Forget Double-Dip Recession: America May be Facing Great Depression!
While Barack Obama and fellow Marxists dream on about a “Summer of Recovery,” the cold, hard facts paint a far less rosy picture for the American economy.
In fact, rather than a double-dip recession which had Obamamites scared witless what with elections just around the corner, there is a growing fear that huge federal deficits, reckless and irresponsible spending, and other fiduciary malpractice committed by liberals may lead to much, much worse trouble.
As reported in part:
“Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be sputtering and yields are so low, Peter Yastrow, market strategist for Yastrow Origer, told CNBC.
“What we’ve got right now is almost near panic going on with money managers and people who are responsible for money,” he said. “They can not find a yield and you just don’t want to be putting your money into commodities or things that are punts that might work out or they might not depending on what happens with the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Says No Problem With Euro
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday the euro was a “stable currency” but, in a veiled dig at Greece and other shaky economies, said some eurozone members must sharpen their competitiveness and fiscal rectitude.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moody’s Warns of Rising Risk on US Credit Rating
Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday there is a very small but rising risk of a short-lived default by the United States if there is no increase in the statutory debt limit in coming weeks.
In a statement, Moody’s said it would put the Aaa U.S. rating on review for a possible downgrade if lawmakers in Washington do not make substantive progress in budget talks by the middle of July.
“Since the risk of continuing stalemate has grown, if progress in negotiations is not evident by the middle of July, such a rating action is likely,” Moody’s said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
QE3 and the Globalist Plan to Destroy the Dollar
Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer at Pacific Investment Management Co., told Bloomberg today the Fed’s quantitative easing policy failed to meet the “ultimate objective” of boosting employment and economic growth.
Pimco is the world’s biggest manager of bond funds. Under QE2’s bond-purchase program, investors are doing fine with higher-yielding assets in the rigged stock market casino — QE2 pushed the S&P up 9 percent — but as usual the little guy on Main Street continues to lose his socks.
Ron Paul on why the economy is not in a recovery, as the government insists.
“If success is defined in terms of the ultimate objective, which is pushing up valuation in order for people to spend more on goods and services and therefore get the economy to grow and unemployment to come down rapidly, then the answer is no,” El- Erian said.
It is not explained how loaning astronomical amounts of fiat currency to a spendthrift government will correct an economic imbalance engineered by the Federal Reserve and the bankers in the first place. Moderate estimates put the current budget deficit at $1.4 trillion — 10% of America’s GDP. It should be obvious by now this policy smells of ultimate (and deliberate) ruination, and sooner before later.
Of course, the Fed is not a blind elephant mindlessly thrashing about in a china shop, ineptly taking out the foundations of the United States economy. There is a methodical rhyme and reason behind what appears to be inept policies consistently in failure mode and making things worse.
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Taxpayers to Lose $14 Billion in Obama’s Union Payoff
Obama illegally gave ownership shares to the auto workers union who spent millions to elect Democrats leaving US taxpayers holding the empty bag.
Obama’s agenda is the union agenda. He said it, I believe it, the GM and Chrysler deals prove it.
Few are mentioning the theft of assets from the original creditors, the union pension bailout at taxpayer expense or the billions in funds Treasury Secretary Geithner now admits will never get repaid. Obama unconstitutionality took over a private company, overturned decades of surety laws, and paid campaign supporters with confiscated stock.
The Wall Street Journal points out that this is not near as good as was anticipated;
“So, today, amid the bally and the hoo, many have lost track of that fact. The offering valued GM at $50 billion, the low end of the hoped-for range. You would never know it, based on everything you read and hear. Once underwriters saw where demand was (not as great as desired), they shifted from talking about implied valuation to emphasizing shares issued, the per-share price and total money raised. The different storyline painted a picture of boffo box office even though the facts, as laid out just a few weeks ago, indicate that this deal really didn’t meet the hopes and expectations of GM or its biggest shareholder, the U.S. Government.”
[…]
“Given that the wasteful work rules that UAW bosses — wielding government-granted monopoly-bargaining power over employees — insisted on for decades were largely what drove GM into bankruptcy, they certainly didn’t deserve kid-gloves treatment. Yet that’s what they got.
A UAW-controlled auto retiree health care fund was owed $20 billion by GM before the bailout.
Under the White House-dictated terms, UAW-appointed fund managers got back half of what they were owed in cash, whereas taxpayers who were owed $19.4 billion didn’t get a dime back in cash.
[…]
It should be noted that the UAW is one of the most politically active of all unions. The union gave $2,119.937 to the 2008 campaigns 99% of which went to Obama and the Democrats. They gave another $1,106,500 in this past 2010 election cycle 100% of which went to Democrats. That is a total of $3,226,437 in just the last two election cycles. That does not include the phone banks, neighborhood canvassing and get out the vote efforts. Since 1990 the UAW has donated $26,510,252 of which 99% went to Democrats.
Not a bad return on investment when you consider they received billions back in ownership and benefit funding.
The government is subsidizing purchases of the GM Volt to the tune of $7,500 each. By the way that $7,500 is being supplied by you the taxpayer and is not being considered in the overall loss figures on the GM union payoff scam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tim Geithner to Visit the Lion’s Den as House Freshmen Lie in Wait
The Obama administration is wading into enemy territory Thursday as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner heads to the Hill to address the GOP House freshmen — the driving force behind Republican opposition to a straight debt limit increase.
Geithner’s appearance is another sign that the White House, which hosted the Republican Conference on Wednesday, wants to get moving toward a deal. A symbolic vote Tuesday night on a “clean” debt ceiling increase failed, clearing the way for serious negotiations.
The freshmen, who said they were disappointed by President Barack Obama’s remarks at the White House on Wednesday, are even more skeptical of Geithner, who animates so much of their distaste for the president’s economic policies.
If Geithner wants to win them over, he must clear a high hurdle. Freshmen said he has been warning of an impending debt ceiling deadline for months, issuing at least four dates by which the debt ceiling needed to be raised. Two of those deadlines have since passed. The next, just before the House takes its August recess, raised some eyebrows in the conference.
“He pushed it to the day before we go to recess. If you can’t see a political thing there, ‘Oh, we happen to be OK until just before we go away,’“ Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Wednesday. “It makes me wonder if that’s a real date.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Massachusetts Human Trafficking Bill Getting Support
BOSTON (AP) — A bill designed to crack down on human trafficking is making its way through the Statehouse.
On Wednesday, the House is expected to debate the measure, which would create the crime of human trafficking in Massachusetts, one of just five states without its own trafficking law.
Attorney General Martha Coakley has pushed for tougher laws aimed at those who profit from the sex trade.
She said human trafficking is the fastest growing type of criminal enterprise, in part because state penalties are light and the young people pressed into prostitution, often teenage girls, can be forced to engage in sex repeatedly.
Coakley said the Internet makes it easier for girls to be sold for sex with less risk of arrest.
A human trafficking bill passed the Senate last session, but died in the House.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Senators Want to Put People in Jail for Embedding YouTube Videos
Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. A few weeks back, we noted that Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons had proposed a new bill that was designed to make “streaming” infringing material a felony. At the time, the actual text of the bill wasn’t available, but we assumed, naturally, that it would just extend “public performance” rights to section 506a of the Copyright Act.
[…]
Furthermore, as we suspected, in the full text of the bill, “performance” is not clearly defined. This is the really troubling part. Everyone keeps insisting that this is targeted towards “streaming” websites, but is streaming a “performance”? If so, how does embedding play into this? Is the site that hosts the content guilty of performing? What about the site that merely linked to and/or embedded the video (linking and embedding are technically effectively the same thing). Without clear definitions, we run into problems pretty quickly.
And it gets worse. Because rather than just (pointlessly) adding “performance” to the list, the bill tries to also define what constitutes a potential felony crime in these circumstances:
the offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works
So yeah. If you embed a YouTube video that turns out to be infringing, and more than 10 people view it because of your link… you could be facing five years in jail. This is, of course, ridiculous, and suggests (yet again) politicians who are regulating a technology they simply do not understand. Should it really be a criminal act to embed a YouTube video, even if you don’t know it was infringing…? This could create a massive chilling effect to the very useful service YouTube provides in letting people embed videos.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senators Sound Alarm Over Patriot Act Extension
When two senators warned that the Patriot Act is being interpreted in a secret way that would alarm Americans if they knew the details, civil liberties activists could only speculate about what they meant.
The activists’ fear: that the government is using the anti-terrorism law to collect vast troves of personal information, including cellphone records, on Americans who have no link to terrorism.
[…]
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, proclaimed that the Patriot Act’s surveillance powers are being used far more expansively than most Americans realize. But they can’t disclose what they know, they said, because the documents that detail how the Obama administration implements the act are classified. As members of the Intelligence Committee, Wyden and Udall are privy to secret briefings.
“Today the American people do not know how their government interprets the language of the Patriot Act,” Wyden said. “Someday they are going to find out, and a lot of them are going to be stunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their senators: ‘Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn’t you know? Wasn’t it your job to know, before you voted on it?’ “
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Socialism’s Army of Occupation
The Public Sector has become an army of occupation
The most pervasive myth of the welfare state is the altruism of the public sector. In this mythology, the private sector is run by a bunch of greedy businessmen who get rich by making money off people’s misery. While the public sector is run by altruists who want nothing except to help those left behind by the private sector. Capitalists meet the Anti-Capitalists.
But actually it’s the public sector that does a much better job of making money off people’s misery. Some parts of the private sector do deliberately seek out ways to feed off poverty and keep their victims poor, most notably in the lending and financial services industry, but for the most part the private sector makes money off willing customers.
How do you sell products and services to people who can’t afford them? Unless you trap them into a cycle of obligation, you can’t. And such cycles are finite. Eventually the people you’re feeding off have nothing more to give you. That’s not an ideal business model for corporations who generally look for ways to build life-long relationships. To make money selling products and services, you need repeat customers who can afford what you’re offering.
[…]
The Public Sector has become an army of occupation. The battles in Wisconsin, the crisis in California and the ObamaCare clashes with SEIU goons are a wake up call to what that army really is. It’s not armed, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s the vanguard of an alternative economy that depends on extracting as much public money as possible. And that alternative economy is in a basic conflict with the people paying for it. When the economy is good, the army can skim off the cream without anyone noticing. But in a bad economy, a conflict explodes over limited resources.
The occupation means that huge amounts of money are being funneled into a public sector to provide services. But these services are not the goal of that sector.
The Postal Service doesn’t exist to deliver mail. 80 percent of its budget goes to the salaries and benefits of its 500,000+ union members. It is a union employment plan subsidized by the public through a stream of pension and benefits bailouts. Its business model is based on delivering junk mail. Not on providing useful public services. The Postal Service does not exist so you can buy stamps and mail letters. It exists so some of the country’s largest unions can retire at 55.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Fareed Zakaria Bemoans Americans
Fareed Zakaria Bemoans Americans Love of The Founders & Constitution As The Reason We Can’t Learn
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Visualized: America’s Backup Drive
The official archive of the federal government has a big job: figuring out which parts of the 97.4-terabyte collection to try to preserve forever. As always, a picture makes things a lot easier.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Controversial Muslim Preacher to Speak in Toronto
Bilal Philips is described as being “very influential among English-speaking Muslims.”
When Bilal Philips turned up in Frankfurt in April to address a demonstration organized by a local Muslim leader, German immigration police quickly expelled him for advocating the killing of homosexuals.
“Which is nonsense,” the 64-year-old Canadian Muslim preacher said in an interview this week during a visit to Toronto. “I was not advocating or calling on Germans to rise up and kill homosexuals.”
He did write that homosexuality is “evil,” that the Islamic punishment for it is death, and that AIDS is a form of divine punishment. But he insists his words were taken out of context to prevent him from speaking.
Such treatment is becoming familiar to Mr. Philips. Before Germany showed him the door, Britain and Australia took similar action, and he has avoided the United States since 1995, when a federal prosecutor named him as a suspected terrorist co-conspirator.
He has also said that India has frozen his visa applications, and feminists in the Maldives organized a letter-writing campaign last year to prevent him from speaking, complaining that his preaching endorsed marrying off young girls as soon as they reached puberty, regardless of their age.
“He’s been expelled from several countries,” said J.M. Berger, the author of the newly released Jihad Joe: Americans who go to war in the name of Islam, which examines the activities of Mr. Philips, a convert born in Jamaica, partly raised in Toronto and Vancouver, educated in Saudi Arabia and who now lives in Qatar.
Mr. Philips spoke last Friday at the Abu Huraira Centre, a Toronto mosque that was in the spotlight in 2009 after police began investigating a few young worshippers who had allegedly traveled to Somalia to join the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group Al Shabab.
Next month, Mr. Philips is scheduled to speak at the Toronto Journey of Faith conference, which made headlines last year when the federal government refused to allow one of the keynote speakers, Indian preacher Zakir Naik, into the country.
“He’s very influential among English-speaking Muslims,” Mr. Berger said of Mr. Philips. “He’s very articulate, very charismatic. At the same time a lot of controversy attends to him because of the different views that he’s expressed, including views on homosexuality.”
While one German press report about his recent expulsion described him as an “openly homophobic imam,” Mr. Berger’s book examines a lesser-known incident. It says that in the early 1990s, Mr. Philips ran an “off the books” Saudi paramilitary operation in Bosnia.
In Jihad Joe, Mr. Berger describes how the Saudis approached Mr. Philips in 1992 to start a program that would send American Muslim ex-servicemen to Bosnia to train Muslim fighters battling Serbian forces. They brought the plan to Mr. Philips because he had helped convert hundreds of American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War.
“I was approached by a couple of military people and asked if I knew any of the troops that had accepted Islam, gone back to the States and had left the American military, you know, who might be willing to go to Bosnia to help train the Bosnians,” the book quotes Mr. Philips as telling the author. “What they said they were looking for was something like an A-Team of specialists who would then go and train them to help in resisting the Serbian slaughter.”
Writes Mr. Berger: “That request marked the start of a program that would soon spiral out of control, embroiling U.S. military veterans in a jihadist circle with links to al-Qaeda and to a stunningly ambitious homegrown plot to kill thousands of innocent victims in New York City.”
Asked about the book, Mr. Philips called it “a mixture of fact and fiction.” In an email, he said he was “a Canadian Muslim scholar who 20 years ago tried in a limited way to help his Muslim brothers who were being slaughtered by the Serbs in what came to be known as the biggest massacre and act of ethnic cleansing in the middle of Europe since World War II.”
The first stop of Project Bosnia, as the book calls it, was Switzerland, where Mr. Philips met Hasan Cengic, a Bosnian official, imam and gunrunner who agreed to fund the program through a charity called the Third World Relief Agency, which was largely financed by Saudis.
“After the meeting, Philips started to canvass his military friends back in the United States,” the book says. One of them, identified only as Tahir, was a Vietnam vet who had met Mr. Philips during the conversion program in Saudi Arabia. The book said he is also an alleged al-Qaeda member, although Mr. Philips denied that.
Tahir personally escorted about a dozen recruits, including several Special Forces veterans, to Bosnia, where they set up outside the northeast city of Tuzla. Most of the military trainers left following the mission but some stayed on to fight, the book says.
An American who had fought in Afghanistan, Abdullah Rashid, later replaced Tahir. Unable to recruit veterans, Mr. Rashid decided instead to train non-veteran American Muslims and send them to Bosnia. “Philips agreed and provided him with money to get started,” reads the book.
The recruits, who were from New York and Philadelphia, trained at a camp in rural Pennsylvania but some of them decided that, rather than traveling to Bosnia for jihad, they would instead attack America, specifically New York City.
A Day of Terror was planned, during which bombs would be detonated throughout the city. The United Nations and FBI buildings were among the targets. “The plan they were most close to acting on was to set off truck bombs in the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in New York during rush hour, which would have killed thousands, probably more people than 9/11,” Mr. Berger said.
Told the group was talking about attacking America, Mr. Philips said he rejected the idea and told Mr. Rashid to disband the group or send them overseas. “It was just totally inappropriate. It becomes, some kind of, you know, terrorism really, you know, unleashing violence against civilian population. It’s not acceptable,” the book quotes him as saying.
The FBI got wind of the plot while investigating the failed 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center. Ten people were eventually convicted over the New York plot, including Omar Abdel-Rahman, an anti-American Egyptian cleric known as the Blind Sheikh.
Mr. Philips was never charged and told the National Post he has been “from the beginning opposed to the Qaeda and any form of terrorism in the name of Islam,” and that he “continues to oppose suicide bombing directed against civilian populations anywhere.”
He said “some bits” of the book were correct but others were left out. For example, he claims the New York conspirators were actually “set up” by the FBI informant, whom he said “was the one feeding them ideas.”
Said Mr. Berger, “It’s very difficult to evaluate Philips as a source. He’s very charismatic. You want to believe him but certainly he has a pretty long history of controversy that surrounds him and certainly there are a lot of people in [the U.S.] government at least that would like to sit him down for a very long talk.”
Although somewhat curtailed in his travels, Mr. Philips still reaches his followers through the Islamic Online University, which he founded a decade ago, and his website, which calls Jews “misguided human beings who need Islam.”
Asked why some governments don’t seem to want him visiting, he replied, “Well, I think mainly it is an issue of assimilation. I mean, they want Muslims in their countries to assimilate and be indistinguishable from the regular local population.
“That’s what I see at the bottom of it.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Studies Funding on the Hot Seat
LONDON, Ont. — A UWO-affiliated college is caught in the crossfire of a decision to accept money from two Muslim groups — one local, one international — to help fund a new chair in Islamic studies. Critics contend there’s a link there to violent jihadism and that the $2 million in funding could influence the school’s courses and selection of its chair. Huron College insists neither is true.
What Critics Say
“The main crux of our concern is not that they are establishing a chair in Muslim studies — in fact, we think it is urgent for the students at Western and the general public to have a better understanding of Islam. Our concern is for the particular funding of this chair,” said Rory Leishman, a freelance journalist acting as a spokesperson for the UWO alumni and friends who signed a letter written by UWO professor John Palmer, urging Huron to turn down the funding.
According to 26 people who signed the letter, the problem is the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) supports a vision of Islam first outlined by a man named Hassan Al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 and advocated jihad against those who don’t follow Islam. This is based on a statement posted on MAC’s website, which says “MAC adopts and strives to implement Islam, as embodied in the Qur’an, and the teachings of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan Al-banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al-banna has also been quoted as saying Islam will “obliterate” Israel. Opponents are also concerned about the association between MAC and London’s Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, whose president Assem Fadel, was also the head of a former charity that had its licence revoked over reports it had funneled money to “known terrorist associations.”
Based on the assumption those who provide funding for the chair will have influence over the type of courses offered, the group has even more urgent concerns about the $1 million that will be provided by the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT). Those concerns are rooted in investigations, including a 2003 U.S. probe when a U.S. Customs Service agent said he believed the IIIT president and vice president were ardent supporters of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The organization has never been convicted of any terrorist links and still supports and provide funding for Islamic courses at universities and seminaries across North America. In 2008, Temple University University in Philidelphia declined a $1.5 million offer to fund a chair in Islamic studies after concerns were raised, similar to those raised by Palmer in London.
“We urge Huron University College to follow the example of Temple University and refuse funding from both the IIIT and MAC,” said Palmer in his letter, adding if Huron accepts the money it could jeopardize future endowments from “individuals and organizations that would not want to provide financial backing to a university that is affiliated with Islamist groups that provide moral and/or material support to violent jihadists.”
While Huron maintains neither MAC nor IIIT will have power over a chair or courses, critics say that’s unlikely. They cite an article published by a Catholic graduate of Hartford Seminary, who wrote he suffered greatly at school for being critical of Islam during Muslim studies.
What Supporters Say
Huron’s Trish Fulton, the interim principal, said the college wouldn’t have accepted support if there was any truth to the concerns raised by Palmer and Leishman. The organizations will have no say in course tone or who’s hired as the chair, she said. She said the school is confident the Muslim Association of Canada has no links to terrorist organizations and doesn’t advocate for violent jihad. As for IIIT, “they fund education, Islamic studies, courses and chairs — that’s what they do.”
Fulton said she’s only received the one official letter and about “half a dozen” other complaints.
“We have a due diligence process that — it includes a site visit, a review of tax returns and any other information available on the organization — and we follow that before we entertain any gift of a certain size or gift from individuals or organizations,” she said. “Islamic studies is a legitimate subject for academic inquiry and we are very proud that this is the first chair of Islamic studies in a family of theology in Canada.”
The president of the Muslim Association of Canada, Dr. Wael Haddara, said the group is writing an official position, explaining it does claim “intellectual descent from Hassan Al-Banna,” even though “we also firmly believe that there is a tremendous amount of good in the writings, works and life of Al-Banna and the traditions of the Muslim Brotherhood . . .”
“I understand the concerns,” Haddara said, noting many religious movements and uprisings can be traced to leaders who’ve advocated violence or other questionable tactics. “Everybody has an obligation to explain themselves and we have an obligation to explain ourselves. . . our communication strategy has not been effective.” He said there’s frustration, though, with concerns that appeared to be based on a theory that Muslim immigrants have a greater agenda to use their power in society to replace Western values with Muslim ones. “It is a very ingenious argument. The argument is, ‘I will be good up until such time that I am sufficiently strong and then I will be bad. And if we are decent and participating, we are just biding our time, and if we say anything dissenting then we are showing our true face.’“
Haddara said MAC supports the Islamic chair at Huron because there’s great value in increasing knowledge about all faiths.
“People see the value in this, which is elevating the discourse of Islam and Muslim issues . . . and adding some meaningful dialogue about what is it to be a Muslim in Canada, what are the challenges, what is the Muslim identity.”
The faculty of theology at Huron welcomes the chair in Islamic studies, said its dean, Rev. William Danaher.
“Chairs are the highest status and we believe Islam and the Muslim community is worthy of a chair, rather than some courses in Islam. We view this as vital to what we hope to achieve in religious studies in the faculty of theology.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi: Nuclear Energy is Future But I Await Referendum
(AGI)Rome- Silvio Berlusconi sees the future in nuclear energy but stated “if the nation doesn’t want it, we must acknowledge it”. “Whoever governs must respect the people’s choices,” said the Italian Premier, referring to the upcoming referendum on nuclear plants, “I’ve never taken care of this referendum but let’s see what the voters say”. “I’m convinced that nuclear energy is the future,” he added during his short speech at the Quirinal, “but if the people don’t want it, then that’s that.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark’s Border Controls Take a Toll on Tourism Industry
Increased customs checks are met with political protest and boycotts from German tourists
Denmark’s summer house rental agencies have been busy the past couple of weeks fielding calls from German tourists. But the calls have not been to book holiday homes but rather to cancel reservations. The cancellations began trickling in after the government announced last month that tightened border controls would be introduced as early as this week in the form of more customs agents and spot checks for smuggled goods. “We had three cancellations immediately after the decision and we have gotten a lot of complaints from Germans who are shocked and critical of the decision,” Niels Svendsen, sales manager for Dansommer summer house rental agency in Risskov, told Politiken newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Downtown Sofia Mosque Turns Loudspeakers Down
The sound of the loudspeakers at the Banya Bashi mosque in downtown Sofia will be turned down and one or two of them, located in the mosque’s entry hall, will be removed.
The agreement was reached during a meeting between the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, the Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, and the Chief Mufti, Mustafa Hadzhi.
The mosque’s Board will also apply all possible effort to limit the number of Muslims, praying outside, on the sidewalk, by using the second level of the building which can hold 900 people, Hadzhi says.
Tsvetanov explained no events are to be held from now on in the mosque’s vicinity during the Friday prayer.
On May 20, supporters of the far-right, nationalist Ataka party, led by party Chair, Volen Siderov, shocked Bulgaria as its rally protesting against the use of loudspeakers by the mosque in downtown Sofia got out of hand, and activists of Ataka assaulted praying Muslims in front of the mosque.
The incident has had wider repercussions, all the way from Bulgarians flocking to lay flowers at the mosque as a sign of apology, to the start of investigation of Ataka for stirring ethnic and religious hatred and the consolidation of the voters of the Bulgarian ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms).
The Interior Minister informed about 6-7 individuals have been identified from video cameras, some not from Ataka; they have all been interrogated, but the Prosecutor’s Office is yet to request anything else.
It was reported meanwhile that Siderov had refused to officially acknowledge the receipt for the fine of BGN 2 500 imposed on Ataka by the City Hall over the incident.
Bulgaria’s former Tsar and Prime Minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, wrote Wednesday, in his personal blog, the incident is a disgrace for Bulgaria.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Trades Barbs Over Origin of Killer Bacteria
Russia banned European vegetable imports Thursday and Spain said it would seek compensation over being wrongly blamed for the mysterious lethal bacteria that has killed 17, mainly in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Open Investigation Into Former Minister Who Had ‘Orgy With Little Boys’ In Morocco
The French prosecutor’s office has today opened an investigation after a former government minister alleged that another ex-minister had participated in an orgy with young boys in Morocco.
Former Education Minister Luc Ferry will likely be questioned after claimng during a television show that the man was caught at an orgy in Marrakech, a judicial official said.
The preliminary investigation is aimed at seeking more precise information from Ferry, the official said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy, Spain Seek to Annul Single EU Patent
‘Unacceptable discrimination’ on language issue, they say
(ANSA) — Bussels, May 30 — Italy and Spain on Monday said they would appeal to the European Court of Justice against the single European Union patent approved by the other 25 EU members.
Rome and Madrid say the patent introduces “unacceptable discrimination” because it is only written in French, English and German. The announcement came at an EU competitiveness council in Brussels, where Italy’s representative, Vincenzo Grassi, called the patent “one of the most divisive pages in European Union history”. Spain’s secretary of state for EU affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, said the patent was “a discriminatory measure that goes against the principles of the European Union”.
The plan to introduce a single process for EU patents went forward on March when EU competitiveness ministers endorsed the rarely used mechanism of ‘reinforced cooperation’ among the 25 EU members who approve the plan.
Single Market Commissioner Michel Barnier said Italy and Spain could come back into the process “at any time”.
Hailing the single patent as a step forward against copyright crime, he denied charges of discrimination, saying Italian and Spanish firms could use it.
Italy says issues concerning languages require unanimity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Member on Jihadi Forum Urges Muslims to Set Europe on Fire as Part of Jihad Against Infidels
In a May 30 post on the jihadi forum Shumukh Al-Islam, a member called “Abu Suleiman Al-Nasser”, who describes himself as a supporter of global jihad, calls on the jihad-loving Muslims of Europe to start fires all over this continent, in order to undermine the economies of the European countries. He advises them to torch anything they can — buildings, farms, and petrol stations and depots — and also provides instructions for manufacturing a Molotov cocktail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel’s Dearth of Conviction: The Faintheartedness of Germany’s Politicians
In US politics, rhetoric is an art form, leading to vigorous debate and vibrant political life. Not so in Germany, where fear and faintheartedness have resulted in a lack of vision and a shortage of personality. Chancellor Angela Merkel has begun to seem unsure of herself.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moldovans Rally to Protest Formal Recognition of Islam
Hundreds of Moldovans have taken to the streets in Chisinau to protest the government’s recognition of the country’s tiny Muslim minority, RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service reports. Some participants in the rally warned that the decision would open the door to terrorism and lead to mass conversions to Islam. “We want to guard our borders and to defend our Orthodox faith…. The Muslims are like a virus. If you let in just a few they will multiply,” one female participant at the rally told RFE/RL, refusing to give her name. Another woman in the crowd outside the government building said Muslims would introduce polygamy and “harems” to Moldova. And a priest named Gheorghe was quoted by local media as saying at the rally that the Muslims “are all instructed in terrorism.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mutant Bacteria: E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Aggressive New Strain
As the E. coli outbreak continues to ravage Germany and other parts of Europe, the World Health Organization said Thursday that the aggressive intestinal bacteria is a new strain never seen before. Meanwhile fears of the illness prompted Russia to ban imports of vegetables from the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Vigilantes’ Burn Down Home of Burglar Who Targeted His Neighbours… Leaving Him With Nothing
A burglar who was behind a series of raids on neighbours in his village had his house burned down by suspected vigilantes.
Laurence Duffy, 35, who had become a blight on his community, lost everything when his home in Chopwell, Gateshead, was set on fire in December last year.
It is thought the blaze may have been a revenge attack on the drug addict’s home after the spate of burglaries which he admitted at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.
Duffy, who had been a promising footballer in his youth before turning to heroin, admitted five offences of burglary and attempted burglary around his village.
Judge Brian Forster, who was shown a newspaper report and photograph of the aftermath of the fire, described the timing of the blaze as ‘suspicious’.
He said: ‘It is never for any members of the local community to take matters into their own hands and it is suspicious this fire took place immediately after the commission of these offences.
‘I stress it is for the courts alone to deal with cases.’
One of Duffy’s victims said: ‘We were on holiday at the time and my daughter phoned to tell us what had happened.
‘We couldn’t enjoy ourselves after that and we came home to find the house in a right mess.
‘My nerves have been shattered. I’m forever thinking that it might happen again and this time I might be in the house.
‘Now he’s locked up I can relax for a bit. I just hope when he gets out he doesn’t come back here.’
Duffy struck four more times but on each occasion failed to get inside the properties, the court heard.
Another of his victims said: ‘I don’t think he was the most sophisticated of burglars.
‘He was making such a racket when he tried to get into our house that the neighbours came out to see what was going on and caught him in the act.
‘One of them gave chase and eventually caught him and held him until the police arrived.’
Jailing Duffy for just over two years and nine months Judge Forster said: ‘It is quite clear to me you have been committing offences in your local area and you have become something of a blight upon Chopwell.
‘At a younger age you had the world ahead of you.
‘You were a very good footballer, your talents were recognised by the award of trophies, but unfortunately you were involved in an accident, you became involved in crime, and you became involved in taking heroin.
‘Heroin has effectively destroyed your life and robbed you of the ambition you had at one stage.’
Stephen Rich, defending, said Duffy had been unable to cope with his mother’s death and severe domestic pressure and as a result turned back to crime as his life descended into ‘chaos’, which deepened after his home was set on fire on December 27 last year.
‘The cause is being investigated,’ Mr Rich said. ‘It has not been attributed to anyone in particular but he believes certainly it was someone who was trying to get at him.
‘He lost his belongings, including trophies, mementos and keepsakes of his daughter and his mother who has recently died.’
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cambridge Students Warned Not to Go Out Alone at Night as Bike-Riding Sex ‘Predator’ Strikes for the Ninth Time
A bike-riding sex attacker is targeting students in Cambridge.
Nine women have so far been attacked in the city — eight of whom were studying at the prestigious university.
Each time he has struck, the man has prowled the streets on a bike before grabbing and groping his victims — aged between 19 and 32 — but he has fled the scene when they began struggling or screaming.
As fears grow that his attacks could become more serious, all students, staff and fellows have now been emailed by Dr Mark Wormald, a senior tutor at Pembroke College, warning students to remain vigilant.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Arrested Following Three-Hour Bank Siege Was Carrying ‘A Bomb’
A man arrested after a three-hour siege at a bank was carrying a bomb, police said today.
The man was forced on to his knees outside the Co-operative Bank as he was arrested by armed police officers.
The black-haired suspect was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt and black trousers as he was held. Sources said the incident, in Watford, Hertfordshire, was not thought to be terrorist-related.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Workers Killed in Explosion at Crude Oil Refinery After Petrol Tankers Crash
Two men were killed last night in an explosion at an oil refinery which shook nearby homes.
It is thought that two petrol tankers collided inside the Chevron refinery, killing both the drivers and sending a fireball ripping through the plant in Pembroke Dock, south-west Wales.
Phil Horne, whose home in Milford Haven overlooks the refinery from across an estuary, said: ‘I heard an explosion, turned around and saw a large fireball disappearing into the sky.
‘It went about halfway up the chimney stack of the refinery.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
General Mladic: The Facts
by Srdja Trifkovic
The circumstances surrounding arrest of the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, General Ratko Mladic, seem puzzling. On May 26 he was captured in the house of a close relative with the same surname in a village north of Belgrade. Prima facie this means either that Mladic was entirely left to his own devices and had to seek shelter with people certain to be under police surveillance, or else that the Serbian authorities had been conniving in his hiding. The former is unlikely in view of the effectiveness of Mladic’s concealment after he finally went underground in 2002. The latter is even less likely in view of President Boris Tadic’s constant desire to please his mentors in Brussels and Washington and get Serbia a step closer to the ever-elusive EU membership.
According to our reliable sources in Belgrade, Mladic would not have been discovered had he not decided to give himself up in return for a substantial financial reward for his family. He is a very sick man and unlikely to live much longer. In addition to a chronic kidney ailment and high blood pressure, he has suffered several minor strokes over the past decade. Two years ago he was treated—under an assumed name—for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at a clinic in Belgrade. Aware that his wife Bosiljka and son Darko had been living in penury since the authorities stopped paying his pension in 2005, Mladic decided to offer the government a deal. The final settlement is well below the $10m previously offered for Mladic’s capture, but sufficient to enable his wife and son to live in comfort for many years to come.
The price Mladic will have to pay is to endure, in the closing months of his life, a show trial at The Hague, where his guilt for genocide, crimes against humanity etc. is treated as a long-established fact. That he will not be granted even pro forma assumption of innocence was evident in the statement by the viceroy of Bosnia (“International High Representative”), Valentin Inzko of Austria, who described Mladic as a “war criminal” even though the trial is unlikely to start until some time next year.
Ratko Mladic is neither a monster nor a saint. He is a soldier, groomed in the Titoist tradition of the JNA (YPA) trans-national Yugoslavism, who rediscovered his Serb roots in late middle age. He was a skilled tactician but he was not a master strategist: he knew how to win battles, but he ending the war was beyond him. His masterly conquest of the fortified Muslim positions on Mts. Igman and Bjelašnica in the summer of 1993 was a neat case of deep penetration by platoon-sized shock units in the center, immediately followed by panic-inducing flanking pincers.
Mladic’s freedom of action was partly curtailed by the latent tensions between the military and the political leadership of the Bosnian Serb republic. He and his staff were former YPA officers mistrusted by the ruling Serbian Democratic Party. On the other hand, Mladic’s view was that the Serbian Democratic Party establishment was both corrupt and inept. Dr. Karadžic retaliated by referring to the Army top brass as “commie bastards,” komunjare. The underlying animosity was based on the politicians’ claim that the officers had divided loyalties, since many of them (including Mladic) were still on the payroll of the Yugoslav Army, which at that time was controlled by Slobodan Miloševic.
Needless to say, Ratko Mladic is not guilty as charged. The heart of the indictment against him, “Srebrenica,” is a myth—a genocide-that-never was, a postmodernist exercise in pseudoreality. It is a matter of record that thousands of Muslim men were killed in the vicinity of that small town during the Bosnian war, and that most of them lost their lives during an attempted breakthrough after the pocket fell to the Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995. At least a fifth reached safety of the Muslim-held town of Tuzla; a few hundred crossed to Serbia, across the Drina River to the east. An unknown were killed while fighting their way through; and many others—numbers remain disputed—were taken prisoner and executed by the Bosnian Serb soldiers. The numbers remain unknown and misrepresented. The War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague (ICTY) never came up with a conclusive breakdown of casualties. That a war crime did take place is undeniable, but the number of its victims remains forensically and demographically unproven. According to the former BBC reporter Jonathan Rooper, “from the outset the numbers were used and abused” for political purposes.” The most startling aspect of the 7-8,000 figure, he says, is that it has always been represented as synonymous with the number of people executed. This was never a possibility…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Mladic: I Want to Go to the Hague in My General’s Uniform
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MAY 31 — Former Bosnian Serb military leader, Ratko Mladic, who was arrested in Serbia on Thursday and is awaiting extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has asked to wear his general’s uniform during his transfer. Today, high- circulation daily tabloid Kurir reports that Mladic also said that he wants to visit his mother and brother’s tombs in his general’s uniform. He was not present at their funerals because he was in hiding. Also according to Kurir, the former general has asked for a watch. The officials monitoring him at the Special War Crimes Tribunal in Belgrade told him that prisoners are not allowed to wear watches for security reasons. “There are plastic ones,” said Mladic, who yesterday actually received a new non-metal watch. Ratko Mladic, who is a chess lover, also asked if he could play a chess match against Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor, who has already been spoken with the former general on several occasions since his capture. According to the press, the two men have apparently taken a clear liking to each other, so much so that Mladic reportedly calls him by his first name, Bruno. “He is as old as my son Darko,” he observed. Vekaric himself brought the general the strawberries that he requested to his cell. Following this type of episode, Mladic reportedly said: “I like Vekaric, but I don’t like (Vladimir) Vukcevic.” Vukcevic is Serbia’s Head War Crimes Prosecutor. The newspapers have also reported that Ratko Mladic has reportedly expressed his fondness for Jelena Karleusa, a well-known folk singer in Serbia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: New Law on Church and Mosque Construction
New law should cut red tape for the construction of places of worship. “It is a good thing,” spokesman for the Catholic Church says, but a final appraisal must wait for the final version.
Cairo (AsiaNews) — Egypt’s Ministry of Local Development has drafted a bill that would regulate the construction of places of worship. It would give Christians and Muslims the same rights. The text of the new bill was presented to Christian religious leaders. Mgr Rafik Greiche, spokesman for the Catholic Church, said the draft bill “is a good thing”. He said he hoped it would not change before its final approval.
“It is only a bill,” he told AsiaNews. “We have to evaluate the final version before approval, but it is rather good.” The law new bill, which has six articles, should be adopted by the end of June. It contains some revolutionary elements.
“First, the same rules would apply to the construction of mosques and churches,” Mgr Greiche noted.
“Towards the end of the Mubarak regime, parliament was considering a law on churches alone, which would be treated differently from mosques. The fact that both now would be treated the same way is a good thing.” Mgr Greiche said.
In the past, under Mubarak, building permits for churches required the authorisation of the president or the prime minister. “Now, local councils are in charge,” Mgr Greiche said. “In addition, a two-month time limit is in place; if local authorities do not act, an application is considered approved by default.”
“Egypt’s notorious bureaucracy used to undermine all attempts to build churches. One day, the required engineer was not in; the next day, the right official was not there . . . and this went on and on, for years.”
Discrimination between churches and mosques existed also at another level. “Before, an application would be considered only if there was a certain number of faithful (up to 100,000). Under the new law, there are no preconditions. This is why the new law is a good thing.”
Likewise, “The police cannot intervene. In the past, security forces had the power to block construction under any pretext, true or false. The bureaucracy and police tried to stop church building in any way they could. For mosques instead, it was always a breeze.”
A different but real problem Christians still face is opposition from fundamentalist and Salafist groups who sometimes try to prevent Christians from using the churches they already have.
“This problem is particularly acute in some parts of the country, like Luxor or Arman. In other parts, things are calm.”
“The new law is especially important for the new satellite towns built around Cairo, where the need for churches is crying. In the villages, where poverty is high, fundamentalists do their best to prevent church construction. I hope this bill is not changed. I am cautious, but full of hope.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: USA Concerned Over Weapons Falling Into Al Qaida Hands
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, JUNE 1 — The United States have concrete concerns regarding the possibility that Libyan weapons may fall into the hands of Al Qaida, according to the head of U.S. Africa Command, General Carter F. Ham. “There are very concrete worries among all regional partners, shared by the United States, about the possibility of proliferation from Libya to other places, including those under Al Qaida’s control,” said the general during a press conference.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Bishop of Tripoli: NATO Bombs a Coptic Church. Civilian Casualties.
Last night the bombs damaged a Coptic church located near a military barracks. Migrant Filipino Catholics witness charity among the Libyan people affected by war.
Tripoli (AsiaNews) — “NATO has intensified bombings and continues to create victims. The missiles are falling everywhere and, unfortunately, not only affect military zones, but also civilian areas. The people in Tripoli are suffering, even if nobody talks about it. “ So says Mgr Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli. The prelate said that the bombing last night damaged several buildings, including a Coptic church located a few hundred meters from a military barracks.
According to the Libyan Government, the NATO operation against Gaddafi has killed more than 700 people and injured over four thousand, but so far officials from the regime do not allow the verification of that information. Monsignor Martinelli explains that the city lacks fuel and the population is afraid to leave home; psychological damage is also caused by the bombings.
The prelate emphasizes the active presence of more than three thousand migrant Filipino Catholics, working in different hospitals in the city and throughout the country. They attend Mass every week in the cathedral despite the bombings. For the prelate, “they represent the heart of the local Catholic community and are a testimony of love and service to the Libyan people who suffer.”
Meanwhile, NATO today announced the extension of the mission to Libya by an additional 90 days. “This decision is a clear message to the regime of Gaddafi,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO. Underlining the humanitarian nature of the mission, the Secretary General appealed to all the Libyan people: “We remain united and we guarantee that the day when you can shape your future is coming.”
On 30 May, Professor Angelo Del Boca spoke to AsiaNews about the unusual duration of this war. According to the historian, “the high cost of the operation against Gaddafi has transformed a lightening conflict into a war of nonsense by the media. What NATO hoped to achieve with the No Fly Zone has now been dissolved.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians May End Run Security Council
Sources: General Assembly could override veto of statehood plans
As the Palestinians try to maneuver a unilateral declaration of statehood by the United Nations in September, most commentators say that such a bid won’t be possible without the approval of the U.N. Security Council where the United States is certain to exercise its veto, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
But will it?
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Israel cannot stop the U.N. General Assembly from recognizing a Palestinian state, he said that “it is impossible to recognize a Palestinian state without passing through the Security Council and such a move is bound to fail.”
“No one has the power to stop the decision to recognize a Palestinian state in the U.N. General Assembly in September,” he said. “It can also be possible to make the decision there that the world is flat.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Misuse of Words in the War Against the Jews
Occupied territories, suicide bombers, cycle of violence, hard-line, moderate, peace process, peace, terrorists, martyrs, freedom fighters, national liberation movements, activists.
The main front in the War against the Jews is, of course, in Israel. Notwithstanding that the Jews have more claim, right and entitlement to their lands than any North American or South American regime and various European and Asian countries, words and symbols have been enlisted to override the complex historical and legal arguments. The Israelis supposedly are “occupiers”. One Canadian leftist politician even told an interviewer that the Occupation started in 1948! (The word “occupation” is based on the argument that Israel alone among the nations of the world cannot keep land won in a defensive war against genocidal enemies, which is being held pending peace talks which Israel has always agreed would determine “secure and recognized” borders.)
Whether typical Jewish discussions based on traditional dialetics and Talmud-like analysis are passé — or whether we are in a temporary “stupid” phase of world history, based on the cursed moral equivalency, no one can know. More likely is that the ascendancy of cultural and moral relativism has robbed the post-religious of their moral bearings. But how can one accept arguments that the Jews are somehow interlopers in their biblical lands, compared to more recent, arguably inauthentic Middle Eastern regimes, like the House of Saud in the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Politics of Stasis: Israelis Increasingly Resigned to Life Without Peace
There was a time when Israel was anxious to strike a peace deal with the Palestinians. Now, however, the majority of the country’s population seems to have given up hope. While young Arabs are rebelling against autocratic regimes in the region, apathy is spreading in Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Ki-Moon Urges Italy Not to Leave Lebanon
UN Secretary-General hopes Rome ‘will maintain current levels’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 1 — United Nations Secretary Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday voiced the hope Italy will not draw down its peacekeeping forces in Lebanon in the wake of a recent attack on its contingent there.
“I hope that Italy will maintain the current levels of its Lebanon contingent, in spite of the tragic attack on the Italian UNIFIL convoy,” Ban told ANSA.
A roadside bomb struck a UNIFIL logistics convoy on the main highway near Saida, south of Beirut, on May 27, wounding six Italian peacekeepers, one of them critically, and two Lebanese civilians.
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said that Italy would immediately bring home 600 of its 1,780 peacekeeping troops deployed in Lebanon since 2006. Italy has “no intention of abandoning Lebanon unilaterally,” but it has “too many” soldiers deployed there, the minister added.
The attack was greeted with widespread condemnation, with Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Saad Hariri backing a UN investigation into the blast while reiterating Lebanon’s commitment to Security Council Resolution 1701, which expanded UNIFIL’s mandate and ended the 2006 summer war with Israel.
The political climate in Lebanon has grown increasingly volatile over the past five months, with lawmakers unable to come up with a new government and unrest in Syria, now in its ninth consecutive week of bloody anti-government protests, showing no signs of abating.
The Italian contingent is the largest of the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping force. Over 250 UNIFIL personnel have been killed since the force first deployed to southern Lebanon in 1978.
“Italy is a peace-loving country, and as such fully shares the UN’s objectives,” said Ban, adding that he will speak about it personally with the Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi. The Secretary-General is among 80 foreign delegations now in Rome to celebrate Italy’s 150th anniversary on June 2.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Delegation Head in Lebanon: EU is Training Lebanese Army
Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst, head of the EU delegation to Lebanon, has said that the EU supports a strong Lebanese army, and is therefore participating in training it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gulf Countries: Yes to Joint GCC Driving Licences
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MAY 30 — Countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will soon have a joint system for the granting of driving licences, according to the newspaper Gulf News.
The deal was agreed during a conference of senior road safety officials of the six member countries of the GCC (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman), which is currently being held in Abu Dhabi. During the conference, a proposal was made for an electronic link between the six countries allowing the flow of all data relating to traffic and the behaviour of motorists in the region.
The first phase of the joining up of driving licences will concern cars, motorcycles and lorries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Cleric Urges Killing of Israeli Children
Leader’s Web site declares that suicide attacks are a must for every Muslim
A radical religious cleric known as Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor has declared that attacks on Israeli civilians permissible and suicide bombings are a Muslim duty. In addition, he has urged followers to continue suicide attacks against Israelis, including children.
Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah, considered one of the Islamic Republic’s most radical clerics, has issued a religious edict on his Web site whereby suicide attacks are not only legitimate but are a must for every Muslim.
The senior cleric was responding to a question from a follower regarding the difference between “martyr’s death” and “suicide.” The anonymous post noted that “some people say that martyrdom operations are considered suicide and that they are haram (forbidden) because they contradict Islam.”
Mesbah expressed his regret in his response that his follower has fallen victim to “propaganda of the enemies of Islam.” He added that the follower was wasting his time instead of focusing on “uprooting the Zionist regime.
“When protecting Islam, the Muslim people depend on martyrdom operations. It not only is allowed, but even is an obligation,” Mesbah wrote.
The follower presented another question regarding Islam’s position on harming Israelis, wondering whether Hamas and Jihad actions against Israeli civilians are forbidden. He also asked: “How about the Israeli children killed in such attacks?”
Ayatollah said he did not see fit to forbid the killing of children, only noting that Israelis can be harmed unless they openly express their objection to their government’s position. He added that even in such cases, harming civilians is permissible if “they are used as human shield and fighting the aggressors depends on attacking those civilians.”
Beyond these insights, the cleric did not offer further instructions and failed to censure the killing of children.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Islamists Protests Near Syrian Embassy
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, JUNE 1 — Jordan’s Islamists movement on Wednesday organized the biggest protest against Syrian regime since the popular pursing started in the neighbouring country.
Hundreds of members and senior leaders flocked near the embassy compound in the posh area of Abdoun and held placards describing president Bashar al Assad of being a butcher.
Jameel Abu Baker, spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood said the protest was part of an Arab awakening against tyrant regimes.
“What is happening in Syria is a true carnage. This random killing should stop,” Abu Baker told ANSA during the protest.
The Islamist movement has been coy in its reaction over developments in Syria, amid concern that unrest in neighbouring Syria could spill over to the kingdom. The group has strong ties to Hamas whose leadership is being sheltered in Syria.
Activists held pictures of victims who died during clashes including children and women.
Salem Falahat, former president of the Muslim Brotherhood called on Syrian army to shoot at Israel, rather than their own people.
“The enemy of the Arabs is Israel. They should point their guns at them, not against armless civilians,” he said.
Protesters held placards that read: Stop the blood shed. From Jordanian children to Syrian Children, Bashar Go and Leave you Butcher.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Khamenei Rep: IRGC Commander Asks Khamenei for Permission to Arrest Ahmadinejad
Ayatollah Abdolnabi Namazi, Assembly of Experts member and representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the city of Kashan, said on his website yesterday that the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Ali Jafari, had asked Khamenei for permission to arrest all those involved in an attempt to remove Khamenei and to harm the rule of the jurisprudent in Iran. Namazi said that Khamenei had approved Jafari’s request, but demanded that “the president of the country be left.” In recent days, senior regime officials have called for the arrest of Rahim-Mashai, the director of Ahmadinejad’s office.
President Ahmadinejad himself was warned by them that the schism between him and Khamenei could lead to his removal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Khamenei: U.S. Submitting to Iran
In a speech to cadets of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) military academy, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that despite activity against the Islamic revolutionary regime in Iran in order to establish it in 1979, today the U.S. is in a situation of submission to Tehran. He said that the changes in the region were making it lose the regimes identified with it were the actualization of God’s promises. He added that the events of “Nakba Day,” May 14-15, signified the expected “final victory” of the Muslims over Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pressure Rises on Iran Leader
Iran’s president came under new domestic pressure on two fronts with a rare, unified blow against him in parliament and the first significant opposition rally in months, a protest in response to the death of an activist in an assault by security forces Wednesday.
In parliament Wednesday, lawmakers voted to refer President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the judiciary to rule on whether his move last month to name himself oil minister, after dismantling the ministry and sacking the minister, was legal. The events came as the opposition Green Movement tried to rally nationwide support for antigovernment protests on June 12, the anniversary of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s re-election in 2009. That disputed vote sparked Iran’s largest outbreak of political unrest in decades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Female Driver Released, Stated Her Repentance
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 31 — Manal Al Sharif, the Saudi mother who was arrested on May 21 after being filmed at the wheel and publicly challenging the regime on the ban on female drivers, was released by the police of Alkhobar, her home city. However she had to pay a heavy price: in effects, according to a report by Arab News, Manal promised that she will not join the demonstration of Saudi female drivers that she had personally called for June 17, and officially excused herself for breaking the law. Manal retracted her statements in a letter addressed to king Abdullah, Custodian of the two Sacred Mosques.
Manal’s case and, along with hers, the case of a group of Saudi women determined to gain the right to drive ended up on papers and websites all over the world. The woman, who became the symbol of the revolt against the too many bans imposed in the name of an ultraconservative Islam, had been renamed the Saudi ‘Rosa Parks’, in homage to the famous black lady who, by refusing to give up her seat to a white man, started off the battle for racial equality in the United States in the 1950s.
Manal, age 32, divorced with child, works as an IT expert with Saudi Aramco. Within the ample premises of the oil company women are allowed to drive, but they cannot go out, which Manala instead did to take her child to school. On Youtube she explained that she had no choice, insofar as she lacked the money to hire a driver.
During her stay in jail more than 3,000 Saudi citizens signed an appeal to ask the king to set her free and to make a clear decision on the women’s right to drive. On her Facebook page, Manal received some 25,000 messages expressing support and solidarity. However, on the other hand the Saudi ultraconservatives launched a campaign against June 17, inviting men to take to the streets and beat any females caught driving a car.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Woman Accuses Chauffeur of Rape Amid Row
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — A Saudi businesswoman, forced by law to hire a male driver, has accused her chauffeur of raping her, a newspaper reported Wednesday amid a growing campaign to allow women to drive themselves.
The daily Okaz said the driver stopped the car in an industrial part of the holy western city of Medina and raped her while threatening to shoot her with his pistol.
The woman, who was not named, reported the attack and the driver, whose nationality was not given, was arrested.
The report coincides with an intensifying campaign to bring a change of law so that women can obtain a driving licence and drive legally. Activists have called on women to drive their cars in a protest rally on June 17.
Earlier this week, Saudi authorities decided to free on bail Manal al-Sharif who was detained for 10 days for breaking the ultra-conservative kingdom’s ban on women driving, her lawyer said.
“We were informed today of the decision to free Manal on bail. The procedural steps towards her release are under way,” Adnan al-Saleh told AFP, adding he hoped the case would now be closed.
Sharif had called upon King Abdullah to release her, Saleh told AFP on Sunday after meeting his client in prison.
The woman, a 32-year-old computer-security consultant, was arrested on May 22 after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern Saudi city of Khobar.
The divorced mother of one explained in the video that getting around was often a headache. Women in Saudi Arabia without the means to hire a chauffeur must depend on the goodwill of male family members to drive them.
Her arrest sparked debate about women’s rights within the kingdom.
A Facebook page titled “We are all Manal al-Sharif: a call for solidarity with Saudi women’s rights,” on Sunday had more than 24,000 supporters.
However, another Facebook page called on men to use “iqals” — the cords used with traditional headdresses by many Gulf men — to beat Saudi women who drive their cars in the planned June 17 protest.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Christians Under Siege
by John Eibner, Middle East Quarterly
The brutal murder of the head of Turkey’s Catholic Church, Bishop Luigi Padovese, on June 3, 2010, has rattled the country’s small, diverse, and hard-pressed Christian community. The 62-year-old bishop, who spearheaded the Vatican’s efforts to improve Muslim-Christian relations in Turkey, was stabbed repeatedly at his Iskenderun home by his driver and bodyguard Murat Altun, who concluded the slaughter by decapitating Padovese and shouting, “I killed the Great Satan. Allahu Akhbar!” He then told the police that he had acted in obedience to a “command from God.”
Though bearing all the hallmarks of a jihadist execution, the murder was met by denials and obfuscation—not only by the Turkish authorities but also by Western governments and the Vatican.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: The Horrific Last Moments of Student Shot in the Head While Trying to Save His Father
[WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.]
These are the terrifying last moments of a student captured on CCTV just moments before he’s shot in the head at point-blank range trying to save his father.
Dogukan Umut, 23, died in Turkey in January after his father allegedly became embroiled in a row with a bank manager.
He had been studying for a master’s degree in International Business Management at Bournemouth University and was on a three-day trip to his hometown.
A Turkish court was told Dogukan’s developer father had an argument with a female bank clerk in the southern city of Adana.
He did not want to pay a commission on the transfer of 100,000 Turkish lira (£38,000) because he was a long-standing customer.
The clerk claims she was insulted, and told her husband, a bank manager, who then confronted the father at his office.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Internet Filter to Block Free Access to Information
The Turkish government has defended plans requiring Internet users to sign on to a national filter system. Rights experts call the scheme an unprecedented and heavy-handed attempt to control information.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who is Behind Adam Kokesh and Russia Today Television?
A closer look at the Moscow-funded Russia Today television channel, whose host, American Adam Kokesh, was arrested after a disruption last Saturday at the Jefferson Memorial, reveals some interesting and disturbing corporate and foreign intelligence connections.
[…]
A website for the group, American Patriots Against Kokesh, which opposed his run for office, accused him of working with several different Marxist groups.
This may be why Russia Today, which regularly features Marxist groups on the air, gave Kokesh a show on its English-language affiliate. RT treats fringe characters such as Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation as major political figures, even using her to defend Castro’s spies jailed in the U.S.
But Kokesh is just one part of this growing propaganda operation. Russia Today has various “partners” in the media business, including the Huffington Post, which is now part of AOL, and What REALLY Happened, a website that features such stories as “Israel’s Whores in Congress” and “Reflections of Comrade Fidel.” The website mostly features articles about a number of conspiracies, with a focus on the “inside job” theory that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were staged by the U.S. Government.
Other RT “partners” include Izvestia, which was the official publication of the old Soviet regime, and Trud, the mouthpiece for Soviet labor unions.
A partnership with RT means that the channel runs articles from those “news” organizations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Official: Forces Arrest Bin Laden Associate in Afghanistan
(CNN) — A former associate of Osama bin Laden, described by authorities as a “Pakistan-based attack planner,” has been arrested in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition said Thursday.
The International Security Assistance Force declined to identify the man, saying it was not releasing further information.
“It’s part of an ongoing operation,” Army Maj. Tim James, spokesman for ISAF’s joint command, told CNN by telephone from Afghanistan.
The man was arrested along with two others described as “associates,” according to ISAF, during a raid Wednesday in the northern province of Balkh, an insurgent stronghold that borders Uzbekistan.
The arrest follows another a day earlier in the same area of a suspected al Qaeda-linked militant believed responsible for last week’s suicide attack at a provincial governor’s office that killed an Afghan police commander and wounded a German general, according to an ISAF operational update posted on its website.
The operation comes a month after U.S. commandos killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
In a statement posted on its website, ISAF released few details about Wednesday’s arrest, saying only that it is “suspected he was with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001.”
He was captured during an overnight operation after he was tracked to a compound in Nahr-e Shahi, the statement said.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad Killed by Pakistan Secret Services
Experts tell AsiaNews that the way the abduction was carried out points to the ISI, which had recently threatened the journalist. His funeral was held in his home town of Karachi. His murder stems from his investigation into Taliban infiltration in the military. Reporters without Borders rank Pakistan 151st out of 178 countries in terms of press freedom. Ten journalists have been killed so far this year.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — A Pakistani journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad, was found dead yesterday in Sarai Almagir, about 150 kilometres from Islamabad, after he was abducted, tortured and killed by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), this according to various journalists and activists contacted by AsiaNews. In their view, the way the kidnapping was carried out and the marks on the body have all the hallmarks of the infamous ISI rather than the Taliban. He was targeted because of his recent investigations, the most of which focused on the recent Taliban attack against the Pakistan Naval Station in Mehran. In his article, Shahzad showed how extremists have infiltrated the high echelons of the military.
Syed Saleem Shahzad’s funeral was held today at 1.30 pm in Karachi, capital of Sindh province. The 40-year-old married father of three (two boys, 13 and 7, and one girl, 11), was a Karachi native, but had moved with his family to Islamabad, where he worked for Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online, and also with some Italian media outlets (La Stampa and AdnKronos).
He disappeared on Sunday evening, when he left home, heading for a television station where he was scheduled to take part in a talkshow.
His body was found yesterday in Head Rasul, an area in Mandi Bahauddin District, Punjab. Earlier, investigators had found his car near Sahara-i-Alamgir, some ten kilometres from where his body was found.
The government has already announced the creation of commission of inquiry to investigate security forces and ISI involvement. Investigators are leaving all doors open, from religious extremists to other political groups. However, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who extended his condolences to the family on behalf of the government, suggested that the murder might be a “personal vendetta”.
Still, most fingers point to the secret services as the most likely culprit for the murder of a journalist who was an expert in Islamic terrorism and domestic affairs.
Syed’s brother-in-law, Hamza Ameer, said, “He was a very brave journalist” who was not afraid of possible retaliation for his work.
He left home around 5:30 pm, but soon after his mobile phone stopped responding. “The news channel tried to contact him several times” without success. They eventually called the family.
“We rushed to the Margalla police station,” Ameer said, “and lodged a complaint about Shahzad’s mysterious disappearance.”
At present, his wife and other relatives are not speaking, staying away from the media.
According to Islamabad Police Wajid Durrani, inspector general of the Islamabad police, Syed was “kidnapped close to his residence.” He added, “There were clear signs of torture on the body”.
The post mortem report indicates that the cause of death was liver failure and ruptured lungs, with 15 visible wounds on the body and broken ribs.
“Saleem Shahzad’s last story [. . .] revealed how Al Qaeda had penetrated the Pakistan Navy,” said Najam Sethi, an analyst and editor in chief of The Friday Times, who rejected police allegations that the Taliban were involved in the abduction.
The latter usually “take their victim to North Waziristan or the Tribal areas,” he said. Once in their stronghold, “they interrogate and release a complete video showing the whole world that they have abducted someone,” but this did not occur in the case of the journalist. “My experience points a finger at the intelligence agencies,” Sethi said.
In fact, “several years ago, Saleem Shahzad got into a fight and was shot in the left side in the ribs. He ultimately survived, but his left ribs were weak. “Another injury on his left side would have been fatal,” which is what happened.
“I have also experienced torture by the agencies back in 1999,” Sethi noted. “I barely survived a heart attack during the interrogation”.
Friend and fellow journalist Omar Waraich said that Shahzad had complained of threats from the ISI over the recent articles he wrote. He was picked up just days after he wrote his last report, in which he made some explosive allegations regarding the PNS Mehran attack (see Jibran Khan, “Karachi: Pakistani Taliban attack military base, killing 11,” in AsiaNews, 23 May 2011), which was caused by a breakdown between the military and the Taliban over the release of some prisoners.
“On Sunday evening Saleem Shahzad was suppose to speak about the PNS Mehran attack,” said Nasim Zehra, director of current affairs at Dunya News Channel.
For Human Rights Watch Pakistan representative Ali Dayan Hasan, Saleem Shahzad was abducted by the ISI. His case is similar to others blamed on the security agencies.
In September of last year, a journalist was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and raped. His attackers were never found but are thought to be ISI men.
According to Reporters without Borders, Pakistan ranks 151st out of 178 in terms of press freedom. This year, at least ten journalists have been killed doing their work.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Soldier Cited for Holding Off Up to 30 Taliban by Himself
Britain’s newest hero is a Nepali.
Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday awarded Britain’s second-highest award for bravery, the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, to Acting Sgt. Dipprasad Pun of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
While stationed as a lone sentry at a checkpoint in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on September 17, Pun fended off an attack by up to 30 Taliban fighters.
“There were many Taliban around me,” Pun said in an interview with British Forces News. “I thought they are definitely going to kill me. … I thought before they kill me I have to kill some of them.”
During the 15-minute battle, Pun fired more than 400 rounds of ammunition, detonated 17 grenades and a mine and even threw his gun tripod at a Taliban fighter climbing toward his position, according to British Forces News.
“He was just about to climb up there and I hit (him) with my tripod and he fell down again,” Pun told British Forces News.
Pun’s actions saved the lives of three fellow soldiers at the checkpoint and were the “bravest seen in his battalion over two hard tours in Afghanistan,” according to his medal citation.
Pun was not wounded in the firefight.
“That he survived unscathed is simply incredible,” his medal citation says. “Throughout Dip’s actions he was under almost constant intense fire. Dip’s courage and gallantry were simply astonishing.”
Pun, 31, joined the British military in 2000 and also has served in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Like other Gurkhas, Pun is from Nepal. The Gurkhas were incorporated into British forces after their fighting skill impressed the opposition British during the Nepal Wars of 1814 to 1816. As part of the peace treaty ending that conflict, Gurkhas were admitted into East India Company’s army and then into the British military.
Gurkhas recruited solely in Nepal remain Nepalese citizens during their service. Gurkha unit officers are British.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
China: Boy Regrets Selling His Kidney to Buy iPad
A 17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today. “I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,” said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. “A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hackers in China Target US Government Gmail Accounts
Google has uncovered a series of phishing attempts targeted at US and South Korean government officials. The attacks, which appear to originate from Jinan, China, attempted to gain access to the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users by tricking them into sharing their passwords. Chinese political activists, military personnel and journalists were also targeted. The attackers were attempting to monitor their victims’ email accounts by changing the settings to automatically forward messages. The attempts seem to have started in February, according to a report referenced by Google that also describes how the attacks were carried out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Seniors Volunteer for Fukushima ‘Suicide Corps’
Kazuko Sasaki, 69, the co-founder of the group, says she has a number of personal reasons why she wants to work at the plant. “My generation, the old generation, promoted the nuclear plants. If we don’t take responsibility, who will?” But Sasaki is also pragmatic about the risks an older person is willing to take versus someone younger. “When we were younger, we never thought of death. But death becomes familiar as we get older. We have a feeling that death is waiting for us. This doesn’t mean I want to die. But we become less afraid of death, as we get older.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Pensioners Volunteer to Tackle Nuclear Crisis
A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station. The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60. They say they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young. It was while watching the television news that Yasuteru Yamada decided it was time for his generation to stand up. No longer could he be just an observer of the struggle to stabilise the Fukushima nuclear plant. The retired engineer is reporting back for duty at the age of 72, and he is organising a team of pensioners to go with him.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Newly Discovered Microscopic Worm Thrives in Gold Mines a Kilometer Underground
High temperature, low oxygen and permanent darkness are no problem for a previously unknown species of nematode
Deep in South Africa’s gold mines water can be found in rock fractures, hosting bacteria that feed off the stone itself and form biofilms on the hard surfaces. Now new samples pulled from these sunless pools show that nematodes—roundworms of varying size that are essentially tubes with a digestive tract and thrive everywhere on the planet—likely graze on these bacterial films, surviving more than a kilometer underground. In fact, an entirely new species of nematode—dubbed Halicephalobus mephisto for a lifestyle reminiscent of Faust’s underworld demon, Mephistopheles, or “he who loves not the light”—makes its home only in the deep subsurface, suggesting that life, even complex, multicellular life, may populate sulphate-loving ecosystems in the planet’s unexplored depths.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
161,000 Asylum Seekers Allowed to Stay in the UK in Amnesty After Blunders by Border Agency
Tens of thousands of asylum seekers have in effect been granted an amnesty to stay in Britain because of blunders in the immigration system, MPs said last night. They are among 450,000 whose case files were found abandoned in boxes at the Home Office five years ago. Of these, 430,000 have now been considered, and 161,000 immigrants have been given the right to stay — many simply because they have been here so long.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
23 Egyptians Repatriated, 434 Since January
(AGI) Rome — Twenty-three Egyptian nationals were repatriated overnight via a charter flight from Catania to Cairo after arriving in Marina di Pozzallo, Ragusa on 31 May, the Italian Ministry of the Interior said. Ministry sources said “the individuals were identified during routine interviews by the experts of the prevention, anti-crime and immigration police who are specially trained to disrupt human trafficking criminal organizations.” A total of 434 Egyptians have been returned to their homeland since the beginning of the year “shortly after arriving on the Italian coasts”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Fishing Boat With Migrants Rescued in Otranto, 130 on Board
(AGI) Otranto -A Guardia di Finanza patrol boat sighted, 2 miles off Otranto, an 18-meter fishing boat carrying approx 150 people. The patrol boat, togetehr with a Coast Guard vessel supported the migrants boat, which suffered a failure, and had the passengers board the Italian vessel. At about 2.30 am, the military vessels brought safely the Lybian refugees — all men- in the port of Otranto.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Immigration Police to Restart Flying Brigades on Schengen Borders
Immigration police will restart random border checks for illegal immigrants from June 1, following changes in the law.
Earlier this year, the council of state said the checks were too similar to formal border controls, which have been scrapped in the Schengen open border agreement since 1985.
According to news agency ANP, last year 10 illegal immigrants a day were identified following the checks.
The new rules state that police can only check eight cross-border trains a day. Cars and lorries can be controlled for 90 hours a month — but only a percentage of passing vehicles may be stopped.
In terms of air traffic, a selection of passengers on seven flights a week from Schengen countries can be asked for their passports.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Rescue of Vessel With 700 People
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 1 — Late last night units of Tunisia’s Coast Guard and Army rescued, some twenty miles off the shore of Kerkennah island, a ship that was on the verge of sinking and that was carrying approximately 700 people of various nationalities (mostly African) that departed from a port in Libya.
Some sources reported to TAP that the ship was sailing towards the Italian coast and was carrying entire families and many children.
The rescue operations, which started last night, are still in progress because of adverse sea conditions, and the large number of people still on the ship, which is in shallow waters, preventing Coast Guard and Army vessels from coming too near.
The illegal aliens that are still on board and waiting to be transferred are being provided with food and blankets.
Transfer operations are thus being carried out with small boats and rubber dinghies, which are carrying the illegal aliens (children first) onto a Navy ship that is anchored a short distance away in deeper waters. Should the weather conditions improve, the rescue operations could also be joined by fishing boats that station in the section of coast running from Kraten to Kerkennah and that have offered their assistance. After receiving first aid, the refugees will all be transferred to camp Choucha, next to the borderline with Libya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Migrant Boat Breaks Down, Over 200 Missing
(AGI) Tunis — The Tunisian TAP agency says 200 to 270 migrants are lost off Tunisia after a boat carrying them to Italy broke down. The Tunisian coastguard has taken 570 migrants to safety, but there are fears that another two hundred or so fell into the sea in the fight to get off the boat and may have drowned.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 270 Migrants Missing Off Tunisia Coast: Official
TUNIS (AFP) — Up to 270 migrants are missing off the Tunisian coast after a ship headed for Italy capsized, authorities said on Thursday. Army and coastguard teams have lifted 570 people off the overcrowded vessel after it ran aground and capsized near Tunisia’s Kerkennah islands on Wednesday.
But between 200 and 270 were still missing after they tried to scramble aboard a flotilla of rescue boats, the TAP news agency said.
Authorities reported two dead bodies were recovered from the scene while seven injured people were taken to hospital in Sfax in southern Tunisia.
The coastguard said the vessel had been packed with refugees from the conflict in neighbouring Libya and was on its way to the Italian island of Lampedusa when it went aground.
It ran aground on a sandbank some 19 nautical miles (36 kilometres) off the coast of the islands, and then capsized as people struggled to leave the boat to jump into the rescue vessels, the agency reported.
Around 200 of those rescued were being taken to a refugee camp at Choucha in the south.
Italy has faced a massive influx of refugees since the fall of the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia in January and the outbreak of violence in neighbouring Libya.
Thousands of immigrants have fled to the small island of Lampedusa located between Sicily and Tunisia.
Italy says around 40,000 have arrived on its coasts since the start of the year.
Several boat accidents have occurred, usually the result of overcrowding.
On April 6 at least 150 Somali and Eritrean refugees died when their boat sank after leaving Libya.
On Wednesday Malta’s army rescued a boat carrying 76 refugees fleeing the city of Misrata, under siege by forces loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi.
The UN estimates about 1,200 people have died or gone missing after attempting to flee the war-torn country by sea.
In total, it says about 893,000 people have left Libya since the popular uprising began in February.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic Doctors Offer Homeopathic ‘Treatment’ For Homosexuality
German gay and lesbian groups are outraged at an item posted on the website of an association of Catholic doctors that offers psychotherapy and homeopathic treatment for homosexuality.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Naked Gecko: Challenging the Defenders of Gender Blending
Society tends to espouse the value of children in almost every facet of life. We talk about how our children will be the defenders of the nation in the future and our need to protect them until they take up that mantle of important responsibility. Many Americans express true concern that their children will be handed a huge government debt, and our responsibility today to minimize the economic burdens we lay at their feet. These large-scale social and economic confrontations are battles worth fighting, but they are not the only important conflicts of consequence when it comes to our children. Currently there is a battle of significant importance being waged over simply allowing boys to be boys and girls to be girls.
Today’s gender war is not a biological conflict, but a battle between conflicting psychological and ideological forces. Many modern liberals wish to destroy the structure of the traditional family, and to do so the pillars of the biblical patriarchal family unit are being ruthlessly attacked. Of the many tragedies that arise due to those that wish to reverse the intrinsic nature of gender formation, the worst is that innocent children are being offered up daily as test subjects in liberals’ labs of lowdown lunacy. Here is a modern-day example:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Astronomers Nab $500,000 Prize for Hunting Elusive Dark Matter
Dark matter is thought to be all around us, yet scientists can’t see it, touch it, or even figure out what it is. Now four astronomers who helped befuddle the world by discovering evidence for dark matter have won a prestigious cosmology prize. Scientists infer the existence of dark matter by its gravitational influence on the regular, visible matter around it. The scientists will share the $500,000 purse that comes with the 2011 Cosmology Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation.
The winners are: University of California, Berkeley, astronomer Marc Davis; George Efstathiou, the director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology in Cambridge, England; Carlos Frenk, the director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University in England; and Simon White, a director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. The researchers created key computer simulations more than 20 years ago that mapped the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. The simulations were enough to convince most experts of the existence of dark matter, and set off a so-far fruitless search to find out what it is.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Enceladus Named Sweetest Spot for Alien Life
Saturn’s icy moon has all the key ingredients, scientists say.
Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus is emerging as the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life as we know it, scientists said last week at a meeting of the Enceladus Focus Group at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. But it may be too late to get a mission there the fast way, via a gravity boost from Jupiter. This would cut the journey time from ten years to as little as seven, but the next Jupiter-assist window hits its peak in 2015-17, and then closes until the 2030s. That leaves scant time to plan and build a mission, even if engineers start immediately — something that is unlikely, many scientists believe, given the current emphasis on Mars. That’s too bad, because Enceladus may trump Mars as the Solar System’s most likely abode for extraterrestrial life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oxfam Calls for Radical Rethink of World Food System
International aid organization Oxfam says world demand for food will skyrocket over the next few decades, while production capacity will decline. It has launched a campaign to change the globe’s approach to food. The report offers a sobering picture of current and future world hunger levels, saying nearly 925 million people — one out of seven — now face hunger every day. Climate change, including increased periods of drought, will exacerbate the hunger problem. While food prices have skyrocketed since 2007, the price for staples such as maize will continue to rise, nearly doubling in the next 20 years, which will push the number of hungry people even higher, Oxfam says. As global population grows, so will the demand for food, the report adds. By 2050, the demand for food will have increased by 70 percent, even though the ability to increase food production is declining due to flat crop yields and weak harvests caused by a range of factors including environmental problems such as water scarcity and climate change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Future of the Video Via Lots of Mobile Gadgets
Internet video will comprise more than half of all Internet traffic, wireless devices will become the predominant way to surf the Web, and there will be more networked devices than people on this planet within the next few years. So says a Cisco Systems annual Visual Networking Index (VNI) report issued Wednesday to highlight the presence and consumption of digital video and social networking services on the Internet. The VNI, which Cisco has issued for the past four years, indicates that by the end of next year Internet video—currently found primarily on YouTube, Hulu and Netflix—will be more than 50 percent of consumer (as opposed to business) Internet traffic. This is up from 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic in 2010 and is expected to rise to 62 percent by the end of 2015.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Useful Idiots
Soon after taking total power over a socialist nation, the “gentle” former agitators and labor organizers became ruthless rulers who murdered millions, especially the middle class.
During incipient communist regimes, the general population foolishly supported the wave of change that promised to fundamentally alter the balance of power and bring wealth and prosperity to the masses by expropriating and stealing from the “undeserving rich.”
There is an argument to be made that some strata of society was exploited to the benefit of inherited wealth such as kings, queens, and large industrialist owners of sweatshops. However, some wealth was acquired through hard work, perseverance, wise investments, entrepreneurship, risk-taking, education, and luck; it was not “stolen” from anybody.
There is also an argument to be made that unions were beneficial in times such as those during Bismarck’s reign in Germany or early nineteenth century Europe when unions negotiated sick leave, better working conditions, vacations, worker’s compensation for injuries, and other benefits.
[…]
The immediate socialist supporters, teachers, professors, journalists, doctors, lawyers, active communist members of the inner circle became known as “useful idiots.” They were “useful” as long as the few communists such as Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Mao were attempting to gain and garner control and power and their supporters willingly sacrificed their time, money, and loyalty.
Same groups became “idiots” when the communist leaders decided that total concentrated power into one man’s hands was more desirable. Any immediate comrades became a threat to supreme leader’s rule and necessitated their disposal. As the rest of the intellectuals realized they have been deceived, they turned on their former leader. The leader had no choice but to get rid of them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
Sorry, but when Gates Of Vienna has sunk to level of printing dispicable stuff like :
“Srebrenica,” is a myth
Then that`s it for me...
As long as you print this sort of evil trash, I wont be reader or donator any more.
I will have no association with people who protect mass murderers and try to justify those action - even if they were against muslims.
evil....there is no other word to describe what has become of this site.
Evil: http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/why-didnt-we-see-these-photos-before-bill-clinton-chose-to-support-the-muslims-in-bosnia-warning-graphic-images/
Go ahead and leave. If you believe a lie, you deserve our contempt.
I wonder who's side you will be on when Europeans must attack to win the war for their homeland that the ruling class has given to muslims.
Dark days lie ahead. You go ahead and believe you won't have to be violent to win.
It's inevitable. This 'war crimes' show trial is a warning to let muslim win
Will you let muslims win?
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