“The Police Made Him Do It”

I referred earlier today to a Danish TV news report featuring the sister of the Somali accused of killing Kurt Westergaard. The woman maintains that the Danish PET (security police) coerced her brother into attacking the cartoonist in his home.

Many thanks to Steen for translating the video, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling it:



[Post ends here]

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Kill the Ambulance Driver!

Our Norwegian correspondent Zylark has translated a news article about a encounter between culture enrichers and emergency personnel in Oslo. He includes this note:

Observe the complete lack of identification in the story of the people responsible. It reeks to high heaven of Islam. The worrying part is that the hindrance of emergency personnel has now reached Norwegian shores. I know it is already pretty common in Sweden and Denmark, but this is the first I’ve heard of it here in Norway. It’s a pretty safe bet it will not be the last.

I’ve translated the story from an article in Aftenposten. It was also reported in Dagbladet. The second article has the more interesting photos. Notice the tent-women in the background.

And his translation:

Hindered ambulance — Woman died

When ambulance personnel were dispatched after an emergency call from an elderly woman in Tøyen [Muslim-dense region in the center of Oslo], family members arrived and denied them access.

The woman’s life could not be saved.

Around 12 o’clock today ambulance personnel were dispatched to an apartment in Tøyen Oslo after a report that a woman in her sixties had suffered a medical emergency. But the family denied them entrance.

“Simultaneous with the arrival of the ambulance, a car with several of the woman’s relatives arrived. They behaved so threateningly that the ambulance personnel chose to call the police. When the police arrived, the relatives threatened them as well,” says the chief of operations in Oslo police precinct Vidar Hjulstad to NTB.

Fight with the police

After a while, more of the woman’s relatives arrived at the location, and a fight ensued between the police and the family. According to Dagbladet.no someone shouted “We shall kill you!” to the police and ambulance personnel.

The police managed to clear a path for the medical team, but as they got up to the woman’s apartment, the woman’s life could no longer be saved.

“They were delayed a few minutes because of the relatives. But it is too early to tell if her condition was so precarious that this was a factor,” says Hjulstad.

May file criminal charges

The police had to send several squad cars to manage the situation. To persons were arrested by the police, who may file charges against them for violence against a public servant.

“We have two people in custody, but it is too early to say what we will do with them. So far we don’t understand much of the situation, and have to consider if this resulted from a reaction based in grief.”

Zylark comments:
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Grief, my foot! Try “supremacist Islamic rules regarding men, women and infidels”. I can’t believe these scum actually tried to hinder emergency medical attention directed towards their own elderly relative. The lot of them should be charged with manslaughter.

After making his initial report above, Zylark sent this update:

There have been some late developments in the story: there is now some doubt as to who came first to the scene. According to the relatives and two neighbors, the police arrived first. Apparently the woman had a heart attack, and the family was rather angry because the ambulance was late.

The police, however, have stated that the ambulance arrived first. According to the emergency call center the relatives were so threatening over the phone when they placed the emergency call, that they called the police, and not the ambulance personnel, though they may have called for the police as well.

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

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Trouble is Brewing in Culemborg

Our Flemish correspondent VH has prepared an extensive report (the first part was compiled yesterday) on the growing conflict between Dutch-Moluccans and Moroccan immigrants in Culemborg. VH includes this prefatory note:

This is a translation of an article about what seems to have been an assault on a 15-year-old girl by Moroccans, carried out in retaliation for girl’s reporting a Moroccan to the police for the arson of a car.

The girl is of a Dutch-Moluccan (Christian background) family, and in her neighborhood more Dutch-Moluccan families live. They have had a lot of trouble with Moroccans in the past, but this assault might trigger bigger riots and has also enraged the Dutch, who in comments show their anger and sympathy with the Dutch-Moluccans. Maybe some are prepared to join the Dutch-Moluccans in taking action or organizing revenge against the Moroccans.

I have also compiled additional material from a variety of sources (links are at the bottom).

Note: the attacked girl seems to be 15 years old (not 13, as I reported in my translation).

As of post-time, the maluku4you link does not work. If I understand the Dutch-language notice correctly, it says that the site has been blocked:

Battles in Culemborg district, attack on 13-year-old girl

On New Year’s Eve the Dutch city of Culemborg was the scene of serious disturbances. Moroccan and Dutch-Moluccan^[1] youths clashed with each other after a car fire. The police responded to the hostilities and were pelted with stones and fireworks.

According to the comments in the local newspaper and on a Dutch-Moluccan website, a Moroccan boy was caught trying to set fire to a car belonging to a Dutch-Moluccan. When the father of the boy involved himself, a row emerged, more Moroccans showed up, and it evolved to a fight on a larger scale. The mobile brigade (ME) of the police then intervened and the rest returned when residents were ordered to enter their homes.

At five in the morning everything again went wrong, when Moroccans tried to run down Dutch-Moluccan people with their car. Their attempt ended up with their driving into a garden against the front of a house in the Diepenbrockstraat (a street were many Dutch-Moluccans reside [map]), whereby they struck two people who were celebrating the new year with others in the front garden. These victims, one of them a 13-year-old girl, suffered minor injuries.

The occupants of the car tried to escape, but two of them were caught by angry Dutch-Moluccans and beaten up: one of the Moroccans had to be transferred to the hospital by ambulance. The other Moroccans were later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. The five Moroccans are 18 and 19, and 21 years of age and are from the cities Culemborg, Zeist and Utrecht. Some of them have already been released [Monday] but are still suspects. The driver of the car is still behind bars.

Windows smashed

On Sunday, the mobile brigade was withdrawn by the mayor although the tension was still there. Sunday evening it all broke loose again. According to residents, a group of Moroccans (about 40 of them) came walking into the neighborhood and smashed the windows of five houses and threw Molotov cocktails inside. They also smashed a few car windows. Two people were slightly injured, one of them again, the 13-year-old girl: “At the same address where the car drove into the front garden, now a huge boulder went through the window. One person who was wounded was the same 13-year old girl who was hit by the car a few nights before.”

The mother of the girl: “I got down on my knees to get to her … there she lay, bleeding. […] What do they want, her life?” The mother of the injured girl would have preferred that the police had kept a better eye on the street after the New Year’s assault. “How can the police not have seen that, it cannot be, I am not going to take this any longer… really.”

After the attack, the Dutch-Moluccans were outraged, and the mobile brigade and police entered the Moluccan district with their guns drawn. A policeman was wounded, and the mobile brigade tried to calm the residents. Everybody was ordered to go inside, or arrests would follow. According to a commenter on the Dutch-Moluccan website maluku4you, Dutch-Moluccan youngsters had later on staged a counter-action against the houses in the nearby Moroccan district.

Targeted assault on 13-year-old girl

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The action in the early morning on New Year’s Day was not just an attack, the residents say. It was a targeted assault as Algemeen Dagblad reports, on the 13-year-old Shoëla Coenmans, who earlier that week, Tuesday, witnessed a car being set on fire. She recognized one of the Moroccan boys, called 112 [emergency number], and later filed a witness report with the police. Only a few days later five Moroccan boys crashed their car against her parents house and wounded her.

The father of the girl, John Coenmans: “This is no coincidence. Last Wednesday she was even intimidated in the supermarket, threatened, and again on Thursday. Later on, they tried to run over her (with a car). They first drove towards a group across the street. Fortunately, those people hopped out of the way. Then they drove against the garden fence. That did not work. They then reversed to take a run at it. The second time they did manage to crash through the fence.’’

Daughter Shoëla is still walking with a limp. Her leg was bruised by the collision with the car: “I could just barely jump aside.” Shoëla also sees a link with her earlier declaration with the police: “They recognized me. I came walking up there, the car was just set on fire. I saw them run away and recognized one of the (Moroccan) boys. He saw me as well.”

The family will not think of moving. Coenmans: “Never!’’ But what does touch John Coenmans is the attitude of the mayor of Culemborg, Roland Van Schelven (of the anti-Wilders party D66): “He said on television that he had been in the neighborhood, but we have ‘t seen him. Something like this happens in your town and you don’t show up. What kind of behavior is that? We are not the royals, but still.”

According to a comment on the website “maluku4you,” on that Sunday evening, January 3, the Moroccans had held an emergency meeting in their mosque, and probably from there went straight towards the Dutch-Moluccan district to attack.

Mayor Roland Van Schelven, former alderman of the city of Gouda, which also has trouble with Moroccan street terror, is according to many commenters on a Moluccan website totally incompetent and easily chooses the side of the Moroccans. He now seems to have ordered that cameras be put up in the Diepenbrockstraat where the attack happened, and the Mayor has proclaimed an emergency order, hoping to prevent groups from gathering and Dutch-Moluccans and Moroccans from clashing again in Culemborg.

A commenter on maluku4you: “The situation is explosive in Culemborg, now a Moroccan is seriously wounded and in the hospital. Fortunately there were no dead, otherwise it would be war and the situation incalculable. The Culemborg district Terweijde is a Dutch-Moluccan district that is now heavily guarded by the police. The atmosphere is grim and explosive. Especially the Dutch-Moluccan church is closely guarded, because many Moroccans live around there. They are afraid the Moroccans might do something with the Dutch-Moluccan church and then the storm would certainly burst, the mobile brigade and police are monitoring everything very strictly.”

Additional material:

GeenStijl reports that possibly tonight [Monday] the Satuh Darah Motorclub [meaning “one region”, pointing at the Moluccan Islands in Indonesia], the Dutch-Moluccan branch of the Hells Angels, will try to make a drive through Culemborg. “Dear fellow Dutch-Moluccans, don’t be afraid, we are here for you.”

Anger is shared by Dutch-Moluccans and native Dutch anywhere you look in comments today. GeenStijl has a poll asking: “All right: who are right here?”, on which 97.3% side with the Dutch-Moluccans. A few comments on the Dutch-Moluccan website maluku4you:

Come on native Dutch, don’t let our Dutch-Moluccans stand in the cold, choose sides, for it is a big scandal to attack a 13-year-old girl simply because she had recognized those Berbers [Moroccans]. I stand firmly behind our Moluccans, which are Dutch and those desert-rats will never become that. — Comment by: inherent | January 4, 2010 at 15:29

[A Moroccan] Hahah, who says that we want to be Dutch? We are proud of who we are! So keep that small talk with yourself, better a desert than a cheese-head… [“cheese head” = Dutch national] — Comment by: Marokkaantje | January 4, 2010 at 15:34

This Muslim mob wants to make dhimmis of Dutch-Moluccans! Very good and quite right that you are not taking this. And do not believe this is just a bizarre incident. This is a harbinger of the upcoming multicultural civil war. Like Israel is at the international front in the fight against Muslims, so the Dutch-Moluccans are the front in the Netherlands. Well … Keep up the good work. You fight for freedom and security. — Comment by: erdebe | January 4, 2010 at 14:30

I wish the Moluccan people in that district all the best, don’t expect anything of this worthless government, which only likes Muslims, and also only has respect for that Muslim scum. — Comment by: Ben | January 4, 2010 at 14:30

Hit them, don’t turn away, hit those Moroccans — Comment by: opa Ferry van G | January 4, 2010 at 13:54

The Dutch-Moluccans are in the Netherlands due to historical ties because of Dutch responsibility. This is of completely different order than the designed wave of immigration the leftist elite makes use of to destroy Western civilization and destroy capitalism, because of self hatred. As a Dutchman I am 100% in solidarity with my Dutch-Moluccan compatriots — we share history! Do not think that all Dutch are cowards. Self-conscious Dutch are not yet sufficiently organized. Come to Islamsterdam on January 20 to protest against the Wilders trial. We try to build an organization there! For information see www.joostniemoller.com [he is pointing at the same information offered by Gates of Vienna on the upcoming demonstration] — Comment by: jip gulzen | January 4, 2010 at 13:47

It is bad in the Netherlands, even worse than in Flanders. That there sooner or later emerge civil wars from, seems normal to me, people will not continue to accept that violence of Moroccans. It’s all about OIL. The only thing they have in those magnificent Islamic countries is oil, and what is the West still worth without oil? Nothing! That is why there is a Muslim invasion in Europe and we dare not to act against the thugs among them, fearing to get no more oil. The West should be as soon as possible try to function without oil, then we can kick out all those Berbers [Moroccans]. […] This people has no place in our Western culture. And today’s order-word that we and our cultures are all equal is nonsense, nothing is equal, let alone equivalent. […] Islam is NOT a religion but a subversive sect of barbaric ruthless murderers. See the example of Kosovo and be attentive to the coming danger: one part (or whole) of the Netherlands will eventually be declared an independent Muslim region, established with bloodshed. People get up, fight for your land and your safety, your right to a peaceful life. — Comment by: fee | January 4, 2010 at 13:37

F**k them little Islamites bangsas [people] Maluku 4Everrr!!!!!! 1 for all, all for 1 — Comment by: Maluku Bredaaaaa | 4 January 2010 at 13:18

The Dutch-Moluccan revenge will be sweet! Various districts in the Netherlands are standing prepared. — Comment by: | January 4, 2010 at 12:35

People from Indonesia have always behaved exemplary and together with the Dutch lived in good friendship. They married each other, started to discover and appreciate each other’s culture and food. The Indonesians have a sophisticated culture and among one of the finest and best people on this earth. The Dutch-Moluccan temperament is slightly more direct and more temperamental but also very righteous and friendly. In short, no problem. […]And they [the government] brought the Moroccans to our country. But they do not greet us on the street. They do not talk to us. They do not marry with us. No ties at all. And that’s weird. Moreover, they are very coarse and direct and full of temperament. That in itself is not bad, but it clashes with our culture and even more with the more sophisticated Dutch-Moluccan culture. […] Can you change this all? I think not. So it seems to me that the Moroccans are also not able to feel at home here. Project failed. — Comment by: tamar | January 4, 2010 at 12:33

Justice, Municipalities and Police are all the same!! They do not dare to deal with the Moroccan nuisance here in our own country!! Dutch-Moluccans, we salute you !!!!! — Comment by: | January 4, 2010 at 11:37

Because politics and the judiciary have been failing for years now, the Dutch-Moluccans get “carte blanche” by me to solve the Moroccan problem. The Dutch support the Dutch-Moluccans! Our cowardly authorities are everyone’s enemy. May pitch and feathers be their lot! — Comment by: 2Crazy2bTrue | January 4, 2010 at 11:23

One People, One Spirit keeping the people together. Time has come to settle this quickly and effectively. — Comment by: | January 4, 2010 at 11:16

Don’t budge from what’s coming at you [Apa datang dari muka jangan undur]… We will not budge. Malukus from [the cities of] Groningen, Assen, Bovensmilde, Rotterdam, Capelle, Oostgaarde, Krimpen, Moordrecht, Elst, Leerdam, Vaassen, Vught, Barneveld, Hatert, Bemmel, Zevenaar, Breukelen, Middelburg, Oost-Souburg, Koudekerke, Geleen, Helmond, Breda, Tilburg, etcetera, are prepared… — Comment by: MALUKU | January 4, 2010 at 11:04

My white fist goes up and gives respect to the Maluku, and if I can help I will do it! — Comment by: L. uit rotterdam | January 4, 2010 at 9:36

Time for action has come. Not too much blablabla, each district in the Netherlands is waiting for a signal! And no police / mobile brigade can stop us. Mena-Muria — Comment by: Elst | January 4, 2010 at 9:15

It hurts me, and makes me angry that you are attacked by the Moroccans. While you are a prime example of how you can integrate. I have deep respect for the Dutch-Moluccan community and my sympathy goes out to all of them […] I wish you all the best for 2010. All the very best. — Comment by: vriend van Molukkers | January 4, 2010 at 9:09

I’m just reading the reactions on Spits-news. If this is even 1 indicator of the support that the Dutch-Moluccans in the country have, than they are solid. And I think ‘t is an indication, because the Netherlands is fed up with the Moroccan scum and where — unfortunately — Dutch are cowards and the Dutch “politics” consists of incompetent failures, Dutch-Moluccans are still men with balls. — Comment by: Ton | January 4, 2010 at 9:05

It is about time for us Dutch to support the Dutch-Moluccans, for we seriously owe these people. — Comment by: freddie | January 4, 2010 at 6:27

Bangsa Maluku di tanah orang; DJANGAN TIDUR!!!!! Marokko sekarang sudah ambil tindakan! [To all Dutch-Moluccan people; Don’t sleep! (or: “Wake up!) Marokko is already taking action! — Comment by: | January 4, 2010 at 1:27

That Moluccan scum must be finished! They get too much a big mouth! — Comment by: Ben | January 4, 2010 at 13:13

In some instances I have added “Dutch” to “Moluccan” to easier distinguish “Moluccan” from “Moroccan”.

Sources:

• Broadcaster Gelderland
  
• Broadcaster Gelderland
  
• Algemeen Dagblad
  
• maluku4you
  
• GeenStijl
  
• De Telegraaf
  
• Nowlive News

A follow-up story was published today in De Telegraaf:

Moroccan and Dutch-Moluccans from across the country ready for battle

by Johan van den Dongen

CULEMBORG — The racial riots^[2] between Moroccans and Dutch-Moluccans in Culemborg threaten to become a nationwide conflagration.

Although for years the tensions between two groups in the city of Culemborg have occasionally flared up and then calmed down, the flames now seem to spread. Moroccans and Dutch-Moluccans from other parts of the country have already indicated they will come down to the Culemborg district Terweijde [see map] to assist their own group and prepare for a possible battle.

Also, on the Internet, groups of signature [Indonesians, native Dutch, Surinamians and others] are challenging in a hooligan-like manner to a confrontation with Moroccans^[3]. The spark seems to have appeared in September, when a Moroccan and a Dutch-Moluccan got into a fight in a kebab take-away [the Moroccan had purposely damaged the car of the Dutch Moluccan]. Big fights followed, and after the turn of the year there was a double attack on the 15-year-old girl [father Dutch, mother Dutch-Moluccan] Shoëla Coenmans, because she had reported a Moroccan for having set a car on fire.

Special emergency law

Mayor Roland van Schelven [D66, anti-Wilders party; former teacher and alderman in Gouda where they also do not dare to deal with the Moroccan street terror], who yesterday issued an emergency regulation for the next two weeks [special emergency law which for instance forbids gatherings of more than four people], fears the arrival of rioters. “Stay away from Terweijde”, he warned yesterday in an emotional appeal to the public. Mayor van Schelven in the meantime has asked Minister of the interior Guusje [“elite revolt”] ter Horst for financial help. “I hope for the support of the minister. To a small town like Culemborg, any assistance in this case is of good use.”

The PvdA [Socialist] Minister announced yesterday that he would make available €150,000 [about US $220,000] to allow Culemborg to employ three “street coaches” against the nuisance. Late last year, there a mobile squad of experts had already been sent to the municipality to intervene.

The police are also on alert about groups from outside of Culemborg. For a while the police will be present, including among others a mobile brigade unit. The deployment cost tons of euros, says police chief Van Zwam. For the next two weeks there will be a ban on the assembly of four or more people in the district. Firebreaks are closed with concrete fences. That should make it difficult for “unauthorized persons” to get behind the houses.

The Diepenbrockstraat [the street in the city of Culemborg where the 15-year old girl lives with her family and the Moroccan attacks took place] yesterday was partially closed off with concrete blocks. According to Mayor Roland van Schelven — who calls for parents to keep their rioting youth off the street — the police operation in Culemborg in the new year was bigger than ever. Nevertheless, during [actually after] the serious disturbances a black Fiat Punto with five Moroccans drove into two groups of people [aiming for the second group of the girl]. Residents talk about an assault against the girl Shoëla Coenmans who a few days earlier had recognized a Moroccan boy trying to burn a car and filed a declaration with the police.

Last night about ten Moluccan residents were guarding the district. They say they stand for their own safety because out of the blue Sunday night people [some 40] Moroccans had shown up to perpetrate destruction. They do not trust the mobile brigade unit that is around the corner. The police in Culemborg made 14 arrests, including five Moroccans who were in the car. Of them only the driver is still locked up. Two men who were arrested for serious assault are also still under arrest.

Notes:

[1]		Dutch-Moluccans are descendants of former “Royal Dutch East Indies Army” (KNIL) military and are Dutch nationals. After the independence of Indonesia they had to go to the Netherlands and were treated quite disrespectfully by the Dutch government of the day. Dutch-Moluccans are mostly Christian and many hope for an eventual independent South Moluccas, but have settled and are very well integrated in Dutch society.
[2]		It is not racial tension, but a tension caused by Muslim Moroccans who feel themselves some kind of herrenvolk and demand that others behave like obedient dhimmis (like Socialist- and Christian-Socialist politicians already do). In Culemborg it is non-integrated Muslim Moroccans against integrated (in the majority) Christian Dutch-Moluccans, which latter group receives an increasingly larger and stronger amount of support from native Dutch and other non-Muslim population groups, who are all fed up with the Moroccans or “little Islamites” as they are called sometimes in comments.
[3]		In the comment sections of many websites, quite a bit of tough talk is expressed against Moroccans and Islamites, both by Dutch-Moluccans as well as native Dutch and other groups. It possibly will remain confined to expressions of sincere outrage only, but if what is said in the comments becomes real action, mayor battles can be expected against the Moroccan Muslims, with the risk of spreading elsewhere in the Netherlands.

More information about the Culemborg incidents may be found at Klein Verzet.


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

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The Motoons Will Out

In the wake of last weekend’s attempted murder of Kurt Westergaard by a Somali mujahid, the Turban Bomb and other Mohammed cartoons are staging a comeback in the European press, especially in Scandinavia. Our Danish correspondent TB has collected some of the Motoon sightings:

A Norwegian paper has printed all the cartoons, with the headline: “I am Kurt Westergaard”.

Berlingske Tidende printed the same large photo of the cartoons that it used last winter when the earlier plot to murder Kurt Westergaard was exposed.

It also reports that the Motoons have been reprinted in six papers in Belgium, Portugal, and Slovakia among other places.

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According to Outside24, some the other sources for the cartoons are Diario de Noticias (Portugal, 3 January), Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium, 3 January), Times of Surinam (4 January), SME (Slovakia, 4 January) DNES (Czech Republic, 4 January), and De Standaard (Belgium, 4 January).

The Turban Bomb has also appeared on Denmark’s TV2, although it is in a report about the Norwegian reprint.

In an interesting twist, Steen reports that the attacker’s sister says the police made the perp do it. Steen’s post and the video are in Danish, so I’m not sure of the details, but I think she accuses PET of planting the weapons on her brother.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/4/2010

In the wake of the Lap Bomber’s failed attack on Flight 253, Yemen is rapidly becoming the primary focus of the struggle against Al Qaeda. The West’s preferred strategy in the War on Terror now seems to be to close its embassies in Yemen: the French have joined the USA and Britain in closing their embassy in Sanaa.

In other news, the Palestinians and the Jordanians have both laid claim to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have been on loan to a museum in Canada, but are scheduled to be returned to Israel shortly.

Thanks to AA, C. Cantoni, CSP, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Sean O’Brian, TB, The Frozen North, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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	Financial Crisis
	Economy: Italy: 2009 Inflation at Lowest Level Since 1959
	Stimulus Cash Went to Nonexistent Zip Code Areas, Too
	UK: The £20bn Handout: Housing Benefit Bill Soaring as Recession Bites
	USA
	Ex-CIA Agent: Threat From Al Qaeda Greater Now Than on 9/11
	Federal Guard, Gunman Die in Vegas Shootout
	Frank Gaffney: Where Does the Buck Stop?
	Give Homeland Security Role in U.S. Visas: Senator
	How Offended Are You?
	No One Yet Has Said He’s a Nutcake. But What Does “Isolated Extremist” Really Mean?
	Europe and the EU
	CIA Reportedly Ordered Murder of 9/11 Suspect in Hamburg
	Denmark: Cartoon Crisis Forcing Extra Security
	EU President to Earn More Than Barack Obama
	France Mulls ‘Psychological Violence’ Ban
	Germany: A Lethal Mix of Cocaine and Chilies
	Germany: Massive Snowball Fight Descends Into Chaos in Leipzig
	Henryk M. Broder: The West is Choked by Fear
	Italy: Govt Waging ‘Total War’ Against the Mafia
	Italy: Sunday Sermons Often Unpalatable
	More Organic Pork is Eaten in the Netherlands Than in Any Other European Country
	Museums: 7.4% Increase in Visitors Over Christmas in Italy
	Swiss Synagogues Reflect the Way to Acceptance
	UK: Gangs Ply Girls of 10 With Drink and Drugs to Groom Them for Sex
	UK: Islam on Campus
	UK: Johnson ‘Will Back’ Wootton Bassett Islamic March Ban
	UK: Lessons in Being a Parent at Just 14: As Figures Reveal Alarming Rise of Teen Pregnancies, Labour Reveal Their Big Idea
	UK: Muslim Writers Hit Back at Lynda La Plante
	UK: NHS Refuses Free Care for Alzheimer’s Gran Who Lived for Four Days With Body of Dead Husband
	Balkans
	Bosnia Jew Wins Discrimination Suit
	Mediterranean Union
	Kouchner in Cairo to Promote Initiative
	North Africa
	Egypt: Protests Against Jewish Festival in Delta
	Maghreb: Chinese Foreign Minister in Morocco and Algeria
	Israel and the Palestinians
	Palestinians Claim Dead Sea Scrolls
	Middle East
	Dubai: World’s Highest Skyscraper to be Inaugurated Today
	Exposing the Myth of Reform in Iran
	France Follows Britain and US in Shutting Yemen Embassy
	Frattini Urges Joint EU Action on Yemen
	Iraq: Nouri Al-Maliki and the Conundrum of Kirkuk
	Yemen Says it Killed Militants as Three More Embassies Shut
	Far East
	Chinese Helped Pakistan Nuke Program
	Latin America
	Racially Charged Violence Claims Lives in Suriname
	Immigration
	Denmark: Immigrant Newborns Die More Frequently
	Number of Non-EU Workers in Ireland Falls by 41% in Year
	US Lifts HIV/Aids Immigration Ban
	Culture Wars
	Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department
	General
	A Hint From the World’s Most Secure Airline
	Climategate: You Should be Steamed
	Climategate: Failure of a Blind and Biased Mainstream Media
	Socialism’s Greatest Lie: Government Can Give You Everything for Free

Economy: Italy: 2009 Inflation at Lowest Level Since 1959

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 4 — Italy’s rate of inflation in 2009 was +0.8%, its lowest level in 50 years, according to the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT. In December the rate was 1% compared with December 2008, while in November the growth in prices was 0.2%. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Stimulus Cash Went to Nonexistent Zip Code Areas, Too

Not only did the Obama Administration spend stimulus funds in nonexistent districts but recently it was discovered that stimulus cash went to nonexistent zip code areas, too.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: The £20bn Handout: Housing Benefit Bill Soaring as Recession Bites

A staggering £20billion will be paid in housing benefit this year as the effects of the recession push up the welfare bill.

Official figures show the handouts are expected to rise by 15 per cent — despite a pledge by ministers to crack down on excessive claims.

The predicted total of £19.6billion is nearly £3billion up on last year.

It is the steepest rise for 15 years as families are forced onto benefits as the recession bites and more people become unemployed.

The Department for Work and Pensions revealed the year-on-year rise as it emerged that one family has been given a record £279,000 of taxpayers’ cash to pay their rent.

Information released under the Freedom of Information Act shows the claimants are being paid £2,875 a week for a seven-bedroom house in Brent, North-west London.

The family — which has received £208,000 since July 2008 — is one of three in the capital who have claimed more than £200,000 in housing benefit.

In November it was revealed that Somali-born Nasra Warsame and seven of her children were living in a £1.8million house in Westminster at a cost to taxpayers of £1,600 a week.

Her husband Bashir Aden and her eighth child were living in an ‘overspill’ property, also on housing benefit.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Ex-CIA Agent: Threat From Al Qaeda Greater Now Than on 9/11

Washington (CNN) — The man once charged with overseeing the CIA’s hunt of Osama bin Laden said Sunday that the threat posed by al Qaeda is greater now than at the time of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that bin Laden orchestrated.

“We’ve killed some of the al Qaeda leaders and every dead al Qaeda leader is a success. But all we have is a body count,” former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

[Comments from JD: video at above link.]

— Hat tip: JD

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Federal Guard, Gunman Die in Vegas Shootout

LAS VEGAS — A gunman opened fire in the lobby of a federal building in downtown Las Vegas on Monday, killing one court officer and wounding a deputy U.S. marshal before he was shot to death.

The gunfire erupted moments after 8 a.m. at the start of the work week and lasted for several minutes. Shots echoed around tall buildings in the area, more than a mile north of the Las Vegas Strip. An Associated Press reporter on the eighth floor of a high-rise building within sight of the building heard more than 20 shots during the sustained barrage of gunfire.

The U.S. Marshals Service said the victims included a deputy U.S. marshal and a court security officer. The 48-year-old deputy marshal was hospitalized, and the 65-year-old security officer died.

FBI Special Agent Joseph Dickey said the gunman died across the street shortly after the shootout. The man’s identity and motive were not immediately known.

— Hat tip: JD

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Frank Gaffney: Where Does the Buck Stop?

Harry Truman kept on his desk a sign that read “The Buck Stops Here.” As President Obama gathers with his national security team Tuesday to ensure that, as he put it last week, “there is accountability at every level” for the latest in a rising tide of terrorist attacks inside the United States, Mr. Truman’s successor must accept responsibility for his own role in the growing danger.

I am not suggesting that Mr. Obama was directly complicit in the failure to keep Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab and his explosive-laden underwear off Northwest 253 on Christmas Day. As is often the case with these things, there were lots of red flags “in the system” about this would-be terrorist that should have kept him off that plane. Such “dots” are easily connected with hindsight, after the attack is launched. The trick is for people well south of the President to act on them beforehand.

The fact that the trick was not performed in this instance or, for that matter, in connection with the penultimate attack — the one perpetrated by Major Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood last November — does indeed constitute, in President Obama’s words, a “systemic failure.” It is entirely appropriate to try to find out who dropped which ball, less to assign blame than in the hope of preventing a repeat.

One thing is already obvious, though. What Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano famously called “the system” has been trying with increasing difficulty to prevent terrorism here at home within impossible policy and programmatic constraints. Mr. Obama must take a measure of responsibility for those constraints…

— Hat tip: CSP

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Give Homeland Security Role in U.S. Visas: Senator

Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman raised the idea during a discussion on ABCs “This Week” of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane on Dec 25.

“I believe, incidentally, that we ought to take a look at taking the visa application and admission responsibility from the State Department. It doesn’t really fit with foreign policy anymore,” he said.

“And in an age of terrorism, I think the Department of Homeland Security ought to be handling visas abroad.”

— Hat tip: JD

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How Offended Are You?

I was recently in the Kansas City airport and watched in horror as four TSA people focused on a frail woman in her late 80s who was in a wheelchair as they tried to get her through security.

There were only two lines, so passengers had to wait as they made her get out of the chair and forced her to walk thru the machine. She was so frail, they had to hold her up.

Finally, on the other side, they weren’t done. As she sat in the chair, they patted her down, wanded her repeatedly and then made her get up and stand again!

I was shocked and approached an elderly man who waited patiently as this insulting, intrusive invasion of that woman’s privacy continued. He was her husband. I told him of my anger.

He was resigned. He told me she had pins in her hip from an operation and she’d recently had a pacemaker installed.

Apparently, a doctor’s letter wouldn’t suffice. The man said it happens every time they travel. I apologized to him.

— Hat tip: JD

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No One Yet Has Said He’s a Nutcake. But What Does “Isolated Extremist” Really Mean?

Joe Klein, who spent a lot of print trying more or less to exonerate Dr. Major Nidal Malik Hasan by dint of his being a nutcase, has been curiously silent about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In fact, there’s been a certain shyness among the whole left-wing blogosphere (and among Democrats, generally) about the skivvies terrorist. There is no place for these journalists to hide and no logic, however dubious, with which they can transfer the guilt to us. And, believe me, if they can’t invent this, there is nothing to invent—nothing.

The fact is that the only personage of note to call Abdulmutallab an “isolated extremist,” which is the closest thing to a solitary crank, was the president himself. And he said it when he already knew that American intelligence, in several of its iterations, had long ago been informed that the would-be bomber had been connected to Al Qaeda in Yemen.

[…]

I believe that it is Obama’s perception of Abdulmutallab as an “isolated extremist” that is the real source of the intelligence calamity so dramatically revealed in this case. It is true, of course, that this dispiriting intelligence failure goes back to the Clinton and Bush years, even though Bush did almost uniquely grasp the very essence of the holy Muslim terror. But what the president has done is to wrap the Islamic orbit in a sweetly scented cashmere afghan (if you’ll permit this ironic choice of words) that disguises the reality of the real Islam of this world. Obama has done this grandly several times, most especially with his addresses in Istanbul and Cairo, but also in his more quotidian remarks. The failure of the CIA and the other alphabet agencies to connect the dots is a methodological failure. The president’s failure to grasp the realities is an ideological and psychological failure. In a top-down structure, the top always has the advantage.

— Hat tip: JD

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CIA Reportedly Ordered Murder of 9/11 Suspect in Hamburg

A CIA assassination team reportedly targeted a Syrian-German man living in Hamburg after he was connected to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

According to the latest edition of Vanity Fair magazine, the US spy agency wanted to liquidate Mamoun Darkazanli, who is thought to have been a financier for the Islamist terror network Al-Qaida. Intelligence officials in Washington even farmed out the hit to a squad of contract killers, but the deed was never carried out.

“The CIA team supposedly went in ‘dark,’ meaning they did not notify their own station — much less the German government — of their presence,” the magazine wrote in article about Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious security firm Blackwater. “They then followed Darkazanli for weeks and worked through the logistics of how and where they would take him down.”

Vanity Fair reported CIA officials contend the assassination was called off because the killers were not in the position to pull it off, however, a source familiar with the mission said it never happened due to lacking “political will.”

Darkazanli is believed to have had contact with several of the terrorists involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington DC since they lived or studied in the northern German port city.

German officials probed Darkazanli’s terrorist connections for several years, but had to close their investigation in 2006 after they failed to uncover incriminating evidence.

— Hat tip: TB

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Denmark: Cartoon Crisis Forcing Extra Security

Ensuring Mohammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s safety plays a big part in increasing police security tasks

Eastern Jutland Police have used more than 30,000 police man-hours, not include those used by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), on terrorism threats since the publication of the Mohammad cartoons in late 2005.

The latest threat related to the Mohammed cartoons came on Friday last week when a man armed with an axe and a knife broke into the home of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Police in Århus have since the crisis began been kept busy with bomb threats, evacuations, extra security for the offices of newspaper Jyllands-Posten — which originally published the cartoons — and security surveillance of the cartoonists and editors of the paper over the last four years, reports Århus Stiftstidende newspaper.

Westergaard is the most high-profile of the cartoonists and therefore receives intense security attention. The incident on Friday involved a 28-year-old Somali man who has lived in Denmark since he was a teenager.

The attacker broke into Westergaard’s home armed with an axe and a knife. Westergaard fled to the safety of a panic room to alert nearby police to the attack.

His five-year-old granddaughter was at the home but immobilised by a leg cast in another room. Westergaard judged he could draw the intruder’s attention away from the child by running to the panic room.

Police arrived on the scene within three minutes and shot the attacker twice after he allegedly threw the axe at an officer and threatened police with his knife. As a result of his injuries to his leg and hand, the suspect was brought to his court appearance the next day on an ambulance stretcher under heavy police guard and with his face hidden by a blanket.

The man declined to answer questions in court, but pleaded not guilty to attempted murder through his defence team. He has been remanded in custody until 27 January and police say he will spend the first two weeks of custody in isolation.

PET say the man is linked to a network that has been monitored by intelligence agencies for some time and that he is suspected of having carried out terror-related activities in East Africa.

Concerns have been raised that security was lax around Westergaard, who had previously lived in police safe houses and was accompanied for a number of months by PET bodyguards.

Jakob Scharf, head of PET, defended the security for the cartoonist, saying that arrangements were periodically adjusted in order to allow the subject to live his life more freely, but added the security would now be re-evaluated following Friday’s incident.

— Hat tip: TB

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EU President to Earn More Than Barack Obama

EUROPE’S new president is to cost taxpayers almost £300 million — and amazingly he will be paid MORE than U.S. chief Barack Obama.

Total cost for Herman Van Rompuy and all his hangers-on will be a massive £22.5 million, leaked documents show.

But the EU is spending another £252 million building a new palace.

Van Rompuy, who started work on Friday, will earn £273,814 a year — the U.S. president gets £250,000.

The Belgian became Europe’s new figurehead after beating front-runner Tony Blair in November.

The cost of his salary, travel and entitlements will be £1.3 million.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg, leaked European Council papers show. Costs include £2.1 million for security, £2.3 million for equipment, £6.2 million for summits and £5.2 million for 22 staff.There will be a £4.5 million reserve fund and £252 million to convert the Brussels palace.

Stephen Booth of campaign group Open Europe said: “It’s outrageous.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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France Mulls ‘Psychological Violence’ Ban

If you insult your wife or husband repeatedly, you could soon find yourself in court if you live in France.

The charge? Psychological violence.

That’s what the new offence will be called if a bill backed by the government is passed by parliament.

Once considered a purely private domain, rows between married or cohabiting couples could now prompt intervention from the state.

The French government wants to take the controversial step of introducing a new law banning “psychological violence” between married couples or partners living together.

But there are questions about how such an offence could be proved.

No visible scars

Many people fear that courts might find it tricky to assess the rival claims of squabbling couples.

But the government says it would allow the authorities to deal with mental and verbal abuse in couples which leaves no visible scars, but where the victims are often badly damaged psychologically.

[…]

Even supporters of the bill have concerns about how courts could prosecute a crime for which there’s unlikely to be any physical evidence.

Psychiatrist Marie-France Hirigoyen is an authority on psychological violence but she said she was “cautious” about a new law because she fears it might be easily misused.

“I think it’s important to have a law but it must be formulated so there isn’t too much risk of manipulation or mistakes,” she told me.

[…]

The government says if the authorities can deal with psychological violence, physical violence can be prevented or reduced.

But many members of the public have misgivings about how a law would work in practice.

Parliament is almost certain to pass this controversial bill on psychological violence.

It is backed by Prime Minister Francois Fillon and key members of the governing party.

And the move is being welcomed by women’s groups — and by those, like Gabrielle, who believe it could save women from mental breakdown and the threat of physical violence.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Germany: A Lethal Mix of Cocaine and Chilies

Drug Use Linked to Pepper Spray Deaths

Police officers around the world often use pepper spray to restrain people who are out of control. But after a series of unexplained deaths, researchers now suspect the spray, which is derived from chili peppers, could be fatal if the subject has been using cocaine or other drugs.

The man was clearly out of his senses. Peter M., 42, was naked and covered with blood as he ran across Munich’s Höhenstadter Street. He threw himself on the ground, shouting: “I am God.” Then he smeared superglue on his wounds and smashed his head into a window.

Policemen rushed to the scene and sprayed pepper spray into the man’s face, but it had no effect. Several officers eventually managed to subdue him. When they finally handcuffed him, Peter M. collapsed. He was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later, on July 5…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Germany: Massive Snowball Fight Descends Into Chaos in Leipzig

Police were forced to break up a massive snowball fight in Leipzig at the weekend after some of the 200 participants started attacking trams and buses, according to daily Die Welt.

Hundreds of people gathered at the city’s Connewitzer Kreuz intersection for some wintry fun on Saturday evening, but the situation quickly snowballed as they began targeting public transportation and the windows of a nearby supermarket.

As police arrived on the scene, they were also attacked with snowballs and bottles. Two officers were injured, the paper reported. The authorities eventually had to redirect trams and buses and shut the major street intersection to car traffic.

There have been several altercations between the police and leftists in the neighbourhood around Connewitzer Kreuz in the past and the city had expected unrest on New Year’s Eve. But until Saturday night there hadn’t been any disturbances.

— Hat tip: TB

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Henryk M. Broder: The West is Choked by Fear

The attack on illustrator Kurt Westergaard wasn’t the first attempt to carry out a deadly fatwa. When Muslims tried to murder Salman Rushdie 20 years ago, the protests among intellectuals were loud. Today, though, Western writers and thinkers would rather take cover than defend basic rights.

In 1988, Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was published in its English-language original edition. Its publication led the Iranian state and its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to issue a “fatwa” against Rushdie and offer a hefty bounty for his murder. This triggered several attacks on the novel’s translators and publishers, including the murder of Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi. Millions of Muslims around the world who had never read a single line of the book, and who had never even heard the name Salman Rushdie before, wanted to see the death sentence against the author carried out — and the sooner the better, so that the stained honor of the prophet could be washed clean again with Rushdie’s blood.

In that atmosphere, no German publisher had the courage to publish Rushdie’s book. This led a handful of famous German authors, led by Günter Grass, to take the initiative to ensure that Rushdie’s novel could appear in Germany by founding a publishing house exclusively for that purpose. It was called Artikel 19, named after the paragraph in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights that guarantees the freedom of opinion. Dozens of publishing houses, organizations, journalists, politicians and other prominent members of German society were involved in the joint venture, which was the broadest coalition that had ever been formed in postwar German history…

— Hat tip: TB

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Italy: Govt Waging ‘Total War’ Against the Mafia

Rome, 31 Dec. (AKI) — The Italian government has been waging “total war” against organised crime and injected “new vigour” into the fight against the mafia, interior minister Roberto Maroni said on Thursday. He also claimed the government has cut the number of illegal immigrants entering Italy by 90 percent and wants this figure to reach 100 percent in 2010.

“We have shown that the state is present in Italy and that it has unleashed a total war against the mafia to regain control of national territory,” Maroni told his anti-immigrant Northern League party’s La Padania daily.

“The government has worked with Italy’s security forces to create a climate in which the fight against the mafia has found new vigour and that is something of which I am particularly proud,” Maroni said.

Maroni recently won praise for his work in fighting the mafia from investigative journalist Roberto Saviano, author of the best-selling book ‘Gomorrah’.

The book has sold more than three million copies around the world and documents the violence and criminal activity of the Naples mafia or Camorra. It was also made into an award-winning film.

In the 18 months since it took office, the Berlusconi government has arrested 21 of the 30 most wanted mafia fugitives and seized suspected mafia assets worth more than six billion euros.

It has worked to restore citizens’ confidence in the state in mafia strongholds in southern Italy, Maroni said.

The minister said businessmen in the southern city of Caserta in the Campania region surrounding Naples have told him they have confidence in the government’s commitment to crush the mafia and want to invest in the area once again.

“This is a sign that civil society is thriving again — something that we all hoped to see,” Maroni said.

Turning to illegal immigration, he said: “Stopping the illegal landings is a difficult task, which some consider impossible.”

“But the figures speak for themselves. Since Italy’s friendship pact with Libya came into force (in May), the number of illegal immigrants reaching our shores has dropped by more than 90 percent.”

The controversial ‘friendship’ pact with Libya has has drawn criticism from the Vatican, the United Nations, the Italian opposition and rights groups.

Under the pact, thousands of migrants have since May been returned to the North African country aboard people smuggling boats intercepted in the Mediterranean by Italian and Libyan patrols.

Libya is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no national asylum system. It also has a poor human rights record.

The Italian government which took office in May last year has pledged to crack down on illegal immigrants, which many Italians blame for a surge in crime.

The Northern League, Maroni’s party, is a junior partner in a coalition led by the ruling conservative People of Freedom Party.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Sunday Sermons Often Unpalatable

Parishioners’ minds need good nourishment, top cleric says

(ANSA) — Vatican City, December 30 — The minds of churchgoers need to be nourished but too often Sunday sermons are boring, uninspired and unpalatable fare, a top Italian cleric said on Wednesday.

Msgr Mariano Crociata, secretary-general of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), urged trainee priests to take their preaching seriously if they want to connect with their flock.

“Too often, sermons are just boring mush, unappetizing fare and certainly not too nourishing” for parishioners’ minds, Crociata said. The monsignor’s warning was taken seriously by the Vatican daily Osservatore Romano, which printed large parts of his address.

photo: Father Alessandro Santoro celebrating midnight mass at Christmas in Florence’s Santa Maria Novella train station.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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More Organic Pork is Eaten in the Netherlands Than in Any Other European Country

In fact, the market is looking good for organic pig farmers both in the Netherlands and elsewhere, as long as they keep a tight rein on the price, according to the findings of a study by Wageningen University’s Agricultural Economic Institute. Between 2005 and 2009 the Dutch market for organic pork grew by 25 percent.

In the Netherlands, retail sales are dominated almost exclusively by one organic store chain, De Groene Weg (‘the green way’). Last year a total of 75,000 organically produced pigs were slaughtered. Half of the meat was bound for export, chiefly to Germany and the United Kingdom.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Museums: 7.4% Increase in Visitors Over Christmas in Italy

(ANSAmed) — ROME — On Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and St. Stephen’s Day, the top 30 italian cultural sites, many of which were open on December 25, showed a 7.41% increase in visitors, increasing from 61,584 in 2008 to 66,147 in 2009, announced the Cultural Ministry. On Christmas Day, the Coliseum, which had special hours from 8AM to 2PM, was visited by 3,827 tourists. The entire archaeological circuit, which this year saw the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill open on Christmas Even and Boxing Day, registered 21,009 visitors, up by 22.79% compared to last year, numbers that put the site at the top of the list for visits to Italy’s state museums and archaeological sites. The result obtained by the Palace of Caserta, with 2,863 visitors over three days, up 96% on 2008, with 296 visits on Christmas Day, was also significant. The Borghese Gallery in Rome also received 3,457 visitors, up 34.88% on 2008, the Castel Sant’Angelo National Museum received 4,212 visitors, up by 46.76% on last year, while in Milan the Brera Art Gallery had 1,161 visitors, an 85% increase on 2008, and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper had 2,156 visitors, up by 12%. In Turin, the Egyptian Museum received 2,764 visitors, up by 14.36%, in Florence, the Silver Museum and the Porcelain Museum in addition to the Boboli Gardens received 1,226 visitors this year, up by 53.45%. In Venice, the Accademia Gallery was visited by 1,625 people, 20.2% more than last year, when all of the museums were closed, however, on Christmas Day.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Swiss Synagogues Reflect the Way to Acceptance

Once a tiny, marginalised group, targets of discrimination, the Jews of Switzerland are today citizens like anyone else — and it would be shocking if they were not.

The changing architecture of synagogues over the past 160 years or so reflects the route followed by Swiss Jews as they sought their place in Swiss society.

Architect Ron Epstein, himself a member of the Conservative Jewish community, has written a richly documented book about Swiss synagogues, Die Synagogen der Schweiz (The Synagogues of Switzerland), in which he explains how the Jewish community saw its religious buildings as demonstrating its newly acquired equality and as an expression of its Swiss identity.

“As an architect, what I find interesting is acculturation, the adoption of bourgeois cultural values,” he told swissinfo.ch.

Both the Jewish and non-Jewish press would report on the opening of new synagogues, he says in his book. The Jews were portrayed as eager to integrate, with their synagogues an assertion of the equality of their religious community.

Foreigners — and foreigners

Until three-quarters of the way through the 19th century Swiss Jews were literally foreigners in their own country.

Treated as outsiders, denied citizenship, they were next to invisible to the majority Christian population. Already discriminated against through special laws and taxes, in 1776 a new law restricted the estimated 550-strong Jewish community to the two villages of Lengnau and Endingen in what is now canton Aargau.

The 19th century, with its radical political and economic changes in both Switzerland and Europe, was a turning point in the fortunes of western European Jewry.

France and Germany moved much faster than Switzerland in emancipating their Jewish populations, and ironically, for much of the 19th century foreign Jews had more rights in Switzerland than Swiss ones.

Today the two Aargau villages boast the oldest of the 22 synagogues still in existence. They date back to 1847 and 1852 respectively. But although separated by only five years, the differences in architecture already reflect changing attitudes.

“In Lengnau the people wanted to integrate rather than to stand out, but the synagogue in Endingen, which opened a few years later, has some ‘orientalising’ features,” Epstein explained.

The “orientalising” features were taken over from the German and French synagogue tradition, since Switzerland had no synagogue-building tradition of its own. They were supposed to hark back to the architecture of Moorish Spain. They are certainly a far cry from Switzerland’s Christian churches.

While the Jews of Lengnau and Endingen were not granted full freedom of movement until 1879, economic pressures at home had already caused an influx of Jews from neighbouring countries who established small communities in various Swiss towns.

These communities requested plots and commissioned (Christian) architects to build synagogues. These buildings helped the Jews to assert their presence as a community.

Orientalism

The imposing synagogues in Geneva, St Gallen, Basel and La Chaux-de-Fonds — built in 1859, 1868, 1881 and 1896 respectively — could at first sight be taken for mosques with their domes and horseshoe arches.

“It was the expressed desire of the community to assert itself in the Christian environment through prestige buildings,” Epstein writes in his book.

Zurich’s main synagogue — still in use today — was designed to show visitors to the 1882 national exhibition the contribution that the city’s new Jewish community could make to the town.

But a few decades later things had changed.

“When the Jewish population had achieved legal equality and economic integration, the synagogue stopped having a prestige value,” Epstein writes. Most later synagogues were for the benefit of the Jewish community alone.

The inflow of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe with different traditions in the 20th century is also reflected in synagogue design.

“The Orthodox didn’t really want to assimilate. Their synagogues are not huge, impressive buildings but tend to be introverted, and more modest,” Epstein explained.

Struggle for recognition

In the current controversy about the construction of minarets, is there a parallel between the Jewish experience a hundred years ago and the Muslim experience today?

“A minaret is a symbol for a building. When you see a minaret, you know straight away that is a mosque,” Epstein said.

“There is in fact also a symbol, though a much smaller one, in the overwhelming majority of synagogues, namely the tablets of the law set on the roof. But a minaret is much more obvious.”

It is not the design of the buildings where he sees parallels, but in the historical experience.

“The similarity lies in the sense that people want to document their existence as a religious community to the outside world, and this is not allowed. The struggle to achieve this is very similar to what the Jews faced.”

“What is deplorable is that nearly 200 years later this right cannot be taken for granted.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: Gangs Ply Girls of 10 With Drink and Drugs to Groom Them for Sex

Girls as young as 10 are being “groomed” for sex by London gang members who use alcohol and drugs to weaken their resistance, an official report has found.

The report, by the London Serious Youth Violence Board, says that younger girls “are increasingly being targeted” because they are “less able to resist gang culture and manipulation” by predatory male teenagers.

It warns that as well as being pressured into sex by older “boyfriends”, many girls are raped, with gang leaders “passing” them to lower ranking members to exploit.

The report also says that some girls are being used as “mules” to transport drugs, while others are being coerced into recruiting their female classmates and other friends into gangs. The findings, based on evidence from police, child welfare workers, schools, probation staff and others involved in tackling gang activity, will heighten concern about the targeting of young children by older, violent teenagers.

Researchers found that “children as young as seven can be gang-involved” and lists signs such as a sudden loss of interest in school, a withdrawn nature and a dramatic change in appearance as among the indicators.

The report states: “Gang members often groom girls at school and encourage or coerce them to recruit other girls. There is also anecdotal evidence that younger girls, some as young as 10 or 12, are increasingly being targeted and that these girls are often much less able to resist the gang culture or manipulation by males in the group.

“Girls are often groomed using drugs and alcohol, which act as disinhibitors and also create dependency.” The study says that one youth offending team expressed concern about “the number of young women who regard abusive behaviour from young men as normal” and warns rape is common.

It adds: “One London project working with girls involved with gangs reports that nearly all of the girls they have contact with have been raped by male group members. Some senior gang members pass their girlfriends around to lower-ranking members and sometimes to the whole group at the same time. Very few rapes are reported.”

The report calls for greater parental supervision, close scrutiny by teachers, and referrals from police to social care teams of youngsters in households already affected by gang activity or serious youth violence.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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UK: Islam on Campus

From the Center for Social Cohesion

Islam on Campus — published in July 2008 — is the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken of Muslim student opinion in the UK. It is based on a specially commissioned YouGov poll of 1400 students, as well as on fieldwork and interviews.

The report examines students’ attitudes on key issues including religious tolerance, gender equality and integration. While most Muslim students support secularism and democratic values, and are generally tolerant towards other minorities and reject violence in the name of their faith, Islam on Campus uncovered significant findings:

- 40% of Muslim students polled support the introduction of Sharia into British law for Muslims.

- Almost a third (32%) of Muslim students polled said killing in the name of religion was ever justified. By contrast, just 2% of non-Muslims polled felt the same way

- 40% of Muslim students polled felt it unacceptable for Muslim men and women to associate freely.

- 33% of Muslim students polled declared themselves supportive of a worldwide Islamic Caliphate based on Sharia law.

- 54% of Muslim students polled were supportive of an Islamic political party to represent the views of Muslims at Parliament.

- Slightly less than a quarter (24%) of Muslim student respondents do not think that men and women are equal in the eyes of Allah.

- 6% of Muslim students polled said that converts from Islam should be punished “in accordance with Sharia law.”

- 25% of Muslim students (and 32% of male Muslim students) polled said they had not very much or no respect at all for homosexuals…

— Hat tip: AA

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UK: Johnson ‘Will Back’ Wootton Bassett Islamic March Ban

The home secretary has said he will back any request from police or local government to ban an Islamic group marching through Wootton Bassett.

Alan Johnson said he felt “revulsion” at the thought of Islam4UK’s proposed march through the Wiltshire town.

Wootton Bassett has become famous for its repatriation ceremonies for fallen British service personnel.

Islam4UK says it wants to parade empty coffins through the town to draw attention to Afghan war casualties.

Mr Johnson said: “The idea that anyone would stage this kind of demonstration in Wootton Bassett fills me with revulsion.

“I find it particularly offensive that the town, which has acted in such a moving and dignified way in paying tribute to our troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, should be targeted in this manner.”

He added: “If the Wiltshire Police and local authority feel that a procession of this kind has the potential to cause public disorder and seek my consent to a banning order, then I would have no hesitation in supporting that request.”

Islam4UK, which has been linked to the radical al-Muhajiroun movement, said the town was chosen to create maximum publicity.

Spokesman Anjem Choudary said: “We are having a procession, it’s in Wootton Bassett but it’s not about the people there and it’s not against them personally — rather it’s to highlight the real cost of war in Afghanistan.

“The sad reality of the situation is that if I were to hold it somewhere else it would not have the media attention that it has now.

“If I am to balance between the sensitivity of having it in Wootton Bassett and the possibility of continuing the quagmire and cycle of death in Afghanistan, then quite honestly I’m going to balance in favour of the latter.”

[…]

North Wiltshire MP Mr Gray told BBC Radio 5 live: “Fine Mr Choudary, say what you want, I detest what you say, but please, please don’t come to Wootton Bassett.”

Social Cohesion Minister Shahid Malik added: “Anjem Choudary rightly has a reputation as a dangerous and divisive figure in the UK, however, he does not speak for Muslims in the UK.”

Wootton Bassett’s mayor Councillor Steve Bucknell said the town, which has a population of just over 11,000, was entirely inappropriate for any march, protest or demonstration which refers to Afghanistan or Iraq.

“We are going to do our utmost to make sure that this march doesn’t go ahead,” he said, adding that the town’s council had received dozens of e-mails and phone calls from people concerned with the issue.

Locals have turned out to honour the corteges of more than 100 service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, as they made their way from nearby RAF Lyneham to a morgue in Oxford.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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UK: Lessons in Being a Parent at Just 14: As Figures Reveal Alarming Rise of Teen Pregnancies, Labour Reveal Their Big Idea

Ed Balls stands accused of encouraging teenage pregnancy with plans to give 14-year-olds compulsory parenting lessons.

Pupils will learn how to raise youngsters under the Children’s Secretary’s proposals from 2011 onwards.

But experts warned that this could lead to teenage pregnancy being seen as increasingly acceptable, youngsters giving up education to have a baby — and teachers taking on the role of social workers.

[…]

But parents’ groups said there was a fine line between encouraging youngsters to delay parenthood and educating them for it.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Muslim Writers Hit Back at Lynda La Plante

Muslim writers have branded Lynda La Plante’s recent attack on the BBC ‘insulting’.

La Plante, 63, the award-winning crime writer behind Prime Suspect, claimed Muslims found it easier to get scripts commissioned by the BBC than she did. She told The Telegraph the BBC’s drama policy was very depressing.

“If my name were Usafi Iqbadal and I was 19, then they’d probably bring me in and talk,” said La Plante. “But… it’s their lack of respect that really grates on me.

“If you were to go to the BBC and say to them, ‘Listen, Lynda La Plante’s written a new drama, or I have this little Muslim boy who’s just written one’, they’d say: ‘Oh, we’d like to see his script.’

“Whether they’re just frightened of me being an independent, and quite a powerful independent, I don’t know.”

Sarfraz Manzoor, journalist and author of the memoir Greetings From Bury Park, told The Independent: “She [La Plante] should get that chip off her shoulder and return to the real world rather than playing the misunderstood victim in the fantasy world in which she is currently residing.”

He added: “I would love to meet the Muslim writers whose output is currently clogging up the television schedules: can she name any of these mythical individuals, or are her comments simply a headline-grabbing way to yet again bash the BBC and blame Muslims?”

Max Malik, a novelist and playwright, also called her comments “Divisive, unhelpful and discouraging for young writers”.

Mr Malik, winner of the Muslim Writers’ Award in 2007, added: “She’s trying to force me and my ilk into a corner. I don’t call her a ginger-haired, middle-aged, female writer. That would be insulting.”

BBC head of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson said: “I don’t quite understand these points because Lynda had two pieces in development with us. She has one piece at the moment, and one piece that we paid fully for the script development.”

— Hat tip: The Frozen North

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UK: NHS Refuses Free Care for Alzheimer’s Gran Who Lived for Four Days With Body of Dead Husband

Phyllis Knight is so badly affected by Alzheimer’s that she spent four days living with her husband’s dead body before neighbours became aware of her plight.

But even though the 85-year-old cannot dress herself or even open a biscuit tin, health bosses say she does not qualify for free NHS care in a nursing home.

The case once again highlights the unfairness of a system which classes many with dementia as eligible only for social care, rather than nursing care for health problems — which the Health Service has to fund by law.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bosnia Jew Wins Discrimination Suit

(IsraelNN.com) The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Bosnia violated the rights of Jews and Roma [gypsies] and others by barring them from running for the country’s legislature or presidency. The decision is binding on Bosnia, which was ordered to pay legal costs of $28,500 to Jewish activist Jakob Finci and $1,500 to Dervo Sejdic of the Roma community. Finci also serves as the country’s ambassador to the Swiss Confederation.

The two men filed the suit in France. Finci showed the court a letter from Bosnia officials stating that he cannot run for office because he is Jewish, a stipulation that was included in its constitution when it was written in the United States in an effort to halt the country’s war that raged in the early 1990s.

A Bosnian political party that backs abolishing the official ethnic separation hailed the court’s ruling.

Finci said he was “delighted that the European Court has recognized the wrong that was done in the Constitution 14 years ago,” and he urged that changes be made immediately in the constitution. It currently reserves legislators and the president for Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs. Attempts to change the constitution, which would help pave the way for Bosnia to join the European Union, are still in progress. Bosnian Serbs have objected to the proposed changes.

The Dayton, Ohio peace accord, where the constitution was drafted, linked the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation with a three-part presidency of a Bosniak, Serb and Croat.

The European Human Rights Court acknowledged that the constitution and discriminatory clauses had been accepted by all groups but added that Bosnia agreed two years ago to conform with the European standards for human rights and eliminate the bias.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Kouchner in Cairo to Promote Initiative

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 4 — French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, will be in Cairo tomorrow to take part in a meeting with his counterparts from several partner nations in the Mediterranean Union, aimed at relaunching the body set up in Paris in July 2008. According to a statement from the Quai d’Orsay, Kouchner will also be holding bilateral talks with the Egyptian authorities, who in mid-December announced that the meeting would be attended by the foreign ministers of France, Egypt, Spain, Tunisia and Jordan. The Mediterranean Union has been stalled since Israel’s military operation in Gaza at the end of 2008, blocked by internal strife and diplomatic disagreements. A plenary assembly of all the Foreign Minsters of member states, planned for November, was postponed without setting a date because the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit and other Arab colleagues refused to take part in a face-to-face meeting with their Israeli counterpart, the extreme nationalist Avigdor Lieberman. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egypt: Protests Against Jewish Festival in Delta

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 4 — A dispute is in progress in Egypt about the coming Jewish festival that is dedicated every year to Abu Hassira, a Moroccan Jew who lived in the 19th century. According to the legend, he settled in the Egyptian village of Damanhour, in the delta area, while on his way to the Holy Land. The man, a shoemaker whose tomb is located in that village, is considered to be a saint who can perform miracles. The festival celebrates the birthday of Hassira. It starts on January 15 and should last a week. However, the Egyptian Gazette reports that a movement — a group of local members of various political opposition forces, from the Nasserians to the Al Ghad party, from the leftwing Tagamou to the Kefaya movement and the Muslim Brotherhood — has been formed against the festival. This movement, called The Popular Movement to Prevent the Jewish ‘Moulid’, has also taken legal steps against the initiatives, pointing out that the festival was already banned in 2001. Its celebration, the festival organisation claims, coincides with the anniversary of the Israeli military operation ‘Cast Lead’, a provocation both for Muslims and Christians regarding Israel’s policies in Jerusalem and the blockade in Gaza. Yesterday the first 300 Jews arrived in Cairo from Tel Aviv to participate in the festival, more are expected to arrive in the coming days. Thousands of people participate in the annual pilgrimage, which can be made since 1979 when Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Maghreb: Chinese Foreign Minister in Morocco and Algeria

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JANUARY 4 — China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will be arriving in Morocco on January 11 for a two-day official visit on the invitation of Taib Fassi Fihri, head of Moroccan diplomacy. Reports were from the press agency MAP, which quoted Jiang Yu, spokesman for the Chinese foreign minister. The visit is part of a long African tour by Yang Jiechi, set to begin tomorrow and end on January 14. In addition to Morocco, the mission by Beijing’s foreign minister will include Algeria, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Saudi Arabia. According to Jiang Yu, the talks will include bilateral relations in different sectors and ways to promote and strengthen cooperation as well as an exchange of views on regional and international issues. (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Palestinians Claim Dead Sea Scrolls

As custodians begin to pack up an exhibit of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls and ship them back to Israel, both the Palestinians and the Jordanians have demanded their seizure.

Both Jordan and the Palestinians have claimed custody over the historic Dead Sea Scrolls, currently on display at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Canada.

Israel’s Antiquities Authority loaned 17 of the Dead Sea Scrolls along with other artifacts from the time of the Second Temple to the ROM as part of a six month display. The display, entitled “Words that Changed the World”, ended on January 3.

— Hat tip: JD

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Dubai: World’s Highest Skyscraper to be Inaugurated Today

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, JANUARY 4 — This evening will witness the unveiling of the highest skyscraper in the world, Burj Dubai, an icon of the relentless enterprising bent which in less than a decade has raised the emirate from the desert sands its current height on the international level, with all the figures and businesses that count. Though still reeling from the unresolved financial upset recently experienced, Dubai will spotlight the monument to its potential — 800 metres of pride in glass and steel, built in five years on a budget of 4.1 billion dollars — on the fourth anniversary of the Sheik Mohammad Al Maktum’s rise to the throne. The event will be broadcast on satellite TV to at least 2 million viewers, according to Emaar, the real estate giant behind the ambitious project. Thought up in 2003 and with the first stone laid in 2004, Burj Dubai is the only one of the gigantic regional skyscrapers announced which did not see works suspended nor plans altered the despite financial adversities. The definitive height of the Burj Dubai remains an incognita, even to the Council on Tall Buildings, the Chicago-based agency certifying the tallest buildings in the world. As Emaar president Mohammad al Abbar admitted, the skyscraper is “over 800 metres”, ensuring its visible from 95 kilometres away. There are 160 habitable floors, 49 for office use and 61 for apartments, in which 58 lifts work at a speed of 10 metres per second. On the 124th floor, a panoramic balcony will offer the public 360-degree views over the city. And Italy has left its exclusive mark on it, in the form of the 18 floors set aside for the Armani hotel and residences, entirely designed and furnished by the designer himself. (ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Exposing the Myth of Reform in Iran

Since the recent presidential [S]elections, the international community has had a real glimpse of the brutality and inhumanity of the Islamic Regime of Iran. We’ve seen peaceful protestors beaten, arrested and shot on the streets. We’ve heard reports of illegal arrests, torture and rape of protestors in Islamic Regime prisons. Scores of protestors have lost their lives under torture while at least three protestors have been sentenced to death because of their participation in the post [s]election protests.

What the international community needs to realize is that what we’ve seen in the past few months is nothing new. The Islamic Regime has been systematically arresting, torturing, raping and executing dissidents for the past 30 years.

Iranian people have not been silent in the face of severe persecution and brutality. For the past 30 years students, writers, journalists, women, workers, teachers and doctors just to name a few groups, have been fighting against the Regime in various ways. Iranian dissidents abroad have been fighting along their compatriots who are inside the country to make sure the voices of Iranian people are heard internationally.

Besides fighting against the Islamic Regime, since 1997 and especially in the past year, Iranians have come face to face with a new and much more dangerous enemy which is the so called “Reform” movement in Iran.

[…]

It did not take very long for the Iranians to realize that Khatami was an integrated part of the Islamic Regime and did not intend to keep any of his promises. In fact some of the most brutal human rights violations took place during Khatami’s presidency. This included the government sponsored chain murders of political dissidents and academics which took place in 1998 as well as the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy student demonstrations in July of 1999. During the protests thousands of students were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and some students were even murdered by Regime Agents. During the crackdown on the students Khatami showed his true colours by publicly siding with the Regime against the students and calling the pro-democracy protestors hoodlums and hooligans.

Here is a brief biography on the two so called reformist candidates:.

[…]

Unfortunately the “reform camp” abroad which included actors, Nobel peace prize winners, writers, beauty queens, former political prisoners and even some political groups in exile, are doing everything in their power to undermine the people’s pro-democracy, anti regime movement and to relate this movement to a reformist movement taking place within the frame work of the Islamic Regime. While the Iranian people have taken to the streets saying death to the Islamic Regime, the reform camp is referring to Mousavi and Karoubi as “opposition leaders” and trying to buy them legitimacy abroad.

[Comments from JD: Good article on the reality inside Iran — well worth reading the whole article.]

— Hat tip: JD

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France Follows Britain and US in Shutting Yemen Embassy

France has become the third Western nation to shut its Yemen embassy, after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot, the foreign ministry in Paris announced.

The US and UK missions, which closed on Sunday, remain shut.

Reports that the closures were prompted by Yemeni security forces losing track of six trucks full of arms were denied by British officials.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula last week said it was behind an alleged plot to bomb a US airliner.

It urged attacks on “crusaders” in embassies.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Yemen was a threat both regionally and globally.

Threats to US interests in Yemen pre-dated the Christmas holiday period, and the embassy would be re-opened only when circumstances permitted, she said in Washington.

From Monday all travellers flying to America are being subjected to new security measures, introduced by the US government.

Airport staff will now carry out extra screening of people from 14 countries, including those the US considers to be state-sponsors of terrorism — Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Yemen and Nigeria — through which the alleged bomber travelled — also face the new restrictions.

Passengers flying from other countries will be checked at random.

On Monday in Paris, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters their Yemen ambassador had decided the previous day to suspend public access to the embassy.

Clinton says Yemen is a ‘top concern’

French citizens in the country had been warned to be vigilant and limit their movements, he added.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Frattini Urges Joint EU Action on Yemen

Ashton ‘agrees greater coordination needed’

(ANSA) — Rome, January 4 — Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini on Monday urged European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to make sure the EU takes coordinated action on Al Qaeda bases in Yemen in the wake of the attempted terrorist bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day.

In a phone conversation, Frattini called for Ashton, the EU’s new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to work for “concrete and effective” coordination in Yemen and Brussels, the Italian foreign ministry said.

Ashton agreed with the Italian foreign minister that “ever more coordinated action” was needed, the ministry said.

Britain followed the United States in closing its embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday in the wake of a reported threat to the US embassy. France took the same step on Monday while Germany, according to a report in the Spanish daily El Pais, closed its consular section.

Japan also halted all consular activities.

The Italian foreign ministry added that Frattini was in constant touch with his counterparts in Europe and the Gulf.

It said he was trying to help harmonise international action against the terrorist threat.

On Monday two suspected Al Qaeda militants were killed by Yemeni security forces not far from Sanaa.

Yemeni tribal sources said they were the son and nephew of a leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemen branch of Osama bin Laden’s network. AQAP claimed responsibility for the attempt by Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bomb the American plane carrying 300 people on December 25.

The Nigerian student is believed to have been trained in Yemen and received the explosives he tried to use there.

Last week Frattini backed international action against AQAP cells in Yemen but noted that “any action against them would be very difficult and delicate”.

US President Barack Obama has said the US would not hesitate to strike against terrorists anywhere in the world should they pose a threat to his country’s national security.

Yemen, which is faced with a Shi’ite Muslim rebellion in the north and separatist protests in the south, has said it will not tolerate militant groups on its territory.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iraq: Nouri Al-Maliki and the Conundrum of Kirkuk

The forthcoming visit of Prime Minister to Kurdistan is hope for a reconciliation with Baghdad. But Kirkuk, which owns 25% of Iraqi oil, is in the sights of Arabs and Turkmen. Iran fears a Kurdish state power, the U.S. fear a conflagration that could delay their departure from Iraq in 2011.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is due to visit the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to sign an agreement with President Massoud Barzani on the future of the Kurdish peshmerga militia. The news was anticipated by the agency Aswat al-Iraq, without setting a specific date. Under the agreement, the Baghdad government will recognize the peshmerga in exchange for the government in Erbil to deliver the revenues derived from taxes and duties detained so far in its coffers. As a result, salaries and pensions of 90 thousand militiamen, the primary burden of the Kurdish government, becomes the responsibility of the central government.

Is Maliki’s trip a political move to divert attention from the recent bombings in Baghdad and create new alliances with the eternal enemies of the north ahead of elections next March? Or is it the result of strong U.S. pressure for the implementation of Art. 140 of the Iraqi constitution that calls for a referendum on the status of Kirkuk to determine if its inhabitants want to remain under the government of Baghdad or Erbil?

Kurdistan already holds between l0% and 15% of oil reserves in the country. Kirkuk alone has around 25%. If the city were to fall into the hands of the Kurds, Erbil would control roughly 40% of the deposits of all of Iraq. Unacceptable to the Arabs and Turkmen who claim it for themselves, but also for Syria, Iran and Turkey, fearful that a strong Kurdistan, territorially and economically, would inflame the Kurdish demands to annex the communities within them.

Ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, observers have viewed Kirkuk as the possible fuse that could ignite a civil war. This is why the referendum was always postponed and the relations between Maliki and the Kurdish authorities have started to oscillate between tension and cooperation.

Two years of haggling

Maliki began to woo the Kurds in 2007, after losing his major Sunni and Shiite allies, promising compliance with Article. 140 and the “normalization” of Kirkuk, which saw the forced relocation of about 12 thousand Iraqi Arab families settled by Saddam in the town as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the 80s. Standardization is the necessary precondition to the implementation of the referendum. These promises have ensured the survival of Maliki’s cabinet when the Sadrists, Iraqi National List and Iraqi Accordance Front broke with him. But the premier disillusioned expectations: he continuously postponed the referendum and in mid-2007 did nothing to prevent attacks against Turkish bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kurdistan.

As a result, improving the security situation in Iraq has removed many of the excuses for delaying the normalization process and Kurdish politicians have begun to suspect that Maliki intended to use the growing power of central government to thwart hard won gains by the Kurds after the American invasion, when the Baghdad government was weak.

The enmity between the two leaders is such that al-Maliki and Barzani rarely speak. Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga have clashed repeatedly in disputed areas, forcing officials of the United States to mediate to avoid an escalation.

Today, the Iraqi prime minister has more than ever, need of strong political support: a probable success in the upcoming elections has been made more difficult after the bloody attacks in August, October and December. The Obama administration is also much more determined than the Bush administration was to resolve the matter of Kirkuk. An escalation of tension between Arabs and Kurds, in fact, could delay the completion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces, expected by 2011. The Vice-President Joe Biden is pushing for an amicable solution between the parties that claim Kirkuk. But to offset U.S. pressure are those in Tehran, totally opposed to concessions to Kurdistan and very influential on Maliki. He, therefore, may be aiming to reach an agreement with Erbil, hoping once again that small temporary concessions will help him to postpone again the referendum. At least until his re-election in March.

Thus, while the other security challenges are becoming more manageable, the Arab-Kurd divide in Kirkuk has become increasingly dangerous. This could make the relative stability of Kirkuk, a thing of the past.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Yemen Says it Killed Militants as Three More Embassies Shut

Yemeni government forces killed two suspected Qaeda militants on Monday and wounded others in a firefight 25 miles north of the capital, Yemeni officials said, tying the militants to the continuing threats directed against the United States and British Embassies here.

Those embassies remained closed on Monday for a second day, and the French, German and Japanese embassies also closed.

— Hat tip: JD

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Chinese Helped Pakistan Nuke Program

Aid continues despite diversions to Iran

China covertly helped Pakistan in developing its nuclear weapons program and continues that support even now while that assistance has become the basis for Pakistan’s help with Iran’s nuclear development effort, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

— Hat tip: JD

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Racially Charged Violence Claims Lives in Suriname

A murder on Christmas Eve sparked vicious riots in the Surinamese town of Albina. Locals took to the streets battering, raping and even killing Brazilian and Chinese immigrants.

Police and army offers patrolled the abandoned streets of the Suriname border town of Albina. Burnt out cars, a hotel lying in ruins, and looted shops bore silent witness to the bloody riots the town experienced this Christmas.

Wide spread violence raged through the town after a dispute between an Albina man locally acknowledged as a criminal and a Brazilian prospector escalated on Christmas Eve. The local man, who died of wound inflicted during a knife-fight, was the first of an unconfirmed eight deadly victims over the weekend.

Albina is a town of several thousand souls, located on the west bank of the Maroni River, which marks the border between Suriname and French Guyana. It is home to a native population of mostly maroon people, descendants of runaway African slaves brought to Suriname long ago by Dutch traders.

8 deaths unconfirmed

The death toll claimed by the Christmas riots in Albina is still shrouded in uncertainty. Local police have confirmed a single fatality without releasing any further details — most probably the death of a Brazilian prospector who was stabbed to death by a local on Friday night.

A Brazilian cleric who has been administering aid to the victims of the racially charged violence, Jose Vergilio, said seven had been killed in addition to the local killed on Christmas Eve, but that hey had been unable to confirm the nationality of the vicitms. Acording to Vergilio, who has lived in Surinam for eight years, three hundred people, mostly Chinese and Brazilians have fled Albina. Brazil has sent two government envoys to asses the situation locally.

After the killing, hundreds of locals maroons took to Albina’s streets, wielding axes and other weapons. They directed their aggression at the Brazilians and other foreigners living in their town, including Chinese shop owners. Thirteen people were injured and twenty Brazilian women were raped and battered.

“This stuff recalls the Rwandan genocide. And it is happening right here in our own beautiful Suriname,” a radio reporter cried out during a broadcast. “Emotions are running rampant and the authorities are nowhere to be seen,” the reporter said.

Public response to the riots was one of shock, but the events could hardly have come as a complete surprise. Albina has long been a hotbed of unrest, violence, and lawlessness. Still, no one had expected that the usually so peaceful nation of Suriname would be facing a Christmas marked by murder, violence and rape.

The Dutch teacher Hugo den Boer, who has been living in Albina for ten years, witnessed how his home town was plundered.

“I saw people I know, nice neighbourly people, suddenly running around with axes, trashing everything in sight,” Den Boer said. “I took a little group of raped Brazilian women who had totally lost it to the police to report the crime. A good acquaintance of mine, a Chinese man, had his shop looted and destroyed. This man never hurt a fly and now he has lost everything. He was only targeted because his business is doing well.”

The teacher even saw government officials and housewives roam the shops, looking for valuables to loot. “Things can apparently turn to total anarchy in a split second,” Den Boer said.

That the violence was directed at foreigners, mostly Brazilians and Chinese, seems to indicate a deep-seated frustration that has taken hold of the maroon population. These locals feel the new inhabitants of their native lands are taking advantage of their resources and flouting local laws.

The violence is also an indirect consequence of the bloody civil war waged here in the 1980s, out in the jungle, between the former military junta of Desi Bouterse and rebels led by self-styled ‘jungle commando’ Ronny Brunswijk. A whole generation was raised in violence, leading to rampant unemployment, alcohol and substance abuse and creating droves of social dropouts.

Albina, once a popular holiday destination which the jet set nicknamed the Surinamese Riviera, was blasted to bits during that war and never completely restored.

The arrival of large groups of Chinese entrepreneurs and thousands of Brazilian prospectors who have successfully mined Lawa, an area rich in gold, created a tense atmosphere in Albina. The Brazilian gold mines are regularly robbed by maroon stick-up artists. As the price of gold went up recently, so did the number of robberies.

The man stabbed to death this Christmas was publicly recognised a recurrent robber of gold mines. The Surinamese national government, based some 300 kilometres away in the country’s capital Paramaribo, has remained completely apathetic to the events in the eastern far reaches of the county. “Politicians in Paramaribo have never invested in this region. The school I teach at has classes of 40 students, even though many of them already have learning disadvantages. There is no day-care, no kindergarten. The government has lost all authority in the outer regions of Suriname,” Den Boer said.

During prior times of unrest in the region surrounding Albina, president Ronald Venetiaan asked former rebel leader and native of the region Ronny Brunswijk to restore order to the area. Brunswijk, who now leads the largest maroon party in parliament, should keep a handle on his own people, the president said.

Brunswijk, however, does little to lead by example. This year he was allegedly involved in a number of shootouts and he physically abused an employee of the utility company because he felt he was overcharged.

“As long as people like Brunswijk are supposed to be role models and are worshipped by the population, we are fighting a battle we can’t win,” Den Boer said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Denmark: Immigrant Newborns Die More Frequently

Researchers believe inbreeding and poor access to health professionals plays a major part in high infant mortality rates

A medical study has discovered excessive mortality among infants born to Somali parents in Denmark.

Although the risk of losing a child at birth or in its infancy is low in this country, a study published in medical journal Ugeskrift for Læger shows that twice as many children born to Somali parents die in infancy than ones born to Danish parents. Congenital deformities in particular are costing those newborns their lives.

The three researchers who compiled the survey have various ideas as to why there is such a difference in the infant mortality between different ethnic groups.

Professor Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen of the University of Southern Denmark is one of the researchers behind the study. She posits the possibility that close kinship between the parents could be a reason for the high mortality rates.

Parents needed to be aware of the risks involved of close relatives having children together, Nybo Andersen said.

‘It’s on par with smoking, drinking alcohol or a mother having children in middle age,’ she told public broadcaster DR.

Norway has long recorded familial bonds between all parents in connection with childbirth and found that many couples among the Turks, Pakistanis and Somalis are cousins or closely related. According to Ugeskrift for Læger, the practice is making a comeback after years of decline.

The researchers behind the Danish study say that the increased mortality among some immigrant groups could also be due to a lack of contact with health professionals, which leads to inadequate examinations during pregnancy.

But the study shows that infant mortality has decreased in some immigrant groups, such as those from Lebanon and the former Yugoslavia.

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Number of Non-EU Workers in Ireland Falls by 41% in Year

THE NUMBER of people from outside the EU working in the Republic fell 41 per cent during 2009 as the recession took hold and the Government introduced new restrictions on issuing work permits.

The rapid increase in unemployment among immigrant workers is raising serious concerns among migrant rights groups, who say they are seeing a rise in destitute and undocumented immigrants.

The Government issued 7,942 employment permits to non-EU nationals last year, compared to 13,565 permits in 2008 and 23,604 permits in 2007.

Half of the employment permits granted by the Government in 2009 were new applications while the remainder were renewals for migrants already working here.

Indians are the biggest group of non-EU nationals working in the State and currently hold 1,782 employment permits.

This compares to 3,273 permits issued to Indian nationals in 2007.

About 1,424 permits were issued to Filipinos in 2009, down from 2,194 a year earlier.

There were 551 employment permits issued to US nationals, the third-biggest group of immigrant workers in the Republic in 2009.

Anybody from outside the EU seeking to work here must hold a valid employment permit from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

In the days of full employment during the Celtic Tiger, Fás was actively recruiting non-EU nationals at job fairs in South Africa and North America.

However, the huge rise in unemployment last year led the Government to introduce new restrictions on non-EU nationals seeking employment permits last June.

The new rules require employers to advertise longer to try to find Irish or EU nationals for positions before offering a job to or getting a reissued visa for a migrant worker from outside the EU.

Permits are no longer issued for most lower-paid positions under €30,000 and certain categories of workers. HGV drivers and domestic workers are no longer eligible to take up positions in the Republic.

The Government has also taken a tougher line on issuing spousal visas for non-EU migrant workers and increased the fee for renewing an employment permit.

“Obviously, our own unemployment figures are still very severe. We are above 12 per cent unemployment and so we have to make sure that our own labour market is compatible with the current situation,” said Dara Calleary, Minister of State for Labour Affairs, who added that the Government was constantly reviewing the system.

Unemployment, which currently stands at 12.4 per cent, is hitting immigrant workers particularly hard and raising questions over their right to remain here.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland received 500 calls about redundancy and 2,100 calls about renewing work permits in the last 12 months, highlighting the difficulty non-EU nationals face when they lose their jobs and want to remain in Ireland.

“It is hugely problematic for people working here for less than five years who lose their job and must find a new one within six months to obtain a work permit and remain in the country,” says Siobhán O’Donoghue, director of the Migrant Rights Centre, another NGO working to protect the rights of migrant workers’ in Ireland.

“We are seeing a big increase in the number of former work permit holders at our drop-in centre who have lost their jobs. We are also noticing a huge increase in destitution, with many people afraid to access social welfare in case it affects their long-term residency,” she said.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

[Return to headlines]

US Lifts HIV/Aids Immigration Ban

The US has lifted a 22-year immigration ban which has stopped anyone with HIV/Aids from entering the country.

President Obama said the ban was not compatible with US plans to be a leader in the fight against the disease.

The new rules come into force on Monday and the US plans to host a bi-annual global HIV/Aids summit for the first time in 2012.

The ban was imposed at the height of a global panic about the disease at the end of the 1980s.

It put the US in a group of just 12 countries, also including Libya and Saudi Arabia, that excluded anyone suffering from HIV/Aids.

The BBC’s Charles Scanlon, in Miami, says that improving treatments and evolving public perceptions have helped to bring about the change.

Rachel Tiven, head of the campaign group Immigration Equality, told the BBC that the step was long overdue.

“The 2012 World Aids Conference, due to be held in the United States, was in jeopardy as a result of the restrictions. It’s now likely to go ahead as planned,” she said.

In October, President Obama said the entry ban had been “rooted in fear rather than fact”.

He said: “We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the Aids pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people with HIV from entering our own country.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

[Return to headlines]

Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department

In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality’s board of directors, said that “as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

A Hint From the World’s Most Secure Airline

El Al security is not entirely devoid of that familiar “cattle stockyard” feeling, plodding forward in a line, holding your shoes and presenting your papers. There is some of that, but many travelers report that these procedures somehow seem far less intrusive than the anonymous and mechanical stripping, sniffing and prodding which is presently our lot. How can this be? Because El Al incorporates something else: a personal touch. It is a brief personal interview for every passenger, Muslim, Christian, Jew or otherwise.

Before boarding, a few simple, and a few not-so-simple questions are asked, directly, of every El Al traveler. Surely, different people are asked different sorts of questions. They are nominally personal questions, yes, but — and perhaps I only feel this way because I am not a terrorist — they do not seem unnecessarily intrusive. Some questions are specific, and some are not so specific. The questioners, in my experiences, are remarkably pleasant and kind. One gets the impression the interviewers are highly trained — watching for micro-expressions, hidden cues and many other special signs as they listen — but also highly courteous. In a word, respectful.

The brilliant and worldly Rabbi Dr. Gerald Meister told me once: “Political correctness is the enemy of personal respect.” I fully understood his meaning when I first flew El Al.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Climategate: You Should be Steamed

Now that Copenhagen is past history, what is the next step in the man-made global warming controversy? Without question, there should be an immediate and thorough investigation of the scientific debauchery revealed by “Climategate.”

If you have not heard, hackers penetrated the computers of the Climate Research Unit, or CRU, of the United Kingdom’s University of East Anglia, exposing thousands of e-mails and other documents. CRU is one of the top climate research centers in the world. Many of the exchanges were between top mainstream climate scientists in Britain and the U.S. who are closely associated with the authoritative (albeit controversial) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Among the more troubling revelations were data adjustments enhancing the perception that man is causing global warming through the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Particularly disturbing was the way the core IPCC scientists (the believers) marginalized the skeptics of the theory that man-made global warming is large and potentially catastrophic. The e-mails document that the attack on the skeptics was twofold. First, the believers gained control of the main climate-profession journals. This allowed them to block publication of papers written by the skeptics and prohibit unfriendly peer review of their own papers. Second, the skeptics were demonized through false labeling and false accusations.

Climate alarmists would like you to believe the science has been settled and all respectable atmospheric scientists support their position. The believers also would like you to believe the skeptics are involved only because of the support of Big Oil and that they are few in number with minimal qualifications.

But who are the skeptics? A few examples reveal that they are numerous and well-qualified.

[…]

Climategate reveals how predetermined political agendas shaped science rather than the other way around. It is high time to question the true agenda of the scientists now on the hot seat and to bring skeptics back into the public debate.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Climategate: Failure of a Blind and Biased Mainstream Media

It’s beyond belief that the mainstream media can’t see the devastating importance of the emails leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) known as Climategate. The blindness cancels the claim they’re society’s watchdog. Left wing journalist Amy Goodman said when writing about the Bush administration, “You know governments are going to lie, but not the media.” Now, with a new administration she is silent, proving there are lies of commission and omission.

Most haven’t read the emails or summarily dismiss them because of political bias. Journalist Clive Crook illustrated an open mind, albeit on second look. “In my previous post on Climategate I blithely said that nothing in the climate science email dump surprised me much. Having waded more deeply over the weekend I take that back. The closed-mindedness of these supposed men of science, their willingness to go to any lengths to defend a preconceived message, is surprising even to me. The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering.”

The mainstream media willfully ignore the massive deception just as they have the political exploitation of climate science. In fact, most led or joined attacks on scientists who dared to point out the problems. They’re still doing it directly or by their silence. There’s no excuse for missing the biggest story in history. It proves the adage that there are none so blind as those who will not see.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Socialism’s Greatest Lie: Government Can Give You Everything for Free

The idea that the government will take care of you is appealing, entire nanny states have been built on that proposition. But the government can’t take care of you, it can’t even pay its own bills without you. It can’t run a television station, a toll bridge or even an off track betting service, or any venture that in private hands would be profitable, without using taxpayer funds to prop it up.

A legitimate enterprise never needs to fool its customers into thinking that they will receive something for nothing. It is only the scammers that need to do that. What a promise of something for nothing really indicates is a venture that is run by people who are incapable of hard work, who get by on tricking others out of their hard earned money. And that in short is what socialism looks like, with its monolithic bureaucracies where incompetence is the order of the day, its offices upon offices that never need to produce their results or show their books, and its embedded corruption that insures the money never goes where you think it does.

The promise of free health care though is far more devilish than a free iPod, because it doesn’t simply promise people a gadget, but promises that the government will keep them alive. And because government free offers not only tend to cost a lot, but have a way of being universal and with no opt-out clause available, they’re a scam in which participation is not optional to individual foolishness, but mandatory to everyone.

[…]

This is not non-profit, it’s a kleptocracy. And a kleptocracy is for profit, the profit is just under the table. The more government expands, the more the kleptocracy grows. Naturally the kleptocracy just loves the idea of expanding government programs. Why shouldn’t it? Free market companies make money by selling products to consumers. The kleptocracy make money by exchanging government contracts for donations, favors and payoffs. Externally a kleptocracy may look like it’s booming, but in reality it’s rotten to the core, and nothing is done well anymore. Doing anything requires knowing a friend of a friend in the government. Because the only way to do business under a kleptocracy is to be part of it. Or be its victim.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

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Al-Shabab Threatens the Modoggie Man

Longtime readers will remember Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist whose creative genius gave birth to “profeten Muhammed som rondellhund” (“the prophet Mohammed as a roundabout dog”) and thereby got the artist into a lot of trouble with the Religion of Peace (see the bottom of this post for the full chronicles of the Modoggie Saga).

The fatwa against Lars Vilks has been dormant for more than a year, but — as I predicted at the time — the mujahideen are not done with Lars Vilks. Now, flush with their near-success in taking out Kurt Westergaard, the Somali terrorists of Al-Shabab have threatened Mr. Vilks.

According to The Local:

Somali Threats Against Swedish Illustrator

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who sparked outrage with caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog, has received threats via telephone from Somalia.

Police in Helsingborg in southern Sweden are taking seriously the threats made against Vilks, which come just three days after Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was subjected to an axe attack at his home in Denmark.

The first of two phone calls to Vilks came on Monday morning. A subsequent check by the Swedish artist revealed that the call originated in Somalia, where the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab has gained increasing influence in the war torn country.

Al-Shabaab is also believed to have ties to al-Qaeda.

In the last month, al-Shabaab supporters who reportedly used to live in Denmark have killed at least 22 people, including three ministers, in a suicide bomb attack carried out in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

According to Vilks, the man who threatened him spoke Swedish.

“The man, who spoke accented Swedish, asked me if I knew about what happened in Denmark and to the artist Kurt Westergaard. I said I certainly did,” Vilks told the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper.

“The man then explained that they were out after more and that they would soon come for me. I told them they were welcome,” said Vilks.

According to Patrik Peter, a spokesman for Swedish security service Säpo, the incident is being investigated by local police.

“It may be that the police will ask for our help in which case we’ll obviously do what we can,” Peter told the TT news agency.

- - - - - - - - -

The Helsingborg police have refused to comment on the incident.

“I have no comment whatsoever on how our investigation of the threat is being carried out,” police spokesperson Göran Hassel told TT.

Westergaard was one of the Danish artists who drew cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad for Denmark’s Jyllandsposten newspaper. Westergaard’s drawing portrayed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
I’d like to take this opportunity to repost the Modoggie that was specially created by Lars Vilks for this blog:


“Jan III Sobieski Confronts a Rondellhund at the Gates of Vienna”
This delightful image is one of the archival treasures here at Gates of Vienna.


For previous posts on Lars Vilks and the Roundabout Dogs, see the Modoggie Archives.

Hat tip: TB.

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Killing Us Not So Softly

This NYT alert just came in:

Bomber Who Killed C.I.A. Staff Worked With Jordanian Intelligence

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The suicide bomber who killed seven C.I.A. officers and one Jordanian intelligence officer last week in southeastern Afghanistan was an asset of the Jordanian intelligence service who had been brought to Afghanistan to help hunt down top members of the Qaeda network, according to a Western official briefed on the matter.

Bear in mind: this guy was an intelligence asset for Jordan, one of our allies, a “staunch friend in the War on Terror”, as G.W. Bush liked to say.

Shouldn’t this cause us to rethink some of our most basic strategies?

How much stupider can we get?

Can anyone say “Catastrophic Failure”?


[Rant ends here]

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Bring on the Flying Sauna!

Our Austrian correspondent AMT has translated the following op-ed from Die Presse about the current regime of mass surveillance under the security-conscious nanny state:

Naked into the Big Brother State

by Christian Ultsch

As long as someone — anyone — promises more security, people will acquiesce to the loss of more and more rights that mark freedom.

The “zero-years” [meaning the years 2000-2009] with their exhausting terror insanity are over, and we are still trotting naked and fatalistically like newly-shorn sheep towards the big brother state which is continuously being expanded. There remain plenty of crazies out there, like the 28-year-old Somali man who Friday night wanted to visit a Danish artist with an axe and a knife because the latter dared to caricature the prophet Mohammed four years ago.

There is no longer anything that remains a secret; the soup concocted from a nervousness about danger dissolves privacy like vegetables that have been overcooked. The state-run chef is all-knowing, if that is what he wants: for instance, he knows where and when we are traveling and with whom we are telephoning. In the near future all telecommunication companies will be officially required by law to store all customer data for at least six months and on request forward the data to the police. An EU directive wants it that way. Oh well. Are there any protests? Nada. Nothing.

- - - - - - - - -

Our most intimate preferences have been listed in an open book for a long time. The trail we leave when we use our credit cards or the internet make up a pretty profile to be used for commercial or police purposes. And those who traipse through the streets of Vienna or use the highways or public transportation can be found on recorded video more than once a day. There is even discussion in some municipal tenements about filming tenants while they empty their garbage into the bins. All this is allegedly for the sake of our safety. The state is just doing its job (and at the same time listening to us and reading our stuff). If we have nothing to hide, this shouldn’t bother us, we are instructed.

Oh yes, it does! It is troubling when the foundations are laid for a totalitarian big-brother-like community. It is troubling when the state nonchalantly subverts rights that were fought for centuries. The war against terror does not justify weaving a seamless monitoring system which catches citizens who have never been in conflict with the law. Freedom cannot be defended by restricting it. In bleating forbearance, our generation allows others to chivvy one basic freedom after another out of us as long as we are promised more security. Freedom of movement, for example, has become pretty relative in the context of flying. This where the neuroses of the terror age are currently expanding. Osama bin Laden and his cohorts’ fantasies of destroying airplanes are not a mere fetish in the wake of September 11: taking down technical wonders from the skies produces especially gruesome pictures.

Accordingly, the security craze at airports has intensified. Failed attacks have nerve-wracking and time-wasting results. We have the failed shoe-bomber Richard Reid to thank for having to pass security checkpoints in socks. And because one group planned an attack with liquid explosives, we can no longer take deodorants and toothpaste on board without hesitation. Not very appealing on long flights.

And the legacy of the son of a Nigerian ex-minister who on Christmas Day wanted to explode a Delta airliner, but only managed to singe his underpants, will be the full body scanner. Soon it will be possible for security people to relax when looking at scanned passengers’ prostheses, intimate body piercings or colostomies. Why don’t we just all travel with a towel around our waists and convert airplanes into flying saunas? None of us has anything to hide.

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Kurt Westergaard on Canadian TV

In Århus last Friday night, a local Somali representative of Al Qaeda paid a little visit to the home of Kurt Westergaard, the artist who drew the famous “Turban Bomb” Mohammed cartoon. Mr. Westergaard’s culturally enriched guest brought along a knife and an axe to punish the artist for his blasphemy against Mohammed, and the story might have ended tragically had Mr. Westergaard not locked himself up in a specially secured bathroom in his house before summoning the police.

When incidents like this occur in Denmark, the Danish press routinely responds to the attempted intimidation by republishing the Mohammed cartoons in their online and print versions. The American press is just the opposite: almost all major media outlets have steadfastly refused to display any of the Motoons, out of that exquisite sensibility for Muslim feelings that we have all come to know and love.

This time, however, it was possible to see the Turban Bomb on a North American media outlet. The Canadian network CTV broadcast a brief news item about Kurt Westergaard, and Vlad Tepes was kind enough to Youtube it for us:



[Post ends here]

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/3/2010

Al Qaeda has announced that it is targeting British soldiers who return from Afghanistan, particularly snipers. There are also reports that the families of snipers are being threatened.

In other news, according to the American Enterprise Institute, government losses from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will reach $400 billion, and the US taxpayer will be the one to foot the bill.

Thanks to AA, Barry Rubin, Insubria, JD, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
- - - - - - - - -

	Financial Crisis
	20 Million-Plus Collect Unemployment Checks in ‘09
	U.S. To Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says
	USA
	Connecting the Terror Dots
	Former Homeland Security Chief Argues for Whole-Body Imaging
	Low Favorables: Dems Rip Rasmussen
	Report of 2nd Man Cuffed From Flight 253 Confirmed
	Europe and the EU
	Al-Qaeda Target British Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan
	Danish Muslims Question Cartoonist Attack
	Denmark: Cartoonist Intruder: ‘Links to Islamic Terrorists’
	Denmark: Panic Room Saved Artist Kurt Westergaard From Islamist Assassin
	UK: Are Planned Airport Scanners Just a Scam?
	UK: Air Passengers Face Two Body Searches
	UK: Body Scanner Wouldn’t Have Foiled Syringe Bomber, Says MP Who Worked on New Machines
	UK: Billions Face Identity Fraud Threat After Hackers Crack Secret Mobile Phone Codes
	UK: Detroit Bomber’s Mentor Continues to Influence British Mosques and Universities
	UK: MI5 Knew of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s UK Extremist Links
	UK: No Joke! The Slapstick EU Class You Pay for Out of Your Taxes
	UK: This is the Decade When Britain Faces the Choice — Slow Death by the State, Or a Return to Self-Reliance
	Van Rompuy and the Secret Belgian Plot to Rule Britain
	Balkans
	Croatia: Two Golf Courses Planned for Dubrovnik
	Tourism: Croatia Increases Its Offer With ‘Wine Road’
	Middle East
	Britain Sends Counter-Terrorist Forces to Yemen
	John Kerry Denied Entry Into Iran
	Jordan-Italy: Education, Universities to Collaborate
	Jordan: 10 Arrested for Planning Attack on Tankers
	Muslim World: Iran —The End is Not Nigh
	The New Al-Qaeda Chiefs Bringing Terror to the World
	The OIC General Secretariat Condemns the Reported Attempt on the Life of Danish Cartoonist
	Turkey Has 9 Billion USD Trade Volume With UAE, Says Minister
	Turkey: Soldiers Suspected of Plotting Against Govt Released
	Yemen: ‘You’re Foreign and Should Go to Hell’
	South Asia
	Death Row Briton: I Was Tortured for Two Weeks Before Signing Murder Confession in Language I Can’t Speak
	Malaysia to Appeal ‘Allah’ Ruling: Minister
	Far East
	Concern as China Clams Down on Rare Earth Exports
	Australia — Pacific
	NZ’s Cyber Spies Win New Powers
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	Preacher of Hate Booted Out of Britain is Picked Up in Kenya
	Latin America
	Bombardment Kills at Least 18 Colombian Rebels
	Immigration
	UK: Jobs for Illegals at Home Office as Dozens of NHS and Public Bodies Ignore Immigration Laws
	UK: The Two-Faced Truth About Immigration
	USA: Another Liberal State Set to Crash
	General
	Behind the Culture of Terrorism Denial
	Fides: 37 Catholic Missionaries Killed in 2009

20 Million-Plus Collect Unemployment Checks in ‘09

A record 20 million-plus people collected unemployment benefits at some point in 2009, a year that ended with the jobless rate at 10 percent.

As the pace of layoffs slows, the number of new applicants visiting unemployment offices has been on the decline in recent months. But limited hiring means the ranks of the long-term unemployed continues to grow, with more than 5.8 million people out of work for more than six months.

[…]

Thursday’s report illustrates the two different trends: first-time jobless claims are falling as layoffs ease, but the total number of people collecting unemployment checks is still rising.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

U.S. To Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says

Taxpayer losses from supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will top $400 billion, according to Peter Wallison, a former general counsel at the Treasury who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“The situation is they are losing gobs of money, up to $400 billion in mortgages,” Wallison said in a Bloomberg Television interview. The Treasury Department recognized last week that losses will be more than $400 billion when it raised its limit on federal support for the two government-sponsored enterprises, he said.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Connecting the Terror Dots

As detailed by Dave Macy and published on Canada Free Press Friday, police in Houston responding to a domestic disturbance found something they did not expect: an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher that can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.

Channel 2 in Houston also reported that police found Islamic terrorist literature at the same location. According to news reports, the items belong to Nabilaye I. YANSANE, who was charged with criminal trespassing related only to the domestic incident. No charges were filed for possession of the launcher or the literature. (A video provided by KPRC Channel 2 in Houston can be viewed at this link).

[…]

The misdemeanor charges notwithstanding, further investigation conducted over the last several days with area residents familiar with YANSANE indicates a possible “connection” with the Al-Maghrib Institute in Houston, an Islamic center located less than 6 miles from his home. According to two area residents, YANSANE might have some level of involvement with the Institute, participating in classes or events at that location within the past year.

If the al Maghrib Institute sounds familiar, it should. As we previously reported, the Al Maghrib Institute is the Islamic center that terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab, the Muslim terrorist who attempted to bomb Delta-Northwest flight 253 out of the sky on Christmas Day, attended in 2008.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Former Homeland Security Chief Argues for Whole-Body Imaging

During my time as secretary of homeland security, the Transportation Security Administration began working to replace the 1970s-era metal detectors used at airports across America with modern technology able to detect non-metal weapons concealed by terrorists on their bodies — even in their underwear, where Abdulmutallab allegedly hid his bomb. The latest versions of these machines — sometimes called whole-body imagers — are deployed at 19 airports, and the TSA is attempting to place them throughout the nation.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Low Favorables: Dems Rip Rasmussen

Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.

The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Report of 2nd Man Cuffed From Flight 253 Confirmed

U.S. Customs and Border official apologizes, reverses himself — ‘This is the FBI’s 4th story’

After several days of denying eyewitness reports of a second man from Northwest Flight 253 being arrested following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of the plane by a Nigerian passenger linked to al-Qaida, the chief U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the Detroit area has admitted another passenger was taken into custody.

Ronald G. Smith sent an e-mail to the Detroit News, the paper reported, apologizing that the information provided to federal investigators by two attorneys aboard the plane had not been made available earlier.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Al-Qaeda Target British Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan

British-based Islamist radicals are targeting Army soldiers — especially snipers — returning from fighting in southern Afghanistan, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

In one case, a police armed response unit was called to the home of a sniper last September amid fears he was about to be murdered or abducted by al-Qaeda terrorists.

The Corporal, serving with a Scottish Regiment, was one of a two-man sniping team which shot dead 32 Taliban fighters during a six-month tour of Afghanistan.

The soldier — whom this newspaper has agreed not to name — was temporarily forced to leave home his wife and family after details of his service in Afghanistan were made public.

It can also be disclosed that a second sniper who recently returned home to the Glasgow area received death threats from suspected British-based al-Qaeda sympathisers after his personal details became known.

The threats were deemed so serious that an armed response unit was sent to his home in case terrorists tried to kidnap or kill him or members of his family.

Defence chiefs now see the situation as so serious that they have asked newspapers and broadcasters not to publicise the names or personal details of snipers serving in Helmand or of those who have recently returned.

It is understood that senior commanders believe Army snipers are being specifically targeted because they are often used to seek out and kill Taliban commanders.

In November, The Sunday Telegraph interviewed two snipers, who were not named for security reasons, serving in the reconnaissance platoon of the 1st battalion Grenadier Guards.

Both soldiers had taken part in an ambush of a Taliban force as the insurgents prepared to attack a British patrol base.

The two snipers were used to initiate the ambush by shooting dead a Taliban commander who was positioning his troops prior to a planned dawn attack in the Nad-e’Ali area of central Helmand.

After more than 12 hours of fighting both soldiers said that believed that they had killed at least two insurgents each. One of the snipers also admitted that he had lost count of the number of insurgents he had killed since arriving in Helmand two months earlier but believed the number was “well into double figures”.

But senior commanders requested that the two snipers not be identified in reports of the battle amid fears that the troops or their families might be attacked when they returned to Britain.

In January 2007, a plot by a Birmingham-based al-Qaeda cell to kidnap a British soldier and behead him was discovered.

The six-man cell was led by Paviz Khan, a 37-year-old father of three, who planned to kidnap a Muslim soldier and post a film of him being beheaded on the internet in a bid to deter other members of the faith from joining the British Army.

The plan was thwarted by a year-long surveillance operation by MI5 and members of the West Midlands counter-terrorist unit. Khan was later jailed for life.

A senior defence source said snipers were being targeted because theirs sole role in Afghanistan was to kill.

He added: “Sniping is a cold and calculating art. You have to be prepared to kill someone at a long range who may not be posing any direct threat to you. Every sniper who deploys to Helmand will return with several kills, many will be into double figures and this is something which is not lost on al-Qaeda or their sympathisers. Islamists would see targeting snipers as something is “acceptable” because they are killing a soldier who has killed one of their brothers.”

[Return to headlines]

Danish Muslims Question Cartoonist Attack

CAIRO — The alleged attack on the Danish cartoonist who drew lampooning pictures of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) raises questions among Denmark’s Muslim community who are puzzled and disturbed by emerging details of the latest episode of the cartoons crisis.

“There are many questions in this case,” Bilal H Assaad, chairman of the Islamic Faith Society, said in a comment on the website of Scandinavian Waqfs, Denmark’s main Muslim body on Sunday, January 3.

The Danish authorities are accusing a Somali man of attempting to kill Kurt Westergaard, one of the Danish cartoonists who drew offensive pictures of the prophet in 2005.

According to the police, the 28-year-old asylum seeker, whose name has not been released under Danish law, was shot twice by police on Friday night as he tried to break-in Westergaard’s home while armed with an axe and a knife.

Intelligence agencies said on Sunday that the man has links to al-Qaeda network and the al-Shabaab group in his homeland.

He had “close ties to the Somali terror organization al-Shebaab as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa”, the Danish security and intelligence service (PET) said in a statement.

Danish newspapers also reported that he was arrested over a planned attack on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Africa last summer, according to intelligence sources.

The incident is raising eyebrows among the Muslim community who question the timing and the emerging details.

“Why would the Danish intelligence leave such man free though they claim he has close connections to ‘Qaeda leaders in Africa,’“ said Assaad.

“And is that al-Qaeda style, a screaming man targeting a heavily-guarded house in the middle of the night with a knife?”

The Somali was carried into a court on Saturday to face two charges of attempted manslaughter, which he denied.

He was ordered held for four weeks on preliminary charges of attempting to murder the cartoonist.

Unfinished Business

Danish Muslims, however, condemned the alleged attack and was keen to distance themselves from it.

“The Danish Muslim Union strongly distances itself from the attack and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts,” an umbrella organization for Muslims in Denmark said in a statement, reported the Observer.

But Assaad, of the Islamic Faith Society, believes that the latest episode of the cartoons controversy is not going to be the last in the Scandinavian country as long as Muslims are being wrongly treated.

“This did not come out of nowhere,” he said. “The government is still unable of having a fair policy in treating the Muslim minority.

“Even those who seek to climb the political ladder resort to assaulting Muslims in order to get fame and be recognized.”

Danish Muslims are estimated at 180,000 or around three per cent of Denmark’s 5.4 million.

Islam is Denmark’s second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country’s population.

When Jyllands-Posten daily commissioned and published the 12 blasphemous drawings in 2005, it triggered a storm of protests across the Muslim world and straining ties with Muslim countries, but Danish Muslims vowed to astute reaction.

In 2008, however, 17 newspapers reprinted one of the lampooning drawings, reigniting the controversy.

“We have always affirmed that we reject violence with all its kinds,” said Assaad.

“But as long as some are trying hard to marginalize the Muslim community and link it to ignorance, violence and backwardness, the cartoons crisis will remain an unfinished business for years to come.”

— Hat tip: TB

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Cartoonist Intruder: ‘Links to Islamic Terrorists’

An intruder who was shot and wounded by police after breaking into the Denmark home of Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has links to Islamic terrorists, according to Danish intelligence.

The 28-year-old Somali man is connected to the radical Islamist al-Shabaab militia and al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, claims Denmark’s PET intelligence service.

[…]

The suspect, who is being treated in hospital for injuries to his hand and knee, will be charged with attempted murder, according to Jakob Scharf, head of PET.

Scharf, said the attack was “terror related” and that the Somalian had been under surveillance for activities unrelated to Westergaard.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Panic Room Saved Artist Kurt Westergaard From Islamist Assassin

He did not have time to collect the child from the living room before locking himself into a “panic room”, a specially fortified bathroom. He said the assailant had shouted “swear words, really crude words” and shrieked about “blood” and “revenge”, as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door.

“I feared for my grandchild,” he told Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that had commissioned the cartoon. “But she did great. I knew that he wouldn’t do anything to her.” He went on: “It was close, really close. But we did it.”

The attacker, who was also carrying a knife, shouted, “I’ll be back”, before going outside to confront police. He smashed a police car window with the axe and was shot in the hand and a knee when he threw the axe at an officer. He appeared in court on a stretcher yesterday to be charged with the attempted murder of Westergaard and the policeman.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: Are Planned Airport Scanners Just a Scam?

New technology that Gordon Brown relies on for his response to the Christmas Day bomb attack has been tested — and found wanting

The explosive device smuggled in the clothing of the Detroit bomb suspect would not have been detected by body-scanners set to be introduced in British airports, an expert on the technology warned last night.

The claim severely undermines Gordon Brown’s focus on hi-tech scanners for airline passengers as part of his review into airport security after the attempted attack on Flight 253 on Christmas Day.

The Independent on Sunday has also heard authoritative claims that officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Home Office have already tested the scanners and were not persuaded that they would work comprehensively against terrorist threats to aviation.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Air Passengers Face Two Body Searches

Extra body searches, new restrictions on moving around aircraft and greater use of sniffer dogs are among the security measures being planned by Britain following the Christmas Day bomb plot.

Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, also said airline staff should be free to target “high-risk” passengers — a move that could anger ethnic minority groups.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Body Scanner Wouldn’t Have Foiled Syringe Bomber, Says MP Who Worked on New Machines

Gordon Brown’s plans to foil terrorist attacks by installing body scanners at UK airports are doomed to failure, according to an MP who helped to design the machines.

Tory MP Ben Wallace, who worked on the scanners at defence research organisation QinetiQ before entering Parliament in 2005, said the £100,000 ‘millimetre wave’ machines would not have stopped syringe bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from trying to mount his attack on Christmas Day.

[…]

‘The millimetre wave technology is harmless, quick and can be deployed overtly or covertly. But it cannot detect chemicals or light plastics.

‘They have their uses. They give a sharper image of objects — especially metallic — than the “metal arch” scanners now in use.

‘And as they scan the whole body, they would speed up security checks as there would be less need for the “pat-down” search.

‘They are also able to scan crowds at a distance. But they cannot detect everything.’ He said that the only type of scanner that might be able to pick up concealed explosives were X-ray machines — but they pose health risks and are too slow to operate.

Mr Wallace, the Shadow Scottish Minister, added: ‘Scanners are only part of the solution. A method better than any scanner is profiling. Why is it at airports we all are put through security the same way?’

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Billions Face Identity Fraud Threat After Hackers Crack Secret Mobile Phone Codes

Billions could have their mobile phone calls intercepted and recorded after computer hackers cracked the secret code used to protect 80 per cent of the world’s users.

The code was posted on the internet by German scientist Karsten Nohl, who said he organised the breach to demonstrate the weakness of mobiles’ security measures.

He claims an eavesdropper could be listening to calls within 15 minutes with just a laptop and two network cards.

There are now fears that half the world’s population could be left vulnerable to crime including identity fraud.

Nohl said: ‘We have given up hope that network operators will move to improve security on their own, but we are hoping that with this added attention, there will be increased demand from customers for them to do this.

‘This vulnerability should have been fixed 15 years ago. People should now try it out at home and see how vulnerable their calls are.’

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Detroit Bomber’s Mentor Continues to Influence British Mosques and Universities

Al-Awlaki has been accused by US counter terrorism officials and the Yemeni government of being one of the driving forces behind Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s conversion to an extreme form of Islam.

Today we can reveal al-Awlaki has spoken on at least seven occasions at five different venues around Britain via video-link in the last three years alone, despite being banned from entering this country in 2006.

On at least two occasions the American-born cleric addressed audiences at a Muslim centre which was receiving taxpayers money under Government’s programme to prevent violent extremism.

[…]

The true picture of the continued influence of Islamist extremism at British campuses has begun to emerge since the arrest of Abdulmutallab, who headed University College London’s Islamic Society between 2006-2007.

He is the fourth president of a university Islamic society to face terror charges in the past three years and Whitehall sources have confirmed that MI5 is now investigating his possible links with other radical individuals at UCL and with other Islamic student societies.

During his presidency, Muslim students at UCL tried to water down the student union rules on anti-semitism by including Islamophobia in its definition. The university’s Jewish society was forced to launch a campaign to stop the motion in February 2007.

Over the same period Abdulmutallab organised a series of events featuring a number of Islamic radicals. This newspaper can now disclose new details of controversial Muslim speakers who have been invited to address events organised by UCL Isoc — raising concerns of whether university authorities have taken sufficient measures to prevent violent extremism on campus.

[Comments from JD: A detailed investigative report. Well worth reading.]

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: MI5 Knew of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s UK Extremist Links

The security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend.

Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “reaching out” to extremists whom MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: No Joke! The Slapstick EU Class You Pay for Out of Your Taxes

British taxpayers are helping to fund basket-weaving and slapstick acting workshops for young people across Europe.

The projects, which include meetings about folk dancing and even a scheme to promote afternoon siestas, are part of an £800million EU programme to help people aged 13-30 ‘feel European’.

Because the UK Government provides ten per cent of the EU’s central budget, it is likely around £80million of the cash used to run the Youth In Action programme could have come from British taxpayers, even though only a handful of projects have benefited teenagers in this country.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: This is the Decade When Britain Faces the Choice — Slow Death by the State, Or a Return to Self-Reliance

Britain has emerged as the biggest loser from the first decade of the 21st century.

Our standing in the world has fallen faster than at any time since World War II.

Our economy has stagnated. Almost as important, the British reputation for honesty, fair dealing and decency has taken a number of very severe dents.

— Hat tip: JD

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Van Rompuy and the Secret Belgian Plot to Rule Britain

By Paul Belian, Belgian Lawyer And Historian

Perhaps, like many, you think Herman Van Rompuy, who took office as the first EU President on Friday, is a harmless figure of fun. Well, you’re wrong.

Van Rompuy, a former prime minister of Belgium, represents the ‘Belgianisation’ of Europe — a process which began 180 years ago and for which Britain has only itself to blame.

There is ominous symbolism in a Belgian ruling the EU. During the Second World War, Churchill called the Belgians ‘the most contemptible of all — a nation which vainly hoped to stay out of this war, no matter what they owed to those who had saved them in the last war’.

Yet the Belgian political model has since then stealthily conquered Britain, turning Brussels, not London, into the centre of power from which decisions are imposed on the British people.

Belgium was created by British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston in 1830-31. It is home to six million Flemings, three million Walloons and one million people in bilingual Brussels.

The country came about after French-speaking Walloons broke away from the Netherlands and tried to join France. Palmerston recognised the rebels on condition that they established a new state and remained neutral.

At first, everyone was sceptical about Palmerston’s creation. Even Belgium’s first king, Leopold I, said: ‘Belgium has no nationality and it can never have one. Basically, Belgium has no political reason to exist.’

By the late 19th Century the Belgian political elite had developed an ideology with a striking similarity to modern Europeanism. In 1904, the ideologist Leon Hennebicq wrote: ‘Have we not been called the laboratory of Europe? Indeed, we are a nation under construction… the solution is economic expansion, which can make us stronger by uniting us.’

His words foreshadowed the Europeanism of the Fifties, which aimed for political unification through economic integration.

But before this could be put into practice Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, forcing Britain to intervene in a Franco-German tussle to uphold Belgium’s neutrality. As neither the Flemings nor Walloons loved Belgium, they left Britain to do the fighting. The war left Britain with 700,000 military deaths.

After the war, the Belgian establishment put Hennebicq’s doctrine into practice. Since 1919, economic and social policies have not been decided in parliament, but between the government and so-called ‘social partners’, including the trade unions and the Federation of Belgian Employers.

Soon, the Belgians realised they could apply their ideas to Europe. In the Thirties, Henri De Man, leader of the Belgian Socialist Party, said his country’s ‘corporatist welfare state’ model should be turned into a European or even a global system.

When Hitler overran Europe in 1940, Queen Elisabeth, the widow of Belgium’s King Albert, described it as a ‘work of necessary destruction’.

Meanwhile, De Man saw the Second World War as a unique opportunity to establish a united Europe, asking his followers not to oppose the German victory because: ‘The Socialist Order will thereby be established, as the common good, in the name of a national solidarity that will soon be continental, if not worldwide.’

What was needed, he added, ‘was as much federalism and as little separatism as possible’.

De Man is now forgotten by history. His legacy, however, is very much alive thanks to his deputy, Paul-Henri Spaak, who settled in Britain during the summer of 1940.

He would go on to produce the Spaak Report which laid the foundation of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. It recommended the creation of a European Common Market, which would later become the European Union, as a step towards political unification and ‘an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe’. From the beginning, what these peoples might think was deemed unimportant.

Today’s EU is a shotgun marriage for the peoples of Europe. When the Danes voted against the Maastricht Treaty, and the Irish against Nice and Lisbon, they had to vote again. When the French and Dutch rejected the EU Constitution, their verdict was discarded.

Britain’s Government simply denied its people a say on the Lisbon Treaty, so Westminster is now legally obliged to ‘contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union’ — i.e. to further the interests of the EU, rather than those of its own people.

Make no mistake, the EU is an empire with global ambitions. In his acceptance speech, President Van Rompuy extolled ‘global governance’.

Legions of bureaucrats will rule the British from Brussels, the Belgian capital. Being proud of your Britishness will be criminalised, just as Brussels has always punished Flemings who put Flanders first.

Last November, Van Rompuy, although a Fleming himself, confessed in an interview: ‘I am a European because the European idea is an antidote for Flemish nationalism, an antivenin [an antitoxin against a snake’s venom] against the Flemish Movement.’

Two weeks later, he became the EU President. Van Rompuy is no harmless creature. He symbolises the conquest of Britain by Belgium, the monster created by Palmerston.

— Hat tip: AA

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Croatia: Two Golf Courses Planned for Dubrovnik

(ANSAmed) — ROME, 28 DEC — Two new course are to be created in Croatia, at Dubrovnik, on the Srd plateau, on approximately 310 hectares. The project has been entrusted to one of the prodigies of world golf, Greg Norman. The courses will be 18 and 6 holes, in accordance with the highest of worldwide professional standards, as well as a “Golf Academy” with a learning course led by Greg Norman himself. There are to be also a number of structures for sport and entertainment, such as a riding club , a wellness centre, cycling and walking circuits, open amphitheatres, the restoration of the Imperial Fort of Srd, which was seriously damaged during the war, as well as “the necessary related accommodation facilities”, such as villas, hotels, apartments and restaurants, to be place on an area of approximately 27 ha. Apart from the investment of 6.5 billion kune (approximately 900 million euro), it will be necessary to invest roughly 640 million kune in the nonexistent infrastructure of the Srd Plateau. A note informs that investors and the city’s authorities think that this project will allow Dubrovnik’s tourist season to become 10-11 month long, as well as being the occasion to change the type of accommodation currently available. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Tourism: Croatia Increases Its Offer With ‘Wine Road’

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, DECEMBER 29 — Croatian tourism is increasing its offer in the county of Karlovac, where a new project, the 30-kilometre long Ozalj-Vivodina “Wine road’, managed to bring together eleven of the best known wine producers of this famous wine growing region. The project was developed by the association of vine-dressers, wine sellers and fruit sellers in cooperation with the tourist office of the county of Karlovac. Some 80 hectares of vineyards spread across the Ozalj-Vivodina area which is home to varieties such as Graevina, Sauvignon, Rajnski Rizling, Chardonnay, uti Mukat, Crni Pinot, Frankovka, Zweigelt and Mlado Vino Portugizac. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Britain Sends Counter-Terrorist Forces to Yemen

The force is training Yemeni military and will assist in planning operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group which claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attack on a US airliner.

The disclosure comes as Western security analysts warn that the failed underwear bomb plot will serve as a test run for future overseas attacks by an increasingly sophisticated outfit still honing its terror techniques.

“The bomber was inexperienced, dispensable and an unknown quantity,” said a senior diplomat in Sana’a. “They would only have given him a 50-50 chance of succeeding. It was a proof of concept mission.”

— Hat tip: JD

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John Kerry Denied Entry Into Iran

The Iranian Parliament today voted to deny John Kerry his request to visit Iran.

— Hat tip: JD

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Jordan-Italy: Education, Universities to Collaborate

(ANSAmed) AMMAN, DECEMBER 30 — In order to develop cultural relations and relaunch cooperation in several sectors between Italy and Jordan, political and academic figures from Naples and representatives from Jordan’s Yarmouk University have met in the Hashemite Kingdom. According to sources at Jordan’s Ministry for Higher Education, Yarmouk’s president — Sultan Abu Erabi — has illustrated to the Italian delegation the state of the educational sector in Jordan and the university’s potential, the second most important in the country. The Italian delegation expressed the hope for the finalisation of an exchange agreement between the University of Naples and the Yarmouk University in the sectors of scientific research and teacher-student exchanges, said Erabi. Among the areas of cooperation are research on new techniques for olive oil extraction, produced in both countries on a large scale. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Jordan: 10 Arrested for Planning Attack on Tankers

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, DECEMBER 30 — Jordanian security forces have arrested ten men on charges of planning to blow up several oil tankers headed from Jordan to Iraq. Those arrested have been interrogated by the police and within the next week may stand trial, according to their lawyer Abdul Karim Shreideh. It is not yet clear whether the men had been working autonomously or whether they had links with Al Qaeda. After the crackdown by Jordanian authorities against Islamic extremists following attacks in Amman in 2005 — in which 60 were killed and 100 injured — Al Qaeda’s presence in the Hashemite Kingdom has been reduced to an insignificant size. The source reporting the news said that if the young men arrested are found guilty, they may be sentenced to life in prison. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Muslim World: Iran —The End is Not Nigh

by Jonathan Spyer

The ongoing demonstrations in Iran are testimony to the continued strength and resilience of Iranian civil society. They make a mockery of the Islamic Republic’s ambition of offering a model for successful Muslim governance to the world.

The next major manifestation of the protests is likely to be February 11 — the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The seventh and 40th days following the deaths of those killed this week are also likely to witness dramatic scenes.

Still, the overheated punditry of the last week predicting the imminent demise of the regime, claiming that this is the beginning of the end for the Islamists in Teheran and that a “tipping point” has been passed is misleading and should be questioned.

Two parallel movements exist in Iran, each of which seeks to change the nature of the Islamic Republic as it has existed since 1979.

The first of these has been much in evidence this week, in the protests and demonstrations that have rocked Teheran and other cities. This is the so-called “Green movement.” It has no clear ideology beyond a deep dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. Within its ranks, one may find supporters of the reformist wing of the current regime, including former presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami.

The protest movement also undoubtedly includes individuals and groups with a far more determined and radical agenda, who would like to see the end of the regime established in 1979. But no credible, organized revolutionary leadership with a clear program for toppling the regime can yet be identified from within the broad mass of this movement.

THE SECOND “movement” exists within the regime itself. This is the trend whose most visible representative is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The coalition of hard-line conservative political associations which produced Ahmadinejad, along with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, have been steadily advancing in the institutions of the Islamic Republic over the last half-decade.

Unlike their opponents in the Green movement, this group has a clear and unifying set of ideas and goals. Their aim is a “second Islamic revolution,” which will revive the original fire of 1979. What they are aiming at is the replacement of clerical rule with a streamlined, brutal police-security state, under the banner of Islam. This state will be committed to a goal of building regional hegemony — through possession of a nuclear option and the backing of radical and terrorist movements.

This year has been mixed for the Iranian hard-line conservatives. On the one hand, the electoral “victory” of Ahmadinejad and the subsequent backing given to him by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei represented their biggest advance yet. Ahmadinejad later reinforced his victory by forming a cabinet packed with hard-line conservatives and Revolutionary Guardsmen. This cabinet is currently administering Iran.

There were gains further afield, too. The closest regional allies of the hard-line conservatives — Hizbullah — have become the effective governing force in Lebanon. Iran’s Palestinian clients, Hamas, are maintaining power in Gaza, as well.

But on the other hand, 2009 is also the year in which the limitations of the hard-liners and their ideas became apparent…

— Hat tip: Barry Rubin

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The New Al-Qaeda Chiefs Bringing Terror to the World

Former Guantanamo prisoners have moved to Yemen to rejoin the fight against the West, says our correspondent

A large proportion of the population are, by western standards, drug addicts. A World Bank report in 2007 suggested that nearly three-quarters of Yemeni men and a third of women chew khat, a leaf that has an effect similar to amphetamines. This adds to the instability.

Into this morass has waded Al-Qaeda. Of particular concern to western intelligence agencies is the composition of the group’s leadership in Yemen.

Said Ali al-Shihri, a Saudi national, spent six years as prisoner number 372 at the US-run Guantanamo detention centre in Cuba after being captured on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in December 2001.

— Hat tip: JD

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The OIC General Secretariat Condemns the Reported Attempt on the Life of Danish Cartoonist

A spokesman of the General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah condemned and expressed concern on the reported attempt on the life of the Danish cartoonist, who drawn the offensive and derogatory cartoons of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in 2005.

The OIC spokesperson stated that if the alleged attempt on the life of the Danish cartoonist is proven to have been committed as a reaction to the infamous cartoons of 2005, then it should be rejected and condemned by all Muslims unequivocally as it runs totally against the teachings and values of Islam.

— Hat tip: TB

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Turkey Has 9 Billion USD Trade Volume With UAE, Says Minister

(ANSAmed) — ABU DHABI, DECEMBER 30 — Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan said on Tuesday that there was 9 billion USD trade volume between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In an interview with the Anatolia news agency, Caglayan said UAE was a very important trade partner of Turkey and ranked the third in Turkey’s exports in 2008. “35 Turkish companies undertook 77 projects worth of 6.2 billion USD in the UAE and concluded some of them. There is a serious drop in Turkey’s foreign trade after global crisis. There is drop in Turkey’s iron and steel exports to the region as constructions particularly in this region slowed down,” he said. “The target of my visit was to communicate a message of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to Abu Dhabi’s Emir Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The message reaffirmed that Turkish industrialists, entrepreneurs and exporters would continue to work with businessmen of Abu Dhabi and that the investments would continue” he said. Caglayan said UAE’s investments in Turkey amounted to 5 billion USD, and noted that around 90 companies were acting in the UAE. Turkish companies mainly act in areas of jewellery, food, furniture, construction as well as ready-wear.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Turkey: Soldiers Suspected of Plotting Against Govt Released

(ANSA) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 30 — The eight Turkish soldiers arrested over the last few days for an alleged anti-governmental plot calling for the assassination of deputy premier Bulent Arinc have all been released without having been charged, according to the state new agency Anadolu. The prosecutor’s office had requested that three of them be held in custody while awaiting trial but the court in charge of the case instead opted to release them. The other five had already been released on the proposal of the prosecutor’s office shortly before. The arrests have fostered speculation on the growing tension between the pro-Islamic party under Premier Tayyip Erdogan and the armed forces, which in Turkey are considered protectors of the constitution.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Yemen: ‘You’re Foreign and Should Go to Hell’

My guide, a young Yemeni, was showing me the spice market when an old man growled something. “He said you are foreign and should go to Hell,” my companion, keen to practise his language skills, translated. Later, another young man said something to my friend, and then hit him. I and another Yemeni man stepped in and pulled the two apart.

My companion said that the attacker had told him not to associate with foreigners and asked him for his identity card. My friend answered back and a fight instantly erupted. “It happens a lot,” the guide said. “People tell me not to be seen with foreigners, that they are non-Muslims and support America. That’s why I want to leave Yemen.”

It is not a sentiment that tour guides translate for the small groups of travellers still lured to Yemen’s natural beauty despite the risk of terrorist attacks. They do not want to see the last trickle of foreigners dry up.

— Hat tip: JD

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Death Row Briton: I Was Tortured for Two Weeks Before Signing Murder Confession in Language I Can’t Speak

[Comments from JD: WARNING: Disturbing descriptions.]

A Briton who has spent more than five years facing execution in Pakistan has told of his ordeal for the first time, describing how days of brutal torture forced him to confess to murdering two men he says he barely knew.

Naheem Hussain, 24, spoke exclusively to The Mail on Sunday from the grim cell he shares with 39 others in Mirpur in Pakistani Kashmir.

‘My torture lasted two weeks,’ he said. ‘Finally, I signed a confession written in Urdu — a language I can’t read or write. They told me it was the paper I had to sign to get released.

‘I’d seen the men I was supposed to have killed but never spoken to them, yet now I could be hanged. I miss my England so much. I wish you could take me home with you.’

Case files show that after Naheem and his cousin and co-accused Rehan Zaman, 25, both from Birmingham, confessed, police took them to a graveyard and told them to point to a spot, where officers then dug up two guns they said were the murder weapons. A police ballistics analysis has confirmed they do not match the bullets used.

[…]

He had gone back to the family’s ancestral home in Ratta, a village near Mirpur, to marry a local girl named Fauzia in 2003. When he returned to Birmingham, she stayed in Pakistan, waiting for her UK visa. Eight months later, he visited Ratta with his parents, to bring his bride back to Britain.

‘It was June 22, 2004,’ said Naheem. ‘We heard that Mohammed Majid [a distant cousin by marriage] and his son Shahed had been shot by masked men.’

Police arrested Naheem, his father Fazal, 53, and Rehan, claiming that although the killers wore masks, they had been recognised.

‘They put me in this filthy room,’ said Naheem. ‘This inspector hits me in the face and he goes, “You done the murders.” They tied me to a chair and were hitting me on the head, my legs and my back. Then they got me on the floor and started kicking me and burning my arms with cigarettes.’

In the adjoining room, Fazal could hear his son being tortured. ‘I heard his screams,’ he said. ‘When they let me see him, he was bleeding from his arms, legs and mouth.

‘The next day, they tied Naheem to a chair in front of me. They put more rope round his legs, put sticks through the loops and twisted it to cut off the circulation and crush his muscles. It was the most terrible thing I shall ever see. He was in agony.’

Afterwards, Naheem said, they tortured Fazal in front of him, beating him on the soles of his feet. Meanwhile, Rehan was receiving similar treatment.

Days before Naheem and Rehan signed their confessions, Fazal said, the family contacted the British High Commission, pleading in vain for help. According to Naheem, a British official even phoned him saying there was nothing he could do.

— Hat tip: JD

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Malaysia to Appeal ‘Allah’ Ruling: Minister

Malaysia’s minister in charge of Muslim affairs has said the government will appeal a court ruling allowing a Catholic paper the right to use the word “Allah”.

Malaysia’s high court ruled last week the Herald weekly had the right to use the word “Allah” after a long-running dispute between the government and the newspaper in the Muslim-majority nation.

The paper has been using the word as a translation for “God” in its Malay-language section, but the government argued the word should be used only by Muslims.

Jamil Khir Johari said the country’s national fatwa council had ruled in May 2008 that “Allah” could only be used by Muslims in Malaysia, state news agency Bernama reported late Saturday.

“It is important for Muslims here to guard the use of the word and if there is any attempt to insult or misuse the word we must take all legal action as allowed under the federal constitution,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Premier Najib Razak urged people to remain calm, saying he was concerned about reactions to the court decision.

“The issue is very sensitive and touches on the feelings of Muslims, we need to be calm now and let the matter be resolved through the courts,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama Sunday.

Meanwhile the Herald’s website was hacked at the weekend, causing the site to shut down, editor Father Lawrence Andrew told AFP.

“Our website was attacked by hackers and was shut down and we suspect it was done by those unhappy with the present situation,” he said, while declining to comment on the government’s plan to appeal.

The court ruled on Thursday the Catholic paper had the “constitutional right” to use the word “Allah”, declaring the government’s ban on the word “illegal, null and void”.

Muslim groups have said they plan to protest the ruling.

Universiti Teknologi MARA political analyst Shahruddin Badaruddin said the main issue among Muslims was the fear that the use of the word by non-Muslims would inflame religious tensions.

“It is all about the fear that allowing use of the word will make it easier for Christians to convert the local population,” he told AFP.

Former premier Mahathir Mohamad said the use of the term had to be governed strictly but that Muslims would still be angry over the ruling, according to the New Straits Times.

The Herald is printed in four languages, with a circulation of 14,000 a week in a country with about 850,000 Catholics.

— Hat tip: TB

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Concern as China Clams Down on Rare Earth Exports

Neodymium is one of 17 metals crucial to green technology. There’s only one snag — China produces 97% of the world’s supply. And they’re not selling

China, whose mines account for 97 per cent of global supplies, is trying to ensure that all raw REE materials are processed within its borders. During the past seven years it has reduced by 40 per cent the amount of rare earths available for export.

— Hat tip: JD

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NZ’s Cyber Spies Win New Powers

New cyber-monitoring measures have been quietly introduced giving police and Security Intelligence Service officers the power to monitor all aspects of someone’s online life.

The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand.

In preparation, technicians have been installing specialist spying devices and software inside all telephone exchanges, internet companies and even fibre-optic data networks between cities and towns, providing police and spy agencies with the capability to monitor almost all communications.

— Hat tip: JD

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Preacher of Hate Booted Out of Britain is Picked Up in Kenya

A preacher of hate who was booted out of Britain has been arrested by anti-terror police in Kenya.

Abdullah el-Faisal, 45, was seized on New Year’s Eve after speaking at a Mombasa mosque.

The fanatical Muslim cleric was jailed for nine years in Britain in 2003 after being convicted of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans.

He had his sentence cut to seven years on appeal and became eligible for parole after serving half his term.

He was deported to his native Jamaica immediately after being released from prison in 2007.

Police in Kenya said El-Faisal had violated the terms of his tourist visa by preaching in mosques. He was arrested for allegedly breaching immigration regulations.

An Islamic human rights group blasted the move last night.

‘This is curtailing Sheikh Faisal’s freedoms of expression and association in a very discriminative manner that is totally unacceptable,’ said Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of the Muslim Human Rights Forum.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bombardment Kills at Least 18 Colombian Rebels

At least 18 Colombian FARC rebels were killed early yesterday when the country’s air force bombed a southern jungle camp where dozens of guerrillas were clandestinely celebrating the new year, officials said.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Jobs for Illegals at Home Office as Dozens of NHS and Public Bodies Ignore Immigration Laws

Illegal immigrants have been working at some of the most sensitive Government offices in the country — including the headquarters of the UK Border Agency — a Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered.

Following our enquiries, the Home Office admitted employing a dozen illegal foreign staff over the past four years — 11 Nigerians and a Ghanaian.

Ten of them secured cleaning jobs at Becket House, the headquarters of the UK Border Agency, which vets immigrants. The building in Croydon, South London, also serves as an immigration detention centre, holding up to 270 people awaiting deportation.

Two other illegal immigrants worked at the Whitehall headquarters of the Home Office, which houses the office of Home Secretary Alan Johnson. One was a chef in the canteen, while the other worked as a security guard on the front door for 19 months.

The Home Office headquarters is regarded as one of Britain’s most high-profile terrorist targets and receives round-the-clock police protection.

Eight of the 12 have since been deported, three are detained pending appeals and one was later granted leave to remain in the country.

The embarrassing disclosures come despite repeated pledges by Labour to crack down on illegal immigration.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: The Two-Faced Truth About Immigration

New Labour has two separate immigration policies. The first is the one it endlessly proclaims to the public — of supposedly tough restrictions, raids on employers of illegal workers, expulsions of those with no right to stay here.

The second is the real one, unwisely disclosed a few weeks ago by the former Blairite functionary Andrew Neather. This is that mass immigration is an important part of the cultural revolution in which Britain is being dissolved into a new and different country.

— Hat tip: JD

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USA: Another Liberal State Set to Crash

Arizona hosts enormous illegal immigrant population

Today’s feature article by Dave Levine relates to Arizona’s imminent crash.

It is so sad to see state after state unable to pay its bills. And yet, as the article Dave links to points out, the people of Arizona voted for programs they can’t pay for, and these programs are entitlements which are not optional.

For those who don’t know why this is happening, you need to bring yourself up to speed on the radical Cloward-Priven strategy, which aims to force Marxist change by killing capitalism with crises, creating demands that can no longer be met, forcing societal collapse.

This has been the Democrats’ underlying strategy for years, but Obama has brought it on in spades, doubling the national debt in just a few months after his election, making us beholden to China, an enemy of our way of life.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Behind the Culture of Terrorism Denial

The ideological left view Islamic terrorism as a misguided protest movement against global poverty and imperialism that they can accompany as fellow travelers on the red brick road to a socialist utopia. Accordingly the ideological left is one of the most fervent traffickers in terrorism denial, insisting that the real fault lies with the imperialist countries that the terrorists have targeted. This sort of reasoning is not particularly new to the left, which in the early days of WW2 supported both Hitler and Tojo on the grounds that they were victims of Allied Imperialism. When German tanks invaded the USSR, the left suddenly switched sides, and the anti-war protests became pro-war protests, but the stench left behind of the willingness of the red and yellow to collaborate with the red and black, should be adequate reminder that the left will ally even with the most unlikely of bedfellows in the hopes of fulfilling their revolutionary fantasies of a Marxist world order.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Fides: 37 Catholic Missionaries Killed in 2009

(AGI) — Vatican City, 31 Dec. 37 Roman Catholic missionaries got killed in 2009, the highest figure in the past ten years, as indicated in the yearly report by Fides, a Vatican agency.

The report denounces the violent deaths of pastoral workers and namely 30 priests, 3 nuns, 2 seminarists and 3 lay volounteers of 16 different nationalities. It is almost a two-fold increase compared to last year’s figure. In the Americas 23 operators were killed — 6 in Brasil and in Colombia respectively. 11 got killed in Africa of whom 4 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in South Africa; 2 in Asia and a priest in Europe.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

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Calling 112

Our expatriate Dutch correspondent just sent us this joke. He says, “The sad thing is, this is not a joke at all in Holland…”

Note: “112” is the Dutch equivalent of “911” in the USA or “999” in the UK.


Calling 112

In the middle of the night a man calls the police emergency number: “Please, send a patrol car! There are two guys breaking into my garden shed!”

The police reply: “Sorry, sir. It’s 3 AM. We have only one patrol car available, doing a speed control on the other side of town. I recommend you do nothing. Remain in your home, and tomorrow you can file a complaint.”

The man thanks the police officer for his advice and hangs up the phone.

Ten minutes later he calls again: “Hi, remember I called you earlier about a burglary in my garden shed? Those burglars tried to enter my kitchen. Each was armed with a knife. I smashed their skulls with a golf club. One is dead; the other one is still alive. Can you send an ambulance?”

Within two minutes a helicopter is hovering over the house. A SWAT team is entering the house. The riot police are present with a full platoon and have locked down the street. The ambulances are arriving, and so are the mayor, the district attorney, and the chief of police.

They arrest the highly surprised burglars in the garden shed. Nobody is hurt. Nobody is dead.

The chief of police shouts furiously to the man: “I thought I would find two burglars with smashed skulls here!!”

The man replies:
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“I thought you had only one patrol car doing a speed control!”

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What Danish Politicians Say About Kurt Westergaard

Our Danish correspondent TB has compiled a report on the political reaction to the attempted murder of Kurt Westergaard, based on his translations of official responses by all the major Danish political parties.


What Danish Politicians Say About Kurt Westergaard
by TB

Below are translations of the reactions from the leaders and spokesmen from all Danish political parties after the attack on Kurt Westergaard.

Why did I bother translating all these political statements? Aren’t they only empty expressions from the persons who deserted us in the first place? I think so! Except for the Danish People’s Party, of course — they were right all the time, and they still are.

What is important here is not the complete condemnation, the total support of Kurt Westergaard, and the perfect unity from the whole political palette, even Radikale Venstre (who are, more than anyone, responsible for the mess we are in) and the Communists. What’s important is that these statements are an indirect symptom of the fact that our politicians now know that it would be the end of their careers if they did not back up Kurt Westergaard. These statements do not say much about the politicians, but they say a lot about the sentiments and views of the Danish population in general.

These politicians’ statements show that the name “Kurt Westergaard” now constitutes a “winner-case”. If you want power in Denmark, you have to be on the side of Kurt Westergaard. Kurt Westergaard is Denmark, and Denmark is Kurt Westergaard.

When reading through all the press releases I suddenly remembered an old saying: “Listen to what he says, and then watch what he does”. This is what they said. I can’t wait to see what they are going to do!

First the ruling party, Venstre, from Berlingske Tidende:

PM L. L. Rasmussen: Despicable Assault

The attack on Kurt Westergaard is not only an attack on the cartoonist but also an attack on the Danish democracy and the open society, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (V) states.

“The attack which Kurt Westergaard and his family have been exposed to is despicable, and I reject in the most comprehensive way this attack against human life and security rooted in extremism. It is not only an attack on Kurt Westergaard but also an attack on our open society and democracy. It is good that the Danish society together sharply distances itself from the attack,” Lars Løkke says in a press release.

On Saturday the PM himself called the cartoonist to express his sympathy following the attempt by the 28-year-old Somali to enter the cartoonist’s home to kill him. According to the PET, the man is part of a larger terrorist network, which the PET has kept under surveillance for a long time.

The perpetrator was imprisoned for four weeks and charged with attempted homicide.

And from the Venstre website:

P. Christensen: Incomprehensible that Denmark houses terrorist suspects

Political spokesman Peter Christensen, is shocked by the murder attempt on Kurt Westergaard in his own home.

“I send my warmest thoughts to Kurt Westergaard and his family, who experienced a true nightmare yesterday. This is the second time that they have tried to kill him, and it is scary and grotesque that Kurt Westergaard since publishing his cartoon has lived as a de facto hostage in his own home because of these fundamentalist men of violence,” says Peter Christensen.

By these terrifying events we experience once more that the terrorist threat in Denmark is real. Al Qaeda and their partners have not only focused on Denmark — we know that they are actually working in our country.

The arrested man, according to PET information, has close ties to the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda leaders in East Africa. He is also suspected of having been involved with terrorist activities. Such persons should not be allowed to have a permit to stay in the country, Peter Christensen states.

“It is completely incomprehensible that Denmark houses terrorist suspects and even gives asylum to some of them. If PET can prove that citizens or asylum-seekers are involved in terrorist activities, it should be followed up with charges, deportations, or administrative deportations,” says Peter Christensen who is satisfied with the police and PET since they reacted quickly and effectively, thereby saving Kurt Westergaard’s life.

“The government’s strengthening of the police and PET have once again shown its value,” he states, and underlines that it is completely unacceptable that one can be threatened just for exercising the right to express oneself — and that attempted murder because of political statements is terrorism and should be punished as such.

Next, the Social Democrats, from the party’s website:
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Helle Thorning-Schmidt: Denmark stands behind Kurt Westergaard

The leader of the Social Democrats, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, expresses her sympathy to Kurt Westergaard.

“It is a monstrous attack that Kurt Westergaard and his family have been exposed to in his own home. I would like to send a warm greeting to him and his family.”

“The cold-blooded assassination attempt against Kurt Westergaard is an attack on Danish society. We will not accept that Islamic fanatics think that they, by the use of threats, can subdue freedom of speech. The whole of Denmark stands behind Kurt Westergaard. All democratic forces must reject the terrorist attack completely.

“It is important that the police and PET have the greatest possible support. The attack on Kurt Westergaard shows that the terror threat against Denmark cannot be taken too seriously.”

From the Conservative Party’s website:

Naser Khader: Today we are all Kurt Westergaard

“Today we are all Kurt Westergaard,” says integration spokesman Naser Khader in a comment on the attempted murder of the cartoonist in Århus last night.

“It is completely unacceptable that Danish citizens are being attacked by fanatical Muslim who demand revenge because of a drawing. It is worrisome that the terrorist managed to get into the house, and PET must look more closely at Westergaard’s security. Luckily the police were there quickly — and for that they deserve credit,” says Naser Khader.

“In Denmark one should be able to live safely whether you have drawn a picture of Muhammad or not. Our most important mission is the security Danish citizens in Denmark. That is why we now have to investigate whether it has become too easy for potential assassins to operate in this country,” says Naser Khader.

He underlines that he does not know the background of the attacker, but that he expects a thorough investigation of the man, his network, and all of the reasons for his being in Denmark. If it turns out that he is connected to the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabab, the Conservatives will demand that the group be put on the international terrorist list.

The Socialists, as reported on TV2:

Villy Søvndal: The perpetrator is ‘retarded’

It is completely insane that we have these kinds of retarded people in the world who think they can intimidate and terrorize their way to their goal.

This is what Villy Søvndal says in a comment on the attempted killing of the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in his house on Friday night..

“It is crucial that this be met with nothing but condemnation in as strong a formulation as possible, and that we stand unified in Denmark, and say no: nobody should come here and threaten us about what to write or draw or think in this country,” says Villy Søvndal, who also express his sympathy with Kurt Westergaard.

Enhedslisten [The Communists], from their website:

Line Barfod: Attack on Kurt Westergaard is unacceptable

“It is unacceptable and scary that Kurt Westergaard has been attacked in his own home,” says political spokesman Line Barfod from Enhedslisten [the Communists]. Enhedslisten demands an investigation from the minister of justice to evaluate the security around Kurt Westergaard.

“Nothing can justify attempted murder, threats or violence. It is a completely unacceptable event which Kurt Westergaard and his family have been exposed to,” Line Barfod states.

Enhedslisten wants an investigation by Brian Mikkelsen, the Minister of Justice, to reveal how the attacker was able to get into the house. “It looks like security around Kurt Westergaard was not good enough. Especially since the arrested man was already under surveillance by the PET,” says Line Barfod.

Radikale Venstre (perhaps the guiltiest of all political parties in our parliament for the mess we are now in):

Margrethe Vestager: An attack on democracy and all of us

“The attempted assassination of Kurt Westergaard is an attack on our free society. I am furious that anyone would try to do such a thing. We do not want anything to do with this in our country. We can and will not accept it under any circumstances. Denmark is a free country. We have freedom of speech and no one can change that,” says the leader of Radikale Venstre, Margrethe Vestager.

“Radikale Venstre condemns the attack in the strongest of terms, and our thoughts go out to Kurt Westergaard and his family, who tonight and earlier have gone through things no one should be put through. Especially not in a free democracy.

“I am glad that it was not any worse, although the shock from being attacked must be bad enough,” says Margrethe Vestager.

Last but not least, the Danish People’s Party, from the party’s website:

Pia Kjærsgaard: DPP demands general review

The leader of DPP, Pia Kjærsgaard, demands a complete investigation to reveal exactly how many terror-related Islamists reside in Denmark, in the wake of the scary attack on the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Pia Kjærsgaard demands further possibilities for deportations of Islamists connected to terror organizations, and that the existing capabilities to be used to their greatest extent.

“The attack on Kurt Westergaard is very scary, and serves as a brutal reminder about how the naïve immigration politics of earlier days has brought the consequence that we now have a group of people in this country who are prepared to use violence to crush democracy. Therefore we have to make it much easier to deport terrorists and their sympathizers,” says Pia Kjærsgaard.

“The PET apparently knows why the attacker of Kurt Westergaard is likely to be a terrorist sympathizer. Therefore I will demand a general review of the overall numbers of these Islamists in Denmark, and at the same time I will ask the Minister of Integration to reveal what opportunities we have to deport known terrorists to their countries of origin, and on top of that I will ask her to broaden these opportunities,” says Pia Kjærsgaard.

“Already before last night’s attack on Kurt Westergaard we had a Tunisian man in the country who is charged with attempting the same kind of attack. It now has to be to completely clear to everyone that we cannot accept having terror-related Islamists living in this country. It has to be far easier than it is today to deport these people as soon as the authorities detect any kind of affiliation with terrorist organizations,” Pia Kjærsgaard says.

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“Demography is Unavoidable”

This video is part of an interview with Oskar Freysinger, the man behind the Swiss minaret referendum. Here he discusses Muslim demography as well as his appearance on Al Jazeera TV:


Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for Youtubing this.

[Nothing follows]

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Do the Palestinian People Exist?

UPDATE: Our European correspondent Lexington suggested that we include this quote, which will serve as an appropriate preface for the entire post:

On March 31, 1977 in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, in an interview with PLO executive committee member, Zahir Muhsein said:

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, ‘Palestinians’, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.”

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article from Xander Nieuws concerning the unusual opinions of an Italian Muslim leader about the nation of Israel and the Palestinians:

Muslim Sheikh: “Jews are entitled to all of Israel”

“Italian Muslim leader says Palestinian people does not exist”


[Photo caption: Last month there were many protests against the halt as decreed by the government of Netanyahu in construction of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.]

Just as there is a small group of Jews that oppose Israel, there are — mostly literate — Muslims who are very pro-Israel. Professor Sheikh Adbul Hadi Palazzi is the leader of the Italian Muslim community and declared this week during his visit to Jerusalem that the Jews are entitled to all of Israel and the Palestinians not only have nothing to look for there, but as a people do not even exist.

Palazzi was in Jerusalem for an interview with Aryeh King, activist, director and founder of the Israel Land Fund organization. The location where two gentlemen met, the Intercontinental Seven Arches Hotel in East Jerusalem, was not chosen at random: in the same hotel the Palestinian terrorist PLO was founded, and there it was declared that the Palestinians would not rest until every Jew had been driven in the Mediterranean Sea.

King: “If people would understand this, they would know that it’s not at all about the “Green Line” (pre-1967 border) or about Hebron, Jericho or East Jerusalem. The struggle is about all of Israel, including Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashdod. Unfortunately, there are many leaders, including Israeli, who do not understand this. Fortunately, there are also leaders such as Abdul Hadi Palazzi, who do understand this, and recognize the importance of Jerusalem (for the Jews) as the fact that here, at the site of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, the Temple of Solomon once stood.”

The Italian Muslim Community, the organization Sheikh Palazzi is leader of, has committed itself to a positive attitude by Muslims towards the Jews in Israel, and is basing itself thereby on authentic Islamic sources. According to him Israel should just continue to build Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (West of the river Jordan, also called “West Bank”), particularly while there are no negotiations with the Palestinians taking place.

“The Government of Israel must be brave,” according to Palazzi. “They should say to be ready for negotiations, but as long as the Palestinians reject recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, these negotiations are pointless.”

- - - - - - - - -

“Until now, the Palestinian Authority have thought that time works to their advantage. They receive a lot, but in the meanwhile do nothing at all. Their leaders will be paid by the international community anyway, but that money is only used to strengthen their own position. But only when they understand that as long as they do not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, time will not work in their advantage because there are no negotiations taking place, a change may occur.”

Palazzi is strongly opposed to the building freeze in settlements as announced by the Netanyahu government. “As long as there are no negotiations this is seen as a sign of weakness. Yes, the European Union and President Obama will protest if the building activities continue, but what can they do against it? Nothing! Therefore, the Israeli people should just grow in all areas, so as to show that negotiations are not intended to paralyze one party.”

“The Jews have the right to all of Israel as their own country. The completely wrong starting point of the (previous) negotiations was the avowed support for the Palestinian claim (to their own state). During the British Mandate, the area was divided into two countries: Jordan and Israel, with the river Jordan as a border. The world must accept that Israel won the Six Day War (1967) and conquered the region up to the Jordan [that had been illegally conquered and occupied by Jordan up until then]. The Jordanians who lived there should be able to remain, provided they accept their status as foreign residents on Israeli territory, as is usual in any other country. The claim that they now want to establish a state on Israeli territory should therefore not be accepted.”

Palazzi adds that the Palestinians as a people have never existed, and therefore have no rights at all to any part of Israel whatsoever. “The PLO did not represent a state and was no political authority. Most leaders of the PLO were from the elsewhere in the region, Arafat for example was an Egyptian, Faizal Husseini (Arafat’s chief assistant) was from Iraq. The biggest mistake, therefore, has been that these people were recognized as representatives of the local Arab population. Moreover, the Arabs who lived there initially refused to accept them as their leaders, but continued to view themselves more as Jordanians — and thus not Palestinians.”

However, “During ‘Oslo’ [the peace agreement in 1993] this was entirely changed; all Arab countries were afraid to speak out against the PLO. That is why the situation after ‘Oslo’ only got worse, both for Israel and the Arab population.”

According to Palazzi, there are more and more Muslims who silently agree with him. This, according to him, is among other reasons partly due to the repeated threats of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to destroy Israel. As proof of this he mentions the demonstration at the Iranian embassy in Rome, which was called for by his organization, where another Muslim organization also joined them. “There are many Muslim leaders in Rome who have fled the extremist situation in their home countries. Therefore they consider the threat they faced in those countries as the same as threat that Israel is now undergoing. “

See the video here.

VH adds that the video features:

• Aryeh King, Director and Founder of the Israel Land Fund
  
• Professor Sheikh Adbul Hadi Palazzi, the leader of the Italian Muslim community and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship
  
• Professor Rabbi Hillel Weiss, of the Nascent Sanhedrin organization

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Defying the Mujahideen

Our Danish correspondent TB reports:

On the front page of the liberal internet newspaper 180grader.dk (it has no print edition) the Turban Bomb cartoon is now posted (on the right) with the text:

Jo mere I angriber Kurt Westergaard, jo mere viser vi tegningen

“The more you attack Kurt Westergaard, the more we will print the cartoon”

[Post ends here]

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/2/2010

The news about the Knickerbomber (I just picked that word up from the Telegraph, and I really like it) keeps pouring in. Barack Obama and his aides are sidestepping and backtracking and dodging in an attempt to avoid political damage, but their chances of success grow slimmer every day. The bomber had accomplices. Obama was briefed about underwear bombs back in October. The government had been warned that there would be a Christmas attack. Yes, there was another suspect arrested and handcuffed in Detroit after the plane landed. And on and on and on.

In other news, the Australian government has begun a national ad campaign promoting the idea that having a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is nothing to be ashamed of.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, findalis, Insubria, JD, Nilk, Sean O’Brian, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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	Financial Crisis
	China is Facing a Rising Economic Crisis of Non-Emerging Consumers
	USA
	Barack Obama is Vulnerable on Terror — And He Knows it
	Ben Nelson to Henry McMaster: ‘Call Off the Dogs’
	Clues Left by Fort Hood Suspect Raise Haunting Question: Should Army Have Seen it Coming?
	He Knew. Obama Warned About Terror Threat to Homeland Before His Golf & Snorkeling Getaway …
	Interpol, In Your Midst
	Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients
	Saudi, Norway Gov’ts Give to Clinton
	White House Adviser Briefed in October on Underwear Bomb Technique
	Europe and the EU
	“Youths” Torch 1,137 Cars in France This New Year’s Eve
	Axe-Wielding Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Breaking Into Home of Danish ‘Mohammed’ Cartoonist
	Diana West: Kurt Westergaard Can’t Stop Sharia Alone
	Italy: Ex Lazio Governor to be Quizzed Again After New Transsexual Claims
	Italy: Child of African Immigrants Named ‘Mayor’ In North
	Sweden: No Suspects in Attack Against Malmö Mosque
	Sweden: Taking Naked Pictures of Sleeping Teen Not a Crime: Court
	Swiss Army Could Miss Ammunition-Recall Target
	UK: ‘Healthy’ Girl, 15, Died From Series of Heart Attacks After Being Sent Home From Hospital With ‘Flu’
	UK: £15 Extra Tax on Car Fines: Now Drivers Face Hefty Surcharge to Compensate Victims of Violent Crime
	UK: Islamic Group Plans Wootton March
	UK: Lynda La Plante Attacks BBC, Saying Corporation Would Take a Muslim Boy’s Script Over Hers
	UK: Outrage Over Controversial Islamic Group’s Plan to March Through Wootton Bassett
	UK: Outrage as Muslim Extremists Hijack War Heroes’ Town Wootton Bassett
	Israel and the Palestinians
	Fatah Claims US Promised to Force Israeli Surrender
	Swiss Social Workers Support Struggling Palestinians
	Middle East
	Ayers, Dohrn Stir Chaos in Middle East
	Intel Forecast: Regime Change in Iran
	Iran Gives West “Ultimatum” On Uranium Swap
	Iran Interferes With German News Satellite
	Iraq: More Attacks Against Christians in Mosul
	Saudis Warned Top Obama Officials About Underwear Bombs in October
	South Asia
	CIA Resolved to Avenge Agents’ Deaths
	Indonesia’s Religious Police on Hemline Frontline
	Pakistan: Death Toll From Suicide Attack Against Volleyball Match Rises to 105
	Far East
	Nepal — China: Nepal Changes Position: Tibet is Part of China, An End to Protests
	Philippines — Islam: Filipino Migrant in Saudi Arabia: Exploited and Mocked for Her Faith
	Australia — Pacific
	STIs Nothing to be Ashamed of: Campaign
	Sub-Saharan Africa
	Pirates Seize Second UK-Flagged Vessel in Days
	Somali Pirates Seize Indonesian Chemical Tanker
	Immigration
	Number of Illegal Migrants Arriving in Spain Falls
	Culture Wars
	Manslaughter With a Twist

China is Facing a Rising Economic Crisis of Non-Emerging Consumers

BEIJING — Contrary to what many Chinese columnists say, the real challenge facing the economy is not how to make consumers spend more, but how to make consumers in the first place. With the government’s US$586-billion stimulus package gradually running out — it was announced more than one year ago — there will have to be new, alternative forces to drive the economy’s continuous growth, even though Beijing has promised to pump more funds into the economy next year.

The economy would have looked healthier had it depended more on consumer spending, or what economists call consumption, rather than on government-led investment in public projects. Even Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledged this in his interview with the Xinhua News Agency last week.

But low consumption (low in terms of its share in total GDP) has been a chronic symptom of this economy. Recognizing it is easy. But treating it is hard. And until now, China hasn’t found the magic pill.

Economists say that from 2003 to 2008, as investment contributed an average 42-plus percent of GDP, consumption’s share was not more than 38 percent, with the rest of the economy being driven by exports. In contrast, in most developed economies, the share of consumption is usually about 70 percent, if not more.

This year’s figures, which are yet to be released, are likely to show an even smaller percentage of consumption, considering Beijing’s huge stimulus spending.

There are several reasons for the slow progress of consumption. The most salient one is the slow increase, if at all, in individual income. A rather stern fact is that despite the world record growth rate in GDP, the share of household income in the nation’s total has actually declined, from 62.1 percent in 2002 to 57.1 percent in 2006.

Economists say that over a longer span of time (1991-2006), when GDP grew at an average 10.2 percent a year, urban per capita disposable income grew only 7.9 percent, and rural per capita net income rose at a meager 4.9 percent.

Presumably, much of the newly generated wealth was collected by the government and used on — apart from paying staff salaries and erecting new office buildings — the many public projects that can be seen everywhere, from the longest cross-sea bridge and the fastest railway to the tallest building.

But just like it has been reported about the new Wuhan-Guangzhou fast trains, the low household income could be holding back many potential passengers from using the ultra-modern, (up to) 390 km/hour trains. How can we expect people to pay 700 yuan for traveling first class and 500 yuan for second class when their average income is still low?

One has reason to fear that China may end up as an emerging market economy without emerging consumers if no effective efforts are made to balance such a lop-sided development model and if the government keeps pouring in money into one expensive public project after another while consumers do not have enough money to pay for new products and services. That would be a truly deplorable situation.

Admittedly, there is nothing wrong with the government leading all the key civil projects and social programs, just like there is nothing wrong for it to tax people one way or the other to raise funds in order to modernize various public services.

But those things should not be done single-handedly by just one or a few government agencies. Planning officials will have to ask themselves who will be their future users and how will they be able to afford them. They had better make sure that all the new facilities match up with people’s spending power and the freedom for a great number of private companies to provide a variety of small but necessary value-added services.

Soon enough, but after trillions of yuan have been spent on domestic building projects, the government will come to face the real challenge: of making consumers out of its people instead of making the longest, fastest and tallest things.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Barack Obama is Vulnerable on Terror — And He Knows it

In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Barack Obama patted himself on the back for having “refocused the fight — bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks”.

He then told people to remember that “our adversaries are those who would attack our country, not our fellow Americans”, before decrying “fear and cynicism” and “partisanship and division” — the code phrases for horrid Republicans used during his 2008 election campaign.

Complacency, faux moralising and partisan shots at Republicans. It was a neat summary of where Obama is going wrong after the Christmas Day debacle when the Nigerian knicker bomber managed to waltz onto a Detroit-bound flight.

For a man who campaigned denouncing the politicisation of national security under President George W Bush, it is worth noting how intensely political Obama’s treatment of what might henceforth be known as Underpantsgate has been.

His White House recognised its political vulnerability more readily than it comprehended the level of danger faced by Americans.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

[Return to headlines]

Ben Nelson to Henry McMaster: ‘Call Off the Dogs’

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) reached out Thursday evening to South Carolina GOP Attorney General Henry McMaster, the leader of a group of 13 Republican state attorneys general who are threatening to file suit against the Senate health care bill, and urged him to forgo any legal action, POLITICO has learned.

According to a copy of a memo sent by McMaster’s chief of staff to other GOP state attorneys general detailing the call, Nelson asked McMaster to “call off the dogs,” a reference to recent threats by the state AGs to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Medicaid provision in the bill that benefits Nebraska at the expense of other states.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Clues Left by Fort Hood Suspect Raise Haunting Question: Should Army Have Seen it Coming?

Nidal Malik Hasan was causing a ruckus in his one-bedroom apartment during the early hours of Nov. 5, banging against the thin walls long after midnight, packing boxes and shredding papers until he woke up the tenants next door.

Maybe that was a clue.

He picked up the phone at 2:37 a.m. and dialed a neighbor. Nobody answered. Hasan called again three hours later, this time leaving a message. “Nice knowing you, friend,” he said. “I’m moving on from here.”

Maybe that was a clue, too.

He left Apartment 9 early that morning and stopped next door to see a woman named Patricia Villa, whom he had known less than a month. He gave her a bag of frozen vegetables, some broccoli, a clothing steamer and an air mattress, explaining that he was about to be deployed to a war zone. Then Hasan visited another neighbor, a devout Christian, who looked at him quizzically when he handed her a copy of the Quran and recommended passages for her to read. “In my religion,” Hasan told her, “we’ll do anything to be closer to God.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

He Knew. Obama Warned About Terror Threat to Homeland Before His Golf & Snorkeling Getaway …

Update: Obama Finally Links Bomber to Al-Qaeda

If he was a Republican this would be the headline for the next 10 weeks… Obama was warned about the threats to the homeland in a Christmas briefing before he flew off to his golfing and snorkeling Hawaii holiday vacation.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Interpol, In Your Midst

In an earlier article on Interpol I said that this global organisation now has complete diplomatic immunity to act as it wishes on US soil. It will not be long before it gains similar concessions worldwide. The reason it gained US approval first is that Obama has already promised America to the UN. But, some have misconstrued the situation…

Interpol has no special officers of its own, apart from HQ managers. Interpol acts through local police departments, seconding local officers to do its work in that particular country. This is what will make Interpol’s interventions so secret! The police officer at your door will not be wearing an Interpol badge, but the badge of your own local police force. This is why I referred you to the activity of the SS, who similarly worked through local police officers in countries they invaded. Interpol, then, will be in your midst and you won’t know it! And they will be used to cover-up what Obama and government don’t want you to know about.

— Hat tip: JD

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Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

[…]

“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’“ said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. “If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it.”

Medicare Loss

The Mayo organization had 3,700 staff physicians and scientists and treated 526,000 patients in 2008. It lost $840 million last year on Medicare, the government’s health program for the disabled and those 65 and older, Mayo spokeswoman Lynn Closway said.

— Hat tip: JD

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Saudi, Norway Gov’ts Give to Clinton

WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign countries including Saudi Arabia and Norway gave millions of dollars to former President Bill Clinton’s charity as Hillary Rodham Clinton served her first year as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

A donor list released on New Year’s Day by the William J. Clinton Foundation shows that Saudi Arabia and Norway each donated somewhere between $10 million to $25 million to the former president’s charity.

The biggest donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave more than $25 million.

The Clintons agreed to annually disclose the names of donors to the former president’s foundation to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest between his fundraising abroad and his wife’s role in helping direct administration foreign policy.

— Hat tip: JD

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White House Adviser Briefed in October on Underwear Bomb Technique

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan was briefed in October on an assassination attempt by Al Qaeda that investigators now believe used the same underwear bombing technique as the Nigerian suspect who tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, U.S. intelligence and administration officials tell NEWSWEEK.

The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official. In late August, Nayef had survived an assassination attempt by an operative dispatched by the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda who was pretending to turn himself in. The operative had tried to kill the Saudi prince by detonating a bomb on his body, but stumbled on his way into the prince’s palace and blew himself up.

Saudi officials initially thought the bomb had been secreted in the operative’s anal cavity. But after investigating the matter more thoroughly, they concluded it had likely been sewn into his underwear, thereby allowing the operative to bypass security checks before his meeting with the prince. A main purpose of Nayef’s briefing for Brennan was to alert U.S. officials to the use of the underwear technique.

U.S. officials now suspect that Nayef’s attempted assassin and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect aboard the Northwest flight, had the same bomb maker in Yemen, intelligence experts tell NEWSWEEK. At the briefing for Brennan, Nayef was concerned because “he didn’t think [U.S. officials] were paying enough attention” to the growing threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen, said a former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the briefing. (A senior Saudi official told NEWSWEEK Saturday that “we don’t have any concerns that the U.S. government isn’t sufficiently concerned about Yemen. In the latter part of the Bush administration and in this administration, the U.S. has been very focused on the dangers emanating from Yemen.”)

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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“Youths” Torch 1,137 Cars in France This New Year’s Eve

French “youths”, mostly from poor Muslim suburbs, torched 1,137 cars in France this year, only 10 short from the record set last year. Reuters reported:

Youths burned 1,137 cars across France overnight as New Year’s Eve celebrations once again turned violent, the French Interior Ministry said on Friday.

— Hat tip: JD

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Axe-Wielding Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Breaking Into Home of Danish ‘Mohammed’ Cartoonist

A Somalian man was today charged with attempted murder after breaking into the house of a controversial cartoonist in Denmark.

The 28-year-old smashed a window to get into Kurt Westergaard’s home last night, forcing him to take refuge in a safe room.

Officers arrived at the property in Aarhus within minutes to find the man with ‘an axe and a knife in either hand’ and shot him in the knee and on his left arm.

The Somalian was carried into court on a stretcher where he was charged with two counts of attempted murder relating to Westergaard and a police officer.

[…]

Westergaard’s five-year-old granddaughter was staying in the house at the time of the attack.

They sought shelter in a panic room when they heard the suspect breaking in, Preben Nielsen from the Aarhus police said.

Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark’s intelligence agency, said the attack was ‘terror related’.

According to Danish intelligence, he has ‘close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaida leaders in eastern Africa,’ Scharf said.

— Hat tip: JD

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Diana West: Kurt Westergaard Can’t Stop Sharia Alone

When Kurt Westergaard came to the United States for a speaking tour on September 30, the fourth anniversary of the publication in Jyllands Posten of the Danish Mohammed cartoons, a number of reporters contacted me for information because Kurt’s trip was sponsored by the International Free Press Society. (Related stories here.)

Boiler plate, stuff, mainly — where’s he going, to whom is he speaking, a few basics about free speech. But I had a question for these reporters, too. Will you run the Westergaard Mohammed? Will you print the cartoon Kurt Westergaard drew, all in a day’s work, when Jyllands Posten editor Flemming Rose asked him for a Mohammed cartoon as part of a newspaper feature showcasing 12 Mohammed cartoons from 12 Danish artists commissioned to demonstrate that Denmark, free Denmark, was not under, beholden or intimidated by Islamic law?

First response from the ladies and gennemen of the Fourth Estate: nervous laughter.

Then: Oh, I’ll have to ask my editor about that….

Surprise, surprise, the Westergaard cartoon didn’t see media light of day during Kurt’s entire trip. American media disgraced themselves by covering Westergaard, his cartoon, the threats to his life, the barbarous Islamic reaction from the highest reaches of the Islamic diplomatic world to the Islamic street protests that resulted in loss of life, Kurt’s principles, free speech — all without ever showing readers and viewers the cartoon itself. (One exception — the Chicago Sun Times, which ran a photo of Kurt holding a laptop displaying the cartoon.)

Kurt Westergaard, 75, was almost murdered last night by an axe- knife- or hammer-wielding 27-year-old Muslim from Somalia who broke into his home. Kurt managed to get to his safe room and police arrived very quickly, shooting the would-be assassin in the course of a struggle. News reports tells us Kurt is safe.

Safe. Kurt isn’t safe. Nor will he be, nor any of us be, “safe” until Islamic law is stopped in the West, its deeply advanced tentacles eradicated. Because don’t think it isn’t here. Sharia is here and in force.

To measure the extent, just watch the “free press” cover Kurt’s latest (and closest) brush with sharia-sanctioned death, and count how many times that coverage is accompanied by a picture of Kurt’s cartoon. Any media outlet that runs the cartoon is not under Islamic law. Any media outlet that doesn’t is under Islamic law.

One old Dane, however courageous, however strong, can’t stop sharia alone.

— Hat tip: Diana West

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Italy: Ex Lazio Governor to be Quizzed Again After New Transsexual Claims

Rome, 30 Dec. (AKI) — Prosecutors are expected early in the new year to re-examine former Lazio governor Piero Marrazzo, who is at the centre of an extortion and drugs scandal involving transsexual prostitutes. A third Brasilian sex worker has now claimed Marrazzo was one of her clients and to have had encounters with him in his car, home and even at his office.

“I saw Marrazzo a number of times, often at his home, and one or twice in his office at the Lazio Region,” transsexual prostitute Paloma told prosecutors on Tuesday in the Italian capital, Rome, where she was questioned for twelve hours.

Paloma also said that she and Marrazzo often took drugs together, which he paid her or their pusher for with wads of two hundred and five hundred euro bills he kept hidden in an large bookcase in his office.

“I was always amazed by the quantities of cash he had and have always been certain it came from the Lazio Region’s coffers,” Paloma told prosecutors.

However she denied having had “full sexual relations” with Marrazzo.

“He wanted cuddles, company, and someone to take cocaine with,” Paloma said.

Marrazzo in a statement issued by his lawyers denied Paloma’s claims as “utterly slanderous” and “absolutely false”.

He resigned from his post as Lazio governor in October as media published details of a video of a sexual encounter between him and transsexual Brasilian prostitute Natalie in which they were also apparently taking cocaine.

Four Italian policemen were arrested on suspicion of blackmailing Marrazzo over the video which they allegedly filmed on his mobile phone during a raid.

Marrazzo has admitted to prosecutors “sporadic and occasional” cocaine use in his sexual encounters with Brasilian transsexual prostitutes who included Natalie and Brenda.

Brenda was last month found dead in her tiny north Rome apartment, where a fire had apparently broken out.

Brenda had told prosecutors that she shot a video at a sex and drugs party she attended with Marrazzo and another transsexual escort, but claimed to have destroyed the video.

Police suspected foul play in the circumstances surrounding her death.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Child of African Immigrants Named ‘Mayor’ In North

Bergamo, 30 Dec. (AKI) — A 13-year-old boy whose parents come from the Ivory Coast has been elected ‘children’s mayor’ in a northern Italian town considered a stronghold of the anti-immigrant Northern League.

David N’Doua was elected mayor in an initiative at his local school in Stezzano near Bergamo. He was born in the nearby town of Seriate to Ivorian parents who have lived in Italy for many years.

Of the seven children elected in the children’s council election project, four of them were reportedly foreign born or the children of immigrants.

“The children’s council is a project designed to really compare different cultures, to help people understand that diversity is an asset,” school principal Giovan Battista Sertori told the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera.

“In these children I see a desire to appreciate and give a great deal of respect to their Italian colleagues.”

Elena Poma, Stezzano mayor who is aligned with the Northern League, welcomed the school project, while warning of the ongoing problems posed by illegal immigrants.

“The project undertaken by the school is really an excellent example of integration,” she said. “But unfortunately it doesn’t solve the problem: the difficult issue is the one regarding adults.

“It is difficult to speak about integration when we have to deal with the phenomenon of illegal immigration, with people who are not detected because they live in Italy illegally.”

David N’Doua, the young mayor, was adopting a low profile and declined to comment as he went skiing with his family.

“For now, I am enjoying my holidays,” he reportedly said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Sweden: No Suspects in Attack Against Malmö Mosque

As of New Year’s Eve evening, police had no suspects for an attack against a mosque in Malmö earlier in the day when shots had been fired through the window of the building.

Nobody was seriously injured during the incident. The imam was taken to hospital to treat minor cuts from glass splinters, but he was not struck by a bullet. He was allowed to leave the hospital after his cuts were bandaged.

Around five people, including the imam, were in an office following the evening prayers.

“The imam was sitting in front of the computer when (we heard) a bang. At first I thought there had been an explosion,” one of the witnesses told Sydsvenskan newspaper.

Bejzat Becirov, head of the Islamic Center, said that he doesn’t believe the shots were aimed at a particular individual but rather at the mosque.

“We receive threats all the time. Unfortunately, we have become immune to it. Despite all the incidents, the police have never arrested anyone,” he told TT news agency.

The incident is classifed as attempted murder or aggravated assault.

Police currently have little to go on in their investigation. “We are looking for information from witnesses,” police information officer Cindy Schönström-Larsson said.

“Knocking on doors doesn’t work. The mosque is located by itself and there are no other buildings around,” she added.

The Swedish Muslim Association (Sveriges Muslimska Förbund) said in a statement that they take the attack very seriously. The mosque in Malmö has reportedly been the target of several cases of attempted arson over the last ten years.

“These criminals are being driven by islamophobia. The police must protect (Sweden’s) mosques and their followers against racist threats,” Mahmoud Aldebe, head of the association, said.

— Hat tip: TB

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Sweden: Taking Naked Pictures of Sleeping Teen Not a Crime: Court

A court in Halmstad on the southwest coast of Sweden has dismissed charges against a man who reportedly took a photo of a 17-year-old girl’s genitals while she was sleeping. The court said that the incident was was not a punishable offense.

The girl had laid down to sleep on a sofa during a New Year’s party. The 49-year-old reportedly lifted up the girl’s skirt and photographed her genitals. The man, whose teenage son was hosting the party, was indicted on charges of sexual harassment, local newspaper Hallandsposten reports.

Citing several other cases, the Halmstad district court said that the man had not committed a crime. There is no general prohibition against photographing people without their consent. The same applies to people who are asleep.

The fact that other people have seen the photograph, as claimed by the prosecutor in this case, doesn’t make the incident a punishable offense either, according to the court.

[Comments from JD: This is an insane judgement. All the comments to the article show that many Swedes are outraged about this decision.]

— Hat tip: JD

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Swiss Army Could Miss Ammunition-Recall Target

The Swiss army says it is uncertain whether it will meet the end of year deadline for the return of all ammunition kept at home by men serving in the militia army.

According to latest figures, 80 per cent of the ammunition had been returned by November 30 but an army spokesman said it was unlikely all of the remaining 20 per cent would be recovered by December 31.

Spokesman Christoph Brunner told swissinfo.ch that 60,000 canisters of ammunition were still in circulation at the end of last month.

In 2007, parliament reacted to a number of fatalities involving army weapons, including domestic violence and a random shooting, by banning soldiers from storing ammunition at home.

Politicians stopped short of ending the tradition of allowing men to keep their army-issue rifles and pistols at home when not on active duty.

However, dozens of organisations including centre-left and leftwing political parties have collected enough signatures to force a nationwide vote on a ban.

A date for the vote has not yet been set.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UK: ‘Healthy’ Girl, 15, Died From Series of Heart Attacks After Being Sent Home From Hospital With ‘Flu’

A girl of 15 died on Christmas Eve from a series of heart attacks just days after begging doctors to keep her in hospital because she felt so ill.

Amy Carter lost a stone in weight over a week after initially falling sick with flu-like symptoms at the start of December.

However, she was discharged from hospital after tests showed she was suffering from glandular fever.

Richard and Jacqueline Carter said their daughter had asked a doctor at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester: ‘Am I going to die?’

They said the doctor replied: ‘Of course not, don’t be silly it’s a nasty illness but it’s certainly not life-threatening.’

She was discharged on December 21, two days after she was admitted, and told to take paracetamol and have plenty of rest.

But the next day, Amy was struggling to breathe and was taken to an out-of-hours care centre where a doctor sent her away with instructions to drink lots of fluid.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, her worried parents called their GP, who said Amy’s condition was ‘critical’ and called an ambulance. Despite being given five adrenalin shots into her heart — one for each cardiac arrest — she died just hours later in hospital.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: £15 Extra Tax on Car Fines: Now Drivers Face Hefty Surcharge to Compensate Victims of Violent Crime

Motorists guilty of minor ‘crimes’ such as parking misdemeanours are to be hit with a £15 surcharge to help victims of domestic violence or sex attacks.

The amount will be added to fixed penalty tickets given out by police for breaking parking regulations, contravening a stop sign, speeding and even having dirty windows.

Motorists will be forced by law to pay the charge — even though their offence has no ‘victim’.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Islamic Group Plans Wootton March

An Islamic group said to have links to an extremist movement is planning to march through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett.

The town has become famous for honouring British war dead returning from Afghanistan.

Islam4UK pledged the protest would be peaceful with symbolic coffins representing Muslim victims.

Wootton’s former mayor Chris Wannell has called on the group’s leader not to hold the march.

‘Brutal crusade’

North Wiltshire MP James Gray said: “I’ve seen in the past assorted groups threaten to march, but they don’t actually do it.

“I wouldn’t think they’d get permission from the police.”

Islam4UK is said to call itself a “platform” for the extremist movement al-Muhajiroun.

Leader of Islam4UK, former lawyer Anjem Choudary, said the march would not coincide with a repatriation ceremony.

On its website the group said it was “totally unacceptable” to honour servicemen who had contributed “directly or indirectly” to the deaths of “well over 100,000 Muslims in Afghanistan in the last 8 years”.

“We at Islam4UK find this totally unacceptable and as a result have decided to launch the ‘Wootton Bassett March’ to highlight the real casualties of this brutal Crusade,” the website states.

Mr Wannell said the townsfolk did not come out to honour the soldiers “for any political reason at all” but to pay their respects to “those who have given their lives for our freedom”.

Wootton councillor, Jenny Stratton, said: “Everyone has the right to protest, but it’s not a very tactful place to do it.”

A spokeswoman for Wiltshire Police said: “Under the Public Order Act the organiser must inform the police of the date, time and route of the proposed procession, and the name and address of the organiser.

“If the march or procession is believed to be likely to result in serious disorder, disruption or damage, then the police can impose conditions upon the organiser.

“In exceptional circumstances, police may apply to the local authority for an order prohibiting such a march.”

To date there had been no contact from Islam4UK or any other group wishing to arrange such a march in Wootton Bassett,” the spokeswoman added.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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UK: Lynda La Plante Attacks BBC, Saying Corporation Would Take a Muslim Boy’s Script Over Hers

Prime Suspect creator Linda La Plante has lambasted the BBC’s commissioning policy, claiming the Corporation would take a Muslim boy’s script over hers.

Her controversial comments in the same week that the writer PD James criticised the BBC over its ‘extraordinarily large’ salaries for managers.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms La Plante — the writer behind the hugely popular Trial and Retribution series — bemoaned the BBC’s drama commissioning, describing it as ‘very depressing’.

She told the newspaper: ‘If my name were Usafi Iqbadal and I was 19, then they’d probably bring me in and talk.’

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Outrage Over Controversial Islamic Group’s Plan to March Through Wootton Bassett

People in Wootton Bassett, the town famous for honouring dead British soldiers returning from Afghanistan, reacted defiantly on Saturday to news that a controversial Islamic group is to march through its streets.

Islam4UK — which calls itself a “platform” for extremist movement al-Muhajiroun — plans to parade through the Wiltshire town in the coming weeks.

The group’s website says the event is being held “not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military” but of the Muslims its says have been “murdered in the name of democracy and freedom”.

Leader Anjem Choudary said the protest, involving 500 people, would be peaceful one, with “symbolic coffins” being carried to honour Muslim victims of the conflict. He said he also planned to write to the parents of dead UK soldiers with his version of “the reality of what they died for”.

But the walk will not coincide with the return of a dead soldier’s body, added Mr Choudary, 42, a former lawyer from East London.

Hundreds of people line the market town’s High Street every week to watch servicemen’s bodies being driven through from RAF Lyneham.

Family and friends of the fallen, shopkeepers and British Legion members wait in all weathers to pay silent tribute to a cortege of Union flag-draped coffins.

Ex-mayor and councillor Chris Wannell said: “We don’t do what we do at Wootton Bassett for any political reason at all, but to pay our respects to those who have given their lives for our freedom.

“We are a Christian country and a traditional old English market town who honour very much our Queen and country. We obey the law and pay respects to our servicemen who protect our freedom.

“If this man has any decency about him he will not hold a march through Wootton Bassett.”

He also called on the media not to give the group any attention.

North Wiltshire MP James Gray said: “I’ve seen in the past assorted groups threaten to march, but they don’t actually do it. I wouldn’t think they’d get permission from the police.

“The people of Wootton Bassett are not interested in politics. They will say, these are foolish people making a silly point — we’ll get on with our ordinary lives thank you.

“This also misunderstands the nature of what the people of Wootton Bassett do. They are not bloodthirstily in favour of the war. Most people would say they were not qualified to comment on the rightness or wrongness.

“The people of Wootton Bassett are decent, quiet, pragmatic people and they’ll stay at home instead (of reacting to the march).”

Islam4UK describes the plans for the “momentous march” on its website.

It says: “Wootton Bassett, is currently famous for its public mourning processions held in memory of British soldiers killed whilst on military service in Afghanistan; coffins containing the dismembered bodies of these soldiers are usually draped in Union jack flags and driven through the town centre from RAF Lyneham, as a tribute to their ‘sacrifice’.

“The proposed march by members of Islam4UK is however of a very different venture, held not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military, but rather the real war dead who have been shunned by the Western media and general public as they were and continue to be horrifically murdered in the name of Democracy and Freedom — the innocent Muslim men, women and children.

“It is quite extraordinary, that with well over 100,000 Muslims killed in Afghanistan in the last 8 years that those military serviceman who have directly or indirectly contributed to their death are paraded as war heroes and moreover honoured for what is ultimately genocide.

“We at Islam4UK find this totally unacceptable and as a result have decided to launch the ‘Wootton Bassett March’ to highlight the real casualties of this brutal Crusade.”

Mr Choudary added: “The British public is blissfully unaware of what’s being done in their name. More than 10,000 innocent men women and children are being slaughtered.

“You may see one or two coffins being returned to the UK every other day but when you think about the people of Afghanistan it’s a huge number (being killed) in comparison.

“I intend to write a letter to the parents of British soldiers telling them the reality of what they died for.”

The march will call for the withdrawal of British troops who Mr Choudary believes are largely in Afghanistan to “prevent the rise of Islam in the area.”

He added that some families of the dead soldiers had even offered him their support.

Wiltshire Police said they were aware of the “significant community concern” caused by the proposal, adding that they would have to approve details before permitting the march.

A force spokesman said: “In exceptional circumstances, the police may apply to the local authority for an order prohibiting such a march.

“In these particular circumstances, Wiltshire Police will be liaising closely with the local community and our partner agencies.

“Furthermore, contact will be sought with the organisers at the earliest opportunity in order to determine the facts of the proposed march.

“To date there has been no contact from Islam4uk or any other group wishing to arrange such a march in Wootton Bassett.”

— Hat tip: TB

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UK: Outrage as Muslim Extremists Hijack War Heroes’ Town Wootton Bassett

A town famed for honouring dead British solders returning from Afghanistan expressed its dismay yesterday at plans by an extremist Islamic group to march through its streets.

Islam4UK, which calls itself a ‘platform’ for the fanatical Al-Muhajiroun movement, said its supporters will parade through Wootton Bassett in the near future.

The group’s website said the event is being held ‘not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military’ but of the Muslims ‘murdered in the name of democracy and freedom’.

[…]

North Wiltshire MP James Gray said: ‘I’ve seen in the past assorted groups threaten to march, but they don’t actually do it. I wouldn’t think they’d get permission from the police.’

He added: ‘The people of Wootton Bassett are not interested in politics. They will say, ‘these are foolish people making a silly point — we’ll get on with our ordinary lives thank you’.

‘This also misunderstands the nature of what the people of Wootton Bassett do. They are not blood-thirstily in favour of the war. Most people would say they were not qualified to comment on the rightness or wrongness.

‘The people of Wootton Bassett are decent, quiet, pragmatic people and they’ll stay at home instead (of reacting to the march).’

— Hat tip: JD

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Fatah Claims US Promised to Force Israeli Surrender

(IsraelNN.com) Senior Fatah official Saeb Erekat claimed on Saturday that the American government gave the Palestinian Authority guarantees that it would force Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

— Hat tip: findalis

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Swiss Social Workers Support Struggling Palestinians

In the West Bank, where many children are raised in poverty and medical care cannot be taken for granted, the Caritas Baby Hospital is helping alleviate suffering.

Set up by a Swiss priest in 1952 to care for sick babies in Bethlehem, the hospital has widened its provision to include social work in the Bethlehem-Hebron area. A chunk of the hospital’s funding comes from Swiss churches’ Christmas donations.

With unemployment high and 50 per cent of households living on the equivalent of SFr450 ($435) a month or less, many Palestinians struggle to raise their families.

“The need is palpable,” says head doctor Hiyam Marzouqa. “The pressure on families, and women in particular, is increasing; they have to try to get by on nothing…”

“I do home visits to know the family better and to give them more time to talk,” says social worker Lina Rahel, who as a mother herself understands this pressure.

One of three social workers with the hospital, she makes house visits twice a week to families in the Hebron area, following up on patients released from hospital or those with chronic illnesses, like asthma. swissinfo.ch accompanied her on a chilly day in December.

Inside the stone-built house on the outskirts of Hebron it felt colder than outside. A two-ring electric heater struggled to take the edge off the chill in the living room where plaster was peeling from the damp walls. Incongruously one complete wall was covered in a poster of tulip fields.

Sitting on his mother’s lap, Mohammed was crying ceaselessly and twisting his head from side to side. The youngest of seven children, he has diabetes and delayed development.

“The mother is very concerned and she wants to do the best for her baby. He’s two-and-a-half years old. He doesn’t sit and he doesn’t walk,” says Lena.

“ The pressure on women is increasing; they have to try to get by on nothing… “

Head doctor Hiyam Marzouqa

No work, no money

The little boy has been in and out of hospital around 20 times in his short life. His 37-year-old mother hates to impose on the hospital and has not sought treatment for Mohammed this time, although he has been vomiting for several days.

The cold weather and lack of money for transport also influenced his mother’s decision to keep Mohammed at home. Her husband, who does not have a regular job, has not been working for the past few days.

“Going from Hebron to Bethlehem is becoming difficult now, especially here where they live,” says Lena, alluding to the Israeli security barrier, which cuts many Palestinian towns off from one another. “It’s very far from the city centre. They have to take more than one means of transport to reach Bethlehem, so it costs.”

Mohammed’s mother makes ends meet by sewing shoes for a Hebron shoe manufacturer. Her hands are calloused by the effort of pulling the needle through the thick leather. Working with a female relative, she can manage just five pairs of shoes a day, earning 1.5 shekels (SFr0.41) a pair for shoes that will sell in the shops for ten times that amount.

At the end of the visit, Lena explains what will happen now. “We need to sit together, the doctor, me and the mother to discuss what we can do for this baby. It’s not a matter of diabetes, he has other problems. We have to do further investigations.”

Eight-year-old Basan has his dead brother’s charm (swissinfo)

Remembering Bashir

Near the town of Dura we paid a visit to the Jabary family, who were mourning the death of 18-year-old Bashir one month before.

Bashir had a terminal genetic illness, which also affected three siblings who died in infancy. Two younger brothers also have the disease, that affects growth, and are unlikely to live to adulthood.

The boys’ mother, who is just 41, is frequently close to tears as she talks about the son to whom she was so close and who was also greatly loved by the hospital staff. Her two sons, Bashar (15) and Basan (8) — who look half their age — sit quietly beside her. They have accepted that Bashir’s fate will be theirs too.

“The kids miss him because he was their eldest brother. Whenever we ask where is Bashir, they say, ‘he went to God’,” says Lena.

“The most painful thing for the mother is when she thinks she has to lose another two. She’s always asking God to give her the strength and the health to take care of them until the last moment of their lives.”

The next day, the boys’ mother turns up at the Outpatients Clinic in Bethlehem. Her elder son is sick again. For Bashar there may be no cure, but the care provided by the hospital staff at least provides some comfort for his mother.

Morven McLean in the West Bank, swissinfo.ch

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Ayers, Dohrn Stir Chaos in Middle East

Obama’s friends join protesters attempting to enter Gaza

JERUSALEM — Weatherman terrorists Williams Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn — close associates for years of President Obama — were involved in provoking chaos on the streets of Egypt this week in an attempt to enter the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to join in solidarity with the territory’s population and leadership.

The protests were led in large part by Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, a far-left activist organization formed in 2002 to protest America’s war in Iraq. The group previously met with Hamas and with leaders of the Taliban. Evans was a fundraiser and financial bundler for Obama’s presidential campaign.

Also protesting in Egypt was Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website. WND previously reported Obama spoke at pro-Palestinian events in the 1990s alongside Abunimah. In one such event, a 1999 fundraiser for Palestinian “refugees,” Abunimah recalls introducing Obama on stage.

— Hat tip: JD

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Intel Forecast: Regime Change in Iran

Analysts say those who deposed shah now viewed as enemies of people

LONDON — Analysts for Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency are predicting the revolution which ended the shah’s regime 30 years ago in Iran is poised to launch a new change in the embattled country in the New Year, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The successors of those who rose to depose the detested shah in the coup d’etat of 1979 now find themselves cast as the enemies of the people.

— Hat tip: JD

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Iran Gives West “Ultimatum” On Uranium Swap

Iran on Saturday gave the West a one-month “ultimatum” to accept a uranium swap, warning that if there is no deal it will produce its own nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor, state television reported.

“The international community has just one month left to decide” whether or not it will accept Iran’s conditions, otherwise “Tehran will enrich uranium to a higher level,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying.

“This is an ultimatum,” he said.

Iran, which rejected a Dec. 31 deadline to accept a U.N.-brokered deal, said on Tuesday it is ready to swap abroad its low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, insisting however that the exchange should happen in stages.

Tehran has rejected a proposal by U.N. nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ship out most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium for further processing by Russia and France into fuel for a research reactor.

Iran said it was ready for a fuel swap “in several stages,” and in late December Mottaki said Iran is open to exchanging uranium on Turkish soil. The IAEA has ruled out a swap taking place on Iranian territory.

World powers have been pushing for Iran to accept the U.N.-brokered deal and are also mulling plans to impose fresh U.N. sanctions against Tehran after the Islamic republic dismissed the year-end deadline.

Iran is already under three sets of U.N. sanctions for refusing to abandon its sensitive program of uranium enrichment, the process which produces nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

— Hat tip: TB

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Iran Interferes With German News Satellite

The German state foreign broadcasting network Deutsche Welle (DW) was the target of a deliberate jamming signal originating in Iran, according to a report in news magazine Der Spiegel.

According to the report, the French national radio regulatory agency Agence Nationale des Fréquences wrote to the Iranian Ministry of Communication saying that on December 7 and December 8 signals had been detected that looked like “deliberate interference” with the DW satellite.

The affected satellite was the Hot-Bird satellite belonging to Eutelsat. The satellite operators apparently reacted to the disturbance by increasing the broadcasting power, whereupon the disturbance signal was also strengthened, cutting out an Arabian language TV broadcast from DW.

The origin of the disturbance was traced to the area of Tehran. Similar disturbances coming from Iran were already detected by the French authority in May and June 2009.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Iraq: More Attacks Against Christians in Mosul

A deacon seriously hurt. A Christian killed before his house on Christmas Eve. The impotence of the government and avoidance of responsibilities. Nearly 2 thousand Christians killed in 6 years.

Mosul (AsiaNews) — Attacks continue against Christians to push them to flee from Iraq. Yesterday afternoon Zhaki Homo Bashir, a Christian deacon, was hit by gunfire from a group of unknown criminals. The man had just entered his shop located in the district of al Jadida. Seriously injured, he was transported to hospital. AsiaNews published the news yesterday of the kidnapping a college student from an Islamic group. News has also reached the agency in recent days that another Christian was killed on Christmas Eve; Basil Isho Youhanna was hit by gunfire in front of his house in the neighbourhood of Tahrir, in northern Mosul. In recent weeks there has been an increase of killings of Christians and attacks on churches and convents. All the violence is part of a project of “ethnic cleansing” against the Iraqi Christians, reported to AsiaNews by Msgr. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk. The national government and the local governorate are powerless before these attacks, while the different ethnic groups Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen — with the possible infiltration of extremist cells — are all blaming each other.

According to local sources, since 2003, the year of the fall of Saddam Hussein, at least 1960 Christians have been killed in Iraq. Their presence has been reduced by at least half because of the exodus to other quieter areas of the country (Kurdistan) or abroad.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Saudis Warned Top Obama Officials About Underwear Bombs in October

The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official. In late August, Nayef had survived an assassination attempt by an operative dispatched by the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda who was pretending to turn himself in. The operative had tried to kill the Saudi prince by detonating a bomb on his body, but stumbled on his way into the prince’s palace and blew himself up.

— Hat tip: JD

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CIA Resolved to Avenge Agents’ Deaths

Retired CIA Officers Take Swing at Obama Over CIA Torture Prosecutions

The CIA, reeling from the assassination of seven of its operatives in Afghanistan earlier this week, said today that its resolve to find and attack Taliban and al Qaeda leaders is “greater than ever.”

CIA spokesman George Little would not discuss specifics of the Wednesday attack, the deadliest assault on the CIA since the 1983 bombing of the Beirut embassy. Little did suggest, however, that the loss would be avenged.

“There is much about the attack that isn’t yet known, but this much is clear: The CIA’s resolve to pursue aggressive counterterrorism operations is greater than ever,” Little told The Associated Press.

— Hat tip: JD

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Indonesia’s Religious Police on Hemline Frontline

The 20-year-old lowers her eyes and doesn’t argue with the khaki-clad male officers who summon her to the side of the road.

“I promise to buy a more Muslim outfit,” she says, showing enough contrition for the police to wave her on her way.

In one hour, 18 women are pulled over because the guardians of morality decide their slacks are too tight or their shirts reveal too much of their feminine curves.

Only three men receive the same treatment, for wearing shorts.

“We have to respect sharia (Islamic) law, which has been adopted by the provincial government and which stipulates that women can only show their faces and their hands,” sharia police commander Hali Marzuki told AFP.

Perched at the end of Sumatra island about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northwest of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Aceh is one of the most conservative regions in the mainly Muslim archipelago.

Most Muslims in the country of 234 million people are modern and moderate, and Indonesia’s constitution recognizes five official religions including Buddhism and Christianity.

But Aceh has special autonomy, and one of the ways it has defined itself as different from the rest of the country is through the implementation of sharia law and the advent of the religious police.

The force has more than 1,500 officers, including 60 women. However, they do not seem to cause too much concern among citizens.

Punishment

Officers are relatively cheerful, they carry no weapons and they almost always let wrongdoers off with a warning.

“Punishment is not the objective of the law. We must convince and explain,” says Iskander, the sharia police chief in Banda Aceh, who goes by only one name.

He has the power to order floggings but has found no need to do so since he was promoted to his current position a year ago.

Less than a dozen people have been publicly caned since 2005, for drinking alcohol, gambling or having illicit sexual relations.

Advocates say the force is having a good effect on society.

“The message is getting around and there are less and less violations,” says senior officer Syarifuddin, adding that most of the people arrested under sharia law had been denounced to the police by fellow citizens.

It was thanks to one such tipoff that police busted a group of men gambling over dominoes in a cafe earlier this month.

Another preoccupation for the sharia police is the “sin of khalwat”, when a man and woman are found alone in an isolated place, such as a beach.

Young Acehnese lovers, or any man and woman for that matter, need to watch their backs if they want to sit together with the sand between their toes and take in one of Aceh’s beautiful seaside sunsets.

“You have to learn quickly with these police around,” said 17-year-old student Fira, who says she likes to “have fun”.

“We know how to take precautions to avoid the checks. And anyway, if you’re caught you only risk being reprimanded.”

But this game of cat-and-mouse could take an ugly turn if a new regulations allowing the stoning to death of adulterers and the flogging of homosexuals is signed into law by the provincial government.

The law was enacted by the outgoing Aceh Legislative Council on September 14, but it has been under review by the newly elected assembly and has not been signed into effect by Governor Irwandi Yusuf.

Lawmakers in jakarta have expressed their opposition to such draconian punishments, which could be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and re-open old wounds about Aceh’s hard-won autonomy.

“We have to be very careful in the face of such radical pressures,” said Khairani Arifin, an activist for Acehnese women’s rights.

“Aceh could look like Pakistan one day,” she warned.

— Hat tip: TB

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Pakistan: Death Toll From Suicide Attack Against Volleyball Match Rises to 105

Hundreds of people are wounded. A building collapses. Search for dead and wounded continues. Military says attack is retaliation against local residents who back army in its fight against Taliban. In one year, thousands of civilians have been killed by the Taliban.

Peshawar (AsiaNews/Agencies) — At least 105 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a volleyball tournament in a town in north-western Pakistan yesterday, police said as it updated earlier figures which had put the death toll at 88 with more than 100 injured.

The blast was so powerful that it demolished a building near the volleyball court. Police is still searching for more dead and wounded under the rubbles.

The suicide bomber detonated a vehicle as fans gathered to watch two teams face off in the town of Shah Hasan Khan, not far from the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan.

According to police, the town was targeted because its residents have been supporting the Pakistani government’s efforts to suppress Taliban militants.

For several months, Pakistan’s military has been battling the Taliban who use certain regions of the country as safe havens for their fight in Afghanistan and where they enforce Sharia.

In 2009, the Taliban have been responsible for several attacks that killed thousands of civilians.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Nepal — China: Nepal Changes Position: Tibet is Part of China, An End to Protests

The new prime minister arrives in Beijing and Kathmandu guarantees Chinese President Hu Jintao secessionist activities in the territory of Nepal will not be permitted. In exchange, trade and development.

Beijing (AsiaNews) — Nepal “will do everything to stop anti-Chinese activities on its territory, and recognizes Tibet and Taiwan as an inalienable part of the territory ruled by Beijing. For this, no-one will be allowed to use Nepal territory to harm Chinese interests”, said the Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar of Kathmandu yesterday to Chinese President Hu Jintao, during his first official visit to Beijing. The visiting premier also met with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Wu Bangguo, member of the Politburo.

The Nepalese delegation also included the Minister of Water Resources, Prakash Sharan Mahat, who added: “In less than half an hour of talks, the two leaders recognized the great cooperation that has formed between the two countries since bilateral diplomatic relations were born 54 years ago. The Chinese president has assured his full support”. The political adviser Raghuji Panta said that Hu Jintao “described Nepal as a very important friend for China”.

The visit of the Nepalese lasted six days and started in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Arriving in Beijing on 28 December, the Nepali leader met Wen Jiabao. The two have signed an agreement for the exchange of students between the two nations and several agreements on economic cooperation. In a separate meeting, the Nepalese Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi signed two separate memoranda of economic cooperation to a value of 1.5 billion rupees.

Over the past six months, China has doubled its economic aid to Nepal. Under the new agreements, Beijing is committed to enhancing the export of Nepalese products in its territory, and encourages Chinese companies to participate in projects of infrastructure construction in the mountainous region. According to Wen Jiabao, also, “China respects and supports the social system and development chosen by Kathmandu, and will do everything possible to ensure stability.”

The new official position of Nepal marks a blow to the Tibetan diaspora, who had found political refuge in the territory governed from Kathmandu. The exile began in 1959 when the Dalai Lama was forced to flee from Lhasa to find refuge in India. Since then, approximately 20 thousand Tibetans have settled in Nepal, and therein often demonstarte against Chinese repression of Tibet. The political agreement between the two countries put a stop to all this.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Philippines — Islam: Filipino Migrant in Saudi Arabia: Exploited and Mocked for Her Faith

A Filipino domestic worker describes as “a prison” her experience in Saudi Arabia. For seven months she was not allowed to leave or have a bed to sleep on. Because of her Christian faith her salary was reduced. Forced to fast during Ramadan.

Manila (AsiaNews) — “My Life in Saudi Arabia was like a prison and the anguish of those moments was unbearable.” This is the story of Norma Caldera, a Filipina domestic worker who emigrated to work in Saudi Arabia and escaped after seven months of constant harassment due to her Catholic faith. “Every day I got up early to pray — she tells — and every time my colleagues and employers saw me they began to insult and mock me for my Christian faith.”

Like 10 million other Filipinos, Norma was forced to leave her country to seek work abroad. For 17 years she worked in Hong Kong, but the crisis has forced her again to leave to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid in a family. The Arabian country employs around 200 thousand Filipinos. These as well as being exploited and poorly paid, are subject to verbal and physical violence because of their Christian faith. The last case concerns a girl, Sylviane Hugilon Baser, who died in mysterious circumstances. So far, Saudi authorities have refused to provide explanations about her death and to return the body to the family which has been lying in a morgue for months.

“When I told my employers that I was Catholic and wanted to die a Catholic, the first thing they did was lower my salary from $ 1,000 to 700,” says Norma. “During Ramadan — she continues — they forced me to fast with them. For me it was difficult to work with the same pace without being able to eat. But unfortunately I had no choice. “ The woman adds that in the seven months of work she was not allowed to leave, even to go to Mass on Sunday. She also did not have her own room or a bed to sleep. The only place to rest was the kitchen floor or a tent pitched in the backyard.

“I lived this occasion, praying and having faith in God — she continues — I was willing to make this sacrifice to be able to pay for my two daughters education.”

On 29 December, the woman returned to the Philippines, five months before the expiry of the contract. Norma says that he will try to find work at home or in another non-Islamic country.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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STIs Nothing to be Ashamed of: Campaign

Young people who have contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) should not be ashamed, urges a new government campaign encouraging Australians to get tested.

The national campaign, which begins on Sunday using radio, magazines, internet and billboards, comes after a worrying rise in chlamydia, HIV/AIDS and syphilis infections, the federal government says.

Conveying the message, “STIs are spreading fast — always use a condom”, it targets young people and encourages those who have had unprotected sex to see a doctor to discuss getting tested.

“The new year and holiday period is the season of parties and celebration — it’s important to be aware of the risks of unprotected sex,” Health Minister Nicola Roxon said in a statement.

Research conducted before phase one of the campaign in May and June 2009 revealed that Australians are not well informed about the benefits of condom use, Ms Roxon said.

It found heterosexuals mainly use condoms to prevent pregnancy, while gay men are becoming complacent about the risk of HIV.

The campaign, which will also target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths living in outer regional and remote communities, urges people not to be ashamed if they have an STI.

“This can prevent them seeking help and treatment,” Ms Roxon said, adding that early detection and treatment is important.

“If left untreated, STIs can have serious, lasting health implications.”

— Hat tip: Nilk

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Pirates Seize Second UK-Flagged Vessel in Days

A UK-flagged cargo ship with 25 crew has been seized by pirates off Somalia, media reports say.

The Asian Glory was taken 620 miles (1,000km) off the Horn of Africa nation’s coast, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said.

The vessel, which has a multi-national crew, is the second UK-flagged ship hijacked in days, after chemical tanker the St James Park was seized on Monday.

The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world.

As well as eight Bulgarians, the other nationalities making up the Asian Glory’s crew are said to include Ukrainia