fair comment and honest belief are not legal defences in human rights hearings — the commissions operate more like kangaroo courts than real courts that way. And look at how vaguely the censorship law is written: Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act says it’s an offence to communicate anything “likely to expose a person … to hatred or contempt.” The word “likely” is amazing: The CHRC doesn’t have to prove you’ve actually done anything, just that you might in the future. And all they have to prove is that you said something that might cause one person to have hard feelings about another.

So it’s not just a speech crime. It’s an emotion crime, too.

That’s an un-Canadian law, and it’s an embarrassment that an organization with the words “human rights” as its middle name would be behind such an attack on our civil liberties.

What’s new is the CHRC’s suggestion that Canada’s Criminal Code be stripped of its free speech protections, too.

Right now, the Criminal Code has a hate speech crime in it. But, unlike the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Criminal Code has important defences built right in. Section 319(3) specifically protects anyone who was telling the truth, or believed what he was saying was true. Religious views are specifically protected, too, as are other defences.

Pesky civil rights — like the right to speak the truth — are a big reason why police don’t have a 100% hate speech conviction rate like the CHRC does. So in their new report, the CHRC suggests that the defence of truth be removed from the Criminal Code.

How perverse is that: A human rights agency is telling the police to reduce their commitment to civil liberties. Could you imagine a genuine human rights activist — say, Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King — calling for more power for the police and less for political dissidents? If a government agency like the CHRC had been around in the United States in the 1960s, or India in the 1940s, is there any doubt that it would have prosecuted King and Gandhi for saying things that “exposed” people to “contempt”?

But that’s not all. Like obscenity laws, censorship laws are necessarily vague and subject to abuse by police and prosecutors. So, as an added safety measure, Criminal Code hate speech charges cannot be laid without the personal approval of the Justice Minister. The CHRC calls this an improper “barrier” to prosecutions, and asks that it be removed.

That’s not surprising. At the CHRC, there is no oversight of their conduct — no internal affairs committee, not even a written ethics code.

It’s astounding that an organization as dysfunctional as the CHRC would have the hubris to tell Canada’s police how to do their business. It’s depressing that their advice to police forces is to strip protections for civil liberties out of our criminal code.

This report is the second PR exercise the CHRC has bought in eight months. They’re spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on damage control, including $15,000 to pollster EKOS and $10,000 to lobbyists Hill and Knowlton. Real courts don’t spend money on pollsters and spin doctors. But real courts aren’t held in as much public disrepute as the CHRC.

We’ve heard more than enough from the CHRC. It’s no longer a civil liberties organization. It’s a self-perpetuating industry full of empire-building bureaucrats, global junketeers and political bullies.

Now it’s time for Parliament to act. There is multi-partisan support for Parliamentary hearings into the CHRC’s censorship powers and their operational misconduct.

When real civil rights groups — from the B’nai Brith to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association — say the CHRC is broken, then you know it’s time to fix it.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Quebec Separatists Want to Silence Anglo Acts

It is hard to imagine anything less menacing than the acoustic bluegrass music of Montreal’s Lake of Stew. Heavy on mandolin, banjo and accordion, their songs are crafted to set toes tapping. “We’re not the bogeyman. We’re the friendly, happy-go-lucky folk band,” band member Richard Rigby said yesterday.

But because the lyrics to most of their songs are in English, Lake of Stew have spooked some hard-line Quebec nationalists. The band has been thrust into the middle of the province’s endless language debate, with French-language defenders demanding its removal from a concert next week celebrating Quebec’s Fete Nationale.

After reports on the weekend that Lake of Stew and another anglophone performer, Bloodshot Bill, had been uninvited from the June 23 show, the event’s producer said yesterday that no final decision has been made. In an admirable display of backbone, Pierre Thibault, president of C4 Productions, said he is not prepared to feed the anglos to the yapping language zealots.

“One thing is sure. If we are going to hold the event, it will be with the current lineup,” Mr. Thibault said. If Lake of Stew and Bloodshot Bill do not take the stage, neither will popular francophone performers Malajube, Vincent Vallieres, Les Dales Hawerchuk and Marie-Pierre Arthur, he said. A final decision on whether the concert goes ahead will be announced tomorrow.

The controversy began last week when organizers of L’Autre St-Jean announced plans for a show conceived as an alternative to the annual Fete Nationale blowout that attracts tens of thousands to a park beside the Olympic Stadium. One of their goals, they stated, was to “celebrate and promote Quebec culture, while underlining what other cultures have contributed to it.” Bloodshot Bill informed his fans that he was going to be “one of the first English performers playing the St. Jean celebration.”

But even though it amounted to about 40 minutes of English music over the course of a six-hour show —and even though Lake of Stew perform some songs in French — it was too much for the nationalist Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

Mario Beaulieu, the president of the Societe, said yesterday that English music has no place in Fete Nationale celebrations, except perhaps in neighbourhoods like Westmount where there are large anglophone populations. “What we want are groups that sing in French,” Mathieu Bouthillier, vice-president of a local cultural association that is connected to the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste, told La Presse. Mr. Bouthillier, whose association is sponsoring L’Autre St-Jean, said he protested as soon as he heard the producers had invited English-language bands.

Sovereigntist Internet forums quickly became inflamed over the inclusion of the anglos, claiming it was evidence that Quebecers remain colonized. “Beside the actions to put a halt to this farce, we can envision actions on the ground the day of the event,” one commenter, using the nickname D’Iberville, wrote on the web site of Le Quebecois, adding: “The event will not take place (if there are songs in English.)”

Similar veiled threats from nationalist hotheads led the National Battlegrounds Commission to cancel plans for a re-enactment this summer of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.

The cancellation emboldened the opponents, who took away the message that threats of “civil disobedience” can be very effective. “A little organization succeeded in making Canada backtrack,” Patrick Bourgeois president of the Reseau told his group’s members last March.

Scrapping the English acts at next week’s concert would be the easy way out for the organizers, but it would hand Mr. Bourgeois and his followers another victory. Those opposing the English content are a fringe minor i t y. Yes terday, some prominent nationalists, including Parti Quebecois culture critic Pierre Curzi, defended the place of anglophones in Fete Nationale celebrations. Quebec’s Culture Minister, Christine Saint-Pierre, blamed an “intolerant” fringe of the sovereignty movement for stirring up the controversy.

“Anglophones have been among us for 250 years,” she told the Presse Canadienne. “They are Quebecers.” It was that sentiment that inspired the organizers of L’Autre St-Jean to invite Lake of Stew and Bloodshot Bill, and it would be wrong if an intolerant few spoiled the party. “The organizers reflect the reality, they reflect the climate here in Quebec, and that’s a climate of tolerance,” Mr.

Rigby said. “We might speak different languages, but culturally we’re the same.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Two Killed in Rash of Montreal Shootings

MONTREAL — A spree of gunfire has left two men dead and another two injured in less than 16 hours on the normally calm streets of Montreal.

There are no signs the three shootings are related, said Montreal police Const. Anie Lemieux.

Just before noon Monday, a 39-year-old man was shot after he left a gym.

“The man was heading to his car, when the suspect approached him and fired several shots in his direction,” Const. Lemieux said. The victim was helped back to the gym and taken to a hospital, where he was reported to be in critical condition.

Hours earlier, Mohamed Abokor Abdullah, 25, died after being shot on the street. Another 22-year-old man also suffered an injury that required surgery.

“It sounded like someone was shooting deer. It sounded like hunting season had just opened,” said Allison Cordner, a local resident.

Montreal police Const. Raphael Bergeron said investigators were trying to find a motive for Abdullah’s killing.

Another man was killed early Sunday night. Louino Jeune, 20, was with a group of about 15 youths, when a man approached him and shot him in the head.

Late Monday afternoon, Montreal police obtained an arrest warrant in the Jeune investigation and announced they were looking for 18-year-old Frank Antoine Joseph as a suspect.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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‘Brown Could be EU’s First President’

GORDON Brown is in line to become the EU’s first president, it emerged last night.

The job will become available later this year once the Lisbon Treaty is approved — and Mr Brown is now a front-runner according to EU diplomats.

But Tory MP Philip Davies said Mr Brown becoming the EU’s most powerful politician would be a “slap in the face” for British voters.

He said: “It would be completely wrong for Mr Brown, who has been rejected by people here, to now decide even more things that would affect our lives.

That really would be treating voters with utter contempt. It would be a complete slap in the face.”

Mr Davies — a leading member of the Better Off Out campaign which calls for the UK to quit the EU — added: “Having said that, if he does for the European Union what he’s done for the Labour Party and drives it into complete collapse, I’d be all in favour.”

EU insiders say Mr Brown would be in pole position for the presidency if he ended his troubled premiership later this year, or is ousted in a renewed bout of blood-letting.

Tony Blair has also been named as a candidate but many in Europe resent his enthusiastic support of the invasion of Iraq.

A poll revealed last night that backing for Labour has collapsed among public-sector workers. It found 30 per cent would now vote Labour, down from 42 per cent last year.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Al-Qaeda Blasts Rasmussen the Crusader

A new statement from terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda accuses former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of spilling Muslim blood

A new videotape from Al-Qaeda calls former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen a malicious crusader heading a regime that is an enemy of the state of Palestine.

The 35 minute video tape appears to have been made in April, according to Thomas Hegghammer from Jihadica, an information blog about militant, transnational Sunni Islamism, otherwise known as jihadism.

In the video, US Muslim convert Adam Gadahn makes a concerted effort to discredit President Obama, with no less than three references to Rasmussen — a record number of Danish mentions in an Al-Qaeda statement.

In a reference to the Mohammed cartoon controversy, Rasmussen is highlighted as a ‘crusader’, defending those who insult the prophet.

The al-Qaeda statement, released through its official media wing, As-Sahab, raged against the decision that saw Rasmussen secure

Al-Qaeda’s statement, released through its official media wing, As-Sahab, also raged against the decision that saw Rasmussen chosen as the next secretary-general of the Nato military alliance in April.

‘Had the malicious Crusader Rasmussen defended insulting of the Jews — for example — or casting doubt on the statistics of what is called the Jewish Holocaust, would he be secretary-general of Nato today? Obviously not,’ said Gadahn.

Another mention of Rasmussen labeled him a tyrant in line with Obama, Bush, Brown, Blair and Netanyahu. According to Al-Qaeda, these allies threaten to ‘send more forces of the Cross [into Afghanistan and Pakistan] to increase the spilling of blood of the Muslim people.’

There has been no comment from Rasmussen, who maintains an office at the Foreign Ministry and enjoys the protection of two intelligence service (PET) bodyguards. Rasmussen is due to take up the post of Nato secretary-general in August.

Head of PET, Jakob Scharf, has previously said that the reprinting of the Mohammed cartoons last year increased the terror threat against Denmark to similar levels as those of Britain, the US and Israel.

— Hat tip: TB

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Denmark: Al-Qaeda Fingers NATO Sec-Gen

Al-Qaeda says Denmark’s former prime minister and next NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a Western tyrant.

The global terrorist movement Al-Qaeda has begun a propaganda offensive against NATO’s next secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, calling him a tyrant of the same ilk as U.S., British and Israeli leaders.

At the same time, Fogh Rasmussen’s handling of the Mohammed crisis, in which Danish newspapers printed and reproduced cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, is brought to the fore.

“If the evil crusader Rasmussen, for example, had defended the violation of the Jews or raised doubts about the statistics of the so-called Jewish holocaust, would he now be the secretary-general of NATO? Of course not,” a video sequence from Al-Qaeda’s official media company As-Sahab (The Clouds) says.

Al-Qaeda has repeatedly presented threats against Denmark and its interests following the re-publication in some Danish media last year of some of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Obama’s falsehood

The video is particularly notable as the spokesman used is a wanted American convert, attempting to convince listeners that President Obama, through his ‘false and sugar-sweet talk’, is trying to win Muslims over.

But Al-Qaeda says that instead, Obama has given the go-ahead for bloodshed in Gaza, Pakistan and Afghanistan where ‘Obama, Rasmussen and their NATO allies have threatened to send more crusaders to further shed Muslim blood’.

— Hat tip: TB

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Fayed Denied Stake in Oil Millions Below His Own Home

Court rules Harrods boss has no claim on oilfield profits and awards him just £1,000

In a business career spanning six decades of wheeling and dealing, Mohamed Fayed has prided himself on his ability to sniff out a profit across his eclectic entrepreneurial empire. His only blind spot, it seems, is when the income stream lies directly beneath his feet.

The multi-millionaire Harrods owner yesterday lost the latest round in his battle to secure a share in the profits made from three oil wells that operated under the fields of his sprawling estate in Surrey without his knowledge for more than a decade.

Mr Fayed, 76, was last year awarded a stake in the tiny oil reservoir discovered in the ground beneath Barrow Green Court, his baronial pile in Oxted, near Reigate.

The nine per cent share in the proceeds from the Palmers Wood Oilfield, which has pumped just over a million barrels of its stockbroker belt crude since 1990, was granted by the High Court after it was revealed the owners of the wells deliberately withheld information about the location of its pipelines.

But yesterday three judges at the Court of Appeal allowed a challenge against the award by the oil company, Star Energy, and drastically reduced Mr Fayed’s new-found oil wealth from £621,180 plus interest to just £1,000 for “technical trespass” of his land. The court heard that the compensation received by the Harrod’s owner could have been as little as £82.50.

Under English law, although the soil and rock beneath a landholding belongs to its owner, any oil belongs to the Crown, which in turn grants drilling and extraction rights. Star Energy and its predecessor acquired the right to dig beneath Barrow Green Court and the adjoining farm in 1986, and sank three wells diagonally under the estate to a depth of up to 700 metres.

Mr Fayed, whose £555m business portfolio ranges from Harrods and the Ritz Hotel in Paris to Fulham Football Club and an American mapping company, first noticed the prospecting activity in 1992 when he spotted a small oil rig on land adjacent to his farm.

When solicitors acting for Mr Fayed wrote to Star Energy asking for information, the company declined to reveal where its bore holes were sited. It said locations could not be revealed for “reasons of commercial confidentiality”.

It was not until 2006, when Mr Fayed saw records held at the British Geological Survey, that he realised the pipelines ran under his property and decided to add “oil baron” to his list of business activities by suing Star Energy for a share of its profits. Up until 2007, the total amount extracted from the little-known Surrey oil belt was 1,006,000 barrels worth about £10m.

Mr Justice Peter Smith, sitting in the High Court last year, ruled that Star Energy and its predecessor at the Palmers Wood Oilfield had deliberately withheld the information about the location of their wells from Mr Fayed and his Liechtenstein-based holding company, Bocardo, because they had expected “trouble” if he found out.

Speaking after the court ruling in his favour last July, Mr Fayed said: “I am satisfied with the decision. Justice has been done.”

But the Court of Appeal yesterday overturned the finding that Mr Fayed was due a share of the proceeds from the oil because of trespass on his land, ruling that the drilling had caused no damage and did not impinge on any of his rights. Recognising a “technical trespass”, the court said Mr Fayed was due compensation that could have been as little as £82.50 but this had been increased to £1,000 in recognition that Star Energy would have been anxious to avoid delays.

Lord Justice Aikens said the case raised “interesting issues” about the rights of landowners sitting on top of oil deposits, adding: “Bocardo neither owned the oil found beneath its land nor did it have any right to bore, search for or get that oil.”

A spokesman for Mr Fayed said: “We are very disappointed by this result and we will be seeking leave to appeal in the House of Lords”.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Finland: Bomb Attack Shocks Residents in Reception Centre in Southwestern Finland

White car recorded on surveillance camera; police say explosive device was dangerously powerful

An explosion occurred in the yard of the Finnish Red Cross reception centre in Suomusjärvi in Southwestern Finland at 3.00 a.m. on Monday.

Nobody was injured in the explosion, but the blast caused some damage to the property.

Several windows were shattered and the roof of a nearby garden shelter was ripped off.

A white car, apparently rather old, was seen at the scene only a couple of minutes prior to the blast. An image of the vehicle was recorded by a surveillance camera.

Deputy Manager Päivi Nikkola reports that the residents were shocked at the attack, and they are being given crisis assistance to help them to unload their feelings about the incident.

“Such an incident is bound to upset the residents, particularly when many of them come from countries where such violent events can occur frequently”, Nikkola notes.

The Red Cross reception centre has a total of 21 asylum-seekers, coming for example from Afghanistan and Somalia.

Most of them are adults, but some teenagers are also resident in the centre.

According to the police, they cannot gauge yet whether or not the act was racist-motivated, even though it was the first assumption.

There is no information about the perpetrator or perpetrators.

All they have is a CCTV photo of a white two-door passenger saloon with black rubber trim panels.

The nature of the explosive is still unclear, but Detective Inspector Pertti Läksy regards it as highly dangerous and liable to cause death if any people had been nearby.

“The explosive may have been the size of a stick of dynamite or slightly smaller”, Läksy says.

The technical crime scene investigation group of the police were working at the scene all morning.

The police are investigating the incident as sabotage.

When the explosion occurred, the reception centre’s night duty officer was present, but from now on the security measures will be stepped up.

In the future, a guard from a security company will always be present at the reception centre.

The building housing the reception centre was previously known as Motel Syvälampi, which was notorious as a venue for large-scale prostitution. The motel was turned into a Red Cross reception centre early this year.

Threats and attacks against reception centres have so far been very rare in Finland.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Finland: Explosion Rocks Red Cross Reception Centre

An explosion occurred at a Red Cross reception centre in Suomusjärvi in south-west Finland in the early morning hours on Monday.

No one was harmed in the blast that shattered windows and harmed the building structure. The centre houses a few dozen asylum seekers. The explosion occurred around 4am on Monday morning.

A two-door white passenger car with a black trim was seen driving from the scene of the explosion moments before the blast.

“We have increased security at the reception centre to safeguard the residents,” says Päivi Nikkola, deputy manager of the Suomusjärvi reception centre.

Police in Salo are investigating the incident and are urging eyewitnesses to come forward.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Gaddafi: Diverse World, Mullah in Kabul, Catholics in Vatican

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 11 — “We cannot all be the same: what’s the problem if North Korea wants to be communist, Afghanistan is in the hands of mullahs? Isn’t the Vatican a respectable theocratic state with representatives throughout the world? Iraq as a dictatorship under Saddam, was this a problem for the West? Was it a good idea to make his regime collapse only to leave the door open to ‘al Qaeda’? It is not possible to evaluate the world superficially.” This is the extract from the speech given by Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in the Zuccari room of the Giustiniani Palace, to highlight the fact that dictatorships like those of religious or fundamentalist countries are internal issues. “Why can’t the world be diversified into regimes of all types?” the Colonel asked once again, adding: “If one has a useful programme for the people, what’s the problem?” “If Libya were to become a revolutionary country, it is a fact that regards Libyans,” he concluded. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Gaddafi in Rome: Women Are Objects in Arab World, Revolution

(by Eloisa Gallinaro) (ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 12 — Some rhetoric, al little equal dignity, a brief lesson in Italian and compared family law. Gaddafi’s notion of women was met by curiosity (a lot), applause (very little), protests (many and widespread) and, in the end, a fair dose of doubts. In the Sinopoli hall of Rome’s Auditorium, in the company of four female ministers and hundreds of women, Gaddafi appeared relaxed and sometimes funny without sparing a few caustic opinions. The worst was saved for the arab and Islamic world where women are treated “like a piece of furniture that can be changed at any time without anyone asking why”, where women “cannot drive cars” and don’t even have the “right of marriage or divorce”. In short, a “terrible situation” which “calls for a revolution”. But things in Libya are different because, thanks to the Jamahiriya, the revolution has already been taken care of and women live in an ideal state. After another late arrival, and clad in gold and blue jalabiya and cap, Gaddafi sat centre-stage and avoided any comment on violence against women and the mutilation of female genitals mentioned by minister for Equal Opportunities Mara Carfagna. Ironic and mystical, the colonel also spoke of a sort of discrimination in blue, according to which the Madonna is the only woman in the “divine books” and angels are (according to a school of thought) all male. Coming back to earth, in the most religious and neglected continent, Gaddafi spoke of Africa, where conditions for women are tragic because of the lack of a structured family. The leader however also dislikes the level of equal opportunities achieved in Europe because here women “have found emancipation only in form”. There is the lack of a real “freedom” of choice because in effects women are “forced” to do the same jobs as men and not those which in some ways are more befitting. The colonel concluded “that there is the need for a female revolution around the world based on a cultural revolution”. But attending women, thought fascinated by his person, were uncomfortable listening to a somewhat pedantic and elementary speech on female characteristics: a “rose”, according to Gaddafi’s arab metaphor, which must be treated differently to man, which is the metaphor’s “barley”. Despite their doubts many women couldn’t help but ask for his autograph (two were wearing a veil and were carrying his picture). The surrounded colonel did not turn them down, and the male and female security staff looked at bit more relaxed than usual. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Gaddafi in Rome: Rula Jebreal, Revolution to Start in Libya

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 12 — “It is certain that reforms are needed, it would be nice to see them start in Libya” said Rula Jebreal, Palestinian journalist who has become an Italian citizen, commenting on the speech delivered by Libyan leader Gaddafi during his meeting in Rome with Minister for Equal Opportunities Mara Carfagna and around a thousand women active in politics, business and institutions. “If he is aware of this problem, he should appoint women ministers in his government and make family law more in favour of women” added Rula Jebreal. “I like to hear an Arab leader talk like that, but words should be followed by deeds, starting in his country. It may set off a domino effect”.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Germany Discloses Data on Farm Subsidies to Avoid EU Penalty

Germany has become the last EU country to disclose the beneficiaries of the bloc’s generous farm subsidies. But the state of Bavaria is still resisting financial transparency.

The German Agricultural Ministry on Tuesday posted a list on the Internet disclosing the names of German recipients of 5.4 billion euros (7.5 billion US dollars) in annual agricultural subsidies granted by the EU.

Germany is the last country in the 27 nation EU to publish the names of beneficiaries of farm aid.

Berlin had previously refused to obey an April 30 deadline set by the EU Agricultural Commission, citing several injunctions imposed by German courts.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that some recipients in Germany are not farmers in the traditional sense, but millionaires, big corporations, or even organizations that have no links to agriculture.

Milking the EU cash cow

Reinhild Benning, an activist with the German environmental group BUND, has taken a closer look at how the EU farm aid has been spent in Germany.

She has found out that the German airline, Lufthansa, has been receiving subsidies for dairy products it serves its passengers on transcontinental flights.

“Under EU rules this constitutes an export for which the airline absurdly receives export subsidies to the tune of two-and-a-half-million euros,” she said.

Another example of questionable EU subsidies, she said, were 500,000 euros in annual subsidies received by the German energy giant RWE for measures aimed at recultivating coalmining areas in eastern Germany.

The German dairy company Muellermilch, she added, was able to milk the EU cash cow for a new creamery it built in the eastern German state of Saxony.

“While building the new plant, Muellermilch closed two of its older ones in western Germany”, she said.

“On balance, the EU spent 70 million euros to enable the company to scrap 17 jobs.”

Sour grapes

German Agriculture Minister, Ilse Aigner, was reluctant to publish the list of farm subsidies.

She believes that farmers “will not be amused” at seeing their names and income made public.

“In the villages everyone will know immediately who receives how much in subsidies. That is why I insisted on making transparent for what purposes the money is being granted,” she said.

Privacy v. transparency

The obligation to make the payments transparent dates from a bitterly contested reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2006.

At the time, notably Britain demanded greater accountability with regard to farm subsidies which eat up some 40 percent of the EU’s annual budget.

However, critics say the publication of names and amounts is a violation of privacy rules.

“I would have preferred a solution in which the names of major recipients only are disclosed”, said Peter Schaar, the German Commissioner for Data Protection.

In his view, it would have been better to determine a limit for subsidies above which recipients would be obliged to disclose full details.

Bavarian resistance

Farmers in the German state of Bavaria will be spared public scrutiny of their incomes for the time being.

They have a strong lobby in the regional government in Munich.

The Bavarian Agricultural Ministry said it would withhold data on Bavarian farmers until the European Court has ruled on the legality of the move.

But on Tuesday, Michael Mann, a spokesmann for Agricultural Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, told the German dpa newsagency that the EU would not hesitate to impose a hefty fine if Germany failed to disclose all its farm subsidy data.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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German Students Launch Week-Long Protests Against Education Reforms

In cities across Germany, university and high school students are walking out of their classes this week to protest changes to the education system.

In Hamburg and Dresden students briefly blocked streets and intersections near those cities’ universities and occupied lecture halls, while in Heidelberg and Potsdam there were sit-ins and barricaded classrooms.

Monday was the first of a five-day strike, with students protesting the introduction of tuition fees and the bachelor and master system into German universities, the shortening of college prep school programs, and what they describe as the increasing commercialization of their education.

“We need independent, publicly-funded education,” Mo Schmidt, a student leader from the University of Marburg, told Deutsche Welle. “Because that’s essential for democracy.”

[Comment from Tuan Jim: ???]

The students are planning demonstrations, blockades and sit-ins. The primary goal, said Schmidt, is to raise awareness and kick off a discussion of the role of public education in Germany.

While Monday and Tuesday are mostly “warm-up” days, with alternative seminars on education and information booths on campuses, organizers are planning demonstrations in about 100 cities on Wednesday.

On Thursday, under the motto “money for education instead of for banks,” students are planning mock bank robberies, and intend to stage sit-ins and protests at banks. They are protesting recent bank bailouts by the government, at a time when tuition fees, once unheard of in Germany, have become the norm.

The government always said there wasn’t any money left for education, Schmidt explained, “now suddenly there are billions of euros coming from somewhere” to give to the banks.

On Friday groups from across the country are planning to meet in Berlin to protest a meeting of the state education ministers and to mark the 10 year anniversary of the signing of the Bologna declaration.

Reforms transforming European education

Signed by 46 European countries, the Bologna process calls on countries to integrate their education systems and implement a credit transfer system by 2010. Continental universities have had to replace their own degree systems with the bachelor’s and master’s degrees of the Anglo-Saxon world.

[Comment from Tuan Jim: This actually looks incredibly beneficial…but then, I’m just an American who worked and paid his way (with some help — family, federal/state grants) through a public state university.]

While supporters say this will increase the competitiveness of European universities and increase mobility for European students, the student strikers argue that the changes have made study programs inflexible and have reduced universities to factories producing workers for the economy.

The Bologna process was meant to increase transparency and boost the exchange of ideas and cooperation between universities, according to Professor Barbara M. Kehm, executive secretary of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers and director of the International Centre for Higher Education Research at the University of Kassel.

Kehm told Deutsche Welle that the Bologna process represents a “great opportunity to really modernize curricula and forms of teaching and learning.”

However, depending on how the reforms are implemented, there can be unintended consequences. National governments seeking to have world-class universities have brought competitive pressure into the process.

“Rankings and other initiatives to create world-class universities are widespread,” Kehm said, “and act as an intervening factor into the trust and cooperation agenda which underlies the Bologna reforms.”

“Ultimately,” she added, “you can’t compete with the outside and think you can keep it out of the inside.”

At the heart of their protest, said student leader Schmidt, is the worry that education is becoming less and less about seeking knowledge and more about preparing to fill a need in the economy. Whereas before these reforms took place, “you went to university for yourself, to gain knowledge … now people are studying for the labor market.”

Schmidt himself is studying sociology and economics, “not because it increases my value on the job market,” he said, but because “I want to understand society.”

[Comment from Tuan Jim: Kudos to you…that’s why most universities offer electives next to required courses for majors.]

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Greece: Misreading the Situation

The European Parliament elections of June 7 showed in the clearest way that two — maybe three — parties paid the price for misreading the events of last December. You may remember the barrels of ink spilled analyzing the so-called “left turn” taken by society. Some even hastened to predict that SYRIZA would benefit the most. The exact opposite happened, as the student elections had already indicated. SYRIZA lost a great deal of its support and society appeared to take a conservative turn — which may take an equally dangerous turn if its direction is left in the hands of populist extremists.

After December, the leadership of the “renewalist” Left became embroiled in an unbelievable display of narcissism over the popular “uprising.” They became overexcited about what happened on the streets of Athens and did not realize that although Greeks may find popular unrest alluring, they also have a remarkable survival instinct. They quickly realized that the cost of the December troubles would be huge for the economy, for tourism, for the country’s image abroad.

The average Greek got a fright when he realized how little separates us from chaos, how it really is to slip into an uncontrollable situation in which teenagers get their kicks from throwing stones at police stations.

Unfortunately, PASOK too believed the nonsense regarding a Left turn. This was evident several times, such as when there was a heated intra-party debate about whether the party leader should visit a police officer who was seriously injured in a terrorist attack outside the Archaeological Museum, lest this might anger some of the “kids.” PASOK has repeatedly followed in SYRIZA’s footsteps in adopting left-wing positions, without ever realizing that people want it to be a party that can govern, rather than a party that indulges in merely protesting and expressing its sensitivity.

The government, too, was very mistaken in its reading of December’s events. It froze in fear in the face of the crisis and the tsunami of populism that overwhelmed us for some days, and it made one mistake after the other. First, for the first time, we saw a government relinquishing the fundamental role played by any state: that of enforcing law and order. Second, it continued to act guilty, as if it were a government that had inherited the sins of other eras. The seriousness of the situation became apparent when control was lost, when the police disappeared for many days and weeks and when Athens and other cities appeared to have surrendered to chaos. This image caused great pain to a segment of the middle class that belongs to the hard core, the backbone of the center right. And when, for the first time, on the extreme right there emerged a party for which they were not ashamed to vote — since it had not been tainted by contacts with the military junta, as had been the case with EPEN in the 70s — we found ourselves in a situation that led to last Sunday’s result. When New Democracy acts as though it is ashamed that it is a right-wing party and when it makes a mess of an area of policy in which the right was always more focused, namely law and order, it is only natural that voters should look elsewhere.

With the rise of LAOS, the government finally realized the problem. The question is whether decisions that had been made a long time ago will start to be enforced — from building a mosque to stricter action against illegal immigration. The desire is there, but in this government the mighty forces of inertia have an astonishing ability to play for time in the days following a great crisis and then blocking every bold proposal that may be made.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Hungary Recalls Key 1989 Date on Road to Democracy

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Twenty years ago, Hungarians were finally allowed to honor the executed leaders of their 1956 anti-Soviet revolution. On Tuesday, they commemorated that turning point on the road to freedom.

President Laszlo Solyom and Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai joined veterans of the 1956 protests and relatives of those killed in laying wreaths in Budapest amid daylong celebrations included also concerts and exhibitions.

On June 16, 1989, at least 250,000 people attended the ceremonial reburial of Prime Minister Imre Nagy and four others hanged 31 years earlier and buried face down in unmarked graves. The reburial — broadcast live on TV from Budapest’s Heroes’ Square — came as Hungary’s communist leadership and the democratic opposition were beginning to negotiate the country’s transition to democracy.

“It was not only the funeral for Imre Nagy but it was also the burial of an era and a political system,” said historian Janos Rainer M., director of the 1956 Institute. “What no one could imagine was that it would turn out to be such a cathartic day, a psychological turning point.”

While Hungary had begun dismantling the Iron Curtain on the border with Austria a few weeks earlier, for regular Hungarians the end of communism was still an uncertain prospect.

On that day in 1989, Sandor Racz, a 1956 veteran, called on the world to “help the Soviet Union” withdraw its troops from Hungary. Viktor Orban, then 26 and later to become prime minister, also urged the Russians to withdraw but blasted the country’s communist leadership for making the 1956 revolution a taboo subject.

Sound engineer Benedek Tamas, then 23, said he could not fully grasp the significance of what Racz and Orban were demanding in 1989.

“I grew up in a ‘soft dictatorship,’ but the older people in the crowd were shocked,” Tamas said. “My mother was listening to the speeches on the radio and when she heard the calls for the Soviets’ withdrawal, she quickly shut the windows so no one else could hear — an old reflex from the times when she listened to Radio Free Europe.”

Janos Kadar helped restore Soviet domination and led Hungary for over 30 years before being replaced in May 1988. He died just three weeks after the reburial ceremony, on July 6, the same day that Hungary’s Supreme Court finally rehabilitated the 1956 revolutionaries.

“The message of June 16 was that Hungarian society was recovering its past and the right to its memories,” Rainer M. concluded. “To make this experience complete, it was also necessary to bury Janos Kadar.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Italy: Right- Wing Vigilantes Cause Stir

Maroni says new security law will not permit them

(ANSA) — Rome, June 15 — The creation of self-styled vigilante groups will not be possible under Italy’s new security law, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Monday.

Maroni was addressing an uproar over the newly-created Italian National Guard, unveiled at the weekend in Milan by a extreme right-wing group.

Speaking on a morning radio talk show, Maroni said the government security bill, which has yet to definitively clear parliament, “does not allow do-it-yourself civilian patrols”. “It states clearly that these volunteer associations must first be invited to patrol the streets by the mayor. Furthermore, the names of association members must be listed in a specific register and the association must be reviewed and approved by a provincial law and order committee”.

“Anything else is either folklore or political exploitation,” he added.

The Italian National Guard was set up with the support of a revived neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) and has been dubbed by critics as the ‘black vigilantes’, in reference to the standard color associated with Fascism.

The Guard caused outrage this past weekend when it presented its uniform which recalled those of the Fascist era and included similar symbols, like the Imperial eagle.

Milan prosecutors have opened a probe on the group on suspicion that they are attempting to re-establish the Fascist Party, in violation of a 1952 law.

MSI Chairman Maria Antonietta Cannizzaro called the initiative “absurd” and denied her group was trying to revive Fascism, which she said “belongs to history”.

“The Imperial eagle is part of our history since the time of Caesar. If it’s illegal, then all the historic buildings which have this symbol need to be torn down,” Cannizzaro said.

Milan Deputy Mayor Riccardo De Corato welcomed the judicial probe, saying that the “so-called black vigilantes cannot be put in the same category as support groups like the City Angels and the Blue Berets, who for two years have been pitching in to ensure law and order in our city”.

The creation of the civilian patrols is the fulfillment of a campaign promise by the center-right government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi. It is strongly opposed by the center-left, which claims that security should be in the hands of the police and not private citizens.

Aside from the expected outrage from the left, the setting up of the ‘black vigilantes’ drew protests from Italy’s right wing, which was also upset over the use of the name and symbol of the MSI by a group which has no direct connection with the postwar party.

The MSI was founded by members of the Italian Social Republic (RSI), created in northern Italy by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini after he was rescued by Nazi forces following his fall from power in Rome.

The MSI later evolved into the ‘post-fascist’ National Alliance and this year joined the People of Freedom (PdL) party with Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, a figure in both the MSI and National Alliance, said on Monday said that the promoters of the ‘black vigilantes’ should be sued for using the MSI name and symbol.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, another key figure in the MSI-National Alliance, said the creation of the ‘black vigilantes’ was both “shameful and disgraceful” and appeared designed to cast discredit on the government’s desire to all volunteer civilian security initiatives. The ‘new’ MSI is also calling itself the ‘Italian National Party’ and models itself after the far right, anti-immigration British National Party.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy Accepts Guantanamo Prisoners

Obama says Berlusconi is a ‘true friend’ of the US

(ANSA) — Washington, June 16 — Italy will accept three ‘enemy combatants’ who have been held prisoner at the American base in Guantanamo, Cuba, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi told US President Barack Obama on Monday.

Berlusconi flew to Washington officially to brief Obama on the agenda for the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Italy, but their meeting at the White House stretched out to two hours, one more than expected, as the two leaders reviewed a host of international and bilateral topics.

In a joint press conference after their meeting, Obama praised Italy for its “crucial contribution” in the international coalition seeking to stabilize Afghanistan and said that Berlusconi “has proven to be a true friend of the United States”.

There are unconfirmed reports that Berlusconi promised to send an additional 500 police and soldiers to Afghanistan to further boost its contingent there of some 2,800. The three detainees Italy has agreed to accept, in order to allow Washington to closed down the Guantanamo prison facility, are believed to be Tunisian nationals and are among the ten which the European Union has agreed to take. Berlusconi said that the G8 agenda he illustrated to the US president included ways to boost the world economy, food security and cutting greenhouse gasses. “We want the G8 summit to achieve concrete solutions,” the Italian premier said at the press conference.

He added that while it will not be possible to draw up definitive new rules to govern financial markets, in order to avoid a repeat of the current economic downturn, the G8 meeting “will take steps towards drafting these rules”.

Obama and Berlusconi were said to have also discussed the situation in the Middle East, with special attention paid to the Palestinian question and the aftermath of presidential elections in Iran Italy’s is hosting the July 8-10 summit, in its role as the rotating G8 president, in the quake struck central city of L’Aquila.

At the end of the press conference Berlusconi said that “it is extremely comforting and a pleasure to see that the destiny of the biggest democracy in the world is in very good hands”.

Obama replied saying “We’ve gotten off to a good start. I will always expect to hear Premier Berlusconi’s frank and honest opinions”.

Following his visit to the White House, Berlusconi went to Congress to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who recently visited Italy.

Speaking at the Congress, Berlusconi explained that Italy agreed to take the Guantanamo detainees because “we want to be on the front line, better yet we want to be the first country to help the United States to close the Guantanamo prison”.

“We are among the best friends the United States has,” he added.

Berlusconi also said that President Obama “told me that he wanted to see the art work in L’Aquila that was damaged in the earthquake when he takes part in the G8 summit”.

Pelosi recalled how the Congress “approved a resolution expressing the full support of the American people for the population in Abruzzo struck by the earthquake”.

The Italian premier replied that “this vote is further evidence of the strong ties which unite our peoples and I wish to express our gratitude for everything America has down in the past and continues to do for our country”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Norway: Mediators’ Conference Opens in Oslo

The Oslo Forum 09 opens on Tuesday. The Forum seeks to provide diverse, frank and discreet discussions between top mediators and other key actors from around the world on major issues affecting peace and conflict today. The Forum, the seventh of its kind, will be hosted by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. Co-host will be former UN’s mediator Martin Griffiths, now head of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) in Geneva.

Among the topics on the agenda will be Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Stoere will have separate meetings with among others Liberia’s Foreign Minister Olubanke King-Akerele, President of the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relations Ziad Abu Amr and Secretary General of ASEAN Surin Pitsuwan. The Oslo forum features an annual global event in Oslo and is complemented by regional retreats in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Participation is by invitation-only.

The Norwegian work for peace and reconciliation is characterised by long-term contributions and commitments, flexible resources and close cooperation with national and international NGOs. A central element in Norwegian peace efforts is to support and strengthen the UN’s capability of responding to armed conflicts.

The HD Centre is an independent Swiss Foundation dedicated to helping improve the global response to armed conflict. It attempts to achieve this by mediating between warring parties and providing support to the broader mediation community.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Silvio Berlusconi Against the Italian Press

Berlusconi flies to meet Obama, the anti-newspaper crusade continues

ROMA — “Do you have anything to say to Obama? I’m going, handsome and tanned…”. Berlusconi leaves the Paraggi villa for the Genoa airport from where he flew to Washington. Not even when he is about to face the hardest diplomatic mission does he refrain from recalling the wisecrack on the American President (“He’s tall, handsome and tanned”) which went round the world. Just a few hours before his departure — at the young entrepreneurs’ meeting, and then later that night in Portofino, during the dinner with Tronchetti and Afef — he had launched a heavy attack against La Repubblica, accusing it of “carrying on with determination a subversive plan”.

In front of the industrialists, he had suggested an alleged plot to overthrow him and replace him with a “non elected person”. He even went so far as to urge the industrialists “not to give advertisement to catastrophists”, i.e. to the media who talk about the crisis and to the left. And during the night, he had denied a statement made by Palazzo Chigi. “I meant what I said, I didn’t change anything, — enunciated the premier referring to the correction ascribed to him by the press office — I don’t know who spoke with me, I didn’t speak with anyone. What I said is what I said in public: it’s what I meant and what I think.”

Berlusconi feels he is under fire and reacts, on the one hand, by relaunching the activity of his government, that will meet before the G8 in Santa Margherita Ligure to adjust the programme for the coming months, and on the other by warning that, if faced with a “subversive plan”, the people who elected him would take action to prevent it. A “political fantasy” plan which, nevertheless, it taken seriously by the Cavaliere’s most faithful followers who feed the artillery fire against Repubblica and the opposition. So, according to Cicchitto, the group leader of the Chamber of Deputies “we are up against an attempt to destabilize the political and government balance resulting from the 2008 elections. An attempt to destroy the author of the political victory is under way”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Study Finds Half of German Immigrants Feel Like Outsiders

Half of all immigrants feel like outsiders in German society and say their achievements find less acknowledgement than those of Germans, according to a survey released Monday.

The Bertelsmann Foundation surveyed 1,581 immigrants and found that those from Turkey and Russia were most likely to feel like an outsider in their adopted country: 61 percent of Turkish immigrants and 55 percent of Russian immigrants said they lacked the recognition of native German citizens.

But of those interviewed, 69 percent of German immigrants were happy in their new country. Eighty percent said they had confidence in the German government, compared to 58 percent of the general German population.

“That most immigrants are happy with their lives here is a positive signal for Germany as a place to immigrate to,” said Dr. Jörg Dräger, a board member of the Bertelsmann Foundation. “However, integration isn’t a one-sided process. If more Turkish and Russian immigrants are to make themselves at home in Germany, they need more recognition and chances to redesign the future.”

While 58 percent of survey respondents said they felt like an integral part of German society, another five percent felt as though they had no part in it at all. A further 41 percent of respondents said they were equally connected with their homeland as they were with Germany, with three quarters of those adding that they hoped to keep their native traditions as well as adopt German traditions.

When it comes to opportunities immigrants have in Germany, 79 percent said they were happy with their jobs and 77 percent were content with their current living situation. However, when it comes to their families, 42 percent of immigrants said their children have fewer educational opportunities than their native German classmates. In the third generation of immigrant families, that number even jumps to 52 percent.

“Without fair opportunities at education, neither integration nor participation can succeed,” said Dräger.

Maria Böhmer, the head of the German government’s integration efforts acknowledged more needed to be done to recognise achievements made in an immigrant’s native country, such as education.

“Everyone in Germany should get a chance, regardless of where they come from,” said Böhmer. “It’s scandalous that 500,000 educated immigrants cannot use their university training in Germany.”

Most immigrant’s degrees are not recognised by German employers, and many then have to go through retraining programme.

The study was conducted across Germany, surveying immigrants aged 16 and older from Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Italy, Croatia, Spain and Greece.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Sweden: Web Pioneer to be Next US Ambassador

A 38-year-old internet entrepreneur who went on to become one of Barack Obama’s top fundraisers will soon be nominated to become the United States’ next ambassador to Sweden.

Matthew Barzun, a Louisville, Kentucky-based internet publishing executive, is expected to be named soon as President Obama’s pick as US ambassador to Sweden, The Local has learned.

Barzun, who began his career as one of the first employees of the CNET media company, joined the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee for the 2008 presidential election and helped pioneer events which catered to small donors.

According to statistics from the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent research organization that tracks money in politics, Barzun helped bring in more than $500,000 to the Obama campaign for the 2008 election cycle.

Part of the total raised by Barzun included more than $290,000 in overall contributions from Barzun and his family to various Democratic candidates, party organizations and political action committees (PACs).

The nearly $300,000 given by Barzun and his family put him as the sixth highest contributor to Obama’s campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“We’ve heard nothing but positive things about him,” Eva Engdahl, secretary to the chief of protocol within the Government Offices of Sweden told The Local.

“While it’s hard to say for sure, we hope that he arrives sometime in late summer or early autumn.”

Engdahl confirmed that Barzun’s name had passed through her office recently as part of a process known in the diplomatic world as agrément.

In early June government officials in Stockholm sent word to Washington through the US embassy that Sweden had no reservations over Barzun’s appointment, paving the way for an official announcement from the White House.

Neither the US Embassy nor the White House would confirm Barzun’s pending appointment, however.

“I can’t confirm anything,” said US embassy spokesperson Robert Hilton.

“An announcement of the new ambassador will be made by the White House and the embassy has no information to share.”

According to the White House, it has a policy “not [to] confirm, deny, or speculate on appointments”, and as a result no information will be made available “until it is officially announced by the White House”.

The White House also refused to confirm when Barzun’s appointment would be announced, but sources told The Local an announcement could come as early as this week.

Before taking up residence in the posh mansion reserved for US ambassadors serving in Stockholm, Barzun must still be confirmed by the US Senate, a hurdle which has been known to trip up presidential political appointments in the past.

Speculation around a possible ambassadorship for Barzun has been buzzing for months in Kentucky, where Barzun has made his home since 2001.

Back in early November, within days of Obama’s victory in the 2008 race for the White House, a Louisville, Kentucky television station reported that Barzun’s fundraising prowess would likely result in an ambassadorial appointment.

And in early March, kypolitics.org, a website dedicated to Kentucky politics, reported that Barzun had recently turned down a job in the West Wing, but was “poised to land a top appointment” from Obama, likely a “prominent ambassadorship” in a “major European country”.

Born in New York, Barzun was raised in Massachusetts and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College before joining CNET in 1993, helping the company to capitalize on the internet’s rising popularity.

Moving with the company to San Francisco, Barzun was an early advocate of purchasing domain names which CNET could use to launch new, content-specific sites. Barzun later launched and managed a number of sites, including download.com.

With its 1996 initial public offering, CNET became the first publisher of content on the world wide web to go public, according to the New York Times.

In 2008, the company was purchased by US broadcasting giant CBS for $1.8 billion, by which time Barzun had risen to the position of executive vice president.

Currently, Barzun is head of BrickPath, an internet media company “devoted to lifelong learning” according to his biography on the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation, where Barzun sits on the Board of Directors.

Barzun is married to Brooke Brown Barzun and the couple has three children.

His wife is the daughter of Owsley Brown II, the retired chairman and CEO of Brown-Forman, a Louisville-based producer of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, Fetzer Wines, and Finlandia Vodka.

When contacted by The Local, Barzun was otherwise occupied and unable to comment on his pending appointment.

The last US ambassador to Sweden, Michael Wood, left his post in January following the conclusion of the George W. Bush presidency.

Wood’s tenure in Stockholm was marked by his efforts to promote enhanced cooperation between the United States and Sweden on the promotion of renewable energy technology.

The initiative, coined the “One Big Thing”, won Wood accolades on both sides of the Atlantic.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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The Dawning of Internet Censorship in Germany

Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government — a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party — seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture.

The Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen kicked off and lead the discussions within the German Federal Government to block Internet sites in order to fight child pornography. The general idea is to build a censorship architecture enabling the government to block content containing child pornography. The Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) is to administer the lists of sites to be blocked and the internet providers obliged to erect the secret censorship architecture for the government.

A strong and still growing network opposing these ideas quickly formed within the German internet community. The protest has not been limited to hackers and digital activist but rather a mainstreamed effort widely supported by bloggers and twitter-users. The HashTag used by the protesters is #zensursula — a German mesh up of the Ministers name and the word censorship equivalent to #censursula.

As part of the public’s protest an official e-Petition directed at the German parliament was launched. Within three days 50,000 persons signed the petition — — the number required for the petition titled “No indexing and blocking of Internet sites” to be heard by the parliament. The running time of an e-Petition in Germany is 6 weeks — within this time over 130,000 people signed making this e-Petition the most signed and most successful ever.

During the past weeks, protests became more and more creative — countless blogs and twitter-users followed and commented the discussions within governments and opposing arguments. Many mainstream media picked up on this and reported about the protest taking place on-line. A working group on censorship was founded and the protest coordinated with a wiki, mailing lists, chats and of course employing twitter and blogs. One website “Zeichnemit.de” created a landing page explaining the complicated petitioning system and making signing the petition easier and more accessible for non net-experts.

Over 500 people attended the governments official press conference on the planed internet censorship — a number of whom used this occasion to demonstrate and voice their concerns. In fact, demonstrators began attending some of the Minister von der Leyens public appearances, carrying banners and signs to raise attention to the stifling of information freedom in Germany.

The net community did not only oppose the governments plans, but also made constructive suggestions how to deal with the problem of child pornography without introducing a censorship architecture and circumcising constitutional freedoms. The working group on censorship demonstrated the alternatives for instance by actually removing over 60 websites containing child pornographic content in 12 hours, simply by emailing the international providers who then removed this content from the net. The sites were identified through the black lists of other countries documented on Wikileaks. This demonstration underlines the protesters main arguments: instead of effectively investing time and efforts to have illegal content removed from the internet, the German government is choosing censorship and blocking — an easy and dangerous way out. The greatest fear of the protesters is that once in place, the infrastructure will be used to censor other forms of unwanted content, not only child pornography. German politicians already seem to be lining up with their wish-list of content to be censored in future — the suggestions ranging form gambling sites, islamist web pages, first person shooters, and the music industry cheering up with the thought of finally banning pirate bay and p2p.

— Hat tip: ESW

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Top German Jewish Leader Condemns Obama’s Middle East Policy

A leading member of Germany’s Jewish community has condemned Barack Obama’s approach to the Middle East conflict, saying the US President has a “skewed emotional take” on the situation.

Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, says Obama risks exacerbating tensions in the Middle East with his policies on the region.

Barack Obama recently held a keynote speech in Cairo, in which he attempted to reach out to the Muslim world. In that speech, Obama said the Israelis and the Palestinians were “two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history.”

But in a column in Tuesday’s edition of Berlin’s Tagesspiegel daily, Kramer says that Obama had equated the Jewish people’s fate, including the Holocaust, with the situation of the Palestinians, showing the president has a “skewed emotional take” on the conflict.

Kramer also accused Washington of consciously trying to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s back against the wall “to score points with the Muslim world.”

During a televised address on Sunday night, Netanyahu endorsed the establishment of a Palestinian state for the first time, but with certain conditions: the demilitarization of any future Palestinian state and Israeli sovereignty over a united Jerusalem. Barack Obama has repeatedly said he supports a two-state solution.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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UK: Blind Passenger Hounded Off Bus Because of His Dog

A driver told a blind cancer sufferer to get off his bus when a woman and her children became hysterical at the sight of his guide dog.

George Herridge, 71, told how the mum flew into a rage and shouted at him in a foreign language. A passenger explained she wanted him to get off the bus during the incident on May 20.

Mr Herridge, from Tern Close, Tilehurst, said: “Her child was kicking and screaming and someone off the bus told me her child was frightened of my dog. The driver said, ‘Look mate, can’t you get off?’

“I stood my ground. I had not done anything, my dog had not done anything and I was getting off the bus for no one.”

The retired NHS worker claimed he was forced off a bus by a driver after a similar encounter last summer.

And a day after the latest bus incident an lady began screaming “I don’t like dirty dogs” at Mr Herridge at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

A week earlier he faced further animosity from a couple at Asda in The Meadway, he said.

He is unsure what has provoked outbursts but said he thinks some have come from Asian people and that it may be due to religious or cultural differences.

If the people who were upset were Muslim, they consider dogs to be ritually unclean.

— Hat tip: TB

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UK: Bogus Colleges Loophole Left Open by it Delay

Mandatory checks on whether students from outside the EU are arriving at colleges or attending courses will not be operating until the end of the year, it emerged today.

The Government is unable to introduce one of the key elements in tackling bogus students because a new IT system is not yet in place.

Under the points-based system educational institutions taking students from outside the EU will be expected to tell the Home Office if a student has any unauthorised absences, fails to enrol on their course or stops their studies.

Kevin Brennan, the Further Eucation Minister, disclosed the delay to MPs today when he dismissed concerns that some college staff might boycott the checks.

Mr Brennan said: “The [checks] are not yet mandatory until a new IT system is in place which will enable the Home Office to check and link up with universities.”

The minister was giving evidence to a Home Affairs select committee inquiry prompted by an investigation by The Times which revealed a network of sham colleges in London, Manchester and Bradford.

The Times has made its evidence available to the committee and has co-operated with the Home Office.

Mr Brennan said: “The Times performed a useful public service by exposing some of the abuse outlined in the articles.”

He told MPs that he had asked officials to look at tightening registration of colleges and restricting the use of the word college in an effort to further clamp down on fake educational institutions.

Mr Brennan said he was looking at introducing a registration system covering every educational institution in Britain as a way of tackling the problem of people setting up “colleges” in back rooms above shops.

Another proposal would make the term “college” a registered education establishment, as is the case with the terms “university” and “institute”.

He told the committee: “It doesn’t seem logical that the term university should be protected but the term college should not be protected.

“[Bogus colleges] do have the potential to have a negative impact on the country’s reputation for education which is very high. I’m considering what steps we might be able to take to deal with that residual issue of bogus colleges which are bringing in students from within the EU.”

Mr Brennan said the move could be made in regulations under the 2006 Companies Act though it would not be retrospective and will not tackle existing sham colleges. An offence under the Act makes it a crime to carry on a business with a seriously misleading name.

The minister admitted that despite moves to tighten up on colleges offering courses to students from outside the EU, he was concerned about bogus colleges still being able to offer courses to youngsters from within the EU.

“I’m considering what steps we might be able to take to deal with that residual issue of bogus colleges which are bringing in students from within the EU,” he said.

The Government introduced a tougher regime this year for students wishing to come to Britain. Applicants from outside the EU must prove that they have enough money in the bank to support themselves for the duration of their course, prove their previous educational credentials and be vouched for by a recognised educational establishment.

The committee, which has been investigating the issue, will publish its report next month.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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UK: Fear and Hatred on the Streets of Luton

When troops returning from Iraq marched through Luton, all hell broke loose. Muslims protested, white residents rioted and the Sikh mayor was viciously attacked. Can this multicultural community ever find peace — or is this eruption of long-simmering tensions a sign of even worse to come?

Later that day, after the soldiers’ parade had dispersed, Kier was walking across St George’s Square in his England shirt — “Eng-er-land! Eng-er-land! Eng-er-land!” the crowd had been chanting at the protesters. Kier was still feeling wound up by what he had just witnessed back by the Arndale. He had a cousin in the army, a family friend who had been killed in action. Bloody Muslim extremists, Kier was thinking to himself. How dare they!

Then he saw the mayor crossing the square, walking high and proud in his robe and chains. He was Asian. So far as Kier was concerned, he was a Muslim too, and it was all his fault. He was the head of the council; the council had given permission for the extremists to make their protest. F*** it, Kier thought. Kier ran up to him and fly-kicked him in the back. Councillor Lakhbir Singh, the mayor of Luton, a Sikh by faith, not in fact a Muslim at all, stumbled and fell forward, putting out his hands to stop himself falling. Kier turned around and, before the police could do anything, he ran through them and was away.

It would be farcical if it were not so sad and unpleasant, that brief moment in the life of modern, multicultural Britain. A Sikh in a turban had been mistaken for a Muslim by a white youth too ignorant to know any better, and apparently too angry to express himself other than with a kick.

The incident had been caught on camera, but it took the police a while to catch up with Kier. He was finally arrested six weeks later, outside Luton Town Football Club, which is slap bang in the middle of Bury Park, the predominantly Muslim area of the town. Kier McElroy, a white youth aged 18, had been attending a reserves match against Peterborough United.

In the weeks preceding Kier’s arrest, for some unexplained reason, the assault on the mayor was kept a secret and the mayor himself kept under wraps. He would not talk to me for this article, and I only found out about the attack through a contact in the town after Kier had been charged.

“It’s political correctness, innit,” Kier told me, after being released from custody. “We feel we’re being treated differently. They won’t nick the Asian lads, will they?” “We”, of course, were the white lads. Luton has been sharply divided along racial lines by recent events. Many of the town’s white youth are restless and incensed, and those other extremists, of the far right — the National Front (NF) and the British National Party (BNP) — are circling like vultures. Not for the first time, many of the town’s 30,000 or more Muslims are fearful of the backlash provoked, as they would see it, by the actions of the few Islamic extremists, or “troublemakers”, as I often heard them called.

Rumour and suspicion are increasing the unease. I heard of a white mob getting ready to storm the town hall, believing it had been taken over by councillors who might be sympathetic to Al-Qaeda; there was supposedly a campaign by Muslim extremists to intimidate black and white people out of their homes in Bury Park (this, in fact, turned out to be a succession of stone-throwing incidents by a lone Pakistani youth with a psychiatric illness). A series of protest marches were planned and abandoned, or fizzled out amid claims some organisers were running scared.

Among the would-be march organisers was a white man called Paul Ray who didn’t even live in Luton. He runs Lionheart, a blog in which he appears to believe he is re-fighting the medieval crusades, the good Christian against the Muslim hordes. He’s currently bailed on suspicion of inciting racial hatred. A man who had no shame about giving his name and address wrote to the local paper, The Luton News, asking, rhetorically, what he was going to do about Muslims demonstrating and attacking “our troops”. His donation to the BNP, he told readers, was in the post. Meanwhile, the NF and the BNP had added images of the Luton extremists to their websites. “Those pictures will add 2% to our vote in the next election,” I was told by the BNP spokesman Simon Darby.

Everyone was blaming everyone else. The whites blamed the authorities for letting it happen and the police for not doing anything about it — why didn’t they arrest them? The moderate Muslims blamed the extremists, the extremists blamed the moderate Muslims for not having the courage of their convictions; the authorities blamed the media for its inflammatory coverage of the parade and the intemperate language it tended to use when writing about Muslims.

Many people, especially outsiders, believed the trouble had started with the soldiers’ parade on March 10, and it was true that the events of that day had been widely reported across the world and drawn a new round of negative attention to a town that had long struggled with its public image. Whoever went to Luton unless they lived or worked there or were flying out from the airport?

But, of course, the rest of the world knew little of the long, slow-simmering tensions in the town and its struggle for harmony — community cohesion, in the jargon of the age — over many years, during which its mix of race and culture has become increasingly diverse. It’s a story of our times — the struggle for all of us, with our varieties of races and religions, to accept our differences and live peacefully together, and the tricky balance of competing freedoms of expression: the freedom to march, the freedom to protest, the right to be free from religious or racial hatred or harassment. “I’m not a racist, but…” one middle- aged white man in Luton told me, “…if they don’t like it here, why don’t they piss off home?”

— Hat tip: Steen

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UK: Man Has Broken Leg for 29 Years

‘I was repeatedly told the bone had healed so I carried on walking on it’

Steve Webb, 49, broke his left leg in a motorbike crash when he was 20-years-old. But after suffering decades of pain he found it had never actually healed.

Mr Webb, from Dagenham, Essex, said he only realised he still had the injury after it showed up on a hospital scan.

He had feared the leg might have to be amputated under the knee but instead he is about to have an operation to stretch the broken bone back together.

“I think it’s extraordinary. Everyone tells me that having a broken leg for nearly 30 years is unheard of.

“I’ve had trouble with my leg ever since the accident but I was repeatedly told the bone had healed so I carried on walking on it.”

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Minister Shahid Malik Facing New Expenses Inquiry

Shahid Malik, the Communities Minister, is facing a fresh investigation into his financial affairs only a week after he was cleared of breaching the ministerial code.

John Lyon, the Parliamentary standards commissioner, announced today that he was going to investigate Mr Malik after receiving a complaint from a group that campaigns for open government.

Mr Malik has already spent more than a week suspended from government after reports that he rented a three-bedroomed home in his Yorkshire constituency at a below-market rate of less than £100 a week. The arrangement risked a conflict of interest, it was claimed.

Sir Philip Mawer, the Prime Minister’s adviser on breaches of the ministerial code, investigated the reports. Last week he concluded that while it was ‘unfortunate’ that Mr Malik could produce no receipts for payments he had made, nor any written rental agreement with his landlord, he had not broken the rules.

The rent was not preferential and was reasonable in the light of market conditions, Sir Philip concluded. His report gave the green light for Mr Malik to return to the ranks of the Government.

The following day, however, fresh allegations appeared in The Daily Telegraph that in addition to claiming the maximum second home allowance of around £23,000pa on his London property, the Dewsbury MP was also claiming £6,500 for maintaining an office in his constituency home.

Mr Malik already has a taxpayer-funded constituency office in Dewsbury.

Mr Lyon, who acts as Parliament’s anti-sleaze watchdog, said that he had decided to investigate Mr Malik after a complaint from the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics.

News of Mr Malik’s fresh political woes came as Ian Taylor, the Conservative MP for Esher and Walton, became the latest member to announce he was standing down at the next election as a result of the expense scandal.

Mr Taylor, 64, became embroiled in the expenses controversy when the Daily Telegraph revealed he had a second home in London even though his main home is within the capital’s commuter belt.

In his resignation letter, the MP defended his decision not to live in Esher and Walton. “It is clear … that many constituents have little concept of what an MP does or where his attention should be focused,” he wrote.

He said that he commuted most weeks, spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday in and around his constituency.

Mr Taylor was an opponent of the Iraq war and a pro-European who found himself at loggerheads with his own party when it hardened its stance on the EU.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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UK: More Than One Out of Ten Youths Not in Jobs or School

The proportion of young people in England not in education, employment or training has increased to more than one in 10, government figures show.

At the end of 2007, 9.7% of 16 to 18 year olds were considered to be such “Neets”, but by the end of 2008, this had risen to 10.3%.

The increase is being driven by reduced job opportunities for 18 year olds.

But the government says a record number of this age group — 1.61 million — were in education or training.

The statistics, released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, show that the proportion of so-called “Neets” has fallen for 16 and 17 year olds — who are increasingly likely to stay in education and training during the recession.

At the end of 2008, 92.7% of 16-year-olds and 83.5% of 17-year-olds were in full-time education or training.

However the overall Neets figure has been pushed up by a substantial increase in 18 year olds not in jobs, training or places in education.

There are now 16.6% of 18 year olds who are classified as Neets — up from 14.2% in the previous year. This age group also faces problems with a pressure on university places this autumn.

The drive to reduce the number of youngsters not in jobs or education is part of the government’s efforts to create a better-qualified and higher-skilled workforce.

But in the present economic climate, the Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said it was important to prevent the “economic and social scarring” caused by previous recessions — saying that people could not be left to “languish on the dole”.

He said that there had been “devastating” consequences for families affected by long-term unemployment and for those lacking in skills to get jobs.

Iain Wright, the minister for 14 to 19 reform and apprenticeships, said that he had memories of people of his own age in the early 1990s who had been “sitting on the dole” — and there needed to be a “different mindset” in this recession.

‘Desperate’

Children’s charity Barnardo’s said the situation for young people leaving school at 16 and wanting to work or train in the workplace was “desperate”.

Chief executive Martin Narey said the proportion of Neet young people had hovered around 9-10% of the age group for the past decade.

He added: “But beneath this, there are two clear trends: a steady rise in the number of young people staying on in full-time education, and the steady decline in employment and work-based learning opportunities for young people aged 16-18.

“We urgently need a more relevant education system — with more vocational options for young people who are not suited to narrow, academic learning — and more opportunity to learn in the workplace, to gain the skills and experience that employers demand.”

Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts, said: “This is more evidence that young people are bearing the brunt of the recession.

“But this problem has been getting worse for more than ten years, long before the recession began. Now that times are harder, the problems are becoming more acute.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: NightJack Blogger Richard Horton Gave Tips on Beating the Police

The policeman who failed to secure an injunction to prevent The Times revealing his identity had used his anonymous blog to offer advice on how to undermine police investigations as well as revealing confidential information about his cases.

Richard Horton, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, began the NightJack blog in February last year.

At one stage he attracted nearly 500,000 readers a week with his pithy observations of life on the front line of policing. He was awarded an Orwell Prize for political writing in April this year.

The award judges were not aware that he was revealing confidential details about cases, some involving sex offences against children, that could be traced back to genuine prosecutions.

The detective has now deleted the website and received a written warning for misconduct for the fact that he was writing a blog, the success of which has led him to receive numerous offers to publish a book. His superiors are aware of the allegations that he was also revealing confidential information.

Some of the best-read sections of the blog were anecdotes about cases on which Mr Horton has worked. The people and the locations in the cases were anonymised, and some details subtly changed, but could easily traced back to real-life prosecutions.

One entry described the author investigating the rape of “Melissa”, a 14-year-old girl who was plied with alcohol and then raped in a hotel room. Mr Horton wrote that the offender had an Asian name, had hepatitis, and assaulted the girl at a seaside hotel, while filming it on his mobile phone.

A month earlier Ajmal Mohammad received an indefinite sentence at Preston Crown Court for raping a drunk teenager in a Blackpool hotel room. The court heard that he was infected with hepatitis C, and had filmed the attack on his phone.

Writing on the blog, Mr Horton revealed information that could have influenced the case, such as his suspicions that a key witness had misled police about her knowledge of the sex attack.

Another entry described an investigation against “David” a “local politician . . . with a seat on the council” who was found to have child abuse pictures on his computer. The blog said that “David” received a non-custodial sentence after a guilty plea.

In 2003 Bill Chadwick, a Preston councillor, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and was fined £1,000. But on the blog Mr Horton also revealed confidential details of other serious allegations against Mr Chadwick, which the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue.

Other cases described on the blog can also be traced back to genuine prosecutions. In another entry entitled “A Survival Guide For Decent Folk”, Mr Horton offered advice to people who found themselves the subject of a police investigation.

His advice was to “complain about every officer… [and] show no respect to the legal system or anybody working in it”. Other observations included: “All you are trying to do by trying to explain is digging yourself further in. We call that a significant statement and we love it.”

When first confronted by The Times, Mr Horton refused to confirm or deny that he was the blog’s author, before trying to gain an injunction in the High Court preventing his name from being made public.

Lancashire Constabulary launched an investigation after being told that Mr Horton was the author.

A spokesman said: “The commentary in the blog is indeed the work of a serving Lancashire detective and clearly the views and opinions expressed are those of the author himself and not those of the wider Constabulary.

“We have conducted a full internal investigation and the officer accepts that parts of his public commentary have fallen short of the standards of professional behaviour we expect of our police officers.

“He has been spoken to regarding his professional behaviour and, in line with disciplinary procedures, has been issued with a written warning.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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UK: Ruling on Nightjack Author Richard Horton Kills Blogger Anonymity

Thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled today

In a landmark decision, Mr Justice Eady refused to grant an order to protect the anonymity of a police officer who is the author of a blog called NightJack.

The officer, Richard Horton, 45, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, had sought an injunction to stop The Times from revealing his name.

In April Mr Horton was awarded the Orwell Prize for political writing, but the judges were not aware that he was revealing confidential details about cases, some involving sex offences against children, that could be traced back to genuine prosecutions.

His blog, which gave a behind-the-scenes insight into frontline policing, included strong views on social and political issues, including matters of “public controversy,” the judge said.

The officer also criticised and ridiculed “a number of senior politicians” and advised members of the public under police investigation to “complain about every officer . . . show no respect to the legal system or anybody working in it.”

Mr Horton has now deleted his website and received a written warning from his force.

He has received several offers to publish a book after using the success of the blog to attract a literary agent.

Some of the blog’s best-read sections, which on occasion attracted nearly half a million readers a week, were anecdotes about the cases on which Mr Horton had worked.

The people and places were anonymised and some details changed but they could be traced back to the prosecutions.

In the first case dealing with the privacy of internet bloggers, the judge ruled that Mr Horton had no “reasonable expectation” to anonymity because “blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity”.

Coming down in favour of freedom of expression, the judge also said that even if the blogger could have claimed he had a right to anonymity, the judge would have ruled against him on public interest grounds.

The police officer, the judge said, had argued that he should not be exposed because it could put him at risk of disciplinary action for breaching regulations with his disclosures.

But Mr Justice Eady criticised that argument as “unattractive to say the least”.

He added: “I do not accept that it is part of the court’s function to protect police officers who are, or think they may be, acting in breach of police discipline regulations from coming to the attention of their superiors.”

The judge added that there was “much force in the argument that any wrongdoing by a public servant, save perhaps in trivial circumstances, is a matter which can legitimately be drawn to the attention of the public by journalists. There is a growing trend towards openness and transparency in such matters.”

He added: “It would seem to be quite legitimate for the public to be told who it was who was choosing to make, in some instances, quite serious criticisms of police activities and, if it be the case, that frequent infringements of police discipline regulations were taking place.”

The action arose after a Times journalist, Patrick Foster, worked out the identity of the NightJack blogger “by a process of deduction and detective work, mainly using information on the internet,” the judge said.

Hugh Tomlinson, QC, for the blogger, had argued that “thousands of regular bloggers who communicate nowadays via the internet under a cloak of anonymity would be horrified to think that the law would do nothing to protect their anonymity of someone carried out the necessary detective work and sought to unmask them”.

The judge said: “That may be true. I suspect that some would be very concerned and others less so.”

But “be that as it may”, he added, the blogger needed to show that he had a legally enforceable right to maintain anonymity in the absence of a genuine breach of confidence, by suppressing the fruits of detective work such as that carried out by Mr Foster.

Mr Tomlinson had argued that the blogger wished to remain anonymous and had taken steps to preserve his anonymity..

He said that The Times was aware of his wish; and that there was no justification for “unmasking” him, as he was entitled to keep his identity as the author of the blog private and confidential..

But Mr Justice Eady said that the mere fact that the blogger wanted to remain anonymous did not mean that he had a “reasonable expectation” of doing so; or that The Times was under an enforceable obligation to him to maintain that anonymity.

Antony White, QC, for The Times, argued that there was a public interest in non-compliance by a police officer with his obligations under the statutory code governing police behaviour; and also with general public law duty on police officers not to reveal information obtained in the course of a police investigation, other than for performing his public duties.

When first confronted by The Times, Mr Horton refused to confirm or deny that he was the blog’s author.

Lancashire Constabulary began an investigation after being told of his identity and issued him with a written warning.

A police spokesman said: “The commentary in the blog is indeed the work of a serving Lancashire detective and clearly the views and opinions expressed are those of the author himself and not those of the wider constabulary.

“We have conducted a full internal investigation and the officer accepts that parts of his public commentary have fallen short of the standards of professional behaviour we expect of our police officers.

“He has been spoken to regarding his professional behaviour and, in line with disciplinary procedures, has been issued with a written warning.”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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UK: School Bans Bananas Over Teacher Allergy

Children unable to include fruit in packed lunches since 2007

A primary school has banned bananas for two years because one of its staff members has a life threatening allergy to the fruit.

Children at Stoke Damerel Primary School, in Plymouth, have been unable to include the fruit in their packed lunches since 2007.

But after learning of the banana boycott, Vivien Pengelly, leader of Plymouth City Council, said she would ask officers to investigate.

— Hat tip: JD

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EU Council — Visa-Liberalisation Possible in 2009

(ANSAmed) — LUXEMBOURG, JUNE 15 — The EU Council on Foreign Relations, “is encouraging the European Commission to present” a legislative proposal, “as soon as possible, in order to create a liberalised visa system, ideally before the end of 2009.” The Council met today in Luxembourg, and the Western Balkan countries concerned are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, all of whom will have had to fulfil the EU Schengen criteria. Following a report by the Commission on the progress made in each country, the Council called on the 5 states involved to push ahead and carry out the reforms necessary, emphasising that “it is important that all countries concerned reach the objective of visa liberalisation on their own merits.” (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Some Balkan Countries May Get EU Visa-Free Travel Within Months

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — The citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro could be allowed visa-free travel to the European Union as early as the end of this year, EU foreign ministers said on Monday (15 June).

“The [EU foreign] ministers encouraged the European Commission to start dismantling the visa requirement for all countries that have met all benchmarks with a view of achieving a visa-free regime with them ideally by the end of this year,” Czech foreign minister Jan Kohout, whose country presides over the EU until the end of this month, said at a press conference after the ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg.

EU candidate Macedonia is said to be the most advanced and to have met all necessary conditions — including “document security, public order and security, external relations and fundamental rights” — for its citizens to be allowed to travel visa-free into the European Union.

Montenegro and Serbia have met the majority of the conditions and are expected to make further progress on the remaining ones by the end of the year.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the foreign ministers’ decision.

“Today’s council meeting brings some good news for the people of the western Balkans… The commission has for long been committed to visa-free travel for the peoples of the western Balkans. We know how important it is for them, especially for the younger generations, to be able to travel and study freely in the EU,” he said.

“That’s why the commission will press on with the aim to present a proposal for visa-free travel to the council [the member states] still before the summer break,” he added.

After the commission makes its proposals, the European Parliament is to be consulted and then EU member states are expected to give a final green light to visa liberalisation for the most advanced countries before the end of the year.

Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have made the least progress in this area and their citizens are not expected to get visa-free travel at this stage.

For its part, Kosovo which last year proclaimed its independence from Serbia, is not yet included in the visa liberalisation dialogue.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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EU Delays Changing Ties After Netanyahu Speech

Brussels, 15 June (AKI) — The European Union on Monday decided to delay upgrading ties with Israel, following a key speech by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlining conditions for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Although EU foreign ministers reacted positively to the speech Netanyahu delivered on Sunday, some said it was not enough to raise the level of talks.

“We must say quite clearly today there can only be talk of an upgrade when the peace process is on its way, and for that we need a few steps more,” said Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said it was “not sufficient”, while Finland’s foreign minister Alexander Stubb said Israel’s move was not enough to upgrade ties with the Jewish state.

Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini praised Netanyahu’s comments about peace with the Palestinians but criticised his comments in which he described Jerusalem as the “united capital of Israel”.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

“It is a positive step to want to negotiate with the Palestinians. However the preconditions are worrying in regard to Jerusalem, something that is subject to negotiations,” said Frattini, who was due to meet hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman in Luxembourg late Monday.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak echoed the European ministers’ concerns in a speech to army commandos saying that Netanyahu’s speech “scuttles the chances for peace,” state news agency MENA reported.

Mubarak said Netanyahu’s demand for Palestinians to recognise Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people as a precondition for the establishment of their state, “will not be answered.”

“You won’t find anyone to answer that call in Egypt, or in any other place,” Mubarak was quoted as telling the troops.

Since last June, the EU and Israel have been exploring ways to grant Israel better access to the vast European market and give it a role on a range of European advisory panels.

But strengthening political and security exchanges need the unanimous backing of all 27 EU governments.

In January, the EU decided to freeze moves to upgrade relations following the Gaza offensive that killed 1,330 Palestinians, injured 5,400 others and caused massive destruction in the coastal strip.

The Palestinian Authority opposes the EU plan to expand relations with Israel in the political, economic, scientific, security, health and other spheres.

It wants Israel to do more to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories and halt the spread of illegal Jewish settlements.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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EU Presidency Says Netanyahu in the Right Direction

(ANSAmed) — LUXEMBOURG, JUNE 15 — In the view of the EU presidency, the speech made yesterday by Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu “is a step in the right direction,” said Jan Kohut, Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic (which currently holds the EU presidency) while entering a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg. “There are certainly elements that must be analysed,” added Kohut, “but he has accepted a Palestinian state. The fact that the word ‘state’ was used is a small step in the right direction.” Also, EU High Representative for Common and Security Policy Javier Solana believes that Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu’s speech should be considered “an important step that will be useful” to encourage resuming peace negotiations. “It is the first time that Israel has mentioned a two-state solution,” said Solana upon his arrival in Luxembourg, underlining that this is a step forward. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Hamas Boasts, Then Denies Foiling Attempt on Carter’s Life

(IsraelNN.com) Israeli and Palestinian Authority media presented conflicting reports regarding an attempted assassination of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during his visit to Gaza Tuesday morning. Under threat or not, Carter claimed that Arabs in the

Hamas-controlled region were “literally starving”.

Carter arrived in Gaza early on Tuesday for meetings with leaders of the jihadist Hamas organization, which controls the Gazan half of the Palestinian Authority. Ahead of his trip, Carter said he would try to persuade Hamas to do what is necessary to lift the international community’s boycott of the Islamist regime.

The Israeli Maariv newspaper quoted an unnamed “Palestinian security source” as saying that Hamas militiamen neutralized two explosive devices placed along the route Carter’s motorcade was to travel in northern Gaza. The bombs were reportedly placed near the Erez Crossing after Carter had already passed through, indicating an intention to strike at the former U.S. president on his way out of Gaza. The newspaper claimed that Hamas sappers and other security forces responded to the scene and eliminated the threat.

Contradicting the Maariv report, however, a spokesman for the Hamas police force in Gaza said that his forces found no bombs along the route to Erez Crossing. Islam Shahwan confirmed that there was a brief suspicion of explosive devices placed along Carter’s travel route, but insisted that a sweep of the area turned up no security breaches.

Maariv quoted sources among Carter’s associates as saying that Hamas updated them about the explosives and offered guidance to the American delegation. The newspaper added that an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Gaza was responsible for the attempted assassination. Jihadist websites initially seemed to confirm the Ma’ariv story, including supposed “eyewitness” accounts of the discovery and neutralization of two bombs.

Treated Like Savages

Jimmy Carter claimed he had to hold back tears during his visit to Gaza when he saw the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel during its counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead, which ended in January 2009. Carter added that he was also disturbed by the rocket attacks on the Negev city of Sderot.

However, in an interview with Haaretz newspaper Carter was less even-handed. “To me, the most grievous circumstance is the maltreatment of the people in Gaza, who are literally starving and have no hope at this time,” he declared. The “most important” step Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must take, Carter said, was “alleviation of their plight.”

In Carter’s view, Israel is responsible for the suffering he allegedly witnessed in Gaza. “They’re being treated like savages,” Carter declared.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority’s Maan news agency, operated out of Bethlehem, reported that Israel was opening two Gaza access crossings on Tuesday. More than 130 truckloads of supplies, including tankers of cooking gas and industrial diesel, are slated to pass through to supply the Gazan agricultural and commercial sectors.

Carter Carrying Letter for Shalit

In addition to dialoguing with Hamas, the former president agreed to deliver a letter from the parents of Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit to his Hamas interlocutors. The jihadist Hamas regime has been holding IDF Corporal Shalit captive since June 25, 2006. Carter will meet with Noam Shalit, Gilad’s father, upon his return from Gaza.

A senior leader in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Zahar, reacted to the letter by saying that Hamas would “consider” passing along the Shalit family letter.

— Hat tip: CB

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Israel: ‘U.S. Told US Don’t Take Netanyahu Seriously’

Senior Palestinian official declares Obama’s promises are ‘what counts’

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Authority has received signs from the U..S. that it should not take seriously Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent major address, according to a top PA official speaking to WND.

Nimer Hamad, senior political adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also said the PA is not concerned about Netanyahu’s policies since Abbas relies on American support for key Palestinian demands.

During Netanyahu’s speech Sunday, the Israeli leader called for a demilitarized Palestinian state and said Jerusalem would always be united under Jewish sovereignty.

Hamad countered: “No matter what is the position of the Israeli government and no matter what are the statements of Netanyahu, what counts is what was promised to us by Obama, which is totally the opposite [of Netanyahu’s positions].”

“We received encouraging signs from the Americans that we should not take seriously into consideration Netanyahu’s speech,” Hamad said.

— Hat tip: JD

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Male Palestinian Singles? Not at This Beach

Dead Sea resort beach says will not allow entry to groups of single Palestinian men without families due to frequent complaints of harassment by women. Beach director defends decision: Last weekend several Palestinian youths snuck in and started masturbating in front of tourists

Men from the Palestinian Authority looking to enter the ‘New Kaliya’ beach on the Dead Sea are not allowed entry if they are alone. Ynet has learned that the beach directorate has decided to allow the men in only if they are with their families, citing repeated complaints of sexual harassment by female patrons.

Danny, a 35-year-old from Tel Aviv, visited the beach on Friday and said he was shocked by the policy being enacted at Kaliya. “I went with two friends and in line behind us were two Arabs. The girl at the register just wouldn’t let them in,” he recalls.

As the day progressed Danny said he realized the scene he had witnessed was not an isolated incident. “It kept repeating itself. At one point I asked the people at the register if they really weren’t letting Arabs in and they answered straight out that they were not. One of the workers told me that the men just aren’t let in alone, but families are. I asked why and she said that they bothered the female tourists… she said there’s nothing that can be done, it’s just the way it is. What, Israeli hooligans don’t bother girls — just Arabs?”

The Kaliya administration confirmed the policy, but stressed that entry is only denied to Palestinian Arabs who come to the beach in groups. Manager Itay Rahm told Ynet in response: “This is a very serious problem, not just here but for all the Dead Sea beaches. Based on our experience, we don’t let young Palestinian men in because of numerous harassment complaints.

“They’re not allowed to hit on girls in their villages so they come here to harass them. Just to make a point, the day that man talked about a couple of Palestinian youths managed to sneak in and then started masturbating in front of female tourists.”

He added that Israeli Arabs are able to enter the beach without any problems. “It’s important to stress that we’re talking about Palestinians here, not Israeli Arabs. And this isn’t about racism, we let entire families in because I know that when there are women around they won’t do anything.”

— Hat tip: The Religion of Peace

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Palestinian Refugees Reject Netanyahu Speech as Worthless

(by Mohammad Ben Hussein) (ANSAmed) — BAQAA CAMP, JUNE 15 — Residents of Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan poured cold water today over policy speech by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting no peace will be achieved without return of refugees and establishing a sustainable Palestinian state. Reacting to Netanyahu statement, in which he said Israel would allow a demilitarized Palestinian state in return for recognition that Israel is a Jewish state, refugees said they never expected much from the right wing Israeli leader. They said Israel will take concessions from the Arabs but will not give up anything. In the bustling Baqaa vegetable market, where tens of thousands flock for daily needs, Abu Imam, a street vendor, urged Arab regimes to refrain from responding to Netanyahu speech, which he said offers nothing. “Israel is a country that only knows language of violence,” said the 65 year old man, who arrived with his family in Jordan in the aftermath of 1948 war with Israel. Abu Imam echoed sentiments of tens of refugees in this squalid camp, where poverty and unemployment are rampant. In his much anticipated speech, Netanyahu also ruled out the possibility of allowing millions of Palestinian refugees to return, saying this problem should be solved outside Israel. But for the Palestinian refugees in Jordan, the right to return is sacred and vowed to fight until they go back to villages they were uprooted from. “We have been left here to rot. We will never accept to live in any other country than Palestine. Now we are forced to accept to live in Jordan, but this will not be forever. We want Palestine and no peace will be achieved without that,” said Ahmed Ali, a school teacher. Jordan is home to nearly 3.5 Palestinian refugees, the majority of them have been neutralized as Jordanians citizens, enjoying the freedom to travel and own business, but they are deprived of political rights that Jordanian counterparts enjoy. On the leadership level, the response to Netanyahu speech was “expected,” according to Mohammed Akel, an MP in the Jordanian parliament representing Baqaa camp. Akel, who is also a senior member of the Islamist movement, said peaceful solution with Israel does not work. “They occupied our lands 60 years ago and never gave us back anything. Each year we hear about a new initiative but we never see progress. The answer to Israel is resistance,” said Akel, calling on feuding Palestinian factions to form a unity government to face challenges. The Islamist movement in Jordan refuses to recognize peace treaties with Israel, including that between Amman and Tel Aviv in 1994. Palestinian refugees in Jordan are strongly attached to their homeland, despite the fact that the majority of them were born outside the Palestinian areas and never visited homes of their ancestors. The issue of refugees and future settlement has been one of the sticking points of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel on way to reach a comprehensive peace in the region. The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah has explicitly said it was ready to forfeit right of return to most refugees outside the Palestinian territories, but it remains unable to receive open support from host countries for this decision. With nearly 5 million Palestinians scattered in the region, the future of refugees look uncertain by the day. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Time for a New Ally?

By LEON DE WINTER

US President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech was a historic event in many aspects. First of all it was remarkable that a Western leader felt legitimized to talk about Islamic truths, as if he were a Muslim theologian. Secondly, he approached the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even-handedly, as if the Jewish right to Israel and the Arab resistance to it have the same moral weight.

“For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers — for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.”

Within this historic speech, Obama couldn’t find words to describe the attack by various Arab armies on Israel the day it was created. He couldn’t describe the terrorist attacks that followed the 1949 armistice. He omitted the growing anti-Semitism in the Arab media, the Arab schoolbooks, Arab radio and TV, in the preaching in the mosques. Twice Obama mentioned the anti-Semitic and anti-Christian Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas: “Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist.”

Obama didn’t mention the core message of Hamas: the worldwide destruction of the Jews. Ayatollah Khomeini, the instigator of the present Islamist revolution, defined world history, the course of human events, as follows: “From the beginning, the Islamic movement has been obstructed by the Jews. They were the first who developed anti-Islamic propaganda and conspiracies. And this is still the case.”

In other words, opposing Israel, the nation of the Jews, is the driving force of the Islamist revolution, both Sunni and Shi’ite. It is its core. It cannot exist if it would give up its ambition to erase Israel. The destruction of Israel is its ultimate goal, its fuel, its body, its nature, its direction and its destination. Only through the destruction of the cunning, conspiring, obstructing Jews the Islamist revolution can reach its goal: the resurrection of the caliphate.

OBAMA EXPLICITLY decided to ignore this threat, and decided to leave Israel in the cold, or better in the heat of a nuclear explosion. This is what he said: “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.” The president meant: Israel, a single nation, doesn’t have the right to deny Iran nuclear armament. Iran, an existential threat to Israel, cannot be stopped by Israel on its own — this should be matter of the international community, according to the president.

Through his Cairo address Obama made an end to America’s alliance with Israel that has lasted over 40 years. Israel’s strategic early allies were Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and especially France, which delivered its famous delta-winged Mirage jets that gave Israel its 1967 victory in the Six Day War. In that year, America, although with a public that was sympathetic to Israel, replaced the tanks Jordan lost. The French refused to deliver new Mirage jets and America hesitated for some time to sell F-4 Phantoms to Israel.

AMERICA WILL now act as even-handedly to Israel as the European Union. This approach hasn’t created any progress in the years since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Corrupt Palestinian leaders have transferred billions to their Swiss bank accounts and the international community wishes to look the other way. Gaza could have been a better place by now if Hamas had tried to peacefully build civil institutions. Hamas did not. Without any necessity it fired thousands of rockets at Israel. The problem is — it is Hamas’s core business to oppose the Jews.

The EU wishes to ignore all these events and clings to the idea of a “viable Palestinian state,” which is an oxymoron. The Palestinians have tribal communities and only fake having a modern civil society. No civil institutions have been built because they are not in the interest of the leading Palestinian families.

The famous Jewish lobby has not been able to prevent Obama’s change of direction. The truth is the lobby has always been a myth, and American Jewry, which is in majority an affluent, liberal, assimilated and only vaguely religious group, has been distancing itself more and more from Israel, which it considers right-wing, militaristic, chauvinistic, belligerent.

For liberal American Jews, Israel is a confusing phenomenon. They feel connected to Israel through the remembrance and legacy of the Holocaust, but they are highly politically correct and feel solidly at home on the campuses where generations of students have been brainwashed by the works written by the holy spirit of Arab studies, Edward Said. American Jewry was aware of the president’s spiritual mentor in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, a black racist and anti-Semite, and of his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian intellectual and anti-Zionist with whom he had a strong personal relation. The Jews preferred to side with him instead of worrying about his opinions about Israel.

And now, after the Cairo address, they will keep standing by him and distance themselves from an Israel that produces awful pictures of bombed buildings and mutilated bodies of women and children — American Jews, at cocktail parties in the Village or the Upper West Side, prefer Israel to act proportionately and to behave as decent, civilized, upper-class Jews, not as Middle Eastern warriors. Since the 1982 massacres in Sabra and Shatila, committed by Lebanese Maronites but attributed to Israel and Ariel Sharon, liberal American Jewry went on a long journey and arrived at a historic point: just like Obama, it gave up on Israel.

A SMALL NATION like Israel, a single and lonely modern democracy in a part of the world in which autocracies and tyrannies are the norm, cannot survive without a strategic partnership with a major international power that is forced, by the sheer size of its interests, to play the complex fields of the Middle East. It is too soon to create a lasting bond with India, a natural ally for Israel. India will emerge during this century as a major international power, both militarily as economically and scientifically, but it cannot give Israel yet the diplomatic and military backup it needs.

But there is another strategic player in the field who would welcome a partnership with Israel, especially with its cutting-edge electronic industries. Of Israel’s 5.7 million Jews, more than 1 million have Russian roots. Despite the old anti-Semitism in Russia, there has been a strong melancholic bond between the two populations. In Russia, Jews have excelled in sciences and the arts.

Because of its continuous counterbalancing act with America, Russia has been maintaining ties to Iran and Syria, but it needs to diversify and update its economy and reduce its dependence on oil and natural gas income. It could use scientific and commercial ingenuity, qualities Iran and Syria are not able to deliver — Israel is. And Israel could use Russia’s vast resources and the determination of its leader Vladimir Putin, a smart and ruthless leader who understands the cruel rules of the international power game.

Obama’s loyalties, and those of the majority of liberal American Jewry, don’t lie with Israel. So Israel needs to shop for another ally. In his offices in the Kremlin, Putin will receive its leaders with open arms, dark bread, marinated herring and some bottles of Stoli.

— Hat tip: CB

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Barry Rubin: Forty-Eight Hours of Reality

In the Middle East the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry because reality steps in.

President Barack Obama based his policy of engaging with Iran on the idea that while President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a wild man, Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei was a closet moderate, or at least a pragmatist.

Now all can see that Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are wedded, together at last. Khamenei is so set on Ahmadinejad’s character and policy that he risked the regime’s internal and external credibility and stability in order to reassure his reelection.

Pro-Ahmadinejad forces are now talking about this event as a “third revolution,” following on the 1979 Islamist takeover and then seizure of the U.S. embassy and the holding of all their as hostages. In other words, this is an even more radical rebirth of the movement, but this time with nuclear weapons.

Reality: 1, Obama policy: 0

Then comes the Palestinian reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech which accepts immediate negotiations and a Palestinian state at the end of the process, if an agreement can be made.

What did Obama say in Cairo? First, he said that the Palestinians, have “suffered in pursuit of a homeland” for more than 60 years. Second, he insisted that “the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable.”

As I pointed out at the time, the first statement was a misrepresentation of history, the second a false picture of the present.

Now if Obama was right, the Palestinians should be eager for a state. So if Netanyahu calls on them to recognize Israel as a Jewish state—what do they care if they are accepting to live alongside it permanently?—and have their own state. Yes, that state would be “demilitarized,” I prefer the word “unmilitarized,” but all that means is that they would have the same security forces that they do now. And in proportional terms, the Palestinian Authority (PA) already has more men in uniform compared to the overall population, than any state on the planet.

So here’s Obama’s solution: an independent Palestinian state, Muslim and Arab, according to the PA’s constitution for that country, next to a Jewish state.

But how does the PA’s leader—who is always referred to as “moderate” in the Western media and is more moderate than any other Palestinian leader (it’s all relative)—react?

— Hat tip: Barry Rubin

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Carter’s Shameless Tears

Mideast residents have shed many tears because of ex-president’s Iran policy

During his visit to the Gaza Strip Tuesday, Jimmy Carter stated that he had to “hold back his tears” in the face of the destruction suffered by Palestinian residents. It is indeed an irony of fate that his comments coincides with the post-election unrest in Iran, as brave civilians in Tehran and elsewhere are being shot on the streets while protesting the vote debacle. Is Carter crying for them too?

After all, the Iranian revolution that brought the Ayatollahs to power occurred on Carter’s watch. Moreover, the Islamic revolt in Tehran, attributed at least in part to the former president’s actions and misdeeds, epitomizes the grave implications that policies adopted by leaders of Carter’s ilk may bring to the region.

It was then-President Carter, who in the name of “human rights” and similarly noble notions in essence encouraged the revolution, while forbidding Iran’s Shah from forcefully dispersing protests against his regime. Carter conveniently ignored the fact that these rallies were being orchestrated by radical clerics who were not quite human rights champions themselves.

For the past 30 years, not only Iranians have been paying the price for Carter’s folly, but rather, residents of the region and indeed of the entire world. Some of the events that followed the Islamic revolution include the American embassy hostage-taking, the bloody Iran-Iraq war, and the emergence of the Iran-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon.

For the past decades, Iran has been the main terror-sponsor worldwide, ranging from the support it offers the likes of Hamas and Hizbullah to the assassination of dissidents in Europe. Tehran also played a key role in devastating attacks such as the bombings of Jewish and Israeli targets in Argentina in the 1990s.

At this time, under the leadership of a Holocaust-denying lunatic, Tehran is making steady progress towards acquiring nuclear weapons, while threatening to wipe another state off the map.

Endorsing extremist Muslim entity

Carter has indeed good reason to cry for Gaza residents, who are suffering under the tyranny of yet another radical Muslim regime. As he did 30 years ago, he ignores the fact that for all intents and purposes he is endorsing an extremist Muslim entity.

Again, the former president conveniently “forgets” that Hamas took power in Gaza through a violent coup that featured the cold-blooded execution of rivals. Once in power, Hamas used its newly acquired territory for the purpose of firing thousands of missiles at Israeli communities, with the declared aim of hurting civilians. Israel’s response and the destruction in Gaza are a direct result of Hamas’ actions, yet Carter is apparently busy looking elsewhere and shedding his shameless tears for the benefit of a ruthless terror organization.

While he has already shown indifference to Israeli casualties, the former president may be forgetting that Hamas is responsible for the killing of US citizens as well.

Mr. Carter, you have caused enough damage already while in office. Please, spare us your tears and go back to Georgia; residents of the Middle East have been shedding tears for many years now as result of your foolishness.

— Hat tip: CB

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Claims of Student Massacre in Tehran Spread

Two students hold up a blood-stained shirt at the gates of Tehran University

Tehran University looked as calm as any summer campus. So much for the latest rumours of a bloodbath. Another piece of Iranian fiction, served up on YouTube. Scarved female students were moving through the university’s great black iron gates. I asked my driver, Ali, to drop me off at the corner so I could prowl the college bookshops on Engelob Street, I was looking for a volume of modern Persian poetry for a friend. I did not at first hear the man at the cash desk, motioning out the door.

I peered out. The gates of the university were now shut. Behind them was a crowd of hundreds of young men and women, many wearing scarves over their mouths. I crossed the road. And the banners behind those forbidding gates told a frightening story. “Today is a day of mourning,” one of them read. “Dignified students are mourners today.” “Police, shame on you, shame on you.” “Tell my mother — she doesn’t have a son any more.”

I walked up to the gate. Young female students were crying. So were some of the young men. “We don’t want a government by coup,” another poster read. “Tehran University dormitory has been coloured with students’ blood,” another said.

It was difficult to hear over the cries and screaming. But a student began shouting at me in English through those grim black gates. “There was a massacre,” he bellowed. “The Basiji and the police came into our student dorms.. It all started after the violence last Saturday. The people in the street had been throwing stones, so many of us fled from the campus to our homes. We came back yesterday and it seemed quiet. Then all these armed men burst into the dorms, shooting.”

One girl spoke of five dead, another of seven. A student suggested the dead men were not students. Were they hiding on campus? It wasn’t clear. Within hours, photographs of blood appeared on the internet. Who were these mysterious victims — for dead men there surely were. The crowds began to run in panic and behind them I spotted the familiar glint of steel helmets. I’ve now learned how to deal with these gentlemen. You never, ever run. You saunter towards them and if a single one moves his baton towards you, you click your finger so that he thinks that you have a right to be there. Then you stand just behind them, nodding in a friendly way when they look at you.

One of the cops turned round with a cynical smile. “Welcome to our country,” he said. A couple of officers waved me away but I waved back my press card and they lost interest.

Did these cops know what had happened here? Did they have any idea how much these students hated them? A big plain-clothes man walked up and pointed his finger across the road. More of the same kind were waiting on the other pavement. “Papers?” one asked. He spent five minutes staring at my press card. Behind him I could see the cops had climbed into the campus.

Two had seized a young man, struggling between them, terrified, before the first baton came down on his head. I didn’t hear the crack as the stick hit the student.

My driver was petrified. He has no journalistic papers. He had to be protected. So we left. As usual, the SMS system was down, the mobile phones were cut, the internet took half an hour to send a single message. No calls to London or New York or Paris… Whenever the communications collapse here, you know that something is afoot. Could it be that the police know when they are doing something wrong?

Campus power: Student demonstrations hold key

By Adrian Hamilton

*A co-ordinated series of demonstrations by students in all the major cities of Iran throughout 1978 were instrumental in bringing down the Shah in early 1979.

It is difficult to know whether they will be able to keep up their resistance this time, but their position could prove pivotal. Iran is a young country with half its population under 25. It is also unique in its proportion of women in higher education, at 60 per cent.

For the last four years, it has been Iran’s campuses that have raised the standard of rebellion, demanding freedom of expression and relief from conservative rules on dress and behaviour, only to be put down with increasing severity and considerable bloodshed. Demonstrations were held in 20 centres last summer, while Tehran students held a series of protests directly attacking President Ahmadinejad as a “tyrant” last autumn in which there were several deaths.

The protests have already started again in Tehran’s huge campus, but the authorities will be especially concerned if this starts spreading — as it seemed to be doing last summer — at which time Isfahan and Ahwaz were particular hotspots.

If rumours of student deaths and violent suppression start spreading, an uprising could be difficult to control.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Defence: US, British Pilots Train Over Turkey

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 15 — Dozens of U.S., British and Turkish pilots are engaged in mock aerial battles over central Turkey indicating deepening cooperation between the allies, as daily Today’s Zaman reports. The military says pilots from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are also participating in the Anatolian Eagle exercises, near the central Turkish city of Konya on Monday. A total of 83 jets, most from Turkey, are engaging in live bombing and strafing in a realistic training environment with simulated surface-to-air missiles confronting aggressors. The exercises are similar to the Red Flag training at the Nellis Air Force Base in the U.S. state of Nevada. The aerial battles are recorded on tape so pilots can study errors that could have killed them in real combat. The drill will continue through Friday. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iran ‘Ready to Recount Disputed Votes’

Iran’s top legislative body ruled out annulling the disputed presidential poll but said it was prepared for a partial recount.

In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the protest movement, the 12-man Guardian Council said it was ready to re-tally votes in the poll in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner — a result that has prompted the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution

But the powerful Council rejected reformist calls to annul Friday’s election that set off fast-moving political turmoil, riveting attention on the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter which is locked in a nuclear dispute with the West.

Iranians outraged by Mirhossein Mousavi’s defeat in what they viewed as a stolen election plan another rally on Tuesday, even though seven people were killed on Monday on the fringes of a huge march through the streets of Tehran.

Mousavi, however, urged his supporters not to attend the rally “to protect lives”, saying it was cancelled. Ahmadinejad’s supporters called for a counter-rally at the same Tehran square, possibly setting the scene for more confrontation.

Further protests, especially if they are maintained on the same scale, would be a direct challenge to the authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah after months of demonstrations.

Iranian state television said today the “main agents” in post-election unrest had been arrested with explosives and guns. It gave no further details in a breaking news headline.

The United States and its European allies have been trying to persuade Iran to halt nuclear work that could be used to make an atomic bomb. Iran says it wants nuclear energy only to generate electricity.

US President Barack Obama, who has sought to reach out to Iran asking its leadership to “unclench its fist”, said he was deeply troubled by the post-election violence and that protesters who had taken to the streets had inspired the world.

A spokesman for the Guardian Council said only that it was “ready to recount the disputed ballot boxes claimed by some candidates, in the presence of their representatives”.

“It is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after the recount,” spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

“Based on the law, the demand of those candidates for the cancellation of the vote, this cannot be considered,” Kadkhodai told state television.

Mousavi had asked the Guardian Council to annul the vote, but has said he was not optimistic about its verdict.

Despite the protests and upheaval, Ahmadinejad was in Russia for SCO talks today on his first foreign trip since official results showed he secured a second term.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which includes Russia and China, congratulated Ahmadinejad on his win.

Iran’s English-language Press TV said seven people were killed and several wounded at the end of Monday’s rally — a mainly peaceful gathering attended by many tens of thousands — when “thugs” tried to attack a military post in central Tehran.

It gave no details of how the seven deaths occurred.

An Iranian photographer at the scene had said Islamic militiamen opened fire when people in the crowd attacked a post of the Basij religious militia. He said one person was killed and many wounded in the shooting.

The Basij militia is a volunteer paramilitary force fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on all matters of state and who replaced revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini when he died 20 years ago.

Tehran has already seen three days of the biggest and most violent anti-government protests in three decades and Mousavi supporters have pledged to keep up the pressure.

“Tomorrow at 5pm (1230 GMT) at Vali-ye Asr Square,” some of the crowd chanted at Monday’s march, referring to a major road junction in the sprawling city of 12 million.

“Mousavi … urged his supporters not to attend today’s rally to protect their lives,” his spokesman said today. “The moderates’ rally has been cancelled.”

Ahmadinejad supporters planned a rally at the same square just an hour earlier, the semi-official Fars News said.

Leading Iranian reformist Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president who backed pro-reform candidate Mehdi Karoubi in the election, was arrested early today, his office said.

There have been widespread arrests across the country since the election protests broke out. The ISNA news agency said today around 100 people were arrested in unrest near a university in the southern city of Shiraz.

Demonstrators filled a broad avenue in central Tehran for several kilometres on Monday, chanting “We fight, we die, we will not accept this vote rigging”, in support of Mousavi.

“Tanks and guns have no use any longer,” chanted the protesters in a deliberate echo of slogans used leading up to the 1979 revolution.

Members of Iran’s security forces have at times fired into the air during the unrest and used batons to beat protesters who have pelted police with stones.

Gunfire was heard in three districts of wealthy northern Tehran late on Monday and residents said there had been peaceful pro-Mousavi demonstrations in the cities of Rasht, Orumiyeh, Zahedan, and Tabriz on Monday.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Raid University in Isfahan as Protests Spread

My post yesterday detailed raids conducted by Iranian revolutionary guards over the weekend against Tehran University.

Further reports indicate that a number of students may have even been killed in that raid, as detailed in today’s Independent by Robert Fisk who is on the streets of Tehran as I write this now.

A source of mine in Isfahan has forwarded me details of another raid that took place at the city’s main University which paints a wider picture of sustained attacks by Iran’s security forces against students.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ATTACKED YOUTUBE VIDEO

Students are saying two people were killed in this raid, however, I stress that figure is unconfirmed. What this video does clearly show is that a number of students were clearly beaten by the basij.

The Iranian government has made it all but impossible for foreign journalists to get outsude of Tehran but it is clear that protests have been taking place in a number of other cities.

The image on the left shows students at Zahedan University protesting against the recent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second term in office.

Iran’s Guardian Council has agreed to hold a recount of the disputed vote — it will be intersting to see whether such a move will be able to head off further protests.

Although dissident groups — particularly those based abroad — are keen to portray these protests as some sort of Iranian Revolution Mark II, most of the Mousavi supporters I’ve spoken to over the past couple of days are staunch supporters of Iran’s Islamic Republic.

What they desperately want is effective governmental reform that keeps Iran as an Islamic country but loosens up its dogmatic social conservatism and begins to provide jobs for the millions of young, unemployed youths in a country where 60% of the population is under the age of 25.

Iran’s leaders may decide to brutally surpess this revolt as it has done in the past but whatever happens these sort of protests — such as this one in Mazandran — will become increasingly common unless the grievances of pro-reform Iranians is addressed.

The sign held by the protestor at the front of this image says “Death to the Dictator”. Usually those sort of signs are used in anti-Western marches. Now it is being used by Iranians against their own government.

No-one wants any more bloodshed but Iran’s people have faced the guns of both the despotic shah and its mullahs before. They are incredibly brave people and will no doubt risk life and limb once more.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Iran: Lebanon, Hezbollah Congratulates Iran on Epic Elections

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JUNE 15 — Lebanese pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah congratulated Iran today on the “epic” elections that have awarded Mahmud Ahmadinejad another 4-year presidential term. In an open letter addressed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah wrote: “I would like to congratulate you on this magnificent epic event that the distinguished people of Iran have carried out, renewing their faith in this blessed regime and in the values and principles of the Islamic revolution”. “This magnificent, epic event,” added Nasrallah, “has given joy to all of the oppressed and fighters (mujaheddin), restoring hope in the strength, determination, and solidity of this dear Republic, which provides strong support to our people defending their rights against aggressors and usurpers”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iran: Italian Team to Help Restore Cyrus the Great’s Tomb

Rome, 27 May (AKI) — A team of Italian archaelogists will help restore the tomb of the ancient Persian Empire’s founder Cyrus the Great under an agreement recently signed in the country’s capital Tehran between Italy’s culture ministry and Iran’s cultural heritage body.

“I am most satisfied by this agreement. A team of highly competent Italian restorers armed with with highly sophisticated equipment will restore Cyrus the Great’s tomb to its former spendour,” said Italy’s culture minister Sandro Bondi.

“Once again, Italy’s excellence in restoration work will contribute to preserving an extraordinary ancient monument which is an asset that belongs to humanity,” Bondi added.

Under the agreement, signed on Monday, a team of Italian architects, geologists, microbiologists and restorers will work alongside Iranian counterparts in southwest Iran over the next three years, Italian archaeologist and project leader Giuseppe Proietti told Adnkronos International (AKI).

“They will study the condition of the tomb and its micro-climate, scan it and produce the documentation for the project to restore it,” Proietti said.

A team of Italian technicians has for the past year been restoring a tower on the ancient Iranian citadel of Bam’s walls, Proietti noted. Located in southern Iran, Bam is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

The tomb of Cyrus the Great is located in the ancient city of Pasargadae, the first capital of the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC.

It is also close to the ancient palace complex of Persepolis, founded by Darius I in 518 BC. Both cities are UNESCO world heritage sites.

“Cyrus the Great was a giant figure in ancient Persian history. While there are important Islamic sites, his tomb symbolises Iran’s identity and its national spirit,” said Proietti.

The famous ancient Greek warrior Alexander the Great visited Cyrus the Great’s tomb in the 4th century BC as a sign of respect.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Iran: Not Quite a Surprise

The presidential election in Iran is over, and yet, not over. To the utter dismay and disappointment of western governments, the western media, and his political adversaries in Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, 62, has been re-elected.

He got 62.6 per cent and his nearest rival, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, 68, got 33.8 per cent, as per official announcement by the ministry of the interior. Mousavi has not yet accepted defeat and sent the customary congratulations to Ahmedinejad. Instead, he requested the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini to cancel the election and have a re-poll. The Ayatollah has rejected the idea of a re-poll and advised Mousavi and his agitating supporters to put an end to their “provocative behaviour”. The protests might continue for some more time, but there is no reason as of now to expect a re-poll. There have been allegations of rigging. In fact, Persian language media outside Iran has carried two days after the election the text of a letter from Mousavi to the supreme leader, written the day before the election, urging strong action to prevent rigging by the supporters of Ahmedinejad. It would appear that if Mousavi had won, the letter might not have been publicised, assuming it ever was written. It is possible that there was rigging, but it is doubtful whether rigging alone can account for the 10 million difference in votes between the winning and the losing candidate. At the last election in 2004 too the Western media had predicted the victory of Rasfanjani who lost out to Ahmedinejad. The BBC has suggested that the ongoing protest is directed not only against Ahmedinejad, but also the entire establishment presided over by the supreme leader. The protest shows the anger and frustration of the youth, especially the 8 million under-30s born after the 1979 revolution. Perhaps such an assessment is rather far-fetched and misses out the point that a good many of the protesters are from the rich northern part of the capital. The portrayal of Mousavi as a “reformer” in the western media is to be taken with a pinch of salt. As prime minister (1980-1988) Mousavi did not show much zeal for reforms. He carried out a secret order from Khomeini, the supreme leader, and thousands, ranging between 30,000 and 80,000 were executed in the summer of 1988. The victims were members of Peoples’ Mujahedin of Iran and of the Tudeh Party of Iran (Communists). It is rather ironic to see Mousavi projected as a champion of women’s rights when earlier he apparently went along with the authorities’ persecution of leftist women on whom they applied to start praying according to the tenets of Islam. There are accounts of the time which talk about how women were considered not “responsible for their actions” and hence should be punished less severely than men but punished nonetheless. There were also allegations that several leftist women were punished drastically — lashes, if they did not pray and some, who were on hunger strikes in protest, even died as a result. Now that he has been re-elected, one might expect Ahmedinejad to reform himself, to put it mildly. There is no need to deny that the Holocaust occurred. In any case, it is utterly indefensible to do that. As regards the nuclear question, while Iran has the right to enrich uranium to the industrial grade, and Ahmedinejad is right in asserting that right, a less confrontational style vis-a-vis the West is advisable in Iran’s own interest. Washington has reacted in ambivalent manner. Vice-president Joe Biden has an “awful lot of doubt” about the way the election was conducted. But, so far there is no clear indication of any plan to reject the result. President Obama knows or should know that without Iran’s support or benevolent neutrality his plans for withdrawal of troops from Iraq and stabilisation in Afghanistan will not work out. He should also know that the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear-weapon capability is to concede to Iran’s legitimate right to enrich uranium to the industrial grade and to flood Iran with safeguards inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The CIA had concluded in 2007 that Iran had stopped pursuing any bomb-making project. If Obama wants reconciliation with Iran he has to reject Israel’s advice and make some practical gestures by lifting the embargo on export of civilian aircraft parts to Iran, or, better still, defreeze Iran’s money in US banks. For India, it is a good time to review its policy towards Iran. The vote against Iran at the IAEA was unnecessary and an abstention, if suitably explained, might have taken care of US sensibilities. There is no good reason for not to go ahead with the much delayed Iran-Pakistan-India Gas pipe line. Those who argue against it based on political instability in Pakistan are rather confused. Mani Shankar Aiyer as oil minister had devised the wise formula that India pays only for the delivered gas.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Netanyahu: Words Are Against Peace, Syrian Press

(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, JUNE 15 — The words of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, are “against the peace efforts” and “add nothing new”, according to editorials in Syria’s state-run newspapers today, reacting to yesterday’s speech by Netanyahu. “If Netanyahu’s response is Israel’s answer to the latest American discussions, the USA and the whole world is further away from peace today”, writes Assaad Abbud, leader-writer for al Thawra. “The long-awaited speech (by Netanyahu) says nothing new at all, not even slightly” continues Abbud, who says that the Israeli premier “spoke about the Palestinians as a humanitarian problem to be found in the home of the Zionist terrorist body. After this speech, the USA could choose to take a step back and abandon the region to its tensions, or it could assume its responsibility and say out loud that peace is not a choice which is a product of the imagination, but a practical necessity for stability”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Outlasting the Ayatollahs

The Obama policy of extending an open hand to Iran is working and ought not be abandoned because of the grim events in Tehran.

For the Iranian theocracy has just administered a body blow to its legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people and the world.

Before Saturday, the regime could credibly posture as defender of the nation, defiant in the face of the threats from Israel, faithful to the cause of the Palestinians, standing firm for Iran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful nuclear power.

Today, the regime, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is under a cloud of suspicion that they are but another gang of corrupt politicians who brazenly stole a presidential election to keep themselves and their clerical cronies in power.

What should we do now? Wait for the dust to settle.

No U.S. denunciation of what took place in Iran is as credible as the reports and pictures coming out of Iran. Those reports, those pictures are stripping the mullahs of the only asset they seemed to possess—that, even if fanatics, they were principled, honest men.

Like Hamas, it was said of them that at least they were not corrupt, that at least they did not cheat the people.

No more. Today, in the streets of Tehran and other cities, they call to mind “Comrade Bob” Mugabe in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will never recapture that revolutionary purity he once seemed to possess as the man of the people who was elected president in the upset of 2005. Today, he appears, as the New York Times puts it, “as the shrewd and ruthless front man for a clerical military and political elite that is more unified and emboldened than at any time since the 1979 revolution.”

There are other reasons Obama should not heed the war hawks howling for confrontation now.

When your adversary is making a fool of himself, get out of the way. That is a rule of politics Lyndon Johnson once put into the most pungent of terms. U..S. fulminations will change nothing in Tehran. But they would enable the regime to divert attention to U.S. meddling in Iran’s affairs and portray the candidate robbed in this election, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, as a poodle of the Americans.

When Nikita Khrushchev bathed the Hungarian revolution in blood, Ike did not break relations. Khrushchev was at Camp David three years later. When Deng Xiaoping and Co. ordered the tanks into Tiananmen Square, George Bush I did not break relations. When Moscow ordered Warsaw to crush Solidarity, Ronald Reagan did not let that act of repression deter him from seeking direct talks to reduce nuclear weapons.

Again, let us wait for the dust to settle.

By now, even Ahmadinejad and Ali Khamenei must recognize that the Iranian revolution is losing the Iranian people. This is the third of four straight presidential elections where the turnout has been huge and the candidate who promised reconciliation with the West and an easing of social strictures won a landslide among the student young. Those are the future leaders of Iran.

Which way the regime will now go is difficult to predict.

After Tienanmen Square, the Chinese rulers who ordered in the tanks sought to reconnect with the disillusioned young by opening up to the West and building a neo-capitalist economy.

Iran, in economic straits with U.S. sanctions biting, its oil and gas reserves dwindling, could try the same route. Seize the opposition’s best issues by seeking accommodation with America.

More likely, the regime, backed by the hard-line military, will try to reconnect with the masses and regain its reputation as defender of Islam and the nation, by defying the Americans, denouncing Israel and pressing forward with Iran’s nuclear program.

The dilemma for America is that the theocracy defines itself and grounds its claim to leadership through its unyielding resistance to the Great Satan—the United States—and to Israel.

Nevertheless, Obama, with his outstretched hand, his message to Iran on its national day, his admission that the United States had a hand in the 1953 coup in Tehran, his assurances that we recognize Iran’s right to nuclear power, succeeded. He stripped the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad of their clinching argument—that America is out to destroy Iran and they are indispensable to Iran’s defense.

With the mask of patriotism and the legacy of true revolution lost through this election fraud, Iran’s regime stands exposed as just another dictatorship covering up a refusal to yield power and privilege with a pack of lies about protecting the nation.

Saturday’s election not only revealed the character of the Iranian regime. It also revealed that time is on our side. If the people of Iran can defy this regime, it is no threat to us.

As with the other revolutionary and totalitarian regimes, from the Soviet Union of Lenin and Stalin, to the People’s Republic of Mao, to the revolutionary Cuba of Fidel, America outlasts them all.

And the ayatollahs, too.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Qatar: Doha, Christians Celebrate Consecration of Marthoma Church

The ceremony presided over by Metropolitan Joseph Mar Thoma. He thanks Qatar’s politicians for having “concede space” and invites the faithful to remember “all those who made the buildings construction possible”. May saw the inauguration of the Syro-Malabar Church of St Thomas.

Doha (AsiaNews/Agencies) —The Christian community of Qatar is celebrating the opening of a new Church. The ceremony of consecration took place June 11th last and was presided over by Metropolitan Joseph Mar Thoma, leader of the Marthoma church. Vice Metropolitan Zacharias Mar Theophilos, five pastors and more than one thousand faithful also took part in the ceremony.

The place of worship is the latest addition to the Inter-Denominational Church Complex, (Idcc) in Mesaimeer, in the southern suburbs of Doha. Marthoma Church belongs to a Christian Protestant denomination, based in Kerala, India, and in communion with the Anglican and Independent Syro-Malabar Churches. 2500 faithful attended the ceremony.

Thanking the Qatari authorities for having “concede the space” for the place of worship, metropolitan Joseph Mar Thoma noted that the Arab emirate is the “is the fifth country in the Gulf to have this community’s church, after Kuwait, Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman and the UAE”. He also invited the faithful to “to remember the contributions and sacrifices of those who worked hard to make the worship place a reality”.

On May 22 a Syro-Malabar Church was consecrated in Doha. The inauguration of St Thomas’ Church was attended by Card. Varkey Vithayathil and Msgr. Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of Arabia, who is based in Abu Dhabi, capital of ten United Arab Emirates and who has jurisdiction over all resident Catholics in the Arabian peninsula.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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The Peanut Farmer and the Dictators

By: Farid Ghadry, Reform Party of Syria

From Damascus, President Jimmy Carter announced yesterday that the US could lift sanctions against the Assad regime and re-instates the US Ambassador to Damascus thus rolling back the clock on human rights in Syria. In doing so, Carter is unraveling another era under Assad that we, old enough to remember, saw it in 1979 in Iran.

In 1979, Carter, as president of the United States, helped usher an Iranian regime that to this day still haunts the Middle East. He presided over and contributed to an Iranian revolution that facilitated a power grab by a mysterious Iranian figure in exile named Ayatollah Khomeini. That revolution gave rise to religious extremism in Iran to collide with religious extremism in Saudi Arabia; the Middle East, since that era under Carter, has never been the same as we see clashes of extremism between Sunnis and Shiia with Arab moderates, minorities, and Israel paying the dearest price. It is easy to blame Iraq for today’s violent Middle East when the blame squarely falls on Carter’s shoulders and the seeds he planted some 30 years ago…

— Hat tip: EMET

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Turkey: Committee Begins Study on Early Marriages

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — A parliamentary committee initiates a study on early marriages in Turkey. “Thirty percent of marriages take place in the age group of 12-19s” says the head of the committee, who claims this is a reality in Turkey. The study is a first despite numerous research on women. A parliamentary commission is planning to conduct research on early marriages in Turkey. The committee will prepare a report describing the problem and offering solutions. Recalling that 30% of marriages in Turkey are in the 12- to 19-year-old age group, Oznur Calik, president of the committee, told the Anatolia news agency that marriages at an early age is a reality in Turkey and that there is a general consensus in society on this issue. “In order to ensure the well being of individuals and society, we need to proceed without provoking this consensus and avoid creating unease,” Calik said. There is a need to understand why marriages are taking place at such early ages and the moral and material reasons behind them, said Calik. “We need to see the serious complications that come out of these marriages, physical problems that lead to difficulties later in life.”According to Calik, one of the arguments against early marriages is health problems, both physical and psychological. Another serious consequence of early marriage is the high death toll among those who give birth at an early age, according to Calik. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Turkey Probes ‘New Anti-PM Plot’

Turkey’s prime minister has had a special meeting with the country’s military chief to discuss an alleged plot to discredit the ruling AK Party.

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged civilian and military investigators to find out who was behind the alleged plan. It was reported by the Taraf daily on Friday.

According to Taraf, officers plotted to “break popular support” for the AKP, which has its roots in Islam.

A separate probe into an alleged anti-AKP plot has led to dozens of arrests.

Gen Ilker Basbug did not comment on his talks with Mr Erdogan on Tuesday. But earlier he said the military was investigating whether the reported anti-AKP plan was authentic.

Along with the AKP, it also allegedly targeted a Muslim brotherhood led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet says a senior naval officer, Dursun Cicek, is accused of having drawn up the anti-AKP document in April.

The plan reportedly set out ways to combat fundamentalist Islam and curb religious movements.

The military is seen as a bastion of Turkish secularism and there are long-running tensions between officers and members of the ruling AKP.

In the so-called Ergenekon investigation, several retired generals have been arrested, along with politicians, journalists and academics. They are suspected of belonging to an ultra-nationalist network that sought to trigger a military coup against Mr Erdogan’s government.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Turkish and Greek Dogfights Cause of Concern in Aegean

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JUNE 15 — Turkish and Greek fighter jets have been involved in a record number of dogfights in the first six months of the year as they have encountered each other more than 180 times, daily Today’s Zaman reported quoting information from the Turkish General Staff. The recent encounters between Turkish and Greek jets — Zaman writes — recalls the collision of the two NATO members’ jets in 2006 in which a Greek pilot died when his F-16 collided with a Turkish jet in an area of disputed airspace where mock dogfights take place. The Turkish pilot was able to eject and was rescued by a passing freighter. Turkey and Greece, which have brandished the threat of war three times over territorial and airspace disputes in the Aegean since 1974, blamed each other for the collision. Greece asserts that its airspace extends 10 miles out to sea, but Turkey recognizes only six miles, the same distance as territorial waters. Athens often scrambles fighter jets to intercept Turkish aircraft that it says are invading its airspace. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Western Misconceptions Meet Iranian Reality

From Stratfor

In 1979, when we were still young and starry-eyed, a revolution took place in Iran. When I asked experts what would happen, they divided into two camps.

The first group of Iran experts argued that the Shah of Iran would certainly survive, that the unrest was simply a cyclical event readily manageable by his security, and that the Iranian people were united behind the Iranian monarch’s modernization program. These experts developed this view by talking to the same Iranian officials and businessmen they had been talking to for years — Iranians who had grown wealthy and powerful under the shah and who spoke English, since Iran experts frequently didn’t speak Farsi all that well.

The second group of Iran experts regarded the shah as a repressive brute, and saw the revolution as aimed at liberalizing the country. Their sources were the professionals and academics who supported the uprising — Iranians who knew what former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini believed, but didn’t think he had much popular support. They thought the revolution would result in an increase in human rights and liberty. The experts in this group spoke even less Farsi than the those in the first group.

Misreading Sentiment in Iran

Limited to information on Iran from English-speaking opponents of the regime, both groups of Iran experts got a very misleading vision of where the revolution was heading — because the Iranian revolution was not brought about by the people who spoke English. It was made by merchants in city bazaars, by rural peasants, by the clergy — people Americans didn’t speak to because they couldn’t. This demographic was unsure of the virtues of modernization and not at all clear on the virtues of liberalism. From the time they were born, its members knew the virtue of Islam, and that the Iranian state must be an Islamic state.

Americans and Europeans have been misreading Iran for 30 years. Even after the shah fell, the myth has survived that a mass movement of people exists demanding liberalization — a movement that if encouraged by the West eventually would form a majority and rule the country. We call this outlook “iPod liberalism,” the idea that anyone who listens to rock ‘n’ roll on an iPod, writes blogs and knows what it means to Twitter must be an enthusiastic supporter of Western liberalism. Even more significantly, this outlook fails to recognize that iPod owners represent a small minority in Iran — a country that is poor, pious and content on the whole with the revolution forged 30 years ago.

There are undoubtedly people who want to liberalize the Iranian regime. They are to be found among the professional classes in Tehran, as well as among students. Many speak English, making them accessible to the touring journalists, diplomats and intelligence people who pass through. They are the ones who can speak to Westerners, and they are the ones willing to speak to Westerners. And these people give Westerners a wildly distorted view of Iran. They can create the impression that a fantastic liberalization is at hand — but not when you realize that iPod-owning Anglophones are not exactly the majority in Iran.

Last Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected with about two-thirds of the vote. Supporters of his opponent, both inside and outside Iran, were stunned. A poll revealed that former Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi was beating Ahmadinejad. It is, of course, interesting to meditate on how you could conduct a poll in a country where phones are not universal, and making a call once you have found a phone can be a trial. A poll therefore would probably reach people who had phones and lived in Tehran and other urban areas. Among those, Mousavi probably did win. But outside Tehran, and beyond persons easy to poll, the numbers turned out quite different.

Some still charge that Ahmadinejad cheated. That is certainly a possibility, but it is difficult to see how he could have stolen the election by such a large margin. Doing so would have required the involvement of an incredible number of people, and would have risked creating numbers that quite plainly did not jibe with sentiment in each precinct. Widespread fraud would mean that Ahmadinejad manufactured numbers in Tehran without any regard for the vote. But he has many powerful enemies who would quickly have spotted this and would have called him on it. Mousavi still insists he was robbed, and we must remain open to the possibility that he was, although it is hard to see the mechanics of this.

Ahmadinejad’s Popularity

It also misses a crucial point: Ahmadinejad enjoys widespread popularity. He doesn’t speak to the issues that matter to the urban professionals, namely, the economy and liberalization. But Ahmadinejad speaks to three fundamental issues that accord with the rest of the country.

First, Ahmadinejad speaks of piety. Among vast swathes of Iranian society, the willingness to speak unaffectedly about religion is crucial. Though it may be difficult for Americans and Europeans to believe, there are people in the world to whom economic progress is not of the essence; people who want to maintain their communities as they are and live the way their grandparents lived. These are people who see modernization — whether from the shah or Mousavi — as unattractive. They forgive Ahmadinejad his economic failures.

Second, Ahmadinejad speaks of corruption. There is a sense in the countryside that the ayatollahs — who enjoy enormous wealth and power, and often have lifestyles that reflect this — have corrupted the Islamic Revolution. Ahmadinejad is disliked by many of the religious elite precisely because he has systematically raised the corruption issue, which resonates in the countryside.

Third, Ahmadinejad is a spokesman for Iranian national security, a tremendously popular stance. It must always be remembered that Iran fought a war with Iraq in the 1980s that lasted eight years, cost untold lives and suffering, and effectively ended in its defeat. Iranians, particularly the poor, experienced this war on an intimate level. They fought in the war, and lost husbands and sons in it. As in other countries, memories of a lost war don’t necessarily delegitimize the regime. Rather, they can generate hopes for a resurgent Iran, thus validating the sacrifices made in that war — something Ahmadinejad taps into. By arguing that Iran should not back down but become a major power, he speaks to the veterans and their families, who want something positive to emerge from all their sacrifices in the war.

Perhaps the greatest factor in Ahmadinejad’s favor is that Mousavi spoke for the better districts of Tehran — something akin to running a U.S. presidential election as a spokesman for Georgetown and the Upper East Side. Such a base will get you hammered, and Mousavi got hammered. Fraud or not, Ahmadinejad won and he won significantly. That he won is not the mystery; the mystery is why others thought he wouldn’t win.

For a time on Friday, it seemed that Mousavi might be able to call for an uprising in Tehran. But the moment passed when Ahmadinejad’s security forces on motorcycles intervened. And that leaves the West with its worst-case scenario: a democratically elected anti-liberal.

Western democracies assume that publics will elect liberals who will protect their rights. In reality, it’s a more complicated world. Hitler is the classic example of someone who came to power constitutionally, and then proceeded to gut the constitution. Similarly, Ahmadinejad’s victory is a triumph of both democracy and repression…

— Hat tip: GH

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Officials: GM Executive to Head Russia’s Gaz

MOSCOW — A senior General Motors Corp. executive who abruptly stepped down from the U.S. automaker last week has agreed to head the board of Russian automobile company GAZ, Russian officials said Monday.

Bo Andersson, group vice president of global purchasing, was responsible for maintaining the flow of parts to GM plants through the company’s financial difficulties.

The struggling U.S. automaker gave no reasons for Andersson’s departure, which was announced Friday.

On Monday, GM named former employee Bob Socia, currently executive vice president of Shanghai General Motors, to replace Andersson effective July 1. Socia, 55, began work at GM in 1975 at the Cadillac Division in Detroit. Before his current assignment, he was president and managing director of GM South Africa from 2004 to 2007.

GAZ announced Monday that Andersson had agreed to head the company’s board of directors. A spokeswoman said his nomination would be considered at the board meeting following the next scheduled one, on June 27.

No further details were released.

GAZ, which once turned out the sober black sedans favored by Soviet bureaucrats, is a sprawling industrial giant that is now in a battered financial state with nearly $1.4 billion in debt. It is positioned to emerge as a key beneficiary in the takeover of General Motors’ Opel subsidiary by Canada’s Magna International and the Russian government-owned bank, Sberbank.

While at GM, Andersson had extensive dealings with Magna, which is one of GM’s largest parts suppliers

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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India: Bride Burning: Another Chapter on the Humiliation of the Indian Woman

Almost 5 thousand women are burnt every year. Even domestic violence and torture are on a rise with more than 75 thousand cases. Inability to pay dowry, revenge, betrayal are some of the reasons for this violence. These problems exist even amongst the Christians.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Only a few weeks back the nation was rejoicing for the election of its first female speaker in the Parliament. But it also has to face an ever rising phenomenon: bride burning. In the last few days the Supreme Court, in a rare pronouncement, took the opportunity to vent its ire against those resorting to bride burning.

The case at hand is related to the burning of a woman by her husband because of her protest against his alleged illicit relationship. The accused, sentenced to life imprisonment asked for the case to be revised. The vacation bench comprising Justice Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma, angered by the plea of the convict challenging his life sentence, was of the firm opinion that persons like him (the husband)deserved no leniency and should be awarded the death penalty.

This sharp reaction was caused by the spiraling crimes against women in matrimonial homes. The National Crime Records Bureau had reported a whopping 75,930 incidents of torture and cruelty against women within the family last year. More than 5,000 wives are burnt to death every year. But statistics precise that the incidence is increasing: 6.787 in the year 2005, 7,618 in 2006 and 8,093 in 2007.

The case taken up by the Supreme Court is related to the death of Rajni who in her dying declaration alleged that her husband Mahender Gulati, his elder brother Prem Kumar and the latter’s wife Vimla poured kerosene on her on December 9,2003 and set her on fire. She had also accused Mahender of having an illicit relationship with imla and alleged that the motive behind the crime was her protest against the affair.

The Supreme Court has always been of the idea that violence in matrimonial homes should be dealt with sternly and Justice Katju is known for his radical views in such cases.

Such cases do not take place only in villages or slums but is very much present in the urban middle class too. For example, even in the cities the age old costume of demanding dowry from the family of the proposed wife is very much alive. The families who cannot provide everything immediately may agree to a delayed payment of rates of dowry, but when the promises are not kept, the wife’s in-laws start harassing her to recover the promised items or sums. When finally they feel cheated (because they did not receive the entire amount of dowry) they try to get rid of the woman simulating kitchen accidents or suicide.

Awareness campaigns had been started by governments and private organizations to discourage and outlaw the system of dowry, but the age old system supported by tradition and greed is difficult to stop. Also in some traditional Christian communities, like in Kerala, it is considered an honor and a duty to give and to demand dowry.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Indo/Malaysia: Resurgence of Islam

[Comment from Tuan Jim: Disappointingly, only part of the story is available on the website — it’s a very good piece for anyone who has access to the hard copy.]

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday related an encounter with women clad in black from head to toe in the swimming pool of his hotel in Kelantan to show how a society’s culture changed with rising religiosity. He said the Singapore Government had seen the change in its two closest neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia, where more Muslims were now praying five times a day and covering themselves.

The Government’s concern is not with specific developments in either of these countries, but with the broader and longer-term trend of Islamic resurgence, he said.

He traced the resurgence to the influence of the oil states, in particular Saudi Arabia for the Sunnis and Iran for the Shi’ites, which have set their more austere versions of Islam as the ‘gold standard’ for other Muslim countries to follow.

Mr Lee visited the Kelantan state capital, Kota Baru, on Sunday. The north-eastern state has been governed by the Islamic-based opposition party, Parti Islam SeMalaysia or PAS, since 1990.

While there, he went swimming in the hotel pool and saw some women clad in black.

‘So I stopped at the pillar and went back, but Dr Ng was bolder. He swam into their midst and they waved at him and said: ‘Oh, you’re from Singapore.’

‘They were clad, I suppose, in specially made swimsuits, showing only their faces, wrapped up to their wrists and ankles,’ he said.

Education Minister Ng Eng Hen accompanied Mr Lee to Kota Baru.

While in Kota Baru, Mr Lee met PAS spiritual leader and Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Jonathan Kay: Pakistan, the Land of Many Talibans

I’ve spent the last two days at a conference in Freeport, Bahamas, sponsored by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, listening to dozens of specialists discuss the best way to pacify the Taliban-infested border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It’s been a humbling experience, as well as an educational one: I seemed to have been the only person on the speaking roster who hadn’t spent a good chunk of his or her life in south Asia. (Emphasis on “or her”: It surprised me how many women have adopted this remote, misogynistic corner of the globe as their focus of study.) Alongside the various ambassadors — current and former — there was a former police chief from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, a former CIA operative, and a variety of brand-name global terrorism experts. Other speakers had done in-depth reporting from the region for Western publications, or run grass-roots NGOs. Most of the attendees agreed that the Taliban was strong, and getting stronger — and not one offered a simple solution.

A basic problem, it emerged, is the sheer complexity of the military dynamic in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. While journalists often talk about the Taliban as if it were a single, unified force, there are in fact many Talibans.

On the highest level are the hard-core, mass-murdering jihadis — men whose cause is inseparable from that of al-Qaeda; who are intermarried into al-Qaeda, and have even adopted Arabic as their primary language. Everyone in the room agreed that ordinary politics means little to these men: Holy War is in their blood.

In the middle tier are the tribal militias, village-defense forces, drug gangs and other Taliban-of-convenience. These groups shift their allegiance around opportunistically depending on who seems to be winning at any given moment.

Finally comes the hapless foot soldiers — illiterate peasants paid by the month to tote a gun and go where they’re told.

Each group calls out for a different strategy. In the case of the dedicated jihadis, the only thing to be done is kill them — which means boots on the ground, special forces, and drones. The militias, by contrast, respond quickly to shifts in popular opinion, propaganda and outreach. And the low-level foot-soldiers can be lured away by jobs — which means economic projects and nation-building. In many cases, the various objectives contradict one another: Drone-launched missile attacks have been effective at wiping out Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, but they sometimes kill civilians and thereby risk turning popular opinion against NATO. This is one of the main reasons why fighting the Taliban has been such a difficult and maddening military project.

(A sidebar on the drone attacks: One senior diplomat told the room that not a single civilian in his country had been killed by such attacks since September, 2008 — and claimed that reports to the contrary were the product of Taliban lies. By way of example, he described one attack in which a senior Taliban leader was killed. The footage sent back from the Predator camera clearly showed that the man had died as he stood alone in a field, talking on a cell phone. Yet in its report on the incident, the BBC repeated a Taliban propaganda claim that nine civilians had died in the attack as well.)

Another complicating factor is the enormous demographic diversity packed into Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the essentially stateless outback country that serves as a base of operations for Taliban operating on both sides of the formal border. As is typical of poor, socially traditional communities in mountainous regions, every FATA valley is a world unto itself, with its own idiosyncratic clan politics, smuggling routes and socio-religious quirks. This fact not only complicates outreach efforts, it also undermines any coherent sense of national Pakistani identity. “Ask someone in these parts to identify themselves, and they will talk about language, ethnicity, tribe, caste, class and village,” said one expert. “Their nationality — Pakistani — will be way down the list.”

The sentiment is reciprocated elsewhere in the country. “Urban Pakistanis see everything west of the Indus River as one big jungle-stan,” one expert told me. “The national attitude has been, ‘just give those Taliban maniacs whatever they want so we can keep wearing our saris and drink tea in Lahore coffee shops.’ “ In recent years, the result of this appeasement-oriented attitude has been a series of disastrous ‘peace’ agreements that left the Taliban in charge of large swathes of FATA, and even parts of the adjoining North-West Frontier Province.

From the moment the conference began, it became clear that the dysfunctional, artificial nature of the Pakistani state would be the underlying leitmotif. Created just six decades ago, it is a hodgepodge of different ethnic groups and languages — their only commonality being the fact that they don’t happen to be Hindu. Its northern border with Afghanistan, the British-drawn Durand line, is essentially a random squiggle that divides the Pashtun people in half. Adding cleavage upon cleavage, the most ungovernable mountain Pashtuns on the Pakistan side were hived off into quasi-autonomous “tribal areas.” There they would live and die in obscurity, until the world came to their doorstep in the form of the U.S.-sponsored jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan — the first of several dominoes that would lead us to the current mess.

In any normal part of the world, the existence of a violent, uncontrolled country-within-a-country would be a cause for major concern. But in Pakistan, where anti-Indian paranoia has served as a semi-official state creed since the country’s founding, this weird state of affairs has long been considered a strategic asset. FATA and surrounding areas has served as a sort of giant arm’s-length staging area and training camp for irregulars and terrorists going off to liberate Kashmir and extend Pakistan’s strategic interests in Afghanistan. During the Soviet campaign, when Moscow decried Pakistan for abetting the insurgency against Soviet troops, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq could throw up his hands and say it was all the fault of those nasty go-it-alone tribals (much as Arabs now find it convenient to harass Israel from the no-man’s lands of Gaza and southern Lebanon). After 9/11, Pervez Musharraf played essentially the same trick with the United States.

The Pakistani intelligence service — the ISI — is particularly beholden to the old anti-Indian mindset. To this day, the ISI blocks local police from arresting well-known jihadi murderers if they have reputations as useful assets against India. The Taliban leadership council — known as the Quetta Shura — operates openly only a few miles away from a Pakistani army base. As one diplomat from a neighbouring country disclosed at my conference, a foreign intelligence service even has provided its Pakistani counterparts with the GPS locations of all the relevant Quetta Shura structures, as well as the cell phone numbers of the principals. But nothing’s come of it. (Well, almost nothing: As soon as the Pakistanis were provided with this information, the diplomat noted, many of the Shura members hastily decamped to Karachi.)

Much of the discussion at the conference revolved around narrow technical arguments about the best way to defeat the Taliban and pacify the FATA. But that seems to be somewhat beside the point compared to the larger, underlying problem: Pakistan’s lack of a binding national identity as something besides a paranoid 1940s-era Muslim bulwark against India’s Hindus.

Such an identity will take generations to evolve, even given the apparently enlightened attitude of President Asif Ali Zardari (who last month made the important admission that India is no longer a “threat” to his country). In the short term, the best hope is that the Taliban themselves will repulse Pakistanis so thoroughly — through overreach and brutality — that the anti-jiahdi backlash becomes the dominant force in the country’s politics. “The Pakistanis are going to have to get really mad,” the former CIA officer told me. “When your women and children are killed, you tend to get things done.”

And there is some evidence that this is happening. In 2008, the Taliban crossed a line when they moved into the Swat valley, an idyllic enclave north of Islamabad that is well outside the FATA. As well, the Taliban have embarked on a widespread campaign of bombings throughout northern Pakistan — most recently killing a moderate Muslim cleric who’d preached against suicide attacks from his mosque in Lahore, and destroying the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, amid other grotesqueries.

Ordinary Pakistanis also have been outraged by a two-minute video clip, released earlier this spring, showing a man with a long beard flogging a crying woman in front of a crowd. While the provenance of the footage is unknown, many Pakistanis see the vignette as a window into what their country will look like if the Taliban take over. “The footage is increasingly seen here as a turning point,” Paul Alexander of the Associated Press reported last week. “There are no scientific polls, but in informal interviews by The Associated Press with more than three dozen Pakistanis across the country Wednesday and Thursday, not a single person expressed sympathy or allegiance toward the Taliban. The most common answer was the militants should be hunted down and killed.”

More than most post-colonial creations, Pakistan is a land of unintended consequences. In 1947, British aristocrats molded its contours to provide South Asian Muslims with a secure homeland — yet in so doing, also divided Pashtunistan and Kashmir in a manner that sowed the seeds for multiple wars with India (not to mention a bloody civil war leading to the creation of Bangladesh), and an endless guerrilla campaign on the Afghan border. Decades later, the CIA used Pakistan’s northwestern badlands to support an Afghan insurgency that eventually would help bring down the Soviet empire — yet also indirectly lay the foundation for al-Qaeda, the 9/11 attacks, and the Taliban jihad now threatening to turn both Pakistan and Afghanistan into South Asian Somalias — one of them nuclear. It would be a welcome, final twist if the rising backlash against those same Taliban jihadis might provide the bonding agent required for Pakistan finally to turn itself into a normal country.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Maoist ‘Rampage’ in West Bengal

Hundreds of Maoists backed by thousands of villagers have seized the ruling party’s last stronghold in a troubled part of India’s West Bengal state.

Armed rebels are reportedly patrolling roads around the village of Dharampur in the Lalgarh area after police fled. Three people were killed, reports say.

Rebels have been entrenching themselves in Lalgarh since last November and now have almost total control of the area.

Maoist-linked violence has killed 6,000 people in India over the past 20 years.

The rebels operate in more than 180 districts across east and central India and are seen as a major threat to national security. Last week more than 20 police were killed in the eastern state of Jharkand.

The Maoists say they represent the rights of landless farmhands and tribal communities.

‘Ransacked’

The BBC’s Amitabha Bhattasali in Calcutta said that as hundreds of workers from the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), fled the Lalgarh area, Maoists claimed it as their first “liberated” zone in West Bengal.

One of the police posts was later set ablaze and the Maoists were reported to have demolished the house of a local communist leader.

“The Maoists went on a rampage yesterday in Dharampur village and ransacked our zonal secretary’s home and party office before setting it on fire. Three of our men are dead and six more still missing,” a CPI(M) official said.

The village of Dharampur was the last bastion for the ruling communist party in Lalgarh. Other villages in the area had been under Maoist control since November.

Our correspondent says that taking control of Lalgarh is part of a long-term plan for the Maoists.

The area encompasses vast tracts of the forests of West Midnapur, Purulia and Bankura districts of West Bengal and adjoins parts of the states of Jharkhand and Orissa.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Singapore: Mahathir Scoffs at Mm’s [Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew] Visit

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad yesterday poured fresh vitriol on Singapore, calling Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew a ‘little Emperor’ and describing the republic as a ‘new Middle Kingdom’. In a no-holds-barred tirade on his blog Che Det that coincided with the tail-end of an official visit by Mr Lee to Malaysia, he slammed Singapore for putting itself in the centre of the region, and also took issue with other topics such as the Iskandar development in Johor and the supply of water.

Mr Lee, he charged, had in his ‘triumphant visit to Malaysia’ made it known to ‘Malaysian supplicants’ that Singapore regarded the lands within a 6,000-mile radius as its hinterland.

‘This includes Beijing and Tokyo and of course Malaysia,’ he wrote.

‘Of course this self-deluding perception places Singapore at the centre of a vast region. It is therefore the latter day Middle Kingdom,’ he added, using the Chinese name for China. ‘The rest are peripheral and are there to serve the interests of this somewhat tiny Middle Kingdom.’

He again insinuated that Malays would lose out in the development of the Iskandar region in Johor.

Mr Lee and Tun Dr Mahathir had crossed swords over several national issues when they were both prime ministers and Malaysian newsmen have noted that Mr Lee did not meet his erstwhile adversary on his current trip.

When asked about this last week, the former Malaysian premier had replied tersely: ‘I don’t see why he would request to see me; I am a nobody.’

Mr Mahathir has used his widely read blog to comment on all and sundry and also to launch attacks on political opponents, including his successor, former prime minister Abdullah Badawi.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Singapore: Senior JI Detainee Freed

Another Singaporean who was an MILF member in the Philippines arrested

SINGAPORE has released a 48-year-old man who was a senior member of the JI terror network here headed by Mas Selamat Kastari.

Arifin Ali, also known as John Wong Ah Hung, was freed and placed on a Restriction Order on Monday, said the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday.

Such an order means his activities are limited. For instance, he has to attend counselling sessions, and needs approval before changing jobs or going abroad.

Arifin was arrested and detained in 2003, two years after he had fled the country during a security crackdown on the JI group here.

‘Since his detention in June 2003, Arifin had cooperated in investigations and shown considerable progress in his rehabilitation,’ the ministry said.

‘He is assessed to no longer pose a security threat that requires further preventive detention,’ it added in a statement.

Arifin was arrested in Bangkok by the Thai authorities in May 2003, following information given by the Internal Security Department (ISD), and deported to Singapore.

While hiding in Thailand, he was involved with a group of like-minded individuals in plotting terrorist attacks against targets in Thailand.

The MHA also said that it had arrested another Singaporean in April this year.

He is Ahmad Jalaluddin Sanawi, 53, who has been issued with a two-year Restriction Order on May 6.

Ahmad was a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines and had undergone military training at the group’s camp there.

He had also contributed to its fund-raising efforts.

Ahmad left Singapore in December 2001 and had remained in hiding overseas since then to evade the Singapore authorities. He surrendered to the ISD in April.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Sri Lanka: Tigers ‘Reorganise’ Struggle

COLOMBO — THE few surviving leaders of Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tigers announced Tuesday they were reorganising the rebel movement and forming a ‘transnational government’. The rebel group’s international relations chief, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, said in a recorded message that the organisation would continue to pursue its aim of a separate Tamil state despite the rout of its army and death of its leadership.

‘The struggle of people of Tamil Eelam (the separate state the Tigers fought for) has reached a new state,’ he said. ‘It is time now for us to move forward with our political vision towards our freedom.’

Pathmanathan, who is better known as K.P and worked as the group’s main international arms smuggler, said they were setting up what he called a ‘Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’. He said their overseas-based legal advisor, Rudrakumaran Vishwanathan, would head a committee to decide a course of action that would be ‘within democratic principles’.

It is not clear from where Pathmanathan, who is wanted by Interpol for his arms smuggling operations, issued the voice message.

It comes nearly a month after the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabhakaran and most of his deputies were killed by government forces.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet website meanwhile called for a ‘democratic and inclusive’ organisation to keep up the separatist drive.

‘The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the existing infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eelam Tamils,’ Tamilnet said.

‘While the government in exile is a conventional phenomenon that needs a host country, the transnational government is a novel experiment that has no precedence,’ it added, while characterising the new set-up as a ‘symbolic’ new start for the LTTE. — AFP

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Thailand: Teacher Killed in Thai South

YALA (Thailand) — SUSPECTED Islamic militants shot dead a female Buddhist teacher in Thailand’s troubled south Tuesday in a spiralling uprising against central government authority, police said. The 56-year-old elementary school teacher was shot in a drive-by attack in restive Yala province as she rode to work on her motorcycle, in the latest attack on education authorities in the region, they said.

Shortly afterwards a bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded outside a police station in neighbouring Pattani province, killing one policeman and wounding three others, one of them seriously, said police.

The attacks comes amid a recent upsurge in violence in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia, where more than 3,700 people have been killed during a bitter five-year insurgency.

The victim was the 117th teacher shot dead since the unrest began in the volatile provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani in January 2004, said Boonsom Thongsriplai, head of a southern teachers’ confederation.

Schools and teachers are frequent targets of attacks in the south because militants see the education system as an effort by Bangkok to impose Buddhist Thai culture on the mainly ethnic Malay region.

The insurgents also target other civilians — Buddhist and Muslim alike — and security forces.

Thailand’s government is struggling to curb the recent spike in violence, which included a bloody attack on a mosque in which gunmen shot dead 11 people during evening prayers last week.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday raised the possibility of making the south a special administrative zone as a political solution to the unrest but he ruled out granting any form of autonomy.

The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension. — AFP

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Japan: Ban on Exports to N. Korea

TOKYO — JAPAN on Tuesday banned all remaining trade with North Korea to punish the isolated communist regime for its latest nuclear and missile tests, officials said. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s cabinet agreed on ‘a total ban on exports’ to the impoverished state on top of an import freeze imposed after the North’s first atomic test in 2006, a trade ministry official said.

Tokyo’s latest move comes amid worries Pyongyang may soon conduct a third nuclear test after the UN Security Council voted on Friday on tougher sanctions in response to the regime’s May 25 test. Japan’s exports to the North last year totalled just 792.6 million yen (S$12 million), mainly machinery and transport equipment such as trains and vehicles, food, electronics and industrial goods, the finance ministry says.

‘The ban will be effective until April 13 next year. We have expanded the ban to cover all goods,’ said the trade ministry official, Masaru Yamazumi.

Analysts see Japan’s new sanctions as largely symbolic because North Korea conducts the bulk of its trade with its large communist neighbour and closest ally China, also its biggest source of aid.

‘Japan’s additional sanctions won’t have a substantial impact on North Korea,’ said Lee Young Hwa, a Korean affairs expert at Kansai University. ‘The only thing left for Japan to do now is to persuade China to fully comply with the UN sanctions,’ he told AFP.

The UN Security Council resolution adopted on Friday, which does not authorise the use of force, calls on member states to impose expanded sanctions on the regime of Kim Jong-Il over its latest provocations.

For Japan, a total export ban is among the last economic measures it had left to use against North Korea. It stopped all imports in 2006 when it also banned most visits by its citizens and port calls by its ships. To target the regime’s leaders, Japan has also enforced UN rules and banned exports of 24 luxury products — including caviar, fatty tuna, beef and several high-end consumer electronics.

Last month Japan also tightened a watch on money flows to North Korea, requiring that all remittances over 10 million yen be reported, lowering the limit to a third of the previous threshold. Under the latest changes, foreigners living in Japan will be banned from re-entering the country if they violate any of the restrictions on trade, monetary flows and travel to North Korea, media reports said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said on Monday Japan was also mulling law changes to allow it to conduct UN-authorised ship inspections of North Korean vessels suspected to be carrying missile or nuclear materials. Mr Kawamura said the government would propose details about the plan to the ruling coalition this week. — AFP

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Koreas: Naval Chief’s Comments on Sea Battle

The First Battle of Yeonpyeong (Island) erupted between the South and North Korean navies on June 15, 1999, with the South claiming a decisive victory. Six of the North’s vessels were sunk or destroyed and dozens of its seamen were killed in the clash. The South Korean Navy had 11 soldiers injured and two vessels damaged. At a meeting of generals from the North and the United Nations Command held at the truce village of Panmunjom immediately after the battle, Pyongyang’s representative said at 10 a.m., “A battle broke out after the South Korean Navy launched a preemptive strike at 9:15 a.m.” The sea clash, however, started at 9:28 a.m. and lasted 14 minutes. The North’s representative gave the wrong time of his country’s naval operation.

A North Korean naval commander led his forces into the battle at a base right across the sea from Yeonpyeong Island in the South. In the first regular inter-Korean battle since the Korean War, the South Korean Navy overwhelmed the North. Nevertheless, then commander of the 2nd Naval Command Park Jung-sung was forced to resign as a major general after failing to get a promotion under the progressive government in Seoul. In contrast, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sent as encouragement beef to a unit in the North’s naval command in the Yellow Sea despite his military losing the battle. The unit later started the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong on June 29, 2002, killing six South Korean sailors, injuring 19 others, and sinking one speedboat.

Both battles erupted under the Kim Dae-jung administration of South Korea. After the first, the South Korean Navy’s battle guidelines were replaced by a “strict ban on a preemptive strike and escalation of a battle, strict observation of the Northern Limit Line, and wise counteraction.” The new guidelines robbed South Korean frontline commanders of their operational authority. As a result, the South Korean Navy suffered heavy losses in the second battle. Park yesterday criticized the guidelines, saying “They were tantamount to instructions for revenge only after being hit by a cannonball.” The former president disrupted the main energy of his country’s defense forces yet went on to win the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize. He got the award by paying 3.5 trillion won (2.87 billion U.S. dollars) to Pyongyang in “peace costs.”

A monument was erected at the 2nd Naval Command last year nine years after the first battle. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jung Ok-keun in a commemorative speech at yesterday’s ceremony said, “Our soldiers must commit themselves to a harsher revenge (if they cut our finger, we cut their hand) if North Korea attacks us, and we must inherit the legacy of our perfect victory over the North 10 years ago.” His comments add to the South’s confidence. People who consider the 2000 inter-Korean joint declaration as a bible and blame the North’s nuclear weapons development and military threat to the South’s scrapping of the “sunshine policy” must realize that these strong troops defend national security.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Koreas: The Lessons of the 2 Yeonpyeong Naval Battles

The Korean Navy in a ceremony at the Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the first Yeonpyeong Naval Battle. Until last year, the Second Fleet had been in charge of organizing this ceremony, but it was elevated in status this year and Navy Headquarters took control.

The battle took place on June 15, 1999 after North Korean gunships crossed the Northern Limit Line, prompting a South Korean high-speed boat to ram into a North Korean torpedo boat, causing it to sink. South Korean ships also sank five North Korean patrol boats. South Korean losses totaled nine injuries and minimal damage to the hulls of a patrol ship and high-speed boat. But the battle was the first clash between conventional forces of the two Koreas since the end of the Korean War, and the South Korean soldiers involved have not been given proper credit until now. Rear Admiral Park Jung-sung of the Naval Reserve Forces, who was the commander of the Second Fleet at the time of the battle, said, “The victory was source of great pride for the Navy, but ended up being perceived as a crime due to the Sunshine Policy” of rapprochement with North Korea. In 2004, the Navy tried to build a monument at a park in Incheon to mark the victory, but had to cancel the plan due to resistance from civic groups.

Moreover, following the battle, the South Korean military created a new rule of engagement requiring naval vessels to block North Korean ships crossing over the NLL, then broadcast warning messages, demand them to return to their side of the maritime border and fire warning shots before being authorized to fire at the North’s ships. During the second Yeonpyeong Naval Battle on June 29, 2002, six South Korean sailors perished after the South’s high-speed boat Chamsuri 357 was sunk by a North Korean patrol boat.

The deaths of the South Korean sailors were due largely to the impractical rules of engagement. At that time, six heavily-armed South Korean naval high-speed boats and two patrol ships had been present at the scene of the battle, but were unable to deal aggressively with the North Korean vessels. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the National Assembly his troops could not fire on the North Korean ships due to fears of the battle escalating into a war. The rule of engagement, which was devised to minimize military tension, ended up costing lives.

Now military tension is rising once again on the West Sea, with North Korea announcing that the armistice is no longer valid and that the safety of vessels in the area could no longer be guaranteed. Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee ordered his field commanders last Monday to use the combined resources of the Navy to swiftly deal with North Korean provocations. The first Yeongpyeong Naval Battle lasted 14 minutes and the second one 18. A lack of decisiveness by field commanders could spell defeat. The only way to stop North Korea from resorting to reckless provocation is to make sure we are fully prepared to deal with them by learning the lessons from the two previous battles.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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N. Korea Admits Uranium Program After 7 Years

North Korea consistently denied that it was pursuing a uranium enrichment program since the U.S. first made the allegation in 2002. Yet on Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced that it had already begun testing its uranium enrichment technology.

The allegation surfaced in October of 2002, during a visit to Pyongyang by James Kelly, then Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Kelly said there were suspicions that North Korea was trying to produce weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, citing evidence gathered by U.S. sources. The U.S. then halted the supply of heavy oil to the Stalinist country.

North Korea retaliated by withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nullifying the Geneva Agreement that had been in effect for more than eight years. Since then, North Korea had insisted it had never had a uranium enrichment program. This triggered a tedious process of accusations and counter-accusations between the two sides. During the six-country talks, which began in 2003, the U.S. government pressured North Korea by producing evidence that the communist country imported equipment to produce highly enriched uranium from Pakistan, but the North simply denied everything.

With the Sept. 19, 2005 statement of principles in which North Korea pledged to scrap its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, the uranium program slipped beneath the surface for a while, resurfacing last year when the North declared its nuclear inventory. North Korea again denied it needed to declare the uranium program under the agreement, saying it could not declare something it did not have.

In the end, the U.S. and North Korea swept the issue under the carpet, with the chief negotiators to the six-party talks for the two countries agreeing that it would be solved in a separate, secret agreement between the two sides. The U.S. believed further verification attempts would shed light on suspicions over the program, but Washington ended up being played like a fiddle by North Korea.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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N. Korea’s Disturbing Rationality

Americans largely understand North Korea as a proliferation problem, far on the distant side of the planet, with a slightly strange dictator. But in recent days, the American media and public have come face-to-face with a reality about the country that South Koreans have long understood: the disrespect for human rights and for the rule of law that exists north of the 38th parallel.

The sentencing of two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, by the North Korean high court to 12 years of hard labor in prison, however, has shocked many average Americans. This is the first such fate for any American civilians in North Korea. Charged with “illegal entry and hostile acts,” the two journalists have been the top news story on NBC, CNN, Fox and other major news networks for the past week. The average disinterested American has now become intensely interested in learning about the inhuman conditions of North Korean gulags and labor camps, and the fate of these two young women.

Americans are struggling to understand why the North Koreans have chosen to take a hard line with Lee and Ling. Some naively ask if there is an appeals process in the North Korean legal system [there isn’t], or if the two women lacked fair legal representation [they did]. Others reach the conclusion that the two have become pawns in a high-stakes poker game as tensions ratchet up between Washington and Pyongyang over the nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles tests.

In the end however, there is a disturbing rationality to everything the North has done. At the core of it all is the leadership transition from Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un. This is inherently an uncertain and potentially destabilizing process when it is done in the best of times, as a slow, gradual process. It is infinitely more dangerous when the transition must take place more quickly, spurred by Kim Jong-il’s health problems.

Weak and paranoid dictatorships will look to secure their external and internal environment as they brace for a leadership transition. In this regard, for Pyongyang, the nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles tests over the past two months represent an effort to secure themselves against external threats as they undergo the transition. Using the tests to demonstrate they are a nuclear weapons state sends a message to the world that they will not be threatened.

But external security is not all Pyongyang is concerned with as it makes the transition to the post-Kim Jong-il era. The rule of his son rests on the internal stability of the regime. In addition to potential factional infighting, the next greatest threat to the regime is from the people. This is not revolution, because as the French philosopher Montesquieu once wrote, people in societies as decrepit as North Korea’s seek only to find their next meal; they do not entertain grand ideas of revolution. Instead, the threat from the people is the threat of refugees and asylum-seekers, people who choose to vote with their feet and try to escape North Korea to China.

There has been a slow but steadily increasing stream of defectors into China and ultimately to South Korea through third countries. According to the Unification Ministry, the number of refugees was a little over 1,000 from 1995 to 2001, and then jumped to average around 1,400 to 1,500 per year from 2002 to 2006. In 2007, this number increased to approximately 2,750. From 2006, China began building fences along the border to deter refuges and instituted the practice of refoulment, performing neighborhood sweeps in the Korean-speaking province of Jilin to return North Koreans to certain torture and punishment.

Lee and Ling have been caught, both literally and figuratively, in this unfortunate confluence of circumstances. In terms of the North’s internal security dilemma, the harsh sentence against the two journalists is probably meant to send a message on the refugee issue. Pyongyang is effectively telling the world news media to stay away from the Sino-North Korean border and to stop encouraging defections from the North. Sadly, this is probably an effective strategy. What journalist would entertain thoughts of meandering along the border today?

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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New Zealand: Editorial: Army’s Role Needs to be Defined

Questions abounded when Army light armoured vehicles arrived outside the Napier house where gunman Jan Molenaar was the subject of a police siege. Some wondered whether they should be there. Others assumed they would be used to smash into Molenaar’s house, thereby bringing a quick end to matters. Not the least of those asking questions were the police. They pondered how far they could go in using the armoured vehicles. In the end, they erred on the side of caution, using them only as protected transport.

The police’s uncertainty has prompted the Defence Minister to ask for a report to clarify the law. This is wholly appropriate, but Wayne Mapp has followed that up by suggesting there should be no such limitations on the use of Army assets in future. The police, in other words, would be in no doubt they could use the armoured vehicles as offensive weapons. There, the minister goes too far. The review should, in fact, lead to the enshrining in law of the approach used by the police in the Napier siege.

In what seems to amount to an oversight, the 1990 Defence Act fails to specify this. It merely defines the use of the armed forces to provide public service or assist civil power. These encompass emergencies in which one or more persons are threatening or trying to kill or seriously injure, or to destroy or seriously damage property. Pertinently, however, these emergencies must be events that cannot be dealt with by the police without the help of the armed forces. That is a strong pointer to the legislation’s intent, even if there is no precise reference to the use of the armed forces’ weapons. Presumably their employment for relatively straightforward police work, as now touted by Mr Mapp, was not envisaged as an issue.

It is customary, of course, for the police to use the Air Force’s helicopters for transport, and for the two to work closely together in anti-terrorism activities. The armed forces also provide manpower and support when summoned under the 2002 Civil Defence Act by local bodies whose own emergency services have been overwhelmed by a disaster. But it would be a significant step for them to be involved in future Molenaar-type scenarios.

There are good reasons why this should not happen. The use of a country’s armed forces against its own citizenry is not a matter to be considered lightly. It raises the spectre of times when armies were employed routinely to put down political dissent. There is a line here that need not be crossed. The police understood this when they declined to use the armoured cars’ offensive power. They grasped that, indeed, the establishment of forces such as their own, starting in Britain in the mid-19th century, was part of a process that redefined the role of the Army and its arsenal.

The Defence Minister might have more of a case if it could be shown the police would have benefited from the armoured cars being used as assault weapons during the Napier siege. But their response was copybook, so much so that no one else was injured after Molenaar’s initial onslaught, despite his impressive array of guns and his training as an Army territorial. The police operation was restrained, responsible and successful.

Mr Mapp has also pointed to the convenience of the Army’s overstocked armoured-vehicle depot. But that is a commentary on an absurd purchase by the previous Government, not a justification for a new and inappropriate use for the cars. The minister is on firmer ground in suggesting the police may need their own armoured transport. That would represent a far more reasoned response than any loosening of the law governing the police’s conscripting of the armed forces’ weaponry.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Sarkozy Jeered at Bongo’s Funeral

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was jeered as he joined heads of state in the capital of Gabon, Libreville, for the funeral of President Omar Bongo.

A crowd booed the French leader as he visited the presidential palace to lay a wreath at Mr Bongo’s coffin.

Oil-rich Gabon kept close ties to Paris under Mr Bongo, but he was the subject of a French corruption inquiry in May.

After more than four decades in office, he died last week in a Spanish clinic following a long illness.

Africa’s longest-serving leader, he will be buried in Franceville, his hometown in the south-east on Thursday.

‘No to France’

As Mr Sarkozy emerged from a stretch limousine outside the presidential palace in the ocean-side capital, cheers turned to jeers.

Joining him, the French president’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was also booed, according to AP news agency.

Dozens of onlookers yelled: “We don’t want you — leave” and “No to France”.

But the two men were reportedly applauded inside the palace as they laid wreaths at the foot of Mr Bongo’s coffin, which was draped in Gabon’s national flag.

The former colonial power has close economic and political links to Gabon, with around 1,000 troops stationed in Libreville, where French energy firm Total is an investor.

In his last months, Mr Bongo’s relations with Paris were soured by a French investigation into allegations of embezzlement.

Two other African leaders who are the focus of the same inquiry, Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, were due to attend Tuesday’s funeral in Libreville.

Gabonese reporter Linel Kwatsi, in the capital, told the BBC there had been anger among Mr Bongo’s supporters in Gabon at the time over the Paris corruption inquiry and French media coverage.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

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Air Crash Autopsies Rule Out Terrorism

Autopsies on the bodies recovered after the Airbus disaster in the south Atlantic suggest there was no explosion or fire and therefore no terrorist attack.

But two weeks after Air France’s AF447 fell from the sky between the Brazilian and West African coasts, the mystery of what happened to the plane and the 228 people on board remains largely impenetrable.

The automatic messages sent from the aircraft in its dying minutes suggest problems with speed sensors, and also with the rudder in the tail. However, French investigators are still uncertain whether these were symptoms, or the principal causes, of the difficulties which overwhelmed the Airbus 330-200 flying from Rio to Paris on the night of 31 May and 1 June.

Autopsy reports on the first 16 bodies recovered from the ocean seem finally to have put to rest the theory that the aircraft was the victim of a terrorist attack. Details of the autopsies leaked to the Brazilian press at the weekend indicate that the bodies showed no sign of burning or damage from an explosion. The bodies were recovered whole, which is also said to be unusual after a mid-air explosion. Examination by X-ray revealed no evidence that the bodies had been penetrated by shards of metal.

The 50 corpses discovered so far were recovered in two groups over 50 miles apart. This suggests to some aviation experts that the aircraft may have disintegrated, fully or partially, in mid-air.

An aviation website, EuroCockpit, has also published the full details of the 24 automatic messages transmitted by the airbus to Air France headquarters in the minutes before it crashed. Much of this information — including the fact that the aircraft was transmitting erratic and conflicting speed recordings — had already been revealed.

The full details of the messages also show, however, that the aircraft may have had a problem with its “rudder limiter”, which prevents the main rudder, or steering device, in the tail from moving beyond its safe range. Aviation experts said that, in theory, if the rudder moved too far at speed, it could break off and take the “vertical stabiliser” — or main part of the tailplane — with it. The tailplane is the largest piece of wreckage from the A330-200 to have been recovered so far. However, the experts also point out that there was nothing in the automatic message which proved that the “rudder limiter” had failed, causing the crash.

The device might have simply locked itself into place because of the conflicting speed readings. “The message tells us that the rudder limiter was inoperative,” Jack Casey, an aviation safety expert in Washington told the Associated Press.

“It does not give you any reason why it is not working or what caused it, or what came afterward.”

It is believed that the erratic speed readings may have been caused by malfunctioning speed sensors — or pitot tubes — but it still remains unclear how this problem alone could have destroyed, or brought down, a modern aircraft so rapidly. No Mayday call or emergency radio message was sent by the pilot and co-pilot, suggesting that the aircraft fell apart or crashed while they were still going through their first, emergency response procedures.

A French nuclear submarine is searching the ocean depths up to 15,000ft below the crash site in the hope of picking up a message from the beacons fitted to the aircraft’s flight recorders. Senior French air crash investigation officials have warned that it may never be possible to explain the crash unless the recorders or “black boxes” are found. The location “pings” sent out by the boxes will cease in about two weeks’ time.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Dominican Republic: A Demand for Government to Explain Refidomsa Sale

SANTO DOMINGO.- After demanding that the government offer an explanation regarding the sale of 49% of the shares of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa) to Venezuela, the two principle political opposition parties said that they are against the negotiations because they give President Hugo Chavez the power to direct the fuel policy in the country.

To this opposition can be added the position of the business community, that cautiously refers to the issue as something that needs to be studied and which they hope will be aired out in the National Congress.

The claims and worries have been brought up by the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) that have openly said that they reject the transaction.

Orlando Jorge Mera, the secretary general of the PRD, said that he felt that in an exercise in transparency, the authorities should report on the aspects involved in the transaction, since the official policy on fuels could be in play here. “The issue of fuels worries us a lot, since it is an issue that affects the national security, since we do not produce any petroleum we have a high dependency, and handing over 40% to one of our principle suppliers then has to be the subject of a greater consideration and the offering of more details so that we Dominicans can be sure as to what is going to happen,” he emphasized.

For Rafaela Alburquerque, one of the PRSC vice-presidents, this negotiation hurts the nation’s sovereignty and will place in the hands of Venezuela the control of the sale of fuels.

“There will be gasoline, there will be diesel if Chavez wants it, he is very temperamental, I do not like this project,” she said at the same time demanding that the sales process be widely clarified.

She warned that this situation could put the supply of fuels to the Dominican Republic in danger, and she asked what would happen when a government that is not agreeable to Chavez is installed.

Business leader Maribel Gasso, the secretary of the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP), makes a point of saying that since she did not know the basis of the negotiations, it is not possible to give a well based opinion.

The Conep president, Lisandro Macarrulla, announced that this week they would evaluate the decision and make their position known.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Bari: Letters Rogatory, No Response From Libya

(ANSAmed) — BARI, JUNE 11 — The Libyan authorities have still not responded to an international letters rogatory sent on December 2, 2008 by the district anti-mafia office in Bari regarding investigations into human trafficking of prostitutes (including minors) who arrive in Italy from Nigeria via Libya, report various sources. Once in Italy, the victims are sold to organisations which then exploit the individuals as prostitutes. The investigations into the trafficking route by prosecutor Giuseppe Scelsi and local police since March 2009 directly followed comments by Nigerian traffickers who organised a ‘journey of hope’, which ended with two wooden boats sinking in the Mediterranean, killing over 600 immigrants. The Bari public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the incident, accusing a Nigerian man of mass murder. Scelsi’s letters of request seek contact with the Libyan legal authorities and investigative collaboration. Despite continued and insistent requests, said the same sources, Scelsi’s appeals have gone unanswered and no elements relevant to the investigation have been obtained. The letters rogatory were sent to combat human trafficking routes between Libya and Italy (a transnational crime) that begins with the recruitment of women in Nigerian villages. The request is based on the Convention against transnational organised crime, adopted by the United Nations in New York on November 15, 2000 and ratified by Libya on June 18, 2004 and the additional protocol that punishes human trafficking (including women and children) by the United Nations from November 15, 2000, ratified by Libya on September 24, 2004. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Greece: Calls Grow to Curb Immigration

PM to push issue at EU summit this week, as opposition ups the ante and coast guard struggles

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday telephoned his counterpart in the Czech Republic, which currently holds the European Union presidency, to press for greater EU support in curbing a seemingly relentless influx of illegal immigrants.

According to government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, Karamanlis told his counterpart Jan Fischer that Greece cannot shoulder the burden of protecting the EU’s southeastern border. The PM is due to broach the issue at a summit in Brussels later this week.

Meanwhile, Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis called for municipal council members to forge a united front to tackle the capital’s burgeoning migrant population which is being blamed by some for spiraling crime that has led to a spike in far-right sentiment. Kaklamanis said swift consensus on this issue was crucial, “even if we must all compromise on some of our convictions.”

The leader of the main opposition PASOK party, George Papandreou, seemed less compromising in an article published in Sunday’s Kathimerini, in which he outlines an eight-point plan for “zero illegal immigration.” Papandreou condemns the government for having a “nonexistent policy” for immigration which has marginalized second generation migrants and failed to make a distinction between economic migrants and refugees.

Responding to criticism from other opposition parties, describing the military facilities slated for use as migrant reception centers as “concentration camps,” Antonaros said the ruling conservatives were being treated unfairly. “Two-and-a-half years ago we were being condemned by international bodies for having too few reception centers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the coast guard on Lesvos, where a reception center is full to bursting, detained a total of 126 illegal immigrants this weekend. The migrants were intercepted in four boats that had been heading toward the island from neighboring Turkey.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Italy: ‘Fascist’ Vigilante Group is Banned

A new vigilante group has been banned from walking the streets because of the similarity between its uniforms and those worn by Mussolini’s Fascists in the 1930s.

The Italian National Guard was launched at a news conference over the weekend, sparking outcry from the centre-left opposition, Jewish groups, police unions and others that it evoked Italy’s fascist-era paramilitary Black Shirts.

Benito Mussolini’s Black Shirts violently attacked communists, socialists and other progressive groups, breaking up strikes and attacking trade union headquarters. Their 1922 march on Rome brought the fascist dictator to power.

The Italian National Guard uniforms feature an imperial eagle, a symbol often associated with Fascism. In addition, on the armband is a black-rayed sun, or Sonnenrad, an image found in a castle used by the Nazi’s paramilitary SS.

The guard was introduced by the right-wing fringe Italian Social Movement at a Milan party conference during which at least two speakers gave the straight-armed Fascist salute.

Yesterday, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said the group had essentially disqualified itself by staging its weekend launch, calling the stunt “ridiculous and dangerous.”

However, government officials said they would go ahead with legislation allowing unarmed citizen patrols to help beef up security in Italian cities and towns. The plan is part of a crackdown by the conservative administration on illegal immigration, which Italians increasingly link to crime.

Leaders of the Italian Social Movement said the guard’s creation was made possible by the bill, which must still to be approved by the Senate, leading the center-left opposition to say the case highlighted the danger posed by the plan.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government has made the fight against illegal immigration a priority, recently signing a controversial new accord with Libya to send back migrants intercepted at sea in a bid to stem the flow of thousands of would-be migrants who set sail for Italian shores from Libya each year.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, of the anti-immigrant Northern League, defended the planned legislation Monday but insisted that such “do-it-yourself” groups wouldn’t be permitted once the bill becomes law.

“There is a clear and precise process” for citizen patrols to be registered with local government prefects, he told private Radio 24. “All the rest is either folklore or political maneuvering.”

Maroni, however, has long been a fan of such local citizen patrols. In 1996, he inaugurated a regional security force backed by the Northern League, the Padania National Guard. Those so-called “green shirts” are the model for the new Italian National Guard, organizers said.

The Italian National Guard says it is a nonprofit, apolitical organization of volunteers. However, its president is Gaetano Saya, who also is leader of the Italian Socialist Movement, and the guard was introduced at the party’s general conference, complete with a uniformed officer.

In a video message on the guard’s Web site, Saya says he is just a patriotic Italian — not a Fascist. He lambasted a reported investigation by Milan prosecutors into alleged violations of a law that makes it a crime to apologize for fascism.

“We aren’t Black Shirts, we aren’t Fascists, we aren’t Nazis,” he said. “We are Italian patriots and we want freedom.”

Organizers also have defended the use of the eagle on the uniforms, saying it stems from Rome’s imperial, ancient past — not its Fascist one.

The opposition, which has denounced the citizen patrols as paving the way for vigilante justice, said the new guard clearly evoked fascist and Nazi paramilitary groups..

“The idea that security could be granted to militant groups that are identified with a political group is a strike to the heart of the principles of every free democracy,” the ANSA news agency quoted Marco Minniti, head of security matters for the main opposition Democratic Party, as saying.

The police union Sil-Cigl said such patrols not only wouldn’t help improve security but also would increase problems by creating confusion, Apcom news agency said. And Jewish groups said they were prepared to create “counter-patrols” to ensure such security forces don’t commit any crimes themselves.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Police Operation, Arrests in Italy and Europe

(ANSAmed) — ROME — A large police operation against the phenomenon of illegal immigration was launched today in 16 Italian cities and 7 European countries. Dozens of arrests have been carried out by State Police agents from Venice and the Central Operational Service (SCO) to the damage of a transnational criminal organisation based in Iraqi Kurdistan, but with different operating groups in Italy, that in the last three years has allowed thousands of Kurdish illegals to enter the EU. As a part of the operation in Italy, called ‘Ticket to Ride’, coordinated by Venice’s public prosecutor’s office, arrests have also been reported in France, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and Sweden in response to European warrants. Suspects will have to answer to the charges of criminal association and favouring illegal immigration. “That which came to an end today has been one of the most important operations in recent years and confirms, once again, the effectiveness of actions against illegal immigrant and human trafficking that the government has implemented,” commented Italy’s Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni. The investigation began in 2006 after checking out groups of illegal immigrants stopped in Venice, Ancona, Bari and Brindisi, who were in this case hidden inside lorries. In some cases they had departed directly from Turkey and in this case they reached Italy by sea. Once in Italy, they were transferred by the organisation to their countries of destination, above all Germany and Sweden, but also France, Switzerland, Great Britain and Norway. The organisation, the investigators highlighted, was “stable, efficient and well structured”, with branches throughout Europe and representatives in all of the key countries who were able to present themselves as a “point of reference” for the other organisations involved in human trafficking.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: Immigration; Barrot, Stronger N. European Commitment

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUNE 15 — “Financial solidarity” and a “stronger” commitment by the north European countries which don’t “see the problem from up close” is needed. Also the work of Frontex, the border control agency, must be supported and a distribution plan for illegal immigrants must be developed to lighten the load of receiving countries, said the Vice President of the European Commission for Justice, Freedom & Security, Jaques Barrot, today during a summit on immigration on the Canary Islands. Quoted by the press agency EFE, Barrot stated that he is confident that the European Council will this week consolidate “solidarity between member states” and that the council will increase its aid to the countries on the EU’s borders with the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, to lighten the migrant load on these countries. The EU commissioner promised to work in this direction, announcing that, under Spain’s EU presidency, an action plan for young immigrants must be approved in the first half year of 2010 in order to develop the Stockholm programme. This programme, which will be passed by the European Council before the end of this year, will, according to Barrot, constitute “the new European strategy on immigration”. And for the first time it will include unaccompanied immigrating minors as a phenomenon to be dealt with in a specific way. The regional government of the Canary Islands have more than 1,500 immigrant minors in its care. The Islands want all Spanish communities to partake in their reception. The European Commission approves of the policy of the Spanish government to cooperate with the countries of origin of immigration, such as Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal, underlining that the work of the EU “is done through this coordination” and policies agreed with the African territories of provenance.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Sweden: ‘Sex Education a Must for Swedish Learners’

Sex education should form part of the curriculum for all adults attending Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) classes, a new government report has proposed.

Writing in Dagens Nyheter, the author of the report, Anders Milton, says SFI classes “should include tuition on sexual and reproductive health, relationships, gender equality, values, and different ways of viewing sexuality.”

Milton argues this will give immigrants “better knowledge about their own sexual and reproductive health, and also knowledge that is valuable for them in their role as parents”.

Speaking to The Local after the report had been handed over to Minister for Health and Social Affairs Göran Hägglund, Milton said the SFI proposal was directed primarily at refugees.

“Most refugees in Sweden come from countries that are not democracies and are often quite authoritarian and have a conservative cultural outlook.

“They have never had information about sexual and reproductive health and I think this is something people need,” he said.

Milton added that he believed people from democratic societies were very much in the minority in SFI classes.

“Honestly, how many people are we talking about? 200? 500 maybe? But the lion’s share are refugees.”

Milton said he thought it would be unnecessary for people from functioning democracies to sit through classes on sex education. He added however that finding a practical solution did not fall under his remit.

“Clearly people from the UK, US or Canada, for example, know these things already. But it can be sorted out on a case by case basis. It’s something that can be worked out locally,” he said.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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‘Sweden Needs an Abortion Register’

A report presented to the government on Monday has proposed that Sweden establish a national abortion registry and distribute free contraceptives to students over fifteen in a bid to lower the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

The author of the government report, Anders Milton, writes in an article in Dagens Nyheter, that “for whatever reasons, we in Sweden have more abortions than other countries in western Europe”.

Milton notes that a woman’s medical journal reveals whether or not she has undergone an an abortion. He proposes compiling abortion data from journals in a central register that can only be accessed for research purposes.

“In Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as other countries, it is known that abortion figures for women born outside Western Europe are twice as high or many times as high as those for Danish or Dutch-born women,” he writes.

The lack of a cohesive register in Sweden means it is impossible to say whether “abortions are more common in certain socioeconomic or cultural groups.”

“We simply don’t know if we are reaching everybody with public information campaigns or whether we need more targeted campaigns,” writes Milton.

He also discusses a variety of reasons behind abortions in Sweden such as partner incompatibility, inconvenient timing and, in some cases, sexual violence.

Along with free contraceptives he proposes that “education in sex and relationships in the broadest sense should be written into the curriculum in a clearer way, and the teaching of these subjects should recur throughout the school year.”

But Lena Marions, senior physician at Karolinska University Hospital, is critical of the proposal for schools to distribute free condoms and contraceptive pills to all students over the age of fifteen.

“It should be each individual’s, especially young people’s, own responsibility to be safe when having sexual relations, and since contraceptives are readily available in youth centres (‘ungdomsmottagningar’) further distribution of them to students will be insignificant,” she told The Local.

The government did not task the inquiry with reexamining the country’s abortion legislation; instead the report is geared toward helping to educate young people and confer them with strong values and self-esteem.

Society should strive for young people to be able to say yes when they want a sexual relationship and no if they do not, says Milton.

“A no must always be respected regardless of when it is said,” he write, and recommends that all contraceptives be subsidized for young people and adults up to 25 years of age, with a cap of 200 kronor per year.

“We also suggest that ‘morning after’ pills, which are available without cost at youth centers, should be subsidized if purchased at a pharmacy when the buyer is up to 25 years of age.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

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Thomas Sowell: The Character of Nations

In an age that values cleverness over wisdom, it is not surprising that many superficial but clever books get more attention than a wise book like “The Character of Nations” by Angelo Codevilla, even though the latter has far more serious implications for the changing character of our own nation.

The recently published second edition of Professor Codevilla’s book is remarkable just for its subject, quite aside from the impressive breadth of its scope and the depth of its insights. But clever people among today’s intelligentsia disdain the very idea that there is such a thing as “national character.”

Everything from punctuality to alcohol consumption may vary greatly from one country to another, but the “one world” ideology and the “multicultural” dogma make it obligatory for many among the intelligentsia to act as if none of this has anything to do with the poverty, corruption and violence of much of the Third World or with the low standard of living in the Soviet Union, one of the most richly endowed nations on earth, when it came to natural resources.

“The Character of Nations” is about far more than the fact that there are different behavior patterns in different countries— that, for example, “it is unimaginable to do business in China without paying bribes” but “to offer one in Japan is the greatest of faux pas.”

The real point is to show what kinds of behaviors produce what kinds of consequences— in the economy, in the family, in the government and in other aspects of human life. Nor do the repercussions stop there. Government policies are not only affected by the culture of the country but can in turn have a major impact on that culture, for good or ill…

— Hat tip: REP

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On July 17, 1918, in a basement near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, Czar Nicholas II, his wife, and all of his children were murdered by the Bolsheviks and buried in a makeshift grave. Yekaterinburg was later renamed Sverdlovsk under Soviet rule, and was notable as the fiefdom of Boris Yeltsin during the final years of his communist career.

Almost ninety-one years later, Sverdlovsk is once again Yekaterinburg, and the city is playing host to a summit that would scarcely have been imaginable during the seven decades of communist rule. A new international political grouping consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, and China — and commonly referred to as BRIC — is meeting this week in Yekaterinburg to discuss the mutual interests of its members, with a special focus on common strategies to be pursued in the face of the global financial crisis.

Although the BRIC countries contribute less than 11% of the world’s GDP, they provide 42% of its population, and are a force to be reckoned with. In coming years the economic power of the four nations, particularly India and China, can be expected to increase, especially in relation to the waning hegemonic influence of the United States.

The primary concern of the BRIC group — and indeed of any country, corporation, or individual holding wealth denominated in dollars — is how to shift from assets based on the dollar to something less vulnerable to the coming inflation.

The Obama administration’s recent injection of liquidity into the global financial system — whether via bailouts or stimuli — has required additional borrowing on an unprecedented scale. Even though the prices of bread and shoes have not yet skyrocketed, it’s obvious that an inflation is well underway. There are now ten to fifteen times as many dollar-denominated assets spread throughout the global system as there are dollars in circulation.

If these obligations were somehow never called in — if investors continued to swap them among themselves and buy more, rather than converting them to another currency, gold, or silver — the global shell game could continue indefinitely. We could maintain the fantasy that all these dollars really mean something, that somehow the United States will be able to pay off its debts and keep the dollar strong and stable.

Unfortunately, it’s obvious by now that this is not going to happen. At some point major investors are going to stop betting that the dollar will maintain its value. The process of inflation can proceed gradually when ordinary people use dollars to buy gold, silver, or mining stock. But when sovereign nations or international mega-financiers like George Soros decide that the dollar is no longer safe, the gold rush will begin and the value of the dollar will plummet.

The large investors will play chicken with their dollar stocks, holding them as long as possible so as to milk the last drop from them. Then someone — China, Russia, Soros; who knows? — will go first. They will dump billions of dollars and buy gold or other inflation-proof commodities, and then the run on the dollar will begin in earnest.

When the time comes, what can the USA do besides print more money to meet its obligations? Except for defaulting on its enormous debts, it will have no other choice. The Great Inflation is all but inevitable. Sometime in the next two to five years, everyone whose assets and savings are tied up in dollars will become much, much, poorer overnight.

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The countries in the BRIC group are well aware of all this, and that’s the primary reason they met this week in Yekaterinburg.

They flexed their muscles by announcing in advance that they would be discussing the establishment of an alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency. Needless to say, as a candidate for the new international standard, the Russians prefer the ruble and the Chinese the yuan.
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But BRIC backed off from this idea just before the meeting convened. They emphasized instead the urgent necessity of reform in the global financial system. Well, duh — we all know that. The problem is how to do it without inducing catastrophic instability in the world’s markets. Extreme price instability, whether deflation or inflation, is a political depth charge. The results are inherently unpredictable, and could lead to war, revolution, regime change, and massive social upheaval. No country’s leadership — with the possible exception of Iran’s — wants to enter that territory voluntarily.

Obviously the BRIC group was unable to agree on which currency would have the privilege of replacing the dollar. Or perhaps the whole idea was a feint, a shot across the bow of the United States and the EU to drive the dollar down and provide a good initial bargaining position for future G8 and G20 meetings.

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In the end, the BRIC nations settled on a joint statement that called for a “more diversified international monetary system” without actually mentioning the dollar. But the dollar is the elephant in the room — the system can’t become more “diversified” without dethroning the dollar and choosing another currency to act a globally recognized reserve currency.

To do this will require quite a bit of ugly political sausage-making. And — to mix metaphors — someone’s oxen will inevitably be gored, while other oxen will be cosseted and well-fed when the new dominant currency finally emerges.

The primary issue is the decline of the United States as the pre-eminent world power. The rest of the world can feel the breeze blowing in the direction of the coming power vacuum, and the BRIC summit is one symptom of the changes that are now beginning:

A common thread running through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, and the Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) meeting which followed it, was discussion about a new world order less dependent on the United States.

So what will an America-free New World Order look like?

That’s the big question. It must surely give pause to even the most hardened loathers of the Great Satan. Whether you love it or hate it, up until now you could count on the United States to intervene in certain ways in certain situations so that the international political system remained more or less intact, and the global engine of power, patronage, and commerce could keep on chugging along in its accustomed fashion.

But all that has to end, and we’re about to enter a period of turmoil at best, and violent chaos at worst, before a new system finally shakes out.

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Why BRIC? Why Brazil, Russia, India, and China?

What happened to Japan, the EU, and Canada?

The fate of all of these other economic powers is chained fairly closely to that of the United States. The euro and the pound are as deeply leveraged as the dollar, and the banking systems of the United States and Europe are fully intertwined. That’s why the federal government is bucking popular opinion to bail out European banks — the nabobs of high finance on both sides of the Atlantic will rise or fall in tandem.

So sterling, the euro, and the dollar are eventually going to be humiliated in the world’s financial markets. The bloated and sclerotic welfare states of Europe and North America will collapse soon afterwards, pauperizing millions of elderly and disabled dependants of the state almost overnight. After that — who knows?

China, India, and Russia would all like to come out on top, but none of them wants to see the USA or Europe become poverty-stricken economic backwaters. All of them depend to a large extent on the purchasing power of the American and European consumer. When that evaporates, so do their exports, and they will confront hundreds of millions of their own unemployed citizens, with all the political danger that entails.

Russia is already heavily in hock due to last year’s decline in the price of oil. The price has risen recently, and the coming political instability will tend to drive it even higher. Over the long term, however, with the United States economically moribund and the wheels of Indian and Chinese industry spinning ever more slowly, stagnant demand will inevitably force the price of oil back down into the cellar.

The USA will still have the world’s largest and best military, but will find it hard to wield it effectively when the dollar becomes worthless. What strength we have left will be tied up coping with Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, and all the other festering sores south of the border, which will be facing their own fiscal and political crises.

At that point the rest of the world will be up for grabs. If one of the larger powers covets the territory of its smaller neighbor, when its leaders make their political calculations they will no longer have to factor in the arrival of the Sixth Fleet or a sustained attack by the U.S. Air Force.

The result will be a huge incentive for all the smaller nations to acquire nuclear weapons. Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand, Ireland, and Colombia — any one of them might find it in its best interests to acquire nukes, and you can assume that Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea will be out there peddling the hardware and renting out the technicians.

Or there may be some other unforeseen condition that eventuates in the post-American World of Tomorrow.

One thing is for certain, however: things won’t stay the way they are. The existing system cannot survive the stresses that will face it in the near future. Whether it’s inflation, war, revolution, or general collapse — you will know changes soon.

We have made our bed, and we shall surely lie in it.

For the full articles cited above, see tonight’s news feed, and also the news feeds for June 12th and June 14th.