Britain Faces a £3bn Bill to Save Portugal in Another EU Bailout
British taxpayers could be forced to pay £3billion to rescue the Portuguese economy after the collapse of austerity talks in Lisbon last night.
A massive bail-out from the European Union now looks like the only option — with the UK unable to abstain despite not being in the eurozone, according to the Open Europe think-tank.
The warning comes after a vote in the Portuguese parliament rejected a proposed package of tax increases and spending cuts, leading to the resignation of the prime minister Jose Socrates.
All opposition parties united to defeat Mr Socrates’ proposals, saying the belt-tightening went too far.
Mr Socrates said in a televised statement: ‘The opposition parties took away the government’s ability to continue running the country. As a consequence, I have tendered my resignation to the president.’
The EU is likely to draw up a massive rescue package similar to those in Greece and Ireland.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exposé of the Federal Reserve
Glenn Beck will plug The Creature from Jekyll Island
On Friday 2011 March 25, the entire Glenn Beck show will be devoted to an exposé of the Federal Reserve. I was invited to be a guest on the program and, when it was taped last Tuesday, I was amazed to find that Beck, not only has read the book but praised it highly. In fact, almost his entire opening monologue was based on the information and, in some cases, the very same phrases used in the book and in my lectures. I was delighted to know that someone, either Beck or his researchers, had spent a great deal of time studying The Creature from Jekyll Island. But what is even more encouraging is that several million viewers will be exposed to an hour of economic and monetary truth. This will bring us a giant step closer to actually slaying the Creature.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Permanent Euro Fix: Germany to Contribute 22 Billion Euros to New Fund
The European Union means business when it comes to saving the common currency. Finance ministers agreed on Monday to furnish the new permanent bailout fund with 80 billion euros, with the ability to call on 620 billion euros more should the need arise. The deal paves the way for agreement at an EU summit later this week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Parliament Rejects Austerity Plan
(AGI) Lisbon — Portugal’s parliament refused to endorse the austerity package proposed by the socialist minority government. Prior to the vote, Prime Minister Jose Socrates had said he would no longer be able to run the country, if the plan was defeated. Prime Minister Socrates is due to meet soon with President Anibal Cavaco Silva.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Courageous Teller Asks Bank Robber for Two Forms of ID
A Dallas Wells Fargo bank teller risked her life and thousands of dollars on a bet that a robber at her window would be stupid enough to comply with her request that he show two forms of identification.
But sure enough, her bet paid off! The robber, 49-year-old Nathan Wayne Pugh of Sachse, Texas, actually took the time to search through his pockets and wallet to produce the IDs — which turned out to be his Wells Fargo debit card and a state ID card. Then the teller stalled even more by very slowly copying the information.
Thanks to her efforts, authorities had ample time to arrive on the scene.
Pugh was apprehended when he tried to flee the bank with $800. He was later found guilty of bank robbery and sentenced to an eight year prison term. He was already on parole for two other aggravated robberies.
There’s no word on whether or not the teller was rewarded for her savvy risk. Regardless, she gets bragging rights and a great story to tell her kids.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Emperor Obama
There are precious few identifiable bases for American involvement in the Libyan civil war. Muammar Gaddafi is a brutal, repressive dictator, but how does his mistreatment of Libyans affect the vital interests of the United States, Americans’ lives, liberty, and property? The Obama Administration has offered no such basis for intervention. He is not acting to defend Americans’ interests, he is acting to assert America’s role as a global policeman and make himself the world’s officer in charge. He has assumed the extra-constitutional role of Guardian of the Libyan people. That role is not contemplated by the American Constitution. It befits not a President of the United States but an Emperor.
In Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, Congress is given the exclusive power “to declare war.” In Article II, Section 2, the President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces. In this system, Congress must first authorize an act of war by the United States against a foreign power. While as Commander in Chief the President has been given broad leeway to defend Americans’ lives, liberty, and property without a formal declaration of war, in the absence of such a threat, only Congress has the constitutional power to declare war against a foreign nation. Rather than make his case for war to Congress, President Obama made it to the United Nations. When certain members of the Security Council favored the action (and the others—Brazil, China, Germany, India, and Russia — agreed to abstain from voting), Obama obtained UN Resolution 1973, permitting member states to employ “all necessary measures” to subdue violence in Libya. That resolution is of no legal force or effect in the United States, yet President Obama has invoked it as if it is the supreme law. It is his only justification for dispatching America’s war fighters. In other words, President Obama viewed the assent of the United Nations, and not of the Congress of the United States, as both necessary and sufficient for the Chief Executive to go to war. That sets a dangerous precedent in violation of Article I, Section 8, Clause 11. It presumes the authority of the U.N. Security Council superior to that of the Congress of the United States in matters of war.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exotic Sphere Discoverer Wins Mathematical ‘Nobel’
A sphere is a sphere, right? Yes, if you mean a globe or a beach ball — what mathematicians call a two-dimensional sphere — but not if you are talking about a sphere in seven dimensions. Now the mathematician who discovered that spheres start to behave differently in higher dimensional space — an insight that seeded a whole new field of mathematics — has been awarded the $1 million dollar Abel prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. John Milnor of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York, was recognised for his “pioneering discoveries in topology, geometry and algebra”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Group Says Customs Agents Harass Muslims
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said is filing federal complaints with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice over the treatment of Muslims at border crossings.
CAIR Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid said it is seeking civil and potentially criminal investigations because Muslims are repeatedly questioned and detained at the U.S.-Canada border due to their religious beliefs.
WATCH: Groups Says Customs Agents Detain, Question Muslims For No Reason
WATCH: Group Filing Federal Complaints Over Harassment At Boarders
Walid said it has complaints from Michigan Muslims that said U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have pointed firearms at them, detained and handcuffed them without telling them they had committed crimes or faced any charges and questioned them about their worship habits.
The group said CBP agents have asked Muslims how many times they pray each day, when and where they pray and who prays with them in their mosque.
I’m very sure people aren’t asked what church or synagogues they go to when they reenter into the country. It’s obviously happening because they’re Muslim. Even if their not a regular Mosque attender,” Walid said.
Walid said Muslims face the same questions from CBP agents every time they cross the border.
“We definitely have a broken system in terms of how the department of homelad secutry is operating. It’s defintiey a broke system,” Walid said. “It’s something that I hope that, not just people at DHS and department of justice take a serious look at but, especially at next week’s hearings. They need to take a serious look at the profiling and harassing of American Muslims who are law-abiding and tax-paying citizens.”
| — Hat tip: RE | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Department Sues on Behalf of Muslim Teacher, Triggering Debate
BERKELEY, Ill. — Safoorah Khan had taught middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb when she made an unusual request. She wanted three weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The school district, faced with losing its only math lab instructor during the critical end-of-semester marking period, said no. Khan, a devout Muslim, resigned and made the trip anyway.
Justice Department lawyers examined the same set of facts and reached a different conclusion: that the school district’s decision amounted to outright discrimination against Khan. They filed an unusual lawsuit, accusing the district of violating her civil rights by forcing her to choose between her job and her faith.
As the case moves forward in federal court in Chicago, it has triggered debate over whether the Justice Department was following a purely legal path or whether suing on Khan’s behalf was part of a broader Obama administration campaign to reach out to Muslims.
The decision to take on a small-town school board has drawn criticism from conservatives and Berkeley officials, who say the government should not be standing behind a teacher who wanted to leave her students.
The lawsuit, filed in December, may well test the boundaries of how far employers must go to accommodate workers’ religious practices — a key issue as the nation grows more multicultural and the Muslim population increases. But it is also raising legal questions. Experts say the government might have difficulty prevailing because the 19-day leave Khan requested goes beyond what courts have considered.
“It sounds like a very dubious judgment and a real legal reach,” said Michael B. Mukasey, who was attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. “The upper reaches of the Justice Department should be calling people to account for this.”
His successors in the Obama administration counter that they are upholding a sacred principle: the right of every American to be free of religious bias in the workplace. “This was a profoundly personal request by a person of faith,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, who compared the case to protecting “the religious liberty that our forefathers came to this country for.”
The Obama administration has gone to great lengths to maintain good relations with Muslims — while endorsing tough anti-terrorism tactics. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has called protecting the civil rights of Muslims a “top priority,” and his department has filed other legal actions on behalf of Muslims, including a corrections officer in New Jersey not allowed to wear a head scarf at work.
Perez denied any political motive in the Berkeley lawsuit, saying it was pursued in part to fight “a real head wind of intolerance against Muslim communities.” People in the rapidly growing Muslim community in Chicago’s western suburbs praised the Justice Department’s involvement.
“It rings the bell of justice that they will fight for a Muslim wanting to perform a religious act,” said Shaykh Abdool Rahman Khan, resident scholar at the Islamic Foundation mosque near Berkeley. “That certainly can win the hearts of many people in the Muslim world.”
Although the Justice Department, including during the Bush administration, and private plaintiffs have filed civil rights lawsuits on religious grounds, they have tended to be over issues such as whether employees can take off on the Sabbath or wear religious head coverings.
Cases involving the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj, are exceedingly rare, said Christina Abraham, civil rights director for the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
19-day request
Khan arrived in November 2007 at Berkeley’s MacArthur Middle School, a faded brown brick building across from the public works department. She supplemented the math curriculum for sixth through eighth grades and helped prepare students for state tests.
Berkeley is a virtual speck on the map, a blue-collar village of about 5,000 people, rail yards, strip malls and ranch-style homes. The community, about 15 miles west of Chicago, is majority African American and Hispanic, and about 75 percent of its voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama.
The support for Obama’s Justice Department is much more mixed. Government lawyers, said longtime village President Michael A. Esposito, are “targeting a small community.”
“The school district just wanted a teacher in the room for those three weeks. They didn’t care if she was a Martian, a Muslim or a Catholic,” said Esposito, a political independent. “How come we bow down to certain religious groups? Why don’t we go out of our way for the Baptists or the Jehovah’s Witnesses?”
Khan, 29, who grew up in North Carolina and Arkansas, was happy in the job, said her lawyer, Kamran A. Memon. But she longed to make the hajj, one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith, which Muslims are obligated to do once. It would not have fallen on her summer break for about nine years.
“This was the first year she was financially able to do it,” Memon said. “It’s her religious belief that a Muslim must go for hajj quickly . .. . that it’s a sin to delay.” Khan declined to comment.
In August 2008, Khan requested an unpaid leave for the first three weeks of December that year. The district said the leave was unrelated to Khan’s job and not authorized by the teacher union contract, according to court documents. Khan resigned in a letter to the school board.
“They put her in a position where she had to choose,” Memon said. “Berkeley has qualified subs. She didn’t feel her absence would cause any problem at all.”
He attributed the criticism of the lawsuit, in part, to “anti-Muslim hostility.”
Federal intervention
In November 2008, Khan filed a religious discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and last year, the commission found cause for discrimination and referred the case to the Justice Department.
Justice lawyers sued in December, the first lawsuit in a pilot project to increase coordination on employment discrimination between the department’s Civil Rights Division and the EEOC.
The suit argued that the district violated the Civil Rights Act by failing to accommodate Khan’s religious beliefs. By “compelling” Khan to choose between her job and religion, the lawsuit says, the district forced her discharge. The government is seeking back pay, damages and reinstatement for Khan, and a court order requiring Berkeley schools to find ways to accommodate religious practices.
A trial date has not been set.
Berkeley school officials declined to comment but said in court papers that Khan’s request was “unreasonable” and would have imposed an “undue hardship.”
Federal law requires employers to “reasonably accommodate” religious practices unless doing so would impose such a hardship. The Supreme Court has interpreted the provision narrowly, saying accommodations should be granted only if they impose a minimal burden on employers.
Hans von Spakovsky, a Justice Department civil rights official in the Bush administration, said, “No jury anywhere would think that a teacher leaving for three weeks during a crucial time at the end of a semester is reasonable.”
“This is a political lawsuit to placate Muslims,” he said.
Perez said the district committed “a very serious” violation by “summarily” rejecting Khan’s leave. He added that Bush officials critical of the department’s lawsuit had “amnesia” because they filed similar lawsuits. “I’m perplexed as to why suddenly, in the context of protecting Muslims,” there is opposition from officials in the former administration, he said.
Eugene Volokh, an expert on religions and the law at the UCLA law school, said he does not know of any cases involving a 19-day leave, though many courts have said employees can take off one weekend day on the Sabbath in some circumstances. “That’s a 52-day-a-year leave, just not all at once,” he said.
A number of courts have also upheld religious-based leaves of up to 10 days.
But Khan’s 19 consecutive days “cuts against her, makes it more of a hardship for the employer” said Volokh. He added, “I don’t want to suggest that this is an easy case for the Justice Department” to win.
In Berkeley, opinions on the lawsuit — and Khan — are divided.
“What about the kids’ rights?” said Mike Hasapis, owner of the local coffee shop. “Don’t they have a right to be educated? Three weeks off is a long time.”
Bernard Peters, whose daughter attends Khan’s former school, said the district “should have accommodated her. It’s her religion. Right is right.”
A few miles away at the Islamic Foundation, support for Khan was uniform. “If she was a Jew, would they treat her the same way?” Nabih Kamaan of Bloomingdale, Ill., asked as he arrived for Friday prayers.
“What if she was sick? What if she had a baby?” said Kamaan, who added that the lawsuit “is the right thing to do.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Thomas More Law Center Enters Oklahoma Mosque Controversy
Tulsa, Oklahoma police captain Paul Fields refused to order his officers to attend an Islamic propaganda event staged by a local mosque with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. As a result, Captain Fields, a 16-year police veteran, has been stripped of his command and is now the subject of an internal investigation.
TMLC announced today it has joined Tulsa, Oklahoma attorney Scott Wood to defend Captain Fields’ constitutional right not to become a propaganda prop for the local mosque. As you know, TMLC is heavily involved in litigation defending the religious freedom of Christians as well as countering the infiltration of radical Muslims in America.
The Mosque event, dubbed, “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day,” had nothing to do with any official police function. It clearly fell outside of the police department’s policy on community policing, and based on comments made by police department officials in a closed door meeting, it was not “community outreach” as it has been previously portrayed in the media. Rather, it included a mosque tour, meetings with local Muslims and Muslim leadership, observing a “weekly prayer service,” and lectures on Islamic “beliefs.” The event was scheduled for Friday, March 4, 2011—Friday being the “holy day” or “Sabbath” for Islam. In fact, the event was originally voluntary, but when not enough officers were willing to attend, it became mandatory.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for TMLC, commented: “This case is an astonishing example of a double standard. If this were a Catholic or Protestant prayer event, no one would have been ordered to attend, and no one would have been punished for refusing to attend. It is a prime example of government officials over-stepping their authority when it comes to government intrusion on an employee’s constitutionally protected freedoms.”
The photo at the right shows Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan at the event shaking hands with CAIR Oklahoma Director Muneer Awad, the very person who filed the federal lawsuit challenging Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia constitutional amendment, which was approved by 70 percent of the state’s voters (It is unknown if Chief Jordan knew of Awad’s identity at the time of this handshake). CAIR was listed an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial.
Moreover, the Law Enforcement Appreciation event was held just five days after the Tulsa mosque hosted a dinner featuring Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In a written response to the order from his superior, Captain Fields stated that he considered the order to be “an unlawful order, as it is in direct conflict with [his] personal religious convictions, as well as to be conscience shocking.” He also told his superiors that he would not require any of his subordinates to follow the order “if they share similar religious convictions.”
Captain Fields is fighting back. TMLC and local attorney Wood have filed a civil rights action against the City of Tulsa, its chief of police, and its deputy chief of police, alleging that the City and its officials violated Captain Fields’ fundamental constitutional rights by ordering him to the mosque under penalty of adverse employment consequences.
Robert Muise, Senior Trial Counsel for TMLC handling the case, stated, “The City of Tulsa Police Department and its highest ranking officials are not only willfully blind to the threat that sharia (Islamic law) poses in their own community, they are willfully blind to the fundamental rights that our very own Constitution provides to its American citizens, including Captain Fields. In effect, as the Amended Complaint sets out in greater detail, the City’s police department and its officials are unwittingly complicit in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘civilization jihadist process,’ to the detriment of one of its most loyal and competent police officers.”
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
European Commission Hit by Cyberattack
IDG News Service — The European Commission, including the body’s diplomatic arm, has been hit by what officials said Thursday was a serious cyberattack.
The attack was first detected on Tuesday and commission sources have said that it was sustained and targeted.
External access to the commission’s e-mail and intranet has been suspended and staff have been told to change their passwords in order to prevent the “disclosure of unauthorized information,” according to an internal memo to staff. Staff at the commission, the European Union’s executive and regulatory body, have also been told to send sensitive information via secure e-mail.
The event came just days ahead of the European Council summit being held on Thursday and Friday. The summit brings together the leaders of E.U. member states and crucial decisions will be made on economic strategy, the war in Libya and the future structure of the E.U.
This led to early speculation that the source of the attacks may be Libya, but the commission was quick to rule this out. The attack is thought to be similar to the cyberattack on the French government in the run up to the G20 Summit in February 2010. That assault involved malware and targeted e-mail, with some of the related stolen information redirected to China.
Commission administration spokesman Antony Gravili said officials would not speculate on the source of the attacks in such a sensitive security matter. He did, however, confirm that the attackers targeted the information of some commission officials, in particular at the External Action Service, the body’s foreign diplomatic arm.
“We are already taking urgent measures to tackle this. An inquiry’s been launched. This isn’t unusual as the Commission is frequently targeted,” said Gravili. He added that there was no concrete evidence that the attack is linked to the E.U. summit.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Germany.: US Troops Ordered Not to Wear Uniforms
US troops in Germany have been banned from wearing their military uniforms in public in the wake of the Frankfurt Airport shooting that left two American airmen dead and two seriously injured.
US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported on Thursday that troops in Europe had been ordered “to the maximum extent possible” to refrain from wearing their uniforms off-base, even during daily commutes, in a bid to make them less conspicuous to would-be attackers.
“The directive specifically forbids the wear of uniforms for travel between duty and domicile, short convenience stops, conduct of physical fitness, travel between installations, and off-post messing,” the US European Command (EUCOM) has told personnel, according to the paper.
The announcement comes three weeks after two US airmen were killed and two other men seriously wounded in a shooting attack on an American military bus at Frankfurt airport. A 21-year-old Muslim man of Kosovar background, Arid Uka, was arrested for the attack.
It also comes as the US takes part in air attacks on Libyan targets in an effort to stop dictator Muammar Qaddafi bombing rebels and civilians. That operation is being run by US Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart.
The order reflects the concern that military commanders hold about potential terrorist attacks on troops, many of whom wear their uniforms while grabbing lunch at local restaurants and running errands.
“You are not supposed to wear your uniform even if you are in your own car,” EUCOM spokesman Captain Ed Buclatin told the paper.
However, some questions have been raised as the effectiveness of the order, given military personnel are easy to spot whether or not they are in uniform.
“I don’t think it makes a lot of difference when I am driving my Xterra (SUV) through town,” Lt. Cmdr. Geoff Maasberg told Stars and Stripes.
“People know who all the Americans are from our haircuts and that kind of stuff, but I don’t think there is a better way to do it. I think the higher-ups are doing what they need to do, and what they think is right to help us not get shot by some crazy guy with a gun.”
Gunnery Sgt. Dennis Dougherty told the paper that having to change clothes back and forth “may be extreme,” but the directive nevertheless made sense.
“I have always thought, ‘What is stopping somebody from attacking (US service personnel) or pulling over a little bit and running them over?’ “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Protect Strategic Firms From Foreign Takeovers
Decree after French giant Lactalis took command of Parmalat
(ANSA) — Rome, March 23 — The Italian government on Wednesday moved to protect companies considered of strategic importance after French dairy giant Lactalis took a controlling stake in Parmalat.
The decree approved by a cabinet meeting contains “measures to defend Italian firms against foreign takeovers in strategically relevant sectors,” government sources said.
According to media reports, the sectors are food, defence, technology, telecommunications and energy.
As well as Parmalat, Italy’s biggest dairy company, the government is concerned about French energy giant EDF’s partial takeover of Italian energy company Edison and the French insurance giant Groupama’s interest in the large finance-to-construction group Ligresti.
Italy has also been irked by French luxury group LMVH’s recent acquisition of Bulgari.
Lactalis upped its stake in the once-troubled dairy group Parmalat to 29% Tuesday ahead of an expected initial public offering of shares that would tighten its grip.
Italy may confer with the European Union on the government’s French-style move, Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said.
Among the measures in the decree is a provision that shareholders’ meetings can be moved to different dates.
Analysts said this was aimed at delaying an initial public offering of shares in Parmalat, Parmalat shares jumped 1.22% on the anti-takeover decree amid speculation the shareholders’ meeting provision might thwart Lactalis’s ambitions. Industry Undersecretary Stefano Saglia confirmed the decree was also aimed at the Edison-EDF case.
He noted that the decree did not go as far as what France has done to protect its own companies in 11 strategic sectors. EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier said the European Commission would examine the decree to make sure it does not break rules on competition and the internal market.
A spokesman said Barnier was awaiting details of the decree.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Documentary Silvio Forever Sparks Debate
Trailer for ‘unauthorized autobiography’ censored by RAI
(ANSA) — Milan, March 23 — A documentary on Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, to be released March 25, is already ruffling feathers in Italy. The national public television network RAI refused to air its entire trailer of Silvio Forever, calling it “inopportune”.
Italy’s other major broadcast network, Mediaset, is majority owned by Berlusconi, leaving few alternatives for the film’s promoters.
Thus a ten-minute segment about the film will air on the relatively unknown satellite station Current, an independent, uncensored television network founded by Al Gore. Current Italia (Sky 130) will show the original trailer refused by RAI, extra footage in which the film’s creators explain the title, and the ending theme song, written by Berlusconi’s personal lyricist, Loriana Lana, Wednesday at 20:00.
Silvio Forever traces the life of Italy’s most famous billionaire and politician through film and video clips, images and interviews that have taken place throughout his life. It is called, ironically, an “unauthorized autobiography”, as it largely consists of footage of Berlusconi talking about himself.
“It is not an anti-Berlusconi film”, declared the film’s creators at a press conference.
This comes as a surprise, given the scandals that have showered on the premier in recent months, because the documentary was written by two of Italy’s star muckrakers. Journalists Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella wrote The Caste, a sensational bestseller in 2007, detailing graft and corruption in Italian politics.
“This film may disturb the Left which expected us to attack (Berlusconi). We wanted only to make a film on an amazing personality who, with his magic, has an incredible rapport — like no other — with the gut of Italians,” said Roberto Faenza, one of the film’s two directors.
A one-and-a-half minute trailer posted on YouTube offers a poignant, fast-paced portrait of Berlusconi’s oversized personality: his charisma, his uncanny self-confidence, his attention to pretty women. The images and videos are embedded around a video interview with Berlusconi’s late mother, Rosa Bossi, who died in 2008.
She is quoted saying, “Silvio is good and generous. One never sees photos of him running around with women or others,” words that have taken on new meaning in the light of criminal charges Berlusconi now faces related to private parties he held with dozens of women guests.
The implicit irony of the Bossi interview is why RAI balked at the trailer, judging it to be poor taste.
“Images and words of a deceased person are twisted to satirical ends”, RAI said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Joint Consular Work to Reinforce ‘EU Citizenship’
The EU commission has urged all 27 member states to print a line in their passports telling people they have special rights as EU citizens if they get into trouble abroad. The idea is part of broader guidelines on EU consular protection adopted by the Brussels executive on Wednesday (23 March). Passports from 20 EU member states already advertise the fact that if your own country cannot help you while abroad, any other EU consulate you can get to is legally obliged to step in.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Setback for Franco-German Relations
Paris and Berlin at Odds over Libya Operation
While France has eagerly taken a leading role in the operation against Moammar Gadhafi, Angela Merkel’s government has been adamant that the German military will not participate. The two positions are causing a rift in Franco-German relations.
Anyone who mentions the name of the French president around members of Germany’s governing coalition at the moment can expect to see plenty of irritated faces. Dubbed the “French general,” Nicolas Sarkozy has already annoyed members of Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and their coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democrats, by not consulting anyone when he sent his fighter jets to patrol the skies over Libya. Didn’t the French president once allow “Brother Colonel” Moammar Gadhafi to pitch his Bedouin tent in Paris, they ask? Perhaps, they add, Monsieur Sarkozy wants that little snippet of information to be quickly forgotten — along with his cosy relationships with other North African despots. Oh, and he is facing elections next year, as well: A determined military operation to defend human rights might do no harm in that respect.
There are not many people in Berlin who have good things to say about the country’s western neighbor at the moment, despite the high value that is normally attached to good Franco-German relations. The military operation against the Libyan dictator has put a spanner in those particular works.
The German government considers the military action a mistake, hastily launched without a proper plan. The lack of preparation is, however, compensated for with plenty of rhetoric. France is determined to assume its “role in the face of history,” Sarkozy declared. And he went further, cleverly portraying Germany as occupying an outsider role alongside China and Russia. And now Paris also wants to downgrade NATO to the role of a helper rather than giving it command of the operation.
The Paris leadership is getting on the nerves of many in Berlin. The feeling is so strong that FPD floor leader Birgit Homburger made her anger clear on Wednesday: “I cannot see how we can be criticized by those who go it alone themselves.”
‘Our Relationship Is Markedly Colder’
But the animosity is currently mutual. The French are disappointed with the German abstention on the Libya resolution in the UN Security Council. The Le Monde newspaper said the German government was “lacking solidarity or any maturity.” Germany was giving the impression of being a freeloader who wanted to “harvest the fruits of the determination shown by the French, British and American allies without getting their hands dirty.”
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe was more cautious with his words. “We would have wished that Germany would join us,” he said. Other, anonymous sources, however, were far more explicit. “Angela Merkel will have to pay for this for a very long time,” a French diplomat was quoted as saying by the newspaper Le Parisien. “Even if they receive the support of their own public, their international image will suffer, and our relationship is getting markedly colder.” Le Figaro also quoted a disgruntled high-ranking French diplomat, who described Berlin’s stance as “a big mistake which will cost Germany dearly in political terms.” The newspaper spoke of a “severe blow to the Franco-German friendship.”
Officially, of course, there is no mention of such problems. Following the adoption of the UN resolution, Chancellor Angela Merkel rushed to the Libya summit meeting because she wanted to avoid the impression she was politically isolated. President Sarkozy did not say anything and welcomed Merkel as warmly as ever. The chancellor hastily insisted that the resolution was now “also our resolution” — abstention or not. Germany naturally stood by its allies, she said. Nonetheless, it was noticeable that, out of the European leaders present, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was the only other head of government who had not offered any military assistance.
Germany on the Sidelines
France will not go out of its way to make sure that Germany is involved in future planning of the operation in Libya. Sarkozy’s diplomats are currently working hard in Brussels to prevent leadership of the military operation being transferred to NATO, something the Germans would welcome. Instead, Paris has organized its own political steering committee, which would include representation from all the parties involved in the operation, as well as the African Union and the Arab League. The first meeting will be held in London next Tuesday. The Germans will be on the sidelines.
The French government has tried to downplay the disharmony. Foreign Minister Juppe said it was not the first time Germany and France had been at odds: “That has never put our fundamental solidarity in doubt.” Europe Minister Laurent Wauquiez talked of the two countries having different views of the Libya issue. “Does this mean the end of Franco-German relations?” he asked. “Of course not!”
He is obviously right, but the relationship between the two countries is hardly going to improve any time soon. Perhaps Sarkozy and Merkel can start the process of making up on Thursday, when they will meet in Brussels for the EU summit. Libya will take a back seat, with the final scope of the euro-zone rescue fund set to be top of the agenda. That, at least, is an area where Germany and France usually take a joint leading role.
There will, however, be another issue up for discussion which could cause further division between the two countries: the consequences of the nuclear emergency in Japan. The chancellor has announced a joint Franco-German initiative on nuclear power plant security. Sarkozy made clear, however, that he does not agree with Merkel’s sudden shutdowns of nuclear plants in Germany. “Phasing out nuclear power is not an option,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Migrant: EU Treatment is ‘Shameful’
Tunisian migrants stuck in harsh conditions in Lampedusa feel let down by the EU compared to the effort made by ordinary Tunisians to help refugees fleeing violence in Libya. Thirty-year old Khaled Harobi came to the Italian island on Sunday and has spent the past three nights sleeping “on the grass” in a hostile atmosphere with Italian locals protesting against the fresh influx of needy people. “We came here to look for freedom, to look for justice, rights. Because this is what we hear about Europe. But where is it? We didn’t find anything,” he told EUobserver.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MCB [Muslim Council of Britain] Urges Yes for the Alternative Vote
This May, British people will for the first time ever be given a say on how they elect their representatives. This is a historic opportunity for all our communities to decide how politics should work, taking ownership of the democratic process.
Following a full democratic discussion of its central working committee, the Muslim Council of Britain is backing a YES vote. We understand and respect those who believe we should rather vote no, but we believe that a YES vote will be in the best interests of all Britons, regardless of religion or party affiliation..
We all believe that politics can be better. AV means that all voters will have a stronger say in our elections, and that all politicians will have to reach out further and secure majority support from the communities they seek to represent.
The BNP are campaigning for a No vote because they know what a YES vote means — that racists who won’t reach out have no future. This referendum is important to all voters. It’s important to have your say. It’s important to get involved. You can join the Yes campaign today at www.yestofairervotes.org
Ensure your voice is heard. To register to vote, or apply for a postal vote, visit www.aboutmyvote.org.uk
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MCB [Muslim Council of Britain] Celebrates ‘A Confident, Self Assured and Forward-Looking Muslim Community’
The Muslim Council of Britain’s second annual Muslim Leadership Dinner was attended by leading figures from the world of media, politics, civil society, business and the community leaders from across the UK. The key theme of the evening was Muslim engagement with the world of Media and celebrating Muslim achievements.
Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB, addressed the audience in his opening speech, “Muslims are slowly but surely marching forward to play their part as full members of the society. The Muslim Leadership Dinner today aims to celebrate this journey from a state of powerlessness towards a confident, self-assured and forward-looking community ready to contribute its fair share towards building a better and prosperous society for all”.
Speaking of media engagement he said, “It is our wish to provide an opportunity to both the media and the community to be together and try to understand and empathise with each others position.. not just criticize but also applaud positive coverage”.
Mehdi Hassan, Senior Political Editor of the New Statesman, spoke of the disturbing reality of society being immune to the negative portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the sections of British media, “My profession, the media, which is driving much of this anti Muslim sentiment. It’s the media which churns out Islamophobic headlines, editorials, stories, columns, imagery. We Muslims have made huge advancements in terms of our integration. This is an age of pluralism not tribalism”. He went on to commend the humanitarian efforts carried out by Muslim charities regardless of faith, highlighting their recent work in Japan and Haiti.
Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator for the Telegraph, stressed, “It is our duty as journalists to speak up about the British values of truth, decency and tolerance. However, those values have been affronted, lies are told about Muslims, particularly in British newspaper”. He went on to say, “Fleet Street and the newspapers and where I come from and what the public could do is to try and examine the language we’re using”. He emphasised the urgent need for all of us to challenge such misrepresentations, and to actively welcome positive contributions across the media.
The Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP stated in his address, “Certainly you have been a community that has been there for others You have been here with your families, many for generations and Britain is richer for it. You should not be fearful of the past, work with the present and be optimistic of the future”.
The evening saw just some of the contributions to civil society made by upcoming young Muslims and their inspiration rooted in British and Islamic values.
The event was supported by Islamic Relief, the British Institute of Technology and E-Commerce as well as Human Appeal International.
[JP note: The usual suspects in attendance: Peter Oborne, virtually in the pockets of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Simon Hughes, revolting LibDem MP suffering from terminal Islamophilia. The MCB is confident because idiots such as Oborne and Hughes are in positions of influence.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Murderer Mohammed Riaz Trapped After Victim’s Severed Thumb Drops From Sky by Bird
Killer Mohammed Riaz could have been arrested before murdering his bother-in-law if two police forces had made more effort, a watchdog said.
Riaz was arrested on March 11 last year, the day after the Mahmood Ahmad’s left thumb was caught on CCTV falling to the ground in Ilford, Essex, where it was found by a security guard.
Riaz, 33, was yesterday found guilty of murdering Mr Ahmad and will be sentenced on Monday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Putin Pledges Continued Support Against Kosovo Independence
Belgrade, 23 March (AKI) — Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Serbia on Wednesday and pledged his continued support to Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in view of Kosovo’s three-year-old declaration of independence.
After talks with Serbian president Boris Tadic and prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic, Putin said his visit was a confirmation of “traditional friendship between Russia and Serbia and closeness of Russian and Serbian people”.
Russia blocked declaration of Kosovo independence by majority Albanians in the United Nations Security Council three years ago and Putin vowed Moscow’s policy in relation to Kosovo would not change.
The two countries on Wednesday signed several agreements on “strategic cooperation” in the sphere of energy, transport tourism, cultural and technical cooperation.
Russia is Serbia’s leading trade partner with a total turnover last year topping 2.7 billion dollars. Both leaders agreed there was ample room to further promote trade and increase Russian investments which stand at 1.4 billion dollars.
“I’m convinced that the visit strengthens our political ties and will promote our economic cooperation,” Putin said. He confirmed that Russia will start building the South Stream gas pipeline in 2013, facilitating the flow of natural gas to west Europe across Serbia.
Tadic thanked Putin for his support over Kosovo and said that world security and allied action in Libya were also on the agenda of today’s talks. He said a “high level” of agreement was reached on all issues discussed.
“We are very concerned about the suffering of civilian population in Libya ad would like all decisions to be directed at stopping the destruction and jeopardizing civilian population,” Tadic said.
On a visit to Slovenia on Tuesday, Putin said there was no dispute between him and president Dmitry Medvedev over Libya, despite differing statements the prior day. Putin has compared allied action in Libya to “medieval calls for crusades,” which Medvedev termed as “unacceptable language”.
“If you are interested in whether there is any difference in the way Mr. Medvedev and I approach these events, let me assure you: we are very close, and we understand each other,” he told reporters in Ljubljana.
Putin said Russia had no objections to Serbia’s striving to join the European Union. We will carefully watch and work jointly that European integration doesn’t harm relations between Russia and Serbia,” Putin said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Anti-NATO Sentiment Strong in 12th Anniversary of 78-Day War
Belgrade, 24 March (AKI) — Pronounced anti-Nato sentiment hung in the air in Serbia on Thursday during ceremonies to mark the twelfth anniversary of the beginning of air strikes against the country as wreaths were placed to commemorate the some 3,000 victims killed in the 78-day bombing campaign.
Nato launched a bombing campaign against rump Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) to push Serbian forces out of breakaway the Kosovo province and to stop an exodus of ethnic Albanians fleeing under a Serbian offensive aimed at quelling majority Albanians’ rebellion against Serbian rule.
Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999, paving the way for Kosovo independence declared in February 2008.
Twelve years later, animosities still run high against the western military alliance and the ruins of former military headquarters in the center of Belgrade is a ghostly reminder of what here is referred to as a “Nato aggression.”
The event is being commemorated throughout the country which, according to Serbian estimates, suffered material damage of one hundred billion dollars.
After democratic changes in October 2000, the pro-European government has made European Union membership its primary goal, but it has taken a “neutral” stand towards Nato. Recent surveys showed that only 15.1 per cent of Serbian citizens support the country’s joining the military alliance.
The anniversary is marked with round tables, commemorations and anti-Nato protests by some opposition groups. Belgrade mayor Dragan Djilas laid wreaths at the memorial of 13 workers killed in the bombing of Belgrade’s television broadcasting building in the centre of the city.
Opposition Democratic Party of Serbia of former premier Vojislav Kostunica held a protest in the city’s main pedestrian area, distributing leaflets saying “Never to Nato”.
Visiting Russian prime minister Vldimir Putin told Serbian president Boris Tadic on Wednesday that Russia, Belgrade’s closest ally, had nothing against Serbia’s joining the EU. But he later told Serbian MPs the situation with Nato was different.
“If Serbia joins Nato, Nato will make all the decisions,” Putin was quoted as saying. “If Nato deploys its rocket systems in Serbia, Russia will be forced to direct its nuclear potential towards Serbia,” Putin warned
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi on Allies and Gheddafi — Italy Not at War Now or in Future
Premier calls for genuine ceasefire before diplomacy can take over
(l.fo.) This morning, the premier was at last able to claim Italy had a “winning line” in the management of the Libyan crisis. The early days of the mission, with the French military push to finish off Colonel Gheddafi, look to belong to the past. The Italian prime minister’s mood has improved. “In addition to full NATO coordination of all mission operations, we obtained detailed application of the UN resolution”, he explained on the phone. “The coalition is committed to defending the civilian population. Italy is not at war and does not want to go to war”.
The hours of uncertainty over the command of operations and the coalition’s objectives — protecting Libyans from repression by Gheddafi’s militias or working for regime change through the defeat and elimination of Gheddafi himself? — are, according to Silvio Berlusconi, well and truly in the past. There are three clear points regarding the western action in a country that is strategic for Italian interests: the creation of a no-fly zone to prevent Tripoli’s air force from attacking towns in rebel hands; the embargo on arms to Libya; and the defence of the civilian population threatened by Gheddafi’s troops.
“It was all perfectly clear on Saturday when the mission was decided”, added Mr Berlusconi. “I discussed it with the British prime minister David Cameron and the American defence secretary Hillary Clinton, who were in complete agreement”. One man who did not agree was undoubtedly Nicolas Sarkozy, who exercised a leading role in the early stages of the mission, creating rifts that will leave their mark on relations with Rome. Mr Berlusconi has no wish to quarrel with the French president and feels that now is the time for unity. It is true that French minister Alain Juppé has just stated that NATO’s role will be restricted to “technical coordination” while political decisions on the mission will be taken elsewhere. France’s reservations will not be easy to ignore and will weigh heavily on talks to be held by heads of government in Brussels today. But Mr Berlusconi is unequivocal on this point: “NATO has taken on a task with full responsibility. I repeat, everyone agrees. There is only some resistance from the French”…
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Army “Could Continue Fighting for Weeks”
Moammar Gaddafi retains enough military might to resist the international intervention for several weeks or even months, according to a Swiss military expert.
Alexandre Vautravers, editor of the Swiss Military Review and head of the international relations department at Webster University in Geneva, tells swissinfo.ch the Libyan army still has significant strength in numbers of tanks, assault vehicles, weapons and troops.
After three nights of air strikes, discord about the aims of the mission amongst its allied leaders is intensifying, and it is proving harder than expected to establish relations with the leaders of the rebel-led National Transitional Council.
There was a lot of wishful thinking about this rebellion, according to Vautravers, who points out that popular support for the uprising is not comparable to what was seen in Tunisia or Egypt. The most favourable estimates say that only about 35 per cent of the population has actually rebelled against the Gaddafi regime.
Alexandre Vautravers: The US military command has said that since the first bombs were dropped over Libya, there have been no aerial or ship movements by the Libyan armed forces. [But] military aviation has never played a decisive role in the attacks against the Libyan population. The harm that was really perpetrated against the population was done by other types of weapons — shelling from boats or artillery or heavy weapons — rather than by aviation. There is a bit of misunderstanding about what this no-fly zone was intended to achieve…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: France Sees Military Action Lasting ‘Days or Weeks’ Not Months
Paris, 24 March (AKI) — French foreign minister Alain Juppe on Thursday said international military action against Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi may last weeks, but will not turn into a protracted war.
“The destruction of Gaddafi’s military capacity is a matter of days or weeks, certainly not months,” Juppe told reporters in Paris on Thursday. “You can’t expect us to achieve our objective in just five days.”
France was the first country to recognize Libyan opposition as the rightful rulers of the north African country. It also led the push for the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone in Libya to prevent Gaddafi’s forces from attacking civilians.
French warplanes on Saturday were the first to conduct sorties over Libya. But five days of military action by France, the United States, the UK and Italy has failed to dislodge Gaddafi from 41 years of autocratic power.
Juppe also said the Libyan campaign should serve as a warning to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East that their leaders must come to terms with the fact that changes arising from uprisings in the region are permanent.
“The process going on in the Arab world is irreversible. People’s aspirations must be taken into consideration everywhere, including in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Trapani Military Airport Partially Re-Opened Monday
(AGI) Rome — Defence Minister La Russa said the military airport in Trapani will be re-opened to some civilian flights Monday. “As of Monday, the military airport in Trapani will be re-opened, although partially and gradually, to some civilian flights “ Ignazio La Russa told reporters in the lower house.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Nearly 100 Killed in Coalition Raid
(AGI) Tripoli — The international coalition’s raid on Libya allegedly killed 100 people, according to a government spokesperson. The Libyan representative highlighted that this is a preliminary estimate.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan ‘Killer’ of PC Yvonne Fletcher Seized by Rebels
One of the prime suspects in the murder of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher could finally face British justice after being seized in Libya.
Omar Ahmed Sodani was allegedly paraded before journalists yesterday by rebels who seized him from a Benghazi bolthole where he had been hiding.
The 59-year-old — for more than a quarter of a century a Gaddafi henchman — had been desperately trying to save his skin by brokering a deal to join pro-democracy opposition forces.
But Sodani, suspected of being a mastermind of the shooting from the Libyan embassy in London in April 1984, was instead arrested and was last night being held by the rebels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: After Gaddafi, Democracy or Jihadists?
We all agree that Colonel Gaddafi is a dictator, that he supported terrorism against the U.S. and France, was responsible for the tragedy of PanAm 103, that he funded, armed and trained radicals in many African countries such as in Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Haute Volta, and in a few Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon. We all are aware that his regime oppressed his people and tortured and jailed his opponents for four decades. I observed Gaddafi ruling Libya unchecked during and after the Cold War before and after 9/11 and he was received by liberal democracies as a respectable leader.
My first question is: Why has the West been silent so long and why is it so late in taking action against this dictator? Of course it had to do with oil. Western elites were morally and politically encouraging him by buying his oil and empowering him with endless cash as Libyan dissidents were dying in jails.
Now, as missiles are crushing Gaddafi’s air defense systems and tanks, Western governments should be invited for serious self-criticism for having enabled this regime to last that long. Squeezing or even defeating Gaddafi should prompt a comprehensive review of past decades of Western policies towards this regime and its abuses of human rights. The military operation should not end with the departure of Gaddafi from power. It must open the door for an examination of US and European policies that have aligned themselves with Petrodollars interests for over half a century. Such self-criticism was supposed to start with the removal of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, but unfortunately, it hasn’t taken place yet, precisely because of the mega-influence inside the West and the United States by powerful lobbies representing the interests of OPEC, the Arab League and the OIC.
Besides, questions should be raised about the Arab League and OIC endorsement of an action against Gaddafi’s regime. Where were they for decades, when the Libyan dictator used to seize the microphone on their platforms and blast the very democracies they implored to act against him? These organizations catered to the interest of regimes they now are calling for sanctions against. Mr. Amr Moussa, the current secretary general of the Arab League, rises against Gaddafi after having supported him for years, while the latter was oppressing his own people.
In my book, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East, I call all these regimes and organizations a “brotherhood against democracy.” They have supported each other against democratic movements and minorities everywhere in the region. From Sudan to Lebanon, from Iraq to Libya, the regional organizations were at the service of these regimes, not of the people. As these revolts are ongoing, these inter-regimes’ organizations must be criticized and eventually reformed. Last year, the Arab League and OIC were endorsing Libya’s role in the UN Council on Human Rights.
[…]
As far as Libya is concerned, removing Gaddafi is not the question. That should have been done years ago on the grounds of abuse of human rights. The question is who will come next? Clearly, the agenda of the Benghazi leadership is not clear. We know there is a layer of former bureaucrats, diplomats, intellectuals and military dissidents with whom partnership is possible and should be encouraged. But there is another layer below the surface which is made of Islamists, Salafists and in some cases Jihadists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Liberation Leads to Ethnic Cleansing
One of the first things the Kosovo Liberation Army did after Bill Clinton bombed Serbia back to the industrial stone age for them in 1999 was ethnically cleanse Serbian-speaking Gypsies, on the grounds that A) They spoke Serbo-Croatian and thus probably sympathized with the Serbs, and B) Hey, they’re Gypsies. This Wikipedia account says 90,000 Roma were expelled from Kosovo by the KLA. David Zucchino reports from the rebel capital of Benghazi for the LA Times that something similar is, unsurprisingly, happening in Libya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On Libya, France Steps Forward to Assume Spotlight
After President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke Tuesday morning about NATO disputes over Libya, it was Sarkozy who announced — as Obama flew across South America on Air Force One — that the two leaders had “reached agreement” on the issue.
Since the Libyan crisis began last month, France has repeatedly jumped into the lead: first to recognize the Libyan opposition, first to launch fighter jets over Benghazi, first to call for an international conference about Libya’s future, first to destroy a Libyan warplane in motion.
For the most part, that has suited the Obama White House just fine. Despite some grumbling and eye-rolling over Sarkozy’s grandstanding, the administration has welcomed France’s eagerness to take the spotlight.
It has also suited Sarkozy. According to a poll published this week by France Soir newspaper, two-thirds of the French public approve of the way he has handled Libya, a vote of confidence sure to boost an overall approval rating that had dipped below 30 percent…
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Soros Fingerprints on Libya Bombing
Philanthropist billionaire George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the global organization that promotes the military doctrine used by the Obama administration to justify the recent airstrikes targeting the regime of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
The activist who founded and coined the name of the doctrine, “Responsibility to Protect,” sits on several key organizations alongside Soros.
Also, the Soros-funded global group that promotes Responsibility to Protect is closely tied to Samantha Power, the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights.
Power has been a champion of the doctrine and is, herself, deeply tied to the doctrine’s founder.
According to reports, Power, who is married to Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, was instrumental in convincing Obama to act against Libya.
The Responsibility to Protect doctrine has been described by its founders and proponents, including Soros, as promoting global governance while allowing the international community to penetrate a nation state’s borders under certain conditions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Second Time as Farce
Obama’s justification for the bombing to congress, citing, “Qadhafi’s defiance of the Arab League”, and the “international community”, as well as “the authority of the Security Council” should send chills up anyone’s spine. The idea that the US has become the ‘Enforcer’ for the Arab League is an ugly enough idea, though it is a remarkable moment of honesty about just who’s calling the shots in US foreign policy.
[…]
We’re told what we need to know, that Gaddafi is bad and the rebels are good. And while it’s hard to argue that a world without him might be a better place, it’s unclear what Libya will be like without him. The US and Europe have been encouraged to believe that they will be dealing with former members of the US governments and the Libyan human rights people they have been funding. That may or may not be the case.
France’s Sarkozy now sees a chance to push his Mediterranean Union, by doing what France routinely does, and yet what President Chirac (now facing trial for embezzlement) lambasted the US for in Iraq—unilateral intervention. Libya was formerly under French rule, and France is fairly casual about invading its former colonies to restore order. That the new coalition to bomb Gaddafi met in Paris is an ironic concession to its Francocentric nature. This war is a French project, in partnership with the UK, with the US along to provide the brute muscle.
Now France and the UK are stepping in to save the Libyan rebels from the military equipment that they themselves sold to Gaddafi.
Did Gaddafi dramatically change over the past few years? No. The circumstances did. In 2008, Gaddafi was being cooperative and welcoming to Western oil companies and arms dealers in a region ruled by tyrants. By 2011, he was no longer cooperative and it suddenly seemed as if a wave of democratic change was sweeping the region. That made him into an obstacle. Had Gaddafi quickly suppressed the uprising, Sarkozy and Cameron would have kept their mouths shut. But Gaddafi’s real crime was to start winning, after the Europeans had decided he was going to lose. Now they intend to make sure he does. It’s as cynically simple as that.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Westerwelle Mulled ‘No’ To Libya UN Resolution
The German government is fending off embarrassing claims that Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle nearly caused a diplomatic disaster by directly opposing the UN vote for a “no-fly zone” in Libya.
Westerwelle’s office dismissed a report in Wednesday’s edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that, in the midst of a debate about whether to intervene to stop Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s aerial bombardment of rebels and civilians, the minister wanted to vote “No” in the United Nations Security Council.
But similar reports have now surfaced elsewhere. News magazine Der Spiegel reported that reliable sources among coalition circles confirmed the FAZ report. Only after speaking to Chancellor Angela Merkel last Thursday afternoon, shortly before the vote in New York, did Westerwelle apparently agree to abstain, they said.
Daily Süddeutsche Zeitung also reported on Thursday that a “No” vote had been a serious possibility.
Germany eventually abstained, alongside China and Russia — a move that itself raised eyebrows. But a “No” vote would have been considerably more serious.
Abandoning allies
FAZ’s report claimed Westerwelle had been ready to instruct Germany’s UN ambassador, Peter Wittig, to vote against the motion, which would have been a slap in the face to close allies France, Britain and the United States, all of whom supported the resolution.
Germany assumed its two-year spot on the Security Council in January, promising to take a leadership role. The UN Security Council eventually voted last Thursday to permit “all necessary measures” to impose a no-fly zone, protect civilian areas and impose a ceasefire on Qaddafi’s military.
Both Westerwelle’s office and the Chancellery denied the reports of a planned “No” vote.
“This portrayal is wrong,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Westerwelle had been in complete agreement with Merkel and Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière, the spokesman said. Westerwelle and Merkel had made their shared view plain at a cabinet meeting last Wednesday.
The suggestion that Westerwelle wanted to go further and vote “No” was “a story from the realm of fantasy” that “someone without knowledge of the actual events is concocting.”
But according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the sources behind the story were familiar with the chain of events and a “No” vote would certainly have been at least discussed during Germany’s deliberations. It would have been rejected by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office on the grounds that it would caused a diplomatic disaster.
But Berlin has faced plenty of criticism for its abstention, which has been slammed as being extremely detrimental to German foreign policy.
Damage done
Karsten Voigt, a former coordinator for US-German relations, said Germany’s ham-fisted diplomatic efforts had damaged transatlantic ties and weakened Berlin’s influence globally.
“Germany’s behaviour has been heavily criticized in the USA,” the member of the centre-left Social Democrats told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau on Thursday.
“As a European power and with consideration to the USA and France, Germany should have voted for it,” Voigt said, referring to the UN resolution.
The assessment from other members of the opposition has been equally withering.
Frithjof Schmidt, deputy leader of the Greens’ parliamentary group, told the website of daily Handelsblatt on Thursday that Germany could now essentially shelve its ambitions for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
“Germany has isolated itself by abstaining,” said Schmidt, explaining that it appeared as if Berlin did not take the plight of Libya’s population seriously. “That’s certainly not the best foundation for a successful bid for a permanent seat.”
And on Tuesday, Berlin announced its warships would not participate in a NATO operation in the Mediterranean to enforce a UN-mandated arms embargo on Libya — a decision that drew a baffled response across the political spectrum.
“To place your forces under allied command but withdraw them when those forces may have to engage is a bald contradiction,” political scientist Christian Tuschoff at Berlin’s Free University said.
“Germany is no longer a credible partner in the Atlantic alliance. It has turned its back for the first time on the course it has pursued since World War II — this is a historic break with the past.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Will Congress Become Accomplices in Obama’s Illegal War?
I accused Obama of being a traitor, a stooge of the United Nations rather than a US Commander-in-Chief, and — “one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty” — but not a single congressional Republican seems to agree.
Instead of focusing on the fact that Barack Obama had just broken his oath of office, the War Powers Act and acted way beyond his constitutional authority at the command of the United Nations alone, Republicans seem only concerned with helping Obama put that genie back in the bottle after the fact.
A US president has authority to use military force only under the following conditions, none of which exist in the case of Libya, from Section II — C of the War Powers Act.
[…]
However, congress can become complicit in Obama’s illegal action by sanctioning those actions after the crime has already been committed. Congressional approval after the fact — would be akin to hiding the bank robber after the robbery. Every member of congress would become an accomplice to the crime.
[…]
On the authority of the Commander-in-Chief and at the direction of Sec. of Defense Gates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff represents the “military superiors” and as such, it is the Joint Chiefs who must decline to follow orders that they suspect of being unlawful.
Are the Joint Chiefs familiar with the US Constitution and the fact that a president cannot use military force without prior authorization from congress, except in an instance when the USA is under direct attack?
Are the Joint Chiefs familiar with the War Powers Act of 1973?
We must assume that they are, for the alternative is simply unthinkable. As a result, the Joint Chiefs have knowingly and willingly obeyed orders that they knew to be unlawful, in the case of the ongoing US military assault on Libya.
This means that both President Barack Obama and the Joint Chiefs, along with the head of DOD Gates and Secretary of State Clinton, ALL conspired to violate the US Constitution and the War Powers Act in their decision to “go it alone” in Libya without the knowledge and consent of congress.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
After Attack on Jews, Obama Gives Condolences to Palestinians
Woman killed, at least 38 wounded in attack at crowded Jerusalem bus stop
President Obama’s official statement on today’s bombing at a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem included a clause expressing his “deepest condolences for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza yesterday.”
The statement seems to draw a moral equivalence between today’s attack in Jerusalem, in which Jewish civilians were targeted, and the death of four Palestinian civilians who were killed in an Israel Defense Force strike targeting a site used yesterday by militants in Gaza to launch mortars at nearby Jewish population centers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Retaliates Against Rockets- 3 Injured in Raids
(AGI) Gaza — Israel did not wait long to retaliate against the rockets launched by Palestinians. Airplanes belonging to the Israeli army hit four targets along the Gaza Strip, injuring 3 people in the process, according to security sources and witnesses. The raids’ aforementioned targets included a rocket warehouse near Gaza, a militant group North of the Strip, an unmanned Hamas intelligence office and a rocket-launching site near the al-Shati refugee camp. Those who were wounded were hit during the raid on the former intelligence office.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rockets Hit North of Ashdod After IDF Tanks Strike Gaza
No casualties as Grad explodes; Ya’alon: We will not tolerate any escalation, Hamas will pay the price; eight rockets launched since morning; IDF strikes multiple targets in Gaza.
Rockets landed in and north of Ashdod on Thursday afternoon, and sirens were heard in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gedera and Gan Yavne. Another rocket landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, the eight rocket attack since Thursday morning.
IDF tanks shot into Gaza on Thursday, injuring one man, according to Palestinian sources, following five rockets launched from Gaza into Israel.
The strike came after the IAF struck four targets in Gaza Strip in the early morning, after Palestinians fired about a dozen rockets and mortars across the border, striking deep into Israel.
The tanks were aimed at a Hamas facility in Gaza City, which reportedly burst into flames.
Earlier Thursday, the IAF bombed terrorists that were attempting to shoot rockets into Israel.
Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Thursday that Israel “will not be tolerant of any escalation.”
Speaking in the US, Ya’alon said that Israel will not tolerate “terrorist attacks or shooting rockets at our citizens.”
He said that the war against terror “requires a long battle, but it will not stop us from taking care of whoever shoots at Israel, as they have in the last few days or sends terrorists to the center of cities.”
“Whoever does this will not be immune to a decisive attack,” Ya’alon said. “Hamas is responsible for everything that is shot out of Gaza and if it does not take responsibility, it will pay the price.”…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck Exclusive: Red Cross Sheltering Hamas Officials in Jerusalem
Hamas officials are praising Wednesday’s deadly bombing of a bus station in Jerusalem — a city they’ve vowed to conquer.
Jerusalem is also a place where wanted Hamas members have found safe haven from Israeli authorities — and they’re getting help from one of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations.
Although Hamas’s main headquarters can be found in Gaza and Damascus, over the past several months, three officials from the terror group have also set up shop at the International Red Cross office in East Jerusalem.
Click the link above to watch my exclusive story from east Jerusalem, including an interview with one of the Hamas officials.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Detainees Set Fire to Baghdad Prison
(AGI) Baghdad — Detainees in a Baghdad prison have set fire to the facility to protests against ill-treatment they say they have suffered. The news was reported by security sources who said that the situation in the prison is still “critical.” Five teams of firefighter are attempting to put out the fire.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam ‘Used’ For Political Gain in Turkey, Leaked Cables Say
Islam in Turkey is not “monolithic” and is politically divided, with both secularists and conservative Islamists trying to manipulate religion’s role in public affairs to their own ends, U.S. diplomats said in a newly leaked cable.
The June 27, 2003, diplomatic cable, released Wednesday by WikiLeaks’ Turkish partner, daily Taraf, also claimed the country’s Religious Affairs Directorate is suppressing Islamic beliefs that do not fit the official version.
The Turkish version of secularism is “180 degrees opposite” of the U.S. version as it is not one embraced by the people and protected by the Constitution but “divinized” by the Constitution and forced on the people, the cable also said.
According to the cable, Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate and the institutions within its scope are not separated from the state but are to the contrary, an indivisible part of it.
It noted that the directorate was among the biggest official institutions in Turkey, with 90,000 personnel as of 2003, and that it employs all the imams in Turkey and controls the contents of their preaching. The directorate produces a “Kemalist Islam” that has little to do with the beliefs held in the “less elite” corners of Anatolia, the cable said, adding that the directorate is oppressing forms of Islam, including the pro-secular faction of Alevism, that do not fit the official version.
Fear of millions of ‘potential terrorists’ in Turkey
The Sunni Islamic doctrine has changed so little since the Middle Ages that there is not much difference between the Taliban in Afghanistan and Turkey, the Religious Affairs Directorate’s research office director, Niyazi Kahveci, told U.S. officials during a visit on Nov. 14, 1996, according to another recently leaked cable.
Although the Islamist Welfare Party, or RP, was the larger partner of the coalition in power that year, the pro-shariah community in Turkey was considered a “small minority” — though one that was growing in number — in a Nov. 18, 1996, cable sent to Washington. This approach had changed slightly, however, by the time another cable on the subject was sent to Washington nine years later.
“A leading Turkish national security analyst” told U.S. diplomats that “only 7 percent of Turkish citizens support radical forms of Islam,” a number the poll company ANAR, noted as being the one employed by the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, put at 5 percent. “However, in a country of 70 million [people], even if half a percent of the population supports al-Qaeda-type terrorism, this would mean 350,000 potential terrorists,” the cable read.
Interest in religious communities and Kurdish Islam
A cable sent to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara on July 22, 2009, with the approval of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton asked for intelligence on Turkey’s religious communities and the participation in them by the country’s Kurds. Among the topics Washington requested information on were the largest and most powerful Islamic sects and communities, these sects’ political preferences and membership regulations, the Kurdish population in different sects and whether there is a “Islamic Kurdish resistance” against the “reformist harassments of the Fethullah Gülen religious community and/or the AKP government.
Other questions asked about Turkish Muslims’ connections to the international Muslim community and on what level political and media leaders were encouraging or discouraging anti-Semitic and anti-Christian comments. The WikiLeaks cables released by Taraf do not any cables answering these questions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Journalists Not Free to Express Themselves in Turkey, Says Poll
Nearly 50 percent of people in Turkey believe journalists and writers cannot express their opinions freely, according to a survey conducted by the MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center.
Some 43 percent of respondents to the survey said journalists and writers could express their ideas freely while 7 percent said they have no idea about the issue.
The Ankara-based MetroPOLL survey company surveyed 1,532 people in 31 provinces on March 16 to 19.
Some 71.7 percent of the people surveyed said they could share their opinions freely while 26.3 percent said they could not do so.
Asked whether they would prefer a single-party government or a coalition government, some 75.3 percent of the respondents said they would prefer a single-party government while 17 percent said they favored coalition governments.
Some 45.1 percent said they supported the 10 percent election threshold to enter Parliament, while 38.8 percent opposed it and 14.9 percent said they had no idea.
The majority of respondents, 78.1 percent, said it would be normal to have a female deputy who wears a headscarf, a view with which 19.5 percent disagreed.
In response to a question about whether they found it right for suspects in the ongoing Ergenekon coup-plot case to be nominated as deputy candidates in the upcoming general election, 63.8 percent of those surveyed said they found it wrong while 19.4 percent said they found it right.
Participants were also asked whether they thought the secular lifestyle was under threat in Turkey. Some 56 percent said they thought it was not threatened while 36.9 percent said they thought it was.
Asked whether a presidential system should be applied in Turkey, some 39.6 percent said they favored the shift while 36.9 percent opposed it and 22.2.percent said they had no idea.
Some 60.5 percent of respondents said they saw the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, as unsuccessful while 29.4 percent said they found him to be successful.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ‘20,000’ March at Funeral of Demonstrators
Daraa, 24 March (AKI) — At least 20 thousand people in the southern city of Daraa on Thursday marched at the funeral of some of the people killed by security forces when they reportedly stormed a mosque where anti-government protesters sought refuge, according to news reports, citing witnesses.
Daraa’s main hospital said it has received the bodies of at least 25 protesters. Unconfirmed reports of the death toll range from 36 to 100 victims.
Gunmen stormed the Omari mosque early Wednesday firing on dissents in the city that has become the hotbed of anti-government protests, news reports said, citing witnesses.
Violence by forces loyal to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday called for a probe into the violence over the weekend by forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.when half a dozen people died.
Syrian media blamed the killings on armed gangs.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Protests Continue in Deraa as the Number of Dead and Wounded Mounts
Security forces carry out two attacks, demonstrators say. The authorities blame “armed gangs” and a “one million SMS” sent especially from Israel, pointing the finger at the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Assad sacks a governor and releases women arrested for demanding the liberation of political prisoners.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — Protests continue in Deraa, a town in southern Syria, scene of more clashes yesterday that left between 15, 37 and 100 dead, depending on the sources, including a little girl. Demonstrators said that thousands of security forces and soldiers carried out two attacks. The first occurred at dawn in front of the al-Omari Mosque, the focus of anti-government protest; the second came in the afternoon during the funerals for the victims of the previous day. Power and mobile phone connections to Deraa were cut and soldiers opened fire, protesters said.
Gunfire and violence were also reported in the neighbouring towns of Jassem and Inkhel, where about a thousand people tried to march on Deraa before they were apparently stopped by the military.
Syria’s official news agency SANA continues to blame “armed gangs” for attacks against security forces, publishing pictures of weapons and ammunitions purportedly found inside the al-Omari Mosque.
For the news agency “Foreign circles” are to blame for the “lies about the situation in Daraa” (Deraa). In fact, “more than one million SMS were sent from outside Syria, most of which are from Israel inciting Syrians to use the mosques as launch pads for riots.” Likewise, “photographers and journalists in Daraa reported that they have been receiving death threats through SMS messages from abroad warning them against reporting the crimes committed by the criminals of the armed gangs against civilians.”
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri added weight to the Israeli connection. “There are some parties,” in “neighbouring countries,” he said, “who plan to separate the national unity of which Syria is proud”.
For Syrian authorities, “armed gangs” and the Israelis are not the only culprits. According to SANA, “Two months ago, the General Supervisor of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Riyad al-Shaqfa, announced the group’s return to military action in the country.”
Any mention of the Muslim Brotherhood places the Ba’athist regime’s historic enemy back in centre stage, and evokes memories of a tragic episode in Syrian history, namely the 1982 crackdown by Hafiz al-Assad, the father of the current president, in the city of Hama, north of Damascus, where the Muslim Brotherhood was actively involved in an insurgency campaign. An estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people were killed in the onslaught.
In an interview today with the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ali Sadr al-Din al-Bayanouni, said that Syria is facing a “popular intifada”. In his view, the situation in the country is no different from that in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya: lack of freedom to the presence of tyranny, corruption, poverty, and unemployment, not to mention the arrest of opposition figures and unfulfilled promises of reform.
Al-Bayanouni also challenged President Bashar al-Assad’s claim in a February interview with the Wall Street Journal, in reference to popular uprisings sweeping across the Arab world. On that occasion, the Syrian president dismissed any comparison with other Arab countries, saying, “we are not Tunisians and we are not Egyptians.”
In any event, Assad has tried to keep a low profile. On the one hand, he has deployed thousands of troops in Deraa and elsewhere; on the other, he had six women released after they were arrested in Damascus for demanding the liberation of political prisoners.
Today, state-run television reported that Assad fired Deraa Governor Faysal Ahmad Khaltoum, one of the demands protesters had made when they met a government delegation sent to the town.
All this is a cause for concern for the regime because Deraa is conservative, devoutly Muslim area that has traditionally supported the Assad regime.
Syria’s crisis is also coming under international scrutiny. In addition to criticism and concerns voiced by US and EU officials over the violent repression against peaceful demonstrators, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for a transparent investigation into the events. (PD)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Medvedev Slams Putin’s ‘Inexcusable’ Libya ‘Crusade’ Comments
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev exchanged sharp words Monday over the true nature of Western military intervention in Libya, leading many observers to wonder whether the gloves have finally come off in the long-anticipated battle over which of them will run for president in elections that are just one year away.
Though the two have sparred indirectly before, they have publicly maintained that everything is fine with the “tandem” arrangement under which they have jointly run Russia since Mr. Putin handpicked Mr. Medvedev to succeed him as president three years ago.
Both men have said they’d like to run again for what will be a six-year presidential term next year, and have insisted that they will decide amicably between themselves which of them will be the establishment candidate — a status that virtually guarantees success in Russia’s heavily stage-managed political culture.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sacked Ambassador Stokes Russian Tension Over Libya
Returning diplomat revives clash between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medevedev over likening UN intervention to the Crusades
Russia’s former ambassador to Libya has stoked new tension between President Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, after calling the Kremlin’s acquiescence to air strikes targeting Libya a “betrayal of Russia’s interests”.
Putin and Medvedev, who are close political allies, appeared to clash on Monday after the former condemned support for the bombing as “a medieval call for the Crusades”.
Medvedev, who is responsible for setting the country’s foreign policy, responded by saying it was “inadmissible to use expressions like the Crusades that, in essence, can lead to a clash of civilizations”.
Aides to the two men have moved quickly to downplay the disagreement, but Vladimir Chamov has reignited it after flying home to Russia on Wednesday night. Chamov, who was sacked as ambassador to Tripoli by Medvedev earlier this month, told reporters that Moscow’s failure to oppose the bombing raids would lose Russian companies huge sums of money in arms and other contracts.
He denied rumours that he wrote a telegram to Medvedev calling him a traitor, but said: “I wrote a telegram in which I underlined that I represent the interests of Russia in Libya. Recently, our countries have aimed at close co-operation, and it is not in the interests of Russia to lose such a partner.”
He added: “Russian companies have signed very advantageous contracts for billions of euros for several years ahead that could be lost or have already been lost. In a certain way, that can be considered a betrayal of Russia’s interests.”
Russia abstained last week during the UN security council vote which approved military intervention in Libya.
Chamov, who was reportedly greeted at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport by Russian nationalists bearing bunches of flowers, declined to comment on Medvedev personally.
However, he said Gaddafi was “a very adequate person” and, when asked to comment on Putin’s Crusades comment, he replied: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, and this is something I particularly like about him, gave a very precise, short and profound definition. And here, I think, he is not far from the truth.”
Analysts said Putin’s comments reflected his desire to please patriotic voters, while Medvedev had acted shrewdly to preserve respect in the west while bolstering Russian interests.
“Russia took a pragmatic decision by abstaining in the security council vote,” said Alexei Fenenko, an international security expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences. “If the United States wants a third war, let them have it. There was already fighting in Libya even without the intervention, so our companies will lose out, bombing or not. Plus Russia’s past experience shows that the US is ready to act without UN support — a veto doesn’t stop them.”
Medvedev and Putin have both said they will agree together who contests the Russian presidency next March. Some observers think any disagreements between the two are cosmetic.
However, Gleb Pavlovsky, an analyst with close ties to the Kremlin, said discord in the ruling tandem had “become a generator of nervousness” in the political elite. “We need to enter a regime of certainty, when we know exactly who will run in the presidential elections,” he told the daily newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Christians in India and Pakistan Condemn “Pure Madness” Of Koran Burned in Florida
Sajan K George, director of the Global Council for Indian Christians, and Msgr. Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore, condemn the act, calling it “outrageous.” Meanwhile, Muslim fundamentalism on the rise in India.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — A “disrespectful act of pure madness”, this is how Sajan K George, director of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), defines the act of Pastor Wayne Sapp, who in Florida March 20 last, burned a Koran under the supervision of the evangelical preacher Terry Jones. “Freedom of expression — he adds — does not mean insulting others and hurting their religious sentiments.”
The Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore has expressed his anger and dismay at the incident. In a press statement, the prelate said: “On behalf of the Catholic bishop and Christians in Pakistan, I condemn this act of madness, which does not represent Christian values or teachings of the Church. We regret to note that someone who calls himself pastor is so ignorant in what is his religion, as well as normal decency. “ Last September, Terry Jones drew condemnation from the international community for his proposal of wanting to set fire to a pile of Korans to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The outrageous act of the pastor — reaffirms Sajan George — is in contrast to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.” However, in denouncing the burning the GCIC Director calls on world leaders not to forget the alarming increase of cases of persecution of Christians around the world
The first reference to Pakistan, whose draconian blasphemy law has cost the lives of Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, and is poised to take that of Asia Bibi and many others.
In India, there is increasing concern about the recent spread throughout the country of the Popular Front of India (Islamic) and its connection with other fundamentalist groups and associations. Among these, the Jammat-e-Islami, the People’s Democratic Front and the Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi). Just a month ago, on February 19 Muslim militants set fire to the International School St. Paul, a private Christian school.
The network of the Popular Front of India is constantly growing. These include the Citizen’s Forum (Goa), the Community Social and Educational Society (Rajasthan), the Nagrik Adhikar Suraksha Samiti (West Bengal), Lion Social Forum (Manipur) and the Association of Social Justice (Andhra Pradesh).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Yasmin Church: The Mayor of Bogor Revokes Permit for Church
The official reason is false signatures on application, but it is believed to be an excuse. Christians and rights groups denounce a decision contrary to the law and a political will to appease Islamic extremist groups.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Controversy is mounting over the decision of the Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto to revoke permission to build a place of worship for Yasmin Church (Yc). Christian groups and civil rights groups have accused him of violating the law and bending to the will of Islamic fundamentalists, and warn that the fight will continue to see the church built.
On March 1, Budiarto revoked the building permit (IMB) from the Yc. Prior to this, construction was prevented by violence from extremist Islamic groups and Budiarto suspended the permit, but Christians appealed and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled the building of a church legitmate.
Nevertheless, on March 20 about 500 armed police prevented the faithful from entering the construction site, to attend Sunday service (see photo). The service took place, presided by rev. Gomar Gultom of the Synod of Indonesian Churches (PGI).
The local police chief Slamet Nugroho Wubowo justified the police intervention saying security was needed to prevent clashes with Islamic extremist groups that oppose the construction. Only later was the IMB revoked, apparently on charges that some of the names of permit application are false, an accusation believed to be unfounded.
In Indonesia, buildings must be approved by the Izin Mendirikan Bangunan (IMB), a local authority permit that authorises construction. 60 local residents have to give written permission for the project before the permit can be issued. The Yc holds an IMB, issued in 2006 by Budiarto’s predecessor. Nevertheless, construction has been halted several times because of violence from radical Islamist groups (see the AsiaNews 16 Mar. 2011, Christians protest against the new closure of the Yasmin Church in Bogor).
Yc spokesman, Bona Sigalingging Sh, told AsiaNews that Mayor’s revoking of the permit is “a clear violation of the law”, especially after the recent ruling by the Supreme Court “that ordered the official to resume construction.” He confirms the will to continue the battle in every possible way, including addressing the special envoy of the UN for religious freedom.
Many human rights groups — including the Wahid Institute, Human Rigths Working Group, the Setara Institute, Legal Aid Foundation in Jakarta, Kontras, the PGI, the Synod of the Churches of West Java, the Alliance of Bhinneka Tunggal, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation — support the Yc struggle . Even the daughters of former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, a true icon for the peaceful interfaith coexistence — support the national campaign against the injustices of the municipalities of Bogor. In a written statement they condemn “the revocation of the permit,” considered contrary to the Constitution of 1945 and a clear violation of the law. “
Sigalingging rejects the proposal from the city of Bogor to build the church in other places because the site chosen by them is on a strategic road.
Suryadharma Ali, Minister for Religious Affairs, says he will call on the Mayor of Bogor to respect the law and the Supreme Court ruling.
Pastor Albert Patty said the new ban is a demonstration of force and abuse of power carried out by Islamic extremist groups against minority groups, thanks to such measures by public authorities.
In response to difficulty, the faithful of the Yc gathered for their prayer services on the site of the proposed building, to reaffirm their right to have a church. The police have repeatedly intervened to prevent the faithful access to the building site. Some footage of the clashes with municipal authorities of Bogor and the Islamic fundamentalist groups have been posted on the following sites:…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jailed for 24 Years: The U.S. Soldier Who Was Part of ‘Death Squad’ Which Murdered Three Afghan Civilians
A U.S. soldier has been jailed for 24 years for the murders of three Afghan civilians after admitting ‘the plan was to kill people’ in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers.
Jeremy Morlock, 22, agreed to plead guilty to three counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to commit assault and battery, and one count of illegal drug use in exchange for a maximum sentence of 24 years.
Morlock, of Wasilla, Alaska, was at the centre of a trial which includes some of the most serious criminal allegations to arise from the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Activists Warn of Cover Up in Bhatti Murder Inquiry
Christian leaders denounce inadequacy of investigation into the death of Minister for Minorities. Too many false leads and a lack of political will to punish those responsible. The new president of AMPA Paul Bhatti requests a parliamentary commission of inquiry. Like Shahbaz, “I will carry on his mission until the last drop of our blood.”
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — A group of Christian activists denounce inadequacies in the investigation into the murder of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Catholic minister for minorities assassinated on March 2 because of his battle against the blasphemy laws. Representatives of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance (APMA) report attempts to mislead the public and a total lack of real political will to catch and punish those responsible, probably linked to the country’s Islamic fundamentalist wing that holds the government in Islamabad hostage. However, Christian leaders promise to fight and ensure “we will continue the mission of Shahbaz Bhatti to the last drop of our blood.”
Paul Bhatti, newly elected president of AMPA, expresses disappointment at the poor results that have so far emerged from the investigation into the death of Shahbaz Bhatti and calls for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry. Only one suspect has been detained to date who according to police had a minor role, despite the Ministry of Interior proclamations. At a conference held at the Islamabad Press Club, the AMPA leader also reported attempts by the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to mislead the public- and the lack of support for the Catholic minister a “martyr” of the faith. “The Ministry of Interior — Paul Bhatti continues — today announced an imminent breakthrough […] but they are misleading statements that claim the culprits will soon be brought to justice.”
Pervaiz Rafique, a member of the provincial assembly of Punjab, promises to “continue the mission of Shahbaz Bhatti to the last drop of our blood,” even if government authorities do not ensure respect for the law in the country. He recalls the death of Governor Salman Taseer, whose assassin confessed to the crime, but whom authorities never prosecuted because of pressure from the Islamic fundamentalists.
Christian leaders and human rights activists, joined in a delegation, met with the chief of police in Islamabad to ask for more information on the investigation. However they received a response that they deem “unsatisfactory.” Meanwhile, in Kot Addu, Punjab, Muslim landowners — supported by local officials — continue to harass the Christian community. After the desecration of cemeteries, small local mafia leaders intend to dispossess the Christians of their lands, thanks to the influence exerted by powerful local politicians. Local officials deny incidents of violence and abuse, while Catholic groups — including the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) — have taken action to protect the rights of Christians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Anxiety in Japan Over Radiation in Water
Anxiety over food and water supplies has surged in Japan on reports radiation from the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has seeped into the water supply.
Anxiety over food and water supplies surged when Tokyo officials reported on Wednesday that radioactive iodine in the city’s tap water was above levels considered dangerous for babies. New readings showed the levels had returned to safe levels in Tokyo, but were high in two neighbouring prefectures — Chiba and Saitama.
Amid the panic in the Tokyo region, nuclear workers were still struggling to regain control of the hobbled and overheated Fukushima Dai-ichi plant 220 kilometres north of the capital.
The plant has been leaking radiation since a March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out its crucial cooling systems, leading to explosions and fires in four of its six reactors. After setbacks and worrying black smoke forced an evacuation, workers were back inside on Thursday and had restored power to a second control room.
Government spokesman Yukio Edano sought to allay fears over the tap water readings.
‘We ask people to respond calmly,’ he said at a briefing on Thursday. ‘The Tokyo metropolitan government is doing its best.’
Households with infants will get three, half-litre bottles of water for each baby — a total of 240,000 bottles — city officials said, begging Tokyo residents to buy only what they need for fear that hoarding could hurt the thousands of people without any water in areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami.
Nearly two weeks after the magnitude-9 quake, about 660,000 household still do not have water in Japan’s northeast, the government said. Electricity has not been restored to about 209,000 homes, Tohoku Electric Power Co said.
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Chernobyl-Style Yellow Rain Causes Panic in Japan
Radioactive yellow rain that fell in Tokyo and surrounding areas last night caused panic amongst Japanese citizens and prompted a flood of phone calls to Japan’s Meteorological Agency this morning, with people concerned that they were being fed the same lies as victims of Chernobyl, who were told that yellow rain which fell over Russia and surrounding countries after the 1986 disaster was merely pollen, the same explanation now being offered by Japanese authorities.
Officials later suggested the discoloration was caused by air-borne pollen falling with the rain. “The JMA believes the yellow patches are pollen, but has yet to confirm this,” reports the Wall Street Journal, adding that the JMA received over 280 calls after residents in the Kanto region discovered yellow powder on the ground.
“A health official at the Tokyo metropolitan government also said there is a possibility that the rain contained radioactivity but not at a level to have had adverse effects on people’s health,” adds the Japan Today report.
Given the fact that Japanese authorities have been habitually deceptive about the Fukushima crisis from start to finish, assurances that the yellow powder was merely a result of air-borne pollen particles are dubious at best. With people living in Tokyo already being told that tap water is unsafe to drink, along with contaminated vegetables and milk from certain areas near Fukushima, the fact that they were panicked by yellow rain is unsurprising.
Although pollen can turn rain a yellow color, the fact that the phenomenon occurred a couple of hundred kilometers south of the radiation-spewing Fukushima nuclear plant has stoked alarm, and understandably so given the fact that victims of Chernobyl nuclear fallout in 1986 were also told by authorities that yellow rain was harmless pollen, when in fact it was deadly radioactive contamination.
A University of California Daily Bruin article entitled “Remembering Chernobyl,” documents how children in Belarus happily splashed around in puddles of yellow rain having been assured by Russian authorities that it was merely pollen, when in fact it was a toxic mixture of radioactivity that had been blasted from the Chernobyl plant 80 miles away.
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China: Rebiya Kadeer Denounces New Beijing Crackdown on Uyghur
According to the leader of the ethnic minority in Xinjiang, the democratic wave across Africa and the Middle East “terrifies China, which wants at all costs to destroy anything that does not conform”.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — China has launched a new campaign of repression against the Uyghur ethnic minority to oppose any separatist movement and keep the democratic wave that is passing through the Middle East and North Africa, out of its territory.
The warning comes from well known Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer who, during a meeting with Australian parliamentarians, denounced “new violent and repressive measures” against the minority, which lives in the northern province of Xinjiang.
According to Kadeer — invited to speak at a parliamentary committee in Canberra despite objections from Beijing — China “is afraid of what’s happening in the world. What happened in Egypt and Tunisia sent shock waves through the Chinese leadership that people’s patience could run out and that people will one day rise up and challenge the authority of the regime “
It should be also considered that the Uyghur are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority, who define themselves as “almost Middle Eastern” and refer to their own territory as “East Turkestan”. In fact, by language, appearance, religion and customs, the Uyghur have absolutely nothing to do with the Han ethnic group that predominates in the country. Kadeer, arrested several times and even sentenced to death by the central government in Beijing, refutes charges that she is a separatist, instead claiming that she is fighting for the preservation of the Uyghur language and culture, that China is bent on wiping out.
The visit to Australia has angered the government of China, which in 2009 had asked Canberra not to grant the activist a visa labelling her “a dangerous separatist.” According to the Communist Party, she is behind the riots of July 2009, when in Urumqi — the capital of Xinjiang — the Uyghur launched protests asking for more autonomy.
For Kadeer, “Although China has changed its tactics, China has not changed its assaults upon Uygur people’s religious beliefs, cultural identities, freedom of speech and economic life, which are central to the Chinese government’s project of speedy assimilation of our people in China”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima Radiation Release Rivals Chernobyl
The radiation released by the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant already rivals and in one sense exceeds the Chernobyl catastrophe according to Austria’s Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, even as media spin downplays the severity of the crisis despite the fact that the problems at the plant show no signs of abating.
“The release of two types of radioactive particles in the first 3-4 days of Japan’s nuclear crisis is estimated to have reached 20-50 percent of the amounts from Chernobyl in 10 days, an Austrian expert said on Wednesday,” reports Reuters.
Iodine-131 released in the first 3-4 days of the crisis was about 20 percent of that released from Chernobyl during a ten-day period, whereas the amount of Caesium-137 released amounted to about 50 percent, according to the institute’s Dr Gerhard Wotawa.
Despite the fact that the story appears under the euphemistic Reuters headline, Japan radiation release lower than Chernobyl, as Tyler Durden points out, when you consider the fact that the amount of Caesium-137 released at Fukushima in the first 3-4 days of the crisis amounted to 50% that released by Chernobyl over 10 days, the real run rate of the radiation released at Fukushima is now about 120-150% the figure released by the Chernobyl explosion — and that’s not even factoring in ongoing radiation leaks from Fukushima, which many experts have estimated could go on for much longer.
As the New York Times reported, “Experts….suggest that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants could go on for weeks or even months.” Even if Fukushima technicians manage to stop radiation leakage after one month, estimated Caesium-137 emissions would be at least 500 percent more than those released by Chernobyl, whereas iodine-131 levels could be 200 percent worse.
A further complication is the fact that we don’t even know how much if any plutonium emissions have leaked from Fukushima reactor number 3, which runs on MOX or Mixed Oxide fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium. Plutonium is the most deadly radioactive isotope known to man, and MOX is two million times more deadly than normal enriched uranium. The Half-life of Plutonium-239 in MOX is 24,000 years and just a few milligrams of P-239 escaping in a smoke plume will contaminate soil for tens of thousands of years.
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In the case of Chernobyl, the vast majority of the plutonium was not released during the explosion and subsequent fire. Japanese authorities and the establishment media seem reticent to even discuss the potential release of plutonium from reactor number 3 at Fukushima.
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Pollen Caused ‘Yellow Rain’: Agency
The “yellow rain” seen Wednesday in the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo was caused by pollen, not radioactive materials as many residents feared, the Meteorological Agency said Thursday.
The agency received more than 200 inquiries Thursday morning about yellowish residue left on roofs and elsewhere by the rain, stirring concerns that radioactive substances had fallen in the wake of explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, around 220 km northeast of central Tokyo.
According to the Environment Ministry, large amounts of air-borne pollen were seen in the Kanto region and the pollen fell with the rain Wednesday.
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Obama Ignoring ‘Spiral of Silence’ Shroud on Costa Rica
Count it as one of el Presidente’s biggest Latin hypocrisies that while the Obamas are preening themselves before underprivileged children in Chile that the “spiral of silence” covers the aggression of Nicaragua’s Sandinista government against Costa Rica.
Some nations are increasingly more equal than others while the concept of “democracy” is getting to be all but owned by the Muslim Brotherhood since the Obama-enabled uprisings in Egypt.
Democracy does not include Costa Rica, whose Calero Island has been under Sandinista occupation since last November.
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Costa Rica does not have an army, but what it does have is one of the largest UN presences outside of Manhattan, courtesy of the University of Peace, the one and the same of which Obama mentor, Canadian UN Poster Boy Maurice Strong was Chairman of its governing body, and initially as Rector.
Never—anywhere—has it been mentioned that Costa Rica was invaded by the Sandinist National Liberation Front right under the sanctimonious nose of the UN.
In other words, the blue helmeted vision of “Peace” carries on in all parts of Costa Rica other than Calero Island.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
130 Tunisians Arrive in Lampedusa on 3 Boats
(AGI) Agrigento — Only 130 immigrants have arrived today in Lampedusa aboard 3 boats. It’s been a relatively quiet day in Lampedusa (Agrigento) where, despite good sea conditions, only 130 people arrived today aboard 3 boats, the last of which, carrying 40 illegal immigrants, arrived in the early afternoon.
However, no proper accommodation has yet been found for about 5,000 Tunisian citizens.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Transgender New Yorkers Sue Over Birth Certificates
(Reuters Life!) — A group of transgender residents filed a lawsuit against New York City over what they say are burdensome requirements for them to change the gender on their birth certificates.
The city’s birth certificate requirements amount to discrimination for transgender residents, said Noah Lewis, an attorney representing the residents in the case.
New York’s Health Department requires residents to show proof of surgical procedures in order to change the gender status on a birth certificate.
But the lawsuit, filed by the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund in state Supreme Court on behalf of three residents, said many transgender people cannot afford the surgical procedures.
Instead, a note from a doctor verifying someone’s transgender status should be sufficient, it said.
The requirements mean many transgender people cannot get up-to-date or usable identification, Lewis said.
“This subjects them to harassment and discrimination. They can be laughed at or turned away doing everyday transactions like going to the DMV (the Department of Motor Vehicles) or applying for jobs,” he said.
One of those suing the city, Joan Prinzivalli, said she would like to get the surgery the city requires to prove she is female but she is unable to for health reasons.
“This policy is unfair to me and to other transgender people who just want IDs that match who we are,” she said.
City attorney Gabriel Taussig said the Health Department would review the group’s concerns.
“We are very sympathetic to the petitioners’ concerns and recognize that this is a complex issue,” he said.
“The Health Department must be satisfied that an applicant has completely and permanently transitioned to the acquired gender prior to the issuance of a birth certificate.”
Birth certificates for transgendered people in New York were an issue earlier this month when the city made an apology to a transgendered couple asked to show birth certificates when getting married because the clerk claimed they did not appear to match the people in their photo IDs.
They threatened to sue because state laws do not require couples to show birth certificates when getting married.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
A Life Without Pain is a Life Without Smell
A handful of people around the world have never known the meaning of physical pain — not because they live incredibly sheltered lives, but because their nerves lack a crucial ion channel that helps transmit signals between adjacent nerve cells. A new study reveals that our sense of smell depends on this same protein gate, establishing a previously unrecognised link between the perception of pain and scent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Apple Rejects iPhone 4 Radiation Metering App
Citing “a lack of interest”, Apple has rejected an app that allows users to see a meter showing how much radiation is being given off by their iPhone in real-time. The app, previously praised by Apple for its clever engineering and creative design, is reported to have been rejected by Steve Jobs himself. Israeli developer, Tawkon, submitted the app on multiple occasions to the App Store, only to have repeated denials. An email from Steve Jobs gave a short, two-word explination as to why the app wouldn’t see approval, “No interest.”
The email from Tawkon CEO Gil Friedlander explains the purpose of the app isn’t to discourage use of the iPhone, but to give users enough information to use the device safely. Based on the short response, one can only assume that Apple’s official stance reflects an attitude that if they don’t think an app is good for their image, it isn’t good for their users.
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Are Earthlings From Mars? New Tool May Reveal Your Alien Ancestry
The idea that all Earth life could be descended from Martian organisms may not be fully mainstream — but it’s not too crazy to dismiss, either. While the Martian surface appears to be cold, dry and lifeless today, there is plenty of evidence that the planet was much warmer and wetter in the distant past, billions of years ago.
Here on Earth, life almost invariably occupies any niche that contains liquid water. So ancient Mars may have once supported some form of life — perhaps even before Earth did, researchers said. If that’s the case, these Mars microbes may have colonized Earth, zipping through interplanetary space aboard rocks blasted off the Martian surface by asteroid impacts. An estimated 1 billion tons of Martian rock have made this journey over the years, researchers said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Risk Expert: Why Radiation Fears Are Often Exaggerated
What is it about nuclear energy that makes people particularly fearful?
There has been a lot of research on this. Nuclear radiation ticks all the boxes for increasing the fear factor. It is invisible, an unknowable quantity. People don’t feel in control of it, and they don’t understand it. They feel it is imposed upon them and that it is unnatural. It has the dread quality of causing cancer and birth defects. Nuclear power has been staggeringly safe, but that doesn’t stop people being anxious about it, just as airplanes and trains are an amazingly safe way to travel but people still worry far more about plane crashes than car crashes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists to Reap Benefits of Private Spaceflight Revolution
A research institution that has inked landmark deals with two private spaceflight firms may be performing experiments in suborbital space within two years, one of its scientists says. The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), a non-profit organization based in Boulder, Colo., bought seats on suborbital flights from both XCOR Aerospace and Virgin Galactic. SwRI’s experiments are already built and ready to go, and the institute is now waiting on the spaceflight companies — but that wait may not be terribly long, according to one scientist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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