A Three Phased Catastrophic Attack is in Process Against the US Economy
A recent report from an independent contracting firm, however, warns that the events behind the financial crisis of 2008 and our economic woes today should not be underestimated and simply dismissed as having been a one-off event.
“Evidence outlined in a Pentagon contractor report suggests that financial subversion carried out by unknown parties, such as terrorists or hostile nations, contributed to the 2008 economic crash by covertly using vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.”
[…]
In a previous report titled “When China Pulls the Peg, Cardiac Arrest Will Follow in the USA” we opined that the US, China and other nations are involved in economic warfare as a matter of policy. While diplomats enjoy State Dinners, luxurious travel and smile for the cameras, behind the scenes is a tug of war where entire populations of people, numbering in the billions of souls, are affected by negotiations and trade agreements. In the case of China, one must have their head in the sand to believe they are not actively competing on the economic battlefield. Not only do they have a direct influence on the future of the US dollar, but they have spent the better part of the last three decades mobilizing their labor force by significantly undermining US trade influence. The effect on the US economy is clear. While the Chinese grew their economy, they set into motion a series of events that have begun to impoverish the middle class in America. The result is fewer jobs and an indebted social system on the brink of collapse.
This did not happen by chance. It is by design.
“This is the ‘end game’ if the goal is to destroy America,” Mr. Freeman said, noting that in his view China’s military “has been advocating the potential for an economic attack on the U.S. for 12 years or longer as evidenced by the publication of the book Unrestricted Warfare in 1999.”
According to the report, elements within China, Russia, middle east oil producers and other interested parties may, separately or in unison, be actively pursuing policies and actions that are specifically designed to collapse the US economy.
[…]
The Pentagon report indicates that there is a strong likelihood that whoever is behind the machinations is operating under a three phase approach. The first phase of the attack was the build up of excessive leverage and credit in asset markets, real estate and commodities. The second phase was the crash we experienced in 2008 and early 2009. International hedge funds and financial firms, some of which may be direct extensions of certain governments and operating under international secrecy provisions, initiated sell offs through the use of techniques like “naked shortselling” and traditional “bear raids.” Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were wiped out and went down as the first casualties of phase two.
[…]
While everything may seem fine to most Americans, including our elected officials and financial gurus, according to the threat assessment discussed in the Pentagon report, the powers-that-be who were responsible for the first two phases of the attack against our economic and financial system are now actively in the process of implementing and executing Phase III:
“The third phase is what Mr. Freeman states in the report was the main source of the economic system’s vulnerability. “We have taken on massive public debt as the government was the only party who could access capital markets in late 2008 and early 2009,” he said, placing the U.S. dollar’s global reserve currency status at grave risk.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Expenditures Topped $1 Trillion in February Alone
Monthly federal expenditures topped $1 trillion in February, says the U.S. Treasury Department. A majority of this money was disbursed to meet the government’s escalating debt obligations.
In its Daily Treasury Statement closing out February, the Treasury Department reported that the government had spent $1.009944 trillion (rounded to the nearest million) during the month.
(The itemization of this remarkable number can be found in the Daily Treasury Statement hyperlinked here. It is the line item labeled “Total Withdrawals (excluding transfers)” in the “Withdrawals” column of “Table II—Deposits and Withdrawals of Operating Cash.”)
Although the budget documents that were released by the White House last month estimated that the federal government would bring in $2.174 trillion in revenue this fiscal year and spend $3.819 trillion—running an annual deficit of $1.645 trillion—these calculations cloaked the biggest factor in actual federal spending: maintaining the government’s massive and constantly churning debt load.
In February, in fact, according to the Treasury Department’s Daily Treasury Statement, the government needed to spend $585.08 billion from its cash accounts to just pay off the holders of Treasury securities that matured during the month and were redeemed. Paying off its obligations to the holders of Treasury securities is by far the government’s greatest monthly expense.
To help meet this and other government obligations in February, the Treasury turned around and borrowed $660.86 billion during the month by selling new securities that increased the net national debt by $63.71 billion—bringing the total national debt to $14.19 trillion ($14,194,764,339,462.64) by the end of the month.
But making the debt load bigger by adding another $63.71 billion to the national debt was not all the government did to come up with the $1-trillion-plus it needed to cover all federal spending in February. The Treasury also drew down the cash balance in its accounts by $158.5 billion — starting the month with $349.14 billion cash on hand and ending it with only $190.61 billion.
The government’s other relatively large expenditures for February were dwarfed by the spending needed to meet the obligations it incurred in maintaining the debt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Four Time Bombs That Will Blow Up Wall Street
Commentary: Too late to jail bank CEOs; only revolution will succeed
Put Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in jail for six months, and all this will stop, all over Wall Street and America, a former congressional aide tells Matt Taibbi in his latest Rolling Stone attack, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.”
Taibbi’s right, everyone knows Wall Street’s run by a bunch of dictators who are doing more damage to democracy and capitalism than North Africa’s dictators. But jail the CEOs of Goldman, Citi, B. of A. or my old firm Morgan Stanley? Too late.
Only a revolution will stop Wall Street’s self-destructive capitalism. And watching the people revolt against dictators like Mubarak and Gadhafi reminds us of the spirit that sparked America’s revolution in 1776. But today we need a 1930s-style revolution.
During the S&L crisis two decades ago America had a backbone, indicted 3,800 executives and bankers. Today’s leaders have no backbone. Besides jail time won’t reform the darkness consuming Wall Street’s soul. We’re all asleep, in denial about the moral crisis facing America. Yes, we need a new revolution.
Jail time? We’ve heard that many times before. Journalists have been beating that dead horse for three years. Jailing CEOs made sense in early 2009. But our naïve president missed that opportunity, instead surrounded himself with Wall Street insiders as Bush did with Blankfein’s predecessor. Trojan Horses manipulating a Congress filled with clueless Dems mismanaging tired Keynesian theories.
Taibbi got it right: Washington’s error was in protecting Wall Street’s billion-dollar crooks when they should have been prosecuting CEOs for criminal behavior in getting us into the 2008 mess. So today, the political statute-of-limitations has run. Jail solution is wishful thinking, like praying to the tooth fairy for a miracle. Time for action. Time for a revolution on Wall Street.
[…]
Wall Street’s corrupt banks have lost their moral compass … their insatiable greed has become a deadly virus destroying its host nation … their campaign billions buy senate votes, stop regulators’ actions, manipulate presidential decisions. Wall Street money controls voters, runs America, both parties. Yes, Wall Street is bankrupting America.
Wake up America, listen:
“Our country is bankrupt. It’s not bankrupt in 30 years or five years,” warns economist Larry Kotlikoff, “it’s bankrupt today.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Plans $105 Billion for Obamacare
Speaker Boehner and “moderate” Republicans kissed up to the chattering class and pulled a parliamentary trick that will allow $105.5 billion dollars of “MANDATORY” ObamaCare funding to flow into the health care system immediately, automatically and IN PERPETUITY — UNLESS WE FORCE THEM TO FULLY DEFUND! House Republican “Leaders” had already shot down Rep. Steve King’s Defund ObamaCare amendment once in the Rules Committee, but that did not stop King from continuing to carry the fight. King hit the House floor last week gathering support, but was thwarted once again by the old “let’s make a deal, go along to get along” bull elephants who have a horror of identifying with the common sense fiscal solutions of Tea Party Patriots.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Passing the Buck: European Central Bank Wants to Unload PIIGS Bonds
During the crisis, the European Central Bank began buying up bonds from debt-ridden countries like Greece. Now the bank wants to transfer responsibility for those securities to the EU’s euro rescue fund. Meanwhile, the parliamentary group of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have issued a resolution opposing such bond purchases.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
People of Earth: Prepare for Economic Disaster
It is not just the United States that is headed for an economic collapse. The truth is that the entire world is heading for a massive economic meltdown and the people of earth need to be warned about the coming economic disaster that is going to sweep the globe. The current world financial system is based on debt, and there are alarming signs that the gigantic global debt bubble is getting ready to burst. In addition, global prices for the key resources that the major economies of the planet depend on are rising very rapidly. Despite all of our advanced technology, the truth is that human civilization simply cannot function without oil and food. But now the price of oil and the price of food are both increasing dramatically. So how is the current global economy supposed to keep functioning properly if it soon costs much more to ship products between continents? How are the billions of people that are just barely surviving today supposed to feed themselves if the price of food goes up another 30 or 40 percent? For decades, most of the major economies around the globe have been able to take for granted that massive amounts of cheap oil and massive amounts of cheap food will always be there. So what happens when that paradigm changes?
At last check, the price of U.S. crude was over 104 dollars a barrel and the price of Brent crude was over 115 dollars a barrel. Many analysts fear that if the crisis in Libya escalates or if the chaos in the Middle East spreads that we could see the all-time record of 147 dollars a barrel broken by the end of the year. That would be absolutely disastrous for the global economy.
But it isn’t just the chaos in the Middle East that is driving oil prices. The truth is that oil prices have been moving upwards for months. The recent revolutions in the Middle East have only accelerated the trend.
Let’s just hope that the “day of rage” being called for in Saudi Arabia later this month does not turn into a full-blown revolution like we have seen in other Middle Eastern countries. The Saudis keep a pretty tight grip on their people, but at this point anything is possible. A true revolution in Saudi Arabia would send oil prices into unprecedented territory very quickly.
[…]
Sadly, if the entire global economy experiences a slowdown because of rising oil prices, we could see half a dozen European nations default on their debts if they are not bailed out.
For now the Germans seem fine with bailing out the weak sisters that are all around them, but that isn’t going to last forever.
A day or reckoning is coming for Europe, and when it arrives the reverberations are going to be felt all across the face of the earth. The euro is on very shaky ground already, and whether or not it can survive the coming crisis is an open question.
Of course there are some very serious concerns about Asia as well. The national debt of Japan is now well over 200% of GDP and nobody seems to have a solution for their problems. Up to this point, Japan has been able to borrow massive amounts of money at extremely low interest rates from their own people, but that isn’t going to last forever either.
As I have written about so many times before, the biggest debt problem of all is the United States. Barack Obama is projecting that the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year will be a new all-time record 1.65 trillion dollars. It is expected that the total U.S. national debt will surpass the 15 trillion dollar mark by the end of the fiscal year.
Shouldn’t we have some sort of celebration when that happens?
15 trillion dollars is quite an achievement.
Most Americans cannot even conceive of a debt that large. If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
But the United States is not alone. The truth is that wherever you look, there is a sea of red ink covering the planet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Energy Savings, Street Lighting to be Reduced by 50%
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 1 — After reducing the speed limit from 120km/h to 110km/h, the Spanish government has announced new austerity measures to reduce energy costs and deal with rising oil costs. One of these measures is a 50% reduction to public street lighting. According to an announcement today by Infrastructure Minister José Blanco on Radio Cadena Ser, traditional street lights can be replaced with low-consumption lights to reduce energy costs, which amounted to about 25 million euros last year, according to official sources. The “energy efficiency” measures were adopted by the Spanish government to deal with the rising cost of oil provoked by the uprisings in several countries in the Gulf Region and North Africa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Minister Comments on Risks in Europe
Combined with the ongoing rise in food and energy costs, the eurozone policymakers’ pumping liquidity into the markets for the past two years is increasing inflationary risks in Europe, according to Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Ali Babacan.
Speaking on Friday at an Istanbul meeting of the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool, or DASK, Babacan said it is “too early to talk about the same risk for United States.” Recalling Thursday’s surprise signal from Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, or ECB, on a possible interest rate hike as early as April, Babacan said Turkey is in the observation phase, as it “observes both the ECB and the Federal Reserve.”
In contrast to the ECB, the Fed is expected to keep its own key rate near zero for some time to come. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has previously said he sees inflation from rising energy prices as only a temporary and modest threat to the economy. Many analysts in the U.S. say an interest rate hike is unlikely until late 2012.
Turkey a food exporter
In Istanbul, Babacan echoed a similar comment on food prices, maintaining that as a food exporter, the rise in food prices will have “no negative effect” on the delicate current account balance. Food prices in Turkey were “higher than the world average before this global rise,” according to Babacan. “Now global prices are rising to the level of the domestic market, thus balancing the market,” he said. “This is especially the case for wheat, corn and grains.”
Responding to a question on Egypt’s sovereign credit rating being higher than Turkey’s, Babacan said investors think Turkey’s credibility is pretty high. “Credit rating firms are lingering behind,” he said. “I hope they also grab the real credibility note that Turkey deserves.”
On the government’s new DASK draft, Babacan said the scope of mandatory insurance would be extended to include other natural disasters, compared to earthquakes only today. “We are also looking into what could be done to [encourage] citizens,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Jay Treaty Strongly Indicates That Obama is Not Eligible to be President.
So it is Article IX of the Jay Treaty to which we must now turn our attention:
“It is agreed that British subjects who now hold lands in the territories of the United States, and American citizens who now hold lands in the dominions of His Majesty, shall continue to hold them according to the nature and tenure of their respective estates and titles therein; and may grant, sell or devise the same to whom they please, in like manner as if they were natives and that neither they nor their heirs or assigns shall, so far as may respect the said lands and the legal remedies incident thereto, be regarded as aliens.”
In order to respect Article IX of the Jay Treaty (and other treaties between the US and the United Kingdom), the United States is required — by the supreme law of the land — to respect the status of “British subjects”. In order to respect the legal rights of British subjects, the US must be able to identify them. The only way the US can identify British subjects is by recognizing and giving authority to British nationality law.
Therefore, regardless of any far-fetched hypos concerning North Korea, or any other country for that matter, the US and the United Kingdom are required by the Jay Treaty to consult the nationality laws of each sovereign state. The Jay Treaty is both US law and British law.
By authority of the US Constitution, the Jay Treaty requires the US to recognize British subjects and to protect these rights. To properly do so, the US must rely on British law in order to recognize British subjects.
So, with respect to Great Britain, the Jay Treaty denies Obama supporters the ability to rely on their favored argument.
BRITISH SUBJECTS ARE NOT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS US NATIVES ACCORDING TO THE JAY TREATY.
And herein lies the proverbial “smoking gun” with regard to Obama’s ineligibility to be President. Pay special attention to the following text taken from Article IX, “…and may grant, sell or devise the same to whom they please, in like manner as if they were natives…”
The statement — “as if they were natives” — strongly indicates that, by this treaty, both countries agreed that British subjects were not “natives” of the US and could not be considered “natives” of the US.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Animal Cops: Dutch Police to be Guinea Pigs on Unique New Beat
If it sounds like an idea inspired by the Animal Planet show “Animal Cops,” it’s because it was. There will soon be 500 police officers on the streets of Holland protecting the welfare of the country’s animals. The proposal originated with a uniquely powerful animal rights political party — and brought to fruition by Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Party for Freedom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baroness Warsi: I Would Die for My Beliefs, Says Muslim Peer
Baroness Warsi, Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet minister, has said she is prepared to “have a short but productive life” rather than resign from front-line politics in the face of serious threats from Islamic extremists.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Trade Between the Two Communities Decreases
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, MARCH 1 — The value of trade exchanges between the two communities of Cyprus decreased during May 2009-April 2010 to 5,232,328 euro, from 6,111,030 euro during the respective period of 2008/2009, CNA reports quoting Androulla Kaminara, the Head of the European Commission Representation in Cyprus. Speaking during a seminar for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots concerning the Green Line Regulation, which regulates trade between the two communities, Kaminara also referred to the crossings to and from Cyprus’ northern Turkish occupied areas.
She noted that during 2010 670,910 Greek Cypriots crossed to the occupied areas, compared to 730,310 in 2009, while 1,185,073 Turkish Cypriots crossed to the southern government controlled areas in 2010, compared to 1,287,126 in 2009. As regards illegal immigration, Kaminara said that during May 2009 to April 2010, 2,573 illegal immigrants entered the government controlled areas, adding that 2,546 crossed over from the occupied areas, showing a decrease by 54% in relation to the respective period of 2008/2009. From May 2008 to April 2009, 5,560 illegal immigrants entered the government controlled areas, and 5,525 crossed from the occupied areas. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. The Green Line Regulation, adopted by the EU in 2004, determines the legal framework of the crossing of goods, persons and services as of 1st May 2004 when Cyprus joined the EU. Since the Turkish Cypriot regime in the occupied areas has lifted partially restrictions on the freedom of movement, in April 2003, several crossing points have opened along the 180-kilometre long ceasefire line. The leaders of the island’s two communities have been engaged in UN-led direct negotiations since September 2008, with an aim to reunify the island.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Marine Le Pen Leads First Round of Elections
(AGI)Paris-Marine Le Pen, leader of the right wing Front National, would be ahead of her father Jean-Marie in the 2012 elections. Le Pen leads the first round of the presidential elections with 23% of the votes, two points ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy. This comes as another humiliating defeat for the Socialist Party candidate, who has not been reached for the moment. These are the results of a survey by Harris Interactive for the daily newspaper “Le Parisien” around 14 months before the ballots. In 2002 Le Pen’s father managed to come second, surprisingly overtaking Lionel Jospin, leader of the Socialist Party, thereby guaranteeing a second term of office for Jacques Chirac.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Germans Have to Distinguish Between Muslims and Murderers’
Investigators now believe that the man who killed two US airmen at Frankfurt Airport on Wednesday was acting alone. Still, German commentators find little comfort in knowing that. To them, it just means no one’s safe anymore. Germany is in a state of shock following Wednesday’s fatal shooting at Frankfurt Airport, which left two US airmen dead and two wounded. It appears to have been the first deadly attack with an Islamist motive on German soil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Interior Minister Friedrich Reignites Islam Debate
Germany’s new Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich reignited a bitter debate over Islam this week after he said the religion did not “belong” in the country, prompting a call on Friday for him to give up charge of the government’s Islam conference.
During his first public appearance as interior minister on Thursday, Friedrich responded to questions by reporters about the shooting of two US airmen in Frankfurt by an alleged Islamist with an inflammatory statement.
He said Muslims living in Germany were part of society, “but that Islam belongs in Germany is something that has no historical foundation.”
On Friday, Free Democrat (FDP) and Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger criticized her new fellow cabinet member and member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).
“Of course Islam belongs in Germany,” she said. “I assume that the new interior minister, along with his predecessors such as Thomas de Maizière, takes the responsibility for integration in his department seriously and is committed to solidarity and not marginalization.”
Leuthausser-Schnarrenberger’s fellow FDP member and party interior policy expert Hartfrid Wolff said Islam had been part of German society for several generations.
“Neither the denial of this fact, nor the glorification of a naive and romantic multiculturalism helps us along,” he added.
FDP integration policy expert Serkan Tören recommended that the Justice Ministry take over the Islam conference from the Interior Ministry in light of Friedrich’s sentiments.
Meanwhile a chorus of opposition politicians lambasted Friedrich, among them centre-left Social Democrat Dieter Wiefelspütz who characterized his statement as “rubbish.”
Friedrich’s comment mirrored similar comments he made last autumn amid a rancorous debate over whether Muslim immigrants are capable of integrating into German society.
The debate was sparked by former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin, who made a number of anti-immigrant statements aimed mainly at Turks and Arabs, coinciding with the publication of his controversial book Deutschland schafft sich ab — Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen, or “Abolishing Germany — How we’re putting our country at jeopardy.”
On Friday a spokesperson for Friedrich attempted to soothe tempers, saying that Islam was a reality in Germany.
“That does not stand in opposition to the fact that Germany and German culture are above all characterized by the Christian religion and will remain so in the future,” the spokesman said.
This week Friedrich was named as former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière’s successor after he took over the Defence Ministry for the disgraced Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who resigned on Tuesday.
The government’s Islam conference was initiated by former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in 2006 as an attempt to open a healthier dialogue with some four million Muslims living in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s New Interior Minister Draws Fire
Germany’s freshly appointed Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has sparked controversy on the first day of his new job when talking about the role of Islam in German society.
Friedrich, who succeeds Thomas de Maiziere, now defense minister, at a news conference in Berlin said there was no proof in history “that Islam is part of Germany.”
De Maiziere and his predecessor Wolfgang Schaeuble had tried to launch a debate with Germany’s Muslim community to improve integration efforts.
Friedrich said he would take integration of Germany’s estimated 4 million Muslims “very seriously,” adding that he would continue the dialog with the Muslim community, the so-called Islam Conference.
His statements, which weren’t exactly tactful, were a repetition of his critique of a speech delivered by German President Christian Wulff, who said in October that Islam is a part of German society. Both politicians are members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.
On the first day of his new job, Friedrich was criticized for what the opposition and Muslim groups said were inflammatory remarks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Footwear: Export Soaring, Redundancy Fund Falling
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 22 — Exports increased by 13.9% in the first 9 months of 2010 while the use of the ordinary and extraordinary redundancy fund fell by 39.9% and 10% respectively; the trade surplus increased by 9.5% against the -30.5% recorded in 2009: these are the results of the Italian footwear sector, a significant improvement from the previous years. The worst period is over for 12.5% of companies in the sector according to the “Shoe Report 2011” which was presented today by the national association of footwear manufacturers (ANCI).
Domestic footwear consumption remained virtually stable over the past three years, ANCI said. Only 12.5% of firms in the sector feel that they are still “in the middle of the crisis”, while another 12.5% feel that the critical stage is over. As much as 75% of entrepreneurs admit that their situation is still negative, but that they are seeing positive signs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Puppy Smuggling Ring Smashed
Dogs trafficked from Hungaria, police say
(ANSA) — Pistoia, February 23 — Italian police on Wednesday smashed a puppy smuggling ring that brought pedigree dogs into Italy from Hungary and sold them on the Internet.
Two Italian men and a Hungarian woman were arrested by officers from Pistoia, Tuscany, as 27 valuable puppies were rescued from the gang.
The operation, codenamed Kutya (Hungarian for ‘dog’), took off last summer after buyers complained their Labrador, Akita, chihuahua and Shar Pei pups had falsely been sourced to an Italian breeding farm which did not in fact exist.
The three arrested are facing charges of fraud and breaking laws on the protection of animals.
Italy last year ratified a Council of Europe convention for the prevention of cruelty to animals and against smugglers.
This introduced a new law on illegal trafficking in pets, laying down jail terms ranging from three months to a year and fines of up to 15,000 euros for anyone bringing into Italy animals without proper veterinary certificates and ID microchips.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Under-Fire Culture Minister Plans to Step Down ‘Soon’
Bondi lambasted after Pompeii collapses last year
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Culture Minister Sandro Bondi has said he plans to step down “soon”, as he is unhappy at the scant support from allies when he was under intense pressure last year over a series of collapses at Pompeii.
Bondi survived a no-confidence motion in parliament in January after the November cave-in of Pompeii’s Schola Armaturarum was followed by less serious collapses at the ancient Roman site.
The minister said his efforts were not “sustained with the necessary awareness by the government majority and those colleagues who along with me could have imposed a turning point in the way the relationship between state and culture is understood”. This support was lacking above all “when I was in most difficulty” he added in a letter published in Wednesday’s edition of daily newspaper Il Giornale.
The announcement prompted several fellow ministers to call on Bondi to reconsider.
“The culture minister is one of the best members of the government,” said Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini.
“He inherited a difficult situation at his ministry and he managed it effectively and intelligently, denouncing waste and privileges. “Minister Bondi must continue his work because his contribution is indispensible to make the government’s reform programme even more incisive”.
Opposition politicians, however, wondered what Bondi was waiting for.
“It’s time to end this pantomime and give the country a full-time culture minister back,” said Manuela Ghizzoni, an MP with the centre-left Democratic Party, the biggest opposition group.
“Bondi shouldn’t waste any more time. He should make his choice. It’s unacceptable that a minister has not been to his ministry for weeks”.
Bondi came under a barrage of criticism from the opposition for neglecting his duties after the collapse of the Schola Armaturarum, where warrior guilds met and stored weapons before the city was destroyed by the Mt. Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called the incident “a national disgrace”.
Bondi also cited the desire to spend more time with his family and his inability to stop cuts in a recently passed law as reasons for his resignation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi ‘To Attend His Four Trials’
Lawyer meets court chief to agree schedule
(ANSA) — Milan, March 4 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi wants to attend all of his four trials set to move forward in Milan over the coming weeks, his lawyer Niccolo’ Ghedini told reporters Friday.
Ghedini met with the president of the Milan court, Livia Pomodoro, on Friday to try to work out a schedule that would allow the premier, who denies any wrongdoing, to get to the three corruption trials and one sex trial.
Ghedini’s apparent willingness to get Berlusconi into court would appear to contradict parliamentary moves to have the Ruby case taken out of the Milan prosecutors’ hands and put before a special ministerial court, where it would likely be thrown out.
The lawyer indicated that unlike in previous cases, where the premier largely shunned appearances, Berlusconi would seek to battle against the charges in open court.
Experts said the move might be a reaction to recent polls which have given the centre-left opposition a slight edge over his conservative coalition for the first time since he swept back to power in 2008.
A trial for alleged tax fraud on the sale of film rights by Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire resumed last Monday but the premier did not attend.
However, Ghedini said Berlusconi would probably show up for the next hearing on April 11.
The case is the first of the graft trials that will see the premier facing charges over the next few weeks, while a fourth trial, for the alleged use of an underage prostitute called Ruby, gets under way on April 6.
The graft trials were reactivated after Italy’s Constitutional Court in January partly lifted the latest of the premier’s judicial shields.
The indictment for the sex trial, which was not covered by the shield, came after weeks of wiretap leaks that engrossed the nation.
Ghedini said earlier this week: “four trials in Milan for the premier is a situation without precedent; it is beyond normality”.
Berlusconi, who has repeatedly vowed to press on until the end of his term in office in 2013, has claimed the Milan prosecutors are trying to oust him from office and he has announced judicial reforms to rein them in.
The second graft trial, in which the premier is accused of paying British tax lawyer David Mills for allegedly favourable testimony, is set to restart on March 11.
The third corruption trial, into alleged film-sale tax irregularities by a Mediaset unit, Mediatrade, starts from scratch on Saturday, March 5.
The Ruby trial is the most keenly awaited and the one that finally appears to have knocked Berlusconi’s standings in the polls after months in which despite his judicial woes his ratings were buoyant.
The latest poll showed that, if an election were called now, the divided and fractious centre left might be favourite.
In the Ruby case, Berlusconi is also accused of abusing his position to get the teen Moroccan belly dancer and runaway out of police custody by saying she was the niece of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
He has said he acted in good faith to avoid a diplomatic incident and believed what he had been told.
Ghedini has said he intends to call Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, to the witness stand because of “contradictions” in her statements to police.
Both Berlusconi and Ruby deny ever having sex and she says money she received from him was a gift.
Ruby made a splash Thursday night at the high-society Vienna debutantes’ ball but has said she now wants to emigrate to Mexico with her fiance’ to get out of the limelight.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Controversy Surrounds “Silvio Forever” Trailer
(AGI) Rome — The trailer for the film “Silvio forever” produced by Lucky Red has been judged ‘unsuitable’ by RAI, especially due to the fact that it contains a statement by a person who has since died, and uses images and word for satire. Rai as issued a statement stating the company is in favour of suspending the trailer’s broadcasting on its networks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy’s Islam Debate Opens Rift in French Ruling Party
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to hold a national debate on the role of Islam in French society has opened a rare rift in his centre-right party, damaging his credibility ahead of a presidential election next year. Fears about the role of Islam in France’s secular society have become a key campaign theme in the wake of controversies — largely fed by the far-right — over Muslims praying in the street, halal-only fast-food restaurants and full-face veils.
With Sarkozy intent on keeping moderate voters from defecting to the far-right, he has encouraged the ruling UMP party to hold a public debate starting on April 5 to discuss the compatibility between Islam and France’s secular values.
But weeks before the debate has begun, and with little clue as to its format, dissent within the UMP over the wisdom of the idea has hurt Sarkozy’s credibility, hinting that his leadership of the party is less than ironclad. “If this debate were to be focused only on Islam, if it were to lead to a stigmatisation of Muslims, then I would oppose it,” Prime Minister Francois Fillon said this week on RTL radio.
Division in the ruling UMP group, usually more disciplined than the Socialist opposition, reflects poorly on Sarkozy as he tries to shore up his popularity from record lows in the face of competition from a resurgent far-right National Front party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prince Andrew’s Big Mistake: Humiliated Duke of York Vows to End Friendship With Billionaire Paedophile
Prince Andrew has promised to sever his controversial links with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of York has finally admitted that meeting the disgraced billionaire recently was ‘unwise’ and has ruled out further visits to the Florida mansion where Epstein sexually exploited underage girls.
In a warning that may have come from the Queen, the duke’s aides have advised him that his continued association with the paedophile risked damaging the reputation of the monarchy.
Now the humiliated duke, the fourth in line to the throne, has backed down and cut ties with Epstein, 58, in the hope that he can draw a line under the sordid association.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prince Andrew Hosted Ben Ali’s Son-in-Law at Palace
(AGI) London — Prince Andrew hosted Shakher el Materi, the son-in-law of Tunisia’s former president Ben Ali, in Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth II’s third son hosted 29-year-old Shakher el Materi, one of deposed president Zine al Abdine Ben Ali’s sons-in-law in Buckingham Palace just three months before the regime collapsed. It was reported by progressive newspaper The Guardian. The prince, reportedly gave a lunch for Materi in his quality as Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment. A few days ago, some tabloids accused the Duke of York of having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Young Sperm Whale Washed Up on Kent Coast Had ‘Starved to Death’
A whale found dead off the south coast starved to death, initial findings have revealed.
The 45ft long sperm whale was found stranded on a beach in Pegwell Bay, off the Kent coast, yesterday.
The juvenile male had not eaten for some time and had become dehydrated, a preliminary post-mortem examination found.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Courthouse in Benghazi: The Nerve Center of the Libyan Revolution
Though the revolution against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has no set leader, rebels in Benghazi have set up a provisional government in a courthouse. Here, a justice-obsessed lawyer, a beverage vendor and a computer expert are among those who have become the heart, head and voice of a country intent on change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Revolutions: Do it Like Zapatero
Le Monde Paris
The first European leader to travel to Tunis since the advent of the new regime the Spanish Prime Minister on 2 March proposed financial aid of 300 million euros as well as political support. Le Monde argues that his initiative should set an example for Europe’s response to the democratisation of Arab countries.
On Wednesday 2 March, the leader of the Spanish government demonstrated Spanish and European solidarity with the democracy movement that has taken hold of the Arab world. He did so without grandstanding, and said what needed to be said: “We are here to listen and to help build a future of democracy, freedom and dignity.” There was nothing naive or sanctimonious in his remarks, nor were they interfering: these were the right words and the right tone.
Europe should thank Mr Zapatero for stepping in to fill what was effectively a vacuum. It is easy to see why France, which had welcomed “the progress towards freedom” under Ben Ali, could not be the first country to cross the Mediterranean to celebrate a new era of freedom.
And although it is true that the leader of Europe’s diplomatic service, Catherine Ashton, did travel to Tunis in mid-February, her intervention did not succeed in dispelling a sentiment that Europe was struggling to respond to a historic change, which it urgently needed to address — because it was taking place on its southern border…
Translated from the French by Mark McGovern
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Muslims Attack Coptic Community, A Priest and Three Deacons Missing
The attack occurred last night in Soul, a town some 30 kilometres south of the Egyptian capital. Twelve thousand Christians are placed under curfew, waiting for soldiers held back by fear. The violence was sparked by a relationship between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman.
Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A priest and three deacons are missing following an attack last night by about 4,000 Muslims in the town of Soul (30 kilometres south of Cairo) against the local Coptic community. The mob attacked Christian homes and set fire to the Saints Mina and George Coptic Church, ostensibly because of a relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.
Witnesses report the mob prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. Father Yosha, the priest of the small parish, and three deacons have been reported missing with different accounts of their fate. Some believe they died in the fire that devastated the church building. Others say they are still held by Muslims in one of the parish buildings.
When the Muslim mob attacked the church, they exploded five or six gas cylinders inside the church, desecrated the cross and pulled down the domes.
Soldiers stationed in the village of Bromil, seven kilometres from Soul, initially refused to go into Soul. When the army finally sent troops to the village, Muslim elders sent them away, saying that everything was “in order now.” A curfew was imposed on the 12,000 Christians of the town.
The incident was sparked by the involvement of a Coptic man, Ashraf Iskander, with a Muslim woman. The father of the Muslim woman was killed by his cousin because he did not kill his daughter to preserve the family’s honour. This in turn led the woman’s brother to avenge the death of their father by killing the cousin. Muslims then blamed the murders on Christians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Elite [SAS] Troops and MI6 Spies Poised to Help Libyan Rebels
Britain is to send teams of spies and diplomats into Libya to help oust Colonel Gaddafi, it emerged last night.
MI6 operatives backed by the SAS are to land in the east around the key rebel stronghold of Benghazi ‘within days’.
In addition, 600 soldiers of the Black Watch are on 24-hour standby to fly in and avert a humanitarian catastrophe as Libya erupted into a new wave of bloodshed.
[…]
British diplomats and spies have been engaged in intensive efforts to speak to opposition forces, which are led by Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the rebel National Libyan Council.
Now ministers have approved a presence on the ground to gather information and boost the chances of the rebels.
The liaison teams will be primarily composed of envoys but will include some intelligence officers.
They will link up with Special Forces already in Libya to provide protection and give informal military advice to the Libyan opposition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hawass Admits Egypt’s Ancient Heritage is in Danger
Egypt’s archaeological sites are “in grave danger” from looters, according to the country’s chief antiquities official, Zahi Hawass. It’s just a few weeks since he downplayed the problem of looting despite a break-in at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo during which mummies were smashed and statues broken. At the time he insisted that “the sites of Egypt are safe”.
But yesterday Hawass posted a long list of affected sites on his blog, cataloguing instances of damage and theft across the country. He said that looters have broken into warehouses and tombs at sites including Saqqara, Dahshur, Giza and Abusir. Objects taken include inscribed blocks, and one important 19th-dynasty tomb in Tell el-Maskhuta, near Ismailia, was destroyed. Illegal excavations are also occurring at many sites.
There is little information about the extent of the damage, or what items have been stolen. “There’s no clear information, it’s very confusing,” says Frank Rühli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He had to cancel a research trip to Saqqara last month but is hoping to return this summer. “It breaks my heart if anything is damaged.”
Worse than thought
“It is becoming clear that the amount of looting and damage is bigger than originally thought,” says Jaromir Malek, director of the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. He is particularly worried by reports of break-ins at storage magazines in sites such as Saqqara. These contain finds from nearby excavations, such as loose fragments of wall reliefs. “Some of them contain material from old excavations that has never been properly studied or published,” he says.
Malek says that the looters so far don’t appear to have had specialist knowledge of the sites they have targeted, but that many of the objects would reach huge sums on the black market once smuggled out of the country. “If it’s ancient, it’s valuable,” he says.
Christopher Marinello, head of the Art Loss Register in London, an international database of stolen antiquities and works of art, says he is working with law enforcement and customs agencies to track down missing items. He encourages archaeologists and authorities working in Egypt to register anything they know to be stolen. Several “important items of cultural significance to Egypt” have been registered so far, he says, although he declines to give details.
Barry Kemp, an Egyptologist at the University of Cambridge and director of the Amarna Project, has just returned to his dig site in the ancient city of Amarna and says that day-to-day work there is continuing, although “all branches of internal security in Egypt seem to have been disrupted”, including the Tourist and Antiquities Police, which is normally responsible for guarding archaeological sites. “In the atmosphere of uncertainty, the wolves have come out.”
Hawass out
Hawass, who has headed Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities since 2002 and was made a cabinet minister on 31 January, told The New York Times yesterday that he would not remain in his post in a newly appointed government if asked, because he is no longer able to protect the country’s antiquities.
However, many feel that his decision may have more to do with his previous close ties to former president Hosni Mubarak. “I believe he was forced out,” says Marinello.
Hawass could not be reached for comment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: 20,000 Bengali Workers New Refugee Emergency
(AGI) Ras Jedir — Over 20,000 Bengali workers are still stranded at the UNHCR refugee camp near Libya’s border with Tunisia. Over 30,000 Egyptian citizens were recently evacuated, but as many as 20,000 Bengali refugees remain there and thousands more are waiting to be identified before being allowed into the camp. Over 3,000 of them, who have been queuing since this morning, staged a protest demanding that they be repatriated quickly like the Egyptian citizens.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly 4000 Muslims Attack Christian Homes in Egypt, Torch Church
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — A mob of nearly four thousand Muslims has attacked Coptic homes this evening in the village of Soul, Atfif in Helwan Governorate, 30 kilometers from Cairo, and torched the Church of St. Mina and St. George. There are conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the Church pastor Father Yosha and three deacons who were at church; some say they died in the fire and some say they are being held captive by the Muslims inside the church.
Witnesses report the mob prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. The army, which has been stationed for the last two days in the village of Bromil, 7 kilometers from Soul, initially refused to go into Soul, according to the officer in charge. When the army finally sent three tanks to the village, Muslim elders sent them away, saying that everything was “in order now.”
A curfew has been imposed on the 12,000 Christians in the village.
This incident was triggered by a relationship between 40-year-old Copt Ashraf Iskander and a Muslim woman. Yesterday a “reconciliation” meeting was arranged between the relevant Coptic and Muslim families and together with the Muslim elders it was decided that Ashraf Iskander would have to leave the village because Muslims torched his house.
The father of the Muslim woman was killed by his cousin because he did not kill his daughter to preserve the family’s honor, which led the woman’s brother to avenge the death of his father by killing the cousin. The village Muslims blamed the Christians.
The Muslim mob attacked the church, exploding 5-6 gas cylinders inside the church, pulled down the cross and the domes and burnt everything inside. Activist Ramy Kamel of Katibatibia Coptic advocacy called US-based Coptic Hope Sat TV and sent an SOS on behalf of the Copts in Soul village, as they are presently being attacked by the mob. He also said that no one is able to contact the priest and the deacons inside the burning church and there is no answer from their mobile phones.
Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub reported the mob has broken into Coptic homes and has called on Copts to leave the village. “Terrorized Copts have fled and some hid in homes of Muslim neighbors,” he added.
Witnesses said the mob chanted “Allahu Akbar” and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Popular Uprisings in Arab Nations Not Tilting Towards Fundamentalism, Islam Expert Says
Francesco Zannini, Islam expert at the PISAI, underscores the positive aspects of the protest movements, which remain however without leaders. For the scholar, the process towards democracy will be long and take years. Two million people celebrate Mubarak’s fall in Cairo, calling on the military to set up a new government and implement democratic reforms.
Rome (AsiaNews) — “The uprisings and movements that led to the fall of the governments of Tunisia and Egypt are interesting and positive facts. They come from the grassroots and people did not demonstrate under the flag of Islam and with anti-Western sentiments,” Francesco Zannini, Islam expert at the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, told AsiaNews.
For the scholar, the important changes that are affecting Arab nations are still hard to interpret. Results and hopes generated by the uprisings remain uncertain. For Zannini, “the movements are still without leaders and the process towards democracy is still very long.”
“In Egypt, there are many parties, but have remained forever on the sidelines of political life,” he explained. “They are hard-pressed to assert and organised themselves. In Tunisia, following Ben Ali’s flight there is a power vacuum. In other countries like Bahrain and Yemen, there is a danger that the authorities might be removed with no one knowing who will take over after them. Even if elections were held, it would take years before these countries could reach real stability.”
On the wave of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the peoples of Yemen, Bahrain and Libya have taken to the streets to demand democratic reform and an end to the existing regimes. Today, tens of thousands demonstrated in Sana’a (Yemen), marching on the presidential palace shouting slogans against President Saleh, who is seen as a dictator and an oppressor of the people. In Bahrain, thousands of people took part in the funerals for the four demonstrators killed yesterday by security forces during clashes in the capital Manama. In Libya, human rights activists have claimed that at least 24 people have been killed during protests in the past few days in various cities of the country.
In the meantime, people in Egypt continue their pressure on the military to implement the democratic reforms promised after Mubarak’s resignation. Today in Cairo, two million people gathered in Tahrir Square to celebrate victory day and pray together.
The spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, took part in the event. In his Friday sermon, he said that the uprisings that began on 25 January are the “revolution of all Egyptians, Muslims and Copts”. He also urged the military to appoint a new government in lieu of the current one, which he described as corrupt and criminal.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Roman Ruins: How Muammar Al-Qaddafi Hoodwinked Italy for Decades.
In each of my three conversations with Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi throughout the 1990s, one theme prevailed: the Libyan leader’s contempt for my country. Listening to his verbose condemnation of Italian colonialism was the price I paid to ask my own questions — no matter the supposed topic of the interview. In one encounter, in the middle of the night under a tent in the Sirte desert, he bemoaned Libya’s exploitation at Italian hands; at noon near the sand dunes just outside Tripoli, he blamed his country’s troubles on Rome. Now, with his regime on edge, he is again blaming outsiders for Libya’s ills. The protests, he said in a Feb. 22 address, were sparked by malevolent foreigners who were giving the demonstrators drugs. He accused the Italians — along with the Americans — of having delivered shoulder-launched rocket-propelled grenades to the rebel forces.
Given all this, you might find it odd — as I still do — that Qaddafi’s closest European ally is, or was until very recently, none other than the Italian government. During his four decades of rule, the colonel managed to convince Italian leaders not only that their country owed Libya a historical debt, but that Rome couldn’t do without Tripoli’s help on everything from terrorism to immigration to oil. He extracted huge concessions from Rome and won huge economic windfalls for cronies including Farhat Bengdara, governor of the Central Bank of Libya, who became vice chairman of UniCredit, the biggest Italian bank, in 2009. Perhaps most significantly, he convinced Italy to be an evangelist for Libya’s reintegration into the world community. The result is an absurdly asymmetrical relationship between the two countries; Qaddafi was always the winner.
At the beginning of his rule in 1969, Qaddafi’s beef with Italy may have been justified. Like Britain and France elsewhere in Africa, Italy had occupied the country, sometimes brutally, beginning in 1911. After World War I, 30,000 Italian settlers were given farmland, taken away from local cultivators. When Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy, he ordered his forces to crush the fledgling Libyan resistance using any and all means. Untold numbers were killed, forced to migrate, or shoved into concentration camps. It wasn’t until after World War II that Libya became independent again.
Libya was reborn in 1951 as a monarchy under King Idris, who was overthrown by the coup d’état that brought Qaddafi to power. A disciple of the anti-colonialism preached by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, Qaddafi found in Italy the perfect enemy. In 1970, less than a year after coming to power, he expelled every Italian living in the country — more than 20,000 people — and seized all their assets.
Qaddafi’s hatred for Italy escalated into distaste for the entire West. He became a seemingly indiscriminate supporter of anti-Western militancy and terrorism. He funded and trained the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army. He also carried out his own attacks against targets such as Berlin’s La Belle nightclub in 1986 and the Pan Am Flight 103 jumbo jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people.
Yet throughout this period, Italy-Libya relations remained solid — even after the colonel dubbed a 1985 terrorist attack against the Rome airport that took the lives of 13 people a “heroic act,” after he shot a Scud missile at the Italian island of Lampedusa as revenge for the U.S. bombing of Tripoli in 1986, and after he offered refuge in 1989 to Abdel Osama al-Zomar, the Palestinian terrorist sentenced to life for having been part of the 1982 attack against the Great Synagogue of Rome.
Yes, through it all, Italy found a way to work with Qaddafi. Its energy giant, Eni, began operating in Libya in 1956. Today the country supplies Italy with 22 percent of its oil and 10 percent of its gas — some 28 percent of Libya’s total exports. In 1998, Rome and Tripoli signed an agreement that committed Italy to paying reparations for colonialism, without any stipulations that Libya compensate Italians for the properties it seized in 1970. Then, beginning in 2000, Romano Prodi, then president of the European Commission, pushed Europe to restart trade relations with Tripoli, which was under U.N. sanctions because of the Pan Am bombing. In 2004, he succeeded. Prodi received Qaddafi at the European Commission building in Brussels that April in the leader’s first visit to Europe after 15 years.
It has always been clear who is in charge of the Italy-Libya relationship: The more Qaddafi insulted Italy, the more concessions he won from Rome. The colonel never wanted to build on the two countries’ common past. What he was after was more tangible: huge Italian investments in Libyan infrastructure projects and permission to invest in the biggest Italian bank as well as in many strategic private companies. This is to say nothing of oil, which Italian firms pump to the tune of 89 million barrels a year, decade after decade — including during a U.N. trade embargo. Eni was the only major Western oil company to remain in the country — a choice that was rewarded in 2007 when Eni entered into a giant, 10-year, $28 billion deal with Libya, which agreed to extend existing oil supply contracts through 2042 and natural gas ones through 2047. (Qaddafi allegedly received a significant cut of those sales’ profit.)
How did Qaddafi so completely seduce Rome?
First, he used historical blackmail. Qaddafi played with the memory of the colonial past and the crimes committed by the Fascist regime against the Libyan population to ask for never-ending reparations. He has asked for compensation for every conceivable piece of the past — from minefields to ill health suffered by Libyan civilians. The aim was never to improve his people’s welfare, but rather to gain ever more leverage and bargaining power with Rome.
Second, Qaddafi used his country’s oil and gas wealth — and Italy’s dependence on it — to influence every Italian government for the last half-century. Framing himself as the guarantor of stability and economic deals, Qaddafi won Rome’s support for his remaining in office — sometimes quite literally. In 2008, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Shalgham and former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti revealed that Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi alerted him of coming U.S. airstrikes on Tripoli in 1986, actually saving his life. And as Qaddafi maintained and exploited his ties to terrorism throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Italy’s government simply believed that Qaddafi was simply too dangerous and erratic to risk angering.
Finally, Qaddafi played on European fears of illegal immigration. Over the last decade, Libya became a key transit point for sub-Saharan African migrants trying to reach Sicilian shores. Tripoli had been allowing human traffickers to bring migrants up through the Sahara to the Mediterranean Sea, where they would board small boats toward Europe. Qaddafi promised to stem the flow of migrants in exchange for better deals on almost everything from fishing rights in the Mediterranean Sea to military cooperation. The “Friendship Treaty” signed in Benghazi in August 2008 — and ratified by the Italian Parliament in February 2009 — traded 5 billion euros from Italy in “colonial reparations” in exchange for the vague Libyan promise to curb boats full of illegal immigrants. Another memorandum of understanding was signed in July 2009 that allowed the Libyan Investment Authority to own 2 percent of Finmeccanica, the second-largest industrial group in Italy and a major player in defense, aerospace, security, transport, and energy.
If all this blackmail has worked, it is only because every Italian government for the last four decades has wanted it to. The “mad dog” of the Middle East — as late U.S. President Ronald Reagan memorably described him — was deemed too close, too dangerous, and too necessary to risk provoking. Yet for all its appeasement, Italy got very little in return. Qaddafi never delivered on his promises, for example to block illegal immigration from the Libyan coast or to win over other African countries’ support for an Italian proposal to reform the U.N. Security Council. Although the number of illegal migrant arrivals did fall temporarily after the treaties were signed, the number of boats started rising again in 2010, perhaps a signal to the Italian government that Qaddafi wanted to negotiate concessions again.
Instead of keeping his end of the deal, Qaddafi spent his time investing more and more of his personal wealth in the Italian economy, filling corporate boards with his close friends and pursuing a strategy of economic penetration that allowed his sons and associates to live in unusual luxury during their long periods of residence in Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rapallo. Al-Saadi al-Qaddafi, one of his eight biological children, paid an unknown amount of money to train with Italian soccer teams in 2003 and 2006. >From spring 2008 to the end of 2010, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi met Muammar Qaddafi 11 times, kissing his hand in public, giving him presents like a luxury train a collection of Murano glass, and feting him with an equestrian show at Rome’s Villa Borghese that featured 30 Berber horses.
The more Italy appeased him, the more he perceived the political weakness of the former colonial power. Qaddafi continued to celebrate Italian Evacuation Day every year on Oct. 7, with thousands of people taking part in rallies and military parades to commemorate the victims of the colonial occupation and celebrate the forced exodus of the Italian settlers from Libya. Billboards and painted signs in Tripoli showed Italian flags smashed by Libyan fists. And, though Qaddafi was not religious, an Italian cathedral in downtown Tripoli was transformed into a mosque to show the humiliation of the former conqueror’s culture.
These days, however, it is Qaddafi who is looking weak. In response to his brutal suppression of current protests there, Italy canceled the Friendship Treaty and froze Libyan assets in UniCredit, Finmeccanica, Juventus, Cerruti, Retelit, and many other smaller companies. But Italy can’t claim to be surprised by Qaddafi showing his true colors now. Over the years, the Libyan leader has been all manner of things to the country’s politicians — from anti-Western hero (for the far left) to thuggish terrorist to safe guardian of Italian oil imports. Countless governments and businessmen have sought his favor and his treasure. They may now protest that they’ve had their fill of him, but to be honest, Qaddafi’s been eating their lunch and getting away with it for decades.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: No to Buildings on Carthage Site
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 18 — Tunisia’s Culture Minister has issued an order for the immediate suspension of planning permission for building on sites of historical and archaeological interest in the Carthage — Sidi Bou Said perimeter.
The sites have been part of UNESCO’s World Heritage since 1979, although the family of the erstwhile President Ben Ali at one point was granted illegal permission to build in the area. Planned projects include the residential building “Les Résidences de Carthage” and luxury villa. Work on a water tank designed to service the Presidential palace had previously begun on the remains of a 4th century Christian basilica.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Leather and Footwear Exports, -4.2% in January
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 23 — The Tunisian leather and footwear sector saw exports decline in January by 4.2% compared with the same month of 2010. This was seen in the figures reported by the National Leather and Footwear Centre (CNCC), according to which export turnover was about 38 million euros, while imports stood at about 21 million euros.
Exports were mostly to (in order) Italy, France and Germany, followed by Spain, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Yemen, Austria and Belgium. Italy, with 47.3%, was the top country as concerns imports, followed by France and Germany.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Even Erdogan Knows Turkey Must Look to Europe
Despite the Turkish leader’s criticisms of the EU, it’s clear his country’s future lies with the union
If you are going to be a hypocrite, it’s best to be so spectacularly hypocritical that you momentarily deprive your audience of the oxygen that would permit them to process the sheer absurdity of what you have just said. It works every time. Just ask the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the proud recipient of quite probably the last Muammar al-Gaddafi International prize for human rights.
Erdogan has spent much of this week in Germany — if you believe his version of events — imparting well-meant advice to the locals. From the German perspective, Erdogan did a Gaddafi by effectively accusing the Germans of being racists bent on repressing the country’s 3 million Turks by forcing them to speak German and preventing them from practising their religion. “No one may ignore the rights of minorities … Nobody will be able to tear us away from our culture,” Erdogan told a gathering of 11,000 Turkish emigre’s in Dusseldorf. “Our children must learn German, but they must learn Turkish first,” he boomed, unwittingly lending support to Angela Merkel’s highly dubious assertion that multiculturalism had “utterly failed” in Germany because immigrants refused to learn the language.
It’s true that it has never been much fun being a Turkish immigrant in Germany. One need only spend a few hours in the company of Merkel’s own party members to see how little some attitudes have changed since the first Gastarbeiter arrived there 50 years ago. Citizenship, when given, has been granted in a niggardly fashion almost designed to make life difficult.
Yet who would want to be one of Turkey’s 15 million Kurds? The limits of Turkish tolerance will become apparent to anyone brave enough to attempt to school their children first in Kurdish and then in Turkish. As for religious freedom, the Alevis (who make up nearly a fifth of the Muslim population) suffer systematic discrimination, while even the religious brotherhoods that form the core of Erdogan’s own AK party are still officially banned. As for the Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Jewish and Syriac minorities, despite the fine words of recent years, it is hard not to see them as hostages from history that no one really wants.
The good thing about Erdogan is that somewhere deep down in his barrel chest, this former professional footballer wants to right these wrongs, or some of them anyway. His AK party has done more to address this long line of injustices than any government since the foundation of the Turkish republic, even if that often has not amounted to much more than broaching what had been hitherto taboo subjects.
However, it’s sometimes hard to know which Erdogan you are dealing with. Is it the rabble-rousing populist we saw in Dusseldorf, cynically tapping the Turkish diaspora to fill his war chest for June’s general election, or Erdogan the religious Ataturk, refounder of Turkey, and herald of world peace, or Erdogan the Karagoz, the accidental hero of the Arab street who lost his temper with Shimon Peres at Davos when Israel stitched him up as he tried to find a way to stop the attack on Gaza?
Somewhere in there, there is still an emotional, easily provoked, idealistic man from a poor migrant family in Istanbul, with all the complexes that that entails. (Abdullah Gul, now Turkey’s president, used to kick him under the table to keep him in check during particularly delicate negotiations with the generals or visiting European delegations.) That is why despite his increasingly quixotic tendencies, and the rising corruption and clientelism of his own party, Erdogan will almost certainly be elected for an unprecedented third term. By muzzling the military and freeing up the economy, he has changed Turkish politics to such a degree that Ataturk’s old Republican party, which had flirted with an extreme nationalism, has elected an Alevi to run against him.
Like most Turks, Erdogan has a very hazy notion of his country’s history prior to what is called “independence”, and tends to see the Ottoman empire as an uninterrupted 600-year Islamic period of progress and universal tolerance. Try telling that to the Arabs, Egyptians, Greeks and the peoples of the Balkans and the Caucasus. A lot of the naivety of Turkey’s new neo-Ottoman foreign policy — a tactical turning away from Europe that is often seen as a kind of see-if-I-care huff — is in Erdogan’s own image. Turkey feels badly used by a Europe that is becoming more inward-looking and less attractive by the day, and can only manage a fraction of its own booming growth. On the basic economic criteria, it feels it has much as a right as a place at the table as Romania or Bulgaria. Yet only one of the 35 chapters of its membership negotiations have been completed since they began in 2004. Some of this is its own fault, much of it is not…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Letter From Iraq: The Ziggurat Endures
An American soldier reflects on his experience at the ancient city of Ur
The city of Ur, once the largest in the world and the crown jewel of one of humanity’s first civilizations, sits in a wasteland at the edge of a war zone. In late spring, the temperature easily hits 120 degrees as the blazing sun reflects off endless sand flats and yellow Sumerian brick. A 45-minute walk around the site is exhausting even for a very fit person. The ruins, which were inhabited from roughly 3000 to 300 B.C., consist mostly of brick walls, some of which are partially restored, revealing the outlines of monumental complexes such as shrines, storehouses, and elite residences. The ruins are now abandoned, save for a solitary shopkeeper who sits in a ramshackle hut marked “Shop Ziggurat,” where he sells trinkets and Mesopotamian-themed souvenirs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Government Bans Rallies on Fears of Protests
(AGI) Riyadh — In response to North African unrest, the Saudi government has announced a clampdown on street rallies and protests. According to the kingdom’s interior minister, “all necessary measures” will be adopted to contain potential unrest. In an official communique’ the Saudi government says “the Kingdom’s laws categorically ban all and any form of demonstration, rally or sit-in, as they are in contrast with the Sharia, the values and the traditions of Saudi society.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Mobilise Thousands of Troops to Quell Growing Revolt
Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week’s “day of rage” by what is now called the “Hunayn Revolution”.
Saudi Arabia’s worst nightmare — the arrival of the new Arab awakening of rebellion and insurrection in the kingdom — is now casting its long shadow over the House of Saud. Provoked by the Shia majority uprising in the neighbouring Sunni-dominated island of Bahrain, where protesters are calling for the overthrow of the ruling al-Khalifa family, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is widely reported to have told the Bahraini authorities that if they do not crush their Shia revolt, his own forces will.
The opposition is expecting at least 20,000 Saudis to gather in Riyadh and in the Shia Muslim provinces of the north-east of the country in six days, to demand an end to corruption and, if necessary, the overthrow of the House of Saud. Saudi security forces have deployed troops and armed police across the Qatif area — where most of Saudi Arabia’s Shia Muslims live — and yesterday would-be protesters circulated photographs of armoured vehicles and buses of the state-security police on a highway near the port city of Dammam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Exports Majority of Its Dairy Products to Mideast
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 21 — Turkey makes majority of its dairy exports to Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Syria. According to Export Promotion Studies Center, as Anatolia news agency reports, Turkey exported 62,326 tons of dairy products in 2008 and earned 145 million USD. In 2009, Turkey made 150.3 million USD of dairy product exports, and the amount of dairy product exports rose to 65,235. Turkey earned 180.5 million USD from 78,516 tons of dairy product exports in 2010.
Middle Eastern countries and Turkic Republics were Turkey’s main dairy product export markets. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), United Arab Emirates, Syria, Azerbaijan, the United States, Albania, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, and Lebanon are the countries where Turkey exported its dairy products. Cheese constituted more than half of Turkey’s dairy exports.
Moreover, Turkey mainly imports milk, cream and butter from Switzerland, Australia, TRNC, France, the Netherlands, Ukraine, USA, New Zealand, Italy and Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two Arrested in Turkey Over Alleged Plot to Kill Christian
Turkish anti-terrorism police have arrested two men suspected of plotting to kill a Christian religious figure in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.
They were picked up in a raid on an apartment in Gaziosmanpasa, a working-class district on the European side of the city, the report said, adding that police seized two pistols.
Several violent and sometimes lethal attacks have targeted Christians in mainly Muslim Turkey in recent years.
Last year a 26-year-old Turk was convicted of the stabbing death of the then head of the Catholic Church in Turkey, Luigi Padovese.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Shot to Death in Pakistan’s Town of Danada
(AGI) Rawalpindi — AsiaNews report the killing, in Rawalpindi’s town of Dananda, of a man previously acquitted of blasphemy charges. The man, identified as Mohammad Imran, was charged with blasphemy in April 2009, but subsequently released due to lack of evidence. The charges related to his having insulted the Prophet during a conversation with another person inside a cafe’. Imran was shot to death today.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Bishop Slams Demolition of the First Four Crosses Out of 729
Municipal authorities order the razing of four crosses out of 729 deemed illegal in spite of the fact that Christian residents were told that demolition would not occur before they had the time to produce the necessary papers to prove that the structures met regulations. Mgr Gracias describes the action as “unjust and illegal”, and demands they be rebuilt. The chief minister phones the prelate to apologise for the deed.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai’s municipal government, has started to tear down 729 crosses, ostensibly for the purpose of urban renewal. Mgr Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, firmly condemned the action, calling it “unjust and illegal”. He added that legal action against the municipality could not be excluded.
Two days earlier, state authorities had reassured concerned citizens that religious structures built before 1964 would be protected. However, the BMC went ahead anyway, tearing down the cross at Hathi Baug, Love Lane, in Mazgaon (Mumbai). Two more crosses were demolished on D’Lima Street in Byculla. The demolition squad even broke the plaque marking the date of construction (1936) of one of them.
On Saturday, the BMC had issued 48-hour demolition notices for a number of ‘illegal’ religious structures in 24 administrative wards. Residents in Hathi Baug and Byculla complained however that their cross was “legal” and “of great significance even to non-Christians in the area.
According to the BMC, demolitions are part of an urban renewal plan to remove “illegal” places of worship built after 1964. The plan aims at widening roads and improving traffic and needs land earmarked for public use.
Following peaceful protests by Christian residents, the BMC said that structures built before 1964 would not be touched. And yet, it proceeded to tear down crosses built before the cut-off date as indicated in the papers in the possession of local Christians.
A meeting was arranged at Cross Maidan, South Mumbai, with Christian residents and Card Oswald Gracias.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Mgr Gracias expressed “sadness and anger” at the “unfair act against the law abiding and peaceful Christian community.” The municipal government, he said, “has done an unlawful act, especially since we were assured that our crosses would not be demolished. Last night I personally visited the site where the cross has stood since 1936, and it was heart wrenching to see the helplessness of the people, elderly women, youngsters, children, families; all so helplessly standing amidst the rubble”. For many, the cross was a token of protection.
First, it “was very insensitive for the BMC to paste the [demolition] notices on the crosses,” the prelate said. It “was completely wrong. It was a defilement of our religious symbol.” What is more, the notices ordered “cross owners/trustees to furnish details of its legality (i.e. built before 1964) within 48 hours.”
Second, “in 2003, all the relevant documentation was submitted to the BMC. It is not the fault of the Christian community if the BMC could not locate/retrieve their files.”
“These crosses were built by individual families and mostly on private property, but over the years because of many reasons, including road widening, they found themselves on public land,” the archbishop said. “I myself saw the plaque at Hathi Baug, Love Lane, in Mazgaon”. It says that “the cross was erected in 1936,” whilst, “The Supreme Court ruled that 1964 was the cut-off date.”
“The cross at Hathi Baug, Love Lane, in Mazgaon, stood at the end of a road, and was in no way obstructing traffic. We are seriously contemplation taking the BMC to court for breaking the crosses.”
The BMC has justified its action, saying that the religious structures prevent the widening of the roads and improve traffic. For the municipality, the structures are on land earmarked for public services.
“The cross is the symbol of our faith,” Mgr Gracias said. “These crosses were built as a token of gratitude to God for protecting people.” They are also a sign of a desire “to seek God’s continued blessings”. For the prelate, they “inspire hope among all people,” and are a “symbol of God that is part of the cultural and religious heritage of the great city of Mumbai.” Furthermore, “I too was born and brought up in this beautiful city and these crosses are an intrinsic part of who we are.”
“The chief minister, who is currently out of Mumbai, phoned me this morning, and apologised for the demolition of the crosses. He stated that instructions were given that the crosses should not be demolished. I will be meeting with him on his return to the city and will demand that the BMC rebuild the crosses at the same site. Ironically, even as the Chief Minister was apologising to me, news came of another cross being demolished at Dadar. This bring the tally to four.”
“The religious sentiments of the community have been seriously grieved, wounded and this is not acceptable,” Archbishop Gracias said.
For members of the local section of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the municipality’s action is illegal.
Ashish Shelar, a lawyer and a member of the BMC council for the BJP, said he would move to stop further demolitions. In the standing committee, he called for a stop to the demolition of religious structures because it violates a Supreme Court ruling.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Men and Non-Muslim Women
When American mother Melissa Bender married Pakistani Mohammad Khan, she brought three children from a previous marriage into the relationship. Today the children are in protective custody after police discovered that her 13-year-old daughter, Jessie Bender, wasn’t taken away by a predator, but that the predator had been right in her own house.
Mohammad Khan was planning to take Melissa and Jessie to Pakistan, where the 13-year-old girl feared she would be forced into an arranged marriage. Instead she bravely went on the run and the police department appears to be doing the right thing. For now.
Had Mohammad Khan taken her to Pakistan and married her off, it would have been almost impossible for the child to escape again. Particularly from a rural area. She would have been repeatedly raped by her “husband”, beaten by her in-laws and turned into a slave. And Khan would have likely profited from the exchange. Khan didn’t just marry a middle aged woman, he married a woman with at least one girl at home. And in Pakistan that translates into a salable commodity.
[…]
Let’s look at how women are treated in Pakistan. In many tribal areas, rape is a punishment meted out by tribal elders. Rape convictions are virtually impossible to achieve.
Here are apolitical stories from Western women living in major cities in Pakistan.
[…]
The situation is worse for non-Muslim women, particularly indigenous Christians and Western travelers, who are held to be less than human.
Do you think that magically changes when Ahmed or Mohammed moves to London or New York? It doesn’t. He only learns to be more discreet when outside his own community, otherwise the shaitan damned infidel yahood police will get him in trouble. His attitude doesn’t change. Only his tactics do.
“A Pakistani immigrant in Brooklyn blackmailed his friend’s teenage daughters into having sex with him by threatening to tell their traditionalist parents they were being intimate with their boyfriends, law-enforcement sources revealed yesterday.
“In one instance, Mohammad Naseer allegedly threatened to kill one of the Pakistani girls if she didn’t sleep with him.
“If you don’t do what I want, I will tell your father that you had sex with your boyfriend and if your father does not kill you, I will kill you. No one will find your body,” he threatened, according to court documents.”
[…]
Jessie Bender was meant to be an American Aisha. Instead thanks to her own courage, and a legal system that appears to be doing the right thing, she may now have the chance to grow up, fall in love and be a free human being. That elementary right which we take for granted and that no woman living in the Muslim world ever can.
How academic is this, let’s take a brief trip from Pakistan to Egypt, home of the joyful Democratic revolution, where 98 percent of foreign women complained of being sexually harassed on a daily basis.
Let’s step back and look at those numbers for a moment. Nearly every single foreign woman who visits Egypt can expect to be sexually harassed… every single day that she is there. Where does that kind of attitude come from?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Strengthens Military Budget
BEIJING—China announced plans to increase its defense budget by 12.7% this year, a pickup from last year’s sharply lower growth that comes amid fresh confrontations over territorial issues with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.
China expects to spend 601.1 billion yuan ($91.4 billion) on defense in 2011, up from 533.4 billion yuan last year, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the National People’s Congress, said Friday, ahead of the start of the legislature’s annual session on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Plans to Track Beijing Citizens Through Their Mobiles
Government claims technology will ease transport congestion, but experts warn it could be used to control dissent
Human rights campaigners have expressed concerns over plans to track every mobile phone user in Beijing through global positioning technology.
Chinese media reported this week that pilot schemes were being introduced for an “information platform of real-time citizen movement” to help with traffic management.
Li Guoguang, deputy director of the Beijing municipal science and technology commission, said the project would be used to tackle congestion by allowing officials to monitor the flow of people through the transport system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clive James: The Drumming of an Army
Poetry, said Auden, makes nothing happen. Usually it doesn’t, but sometimes a poem gets quoted in a national argument because everybody knows it, or at least part of it, and for the occasion a few lines of familiar poetry suddenly seem the best way of summing up a viewpoint. Just such an occasion has occurred recently in Australia. By the time the heavy rains first hit Queensland early this year, the theory of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW, to borrow the unlovely acronym) was ceasing to exercise unquestioned thrall in the minds of Australia’s progressive voters. But spokespersons for the Green party clung on to it, encouraged by the fact that the theory, in its Climate Change form, was readily applicable to any circumstances.
Before the floods, proponents of the CAGW view had argued that there would never be enough rain again, because of Climate Change. When it became clear that there might be more than enough rain, the view was adapted: the floods, too, were the result of Climate Change. In other words, they were something unprecedented. Those opposing this view — those who believed that in Australia nothing could be less unprecedented than a flood unless it was a drought — took to quoting Dorothea Mackellar’s poem “My Country”, which until recently every Australian youngster was obliged to hear recited in school. In my day we sometimes had to recite it ourselves, and weren’t allowed to go home until we had given evidence that we could remember at least the first four lines of the second stanza, which runs like this.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror —
The wide brown land for me.
The first four lines of the stanza are the bit that everybody knows, partly because they are so addictively crafted, and partly because they fit the national experience of what Australia’s geography and climate are actually like. In any household, the seniors (known in Australia as “the wrinklies”) remember the droughts and the flooding rains of their childhood. I myself remember the Maitland floods of the early 1950s. The whole of the central seaboard of New South Wales was under water. I can remember rain you couldn’t see through: right there in my southern suburb of Sydney, the creek flooded the park, and the lake in the park spilled into the bottom of our street, prompting the construction of a galvanised iron canoe in which three of us sailed to what would have been certain death if the contraption had floated for more than a few seconds…
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Ivory Coast: ICC Ready to Punish Crimes Against Civilians
(AGI) The Hague — The International criminal court will “move fast” against perpetrators of crimes against civilians in Ivory Coast. It was announced by the Hague-based court’s deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. Bensouda described the killing of at least seven women by forces loyal to outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo during a peaceful demonstration in Abidjan Thursday as “appalling”. Bensouda said “the situation is grave and Ivory Coast is on the brink of civil war” and added that, if it “reaches the gravity threshold, definitely the ICC will move fast “.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: PES Invites Solidarity Towards Immigrants in EU
(AGI) Rome- The Party of European Socialists (PES) invited EU nations to support each other in welcoming North African immigrants. Following a reunion in Athens among European socialist leaders, the PES urged the EU to take action to promote democracy and liberty in North African countries. “The EU should not focus only on its own security,” the PES stated during the reunion, “but favour dialogue and democracy”. Some of the party’s top men have apparently bet on El Baradei as Egypt’s next leader.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
On the Tunisian Coast, The Smuggler’s Escape Route to Europe
The current conflict across the Arab world means the Tunisian port city of Zarzis is bustling more than ever with the illegal ferry crossings to Italy
As his eyes gaze out over the sea, the captain known only as ‘Ress’ informs us that any crossing will have to wait. There are a dozen Egyptians from the Tunisian border town of Ras Jedir, who managed to flee the war in Libya. They have already paid to go. “There are also five from China, and more will be coming,” he explains. “But we’ll have to let a few days pass, and then we can make it to Lampedusa.”
To the rest of us, the sea appears calm, the skies clear. But to the captain — who can sniff a storm like a dog sniffs game — there is bad weather on the horizon. This morning three boats departed toward Sicily, small fishing boats with twenty or thirty illegal immigrants aboard each. But there will be no more departures today, the captain assures us.
He gestures out to sea. “Even if there is no wind here, out there the conditions for crossing are not good, you will have to wait until tomorrow.” He is a lively little man with two sparkling eyes and a fisherman’s face, marked with the lines of all the long nights and hard luck.
But now, he is cashing in. Since he stopped fishing sardines and started ferrying humans, he has become rich. On average he makes ten thousand euros for every trip he takes to Lampedusa, the tiny Italian island just 70 miles across the Mediterranean that has become a prime landing spot for illegal immigrants trying to enter Europe.
Here in Zarzis, what is surprising is how open and readily available the illegal immigrant trade takes place. In fact, it is almost difficult to avoid. When they walk the streets of downtown, the captains of human trafficking ships are seen like soccer stars. They receive warm greetings as people rise from their seats to pay them respect and offer to buy them coffees.
Patrons at the café overlooking the harbor sing Ress’ praises. “He has never missed a trip, and he has ‘baraka’ (good fortune) on his side,” says one. “He knows every wave of the sea from here to Lampedusa. If you choose to go with him to Italy your money is well spent, better even than if you had traveled by plane.”
But not every customer is satisfied. “If it wasn’t for him, this would never have happened to me, I’d be in Italy right now,” laments one teenaged boy. A month ago the fishing trawler that was carrying him from the beach capsized, and two of his comrades died. He was saved only because he was a good swimmer, and made it back to shore. The smugglers returned his money — here there is at least a modicum of etiquette on a failed bill of sale.
But this boy has had enough: “God is merciful only once, and I have used up all of my credit. Here there is no chance of finding a job, but I am done trying to cross.”
Less than an hour’s drive from this beach, a multitude of Egyptians, Africans, Asians remain — like the boy — jobless, having flooded in across the Libyan border since violence erupted in the region. New fears of unrest mix with longstanding dreams of a better life in Europe.
That journey begins on the beaches of Zarzis. From Ogla, for example, just behind the holiday resorts and hotels, there is a strip of land they call “the airport” because more people leave here than from the airport of Djerba.
The entrance to the port is guarded by bored soldiers, and the smugglers confirm that the military does not usually disturb their work. “They know what is going on but they pretend not to see,” says Ress. “They do not have orders to stop the big ships loaded with people. If anything they will occasionally stop the little ones.”
The tide has ebbed and flowed according to past agreements worked out between Italy and the governments of Tunisia and Libya to patrol the coastlines. The trips to Lampedusa are a local specialty. In the evening, when small boats are ferrying passengers out to the larger ships, the beach becomes festive: not unlike the South of Italy when our emigrants used to leave for America seeking a better fate.
The captain describes the current procedure. The only condition that must be met is the most difficult one — the 1,000 euros required for a ticket. It usually begins at a coffee shop, or even on the street, when you pass on the news that you want to go to Lampedusa. The smugglers will then contact one of the captains, take your money and your cell phone number. Then you wait. Eventually your phone will ring and you will be instructed to meet at the departure point, where you are taken on board. Ten to twelve hours later you are in Lampedusa. Yesterday, a boat that arrived on the Italian island was carrying 400 people, a typical load. The math is simple: that’s a turnover of some 400,000 euros. Beats fishing sardines.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: French Minister Tells Italy to “Keep Migrants”
(AGI) Paris — France’s new Interior Minister, Claude Gueant, has asked Italy to “hold onto” its Tunisian migrants. He was referring to Tunisian migrants fleeing the turmoil in the Arab world who have arrived on Italian soil. The Minister was speaking after a visit to the Franco/Italian frontier “to monitor the border.” Gueant referred to the need to prevent migrants on the run from North Africa following the crisis in Tunisia from getting to France via Italy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Teachers Tell U.N. Sex is a ‘Spectrum’
Advocate mandatory classes to free students from ‘religion’
An advocate for explicit sex education who is attached to the National Education Association has told a hearing at the United Nations that mandatory classes need to teach orgasm, oral sex and masturbation to students in order to free them from the “binary” definition provided by “religion.”
The comments by Diane Schneider were reported by Lauren Funk of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute.
They came at a recent meeting of the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women, where Schneider said “oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education.”
And mandatory comprehensive sex education is “the only way to combat heterosexism and gender conformity,” she told the panel meeting to discuss how to combat homophobia and transphobia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Drinking From a Bottle Instead of the Tap Just Doesn’t Hold Water
Some 2.7 million tons of petroleum-derived plastic are used to bottle water worldwide every year, and costs consumers up to 1,900 times more than tap water. Isn’t it a waste that we buy water in plastic bottles when it is basically free out of our taps? Even health food stores, which should know better, sell it like crazy. When did Earth’s most abundant and free natural resource become a commercial “beverage”?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Using Tiny Glass Spheres as a Superlens, Microscope Shatters Resolution Record
Modern microscopes opened up the world of the minute to an amazing degree, allowing people to see all the way down to a bacterium wriggling on a slide. But if you want to see down even smaller in regular optical light—to a virus, a cell’s interior, or other objects on the nanoscale—you’ve been out of luck. Those objects are smaller than 200 nanometers, what’s been considered the resolution limit for microscopes scanning in white light, and so the only was to see them was through indirect imaging devices like scanning electron microscopes. Not anymore. Lin Li and colleagues report a new way using tiny beads to resolve images at 50 nanometers, shattering the limit for what can be seen in optical light.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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