Austerity: Brussels Awards Itself a Pay-Rise
“It is an embarrassing victory for Brussels,” remarks Le Figaro. “At a time when the Commission is telling member states to tighten their belts, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled in favour of EU civil servants who filed suit to defend their right to a 3.7% payrise. The news will be a bitter pill for national governments, who argued that ‘in view of the current crisis’ the increase should be divided in two.”
The French daily explains that in its 24 November ruling, the court concluded that the European Council “did not have the margin of appreciation” to cancel an annual scheduled increase in the salaries of 45,000 EU civil servants in a period of economic crisis. The decision may be logical, but as Le Figaro notes, “the timing of the ruling, which coincides with a general strike against austerity in Portugal and parliamentary debate on a draconian recovery plan in Ireland” is disastrous.
“The decision will likely bring more ire to the dispute over an increase to the EU’s budget, which has resulted in a power struggle between the European Parliament and Europe’s member states, which want any increase in spending to be limited to 2.9%. Both parties are waiting for the Commission to prepare a second proposal, and in the meantime, the 2011 budget will remain blocked.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Globalism Revisited
Globalism’s Central Organizing Principle: Sustainable Development
While propelling the misleading ideal of “global democracy,” today’s burgeoning, borderless, one-world state operates under the United Nations’ guiding principle of sustainable development. While the term “sustainable development,” or “smart growth,” has a noble ring, its agenda is by no means faith-, family-, or America- friendly.
In 1948, a preliminary draft of a World Constitution included the right of a Federal Republic of the World to seize and use property in sustainable society.[3] Keep in mind that Point One of the Communist Manifesto likewise calls for outright abolition of private property; and sustainable development is described, not in any of our nation’s founding documents, but rather in the 1997 USSR Constitution (Chapter #2; Article 18).
In his letter to President George Bush dated December 25, 2000, Mikhail Gorbachev insisted that America’s extraordinary privilege is not tenable over the long run. To the contrary, the one-world vision demands “equitable distribution” of the world’s finite resources. This Robin Hood approach to wealth distribution is classic Marxism.[4]
[…]
Furthermore, the federal government owns some 40 percent of the entire land mass of our nation; and states own a big hunk as well. When it comes to land use under UN control, there is no clear distinction between federal and privately owned land.
Purposing to “wild” fully half of U.S. land, the United Nations Wildlands Project describes biosphere core- and buffer- zones with corridors as places where, in the words of Professor Reed F. Noss (University of Florida), “collectivist needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans.”[8]
[…]
Maurice Strong’s 1,100-page Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA) implements policy of a treaty signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Put out by Cambridge University, the GBA suggests a cure for “human-pox”: Simply cut the world’s population by approximately 80 percent and then establish a feudal lifestyle short on amenities, tall on earth servitude a la Gorbachev.[11]
Moreover, Canadian billionaire and 1992 Rio Earth Summit secretary-general Strong contends that global ecosystems will be preserved only when affluent nations significantly lower their standards of living.
[…]
Population Control
Nevertheless, sustainable development calls for population control of Malthusian magnitude.[20] It is no wonder that death by suicide, physician assistance, abortion, and euthanasia enjoy high profile, big money, organizational clout.[21]
The United Nations’ Year of the Family is a campaign to redefine the nuclear traditional family in support of cohabitation, single-parent households, and same-gender partnerships.[22] Intolerance for homosexual unions is decreed a global threat because non-proliferating alternative lifestyles, as theirs, bear the sustainability seal of approval.
The same applies to legalized, nonproductive, and “safe” voluntary prostitution, likewise advanced by an international bill of rights for women called the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.[23]
[…]
Hence, Constitutional rights to life, liberty, property and privacy are undermined systematically by a “rigged,” PC-propelled consensus process. Then, they are violated by uniform governmental building, conservation, property maintenance, and zoning codes, purportedly to preserve our planet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Still Flocking for Shopping in New York
Despite recession, bargains drive shoppers
IT’S that time of the year again, when Irish couples, friends and families descend upon New York in their droves for what one woman recently told the Irish Voice is a shopping spree in “Bargain Apple.”
Despite the devastating recession in a country that has made international headlines for the financial mess it finds itself in, some Irish people are still finding extra change in their pockets to make a trip to New York for their holiday shopping.
Standing amidst Ralph Lauren shirts and trousers in Macy’s in Herald Square on West 34th Street on a recent Friday were two burly men from Co. Monaghan who were laden down with suitcases and shopping bags.
Deep in conversation, presumably about man related stuff, Peter Drummey and Jason Knightly flushed with embarrassment when the Irish Voice made note of their bulging bags on Friday, November 13.
“Do you really think we could possibly buy all this stuff between us?” said Drummey half defensively.
The two friends were waiting on their wives, who had apparently given them strict instructions “not to budge from that spot” until their return.
Knightly admitted they agreed to watch their wives’ bags as a trade off for a “day free of shopping on Saturday.”
“Tomorrow is our day and we plan to go to an Irish bar, watch the Liverpool game and have a few pints,” said Knightly, excited with anticipation.
Drummey, a part-time musical director with a local theater in Co. Monaghan, and Knightly, a mechanical engineering teacher, accompany their wives to New York every year. Despite the cutbacks their paychecks have taken they were still determined “not to let the girls down” this year
Knightly said sacrifices had to be made this year so they could “afford” their annual trip.
“We usually come to New York for a week but this year, mainly because of the price of hotels, we are only here for four days,” explained Knightly.
“We also skipped a friend’s wedding in Spain in September so we could pay for this trip.”
Drummey, who also purposely missed out on the wedding as well, admitted he and his wife don’t “plan to spend” as much this year as previous years.
“Our budget is usually about $3,000 but we’ve cut that down to $2,000 because we just don’t have it this year,” he said.
Although not divulging how much money he makes a week, Drummey said his take home pay is considerably lower than it was this time last year, forcing the cuts.
“To be honest, if it wasn’t for Sally’s good job (his wife works as a therapist) we probably wouldn’t be here,” he admitted.
The friends, who have known each other for over 10 years, had no idea what their wives had purchased, but knew they weren’t done.
“All I know is they keep saying, ‘This is such a bargain, I can’t leave it behind,’ so when I hear those words I just switch off, hand over the wallet and keep the head down,” laughs Knightly.
PEERING at sparkling jewelry was Co. Donegal native Sarah Coll. Coll, a foster mom of two, was in New York to celebrate her 50th birthday.
The birthday girl was joined by her sister-in-law Madge McFadden and her two daughters, Noreen and Agnes.
“I turned 50 this year so we all decided to come to New York to celebrate,” Coll told the Irish Voice, while joking that she didn’t have any lipstick on for a picture.
Coming to New York is a rare occurrence for Coll. Her last visit was seven years ago and she never envisioned herself back again.
“I was over the moon when the girls organized the trip,” said Coll, while eyeing up a bracelet.
Coll admitted the only way she could afford to come back to the Big Apple was because she had dollars tucked away for a number of years.
“My husband and I were supposed to go to San Francisco five years ago but it fell through so I kept all the dollars from then, so that’s my spending money,” she said.
As for Noreen, an engineer with Donegal County Council, and Agnes, a student, they planned to shop till they dropped.
“We saved for this a long time,” admits Agnes, who once lived in New York and hadn’t been back since.
The Colls isters were on a mission to buy as much designer labels as possible.
“I just put away a Guess bag and wallet that’s $180. At home you’d pay about 200 sterling for the bag alone,” said Noreen.
Agnes, nodding her head in agreement, said she would be making a stop at the Tommy Hilfiger section of the store to purchase her designer labels too.
“Again, the price of Tommy Hilfiger here is so much cheaper than home, so that’s where we are heading next,” she said.
Coll and McFadden, although they had a list of presents they planned to purchase, was also looking forward to doing some sightseeing during their five-day vacation.
“We’re also going up to Woodlawn (in the Bronx) to visit friends,” said Coll.
HONEYMOONERS Andrea Sheehan and Paul O’Shea from Co. Cork were doing the laps of Macy’s on Friday.
They had just completed a Caribbean cruise and a few days in Las Vegas and were spending the remaining four days of their honeymoon in the Big Apple, mainly for a spot of shopping but also to see some Manhattan sights.
It was the first time the pair had ever been to New York, and although they were more enamored with Las Vegas, they were enjoying their time in the city and enjoying the shopping bargains more than ever.
Sheehan, who works in finance, had already purchased a Tommy Hilfiger coat, a few high-end handbags and Ugg boots.
O’Shea, not as enthusiastic on the shopping as his newlywed, had purchased a few bits and was ready to close the door on their shopping spree.
O’Shea, an electrician who is still managing to get an average of three days work a week during the recession, said they would pick up several presents while in New York.
“We’ll get a few presents and bits and pieces but we won’t be going too mad,” said O’Shea.
Sheehan smiled when asked was there a budget and said, “We’ll see.”
FOR an Irish train driver and his family, spending a week in New York was a bi-annual family tradition that they had no intention of letting the recession put a stop to it.
Sean Finnerty, his wife, Deirdre and daughters, Saoirse, 11 and Riona, 9, were rifling through the Guess handbags on the ground floor of Macy’s when the Irish Voice caught up with them.
“We love New York and come here every two years,” said Deirdre, a homemaker.
Finnerty, who works with Iarnroid Eireann (Irish Rail) and has suffered pay cuts like the rest of the government employees, said the family saved hard for this holiday.
“To be honest we are staying with family in Flushing which makes it possible for us to be here,” said Finnerty, while holding three bags from Abercrombie and Fitch.
“We usually stay in hotels but they are very expensive so we are lucky to have family here that can put us up, making our trip possible,” he added.
The Finnertys, from Co. Mayo, were in town two days and already had made a good dent in their spending money.
“Oh we’ve already done a lot of shopping,” smiles Deirdre.
“I got a hoodie from Abercrombie,” shares Saoirse holding up her bag.
“I also got t-shirts from Abercrombie,” adds Riona.
Deirdre and her husband had made several purchases for themselves in the all-American lifestyle store too.
“They are mad for Abercrombie in Ireland,” smiles Finnerty.
The Co. Mayo family was also in the market for jeans, shirts and jumpers.
“I’ve also been looking at getting a nice watch,” added Finnerty.
The family spent most of their days in shops and most of their evenings in nice restaurants.
“We’ve gotten used to the fine dining lifestyle in New York and have a few favorite restaurants that we go to when we come here,” said Deirdre.
To afford their trip to New York this year the Finnertys had to skip their annual sun holiday.
“We had to make scarifies somewhere, but we don’t mind at all cause we love New York and this is where the girls love coming to too,” explained Finnerty.
STANDING outside Bank of America, two blocks from Macys, and looking exasperated, were two friends from Co. Donegal.
Nadine Daly and Melissa Bailey were having issues with credit cards and “nearly had heart-failure” when they thought their shopping spree was about to come to an abrupt end.
“I was in the Gap and had about $300 worth of clothes at the counter when the lady said my credit card was refused,” said Daly half angrily, half sadly.
Daly’s bank in Ireland, Bank of Ireland, cancelled her card because they
suspected suspicious activity.
“They cancelled my card because it has never been used in New York before so they thought it was stolen,” she added.
“I’ve spent most of the cash I brought ($1,300) and began using my card today for the final bits and pieces I wanted,” said Daly, who works as a dental secretary.
Bailey, a social worker, was on hand to support her friend.
I told her she could use my card because my limit is over 6,000 euros and I’m not planning on spending that,” said Bailey, who had only been to New York once when she was a teenager.
The friends asked Bank of America for help and they advised them to call Bank of Ireland and the situation would be sorted soon enough.
“We’re about to call this number on the back now so hopefully I’ll be back shopping before the shops close,” said Daly optimistically.
“We didn’t come to ‘Bargain Apple’ to sight-see, that’s for sure,” laughs Bailey.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Student Protestors Breach Italian Senate Building
Clashes with police in central Rome after group ejected
(ANSA) — Rome, November 24 — A group of students unleashed mayhem at the Italian Senate on Wednesday when they managed to push through the building’s main entrance door before being ejected by police.
Clashes ensued in the area of the houses of parliament in central Rome following the raid by students protesting against education cuts.
Outside the Senate students let off smoke bombs and threw eggs at the building.
They then threw stones at, and clashed with, officers, who used batons to stop them reaching the area of the Lower House.
A member of the Senate staff had a dizzy spell, a police officer was injured and one student was detained.
The protestors chanted “resign, resign”, a call directed at Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini.
The violence follows a nationwide one-day student strike last week that was marred by vandalism in some cities and caused widespread disruption.
Wednesday’s incidents were condemned by all sides of the Italian political spectrum.
“The raid by so-called students on the Senate stirs a sense of deep pity for this segment of Italy’s young people who are raised on hate, rancour and physical aggression towards those who are different from them,” said Daniele Capezzone, the spokesman for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Anna Finocchiaro, the Senate whip for the Democratic Party (PD), the largest centre-left opposition group, commented that “all forms of violence should be isolated”.
She added that a group of peaceful demonstrators she met had also condemned acts they claimed were carried out by a fringe of extremists. Italian students are unhappy at cuts that have hit primary, secondary and higher education across the board, putting thousands of non-tenured and short-term teachers out of work.
The government says these measures are necessary as part of its bid to rein in public spending and reduce the nation’s deficit.
Gelmini is also pushing through reforms aimed at, among other things, linking schools with businesses — a plan denounced as alleged privatisation — and at breaking down the almost feudal ‘baronies’ that reportedly have a stranglehold in many universities.
Gelmini has promised that “most” of the out-of-work temp teachers will be given permanent jobs “in five years”.
She said Wednesday that the students were wrong to protest against moves she says will slim down a bloated system where too many teachers were cruising in jobs for life.
“These protestors are in danger of defending the baronies, privileges and the status quo,” she said.
The minister argued the protestors were being manipulated by the opposition and described PD leader Pierluigi Bersani’s decision to climb to the roof of Rome University’s Architecture Faculty to speak to demonstrators there as “showboating”. Finocchiaro hit back by saying Gelmini was “taking students and their families for a ride” by claiming it was possible to reform Italy’s education system without investing new money into it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Circus Reveals Dangers of Marxist Politically Correct Security Rules
Enormous problems exist in TSA airline screening resulting from the nonsensical mixing of Political Correctness into safety procedures. Specifically, the problem is doctrines of progressive social engineering have become so powerful a centerpiece in minds of the elites that our very safety is threatened by this misbegotten ideology. Unsurprisingly, Political Correctness (PC) is not a randomly occurring phenomenon. Yet many will be shocked to discover PC is a product of social Marxism directed by expatriate German intellectuals in America after WWI.
This article shall briefly examine the history of Marxist Political Correctness as well as to the larger problem of liberal ideology and its pernicious affects upon America. More specifically the issue is leftist refusal to accept the Tragic Vision of life as presented by the classical and biblical world view which the founders of our culture originally envisioned.
I. Problems at TSA
It’s no secret that TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, has recently ramped up airline security measures for the holidays in 2010. But much confusion and outrage has followed in the wake because of how the TSA is doing this. In a nutshell, TSA is treating all fliers as if they have an equal chance of being a terrorist. In other words, an 89 year old nun and a 5 year old child could be patted down and strip searched as quickly as a twenty five-year-old male Saudi visitor. Does this strike anyone as a sane standard?
II. What is Political Correctness?
Despite the fact that most polite citizens must ponder Political Correctness daily to be sure they avoid the myriad pitfalls of not making “insensitive” remarks, a truly perceptive definition of PC is hard to come by. The Free Dictionary has this:
1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. 2. Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters.
Political Correctness is first a movement of speech purification which is meant to remove any objectionable content that unfairly differentiates between the speaker and different subgroups. It is also supposed to change behavior by promoting these subgroups. It typically buries traditional morality along the way. The real problem with PC is that it is a theoretical standard which has real world consequences that can be quite appalling.
[…]
Imagine in how many different ways the PC movement has hampered the ability of America to wage war effectively. These PC-styled Rules of Engagement have so hampered US forces in Afghanistan that the enemy often can claim strategic advantage in planning attacks despite all their weaknesses. Such doctrines as “Asymmetrical Warfare,” badly hamper a fair fight, needlessly killing Americans and other NATO participants in Afghanistan.
[…]
IV. History of Political Correctness
Political Correctness is a set of doctrines first articulated by the Frankfurt School, a group of Marxist professors who escaped Nazi Germany to avoid the wrath of Adolph Hitler before WWII. As Bill Lind states, “If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Update: Fire Was Intentionally Set at Islamic Center in Corvallis Where Alleged Bomb Plot Suspect Attended
A fire reported early this morning at the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center in Corvallis where Portland bomb plot suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud sometimes attended is being called arson.
The fire was reported at about 2:15 a.m. today. Corvallis Fire Department spokeswoman Carla Pusateri said the fire was intentionally set, but would not say what led investigators to the conclusion.
Pusateri said a police officer on duty spotted the fire at 2:15 a.m. and called for help.
“It was discovered much sooner than it could have been,” she said.
Islamic Center leader Imaam Yosof Wanly said he doesn’t believe the fire is a reflection on the community of Corvallis where he has lived for 24 years.
“I know people here know the true reality of the Muslim community here,” he said. “It’s a sad situation.”
Wanly condemned the alleged plot by the 19-year-old Oregon State University student, stating he “denounced the actions of Mohamed Mohamud.”
Mohamud was not a regular attendee of the mosque, but he came once or twice a month since arriving on campus, according to Wanly.
The fire was contained to one room in the mosque, an office, which was 80 percent damaged and there were no injuries. It took firefighters about 10 minutes to put out the fire.
Early Sunday morning, a pile of charred items were placed on a green tarp near where the office was located on the first floor of the northwest side of the building. There is no sign on the two-story, white stucco structure that states the name of the center.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
What is a Sustainable Community?
What the term “sustainable development” really means is development that is dictated by, or otherwise approved by government. The term “sustainable communities” means communities that are dictated by, or otherwise approved by government. Those who doubt this reality are invited to read Chris Dodd’s Livable Communities Act (S-1619) and then read Agenda 21. There will be no doubt where Mr. Dodd got the ideas for his Bill.
[…]
Social engineering by the federal government goes beyond regional government and reaches into counties, cities, and towns. Often encouraged by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the National Council of Mayors, the National Association of County Commissioners, and the promise of federal grants, local communities are falling all over themselves to become politically-correct sustainable communities.
Sustainable communities present three problems:
1. the initiative for a community to become a sustainable community almost always comes from outside the community; 2. the comprehensive plan through which a community is transformed into a sustainable community always infringes, and in many instances completely destroys, private property rights; and 3. the local community rarely knows anything about the plan until it reaches the final stages of adoption.
This process, of course, is by design. In communities that have been transformed, individuals may discover that they cannot build a house for grandma on five acres of their own land because the county’s comprehensive plan requires no more than one home per 40-acres. Many communities discover that their comprehensive plan includes a provision to incorporate by reference the entire set of 13 different codes developed by the International Code Council. Each of these codes amounts to government dictating human behavior.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why American Airport Security is Really So Horrendous
By Barry Rubin
Security checks at American airports have become the most controversial topic in the United States. This debate is so full of mistaken assumptions and misleading ideas that it is hard to know where to start in analyzing it.
Basically, it can be described as follows: Let’s intensively search fifteen million at random—worse, using silly profiling guidelines—in hope of finding one or two terrorists who, if they exist at all, are almost certainly using an innovative tactic that will get by our procedures.
Let’s consider the terrorist threat within the United States. The opening point must be that the threat of terrorism on airplanes within the United States is very low in frequency. That doesn’t mean a successful attack might not be horrendous, but that the number of attacks the terrorists can mount is going to be small.
Ask yourself this question: How many terrorists will try this year to get on board internal U.S. plane flights? The answer might be zero and it is almost certainly lower than five.
Why is this? It is hard to mount a sophisticated attack from within the United States in the post-September 11 period. The number of people ready to be suicide terrorists in this manner is limited in the U.S. population, as is the number of good bomb-makers. Terrorists also have many other targets and, indeed, the greatest danger is an individual attack using simple technology on very easy targets, as happened at Fort Hood and on many other occasions.
The goal of U.S. internal airport security, then, is to be so impressive that it scares off terrorists, to catch any terrorists who are trying to board, and to persuade the citizenry that the situation is well in hand and that the experts know what they are doing.
Yet here’s the reality. At a railroad station in California, one of my colleagues was asked by a security screener to show his driver’s license. He started laughing and asked, “Why?”
The guard said back sarcastically, “Haven’t you heard of September 11?”
But that’s why my colleague was laughing. All of the September 11 hijackers did have valid drivers’ licenses. And a terrorist who is going to blow up something can easily get a phony driver’s license. Thus, asking for such a document makes the guard (and the public) feel better but it is utterly worthless.
No doubt, the U.S. government will claim that it has achieved the goal of keeping terrorists out of airports. But this is misleading. The TSA has literally never caught a terrorist at an airport. And why go through an airport nowadays with any reasonable level of security when you can look for relatively unguarded targets? That’s what terrorists do.
What is the strategy of a smart warrior? Get his enemy to send all of his troops to guard someplace and then hit at a weak point somewhere else.
For good reason, then, the terrorists have moved to other methods and targets…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Release of Embassy Cables Reveals US Concerns
Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has released 250,000 secret messages sent by US embassies which give an insight into current American global concerns.
They include reports of some Arab leaders — including Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah — urging the US to attack Iran and end its nuclear weapons programme.
Other concerns include the security of Pakistani nuclear material that could be used to make an atomic weapon.
The widespread use of hacking by the Chinese government is also reported.
The leaked US embassy cables also reportedly include accounts of:
- Iran attempting to adapt North Korean rockets for use as long-range missiles
- Corruption within the Afghan government, with concerns heightened when a senior official was found to be carrying more than $50m in cash on a foreign trip
- Bargaining to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison camp — including Slovenian diplomats being told to take in a freed prisoner if they wanted to secure a meeting with President Barack Obama
- US officials being instructed to spy on the UN’s leadership
- The very close relationship between Russian PM Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi
- Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime
- Criticism of UK politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron
- Faltering US attempts to prevent Syria from supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon
The US government has condemned the release of state department documents.
“President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal,” a White House statement said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorised disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.”
The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, says the US authorities are afraid of being held to account.
Earlier, Wikileaks said it had come under attack from a computer-hacking operation.
“We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack,” it reported on its Twitter feed.
No-one has been charged with passing the diplomatic files to the website but suspicion has fallen on US Army private Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over an earlier leak of classified US documents to Mr Assange’s organisation.
Wikileaks argues that the site’s previous releases shed light on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks: American Anger is Laid Bare in Leaked Papers
American annoyance with an airline tax that came into force this month is to be laid bare in a provocative release of classified military documents.
Washington’s anger with the new aviation passenger duty, Britain’s extradition arrangements with America and lax visa checks on Pakistanis coming to Britain are to be revealed in thousands of secret memoranda and cables.
The Wikileaks website began releasing damaging diplomatic cables detailing the private views of US diplomats about the Government.
The disclosures include telegrams that disclose diplomats’ private assessments of the British Government and British politicians.
They include concerns about:
- A new aviation passenger duty which came into force on Nov 1, increasing the tax on flying to the US by a third
- The Coalition’s commitment to review the “one way” extradition treaty, under which computer expert Gary McKinnon is set to be sent to America on hacking charges
- Lax immigration rules that have allowed potential terror suspects to enter Britain from Pakistan.
Other issues that could come up include fears that the Coalition would be unstable and that Gordon Brown was a weak prime minister. The documents are being released in a “drip-feed” fashion over the coming fortnight in a move that will put the British-American special relationship under pressure.
America has warned foreign ministries in more than a dozen countries, including key allies Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel and Turkey, that they might feature.
Prince Hassan of Jordan said yesterday that the release of the documents could “inflame passions” in the Middle East. He told Sky News: “There is a possibility of a confrontation with the Palestinians that leads to a confrontation with Hamas, Hizbollah, like a domino.”
[…]
[DF — even the US thinks we have lax visa checks on Pakistanis]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Pakistani May Have Kidnapped His Children
Upper Austrian police have issued an international arrest warrant after a divorced man failed to return from an outing with his four kids.
Authorities suspect the 51-year-old Pakistani of having abducted the children aged between three and eight. Their mother informed the police when he did not return after taking them for a trip last Saturday.
The couple were recently divorced, and the Vöcklabruck-based woman has legal custody of the children. Her former husband is allowed to spend time with them every other weekend.
Provincial police official Alois Lißl announced today (Fri) that a local youth welfare organisation received a fax claiming that the man has taken his children to Thailand. Lißl said investigators think the document is a fake.
He added: “Thai authorities checked travel records and informed us that the five people in question did not enter the country.”
Austrian authorities issued an international warrant of the man accused of parental child abduction.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: North Leafleted Over Paedophile Catholic Priests
Genova, 25 Nov. (AKI) — Activists in the northern coastal city of Savona on Thursday planned to distribute leaflets throughout the province condemning the Catholic church’s failure to take action over local paedophile clergy.
The leaflet by the Committee for the Victims of Paedophilia in the Savona Area will especially blame Savona’s bishop, Vittorio Lupi, and the Savona diocese for the alleged clerical sex abuse.
While paedophile priest scandals have rocked the United States, Ireland and Germany, abuse cases in Italy have been emerging slowly.
Around 100 sexual abuse victims including Italian victims on 31 October marched in Rome near the Vatican to demand Pope Benedict XVI take firmer action against priests who committed abuse.
The protesters included about 55 deaf Italians from a notorious Catholic institute for the deaf in Verona, where dozens of students say they were sodomised by priests over decades.
The Vatican has been accused of a vast cover-up of widespread abuse by not removing suspected paedophile priests or turning them over to police.
Earlier this year it published the guidelines it has been using since 2003, claiming all cases are reported to the police as soon as possible.
It has also said that Pope Benedict XVI will be able to defrock paedophiles immediately.
An elderly Italian priest is on trial for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in the northern city of Milan.
A 74-year-old priest was in June removed from his position in northern Italy after confessing he sexually abused minors in the Alto Adige region’s Bolzano-Brixen diocese.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Presents ‘Plan for the South’
Mezzogiorno to benefit from 80 billion euros in investments
(ANSA) — Rome, November 26 — The Italian government on Friday launched a new ‘plan for the south’ aimed at helping the poorer half of Italy, the so-called Mezzogiorno, rev up its economy and catch up with the rest of the country.
The 80-billion-euro plan aims to build new infrastructure, railways and schools, provide tax breaks for companies that move to the south, and set up a new Banca del Mezzogiorno to fuel business growth.
During the presentation of the plan, Economy Minister Tremonti explained that the bank was key to regional development because it will make credit available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“The government will seek to involve the largest number of local banks possible which can encourage the creation and expansion of SMEs. Nothing like this has ever been done before” in Italy, the minister said.
The Banca del Mezzogiorno will in fact be an institution which will guarantee credit granted by local banks. The core of the new bank will be Mediocredito Central, a commercial bank specialised in offering development credit to SMEs which is part of UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank.
Next week the Italian postal service and the association of local banks BCC, which will handle the retail side of the new bank, are expected to make an offer to acquire Mediocredito Centrale from UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank.
The government development plan also calls for setting up a JEREMIE Fund which will pool together structural funds offered by the European Union, which will then be administered by Banca del Mezzogiorno.
JEREMIE is an acronym for Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises.
According to Tremonti, “the problem for the Mezzogiorno is not the lack of funds but the inability of local administrators to utilise them. We have seen some cases in which the funds were either used badly or not used at all”. The infrastructure projects listed in the government’s plan included, aside from railways, roads, sewers, gas distribution, public water supply, transport, ports and airports.
Some 12.5 billion euros in the plan will be earmarked for research and development, technological development and innovation.
The plan also focuses on combating crime and the underground economy through greater transparency in public works contracts and improving the judicial process.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Carfagna Not Quitting, Berlusconi Says
‘It’s all sorted out with Mara,’ premier says
(ANSA) — Rome, November 25 — Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna has changed her mind about quitting, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday.
“It’s all sorted out with Mara. I spoke to her for two hours yesterday. She understood and said she’s not quitting,” Berlusconi told the executive of his People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Earlier, heading into the meeting, Carfagna said she was “hopeful” on the issue.
According to the Italian media, the high-profile and telegenic minister decided to resign from government because of a PdL feud in Campania, her home region.
Some speculated the move was a prelude to her running for the post of Naples mayor next year.
Carfagna, 34, announced this week she is getting married next May to a Rome construction magnate and wants to have at least two children “before it is too late”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Online Giant Amazon Lands in Italy
Retailer confident of success on new market
(ANSA) — Rome, November 23 — Online retail giant Amazon landed in Italy on Tuesday with the launch of a new Italian-language site that it says will broaden choice for consumers and boost the nation’s e-commerce sector. The retailer has grown into a $24.5-billion business since its birth in Seattle in 1994 thanks to a formula based on fast delivery and passing to customers savings derived from bulk buying and cutting out middlemen.
The new site has started out with a stock of around two million books to sell, along with music, films, videogames, watches, electronic and computer goods and toys.
The range of products is set to grow rapidly, Amazon said.
“This is only the beginning: over the next few months we’ll enrich our range with even more (product) categories,” founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a message posted on the site Tuesday.
“We’re happy to be in Italy and hope you like our site”.
The goods listed featured photos and detailed descriptions and some, such as Ken Follett’s latest bestseller Fall of Giants, already had reviews and ratings by Italian users. Previously clients in Italy wanting to buy products via Amazon had to use one of its sites for another country, which usually meant extra delivery costs.
The company is confident its arrival in Italy will be a success.
“We were already present in seven of the Group of Eight countries, Italy was the one we were missing,” said Diego Piacentini, Amazon’s senior vice president of international retail.
“Our arrival won’t damage the rest of Italy’s online retail market.
“E-commerce in Italy is so small at the moment that it can only be a good thing.
“This is a market where there isn’t just one winner, there are lots of opportunities for everyone.
“Over the next few months we’ll keep working so that all the categories available in the United States are available here too”. For the moment Amazon’s Italian site will not give people the opportunity they have in other countries to buy and sell used goods on it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Warns Britain: We Switched to Berlin Time and it Was a Catastrophe
Britain has been warned that switching to Berlin Time could have a damaging effect on health, education, energy consumption and commerce.
As MPs prepare to vote on the proposal this week, warning bells were sounded in Portugal, which went through a disastrous four-year experiment with Berlin Time in the Nineties.
The change was foisted upon an unsuspecting public by the Lisbon government. Politicians there deployed identical arguments to those now being fed to Britons by the Bill’s supporters.
[…]
The Lisbon government made the switch in 1992 to bring Portugal into line with many other European countries. But it soon became clear that Portugal’s position on the western edge of Europe meant it had more in common with Britain than with Germany or Poland.
The hugely unpopular and costly experiment was abandoned in 1996 after a government commission condemned it as a spectacular failure.
The Portuguese found that changing to Berlin Time — officially known as Continental Time — led to poorer exam results as children could not get to sleep because of the lighter evenings and were therefore tired at school the following day.
There was also an increase in stress levels, insomnia and consumption of sleeping pills. More road accidents occurred during the darker winter mornings and energy bills rose because households used more electricity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Royals Caught in Secrets Leak: Biggest Intelligence Leak in History Reveals U.S. Contempt for World Leaders — and Concern at Prince Andrew’s Behaviour
Sensational claims of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by Prince Andrew emerged last night in the biggest intelligence leak in history.
Secret U.S. embassy cables are said to show the prince, who is a UK trade envoy, has shocked the Americans with his ‘rude behaviour abroad’.
A Buckingham Palace source said: ‘We are awaiting further detail, as everyone else is.’
The Palace declined to make any official comment.
America meanwhile has been plunged into an unprecedented diplomatic crisis as its astonishing secret verdicts on Britain and other countries around the world were revealed in the leak.
Most seriously for Washington, they also showed the U.S. had ordered a spying operation on diplomats at the United Nations, including British officials, in apparent breach of international law.
U.S. staff in embassies around the world were ordered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to obtain frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even iris scans, fingerprints and DNA of foreign officials.
The whistleblower website Wikileaks ignored a last-minute warning from the Obama administration that going ahead with publication of the first tranche of 250,000 classified documents would put ‘many lives at risk’.
This afternoon the Wikileaks website crashed.
In a Twitter statement the organisation said it was suffering a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack — ie an effort to make the site unavailable to users, usually by flooding it with requests for data.
But the damaging disclosures were already being published by international media.
Other disclosures, to be dripped out over a fortnight, include:
- Strong criticism of the UK’s military operations in Afghanistan
- Attacks on both David Cameron and Gordon Brown, who is said to be branded ‘unstable’
- U.S. requests for specific intelligence on individual MPs
- Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime
- Deep concern in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme
- Strong pressure from the West’s Arab allies for a military strike on Iran
- Nicolas Sarkozy is called an emperor with no clothes and Vladimir Putin an alpha dog
Experts warned the revelation of repeated private calls from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme and ‘cut off the head of the snake’ risked destablising the Middle East.
Others reveal withering assessments of the U.S. of a long list of world leaders.
The U.S. branded France’s President Nicola Sarkozy an ‘emperor with no clothes’ with a ‘thin-skinned and authoritarian personal style’, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as an ‘alpha dog’ and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as ‘Hitler’.
Silvio Berlusconi of Italy’s ‘wild parties’ were described by U.S. diplomats, who called him ‘feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader’.
Another dispatch from Rome recorded the view that he was a ‘physically and politically weak’ leader whose ‘frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest’.
Detailed in another document was Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s fondness for a ‘voluptuous’ Ukranian blonde he apparently employs as a ‘nursing sister’ and who accompanies him everywhere.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is damned as ‘risk aversive and rarely creative’, while Dmitry Medvedev of Russia is a ‘pale, hesitant’ figure who ‘plays Robin to Putin’s Batman’.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is said to ‘float along on paranoia’ and is dismissed as ‘an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him’.
Kim Jong-il, the ailing dictator of North Korea is described as a ‘flabby old chap’ who had suffered ‘physical and psychological trauma’.
The White House has slammed the decision to publish the information.
Spokeman Robert Gibbs said President Obama supports open and accountable government, but the WikiLeaks was being ‘reckless and dangerous’.
‘By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals,’ Gibbs said. ‘We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.’
Today desperate efforts were being made on both sides of the Atlantic to shore up the special relationship in the wake of the revelations about the U.S. assessment of Britain.
There were no further details of the claims concerning the member of the British royal family or of the requests for intelligence about MPs, expected to emerge in the days ahead.
Criticism of British operations in Afghanistan were however said to be ‘devastating’, putting the U.S.-UK alliance under strain.
Remarks concerning Mr Cameron, who was said to have been deemed a ‘lightweight’ by U.S. President Barack Obama when the two first met, were described as ‘serious political criticisms’.
The Obama administration told whistleblower WikiLeaks that its release of classified State Department cables will put ‘countless’ lives at risk, threaten global counterterrorism operations and jeopardise U.S. relations with its allies.
The State Department released a letter from Harold Koh, its top lawyer, to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his attorney telling them that publication of the documents would be illegal and demanding that they stop it.
He said the move would ‘place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals’, ‘place at risk on-going military operations,’and ‘place at risk on-going cooperation between countries.’
‘They were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action,’ he said.
The White House said that the disclosure of confidential diplomatic communications would ‘deeply impact’ U.S. foreign interests.
In London, the Foreign Office also condemned the leaks and was forced to insist they would not undermine the special relationship between the U.S. and UK.
‘We condemn any unauthorised release of this classified information, just as we condemn leaks of classified material in the UK,’ a spokesman said.
‘They can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the U.S. have said, may put lives at risk. We have a very strong relationship with the U.S. Government. That will continue.’
Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini said the files would ‘blow up the relationship of trust between states’, adding: ‘It will be the September 11th of world diplomacy.’
The U.S. says it has known for some time that WikiLeaks held the diplomatic cables. No one has been charged with passing them to the website, but suspicion focuses on Welsh-born U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over an earlier leak.
He told a fellow hacker he would come into work with a CD labelled ‘Lady Gaga’ and downloaded intelligence in ‘possibly the largest data spillage in American history’.
Manning is said to have told a fellow hacker: ‘Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain.’
Intended to be read by officials in Washington up to the level of the Secretary of State, the cables are generally drafted by the ambassador or subordinates.
They are marked ‘Sipidis’ — secret internet protocol distribution — and are classified at various levels. The most sensitive are marked ‘SECRET NOFORN’ [no foreigners].
Wikileaks claimed last night it had come under attack from a computer-hacking operation ahead of the release of secret U.S. documents.
‘We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack,’ it said on its Twitter feed.
Hillary Clinton ordered American officials to spy on high ranking UN diplomats, including British representatives.
Top secret cables revealed that Mrs Clinton, the Secretary of State, even ordered diplomats to obtain DNA data — including iris scans and fingerprints — as well as credit card and frequent flier numbers.
All permanent members of the security council — including Russia, China, France and the UK — were targeted by the secret spying mission, as well as the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon.
Work schedules, email addresses, fax numbers, website identifiers and mobile numbers were also demanded by Washington.
The US also wanted ‘biographic and biometric information on UN Security Council permanent representatives’.
The request could break international law and threatens to derail any trust between the US and other powerful nations.
Requests for IT related information — such as details of passwords, personal encryption keys and network upgrades — could also raise suspicions that the US was preparing to mount a hacking operation.
It is set to lead to international calls for Mrs Clinton to resign.
The fishing expedition was ordered by Mrs Clinton in July 2009, but followed similar demands made by her predecessor, Condoleeza Rice.
Mrs Clinton called for biometric details ‘on key UN officials, to include undersecretaries, heads of specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders’.
She also wanted intelligence on Ban Ki-Moon’s ‘management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat’.
Cables were sent to US embassies in the UN, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
America has always handed over information about top foreign officials to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
But the request by Mrs Clinton paves the way for officials to be more closely spied upon, with even their travel plans tracked by US diplomats.
In what could discredit the US’s role in the Middle East peace process, missions in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were asked to gather biometric information ‘on key Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders and representatives, to include the young guard inside Gaza, the West Bank’.
Details of the US spying mission were sent to the CIA, the US Secret Service and the FBI under the heading ‘collection requirements and tasking’.
International treaties ban spying at the UN.
The 1946 UN convention on privileges and immunities states: ‘The premises of the United Nations shall be inviolable. The property and assets of the United Nations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference, whether by executive, administrative, judicial or legislative action.’
The American ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman said he ‘condemned’ the disclosures and that the US government was ‘taking steps to prevent future security breaches’.
He also claimed the disclosures had ‘the very real potential to harm innocent people” but insisted the cables ‘should not be seen as representing US policy on their own’.
He said the leaks were ‘harmful to the US and our interests’ adding, ‘However, I am confident that our uniquely productive relationship with the UK will remain close and strong, focused on promoting our shared objectives and values.
US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said Mrs Clinton had warned leaders in Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and China about the cables, revealed by investigators at the Wikileaks website.
Canada, Denmark, Norway and Poland had also been warned.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Alarmingly High Death Rates at 19 NHS Hospital Trusts, Influential Report Reveals
Death rates at 19 NHS hospital trusts in England were alarmingly high last year, according to an influential report.
The Dr Foster hospital guide also revealed that tens of thousands of patients were harmed in hospital when they developed avoidable blood clots, suffered obstetric tears during childbirth, accidental lacerations or puncture wounds, or post-surgery intestinal bleeding and blood poisoning, the Observer newspaper reported.
The study identified four trusts where an unexpectedly high number of patients died after surgery, including Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust where there were 33 more deaths than should have been expected.
It is not possible to say how many of these deaths could have been prevented.
Dr Foster said the mortality rates should act as a warning sign of potential problems in the quality of care.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Headless Rush to March in Time With Europe
It is not often that Parliament decides a matter that has a direct and immediate bearing on all our lives. When it does so, it should surely be specially cautious and thoughtful.
Yet on Friday the Commons will vote on a subject to which virtually nobody — apart from The Mail on Sunday — has given any serious consideration.
It may be that supporters of Berlin Time have a case. It may be that most people would rather go to work or school in the dark all winter, and would prefer their children to stay awake till 11 o’clock at night in summer.
In that case it must be clearly stated that these will be the inescapable consequences of the planned change — reliably predictable, unlike the speculative benefits touted by the measure’s supporters.
And silly talk of ‘extra hours of daylight’ should also be discounted. Man has yet to find a way of creating daylight, and can only move it from one end of the day to the other.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: And a Very Happy Diwali, To You Too! Christmas 2010… And Santa’s Got Competition as Multi-Faith Lights Blaze Out
The only illumination that lit up the sky on the first Christmas was the star over Bethlehem.
But more than 2,000 years later, the streets of Britain are ablaze with a bizarre array of garish neon images — some with only the most tenuous of links to the festive season.
With so many faiths in the country, messages wishing ‘Happy Eid’ or ‘Happy Diwali’ are widespread — even though both those festivals have long passed.
Meanwhile some shopping areas have plumped for secular themes, perhaps for fear of offending non-Christians, even though the results are often surreal. Others have decided that commercialism should override any spiritual message and erected lights that are little more than blatant advertisements for their sponsors.
Some of the more bizarre examples are where councils and local businesses have funded displays showing swans, umbrellas, reality TV stars and space-travelling Santas — all likely to baffle, if not horrify, traditionalists.
Just yesterday, Communties Secretary Eric Pickles called on local councils to mark Christmas with traditional lights, carol services and nativity scenes, saying: ‘We should actively celebrate the Christian basis of Christmas, and not allow politically correct Grinches to marginalise Christmas and the importance of the the birth of Christ.’
In many towns, shoppers are wished ‘Happy Eid’ and ‘Happy Diwali’. They refer to the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which marks Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to God, and Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. However both celebrations finished earlier this month.
Conservative MP Philip Davies also sees the changing face of festive lights as an attack on Christian traditions. He said: ‘Local authorities are obsessed with not offending anyone. It’s ridiculous that Christianity is being sidelined .
‘All this pussyfooting around is done in the name of not offending people from other faiths. But it tends to be done by white middle-class people with some kind of bizarre guilt complex.’…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dad Was One of the 100 Britons Killed Each Year by a Mental Patient. And This Week’s Report Into His Murder Won’t Change a Single Thing
I miss my father Philip every day. I miss ringing him for a chat and being able to tell him his favourite jokes are rubbish, or suddenly catching sight of him sitting in his old jumper in front of a bonfire with my son.
It is three-and-a-half years since he walked out of his house in Bristol for a Sunday newspaper and was stabbed to death by a random stranger. That stranger was Stephen Newton, a mental health patient in the grip of a murderous psychosis aggravated by his intake of street drugs.
[…]
But on the eve of the publication of the official inquiry into the killing, I find myself certain Dad’s death was preventable — the result of negligence, incompetence and a mental health service culture in which the patient is always the victim.
The terrifying failings will inevitably be labelled ‘systemic’, and no one, no matter what their portfolio of responsibilities or pay grade, will be to blame. Nobody will be demoted or fired, or even publicly shamed. There will be no accountability, corporate or personal. I fear nothing will change.
There will be a bland, bureaucratic promise that lessons will be learned and measures put in place to stop this kind of killing happening again. The Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) will doubtless be sorry, but will claim Newton’s actions came as a complete surprise, so nothing could have been done and it was no one’s fault.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron Shouldn’t Worry About Wikileaks. Obama’s Stock is Nose-Diving. Who Cares What He Thinks?
I don’t suppose David Cameron will be too concerned about the forthcoming batch of Wikileaks. So what if Barack Obama described him as a “lightweight” after meeting him for the first time in 2008?
To begin with, there are Obama’s political prejudices to take into account. He probably thinks all socialists are heavyweights and all conservatives lightweights.
More importantly, Obama’s stock has nose-dived since he became President while David Cameron’s has sky-rocketed since he became Prime Minister. Had this particular Wikileak occurred two years ago, when Obama was considered an infallible, god-like political saviour, it might have done Cameron some damage. Now, their relative standing is such that a damning verdict on Obama by Cameron would be much more damaging.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Here’s Why MI6 Hates Wikileaks
Dr Johnson said the U.S. misuses its great power, adding : ‘When the retaliation comes, as it did so spectacularly on September 11, 2001, the American public is unable to put the events in context.
‘So they tend to support acts intended to lash out against the perpetrators, thereby most commonly preparing the ground for yet another cycle of blowback.’
Meanwhile, the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, introduces a fake Taliban commander to ‘peace talks’ with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A Pakistani shopkeeper, pretending to be the Taliban second-in-command Mullah Mansour, then defrauds MI6 out of £600,000, his fee for taking part in the charade.
He was flown into Kabul for three secret meetings with Afghan and Nato representatives, including one at President Karzai’s palace.
Karzai’s chief of staff says: ‘The British authorities are responsible. This is embarrassing and has undercut the notion there was some momentum towards talks.’
Never mind WikiLeaks, how many lives might this exercise cost? The imposter has disappeared with the money — and information useful to the Taliban.
What does MI6 have to say? Why hasn’t its chief offered his resignation?
I can find no official comment on this sensational blunder, except a ‘sources say’ effort to blame ‘Afghan intelligence’ for introducing the imposter to our side. Surely we need to know more.
MI6 boss Sir John Sawers is the suave fellow who appeared on TV last month telling us: ‘This, I believe, is the first public speech given by a serving chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service.’
He clearly enjoyed his public outing. (Perhaps, like Dame Stella Rimington — the first public boss of MI5 — he’ll go on to become a director of M&S and a novelist.)
Sir John doesn’t seem obsessed with personal privacy. The news-papers had Facebook pictures of him cavorting in skimpy bathing drawers.
Another snap was of a young lady said to be his daughter carrying what appeared to be a gold-plated Kalashnikov removed from Saddam’s palace.
Sir John, in his speech, said today’s ‘open society’ brought new expectations of public — and legal — accountability. So he gave an overview of his agency’s work.
‘In Afghanistan, our people provide tactical intelligence that guides military operations and saves our soldiers’ lives,’ he said. ‘We are building up the Afghan security service, already probably the most capable of the Afghan security institutions, to help the Afghans take responsibility for their own security.’
He touched on the question of secrets being lost, too. ‘We in the intelligence and security agencies have to make sure our secrets don’t become available to those who are threatening our country. And we have to protect our partners’ secrets.’
Wouldn’t you like to hear him explain how his theories went awry in Afghanistan? At least to a Parliamentary select committee, if not to the public. Or are we to forget about his agency’s great blunder altogether?
Too secret to be discussed: that’s the root problem of ‘intelligence’. It’s too easy for them to conceal their failings.
Intelligence gathering is obviously a tricky affair. We are bound to make mistakes from time to time. But MI6’s imposter blunder is a corker. No wonder Karzai and our U.S. allies are hopping.
This is why WikiLeaks is useful. There’s a conspiracy of silence over what’s going on in Afghanistan, except when our military chiefs want to leak details of successful SAS attacks on the Taliban.
We’re told they are being hit so hard now by special forces, helicopter gunships and pilotless drones armed with Hellfire missiles that they’re desperate for a peace deal.
Meanwhile, MI6 wheels a Pakistani conman posing as a Taliban commander into President Karzai’s office for peace talks. We’re being lied to. Count on it. Bring it on, WikiLeaks!
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prince’s Suicide Friend Linked to Gangland Thugs
The property tycoon acquaintance of Prince Charles who threw himself under a Tube train was forced to hand over his watch collection to underworld ‘enforcers’ just two hours before he died, it was claimed last night.
Paul Castle, 54, who often played polo with Charles, walked out of his London office on November 17 and died at Bond Street station.
His multi-million-pound empire, which included a Michelin-starred restaurant, had been badly hit by the recession and he faced the threat of bankruptcy.
Now friends have told The Mail on Sunday that he owed money to ‘significant figures’ backed by an organised crime gang.
‘Paul had a visit from some heavies at his office in Mayfair at 11 o’clock on the morning he died,’ said a friend and business colleague.
‘They took his wallet and his watches. Paul loved watches, and would spend tens of thousands of pounds on a single piece. Friend: The Prince of Wales
‘Before these people turned up, he had been behaving as normal. He’d gone for tea at the Grosvenor hotel, as he often did. On top of everything else, perhaps this visit was the final straw.’
The account was confirmed by two other sources. ‘There is a suggestion that some of the people he owed money to weren’t happy that he was living ostentatiously and conspicuously,’ said one source.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Radical Muslims Given Channel 4 Slot
Anjem Choudary, who was also involved with the banned group Islam4UK which planned a protest march through Wootton Bassett, will have free reign to give his views during an edition of the channel’s daily opinion slot, known as 4thought.tv.
The counter-terrorism think-tank Quilliam has written to David Abraham, the Channel 4 chief executive, to complain about airtime already given to radical Muslims during the series.
It claimed that 4thought.tv had failed to properly identify the ideological allegiances of presenters and that a disproportionate amount of time had been given to extremists.
The format of the short programme allows guest presenters to give their views unchallenged.
Talal Rajab, from Quilliam, said: “Given the profoundly negative impact that al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK have had on the social cohesion of the UK, it is highly inappropriate for a mainstream public broadcaster to be providing such a popular platform for their fanatical views.
“Moreover, al-Muhajiroun was banned by the British government because of its links to individuals who had committed acts of Islamist-inspired terrorism.
“We therefore urge Channel 4 to reconsider airing Anjem Choudary’s film, and to aspire to feature a more representative and moderate portrayal of Islam in all future programming.”
Choudary, who has described the 9/11 bombers “magnificent martyrs”, will say in his programme to be broadcast on Dec 5 that British Muslims are “persecuted”.
Channel 4 has already broadcast a film by another radical Muslim, Abu Nusaybah, who supported Choudary’s plan for an Islamist march through Wootton Bassett, the scene of tributes to fallen British soldiers. In it, Nusaybah called for sharia law to be introduced in Britain.
The letter from Quilliam to Channel 4 said: “While freedom of speech is important and Anjem Choudary and his followers undoubtedly have the right to put forward their repugnant views, we find it inexplicable that they should be allowed to monopolise such an important strand of Channel 4’s programming at the expense of other British Muslims who are overwhelmingly tolerant and good-natured people.”
Choudary told The Sunday Telegraph: “Quilliam are sycophants on the British Government payroll, and it is in their own interest to criticise people like ourselves who are calling for sharia and being normal Muslims.
“It did not surprise me to be invited to take part in the programme.”
No one at Channel 4 was available to comment.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Asian Men, White Women and a Taboo That Must be Broken
Disgusting cultural beliefs validate their acts and their uncontrollable lechery is, in part a symptom of repressed sexuality and sick attitudes
I’ve been goaded into writing this column by the barbs and taunts, by the blame and racist toxins filling my inbox this week. At least they can no longer accuse me of “HIDING THE TRUTH!!!” Yes guys, you won. Have another large lager.
Most commentators intermittently get caught up in sudden and fierce squalls, usually when they’ve said something that upsets large sections of the public. In the age of the internet, these blowbacks have got nastier and more frequent. Sometimes you have to respond just to get your life back. It wasn’t what I wrote or said this time, but what I am — or what they think I stand for, the outraged out there whose blood pressure rose perilously high last week.
Horrific sexual crimes against young girls were committed by a paedophile gang in Derby, a place I hardly know. Several gang members were convicted and sent down. These urban predators stalked and “chose” their victims, took them for ice creams and nice meals (treats some of the lasses had never had), drove them around in flash cars, handed out drink and cigarettes, drugged their trusting prey, then raped them over and over again, threatening them with hammers, and worse, if they told.
Such rings have been exposed before, and many others carry on without detection. It is the nightmare of every parent, and for the children who are brutalised it is the end of their innocence and a total desecration of their human rights. Men who destroy children for their own gratification roam streets in every land.
The Derby gang was all Asian except for one seasoned white abuser. Most of the Asians were Muslim Pakistanis and — apart from a few Asian and mixed-race girls who fell into their nets — their victims were almost all white. Because I am Asian and “a f-ing Muslim” and the rapists were my people committing a “Paki” crime against white females, I am guilty too, apparently, part of the evil posse.
The English Defence League and British National Party have draped bunting and bright lights around the story, the nation’s virtue penetrated and torn by rapacious migrants and their sons. Two days after the Derby case, another such network was exposed — of white men in Cornwall who plucked white girls to groom, violate and control. Was theirs a lesser crime? No. It’s naked racism to believe that sex assaults on white women by black or Asian men are more depraved and animalistic than those carried out by white men, who presumably remember to say “please” and “thank you” before and after.
But when I ask myself was a greater crime committed by the Asian molesters, the honest answer has to be yes. Conscientious Asian community activists in Derby have said that these criminal acts were nothing to do with race or religion. The perpetrators were bad men who did terrible things. That is surely self-delusion or a cover-up.
The official inquiry into the case concluded that the care agencies were ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the abuse being perpetrated by the gang. But it also concluded that there needs to be an honest national conversation about how exploitation in some places intersects with “culture, ethnicity and identity”.
Let’s begin then. Because without such an open conversation, prejudices fester and millions of Britons come to believe that serious offenders from certain ethnic and religious groups have protected status within our country.
The Cornwall and Derby villains who used girls as sex toys believed that their victims had “asked for it”, which in our permissive age is an easy excuse. Very young girls are sexualised in the social environment, so paedophiles must feel they are only helping themselves to the goodies that are on offer. But in the case of the Asian men, disgusting cultural beliefs further validate their acts and their uncontrollable lechery is, in part, a symptom of repressed sexuality and sick attitudes.
Most Asian men do not go around raping young white girls and women; many have happy and equal relationships with white partners. However, an alarming number of Asian individuals, families and communities do believe that white females have no morals, are free and available, deserving of no respect or protection.
Up in Bradford a few years back, I met Muslim pimps, some wearing mini Koran pendants on heavy, gold chains. “Not our girls,” they reassured me, “just them white girls from the estates, cheap girls. They love it man, all the money they make! What else will they do with their lives? We’re helping them make a career.”
Much laughter, until I asked them what they would do if a white pimp groomed their daughters. They would kill the pimp and the girls too, they said. They would too.
Then there was an 18-year-old white boy from Manchester who said he was lured and raped at the age of 10 by an Asian scoutmaster and his Muslim mates, who would, in public, hysterically denounce homosexuality. The double standards enable the Asian rapists to feel good, and that makes it doubly bad. Convenient myths of uprightness help hide the rape within their families too — which is why barely anyone ever reports it. The final insult is the veil of religious hypocrisy, already evident in the pimps above. Muslims and Sikhs make much public noise about the importance of religion and its intrinsic goodness. Islam and Sikhism do give women some important rights, but these are devalued in real life on a daily basis.
When deeds destroy professed religious principles, when nefarious abusers claim to be true worshippers, people rightly feel more animus and deeper repugnance. That is why paedophile Catholic priests arouse such fury. What abominable secrets and lies nestle beneath the sheets of godly and “ethnic” self-righteousness!
The injuries suffered by child victims are not determined by race or religion, but their sense of injustice is understandably much greater when their fiendish attackers believe themselves to be morally superior and therefore entitled to corrupt young flesh.
Listen to Miranda, now in her twenties, who was repeatedly raped by a British Asian pimp in Rotherham. She was also abused by her own dad when she was 11 : “Ahmed told me I was making him do it because I was sinful, not a true believer. That he would never do it if I was a Muslim. My dad would cry afterwards. I hate them both, but Ahmed was worse”.
[DF — “not determined by race or religion” of course it isn’t. They just happen to be always non-muslim and mostly white]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Down: Website Crashes Hours Before New Release — But Defiant Assange Says Newspapers Will Still Print Revelations
WikiLeaks has crashed this afternoon, just hours before it was reportedly schedule to defy the Obama administration with the publication of millions of documents the U.S. claims will endanger ‘countless lives’.
The WikiLeaks website appeared to be temporarily inaccessible this afternoon, and WikiLeaks said in its Twitter feed that it was experiencing a denial of service attack.
Nevertheless, WikiLeaks remained defiant, saying that publications in the U.S. and Europe would print the leaked diplomatic cables even if it could not.
The group’s founder, Julian Assange, also tells the U.S. ambassador to Britain that WikiLeaks won’t bow to Washington’s demands.
The Obama administration has ordered WikiLeaks not to publish the estimated 3million leaked documents that are set to put ‘countless lives’ at risk.
In a highly unusual step, the State Department late Saturday released a letter from its top lawyer to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his attorney telling them that publication of the documents would be illegal and demanding that they stop it.
It is feared that the imminent release of classified State Department cables will threaten global counter-terrorism operations and jeopardise U.S. relations with its allies, including Britain.
The UK government has warned British citizens in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world they could suffer a violent backlash over ‘anti-Islamic’ views in documents.
The documents are said to include an ‘embarrassing’ assessment of David Cameron by the the U.S. administration.
And Gordon Brown’s rocky relationship with President Barack Obama is almost certain to mentioned as is Britain’s troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The State Department also said the U.S. government would not cooperate with WikiLeaks in trying to scrub the cables of information that might put sources and methods of intelligence gathering and diplomatic reporting at risk.
The letter from State Department legal adviser Harold Koh was released as U.S. diplomats around the world are scrambling to warn foreign governments about what might be in the secret documents that are believed to contain highly sensitive assessments about world leaders, their policies and America’s attempts to lobby them.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is on stand by for diplomatic damage control with the release expected tonight.
Mrs Clinton spoke to leaders in China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, France and Afghanistan on Friday, according to State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. Canada, Denmark, Norway and Poland have also been warned.
Last night a source close to Mrs Clinton told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is enormously embarrassing to the U.S. The CIA have Assange under total surveillance….
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Cables: Race Riots Reflected a Backward Britain — US Ambassador
The race riots across British cities in 1985 inspired the then US ambassador, Raymond Seitz, to draw comparisons with Charles Dickens’s London. After a summer in which Toxteth, Brixton and Handsworth erupted in violence he wrote to Washington: “Dickens described the squalor, overcrowding and poverty in Britain’s cities over a century ago. What has changed is that the people affected are increasingly likely to be members of minority groups.”
The UK was unprepared for dealing with the impact of immigration, he said, and had looked on “complacently” while America struggled with similar riots in the 1960s.
“The one acerbic exception came in 1968 when Enoch Powell, a Conservative MP, made a notorious speech in which he predicted ‘rivers of blood’ in the streets if the tide of Asian and African immigrants was not stemmed,” Seitz wrote. “However crudely and unacceptably to most of his audience, he had put his finger on a problem: Britain appears unprepared to deal with the profound change in the complexion of its society.
“There are only 1 million blacks and browns in Britain, out of a population of 54 million, and by now half of these are British born. But their outsider status persists.”
Racism was reflected in the press, he said. “Reporting of the recent race riots has reflected the rabble-rousing racism which is still easy discourse in modern Britain. Tabloids describe the ‘Zulu-style war cries’ of the rioters and recycle the comments of whites calling them ‘barbarians’ and ‘animals’.
“We are likely to see more rioting ahead. While the onset of winter may inhibit street violence, spring cannot be far behind.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Pilgrimage to Mecca Turns Into Nightmare
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 24 — The pilgrimage to Mecca this year has turned into a nightmare for many Algerian worshippers. According to the latest statement from the National Office of the Hadj, 23 Algerians have died and 1,356 are missing. “Most died from natural causes. The average age is between 70 and 80, except two people aged 48,” said the heads of the Great Pilgrimage, without giving any further details about the causes of the other deaths. They include 16 men and 8 women, with five resident in France and 18 from different regions of the north African country. Out of the 36,000 Algerian pilgrims present at the holy sites, 1,356 are said to be missing: 968 in Mecca and 388 in Medina. “The hospitality was terrible,” declared the first worshippers returning yesterday from Saudi Arabia. “The accommodation was catastrophic,” said Naghmouche, quoted by El Watan, underlining that the organisers “had abandoned the worshippers.” “All the delegations,” reported another pilgrim, “were well organised. The Tunisians, the Moroccans, the Indonesians. We slept in the street surrounded by rubbish.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Top Sunni Muslim Authority Moots Support for ‘Medicinal’ Cannabis
Cairo, 25 Nov. (AKI) — The research council of the Al-Azhar University — the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning — was due to meet on Thursday to discuss approving the medicinal use of cannabis, especially to relieve symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver.
During its monthly meeting presided over by the prestigious Islamic university’s head sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, the council will analyse the therapeutic use of cannabis, also known as marijuana, from the point of view of Sharia, or Islamic law, official daily al-Ahram reported.
Users of marijuana risk prison in many north African and Middle Eastern countries. Some American states like California permit use of the drug for medical purposes, although a California popular referendum earlier this month failed to garner enough votes to fully legalise it.
“They particularly want to know if using cannabis is allowed under Sharia after some research in the United States concluded that it is something that works,” said Muhammad Wasil, a Cairo University medical researcher.
If its research council agrees, the Al-Azhar council could issue a religious edict or fatwa that could influence Muslim attitudes toward medicinal marijuana use around the world.
Founded in the late 10th century for Islamic studies, Al the Al-Azhar iUniversity is the world’s leading centre for Arabic literature and the study of Sunni Islam.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: 156 Detained Over Christian Riots
Egypt’s prosecutor general leveled severe accusations Thursday against 156 Christians, including explosives possession and attempted murder, following clashes with police over the building of a church.
One person died and 68 others were injured when security forces halted construction on a church citing violations of building permits.
Angry Christians hurled stones while riot police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets near the church and later in clashes outside the governor’s office.
The prosecutor general ordered a renewable 15—day—detention for those arrested, on accusations of sabotage, assault, possession of explosives and attempted murder of police.
Some 15 police officers were injured in the clashes. No one arrested or charged over the death of one protester, killed after being shot in the thigh according to forensic reports.
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million. They complain frequently of discrimination, though they generally live in peace with the Muslim majority despite occasional flare—ups of violence, especially over limits on church building.
In his first comment after riots, Egypt’s Coptic Pope Shenouda III blamed the local authorities of using violence against the Christians.
“God has given authority to some people to use it for the help of those under their authority,” he said in his weekly lecture on Wednesday attended by thousands of Christians including families of the protesters.
“Violence leads to violence,” he said warning governors and local authorities against using force to deal with the Christian issue.
The construction had been ordered halted in this case because the building was not licensed to become a house of worship, a government statement said.
Spokesman of the ruling National Democratic Party Ali Eddin Helal said that local authorities took action against the church after they saw “a dome” rising over the building.
The Coptic community says authorities in Egypt are reluctant to approve permits to build churches, which they say they need to accommodate growing numbers of worshippers.
Human rights groups say attacks on Copts are on the rise, underscoring the government’s failure to address chronic sectarian strains in a society where religious radicalism is gaining ground.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Did You Know Israel Created Radical Islam?
Did you know that Israel provoked Muslims to crash airplanes into the Twin Towers on 9/11 and to blow up the London Underground?
No? That’s weird, because Lady Jenny Tong says it’s true. Lady Tong is described in The Jerusalem Post as “a lifelong anti-Israel activist.”
She says, “I feel sorry for the people of Israel sometimes. Their government’s policies have made that country the cause of a lot of the world’s problems, yet now they are seen in the middle as the remedy and the base for the West to fight back.”
Lady Tong is a top Liberal Democrat in the U.K. with a lifetime appointment in the House of Lords, so she has to know what she is talking about.
Right?
Let’s see…Israel declared its independence from Britain in 1948, the same year Jordan, India, and Pakistan declared their own independence from the British Empire.
Yet nobody seems to blame those fine countries for terrorist killings in Gaza or Kashmir or Mumbai. Or the assassination of Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
But the Israelis made the Muslims really mad by seizing Jerusalem from the Religion of Peace in 1948 or 1968, something like that.
Whatever. This is all so last century.
Well, actually, radical Muslims invaded Spain in the year 711, killing merrily as they went along. They were really, really mad even then, because Europe was full of infidels, and Allah told them the Christians had to surrender to the Faithful or it’s off with their heads. All that is in the Quran, and that’s the infallible word of Allah, by way of Mohammed’s dream diaries.
Boy, were those radical Muslims ever angry back in 711. You should have heard the imams stirring them up in their Friday sermons.
So it’s only logical that Israel time-traveled back 1,250 years and got the Berbers so mad that they all invaded Spain from North Africa.
Got that?…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
US Embassy Cables: Washington Requests Personal Data on Hamas
Friday, 31 October 2008, 15:25 S E C R E T STATE 116392 NOFORN EO 12958 DECL: 09/18/2033 TAGS PINR, KSPR, ECON, KPAL, PREL, PTER, XF”>XF SUBJECT: (S) REPORTING AND COLLECTION NEEDS: PALESTINIAN ISSUES REF: A. 08 STATE 001379 B. 08 STATE 64936 Classified By: CATHERINE BROWN, DAS, INR/IPC. REASON: 1.4(C).
1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: This cable provides the full text of the new National HUMINT Collection Directive (NHCD) on Palestinian Issues (paragraph 3-end) and encourages Department personnel at post to assist in compiling Palestinian biographic information (paragraph 2).
A. (S/NF) The NHCD results from a recent Washington review of reporting and collection needs for Palestinian Issues and sets forth a list of priorities intended to guide participating USG agencies as they allocate resources and update plans to collect information on Palestinian Issues. The priorities may also help the Embassy manage reporting and collection, including formulation of Mission Strategic Plans (MSPs)….
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
AIDS: Cases in MENA Countries Have Doubled in 10 Years
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 24 — The percentage is still low compared to the average global level, but the number of cases of HIV infections in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries have doubled in the last ten years. This is what has been revealed by the UN Agency for the fight against Aids, UNAids, which has put it in black and white that there were 75,000 news cases registered last year in the region against the 36,000 cases in 2001. According to the most recent data which relates to the end of 2009, the rate of infection does not exceed 0.2% against a global average of 0.8% but the region is one of only two geographical areas in the world (the other is Eastern Europe/Central Asia) where there has been an increase, rather than a decrease. This is an alarming figure and researchers say that it is even more so considering that the numbers can only be approximate due to the traditional and conservative societies, where AIDS — above all if linked to unaccepted sexual behaviour — is still a taboo. The researchers, who point the finger at cultural and religious narrow-mindedness which prevents a clear in-depth analysis of the infected population in the MENA region, do concede that this narrow-mindedness does have the advantage of limiting risky and homosexual behaviour.
In the majority of Arab countries, homosexuality — like extra-marital affairs — is considered a crime: in several countries these crimes are still punishable by death. If there is an immigrant involved in the Gulf Countries, said person is immediately expelled. A measure considered to be a violation of human rights by UNAids and that several countries, including the UAE where 85% of the population is not local, are now reviewing.
The theory of “cultural and religious immunity” was however criticised by Khadijah Moalla, UN regional coordinator, who, in a recent meeting at the School of Government in Dubai, underlined that in the Arab world, 80% of women contract HIV from their husbands: to consider that following appropriate religious and cultural behaviour prevents infection is therefore misleading and dangerous. The groups most at risk of infection, reads the 360-page report, continue to be those linked to prostitution and drug use. In Iran, 17% of people infected use injectable drugs. In Egypt, the percentage of “sex workers” is 1%, whilst it oscillates between 2% and 4% in Algeria, Morocco and the Yemen. Furthermore, in Egypt 6% of homosexuals have contracted the AIDS virus. Overall, there are currently at least 460,000 people affected by AIDS living in the MENA region. In 2001, there were 180,000. In line with the rate of infection, the death rate has also increased: whilst it is estimated that there were 8,300 AIDS-related deaths in 2001, 23,000 AIDS-related deaths were recorded at the end of 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda’s in-Flight Magazine
One of the more bizarre aspects of the troglodyte terrorists is their use of the media and internet, not something usually associated with people who wish to turn the clock back to the tenth century.
They have just launched the second issue of their glossy magazine, Inspire, which looks alarmingly like an in-flight magazine. This is the very last thing you want to see a fellow passenger carrying on board.
It is an insight into the organisation, a look at an unreal universe. Like ordinary magazines, it has a good design and layout and even articles we would recognise, such as a Letter from the Editor, who remains unnamed.
Their main feature is Uthmann al-Ghamindi, one of the Yemen Commanders telling about his life in jihad. Basically, it involves hiding in caves, getting captured and released and, all in all, not having too good a time. He appears to have risen to his current position by the US drones blowing up all his predecessors. This may be why there is no mention of a pension plan in the entire publication.
Another section contains advice for new recruits to training camps, including how to use the abundant free time and tales of those who waited years before seeing action. They also have some calming words on camping and a long plea to wash feet often.
The longest article, and it feels very long indeed, is a 9 page rebuttal of Muslim scholars who have reinterpreted an old fatwa, used by fundamentalists to justify terrorism. This didn’t go down well with our cave dwelling martyrs in waiting, but the article itself is like a boring rant from a long forgotten Student Union. However, they do say, “Yes, fatwa is a serious matter and should only be issued by those qualified”. It has been pointed out by Islamic scholars that bin Laden has no theological training and “We don’t accept fatwas from engineers”.
Another target is their greatest enemy. Nope, not the infidel west, but the Shia. Yemen’s vice-emir says, “Allah has made it clear to us in the Qur’an that our worst enemies are the Jews and the polytheists. The Shi’a are polytheists and therefore, are amongst the worst enemies of Islam.”
Warming to his theme, the drone bait continues, “The Shi’a now are at their highest level of military preparedness and they have an alliance with America”. Of course we are all aware of the all-powerful US-Iran alliance. Elsewhere, the magazine predicts a ‘world war’ between the US and Iran.
They end up with a section on terrorism 2.0, where they offer helpful hints. One is that people in the West conduct their own operations, without contacting jihadists or attending training camps. Other hints are disturbing. One gives advice on welding blades to a SUV and driving round in a version of Deathrace 2000.
It is striking just how little al Qaeda have developed in their ideas. It’s all about death to just about everyone but themselves with no thought whatsoever on the world they wish to create. Search in vain for a hint of what the Caliphate will actually be like. It’s all destruction, no creation. However, this is one dodgy dossier that does need sexing up. How about lifestyle tips in “A Cave Of My Own” or something a little racier, “Readers’ Burkas”? Let’s add some culture? Paradise Discs, where a jihadi picks the 8 records and luxury item he would take to paradise?
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Diplomatic Cables Reveal US Doubts About Turkey’s Government
[One could argue that the whole idea of Wikileaks is founded on hate for the US and the West in general, reading the material provided by traitors is also a very interesting source of information that gives more insight in the real policy positions of the US. Check out this Wikileaks pre-publication in Der Spiegel. — KV]
The leaked diplomatic cables reveal that US diplomats are skeptical about Turkey’s dependability as a partner. The leadership in Ankara is depicted as divided and permeated by Islamists.
US diplomats have grave doubts about Turkey’s dependability. Secret or confidential cables from the US Embassy in Ankara describe Islamist tendencies in the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The US diplomats’ verdict on the NATO partner with the second biggest army in the alliance is devastating. The Turkish leadership is depicted as divided, and Erdogan’s advisers, as well as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, are portrayed as having little understanding of politics beyond Ankara.
The Americans are also worried about Davutoglu’s alleged neo-Ottoman visions. A high-ranking government adviser warned in discussions, quoted by the US diplomats, that Davutoglu would use his Islamist influence on Erdogan, describing him as “exceptionally dangerous.” According to the US document, another adviser to the ruling AKP party remarked, probably ironically, that Turkey wanted “to take back Andalusia and avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683.”
The US diplomats write that many leading figures in the AKP were members of a Muslim fraternity and that Erdogan had appointed Islamist bankers to influential positions. He gets his information almost exclusively from newspapers with close links to Islamists, they reported. The prime minister, the cables continue, has surrounded himself with an “iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors” and presents himself as the “Tribune of Anatolia.”
| — Hat tip: Klein Verzet | [Return to headlines] |
Fear of ‘Different World’ If Iran Gets Nuclear Weapons
Sitting in the Rome office of Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, in February this year, Robert Gates, the veteran US defence secretary and former CIA chief, issued a chilling warning of war in our time.
“Without progress in the next few months, we risk nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, war prompted by an Israeli strike, or both,” Gates said. If Iran were allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, he added, the US and its allies would face “a different world” in four to five years.
As thousands of leaked state department cables show, Gates’s visit was part of a tireless, round-the-clock offensive by US government officials, politicians, diplomats and military officers to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and roll back its advance across the Middle East.
Ringed by professional “Iran watchers” based in neighbouring countries, besieged by electronic, cyber and human intelligence gathering and surveillance, squeezed by sanctions, bans and prohibitions, destabilised by unacknowledged internal covert action programmes, and isolated by myriad diplomatic and political means, Iran is the most scrutinised, interrogated country on earth.
But as the cables also show, Iran is fighting back. From Iraq to Afghanistan and from Azerbaijan to the Gulf, the battle between the US and Iran for the upper hand in the Middle East is, as one regional diplomat put it, “the great hegemonic contest of modern times”.
Washington’s thinking proceeds from three premises. First, Iran is developing a nuclear weapons capability and matching missile systems. Second, it is intent on regional hegemony in Iraq, the Gulf and across the Middle East. Third, Iran’s leadership poses a clear and present — and growing danger — to Israel.
The cables illuminate other aspects of the American approach. It is clear US officials are not averse to pressurising, even bullying, third countries to attain their policy objectives. It is also clear that, lacking an embassy in Tehran and with a limited American presence of any kind inside the country, the US sorely lacks first-hand intelligence.
In his talks with Frattini, Gates sought to underscore the seriousness of the overall Iranian threat….
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Death Threats Continue to Menace Nation’s Christians
Baghdad Nov. 26 (AKI) — Fresh death threats against Christians residing in Iraq are terrorising families and inciting them to flee, according to reports from ‘al-Hayat’ newspaper, which cites interviews from Iraqi security officials.
Seven hand written messages for which Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility were found in various locations throughout the city, Abdullah al-Nawafili, a Christian community leader in the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad confirmed.
“Threats of these types have been coming in over the past few days that push us to leave the country,” he said.
The messages were delivered to the Camp Sara neighbourhoods of Baghdad which is home to a predominantly Christian population as well as the districts al-Amin and Baghdad al-Jadid and were written on white paper resembling doctors prescription pads. “Leave Iraq immediately or you will be killed by us,” the notes read.
The report comes less than a month after 58 Christians were killed in an attack on a Christan church in Baghdad’s al-Karrada neighbourhood of the same name. Subsequent attacks in the Iraqi capital have claimed more lives.
Earlier this month, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said Christians would be safe from sectarian attack if they temporarily moved to Kurdistan in the country’s north until Iraq’s leaders could guarantee their security.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Urges US Attack on Iran to Stop Nuclear Programme
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme, according to leaked US diplomatic cables that describe how other Arab allies have secretly agitated for military action against Tehran.
The revelations, in secret memos from US embassies across the Middle East, expose behind-the-scenes pressures in the scramble to contain the Islamic Republic, which the US, Arab states and Israel suspect is close to acquiring nuclear weapons. Bombing Iranian nuclear facilities has hitherto been viewed as a desperate last resort that could ignite a far wider war.
The Saudi king was recorded as having “frequently exhorted the US to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons programme”, one cable stated. “He told you [Americans] to cut off the head of the snake,” the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir said, according to a report on Abdullah’s meeting with the US general David Petraeus in April 2008.
The cables also highlight Israel’s anxiety to preserve its regional nuclear monopoly, its readiness to go it alone against Iran — and its unstinting attempts to influence American policy. The defence minister, Ehud Barak, estimated in June 2009 that there was a window of “between six and 18 months from now in which stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons might still be viable”. After that, Barak said, “any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage.”
The leaked US cables also reveal that:
- Officials in Jordan and Bahrain have openly called for Iran’s nuclear programme to be stopped by any means, including military.
- Leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran as “evil”, an “existential threat” and a power that “is going to take us to war”.
- Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, warned in February that if diplomatic efforts failed, “we risk nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, war prompted by an Israeli strike, or both”.
- Major General Amos Yadlin, Israeli’s military intelligence chief, warned last year: “Israel is not in a position to underestimate Iran and be surprised like the US was on 11 September 2001.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Defy US Demands on Leaked Files
WikiLeaks releases confidential US diplomatic cables, with several governments fearing damaging revelations
Washington: US State Department documents released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks provided candid views of foreign leaders and sensitive information on terrorism and nuclear proliferation, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The documents show Saudi donors remain chief financiers of militant groups like Al Qaida and that Chinese government operatives have waged a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage targeting the United States and its allies, according to a review of the WikiLeaks documents published in the Times.
The collection “provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats,” the paper reported.
The WikiLeaks documents also show US Defence Secretary Robert Gates believes any military strike on Iran would only delay its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by one to three years, the Times reported on its website on Sunday..
The cables also showed that Iran has obtained sophisticated missiles from North Korea capable of hitting western Europe and the United States was concerned that Iran was using those rockets as “building blocks” to build longer-range missiles, the Times said.
The advanced missiles are much more powerful than anything US officials have publicly acknowledged that Iran has in its arsenal, the newspaper said..
The Pentagon immediately condemned WikiLeaks’ “reckless” dump of classified State Department documents and said it was taking steps to bolster security of US military networks.
The White House said the leak of the diplomatic cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders and may put at risk the lives of named individuals living “under oppressive regimes.”
Earlier on Sunday, the WikiLeaks website appeared to be inaccessible, and WikiLeaks said in its Twitter feed that it was experiencing a denial of service attack.
“We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack,” the whistle-blower website said in a statement on its Twitter feed, just hours before the expected mass release of the documents.
The group’s founder, Julian Assange, also tells the US ambassador to Britain that WikiLeaks won’t bow to Washington’s demands.
The Obama administration has been bracing for the release for the past week. Top officials have notified allies that the contents of the diplomatic cables could prove embarrassing because they contain candid assessments of foreign leaders.
In Jordan earlier on Sunday, WikiLeaks founder Assange said the looming release of classified US documents by the whistle-blower website would cover “every major issue” in the world today.
“The material that we are about to release covers essentially every major issue in every country in the world,” he told reporters in Jordan by video link when asked if the new leaks again focused on US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange told the conference of investigative journalists that he was speaking to them by video link because “Jordan’s not the best place to be with the CIA on your tail.” It was unclear from where he was speaking.
WikiLeaks was reportedly hours away on Sunday from releasing hundreds of thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables, with several governments fearing damaging revelations.
Assange put the number of documents to be released at more than a quarter of a million.
“Over this last month much of my energy and activities have been spent preparing for the upcoming release of a diplomatic history of the United States,” he said.
“Over 250,000 classified cables from US embassies all around the world, and we can see already in the past week or so that the United States has made movements to try to disarm the effect that this could have,” Assange said.
Senior US officials have raced to contain the potential damage by warning more than a dozen countries, including its key allies Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel and Turkey.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Afghans Risk Execution for Christian Conversion
Two Afghans accused of converting to Christianity, including a Red Cross employee, could face the death penalty, a prosecuting lawyer said today.
Musa Sayed, 45, and Ahmad Shah, 50, are being detained in the Afghan capital awaiting trial, the prosecutor in charge of western Kabul, Din Mohammad Quraishi, told AFP.
“They are accused of conversion to another religion, which is considered a crime under Islamic law. If proved, they face the death penalty or life imprisonment,” said Quraishi.
Quraishi said that Sayed, who works for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) had already confessed, and there was “proof” against Shah.
ICRC spokesman in Kabul, Bijan Frederic Farnoudi, confirmed Sayed’s arrest and said he had worked for the organisation since 1995.
He said the ICRC had visited him in prison “in accordance with its mandate”.
“During such visits, the ICRC has met Mr Musa (Sayed) several times and intends to visit him in future,” Farnoudi said.
Sayed and Shah were arrested in late May and early June, days after local television broadcast footage of men reciting Christian prayers in Farsi and being baptised, apparently in a house in Kabul.
The government launched its own investigation and suspended aid groups Norwegian Church Aid and Church World Service of the United States after the television programme reported they were proselytising, which is illegal in the devoutly Islamic country.
Members of parliament have expressed their anger over the case, with one MP from western Herat even calling for the men to be dragged from their homes and publicly executed.
The Afghan Constitution, adopted after the fall of the hardline Islamic Taliban in late 2001, forbids conversion to another religion from Islam and in theory can sentence those found guilty to death.
But Afghanistan has not executed anyone for the crime in recent history.
The last conversion case to be tried in Afghanistan is believed to be that of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man arrested in 2006 for converting to Christianity.
He was eventually released and granted refugee status in Italy, after a wave of international human rights protests.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Porn Actress to Attend Jakarta Premiere of Her Film Despite Past Islamist Threats
Jakarta, 26 Nov. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Japanese porn actress Maria Ozawa, whose stage name is Miyabi, will reportedly attend the premiere of her new film in Jakarta on 29 November. Hardline Indonesian Islamists earlier threatened to attack cinemas showing another of Ozawa’s movies.
“Miyabi will be coming to the press conference [for the premiere] on Monday,” said the film’s producer Ody Mulya Hiday of Maxima Pictures.
The movie is called ‘The Ghost of Tanah Kusir Cemetery’.
Hidayat said he is currently arranging a permit for Ozawa to come to the Indonesian capital.
“As long as we manage to obtain a permit for her from the Manpower Agency and immigration office, I think it won’t be a problem,” he said.
Ozawa made headlines after Indonesia’s hardline Islam Defenders Front (FPI) protested against the actress starring in a comedy called Kidnapping Miyabi, and in August threatened to raid cinemas screening the controversial film.
Indonesia’s culture and tourism ministry last year barred Ozawa from entering the country after a barrage of protests from the FPI.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy ‘Would Offer Job’ To Pakistan Blasphemy Woman
‘Hope’ for Asia Bibi clemency, Frattini says
(ANSA) — Rome, November 25 — Italy is ready to offer asylum and a job to a Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan for derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday.
“If she were freed, and we hope so, Italy is ready to offer her a job (here),” Frattini said.
Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five, was sentenced to death by hanging on November 8 under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws but her supporters are hopeful President Asif Ali Zardari will grant her clemency.
Earlier this month, during a visit to Islamabad, Frattini pressed for Bibi’s case to be reopened during talks on alleged discrimination against Pakistan’s four million Christians.
Frattini said afterwards: “Perhaps we have saved her”. Frattini added that he had received a “commitment” from Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani to have the country’s blasphemy laws changed.
Bibi is the first woman to get the death penalty in Pakistan for blasphemy.
In July two Christian brothers were shot under the blasphemy laws.
The Italian government has launched a drive to ensure religious freedom for Christians in Muslim countries and is presenting a draft resolution to the United Nations.
It has voiced concern, echoing Pope Benedict XVI, about persecution in Iraq where there has been an exodus after persistent attacks including a Baghdad church bombing on October 31 that killed more than 50 people.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Shiites Give Terrorists Safe Passage
Shiite Muslim militias in Pakistan’s tribal regions are helping some of NATO’s fiercest enemies evade missile attacks from U.S. drones to cross safely into Afghanistan, according to a tribal activist.
Shiites, who control a key piece of tribal real estate, cut a deal with the deadly Haqqani network to give insurgents a safe, alternative route to Afghanistan through Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region, said Munir Bangash, who is familiar with the deal. A second tribesman from Kurram confirmed the deal but spoke only on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from the Taliban and from fellow tribesmen.
The deal underlines the problems of shutting down the Haqqani network’s access to its bases in Afghanistan from its refuges in Pakistan. The network is blamed for many of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The deal in Kurram was brokered two months ago during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A delegation of Shiite elders and Shiite militiamen from Kurram met representatives of the Haqqani network and laid the groundwork for the deal, said Bangash, who is the chairman of the Community Rights Program, an independent organization trying to establish peace between Kurram’s Shiites and Sunnis while bringing development to their areas.
Under the agreement, the Shiites gave the Haqqani network safe passage through Kurram from its Pakistan strongholds in neighboring North and South Waziristan across the border to its Afghan bases in Khost and Paktia provinces, Bangash said.
In return, the Haqqanis intervened with the Sunni Muslim militants to get them to agree to a truce with the Shiites in Kurram. The two sects have been engaged in brutal tit-for-tat killings.
Bangash said hundreds of Haqqani insurgents as well as Pakistani Taliban have taken refuge in Kurram to escape attacks by U.S. drones in North Waziristan as well as a Pakistan military offensive in South Waziristan and Orakzai tribal regions.
Divisions between the sects worsened with the growing influence in the area of the Pakistani Taliban, allied with the Sunni radical group Lashkar-e-Janghvi, known for its attacks on Shiites around Pakistan, said Bangash.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Inter-Religion Marriage Forcing Christians to Flee Locality
Many Christian families living in Saeedabad locality of Karachi have fled their homes in fear of a backlash from Muslims after a Christian boy eloped with a Muslim girl. A senior official of the provincial government said that the area police had been directed to ensure that there was no law and order situation in Saeedabad, a low lying area populated by lower middle class and poor people. The trouble started when a 20-year-old Christian boy converted to Islam and married a 18-year-old Muslim girl whose family belongs to Hazara a conservative area in southern Punjab. “Yes we did get complaints about some of the area people threatening the family of the boy and other Christian families living in the area. But so far things are under control,” an area police officer said. Several Christian families living in Saeedabad with most of them working in the local government offices with some educational background. “Several of the families have fled the area and gone to their relatives in other parts of the city in fear of a backlash because the incident of the girl running away with the boy has not gone down well with the area people,” a Christian social worker said. The media reported that the couple had fled to Faisalabad in Punjab and got married there. The media reported that activists of a political party were backing the girl”s family and some of them had also thrown stones at the only church in the locality. Another resident said that he had sent his three children to a relatives” place since the activists threatened the Christian families to return the girl or they would start kidnapping the Christian girls. Also, the boy”s family has also fled and the situation has aggrieved. Now, the Christian community is paying the price for the boy”s crime,” the resident said. The government is already facing protest rallies and threats of countrywide agitation over the case involving a Christian woman, Asia Bibi who has been sentenced to death under the controversial blasphemy law. The Sunni Ittehad Tehreek, a merger of like minded religious parties and a splinter wing of the banned Jamaat-ud- Dawa held protest rallies in Lahore and other parts of the country yesterday with hundreds of activists warning the government not to grant clemency to the Christian woman a mother of three who has filed an appeal against her death sentence in the high court.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Suspected Muslim Rebels Kill Driver of UN World Food Program
Suspected Muslim rebels shot and killed a Filipino man who worked for United Nations’ World Food Programme on Saturday in the southern Philippines.
Police said the victim, Bejunson Basnillo, was on his way to deliver some 488 bags of rice to people affected by conflict when they were stopped in the township of Marantao in Lanao del Sur by suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels.
Basnillo’s father, Jerome, told a local radio station that the attackers ordered his son to unload all the bags of rice but he refused.
Accordingly, the perpetrators got mad after the victim told them to ask for their own relief supplies to officials of UN WFP, prompting one of them to shot and killed him.
Chief Superintendent Beinvenido Latag, regional police commander, has ordered pursuit operation against the suspects.
The MILF, on the other hand, could not be reached for immediate comment on the issue.
The MILF has been fighting government troops for decades to establish a self-rule Muslim state in the south of the predominantly Catholic country. Peace talks between the government and the MILF remain stalled since August, 2008 following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.
However, efforts are being undertaken by both sides to revive the talks. A final peace deal with the government will touch the issues of autonomy and the civil settlement of the rebel group’s 11,800-strong guerrilla fighters.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
US Carrier Visit a Dilemma for China
BEIJING — This weekend’s arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea poses a dilemma for Beijing: Should it protest angrily and aggravate ties with Washington, or quietly accept the presence of a key symbol of American military pre-eminence off Chinese shores?
The USS George Washington, accompanied by escort ships, is to take part in military drills with South Korea following North Korea’s shelling of a South Korean island Tuesday that was one of the most serious confrontations since the Korean War a half-century ago.
It’s a scenario China has sought to prevent. Only four months ago, Chinese officials and military officers shrilly warned Washington against sending a carrier into the Yellow Sea for an earlier set of exercises. Some said it would escalate tensions after the sinking of a South Korean navy ship blamed on North Korea. Others went further, calling the carrier deployment a threat to Chinese security.
Beijing believes its objections worked. Although Washington never said why, no aircraft carrier sailed into the strategic Yellow Sea, which laps at several Chinese provinces and the Korean peninsula.
This time around, with outrage high over the shelling, the U.S. raising pressure on China to rein in wayward ally North Korea, and a Chinese-American summit in the works, the warship is coming, and Beijing is muffling any criticisms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NZ: MP Carter Makes Quick U-Turn
A farming company part-owned by a Cabinet minister was able to give him a briefing about how the Government could protect its lucrative trade with Muslim countries by banning Jewish slaughtering.
Agriculture Minister David Carter supported the recommended law change but had to back down days before he was to be taken to court to justify it.
It is the second time this year Crown lawyers have had to leap to the defence of one of Parliament’s wealthiest MPs — and this time in a case in which he was forced to admit getting basic facts wrong.
Carter was being sued by the Auckland Hebrew Congregation for changing the law in May to make traditional Jewish slaughter of animals illegal. The case was set to begin in the High Court at Wellington tomorrow — until an embarrassing backdown by Carter who on Friday overturned the ban he asked Cabinet to support.
The practice of shechita on poultry was declared no longer illegal while the Government also agreed to negotiate the ban on sheep. New Zealand Jews will still have to import beef from Australia, where shechita is allowed.
Documents obtained by the Herald on Sunday appear to show Carter broke the rules governing his portfolio by considering trade implications when making the original decision.
An allegation of conflict of interest has been made because of that — he holds shares in a company which exports meat and met with senior managers who wanted a ban on shechita to protect their interests.
Carter was pulled back into line after lawyers told him he was allowed to consider only animal welfare issues. He had been advised trade with Muslim countries might suffer if it emerged kosher meat was allowed to be produced here while restrictions were placed on halal slaughter.
New Zealand requires halal meat be stunned before slaughter while kosher meat — which is killed only for a small domestic market — does not have the same restriction.
After getting the advice, Carter’s office seems to have broken the rules again by giving opinions on trade to Prime Minister John Key in January and Trade Minister Tim Groser in February.
Emails obtained by the Herald on Sunday show Carter met in March with Silver Fern Farms Ltd chairman Eoin Garden and chief executive Keith Cooper, who said meat exports would suffer if shechita wasn’t banned.
The MPs Register of Pecuniary Interests shows Carter owns shares in Silver Fern Farms Ltd and another major meat exporter to Muslim countries, Alliance Group Ltd.
Ministerial private secretary Natalie Nesbitt emailed senior Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries officials: “Silverfern (sic) Farms CEO and chairman raised their opposition to an exemption being provided for shechita (kosher) slaughter … with the minister this afternoon, among other matters.”
She said concerns from Garden and Cooper included “trade risks (particularly to halal markets)” if a Jewish religious form of slaughter was allowed to continue in New Zealand….
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
British Shipbuilders Axed Because Poles Are 30% Cheaper: 300 Workers on the Royal Navy’s New Carriers Laid Off
Hundreds of Britons who were building two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy have lost their jobs because they were not as cheap as Polish workers, it was claimed last night.
In the past six weeks, around 300 Britons working on the £5.2billion warships have been sacked.
But none of the cut-price Poles has been laid off. They earn around £9.50 an hour while UK tradesmen doing similar jobs are paid £15 an hour.
Some of the British workers were told they were being made redundant after receiving a text message at the end of their shift at BAE Systems’ dockyard in Portsmouth.
The defence giant is part of a consortium building the 65,000-ton vessels, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The first is due to launch in 2016.
The scale of the programme has meant subcontractors working for BAE Systems were forced to recruit workers from Poland because they couldn’t find workers in the UK with the necessary skills.
Shipyard sources told the Mail that about 900 agency workers had been building the aircraft carriers, but this number has been cut to around 600.
But only British welders, draughtsmen and platers hired by Matchtech had been given their marching orders. Forty-two of them were laid off last Tuesday.
Another subcontractor, Inter Marine, which supplies around 120 Polish workers to the shipyard and pays them one-third less than British tradesmen, has not been told to lay anyone off.
Last month the Daily Mail revealed how Polish welders had been drafted in to work on the aircraft carriers — in the Royal Navy’s first ever mass recruitment of overseas workers.
Some learned their skills on Soviet submarines during the Cold War when Poland was behind the Iron Curtain.
BAE insists it has laid off only 110 workers and that they were building patrol vessels for foreign countries.
But insiders said the workforce building the carriers had been reduced in a cost-cutting drive. One worker, a welder who asked not to be named, told how he was made redundant on Tuesday.
‘It came out of the blue,’ he said. ‘I had just finished my shift on the carrier and I received a text asking me to ring the [Matchtech] office. When I did all they gave me was one week’s notice. I’ve been travelling here for two years, living in digs and away from my family because it’s where the work is.
‘There are rumours that they are planning a great recruitment drive in Poland in the new year as the workers are cheaper. None of them have been laid off at all, so it’s all about the money really.’
The 34-year-old father-of-two said: ‘Christmas is going to be hard this year for my family as I expected to be working.’
Many other Britons left their homes in Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne and Liverpool to work on the aircraft carriers.
Six shipyards around Britain are building them. The separate sections will then be transferred for assembly to Rosyth in Scotland — in the constituency neighbouring Gordon Brown’s.
In last month’s strategic defence review, the Government ruled out cancelling one of the carriers because it said it would cost more than going ahead with both.
Ministers criticised ‘unbreakable’ contracts signed by the former prime minister to guarantee jobs in his local area.
Critics warned that Britain could lose its shipbuilding skills.
Commander John Muxworthy, chief executive of the UK National Defence Association, said: ‘More and more small companies cannot retain skilled workmen because there are no jobs, so slowly but surely we are losing our capability to produce our own equipment.
‘There is a risk we are putting ourselves in the hands of other nations. We know only too well from the Falklands conflict that sometimes other nations decline to provide us with what we need.’
Inter Marine general manager Dave Bailey said: ‘There have been no redundancies from our point of view.’ Matchtech declined to comment.
BAE Systems said: ‘We have reduced the level of temporary agency contractors in Portsmouth in line with changes in production requirements as our current export programmes reach the advanced ship build stages.’
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Dream Act: Misleading Amnesty on American Citizens
By now I am certain that you know that the administration and members of both houses of Congress are planning to make yet another attempt at ramming the DREAM Act down our throats. I hate being partisan about this but, for the most part, it is the “leadership” of the Democratic Party that is most heavily involved in this legislative betrayal.
The efforts aimed at enacting this massive amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens is being cloaked in language that is so misleading that if a corporation in the United States utilized such deceptive language, that members of Congress would be clambering for hearing into deceptive practices!
First of all I want to remind you that the DREAM Act is an acronym for: Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.
As I have noted on a number of previous occasions, it is absolutely misleading to say that this legislation is intended to assist “Minor Alien.”
The most recent version of the House bill would enable aliens who had not attained their 35th birthday by the time that the bill would be signed into law while the most recent Senate bill had no age cutoff whatsoever! Furthermore it is truly ironic that while the usual advocates for open borders and massive amnesty programs for illegal aliens often feign anger at the use of the word “Alien” when I debate them, the term “Alien” was incorporated into the DREAM Act because, I suspect, the drafters of this legislation were so determined to link the concept of the “American Dream” with the goals of the advocates for amnesty and open borders!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Approve Foreign Criminal Initiative
The Swiss have voted to adopt tough new regulations on the deportation of foreigners convicted of serious crimes and welfare fraud.
Final results showed 53 per cent voting in favour of a rightwing initiative. The initiative also won the backing of 18 out of 26 cantons.
In a complex nationwide vote on Sunday, the electorate were faced with a choice between a hardline option and a compromise version; or approving or rejecting both proposals.
Turnout was higher than usual — at 52 per cent — a sign of how contentious were the issues being voted on.
The rightwing People’s Party initiative called for the automatic expulsion of non-Swiss offenders convicted of crimes ranging from murder to breaking and entry and social security fraud. The proposal denies judges judicial discretion over deportation.
An alternative option by parliament would have allowed for a case-by-case examination and additional integration measures.
Parliament’s counter-proposal was rejected by 54 per cent of voters, results showed.
An unofficial voting platform for migrants, Baloti, reported very different voting results: 85 per cent against the initiative, and 15 per cent for.
Reactions
“In future, foreign nationals who have committed one of the criminal offences named in the text of the initiative should automatically lose their right of residence and be deported to their country of origin,” said a government statement. It said Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga would “set to work on implementing the initiative without delay”.
“The majority of voters have sent a clear signal that they consider foreign criminality to be a serious problem. The Federal Council [government] respects the will of the people and will set to work on putting the task confided in it into practice,” it went on.
The government statement also pointed to problems in implementing the initiative, saying parliament would have to draft a list defining precisely which offences would result in deportation.
A statement by the People’s Party said voters had sent a clear signal that “criminal foreigners should be systematically deported”. It said the acceptance of the initiative marked “the first step on the road to greater security”. The legal framework for the initiative’s introduction had to be created as soon as possible, it said.
The Federal Migration Commission said the initiative would be very difficult to enforce. It said the state must not act arbitrarily in deporting foreigners, but judge each case individually.
“Even People’s Party parliamentarians agree that no one should be sent back to a country to face torture or death. Automatic deportation, as demanded by the initiative, is therefore not possible,” the commission said in a statement.
The main Christian churches, which had opposed both initiative and counter-proposal, called for deportations to continue to be judged on a case-by-case basis.
In a joint statement, the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches and the Catholic Bishops Conference said the cantonal and federal authorities must ensure that implementation of the initiative conformed to the constitution. They also said it was important “not to cast a negative light on migrants”.
Tax vote
In a separate vote, the electorate rejected a proposal by the centre-left and trade unions to set a minimum tax rate for wealthy citizens across the country.
Final results showed 58 per cent of voters and a majority of cantons voting against the initiative.
The Social Democrats, who had pioneered the initiative, said the result was “a missed opportunity for greater tax fairness”. But the party said that the fact that more than 40 per cent voted in favour showed the perceived need for changes.
The business federation, economiesuisse, welcomed the result. It said the people had shown their confidence in the Swiss tax model.
The cantonal finance directors echoed this, saying the result was a “victory” for the cantons, which enjoy autonomy in setting tax rates.
Under the proposal, the minimum rate for annual income exceeding SFr250,000 ($249,402) would have been set at 22 per cent and 0.5 per cent for wealth of at least SFr2 million.
The initiative was aimed at putting an end to what the left said were abuses of the tax autonomy the 26 cantons enjoy under the Swiss federalist system.
Deportation
The initiative aims at the automatic deportation of foreigners convicted of serious crimes such as murder, rape, other serious sexual offences, violence such as armed robbery, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and breaking and entering. Welfare fraud is also included.
The counter-proposal tightened the list to (among others): premeditated murder, murder, rape, aggravated armed robbery and serious violation of the drug law. Grievous bodily harm was added in by the House of Representatives. The counter-proposal stated that deportations should respect the Swiss constitution and international law.
| — Hat tip: DL | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Revealed: The Schools Where English is a Foreign Language for 80% of Pupils
Children who speak English as their first language are in a minority in a rapidly growing number of schools, figures reveal.
The surge has been most pronounced in London, where in some boroughs youngsters with a different mother tongue make up nearly 80 per cent of primary pupils.
However it is not confined to the capital. In Birmingham, Bradford and Leicester more than 40 per cent of pupils across all primary schools do not count English as their first language. Nationally, English is a foreign tongue to nearly one in six youngsters in primary schools.
The figures, to be published this week, have almost doubled during the past decade and are projected to increase to 23 per cent — 830,000 out of 3.5million — by 2018.
There are concerns that the increases will place school finances under strain as a growing number of youngsters require help with English.
MigrationWatch, which conducted the study using figures from the Office for National Statistics, believes that over the next five years more than 500,000 extra school places will be needed for the children of immigrants who arrived in Britain after 1998.
This will cost the Treasury £40billion, equal to a penny in the pound on the basic rate of income tax.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said the trend will lower education standards for native English-speaking children.
He said: ‘These pupils will of course continue through the education system but it is primary schools where the effect is being felt most acutely at present and where English-speaking children are bound to suffer as immigrant children require extra help.’
The figures reflect a more than four-fold increase in immigration since Labour came to power. Net annual immigration has increased from 48,000 in 1997 to 215,000 in 2009.
Across London as a whole, children who speak English as a second language total nearly a half of all pupils — 44.6 per cent.
But in inner London, they number 55 per cent of primary school pupils, and in boroughs such as Tower Hamlets, Westminster and Newham, they form nearly eight in ten of primary pupils.
The lowest populations of youngsters with English as a second language are in the South West and North East.
Outside London, the area with the biggest proportion of pupils without English as their first language is Slough, Berkshire. The education authority to record the sharpest increase in the past decade was Luton, Bedfordshire, where almost half have a different mother tongue.
However, while the figures show the number of pupils who are not native English speakers, they do not take into account their fluency in English.
Recent Government figures on reading and writing skills among 11-year-olds, show, on average, that children of Indian and Chinese ethnicity outstrip their white British counterparts.
Hazel Blears, a Communities Secretary under Labour, was involved in the party’s immigration policy.
She said the figures should be treated with caution. ‘They may be first-generation immigrants and their parents may not speak English, but they [the children] might do.
‘That said, you have to recognise that where you have a large surge in the number of people coming from other countries then you have to deal with that by, for example, having more teaching assistants,’ she said.
Labour has been criticised for almost doubling the number of teaching assistants in schools while the number of qualified teachers remained relatively static.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Gov’t Urged to Pronounce Husband, Wife, Wife, Wife
Polygamy campaign gets hearings before provincial Supreme Court
Canada has recognized same-sex “marriages” since 2005, and now apparently is preparing to take the next step in the “progressive” movement, with arguments scheduled in coming days before the equivalent of a state Supreme Court on a plan to repeal laws against polygamy and bigamy.
The CBC has told the story of Zoe Duff, a director of the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association, who has two male common-law partners and believes Canada’s polygamy laws need to be stricken because they don’t permit her to live her chosen lifestyle.
The situation involving the Vancouver Island woman is expected to be the subject of hearings planned before the British Columbia Supreme Court over the coming weeks.
[…]
James Cohen, vice president of The International Free Press Society Canada, regarding the possibility of Canada repealing its polygamy laws said, “Even though I am a libertarian (more or less) the elimination of monogamy and legalization of polygamy is fast tracking the end of Western civilization.”
Cohen said the elimination of a ban on polygamy actually would speed the Islamization of Western culture.
[…]
“Canada, a country of 34 million, has the greatest per capita immigration intake in the world. And that’s based on the official figure of 260,000 a year; the actual figure — taking into account foreign students and ‘temporary’ workers — is estimated by experts to be at least double that. The refugee numbers are also the biggest per capita in the world. This is socially and economically disastrous, and is explained almost exclusively by politicians’ wishing to ingratiate themselves to religio-ethno-cultural voting blocs,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Teaching Children Gets Parents Ordered Into Court
3 of 8 kids already past school age, but ‘authorities couldn’t care less’
Administrators in the federal government’s education agency in Germany have put a bull’s-eye on another homeschooling family, with orders that the parents appear in court sometime after Christmas, according to a report from the world’s largest homeschool advocacy organization.
The government in the prominent U.S. ally in the European Union in the past famously has ordered a young girl to be placed in a psychiatric ward for being homeschooled, and later harassed another family so that members fled to the U.S., where they successfully sought political asylum from the persecution in their homeland.
Now, a new report from the Home School Legal Defense Association is describing the problems facing yet another family.
The parents, Thomas and Marit Schaum, were ordered to appear in court this week, but then their court date was delayed until January, according to the HSLDA, which works directly with many problem scenarios in the United States and worldwide.
“The Schaum family anticipates that their court appearance could result in a … hefty fine or jail sentence,” the report said. “The family has been in and out of court since 2002, although the authorities left them alone for several years.
“Officials began persecuting them again in 2008 and 2009,” the report said. The HSLDA said the father, Thomas Schaum, “recently spent several nights in prison for thet family’s decision to homeschool.”
Commenting on the situation was another German homeschool father, whose experience with the heavy hand of government is first-hand.
Jurgen Dudek noted that three of the eight Schaum children no longer are of the age to be affected by compulsory school laws, but “our authorities couldn’t care less.”
[…]
“When the family declined to pay the fine, a court officer came to demand payment,” HSLDA reported. “The officer took money he found in their kitchen cashbox and further threatened to take away the children’s musical instruments for payment.”
[…]
Germany effectively has made homeschooling illegal because of laws dating back to the pre-World War II move as Hitler rose to power and tried to make raising and training children a responsibility of the government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Parents Jailed for Spanking Kids
The father explained that when the children did something wrong they were given a first warning and then a second and if they, for example, carried on cycling in the street without permission, they would then receive a physical punishment.
The court found that “despite the details of the case at hand” the parents “had a loving and caring relationship to their children”, but that the systematic treatment metered out was in breach of the law and deserving of a custodial sentence.
The parents were furthermore order to pay damages of 25,000 kronor to each of the affected children.
The three children at the centre of the case, as well as a younger sibling, have been in care since the preliminary investigation was opened against their parents in the beginning of the summer.
Parents’ rights to meter out physical punishment was revoked already in 1966 in Sweden, with a formal legal ban coming into into force in July 1979. Children in Sweden now enjoy the same legal protection from physical assault afforded to adults.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: What Would Mozart Say? Storm Over New Don Giovanni Opera Showing Gang Rape by Men Wearing Jesus Christ T-Shirts
A new version of Don Giovanni which includes a gang rape by a group of masked men wearing Jesus Christ t-shirts was today causing a storm in the West End.
Critics accused producers of going ‘too far’ — and have been accused of trying to be sensationalist to attract a younger audience.
The English National Opera (ENO) production which contains two rape scenes has been described by a reviewer as ‘brutal, ugly and crawl’.
Lothario, played by Iain Paterson, is charactarised as a ‘seedy rapist’ in the production — rather than a selfish seducer of woman.
But producers of the 18th century opera by Mozart said today they were ‘pushing the barriers of what opera can be’.
The show which is courting controversy at London’s Coliseum is the first by Rufus Norris — a producer who has previously worked as a theatre director.
Oliver Condy, editor of BBC Music, today accused the ENO of using the rape scenes to boost audiences.
‘Don Giovanni is a shocking opera about a man who treats woman in a disgusting fashion. There is no point shying away from it and giving the audience a sanitised version,’ he told The Sunday Telegraph.
‘But the rapes are only suggested in the opera, I’m not sure they are supposed to be seen on stage, so perhaps that is taking things slightly too far.
‘It’s not very savoury, and maybe they are trying to shock for shock’s sake. But in an era of cuts to the arts, ENO know they need to find a way of grabbing an audience, and that’s certainly one way of doing it.’
The ENO has been driving to attract younger audiences — and 30 per cent of opera goers are now under 44, a significant increase on the 21 per cent in 2005.
The controversy has revived memories of the storm surrounding a male rape being depicted on stage at the National Theatre 30 years ago.
Michael Bogdanov, who directed a production of The Romans in Britain, was put on trial at the Old Bailey for gross indecency after allowing the act to be shown on stage after morality campaigner Mary Woodhouse took up the case.
However, he was later cleared.
John Berry, artistic director at ENO, denied that producer Rufus Norris had gone too far.
‘Pushing the barriers of what opera can be is part of our vision at ENO and is why we are moving forward with productions by both established opera directors and directors from across the arts spectrum,’ he told The Sunday Telegraph.
‘Rufus’s production is a major piece of work — I know it has divided the critics, but you have to breathe life into opera. I think when it comes back in two seasons’ time, people will warm to it more.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
The Climate Mafia Gather in Cancun
It is time for the U.S. government to acknowledge that a climate mafia has existed since the gathering in Kyoto, Japan, to establish the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The December 11, 1997 treaty was, upon ratification, to go into force on February 16, 2005. Its expressed purpose was to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the purpose of avoiding “global warming”, but its real purpose was to create an entirely bogus system of emissions trading to be known as “the carbon market.”
On July 25, 1997, the U.S. Senate, responsible for the ratification of international treaties, unanimously passed (95-0) a resolution rejecting the Kyoto Treaty on the grounds that it “would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States.”
As this is written, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is striving to secure authorization to regulate GHG emissions despite massive evidence that they pose no threat to the environment and despite the fact that this authority would, as in 1997, cripple and likely destroy an already ailing economy.
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The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a criminal enterprise set up as a mechanism to facilitate the sale of bogus “carbon credits” and to transfer billions from industrialized, developed nations to those that have failed to keep pace. This latter scheme is little more than extortion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Spies at the UN, ‘Inappropriate Behaviour’ Of British Royal, And Pakistan Fears: Wikileaks Lays U.S. Secrets Bare to the World in ‘Diplomatic 9/11’
America has been plunged into an unprecedented diplomatic crisis today as its astonishing secret verdicts on Britain and other countries around the world were revealed in the biggest intelligence leak in history.
In what was branded ‘the 9/11 of world diplomacy’, leaked U.S. embassy cables revealed everything from secret discussions on bombing Iran to ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by a member of the Royal Family.
Most seriously for Washington, they also showed the U.S. had ordered a spying operation on diplomats at the United Nations, including British officials, in apparent breach of international law.
U.S. staff in embassies around the world were ordered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to obtain frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even iris scans, fingerprints and DNA of foreign officials.
The whistleblower website Wikileaks ignored a last-minute warning from the Obama administration that going ahead with publication of the first tranche of 250,000 classified documents would put ‘many lives at risk’.
This afternoon the Wikileaks website crashed.
In a Twitter statement the organisation said it was suffering a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack — ie an effort to make the site unavailable to users, usually by flooding it with requests for data.
But the damaging disclosures were already being published by international media.
Other disclosures, to be dripped out over a fortnight, include:
Strong criticism of the UK’s military operations in Afghanistan Attacks on both David Cameron and Gordon Brown, who is said to be branded ‘unstable’ U.S. requests for specific intelligence on individual MPs Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime Deep concern in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme Strong pressure from the West’s Arab allies for a military strike on Iran Experts warned the revelation of repeated private calls from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme and ‘cut off the head of the snake’ risked destablising the Middle East.
President Barack Obama is revealed in one damaging cable as having ‘no feelings for Europe’ and preferring to ‘look East rather than West’.
Others reveal withering assessments of the U.S. of a long list of world leaders.
The U.S. branded France’s President Nicola Sarkozy an ‘emperor with no clothes’ with a ‘thin-skinned and authoritarian personal style’, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as an ‘alpha dog’ and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as ‘Hitler’.
Silvio Berlusconi of Italy’s ‘wild parties’ were described by U.S. diplomats, who called him ‘feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader’.
Another dispatch from Rome recorded the view that he was a ‘physically and politically weak’ leader whose ‘frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest’.
Detailed in another document was Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s fondness for a ‘voluptuous’ Ukranian blonde he apparently employs as a ‘nursing sister’ and who accompanies him everywhere.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is damned as ‘risk aversive and rarely creative’, while Dmitry Medvedev of Russia is a ‘pale, hesitant’ figure who ‘plays Robin to Putin’s Batman’.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is said to ‘float along on paranoia’ and is dismissed as ‘an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him’….
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Sparks Worldwide Diplomatic Crisis
The first tranche of more than 250,000 classified cables released by the WikiLeaks site says American officials were also told to spy on the United Nations’ leadership and get biometric information on its secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
The cables detail claims of inappropriate behaviour by a member of the Royal family and criticism of Britain’s military operations in Afghanistan and David Cameron.
The cables include requests for “specific intelligence” about British MPs. The communiques last night threatened a global diplomatic crisis and put America’s relations with Europe and the Middle East under a cloud.
The leaked memos also disclose how American diplomats compared Iran’s President Ahmedinejad with Adolf Hitler and labelled France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy as the “emperor with no clothes”.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel was depicted as “risk aversive”, while the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was an “alpha dog”. Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai was “driven by paranoia”. The unguarded comments were contained in the classified cables from US embassies, details of which were published by several newspapers on the internet last night. Some of the cables were sent as recently as last February.
The first package of memos published by The Guardian, the New York Times and Germany’s Der Spiegel failed to name the British Royal or the behaviour. The cables are being released over the coming fortnight, rather than all at once, putting America’s foreign relations under unprecedented pressure.
One of the most damaging allegations was that Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah repeatedly urged America to attack Iran.
The Saudi leader was recorded as having “frequently exhorted the US to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons programme”.
The leak said he told the Americans to “cut off the head of the snake” at a meeting in 2008. The leaks also disclose how leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt referred to Iran as “evil” and a power that “is going to take us to war”….
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
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