“Gold Bubble” Or Secret of Successful Investment From George Soros
As Market Leader previously reported, a 24% increase in the value of gold didn’t stop George Soros, John Paulson and Paul Touradji from buying it. According to the data provided by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the biggest volumes of gold were bought by Soros Fund Management LLC, Paulson & Co. and Touradji Capital Management LP. The total volume of the precious metal owned by the 3 companies is 2088 tons, which is roughly equal to the volume produced by the USA in 10 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China, Russia, Iran Are Dumping the Dollar — US Dollar Surpluses Converted Into Gold
China and Russia are both large gold producers and for a number of years have been buying up domestic gold and silver production, so that it never reaches the market and does not affect prices. If anything the absence of sales tends to push the markets higher. As a matter of fact Russia and India are visible buyers. Even Iran with its oil surplus recently announced that they had purchased 340 tons of gold. Their recent gold purchases are very significant as affiliate members, which have access to the present and ultimate direction of the group. You might say buying gold has been a protective effort to shield members and close observers from the problems generated by dollar policies. They are accumulating gold, as many have been worldwide, for the past ten years, but particularly over the past few years.
This buying, for protection, has served to thwart the efforts of US policymakers, the Treasury, other central banks in Europe and the Fed, from being able to continue the blatant suppression of both gold and silver prices. The malefactors, except for forays into derivatives and futures, which are transitory, have lost control and suppression of gold and silver prices, and it is only a matter of time before all visages of any control will be visible. Since 1988, in August when Present Reagan signed the Executive Order creating, “the President’s Group on Financial Markets” and the subsidiaries that have grown out of that policy, that the Treasury won many if not most of the battles. The SCO in part changed that and now they and the public are winning the war for a fair and free gold and silver market. The current class action lawsuits, including RICO, are a testament to the market manipulation in silver, which is finally coming to an end. HSBC and JPMorgan Chase, the latter that is the major owner of the Fed, are going to be finally prohibited from rigging these markets. Their officers all belong in jail, but elitists never go to jail; they pay fines, and keep right on robbing the public.
Other SCO members and observers are accumulating gold as well, be it in smaller amounts. We might add that other nations observing Russia and China and their gold purchases are buying as well. These participants must believe that there could be a return to sound money; otherwise they wouldn’t be gold buyers. Buying gold is certainly preferable to holding US dollars, which have consistently fallen in value versus other currencies over the past ten years. Then again all currencies have fallen versus gold over that period, some 19.6% annually. It is nice to see nations are finally waking up to the reality that fiat currencies will all over time deteriorate versus gold. The temptation is enormous to deficit spend.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Crisis Sends FTSE Tumbling Into the Red as Portugal Faces Pressure to Seek a Bailout
The FTSE 100 Index fell by almost 100 points on Friday as uncertainty over the European debt crisis sent stock markets plunging across the continent.
After the substantial bailout of Ireland, fears are growing that Portugal could be the next country to seek help, sparking a wider crisis throughout the eurozone.
Declines in the FTSE, the German DAX and French CAC-40 came as the Portuguese government moved to deny reports that other European nations had pressured it to seek outside help.
Portugal’s finances are regarded as so insecure that a German newspaper claimed eurozone states were keen for Lisbon to seek outside aid in order to avoid Spain following suit and triggering a larger crisis.
Ahead of its government’s vote on billions of potential austerity measures, Portugal is seen as the next in line for a bailout but Spain, Italy and even Belgium are on the danger list.
‘If Portugal were to use the fund, it would be good for Spain, because the country is heavily exposed to Portugal,’ the FT Deutschland quoted a source in Germany’s finance ministry as saying.
A Portuguese government spokesman labelled the newspaper report as ‘completely false’ and Germany said it had applied no pressure, yet the ongoing uncertainty was reflected in the markets, as the euro fell to a new two-month low.
Concerns of debt contagion were evident across the markets, as the FTSE dropped by nearly 100 points or 1.7 per cent.
Germany’s DAX fell by 1.1 per cent, the CAC-40 in France dropped 1.6 per cent and the euro fell against the pound, dollar and yen, among others.
Banks’ performances also confirmed the market-wide fears, as part-nationalised Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland lost nearly 5 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, with Barclays dropping nearly 4 per cent and HSBC down 2 per cent.
‘While the government continues to stress that it is on course for meeting its deficit reduction targets, pressure is rising for Portugal to accept a bailout now in order to stop the market fretting about the liabilities of Spain towards Portugal,’ said Jane Foley, an analyst at Rabobank International.’
‘Clearly, eurozone officials have a battle on their hands to contain contagion and restore confidence in the euro.’
David Buik, markets analyst at BGC Partners, added: ‘This confusing “pea-soup” of indecision, vacillation and disunity by the EU is beginning to create unnecessarily seismic waves of fear in international bond and money markets.’
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso echoed the Portuguese denial of claims that a bailout package was being considered for Iberian nation on Friday.
‘I can tell you that it’s absolutely false, completely false,’ Mr Barroso said in Paris at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
‘No reference to an aid plan for this country has been asked for and none has been suggested.’
Despite both the Spanish and Portuguese governments issuing strong denials that they could be forced to seek economic rescue packages, both nations performed poorly on the markets on Friday.
‘I am not delivering a message of confidence just because I want to but because of concrete facts,’ said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a radio interview, but Madrid’s ability to raise funds were compounded by a record gap between the rate on safe-bet German 10-year bonds and comparable Spanish bonds.
The gap between the German and Portuguese bonds also increased, to a near-record 4.54 percentage points.
The market figures were confirmed as a former head of the German council of economic experts warned of the size of a Spanish rescue package, should one be required.
‘If according to some calculations Ireland needs 80 billion (euros) then Spain would need 800 billion,” said Juergen Donges.
‘The European Financial Stability Fund does not have that much money so you would need either to give the plan more resources, which is not the solution, or tell Spain to fix things as best it can, which is not a remedy either.’
Kathleen Brooks, research director with foreign exchange service Forex, said it was unclear where the crisis would spread.
‘Whereas the Greek crisis and the start of the Irish crisis were concerned with individual sovereigns and their problems, the current chapter of Europe’s sovereign woes has turned into a periphery-wide issue where no one is safe,’ she said.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Herman Van Rompuy Announces a New ‘Reverse Majority Rule’ To Get Around the National Veto
Herman Van Rompuy, the President of Europe, wants a new mechanism to enforce sanctions against member states which borrow too much. Fair enough, you might say: of the 27 member states, only three currently meet the EU’s debt and deficit rules (see here). What’s alarming is the mechanism Mr Van Rompuy intends to use:
“Whenever possible, decision-making rules on sanctions should be more automatic and based on a reverse majority rule, implying a Commission proposal is adopted unless rejected by the Council.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
The Game Will Soon be Up for the Euro
The euro will fail because nations still have an identity, and don’t see themselves working to make sacrifices for profligate neighbours, writes Simon Heffer.
Why, as I write, is the euro worth 84p, or $1.32? I know the British and the American economies aren’t superb, but the euro is a basket case. Also, we have taken measures here to move in the right direction. That has yet to happen properly in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium or any other eurozone country where the vultures are circling. The markets seem to think that Germany especially has a bottomless pit of money to bail out all these banana republics. It doesn’t. Nor does its government have the uncritical support of its electors in seeking to do so. The euro will fail because nations still have an identity, and don’t see themselves working to make sacrifices for profligate neighbours. The game will soon be up.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
The Middle Men Making a Killing Out of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg may not yet earn anything from his invention, but for a shadowy group of investors it’s a goldmine.
While the social networking site is firmly embedded in the culture, with more than 500 million users worldwide, its young founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is still trying to work out a way to generate profits commensurate with its social influence and with the huge financial hopes pinned on him.
Shares in the company have been given to only a small gaggle of employees, past and present, and to the firm’s early venture capital backers, but that hasn’t stopped a feeding frenzy in which they are changing hands at higher and higher valuations on private markets. In recent weeks, some stock has sold at a price that values the company at $41bn (£26bn), suggesting it is the No 3 most valuable internet business after Google and Amazon.
Industry observers have watched in amazement as expectations of vast profits have ratcheted up over the past few months, and as Facebook’s valuation has soared from $23bn in June and $33bn just two months ago.
A whole ecosystem now consists of share-trading platforms, brokers and so-called “single-asset funds” trading in Facebook shares. The single-asset funds offer what are effective Facebook derivatives; instead of buying the shares individually, investors get a share in the fund, for a minimum investment of about $100,000.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Rocking Obama’s World
Crises are exploding throughout the world. And the leader of the free world is making things worse.
On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just upended eight years of State Department obfuscation by showing a team of US nuclear scientists its collection of thousands of state-of-the-art centrifuges installed in its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
And just to top off the show, as Stephen Bosworth, US President Barack Obama’s point man on North Korea, was busily arguing that this revelation is not a crisis, the North fired an unprovoked artillery barrage at South Korea, demonstrating that actually, it is a crisis.
But the Obama administration remains unmoved. On Tuesday Defense Secretary Robert Gates thanked his South Korean counterpart, Kim Tae-young, for showing “restraint.”
On Thursday, Kim resigned in disgrace for that restraint.
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Needs 12 Stitches After Getting Whacked in the Lip
President Obama Injured Today Shooting Hoops
President Obama needed 12 stitches on his upper lip after he was inadvertently hit this morning while playing basketball with friends and family at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.
The president was playing defense when Rey Decerega, an opposing player, turned into him to take a shot and his elbow hit Obama in the mouth.
“I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport,” Decerega, who works for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, said in a written statement. “I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court again soon.”
The president was given a local anesthetic for the procedure.
The White House Medical Unit used a smaller filament that requires more stitches but makes them tighter, resulting in a smaller scar, the administration said.
While leaving Fort McNair, cameras captured the president holding a gauzelike material to his lip.
Jonathan Smith, a sports fitness instructor at Fort McNair, told ABC News he noticed a few “trickles of blood” on the president’s lip as he and his entourage were leaving.
They had been playing for about 90 minutes when the incident occurred, Smith said…
| [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Police State
by Jeffrey T. Kuhner
President Obama is engaging in a relentless assault on our freedoms and constitutional government. The growing backlash against the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screening procedures signifies that Americans finally may have had enough.
There is a grass-roots revolt against state-sanctioned sexual harassment. And who can blame the protesters? Children are stripped of their shirts, and their private parts are touched…
[…]
Washington insists on perpetrating the illusion that a Christian grandmother in Iowa poses the same possible national security threat as a 19-year-old Yemenite exchange student majoring in Islamic studies…
[…]
Mr. Obama’s regime has abused its power and fostered anti-democratic behavior. He is slowly erecting a soft police state. It is not one with a fascist jackboot on your face but with a unionized TSA bureaucrat in your crotch…
| [Return to headlines] |
Proof Positive That the Government Rates Body Scanner Resisters as “Non-Islamic Domesticterrorists”
My report DHS & TSA: Making a list, checking it twice has apparently stirred a lot of controversy. It has also been met with skepticism and denials about its actual existence. Some find it difficult to believe that our government would actually label anyone who opposes the use of naked body scanners and aggressive airport pat-downs as “domestic extremists.”
It is unfortunately obvious that there are many people who are living in a state of denial or blissful ignorance. We are living in a time when our government can issue an official 86-page report about the mass murder of 13 people at Fort Hood by a man who shouted “Allahu Akbar” before he began pumping bullets into innocent bystanders yet never once mention Islam, Muslim or the Islamic ideology that allegedly motivated the attack.
[…]
To provide insight to those who are concerned over the direction our current leadership is taking our national security, perhaps we should refer to DHS source document IA-0233-09 dated 26 March 2009 titled “Domestic Extremist Lexicon.” It is an eleven-page document prepared by the Strategic Analysts Group and the Extremism Radicalization Branch, Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division.
[…]
A perusal of the “threat” identified found the following on page two:
[image]
Carefully note that the intentionally definition of “alternative media” includes any information source outside of the corporate media.
Next, take a look at an entry on page three of this document:
[image]
Perhaps one of the more interesting “threats” is listed on page four, which states that any act of “civil disobedience” (including “protests”) is considered a domestic threat to the United States:
[image]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The TSA and America’s Turning Point
Are we a free people or are we not?
The recently-escalated battle between the American people and the TSA is far more important than it first appears. The final outcome of this argument will determine whether we still live in a nation “of the people, by the people, for the people”, or whether we have become a soft tyranny where our democratic forms of elections and representatives have been reduced to a meaningless veneer as in the old Soviet Union or Red China. The Consent of the Governed
If America has a single founding principle, it is this: no government has any authority to take any action without the consent of the governed. Our Founding Fathers did not object to the principle of paying taxes per se; they objected strongly to the idea of being forced to pay taxes to a government where they had no input. Freedom’s cry was not “No taxation” then, and it isn’t now; it was “No taxation without representation.” The same goes for any other intrusive regulation.
[…]
So, we have the public being forced to do something they very strongly do not want to do, for no reason at all; they are protesting loudly; and the government blithely blows them off. Something is very badly wrong here.
We cannot help but think of German poet Bertold Brecht’s arch observation about a Communist government’s dissatisfaction with its revolting people:
Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Which of course is what the Left has tried to do with their repeated calls for illegal-alien amnesty and persistent voting fraud.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There is Nothing Secure for America While Obama is in Office
Obama and his sea of anti Constitutional advisers are using numerous bills, conditions and events to do 4 things to Americans — Condition — train — punish and transform us into a Communist style Regime. We are to be brought down. THAT IS THE GOAL OF THIS ADMINISTRATION.
How do they do it?
They have to test us.
How will the people respond to chaos, false accusations and insults while we watch the shredding of our constitution freedom?
We have seen the egregious assault and sell out orgy regarding the crammed Health Care bill against health and the American people. The lies, taxes and constitutional betrayals are too many to count. It is a full on assault against our rights to have choices in Health care, have insurance or not have insurance. This bill is filled with threats, fines, taxes, rationed controls and Government manipulation. It is not American at all but an Obama test and transformation!
As I have looked deeper into the vat of horror and insults in the Health Bill, I see a theme, reflecting the philosophy of Obama and his sold out minions. He has written about and spoken on his agenda to transform and change America over his radical and ‘volunteering’ career.
We know Obama is a fan of and was even taught from radical, Saul Alynsky’s book, Rules for Radicals and studied radicals like Clyde and Piven and his own ‘redistribution of wealth’ Father from Kenya. His belief system is vividly clear by now. It is evident he represents a bold challenge and assault to America. This is not another Democratic shift to the left but a dangerous, world view clash with America.
With the Health care bill Obama has been testing us to see how we would respond to extreme chaos, out of control costs, taxes, threats and fines. Would we take it or would we fight it and how would we fight it? Over 20 plus law suits from States later, the fight is on.
Obama is testing then hopefully training us, (while always punishing us), to slowly boil in water like the frog, and eventually take it. He sees us screaming and yelling but has planned all along to go to such an extreme with the intention of appearing like the problem solving savior and backing up a bit eventually. Obama and the progressive goal all along has been to dramatically push our Health care system into the toilet and back up 20-30% after all the law suits and insurance coverage failures.
Dr. Elaina George said on my radio show that all along Obama has intended for the Health care bill and system to fail by introducing such chaos and expense to Health care. This would finally get the American people to submit and come begging to the Government for its version of Health care.
Frank Salvato, editor of http://www.newmediajournal.us also stated on my show just this week that Obama has always intended with a variety of issues to go too far to test and train the American people to take it, while expecting to back peddle a small percentage, making the American people feel like they have won. Really he will have won since moving us 50-75% in the direction of total control was his goal all along, not 100%.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Announces Boycott of United Nations’ Durban III “Charade”
The government of Canada will not participate in events next year at the United Nations commemorating the controversial 2001 Durban declaration on racism. Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the “government has lost faith in the Durban process. We will not be part of this event, which commemorates an agenda that promotes racism rather than combats it. Canada will not participate in this charade any longer. The government of Canada will not lend Canada’s good name to the organized exercise in scapegoating the State of Israel] that is the Durban process.”
Last week, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to hold a one-day plenary in September 2011 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the first Durban conference in 2001. Last year, nine governments including Canada, the United States, Australia, Israel, Germany and Britain boycotted the UN Durban Review Conference (nicknamed ‘Durban II’) because of fears Israel would again be singled out for criticism. Kenney claimed that those concerns were confirmed when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the conference as a platform to launch a vicious attack on Israel. The Iranian president’s speech sparked a temporary walkout by delegates of 23 Western states and overshadowed the core issue of rising racism, discrimination and xenophobia.
The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) welcomed the decision. CJC President Mark J. Freiman (pictured on the right) declared: “Both Durban I and II, ostensibly aimed at fighting racism, turned out be little more than concerted anti-Semitic charades that set back the real fight against racism and discrimination by decades. This UN process is fundamentally flawed and by now beyond repair. All that can be expected are attempts to build on the poisonous record and accordingly the process must be condemned without reservation.”…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Government Tracks Down Those Who Criticize it on Air!
This week, an American blogger gave thanks for the First Amendment, after learning about restrictions on free speech in Canada.
As a Canadian, I can assure you that speech is indeed far less “free” up here than it is in the United States. That’s one reason I enjoy listening to (and writing about) American conservative talk radio.
It’s a good thing I don’t call in to talk radio, though. A disturbing news story paints a troubling portrait of our province, Newfoundland. World famous as the earthy, generous folks who sheltered strangers stranded at Gander Airport on Sept. 11, it seems even our notoriously politically incorrect “Newfies” aren’t immune from free speech “chill.”
The National Post reports on “a worrying trend in the province, where people who call in to talk radio shows to air their complaints about the government end up getting calls from [their elected officials] or their deputies chastising them for their comments.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Full Cost of European Missile Defence Could Run to Billions
European states will have to spend billions of pounds over the next 10 years to build a ballistic missile defence shield designed to protect the region from nuclear attack, according to Nato officials.
European and US leaders agreed, at last week’s Nato summit in Lisbon, to spend around £ 170 million on the system.
But that sum, a Nato background document says, will only meet the cost of command-and-control networks which will link future national interceptor missile and radar sites to a separate Europe-based US system designed to protect its troops.
The Pentagon’s April, 2010 acquisitions report placed the cost of a similar US system at $58.01 billion (£36 billion) — after budget constraints forced the killing-off of futuristic components like Boeing 747-mounted lasers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Gets First Snowfall of Winter
White covering melts fast in most areas, disruption limited
(ANSA) — Milan, November 26 — Milan was among many parts of northern and central Italy to get their first snowfall of the winter in the night between Thursday and Friday.
A white covering gave an early Christmas feel to several parts of the nation’s financial capital, although the snow did not settle for long in most places and disruption was limited.
Some flights in and out of Milan were delayed, especially those using the city’s Linate airport.
Unfortunately Veneto, which is still trying to recover from huge flood damage caused by a previous wave of bad weather earlier this month, took more than its fair share of the problems that did occur.
Traffic was hit especially hard in Vicenza and the surrounding province. Venice escaped the snow, but had rain instead, which contributed to ‘acqua alta’ (high water) of 111 centimetres in the lagoon city.
Long jams built up during the night on motorways in Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, but these had disappeared by early morning.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sicilian to be Tried 20 Years After Daughter Jumped to Her Death
Palermo, 24 Nov. (AKI) — A Sicilian man will be put on trial for driving his 14-year-old daughter to suicide 18 years after she jumped to her death from the seventh floor of a building.
Michele Mercurio, 53, faces prison for allegedly abusing his daughter Ivana by threatening her with a knife while drunk and accusing her of being pregnant, according to a report published on Wednesday by newspaper Giornale di Sicilia.
It was Ivana’s younger sister — who was three years old at the time of the alleged crime — who raised the possibility of her father’s part in the suicide. It was a 1997 school assignment in which she wrote that her sister “flew because she was running from daddy” that prompted a teacher to notify police.
Prosecutors suspected that Ivana’s father and mother abused her sexually but lacked proof. The investigation was reopened in 2002 after the Ivana’s older brother and mother described to investigators the events that allegedly led up to the teenager’s suicide.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Heading for US-Style Expulsion Policy
Approval of the rightwing initiative aimed at an automatic deportation of foreign criminals would put Swiss legislation largely on a par with that of the United States.
But it is also likely to result in similar legal excesses, according to a Swiss researcher. A comparison with European Union countries shows Switzerland heading for a very strict policy if voters agree at the ballot box on November 28.
For the US justice system 1996 is seen as a turning point as regards the deportation of foreigners who break the law.
Judges lost any judicial discretion in cases of foreign criminals convicted of a crime listed in an increasingly extended catalogue, says Lorenz Langer from Zurich University. He has just come back from an 18-month research fellowship at the prestigious Yale Law School.
“The US legislator has tried its best to ensure that for foreigners, deportation is an automatic consequence of delinquency,” he explains.
However, there is a real risk that the list of offences leading to deportation is continuously expanded, mainly at the expense of petty criminals.
Politics
This is where politicians come in, he says, because it is often expedient for them to keep pushing for stricter legislation.
Langer cites a number of cases — notably over the duration of detention of candidates for deportation, the retroactive application of the law or cases of minor drug possession misdemeanour — where the US Supreme Court intervened to ensure things didn’t go out of bounds.
Nor is it clear whether the increasing number of deportations and removal proceedings have really made the US safer. Langer points out that criticism of automatic deportation is growing in the US.
He says a hardline policy with its legal excesses flies in the face of a modern legal criminal system that takes into account the guilt and responsibility of the offender and metes out punishment accordingly.
“Since antiquity there is that notion of retributive justice, of giving everyone his or her due. A regulation that ignores how much fault has been involved in a crime committed is considered unjust,” he adds.
“Criminals have to pay for their deeds, and the law often treats foreigners differently. But to deport long-term residents with family ties as an additional and automatic sanction is not a commensurate punishment for minor offences.”
Slippery slope
Langer is convinced that Switzerland would be stepping on the same slippery slope. “Immigration is politically a rather rewarding topic. It always pays off.”
The initiative by rightwing parties appeals to the gut feeling and portrays a stereotypical picture of foreign offenders — burglars and those exploiting welfare benefits. Langer argues that in the wake of a specific criminal case it would be very easy to extend the list of crimes that lead to immediate expulsion.
Swiss parliament will have to define specific legislation and can add further punishable offences to the list of about ten crimes if voters endorse the initiative.
Langer questions the need to introduce US-style legislation, given the significantly higher crime figures in the US, and wonders about the image of Switzerland as a dangerous country as supporters of the initiative argue.
“In fact a look at crime statistics in 2008 shows that robberies were three times more frequent in the US than in Switzerland; rape and murder cases even about seven times higher,” he says.
Domestic issues
Similarities are apparent in the critical attitude towards international law. “The discussion in the US focuses on domestic issues and on the constitution,” he says.
This reminds him of the campaign in Switzerland where the issue is perceived as being unique to Switzerland.
Swiss rightwing politicians have much in common with the Tea Party movement and the Republicans in the US and they fight for much the same values, Langer says. But these shared values are rarely highlighted.
“Drawing a parallel with the US is possibly believed to have little public appeal. Maybe they are afraid of latent anti-American sentiments — or they are simply not aware of the similarities.”…
Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Warns Britain Over New Wikileaks Revelations That Will ‘Expose Corruption Between Allies’
David Cameron was warned last night by America that damaging secrets of the ‘special relationship’ are about to be laid bare.
The U.S. ambassador to London made an unprecedented personal visit to Downing Street to warn that whistleblower website WikiLeaks is about to publish secret assessments of what Washington really thinks of Britain.
The website is on the verge of revealing almost 3million documents, including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington from the American embassy in London.
The bombshell leak is thought to include U.S. assessments of Gordon Brown’s personality and his prospects of winning the General Election, and secret discussions on the return of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.
Assessments of David Cameron’s election chances and his private assurances to U.S. officials may also be included, Government sources believe.
They fear they will emerge on Sunday in co-ordinated releases in newspapers in Britain, Germany and America.
The British government is so worried that last night it issued a D-Notice, warning that publishing the secrets could compromise national security.
The website has previously released secret details of allied military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Revelations of American brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan created shockwaves, made WikiLeaks notorious and led to its founder Julian Assange — an Australian-born computer hacker — being vilified by governments around the world. He is now wanted for alleged rape in Sweden.
In total, around 2.7million confidential messages between the U.S. government and its embassies around the world are to be released.
The U.S. State Department warned that the leaks would damage relationships around the world.
Spokesman P?J?Crowley said: ‘These revelations are harmful to the U.S. and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.’
The U.S. ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman, was seen going into Downing Street and the Foreign Office yesterday to brief officials for what was described as ‘contingency planning’.
‘He came in to explain what they thought we could expect,’ said one Whitehall source.
Defence sources said British national security could be ‘put at risk’ by the release, as they are expected to contain details of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and pull-outs and revelations about secret service practices and intelligence sources.
Downing Street is braced for potentially hugely embarrassing disclosures about private U.S. assessments of Britain and its leaders.
There are fears of even the most apparently trivial secrets being hugely damaging.
One British official said they feared that mutual American and British contempt for the French would emerge.
‘Moaning about the French was practically a sport,’ he said.
Mr Cameron’s spokesman declined to discuss the nature of any confidential communications that could be released.
He said: ‘Obviously, the Government has been briefed by U.S. officials, by the ambassador. I don’t want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.’
As well as Britain, the U.S. has warned the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Israel in advance of the release.
It has been claimed that a backlash by countries upset over the leaks may lead to U.S. diplomats being expelled.
The next release is expected to include thousands of diplomatic cables reporting allegations of corruption against politicians in Russia, Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.
But there were no specific details as to the nature of the corruption allegations or which governments are involved.
However, according to the UK-based Arabic daily newspaper al-Hayat, the WikiLeaks release includes documents that show Turkey has helped Al Qaeda in Iraq — an extraordinary revelation which could kill off the country’s hopes of joining the EU…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘My Dad is Stabbing My Mum’: Teenager’s Desperate 999 Call as Step-Father ‘Murdered Wife He Believed Was Having Affair’
In a harrowing three-minute recording played to jurors, Ria Jumaily, 18, could be heard repeatedly screaming at her step-father to stop the attack which took place two days before Christmas last year.
However, it was alleged that retired doctor Amad Jumaily continued with the ferocious knifing, leaving 46-year-old June dying on the floor.
In her written statement Miss Jumaily described the scene at the former family home in Letchworth, Herts,, with her mother face down on the kitchen floor with photographs laid out in front of her.
They were pictures that had been taken by a private detective, hired by her husband, of her kissing another man.
Dr. Jumaily was saying; ‘look at these pictures see what she has done,’ and ‘look, she has been sleeping around’.
She said: ‘My dad kept waving the knife at me telling me to go away. I got hold of a chair and tried hitting him with it. It did seem to jolt him but did not get him off my mum.’
The university student who was studying to be a primary school teacher said her parents had separated five or six weeks before and Dr Jumaily had been ‘devastated’ and had become suspicious and paranoid.
‘I realised for the very first time that he might be capable of hurting my mum,’ jurors at Luton Crown Court heard.
On December 23 last year she went with her mother to the former family home.
She wanted to collect some belongings and her mother wanted to speak to him about matters concerning the house.
Her statement continued: ‘He appeared calm and normal and I went upstairs to pack my belongings.
‘I could hear mum and dad talking and initially all seemed okay, but after about four minutes I heard raised voices and I made my way on to the landing to eavesdrop and also because I was suspicious of my dad’s changing behaviour.
‘I heard my mum scream and my dad shouting at her. I could see her on the kitchen floor and he was sitting on top of her and I could see he had a knife in his hand.’
She eventually managed to get him to hand over the knife and she locked him in another room until police arrived.
Iraq-born Jumaily, denies murdering his wife, who worked as a yoga teacher. He claims diminished responsibility.
Prosecutor Michael Speak had previously told the jury that the doctor and June had been married for 10 years.
They each had a child. Ria, who was June’s daughter, and Rania, 25, who was his. Mr Speak said Ria looked upon the doctor as her father.
‘It is clear that during 2009 the marriage had effectively broken down through various difficulties.
‘June Jumaily had left her husband at the end of October or early November. She had moved out of the matrimonial home.
‘It also seems that she had met another man and was in the early stages of some type of relationship with someone else.’
He said Jumaily was driven by jealousy and hired private detectives to spy on his wife after she had left.
They followed his wife and photographed her in an embrace with a man.
That photograph, said Mr Speak, was at the house when Mrs Jumaily arrived with a list she had prepared to divide up their property.
‘That was the spark. The final straw. He simply erupted and went into a violent and uncontrollable rage,’ he added.
The trial continues.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Baroness Brazen: Labour Peer Booted Out of Lords Claimed £40,000 After Expenses Fiddle Came to Light
Shamed Labour peer Baroness Uddin carried on claiming thousands of pounds a month in expenses after she was exposed as a cheat, it was revealed yesterday.
Lady Uddin, the first female Muslim peer, was able to pocket almost £40,000 in expenses last year even after it was revealed she had fiddled the system to claim money from the taxpayer.
In an unprecedented punishment last month, Lady Uddin was booted out of the Lords for 18 months and ordered to repay £125,000. She claims she is now too poor to repay a penny.
Lady Uddin was exposed as a cheat on May 3 last year, after it was reported that she had never been seen at her designated ‘main home’ in Kent. The small flat in Maidstone allowed her to claim £174 a night while she was actually living at her family home in London, provided by a housing association.
Figures published yesterday for Lords expenses reveal that Lady Uddin claimed almost £40,000 in the 12 months since April last year, including an extra £15,486 in overnight subsistence.
She took home £11,418 on ‘day subsistence’, £12,600 on office costs, £384 on travel and £29 on stamps. She also received a free parliamentary BlackBerry.
Lady Uddin has always denied wrongdoing, but an investigation by the Lords authorities found she had deliberately exploited the system to boost her income.
Fellow Labour peer Lord Paul, who was also exposed for cheating on his expenses, was another to continue claiming. Lord Paul, a friend of Gordon Brown, was suspended from the Lords for four months after an inquiry found he had claimed for overnight stays while living in London. He has repaid £39,447 in overnight claims and a further £2,534 in travel.
Yesterday’s figures reveal he pocketed £25,230 for overnight stays last year. A Lords source last night said Lord Paul, one of Britain’s richest men with a £500million fortune, had nominated another property as his main home.
Both Lady Uddin and Lord Paul put the phone down yesterday when asked to comment on their expenses claims.
The revelations came as new figures showed members of the House of Lords claimed around £16million in expenses last year — an average of about £21,000 for each of the 763 peers. The overall level of claims is slightly down on previous year.
The highest claimant was former Labour MP Lord Maxton, who pocketed £63,339 last year.
Close behind was fellow former Labour MP Baroness Adams of Craigielea, who claimed £63,224. Lady Adams is still being pursued for £4,100 in expenses by the Commons authorities but has said they will have to take her to court to get the money back. She did not speak in the Lords last year.
Other claimants included two Labour peers who have served recent jail terms.
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, who was jailed for 12 weeks last year for dangerous driving, claimed a total of £55,434. Lord Watson of Invergowrie, who was sentenced to 16 months for arson, claimed £38,078.
Former Commons Speaker Michael Martin claimed £24,943 in his first five months as a peer.
A Lib Dem couple in the Lords continued to claim high allowances for staying in London, although they share a flat. Lord Razzall claimed £4,176 between April and June. His partner, Lib Dem peer Baroness Bonham Carter, a cousin of actress Helena Bonham Carter, claimed £8,797. Their claims were within the rules.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bin Sinners Fined £110: Getting Your Recycling Wrong Will Cost You More Than Shoplifting
Compulsory: Islington Council is introducing £110 fines for residents who put waste in the wrong bins
Tens of thousands of families face on-the-spot fines of £110 if they put rubbish in the wrong bins as another council brings in compulsory recycling.
The figure is £30 more than the penalty handed out to shoplifters.
Bin snoopers will hand out the fines if householders flout the tough new rules in an initiative which comes months after the Government pledged to scrap bin fines.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Artist Sparks Outrage With Angelic Tribute to 7/7 Suicide Bombers
The artwork shows four angels flying above the bombed bus — the same number of Al Qaeda terrorists who took part in the atrocity which left 52 commuters dead and maimed hundreds more on London’s transport network.
Also seen are scores of ghostly souls shooting from the number 30 bus, which was travelling through Tavistock Square when it was devastated by suicide bomber Hasib Hussain.
Sickeningly, the £3,500 artwork, called Age of Shiva, is on display just one mile from where the 13 innocent commuters were killed as they travelled on the bus through central London.
The blast happened just after 9.45am on July 7, 2005 at the junction of Woburn Square and Tavistock Place.
The explosion ripped the roof off the top deck of the vehicle and completely wrecked the back of the bus. Witnesses reported seeing ‘half a bus flying through the air’.
The first of the four bomb attacks that day was around 8.50am on a Circle line train travelling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate, the second explosion was on another Circle line train which had just left Edgware Road on the way to Paddington and the third of the Tube attacks happened on a Piccadilly line train travelling between King’s Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square.
As well as the 52 deaths from the bombings, more than 700 people were injured in the attacks, which were carried out by Hassib, Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Jermain Lindsay.
The artist behind the offensive black and white print, ex-Tube graffitist Mark Sinckler, 40, has said: ‘I want to shock.’
John Falding, whose partner Anat Rosenberg died in the Tavistock Square attack, said the artwork was ‘unnecessary’ and ‘upsetting’ to see.
The timing couldn’t be worse for the artwork, which has gone on show during the long-awaited inquests into the attacks.
Since October 11, the Royal Courts of Justice have heard harrowing evidence from survivors and victims’ families.
The picture is part of an exhibition organised by Pictures on Walls, who market the work of Bristol-based graffiti artist Banksy.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Artist Cashes in on 7/7 Bus Horror
A MUSLIM artist sparked outrage last night after his £3,500 picture of the bombed 7/7 bus went on display just a mile from the atrocity that killed 13 people.
It shows four angels above the wreckage — the number of al-Qaeda suicide bombers who left 52 dead across London’s transport network on July 7, 2005.
What appear to be souls of the victims are shown streaming out of the bus.
On the side of the vehicle is an advert which was actually on the bombed bus reading “Outright terror… bold and brilliant”.
Number 30 bus driver George Psaradakis, 54, who survived the 7/7 attack in Tavistock Square, last night called for the picture, titled Age Of Shiva, to be removed from its exhibition.
He accused organisers of trying to profit from terrorism.
But the picture’s creator, ex-Tube graffiti vandal Mark Sinckler, 40, defended his work.
He insisted: “I want to shock. I’m an artist and this is my profession. I need to survive.”
Street artist Banksy is curator of the Marks & Stencils show in Soho and chose the 3ft picture for the gallery window.
Organisers last night tried to stem rising fury by promising profits from prints of the terror image will go to the 7/7 memorial fund.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pictured: The Moment a Gunman Killed Pub Landlord’s Son and Maimed His Brother After Being Thrown Out of New Year Party
Saturday Hassan, 30, opened fire in the Newton Arms pub in Croydon, south London, just minutes after he was kicked out for threatening another customer.
He shot Darren Deslandes, 34, in the head from close range in front of his terrified family and friends.
Darren died instantly after the bullet passed through his brain.
Hassan then gunned down 26-year-old Junior Deslandes as horrified drinkers dived for cover.
Junior was hit by three bullets to the head, neck and shoulder, but miraculously ‘avoided death by millimetres’ because they missed vital organs.
Graphic X-rays of his skull show the three bullets which remain in his head.
He has astounded doctors with his recovery and walked in to court, with the aid of a stick, to give evidence in the trial.
The two brothers had been helping out at the family’s annual New Year’s party and the shooting was witnessed by their younger sibling, who was just 13 at the time.
Before fleeing the pub, Hassan also hit the boys’ father Wintworth, 58, over the head with the butt of the gun.
Hassan was found guilty of murder by a majority of ten to two and attempted murder by a majority of 11 to one, after a two-week trial at the Old Bailey.
He was further convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Handing down three life sentences, with a minimum term of 37 years, Judge David Paget QC said Hassan had enjoyed the ‘trappings of a gangster’.
He had access to a semi-automatic, fully loaded pistol and drove a BMW 4x4, despite being banned from driving.
‘You have no convictions but you appear to be someone who at least admires that style of life,’ said the judge.
Darren Deslandes’s fiancee Abigail Beresford, 27, wept as the sentence was announced. There were cries of ‘yes’ from a packed public gallery.
The judge said: ‘What you did has taken the life of a thoroughly good and worthy young man with his life before him and has devastated the lives of the whole Deslandes family, of Darren Deslandes’s fiancee and I dare say of others near and dear to them.
‘It has also left Junior Deslandes with injuries which are likely to be permanent in some respect and will undoubtedly affect him seriously for the rest of his life.’
It emerged that during the trial Junior had reported that Hassan had been ‘eyeballing’ him from the dock and looking at images of a gun in a court file in an bid to intimidate him.
In an impact statement, Miss Beresford described her fiance as ‘one in a million’. The couple had been due to marry in the summer of this year.
Wintworth, a former insurance underwriter who worked in the City for 25 years, was not in the well of the court.
The pub has remained closed since the shooting and Wintworth has vowed not to return to the scene of the shooting.
His wife Leline has also given up her role as a foster carer for children with special needs.
Prosecutor Ed Brown QC told the court Hassan was ‘angry and seeking revenge’ after being bundled out of the pub by the brothers shortly before 5am on January 1 this year.
He left the pub in Queen’s Road in his BMW X5, but returned minutes later with a loaded handgun and stormed back into the bar.
When he pulled out the weapon, the two brothers bravely tried to wrestle it from him and force him back outside.
Mr Brown said: ‘Darren Deslandes was in the bar and attempted to walk the defendant to the front door, to get him out of the pub again.
‘Junior, who had been in the garden, joined Darren and was now beside his brother.
‘Junior then stepped in front of his brother and tried to grab the defendant. The defendant was again bundled out towards the door, into a small area by the front door.’
But as Junior Deslandes did so, the defendant, with the gun in his right hand, put his left arm around Junior’s neck.
‘As Darren approached, perhaps to help his brother, the defendant made the decision to fire at those two young men — one nearby, Darren, and one actually in his grasp, Junior.’
‘He fired the gun, shooting each brother in the head and indeed to other parts of their upper bodies. Each brother collapsed on the ground injured, one fatally and one critically, lying side by side on the floor of the public house.’
Hassan fired at least eight shots at the two men.
As Hassan tried to escape out of a side door he was confronted by Wintworth Deslandes and again levelled the gun at his target and pulled the trigger three times.
The gun clicked, but did not fire. Hassan instead lashed out with the weapon and fled the scene.
Darren, who was educated at Dulwich College, Richmond College and Brunel University and worked for the Amicus Horizon housing association, was shot three times.
He suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head, as well as wounds to his right and left arm.
Junior was shot least three times and still has three bullets in his body.
He told the court: ‘He managed to shoot me in the top of the head. He had his arm around me. He managed to point down and shoot me.
‘I staggered back a bit. He carried on shooting. I remember getting hit in the shoulder and the neck.
‘I just remember as I was lying there struggling, seeing my brother not moving.’
Darren’s father had run the pub with his wife Leline since 1999.
Darren’s fiancee was upstairs on the phone to police when the fatal shots rang out. She told the operator: ‘Six gunshots in the pub. A man’s just come in and shot a gun like six or seven times.
‘This man I think he must have shot six or seven times, I just heard bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.’
Hassan was arrested by armed police at a girlfriend’s house on January 7 this year.
He had previously dumped the gun, which has never been found.
In interview he admitted being in the pub and being forcibly ejected.
He then blamed one of the Deslandes brothers for having the gun and said any injuries which occurred were accidental and the result of a struggle as he tried to fend off an attack.
He was then shown CCTV footage which showed he was armed and was forced to admit he had taken the gun to ‘frighten’ them.
Mitigating, Graham Trembath QC said the incident was ‘minutes of utter madness’.
Hassan, of Sydenham Hill, south London, denied murder and two counts of attempted murder.
He was further convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
NATO’s New Strategy: A Warning for the Balkans
by Srdja Trifkovic
NATO’s much heralded “New Strategic Concept,” adopted at the summit in Lisbon on November 20, provides a few additional reasons why those Balkan countries that are still outside the Alliance should stay out of it.
NATO and the uses to which Washington puts it constitute a messy tangle of contradictions. Outwardly, it appears to be what it always was: a defensive organization dedicated to collective security. Inwardly it is something else entirely. NATO’s mission was to contain the USSR—universally perceived as a threat—through collective security: an attack against one would be an attack against all. Although NATO had a war fighting doctrine, it sought mainly to deter attack. In this it succeeded splendidly; but since the demise of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, NATO has morphed from a defensive alliance to fend off a commonly acknowledged threat into a vehicle for the attainment of U.S. global hegemony.
The “Strategic Concept” does nothing to resolve this fundamental contradiction. The document’s “Core Tasks and Principles” do not offer a coherent strategic vision but rely on propagandistic rhetoric: “The Alliance remains an essential source of stability in an unpredictable world;” its member states “form a unique community of values, committed to the principles of individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
The authors assert with breathtaking audacity, in view of the aggression against Serbia 11 years ago, that “the Alliance is firmly committed to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and to the Washington Treaty, which affirms the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
The Concept illustrates the extent to which NATO has lost any sense of strategic purpose. Terrorism is singled out as “a direct threat,” as well as “trans-national illegal activities such as trafficking in arms, narcotics and people,” piracy, and cyber attacks by “foreign militaries and intelligence services, organised criminals, terrorist and/or extremist groups.” (The notion that NATO should combat human trafficking etc. is ridiculous not only in itself, but also because NATO protectorate Kosovo is one of the world’s great centers of human trafficking.)
The Alliance brief now includes “assessing the impact of emerging security technologies,” as well as a host of environmental issues: “health risks, climate change, water scarcity and increasing energy needs will further shape the future security environment in areas of concern to NATO and have the potential to affect significantly NATO planning and operations.” Disruption of energy supplies is listed in the same league. A truly extraordinary novelty is that each of those “risks” is from now on a potential cause of war!
The “Concept” commits NATO to “further develop doctrine and military capabilities for expeditionary operations,” which hints at the possibility of new out-of-area deployments. The fact that Concept was initially drafted by a group of experts chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is an alarming indicator of the hidden agenda…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Belgrade Handed Thousands of Questions Over EU Membership
Belgrade, 24 Nov. (AKI) — The European Union commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fuele on Wednesday gave Serbian prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic a questionnaire upon which Brussels will decide whether Serbia qualified to get a candidate status for EU membership.
Fuele handed Cvetkovic 2,483 questions, divided in 33 chapters, and depending on the answers the European Commission should decide whether Serbia carried out the needed reforms and qualified for candidate status.
“I bring the hope that the efforts invested will carry us further on our common path, the hope that the efforts you will make in months ahead will ultimately lead to fully fledged membership in the EU,” Fuele said.
“I am sure that that the government of Serbia will accept today’s chance and implement the needed reforms,” he added.
Cvetkovic said Serbia will answer the questions by the end of January next year so that it might get a candidate status in the second half of 2011.
“We have prepared ourselves very seriously and will immediately start working on the answers to the questions we received,” he added.
“That work practically starts today,” Cvetkovic said.
Serbia submitted an application for the EU membership in December last year, but apart from needed reforms Belgrade will have to arrest the remaining two fugitives wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal, wartime Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, a wartime leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, EU officials said.
In addition, the EU demands that Belgrade has to establish “good neighbourly relations” with its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in February 2008, a moved opposed by Serbia.
Fuele said the questionnaire treated Kosovo in a “status neutral manner”, but added that there are many questions relating to relations between Belgrade and Pristina.
Furthermore, serious reforms are needed in the area of judiciary, the rule of law, human rights, the fight against crime and corruption and regional and international obligations, Fuele said.
Serbian analysts have said Belgrade will have a serious problem with defining the country’s borders, because the inclusion of Kosovo might be unacceptable to the EU, 22 of whose members have recognised Kosovo independence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Genocide of Christians Throughout Middle East
It is obvious by now that the Christians in the Middle East are an “endangered species.”
Christians in Arab countries are no longer being persecuted; they are now being slaughtered and driven out of their homes and lands.
Those who for many years turned a blind eye to complaints about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East now owe the victims an apology. Now it is clear to all that these complaints were not “Jewish propaganda.”
The war of genocide against Christians in the Middle East can no longer be treated as an “internal affair” of Iraq or Egypt or the Palestinians. What the West needs to understand is that radical Islam has declared jihad not only against Jews, but also against Christians.
In Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian territories, Christians are being targeted almost on a daily basis by Muslim fundamentalists and secular dictators.
Dozens of Arab Christians in Iraq have been killed in recent months in what seems to be well-planned campaign to drive them out of the country. Many Christian families have already begun fleeing Iraq out of fear for their lives.
Some have chosen to start new lives in Jordan, while many others are expressing hope that they could be resettled in North America or Europe…
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Think Again: The Still Lethal Obsession
No matter how many prizes Prof. Robert Wistrich’s massive tome A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad garners, the book still deserves more attention than it has received. Indeed no amount of attention would be sufficient.
Its packed 938 pages of text reflect neither authorial grandiosity nor editorial lassitude. The copious detail amassed is required so that Wistrich’s central arguments not be dismissed as cherry-picked quotes used to exaggerate the seriousness of the phenomena under discussion. Random House, a commercial publisher, did not request him to cut a single sentence.
A Lethal Obsession stands as a refutation of three widespread misconceptions fostered in the West, partly out of ignorance and partly out of fear. The first is that radical Islam is a relatively minor phenomenon in the Muslim world. On his recent visit to India, US President Barack Obama provided a good example of Western ignorance or dissembling. Asked about jihad, he began his reply by insisting that jihad has several meanings in Islamic thought. Wrong. In contemporary Muslim discourse, jihad invariably refers to conquest to establish the domain of Islam.
The president went on to state, “Islam is one of the world’s great religions, which has been distorted in the hands of a few extremists.” As Wistrich makes clear, however, Islamo-fascism, with its death cult and cosmology of civilizational struggle between the forces of righteousness and demonic evil (with the Jews or Israel always at the center), holds millions, from alienated Muslim youth in Europe, across the 57 Muslim states, in thrall.
Nazi race ideology found fertile soil in the Middle East. Hitler was a hero to the founder of Syrian and Iraqi Ba’athism, Michel Aflaq. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the founding father of Palestinian nationalism, recruited Bosnian Muslims for Hitler’s extermination of Balkan Jewry. In wartime broadcasts from Berlin, he extolled Hitler for having fully grasped the nature of the “Jewish peril” and for “having resolved to find a final solution to liberate the world from this danger.” He synthesized Nazism with the teachings of “the prophet” on the perfidy of the Jews in all times and all places — “bloodsuckers of the nations and corrupters of morality, incapable of loyalty or genuine assimilation.”
Sayyid Qutb, theorist of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas and al-Qaida are but two offshoots, wrote in his Our Struggle with the Jews (an echo of Mein Kampf) of “the liberating struggle of jihad” that can never cease, and threatened any Muslim regime that should contemplate any form of accommodation with Israel. (He was executed by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.) For him, as for so many Muslim thinkers after him, the very existence of the State of Israel represented the measure of the Muslim world’s degradation and moral bankruptcy.
Virulent anti-Semitism, Wistrich quotes the dean of Middle East scholars Bernard Lewis, “is an essential part of Arab intellectual life.” The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been reprinted in countless editions in almost every Muslim country. It climbed to No. 2 on the Turkish best-seller lists in 2005, at a time when Turkey was still a strategic ally of Israel. Egypt, a nation nominally at peace with Israel, recently broadcast a 24-part TV dramatization of The Protocols.
Conspiracy theories about Jews are readily believed throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Jews are the all-purpose explanation for the Islamic world’s weakness and failure vis-a-vis the West, and a metaphor for all the disorienting aspects of modernity and globalization. Iranian-sponsored Holocaust denial is but the most repugnant of those conspiracy theories. In Pakistan, like Iran a Muslim nation with no border or national dispute with Israel, two-thirds of the population did not discredit out of hand the claim that Jews were behind 9/11 and were told in advance not to show up for work that day.
The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 — a revolution without borders, according to its leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — raised the pride and hopes of downtrodden Muslims around the globe. And with the Soviet expulsion from Afghanistan, the fall of the godless Soviet Union and most recently the emergence of a nuclear Iran, a narrative of Islam ascendant and ready to confront the corrupt, Jew-controlled West has inflamed millions of Muslims around the globe. Determination to extirpate the cancer of Israel is the key element allowing Shi’ite Iran to gather the Sunni Muslim street to its banner. Not surprisingly, a 1999 poll by the American University of Beirut of the Arab world found: 87 percent supported Islamic terror attacks on Israel, 70% opposed peace with Israel and 54% advocated a war of annihilation of Israel.
WISTRICH TAKES aim at the idea that Palestinian nationalism has come to see the struggle with Israel as primarily one over borders. Just the opposite: Islamic theological elements play an ever larger role among Palestinians, and not just among followers of Hamas. Yasser Arafat proclaimed in Venezuela in 1980, “We shall not rest until we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel.” He never veered from that goal in front of his own people. Speaking in Arabic in Johannesburg in 1993, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, he assured his audience that Jerusalem is exclusively Muslim, that the only permanent state in present-day Israel would be the state of Palestine, and that the peace process would end in a complete Palestinian takeover.
From the outset of Oslo, as Wistrich documents in copious detail, the PA media has been permeated with the most naked religious and racial hatred of Jews. Sermons urging believers to “have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them. Whenever you meet them, kill them,” are broadcast live on the PA’s official TV channel. When Jews are discussed in PA textbooks, it is only to recite the same litany of their immutable, negative traits from the days of the prophet to the present. Zionism is only a modern expression of their essential evil. And finally, suicide bombers are endlessly glorified in the official Palestinian media as holy martyrs, with sports tournaments, streets and town squares named in their honor.
Whatever points of ideology divide the PA and Hamas, writes Wistrich, they fully agree that Zionism is a “criminal conspiracy” against the Palestinian people, Israel’s creation was a satanic, imperialist plot and Palestine is an Islamic land, one and indivisible. How, Wistrich wonders, will generations raised on such beliefs make a stable, long-lasting peace with Israel in any borders?
MOST CHILLING is Wistrich’s lengthy unraveling of the theology of the Iranian revolution. From early in his career, Khomeini applied to Israel Hitler’s description of Jews as “cancer” that must be exterminated. He was obsessed with conspiracies of the “shrewd” Jews for world dominion.
And every Iranian leader since 1979 has followed suit. Former president Mohamad Khatami, the “liberal” reformer, spoke of Israel as “an old wound in the body of Islam that cannot be healed.” And President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad’s “moderate” rival, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, mused in a public sermon at Teheran University that “one atomic bomb would wipe out Israel.” Long-range missiles are paraded in Teheran bedecked in signs proclaiming, “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Ahmadinejad and his sponsor, Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei, combine the desire to wipe out Israel with an apocalyptic eschatology. Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor Ayatollah Mohammad Mezbah- Yazdi taught that human agency can speed the return of the hidden imam or mahdi, the Shi’ite messiah, through sufficiently cataclysmic events. The final jihad, in Yazdi’s teaching, is that against the “Great Satan” and his smaller brother. Ominously, Ahmadinejad refers frequently, even in public, to communications he receives from the mahdi.
The millions of Iranians who would die in the conflagration are no concern. In one of his first TV addresses after his first election, Ahmadinejad praised suicide bombers: “Is there an art more beautiful, more divine, more eternal than the art of the martyr’s death?” he asked. Ahmadinejad served as a volunteer in the Iraq-Iran War in the Basij Mostazafan. The Basij sent young children marching to their deaths clearing Iraqi minefields with their exploding bodies.
To ignore Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric today, Wistrich comments, is tantamount to ignoring Hitler’s threats against world Jewry prior to the Holocaust. Perhaps worse, since Ahmadinejad’s pursuit of eschatological conflagration, not subject to rational calculations of the balance of forces, will soon be linked to the power to release nuclear weapons at the push of a button.
Is hope that sanctions will do the trick adequate in face of the magnitude of the danger?
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Risks Increasing Tension With EU Ahead of Elections
Turkish-EU relations could be set for more tension with elections in the country approaching, analysts warn. EU diplomats, however, are expressing concerns about any escalation in rhetoric. ‘It would be a real shame if such an important issue for the future of over 70 million Turkish people was subordinated to short-term politics,’ says one diplomat.
Turkey’s government risks ratcheting up tensions with the European Union to score points with voters back home in the lead-up to general elections next June, according to analysts and EU diplomats.
“Turkey can no longer make any gestures especially about the Cyprus issue as the elections are coming. The language employed by Turkish politicians could harden in the coming period,” Nilgün Arisan, an EU expert from Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday.
A lack of an opening from the EU side could give the government the chance to challenge Brussels, she said.
The initial signs of policy tension on the part of the government emerged earlier this week when Turkey’s top EU negotiator, Egemen Bagis, told a conference that, “If tension is expected from us, we are ready for that, too.”
His remarks irked EU circles in the Turkish capital. “We are concerned about any escalation in rhetoric during the election process,” one EU ambassador told the Daily News on condition of anonymity.
Another EU diplomat also said it was a sensitive time, adding that there were many opportunities as well as risks. “It would be a real shame if such an important issue for the future of over 70 million Turkish people was subordinated to short-term politics.”
Another Luxembourg crisis?
While the EU does not necessarily have high expectations of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, given the critical run-up to elections, what is most feared is a repeat of the Luxembourg crisis of 1997, during which then-Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz openly challenged the bloc after member states overtly stated that Turkey would never be permitted to join.
By 1999, relations had returned to normal as Turkey was provided with official candidate status at the Helsinki summit, yet problems have remained.
Turkey formally launched accession negotiations in October 2005, but the talks have come to a near standstill both due to the unresolved Cyprus dispute and because of stiff opposition to any Turkish EU membership from some bloc members. As such, Ankara has opened only 13 of 35 policy chapters since accession negotiations began.
“I don’t believe the ties will reach a point of complete rupture. I don’t expect another Luxembourg crisis,” said Can Baydarol, an expert on Turkish-EU relations from Istanbul’s Bilgi University.
“That would benefit neither Turkey nor the EU,” he said, adding that it is unlikely that relations would proceed in such a fashion. “It is necessary to turn a new, white page and the two sides should take symbolic steps.”
The major stumbling bloc in Turkish-EU relations is the fate of the long-divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Brussels, the locus of the EU decision-making process, has criticized the Turkish government for not even partly meeting the requirements of the Ankara protocol under which Turkey is obliged to open its ports to shipping from Greek Cyprus.
The EU Commission has drafted several proposals to break the deadlock in the hopes of a partial solution, but Ankara has categorically rejected them, saying it will not compromise unless progress is made on past EU promises to lift the sanctions imposed on northern Cyprus.
“The two sides’ positions on Cyprus are quite clear. If some progress had been made on the EU Commission-proposed direct trade regulation, Turkey could have taken some steps forward, but under the current circumstances it is hard to expect bold steps from the government with only seven months left until the elections,” said TEPAV’s Arisan.
Cost of rupture in Turk-EU ties
Any breakdown in Turkish-EU relations would be heavy for both parties, politically and economically, according to analysts and diplomats.
“Turkey and the EU both gain from the accession process and eventual Turkish membership,” the EU diplomat said.
“That requires patience from both sides — the prize is great enough. Turkey’s economy is improving but any breach with the EU would only damage the recovery,” added the diplomat.
TEPAV’s Arisan said two-thirds of foreign investment in Turkey was from EU countries. “Turkey cannot risk a breakdown in ties.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Planning to Open New Naval Bases Abroad
President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday Russia was looking to open new naval bases abroad to increase the global reach of a military that shrunk when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Soviet forces drew on over a dozen naval bases in Europe, South America, Africa and South East Asia in the 1970s and 1980s; but the post-Soviet economic crisis, fuel shortages and a reduction of the military confined forces largely to home bases.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Do You Like Osama? India Angered by British Survey
A British-based market research company is at the centre of a police investigation in India after staff questioned Muslims about whether they liked Osama bin Laden, and supported attacks against the US.
In a murky episode that took place in the southern state of Kerala, five female researchers were arrested by police after Muslims complained about the questionnaire. Officials became concerned that the questions could trigger community discord, and state officials have asked federal intelligence agencies to investigate.
Among the issues included in the 91-question survey were people’s views on why Muslim women wore the hijab, whether suicide bomb attacks were ever justified and the US’s intervention in issues in the Middle East. People were also asked their opinions on the state of Iran, what they considered to be the most important contributions to the world of Islam, and whether Sharia should be the basis for India’s legal system.
Police made the arrests after being contacted by residents in Karimadom, a Muslim neighbourhood in the Keralan capital, Trivandrum (or Thiruvananthapuram), where the researchers questioned about 100 households. They were later released.
“The questions are highly inflammatory. They may cause communal disharmony,” said P Verghese, an assistant commissioner of police, who is heading an inquiry into the issue. “The women who carried out the survey were locally hired daily wagers.”
The motivation of the questions and what the information was to have been used for remains unclear. Some Muslim groups in Kerala have claimed that US intelligence agencies are behind the questionnaire, while the state’s home ministry has ordered a full inquiry. Some reports claim that the survey may have been carried out in more than 50 cities across the country.
“We are taking it very seriously and have already sought the help of Delhi to unfold the mysterious motives of this survey,” Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Kerala’s home minister, told Tehelka, a weekly news magazine. “A foreign agency cannot administer such surveys in the country without permission.”
Police have said that the women were hired by the Indian office of Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), a British-based market research company that in 2008 was bought by the WPP Group, a FTSE 100 global communications services company, for £1.6bn.
TNS has refused to give any explanation for its activities. In a statement issued by an Indian PR agency, the company said: “TNS [has] filed a writ petition in the High Court of Kerala and a hearing is pending. As the matter is subject to legal process, TNS has no further comment at this time. TNS has been co-operating with the concerned authorities and will continue to do so.”
The female researchers told police that the survey was being carried out on behalf of another, US-based market research company, Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI), which has offices in Washington and New Jersey. The company failed to respond to repeated requests for a comment.
It is not the first time that PSRAI has carried out surveys that have looked at Islam. Earlier this summer, in a survey apparently conducted for Newsweek magazine, PSRAI sought the views of Americans on how they would feel about a mosque being built in the local community and whether they were concerned about “radicals” among America’s Muslim community. It also asked people their opinions about President Barack Obama, whether they believed that he was a Muslim, and even if they thought he sympathised with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who wanted to impose Sharia around the world.
The company’s website says: “PSRAI has extensive experience in conducting surveys in more than 75 countries around the world — from the United States and Canada, to South and Central America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Grim Milestone: Britain Has Now Been Fighting in Afghanistan for as Long as Failed Soviet Invasion
It is exactly the same length of time the unsuccessful Soviets fought in the South Asia country two decades ago.
Time will tell — and the current war in Afghanistan looks set to continue for some time yet — whether or not the outcome will be the same.
The war against Al-Qaeda began in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, as Britain and the coalition forces aimed to wipe out leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban quickly.
However the Taliban have turned the war into an attritional campaign.
Now about 100,000 Nato troops are fighting a burgeoning insurgency while trying to support and cultivate a nascent democracy.
A statement from American forces this week described the progress made since they injected 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan earlier this year as ‘fragile’.
The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, has said Nato’s core objective is to ensure that Afghanistan ‘is never again a sanctuary to Al-Qaeda or other transnational extremists that it was prior to [the] 9/11 [attacks]’.
He said the only way to achieve that goal is ‘to help Afghanistan develop the ability to secure and govern itself. Now not to the levels of Switzerland in 10 years or less, but to a level that is good enough for Afghanistan.’
To reach that, there is an ongoing effort to get the Taliban to the negotiating table.
President Hamid Karzai has set up a committee to try to make peace, and the military hopes its campaign will help force the insurgents to seek a deal.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 27, 1979, its stated goal was to transform Afghanistan into a modern socialist state.
The Soviets sought to prop up a communist regime that was facing a popular uprising, but left largely defeated on February 15, 1989.
In 1992, the pro-Moscow government of Mohammad Najibullah collapsed and U.S.-backed rebels took power.
The Taliban eventually seized Kabul after a violent civil war that killed thousands more.
It ruled with a strict interpretation of Islamic law until it was ousted in the 2001 invasion.
Nader Nadery, an Afghan analyst who has studied the Soviet and U.S. invasions, said ‘the time may be the same’ for the two conflicts, ‘but conditions are not similar’.
More than a million civilians died as Soviet forces propping up the government of Babrak Karmal waged a massive war against anti-communist mujahedeen forces.
‘There was indiscriminate mass bombardment of villages for the eviction of mujahedeen,’ Nadery said.
‘Civilian casualties are not at all comparable.’
Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank and Afghanistan expert, said Nato forces have killed fewer than 10,000 civilians and a comparable number of insurgents.
The allied military presence has also been far smaller and more targeted.
Even now, nearly all operations are restricted to the south and east of the country where the insurgency is most active.
He said: ‘The current insurgency is perhaps one-eighth as large.
‘We do have big problems. But there is no comparison between this war and what the Soviets wrought.
‘The Soviet war set Afghanistan back dramatically from what had been a weak but functioning state.
‘Nato has, by contrast, helped Afghanistan to a 10 per cent annual economic growth rate, seven million children are now in school, and most people have access to basic health care within a two-hour walk,’ O’Hanlon said.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
India to Deploy 36,000 Extra Troops on Chinese Border
India has formed two new army divisions — comprising more than 36,000 men — to defend the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The remote north-eastern state adjoins China which claims large parts of it.
The 56th Division will be based in the nearby state of Nagaland to guard the eastern flank of Arunachal Pradesh from Chinese attack through Burma.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Doctors Help Sick in Maldives, Muslims Protest Saying it is Against Islam to Have Relations With Jews
The Islamic Foundation of the Maldives has called on the government to break off all diplomatic ties with Israel, a day after Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) announced that a team of seven Israeli doctors is due to arrive in the country to treat patients at the government hospital for a week.
The Foundation requested the government terminate all ties with Israel saying “we do not want any sort of assistance from Jews.”
President of the Islamic Foundation Ibrahim Fauzy said that the organisation did not support accepting “any sort of assistance from Israel as long as they are in the lands of Palestine. We should fear that we might have to face the wrath of God.”
Fauzy explained that the Islamic Foundation does not recognise Israel as a state as “they have stolen the lands of Palestine by power and force,” adding that “it also against our religion to have relationships with Jews.”
In November last year, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed narrowly survived [1] a no-confidence motion for his role in deciding to normalise relations with the Jewish state.
Dr Shaheed told Minivan News today that the “government does not have diplomatic relations with Israel” and has not signed any agreements to that effect…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Karzai Aide Blames British for Taliban Impostor
President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff has said British authorities brought a fake Taliban commander into sensitive meetings with the Afghan government.
The British embassy refused to confirm or deny the remarks, made in an interview with the Washington Post.
A man described as Mullah Mansour, a senior Taliban commander, was flown to Kabul for a meeting with President Karzai.
Now it is claimed he was really a Pakistani shopkeeper.
British government sources say the man was introduced to British agents by the Afghan security service and that the UK was merely helping to facilitate Afghan-to-Afghan negotiations.
Reports say he vanished after being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.
UK officials told the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner that no British taxpayers’ money was used to fund the bogus negotiator.
They say the money paid to him was Afghan government money and was a fraction of the amount mentioned in some press reports.
But they confirmed the man in question had disappeared.
The impersonator reportedly met officials three times and was even flown on a Nato aircraft to Kabul.
Mystery man
But doubts arose after an Afghan who knew Mullah Mansour said he did not recognise the man.
Mr Karzai’s chief of staff, Mohammad Umer Daudzai, told the Washington Post British diplomats had brought the impostor to meet Mr Karzai in July or August.
“The last lesson we draw from this: International partners should not get excited so quickly with those kind of things,” Mr Daudzai told the newspaper.
He added: “Afghans know this business, how to handle it. We handle it with care, we handle it with a result-based approach, with very less damage to all the other processes.”
Unnamed senior US officials told the Washington Post that the Mansour impersonator was “the Brits’ guy”.
They said the Americans had “healthy scepticism” from the start because their intelligence had suggested Mullah Mansour would be a few inches taller than the man claiming to be the Taliban commander.
The UK’s Times newspaper reports that the impostor was promoted by British overseas intelligence agency MI6, which was convinced it had achieved a major breakthrough.
The real identity of the faker remains a mystery.
Some reports suggest he was a shopkeeper from the Pakistani city of Quetta.
It is still not clear whether he had any links to the Taliban or if he was simply a conman.
Another theory is he could have been a Pakistani intelligence agent.
Western diplomats have previously conceded that some of those claiming to represent the Taliban have turned out to be frauds.
The real Mr Mansour was civil aviation minister during Taliban rule and is now said to be in charge of weapons procurement for the insurgents.
The Afghan government’s meetings with the Taliban — fake or otherwise — have been described as contacts rather than negotiations.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Muslims Warn of Anarchy Over Christian
Pakistani Muslims threatened protests and anarchy if the government pardons a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy, calling hundreds of demonstrators onto the streets on Friday.
Demonstrators marched in the eastern city of Lahore after the most influential Sunni Muslim alliance in Pakistan urged the government not to grant mother-of-five Aasia Bibi clemency.
A crowd of several hundred called for “Jihad” and pledged to sacrifice their lives to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, an AFP reporter said.
The rally was organised by a subsidiary of banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the United Nations has blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.
“We will hold nationwide protests if the government pardons the Christian woman,” the subsidiary’s chief coordinator, Qari Yaqub, told participants.
Politicians and conservative clerics have been at loggerheads over whether President Asif Ali Zardari should pardon Bibi, who was sentenced on November 8 to hang under controversial blasphemy laws for defaming the Prophet Mohammed.
“The pardon would lead to anarchy in the country,” the head of the Sunni Ittehad Council, Sahibzada Fazal Kareem, told AFP.
“Our stand is very clear that this punishment cannot be waived.”
The council opposes Taliban militants, which are fighting government troops in parts of northwest Pakistan, and has also organised a protest march against deadly attacks on Sufi shrines blamed on Islamist hardliners.
Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case exposes the deep faultlines in the conservative country on a law that rights activists say encourages Islamist extremism in a nation wracked by Taliban attacks.
Minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti presented a clemency plea to the government late Thursday on the grounds that the case against Bibi was based only on personal enmity.
Pope Benedict XVI has also called for Bibi’s release and said Christians in Pakistan were “often victims of violence and discrimination”.
But Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for Zardari, hinted Friday that the presidency would instead wait for Bibi’s appeal in the Lahore high court.
“The summary for a pardon has not yet been received from the prime minister. It is also premature as a sentence awarded by a session (court) cannot be implemented until it is endorsed by a high court,” Babar said.
Most of those convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan have their sentences overturned or commuted on appeal through the courts.
Bibi was arrested in June 2009 after Muslim women labourers refused to drink from a bowl of water she was asked to fetch while out working in the fields.
Days later, the women complained that she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. Bibi was set upon by a mob, arrested by police and sentenced on November 8.
Rights activists and pressure groups say it is the first time that a woman had been sentenced to hang in Pakistan for blasphemy.
Only around three percent of Pakistan’s population of 167 million are estimated to be non-Muslim.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
China Issues Warning Ahead of U.S.-South Korea Drills
China warned on Friday against military acts near its coastline ahead of U.S.-South Korean naval exercises that North Korea, days after shelling a South Korean island, said risked pushing the region towards war.
Beijing’s warning came as the Seoul government named a career soldier as its new defence minister amid mounting criticism of the response to Tuesday’s attack by North Korea, its heaviest bombardment since the 1950-53 Korean War.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Korean President Names New Defense Minister Amid Turmoil
SEOUL — South Korean President Lee Myung-bak appointed his security adviser as new defense minister Friday, Korean media reported, as tensions rise after a deadly artillery attack by North Korea this week.
Lee Hee-won, the new minister, is a career military man who advocates a “smart” military able to anticipate and react quickly to North Korea’s unpredictable moves.
He replaces Kim Tae-young, who quit Thursday after criticism about the pace of South Korea’s response to North Korea’s shelling Tuesday of an island near their disputed maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea. Four South Koreans were killed and 20 were wounded.
The president accepted Kim’s resignation “to improve the atmosphere in the military and to handle the series of incidents,” a presidential official said.
Media have described the new minister as experienced in military operations and well versed in cooperating with the armed forces of the United States, South Korea’s biggest ally.
The U.S. aircraft carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington was on its way to participate in Yellow Sea exercises with the South Korean navy starting Sunday.
Although planned before this week’s attack, the four-day maneuvers are a show of strength that could enrage North Korea and has already unsettled its major ally and neighbor, China.
Washington is putting pressure on China to rein in North Korea and ease the tension in the world’s fastest-growing region.
President Obama is likely to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao within days about the Korean situation, a White House official said, though no date had been set for the call.
But a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the focus should be placed on a revival of the stalled six-party denuclearization talks grouping the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States. North Korea has defied international efforts to halt its nuclear weapons program…
| [Return to headlines] |
UK: Five Leicester Men Sentenced After Illegal Immigration Scam
Five Leicester men have today (Thursday November 25) been sentenced for their part in an illegal immigration scam.
Bhavesh Patel (27) of Columbine Road, Hamilton, Satish Ravat (28) of Arbour Road, Leicester, Sandip Singh Rana (29) of Moores Road, Leicester, Jaswinder Chahal (42) of Swithland Avenue, Leicester and Vishal Jitendra Shah (25) of Braemar Close, Leicester pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court at an earlier hearing to assisting unlawful immigration to a member state contrary to section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971.
In January 2009, a joint investigation began with Leicestershire Constabulary’s Rebutia Team and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) when the authorities at Manchester Airport became suspicious of the number of passengers travelling from their airport and arriving in Canada without adequate travelling documents.
Investigations revealed a highly organised criminal operation involving legitimate UK passport holders who bought tickets to Canada, then travelled to Manchester Airport to board the flight. A switch was then made where a person, who was already in the UK illegally, would board the flight using false passports. This person would then later arrive in Canada claiming to have no adequate travel documents.
Enquiries quickly led Leicestershire Constabulary to the legitimate UK passport holders who used their details and credit cards to purchase the tickets and supposedly check in for the intended flight.
In March 2009, warrants were executed at several addresses in Leicestershire and a number of people were arrested, including the five men who have been sentenced today.
Sergeant Pete Copple, seconded from Leicestershire Constabulary to the UK Border Agency’s foreign national crime team, led the investigation. He said: “These people committed a serious offence and had no thought whatsoever to the UK’s immigration laws by facilitating these individuals travelling abroad unlawfully.
“We have worked closely with Manchester Airport, GMP and the authorities in Canada throughout this investigation and we would like to thank them for their assistance and co-operation.
“I am pleased with the guilty pleas and this once again sends out a clear message to those who commit immigration related crime that they will be targeted by police and immigration officers working alongside each other in the Leicestershire foreign national crime team.”
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Brown, from the UK Border Agency, said: “This case highlights how organised these people are and the lengths they will go to in order to breach immigration laws. I am pleased we have successfully dismantled this gang and this shows we are determined to stamp out this kind of crime. The joint police and immigration crime teams are actively targeting these gangs and anyone with any information can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
Defendants were sentenced as follows:-
- Bhavesh Patel received 20 months imprisonment
- Satish Ravat received 20 months imprisonment
- Sandip Singh Rana received 28 months imprisonment
- Jaswinder Chahal received 15 months imprisonment
- Vishal Jitendra Shah received 28 months imprisonment
| — Hat tip: Bewick | [Return to headlines] |
Eugenics is Not ‘Right-Wing’
Following Howard Flight’s breaking of the unofficial rule that no one in Parliament should speak the truth about anything, Dave Osler at Liberal Conspiracy writes, in an article called “Eugenics and the Tory Right”:
“It seems that Lord F is just the latest upholder of the tradition of class-based eugenics that has been a singularly ugly undercurrent in British intellectual life at least since 1798, the year in which an anonymous pamphlet entitled “An Essay on the Principle of Population” first saw the light of day.”
Hmm. And where did that ugly undercurrent come from? What, for instance, have Marie Stopes, HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes and Sidney Webb all got in common? All of them are progressives from the Leftie pantheon who believed the state should forcibly sterilise large sections of the population.
[…]
A progressive, Left-wing middle-class elite, as most of the eugenicists were right up until the Second World War, after which eugenics became discredited and — not coincidentally — associated with conservatives.
Eugenics didn’t die out, however. It simply re-branded itself “family planning”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
John Lennon Airport Sexual Image Atheist Gets Asbo
A “militant atheist” who left explicit images in a prayer room at Liverpool John Lennon Airport has been given a six-month suspended sentence.
Harry Taylor, 59, of Salford, left images of religious figures in sexual poses on three occasions in 2008.
Jurors found him guilty of causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress in March.
He was also given a five-year Anti-social Behaviour Order (Asbo) at Liverpool Crown Court.
Among the posters, one image showed a smiling crucified Christ next to an advert for a brand of “no nails” glue.
In another, Islamic suicide bombers at the gates of paradise were told: “Stop, stop, we’ve run out of virgins.”
Taylor, of Griffin Street, in Higher Broughton, told jurors he was sexually abused by Catholic priests as a youngster.
Insults to Islam
But he said he bore no grudge against people of faith and claimed he was merely trying to convert believers to atheism.
Some of his cartoons went far beyond exercising freedom of expression, prosecutor Neville Biddle said.
One image showed a pig excreting sausages with insults to Islam, and others linked Muslims to attacks on airports.
The chaplain at the airport was “severely distressed” by the discoveries, the court heard.
Taylor was convicted of similar offences in 2006.
There were dramatic scenes at the sentencing hearing.
While Judge Charles James told Taylor’s barrister Brigid Baillie he was considering making him pay costs, the defendant began wheezing.
Judge James adjourned the hearing for 10 minutes for a first-aider to be called.
Taylor left the court room but returned shortly afterwards.
Judge James said: “Not only have you shown no remorse for what you did, but even now you continue to maintain that you have done nothing wrong and say that whenever you feel like it you intend to do the same thing again in the future.”
Taylor’s Asbo bans him from carrying religiously offensive material in a public place.
The six-month prison sentence was suspended for two years. Taylor was also ordered to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £250 costs.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change Idiocy and the Economist
For a brief period I subscribed to The Economist, the London-based internationally distributed magazine, but I stopped as it became obvious that its editors are idiots and the general purpose of the magazine is to ignore any and all facts that might contradict their obsession with “global warming” and now “climate change.”
Last year, The Economist had a cover that said, “Stop Climate Change.” That’s like saying stop the Earth from circumnavigating the Sun. The issue came out about the same time as the entire fictitious infrastructure of “global warming” came undone and resulted in the collapse of the last United Nations conference of liars who had gathered in Copenhagen to impose the purchase, sale and trade of “carbon credits” on the world.
A year later, the Chicago Exchange that had been set up to cash in on the scam had closed its doors. The one in Europe is selling carbon credits for pennies these days. Naturally, California, besotted with global warming idiocy, is preparing to have its own exchanges.
Apparently, despite glaring headlines in British newspapers, no one at The Economist was aware that the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of East Anglia University, had been found to be rigging the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change data for years.
[…]
So what is climate change policy really about? It is about how “we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth…” If this sounds like the usual communist claptrap, it is.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
In hoc signo vinces
@Caroline Glick: Rocking Obama’s World.
In the UK we now have a former Somali taxi driver fronting foreign affairs.
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