Greece Announced Added Measures. Papandreou Requests EU Plan
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — Euro-zone countries are “prepared to undertake determined and co-ordinated action, if necessary, to safeguard the financial stability of the entire Euro-zone”. This was the reaction of Eurogroup President Jean Claude Juncker, reacting to the announcement of additional measures in Greece. “The ambitious Greek plan to redress the budget imbalance is now firmly on track”, commented Juncker, adding that the announcement from Athens “confirms the Greek government’s commitment to taking all measures needed to reach the programme’s goals and to ensure a 4% reduction of GDP deficit by the end of 2010”. The additional measures “duly include spending cuts and in particular, savings on public sector wages, which are essential for consolidating accounts and re-establishing competitiveness.” The Greek government today announced “additional measures”, geared towards ending the financial crisis, of a value of 4.8 billion euros, which will see wages and pensions hit hard. Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou warned that “now it is Europe’s turn”, suggesting an appeal to the IMF may not be far off. According to the spokesman for the executive, Giorgios Petalotis, the measures, which were keenly requested by Brussels and decided during an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, include cuts in holiday bonuses (60%) and Christmas bonuses (30%), another reduction of supplementary salaries (now 12% overall), a freeze on pensions (added to the previously announced freeze on public-sector wages) an increase in VAT (from 19% to 21%), a ban on all bonuses for senior officials and managers, and an increase in duty on alcohol, cigarettes, petrol, diesel and luxury goods. During the meeting in which the measures were decided, Papandreou said : “We have done what we had to do. Now it is Europe’s turn.” Then, hinting indirectly but clearly at an appeal to the International Monetary Fund, he added: “If Europe’s response does not meet our expectations, we will no longer be able to finance ourselves on a market with such high interest rates.”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Juncker, Euro States Ready to Intervene
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 3 — Euro-zone countries are “prepared to undertake determined and co-ordinated action, if necessary, to safeguard the financial stability of the entire Euro-zone”. This was the reaction of Eurogroup President Jean Claude Juncker, reacting to the announcement of additional measures in Greece. “The ambitious Greek plan to redress the budget imbalance is now firmly on track”, commented Juncker, adding that the announcement from Athens “confirms the Greek government’s commitment to taking all measures needed to reach the programme’s goals and to ensure a 4% reduction of GDP deficit by the end of 2010”. The additional measures “duly include spending cuts and in particular, savings on public sector wages, which are essential for consolidating accounts and re-establishing competitiveness.” The Greek government today announced “additional measures”, geared towards ending the financial crisis, of a value of 4.8 billion euros, which will see wages and pensions hit hard. Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou warned that “now it is Europe’s turn”, suggesting an appeal to the IMF may not be far off. According to the spokesman for the executive, Giorgios Petalotis, the measures, which were keenly requested by Brussels and decided during an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, include cuts in holiday bonuses (60%) and Christmas bonuses (30%), another reduction of supplementary salaries (now 12% overall), a freeze on pensions (added to the previously announced freeze on public-sector wages) an increase in VAT (from 19% to 21%), a ban on all bonuses for senior officials and managers, and an increase in duty on alcohol, cigarettes, petrol, diesel and luxury goods. During the meeting in which the measures were decided, Papandreou said : “We have done what we had to do. Now it is Europe’s turn.” Then, hinting indirectly but clearly at an appeal to the International Monetary Fund, he added: “If Europe’s response does not meet our expectations, we will no longer be able to finance ourselves on a market with such high interest rates.”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mafia Creating ‘Alternative’ Government
Pisanu alarmed over influence on economy, finance and politics
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Organised crime in Italy is going through a “strategic metamorphosis” aimed at reducing its use of intimidation and violence in favor of exercising its influence on the economy, finance and politics, the head of the parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission warned on Tuesday.
The Mafia’s ultimate objective, Giuseppe Pisanu explained, is to create an alternative to the government through its control of the economy and finance which has been facilitated by its ability to corrupt politics.
Politics, he said, is a “key channel” through which organised crime can launder its vast illegal wealth into the legal economy.
“We know how it accumulates this wealth but we know very little about where it goes and how it is invested,” Pisanu said.
“And there is no doubt that this dirty capital enters the legal economy through the complicity and collaboration of important players in civil society: lawyers, notaries, businessmen, bankers, government officials and politicians on every level,” the Anti-Mafia Commission chairman added.
According to Pisanu, “a sea of dirty money flows every year into our country adulterating the market economy and corrupting anything and anyone it encounters”.
Looking at southern Italy, home to Italy’s leading crime syndicates — Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Neapolitan Camorra and Calabria’s powerful ‘Ndrangheta — Pisanu observed how “the powerful influence organised crime has on the local economy there is both the cause and effect of the region’s inability to develop” in the past 50 years.
Using the south as its base, he continued, these criminal organizations “have expanded to central and northern Italy and to parts of Europe, constantly growing more powerful”.
In order to counter this situation, Pisanu said the Anti-Mafia Commission needed to open a debate on revamping and modernising Italy’s anti-mafia laws.
“We need to set ourselves three objectives: draw up a report for parliament on how the Mafia exerts its influence on the economy, society and politics; carry out an in-depth study on how organised crime exercises its influence on the economy and finance in Milan; review existing and proposed legislation in order to adapt it more towards preventing organised crime from expanding further”.
While Italy has embarked on the right path in seizing and confiscating the Mafia’s capital and assets, Pisanu observed, “the seven billion euros in assets seized so far may be a considerable sum but is a pittance considering organised crime’s annual turnover of 120-140 billion euros”.
And while Italy may be having success in cracking down on organised crime’s assets, Pisanu added, these groups have responded by “shifting their investments abroad or into the stock market and finance where it is difficult to track them down”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Secretary Geithner’s Got Some Explaining to Do
By David Yerushalmi
While everyone, including Congress, the media, and the public, have focused on AIG’s $100-million bonus payments to key employees, and most recently on AIG’s stealth payments to counterparties like Chase and the French giant Société Générale — the latter made worse by the fact that it was the Federal Reserve (FED) that wanted to keep these payments hidden from public view — the problem with the AIG bailout is much deeper and more fundamental.
Just about everyone has had something to say about this bailout — mostly that it was an ugly but necessary step to stave off a domino effect that would have brought the world’s financial system to its knees. But what we have not yet heard is just how Treasury Secretary Geithner, as then-head of the NY FED, got away with taking ownership of 77.9% of AIG’s equity and voting rights in clear violation of the law.
The question we are left with is: Why? What motivated this illegal grab of AIG’s equity and voting rights? Was it desperation in the face of the largest potential collapse in the history of modern finance? Was it unbridled power combined with supreme hubris? Or was it just criminal? The answer to this query resides in the as-yet-hidden files of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, now subject to a subpoena issued by my office in the federal lawsuit Murray v. Geithner, pending in the Eastern District of Michigan.
In this lawsuit, brought on behalf of Kevin Murray, an Iraq War veteran and taxpayer, my co-counsel, Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, and I have challenged the U.S. government’s takeover of AIG as a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because the taxpayer bailout has the effect of promoting and advancing AIG’s Shariah-adherent insurance business — the largest in the world. AIG promotes itself as a global advocate not only of Islam, but also of the Islamic legal doctrine known as Shariah — which is the Islamic legal doctrine and program that calls for a global hegemony referred to as the Caliphate, the murder of apostates, and jihad against infidels. The most austere and important Islamic legal authorities who legitimize Shariah-compliant finance, like AIG’s takaful insurance products, are the same ones issuing fatwas for jihad against the West.
In the course of discovery, resisted by the government at every turn, we have learned that the deal Geithner put together as the NY Fed’s president was illegal on its face.
The Deal
Specifically, the deal Geithner put together in September 2008 was for the NY FED to pour up to $85 billion of debt funding into AIG to solve its liquidity crisis as the Credit Default Swap counterparties, the banks which had insured themselves against the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, demanded payments under their AIG insurance policies. AIG ended up drawing down $60 billion almost overnight.
But Geithner was not content with a straight debt deal where AIG promised to pay back principal and interest and handed over almost all of its assets as collateral. Geithner wanted real ownership and control (77.9%, to be exact) of AIG’s equity and the voting rights to go along with that.
The problem Geithner knew he had to confront, however, was that the FED was not authorized to take ownership in AIG or any other financial institution. The law authorized the FED only to loan money and take collateral. While the FED might end up with ownership after a default and foreclosure on the collateral, the Federal Reserve Act does not authorize the NY Fed to structure the debt deal with an equity piece.
The Criminal Artifice
So what did Geithner do? He took equity, but he used a fictitious “Trust” to accomplish that which he could not do legally. The AIG Credit Facility Trust has three so-called independent, non-governmental trustees owning the 77.9% of the legal interests of AIG, and the Trust agreement assigns the U.S. Treasury the beneficial interests in the 77.9%. The highly-touted “independence” of the trustees is quite obviously critical to save the Trust from the claim that it is merely a ruse for FED ownership and control.
But there is only one problem with this Trust structure: It is invalid and illegal for two important reasons, not the least of which is that its independence is nonexistent.
Specifically, the Trust Agreement includes a hardly-noticed section 1.03, which gives the FED absolute authority over the Trust’s existence and its terms, effectively granting the FED control over the actions of the trustees. By any legal definition, this is not a valid independent trust. This means, at the very least, that the FED is the real owner of the legal interests in 77.9% of AIG’s equity, and this is, as Geithner himself testified before the Senate Banking Committee in April 2008, not legal.
But the Trust’s infirmities do not stop at its lack of independence. The Trust Agreement also assigns the beneficial interests to the U.S. Treasury as the Trust’s beneficiary. This assignment is patently invalid because a trust beneficiary must be a person or entity that can own title to things in its own name. But the U.S. Treasury is — by statute, by case law, and by actual fact — nothing more than a bank account or depository for things owned by the U.S. government. And a bank account cannot own anything.
So how and why did the dozens, if not hundreds, of government and private-sector high-priced lawyers working on this transaction make such an elementary mistake? We don’t know the answer to this question yet, but we do know why they could not name the Treasury Department as the beneficiary: because like with the FED, at the time, it did not yet have legal authority to acquire an ownership interest in any of the failing financial institutions, either. That authority would come later, when Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which authorizes the use of TARP funds for acquiring equity. But even that legislation instructs the Treasury Department to avoid acquiring voting rights. Geithner’s deal was all about acquiring not just voting rights, but super-majority control. Unfortunately, there was no legal authority at the time to do so.
The brute fact that now standing exposed before us is the use of an invalid Trust structure to conceal the unlawful ownership and control over 77.9% of AIG’s equity and voting rights by the FED. If Geithner knew he was breaking the law, then this just happens to be the definition of criminal money-laundering under Title 18, Section 1956. Secretary Geithner has some explaining to do to AIG’s public shareholders. We suggest that he seek legal advice first — but this time, from lawyers who actually know what they are doing.
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Spain: Wine Hit by Crisis, Sales and Export Collapse
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 1 — Spain’s wine sector has not been spared by the crisis, with sales in freefall due to the decrease in both internal consumption and exports. The dramatic fall in prices has led some of the main producers and cooperatives to ask the government for a so-called “crisis distillation”, which will allow wines to be taken off the market and turned in to alcohol for industrial and fuel purposes. The value of wine export was down 13.5% in 2009, a deficit of 1.718 million euros, while its volume fell by 9.7%, the equivalent of 1.509 million litres, compared to the previous year. This trend comes in spite of a general decrease in prices. Worst hit were fizzy wines, with a 30% slump in sales and a 19.8% fall in cost, according to figures published by Spain’s wine market watchdog. Average prices were reduced by 4.2% over the same period, or 1.14 euros per litre. As far as exports were concerned, Italy was the country that most reduced their purchase of Spanish wines, by a figure of 56.7% in 2009 compared to the previous year. The decline in both exports and internal consumption has damaged not only wine cooperatives, who have been forced to undersell their products to continue trading, but also the largest production companies, who market the wines directly, and who have been forced to drop their prices considerably. Agriculture organisations such as UPA, COAG and food and wine cooperatives have reacted to the crisis by asking the Agriculture Minister Elena Espinosa to distil 2.5 million hectolitres at 1.91 euros per hectograde (the equivalent of 100 hectolitres of pure alcohol) to turn the wine into alcohol for industrial use. According to today’s El Pais, the country’s main agricultural organization, Asaja, has distanced itself from the request, due to its estimated cost of 50 million euros. The fall in consumption and export figures is also exacerbated by the presence of surplus stocks. During the last wine-producing season, excess wine, though slightly above average, was not significantly high, yet it added to the existing surplus, in turn contributing to the imbalance between availability and consumption. Wine consumption in Spain was down 10% in 2009, especially in restaurants and bars, but there was little change in domestic consumption of D.O wines, largely on account of falling prices. The situation is difficult to bear for many producers, especially those in the “designation of origin” region of La Rioja, who often find themselves covering production costs that exceed income. Local companies are said to have bought grapes from producers at a price of 0.3 euros per kilo, while harvest and production costs reach at least 0.4 euros per kilo. Adding to the bleak picture, according to agricultural companies and cooperatives, is the change in machinery in line with European market regulation, which has led to the disappearance of the stocking and warehousing policy.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain to Axe Public Utilities Spending
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 1 — A drastic cut in expenses for Spain’s public utilities and State-controlled enterprises, to reduce the deficit of the country’s public administration from the current 11.4% to the 3% claimed in the European Union stability pact. This has been imposed by the vice president of the Spanish State-owned holding company SEPI, Federico Montero, in a letter sent on February 13 of this year to the directors of public utilities. The receivers of the letter were asked to draft a detailed plan on savings in the 2010-2013 period in a record time of 24 hours. The goals specified in the letter, quoted by El Pais today, are related to a 4% cut of staff expense; a 15% cut of operational costs; a 13% cut of investment and a reduction of up to 36% of all expenses for transfers, lunches, communication and the use of company cars. The austerity plan implemented on January 23 by the Spanish government to reduce the public deficit and recover credibility on the financial markets, with a cut of 50 billion euros until 2013, has led to the first cuts in State-controlled enterprises. The letter speaks of a “rationalisation of workdays” and an “efficient use of assets, in order to save 15%”. Investments have to be reduced by 13% in nominal terms in the 2010-2013 period; infrastructures by 10% and those for trips, protocol, diet and outsourcing by 36%. The 4% cut in payment includes a reduction of absenteeism, a turnover stop and regards the 2.6 million employees of public administrations. The SEPI plan also regards 20 State-controlled enterprises, like the Astilleros Espaoles shipyards, the Hunosa group, Mercasa, Navantia and the EFE agency. The government also wants to reduce the number of public utilities and State-controlled enterprises from the current 474. The ministry of Infrastructure is preparing the merger of several railroad and airport companies. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Recession? What Recession? Fake Shopfronts Built to Cover Up High St Stores That Have Been Closed Down
As High Streets are decimated by the recession — fake business facades have been installed to create the illusion that shops are still occupied.
North Tyneside Council is trialling the new window treatment that at first glance gives the impression that units are occupied.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman Eric Massa Accused of Sexually Harassing Male Staffer
Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) will not seek re-election after only one term in office.
According to several House aides — on both sides of the aisle — the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that Massa, who is married with two children, sexually harassed a male staffer.
Massa told POLITICO early Wednesday afternoon that no one has brought allegations of misconduct to him.
Asked about the sexual harassment allegations, Massa said: “When someone makes a decision to leave Congress, everybody says everything. I have health issues. I’ll talk about it [later].”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Paterson is Accused of Violating Ethics Laws
The state Commission on Public Integrity charged Gov. David A. Paterson on Wednesday with violating state ethics laws when he secured free tickets to the opening game of the World Series from the Yankees last fall for himself and others. The announcement came as the governor, already mired in scandal, met with his cabinet and insisted he would stay in office.
In addition to violating the state’s ban on gifts to public officials, the commission found that Mr. Paterson falsely testified under oath that he had intended to pay for the tickets for his son and his son’s friend when. The commission determined that Mr. Paterson had never intended to pay for the tickets and only did so after inquiries from the media, after which he submitted a backdated check as payment.
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Scathing Report: Tea Partiers Just Like Timothy McVeigh
Claims they believe government has secret plans for martial law
A new attack by the Southern Poverty Law Center charges the tea-party movement is “shot through” with radical ideas and tied with “hate groups,” “furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups” and “so-called ‘Patriot’ groups.”
The SPLC report, “Rage on the Right, The Year in Hate and Extremism,” assails Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., for “plugging” anti-government ideas and Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt for daring to promote Second Amendment gun rights.
The SPLC’s Mark Potok warns “so-called ‘Patriot’ groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose ‘one-world government’ on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight.”
The report echoes themes in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report last year that characterized “right-wing extremists” as opponents of abortion and illegal immigration and supporters of gun rights and third-party political candidates.
[…]
[Larry] Pratt [of Gun Owners of America] told WND the SPLC report was little more than “fundraising, trying to scare a bunch of little old ladies to cough up money.”
“It’s a typical argument that the left resorts to,” he said, “since they really have trouble with the fact that, until Obama was elected, they had been pretty successful at concealing that liberalism really is socialism.”
He said he was honored to be criticized alongside Bachmann.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unknown DOJ Lawyers Identified
A day after a conservative group released a video condemning the Justice Department for refusing to identify seven lawyers who previously represented or advocated for terror suspects, Fox News has uncovered the identities of the seven lawyers.
The names were confirmed by a Justice Department spokesman, who said “politics has overtaken facts and reality” in a tug-of-war over the lawyers’ identities.
“Department of Justice attorneys work around the clock to keep this country safe, and it is offensive that their patriotism is being questioned,” said Justice Department Spokesman Matt Miller.
The video by the group Keep America Safe, which dubbed the seven lawyers “The Al Qaeda 7,” is the latest salvo in a lengthty political battle.
For several months, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has led an effort to uncover politically-appointed lawyers within the Justice Department who have advocated for Guantanamo Bay detainees or other terror suspects.
“The administration has made many highly questionable decisions when it comes to national security, “ Grassley said in a recent statement. “[Americans] have a right to know who advises the Attorney General and the President on these critical matters.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Expelled From CEGEP for Refusing to Remove Niqab
An Egyptian-born Montreal woman has been expelled from Quebec’s post-secondary college system for refusing to take off her niqab — a controversial decision she will contest with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Last fall, the woman had been attending the CEGEP St. Laurent in Montreal, taking a government-funded French course that seeks to help immigrants adjust to life in Quebec.
But course instructors say they need to be able to look at people while they are speaking to correct their elocution and pronunciation in class, an action that is not possible when a student is wearing a niqab — a veil that covers all but the eyes.
The woman did take off her niqab in some cases — to have a student ID picture taken and in some instances when she was speaking privately with a female teacher — and the school says it worked to accommodate her needs. She once gave an oral presentation with her back turned to her fellow students so other students would not be able to see her.
Paul Bourque, the director-general of the CEGEP St. Laurent, said it reached a point where the woman did not feel comfortable taking off her niqab in the classroom environment where the number of male students outnumbered female students.
The class, Bourque told CTV Montreal, was configured “in a way that it was not easy for her to be hidden from the students.”
In the end, the woman “decided to wear her niqab,” Borque said.
The situation then became more “tense and confrontational,” CTV Montreal’s Cindy Sherwin reported.
Eventually, the woman was sent a letter from Quebec’s immigration department indicating she had to remove her niqab or choose to leave the class. She was also offered the chance to study online.
The woman refused to remove her niqab and was expelled. She has since filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.
Fo Niemi, head of the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations, said accommodating cultural differences is “a constant balancing act that requires compromise, common sense and insight.”
“The issue is, in this case, if the school has undertaken all the reasonable efforts to accommodate her, and it seems it has, because it has tried several formulas and it hasn’t worked out,” Niemi told CTV Montreal. “Then obviously the question for the human rights commission to decide is whether it has been reasonable.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Blond Bombshell Geert Wilders Returns to Britain, Looking for a Fight
Geert Wilders has attracted support for his warnings of a “tsunami of Islamification”. He also has to face protests and death threats
Boyish, topped with a bouffant mane of bleached blond hair, cheerful and cherubic, Geert Wilders is the unlikely new face of the far Right in Europe. But appearances are deceptive. The leader of the Dutch anti-immigration Freedom Party has emerged as one of the most divisive politicians in Europe, the purveyor of a virulent brand of anti-Islamic rhetoric that calls for a tax on Islamic headscarves and a ban on the Koran, which he likens to Mein Kampf.
Mr Wilders is facing trial in a Dutch court for “inciting hatred”. Last year he was banned from Britain and turned away at Heathrow when he arrived here planning to show his short film, an incendiary anti-Islamic diatribe that the Dutch Prime Minister described as serving “no purpose other than to offend”.
On Friday, after successfully appealing against the Home Office ban, Mr Wilders will return to Britain at the invitation of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) to show his controversial film to an invited audience at the House of Lords. The English Defence League is expected to demonstrate in his support and Muslim groups are all but certain to mount protests.
To his enemies, the 46-year-old Dutchman is an old-fashioned racist demagogue in a new suit; a bottle-blond bigot. To his growing ranks of supporters he is a champion of free speech, a bulwark against what he calls “the Islamic invasion of Holland”. He may be dismissed by some as a crank but he is an increasingly powerful and popular one. On February 20 the Dutch centrist coalition Government collapsed, deeply divided over keeping troops in Afghanistan, paving the way for a general election in June in which the Freedom Party is expected to do extremely well. Polls suggest that the party will triple its tally of seats, becoming at least the second-biggest parliamentary party and quite possibly the overall winner. Mr Wilders is likely to be a key player in any coalition, with a profound impact on the political agenda.
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Nicknamed “Mozart” on account of a platinum hairdo that looks strikingly like an 18th-century wig, Mr Wilders has played on the dischords in Dutch society with virtuoso skill. As in Britain, many Dutch voters are alarmed by the scale of immigration, battered by the global economic crisis, culturally anxious and increasingly receptive to his grim warnings about a “tsunami of Islamification”.
The political heir to Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch populist politician who called for a halt to Muslim immigration and who was murdered in the 2002 election campaign, Mr Wilders has portrayed himself as the only politician in his country brave enough to stand up to militant Islam, a threat that he has compared to Nazism. “A century ago there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today there are about one million. Where will it end? We are heading for the end of European civilisation,” he predicts. Promising strict limits on immigration, he has also called for a “head-rag tax” of €1,000 (£922) a year on Muslim women wearing headscarves.
In 2008 he released a 15-minute film entitled Fitna (the Arabic word for “strife”) which provoked outrage across the Muslim world: it opens with an image of the Koran, followed by footage of terrorist attacks and a litany of stonings, beheadings, honour killings, homophobia and child marriages. It ends, predictably, with the Danish cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked fury in 2006. Al-Qaeda is believed to have ordered the killing of Mr Wilders after the film was released. Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, has described the Dutch politician as “offensively anti-Islamic”. His most incendiary remarks are aimed at the Koran, which he calls a fascist book. “The Koran incites to hatred and calls for murder and mayhem,” Mr Wilders told the Dutch Parliament. “It is an absolute necessity that the Koran be banned for the defence and reinforcement of our civilisation and our constitutional state.”
In January a Dutch court ordered the public prosecutor to try Mr Wilders on charges of fomenting hatred and discrimination. Mr Wilders indicated that he would call witnesses in order to prove Koran-inspired violence, including Mohammed Bouyeri, the man convicted of murdering the Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh in 2004.
Although he faces 16 months in prison if convicted, the trial represents a political goldmine for Mr Wilders and helps to explain his recent rise in opinion polls. If he is convicted he will paint himself as martyr to political correctness; if he is acquitted he will claim vindication. The trial has been suspended until after the election.
Inadvertently, Britain also did much to boost his standing in February last year by banning him from entering the country as an “undesirable person”, citing EU laws enabling member states to exclude someone whose presence could threaten public security. Mr Wilders loudly condemned Gordon Brown as “the biggest coward in Europe” and some 84 per cent of Dutch voters objected to the way that Mr Wilders had been ejected by Britain.
The ban was later overturned by an asylum and immigration tribunal. On Friday, at the invitation of the UKIP leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Baroness Cox of Queensbury, he will show Fitna to MPs, peers and guests before giving a press conference at Westminster.
“The issue of militant Islam is the greatest issue facing our Judeo-Christian culture,” Lord Pearson said. “I don’t agree that the Koran should be banned but we want it discussed … mild Muslims should stand up and debate their militant co-religionists.”
Mr Wilders has sought to distance himself and his party from the traditional standard-bearers of the extreme Right in Europe, such as Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front in France and the late Jörg Haider of the Freedom Party in Austria. He has made no contact with the BNP. “My allies are not Le Pen and Haider,” he says. “I’m very afraid of being linked with the wrong rightist fascist groups.” His prime political role models are said to be Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill.
The son of a printer, Mr Wilders was raised Roman Catholic but is now an atheist. He worked in a Dutch social insurance agency before becoming a speechwriter and then MP for the liberal People’s Party, which he left in 2004 to form his own party.
As a prime terrorist target he lives under 24-hour police guard, changing his location nightly. He is seldom seen in public and gives few interviews. Even contact with his wife, a Dutch-Hungarian former diplomat, is limited by security concerns, This way of life, under constant threat, is “a situation I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy”, he once remarked.
“They are trying to shoot him all the time,” says Lord Pearson, noting that Mr Wilders will be coming to Britain with five state-hired Dutch bodyguards. “He has a really, really tough existence.”
Mr Wilders opposes expansion of the EU, most particularly Turkish membership, and Dutch military deployment in Afghanistan, but the core of his message lies in an appeal to defend traditional Dutch culture against perceived encroachment by Islam. “Islam is the Trojan Horse in Europe,” he told the Dutch Parliament. “Stop all immigration from Muslim countries, ban all building of new mosques, close all Islamic schools, ban burkas and the Koran … Stop Islamification. Enough is enough!”
Some polls suggest that after the June elections Mr Wilders may lead the biggest single parliamentary party, raising the prospect that a former fringe provincial politician with extreme views and peculiar hair could end up leading the country. “At some point it’s going to happen and then it will be a big honour to fulfil the post of prime minister,” he says. If that comes to pass it will mark both the triumph of a new, more subtle brand of right-wing politics in Europe, and the final demise of the stereotyped image of the Netherlands as a nation of bland liberal views and easygoing tolerance.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Crucifixes in School: European Bishops Satisfied
(AGI) — Vatican City, 2 Mar. — The president of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences, card. Peter Erdo, has expressed “satisfaction with the decision made by the five judges of the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights to accept the Italian government’s appeal”. He added that “religious issues should always be addressed at the national level”. (AGI) .
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fears on Wilders’ UK Visit
FEARS were growing last night that far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders could spark furious clashes when he arrives in Britain tomorrow.
The Freedom Party leader will screen his anti-Islamic film Fitna in the House of Lords.
Mr Wilders, who wants the Koran and the burkha banned in the Netherlands, was invited by UK Independence Party peer Lord Rannoch and Baroness Cox, a former Tory peer.
The visit coincides with Gordon Brown’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry, prompting concerns from the Metropolitan police.
Muslim groups are expected to protest at Mr Wilders’ arrival, while the English Defence League plans to welcome him. And the Stop the War Coalition is planning a demo as Mr Brown faces the inquiry.
The Met said: “The English Defence League and the Stop the War Coalition are both planning marches.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Four Jailed for Violent Patrick’s Day Attacks
[Note from McR: If you’re thinking of coming to Ireland to celebrate Saint Patrick’s day read this newspaper article FIRST.]
FOUR MEN involved in a series of violent attacks on six people attending a St Patrick’s Day parade, including a US tourist, have been jailed for terms ranging from three to 10 years.
The men, aged between 18 and 22, were sentenced at Clonmel Circuit Court yesterday for their involvement in a series of “unprovoked attacks” on “innocent” members of the public in Tipperary town on March 17th last year.
Two of the men, brothers Ned (22) and Dan Delaney (19), of Carrowclough, Tipperary, were both handed the maximum 10-year sentence for the offence of violent disorder committed on the day.
Sgt John Keane told the court the men were part of a gang who “were drinking all day” and who unleashed “untold fear amongst the decent citizens of Tipperary”.
US tourist James Faul gave evidence last November of how he was attacked from behind by a gang of men while visiting Tipperary with his wife for the St Patrick’s Day parade.
Mr Faul sustained a broken nose and a fracture to the bone around his left eye, requiring insertion of a titanium plate. He has suffered continuous double vision as a result of the attack.
James Griffin (46) was knocked to the ground, punched repeatedly and kicked about 10 times as he left the Kickham House pub with his partner at 5.58pm.
Judge Thomas Teehan said in his 40 years of presiding over criminal cases, this was among the “most sickening” acts of violence inflicted on innocent victims that he had experienced. He added: “Word must go out that courts will not tolerate this behaviour of character in our towns and villages.”
He said that “levels of violence on our streets had increased”, and the “types of violence have worsened to achieve levels of depravity seldom witnessed 30 years ago”.
The court heard Ned Delaney had used a sign from outside an off-licence to strike Frank Spillane (53) across the back of the head, while Francis Butler (60) was struck on the head with an ice cream sign by Dan Delaney.
John Cleary (68) was struck in the face by Ned Delaney as he smoked a cigarette outside a pub, and suffered a fractured jaw.
All four pleaded guilty to one count of violent disorder and to various counts of assault.
Ned Delaney — whom Judge Teehan called a “ringleader” — received 14 years for four counts of assault, to run concurrently with the 10 years for violent disorder. Judge Teehan suspended the final four years.
Dan Delaney received 12 years for four assault charges, also to run concurrently with the 10-year sentence for violent disorder, with the last three years suspended.
John Paul Delaney (18), of Abbey Street, Cahir, was jailed for five years for his involvement in the attacks, while Patrick O’Keeffe (19), St Ailbe’s Drive, Tipperary, was jailed for three years.
Judge Teehan said he took into account the fact the men had pleaded guilty to the charges, but said it was “extremely important that a message goes out that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated in our society”. He refused an application for leave to appeal on grounds of severity of sentencing.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
‘Iran Arms Runners’ Held in Italy
Two Iranians and five Italians have been arrested by Italian police on suspicion of trafficking arms to Iran, anti-terror police say.
Two more Iranian suspects are currently in Iran, Italian officials say.
Italy’s anti-terrorist prosecutor Armando Spataro said the two Iranians arrested in Italy worked for the Iranian government.
He said they were accused of exporting arms and armament systems, and breaking a UN arms embargo on Iran.
“It is an investigation of considerable importance because it concerns the entire international community,” said Mr Spataro of the nine-month operation, codenamed Sniper.
It was conducted along with Swiss police as one of the suspects lived in Bern, he added.
An earlier statement said those sought were suspected members of the Iranian secret service.
Italy is Iran’s biggest trading partner in the European Union.
But it has been among the countries leading calls for tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.
The West accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying its only aim is to generate nuclear energy.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Crucifix Appeal Admitted to EU Court
Final ruling on classroom cross ban later this year
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, January 26 — Italy’s appeal on a European court ruling against crosses in Italian classrooms has been admitted.
A five-strong panel on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Italy had a case against the November 3 ruling that sparked a storm in the heavily Catholic country and strong criticism from Italy’s centre-right government.
The ECHR’s ‘Grande Chambre’, or 17-strong ruling panel, will examine Italy’s highly detailed dossier in a public hearing later this year.
Appeals are judged admissible when the issue “raises serious problems of interpretation or application”.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini voiced “satisfaction” at Tuesday’s decision, saying Italy’s “numerous and well-motivated” arguments had been accepted.
Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said “this is a great success for Italy in reaffirming a respect for Christian traditions and the country’s cultural identity”.
The Vatican City’s top judge, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, said “the fact that the appeal has been admitted by the Grande Chambre means that the arguments used against the first ruling were more than well-founded”.
“The November 3 ruling raised a strong, negative echo not only in Italy but also in many other European countries,” said Dalla Torre, president of the Vatican’s State Tribunal.
“The general principle that is asserting itself in Europe, and particularly in the European Union, is that problems relating to religious questions must be left to the democratic and constitutional responsibilities of individual states because they are the result of traditions and often an equilibrium of factors that have seen conflicts within the states,” Dalla Torre told the Sir news agency.
The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) called the ruling “a step in the right direction”.
“A much wider consensus than might have been imagined” had been created on the issue, said CEI spokesman Msgr Domenico Pompili.
In other reactions, the head of Italy’s Schengen Committee, Margherita Boniver, said “it is a very important sign”.
Boniver, a member of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, said “it shows the need to jealously defend the symbols of a religious and cultural heritage that has belonged to Europeans for centuries”.
The deputy chair of the foreign affairs committee, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) member Enrico Farinone, also welcomed the decision.
“This is a positive ruling that takes into account the sensibility of a considerable number of Europeans”.
“We can’t look to the future of this continent by denying our past,” said the PD MP.
Several MPs from across the political spectrum said the ECHR had shown “common sense”. When the appeal was filed on January 29, Frattini said Italy was determined “to defend a very deep sentiment of the Italian people, a fundamental principle which affects the identity of our country”.
He said it was even more important to safeguard Italy’s “Christian identity” after Italy and other Catholic countries failed to have a reference to Europe’s Christian roots included in the European Union’s Constitution.
“We lost that battle, for the moment, but now we must defend that identity”.
Italy had garnered support from “many European countries” for its appeal, he said.
On the same day, Frattini addressed the parliamentary assembly of the 47-member Council of Europe, which the ECHR represents.
He reiterated to the assembly the Italian government’s view that Europe needs to do more to uphold its Christian heritage.
Frattini noted that the Lisbon Treaty protected religious minorities like Muslims but did not cite Europe’s “Christian roots”.
This, he said, was a form of “reverse racism” in which Europe was “mute on religious feelings”.
The Grande Chambre now has a statutory six months to decide what action the Italian government should take to avoid future suits.
The Strasbourg court, which is not an EU body, ruled on November 3 in favour of a petition filed nine years ago by a Finnish-born mother of two who argued crosses in classrooms infringed on pupils’ religious freedom.
The Berlusconi government has been strongly backed in its appeal by the Italian Catholic Church.
The head of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, hailed the appeal when it was launched, saying “that sentence goes against European history and religious sentiment”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Blunders Embarrass Premier’s Party
Glitches may bar candidates from running in Lazio and Lombardy
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s party faced further embarrassment Tuesday over new bureaucratic blunders which could bar more candidates from running in key regional elections later this month. After Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party was excluded from the ballot in Rome province for missing Saturday’s noon cutoff to register candidates, a Rome court on Tuesday also barred a personal list headed by the party’s candidate for the Lazio region presidency, Renata Polverini.
The Rome electoral court excluded the pro-Polverini list over “a procedural glitch”, sources close to the candidate said.
Apparently, electoral officials failed to notice that a signature was missing when the list was presented, said the sources, who stressed that they expected the situation to be remedied soon.
Polverini — a trade union leader — is running against Radical party candidate Emma Bonino, a former European Union commissioner who is backed by most of the centre-left opposition, including the Democratic Party. Members of Bonino’s own list claimed that Polverini was now ineligible to stand.
“If her list has been barred, then Polverini can no longer run for Lazio elections,” said lawyer Luca Petrucci, a Bonino supporter. “The electoral law states that a candidate for president must head the list, so if her list is barred she can no longer stand”. But Polverini said she was optimistic that the appeals court would reverse the weekend decision, and allow “democracy to overcome bureacracy”.
Whatever the outcome, the flap over the PdL’s exclusion from the key Rome province in the March 28-29 elections in 13 of Italy’s 20 regions has upset supporters and caused friction within the party.
It also drew the ire of key ally, outspoken Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, who on Tuesday branded officials responsible for the blunders “amateurs out of their depth”.
On Monday, the PdL accused the opposition Radical party of preventing it from registering its electoral list.
A first appeal against the decision to bar the PdL was rejected by a court on Sunday but the party on Monday turned to an appeals court, which is expected to rule on the issue within 48 hours.
If that appeal is also turned down, the PdL could still take the case to the regional TAR court and then to the state administrative tribunal.
However, a final decision would have to come before March 13, when the electoral lists must be published. The PDL claims that two members of the pro-Bonino Radical party fomented a row at the electoral office in a successful bid to prevent its representatives from handing in the documentation on time.
PdL House Whip Fabrizio Cicchitto said there was proof that the PdL men were at the electoral office at 11.25. He warned that electoral officials had set a dangerous precedent with their decision.
“Not allowing all the parties to present their lists …means that democracy is at risk”.
Bonino said on Monday that the PdL’s attempt to pass off the two Radical Party representatives as thugs was “an unacceptable lie”. Berlusconi, who is reportedly fuming with local party officials, said last week that the elections are of strategic importance for his government.
Introducing the four women the PdL has chosen as candidates for regional presidents, Berlusconi said voters would be asked “ to choose between can-do politics and the opposition’s talk”. The premier said he would personally come out to campaign with the centre-right candidates.
“I’ll make it clear (to voters) that they have to choose sides: it’s either the left or us”. The centre right had been optimistic of snatching Lazio away from the centre left after the region’s ex-president, Piero Marrazzo, was forced to resign in October in a sex and drugs scandal.
But if the PdL will be barred from running in the Rome province — the biggest in Lazio, with 2.3 million voters — the centre left may well hold on to the region. Meanwhile, Roberto Formigoni, the incumbent president of the Lombardy region, is facing his own problems with electoral officials who on Monday said his personal electoral list contained bureaucratic irregularities with some 500 signatures.
If that decision is upheld, Formigoni, who is backed by the PdL and the Northern League, will be unable to run with his personal slate, the opposition said.
Formigoni has also lodged an appeal, telling reporters on Tuesday that “the situation is clear: I’m running and I’ll win”.
Italy’s leading dailies ran almost identical headlines on Tuesday, stressing that “chaos” reigned in the PdL in Lombardy and Lazio.
An editorial in Il Giornale, the conservative daily owned by Berlusconi’s brother Silvio, scathingly pointed the finger at PdL officials in Rome, saying that since they “were incapable of presenting the list on time they should be placed under strict observation until undergoing an obligatory medical”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: EU Nod to GM Crops Angers Italians
Genetically modified corn and potatoes clear EC hurdle
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Four genetically modified (GM) crops received the green light from the European Union on Tuesday sparking a chorus of outrage from Italian politicians and environmentalists.
“Not only don’t we agree with this decision, but we’re not going to let it get in the way of our policy on GM foods,” said Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia.
Reiterating that Italy’s strict enforcement of a ban on GM foods was a “question of national sovereignty,” Zaia said the Italian government would band together with other EU members like France, Greece and Hungary to demand the decision be reversed.
The European Commission’s (EC) okay to the Amflora starch potato and three kinds of pest-resistant corn ended an unofficial 12-year moratorium on new GM foods in the EU.
While the Amflora potato is intended for industrial use only, the corn varieties have received the greenlight for human consumption as well.
A statement by EC Health Commissioner John Dalli stressed that the decision followed a “detailed examination” of the products, which determined they presented no significant health risks.
But the agricultural minister’s stance found common cause across party lines with the largest opposition group, the Democratic Party (PD), urging the government to keep GM foods out of Italy.
“The future of Italian agriculture is in high-quality, organic foods, not in genetically modified imitations,” said the PD’s pointman on the environment, Ermete Realacci.
Also speaking out on the decision, Italian environmental lobby Legambiente called it “absurd”.
“Letting these products go to market will put our health at risk and undermine our economy,” said spokesman Francesco Ferrante.
“Italy doesn’t want and doesn’t need genetically tampered foods,” he said.
But National Research Council biotechnologist Roberto Defez said the EC’s decision was long overdue and it was time Europe cashed in on the transgenic revolution.
“Last year, 10% of all farmland on Earth was cultivated using genetically modified crops and it’s ridiculous for the EU to opt out of such an important new market,” he said.
He added that GM products were rigorously tested before being approved and that the EU could help make the process even safer by taking a greater part in it.
The Amflora potato, created by German chemical titan BASF, was modified to create more of a certain kind of starch useful in the paper and plastics industry.
While it has not been approved for human consumption, it has been cleared as feed for animals fuelling worries that potentially overlooked long-term health risks could be passed on to consumers.
In particular, some experts have expressed concerns that a modified protein in the potato neutralizes the effects of a common antibiotic.
However, the European Food and Safety Authority (ESFA) argued that Amflora potatoes contained tiny amounts of the protein too small to interfere with antibiotics and pose no risk for the people who take them.
The three strains of transgenic corn cleared Tuesday have all been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, despite health concerns that have led to a ban in Germany But the ESFA maintains that extensive testing has failed to show any connection between the corn and health complications of any kind.
The issue of GM crops is particularly explosive in Italy.
As the second-largest producer of organic crops in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, there is widespread fear of the potential damage resulting from accidental GM contamination.
According to a recent survey by farmers’ union Coldiretti, seven in ten Italians believe that GM foods are less healthy than traditional ones.
Coldiretti added that the negative perception of GM foods could hurt Italian food exports by as much as 60% were the government to approve them for use.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Blast Suspect Charged With Terrorism
Milan, 2 March (AKI) — Italian magistrates on Tuesday issued new terrorism charges against a Libyan immigrant suspected of setting off a bomb outside a military barracks in the northern Italian city of Milan last October. Mohammed Game will now be charged with an act of terrorism using an explosive device.
Game was arrested after the blast on 12 October last year and charged with attempting to carry out a massacre and carrying and making explosive devices.
Both he and an Italian soldier were injured in the blast, and Game has been in custody ever since.
Thirty-five-year-old Game (photo) was reported to have exploded a home-made bomb hidden inside a toolbox at the entrance of Milan’s Santa Barbara barracks.
He allegedly entered the courtyard of the barracks on foot, where he was confronted by a military guard.
Game is then accused of detonating the rudimentary explosives, which were reportedly made of solid nitrate.
An Italian soldier was slightly injured and Game lost a hand and his eyesight in the attack.
The toolbox where he allegedly hid the bomb was said to have contained two more kilogrammes of explosives, and according to reports, it only partially detonated.
Had the entire load detonated, there would definitely have been deaths, investigators said.
Two more North African suspects were arrested in mid-October in connection with the bombing after police questioned Game’s family.
The Egyptian suspect, named as Abdel Hady Abdelaziz Mahmoud Kol, allegedly helped Game reach the barracks.
The Libyan suspect, named as Mohamaed Imbaeya Israfel, allegedly helped Game to obtain explosives.
Game attended Milan’s Viale Jenner Mosque and had lived in Italy for many years. He has an Italian partner and three children.
He complied a ‘dossier’ containing information on Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and other government ministers, the Italian investigative weekly L’Espresso reported last November.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: “At 17, I Didn’t Want an Abortion — Now My Daughter and I Are Homeless”
“I’m being evicted from squatted accommodation. The mayor should help”
She’s young, with a school-leaving certificate, a string of temporary jobs, an internship at 400 euros a month and a dream — a home of her own. Despite her distinctly unusual name, Cintamani Puddu, the Rome woman who wrote the letter published here, has a CV that looks very like those of many other Italian 21-year-olds. What makes it different is her daughter Sita, born when she was only 17, and her courageous determination to provide stability and a future for their “happy little family”. Ms Cintamani and her daughter live in a squatted home from which they are about to be evicted. Her own family cannot, or do not want to, help her and little Sita could be taken into care, even though she is “a serene child” with a “desperate mother” who just needs some help to face the future with serenity herself. Let’s hope that the people who can help her do not stand to one side. This is the letter that Cintamani Puddu wrote to the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, with a copy to the Corriere della Sera.
LETTER — I’m not against it, but I knew that I had the strength within me to go on and I already loved this little girl. I knew that I could do it so I took my courageous decision. My 17th birthday came and went as I wore my bump proudly, fighting against all the people who didn’t agree with my decision. Naturally, I was still at secondary school at the time. My daughter was born in November of my fourth year at the Federico Caffè technical school. My mother has never given me any help with my daughter but she did let me stay at home with her until I finished school. Luckily, the school did everything they could. At the time, absence from school didn’t mean you failed the year so I spent the fourth year studying at home and going into school when I could find someone to babysit for a few hours. That was when I caught up with the written and oral tests my classmates did during the week. I studied at home on my own with a baby. I didn’t get top marks that year but I did get through without any achievement deficits to make up. The fifth year was more straightforward because my daughter went to day nursery and I was able to go to lessons. In the mornings, I would take my daughter to the nursery, go to my classes and then back home. I’d look after my little brother and daughter and study at night. I managed to get my leaving certificate without any retakes, and with very good marks. It was hard, and as always I am proud of myself, but after leaving school, I also had to leave home.
The situation had become unbearable and I had to get out. For a year, I lived with a friend and her partner. She had a little girl my daughter’s age and there were five of us in two rooms. My daughter and I had a “bedroom” made by dividing up the living room with a bookcase. There was only enough space for my loft bed and my daughter’s cot underneath. As you can imagine, I had to leave that place, too. I found myself without anywhere to live and in that situation, I was “lucky” enough to squat a council house. At the moment, I’m squatting a place owned by ATER, the public housing institute. My address is Via Donna Olimpia 30, block I, staircase A, number 4. Obviously, I have received notice of eviction. As an unmarried mother with a dependent child and short-term contract work, I apparently do not qualify for public housing. Last year, I earned 7,900 euros. I don’t know if you realise how hard it is to pay rent for an ordinary family with two pay packets, especially with the wages they give us ordinary folk. I work from dawn to dusk, and in the evenings, and at weekends as well when I can, but despite everything, there’s no way I can afford a “normal” rent.
They preach procreation in this country. I’m always seeing programmes about “how few children are born” or how “people aren’t having kids any more” or how “youngsters are staying at home with their parents for too long” but it makes me ill even to think about it. Because I have never, ever, seen a programme that told the truth about why it happens. Maintaining a child in Italy has become very, very difficult. I can’t even afford to go to the doctor’s if I’m sick because it would mean missing a day’s work and I might lost my job. That’s why I ended up in hospital a year ago with bronchial pneumonia. Social services said they could only help my daughter and not me because there wasn’t enough money to put me in accommodation if I had nowhere to stay. I could lose my daughter. Would the state be to blame? Or the economy? Or money? It wouldn’t just mean ruining a mother. It would be ruining a child. I don’t take drugs, I’m not addicted to anything and I haven’t got psychological issues. My daughter is a serene child and I’m a good mother. If I thought I wasn’t doing enough, I’d bow my head and admit it. But I’m worn out when I get home at night. I give it everything I’ve got every day. All the time. I’m a desperate mother with a wonderful daughter. I’ve made a happy little family. I’m a brave woman who needs help. I don’t want to lose my little girl yet the way things look I’m not going to make it on my own. I’ve no one else to turn to apart from the state.
Cintamani Puddu
English translation by Giles Watson www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Arms Trafficking Ring With Iran Busted’
Probe not possible with proposed wiretap limits, police say
(ANSA) — Milan, March 3 — Police on Wednesday broke up an organization allegedly seeking to violate an international arms embargo against Iran, in an operation which investigators said would not have been possible if proposed limits on wiretapping currently before parliament were in effect. The investigation led to the the arrest of seven people and warrants issued against two others for allegedly seeking to export to Iran not only weapons but also ‘dual use’ materials and systems, those which can be converted from civilian to military use. Police said those arrested included five Italians and two Iranians, who are believed to belong to Iranian intelligence, while the two at large were Iranian.
In Tehran, an Iranian foreign ministry official told ANSA that “for the moment Iran has nothing to say” about the arrests.
Milan assistant prosecutor Armando Spataro told the press that “this eight-month investigation was carried out using a vast number of wiretaps and intercepting email and SMS communication. This would not have been possible based the conditions set in the bill which has been passed by the House and is currently under discussion in the Senate”.
“Under the proposed rules we would not have been able to gather sufficient evidence to justify the extension of the wiretaps,” the assistant prosecutor explained. Spataro added that the investigation saw collaboration between several law enforcement agencies.
The suspected Iranian agents were named as Nejad Hamid Masoumi, 51, a journalist accredited to the Rome foreign press association as a correspondent for Iranian TV; and Ali Damirchiloo, 55, who was arrested in Turin.
The Iranians who escaped arrest were named as Hamir Reza and Bakhtiyari Homayoun.
Among the Italians arrested was Alessandro Bon, 43, a Vittorio Veneto native who lives in Monza and who is believed to have orchestrated the illegal trafficking through a Varese-based company, Antares.
Also arrested were Bon’s girlfriend Danila Maffei, 40; Bon’s business partner Arnaldo La Scala, 43, who is also a lawyer in Turin; Guglielmo Savi, 56, the head of a telecommunications company, Sirio SrL; and Raffaele Rossi Patriarca, who investigators said travelled to Iran to establish contacts with the Iranian military interested in arms deals.
The government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi used a confidence vote last June to push through the House a bill to curb the use of wiretaps.
The government argued the measure is necessary to defend the privacy of citizens whose private conversations with suspects targeted by probes have, in recent years, often ended up in the press.
Another argument for the reform — a 2008 campaign promise by Berlusconi — is that large amounts of funds are wasted on inconsequential wire taps, at a time when the government is trying to curb spending.
The measure would restrict the use of wiretaps to investigate serious crimes: mafia, terrorism, corruption of public officials and accepting kickbacks, human trafficking, child pornography, loan sharking and economic and fiscal crimes like insider trading.
In general, wiretaps would not be allowed to investigate crimes which carry sentences of less than five years. Other changes in the bill included requiring wiretaps be authorised by a panel of magistrates, compared to only one at present, imposing a 60-day limit on wiretaps and curbing the amount of funds which can be used to carry them out.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims’ Fury at ‘Holy City’ Boozer
A MUSLIM leader has blasted a pub for using the name of holy city Medina — branding it an insult to his religion.
The boozer in Dundee changed its name from Bar Rio to Medina Bar and Grill after a renovation.
But this has sparked outrage — as Saudi Arabian city Medina is the second-holiest site in Islam behind Mecca.
Medina is also a term used for a market or trading centre in north African cities.
But Mohammed Bashir Chohan, chairman of the Dundee Islamic Society, last night said: “People are upset about it because Medina is a holy city. It does hurt when somebody misuses the name, especially if they are going to sell liquor.”
The issue has been raised with local MP Jim McGovern.
His spokesman said he was working with councillors including Labour’s Mohammed Asif to “try to bring the parties together to reach a solution”.
Yesterday a spokesman for Medina said there was no offence intended — but added they were unlikely to change the bar’s new name.
He said: “The bar has a Moroccan theme and, as far as we were told, medina is the hustle-bustle of an old quarter of a north African city. There was no intended link to the second-holiest city of Islam.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Poland’s Top Reporter Accused of Lying and Spying in New Biography
Ryszard Kapuscinski, the late Polish journalist, has been accused of collaborating with Poland’s communist government and of making factual errors.
A court injunction and a heated public debate have heralded the upcoming release of “Kapuscinski Non-fiction”, Artur Domoslawski’s new biography about Poland’s most renowned foreign correspondent.
Kapuscinski , who died in 2007 at the age of 74, covered wars, coups and bloody revolutions in Africa and Latin America as a correspondent for Poland’s PAP state news agency from 1959 to 1981. His subsequent books were translated into 30 languages.
But the new biography claims many details in Kapuscinski’s books were the stuff of invention.
Mr Domoslavski writes that Kapuscinski, famed for books including “The Soccer War”, never met Che Guevara and many other famous figures he claimed to have befriended as he sent dispatches from his travels around the developing world.
The book has been the focus of a legal injunction by Kapuscinski’s widow, earned the ire of a government minister and the enmity of an Archbishop in the powerful Roman Catholic Church for daring to trifle with the reputation of an author who is lionised in Poland.
Kapuscinski won international recognition for his reports on Africa’s emergence from colonialism and his coverage of its subsequent descent into turmoil and war.
He wrote a number of books that have been widely hailed around the world such as “The Emperor”, which focused on the downfall of Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie; “Shah of Shahs” describing the overthrow of the Iran’s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and “Imperium” on the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Mr Domoslawski’s book delves into Kapuscinski’s personal relationships, accuses him of collaborating with Poland’s communist government and of making factual errors.
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a government minister and a survivor of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, condemned Mr Domoslawski, saying his book had violated journalistic ethics by applying a tabloid approach to Kapuscinski’s private life.
“There are also publishing houses to present a ranking of brothels (…), but I don’t think I’d like to publish my book in such a place,” Mr Bartoszewski said referring to Kapuscinski’s alleged affairs described in the book, to be released on Wednesday.
Those comments were echoed by many other commentators as well as several top members of Poland’s Roman Catholic church, including Archbishop Jozef Zycinski.
But others said Kapuscinski deserved a biography which looked into the more controversial parts of his life.
Kapuscinski’s widow Alicja Kapuscinska, unsuccessfully sought a court order to block the publication, saying it was damaging to her reputation and Kapuscinski’s memory.
A publishing house, which was originally to release the book, also pulled out.
Though much respected in Poland, Kapuscinski has already been accused of spying for the communists on his travels to the world’s trouble spots at a time when it was nearly impossible to leave Poland without signing a cooperation declaration.
In an interview for Reuters in 2007 Alicja Kapuscinska said her husband was not a spy, but that contracts with the regime were the “price he had to pay” for travelling the world under communism, which was toppled in Poland in 1989.
Kapuscinski is the latest in a long line of public figures whose reputations have been tarnished by allegations of collaboration with Poland’s communist regime, an indication of the country’s continuing struggle to come to terms with a communist past that is now more than two decades old.
Kapuscinski was born into poverty in the town of Pinsk, now in Belarus, in 1932. He used to say he felt at home in Africa as “food was scarce there too and everyone was also barefoot”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Papal Visit Divides Catalonia, Gov’t Perplexed by Date
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — A divided Catalonia will greet Benedict XVI on November 7 after his visit to Galicia for the 2010 St.James Holy Year. On the one hand there is enthusiasm among the church hierarchy, which underlined “the dimension and global repercussion” of the pope’s visit to Spain in the fall, while on the other hand perplexity has been expressed by the three political parties in control in Catalonia, as the visit will take place during the same period as the Catalonian parliamentary election. While confirming Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to Barcelona, his second to Spain after going to Valencia in 2005 for World Family Day, Archbishop Lluis Martinez Sistach announced that the first Eucharist presided over by the pope in the Sagrada Familia will be accompanied by a choir of over 1,200 singers. But at the same time it will be “a simple ceremony”, taking the economic crisis into account. “The visit cannot be expensive because the Holy See has an austere style,” said the bishop, while speaking to the press. The consecration of the church comes at the culmination of work to build the roof of the modernist structure designed by architect Antoni Gaudi’, a symbol of Barcelona. The first stone was laid in 1882, and construction has proceeded over the last decades thanks to donations from worshipers and tourists from throughout the world. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the monument is the most visited site in the region, counting about 3 million tourists in 2007. However, the Sagrada Familia has not been spared by the crisis to the tourism sector, with the number of visitors in decline by about 300,000 last year according to Jiordi Bonet, the head architect at the site for the last 25 years. Pope Ratzinger’s visit will also serve to relaunch the monument, “for its artistic significance, the most important church built in the world,” emphasised the archbishop of Barcelona. Sistach pointed out that the pope visited the city when he was a cardinal and hoped that his next stay would serve to “strengthen the faith of the Catalonian people and evangelisation” and to provide strength for the cause to canonise Antonio Gaudi’. The archbishop ruled out the possibility that the proximity to the Catalonian parliamentary elections could jeopardise the pope’s visit, because, he observed, “the collaboration of the government will involve other aspects”, regarding logistics and security. However, perplexity on the visit coinciding with the election was expressed by the PSC, ERC, and ICV-EU. According to the socialist spokesperson in Catalonian Parliament, Joan Ferran, the two events “have no reason to interfere”. “It would be strange,” he observed, “if they took place on the same day. Also according to Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya spokesperson Anna Simo’ it would be out of place if the pope, “who is not a head of state” were to modify the electoral agenda. The ICV-EU party, through its parliamentary spokesperson Dolors Camats, hoped that Benedict XVI’s visit would not interfere with the electoral campaign. Finally, the spokesperson for the People’s Party in Catalonian Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, while praising the announcement of the pope’s visit, admitted that she was surprised about the date, since the last election was held on November 1 four years ago in Catalonia and that Generalitat President Jose’ Montilla has reiterated on more than one occasion that he does not intend hold early elections. On the sidelines of the political controversy, many bloggers for Catalonian dailies pointed out that the last visit by a pope to Barcelona by Pope John Paul II in 1982 was not just any regular event, with throngs of people at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Job Agency Accepts ‘Muslim Handshake’ Fine
Sweden’s National Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen) has decided not to appeal its fine for discriminating against a Muslim man who had his benefits withdrawn after refusing to shake the hand of Jeanette Löding, the female CEO of a firm with which he was seeking employment.
Job agency fined for religious discrimination (8 Feb 10)
“We have worked hard so that women and men can be seen as equals in the workplace. If feels like we have slipped back a few steps here,” Jeanette Löding, CEO of Melament AB told The Local on Wednesday regarding the court’s decision.
The agency explained that it had decided to accept the Stockholm District Court decision to award the 28-year-old Muslim man 60,000 kronor in compensation as it felt that there was insufficient evidence to prove that discrimination had not taken place.
The agency said that if it appealed the ruling it may appear that there was a requirement to greet people in a certain way in order to participate in labour market training schemes.
Jeanette Löding agreed that there should be scope within Swedish business for people to greet each other in several ways, but added that it was not acceptable to simply ignore somebody.
“It has to be clear that there is a greeting. And that was not the case here,” she said, arguing that the incident had left her feeling “outside” and discriminated against.
The case dates back to May 2006 when the man was seeking work experience at Löding’s firm Melament in Älmhult in Småland in southern Sweden. As a result of the man’s refusal to shake the CEO’s outstretched hand, citing religious faith, his right to benefits was revoked.
The court ruling has since generated a great deal of attention and controversy in the Swedish media.
Dagens Nyheter columnist Lena Andersson was among those scathing of the ruling describing DO’s case and the court ruling as “rewarding the apartheid of agency-approved discrimination.”
The lawyer representing the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) which took up the man’s case, Katri Linna, argued at the time however that the ruling was important to underline that “everyone can take part in the labour market,” adding that, “people must be able to greet each other differently depending on their religion.”
The Discrimination Ombudsman has since been reported to the Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsmannen, JO) for contributing to the discrimination of women, a move welcomed by Jeanette Löding.
“I think it is positive. But we shall have to wait and see what comes of it,” she said to The Local.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anger Mounts as Straw Refuses to Reveal Why Bulger Killer Jon Venables is Back Behind Bars
The Government was facing mounting anger today at the secrecy surrounding the sensational return of one of James Bulger’s killers to prison.
Government officials have thrown a blanket of secrecy around Jon Venables, refusing to say whether he has committed a new crime or to which jail he has been sent.
The Ministry of Justice have refused to tell even James’ distraught mother the reason for the recall, believed to have happened last week.
Both Justice Secretary Jack Straw and Home Secretary Alan Johnson defended the move to keep all details quiet today.
But the detective who headed the Bulger murder investigation led calls for the truth to be revealed, insisting it would help allay people’s fears.
[…]
Venables and his accomplice Robert Thompson were only ten when they abducted James, two, from a Liverpool shopping centre in February 1993 and murdered him in a crime which shocked the world.
But, despite the horror at their crimes, they were released from custody only eight years later without spending a single day in an adult prison, and handed new identities protected by draconian rules.
As a result, fellow prisoners will today be unaware of the horrific crime committed by their new cellmate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BA Man Arrested in ‘Terror Plot’ Raid
A BRITISH Airways worker has been arrested during a probe into terrorist fund-raising, it emerged yesterday.
The British man, 30 — thought to be from an Asian background — was held at BA’s Newcastle-upon-Tyne call centre.
A plot to raise cash for an attack, possibly on a jet, is thought to have been uncovered.
Cops swooped on Thursday after a tip-off, it is believed.
The suspect was driven to a central London police station, where he continues to be held.
He has been questioned for six days after City of Westminster JPs granted an extension to his custody on Saturday.
Police can seek a further extension later this week if required.
Earlier today police arrested three further men in connection with the investigation during 5am swoops at addresses in Slough, Berks.
The first arrest followed a combined operation by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command and the North East Counter Terrorism Unit.
The investigation is focusing on the suspect’s key contacts and recent movements.
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A BA spokesman said: “An employee was arrested at our Newcastle office last week.
“We take matters relating to security extremely seriously and as a responsible company always fully co-operate with the police.”
It is believed there was no immediate threat of an attack on a plane or a UK target.
The employee was among 800 staff dealing with passenger bookings in one of the airline’s two big British-based call centres.
Staff have access to thousands of flight details and are familiar with basic security procedures.
The UK terrorist threat level is currently at “severe”, one below the top rating “critical”.
The level was raised after former British University student Umar Abdulmutallab’s failed bid to blow up a jet over Detroit, US, on Christmas Day.
Speaking about today’s further arrests, a Metropolitan police spokeswoman said: “At 5am this morning three men were arrested in Slough for the alleged offence of terrorist fund raising.”
She said the men were aged 31, 32 and 43 and were believed to have been taken to Paddington Green police station in central London as their homes were being searched.
She added: “They were arrested a separate residential premises by officers from the South East Counter Terrorism unit as part of a joint operation with the MPS Counter Terrorism Unit.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Chip Shop Owner Jailed After Being Caught With Photos of Him Counting Thousands of Pounds in Drug Money
A chip shop owner was today jailed for 12 years after being caught with pictures of himself counting thousands of pounds of drug money taken on his mobile phone.
Eric Kocabey, 34, was arrested after customs officers at Manchester Airport intercepted an electric fire which had £600,000 of heroin hidden in the back.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the 11kg of drugs were swapped for decoy packages and surveillance officers watched as the fire was delivered to Kocabey’s home in Birkenhead, last October.
Anne Whyte, prosecuting, said that after the Turkish former asylum seeker, who was given British citizenship in 2008, came home from work clutching a tool box, police raided the address and found him dismantling the fire to get at the drugs.
The father-of-one was arrested and several mobile phones were also seized.
On Kocabey’s iPhone were pictures taken in August, before he was under suspicion, of himself with bundles of cash and photos of brown packages similar to those found in the fire.
At his chip shop, White’s Fish Bar in Wallasey, police found a 40-plant cannabis factory in a bedroom.
Kocabey told police he had been pressured into taking delivery of the fire and into letting three men use the flat above his chip shop because he owed money to members of the Turkish community.
Miss Whyte told the court Kocabey was ‘the face of the conspiracy’ and was ‘clearly trusted’.
‘To think that international drug dealers would send a consignment to a man they barely knew was “absurd”,’ she added.
The mobile phone photographs, Miss Whyte said, showed this was not the first time he had been involved with drugs.
David Maudsley, defending, said that prior to falling into debt, Kocabey was ‘a hard working man trying to make a decent living’.
He said his ‘ashamed’ client had been stupid and weak and ‘could have and should have said no’.
Recorder David Turner QC said: ‘The photos were very stupid things to do but people who commit this type of offence are sometimes very arrogant.’
He sentenced Kocabey to 12 years for conspiring to supply Class A drugs and five years, to run at the same time, for being involved in the production of cannabis.
The judge said: ‘You have repaid the hospitality of this country by becoming involved very substantially in the drugs trade.
‘You have made your way, thanks to the generosity of this country, to become the owner of a fish and chip shop.
‘Fortunately, the police and customs through good work managed to intercept a consignment of Class A drugs being imported and which was to be delivered to you.
‘You were not a foot soldier. You were a senior officer in this.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fundamentalist-Infiltrated Council Steps Back From the Cliff Edge — Just
By Andrew Gilligan
At the eleventh hour, Tower Hamlets has drawn back from an act of stupidity stunning even by its own standards. The council’s initial response to our revelations that it has been infiltrated by Islamic fundamentalists — revelations which the council leader refuses to deny — has been not to investigate the matter, but to attack one of the people who helped expose it.
In the ongoing takeover process of the council by the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), one of the key moments was the appointment of Lutfur Ali, a man with close links to the IFE, to the second most important job at the Town Hall — despite his palpable unfitness for the £125,000 post.
Apart from his IFE links, there wasn’t that much else going for Mr Ali. The council-appointed headhunters who considered applicants described him as “rather limited,” “superficial,” and “one-dimensional” and said he might “struggle with the intellectual challenges [of] a highly strategic role.” And the headhunters didn’t even know that Mr Ali had submitted a misleading CV, which gave false dates for a previous employment and omitted the fact that he had been forced to resign from that job for breaching the local authority code of conduct.
Mr Ali is responsible for council grants. Since his appointment, a lot more council money has started going to organisations closely linked to — you guessed — the IFE. These organisations include a very generously-funded youth training project, Brick Lane Youth Development Association, or Blyda. Part of the purpose of this project, according to critics, is to take vulnerable young people off the streets and imbue them with the values of the IFE.
Blyda’s chair and three of its four trustees are also trustees of the IFE, or its youth wing, the YMO. The man in charge of Blyda’s project working with local gang members, Muhammad Rabbani, is the same person who trains young IFE recruits in the need for an “Islamic social, economic and political order” in Britain.
Has the council sacked or suspended Lutfur Ali? Not at all, but they have been trying to suspend the man who exposed him — the opposition leader, Peter Golds, who brought out the contents of the headhunters’ report in our programme. Mr Golds was accused of “breaching confidentiality” by quoting from the document. Actually, he was quoting not from the report but from a letter he wrote about it to the council’s standards committee.
The idea that someone can be thrown off a council for reading out one of his own letters has proved, in the end, a notch too far even for Tower Hamlets. It would also have been the mother of all media disasters. So this afternoon the idea has been dropped.
But it is symptomatic of the utter panic and denial now reigning at the council that they could even have thought of such a thing.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Four Men Including Two British Airways Employees Arrested in ‘Terror Plot’ Raids
Three men were arrested in dawn raids this morning, taking to four the number being held over allegations of terrorism fundraising.
It follows the arrest on Thursday of a 30-year-old British Airways employee in Newcastle. A second BA staff member was among the group arrested this morning.
The three men, aged 31, 32 and 43, were seized by police at 5am today in Slough.
The men are now being questioned about a plot to fund a terrorist attack.
Police refused to clarify what positions the two BA employees had within the airline. Sources said the latest arrests were ‘significant’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jacob Zuma Brands the British ‘Old Fashioned Imperialists’… Just Hours Before Meeting the Queen
As a practising polygamist who has fathered more than 20 children, both in an out of wedlock, his inaugural state visit has already raised eyebrows.
Today President Jacob Zuma of South Africa added fuel to the fire by branding the British as ‘old fashioned imperialists’ just hours before he was due to by official greeted by the Queen.
Mr Zuma has apparently been angered by his host country’s ‘obsession’ with his colourful private life which includes five wives, a lovechild with the daughter of one of his political allies and a criminal trial for the rape of a young HIV positive woman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Women Who Refused to Take ‘Naked’ Full-Body Scan Are Barred From Manchester to Pakistan Flight
The pair — who security officials insist were selected at random — opted to miss their flight to Pakistan and forfeit tickets worth £400 each rather than be screened.
One of the women refused to go through the full-body scanner at Manchester Airport on religious grounds while her companion also declined for ‘medical reasons’.
The women were travelling together to Islamabad when they were selected to pass through the controversial security screen after checking-in at Terminal Two at the airport.
An estimated 15,000 people have already passed through the scanners, with the pair the first passengers to refuse a scan.
Both told airport staff they were not willing to be scanned. They were warned they would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if they refused.
The pair decided they would rather forfeit their £400 tickets and left the airport with their luggage.
The £80,000 scanners were introduced at Heathrow and Manchester airports on February 5.
The X-ray machines allow security staff to see a ‘naked’ image of passengers to show up hidden weapons and explosives, but it has attracted criticism for also showing clear outlines of passengers’ genitals.
Manchester Airport confirmed the passengers had refused to be scanned but said it had received no complaint from the women.
However, civil liberties campaigners say the incident could form the basis of a legal test case to challenge the use of the Rapiscan device in airports.
Alex Deane, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the organisation would represent the women if they wished to challenge the decision in court.
Blog: Are full body scanners really something to blush about?
He said: ‘People shouldn’t have to sacrifice their health, their faith, their dignity, or their privacy in order to fly.
‘People with health and religious concerns shouldn’t be forced to go through these scanners if they have good reason not to. Foolishly, the government has ignored both issues and ignored privacy concerns to boot — they are in the wrong on this.’
There is one Rapiscan scanner in use in a trial at Manchester Airport’s terminal two, which has seen 15,000 people pass through it.
A further two devices — one each for terminals one and three — have been delivered and are set to be operational within the next month.
The scanners have been criticised by the human rights group Liberty and the government’s own Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Only selected passengers are scanned. Security staff say they are chosen at random and not according to race, religion or ethnicity.
Councillor Afzal Khan, who was Manchester’s first Asian lord mayor, said the vast majority of Muslims believed that any privacy concerns should be outweighed by ensuring they are safe when flying.
He said: ‘Hundreds of Muslim passengers have gone through without a problem. While I appreciate people’s concerns for privacy, these steps are necessary for our safety and security.’
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: ‘Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal Two refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.
‘In accordance with the government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly.
‘Body scanning is a big change for customers and we are aware that privacy concerns are on our customers’s minds, which is why we have put strict procedures in place to reassure them that their privacy will be protected.’
Last month, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis stressed that an interim code of practice on the use of body scanners stipulated that passengers would not be selected ‘on the basis of personal characteristics’.
Two weeks ago, a week after the scanners were introduced at Manchester and Heathrow airports, Islamic scholars in the U.S. said Muslim travellers should not pass through the scanners because they violate religious rules on nudity.
The Fiqh Council of North America issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, warning Muslims not to go through the scanners.
‘It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,’ read the order.
‘Islam highly emphasises haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.’
In the U.S., there are now 40 scanners in 19 airports and could be as many as 450 by the end of the year.
The powerful council of ten scholars that issued the fatwa is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Beaten to Death in Own Home ‘Was Regularly Targeted by Gangs’
A man who was beaten to death in his home was regularly targeted by gangs of youths, police said today.
Andrew Smart, 47, a former self-employed software engineer, was found dead at 6.30pm on February 28 at his home in North Shields, North Tyneside.
Detectives revealed Mr Smart was an alcoholic who would be targeted by teenagers who came into his home to cause trouble.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Number of Child Criminals ‘Has Jumped by 13% Under Labour’
Almost 160 children are convicted of crime every day, official figures show.
The young offenders even include ten-year-olds who have attacked police officers. A total of 57,635 under-16s were found guilty in court in 2008.
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling, who unearthed the figures, said they showed Gordon Brown was wrong to dismiss the charge that Britain was ‘broken’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Women Refuse to Go Through Airport Body Scanners
Two women were stopped from boarding a plane at Manchester Airport after refusing to undergo a full body scan.
The passengers were due to fly to Islamabad on 19 February when they were selected at random to go through the new scanning machine.
One, who is believed to be a Muslim, refused on religious reasons and the other cited health grounds.
They are thought to be the first people to refuse to use the scanners since they became compulsory in February.
The machines were introduced as a trial at the airport in October 2009.
The women were warned they were legally required to go through the scanner, after being chosen at random, or they would not be allowed to fly, an airport spokesman said.
‘Strict procedures’
It is not clear whether the women were travelling together.
Security staff use the X-ray machine to check for any concealed weapons or explosives but they have been criticised as an invasion of privacy.
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: “Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal 2 refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.
“In accordance with the government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly.
“Body scanning is a big change for customers who are selected under the new rules and we are aware that privacy concerns are on our customers’ minds, which is why we have put strict procedures to reassure them that their privacy will be protected.”
The women forfeited their flight and left the airport.
In US airports where scanners are installed passengers have the option of a undergoing a body search.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders’ Best Witness
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Wilders’ and Usmani’s interpretation of Islam is beside the point. The real question is: How can Wilders be prosecuted for agreeing with the interpretation of a world-renowned Islamic thinker and scholar — a scholar who has never been accused of hate speech or insulting Islam?
As the trial of Geert Wilders for insulting Islam moves forward in the Netherlands, the one witness that could clear him of these charges will not be called.
Muhammad Taqi Usmani is a highly respected and well-known expert on Islamic law who served for 20 years as a Sharia judge on Pakistan’s Supreme Court. He is quite possibly the world’s most influential Islamist thinker and writer outside of the Middle East. Usmani is a frequent visitor to Britain, where his monographIslam and Modernism caused a great deal of controversy.
Why is Usmani so important for the purposes of Wilders’ trial? Simply put, Usmani’s interpretation of Islamic doctrine as it concerns non-believers is the same as Wilders’. Indeed, the critical lesson to be gleaned from Usmani’s work bolsters the very argument that Wilders is on trial for making — namely, that the doctrine of jihad, as expounded in Islamic texts, inherently poses a threat to Western civilization. In fact, Osama Bin Laden made the exact same point in a lengthy essay entitled “Moderate Islam is a Prostration to the West” (reproduced in Raymond Ibrahinm’s The al Qaeda Reader).
I don’t know if Wilders is familiar with Islam and Modernism. However, the reader of this work will be struck by the similarities between it and Fitna, the short film that has played a significant role in landing Wilders in court. The critical difference between the two is that no one — especially no Muslim thinker, writer or the Organization of Islamic Countries — has ever accused Usmani of hate speech or of insulting Islam. And yet, consistency of treatment would mandate that if Wilders must go to trial, so should Usmani. At the very least, Usmani should be publicly condemned and ridiculed by prominent Muslim thinkers in Muslim countries.
Consider the nature of his work. Islam and Modernism is broadside attack against modernist Muslim thinking and Western civilization. Usmani is critical of modern practices such as charging interest, women and men working together, birth control, and science that it is not used to further religious thinking. Even America’s moon landing in 1969 is described as an “international crime.”
However, it is his chapter on offensive jihad, which he calls aggressive jihad, that is most significant for purposes of Wilders’ trial.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Winston Churchill, WWII Leader’s Grandson, Dies
Winston Spencer Churchill, a former member of Parliament and grandson of Britain’s wartime leader, died Tuesday, an associate said. He was 69.
Churchill had been suffering from cancer and died at his London home, said Cmdr. John Muxworthy, president of the United Kingdom National Defense Association.
Churchill was a member of the House of Commons from 1970 to 1997. Earlier he had been a foreign correspondent for The Times of London, The Daily Telegraph and other papers.
He was a founder of the Defense Association, which campaigned for greater support for Britain’s armed forces.
“A true patriot, WSC followed in the steps of his grandfather, Sir Winston, who, in the 1930s campaigned ceaselessly for this country to rearm in the face of the ever-growing threat from Nazi Germany,” Muxworthy said. “Eighty years on, our Winston has been fighting the same battle.”…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Albania: Integrate Rom and Egyptians, Council of Europe
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, MARCH 2 — An emphatic call for Albania to introduce further measures or strengthen those already required by law to assure better living conditions for Rom and Egyptian communities was made by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe in its fourth report on the country, which was made public today. Despite the fact that ECRI recognises that the Albanian government introduced a certain number of measures aimed at improving access to homes, work and schools for members of these communities, at the same time the group stressed that what has been accomplished to this point cannot be viewed as sufficient. In particular, the Commission believes that access to education for Rom children is “highly unsatisfactory”. According to ECRI, illiteracy in a large part of minors in Rom and Egyptian communities is one of the factors that explains how these children are more frequently victims of human trafficking, a phenomenon regarding which ECRI expressed “strong worries”. Among its recommendations, ECRI, in addition to calling for the government to do more for the two communities, also asked the authorities to pass laws as soon as possible that punish active and passive discrimination both on a civil and administrative level. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Prices 25% Below EU Average
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, MARCH 1 — Prices in Croatia are 25% lower than the European average, according to the Croatian statistics institute. The institute specifies that the average Croatian household spends around 11,500 euros per year, against the around 30,000 spent by German or Austrian families. In detail, Croatian households spend 35.6% of their income on food and cigarettes, against a European average of 19.4%, while spending the same as the European average on telecommunication. Croatians spend around 900 euros per year on clothing and footwear (half the European average), and 30-50% less than the rest of the EU on energy. The Croatian GDP, the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Belgrade adds, is 42% of the European average. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Attack Against Police Barracks in Kabyle
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 2 — This morning an armed Islamic group attacked a criminal investigation police barracks in Tigzirt in the Kabyle region in Algeria. The attack, wrote El Watan online, was repelled by the officers, but at least two men were injured. Immediately afterwards, a roundup was carried out by the army in the region. The armed group affiliated with al Qaeda for the Islamic Maghreb is reportedly currently surrounded by security forces in the Hagga forest about 100km east of Algiers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Crops to be Insured Against Droughts
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 2 — Starting next year, Algerian farmers will be able to insure their crops against drought, said Amara Latrous, the president of Algerian insurance union UAR, while speaking on national Algerian radio. Latrous emphasised how this is “the first product of this type in Algeria”. According to Latrous, drought will be able to be classified as a natural disaster and will therefore become insurable. The funds for the new insurance, initially to be reserved for grain farmers, will be allocated by the national agricultural fund and by the central insurance company of the Finance Ministry. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Football: Algeria, Friendly With Serbia Sold Out
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 3 — The Algeria-Serbia friendly football match to be played this evening at the ‘July 5 stadium’ in Algiers has sold out. The 56,000 tickets available for the World Cup 2010 warm-up sold out in a matter of just a few hours. Fans say that most tickets have ended up in the hands of ticket touts who sell them on at exorbitant prices. Coach Rabah Saadane will take advantage of the match to field a different formation to the one used in the Africa Cup of Nations. There are serious absences — Gaouaoui, Meghni and Saifi — whilst players taking to the field for the first time will be French-born Mehdi Lacen of Racing Santander and Chadli Amri from Germany. This evening’s match will be “a good preparation test”, said the coach, in particular for the match against Slovenia in South Africa, who are in the same group as Algeria, together with England and USA. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Morocco’s Solidarity for Its Swiss Dispute
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, MARCH 2 — After Algeria and Tunisia, Marocco, too, has espressed its “total and fraternal” solidarity with Libya after the Swiss government’s decision to ban Libyan citezens from their territory. The Kingdom of Morocco — the minister of Foreign Affairs affirmed in a note released by Map news agency — expresses its total and fraternal solidarity with the Grand Libyan Jamahirija and requests that the situation between the states be overcome in a climate of mutual respect. The crisis between Switzerland and Lybia began with the arrest last year in Geneva of Libyan leader Momar Gheddafi’s son, Hannibal, after a denunciation by two of his domestic servants, who accused him of mistreatment. In the past days, Algeria and Tunisia both have also expressed their solidarity to Tripoli. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Bad Weather Damages, But Promising Crops
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, FEBRUARY 23 — The heavy rain which hit all of Morocco in recent weeks which also resulted in the falling down of the Meknes minaret (41 casualties) caused much damage but, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, will guarantee a good crop. Heavy rain was registered in all regions including the southern desert ones, causing the death of a dozen people who were swept away by the water. Roads and bridges were damaged and thousands of hectares of crops were flooded when two rivers overflowed. In the same area numerous families were cleared out and taken to shelters, while the government made available 200 million dirhams (18 million euros) to those farmers and families who were damaged. On the Atlas mountains thousands of people were left stranded by the snow and authorities handed out medicines and foodstuffs. A Ministry of Agriculture leader stated that “Despite the damage this rain is very important for the Country: it will lead to a good agricultural crop even if it is expected to be lower than last year’s”. It should be a great year for citrus fruits as well: 1.4 million tonnes with a 10% increase compared to last year. According to the State secretariat for water, the rain completely filled up the country’s dams, a total of 15 billion cubic metres. In 2009 a +26% record crop balanced the losses in other sectors caused by the international crisis by more than 5%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barry Rubin: Americans Love Israel Even More Than You Think
International relations isn’t a popularity contest. But public opinion polls can be useful in countering myths and examining the impact of policymaker, elite, and media campaigns on the masses.
Which brings us to Gallup’s latest poll measuring how Americans feel about different countries. The more one examines the results, the more amazing they are. Americans two favorites are, not surprisingly, fellow English-speakers Canada and the United Kingdom. Then come-Americans are very forgiving-two former enemies, Germany and Japan.
And next on the list is Israel. Even the basic numbers-67 favorable, 25 percent unfavorable-are impressive. But that’s only the beginning. Around 10 percent of Americans don’t like anybody, and only one-fourth of those 25 percent nay-sayers on Israel, that is 6 percent, are really hostile.
In other words, the percentage of Americans who hate Israel is only 6 percent and the number who single out Israel for partly unfavorable views among other popular countries adds about 10 percent more.
And since 10 percent of Americans say they like Iran (85 percent don’t), having only a bit more than that number really disliking Israel isn’t very impressive.
After 20 years or so of intensive media criticism, hostility on campuses, double standards, and controversy that’s nothing short of remarkable.
This conclusion is intensified further by considering the equivalent results for the Palestinian Authority (PA)…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
EU Funds for Palestinian Salaries, Humanitarian Aid
(ANSAmed) — ROMA, 2 MAR — Today, the European Union (EU) made its third contribution this year to the Palestinian Authority’s payment of its civil servants salaries and pensions, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The contribution of NIS 116.8 million (22.85 million) was delivered through the EU’s PEGASE[1] mechanism and benefited 80,608 civil servants and pensioners. The Government of Finland contributed 2 million to this payment. A significant proportion of this payment came from a European Union commitment of 158.5 million to the Palestinian Authority announced earlier this year while the Government of Finland contributed 2 million. PEGASE channels EU assistance to help build a Palestinian State, in accordance with the priorities and needs identified by the Palestinian Authority in its three year reform and development programme (PRDP). The European Commission has allocated €58 million in humanitarian aid to support operations in favour of the most vulnerable people affected by the ongoing crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory (Opt) and to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The funds are channelled through the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), under the responsibility of Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva. “Humanitarian aid is crucial in saving lives and alleviating suffering until longer term solutions are found. It goes to those most in need, irrespective of their nationality, religion, political affiliation or ethnic origin”, Georgieva said. The Commission-funded humanitarian projects are implemented by non-governmental relief organisations, specialised UN agencies and the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement. The European Commission continues to be one of the largest humanitarian donors for the Palestinian population in the Middle East. Since 2000, the Commission’s total humanitarian response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached more than €500 million. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Police Chief’s Car Damaged by Explosion
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, MARCH 2 — A powerful blast between Sunday night and Monday morning destroyed a car belonging to a Hamas police official in Gaza, but did not take any victims, reports Palestinian civil right NGO PCHR-Gaza. According to early information on the ground, the automobile that exploded belonged to 44-year-old Talal Banat, the commander of police operations in the Gaza Strip. The vehicle was parked next to his home in al-Nasser Street, in a Gaza neighbourhood. PCHR-Gaza pointed out that similar explosions have occurred recently in the Gaza Strip, where according to the organisation, “a proliferation of weapons and chaos in the security system” is taking place, which the authorities should take greater action to counteract. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Leader Disowns Son Who Worked With Shin Bet
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, MARCH 2 — A Hamas political leader in the West Bank, Sheikh Hassan Yussef, issued an open letter announcing that he has disowned his first-born son Musab (34-years-old) after it was revealed last week in Israeli daily Haaretz that he worked with Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security agency, for about ten years to prevent innocent people from being killed. Musab, added the newspaper, was given the code name ‘the Green Prince’ by Israeli agents and was one of the best sources of information inside of Hamas. In a handwritten letter sent from a prison in Negev where he is locked up, Sheikh Yussef stated with deep bitterness that his son, who has converted to Christianity and moved to the US, has irreparably broken away from Islam and has “collaborated with the enemy”. Neither him, nor his wife or other children consider Musab to be part of their family. When learning of the news in Haaretz on Musab’s secret activities in the initial phases of the Palestinian intifada, various Hamas spokespersons had said that this probably had to do with “psychological warfare” conjured up by Israeli to “demoralise” the Palestinians. Sheikh Yussef’s public letter, published by the Palestinian press, seems to indicate that an internal investigation confirmed the reliability of the statements made by the Israeli daily. Musab Yussef, according to Haaretz, has recorded his undertakings in a book (‘Son of Hamas’), which will soon be published in the United States. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel is No More Rogue Than America
By Andrew Roberts
Is state-sanctioned assassination justifiable, or does it somehow de-legitimise the state that undertakes it? Two articles in this newspaper last week, by Henry Siegman and David Gardner, have been violently critical of Israel in the wake of the assassination of the Hamas arms smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 19 January.
Mr Siegman wrote of how “Israel’s colonial ambitions” and “checkpoints, barbed wire and separation walls” were “turning Israel from a democracy into an apartheid state”, thereby creating a “looming global threat to the country’s legitimacy”. Two days later Mr Gardner wrote of how Israel’s “militarist extroversion” over the Dubai murder demonstrated an “Israeli preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions to complex political and geopolitical problems” which would “widen the international battle-space for tit-for-tat attacks” and “encourage the perception that [Israel] is a rogue state”.
Both commentators are completely wrong. All that the Dubai operation will do is remind the world that the security services of states at war — and Israel’s struggle with Hamas, Fatah and Hizbollah certainly constitutes that — occasionally employ targeted assassination as one of the weapons in their armoury, and that this in no way weakens their legitimacy. As for the “separation walls” and checkpoints that one sees in Israel, the 99 per cent drop in the number of suicide bombings since their erection justifies the policy. There is simply no parallel between apartheid South Africa — where the white minority wielded power over the black majority — and the occupied territories, taken by Israel only after it was invaded by its neighbours. To make such a link is not only inaccurate, but offensive. If Arab Israelis were deprived of civil and franchise rights, that would justify such hyperbole, but of course they have the same rights as every Jewish Israeli.
Far from having any colonial ambitions, Israel wants nothing more than to live peaceably within defensible borders. But equally it demands nothing less.
Furthermore, rather than some kind of knee-jerk “preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions”, the decision to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh — assuming it was sanctioned, planned and carried out by Mossad alone, which is anything but clear at this stage — would have been minutely examined from every political and operational angle. Yet sometimes complex political and geopolitical problems do require the cutting of the Gordian knot, and this was one such.
When Britain was at war, Winston Churchill sanctioned the assassination by its Special Operations Executive of the SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the capture (and killing if necessary) of General Heinrich Kreipe on Crete; ditto Erwin Rommel. Just as with some Mossad operations, such as the disaster in Amman in 1997 when agents were captured after failing to kill Khaled Meshal of Hamas, not all Churchill’s hits were successful. But the British state was not de-legitimised in any way as a result…
| — Hat tip: Judith Apter Klinghoffer | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Syria: Apples Exported From Golan to Damascus
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 2 — A momentary easing of the tense relations between Israel and Syria took place today at the Quneitra border crossing when 10,000 tonnes of apples from the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel, began to be exported towards Damascus. Transport operations are taking place under the supervision of the International Red Cross with the cooperation of the United Nations and will probably last for several weeks. The overall value of the exports is estimated at several million dollars. This is the fifth consecutive year that the Quneitra border crossing has been opened to allow apples to be exported to Syria, which according to an Israeli military spokesperson, were produced in Golan by Druze Syrian and Israeli farmers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast War in ‘Very’ Near Future?
Dramatic escalation in cooperation between Israel’s foes
Egypt is concerned Israel could be in a conflict in the very near future with Syria or the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, a senior Egyptian security official told WND.
The security official said in any future war with Syria or Hezbollah, both actors have been preparing to storm the Israeli border with guerillas and commandos, an act unseen here since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the last conflict in which Syria was openly involved.
In previous conflicts with Hezbollah, the terrorist group fired rockets into Israel.
In addition, the security official said Syria has separately been contemplating launching low-grade attacks against Jewish communities in the Golan Heights to pressure Israel into negotiations aimed at relinquishing the strategic territory.
The official said his country is concerned about a coming conflict but did not mention a specific timeframe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ergenekon Case; 5 More ‘High-Ranking’ Indictments
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MAR 2 — Another 16 people, including five leading figures in the armed forces and magistracy, were indicted in the past hours in Turkey, as part of the investigation into Ergenekon, an elusive national organisation accused of trying to overthrow the government of the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Premier Tayyip Erdogan, local media report. Among the names of people that have been indicted by the public prosecutor’s office of the city of Erzurum are General Saldiray Berk, commander (in service) of the third army based in the eastern province of Erzincan; former public prosecutor in Erzincan, Ilhan Cihanr, arrested last month by his counterpart in Erzurum because of suspicions that he is a member of Ergenekon; Colonel Ali Tapan, commander of the police of the city of Erzincan; Colonel Recep Gencoglu, commander of the police of Eskisehir; and Demir Sinasi, director of secret services in Erzincan. After the indictments, all documents will be sent to the public prosecutor’s office in Istanbul, which has been following the Ergenekon case for two years. If found guilty, the suspects could be sentenced to 7-15 years in prison for subversion. General Berk is the first of the Turkish army’s highest officials to be officially indicted in the Ergenekon case. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Runaway Wives Sentenced to Public Flogging by Warlord
In some Afghan provinces, warlords still reign supreme. Under their authority, the treatment of women is bleakly reminiscent of Taliban rule; as this video of a woman being whipped in public goes to show.
Please be aware, you may find these images upsetting.
The footage, posted online by Afghani women’s rights organisation RAWA, based in Pakistan, was originally aired by the Afghan TV channel “Tolo TV” on Feb. 18 (the logo of the channel is seen at the bottom of the screen).
When contacted by FRANCE 24, the Afghan channel told us that the scene had taken place in December 2009 in the Dolina district (Ghor province, central), and that the footage was filmed by one of its sources there.
According to Ghor governor Abdul Hai Khatibi, the two women flogged that day — only one is seen on the video — had been forced to marry against their will. Beaten by their husbands, they ran away from their respective homes disguised in men’s clothing. After a month on the run they were caught by police in Chasht (Herat province, west), arrested, and sent back to their husbands.
Both women were sentenced to 45 lashes in public. In a statement made on Pajhowk Afghan News, the deputy chief of police of Dolina district, Jahan Shah, explained that the case had been handed over to the local warlord, Fazl Ahad. He decided to have the women punished for running away, but also demanded that the husbands, whom he deemed guilty as well, divorce their wives.
Contributors
Nasim Fekrat
“Most Afghans would be outraged to see a public flogging like this”
Nasim Fekrat is an Afghani blogger who posted the video on his blog.
This type of thing isn’t unheard of. Obviously you don’t see it in Kabul, where the United Nations, NGO workers, and government agents are present, but in rural areas, warlords are still in charge of the judiciary.
They usually employ a bunch of soldiers, which you can see in this video behind the women. Similar things happen among Taliban circles in places like Kandahar. But unlike here, the information doesn’t get out because people are scared of what might happen to them if they speak out, and journalists aren’t allowed in.
Most Afghans would be outraged to see a public flogging like this. We’re also aware, however, that the situation for women has changed enormously in the past few years. Under the Taliban, these women would have been killed. Today, people can have their opinion about such issues and pass on the message. We’ve got a long way to go but things have already changed a lot.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Ex-Gitmo Prisoner Now Taliban Commander
A man who was freed from Guantanamo after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.
Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.
The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications U.S. President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India Newspaper Offices Attacked
Two newspaper offices have been attacked in India’s Karnataka state in unrest over an article allegedly written by the writer Taslima Nasreen.
Two Muslim protesters were killed in clashes with police after the article, which challenges the Muslim practice of veil wearing, appeared in local papers.
An unidentified group vandalised the office of the Kannada Prabha newspaper, which carried the article, police said.
Ms Nasreen has denied writing the article for the newspaper.
She said an article she had written had been translated into the Kannada language and “doctored” to malign her.
Ms Nasreen fled her native Bangladesh in 1994 after receiving death threats relating to a book she had written.
Muslims said her work was offensive to them. She left India in 2008 after further protests and went to live in Sweden.
The appearance of the article in the Kannada Prabha newspaper, whose offices were attacked by a mob on Tuesday night, triggered protests in the Shimoga and Hassan areas.
Police said a group of 10 masked men attempted to set the newspaper’s office in Mangalore on fire after dousing the premises with petrol, but firemen extinguished it in time.
The police said the same group attacked another newspaper office in the area.
“The miscreants have been arrested. We have some clues about who was behind the attacks,” senior police official Gopal Hosur said.
Separately, in Shimoga, incidents of stone throwing and arson were reported despite a continuing curfew in areas affected by the violence.
Police said two protesters were killed after they opened fire on Monday. About 50 people have been injured in the violence.
Police say Hindu groups joined the unrest in Shimoga and Hasan after Muslims took to the streets. About 50 arrests have been made in connection with the violence.
Several shops and vehicles have been set on fire in retaliatory attacks by Muslims and Hindus.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Caste Prejudice ‘May Exist’ In British Workplaces
Discrimination on the grounds of caste — or historic social standing in Hindu and Sikh communities — may be happening in the UK, a government peer has said.
Ministers have previously said they did not think people from lower castes were treated unfairly in the workplace.
But Baroness Thornton said evidence may exist. She has ordered more research.
She was speaking as peers accepted an amendment to the Equalities Bill, paving the way for such discrimination to be made illegal if necessary.
Hindu campaigners have long argued that members of the lower caste — referred to as Dalits or “untouchables” — suffer unfair treatment at the hands of higher caste members, even in second generation UK Asian communities.
Baroness Thornton told peers the National Institute of Economic and Social Research was due to present its research in July or August.
“We have looked for evidence of caste discrimination and we now think that evidence may exist, which is why we have now commissioned the research,” she said.
“The proportionate thing is to take the power to deal with that discrimination if and when that evidence is produced.”
Lord Avebury, for the Liberal Democrats, who moved the amendment, said he believed the research would “conclusively prove that caste discrimination does occur in the fields covered by the bill”.
If it becomes law, the bill will require organisations of all sizes and types to promote equality and avoid discrimination in the workplace.
It will clarify existing discrimination legislation concerning sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age, and ministers hope increased transparency will help tackle the pay gap between men and women.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said the decision to commission research represented “a historic moment”.
“The blight of caste discrimination, under which millions in India are regarded as ‘untouchable’, has spread to this country virtually unnoticed.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Japan — United States: Toyota Chief vs. The US, Two Cultures Face Off
The testimony of the president of Toyota before a congressional committee highlights the differences in corporate cultures. In Japan, the head of a corporation is expected to ensure harmony among employees and boost morale rather than be an economic expert.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) — The hard grilling of Toyota president Akio Toyoda, 53, by a US House congressional committee (pictured) on 24 February shows how different the corporate cultures of Japan and the United States are. Yoshi Inaba, chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., and Ray LaHood, US Transport secretary, also appeared before the committee to answer questions about the safety of Toyota cars, recently raised by a series of accidents caused by flaws affecting breaks, gas pedals and electronic fuel pumps. In recent weeks, Toyota was forced to recall 8.5 million cars because of these and other problems. In a committee room, crowded with reporters, photographers and people from around the world, congressmen asked about how much the company’s top management knew about these problems, whether they concealed them or failed to inform Toyota customers of what was at risk.
Since 1998, Toyota has been the world’s biggest automaker, employing hundreds of thousands of people in Japan and around the world. In article in Washington Post, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said, “When I announced three years ago that Toyota would open a U.S. vehicle assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss., I said Toyota was the world’s premier automobile manufacturer. I still believe that.” In the same piece, the governor noted that the Japanese company had operations in ten American states, with some 200,000 employees. However, because of serious problems with some cars and resulting deadly accidents, the company was forced to recall millions of cars and the government had to act.
Two tragic examples
Two women told the members of the congressional committee their stories. One spoke to the committee; the other stood silent, letting the facts speak for themselves.
Rhonda Smith, 65, a social worker from Tennessee, said that in 2006 she was driving her car, a Toyota Lexus, when it suddenly surged. She slammed on the emergency brake and put the car in reverse, but it continued to speed down the freeway. “I prayed for God to help me.”, she said, trying to hold back tears.
After travelling six miles (ten kilometres), Smith said, the car began to slow, by itself, and by the time it reached 33 mph (53 kph), she was able to pull over and turn the engine off.
“Shame on you Toyota for being so greedy,” she told at Toyoda and Inaba, looking straight at them. “Shame on you NHTSA for not doing your job!” she added, looking at Secretary Ray Lahood.
After her narrow escape, she informed both Toyota and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) of her mishap, to no avail.
A grandmother from San Francisco, Ms Fe Lastrella, was also present, but she did not speak. That was unnecessary. Everyone had heard from media about the horrible accident of 28 August 2009 that wiped out her family. On that day, 45-year-old Mark Saylor, a California public servant, was driving a rented Toyota Lexus. He was on holiday and taking his wife Cleofe, their 13-year-old daughter Mahala, and 38-year-old brother-in-law Christ Lastrella, on a trip. High speed (160 km) was blamed for their deadly accident. “Hold on! Pray!” Mr Saylor was heard saying before the recording of the 911 call from Chris’ mobile phone ended. The car went off the road and into the bank of a dry riverbed. The floor mat had trapped the gas pedal. No one survived.
Speaking to reporters, Ms Lastrella said, “I’m here to speak for my four children and for the safety of the consumers through the world.” I “don’t want another family to suffer like we are suffering.”
Akio Toyoda, the unlucky “prince”
Toyota’s president was able to appease the members on the congressional committee by showing contrition and exhibiting a cooperative attitude. He repeatedly apologises for the large recall and extended his condolences to Saylor family. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again,” he said.
Even the harshest critics were mollified by the president’s explanations and during his testimony they avoided any aggressive behaviour since Toyota admitted its guilt and acknowledged that it sped up production at the expense of safety. Toyoda pledged his company would go back to its old philosophy, which is to give absolute priority to consumer needs and safety.
Akio Toyoda’s appointment on 23 June last year was received with enthusiasm by the Toyota family. As the grandson of the company’s founder, he was greeted like a “prince”. At a time when the company was still expanding, a spirit of harmony prevailed within. However, just six months later, the carmaker had to face its greatest crisis in 70 years of existence.
No one relished the idea of appearing before the US Congress. At the beginning, it was thought that Inaba could do the job. However, a request by the chairman of the congressional committee convinced the head of Toyota to appear “voluntarily”.
On his arrival in Washington on 20 February, he refused all interviews to concentrate on his testimony before Congress, trying to understand how US culture worked. He won . . . for the time being.
A culture of harmony
Ms Smith’s traumatic experience explains her emotional outburst but does not justify her harsh moral judgement. Cultural differences rather an ethics matter more in this issue. A Western corporate leader operates according to different cultural principles compared to his Japanese counterpart.
In Japan, harmony is the highest value. Company executives are rarely management professionals but act like cheerleaders for the rank-and-file. “In a Japanese company, the top man isn’t the one calling the shots. He is looked up to as a symbol, a bit like the emperor,” says Toyoaki Nishida, professor of business at Chubu University. Even though the company president wields no power, it would be wrong to consider him powerless. Like the emperor, who is seen as the father of the nation, top executives are psychologically perceived as the head of the company-as-family.
Parissa Haghirian, associate professor of International Management at Sophia (Catholic) University in Tokyo, said that Japanese companies are group-oriented, and generally don’t look to one person to steer the whole, unlike the West, where executives are hired for ideas and leadership. Japanese top executives are team leaders who harmonise everyone’s views to avoid conflict and create consensus.
In Japanese, this is called ‘nemawashi’, which translates as ‘laying the groundwork around the roots’ (behind the scenes) before planting the tree. Neglecting nemawashi is considered a foolish and sure way to walk into failure.
Although it is bureaucratic and time-consuming, but once a decision is made, everyone is on the same page, and action proceeds quickly without infighting.
This culture enabled Toyota to expand and reach its levels of efficiency. When Kiichiro Toyoda, Akio’s grandfather, set up the Toyota Motor Company in 1950, he called it Toyota (slight alteration of the family name) not to honour his family, but rather as a way to see its customers as part of the family with the right to be treated as such.
At a press conference, Toyoda said he was ready to go back to the principles of the “Toyota Way”, and to pay more attention to customer needs than sales figures.
The irony is that in an international economy, loyalty to Japanese culture calls for dialogue with other cultures, that of the West for instance, more specifically that of the United States. The two cultures are not opposed to one another, but are instead complementary.
Symbolically, Japan’s culture stood alongside Mr Toyoda as he spoke in the congressional hearing. His testimony appears to have been a success. Indeed, at the end he said that his company would operate in the United States in accordance with American cultural values.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Alarmed by Chinese Maneuvers
Military exercises suspected of targeting Russian Far East
Moscow, which conspicuously left out any mention of China’s growing influence and power in its newly adopted military doctrine, is revealing the depth of its alarm, however, through its trade and business decisions, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The new doctrine takes aim at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Moscow identifies as a threat due to its eastward expansion ambitions. But a glance at the trade balance sheets between Moscow and Beijing and other business decisions reveals an equal concern is developing there.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Residents Stunned as Hundreds of Fish Fall Out of the Sky Over Remote Australian Desert Town
Residents of a small outback Australian town have been left speechless after fish began falling from the sky.
Hundreds of spangled perch bombarded the 650 residents of Lajamanu, shocking local Christine Balmer, who was walking home when the strange ‘weather’ started.
She said: ‘These fish fell in their hundreds and hundreds all over the place. The locals were running around everywhere picking them up.
‘The fish were all alive when they hit the ground so they would have been alive when they were up there flying around the sky.
‘When I told my family, who live in another part of Australia, about the fish falling from the sky, they thought I’d lost the plot.
‘But no, I haven’t lost my marbles. All I can say is that I’m thankful that it didn’t rain crocodiles!’
Meterologists say the incident was probably caused by a tornado. It is common for tornados to suck up water and fish from rivers and drop them hundreds of miles away.
Mark Kersemakers from the Australian Bureau of Meterology said: ‘Once they get up into the weather system, they are pretty much frozen and, after some time, they are released.’
Lajamanu is located half-way between Darwin and Alice Springs, on the edge of the Tanami Desert.
This is not the first time residents of the small town have experienced fish falling out of the sky.
Resident Les Dillon, 48, said: ‘In the early 1980s I was at the Alice Springs Tavern Hotel and, when I walked out the door, I saw all these little fish, fallen out of the sky.
‘Yes, I had a couple of beers, so none of my friends believed me. I have rung heaps of people to let them know I wasn’t drunk back then. It had really happened!’
| — Hat tip: Wally Ballou | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Pirates Seize Empty Saudi Oil Tanker and Crew
Somali pirates have captured a small Saudi tanker and its crew, the EU naval force in the Gulf of Aden says.
The tanker, travelling from Japan to Jeddah, was empty when pirates hijacked the vessel and took its crew captive.
The MT Nisir Al Saudi was outside the shipping lanes patrolled by naval warships, it was reported.
Somali pirate attacks usually increase in the months between March and May because calmer seas allow the pirates to operate more freely.
The captain of the ship is Greek but the nationalities of the rest of the crew are not known.
In November 2008 Somali pirates hijacked the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker loaded with two million barrels of oil.
They released it after two months in return for a ransom, believed to have been $3m (£1.95m), which was parachuted on to the deck of the ship by helicopter.
The latest ship to be captured was taken to the Somali town of Garacad, a known pirate stronghold, said Cmdr John Harbour of the EU Naval Force in the area.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Life for ‘Ghetto’ Rapists
Grahamstown — Two of the three men who raped a pregnant woman due to their “ghetto life” received life sentences in the Eastern Cape High Court on Monday.
Kevin Campbell, 24, and Elvis Nelson, 25, were both sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape, and another five years for the robbery of a 37-year-old woman on February 15, 2009, Captain Mali Govender said.
A third man, Clayton Donovan Arends, 18, was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for rape and another five years for robbery.
All the sentences would run concurrently.
Apologised
“The youngest of the trio apologised for what they had done to her, attributing their actions to the ‘ghetto life’ they led. He also mentioned to her that this was the only way that they could have gotten a ‘white bitch’.”
The woman was walking with a man in Port Alfred near the local SPCA when they were attacked by the three, one of whom was armed with a panga. The trio demanded drugs and money from the man.
“He was threatened by Elvis [Nelson] that he will be killed and that his arms will be cut off. Clayton Arends then first hit him with the blunt edge of the panga and after realising his mistake he hit him with the sharp edge,” said Govender.
The woman ran away and hid in the bush. Her male companion hit Arends in the face before escaping.
“In an attempt to get the suspects away from the female victim, he called out to them that he had a cellphone and R600 cash with him.”
Despite this the three found the woman and took turns raping her.
‘Lucky’ her life was spared
“She begged and pleaded for them to stop, but this was in vain. She was strangled on several occasions to stop her from making a noise and [drawing] attention. She also told them that she was pregnant and this also fell on deaf ears.”
The two older men left after they heard barking dogs and believed the police had arrived.
Arends told the woman he would lead her out of the bush. As soon as they reached a clearing, the woman ran away. She flagged down a passing police vehicle.
The three were identified and arrested soon after. They were convicted of the rape and robbery on December 11 last year.
In an interview before the sentencing, Campbell said he expected a life term. Nelson believed, because he had maintained his innocence, that he would be given a lighter sentence.
“They also mentioned that the victim was very ‘lucky’ as her life had been spared.”
According to Govender, the 37-year-old woman told her: “I am glad that they all got high sentences. I am so relieved. What they got is what they deserve.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Moots Citizenship for 2nd Generation
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 3 — The Greek parliament has approved a bill allowing second generation immigrants access to Greek citizenship and the right to vote in local and regional elections. The governing party and the radical left-wing coalition SYRIZA voted in favour of the bill. Nea Dimocratia, the main opposition party and the right-wing LAOS voted against the bill, while the Communist party KKE has refused to vote until the bill is discussed clause by clause. Adonis Georgiadis, Assistant Secretary of LAOS, pointed out that his party has already collected 400,000 signatures in favour of a referendum on citizenship for immigrants.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
No Action Against Exodus for Now, Brussels
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 1 — “We are monitoring the situation, but at the moment we have no comment to make and no specific plans are in place”. So said Michele Cercone, spokesman for the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, in answer to a question today about possible action from Brussels regarding the exodus of ethnic Albanian citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo to EU countries, Belgium in particular. “We are aware of the concerns of the Belgian authorities,” explained the spokesman, “and we know that they have planned a trip to the Balkans. Naturally, we are awaiting information, which will give us a clearer idea of what is happening”. According to the local press, the Foreigners’ Office and the general commission for refugees in the Belgian capital have recorded a massive influx of citizens from Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo over the last few weeks. Most worrying is the systematic aspect of this migratory pattern, which suggests that there is serious organisation behind it. Last Monday, 234 asylum seekers were in the Foreigners’ Office in Brussels. Some 89 were from Macedonia, 57 from Serbia and 14 from Kosovo. The Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme is due to meet his Serbian counterpart Mirko Cvetcovic next Friday, while a visit to Macedonia, Kosovo and Croatian will take place on March 8. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
People Traffickers Offering Illegal Immigrants Discount ‘Package Deals’ To Smuggle Them Into UK
Hundreds of illegal migrants were regularly dispatched to Britain from France as part of a discounted ‘bulk service’ provided by people smugglers, it emerged today.
The £7000-a-head scam saw foreigners transported to Channel ports like Calais and Cherbourg, where they were encouraged to jump aboard lorries heading for England on masse.
The vast numbers of migrants playing cat-and-mouse with the police caused widespread confusion, meaning hundreds could get to the UK, where they claimed asylum or disappeared into the black economy.
Others paid up to £14,000 for a ‘bespoke service’ which involved traveling with false papers inside a camper van driven by one of the smugglers. In this case swift entry to Britain was all but guaranteed.
Details of the ease with which the smugglers regularly evaded British customs and security checks emerged on the first day of a Paris trial which saw 28 smugglers from the so-called ‘Baghdad Ring’ go on trial at the city’s Criminal Correctional Court.
All of the defendants, who are aged from 22 to 49 and from countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, face up to 10 years in prison for criminal conspiracy and working as an organised gang ‘to facilitate illegal entry and residency in France’.
Those transported came from northern Iraq, central Asia, the Indian sub continent, and China.
Their long journeys towards the UK often saw them travel through European countries like Italy and Greece where ‘technically’ they should have been returned if arrested.
Instead investigating judges Corinne Goetzmann and Patrick Gachon revealed how the men were able ‘to saturate’ port towns like Calais with migrants, mainly because none were ever held in custody by the police.
‘Depending on their final destination — the United Kingdom or Ireland for one of the branches of the enterprise, and Scandanavian countries for the other, they were transported by road, by train and by boat to the country of their choice’ said Judge Gachon.
He said Calais and Cherbourg were particularly popular with the smugglers because of their close proximity to the south coast of England, with at least 1000 migrants paying for the ‘bulk service’ in between 2007 and mid 2008 alone.
If migrants were initially caught trying to leap aboard lorries specially selected by the smugglers, French police simply let them free so that they could try again later.
‘The two services were distinct,’ said another French judicial source involved in the case.
‘The bulk service was the cheapest, while the more costly one involved migrants being driven over by a paid associate of the gang. This service was pretty much guaranteed.’
Last June police from 10 European countries arrested 105 people as part of the operation to dismantle the Baghdad Ring, making it the biggest joint operation against illegal immigration staged by the European Union.
France’s immigration minister Eric Besson has pledged to make ports like Calais ‘watertight’ to illegal migrants, although there are currently some 1500 people sleeping rough in the area as they try to get to Britain.
The Paris trial is set to run until March 26, with similar ones being held in Belgium, Germany and Holland. The case continues.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Most Dishonest Man in Britain: Church Leader Charged £4,000 a Time to Smuggle Immigrants Into Country
To all appearances, the Reverend Anthony Quarco was a respectable pillar of the community.
As well as running a church, he worked as a frontline airport immigration officer and volunteered as a Metropolitan Police special constable.
But yesterday, the father of two was unmasked as ‘the most dishonest man in Britain’ and jailed for nine years for smuggling hordes of illegal migrants into the country in exchange for nearly £150,000.
Croydon Crown Court heard that former asylum seeker Quarco used the cover of the church to write letters supporting immigration bids, charging £4,000 a time to claim applicants were church fundraisers or choir members.
Meanwhile, he used his job at Luton Airport to issue fake passports, and even smuggled a man into the country under his own name.
Quarco’s extraordinary story can be told for the first time after a jury found him guilty yesterday of 14 immigration offences.
These included misconduct in public office, money laundering of £143,955, facilitating the breach of immigration law by a non-EU national and possession of false ID documents with intent.
Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said: ‘If I was to describe this case in a sentence I would say it is about the activities of a man who has shown by what he has done that he could quite possibly be the most dishonest man in Britain.
‘This image of the hardworking public servant, the religious man, who selflessly serves and protects this country, is nothing more than a front.’
Quarco, then known as Mashudo Brisco Ndou, claimed asylum in Britain in 1995 after arriving from Ethiopia with a Liberian ID card.
By the time he was made a UK citizen in 2005, he had changed his name to Anthony Davis Quarco, and founded ‘The Gift of God Zion Training Church’ in Brixton.
Mr Polnay said: ‘Whilst there was undoubtedly some worship going on, the main purpose for Mr Quarco was to line his pockets with the proceeds of illegal immigration.’
In March 2006 Quarco began work at Luton Airport and by 2008 he was part of the Immigration Service’s Criminal Investigation Team.
His scam was uncovered on March 6, 2009, when police raided his two properties, in Croydon and South Norwood.
Along with £5,000 in cash and some 14 false passports, they found a Ghanaian passport under the name of Anthony Mawuli Quarco, bearing Quarco’s own passport office stamp.
When police tracked this ‘Quarco’ down, he told them his real name was John Peprah and he had paid Quarco £4,000 to enter the UK.
Sentencing, Judge John Anderson said: ‘These offences struck at the heart of the immigration system of this country. This was deliberate and calculated defiance of the immigration laws of this country of which you were well aware.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Attack on ‘Biology-Based’ Restrooms Sparks Backlash
Pro-family activists target repeal of state’s Human Rights statute
AUGUSTA, Maine — The issue over whether schools in Maine will be required to allow “transgender” students to pick which restroom — boys or girls — they feel like using is prompting another look at the state law on which the restroom dispute rests: the Maine Human Rights statute of 2005.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Praying in Park Called ‘Disorderly Conduct’
Conviction ‘ridiculous,’ says attorney. ‘This never should have happened’
A New York man is appealing a “disorderly conduct” conviction for praying in a public park.
Julian Raven, defended by the Alliance Defense Fund, was arrested while praying in an Elmira public park during a 2007 “gay pride” event.
“It’s ridiculous to consider the act of peacefully exercising one’s faith in a public park to be ‘disorderly conduct,’“ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. “The county court was correct in dismissing three of the convictions. They never should have happened. We are hopeful that the New York Court of Appeals will dismiss the fourth.”
[…]
ADF argues that under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, “peaceful speakers may not be arrested simply because others in the forum may react to their message in a hostile manner.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Machine That Prints Organs is Coming to Market
THE great hope of transplant surgeons is that they will, one day, be able to order replacement body parts on demand. At the moment, a patient may wait months, sometimes years, for an organ from a suitable donor. During that time his condition may worsen. He may even die. The ability to make organs as they are needed would not only relieve suffering but also save lives. And that possibility may be closer with the arrival of the first commercial 3D bio-printer for manufacturing human tissue and organs.
The new machine, which costs around $200,000, has been developed by Organovo, a company in San Diego that specialises in regenerative medicine, and Invetech, an engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. One of Organovo’s founders, Gabor Forgacs of the University of Missouri, developed the prototype on which the new 3D bio-printer is based. The first production models will soon be delivered to research groups which, like Dr Forgacs’s, are studying ways to produce tissue and organs for repair and replacement. At present much of this work is done by hand or by adapting existing instruments and devices.
To start with, only simple tissues, such as skin, muscle and short stretches of blood vessels, will be made, says Keith Murphy, Organovo’s chief executive, and these will be for research purposes. Mr Murphy says, however, that the company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts. Because the machines have the ability to make branched tubes, the technology could, for example, be used to create the networks of blood vessels needed to sustain larger printed organs, like kidneys, livers and hearts.
Printing history
Organovo’s 3D bio-printer works in a similar way to some rapid-prototyping machines used in industry to make parts and mechanically functioning models. These work like inkjet printers, but with a third dimension. Such printers deposit droplets of polymer which fuse together to form a structure. With each pass of the printing heads, the base on which the object is being made moves down a notch. In this way, little by little, the object takes shape. Voids in the structure and complex shapes are supported by printing a “scaffold” of water-soluble material. Once the object is complete, the scaffold is washed away.
Researchers have found that something similar can be done with biological materials. When small clusters of cells are placed next to each other they flow together, fuse and organise themselves. Various techniques are being explored to condition the cells to mature into functioning body parts—for example, “exercising” incipient muscles using small machines.
Though printing organs is new, growing them from scratch on scaffolds has already been done successfully. In 2006 Anthony Atala and his colleagues at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina made new bladders for seven patients. These are still working.
Dr Atala’s process starts by taking a tiny sample of tissue from the patient’s own bladder (so that the organ that is grown from it will not be rejected by his immune system). From this he extracts precursor cells that can go on to form the muscle on the outside of the bladder and the specialised cells within it. When more of these cells have been cultured in the laboratory, they are painted onto a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold which is warmed to body temperature. The cells then mature and multiply. Six to eight weeks later, the bladder is ready to be put into the patient.
The advantage of using a bioprinter is that it eliminates the need for a scaffold, so Dr Atala, too, is experimenting with inkjet technology. The Organovo machine uses stem cells extracted from adult bone marrow and fat as the precursors. These cells can be coaxed into differentiating into many other types of cells by the application of appropriate growth factors. The cells are formed into droplets 100-500 microns in diameter and containing 10,000-30,000 cells each. The droplets retain their shape well and pass easily through the inkjet printing process.
A second printing head is used to deposit scaffolding—a sugar-based hydrogel. This does not interfere with the cells or stick to them. Once the printing is complete, the structure is left for a day or two, to allow the droplets to fuse together. For tubular structures, such as blood vessels, the hydrogel is printed in the centre and around the outside of the ring of each cross-section before the cells are added. When the part has matured, the hydrogel is peeled away from the outside and pulled from the centre like a piece of string.
The bio-printers are also capable of using other types of cells and support materials. They could be employed, Mr Murphy suggests, to place liver cells on a pre-built, liver-shaped scaffold or to form layers of lining and connective tissue that would grow into a tooth. The printer fits inside a standard laboratory biosafety cabinet, for sterile operation. Invetech has developed a laser-based calibration system to ensure that both print heads deposit their materials accurately, and a computer-graphics system allows cross-sections of body parts to be designed.
Some researchers think machines like this may one day be capable of printing tissues and organs directly into the body. Indeed, Dr Atala is working on one that would scan the contours of the part of a body where a skin graft was needed and then print skin onto it. As for bigger body parts, Dr Forgacs thinks they may take many different forms, at least initially. A man-made biological substitute for a kidney, for instance, need not look like a real one or contain all its features in order to clean waste products from the bloodstream. Those waiting for transplants are unlikely to worry too much about what replacement body parts look like, so long as they work and make them better.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Amil Imani: Liberal Pacifism vs Islamic Extremism
The Gospel writers have noted that Jesus called his disciples to a way of life in which any act of violence can be overcome by love. We must not return evil for evil, Jesus taught, but must return good for evil; we must not hate those who wrong us but must love our enemies and pray for those who hate us. The Qurâ€(tm)an never says this. Instead it explicitly declares that Allah does not love those who do not believe in him…
| — Hat tip: Amil Imani | [Return to headlines] |
How FBI, Police Busted Massive Botnet
12m zombie machines run by 3 admins
More details have emerged about a cybercrime investigation that led to the takedown of a botnet containing 12m zombie PCs and the arrest of three alleged kingpins who built and ran it.
As previously reported, the Mariposa botnet was principally geared towards stealing online login credentials for banks, email services and the like from compromised Windows PCs. The malware infected an estimated 12.7 million computers in more than 190 countries.
The botnet was shut down on 23 December 2009 following months of collaboration between security firms Panda Security and Defence Intelligence in co-operation with the FBI and Spain’s Guardia Civil.
| [Return to headlines] |
Smart Grid: The Implementation of Technocracy?
Sustainable consumption? Reconfiguring businesses, infrastructure and institutions? What do these words mean?
According to the United Nations Governing Council of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), “our dominant economic model may thus be termed a ‘brown economy.” UNEP’s clearly stated goal is to overturn the “brown economy” and replace it with a “green economy”:
“A green economy implies the decoupling of resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth… These investments, both public and private, provide the mechanism for the reconfiguration of businesses, infrastructure and institutions, and for the adoption of sustainable consumption and production processes.” [p. 2]
Sustainable consumption? Reconfiguring businesses, infrastructure and institutions? What do these words mean? They do not mean merely reshuffling the existing order, but rather replacing it with a completely new economic system, one that has never before been seen or used in the history of the world.
This paper will demonstrate that the current crisis of capitalism is being used to implement a radical new economic system that will completely supplant it. This is not some new idea created in the bowels of the United Nations: It is a revitalized implementation of Technocracy that was thoroughly repudiated by the American public in 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression.
[…]
In 1932, such technology did not exist. Time was on the Technocrat’s side, however, because this technology does exist today, and it is being rapidly implemented to do exactly what Scott and Hubbert specified: Namely, to exhaustively monitor, measure and control every ampere of energy delivered to consumers and businesses on a system-wide basis.
It’s called: Smart Grid.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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