Eurozone Can’t Have Your Guinness and Drink it
The euro is undoubtedly weakened by the Irish and Greek crises but, on international markets its value remains assured and it warrants being defended, argues French leader writer Alain Frachon from the daily newspaper Le Monde.
26 November 2010 Le Monde Paris
Alain Frachon
Due to the crisis, some have adopted a self-pitying tone and a melodramatic lexicon to accompany it. This chorus of Cassandras provides a number of variations on the same theme of which the following are a few examples. The euro must be saved. The “beast” is ill and may die. We told you so, you can’t create a monetary union without political unity.
British press fails to dissimulate its joy
Lost in their Faustian ambitions and their mad claims to turn Europe into a global player of the 21st century, the eurocrats begat a monster called the eurozone. The single currency isn’t tenable, it is the product of political will, not of an economic reality, it is contrary to free-market mores, therefore it will collapse. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow it will be the day after tomorrow, contaminated by the weight of public or bank debt in Ireland, then in Portugal followed by Spain and so on.
Yes, there’s nothing like reading the British press to lift one’s morale — it’s a delight every morning. A case in point is the brilliant and ultra-conservative Daily Telegraph, a must read, in which each line fails to dissimulate its joy at the troubles of the euro. But while the commentaries on the Irish crisis in the Financial Times and The Economist are more sophisticated, they are of the same ilk: the single currency can not hold on and it will loose some of its member states. This goes beyond press commentary or the wishful thinking of leader writers, it’s become an ideological battle.
This London-based artillery barrage gives cause for concern because it reflects the thinking of many market operators. Therefore, as is done at the Debating Society of the London School of Economics, let’s lay out the counter arguments.
Europeans have drawn the lessons of Greek crisis
It should be pointed out that Ireland’s troubles are due to delirious economic policies, not to being a member of the euro zone. It should also be noted that, although not in the euro zone, Britain’s public finances are in worse shape than those of France, a founding member of monetary union.
It is clear that the euro zone is going through recurrent crises due to the weight of the debt of its weakest members. Unfortunately, the markets will continue to test the sturdiness of monetary union. As long as they have doubts, they will cause the rates at which states on the periphery of the zone borrow money to rise. Whether to fight this with the other euro zone states providing guarantees to bail out the weaker states, using, in the end, the tax-payers’ money, is a political decision. The answer is political also: yes, the euro is worth the battle.
Europeans have drawn the lessons of the Greek crisis. They now have two safety nets: the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (€60 bn) and the European Financial Stability Fund (€440 bn). To this must be added the support offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is prepared to add funds of up to 50 percent of the European Union (EU) contribution. In all, a total of €750 bn can be mobilised.
Emerging Asian nations believe in the euro
The agreement between Dublin, the EU and the IMF led to an aid package of 85 billion euros, which leaves some wiggle room. If investors were wary of the euro, it would have collapsed after the Greek crisis or it would be plummeting today with the Irish crisis. This is not the case (even if it has lost some of its value). This is because, for the most part, the euro is a success. It is the world’s second reserve currency: 62 percent of central bank reserves are in US dollars, 27 percent in euros, 4 percent in British pounds and 3 percent in yens. That means that there are many who have an interest in seeing the European single currency remain healthy.
To date, no state or private Asian fund has sold off its euro positions. Emerging Asian nations believe in the euro. The future will consist of three or four major monetary zones. “For any of its members to give up the euro would be a historic error,” argues French economics professor Jean-Hervé Lorenzi of the University of Paris at Dauphine.
It is true that managing the euro requires following certain rules including: giving up fiscal sovereignty (Dublin was aware of this); cutting down structural imbalances within the zone such as Germany’s trade surplus (Berlin should admit this); accepting, including by “major” countries, the principal of sanctions decided by those that follow the rules even when the latter are “small” countries (Paris must accept this); co-ordinating budget policies before the budget is sent to national parliaments for approval and convergence of banking regulations. Perhaps Dublin’s major university, Trinity College, should begin teaching the following economic theory: you can’t have your Guinness and drink it too.
Translated from the French by Patricia Brett
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
MSNBC Boss GE Get $16 Billion From Fed
The partisan commentators on the GE-owned MSNBC television network continued their class warfare rhetoric against Republicans on Thursday night over “tax cuts for the rich” but failed to cover the big financial news of the day— their corporate bosses had tapped the Federal Reserve for $16 billion in bailout money.
Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners, says more bad news for the firm is coming. He does not believe U.S. government policies are addressing vexing structural problems and that, in the persistently tough economic environment, the “intrinsic worth” of GE’s stock is about $2, compared to its high of $60 and current price of $16. Ortel wonders whether the company is so poorly managed that it should be put into conservatorship.
The Fed’s massive GE bailout was a shocker. “Newly released documents from the Federal Reserve Board show that General Electric Co. was a significant user of one of the Fed’s rescue programs in the fall of 2008, even as the blue-ribbon company enjoyed the highest credit rating available at the time,” reported Jeff Gerth at ProPublica. GE owns the NBC television network and MSNBC and CNBC cable channels.
[…]
The GE story, which is just beginning to be understood by the media, involves more than just another federal bailout of a failing company.
Charles Ortel of Newport Value Partners has been warning investors since August 2007 that GE was actually an over-leveraged, poorly administered and over-valued financial institution, undeserving of its Triple A debt ratings and iconic reputation.
[…]
Ortel predicts mounting public anger and Congressional scrutiny when it is more widely understood that the firm was securing federal assistance while selling common stock to gullible investors. Some of these investors thought GE was a good buy because legendary investor Warren Buffett had invested in it.
At the time, the MSNBC website carried an AP story proclaiming, “Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is investing $3 billion in General Electric Co., a huge vote of confidence for an iconic American company battered by the financial crisis.”
“My guess is that many of these investors, who paid $ 22.25 per share—a level never remotely seen since, did not fully understand that Warren Buffett supported GE on much richer terms for him than any common investor got,” Ortel told AIM. “Common investors in October 2008 put their money in on October 7 before TARP was approved and before GE shared its estimated third quarter results. In contrast, Buffett funded his purchase of high-yielding senior preferred securities with extraordinarily-highly valued warrants on the 16th of October.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ron Paul: ‘What We Need is More Wikileaks’
Popular Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul is no stranger to breaking with his party, but in a recent television appearance the libertarian-leaning Rep. went even further than any member of Congress in defending whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Speaking to Fox Business host Judge Napolitano on Thursday about recent revelations at the Federal Reserve, Paul’s typical candor showed through.
“What we need is more WikiLeaks about the Federal Reserve,” he said. “Can you imagine what it’d be like if we had every conversation in the last 10 years with our Federal Reserve people, the Federal Reserve chairman, with all the central bankers of the world and every agreement or quid-pro-quo they have? It would be massive. People would be so outraged.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Told Not to Plug in Mobiles Due to Cuts
Police have been banned from charging their mobile phones and plugging in kettles in an attempt to save money.
Devon and Cornwall police chiefs have also ordered heating to be turned down from 21C to 19C, despite the snow.
Staff at one Devon police station claimed they had to wear coats and gloves at their desks.
And in Cambridgeshire, police have been urged to switch off lights when they leave the office.
The economies in Devon and Cornwall were announced in an email to the force, which faces £14 million cuts over three years.
Nigel Rabbitts, chairman of Devon and Cornwall Police Federation, said: ‘The ban on charging of personal mobile phones is a bit rich. Senior officers are very happy to dial those same phones when they want to get hold of you quickly.’
Sources add that in some remote police stations, fridges bought by staff to keep their lunch fresh have been banned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK:£17bn We Pay for Human Rights
BRITAIN is paying £2billion a year to comply with human rights laws made by Europe.
The total cost of abiding by judgments under the European Convention on Human Rights has topped £17.3billion.
Labour’s attempts to rein in Europe’s influence over British courts had the reverse effect, fuelling a sharp rise in compensation claims now costing Britain £7billion a year.
Research by Lee Rotherham, a policy analyst for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, reveals how the Convention has been used to shape British laws and has reached into almost every walk of life, from how our prisons are run and how our soldiers fight wars to how we police our streets.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Michele Bachmann Suggests GOP ‘Insurrection’
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) says GOP leaders must work quickly next year to repeal the new health care law or else face an “insurrection” from rank-and-file members.
Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will face stiff opposition from within their party, Bachmann said, unless they make repealing health care a priority.
“If they don’t,” she told CNSNews.com, “I think there needs to be an insurrection here in Washington, D.C., against our own leadership, because that is the message that’s come loud and clear out of this election: a full-scale repudiation and rejection of the federal government takeover of private industry.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Infiltration Feeds Muslims’ Distrust of FBI
Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe. A tiny camera was sewn into a button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys.
“This is Farouk al-Aziz, code name Oracle,” he said into the keys as he sat in his parked car in this quiet community south of Los Angeles. “It’s November 13th, 4:30 a.m. And we’re hot.”
The undercover FBI informant — a convicted forger named Craig Monteilh — then drove off for 5 a.m. prayers at the Islamic Center of Irvine, where he says he spied on dozens of worshipers in a quest for potential terrorists.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the FBI has used informants successfully as one of many tactics to prevent another strike in the United States. Agency officials say they are careful not to violate civil liberties and do not target Muslims.
But the FBI’s approach has come under fire from some Muslims, criticism that surfaced again late last month after agents arrested an Oregon man they said tried to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. FBI technicians had supplied the device.
In the Irvine case, Monteilh’s mission as an informant backfired. Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained a restraining order against him.
He had helped build a terrorism-related case against a mosque member, but that also collapsed. The Justice Department recently took the extraordinary step of dropping charges against the worshiper, who Monteilh had caught on tape agreeing to blow up buildings, law enforcement officials said. Prosecutors had portrayed the man as a dire threat.
Compounding the damage, Monteilh has gone public, revealing secret FBI methods and charging that his “handlers” trained him to entrap Muslims as he infiltrated their mosques, homes and businesses. He is now suing the FBI.
Officials declined to comment on specific details of Monteilh’s tale but confirm that he was a paid FBI informant. Court records and interviews corroborate not only that Monteilh worked for the FBI — he says he made $177,000, tax-free, in 15 months — but that he provided vital information on a number of cases.
Some Muslims in Southern California and nationally say the cascading revelations have seriously damaged their relationship with the FBI, a partnership that both sides agree is critical to preventing attacks and homegrown terrorism.
Citing Monteilh’s actions and what they call a pattern of FBI surveillance, many leading national Muslim organizations have virtually suspended contact with the bureau.
“The community feels betrayed,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella group of more than 75 mosques…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Rendell’s Record on Islamofacism and Terror
The retrospectives on Governor Ed Rendell’s twenty-four years of service to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are starting in earnest now. As he marks his last weeks in the governor’s mansion, there is no question that Rendell has made his mark on the Keystone State and the City of Brotherly Love.
What will likely go unevaluated, however, except perhaps in this small space, is how much Rendell hurt the cause of Israel, and the cause of United States, due to his approach to Islamic radicals and their allies.
In two important instances — one when he was mayor of Philadelphia and one while serving as Pennsylvania’s governor — Rendell’s infamous tendency to act and speak without considering the full ramifications did significant damage. Remarkably, Rendell almost never incurred a word of criticism for these acts of direct aid and comfort to the enemies of America and of Israel — perhaps because of his Jewish roots, but more likely because he is a Pennsylvania Democrat.
Here is how Seth Gittell, writing at National Review in September 2001, described Rendell’s contribution to preparing Israel’s “peace partners” for war:
Philadelphia’s then-mayor, Ed Rendell, welcomed Arafat’s “police” to the City of Brotherly Love after the Oslo Agreement was signed [in 1993]. The men came to Philadelphia for a 12-week course. Not everyone was oblivious to the danger this posed. One prescient writer, opining in the pages of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent [newspaper] in May 1995, predicted the police force “now undergoing intensive intelligence training at Philadelphia police headquarters, may use what it learns in Philly to fight IDF and Israeli civilians in the … war to liberate Jerusalem.” A 1998 editorial in the Jewish weekly (newspaper) Forward called these troops “Rendell’s Rifles.” The Clinton administration ignored all warnings about the nature of the Palestinian police — and the thousands of illegal guns being smuggled into the PA in addition to those legally transferred — as unhelpful to the peace process.”
As corrupt, belligerent, and evidently uninterested in peace as the Palestinian Authority may be, they at least have the virtue of not being direct agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hamas, on the other hand, are wholly Iranian terror proxies today. And the likelihood is high that Hamas would sweep the PA from power in the West Bank just as violently and unceremoniously as it did in Gaza in 2006, in the aftermath of Israel’s disengagement. Yet another terror mini-state on Israel’s border would threaten not only Israel, but also America’s so-called “moderate” Arab friends in the region, especially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Today the political threat of Islamists is not confined to some distant theater. The same forces who launched the atrocities of 9/11 are working as well through legal and semi-legal means to spread their influence across Europe and America. Groups such as al-Qaeda use bellicose threats and violence to achieve their goals. But other agents of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood (long officially banned in Egypt) are operating within Western countries to spread Sharia law, which commands war against nonbelievers.
Israel fights a two-front war. In addition to armed combat, Israel fights on the battlefield of ideas. In this fight, the petrodollar-funded Arab propaganda machine is often the weapon Israel’s enemies in the U.S. find easier to wield.
In April 2007, Governor Rendell was a featured speaker at the first annual fundraising banquet of the Pennsylvania chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Philadelphia. Rendell’s appearance at the dinner was a coup for the Hamas-supporting group. CAIR even issued a press release to thank Rendell for “taking part” and boasted that “500 people attended [the] sold-out event.”
Two other newsworthy people attended that night with Rendell. One was Congressman Joe Sestak, who gave the keynote address, and the other was an honoree at the banquet, Muzzammil Hassan, soon to be convicted of brutally butchering his wife. Though doubtless they had no premonition of Muzzammil’s horrific crime, many of Joe Sestak’s constituents had pleaded with him not to attend. But Sestak spoke for CAIR anyway.
Responding to the criticism that Sestak took, a CAIR-PA Chairman, Iftekhar Hussain, commented as follows: “We thank Governor Rendell and Representative Sestak for having the courage to stand up to bigotry and extremism and to treat their Muslim constituents as equal citizens[.]”
After the wife-murderer’s story broke in April 2009, political columnist Don Feder recalled the event:
Muzzammil Hassan, of the Buffalo-area, was the very model of a modern, moderate Muslim. In 2004, Hassan founded Bridges TV to counteract negative images of Islam and showcase the many stories of “Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence.” Stop, you’re killing me! — an unfortunate turn of phrase when discussing Islam. Hassan was such a credit to his faith that, in April 2007, he received the first annual excellence-for-pulling-the-wool-over-the-infidels’-eyes award of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, some of whose leaders have been tied to terrorism. Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell was present and Congressman Joseph Stestak the guest speaker.
CAIR operatives have become world-class experts in deceiving and dissimulating to American audiences, and they are quite aggressive in their political lobbying in the halls of power. But the truth about CAIR’s pro-Hamas agenda is available for anyone who cares to examine the matter. For example, see the national website of the Anti-Defamation League. Like so many other career politicians, Rendell was always most concerned with how this will look now and what is expedient at this moment. Rendell was able to take the Jewish portion of the pro-Israel vote in Pennsylvania for granted because of his parentage and his party.
Israeli civilians, U.S. taxpayers, and a Buffalo housewife all paid the price. This, too, is part of the Rendell legacy. And as for Fast Eddie? He just keeps going down the road. He has a book to write and university lectures to give.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Right Turn — Muslim Outreach is a Bust
Amid the WikiLeaks revelations and intense focus on domestic tax and budget matters, the Egyptian elections last Sunday attracted minimal coverage in the U.S. The elections, quite frankly, were a disaster.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley e-mailed me yesterday to stress that the U.S. had made it clear that the elections “fell short of international standards.” And he indicated that the runoff election today “is likely to share the same characteristics” as last week’s election, and that the U.S. “will have more to say early next week.”
The Project on Middle East Democracy released a report before last week’s vote outlining criteria to evaluate the conduct of the election. It concluded at the time:
[T]he government of Egypt has essentially already failed to run transparent or fair elections, according to all six criteria outlined by the U.S. administration. Given the clear public statements by high-ranking officials, including President Obama himself, about the importance of “credible and transparent elections in Egypt,” the conduct of these elections appear to be a public rebuke to the U.S. administration on the part of the Egyptian government. It now remains to be seen how President Obama and the U.S. administration will respond in the wake of these elections, as observers begin to turn attention toward next year’s presidential elections.
The election, POMED’s executive director told me in a phone interview on Friday, was the worst election since the 1970’s, replete with fraud and violence instigated by government forces. The U.S. State Department agreed issuing a rather bland statment on November 29 that there was “cause for concern” and an only marginally tougher statement on Wednesday:
The real issue here is the relationship between Egypt and its own people and we believe that the election fell short of the expectations that the Egyptian people have for what they want to see in terms of an open political process, a chance to play a more — or a significant role in the future of their country, a chance to participate more fully in a political process. That’s what the Egyptian people are saying to the Egyptian Government and, as a friend of Egypt, we are communicating to Egypt that we hope it will improve its electoral standards and its electoral performance. . .Our focus is on helping the Egyptian people achieve the aspirations that they have for a more open political process.
The Egyptian elections are yet another failure for Obama’s “Muslim outreach.” Our quiet diplomacy — the Obama team likes to refer to its efforts as “smart” diplomacy — has proven to be utterly ineffective. It’s clear that Hosni Mubarak doesn’t take the administration very seriously. And in fact that’s increasingly true throughout the Middle East.
The Post reported yesterday:
Syria’s fresh interference in Lebanon and its increasingly sophisticated weapons shipments to Hezbollah have alarmed American officials and prompted Israel’s military to consider a strike against a Syrian weapons depot that supplies the Lebanese militia group, U.S. and Israeli officials say.
The evidence of a resurgence by Syria and its deepening influence across the region has frustrated U.S. officials who sought to change Syrian behavior. But the Obama administration has so far failed through its policy of engagement to persuade the country to abandon its support for Hezbollah and sever its alliance with Iran.
It seems that soft-peddling human rights, sending Sen. John Kerry there to yuck it up with Bashar al-Assad, and sipping frappucinos with the Syrians (complete with live-tweeting of their dessert parties) didn’t do the trick. Neither did ignoring the violation of the UN Resolution. And the attempt to deploy an ambassador never made it out of the Senate.
Syria is now closer than ever to Iran, its influence in Lebanon has never been greater and the U.S.’s standing has since WWII never been weaker. Some are calling for Hillary Clinton’s scalp over the WikiLeaks leaks, something she had little control over. Her contribution to the state of our Middle East policy, however, is something else. But, you object, this is all a reflection of Obama’s own flawed vision. True, but nothing to do about that for a couple of years. And meanwhile, the centrifuges keep spinning in Iran.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Texan Calls for Jail Time for Enforcing Obamacare
Proposal defines demanding compliance as felony with penalty of 5 years, $5,000
Texans take their rights seriously.
A bill that has been prefiled for the 2011 state legislative session creates penalties of up to $5,000 in fines and up to five years in jail for anyone guilty of the “felony” of attempting “to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation” of Obamacare, the president’s plan that effectively nationalizes the health-care decision making process.
The plan by Texas Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, effectively would nullify the federal health care legislation in his state.
At least, that is what the bill that “relates to federal health care legislation” says:
The federal Act:
(1) is invalid in this state;
(2) is not recognized by this state;
(3) is specifically rejected by this state; and
(4) is null and void and of no effect in this state.
[…]
“While some might call this legislation radical, it rests squarely within the scope of state power as understood by the framers of the Constitution. James Madison wrote in the Virginia Resolution of 1798 that states not only have a right, but a duty to step in when the federal government oversteps its authority,” Maharrey wrote.
[…]
Even though the odds may be against the proposal become statute, Boldin said it is important.
“Whether or not there’s any guarantee of getting something passed is no reason to not do what’s right,” he said. “Champions look at insurmountable odds and take them on with passion, and that’s what We the People need to do in defense of our liberty.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US University Yanks Helen Thomas Diversity Award
Detroit’s Wayne State condemns ‘anti-Semitic remarks’ made by former Hearst Newspaper columnist
Wayne State University says it’ll no longer offer the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award, citing recent comments made by the longtime journalist.
In a statement Friday, the Detroit school says it “encourages free speech and open dialogue,” but strongly condemns what it says are “anti-Semitic remarks” made by Thomas on Thursday.
According to The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, the Wayne State alumna said during a speech in Dearborn that Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by “Zionists.”
Thomas resigned in June as a Hearst Newspaper columnist over comments she made calling on Israelis to get “out of Palestine.”
Thomas was born to Lebanese immigrants in Kentucky and raised in Detroit. She worked much
of her career as a United Press International reporter.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Plan to Cancel Congress’ ‘Authority’
Legislative proposal exempts ‘all goods’ from oversight by feds
A state lawmaker in Virginia is proposing that his state adopt a plan that would exempt products made in the state from the federal government’s authority under the Commerce Clause to limit, restrict and regulate.
The plan by Delegate Mark Cole is House Bill 1438, which the Tenth Amendment Center explains is one — large — step beyond what several states already have done in adopting Firearms Freedom Act provisions.
Those plans, which were started in Montana and now have been adopted in seven other states, too, specify that firearms made, sold and kept inside a state’s boundaries are not subject to federal rules because those are supposed to apply to commerce “among the states.”
Cole’s plan specifically expands on that idea.
His plan states, “All goods produced or manufactured, whether commercially or privately, within the boundaries of the Commonwealth that are held, maintained, or retained within the boundaries of the Commonwealth shall not be deemed to have traveled in interstate commerce and shall not be subject to federal law, federal regulation, or the authority of the Congress of the United States under its constitutional power to regulate commerce.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
George Galloway in Toronto — One Country the Only Solution in the Middle East
George Galloway is back in Canada. The fiercely Marxist ex-member of the British Parliament gave a speech yesterday in Toronto. Although last year he found himself in trouble when the Government of Canada challenged his eligibility to enter the country due to his support for a terrorist group, now Galloway is bolder and more militant than ever.
The carefully sanitized account of his speech covered by The Canadian Press left out many statements that were loudly applauded by his audience: he still supports Hamas but in slightly different way; Canada is a vicious and extremist country; the Arabs in Gaza are dying of starvation; Israel is committing systematic ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem; the only good Jews are those who are against their own country; the only solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict is the creation of a single Arab-dominated country.
More on Galloway’s presentation later… Let’s say more about the event and its organizers. It took place at the Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church on Bloor/Spadina, a well known haven of the Annex “progressives”, it’s not clear whether it is still a real church, judging from the events they regularly organize there…
| — Hat tip: RW | [Return to headlines] |
Action Alert Turkey Slammed by MP Ewald Stadler
New York- The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) urges all activists to call, write and email Austrian MP Ewald Stadler to thank him for his courage and honesty in exposing Turkish Crimes against Christian minorities in Turkey. In a resounding speech last week directed towards the Turkish Ambassador, the Austrian MP Ewald Stadler condemned the knifing and public beheading of a Catholic Archbishop in Turkey and said openly to Turkey and its Turkish settlers in Europe: “We didn’t ask you to send us all the illiterates of Anatolia, Turkey sent them here, We haven’t asked you to send up your stone age Islamists from Anatolia eitheir”
Although the Cypriot government has spent millions of the Greek Cypriot refugees tax money on the so-called “lobby” in America for decades, we have never seen or heard such honesty from an American Congressmen in regards to Turkish barbarism in Cyprus . Basically , all that is ever heard out of the mouth of American Congressmen, for all that money spent, is support for bizonal bicommunal federation which is basically a Turkish plan. That is why we ask that we all write to Austrian MP Ewald Stadler to thank him and enlighten him on Turkish atrocities against Cyprus an EU member in the hopes that he speaks for us, because basically a few in Europe do, but none in America will stand up to Turkey for Cyprus in their own home governments.
It’s our hope that more and more Europeans will stand up and say no to the illegal Turkish settlers sitting on our stolen land in occupied-Cyprus, that Turkey will be called on its lies and invasion denial. The issue of Turkey entering the EU , is basically a battle being fought in Europe , and Greek-Cypriots must change with the times. They should give attention and allocate money towards enlightment within the country members of the EU. Lots of money has been ill spent in America without concrete results therefore Cyprus should look towards and within the EU countries.
Below is the enlightening speech delivered in Parliament by the Austrian MP Ewald Stadler. His remarks are directed at the Turkish Ambassador, who, recently insulted Austria for its purported mistreatment of Turks. The video clip is on You Tube with English subtitles: […]
What You Can Do
Please call , phone and write to MP Ewald Stadler. A Sample letter follows below:…
| [Return to headlines] |
Britain Pays a High Price for Foreign Takeover
For years it has been fashionable to say that it does not matter if large parts of British industry are foreignowned. Such things, we are assured, no longer matter in the thriving new global economy.
But now we see what actually happens when Cadbury, a muchloved British company, famed over 150 years for its benevolent and ethical approach to capitalism, is taken over by the American food giant Kraft.
The British state, which did little to hamper this takeover, now stands to lose millions of pounds in corporation tax, thanks to a surreptitious restructuring which will relocate much of the Bournville factory’s profits to Switzerland.
This is only the latest sign that all is not well with this deal. Kraft broke its pledge to retain Cadbury’s Somerdale factory near Bristol as soon as it actually gained control.
Its chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, simply declined to appear in front of MPs investigating the takeover — an interesting contrast to the US Senate’s bullying treatment of BP, whose sins against the environment were much exaggerated.
Foreign companies now own nearly 40 per cent of Britain’s infrastructure — ports, rail services, water and energy supplies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Car Plows Into Group of Cyclists in Italy, 8 Dead
ROME — A speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists in southern Italy on Sunday morning, killing eight of them, officials said. The driver had been smoking marijuana, police said.
Bent, mangled bikes were strewn about the scene, and the sheet-draped corpses dotted the two-lane road near Lamezia Terme, in the Calabrian “toe” of boot-shaped Italy where the accident occurred.
In addition to the eight cyclists killed, four people were injured: two cyclists and the driver and a young boy in the car with him, said Maria Dolores Rucci, commander of the road police in nearby Catanzaro.
The ANSA news agency said the driver, who was only slightly injured, was placed under arrest on charges of multiple homicide. A police spokesman who declined to give his name said the man, a Moroccan national, had tested positive for marijuana.
A preliminary investigation showed the speeding car ran headfirst into the group of 10 cyclists who were riding in the opposite direction on state road 18, according to Italy’s highway authority.
ANSA said the driver was trying to pass another car when he hit the group. Visibility was good at the time, reports said.
The road, closed by authorities for most of the day, reopened Sunday evening.
It is common in Italy to see groups of amateur cyclists taking to small state roads on weekends, and ANSA said the group hit Sunday was affiliated with a local Lamezia Terme gym.
As a result of the crash, Italian cycling officials complained about safety problems for cyclists who have to share roads with cars.
The head of Italy’s cycling federation, Renato Di Rocco, denounced the violent “massacre” of the cyclists and sent his condolences to their families.
The mayor of Lamezia Terme, Gianni Speranza, announced a day of mourning for the dead, ANSA said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Steeps Its TEA
Foreign politics are a tricky subject. While the broad strokes of politics can generally be understood the world over, when traditionalists battle leftists, and small government folk take on both, every country has its own exceptions, its own cultural taboos, and other factors that make it unique.
Our politics for example completely baffle your typical European. Our conservative movement has few like it in the world, because the colonies had as a practical matter limited government and federal autonomy from day one. Then we had a revolution which, unlike any other, didn’t actually throw off our elites, but rather secured their previous autonomy. As a result our right is different, and the way our Republican party operates just confuses and frustrates them. Likewise, when we try to decipher the right in Europe, we run the risk of drawing the wrong conclusions and getting disappointed.
That said, I think we’re beginning to see a real change in the politics of western Europe, and in the coming years we will see the rise of a right which we will recognize better, and be able to engage with on the pressing global issues of the day. It won’t be a TEA party as we know it, but it’ll be the best we can hope to see from Europe.
Our American difficulties in understanding European politics go back to the end of World War II, of course. Hitler’s rise and fall rocked the continent even more than Napoleon’s did. As Allied troops moved west from Stalingrad, north from Sicily and Salerno, and east from Normandy, Nazi occupiers and their national allies were washed away. In their wake, Social Democrats, open Socialists, and committed Communists claimed to be the only parties untainted by Fascism and Naziism, and so declared that they had the right to rule.
Of course in the east, the armies of Stalin, Tito, and Hoxha ensured that their respective Communist allies would rule behind the Iron Curtain. But in the west there was still liberty to oppose the socialists. The result was that the opposition to the far left centered on the remaining untainted parties, which tended to be centrist and/or moderate Christian parties.
Those formerly centrist parties became the defacto right, but they had to remain center-right, though. If they strayed further away, and opposed too hard the socialization of their countries, they would be branded ‘far-right’ and ‘fascist’ or ‘Nazi’, and either be banned outright or barred from ruling coalitions by the so-called cordon sanitaire*. And of course, people who grew up under the horrors of Nazi and Fascist aggression were naturally repelled by those accusations, and the center-right parties were kept in line.
I believe that’s now changing. In country after country in Europe, we’re seeing the rise of right wing parties that aren’t just fronts for fascism, and the voters are giving them a chance. They’re gaining votes, they’re swaying minds, and they’re even winning elections outright. I believe that, national specifics aside, we’re seeing the end of the post-war order.
People who grew up under Hitler’s Europe saw the Communists as the people with clean hands against the bloody fascist murderers, and so (unfairly) associated their right-wing foes with the vanquished fascists and Nazis. But people born after Hitler shot himself, they who then grew up under the threat of nuclear annihilation by Soviet missiles, and saw decades of bloody murder behind the Iron Curtain, have no reason to see the far left as having clean hands anymore. The old emotional pleas against the right lost their effectiveness.
So in Europe we are seeing old political orders overturned. Populist movements rise up which are able to carry right-wing messages. They get branded ‘far right’ but win anyway. Pim Fortuyn did it in the Netherlands with his own party list which toppled the major parties of the Netherlands, right up until he was shot to death [by a fringe leftist for his opposition to radical Islam]. Jörg Haider in Austria took the liberal Freedom Party and added populist social conservatism with great success. Christoph Blocher in Switzerland took over the center-right Swiss People’s Party and made it into a populist right party, and won so many votes he ended the decades-long Magic Formula of partisan harmony in the Swiss Federal Council executive elections. The Dutch-speaking Flemish Interest has aroused enough populist sentiment in its half of Belgium that we may see the country dissolved like Czechoslovakia was.
Now of course, populism means different things in different times and places. But what is this populist message we’re seeing in Europe? National pride instead of reflexive multiculturalism, opposition to an ever-growing EU, opposition to Islam and Turkish accession to the EU, a reduction of massive government subsidies to immigrants who come to feast at the taxpayer trough, and even some wacky ideas like a flat tax. Geert Wilders has gone as far as to praise the Judeo-Christian values, which is a rather bland statement in America but horrifying to the Euro left.
The right in Europe will not be a carbon copy of the TEA party in America and all its policy views, thanks to fundamental differences of the Anglo-American conservative tradition from the continental European liberal tradition. But we’ll see a lot of us in this new generation of European populists sick of paying for an ever-growing government in Brussels and tired of walking on eggshells around non-assimilating Muslims.
I do wish such movements would expand to Germany, where your choices are liberal or Christian Democrat, and France where statism and secularism have long prevailed. I’m glad of what I already see on the Continent, though. Our Global War on Terror against violent Jihadis is far from over, and if we have friends in Europe who see that clearly, then the West will be all the stronger.
* That’s not to say all parties that were cordoned off were innocent. Not at all. In Europe today you have parties like the Front National/National Front (France) and the Nationaldemokratishe Partei Deutschlands/National Democratic Party of Germany which are unashamedly racist and clearly design their appeals to be as fascist as they can without getting banned. I mean, when your party leader smiles and shakes hands with David Duke, there’s just no doubt left.
But again, as we Republicans well know, just because a socialist says you’re a racist and a Nazi, it doesn’t mean you are one. And as anyone who goes to a TEA party well knows, just because a few Nazis try to glom onto your mainstream gathering, it doesn’t make your gathering a Nazi rally. It is with that in mind that we have to look carefully at the so-called ‘far right’ in Europe, to distinguish the nationalist real right from the national socialist fake-right.
Seriously: Don’t let them tell you that every politician in Europe against the EU and mass Islamic immigration is some secret Nazi. Tell that to Fortuyn, who was openly gay and loved his country’s open culture, wanting to preserve it in the face of Sharia mongers. Tell it to Wilders, again, who embraces the Christianity that Hitler and Mussolini shoved aside. Tell it to Haider, whose party was denounced for daring to suggest that immigrants should have to speak German to be eligible for Austrian citizenship. Tell it to Blocher, who wanted to deport immigrant families convicted of violent crime, welfare fraud, or drug charges. Tell it to the Flemish Interest party who dares ask that immigrants gain citizenship before voting or running for office, or who wants to restrict abortion and encourage adoption. Tell it to a number of the above who want a flat tax, less regulation imposed from Brussels, and a mere maintenance of their national identity separate from the EU.
Don’t let the left bully you into believing such reasonable positions are fascist.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
France: Record Cold, -15° in Orleans
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 30 — A record cold spell is currently hitting France where the thermometer has dropped to -15° in Orleans, in the centre, something that hasn’t happened since 1956. Glacial temperatures were recorded also in the east of the country, with -13° in Mulhouse, whilst in Paris yesterday the high of the day was -1°. The French Institute of Meteorology, Meteo France, has put 15 departments on alert for ice and snow, and in particular several areas in the centre-south, like Auvergne and Rhone-Alpes. Some 5,000 families are still without power this morning in the region of Orleans (Loiret) which, after the polar temperatures overnight, awoke this morning to a thick blanket of fog. Traffic is progressively returning to normality in the region where some 20cm of snow has settled. The first victim of the cold weather was recorded yesterday in the Paris banlieue: a homeless man who was caught by surprise by the wave of cold. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Angst About Islamists Goes Mainstream
The 200 robed and bearded men gathered at dusk on the market square, rolled out their prayer rugs and intoned Allah’s praises as dismayed townspeople looked on.
It was Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, and the group that calls itself “Invitation to Paradise” was mounting a defiant response to weeks of public protests against construction of a religious school to teach its austere, militant interpretation of Islam.
In Germany, where the racial crimes of the Nazis have bred extreme sensitivity toward the rights of minorities, such confrontations would until recently have been limited to the far-right margins. The weekly rallies in this city of 250,000 near the Dutch border these days look decidedly mainstream.
It’s part of a trend seen across Europe: Spooked by what many see as a terrorism threat, ordinary people are becoming increasingly vocal in opposing radical Muslims. They are ditching traditions of tolerance and saying no to cultures that do not share their democratic values. Some lament the decline of multiculturalism — “Utterly failed,” in the words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel — while others say Europe is defending its way of life against those who would destroy it.
In the Netherlands, anti-immigrant sentiment has risen steadily since the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic. In elections this year, the anti-Islam “Freedom Party” of Geert Wilders emerged as the country’s third-largest political force and is helping a conservative government keep campaign promises to ban the burqa, cut immigration and imprison illegal aliens.
Swiss voters have approved a ban on minarets, an anti-Islamic party has gotten into the Swedish parliament for the first time, and France’s ban on wearing face-covering veils in public has broad popular support.
Germans are even more negative toward Muslims than their European neighbors, according to a survey published Thursday.
While the majority of the Dutch (62 percent), French (56 percent), and Danes (55 percent) think positively of Muslims, compared with only 34 percent in western Germany and 26 percent in the formerly communist east, the poll by the University of Muenster said.
The pollsters said they questioned 1,000 people in western Germany, 1,000 in eastern Germany and 1,000 in each of the other European countries surveyed. They gave a margin of error of three percentage points.
The man leading the opposition to the religious school in Moenchengladbach is Wilfried Schultz, a 60-year-old Internet consultant. His organization, “Citizens for Moenchengladbach,” points to online videos of the Muslim group that call for the execution of secular Muslims, demand women never leave their homes without male chaperones and say people who have sex before marriage will go to hell.
“We are not going to tolerate that these Islamists undermine our liberal German values,” said Schultz.
Some Muslims in Germany also are dismayed and are trying to recruit community leaders to blunt the hard-liners’ appeal…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Rubbishes Wikileaks Health Claims
‘No one can replace me,’ he tells ‘Third Pole’
(ANSA) — Sochi, December 3 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday rubbished US diplomatic reports published by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks on his physical and mental health and relationship with Russian Premier Vladimir Putin.
He described the leaked cable by former ambassador to Rome Ronald Spogli as the fruit of “gossip”.
“According to gossip I’m supposed to have health problems and be depressed, but just look at all I’ve done this week,” he told reporters at an Italo-Russian summit in this Black Sea resort, referring to a gruelling schedule including visits to Africa and Kazakhstan ahead of the Russian trip.
“I’ll leave aside what I’d like to say about the other gossip as a matter of taste,” the premier added.
When a journalist pointed out that the views were expressed in a cable from a US envoy, the premier reiterated: “It’s gossip, just gossip”.
“I’m absolutely determined to press on in the interests of the country, an interest I believe I represent well,” Berlusconi said, reiterating he had no intention of resigning as opposition leaders have demanded ahead of a December 14 confidence vote.
The premier also voiced confidence that he would win that vote and told the so-called ‘Third Pole’ which wants someone else in his place: “No one is at my level”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tons of Trash Threaten Berlusconi’s Political Future
Naples, 3 Dec. (AKI/Bloomberg) — Tons of trash are piling up in the streets of Naples, leaving Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi racing to sort out the mess before 14 December confidence votes in parliament that may topple his government.
Berlusconi, who won re-election in 2008 after vowing to end the trash crisis in the Italian port city, yesterday reiterated promises to solve the current emergency before lawmakers decide the fate of his conservative coalition. European Union inspectors last month warned it may take “several years” to permanently resolve the garbage issue.
“He didn’t keep his promise” in 2008, said Loredana Velona, a 45-year-old medical analyst in Naples. “It was easy to collect the trash and send it off to other cities, anyone could have done that. The hard part is solving the problem by building incinerators.”
Berlusconi, 74, is fighting for his political life against Gianfranco Fini, a former ally who now leads the challenge to the premier’s government.
Naples has suffered periodic garbage emergencies since the mid-1990s as landfills overflowed and authorities were slow to build more dumps and incinerators. The situation has sparked protests by residents and encouraged organized crime to seek temporary contracts to remove the garbage, according to Legambiente, an environmental group.
“I was once again able to note how the Naples problem damages Italy’s good name and image on the international scene,” Berlusconi, who’s traveled to Naples twice over the last month, said in an e-mailed note yesterday after returning from a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Astana, Kazakhstan. He said he was confident that “the emergency will be resolved as soon as possible.”
Vesuvius Dump
The latest controversy arose in early October when residents of nearby Terzigno protested plans to expand dumping of trash at a site outside their town. Television networks broadcast violent skirmishes between police and residents, who tossed Molotov cocktails and torched trash-collection trucks. Scores were injured and newspapers estimated damages at more than 20 million euros.
The Naples garbage situation is another “factor that exacerbates” Italy’s political mess, said Raffaele De Mucci, a professor of political science at Luiss Universtiy in Rome. “It proves that wild promises don’t pay if you can’t keep them.”
While tensions in Terzigno eased after the government agreed to take over management of a garbage dump on Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano whose eruption more than 2,000 years ago destroyed ancient Pompeii, they soon flared in Naples.
Local Mafia
Trash began piling up in the streets of the city where the Camorra, the local mafia, “has a hand in every vital organ of the economy,” according to Michele Buonomo, president of Legambiente in the region of Campania, whose capital is Naples.
“The dumps in Campania can’t take all the trash from Naples,” he said in an interview. “Of 2,000 tons of trash produced per day in Naples, 600 tons can’t find a place to be dumped. This is our problem.”
Various governments have failed to resolve the situation after assuming responsibility for waste disposal in Naples more than 15 year ago. Berlusconi’s current government relinquished that role at the end of 2009 and oversight of trash collection was given last month to regional authorities.
30,000 Tons
At the peak of the 2008 outbreak, authorities estimated that there were 30,000 tons of trash in the streets of Naples and the surrounding region. To remove it, Berlusconi adopted emergency measures that included transporting by train some of the trash for disposal in other regions as well as in Germany, and making it a crime to block garbage from entering dumpsites.
“Berlusconi’s plan two years ago was built on a fragile foundation,” said Paolo Giacomelli, a Naples city official who oversees garbage collection. “It blew up on him because citizens of Terzigno complained about how the dump was being managed.”
The shortage of landfill space won’t be completely resolved for three to four years when two new incinerators come on line, Berlusconi said on 26 November at a Naples press conference.
“It will still take several years to set up the infrastructure needed to ensure that all the waste produced in Campania — 7,200 tons per day — is adequately managed and to prevent further waste crises,” EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said in a statement on the same day..
He said that “the danger to human health and damage to the environment” from the waste “will continue.”
Berlusconi has blamed local officials for the latest mess, saying they failed to assume responsibility for the issue when the central government pulled out. Naples Mayor Rosa Russo Jervolino, a member of the opposition Democratic Party, declined to comment, her spokesman said.
“After K2, after Mont Blanc, after Everest, there’s the Naples trash mountain — the tallest one of all,” said Alfredo Fedele, 65, a Naples pensioner. “Two years on, we’re still in a state of emergency.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Sex Abuse in Muslim Families Goes Unreported
Four Dutch-Moroccan women, Rabea, Zohra, Ibtisam and Saïda, were all sexually abused by members of their families: their fathers, uncles, brothers or cousins.
After years of silence, they have decided to speak out because they know that many other Muslim women suffer the same fate. A care worker: “Taboos, secrecy, silence, shame and a closed community are almost a recipe for sexual abuse.”
The idea of ‘family honour’ meant that Rabea, Zohra, Ibtisam and Saïda kept their mouths shut. Now they are telling their stories to try and break the taboo surrounding sexual abuse in Muslim families. They no longer see themselves as victims. Their mission is to help other women who are in trouble now.
Young victims Their stories are individual but share much common ground. They were all around four or five when someone in their family started abusing them. The girls all kept silent because of threats, but also for fear of bringing ‘dishonour’ on the family. They didn’t even consider going to the police. Even now, they think that would be going too far.
Rabea was abused as a little girl by her father. She became caught up in herself and grew defiant.
“It’s so unnatural. If you’re beaten up at school or on the street, you go to your parents or your teacher. But this is your father. That goes against everything you believe in. I didn’t know how to talk about it and to whom I could turn. I was in danger of ending up in prostitution, but that didn’t happen luckily. Other people’s support and my belief in Jesus Christ helped to give me strength in the end.”
Robbed of everything Zohra kept her story to herself for years. She now tells of how she was raped by her cousin in Morocco when she was five:
“I was staying with my aunt and my cousin was looking after me. That day is engraved on my memory — he robbed me of everything. My aunt caught us. She said she’d deny everything if I told my parents. Nobody would believe me. I lost trust in everything. You’re damaged by sexual abuse, but I’ve learned that you can recover.”
Recipe for abuse Kristina Aamand has heard lots of similar stories. She works at an emergency shelter for young women in Denmark which, like the Netherlands, has a large Islamic immigrant population.
“It goes on in immigrant and native Danish families. It’s just that we never look for it in the Muslim community. When I was being trained, I was told I didn’t need to learn anything about sex abuse in Islamic countries because incest was forbidden by Islam and didn’t happen. That was really naïve. Taboos, secrets, silence, shame and a closed community are almost a recipe for sexual abuse.”
Cast out of the family Ibtisam was abused by her brother almost daily between the age of six and 12. “If I told on him, he would blame me. I would be killed or cast out of the family. I felt dirty, unhappy and rejected by my own family. I was very lonely. I was a girl that wasn’t alive. I was breathing but that was all.” The abuse stopped a year after Ibtisam threatened to tell on her brother.
Saïda was the victim of several abusers. She still suffers from the consequences every day. “I was abused from the age of four to 20 by different people. It destroyed me both physically and mentally. I felt afraid. I am still unable to be intimate with men, or fall in love. I did not have a normal childhood.” The doctor said she was mad. A couple of years ago, Saïda set up a project for abused Islamic girls. She realised there are more girls like her who do not tell their stories.
Confide Zohra, Rabea, Ibtisam and Saïda are not alone. There are more indications of sexual abuse in Islamic families. A crisis centre in Friesland takes in victims of honour-related violence. Half of them turned out to be sexually abused by a relative. Most of them have a Moroccan or Turkish background, some of them are Iraqi, Afghan or Kurd.
Zohra, Ibtisam, Saïda and Rabea are older now and have got their lives back in order. They want women with similar problems to confide in someone they trust. “They are not alone. Telling your story gets easier. I hope victims can draw strength from our stories,” says Ibtisam.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Health and Safety Chiefs Ban Hot Drinks… From Coffee Mornings
For seven years parents have drunk tea and coffee and dunked biscuits as their kids played at Mill Hill Children’s Centre, Waterlooville, Hampshire.
But now the mothers and fathers will have to catch up over glasses of water after the centre decided hot drinks posed too much of a threat to toddlers.
Karen Griffin, 29, from Portsmouth, is one of 20 parents who attend the coffee mornings, with her seven-month-old son Jacob.
The 29-year-old said: ‘I think it’s absurd. A lot of us mums enjoy a gossip over a cup of coffee. It just won’t be the same.
‘We have to pay £1 pound a time to go. If we are not getting tea and coffee I don’t think we should have to pay for it.’
Caroline Poole, 27, from nearby Gosport brings son Matthew, one, along every week.
She said: ‘I don’t see what the big deal is. They are going way over the top.
‘Everyone drinks coffee at home or in the car. What’s the difference?’
Centre co-ordinator Penny Bovey justified the ban and said: ‘We feel this is a sensible way of keeping children safe.
‘Groups are only run for approximately one and a half hours and cold drinks are available.
‘Groups where children are not mobile or in a creche will still be able to have hot drinks.’
| — Hat tip: Bewick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic Website Tied to MP’s Stabbing Resurfaces Under New Name
Younus Abdullah Muhammad, a founder of both sites, told The Daily Telegraph that IslamPolicy.com was the direct successor to RevolutionMuslim.com which was closed amid the furore over its role in the attack on Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham. “IslamPolicy will continue with the work of RevolutionMuslim,” Mr Muhammad, a white American convert to Islam, said during an interview in which he called the Sept 11 terror attacks “justified violence”. He continued: “If loving Muslims that fight and die to defend themselves from Western imperialism make the UK and US governments associate me or IslamPolicy with terrorists, then I am honoured to be so associated.”
US counter-terrorism officials say that at least a third of the more than 50 domestic terror suspects arrested in America in the last year had ties to RevolutionMuslim, an English-language site aimed at Muslims in the West. They trace its roots to a network of sites run by the now banned al-Muhajiroun group in Britain. “It is playing an important role in the export to the US of the British disease of home-grown terror by radicalised young Muslims,” a US official said. Aaron Zelin, a US academic who follows pro-jihadi websites, says that the US-based RevolutionMuslim was being increasingly used by British extremists to skirt hate speech and incitement laws in the UK and promote groups with al-Muhajiroun links. The site, which was hosted on an American Google server, was closed down last month after intense pressure from British and American security officials. But Mr Muhammad has now established IslamPolicy on a blogging site also operated by Google, calling it the new home for the closed site. He has said that IslamPolicy will focus on ideology and education, but British and American counterterror experts are monitoring it closely for the sort of radical content that was a fixture of its predecessor. Roshonara Choudry, the British Muslim jailed for life for stabbing Mr Timms, identified RevolutionMuslim and the teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born Yemen-based militant preacher, as inspirations for her actions. There was outrage when the website ran a posting eulogising her and encouraging similar attacks on MPs who, like Mr Timms, had voted in favour of the Iraq war. Peter Barron, European communications director for Google, said: “We are looking at the new site and will remove content which breaks our guidelines on hate speech and dangerous or illegal content. What we can’t do, and which few people would want a private company to do, is check what people want to post online before they do so.” The site’s re-emergence as IslamPolicy prompted demands for the new site to be closed by Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP who was formerly his party’s Homeland Security spokesman. “I am horrified to hear that the people behind the RevolutionMuslim site have started up again,” he said. “I am equally surprised that the American authorities have allowed these highly suspicious individuals to operate yet again.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Poor Students to be Given Up to Two Years Tuition Fees… But is it Enough to Win Over Lib Dems?
Bright youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds could have up to two years of their university tuition fees paid for them under Government plans revealed today.
Ministers believe that 18,000 students a year could benefit from the scheme, saving up to £18,000 from the cost of their higher education and significantly increasing the numbers of children from poorer families who go to university.
Under the scheme, any student eligible for free school meals who is accepted for a place at university would have one year’s fees paid by the state, said a Government source.
Universities which choose to charge more than £6,000 a year in fees — expected to include elite institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge — will be required to fund a further year’s tuition for these students.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Russian ‘Spy’: Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock Denies Researcher Facing Deportation is Moscow Sleeper Agent
Katia Zatuliveter, a researcher for an MP on the influential defence select committee, is to be expelled from Britain after being questioned on suspicion of espionage by security services. Mr Hancock has recently asked sensitive questions in Parliament about the quantities of radioactive materials held by the country and the future of its nuclear deterrent. Miss Zatuliveter has also worked for a defence think-tank and written articles that criticised Nato while defending military action by Russia.
However Mr Hancock, the Lib Dem member for Portsmouth South, denied she was a sleeper agent for Moscow and insisted the authorities had never raised their concerns with him. Mr Hancock, who is presently on police bail over an alleged indecent assault against a female constituent, said: “She is not a Russian spy. I know nothing about espionage, but she has been subjected to a deportation order. “She is appealing it, because she feels — quite rightly — that she has done nothing wrong.” Asked about MI5’s fear that his researcher had been a spy, he said: “No-one has ever said to me under any circumstances whatsoever that she has been involved in anything like that. “It is now in the hands of her lawyers. I am sure that in the end she will be proved to be right.” Miss Zatuliveter, 25, studied for a Master’s degree in Britain and worked for the UK Defence Forum where in 2008 she wrote a piece on the “Misguided US role in the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia”, claiming that “Russia had to intervene” in the affairs of its tiny neighbours and had been “provoked” by the US and Nato. She has been as a Parliamentary Assistant and Researcher to Mr Hancock, who sits on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Russia as well as the Commons defence select committee, for more than two years, having previously worked as an intern for him. Among recent written questions put down by the MP was one asking the Defence Secretary to publish “a full historical inventory of the UK’s nuclear arsenal”, another asking for “an update on the quantities of (a) plutonium, (b) enriched uranium and (c) other special nuclear materials that are outside international safeguards” and a series about the future of the Trident submarines. She was given a Commons pass and underwent security vetting before starting her job, but in August this year, Miss Zatuliveter and a friend were stopped at Gatwick Airport and questioned by immigration officers. She is now awaiting deportation back to Russia, reportedly after Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was briefed by MI5 about her alleged activities. A source told newspapers: “Her presence here is not considered to be conducive to national security. There was unhappiness about what she could have access to.” It comes amid continuing strain in relations between Britain and Russia and fears of a return to Cold War-level intelligence activities, following the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a dissident spy, in London four years ago. Over the summer a Russian spy ring was uncovered in America including a young woman who had British citizenship, Anna Chapman.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Schools Drop Christian Assemblies in Favour of Multi-Faith or ‘Moments of Reflection’
Christians have criticised the growing number of schools which have dropped their traditional assemblies in favour of multi-faith sessions or ‘moments of reflection’ which include children staring at rocks, meditating or discussing the news.
More than 140 primary and secondary schools across Britain have won the right to opt out of the legal requirement to provide a daily act of worship which is ‘broadly Christian’ in character.
Several hold Islamic assemblies with readings from the Koran, while others hold sessions giving weeksequal prominence to all faiths and sometimes incorporate events such as Black History Month and Chinese New Year.
The disclosure that so many schools have ditched the Christian service has upset traditionalists.
Mike Judge, of The Christian Institute, said: ‘It is part of an attempt to airbrush Christianity from public life. Of course it is important to be sensitive to other faiths but I think all children should be made aware of our Christian heritage. It is as much part of our island story as 1066 and the Battle of Hastings.
‘A lot of Muslim parents don’t mind their children learning about the nature of Christianity. I think it’s a question of other people being offended on their behalf.’
Schools which no longer feel a Christian assembly is relevant to their pupils can seek permission to opt out from their local authority Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), which is made up of council representatives and local faith representatives.
Schools must provide an alternative form of worship. The highest number of opt-outs, which are also known as determinations, are in areas where there are a large number of ethnic minority residents.
Bradford, West Yorkshire, which has a large Muslim community, has the highest number of opt-outs at 47. In 40 of these schools pupils attend one assembly a week which is devoted to Islam and four other sessions which have a multi-faith approach. In the other seven schools there are five multi-faith sessions.
An increasing number of schools in London are also changing the nature of their assemblies. In the past five years 37 schools in the London borough of Brent have made successful applications to their local SACRE committees.
In Ealing, where 12 schools have opt-outs, one school head proposed introducing a ‘thought spot’ with children reflecting on a single object on a table such as a candle, a rock or an artefact.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: World Cup 2018: Boris Kicks FIFA Chiefs Out of Dorchester for 2012 Olympics
Boris Johnson has taken revenge on Sepp Blatter and the other FIFA delegates who destroyed England’s bid to host the World Cup by kicking them out of London’s Dorchester hotel for the 2012 Olympic Games.
FIFA president Mr Blatter and his team had been invited to stay in exclusive £1,000-a-night suites at the five-star hotel for more than a week during the Olympics.
The gesture was part of the charm offensive designed to woo FIFA — football’s world governing body — in the run-up to Thursday’s 2018 World Cup vote.
Revenge: Boris Johnson, pictured in Zurich with England manager Fabio Capello, has pulled the plug on a FIFA Olympic visit in revenge for the loss of the World Cup vote
But London Mayor Mr Johnson, the official host of the Olympics, has withdrawn the offer to demonstrate his fury at the way FIFA threw out England’s bid.
Well-placed sources said that when Mr Johnson met Mr Blatter in October, the FIFA boss made no secret of his ability to influence England’s fate.
More… Despite strict new rules on expenses, MPs cash in on ‘THIRD HOME ploy’ We were right to broadcast Panorama show on FIFA days before World Cup vote, insists BBC chief He told the Mayor: ‘What is the point of having power if you don’t wield it?’
In his final address to FIFA delegates before Thursday’s vote, he is said to have referred to the ‘evils’ of the English media, which have exposed FIFA corruption.
Mr Blatter also reportedly indicated during his talks with Mr Johnson that he had been impressed by the number of glamorous women paraded in front of him during his visits to some of the rival bidding nations.
He said: ‘I have seen a lot of beautiful girls in other countries.’
The English bid relied less on glitz and glamour and focused mainly on the country’s modern stadiums and high-quality transport links compared with rival countries.
Mr Johnson, who attended last week’s FIFA summit in Zurich and co-ordinated London’s efforts as part of the bid, described the decision to award the World Cup to Russia as a ‘big blow and tremendously disappointing’.
He added: ‘We put together a cracking bid, our technical specification was top-notch and our stadiums would have been packed to the rafters. Londoners love football.’
Upset: FIFA boss Sepp Blatter was invited to stay in London’s Dorchester Hotel but the offer has been withdrawn
Both Mr Johnson and Prime Minister David Cameron, who also helped to lobby FIFA delegates, took sideswipes at Russia’s record on crime and racism in the run-up to the vote.
In his meeting with Mr Blatter, the Mayor said mischievously: ‘Only six bicycles have been stolen since my bikes-for-hire scheme started in London.
‘Light-fingered Frenchmen nicked hundreds when they did the same in Paris. Imagine how many would go missing in Moscow.’
And in an interview for the BBC’s Football Focus programme a week ago, Mr Cameron appeared to highlight Russian football’s notorious record for racial abuse by fans.
He said Britain’s multicultural society was ‘one of our selling points’, adding: ‘We can say you don’t have to worry about problems of racism in football.’
When black player Peter Odemwingie joined West Bromwich Albion from Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow in the summer, fans there held up a banner depicting a banana and bearing the words ‘Thanks West Brom’.
Mr Johnson’s decision to ban Mr Blatter and his colleagues from The Dorchester came after he discussed the matter with former Olympic gold-medal winner Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The body is in charge of booking hotels for VIPs at the Olympics at no cost to the guests.
Mr Blatter and the FIFA delegates are used to staying in the world’s top hotels as they jet round the world, feted by governments desperate to host the World Cup…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
US Diplomats Analyzed Death of Bruno the Bear
The US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks have generated a commotion around the world. In addition to reporting on the internal workings of global governments, the dispatches also include some oddities, like the 2006 shooting of Bruno, the first wild bear to wander into Germany in 170 years.
It was one of those great moments in Bavarian politics. When Bruno the wild brown bear wandered over the Alps from Italy into the southern German state, then-Governor Edmund Stoiber was quick to address the matter. Actually, Bavaria was pleased to welcome bears to the state, he said. Provided they are normal bears. Stoiber’s definition at the time: “The bear that normally resides in the forest, doesn’t leave it and kills perhaps one or two sheep per year.”
So far, so good. But Bruno, who wandered over from Italy’s Trentino province, had a well-documented penchant for killing livestock, pets and other animals. “And we see a difference between the normal bear, the malicious bear and the problem bear,” Stoiber explained. And, yes, “it is very clear that this bear is a problem bear,” he concluded.
The government of Bavaria ultimately gave permission for the bear to be shot by hunters. Bruno, the first wild bear to arrive in Bavaria for over 170 years, was killed on June 26, 2006, in the mountainous Kümpflalm area above Spitzingsee lake in the Alps.
US Diplomats Wax Poetic about Bruno
Of course, American diplomats stationed in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, and in Berlin didn’t miss any of this. Information about the bear hunt was promptly cabled back to Washington. In the newly-leaked US diplomatic dispatches, one can find detailed information about Bruno the brown bear. That summer the US Consulate, located near Governor Stoiber’s offices in Munich, registered some fundamental thoughts on the German understanding of the natural world.
DISPATCH: FULL TEXT OF THE BRUNO CABLE…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Cables: Spanish PM Helped GE Beat Rolls-Royce to Helicopter Deal
Rolls-Royce lost a lucrative contract to supply helicopter engines to the Spanish military because of a personal intervention by Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Zapatero, following vigorous lobbying from US diplomats, according to a secret cable from the US embassy in Madrid.
Eduardo Aguirre, the departing US ambassador to Spain, recounts behind-the-scenes diplomatic machinations that helped General Electric snatch a deal away from Rolls-Royce to provide engines for a state-of-the-art fleet of helicopters bought by the Spanish armed forces, a contract estimated by industry experts to be worth more than £200m.
Details of how Britain’s best-known engineering company lost out to the Americans will fuel concerns that the so-called UK-US special relationship does not always deliver results.
They come to light after other leaked cables reveal how American diplomats were amused by what they saw as Britain’s “paranoid” fears. In the run-up to the May general election, Louis Susman, the US ambassador to London, recorded how Liam Fox, now defence secretary, attempted to win favour with the US by telling him that a Conservative government intended to follow a “much more pro-American profile in procurement”.
In the cable relating to the helicopter engine contract, Aguirre portrays Spain’s socialist leader as an opportunist, describing Zapatero, who took office following the Madrid train bombings in 2004, as “a wily politician with an uncanny ability — like a cat in a jungle — to sense opportunity or danger”.
But Zapatero could be “amenable” to US interests, the ambassador wrote, describing the prime minister’s intervention in a tussle in 2007 between Rolls-Royce and GE for a contract to supply and maintain engines for 45 twin-engine NH90 helicopters.
At the time, US companies were complaining that they were not given a fair run by the Spanish government for publicly funded contracts. When Aguirre raised this, Zapatero told the ambassador to “let him know if there was something important to the USG [US government] and he would take care of it”.
The US began to “advocate” on behalf of GE for the supply of 90 engines, each worth as much as £1m, with additional fees for parts and maintenance. GE threatened to shut down certain operations in Spain unless it won. The Spanish military opted for Rolls-Royce — until it was overruled by the prime minister’s office, according to the cable.
“Although there was considerable all-source evidence to suggest that the MOD [Spanish ministry of defence] decided to award the contract to Rolls-Royce, [the office of the president] overturned the decision and it was announced that GE had won the bid. The ambassador is convinced that Zapatero personally intervened in the case in favour of GE.”
Neither Rolls-Royce nor GE would comment…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Aircrafts to be Delivered to Iraq by Spring
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, DECEMBER 1 — Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac stated that the delivery of training aircrafts Lasta to the Iraqi Air Force will be completed by spring, reports Tanjug news agency.
Sutanovac told journalists after a visit to Utva Aviation Industry, an aircraft factory located in Pane’evo, that after the delivery Utva will produce Lasta aircrafts for the needs of the Serbian Army and training of cadets of the Military Academy.
The Iraqi Ministry of Defence has purchased 20 Lasta aircrafts, while the Serbian Defence Ministry will buy 15 planes of the type.
The defence minister underlined that this is a cutting-edge product of the Serbian industry, and recalled that this aircraft saves fuel in the amount of about EUR500 per one hour of flight.
Sutanovac visited Utva factory with Serbian Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Appeal From Eritrean Hostages of Raiders
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, DECEMBER 3 — “We are being held in chains in terrible conditions; we haven’t eaten for three days.
Come and save us”. So ran the live telephone appeal sent to Vatican Radio by an Eritrean boy, one of the refugees caught and held hostage for the past month by marauders in the Sinai desert on the border between Egypt and Israel. The affair has taken up several columns in today’s edition of the ‘Vatican bishop’s daily paper’, Avvenire. “Awful ultimatum for Eritrean hostages,” runs the front page headline. The appeal sent by the Eritrean prisoner, one of 74 hostages taken from a group of more than two hundred refugees, was forwarded last night to Don Mose’ Zerai, an Eritrean priest of the Asmara diocese who is in charge of the Habeshia press agency. The traffickers are demanding a ransom of eight thousand dollars per head to free them, which is why they are allowing them to make telephone contact with the outside world. The refugees were making a bid to get to Europe so that they could apply for asylum and have their rights respected at last.
There has been an increase of the flow of refugees travelling through Egypt recently, following the accords reached between Italy and Libya and the new policy of forced repulsion at sea which prevents refugees from getting to Europe by the direct sea route across the Mediterranean.
“We are in a terrible plight,” the prisoner said, “and our lives are at stake. Nine of us have been beaten mercilessly and are now injured. Others are sick from hunger or because of the salt water they are giving us to drink”. “Today I have had two meetings with the Lower House’s Foreign Affairs Commission,” Don Zerai said, “and I have urged them to intervene with the Interior Minister so that he gets in touch with the Egyptian authorities, the only ones capable of acting in that area”.
Italian Catholic weekly, Famiglia Cristiana, also reports the story, saying the group of Eritreans, who have also made contact with Italy’s Council for Refugees (CIR), is just a part of the more than 600 migrants who have recently fallen prey to raiders during their journey northwards. And four of them have already undergone enforced removal of their kidneys in order to pay off their captors.
As the Catholic weekly continues, citing Eurostat, in the first six months of 2010, only 4,035 persons presented applications for asylum in Italy, compared to the 10,895 who did so in the same period of 2009. According to CIR Director, Christopher Hein, this drastic reduction in numbers could be seen as a positive development, if there had been an improvement in the conditions in the transit countries. But, on the contrary, this group of Eritrean has come from Libya itself, Hein stressed — where they were repelled in line with international agreements such as that signed with Italy. International law, on the other hand, forbids mass repulsions in order that the presence of vulnerable persons may first be checked for: persons such as refugees or those fleeing civil conflicts, or bloody dictatorships, pregnant women or minors.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Audiovisual: France and Israel, Closer Cooperation
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 29 — After signing a bilateral cooperation agreement in 2002 that has led to the realisation of more than 30 co-productions, including “Waltz with Bashir” (2009 Oscar for best foreign film), France and Israel have plans to work even closer together in the field of television and film. This was announced by the participants in the first Audiovisual Meetings between France and Israel, organised in Tel Aviv by the French embassy. France is the most important foreign investor in Israel in the film sector.
Around thirty French producers, scriptwriters and directors attended the meeting with their Israeli colleagues, among whom director Eytan Fox and the Arab-Israeli writer Sayed Kashua.
Jerome Clement underlined that Arte, the French-German network he is chairman of, has coproduced 19 Israeli films. He jokingly proposed to “make the experience of Arte, a French-German channel that was created after two bloody wars, available for the creation of Israeli-Palestinian television”.
Producer Fabienne Servan-Schreiber said that “Israeli cinema is an example of energy and talent”. Marek Rosenbaum, chairman of the Israeli Film Academy, underlined that his country “is indebted to France which has contributed much to the development of Israeli cinema”. He pointed out that a third of fiction films are coproduced with France.
Early in November France and Israel signed an agreement to make it easier for Israeli films to get access to the Fonds Syd, a fund of the national centre for cinematography that backs the creation of films, in order to make more Israeli-French co-productions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Capitalism Versus Socialism…Capitalism Wins Again
In search of revival, modest communal farms that were long Israel’s best-known symbol are now embracing decidedly capitalist ways
The austere communal farms that were long Israel’s best-known symbol are marking their 100th anniversary with their socialist ideology in tatters, their populations small and aging. In search of revival, the kibbutz movement has embraced decidedly capitalist ways.
Kibbutzim have turned to private ownership and deals with Western businessmen, as well as drawing in urbanites looking to build homes where wheat once swayed and cows roamed. With the reinvention, membership is perking up, from both new blood and former members who fled the confines of communal living but are starting to come back.
Kibbutz Hulda, in central Israel, is a telling example. The kibbutz, which is remembered as a staging ground for Jewish convoys trying to break the Arab siege on Jerusalem during the fighting around Israel’s 1948 creation, has seen its membership plunge to about 110 people, from twice that at its peak in the early 1980s. That was when the kibbutz movement as a whole began to be pummeled by economic crisis and the lure of greater freedom outside.
Like many other kibbutzim, Hulda has shut down its communal dining hall. In a major inversion of the movement’s key principle — equality — Hulda members no longer receive equal allowances but are paid according to the type of work they do, with managers making more than simple workers. The kibbutz, which was once home to author Amos Oz, supports itself largely through members’ salaries from outside jobs, agriculture and by leasing land and buildings to outsiders.
And like nearly three dozen other kibbutzim, it’s building a new neighborhood for non-members who want to enjoy the benefits of rural life — without having to share the kibbutz’s founding values. On the edge of the kibbutz, separated from it by a narrow road, the scaffolding, whirring drills and pounding hammers herald the coming of a hoped-for lifeline.
Still under construction, the 110 homes have already been sold, said project manager Itzik Gedalia. The homes will average 1,750 square feet — about twice as big as the average kibbutznik’s and significantly larger than most Israelis’ apartments. Residents will own these homes, unlike the kibbutzniks, who long rejected the idea of private property.
“When no one wanted to look at us, it looked like the only way to keep Hulda alive,” said Amotz Peleg, who was born there 67 years ago. “You can’t keep a community alive with 100 members and a few tenants. You can’t support a clinic, nursery schools, a grocery.”
Loosening of the original kibbutz framework (Archive photo: Tsafrir Abayov)
Because the State owns the land on which the kibbutzim stand, the communal farms don’t get a cut from the house sales. Still, Hulda hopes the infusion of new families will help keep communal institutions like the local school, clinic and grocery alive, because non-members pay to use them, Peleg said.
The loosening of the original kibbutz framework has also drawn back some former kibbutzniks who left their homes looking for greater freedom, and they’re now returning as members. Peleg’s own daughter, Galia Peleg, is one of them.
“As soon as Hulda privatized, that was the thing that made me go back,” she said. “I understood I could preserve my quality of life materially and benefit from the community life as well.” Her brother is also in the process of becoming a member.
According to movement officials, the total kibbutz population today is close to 127,000, up from 115,300 five years ago — about 1.6% of Israel’s population. About 4,000 of those people are not members. At the movement’s height, about 3.5% of Israelis were kibbutzniks.
Today there are about 270 kibbutzim across the country, and they still hold economic weight. Their factories and farms produce 9 percent of Israel’s overall industrial output, worth $8 billion, and 40 percent of its agricultural output, worth more than $1.7 billion.
Some kibbutzim thriving financiallyThe brainchild of eastern European socialist Zionists, the kibbutz quickly became a symbol of the pioneering and socialist ethos of the country’s early years. The first one was Degania, founded on the banks of the Sea of Galilee in October 1910.
Kibbutzniks built many of the settlements that defined and defended the country’s early borders. Many of Israel’s early political, military and business leaders came from kibbutzim, and the communes drew thousands of foreign volunteers.
The movement was unique in the annals of socialism because no other voluntary form of collectivism attracted so many devotees. Their socialist and Zionist ideology was based on the principle of shared agrarian labor, shared income, shared meals and shared housing for children. Even individual life decisions — like a choice for university studies — could be subject to a vote.
But over the years the idea lost its utopian communal gloss, mirroring Israel’s shift to an industrialized free market and an emphasis on individual goals. Thousands of younger members decamped to cities in the 1980s, chafing at the restrictions of kibbutz life. Meanwhile, the kibbutz’s political patron, the Labor Party, lost the political and economic hegemony that guaranteed the collectives favored treatment.
Kibbutzim groaned under billions of dollars of debt that burgeoned during hyperinflation in the 1980s, driving some to the brink of bankruptcy and forcing most to jettison parts of the communal life.
Still, some kibbutzim are thriving financially, and about 15 still follow the full traditional communal model, according to the kibbutz movement.
Essilor, the French ophthalmic optical products maker, recently paid $130 million to buy 50 percent of the optics business at one Galilee kibbutz, Shamir. The Nasdaq-listed Shamir Optical Industry reported revenues of $142 million last year.
In another kibbutz, Sasa, on the Israel-Lebanon border, the Plasan armored vehicle factory has won contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the US military since the Iraq war began in 2003.
Zohar Shpak spent his early years on a kibbutz, but when he moved to another one with his wife and three children six years ago he had no interest in becoming a member.
Today, the family lives in a neighborhood of 42 homes built — like the planned expansion at Hulda — for non-members on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza Strip. Their kids go to the kibbutz school, the family shops on the kibbutz and socializes with kibbutzniks, but the lines are drawn.
“We’re inside the kibbutz, but have our own lives,” Shpak said. “I am not built to be so communal.
| — Hat tip: DonVito | [Return to headlines] |
Press Low-Key on Wave of Arson by Israel’s Arabs
Police and volunteers are manning checkpoints, lookouts and ambushes throughout Israel in an effort to combat a wave of terrorist arson by Arab citizens of Israel. While occasionally reporting some of the arson incidents, most news sources are playing them down considerably, while others cover them up completely.
The IDF has released video footage shot from an IAF aircraft, which shows a vehicle escaping from the scene of an arson attack on the Carmel Mountain. The conversation on the radio, in Hebrew, is between pilots and police. The pilots report that they have received word from a firefighting aircraft that spotted the vehicle leaving the scene of an act of arson, near a spot called the Muhraka. The aircraft follows the vehicle — a Renault Kangoo — until it is stopped by police cars.
Despite this video, news of the wave of arson is seeping into the public consciousness mostly through smaller news sources and by word of mouth. Police said the main conflagration in the Carmel Mountains was unintentionally caused by a group of youth from Ossafiya. According to a report on Channel 2 news, the youths lit a fire as part of a nocturnal picnic and did not put it out properly before leaving the site. Later reports said that while most of the residents of Ossafiya are Druze, the youths who were arrested are Arabs. News1 said that insurance companies were heartened by this news, because if they can prove in court that the fire was an act of terrorism, the state will pay the victims’ compensation instead of them.
However, Channel 2’s website also carries a report that Border Police arrested two Arabs, one an Israeli citizen and the other from the Palestinian Authority, who tried to start a fire near Jerusalem on Saturday night. The two were caught in a ravine near the “tunnels checkpoint” at the entrance to the neighborhood of Gilo.
The checkpoint noticed the suspects and reported their activity to security forces. A Border Police team identified the two trying to set a fire, called on them to stop and fired four shots in the air. The suspects tried to escape in a vehicle but were arrested after a short chase.
A short time later, a 34-year-old Arab man was arrested near Dodge Junction close to Nazareth. He was taken to interrogation. The volunteer “New HaShomer” land security group also placed ambushes in key locations. On Friday it reported several arrests, via text messages that it sent to its volunteer guards.
The News1 website reported that Radio Haifa interviewed several people who witnessed car horn-honking and other acts of public celebration in the Arab village of Furadis, south of Haifa, after news of the tragedy became known Thursday.
According to the report, Arab citizens uploaded to a Facebook account gruesome photographs of charred bodies of victims. Other Arabs expressed their feelings by clicking “like.” The police are said to be investigating the matter and the Facebook page is said to have been closed.
However, the pictures have already begun making the rounds worldwide. A group called “Mujahedeen of Palestine,” identified with Al-Qaeda, put the pictures of the bodies on aYouTube video. The video includes text that says “Muhammad’s lions” came out at night to set alight the land of the “occupiers.”
| — Hat tip: DonVito | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Says it Has Made Its Own Atomic Raw Material
Officials said Iran had produced the yellowcake, an achievement that allows the country to continue enriching stockpiles of the material into fuel for nuclear power stations. It may also allow the manufacture of warheads to fit on long range missiles in spite of a worldwide embargo. The announcement came as Baroness Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy representative, travelled to Geneva to hold negotiations with Iran’s Saeed Jalili, Tehran’s chief nuclear envoy, on behalf of Germany and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The first formal talks with the six countries since the UN imposed further sanctions on Iran in May were supposed to have concentrated on the country’s nuclear activities. However Iranian diplomats have insisted instead on discussions about the agenda, meaning the talks will be drawn out.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted that Iran would not give up its nuclear ambitions but instead offered co-operation. But Iran’s foreign minister refused to respond to American overtures of engagement on the eve of talks. Manouchehr Mottaki said the West was trying to impose “scientific apartheid” by depriving Iran of what it calls its “nuclear rights”. Mr Mottaki told the Manama Dialogue, a conference in Bahrain organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), that the presence of “foreign powers” was the cause of tension in the region. However, many Gulf delegates continued to criticise Iran’s “destabilising” role in the region, accusing the country of backing opposition movements. Some have been revealed in the Wikileaks disclosures to have urged the US to take military action against Iran. Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, made an unusual admission that his government believed Iran was supporting a rebellion by Shia tribes in the north of the troubled country. “We have been talking about this with the Iranians,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “This is something we deal with on a bilateral basis.” Yesterday’s yellowcake announcement removes a key restraint on Tehran, which was previously reliant on 600 tonnes of yellowcake acquired from South Africa in the 1970s, prior to the Islamic revolution. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s atomic programme, struck a triumphalist tone in revealing the development. “The West had counted on the possibility of us being in trouble over raw material,” he said. “Iran has become self-sufficient in the entire fuel cycle, starting from [uranium] exploration, mining and then turning it into yellowcake and converting it.” Andrew Parasiliti, an IISS analyst, said Iran may have shifted its tone in response to the hostility that Gulf Arab states had expressed towards it in the leaked cables. The Wikileaks cables showed that Iran’s aggressive international posture was driving the Gulf into a firmer embrace of American military support. “It was much more conciliatory in tone,” he said of Mr Mottaki’s speech at the conference. “I think we were seeing a bit of a goodwill initiative.” One senior Gulf official said Mr Mottaki had only shown his country’s weakness in the face of sanctions, opposition at home and unpopularity in the region. He said that the Geneva talks meant that there was more time before the world had to choose what course of action to take to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. He said: “After that we may have to duck.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Nuclear Program Self-Sufficient, Top Official Claims
Iran now produces everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient, the head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization told state media Sunday.
The Islamic republic has begun producing yellowcake, Ali Akbar Salehi told Press TV.
Salehi’s announcement came just a day before Iran is to continue stalled nuclear talks with the so-called P5 plus 1 countries — Germany and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.
That’s no coincidence, CNN’s Reza Sayah says. Iran wants to show that despite ever-tighter sanctions, it is not negotiating from a position of weakness.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Bagdad Islamists Resurge, The City’s Christians Flee
Baghdad’s literary elite took to the streets on Friday to protest a government order shutting one of the city’s few places where people can drink liquor freely, striking a blow to the alcohol-inspired conviviality poets and artists so value. But drinkers face a much more fundamental threat to their freedom to imbibe, as the city’s Christians flee.
The government ordered the social club located near the Iraqi Writers Union closed by enforcing a Saddam-era ban prohibiting the serving of alcohol in hotels and restaurants. The ban had fallen into abeyance as the U.S. troop surge put Muslim extremists on the defensive. Now, with the U.S. presence much smaller, Islamists are back in the saddle.
Their ascendancy has not only led to a crackdown on drinking but has frightened Baghdad’s Christians, who aren’t subject to the Islamic ban on alcohol and thus are the city’s main purveyors of liquor. Since Baghdad’s Syrian Catholic Cathedral was attacked at a cost of 53 lives in October, Christians have been leaving the city for Kurdish-controlled areas in the northern Iraq.
“We’re worried about more decisions against personal freedoms,” Ali Hussein, political editor of the Al-Mada newspaper, who organized the protest, told The Media Line. “This decision doesn’t only harm Christians, but all Iraqi citizens. We are hoping to collect one million protest signatures to send the government.”
In Islam, alcohol —or any intoxicant—is generally forbidden, but in Iraq the status of liquor has veered from permitted to punished over the years. During the 1990s, the nominal secularist dictator, Saddam Hussein, restricted sales of alcohol while shutting down nightclubs and casinos, to win support of conservatives.
In 2005, two years after the U.S. and its allies toppled the Saddam regime, Iraq’s Interior Ministry rescinded the ban. But a year later Islamic militants began targeting liquor stores and truc in 2008 and militants lost sway, the liquor trade revived. only to meet a renewed Islam-inspired prohibition campaign this year.
Protestors last week gathered outside the Iraqi Writers Union building in al-Wattanabi in the city center, carrying signs that read “Freedom first” and “Baghdad won’t be Kandahar,” a reference to the stronghold of Taliban fundamentalists in Afghanistan. Demonstrators accused the government of implementing repressive policies that restrict individual rights.
For the protestors, the demonstration was about more than just alcohol. In a statement sent to the Iraqi leaders, protesters urged the government to defend pluralism in Iraq. Hussein added that people on the street expressed sympathy with his organization’s protest.
“We hope you boldly stand up and defend democratic values side by side with the forces that seek a democratic, pluralistic and multi-cultural Iraq,” the statement read. “This is a battle against the forces of darkness and extremism that wish to turn the provinces under their control into new Kandahars.”
Christians and Yazidi-Kurds, the latter members of a religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots, are the only religious groups legally allowed to sell alcohol in Iraq. But as their numbers dwindle in the wake of anti-Christian violence, secular Iraqis — Muslim and non-Muslim alike — fear that a full-blown prohibition will soon be in place as social clubs close down and liquor store owners flee.
William Wardeh, an Iraqi Christian and president of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, contends that the alcohol ban was part of an organized campaign against Iraq’s Christians. Prior to the attack in October, six churches were attacked in July 2009 and a wave of killings that targeted the Christian community occurred in February 2010.
“There are close-minded people who are trying to bring Iraq back to dark days in the past,” Wardeh told The Media Line. “They attack everything that portrays Iraq in a cultural or eligious leaders, the U.S. State Department report “International Religious Freedom” published in November estimated that Iraq’s Christian population in 2003 ranged somewhere 800,000 to 1.4 million but has fallen to day to between 400,000 to 600,000.
The Christian community lays claim to a heritage in Iraq that dates back thousands of years, and many religious and community leaders have expressed fear that the community could soon disappear entirely. Christian leaders estimate that as much as half the country’s Christian population lives in Baghdad, and 30% to 40% lives in the north, with the largest Christian communities located in and around Mosul, Erbil, Dohuk, and Kirkuk.
“There is a fear that they will lose the Christians, just like they lost the Jewish community,” Middle East analyst Ali Al-Saffar told The Media Line.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, although Christians represent only 3% of Iraq’s population, they make up half of the refugees leaving the countr
| — Hat tip: DonVito | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Five Star Prison, But Only for VIPs
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 3 — In Jordan, the name Salhoub is no longer associated exclusively with a beautiful natural reserve located to the north of the capital city of Amman. Salhoub has recently become famous because it hosts a “5 star” prison for Jordanian VIPs, equipped with every comfort and situated in a relaxing endangered pine forest, reports satellite network Al Arabiyya. The famous Salhoub heights, always highly popular with tourists, today have become even more well-known because of its prison, which currently holds many of the individuals involved in the biggest political-business scandal in the country’s history — the bribery case in the building of an oil refinery. Amidst the pines of Salhoub are a former minister, high-ranking officials, famous businessmen and the former director of the refinery. The choice to put these illustrious prisoners in this “touristic” jail, as it is referred to in Jordan, is based on the decision by the government to prevent the famous men and common prisoners from coming into contact with each other, as in the past when judicial officials decided to transfer the former head of the intelligence department, Samih Al Bateekhi, from a normal prison to a private villa. The VIP prison enjoys high levels of security and surveillance. Eyewitnesses have spoken about surveillance cameras that allow guards to monitor everything that is taking place inside and outside of the prison, according to the website. Al Arabiyya, citing eyewitnesses, reports that the VIP prison consists of independent villas with living rooms that overlook beautiful gardens. While the number of prisoners in other jails is no less than 1000, Salhoub has no more than 60 detainees, according to Jordanian police spokesman, Mohammed Al Khateeb. The VIP prison was built taking all security elements into account (there is even an electric fence) along with its luxury (similar to a five-star hotel). It stands in stark contrast to the situation in normal Jordanian prisons, which deal with overcrowding and declining health care services. The Jordanian press has recently reported extensively on this issue, also due to protests by prisoners. Citing sources that preferred to remain anonymous, the website reports that Salhoub was built several years ago during the American war against Iraq to hold important individuals on a regional level. It was never used for that purpose, while today, Jordanian officials have decided to use it for the famous prisoners, who go into their own pockets to provide for their luxury stay. In addition to preventing contact with common criminals, the Salhoub prisoners can also choose their meals, both food and drinks, just like in a hotel. According to some reports, the cost to stay at the VIP prison is 200 dollars per day, but a police spokesman has stated that everything is free of charge like in the country’s other prisons. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maid Fouls Drinking Water of Her Saudi Employers
An Asian housemaid who was caught fouling the drinking water for her employers in Saudi Arabia told police she did so to make them love her, a Saudi newspaper reported on Sunday.
The 32-year-old maid was caught by her employer as she was adding dirt to the water tank at the house in the eastern town of Tarut, the paper said.
“He took her to the police and she told them that she had done so because this will make the family love her and also make them love each other more…she said this is practiced in her country,” the paper said without indentify the maid.
It quoted police spokesman Lt Colonel Ziad Al Ruqaiti as saying housemaids should be continuously watched by their employers as some of them “indulge in witchcraft and other illegal practices.”
Nearly one million maids from Indonesia and other Asian nations work in Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world’s leading oil exporter.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
More Foreign Fighters Seen Slipping Back Into Iraq
Intelligence officials say foreign fighters have been slipping back into Iraq in larger numbers recently and may have been behind some of the most devastating attacks this year, reviving a threat the US military believed had been almost entirely eradicated.
It is impossible to verify the actual numbers of foreign insurgents entering the country. But one Middle Eastern intelligence official estimated recently that 250 came in October alone. US officials say the figure is far lower, but have acknowledged an increase since August. (AP)
| — Hat tip: DonVito | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim World: Poll Shows Majority Want Islam in Politics; Feelings Mixed on Hamas, Hezbollah
A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries’ political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
According to the survey, majorities in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria would favor changing the current laws to allow stoning as a punishment for adultery, hand amputation for theft and death for those who convert from Islam to another religion. About 85% of Pakistani Muslims said they would support a law segregating men and women in the workplace.
Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria and Jordan were among the most enthusiastic, with more than three-quarters of Muslims polled in those countries reporting positive views of Islam’s influence in politics: either that Islam had a large role in politics, and that was a good thing, or that it played a small role, and that was bad.
Turkish Muslims were the most conflicted, with just more than half reporting positive views of Islam’s influence in politics. Turkey has struggled in recent years to balance a secular political system with an increasingly fervent Muslim population.
Many Muslims described an ongoing struggle in their country between fundamentalists and modernizers, especially those who may have felt threatened by the rising tides of conservatism. Among those respondents who identified a struggle, most tended to side with the modernizers. This was especially true in Lebanon and Turkey, where 84% and 74%, respectively, identified themselves as modernizers as opposed to fundamentalists.
In Egypt and Nigeria, however, most people were pulling in the other direction. According to the poll, 59% in Egypt and 58% in Nigeria who said there was a struggle identified with the fundamentalists.
Despite an overall positive view of Islam’s growing role in politics, militant religious organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah spurred mixed reactions. Both groups enjoyed fairly strong support in Jordan, home to many Palestinians, and Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. Muslim countries that do not share strong cultural, historical and political ties to the Palestinian cause, such as Pakistan and Turkey, tended to view Hezbollah and Hamas negatively.
Al Qaeda was starkly rejected by majorities in every Muslim country except Nigeria, which gave the group a 49% approval rating.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Al-Qaeda ‘Planned Poison Plot’
Operatives plotted to kill government officials and media workers by sending them poisoned perfumes, Saudi Arabia says.
Al-Qaeda members planned to kill Saudi Arabian government and security officials, as well as media workers, by sending poisoned gifts to their offices, a Saudi interior ministry official was quoted as telling the Reuters news agency.
Last month, Saudi Arabia said it had captured 149 al-Qaeda-linked fighters over the past few months. They were accused of raising money and recruiting members to carry out attacks inside the kingdom.
The group “planned to rob banks and companies to finance their operations”, the official, who declined to be named, said on Saturday.
“Using poisoned perfume … is one of the ways the arrested people planned to carry out their assassinations,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Women Sue Male Guardians Who Stop Marriage
CAIRO — Year after year, the 42-year-old Saudi surgeon remains single, against her will. Her father keeps turning down marriage proposals, and her hefty salary keeps going directly to his bank account.
The surgeon in the holy city of Medina knows her father, also her male guardian, is violating Islamic law by forcibly keeping her single, a practice known as “adhl.” So she has sued him in court, with questionable success.
Adhl cases reflect the many challenges facing single women in Saudi Arabia. But what has changed is that more women are now coming forward with their cases to the media and the law. Dozens of women have challenged their guardians in court over adhl, and one has even set up a Facebook group for victims of the practice.
The backlash comes as Saudi Arabia has just secured a seat on the governing board of the new United Nations Women’s Rights Council — a move many activists have decried because of the desert kingdom’s poor record on treatment of women. Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar describes male guardianship as “a form of slavery.”
“A Saudi woman can’t even buy a phone without the guardian’s permission,” said al-Hawaidar, who has been banned from writing or appearing on Saudi television networks because of her vocal support of women’s rights. “This law deals with women as juveniles who can’t be in charge of themselves at the same time it gives all powers to men.”
In a recent report by the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, the National Society for Human Rights received 30 cases of adhl this year — almost certainly an undercount. A Facebook group called “enough adhl,” set up by a university professor and adhl victim, estimates the number at closer to 800,000 cases. The group, with 421 members, aims at rallying support for harsher penalties against men who misuse their guardianship.
An estimated 4 million women over the age of 20 are unmarried in the country of 24.6 million. After 20, women are rapidly seen in Saudi society as getting too old to marry, said Sohila Zein el-Abdydeen, a prominent female member of the governmental National Society for Human Rights.
Fathers cite adhl for a variety of reasons — sometimes because a suitor doesn’t belong to the same tribe, or a prominent enough tribe. In other cases, the father wants to keep the allowance that the government gives to single women in poorer families, or cannot afford a dowry.
Islam’s holy book, the Quran, warns Muslim men not to prevent their daughters, sisters or female relatives from getting married, or else they will encourage sexual relations outside marriage. But under Saudi judges’ interpretation of Islamic Shariah law, the crime can be punished by lifting the male guardianship, nothing more.
Hard-line judges refuse to go even that far. The founder of the Facebook group, who introduced herself only as Amal Saleh in an interview with Saudi daily Al-Watan, said she set up the group after courts let down adhl victims. She said her family threatened her with “death and torture” when she pressed for her right to get married while she was under 30. She is now 37 and still single.
Some judges even punish the women themselves for rebelling against their fathers. In one high-profile adhl case, a young single mother, Samar Badawi, sued her father and demanded he be stripped of his guardianship. She fled her house in March 2008 and spent around two years in a women’s protection house in Jeddah, waiting for the court ruling.
In April, she got it — she was sentenced to six months in prison for disobedience…
| — Hat tip: Bewick | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Eyes Common Halal Certificate for Islamic Countries
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 3 — Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) President Tahir Buyukhelvacigil has said they have the competency to certify products “halal” (goods that correspond to Islamic precepts), and are ready to do so when there is a need for it. Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Buyukhelvacigil said the TSE has the required qualifications to certify products halal, but added that there is no need at the moment. Buyukhelvacigil addressed Muslim countries and said they should come up with one certification standard. “If the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC) sets out the requirements for one type of halal certificate, the problem will easily be solved. The TSE can then use the documents issued by the SMIIC as a future reference,” the TSE president said.
Buyukhelvacigil noted that developed countries make extensive use of standardization and products from these countries are considered good. He said Germany was the world’s leading exporter before China overtook it last year. Moreover, Buyukhelvacigil said they receive many suggestions from Turkish consumers for new standards on specific products. The TSE was established 56 years ago and now belongs to the top 10 institutions in the related field. Approximately 30,500 standards are registered with the TSE.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Exceptionalism?
Some might claim that in spite of the intensifying Justice and Development Party, or AKP-led reorientation of Turkey’s domestic and international agenda, Turkey will inevitably maintain, at the least, a fair balance between its Eastern and Western commitments and perhaps even continue to be a strong Western ally. Although some Turks boast about this intrinsic “Turkish exceptionalism” in explaining their country’s unique ability, thus far, to mesh with the West, this is only a myth. Turkey has functioned as an exceptional Western Muslim country, not because the Turks are exceptional, but because they have lived in a system which has taught them that they share values, institutions, and interests with the West, and led them to collaborate with NATO, the United States, and the European Union accession process.
This is slowly coming to an end.
According to the 2010 Transatlantic Trends report, 55 percent of Turks feel Turkey has such different values from the West so as to make it non-Western. In 2004, 73 percent of Turks believed membership in the EU would be beneficial, but those numbers had dropped to 38 percent by 2010. The majority of Turks (53 percent) found NATO essential in 2004, but by 2010 this has eroded to less than one-in-three (30 percent).
This is not without consequences for Turkey’s foreign policy. According to the same report, whereas 13 percent of Turks desire cooperation with the EU, down from 22 percent in 2009, the percentage of those desiring cooperation with Turkey’s Muslim Middle Eastern neighbors has risen to 20 percent, up 10 points since 2009. What is more, despite U.S. President Barack Obama’s outreach to Turks, their approval rating of him has dropped from 50 percent in 2009 to 28 percent in 2010. Even more alarming, the latest Pew Global Attitudes Project figures show that 56 percent of Turks view the U.S. as a “military threat.” In short, Turkey is flipping under the AKP.
Not long ago, some would have expected the military and the secular echelon of Turkish society to intervene to guide Turkey on the right path. This is not the case anymore. The AKP’s de-Kemalization has included civilianization, limiting the role of the army in the state’s affairs, and has done so on the premise of an alleged coup. The government has since aggressively bullied the military and jailed opponents, successfully neutering the military and intimidating the opposition.
The use of illegal wiretaps against the government’s opponents has created a republic of fear: anyone who opposes the AKP can land in jail under the most spurious allegations. In the latest incident, Hanefi Avci, a police chief famous for being a “communist hunter,” was arrested when he published his memoirs, which described the AKP and its allies’ use of wiretaps to intimidate opponents and recalcitrant bureaucrats. Ironically, the “communist hunter” police chief was charged with membership in a communist cell.
The implication of this newfound power, especially after the AKP successfully interfered in August to change the line of succession among the military’s top brass, is that even the military will bend to the will of the ruling party and play along with its newfound leadership role in the “Muslim world.” Most recently, the military remained quiet in October when the AKP objected to the placement of a NATO missile defense shield in Turkey, suggesting that it did not perceive Iran and Syria as threats within the NATO doctrine. Instead, they launched joint military exercises with China, making this the first such cooperation between a NATO member and Beijing. The question now is whether the military, under pressure from the AKP, will stop purging Islamist officers from its ranks. There are signs this practice will stop, opening the way for a grassroots Islamization of NATO’s second largest army.
Turkey is certainly positioning itself as the leader of the Muslim world; however, it is unclear as of yet whether the Muslim world is ready to accept this imposition. While some, such as the Syrian regime, will look to Turkey for leadership, others, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, already consider themselves at the helm of the Muslim world and will not accept Turkish dominance. Moreover, non-Arab Muslim countries that also promote political Islam, e.g., Iran, might differ in vision as to who shall speak on behalf of the Muslim world. (Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that the AKP is already a popular force on the streets of Cairo and Damascus). Beyond any leverage the West has with the AKP, this leaves other Muslim governments as a check and balance to the AKP’s ambitions to position Turkey as leader of a politically-charged “Muslim world.”
However, if the AKP manages to perfect its foreign policy and co-opt its Middle Eastern neighbors — the party’s frustrated efforts this past summer to broker a nuclear deal between Iran and the West suggest otherwise — it will position Turkey as the defender of global Islamist causes. The party has already worked to uproot the Kemalist-nationalist element of Turkish identity, a dangerous move in the post-9/11 environment, where adherents of a politically-defined Muslim identity are especially prone to viewing the world in a Huntingtonian fashion. Subsequently, one can expect the party to follow policies explicitly contrary to those of the U.S., Europe, and the West on a variety of issues ranging from Iran’s nuclearization to Arab-Israeli peace, conflict in Sudan, and practically any problem involving Muslims. Such grandstanding policies will invariably make the populist-authoritarian AKP even more popular at home, and cement the demise of the socio-political milieu that made Turkey ‘exceptional’ in the first place.
In other words, the AKP will bake its cake and eat it too, unless Kemalist Turkey re-emerges out of its own shadow. There are signs that since the secular opposition, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, elected Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, a charismatic, pro-Western and social democratic leader as its head earlier this summer they are better poised against the AKP in the next elections. Kiliçdaroglu is moving toward New Kemalism, boosting traditional Kemalism’s commitment to Turkey’s Western vocation while re-guiding it toward more liberal values, in order to make Kemalism attractive for 21st-century Turkey. New Kemalism might yet defeat the AKP. For that test, one has to wait for the results of the June 2011 elections, the most important battle for Turkey’s soul in two centuries and two scores after the first Ottoman sultans decided to orient Turkey westwards.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US and Iran Worlds Apart in Bahrain
Hillary Clinton and Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, may have been seated at the same dinner table in the centre of the imposing ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Bahraini capital but they seemed to be worlds apart.
Even an attempt at a greeting turned into controversy: the US secretary of state thought she had been snubbed by her Iranian counterpart who pretended not to hear her; Mr Mottaki insisted that he had been polite, as Muslim tradition dictates, and said he had returned her hello.
Although the US and Iran did not interact, not even for a moment, during the high-level weekend security gathering in Bahrain there were plenty of messages flying between them, days before their diplomats face each other in negotiations in Geneva on Monday.
Giving the keynote speech during the Friday dinner, Ms Clinton adopted a softly-softly approach. Addressing herself directly to the Iranian delegation she assured them that the US was still intent on engaging Tehran and respected its right to a civilian nuclear programme, as long as it could be certain of its peaceful nature.
Later, General James Mattis, the commander of Centcom, the US military’s central command whose area of responsibility includes the Middle East, said a nuclear armed Iran was unacceptable but a military attack also would be “an absolute disaster”.
That Mr Mottaki attended the Friday dinner was a good sign — he had landed immediately before the event and his own delegation was not sure he would show up. But he did not look up when Ms Clinton spoke or join his colleagues around the table in applause.
The awkward effort at public diplomacy at the Manama conference, an annual event organised by London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, reflected the complexity of starting a dialogue between the US and Iran after more than three decades of enmity. It also underlined the challenge facing diplomats from six world powers who are due to meet Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator for the first talks in more than a year.
Ignoring Ms Clinton’s words in Manama, Mr Mottaki spoke instead to Tehran’s Arab neighbours on Saturday, telling them that the US, rather than Iran, was the real threat to the region. The Gulf, he told the audience, should “indigenise” security and rid itself of meddling outsiders.
It was a strange message to a group of countries that seems terrified of Iran’s nuclear and political ambitions and has been tightening military co-operation with the US through massive re-armament deals.
It seemed particularly oddly timed, following the leak of US diplomatic cables which have revealed that several Arab leaders, including Mr Mottaki’s hosts in Bahrain, have been lobbying the US to check Iran’s nuclear programme, by military action if necessary.
Even in his private meeting with Bahraini officials, however, Mr Mottaki preferred to ignore the Wikileaks affair, declaring that he did not believe the US cables, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Jon Alterman, director of research at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the mild diplomatic language by the US underscored American confidence ahead of the Geneva talks. A raft of international and US unilateral sanctions is striking at the Iranian economy and the nuclear programme appears to have run into trouble.
“Clinton could be softer because there is global support for the US position while Mottaki’s comments represented a weak effort to reach out to Arabs which the Arabs don’t take seriously … and a fear of really engaging the US,” he said. “The fact is that Bahrain is friendly territory for the US and hostile territory for Iran. No one fears American imperialism and everyone is afraid of Iran.”
It is far from clear, however, that a stronger US position will produce a more flexible Iranian attitude in Geneva. There, diplomats from the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany will attempt to revive a nuclear fuel swap deal that would take most of the low enriched uranium out of Iran, thereby minimising Tehran’s ability to enrich it to higher levels suitable for nuclear weapons. The deal was discussed last year but ultimately rejected by Tehran.
Mr Mottaki told reporters at the weekend that Tehran was not returning to the negotiations because of the sanctions, which he insisted had not hurt the Iranian economy.
While Ms Clinton said the ball in Geneva was in Iran’s court, Mr Mottaki countered that it was the US which should change its policies. He said the recognition by the US of Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy was a step in the right direction but doubted that Washington was interested in a dialogue instead of a “monologue”.
He lauded the more limited nuclear fuel swap deal that Tehran has reached with Brazil and Turkey — the scheme has been dismissed by the US and other world powers — and went on to claim that being friendly to Iran wins votes for leaders at home.
Mr Mottaki compared the losses suffered by the US Democratic party in mid-term elections to the successes of Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva whose candidate won a presidential election and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan who won a referendum on constitutional changes. “President Obama unfortunately had a confrontational approach (towards Iran) and moved towards sanctions and (UN) resolutions. The result was nothing but failure in elections,” he said.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Cables Portray Saudi Arabia as a Cash Machine for Terrorists
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba — but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton.
“More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,” says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” she said.
Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them.
The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.
One cable details how the Pakistani militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, used a Saudi-based front company to fund its activities in 2005.
Meanwhile officials with the LeT’s charity wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, travelled to Saudi Arabia seeking donations for new schools at vastly inflated costs — then siphoned off the excess money to fund militant operations.
Militants seeking donations often come during the hajj pilgrimage — “a major security loophole since pilgrims often travel with large amounts of cash and the Saudis cannot refuse them entry into Saudi Arabia”. Even a small donation can go far: LeT operates on a budget of just $5.25m (£3.25m) a year, according to American estimates.
Saudi officials are often painted as reluctant partners. Clinton complained of the “ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist funds emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority”.
Washington is critical of the Saudi refusal to ban three charities classified as terrorist entities in the US. “Intelligence suggests that these groups continue to send money overseas and, at times, fund extremism overseas,” she said.
There has been some progress. This year US officials reported that al-Qaida’s fundraising ability had “deteriorated substantially” since a government crackdown. As a result Bin Laden’s group was “in its weakest state since 9/11” in Saudi Arabia.
Any criticisms are generally offered in private. The cables show that when it comes to powerful oil-rich allies US diplomats save their concerns for closed-door talks, in stark contrast to the often pointed criticism meted out to allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Instead, officials at the Riyadh embassy worry about protecting Saudi oilfields from al-Qaida attacks…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Wikileaks Cables: Saudi Arabia Rated a Bigger Threat to Iraqi Stability Than Iran
Iraqi government officials see Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to the integrity and cohesion of their fledgling democratic state, leaked US state department cables reveal.
The Iraqi concerns, analysed in a dispatch sent from the US embassy in Baghdad by then ambassador Christopher Hill in September 2009, represent a fundamental divergence from the American and British view of Iran as arch-predator in Iraq.
“Iraq views relations with Saudi Arabia as among its most challenging given Riyadh’s money, deeply ingrained anti-Shia attitudes and [Saudi] suspicions that a Shia-led Iraq will inevitably further Iranian regional influence,” Hill writes.
“Iraqi contacts assess that the Saudi goal (and that of most other Sunni Arab states, to varying degrees) is to enhance Sunni influence, dilute Shia dominance and promote the formation of a weak and fractured Iraqi government.”
Hill’s unexpected assessment flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that Iranian activities, overt and covert, are the biggest obstacle to Iraq’s development.
It feeds claims, prevalent after the 9/11 attacks, that religiously conservative, politically repressive Saudi Arabia, where most of the 9/11 terrorists came from, is the true enemy of the west.
Hill’s analysis has sharp contemporary relevance as rival Shia and Sunni political blocs, backed by Iran and the Saudis respectively, continue to squabble over the formation of a new government in Baghdad, seven months after March’s inconclusive national elections.
Hill says Iraqi leaders are careful to avoid harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia’s role for fear of offending the Americans, Riyadh’s close allies. But resentments simmer below the surface.
“Iraqi officials note that periodic anti-Shia outbursts from Saudi religious figures are often allowed to circulate without sanction or disavowal from the Saudi leadership. This reality reinforces the Iraqi view that the Saudi state religion of Wahhabi Sunni Islam condones religious incitement against Shia.”
Hill reports the Saudis have used considerable financial and media resources to support Sunni political aspirations, exert influence over Sunni tribal groups, and undercut the Shia Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) and Iraqi National Alliance.
Hill adds that some Iraqi observers see Saudi aims as positively malign. “A recent Iraqi press article quoted anonymous Iraqi intelligence sources assessing that Saudi Arabia was leading a Gulf effort to destabilise the Maliki government and was financing ‘the current al-Qaida offensive in Iraq’.”
Hill and his Iraqi interlocutors are not alone in their suspicions of Saudi policy. At a meeting in Ankara in February this year a senior Turkish foreign ministry official, Feridun Sinirlioglu, told an American envoy that “Saudi Arabia is ‘throwing around money’ among the political parties in Iraq because it is unwilling to accept the inevitability of Shia dominance there”.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Italy and Russia Sign Seven Accords
Berlusconi denies profiting from special relationship with Putin
(ANSA) — Sochi, December 3 — Italy and Russia on Friday signed seven new bilateral accords at the end of a summit here in this Black Sea resort between Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
The accords included those for transporting Italian military personnel and materiel by rail through Russia to Afghanistan; simplifying norms regulating the stay of airline crews in the respective countries; helping small and medium-sized enterprises through collaboration between Italy’s UBI bank and Russia’s Bank for Development and Economic Activities (Vneshekonombank; and collaborating in the electricity sector, through Italy’s ENEL utility and Russia’s Inter Rao Ess.
There was also an accord to allow the Italian postal service to help its Russian counterpart modernise.
Aside from these accords, Italy and Russia also agreed to hold joint military exercises on land and sea in 2011.
Speaking at a joint press conference with the Russian president, Berlusconi said the relationship between him and Medvedev was based on “sincere esteem and deep friendship” and that he felt a “special affection for the Russian Federation, its leadership and its people”.
The Italian premier also praised Russia “for the great effort it has made to go beyond certain misunderstandings that had developed with NATO and the United States”.
He added that Russia had made a “great leap forward” at the recent NATO summit in Lisbon, where Moscow agreed to cooperate on missile defense and other security initiatives. During the press conference Berlusconi also claimed some credit for Russia being picked to host the soccer’s 2018 World Cup, saying “we worked with Russia (on the bid) and even tried to convince our friends” to vote for Russia.
Before the 2018 World cup, Berlusconi added, all visa requirements between the European Union and Russia would be abolished.
BERLUSCONI DENIES WIKILEAKS REPORTS.
Berlusconi’s relations with the Russian leadership, in particular with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, were at the center of diplomatic cables made public this week by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
In one confidential dispatch, former Washington ambassador to Rome Ronald Spogli raised concern over Italy’s reliance on Russian energy supplies, which he said “frequently forces Italy to compromise on security and political issues. A not insignificant concomitant factor is Berlusconi’s desire to be seen as an important European player on foreign policy, leading him to go where others dare not”.
Berlusconi addressed the WikiLeaks issue at the press conference saying leaked cables were of “little importance” and based on biased press reports.
He also denied insinuations that he or Putin stood to gain from economic accords between Italy and Russia, saying “in these past years there has never been any personal interest, we all worked in the interest of our respective countries”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Vice-President ‘Landed in Dubai With $52m in Cash’: Wikileaks Cables Lift Lid on Rampant Corruption
Classified diplomatic cables lay bare the extent of corruption at the highest level in Afghanistan, with cash apparently pouring out of the country.
One report claims former vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud flew into Dubai with $52million in cash and was never asked to explain where it came from.
U.S. envoy Karl Eikenberry told America that ‘vast amounts of cash come and go from the country on a weekly, monthly and annual basis’.
Before last year’s presidential election, some $600 million in banking system withdrawals were reported.
Another cable detailed how the transportation ministry collects $200 million a year in trucking fees but only $30 million is turned over to the government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Dialogue Even With Radical Islam to Stop Intolerance
The Interfaith Commission of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference points out intolerance against Christians is growing in the Muslim country, which leads to acts of violence. Exclusive interview with Commission secretary Father Susetyo,.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Religious intolerance is increasing in the area of Jakarta in Indonesia, especially among ordinary people. This has been confirmed by surveys carried out by rights. An exclusive interview with AsiaNews, a father Benny Susetyo, secretary of the Interfaith Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia (KWI).
The Setara Institute, a religion study group based in Central Jakarta, has confirmed as the outcome of its latest survey conducted between October and November last among 1,200 people from different districts of Jakarta, Bogar, Depo, Tangerang , Bekasi. About 50% of respondents said they were totally opposed to religious buildings of other faiths in their area, very topical issue in the country. The most intolerant district is Bekasi, where — the study shows — “74% of respondents indicated that they would reject any (Christian) place to worship.”
In recent months Islamic extremist groups violently opposed the construction of a Protestant Christian Batak Church. Muslims accuse Christians of “proselytism” among Muslims. Two pastors were stabbed.
Even a recent report by the International Crisis Group warned the Indonesian government of growing intolerance of Islamist groups against Christians in the greater Jakarta area, which is likely to disintegrate the social fabric and peaceful coexistence that has existed for decades.
In December 2008, Father Susetyo was kidnapped and beaten by unknown assailants (see photo). Now he explains to AsiaNews that continuous dialogue is essential to reduce the conflict as KWI has always encouraged. “Many problems between the Christian and Muslim — he says — can be caused by a lack of mutual knowledge and understanding. For this reason the Church must be open to continuous dialogue. “
The KWI, in addition to interpersonal dialogue, “has not only authorized the Commission to intensify inter-religious dialogue and confrontation with the main moderate Islamic organizations such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, but also with more radical Islamic groups, such as the Islamic Defender Front (FPI).
Father Susetyo adds that on 1 September 2010 the Bishop Johannes Pujasumarta, chairman of the interfaith commission, was visited by FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab, along with his close associates, for a constructive dialogue to reduce tensions between the faithful of the two religions, even in anticipation of possible problems for the announced initiative “Burn the Koran” scheduled for Sept. 11 by an American pastor (an initiative that was cancelled on the heels of worldwide protests).
“The KWI — continues the priest — has put aside the longstanding refusal to dialogue with the Islamic extremists. Despite the widespread skepticism of many Catholic groups, this dialogue has opened a constructive atmosphere of mutual understanding. “
Even Kiai Hajj Hasym, former head of NU, warned at a meeting of the National Indonesian anti-terror Angency, that Islamic radicalism is rising among college students.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Peshawar Imam: “A Reward to Kill Asia Bibi”
In his sermon, Maulana Yousuf Qureshi of the Mohabat Khan mosque, said that if the appeals court judge innocent Asia Bibi will be the mujahideen to kill her. The leader has also warned the government on any changes to the law on blasphemy.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — On the Friday prayer imam of the largest mosque in Peshawar offered a reward of 4,500 euro, for anyone who kills Asia Bibi. In his sermon, Maulana Yousuf Qureshi warned the government against any move to abolish or amend the blasphemy law. “ We will strongly resist — said the religious leader — any attempt to repeal laws which provide protection to the sanctity of Holy Prophet Muhammad”. “Whoever kills Asia Bibi — he continued — will be given a reward of 500 thousand rupees from the Mohabat Khan mosque”. The imam said that if the appeals court judge Asia Bibi innocent, the mujahideen will kill her.
According to local sources Qureshi does not have many followers, but his threats increase the climate of tension in the country and are likely to influence government decisions. Already in 2006, Qureshi promised rewards amounting to over 1 million for anyone who succeeded in killing the Danish cartoonists, guilty of having drawn the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Bishop Rufin Anthony of Islamabad, tells AsiaNews: “I’m not surprised by the threats of the imam of the Mohabat Khan mosque. The hard-line Taliban of these religious thread have turned our country into a breeding for terrorists”. “Only a leader who has been brainwashed — he continued — can be argued as Islamic laws that have no basis in the Koran. These statements serve only to create a bad name for Pakistan and Islam and make the lives of Pakistanis even more miserable. “ The prelate stresses that the country must get rid of these laws and needs an educational program sponsored by the State and the United Nations against these ideologies. “Asia Bibi — Bishop Rufin adds. is innocent and has been accused and sentenced to death for blasphemy over a trivial dispute with her neighbors. “
Sources of Justice and Peace Commission told AsiaNews: “Given that the blasphemy law, in its current form has no basis in Islam, it could be repealed in one day. This provision was not created by the masses and was not even requested by the people. “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: At Least 6 Dead in Explosion at Internet Cafe in Southern China
A blast at an internet cafe in southern China killed six people and injured 34 others Saturday night, state-run media reported. The explosion occurred around 10:30 p.m. in downtown Kaili City, located in Guizhou province, according to Xinhua, citing the province’s public security department. Police are still trying to determine what caused the incident.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shocking Admission: Julian Assange Says Wikileak Document Was Behind Kenyan Election Massacre But That “The Kenyan People Had a Right to the Information”
This week anti-American activist Julian Assange made a stunning admission to The Guardian. The Wikileak founder confessed that a document his organization leaked “flipped the election” in Kenya where “1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced.” But then Assange went on to say that, “On the other hand, the Kenyan people had a right to that information.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil Denied Existence of Islamist Militants, Wikileaks Cables Show
Government publicly denied terrorist suspects were active in Brazil despite working with US to monitor them, dispatches reveal
Brazil’s government covered up the existence of Islamist terrorist suspects in São Paulo and border areas in an apparent bid to protect the country’s image, according to secret US documents released by WikiLeaks.
The administration of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva publicly denied that militant Islamists were active in Brazil, even while its law enforcement agencies co-operated closely with the US in monitoring suspects.
“Despite publicly expressed sentiments of high-level officials denying the existence of proven terrorist activity on Brazilian soil, Brazil’s intelligence and law enforcement services are rightly concerned that terrorists could exploit Brazilian territory to support and facilitate terrorist attacks, whether domestically or abroad,” said a US embassy cable.
The Americans lauded Brazil’s “excellent and improving” collaboration and the upgrade of its counter-terrorism intelligence division to department level. Investigations focused on suspects in São Paulo, home to most of the country’s estimated 1.3 million Muslims, and areas bordering Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.
The document may partly explain why Washington restrained its annoyance over Lula’s friendship with his counterparts Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.
Lisa Kubiske, the US deputy chief of mission in the capital, Brasília, noted approvingly that counter-terrorism intelligence was shared across the government, but said people around the president seemed to want to conceal the Islamist threat — and co-operation with the US — from the public.
“The senior levels of the Brazilian government, however, publicly deny the possibility that terrorist groups or individuals connected to such groups operate or transit through Brazilian soil and vigorously protest any claims made by US authorities to that effect.
“Officially, Brazil does not have terrorism inside its borders. In reality, several Islamic groups with known or suspected ties to extremist organisations have branches in Brazil and are suspected of carrying out financing activities.”
The report did not cite reasons for the government’s denials but one possibility is sensitivity to Brazil’s international image in the runup to hosting the football World Cup and Olympic Games.
Kubiske said that in July 2009 the federal police’s intelligence chief admitted to a congressional committee that an individual arrested for hate speech was linked to al-Qaida, “contradicting the government’s previous claims that there was no terrorism-nexus in the arrest”.
She noted Brazil’s “unwillingness to speak out against anti-democratic actions” in Cuba and Venezuela, and to address nuclear non-proliferation, an apparent reference to Iran.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Padua Councillor Calls for Scrapping of Funds for Marathon ‘Africans Always Win’
An Italian councillor has sparked outrage by demanding that funding for a local marathon be scrapped because Africans always win it.
Speaking during a session of the Padua provincial assembly, Pietro Giovannoni — a member of the anti-immigration Northern League party — said: “Let’s stop using public money to finance the marathon, since the winners are always Africans and foreigners in underpants.”
Kenyan runners have won seven of the 11 marathons held locally, with Italians winning just two. The next race is scheduled for April 2011.
Giovannoni’s comments were part of an upsurge of anti-immigrant and anti-gypsy sentiment in Padua, near Venice.
Earlier, rightwing city councillor Vittorio Aliprandi wrote on his Facebook page that the local Gypsies “make me vomit” and deserve “a kicking”.
Last month, a train conductor was given a four-month prison sentence after he ejected two Nigerians from a train at Padua station, telling them: “You blacks cannot get on board.”
Ivo Rossi, the deputy mayor of Padua, condemned the outbursts, warning that “this crescendo of idiocy is provoking an incalculable damage to the image of the Veneto region”.
Paolo Giacon, a local centre-left politician, warned that the episodes were a warm-up for a possible electoral campaign as Silvio Berlusconi’s weakened government heads for a crucial confidence vote on 14 December.
“On the centre-right there is a hateful and shameful competition underway to see who can be the most insultingly racist, possibly in the run up to an electoral campaign based on hate and fear of diversity,” Giacon said.
In a speech yesterday, Berlusconi claimed leftwing politicians in Italy “want to throw open the borders to let foreigners in, to give them the vote and change this country’s moderate majority”.
With unemployment mounting, tensions are also rising among immigrants who, under Italian law, risk losing their residency permits and being expelled from Italy should they lose their jobs.
Immigrants from countries including Egypt, Morocco and Pakistan staged a 16-day protest on top of a crane in Brescia last month, demanding residency permits and drawing crowds of sympathisers who clashed with police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lack of Opportunity Prompts 4 Mln Italians to Live Abroad
(AKI) — More than 4 million Italians, or about 7 percent of Italy’s population, live abroad in search of a work, according to a new report presented on Thursday in Rome by Catholic refugee and immigrant charity Migrantes. About half of the expatriates are women.
Italian immigration conjures images of ships transporting millions of the country’s desperately impoverished inhabitants to North and South America.
Between 1876 and 1924, 4.5 million out of 14 million Italians emigrated to the United States alone, according to the Washington-based American Immigration Law Foundation.
Italy has changed since the early waves of mass migration ended in the middle of the 20th century. It is now one of the world’s richest countries and draws millions of immigrants from developing countries. But lack of opportunity still sparks mass departures in search of work.
The regional destination of choice is Europe, where 55 percent of Italian immigrants live, according to the “Italians in the World Report 2010.” In second place is North and South America, with 39 percent.
At 60,000 a piece, Argentina and Germany are tied as the country with the highest number of Italian immigrants, according to the report.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Emigrants Give 1.4 Bln USD in Remittances in 2010
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 29 — In 2010, remittances by Syrians living abroad will bring the country around 1.4 billion dollars. This is according to a recent report by the World Bank, “Migration and Remittances Fact Book 2011”, which was quoted by the Italian Trade Commission in Damascus.
Last year, remittances reached 1.33 billion dollars, while the figure of 1.4 billion was also reached in 2008. The value of the remittances is therefore equivalent to around 2.3% of Syria’s GDP, which this year is due to reach 59 billion dollars.
The World Bank report also says that there are around 944,000 Syrian emigrants, around 4.2% of the current population (around 21 million), although Syrian authorities have given higher figures, including the descendants of emigrants from the country.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bogus Foreign Students Facing Visa Crackdown
An end to the rampant abuse of the visa system by thousands of students who claim to be attending private colleges will be announced by ministers tomorrow.
The Home Office has uncovered shocking figures showing that 26 per cent of the non-EU students given permission to attend the colleges go on to flout the rules.
They do not bother to go home, disappear into the black economy, or work illegally.
Under plans to be unveiled tomorrow, only students attending university courses will be entitled to a visa.
Only a small number of the most trusted private colleges will be allowed to ‘sponsor’ migrants.
In stark contrast to private colleges, only 2 per cent of immigrants going to university break immigration rules.
Ministers will also slash students’ entitlement to work — which is currently 20 hours a week — and limit their ability to bring in dependants.
They say the measures will help to meet their commitment to reduce net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’, while ending the abuse of student visas which took place under Labour.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘They have left us with a system that is wildly out of control. The figures are staggering.’
The Home Office has uncovered shocking figures showing that 26 per cent of the non-EU students given permission to attend colleges in the UK go on to flout the visa system rules
Home Office research, released last night, shows that students represent almost two-thirds of the non-EU migrants entering the UK each year. Last year, the figure was more than 300,000.
But officials said 41 per cent of students from abroad were coming to study a course below degree level, and abuse was ‘particularly common’ at those levels.
A supposed student from Delhi, who travelled to the UK to enrol on a diploma course in hospitality management, thought the course would allow him to become a doctor. He could not understand English.
Mr Green said: ‘We will only admit people to do degrees at a genuine institution or with a verifiable sponsor.’
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Kick Out Foreign Criminals
ONLY a senseless society would allow half of the hardened criminals found guilty in court to be spared jail terms but new figures reveal that hardcore offenders guilty of violence, sex offences and robbery are being given community or suspended sentences.
It can’t be right. There are 85,000 offenders in jail in England and Wales and Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has said he wants to reduce that number by 3,000 by 2014.
His department must take a 23 per cent budget cut and there are plans to close two prisons. That’s all very well but it cannot mean that repeat offenders, many who have used violence, can escape jail terms.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Multiculturalism Hits the Wall
As year ten of the long war looms, the “multicultural” paradigm for defense against terrorism has slammed into a brick wall.
Recent developments reveal a policy in terminal disarray. The public revolt against the TSA, the ridiculous and humiliating Ghailani verdict, the still-simmering Financial District victory mosque controversy, and even the unmasking of the false Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour in Afghanistan have highlighted the absurdity of attempting to meld the “multicultural” worldview with any serious effort against jihadi terrorism. And yet, government officials directly responsible for the defense of the country, from Obama, Holder, and Napolitano on down, insist on maintaining the “multicultural” paradigm despite undeniable evidence of its failure.
Multiculturalism has effectively controlled American security policy as regards terrorism from the very beginning. Islam, we were assured by no less a figure than George W. Bush, was “a religion of peace.” Critical resources were invested in curtailing any “backlash” against American Muslims by the evil-minded white Christian majority. Organizations of dubious provenance, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), were appointed official representatives of American Muslims.
What did these attempts to bend over backward under the prompting of an abstract academic intellectual construct accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Bush was excoriated both here and overseas by the very people he was working to protect. The great anti-Muslim backlash never happened (as Jonathan Tobin reminds us). The advocacy groups have all been revealed as fronts for Hamas. Few policies, official or unofficial, have such a pristine record of failure. Few have hung on more tenaciously.
Multiculturalism is the most recent, and perhaps the final, expression of the late 20th-century left-wing ascendancy. It is a completely synthetic doctrine, formulated without reference to any perceptible element of the quotidian world. Although derived in format and rhetoric from the civil rights movement, it has no relationship with the ideas or hopes expressed by King, Abernathy, Rustin, or any other legitimate civil rights leader. While the civil rights movement was founded in opposition to the odious practice of legal racial segregation, multiculturalism had no such concrete agenda. It was based almost completely on abstract academic theories derived in equal part from black racial extremism and Marxism, purporting to define the relationship between the dominant “white” race and all other races.
According to multicultural theory, the “white” race (never further defined) forms a privileged oppressor class, forever and completely at odds with members of other races. The relationship between races is presented only in terms of power, in which the oppressed races became in effect a proletariat awaiting liberation through revolutionary activity. Under these terms, every action taken by the white oppressors is illegitimate, while those taken by the “subaltern” races are justified, no matter what their evident nature and intent. As a global theory, multiculturalism possesses universal applicability under all circumstances. Every aspect of racial and ethnic relations must be seen through the multicultural lens.
It would be difficult to find a theory to beat multiculturalism for sheer vacuity. It ignores the fact that numerous groups among the “oppressor” race, such as the Irish and Jews, have been historical victims, while the “oppressed” races have often victimized in their turn when they have occupied the top slot. (Arab treatment of sub-Saharan Africans marks only one instance.) For these reasons among others, multiculturalism gained no greater a foothold with the American public than its political models, socialism and Marxism. Although the left attempted throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s to force multiculturalism on the country through its activist PC component, the effort went nowhere. Americans as a whole rejected the doctrine as yet another bizarre fixation of the intellectual class.
There were two exceptions — the academy, whence multiculturalism arose, and the government bureaucracy. On campus, multiculturalism remained one of the weird things that academics believe. In the bureaucracy, it became another expression of bureaucratic stupidity and intransigence, which did not prevent it from having an impact, limited but malignant, on the country as a whole.
That was the status quo in September 2001. After 9/11, the response of the country’s intellectual leadership was straightforward: to react exactly as set forth by multicultural doctrine. The U.S., as a white European oppressor state, was obviously at fault. The Islamist jihadis, all members of an oppressed subaltern race, were victims, no matter what appearances might otherwise suggest. The belief system was up and running; all it needed was factoids to be plugged in.
All the same, the response of the left was muted in the immediate wake of the attacks. Only a handful of left-wingers spoke up in their accustomed manner, to scuttle back into the shade and damp when public agreement was not forthcoming. The most notorious of these comments was Michael Moore’s posting characterizing the jihadis as “minutemen … and they will win.” A near match came from a nameless, forgotten California pol who asked, “America — what have you done?”
An angry and disdainful public response momentarily shut down such sentiments. But these comments did speak for tens of thousands of silent true believers. The atrocity was explicable in familiar multicultural terms — it was “whitey” (America) that was actually to blame for the attack, while the jihadis, far from being murderous thugs, were in truth romantic rebels, so many adorable Ches gazing off into the radiant multicultural future. The left kept its counsel and waited.
They did not have to wait long. Public contempt did not last, due in large part to failure on the part of the administration to confront the left. The Bush White House found it extremely difficult to actually put a name to the enemy, going through epic contortions rather than admitting any connection to Islam. At the same time, leftist figures engaging in what amounted to sedition were not arrested, prosecuted, or even rebuked, but instead allowed to continue undermining American unity undisturbed. No government figure, from Bush on down, ever publicly attacked such people. It should have been done. But such confrontation was not the style of George W. Bush, and asking for it would have been asking him to be a totally different president.
Leftist boldness increased as the environment of public opinion deteriorated. Both trends were fed by irresponsible news stories attacking such initiatives as the Patriot Act, exposing anti-terror programs such as international wiretapping, and retailing lurid fantasies such as the “Koran-in-the-toilet” story reported by Michael Isikoff. All of these embodied the multicultural narrative to one extent or another…
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
The Politically Correct “History” Channel
Lots of people, when they want to view something of a historical nature, turn to the “History” Channel on television. Unfortunately, in many cases, when it comes to real history, that is one of the last places they should go.
Over the years, on and off, I have watched some “History” Channel offerings. Many others I have shut off after the first five minutes. This channel takes a completely politically correct view on most historical subjects. Some of their programs, over the years, have questioned the truths found in Holy Scripture, and done it in such a way as to leave folks who don’t really know much about the Bible with serious doubts. In this area they seem to take a thoroughly humanist, anti-Christian position. Of course they’d staunchly deny that, but I never recall seeing anything on that channel that defended Scripture—only things that questioned it.
They do exactly the same thing with programs dealing with the War of Northern Aggression (a term they’d never use). Three years ago, if I recall correctly, they broadcast an offering about Sherman’s March through Georgia that neither my wife nor I could stomach after the first five minutes. It was pure pro-Sherman spin and little else. In my opinion the “History” Channel has no interest in promoting accurate history, but rather in propagating the standard propaganda you would expect to find in any government school “history” book…
| — Hat tip: DR | [Return to headlines] |
Audio: Wikileaks Sold Classified Intel, Claims Website’s Co-Founder
Selling secrets ‘lucrative,’ but ‘usually cloaked in some kind of public benefit’
One of the early members and co-founders of the tight-knit, secretive WikiLeaks operation charged today that the website and its co-founder, Julian Assange, sold intelligence information the site had obtained.
John Young, whose name was listed as the public face of WikiLeaks in the site’s original domain registration, also alleged that the website is a lucrative business.
Young said he left the site in 2007 due to concerns over its finances and that WikiLeaks was engaged in the selling of documents.
Young was speaking today to WND senior reporter Aaron Klein on Klein’s radio program on New York’s WABC Radio.
[…]
Klein then asked, “When you were at WikiLeaks initially, was your impression they were trying to sell information?”
Young responded, “Well, it only came up in the topic of raising $5 million the first year. That was the first red flag that I heard about. I thought that they were actually a public interest group up until then, but as soon as I heard that, I know that they were a criminal organization.”
Audio of the interview can be heard below:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
0 comments:
Post a Comment