Our expatriate Dutch correspondent H. Numan has written a brief meditation on the excesses of official political correctness as exemplified by a public service commercial produced by the Amsterdam authorities. A video of the commercial he describes is embedded at the end of this post.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It may not come as a surprise that problems in Europe continue to spread. Several years ago (!) Gates of Vienna reported that ambulances and the fire brigade in Sweden can no longer operate without (armed?) police escort. Not in Malmö, and the other major cities, that is.

The same thing is happening right now in the Netherlands. The media regularly report that ambulances are threatened by ‘ethnic minorities’. Read: Mohammedan juveniles. Okay, once in a while it’s reported that somebody not a member of the Religion of Peace misbehaves against ambulance personnel. Not often, simply because it doesn’t happen often. But if it does, the media have a field day.

In most other cases, the news is buried in politically correct descriptions: ‘an Amsterdammer…’ (meaning: a Moroccan living in Amsterdam); ‘a juvenile’ (of what extraction?), ‘a boy’ (of 18, guess what religion), or no references at all to the criminal’s background. Usually we can pick it out pretty quickly anyway.

So, the government has a problem: Politically very incorrect, ambulance staff are threatened.

We have to do something about it. What will it be? Order the police to do something about it? Of course not. Those guys are much to busy. (USA: munching donuts. Holland: writing citations for speeding 5 km over the limit or riding a bike without a light.)

We can’t have the police do what they are paid for, what? Besides, we have a politically correct dogma: “violence” doesn’t solve problems. Having the police do something might involve violence. We don’t want that.

There is a much more profitable solution: we ask one of our (politically correct) political friends to make an educational video.
– – – – – – – – –
Obviously, those poor misunderstood Mohammedan juveniles have no idea that beating up ambulance staff is not the right way to behave. Let alone threatening them. Cultural differences, you know. We have to respect that.

Before any misunderstanding might occur: this friend is — of course — a member of the PvdA or SP, but there are no politics involved. Anybody can bid to make such an educational tape. It’s just that we didn’t publicly invite others to bid for it, and we just don’t accept Nazi scumbags’ (i.e. anybody not a party member of the PvdA or the SP) entries. On the off chance that such scumbags might care to offer something.

So we have a tape made explaining, politely, how one should behave. As it is politically very incorrect to have Moroccan juvenile actors appear in that educational tape, we picture someone else. Our villain is someone in whom the average Dutch Moroccan juvenile can recognize himself. A thirty-something white male, driving an average car (worth about three times the average salary), obviously a short tempered capitalist on his way to another scam fleecing the poor.

Enjoy the video. This propaganda movie was made courtesy of Amsterdam taxpayers’ money. To be extra politically correct: the ambulance staff is ethnically correct. Which is not in reality correct, for the government has consistent problems recruiting ethnically correct staff…

On April 8th the Dutch TV program “The Devil’s Advocate” aired a mock trial in which lawyer Gerard Spong defended Osama Bin Laden. The title of the feature was “Is Osama Bin Laden actually guilty of 9/11?”

Our Flemish correspondent VH undertook the thankless job of listening to the recording of the entire program. He prepared this analysis and summary for Gates of Vienna:

The TV program “The Devil’s Advocate” concerns “controversial people in the news about whom there is always another story to tell.”

The “accusers” in this “case” are Charles Groenhuijsen and Glenn Schoen.

Charles Groenhuijsen used to be a freelance foreign correspondent in the United States of America for the Dutch TV News. He was also not particularly partisan (i.e. no leftist views). He was “called back” and replaced by a more leftist reporter. When he refused to live permanently in the Netherlands to become a newsreader (he lived with his family in Washington), he was sacked. In a magazine interview he accused colleagues of having a leftist attitude and of suffering from intellectual laziness, and he also once had said — as a joke — that the Dutch news team was a “schnabbel-gestapo”. However, he was elected by viewers the “best correspondent ever for the Dutch TV News” in 2006.

Glenn Schoen is a terror specialist, security analyst, and Head of Security & Integrity Services of Ernst & Young. He has appeared on CNN a few times to comment on terror acts.

The lawyer Gerard Spong, who is maybe best known for filing the recent “hate-speech” case against Geert Wilders, will defend Osama bin Laden (OBL) and his organization al Qaeda AQ).

The jury is made up of ordinary citizens.

Note: Spong during this “trial” is using classic tactics to deny that anything is real without proof it is real and to deny the proof to be real because anybody might be willing and able to fabricate so-called “proof”. An effective form of circular reasoning that affects the credibility of his opponents.

Basically Spong denies everything, of course, not by citing any proof, but by undermining the proof of his opponents and continuously repeating that OBL is innocent and the whole idea is a phantom.

The “trial” is in three segments.

Below is a summary (mostly of Spong’s arguments)*:

1. OBL gave the order for the attacks of 9-11

Spong argues that there is no proof of a direct command-line between OBL and the 9-11 attackers. He points to the FBI website, which does not officially mention OBL as suspect in this. Schoen explains that the charges against OBL already date from 1998 and thus don’t have to be updated. Therefore in the charges there is also room to charge him on other facts.

Groenhuijsen argues that there are even videos that prove a direct connection between OBL and one or a few of the hijackers.

Spong then comes up with Sheikh Khalid Mohammed who confessed to have organized the attacks, thus it cannot be OBL. Groenhuijsen states that the sheikh is in the hierarchy of AQ but at the top of that hierarchy is OBL, who since the early nineties has been involved in many bloody terror attacks.

Still Spong doesn’t accept any of that. “There is no hard proof that OBL commanded the hijackers that attacked on 9-11; thus he is innocent.”

On some videos he appears right-handed while he is left-handed and some translations are not correct. And therefore he concludes that there are no facts that prove that OBL had command over the hijackers.

[Verdict of the jury later: not guilty]

2. OBL financed the attacks and has blood on his hands

Here Spong argues that AQ does not exist and is a phantom. AQ is “invented” to be able to accuse OBL and used as an excuse for Iraq and Afghanistan, to increase the defense budget, and because of oil interests. For example, the link between Saddam and AQ was a mistake, he argues, and did not exist.

During the bombing of Tora Bora nobody was there, he argues, and there is no proof whatsoever that AQ exists.

Groenhuijsen and Schoen then argue that of course an organization like that will not have a receptionist, nor a coffee service, and certainly not papers filed with he company registration service of a government.

According to Spong all “events” are isolated. There is no connection, and there is a search for connections that are not there.

[Verdict of the jury later: not guilty]

3. OBL is a just a terrorist who misuses Islam to commit attacks and to incite to violence

– – – – – – – – –

Spong here avoids Islam and it is not mentioned. He argues that this is a situation of war, not of terrorism. This cannot be a war in which one party is allowed everything and the other party nothing, OBL is therefore a freedom fighter in a war against the Western world. Also he says the US government calls it a war: “a war on terror” (in which he avoids the word “terror” and keeps stressing on the word “war”).

Spong continues to put forward the idea that OBL is just like a rebel who struggles against the ruling power, who wants to achieve another order. A rebel will use violence if necessary to achieve this end, and often that is a better order, according to Spong. He cites Nelson Mandela, who also was seen as a terrorist, but is maybe one of the best-known folk heroes, he states. [a video shows the opposite with a terror attack by the ANC] Thus OBL is a folk hero just like Nelson Mandela.

Groenhuijsen jumps in: A folk hero for whom? For the three thousand who got murdered on September 11, in Indonesia, in the attacks on the Cole and so on?

No, Spong replies, but for a major part of the Arab people. Then one party is the police officer and the other a terrorist organization. OBL is standing up for his own Arab people, who have the right to live the way they want to according to their own cultural norms and values.

[Verdict of the jury: guilty]

Final verdict: The jury in majority finds OBL not responsible for the attacks. But the jury does find him a terrorist because OBL, as opposed to Mandela, causes terror all over the world.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

*Note: Both Groenhijsen and Schoen come up with strong counter-arguments during this “trial”, but I focused on the arguments of Spong who basically “ruled” during the “trial”.

When he learned of the mock trial, Rudy Giuliani was outraged. VH adds this translation of a follow-up article that appeared a few days later in Elsevier:

Giuliani furious over Dutch TV program “The Devil’s Advocate”

By Ally Smid

Friday, April 17, 2009 10:00

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. lawyers, and relatives of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 are furious about the new program AVRO Advocaat van de Duivel [“The Devil’s Advocate”].

In the first broadcast last week, a mock jury found the terrorist Osama bin Laden not guilty for those attacks after a defense by lawyer Gerard Spong.

Giuliani, the mayor of New York in 2001, speaking on the American news channel FOX, referred to the program as ‘dangerous’.

Bizarre

‘It’s such a bizarre and irrational judgment that I think it will not put much weight in the scale, but it does feed conspiracy theories,” the former mayor said, who last year unsuccessfully tried to become a presidential candidate for the Republican Party.

Former Prosecutor Daniel French finds the program offensive to anyone who knows what happened on September 11.

Criticism

Spong waves away all criticism. “It’s a TV program, not a real trial. My role was to raise reasonable doubt on the charges. I have no secret theories about who would be guilty. The program was created to help people to think about other possible answers.”

The 62-year-old Spong in the past defended the drug dealer Johan de Hakkelaar and football player Patrick Kluivert when the latter was accused of rape. Recently he came out with an indictment against PVV leader Geert Wilders because of his alleged hate-mongering statements.

Hat tip: KGS.

Sweden has decided to skip the Durban 2 conference. Sweden! Can any other Western country sign on to the circus in Geneva if Sweden finds it too much to swallow?

So far the USA is refusing to attend the opening of it. Let’s see if the UNHRC comes up with a fig leaf that will give the Obama administration enough cover to send a delegation.

Thanks to heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, KGS, SC, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	Financial Crisis
	Bank of Spain Asks for Increase in Retirement Age
	France: Arcelormittal Cuts Internship Pay
	Canada
	Apologies Don’t Quell Anarchy
	Europe and the EU
	EU-Albania: Commission Wary of Setting Adhesion-Request Date
	Islamophobe Conference in Florida
	Profligacy of the New State Capitalism
	Sweden to Boycott UN Racism Conference
	UK: Muslim Group Tony Blair Promised to Ban Calls for ‘Jihad’ at London Rally
	Balkans
	Albania: Mandatory Label in Albanian for Home Appliances
	Serbia: Negotiating Investment Loans With Russia, China
	Mediterranean Union
	TV: Euromed News Ready, EU Finances Med Network Consortium
	North Africa
	Egypt: Hezbollah Arrests, Iran Sees ‘Hidden Hands’
	Egypt: TV Program ‘Hear Us’ to Run in Switzerland Competition
	Human Rights: Renewed Egyptian Criticism of US Report
	Muslim Music Channel Islamizes Pop Culture
	Middle East
	Arab Oral Culture and Lack of Knowledge
	Islamic World Discusses Religious Tolerance Under Sharia
	Israel Stands Ready to Bomb Iran’s Nuclear Sites
	Jordan: Ministers, MPs Stand in Respect of Iraqi Shoe Thrower
	Lebanon: Hezbollah, Not Split Into Military and Political Arms
	Media: UAE Council Rejects Human Rights Watch Criticism
	Middle East: First 3D Arab Cartoon on Israeli Barrier
	South Asia
	Indian Leaders’ Unlikely Slanging Match
	New Afghan Law Does Not Allow Marital Rape… But Lets Men Refuse to Feed Wives Who Deny Them Sex, Says Cleric
	Pakistan: Sharif Accuses Govt of Trying to ‘Buy His Silence’
	Far East
	Jackie Chan Says ‘Chinese Need to be Controlled’
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	COSATU Condemns US Stance on the Durban II Conference
	Dutch Commandos Free 20 Hostages From Pirates
	Somali Parliament Approves Islamic Law
	Immigration
	Australia: Cash to Halt Asylum Seekers
	Danish Muslim Youth’s Unity: a Task at Hand
	Culture Wars
	Abortion: Spain, Theologians and Base Catholics Slam Church
	General
	Human Rights: Islam; OIC to Create Relevant Commission
	UK: Policeman Deletes Tourist’s Bus Photos ‘To Stop Terrorism’
	Video: the Hidden Economics of Pirates

Bank of Spain Asks for Increase in Retirement Age

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 16 — The Bank of Spain has shed light on the necessity to reform “beforehand” the pension system in order to face the “rapid deterioration” of the social security system’s surplus, which in 2009 will slide below par. It was the governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordoñez, to address the reforms during a speech at the Congress of Deputies. Ordoñez listed the examples of many other nearby European countries that have ‘placed restrictions on early retirement” and that are opening the way for increasing the minimum retirement age from 65 to 67 “through adequate incentives”. The governor also emphasised the necessity of a significant enlargement in the number of tax paying years used at the basis of the calculations, which would thereby reduce pensions. ‘We have a sustainability problem in the public pension system, denying this fact would be absurd”, he stated. The pension system, according to Ordoñez, will enter into a phase of increasing deficit from the year 2025. In the debate opened by the bank governor’s declarations, the Minister of Infrastructure and vice-Secretary of the PSOE, José Blanco, opened to the possibility of reworking the minimum retirement age, assuring that “a 65 year old person is perfectly capable of working”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

France: Arcelormittal Cuts Internship Pay

(ANSAmed) — MARSEILLE, APRIL 14 — The economic crisis is making its presence felt in France, and particularly in the Bouches-du-Rhone, an area of Marseille where 200 people have taken to the streets to protest against the loss of jobs and the erosion of purchasing power. In recent months several companies in the area have pulled down their shutters once and for all, leaving hundreds of people without work. Many small businesses are in difficulty, but so are many big groups like the metallurgy giant ArcelorMittal, which today announced pay cuts (1,000 euros to 600 euros) for 33 interns with engineering training working at the group’s Fos-sur-Mer site. The cutbacks will allow the company to save 120,000 euros, according to Jacques Laplanche, a union leader, who denounced the decision as ‘disgraceful”. Again at Fos-sur-Mer, the Dutch polyethylene group LyondellBasell has decided to close one of its three sites, where 78 people are currently employed. A union representative has called the decision ‘inexplicable” since the site in question is actually profitable, although the company’s management say that it is ‘not [profitable] enough, and ‘less than the others”, in any case. In January the chemicals group was forced to close its United States branch following a serious fall in demand and increased raw materials prices. The Fos-sur-Mer site is the first of the company’s branches to close in Europe. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Apologies Don’t Quell Anarchy

By Salim Mansur

There is gathering uneasiness across our world, a sense of things gone wrong and that we dare not give voice to our concerns or, more likely, fears.

A very young, brave and beautiful trooper, Karine Blais, dies in distant Afghanistan and Canadians search for the reason why such a price should be paid for a mission that is increasingly clouded by uncertainty.

Another young woman, a Pakistani in the district of Swat not far from the Afghan border, is publicly flogged by Taliban militia for allegedly being seen in the company of a man who is not her relative.

Her flogging is captured on camera and viewed around the world as further evidence of how utterly depraved is the society where women are routinely given such treatment.

If this is not enough, we get more of the same when some Afghan women take courage to publicly demand repeal of recently passed laws that make marital rape permissible, and are confronted by Afghan men in the streets of Kabul pelting stones at them.

There is piracy in the high seas along the Somalia coast and warnings from regional experts that Pakistan is a failed state with nuclear weapons, sliding perilously close to internal conflict along ethnic divisions and fragmentation.

In the Middle East the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can no longer mask the fault line of the much bigger regional confrontation in the making. This is the rivalry — with real fear of nuclear proliferation — escalating in the Persian Gulf area as the Shiite alliance of Iran and Syria with their surrogates — the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas — seeks dominance over the Sunni partnership of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In Africa the death toll keeps rising in places such as Congo and Darfur, and the misery index of places such as Zimbabwe and now increasingly South Africa, tell us about a continent incapable on its own to make things any better for a despairing population.

And then there is the West with its present crop of leaders offering apology for wrongs long past, as if such public display of guilt will hold back the anarchy being let loose upon our world.

When we need a Churchill, a Reagan, a Lady Thatcher in our midst, we are surrounded by Neville Chamberlains rushing to appease warmongers such as Iran’s Ahmadinejad. When we need clear thinking and clear prose to dismantle our false sense of safety, we find instead the weakening of our critical faculties essential for discriminating between our friends and our foes.

— Hat tip: SC

[Return to headlines]

EU-Albania: Commission Wary of Setting Adhesion-Request Date

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 16 — Caution is being shown by the European Commission in confirming a possible date on which the application for EU membership may be submitted by Albania. It might, however, be set at the end of this month (talk is of April 28). “It will be up to the holder of the revolving presidency to reach agreement on setting the application dates for each country that wishes to submit a membership application, including Albania” was the poker-faced reply delivered by Krisztina Nagy, spokesperson for Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, to journalists in Brussels today. “As far as the Commission is concerned, regular meetings are being held with the leaders of potential applicant countries such as Albania”. And for any country interested in joining the EU, such as Albania, “the position of Commissioner Rehn has always been that the application of constitutional reforms and the establishment of democratic institutions are essential requirements before taking any application for membership into consideration”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Islamophobe Conference in Florida

The Florida Security Council’s self-titled “Free Speech Summit” later this month is bound to be an extravaganza, one in which known Islamophobes will use the guise of free speech to lambaste Islam as a “totalitarian ideology.” The summit will feature the infamous Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders and his propaganda film “Fitna,” released last year to overwhelming international condemnation.

Wilders will receive the Florida Security Council’s “International Freedom of Speech Award,” and will be one of more than a dozen speakers, including Frank Gaffney and Americans Against Hate’s Joe Kaufman, expected to spew hate speech in a tainted exercise of the First Amendment.

The Dutch parliamentarian is currently facing trial in his native Netherlands for inciting hatred and discrimination, namely equating Islam with Nazism and the Qur’an with Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and has been denied entry into the UK.

Last week in California, while on his U.S. tour of hatred, Wilders stated that “Muhammad was a warlord, a conqueror, a pedophile and a mass murderer.” In the same speech, Wilders also praised Tom Tancredo, the bigoted former U.S. Congressman who stated his desire to “bomb Mecca.”“Tom Tancredo is one of those heroes,” Wilders said. “Last year he introduced his counter-Sharia ‘Jihad Prevention Act’ which would bar the entry of people who advocate Sharia law.

This is exactly what the West needs: brave leaders who have the courage to do something against the growing Islamization.” Adding to the growing list of Islamophobes in public office is Florida state representative Adam Hasner, a speaker at the Free Speech Summit, who has in the past not shied away from publicly endorsing films such as Obsession. Recently, Representative Hasner became worried when some Muslims constituents planned to speak with their elected officials in Tallahassee.

In February 2009, reports state that Rep. Hasner wrote an email to Jewish Tallahassee lobbyists to ask whether they “intend to be part of an information campaign in opposition to” a Florida Muslim Capitol Day organized by the Muslim group United Voices for America. “I intend to host a Jewish Caucus meeting soon to discuss this,” he added, “and would hope that you all will reach a conclusion as to whether your organization intends to provide information or participate…” The Florida Security Council’s summit is deplorable for reasons too numerous to count.

For example, Frank Gaffney, one of the event’s other sponsors, is linked to an anti-Islam group that has advocated prison terms in the U.S.

for “adherence to Islam.” It is interesting how those advocating for freedom of speech have forgotten about the freedom of religion.

As much as the speakers who are scheduled to participate may claim that their allegations and warnings of the “Islamization” of America and Europe are a result of a relatively small portion of Muslims around the world, the Islamophobes’ words and urgency inevitably blur the line that separates the extremists from the mainstream.

Wilders and company’s overgeneralization of extremists — reinforced by cherry-picked, and rightly horrendous, images and videos of violence — to the total Muslim population consequently tug at the emotional vulnerabilities of the public.

It is important to note that extremists such as Wilders propagate hatred, and freedom is subsequently abused when it is utilized to spread religious and racial bigotry.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Profligacy of the New State Capitalism

Damage wreaked on Italy’s economy by public intervention, from small municipal enterprises to major companies.

In the highly civilised city of Lucca — and not, mark you, in some feudal-minded corner of southern Italy — the municipality does not restrict itself to providing the usual local authority services. It has entrepreneurial ambitions. Lucca manages 15 or so enterprises through a municipal holding company and has even ventured into the funeral business, having acquired the Giovanni Lombardi parlour. Why a mayor should make such an investment — and in privatisation-obsessed 2005, not some remote state-centric past — is a mystery. Yet equally inexplicable is public opinion’s substantial acceptance of the fact that a company 51% owned by the municipal gas utility lost a cool 200,000 euros in its first two years of activity, in a sector that by definition is crisis-proof. That money came from taxpayers who evidently have no objection. The Lucca story is only one of the hundred told by Sergio Rizzo in his new book about the ills of public intervention in the economy. After the success of La Casta [The Caste] and La Deriva [Adrift], which he co-authored with Gian Antonio Stella, in Rapaci [Raptors], also published by Rizzoli, Rizzo sets out to be a thermometer for a fever-racked and listless public system.

ENAV savings

The list of episodes old and new is awesome. It goes from the incredible Alitalia saga to the spoils system-plagued RAI, which costs twice as much as its British equivalent, the BBC (does anyone remember we voted to privatise RAI in a referendum 15 years ago?), and Acqualatinta, a water supply company chaired by a serving senator. There is also the story of Massimo Varazzani, the public manager hounded out of ENAV, the air traffic control authority, because he wanted save the country 350 million euros. This was sacrilege to parties accustomed to the “political use” of public funds. It was also good news for taxpaying Italians who, however, kept very quiet at the time. Even in the rare cases where politics attempts to adjust its more spectacular anomalies, subterranean mechanisms kick in to steer the situation, year by year, back to square one…

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Sweden to Boycott UN Racism Conference

Sweden will not send any ministerial officials to the UN conference on racism in Geneva on Monday, said Swedish Integration Minister Nyamko Subini.

“This has been a difficult and problematic negotiation that has certainly become more constructive and positive in the last week, but we have decided that Sweden will not be participating at the ministerial level,” she said.

In the days leading up to the conference, there have been intense discussions between, grossly oversimplified, “east and west” regarding differences over issues such as freedom of expression vs. religious freedom, the Holocaust and colonialism.

In the last week, the negotiations have led to the drafting of a document that has been seen by the conference as a success, according to Sabuni. But nevertheless, Sweden refuses to participate in a meeting where individuals such as the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has taken controversial stances on many of the issues, will be present. This is due to worry that it will be a repeat of the last conference on racism — which was chaotic — eight years ago.

Civil servants might still participate, depending on how the discussions unfold.

When asked by TT if she thought it might send a conflicting message to those powers who will come face-to-face with the EU during these negotations, Subini answered in the affirmative.

“Yes, and if you read the document right now, it wouldn’t be a problem. But the document is open and as a country, we must send clear signals about what is acceptable. In this case, we are not going to legitimise the non-democratic powers in place at the ministerial level in Durban,” she said.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

UK: Muslim Group Tony Blair Promised to Ban Calls for ‘Jihad’ at London Rally

A leader of a radical Muslim group which Tony Blair promised to ban four years ago has called on followers to support “jihad” against Israel at a rally in London.

Dr Imran Waheed, told followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir that there could be “no peace” with Israel and urged them to “fight in the way of Allah”.

A leaflet distributed by the international wing of the organisation also called for Muslim countries to “eliminate the state of the Jews”.

The remarks increased pressure on Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Patrick Mercer, the Tory chairman of the Commons Counter-Terrorism Subcommittee, said Dr Waheed’s comments appeared to represent “incitement to violence” and accused the Government of performing a U-turn on an earlier commitment to ban it.

Speaking in Downing Street in August 2005, just a month after the London bombings, Mr Blair announced a wider crackdown on extremism, adding: “We will proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir and the successor organisation of Al Mujahiroun.”

The group, advocates the setting up of an Islamic “caliphate” or nation and describes itself as “unashamedly anti-Israel”.

But it insists that it is exclusively non-violent and denies accusations of anti-Semitism.

Critics say that the group, which has thrived on university campuses, is a gateway to more extremist groups, something which it also vehemently denies.

Addressing a rally at Marble Arch in January following the Israeli military action in Gaza, Dr Waheed — the group’s media adviser in Britain who was banned from entering Indonesia in 2007 — said that there was “no need for conferences, no need for treaties, no need for negotiations”.

In the speech, highlighted by the think tank the Centre for Social Cohesion, he added: “There will be no peace and no negotiations with the illegitimate entity of Israel.”

He went on: “There is only one solution to the occupation of Muslim lands, one solution to the cries of the widows and the orphans, one solution to avenge the death of the elderly and the children … fight in the way of Allah those who fight you. Al-Jihad.”

A leaflet available on the group’s international website, dated Jan 19 2009, criticises the governments of Muslim countries which have attended peace summits as “shameful”.

“Instead, it was their duty to eliminate the state of Jews that has usurped Palestine,” it added.

A spokesman for the Home Office said that the group’s status was being reassessed in light of the latest remarks but said that the decision to proscribe an organisation must be “proportionate”.

But Mr Mercer, said: “These comments strike me as inciting violence which is illegal.

“The Home Secretary must make up her mind as to whether the organisation is to be proscribed or not and if she is not going to proscribe it she has got to explain why the last Prime Minister said that it would be.”

He added: “There is no doubt that Hizb ut-Tahrir is a clever organisation but so far they have always just managed to keep within the limits of legality.

“I believe that the Government ought to be absolutely certain that they haven’t crossed the line this time.”

The group said in a statement: “Hizb ut-Tahrir is a non-violent political organisation that never works outside of its political and intellectual methodology anywhere in the world.

“This is well known and to portray anything to the contrary would be clearly seen to be a lie.”

It added that Dr Waheed had been calling for the armies of Muslim countries to withdraw support from their own governments and support an Islamic caliphate rather than advocating violent revolution in the Middle East.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Hizb ut-Tahrir, along with other organisations which cause us concern, is kept under continuous review.

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

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, of the CSC, said: “Although we must recognise the vast differences between HT and al-Qaeda, we should be careful not to dismiss the threat posed by this group, especially as a gateway organisation to more violent jihadist movements.”

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Albania: Mandatory Label in Albanian for Home Appliances

(ANSAmed) — TIRANA, APRIL 15 — Consumers must be supplied with truthful and detailed information on power consumed by home appliances, setting the conditions for the commercialisation of quality products. The Albanian parliament has approved a bill to make home appliance retailers label their products with indications in the national language. The Italian Trade Commission (ICE) in Tirana reports that any breach of this duty will result in the application of a fine that will exceed the product’s value by twenty times. The law will not apply to used appliances. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Serbia: Negotiating Investment Loans With Russia, China

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, APRIL 14 — The Serbian government is negotiating investment loans with the Russian and Chinese governments, Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said, reports radiio B92. He told reporters at a meeting of bank officials and export companies that there are ongoing negotiations with the Chinese regarding a loan for building the bridge between the Belgrade suburbs of Zemun and Borca, adding that the project would be worth some EUR 200 milliion. Dinkic said that if the negotiations are successful, the construction of the bridge could begin next year. There are negotiations to borrow money from Russia in order to build the Belgrade, and also to support the Serbian budget, the minister said, but he did mention any figure. Dinkic said that the delegation of the Serbian government will head to Moscow in order to discuss this loan, but again, could not give an actual date for this trip. (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

TV: Euromed News Ready, EU Finances Med Network Consortium

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 15 — Television is actually building a bridge between Mediterranean neighbours and becoming a sort of node for intercultural dialogue. Such is the idea behind Euromed News, a project backed by the EU and headed by France Televisions that is being launched today in Brussels. It will garner six public television networks (Algeria, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Syria and Morocco) together with European networks already working together in the European Broadcasting Union (Ebu), plus those with Copeam (the Mediterranean area network) and the Arab States Broadcasting Union (Asbu). Euromed News aims to produce, exchange and distribute joint productions based on issues linked to the partnership between the EU and Countries on the southern shores of the Mediterranean ranging from the development of renewable power sources to the role played by women in rural areas. It will cover a total of 17 hours of daily broadcasts over the next 14 months, including news reports and documentaries. The EU will finance the project with 2.1 million euros. Commissioner responsible for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero Waldner explained that “the clients that will most benefit from this project are the citizens of EU partner countries that live on the southern shores of the Mediterranean”. She emphasised the key role played by television, while Patrick De Carolis, president of France Televisions, stated that “40% of the population of the Med area comprises young people, especially women, and that is who we are addressing”. Asbu general director Salah Eddine Maaoui believes that the project represents the chance to set up a ‘dialogue between civilizations”. He will be the executive producer for programmes aired by Arab networks, ‘finally providing an image of modern Arab society”. Maaoui stated that the choice of topics and how they will be dealt with will be decided by the consortium’s board of directors, ‘according to the rules of the profession”. Euromed News could become the key to unlock press freedom in the Mediterranean area. According to Ferrero Waldner, the project “represents a political instrument to promote freedom of the press”. De Carolis added that ‘Jordan has proposed a series of documentaries on social and economic reforms, Syria suggested programmes on the development of SMEs, while Morocco wants to support female and youth employment”. Ferrero Waldner concluded that “Euromed News will enable us to reach many young people that don’t read, and the use of images will allow us to form a more open and tolerant society”.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Egypt: Hezbollah Arrests, Iran Sees ‘Hidden Hands’

(ANSAmed) — TEHERAN, APRIL 15 — Iran’s Foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, today stated that ‘hidden hands” belonging to Israel and to powers ‘outside the region” are responsible for dozens of arrests carried out in recent weeks by Egyptian security forces against alleged members of Shiite Hezbollah Lebanese militia who have been accused of planning terrorist attacks in Egypt. Quoted by Isna agency, Mottaki said that “hidden hands from outside the region and the policies of the Zionist regime are attempting to create problems for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon. But the Zionist regime will not meet its targets and this political conspiracy will not bear fruit”. Today Iran’s parliament approved a motion to condemn initiatives undertaken by Egyptian security forces and to support the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, a close ally of Tehran defined as a ‘courageous Arab leader” and a ‘sun which radiates light across the whole Islamic world”. (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Egypt: TV Program ‘Hear Us’ to Run in Switzerland Competition

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 16 — TV program “Hear Us” has been nominated to represent Egypt at Switzerland’s international contest for animation and TV programs. Hear Us has already won a trophy from the Culture Ministry as one of the best programs on Egyptian TV. A 16-episode second sequel of the program has already been shot with the participation of more than 100 children and young people in the 12-20 age category representing 12 areas in five Egyptian governorates, namely Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubia, El-Beheira and Sixth of October. The new expisodes address very important issues, including for instance child abuse, street children, verbal sexual harassment, violence at schools, education without fear, AIDS/HIV, hepatitis-C and bird flu. The first sequel of the program, launched in Jaunuary 2008 and shown on the national TV all through the year, was a raving success. Among the issues it touched in its more than 48 episodes were those of healthy food, child education rights, drop-outs at schools, marriage break-ups, early marriage for girls and female genital mutilation (FGM).(ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Human Rights: Renewed Egyptian Criticism of US Report

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 16 — The report issued by the US State Department on the condition of human rights in Egypt continues to attract criticism from Cairo. The Cairo government already rejected the findings a few days after its publication in February as “interference in the internal affairs” of the country. It is a theme that has been revived over recent days by Egyptian MP, Moufid Shehab, according to a report in today’s Al Ahram newspaper. “The US report is misleading and contains untrue statements”, Shehab told a meeting of the parliamentary human rights committee. Shaheb went on to call the US report “interference” in Egyptian internal affairs, denying reports that Egypt is carrying out investigations into certain terrorist suspects on behalf of the United States. The annual human rights report of the US State Department asserts that the human rights situation worsened in Egypt in 2008, along with ten other countries: Mauritania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, China, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Muslim Music Channel Islamizes Pop Culture

A newly launched Egyptian music channel that aims to bring Islamic values to the MTV generation arrived on satellite channels across the Middle East and Europe in a bid to help young Muslims make the connetion between their Islamic way of life and contemporary art forms.

The channel called, 4Shbab or for the youth, is Egypt’s first contribution to the music television industry. It aims to create a Muslim domain out of the predominantly western art form of pop music as well as hip hop and is seen as an alternative to music video networks that do not promote values compatible with Muslim culture.

At the center of 4Shbab’s goals is defining the Muslim identity for young generations who strive to find a medium in pop culture that speaks to their values and experiences, something which Ahmed Abu Haiba, the founder of 4Shbab, says is very hard to do given the lack of Islamic pop culture venues.

“A divided identity is what Muslims are experiencing in these times,” Abu Haiba told AlArabiya.net. “Young Muslims are bombarded with a slew of non-Islamic cultural values through music that contradicts their life styles, and forces them to believe one thing and watch another,” he explained.

Twenty-three-year-old Sameh Ali concurs and told AlArabiya.net that he rarely finds an art form that is both respectful of Islamic Arab culture and has a modern appeal.

“It is either I watch anasheeds—traditional religious songs—or I watch 50 cents and other rap and hip hop that clashes with my values,” he told AlArabiya.net. “Muslim youth want to find something cool to engage with without compromising their Islam.”

This is where 4Shbab comes in. “It makes it possible to be Muslim and have a unique pop culture that promotes Muslim values,” Abu Haiba said.

However Abu Haiba stressed the global reach of 4Shbab, describing the project as a universal mosaic that brings together the diversity of Muslim cultures around the world.

“4Shbab follows the philosophy of Islam as a universal religion. When Islam spread worldwide, it absorbed elements of other non Muslim cultures that were complimentary to its message and this is precisely what this music channel does,” he explained.

4Shbaba broadcasts music by Muslim groups from around the world in different languages such as American Muslim rappers Native Deen, Rihan, 768, and many Arabic songs imbued with Islamic values of piety, prayer, and belief in God.

Part of the channel’s appeal therefore is the plethora of art forms and styles that collectively promote the Islamic way of life. The hiphop of Native Deen and the lyrical acapella chorus of Rihan offer a cultural contrast to Arabic songs of Sami Yusuf and the religious songs of Egyptian and Saudi singers…

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Arab Oral Culture and Lack of Knowledge

by Sami Alrabaa

We Arabs, the majority of us, at least, rarely read. Hassan, a Syrian graduate, said, “What do you want me to read? State-controlled newspapers? Cooking books? Horoscope and dream interpreting books? That is all you can get in almost all Arab countries in terms of books.”

Most Arabs watch TV or listen to the radio. What do they watch and listen to? They listen to music and watch movies and soap opera serials. Politically-interested Arabs watch Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya for news and political discussions. Most Arabs distrust news on state-controlled radios and TVs. Viewers of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, the majority of whom are anti-Western and anti-American, enjoy the black and white picture depicted by these channels.

Very few political Muslims, the so-called Islamists, have read the Koran and Hadeeth. The majority have not, but dream of paradise on earth ruled by Al Shari’a.

Arab leaders and their affiliates do not read either. The Saudi despot, Abdullah, for example, is almost illiterate. He reads his speeches like a child who has just learned reading. No Arab leader is capable of speaking Standard Arabic fluently which all Arabs learn as a second language. To avoid using broken Arabic, lack of knowledge, and embarrassing questions, Arab leaders shy away from meeting the local and international media. At most, they prefer written questions whose answers are prepared by their aides.

A former interpreter of an Arab leader told me that he used to wrap his boss’s incoherent statements in beautiful presentable English.

Censorship is common in most Arab countries. Critical publications are forbidden, even the “One Thousand and One Night” is unavailable in many Arab bookshops. A former student of mine who works at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information told me, “When we hear of a book that is suspicious we ban it immediately before even seeing it, let alone reading it.”

Sociologists believe that people who are poorly informed, are easier to rule and gear in the direction delineated by the regime.

The lack of interest in reading and books begins at an early age, at school. Schools and universities do not encourage reading extracurricular publications. By and large, students plagiarize when asked to prepare term papers. In the Arab Gulf region, there are offices specialized in selling these papers for a price ranging between $ 30 and $ 100. Ads to this effect can be found in almost every local newspaper.

In an effort to help teachers and professor at the Islamist Al Azhar University in Cairo/Egypt, improve their English and read international publications, the American Embassy offered establishing an English Language Center (ELRC) at this university for free. The majority of Al Azhar staff and professors at other Egyptian universities rejected the idea. Ahmed Thabet, professor of political science at Cairo University, described the project in Al Ahram Weekly (Dec. 12) as a “Gradual cultural occupation which will eventually lead to American hegemony over Al Azhar curricula.”

Azza Korayem, a sociologist at the National Social Studies Research Center in Cairo told Al Ahram Weekly (Dec. 30), “I’m dubious of US intentions for many reasons. After 9/11 the US has regarded Islam as the enemy and sought to limit its prevalence in the world, so I find it perplexing that the US opens a center to help Muslims communicate with others in order to serve Islam.” This is a typical conspiratorial theory of the Arab “elite”. Fresh air into the anachronistic curriculum of Al Azhar University should not be allowed in.

According to the UNESCO report (2006) “No more than 10.000 books were translated into Arabic over the entire past millennium, equivalent to the number translated into Spanish each year.”

Wadi, a Palestinian who has been living in Germany for over 20 years, is typical of many Arabs here in Germany. He still speaks broken German, lives on the welfare system, and does not read either. He blames the plight of his people on the “atrocities” of Israelis, Americans, and capitalism. “Palestinians are the victim of a world conspiracy.” He laments. When confronted with real instances of peaceful solutions to historical conflicts in East Timor and South Africa, Wadi and his ilk reject the same to Palestine. He claims that it is Israel which does not want peace. “Israel is feeding on Arab threat to continue existing.” Wadi believes.

Certainly, a modern knowledge society is not a panacea for all problems of the Arab countries. But it is an essential one. The majority of Arab societies are ruled by either absolute monarchies, military, or totalitarian, and to a great extent aided by fundamentalist Muslim establishments. All these regimes are setting limits on the exercise of individual freedom and modernizing existing anachronistic value and education systems. Arab schools and universities are producing parrots which merely recycle shallow information and knowledge in politics, economy, and media. Critical teaching/learning and publications are forbidden.

Over the past 15 years, the Arab regimes have found in Muslim fundamentalists the best ally to muzzle people and keep them shallowly and unilaterally “informed”. All that is happening in the name of dogmatic Islam. Both state-controlled media and private ones, especially those owned by the Saudi tycoon Al Waleed Bin Talal drum the fundamentalist Muslim discourse and the anti-Western propaganda. The gist of this discourse is “The West hates us and our Islam.”

The whole campaign is music to the ears of Arab leaders. The Arab regimes know quite well that a diversely informed and knowledgeable population would demand freedom in the way they choose to think, live, manage their affairs, and eventually demand real democracy.

Unless Arabs turn their focus on economic development, like the Chinese and the South Koreans, they have no chance of establishing a decent base for living in peace. The belligerent discourse must stop. Balanced media reporting must be established. Economic development and free speech and publications are indispensable ingredients for transition to democratic civilized societies. Otherwise the Arabs will endlessly spin in a vicious circle.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Islamic World Discusses Religious Tolerance Under Sharia

At the end of the month, 200 scholars from 60 countries will discuss topics related to the development of the modern world in the light of Muslim law, like freedom of expression, abuse within the family, the protection of the environment, and finance.

Mecca (AsiaNews) — Religious tolerance under Sharia and freedom of expression will be two of the central themes of the 19th meeting of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), which will see the presence of experts and scholars of Islamic law from about 60 countries, and will be held at the end of April in Mecca.

At the discussion, in addition to the 200 scholars, there will be many written contributions from various parts of the world, including countries in which Muslims are not the majority, but a significant minority.

At the meeting of the IIFA, which is a branch of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the scholars will also be joined by Islamic affairs ministers from various countries. In its coverage of the news, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reports a statement from the secretary general of the IIFA, Abdul Salam Al-Ebady, who says that, together with the topics of religious tolerance and freedom of expression, there will be discussions of “wide-ranging topics, such as Islamic finance, banking, domestic abuse, health and medicine and environmental protection.” He stresses that this is an international event that sees the participation of the largest number of scholars, for the purpose of confronting the problems of the modern world in the light of Islamic law.

Some topics, like diabetes and fasting, are exclusive to the Muslim world, but others, like domestic abuse, or like religious tolerance and freedom of expression, do not involve only people of different religious convictions, but have also been and are causes of criticism and dispute toward Islamic countries on the part of international organizations and human rights groups, in addition to non-Muslim countries.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Israel Stands Ready to Bomb Iran’s Nuclear Sites

The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.

Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.

Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the retaliation that Israel could face.

“Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words,” one senior defence official told The Times.

Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tonnes of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium.

The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles, a distance that the Israeli force practised covering in a training exercise last year that involved F15 and F16 jets, helicopters and refuelling tankers.

The possible Israeli strike on Iran has drawn comparisons to its attack on the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad in 1981. That strike, which destroyed the facility in under 100 seconds, was completed without Israeli losses and checked Iraqi ambitions for a nuclear weapons programme.

“We would not make the threat [against Iran] without the force to back it. There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel’s willingness to act,” said another official from Israel’s intelligence community.

He added that it was unlikely that Israel would carry out the attack without receiving at least tacit approval from America, which has struck a more reconciliatory tone in dealing with Iran under its new administration.

An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.

Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.

“The American defence establishment is unsure that the operation will be successful. And the results of the operation would only delay Iran’s programme by two to four years,” he said.

A visit by President Obama to Israel in June is expected to coincide with the national elections in Iran — timing that would allow the US Administration to re-evaluate diplomatic resolutions with Iran before hearing the Israeli position.

“Many of the leaks or statements made by Israeli leaders and military commanders are meant for deterrence. The message is that if [the international community] is unable to solve the problem they need to take into account that we will solve it our way,” Mr Kam said.

Among recent preparations by the airforce was the Israeli attack of a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip.

“Sudan was practice for the Israeli forces on a long-range attack,” Ronen Bergman, the author of The Secret War with Iran, said. “They wanted to see how they handled the transfer of information, hitting a moving target … In that sense it was a rehearsal.”

Israel has made public its intention to hold the largest-ever nationwide drill next month.

Colonel Hilik Sofer told Haaretz, a daily Israeli newspaper, that the drill would “train for a reality in which during war missiles can fall on any part of the country without warning … We want the citizens to understand that war can happen tomorrow morning”.

Israel will conduct an exercise with US forces to test the ability of Arrow, its US-funded missile defence system. The exercise would test whether the system could intercept missiles launched at Israel.

“Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate the threat of a nuclear Iran. According to Israeli Intelligence they will have the bomb within two years … Once they have a bomb it will be too late, and Israel will have no choice to strike — with or without America,” an official from the Israeli Defence Ministry said.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Jordan: Ministers, MPs Stand in Respect of Iraqi Shoe Thrower

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, DECEMBER 17 — Tens of Jordanian MPs as well as cabinet ministers today stood for a few seconds during an ordinary Parliament session to show their respect and support to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush. A proposal to give a standing ovation to journalist Muntather Zaidi was made by MP Tayseer Shdeifat at the start of the session in which MPs heaped praise on the journalist. Among those who gave respect to Zaidi was minister of interior, finance minister and three other ministers. MPs called for forming a panel of expert lawyers to defend Zaidi, currently in custody facing charges of insulting president and facing two years behind bars. Jordan is one of the main allies of Washington, with the kingdom receiving more than half a billion of aid annually in military and economic programmes. Zaidi turned into a hero in many parts of the Arab world as he unleashed his shoes at Bush in a press conference in Baghdad. Amman based lawyers said they will defend Zaidi and members of the Iraqi community plan to hold a demonstration in the capital to call for his release. Jokes have been traded in the kingdom about the value of the shoes with cartoonists also taking a shot at US president for the fairwell gift sent to him on his last visit to Iraq. Zaidi threw the shoes after kissing it and saying this is a goodbye kiss to you, “dog”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Lebanon: Hezbollah, Not Split Into Military and Political Arms

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 15 — Pan-Arab press has reported this morning that the vice secretary of the Nation of the Party of God (Hezbollah), Naim Kassem, has announced that the Lebanese Shiite movement is not divided into a political and military wing, but is in fact a single organisation. In an interview published by the pan-Arab Saudi newspaper al Sharq al Awsat (based in London), Kassem said, “Great Britain has tried to justify the opening of talks with us, by pointing to a military and political wing, but this is not the truth of the situation.” In 2000, the British government placed the “armed wing of Hezbollah” onto its list of terrorist organisations, but has recently made formal contact with political leaders of the Shiite movement, which are currently part of the Lebanese government and parliament. Kassem added, “we are a united party with a single leadership guiding political, social and military action”, before declaring that “he is not at all optimistic” about new US President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy. “We will have to see if actions follow his words, but what he has said about Palestine so far is not encouraging,” he affirmed. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Media: UAE Council Rejects Human Rights Watch Criticism

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, APRIL 14 — The National Media Council has spoken out against criticism from the association Human Rights Watch (HRW), which had in turn criticised the new media draft law, asking the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to reconsider its contents. Although the HRW acknowledges elements of progress in the new legislation, including an end to prison time for journalists, as requested by the Sheikh of Dubai, Mohammad al Maktum, the association stresses that the law “could encourage journalists to censure their writing, leaving space for the intervention and interference of the government.” In a statement, the National Media Council has said it hopes to see an open debate on the subject, but stresses that the criticism from the HRM “either comes from a poor understanding of the freedom of the press in the Emirates or represents an attempt to impose concepts and procedures that are incompatible with the laws and system of values in the UAE.” (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Middle East: First 3D Arab Cartoon on Israeli Barrier

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 16 — The controversial Israeli West Bank barrier is the subject of the first entirely Arab produced and developed three-dimensional animated short film, which is set for release today in Syrian cinemas and is soon to be distributed to other countries in the Middle East. The news comes from the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star. The animated film, ‘Wall in my heart’ (Jidar fi-l-qalb) tells the story of a Palestinian family in a village in the West Bank, who try to prevent the demolition of their home in order to make space for a stretch of the wall, which is known as the “security fence” in Israel. The 3D film is the work of a Palestinian director, Radwan Qasimiya, and was produced by the cinema production company ‘Faris al-Ghad’, based in Beirut, Lebanon. Construction of the boundary wall began in 2002, and the line traces the border between Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank for 700km. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Indian Leaders’ Unlikely Slanging Match

Observers were shocked this week when India’s normally mild-mannered Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, launched a furious attack on the head of the BJP-led opposition, Lal Krishna Advani. The BBC’s Sanjeev Srivastava in Delhi assesses an increasingly rancorous relationship.

In my 25 years as a journalist — during which I have reported on eight national elections — it is difficult to recall a precedent for the manner in which the prime minister and the opposition leader have launched their vicious diatribes at each other.

The exchange is all the more surprising because both the leaders have a reputation for being soft spoken, well-mannered and affable.

[…]

He chose to target Mr Advani where the opposition leader is most vulnerable.

So Mr Advani — who is desperately trying to broaden his mass base by projecting a moderate, even Muslim-friendly face — was taken to task by the prime minister for shedding crocodile tears when the 16th Century Babri mosque was demolished by a mob of Hindu zealots in 1992.

“I may be not be very strong but at least I was not crying like a wimp in one corner when miscreants were bringing down a mosque,” is how the prime minister referred to the opposition leader in one of his recent press interactions.

The Ayodhya mosque demolition is an emotive issue with Indian Muslims.

Any reminder of Mr Advani’s role in the campaign to build a temple to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya hampers the efforts of the BJP leader who is trying to seek a more inclusive and secular image for himself.

But what hurt Mr Advani the most was when the prime minister said: “What has been the contribution of Mr Advani to India except bringing down the Babri mosque?”

Manmohan Singh also challenged the BJP’s campaign projecting Mr Advani as a strong leader.

“It was in his tenure that the Indian parliament was attacked. What did they do?

“When he [Mr Advani] was the home minister the government handed over terrorists to the Taleban in Kandahar. And the country’s foreign minister was sent to oversee the exchange of terrorists with hijacked passengers of an Indian airliner.

“My government does not release terrorists and send our foreign minister when attacked. My government responds with commandos,” he said, referring to the attack in Mumbai last year.

The two leaders may well score a political point or two by taking on each other like this. There may be some political gains as well for both of them.

But the slanging match has not really added to the stature of either of the two.

According to observers the two men who hold perhaps the two most important posts in the world’s largest democracy should really be setting a better example of public conduct before India’s political class.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

New Afghan Law Does Not Allow Marital Rape… But Lets Men Refuse to Feed Wives Who Deny Them Sex, Says Cleric

A new Afghan law that has drawn Western condemnation for restricting women’s rights does not allow marital rape as its critics claim, but lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex, the cleric behind it says.

Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni’s Shi’ite personal status law sparked controversy abroad because of a provision that ‘a wife is obliged to fulfil the sexual desires of her husband’.

This was read by some as an open door to marital rape, and together with clauses restricting women’s freedom of movement denounced as reminiscent of harsh Taliban-era rules.

The law has been criticised by Western leaders with troops fighting in Afghanistan, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who called it ‘abhorrent’.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who signed the law last month, has since put it under review.

But Mohseni said the law — which only applies to the 15 percent of Afghans who are Shi’a muslims — has been misinterpreted by critics.

Its sexual clauses aimed only to ensure men’s sexual needs were met within marriage, because Islam prohibited them seeking satisfaction with other women.

‘Why should a man and woman get married if there is no need for a sexual relationship? Then they are like brother and sister,’ he told Reuters in an interview in his recently built central Kabul mosque and university complex.

‘A man and wife can negotiate how often it is reasonable to sleep together, based on his sex drive, and a woman has a right to refuse if she has a good reason,’ said the bearded cleric.

‘It should not be compulsory for the wife to say yes all the time, because some men have more sexual desires than others,’ he said, adding that husbands should never force themselves on their wives and the law does not sanction that.

But women do have a duty to meet their husband’s needs.

‘If a woman says no, the man has the right not to feed her,’ Mohseni said.

The law allows women to work, so they could theoretically refuse sex and support themselves, but in mainly rural Afghanistan most women are dependent on husbands.

The law is milder than the severe restrictions imposed by the Sunni Muslim Taliban, who banned all women and girls from any work or study, and from leaving the home without a male relative. But opponents still consider it a step backwards…

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Sharif Accuses Govt of Trying to ‘Buy His Silence’

Islamabad, 17 Dec. (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday accused the government of trying to make him drop his campaign against the Chief Justice over corruption allegations and announced a bid to curtail the presidential powers in Pakistan. It is the first broadside against the ruling Pakistan People’s Party by any political leader since the elections in February.

Sharif (photo) told the media that Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar should resign but said the government had offered him the option of standing for a future Lahore by-election if he stops urging the government to sack Dogar.

Dogar allegedly used his influence to get better examination results for his medical student daughter Farah, according to media reports.

Sharif, who was barred from running in February’s general election due to past criminal convictions, also urged the PPP to cancel a constitutional amendment that boosted the powers of Pakistan’s president.

The 17th amendment was made by Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf, who stood down in August amid moves to impeach him for mismanaging the country.

The amendment made the president head of the armed forces, and gave him the power to hire and fire its chiefs. It also made him head of regulatory authorities such as the central bank and gave him powers to dissolve the Parliament.

PPP co-chief and President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, vowed before he won the presidential election in September that he would cancel the 17th amendment once he took office and would empower the parliament. However, he has since failed to broach the topic.

Sharif’s media conference caused shockwaves among the PPP. The PPP-led government is already under pressure from the international community to bring to justice Kashmiri militants allegedly behind last month’s deadly Mumbai attacks. Pakistan’s military establishment has also criticised the PPP’s handling of the case.

“I did not read the statement of Nawaz Sharif. I cannot comment,” PPP member and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan told a Pakistani TV channel.

Sharif should name the person in the Pakistani government who tried to buy his silence “if this is the case,” Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination Mian Raza Rabbani told the channel.

Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, withdrew his support from the ruling coalition in August, citing differences with the PPP over the reinstatement of judges sacked by Musharraf and on who should replace him as president

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Jackie Chan Says ‘Chinese Need to be Controlled’

BOAO, China — Action star Jackie Chan said Saturday he’s not sure if a free society is a good thing for China and that he’s starting to think “we Chinese need to be controlled.”

Chan’s comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China’s southern island province of Hainan.

The 55-year-old Hong Kong actor was participating in a panel at the annual Boao Forum when he was asked to discuss censorship and restrictions on filmmakers in China. He expanded his comments to include society.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” Chan said. “I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.”

Chan added: “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

— Hat tip: KGS

[Return to headlines]

COSATU Condemns US Stance on the Durban II Conference

Largest South African trade union condems US stance on Geneva conference

South Africa’s largest trade union, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is shocked at the news of the US administration’s withdrawal from the important Durban 2 Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, in Geneva, Switzerland, from 20-24 April, 2009

This has happened despite very serious compromises being made to the original draft conference outcome text to accommodate the US and their demand to remove anything that refers to Israel’s persecution of Arabs as racism.

The text waffles around the profound issues of racism and avoids saying anything that may be seen to offend Israel, who occupy other people’s land, subject them to racist and discriminatory practices and still demands to be called a democratic, civilised state.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, welcomed this revised version, despite serious concerns by civil society that it has compromised victims of racism merely to please the US, Israel and their lackeys.

The previous version of the text led the United States, Canada and Italy announcing they would be boycotting the conference. Other EU countries, Australia and New Zealand, also threatened to boycott. These countries have been subtle sympathisers of Israel and its apartheid policies in the Middle East, whereas the US openly supports Israel apartheid rule.

In the same way that in Durban 1, held in South Africa in 2001, Israel and the US held the whole world to ransom, we are being subjected to the same blackmail by those who have openly practiced or supported racism in different parts of the world, but still demand to be regarded as champions of the struggle against racism.

The United States and Israel walked out of the Durban meeting before it ended, over a draft resolution that identified Zionism as a particular version of apartheid and therefore racist, while European and other countries stayed and ensured its final declaration dropped criticism of Israel.

Israel and American Jewish groups, led by the Republican Jewish Coalition, have urged the United States not to take part in the conference. They have called the process that took place in Durban ‘flawed’, and tried to ridicule and undermine the important decisions that were taken at that important conference. Now they have bullied President Obama to denounce the Conference and withdraw US participation in solidarity with Israel.

According to a US official, “The first clause in the new document reaffirms the declaration of Durban 1, which calls Israel a racist state, and the change is cosmetic only. The essence remains the same. This is a diplomatic ruse intended to blur matters and introduce criticism of Israel by the back door.”

It is extremely disappointing that we still have our global institutions held hostage by those who refuse to acknowledge apartheid and seek to legitimise racist occupation of other people’s lands. They use the charge of ‘anti-Semitism’ to silence those who oppose apartheid Israel’s savage policies and to stifle global debate about racism.

Many governments and people are intimidated into perpetual silence by a powerful Zionist lobby all over the world, flushing out money and threatening all who dare stand up to Israel’s arrogance and institutionalised racist rule in the occupied Palestinian territories.

We call on all trade unions, progressive organisations, faith-based organisations and NGOs, and all progressive governments to stand up and defend the integrity of the UN, particularly the coming Conference. The credibility of such institutions is at stake unless it addresses the real issues affecting humanity and victims of racism, occupation and injustice all over the world.

This battle is not an isolated instance, but an integral part of the attempt to hijack the UN system for their own narrow interests, the struggle in transforming the UN Human Rights Commission into a Human Rights Council also reflected the depth of these powerful vested interests and their agendas.

Finally, COSATU is vindicated that whilst welcoming the election of the first Black President in the US, being Barack Obama, we warned that it would not lead to fundamental policy changes in the US, because the empire is bigger than personalities. However, good his intentions, he cannot change certain fundamentals of the imperialist policies. The recent case of his refusal to remove the embargo against Cuba and free the Cuban five, illustrates just that point.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Dutch Commandos Free 20 Hostages From Pirates

Hostages had been forced to sail pirate “mother ship”

Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced their captives to sail a “mother ship” attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said.

The sea gangs have captured dozens of ships, taken hundreds of sailors prisoner and made off with millions of dollars in ransoms in recent months despite an unprecedented deployment by foreign navies off the east African coast.

NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes, speaking on board the Portuguese warship Corte-Real, said the 20 fishermen were rescued after a Dutch navy frigate, on NATO patrol, responded to an assault on a Greek-managed tanker by pirates firing assault rifles and grenades.

The Dutch ship, the HNLMS De Zeven Provincien, chased the pirates, who were on a skiff, back to their “mother ship” — a hijacked Yemeni fishing dhow.

“We have freed the hostages, we have freed the dhow and we have seized the weapons,” Fernandes said. The Corte-Real is also on a NATO mission.

He said the hostages had been held since last week. The commandos briefly detained and questioned the seven gunmen, he told Reuters, but had no legal power to arrest them.

“They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters,” Fernandes said.

He said an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade was later found on board the tanker, the Marshall Islands-flagged MT Handytankers Magic managed by Roxana Shipping SA of Greece.

On Friday five gunmen in a skiff neared a Danish cargo vessel, the MV Puma, in the Gulf of Aden, prompting U.S. and South Korean warships to send aircraft to the scene.

Last week, Somali pirates captured two more ships and opened fire on two others. A French naval frigate seized 11 gunmen on Wednesday, foiling yet another attack.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Somali Parliament Approves Islamic Law

Somalia’s parliament unanimously approved Saturday a government proposal to introduce sharia, Islamic law, in the country, in a move aimed at appeasing Islamists waging a civil war since 1991.

The approval by parliament had been expected since March 10, when the cabinet appointed by new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed also voted to establish sharia, or Islamic, law.

Experts say Ahmed’s move undermines guerrillas who have been fighting the government and questioning his Islamic credentials. It will also please wealthy potential donors in Gulf nations.

Osman Elimi Boqore, the deputy speaker of parliament, said 343 MPs attended Saturday’s session.

“All of them voted ‘yes’ and accepted the implementation of sharia,” he told reporters. “There was no rejection or silence, so from today we have an Islamic government.”

Precondition to peace

Somalia’s cabinet last month endorsed the plan to introduce sharia, a key demand by hard-line Islamists who are opposed to the government and who made its application a precondition to stop fighting.

“Islamic sharia is the only option to get solutions for the problems in this country,” Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamoud told reporters on March 10.

“This is a big day, we have been waiting this bill for a long time …. I hope this will decrease the violence in the country” Mohamed Dhere, a Somali lawmaker, said after the vote.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Australia: Cash to Halt Asylum Seekers

THE Rudd Government is expected to announce a big funding increase for Indonesian police and immigration officials as they grapple with a surge in asylum seekers from the Middle East.

Asylum seekers: Days of surgery

Dr Mark Duncan-Smith from Royal Perth Hospital talks about treating multiple burns victims after a fatal blast onboard a ship carrying suspected asylum seekers on Thursday.

New surveillance equipment and training programs for Indonesian authorities combating people smuggling are at the centre of the package, which The Sun-Herald understands has the support of cabinet’s National Security Committee.

The multimillion-dollar package is also expected to assist Indonesia to improve its stretched immigration detention facilities.

Indonesia has had an influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East since September last year. Four boats have made it to Australian waters in the past few weeks carrying about 200 people. Two other groups, who said they were heading for Australia, have been prevented from leaving Indonesia in the past week.

On Friday Indonesian authorities apprehended 70 potential Afghan asylum seekers in West Java. Last night the Government refused on “operational grounds” to comment on reports another boat carrying up to 100 was on its way to Australia.

The 44 survivors of Thursday’s fatal blast, believed to be mostly Afghan men, are being treated for injuries, some severe, in hospitals in Brisbane, Perth and Darwin; six were flown from Darwin to Brisbane yesterday for specialist treatment. Three of the men in Darwin are now in custody.

Police have begun interviewing almost 100 witnesses to the blast, which killed three. Two people are still missing. There has been speculation the passengers doused the ship with petrol in a sabotage attempt.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said on Friday the country’s borders were porous and improved security was vital.

Figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jakarta show more than 150 people have registered as asylum seekers in the past month. Many who pay human trafficking syndicates do not register with the UN.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans seized on yesterday’s jailing of a people smuggler to demonstrate the Government was tough on border control. He said the six-year jail term given to Man Pombili, 31, by a West Australian District Court reinforced the message that people smugglers faced severe punishment.

“People smuggling is a dangerous crime that exploits vulnerable people during times of desperation,” Senator Evans said. “This has been reinforced by the tragic events of this week.”

Pombili pleaded guilty to smuggling 10 people into Australia after the boat he skippered was located south of Ashmore Reef by the Royal Australian Navy on November 19 last year.

Senator Evans denied claims he had received a report by the Australian Federal Police warning that Labor’s border protection policies would increase the number of asylum seekers.

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

[Return to headlines]

Danish Muslim Youth’s Unity: a Task at Hand

By Amani Hassani

There are great challenges facing Muslim Danes in the future.

If someone is to sum up the situation of Danish Muslim youth in one statement it should be: There is a long way to go, a lot to do, and only a few resources.

The Muslim population in Denmark has in the recent years been embracing eager young Muslims; they are trying to establish themselves and their religion within the Danish context. However, this will not be accomplished without struggles; on the one hand, the young Muslim generation, of immigrant’s background, is not necessarily interested in accentuating the “foreign” ethnic identity. On the other hand, their Muslim and Danish identity has become the common denominator that unites this diverse community of youths who try to cross the ethnic boundaries.

In the late 60s and early 70s, the first Muslim immigrants, mainly blue-collar workers, came to Denmark. Shortly after their arrival, they established small ethnically-based local organizations and mosques. They managed to get together with other immigrants who came from the same country-of-origin; that enabled them to speak their native language, exchange memories or simply create a sense of belonging in the new country.

Within the first years of immigration, several of these young men went to their home countries to get married while others were already married. Later on, they reunited with their wives in Denmark. As a result, we see today an increasing number of Muslim youths with different backgrounds who nearly share the same story; from Danes to East Africans and from carpenters to doctors…

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Abortion: Spain, Theologians and Base Catholics Slam Church

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 14 — Theologians and Catholic base communities are criticising Spain’s church hierarchies for the campaign against the Zapatero government’s abortion reform proposals and the “loss of credibility” of the Catholic church. The criticisms have been presented in two manifestos signed off on in recent weeks and quoted today by El Pais, a newspaper. The first manifesto, entitled “On Abortion”, is signed by the Base Church of Madrid, which brings together thousands of Christians. The text affirms that: “We need to recognise that not all communities hold exactly the same position on this issue and in all its aspects”. The signatories then agree that ‘the opinions of the hierarchies on abortion do not represent the opinions of the entire Catholic community”. According to the base Catholic communities, “it would be right to respect the distinction between the legal, ethical, scientific and religious planes. Abortion is not an exclusively Christian issue” and to regulate it “would require civil ethical supremacy, shared by all citizens, on religious morals, specific to every belief”. The signatories are “decidedly” opposed “to excommunication” and call for “this punishment to disappear from the Code of Canon Law”. The second document, entitled “Faced with the Ecclesiastical Crisis”, is undersigned by 300 people, including: the president and general secretary of the John XXIII Association of Theologians, Julio Lois and Juan José Tamayo; Jesuits including Juan Antonio Estrada, Juan Masià and Xavier Alegre; Dominicans like Quintin Garcia; Benedictines like Hilari Raguer; and Franciscans including José Arregui. “We are aware of the fact that this document is an extraordinary course to take, but the cause which motivates it is extraordinary as well”, reads the manifesto. ‘The loss of credibility of the Catholic institution is reaching worrying levels. This disrepute would be used as an excuse for many who do not want to believe, but it is also a cause of pain and uncertainty for many believers.” The main cause of the crisis is identified as being in the “infidelity to the Second Vatican Council and in the fear confronted by the reforms it called for”. “If serious errors have been committed in the papacies before that of Benedict XVI”, proceeds the manifesto, “it was the continued blockage of urgent reform” of the Roman Curia. The signatories say that the consequence is the “unfair power of the Roman Curia over the episcopal council which results in a series of nominations of bishops on the edges of the local churches, and which looks not for the priests which each church needs, but for faithful pawns who defend the interests of the central power and not those of the people of God”. Amongst the consequences of this indicated in the manifesto are: “the unmerciful strikes” against all the positions “related to evangelical liberty, the Christian brotherhood and equality among the children of God, which is so sensationally denied today”. Despite all this, the 300 signatories say that the objective of the initiative is not a split from the Church, but to “help towards a brave and patient faith is these black hours of Roman Catholicism”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Human Rights: Islam; OIC to Create Relevant Commission

(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 14 — The Organization of Islamic Conference, the 57-nation bloc of Muslim nations, met on Sunday at its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to establish an independent OIC human rights commission. Ad reported bu AlArabiya.net, Eklemeddin Ihsanoglu, the OIC Secretary-General, stressed in a statement that “human rights and man’s dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage.” Member states also discussed “refining” the OIC’s 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, which gave an overview of the Islamic perspective on human rights and stated that all of them are subject to sharia, or Islamic law. The commission will seek assistance from other international bodies such as the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Geneva Institute for Human Rights in setting up the new commission. Ihsanoglu said in his speech that such a commission would drive OIC member states to reform intellectually and politically. “An OIC human rights commission would promote tolerance, and fundamental freedoms, good governance, the rule of law, accountability, openness, dialogue with other religions and civilizations, the rejection of extremism and fanaticism, and the strengthening of the sense of pride in the Islamic identity,” he said. Ihsanoglu also suggested the compatibility of the Islamic notion of human rights and international norms, saying that refurbishing the Cairo human rights declaration will be “in keeping with the current global human rights discourse,” though he did not specify how this would be done. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

UK: Policeman Deletes Tourist’s Bus Photos ‘To Stop Terrorism’

No tourist trip to London is complete without a set of holiday snaps.

But a father and son were forced to return home to Austria without their pictures after policemen deleted them from their camera — in a bid to prevent terrorism.

Klaus Matzka, 69, and his son, Loris, 15, from Vienna, were taking photographs of a double-decker bus in Walthamstow, north-east London, when two policemen approached them.

Austrian tourists Klaus and Loris Matzka were ordered to delete pictures of a London double decker in Walthamstow

The tourists were told it is ‘strictly forbidden’ to take pictures of anything to do with public transport and their names, passport numbers and hotel address in London were noted.

Mr Matzka was then forced to delete any holiday snaps that featured anything to do with transport.

The retired television cameraman was particularly annoyed to give up his pictures of Vauxhall underground station, a building he regards as ‘modern sculpture’.

‘I’ve never had these experiences anywhere, never in the world, not even in Communist countries,’ he said.

‘These deletions were not only enforced destruction of private property, but an infringement of our privacy.

‘I understand the need for some sensitivity in an era of terrorism, but isn’t it naive to think terrorism can be prevented by terrorising tourists?’

He added: ‘Google Street View is allowed to show any details of our cities on the world wide web, but a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of famous London landmarks.’

Mr Matzka said he Loris enjoyed exploring cities by avoiding traditional tourist traps, but such a ‘nasty incident’ had ‘killed interest’ in any future trips to London.

‘We typically crisscross cities from the end of railway terminals,’ he said. ‘We like to go to places not visited by other tourists.

‘You get to know a city by going to places like this, not central squares. Buckingham Palace is also necessary, but you need to go elsewhere to get to know the city,’ he told the Guardian.

The Metropolitan Police said it was investigating the allegations and had no knowledge of any ban on photographing public transport in London.

A spokeswoman added: ‘It is not the police’s intention to prevent tourists from taking photographs and we are looking into the allegations made.’

Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority and a Green party member of the London assembly, said the incident was ‘another example of the police completely overreaching the anti-terrorism powers’.

She said she would raise the issue with the Met chief, Sir Paul Stephenson, as part of the discussion into police methods at the G20 protests, adding: ‘I have already written to him about the police taking away cameras and stopping people taking photographs.

‘[I] made the point that if it was not for people taking photos, we would not know about the death of Ian Tomlinson or the woman who was hit by a police officer.’

The Independent Police Complaints Commission have launched investigations into both of these incidents, which happened at the G20 demonstrations in London on April 1, after footage appeared on You Tube and the Guardian’s website.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

Video: the Hidden Economics of Pirates

Peter Leeson, author of The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates, sits down with Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie to discuss self-interested pirates, the myths of piracy, and the intersection of modern economic policy and the hidden economics of pirates.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

“Bad behavior rewarded begets more bad behavior.”

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

[Post ends here]

That’s what the Dutch government seems to be saying about the prospect of Geert Wilders’ planned sequel to Fitna. Our Flemish correspondent VH has prepared a summary based on material from the Dutch media:

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Guusje ter Horst (PvdA, Socialists, Labour) commented yesterday: “Before Fitna came out, we had extensive consultations among ourselves [in the cabinet and with the Terrorism Co-ordinator], but there is no reason to do so now.” She also said she would not to be willing to pay “too much attention to it.” Ter Horst also said: “The sequel is often worse than the first. So I’m curious.”

She was pretending not to worry a lot about it (this time). Wilders’ party, the PVV, is the largest party in the polls. And with every move the government parties (CDA, PvdA) make against Wilders, the PVV gains in the polls. So maybe the old guard will retreat a little, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Afshin Ellian published an interesting theory yesterday to explain that “calmness” about Fitna II:

[…]

Analysis

Now an objective analysis of the facts and circumstances surrounding MP Geert Wilders and his anti-Islam battle:

1)		The State of the Netherlands. With the first Fitna, even before there was a film it was seen as a serious threat. The Government called on him to not make the film. The rest you will remember, the crisis atmosphere that was caused by Prime Minister Balkenende himself. But now it is different. The National Terrorism Coordinator (NCTb) finds it yet too premature to respond to the Wilders’ plans for a new film, according to Elsevier. The Balkenende cabinet did consult the NCTb about the possible consequences of the film, however.
2)		Fitna owed its fame and impact to a Government in panic. This time the Dutch government will try to emit calmness. The question, however, is how long they can keep up this calmness. In any case, the government and the terrorist co-ordinator are planning not to make the same mistakes again.
3)		However, this time a real chance exists that in some Islamic countries disturbances will arise as a result of a new film by Wilders. This can happen if the movie is a substantial provocation. What can be considered a provocation will not be determined by Wilders, but by the Jihadists. Why might the Jihadists become angry? Two reasons. First Wilders nowadays is a well known personality in the Islamic countries, and secondly it appears from Jihadist websites that extremist Muslims have the desire for new, heavy cartoon riots.

Message

What is the provisional conclusion? Possible calmness with the Dutch government, but unrest in the Muslim world.

– – – – – – – – –

Who will benefit from this? Wilders or the government? The Dutch government, of course. Because then the CDA [Christian Democrats, government party] will tell the Dutch people: Wilders is a pyromaniac and the Islamic boycott will leave more people unemployed by the crisis. What then will the message be? Those who vote Wilders are choosing a violent conflict with the Islamic world.

Question

Now it’s still a question whether the Dutch people will follow this possible view of the CDA. Nobody knows the answer, but one should not exclude the possibility that people in an atmosphere of Islam-fatigue and Wilders-fatigue will decide not to vote for Wilders on a massive scale.

With Fitna I, Wilders might have benefited from unrest in the Muslim world. A revolt against Fitna would have served as additional evidence for the truth of the content of Fitna. The CDA would just have lost then.

Advantage

But now it is exactly the opposite: the CDA, in a time of economic crisis, might benefit from a violent insurgency in the Muslim world in response to Fitna II.

The CDA may present Wilders then as a fanatic who does not care about the welfare of his constituents, but only of his “fanatical battle” against Islam. And the Labour Party [PvdA, the other government party]? In any case, the PvdA will try to stay out of this fight.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the future around Fitna will not be decided by Wilders, nor the CDA. Everything depends on the decision and the power of the Jihadists.

It would not therefore surprise me if the government does very little about Fitna II.

Most parties of the “old politics”, such as the CDA, PvdA, VVD and D66 are trying to adapt their tactics to stop the PVV’s rise in the polls.

The D66 leader Pechtold, for instance, said he will emigrate when Wilders wins the next elections. That helps the D66, being both the party for the appeasers and the party of the bureaucracy and civil servants who want to maintain the status quo (thus their jobs).

The PvdA tries to pretend to be tough every now and then, but fails because they are limited in their options by an increasing part of their electorate who are immigrants.

The VVD tries to come along with Wilders a little, but is not convincing the electorate (who increasingly prefer to support the PVV).

The CDA tries to stay calm, to avoid mistakes and to pretend to be the only solid reliable government candidate. They will wait for a clear and clean opportunity to strike back. Not easy while Wilders is positioning the PVV as a solid and stable common sense party.

Notice all the piracy stories today. Most days are like this now, but a couple of years ago there were just a few pirate stories, so that the saga of the Danica White was a big deal. Now it’s hard to keep track of all the hostages and ransom payoffs.

That’s what happens when pirates aren’t immediately blasted into paradise as soon as they approach their intended targets. You pay off pirates, you get more piracy. What could be simpler than that?

It’s not rocket science, yet it seems to be something that our political leaders are incapable of learning.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Charlemagne, CSP, Diana West, Insubria, Islam in Action, islam o’phobe, LT, Paul Green, TB, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	Financial Crisis
	Egypt: Suez Canal Revenues Fall 21 Percent in March
	Sarkozy Insults EU Colleagues and US Leader at Lunch
	USA
	Inside Washington: Pricey Bus Test a Bust
	John Roughan: Obama’s First Kill a Baptism of Gunfire
	NY Based Islamic Hate Group Exposed!! (Videos)
	Team O Turns Left on Sanity With “Right-Wing Extremists”
	Canada
	Canadian Charged in Attempt to Ship Banned Nuclear Technology to Iran
	Colby Cosh: Mutilating the Body to Correct a Delusion
	Kevin Libin: Next From the CCPA, Proof That Water is Wet
	Ottawa Imam Targeted in ‘Hostile Takeover’
	Europe and the EU
	Croatia-EU: Slovenia Confirms Veto to Membership
	Cultural Bridge Builder Tariq Ramadan Can Stay in Rotterdam
	Czech Rep Criticises Racism Conference Declaration on Behalf of EU
	Czech President Will Not Shake Hands With Lukashenko
	Denmark: Absalon Returns From Pirate Duty
	Denmark: Veils Must be Lifted for Season Ticket Holders
	EU Dismayed by Romania Mass Citizenship Plan
	Finland: Cleaners Have Highest Sick Leave Rates, Doctors Lowest
	France: Sarkozy, Against Discrimination at School and Work
	France: Saudi Prince Convicted of Cocaine Trafficking
	France: Children Malnourished for Islamic Purification
	France: Storm in a French Port
	Greenland: Nunavut Premier: EU Not Welcome in Arctic Council
	Italy: Three Held for Grain King Murder
	Moldova Brutality Admitted
	Netherlands: Terrorism Convict to Move to Dutch Prison
	Netherlands: Undercover Officers Police Anti-Social Bus Routes
	Norway: 30,000 Asylum Seekers Arrive Without Passports
	Racial Laws: Osservatore, Fini Petty Opportunism
	Slovenia: Average Monthly Salary Up, Now at 918 Euros
	Sweden: Prosecutor: Giving the Pill to Teens Aids Rape
	‘The Only Thing Saving the Irish is European Protection’
	UK: Court Convicts UK Tamil Tigers Head
	UK: Policeman Deletes Tourist’s Photos ‘to Stop Terrorism’… After He is ‘Caught’ Taking Picture of Iconic London Bus
	UK: Thousands Line Streets to Welcome Home Soldiers From Afghanistan
	Balkans
	Serbia Submits Kosovo Motion at ICJ
	Mediterranean Union
	Egypt: Aymar Nour, Political Error Sending Me to Prison
	North Africa
	Egypt: Dissident Leader Criticises Cairo for Hezbollah Crackdown
	Morocco: General Strike Against Highway Code Reform
	Shoes Against Bush, Egyptian Proposes Daughter to Zahidi
	Stakelbeck Sits Down With Jehan Sadat, Widow of Egyptian President
	Israel and the Palestinians
	Arab Youth Attacks European Tourist in Jerusalem Old City
	Egypt-Israel: Abul Gheit Refuses to Deal With Lieberman
	Lieberman to Moratinos, First Stop Iran & Hamas
	US Sees Arab Peace Plan as Part of Palestinian State Push
	Middle East
	Israel Asks Russia Not to Sell S-300 to Iran
	Lebanon: Mig-29 From Russia, Beirut Press Sceptical
	Lebanon: Another Arrest for Presumed Pro-Israeli Spying
	Saudi Court Confirms Validity of Marriage for Eight-Year-Old Girl
	Saudi Cleric Khaled Al-Khlewi Teaches Children to Hate Jews
	US Weighing Punishing Israel if it Attacks Iran
	Caucasus
	Russia: NATO Exercises ‘a Dangerous Move’
	South Asia
	Afghanistan: Hero Marine Rugby-Tackles Suicide Bomber and Says ‘Don’t Tell Mum, I Don’t Want Her to Worry’
	Attracted by Promises of a Better Life in Naples, Somali Refugees Find Themselves in Nepal
	Pakistan: Radical Cleric Returns to Red Mosque
	Taliban Foment Class Revolt in Pakistan
	What Indian Christians Can Hope From These Elections
	Far East
	Philippines: Hostage Rescue Gets Green Light
	Philippines: US Set to Help in Jolo, Sulu Hostage Crisis, Says Envoy
	Australia — Pacific
	Australia: ‘I Just Wanted to be Safe’: Asylum Seeker
	Australia: People Smuggler Jailed for Six Years
	New Zealand: Patrick Gower: a Liberal Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	‘I Used Icepick to Take Somali Pirate Hostage’ Says Sailor
	‘I’m Not a Pirate, I’m the Saviour of the Sea’
	Prison Sentence for Insulting Gambian President
	S. Korean Navy Repels Pirate Attack
	Scott Stinson: Got Pirate Problems? Hire Some Russians
	Latin America
	Nicole Ferrand in the Americas Report: An Ideological Crusade Against Alberto Fujimori
	Obama Blames U.S. Guns in Mexico
	Immigration
	154 Illegal Immigrants Stranded at Sea
	Australia: Navy to Intercept Asylum-Seekers on Way to Australia; Police Warned of Increase
	Denmark: Fears of Foreigner Flood Just a Trickle
	Finland: Thors Accuses Zyskowicz of Divisiveness in Asylum Debate
	Indonesia: 68 Afghan Migrants Arrested
	Italy: European Rights Watchdog Attacks Immigration Record
	Netherlands Gets Tough With Somali Asylum Seekers
	Singapore: 245 Suspicious Vessels
	Three More Landings on Lampedusa
	Culture Wars
	UK: We Can’t Let the Family Die
	General
	Romancing the Jihad
	Stop Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth

Egypt: Suez Canal Revenues Fall 21 Percent in March

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, April 16 — In continuation of a downward trend, Egypt’s Suez Canal revenues dropped 21 percent to USD 327.9 million this past March from USD 416.9 million the previous year, according to a government statement. Although the figures for March are an improvement on February’s earnings, which were the lowest since April 2006 at USD 301.8 million, Suez Canal revenues are expected to continue dropping steadily into the next fiscal year as a result of the ongoing financial crisis. The number of vessels using the waterway last month was 1,439, down from 1,699 in March 2008. In February 2009, only 1,272 ships passed through Suez, a five-year low in canal traffic. The Suez Canal is a vital source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad. It is also a contributor to Egypt’s economic growth, constituting 0.7 percent of Egypt’s 7.2 percent overall growth for the 2007-2008 fiscal year. It appears that revenues from the canal can be expected to continue dropping for the foreseeable future. Cairo investment bank EFG-Hermes expects total revenues for the canal to drop 10 percent for the 2008-2009 fiscal year from USD 5.1 billion in 2007-2008, and a further 25 percent in the coming fiscal year beginning July 1.(ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Sarkozy Insults EU Colleagues and US Leader at Lunch

Nicholas Sarkozy, the talkative and not infrequently tactless French president, has once again been robustly, awkwardly blunt.

His style, which has seen the politician call impoverished suburban youth “scum” and tell a heckler to “sod off, asshole,” normally brings a smile to the kind of conservative voters who find it refreshing to hear a politician abandon the langue du bois, or “wooden speaking style” historically used by the country’s leaders.

But this time those whom he has insulted are some of his most important international allies, and they might have a different sense of humour to the politically incorrect man on the street.

At a lunch with 24 French senators and MPs from all parties invited to discuss the state of the ongoing financial crisis on Wednesday (15 April), the French president gave an update to his colleagues on the results of the recent meeting of the G20 in London.

In so doing, he described Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, as stupid, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, as simply following Mr Sarkozy’s lead and Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, as “absent.” By the end of the lunch, he had also cast the new American president, Barack Obama, as inexperienced and not up to speed on the issue of climate change.

The sole global leader that remained high in the French president’s estimation was the equally unpolished Silvio Berlusconi, for his repeated electoral successes.

Mr Sarkozy had perhaps assumed that the private discussion would not be passed on by his guests, but among their number were not a few opposition politicians, and Liberation, the left-wing French daily, immediately published their reports of the meeting.

According to the politicians, the president said of his American counterpart: “Obama has a subtle spirit, very intelligent and very charismatic. But he’s only been elected two months and has never headed up a government ministry in his life.”

“There are a certain number of things about which he has no position,” he said, Liberation reports. “I told him: ‘I don’t think you’ve really understood what we have done regarding CO2. You have talked, but one must act.’ The [EU] climate-energy package that I got passed during the french [EU] presidency will see in 2020 a reduction of emissions on 1990 [levels]. We in Europe have sanctions against states and companies. He just wants to return to 1990 emission levels and there are no sanctions.”

French magazine L’Express reports that Mr Sarkozy also joked about Mr Obama’s saintly image in the context of a planned visit to France in June. “I am going to ask him to walk on the [English] Channel, and he’ll do it,” the French leader said.

Mr Sarkozy qualified the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, as “totally absent from the G20” and said of the German chancellor: “When she realised the state of her banks and her automobile industry, she had no choice but to take on my position.”

The most piquant phrase came with dessert, for the Spanish prime minister. “One can say many things about Zapatero …He’s maybe not very intelligent,” Mr Sarkozy said.

He added that intelligence is not a vital element in politics, as he knows many intelligent politicians who have failed to get re-elected.

He then saluted the Italian prime minister for being able to surmount such hurdles. “The important thing in a democracy is to be re-elected. Look at Berlusconi. He’s been re-elected three times.”

The 24 deputies are scheduled to be invited for another presidential lunch briefing on the financial crisis in June.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

Inside Washington: Pricey Bus Test a Bust

[Comment from Tuan Jim: Good ol’ Falls Church — always good for a laugh.]

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — It seemed like a good idea, perhaps one that could be emulated nationwide: a fleet of electric buses to ease congestion in one of Washington’s traffic-choked suburbs in an environmentally friendly way.

Congress provided earmarks of nearly $2 million to make it happen. But about 10 years later, the buses serving the small, prosperous city of Falls Church aren’t electric, their usage has leveled off at half of what was projected, and the city is considering scrapping the system.

Taxpayers subsidize the service at a whopping $8 per ride, in most cases enough to pay for a cab ride.

The GEORGE system has become another demonstration of the risks of congressional earmarks — spending provisions in the law that doles out money for specific projects in their home states or districts.

“That little earmark is a microcosm of the problem,” said Leslie Paige, spokesman for Citizens Against Government Waste.

After two contractors failed to provide suitable clean-running electric buses for the system, the city ended up with diesel buses — albeit ones equipped to reduce emissions.

And at many points on the route, the GEORGE bus stops overlap or are less than a block away from regional bus routes that also connect to Metrorail, the Washington area’s large subway system.

Earmarks have become a particularly contentious part of the federal budget process. President Obama campaigned against earmark spending, but last month signed a $410 billion spending package that included 8,000 earmarks costing $5.5 billion.

Transportation projects are an earmarking favorite. A 2007 report from the Transportation Department’s inspector general found that in 2006, Congress had taken an $847 million federal program for bus funding and earmarked $814 million of it for pet projects, leaving almost nothing to be allocated under the traditional merit-based funding formula.

Meanwhile, Falls Church is deciding whether to continue the GEORGE service. A city of about 12,000 inside the Capital Beltway, it would have to pay as much as $600,000 to maintain service next year, according to city manager Wyatt Shields. Bus systems in the nearby suburbs of Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington provide an average subsidy of $2 per ride or less. Shields recommends eliminating the service.

But the system still has supporters, and the city council is looking at ways to make the system more efficient.

Its biggest booster, city councilman David Snyder, said the earmarks will only waste taxpayer money if the city gives up on GEORGE. “It’s up to us (on the city council) now to make sure the earmark isn’t wasted,” he said.

The idea for GEORGE came from a former mayor in the 1990s who was impressed by electric buses he rode in Chattanooga, Tenn.

A working group was formed to study feasibility. But it was a series of congressional earmarks, shepherded by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., that got the project off the ground. Moran is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls earmark spending.

Service began in December 2002, with the buses primarily delivering Falls Church commuters to two Metrorail stations on opposite ends of the city. Initial projections estimated ridership of about 144,000 annually. But ridership has never exceeded 75,000 and now stands at about 70,000.

Falls Church resident Jeff Proctor said he occasionally uses the bus to connect to Metrorail. The GEORGE bus, which costs 50 cents a ride, stops directly in front of his apartment.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” he said. “If I had to pay $8 I’d just take a cab, right? It seems silly to subsidize it at that level.”

Paige said GEORGE demonstrates many of the problems with earmarks. Among them is the temptation to throw good money after bad, with local governments on the hook for heavy operating subsidies to justify the money spent to establish the system.

“Earmarks become like a seed for even more wasteful spending further on down,” she said.

Moran, a defender of the earmark system who has requested a $2 million earmark in the upcoming budget cycle for neighboring Arlington County’s bus service, said the federal government can no longer continue subsidiziing the GEORGE service, but he doesn’t see the earmark as a waste.

“We gave it our best shot,” he said. “If we hadn’t had this financial depression or recession we probably could have continued. But in tough fiscal times like this, you have to make tough choices. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

John Roughan: Obama’s First Kill a Baptism of Gunfire

Barack Obama, like the best who have been in his office, is an ordinary human being who finds himself wielding extraordinary and ultimately lonely power.

Devotees of the television series The West Wing, a fictional drama made with the help of some former White House staff, will remember what happens every time an American life is threatened by armed force abroad.

Blue lights go on in the “situation room”, a windowless chamber with banks of screens and electronic maps around a long table where the Joint Chiefs of the uniformed services, heads of the intelligence agencies and probably the Secretaries of State and Defence sit in solemn discussion with senior presidential staff.

All will have already read briefings by specialists in the zone of concern. The equipment in the room will give them instant communication with commanders in the field and live pictures from satellites or high-flying aircraft can be screened if they need them.

When the meeting has settled on the options available and has some action to recommend, the President is summoned. He sits at the head of the table and it is his decision alone.

In one memorable West Wing scene the fictional President, a very liberal Democrat, has authorised a secret assassination of a troublesome Middle Eastern figure, mainly because the opportunity arose.

After the deed the President ponders how many American laws he has just broken, not to mention his own moral code. He asks his loyal and equally liberal Chief of Staff why he had to do it.

The man looks at him and says, “Because you were elected.”

I wonder what went through Obama’s mind when the news reached him last Monday that the ship captain held hostage by Somali pirates had been rescued?

Elation, obviously, that the man was safe and unharmed and a family’s agony was over. It is one of the President’s happy tasks, or dreadful duties, to call the family whatever happens.

But a man like Obama might experience some other thoughts. The three pirates were aged 17 to 19. The lifeboat in which they held the captain at gunpoint had been taken under tow by the USS Bainbridge. They had been negotiating.

The incident was near the end of its fifth day when the moment came that all three teenagers simultaneously put their heads in the rifle sights of a Navy Seal sniper crouched on the fantail of the destroyer. The President had given the order to kill if the opportunity presented itself.

It was done. And it was right. I haven’t read criticism of the action, though I wonder what would have been said if the decision had been made by John McCain.

We would have read much more, I suspect, about the plight of Somalis, the tempting prize that passing cargo ships present to bands of young tribesmen in a country with no law, no government, not much of a functioning economy, no shortage of firearms and not many other ways to make a living.

They are accustomed to ships that offer no resistance. It has been pathetic to read how easily these hoodlums in small craft have approached container ships far out on the ocean, clambered up their towering hulls somehow and subdued the seamen who must vastly outnumber them.

After one such incident I overhead in a bar some powerfully built veterans of the British merchant marine recalling acts of piracy they had encountered. I asked them the reason for this lack of resistance and they said ships’ crew were not trained in martial skills.

What they really meant, I think, is that guns can only be met with guns and it goes against the grain of most ordinary men to kill another unless they are in desperate personal danger.

It probably goes against Obama’s grain, too, but he was elected. Probably nothing prepared him for the first execution he would have to order, or for the realisation that, though the decision was his alone, it was really not his.

The responsibilities he had sought as a candidate would be suddenly overwhelming in office. They would overwhelm personal inclinations. Private moral misgivings — is it right to murder people who are committing not much more than armed robbery? — become mere indulgence.

You are responsible for the security of a country and every one of its citizens. Uniquely, the country has the power to protect them anywhere in the world. They expect you to do it.

Christians learn the crucifixion was ordered by a powerful Roman governor against his private inclinations. But then, they believe it served the cause of salvation.

It was Easter Sunday in America when the pirates were shot. Obama probably went to church.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

NY Based Islamic Hate Group Exposed!! (Videos)

By Christopher Logan

As we can see by the picture the NY based Islamic Thinkers Society is once again spewing their hatred of non-Muslims. As they are calling for Muslims not to befriend Jews or Christians. But they did not just come up with this line of thinking out of thin air. It is commanded from the Koran verse 5:51, which tells Muslims not to be friends with Jews or Christians…

— Hat tip: Islam in Action

[Return to headlines]

Team O Turns Left on Sanity With “Right-Wing Extremists”

By Diana West

I’ve got it.

After reading and rereading the surreal Department of Homeland Security intel report on “right-wing extremism” that clearly designates conservative political dissent as part of the threat, I finally figured out why it all seems so familiar.

First, there’s the report’s leading villain, the “military veteran” returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan — the “potential lone wolf” terrorist with the lethal capabilities. That could raise goose bumps in anyone, right?

Then there are the “white supremacists” well known for their “longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion, interracial crime and same-sex marriage.” (I don’t get the connection either.) According to the government, we just might see a growing movement of similarly pro-life, pro-law-and-order, pro-marriage … “white supremacists.” Enough to make anyone hyperventilate, of course.

And what about the “right-wing extremist” who “adopts the immigration issue as a call to action”? Or the “many right-wing extremists” who “are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived” — perceived? — “stance on a range of issues” including immigration, expanding government programs and gun control? According to the report, such “right-wing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment.” Sounds like a GOP voter drive to me. Cue up “Psycho”- strains of shrieking violins.

The fact is, we’ve seen this cast of characters before — many times before — in all of the schlock Hollywood movies that year after year harvest a diseased crop of villains from the American heartland, endlessly returning them to the screen as the “crazed veteran,” the “religious zealot” and the anti-immigration “Nazi.” These are the stock villains — all racist, naturally — who are now similarly demonized in the government’s report.

This fantastic worldview that sees the country imperiled by military heroes, traditional values and even border security meshes perfectly with the also-official flip side to such paranoid liberal fantasy: namely, the harmlessness of the Islamic brand of “extremism,” which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently renamed, and with a straight face, “man-caused disasters.” Hollywood, of course, doesn’t touch such “extremism” either, sticking with right-wingers- gone-wild to the very last reel…

— Hat tip: Diana West

[Return to headlines]

Canadian Charged in Attempt to Ship Banned Nuclear Technology to Iran

Attempted to conceal nature of devices and final shipping destination, police allege

TORONTO — A Toronto man has been arrested for allegedly attempting to export nuclear technology to Iran.

Mahmoud Yadegari appeared in court this morning to face federal customs charges but he may face additional charges for violating a United Nations embargo.

Mr. Yadegari attempted to “procure and export” pressure transducers used in the production of enriched uranium, the RCMP said in a statement.

While enriched uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel, it is also a component of nuclear weapons. The U.N. Security Council banned exports of nuclear-related technology to Iran in 2006 because of its alleged efforts to build nuclear weapons.

Mr. Yadegari was allegedly purchasing the materials in the United States and sending them through the United Arab Emirates to Iran, said RCMP Sgt. Marc Laporte.

“The product was being exported through Dubai and then we’re alleging that the end destination was going to be Iran,” he said.

The charges followed an “extensive investigation” involving RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service (ICE). “ICE is involved because the product originated in the U.S. and was being brought into Canada,” Sgt. Laporte said.

Police are claiming Mr. Yadegari tried to conceal his activities. “The police investigation shows that steps to conceal the identification specifications of these transducers were taken in order to export the items without the required export permits,” the RCMP said.

Mr. Yadegari is a Canadian citizen.

He once worked for Iran Javan, a Toronto company that publishes an Iranian-Canadian business directory, said Reihany Pour, the Executive Director.

But Mr. Pour said the man had not worked at the company for eight to ten years. He declined to comment further, saying he would only speak to police.

Several countries are engaged in ongoing efforts to develop nuclear weapons, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in its annual report to Parliament two weeks ago.

“The proliferation of nuclear weapons, technology and expertise — particularly to less stable or conflict-ridden regions — continues to present a security threat to the international community,” the report says.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that up to 30 countries could have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in the next several decades, the report said.

CSIS said the likelihood of a terrorist group building a nuclear bomb is “extremely low” due to the complexities and expense. “The larger nuclear threat remains that of a rogue state, or one which is a sponsor of terrorism, obtaining nuclear weapons and technology for military use.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Colby Cosh: Mutilating the Body to Correct a Delusion

The government of Alberta’s decision to stop health-department funding for future gender reassignment surgeries has, in just a few days, been seized upon as a convenient high-profile example of Conservative heartlessness and Neanderthality. Don’t all decent, progressive governments pay the full freight for these procedures? Well, as it happens, they don’t; the only other province that was hitherto covering the whole tab was Liberal Ontario, which agreed to do so only after a human rights commission ruckus in 2008.

A similar melodrama is underway here, and the eventual outcome in favour of those seeking the surgery is certain. And even though the Alberta government will accede to the ruling, just like Ontario’s did, special opprobrium will be reserved for Alberta’s uniquely transphobic brand of evil.

This is all somewhat depressing to contemplate — as much because it introduces needless uncertainty into the lives of gender identity disorder (GID) victims as because of what it says about the politics of Canadian health care. Political correctness, lobbying power, and press clippings containing sorrowful anecdotes should not be permitted to influence governments’ decisions about what drugs and therapies to fund. Nor should the retrograde beliefs or uninformed instincts of government caucus members.

On Tuesday, in talking about the decision to delist reassignment surgeries, Health Minister Ron Liepert mused about the creation of an “expert committee” to review medical procedures on the same evidentiary basis that is used to list or delist drugs. Heck of an idea, Ron. Maybe you should have implemented it before you made a decision to defund the most popular treatment for GID. Having done so, you might conceivably have had a shred of justification with which to defend that decision before the human rights commission. Which will be sorely tempted to shove it back down your throat and make funding for gender reassignments mandatory, universal, and permanent in Alberta.

There is a strong bioethical case against the very existence of surgical gender reassignment, not that most members of the newly empowered caste of professional bioethicists would ever dare advance it. (Indeed, that there is not a louder debate about gender reassignment suggests that bioethicists are a virtually useless species.) The case against is usually made by Catholics, but nothing about it depends on any religious premise. It boils down to this: Gender reassignment constitutes the irreversible surgical mutilation of a healthy body — and thus violates the traditional prime directive of medicine — in the effort to correct a delusion, one which may be reversible.

But this is a philosophical view, and I cannot insist that Alberta Health, or anyone else, adopt it. My policy preference is for evidence-based medicine. I believe that, ideally, GID sufferers would be entitled to a hearing on scientific evidence of positive psychological outcomes from the surgery.

And I believe that on the existing evidence, they would lose. Most studies of gender reassignment surgery are retrospective; where the findings are positive, they may depend on well-known cognitive biases. Psychologists know that when one performs some expressive act in favour of a view or opinion, one thereby commits to it mentally and becomes more strongly convinced of it. There can hardly be an expressive act involving greater commitment than having your penis cut off.

What is needed in the field of gender reassignment, as papers in that field point out ad nauseam, are prospective studies with randomized controls. So far, there don’t seem to have been any. One non-randomized study containing just 40 GID patients has been recycled with almost comic frequency. The latest wide-ranging review of the subject, printed earlier this year in the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery, offered the usual complaints about the inadequacy of the data, and noted that there are a lot of people around who seem generally happier after sex changes, but had to confess that “the magnitude of benefit and harm cannot be estimated accurately using the current available evidence.”

In other words, no scientific claim about the therapeutic appropriateness of gender reassignment is possible. (It has been speculated that sex changes pay for themselves quickly in savings on psychiatric treatments, so Liepert may be costing Alberta money. No one knows.) And we are even further, decades away, from having the sophisticated, detailed quality-of-life information that would permit governments to underwrite gender reassignment with confidence and in good faith.

And it won’t make a damn bit of difference. It will either be funded, or not funded, on the basis of a cynical, ridiculous political tug-of-war.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Kevin Libin: Next From the CCPA, Proof That Water is Wet

If you’ve ever wondered exactly where your taxes go, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (the only Canadian think tank officially endorsed by Naomi Klein!) has spared no effort finding out for you. And in a report released Wednesday, it revealed the “path-breaking” answer. Ready? Turns out your taxes go to people with lower incomes than you.

If that strikes you as rather obvious, then clearly you don’t work in the news business, because the study was picked up by the CBC and a number of other media outlets across Canada, all of which credulously accepted the authors’ attendant conclusion at face value: that because we redistribute income like this, Canada’s public services must be a “bargain” for most of us (the study was called “Public Services . . .a Quiet Bargain”), since the majority of Canadians collect as much or more in direct transfers and other government benefits than they pay for. Just not that unfortunate minority in the highest income brackets. In other words: we soak the rich.

Of course, the CCPA didn’t quite put it that way. But report author Hugh MacKenzie, did contort this patent fact into an argument against tax cuts—since most of us are better off continuing to tax the wealthy for our own benefit: “Tax cuts are always made to sound like they’re free money to middle income Canadians. They are anything but,” he told the CBC. “We’re far better off with the public services we fund, than we are with tax cuts.”

Hand it to the CCPA for finding a way to put an artful spin on the elementary principle of tax redistribution. The think tank appears to have hit that news-coverage sweet spot where it matters enough to get editors’ attention, but evidently not enough to raise reporters’ scrutiny, because the study offers a number of howlers that sailed past them all. There’s the old chestnut from Oliver Wendell Holmes that “taxes are what we pay for civilized society” but no mention that this was uttered in 1927, when civilized society was still selling for an average 12% tax rate (Canadians pay about 45% now). Or how about this kneeslapper of a statistic: “An upper-middle income Canadian household would have to devote half a year’s wages to pay for the public services that their taxes provide.” Mr. MacKenzie seems to think this is a helluva deal, forgetting that, as any upper-middle income Canadian household currently preparing their tax return knows, these people are devoting pretty well half their wages in paying for government services (counting sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, etc.). But the report doesn’t bother to address that. And because the study relies on an overly simplistic mathematical analysis (total taxes paid, segmented by benefit, allocated over various income brackets), nor does it address how efficiently those services are delivered relative to the private sector or relative to other countries. That Canadians get some benefit out of universal education and public infrastructure is something we don’t need a 40-page study to tell us; whether we’re getting as much bang for our publicly spent bucks as other industrialized countries? Now that’s a report we might be interested in.

Because, these shallow assumptions—that all government spending is automatically a “benefit” to Canadians, exactly proportionate to spending, and that lowering taxes helps no one but the fat cats—quickly fall apart if you take them to their logical conclusions. After all, if taxing away wealth from the rich is such a “bargain” for everyone else—and to a certain extent, it certainly is, which is why democracies inevitably favour redistributive tax regimes—then why not tax big incomes away entirely, and give the majority of Canadians an even more spectacular quality of life than they have now?

I’m sure Mr. MacKenzie would hesitate to go quite that far. But by leaving out the vital analysis of spending effectiveness and utility (ie, waste) and, even more importantly, tax competitiveness, this is the inevitable conclusion he’s headed toward. When Ottawa and the provinces were forced to cut taxes in recent decades, it was because economists with a far more sophisticated analytical tools than this determined that their uncompetitive tax regimes were discouraging investment and productivity (why work extra hard if the government’s going to take most of it anyway?) and ultimately destroying not only personal wealth but the ability to collect sufficient revenue to sustain those very public services that the CCPA cherishes so—too many goose feathers, too much hissing, to paraphrase an old, French finance minister. Nearly every government in the developed world has since figured out that streamlining taxes on individuals and wealth-creating businesses makes all of us—including governments—better off in the long run. For a report so full of blatancies, it’s surprising the CCPA missed that one.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Ottawa Imam Targeted in ‘Hostile Takeover’

Scores demand search for new leader as Imam Khaled’s wings clipped

Ottawa’s new imam is on the brink of losing his job, thanks to fierce infighting at the city’s main mosque.

The Ottawa Muslim Association, which controls the main mosque on Northwestern Avenue, has mailed a letter to the Egyptian ambassador, saying they do not want Imam Khaled Abdul-Hamid Syed to continue, even though he has been here less than a year.

The 37-year-old Egyptian came to Canada with his wife and young son last summer after 12 years at one of the most prestigious Islamic universities in the world. But several people believe his English is not clear enough and many Ottawa Muslims have insisted all along that only an imam from Canada or at least North America will suffice.

A document with 40 names demands a search for a new imam fluent in English, Arabic, and, preferably, French, at home in North American society and unconnected to any foreign government. No mention is made of religious or scholarly criteria.

Imam Khaled would be relegated to one sermon a month, giving Islamic lectures in Arabic, and teaching the Sunday school, “in appreciation of his services this far” and “under the supervision of the OMA,” says the statement.

One of three candidates would step in until the final imam arrives:

– Imam Zijad Delic, a Bosnian, executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress in Ottawa.

– Imam Ismail Batnuni, who has led prayers at the mosque and speaks on various Islamic radio programs.

– Imam Adburrahman Al Hejazy, a Syrian who grew up in Saudi Arabia, and is now studying computer science at Carleton University. He filled in at the mosque until the current imam arrived. A petition was circulated asking that he take the position permanently.

Imam Delic said Thursday he knows nothing of the document, nor had anyone asked his permission to have his name put forward. “I know of the situation at the mosque,” he said. “It’s touchy. But I hope this new discourse brings a positive result.”

Similarly, Al Hejazy says he plans to graduate in the next year and leave the city to be near his parents, perhaps back in Saudi Arabia.

The mosque is so bitterly divided that the chairman of the association’s board of trustees has resigned over the issue. “It is not right what they have done to him,” said Nazih Hammoud. “They didn’t give him a chance.”

More than 100 others have signed a counter-petition trying to revoke the letter to the ambassador, asking that the matter be brought up at the association’s general meeting this Sunday. It says: “It is imperative that we air this issue internally so that the miscreants’ hostile takeover of the mosque is thwarted as their radical views would be a disservice to the OMA established in 1962.”

Farid Ahmed, a longtime member of the association who is considered to be one of the voices of reason in the community, went so far as to circulate bright yellow flyers at Friday prayers recently, saying in bold type:

“Are we Muslims or are we chicken? We should have an equal say in judging our Imam.

“Please do not let those who hide and cheat, win over those who worked hard to build this community!!!

“We want equal say in judging our Imam Khaled Sayed.

“Please give him a chance of one or two years to improve his English.”

In an interview at his tranquil Manor Park home, Ahmed said, “His name will be mud if he has to go back to Egypt. His future will be finished. I thought we would be more welcoming, and it’s disappointing. That’s why I wrote this.”

The community’s previous imam, Gamal Solaiman, left Ottawa in 2007. When the community could not find a satisfactory replacement, the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Affairs sent Imam Khaled from a program that sends scholars to Muslim communities abroad. He has an initial term of one year, which ends in July 2009, with an option to extend to 2011 if both sides agree. The Egyptian government, not the mosque, pays his salary. He and his family are provided with a modest apartment but no car. At this point, he travels by bus.

“It’s internal politics,” said Imam Solaiman from London, where he teaches at Cambridge’s Muslim College. “You know sometimes, age bears fruit as well … I was 68 in Ottawa, so I knew how to handle these (factions). But Khaled is a young man, and this is his first experience abroad.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Croatia-EU: Slovenia Confirms Veto to Membership

(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, DECEMBER 17 — Slovenia confirmed today that it would veto the opening of new negotiations on Croatia becoming a member of the European Union. Prime Minister Borut Pahor said that Ljubljana would announce this in next Friday’s press conference in Brussels. Talking after a meeting with the leaders of all Slovenian parties, the premier underlined that he has asked the political forces for a consensus on the veto of Ljubljana, the only European Chancellery which since October has opposed the start of negotiations with Croatia on seven chapters and the closing of another two, on a total of 35. “Ljubljana keeps its reservations on these nine chapters” explained Pahor in a press meeting in which no questions could be asked, but he proposed a meeting with Croatian minister Ivo Sanader “already next week”. This means that the adhesion process of Croatia in the EU will remain blocked, at least for some months, until the two former Yugoslavian republics find a compromise on the bilateral issues which form the basis of the Slovenian ‘no’. Ljubljana claims that in a series of documents presented by Croatia to the EU the maritime border in the Gulf of Piran in the northern Adriatic Sea is jeopardised, a question that has been open since the break-up of former Yugoslavia. Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said yesterday that his government is willing to give written guarantees, that is to say that the sea boundary will be questioned in no way. Pahor has asked Croatia to use none of the disputed documents, among which abstracts of land titles, in possible future proceedings at the International Court of The Hague or Hamburg. Sanader has refused these conditions, defined an ultimatum by the Zagreb press, “because it would leave Croatia without any documents in its favour”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Cultural Bridge Builder Tariq Ramadan Can Stay in Rotterdam

Muslim intellectual wins dispute over alleged discrimination against homosexuals

by Michel Hoebink

The Swiss-Egyptian Muslim philosopher Tariq Ramadan, who works as a cultural ‘bridge builder’ in the city of Rotterdam, came under fire in recent weeks for alleged discriminatory statements about women and homosexuals. But now it turns out he never made these statements. “Incorrect, biased and completely taken out of context.”

That is the judgement of the Rotterdam city authorities of a recent article in the Dutch Gaykrant which caused a lot of commotion around Tariq Ramadan.

Bridge builder

The article in the Dutch gay community weekly quotes old tapes of lectures by Mr Ramadan (pictured right), on which he is supposed to have said that homosexuality is a disease and that Islam does not allow it. Ramadan himself immediately denied that he ever made these statements.

Nevertheless, the article led to calls by a number of Dutch politicians for the dismissal of Tariq Ramadan by the city of Rotterdam, where he is professor of identity and citizenship at the Erasmus University and acts as a bridge builder between the indigenous Dutch and immigrant Muslim communities.

Mr Ramadan, who is very popular among young educated Muslims in Europe, has always been haunted by controversy. European left-wingers celebrate him as a bridge-builder. His view of a modern reinterpretation of Islam and for the active participation of Muslims in European societies is deemed the perfect antidote to the growing influence of fundamentalist ‘ salafi’ Islam. But to European right-wingers Ramadan — grandson of the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood — is often viewed as a ‘ wolf in sheepskin’, a man with a double agenda who is actually far more fundamentalist than he lets on.

Scrutinised

The Rotterdam local authorities under recently appointed Moroccan-Dutch mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb decided to investigate the matter. More than 50 tapes on which Ramadan speaks in French and Arabic were translated and scrutinised to find out once and for all what the man really said. Last Wednesday, the results were presented in Rotterdam and the outcome is clearly in Mr Ramadan’s favour. “Mr Ramadan does not speak with a double tongue”, says Rotterdam city councillor Rik Grashof. The Gaykrant, he claims, quoted Mr Ramadan incorrectly and took some of his statements out of context giving them exactly the opposite meaning to what he wanted to say. Conclusion: the Rotterdam city council sees no reason to discontinue its cooperation with Tariq Ramadan.

An interesting comment on the whole affair comes from Markha Valenta of the University of Amsterdam, who is in a same sex marriage. In an opinion piece in NRC Handelsblad, she argues that the whole discussion focuses on the question whether Mr Ramadan said that homosexuality is abnormal and not permitted in Islam. But this is beside the point. Even if he said these things, it should not have been an issue. It is not just Muslims, who think homosexuality is unnatural and does not deserve full recognition, large numbers of Westerners do too. So why should we suddenly demand that Muslims say homosexuality is good and natural, even if they don’t think so? argues Ms Valenta.

“What matters is that Muslims recognise the civil rights of homosexuals and lesbians and live their lives accordingly. Something Tariq Ramadan has always done. What a Muslim holds as his personal opinion is none of our business. The pressure on Muslims to publicly deny their personal convictions and beliefs is hypocritical and violates the values of enlightenment and democracy.”

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Czech Rep Criticises Racism Conference Declaration on Behalf of EU

Geneva — The Czech Republic criticised on behalf of the European Union today the modified draft final declaration of the forthcoming U.N. conference on racism.

According to the German dpa news agency, the Czech Republic, that now presides over the EU, expressed dissatisfaction with the formulations of the terms religion and occupied territories that it considers to be really essential points.

The EU previously threatened to boycott the Geneva conference due to disputes over the final document.

Muslim states are trying to include in the final document sharply anti-Israeli stands.

The United States, Israel, Canada and Italy have already cancelled their participation.

The compromise version was submitted by Russia that wanted to accommodate the objections of some western states.

The conference that is to start in Geneva on Monday and continue until Friday, April 24, is to assess progress the world has attained in the struggle against racism since the first U.N. conference on the topic in Durban in 2001.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Czech President Will Not Shake Hands With Lukashenko

Prague — Czech President Vaclav Klaus will not hold out his hand to Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and he will not receive him at Prague Castle if he arrives in Prague to attend an EU-Eastern Partnership summit, Klaus’s spokesman Radim Ochvat said today.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg today handed an invitation to the May 7 summit in Belarus on behalf of the EU.

Ochvat said Klaus was “rather” surprised at the invitation for Belarus.

“The President is surprised at the double morals that is applied, and says he will not hold out his hand to Mr Lukashenko and will not receive him at Prague Castle,” Ochvat said.

The invitation to Belarus to the summit was handed by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg on behalf of the EU in Minsk today.

Foreign news agencies write that Lukashenko himself was invited, but Czech diplomacy says the invitation is destined for Belarus that will decide on whom it will send to Prague.

“We expect to learn soon who will arrive,” Czech Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova said.

Czech diplomacy says the invitation was consulted with the other member countries of the EU that recently decided to hold dialogue with the country.

The invitation was endorsed by outgoing Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek who will direct the summit as a representative of the country presiding over the EU, Opletalova told CTK by phone from Minks.

Schwarzenberg said on Czech Television today he thinks the EU’s attitude to Belarus is correct and that he hopes that the country, criticised for violating human rights, will start to take democratisation-aimed steps.

“I very much hope for this. The EU has embarked on the correct path (towards Belarus) and we hope that we will continue to pursue it,” Schwarzenberg said.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Absalon Returns From Pirate Duty

The Danish navel contribution to the international anti-piracy mission returned home yesterday with confiscated pirate weapons

The combat support ship Absalon returned home after an eight-month tour of duty in the Gulf of Aden yesterday.

Crown Prince Frederik, who had earlier celebrated his mother’s birthday at Amalienborg Palace, boarded the ship before it arrived at Amaliekajen Quay in Copenhagen.

Defence Minister Søren Gade also accompanied the Crown Prince on board the ship, where they thanked the 110-strong crew for their efforts in the anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia.

During its deployment, Absalon prevented at least 11 separate hijackings and the crew confiscated 56 hand guns, eight ladders, four GPS units and five mobile phones.

In addition, the crew caught 88 suspected pirates, but the lack of an international piracy court made it difficult to follow-up with prosecutions.

As the ship rounded Kronborg Castle in Helsingør it received a traditional 27 gun salute, before making its way to a crowded Amaliekajen Quay, where the crew’s friends and family gathered with the Navy’s musical corps to welcome them home.

The defence minister has indicated that the Absalon will return to an international anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden by the start of next year.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Veils Must be Lifted for Season Ticket Holders

Women using season tickets must show their faces in order to travel on Funen buses.

[Comment from Tuan Jim: The saga continues. At least the company is less-inclined towards dhimmitude than previously indicated — although why they still fired the driver is mystifying — and hopefully something that the union will rectify.]

Veiled women, who wish to travel on Fynbus buses in Funen using a season ticket, will either have to show their faces, or purchase other forms of ticket after the Funen bus company has amended its guidelines for season ticket passengers.

The new guidelines have been introduced following a case in which a veiled woman using a season ticket was refused passage because she would not remove her face covering for identification.

“We are now making the rules very clear,” says Fynbus Chairman Torben Andersen.

Andersen says that the new rules are designed to make it clear to passengers what they may and may not do, thus sparing drivers the discomfort of having to refuse passage.

Union The 3F union, however, says the new rules are unlikely to make things easier for drivers.

“Some people with covered faces and season tickets will turn up, and it will be up to the drivers again,” says 3F spokesman Jan Villadsen.

3F has also said it is planning a labour relations case against Arriva for having sacked a driver who evicted a veiled woman from a bus.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

EU Dismayed by Romania Mass Citizenship Plan

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — EU institutions are appalled at Romania’s proposal to give citizenship to up to 1 million Moldovans — a project that could damage Romania’s standing inside the union.

If the scheme goes ahead and Moldova retaliates by making dual citizenship illegal, the EU country would effectively annex one quarter of its neighbour’s population in a scenario described by one EU official as “frightening” in terms of regional stability.

Several EU staff questioned by EUobserver on Thursday (16 April) believed the plan is political bluster ahead of Romania presidential elections and will never come to pass.

“This is just a proposal, an expression of will. I am not sure if it is not just a political statement,” EU foreign relations spokeswoman Christina Gallach said.

But the Czech EU presidency publicly rebuked Bucharest after a meeting between Czech EU minister Alexandr Vondra and Romanian foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu, in a sign of rising tension within the bloc.

“I told my Romanian colleague about our serious concerns of the possible risks arising from adopting simplified procedures for Romanian citizenship,” Mr Vondra said.

Bucharest on Wednesday night put forward a bill to extend the right to naturalisation for Moldovans whose grandparent or great-grandparent was a Romanian. Previously, only Moldovans with Romanian grandparents could apply.

The draft law — which still needs parliamentary approval — also cut the deadline for processing paperwork from six months to five months and dropped a Romanian language test.

The move is a tit-for-tat reaction to Moldova’s decision to impose visa requirements on Romanian citizens after accusing Romania of trying to stage a coup following elections last week.

Under EU law, Romania is free to give citizenship to anybody it likes.

EU states in any case collectively naturalise over 730,000 people a year in what amounts to an annual mini-enlargement, bigger in scale than the individual populations of the smallest member states, Malta and Luxembourg.

In 2006 — the latest data available — the UK and France each gave citizenship to some 150,000 people, while Germany gave passports to 125,000 individuals. But mass-scale naturalisation on the Romania-Moldova model would be unprecedented.

The Spanish gambit

Spain in 2005 “normalised” 600,000 irregular migrants. The move stopped short of granting EU citizenship but did give permanent residency and right to work, with Madrid at the time facing strong criticism for failing to consult EU colleagues.

Poland at one point mooted offering citizenship to up to 1 million ethnic Poles left in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan following post-World War II changes to its borders and Stalinist relocations.

But Warsaw feared potential complications in its bid to join the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone. The final deal in 2007 — the right for ethnic Poles to apply for a “Polish Card” — limited rights to a refund of visa costs, access to healthcare and a cheap bus pass.

“People still haven’t quite forgiven Spain. You see that in the little obstacles put in their way during day-to-day talks on immigration matters,” one EU diplomat said. “The EU institutions have a long memory.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Finland: Cleaners Have Highest Sick Leave Rates, Doctors Lowest

Among municipal employees, those with the highest rates of sick leave are in lower-paid jobs. They take as many as three times as many days off work for illness as those at the high end of the employment scale.

The highest frequency of medical leave is among cleaners, home aid and kitchen workers, according to a new study by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

Among men, builders have the highest sick leave rate, while among women it is among machine operators and maintenance workers.

The lowest sickness absentee rates are among physicians and teachers. One positive finding in the report is that the growth in the number of sick days has slowed in the public sector.

In general, there are higher incidences of medical leave among older workers and those on permanent contracts. Those with temporary or freelance status may decide to work even when ill, for fear of losing income — or their job.

The broad survey encompassed data from about 20 percent of all Finnish municipal employees.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

France: Sarkozy, Against Discrimination at School and Work

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 17 — The problem of disparity in France “must be tackled from a social viewpoint because social disparity includes all others”, like ethnic disparity, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today in a speech at the ‘Ecole Polytechnique’ near Paris, announcing measures in favour of young people in the banlieue in accessing schools, big companies and the public administration. Measures based on unpaid work experience, studentship to promote social diversity “which often” said Sarkozy “reunites ethnic diversity”. Sarkozy today also appointed industrialist Yazid Sabeg as Commissioner for diversity and equal opportunities, charged with the presentation of “a work plan” by March 2009. This morning the daily Le Figaro announced that Malek Boutih, socialist and former president of Sos Racism, would have been nominated for the same position, though he denied this. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

France: Saudi Prince Convicted of Cocaine Trafficking

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 17 — The Court of Appeal in Paris has confirmed a 10 year prison sentence, as well as a 7 million euro fine, for cocaine trafficking for Prince Nayef Bin Fawaz al Chaalan, who is tied to the Saudi dynasty through marriage, thus ending the legal process souring relations between France and Saudi Arabia. The court also confirmed an arrest warrant for the defendant, who was never present in court and through his lawyers denied all guilt. He is also accused of using his diplomatic status for importing two metric tonnes of cocaine on behalf of Columbian drug cartels. Light was shed on the matter on June 6, 1999 with the discovery of 804 kg of cocaine in a villa in the suburbs of Paris and the arrest of a Columbian with the responsibility of handling the drugs. They rapidly decided to collaborate with investigators stating that they knew that they cocaine was brought into France via airplane thanks to a member of the Saudi royal family. In 2000, after having unsuccessfully tried to identify the person and airplane involved, French investigators were pointed in the direction of Prince Nayef by the American Dea. Nayef was accused by Columbian criminals who had turned states evidence of having imported two metric tonnes of cocaine into France in his bags on board a private Boeing 727, which landed at the Le Bourget airport in Paris on the night between May 15-16 in 1999. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

France: Children Malnourished for Islamic Purification

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, APRIL 15 — It looked like something out of ‘Les Miserables’ by Victor Hugo. Eight French children were being denied food and care by their parents so that they could be ‘purified’, or at least that is what the father, a practising Muslim, told police authorities. The man, aged 49 of Moroccan descent, is now in jail along with his wife, a 50-year-old woman of Slavonic descent who converted to Islam. They were sleeping on the floor, the house lacked furniture and beds, they walked barefoot, starving, lived locked up at home devoid of outside contact, and were harshly caned whenever they broke a rule. Rules were set by their parents, who were jailed last Saturday in Perpignan, in southern France, after being charged with repeated violence and for having denied food and care to the point that their children’s health was at risk. They told the police that they “rigorously followed the their religious precepts”, which calls for “a very rigid diet”. The couple stated that “slimming is the sign of a successful education for children which need purification”. Perpignan prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dreno explained that “the father believes that he is one of the enlightened and that the methods he imposed on his family go well beyond the rigorous practices of the Muslim religion, they are more reminiscent of the practices of a sect”. Of the eight children, aged between 7 and 17, the thinnest, two girls aged 13 and 15 who weighed 22 kilos and a 13-year-old boy (1.65 metres tall and 32 kilos in weight), were admitted to hospital. They will all undergo medical and psychiatric examination. The older girls no longer went to school because of the ban on wearing the veil. The mother had signed them up for a distance learning course. France is now asking itself how this could have happened under the watch of school and social services who failed to notice anything. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

France: Storm in a French Port

For more than two days, with apparent impunity, a small group of fishermen caused total chaos.

French trawlermen have lifted their blockade of the Channel ports while they consider an offer from their government of compensation for lost fishing rights. There is, however, no suggestion that compensation will be paid to the holidaymakers, lorry drivers and shipping businesses whose transport arrangements were disrupted by the action. There are, nowadays, alternatives to travelling to France by sea, but the ferries remain a vital link between Britain and the Continent. Yet for more than two days, with apparent impunity, a small group of fishermen caused total chaos, preventing thousands of people from getting home or conducting their business.

There is a well-known anarcho-syndicalist tradition of direct action in France; but just because it has a characteristically Gallic touch does not make it any more tolerable. There has not, to our knowledge, been a single word uttered by the British government in condemnation of this blockade. While it was under way, the two governments managed to issue a joint statement about Sri Lanka, but not about an issue of direct interest to both countries.

The problem with the ferry blockade is that we all know that either it will resume if the trawlermen do not get their way or, later in the summer, farmers or other disgruntled workers will prevent road access to the ports just in time for the holiday season. The free movement of services around the EU is supposed to be policed by the European Commission. Yet there has not been a word from them, either. In the past, France has managed to escape fines that were imposed for restraint of trade, notably when Paris refused to reopen its markets to British beef after the BSE scare. France must recognise there is a price to pay for allowing international waterways to be blockaded in this way.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Greenland: Nunavut Premier: EU Not Welcome in Arctic Council

Premier Eva Aariak does not think the European Union should be permitted to join the Arctic Council due to its proposal to ban the import of seal products.

The EU is one of several bodies that have applied to be permanent observers of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of eight Arctic countries, including Greenland and Canada, as well as Arctic indigenous groups, reported the Canadian broadcasting corporation.

However, non-Arctic states and groups can apply for observer status, which currently allows them to attend council meetings but without the ability to vote.

Premier Aariak of Nunavut is currently involved in talks with the Canadian government to oppose an EU application for observer status, due to its proposed ban on seal products. A proposal that the Premier feels would have a major impact on the Inuit way of life.

“I wouldn’t see the balance in European nations getting a membership with [the] Arctic Council while they are working very hard to counteract with our very way of life,” said Aariak to CBC News, commenting further that sealing is very important to Inuit culture in Nunavut and other Arctic communities.

The EU’s proposed ban includes a limited exemption for seal products from the Inuit of Canada and Greenland, whose goods could be traded only for cultural, educational or ceremonial purposes. That exemption would be subject to a number of conditions.

Politicians and officials from Nunavut believe that the exemption is too restrictive, and worry it would still seriously undermine Inuit sealers’ living.

In Canada the Nunavut and federal governments have been working to fight the EU’s proposed seal ban.

Federal Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon will be attending the Arctic Council’s ministerial meeting April 29 in Tromso, Norway. Aariak will also attend the meeting as an observer.

“This will be the highest-level ever political meeting of the Arctic Council,” said Karsten Klepsvik, Norway’s ambassador for polar affairs and the chair of senior Arctic officials at the council.

The council is aware of the concerns being raised about the EU’s application, Klepsvik said, adding that the issue of who should get observer status will be hotly debated.

“The European Union is a substantial player, so we cannot exclude them from taking part in Arctic activities,” he said.

“At the same time, we have these concerns that the EU might come in with points of view, etc., which we don’t like. So here you have to find a balance.”

The Arctic Council consists of eight member nations; Canada, the U.S., Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Russia. There are also six indigenous groups that sit as permanent observers.

However, the number of council observers has been growing. There are currently eight countries with observer status: China, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Britain. A further four have applied to become observers.

This story originally featured on the website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Please visit www.cbc.ca for more news from Nunavut relating to Greenland.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Italy: Three Held for Grain King Murder

Romanians accused of killing couple in burglary

(ANSA) — Naples, April 16 — Three men were arrested Thursday in connection with the murder of Neapolitan former ‘Grain King’ Franco Ambrosio and his wife.

The three Romanian immigrants, including the dead couple’s former gardener, were found in possession of the haul from the dead businessman’s luxury villa.

The ex-gardener, Marius Acsiniei, 22, allegedly planned the nighttime burglary which degenerated into a bloodbath, police said.

Acsiniei, who worked for the Ambrosios until last year, was said to have recruited his compatriots for the heist: Valentin Dumitriu, 22, a stableboy, and Calin Petrica, 24, a carwash employee. Police traced them after Acisniei used a cellphone stolen from the villa to phone his mother in Romania, talking about the incident.

An officer played a recording of the call in which the ex-gardener was heard to say: “I killed two people, beating them, but I didn’t realise what I was doing”. “The case is solved,” Naples Police Chief Santi Giuffre’ told reporters, saying the evidence against the three detainees was “crushing”.

The intruders left fingerprints and biological traces which could contain their DNA, he said.

Police had to protect the trio from an angry crowd as they were being taken to a Naples courthouse.

Ambrosio, 77, and his wife Giovanna Sacco, 74, were found beaten to death in the exclusive Naples district of Posillipo on Wednesday morning.

Police said Ambrosio and his wife, Giovanna Sacco, were apparently taken by surprise by two or more people who bludgeoned them with a steel rod or something similar.

He was discovered in a pool of blood in the kitchen while she was in a study. Both were in their night clothes.

The Ambrosios’ bayside villa was said to have been ransacked and a broken terrace window was found which may have been the point of entry.

Eastern European gangs have targeted villas in the Naples area recently, after a spate of similar robberies in northern Italy, some resulting in grisly murders, in recent years.

Ambrosio was once the owner of Italgrani, a grain company which at its height had a turnover of some 1.2 billion euros.

His industrial empire began to crumble after he was arrested in 1994 on allegations of defrauding the European Union of some $32 million of subsidies for a phantom export shipment of durum wheat to Algeria.

The following year he was back in the national spotlight after being arrested for allegedly collecting kickbacks on behalf of his friend Paolo Cirino Pomicino, a former Christian Democrat budget minister and fellow Neapolitan.

Ambrosio’s involvement in the Clean Hands political corruption scandal set the stage for the end of his business empire which stretched to Africa, Australia, Russia and the United States.

The multinational collapsed in 1999 and Ambrosio was later convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Moldova Brutality Admitted

A senior official in Moldova’s Communist party has admitted that opposition protesters have been subject to police brutality over the past week but said the officers in question should not be punished.

Marian Lupu, speaker of Moldova’s parliament, said the amnesty from prosecution announced on Wednesday by Vladimir Voronin, Moldova’s president, must apply to protesters who contested the Communists’ election victory two weeks ago as well as to the police who beat them in holding cells.

“The president said there would be an amnesty for everybody involved,” he told the Financial Times. “Logically, if you forgive one side then you have to forgive the other side as well.”

Many Moldovans took to the streets 10 days ago over allegations that the ruling Communists stole elections held two Sundays ago. Protests turned violent as the parliament and presidency buildings were stormed by demonstrators.

Over the following days, hundreds of people involved in the protests were arrested and taken to police holding cells, where, according to reports by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations, many were beaten by police and sentenced collectively to short prison terms.

Mr Lupu said police had reacted emotionally to the injuries sustained by their colleagues. “They visited their colleagues in hospital, some 200 of them, and saw how badly injured they were.”

Mr Voronin offered the amnesty after 10 days of tension in the capital, Chisinau, with many young people saying they were reluctant to go out on the streets for fear of being arrested.

But opposition parties were sceptical about the amnesty. Dorin Chirtoaca, the mayor of Chisinau and a senior figure in the opposition Liberal party, said: “I am not aware anyone has been released, and, even if they have, the damage has already been done.”

On Wednesday, Romania’s president said he was speeding up the process by which almost 1m citizens of Europe’s poorest country could acquire Romanian citizenship, in a move Mr Voronin described as “meddling”.

The results of an election recount, begun on Wednesday, are expected on Friday. Opposition parties are boycotting the process, saying it will do nothing to address concerns about ballot stuffing in the elections.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Terrorism Convict to Move to Dutch Prison

Iraqi-Dutch Wesam al-D. was convicted to 25-years in prison by a federal judge in Washington DC on Wednesday.

Under a plea bargain deal, Al-D. (36) will be allowed to serve his sentence in the Netherlands where he will be eligible for an early release on parole.

Al-D., a 36-year-old who was born and raised in Fallujah, Iraq, became a Dutch citizen as an adult. In February he pleaded guilty to his involvement in attacks against US forces in Fallujah in 2003. He and his fellow ‘Mujahedeen from Fallujah’ videotaped themselves showing off roadside bombs they said they would use to kill Americans. The films were found in his home in Amersfoort in the Netherlands in 2005.

Al-D. was extradited from the Netherlands two years ago under the agreement that he would be tried in US federal court and not by a military commission, such as those set up for terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. Under the deal, Al-D. has to be returned to the Netherlands after sentencing, after which a Dutch judge will decide how much time he should actually serve.

The American judge was not entirely happy with the arrangement. “If I had my way, I wouldn’t be giving an advisory opinion,” he said. “I’d be saying 25 years is 25 years. … But I don’t have that authority.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Undercover Officers Police Anti-Social Bus Routes

Amsterdam police say undercover teams of officers and council workers have taken part in patrols on buses to stop secondary school students causing trouble. Members of the Public Transport Safety Team took two bus trips on a route which is prey to nuisance caused by youths travelling to and from school.

The officers in civilian dress detained 19 youngsters guilty of vandalism and who threatened passengers who tried to stop them misbehaving. The offenders were taken home to their parents and were given fines or told to report to youth crime centres.

The trial patrols reveal that the students are well behaved when uniformed officers are riding on the buses. However, when they get off, the youngsters revert to their anti-social behaviour.

Since the trial patrols, problems on the bus route have been reduced. The Public Transport Safety Team patrols will now be extended to cover other problem bus routes.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Norway: 30,000 Asylum Seekers Arrive Without Passports

33,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Norway without a passport or ID documents since 2005, and most of them are still in Norway, according to Aftenposten. The Aliens Office (UDI) will now refuse them work permit. According to the police, there are several reasons why a large number of asylum sekers dispose of their ID documents.

One is that many fear that it may be revealed that they have earlier applied for asylum in other countries.

Earlier this year, the Department of Labour instructed the UDI to refuse work permit to asylum seekers without ID documents.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Racial Laws: Osservatore, Fini Petty Opportunism

(AGI) — Vatican City, 17 Dec. — “It is certainly surprising and upsetting that one of the political inheritors of fascism, which was the sole creator of the infamous racial laws, who has for some time now commendably tried to distance himself from this past, now openly criticises the Catholic Church. Revealing historical inaccuracies and petty political opportunism”. Today the Osservatore Romano concluded a brief article on the racial laws of 1938 with these words, below a concise heading, “On the declarations of Gianfranco Fini”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Slovenia: Average Monthly Salary Up, Now at 918 Euros

(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, DECEMBER 17 — The average net salary in Slovenia reached 918 euro at the end of October 2008. According to what the Italian Foreign Trade office in Ljubljana, real growth, compared to that of the same period for last year, was 3%, 8.4% in nominal terms. Nominal growth in gross salaries annually was 9.2%, and reached 1,424 euro. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Sweden: Prosecutor: Giving the Pill to Teens Aids Rape

[Comment from Tuan Jim: I think my head would explode if I heard a US prosecutor say this…but a Swedish one???]

A Swedish prosecutor thinks that health professionals who prescribe birth control pills to girls younger than 15-years-old should be charged as accomplices to rape.

“I’m read the law. Those how facilitate a crime are accomplices and whoever hands out birth control to someone who is underage makes it easier for assailants to continue attacking,” said deputy public prosecutor Mikael Hammarstrand to the medical trade newspaper Dagens Medicin.

Hammarstrand refers to the sex crimes law of 2005 which states that sex with someone younger than 15-years-old is always consider an unlawful act of coercion even if the sex is consensual.

A lack of legal clarity on the issue has resulted in a few midwives refusing to write birth control pill prescriptions for girls younger than 15-years-old.

But Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) disagrees with the prosecutor’s views.

“Our opinion is that those who issue prescriptions like this are doing nothing wrong,” said the agency’s Thomas Tegenfeldt to the TT news agency.

Protecting young girls who are already sexually active against unwanted pregnancies should take precedence over other aspects of the law, the health board claims.

“Since the law is formulated like this, we’ll take a look ourselves at the question of the law’s intent and if it really should be understood in this way,” said Tegenfeldt.

The health board has a previously scheduled meeting with the prosecutor’s office and Tegenfeldt says the agency plans to take up the issue then.

Lena Marions, the head physician at the women’s clinic of Karolinska University Hospital in Solna finds Hammarstrand’s interpretation of the law unfortunate.

“It’s sort of sad,” she told TT.

“The reason we prescribe birth control pills is to help people avoid unwanted pregnancies. When they come to us they’ve already had sex and they will continue to have sex even if we don’t write out a prescription.”

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

‘The Only Thing Saving the Irish is European Protection’

DANIEL COHN-BENDIT criticised the Irish when they voted against the Lisbon Treaty last year. But the Franco-German Green MEP has mellowed. “I had harsh words for the French and Dutch when they voted No too,” he said yesterday at a press conference to launch the Paris Europe-Ecology list, which he heads, for the June European elections.

“You can understand the Irish position,” Cohn-Bendit says. “They thought, ‘For us in Ireland, Europe is fine the way it is. We’ve benefited enormously, so why would we want it to change’?”

Cohn-Bendit became famous as “Dany le Rouge” in the May 1968 student riots. He derides European politicians with the same insolence he used to taunt Gaullist ministers 41 years ago. Yesterday, the Irish commissioner Charlie McCreevy was twice the object of Cohn-Bendit’s barbs.

The Irish campaign is becoming the stuff of European legend. “You have to remember what happened,” Cohn-Bendit recounts. “Monsieur McGreevy [sic] lands in Lisbon and declares to the Irish media, ‘You know, the Lisbon Treaty, I haven’t read it. It’s too complicated. But it’s very good for Ireland’.” Laughter breaks out in the press conference. The result of McCreevy’s admission, Cohn-Bendit said, was the slogan, “If you don’t know, vote No.”

“Well today, the Irish know,” he continues. “They know how much they depend on the European Central Bank; that their policy of low corporate tax didn’t save them; that the only thing saving them from the mess they’re in is European protection. That’s why they’ll say Yes, because they have a strong sense of their national interest.”

Interviewed four years ago, Cohn-Bendit criticised the Irish Green Party because he expected them to oppose the constitutional treaty. Yesterday, he had only praise for his “lucid and courageous” Irish comrades.

Although Cohn-Bendit insists his heart is still on the left, he advocates “radical political pragmatism” and approves of green parties going into coalition with conservatives if it enables them to move ecological issues forward.

European greens oppose another term for the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. “He’s a man with no backbone,” Cohn-Bendit says, advising us to read a book by Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who was Nicolas Sarkozy’s minister for European affairs during the French presidency. “When I say Barroso degraded the commission, people say I exaggerate. When Jouyet writes it, they start wondering.”

Cohn-Bendit offers “two out of a thousand” examples of Barroso’s ineffectual leadership: the German commissioner Günter Verheugen denouncing an ecological package as inimical to the interests of the German automobile industry; and Charlie McCreevy saying deregulation should continue, shortly after speeches by Sarkozy and Barroso on the necessity of regulating markets. Both times, Cohn-Bendit maintained, Barroso should have told the commissioners to “shut up or get out”.

“What did he say?” Cohn-Bendit asks. “Nothing. I want a president of the commission who doesn’t always agree with the last person who’s spoken, especially when they’re from a big country.”

Cohn-Bendit accuses Barroso of scheming to get himself reappointed in July, because he knows he will face stronger opposition if the appointment is left until the new commission is formed in the autumn. Britain, Spain and Portugal support his reappointment.

The longer it is delayed, the better the chances of a strong candidate emerging, says Cohn-Bendit. “The green candidate is me.” He holds dual German and French nationality, and has served as a German or French MEP for the past 15 years.

“I have as much chance of becoming president of the commission as of becoming pope,” he laughs. Cohn-Bendit describes himself as a non-believer. His parents were German Jews who fled to France during the second World War.

— Hat tip: islam o’phobe

[Return to headlines]

UK: Court Convicts UK Tamil Tigers Head

A London court convicted a man described as the head of the Tamil Tigers in Britain on two terror-linked charges, including supplying bomb-making equipment to the Sri Lankan group.

Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, 52, was found guilty of coordinating supplies of material to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Jurors failed to reach verdicts on three other charges against Chrishanthakumar, also known as AC Shanthan, plus one charge against another accused, Jegatheeswaran Muraleetharan.

Chrishanthakumar, described as a “very prominent figure” in Britain’s Tamil community, supplied electrical components for the LTTE, some of which had “an obvious terrorist purpose,” the court found.

He was also convicted of receiving documents for the purpose of terrorism, after a trial at Kingston Crown Court, southwest London.

The LTTE has been fighting to carve out an independent homeland for the Tamil minority in north and east Sri Lanka since 1972. Tens of thousands have died on both sides of the conflict in the Sinhalese-majority nation.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

UK: Policeman Deletes Tourist’s Photos ‘to Stop Terrorism’… After He is ‘Caught’ Taking Picture of Iconic London Bus

No tourist trip to London is complete without a set of holiday snaps. But a father and son were forced to return home to Austria without their pictures after policemen deleted them from their camera — in a bid to prevent terrorism. Klaus Matzka, 69, and his son, Loris, 15, from Vienna, were taking photographs of a double-decker bus in Walthamstow, north-east London, when two policemen approached them.

The tourists were told it is ‘strictly forbidden’ to take pictures of anything to do with public transport and their names, passport numbers and hotel address in London were noted. Mr Matzka was then forced to delete any holiday snaps that featured anything to do with transport. The retired television cameraman was particularly annoyed to give up his pictures of Vauxhall underground station, a building he regards as ‘modern sculpture’. ‘I’ve never had these experiences anywhere, never in the world, not even in Communist countries,’ he said. ‘These deletions were not only enforced destruction of private property, but an infringement of our privacy.

‘I understand the need for some sensitivity in an era of terrorism, but isn’t it naive to think terrorism can be prevented by terrorising tourists?’

He added: ‘Google Street View is allowed to show any details of our cities on the world wide web, but a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of famous London landmarks.’

Mr Matzka said he Loris enjoyed exploring cities by avoiding traditional tourist traps, but such a ‘nasty incident’ had ‘killed interest’ in any future trips to London. ‘We typically crisscross cities from the end of railway terminals,’ he said. ‘We like to go to places not visited by other tourists. ‘You get to know a city by going to places like this, not central squares. Buckingham Palace is also necessary, but you need to go elsewhere to get to know the city,’ he told the Guardian. The Metropolitan Police said it was investigating the allegations and had no knowledge of any ban on photographing public transport in London. A spokeswoman added: ‘It is not the police’s intention to prevent tourists from taking photographs and we are looking into the allegations made.’ Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority and a Green party member of the London assembly, said the incident was ‘another example of the police completely overreaching the anti-terrorism powers’. She said she would raise the issue with the Met chief, Sir Paul Stephenson, as part of the discussion into police methods at the G20 protests, adding: ‘I have already written to him about the police taking away cameras and stopping people taking photographs. ‘[I] made the point that if it was not for people taking photos, we would not know about the death of Ian Tomlinson or the woman who was hit by a police officer.’ The Independent Police Complaints Commission have launched investigations into both of these incidents, which happened at the G20 demonstrations in London on April 1, after footage appeared on You Tube and the Guardian’s website.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

UK: Thousands Line Streets to Welcome Home Soldiers From Afghanistan

Soldiers paraded through Plymouth city centre today along streets lined with thousands of spectators waving Union Flags to mark their homecoming from Afghanistan.

The 450 men of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery returned from a six month tour of the country earlier this week.

Today’s march-past, service of thanksgiving and parade brought the city centre to a standstill as thousands of relatives and well-wishers turned out in support…

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Serbia Submits Kosovo Motion at ICJ

BELGRADE — Serbia has this Friday submited its Kosovo motion to The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In over a thousand pages of legal arguments and documents, the state contests the legality of the Kosovo Albanian unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence.

The document has been officially delivered by chief legal representative SaÅ¡a Obradović, who said Serbia’s argument before the court will be that the proclamation is a legal rather than a political issue.

The state insists that the unilateral decision, made by the temporary Kosovo institutions over a year ago, had violated international law, Obradović added.

At the same time, the Kosovo Albanian legal team will submit its files defending the proclamation.

The submitting of written motions marks the end of the first phase of the process.

Serbia expects that those countries which have not recognized the declaration will support its case at the ICJ.

On Monday, the court will publish the list of all the countries that have decided to take part in the process by submitting written explanations.

Unofficially, Serbia will be supported in this way by Russia, China, several Latin American countries, and those European states which have not recognized Kosovo.

Arguments in favor of Serbia’s position and against the province’s independence could also come from some Islamic countries.

The process of assessing the legality of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence was launched by the highest UN court at the order of the UN General Assembly and at Serbia’s initiative.

A resolution adopted by the General Assembly ordered the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on whether the unilateral proclamation of independence of Kosovo in February 2008 was in line with international law.

In the next stage, which will last until July 17 this year, all sides involved will have the right to provide the court with additional written arguments and comments on the written filings of other participants in the process, the sources said.

ICJ judges will then review all the case documents and schedule a hearing, where the sides involved will exchange verbal arguments. The court will then hand down an advisory assessment of whether the declaration of independence was legal.

The ICJ is not bound by any deadlines, and the judges usually take months to reach a decision.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Egypt: Aymar Nour, Political Error Sending Me to Prison

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 14 — “Imprisoning me has been a huge political mistake on the part of the regime. It has made my name known internationally and I don’t think they will do it again” said Ayman Nour, Egyptian opposition leader. His remark came during a meeting in the European Parliament in Brussels in response to a question on the possible risk of going back to prison when returning to Egypt. According to the founder of the Al Ghad party, which took second place in the presidential elections of 2005 after Mubarak, his visit to the Belgian capital was his first foreign trip after being imprisoned from January 2005 to February 2009. On invitation of liberal-democrat party whip Graham Watson and the Euro-Mediterranean Network for human rights, Nour had a series of meetings with MPs of the European Parliament which in 2005, 2006 and 2008 asked for his release in several resolutions. “I don’t want to give up” said Nour, “even though the government has released me but still tries to deny me my rights every day. Yesterday I was excluded from the Bar Council so that I can’t practice my profession, but I am still part of the political scene”. The Egyptian opposition leader cannot run for the political elections of 2010 and the presidential elections of 2011, but he explained that he wants to meet more European MPs in the UK, Sweden and Canada. So far he hasn’t been invited by the Italian parliament, but “wherever Emma Bonino tells me to go I’ll go”, said the leader of Al Ghad, who decided today “to become a member of the transnational Radical party”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Egypt: Dissident Leader Criticises Cairo for Hezbollah Crackdown

The leader of the secular El-Ghad party, Ayman Nour, is one of Egypt’s leading political dissidents. Some observers say he poses the strongest challenge to president Hosni Mubarak.

Brussels, 16 April (AKI) — Egyptian opposition leader and political dissident Ayman Nour says the government has been “foolish” in its crackdown on alleged members of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement. Last week, Egypt announced the arrest of 49 members of a Hezbollah cell suspected to be operating inside Egypt and planning attacks on both Egyptian and Israeli targets.

“We agree with Hezbollah and its resistance and we respect its historic battle for the liberation of Lebanese territory (from Israeli occupation), even if we do not approve of its orientation,” said Nour in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

Egypt claimed the men who were arrested were commissioned by Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah to destabilise the country and its leadership by carrying out terror attacks. Nasrallah has denied the accusations and called them fabrications.

According to Nour, tension between the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah and Egypt reflects the rift between predominantly Shia Iran and mainly Sunni Egypt.

Nour also criticised the way in which Egypt, Syria and Iran handled the latest crisis in the Gaza Strip in December and January and said Egypt’s position “damages the image and reputation of the country.”

The government of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was widely criticised in the Arab world for failing to open the border crossings with Gaza for humanitarian aid during the Israeli offensive which killed at least 1,330 Palestinians and caused widespread destruction in the coastal strip.

Nour also launched an appeal to the international community to work for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, but in particular the prominent Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.

“He (Barghouti) could play an important role in an eventual peace process in the Middle East,” Nour told AKI.

Nour attacked Arab regimes who according to him have benefited from the conflict between Palestinian and Israelis.

“These regimes take advantage from the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that is how they establish their legitimacy,” he said.

Nour then denied that his centrist, liberal and secular party El-Ghad had anything in common with Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

“We, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Kefaya movement as well as other parties have common goals, but we do not share a strategy. On the contrary, we have reservations in regards to the Brotherhood’s position about women, Copts, etcetera.”

According to Nour, the El-Ghad party believes in the democratic transfer of power and religious and social tolerance. But he said in Egypt there was a great deal of tension and anger, due to the political and economic situation in the country.

“I hope that people will not rise up and revolt,” Nour said.

Forty-four-year-old Nour was released from a Cairo prison on 18 February 2009 after more than four years, in what some commentators interpreted as a “goodwill gesture” to US president Barack Obama.

He was charged by the government with forging powers of attorney to secure the formation of his party before the last presidential election in 2005, but he denied the charges.

Nour is Egypt’s best-known political dissident and some believe him to be the strongest challenger to authoritarian president Mubarak.

Nour has been banned from politics for a period of six years after his release. He received 13 percent of the vote in what was Egypt’s first multi-party presidential elections in 2005 since Mubarak came to power in 1981 .

Mubarak won a fifth consecutive six-year presidential office, with official results showing he won 88.6 percent of the votes cast. His son Jamal — chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party — is tipped to be his successor.

Tensions between Shia Hezbollah and predominantly Sunni Egypt have been running high after Nasrallah accused Egypt of siding with Israel in its siege of the Gaza Strip.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Morocco: General Strike Against Highway Code Reform

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, APRIL 14 — The plan to adopt a new Highway Code and the resulting call for a general strike in the transport sector has created notable difficulties in all of Morocco and specifically in Casablanca, especially for fuel distribution. Problems are also beginning to occur in the trade sector, specifically for fruit and legumes. Under pressure from the strike, Transport Minister Karim Ghellab and the Chamber of Advisors (Senate) decided to postpone discussion on the new code “in order to receive and examine the observations and proposals made by professionals in the sector together,” read a joint statement. One of the reasons for the protest is regulations that call for up to four years in prison and heavy fines for individuals who cause fatal accidents. Last year about 4,000 people died in car accidents, with losses valued at one billion euro, equalling 2% of Morocco’s GDP. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Shoes Against Bush, Egyptian Proposes Daughter to Zahidi

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 17 — There is great respect across the Arab world for Muntazer al-Zahidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the President of the USA, George W. Bush. In Egypt, a man has gone so far to as offer his 20 year old daughter’s hand in marriage to the journalist, assuring that she was happy about the idea too. “I would be proud, I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I was with a hero like him”, said the girl, who was contacted by telephone. Her father, Saad Gumaa, has called al-Zahidi’s brother to make the proposal offical. “I have nothing more precious to offer him”, he said, underlining that he could provide everything the girl might need for the marriage. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Stakelbeck Sits Down With Jehan Sadat, Widow of Egyptian President

[With video]

It’s been 30 years since Israel and Egypt signed a historic peace treaty that sent shockwaves throughout the Middle East.

Three decades later, the two nations remain at peace. And it couldn’t have happened without the brave efforts of Egypt’s then-president, Anwar Sadat.

Sadat’s widow, Jehan, recently sat down with me to discuss her late husband’s legacy and a host of other issues, including her new book, My Hope for Peace.

While I may not agree with everything Ms. Sadat says—particularly when it comes to Israel giving up land for peace—she is one smart and classy lady. You can watch our interview here…

[Return to headlines]

Arab Youth Attacks European Tourist in Jerusalem Old City

A European tourist sustained light head injuries on Friday, when he was attacked by an Arab youth in Jerusalem’s Old City.

An initial report found that the youth encountered a group of four European tourists along the Via Delorosa, and attacked them with a knife.

He then ran and hid a nearby restaurant, where he was discovered by border police officers shortly after.

The youth was taken for interrogation by Jerusalem Police.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Egypt-Israel: Abul Gheit Refuses to Deal With Lieberman

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, APRIL 16 — “The government in Cairo will not be engaging in talks with the ultra-nationalist Lieberman,” was the comment by the Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit reported today on Israeli TV Channel 2. “We will work with any proposal made by the Israeli government, but not by way of its foreign minister,” stressed Gheit in an interview with Russia Today Television, of which Channel 2 broadcast some parts. Lieberman raised polemics last year when he said that Hosni Mubarak could “go to hell” if the Egyptian president did not want to visit Israel. “Obviously Lieberman will not be coming to Cairo until his position changes,” said Gheit. On his first day as foreign minister, Lieberman also said that the Annapolis Peace Accords of 2007 with Palestinians were no longer valid. “A person should think before he lets certain words out of his mouth during a speech, and there have been consequences on the situation with Egypt,” added the Egyptian foreign minister. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Lieberman to Moratinos, First Stop Iran & Hamas

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — The peace process does not figure among the top three priorities of the new Israeli foreign policy. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told his Spanish counterpart, and former EU representative for the peace process, Miguel Moratinos that Iran is exerting a negative influence across the Middle East and that it is therefore necessary to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons to head off a region-wide arms race. According to a communique’ issued by Israel’s foreign ministry, Lieberman laid down to Moratinos ‘the three basic principles that should make up the new foreign policy”. These principles, the Minister explained, are: ‘1) to guarantee Israel’s security, putting an end to the firing of rockets from Gaza onto Israel’s civilian population and to arms smuggling into Gaza; 2) an end to Iran’s nuclear programme; 3) improve the economy in the Palestinian Authority”. Lieberman was positive about Spain’s participation in the UNIFIL mission and in stabilising southern Lebanon. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

US Sees Arab Peace Plan as Part of Palestinian State Push

RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 17 (Reuters) — U.S. President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, called on Friday for an Arab peace initiative to be part of a planned U.S. drive to create a Palestinian state.

The 2002 Arab initiative offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a “just solution” for Palestinian refugees.

[Comment from Tuan Jim: Let’s see if I’ve got this right…Israel gives up everything that it got in the ‘67 war and still has, full creation of a Palestinian state (‘48 areas or different)…in return for “recognition”. I’m not seeing how that’s a winner to any Israeli gov’t — much less economically/socially feasible…ever.

Mitchell and Obama are dumber than I thought if they think this has a snowball’s chance with any Israeli administration — much less the current one.]

“The U.S. is committed to the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state where the aspirations of the Palestinian people to control their destiny are realised. We want the Arab peace initiative to be part of the effort to reach this goal,” Mitchell said after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Mitchell met on Thursday with Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has yet to commit to restarting U.S.-backed talks with Abbas on core issues such as statehood borders, and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Israeli officials quoted Netanyahu as telling Mitchell that his right-leaning government wanted the Palestinians to first recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians have long rejected such explicit recognition of the Jewish nature of a state where one in five people is Arab.

“It is clear that there is a government in Israel that rejects signed agreements, that insists on continuing settlement activities,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

Erekat said Abbas asked Mitchell to “exert every possible effort” to pressure Israel to commit to a two-state solution and to meet other obligations, including a freeze in Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank and a halt to home demolitions in Arab East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu’s two-week-old government has yet to take a public position on the Arab peace initiative.

But in their meeting on Thursday, Netanyahu spoke to Mitchell about “the need to involve in the process important moderate Arab states”, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, a senior Israeli official said.

“They have an important role to play in strengthening the peace process and we see their greater involvement in the peace process as something positive,” the official added.

Another senior Israeli official quoted Mitchell as telling Netanyahu that “we intend to seriously examine the Arab proposal”.

A senior Western diplomat familiar with the Obama administration’s deliberations said Washington wanted to pursue the Arab peace initiative but was keeping its options open.

“We have put the flag squarely in the two-state solution camp but we haven’t said how you get there,” the diplomat said.

Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, said he saw positive points in the Arab peace initiative.

But Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state and wants to hold on to major settlement blocs in the West Bank.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Israel Asks Russia Not to Sell S-300 to Iran

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, APRIL 16 — Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak asked Russia today not to sell S-300 surface to air missiles to Iran, as they could be used by Tehran to protects its nuclear plants from a possible Israeli air attack. Barak made the request, according to public radio, during a meeting today in Tel Aviv with the Russian President’s special envoy to the Middle East, Alexandre Saltanov. Barak made positive reference during the meeting to Russia’s efforts to prevent instability in the Middle East. Only yesterday Russia’s Aleksandr Fomin, chief vice director of the Federal service for technical military cooperation, said of the missiles: ‘nothing is happening. There is no supply” . (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Lebanon: Mig-29 From Russia, Beirut Press Sceptical

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, DECEMBER 17 — The day after the announcement by Russia to supply ten Mig-29 hunters to Lebanon, the Beirut press is asking about the real technical and financial ability of the country to maintain the military aircraft. The newspaper as-Safir is asking what will be done with the Mig-29, seeing that the government, with its huge public debt of more than 40 billion dollars, is not even able to increase its soldiers’ salaries. The paper asks how the State coffers can meet the cost of training at least 30 pilots and about a hundred technicians, not to mention the costs of enlarging disused airbases and buying a radar system which would also require several more specialist technicians. Another paper, al-Akhbar asks how these Mig-29s can be protected without a missile defence system, bearing in mind that Israel could easily destroy the hunters when they are parked on the runway. The an-Nahar newspaper reports the dissatisfaction by military experts over the Russian offer “because Lebanon, a country which has not had its own aviation industry for decades, does not currently have the capacity to make the Mig-29s operational”: Lebanese pilots, writes the paper, would need at least a year’s training before being able to take off. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Lebanon: Another Arrest for Presumed Pro-Israeli Spying

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 16 — A third member of a presumed, “professional and well-trained” pro-Israeli spy network has been arrested by police in southern Lebanon. According to sources in the press, G. Alam, a corporal in the Lebanese police forces, was arrested in the southern city of Rmeish, which is located near the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel. A few days ago, Lebanese police had already arrested his uncle Abid Alam (formerly a general in the Lebanese police forces, retired since 1998), who has also been accused of spying for Israel. His wife Hayat was also taken in for questioning, who the press has said told interrogators that her husband had begun to collaborate with Israel in 1982. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Saudi Court Confirms Validity of Marriage for Eight-Year-Old Girl

Criticisms from UNICEF and the U.S. State Department. The Riyadh justice minister himself says that he wants to put an end to the arbitrary power of parents who arrange marriages for minor children, but does not mention any ban.

Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) — UNICEF, the U.S. State Department, and human rights groups are protesting over the sentence from the Saudi court of Unaiza, which has confirmed the validity of the marriage between an eight-year-old girl and a fifty-year-old man.

The court confirmed that Islamic tradition allows girls to marry, on the condition that they not have sexual relations before puberty.

In theory, the woman’s consent is required for a marriage to be valid, but many officials who perform weddings do not feel it is necessary to ask for this.

The question of the minimum age for marriage is extremely controversial in Islamic countries. Those who oppose setting one point out the fact that Mohammed himself took a nine-year-old girl as a wife. But women’s movements and women in general see it as indirect human trafficking, in addition to its being the violation of a fundamental human right. This can even lead to the abandonment of the Islamic religion.

This case, however, seems capable of providing a jolt to the system, partly because of the desire for the modernization of his country expressed by King Abdullah. If UNICEF has said that it is “deeply concerned” by the sentence of the Saudi court, asserting that child marriage is “a violation of that child’s rights,” and a spokesman for the State Department, Robert Wood, has called it “a clear and unacceptable violation of human rights,” the Saudi justice minister himself, Mohamed al-Issa, has announced that he wants to “put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls.” The minister, however, did not mention a ban, but only the desire to “preserve the rights” of girls, and “end the negative aspects of underage girls’ marriage.”

Behind marriages like these, in fact, in addition to tribal traditions, there is often economic trafficking, with actual “purchase” of child brides on the part of adult men. The practice, in fact, is present above all in the poorest areas of countries in the Arabian Peninsula, like Yemen.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Saudi Cleric Khaled Al-Khlewi Teaches Children to Hate Jews

[Video]

Following are excerpts from an address by Saudi cleric Khaled Al-Khlewi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 11, 2009.

Khaled Al-Khlewi: The [Jewish] Qaynuqa tribe betrayed the Prophet Muhammad. A woman went to a Jewish market in order to buy a piece of jewelry. The members of the Qaynuqa tribe were the most ruthless and wealthiest Jews. When the Muslim woman reached the market, what did they do to her? A Jew sneaked behind her, and tied her gown to her headdress, so when she tried to get up, her private parts were exposed. She cried for help, and one of the Prophet’s companions came and killed the Jew. Then the Jews ganged up on him and killed him. When the Prophet Muhammad learned about this, he fought the Qaynuqa tribe and banished them. This is the only way to deal with them.

In the case of the Qurayza tribe — or rather, the Nazir tribe — the Prophet Muhammad went to them, and learned against a wall. Some of the Jews said: “The Prophet Muhammad is leaning against the wall. Someone should go to the top of the roof and throw a rock on his head.” Then the Angel Gabriel appeared, and informed the Prophet in advance about this treachery. So the Prophet Muhammad banished them. The Prophet carried out the greatest killing among the Qaynuqa tribe, because they had violated their covenant with him.

So, my friends, the conclusion we may draw from this introduction is that with the Jews, nothing works but force. Memorize the following parable, just like I learned it from others: “Kiss the head of a Jew, and he will deceive you — deceive him, and he will kiss your head.” The Jew is treacherous, disloyal, deceitful, and belligerent by nature. Nothing works with him but force.

[…]

They have formed clandestine groups in Islamic societies, as well as internationally. Marxism was founded by Karl Marx the Jew. The Austrian journalist who preached the establishment of Israel, 50 years later — Theodor Herzl — was a Jew as well. Many U.S. Congressmen are Jews. Most of the media moguls are Jews.

[…]

Who can tell us the slogan that points to the geographic [aspirations] of the Jews? What is their slogan?

Well done! Come up here, my dear… Excellent! Come on up, this way. Come here, my dear, here, so we can see you.

Eight-year-old Omar comes to the stage

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

US Weighing Punishing Israel if it Attacks Iran

Having taken military action against Iran off the table, the Obama administration is considering ways of punishing Israel if it attacks Iran to end its nuclear arms program (and prevent a second Holocaust).

In other words, having failed to contain Iran, the United States is concentrating on restraining Israel.

Administration contingency plans include condemnation of Israel, support for a United Nations Security Council resolution that could include sanctions on Israel, and suspending or seriously cutting military aid to the Jewish State.

One of President Obama’s closest foreign policy advisers, National Security Council member Samantha Power, is a proponent of ending military aid to Israel in order to force it to negotiate with Iran’s Palestinian Islamist proxy, Hamas, and withdraw from all lands taken during the Six-Day War of June 1967. Power also advocates shifting aid to a Palestinian state. Overall, she views Israel as a liability and a historic mistake, in line with the European left position (and that of old-line, right-of-center, American isolationists and anti-Semites). Her antidemocratic admirers in the Democratic Party’s (Hillary-hating) left wing agree and are eager for an opportunity to paint Israel as a Jewish North Korea (although they actually have more sympathy for North Korea than for Israel).

The big question is how the Obama administration would react if Iran retaliated against Israel indirectly as well as directly—by making good on its repeated threats to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East and shut down the strategic, 29 mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, through which an estimated 20% of the world’s crude oil is transported by tanker ships. Would the U.S. fight back with real ferocity or respond in a limited way while blaming Israel for preemptively attacking Iran and appealing to “the Muslim world” for “understanding?”

One wonders how the Apologizer-in-Chief would react.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Russia: NATO Exercises ‘a Dangerous Move’

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has condemned Nato’s “dangerous decision” to hold military exercises in Georgia next month.

He said such decisions “are aimed at muscle-flexing” and would impede the resumption of full-scale contacts between Moscow and Nato.

Moscow’s envoy to Nato said on Thursday he had asked the Western military alliance to postpone the exercises.

Nato says the exercises, from 6 May to 1 June, represent no threat to Moscow.

Held some 20km (12 miles) east of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, they will be non-aggressive and based on a fictitious UN-mandated, Nato-led crisis response operation, the alliance said.

“There should really be no element of surprise for anyone,” Nato spokesman Robert Pszczel said. “There is no heavy armour involved at all, it’s just people.”

Nato has said the exercises, expected to involve 1,300 troops from 19 countries, were planned before last year’s conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia.

Georgia hopes eventually to join Nato, a move strongly opposed by Russia, which says the alliance’s eastward expansion is a threat to its security.

‘Impossible’

“I think this is the wrong decision, a dangerous decision,” Mr Medvedev said on Friday.

“Such decisions are disappointing and do not facilitate the resumption of full-scale contacts between the Russian Federation and Nato.”

His comments came a day after Moscow’s ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, described the exercises as “absurd and a provocation”.

“I have asked the Nato Secretary General [Jaap de Hoop Scheffer]… to postpone these exercises or to cancel them,” he told Reuters news agency.

Mr Rogozin said military co-operation between Russia and Nato was still frozen as a result of last summer’s South Ossetia conflict and that Moscow’s position would not change before a forthcoming ministerial meeting in May.

He also rejected Nato’s argument that the exercises had been planned last year.

“A war is a ‘force majeure’,” he said. “To hold military exercises in a country where a war has just ended is impossible.”

The ambassador also said the exercises could be exploited by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in his stand-off with opposition parties, which have recently held a series of mass protests.

The opposition accuses him of mishandling the war with Russia, during which Georgia’s attempts to regain control of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia were repelled by Russian forces.

Under an EU-sponsored ceasefire, monitors were sent to Georgia. But thousands of Russian troops remain in both breakaway regions.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Afghanistan: Hero Marine Rugby-Tackles Suicide Bomber and Says ‘Don’t Tell Mum, I Don’t Want Her to Worry’

A hero soldier who saved the lives of 30 comrades after rugby-tackling a suicide bomber pleaded to his sister: ‘Don’t tell mum.’ Sergeant Noel Connolly, 41, saved dozens of colleagues when he threw himself at the Taliban fanatic as he approached an army base in Afghanistan.

The bomber was pushing a motorcycle packed with more than 150lbs of high explosives towards the base.

Sgt Connolly went to intercept him and ordered him to stop before spotting a tell-tale toggle switch attached to the handlebars.

The Royal Marine dived on the bomber, grabbed him by the shirt and managed to haul him away from the bike.

Sgt Connolly modestly never mentioned the incident to his family until his worried sister Breda wrote to him.

She asked him if the exploits of the then unnamed soldier and had anything to do with him and he said: ‘Yes, but don’t tell mum.’

In a letter from the frontline, Noel, 41, wrote: ‘Let’s just say the sergeant concerned was Mancunian, about 5ft 7ins, with grey hair and supports Man City. You can do the maths, as the Yanks would say.’

She said: ‘He doesn’t talk about what happens when he’s away. But when I heard the news that a sergeant had stopped a bomber, I wrote to him and he admitted he’d been involved but said ‘Don’t tell mum’.

‘Our mum is a devout Catholic and has been praying for him every day since he has been away. Noel wrote to her telling her that everything was quiet and he wasn’t in the danger zone because he didn’t want to worry her.’

Sgt Connolly, of Manchester, and the 600 other Royal Marines of Plymouth-based 42 Commando returned to Britain on Thursday.

His wife Lorraine, who is a Navy servicewoman, and two teenage daughters were at Exeter airbase to welcome him home.

The youngest of seven children, he joined the Marines 22 years ago and has served in danger zones around the world.

Sgt Connolly and his unit were occupying an abandoned school in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province when they received warning of an impending attack.

He said: ‘I was near the school when I caught a fleeting glimpse of a motorbike. I told all my lads to expect a bomber.

‘The motorcyclist looked lost. He turned the bike around up the track and came back. I grabbed two lads and went to intercept him. I had no idea if he was the bomber. The only way of finding out was to challenge him.’

The sergeant said he then stepped into the road and, speaking Pashtu, he ordered the man on the motorcycle to stop.

He added: ‘He stalled the bike and fell off, then started pushing it away from us.

Eventually he stopped again, straddled it and turned to face us. I closed in on him and as I got to within ten metres there was a loud crack from halfway down the bike.

‘That’s when I saw a small toggle switch had been fitted to his handlebars. As soon as he went for the toggle again I rushed him. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and hauled him off.’

The motorbike’s frame was found to contain 154lbs of explosive. The bomber was handed to police and jailed for 18 years.

Sgt Connolly added: ‘I’m not brave. Someone had to stop him.’

But Noel didn’t want his 81-year-old mother Mary to find out about his act of bravery in case she got worried he was putting himself in harm’s way.

Breda Connolly, of Fallowfield, Manchester said: ‘It was always understood that we wouldn’t talk with mum about what he was doing. Now that he is coming back from the tour, she’s learned about it but she is just very relieved.

‘Noel is a true Mancunian. We are so proud of him. He is a Royal Marine through and through and is dedicated to the job.’

His mother Mary, who has two grown-up daughters and five sons, said: ‘I’m just happy that he is home safe. I thank God that nothing happened to him.’

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Attracted by Promises of a Better Life in Naples, Somali Refugees Find Themselves in Nepal

For the past three years, 72 “urban refugees” from Somalia are stuck in Kathmandu, victims of international human traffickers, who lied to them about work in Italy. The Somalis cannot leave Nepal however because the local government wants them to pay 40,000 euros for overstaying in the country. Now the refugees are threatening a hunger strike and say they are “ready to die.”

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — All he wanted to do was flee war, desperation and hunger and find refuge in Naples (Italy) to rebuild his life. For this reason a Somali refugee paid international traffickers to take him to Italy but upon landing he discovered that instead of Naples he was in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

The main character in this misadventure is Shukrui Dec, a 25-year-old man who along with 72 other Somali refugees left his country of origin in quest of peace, two meals a day for his family and a better education for his kids. He paid a hefty sum to an international agent who promised him a home and a job in Naples. But on landing at Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu, he realised he had been swindled.

For days Shukrui Dec roamed the streets of the city before surrendering to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Nepali capital, asking for hospitality for himself, his wife and 8-year-old son.

“We had no option but to surrender to UNHCR,” Dec said.

At present he has a place to stay and financial aid from the UNHCR. But for the past three years he has been an “urban refugee” waiting for repatriation.

If he is not home yet that is because of an obligation to pay about € 40,000 (US$ 55,000) in total to the government as overstay fee. According to Nepali Immigration Department rules, any foreign national in Nepal has to pay US$ 6 per day of overstay.

The refugees have asked the government to wave the fee and let them go. But for Home Ministry Spokesperson Nabin Kumar Ghimire, “there is no question of exempting them.”

With the UNHCR’s living expenses for Somali refugees ranging from 19 to 42 euros (US$ 25 to 54) per person, none of the “illegal immigrants” can raise 40,000 euros. And yet they still must pay.

Out of desperation Somali refugees are threatening to go on a hunger strike.

Through AsiaNews they are calling on the international community to help them.

“We can leave Nepal only if the government exempts us from the overstay fee,” says Fatima Muhammad, a 17-years-old Somali woman.

“Refugees are desperate to go home. We will die a dog’s death here, better to die in our own country,” Fatima added.

“We will fast on to death if the government ignores our demands”, added a Somali woman who had her seven malnourished children with her.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Radical Cleric Returns to Red Mosque

Islamabad, 16 April (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — Almost two years after the bloody siege on the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the radical cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz returned to the mosque late Thursday to lead the final prayers of the day.

Thousands of people welcomed the cleric at the mosque and showered him with rose petals, after being granted bail by Pakistan’s Supreme Court. The cleric then led the day’s final Isha’a prayers.

He had been accused of inciting the bloody siege at Islamabad’s Red Mosque and seminary in July 2007.

Pakistani authorities had filed 27 criminal cases against the cleric, shortly before military commandos stormed the Red Mosque to end the standoff with his armed students in July 2007 (photo).

The operation left more than 100 people dead, including about a dozen security personnel. His brother Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, his mother and dozens of students were among those killed.

Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested as he tried to flee the mosque dressed in a woman’s burqa. He has been detained under house arrest in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

“This marks the defeat of state terrorism and today we would say the prayer behind Maulana Abdul Aziz,” retired squadron leader Khalid Khawaja, a close friend of slain Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, said during an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

Khawaja, a close friend of slain Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, was arrested during the Red Mosque operation but later released.

“ I remember that several years ago I met (militant leader) Maulana Sufi Mohammad when he initiated the movement for the enforcement of Islamic laws in Malakand division. He survived imprisonment and today he and his cause are victorious and Sharia law has been enforced in Swat.

“Maulana Abdul Aziz also raised the flag of Islam in Pakistan and I can see that his cause will be victorious one day,” an emotional Khawaja told AKI.

The news of Maulana Abdul Aziz release rapidly spread through the city of Islamabad and people distributed sweets in the neighbourhoods to celebrate, especially around the Red Mosque.

The first Friday prayers since the release of Maulana Abdul Aziz are also expected to attract a historic crowd in the heart of the Pakistani capital.

“The court has observed that there was no evidence against Maulana Abdul Aziz in this case that could prevent his release on bail,” Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui said.

The court ruling followed a petition filed by Aziz challenging a lower court ruling in relation to regarding the illegal occupation of a library adjacent to the mosque.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Taliban Foment Class Revolt in Pakistan

Jane Perlez, Pir Zubair Shah, New York Times

Peshawar, Pakistan — The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here.

The strategy cleared a path to power for the Taliban in the Swat Valley, where the government allowed Islamic law to be imposed this week, and it carries broad dangers for the rest of Pakistan, particularly the militants’ main goal, the populous heartland of Punjab province.

In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power.

To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.

The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form of Islam through terror and intimidation.

“This was a bloody revolution in Swat,” said a senior Pakistani official who oversees Swat, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the Taliban. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it sweeps the established order of Pakistan.”

The Taliban’s ability to exploit class divisions adds a new dimension

to the insurgency and is raising alarm about the risks to Pakistan, which remains largely feudal.

Unlike India after independence in 1947, Pakistan maintained a narrow

landed upper class that kept its vast holdings while its workers remained subservient, the officials and analysts said. Successive Pakistani governments have since failed to provide land reform and even the most basic forms of education and health care. Avenues to advancement for the vast majority of rural poor do not exist.

Analysts and other government officials warn that the strategy executed in Swat is easily transferable to Punjab, saying that the province, where militant groups are already showing strength, is ripe

for the same social upheavals that have convulsed Swat and the tribal areas.

The Taliban strategy in Swat, an area of 1.3 million people with fertile orchards, vast plots of timber and valuable emerald mines, unfolded in stages over five years, analysts said.

The momentum of the insurgency built in the past two years, when the Taliban, reinforced by seasoned fighters from the tribal areas with links to al Qaeda, fought the Pakistani army to a standstill, said a Pakistani intelligence agent who works in the Swat region.

Since the Taliban fought the Pakistan military to a truce in Swat in February, the militants have deepened their approach and made clear who is in charge.

— Hat tip: LT

[Return to headlines]

What Indian Christians Can Hope From These Elections

Voting, which began today, is scheduled to last a month. For Christians two factors are a potential sign of change: the end of the alliance between the BJP and Orissa’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his party, and the election of a new leader to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or National Volunteers’ Organisation).

New Delhi (AsiaNews) — The political scenario is becoming more complicated day by day. The old alliances are breaking up. Every party wants to go alone to face the electorate, hoping to gain and be in a better bargaining position to make alliances for the future government. New regional parties are appearing, moved by the desire to acquire statehood or by the need to resolve regional problems. Most probably the two national parties, Congress and BJP will suffer a loss. There is a lot of talks about a third front, around the communist party and Dalit parties, hopeful to put up a government without the Congress and BJP, but among them there are too many self proclaimed candidates for prime minister. The real battle will be in the second half of May, when the results will be known and the leaders will start working out coalitions, promising ministerial berths right and left.

One survey published on The Times of India said that the Congress will emerge as the single largest party with 144 seats, but will find the BJP just a step behind with 137.

If the Congress will be able to convince the present allies it will get 257 seats but it will fall still short of the required majority of 272 in a house of 543 members.

Will the Christian community gain from the present election? The question is particularly relevant in places where they suffered persecution in the recent past like in Orissa.

Two events may have some bearing on this question.

First the chief minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, with his party, had broken away from the BJP. Second the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) has a new leader in Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat.

The first event was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Raphael Cheenath. He said that the church is happy to see Orissa’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) parts ways with ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Violence against Christians in Orissa by Hindu rightwing activists last year, particularly in Kandhamal district, is believed to be one of the reasons behind the collapse of the BJD-BJP alliance in the state.

“The Kandhamal incident may be one of the reasons for breaking the alliance” Cheenath acknowledged. Communist Party of India-Marxist general Secretary, Praksh Karat, has said his party leaders met Orissa Chief Minister and BJD chief, Naveen Patnaik, following the attack on Christians by rightwing Hindu groups and told him that “it is untenable for him to continue with the BJP”.

Kandhamal district in Orissa witnessed large-scale violence against Christians after the murder of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, August 23 last year. At least 38 people were killed and thousands of Christians were driven out of their homes. . More than 3,000 people are still living in government relief camps.

Cheenath himself received death threats from alleged VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) activists that his life would be taken to avenge the killing of the Hindu seer. He expressed hope that secular forces would come to power in the state after the general elections.

Another encouraging fact in Orissa is the recent arrest of the local BJP candidate to Lok Sabha, Ashok Sahu. He was arrested Tuesday for making an inflammatory speech in Orissa’s Kandhamal region earlier this month. ‘Sahu was arrested from Phulbani town,’ Kandhamal District Collector Krishan Kumar told Asia News. He was accused of delivering a communally charged speech on April 5 at a public meeting in Raikia town. He allegedly accused the church of indulging in conversion. During his two-hour-long speech he accused Congress Rajya Sabha MP Radhakant Naik and archbishop Cheenath and missionaries of plotting the Swami murder. He also held the church responsible for the insurgency in the north-east of India and Maoist violence in Jharkhand and Kandhamal. His hate speech prompted the administration to lodge a complaint against him on April .

Kandhamal DM Krishna Kumar said: “We had also sent the videotape and other proof to the Election Commission.” He was arrested in the district headquarters town of Phulbani. He was produces before a local court which remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days. Sahu, linked to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, had made similar remarks during the communal violence last year. Christian leaders had immediately refuted the allegations. While Sahu is contesting the Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has also nominated Manoj Pradhan, an accused in the riots, for the assembly election from G. Udayagiri constituency in the district. Pradhan was arrested about four months ago and is still in jail.

The second event that can have a bearing on the relationship between the Christians and the rightwing Hindu organisations is the change of leadership at the top of RSS.

Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat, a 58 year old veterinary doctor, was elected last month as the sixth Sarsanghchalak. He comes from a family of RSS activists. His father, Madhukar, is known to have initiated LK Advani into RSS fold.

Bhagawat is seen as unifier within the Sangh. Bringing back a sense of equilibrium within the BJP and the Sangh Parivar’s functioning are expected to top his priorities.

One of his first priorities will also be to prepare a second line of leadership after the aging LK Advani.

In the recent past the Jesuits had tried to start a dialogue with the RSS, but with little success. The RSS founded in 1925, is keeping the idea of a colonial church, not acknowledging the changes of Vatican II. With a new leadership, a new start can be made on the basis of the recent documents of the Vatican and World Council of Churches on conversion and freedom of religion.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Philippines: Hostage Rescue Gets Green Light

ISABELA, Basilan, Philippines — The provincial crisis committee negotiating the release of nine people taken hostage by the Abu Sayyaf has authorized the military and police to proceed with rescue operations.

Basilan Vice Gov. Al-Rasheed Sakalahul, chairman of the crisis management committee (CMC), said they adopted the resolution approved yesterday by the provincial board allowing the military and the police to take measures to rescue the hostages from the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

The hostages, abducted separately by the Abu Sayyaf, include teachers Janette de los Reyes, Rafael Mayonado, Freires Quizon; lending company employee Lea Patris, and Sri Lankan peace volunteer Umar Jaleel.

The latest hostage, farmer Bernard Chavez, was snatched last week.

Three other teachers were kidnapped in Naga town, Zamboanga Sibugay province last March. The bandits were demanding P10 million for the release of Noemi Mandi, Jocelyn Inion, and Jocelyn Enriquez.

The nine hostages are being held by the group of Abu Sayyaf commander Furuji Indama and several guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Sakalahul informed Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro of the decision of the crisis committee to rescue the nine hostages.

Puno and Teodoro were attending an emergency meeting in the capital with Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa and ranking military officials.

“The CMC has exerted efforts in diplomacy but the kidnappers insisted on the ransom. The CMC has given the police and military authority to run after the kidnappers,” Sakalahul told the meeting.

Puno and Teodoro said they are ready to launch the operation “Oplan Sagip Guro,” and ordered the police and military to form a combined group to launch the rescue mission.

“The resolution is a declaration of intent… it will allow the PNP and AFP to go full-force against the kidnappers,” Teodoro said.

Teodoro said the safety of the hostages would be taken into account in the rescue operation.

He said contingencies have been readied for the possible displacement of civilians during the conduct of operations.

“We have prepared for that and there’s enough budget to assist those who will be affected,” he said.

Puno, for his part, said they are also working to encircle the lair of the kidnappers, just as security forces have done against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

Puno said civilian volunteers would serve as police auxiliary forces to protect the city while the rescue operations are ongoing.

At the same time, Teodoro said the combined police and military operation would not consider allegations of encroachment on MILF camps, an excuse often used by the kidnappers to prevent government troops from going after them.

“There will be no sacred grounds as we have to enforce the laws,” Teodoro said.

Puno added a review of the proposed peace accord with the MILF revealed the Muslim guerrilla group does not have any enclaves in Basilan.

Teodoro also claimed some MILF rebels are using the Muslim guerrilla organization as a front to hide their criminal activities in the province.

Asked if the defense department as well as the Department of the Interior and Local Government would be asking the local governments of Basilan under Gov. Jum Akbar to place the troubled province under a state of emergency, Teodoro replied this wasn’t necessary given the different situation.

Teodoro was referring to the declaration of a state of emergency by Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan to hasten the early resolution of the hostage crisis in the province involving Red Cross workers Swiss national Andreas Notter and Italian Eugenio Vagni.

“We will enforce the law here in Basilan,” Puno told reporters after the meeting.

Puno said he and Teodoro were ordered by President Arroyo to personally oversee security measures in Basilan following the spate of kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf in the region.

Akbar, for her part, said the authority given to the security forces to rescue the hostages would address the kidnapping problem in the province.

Akbar said she will support any move to place the entire province under a state of emergency, but only if necessary.

“If ever we will follow what Sulu has implemented, why not? Because we have once upon a time experienced a similar crisis and we adopted a state of emergency here. It is not new to us,” Akbar said.

The Sulu provincial government, on the other hand, is preparing for a possible military operation to rescue the two Red Cross workers still being held hostage by a separate Abu Sayyaf group.

Last-ditch efforts are being made to negotiate the release of the two hostages by allowing a team of Muslim clerics to negotiate their release.

Puno and Teodoro earlier flew to Sulu to oversee preparations in case efforts to secure the release of the two foreign hostages would fail.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Philippines: US Set to Help in Jolo, Sulu Hostage Crisis, Says Envoy

The United States is ready to provide “assistance” to end a hostage crisis in the restive southern Mindanao involving two European Red Cross volunteers, officials yesterday said.

“We stand ready to help our Philippine counterparts with whatever they might request of course,” Thomas Gibbons, the US Embassy’s deputy envoy and political affairs counsellor, told reporters at the opening ceremony of annual joint US-Philippine military exercises.

He, however, stressed that US forces will not take part in any direct combat missions.

US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, for her part, said “Outside of actually taking part, the United

States continues to share intelligence with the Philippines on this (hostage situation).”

She added US participation is limited only to information-sharing as involvement of foreign troops in combat operations in the country is prohibited by the Constitution.

Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Alexander Yano assured there will be no American participation in actual combat operation by the military in an effort to free the two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) being held as hostages by the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu province.

“We have not allowed and we will not involve them in direct combat actions, they can provide other assistance but not in direct combat actions,” he stressed, citing provisions in the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) barring the participation of foreign troops into actual combat operations.

Yano said the US military had trained and equipped Filipino special forces against the Abu Sayyaf in the past, and the local troops were now capable of dealing with the insurgents on their own.

But if there is a need for assistance, the Philippines may ask the US forces to provide “technical intelligence, medical air evacuations and airlifting of equipment and transport.

“Other than that, as in the past, we have not utilized them for any direct combat action,” he added.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel earlier urged the government to seek US assistance to free the ICRC hostages.

About 6,000 US troops and some 2,500 Filipinos are involved in two-week Balikatan exercises, which include field training exercises and humanitarian missions in the main island of Luzon and eastern Bicol region.

A small number of US forces, however, have also been carrying out various missions for several years on the southern island of Jolo, where Abu Sayyaf militants have been holding Italian Eugenio Vagni and Swiss Andreas Notter since Jan. 15.

A third hostage, Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, was freed earlier this month.

On Wednesday, the local crisis negotiating team on Jolo dispatched five Muslim clerics to the Abu Sayyaf lair in a last-ditch effort to convince them to hand over the hostages peacefully.

Yano said there had been no update from the intermediaries and declined to comment on the next move.

Malacañang also yesterday deferred revealing the name of senior Muslim cleric or “Ulama” negotiating with the Abu Sayyaf.

Presidential deputy spokesman Anthony Golez said Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro would be in better position than Malacañang to disclose on the course of negotiation that will take place with the participation of the Ulama negotiator.

But Puno said the Ulamas were able to establish communication with the Abu Sayyaf.

“Right now there are talks going on and they’re trying to convince them (bandits) to allow medical attention to be extended to Vagni right away,” he added.

Reports reaching the Task Force ICRC disclosed that Vagni is having difficulty in moving from one place to the other owing to his deteriorating health condition.

Puno said he is hopeful that the bandits will release Vagni earlier so that the Italian hostage could undergo surgery.

Meanwhile, a petition filed before the Supreme Court (SC) is asking the high tribunal to stop the implementation of state of emergency in the province of Sulu.

In their 57-page suit, a lawyer and four residents of the war-torn province Sulu asked the SC to immediately stop ongoing military and police operations in the province covered by guidelines of the state of emergency order of Gov. Abdusakur Tan.

The petitioners also asked the high court to nullify the proclamation of the governor that declared state of emergency in the province last March 31 on the ground that it was unconstitutional.

Filing the sut were lawyer Jamar Kulayan joined by Temogen Tulawie, provincial chairman of Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Societies; Mohamman Yusop Ismi, president of Southern Mindanao Islamic Institute; and Ahajan Awadi and SPO1 Sattal Jadjuli, who were both arrested by police in the ongoing state of emergency.

Named respondents were Tan; Maj. Gen. Juancho Saban, chief of Task Force Comet; Col. Eugenio Clemen, commander of Third Marine Brigade and deputy chief of the military task force; Supt. Julasiim Kasim, police director of the province; and Senior Supt. Bienvenido Latag, commander of police component of ICRC hostage crisis task force.

The suit argued that Proclamation 1-2009 and its implementing guidelines violated Sections 1 and 18 of Article VII of the Constitution, which give exclusive authority to declare state of emergency or state of rebellion to the President.

The petitioners said Tan “arrogated unto himself and usurped the exclusive power of the Chief Executive,” which is “a culpable violation of the Constitution.” Mario J. Mallari, Michaela P. del Callar, Benjamin B. Pulta, Riza Recio, PNA and AFP

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Australia: ‘I Just Wanted to be Safe’: Asylum Seeker

WORD of mouth in a refugee camp in Pakistan led Tahre Rahimi to men who spoke so many languages he had no idea of their nationality. But they made it clear. A sum of $US9500 would “guarantee” him safe passage through several borders and across treacherous seas to Australia.

“There was no choice but Australia,” Rahimi told The Weekend Australian yesterday of his first meeting with the people-smugglers last November, “and I just wanted to be safe.”

He was told nothing of the impending journey, but was assured he would reach Australia. And aside from a terrifying final leg at sea — “I couldn’t believe we were going to make it to Australia, I was 90per cent sure we were going to die” — it was a promise well worth his life savings.

During his first meeting with the people-smugglers, the 28-year-old ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan found the men well-organised and very experienced, with a collection of passports.

Handing over the first instalment — $US4000 — Rahimi was given a Pakistani passport, and his journey to Australia began in the back of a crowded truck — incredibly with a return to his native Afghanistan.

From Kabul, the young man was taken through several Middle Eastern countries, including, he thinks, Kuwait, before finally being flown to Indonesia.

Rahimi does not know where he ended up in Indonesia other than that he was kept alone in a small house guarded by a “soldier”.

Then came the final leg of his 20-day voyage.

He was told to hand over the remaining cash — $US5500 before joining 35 other Afghans, Pakistanis and some Iraqis on an Indonesian boat. He recalled, through an interpreter yesterday, how scared he was when he saw the boat. “We didn’t see a boat before … we were very afraid.” About four or five Indonesians joined them on the final part of the journey, but they were unfriendly and “had very bad behaviour” towards the refugees.

Rahimi was on the fifth boat to arrive in Australian waters — intercepted near Ashmore Reef — after the Rudd Government’s softening of Australia’s border security policies.

After three months in detention on Christmas Island, he has been granted a permanent residence visa and is living in Brisbane.

Rahimi, from one of the most persecuted minorities in Afghanistan, said he never understood before the “goodness” of the Australian people.

“Only now I am feeling safe.”

Rahimi lived in the central province area of Ghazni until he discovered his father’s body in a “hole” three days after he had disappeared.

He was warned the Taliban were coming for him next and fled across the Afghanistan border to Pakistan, where he found himself in a camp with other refugees. He was soon joined by what was left of his family — his younger brother, sister-in-law and their children.

The Rahimi brothers between them had only enough money for one of them to take the journey, so it was decided it would be Tahre.

“I worked all my life and this was my savings,” he said.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Australia: People Smuggler Jailed for Six Years

AN Indonesian fisherman who captained a sinking vessel with 10 asylum seekers intercepted off the West Australian coast has been sentenced to at least six years’ jail for people smuggling.

Man Pombili, 31, was sentenced in the District Court in Perth today for illegally transporting 10 Afghans and an Indonesian crewmen into Australia.

Judge Mary Ann Yeats sentenced Pombili to a six-year jail term with a non-parole period of three years.

The court was told Pombili was the captain of a sinking vessel intercepted by Australia’s Border Protection Command about 150km from Ashmore Island on November 19, 2008.

It had a broken engine, a hole in the hull and was sinking.

The court was told Pombili had accepted 2566 Rupiah from people smugglers to transport the asylum seekers from Indonesia to Australia.

[Comment from Tuan Jim: I think that’s a typo — since it’s around 10000 rupiah to the dollar at the moment (haven’t checked recently).]

Defence lawyer David McKenzie told the court smugglers had given Pombili a compass and a map to an island and his client was unaware he was heading to Australia.

In sentencing, Judge Yeats said Pombili played a small but pivotal role in human trafficking and his sentence would serve as a deterrent to other Indonesian fishermen.

“Australia has orderly ways in which non-citizens are allowed to enter and in some cases stay in this country,” Judge Yeats told the court.

“You have played a pivotal and crucial role in this offence by bringing 10 Afghani men and two Indonesian men to Australia.

“I accept that you are not at the top of the chain and you were not fully aware … but that can not mitigate what you have done.”

Judge Yeats said Pombili’s early guilty plea on January 13 was a mitigating factor in sentencing. His jail term was backdated to November 21 last year.

The maximum penalty for people smuggling is 20 years’ jail.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

New Zealand: Patrick Gower: a Liberal Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

Two patched gang members made their presence felt in Parliament’s Grand Hall recently, with the full blessing of Justice Minister Simon Power.

Black Power’s Eugene Ryder and Mongrel Mobster Edge Te Whaiti weren’t there to cause crime, but to discuss what causes it, as part of Power’s ministerial meeting on the “drivers of crime”.

Both gang members have rejected the criminality that usually goes with gang life and are instead using their inside knowledge to work against it.

Just as they can’t be judged by their gang exterior, Power is also coming out from behind his hard edge.

Power has just completed a clutch of hardline punitive measures. He’s passed laws tightening bail and toughening sentences for crimes against children.

He’s made a start on legislation that will keep the worst murderers in jail until the day they die, deny parole to repeat violent offenders, impose a levy on criminals that will go to victims and create new anti-gang laws.

His fingerprints are also on legislation that will expand the court’s powers to deal with young offenders.

This was all part of National’s “public safety” and tough-on-crime agenda, pushed heavily before the election and a major point of difference from Labour.

But with all those policies introduced in National’s first 100 days, Power is now talking up rehabilitation and addressing the causes of crime.

He’s looking like a sheep in wolf’s clothing: tough on the outside and liberal on the inside.

First came the drivers of crime meeting, with its surprising cross-section of attendees and equally broad discussions about cultural alienation and genetic disposition towards crime. It sounds more like a classic Labour hui.

Then this week came National’s tentative support for the Maori Party’s initiative of a separate prison for Maori with a focus on healing and where the inmates go flatting — an unthinkable position in the Don Brash days of not all that long ago. This put National so far out on the “do-gooder” side of the crime debate that Labour ended up taking the hard line with the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

National isn’t suddenly going soft — it has been that way for a while.

Rehabilitation was party policy, although not emphasised on the election trail where the punitive measures were always going to get the headlines.

National emphasised rehabilitation heavily in the final plans for boot camps for young offenders.

National will also go ahead with plans to double the amount of prisoners on existing rehabilitation programmes and expand the numbers of inmates on work schemes, although its $10.4 million cost estimate shows the investment is small.

The liberal agenda is driven by Power, one of National’s liberals in the tradition of Ralph Hanan, the 1960s Justice Minister who crossed the floor to vote against the death penalty for murder. Others include Doug Graham, Power’s current mentor.

Power won the arguments with the hang ‘em high brigade in National’s caucus during their last term in Opposition. So how has a true blue liberal managed to toughen the law but stay true to his beliefs?

A close examination of National’s sentencing measures for the worst murderers and repeat violent offenders show that while very hardline, they actually have a very limited application.

The Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, as now before the House, would bring in ineligibility for parole only for violent offenders who have crossed the high threshold of twice being sentenced to five years or more. Corrections advised its then-Minister Phil Goff last year that this happens in “relatively few” cases.

The same advice says even fewer murderers have previously committed the five-year sentence needed to trigger the life without release provision.

Corrections said only 40 more prison beds would be needed by 2011 to cover the violent offenders’ losing parole. The murderers without release will require 29 beds to be added but over a period stretching out to 2026. This is in stark contrast with National’s election trail claims it could add up to 572 offenders by 2011.

Power’s aims with this bill are shown in the “Lundy clause”, giving judges the discretion to put the worst murderers away for life even if they don’t have a violent past.

The truly bad offenders will face heavy and symbolic sentences. This will sate the public’s desire for big sentences for the offenders who make the news without sending too much of an extra bulge into the prisons as a broader measure like Act’s original “three strikes” would.

The reforms will continue. A workhorse, Power has introduced 18 of the 38 bills on the Government’s order paper and shows no sign of stopping.

The work the Ministry of Justice is doing indicates what he might turn his attention to next: the self-defence law, juries being trusted with previous convictions, the right to silence or the way rape trials are conducted.

The court process can be further simplified and Legal Aid is undergoing a fundamental review with the Public Defender’s Office waiting in the wings.

Power has to make the most of public goodwill and has the two-year window new governments are afforded before their first re-election campaign to work with.

Labour ended up paralysed on law and order by trying to keep the prison numbers down via community sentencing but defending its policies by showing how they boosted the prison population — all in the face of the inevitable but unpredictable crime dramas.

For now National is betting that its “whatever works” approach will be embraced by the public, eager to see crime drop but accepting that prisons just can’t keep on being built.

Power will hammer criminals at the sharp end but look to liberal solutions to address crime overall.

There is danger that this could be seen as playing a double game: a sheep when courting the liberals, a wolf with the hardliners.

Sooner or later, the real test will come when National is struck down by a bailed murderer, paroled rapist or illogical verdict on its watch.

The public outcry will be loud, the problem complicated and Power’s plans will come up hard against reality.

The answer might be either liberal or hardline — but it cannot be both.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

‘I Used Icepick to Take Somali Pirate Hostage’ Says Sailor

A crew member gave his first account yesterday of stabbing and capturing a Somali pirate leader on board the US-flagged Maersk Alabama during last week’s battle in the Indian Ocean.

A.T.M. “Zahid” Reza told reporters on his return to America that he had captured the pirate, “Abdul”, with Mike Perry, the ship’s chief engineer.

“I was attempting to kill him,” Mr Reza said. “Chief engineer said, ‘No, no, no, don’t. We need him alive.’ “ Mr Reza, from Connecticut, has been praised by shipmates for his bravery during the high-seas drama that ended with US navy snipers shooting dead three pirates holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage in a lifeboat.

When four pirates boarded the container ship off the Somali coast on April 8, most of the 20-man crew hid in safe rooms below decks.

The Bangladeshi-American sailor, who has a degree in political science and once dreamt of a career in film, remained on the bridge with the captain. Once the pirates clambered on board using grappling hooks the crew switched control of the ship from the bridge to the engine room and shut down power to the ship.

“I was thinking what to do. I was thinking how to save my life. I was lost. I was confused. I think captain also confused. I saw his movements,” Mr Reza said. “But captain, I think, all the time was playing with the pirates.” Mr Reza persuaded the pirate leader to go below decks with him, where the other crew members were hiding.

“I convinced him. I told him, ‘Trust me. I am Muslim. You are Muslim. Trust me, Abdul. I am from Bangladesh. You are from Somalia. So we are brothers. Anyhow, I convinced him,” he said. “[The] engine room was dark because ship was shut down.”

Mr Reza, a slight man, said the chief engineer jumped the teenage pirate, and he piled on to help, stabbing the pirate in the hand with an icepick. “I saw the pirate lying on the floor and chief engineer on his back with the knife. He was having \ hard time to control him. I jumped over the pirate and stabbed him and the chief engineer also stabbed him in the back.”

Mr Reza added: “I hold him because chief engineer not strong enough to hold him. I tied his hands. Me and chief engineer Mike Perry tied his hands and tied his legs, then took him our hostage.” The crew negotiated the return of the pirate leader in return for the gang releasing Captain Phillips and leaving the ship in a lifeboat.

However, the pirates took the skipper hostage for five days until he was freed by US Navy Seals on Sunday.

— Hat tip: Paul Green

[Return to headlines]

‘I’m Not a Pirate, I’m the Saviour of the Sea’

Who are the pirate bands menacing commercial and tourist shipping off Somalia? Our writer meets one of the leaders

Boyah is a pirate. One of the original “Old Boys”, he quietly pursued his trade in the waters of his coastal home town of Eyl, years before it galvanised the world’s imagination as Somalia’s infamous “pirate haven”. Boyah is dismissive of the recent poseurs, the headline-grabbers who have bathed in the international media spotlight and it shows; he exudes a self-assured superiority.

Pirates are easy to spot on the streets of Garowe, the regional capital: their Toyota 4x4s cluster around equally new white-washed mansions on the edge of town. But to approach them, I am warned, is to invite kidnapping or robbery. In Somalia, everything is done through connections, be they clan, family, or friend, and Mohamed, my interpreter, was on and off the phone for almost a week to coax his network into producing Boyah.

Our meeting takes place at a virtually deserted farm 15km outside Garowe. Mohamed is the son of the newly elected president of Puntland and does not want to be seen in public cavorting with pirates. Moreover, Boyah has recently contracted tuberculosis and Mohamed insists that we meet him in an open space.

As we step out of our vehicles, I catch my first glimpse of Boyah. Immensely tall and disconcertingly menacing, he is wearing a ma’awis, the traditional robe of a clan elder, and a cimaamad, a decorative shawl. On his feet is a pair of shiny onyx leather sandals. He weaves his way around the tomato plants and lemon trees, before settling in a shady clearing, where he squats down. Other than the farm’s owners, there is no one near by, yet the two AK-47-toting police escorts, who accompany me wherever I go, stand guard with an amusing military officiousness.

Asking my first question through my interpreter, I hesitate to use the word “pirate”. Somali pirates are aware enough of themselves in the international media that the word has become part of their vernacular but its closest Somali translation is burcad badeed, which means “ocean robber”, a political statement I am anxious to avoid. Boyah likes to refer to him and his comades as badaadinta badah, “saviours of the sea”, a term that is most often translated in the English-speaking media as “coastguard”. Boyah jokes that he is the “Chief of the Coastguard”, a title he evokes with pride. To him, his actions have been about protecting his sea; his hijackings, a legitimate form of taxation levied in abstentia on behalf of a defunct government that he represents in spirit, if not in law…

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Prison Sentence for Insulting Gambian President

In Gambia, a Dutchman has received a year-long prison sentence and a 1500-euro fine for insulting President Yahya Jammeh reports press agency AFP. The Dutchman called the president “too greedy and corrupt” because taxi prices are higher for white people than for the black population. He was arrested two weeks ago. At first he claimed he was British, but later admitted being Dutch.

Insulting the president is a serious offence in Gambia. In December a British couple was sentenced one year’s forced labour for insulting President Jammeh.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

S. Korean Navy Repels Pirate Attack

SEOUL — South Korean naval forces drove away pirates who were trying to board a Danish-registered ship in waters off Somalia, the military said Friday.

The incident occurred Thursday morning Somali time about 110 kilometres off the coast of Yemen, a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official said.

The Munmu the Great destroyer, carrying a crew of 300, received a distress call from the ship which reported it was being chased by a pirate boat, said Army Colonel Lee Hyoung-Kook, a JCS official who oversees the deployment.

The 2,100-ton ship Puma was about 55 kilometres from the South Korean destroyer, he told reporters.

The destroyer dispatched its Lynx anti-submarine helicopter, which arrived at the scene in just over 20 minutes, Lee said.

“The pirates gave up (their) attempt to board the ship and turned away when the helicopter threatened to fire,” he said.

The South Korean destroyer began operating this week to help fight piracy off Somalia, where several Korean ships have been seized.

Up to 20 foreign warships now patrol the waters off the Somali coast to safeguard major shipping lanes.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Scott Stinson: Got Pirate Problems? Hire Some Russians

Late last fall, I had dinner a few times with a former Russian spy. I’d like to say the circumstances were exotic; that I was being groomed by Moscow as a potential mole on the inside of a Canadian media giant, but the truth is more mundane. He and his wife were guests on the same cruise ship as myself and my wife, and we ended up assigned to the same dining room table.

Sergei was not shy about expressing his opinions, formed over a career in which he was a KGB officer whose cover as a foreign diplomat included postings at embassies in Washington and Ottawa.

His pronouncements were usually followed by a thump of the hand on the table for emphasis, whether the subject was Americans (lazy!), Vlad Putin (a thug!) or the previous night’s comedy show (stupid!). Thump, thump and thump.

Sergei also had a thing or two to say about Somali pirates. Western nations were being played for fools by these punks (thump!), he said, and it would only take one country to show it was serious about stopping the problem before the pirates would have second thoughts about the whole looting business.

I asked what such a strategy would entail. More gunships? Air support? Ground troops to roust the pirates from their home base? Sergei shrugged off such petty details. His point was simple: Go on offence, not defence.

Now, it must be said that Russia’s foreign policy record is dodgy at best so perhaps a former member of its spy network is not the ideal source of advice, but I admit Sergei had a point.

In the months that have passed since we met, pirate hijackings have continued at a steady pace, and Western nations have only really become involved when a specific incident forced their hand. In many of the cases, a bounty was simply paid and the hostage ship was released.

Yes, there are warships from several countries patrolling the dangerous waters around the Gulf of Eden, but it seems clear that the naval presence has not been strong enough to reverse the tide of piracy.

Perhaps the recent high-profile rescues of French and U.S. hostages will be enough to spur greater action. It is intriguing that one Congressman has gone so far as to call for a return to legalized private pirate-hunters, but the fact the demand is coming from Ron Paul suggests it will be met with a lot of eye-rolling in Washington.

Surely, though, something more can be done. It’s not like the pirates themselves present a huge challenge to the navies of the modern world. These are untrained young men who have scraped together a few weapons and an leaky boat and headed out to find an easy target. This is not the Kriegsmarine of 1939, is all I’m saying.

There must be something about saving the world from the scourge of piracy in here somewhere.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Nicole Ferrand in the Americas Report: An Ideological Crusade Against Alberto Fujimori

Last week, on April 7th 2009, former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for “ordering two “massacres” that left 25 people dead during his time in office from 1990 until 2000.

None of the trial’s 80 witnesses could implicate Fujimori of ordering any killings, kidnappings or disappearances. This was in spite of being constantly intimidated and pressured to do so by the prosecutors and even the judges, who offered to lessen their time in jail if they accused the former leader. These individuals simply could not; one after the other, even the star witnesses of the prosecution, the members of ‘Grupo Colina,’ who allegedly carried out the ‘murders,’ emphatically denied that Fujimori ordered them to carry out these actions; in fact they declared they never even met him. According to a recent opinion poll, two thirds of the population says that Fujimori was found guilty without any poof or evidence and local opinion leaders, experts and lawyers agree.

According to most legal experts, Fujimori was convicted even before he set foot in the courtroom. They argue that the televised show-trial that lasted 16 months was a complete sham. First of all, the three judges who condemned the former President, Cesar San Martin, Víctor Prado Saldarriaga, and Hugo Príncipe Trujillo, were given this task even though they were laid off from their jobs in the Justice Department during the Fujimori regime. The charge was that they set terrorists and criminals free while accusing the police and the armed forces of being “too harsh” in their combat tactics. It is clear that, with this trial, they saw an opportunity to get revenge…

— Hat tip: CSP

[Return to headlines]

Obama Blames U.S. Guns in Mexico

Seeks treaty to fight drug violence

MEXICO CITY | Meeting face-to-face with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama on Thursday said the U.S. is to blame for much of Mexico’s drug violence, and he set up a major congressional gun-control battle by calling on the Senate to ratify a treaty designed to track and cut the flow of guns to other countries.

Mr. Obama said he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons but that it is not likely to pass Congress. Instead, he called for the Senate to ratify a decade-old hemispherewide treaty that would require nations to mark all weapons produced in the country and track them to make sure no weapons were exported to countries where they were banned.

“I will not pretend that this is Mexico’s responsibility alone. The demand for these drugs in the United States is what’s helping keep these cartels in business,” Mr. Obama said at a joint news conference with Mr. Calderon. “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border.”

But the treaty is likely to run into opposition from gun rights backers, and the Senate’s top Democrat was noncommittal Thursday about the measure.

Mr. Calderon urged the U.S. to consider a gun registry and a prohibition on bulk sales of firearms.

— Hat tip: Paul Green

[Return to headlines]

154 Illegal Immigrants Stranded at Sea

A merchant ship, which rescued 154 illegal immigrants, is blocked since Thursday in the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, in the intervention area in Malta, after the refusal of the governments of both countries to host migrants, announced Friday the Italian media.

The Turkish vessel bearding the Panamanian flag rescued Thursday two boats of illegal immigrants on drift and had also recovered a dead body, about 80 km south of the small island of Lampedusa (south of Sicily).

The Maltese authorities had asked the crew of the merchant ship to sail to the nearest port, that of Lampedusa. But Rome has found that immigrants were rescued in the area and jurisdiction of Malta, and that therefore it was in Valletta to welcome them.

“I asked and I will continue to ask Malta to take on the responsibilities it has undertaken to comply by signing international agreements, and it refuses to assume on the expense of Italy”, declared Friday the Italian Minister of Interior, Roberto Maroni.

The areas of intervention are well defined but often those who should intervene do not,” Mr. Maroni denounced at a conference on illegal immigration in the Mediterranean.

“The criticism of Mr. Maroni is unacceptable,” responded his Maltese counterpart, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, according to the Ansa agency.

“The State of Malta can not accept immigrants who were rescued near the Italian coast. These forty-five years, Italy has fulfilled the agreement which provides driving migrants rescued at sea to the nearest port. We see that Italy is trying to change the rules and this is unacceptable,” regretted the Maltese Minister.

[Comment from Tuan Jim: This sort of bickering would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.]

Italy has seen landing on its shores 36,900 immigrants in 2008, a figure up 75% over 2007, according to the Italian Ministry of the Interior.

For its part, Malta has seen a record number of 2775 illegal immigrants in 2008.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Australia: Navy to Intercept Asylum-Seekers on Way to Australia; Police Warned of Increase

THE Navy is tonight moving to intercept another boatload of suspected asylum-seekers off the northwestern coast.

The latest boat is thought to be carrying at least 100 people, twice as many as the boat that was intercepted and later burned earlier this week.

It is expected to be intercepted overnight or sometime today.

Indonesian authorities have also detained 68 suspected asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, who were believed to be bound for Australia.

It is now emerging that the Rudd Government had been warned its softer border protection laws would encourage new waves of people smuggling.

Secret intelligence briefings prepared by the Australian Federal Police were recently delivered to senior government ministers.

News.com.au understands the AFP also expressed serious reservations last year as the Rudd Government wound back John Howard’s tougher approach to immigration detention.

Minister for Home Affairs Bob Debus last night refused to disclose details of the AFP intelligence.

But the revelations are likely to harden the Opposition’s claim that Labor’s softer stance on border protection has contributed to a surge in the lucrative people-smuggling trade.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday hit out at the Opposition’s accusations, saying people smugglers should “rot in hell” and were the “absolute scum of the Earth”.

“People smugglers are the vilest form of human life,” Mr Rudd said.

“They trade on the tragedy of others and that is why they should rot in jail and in my own view rot in hell.”

On the defensive, Mr Rudd said Labor’s immigration policies were hardline, tough and targeted.

He said his Government had dedicated more resources to combat people smugglers than any previous Australian government and would “continue to match the resources necessary as the challenges unfold”.

But the AFP warnings to the Rudd Government were based in part on intelligence picked up by officers in Indonesia, which has become a key base for the people-smuggling trade.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Fears of Foreigner Flood Just a Trickle

Denmark’s strict immigration policy seems to be working despite easier EU regulations on family reunions.

Claims by some Danish politicians that EU rules on family reunions would cause a tidal wave of immigration have been put to shame.

According to as yet unpublished figures from the Ministry of Integration, the Immigration Service awarded 39 family reunion permits under EU rules in January 2009. On an annual basis this would, at first glance, suggest that 2009 would result in three times the number of people being afforded family reunion permits under EU rules compared to the 155 in 2008.

But according to politiken.dk’s information, the increase is more a result of the Immigration Service handling a backlog of 250 cases from 2008. In real terms, although 39 permits were given in January, the number of Danes seeking family reunions under EU rules has actually fallen.

Minister: Fears groundless “This shows that there are more cases than there were applications in January. It’s a question of gnawing away at a backlog. All these suggestions that we would receive thousands of applications were wrong,” Integration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech tells politiken.dk.

2008 saw only 50 more permits than in 2007 — a surprisingly low figure given widespread media attention to ways of getting through strict Danish rules, and not least the EU’s Metock verdict allowing foreigners who are illegals in one EU country to seek family reunions.

Rejections As a result it seems that experts and politicians who claimed that large numbers of foreigners would flood into Denmark were wrong.

The Marriages Without Borders Association said last year that some 1,000 couples wanted to come to Denmark under EU rules.

But January’s figures show that many more are being rejected. The Immigration Service declined six applications under EU rules in 2008, but 18 were rejected in January this year.

“The figures for January are not alarming. They also show that the number of rejections is increasing substantially,” says Hornbech.

The total number of family reunions in 2008 was 3,793, of which 155 were awarded under EU rules.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Finland: Thors Accuses Zyskowicz of Divisiveness in Asylum Debate

Minister criticised over backlog of asylum applications

Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors (Swed. People’s Party) has accused National Coalition Party MP Ben Zyskowicz of violating basic rules set for government parties. The criticism came up after Zyskowicz severely criticised what he saw were meagre efforts to dismantle the backlog of asylum applications. According to Zyskowicz, the minister and her civil servants have an “attitude problem”.

“The use of expressions such as attitude problem with reference to the ministers of one’s own government is not in line with the rules of the game”, Thors said in Parliament on Thursday. She also said that the “public thrashing” from Zyskowicz was “strange”.

According to Zyskowicz, Thors is on a side track in the government on the issue of asylum policy. Speaking during the first reading of the bill for a new foreigners’ law, Zyskowicz urged Thors to implement policy lines of the government. “The government decided that handling times would be speeded up, which is in the interests of both applicants and of Finland.”

The National Coalition Party MP said that he does not want to see the kinds of problems that have emerged in neighbouring countries, after the asylum policy has “gone out of hand”, and where “integration has failed”. “We do not want suburbs where people riot, or where significant problems are caused”, Zyskowicz said. He said that Finland can prevent the problems from “coming to a head”. The number of asylum applicants rose last year to 4,000, whereas in the previous year there were just 1,400 applicants. Half of the applications were rejected, or lapsed.

“We have already agreed on a study on how application for asylum in Finland differs from that in the other Nordic Countries. In the first supplementary budget, the Finnish Immigration Service was granted more funding specifically to speed up the processing time”, Thors said. The government offered EUR one million, which Parliament doubled. Thors did not accept Zyskowicz’s claim that she was downplaying the implications of the growth in the number of applicants. “I have called for a sense of proportion. For instance, in Norway, the number of asylum seekers has grown to 15,000 already.”

Thors felt that Zyskowicz linked asylum seekers with the kinds of riots that have taken place in the Danish capital Copenhagen in drug-related battles between motorcycle gangs and criminal elements among immigrants. “That is labelling, and is in violation of an appeal by the chairs of the parliamentary groups”, Thors said. An appeal against racism emerged at the initiative of the Swedish People’s Party. Zyskowicz said that he regrets it if the minister took the feedback personally. He emphasised that what he said was politics, and that he had raised a serious problem. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) sought to ease tensions, but was somewhat out of the loop, after having returned from a trip recently. “Confidence in Minister Thors is not on the line. The government has increased funding for the processing of asylum applications.” “Asylum applications are often without foundation, and if they are handled quickly, the news will soon spread around the world. The number of applications here is very low compared with the other Nordic Countries”, Vanhanen pointed out.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Indonesia: 68 Afghan Migrants Arrested

JAKARTA — SIXTY-EIGHT migrants from Afghanistan have been arrested in Indonesia as they were planning to enter Australia illegally, a report said on Friday.

The migrants were arrested in a hotel at the beach resort of Anyer, near the capital Jakarta, and are due to be handed over to immigration authorities, state news agency Antara said.

‘The 68 Afghan citizens will be picked up by immigration officials this afternoon,’ Cilegon district police chief Dwi Gunawan was quoted as saying.

Mr Gunawan said the Afghans planned to travel to Australia.

Indonesia has long been a transit country for illegal migration and people smuggling to Australia.

Authorities in March arrested an Afghanistan-born US national for fraud and people smuggling after he was suspected of bringing 47 Chinese to Indonesia on promises of work in Australia.

Forty-one Afghan migrants were detained and six suspected people smugglers arrested by Indonesian and Australian police on Sulawesi island in February. — AFP

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Italy: European Rights Watchdog Attacks Immigration Record

Strasbourg, 16 April (AKI) — Europe’s top human rights watchdog on Thursday expressed “deep concern” over the conservative Italian government’s hardline immigration policies, including plans to make illegal immigration a crime and a controversial census of Sinti and Roma Gypsies in Italy.

“Criminalising migrants is a disproportionate measure which risks igniting further discriminatory and xenophobic tendencies in the country,” said the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg in a new report.

Hammarberg’s latest report followed a two-day visit to Italy in January, during which he visited Gypsy camps in the capital, Rome, and met Italian government officials, human rights organisations, and members of the Italian senate’s newly formed Human Rights Commission.

“Italy should eradicate discrimination and xenophobia and improve its migration policy,” he stressed.

Hammarberg expressed “serious concerns” about Italy’s policies towards its Roma Gypsy minority, which he said faces “a persistent climate of intolerance.”

“Their living conditions are still unacceptable in a number of settlements that I visited,” he warned.

There are an estimated 160,000 Roma Gypsies in Italy, nearly half of whom were born in Italy and have Italian citizenship.

Others come from European Union countries such as Romania and the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Most live in illegal camps, many of which are being demolished following a series of high-profile rapes allegedly committed by Roma Gypsies.

There have also been vigilante-style attacks against Romanians in various parts of Italy.

Hammarberg conceded that some efforts had been made to improve the situation of the Roma. “Local good practices exist in the country, and they should be broadened,” he said.

But he voiced “deep concern” about the government’s controversial census of Roma and Sinti settlements in Italy and its “compatibility with European standards guiding the collection and processing of personal data.”

The Italian government claims the census, which began last year, is aimed at establishing who has the right to be in Italy and to give those individuals access to education and social services.

Hammarberg urged the authorities to create “consultative mechanisms” at all levels with the Roma and Sinti Gypsy communities. This is needed to avoid evictions without offering alternative housing and appropriate education for Gypsy children, he noted.

He also recommended that representation of ethnic groups in the police be increased and that the government establish an independent national human rights institution, such as an ombudsman to strengthen protection for their human rights.

He attacked Italy’s draft law on public security for its possible negative effects on migrants’ rights.

This includes making illegal immigration a crime, obliging health workers to report illegal immigrants to police and creating local security patrols made up of ‘concerned citizens’.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Netherlands Gets Tough With Somali Asylum Seekers

Somali asylum seekers will no longer be automatically accepted in the Netherlands. There has been too much fraud, says deputy justice minister Albayrak.

Whenever the sun comes out the residents of the Ter Apel centre for asylum seekers immediately emerge from their barracks. Many of them are from Somalia. The women wear long flowery dresses and bright-coloured headscarves. Some carry babies on their hips or wrapped to their chests.

The Netherlands are a popular destination for asylum seekers from Somalia. There were almost 4,000 of them last year — almost a third of all asylum seekers in the Netherlands. In the first two months of this year some 850 Somalis applied for asylum here, making them the second-largest group after the Iraqis.

People from central and southern Somalia benefit from what is known as “categorical protection”: these parts of Somalia are so dangerous that its entire population is considered at risk. Somalia has been involved in a civil war since 1991 and there has been no effective central government since. As a result, several European countries — the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Hungary and Luxembourg — made asylum for people from Somalis virtually automatic.

Filing fingertips

Until now. In early April, Dutch deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak (Labour) announced a review of the categorical protection programme for Somalis. There has been too much abuse, she wrote to parliament.

Some Somalis have taken to filing off their fingertips to escape registration. Since 2003 all asylum seekers in Europe are fingerprinted to prevent so-called “asylum shopping”. Asylum seekers are supposed to apply in the country of first arrival, but some people prefer to travel to another European country if they think they have a better chance of being accepted there, or after having been turned down in the first country.

There is also the matter of Somali foster children. After asylum has been granted, the refugee has the right to bring his spouse and children to the Netherlands. After DNA tests were introduced to verify blood ties there was a sudden peak in the number of Somali foster children. One Somali family claimed to have no less than 41 foster children.

Aybarak now wants to make Somali asylum seekers register any foster children immediately upon arrival. The children will only be admitted if the asylum seeker can prove that the foster children were an integral part of the family back in Somalia.

But according to Shamsa Said of the federation of Somali associations in the Netherlands (FSAN) there is no such thing as foster children in Somalia. There is no such thing as family either, at least not as we know it. Said is from Somalia and has lived in the Netherlands since 1993.

Group thinkers

“Here a family lives in one and the same house and it is the parents who raise their children. In Somalia children belong not to the parents but to the entire family. Children are often raised by people other than the parents. Your sister’s child is just as much yours as it is hers. Your uncle’s child is your responsibility too,”according to Said.

Somalis are group thinkers, she says. “I have lived here so long but I still find it difficult to think about myself. The first few years I still said ‘we’ when I was talking about myself.”

But asylum lawyer Loes Vellenga says Somalis are now also being punished as a group. She compares Albayrak’s new measures to a schoolteacher who punishes the whole class because of one pupil’s mischief. “A few people have committed fraud and the entire population is punished,” she says.

VluchtelingenWerk (RefugeeWork), a Dutch ngo supporting asylum seekers in the Netherlands, also calls Albayrak’s approach “disproportionate”. “Fraud needs to be punished,” says its director Edwin Huizing, “but the decision to give a person protection or not should depend on the security situation in the country of origin, not on fraud.”

Refugee Abdulahi is more understanding. Abdulahi (26) fled from Somalia to the Netherlands by himself five years ago; he now lives in a centre for asylum seekers in Bosmeer where he is taking an integration course. “I have heard the stories of Somalis filing off their fingertips,” says Abdulahi. “I understand that Albayrak wants to tighten the rules. But she should be careful because the situation in Somalia has become even worse lately.”

Individual basis

Shamsa Said agrees: everybody in Somalia wants out — by any means possible. The immigration service IND estimates that half of all Somali asylum seekers in the Netherlands have had some kind of help in getting here.

Albayrak admits it is “exceptional” to lift the categorical protection for Somalis at a time when the situation in many parts of the country is still critical. But she has no choice, she says.

Somali asylum seekers will now be judged on an individual basis. To determine if someone is really from central or southern Somalia — or from Somalia at all — a language test is used. Immigration officials also try to determine which clan an asylum seeker belongs to.

Shamsa Said wishes them luck. “There are no real family names in Somalia. It is: ‘I am Ayaan, daughter of Hirsi who was the son of Said…’ Sometimes you have to go back twelve generations to know for sure which clan you belong to,” she says.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Singapore: 245 Suspicious Vessels

More illegal immigrants tried to land in Singapore last year.

MORE illegal immigrants tried to land on Singapore’s shores but failed last year with 245 suspicious vessels detected by the Police Coast Guard — an increase of 71 more vessels than in 2007. However, the illegals immigrants have not been deterred with 58 vessels being chased away from Singapore’s borders in the first three months of this year, up from 27 in the same period in 2007.

The police coast guard’s elite team ambushed and scuttled 15 intrusions by sea between January and March this year. Thirty-five people were caught and 8,100 cartons of contraband cigarettes were seized. In the same period last year, there were only seven interception operations, with 46 people arrested and 4,620 cartons of cigarettes seized.

Police coast guard commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Teo Kian Teck told reporters that intruders can be dangerous.

‘They resort to dangerous manoeuvering in darkness when they are being pursued and even lead our boats to hazards including kelong and fish farms,’ he said.

The coast guard is beefing up its arsenal of weapons to help catch illegal immigrants taking the sea route into Singapore, including putting up anti-intrusion barriers to cut off the Republic’s porous shores from the crooks.

The extra ring barriers are in addition to the 28km of fences that already exist along the coastline.

The coast guard’s operations and security head, deputy Superintendent Alan Xavier Tan said intruders usually take about two minutes to travel in small motorised boats from the nearby shores of Johor, Malaysia, which can be as close as 600m away from Singapore’s shores.

But the coast guard is well equipped to out-manouevre the boatmen with its high speed chase boats, enhanced radar systems on patrol vessels and night vision capability

“If the presence of our patrol vessels still does not deter them from entering Singapore waters, we will be sure to ambush and intercept them within seconds,” said Deputy Superintendent Tan.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Three More Landings on Lampedusa

(ANSAmed) — PALERMO — The migration wave to Lampedusa continues, with over 300 immigrants landing on the island on three rafts over the past few hours. The first raft — with 239 migrants of various ethnicities onboard, including 45 women and 2 children — landed at dawn at the port of Lampedusa. The raft was intercepted 13 miles south of the island by a Coast Guard patrol boat and a Financial Guard boat. A few hours later, another raft with 62 Somali migrants, including 15 women, was sighted close to the port. Finally, another 46 migrants on a dinghy were assisted by a Carabinieri (Italian militarised police) patrol boat. All of the immigrants who have arrived on the island today will be boarded onto a ship and transported to Porto Empedocle.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

UK: We Can’t Let the Family Die

Successive governments are to blame for the demise of the traditional family. It will take a brave politician to save it now, says Kathy Gyngell

If the family fails, society breaks up, and there are many signs that this is happening. Britain may not lead the world in much, but we are certainly ahead when it comes to social pathology. So many children are neglected and, as a result, run out of control: we have high rates of truancy and exclusions, while violence and disorder among youngsters — even murder — have escalated in recent years to become daily headline fodder. Children who self-harm were virtually unheard of 25 years ago but today they are commonplace.

The rising level of social dysfunction mirrors a rising level of family fragmentation. Our expectations of parents and their responsibilities for their children’s wellbeing have never been lower. Despite numerous tragedies and endless inquiries into the failure of parents and the state to safeguard children, little appears to change — witness the death of Baby P.

That so many more of our children are now disadvantaged and neglected is rooted in the fact that so many more are being born to lone and cohabiting parents, while the Government remains wedded to the politically correct myth that this is OK.

The publication this week of the Social Trends Report from the Office of National Statistics marks a new point in the demise of the traditional family. Today, having a child is the first major milestone of adult life, ahead of marriage. Now 30 per cent of women under 30 give birth by the age of 25, but only 24 per cent of under-30s get married. Try as it might to lift children out of economic poverty, the state cannot lift them out of the emotional poverty that results from this situation.

The fact remains that children who grow up with parents who aren’t married are more likely to experience the double whammy of fatherlessness and disruption. One in two cohabiting couples splits up before their child’s first birthday. Exposed to disinterested boyfriends and multiple carers, children in single and cohabiting families are more likely to suffer physical abuse, fail at school, play truant, suffer from depression and other mental illnesses or turn to drugs and alcohol than children whose parents are married. Their progress through life is less safe and less secure. In adulthood they are less able to cope or to form stable, caring and responsible relationships, so the problem is amplified down the generations.

The tragedy is that the cost of family breakdown has been known for so long and yet has been wilfully ignored by politicians of both parties. Since the early Seventies, the decline in marriage, the rise in divorce and in the number of couples cohabitating has reflected the liberalisation of the divorce laws, changes in public opinion and the rise of feminism. The Finer Report in 1974 was first to note its impact, concluding that the effects of marital breakdown on children were underachievement, delinquency and psychological damage.

In 1990, the controversial American social scientist Charles Murray warned of an emerging British underclass resulting from rising rates of “illegitimacy”. Yet this was no reactionary Right-wing morality; the publication in 1993 of Families without Fatherhood, by sociologists Norman Dennis and George Erdos, proved that. It showed that even when economic circumstances are matched, the children of single mothers do worse, often much worse, than the children of married couples. Their work revealed the startling fact that the children of divorced parents did worse than both adopted children and those who had lost a parent.

Dennis and Erdos called time on the dominant anti-marriage, anti-masculine ideology of the 1970s and 1980s on the basis of their sociological research. Men, they said, had been relegated to the margins of family life in inner cities and council estates, and they pointed to the link between lone parenthood, crime and welfare dependency. But though their thesis has undoubtedly proved to be correct and is now endorsed by politicians as diverse as Frank Field and Iain Duncan Smith, it was outgunned by what I describe as “the Polly Toynbee School of Feminism”, which fostered a politically correct agenda to which politicians of both parties have genuflected.

Both political parties have contributed to the levels of breakdown we see today. Fiscal and legal anti-marriage policies have been pursued by successive governments. Back in the Eighties, the Tories took little heed of Keith Joseph’s concern that we should break the cycle of poverty by meeting the emotional needs of children as well as their economic requirements. It was Nigel Lawson’s reform of personal taxation that set in train the abolition of the married couple’s allowance. He failed, as he had planned in his Green Paper, to balance independent taxation by transferring the unused personal allowance to a non-earning, most likely child-rearing, spouse. It foundered on the rock of feminist ignorance and prejudice.

When Labour took office in 1997, sociological advisers, such as Professor Halsey and Norman Dennis, who wanted support for the traditional family, were marginalised, and irrational feminism triumphed. Gordon Brown’s first budget marked, as Harriet Harman emphasised triumphantly at the time, “the end of the assumption that families consist of a male breadwinner and a female helpmate in the home”. Labour’s new measures did not just recognise that women were in paid work and needed help with childcare, they pushed this agenda aggressively with tax incentives and a massive expansion of childcare facilities. The intention to cut back on lone-parent benefits in order to discourage dependency was abandoned in the face of party fury and threatened rebellion.

Since the 1970s, lone parents have, per household, received more state support for their children than couples with the same number of children. As Jill Kirby points out in The Price of Parenthood (Centre for Policy Studies, 2005), this bias against two-parent families has grown under Labour, exacerbated by the tax-credit system, which has enabled the Government to blur the distinction between tax allowances and welfare support. The present system penalises married (and overtly cohabiting) parents alike. Middle-income families are hardest hit; they are heavily taxed and, usually, have a mortgage to pay off.

Indeed, the benefits of being single under Labour are such that it led Shaun Bailey, a Tory candidate in Hammersmith, to assert in his report No-man’s-land, (CPS, 2005) that “People with our lives, in our circles, understand that you are better off if you are a single parent. If anybody thinks that people like us don’t sit around and have these discussions, they are deluding themselves. We soon figure out which way it will make us the most money. And that’s an example of how trapped we are by government policy. Because it discourages us from raising our children in nuclear families.”

Labour sought to reduce lone parents’ dependence on the state by persuading or coercing them into work — a policy that has singularly failed because the benefits system works against it. The result is tens of thousands of uneducated and unskilled single mothers who are, in effect, “married” to the state. Where a father figure exists, he is usually unemployed and emasculated.

So can any of this be reversed? Yes, because it does not need to be like this. Most European economies still support marriage through the tax and benefit system, and there is no reason that the UK has to be different. We are alone in Europe in having such a liberal and individualistic agenda, one that has proved so damaging both to individuals and to society. This is one area where we should come into line with Europe. But it will take great political bravery to change the tax system to stop discouraging marriage and to start discouraging single parenting. It will mean cultural change led by eloquent refutations of Labour’s false argument that any change in the tax laws would penalise and stigmatise the children of single parents. It will take a renewed understanding of children’s needs — above all, an understanding of their need for the stability of parental commitment and parental responsibility. Sadly, for all their fair words, and their Every Child Matters agenda, this Government persists in doing the opposite.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

Romancing the Jihad

Why are so many on the Left enamored with Islamism?

By Clifford D. May

Ask those on the Left what values they champion, and they will say equality, tolerance, women’s rights, gay rights, workers’ rights, and human rights. Militant Islamists oppose all that, not infrequently through the application of lethal force. So how does one explain the burgeoning Left-Islamist alliance?I know: There are principled individuals on the Left who do not condone terrorism or minimize the Islamist threat. The author Paul Berman, unambiguously and unashamedly a man of the Left, has been more incisive on these issues than just about anyone else. Left-of-center publications such as The New Republic have not been apologists for radical jihadists.But The Nation has been soft on Islamism for decades. Back in 1979, editorial-board member Richard Falk welcomed the Iranian revolution, saying it “may yet provide us with a desperately-needed model of humane governance for a third-world country.” Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, longtime Nation contributor Robert Fisk complained that “terrorism” is a “racist” term.

It is no exaggeration to call groups such as MoveOn.org pro-appeasement. Further left on the political spectrum, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition sympathizes with both Islamists and the Stalinist regime in North Korea — which is in league with Islamist Iran and its client state, Syria. Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez, the Bolivarian-socialist Venezuelan strongman, is developing a strategic alliance with Iran’s ruling mullahs and with Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist proxy.

In a new book, United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror, Jamie Glazov takes a hard look at this unholy alliance. A historian by training, Glazov is the son of dissidents who fled the Soviet Union only to find that, on American campuses, they were not welcomed by the liberal/Left lumpen professoriate.

Glazov’s book indicts artists and intellectuals of the Left — e.g. George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, and Susan Sontag — for having “venerated mass murderers such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Ho Chi Minh, habitually excusing their atrocities while blaming Americans and even the victims for their crimes.”

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Left spent several years wandering in the wilderness. Many of them, Glazov suggests, looked upon the terrorist attacks of 9/11 less as an atrocity than as an opportunity to revive a moribund revolutionary movement.

Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Lynne Stewart, and Stanley Cohen are among the luminaries of the Left Glazov accuses of having found common ground with Islamists…

— Hat tip: Charlemagne

[Return to headlines]

Stop Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth

As the world clamours for food, the environmentalist lobby continues to oppose genetically modified crops. How much longer?

In places as far apart as Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti people rioted for more food last year with dozens of deaths as a result. The world’s population is increasing and food prices follow close behind. There is simply not enough food to go around. An obvious solution is to increase food production by using more land for agricultural purposes, but this can only be done at nature’s expense. Increasing the productivity of the existing farm land is a better idea. Biotechnology and genetic modification offer a way out.

Scientists have succeeded in increasing corn and wheat productivity by several dozens of percents. A new type of rice has been developed that is more resistant to flooding, and wheat has been genetically modified to better withstand draughts. Both crops would give local populations more reliable harvests.

Unfortunately, none of these genetically modified crops are being cultivated in Europe. Their introduction is opposed by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations. Even experimental fields, where the impact of GM crops on the environment are tested, are destroyed on a regular basis by environmental groups. Most recently, two test fields run respectively by the agricultural university of Wageningen and the potato starch company Aveve in Groningen met with that fate.

It seems the environmental organisations are not that interested in the test results. Maybe they’re afraid of having been wrong all these years, if it turns out that the damage to the environment is not that bad. It doesn’t seem to bother them one bit that their guerrilla tactics are putting lives at risk.

One would think that the green movement would have plenty of smart people; many a biology student has ended up there. And yet, the environmentalists still don’t seem to realise that genetically modifying food is little more than an enhanced way of improving crops by crossing them. Have they ever compared a wild strawberry with one from a greenhouse? Or an original corn cob with a contemporary one? The latter has become a whole different thing just by crossing. But the green movement never mentions this.

Crossing plants has the same effect as genetically modifying them except that it is slower and less efficient. For instance, it took no less than forty years to make the potato plant resistant to the pathogenic Phytophtera fungus, which causes potato rot. Researchers in Wageningen managed to do the same thing in two years through genetic modification, and the resulting potato plant was six times more resistant than its crossed variation. Alas, the Wageningen potato plant is also a long way from being introduced to the market.

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth say genetically modified crops damage the environment. But dozens of articles in authoritative scientific publications such as Nature and Science paint an entirely different picture: the impact of genetically modified plants is negligible. The hundreds of thousands of hectares of GM crops that were cultivated in recent years have not caused any damage to the environment worth mentioning.

Still, because of the influence the environmental lobby wields, many companies are afraid of investing in gentech crops. What’s more, the cost of research and development has increased manifold because of the risk analysis requirements, which are entirely disproportionate in comparison with what is required for traditionally crossed crops.

Add the costs from sabotage and other guerrilla tactics used by the environmental fanatics, and only the largest biotech multinationals such as Monsanto and Bayer can still afford to develop GM crops. It is a cynical thing that it is precisely the dogmatic position taken by the environmentalists that is driving the monopolies of the multinationals, the very thing the environmental movement so vehemently opposes.

How much longer are politicians going to allow themselves to be held hostage by the environmental movement? How many more food riots do we need before the environmental movement is ready to let go of its dogmas? If we want to meet the goal set by the G8 to double food production by 2050, the time to invest in biotechnology is now.

— Hat tip: Tuan Jim

[Return to headlines]

A reader named Jun has collected recent immigration-related material from a Norwegian newspaper and translated it into English for Gates of Vienna. She sent us this email on Tea Party Day, and I’m still catching up with the backlog, so that’s why this post has been delayed.

Jun had this to say in her cover note:

Today there were two articles on the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet’s online site, each looking at one side of the debate (such as it is) on non-Western immigration to Norway. The anti-immigration commentary was from Steinar Lem, a Norwegian environmentalist — the pro-immigration commentary was from Thomas Hylland-Eriksen, the sociologist who wants to deconstruct Norwegian society, as reported by Fjordman.

Hylland-Eriksen makes some ridiculous comments about immigration to the US at the end of the article featuring his own opinions — he suggests that most Americans are perfectly happy to give up their country to “brown” immigrants. Perhaps some of your American readers will want to respond to what he had to say in the Dagbladet comment thread.

Here’s the first article from Dagbladet:

Believes Norwegian Culture is Threatened by Muslims

“If I had not been seriously sick with cancer and been working, I could not have written this,” said Steinar Lem.

“Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, and in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic.”

This is Steinar Lem (57), the well-known environmentalist and author, who writes this on Human Rights Services website.

Previously, Lem criticized Norwegian immigration politics in Aftenposten, now he takes it even farther.

Norwegian culture threatened

The environmentalist [i.e. Lem] compares Norwegian culture to Tibetan culture and believes that it, over time, will be threatened by immigration.

“Norwegian culture is just as worthy as Tibetan culture. Therefore, the ceiling on non-Western immigrants must be strongly limited,” writes Lem, who believes Norwegian culture should be the norm in Norway.

“Norwegian culture is threatened. During the next fifty years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure,” said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Cancer

It is not more than two weeks since Lem revealed to Dagbladet that he has cancer, and may have less than a year to live. He has decided not to live the time in silence.

“The truth is that if I had not been seriously sick with cancer and been working, I could not have written this,” said Lem. He believes the topic of immigration is taboo in Norwegian public.

– – – – – – – – –

“If you are not interested in climate and want to maximize the oil recovery you are a good person, but if you want to change Norwegian immigration policies you are evil. It is interesting how things have been defined as irrational,” said Lem.

The future in our hands

Lem also wanted to wait to bring up [this immigration topic] until he no longer ran “The future in our hands.”

“If I had written this earlier I would have had strong reactions, and many would opt out [of “The future in our hands”],” he said. “Now I think members are ‘mile upon mile enough’ to give me freedom,” said Lem. He believes that Norwegian immigration politics have never been properly discussed politically:

“In the 80s good people wrote in the newspapers that immigration was so small that it would not affect the Norwegian lifestyle and character. So it was quite for a while before the same good people during the course of the 90s wrote triumphantly that Norway was already a multicultural society where Norwegian culture could not invoke a unique position. Norwegian culture no unique position in Norway? Many of the same people worry that China will destroy Tibetan culture and the Indian tribes in South America will be sacrificed to logging and be forced to move into the nearest big city. “

Tibet and Norway

“I’m using Tibet as an example because all agree that it is a large and wonderful culture that is entitled to protection. It must be allowed to feel the same about Norway. It is entirely legitimate to want a multicultural Norway and a social experiment, but then it must also be quite legitimate to think the opposite,” said Lem.

The author believes integration on “primarily Norwegian terms” will not be possible to carry out if the influx of “people without education and with patriarchal and hierarchical attitudes” is too large:

“If the proportion of people in Norway with Islamic background is large enough we will get a sharp setback for gender equality in Norway — due to the Norwegian social-relativist idea that we must respect other cultures. We must accept large groups of girls who cannot have contact with boys in their spare time, do not participate in school trips, but reinforces the distinction between the pure with hijab and ‘whores’ who do not cover themselves. This will also impact the status of women,” writes Lem.

“The view of gays and freedom of expression will also suffer setbacks,” he claims.

Lem is strongly critical of the rest of the left side, which he believes is not capable of addressing the problem:

“It must be legitimate to speak openly. As it is now, only the ‘egoist’ Progressive party dares to speak of an amended immigration policy, and gets many voters for it, which in my view is tragic both for reasons of global warming and the general egotism that is the heart of the whole party politics, where abuse of immigrant communities is mostly used to camouflage deadly moves in Western culture. “

Photo caption 1: Threatened — Norwegian culture is threatened. The next 50 years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Photo caption 2: Islamic background — If the proportion of people in Norway with Islamic background becomes large enough we will get a sharp setback for gender equality in Norway. Here, from the Friday prayers in the mosque in Åkebergveien in Oslo.

Photo caption 3: Worthy culture — “Norwegian culture is just as worthy as Tibetan culture. Therefore, the ceiling on non-Western immigrants should be strongly restricted,” writes Steinar Lem.

Photo caption 4: Dramatic — “Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic,” writes Steinar Lem.

The second article, also from Dagbladet, is a response to the previous one, and takes the opposite tack regarding immigration:

“Norwegian Culture is Stronger with Muslim immigration”

Norwegian culture is not threatened by Islam, responds Thomas Hylland-Eriksen to Steinar Lem.

“During the last fifteen years the number of immigrants has almost doubled without anyone noticing it. This suggests that immigration to Norway has gone surprisingly smoothly,” says University of Oslo professor of anthropology Thomas Hylland-Eriksen to Dagbladet.no.

Earlier in the day Steinar Lem in Dagbladet.no said that Norwegian culture is threatened by Muslim immigration.

“Norwegian culture is threatened. The next 50 years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure,” said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Fears immigration

In a commentary Lem has written and published on the website of Human Rights Service, the environmentalist [Lem] attacks immigration supporters like Eriksen.

“It is an irrational fear that is created for you that you are a bad person if you do not feel the same as Thomas Hylland-Eriksen, or other prominent immigration supporters,” writes Lem.

“Do not disagree”

Eriksen says Steinar Lem ‘turns into open doors’.

“No one is disputing this. Of course we must all be clear as to what our values are, whether we are Christians, Muslims, and pagans, the environmental pigs or climate activists. But we cannot expect that everyone shares our own worldview. When people come here with the old gender roles and practicing old-fashioned ways of raising children, of course, we try to influence them to become more like ourselves,” says Eriksen.

Norwegian culture

“If Lem thinks I am not a fan of human rights and equality, he may not have read some of what I have written. I’m not a cultural relativist, I have been declared a cultural imperialist for over twenty years. I go in for the best in the legacy of the Enlightenment period, which in general is European and not specifically Norwegian, but at the same time I can not see anything wrong in treating others with a minimum of respect and openness,” says Eriksen.

Eriksen is critical to Lem’s defense of “Norwegian culture”.

“Culture is dynamic and changes all the time. The ideal that women should have the same rights as men, is not a Norwegian invention and has only been in this country for a generation,” says Eriksen.

Stronger from immigration

Eriksen believes Norwegian culture is stronger due to immigration.

“These transnational movements back and forth contribute to the spread of Norwegian culture and make it larger. When I was 19 years old I experienced for the first time two immigrants who spoke together in Norwegian. Then I thought, literally rendered: “Holy s**t, now Norway is really becoming a great culture,” says Eriksen.

He said that today we can travel to the farthest regions of Pakistan and make ourselves understood in Norwegian.

“Norwegian is becoming larger when more and more people begin to communicate in Norwegian. Norway is perhaps first and foremost a language community,” said the professor.

Norwegian values

Eriksen is also unsure of what Lem says when he speaks of “Norwegian values.”

“I think he means classical European values, which emerged during the Enlightenment period. I can not see that Norwegians are in danger of losing these values, it must be documented, “says Eriksen.

“On the contrary, it is hardly possible to open a newspaper anymore without one or other writing about the importance of democratic and humanistic values,” says Eriksen. He believes that Norway has something to learn from the United States.

“In the United States it’s reported that the USA is about to be browner. In a few decades it’s calculated that a majority of the U.S. population will have ‘brown’ skin. The American public is generally very relaxed about this, as long as the country’s population continues the traditions about what the U.S. is,” said Hylland-Eriksen.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Thanks to all the enthusiastic participants in Steinar Lem-debate so far today! This is clearly a topic that engages. Because of lack of capacity to moderate the debates in the afternoon, we close them for the day, but continue the discussion with and amongst you readers in the morning.

Sincerely, Mina Hauge Nærland
vaktsjef/db.no

Photo caption 1: Threatened — Norwegian culture is threatened. The next 50 years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure, said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Photo caption 2: Dramatic — “Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic,” writes Steinar Lem.

Photo caption 3: Islamic background — If the proportion of people in Norway with Islamic background becomes large enough we will get a sharp setback for gender equality in Norway. Here, from the Friday prayers in the mosque in Åkebergveien in Oslo.

Photo caption 4: Worthy culture — “Norwegian culture is just as worthy as Tibetan culture. Therefore, the ceiling on non-Western immigrants should be strongly restricted,” writes Steinar Lem.

It looks like Geert Wilders’ visit to Hollywood has paid off: he’ll have professional filmmaking assistance on his sequel to Fitna.

In addition, he says that he will tackle the crucial issue of free speech in the new movie. According to NIS:

Wilders Announces Fitna Sequel

THE HAGUE, 17/04/09 — MP Geert Wilders is preparing a follow-up to his anti-Islam film Fitna. The sequel is set to be finished in 2010.

For his new film Wilders says he is receiving help from professional filmmakers in the United States. “I have received offers from people in New York and Hollywood who have in the past made films shown in Dutch cinemas”. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader declined to give names.

Wilders announced Fitna II in yesterday’s edition of De Telegraaf. “It will not be a copy of Fitna”. “This is the next phase”, the PVV leader told the newspaper. “I now wish to illustrate the consequences of mass immigration from Muslim countries, to which our doors are open”.

The controversial first film was chiefly a complaint against the Koran. Wilders warns that part two will once again be hefty, not least towards Islamic countries. “It will by no means be less peppery than the first film”.

Important issues in part two will be freedom of speech and the strict Islamic law known as sharia. “In addition, I will be offering solutions”, says Wilders, who is travelling to Florida next week to raise funds and discuss the film further.

– – – – – – – – –

With the announcement of the new film, Wilders is according to De Telegraaf making it clear that he does not intend to await the outcome of the criminal proceedings against him in the Netherlands. Partly based on Fitna, an appeal court in Amsterdam recently decided that Wilders must be prosecuted for inciting hatred, a verdict sending the PVV up in the polls. One major poll says the party would be the biggest in the Lower House if elections were held now.

“We must attack more and go on the offensive”, says Wilders, who wishes to campaign even more intensely against Islam. “We must hit back. Therefore I have no intention of awaiting the trial”.

When Fitna was announced in late 2007, it caused much concern within the cabinet. Prime Minister Balkenende repeatedly stated that he expected outbreaks of violence from Muslims. According to insiders he even attempted to ban the film as a preventive measure, but this proved legally impossible. When Wilders eventually put the film on the Internet on 27 March 2008, the commotion remained restricted to several small demonstrations in a few countries.

Hat tip: TB.

Occidental Soapbox has posted Episode 6 in the Islamic Crusades series. Watch “India’s Millennial Burden”:

For more information, plus a complete transcript, visit Occidental Soapbox.

[Post ends here]

Tundra Tabloids just further expanded its “Under the LGF Bus” picture, because Glenn Beck has now been identified as a dangerous right-wing extremist by Charles Johnson. Welcome to the club!

But Glenn isn’t taking the slurs quietly:

Here’s a quote from the video:

Quite honestly, it’s a destructive attempt to silence free speech. That’s something blogger Charles Johnson should know about, since he’s been called an anti-Muslim bigot by most of the same people that unfairly said the same things about me.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers, tipsters, correspondents and contributors who have stood by Gates of Vienna since the whole LGF mess started a year and a half ago.

Back then Atlas Shrugs and our blog seemed to be standing alone fighting the slurs, fabrications, distortions, and cheap shots coming from Little Green Footballs. It didn’t matter what the truth was. It didn’t matter that Charles Johnson was as mistaken about some of his “facts” as Dan Rather was about his memo. The larger blogs were unwilling to stick their necks out and risk the Wrath of the Lizard.
– – – – – – – – –
But the truth has a way of seeping out.

It has taken eighteen months, but common sense concerning these issues is finally emerging. Now that Glenn Beck has unmasked LGF’s disinformation on national television, does this mean Pamela and I can come in from the cold? Are we no longer “fascist-enablers” and “apologists for European neo-Nazis”?

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

For most of last year our blog was a near-pariah in the American blogosphere. The links from major blogs all but ceased, and only the Europeans and some of the small right-wing American blogs — God bless them! — were willing to take sides.

Presumably the blanket of silence on this issue was due to fear of the Lidless Eye and the havoc Charles Johnson could wreak. Woe betide any American blogger who drew his baleful gaze! Perhaps that is why Dr. Sanity, ShrinkWrapped, and others sided with Charles. There were exceptions, one of them being James Lewis at American Thinker. He was willing to examine Charles’ errors and his naïveté in being used by Swedish and Belgian black psyops.

Now some of the more important and popular media voices are pointing out the nature of LGF. Notice the issues that Glenn Beck has with Charles Johnson:

1.		His seemingly willful misrepresentation of the facts.
2.		His willingness to take questionable information at face value without doing the most basic due diligence to check its accuracy.
3.		His refusal to make any public correction of errors arising from #1 and #2, and
4.		His habit of issuing vicious personal attacks that poison public discourse and polarize people who are essentially on the same team.

Do you see a pattern here?

These were exactly the same issues that arose during the Vlaams Belang controversy. Charles Johnson posted slurs, rumors, innuendo, material taken out of context, and outright falsehoods about Sverigedemokraterna and Vlaams Belang. He presented the material in a nasty, divisive, and vitriolic manner. And then he refused to back down and publicly withdraw any of his gross errors and misrepresentations when they were pointed out.

In a watershed moment, some of the major players in the media and the blog world are now willing to acknowledge that the Lizard Emperor has no clothes. But it took eighteen months for the truth to become glaringly apparent.

Those eighteen lost months sucked up energy that would have been directed towards our common cause. Charles Johnson damaged reputations and created fractures within the anti-jihad movement, some of which may never completely heal.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Our time in the wilderness was instructive.

It taught me that the large blogs are scarcely more principled than the MSM — they were unwilling to stand up publicly for the truth in the face of possible damage to their traffic and their ad revenues. It should have been obvious — we’re all fallible human beings — but it was still a sad lesson to learn.

It reinforced my sense that a distributed network of less prominent players is a better way to accomplish our purposes. Information spreads more reliably and action can be coordinated more effectively when “celebrities” aren’t part of the process. As I’ve said before, we’re an army of midgets. No one will get rich or famous doing this, but the job will actually get done.

Our excommunication became complete when Pajamas Media — unable to distinguish between descriptive and normative prose — told us that we were no longer welcome as affiliates. Once PJM gave us the boot, we experienced the freedom of having nothing left to lose. No more worrying about ad traffic or offending the folks at headquarters — we could call the shots as we saw fit. Our readers promptly stepped into the breach with their generous financial support of our blog.

We stuck to our guns. I’m grateful to those who stayed with us during our sojourn in the Outer Darkness.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

This past January, members of the Belgian Left in Antwerp — including Social Democrat politicians — marched side-by-side with Muslims who chanted, “Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!”

During that time Filip Dewinter was the only leader of a major political party in Belgium to stand up publicly for Flemish Jews. He and other leaders of Vlaams Belang did so vehemently and repeatedly. Mr. Dewinter demanded on the floor of the Flemish Parliament that the government aggressively investigate and prosecute the murderous thugs who attacked Jews and firebombed synagogues. He pointed out the essential anti-Semitic nature of many of Belgium’s Muslim immigrants.

No other Belgian political party did these things. Only Vlaams Belang.

This is on the public record. It was reported in the Belgian media and appeared in English translation on this blog and other sites. But Charles Johnson has never retracted his scurrilous attacks on Filip Dewinter as a “neo-Nazi”. He and many others in the vast anti-European echo chamber continue to repeat the same nonsense.

It’s unfortunate, but Mr. Dewinter acquired the unfair “neo-Nazi” slander in the American media, and nothing seems to be able to shake it loose.

I’m sure Glenn Beck can sympathize with him.

Thanks to Vlad Tepes for YouTubing the video segment.

If Indonesian voters have their way, the country will have secular rule. In contrast, not only will Pakistan’s Swat Valley be ruled by the Taliban, but accused killers among their number will be immune from prosecution.

In other news, in Saudi Arabia there is a run underway on old Singer sewing machines. It seems the machines are in great demand due to a rumor that they contain “red mercury”, which is thought to be effective in controlling djinns.

Thanks to AA, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Lexington, LN, Steen, TB, The Observer, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

	USA
	Big Sister is Watching You
	CNN Smears ‘Right Wing’ as Nazis
	Dealing With Disruptive Veterans
	Furious Protest Stops Tancredo’s UNC Speech
	Georgetown Says It Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request
	Hedgecock Seeks Popular Uprising
	Md. Guard Issues Warning to Staff About Local Tea Party Protestors
	Obama Administration Targets Conservatives and War Vets
	The Treason of the Congressional Black Caucus
	Why Call Americans ‘Extremists?’ DHS Asked
	Canada
	Northern Discomfort
	Europe and the EU
	Church: Bishop of Mazara Del Vallo Visits Diocese in Tunis
	Council of Europe on Racism: Europeans Ought to be More Self-Critical
	Croatia-Slovenia: Brussels Proposes Arbitration Over Border
	Denmark: Thousands Wish Queen Happy Birthday
	Denmark: Treasure Trove Found on Funen
	Germany to Boycott UN Anti-Racism Conference
	Ireland: The Nuns Would Not Have Stood for it
	Italy: Dining With Mafia ‘Not Evidence’
	Italy: Migrant Loses Eyesight After Brutal Beating
	Mussolini Town Bans Memorabilia
	Spain: Weddings With Non-Spanish Citizens Treble in 7 Years
	Spain: Church in Support of Families, Mass in Colon Square
	Storm Brews as Mafiosi Let Out
	The Purpose of NATO is to Prepare for War
	The Turkish Bridgehead
	North Africa
	Egypt: Iran Paid Off Egyptian Officers
	Islamists of the World Unite; You Have Nothing to Lose Except Any Pretext of Being Moderate
	Terrorism: Tunisia, Fifty Sentenced in Court
	Turin Book Fair: Egypt is Guest Country, Controversy
	Middle East
	Almost Calm Easter Celebrations in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra
	Iran Says S-300 Russian Missile Deal on Track
	Jordan: Alleged Hamas Spies Convicted
	Saudi Arabia: Singer Mania Being ‘Cured’
	Syria: Alleged PKK Activists Convicted for Separatism
	Turkey: ‘Daughters of Allah’ Nets Bad Review From Officials
	Yemen: Extremists Burn, Devastate House Accusing Owner’s of Blasphemy
	South Asia
	India: Election Marred by Maoist Attacks
	Indonesia: Voters Favour Secular Rule
	Pakistan: Militants to be ‘Protected’ Under Swat Law
	We’re Sick of War: a Taleban Leader Risks His Life to Point Out a New Route to Peace
	Far East
	Chinese Satellite Earth Monitoring System Operational
	Fiat- Chrysler Deal ‘50% Chance’
	Australia — Pacific
	Asylum Seekers Arrive in Darwin After Boat Explosion
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	Those Who Ignore History Are Condemned — Somali Piracy in Context
	Immigration
	Italy: Growing Number of Migrants Use Website for Job Search
	Norway: Immigrants Behind Most Cases of Aggravated Sexual Assault
	Spanish-Language Media Pushes U.S. Citizenship Drive
	Culture Wars
	Obama Pushing Abortion Hard at United Nations, Pro-Life Group Says
	General
	It’s Possible: Imagine No Phone, No Food, No Fuel
	Ohmyrus: Lessons From the Ancients
	Video: Jackie Mason: Why Should Our Ships Fear ‘Broken Down Bums’?
	Why Things Are the Way They Are

Big Sister is Watching You

In George Orwell’s book “1984” the slogan of the dictatorship was “Big Brother Is Watching You.” In Obama’s America, Janet Napolitano is in charge of homeland security, so the slogan could well be changed to “Big Sister Is Watching You.”

It turns out that Big Sis has just issued a report that warns against the possibility of violence by so-called “right-wing extremists.” And what does Big Sis say these right-wingers are concerned about? Illegal aliens, the increasing power of the federal government, gun grabs, abortion and the loss of U.S. national sovereignty. In other words, anyone who is worried about preserving our borders, language and culture is on Big Sis’ watch list.

But here’s something else that the headlines don’t tell you. The report says that these dangerous right-wingers engage in “exploitation of social issues such as … same-sex marriage.” What this means is that even though state after state has rejected gay marriage every time it has been put to a vote of the people, if you oppose the destruction of traditional marriage, if you oppose the gay mafia, then you are suspect. If you aren’t happy with her “lifestyle choice,” Big Sis will put you on her list.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

CNN Smears ‘Right Wing’ as Nazis

A similar report, on left-wing extremism and entitled “Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade,” received the attention of exactly zero media outlets since its release. The AP today reports that this document was released in February, although it is unclear when media outlets received it.

In point of fact, the non-classified version was published on January 26 and cited several liberal extremist groups by name, as potential security threats…

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Dealing With Disruptive Veterans

Pennsylvania State University has stepped in it. In fact, they’ve stepped in it to the tops of their combat boots. A video was recently posted on the Penn State website for the ostensible purpose of helping professors deal with disruptive students. But its negative and stereotypical portrayal of veterans has provoked well-deserved outrage from citizens everywhere.

In the video, an instructor pays a visit to her department head indicating that she is still having a problem with a student. The department head responds eerily, asking whether the referenced student is “the veteran.” She indicates that, yes, it is “the veteran.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Furious Protest Stops Tancredo’s UNC Speech

CHAPEL HILL — UNC-CH police released pepper spray and threatened to use a Taser on student protesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo opposing in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.

Hundreds of protesters converged on Bingham Hall, shouting profanities and accusations of racism while Tancredo and the student who introduced him tried to speak. Minutes into the speech, a protester pounded a window of the classroom until the glass shattered, prompting Tancredo to flee and campus police to shut down the event.

Tancredo was brought to campus by a UNC chapter of Youth for Western Civilization, a national organization of students who oppose mass immigration, multiculturalism and affirmative action.

Before the event, campus security removed two women who delayed Tancredo’s speech by stretching a 12-foot banner across the front of the classroom. It read, “No dialogue with hate.”

Police escorted the women into the hallway, amid more than 30 protesters who clashed with the officers trying to keep them out of the overcrowded classroom. After police released pepper spray and threatened the crowd with a Taser, the protesters gathered outside Bingham Hall.

Police spokesman Randy Young said the pepper spray was “broadcast” to clear the hallway. He said officers’ use of force was under investigation by the department.

Inside the classroom, several student protesters screamed curses at Tancredo and Riley Matheson, president of the UNC-Chapel Hill chapter of Youth for Western Civilization.

“This is the free speech crowd, right?” Tancredo joked.

UNC-CH geography professor Alpha Cravey joined protesters in chanting the names of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.

But campus visitors and some faculty members in the capacity crowd of 150 urged the students to let Tancredo speak.

“We are the children of immigrants, and this concerns us,” said junior Lizette Lopez, 22, vice president of the Carolina Hispanic Association. “So we would at least like to hear what he has to say if you want to hear what we have to say.”

The protesters relented, and Tancredo began to speak, describing failed state and federal legislation aimed at providing in-state tuition benefits for undocumented immigrants.

Two women stretched out another banner, first along one of the aisles and then right in front of Tancredo. Tancredo grabbed the middle of the banner and tried to pull it away from one of the girls. “You don’t want to hear what I have to say because you don’t agree with me,” he said.

The sound of breaking glass from behind a window shade interrupted the tug-of-war.

Tancredo was escorted from the room by campus police.

About 200 protesters reconvened outside the building. “We shut him down; no racists in our town,” they shouted. “Yes, racists, we will fight, we know where you sleep at night!”

Reached by phone after his departure, Tancredo said he had never been silenced by protesters, even at American University where 400 of them recently attended one of his speeches.

“We’re very sorry that former Congressman Tancredo wasn’t able to speak,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. “We pride ourselves on being a place where all points of view can be expressed and heard, so I’m disappointed that didn’t happen tonight. I think our Public Safety officers appropriately handled a difficult situation.”

Police spokesman Randy Young said he couldn’t recall student protesters shutting down another campus event.

“Fascists are fascists,” Tancredo said. “Their actions were probably the best speech I could ever give. They are what’s wrong with America today. … When all you can do is yell epithets, that means you are intellectually bankrupt.”

UNC graduate student Tyler Oakley, who had organized the protest, said he regretted the broken window but not silencing Tancredo. “He was not able to practice his hate speech,” said Oakley. “You have to respect the right of people to assemble and collectively speak.”

Lopez said she had mixed emotions about how the event ended.

“We were more interested in an intellectual conversation instead of a shouting match,” she said. “Ironically, the people that are trying to get our voices heard silenced us.”

Matheson, who formed UNC-YWC this year with seven other conservative students, said he knew Tancredo would be controversial but he never expected this kind of response.

“I didn’t expect them to literally chase him out of the building,” he said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Georgetown Says It Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request

(CNSNews.com) — Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”—symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the “IHS” monogram that had previously adorned the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was still covered up—when the pediment where it had appeared was photographed by CNSNews.com.

“In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage,” Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at Georgetown, told CNSNews.com.

“The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches,” she added. “Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”

On Wednesday, CNSNews.com inspected the pediment embedded in the wall at the back of the stage in Gaston Hall, where Obama delivered his speech. The letters “IHS” were not to be found. They appeared to be shrouded with a triangle of black-painted plywood.

Pictures of the wooden pediment prior to Obama’s speech show the letters “IHS” in gold. Many photos posted on the Internet of other events at Gaston Hall show the letters clearly.

The White House did not respond to a request from CNSNews.com to comment on the covering up of Jesus’ name at Gaston Hall.

Georgetown, which is run by the Jesuit order, is one of the most prestigious Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States.

Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus (1541) and thus became the emblem of his institute.” The Society of Jesus is the formal name for the Jesuits.

Although the monogram was covered over on the wooden pediment at the back of the Gaston Hall stage where it would have been directly above and behind President Obama as he spoke, the letters “IHS” are posted elsewhere around the hall approximately 26 times on shields representing different parts of the United States and the world.

Obama did not mention the name of Jesus during his address. However, he did mention Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

“There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells a story of two men…’the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock,’“ Obama said.

“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,” he added. “We must build our house upon a rock.”

— Hat tip: Lexington

[Return to headlines]

Hedgecock Seeks Popular Uprising

Columnist who revealed DHS crackdown calls government report ‘un-American’

Hedgecock said he thinks it’s a government reaction to the grassroots opposition to President Obama’s nationalization and socialization plans.

“I think this has to do with the Fairness Doctrine. … Unfortunately, the MO (method of operation) of the national administration … it doesn’t like a lot that’s said at the grassroots,” he said.

He said, “I’m afraid I witnessed the first manifestation of this last Saturday in a Tea Party … in San Diego.

“I noticed a fellow taking video shots of a lot of the people.”

He said he was told the man had taken video shots of vehicle license plants, then got into a vehicle with a federal government plate and drove away.

Hedgecock suggested that may have been the type of surveillance the DHS report seeks.

“If you’re going to protest against Obama, he’s going to know who you are,” he said.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Md. Guard Issues Warning to Staff About Local Tea Party Protestors

A document issued by the Maryland National Guard on April 9 warns full-time Guard personnel to be aware of threats from local citizens protesting income taxes during grass roots events known as TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Parties — one of which was held on Solomons Island March 22. The Guard document, “Planned TEA Party Protests (FPCON Advisory 09-004),” was believed to have first been revealed by a blog called The Jawa Report. A call today to Col. Kohler, Md. National Guard Public Affairs in Baltimore, confirmed the authenticity of the document. The document was officially classified as UNCLASSIFIED/FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (U/FOUO). (The document appears in its entirety at the bottom of this article)

The Guard document describes the TEA Party protests as a movement. “Numerous entities have formed recently to express displeasure/anger over recent federal/state government actions: more taxes, increased spending, higher deficits, a surge of borrowing to pay for it all, bailout of the financial institutions,” stated the document under the heading of SITUATION.

The document appears to treat protestors as potential terrorists. The Point of Contact is identified as “Antiterrorism Program Coordinator” and provides a redacted army.mil email address.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Obama Administration Targets Conservatives and War Vets

The Obama Administration’s new Secretary of Homeland Security recently ordered immigration agents to stop their workplace searches for illegal aliens while at the same time denigrating US war veterans and conservative or right-wing groups.

[…]

“I believe this memo is the result of the Tea Party movement, which is viewed by the Obama Administration as a rebellion against his socialist and radical policies,” said Baker.

[…]

However, many police agencies are beginning to question the priorities of this administration.

“What Obama’s minions are attempting to do is create friction between local cops and the military,” said Detective Sydney Frances (NYPD-Ret.).

“This is Obama’s first shot at dissenters who are not willing to turn their nation over to Marxism and socialism,” he said in an interview with NewsWithViews.com.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

The Treason of the Congressional Black Caucus

The video of the press conference made me want to throw up everything I have ever eaten. Yes, the event was sufficiently sickmaking that it actually effected a nausea so severe, it threatened to reach back through space and time.

The visit of the Congressional Black Caucus to Cuba last week was ostensibly an overture toward improving U.S. relations with Cuba. It was not a maiden voyage, but it was the first time the group had traveled to the island nation since its dictator, Fidel Castro, fell ill in 2006. He was subsequently replaced by his brother Raul (who is every bit the brutal, ruthless communist as Fidel), but remains very involved in Cuba’s government.

On its face, one might wonder why a group of congressional representatives would engage in such folly in the first place.

The Congressional Black Caucus is a collection of far-left blacks who embrace anything and everything that is socialistic, communistic, afrocentric (read “racist”) and Ameriphobic. While some are likely brainwashed unfortunates (they often come off as quite dull), others are vintage, hardened radicals who would indeed sooner see a government such as that in Cuba replace ours.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Why Call Americans ‘Extremists?’ DHS Asked

Freedom of Information Act request seeks ‘basis’ for report

The Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., says it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Homeland Security demanding why it calls Americans who oppose abortion, support 2nd Amendment gun rights and dislike lax immigration law enforcement “extremists.”

“This is not an intelligence report but a diatribe against those who oppose the policies of the Obama administration,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the organization.

“It is a declaration of war against the American people and our constitution. It is a prelude to extreme gun control legislation and hate speech laws targeting Christian churches and others who oppose abortion and same sex marriage,” he continued. “The federal government should be focusing its attention on the 35 radical Muslim compounds in the U.S. training its followers on how to kidnap and kill Americans.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Northern Discomfort

Shame on Canada’s thought police.

By Mark Hemingway

It’s hard to describe Ezra Levant’s splendid new volume, Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights, as an enjoyable read — because the book is a chronicle of injustice, with outrage on every page.

On opening this slim volume, I was transported to early last year, when I first heard that Levant — formerly the publisher of the Canadian conservative magazine The Western Standard — was being hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for having the temerity to publish something a radical imam didn’t approve of.

As I began to read the facts of Levant’s case, I came to the sad realization that Canada no longer has freedom of speech. The “human rights” commissions (HRCs) all over Canada, staffed by bureaucrats and not following normal legal procedures, had originally been set up to deal with blatant cases of discrimination; they had morphed into star chambers weighing in on what the press could print, what pastors could say from the pulpit, whether certain Bible verses could be displayed publicly, and so on.

Later in the year, when National Review’s own Mark Steyn was ensnared by both Canada’s national and the British Columbia HRC for an article he published, I ended up covering Steyn’s case, as well as Canada’s kangaroo courts more broadly. (Steyn has written a foreword to Shakedown.) Every rock I turned over revealed the HRCs to be even more pernicious then they appeared, and they looked Orwellian to begin with. These commissions have the power to impose financial and legal penalties, and yet they don’t adhere to the most basic protections of due process found in a real court of law.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

[Return to headlines]

Church: Bishop of Mazara Del Vallo Visits Diocese in Tunis

(ANSAmed) — MAZARA DEL VALLO (TRAPANI), APRIL 15 — The bishop of Italy’s Mazara del Vallo, Domenico Mogavero, will fly to Tunisia tomorrow where he will be a guest in the Tunis Diocese that is twinned to his. The bishop explained that “I am going there to deliver the sums of money collected as a sign of solidarity in all of the churches of the Diocese during the weeks of the Advent and Lent. The money will be used to help the needs of the catholic community in Tunisia. The sum amounts to approximately 30,000 euros”. In recent weeks, thanks to the twinning of the churches, the Mazara del Vallo Diocese was host to Don Otello Bisetto, head of the schools in the Tunisian Diocese, 22 Tunisian teachers and 3 nuns. Monsignor Mogavero’s visit to Tunisia will last two days. (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Council of Europe on Racism: Europeans Ought to be More Self-Critical

Europe is not a racism-free zone. An intensified struggle against xenophobia and intolerance is acutely needed in most European countries.

Hate crimes must be stopped and action taken against discrimination in employment, education, housing, sport and other social contexts.

All this requires an honest recognition of the problems and political will to plan and enforce effective counter measures. A self-critical attitude would be the most convincing European contribution towards the efforts of the United Nations to develop a global strategy against racism.

[…]

There are also important standards to prevent racism in electronic media. The additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime outlaws acts of a xenophobic nature committed through computer systems and the internet. The European Union has adopted legislation banning the diffusion of hate speech through TV channels, and most recently, the EU countries agreed on common legislative standards to criminalise certain racist and xenophobic behaviour across the Union.

Each country needs to adopt a comprehensive and coherent strategy against racism, xenophobia and discrimination. The national action plans should identify the groups which are particularly vulnerable or disadvantaged and apply positive measures in their regard.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Croatia-Slovenia: Brussels Proposes Arbitration Over Border

(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA — Because of Ljubljana and Zagreb’s inability to reach a political agreement over maritime boundaries between the two countries, the European Commission has suggested that the controversy be solved by a panel of jurists. This information, published by Ljubljana’s Delo newspaper, was confirmed by the spokesperson for Slovenia’s foreign minister, Milan Balazic, who specified that this is a new initiative from Olli Rehn, the EC Commissioner for Enlargement. He also announced that on April 20 there will be a new meeting in Brussels between Rehn and the foreign ministers of Slovenia and Croatia. According to the newpaper, the EU Commissioner suggested that the two countries leave the issue of delineating borders in the Gulf of Piran (in the northern Adriatic) to a group comprising a president nominated by Brussels who in turn would nominate another two members, and Slovenia and Croatia then choosing one jurist apiece. If the two countries approve this form of arbitration, Rehn’s proposal provides that Slovenia remove the veto it placed last December against Croatia’s application to join the EU. The arbitration procedure should finish by the end of 2009. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Thousands Wish Queen Happy Birthday

Queen Margrethe made her traditional balcony appearance on Thursday for her annual birthday celebration

A throng of well-wishers cheered Queen Margrethe II today at Amalienborg Palace, as the press and public gathered to celebrate her 69th birthday.

As is traditional, the Queen and the rest of the royal family appeared on the balcony of Christian IX Palace to greet the public, many of whom were proudly waving their small Danish flags.

The red and white of the Dannebrog flag also adorned public buses and businesses today in honour of the Queen’s birthday.

The Queen led the crowd of thousands in a rousing round of the Danish version of ‘Happy Birthday’, while her four grandchildren waved excitedly to the crowd. Princess Isabella, who celebrates her 2nd birthday on Tuesday, seemed initially hesitant, but eventually had to be coaxed away from waving to the crowd as the family left the balcony.

Laura and Danielle, two students from Rhode Island in the US, are studying in Denmark and were very impressed by the turnout.

‘It’s, like, really cool. This would never happen in the States,’ said one of the girls.

In 1972, Margrethe II was crowned queen after the constitution was changed to allow female royals to take the throne if they had no older or younger brothers.

A referendum is likely to be held in June to decide if another change should be made to the Act of Succession to allow the eldest royal child to inherit the throne, regardless of gender. If the change is passed, it will not affect the royal family for at least the next two generations, as Crown Prince Frederik is next in line, followed by his son, Christian.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Treasure Trove Found on Funen

Ancient Islamic coins and silver jewellery were discovered in one of the biggest finds of its kind on Funen by a local man with a metal detector An amateur archaeologist hit the jackpot when he discovered a hidden cache of…

An amateur archaeologist hit the jackpot when he discovered a hidden cache of buried silver in a rural field on Funen earlier this year.

Odense City Museums has since taken advantage of the recent stretch of fine weather over the past few days to further unearth the unique and valuable Viking-age find.

So far, archaeologists have found 41 silver coins, a silver bracelet and half of a highly decorative Thor’s hammer. Most of the coins originate from the ancient Islamic times of the caliphs, while some are from the area covered by present-day Russia.

The bracelet and hammer are thought to be Scandinavian in design.

The find lay undiscovered in the field near Ringe for more than 1,000 years and museum curator Jesper Hansen said that is the biggest coin find of its kind on Funen.

Odense City Museums indicated that the foreign coins are ‘yet another sign of the vast connections and trading relations, which were an integral part of Scandinavia during the Viking age’.

It is likely that the treasure finder, Benny Pennerup, will receive a finder’s fee from the National Museum.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Germany to Boycott UN Anti-Racism Conference

The German government is set to boycott the United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva next week, according to newspaper.

The conference, known as Durban II, is expected to follow a 2001 meeting which was seen by many as dominated by Muslim and African countries and concluded with a resolution deemed as anti-Semitic and anti-western.

Concern has been growing that the Geneva conference will result in a similar conclusion. The US, Canada and Israel have already signalled that they will not be sending delegates to the conference.

The German absence will be the country’s first ever boycott of a UN conference.

It is expected to be followed by many if not all other European Union countries, many of which have already expressed concern about the conference.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is set to speak at the conference. He has often provoked outrage with calls for violence against the state of Israel.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Ireland: The Nuns Would Not Have Stood for it

The lack of accountability of the HSE and of health staff is the real cause of the hospital crisis

Wherever two or more people gather to bemoan the state of our hospitals, be it about hygiene, diagnostics or patient care, sooner or later somebody will mention the nuns. In fact just about the only time you’ll hear a heartfelt lament for the decline of religious influence in Irish life is when talk turns to the chaos and filth of our public hospitals. Say what you like about the church, runs the consensus, but dying cancer patients were never sent home from hospital with a couple of aspirins when the nuns were in charge. And you could eat your dinner off the floors of the public wards.

Part of this perception is, of course, rose-tinted nostalgia for a time when hospitals were safe places, but there’s a strong element of truth there too. If the hospitals ran better when the nuns were in charge it wasn’t because the sisters read the X-rays themselves, or even that they spent their days in Marigold gloves scrubbing the loos and scouring the floors. The hospitals ran better because somebody was in charge.

The medical sisters took a fierce proprietorial pride in the institutions they ran. If standards slipped, if a dying patient was erroneously discharged or there was stale vomit in a wash basin, those responsible would be answerable to the nuns. Now they are answerable to nobody, and that lack of accountability is a black hole into which every expert report, every caring initiative and every penny of health funding inevitably disappears.

[Return to headlines]

Italy: Dining With Mafia ‘Not Evidence’

Court awards damages to contractor who attended Mob lunch

(ANSA) — Rome, April 15 — Dining with the Mafia is not evidence of a possible link to them, Italy’s highest court ruled Wednesday.

A building contractor who took part in a Mob-organised luncheon on public works contracts should receive compensation for the time he spent in jail during a subsequent police investigation, the Cassation Court ruled.

In the ruling, which overturned a lower court’s findings, the Cassation Court said attending Mob functions “cannot in itself be considered serious evidence of a possible link to organised crime,” as prosecutors argued in obtaining the contractor’s preventive detention order.

The businessman was cleared by the police investigation and promptly filed suit for the 11 days he spent locked up.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Italy: Migrant Loses Eyesight After Brutal Beating

At least 12 attacks have been reported against immigrants in the Italian capital, Rome, in less than seven months.

Rome, 15 April (AKI) — A Senegalese migrant has lost the sight of his left eye in Rome after a brutal attack which he claimed was racially motivated. Samba Sow, a 30 year-old from Dakar, was attacked with a bottle on the outskirts of the city early on Monday.

The attack took place in the outer Rome suburb of Tor Bella Monaca where previously on 30 March, a Pakistani man was severely beaten by a group of Italian youths.

According to Italian media Samba went to a coffee shop in Tor Bella Monaca at around 2 am local time to buy a telephone card. He was approached by a group of men, including the alleged attacker Mirko Blasi, who he said taunted him.

Samba claimed he was the target of racial abuse before Blasi allegedly grabbed a bottle, broke it on the pavement and stabbed Samba in the face.

He then managed to find a police patrol and was transferred to a nearby hospital where he had a delicate operation on his left eye. But doctors were unable to save Samba’s sight in the eye.

Blasi was arrested and accused of assault with aggravating circumstance of racial hatred. He now faces six to 12 years in jail.

“It is because of racism, all of it because of racism,” said Samba, quoted by Italian daily Il Messaggero.

The incident drew condemnation from Rome’s mayor Gianni Alemanno.

“I would like to express my full solidarity with the victim of the assault which took place in Tor Bella Monaca,” he said. “We must strongly condemn every single act of violence, especially if it is racially motivated.”

Samba is a factory worker who has been living in Italy for the past six years.

In late January, three Italian youths attacked an Indian labourer Navtej Singh Sidhu and doused him with petrol and paint and set him alight as he slept on a station bench in Nettuno, south of Rome. He is still in hospital.

The Pakistani migrant attacked on 30 March, Mohammed Basharat, is now out of a coma. He suffered a severe brain haemorrhage and is still in the intensive care unit at the Policlinico Casilino hospital.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Mussolini Town Bans Memorabilia

Fascist souvenirs ‘must not be visible’

(ANSA) — Predappio, April 15 — The hometown of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on Wednesday banned the display in shops of swastikas, cudgels and merchandise bearing Fascist mottos in an attempt to spruce up the town’s image.

Currently, hundreds of tourists visiting the dictator’s mausoleum in Predappio in Emilio-Romagna each year are able to browse Mussolini memorabilia that take pride of place in many shops.

But the town council has now unanimously approved 500-euro sanctions that will come into effect in a few weeks for shops caught displaying items harking back to the Fascist era in their windows or anywhere visible from the street.

“It was an essential decision that aims to give a clear message: an end to the culture of hatred that prevents the city of Predappio from presenting itself to visiting tourists with the right image,” said local culture councillor Gianluca Barravecchia.

Souvenir hunters will still be able to browse memorabilia freely at one of several Predappio shops with Internet stores.

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

Born in Predappio in 1883, Mussolini led Italy from 1922 to 1943. Using his charisma, control of the media, and violence, he dismantled the country’s democratic government system and created a Fascist state.

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

With Nazi help, he set up a Fascist mini state, the Republic of Salo, at Lake Garda in northern Italy. As the Allies advanced he tried to flee to Switzerland but was captured and shot by Italian partisans in April 1945. His body was strung upside down in Milan with that of his mistress, Clara Petacci.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Spain: Weddings With Non-Spanish Citizens Treble in 7 Years

(ANSAmed) — MADRID — About 17% of Spanish married couples contain at least one spouse of foreign nationality. This percentage tripled between 2000 and 2007 according to a report presented by the Institute of Family Policies (IPF). During this period, the number of mixed couples increased from 11,974 to 34.223, a rise of 186%. If this trend continues, in 2020 mixed couples will make up 20% of the total. According to IPF president Eduardo Hertfelder, these figures show “the vigour and the future project of matrimony”, as well as “the welcoming character of Spanish people”. Miscegenation is saving the Spanish marriage as an institution with weddings between Spanish citizens having dwindled by 10% in the past years. Statistically, Spanish men prefer Brazilian and Colombian wives: Spanish women prefer Moroccan husbands. More men (15,935) than women (10,659) plumped for a foreign partner. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Spain: Church in Support of Families, Mass in Colon Square

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 17 — The Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela has called for a mass in Colon Square in Madrid for the Feast of the Holy Family, which on December 30 last year joined over 2 million people in the same square in Madrid. All of the dioceses and bishops, invited by Cardinal Ruoco Varela in the course of the last plenary assembly of the Cee were involved in the initiative, which aims to mobilise various groups and ecclesiastical movements for the protection of traditional families. About 30 bishops, according to what was reported today in Publico, will not participate in the Eucharist in Colon Square, but will organise celebrations in their own dioceses. During the celebration of the Eucharist of the Family, it is expected that Pope Benedict XVI address a message to Spanish families live during the Pope’s Angelus in St. Peter’s Square. The celebration of the Eucharist for the family, last year in Madrid, was interpreted by the Spanish media as a large mobilisation against reforms introduced by Zapatero’s government, starting with the recognition of gay marriages and also including civil education, a new subject introduced in schools which is opposed by the more conservative sectors of the Catholic Church. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Storm Brews as Mafiosi Let Out

Outcry after ‘slow justice’ frees Bari mobsters

(ANSA) — Bari, April 15 — A fresh controversy about the Italian justice system arose Wednesday after more than 20 Mafia members and drug traffickers got out of jail because a judge failed to write down why they were supposed to be there in the required legal term.

Judge Rosa Anna De Palo found the 21 members of a powerful Bari crime syndicate guilty on January 16, 2008 but hasn’t found time to write down why yet.

In Italy’s three-tier justice system, the arguments behind a verdict must be formally issued before the next phase starts — in this case, 15 months.

Eight defendants were released from prison and 13 from house arrest.

De Palo’s perceived lack of zeal could mean another 30 defendants being released in October.

Bari police have been alerted about the mobsters’ release, judicial sources said.

As a political outcry began to rise, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano was poised to send inspectors to Bari and there were calls for the judiciary’s self-governing body to be reformed.

There have been several outcries over perceived judicial slackness in recent years.

Last month a Calabrian Mafia boss walked free after magistrates who had sentenced him to jail in a fast-track trial didn’t get round to formally registering his sentence.

Last June a judge was sacked from the judiciary because he failed to write up a sentence over an eight-year period, leaving Mafia bosses roaming the streets of Sicily.

The sacking came just ten days after another case of what Italians call ‘slow justice’, when the son of Mafia superboss Toto’ ‘The Beast’ Riina walked free halfway through an eight-year racketeering sentence because judges had failed to lodge an appeal at the Court of Cassation within the statutory term.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

The Purpose of NATO is to Prepare for War

The new enemy of the West is ideological Islam. If NATO wants to be a useful instrument in defending the West against this enemy it needs to accept a new member state — Israel — and stop groveling to Turkey.

Last week, Bernard Kouchner, the powerful Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, announced that he is no longer in favor of admitting Turkey to the European Union. Mr. Kouchner changed his mind, he said, at the recent NATO summit in Strasbourg on April 4th. There, Ankara threatened to veto the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, as NATO’s new Secretary-General. The Turks objected to Mr. Rasmussen because in 2005 he defended the freedom of expression of Danish cartoonists who had depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Turkey is governed by the AKP, a very popular Islamic party in Central and Eastern Anatolia. The AKP’s voters feel more strongly about the Islamic law which prohibits depicting the Muslim prophet than about basic Western values such as freedom of expression. These voters already feel “hurt” by the simple depiction of their prophet, which in Islam is blasphemy. The Turkish threats in Strasbourg jolted Mr. Kouchner into realizing what the future has in store for the European Union if Turkey becomes a member. “I was very shocked by the pressure that was brought on us,” Mr. Kouchner said. “Turkey’s evolution in, let’s say, a more religious direction, towards a less robust secularism, worries me.”…

— Hat tip: AA

[Return to headlines]

The Turkish Bridgehead

By Robert Ellis

Turkey is often mentioned as the West’s bridgehead to the Middle East—but Turkey could just as well be the Islamic world’s bridgehead in Europe.

NATO’s summit earlier this month gave the European Union a taste of what it can expect if it can ever agree on Turkey’s membership. Turkey is often mentioned as the West’s bridgehead to the Middle East—but since the AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002, Turkey could just as well be the Islamic world’s bridgehead in Europe. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO faces a new threat from militant Islam in Afghanistan and Iran, but Turkey’s stance at the NATO summit has created doubt as to which side of the fence Turkey is on.

Turkey joined NATO in 1952 and has been a loyal and stable member. NATO was established “to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.” In short, it was formed to defend Western values. But the recent summit, celebrating NATO’s 60th anniversary, raised the question of how well Turkey under its present government fits in.

Two cultures clashed at the summit. Turkey objected strongly (if, ultimately, unsuccessfully) to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s nomination as NATO’s new secretary-general due to his stand in 2005 regarding an uproar in the Muslim community over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in a leading Danish daily newspaper.

Shortly after the cartoons were published, 11 Muslim ambassadors, including the Turkish ambassador, wrote to Rasmussen, deploring an “ongoing smear campaign” in Denmark against Islam and warning that the drawings could cause reactions in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in Europe. They called on the prime minister “to take all those responsible to task under law of the land” and requested an urgent meeting. The Danish prime minister also received a letter from Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), who likewise deplored “the smear campaigns conducted against Muslims and their religion” in Denmark. Rasmussen’s answer to both letters was identical: “The freedom of expression has a wide scope and the Danish government has no means of influencing the press.”

Not long afterwards, at a press conference, Rasmussen reminded Turkey that one of the criteria to qualify for EU membership is that a society complies in full with democratic principles, including the freedom of expression and the press’s unlimited right within the law to criticize both political and religious authorities.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn echoed Rasmussen when commenting on Turkey’s opposition to Rasmussen’s appointment. He found Ankara’s objection “a bit hollow.” He added, “It does not look good from a European perspective, because freedom of expression is such a fundamental value, and meanwhile Turkey is aiming to become a member of the European Union.”

Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gül, reacted that Rehn’s remarks were “unpleasant” and warned that European criticism could hamper cooperation on some of the biggest threats to European security. The country’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, explained he had been approached by the leaders of some Muslim states and asked to block Rasmussen’s nomination. And as Erdogan pointed out in a speech in London: “How can I expect him [Rasmussen] to contribute to peace when he did not do so in the past?”

Turkey’s attitude is similar to that of the majority of the members of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, which is dominated by the OIC, Russia, China, Cuba, and an African group. On March 26, the council passed a nonbinding resolution that equates “the defamation of religion” with a human rights violation…

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Egypt: Iran Paid Off Egyptian Officers

Bribed to turn blind eye to terrorist infiltration

Iranian agents bribed Egyptian soldiers and officers to turn a blind eye to the infiltration of members of the Hezbollah terrorist organization into the country, according to the findings of an Egyptian intelligence investigation.

The results of the probe, which made its way to WND yesterday, came as Egypt recently announced it arrested suspected Hezbollah infiltrators accused of plotting attacks against the country’s regime.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Islamists of the World Unite; You Have Nothing to Lose Except Any Pretext of Being Moderate

by Barry Rubin*

It’s a development of tremendous importance and you probably won’t be hearing about it from anywhere but here.

Mahdi Akef, supreme guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, has defied his own country’s government to ally himself with Hizballah. What makes this such a remarkable and high-risk step?

—The Muslim Brotherhood is Sunni Muslim; the Lebanese Hizballah group is Shia. Brotherhood leaders do not view Shia Islamists as brothers and in the past have been alarmed at the rising power of Shia forces in Lebanon and Iraq.

—Hizballah is a client of Iran’s regime. As a Shia and non-Arab power, Iran is not on the Brotherhood’s Ramadan greeting card list.

—Egypt’s government has just announced a major Hizballah effort to destabilize the country by staging terrorist attacks there. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has openly called for the overthrow of Egypt’s regime. He has now acknowledged connections with the arrested terrorists, though he claims their mission was to help Hamas and attack Israel. The Egyptian government has rejected this justification. As a result, siding with Hizballah risks a government-sponsored wave of suppression against the Brotherhood.

—This step also makes the Brotherhood look unpatriotic in Arab and Sunni terms to millions of Egyptians by siding with Persian Iranians and Shia Muslims.

—Akef’s statement tears the chador off the pretension that the Brotherhood has become moderate. Of course, while not engaging in political violence within Egypt, it has long supported terrorism against Israel and the United States (in Iraq). Now, to this is added backing an Iran-Syria takeover of Lebanon and at least the image of accepting armed struggle against the Egyptian government by others.

—And most importantly of all, Akef has endorsed the strategic line of the Iran-Syria-Hizballah-Hamas axis in open defiance of not only Egypt’s government but of the country’s national interests as well.

What did Akef and his colleagues say that was so significant? The story is told in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, April 15. Put into a seemingly innocuous framework of supporting the Palestinians, the Brotherhood’s new line ends up in some shocking conclusions.

Akef said that Hamas should be supported, “By any means necessary.” The implication is, since the Brotherhood has always favored abrogation of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty that Egypt should go to war with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. A Brotherhood government would probably do just that…

— Hat tip: Barry Rubin

[Return to headlines]

Terrorism: Tunisia, Fifty Sentenced in Court

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, APRIL 14 — Fifty young Tunisians, accused of being members of a Salafite Jihadi group, have been sentenced by the Tunisian Court of Appeal to various prison terms ranging from fifteen months (with the possibility of early release) and seven years. The accused, all aged between 20 and 30, are from Tunis and Biserta; the arrests were made in 2007 and 2008, and the accused have all already been on trial once, as laid out in Tunisia’s anti-terrorism laws which were passed in 2003. Between the end of December 2007 and the beginning of January 2008, the Tunisian security forces arrested a Salafite group with connections to the Algerian Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The operation came to an end with a series of clashes around Tunis which led to fourteen deaths, including two police officers. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Turin Book Fair: Egypt is Guest Country, Controversy

(ANSAmed) — TURIN, APRIL 15 — No peace among the olive trees. Such are the words spoken by the president of Turin’s Book Fair, Rolando Picchioni, who quoted the name of a famous movie by Giuseppe De Santis to comment on criticism, raised by a few pro-Palestine groups, to the fact that the upcoming edition of the Fair (May 14 to 18) will see Egypt as its guest country. This is a sort of dejà vu compared to last year’s event when the invitation extended to Israel resulted in the wrath of Free Palestine and several intellectuals. Those stirring up controversy, with the Italian section of the International Solidarity Movement on the front line, believe that Egypt is a non-democratic country that hounds the opposition and which cooperates with Israel in the “siege surrounding the Gaza strip”. But the Book fair sees it as a country that was invited to join the G8 meeting in July and that is also increasingly becoming the link that joins the Arab world to the West. The presentation of the Fair was also attended today by Egyptian consul Sherine Maher who, when asked by the press whether there really is freedom of speech in her country, replied that “In our country anybody can speak his mind, as happens in many other democratic countries”. She added that she was very pleased by the fact that Egypt was invited to the Fair, “a cultural model for integration between populations”, during the same year in which it was also invited to the fairs in New York and Tokyo. She sais that “Italy is very close to our country, and an Italian university is about to open in Egypt”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Almost Calm Easter Celebrations in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra

After years of difficulties this is the first Easter and Holy Week that is fully celebrated. In Baghdad Patriarch Delly urges the faithful not to let attacks stop them. In Mosul about 80 per cent of the Christian community is back in town. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani releases a message of best wishes for the occasion.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — After years of terror and fear, Easter and Holy Week were celebrated again in Iraq in relative calm. In general, parish churches were full of people, confident that the security situation would hold.

In Baghdad the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein was marked on 9 April. Several explosions were recorded across the city with several deaths. However, this did not prevent Christians from taking part in Easter services. Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel Delly actually invited Catholics to overcome their fears and trust the police which ensured security outside churches.

In Mosul the situation appeared more relaxed as well. In the last few years priests, bishops and ordinary Christians had been targeted by terrorist groups and criminal gangs, killed, kidnapped and dispossessed of their property, pushing most to flee. This time, according to a priest, at least 80 per cent of the Christian community was back in town for Easter celebrations, confident that promises by the Iraqi government and the US army would hold.

In Basra Easter Eve was celebrated again on Holy Saturday after many years. In the recent past because of the war and anti-Christian attacks services had been cut down to a minimum or celebrated in the early afternoon. This time meetings between Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants were also held.

Before Easter Iraq President Jalal Talabani released a letter of best wishes to the Christian community, calling on the faithful to follow Jesus Christ and sow in Iraqi society the principles of tolerance, brotherhood, peace and justice, which are needed to build a democratic Iraq in which everyone’s rights are respected. He also thanked Iraqi Christians for their contribution to the development of Iraqi civilisation over the past two thousand years. (SM)

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Iran Says S-300 Russian Missile Deal on Track

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mahdi Safari says the contract to buy Russia’s S-300 advance missile system is still on track.

“There are no problems with this [S-300] contract,” RIA Novosti quoted Safari as saying at the end of his visit to Moscow on Wednesday.

“After all, these are purely defensive weapons, and any country has the right to buy them. I believe this could only worry those states that have plans to attack others,” he said.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Jordan: Alleged Hamas Spies Convicted

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, APRIL 15 — Today the Supreme Military Court for State Security has sentenced three Palestinian Jordanians to five years in prison. The three had been charged with spying for the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, against the interest of Jordan, reported pan-Arab television network al-Jazeera. The three convicts were members of a group of five suspects who were arrested in 2007 by the Jordanian police under charges of “planning terrorist acts” for Hamas “against sensitive targets” in Jordan. The other two were acquitted today by the Court. In the past months Jordanian organisations and local political groups close to the Hamas-related Muslim Brotherhood launched a press campaign against the justice authorities in Amman, accusing the police of wringing a confession out of the five suspects “by force”. Jordan — the only Arab country together with Egypt that has signed a peace agreement with Israel — is a close ally of the United States. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Saudi Arabia: Singer Mania Being ‘Cured’

JEDDAH: Groups of undercover police have been deployed to monitor Jeddah’s markets following a surge in the sale of old Singer sewing machines.

Col. Misfer Al-Juaid, official spokesman for Jeddah police, said there have been reports of people coming to Jeddah from the Kingdom’s northern and central region’s to buy the machines. He added that those selling sewing machines would have their machines seized.

Al-Juaid said people are paying up to SR120,000 per machine following the spread of a rumor over the past three days of the existence of red mercury in a particular brand of old Singer sewing machines.

Al-Juaid said people are buying the machines, whose original price is only SR150, as they think the red mercury can be used to control jinns or will give them long life.

The rumor has led many people to sell their old machines with reports of frenzy at a market in Buraidah. According to one local newspaper, Riyadh’s Bin Qasim Market also saw a surge in people looking to buy Singer sewing machines. Store owners were seen cleaning dust off old second-hand machines and then selling them on for up to SR150,000.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Syria: Alleged PKK Activists Convicted for Separatism

(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, APRIL 15 — The Supreme Court for State Security in Syria has sentenced seven Kurdish Syrians, including two women, to seven, six and five years in prison. The seven had been charged with “separatism” and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) membership, reported Syrian Human Rights Organisation Ondus. The organisation specified in a statement that Muhammad Rasho and Ibrahim Allush have been sentenced to seven years in prison, Saleh Mesto, Nuri Hussein and Rashad Binav to six years. And the two women, Zaynab Horo and Latifa Mannan, to five years. The Damascus-based court has adjourned the trial of six more accused until June 14: an Iranian accused of membership of an extremist Islamic organisation; a Syrian charged with membership of the Muslim Brotherhood (which was declared illegal in Syria in 1980); a Syrian dissident accused of links to the opposition abroad and three Kurdish-Syrian activists. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Turkey: ‘Daughters of Allah’ Nets Bad Review From Officials

ANKARA — A Religious Affairs Directorate high committee has severely criticized the book “Daughters of Allah” written by Nedim Gürsel and published by the Dogan publishing house.

The committee was responding to a inquiry from a reader and drafted a one-page report to express its views regarding the book’s content. The committee concluded that the book was sarcastic and said it overstepped the boundaries of criticism, reported daily Milliyet yesterday. The reader, Ali Emre Bukagili, sent two faxes to the committee in February, seeking its opinion about “Daughters of Allah.” The report, signed by the committee’s Vice chairman Professor Hamza Aktan, was sent to the reader.

“It has been found that the book was insulting and sarcastic, humiliating Allah, its prophets, divine religions, worshipping, holy books and religious principles. This cannot be explained in the scope of freedom of thought or criticism,” the report read.

Here are excerpts from the book that were found inapt…

— Hat tip: Steen

[Return to headlines]

Yemen: Extremists Burn, Devastate House Accusing Owner’s of Blasphemy

Tens of bearded extremists burnt and devastated a house belongs to a citizen called Abdulmalik al-Mansour in al-Hasaba zone today morning.

The attackers accused al-Mansour and his mother of blasphemy. They hold a meeting near the victims house, got a fatwa to execute al-Mansour and his mother and destroy their house. At 5 hour morning the attackers came from al-Eman university and form other mosques in the capital to burn the house, two cars and a motorcycle belonging to al-Mansour before they brought some bulldozer and started devastating the three-storey house.

This has happened few months after the establishment of the vice and virtue committee. The attackers accused al-Mansour of tearing the Quran and walking on it in the mosque. They also accused his mother Makyah of threatening to change the mosque into a nightclub.

The government did not interfere until the attackers did the job burnt the cars , the house and the motorcycle and destroyed the house. By then the security authorities swarm the devastated house under cover. However they did not arrest the attackers they rather arrested al-Mansour, his mother, and children and rest of his family to put them all in the prison of the investigative police.

Relatives of al-Mansour denied that he torn the Koran pages at any time saying that he was a good Muslim and usually pray in the mosque. They also shed sarcasm over the story that his mother threatened to change the mosque into a night club. “There is no night clubs in the country and mother Makyah do not know what the meaning of a night club is, she is a good Muslim but she doesn’t like Salafayeen and that’s why they burnt her house,” Makeya’s relative said.

The attackers claimed they had called on Sheikh ab-Dulmajeed al-Zindani who gave them a fatwa to authorize them kill the family and devastate their house. How ever newsyemen.net website said the website called on Sheikh al-Zindani’s office which confirmed that the attackers had called on Sheikh al-Zindani but said that he did not issue such fatwa.

Last week Some extremists from the same university burgled on to top of a house in al-Khaniq zone north east of the capital where they destroyed satellite dish , stabbing and beating its owner and his son whom they accused of directing the dish to a European satellite to watch porn movies. The authorities arrested some of the attackers but later arrested the victims and put them into the investigative police prison.

The authorities have concluded an offensive targeted some jihadists militants in Ja’ar town in Abyan province where they detained 57 jihadists accused of sabotage and of attacking some governmental facilities and of assassinating some citizens whom the extremists accused of drinking alcohol or being homosexual,

Many citizens condemned these atrocities that contradict with Islam and they blamed the government for its blind eyes about the optimists acts. “Abdulkarim al-Jindary a motorbike driver said this was against Islam and Islamic rules. “There is nothing in Islam that authorize anybody to devastate others homes under any pretext,” said al-Jindary.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

India: Election Marred by Maoist Attacks

New Delhi, 16 April (AKI) — At least 11 people, including nine paramilitary soldiers, were killed in India on Thursday in election day attacks by Maoist rebels in the east of the country, officials said. More than 700 million Indians are eligible to vote in the elections being held for the lower house of parliament in the world’s largest democracy.

The first round of voting is taking place in the country’s 15th general elections, amid fears of terrorist attacks.

The incumbent Congress-led coalition government is facing a challenge from the main opposition, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance.

In Jharkhand state, Maoist rebels reportedly set off a landmine and ambushed a bus carrying security forces for duty at polling stations.

Seven soldiers and two civilians died in the attack, police spokesman S.N. Pradhan told reporters from Latehar district, which has been struck by several deadly Maoist attacks in recent days.

In neighbouring Bihar state, two security personnel were shot dead and another wounded by the rebels in Gaya district, Indian media reported.

In Chattisgarh state, several gun battles were reported to have taken place in a densely forested region that serves as the main base of the left-wing rebels.

Jharkhand, Bihar and Chattisgarh are among several 124 constituencies where voters were expected to go to the polls in the first stage of a month-long general election.

Polling in areas hit by the Maoist insurgency has been staggered over several phases to enable the adequate deployment of security personnel.

Neither of India’s two main national parties — the incumbent Congress nor the BJP — is considered capable of securing an absolute majority in the five-stage polls.

Regional and local parties are expected to win half the 543 parliamentary seats, so the elections may lead to intense negotiations as the major parties seek to form a viable coalition.

[Return to headlines]

Indonesia: Voters Favour Secular Rule

Jakarta, 15 April (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Despite significant support for Islamic parties, the latest parliamentary election in Indonesia showed that voters favour secular rather than religious political parties to lead the country.

Preliminary counting for the 9 April parliamentary election by four independent survey organisations shows that four Islamist parties will be represented in the national legislature.

They are the Justice Prosperity Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP).

While each of these parties secured between five and eight percent of the national vote, together they accounted for less than 25 percent.

Nevertheless on Tuesday several of the country’s key political parties claimed that Indonesia’s parliamentary election was marred by fraud and administrative errors, while they stopped short of rejecting the poll that early counts showed the president’s Democratic Party has won.

A statement issued by party leaders said the organisation of the election, the third since former president Suharto stepped down in 1998, was the worst since Indonesia entered the reform era.

“The legislative election was marred by fraud and administrative mistakes, which were systematic,” former general Wiranto, who heads the Hanura Party, said in a statement.

The statement was also signed by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri of the main opposition PDI-P party and another ex-general, Prabowo Subianto of the Gerindra party.

All three party leaders have ambitions to run in the presidential election on 8 July.

The Democratic Party (PD) of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono polled more than 20 percent, while Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) each received around 14 percent, according to early results.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a cabinet meeting that the election commission would be asked to look at any problems before July’s presidential ballot.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Militants to be ‘Protected’ Under Swat Law

Islamabad, 15 April (AKI/DAWN) — Sufi Mohammad, the head of the Pakistani militant group Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi on Tuesday said militants accused of brutal killings would not be prosecuted under Islamic law administered in the troubled Swat valley.

“We intend to bury the past,” the leader told a private television channel, off-camera. “Past things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace.”

Mohammad’s assertion highlights the dilemma facing the government as it seeks to halt 18 months of bloodletting in the Swat valley while convincing the nation, and the West, that it is not capitulating to militants.

Asked during the television interview on Tuesday whether the new courts would hear complaints from Swat residents about militant cleric Mullah Fazlullah or his followers, Sufi Mohammad said they could not.

Asked if the Taliban would enjoy such immunity, an NWFP minister only pleaded for peace.

“Everyone should understand what we have gone through and what kind of hardship people in Swat have suffered,” Wajid Ali Khan said. “We can look into any disputes and controversy at some later stage.”

A Taliban spokesman said that militants would cooperate if Islamic law was quickly implemented.

“The world will see how much peace and prosperity comes to this region,” Khan said.

Mohammad said his followers would tour all districts of Malakand, including Buner, to “ensure peace”. He also said that the courts would interpret civil rights according to Islamic strictures.

North West Frontier Province’s Malakand region encompasses the Swat valley.

“Women will have full protection and rights under Sharia (Islamic law). They will live a better life, but behind the veil,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Swat Taliban have “banned” the display of weapons in bazaars and other urban areas, saying there is no need to take up arms if ‘Shariat’ is enforced in letter and spirit.

The decision was taken after an appeal by Mohammad, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told journalists.

He said the Taliban had achieved their goal and they were ready to cooperate for the quick implementation of Islamic law.

He also praised president Asif Ali Zardari and members of the national assembly for having quickly approved this.

He expressed the hope that Islamic law would soon be implemented in letter and spirit.

Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi is a Pakistani militant group whose objective is to enforce Sharia law in the country.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

We’re Sick of War: a Taleban Leader Risks His Life to Point Out a New Route to Peace

Facing another bloody summer of fighting in Helmand province, the Taleban commander uttered words that could cost him his life. “We all want peace. We want to put down our guns,” he said quietly.

A powerfully built man with a flowing beard and a disarmingly soft voice, Commander Mansoor is — according to checks with Western and Afghan sources — a mid-level Taleban commander from southern Helmand, part of the bloody insurgency fighting against US and British troops in Afghanistan.

At a meeting with The Times arranged by tribal intermediaries, however, he painted a picture of war weariness and of local communities desperate to find a way to escape a war that is seemingly without end.

As the conflict enters its eighth summer Nato is hoping that it can exploit such popular disillusion. Mullah Mansoor (not his real name), however, is simply looking for a way out. “Local people do not like the Taleban or the Western forces, they even don’t like us local Taleban” he conceded. “They say to us, ‘if you want to go to Paradise fight in the desert, fight in the mountains but don’t fight in my house’. My wish is just to have peace and security in my area.”

It is hard to assess the prevalence of such feelings within the Taleban in parts of the south of Afghanistan. There are signs, however, that the insurgency is suffering internal turmoil brought on by opposition from local communities who blame all sides for the ceaseless fighting and more than 2,000 civilian deaths last year…

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Chinese Satellite Earth Monitoring System Operational

Beijing wants to build an alternative to the GPS system controlled by the United States. With the satellite launched today, it can already monitor China and the surrounding region, but plans to launch about 30 more satellites. Controversy over the possible “espionage” uses or political purposes of the systems.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — There is a second Chinese satellite now in orbit, part of a plan to create an alternative network to the Global Positioning System (GPS), based on United States satellites. Many are wondering whether the purposes, in addition to commercial and political applications, are also of a military nature, out of the fear that Washington is using the GPS system for espionage.

China intends to create a space monitoring system called “Beidou.” It is not clear how far along China is in the project: the United States says that Beijing has already launched at least five satellites, but Xinhua says that the one launched today — shortly after midnight, from the Xichang space pad in southwest Sichuan, with a Long March 3C rocket — is only the second, and that its current monitoring system will cover only China and the surrounding region. The first satellite was launched about two years ago, and official sources say that more than 30 satellites will be put into orbit to complete the network by 2015, 10 of them being launched by 2010.

Beijing also participates in the satellite systems of other nations. It has made significant investment in the satellite navigation system Galileo, of the European Union (investing more than 200 million euros in 2003), which is also a competitor to GPS, and is negotiating participation in the Russian system Glonass.

Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canada-based Kanwa Defence Review, comments that this system will also give China “more reliable and effective navigation and positioning of [military] force deployment. The Chinese military, especially its precision-guided weapons, will benefit.”

Official Chinese sources reject this interpretation, and reiterate that the monitoring network is meant only to free China from dependence on foreign systems, and has exclusively economic purposes, for telecommunications and for security. Many countries, including China, have instead accused the United States of using the GPS system for its own purposes, disseminating false information according to directives from Washington. Various sources say that the GPS system was disabled during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Fiat- Chrysler Deal ‘50% Chance’

Unspecified ‘Plan B’ if linkup falls through

(ANSA) — Rome, April 16 — Fiat’s proposed deal with Chrysler has a 50% chance of being sealed, Fiat chief Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said Thursday.

“The operation has a 50% chance of being realised,” Montezemolo told students at the LUISS business school here.

But if it falls through, he said, the Turin carmaker has a “plan B”.

“Let’s see if we can do it, otherwise there’s a plan B that is clearly ahead of us,” Montezemolo said, without going into details. The Fiat head was speaking a day after the group’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, said Fiat would walk away from the deal if unions at Chrysler’s American and Canadian plants fail to accept wage cuts.

Marchionne said Fiat would seek other international partnerships if negotiations with Chrysler’s unions and lenders fail.

Fiat and the Detroit No.3 are racing against the clock to strike a deal by May 1, the deadline the Washington administration of President Barack Obama set to receive federal bail-out funds which are essential for Chrysler to avoid bankruptcy.

The deal, which has Obama’s support, would give Fiat an initial 20% stake in Chrysler in exchange for its cutting-edge green and small-car technology.

The Turin automaker would also have access to Chrysler’s plants and dealerships in order to allow it to return to the American market, initially with Alfa Romeo and the trendy Fiat 500 city car.

Chrysler, in turn, would have access to Fiat’s facilities in Europe and Latin America.

However, the deal hinges on lenders accepting stock equity for debt and unions agreeing to work under the same conditions as in US plants making German and Japanese cars, located in states where union strength is lower.

Workers in these states make about 25% less than those in Detroit or Canada.

According to Marchionne, too, there is currently a 50-50 chance an accord will be struck.

If there is no deal, the Fiat CEO said Chapter 11, bankruptcy protection, would remain an option for Chrysler, but that it also faced the risk of Chapter 7, liquidation.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Asylum Seekers Arrive in Darwin After Boat Explosion

“IT was like the Bali bombings”, doctors have revealed today in describing the horrific injuries asylum-seekers sustained a huge explosion tore through their boat off Australia.

First details are emerging of the explosion and its aftermath as the injured arrive in Perth and Darwin for treatment.

An Afghani asylum-seeker is fighting for his life in Royal Darwin Hospital this morning with burns to almost 100 per cent of his body.

The man, aged in his early 30s, is on life support and was operated on early today.

He has severe burns to the majority of his body, including his lungs, and he also suffered a skull fracture in yesterday’s explosion.

The critically-injured man was one of two asylum-seekers who arrived in Darwin just after midnight.

The other Afghani, also aged in his early 30s, is in a satisfactory condition with burns to 20 to 30 per cent of his body and a fracture to his upper body.

Gallery: Boat explosion and tragedy at sea

Up to 10 asylum-seekers injured when their boat exploded after allegedly being deliberately doused with petrol were flown to Darwin overnight.

They are being treated at the new trauma centre set up in Royal Darwin Hospital after the Bali bombings.

The hospital was preparing for two more aeromedical flights carrying up to a dozen Afghanis injured in the blast to arrive this morning.

Another 13 asylum-seekers are due to arrive in Darwin on a navy vessel carrying “walking wounded” around midday.

RDH general manager Len Notaras said the expected injuries were similar to those witnessed by hospital staff after the the Bali bombings.

“They’re very horrific burns, not unlike the Bali bombings,” he said.

The four Defence personnel injured in the blast suffered only minor injuries and are not expected to require hospital treatment.

Investigations are already underway into the “manner and cause” of the explosion that killed five suspected asylum seekers on the boat off the northern coast of Australia.

The investigation will be spearheaded by NT Assistant Commissioner Mark McAdie.

Three people died, two are missing believed dead, and at least 44 were injured in the blast near Ashmore Reef, 800km northwest of Darwin, early yesterday.

About 15 patients were discharged from the hospital early to make way for the asylum-seekers.

Other men hurt in the blast — some of them possibly Darwin-based sailors — were taken to Broome and Perth for treatment.

They were flown to Darwin and met by St John Ambulance crews at the airport before being ferried to Royal Darwin under police escort.

The vessel is believed to have been soaked in petrol and set alight by asylum-seekers in a bid to stop a Darwin-based patrol boat, HMAS Albany, taking them to Christmas Island. It blew up soon after bursting into flames.

A Darwin doctor and nurse flew to a temporary hospital base at Truscott airbase, north of Kununnurra, yesterday afternoon to treat the injured. They took a large stock of medical supplies.

NT Emergency Services activated the Emergency Operation Centre in Darwin and the National Critical Care and Trauma Unit at Royal Darwin was put on high alert.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said the boat had blown up after being doused in petrol by asylum-seekers.

“It is understood the refugees on the boat spread petrol and that ignited, causing the explosion,” he said.

“Whether they ignited it or it just ignited is unknown at this stage.”

Royal Australian Navy Rear Admiral Alan Du Toit said three or four Australian Defence Force personnel were aboard the vessel when it exploded and had been injured.

“The full extent of those injuries are still being assessed,” he said.

Rear Admiral Du Toit said the burning boat sunk.

“Some people were rescued from the water,” he said.

The boat was being escorted by the navy but not being towed

— Hat tip: The Observer

[Return to headlines]

Those Who Ignore History Are Condemned — Somali Piracy in Context

by D.L. Adams

On April 6 in an address to the parliament of Turkey, US President Obama said that the relationship between the United States and the “Muslim world” is an important one. “In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical,” the president said. During the same address the President stated, “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country.” Mr. Obama neglected to explain in what way(s) Islam has the shaped and improved the United States. The founding fathers of the United States did not share Mr. Obama’s appreciation for the “Islamic faith”. In fact Jefferson, Adams, JQ Adams, and Benjamin Franklin were all were deeply concerned about the dangers that Islam represented to the new nation. Our ongoing experiences with the 21st century version of the Barbary pirates off the coast of Somalia, most recently today when an American freighter captain was freed from pirate captivity by the US Navy, illustrates a great deal about our prior relations with the “religion of peace” and how our previous leaders reacted. There is little discussion in the mainstream press about the link between Somali Islamism, piracy, and jihad, but the linkage is there nonetheless.

In spite of the news media distancing the recent attack on a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia from global terrorism, intelligence experts believe this is just the latest operation initiated against the United States and the West by Al-Qaeda.

The irony perhaps is that Islam did in fact play a very important role in the early stages of the development of the United States — Islam was directly responsible for the development of the United States Navy and for the concepts that allowed for its deployment far from our coasts. The American Navy is not a river navy or coastal defense force; it is a global tool of American power whose origins can be traced directly back to an earlier American-Islam confrontation. After the American Revolution, pirates from the Barbary states (Algiers, Morcoco) attacked American shipping off the coast of North Africa in the Mediterranean and took the crews. This piracy against American shipping started in 1784 and finally ended in 1815. The Islamic rulers of these Barbary States demanded payment of tribute from the new country and it was paid, and paid. President Jefferson sent a naval force against the pirates in 1803-05. The Marine Corps were also sent in and after a long overland march, took the city of Tripoli in 1805 (thus “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Corps hymn). Is the Somali piracy of today related to the Barbary pirates of the early 19th century? When then Ambassadors Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with the Ambassador from Tripoli in 1785, to reach a solution to the attacks against American shipping and crews they were dragged into a dark world in which we are still today.

— Hat tip: LN

[Return to headlines]

Italy: Growing Number of Migrants Use Website for Job Search

Venice, 15 April (AKI) — A growing number of immigrants are using a website for information about jobs and integration in Italy’s northeastern Veneto region. Around 1.2 million people accessed the www.venetoimmigrazione.it site from January to March, compared with some four million last year, the region said in a new report on activities from 2007 to 2009.

The website which has added new sections this year provides information on training and re-skilling programmes funded by the region for immigrants who are both employed or looking for work.

There is also information on Italian language courses, courses for immigrant entrepreneurs and a service to help immigrants find domestic work with families.

The sections of the website that received the most hits were those relating to obtaining and renewing work permits, the region said.

The industrial Veneto region has attracted the largest share of Italy’s immigrants because of abundant work in factories and farms.

About 460,000 immigrants lived in the region at the end of 2008, the region said. In some areas, such as the city of Padua, at least one in ten of the residents are immigrants.

A growing backlash against immigrants in Italy has been particularly intense in Veneto. Some locals resent the fast-growing Muslim population and oppose the building of mosques or allocation of public housing for immigrants.

The region is planning to spend almost four million euros on the integration of immigrants this year.

The largest share of these funds will go to the integration of immigrant schoolchildren (1.4 million euros), followed by training (872,000 euros).

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Norway: Immigrants Behind Most Cases of Aggravated Sexual Assault

The Oslo Police have over the past three years investigated 41 cases of aggravated sexual assault, which resulted in rape. All of them were carried out by non-western immigrants to Norway.

The police now urge that more efforts be put into preventive measures among men with immigrant background.

The police have investigated all reported cases of aggravated sexual assault over the past three years, and have gained a clear imprssion of the offenders:

Most of the rapists have a Kurdish or African background, NRK reports. The cases of aggravated sexual assults all have one thing in common, namely the use of gross violence.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Spanish-Language Media Pushes U.S. Citizenship Drive

La Raza: ‘This road is not easy, we want to demystify the process’

Community groups and Spanish-language media organizations that helped push a record number of immigrants to become citizens last year said Tuesday that they want to build on that success.

More than 1 million immigrants became U.S. citizens in 2008, an increase of 58 percent from one year earlier, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics. The groups attributed the increase to a national citizenship campaign and an incentive to apply before a fee increase went into effect.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Obama Pushing Abortion Hard at United Nations, Pro-Life Group Says

President Barack Obama has compiled a clear pro-abortion record during his short tenure as president that has raised the ire of the majority of Americans who are pro-life. However, one group that lobbies at the United Nations says Obama is pushing abortion hard in a much less obvious way.

The machinations of the presidency and Congress receive significantly more media attention and Obama’s promotion of abortion has been evident for the public to see.

But Austin Ruse, the president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a pro-life organization that lobbies at the United Nations, says Obama is pushing abortions in ways that receive less attention but could have more far-reaching effects.

“Obama’s negotiators at the UN have already made aggressive pro-abortion and anti-family statements,” Ruse tells LifeNews.com. “Obama’s administration is gearing up to make a frightening new global attack on the unborn child.”

Ruse and other pro-life groups were at the United Nations just two weeks ago when “the Obama administration made its UN debut by supporting language that has been used by UN agencies, UN committees, radical lawyers, and judges to impose abortion on reluctant countries.”

He said he “watched in horror as the previous pro-life positions of the United States were overturned in an instant by radical feminists representing the new Obama administration.”

“The US will now join the UN bureaucracy, Canada and the European Union as the most aggressive promoters of abortion all over the world,” Ruse explained. “This new pro-abortion coalition will actively seek to impose abortion on all the countries of Latin America, Africa, the Far East and even on the few remaining pro-life countries in Europe.”

[…]

Closer to home, Ruse said Obama has buttressed his administration’s abortion push at the United Nations with executive orders requiring taxpayers to go along for the ride.

“Barack Hussein Obama is the most pro-abortion president in US history,” Ruse says.

The CFAM president points out that, in only a few months, Obama has overturned the Mexico City Policy and forced taxpayers to fund foreign groups that promote or perform abortions in other nations.

He has restored funding to the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund that advocates abortion and has been caught working hand-in-hand with the population control officials in China who have imposed forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations on women and men who violate the one-child rule.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

It’s Possible: Imagine No Phone, No Food, No Fuel

Book describes what reality could be after EMP attack

A new book that describes what might happen to America following an electromagnetic pulse attack, which would be expected to destroy the power grid, telephone systems and the Internet as well as food and fuel supply chains, is being used to highlight the danger the nation faces.

“As a scientist and engineer now serving my 17th year on the House Armed Services Committee, I have studied the threat of EMP with the world’s experts,” said U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. “It is real.”

[…]

“It is very disturbing that EMP is well understood and EMP capability is actively pursued by America’s potential foes, but is virtually unknown by the American public,” the congressman said.

“Imagine a world where the only person you could talk to is the person next to you, the only way you could go anywhere is to walk and the electronic grid was destroyed,” he continued. “That is the beginning of the impact from an EMP attack.”

[…]

He described the likely scenario: “There would be no electricity. … Our substations and so forth would all be gone. The large transformers would be destroyed, and we don’t make those. It would take a year and a half or so to buy them from somebody overseas who makes them. We would then be in a world — it’s my understanding — where the only person you could talk to is the person next to you, unless you happen to be a ham operator with a vacuum tube set, which is a million times less susceptible. And the only way you could go anywhere is to walk, unless you happened to have a car that had coil-end distributor and you could get some gasoline to put in it.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Ohmyrus: Lessons From the Ancients

[…]

In the Discourses, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote that there are three forms of government — monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. Monarchy is of course rule by one man. An aristocracy is the rule by a few and democracy is rule by all citizens.

According to Machiavelli, all three are flawed and will not last long. The first monarch in a dynasty usually has the competence to rule well. But later his descendents will grow degenerate and the government will fall.

This will lead to rule by a few nobles which after a few generations will also grow corrupt and oppressive. The people will revolt and the government will fall paving the way for democracy. After a few generations, democracies will fall into disorder (I call it mobocracy) which again requires the rule by a strong man to restore order and you get a monarchy again.

Democracies always lead to welfare states. Welfare states require high taxation to sustain. This means that wealth and income are being transferred from today’s elite to the lower economic classes wheras the reverse was true during the Ancien Regime. Europe has gone further ahead than the USA on this. But America now has the most Liberal President in its history and both Houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats which is basically a Socialist Party.

Will the taxpayers revolt?

[…]

…France has an Unemployment rate of 8.6 percent. For the EU as a whole, the Unemployment rate is 7.9%. As Michel Camdesssus said, they need to reform the Welfare State. He gave a list of reforms — like increasing the retirement age and reducing medical and retirement benefits. But once the Mob is used to high level of benefits, it is diffcult if not impossible to reform the system. Any votrepreneur trying to reduce the benefits will not be elected.

Making the problem worse for welfare addicted Europeans is its growing Muslim immigrants who are not assimilating and often form the underclass. But I won’t go into that or my essay will be too long.

One day a crisis will occur which makes today’s democracies ungovernable and a dictator will take over — making Machiavelli’s cycle complete.

What can be done? Probably nothing. The game must be played out.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Video: Jackie Mason: Why Should Our Ships Fear ‘Broken Down Bums’?

Comedian Jackie Mason proposes solution to piracy.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Why Things Are the Way They Are

Sneaky change has been going on for decades. Most people would not approve of the New World Order management system if they had full knowledge of the management goals. But it is not easy to recognize the sneaky techniques that are being used to destroy our Constitution and national independence.

For the New World Order management system to succeed, millions of people need to be recruited as activists, community organizers, and facilitators. The system uses those who will be affected by the New World Order to help bring it about. The idea is that people who participate in the process will have little to complain about in the future. In addition to children, college students, women, workers, and executives are targeted.

[…]

The women’s conference was used to recruit programmed leaders for the WORld-Management System, to discover problems which might be used to hold groups together, and to convince women to become social activists for a System most of them did not understand or realize they were serving.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Yesterday’s tea party at the Pavilion on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville attracted about 1,500 people, which was a huge turnout, given the abominable weather. I didn’t think there were that many conservatives in Charlottesville, so the organizers must have bussed them in from Greene, Farmville, Lunenburg, Lynchburg, and all those other nests of gap-toothed inbred mouth-breathing right-wing extremists that abound here fin the Virginia heartland.

Seriously — there are more conservatives in Charlottesville than you might think; but they’re not much in evidence except in times of crisis. And recent events demonstrate that a singular moment of crisis has arrived.

This was the sign that Dymphna and I made and brought with us to the event:

The quote comes from a famous speech by Patrick Henry in the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg on May 29, 1765. According to the account in John Burk’s History of Virginia, Mr. Henry was inveighing against the odious stamp act imposed on the colonies by George III:

“Caesar,” said he, “had his Brutus, Charles his Cromwell, and (pausing) George the third (here a cry of treason, treason was heard, supposed to issue from the chair, but with admirable presence of mind he proceeded) may profit by their examples. Sir, if this be treason,” continued he, “make the most of it.”

Charlottesville takes great pride in celebrating its status as the home of Thomas Jefferson, and this occasion was no exception — the atmosphere was decidedly Jeffersonian. Our third president was quoted frequently during the proceedings, and the theme of the American Revolution was constantly in evidence. The Master of Ceremonies was Joe Thomas of WINA, who dressed up as Tom Paine for the occasion.

The first speaker was former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. He spoke after I dropped Dymphna off while I was still parking the car, so I can’t tell you what he said.

He was followed by John Taylor, the chairman of Tertium Quid. After that came Karin Agness, a UVA law student, who spoke from a student’s perspective about the parlous state of higher education in America. She was acting as a de facto spokesman for the young people in the crowd, who were fairly well-represented, especially considering that it was the middle of a cold and dreary weekday.

– – – – – – – – –

An Iraq War veteran named Matthew Thomasson was one of the more interesting speakers of the day. Not only did he have relevant anecdotes from his tour of duty in Iraq, but he spoke knowledgeably on a number of other issues that are familiar to regular readers of this blog. He was the only speaker to mention sharia law, and he also mentioned the attempts made by the European Union to coerce the people of Ireland into voting for the Treaty of Lisbon.

He concluded his talk with a rousing recitation of the Military Oath of Enlistment:

I, Matthew Thomasson, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…

By the time he reached “So help me God” at the end, a good portion of the audience was reciting it with him

Almost everyone at the tea party was carrying a sign, but some had other sorts of props.

A man next to us was carrying a money tree, made out of a cut sapling festooned with phony dollar bills.

There were various forms of tea party hats, usually red, white, and blue, with tea bags hanging from them or affixed to them.

Several families had children carrying signs that were designed to be read in sequence — see the photo near the top of this post for a representative example.

Virginia Delegate Rob Bell spoke after Matthew Thomasson.

How is it possible that the 58th District can elect a Republican? After all, Metro Charlottesville is one of the most liberal cities on the East Coast — they don’t call it “Berkeley East” for nothing.

During the election last fall, the city was a virtual sea of Obama yard signs and bumper stickers. It’s home to Peace Cooperatives and Transgendered Food Banks and Women’s Socialist Revolutionary Collectives and every other imaginable trendy lefty activity, ranging from bright pink all the way to Barricades Red.

Notwithstanding this ambient political atmosphere, Rob Bell is the district’s Republican delegate, and the Pavilion was full of people who applauded everything he had to say.

As the afternoon wore on, the weather got so cold and windy that Dymphna and I retreated to the visitors’ center to keep warm, and were unable to hear the last few speeches. After the speakers finished, the remaining audience formed a column and marched to Rep. Perriello’s office on Garrett Street. The organizers insisted that we refer to our procession as a “parade” rather than a march, to keep the City Fathers from being alarmed by our right-wing extremist terrorist activities.

For some reason, no counter-demonstrators were on hand to shout as us as we passed. Maybe the bad weather kept them indoors. At the corner of 2ns Street I saw a handful of people wearing Obama shirts watching us, but there was no overt antagonism.

When we arrived at Mr. Perriello’s office, everybody left their teabags on the doorstep or the windowsill. A number of people deposited their signs against the wall. There was no sign of any activity from inside the office.

John Munchmeyer, the chairman of the Libertarians, gave a brief speech thanking us for participating. After that the dogged remnant headed back through the cold rain to a restaurant on the Downtown Mall.

Food, beer, and coffee were most welcome at that point.

I talked to some of the Libertarians for a while about the recent Homeland Security report, which designates as potential terrorists those who support a third political party or recognize state and local authority over federal authority. In other words, all of the people in that room yesterday evening were potential terrorists, according to the official criteria put forth by Washington. Strictly speaking, anybody who wishes to abide by the United States Constitution might come under suspicion as a terrorist.

With 1,500 terrorists-to-be gathered in the heart of Charlottesville, there must have been at least one federal agent keeping us under observation. At least that was my theory — but recent events have brought out my paranoid tendencies, so who knows?

I entertained myself during the tea party by watching the people at the edge of the crowd, trying to spot someone in nondescript normal attire who might be an FBI or DHS employee charged with monitoring the tea party.

There was at least one fellow who matched the profile. He wore average clothes with no political buttons or stickers. He carried no sign or other paraphernalia. His expression never changed, and he never clapped or booed, showing neither approval nor disapproval of the proceedings.

He stayed on the perimeter outside the canopy along the upper walkway, even when the cold rain and wind came in. For a while he watched from the south side, and then later sauntered around by the visitors’ center and stood at the railing on the north side. He just observed, turning his gaze slowly from one side to the other, looking at different parts of the crowd.

Later he disappeared down Main Street into the Mall, and I thought he was gone. But he returned a minute later, and walked slowly up by City Hall. After that I lost sight of him. I looked for him again on the Mall during our “parade”, but he didn’t appear.

It made me wonder what exactly he was doing there, and what his job might be. He seemed to be keeping an eye on us.

But, then again, I’m paranoid.

Any serious or persistent criticism of Islam is usually described by Muslims and their Multiculturalist allies as “Islam-bashing”.

But have you ever heard of “Christianity-bashing”?

How about “kafir-bashing”?

Me neither.

When the mobs gather to shout “Death to those who insult Islam!” or “Jews to the gas!”, they’re just… well, “Muslim demonstrators”. Or “angry protestors”. Or maybe “Muslims who feel threatened by growing Islamophobia”. Or something similar. We’ve all heard the media-speak whitewash.

Fortunately for the world’s 6.8 quadrillion insulted Muslims, a young Indonesian woman in the Netherlands is helping her boyfriend make a movie in response to Geert Wilders’ Fitna. According to Radio Netherlands, Anita Paoniasari plans to set the record straight:

‘I Muslima’, A Personal Response to ‘Fitna’

Many Indonesian Muslims do not recognize the violent portrayal of Islam by Dutch opposition MP Geert Wilders. A 70-minute documentary shows how Mr Wilders’ relentless Islam-bashing is affecting them.

I Muslima is the first documentary by 24-year-old social studies student Stefan Franz from Tilburg. His girlfriend Anita Paoniasari, raised in a strict Islamic community in the Indonesian city of Bandung does not recognise the image of Islam painted by politician Geert Wilders in his film Fitna. She has been living in the Netherlands for seven years, and says she has become Westernized, but is angered and saddened by the violent Islam portrayed by the Dutch MP, despite the critical questions she is asking herself about her religion.

– – – – – – – – –

For Stefan Franz, this was sufficient reason to travel to Indonesia with his girlfriend and record the reactions of people there on video. Anita Paoniasari talked to people in the street and to old friends. Conversations with imams also invariably turned to Geert Wilders, Fitna and Islam. At the time, fanatical believers were holding a demonstration against the film in the capital Jakarta.

Stefan Franz distilled more than 60 hours’ worth of recordings into a 70-minute documentary in which we follow his girlfriend during her conversations with fellow believers, but also share in her uncertainties. The documentary’s first screening will take place at the Mundial Film Festival in Tilburg on 23 April 2009.

Hat tip: TB.

From the English-language edition of Politiken:

Wilders plans sequel to Fitna

NRC HANDELSBLAD: The populist Dutch politician Geert Wilders is planning a sequel to last year’s anti-Islam film Fitna.

Wilders told De Telegraaf newspaper on Thursday he plans to bring out Fitna II in 2010, and that the film will show the impact of mass migration from Muslim countries on Western society.

“It will not be a copy of Fitna. This is the next phase,” Wilders told the newspaper.

Last year, Wilders, who is a member of the Dutch parliament, released the 16-minute long Fitna on the internet. The short film argues that Islam is a violent religion.

In January 2009 the Amsterdam appeals court ordered prosecutors to put Wilders on trial for promoting hate speech.

Hat tip: Steen.

[Post ends here]