German Banks Turn Their Backs on Greek Bonds
Greece is having trouble raising money on the bond markets.
Greece needs to refinance 20 billion euros’ worth of debt by May, but has found it difficult to raise money on the bond markets. On Thursday, the country delayed an issue out of fear of a ratings downgrade. And on Friday, German banks said they aren’t interested in taking on more Greek debt.
The deadline facing Athens is an ominous one. By April and May, Greece must refinance €20 billion in sovereign debt, the first chunk of the €53 billion the country will need to refinance by the end of the year. But as winter turns to spring, it’s growing apparent that Greek efforts to raise money face big challenges.
On Friday, at the end of a week full of setbacks, the Financial Times Deutschland reported that major German banks have no intention of investing in new Greek bond issues. Both Eurohypo and Hypo Real Estate, which have invested heavily in Greek bonds in the past, have said they will skip the next bond issue, the paper wrote. Deutsche Postbank is likewise not interested. Together, the three banks hold €14.4 billion of Greek debt. Two-thirds of it belong to Hypo Real Estate.
The FTD also writes that Deutsche Bank, while it will continue to assist Greece’s bond issues, also intends to eschew further investment in the country.
The news highlights just how challenging the road ahead is for Greece. The country is carrying €300 billion in sovereign debt and its budget deficit runs to 12.7 percent of gross domestic product, more than four times the 3 percent allowed by the rules governing Europe’s common currency zone. Earlier this month, the European Union oversaw the adoption of a radical austerity program by the Greek government which foresees the shrinking of the budget deficit by four percentage points in one year.
More Expensive Borrowing
At the same time, the European Union said it would not leave Greece in the lurch. But it failed to detail how exactly it planned to help Athens should the need arise. The lack of clear details has made borrowing more expensive, according to Greek officials.
On Thursday the government delayed a €5 billion bond issuance by a week. Athens claimed the delay came in response to the 24-hour general strike called on Wednesday by public sector workers protesting sharp spending cuts. But market turbulence, caused by Wednesday warnings from Standard & Poor’s that it may downgrade Greek debt, likely also played a role. A similar warning from the ratings agency Moody’s followed on Thursday. The announcements sent prospective bond yields skyrocketing, making a bond issue more expensive for Greece. Already, it is estimated that Greece will have to spend 15.1 percent of 2010 tax revenues just to service its debt.
A Community of Solidarity
Still, the European Union continues to insist it will help Greece if necessary. In a Friday interview with the German business daily Handelsblatt, Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden said, “We don’t have any other choice. Europe is a community of solidarity. We are not going to allow Greece to become a risk for the euro zone.”
Meanwhile, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday that the Fed is looking into derivative contracts created for Greece by Goldman Sachs which helped Athens hide large chunks of debt as it was joining the euro zone.
“Obviously, using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or country is counterproductive, and I’m sure the (Securities and Exchange Commission) will be looking into that.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
James Carafano: Dumping Airborne Laser Leaves America Vulnerable
… for just a second … man made night into day.
A short-range ballistic missile launched from a sea-based platform off California’s Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center. Moments later, the Airborne Laser carried aloft in a specially modified 747 detected it.
Then it cranked up the high-energy laser. That beam struck home, burning a small hole in the missile. A split-second later, its structural integrity destroyed, the missile vaporized in a tumbling corkscrew.
Within two minutes of launch time, it was all over.
Not bad for a defensive weapon once ridiculed as science fiction. Skeptics even persuaded the Obama administration to slot the airborne laser for the ninth circle of procurement hell — a pit for dead-end research and development programs. But this month’s dramatic success has put the critics on their heels.
The Point Mugu exercise was what engineers call a “proof of principle” test. They tested it. It is proven.
But don’t expect high-fiving in the White House. The administration already passed on the option to build a second test aircraft. Rather than add the ABL to the military’s arsenal, the administration seems more than willing to let the project end as a successful science experiment.
It will argue laser missile defense makes no sense because the weapon’s range is limited to a few hundred kilometers. That would put the lumbering aircraft well within the range of air defense systems fielded by the likes of North Korea and Iran.
On the other hand, here is what the administration won’t admit. There are other threats already out there that the Airborne Laser is well-suited to counter. One such danger is the “Scud in bucket” scenario.
Scud missiles are shorter-range weapons, originally manufactured and proliferated worldwide by the Soviets. Today, several other countries make their own versions. These missiles are so readily available — and cheap — that several years ago a U.S. arms collector bought one and tried to ship it home.
Iran’s Shahab-3, an advanced Scud variant, seems capable of traveling 1,000 kilometers and carrying as much as a 10-kiloton warhead. It couldn’t reach Washington from Tehran, but then, it wouldn’t have to. Iran could easily extend the missile’s reach simply by moving it to a commercial freighter and firing it from nearby using an improvised vertical launch tube disguised as cargo.
In many ways, Scud in a bucket is the ultimate weapon. It could sail close to U.S. waters without being subject to inspection by the Coast Guard or Customs. The enemy could fire the missile and scuttle the ship, leaving no record of who launched the attack.
If Iran has one missile and nuclear weapon, it might have two. It could detonate one over New York in a low-altitude air burst that would kill up to a half-million and cripple Manhattan forever.
Iran could fire a second at high altitude over the mid-Atlantic states, creating an electro-magnetic pulse that would take down a large portion of the national grid and plunge Washington, D.C., into permanent darkness.
America would be crippled in a flash, with no obvious enemy at which to shoot back.
An ABL could help neutralize this threat, and others. Advancing the technology alone will give the U.S. a dramatic advantage over potential adversaries.
But if the administration has its way, we’ll see the ABL in the Smithsonian, rather than defending our coasts.
| — Hat tip: AP | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Leader Implodes on Air
Key critic of Rep. Sue Myrick exposed as radical by radio jock
A Muslim leader who has tried to portray the founder of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus in Washington as an extremist “hatemonger” was himself exposed as an extremist on a popular radio program.
For years, Jibril Hough has represented himself and his North Carolina mosque as “moderate,” while putting Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., on the defensive as an anti-Muslim fanatic who “shoots from the hip” when sounding the alarm about homegrown Islamic terrorism. Myrick, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, co-founded the Capitol Hill caucus after 9/11 to educate Americans about the growing threat from jihadists.
But during an in-studio interview Friday with Charlotte radio personality Keith Larson of WBT-AM, Hough was confronted with documents revealing his mosque — the Islamic Center of Charlotte — is owned and controlled by an organization connected to a plot to funnel millions of dollars to Islamic terrorists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban
Previous Ban Expired in 2004 During the Bush Administration
The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.
“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters.
Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border.
[…]
In a brief interview with ABC News, Wayne LaPierre, president of the National Rifle Association, said, “I think there are a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill cringing at Eric Holder’s comments right now.”
[…]
“A semi-automatic is a quintessential self-defense firearm owned by American citizens in this country,” LaPierre said. “I think it is clearly covered under Heller and it’s clearly, I think, protected by the Constitution.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Government Rescinds ‘Leave Internet Alone’ Policy
The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce.
Instead, an “Internet Policy 3.0” approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance.
The outcomes of such discussions will be “flexible” but may result in recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week.
In the UK, the Digital Economy Bill currently making its way through Parliament has been the subject of significant controversy for advocating strict rules on copyright infringement and threatening to ban people from the internet if they are found to do so. The bill includes a wide variety of other measures, including giving regulator Ofcom a wider remit, forcing ISPs to monitor their customers’ behavior, and allowing the government to take over the dot-uk registry.
In New Zealand, a similar measure to the UK’s cut-off provision has been proposed by revising the Copyright Act to allow a tribunal to fine those found guilty of infringing copyright online as well as suspend their Internet accounts for up to six months. And in Italy this week, three Google executives were sentenced to jail for allowing a video that was subsequently pulled down to be posted onto its YouTube video site.
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Dutch Priests Accused of Child Abuse
Three Catholic clerics from the Don Rua cloisters in ‘s Heerenberg, Gelderland, have been accused of abusing at least three children in the 1960s and 1970s, the NRC reports on Friday.
The paper says one former pupil claims to have been abused for two years by a member of the Salesian order at the cloisters when he was 11 and 12 years old.
Another priest was suspended after being accused of molesting a young boy and a third has been accused of abusing a girl when he was teaching English at a school in Doetinchem, the paper says.
Abuse
The seminary was home to hundreds of boys aged 12 to 18. According to Radio Netherlands, which carried out the research with the NRC, former members of the order have confirmed the issue of sexual abuse was discussed internally.
And a former member told the NRC many priests had their favourite boys and had relationships with them.
According to the NRC, the technical head of the order in the 1970s was the current bishop of Rotterdam Ad van Luyn. He was a teacher at the ‘s Heerenberg school in the 1960s and has declined to comment on the allegations.
Investigation
Father Herman Spronck, the current head of the Dutch branch of the organisation told the NRC he knew nothing about any abuse and had no objections to an investigation.
The Salesian Society, founded in the 19th century by St John Bosco, was set up to help the young, especially the poor, and ensure the education of boys to the priesthood.
In Germany, there have been widening allegations of clerical sex abuse at Catholic schools throughout the country including claims levelled at a number of members of the Salesian order, who worked at Don Bosco centres.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Race for Lutheran Archbishop: Runoff Between Conservative and Reformist
Both conservatives and the reform-minded in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church are celebrating the outcome of Thursday’s first round in the election of a new archbishop.
In the vote, the top two candidates, who will go into the second round, are Kari Mäkinen, the Bishop of Turku, a leading reformist figure in the church, and the more conservative Miikka Ruokanen, Professor of Dogmatics at the Department of Theology at the University of Helsinki.
The result, 393 to 284, was announced at 3:00 PM.
Mäkinen was generally considered the most tolerant and reform-minded of the field of seven candidates.
Meanwhile, Professor Ruokanen has emphasised the importance of the purity of the teachings of the Church. Responding to questions put to him by Helsingin Sanomat, he said straight out that he would not ordain an openly homosexual theologian as a minister of the church (see link below).
One of the advance favourites, Seppo Häkkinen, the Bishop of Mikkeli, was somewhat unexpectedly left in third place, with 263 votes.
As no candidate got an absolute majority of the votes, a second round will be held on March 11th.
For historical reasons, residents of Turku have enormous sway in the choice of the Finnish Lutheran Archbishop; the clergy and lay representatives of the Turku Archdiocese hold a total of 900 of the 1,226 electors in the vote. The rest are from Finland’s eight other Lutheran dioceses.
On Monday next week the Turku Cathedral Chapter will confirm the result of the vote and order a second round of voting.
In addition to Bishops Mäkinen and Häkkinen, and Professor Ruokanen, the candidates in the first round included Vicar Martti hirvonen from Turku, Samuel Salmi, the Bishop of Oulu, Vicar Jouni Lehikoinen from Turku, and Seppo Rissanen, Director of the Finnish Missionary Society.
The current Archbishop, Jukka Paarma, retires in early June. The new Archbishop takes over on the same day, June 6th.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Empire Reaps Rich Rewards for Family
Milan, 25 Feb. (AKI) — Italian prime minister and business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi and his five children earned 173 million euros in dividends from his Fininvest group last year, Italian media reported on Thursday. Berlusconi received 120 million euros, while his three youngest children from his second marriage, Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi, earned 10 million euros each.
Marina Berlusconi, the premier’s eldest daughter from his first marriage, is Fininvest’s president and heads his Mondadori publishing group. She received 7 million euros.
Pier Silvio, Berlusconi’s eldest son and vice-president of his Mediaset television and film production company, earned 15.7 million euros for the year but chose to reinvest the dividends in the group. His annual salary is 1.4 million euros.
All of Berlusconi’s five children (photo) own stakes in companies that control Fininvest, the premier’s main holding company.
Pier Silvio has amassed a personal fortune of 197 million euros and Marina, 78 million euros. She purchased two million euros worth of Mediaset shares last year.
Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi have each accumulated 210 euros and last year continued to invest in real estate.
They purchased an entire apartment building next to the northern city of Milan’s landmark cathedral for 36 million euros, according to the Italian daily, La Repubblica.
In 2009, Fininvest reported liquidity of 1.1 billion in cash, compared with 162 million euros in 1994, the year Berlusconi entered politics.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Arrest 100 Mafia Suspects
Caltanissetta, 22 Feb. (AKI) — More than 100 people with suspected mafia links were arrested in criminal raids across Italy on Monday. In one investigation in Caltanissetta in central Sicily police targeted a suspected international mafia crime ring allegedly involved in extortion and loan sharking.
About 130 members of the Italian tax police arrested 24 people in Sicily as well as the northern Lombardy region in an operation dubbed “Triskelion”.
Police raided about 40 businesses including stores, a fitness centre and an auto repair shop after a long-running investigation which began in 2006.
The crime ring is alleged to have conducted activities throughout Italy and in Belgium from where police traced alleged money transfers.
In other anti-mafia operations on Monday,57 people were arrested in Foggia, in the southern Puglia region, and in the northern city of Trento, near the Austrian border, in connection with an international drug-trafficking operation.
In a separate operation, police arrested around 30 people with suspected links to the mafia known as the Camorra in Caserta in the southern region of Campania for alleged drug trafficking.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Most Members of Parliament Ignore Italian Constitution
(AGI) — Rome, 23 Feb. — Speaker of the House Gianfranco Fini said “Someone suggested that immigrants should pass certain tests before obtaining a residency permit, such as one on the Italian constitution. I would like to administer this test to Members of Parliament. Most of them do not even know the first five articles.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Munich’s Answer to Lent: Stronger Beer
Lent might be a period of abstinence, but Bavarian monks decided centuries ago that drinking highly alcoholic beer helped their fasting. Thomas Barkley explains Munich’s Starkbierzeit tradition.
The end of Fasching, what Bavarian Catholics call Carnival, heralds the beginning of Lent, the Christian season of fasting. Normally considered a period of abstinence, in beer-crazy Bavaria it’s time to crack open extra strong Starkbier brews.
Starkbierzeit has become such a fixture of Munich’s annual event calendar that locals refer to it as the year’s ‘fifth season.’ The supermarkets are stocked with the strong Doppelbock lager beer brewed only during this time.
The festival hearkens back to the fasting Paulaner monks who brewed the extra strong beer to sustain themselves between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Today the beer is served only during Lent — but is now quaffed for less pious reasons.
The festivities start on the third Thursday after Ash Wednesday. The first barrel of Triumphator was tapped this year at the Löwenbräukeller on February 25, followed by the other breweries a day later. Beer halls hold special events with traditional dances and music during the following three weeks. Most of the Starkbier revellers head to the Nockerberg to sample a couple of Maß (a one litre mug) of Paulaner’s Salvator. But if you want to dodge the crowds it is worthwhile to check out some of the other beer halls in town.
Since Munich’s Oktoberfest has become mobbed with tourists from around the world, many Munich residents have started retreating to the Starkbier festival. Just as at the Wiesn, plenty of visitors dress up in traditional Bavarian dirndl dress and lederhosen. A slightly less conventional type of leather trousers will be on display at the gay event sponsored the Munich Leather Club (MLC) at the Augustinerkeller.
Several stouts are brewed in Bavaria, but the strong beer is only served during Lent. Since the 14th century monks coming mostly from Italy found it difficult to fast in the harsh Bavarian climate and so they took to the bock beer brewed at the Hofbräuhaus, which didn’t fall under the strict fasting regulations.
In 1629, Bavarian King Maximillian permitted the Paulaner monks to brew their own beer. By raising the brewing wort from 16 percent to 18 percent, the monks made the beer stronger and more filling. This beer was piously named Salvator in honour of Saint Francis of Paola.
In 1773, Friar Barnabas came up with the new recipe for the Salvator. Other breweries started brewing so-called Doppelbock beer in the 19th century and were forced to rename their beer by decree. Since then we have been blessed with creative names for the Starkbier all ending with the same suffix: Triumphator, Maximator, Aviator, Unimator.
Entrance fees for the Starkbierzeit events cost between €8 and €13. Before 5 pm (3 pm weekends) the entrance fee is a mere €1.50. Options include the Nockerberg, Löwenbräukeller, Augustinerkeller, Unionsbräu, and the Perlacher Forschungsbrauerei.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Gay Catholics Protest Communion Refusal
A number of openly homosexual practising Catholics will attend a service at the St Jan basilica in Den Bosch next Sunday to directly challenge a bishop on giving communion to gay men and women.
The protest follows the refusal of minister Luc Buyens to give communion to an openly gay man who had been elected carnival prince in his home town of Reusel.
The carnival blessing is a traditional part of the festivities.
After talks with the bishop, Buyens decided not to give anyone at the service communion. ‘I do not want to discriminate,’ he was reported as saying.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Anger at Bid by SDL to March on Lockerbie
THE far right Scottish Defence League plans to march on the Lockerbie Memorial in a move that has been condemned by politicians of all parties and the families of those who died in the disaster.
The plans by the organisation, which has been holding protests against the “Islamification” of Scotland, were described as “disgraceful” by politicians who also called for the event to be banned.
The SDL has said it intends to hold a “peaceful vigADVERTISEMENTil” at the monument, which was built in memory of the 270 people who lost their lives when Pan Am 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in 1988.
The organisation, which has been accused of being racist and fascist, has also chosen the venue in an attempt to get back at the justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who spoke against the SDL at a recent Scotland United Rally held in Edinburgh.
MacAskill spoke of the importance of making “a stand against those who would seek to divide and saying to them that their views are not welcome”.
In the publicity for the Lockerbie march, the SDL referred to MacAskill’s decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the bombing.
“This is also a protest against the traitor Kenny MacAskill who denies the SDL free speech and defended the release of the vermin responsible for the Lockerbie outrage,” the SDL said.
MacAskill’s spokesman said: “It is hard to see how these people with their appalling and racist views could have sunk any lower, but that is what they have done.
Regardless of whether people supported Kenny MacAskill’s difficult decision or disagreed with it, people in Lockerbie and across Scotland will come together to oppose this small unrepresentative group, and their disgraceful plans.”
Mike Russell, the education secretary and South of Scotland MSP, said the rally was an obscene attempt to exploit the long suffering people of Lockerbie.
| — Hat tip: ICLA | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: State Takes Custody of 7-Year-Old Over Homeschooling
Now human rights organizations reviewing ‘state-napping’
Social workers have been visiting a Swedish couple whose son was “abducted” by government agents last year because he was being homeschooled, but that’s not necessarily a good sign, and now two major rights organizations are exploring options to reunite the family.
The Home School Legal Defense Association and members of the Alliance Defense Fund have been advising Christer and Annie Johansson on the “state-napping” of their son, Dominic, 7, from an airliner as the family was preparing to move to India last year.
[…]
“What you have here is a socialist country trying to create a cookie cutter kid,” said Roger Kiska, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney based in Europe. “This kind of thing happens too often where social workers take a child and then just keep him.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Gives Go-Ahead for New Mosque
Local politicians are in agreement that a mosque should be built in Rinkeby, a suburb in western Stockholm.
The Muslim population in Rinkeby, an area where many immigrants have congregated, has long requested the construction of a mosque, and Stockholm has now identified a suitable location.
Representatives of six Swedish political parties published a joint editorial in Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper on Saturday in support of the new house of worship.
The six politicians hope that a mosque might stimulate the local economy and increase security in the area, pointing to the mosque built in Södermalm in the 1990s as an example of a similar success story. They also emphasize it is important for the parties to maintain a broad coalition to stand behind the mosque construction in order to combat prejudice.
“The mosque will be built on the site where the former administrative building for Rinkeby stood. During the spring, the City of Stockholm…will earmark this site as a location for the Swedish Islamic Association (Islamiska förbundet) to build a mosque. It is a positive addition to Rinkeby and to Stockholm,” they wrote in DN.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Thank Europe for Solidarity in Libya Row
Switzerland is grateful for European solidarity during its row with Libya, Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said on Saturday.
Speaking before a group of 250 Socialist Party delegates gathered in the Swiss capital, Bern, Calmy-Rey said there was strength in unity and that EU-sceptics should be convinced that Switzerland is strong at Europe’s side.
The foreign minister reiterated that her goal is to free jailed Swiss businessman Max Göldi as soon as possible. After being forbidden from leaving Libya for nearly 600 days, Göldi recently began serving a four-month prison term for visa violations.
International human rights groups say Göldi has become a political pawn in Switzerland’s ongoing row with Libya over the brief 2008 arrest in Geneva of leader Moammar Gaddafi’s youngest son, Hannibal. The row has escalated into a European issue with various visa restrictions hampering travel between most of Europe and Libya.
Calmy-Rey’s socialist colleagues have gathered in the capital to lay out their agenda for the upcoming parliament session. During her speech, the foreign minister also touched on the country’s financial centre woes, saying banks had traded industriousness and discretion for greed and secrecy.
“We are living in sort of shock,” Calmy-Rey said, adding that the fraudulent behavior of irresponsible bankers had affected Switzerland’s self-image. “One could even speak of a national trauma.”
She said the government’s decision to cooperate with foreign investigators in cases of tax evasion — which is not a crime in Switzerland — was “right and necessary”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brown, The Bully: Key No. 10 Figure Tells How He Was Pushed and Shouted at by the PM
Gordon Brown was accused of lying about his bullying behaviour last night after one of his closest aides revealed in a sensational tape-recording how the Prime Minister shoved him on the stairs inside No10.
In the tape, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, the official describes how he exclaimed ‘Bloody hell!’ and was left ‘shocked and upset’ when Mr Brown pushed him aside with a raised arm.
The adviser says Mr Brown’s staff have made excuses for his bullying behaviour for years. And, damagingly, he questions whether they had been right to do so, arguing a ‘core part’ of being Prime Minister is to treat people properly.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic Radicals ‘Infiltrate’ The Labour Party
A Labour minister says his party has been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group that wants to create an “Islamic social and political order” in Britain.
The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) — which believes in jihad and sharia law, and wants to turn Britain and Europe into an Islamic state — has placed sympathisers in elected office and claims, correctly, to be able to achieve “mass mobilisation” of voters.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, said the IFE had become, in effect, a secret party within Labour and other political parties.
“They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level,” he said.
“They are completely at odds with Labour’s programme, with our support for secularism.”
Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town, said the IFE had infiltrated and “corrupted” his party in east London in the same way that the far-Left Militant Tendency did in the 1980s. Leaked Labour lists show a 110 per cent rise in party membership in one constituency in two years.
In a six-month investigation by this newspaper and Channel 4’s Dispatches, involving weeks of covert filming by the programme’s reporters:
IFE activists boasted to the undercover reporters that they had already “consolidated … a lot of influence and power” over Tower Hamlets, a London borough council with a £1 billion budget.
We have established that the group and its allies were awarded more than £10 million of taxpayers’ money, much of it from government funds designed to “prevent violent extremism”.
IFE leaders were recorded expressing opposition to democracy, support for sharia law or mocking black people. The IFE organised meetings with extremists, including Taliban allies, a man named by the US government as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a man under investigation by the FBI for his links to the September 11 attacks.
Moderate Muslims in London told how the IFE and its allies were enforcing their hardline views on the rest of the local community, curbing behaviour they deemed “un-Islamic”. The owner of a dating agency received a threatening email from an IFE activist, warning her to close it.
George Galloway, a London MP, admitted in recordings obtained by this newspaper that his surprise victory in the 2005 election owed more to the IFE “than it would be wise — for them — for me to say, adding that they played a “decisive role” in his triumph at the polls.
Mr Galloway now says they were one of many groups which supported his anti-war stance and had never sought to influence him.
The IFE has particularly close links to Tower Hamlets council. Seven serving and former councillors said Lutfur Rahman, the current council leader, gained his post with the group’s help.
Some said they were canvassed by a senior IFE official on his behalf. After Mr Rahman was elected, a man with close links to the group, Lutfur Ali, was appointed assistant chief executive of the council with responsibility for grant funding.
This was despite a chequered employment record, a misleading CV and a negative report from the headhunters appointed to consider the candidates. The council’s white chief executive was subsequently forced from his post.
Since Mr Rahman became leader, more council grants have been paid to a number of organisations which our investigation established are closely linked to the IFE.
Funding for other, secular groups was ended or cut. In the borough’s well-known Brick Lane area, council funds were switched from a largely secular heritage trail to a highly controversial “hijab sculpture”, angering many residents who accused the council of “religious triumphalism”.
Schools in Tower Hamlets are told by the council should close for the Muslim festival of Eid, even where most of their pupils are not Muslim.
Mr Rahman refused to deny that an IFE activist had canvassed councillors on his behalf. He said: “There are various people across Tower Hamlets who get excited, who get involved.”
He would not comment on concerns about infiltration, saying they were “party matters”. He said: “If you look at our flagship policies, like investing £20 million to tackle overcrowding, you can see that we are working for everyone.”
The IFE said it did not seek to influence the council and had not lobbied for Mr Rahman. “If anything, existing members of the Labour Party have joined the IFE, rather than the other way round,” it said.
The group insisted it was not a fundamentalist or extremist organisation and did not support violence.
| — Hat tip: Dazed & Confused | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Minister Admits Islamic Extremists Who Believe in Jihad and Sharia Law Have Infiltrated the Labour Party
The Labour Party has been inflitrated by Islamic fundamentalists, a Government Minister admitted today.
Members of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) which believes in Britain should develop sharia law have placed sympathisers in elected office and local branches of parties, an investigation revealed.
The covert campaign is part of an attempt at ‘mass mobilisation’ of voters by the group, which believes in jihad.
Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, told the Sunday Telegraph the IFE had become a secret party within Labour.
He said: ‘They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level.’
‘They are completely at odds with Labour’s programme, with our support for secularism.’
Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town, said the IFE had infiltrated and ‘corrupted’ his party in east London in the same way that the far-Left Militant Tendency did in the 1980s.
Leaked Labour lists show a 110 per cent rise in party membership in one constituency in two years.
A six-month investigation into the IFE and its political activities revealed it had ‘consolidated’ its influence at the London borough council of Tower Hamlets, which has a budget estimated at£1bn.
Other recordings by undercover reporters include leaders of the group saying they opposed democracy and supported sharia law.
The investigation revealed the group had received £10m in taxpayer cash from government funds designed to ‘prevent violent extremism’.
It also uncovered evidence that moderate Muslims were being targeted by group leaders who resent their ‘un-Islamic’ behaviour.
Lutfur Rahman, leader of Labour-run Tower Hamlets Council, obtained his post with the group’s help.
Referring to IFE activists, he said: ‘There are various people across Tower Hamlets who get excited, who get involved.’
He would not comment on concerns about infiltration, saying they were ‘party matters’.
He said: ‘If you look at our flagship policies, like investing £20 million to tackle overcrowding, you can see that we are working for everyone.’
The IFE said it did not seek to influence the council and had not lobbied for Mr Rahman.
‘If anything, existing members of the Labour Party have joined the IFE, rather than the other way round,’ it said.
The group insisted it was not a fundamentalist or extremist organisation and did not support violence.
Labour today promised to investigate the allegations and said the local party in Tower Hamlets was already in ‘special measures’.
This means the selection of candidates has been taken over by the regional party in London.
‘The London Regional Labour Party has placed Tower Hamlets Labour Party in special measures following complaints of membership abuse and its administration, including the selection of council candidates, has been taken out of the hands of the local party,’ the party said in a statement.
‘This is now run by the London Regional Labour Party and we will investigate any further evidence which is raised by this programme.
‘The Labour Party will take firm action and do whatever is necessary to ensure that everyone who joins the party does so as an individual and supports Labour’s aims and values.’
Tower Hamlets Council recently courted controversy by proposing to build ‘hijab’-shaped arches at either end of London’s Brick Lane as part of a cultural tour.
Residents said the £1.85m scheme was culturally-insensitive and a waste of money.
| — Hat tip: DT | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Now the Government Wants Competence Tests Before You Can be a Dog Owner
Every dog owner will have to take a costly ‘competence test’ to prove they can handle their pets, under new Government proposals designed to curb dangerous dogs.
Owners of all breeds would also have to buy third-party insurance in case their pet attacked someone, and pay for the insertion of a microchip in their animal recording their name and address.
The proposals are among a range of measures to overhaul dog laws in England and Wales being considered by senior Ministers, who are expected to announce a public consultation within weeks.
But critics said responsible dog owners would be penalised by yet more red tape and higher bills — one expert estimated the extra costs at £60 or more — while irresponsible owners of dangerous dogs would just ignore the measures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terrorists ‘Could Hijack New Meters to Cause Blackouts’
Controversial technology to be installed in homes across the country could be exploited by terrorists, according to a leaked intelligence report.
‘Smart’ meters, which allow power companies to read gas and electricity meters and change price tariffs remotely, are due to be installed in every home by 2020 in a £9billion drive by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
However, an 18-page briefing by the Cyber Security Operations Centre — a branch of Government spy agency GCHQ — says computer links between homes and power stations could be hacked into by terrorists, causing a nationwide blackout.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Did a Chinese Tycoon Buy 5,000 Copies of Cherie Blair’s New Book?
It is a riddle which at first appears as baffling as the most inscrutable Chinese puzzle.
Why would a man with a fortune of at least £100 million spend his money on 5,000 copies of Cherie Blair’s autobiography?
That is precisely what Chinese property tycoon Miles Kwok has done, prompting bemusement in political and literary circles in Britain.
But the Beijing-based entrepreneur is said to believe that Mrs Blair’s story of her rise from humble origins in Liverpool to life as the Prime Minister’s wife in Downing Street will prove inspirational for his workers.
[…]
He first tasted success in 1992 at the age of 25 when, under his Chinese name of Guo Wen-gui, he became the director of a company called Big Boss Furniture.
Now known as a shrewd operator with good contacts within the ruling Communist Party and across the world, Mr Kwok is chairman of Pangu Investments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Viktor Yanukovych’s Re-Election Doesn’t Mean the End of the Orange Revolution
Magyar Narancs 11.02.2010 (Hungary)
The foreign affairs analyst (Pact Inc., FRIDE) Balazs Jarabik does not believe that Viktor Yanukovych’s re-election means the end of the Orange Revolution. The alleged pro-Kremlin stance of the new president is just as ambiguous as the “European guise” of his opponent Julia Timoshenko. Both want into the EU, because this has the support of the majority of the Ukrainian population, and both are ready to cooperate with Moscow, also with the backing of the majority of the population. But most of all they are both interested — as, of course, are their sponsors — in keeping the shadowy economy in place and using it to their advantage, according to Jarabik. “Once you put stereotypes and geopolitics aside, there is very little of any interest or magnitude left — except for Ukraine’s domestic problems, the lack of structural reform, the state deficit, the debt… What Ukraine really needs is the attention of the world, and aid which is bound to strict conditions. It has to adopt European standards in parliament. And since Central Europe plays a key role in the EU’s policy on Ukraine, the Visegrad countries cannot just sit back and watch.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
What Could be More British Than a Tea Party?
By Daniel Hannan
Some British Lefties — and some Americans — are thrown by the idea of a Brighton Tea Party. After all, they point out, the original Boston Tea Party was directed against the British Crown.
Yes, it was. But where do you think its leaders drew their inspiration from? The American patriots didn’t see themselves as revolutionaries, but as conservatives. In their own minds, all they were asking for was what they had always assumed to be their birthright as freeborn Englishmen.
Part of that birthright was liberty from unjust, arbitrary or punitive taxation. The proposition that taxes ought not to be levied except by elected representatives would have been every bit as popular in Great Britain in 1773 as in America. It’s important to remember that there was a more restricted franchise in the mother country at that time than in the colonies. None the less, there are ways to infer public opinion from such data as newspaper circulation, petitions to Parliament (either for Conciliation or Coercion), and extrapolation from the views of that handful of MPs who, prior to 1832, represented a broader section of the electorate. From these sources, historians estimate that public opinion in Great Britain was similar to that in America: on both sides of the Atlantic, only around a third of the population were Tories.
The American Revolution, in other words, was inspired by British political philosophy and — more to the point — by British political practice. American patriots saw themselves as part of a continuing British tradition, stretching back through the Glorious Revolution, back through the agitations of Pym and Hampden, back even through the Great Charter to the folkright of Anglo-Saxon common law.
Naturally enough, once the fighting started, the rebel leaders began to use nationalist arguments, and subsequent historians in the US have tended to play these up. But the idea, in 1773, that Britain was a foreign country would have struck most Americans, patriot or loyalist, as ridiculous. A large majority of the British population sympathised with the arguments of the colonists. So, indeed, did the greatest British parliamentarians of the age.
“I rejoice that America has resisted,” proclaimed William Pitt the Elder setting out the case against the Stamp Act in 1766. “Three million people so dead to all feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest [of us]”
“Let us get an American revenue as we have got an American Empire,” said Edmund Burke in 1775, taking up the cause of no taxation without representation. “English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges alone will make it all it can be.”
Those British Lefties who now sneer at what they regard as the Americanisation of the British Right would do well to remember their own history. They are the political heirs of Charles James Fox, of John Wilkes, or Tom Paine. I have no doubt that if the heroes of that age — Burke or Fox or Pitt or Johnson or Swift — could be transported to our own time, they would recoil with horror at the level of taxation and state intervention.
To remind you, Labour has introduced 111 tax rises since 1997. It has taken a trillion pounds in additional taxation. And it has still left us with a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP.
Enough is enough. I’m not asking you to throw any chests into the Channel, but at least come to Brighton, drink some tea, and let our leaders know how you feel about their squandering of our property and our heritage. Here are the details.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Strengthening Cooperation With Council of Europe
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, FEBRUARY 22 — For two days in Rabat, Moroccan authorities and representatives from the Council of Europe are to discuss ways of strengthening cooperation between the countries of the Mediterranean’s southern shores and the Pan-European organisation. During the meetings, organised in collaboration with the Council of Europe and Morocco’s Foreign Ministry, criteria for the priorities of the collaboration will be examined along with which players and structures can be used to implement it, before analysing the Moroccan government initiative for human development and the legal reform of the country. The objective of the encounters will also be the promotion of north-south cooperation focused on intercultural dialogue and education. The meeting is a part of the framework of Morocco’s adhesion, last July, to the North-South Centre, the Council of Europe body that has the task of promoting dialogue and cooperation between Europe, the countries of the Mediterranean’s southern shore and Africa. The meeting was opened by Taib Fassi-Fihri, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe and Deborah Bergamini, president of the North-South Centre. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Rai Sat, Arabic Basic Literacy Lessons Begin
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, FEBRUARY 23 — With a financial contribution from the Italian Foreign Ministry, basic literacy lessons for Moroccans on satellite channel Rai Nettuno and national TV Al Oula and broadcaster Arabjia have begun. The cultural collaboration agreement was signed in Rabat on May 14 2009 by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, head of the Moroccan Education Ministry, Akhmed Akhchichine, and President of the Italian online University Maria Amata Garito. The lessons in Arabic broadcast from Rome by an Italian-Moroccan team are intended to drastically reduce the rate of illiteracy, which affects over 40% of the population, especially in rural areas. The programme, which is similar to “It’s never too late” — an Italian programme from the 1960s — is made possible thanks to satellite technology, which allows significant savings compared to traditional teaching methods with teachers and school buildings spread throughout the country. The course consists of 150 video lessons in Arabic, broadcast three times a day by Rai Nettuno Sat until June 30. Al Oula will broadcast the lessons on Saturday and Sunday morning, and Al Arabja on Monday to Thursday evenings. The agreement with Morocco is part of the Med Net project, a network of 31 universities from 11 Euro-Mediterranean countries, which transmits programmes 24 hours per day on Sat1 Rai and Sat2 Rai in Italian, French, English and Arabic, from primary education to university courses. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi’s Jihad Call is “A Question of Honour”
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s call for holy war against Switzerland is an attempt to raise his standing in the Muslim world, an expert tells swissinfo.ch.
But Reinhard Schulze, the director of Islamic Studies at Bern University, says that the Muslim world is used to Gaddafi’s rhetoric and will not heed his call for “jihad”.
The “enfant terrible” of the Muslim world, as Schulze describes him, does not have the authority to call for jihad, a measure usually undertaken by Islamic leaders, not politicians.
Gaddafi made the remarks in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, at a gathering marking the birthday of the prophet Mohammed on Thursday. He declared Switzerland a country of infidels who had “destroyed Allah’s house” and said jihad against the country was “not terrorism”.
A vote passed by the Swiss banning the construction of minarets was grounds for jihad, he said. Switzerland’s foreign ministry has explained to Muslim leaders that the vote was not against Islam and that freedom of worship is still in place.
Libya and Switzerland have been at odds since the brief arrest of Gaddafi’s son, Hannibal Gaddafi, in July 2008 on charges that he and his pregnant wife mistreated their staff while staying at a hotel in Geneva. The charges were later dropped and the staff compensated.
swissinfo.ch: Why has Gaddafi launched this call for jihad now, months after the outcome of the vote on banning minarets in Switzerland?
Reinhard Schulze: I think the main reason is that Gaddafi is trying to address an Islamic public which is not specifically orientated to the West, to the European public.
He wants to get a position within the Islamic public which gives him the power to say that he is the leader of the Islamic world. That’s why he used the birthday of the prophet Mohammed and the assembly where people had gathered [to make his call]. The Libyan media say that about 90 delegations from 90 countries were coming to Benghazi.
In this respect he is trying to give himself the image of being a leader of the Islamic world. He uses specific topics which seem to be discussed in the Islamic world and tries to show that it is a question of honour of Islam etc. That’s why he uses the Swiss question as the main topic.
swissinfo.ch: Some would say Gaddafi does not have any clout from a religious perspective and is not entitled to declare jihad.
R.S.: Not at all. From a legal point of view he is not allowed to do this at all, because it is not the task of a political leader to talk about jihad. That’s the traditional point of view. It is only Islamic scholars who are allowed to say whether a conflict should be interpreted as jihad or not.
swissinfo.ch: Would his words therefore carry no weight in the Arab world?
R.S.: None at all. I think because he is considered by most Muslim leaders as being an ‘enfant terrible’. They are already used to his rhetoric. He has often talked about jihad, about honour, about resistance etc. Nobody really considers [his call for jihad] very important.
swissinfo.ch: How should it be taken by Switzerland and what does it really mean for the country?
R.S.: Because Gaddafi did not address Switzerland directly in this respect or use the negotiations between the European Union and Libya as a forum for his attacks, I think the Swiss government should say ‘well that’s part of his Islamic play and that’s not part of our diplomatic conflict’.
swissinfo.ch: So Switzerland should not be taking this seriously?
R.S.: Not seriously in the sense that it is really meant as an attack against Switzerland.
swissinfo.ch: Why is Gaddafi so angry with Switzerland?
R.S.: It’s again a question of anger, of honour, family honour. It has not been resolved. From his point of view Switzerland did not tackle the problem at all, from his point of view Switzerland is acting only on a diplomatic, political level and is not addressing the question which for the Libyan system is very important — the question of honour.
swissinfo.ch: Does this latest development indicate that things are heating up?
R.S.: In one respect it is heating up because the internal political institutions in Libya now have their hands tied because they are not in a free position to deal with the question of Max Göldi, for example. They have to cope with the rhetoric of Gaddafi and find a solution which on the one hand gives a chance to calm bilateral relations between Switzerland and Libya.
On the other hand they have to serve their leader and their leader is now talking of jihad. So for them the situation has become very complicated.
swissinfo.ch: Isn’t Gaddafi shooting himself in the foot with this call? Won’t he make other economic partners think twice about doing business with him?
R.S.: Of course, I think business partners will think about that. Libya’s international economic relations are now in a position of great insecurity and business actors of course are asking themselves whether they have a reliable partner within the Libyan system. And of course nobody really knows what will happen.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Environment and SMEs, Germany Gives 15 Mln Euros
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, FEBRUARY 24 — Germany has donated 15 million euros to Morocco as part of bilateral technical cooperation, said press agency Map, which reports that the agreement was signed by Morocco’s Minister for the Economy , Salaheddine Mezouar, and the German Ambassador Ulf-Dieter Klemm. The amount will be used to finance the protection of the environment, the exploitation of renewable energy and combating desertification, as well as support for small and medium-sized businesses and professional training. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Venice-Casablanca Low Cost Flights From June
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, FEBRUARY 19 — In June low cost airline ‘Jet4you’ will open flights between Venice and Casablanca. The announcement was made by the management of the Moroccan company during the International tourism fair that is being held in Milan. The sale of tickets will start at the end of February for flights that will depart three times a week. The Moroccan company already has connections with Milan and Bologna. In total Jet4you covers 25 destinations in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mons. Twal: When We Amazed Peres on New Year’s
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, FEBRUARY 26 — Peace in the Middle East can also be heard in the notes of a song sung by a group of girls. the Patriarch of Jerusalem Mons. Fouad Twal spoke of an episode which occurred at the beginning of the year: “We had gone to wish the Israeli president, Peres, a happy new year. We had a little party with a show, bringing 12 girls from a school of ours in Haifa: 4 Jews, 4 Christians and 4 Muslims. They were beautiful, from 12-14 years old. They danced and sang and I asked Peres, can you tell which is Christian, which is Muslim and which is Jewish? They sang in Arabic, in English, in Hebrew, all together”. “I said to Peres”, the Patriarch explained, “let’s make a generation that can dance together, sing and play together, grow together. The schools must do a lot. If children play together, sing together, then dialogue will be more certain and bear more fruit than the speeches that are heard in Rome and other places. If we want true peace we must create respect for rights and justice, make sacrifices, pay a price, sow well and look to the future”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mons. Twal: Moderates Useless, Christians for Hamas
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, FEBRUARY 26 — “If the politics of moderation do not pay, people look elsewhere, search for new ways, and also tries out the wrong ways and the international community, starting with Europe, cannot get away simply with the politics of assistance, we need the ‘politics of truth’“. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mons. Fouad Twal, narrates the choice taken by many Christians in Bethlehem to vote for Hamas extremists in the latest elections. The fact is that up to now “moderation turned out to be useless, people sided with the radicals. We are all aware of this, I’m the bishop and I’m aware of it, the international community is aware, everyone who did not do enough to help the moderates solve the problems is aware of it. So I ask myself who created Hamas? Who drove so many young people towards the radicals? The radicals of all sides are an obstacle to peace. The international community must intervene, Europe must do something, not only through assistance, it must be brave enough to tell the truth”. The Patriarch stated that “Europe did a lot for us, but always in financial terms; I wish Europe would also have a political role, which is what we are still missing. Europe assisted us financially, it still does so, but it left politics totally in the hands of the US and Israel, and a little to London. I wish that Europe, which we feel slightly closer to us, would stick its hands into this reality, to feel like a partner with the others”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barak: Iran Developing Nukes, Not ‘Avatar-Like Long Bows’
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, not “Avatar-like long bows,” in a CNN interview aired on Sunday.
Barak told interviewer Christiane Amanpour that although he supports the U.S. effort to place sanctions on Iran, “We have to take this situation seriously.”
“I believe and hope that [sanctions] will work,” Barak said, but added that, “We recommend to other [countries] not to remove any options from the table.”
He continued by stressing that sanctions against Iran should continue until their effect is clearly seen.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is under pressure from world powers to end Iran’s nuclear program, has in the past called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”
Speaking about the Goldstone report on last winter’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Barak said the report encourages terror.
The Goldstone report charged both Israel and Hamas with war crimes, following Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in Gaza, as well as acts that amounted to crimes against humanity. The war followed a sustained period of heavy rocket fire from Gaza into Israel’s southern communities.
“After years of Israel being terrorized by rockets from Gaza — the report is biased, extorted and totally unexplainable,” Barak said.
He added that Israel had investigated what happened in Gaza “long before Goldstone wrote his report.”
Amanpour asked Barak about Israeli intentions for a pre-emptive attack on any of its borders.
Barak responded, “We are not interested in a conflict in the north or the east. But, if it is imposed on us, we know how to respond.”
Regarding Lebanon specifically, Barak emphasized that Israel would not chase down individual Hezbollah fighters.
If attacked on the northern border, “we will hit Lebanon and whatever is under the responsibility of Lebanon’s government,” Barak said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Beware the Civilian-Military Ides of March in Turkey
As accusations fly and arrests continue in the alleged ‘Balyoz’ (Sledgehammer) coup plot that has been shaking the country for the last few weeks, the Daily News analyzes the latest skirmishes between Turkey’s military, judiciary and government and what they may mean for the country
Prosecutors arresting prosecutors. Dozens of active and retired military officers rounded up. Angry generals. Accusatory politicians. Breathless exclamations lamenting an “attack on democracy,” or the threat of “Shariah law.” And that was just the past few days.
If Turks have a hard time tracking the skirmishing amid the military, the judiciary and the government, outsiders and the newly initiated will find the intricacies of Turkish politics all but mind-numbing. So let’s take it slowly.
Much of the political hyperventilation of recent days turns on the “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) Operation, an alleged military coup plot dating to 2003 that has been shaking the country for the last five weeks.
The plot was initially revealed Jan. 20 by the feisty daily Taraf, a young newspaper that has persistently focused on critiquing the Turkish military. The alleged plot to remove the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, from power by destabilizing the country included raising tension between Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea by having a Turkish fighter plane shot down, bombing two significant mosques in Istanbul during prayer time and staging an organized assault on a military museum by agents dressed as extremists.
Was this seriously considered once upon a time? Or were some disgruntled and powerless officers simply having a scenario jam session that no one should take seriously? In a nutshell, this is the debate that has ensued around many Turkish tables, coffeehouse backgammon games and student teahouses in recent weeks.
The allegations, in the end, bear similarities to the “Flag” plan conducted during the Sept. 12, 1980, coup, which did not simply overthrow the ruling party but sought to fully reshape the country, from economy to foreign relations. The echoes from a quarter-century ago are resonating.
But let’s return to Taraf. Document after document purloined from the military have been published courtesy of anonymous sources. In the face of denials from the General Staff, the newspaper upped the ante, turning over its trove to the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office, which found a suitcase full of paperwork, CDs and tape cassettes — and digital data as well.
The Sledgehammer affair has offered plenty of feed for media of all ideologies, with the views expressed generally split along familiar pro- and anti-government lines. Along with lists of soldiers who would handle the bombings and the Cabinet to be founded after the coup, the alleged plot featured two lists of journalists: the to-be-arrested and the to-be-”made use of.”
Some of the journalists from the first list held a press conference in Istanbul on Jan. 28, calling for the government to take charge of the situation. Those on the second, however, preferred to sue Taraf for sullying their names without the standard journalistic courtesy of them being able to respond. Most, however, were content with expressions against the idea of military coups.
Enter Ilker Basbug, chief of the General Staff, who organized a press conference Jan. 25. In great fury and anger, he hit his fist on the platform as he spoke, but he was careful with his words. “How can a military train its soldiers to charge and chant ‘Allah, Allah’ also think of bombing the house of Allah? This is remorselessness. I condemn it,” Basbug said, though he did not deny the existence of the Sledgehammer plan, reserving some of his wrath for anyone in uniform who might have pondered such a plot.
But then retired and loquacious Gen. Çetin Dogan, the former 1st Army commander who allegedly masterminded the plan, made the media rounds. He did not deny the plan, but said it was modified from a routine war-game scenario that definitely did not include bombing mosques or shooting down the country’s own planes.
Somehow, Turkey got to February, a month that always seems to be a difficult one for civil-military relations. The most recent serious military intervention, the so-called “post-modern coup” that forced the resignation of the Islamic-oriented government, occurred Feb. 28, 1997. But things this February seemed to work in reverse, with the cancellation of the EMASYA agreement that in practice granted the military authority to intervene in civilian affairs without waiting for permission — and was said to be a stepping stone to the Sledgehammer plot.
Then came the “prosecutor vs. prosecutor” crises, which, while not directly related to the Sledgehammer investigation, has been connected to the alleged “Ergenekon” drama that has been unfolding over the past two and a half years. The judiciary crisis that started between two prosecutors escalated to a war of words and threats between the top judiciary organizations as the AKP also fed coal to the fire. The news of the past week has also effectively tossed gasoline on the ongoing Ergenekon case, which has detained more than 100 suspects without a conviction.
The week wrapped up with a summit among the top echelon of the military and, ultimately, a three-way peace parley of sorts between the prime minister, the president and the top general. Two of the top generals in custody were cut loose, but another round of detentions Friday was the news of the day.
So is the country becoming more democratic under the rule of the AKP, a political party that does not see eye to eye with the military as many of its predecessors since the 1980 coup have? Or is the AKP building its own dictatorship while weakening the military’s influence on politics? This is the basic storyline. And it’s unlikely to finish soon. Though we can be thankful we are about to move out of February, we must still beware the Ides of March.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gas: Saudi Arabia Annouces Discovery of New Field
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, FEBRUARY 24 — Saudi Aramco has discovered new gas fields in Jalamid Well, in the north of Saudi Arabia. The news was announced by the Saudi Minister for Oil, Ali al Naimi, quoted by daily newspaper Saudi Gazette. The minister specified that the gas flows at a depth of some three kilometres, 95km east of the city of Turaif. Saudi Arabia manages the world’s fourth largest reserve of gas. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Threatens to ‘Freeze’ Europe for Backing Sanctions
(IsraelNN.com) Brigadier-General Hossein Salami of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that Iran has the power to cut Europe’s energy supply. The warning was issued as European leaders prepared to debate sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
“Iran sits on 50 percent of the world’s energy, and if it wants, Europe will spend the winter in the cold,” Salami told Iranian troops in the city of Kerman. His speech was published by the Iranian Fars news agency.
Iran is in possession of roughly 16 percent of the world’s natural gas and is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil. In addition, Iran borders the Strait of Hormuz (Persian Gulf), through which much of the world’s oil supply passes.
Salami also mentioned Iran’s missiles. The country has recently tested long-range missiles, and announced just weeks ago that it had launched a satellite-capable rocket.
“Our missiles are now able to target any spot which the conspirators are in,” he said.
Western powers have been discussing the possibility of sanctions on Iran in the United Nations security council. Israel has lobbied for tough sanctions, while Russia and China continue to oppose harsh measures. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) plans to discuss Iran’s nuclear program next week.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Jonathan Spyer: The Northern Tinder Box
The war of words is continuing. The latest salvoes were fired last week by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and his Lebanese ally and client Hassan Nasrallah. Ahmedinejad reportedly told Nasrallah that if Israel attacks Hizballah, the response should be sufficient to lead to the closure, once and for all, of the Israeli ‘case.’ In the same week, Nasrallah promised attendees at a ‘Resistance Martyrs Day’ celebration that his movement would target Israel’s infrastructure in the event of further hostilities. The Hizballah leader mentioned airports, factories and refineries as possible targets.
Hizballah second in command Naim Qassem joined in this week, describing Israel as ‘worse than Nazism,’ and the ‘leader of international crime under the sponsorship of the U.S. and major world powers.’ Qassem reiterated his movement’s rejection of any diplomatic option vis a vis Israel, saying that “What was taken by the force of occupation can only be regained by the force of the resistance.”
The self-confident, warlike tones of these leaders are by now familiar. But what, if anything, is revealed by these most recent statements?…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Stem Cells: Emirates, Two Research Centres Opened This Year
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, FEBRUARY 22 — A medical company based in Dubai is looking to invest up to Dh60 million (US$16.3m) to launch the Middle East’s first research centre devoted to stem-cell treatment, the National reports. Shahab al Awadi, the chief executive of Medical Supplies Company (MSC), said he was in negotiations with international medical researchers to open two specialised medical clinics in the UAE by the end of this year that will treat patients with cord-blood stem cells. Stem cells are the basic building blocks of life that are capable of developing into various types of cells. Researchers say stored stem cells can later be used for a tailor-made cure in the event of disease striking later in life. One centre in Dubai will focus on treatments such as plastic surgery, while the other will be based in Abu Dhabi and will conduct major surgery and research into the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, l Awadi said. “I started in the medical field and I think that this is a unique opportunity,” he said. “We cannot wait to get opportunity from outside, so we have to start from here.” Al Awadi said banks would finance up to 65 per cent of the initial investment, with the rest of the funds coming from MSC. It is unclear whether stem-cell research in the UAE is regulated. (ANSA).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Coup Bid; TV, Further 18 Military Personnel Arrested
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 26 — Another eighteen Turkish military personnel have been placed under arrest in Turkey today on charges of involvement in a plot to overthrow the Erdogan government. According to reports on Turkish television, the arrests were made in various locations. CNN Turkey states that 17 of those arrested are military personnel currently in service and one is an officer in pension. One of the serving officers is the Commander of the Konya Gendarmerie. The eighteen arrests come on top of the eleven made this morning. This brings the number of officers arrested since the inquiry started to around fifty. This week’s investigation is into the attempted coup staged in 2003 in a bid to overturn Erdogan’s government and his Islamic Roots, Justice and Development Party (AKP). The former Air Force commander, Ibrahim Firtina, was released yesterday evening as was former Navy commander General Ozden Ornek, both of whom are now pensioners.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine — Russia: Kirill’s Blessing for President Yanukovych
The oath of the new Ukrainian President, was preceded by a ceremony presided over by the Patriarch of Moscow, perhaps a sign of the new Ukraine’s dependence on Russia. Yanukovych’s first foreign trip will be to Brussels, but doubtless his close ties with Moscow . Possible ecumenical progress.
Kiev (AsiaNews) — The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia yesterday ended a two day visit to the Ukrainian capital, coinciding with the inauguration of new president Victor Yanukovich. In this way the presidency of the new head of the Ukrainian state began with the blessing of the Russian religious leader, given that Moscow was unable to have a more explicit political involvement. For this, Kirill’s visit has raised some controversy.
Together with Metropolitan Vladimir, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kirill yesterday led a ceremony of thanksgiving and intercession at the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev. Soon after, Yanukovich, present at the function, went to the Supreme Rada, where he swore an oath.
The arrival of Kirill, on
Despite repeated appeals from the Patriarchate of Kiev not to exploit the visit of Kirill in the political sense, the event can only be read as a clear sign of the Russian Bear’s closeness to the new chief of the former satellite state. Moscow rejected the pro Western policies of former President Victor Yushchenko, leader of the defunct Orange Revolution, and strong opponent of Russian influence.
Already last week, the Kremlin had made known its satisfaction with the outcome of the election, asking Yanukovich to come to Moscow soon. In the need to dispel doubts about the seriousness of his opening to the west, Yanukovich announced Brussels as a destination of his first foreign mission, but the visit of Patriarch of Moscow is eloquent sign of the strong dependence of the former breadbasket of Europe on its larger neighbour.
This was Kirill’s second visit to Ukraine since his election in January 2009. The first trip, last August, was accompanied by strong protests from supporters of the independence of the Orthodox Church of Kiev. In Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church is trying to cope with a situation of great tension between different communities. There are three churches that make reference to orthodoxy: Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Patriarchate of Moscow (UOC-MP), Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Patriarchate of Kiev (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church (UAOC). The interlocutor with the Russian clergy is the Ukrainian-Patriarchate of Moscow, but last year Kirill launched signs of opening to the other two branches of Orthodoxy, united opposition to the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine. The election of a pro-Russian leader to the presidency now promises to relaunch dialogue between the different components of the Ukrainian Orthodox toward a possible unification.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Dhaka: Christian Student Killed for Less Than a Dollar
A gang of thugs attacked Rema Amit, 26, and a friend who was in his company. The spoils of harvest is a phone and 70 cents. Police have already identified and arrested the members of the group.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — An armed gang has killed one tribal Christian student and injured a friend, to steal a phone and a tally of less than one euro. The two young men were on their way home from festivities for the 100th anniversary of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, located in the district of Netrokona — Dhaka Division — about 173 km from the capital. The police confirmed the identification and arrest of all members of the group involved in the murder.
The incident occurred on 15 February in Mohammadupur, division of Dhaka. Rema Amit, 26, a student of the Institute of Science and Technology at Dhanmondi in the company of his friend Sohag, had just got off the bus, returning from the festivities for the Jubilee of St. Joseph Church. On the wayhome, in East Raja Bazar (Dhaka), the two friends were attacked by a group armed with knives and pistols, who ordered them to hand over money and valuables.
At the young men’s refusal, the assailants struck them with a large knife and then stole their money which amounted to a total of 70 taka (about 70 euro cents) and their mobile phones. Sohag, the survivor, said that “the group followed us, in a private car” and attacked them “near Amit’s home.”
A police patrol on the spot immediately intervened arresting one of the assailants, Sujan (aka Monir) 24, who was in possession of a large knife. A few hours later the agents stopped the three other members of the gang, Habib, 24, Ershad alias Munna, 26, and Monirul, 25, seizing a pistol and ammunition.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: No Space for Christians and Muslims to Bury Their Dead in Kathmandu
Rapid unplanned urbanisation has led the government to give Hindus land earmarked for Christian, Muslim and Baha’i minorities, groups that do not cremate their dead. This is causing tensions between Hindus and other religious groups.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Christians, Muslims and Baha’i have no place to bury their dead. Rapid unplanned urbanisation has led the government to give Hindus land originally set aside for minority groups. Unlike Hindus, Christians and Muslims do not cremate their dead.
Fr George Karapurackal, who is parish priest at Kathmandu’s Assumption Cathedral, said, “This problem applies to all religions minorities. To solve it, we Catholics might have to start to cremate our dead, and place a memorial stone in our churches.
Nepal has a population of 23 million. Christians number around 800,000 (0.5 per cent), concentrated mostly in the capital, home to some 300 Protestant and Catholic churches, each with its own cemetery.
“Finding a proper burial place may not be a problem for members of rich churches, who have bought land for their cemeteries on the fringes of Kathmandu, but it is a serious problem for the poor,” said Nindra Bhusal of National Council of Churches of Nepal.
Failure by the government to set aside land for this purpose is creating tensions between members of different faith communities and Hindus.
“The government should take the initiative to preserve the cultural rights of religious groups,” said Taj Mohammad Miya, coordinator of the United Muslim National Struggle Committee (UMNSC). “After we ran out of burial space, we were compelled to dig older graves and bury new corpses in them,” he added.
With 3.2 per cent of the population, Muslims are the fourth largest religious minority of Nepal after Buddhist (8.2 per cent).
Their one cemetery is located in the Swoyambhunath area, in the Kathmandu Valley. It was opened when the capital was small and the number of Muslims negligeable.
Baha’is, who follow a religion that was born in Iran, are a few thousands. In 1977, they bought land for a cemetery in Lalitpur, south of the capital. Recently, Hindus have taken over the area and have prevented them from using the cemetery.
“It’s really disturbing that we don’t have space to bury our people if anyone dies,” says Larry Robertson, Chairman of National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Nepal.
The new residents who recently swamped the area “don’t allow us to use the cemetery,” he lamented.
He wants the government to give legal status to his community’s burial ground, to prevent tensions between Baha’is and Hindus.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Extradition’ For Taliban Chiefs Held in Pakistan
The Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, who was recently detained in Pakistan, is not to be extradited, the Lahore High Court has ruled.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested in early February. The court also banned extraditing four other Taliban chiefs reportedly seized recently.
But Pakistan has not confirmed the identities of any other militants held.
The order was in response to a petition filed by a rights activist to prevent the detainees from being sent abroad.
“The high court has ordered that none of the leaders should be handed over to the US or Afghanistan,” Tariq Asad, a lawyer handling the petition told the BBC.
“The court has also said that none, other than Pakistan intelligence or security officials should be given access to the Taliban leaders,” he said.
The court also ruled that the government should provide answers about the grounds on which the men were arrested.
Taliban arrests
Although Pakistani officials have confirmed the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, there is little clarity about the other Taliban chiefs reportedly held.
Unnamed Pakistani officials have told US media about the arrests of several leading figures in the Afghan Taliban in recent weeks.
They are said to be:
- Mullah Abdul Salam, the “shadow governor” of Afghanistan’s Kunduz province
- Mullah Mir Mohammad, the “shadow governor” of Baghlan province
- Mullah Abdul Kabir, believed to be a senior figure in the Taliban leadership and “shadow governor” of Nangarhar province
The petition named all of the above as well as Ameer Muawiyia, described as a senior Taliban officer based in Pakistan.
This may be another identity for a Taliban official, Mullah Mohammed Younis, reported on 22 February to have been arrested — but there are few details on when and where he was detained.
The decision is likely to deny the US and Afghan governments access to the detained commanders for the moment.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Missionary Recounts Story of Captivity by Muslim Extremists in Philippines
Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani, one of Burnham’s captors, bragged of talking with Bin Laden by satellite phone, according to an Associated Press report.
Burnham said her conversations with Abu Sayyaf leaders showed that they at least believed themselves to be part of a global effort, not a ragtag band of kidnappers.
“People in America don’t understand,” she said. “Their basic goal is world domination.”
She recalled a conversation her husband had with one of the captors, Ustedz Khayr, in which Martin asked whether the Abu Sayyaf would be satisfied if it achieved its goal of gaining control of islands considered to be Muslim homelands. Khayr said the Abu Sayyaf wanted to control not only those but the entire Philippines, then move on to Thailand and other countries. “Islam is for the whole world,” he told them, Burnham recalled.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Korea: South Korea Has World’s Lowest Birth Rate
For the second consecutive year, the number of births declined from 466,000 in 2008 to 445,000 in 2009. The fertility rate among women 15 to 49 now stands at 1.14, a drop of .04 per cent. The net result is an aging population, a trend that will inevitably affect the country’s welfare system.
Seoul (AsiaNews) — The number of children born in South Korea dropped for a second straight year in 2009 as people tended to delay marriage and have fewer babies, this according to a report by South Korea’s National Statistical Office (NSO). This has given South Korea the lowest birth rate in the world, an NSO official said.
The number of newborn babies in 2009 dropped by 21,000 to 445,000 (-4.4 per cent) compared with 466,000 newborn babies in 2008. The number of newborn babies had also decreased in 2008 by 27,000 from the previous year.
The average number of babies per woman between the ages of 15 and 49 over their lifetime fell .04 percent from 2008 to 1.14. “This is the world’s lowest fertility rate excluding some city-states,” an NSO official said.
Such a trend means a fast-aging population, who will place a greater financial burden on the government. It also means a smaller workforce and higher welfare transfers and pension payments. Younger generations who enter the labour market will have a greater burden to shoulder.
The average age of those giving birth rose to 31 years, a 0.2 increase from 2008; this too has been attributed to later marriages.
As a result, the number of mothers in their 30s giving birth to newborns now exceeds the number of mothers in their 20s. A total of 43.4 per cent of newborn babies have mothers in their early 30s, whilst newborn babies with mothers in their late 20s remains at 35.2 per cent.
The decrease in birth rate from mothers in their late 20s contributed to the total decrease in the birth rate. The drop in the number of newborn babies from mothers in their late 20s was 13,000 out of a total of 21,000 compared to 2008.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Militants ‘Block UN Food Aid’
Islamist militants in Somalia are stopping convoys of food reaching more than 360,000 displaced people, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says.
The agency says trucks travelling from the capital Mogadishu to camps in Afgoye have been stopped by armed men.
Insurgent group al-Shabaab says the WFP is ruining local farming by forcing Somalis to rely on imports.
But the UN says that without help, Somali farmers cannot supply enough food for those in need.
The camps in Afgoye, just west of the capital, have the largest concentration of refugees in the whole of Somalia.
In January the WFP pulled out of large parts of southern Somalia because of threats from rebel groups.
‘Suffering’
Al-Shabaab has said any Somalis who co-operate with the WFP would be treated as contributing to the destruction of the Somali economy.
The militants say agricultural productivity has increased in areas they control, but there is no way to independently verify this claim.
They accuse the WFP of distributing expired food which is a public health hazard and say the agency’s work is cover for a political agenda.
The agency’s Peter Smerdon told the BBC: “The WFP is extremely concerned about the health of the displaced families who rely on humanitarian assistance reaching them.
“The people in Afgoye last received a general food distribution from WFP in November 2009, so we fear that they are going very hungry.
“We fear they are suffering even more because food assistance cannot reach them, and some of them may be forced to leave Afgoye as conditions in the camp deteriorate.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia Pirates Free Greek Cargo Vessel
Somali pirates have freed a Greek-owned cargo ship and its crew of 19 after a ransom was paid, officials say.
The Navios Apollon was seized north of the Seychelles on 28 December as it headed from the US to India with a cargo of fertiliser.
The Greek captain and 18 Filipino crewmen were all safe and the vessel was heading to Oman and then India.
The ransom — an unspecified amount — was airdropped onto the vessel on Saturday, a Greek official said.
An international naval force patrolling the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean has been unable to stop attacks on commercial vessels from pirates based in Somalia.
Most vessels are released once a ransom is paid.
Correspondents say the upsurge in piracy in the region is a consequence of the failure to find a solution to Somalia’s continuing political disarray.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
College Students Urged: Trade Bible for Playboy
‘Religious texts are so appalling, you are better off having porn’
In the lobby of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s humanities building, a hand-drawn poster announces, “Free porn: Just trade in your holy books (Bible, Koran, Vedas) for porn.”
A student group at the university called The Atheist Agenda is reviving its Bibles-for-porn program, called “Smut for Smut,” for three days beginning March 1, according to a report from San Antonio’s KENS-TV.
“The idea is that religious texts are so appalling,” said Atheist Agenda group member Brian Talker in a 2006 interview with UTSA student publication The Independent. “They are so full of genocide, misogyny and ludicrous ideas that far overshadow any banal common-sense platitudes like loving thy neighbor, that you are better off having porn, which isn’t nearly as smutty.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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