A Nation of Dropouts Shakes Europe
Portugal is the poorest country in Western Europe. It is also the least educated, and that has emerged as a painful liability in its gathering economic crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Breakthrough in Brussels: European Leaders Agree to Euro Rescue Program
EU leaders achieved a breakthrough in Brussels on Thursday night, reaching a deal on the permanent crisis fund that will go into effect in 2013. Nevertheless, worries that Portugal could soon require emergency aid money loomed over the talks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Protests Against ‘Austerity Summit’ Turn Violent
Trade union protests outside an EU summit in Brussels against the austerity being imposed across the continent by the bloc turned violent on Thursday (24 March), as riot police battled rock-wielding demonstrators with water cannon and pepper spray. Four separate marches across the European capital comprising some 20,000 workers, according to organisers, converged on the meeting of European premiers and presidents. Police put the figure closer to 12,000. The unions are protesting the imposition of the deepest level of economic integration in the EU’s history — the delivery of ‘economic governance’ in the union that will require wage restraint, hikes in retirement ages, public sector cutbacks and limits on government spending, amongst other stringent measures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Anti-Tea Party Fighting to Take Down Global Economies
USUncut: Tea Party for the Left
When Glenn Beck tells you that an attack on our economic system has already begun, he’s not kidding. One of the major groups working towards “economic justice” is USUncut.org. Just launched in mid-February,USUncut is linked to the UKUncut group. Although billing itself as a spontaneous, grassroots “Tea Party for the Left”, USUncuts is also linked with SEIUand other98.com. You may recall that The Other 98 put together the “Celebrate the Dream” event in Washington last August in an effort to counteract Glenn Beck’s event.
The message they are promoting is meant to instigate protest from the public, using banks and big business as the target. Currently, their chosen targets are Bank of America, Verizon and FedEx. On the surface, who would disagree with their complaint that large corporations have all kinds of loopholes to avoid taxes? But be careful who you are backing and what their real intentions might be. Many of us have begged for a flat or fair tax for decades to no avail, but a fair and forthright approach doesn’t seem like what they have in mind at all.
Reviewing the group, you will quickly learn that they are using the same talking points as Van Jones, Rev. Wright, Michael Moore and many other radicals; certainly no accident.
[…]
Watch for many USUncut protests nationwide on March 26th; coincidentally being held on the same day as UKUncut and the Trades Union Congress conduct their “March for the Alternative” in the UK. As a matter of fact, there are also actions planned for Canada Uncut, as they consider this a day of global solidarity:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Economy, Part 2
[Ron] Paul then reveals something sinister, “I had an opportunity to ask [Greenspan] about his change of heart when he appeared before the House Financial Services committee last week. Although Mr. Greenspan is a master of evasion, he was surprisingly forthright in his responses to me. In short, he claimed he was wrong about his predictions of calamity for the fiat U.S. dollar that the Federal Reserve does a good job of essentially mimicking a gold standard, and that inflation is well under control. He even made the preposterous assertion that the Fed does not facilitate government expansion and deficit spending. In other words, he utterly repudiated the arguments he made 40 years ago.”
Just 11 months after Ron Paul interrogated Alan Greenspan, he retired as of Fed Chairman, January 31, 2006. Just 2 years after that, February 25, 2008, Reuters published an article entitled: “Greenspan tells Gulf Oil Producers To Dump The Dollar.” Although Greenspan lied to Rep. Paul, he knew exactly what his actions would generate, which is why he later warned the Gulf oil producers to get out of the dollar. Was he simply a willing colleague in a conspiracy to destroy the dollar, wreck the U.S. economy and confiscate the wealth of the working/middle-class American, or was he like many other public officials, simply a hireling?
In a, March 17, 2011, speech before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Monetary Policy, Ron Paul stated, “True inflation is defined as an increase in the money supply, an increase in the money supply leads to a rise in prices. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon, and its destructive effects have ruined societies from the Roman Empire to Weimar Germany to modern-day Zimbabwe.
“Over the past year,” he continues, “the price of cotton is up more than 170%, oil is up over 40% and many categories of food staples are seeing double-digit price growth. This means that food, clothing, and gasoline will become increasingly expensive over the coming year. While some might argue that this new frugality is a good thing, frugality is virtuous only when it results from free choice, not when it is forced upon the citizenry by the Fed’s ruinous monetary policy. As the supply of money increases, more money chases the same amount of goods, and prices rise. Indeed, tyrants of many stripes have debased their nations’ currencies while denying responsibility for the suffering that results.”
Paul concludes, “Inflation also harms savers, encouraging reckless indebtedness and a more present-oriented pattern of consumption. Hard work and thrift are punished, so economic actors naturally respond by spending more, borrowing more, and saving less. After all, why save rapidly depreciating dollars?”
There is no better way to destroy a nation than to debase its currency.
Ex-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and Rep. Ron Paul agree, inflation is a form of taxation — it’s a dirty trick to steal the wealth from the working, middle class. If an item costs $1 today, and due to inflation it costs $2 tomorrow, the government receives double the taxes for that same item. The consumer gets the same item at twice the price, and double the taxation.
[…]
Economist, John Williams, of Shadow Government Statistics, believes, with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices showing total federal obligations at $76 trillion—more than five-times the level of U.S. GDP by the end of 2011, the U.S. economy is moving into a long-term insolvency and a Hyperinflationary Great Depression.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
First Americans Arrived 2500 Years Before We Thought
The Clovis people were leading candidates for the title of first Americans. But a hoard of tools newly uncovered in Texas suggests the land was inhabited several thousand years before the reign of the Clovis culture. When the people who built the Texan tools migrated, ice sheets would have made travel by land difficult. This lends strength to the hypothesis that the Americas were colonised by sea, not land. Who the first Americans were, where they came from and when they arrived are contested issues among archaeologists. One favoured theory, known as “Clovis first”, says that during the last Ice Age, people from Asia followed herd animals across a land bridge connecting Siberia to Alaska and established the first settlements in North America. The Clovis culture is characterised by pointed stone tools. But recent finds of artefacts that pre-date the Clovis, including this new one in Texas, have challenged the Clovis-first hypothesis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fla. Pastor Says Threat Won’t Halt Protest Plans at Dearborn Mosque
Detroit —A controversial Florida pastor who created a global uproar last year by threatening to burn a copy of the Quran says he’s received a death threat over his plans to protest a Detroit mosque on Good Friday.
Pastor Terry Jones said the e-mail he received 10:30 p.m. Wednesday read: “I am a Muslim who lives in Dearborn. I am warning you that whoever attends this protest on April 22 will be in great danger.” Jones, who leads the Dove World Outreach Center church in Gainesville, Fla., said he reported the e-mail to police in Gainesville Wednesday. It has been forwarded to federal authorities.
Nevertheless, Jones said he plans to continue his April protest against “radical Islam” outside the Islamic Center of America on April 22.
“We are protesting against Jihad and Sharia (Islamic) law,” said Jones. “We are not accusing the mosque there of terrorist acts or promoting terrorism.”
But local religious leaders say Jones isn’t welcome in Metro Detroit.
“Detroit’s ecumenical community works in unison and cooperatively with all types of Muslims that live and work in this region. We don’t need any interruption in that relationship,” said the Rev. Charles E. Williams, pastor of the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church and president of the National Council for Community Empowerment in Detroit.
“In short, we don’t need you here.”
Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said he does not expect any problems. He said his department has been in contact with Jones’ office about getting permits for the event.
“Anybody who comes here will get good police protection,” said Haddad.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
‘Mistress of Disaster’ To Head FBI?
FBI Director Robert Mueller ends his 10-year, nonrenewable term in September 2011.
President Obama may be inclined to choose a female candidate, and if he does, according to National Public Radio, the most likely candidate is Jamie Gorelick.
Not surprisingly, the NPR report documents the various controversies swirling around the heads of the likely male candidates, but cites none for Gorelick.
This is something of an oversight. In her most recent public outing, Gorelick represented BP in the Gulf oil mess. Nor is the first disaster with which the 60-year-old Gorelick has been involved.
Indeed, bloggers have taken to calling Jamie Gorelick “The Mistress of Disaster” and with good reason.
As deputy attorney general under President Clinton, Gorelick penned the infamous “wall” memo that prevented intelligence agencies from sharing information in the run-up to Sept. 11.
Less well understood, but even more problematic, was Gorelick’s role in the TWA Flight 800 disaster. This was the 747 that inexplicably blew up off the coast of Long Island in July 1996, killing 230 people.
As deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, Gorelick’s assignment was to rein in the FBI. This had become increasingly necessary.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Census Milestone: Hispanics Reach 50 Million
Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade, exceeding estimates in most states as they crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or 1 in 6 Americans. Meanwhile, more than 9 million Americans checked two or more race categories on their 2010 census forms, up 32 percent from 2000, a sign of burgeoning multiracial growth in an increasingly minority nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US State Dept Condemns Desecration of Quran
[NB: This article does not seem to be accurate. No State Department press conference transcript reports anything like this.]
ISLAMABAD: The acting Spokesperson for the US State Department, Mark Toner, condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran by pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp in Florida, on Friday.
Speaking during a press conference on the situation in Libya, the State Department spokesperson termed the burning of the Holy Quran an abhorrent act.
He said the American constitution and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights guarantees freedom of religion and the act should not have taken place.
Protests against the desecration
Protests were held across Pakistan on the call of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) against the desecration of the Holy Quran.
The protests were held in various cities including Karachi, Sukkur, Larkana, and Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Tando Adam, Shikarpur, Khuzdar and the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Holding copies of the Quran in their hands, the protestors vowed to lay down their lives to protect the sanctity of the divine book.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Arizona Teacher’s Shocking Letter
Arizona State Senator Lori Klein reads a shocking letter from a local teacher.
U.S. taxpayers are funding a Marxist inspired, criminally minded “5th column” within their own public school system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Glenn Beck Connects the Dots
Glenn Beck Connects the Dots — Soros, Samantha Power, Cass Sunstein, Israel, Libya, Egypt, Obama — Scary Stuff
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2,500-Year-Old Human Preserved Brain Discovered
A 2,500-year-old human skull uncovered in England was less of a surprise than what was in it: the brain. The discovery of the yellowish, crinkly, shrunken brain prompted questions about how such a fragile organ could have survived so long and how frequently this strange type of preservation occurs. Except for the brain, all of the skull’s soft tissue was gone when the skull was pulled from a muddy Iron Age pit where the University of York was planning to expand its Heslington East campus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blood and Oil? German Minister Hints at Libya Mission Hypocrisy
Are countries involved in the international operation in Libya hypocritical? That, it would seem, is the belief of German Development Minister Dirk Niebel, who criticized participants for continuing to draw oil from Libya. The comments show just how wide the gap between Berlin and its NATO allies has become.
First, it was comments from Economics Minister Rainer Brüderle that raised eyebrows. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to shut down seven of Germany’s oldest nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, he said according to Thursday media reports, was mere political calculation ahead of a trio of important state elections.
On Thursday evening, it was the turn of Dirk Niebel — like Brüderle, a member of Merkel’s junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats (FDP). Appearing on a public television talkshow, Niebel accused the United Nations-backed military alliance currently operating in Libya of hypocrisy.
“It is notable that exactly those countries which are blithely dropping bombs in Libya are still drawing oil from Libya,” he said.
Niebel also said that Germany was “not consulted” by France prior to the start of the campaign in Libya and added that European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton’s coordination of the EU position on Libya had been “suboptimal.”
Niebel’s comments came on the heels of a demand by Merkel, made during the ongoing European Union summit in Brussels, for a complete oil embargo against Libya. The international community, she said, “must clearly show that we will not do business with anyone who wages war against his own people.”
Gap Between Germany and NATO Allies
But the statement by her development minister is one of the clearest indications yet of the gap between Germany’s view of operations in North Africa and those of Berlin’s NATO and European allies. And the implied accusation that oil interests are one motivation behind the Libya mission is not likely to be well received in Western capitals.
Merkel’s government has been widely criticized for abstaining from last Friday’s UN Security Council vote which authorized military operations in Libya to protect civilians under attack from forces loyal to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, head of the FDP, has offered several justifications for the abstention, ranging from concerns that Western operations could likewise harm civilians to worries that the Arab League was not supportive of the offensive. In a contribution for the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday, he wrote about the “risk of escalation.”
On Thursday night, Niebel said that the German abstention was correct “because not all non-military possibilities had been exhausted.” He also insisted that the move was not politically motivated, ahead of two important state votes in Germany this Sunday.
Westerwelle, however, has been careful not to criticize those countries which have elected to participate in operations in Libya. “We understand those who have, out of honorable motives, opted in favor of an international military intervention in Libya,” he has said several times in the last week. Westerwelle also said in a post-resolution interview with SPIEGEL that “Gadhafi must go, there’s no question.”
Unanimous Approval
Furthermore, Germany has agreed to send AWACS surveillance planes to Afghanistan, along with 300 crew, as a way of freeing up NATO capacity for the operations in Libya. On Friday, German parliament approved the deal by a vote of 407 to 113 with 32 abstentions.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, an agreement was reached among NATO member states that the trans-Atlantic alliance would take control of the no-fly zone over Libya. The decision came after days of disagreement, with the US eager to hand over control of the mission to NATO but Turkey and France skeptical of the model. The deal reached on Friday would reportedly not preclude France from bombing Libyan military targets independently of NATO.
The decision was approved by all 28 NATO governments — including Dirk Niebel’s Germany.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Bid for Parmalat ‘Valid’ After Anti-Takeover Decree
‘Unfair to change rules’, Lactalis says
(ANSA) — Rome, March 24 — An Italian bid to fend off French dairy giant Lactalis’s grab for Parmalat is “valid” after the government passed a decree to thwart foreign takeovers of strategically important companies, the CEO of a top bank involved said Thursday.
The takeover norms passed Wednesday are “the precondition for a valid initiative,” said Corrado Passera, CEO of Italy’s second-biggest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, which is now set to counter Lactalis, helped by confectionery giant Ferrero, in the fight for Parmalat, Italy’s biggest dairy group.
Passera said the two-month delay for annual general meetings made possible by the decree, allowing Parmalat’s annual general meeting to be moved back to the end of June, would enable Intesa to work with Ferrero on a “long-term industrial project” to firm up a rival Italian consortium.
Ferrero’s financial help “is one of the conditions we are working on.
“It isn’t the only one but it is the most significant,” Passera said.
Lactalis became the largest shareholder in Parmalat Tuesday with 29%.
The French-style anti-takeover decree, which will be subject to European Union vetting, is also aimed at energy firm Edison, which has been partly taken over by France’s EDF.
The Italian government, which wants “reciprocity” with France, has stressed the decree does not go as far as what Paris has done to protect its own companies in 11 strategic sectors.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier has said the European Commission will examine the decree to make sure it does not break rules on competition and the internal market.
UNFAIR TO MOVE GOALPOSTS SAYS LACTALIS.
Lactalis accused the government of moving the goalposts with its decree.
“We think you can’t change the rules of the game while it’s being played,” Lactalis Deputy General Manager and chief of its Italian operations Antonio Sala told ANSA,
But now that the decree is in place, Sala said Lactalis was open to bringing Italian shareholders on board “to share our project”.
“We don’t plan on carrying out the operation just to make a cash return, that’s for sure,” Sala said, stressing that Lactalis would use Parmalat’s available funds of 1.4 billion euros “solely for investments to increase the value of the company” and buy other firms.
He said the important thing was to make sure Parmalat and its subsidiaries remained Italian, “not the nationality of the shareholder”.
Sala declined to comment on rumoured contacts with the Intesa San Paolo bank, French cheese giant Besnier and Ferrero, the Turin-based sweets giant said to be teaming up with Intesa to counter Lactalis’s bid.
Ferrero also refused to comment, while confirming its interest in “a long-term Italian industrial project”.
Italy’s newly appointed agriculture minister, Saverio Romano, said he was “studying” the Parmalat dossier but could not say anything about a possible Italian consortium to save the company from Lactalis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Cleared of Blame for Genoa G8 Protester Death
Strasbourg court satisfied with Carabinieri officer’s innocence
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, March 24 — The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday definitively cleared Italy of any responsibility for the death of Carlo Giuliani, an anti-globalisation protester shot dead by a Carabiniere during clashes at the Group of Eight summit in Genoa in 2001.
In a majority verdict in the court’s second ruling on the case in two years, the justices of the Grand Chamber said they were satisfied with the innocence of officer Mario Placanica.
Placanica killed Giuliani, 23, amid violence that marred the three-day event, scarred the northeastern Italian city and led to long-running court cases against protesters charged with criminal damage and police accused of brutality.
The Grand Chamber on Thursday also acquitted Italy of the twin charges of not having conducted a sufficiently thorough probe and not having made satisfactory advance plans for summit policing.
Giuliani’s father Carlo reacted to the verdict by saying: “We won’t give up, we’ll take it to a civil court”.
The court’s first ruling on the case came on August 25, 2009, when it upheld Italy’s contention that Placanica acted in self-defence.
The court accepted the version of events presented by Italian authorities that Placanica did not use excessive force when he shot Giuliani during the riot on July 20, 2001.
However, the court also agreed with Giuliani’s family that Italy should have opened a probe into whether the incident was the result of poor planning and management by police and political authorities.
For this reason the Strasbourg court ordered the state to pay Giuliani’s family 40,000 euros in damages.
Despite allegations to the contrary by Giuliani’s family, the court said the Italian government had cooperated sufficiently to allow the court to fully examine the case.
Giuliani, who became a martyr for Italy’s anti-globalisation movement, was shot in the face by Placanica as he was about to hurl a fire extinguisher into the Carabiniere’s ambushed jeep.
The jeep, which was jammed up against a building, then reversed over his body.
Placanica, who was 21 at the time and drafted in with other National Service forces to help maintain order at the summit, was subsequently placed under investigation for possible homicide but later acquitted After the summit, dozens of police officers and local and national officials were convicted of brutality.
In one trial 29 policemen, including three top-ranking officers, were accused of grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest during a night-time raid on a school that was housing many G8 protesters.
A court in 2009 acquitted 16 defendants, including the three officers, and sentenced 13 lower-ranking officers to terms ranging from one month to four years — terms they will never serve because of an intervening amnesty.
However, at an appeals trial in May, higher-ranking officers were convicted too.
Then, last June, a Genoa appeals court gave the head of Italy’s intelligence services a two-year prison sentence for his role in trying to cover up police brutality.
Gianni De Gennaro, who was the national police chief between 2000 and 2007, had been among those acquitted in November 2009.
The judges concluded that De Gennaro had been involved in pressuring Genoa’s head of police in 2001 to change his testimony in a trial against officers for violence against demonstrators.
The verdict sparked outrage among members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party. Berlusconi and other ministers had been loud in their support for the ex-police chief.
The appeals court also overturned the acquittal of the ex-head of the Genoa branch of the Digos security police, handing him a 16-month sentence.
The sentences of both men were suspended for five years.
Three people were left comatose and 26 had to be taken to hospital after the raid, which gained headlines worldwide.
The police, who burst into the Diaz school in riot gear, arrested 93 protesters, including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals.
More than 300,000 demonstrators converged on Genoa for the G8 summit in July 2001.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Devastated’ Knox Seeks to Stop Kercher Murder Film on Web
American student makes appeal to Italian civil court
(ANSA) — Perugia, March 24 — Amanda Knox said Thursday she was “devastated” by an American film on her alleged role in Meredith Kercher’s murder as she appealed to a civil court in this central Italian city to stop it being distributed on the Internet. The film, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy, was first aired by America’s Lifetime network last month despite opposition from Knox, from her Italian ex-boyfriend who has also been convicted of the murder and from Briton Kercher’s family.
The movie, with rising star Hayden Panettiere playing Knox, can be downloaded on the Internet and it is possible to see trailers and images of it and order the DVD on the Web too.
“I’m devastated by this invasion into my life and the way I’m being exploited,” said Knox who is currently appealing against a 26-year sentence in a separate court in Perugia, where her flat mate Kercher was found with her throat cut on November 2, 2007.
“I consider it the pinnacle of the repeated violations by the media against my person, my personality and my (life) story.
“All these things do not correspond to the truth,” she said, adding that she had been “very disturbed” by seeing the film’s trailer in prison.
Knox has many supporters in her homeland who say she and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who is appealing a 25-year sentence, are the innocent victims of a miscarriage of justice.
She wore a white pullover Thursday with her hair pulled into a little ponytail and she looked tense, as she has in recent court appearances, in contrast with the relaxed manner she displayed in early hearings for the first trial.
Her lawyers said the film had caused her “very serious, irreparable damage” and asked the court to order its “immediate removal” from the Internet with a “consequent ban on distribution of images”.
The hearing was then adjourned to July 4.
Knox and Sollecito’s appeal in the criminal proceedings was boosted Wednesday when experts called to re-examine DNA evidence central to the prosecution’s case in the first trial said so far they had not found enough genetic material to be able to run tests.
Knox’s DNA was found on a knife prosecutors claim was the weapon used to kill Kercher after a sex game went wrong, while Sollecito’s was found on the victim’s severed bra clasp.
The pair’s defence have always claimed the DNA evidence was contaminated during the investigation and they may now be able to argue the scarcity of the genetic material makes it insufficient to support the convictions. The court experts will continue to examine the knife and the clasp and are to due to deliver their findings on May 9.
These will then be assessed at a hearing set for May 21.
“We can’t say whether we are satisfied or dissatisfied (by the experts being unable to run tests),” Luca Maori, one of Sollecito’s lawyers, said on Thursday.
“We’re waiting for the final results”.
The pair’s defences had a setback last month though, when Italy’s supreme court said more than one person took part in the murder in the explanation of its December decision to uphold the 16-year sentence of a third person convicted of the killing, Ivorian drifter Rudy Guede.
The supreme court stressed that it had only been called to assess the guilt of Guede, but the ruling is bound to affect Knox and Sollecito’s claim Guede was the sole perpetrator of the crime. Guede has exhausted the appeals process after his defence team asked for his case to be handled via a fast-track procedure, while Knox and Sollecito are in the middle of the first of two possible appeals granted by the Italian justice system.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Special Development Policy for Arab World
The Lower House has adopted a motion calling on the cabinet to give special attention in development aid policy to countries in the Arab world that are currently in a state of unrest. The motion was put forward by centre-left D66 and Labour (PvdA). They are calling on the Netherlands and the EU actively to support democratisation and development in the Arab and Persian region. A special policy should be developed for this within development policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Islamic Group Invited Anti-Semitic Speaker
The Islamic Association in Sweden (Islamiska Förbundet) engaged lecturers with anti-Semitic opinions at a conference in Stockholm in December, with one known for spreading myths about Jewish conspiracies and ritual killings, reported the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily
The newspaper names, among others, Salah Sultan, an Egyptian professor who has expressed anti-Semitism in several film clips on Youtube.
In one particular film, he quoted a myth which circulated in the Middle Ages of Jewish ritual murder, DN reported.
Sultan has also gone on the record with claims that Jews are part of an international conspiracy trying to control the world.
After being shown the YouTube clips of the Egyptian speaking, Abdirizak Waberi, a member of parliament and former chairperson of the Islamic Association, expressed surprise.
“We have invited him in good faith,” he said.
Waberi stressed that had the association known of the film clips, the lecturer would probably not have been invited. He furthermore underlined that Sultan said nothing that could be construed as anti-Semitic during the course of the conference.
Integration Minister Eric Ullenhag has seen with the two clips featuring Sultan and stated that he considered the content to be “clearly anti-Semitic, “ DN reported.
“We do not know what Salah Sultan said when he was in Stockholm, but to invite him was inappropriate,” the minister told the newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Could Extremists Benefit From AV?
by Martin Bright
Campaigners against the reform of voting system have warned the Jewish community that a switch to the “alternative vote” system will encourage extremist groups and force mainstream parties to pander to the anti-immigrant vote.. Veteran Labour peer Lord Janner became the first prominent member of the Jewish leadership to publicly back the “No to AV” campaign by putting his name to an advert that appeared on the back page of the Guardian last week along with a number of other peers from ethnic minority communities. Jewish peers Lord Mitchell and Lord Goldsmith are also opposed to the reform.
However, the “Yes to Fairer Votes” campaign has hit back by saying the present system promotes the BNP by alienating large sections of the population whose votes have little impact in safe seats. This, it says, is why the BNP is opposed to reform. Neal Lawson of the Labour campaigning group Compass, which backs AV, said: “The last 13 years under Labour under the first-past-the-post system have opened up a space for right-wing extremism. They will be shut out under AV.”
Under the new system voters would place candidates in order of preference. The second preferences of losing candidates would then be transferred until one candidate received 50 per cent of the vote. The date of the referendum is set for May 5, when many people will be voting in local elections. The Conservative Party has maintained its traditional opposition to AV, while the Labour and Liberal Democrat leadership is campaigning for a Yes vote..
The JC understands that the No to AV campaign has been working hard within the Jewish community to persuade people that the new system will encourage the major parties to chase the second preferences of voters who had put extremist candidates first on their ballot papers. The Labour campaign against reform is led by the former Liverpool Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy, a former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, who has met several members of the Jewish Leadership Council in their individual capacity.
As a charity, the JLC is not permitted to take sides in a political referendum. The Yes campaign has not been directly courting the Jewish vote. However, Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North and a member of the LFI executive, argues that the reforms will, in fact further marginalise the BNP, which is why they oppose them. Organisations representing other ethnic minorities have thrown their weight behind voting reform including Operation Black Vote.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EU Blocks £160m Dockside Face-Lift That Would Create 800 Jobs… Just to Protect Algae on the Seabed
A £160 million dockside regeneration scheme which would create 800 jobs and has been blocked by an EU ruling — to protect ALGAE on the seabed.
The ten-year project would transform the struggling town of Falmouth, Cornwall, into a ‘thriving gateway’ to the south West.
But the ambitious scheme has been put on hold because a rare form of algae called Maerl is growing off the coast and needs to be removed.
However, it cannot be moved or tampered with because the site is listed as a Special Area of Conservation under the European Habitats Directive.
Sir John Banham, a former chief of the Confederation of British Industry who is now leader of the local Enterprise Partnership, slammed the ‘unaccountable bureaucrats’ who have blocked the scheme.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fury After Woman Who Falsely Cried Rape is Handed an £80 Fixed Penalty
When a mother of five reported that she had been raped by two East European men, panic spread through her community and ethnic tension led to street violence.
Despite the arrest of two suspects, the crime remained unsolved and angry residents confronted police chiefs at a public meeting to voice fears for their safety.
Yesterday it was revealed that the ‘victim’, Susan Bradley, 41, later admitted to police that the attack never took place.
But instead of being taken to court for perverting the course of justice and facing a jail sentence, she escaped with an £80 fixed penalty for wasting police time.
The decision has been condemned by residents in Darnall, Sheffield, but police say it was the ‘best disposal’ taking into account the woman’s ‘previous good character’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Crack Police Chief Who Caught the Night Stalker in Just 17 Days… After 12 Years of Blunders
A leading murder detective stopped ‘Night Stalker’ Delroy Grant in just 17 days — after a 17-year hunt for the man who carried out sex attacks on 500 elderly people.
After an appalling catalogue of police blunders, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton was drafted in to catch the rapist — who was jailed for life today after eluding officers for years.
Police had relied on DNA evidence but DCI Sutton set up a giant undercover operation in 2009 and swiftly caught his man.
Grant, who was told he will spend a minimum of 27 years behind bars as he was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court in south London today, should have been stopped in his tracks 12 years ago, when police were given his car registration number. There were two further positive identifications in 2001 and 2003.
But ‘basic policing errors’ allowed the Jamaican-born predator to continue raping and assaulting vulnerable pensioners after stalking them and breaking into their homes at night — often cutting their telephone lines and electricity cables.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘32 Italian Libya Sorties Since Start, Never Fired’
NATO will assume control, minister predicts
(ANSA) — Rome, March 24 — Italian warplanes have carried out 32 sorties since the start of the United Nations-endorsed intervention in Libya five days ago but have not once had to fire their weapons, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told parliament Thursday.
“The Tornado ECRs have carried out 10 missions without it being necessary for them to neutralise enemy radar with their missiles,” La Russa told the House. The minister voiced confidence that NATO would “soon” agree to take over command of operations as Italy and Britain have insisted for days in the face of opposition led by France and Turkey.
NATO, he said, after taking the reins from the United States, could “ensure a clear, shared strategic political guide”.
Once NATO takes over, La Russa said, Italy was ready to add more planes to the eight aircraft — four Tornados and four F-16s — that it had already supplied, as well as a “naval group”, which are currently operating under Italian command.
La Russa added that, as decided Wednesday, an Italian admiral was set to assume command of a naval blockade already under NATO control to enforce a UN arms embargo.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Sides With Berlin Against Libya Intervention
Despite differences over human rights and religious freedom, China and Germany are together against military operations in North Africa. Tripoli bishop says the armed conflict could “have been avoided”, that “bombs compromise everything”. NATO takes over the no fly zone.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — China has joined Germany against the international military intervention in Libya. Although the two nations hold profoundly different views on human rights, religious freedom and international trade, Beijing and Berlin share doubts about the action undertaken by the international community against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
A press release posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry website said that Minister Yang Jiechi spoke with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle to discuss the Libyan situation, laying out China’s position and principles over the intervention. Beijing abstained from the UN Security Council vote that authorised the military intervention in Libya.
“We hope that the situation in Libya returns to peace and stability as quickly as possible, avoiding an escalation in armed conflict and an even more serious humanitarian crisis,” Yang told Westerwelle, according to the Chinese account. Yang insisted on the need to preserve “the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Libya”.
Westerwelle will visit China next week for talks that will certainly cover the crisis in Libya.
The bishop of Tripoli, Mgr Innocenzo Martinelli, also spoke about the issue. Yesterday, he said that the armed conflict could “have been avoided”. In his view, “a few days before Sarkozy decided to bomb, there were some real openings for mediation, but the bombs compromise everything.”
In the meantime, the issue of who should lead Operation Dawn Odyssey has been settled. NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the alliance “is to take responsibility for the no-fly zone”, hitherto led by the United States. However, other aspects will remain in the hands of the current coalition.
The decision is important because it meets Italy’s objection to a joint Franc-British command of the intervention. However, it allows for too many loopholes to the objections of members like Turkey and Germany, who are totally opposed to the mission’s goals and the means to achieve them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Friction Between Army and April 6 Movement
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 24 — The relationship between the Egyptian army and the young people involved in the uprising has reached a critical point, according to some observers quoted by the Al Jazeera website. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has taken unilateral decisions without any sort of dialogue or consultation, according to the April 6 movement. A statement released by the young people called the army’s behaviour unacceptable, and the movement criticised the lack of debate in the phase leading up to the referendum on constitutional changes. The military council has been accused by the movement of blacking out a great deal of information which would have supported the ‘no’ vote in the referendum in order to focus its efforts on the advantages of the ‘yes’ vote. According to Mohammed Adel, spokesman for the April 6 movement, there are still many questions requiring a response from the army. The most important questions pertain to what will happen to political prisoners, trials for corruption, public security officials accused of torture and finally the removal — which has not yet occurred — of those in charge of the media.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Provokes More Tensions Over Libya
Angela Merkel’s government has gone on the offensive over its maligned Libya policy, pushing hard for a complete oil embargo and even hinting that its NATO allies are hypocrites for bombing the country while still buying its oil. Development Minister Dirk Niebel told broadcaster ZDF on Thursday night that in effect Britain, France and the US were hypocritical for not supporting a complete embargo on Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s oil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: UAE: Planes Not Sent Over Disagreement on Bahrain
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MARCH 24 — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been prepared to contribute 24 planes for the imposing of a no-fly zone over Libya but the decision was revoked after the position taken by the US and the EU on Bahrain. The mystery behind the eagerly-awaited arrival which did not come into being of two squadrons of Mirage and F-16 fighter planes at the Decimomannu base was shed light on by former Chief of Staff of the UAE Air Force, Khalid Al BU Ainain, reported Gulf News in quoting statements made by the general to the Wall Street Journal. “It is a question of political disagreement, not of resources,” said Al Bu Ainain. “Europe and the United States are not able to imagine the extent of an Iranian intervention in Bahrain,” he said, adding that the UAE might revise its position if the West were to change its as concerns Bahrain. Europe and the United States have both criticised the way in which Bahrain’s security forces strengthened by 1,000 Saudi soldiers and 500 UAE police put down the wave of protest in the small, oil-rich emirate. Yesterday the UAE foreign minister had once again reiterated the support of the Federation, which includes seven emirates, to the royal family in Bahrain and the dialogue initiative for political and electoral reforms subject to a referendum put forward by crown prince Salman Al-Khalifa. The proposal for dialogue, launched about a month ago, has in any case has not yet been implemented in any practical manner.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Coalition Planes Bomb Gaddafi Tanks
Tripoli, 25 March (AKI) — British warplanes pounded Libyan tanks as coalition raids on Muammar Gaddafi’s armed forces entered their sixth day.
In a statement released late Thursday British defence secretary Liam Fox said the strikes were meant to destroy vehicles “threatening the civilian population of Ajdabiya,” in northeastern Libya and around 160 kilometres south of rebel stronghold Benghazi.
“British Tornado GR4 aircraft, on armed reconnaissance missions over Libya… took part in a co-ordinated missile strike against units of Colonel Gaddafi’s Libyan military, in support of the UN Security Council Resolution 1973,” he said in the statement.
Nato late Thursday announced that the military alliance will take over command of enforcing the UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya. Twelve countries are now participating the non-Nato coalition aiming to keep Libyan forces from attacking civilians.
News reports cited residents in Ajdabiya as described shelling, gunfire and houses on fire. Ajabiya is held by Gaddafi’s forces.
Coalition warplanes early Friday were reportedly bombing the southern outskirts of Libyan capital Tripoli where military installations are located.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy Warns Arab Rulers About Libya Precedent
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned all Arab rulers that they risk Libya-type intervention if they cross a certain line of violence against their own people. The president told press at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday (24 March) that UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorising air strikes on Libya has created a legal and political precedent on the “responsibility to protect.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Uncle Sucker, World’s Rent-a-Cop?
I’ll admit, there is an argument — a thin, riddled, web of an argument — that it was U.S. interests that drove military interventions gone wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t buy the argument: It morphed into a nation-building fantasy. It became disastrously, tragically and recklessly mistaken. But I can see at least that tarnished glimmer of national interest flash in the sludge before sinking from sight.
Nothing like this is to be found in the sands of Libya. This is why the weirdo-bizarre assault on Gadhafi’s forces led, but supposedly not really, by the United States under order of the U.N. Security Council (motley crew) and the Arab League (rogue’s gallery), crossed a fat, red line. The president of the United States sent the U.S. military, already stretched and worn by darn near a decade of wars, into harm’s way for no compelling American reason.
[…]
There’s more. Abu Yahya al-Libi, the al-Qaida star-honcho who escaped from American clutches in Afghanistan, posted a rah-rah video on jihadist websites urging the Libyan “rebels” to keep fighting Gadhafi, predicting dire consequences from defeat.
Just think: Those are “our” rebs, too. I can’t imagine the crew of the USS Kearsarge, now in the Mediterranean, would like that very much. Or the pilots flying F-15s over Libya, either. But what about our Congress? Flat-lining. As for President Obama, if it isn’t impeachable to fight on behalf of America’s enemies, what is?
The fact is, when it comes to American interest, Obama couldn’t care less. He demonstrated that by seeking and taking America’s marching orders solely from the United Nations and the Arab League, without even saying howdy-do to Congress (whose answering chorus of silence is a disgrace), later kicking soccer balls around Rio instead of addressing the American people as to why he was ordering another U.S. military intervention — this one with al-Qaida support.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Understanding the Third Terror War
What are we to make of the fact that no one has taken credit for Wednesday’s bombing in Jerusalem?
Wednesday’s bombing was not a stand-alone event. It was part and parcel of the new Palestinian terror war that is just coming into view. As Israel considers how to contend with the emerging onslaught, it is important to notice how it differs from its predecessors.
On a military level, the tactics the Palestinians have so far adopted are an interesting blend of state-of-the-art missile attacks with old fashioned knife and bomb-in-the- briefcase attacks. The diverse tactics demonstrate that this war is a combination of Iranian-proxy war and local terror pick-up cells. The attacks are also notable for their geographic dispersion and for the absence thus far of suicide attacks…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Vice PM Moshe Yaalon Tells CBN: “Iran is Involved” In Gaza
I sat down yesterday with Israel’s Vice Prime Minister, Moshe Yaalon, for a wide ranging interview on the latest events in Israel and the greater Middle East.
Much more to come early next week with Minister Yaalon, who is the second-highest ranking member of the Israeli government, when our interview hits the air on CBN’s 700 Club program.
In the meantime, I wanted to provide some timely teaser soundbites.
With talk that Israel may soon employ its “Iron Dome” counter-rocket defense system, I asked Minister Yaalon about the sharp increase in rocket attacks out of Gaza against Israeli cities and towns. He told me the Israeli government believes that “behind the scenes, Iran is involved” and has given its terrorist proxies, like Hamas, the green light to intensify attacks against Israel.
Click the link above to watch.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Attack ‘Miracle’: I Screamed Get Out! Suspicious Object!
Three yeshiva boys were sitting around the bag, I screamed “Get out of here! That’s a suspicious bag!” This was how David Amuyal described the scene of Wednesday’s bombing from his hospital bed. Amuyal, whose call to the police just seconds before the blast most likely saved lives, is suffering from a fractured pelvis, steel pellets have penetrated his body and shrapnel is deeply embedded in his left hand and leg.
[…]
“There were three young yeshiva boys sitting around it, around 14-15 years old,” Amuyal added, reconstructing Wednesday’s events. “I looked at the bag and had a very strong bad feeling about it. It was new, very new, with a zipper and it seemed suspicious. At that very moment I told them ‘move quickly, it’s a suspicious object, evacuate the area immediately’.”
Body caught fire
Amuyal then took out his cellular phone and called the police to report the suspicious bag. “As I was on the phone I felt a huge blast that threw me back. I was about a meter and a half (4.9 feet) away from the device, I flew 4-5 meters (13-16 feet) back and my body caught fire. I tried to put out the fire with my hands; I got up, walked around 15 meters away from the scene and sat on a railing nearby.”
“I couldn’t roll on the floor to put out the fire, I saw black and felt the shrapnel, at first my legs burned and when I looked down I saw that my stomach was completely open.” Amuyal said that it took time before he felt the pain that gripped his entire body: “Some passersby came very quickly and started to administer first aid, the ambulances and security forces were right behind them.”
Amuyal claims that it was a miracle that he was alive and that the blast didn’t claim more lives, he refuses to take the credit for saving the lives of those near the bomb. “I’m not a hero. I tried, I did as much as I could but I didn’t manage to get everyone away. If not for the miracle, I would be on the other side too. I felt death, I could have escaped but I didn’t.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GCC to Deport Lebanese Shiites, They Are Instigators
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 24 — The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) want to deport Lebanese Shiites with links to Hezbollah or the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard force, the Kuwaiti newspaper Assiyasa reports, quoting Arab diplomatic sources living in London. The Gulf countries, according to the sources, intend to take a joint decision to expel all Lebanese Shiites by the end of April. The decision was reportedly taken after the intelligence services of Bahrain, the United States and France reported that some agents with links to Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are leading the protests in Bahrain and the east of Saudi Arabia, together with local Shiite clerics. Bahrain’s recent decision to suspend flights to Lebanon, according to the sources, paved the way for the deportation of thousands of Lebanese Shiites. A high official in the Bahrain government who preferred to stay anonymous said that “no Lebanese Shiite linked to or suspected of being associated with Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards will remain in one of the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman). The sources added that Bahrain is preparing to deport 90 Lebanese Shiites, most of them arrested during the protests. The newspaper writes that there are several thousands of supporters of Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards living in the GCC countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Thousands of Youth Activists Demonstrate for Reform
(by Mohammad Ben Hussein) (ANSAmed) — AMMAN, MARCH 24 — Thousands of activists from youth movements gathered near a central square in Amman on Thursday, calling for urgent political and economic reform, threatening to start an open ended strike until demands are met.
Protesters gathered at Jamal Abdul Nasser square holding Jordanian flags and signs to condemn corruption, nepotism and lack of political freedom in Jordan.
Protesters had hoped to bring about nearly one million protesters in an attempt to emulate demonstrations in Egypt and Yemen. But the numbers were well bellow that figure.
Police cordoned the area and stopped traffic flow, but there were no reports of trouble during the gathering.
Activists threatened to start an open ended strike and erect tents in the busy part of the capital to press for their demands.
Most of the protesters, according to participants, are young Jordanians from universities with no political affiliation to opposition groups. “We are the silent majority. We are the ones saying no to repression, corruption,” said Abdullah Ahmed, an organizers of the rally. “We are tired of hearing promises.
Politicians are corrupt while the opposition parties are trying to take advantage of our achievements during protests,” said Ahmed.
The majority of protesters in Jordan, like other Arab countries with popular uprisings, are young unemployed or university students eager to make a change. In a country where more than 70 per cent of the population is bellow 25 years old, the future could no longer be the same for the conservative old guard. “We see new faces challenging decades’ old systems. They will succeed as long as they are united, simply because they are the majority,” said analyst Ashraf Atiya.
The Islamist movement and other opposition parties are also involved in street protests, albeit clashing agendas.
Most opposition groups are pushing king Abdullah to relinquish some of his powers, including the ability to hire and fire governments. They also want a new elections law representative to all Jordanians. The current law favours pro-regime tribes in rural areas with little population at the expense of the majority living in cities, who are mostly of Palestinian origin.
Meanwhile, the king this week blamed his prime minister for lack of reform, saying he will no longer tolerate delay in reform.
“I will no longer accept excuses of delay. Reform must be implemented as soon as possible without giving reasons for lack of achievement,” said king Abdullah in a letter he sent to the newly appointed prime minister Maruf Bakhit.
The government recently formed a national dialogue committee comprising some representatives of the civil society, political parties and figures close to the regime to iron out a reform strategy. But it was boycotted by the Islamist movement, Jordan’s main opposition group on grounds that the committee’s mandate did not include constitutional amendments.
Jordan has been gripped by protests unseen in recent years, but are considered benign compared to that in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, where demands focused on toppling the leadership.
Abdullah’s crown remains safe, as the majority of powers agree over his vital need to keep this multi-racial kingdom secure.
But demands that Abdullah trims his powers are getting louder.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Protesters Still on Streets After Loyalist Attacks
(ANSAmed) — MARCH 25 — A number of young Jordanians have remained on the streets of Amman despite the attack by loyalists late last night that injured around 30 members of the “March 24 Youth” group, which includes representatives from a number of movements, some of them Islamic. This is according to an AFP journalist on the ground.
Hundreds of young people gathered yesterday in Gamal Abdel Nasser Square, demanding “reforms” from the Jordanian regime and asking for the country’s corrupt officials to be “judged”.
As night fell, police attempted to disperse them, before switching off electricity in the area, a move that enabled around 50 loyalists to throw stones at protesters. Witnesses say that the police failed to intervene during the attack.
This morning, a few dozen pro-regime protesters took up positions close to the anti-government youth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oman: Opposition Organises Popular Forums in 3 Cities
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 25 — Protestors have built a sort of mobile stage in Oman in front of Parliament and are using it as the site of an “educational” forum, say organisers. According to Al Jazeera’s website, many technocrats and experts from different sectors are taking part in the forums. The latest topic discussed by the forum called “the people’s square” was intellectual pluralism and how to accept others. The discussions underlined the importance of dialogue between different visions and ideas as well as the need to accept other points of view even if they are very different from one’s own. In the past, the forum has focussed on topics such as education and the economy. “The objective of these forums, which have taken place in three different cities,” according to Hasan Al Rakishky, a member of the informational committee for the protestors, “is to spread awareness and analyse different topics.” Underlining the peaceful nature of the forums, which normally last for around two hours, Al Rakishy says that the goal of these events is to guarantee “the rejection of violence, which has prevailed over reason” in the protestors’ demands.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Resident: Troops Open Fire in Syrian City, Daraa
Syrian troops opened fire on protesters in the restive southern city of Daraa on Friday, shooting crowds that set fire to a bronze statue of the country’s late president, a resident told The Associated Press.
The resident, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said heavy gunfire could be heard in the city center and witnesses had reported several casualties.
An activist in Damascus in touch with eyewitnesses in the village of Sanamein, near Daraa, said troops there opened fire on demonstrators trying to march to Daraa. He said there had been witness reports of fatalities, some claiming as many as 20 slain, but those could not be independently confirmed.
Tens of thousands of Syrians were taking to the streets across the country in the most widespread civil unrest in years, defying crowds of government backers and baton-wielding security forces to shout their support of the uprising in Daraa, according to witnesses, activists and footage posted online.
Thousands flooded Daraa’s central Assad Square, many from nearby villages, chanting “Freedom! Freedom!” and waving Syrian flags and olive branches, a resident told The Associated Press by telephone.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, he claimed that more than 50,000 people were shouting slogans decrying presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban, who promised Thursday that the government would consider a series of reforms in response to a week of unrest in Daraa.
A human rights activist, quoting witnesses, said thousands of people gathered in the town of Douma outside the capital, Damascus, pledging support for the people of Daraa. The activists asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
Security forces dispersed the crowd by chasing them away, beating some with batons and detaining others, an activist said, asking that his name not be published for fear of reprisals by the government.
The capital, Damascus, was tense, with convoys of young Syrians roaming the streets in their cars, honking incessantly and waving out pictures of President Bashar Assad and Syrian flags. The convoys briefly blocked streets in some areas.
Outside Damascus’ famous Ummayad Mosque, scores of people gathered, chanting pro-Assad slogans when a small group of people began shouting opposing slogans in support of the Daraa martyrs. Police dispersed the protesters peacefully.
Also in Damascus, about 200 people demonstrated after the Friday prayers at the Thawra Bridge, near the central Marjeh Square, chanting “our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Daraa,” and “freedom, freedom.” They were chased by security forces who beat them some of them with batons and detained others, an activist said on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.
In the city of Aleppo, hundreds of worshippers came out of mosques shouting “with our lives, our souls, we sacrifice for you Bashar” and “Only God, Syria and Bashar!”
Residents in the northern city of Homs said hundreds of people demonstrated in support of Daraa and demanded reforms.
The activist said that in the coastal city of Latakia, more than 1,000 people marched in the streets after Friday prayers. In the northern city of Raqqa, scores marched and several people were detained, he said.
And in the western city of Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, several people were detained after protesting, he said.
Journalists who tried to enter Daraa’s Old City — where most of the violence took place — were escorted out of town Friday by two security vehicles.
“As you can see, everything is back to normal and it is over,” an army major, standing in front of the ruling Baath party head office in Daraa, told journalists before they were led out of the city.
Security forces appeared to be trying to reduce tension in Daraa by dismantling checkpoints and ensuring there was no visible army presence on the streets for the first time since last Friday, when the protests began.
Rattled by the unrest, the Syrian government Thursday pledged to consider lifting some of the Mideast’s most repressive laws in an attempt to stop the weeklong uprising from spreading and threatening its nearly 50-year rule.
But the promises were immediately rejected by many activists who called for demonstrations around the country on Friday in response to a crackdown that protesters say killed dozens of anti-government marchers in Daraa.
“We will not forget the martyrs of Daraa,” a resident told The Associated Press by telephone. “If they think this will silence us they are wrong.”
Assad, a close ally of Iran and its regional proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, has promised increased freedoms for discontented citizens and increased pay and benefits for state workers — a familiar package of incentives offered by other nervous Arab regimes in recent weeks.
Shaaban, the presidential adviser, also said the Baath party would study ending a state of emergency that it put in place after taking power in 1963.
The emergency laws, which have been a feature of many Arab countries, allow people to be arrested without warrants and imprisoned without trial. Human rights groups say violations of other basic liberties are rife in Syria, with torture and abuse common in police stations, detention centers and prisons, and dissenters regularly imprisoned for years without due process.
The death toll from the weeklong crackdown was unclear and could not be independently confirmed. Shaaban says 34 people had been killed in the conflict.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Militants: At Least 100 Killed in Daraa
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, MARCH 24 — At least 100 people were killed by the police yesterday in Daraa, in Syria. Afp pointed out that the statement was made by witnesses and human rights militants. According to medical sources quoted by Al Arabiya, today there were 25 bodies in the Daraa hospital. According to Sana, the official Syrian press agency, six days of clashes in Sanaa resulted in three deaths: a doctor, a paramedic and a policeman.
Meanwhile, according to witnesses quoted by Reuters, at least 20,000 people joined the funeral of 9 demonstrators who were killed in Daraa. They were shouting “God, Syria, Freedom. The blood of the martyrs will not have been spilt in vain”.
Concern was expressed today by the Italian foreign minister on the alleged number of 100 victims killed by the police. The government, according to foreign ministry sources, is “closely monitoring” the situation in Syria and hopes, “in the company of the other European partners”, that “forms of dialogue between the institutions and civil society” may be found to help “the Country’s stability”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Protests Spreading, Demonstrations in Damascus, Homs
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MARCH 25 — While the protests against the regime continue in Daraa, in the south of Syria, where thousands of people are demonstrating again today, they are spreading to the rest of the country. The anti-regime protests are spreading in particular to Damascus and Homs, a city 180 north of the capital and the birthplace of first lady Assam al Assad.
Around 200 people are marching through the streets in the centre of Damascus, where this morning the police already dispersed several processions and arrested dozens of people, eyewitnesses told ANSA over the telephone. In Homs thousands of demonstrators shouted slogans “for freedom”, which can be seen on a video on internet channel “ShamsNN”, which broadcasts on Youtube. “With our hearts, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you Daraa!”, the inhabitants of Homs shout in the video. Meanwhile a double cordon of plain-clothes policemen and security agents observes the procession from the roadside. “God, Syria, freedom, that’s all!”, is another slogan used by the demonstrators, after the official slogan of the loyalists (God, Syria, freedom and Bashar!), referring to President Bashar al Assad. In Daraa, the nerve centre of the ongoing massive protests against the regime, thousands of people have come together to sing slogans after the Friday prayer for “freedom” and to “avenge the blood of the martyrs”, according to witnesses quoted by Syrian activists on Twitter. The demonstrators chant unprecedented explicit slogans against the Syrian presidential al Assad family, which has been in power for 40 years now, and against the chief of the presidential Guard, brother of the Syrian leader. This was reported by eyewitnesses quoted by pan-Arab television network al Jazeera. Local medical sources say that more than 40 people have died in the city where the large-scale protests against the government are staged, in seven days of repression by the regime. The city remains besieged by the army and security forces. Now, according to al Jazeera and al Arabiya, hundreds of Syrians in the south of the country are moving to Daraa, ‘in support of the besieged city’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Shipment of Pistols Headed for Yemen Uncovered
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 24 — A shipment of 16,000 pistols headed from Turkey to the city of Saada was discovered today by the United Arab Emirates police. Sadaa is inhabited by a Houthi majority, Shiites living in the north of Yemen. The news is reported by Al Arabiy’s website, which quotes statements made by Dhahi Khalfan, chief of Dubai police. The chief of police did not mention the addressee of the shipment, but said that the pistols were clearly not headed for the government of Yemen. After six months of violent clashes and the death of thousands of people, a truth between the Houthis and the Yemenite government halted the bloodshed in February 2004.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Saleh: We Will Hand Over Power to ‘Safe Hands’
(ANSAmed) — SANAA, MARCH 25 — President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh told a crowd of thousands of supporters in the capital Sanaa that he is ready to hand over power to avoid bloodshed but only “to safe hands”.
“We don’t want power but we need to hand power over to safe hands, not to sick, resentful or corrupt hands,” he said during a speech that was broadcast on State television.
“The anti-government protests don’t help the country”, he continued. “We are against firing a single bullet and when we give concessions, this is to ensure there is no bloodshed”.
At the same time, tens of thousands of demonstrators came together near the University for another day of protests, urging Saleh to step down. The Yemenite army has fired in the air in Sanaa to keep the protesters at a distance, both supporters of the President and anti-regime demonstrators, an AFP journalist reports from the scene.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Gurkha Who Single-Handedly Fought Off Up to 30 Taliban Awarded Gallantry Cross
A Gurkha soldier who single-handedly fought off an attack on his base by up to 30 Taliban insurgents has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.
Acting Sergeant Dipprasad Pun, 31, exhausted all his ammunition and at one point had to use the tripod of his machine gun to beat away a militant climbing the walls of the compound.
The soldier fired more than 400 rounds, launched 17 grenades and detonated a mine to thwart the Taliban assault on his checkpoint near Babaji in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan.
Acting Sgt Pun was on sentry duty on the evening of September 17 last year when he heard a clinking noise outside the small base.
At first he thought it might be a donkey or a cow, but when he went to investigate he found two insurgents digging a trench to lay an improvised explosive device (IED) at the checkpoint’s front gate.
He realised that he was completely surrounded and that the Taliban were about to launch a well-planned attempt to overrun the compound.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Government Tries to Push Women’s Equality for a Third Time, But Islamists Object
The 2011 National Women Development Policy would guarantee women greater rights in matters of employment, property and inheritance. Opponents claim it violates Muslim family law.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — The government of Bangladesh has adopted a National Women Development Policy (NWDP) to promote women’s equality without regards for their religion. In a move full of symbolism, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the policy on 7 March, a day before International Women’s Day. Under the NWDP, women will have greater rights in employment, inheritance and education. However, the country’s political opposition did not waste time to voice its doubts over the proposed legislation, objecting to some provisions that would violate Muslim family law. Now, everyone in the country is waiting to see if the NWDP will be actually implemented or if conservatives will be able o block it.
Inheritance is the new legislation’s sticky point. According to the Qur’an, not all children are entitled to the same share of inheritance; women can only claim a quarter of what men get. Under the new rules, every child would inherit get the same share. For NWFP’s opponents, this would violated the holy text of Islam and be unfair to men, because if women inherit less than men do, that is because the latter are required to provide for her. That is why women do not need to have a larger dowry.
The government of Bangladesh had tried to adopt a similar policy in the past. The first time was in 1997 with what was then called the Women Development Policy. It never got off to a start. The second attempt came in 2007, under a caretaker government, but it too generated a strong protest movement. This time, Prime Minister Hasina and members of her government have repeatedly said that the new legislation does not violate the Qur’an or the Sunna, and that they are committed to promoting Islam.
The fight is thus all within the Islamic camp over interpretation and nuances. Now the most conservative forces in the country along with the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), are waiting to take advantage of any faux pas by the government.
In order to further the policy, the government has called on the Islamic Foundation, an independent organisation under the Ministry of Religious Affairs working to protect the cultural and social values of Islam in Bangladesh, to set up a committee of wise men to vet the NWDP to see if its provisions violate Muslim family law. The opposition however attacked the Islamic Foundation, calling its president, Shamim Mohammad Afzal, a puppet in the hands of secularists.
Bangladesh does not enforce Sharia. However, it is hard to say what is in store now. The government is currently in a strong position and has an absolute majority in parliament. But discordant voices can be heard within the coalition, like that of former dictator General Ershad of the Jatiya Party. These, together with outside criticism, have made the prime minister more cautious.
Each word is thus carefully examined because if the National Women Development Policy is adopted, it could radically change the principles on which laws are based. Family law in Bangladesh is based on Islamic law even though the constitution is not.
The current constitution was adopted in 1972 and was originally more secular and socialist oriented. It was substantially changed under a military regime, which gave it a more Islamic hue. However, the High Court issued a ruling in 2007 that declared the changes made by the military illegal and unconstitutional.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Interpol Says Cricket World Cup Terrorist Plot Foiled
(AKI/Dawn) — The arrest of a terrorist has foiled a plot to carry out an attack during the cricket World Cup, according to Interpol chief Ronald Noble.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, along with interior minister Rehman Malik, he said: “Last week, with the help of Pakistan, we identified and arrested the terrorist who had left Karachi. Thanks to the cooperation of Pakistan and other countries we were able to make sure that the World Cup remains safe.”
He did not say anything about the identity of the terrorist or the place where he was arrested.
Mr Malik told newsmen that there was a “serious attempt” of a terror attack during the tournament. He did not reveal the nationality of the suspected terrorist, but said he had no connection with Pakistan and information about the incident was being shared with India.
He said some people were arrested but none of them was Pakistani.
Malik said the arrested man, who had travelled to the Maldives from Karachi, had planned to carry out acts of terrorism in Sri Lanka during World Cup matches being played in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka.
The minister said there were reports that the Taliban had started their activities in India and he had warned New Delhi about it. “Let’s not forget that the terrorists have got no boundary or religion. There are several indications that the Taliban have started their activities in India,” he said.
“I am saying this on record and I have also informed India. We must work together to stop the work of terrorists,” he stressed.
Malik demanded an immediate action against the fanatics involved in desecration of the Holy Quran and urged the Interpol official to play his role. “This kind of violence must stop. We would like action seen to be taken against the terrorists,” he remarked.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Questions and Answers About the Latest Developments at Japan’s Damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The effort to steer Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant away from disaster suffered another setback as workers discovered widespread uncontrolled leaking of radioactive water at the six-reactor site.
Q: What’s new about this?
A: Since the tsunami knocked out power, plant workers have been intentionally venting radioactive steam into the air to keep overheated reactor cores from bursting. Radioactive steam has also gone aloft from overheated storage pools for used fuel. Now radioactive water has also been discovered at the bottom of turbine buildings at units 1 and 3 adjacent to the reactors. Similar flooding in units 2 and 4 is being checked; it is likely radioactive too.
Q: Where did this radioactive water come from?
A: Plant officials and government regulators say they don’t know. It could come from more than one source: A leaking reactor core, associated piping or a spent fuel pool, of which there are seven. Officials won’t even rule out the idea that it may have come from overfilling the pools with emergency cooling water. The flooding is deepest at Unit 3 — where it is waist-high — and may have flooded basement areas at other buildings.
Equipment in Unit 3 could have sprung a leak on March 14, when a powerful hydrogen gas explosion blew apart that unit’s reactor building.
Q: Does the leaking water make meltdown more likely?
A: Probably not at the current rate of leakage. The fuel rods inside units 1, 2 and 3 are believed to be partially melted already. However, with desperate efforts to keep the units cool using sea water, temperatures in recent days have stayed well within a safe zone at all the reactors. If these conditions prevail, there will be no further core melting, despite leakage. The temperatures of the spent fuel pools also have been under control, but occasional spikes have spurred worry.
Q: So why should we care about the leaking?
A: For one thing, it puts more radioactive contamination into the local environment, probably mostly into the ground and sea. It could add more radiation exposure to people near the plant. It has stalled work to restore in-house cooling systems needed to keep the plant safe in the long term. Perhaps the leaking comes from cooling equipment that must be repaired before other work can advance.
Q: When will they get the plant back on a sure footing?
A: It now appears certain to take days, possibly even weeks, to bring Fukushima Daiichi under complete control with normal cooling systems in place. And until that happens, the twin spectres of total meltdown and spent fuel pool fire will shadow the work and the Japanese nation.
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Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch Churches, Homes
Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.
At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran.
The violence escalated to the point that federal police forces sent to the area two weeks ago were initially overwhelmed by the mobs. Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal told Voice of America police reinforcements had since restored order and 130 suspects had been arrested and charged with instigating religious hatred and violence.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the Islamist group Kawarja is believed to have incited the violence.
“We believe there are elements of the Kawarja sect and other extremists who have been preaching religious intolerance in the area,” he said at a Saturday press conference. “In previous times, we have cracked down on Kawarja because they were involved in violence. Since then they have changed their tactics and they have been able to camouflage their activities through legal channels.”
The string of attacks comes on the heels of several reports of growing anti-Christian tension and violence around the country where Muslims make up roughly one-third of the total population but more than 90 percent of the population in certain areas, 2007 Census data shows.
One of those areas is Besheno where, on November 9, all the Christians in the city woke up to find notes on their doors warning them to convert to Islam, leave the city or face death, a Christian from Besheno told FoxNews.com on condition of anonymity.
“Under the Ethiopian constitution we are supposed to have freedom of religion, but Muslim leaders in our town don’t allow us that right,” the source said.
Later that month three Christians in Besheno were assaulted in religiously-motivated attacks and three others were forced to flee the city after being told that Muslim leaders had commissioned hit men to kill them, one of the exiled Christians told FoxNews.com.
“We were told by some Muslims that live in the city that there was already a plan to kill us and that the people who were assigned to kill us had already come from another city to do it.”
A witness to the three attacks was then assaulted in January after testifying about them in court, International Christian Concern (ICC), an organization that aims to fight Christian persecution, reported.
In the southern town of Moyale, a Christian was sentenced to three years in prison in November for allegedly writing “Jesus is the Lord” in a copy of the Koran, Compass Direct News reported. Christians from the area told the website he had actually written the phrase on a piece of cloth.
Sources also told Compass authorities had offered to release the man, Tamirat Woldegorgis, if he would convert to Islam, but he refused.
Additionally, two of his friends were fined for visiting him in prison and taking him food, Compass Direct reported.
And in Oma Village on February 26 a Muslim mob with rocks and rods assaulted and wounded 17 Christian college students who were distributing Bibles during a mission trip, ICC reported.
The mob overwhelmed government security forces that attempted to protect the students, but the students eventually fled, the ICC website said.
“The violence against Christians in Ethiopia is alarming because Ethiopian Muslims and Christians used to live together peacefully. Besides, it’s extremely disconcerting that in Ethiopia, where Christians are the majority, they are also the victims of persecution,” Jonathan Racho, ICC’s Regional Manager of Africa and South Asia, told FoxNews.com.
Meles said that the government is doing everything it can to stop religious violence.
“We knew that they were peddling this ideology of intolerance, but it was not possible for us to stop them administratively because they are within their rights,” he said. “If we can find some association between what they are doing by way of preaching and what happened by way of violence, then of course we can take them to court.”
Racho, originally from Ethiopia, said the fact that the government waited a full week before sending troops to Asendabo shows that it’s not doing enough. Going forward, he said he hopes the government “will take measures to ensure that such attacks will not happen in the future,” including bringing all responsible parties to justice to show this will not be tolerated.
“The Ethiopian government has arrested around 130 of the perpetrators, and we hope they will be prosecuted according to the law.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Essay Sparks Anger at Rollins College
WINTER PARK — Jamie Pizzi, a freshman at Rollins College, said she never meant to come across as racist or hateful in the opinion piece she wrote for the campus newspaper last week.
But the essay that’s sharply critical of immigrant children has spurred an outcry from some students and faculty.
And while she’s upset by all the negative attention — including nasty e-mails and comments left on The Sandspur website — she said she stands by her writing.
“I don’t regret what I wrote,” Pizzi said. “I regret it was taken that way.”
Pizzi’s essay questions whether babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants should be automatically given U.S. citizenship. It’s accompanied by a picture of a green alien that has apparently taken a guy’s clothing and TV.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iowa Terror Drill Portrays Immigration Foes as Killers
Foes of illegal immigration are up in arms over plans for a weekend disaster exercise in western Iowa with a fictitious scenario in which young white supremacists shoot dozens of people amid rising tensions involving racial minorities and illegal immigrants.
The exercise is planned for Saturday at Treynor High School in Pottawattamie County and will involve more than 300 people, confirmed Doug Reed, the lead exercise planner for the county’s emergency management agency. Some 30 to 40 “victims” will be transported to area hospitals. He said a terrorism scenario is required by federal officials for the exercise to be eligible for funding.
The exercise scenario describes shootings occurring after rising tensions in the community because of an influx of minorities, Reed said. The newcomers, some who are American citizens and some who are illegal immigrants, were to have moved into a rural area from urban areas in search of more-affordable living. The newcomers are not welcomed by racial extremists, and controversy sweeps the community, he said.
One of the fictional suspects involved in the shootings is described an 18-year-old white male with a quick-tempered father who is a firearms enthusiast with ties to an underground white supremacy group. A second fictional suspect is described as an isolated 17-year-old white male student who was befriended by the older student and who mimics his new friend.
Craig Halverson of Griswold, national director of the Minuteman Patriots, an activist group that opposes illegal immigration, said today he is concerned that the exercise is intended to portray people who legally possess guns and who fight illegal immigration as extremists. Members of his organization, as well as members of the Tea Party Patriots and the 9/12 Project, are calling and emailing Iowa’s elected officials to voice their objections, he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Opinion: Multiculturalism: Good Intentions, Bad Results
Multiculturalism has officially been laid to rest by leading European countries like Germany, Great Britain and France. In Denmark too, multiculturalism has been kicked out (most recently by the new immigration minister, Søren Pind), even though multiculturalism never really gained the foothold in Denmark that it did in countries like Britain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
People From 215 Different Nations Have Become “Norwegians” In a Few Decades
On the 22nd of March 2011, individuals representing more than one hundred different nationalities gathered in front of the Royal Palace in Oslo, accompanied by Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, to celebrate the diversity of the kingdom. People from 215 different nations have become “Norwegians” in a few short decades. “Norway needed this,” said Fery Nourkami, who came up with the idea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
District Officials Yank Buddhism From Class
Challenged for having Transcendental Meditation during English
School officials at a district in Illinois yanked a Buddhist practice from their English classrooms after a civil rights watchdog, the Rutherford Institute, wrote a letter questioning the practice.
The situation developed at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake, where a parent had become alarmed by classroom instruction in Transcendental Meditation that included having students to lie on their backs with their palms to the floor and “become one with the earth.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Most Ancient Fossils Aren’t Life, Study Suggests
Structures thought of as the oldest known fossils of microbes might actually be microscopic mineral formations not associated with life, suggesting that astrobiologists must be careful calling alien objects “life” when scientists have trouble telling what is or was alive on Earth. More than 20 years ago, microscopic structures uncovered in the roughly 3.5-billion-year-old Apex Chert formation in western Australia were described as the oldest microbial fossils. These structures were interpreted as cyanobacteria, once known as blue-green algae. However, the interpretation of the structures has always been controversial, and it is still hotly debated among scientists searching for Earth’s earliest evidence for life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Failure to Tell Right From Wrong: The Possible Collapse of Western Civilization
I am convinced that Western liberal democratic civilization will fall, not because of conquest from outside it, but because its citizenry has ceased understanding right from wrong.
Cultural and moral relativism, political correctness and moral equivalency are the signs that our intellectual elites, in universities and media, predominantly, are confused over the most elementary questions of right versus wrong.
The idea that those who are less powerful can censor the speech of those who are more powerful was recently articulated by an Assistant Professor of Education, named Ozlem Sensoy, at Canada’s Simon Fraser University. Remember, this is a professor who teaches those who will soon be teaching our elementary and high school students. And remember, these remarks were specifically about justification of mob rule in censoring free speech, but her arguments can be used (and are being used) by those who would restrict the rest of liberal freedoms.
In response to students at the University of Ottawa preventing a speech by conservative columnist Ann Coulter, Sensoy congratulated the students who, in her opinion “embody the spirit of student activism.” She castigated those who sought to uphold Coulter’s freedom to give a speech because Sensoy says they “fail to acknowledge and understand … the social concept of power”. This moral relativist managed to turn the notion of freedom on its head by arguing that:
“The ‘isms’ words (racism, sexism, anti-semitism) refer to power relationships that are historic and embedded, and these relationships do not flip back and forth. The same groups that have historically held power in the U.S. and Canada continue to do so.”
(Can you believe that Sensoy actually thinks that power relationships never change and are embedded? Would not Obama’s election in the U.S. indicate a substantial change in power relationships?)
And so this teacher of our future teachers argues that allegations of the need for free speech seem to “ surface when there is a need to stifle speech that challenges social power (which is what the U of Ottawa students were doing, challenging the inequitable social power relations that Coulter’s “speech” upheld).”
So Coulter’s speech is not protected, but the speech of those deemed to be “marginalized” and lacking power, is to be protected.
But who decides who is deemed powerful and who is deemed marginalized? Sensoy doesn’t say it explicitly, but this Turkish-born cultural relativist implies that it is only intellectually enlightened people like her who can decide which is which — and which have the right to free speech. And so in Canada we have Human Rights Commissions which use this same approach to decide which speech is protected and which is not.
[…]
We should especially be concerned about what is being taught to Education students and Journalism students. When Good is banished from our schools and our media and when fewer and fewer people are attending church and synagogue and getting the traditional Judeo-Christian ethic there, we have a major problem. It does not seem that difficult to me to know what are Good values. But in an education system that pretends to be “value-free”, a whole generation of people will have a harder time.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Moves Away From Campaign Against ‘Defamation of Religion’
The UN’s Human Rights council has adopted a resolution endorsing religious freedom, distancing itself from previous resolutions that condemned “defamation of religion.”
The UN body made its decision after hearing arguments that the campaign against “defamation of religion” had encouraged religious fundamentalists, especially in the Islamic world, to raise accusations of blasphemy against those who denied their religious beliefs.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the new UN resolution, noting that it “supports approaches that do not limit freedom of expression or infringe on the freedom of religion.”
| — Hat tip: Salome | [Return to headlines] |
Water-Powered Spaceship Could Make Mars Trip on the Cheap
Spaceships powered primarily by water could open up the solar system to exploration, making flights to Mars and other far-flung locales far cheaper, a recent study has found. A journey to Mars and back in a water-fueled vehicle could cost as little as one space shuttle launch costs today, researchers said. And the idea is to keep these “space coaches” in orbit between trips, so their relative value would grow over time, as the vehicles reduce the need for expensive one-off missions that launch from Earth. The water-powered space coach is just a concept at the moment, but it could become a reality soon enough, researchers said.
“It’s really a systems integration challenge,” said study lead author Brian McConnell, a software engineer and technology entrepreneur. “The fundamental technology is already there.” The space coach concept vehicle is water-driven and water-centric, starting with its solar-powered electrothermal engines. These engines would super-heat water, and the resulting steam would then be vented out of a nozzle, producing the necessary amount of thrust. “Altogether, this reduces costs by a factor of 30 times or better,” McConnell told SPACE.com. He estimates a roundtrip mission to the Martian moon Phobos, for example, could be made for less than $1 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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