Chris Christie: The Scourge of Trenton
It was supposed to have been the biggest fight of Chris Christie’s young administration: a May showdown over what Democrats in Trenton were calling the “millionaires’ tax,” designed, like each of the 115 statewide tax increases of the last decade, to paper over a small part of a yawning structural deficit by soaking the rich, one last time. Never mind that half the filings and a third of the revenue from the tax were to come from New Jersey’s business community, already battered by a perfect storm of overtaxation, capital flight, and recession. The Democrats were loaded for bear, and had the legislative majorities in place to pass the measure, having spent all winter threatening a government shutdown should Christie use his veto pen.
Democratic senate president Stephen Sweeney had even admonished, in a turn of phrase eminently Trentonian in its sheer backwardness, that “to give up $1 billion to the wealthy during this crisis is just wrong.” He promised that the millionaires’ tax was where the Democrats would “make our stand.”
The tax passed on party-line votes in the assembly and senate on May 20. Sweeney then certified the bill and walked it across the statehouse to Christie’s office, where the governor — who had vowed to balance the budget without raising taxes, and who’d developed a bewildering habit of keeping his promises — vetoed it. The whole thing took about two minutes.
“We’ll be back, governor,” Sweeney told Christie on being dispatched with the dead letter.
“All right, we’ll see,” came the reply.
And just like that, the biggest obstacle standing between Christie and the realization of his sea-changing, fiscally conservative first-year agenda was gone.
“We have not found our footing,” Democratic state senator Loretta Weinberg later said, still reeling from the decisive defeat. “I think a lot of people underestimated Chris Christie.”…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Leviathan Inc
Governments seem to have forgotten that picking industrial winners nearly always fails
LISTEN carefully, and you may detect a giant sucking sound across the rich world. In the 1990s this was the sound protectionists in the United States thought (wrongly) would accompany jobs disappearing to Mexico as a result of a free-trade deal. This time, too, there are big worries about jobs and growth, but the source of the noise is different, and real enough: it comes from the tentacles of the state, reaching into more and more areas of business in an effort to get the economy moving. It is the sound of Leviathan Inc.
Politicians are reviving the notion that intervening in individual industries and companies can drive growth and create jobs (see article). It is not just the usual suspects—although it is true that France, the land of Colbert, is busy taking stakes in toy manufacturers, video-sharing websites and fallen national champions. Elsewhere in Europe, from Berlin to Brussels, demand for industrial policy is back. Japan’s new government is responding to what it sees as the increasingly aggressive policies of foreign competitors by deepening the links between business and the state. In America Barack Obama, the effective owner of General Motors and a chunk of Wall Street, has turned his back on the laissez-faire approach of the past: a strategic-industries initiative is under way.
Although an understandable panic over economic growth in the rich world explains much of the state’s new meddling in business, other forces are at work as well. After the finance and property bubbles some influential companies—such as EADS and Rolls-Royce in the aerospace industry—are pressing for policies that support manufacturing. Bail-outs and billions of stimulus spending, however justified at the time, got government back into the habit of intervention. The case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, America’s housing-finance giants, illustrates both the perils of state meddling (implicit state guarantees distorted the mortgage market with fatal consequences) and the difficulty of giving it up: having rescued the pair, the federal government lacks any plan to pull out.
Déjà voodoo
Yet the overwhelming reason for China’s miracle is that the state released its stifling grip and opened the country to private enterprise and to the world. The likes of Li Shufu, who runs Geely, the car firm that has just bought Volvo (see article), are entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats. India’s wildly successful software and business-process-outsourcing industries blossomed not because of help from the government, but precisely because its Licence Raj did not understand these nascent fields well enough to choke them off. In Brazil, where it is often said that an activist industrial policy helps to explain why the economy has been thriving, a surging state-owned development bank, BNDES, is probably crowding out other sources of finance (see article). The likes of Petrobras (oil), Vale (mining) and Embraer (planes) were indeed created by the government. But they have all flourished because they were privatised, to a degree, and forced to compete with foreign firms in the 1990s. Part-privatisation and competition created in a short time what decades of industrial policy had failed to do.
In the rich world, meanwhile, the record shows, again and again, that industrial policy doesn’t work. The hall of infamy is filled with costly failures like Minitel (a dead-end French national communications network long since overtaken by the internet) and British Leyland (a nationalised car company). However many new justifications are invented for the government to pick winners, and coddle losers, it will remain a bad old idea. Thanks to globalisation and the rise of the information economy, new ideas move to market faster than ever before. No bureaucrat could have predicted the success of Nestlé’s Nespresso coffee-capsule system—just as none foresaw that utility vehicles, vacuum cleaners and tufted carpets (to cite examples noted by Charles Schultze, an American opponent of state planning) would have been some of America’s fastest-growing industries in the 1970s. Officials ignore the potential for innovation in consumer products or services and get seduced by the hype of voguish high-tech sectors.
The universal race to create green jobs is the latest example. Led by China and America, support for green tech is rapidly becoming one of the biggest industrial-policy efforts ever. Spain, blinded by visions of a solar future, subsidised the industry so lavishly that in 2008 the country accounted for two-fifths of the world’s new solar-power installations by wattage. This week it slashed its subsidies, but still has a bill of billions.
How to keep the beast at bay
Not all such money is wasted, of course. The internet and the microwave oven came out of government-led research; the stranger stuff that governments do can prove surprisingly successful. A few governments, such as America’s and Israel’s, have contributed usefully to the early development of venture-capital networks. Some advocates of industrial policy argue that the government, like a pharmaceutical company or a seed-capital firm, should simply increase the number of its bets in order to raise its hit rate. But that is a cavalier way to behave with taxpayers’ money. And the public funds have an odd habit of flowing towards politically connected projects.
Fortunately, there are now some powerful constraints on governments’ ability to meddle. In an age of austerity they can ill afford to lavish money on extravagant industrial projects. And the European Union’s competition rules place some limits on the ability to do special favours for particular firms.
That points to the first of three ideas that should guide a more sensible approach to securing the jobs of the future. Straightforward steps to improve the environment for business—less red tape, more flexible labour markets, simpler tax and bankruptcy regimes—will be more effective than handouts to favoured firms or sectors. Europeans ought to be seeking to strengthen the rules of their single market rather than pushing to dilute them; a long-overdue single European patent process would be a good start. Competition will do far more for jobs than coddling.
Second, governments should invest in the infrastructure that supports innovation, from modernised electricity grids (a smarter way to help green energy) to basic research and university education. The current fashion for raising barriers to the inflows of talented researchers and entrepreneurs hardly helps. Third, rather than the failed policy of picking winners, governments should encourage winners to emerge by themselves, for example through the sort of incentive prizes that are growing increasingly popular (see article).
None of this excites politicians as much as donning hard hats and handing out cash in front of the cameras. But the rich world has a clear choice: learn from the mistakes of the past, or else watch Leviathan Inc grow into a true monster.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Trustees: Medicare Hospital Fund Extended 12 Years
WASHINGTON (AP) — A report on the financial condition of the Medicare and Social Security programs contends the Obama administration’s sweeping health care overhaul will extend the life of the Medicare hospital insurance fund by 12 years — an assertion that Medicare’s top numbers-cruncher disputed.
The report acknowledged in its own right that the brighter outlook for Medicare assumes achievement of significant savings in health care, a scenario critics argue is highly questionable. And in what amounted to a dissenting opinion, top Medicare actuary Richard Foster warned that the report’s financial projections “do not represent a reasonable expectation.”
The conflicting renderings by federal officials centered on the annual report of the trustees for Medicare and Social Security, released Thursday. It found that the Medicare Hospital trust fund will not be exhausted until 2029, 12 years longer than estimated last year.
The recession, however, has worsened the near-term outlook for the Social Security trust fund, the report said.
The trustees said the Social Security program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes for the first time this year and next year. The Social Security trust fund is expected to be exhausted in 2037, the same date as in last year’s report.
The report noted that achieving the health care savings needed to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund “may prove difficult and will probably require that payment and health care delivery systems be made more efficient than they are currently.” The trustees also said that their projections “should be interpreted cautiously.”
Richard Foster, Medicare’s chief actuary, said in a statement included in the report that the Medicare savings might not be realistic.
He said the projections were based on current law, which calls for payments to doctors to be cut by 23 percent this December and by a combined 30 percent over the next three years, an outcome that Foster called “an implausible result.”
Congress has for years voted to put more money in the Medicare program to keep such sharp cuts in doctor’s payments from occurring.
Foster said that the report also makes overly optimistic assumptions about the amount of savings that hospitals and other major providers will be able to achieve by operating more efficiently.
“For these reasons, the financial projections shown in the report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range … or the long range,” Foster wrote.
The administration delayed issuance of the trustees report, which normally comes out in the spring, in order to recalculate projected spending estimates based on the changes the new health care law brought about or will bring about in the future.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the head of the trustees panel, said that while the new report showed “very positive developments” from the new health care law it also underscored “that we must continue to make progress addressing the financing challenges” facing both Medicare and Social Security.
The trustees report said that Social Security pension and disability payments will exceed revenues for this year and 2011, reflecting a deep recession which has knocked millions of people off payrolls, which means they are not paying Social Security payroll taxes.
The report said the program would return to the black in 2012 through 2014 but that benefit payments will again exceed tax collections in 2015. For every year after 2015, the report projects that Social Security will be paying out more than it receives in tax collections under the impact of the retirements of 78 million baby boomers…
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Pushes US-Muslim Nation Exchanges
WASHINGTON: US Senator and chairman of Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, appealed on Tuesday for cementing US ties with the Muslim world with a two-way exchange of professionals like teachers, city planners, and public health workers. Kerry introduced a bill calling for a three-year pilot programme to draw such workers from Muslim-majority countries to be picked by the US State Department. “This legislation is designed to help build professional capacity, strengthen civil society, and improve ties between the United States and Muslim-majority countries,” he said in a statement. These citizens picked would be 21-40 years old and could also come from civil society, including journalists, leaders of religious-based organisations, or employees of nonprofit organisations, Kerry’s office said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
New Documents Point to Indonesian Citizenship
Mother dropped Obama from U.S. passport when being American dangerous
Documents released by the State Department in two separate Freedom of Information Act requests bolster evidence Barack Obama became a citizen of Indonesia when he moved to the Southeast Asian nation with his mother and stepfather in the late 1960s.
In a passport amendment submitted Aug. 13, 1968, Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, identified her son with an Indonesian surname and asked the State Department to drop him from her U.S. passport.
The transaction could have been part of an effort by Dunham to obtain Indonesian citizenship for her son. It took place before the State Department began requiring all citizens traveling abroad, regardless of age, to obtain their own passport.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Businessman Announces Aliyah
by Elad Benari
French businessman Baron Edouard de Rothschild has decided to make Aliyah and move to Israel.
Yediot Aharonot reported on Tuesday that Rothschild will live part time in his Tel Aviv home while continuing to maintain his businesses in France
Rothschild was born on December 27, 1957 and is the son of Guy de Rothschild (who was the first president of the Fonds Social Juif Unifié, the major French philanthropic agency for the Jewish community). He studied law in France and graduated from the Stern School of Business at New York University with an M.B.A. degree in 1985.
In July 2003, Rothschild was made head of Rothschild & Cie Banque, a Paris based bank which he founded in 1987 with his half-brother David René de Rothschild and cousin Eric de Rothschild, a position in which he remained until June 2004. In January 2005, he invested 20 million euros for a 37% majority shareholding in the French newspaper Libération, a left-wing daily French newspaper that was founded in 1973.
Rothschild is also an avid horse enthusiast and competes both nationally and internationally. In 2004 he was elected President of the French horse racing association, “France Galop.”
The Rothschild family has historically been very Zionist and contributed financially to the founding of the state of Israel at the start of the 20th century. Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (born 1845, died 1934) was a strong supporter of Zionism who made generous donations to the movement during its early years. He was an art lover and invested in collecting of drawings and engravings, but in 1882 cut back on his art purchases of art and instead began to buy land in Israel. Rothschild helped found the town of Rishon LeZion. He established a special colonization association in 1924 which acquired more than 125,000 acres of land and set up business ventures.
Rothschild also played a pivotal role in Israel’s wine industry, supervising the establishments of farm colonies and vineyards, as well as opening two major wineries in Rishon LeZion and Zichron Yaakov that would later be called Carmel Mizrahi, a well-known leader in the Israeli wine industry.
Baron Edmond de Rothschild became known as “HaNadiv HaYadu’a” (“The Famous Benefactor”) due to his philanthropy. Various streets and other localities in Israel are named after him, perhaps the most famous one being Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. The town of Binyamina (located in northern Israel, south of Haifa) , founded in 1922, was also named after him. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
| — Hat tip: NG | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bossi Ready for Elections
Northern League leader rules out caretaker government
(ANSA) — Rome, August 5 — Northern League leader Umberto Bossi on Thursday quashed suggestions his party would agree to join a caretaker government to replace Silvio Berlusconi’s if the premier is forced to resign after a break with ex ally, House Speaker Gianfranco Fini.
“There would be chaos in the country with a transition government,” Bossi told reporters at the House, stressing that he hoped President Giorgio Napolitano would rule out this possibility.
If a government falls, the president is obliged to consult all the parties before deciding whether a replacement can be found or to dissolve parliament and call early elections. Bossi said he was “confident” that Napolitano would not ask the centre-left opposition and Fini to form a caretaker government or call on all the parties to support a so-called ‘government of experts’ who are not politically affiliated.
“Above all, I place my trust in him and then in the country. There are millions of people who would not accept it,” he said.
Bossi, who is close to Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti — a highly respected figure at home and abroad — ruled out a suggestion made this week by some opposition MPs that Tremonti should be tasked with heading a caretaker government.
“He’s not stupid and wouldn’t accept. He’s fond of Berlusconi,” the outspoken Northern League leader said.
Bossi said he would discuss the situation with Berlusconi, making it clear he had no plans to abandon his ally and close friend.
“I haven’t spoken to Bersani,” he quipped, referring to Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, the opposition’s biggest party.
The Northern League, Bossi stressed, has no qualms about possible early elections because the party has increased its power base in northern Italy, winning the two key northern regions of Piedmont and Veneto in the March 28-29 regional elections.
“It’s always easy for us. The North is always ready. We’ll win”.
Fini, a former rightist, supported Berlusconi since the media mogul’s entry into politics 17 years ago and in 2008 merged his rightwing National Alliance party into Berlusconi’s larger centre-right Forza Italia party, to form the PdL.
The party won the election that year with ally the Northern League.
Berlusconi, whose tempestuous relations with Fini came to head in a public shouting match in May, threw the Speaker out of the PdL last Thursday.
Fini immediately formed his breakaway ‘Future and Freedom’ (FLI) groups in the House and Senate.
He rejected Berluscon’s demand to step down as Speaker and stressed that the FLI would vote with or against the government according to whether it upheld the PdL’s electoral promises and “the general interest”. He has also made clear he would not “ambush” the government and the FLI groups at the House and Senate have been set up within the centre-right camp.
But if 27 of its 33 members were to vote against the government, the government would go under at the House.
Fini’s 10 senators are not enough to bring the government down in the Senate should they vote against it but the Italian media has been speculating that more PdL may swing over to the speaker’s side.
Meanwhile, the leader of the centrist opposition UDC party, former Berlusconi ally Pierferdinando Casini, urged him to tell the country whether he wants to continue governing or “throw in the towel”.
Heading to early general elections, nearly three years before the end of the legislature in 2013 would be irresponsible, Casini added.
He urged the formation of a caretaker government of “national responsibility” to solve the country’s problems.
The UDC, the opposition centrist API party led by former Rome mayor Francesco Rutelli and the FLI on Wednesday agreed to abstain in a key no confidence vote at the House against government Undersecretary Giacomo Caliendo, saving the government from defeat.
Caliendo is being probed by Rome prosecutors for alleged involvement in a secret influence-peddling lobby that is believed to have worked to arrange political and judicial appointments. He denies wrongdoing and is staunchly defended by Berlusconi.
But the unofficial alliance of the opposition centrist parties and the rebel FLI means that the government no longer has a majority in the House. Former centre-left premier Massimo D’Alema urged Berlusconi to resign for the country’s good.
“Berlusconi should leave, the sooner the better because this government is useless.” “Berlusconi has failed: he promised more jobs, more wealth and instead the country is worse off, taxes have gone up and there is widespread corruption. It’s exactly the opposite of what he promised to achieve,” D’Alema told a radio interviewer.
The former premier, who has also served as foreign minister in other centre-left governments, said his Democratic Party (PD) was “not afraid” of early elections should President Giorgio Napolitano decide to dissolve parliament.
But he stressed that it would be advisable to appoint a caretaker government to steer the country while revising the current electoral law which he said was “very wrong” and had been tailored by Berlusconi’s previous government to suit his own party.
“We say it would make sense to change the electoral law and then hold the elections because this law is really indecent, a rotten fruit picked by Berlusconi for himself”.
D’Alema suggested that a caretaker government should be made up of “the widest majority of parties possible” and led by “few top-level people given a limited agenda” to oversee the approval of a new electoral law, take care of the the economy and stop corruption.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Winnie Pooh Phone Betrays Mobster
Fugitive arrested in Brussels after calls to wife
(ANSA) — Naples, August 5 — A mobile phone registered to Winnie the Pooh helped police track down a fugitive Italian mobster in Brussels, it emerged on Thursday. Coded telephone calls between Vittorio Pirozzi and his wife eventually led Italian police and Interpol to the Belgian capital, where the 58-year-old fugitive was arrested on Wednesday night. Pirozzi, a member of the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate, had been on the run since 2003 and was on Italy’s 100 most wanted list. Throughout his time in hiding, the boss remained in close contact with his wife, arranging meetings using a complicated code of numbers and letters, according to Naples flying squad chief Vittorio Pisani. An exercise book since discovered at the wife’s home contained the complex code the pair had developed, he added. But while Pirozzi changed the SIM card in his cell phone every two weeks, his wife always used a card registered to the name of A. A. Milne’s fictional bear, Winnie the Pooh.
The unusual alias, which received calls on a fixed day at the same time each week, eventually tipped off investigators, who followed the wife to Brussels earlier this week.
Pirozzi himself was finally spotted late Wednesday afternoon, leaving the modest apartment in central Brussels where he was living, on a shopping trip with his wife. A large-scale operation, including a police helicopter, was mounted shortly after the pair’s return to the apartment but Pisani said the mobster was not armed and did not resist arrest.
Pirozzi, who was a leading member of the Mariano clan which controls the central Chiaia district in Naples, is thought to have started his criminal career in 1973.
After a string of petty offences, he eventually came to police notice in 1985 over suspected links with the Camorra crime syndicate. In 2003, he was convicted in absentia of international drug trafficking and given a 15-year sentence, which he will serve once extradited back to Italy. According to Pisani, Pirozzi continued his involvement in trafficking during his time on the run, which he divided between the Belgian capital and the Spanish coastal resort of Malaga. “Malaga and Brussels, near the port of Rotterdam, are both international crossroads for the stockpiling and importing of drugs to Europe,” explained Pisani.
News of the arrest was welcomed by the Italian government. “This arrest is another great state success against the Camorra and adds to a long list of previous arrests,” said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, congratulating national police chief Antonio Manganelli for the operation. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano described the arrest as “the state’s latest victory in the fight against organized crime”, while House Speaker Gianfranco Fini voiced “great satisfaction” at the news, congratulating the police for their “determination and professionalism”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mainstream Islamic Organisations ‘Share Al-Qaeda Ideology’
Many apparently mainstream Muslim groups have the same ideology as violent Islamists, according to a secret report from the think tank Quilliam.
The report, sent to the government’s Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT), was not intended for publication but has now been leaked on the internet.
Entitled “Preventing terrorism, where next for Britain?” it says the ideology of non-violent Islamists is “broadly the same as that of violent Islamists” adding “they disagree only on tactics.”
It produces a list of those it believes are “non-violent Islamists” and adds: “These are a selection of the various groups and institutions active in the UK which are broadly sympathetic to Islamism.
“Whilst only a small proportion will agree with al-Qaeda’s tactics, many will agree with their overall goal of creating a single ‘Islamic state’ which would bring together all Muslims around the world under a single government and then impose on them a single interpretation of sharia as state law.”
The document adds that if the government engages with such groups “it risks empowering proponents of the ideology, if not the methodology, that is behind terrorism.”
Quilliam argues that the government needs to move beyond tackling those who advocate violent extremism to target those that espouse similar but non-violent views.
Their views are thought to hold sway as the Coalition conducts a major review of the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism strategy.
A Home Office spokesman said the report had not been solicited but added: “We believe the Prevent programme isn’t working as effectively as it could and want a strategy that is effective and properly focused — that is why we are reviewing it.”
The list sent to the OSCT includes a unit within Scotland Yard called the Muslim Contact Unit and another independent group designed to improve the relationship between the police and the Muslim community called the Muslim Safety Forum.
It also includes the Muslim Council of Britain, one of the main groups representing Muslims in Britain, and its rival the Muslim Association of Britain.
Other groups on the list are the Islamic Human Rights Commission, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies and the Cordoba Foundation.
Quilliam also singles out the Islam Channel, a satellite TV channel which has been the subject of one of their reports.
Among the mosques identified are Finsbury Park mosque in North London, formerly run by the extremist preacher Abu Hamza but now under new management, along with East London Mosque and Birmingham Central mosque.
Politicians described as “Islamist backed” include Salma Yaqoob, leader of the Respect Party, and the former Respect MP George Galloway.
Inayat Bunglawala, chairman of Muslims4Uk and a former spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, claimed the list was “like something straight out of a Stasi manual” referring to the former East German secret police.
He added: “In effect, Quilliam — a body funded very generously by the government through Prevent — are attempting to set themselves up as arbiters of who is and is not an acceptable Muslim.
“Their document specifically contains a McCarthy-type list of large and established Muslim organisations that they regard as suspect and smears them as being ‘Islamists’.”
The Metropolitan Police said they were proud of the Muslim Contact Unit which had “carried out ground-breaking work and raised understanding within the counter-terrorism community of the issues facing Muslim communities.”
A spokesman added: “The unit’s work involves regular meetings with a wide range of individuals and groups to provide advice and guidance, to hear their concerns and to provide a channel by which these can then be communicated to other sections of the Metropolitan Police.”
Maajid Nawaz co-director of Quilliam told the Daily Telegraph: “Quilliam has a track record of distinguishing between legal tolerance and civil tolerance — we oppose banning non-violent extremists…yet we see no reason why tax payers should subsidise them. It is in this context that we wish to raise awareness around Islamism.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Extradites Mossad Agent
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, AUGUST 5 — The Court of Appeal of Warsaw has today given the go-ahead to the extradition from Poland to Germany of an alleged Israeli Mossad agent, Uri Brodsky, accused of obtaining a fake German passport subsequently used by the commando suspected of assassinating Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai. Mahmoud al Mabhouh was a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian radical Islamic faction of Hamas who was found dead in a hotel in Dubai on January 19. News of the extradition, taken up by Israeli online media, came from the Polish capital. According to the Court of Appeal’s sentence, Brodsky — who is not accused of personally taking part in the killing of Mabhouh, but who must respond to the German justice system to the crime of falsifying documents — will be transferred to Germany within 10 days. The man was arrested in Warsaw in June on the basis of an international warrant of arrest and in July he had presented his appeal against a first verdict of extradition issued by a lower-level court. The Israeli Foreign Minister has already said that it considers the measure as “not friendly”. The investigative authorities in Dubai consider it “99%” confirmed that Mossad was involved in the murder of Mahmoud al Mabhouh. Israel on the other hand denies that there are any concrete elements for the accusation of its secret services. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Farewell to Last Equestrian Statue From Franco Era
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 5 — Spain has bid farewell to the last equestrian statue of ‘Caudillo’ Francisco Franco, which has been removed from the Legion barracks of Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco. Reporting on the event was a spokesman for the General Command from the Melilla Legion, quoted by the Europa Press agency. The statue, which had stood inside the Millan Astray barracks, was re moved yesterday “in compliance with orders received and in line with what was established by the Historical Remembrance law of 2007”. It was the last of its kind in Spain following the removal of the Franco statue in Santander in December 2008. The decision to remove the statue in honour of the Caudillo, who was also the Legion commander in the Spanish city in North Africa (where the “alzamiento” of generals began against the Second Spanish Republic at the beginning of the 1939-1939 Civil War) had been announced in April by the Melilla division of the PSOE, which said that “there are no historical nor cultural reasons to keep the effigy in the military compound”. In Melilla there is still another effigy of the ‘Generalissimo’ at the entrance to the port which, according to the local PP government, “has not yet been removed because the central government has not yet found an alternative location for it in a museum or military centre”. The government of the city with autonomous status notes that the statue was placed there in homage to the then commander of the Melilla Legion, who “saved the city” during the 1920s war against Morocco and not due to Franco’s being the head of the Spanish state. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Let Teachers Ban Face Veils — Liberals
Sweden’s schools and universities should be allowed to ban students and teachers from wearing face veils, education minister and Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund has said.
“Teaching is communication, it is about being able to look each other in the eye and in the face and to be able to communicate with each other. In this context I argue that it is extremely inappropriate to allow clothing that covers the face,” Björklund, speaking in his capacity as party leader, told Swedish Radio.
Swedish law is currently unclear on the issue of schools’ and universities’ rights to prevent students from wearing face veils such as niqabs or burquas. An adult education college in Stockholm was last year reported to the Discrimination Ombudsman after it banned a student from wearing a veil in class. The case is still pending.
“I want Sweden’s principals to have easily interpreted laws — you shouldn’t have to go to court in order to find out what the law is,” Björklund said.
The National Agency for Education (Skolverket) issued guidance in 2003 in which it said that a headteacher could ban a teacher or pupil from wearing a face veil if it was having a negative effect on pupils’ education.
Ann-Charlotte Eriksson, deputy chairwoman of the Swedish Teachers’ Union (Lärarförbundet), welcomed the Liberals’ approach, which she said would give teachers clear guidance:
“It has to be clear what a principal is allowed to do. This is something we have sought,” she said.
Eriksson underlined that any decision on banning face veils must be taken following a dialogue between teachers, families and pupils.
“If this is to be successful and not create polarization in society, I believe in creating dialogue. Schools should never be felt to be harassing people. We must therefore explain why why take decisions, what the purpose is and what solutions one can find,” Eriksson said.
One problem that Eriksson identified with students who cover their faces is that teachers cannot identify pupils turning up for exams.
“Teachers need to be sure that they are grading the right pupil,” she said.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Skarsgård Offered Millennium Film Role
Share Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård has been offered a role in the US remake of the first of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is due for release in 2011.
Star of blockbusters such as “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Mamma Mia” and the soon to be released “Thor”, Skarsgård is one of Sweden’s most recognised actors and as David Fincher’s movie is set to be filmed in Sweden, has long been named in connection with a role.
According to Variety magazine, Skarsgård has confirmed that he is in negotiations with Sony Pictures to join Daniel Craig in the cast of the Hollywood remake of the popular Swedish-language movie.
Skarsgård is reported to be in talks over the role of Martin Vanger, an industrial magnate and the key protagonist in the disappearance of a teenage girl and played by Peter Haber in the original version.
“I have met Fincher, I want to work with him, he wants to work me. I have had a concrete offer and now we are in negotiations,” Skarsgård told Variety.
James Bond star Daniel Craig is set to play Mikael Blomkvist in the movie, much of which is set to be filmed in Sweden’s capital.
“Most of it is to be shot in Stockholm, but some studio work will be done in the U.S. I think there might be some location work there as well, when it becomes too dark to shoot here,” Skarsgård told Variety.
The main question mark in the casting for the film remains over the identity of the actor to play the role of gothic heroine and computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander.
Noomi Rapace played the role in the Swedish language original, and some industry voices have called for her to be given the role, but speculation in recent months has centred on more established international stars such as Natalie Portman, Kristen Stewart and Ellen Page.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Helping Girls in Trouble
The number of young women seeking help from the Mädchenhaus Zurich — Switzerland’s only refuge for girls — is on the rise, according to latest figures. They are often victims of physical, psychological or sexual violence — normally carried out within the family. Some are fleeing from forced marriages. Zurich was shaken in May by the case of 16-year-old Swera, of Pakistani Muslim origin, who was killed by her father with an axe in what has been described as an honour killing. The well-integrated teenager had been in conflict with her immigrant parents. This kind of extreme case is rare, says Karin Aeberhard, co-director of the Mädchenhaus Zurich. “This was tragic and would have been a typical Mädchenhaus case, but often a girl can get help before the situation goes that far,” she told swissinfo.ch. The Mädchenhaus is made up of a residential section — whose location is secret to protect its residents — and a counselling office, which is also has 24-hour telephone availability. In all, 292 girls, mostly aged between 14 and 17, received advice in 2009, a ten per cent increase on 2008. Around two-thirds were of migrant background.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Communist China Funds Bid to Buy Liverpool Football Club
The Chinese government has been revealed as the mystery backer behind a bid to buy Liverpool Football Club.
The communist state’s overseas investment arm China Investment Corporation is financing sports tycoon Kenny Huang’s attempt to take over the Premier League team.
It means China could effectively have control over Liverpool if the bid, which values the club at between £300million and £350million, is successful.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron Accused by Labour of Iran Nuclear ‘Gaffe’
Labour has accused David Cameron of committing a gaffe by mistakenly claiming Iran has a nuclear weapon.
Asked why he was backing Turkey to join the EU he said it could help solve the world’s problems, “like the Middle East peace process, like the fact that Iran has got a nuclear weapon”.
Downing Street said the prime minister “misspoke”.
But Shadow Europe Minister Chris Bryant said he was becoming a “foreign policy klutz”.
Mr Bryant said: “This is less of a hiccup, more of a dangerous habit.
“Considering Iran’s nuclear ambitions constitute one of the most important foreign policy challenges facing us all, it is not just downright embarrassing that the prime minister has made this basic mistake, it’s dangerous.”
He said Mr Cameron had been forced to “explain away another foreign policy gaffe” — a reference to the diplomatic rows that erupted over his recent comments about Pakistan.
Mr Cameron made the comment at one of his “PM Direct” public meetings.
Downing Street said Mr Cameron had meant to say that Iran appears to be trying to pursue a nuclear programme when he said “Iran has a nuclear weapon”.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Keep Anti-Terrorism and Theology Apart
A leaked memo, arguing that the state’s anti-terrorism strategy should involve tackling nonviolent Islamism, is wide of the mark
In the middle of June, the Quilliam Foundation sent a lengthy document to the Home Office setting out its recommendations for the new British government’s anti-terrorism strategy.
The briefing paper was headed “Not for public disclosure” and “Do not circulate” — in order, according to the covering letter, to avoid “the twin distractions of media attention and potential civil service defensiveness”. Maybe one of the “defensive” civil servants took exception to that. Anyway, it was duly leaked and posted on the internet last week, where everyone can read it.
Quilliam, a “counter-extremism” thinktank, was set up by former Islamists and funded by the previous Labour government to the tune of £1m. Reading between the lines of the leaked document, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that Quilliam has shaped its strategy recommendations with at least half an eye on securing a continued role and funding for itself from the new government.
The basic point of Quilliam’s briefing paper — reported on in more detail here — is that the problem of politicised Islam stretches beyond terrorism to include Islamist ideology more generally. Islamism, it says, is “the ideology that provides the justification for both extremism and acts of terrorist violence”. Although most Islamists reject violence as a means for achieving power and the more successful Islamist movements abroad engage in electoral politics (in Egypt and Turkey, for example), Quilliam says violent and nonviolent Islamists broadly share the same ideology and disagree only on tactics.
An anti-terrorism strategy, it argues, should therefore include tackling Islamism “even if it is not yet being expressed in a violent way”. It goes on to propose that local and national government should choose which Muslim organisations to work with “according to their commitment to shared values which help to foster national cohesion and integration, and according to their willingness to challenge the Islamist ideology that lies behind terrorism”. An appendix to the document names 37 Muslim organisations in Britain which it says the government “should be wary of”, at the risk of “empowering proponents of the ideology, if not the methodology”.
Islamist ideology certainly needs to be challenged. The question is whether its nonviolent form should included in an anti-terrorism strategy. Politically, the main problem with Islamists is not that some of them turn violent but that they believe in the “sovereignty of God”, and that this conflicts with democratic ideas about the sovereignty of the people.
Some Islamists aspire to a full-blooded theocracy while others envisage a degree of popular decision-making — at least up to the point where it conflicts with the “principles of Islam” (which of course begs the question of how the principles of Islam are to be determined, and by whom). Although some visions of an Islamic state do allow more space for freedom and democracy than others, the underlying problem is still the same: an anti-libertarian assumption that linking the state with religion is both legitimate and necessary. Not only that, but religion claims the right, at least in some circumstances, to override the will of the people.
Islamism also has to be considered in its international context, not as an isolated phenomenon among British Muslims. Theology aside, its popularity today is largely a response to corrupt and repressive governments in Muslim countries, coupled with a Daily Mail-style fear of modernity and a feeling that Muslims are under siege from the west.
Many of the corrupt regimes that drive people towards Islamism are kept in power, of course, with help from western countries, including Britain — so that would be one area to address the problem at its root.
Despite attempts to suppress and control Islamist movements in Muslim countries, the lack of scope for political and religious debate means that their basic ideology often remains unchallenged in the public discourse. If it had been exposed to full public scrutiny years ago there would not be as many Islamists around as there are today. As an agitators’ slogan, “Islam is the solution” (used by the Brotherhood in Egypt) may sound appealing but it doesn’t stand up to much examination in terms of practical politics.
For instance, the idea of a genuinely “Islamic state” is almost a contradiction in terms, as Abdullahi an-Na’im points out in his book, Islam and the Secular State. He points out that since the death of the prophet Muhammad, political regimes throughout Islamic history have never achieved a total conflation or convergence of religion and state (regardless of any claims they made to the contrary) — for the simple reason that it’s a practical impossibility.
Debates of this kind have very little to do with fighting terrorism, though — which leads to the question recently posed on Cif Belief: “Can you do counterterrorism without theology?” Getting into theological arguments is a very dodgy route for any government to go down: ultimately it means deciding which interpretations of the scripture are “correct” and which are not.
That, to varying degrees, is what governments of Muslim countries do already — appointing senior clerics who will toe the official line, vetting sermons, etc. Quilliam seems to be proposing something similar for Britain by dividing Muslim organisations into those that have a seal of approval and those that don’t (and are consequently to be shunned).
But it doesn’t work in Muslim countries and there’s no reason to think it would work here. The more closely organisations and individual clerics are associated with the authorities, the less credibility they have among the people they are supposed to be influencing away from extremism.
That doesn’t mean that we should allow Islamist ideology to go unchallenged but that using governmental channels to do so is likely to be ineffective and counter-productive. In comparison with most Muslim countries, Britain is fortunate in that it has a stronger tradition of open political and religious debate. The solution to the Islamist problem is to make use of it.
[JP note: more mindless Guardian drivel.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Killer GP’s Bid to Gag Family: Fury as German Doctor Seeks Injunction Against Victim’s Sons
The bungling German doctor who killed a British patient is seeking an injunction across Europe to silence his victim’s family.
Daniel Ubani was on his first shift providing out of hours care in the UK when he injected David Gray with ten times the recommended dose of a painkiller.
He is trying to silence Mr Gray’s sons using European human rights laws by claiming that their campaign to bring him to justice is stopping his right to practise.
Stuart and Rory Gray have spoken out repeatedly about how Ubani escaped punishment by refusing to return to Britain to face potential criminal-charges. Instead he cut a deal with German prosecutors which allowed him to avoid extradition and being struck off in Germany.
The brothers now plan to travel to Bavaria to fight the legal action.
Last night Stuart Gray, himself a doctor, said: ‘I consider this a grave threat to free speech and we will fight it in every way possible.’
Ubani has submitted papers to a Bavarian court calling for the brothers to be banned from talking publicly about the death.
Earlier this year they stood up and denounced him as a ‘charlatan’ and a ‘killer’ as he spoke at a medical conference.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: List Sent to Terror Chief Aligns Peaceful Muslim Groups With Terror Ideology
A secret list prepared for a top British security official accuses peaceful Muslim groups, politicians, a television channel and a Scotland Yard unit of sharing the ideology of terrorists.
The list was drawn up for Charles Farr, the director general of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a directorate of the Home Office. Farr is a former senior intelligence officer.
It was sent to him in June by the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism thinktank which has received about £1m in government funding. Quilliam was co-founded by Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, former activists in the radical Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir. Critics of the foundation accused it of McCarthyite smear tactics and branded its claims ridiculous. The foundation declined repeated requests for comment.
The document sent to Farr is entitled “Preventing terrorism; where next for Britain?” It lists alleged extremist sympathisers, including the Muslim Council of Britain, the main umbrella group in Britain for Islamic organisations. It also claims that a Scotland Yard counter-terrorism squad called the Muslim Contact Unit is dominated by extremist ideology. Other groups include the Muslim Safety Forum, which works with the police to improve community relations, the Islamic Human Rights Commission, and even the Islam Channel, which provides television programmes for Muslims on satellite.
The briefing document says: “The ideology of non-violent Islamists is broadly the same as that of violent Islamists; they disagree only on tactics. “These are a selection of the various groups and institutions active in the UK which are broadly sympathetic to Islamism. Whilst only a small proportion will agree with al-Qaida’s tactics, many will agree with their overall goal of creating a single ‘Islamic state’ which would bring together all Muslims around the world under a single government and then impose on them a single interpretation of sharia as state law.”
The document adds that if local or central government engages with such groups “it risks empowering proponents of the ideology, if not the methodology, that is behind terrorism”.
The report was addressed personally to Farr and says it is not to be seen by civil servants, only by him, ministers and their special advisers. Nonetheless, it was leaked and posted on the web.
Also listed in the document are the Muslim Association of Britain, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, the Cordoba Foundation, and Muslim Welfare House, based in north London, which was instrumental in forcing the extremist cleric Abu Hamza out of the Finsbury Park mosque where he preached. The Finsbury Park mosque, now under new management, is also declared extremist, as are Birmingham Central mosque and the East London mosque. Politicians described as “Islamist backed” include Salma Yaqoob, who stood for the Respect party in Birmingham, and the former MP George Galloway.
The government has made public efforts to woo British Muslims by promising reviews of disliked policies such as stop and search and the Prevent programme, which aims to tackle extremism. Fatima Khan, vice-chair of the Muslim Safety Forum, said: “[Quilliam’s] attack on the MSF is yet another example of their McCarthyism and desperation to ensure government funding. We deplore such tactics that seek to slander, divide and discredit genuine organisations that work within the grassroots of the Muslim communities for the purpose of our safety.”
The Labour MP Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, said: “I think it’s very dangerous to be drawing up lists of this kind. I am concerned and will be writing to the home secretary to ask if the government requested this list, what is the status of this list, and why it is being considered in this way.” Inayat Bunglawala, chair of Muslims4Uk and a former MCB spokesperson, said: “This is just like something straight out of a Stasi manual. The advice from Quilliam is frankly appalling and incredibly self-serving.
“This is a truly shocking document, and it is little wonder that the Quilliam Foundation marked it as being not for public disclosure. In effect, Quilliam — a body funded very generously by the government through Prevent — are attempting to set themselves up as arbiters of who is and is not an acceptable Muslim. Their document specifically contains a McCarthy-type list of large and established Muslim organisations that they regard as suspect and smears them as being ‘Islamists’.”
Robert Lambert, who co-founded and led Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit, said: “The list demonises a whole range of groups that in my experience have made valuable contributions to counter-terrorism.” He said he had never seen such a list before, warned that it could damage Muslim confidence in the government, and said the meaning of the list was clear: “They are arguing these are either witting or unwitting fellow travellers, providing the mood music for the terrorists.”
Quilliam’s argument is that the government cannot merely tackle those advocating terrorist violence, but also has to target those who have the same views, even if they advocate peaceful means. Senior Tory party figures are sympathetic to such views. One source with knowledge of Conservative thinking on security issues told the Guardian that the briefing document is “quite in line with what Quilliam and the Conservatives have been thinking for years”. Critics say such an approach is ill-founded and risks branding vast swathes of Muslim Britain as extremist. Supporters say it is necessary to tackle the roots of terrorist violence.
The briefing document from Quilliam also addresses the Prevent programme, which the Conservative coalition has criticised. Asked to comment, the government concentrated its response on this aspect. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We believe the Prevent programme isn’t working as effectively as it could and want a strategy that is effective and properly focused — that is why we are reviewing it.”
[JP note: No need for the list to be secret — I and anyone else who has been watching these Muslim groups could have sent Farr the same list on the back of an envelope — and no need to pay the Quilliam Foundation a million pounds of British taxpayers’s money either.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Guardian’s Latest Islamist Press Release
I appear to have written about The Guardian three days in a row — sorry about that — but the paper’s latest wretched press release for the forces of Islamism can’t go unmentioned.
The Guardian story consists of a number of Muslim groups complaining about being labelled “broadly sympathetic to Islamism” in a leaked list sent to the Home Office by Quilliam, the anti-extremist thinktank. This is, apparently, a “smear” and “like something straight out of a Stasi manual.”
One of the angry groups is the Muslim Safety Forum, a liaison body with the police, whose vice-chair, Fatima Khan, is quoted as saying: “[Quilliam’s] attack on the MSF is yet another example of their McCarthyism and desperation to ensure government funding. We deplore such tactics that seek to slander, divide and discredit genuine organisations.”
I wonder why the MSF chose its vice-chair to make this passionate denuniciation? Why didn’t it put up its newly-reappointed chair, Azad Ali? Perhaps it’s because Mr Ali is a self-proclaimed Islamist who describes al-Qaeda as a “myth” and who has stated, in undercover Channel 4 footage, that “democracy, if it means not implementing the sharia, of course nobody agrees with that.”
Perhaps it’s because Mr Ali is a senior official of the fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe — which works, in its own words, to create an Islamic state under sharia law in Europe…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Guardian Falls for an Extremist Lie
One of the key techniques of extremists — of both the Islamic and the white Right — is to frighten and polarise their target audiences with exaggerated claims that they are widely disliked or are under attack. As well as helping recruitment, it furthers the extremists’ central lie that different races and faiths cannot coexist. That is why it was so depressing to see today’s Guardian fall for a textbook distortion by one of these groups. A news story reported that “three quarters of non-Muslims believe that Islam has provided a negative contribution to British society, according to a new poll.”
The “poll” was not in fact a poll, using a representative sample of sufficient size and publicly reported according to the strict standards of the British Polling Council. It was a market research questionnaire of a small (500) and random sample. And though it appears to have been done by a professional firm, its results were totally twisted by iERA, the group which commissioned it, and whose claims the Guardian took entirely at face value.
iERA’s executive summary of the “findings” of this “poll” (page 8 of this PDF) does indeed claim that “75% believed that Islam and Muslims had provided a negative contribution to society.” But the detail tells a rather different story. As page 21 of the same PDF shows, the actual number who believed that Islam and Muslims had provided a negative contribution to society was 36% — less than half what iERA claimed. The executive summary (and the Guardian) also claimed that “63% did not disagree with the statement that Muslims are terrorists.” Gosh, do two-thirds of the public really believe all Muslims are bombers?
No, they do not. The proportion who agreed with the statement that “Muslims are terrorists” (page 23 of the PDF) was in fact only 24% — significantly less than the number (37%) who disagreed. A further 39% neither agreed nor disagreed. In this and in all the other questions, iERA achieved its headline-grabbing figure only by ignoring (or misrepresenting the views of) the large number of people who were neutral.
The agenda behind these inflammatory lies can be found in about two minutes on Google…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Talibanisation of British Childhood by Hardline Parents
What should be simple pleasures are instead seen by thousands of families as a symbol of moral decadence.
Last November, on the steps of Tate Britain, I witnessed a scene that troubles me still.
A furious Asian father was shaking his young son and tearing up the picture his child had drawn.
The boy kicked and cried. Recognising my face from TV appearances I had made as a commentator on current affairs, the father came across to say ‘hello’.
So I asked him what his child had done that had made him so angry. He explained that according to his Islamic mentors, drawing pictures of people was forbidden.
I was flabbergasted. After all, this was in the middle of Britain’s multi-cultural capital — a modern metropolis, not some dusty backstreet in Kabul.
What harm can there be in a picture?
So I asked the man if he owned a camera. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘And a video camera.’
So why, I asked, was it acceptable for him to take pictures, but not for his child to draw a stick figure?
‘The madrasa teacher told me children are not allowed to,’ he said, referring to the places of religious instruction for Muslim children, which are the equivalent of Sunday schools for Christians.
‘I am not an educated man, so I must listen to them.’
[…]
Make no mistake, Taliban devotees are in our schools, playgrounds, homes, mosques, political parties, public service, private firms and universities.
And if we are to have any hope of combating them, we need to stop this attitude of appeasement and understand why so many Muslims are attracted to the most punishing forms of belief, suppressing women and children.
Eye-watering amounts of Saudi money goes into promoting Wahhabism.
They fund mosques, religious-schools, imams, conferences and trips to Saudi Arabia.
They are our wealthy allies and so are never questioned or stopped.
Free-thinking Muslims have lacked courage to oppose what is going on, while politicians do nothing for cynical reasons — best, they think, not to antagonise possible voters.
Meanwhile, the liberal position is to let people be and do what they wish within the law. Liberals tolerate the intolerable because they don’t have to live with the consequences. Yet the problem is in part caused by liberal values.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BP: Drilling in Libyan Waters; Touring Club Concerned
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, AUGUST 5 — On the day Greenpeace announced a mission to the Mexican Gulf to assess the damage done by the oil that has leaked from the BP rig, Touring Club Italiano (Italian Touring Club, TCI) launches an appeal asking for guarantees regarding the drilling operations that have been announced in the Gulf of Sidra. “The drilling operations by BP in the Mediterranean”, said TCI President Franco Iseppi, “could damage the entire biological ecosystem, with irreversible consequences for the environment, the economic sector and for tourism in all States on this sea. We cannot allow that to happen”.
Therefore the Touring Club has asked “to make sure all necessary guarantees are made to protect the Mediterranean Sea”, including “single, joint and shared regulations that protect the Mediterranean first of all”, implemented by all countries on the Mediterranean Sea.
“The Mediterranean”, Iseppi pointed out, “is a historic and cultural as well as an environmental heritage which, due to its unique biodiversity and environment, belongs to all humanity and must be cared for and protected as such”.
A possible environmental disaster, apart from the costs “which cannot be quantified because no price can define the value of the Mediterranean”, will have other consequences which are easier to assess. “We can make a reliable estimate of the economic damage”, the president added, “at least regarding tourism: today the Mediterranean attracts around 30% of total international arrivals each year, more than 260 million travellers with revenues totalling more than 280 billion USD”.
(ANSA).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: City for Arabian Horses to be Set Up in Greater Cairo
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, AUG 5 — The government is now mulling a plan aimed at carrying out mega-projects outside Cairo, reports MENA. The move is meant to create new job opportunities.
Under a 2050 Cairo plan, a city for Arabian horses will be set upover an area of 2500 feddans. The plan also called for carrying out trade and tourism projects and establishing parks in Greater Cairo.
The plan was tackled during a recent cabinet meeting. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: 3 Druze Accused of Spying in Golan Heights
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, AUGUST 5 — Three members of the Druze community of the Golan Heights have today been officially accused of spying for Syria by Israeli judges. According to the charges, Majid Shahar (58), his son Fada (27) and Mahmud Masarwa (62) handed over confidential information to a former inhabitant of the Druze village Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, who later moved to Syria.
Among other things, the three allegedly planned the kidnapping of a Syrian pilot who had escaped from Syria to Israel. In contrast with Israeli Druze, almost all of the Druze living in the Golan Heights feel closer to Syria. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Passionate, Heated Debates Over the “Peace Process” Have Nothing to Do With Reality
by Barry Rubin
There is a great deal of heat and passion about the difference between “left” and “right” views in Israel. Yet these gaps, at least during this era, are far less significant than people think. I’m going to tell an anecdote that illustrates this point even as it seems to contradict it.
First, though, let me quickly add that these debates have been very important in the past. After the 1967 war, Israeli society conducted a quarter-century-long argument that, in the end, had no material application. The question was: Should Israel trade territory (the lands captured in the 1967 war) for peace or should it keep most of them on the twin assumptions that Israel had a claim and that the Arabs would never make full peace.
This debate was at first an abstraction since the Arab and Palestinian side did not seek peace for a long time. Then it was disrupted by the peace agreement with Egypt (a right-wing government returned the Sinai). Finally, in a sense, the two sides agreed to test the assumptions of the debate in the 1990s’ Oslo process. (The peace with Jordan also involved some territorial concessions by Israel.)
The majority of Israelis overwhelmingly agreed that the Oslo experiment was a failure from the point of view of thinking that giving up land would bring full and final peace to the conflict. Some hold that the experiment was worth making, others not. What is important, though, is that the effort was made and the result showed that neither the Palestinians nor Syria was ready to make full peace in 2000. Nothing has changed in this regard during the last decade.
Thus, a new Israeli consensus was made:…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Animals: Hermit Ibis Endangered, Turkey-Syria Task Force
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, AUGUST 4 — In the Pharaonic Era, the hermit ibis (Geronticus Eremita) was a bird that was revered and had its own hieroglyphic symbol, whereas now the bird has become the most rare one in the Middle East with only three wild ones still alive in a small colony in Syria discovered in 2002 near Palmyra. This is why the international community has taken action, with the Turkish government donating six hermit ibises, which had been living in semi-captivity, to the Syrian colony to prevent the bird from disappearing from the Middle East. In addition to the small Syrian family, only two other “homes” of the hermit ibis are known, both in south-western Morocco where the population totals only 100 nesting couples. To find out more about this rare species and save it from extinction, five birds from the “repopulated” Syrian colony have been fitted with a satellite tracking device in order to allow researchers to follow the bird’s migrations. It is known that the adults of the species spend the winter in Europe but no information is available on where the young ones go. A team of biologists is also trying to identify the birds by land, recording details of the habitats in which they spend their time and ensuring that there are no attacks by poachers.
Out of the five hermit ibises which left from Syria at the end of June, which one can follow via internet on the website of the British NGO RSPB, unfortunately one young one already underweight at the beginning of the trip, Ameer, has died. On the other hand, those still flying south include Odeinat and Salama (the Syrian birds) and Amina and Ishtar (among the ones donated by Turkey) which were identified in Saudi Arabia at the end of July. The operation to save the hermit ibis in the Middle East is the result of a wide-ranging initiative for collaboration between governments, NGOs, researchers, foundations and private individuals. According to the general director of the Syrian partner GCB, Ali Hammaoud, “this is by far the largest conservation partnership in the region to save this small ibis colony on the verge of extinction.” In the eyes of Yasar Dostbil, director of the nature protection and national parks directorate of the Turkish Ministry for the Environment, “it is one of the best conservation studies ever conducted on a species at serious risk of extinction.” Most of the work is coordinated by BirdLife International Middle East with the sponsorship of Syria’s First Lady, Asma Al-Assad, and the Turkish prime minister’s wife, Amine Erdogan. A number of different organisations are involved in the project, even outside of Syria and Turkey: from the Jordanian office of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to the Saudi Wildlife Commission, to the Foundation under Prince Albert II of Monaco with his donations and various teams of experts from several different countries. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai: Briton Held for Wearing a Bikini in Dubai Shopping Mall
A British holidaymaker has been charged with indecency in Dubai after walking through the world’s largest shopping centre in a bikini.
The woman was buying clothes and gifts in the Dubai Mall, fully dressed but in a low-cut top, when she was accosted by an Arabic woman and criticised for wearing ‘revealing clothing’.
The pair then became embroiled in a heated row in front of hundreds of bemused shoppers.
Incensed by the Arabic woman’s comments, the British woman told her to ‘mind her own business’ before stripping out of her clothes and ‘taunting’ the locals by walking around in only her bikini, it is alleged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Did Iran Just Attack Israel’s Borders?
Tehran sending message it can ‘bring any war’ into Jewish state
Western, Israeli and Arab intelligence services have identified a growing penetration of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Units into the Lebanese Army, according to Egyptian and other Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND.
The security officials point specifically to the Division 9 Lebanese Army border patrol, which is suspected of carrying out yesterday’s attack on Israeli troop positions that resulted in the deaths of three Lebanese soldiers, one Lebanese reporter and an Israeli soldier.
The security officials said Iran has penetrated Lebanese Army positions along the Israeli border, replacing Hezbollah inside the first lines of the Lebanese Army.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croc-zilla: First Picture of the 22ft-Long Monster That Terrorised Australian Community
Even Crocodile Dundee would think twice before tackling this monster.
At 22ft from its snout to the tip of its tail, it’s as long as a truck and terrorised locals in a remote Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Fortunately for them it is now dead, having been shot by farmers whose cattle and goats it kept attacking. But the bad news is that two more giant crocodiles are believed to be still in the area — and could be even bigger than this one.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Charges 14 With Aiding Somalia’s Al-Shabab
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced charges on Thursday against 14 suspects accused of supporting the terrorist group al-Shabab in Somalia. Holder said the indictments reflect a “disturbing trend” of terrorist organizations recruiting in the United States.
Attorney General Holder announced four indictments charging suspects in Minnesota, California and Alabama with seeking to provide money, personnel and services to al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaida.
Two suspects have been arrested, the rest are still at large with several believed to be in Somalia fighting for al-Shabab. The group, designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, has been battling the transitional Somali government for control of Mogadishu. It has also been blamed for recent suicide bombings in Uganda.
Holder said the ongoing probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of al-Shabab’s U.S. operations should prevent others from joining its ranks. “These arrests and charges should serve as an unmistakable warning to others who are considering joining or supporting terrorist groups like al-Shabab. If you choose this route, you can expect to find yourself in a United States jail cell or to be a casualty on a Somali battlefield,” he said.
Most of those charged in the indictments are naturalized U.S. citizens who were recruited by the group.
A large number of Somalis immigrated to the United States after the fall of the last stable Somali government in 1991. Many of them settled in Minnesota. Ten men from the northern state were charged in the indictments with leaving the United States to join al-Shabab fighters.
Two women from Minnesota were arrested and charged with going door-to-door in Somali neighborhoods, telling people they were collecting funds for charity, while they were raising money for al-Shabab.
The U.S. attorney general said investigations show an increasing number of people, including U.S. citizens, are following extremist ideologies and seeking to carry out terrorist objectives in the United States and abroad. “This is a very disturbing trend that we have been intensely investigating in recent years, and will continue to investigate and will root out. But we must also work to prevent this type of radicalization from ever taking hold,” he said…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Eurodac: Asylum Claims in Multiple EU Countries
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, AUGUST 5 — Almost a quarter of the claims for asylum in 2009, communicated by countries of the European Union to the Eurodac system, were carried out in more than one country of the 27 member states. This is one of the facts that emerge from the latest activity report of Eurodac, the system that last year examined thousands of digital fingerprints: 236,936 claims for asylum, 31,071 immigrants who have crossed the border illegally and 85,554 people who reside illegally in an EU country.
Eurodac, in fact, is the system which allows the member countries to identify the asylum applicants and the illegal immigrants, through a comparison with the digital fingerprints contained in its database.
In this way, if requested, it is possible to verify possible multiple applications for asylum or if an applicant has entered the EU territory illegally.
According to EU rules, the only competent country on an application for asylum is that country from which asylum is requested first.
Even if the report does not portray the general trend of illegal immigration and of asylum applicants in all the 27 member countries, but only in those countries where digital fingerprints have been taken, nonetheless it supplies several indications.
For example 65,2% of the individuals who enter the EU illegally and then request asylum, present that application in a country different from the one in which they arrived. Immigrants leaving Greece (812,192) go toward Norway, Great Britain or Germany. Immigrants who arrive in Italia and then get married (6,398), choose Switzerland, Holland, Norway or Sweden.
Others from Spain (544) often arrive in France(254) and Switzerland (118). Another interesting figure is 25% of those who reside illegally in an EU country have previously applied for asylum in another EU country. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Parents’ Fury at Council Plans for Halal-Only Menus in Primary Schools
Parents have expressed fury at plans to serve pupils halal-only menus for school dinners.
In a move which has also enraged animal welfare groups, only meat from animals killed and prepared using Islamic teaching may be allowed at 52 primaries in Harrow.
Critics say the plan puts the needs of Muslim children before those of other faiths, while parents say they have not been consulted over the scheme.
Schools are free to opt in to the programme or look elsewhere for their meals from the start of next month, according to Harrow Council.
The local authority is thought to be the first in England to consider insisting on a halal-only menu apparently after recommendations of dietitians.
According to the 2001 Census, Harrow is one of the most religiously diverse areas in Britain with fewer than 50 per cent of the population Christian, a fifth Hindu and 7 per cent Muslim and six per cent Jewish.
The council says the composition of the area’s primary schools is now significantly different, and the Muslim population is larger.
Using the halal method, animals are slaughtered by being slashed across the neck and being left so that the blood drains from the carcass.
The religious ritual, which does not allow the animals to be stunned beforehand, is considered cruel by campaigners and is exempt from animal welfare laws.
Harrow resident Sheila Murphy told the Harrow Observer: ‘I am appalled at Harrow Council’s decision to serve only Halal meat in the borough’s schools.
‘The Farm Animal Welfare Council has lobbied the government in the past to get the Kosher and Halal method of slaughter banned.
‘The Halal method, in which animals are slaughtered by a single slit to the throat, is the only way of killing livestock allowed under Islam but this method is deemed cruel by some animal-lovers, who object to the slow death it involves.
‘Harrow Council’s decision is also taking away the choice of children and their parents over what meat they eat and I urge Harrow residents to make their views known to Harrow Council and get this decision overturned.’
The council will be using its preferred supplier, Harrison’s, which has been providing halal-only menus to Harrow’s high schools for four years after a decision reached by a consortium.
Masood Khawaja, of the Halal Food Authority, said: ‘It is commendable for schools to provide halal meats but there must be an alternative for non-Muslims.
‘Some people are opposed to halal and kosher meat on animal welfare grounds and they should be given the choice not to eat it.’
A council spokesman said: ‘Halal meat was written into the specifications when high schools were procuring their catering contracts.
‘This was due to recommendations from dietitians.’
However, the local authority admitted that the plans to expand the scheme into primary schools is on hold until autumn after complaints from parents.
Councillor Brian Gate, portfolio holder for schools and colleges, said: ‘We consulted with primary schools about the provision of hot meals to their schools but the decision about whether to use an individual provider is for schools to make, as the funding is delegated to them.
‘At present we are not proceeding to roll this programme out more widely but this is because of the cost constraints and the level of interest from parents. We will be reviewing the position with schools in the autumn.’
| — Hat tip: DT | [Return to headlines] |
Tribes and Trust
by Joel Kotkin
What most holds people together? Biology and shared history.
The power of the new tribalism is particularly evident among the Chinese. Maoism might have been a radical internationalist movement, but today’s Chinese are seeking to revive the great 15th century “middle kingdom” that led the world in industriousness and commerce, and briefly even “ruled the seas.” The Han are easily the world’s largest tribe with a common history, language and mythology, and they constitute over 90% of China’s billion-plus population. In contrast, India, the other great rising super power of our time, remains a patchwork of diverse ethnic, linguistic, caste and religious groupings. The new Middle Kingdom, as Martin Jacques warns in his influential When China Rules the World, may well prove extraordinarily ethno-centric and self-referential. The newly powerful Han may find little use for other races except as customers and suppliers of raw materials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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