Blaming China Won’t Help the Economy
By Anatole Kaletsky
IT is a safe bet that Asian currency intervention was not on the minds of Republican primary voters in Delaware this month when they selected a Tea Party favorite, Christine O’Donnell, as their Senate candidate. But the pendulum swings in American politics are a key concern of Wen Jiabao and Naoto Kan, the prime ministers of China and Japan, respectively, who both met with President Obama in New York on Thursday, with the loss of American jobs to Asian competition high on the agenda.
The Asian nations’ interest in American politics stems not just from America’s standing as the sole global superpower, but also from a growing belief among Asian leaders that the era of United States hegemony will soon be over, and that the polarization of its politics symbolizes America’s inability to adapt to the changing nature of global capitalism after the financial crisis.
What does this sweeping statement have to do with the price of yen? Plenty. On Sept. 15, the yen dropped sharply against the dollar, improving the competitiveness of Japanese exporters. After a brief bounce last week, expect the downward trend to continue. Mr. Kan’s government has decided to follow the lead of China and other Asian nations in “managing” (some critics would say manipulating) its currency; it spent a record $23 billion in a single day on foreign exchanges — the largest such intervention ever — instead of leaving the yen’s value entirely to market forces.
To understand how this decision will affect the United States, we must start with parochial politics — not in Delaware, but in the larger parish called Asia, which remains terra incognita to most American politicians and voters.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Admits That the West is Stuck in Near Depression
If you strip away the political correctness, Chapter Three of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook more or less condemns Southern Europe to death by slow suffocation and leaves little doubt that fiscal tightening will trap North Europe, Britain and America in slump for a long time.
The IMF report — “Will It Hurt? Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Consolidation” — implicitly argues that austerity will do more damage than so far admitted. Normally, tightening of 1pc of GDP in one country leads to a 0.5pc loss of growth after two years. It is another story when half the globe is in trouble and tightening in lockstep. Lost growth would be double if interest rates are already zero, and if everybody cuts spending at once.
“Not all countries can reduce the value of their currency and increase net exports at the same time,” it said. Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz goes further, warning that damn may break altogether in parts of Europe, setting off a “death spiral”. The Fund said damage also doubles for states that cannot cut rates or devalue — think Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Italy, all trapped in EMU at overvalued exchange rates.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Joseph Stiglitz: The Euro May Not Survive
Joseph Stiglitz, one of the world’s leading economists, has warned that the future of the euro is “looking bleak” and the fragile European economic recovery could be irreparably damaged by a “wave of austerity” sweeping the continent.
The former chief economist of the World Bank and a Nobel prize winner also predicted that short-term speculators in the market could soon start putting pressure on Spain, which is struggling with a large deficit and high unemployment. Last week, Moody’s cut the country’s credit rating from AAA to Aa1. The former adviser to President Bill Clinton also says that the banking sector has gone back to “business as usual” too quickly and that there are still risks of another financial crisis despite some improvements in regulation
Mr Stiglitz, now a professor at Columbia Business School, makes the arguments in an updated edition of his book, Freefall, on the credit crunch. In the new material, exclusively extracted in today’s Sunday Telegraph, he reveals fears that governments around the world will attempt to cut their deficits too quickly and risk a double dip recession. Tomorrow, George Osborne will outline the Government’s latest plans for multi-billion pound public sector cuts to tackle the historically-high UK deficit. He has faced criticism that the Coalition is in danger of cutting too hard and too fast but the Chancellor has said that without a credible programme for getting the UK economy into balance, interest rates will rise and growth will be choked off. “The worry is that there is a wave of austerity building throughout Europe and even hitting America’s shores,” Mr Stiglitz said. “As so many countries cut back on spending prematurely, global aggregate demand will be lowered and growth will slow — even perhaps leading to a double-dip recession. “America may have caused the global recession but Europe is now responding in kind.” Mr Stiglitz warned that Spain, similarly to Greece, was now in the speculators’ sights.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR Leaders Sign Petition Condemning ‘Threats’
Leaders of unindicted terrorist co-conspirator affirm declaration against violence
A petition signed by some 150 American and Canadian Muslim leaders condemning threats of violence against citizens exercising their free-speech and religious rights sounds like good news to many.
But some seasoned observers of Islam argue the names at the bottom of the petition issued by the American Muslim magazine speak louder than the text itself.
Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org and author of many books on Islam, told WND he’s familiar with many of the signatories.
“The fact that leaders of Hamas-linked CAIR and other patently dishonest Muslim spokesmen such as Aziz Poonawalla have signed on to this does not speak well for its sincerity,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eye-Popping Power Grab: Licensing of U.S. Colleges
Federal scheme poses ‘greatest threat to academic freedom in our lifetime’
President Obama’s Department of Education, where Secretary Arne Duncan appointed a longtime homosexual activist who was part of the sometimes-violent Act Up organization to head his “safe schools” office, now is proposing to force colleges and universities to submit to a political agenda, according to critics.
Under the proposed federal rule change, institutions of higher education “would be required to have a document of state approval … to operate an educational program, including programs leading to a degree or certificate,” explained an analysis by Shapri D. LoMaglio for the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.
“I think it is the greatest threat to academic freedom in our lifetime,” former Sen. Bill Armstrong, now president of Colorado Christian University, told WND. “But only if you love liberty.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Homeland Insecurity Adviser
With the recent departures of OMB Director Peter Orszag, Economic Policy Advisor Lawrence Summers and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the next senior Obama administration official expected to quit is the National Security Advisor to the President, James Jones. All other things being equal, his successor seems likely to be the President’s Homeland Security Advisor, John Brennan (who also serves as General Jones’ deputy).
Such a promotion for Mr. Brennan would not only be unwarranted and ill-advised. To the extent it would affirm and further institutionalize John Brennan’s willful blindness, or worse, towards the most serious threat of our time — the supremacist totalitarian politico-military-legal program authorities of Islam call shariah — it could prove catastrophic.
A pathbreaking new “Team B II” study sponsored by the Center for Security Policy and entitled Shariah: The Threat to America documents the publicly available evidence of Brennan’s dereliction of duty. These include: his systematic failure to recognize what animates our enemy; his insistence on characterizations of our foes that interferes with, if not utterly precludes, effective countermeasures — especially against shariah-adherents’ use of stealthy techniques to achieve our submission; and the “outreach” he engages in and encourages to Muslim Brotherhood operatives…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Ground Zero Mosque Likened to Superman’s HQ
Futuristic designs for an Islamic centre and mosque near the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York have been unveiled to widespread expert acclaim.
The sketches showed a 16-storey building wrapped in a honeycomb of abstract shapes.
The building was compared by some to the Fortress of Solitude, the crystalline headquarters of Superman depicted in comic books.
Others suggested that some of the shapes resembled the Jewish symbol of the Star of David. The company behind the development pointed out that the hexagram is also used in Islam, as the Seal of Solomon, as well as in Christianity and other religions.
Sharif El-Gamal, the developer, said: “We want to have a marriage between Islamic architecture and New York City. We want to do something that is green and cool.”
The proposed Islamic centre, two blocks from the site of the World Trade Centre attacks, has created widespread controversy in the United States.
The designs suggest it will have four floors taken up by a sports, fitness and swimming centre.
There will also be a child care centre, a restaurant, culinary school, art studios, exhibition space and auditorium.
The prayer space for Muslims will be on two levels in the basement, and the 12th floor will have a 9/11 memorial and sanctuary open to people of all faiths.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Case Defying Feds Heads to Appeals Court
Challenge suggests Washington can’t regulate in-state commerce
A Montana lawsuit that could undercut the authority of the federal government on issues including guns, marijuana, REAL ID, health care, the national guard, taxes and even law enforcement is poised to move to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But even that august body is unlikely to resolve the contentions, since the authors of the original claim, which challenges the feds’ authority to regulate guns made, sold and kept within a state, say they need the U.S. Supreme Court to act.
“We’ve believed all along that the federal district court cannot grant the relief we request,” said Gary Marbut, chief of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, which along with partner the Second Amendment Foundation brought the original lawsuit against the federal government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Prayer Rugs and Jewish Orphans
On a late summer evening, Omar Rivera stumbled over to a local mosque, clutching a beer bottle in his hand and looking for a place to answer nature’s call. He chose the Al-Imam Mosque and proceeded to urinate around its exterior, where there were apparently some Muslim prayer rugs lying around. Omar had committed what was a fairly commonplace act of vandalism in the city, public urination. When suddenly he became the poster child for the rise of a “New Islamophobia”.
Along with a drunken liberal arts student who slashed a Muslim cabbie, the media transformed poor Omar into the face of a new and terrible wave of hate directed against Muslims. Initial news stories claimed that he had called the mosque denizens, “Terrorists”, before peeing on their rug. The NYPD later explained that it had never happened, and that he never said anything for or against Muslims.
After a five-day drunk, Omar probably didn’t even know his own name by that point. Neither did Michael Enright, the cabbie slasher, who had a long history of drinking problems. After the attack, he sat down in the middle of traffic, rather than trying to make an escape. Rather than being motivated by any animus toward Muslims, Riviera and Enright were driven by their blood alcohol level and drinking problems. There was no wave of Islamophobia, just two drunk guys who needed to become Friends of Bill.
[…]
The Egyptian Al-Iman Mosque or the Al-Marwa Center in Queens whose rugs were so horrifyingly bepissed, appears to be a satellite of the Brooklyn Islamic Center, operating mosques and a school as the Al-Iman Center. Here’s a sample of some of the tolerant teachings to be found on the Al-Iman website about who’s responsible for causing AIDS. If you guessed the Jews, congratulations. You win a nickel.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Urged to Fire His Homeland Security Adviser
“Mr. Brennan is, at best, willfully blind to the threat posed to homeland and national security of the United States by those who adhere to Shariah law” — Tom Trento, Director, Florida Security Council
Some of the nation’s top intelligence, military, national security and law enforcement experts are calling for Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan to resign from his post or for President Barack Obama to fire Brennan.
During a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Thursday, respected experts, including officials from the Florida Security Council, told reporters that because of Brennan’s adherence to the politically-correct orthodoxy that permeates the Obama administration the U.S. government is being prevented from identifying, understanding and countering radical Muslims and their threat of imposing Shariah law.
[…]
A major piece of evidence that points to the dangers associated with Brennan’s failure to perform his primary function — to know the enemy and its threat doctrine — came to light earlier this week when analysts at the Florida Security Council discovered that a known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history (Holy Land Foundation), Sheik Kifah Mustapha, recently participated in a six-week-long, government-sponsored “Citizens Academy” hosted by the FBI as part of its outreach to the Muslim community.
During the six-week FBI program, Mustapha — a man tied to an officially designated terrorist organization — was escorted into the top secret National Counterterrorism Center and other secure government facilities, including the FBI National Academy located on the Quantico, Virginia U.S. Marine Base.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Destroying the Democratic Party
Comparisons of Barack Obama’s presidency to Jimmy Carter’s miss the point. Carter’s presidency did little to change the basic party construct of the nation or to influence its ideology. Reagan’s presidency accomplished both.
But Barack Obama is destroying the Democratic Party.
It may not recover for a long time. In this, he most closely resembles a synthesis of the failed candidacy of George McGovern and the catastrophic presidency of Herbert Hoover.
The damage he is doing to his party’s image and prospects closely resembles the harm Hoover did to the Republican Party, from which it did not recover for 20 years after he left office. And the extent to which Obama is discrediting the left parallels the damage George McGovern did to his ideological confreres in 1972, when he went down in flaming defeat.
In a sense, America met its first conservative in 1981, and fell in love. We met our first liberal in 2009, and are running away screaming.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Social Sensitivity Trumps IQ in Group Intelligence
If you’re a headhunter looking for someone to work in a group, you might want to stop chasing down the most intelligent candidates. Group intelligence depends less on how smart individuals are and more on their social sensitivity, ability to take turns speaking, and the number of women in the group.
So says Anita Woolley from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues, having measured group intelligence and the influences that individuals have on it.
To measure group intelligence, Woolley placed 699 people into teams of two to five and asked them to carry out simple tasks including brainstorming, moral reasoning, puzzle-solving, typing and negotiating.
The groups were evaluated on how well they did, and given an overall score for group intelligence.
Individual intelligence as measured by IQ tests relies on the premise that people who are good at one task are generally good at several, which suggests that an underlying “general intelligence” exists. Although somewhat controversial, such tests can be used to predict how well a person will do in more complex tests. Woolley’s team found a similar general intelligence in groups, and it was also a successful predictor of how well that group would perform at subsequent, more complex tasks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
State Dept. Appointee Tied to Communists, Terrorists
Husband founded radical group that crafted ‘stimulus’ bill
A recent State Department appointee is wife to the founder of a radical organization whose leaders include a socialist party founder, communists and a leader of the 1960s anti-American Weather Underground terrorist organization.
Barbara Shailor, appointed by the State Department as special representative for international labor affairs in May, also carries her own ties to some of the same radicals.
Prior to her appointment, Shailor was director of the international department of the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest union, and served as senior advisor to the union’s President John Sweeney on foreign and international policy issues. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Her husband, Bob Borosage, is a longtime progressive activist who co-founded the Apollo Alliance, a far-left group that has been instrumental in helping draft key policies of the Obama administration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Family Accused of Murder, Conspiracy in Deaths of Four Relatives
Pre-trial motions start Tuesday in the case of members of a Montreal family accused of murder and conspiracy in the deaths of four female relatives in June 2009 in Kingston, Ont.
Mohammad Shafia, 57, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 40, and their son Hamed, 19, face four counts each of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy. They are accused of killing three members of their family, teenage sisters, and Shafia’s first wife.
The bodies of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahari, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, were found in a submerged car near the Kingston Mills Locks June 30, 2009.
The mother, father and son were arrested in Montreal on July 22, 2009. They have been in custody since.
The family is of Afghan origin, but had lived in Dubai for many years before moving to Montreal in 2007.
The victims and the accused had all been returning to Montreal from a visit to Niagara Falls.
Relatives of the husband’s first wife have contended that the deaths were so-called honour killings, or slayings for what is deemed immoral behaviour.
The Shafias speak Farsi, a dialect of Persian, and to provide translation of testimony to the defendants and their family members who may be in the audience, a courtroom at the Ontario Court of justice building in Kingston has been transformed into a technological hub, with instant translation through headsets in Farsi, English and French.
Spectators will be given wireless receivers that will provide audio feed from interpreters.
The pre-trial hearing is expected to last a month. The trial is reportedly scheduled for April 18, 2011 and is expected to last three months.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Researchers Crack the Ptolemy Code
A 2nd century map of Germania by the scholar Ptolemy has always stumped scholars, who were unable to relate the places depicted to known settlements. Now a team of researchers have cracked the code, revealing that half of Germany’s cities are 1,000 years older than previously thought.
The founding of Rome has been pinpointed to the year 753. For the city of St. Petersburg, records even indicate the precise day the first foundation stone was laid.
Historians don’t have access to this kind of precision when it comes to German cities like Hanover, Kiel or Bad Driburg. The early histories of nearly all the German cities east of the Rhine are obscure, and the places themselves are not mentioned in documents until the Middle Ages. So far, no one has been able to date the founding of these cities.
Our ancestors’ lack of education is to blame for this dearth of knowledge. Germanic tribes certainly didn’t run land survey offices — they couldn’t even write. Inhabitants this side of the Rhine — the side the Romans never managed to occupy permanently — used only a clumsy system of runes.
According to the Roman historian Tacitus, people here lived in thatched huts and dugout houses, subsisting on barley soup and indulging excessively in dice games. Not much more is known, as there are next to no written records of life within the barbarians’ lands.
Astonishing New Map
That may now be changing. A group of classical philologists, mathematical historians and surveying experts at Berlin Technical University’s Department for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science has produced an astonishing map of central Europe as it was 2,000 years ago.
The map shows that both the North and Baltic Seas were known as the “Germanic Ocean” and the Franconian Forest in northern Bavaria was “Sudeti Montes.” The map indicates three “Saxons’ islands” off the Frisian coast in northwestern Germany — known today as Amrum, Föhr and Sylt.
It also shows a large number of cities. The eastern German city that is now called Jena, for example, was called “Bicurgium,” while Essen was “Navalia.” Even the town of Fürstenwalde in eastern Germany appears to have existed 2,000 years ago. Its name then was “Susudata,” a word derived from the Germanic term “susutin,” or “sow’s wallow” — suggesting that the city’s skyline was perhaps less than imposing.
This unusual map draws on information from the mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy, who, in 150 AD, embarked on a project to depict the entire known world. Living in Alexandria, in the shadow of its monumental lighthouse, the ancient scholar drew 26 maps in colored ink on dried animal skins — a Google Earth of the ancient world, if you will.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bin Laden Said to Have Financed European Terror Plot
Did al-Qaida terror chief bin Laden approve and finance plans for new attacks in Europe?
German Islamist Ahmad Sidiqi has delivered new details about the apparent new terrorist plot against Europe and the United States. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, he has told his interrogators that al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden approved the attack plans and also provided financing. German investigators now want to examine the credibility of Sidiqi’s claims.
The No. 3 ranking member of the al-Qaida terror network allegedly prepared to carry out fresh attacks in Europe — at least those are the claims made by German Islamist Ahmad Sidiqi during his interrogations, according to information obtained by SPIEGEL.
He met with Sheik Younis al-Mauretani early this summer under conspiratorial circumstances in the city of Mir Ali in Pakistan, the German claimed. He said he discussed possible attacks in several European countries, including France and Britain. He allegedly claimed that Osama bin Laden had given his personal approval for the plans and that he had also provided some of the money that was needed for the attacks.
American soldiers arrested Sidiqi in early July in Kabul, and he is currently being interrogated at the Bagram US military base. Sidiqi allegedly told his interrogators that he had fought in Afghanistan and had also met Said Bahaji, one of the men who provided support for the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane attacks in New York and Washington.
Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan origin, left Germany in March 2009 and joined up with militant groups in the Afghan-Pakistan border area. The latest terror warning in the United States and Europe are based on his interrogations. Islamists had planned simultaneous attacks in major cities, including targets in Germany. The German Interior Ministry has confirmed the information, but has also stated that there is no immediate threat.
It is unclear, however, just how serious Sidiqi’s statements are. US authorities consider him to be credible, but German investigators are more reserved. A delegation of German foreign intelligence officials is seeking to interview Sidiqi as soon as possible in order to assess his statements.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Developer of in Vitro Fertilization Wins Nobel Prize for Medicine
Robert G. Edwards, the British scientist who developed in vitro fertilization, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
In announcing the award, the prize committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden said Dr. Edwards “battled societal and establishment resistance to his development of the in vitro fertilization procedure, which has so far led to the birth of around 4 million people.”
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Dutch Politician Wilders Draws Protests in Berlin
Far-right Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders warned against the “Islamisation” of Europe and criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a speech in Berlin on Saturday that sparked public protests.
More than 500 people gathered to hear Wilders speak at the Hotel Berlin. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Berlin’s police said over 100 people gathered for a protest against the anti-Islam politician’s visit.
The demonstration, which was organised by the Social Democrats and an association opposed to extreme-right politics, passed off peacefully.
Protestors, outnumbered by around 250 police, brandished photos of the shock-blond Wilders that portrayed him with a moustache similar to that worn by Adolf Hitler.
In his speech at the Hotel Berlin, Wilders claimed Germany’s national identity, democracy and prosperity were threatened by Islamic political ideology. “A Germany full of mosques and full of veiled women is no longer the Germany of Schiller and Heine, Bach and Mendelssohn,” he said.
The 47-year-old politician also took aim at Chancellor Merkel and Germany’s established parties, accusing them of accepting the “Islamisation” of Germany.
Wilders was invited to speak in Berlin by ousted former conservative politician René Stadtkewitz, who recently announced he was forming a new “Freedom” party in Germany.
In an interview with the Sonntag Aktuell newspaper, Green party parliamentary group leader Jürgen Trittin said Wilders’ visit was an “affront to Berlin’s cosmopolitan tradition,” in a city that is home to hundreds of thousands of Muslims. “We must stop all attempts by smug right-wing populists and Islamophobic bigots to marginalise and vilify these fellow citizens,” he said.
Wilders’ anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV) won record support in the June election in the Netherlands, giving it the third highest vote and an unprecedented bargaining position.
At a special party congress in the Dutch city of Arnhem on Saturday, members of the Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) agreed to a power deal with the Liberal party (VVD), which would rely on support from Wilders’ PVV.
In the run-up to the decision, German politicians expressed concern over the pact.
Wilders is due to stand trial in Amsterdam on Monday on five charges of giving religious offence to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans.
The target of death threats, Wilders enjoys 24-hour state-sponsored protection while pursuing his mission to “stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders Trial Halted as Lawyer Accuses Judge of Bias
Dutch far-right leader’s advocate challenges presiding judge’s comment on opening day of Wilders’ trial for inciting racial hatred
Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom party and one of Europe’s leading Islam-baiters, went on trial today charged with hate speech and inciting racism, but the case was swiftly engulfed by uncertainty after a challenge over alleged judges’ bias.
The opening of the trial, expected to last a month in Amsterdam, followed a successful weekend for the maverick Dutch politician, with his influence over a new rightwing government confirmed and a campaign speech in Germany aimed at establishing a trans-national European movement against Muslim immigration.
Wilders entered the dock amid heavy security and promptly affirmed his commitment to free speech, dismissing the charges against him while not entering a plea.
He faces a hefty fine or a year in jail if found guilty on five charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and insulting their religion for likening, as he routinely does, the Qur’an to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and describing Islam as fascist.
“I am on trial, but on trial with me is the freedom of expression of many Dutch citizens,” he told the Amsterdam district court. “I can assure you, I will continue proclaiming it.”
Wilders then asserted his right to remain silent for the rest of the trial, prompting a comment from the presiding judge, Jan Moors, which was challenged by Wilders’s lawyer.
Moors said Wilders was known for making bold statements but avoiding discussions, adding: “It appears you’re doing so again.”
Bram Moszkowicz, representing Wilders, said the comment gave the appearance that Moors was biased and moved to have him substituted.
The hearing was suspended while other judges consider the complaint. They are to rule tomorrow on Wilders’s challenge, meaning that a new panel of three judges could be appointed, delaying the trial by several months.
“I thought I had a right to a fair trial, including the right to remain silent,” said Wilders. “It is scandalous that the judge passes comment on that. A fair trial is not possible with judges like that.”
At the weekend, rather than comparing Islam to fascism, Wilders argued that Islam was the new communism, paraphrasing Karl Marx to declare that Islam is now the spectre haunting Europe.
Relishing a role as a martyr for liberty and free speech, he stated: “I am standing trial … because of my opinions on Islam … and because the Dutch establishment — most of them non-Muslims — wants to silence me. I have been dragged to court because in my country freedom can no longer be fully enjoyed.
“In Europe the national state, and increasingly the EU, prescribes how citizens — including democratically elected politicians such as myself — should think and what we are allowed to say.”
The attempt to bring Wilders to trial was initially dismissed, but an appeals court ruled he should face charges after he wrote an opinion piece in a Dutch newspaper stating: “I’ve had enough of Islam in the Netherlands; let not one more Muslim immigrate … I’ve had enough of the Qur’an in the Netherlands. Forbid that fascist book.”
He makes such statements on a weekly basis and was banned from entering Britain for reasons of hate speech under the Brown government. The ban was later lifted.
Two years ago, in an interview with the Guardian, he said: “Islam is something we can’t afford any more in the Netherlands. I want the fascist Qur’an banned. We need to stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands. That means no more mosques, no more Islamic schools, no more imams.” He added that Islam was “the ideology of a retarded culture”.
“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims,” said Wilders.
In Berlin at the weekend he argued that Islam was bent on dominating the west, deliberately flooding Europe with migrants.
“We must realise that Islam expands in two ways. Historically, Islam expanded either by military conquest or by using the weapon of hijra, immigration. Muhammad conquered Medina through immigration. Hijra is also what we are experiencing today. The Islamisation of Europe continues all the time. But the west has no strategy for dealing with the Islamic ideology, because our elites say that we must adapt to them rather than the other way round.”
While Wilders was delivering his call in Berlin for a new “international freedom alliance” targeting Muslim immigration in Europe, Dutch Christian Democrats held their noses and committed to a new minority government with the rightwing liberal VVD party, which will depend on the backing of Wilders’s 24 seats in the Dutch parliament.
In return for his support, Wilders has gained a binding agreement to ban the burqa, crack down on immigration, and pursue more Eurosceptic policies.
“This is an historic event for the Netherlands,” he said. “We will be able to rebuild our country, preserve our national identity and offer our children a better future.”
The new government is expected to be sworn in next month, led by Mark Rutte, the VVD leader, as prime minister.
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German Government Plays Down Risk of Terrorist Attack and Warns Against Being ‘Alarmist’
The German government has played down U.S. and British warnings about a heightened risk of terrorist attacks on Europe.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the targets identified in a U.S. news broadcast had been known about for more than two years.
‘There are currently no indications of any immediate threat of attacks planned against Germany,’ he said.
‘There is no reason whatsoever to be alarmist at the moment.’
But Mr de Maiziere, who said he was in close contact with security agencies, said there was a general abstract danger and Germany remained a target.
The minister, a senior figure in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats, added: ‘There’s no change in the situation.
The U.S. State Department on Sunday issued an alert warning American citizens to exercise caution if travelling in Europe.
Britain raised the threat level to ‘high’ from ‘general’ for its citizens travelling to Germany and France.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Hizb ut-Tahrir: No Such Thing as a ‘Danish Muslim’
Group says that Islamic faith should be identity enough
At its annual conference this weekend, Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir called on Muslims to be proud of their faith and not label themselves as Danish Muslims or French Muslims.
During the conference, themed on the Muslims’ role in the West, the message to Muslims was that their faith should be their identity.
At the conference, Jaweed Yusuf, a member of the group, explained that it was their duty to call others to Islam, however difficult that might be and whatever consequences it might entail.
The group, which has been subject to controversy in Denmark, denied rumours that its members plan to run for parliamentary election, or that it supports the use violence to achieve its goals.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Should Conform to German Values: Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Monday that Muslims living in Germany conform to “fundamental German values”, saying there was no leeway on the issue. She spoke a day after Germany’s largely ceremonial president, Christian Wulff, had reached out to Muslims in a speech marking 20 years of reunification, assuring them they belonged. Wulff’s remarks were welcomed by one of the country’s main Islamic groups, the Central Council of Muslims.
The Christian Democrat chancellor, in remarks promoting a fiercely conservative book by one of her supporters, said Muslims in Germany must orient themselves without reservation to Germany’s fundamental values and constitution.
“There is no leeway on this,” she said, adding that Germans’ perceptions of Islam were dominated by Sharia (Islamic law), the lack of equality between men and women and honour killings.
The book by Roland Koch, a former premier of the state of Hesse who retired this year to go into business, is titled “Conservative. No State Can Be Built Without Values and Principles”.
Germany had freedom of religion, and Islam was welcome, “but it must be a form of Islam that feels devoted to our fundamental values”, Merkel said. If it were not, fears would develop among Germans, “and that is hardly something we want to happen”.
Merkel also criticised talks that have been under way for years between the federal interior ministry and leading Muslim groups in which both sides have tried to articulate concerns about the other.
The results had been “unsatisfactory”, said Merkel, adding, “extra work will have to be done”. She said she wanted German Muslim children to be taught their faith in public schools and she wanted imams at German mosques who spoke German.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL ‘To Defy’ Government Ban on Leicester March
The EDL and UAF held static protests in Bradford in August The English Defence League (EDL) says it plans to defy a government ban on a planned march by the right-wing group in Leicester.
Home Secretary Theresa May authorised the blanket ban on any rallies in the city on 9 October following concerns about public disorder.
A counter-demonstration was planned by Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
The EDL called the move an infringement of its human rights and said it would march on Saturday.
The ban was imposed after concerns were raised by Leicestershire Police’s chief constable.
It prevents any group marching in the city on that date, but does not prohibit static protests, such as those that took place in Bradford in August.
‘Freedom of speech’
EDL spokesman Guradit Singh called the government decision “a breach of freedom of speech” and “bang out of order”.
He said the organisation would march, and added that it was withdrawing its liaisons with Leicestershire Police.
The Home Office said anyone who organises a prohibited march could be jailed for six months or face a £2,500 fine, while anyone found guilty of taking part in such a rally could be fined up to £1,000.
It also said the EDL had made similar threats in the past, but had not gone through with them.
A spokesperson for Leicestershire Police said: “We are keen to keep talking to everyone involved in order to facilitate lawful, peaceful demonstrations.
“However, we will be putting methods in place to gather evidence and prosecute unlawful behaviour should it occur.”
Before the ban was announced, about 3,000 EDL members had been expected to attend the rally in the city, according to the group.
| — Hat tip: EDL | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Theresa May Issues Blanket Ban to Prevent Right and Left Wing Marchers Clashing in Leicester
Home Secretary Theresa May today issued a blanket ban on marches in a city on the day of a planned protest by a right-wing campaign group.
The English Defence League (EDL) intended to demonstrate in Leicester on Saturday October 9 and Unite Against Fascism has planned a protest in the city on the same day.
Despite the ban, groups could still hold static demonstrations in the city.
Leicester City Council applied for the ban at the request of the police after formal notification was received that both the English Defence League (EDL) and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) intended to march in the city.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the Home Secretary gave her consent to a Leicester City Council Order banning any marches in the city on October 9.’
The Home Office spokesman added: ‘Leicestershire Constabulary are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected and we encourage all local people to work with the police to ensure community cohesion is not undermined by public disorder.’
Sheila Lock, Leicester City Council’s chief executive, said: ‘We welcome the Home Secretary giving her consent for the council to impose an order banning any public processions, including marches, in Leicester city during the weekend of October 9.
‘Even though the Home Secretary has given her consent it does not prevent any static protests taking place, which are still lawful provided they remain peaceful, as we, nor the police, have legal powers to prevent them.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Poll: Most Palestinians Back Dropping Talks if Israel Builds Settlements
A majority of Palestinians would want to withdraw from Middle East peace negotiations if Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank, according to a public opinion poll published Monday.
The poll, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, found that 66 per cent of participants supported that position.
The survey was taken directly after Israel’s 10-month partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank expired on September 26, but before the Palestinian Authority decided on Saturday not to return to the negotiations without an extension of the moratorium.
The poll also showed that more than half of the respondents supported an attack on Israeli settlers in the West Bank that left four dead on the eve of the direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations being relaunched.
At the same time, half believed the attack — for which the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas, the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, has claimed responsibility — was meant mainly to derail the efforts to start the peace talks.
However, Hamas’ popularity has not increased, despite the attack and a crackdown on its members by Palestinian security forces, the poll found.
The crackdown has been met with widespread public opposition, as has the decision to conduct peace talks with Israel. But neither has affected the popularity of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the poll.
It said that if elections were held today, Abbas would get 57 per cent of the vote, compared to the 54 per cent he received last June. Hamas leader Ismail Haniye, the Gaza Strip’s prime minister, would receive 36 per cent of the vote, down from 39 per cent.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Free Speech: What if Terry Jones Went to Sweden?
A look at the global state of free speech.
By Mike Sacks
In America, we can paint a Hitler mustache on the president’s likeness without fear of the government’s wrath.
But in Jordan, a poem critical of the king can get a writer jailed. Hatim al-Shuli, a university student, was arrested in late July 2010 for penning a poem insulting the king and causing internal strife, actions proscribed under Jordan’s penal code. Mr. Shuli denies writing the poem, but remains in detention awaiting trial.
“[A]rrests for things like writing poems unfortunately are regular occurrences in Jordan,” reports Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy organization.
Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Today, decades after the UN’s 1948 adoption of the declaration, Article 19 continues to be an ideal actively pursued in some countries and aggressively denied in others.
For example, in Turkey, a constitutional republic, expression considered insulting to the nation itself is a criminal offense under a 2005 penal code. And writers and journalists have been prosecuted for recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915-17 — an event the Turkish government officially denies.
Many European countries, on the other hand, have criminalized the denial of crimes against humanity. This summer, Hungary became the latest to do so, passing a law imposing three years’ imprisonment for those who deny Nazi and Communist genocides.
In addition, much of Europe has also enacted hate speech laws that allow for prosecution of expression where the United States does not. Had Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., taken his “International Burn a Koran Day” overseas and arrived in Stockholm wearing one of the “Islam Is of the Devil” T-shirts that his church sells, he could have been charged under Sweden’s prohibition on expressing disrespect for a group based on their faith.
| — Hat tip: DW | [Return to headlines] |
Bin Laden Personally Ordered Latest Terror Plot
Al-Qaida boss Osama bin Laden personally directed the plot uncovered by western intelligence this week to launch attacks on Germany and other European countries, a Friday media report said.
Several months ago, bin Laden sent a directive to al-Qaida affiliates and partners that he wanted a Mumbai-style attack on at least three European countries — Germany, Britain and France — National Public Radio in the US reported, citing intelligence officials and people familiar with the matter.
“We know that Osama bin Laden issued the directive,” an unnamed official familiar with intelligence surrounding the plot told NPR.
The news is a stark reminder that the world’s most wanted man, who has eluded capture for more than nine years since the September 11 attacks on the US, is still closely involved in the operations of the global terrorist network.
Intelligence officials told NPR some of the operatives who had been due to participate in the shootings were already in Europe.
Some officials worried that members of the commando-style teams could be travelling to the West using European passports, thus complicating any effort to find and stop them.
NPR said gunmen had planned to fire on crowds at busy European tourist sites and take over hotels in a plot that would mark a new style of attack for al-Qaida, although details of the plans remain unclear for now.
In 2008, 10 heavily armed gunmen killed 166 people and wounded more than 300 in three luxury hotels, a railway station and restaurants in the Indian city.
The latest plot is thought to have been inspired by al-Qaida’s fugitive leadership in Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions, where a recent surge of US drone attacks sought to eliminate the plotters — and did kill some of them.
The initial intelligence came from Ahmad Siddiqui, a German national currently held at the US-run Bagram Air Base in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Siddiqui is said to have known Mohamed Atta, one of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and to have worshipped at the same mosque in Germany.
The United States may also have been in bin Laden’s sights.
“If he issued the directive, we just don’t believe that the US wouldn’t be on his short list of strategic targets. It has to be,” the source told NPR.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Drone Strike Kills 8 Germans in Northwest Pakistan
A suspected U.S. drone strike killed eight militants of German nationality in northwest Pakistan on Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
They died when two missiles from a suspected CIA pilotless aircraft struck a mosque in Mirali in North Waziristan, the officials added.
The attack came a day after the United States and Britain warned of an increased risk of terrorist attacks in Europe. Western security officials said last week they believed a group in northern Pakistan were connected to a plot to stage attacks.
The militants were members of a group called Jihad Islami, the Pakistani intelligence officials said without elaborating. There was no independent verification and militants often dismiss official reports of successful operations against them.
“People were gathering at the mosque for prayers when a missile hit the building,” Mohammad Alam, a resident of Mirali, told Reuters by telephone, describing Monday’s drone strike.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Militants Attack NATO Tanker Convoy in Pakistan
Militants in Pakistan have destroyed 27 tankers which were carrying fuel for Nato troops in Afghanistan.
The Taliban in Pakistan said it was behind the assault on a depot near Islamabad which left three people dead.
Pakistan has stopped Nato convoys crossing the Khyber Pass in response to a Nato air strike last week in which three Pakistani soldiers were killed.
Nato said on Monday it regretted the deaths but called for the crossing to be reopened.
‘Unintended’
The soldiers were killed on Thursday when Nato helicopters strayed into Pakistani territory while chasing Taliban militants from Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials said a military checkpoint had been hit while Nato said the helicopter crew had opened fire in self-defence.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Attending Pakistan Terror Camp
A small number of people have travelled from Sweden to Pakistan and Afghanistan to participate in terrorist training camps, according to the Swedish Security Service (Säpo).
“We adjudge that it is a question of a handful of people who have travelled there to take part in training camps and to participate in illegal violent acts,” said Patrik Peter at the Security Service.
The Security Service declined to comment on whether there was a link with the raised terror alert announced to the public on Friday.
The CIA has recently carried out a series of attacks with so-called unmanned drones against militant Islamists in Northern Waziristan in Pakistan. Several international media have connected the attacks with warnings over planned terrorist attacks in Europe which became known earlier in the week.
Terrorists carrying European passports have been reported to be heading for Europe with the intention of carrying out spectacular attacks in Germany, France and the UK.
The warnings are rumoured to have their basis in information obtained from a German citizen who was arrested in Afghanistan in July.
It became known on Friday that the Swedish Security Service had raised the terror alert in mid-September from level two to three, “elevated” — the highest level for five years.
“It is a question of a number of individuals in Sweden who have the intention and capacity to carry out attacks against Swedish targets. It is too early to say what motivates these individuals,” said John Daniels at the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Has Infiltrated Afghan Forces, Claims Ex-UN Official in Warning That Sleeper Cells Are Awaiting Instructions to Strike
A former senior UN official has spoken of his concern that the Taliban has infiltrated the Afghan police and army.
Former executive director of the UN’s Office of Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, Antonio Maria Costa said Taliban sleeper cells had been set up inside the security forces.
According to Dr Costa the Taliban have already carried out a number of attacks and have scheduled further hits on Nato-led troops.
He said: ‘We have plenty of evidence we had a number of suicide attacks carried out by people who had been trusted because they were affiliated to either the army or the police.
‘Certainly there are sleeping cells, certainly there are individuals who are waiting for instruction to hit and that is one of the biggest problem, which we have seen in Afghanistan as of late.’
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Greens Shackle National Security — And Renewable Energy
“China’s control of a key minerals market has US military thinkers and policy makers worried about access to materials that are essential for 21st-century technology like smartphones — and smart bombs,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Plus stealth fighter jets, digital cameras, computer hard drives — and wind turbine magnets, solar panels, hybrid and electric car batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, catalytic converters, and more.
China’s dominance in mining and processing 17 “rare earth” metals “has raised alarms in Washington,” says the Journal. These unique metallic elements have powerful magnetic properties that make them sine qua non for high-tech, miniaturized and renewable energy equipment.
China currently produces fully 97% of the world’s rare-earth oxides, the raw materials that can be refined into metals and blended into specialty alloys for defense, commercial and power-generation components. However, the Middle Kingdom has slashed its rare-earth oxide and metal exports.
Beijing claims to be motivated by environmental concerns — reflecting the fact that rare earths are present in very low concentrations, mountains of rock must be mined, crushed and processed to get usable metals, and every step in the process requires oil, gasoline or coal-based electricity. A more likely reason is that the Chinese want to manufacture the finished goods, thereby creating countless “green” factory jobs, paid for with US and EU taxpayer subsidies, channeled through GE, Siemens, Vestas and other “socially responsible” companies that then install the systems across Europe and the USA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Public-Housing Stretch Lets Refugee Families Spread Their Wings
A SHY smile is Saido Gali’s answer, at first. The question is an obvious one: does she want more children? She has eight and another boy on the way. But before she can answer, Mrs Gali’s eldest, daughter, Hafsa, 16, yells out. “No!” she says, to her siblings’ giggles.
Maybe, says Mrs Gali, 37. Maybe she will have more. Like many Horn of Africa refugees, the Somali-Australian would never rule out expanding her large brood. Children are financial blessings, not burdens. “I like a lot of kids,” she says, simply. And there are a lot of kids — not just here in this North Melbourne flat but right across the city’s public housing estates.
Australia’s humanitarian resettlement of African refugees — 41,310 live in Melbourne — has thrown up a basic challenge for the state government: how to house the large families of people fleeing from places such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. Many families choose to have a lot of children; others care for orphaned relatives.
In 1999 there were 59 families with 10 or more children in Victorian public housing. Now there are 84. The most popular number of children is eight: there are 266 such families now, up from 185 a decade ago. Housing Minister Richard Wynne, who is from a family of nine, recognised a few years ago that overcrowding was a problem.
He asked some questions and found out that Melbourne’s public housing high-rises are made “a bit like Lego”. If carefully done, walls could be breached and flats joined. This meant a three-bedroom flat could become a six-bedroom home with two bathrooms and two toilets. Across the public high-rises — as the government’s eight-year, $640 million renovation has rolled through — dozens of flats have been opened up in this way.
Mrs Gali, who is now raising her children alone, was living in a three-bedroom flat in one of the North Melbourne towers before moving to a newly renovated six-bedroom place. It was, she said “fairly squashed before”, with three children in one bedroom, four in another, and the baby in with her. Of her new place, adorned with a 20-seater modular couch that hugs three walls, she says: “It is a nice place. A good place for them to grow up.”
Residents sign a lease that says if the family decreases significantly they must relocate. The flats can also be easily reinstated to separate units.
The next generation of girls born to African refugees is unlikely to have such large families, says Melika Sheikh-Eldin, a manager at the Adult Multicultural Education Service, but this generation began their families in refugee camps with no birth control.
Culturally, Dr Sheikh-Eldin says, children stayed with their parents and were needed to work on farms for decades.
She says overcrowding has been a significant problem for Melbourne’s African communities. “It causes a lot of stress and depression. Many of these people are used to living in open areas.”
Opposition leader Ted Baillieu has meanwhile pledged $150,000 for a program that supports rising African leaders. Mr Baillieu will speak at the inaugural graduation ceremony today of the African Community Leadership Development Program, run by the African Think Tank, an advocacy group for refugees in Melbourne.
A Coalition government would provide $50,000 a year over three years to the program.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Diggers Homes for Illegal Immigrants — a Disgraceful Betrayal
Labor’s recent proposal to kick Defence Force families out of their homes to make room for illegal immigrants is a disgraceful act of betrayal towards our servicemen and women.
Whilst it took the heat of the election campaign to force the Gillard Government to take it off the agenda their Orwellian explanation has done little to allay the fears of our defence force personnel beyond August 21.
‘The Government has repeatedly acknowledged that as part of its routine and prudent contingency planning, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has for some time been exploring additional temporary accommodfation options to house families and vulnerable asylum-seekers’, according to a report in the Australian on 28 July.
But what about the vulnerable families of our combat troops in Afghanistan left behind to fend for themselves while their husbands put their lives on the line on a daily basis in the war against terror? These young families come from all over Australia and do not have the normal support of relatives and friends. They have to rely on their local army, navy and airforce friends for family support.
The integrity of our service communities should be sacrosanct.
Since the Rudd-Gillard Labor government opened up our borders for people smugglers the integrity of our service communities has been shamefully compromised by allowing illegal immigrants to settle in close proximity to their married quaters and barracks.
Prime Minister Gillard, the real Julia, has always been an active member of the socialist left in Australia. The unions she represents are the ones who went on strike rather than load ships for our diggers fighting on the Kokoda Trail during the Second World War. Vietnam Veterans remember when the same unions refused to load our ships or deliver our mail during the Vietnam War.
Recently released Cabinet documents reveal that after the Vietnam War the Whitlam Labor Government would only allow North Vietnamese communists, our enemies, to migrate to Australia. Our allies, the South Vietnamese, were left to languish in refugee camps for years. The Liberal Government reversed this treacherous policy after Whitlam was booted out of office in 1975.
Over the past 70 years Julia Gillard’s socialist Labor movement in Australia has supported the most murderous regimes the world has ever known in Soviet Russia, Communist China, North Vietnam and Africa. They are now trying to sabotage the war against terror and are quite prepared to humiliate the custodians of our freedom, our Australian Defence Force personnel, in the process.
Australia’s enemies now lie within out national borders. It would be naive to think that subversive elements have not posed as ‘asylum seekers’ as a means of infiltrating our borders. They can obviously afford to act as ‘sleepers’ for years under our generous welfare system.
Former Prime Minister John Howard was well aware of the security risk of an open door policy for illegal immigrants. He implemented policies that stopped the boats and sealed our borders. He used the Navy in their proper role i.e. border protection.
The Rudd-Gillard Labor Government reversed Howard’s policy and ‘people smugglers’ are back in business. It is a travesty that these traffickers can now decide ‘who comes to Australia and the circumstances in which they come’!
Julia Gillard, the first unelected left-wing atheist spinster to occupy the position of Prime Minister has humiliated our Navy by now using them as a collective maître d’ for illegal immigrants. Labor is now adding insult to injury by planning to evict our diggers out of their family married quarters and barracks so the illegals can make themselves at home in their new environment.
Our veterans will be turning in their graves.
Meanwhile thousands of genuine refugees are left to languish in squalid overseas camps as boatloads of illegals jump the queue because they can.
Of more concern is the fact that Prime Minister Julia Gillard treats our highest level National Security Council meetings with contempt by sending her bodyguard along. It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to realise how much sensitive information would be with-held from such meetings by our American allies now that we have a Prime Minister who would not normally be granted a Top Secret Security Clearance because of her past political affiliations and activities with the socialist left. They would be well aware that she could be secretly barracking for the other side — just as her left-wing role models have done in the past!
Lest We Forget.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change; Data Control the Enemy Within
Science must have accurate and adequate data. It’s the basis for producing or testing theories; without it results are meaningless. Inadequate data seriously limits climate research, but scientists and governments who manipulate it for political goals make it impossible. This occurs because most government weather and climate agencies work to create and confirm results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
[…]
Data collection is expensive and requires continuity — it’s a major role for government. They fail with weather data because money goes to political climate research. A positive outcome of corrupted climate science exposed by Climategate, is re-examination beginning with raw data by the UK Met Office (UKMO). This is impossible because much is lost, thrown out after modification or conveniently lost, as in the case of records held by Phil Jones, director of Climategate.
Evidence of manipulation and misrepresentation of data is everywhere. Countries maintain weather stations and adjust the data before it’s submitted through the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to the central agencies including the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN), the Hadley Center associated with CRU now called CRUTEM3, and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
They make further adjustments before selecting stations to produce their global annual average temperature. This is why they produce different measures each year from supposedly similar data.
There are serious concerns about data quality. The US spends more than others on weather stations, yet their condition and reliability is simply atrocious. Anthony Watts has documented the condition of US weather stations; it is one of governments failures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Problems With Genetically Modified Food
Biologist Arpad Pusztai had more than 300 articles and 12 books to his credit and was the world’s top expert in his field.
But when he accidentally discovered that genetically modified (GM) foods are dangerous, he became the biotech industry’s bad-boy poster child, setting an example for other scientists thinking about blowing the whistle.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Pusztai was awarded a $3 million grant by the UK government to design the system for safety testing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). His team included more than 20 scientists working at three facilities, including the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, the top nutritional research lab in the UK, and his employer for the previous 35 years.
The results of Pusztai’s work were supposed to become the required testing protocols for all of Europe. But when he fed supposedly harmless GM potatoes to rats, things didn’t go as planned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S., EU Elitists Push for Single Common Political Authority
Bombshell! 1-world government by 2025
Do you still doubt that globalization is an agenda for global governance?
If so, consult a new report just published by the U.S. National Intelligence Council in conjunction with the European Union Institute for Securities Studies, titled “Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Junction,” Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.
Upon studying the 69-page document [pdf], Corsi noted the conclusion is inescapable that the U.S. and EU intelligence apparatus is setting the stage for one-world government by 2025.
The document presumes globalism is unstoppable, driven by free-trade economics, and that the United States has no choice but to compromise sovereignty to accommodate the demands of the globalism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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Obama Destroying the Democratic Party
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