A Fatally Flawed Recovery Plan: Greece Back on the Brink
Greece needs even more money — EU officials estimate that a new bailout will cost over 100 billion euros rather than the previously assumed 60 billion. It will get the aid, even though the rescue strategy adopted so far seems doomed. The economy is shrinking, and ambitious privatization plans are illusory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dithering and Caving
How did it come about that Congress got so overloaded with Republicans who want to bend over backwards to accommodate a “president” who hates America, and tramples on the Constitution on a daily basis? It appears they are going to allow the debt ceiling to be raised with only minor cuts in spending, if that. This at a time when what is left of our economy is about to finish the collapse the Democrats have worked so hard to bring about. Our Republican “leadership” can’t choose between dithering or caving. Oh, the tough choices! No wonder they pay themselves four times what the average American makes — plus expenses!
However, so as not to appear to be obsessed with the economy, they also have shown that they can dither and cave on foreign policy, too. It’s truly pathetic when raging socialists like Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) are far ahead of Republicans in stopping the unconstitutional war that Obama-Soetoro has gotten us into in Libya. In a speech in support of Kucinich’s bill mandating withdrawal of our troops in 15 days, Nadler accused Obama-Soetoro of acting like a king and a dictator. Boehner, in contrast, wants to play golf with him.
[…]
In spite of what the Ministry of Propaganda, aka, the mainstream media, would have us believe, we have never even begun a recovery from the recession. Every single thing that the Democrats and the Sock Puppet in the White House have done has ensured that the economy would get worse, with collapse being the desired end result. As I have pointed out before, the followers of Saul Alinsky, who include Obama-Soetoro, Hillary Clinton, and most of the appointees in the administration, believe that total destruction of our free, capitalist system is necessary to bring about their pure, communist utopia. That this is their goal is becoming clear, even to some in the Democrat Party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
European Banks Dump Junk Bonds on ECB
European bankers from countries with ailing economies need fresh infusions of cash from the European Central Bank, but the ECB has turned into the dumping ground for European banks’ junk bonds. The practice could harm the central bank’s reputation as well as the euro.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal’s PM-Elect Vows to Honour EU-IMF Bailout Deal
Portugal’s prime minister in waiting Pedro Passos Coelho vowed Sunday to honour Lisbon’s 78 billion euro bailout deal with the EU and IMF after his Social Democrats won an early election.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scandal Nation
The tabloidization of politics makes the task of misgovernment that much easier.
Despite 15 trillion dollars of debt, we still give priority to sex scandals over economic scandals. Which may explain why we are so deep underwater. Imagine if a politician who grabbed a 100 million dollar pork project for his friends had to spend a week explaining it. That would almost certainly never happen. Not to a Democrat or even a Republican. Spending isn’t salacious. But maybe it should be.
The biggest political scandals are unrelated to a politician’s function. Sometimes sex and money do collide. As is the case with John Edwards. But mostly it’s a chance to play out an old narrative. The sleazy pol, the hypocritical media and the spouse standing by his side.
It is remarkable that we have spent more time and energy talking about whether a politician tweeted a pornographic image of himself, than the obscene 15 trillion debt that this politician, among so many others, saddled us with. But Bill Clinton’s own impulse control problems in his personal life garnered more attention, than in his legislative affairs. Paula Jones has moved on, but America is still suffering from the shortcuts and legislation of the Clinton era.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We’ve Now Got Depression-Level Unemployment
The commonly-accepted unemployment figures for the Great Depression are overstated.
Specifically, government workers were counted as unemployed by Stanley Lebergott (the BLS economist who put together the most widely used numbers) … even though gainfully employed and receiving a pay check.
If we’re trying to compare current unemployment figures with the Great Depression, the calculations of economists such as Michael Darby are more accurate.
Here is a comparison of Lebergott and Darby’s unemployment figures:
[…]
Unemployment is currently underreported. Even government officials admit that their “adjustments” to unemployment figures are inaccurate during recessions.
In addition, the most widely-cited statistics use the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “U-3″ methodology. But “U-6″ figures are more accurate, because they include people who would like full-time work, but can only find part-time work, or people who have given up looking for work altogether. U-6 is also is closer to the way unemployment was measured during the Great Depression than U-3
Current levels of unemployment are Depression-level numbers, especially when compared to Darby’s figures.
For example, economist John Williams puts current U-6 unemployment at 15.9%. That’s higher than 9 out of 12 years charted by Darby.
And there are certainly Depression-level statistics in some states. For example, official Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers put U-6 above 20% in several states:
- California: 22.0
- Nevada: 23.7
- Michigan 20.3
- (and Los Angeles County has 24.1% unemployment, higher than any of the Depression years as reported by Darby)
Williams puts SGS unemployment — which he claims is the most accurate measure — at 22.3%. That’s higher than 11 out of 12 years charted by Darby.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Treasurer of Fort Lauderdale Mosque Indicted on Child Porn, Visa, Weapon Charges
The former treasurer of the Masjid Al Iman mosque has been charged with producing child pornography.
Jameel Abdull Raashib, 55, of Lauderhill, pleaded not guilty to the federal felony charge. He was arrested April 14 and is in Broward County Jail awaiting a jury trial in July.
A landscaper and auto detailer, Raashib is also charged as an undocumented resident in possession of ammunition and counterfeit registration papers. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years’ imprisonment and $750,000 in fines.
Raashib’s assistant federal public defender was in court on Monday and could not be reached for comment.
According to an FBI affidavit, Raashib contacted Lauderhill police in October 2010 to report that a pistol had been stolen from his rental home on the 3000 block of Northwest Fifth Place.
In February, Raashib told officers that three young boys who had lived with him might have taken the gun, as well as an iPod and camera. He said he would often hire troubled youths to help him in the landscaping business, the affidavit states.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that Raashib is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago who overstayed a temporary visa by 18 years, according to a federal complaint.
In 1993, Raashib entered the U.S. at Miami International Airport, was arrested for carrying more than 8 pounds of marijuana and served 61 days in county jail, the affidavit states. He was not deported.
The federal complaint does not describe the circumstances surrounding the production of child pornography charge.
The investigation continues and the FBI asks anyone with information to call 305-944-9101, Special Agent Michael Leverock said.
Leverock would not discuss any other details of the case.
Neighbors in Lauderhill saw federal agents remove brown boxes from Raashib’s home on two occasions.
Abey Young described her next-door neighbor as “quiet,” someone “who had a nice yard and didn’t bother anyone.”
She said she last spoke with Raashib seven years ago when her mother died and he brought over food.
“He was real friendly when he first moved in, but then he changed,” Young said.
She and her family wondered about the young, mostly African-American boys who stayed at the house. “We thought it was a positive thing, maybe, that he was mentoring them,” she said.
Attorney Khurrum Wahid, who is advising the Fort Lauderdale mosque, said its leaders had several interviews with the FBI.
“There is absolutely no connection to the mosque,” Wahid said. “It gave him an added aura of legitimacy for the folks who may have been his alleged victims.”
Simo Mansor, vice president of Masjid Al Iman’s board of directors, said the congregation’s 250 members are “shocked … It’s upset the whole community. There was disbelief at first.”
He said Raashib attended five services daily for about 14 years but had no interaction with the youths who worship there.
“Those kinds of things are not tolerated, and it’s not something you would believe him doing, if that’s the case,” said Mansor. “No worshipper should have this kind of crime. It’s shameful.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Ilyas Kashmiri Planned to Kill Lockheed Martin CEO Over Drone Attack: Headley
Chicago: Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Headley on Tuesday testified before a United States court that al-Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri had a plan to kill the CEO of Lockheed Martin in frustration over drone attacks along the Af-Pak border and had sent men for surveillance.
Testifying in the resumed hearing in the Mumbai attack trial, Headley said that following his arrest he had offered to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation by giving a sword implanted with a chip to Kashmiri so that he could be targeted by drone attacks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Provoking the Whirlwind
I believe that the Adam Kokesh, Medea Benjamin protests are meant to draw Tea Party activists, Constitutional Conservatives, Libertarians and Independents into the fray to instigate a revolution (top down, bottom up, inside out…). The protests were a deliberate provocation to involve not only the police, but patriots who sensed government tyranny and infringement. They are trying to provoke a political whirlwind to bring about chaos, violence and revolution and we dare not fall for it. Both of these individuals are Marxists and we cannot and must not stand beside them, no matter the temptation.
[…]
You should read the whole article. It details how the US media is not only very much in bed with our government, but with the Communists as well. You see, the Cold War never ‘really’ ended. It just shifted its position, slapped on a lesser red lipstick and called itself by a different name so the Communists could go on their merry way of infiltrating US entities and work at taking down our way of life. Communists never die and go away, they just change masks and tactics.
While Kokesh and Benjamin are screaming about a growing police state in the US, they are following the directions and commands of Moscow like good little comrades. If they can have Americans pitted against the police and military, then they can begin to stir revolt in the streets, giving the Marxists a perfect excuse to come down hard on the American people. Kokesh and Benjamin don’t give a rat’s ass about the Constitution or America… They want a revolt, to foment chaos and bring about the change necessary to bring in full blown Marxism under a tyrannical government. They are bringing about exactly what they appear to be protesting against. This is standard operating procedure for the leftists and many are falling for it. A number of staunch libertarians and conservatives believed Kokesh and gave him air time and face time that helped him further his seeds of distrust and hate. Are you surprised that Russia Today covered the protests heavily? For them it was good times indeed. It’s not the devil in Hell that will get you, it’s the devil among you.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Representative Anthony D. Weiner Acknowledges Communication With Women Online
In a news conference, Representative Anthony D. Weiner said he had communicated with women online before and after his marriage, and sent them explicit photos. He said he would not resign.
| [Return to headlines] |
Sink to the Bottom With Me
While snow was falling on Brooklyn, the Prophet of City Hall was pondering a distant future when the whole city would be underwater.
What do you think about Global Warming? It doesn’t matter what you think. Not if you live in New York, Berlin, Yokohama or Karachi that is. On behalf of his C40 group, Mayor Bloomberg explained to the BBC, “Your job is not to ask the public where they want to go and get behind them. Your job is to tell the public”.
But the BBC knows that already. They’ve been telling the public what to think for a long time now. And they don’t need lessons on that from some parvenu yank billionaire. Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs and don’t presume to teach the BBC how to disdainfully ignore public opinion for the public’s own good.
While Bloomberg “leads from the front” in his Large Cities Climate Leadership Group or C40 group (the manufacture of Orwellian acronyms accounts for 30 percent of carbon emissions from climate change propaganda), New Yorkers are busy protesting in the streets over firehouse closings. Residents of the city are not concerned about global warming. They’re worried about local incineration. Forget the tides and do something about the firehoses.
Not that his Imperial Mayorality is listening. Real leaders don’t listen to the public. They drive tanks over them. As the mayors of Shanghai and Beijing, also members of the LCCLG or C40, know. The peasants may cry for firehouses, but what do they know anyway. Each firehouse emits carbon. Every time a fire engine races off to save an apartment building, metric tons of carbon is released into the software algorithms of climate change researchers. Better to let the peasants burn and save the planet.
“If you ask the public ‘is there global warming,’ ‘is in 50 years the earth going to be dramatically different or perhaps uninhabitable,’ their eyes roll. Nobody can think 50 years in advance”, says Bloomy. Nobody clearly doesn’t include the mayor. Fortunately the city is blessed with a leader who couldn’t see a snow emergency coming two days ahead of time, but has no trouble parting the mists of time and seeing half a century into the future.
[…]
Our governments are being run by a cult that makes Harold Camping seem positively rational. An apocalyptic elite that proudly celebrates its disdain for the common man. Mediocre politicians guided by a science they don’t understand, allowing themselves to be weaponized into tools of mass regulation in the name of a philosophy that sees the human race as one giant waste product. Plastic cups of Kool Aid with instructions to drink them in atonement to Gaia haven’t come in the mail yet, but at the rate we’re going it’s only a matter of time.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wisconsin’s Newest ‘City, ‘ ‘Walkerville, ‘ Protests Budget
The tense times over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget measures have evolved into to tent time for some in the state capital, in a protest village that organizers are calling “Walkerville.” A Madison city commission approved plans for a tent city in which folks who oppose the Republican governor’s budget measures will camp along downtown streets across from the state Capitol starting tonight.
[…]
“It’s a great opportunity for the city of Madison to help with the idea of open government,” the State Journal quoted Eicher as saying, especially because access to the state Capitol has been restricted since mass protests of Walker’s budget, including curtailing public employees’ collective-bargaining rights, in February and March.
The city permit for Walkerville requires most sleeping tents to be removed from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Friday and from 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday. However, sleeping tents at three sites will be allowed to stay up during the day. First-aid, food, and information tents also may remain standing during daylight hours.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Your Government at Work
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
Picture this: A 53-year-old walks off a beach into the frigid surf of Northern California determined to kill himself.
While he stands in water up to his neck, risking hypothermia, the local police and fire departments are called.
The authorities arrive, but, instead of rescuing the doomed man, they stand on the beach and watch him along with 75 other onlookers.
After an hour or so, the man died — about 150 yards from the beach.
You probably are wondering what prevented the rescue of Raymond Zack who drowned off Crown Beach in Alameda County last week.
[…]
Don’t make the mistake of thinking this incident is some bizarre exception. That could very well be a lethal mistake for you and your community.
While I have the highest regard for most law enforcement officials and the bravery and courage we’ve all seen in firefighters who risk their own lives to save people every day, what happened in Alameda is a warning shot across the bow. Our society is crossing a threshold from which there may be no return. We are giving ourselves over to the twisted notion that it’s government’s role to address every single problem, that government has all the answers and that only government — local, state and federal — can be trusted to protect us and safeguard our welfare.
It’s a scary concept — but an increasingly prevalent one.
Here’s a case where individuals knew what to do to save a dying man, but official procedures paralyzed them into inaction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
40 UK Universities Are Now Breeding Grounds for Terror as Hardline Groups Peddle Hate on Campus
Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’.
A soon to be published Whitehall report — seen by the Daily Mail — will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas.
Alarmingly the Prevent review says that ‘more than 30 per cent of people convicted for Al Qaeda-associated terrorist offences in the UK… are known to have attended university or a higher education institution.
‘Another 15 per cent studied or achieved a vocational or further education qualification. About 10 per cent of the sample were students at the time when they were charged or the incident for which they were convicted took place.’
The report, prepared by Home Office officials, warns of hardline Islamic groups specifically targeting universities which have large numbers of Muslim students in order to peddle a message of hate.
Students are even ‘engaging in terrorism or related activities while members of university societies’.
But it says the universities are not doing enough to respond to this threat to national security. Fewer than half of universities are engaged with the police.
Home Secretary Theresa May will demand universities do more to confront this threat. She also wants more action to deport preachers of hate.
The universities which have given places to fanatics include some of our most prestigious institutions.
The report will say that terrorists who have attended English universities include Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, the Stockholm suicide bomber who had a BSc in sports therapy from the University of Luton, now the University of Bedfordshire.
The alleged Detroit underpants bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, studied mechanical engineering at University College London between 2005 and 2008.
Two of the fanatics convicted of the transatlantic liquid bomb plot — ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar — attended City and Brunel Universities respectively.
The review says the Department for Business, which is in charge of universities, has identified about 40 English universities where there may be a particular risk.
Some now have a dedicated police officer to advise on tackling radicalisation.The document raises particular alarm about the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS).
It says there are ‘several examples of students engaging in terrorism or related activities while members of university societies affiliated to FOSIS.
Such extremists must have no part in any organisation that wishes to be recognised as a representative body.’
The finger of blame for radicalising students is pointed at Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which David Cameron promised to ban in opposition, and off-shoots of a fanatical group once run by preacher of hate Omar Bakri.
One section warns: ‘We believe there is unambiguous evidence to indicate that some extremist organisations, notably Hizb-ut-Tahrir, target specific universities and colleges (notably those with a large number of Muslim students) with the objective of radicalising and recruiting students.’
Universities UK says that universities ‘are places where ideas and beliefs can be tested without fear of control’, and that they act as a safeguard against ideologies that threaten Britain’s open society.
The worries about the lax attitude of some universities is combined with concern about the student visa route.
Ten of the 11 Pakistani nationals seized on suspicion of plotting an atrocity in the North-West in 2009 had student visas.
The alleged ringleader of this plot — Abid Naseer — was a computer studies student at Liverpool John Moores University.
Mrs May is determined to crack down on the abuse of the student visa route.
However, she has faced opposition within government from Michael Gove’s Education Department and Business Secretary Vince Cable.
Meanwhile, Whitehall officials are said to be concerned that Mr Gove’s flagship ‘free schools’ policy — where parents can obtain state funding to open and run their own schools — could be targeted by extremists.
Security officials working in a dedicated unit are expected to vet the backgrounds of all would-be applicants for evidence of extremism or radicalisation.
The Prevent strategy is said to have caused behind-the-scenes rows within the Government.
Mr Gove is understood to have argued that the Government should not engage with groups which hold any extremist beliefs — even though these are the ones most likely to attract would-be terrorists.
Four months ago, in a major speech in Munich, the Prime Minister signalled an end to ‘passive tolerance’ of extremist Islamic organisations which foster hatred against the West and radicalise young Muslims.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Anger Over EU Alert System as E. Coli Scare Hits Producers
Spain is calling for the EU’s rapid alert system to be reformed after German officials mistakenly labeled organic cucumbers from Spain as the most likely source of a deadly E. coli virus, sending vegetable sales into a downward spin. EU agriculture ministers are to hold an emergency meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday (7 June) to discuss possible compensation measures for fruit and vegetable producers, after several countries opted to pull Spanish cucumbers off the shelves.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Are We in Rome?
Are there parallels between Rome and our Constitutional Republic?
My husband and I were visiting the Coliseum in Rome three years ago. Our talkative and self-deprecating Roman tour guide, a rare find among boisterous Italians, commented, while pointing to the Coliseum, that he did not know what happened to Rome, they used to be such great architects, engineers, and builders. He added that they devolved into Italians who take months to complete a simple job. When projects are finished, they are full of errors, and every team member blames somebody else. We laughed in agreement, having spent time in northern Italy and having dealt with the ridiculous bureaucracy. We had spent once all day driving from one office to another just to pay a landline phone bill.
What happened to Rome? They built the world’s greatest empire, the greatest military, the longest network of roads, paved streets, raised pavements, city grids, indoor and outdoor plumbing, marble palaces, bridges, military portable hospitals, portable bridges, indoor and outdoor water fountains, public baths with heated swimming pools, heated marble floors, extensive gyms, self-supporting cupolas, eleven aqueducts, just to name a few accomplishments. Why did their civilization collapse in 476 A.D. when the last emperor resident in the West, Romulus was deposed at Ravenna? The eastern empire (the Byzantine Empire) did not fall until 1453 when the last bastion, Constantinople, fell to the Turks, to Islam. Are there parallels between Rome and our Constitutional Republic?
Many factors have been debated such as Christianity, the rise of Islam, moral decadence, greed, invasions by barbarians, especially Goths and Vandals, lead poisoning, monetary issues, inflation, corruption, military inability to rule such a vast empire and defend its borders, even after it split into the Western and Eastern Empire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
E. Coli Epidemic: Sprouts Suspected as Outbreak Cause
Officials in Lower Saxony believe that raw bean sprouts were the likely cause of the ongoing E. coli epidemic in Germany. Sprouts from a farm in the western German state had been eaten by many of the people infected with the deadly bacteria. However, final results of tests are first expected Monday afternoon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Offer E. Coli ‘Compensation’ To Farmers
The European Commission will on Tuesday urge states to back special compensation for farmers whose sales of fresh produce have evaporated amid a lethal E. coli bacterial outbreak centred on Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Monitor Anti-Corruption Measures in Member States
A special report on what EU member states are doing to fight corruption and how cases are actually solved is to be drafted by the European Commission every two years, home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has announced. “No country in the EU is totally free from corruption. Four out of five EU citizens regard corruption as a major problem in their country. This is a serious challenge, socially, politically and economically,” she said during a press conference on Monday (6 June).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fleeting Antimatter Trapped for a Quarter of an Hour
What can you do with a quarter of an hour? Write a few emails, cook rice — or store antimatter. The team working on the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) at the CERN particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, have stored atoms of antihydrogen for 1000 seconds — roughly 10,000 times longer than before. This should help reveal if antimatter and matter are true mirror images.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Pranksters Slap Windows Logo on Apple’s Hamburg Store
A group of nerdy pranksters have defaced the Apple new store under construction in Hamburg by slapping a Microsoft Windows logo on the building.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Intelligence Report: Increase in Left-Wing Extremism Sparks Concern
Left-wing extremism is on the rise in Germany, according to a classified intelligence report seen by SPIEGEL. The number of violent militants has risen by a fifth since 2005 and offenses rose sharply in the first quarter of 2011. Authorities are intensifying their surveillance of the scene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jewish and Muslim Leaders Urge European Union Heads Not to Pander to Extreme-Right
In Brussels, leaders of Islamic and Jewish communities from several European countries today presented a joint declaration to the presidents of the three main European Union institutions. Ahead of a meeting of European religious leaders representing all major faiths in Europe, Bosnian Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric and Brussels Chief Rabbi Albert Guigui handed the document on behalf of the 33 signatories to Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
The declaration stresses that “Jews and Muslims live side-by-side in every European country and our two communities are important components of Europe’s religious, cultural and social tapestry. Both Muslims and Jews have deep roots and historical experience on this continent.” It raises concern about “increasing manifestations of Islamophobia (anti-Muslim bigotry) and anti-Semitism in countries across Europe.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lamb Thieves in Action in Central Switzerland
A gang of thieves is suspected to have targeted lambs in Canton Obwalden, central Switzerland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Plowed Under: German Farmers Hit Hard by E. Coli Outbreak
Vegetable farmers in Germany are losing up to 5 million euros a day as a result of the E. coli scare which has gripped the country. Even though lettuce and other produce from many farms has been given a clean bill of health, consumers and retailers have stopped buying greens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Portuguese Voters Back the Right
The centre-right’s march across Europe in the wake of the crisis advanced still further afield on Sunday, with Portuguese voters pushing aside the governing Socialists in favour of their conservative rivals, the Social Democrats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Regional CDU Official Speaks Out: Merkel Under Fire Within Her Own Party
Regional election defeats for the ruling Christian Democratic Union this year have sparked open criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel. A regional CDU official has written a paper claiming that the party has alienated itself from its core voters under her leadership.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Take Libya to Court Over Hostages
Switzerland on Monday approved legal action to prosecute the Libyan regime for holding Swiss citizens Rachid Hamdani and Max Goeldi hostage, the justice ministry said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tests Fail to Support Sprouts as Outbreak Culprit
Officials in Lower Saxony announced over the weekend that raw sprouts were the likely cause of the ongoing E. coli epidemic in Germany because many of the people infected with the deadly bacteria had eaten sprouts from a farm in the northwestern state. But test results released on Monday failed to support the theory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish OECD Veto Causes a Stir
A serious diplomatic rift has erupted between Austria and Turkey.
The Turkish government decided at the weekend to veto Ursula Plassnik’s application for the position as secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The former Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) foreign minister said earlier this year she wanted to take over from Marc Perrin de Brichambaut. The French diplomat’s term ends on 30 June.
Turkey argued that the ÖVP MP “does not accept” the country’s European identity. The Austrian was harshly criticised by Turkey during her term as federal foreign minister between 2004 and 2008 due to her opposition to the country’s bid to join the European Union (EU). Austria became a member of the EU in 1995. Turkey has held talks with European leaders about an accession since the 1960s.
ÖVP Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said today (Mon) Turkey’s veto was “totally incomprehensible and baseless.”
The minister warned Austria will consider very carefully which stand to take on Turkish regards of international meaning from now due to the country’s decision to speak out against Plassnik’s application.
Spindelegger also said that he agreed with Turkish President Abdullah Gül that the two countries will not obstruct each other’s nominations of candidates for positions in international organisations when Gül visited Austria last month. The Turkish government vehemently denied that such an arrangement was made.
The OECD decided to put the nomination of a new secretary-general on hold due to the conflict as the appointment must be made unanimously. Reports have it that many diplomats fail to understand Plassnik’s decision to apply for the position as Austrian ambassador in France at the same time.
Italy and Portugal, and Turkey also nominated candidates for the job which Perrin de Brichambaut is in charge of at the moment. Austrian newspapers claim today that Plassnik had vital chances to become his successor before Turkey opted to veto her candidacy at the weekend.
Turkey’s candidate for the position, Ersin Ercin, hit out at Plassnik as early as March. The diplomat — who currently represents his country in Brazil — told Viennese newspaper Die Presse: “I was the first person to signalise interest in becoming the OSCE’s next secretary-general. Plassnik’s application came at the last moment. She is known as a person who blocks Turkey’s EU integration.”
Ercin added: “Many OECD member states east of Vienna are bewildered. They have the impression that EU countries want to turn the OECD into an extension of the EU. (…) EU member states think they are immune to criticism. They lecture the rest of the world east of Vienna about the issue of human rights. But Austria is not perfect — nobody is. We should play fair.”
Ercin told Die Presse his application had the support of Caucasian countries and states in the Balkan region. He added that “some small EU member states” backed his bid too.
The Turkish diplomat said Plassnik was overqualified for the position he was also running for, but added that the “weak point” of her application was that the OECD has its headquarters in Vienna.
“Vienna has benefited enormously from the organisation,” he said, adding that it was widely assumed Austria will not nominate an own candidate.
Austria has been reluctant considering Turkey’s interest in becoming a member of the EU for years. The current government coalition of Social Democrats and Spindelegger’s ÖVP has stuck to the same approach to the issue former ÖVP Chancellor’s Wolfgang Schüssel cabinet had shown. Schüssel headed a coalition of the ÖVP with the Freedom Party (FPÖ) and later on with the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) for seven years until 2007.
Spindelegger said today Turkey’s veto to Plassnik’s application for the OECD top job was unlikely to create a change of mind in his party as far as the country’s ambitions to join the EU were regarded. The ÖVP leader once more emphasised that Austria was in favour of a so-called privileged partnership between the EU — which currently has 27 members — and Turkey.
Spindelegger and SPÖ boss Werner Faymann has made clear many times that they intended to hold a referendum in Austria if the EU decided in favour of Turkey’s request to join one day. Research group Karmasin found last December that a majority of 61 per cent of Austrians oppose a Turkish EU membership. Around 59 per cent of polled citizens said the same in May 2009.
Gül told the Kurier newspaper last month that the privileged partnership alternative was “not an option.”
“We’ve already got a privileged partnership (with the EU). There’s a customs union. We want to become a full member,” the federal president of Turkey said a few days before meeting with Austrian President Heinz Fischer in Vienna. Gül added: “The obstacles which have been erected are unfounded and unfair.”
Around 113,000 of the 8.5 million people living in Austria are Turks. Another 70,000 have a Turkish migratory background. The Turkish community is expected to be represented stronger than before in the Austrian Islamic Denomination (IGGiÖ) which appealed to the half a million Muslims living in Austria to elect a new leader. Final results of the ballot — which has taken place in the past months — will be released in a few weeks.
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UK: Doctor’s Jealous Wife Made Hoax Bomb Call to Heathrow Claiming His Mistress Was Taking Explosives Onto a Plane
A jealous wife told police her husband’s mistress was about to bomb a flight from Heathrow Airport and had helped plot the 7/7 attacks.
Salma Nasir, 42, told the lies to get back at a woman known as Camille, who she claimed was about to walk onto a flight with explosives.
Nasir, whose husband took a ‘second wife’, which is permitted under Islamic law, maliciously called police after she had found flight tickets to France for her husband and Camille.
The mother-of-four claimed she had received a string of anonymous phone calls warning her about the woman and alleging her involvement in a bomb plot on Heathrow.
Jim Davis, prosecuting, said: ‘This is in effect a lady trying to make trouble. This was a hoax.
‘Her motive would be that her husband has taken a second wife.’
District Judge Carolyn Mellanby said the mother was ‘out to cause mischief’.
She said: ‘You certainly have a motive. You’re an intelligent woman. I am at a loss to believe your story. I am sure you regret it now.
‘I don’t believe you Mrs Nasir. I am certain that day you were out to cause mischief.’
Salma Nasir, of Caddington, Bedfordshire, moved to the UK 25 years ago after marrying Dr Mohammed Nasir, an anaesthetist at Luton & Dunstable Hospital.
Nasir who has four sons aged between nine and 22 — called police just after 10.30am on June 26 last year claiming her husband’s second wife was planning to take a bomb onto a flight from Heathrow at 9.50pm.
Luckily her call was discovered to be a hoax and no delays were made to the outgoing flight.
In her defence Nasir, who pleaded not guilty, told Bedford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday her husband had divorced Camille.
She said: ‘All night I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t know whether to ring or not. Then I decided to ring because about 400 lives could be in danger.
‘I’m not stupid. I knew what I needed to do to save these passengers. That is my only intention.
‘They told me on the phone she was involved in the London bus bombings.
‘I love my husband. I did not think of her because she was out of my life. He had divorced her.’
But District Judge Mellanby found Nasir guilty and ordered her to pay £965 in costs and fines.
Speaking from their family home in Chaul End Village, Bedfordshire, Dr Nasir said: ‘We don’t want to comment. It’s a very personal matter.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Europe Shames Britain on Care for the Elderly as We Rank 17th Out of 20 in List of Money Spent on Our Elders
Successive governments have betrayed Britain’s pensioners by spending less on social care for the elderly than almost any other country in Europe.
Research which campaigners say ‘should shame us as a nation’ has found that Italy and France spend twice as much on their pensioners as we do in the UK.
Britain comes 17th out of the 20 major European countries surveyed, behind wealthy Germany as well as former Communist countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic.
The shocking betrayal of the elderly, many of whom fought to defend Britain’s freedom in the Second World War, is revealed in a damning report by the over-50s group Saga.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Frail Pensioner Paid Council to Remove Old TV… And Was Ordered to Drag it Outside Herself So Workmen Didn’t Injure Themselves
Council jobsworths refused to help a frail pensioner dispose of her television, saying they would break health and safety rules if they carried it from her house.
Charlotte Cubitt, 85, from Colchester, Essex, decided to get rid of her old television and was ready to pay an £11 charge to have the council collect it because it was far too heavy for her to take to the dump.
But she was shocked when she was told that if she wanted the TV to be collected she would have to drag it to the kerbside herself because of health and safety concerns for council workers.
She said: ‘They told me I would have to put the TV outside my house because health and safety concerns prevented the men from carrying it out of the house.
‘I have seen these men and they are generally quite hefty and are employed because of their ability to handle heavy sacks of rubbish.
‘Countless times I have watched a man pick up five or six black bags — sometimes even more — and then stagger across the road to the assembly point.
‘What would be the risk of taking a TV from my house to carry it a couple of yards to sit on the kerb to await collection?’
Officials from Colchester Borough Council told Mrs Cubitt to ask her neighbours if they were willing to carry the heavy old television.
But Mrs Cubitt was outraged that the council was prepared to let someone else do their work.
She said: ‘Would I be responsible if the neighbour suffered an injury?
‘I don’t understand it because the council must have insurance that would cover them, although I think it unlikely someone would be hurt carrying a television out to the road.’
Colchester Council was involved in another ‘elf ‘n’ safety row in February when its workers were banned from taking rubbish out of dustbins.
Bill Craig, 80, used a wheelie bin to help him carry one small black bag of rubbish to the end of his drive.
But the council left him a warning note saying he was using the wrong kind of container for his rubbish.
Officials told a bemused Mr Craig that bin men could no longer lean in to the wheelie bin to take away the black bag in case they injured themselves.
Astonishingly, the council planned to pay for a specialist team to go to the former fisherman’s semi-detached house in West Mersea, Essex, to collect the rubbish instead.
Mr Craig, who has had a heart attack and suffers from chronic back pain, said: ‘This is officialdom gone barmy — the council is being held to ransom by health and safety rules.
‘You could lift our black bin bag out using two fingers — it is not heavy.
‘I was amazed when they told me that they would come and collect it especially — it’s only a few food scraps.’
Martin Hunt, council deputy leader and Street and Waste Services Portfolio Holder, said: ‘Colchester Borough Council provides a collection service for unwanted, large household items, including electricals, for a small charge.
‘Electrical and electronic waste collected is sent for recycling.
‘The council requires items to be left for collection clearly at the front boundary of the property by 7am on the morning of the collection date.
‘However for residents with physical or other limitations who are unable to place items at their property boundary, the council will collect the item from a suitable agreed collection point outside the property but within the property boundary that can be used instead.
‘This is in line with the assisted collection service provided for the council’s other recycling and rubbish collections.
‘The council is unable to collect items from inside the property because of possible insurance claims against the council.
‘The council considers it the responsibly of the resident or their family to take the item to the agreed collection location.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Heading for Your Kitchen, A New Aggressive Army of Argentine Ants
Patios and kitchens are under attack from an aggressive army of Argentine ants, pest experts warned yesterday.
The insects, one of the most invasive species in the world, have taken advantage of the balmy spring to appear in record numbers across Britain.
The light brown insects (pictured) are similar to native garden ants and are around 2mm to 3mm long.
But they are more ferocious than the British variety, which they can wipe out, and their colonies are much harder to eradicate.
They are also happier to live indoors and will readily create nests under cookers, cupboards and floorboards.
Pest controllers say the number of ant infestations is on the rise in Britain and that an alarming number are the South American strain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Killers, Sex Offenders and Muggers Will be Freed Early as Jail Terms Are Slashed for 10,000 Criminals Each Year
Up to 10,000 criminals a year will have their jail terms slashed under Ken Clarke’s blueprint for softer sentences.
Police Minister Nick Herbert revealed that is the number — including killers, sex offenders and muggers — who could benefit from the Justice Secretary’s plans to go easy on those who plead guilty early.
Judges and magistrates can currently reduce sentences by a third for offenders who admit their crimes and avoid costly court cases, under guidelines drawn up by Labour.
But in an effort to save money, Mr Clarke has launched a consultation on plans to raise the discount to 50 per cent.
He unleashed the fury of women’s groups last month when he said rapists could benefit from the change.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racist Who Filled Muslims’ Shoes With Ham as They Prayed in a Mosque Walks Free From Court
A racist thug who stuffed ham into the shoes of Muslim worshippers at a mosque has escaped a jail term.
Jamie Knowlson, 30, also draped slices of the meat — which Muslims are banned from eating — on railings outside the mosque as his victims prayed inside.
He was then caught on CCTV hurling abuse at worshippers after they confronted him over his sacrilegious act.
Islam teaches its followers to avoid pig meat as it makes them impure and unclean.
Knowlson initially told police the stunt was a drunken joke but later admitted that he was fully aware of the offence his actions would cause.
He pleaded guilty to causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment and could have been jailed for up to two years.
But walked free from Bristol Crown Court with a suspended six-month prison sentence because he had returned to the mosque to apologise for his actions.
Sentencing, Her Honour Judge Carol Hagen said: ‘It is difficult to imagine a more offensive incident.
‘Not only the fixing of meat to railings but aggravated, in my view, that members of the mosque were inside praying at the time.’
The court heard that Knowlson, from Kingswood, Bristol, targeted the Al-Baseera mosque in the St Judes area of the city which is used by more than 2,000 Somali Muslims every week.
He crept to the mosque from nearby Redwood House homeless shelter on January 9 this year — putting ham in footwear and on railings outside the building as worshippers prayed.
CCTV footage showed him returning to the shelter, where he was confronted by the mosque’s caretaker Abdi Djmaa.
As Mr Djmaa returned to the mosque he heard shouts of ‘the next visit will be harder’, ‘bad meat’ and ‘girls’ coming from the direction of the building.
David Hunter, prosecuting at Bristol Crown Court, said it had been a premeditated attack specifically targeted at the Muslim community.
The court heard that shamed Knowlson had returned to the mosque to apologise after the hate crime.
Ian Halliday, defending, said: ‘This was a brutal, misconceived, drunken prank.’
He returned to the mosque and offered his apologies in person.
Knowlson sat in tears as he was handed a six-month suspended sentence and 150 hours of unpaid work.
A second man is due to stand trial in connection with the incident later this month.
After sentencing, Mubarak Mohamud, one of the three imams at the Al-Baseera mosque, claimed the inflammatory act had upset the Muslim community.
He said: ‘There wasn’t anger, people were more upset and shocked.
‘We don’t eat pork and we are banned by our faith from eating it, as it makes us impure when we are going to our prayers.
‘We don’t hate the man — we just suppose he doesn’t know us.’
Knowlson refused to comment after leaving court.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tenants Earning More Than £100,000 Per Year to be Kicked Out of Council Homes
Wealthy people who choose to live in council houses could be asked to buy homes or rent from the private sector as Whitehall risks a backlash in a new drive to slash waiting lists for social housing.
The Government says some people in London, who could afford to buy their own home but instead choose to rent subsidised social housing, are pocketing as much as £70,000 a year — courtesy of taxpayers.
Whitehall has drawn the line at people who earn more than £100,000 a year and says that it will consider granting new powers to local councils, and social landlords such as housing associations, to take homes away from households that reach the income threshold.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Breeding Grounds of Terror
The evidence that British student campuses have become hotbeds of Islamist radicalisation is overwhelming, says Anthony Glees. It is time to get tough on those who refuse to believe it.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Universities ‘Complacent’ Over Islamic Extremism, Warns Theresa May
Home secretary pre-empts revised Prevent strategy aimed at thwarting homegrown terrorism and radicalisation of students
The home secretary has criticised universities for their “complacency” in tackling radicalisation and Islamic extremism on campus.
The remarks pre-empt publication of the government’s revised Prevent strategy, which was originally launched in 2007 to stop the growth of homegrown terrorism.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Theresa May said: “I think for too long there’s been complacency around universities. I don’t think they have been sufficiently willing to recognise what can be happening on their campuses and the radicalisation that can take place. I think there is more that universities can do.”
The government has identified 40 English universities where there could be a “particular risk” of radicalisation or recruitment on campus, according to the Daily Mail, which said it had seen the updated strategy.
“More than 30% of people convicted for al-Qaida-associated terrorist offences in the UK … are known to have attended university or a higher education institution,” the Mail quoted the report as saying.
It is understood the document also raises concerns over the Federation of Student Islamic Societies and what is seen as an insufficient willingness to tackle extremism.
May told the Telegraph: “They need to be prepared to stand up and say that organisations that are extreme or support extremism or have extremist speakers should not be part of their grouping.”
The newspaper said the strategy would contain details of partnerships with YouTube and AOL aimed at combating extremism online, as well as moves to limit access to extremist websites from schools and public libraries.
The report will also name the 25 boroughs most at risk from Islamist extremism, including areas of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, it was reported.
It is understood about 20 of the organisations which have received funding over the last three years will have their funding cut.
May said: “It’s a result of a close look at the values of the organisations themselves.”
In November, the home secretary launched the Prevent strategy review — which was overseen by the independent counter-terrorism reviewer Lord Carlile of Berriew — saying it was not working as well as it could be.
The £60m government programme was adopted after the 7 July bombings, and aims to counter militant Islamism by supporting mainstream Muslim groups which offer an alternative to extremism.
But Prevent was criticised by some Muslims who said they feared it was being used to spy on their communities, and by other ethnic groups who believed they were missing out on financial support by comparison.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The government is currently reviewing the Prevent programme, which isn’t working as well as it could. We need a strategy that is effective and properly focused. The findings will be published shortly.”
Among those arrested for terrorism offences who have been linked to British universities is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called “underwear bomber”. He was detained on Christmas Day 2009 accused of trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
A year and a half earlier he had graduated from University College London, where he was also president of the Islamic Society.
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What’s Gone Wrong With German-US Relations?
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be fêted in the White House as a recipient of America’s highest civilian award. But the honor comes at a time when the US and Germany have struggled to reach agreement on issues ranging from the economy to foreign policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Opens Talks With Bosnia on Justice Reform
The European Union Monday opened talks in Bosnia on a central justice reform, following pressure from Bosnian Serbs who have claimed the system is biased against them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Witness Tells UN Court He Was Forced to Lie About Milosevic, Seselj
The Hague, 6 June (AKI) — A protected witness in the trial of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj told the United Nations war crimes tribunal on Monday he was forced by the prosecution to give false testimony against Seselj and former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
The witness, a former policeman from northern Serbian city of Subotica, testified on Monday under pseudonym DS-1, despite the fact that he demanded to testify under his true name.
DS-1 told the court he had spent some time in the war in Bosnia and was later forced by the tribunal’s prosecutors to testify against Milosevic or would be prosecuted himself for war crimes.
Milosevic was indicted by the tribunal for genocide and war crimes, but died in the Hague in a jail cell in March 2006.
Seselj has been accused for war crimes against Muslims and Croats in 1991-1995 war that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. He surrendered to the tribunal in February 2003 and the trial was still going on.
He was sentenced to 15 months in jail for revealing names of protected witnesses in the main trial. He was indicted for contempt of court again this year for allegedly revealing the names of 11 protected witnesses.
Seselj claims that witnesses themselves revealed their identity before he did so and DS-1 confirmed it in the court. Asked by Seselj whether he agreed that his name be revealed in one of Seselj’s books, the witness said: “I consented to the publishing in the book and on Internet.”
DS-1 said he was threatened by the tribunal investigator Paolo Pastore he would be indicted if he didn’t testify in the trial against Milosevic and Seselj. Before testifying against Milosevic, DS-1 said he had spent a year and a half in Netherlands where prosecutors prepared him on how to testify.
“It was a sad testimony,” DS-1 said. “They trained me for one month what to say and the prosecutor would give me signal if I said something wrong,” he said.
After testifying against Milosevic, DS-1 said he was transferred to Norway under false identity where he was given “an apartment, automobile, documents and a lot of money”.
When he was called to testify against Seselj, DS-1 fled Norway and returned to Serbia, “leaving everything behind”, he said.
“I had nothing to testify against you” the witness told Seselj. He will be cross-examined by the prosecution on Tuesday
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jews to be Barred From Entering Egypt’s Delta Village
Residents of el-Behira Governorate in the Nile Delta vowed Thursday to prevent thousands of Jews, who arrive en masse at the tiny village of Demito near Damanhour City, 50 km southeast of Alexandria, every year during the last week of each December to attend the birthday celebrations of Abu Hasira, a Moroccan Jewish holy man, who was buried there some 150 years ago.
“After the January 25 revolution, which toppled over the Hosni Mubarak regime, the Jews will not be allowed to enter Demito any more and endanger the public morals and hurt the feelings of its 5,000 residents,” Moustafa Rasslan, a lawyer, said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: NATO Conducts Overnight Strikes Around Tripoli
Tripoli, 6 June (AKI) — Nato has continued to target sites around Libyan capital in overnight raids on Tripoli as the the military coalition helps rebels in their effort to topple strongman leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The precise locations of the sites of the bombing and missile attacks early Monday were not immediately announced by Nato.
Nato said attacks near Tripoli on Sunday targeted Libyan storage areas, missile launchers, command and control facilities and a radar system.
UK Apache helicopters were used for the first time over the weekend to destroy a pair of military installations, a radar site and an armed checkpoint near the rebel-held port city Brega.
Following a meeting with rebels over the weekend, British foreign secretary William Hague admitted that it has been difficult to dislodge Gaddafi from power and raised the possibility that the Nato military campaign can last until Christmas.
“Well we’re not going to set a deadline. You’re asking about Christmas and who knows? It could be days or weeks or months,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Pressure Merkel on Libya
US President Barack Obama will ask Angela Merkel for a stronger German contribution to the military intervention in war-torn Libya when the chancellor visits Washington on Monday, according to a media report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Ben Ali Speaks Up to Say Corruption Trial Was a Farce
(AGI) Paris- Tunisian ex-President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali has broken his long silent spell by saying his trial was a farce.
He claims the trial for corruption charges was a “farce” and the searches to his offices “were a set-up in order to discredit him”, according to his lawyer, Jean-Yves Le Borgne.
The erstwhile President claims, “the magistrate-led trial against him was a farce, whose only aim is to mark a symbolic break with the past”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
PA Praises Obama Decision Not to Move Embassy to Jerusalem
The Palestinian Authority on Saturday welcomed as “encouraging” US President Barack Obama’s decision not to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Obama on Friday invoked US national security interests to notify Congress that he will not move the embassy to Jerusalem.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shocking Experience in Jerusalem
I wanted to share a painful experience I went through, here in my own country. This experience has brought me new insights about the reality we’re living in Jerusalem, and I feel the need to pass it on. Last Friday afternoon , 23 B’Iyar, 27.5.11 we were on our way to my parents who live in Maale Zeitim in Jerusalem, where we were planning to stay on Saturday.
[…]
Until now, every time I heard about another demonstration of “peace activists” in some village or neighborhood, on the one hand they gave me negative feelings since I do not agree with their views and I think they cause damage to the state, but on the other hand I had some empathy for them. I thought they were some people who really want peace, that they care about human rights and are driven by good intentions.
Last Friday, I realized how wrong I was. Men and women attacked with such violence and hatred, ran around with murder in their eyes. People who can spit at a woman’s face just because she thinks differently or accidentally got caught in the wrong place, who do not hesitate to use any and all means and do not hesitate to damage property, cause trauma to a small child — do not deserve the title “peace activists”.
These are bad people, the only thing driving them is deep-seated hatred. The truth should be published, the mask of self-righteous hypocrisy must be removed. For a better future, we should all know what are the real faces of those “human rights activists.”
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
5 U.S. Soldiers, 14 Iraqis Killed in Separate Attacks
The rocket attack on U.S. soldiers at a base in east Baghdad is the deadliest of the year, increasing concerns about more violence before the drawdown by year-end. The Iraqi deaths come in a car bombing in Tikrit.
Reporting from Baghdad— Five American soldiers were killed Monday in a rocket attack in Baghdad, the military said. It was the deadliest attack this year against U.S. forces here and underscored the dangers American troops still face as they prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
The attack came as Iraqi officials touted the end of a 100-day-period called by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to improve governmental services. But ordinary Iraqis appeared to greet the milestone with a shrug and skepticism that anything was improving as violence claimed the lives of at least 14 Iraqis.
An Iraqi security source said that the five U.S. soldiers had been serving as advisers for Iraqi national police at a base in east Baghdad. Their quarters were targeted by rocket fire shortly before 7 a.m.
U.S. military officials, however, declined to comment further on the attack.
The deaths raise the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since March 2003 to 4,459, according to the independent website icasulaties.org. Both Shiite and Sunni extremist groups are eager to target the Americans to make the claim that they drove U.S. forces out of the country.
East Baghdad is rife with Shiite Muslim militia groups, including radical cleric Muqtada Sadr’s elite fighting unit, the Promised Day Brigade, as well as a splinter group called League of the Righteous.
Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed in April, and two died last month in attacks. An estimated 46,000 American troops remain in Iraq on about 66 bases. U.S. troops are currently training Iraqi forces and conducting joint operations, notably with Iraq’s counter-terrorism units. They also guard diplomatic teams traveling around the country.
The U.S. military expects its numbers to stay even through the end of summer. Its biggest bases in Baghdad, western Anbar province, the northern provinces of Nineveh and Salahuddin, along with important hubs in the south near Hillah and Nasiriya will not be handed over until December.
Military officers say they are bracing for attacks to continue until their departure, especially from Sadr’s fighters and other Shiite militias.
“We’ve anticipated that they would attack us and try to ramp up their attacks though various militias this year and essentially claim credit for us leaving,” said military spokesman Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan in a recent interview.
Already, the U.S. military has acknowledged an increase in attacks carried out with more powerful weapons.
“We have had over the past several months in March, April and May an increase compared to where we were in, say, February or January,” Buchanan said.
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EU Voices Mixed Emotions About Yemen Revolution
Initial EU reactions to the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Yemen have voiced concern about threats to security rather than welcoming a third Arab Spring victory
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘From Now, Embarrassment Will End’: Saudi King Bans Men From Selling Lingerie
He’s probably not the first person you would have on your mind as being the face of lingerie, but King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has become something of a hero to women in his home country.
He has issued a decree banning all men from working in lingerie shops to end ‘embarrassment’ suffered by women who don’t want to give men their measurements.
Saudi women working in the outlets got embroiled in a dispute three years ago with the labour ministry and the powerful religious authority, which issued a fatwa banning such jobs.
The decree from the king was part of a push to reduce the amount of female unemployment in the conservative kingdom, currently at around 30 per cent.
Saudi women say they have been uncomfortable buying lingerie from men and would prefer female sales assistants.
Fatima Garub, founder of a Facebook campaign called ‘Enough Embarrassment’, backed the king’s decision saying it would create about 6,000 jobs for Saudi women.
‘From now, embarrassment will end,’ she said. ‘We thank the king who felt our problem and took the decision that we have been waiting for a long time.’
In February last year, campaigners urged women to boycott lingerie shops with male staff for two week.
They said that women should not have to give their measurements to men they don’t know because it contradicted Muslim law. Islamic scholars backed the boycott.
Reem Asaad, economics professor in Jeddah, started the campaign in 2008 and religious police said they were okay with women working in shops as long as they were in women-only malls.
Religious leaders in the Wahhabi form of Islam — which makes up the majority of the country — require complete separation of members of the opposite sex who are not related.
The Saudi society continues to be incredibly traditional and the idea of women working is frowned upon.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Cleric: Killing Israeli Children OK
Iranian Ayatollah endorses evil: Radical religious cleric known as President Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor says attacks on Israeli civilians permissible, suicide bombings a Muslim duty
Evil words in Islamic Republic: A senior Iranian cleric, who is known as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor, urged followers to continue suicide attacks against Israelis, including children.
Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah, considered one of the Islamic Republic’s most radical clerics, issued a religious edict on his website whereby suicide attacks are not only legitimate but are a must for every Muslim, a special paper by the Middle East Media Research Institute shows.
The senior cleric was responding to a question from a follower regarding the difference between “martyr’s death” and “suicide.” The man, who wrote anonymously, noted that “some people say that martyrdom operations are considered suicide and that they are haram (forbidden) because they contradict Islam.”
In response, Mesbah expressed his regret 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?”
The Iranian Ayatollah 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.
Notably, for the followers of Mesbah, his words are considered as a binding religious edict. On several occasions in the past, Iranian President Ahmadinejad also spoke in favor of “martyrdom acts.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Caught on Camera: The Horrifying Moment a Military Jet Fell Out of the Sky and Exploded in a Fireball
[WARNING: Graphic content.]
Horrifying footage showing the final moments of a stricken aircraft as it plummets to earth have been released on the internet.
The 34 second-long clip, which shows the crash of an Iranian military IL-76, was filmed from the rear of another Iranian plane carrying out a mid-air refuelling exercise.
Seven people were killed in the crash, which is believed to have taken place at a 2009 military air parade over Iran when the IL-76 collided with a HESA Saeqeh fighter jet escort.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Source: Al-Obeidy Headed to Malta
(CNN) — The United States is deeply concerned about the well-being of Eman al-Obeidy, according to a State Department source, and worked closely with officials in Europe and Libya to get her safely out of the country. The same source said the U.S. is “prepared to provide whatever help and support Eman may need.”
Al-Obeidy grabbed the world’s attention this spring when she accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s security forces of gang-raping her.
She is now on the way to Malta with her father, according to another high-level U.S. State Department source. She will eventually head to a processing center in Europe before leaving for a final destination.
She has told CNN on repeated occasions that she wants to go to the United States.
One of the State Department sources told CNN that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “has been deeply interested in the case and has followed it throughout.”
Al-Obeidy was in Qatar awaiting resettlement as a refugee when she was deported Thursday and sent back to Libya. She was reportedly beaten before being deported.
Najah Dawaji, a U.S.-based Libyan pro-freedom activist, said she was with three key members of Libya’s Transitional National Council when they first learned that al-Obeidy was forced from Doha and arrived in Benghazi, Libya, on Thursday. She said al-Obeidy had a black eye, bruises on her legs and scratches on her arms.
Al-Obeidy told a journalist that officials in the Transitional National Council had pressured the Qataris to expel her. But, according to Dawaji, she did not blame the rebel group for the beating itself.
Al-Obeidy told CNN that when she asked her attackers why they were beating her, they said that Mahmoud Shammam and Mahmoud Jibril, both leaders in the Libyan rebel movement, had sent the Qataris an “urgent letter” saying that she had to be deported immediately.
After arriving in Qatar, al-Obeidy had made public statements saying the Transitional National Council was using her. The council denied that.
Council members were upset upon seeing al-Obeidy’s condition and vowed to open an investigation, Dawaji said.
Al-Obeidy told CNN that in the hours leading to her deportation, armed guards were posted outside her hotel room, preventing a representative from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from helping her. The U.N. agency had prepared papers for her departure from Qatar to begin a new life.
She said Qatari authorities took her and her parents from the Kempinski Residences and Suites in the Qatari capital. She said she was beaten and handcuffed, then forced onto a military plane to Libya. She said the Qataris had taken everything from her and her parents — including cell phones, her laptop and money.
When told by the UNHCR that she was protected under refugee status, Qatari agents said, “We don’t have an agreement with the U.N.,” according to al-Obeidy.
Al-Obeidy said a group of men and women beat her, her father and her sister in a parking lot, and they were beaten more at the airport.
The United States said it was “disappointed” by al-Obeidy’s expulsion, which it said was “a breach of humanitarian norms.”
Amnesty International called the deportation “outrageous,” saying the action by the Qatari government “is a serious breach by Qatar of its international obligations.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian State TV Claims 120 Policemen Killed
(AGI) Damascus — The Syrian state television said 120 security forces were killed in Jisr al-Shughour, 80 of whom in an ambush. According to local authorities, hundreds of men armed with machine-guns and grenades were involved in the ambush in the Syrian north-western city. Civilians were reportedly used as human shields. Eight of the killed policemen had intervened after an explosion at a local post office.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Economist Faces Barrage of Accusations From Turkish Gov’t
Top officials from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, have unleashed an unprecedented barrage of accusations days ahead of the June 12 general elections. This time, however, those accused are not leaders or members of opposition parties, but an international weekly magazine.
The Economist’s main article “One for the opposition,” published June 2, has drawn the wrath of Turkish government officials. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ministers have responded with fury directed at the magazine, going as far as to imply that The Economist is part of an Israeli conspiracy that aims to topple the Turkish government.
In its article, The Economist opined that the best way for Turkish citizens to promote democracy would be “to vote against the ruling party” and for the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP. “A stronger showing by [the CHP] would both reduce the risks of unilateral changes that would make the Constitution worse and give the opposition a fair chance of winning a future election,” the magazine said.
In an interview with the TGRT news channel Saturday evening, Erdogan said the AKP would come to power once again “in defiance of domestic and international media.”
“This international media, as they are supported by Israel, would not be happy with the continuation of the AKP government,” the Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying. “Of course, they have their hands on Turkey nowadays.”
Recalling the Davos incident
Asked whether this alleged anti-government activity is “revenge” in the aftermath of Erdogan’s outburst against Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 31, 2009, the prime minister said what he did at the time was “an Islamic duty” as well as a humanitarian one. “I cannot forget the scene at the [Gaza] beach. I cannot forget how that child died when the Israelis murdered seven people there. That was what lay behind my words [to Peres] when I told them they knew well to kill people.”
International media organizations are “surely in collaboration” with the CHP, Erdogan added. “If the same [magazine] had called for a vote for the AKP, I would have found that abnormal, too,” he said.
Speaking in Ankara on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek said it is not important what “those from the outside” say about the general elections. “We take power from the people, not from foreign magazines,” Çiçek told journalists.
“[Turkish people naively] think those foreign magazines never pen articles in return for payment and never write headlines by calculating the expectations of the capital behind their publications,” he said. “Look at the interest groups behind this: Some circles, inside and outside, are uncomfortable with our policies.”
“Behind those magazines are the capitalists of those countries,” Çiçek said, referring to the countries he said have been uncomfortable with government policies implemented by the AKP since 2007.
Speaking in an interview Sunday on the private channel NTV, State Minister Egemen Bagis claimed that the “dark elites” who want to prevent an AKP victory have been attacking the ruling party “in collaboration with international dark elites who control the international media.”
It was Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, however, who took action over his criticism, by deciding to “unfollow” The Economist on the social-networking website Twitter. The minister explained his decision in a series of short messages posted on his Twitter account over the weekend.
“Dear friends, after reading the shockingly prejudiced & blatantly politically motivated article about #Turkey & #AkParti on @TheEconomist …. l’ve decided to Unfollow #theEconomist, one of very few publications I’d been following on twitter & been an avid reader of for a long time,” Simsek wrote. In other messages, he accused the magazine of “poor journalism at best & serving ‘a certain agenda’ at worst.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Faces Abyss Despite President’s Departure
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh may have left the country for medical treatment, but a peaceful transition of power is by no means assured. German commentators say that urgent action is required to prevent the country from sliding into civil war and chaos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia and EU Clash on Trade Ahead of Summit
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made fun of the World Trade Organisation in the run-up to an EU-Russia summit amid a row over E Coli. Germany says the outbreak is linked to bean sprouts in Lower Saxony.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ilyas Kashmiri Wanted to Provoke India-Pakistan War
Ilyas Kashmiri, who had a pathological hatred for India and a long history of launching cross-border terror attacks, had in recent years become obsessed with the idea of provoking a war between India and Pakistan in order to distract Pakistan’s attention from its campaign against al-Qaeda, according to a new book Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 by the murdered Pakistani investigative reporter Syed Saleem Shahzad, the only journalist to have interviewed Kashmiri.
As the pressure on al-Qaeda grew, Kashmiri became increasingly desperate to get the Pakistan Army off its back by engineering a confrontation with India “thereby allowing al-Qaeda to manipulate its war against NATO in Afghanistan.” And it was he — and not Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, Shahzad insists — who masterminded the Mumbai attacks to “provoke India to invade Pakistan.”
Shahzad claims that in the immediate aftermath of the attacks as “Pakistan and India stood eye to eye, the fighting between Pakistan’s military and al-Qaeda militants came to a complete halt” with militants saying “Qunut-e-Nazla (prayers in days of war).”
“They prayed that al-Qaeda and the Pakistan Army would join and fight India together,” he writes, pointing out that as the threat of a war loomed, with the Pakistan Army “readying for a showdown with India” al-Qaeda used the “opportunity” to disrupt NATO supply lines in the Khyber Agency.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: US Drones Target Madrassa, Kill 18 Militants
Days after killing dreaded Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, US drones carried out three attacks, hours apart, in South Waziristan tribal region today, killing 18 suspected militants, including seven foreign fighters, security officials said.
The first attack at 2 am targeted a house near Wana, one of the main towns of South Waziristan Agency. The drone fired two missiles at the house, killing three persons and injuring two more, officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels.
A drone fired two missiles at a madrassa or seminary near Wana at 6 am, killing four persons and wounding three others.
Seven more bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the house and madrassa later, officials said.
Four more suspected militants were killed in the third attack in Shawal area, over 40 km from Wana, at 11.15 am.
The drone targeted a vehicle in a region considered a stronghold of Taliban commander Mullah Nazir who has a peace pact with the government.
Reports said that besides the foreign fighters, several Punjabi Taliban were killed in the attacks.
The first two strikes targeted militants aligned with senior Taliban commander Malang, who belongs to the Mullah Nazir group.
Local residents said several drones continued to hover over the region after the attacks.
On Friday night, a US drone strike in South Waziristan reportedly killed al Qaeda-linked terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri and eight other militants.
Kashmiri was wanted by the US, India and Pakistan for several terror attacks.
Kashmiri was linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks and last month’s brazen attack on a naval airbase in Karachi that killed 10 security personnel.
According to an estimate, there have been more than 35 drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt this year, which have taken of toll of 250, most of them suspected militants.
The US has stepped up strikes in Waziristan after the US and Pakistan created a joint intelligence mechanism to track key terrorists in the wake of a visit to Islamabad by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton late last month.
Clinton had asked Pakistan to take “decisive steps” against the militants.
The US also handed over a list of five top terrorists that it wanted killed or captured, including Kashmiri, Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
3 Nuclear Reactors Melted Down After Quake, Japan Confirms
Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday.
The nuclear group’s new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
The announcement will not change plans for how to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the agency said.
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown, it said.
The plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., admitted last month that nuclear fuel rods in reactors 2 and 3 probably melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis.
It had already said fuel rods at the heart of reactor No. 1 melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck. The remnants of that core are now sitting in the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel at the heart of the unit and that vessel is now believed to be leaking.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China, Patents and U.S. Jobs
A new report suggests better intellectual property protection by Beijing could create 2.1 million American jobs.
By Matthew J. Slaughter
Nearly two years into recovery, America’s labor market remains extremely fragile. Unemployment sits at 9.1%, with more than 24 million Americans unemployed or underemployed. The 108.9 million private-sector jobs today is the same number we had nearly 12 years ago. Does anyone in Washington have any ideas about how to create the millions of good jobs at good wages that America needs?
Actually, yes. Last month the U.S. government issued a remarkable report that details how one policy change could eventually create up to 2.1 million U.S. jobs. Oh, and it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime in new government spending. Thanks to higher payroll tax receipts it would probably help close, not expand, America’s massive fiscal deficit.
The report? “China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy,” by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). And the policy change? Getting China to better protect the intellectual-property rights of American companies.
The ITC surveyed 5,051 U.S. companies in industries such as high-tech manufacturing, publishing and software to gauge the incidence and extent of infringement of their copyright, trademark and other intellectual-property rights in China. Firms say infringement there is widespread, and it affects not just large multinational firms but many small and medium-sized U.S. companies as well. Extrapolating from survey responses, ITC estimates that all U.S. IP-intensive firms lost at least $48.2 billion in 2009 alone—perhaps even as much as $90.5 billion—from foregone sales, royalties and license fees…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
China Threatens EU With Legal Action in CO2 Dispute
Chinese airlines are resisting being included in the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme from 1 January and are considering legal action, a move also being considered by their counterparts in the US. The warning comes despite the European Commission suggesting that some exemptions would be possible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arizona Wildfire Sparks Racist Rumors
For nearly a month, one of the country’s largest wildfires has been burning out of control in Arizona, spreading smoke and ash into neighboring states, including New Mexico. The fire has burned over 70,000 acres of national forest not far from the border with Mexico, and many Arizonans are pretty sure what caused the costly disaster: illegal immigrants hiding in the mountains.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain, France Talk Migrants, Olympic Security
CALAIS, France (AFP) — The British and French interior ministers inspected security at the Channel Tunnel Monday, amid fears the Arab unrest will boost migration and concerns ahead of next year’s London Olympics.
Theresa May and Claude Gueant toured checkpoints and hangars near the tunnel entrance and in the nearby ferry port of Calais, where sniffer dogs and police scour vehicles for hidden migrants, drugs and contraband.
They said their joint border patrols had drastically cut illegal crossings, many involving stowaways in trucks, and stressed concern for general security when crowds head for London via Calais for the Olympic Games.
“Our partnership has helped create one of the strongest borders in the world,” May told reporters in Calais, a transit point for thousands of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia bound for Britain.
“Our enhanced cooperation at the Port of Calais has contributed to a 70 percent decrease in the number of people attempting to cross our common border illegally” last year, the home secretary said.
The visit followed a similar one by Gueant to France’s southern border with Italy, which has seen increased numbers of people fleeing unrest in north Africa land in the hope of a new life in Europe.
France has refused to accept most of them and Britain fears many will try to head on for its shores, swelling a cross-Channel flow that authorities say has decreased over the past two years since the closure of a major migrant camp in Calais.
May said the North African exodus had not yet reached Britain but added: “We need to look ahead at what might happen in the future,” calling for European countries to stem the migrant flow at its source.
“We very much feel that we should be working with countries in North Africa, like Tunisia, to provide practical support through the EU for them to be able to exercise controls on their borders,” she told reporters at Calais town hall.
Gueant told the French regional daily La Voix du Nord that more than 2,000 immigrants had already been arrested this year in northern France as they were heading for Britain hidden in trucks.
Some 80 more would-be migrants had also been picked up as they tried to break into the secure area around the tunnel entrance, he added.
Officials at a town hall meeting with the ministers said the Calais region — a depressed post-industrial area a short ride from London by train — hopes to serve as a rear base for some foreign Olympics teams competing next year.
London beat strong competition from the favourite candidate, Paris, for the right to host the 2012 Olympics.
“This excellent (security) cooperation clearly bodes well for the Olympic Games,” Gueant said.
May added: “We have a joint cause in trying to ensure we stop illegal immigration and in making sure access to the Olympics is secure.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
In Alabama: A Harsh Bill for Residents Here Illegally
Alabama has passed a sweeping bill to crack down on illegal immigrants that both supporters and opponents call the toughest of its kind in the country, going well beyond a law Arizona passed last year that caused a furor there.
The measure was passed by large margins in the Alabama Senate and the House, both Republican-controlled, in votes on Thursday. Governor Robert Bentley, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill into law.
“Alabama is now the new No. 1 state for immigration enforcement,” said Kris Kobach, a constitutional lawyer who is secretary of state in Kansas. He has helped write many state bills to curtail illegal immigration, including Alabama’s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Official: Italy Collecting Evidence to Show Migrants Pushed by Gadhafi
ROME — The Italian foreign minister says Rome is collecting evidence to show Moammar Gadhafi’s regime is forcing migrants to make sometimes deadly journeys across the Mediterranean as retaliation against Europe for NATO airstrikes.
Franco Frattini said in a newspaper interview published Monday that there’s enough for prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to intervene because “we are faced with a crime against humanity.”
Since the uprising against Gadhafi began earlier this year, thousands of illegal migrants have sailed from Libya to Italian shores, with hundreds dying in the voyage.
In the latest possible tragedy, about 200 immigrants are still missing after a vessel sank off the North-African coast last week. The vessel is thought to have taken off from Libya.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Toward Common Sense Immigration Law
The debate on immigration law is still raging and the problem of 20 million illegal aliens remains unresolved. Liberals have proposed an amnesty (‘pathway to citizenship’) for illegals and oppose the border fence. Some conservatives have proposed the deportation of all illegals and a total moratorium on legal immigration as well.
This article aims to propose a commonsense solution avoiding these two extremes, both of which would be bad for America and politically impossible to enact.
[…]
Those are five commonsense proposals to address America’s immigration problems. Liberals will surely oppose all five. But the majority of ordinary Americans — the only people whose opinion matters — will surely back them.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Keep Your Arab Spring Migrants, May Tells France
Theresa May promised “strong practical action” yesterday to prevent migrants fleeing the turmoil in North Africa from reaching Britain.
The Home Secretary, visiting France to inspect cross-Channel border controls, said there was no evidence yet that refugees from the Arab Spring had arrived in this country. But she added: “We do need to look ahead to what might be happening in the future.”
Thousands of migrants from Tunisia and Libya have crossed by sea to Italy, with many heading for France. Italy handed more than 25,000 Tunisians temporary permits to travel, effectively giving them unobstructed travel around much of the European Union.
Ms May has said that the Government is not prepared to “share the burden” of accommodating the new arrivals. “We need lasting practical co-operation and not burden-sharing,” she said. “We very much feel we need to be working with countries in North Africa, like Tunisia, to provide practical support through the EU for them to be able to exercise border controls on their borders.”
Ms May, after holding talks with her French counterpart, the interior minister, Claude Guéant, said joint operations between Britain and France had cut the number of people trying to get to this country from Calais.
“Continued pressure from illegal immigrants in France is a joint problem for both the UK and France and as such requires a joint solution. We are committed to continuing to ensure the border is impenetrable,” she said.
Yesterday’s joint visit was the first time a French interior minister has visited the Calais border operations since Nicolas Sarkozy, now President, vowed to close the Red Cross’s controversial Sangatte refugee camp when he visited in 2002. The visit also comes the week after MPs accused the UK Border Agency of creating an amnesty for asylum seekers in an immigration system which is “not fit for purpose”.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Zimbabwe Policeman is Denied Asylum in Britain… But Robert Mugabe Torturer Can Stay
[WARNING: Graphic content.]
His British great-grandfather fought for his country in the Boer War and on the Somme before the family moved to Zimbabwe.
Now Guy Taylor has sought refuge in Britain, fearing a return to his native land would leave him facing persecution.
But despite his pleas for asylum in this country, immigration judges have dismissed his bid and he faces being deported.
In his asylum claim, Mr Taylor said that as a former policeman and member of the opposition MDC party he would be targeted by the Zimbabwean authorities who would suspect him of being a British spy.
The 31-year-old’s case has provoked fury as it follows the decision to allow one of Robert Mugabe’s former henchmen to stay in the UK indefinitely.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Update Regarding Migrant Boat Sinking Off Tunisian Coast
Tunisian authorities continue to recover the bodies of victims from the migrant boat that capsized off the coast of the Kerkennah islands last week. TAP reported that 26 additional bodies were recovered on Sunday, 5 June. Poor weather conditions on Sunday made recovery operations difficult. According to TAP, 577 persons were rescued from the boat and 200 to 270 persons are believed to have drowned. There are conflicting media reports regarding the numbers of confirmed deaths. Some reports indicate that at least 150 bodies have been recovered in addition to the 26 bodies reportedly recovered on 5 June.
The boat, named The Wave, ran around last week, probably on Wednesday, 1 June. The boat did not capsize until after rescue boats had arrived on the scene. Tunisian coast guard and local fishing boats were involved in the rescue efforts. The rescue boats did not have the capacity to rescue all of the migrants from the stranded migrant boat and some people jumped into the water and others moved to one side of the migrant boat causing it to capsize. Media pictures show the vessel in an upright position with some rescue boats already on scene. A France24 video report contains cell phone video shot immediately after the boat capsized. (See pictures below.)
UNHCR and IOM staff have conducted interviews with some of the survivors. According to UNHCR, the boat left Tripoli on 28 May with up to 850 people on board. The passengers were primarily from West Africa, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The crew was recruited on an ad hoc basis and had little or no maritime experience. The France24 video report states that survivors said Libyan military assisted them in leaving Libya. The boat became lost after leaving Tripoli and on Wednesday, 1 June, it ran around near the Kerkennah islands. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said that the boat “capsized as desperate passengers rushed to one side, seeking rescue by the Tunisian coast guard and fishing boats that had approached the vessel. Many fell into the water.” IOM staff reported that at least one survivor said that during the boat’s voyage some people were thrown overboard alive. The boat reportedly had run out of food and water.
[more articles at link]
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Equality and LGBTI Rights
EUOBSERVER / FOCUS — With the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia approaching, EUobserver puts the spotlight on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s “Religion Czar” Compares Evangelicals to Islamic Terrorists
One of the saddest moments for conservative Christians was when U.S. News & World Reports chose Eboo Patel as one of “America’s Best Leaders” in 2009.
President Barack Obama’s “religion czar” and spiritual adviser has likened evangelical Christians to radical Islamists such as al-Qaeda. He has also been heard comparing Rev. Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network to Osama bin Laden.
Obama’s advisor, Eboo Patel, is a Muslim who is described by the White House as a moderate. However, Patel is known for making derogatory statements about Bible-reading Christians and Talmud-observing Jews.
In 2010, when Obama named Patel to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based Initiatives, he immediately drew a line in the sand, according to political strategist Mike Baker. For example, Patel discussed Christian “totalitarians” in the United States and Jewish “totalitarians” in Israel, according to Baker.
Obama met Patel when they both lived and worked in Chicago. Patel was well-known locally as a Muslim activist and a friend to Rashid Khalid, a Palestinian historian of the Middle East who left Chicago to become the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York City.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Outrage as Smurfs Called Racist
The Smurfs, the blue comic strip characters, are anti-Semitic and racist, treating blacks like moronic primates, a French author has claimed.
Antoine Bueno, 33, a lecturer at the eminent Sciences Po political sciences school in Paris, says the blue figures represent an “archetype of totalitarian society imbued with Stalinism and Nazism”.
However, Smurf lovers have branded Mr Bueno’s Little Blue Book “a disgrace” that “soils the legends of our childhood”.
Mr Bueno’s work is described as a “critical and political analysis” that ruthlessly deconstructs the world of Smurfs, known as Schtroumpfs in French.
He concludes that the blue men created in 1958 by Peyo, the Belgian artist, whose real name is Thierry Culliford, are deeply racist.
The author backs up his claims by citing Peyo’s first work — The Black Smurfs in French but which became The Purple Smurfs in the English versions for reasons of political correctness.
In the story, a Smurf gets stung by a black fly that turns his skin jet black, drives him insane and deprives him of speech. Soon the entire village has changed colour.
Mr Bueno says the story is clearly racist. When the Smurfs turn black, “They are reduced to the state of primitives who jump around and cry: ‘Gnap! Gnap!’ [Gnash! Gnash!] They lose all trace of intelligence and become completely moronic.”
Mr Bueno, a speech writer for Francois Bayrou, the leader of the centrist Modem party, says the Smurfs are like white colonisers of the 19th century in the way they view Africans.
He also claims that the Smurfs’ arch-enemy, the wizard Gargamel, is a classic anti-Semitic caricature of a money-grabbing Jew.
Mr Bueno writes: “Gargamel is ugly, dirty, with a hooked nose, fascinated by gold.”
Papa Smurf, the village’s elderly white-bearded leader, is portrayed as a dictator, whose red hat and trousers are a nod to Stalin. Smurfette, the only blonde female, created by Gargamel, to wreak havoc among his enemies is a misogynistic take on Aryan woman.
The book has sparked a wave of anger on the internet from Smurf lovers.
“What a disgrace to soil the legends of our childhood,” writes Bibouille on the “Schtroumpfmania” website.
Another, called Anastasia writes: “It’s not hard to find anti-Semitism in Shakespeare or Balzac.” The author’s arguments spring “from his own obsessions … the hooked nose of a wizard is neither Jewish nor Goy, it’s traditional for wizards,” she wrote.
Such has been the outrage, the author said he feared for his physical safety and insisted he meant no harm.
“I love the Smurfs,” he wrote on the Nouvelobs website. “I just wanted to explain that popular works teach us a lot about the society we come from.
“I am not accusing Peyo of racism himself, otherwise you can well imagine [his heirs] would have attacked me.
“However, I believe his work carries a certain number of stereotypes particular to a given society and era.”
Others before him had come to similar conclusions, he said, citing an American critic who claimed Smurf was short for “Small Men Under Red Forces”.
He said his work was serious but tongue in cheek. His critics seemed to lack “the slightest ounce of humour”.
Thierry Culliford, the artist’s son and the current head of Studio Peyo, said the accusations were “between the grotesque and the not serious”.
The row comes at an unfortunate time for Hollywood producers, as the big budget film Smurfs is due for release in America in August.
The Smurfs are not the only comic strip to come under attack for racism. A Congolese resident of Belgium is trying to ban the Tintin series of books over claims it is “racist and xenophobic”. His case reaches court in September.
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Schools to Kids: You Can be Boys or Girls or Both
Family groups horrified by mandatory ‘gender’ classes for children
Pro-family organizations across the nation are expressing shock and alarm over a new wave of homosexual indoctrination developing in public schools — especially in California — where parents are not even given the option of withdrawing their kids from the mandatory lessons on being “gay” or more.
“Young children are being taught that they can choose to be a boy or a girl — or both,” said officials at Mass Resistance, one of the leading organizations across the country defending the fact that students are boys or girls.
“Boys, for example, should be comfortable wearing girls’ clothes and nail polish, etc. And there aren’t just two genders, there can be a range. And, of course, the school does not allow parents to opt their kids out,” the organization said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Defence of Multiculturalism Sparks Debate
A Swedish newspaper’s opinion piece on multiculturalism has provoked a heated response from readers. Today is Sweden’s national day, a public holiday since 2005, and an occasion seized by many to wave the Swedish flag, and perhaps enjoy a plate or two of pickled herring. Unfortunately, however, the day has also become synonymous with right-wing extremists, as these groups have chosen June 6th to convene in anti-immigrant marches. In light of this, newspaper Aftonbladet today published an opinion piece penned by journalist Anders Lindblad, defending the multicultural society. The piece, headlined “Today we celebrate diversity, not stupidity” (Vi firar mångfald idag — inte enfald), criticizes right-wing parties in Sweden for changing the tone of the immigration debate since extreme-right party Sweden Democrats (SD) entered the Riksdag. Lindblad suggests that these parties are trying to lure SD’s voters with a harsher debate of immigration and multiculturalism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Edge of Solar System Filled With Bubbles, NASA Says
The edge of our solar system is filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles, according to new NASA research. Scientists made the discovery by using a new computer model, which is based on data from NASA’s twin Voyager probes. The unmnaned Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which launched in 1977, are plying the outer reaches of our solar system, a region known as the heliosheath. The new discovery suggests that researchers will need to revise their views about the solar system’s edge, NASA officials said. A more detailed picture of this region is key to our understanding of how fast-moving particles known as cosmic rays are spawned, and how they reach near-Earth space.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Going Ape: Ultraviolence and Our Primate Cousins
IF YOU like to think of chimps as wise, rational tool-users, gorillas as gentle giants, or bonobos as sexed-up hippie apes, be prepared for a shock. Among African Apes, a collection of field diaries, is primatology given the Tarantino treatment. In the introduction, Martha Robbins of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, emphasises that extreme violence among primates is rare. The incidents described in the book stuck in the biologists’ minds because they illustrate how aggression can influence ape society. They stuck in my mind too because, infrequent as they are, these are clearly not random episodes, but key moments in the lives of characters who behave in such familiar ways that we see ourselves in them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah, considered one of the Islamic Republic’s most radical clerics, issued a religious edict on his website whereby suicide attacks are not only legitimate but are a must for every Muslim.
So why is he still alive?
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